On the Verge

Chicagoland has had Sonic commercials for what seems like several years, but we've not had an actual Sonic to go to. In fact, the closest location is over 100 miles away. Next Tuesday, August 19 that will all change. The first drive-in opens in Aurora, just a couple miles from my house!

I have to say, I'd rather it be an In-and-Out Burger, but I don't see that franchise coming to the midwest.

Today the International Olympic Committee announced that Chicago made the cut to host the 2016 Summer Olympics. I'm so excited. We're in the Final Four, along with Rio de Janeiro, Madrid and Tokyo.

The committee's 110 members don't announce the final winner until Oct. 2, 2009, but that means that over the next 1 1/2 years we'll be seeing alot of movement toward a winning bid.

Read more here.

I had a great day yesterday. A long day. But I became a celebrity in a day (hyperbole). I'd highly recommend it, even though it was the longest work day of my life (19 hours). I was chosen as an extra for Public Enemies, a biopic of 1930s gangster John Dillinger. Johnny Depp, one of today's best actors in my opinion, plays Dillinger. But other actors in the movie include Christian Bale and Marion Cotillard.

I became interested in the movie because much of it is being taped in Indiana, Chicago, and Wisconsin through the summer. And, one scene was taped in Aurora's Paramount Theatre, which is the scene I was casted in with about 100-150 other extras.

I showed up yesterday at 7:30 am. I went through wardbrobe, hair, and makeup, and below is a picture of me with my awesome sweater, bow tie, and scarf. Most extras had a suit and tie given to them, but I was only one of 3-4 with a bow tie and the only person with a sweater and scarf. I loved it! (sorry, I had to sneak in the bathroom to make sure I got a picture).



The scene at the Paramount was Dillinger (Depp) going to see a movie at the Biograph Theatre in Chicago with some of his gangster friends (which included Stephen Dorff, Jason Clarke, and Spencer Garrett). They're meeting another gangster not part of his group, Bill Camp. Apparently movies were a safe place for gangsters. The movie is directed by acclaimed director, Michael Mann, who directed, wrote, or produced The Aviator, The Kingdom, Collateral, Ali, Miami Vice, Heat, etc. Check the actors out to see if you recognize any of their previous works.

During the scene, a news reel is shown (which was common in the 30s), and it included a message from the FBI about the gangsters that had been captured. It also included gangsters still at-large, with the last being Public Enemy #1, Dillinger. We looked around the theatre, to our right and left, literally 50 times. With the number of extras we had, we didn't fill a theatre, so we had to retake the shoot many, many times in different locations and seats so that it can be pieced together (technical term = tiling) to make the theatre look full. This is why we didn't get out of there until 2:00 am.

Johnny was a great sport. Here are a couple pictures of him signing autographs for the 1,000 fans outside the theatre, over one hour after his scenes were over incidentally.




The first time we taped, I was on the aisle seat, same row as Depp, three seats from him. Between takes, Depp and Mann talked about the scene, with Depp sometimes coming out and standing next to me. Another scene was from the front, and I was three rows in front of Depp. The camera angle includes me, and then focuses in on Depp. I had a prop, too. Those who know me will get a kick out of this. It was a box of popcorn. Real popcorn. And they made us act by eating it. I absolutely hate popcorn, and I gagged it down throughout those takes. Another funny thing to mention was our "lunch break". We finally got one at 4:30 pm. Hey, better than nothing.

A couple times Johnny and I passed each other, and we did the small talk thing ("Hey, how are you?" and "Good, how are you?"). It was great. Another highlight was walking out of theatre on breaks and having the 1,000 waiting fans scream for us. They had been waiting there for any excitement, and seeing the extras was all it took. So, I took advantage of that, and waved, walked across the street, through the crowds, and pretty much just soaked up the celebrity. Please forgive me!

Here are a few more pictures to enjoy:





------------------------------------

To see press coverage of the event, with more pictures, try below:

Photo gallery

Beacon News Story 1

Beacon News Story 2



------------------------------------

If you'd like to try being an extra, too, try my talented casting agent, Joan Philo

------------------------------------

The rumor is that Johnny and others from the movie often do Google searches to see what's being written about the movie. Johnny, Michael, Christian, Marion, whomever: please feel free to leave a comment! My readers would appreciate it.

------------------------------------

Don't forget to watch for me around July 2009 (tentative release date) when the movie comes out!

In honor of the start of the baseball season, and as my beloved Cubs enter their 100th season without a World Series title, here are 100 questions for 100 years from the Chicago Tribune.

Listen up! Starting Friday Chicago is having it's first ever Restaurant Week. You can choose from many of the city's 5-star restaurants for only $21.95 for lunch or $31.95 for dinner. For a three-course meal! I know I'm excited!

Go here to get more information.

Happy New Year! As a gift, effective today, those of us in Illinois can now enjoy restaurants, bars, clubs, and any other public places without any smoke! We're the 23rd state to sign such a law.

Here are some resources that provide more details:
Smoke Free Illinois
Government Site
A Tribune article
A Sun-Times article

I'm having a great night for several reasons:

1) I'm wrapping Christmas gifts

2) Enjoying my Christmas tree (even though 1/2 the lights are out and it's similar to Charlie Brown's)

3) Christmas music has been playing all evening

4) And, it's our first snow that's sticking and looks beautiful. Here's a shot from my phone at around 9:00 pm.

I'm sorry. I just have to boast. The Cubs are tied for first place for the first time this year.

With the win, the Cubs improved to 35-18 since June 3, the best record in the Majors over that stretch. They finished July at 17-9, the most wins in the month since posting the same record in July 2000. I'm going to have a great day.

GO CUBS GO, GO CUBS GO, HEY CHICAGO WHAT DO YOU SAY, THE CUBS ARE GOING TO WIN TODAY.

(and now the losing streak begins....sorry, always have to have a little pessimism)

Aurora/Fox Valley area was hit with quite an unpleasant surprise last week after the Chicago Tribune broke a story about Planned Parenthood opening a new abortion clinic in Aurora, the only one outside of one in Chicago.

One of their largest clinics in the nation, it's scheduled to open September 18th at a cost of $7.5 million. They secretely got zoning approval as a "medical/office building" and marked the clinic as the "Gemini Health Center". The abortion clinic was only found out last week when a curious contractor figured it out.

Steve Trombley, the president and chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood/Chicago Area, was quoted as saying, "Frankly, I'm surprised we were able to keep it a secret for so long."

I'm not quite sure how Christians should respond to this, but I know that instead of judging girls and women that get pregnant unintentionally, we need to love them, support them, and counsel them of their options. A positive story about this was in the Beacon News on Sunday: Woman plans pregnancy help center

Governor signs statewide smoking ban
I'm very excited about this law. And I highly doubt it's going to affect businesses or change customer's spending habits. It's just the only way they know how to attack the law.

It's official: Wilco will headline Millennium Park on Sept. 12
Another awesome almost-free concert at the Park. I'm so excited. Who wants to go with me? Tickets will need to be purchased this Saturday.

Starbucks hiking drink prices
My beloved Starbucks is becoming more and more of an annoyance to me. I'll probably slowly switch over to other alternatives.

'Price Is Right' for Drew Carey
It'll never be the same without Bob, but Drew is a great comic and hopefully can add his own spice and twists to the show.

I got to take in this magnificent free concert last night in Millenium Park. I love Chicago summers!

Here are my first two videos taken with my new phone and uploaded on YouTube. They're short and choppy and bad, and I'll try to do better next time (it's better than a picture, though, right?)

This is my 200th blog post. Aren't you excited? I wanted it to be something very thoughtful and meaningful. I'm just going to share some recent news:

--This last weekend Trevor and Michelle were here and God totally blessed us as we're making progress on the church plant. Check out the latest blog from Infuse here.

--Yesterday I was driving to work and the weirdest thing happened. It went from DJ announcing the next song, to the emergency broadcast noise, to another station. An AM station. I changed the channel, confused. And every station was this AM personality. I looked around in other cars to see if this was some cruel trick. I found this out later.

--Cubs are on a roll! Six straight wins. And a big series against 1st place Milwaukee this weekend.

--You've heard me talk alot about my project at work, FaithVisuals.com. We've created a MySpace and Facebook page for it. Be our friend! And let me know if you have suggestions to improve the new pages.

--I'm really going to miss Tony.

I had a great birthday weekend, even though I officially only have one year left of my twenties. My parents, sister, brother-in-law, and Payton came to visit. As you'll see from the pictures, we spent most of Saturday at Brookfield Zoo. And, I have to say I'm really impressed with the place (even though I don't particularly like animals and the cicadas were all over the place).

This was on the trolley, right before Payton's outburst which cut the ride short.


We were able to pet stingrays!


There were alot of monkeys behind us, but, of course they didn't show up in the picture. Another reason to just take the picture yourself.


All of us in front of the sign.

That headline = sarcasm. Now that the Cubs are sliding into the abyss after losing seven of 10 games, I thought I'd share some recent stories from the last week:

The Re-Education of Kerry Woods from the NY Times. Will he pitch again?

The Carlos Zambrano-Michael Barrett fight from Chicago Tribune. This is what you like to see from your team's players.

Piniella gets ejected and suspended indefinitely for physical contact with the umpire.

Some of my best college friends were together again over Memorial Day weekend (affectionately known to us as the GYAT Conference--sorry, can't divulge the meaning)


Hanging out at The Foundry, watching sports, and playing shuffleboard = good times.


Trevor is an official Chicagoland residence now that he has his very own I-Pass.


A view of Chicago from the Signature Lounge atop Hancock Observatory.


The waiter apparently didn't think I needed to be in the picture.


Brett REALLY wanted to get a picture at Oprah's studio.

For the last month all Chicagoland (and the rest of the midwest, I'm sure) has heard about are the cicadas that are coming back from their 17-year habitation under the ground. Apparently these red-eyed creatures will emerge in flocks this weekend to shed their skins on trees and fly away as adults 4-6 weeks later. Also, the noise that a single male cicada makes is at such a high decibel that it compares to a kitchen blender. A search on Chicago Tribune shows 53 articles about cicadas in the last 28 days. Seriously.

If a cicada touches me or flies into me or makes its way into my house, I will literally lose it.

After a horrendous April where I couldn't bring myself to watch a game, the Cubs are hot and have won five games straight. They're finally over .500!

And, I realized that this Wednesday is my first game of the season. A night game. Bleacher seats. With fun friends. Good times.

This could be one of the most exciting moments of our lives. It made my weekend. Take that LA. Now, unfortunately, we need to wait until October 2009 to find out if Chicago hosts.

If the Olympic commmittee is looking for a director, let me know. I may be interested. And I did help plan the Huntington University Olympiad for two years. I'm pretty qualified, a hard worker, creative, and a problem-solver.

If the word hasn't gotten around yet, let me tell you about something pretty substantial that has been happening in my life. My college friend, Trevor Lee, and his family Michelle, Isaiah, and Ayla are moving here soon from Denver. And how does this affect me (besides being extremely excited to have my best friend within a few miles)?

Near the end of college and the years after, many of my closest friends talked much about someday being in ministry together. A dream indeed. Trevor got his DMin from Denver Seminary and got a pastoral job at a local church. Two years ago, though, he started feeling led to plant a church. Recently that leading has formed into a more specific passion for a missional-focused, cell-group based network. Not a church building, but a very organic model that raises the importance of discipleship, worship, and mission.

I kept in contact with Trevor as God formed this passion in his heart, and he soon asked me to think about being involved. Through prayer, we came to the conclusion that we would go in faith and try forming this network in Aurora, IL, a place I have a deep interest and love for. Of course, this is a huge step of faith with considerable risk for Trevor and his family, but when God says "go," you go.

A big initial prayer was for them to sell their home, in a buyer's market of Denver (Colorado currently has the most foreclosures in the nation). God answered this prayer, and they sold their home in about a month. Much gratitude to God!

Now they're released from Colorado. Their house closes on April 23. They'll either drive to Aurora and stay. Or, they'll drive through Aurora to Indiana. The difference is if God gives us a place for them to live. An affordable place, even if only for a few months. Otherwise, they'll head to Indiana, save money, and move here when it's time. Obviously we'd like them to move here in April, but it's God's timing. (note: please please please if you have any housing options in or around Aurora, let me know.)

Until they're in Aurora, we'll be developing relationships, raising support, building some structure, and praying.

We've got alot of unknown in front of us. We ask God to provide, and to bless, lead, and help us reach many people that do not know the Lord. More than anything we want people to have the peace, hope, and salvation that we have been given.

We humbly ask for your prayers, and for updates on what's going on with the church (and some additional help understanding this church model), check out our other blog here.

Tonight was great fun in Chicago with Ryan, Brittany, and Mark. A tasty dinner and drink at Carnivale, then back to friends' apartment to try this contraption that I've been itching to try for a couple years (I can only imagine what you think it is if it doesn't look familiar, but it humors me not to tell you right away). It was a glorious night!