Make Milwaukee Famous

My little brother used to have a Polish nanny. She taught me the value of words. Like how every word is more fun when you end it with "skies." Example: Sarcasm- "I love it when my phone cuts out on me. -NOTSKIES!" or "That guy asked me for my number, but he's a huge tool, so count me OUTSKIES!" It's not like rocket science but it's fun. So feel free to try it out. But don't overuse it or you could risk becoming a giant loser.

At work (yeah, I work now) I have to watch a lot of web videos. It's pretty sweet. Today I reviewed some of the stuff that's up on Snap.fm's blog, Snapbox. Snap.fm was created by a good buddy of mine, Devin, and the Snapbox blog features videos of various indie bands playing live acoustic versions of their songs in various (and often highly random) locations around Boston, Allston, Cambridge and the like. I really approve of Devin's work so far - the videos look awesome and the venue choices add to the appeal. Whenever I had free time last summer, which was never as often as I would have liked, I'd help Devin with the camera work, so being able to see some of the stuff that I shot look as good as it does gives me a serious sense of satisfaction. The editing rocks (I think that's Tom's doing) and the sound quality is really great, considering a lot of the locations weren't condusive to our recording equipment. Did I mention how killer the camera work is? Is that shameless self-promotion? Yeah? Cool, then I'll keep going with that rhythm.

So obviously, these videos make me seriously nostalgic. My favorite shoot that I helped with was for What Made Milwaukee Famous - if you don't know these guys, you should give them a chance. They are so great. But this shoot was my favorite because of how beautiful it looks. It's just a playground in Cambridge, near the Middle East, but for some reason it just screams Boston for me, and watching these vids brings me serious inner peace. A reminder of the good times in a great city. The presence of video in our lives, the ability to capture moving memories, will never not be profound for me. So, enjoy a few memories of mine:



What Made Milwaukee Famous box 4 from Snap FM on Vimeo.


What Made Milwaukee Famous box 3 from Snap FM on Vimeo.

If you liked those, there are more songs from these guys at http://blog.snap.fm/

Also. All Is Love is another band I helped shoot. And I think this video is pretty chill. I'm still amazed we fit the entire band into such a tiny Allston vestibule. Believe it or not, they're like Swedish or something, and they are so. much. fun.


Love Is All box 1 from Snap FM on Vimeo.

Did I mention I'm writing this post from my balcony? Amazing.
Peace out cubscouts.

Got Enough to Go Around

I've been wrestling with the concept of optimism lately. Actually, let's call it positive energy (because let's face it: "optimism" is SO ten years ago). Here's the statement I try to live by: the energy you put out is equal to the energy you attract. If you think positive, you'll attract positive things in your life. I like that it sounds all scientific, because I get less sass from all of the skeptics and disbelievers (and general pessimists). So lately everything's been turning up Killian. Normally I consider this to be a good thing. But things have been SO eerily awesome lately, that I'm starting to wonder if I'm due for a serious fall soon. I mean, is it possible to maintain this kind of high permanently? Or are we all just stuck in a cyclical pattern from which we can't escape, where things get good, then they get bad, and then they get good again? OR is it just totally meaningless and random? I guess the brunt of my curiosity stems from a question that will never, ever, be answerable: How much of our lives do we control?

And since we decidedly cannot answer that question, what's the point of thinking about it? And if there's no point in thinking about it, then what's the point of worrying if things are going to turn sour? And if there's no point in worrying about whether things are going to turn sour, then there's nothing we can do but to just stay positive and enjoy the moment while it's upon us... which brings us back to positive energy. HA! So maybe "positive energy" or "optimism" is purely reactionary. Maybe we can't control our fate by exuding positivity, but who really cares? As long as you're happy with where you're at while you're at it, then there's no real need to worry about whether your happiness is the chicken or the egg in the "what came first?" equation. And honestly, there's probably no harm in assuming that your positive energy attracts positive events because the truth is that even if the event sucks, you'll come away thinking it was positive in the long-run, and isn't that a more pleasant way to live? I think so.

So I'll conclude by saying that there's no reason for me to think that my life is about to take a turn for the worst. As long as I stay positive, I'll stay happy, and the only person who can manipulate that perception is me. We might not have control over the things that happen to us, but we'll always have control over our reactions to those things. And that is what makes optimism so powerful. AMEN, SISTAH!

I heart this Cold War Kids song, and my favorite line kind of fits this post. So have at it.


"she's laughing like a choir girl. she's laughing like a choir girl. when she doubles over it sounds like hallelujah"