A Wedding Story....

A hot Saturday in August... Must be time for another wedding! Forget the Wedding Crashers, I sometimes think that if there is a world record for wedding attendance, I would be a prime contender. Why? Not because I have an addiction to wedding cake (although I have tasted some great ones), but because I have a side job as a D.J., and summer time in the D.J. industry means weddings, weddings and more weddings.

Working as a DJ is not something new to me.. I have actually been doing it since age 12 when the local elementary school needed someone to DJ roller skating parties and my Mom was the school's music teacher and volunteered me. That turned into a high school business, then to college radio stations, then to a local company here in Oregon where we were the main DJ's for all the OSU and U of O Fraternity and Sorority parties (nights that I would love to erase from my memory banks! Yikes). Finally I broke out on my own and have been running my own side business for 8 years.

So, Saturday was yet another wedding... but why I am I blogging about this wedding? Because I just had to laugh at the fact that it seems that in all instances in life, there are two sides to every story.. two points of view. One event can be seen completely differently depending on what side you are one. Here are the two points of view I saw this weekend.

First, there was the point of view of the bride and the groom and the wedding guests. To them, they attended a wedding. At the wedding, there was a DJ who acted very professionally, he had a nice sound system, he was clear in his announcements, he played lots of great music that kept the guests dancing late into the evening.. pretty much a no problem type of night as far as the music went.

Now, there's my perspective... Very different from everyone else! First, the unload... I am a DJ... I have a lot of VERY heavy sound gear. When I arrived at the wedding, which I had been told ahead of time was outside, I soon discovered that when they said outside, they meant up the side of a friggin mountain. So there I am in the parking lot, looking up the side of the mountain I am about to climb multiple times, lugging heavy speakers, subwoofers, amp cases, etc. Needless to say, by the time I got all that stuff unloaded and set up, I was a sweaty wreck. I had just enough time to get myself to a point where I LOOKED non sweaty and changed into my dress clothes, before guests arrived, wondering who that sweaty freak was standing behind the speakers.

The ceremony went fine, and soon all the guests headed up to dinner. That's when a potentially huge problem hit. Out of the blue, while standing there, queuing up the next song, I felt a "snap" on my waist, and my pants suddenly loosen. I looked down only to realize that the snap on my tuxedo pants had broken... off... Suddenly a wave of panic set in... these were my pants.. my tux pants... and tux pants have no belt loops. Then came the frustration.. "What?! Why are my pants breaking.. I am training for a marathon.. I have actually LOST quite a bit of weight.. not gaining.. why in the world are my pants breaking?!" But that didn't solve the problem.. bottom line was that at any point in time, my zipper, the one thing holding my pants in place, could slip putting me instantly in my skivvies in front of a large wedding audience.

Soon, the wedding coordinator came to check in and make sure I was doing alright. She asked if I would like some food, to which I replied "sure!" A few minutes later she came down and brought me a giant plate of pulled pork with barbecue sauce... mmmmmmm! I quickly dove in. Unfortunately, that big old plate of meat also brought out something else hungry... lots and lots of bees. Suddenly they were everywhere. And that brought on a huge challenge.. to stand there... queue up music, look professional, act as if there is nothing wrong, meanwhile swatting off dozens of bees fighting me for my dinner without getting stung. I soon wolfed down what I could and then frisbee'd my plate away, taking the bees along with it. Whew...

It didn't take long however to realize that hills, pants and bees not withstanding, I had much bigger problems brewing... problems that I had never had to deal with in all my years as a DJ. Now, keep in mind.. I am performing so to speak.. I am picking songs, one after another in an order that I feel the group will connect with. I can't ever venture too far from my table. I can't up and leave for periods of time. Also remember that I am outside, on the side of a hill.. somewhat away from the rest of the world, yet surrounded by people. And while that pulled pork was a wonderful thing to my taste buds... boy howdy.. my tummy just didn't agree with having it there. There really is nothing like knowing that you can't leave a place and that you are constantly being watched and evaluated, while feeling your stomach churn and gurgle inside. Now, I have no clue how this happened, but I quickly grabbed my bag, riffled through it and out of some freak miracle of nature... found 2 Peptos inside it. Luckily.. they saved the day and again, from everyone else's perspective nothing out of the ordinary was happening to the DJ.

By the time I had gotten to my last great challenge of the evening.. moths.. everywhere.. swarming my head... thanks to two large lit globes serving as decorations just above my head, I was beginning to think that I was facing the plaques of Moses.

So this is why when the evening was said and done, I had to laugh to myself about how differently things look to different people. To the bride and the groom, the DJ was professional and did a good job. To me, it was one oddball issue after another. Now, don't get me wrong, it turned out to be a very lovely wedding... great people.. great atmosphere.. no one called the cops on me for cranking tunes at 20,000 decibels over the hills of South Eugene.. but boy did it have some interesting times for me!

Oh, and by the way... in case you are wondering... my pants zipper did eventually give out on me.. just as I had finished lugging all that stuff down the hill, and was just getting into the van to drive home.. I think someone was watching out for me!!!

Shooting Begins!

Ok, enough build up already... let's get this season going! Let's get this party started! After working like crazy for the last 2 weeks trying to get ready to go, it is finally time for the 2006 season to begin, which means for me, it's finally time to grab the camera again and start shooting!

Today was the first official day of practice, and the beginning of the notorious week known as "Daily Doubles", meaning there are 2 practices each day, and they tend to be the tough, conditioning type of practices that coincide with the start of the season... perfect for getting great footage! With so much potential for good shots, there was no way I could try to squeeze shooting into my normal work schedule, so I took the day off from my regular job, cashing in a vacation day I needed to use anyway so I didn't loose it.

So how did it go? I think very well! At least the footage shot today seems to look good. This gives me some hope as other parts of the film project have had some... eh.. setbacks over the weekend. I found a glitch in the backdrop that was being painted last week. Sadly, that was discovered AFTER it had been mailed on Saturday as I was looking over the final photos taken of it being produced. And so it has to be re-done and resent from Utah. If all goes well, it will arrive JUST in time for the first set of interviews. Then tonight, the boys and I finally had the chance to build the portable frame that would hold the backdrop only to discover some flaws in its design. But late tonight, my neighbor and I had re-architected it, coming up with a solution that should be done mid-week. (Good thing Friday's interview shoot got pushed back to Monday!!!)

So, at least the project is finally started, my first hour of footage is "in the can" as they say. I'll continue to shoot as much of daily doubles as my schedule allows, spend next Monday shooting the early season interviews, and then start editing by mid-next week. It's late, I am totally exhasuted.. been a very busy day, and there are many more to come.

Ahhhhh... I love this time of year! Go Spartans!

Party in the Stars

Goodbye 5, hello 6! It's Little Calvin's birthday weekend and he's celebrating in style! Ok, his birthday isn't "officially" until Tuesday, but since Saturday was his big party with all of his friends, he is deeming himself 6. Close enough...

A few months back, we asked the little guy where he would like to have his birthday party this year. He knew pretty quickly where he wanted to go: the Science Factory, the local planetarium and science museum that sits right next to Autzen Stadium (Go Ducks!). It turns out that the planetarium has quite the setup for birthday parties... they provide a private back room for the activities, a schedule of events, access to all of the museums activities, and a planetarium show for all the kids and their parents and families. And so, the Science Factory it was!

Saturday was the big party day, Little Calvin waking up first thing in the morning with a huge smile on his face (As I was putting him to bed Friday night, he looked at me and said "I have been waiting for this day for soooooooo long!). We drove over to the planetarium mid-day... just in time for Pizza. That's when I discovered he definitely is not lacking in friends! When we combined his friends from school, his play friends, his siblings and his friends from church... there was quite the little crew of science explorers running amok in the museum!

But I think they all had a good time.. I know we did. We played, ate birthday pizza (yes, we put the candles in the pizza to avoid the mess of cake) and watched the stars in the planetarium. By the end of it all, we were tired and over stimulated. But it was a fun day that I think he will remember for quite some time!

If you'd like to take a quick look at the festivities, click here to watch our party highlights video. It is in Quicktime 7 format, so you'll need the plugin if you don't already have it.

Moving Right Along

Whew! What a week it's been! There's a lot going on in the Calvin household.. sure I say that all the time, but once vacation is over, things really kick into high gear. As promised, I will be using this blog to, among other things, track my progress on my latest film project, kicked off last week. I am happy to report that a lot has been done in the last 10 days, and yet there is much more to be done over the next week.

During the last week, much of the graphic design for the project has been completed and approved. In addition, my wife came up with the perfect idea for how to open the film and now the opening sequence has been planned and is scheduled to shoot on the 28th. She also has been a huge help in music planning and research, spending quite a few hours on-line looking into possible songs for certain parts of the project.

Another challenge has been finding just the right place to shoot interviews. These interviews will help to chart the progress of the season for all involved. Last year, these were all done in the open gym, but then proved to be difficult to schedule let alone trying to clean up the audio from the interviews to something usable with all the ball bouncing sounds and light hums. So this year, I needed something that would work better.

I found what should be a good filming place last week and over the next week, I'll begin "setting up shop" there. But what film looks good shot against a blank, brick wall? Not mine! And so began the process of creating a backdrop for this "set". I researched several options for this and finally found the answer, thanks to my friend Brent and the Utah State University Theater Department. They are creating the perfect back drop for us that will include the team logo for the year. Painting will continue on this through the end of the week, but as of today.. it is coming along nicely:

Meanwhile, here in Oregon, I am tackling the other issues: How to hang the backdrop, how to light the room, how to mic the room to get the best audio, camera placement to get the right effects, etc. (There's a lot more to it than just throwing a camera on a tripod and hitting the button), while starting to do camera and sound tests.

Cameras officially start to roll on Monday, so there is little time left to get things done, but all in all, I am getting there, and getting really excited to see so many things begin to really come together.

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Marathon Update: 20 weeks to go and my training is still on schedule.. I haven't missed a workout yet, even with the huge milage increase that came last week. All the work I did to get ready for this stage seems to be paying off as my body seems to be taking all the miles in stride (pun intended). Sure, I am a bit sore, that is normal, but not in the pain that I was in when I attempted this a few years ago. Plus, I am finally at the point where the long runs just feel good again. I can go run and not focus on the fact that I am running.. (I am too busy previewing possible film music on my ipod and mentally planning out the sequences that could be shot.) Granted I am knocking on the wood of my desk right now.. in hopes that typing this will not send my into injury mode on tonight's run. But as of now, things are going well.

Here I go Again: Pre-Production Begins!

Ok, insanity... here we go again! Vacation is over and now its time to get back to work. But not just my day job. Now it's time to thrive on chaos. It's time to throw away my sleep schedule and add a new challenge to the next few months. Normally, I work hard to be a good husband, dad and web development manger at work. Now I get to try to add a new title: Film Producer. As of this last Monday, I am officially starting the pre-production phase of another documentary film, once again following the Marist High School Volleyball Team, documenting the season, and providing a "behind the scenes" style look at the athletes, their stories, and their season both on and off the court. There is much to do in the next 2 weeks before cameras officially roll, but as I have said before... this is the place I love to be. Sure, it can be complex, tiring, and stressful but I seem to thrive on that. Remember this blog?

The workload began Monday evening as I worked up proposals and began committing my mental ideas and scope to paper. Last night, we began planning out travel schedules (as we will be on the road a lot this year!!) and looking to see which teams we play when to know when certain pieces will fall into place. Today, I spent my lunch break checking out possible shooting locations and working out some logistics for where and how to shoot some sequences. And what does the next two weeks hold for me? Where do I begin? Graphic design needs to be done, some sequences will need storyboarding before shooting begins, schedules need to be worked out and typed up so people know what is going on, music is being researched, shooting backdrops have to be created, production budgets carefully reviewed, new shotgun mics need to be obtained, initial advertising will be created so people know about the film and why I am shooting footage, camera and audio tests performed.. the list goes on and on... and like I said.. I have 2 weeks to have as much ready to go as possible.

The biggest trick to this whole thing is having the ability to have my two brains. First, there is my "Day Job" brain. This brain pops into place 30 seconds away from the office parking lot and stays firmly in place until lunch time when I switch the work brain off and start up the "producer" brain as I run my lunch time errands, typically researching out various things for the film. Then in the afternoons, my work brain goes back in for another 4 hours of solid focus before being removed as I drive out of the parking lot. This whole idea helps be to make sure that while sitting at my desk, I am staying focused on my job so that I can continue to do well there, but the second I leave, it's the film I am thinking about. This gives me 8 hours a day to use my work brain, and 16 hours a day to work on my film. Sleep? Trust me, once I get into the hard core editing phase... there is no sleep, because even when nodding off for the night, your brain continues to edit sequences.. it's really quite bizarre.

And so my journey of chaos begins... and I can't begin to tell you how excited I am. I love this stuff, and while looking at a project like this from the beginning, things can look a bit daunting and scary, knowing all that I will need to do over the next 4 months, I look forward to seeing how it all comes out. And I look forward to taking the vision that I have in my head for this next film and making it a reality.

Over the next few months, I will probably be writing about this project quite a bit, keeping everyone up to speed on how things are going and whether or not I am keeping my sanity. As the volleyball season gets underway, I will also update on the team and how they are doing as well. Go Spartans!

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On a separate topic: Further adding to my new chaos schedule... Monday began yet another phase of life for me. After spending almost a year just trying to "get back into basic shape", it's time to kick of my "official" marathon training routine. The schedule I use is out of Runner's World magazine and is designed for people that want to successfully finish their first marathon. It's a 22 week schedule, which means.. it starts this week, bumping my weekly milage from 15 miles to 20 miles. So not only am I now starting a new film, I am also "officially" beginning to train for my marathon. What a busy and FAST 22 weeks these will be! January 7th will be here before I know it!! Yikes!

On Vacation!

I haven't blogged for awhile... I know, I know... bad blogger, bad! So why have I not been blogging? Because I have been on VACATION! Finally, some much needed time to relax with my family, some time to get out of the office and stresses of work, and time to kick back and enjoy some of the simple pleasures that life has to offer.

This year, I did something really different... I actually took a vacation. Now, that may sound redundant.. let me explain. For as long as I can remember of my adult life I have never really left my office. Thanks to the internet age, I can connect to the internet anywhere... I always have my cell phone with me and I am in constant communication with work, regardless of my physical location. But this time, I left it behind. Never once logged onto the internet.. turned my cell phone off and never checked it.. I got truly away.. and discovered how nice it is to, as one of my all time favorite songs is named, "Enjoy the Silence".

Now it wasn't all silence.. not by a long shot as I had my parents visiting from Colorado and all 3 kids demanding of my attention. But still a very nice time. As tradition holds in the Calvin household, my folks come out for a week and we all go rent a beach house on the Oregon Coast. This year we were off to the Tierra Del Mar community of Pacific City, a wonderful little community, right on the ocean, with miles of sandy quiet beaches and little traffic as it is off of the highway and most travelers probably never know its there or how to get to it. With the amazing cliffs of Cape Kiwanda to the south and the Oregon Sand Dunes to the North, we had great scenery and lots of calm.

So here is how the vacation played out... day by day as I enjoyed my "unplugged" time:

Saturday: with my folks having arrived the evening prior, after an insanely long drive from Colorado, we worked to keep the day low-key. The family girls went to go see "RV" while the boys took a bike ride down the Willamette River and went to the planetarium. Later, we all met together and hiked Mt. Pisgah to enjoy the views of our little city.

Sunday: We all went to church in the morning, as usual. Today was a special occasion as Amanda has recently turned 12. Today she officially made the move from the Primary program (the organization for kids ages 3 - 11) to the Young Woman's program (the organization for girls ages 12 - 18). Gulp! She was recognized in our main meetings and proudly got her primary graduation certificate. After church we celebrated birthdays. Since my folks only see the kids once a year, they celebrate birthdays all together so all the kids got to open presents. My folks got to open their presents too and my Mom tearily accepted the quilt that Dawn put together with squares created by all their grandkids. Then, a huge traditional Sunday meal followed by evening rocket launching in the park (Ty had to use his newly received rocket engines!)

Monday: Travel to the coast day. With a lot going on, we had to split up.. Dawn and Amanda attended the Marist volleyball camp and I went with the rest of the crew to the Evergreen Air and Space Museum in McMinville. There sits the Spruce Goose, the GIANT plane built by Howard Hughes, an SR-71blackbird, a moon lander and dozens of other amazing aircraft. We all met up at the beach house in time to Bar-B-Q and fly kites on the beach.

Tuesday: Beach day. Today we slept in, and played on the beach.. built sand castles, went on a hike and just enjoyed the beach house. After dinner we did another family tradition of playing the card game "Spoons", and yes, as always it turned extremely violent. Perfect family fun!

Wednesday: Today we headed to Devils Lake in Lincoln City where we rented a large Pontoon boat and spent the day exploring the lake and having a middle of the lake picnic. Then we went to Depoe Bay to shop at the Pirate Store.. a favorite spot of Little Calvins.

Thursday: Today it was too windy to hit the beach, so we stayed inside, playing cards, Dread Pirate (an AWESOME, but lengthy board game). Then it was off to the Tillamook Cheese Factory, to indulge in ice cream and Squeaky cheese!

Friday: Today was the long day.. as in long drive. We drove to Astoria to enjoy the sights of the Northern Coast. We went to the Maritime Museum (an awesome, incredibly well-done museum, highly recommended!) followed by the Astoria Column. Then it was off to explore the World War 2 bunkers of Fort Stevens, and dinner in Tillamook.

Saturday: One last beach day. This was the day of the annual family sand sculpture contest, where I typically way over do it and end up sore for days for digging up too much sand. This year was no exception! In the afternoon, the family went to the Lincoln City Sand Sculpting contest, while I stayed back and finished my sculpture and designed a treasure hunt for the boys. Since they are in full pirate mode this summer, I decided to stage a scenario where a bottle washes up to shore with a treasure map inside. After finding it, they go off in search of buried treasure, following a map all over the beach and surrounding area. Ultimately they found the buried treasure, after digging in several wrong spots, but were glad to see that pirates bury M&Ms. (yes, I had to bury an actual chest in the sand.. rather fun actually.) Saturday night was one of my favorite time of the trip.. the whole family out on the beach, enjoying the twilight times, with a beach fire roaring next to us, playing catch with the baseball gloves, throwing a frisbee until things turned silly/violent, roasting marshmellows for Smores.. just.... fun family times. The ones I'll always cherish.

Sunday: clean up, say our good byes and then drive home and try to get used to normal life again. Unfortunately, "normal life" hit way too fast as the transmission failed in our van as we pulled up the the house and will have to be replaced this week. Its always nice to have to spend thousands of dollars on car repairs the week following vacation, but oh well. Such is life.

Now its time for regular life... the next 4 months will be out of control busy.. I'll explain more later, but this week, watching sunsets from the balcony, playing in the sand, and just enjoying being with my wife, kids and folks, was priceless! Let's go again!

For a closer look at our vacation and some of our activities, click here to see our trip photo gallery.