This weekend I met up with my friend Derek Beck to attend a screening of a film I helped with a couple years ago. It was a short comedy type film that was shot on 16mm and was being shown at the Chicago International Reel Shorts Festival. As with any film festival there were some great films and some truly awful ones. And of course no festival would be complete without a few borderline pornographic films and some anti-George Bush pieces.

The weekend was filled with lots of rain and junk food, and culminated with a special event reserved for the film makers which they called a “booze trolley” around chicago. This was where everyone loaded on a trolley and they handed out alcohol to everyone (except the driver of course). Considering I was driving 8 hours home the next morning, I decided to opt out of the booze part of the trolley and just enjoy chatting with everyone about what format they shot their projects on and the latest trends in DV. At one point they ran out, so they got the trolley driver to pull into a Jewel store so everyone could re-load. It was pretty interesting.

Despite the rain, it was a fun weekend hanging out with some old friends and talking film production.

In order to celebrate the at least temporary end to stifling summer heat, Hannah and I took a little day trip down to Devil’s Den State Park near Fayetteville, AR. I have been there many a time and thought I had seen all there was to see at this park.

The trail we selected was called the Vista Point trail (if you have a horse they are also allowed on this trail, but really, who wants to ride a horse anyways). The Vista Point trail is a 9 mile loop that ascends Mt Olive and goes around the back side of the mountain to a spot called… “vista point”.

I would tell you about how cool Vista Point was, but we never made it because the trail was intersected in several areas by mountain bike trails which were very poorly marked… meaning in some spots we had to choose between 3 or 4 paths… with no signage whatsoever. Eventually it became obvious we were no longer on the vista point trail but by that point our concern was not being lost, but being struck by lightning in the massive t-storm that was rapidly approaching and crashing way too close for comfort.

Finally I conceded that the only way we were getting back to the car was to go the way we had come from. So we stopped in a really cool rocky pine grove and had lunch. That’s when the sky opened up and it started to pour. I say “pour” because to say it rained would not fully illustrate the situation. For the next 3 or so hours we hiked back to the car in rain that was so heavy that a kayak would have been a more appropriate way to navigate our trail.

Having said that, it was still a fun time. Here are a few more pics…

Anyone from around here probably knows of Marian Days. It’s the festival where somewhere in the neighborhood of 60,000 vietnamese descend upon Carthage and setup camp for the better part of a week to celebrate the virgin mary. But that was about all I knew. Last night I went with some friends to go check out the event first hand and see what all the ruckus is about. In this photo I am enjoying some Phở Gà, which is pronounced like “Fuh? Gah”. Here are some other facts:

• It is not simply Vietnamese, but Catholic Vietnamese…so it is a religious gathering.
• Vietnamese food includes some very tasty items.
• Vietnamese food includes some very gross items.
• Apparently a lot of Vietnamese come from Texas.
• It was very much a family oriented affair.
• A big sign listed prohibited activities… including playing heavy metal music and the wasteful use of electricity.
• Eating noodles with chop sticks isn’t as hard as one might think.

Another interesting thing I noticed while leaving were the homes where they allowed the temporary residents to set up camp in their lawn. Likewise were just as many, if not more homes with all the lights off and numerous “NO TRESPASSING” signs, chain link fences, and police line tape strewn about the yard eliminating any question how they feel about the visitors. Now, obviously I haven’t lived across the street from the event year in and year out so maybe they have a reason to be paranoid about catholic asians, but I have a feeling I would be in the camp that welcomes the visitors and enjoys their company, like I did last night. I wonder if all those homeowners who attempt to shut the event out really even understand what it is about, or if they are just subscribing to the gossip among their culturally ignorant circle of friends?

From the little slice I experienced, I think this is a really great event, and great for Carthage and the area in general. Plus, there was a fruit stand with fresh lychees…need I say more?

I just returned from the 2008 Walnut Council Annual Meeting in Columbia, MO, which my sister has been referring to as the “acorn convention”. Since we are growing black walnut trees on a fairly massive scale, we figured this would be a worthy organization in which to get our feet wet.

The morning started off bright and early with a bus ride and then a hay-ride out to the first example walnut farm we toured.

Here are Dad and Jimmy smiling and enjoying the day before the heat index surpassed 175 degrees.

The example plantation. Not even close to as large as ours, but obviously much older.

This tree is a pretty good specimen, although not ready for harvest.

Jimmy and some of our small group listening to a presentation at the second farm. The heat was on at this point.

A cool display hightlighting some soil factors influencing black walnut growth.

An instructor filling our brains with black walnut knowledge.

Although the sunflower state is often the butt end of many tourism jokes, I have always found a simple beauty in the rolling plains. Sure, Kansas may be lacking in mountains and forests, but that doesn’t mean it has nothing worth stopping to look at.

This weekend Matt and I decided to take a day trip through the flint hills region of Kansas to do some hiking and photographing (click here for pics). The Flint Hills is a large, rocky prairie which spans the state north to south about 130 miles west of here. We stopped and enjoyed many small towns, one of particular note was Council Grove. To me, this town seemed to be what every small town should be… clean streets, well kept homes, a cute downtown, and a nearby lake….all around a vibrant community. This weekend was their town festival, so it was bustling with activity and traditional ‘fair food’ such as funnel cakes, cotton candy, and my personal favorite, corn dogs.

I am not sure if it was just a lucky day or what, but as the sun starts to set out there the landscape explodes with colors. The sky was a vibrant mix of red, orange, purple, blue, and a few other colors I have never seen before. The setting sun cast it’s colors all over the landscape…giving everything, including our skin a weird colorful hue…it really was quite amazing.

Sometimes even the most simple things can stunning.

Saturday in spite of the cold weather I took to the outdoors and visited a state park called Big Sugar Creek State Park and was reminded of one of the reasons why I think Missouri is a cool state. It’s south of here near the town of Pineville. I would say it’s the closest state park to Joplin, but it’s probably a toss up between it and Prairie State Park – which is interesting because the two parks are about as opposite in terms of landscape as you can find without leaving the state.

It’s a really small park and has only one trail (3.5 mile loop) and no visitor center or anything like that. It gets it’s name from nearby Big Sugar Creek, which on this day was VERY big due to the recent flooding. What I found particularly enjoyable was the crystal clear streams all along the trail. The MO State Parks website said the trail went through native pine groves, but I counted exactly zero pines inside the park. There were however, lots of Red Cedar (which are an evergreen, but not a pine) and some of them were exceptionally large.

Here are a few pics:

One of the two small creeks that flow along next to the trail. Eventually they merge and then I would assume flow into Big Sugar.

In this pic you can see why I was so impressed with the clarity of the water.

Here is Matt, with Grant hiding behind him hanging out above a deep pool of water.