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By Kyle, January 17, 2010 9:32 pm

Police vs. Bee Gees – Roxanne Should Be Dancing

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I keep forgetting that Los Angeles has amazingly picturesque mountains, from which you can see both  the scampering city lights and often undiscovered sunset colors as an evening closes.

The occasion last night was the wedding, and hilltop reception for two of my friends, Chris and Cindy who, now married, will start the exciting adventure of living and working in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, where Chris has started a toy company called Tegu (Check it out; the toys are seriously addicting, even for supposed “adults” like myself). I’m always enthralled to be able to attend weddings of close friends, and watch them begin a totally brand new journey in their lives.

According to my mathematics, it seems I’ve now been to (and oft participated in to some degree) between one and two dozen weddings of friends. The ceremonies have been miraculous, the reception dinners savory, and the toasts inspiring. However, the one part of most of the weddings that I continually find myself at a complete and utter loss at, is what immediately follows all of this in sheer brouhaha – the dancing.

Now, as someone who modestly considers himself decently musical in nature, one would think that mere rhythmic bodily shaking would be no laborious endeavor. However, as I have found throughout my 28 years of existence, any music in my ears, heart, and soul simply refuses manifest itself in any of my four major appendages (six, if you count hips). Oh, I can definitely keep time, feeling the beat in my chest; I can even hold a tune, predicting the chord changes as the melody soars and dives. Yet alas, the wedding reception dance floor proves itself once again to be one of the more awkward moments that (now) regularly occur in life.

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By Kyle, November 19, 2007 9:18 pm

One of the things that I’ve had to get used to in the 3+ years I’ve now lived in Los Angeles is the concept of tagging. While some are inclined to call it art, I am typically less so inclined. There have been numerous occasions when I’ve arrived at school in the morning to find spray-painted graffiti on the outsides of walls, buildings, stairwells, and even defacing some of our school murals. And although I’ve never experienced this myself, I’ve heard first-hand horror stories from some of my teacher friends about them returning to their room after a holiday or a sick day to find it all tagged up. Even the Mosaic truck, which we use to haul equipment to and from the various venues on Sundays is a target for taggers. Slowly, over the course of the past ten weeks, I’ve noticed that the truck arrives at the Mayan each week with more and more black, spray painted graffiti on the side.
Anyway, upon arriving at the Mayan last night, I found that some folks came up with a creative solution! Instead of trying to erase or clean the tagging, the truck was parked in the center of the parking lot with spotlights on it as two Mosaic artists painted their own designs and art over both sides of the truck, in effect, incorporating much of the graffiti that was already there!
While this was a very cool idea, I think I’d be more than a little freaked out if I came in next Monday to find the maintenance crew involved in a similar type of graffiti solution!

Anyway, only 12 more hours of school until Thanksgiving…not that I’m counting or anything!

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By Kyle, September 3, 2007 11:08 pm

It feels like it’s been a while since my last post, but I have this feeling that that will be more and more the case now (as my life officially gets crazy). Right now, three huge things are essentially occurring simultaneously. First, and most obviously, school begins this Wednesday and as much as I seem prepared, there’s always that feeling that I’m missing something. In fact, I’m sure that I am, but it won’t become apparent until Wednesday morning at 7:59am. I can’t express how excited I am about having my students again to teach this year as 8th graders! I like the subject material more, 8th graders seem generally more mature, and I already know them! The last time I looped (i.e. 2004-2006, my first two years) I found that my students did so much better the second year and many of those who had not bought in previously did just that! Anyway, I’m excited to be doing even more with them this year. My ambitious goal is to do one college visit per month throughout the whole year. We’ll see if it actually happens!

Second, my sister Jenna is getting married in two weeks! While normally this would not necessarily cause a great deal of business, she has enlisted my help for the reception music, which I will be providing. Additionally, I’m putting together a slide-show montage (a process which is forcing me to use a generally loathsome mac, rather than my typically superior PC). As easy as you would think this to be, it’s fairly difficult to come up with playlists that are both dancible and classy.

Third, some of my involvement in Mosaic is beginning to look slightly different as the fall begins. As a result of a number of things, capped off by a great talk given by my friend Adrian, I’m being called to a new level of honesty and “realness” with the folks that I serve with each Sunday. Suffice it to say, I’m actually pretty tired, but find myself in the midst of being encouraged by the words of John. I’m a pretty cognitive type of guy, but this weekend it seems like the realities I’ve “known” for most of my life are actually sinking in deeply! Pretty cool!

Anyway, I don’t know when the next post will be, but I’m guessing it may not be for several days!

P.S. The above photo was taken from my camera phone at Santa Monica Beach. Beautiful!