These photos were taken by Alyssa Schukar for the Daily Nebraskan.
You can check out more of her work at alyssaschukar.com.
Big thanks to Alyssa for sharing these so people can see them.

Getting ready at the Black Market
The Black Market generously allowed everyone to dress up in appropriate rock attire from the store.

Preparing backstage
Nick Tarlowski, one of the teachers of the School of Rock club and member of JV All*Stars and Good With Guns, works with the musicians backstage to get them mentally prepared and warmed up for the show.

The Show

Alex on vocals

Tati: Rock Star

Check tomorrow’s Daily Nebraskan for more.

Man, that was amazing.
My shoulder hurts from videotaping two hours of rock (I’m not strong enough to hold a camera in that upright position without some strain).

School of Rock went on first, and it’s just amazing what a sense of Putting On A Show these people have.

“Story of My Life,” the Social Distortion song, led off the set. Alex, who is a cool kid I knew from last quarter’s DAVE class, sang the lead on that. But an extra touch that I think totally makes that song is that Sara and Tati come onstage to sing backup in the chorus. That whole song just sends a message of “We are School of Rock, we know what we’re doing way more than we should at this point in our rock careers, so just do what you’re supposed to do and be awestruck.”

These aren’t kids nervously stumbling through cover songs. These are proud, confident, almost cocky like a good rock band should be, owning the stage. It was just awesome.

Another lineup did “You Really Got Me,” more in the style of Van Halen (with a long – but amazing – guitar solo), but Stephen, who I’ll get to know in DAVE 2 this quarter, sings in more of a sensitive Ray Davies style, so it’s somewhere in between The Kinks and Van Halen. I was shooting pretty much straight out from Stephen, and during part of the song I shot a close-up on him with the drummer in the background. The crowd is going nuts, and you can just see his confidence growing from the expression on his face.

Sara and Tati and Stephen took the stage for two songs, “Float On” and a Blink 182 song. I told them, and maybe it came out wrong, that I hate Blink 182, but when I hear that song, it makes me think of their band and I actually enjoy listening to it now. Sara and Tati both put out this completely effortless vibe of “Yeah, we are just that cool” while they’re on stage – so calm and cool, looking totally comfortable, a bit of a sway with the music, but with tons of rock star poise. I can’t wait to go see their band play years in the future, because they are going to be awesome.

I felt bad for the headlining group – Stephen couldn’t remember their name so he referred to them as “The Green Day band.” It’s essentially what they are, but they’re very good at it. These guys have so much stage presence down – controlling the crowd, doing rock god guitar solo poses – and I think they’re on the early side of middle school.

It’s just so fascinating to see people so young who are so motivated and so good. Tons of credit go to Nick and Craig for teaching these kids, but I’m sure they’ll admit there’s only so much you can teach people – at some point, they have to want it, and that’s where they’re going to either succeed or fail. You get the impression from each one of these kids that they all want it.

This is getting too long, but Good with Guns played short a member and JV Allstars closed out the night, and I’m no modern punk fan by any stretch of the imagination, but these guys put on a fantastic show. Just an all-around awesome night.

Three cameras shot the whole thing, and the audio was recorded off the soundboard. So…hopefully the DVD will be out soon?

Downtown YMCA.
Friday. 7:00 show / doors 6:30.

The amazing School of Rock kids will be performing (middle schoolers who were in the School of Rock and School of Rock 2 after school clubs this quarter), plus club leaders Nick and Craig will be performing in their bands JV All Stars and Good with Guns (possibly renamed for the evening).

Go and enjoy the show.

Omaha Reader
Omaha City Weekly

On an unrelated note, I met a new superhero tonight, part of a team based in Indianapolis.

Indiana, here I come.

I wanted to make a top albums of 2005 list, but when I sat down to think of what my top albums would be, I couldn’t really come up with a list that I felt was representative of the best of the year. It was actually more representative of the fact that my listening tastes have finally returned to the singles-based love of my childhood. Most of these are available on iTunes or other legitimate downloading services, but some are available for free through their websites or labels, so links are provided when I could find them.

So here, in no particular order, are my top songs of 2005.

The Decemberists – “The Engine Driver”
I’d never really caught on with the buzz surrounding The Decemberists until the release of “Picaresque” this year. The music is beautiful, and that chorus line “And if you don’t love me, let me go” manages to pull of the tricky paradox of being simultaneously melodically uplifting and an emotional downer.
download from insound.com
decemberists.com

Andy Bell – “Crazy”
I’m not sure if I could tell you this was Andy Bell solo (as opposed to new Erasure) if I didn’t already know, but I can tell you this single was far catchier and far closer to the Erasure standard of quality than anything off the proper Erasure release of 2005.
streaming from andybell.com
video at virgin.net

Bloc Party – “Banquet”
I ignored the hype until I heard this single and had to ask who was playing.
download the Phones Disco Edit from blocparty.com

Gorillaz – “DARE”
Blur has been my favorite band for years, so it was frustrating that they were still just known as “The Song 2 band.” At least there is some satisfaction in knowing that Damon Albarn’s melodies are being ingrained in the minds of the masses, even if it is through the cartoon side project. Fantastic pop songs are what they are, and when a fantastic pop song also includes reviving Shawn Ryder (or at least his head — watch the video), then even better.
gorillaz.com
watch the video at virgin.net

Calla – “Stumble”
They’ve been perfecting this delicately-beautiful indie pop formula for a few years now, and once you hear this song, the almost-whispered chorus “Hold me closer / don’t let me go” will be stuck in your head forever.
callamusic.com

Dungen – “Du Ar For Fin For Mig”
These psychedelic Swedes re-issued an album this year, and this 8-minute quasi-hippie stomp was the highlight for me. They don’t have any downloads on their site, but you can stream the song here.
dungen-music.com

Rasmus Farber – “Get Over Here”
Some songs just sound like they were supposed to be played in the middle of the night. This is one of them.

Depeche Mode – “Precious”
I cannot tell you how excited I was when I heard this single. I love Depeche Mode, from their early 80s ouput onward, but once you get to “Songs of Faith and Devotion” (in other words, around 1993) I could only listen to a few songs on the album. Around then, they really seemed to be trying to fit in with the changing musical world rather than doing what made them great. Not that there’s anything wrong with evolving, but it seemed like a contrived attempt to change with the times rather than following artists growth.

“Precious” is an amazing single and it would have been an amazing Depeche Mode single in 1987. “Playing the Angel” sounds like a band that has gotten back in touch with what made them great without trying to recreate an era that has passed. I can’t get enough of this song.
digital downloads at depechemode.com

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – “The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth”
I somehow missed the obvious Talking Heads emulation when I first heard these folks – a bit of mimicry that keeps some people from enjoying the band at all. I’ve found myself having trouble getting into some of the other songs from the album, but this song is just a beautifully sloppy indie song that seems to be held together only by its melody.
clapyourhandssayyeah.com

Jack Johnson – “Breakdown”
The first time I heard this song, or at least a version of this song, was from Handsome Boy Modeling School’s 2004 album “White People,” only at that time, it was simply a HBMS hip hop beat with Johnson singing and whistling over it. I heard a commercial on the radio for the new Jack Johnson album with a familiar melody that I couldn’t quite place, and that’s when I realized he’d re-recorded the song for his own release. I can’t really say which version I prefer, but I can’t deny that the Handsome Boy version made me wish he’d record it solo. He did, and it’s exactly what I had hoped for.
streaming at jackjohnsonmusic.com
watch a video clip at virgin.net

Eels – “Trouble with Dreams”
I loved “Hello Cruel World” from E when it came out, but in spite of numerous repeated recommendations, I could never really bring myself to make the effort to get into Eels. Thanks to their latest album, the 2-disc “Blinking Lights and Other Revelations,” getting added to heavy KRNU rotation, I quickly realized a taste of what I’d been missing. “Dreams” was the runaway KRNU hit off the album, but there are a number of standout songs that make it worth checking out.
watch the video at eelstheband.com

Shapeshifters – “Back to Basics”
I keep coming back to the house music formula, but one of the classics has to be “woman with strong voice sings over string sample.” Shapeshifters made their name with “Lola’s Theme” in the summer of 2004 and the disco orchestra lived up to their legacy with this follow-up. This one has the added bonus of “Very happy looking man playing bass.” I go back and forth on which one I like best, usually depending on which one I’m listening to at the time.
watch the video at virgin.net
and watch Lola’s Theme too

M. Ward – “Hi-Fi”
It’s really a toss-up for me between “Hi-Fi” and “Fuel for Fire” – both represent driving around at night with the windows down, listening to KRNU.
mwardmusic.com

Ladytron – “Destroy Everything You Touch”
I love how, even as Ladytron seems to get darker as time goes by (comparing their singles to earlier releases like “Playgirl” and “Seventeen,” at least), they still manage to keep a beautiful aesthetic level to the driving beats and sinister textures. I’m not sure if it’s ironic, but I think it’s amusing to sing along to a catchy melody that just happens to include the words “destroy everything you touch.”
streaming from ladytron.com

Heaven is a Hotel – “Second Story Man”
I’ve pimped this song already enough in two separate blog posts, but if you haven’t checked out this band, just do yourself a favor and download this song from heavenisahotel.com. The listeners and staff of KRNU voted it the #1 song of 2005.

Human Television – “Tell Me What You Want”
The listeners and staff of KRNU voted this song #100 of 2005, but it’s right up there with my favorites. This song stood out from the rest of the tracks on their album “All Songs Written By…” largely because it wasn’t an up-tempo janglefest. Just a short, sweet song that feels like it should have left a much bigger mark on the world.
watch the video from wearethehumantelevision.com

Jenn Cuneta – “Come Rain Come Shine”
It’s such a formula – pick a classic pop song, sample it with a house beat and sing some new lyrics over it. But when it works, it’s beautiful in all its sugary glory. Cuneta (or her producers, Andy and the Lamboy, more likely) picked “Silly Love Songs” by Paul McCartney to be the beneficiary of their four-on-the-floor and pop magic ensued. Lots of dancing in swimsuits in the video.
mp3 samples at jenncuneta.com
video at virgin.net

Turbotito – “Losing Their Heads”
One of the catchiest and funkiest songs I have ever heard. turbotito.com has been a waste of time in my experience, so visit his myspace page for the good stuff.

Of Montreal – “The Party’s Crashing Us”
Of Montreal lost me a few years ago when I just felt like the cute singalong pop song had run its course and I wasn’t getting any sort of new experience. This song came along and proved I had a little more love in me. I wish I could find a site that streams it at the very least, so you could have a little of the love in you.
ofmontreal.net

Madonna – “Hung Up”
About 95% of the time, Madonna annoys the heck out of me. The other 5% of the time, she’s amazing. I do kind of wish she’d stop trying to prove she’s a sex symbol. The pink leotard kind of grosses me out.
watch the video at virgin.net

Uniting Nations – “You and Me”
As far as I know, the only attention they’ve received in the US is because of their cheesy Hall and Oates “Out of Touch” remix, but their later singles like “Ai No Corrida” and this song deserve a little more credit in my opinion. It never ceases to amaze me – how formulaic house music sounds, yet how some people can get it so right and others can mess up something that seems so simple. This belongs with the former.
mp3 samples at unitingnations.co.uk

continued from this post

I woke up early Saturday morning, gathered my gear and a McDonald’s breakfast, and headed south. Mapquest said it was a 2 hour drive, and it ended up being almost exactly that.

For about the first hour and fifty minutes, my friend who’d said to expect nothing out of the ordinary seemed to be pretty much on the nose. The drive though Mississippi, into Louisiana, and back into Mississippi was beautiful, with trees lining both sides of the interstate corridor. Once you get about 30 minutes away from the coast, you start to notice a little bit of trash here and there in the trees. Once I got about 10 minutes away, I could see a few trees knocked over.

I took the exit off I-10 for Bay St. Louis. Immediately I saw a gas station and thought “Well, they’re obviously doing okay if the gas station is up and running.” Then I saw the gas station a little closer. The windows were all blown out. The massive roadside sign was shattered, with only a few pieces of the logo remaining. Just down the road, another gas station sat in worse shape. A nearby building had a car through the front window. It looked like the hurricane had hit yesterday.

As I made the five mile drive to Highway 90, the road that runs east and west along the bay, it just got worse. I saw a car wrapped around a tree, leveled houses, and more destroyed businesses. The first real sign of any kind of rejuvenation came when I reached Highway 90. The K-Mart was boarded up, and so was nearly everything else, but the Sonic was open for business. I later found out that the Sonic and the Waffle House were the only two places in town that were back open. Expect a wait of an hour to an hour and a half to be served.

It was amazing to me that the town was still in this kind of shape. The only businesses that seemed unaffected were car dealerships. But really, with the complete lack of any media attention since the weeks immediately following the hurricane, the general scenario projected onto the non-gulf-coast US population is that everything’s getting back to normal. That couldn’t be further from the truth. The town looked like it was still in the middle of a hurricane, only the sky was sunny and dry.

Back to my mission: I was looking for five high school students, riding bikes, dressed as superheroes. My plan of action was to just drive around through town, hoping to spot them or some sign of their presence. If that failed, and I felt like I’d covered everything, I’d stop in at any open business (the Waffle House, Sonic or a car dealership, I guess) and ask if they’d seen or heard of the superheroes.

I turned onto Highway 90 and headed east into the town of Bay St. Louis. After several miles, I came to the bay itself. I’d seen the picture before – row after row of concrete pillars, once holding up the Highway 90 bridge – extending out across the bay. The buildings in that area were levelled unlike any I’d seen so far. I later learned that a tornado had passed through that part of town. All this meant to me at the time was that I’d be turning around. I backtracked west on 90 until I reached the point I started.

Ten minutes into the mission. No superheroes. This was where it was going to have to either get interesting or frustrating. I imagined myself at noon, still driving around looking for them, wondering when panic would set in and how it would affect my judgment.

I picked a random side road and started driving south toward the coast. It was narrow and winding, curving east while passing through a wrecked residential area. Old Spanish Trail was the name. I drove slowly, scanning up and down the streets it intersected, looking for kids, bikes and capes.

No kids, bikes or capes, but something did catch my eye: a yellow school bus with Oregon plates and bio-diesel stickers (I remembered that detail from the newspaper story), parked next to a campsite. This can’t be it, I thought. I’ve been looking for fifteen minutes.

I parked and walked up to the campsite. At the very least, these people might have heard of them.

A woman in a bright, multi-colored pullover walked out. I asked, “Is this where the group from Eugene is staying?” She replied, “The superheroes?”

“Yes!” I found them. Almost, I guess. They had already gone out, helping build a park. But a few more of the superheroes were still there. I was introduced first to Velvety Black Earth Tongue (she had driven the bus). I was told I needed to talk to Blazing Echidna – he had started the whole thing.

This was shocking to me – I was meeting a bunch of adults in superhero costumes. A quick conversation with Blazing Echidna later (he was joining the group building the park as well), I learned that this superhero community had existed for a decade, that they travel around helping people and getting in adventures, there were more than thirty of them there in Bay St. Louis, and their roster includes more than 300 superheroes across the United States.

Blazing Echidna gave me directions to the park, where the superheroes were helping build a new playground for the children of Bay St. Louis. I’d been on their trail 15 minutes since entering town, and through the most amazing luck, managed to find them right away. I quickly made this post from my cel phone, and followed the Blazing Echidna to the park.

to be continued…

I shot these photos during my trip to Mississippi in mid-December.

The back yard from a house in a pretty affected neighborhood. This used to be a scenic – and dry – area.

Ironic “Home Sweet Home” pillow, lying in the front yard of a destroyed home.

A couch caught in a tree.

A storefront sign in what used to be a shopping area along Highway 90.

The concrete remains of what used to be the Highway 90 bridge across Bay Saint Louis.

Read bios and stuff here.

We’ve had a little tradition in my family for the past 9 months or so called Family Food. Whenever we get together for an event (holidays or graduations or whatever )and there are enough people to play, we compete to see who can put on the most weight during the meal.

Everyone who’s competing weighs in before the meal and then the eat as much as they want. When you’re done eating, you weigh in again. Simple as that.

We have two trophies for the individual and team competitions. Both of them are statues of Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus that Erica got for graduation. She wasn’t really sure what she was going to do with them, so her bad-influence brother and sister took it from there.

I had won every individual Family Food contest leading into Thanksgiving, when I was upset by my 16-year-old cousin Bailey and brother-in-law Nolan. Both of them put on 5 pounds and I was only able to put on 4.5. I was probably a little overconfident, but Bailey was determined to win, and as sick as her commitment made her, it paid off. Nolan beat me too, but Bailey deservedly stole the spotlight.

Sara and I were always consistently good in the team division as well, but my stumble and Sara’s poor showing allowed the team of Bailey and my Dad to sneak in and take first there. So it was a big night for Bailey, as her two first-place finishes made for a strong debut.

Fast-forward to Christmas. Bailey’s after-dinner misery at Thanksgiving meant she had no interest in defending her crown. Sara was with her family, so I had no teammate. Bailey’s brother Gavin was there for his first Family Food. It was quite a different scenario.

Eating for weight on Christmas eve was a challenge; everyone had been snacking all day on cookies and chocolate and other sweets. Nobody was prepared. But after three sandwiches, three bowls of soup and various side items and desserts, Gavin and I emerged with 4.5 pounds each. I was hoping to fully reclaim my title, but sharing it with someone was better than third place again.

Christmas day meant dinner with my mom’s side of the family. And unlike the soup and sandwiches of the night before, this was all-out turkey, ham, stuffing, potatoes, gravy, rolls, corn, banana bread and desserts. This was also the first time that my cousin Eric was competing. Eric is a monster. He’s not fat or anything, just a naturally big and tall guy. And he has a bottomless stomach.

Nolan, Monica, Erica, Dad and I were all competing less than 24 hours after our last Family Food; Tim and Eric were in their first. Eric had finished his second plate before I finished my first. Finally, we all weighed in.

Right away we knew it was going to be anyone’s game. Dad – who I partnered with – weighed in first with a 4 pound gain, which was solid for the sidekick position, even though he said his heart wasn’t in it. But then Monica – Nolan’s partner – surprised us with 4 pounds also. Then Tim – Eric’s partner – really shook things up with 5 pounds. Everyone knew that Eric was likely to clean house, so Nolan and I were depending on our partners to give us a chance in the team bracket; Tim’s strong finish really seemed to squash our hopes.

Then I weighed in with a 6.5 pound gain, which would typically guarantee a victory, but Nolan and Eric both had about 5-10 more minutes of eating after I filled up. In what would be the first shock of the day, Nolan weighed in with only a 3 pound gain. Soon to follow, Eric weighed in with only a 3.5 pound increase.

That meant my 6.5 pounds put me back in the champion slot, and our team’s 10.5 total gain would get us that trophy as well. But Nolan and Eric were suspicious of their low weight gain. Eric re-weighed, and this time, he had gone up 6 pounds. I was still the individual champ, but that put his total with Tim at 11 pounds, knocking Dad and me out of the top team spot.

The re-weighing continued, and I thought it was getting a little out of hand. Eric was now showing an 8 pound gain, so I hopped back on and showed 8 pounds as well. Disagreements arose about a standardized weighing stance, form, etc. I argued that there should be no standard from person to person; it’s up to each individual eater to stand the same way on the scale both times, and then all will be fair.

So the official record will show that I won the individual competition with 6.5 pounds and Eric was second with 6.0. Tim and Eric won the team bracket with 11 and Dad and I had 10.5 for second. But then there will be an asterisk beside my victory noting that upon subsequent weigh-ins, Eric and I both showed an 8 pound gain.

We intend to pool money to buy a fancier scale for next time.

I’ve been putting off sitting down and writing about this for a little more than a week now, and I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s just because there’s so much to write about and I don’t want to take the time, or maybe I’m a little afraid that if I type it all out, it’s somehow going to be released from my brain and I won’t have a hold of it as much.

If you’ve followed this blog at all in the past two weeks, you’ll know that I read a newspaper article about five high schoolers from an alternative school in Eugene, Oregon, who were heading to Bay St. Louis, Mississippi to help with hurricane relief – dressed as superheroes. And at this time two weeks ago, with only the added detail that they were traveling in a bio-diesel school bus, that’s all I knew.

(I’ve been working on a documentary on real-life superheroes for the past two and a half years. The documentary has some great content, but it’s been somewhat stalled for various reasons.)

By the time I read the story, the bus had already left Eugene, and the people at the school had no contact (or at least none they felt comfortable offering) with the people aboard. Going off the knowledge that five superheroes would be in this town of 8,000, I took the leap of faith that I’d be able to find them. So at 5:30pm Thursday, December 15, I left work and headed south.

I pulled in to St. Louis (the big city in Missouri, not the little bayside town that was my ultimate destination) a little past 1am, where I stayed with Sara’s sister Erin. I took off in the morning for the virtual unknown.

I didn’t know what to expect. You don’t hear about the hurricane-stricken areas much now that the stories aren’t as exciting. I didn’t know if I’d find a chaotic, third-world disaster area, a tidy reconstruction, or something in between. I had a few friends at different newspapers who had covered different aspects of Hurricane Katrina, and one told me to expect nothing out of the ordinary; it’d been three months – that’s plenty of time to clean up.

Reality was proving to be a little different. Another friend, JXZ in Little Rock, helped me find a hotel room for that second night. As far as hotels go, you’re lucky to find something within 2 hours of the coast. There are still so many relocated people that making a reservation still gets you a warning to check in with the hotel, because the post-hurricane reality meant rooms can be taken with little to no notice.

I ended up in Brookhaven, almost exactly 2 hours from Bay St. Louis. Friday night, I sat down to dinner at Pizza Hut, notes spread out on the table in front of me, seriously doubting what I was doing. I had driven 15 hours, taken two days off from one job and missed one day at another, borrowed a second camera, spent over $150 on more tapes and supplies for my camera and now already spent more than $200 on travel expenses. And here I was, sitting at Pizza Hut, knowing only that five high schoolers were in Bay St. Louis.

It was one of those moments where I knew that I was going to prove something to everyone. Either I’m some kind of visionary whose leaps of faith result in creative gold, or I’m a dreamer of the worst kind, whose lack of any grounding results in the wasted time, money and energy of myself and those who’ve invested emotional stock in me.

I was kind of stressing myself out, but it was in a “pump yourself up before the big game” sort of way. I had something I had to accomplish over the next two days. I was going to have to invest myself completely in those next 48 hours, being prepared for every moment and how the situation would have to be dealt with differently as each hour passed.

I went back, labeled every blank tape in a sequence of “Bay St. Louis – tape X,” charged each camera battery, put new batteries in each of the three microphones I brought, set the alarm for 5am and went to bed.

(to be continued…)