That Blog About Blue Like Jazz

About a month ago they started filming this movie down the street from Belmont. Well, not just any movie. Its a movie that is being funded by a few big investors and a few more thousand fans. Its a movie that made history by being the "largest crowd funded creative project" in America. Its also a movie based on a book I hold very dear to my heart.

Blue Like Jazz

I read the book about four years ago on my way to a leadership conference in Themiddleofnowhere, Pennsylvania. My friend Eric, who was driving us to the conference, had recommended it so I brought it with me.

It was out of the ordinary at this point in time for me to be reading a "Christian" book. It was during the time in my life when I was kind of annoyed by the religious entertainment industry. I felt like a lot of the Christian music, movies and books were sugar coated and not something that my non-christian friends could relate to. I was rebelling against the holy roller, preachy, church demanding material that I felt so disconnected from.

The promise of "Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality" caught my eye and I read Blue Like Jazz. I loved it. Donald Miller made me laugh and cry. I few of my other friends in the van with me to the conference had read the book already. They would hear me giggle to myself reading in the back of the van and say "Have you gotten to the part about Sexy Carrot yet?"



I was beyond excited when I heard they were going to turn it into a movie and almost peed myself when they announced they were filming in Nashville.

So for the last three or four weeks I've been spending some time as an extra on the set of Blue Like Jazz the movie. The cast and crew of this movie are incredible. They are truly kind and I feel like there is a constant flow of positive energy around them (not to get all yoga instructor on you but that's the best way to describe it).

The first day of filming we got to set at around 7am. There were 60ish of us, mostly Belmont students. We stayed for a good 10 hours of filming that day. There were some issues with the camera and lighting but the crew worked so well together to fix everything.

The next two days of filming were party scenes and we filmed from 7pm till about 2am. One day we did a cafeteria scene with about 100 or so extras.
After a couple long days together, many of the extras have become good friends.



Then today we shot a scene at Bicentennial Mall. I had never been there before. It was so cool. We shot in the amphitheater but the walk down the mall to the theater is lined with dark marble structures, engraved with the history of Nashville. It reminds me a lot of the war memorials in DC. *Note to self: come back here the first warm day of spring for a picnic ...and bring a frisbee.

On the set of this movie there is an abundance of laughter. It's so nice coming back to set and some of the members of the crew remember your name. These people are extremely talented and hard working. I got the vibe being around them that this isn't just any other day at work. I mean of course they have to work to pay rent, feed their children and stuff, but they all know how important this movie is. To the investors, fans of the book, to Don, to Steve...

The screenplay for this movie has been through some tough times. It was even dead at one point. But it was revived. Brought back to life by people who desire for this story to continue. A story within a story. Mise en abyme. Now part of my story here in Nashville. Very beautiful. Very inspiring.

Big South Fork

The few days before fall break I was a mess. I had been planning on going home but plans were changed late in the game and I was staying. Everyone on campus already had plans to leave.

I hate being alone.

I was dreading the idea of spending just a few days by myself on an empty campus.

Then, two days before the exodus, I was talking to my friend Anna. I told her how everything had fallen through and I was stuck. "Come backpacking with us!!" she said.

About 24 hours later I was putting a backpack together and packing a tent. I set off to north Tennessee with 8 people I had just met to live for a few days in the woods.



The first day we drove to Big South Fork and began our hike. We went a pretty easy 4 miles before we made camp. The hike was so beautiful and I got to know everyone along the way. That night we sat around a campfire talking. Savannah and I found out about our common love for reading micro expressions. Or pretending to read them anyways...



The next morning we filtered some water from the stream, packed up camp and continued on the trail. We crossed the river around 15 times. The first few times taking a minute to take off shoes but after the 6th or 7th time we just went for it. There was an on running joke about being on the Oregon Trail and each time we crossed the river we lost some cattle. I also got Typhoid fever at some point. We went 6 or 7 miles with good amount of the trail uphill.

With just about a half mile left I was leading the group down a hill. I'm not sure how but I lost my balance and took a tumble. My ankle felt like it snapped. Terrible pain, nowhere close to the pain when I tore my ACL but still enough to bring me to tears. I limped the rest of the way to camp.

Sprained ankle aside, that night at camp was a lot of fun. We huddled around a campfire after making some amazing chili. All of our wet socks and shoes drying by the fire. Some of them catching on fire.



The moon and stars were so beautiful that night. I hadn't seen so many in a while living in the city. Call me cliche but they were breathtaking.

Fearfully and wonderfully made.

The next morning my ankle was the size of an orange. We had an easy day of hiking ahead so I wasn't too worried. We went a mile or so to the Twin arches. Two giant arches made of stone. This was our view from the top:




Couldn't have asked for a better fall break

Urban Flats. Just Try It.

I'm a pretty simple girl. Cheap date. I never really try new things unless encouraged.

The Watsons were in town this weekend and took a few of us to Urban Flats. Kelly, Chad and Addi had all been there before. I had no idea what to order so Kelly suggested her favorite: The Californian. It's a flat bread pizza with rasberry jam, goat cheese, walnuts and red peppers. Woah. Lets not get crazy. That is not something I would try on my own.

So I ordered it.

And it was damn good.

Tennessee

It's time to bring this blog back to life don't you think?


These last six months have been a whirlwind and I loved every second of it. I'll post blogs about the adventures from this summer later but for right now Belmont...

To fill you in a little I moved in late august. I ended up in this little town about 750 miles away from home called Nashville, Tennessee to go to Belmont University. To keep it short and sweet, I love it here. The people, the city skyline view from my window, this campus, Tom's shoes, centennial park, bongo java coffee. Seriously Nashville, where have you been all my life.




There were a few things that I learned about Tennessee and this area pretty quickly that took some adjusting:

1. This is the south and around here I'm considered a yankee. The people here have northerner radar. In my first week of school three different people called me a yankee. Not in a bad way more like my great great grandad fought against your great great grandad in the civil war but no hard feelings.

2. This is also the Bible belt. I never realised how much of a liberal, non denominational sinner I was until I was surrounded by people wearing the American flag as an oxford shirt and large crosses as belt buckles. This was at an event I was working for the ICMA (Christian version of the CMAs) in Hendersonville TN. I thought I was in the twilight zone. I wouldn't be surprised if there were more churches in Hendersonville then there are in the entire state of Maryland.

3. Everyone drives slower and they hardly use their horns. I guess I'm so used to driving on the beltway but around here people take their time. They are in no hurry. Its kind of nice.

Hopefully the my blog post will be more frequent from now on.

Waalwijk Adventures Chapter 1

Around this time two years ago I would be preparing for my trip to the Netherlands. One of the best trips of my life. It was an exchange program with AACS and Dr. Mollercollege in Waalwijk, NL. I think every American student should have to do an exchange trip sometime in their school career. I learned so much in my two weeks with Anne (my "FEZ") in the Netherlands. Starting with Dutch:


Living in a place where English is not the primary language is...strange? People wouldn't realize I was foreign and start speaking to me in Dutch. It was really awkward at first because I didn't know what to do. Should I nod and pretend I know what they are saying or just admit right away that I'm just a stupid American? I tried both. But for the most part I would just stutter and then say "Sorry, do you speak English?"
I learned a few words before the trip, but none of them were very useful. For example: tafel (table), vliegtuig (airplane),zwart (black), blauw (blue), hond (dog), kaas (cheese)

I owe Rosetta Stone the credit for informing me of such practical words
Of course Anne taught me more throughout the trip. Hello/Goodbye and such. And of course, my favorite: Sinaasappelsap (Orange Juice)

Or in case you are ever in need of an escape hammer in the Netherlands try this:

Ornithoscelidaphobia

I have this ridiculous fear of dinosaurs. Ornithoscedlidaphobia. It's one of those things that you tell people but no one ever really takes you seriously. I'm not sure how this phobia started but I do remember having dinosaur nightmares when I was pretty young. I remember waking up with my heart racing after dreaming about a T-Rex chasing me through New York city. I still, to this day, will have that same dream about once every 5 or 6 months.


I remember having "Jurassic Park" on VHS in our old movie cabinet. Sometimes when I was little I would go to the movie cabinet to pick out something to watch. I would just stare at the "Jurassic Park" movie, contemplating if it was too scary to watch. In the end I would always settle on something reasonable like "My Best Friends Wedding" or "It Takes Two" (When in doubt always go for Julia Roberts or Kristie Alley).

I think when I get to heaven one of the first question I'll ask God is why he created dinosaurs. I have a theory that He did it just so we would wonder and be curious about His prehistoric creation.

I just hope there are no dinosaurs in heaven...

Alma mater

I think that all universities provide some kind of connection between its students. What I mean by this is all of the students choose that school for a reason and that reason tends to bring out their similarities. If you choose to go to school in the deep south, you probably don’t mind southern accents or warmer temperatures. If you go to the University of Richmond you’re probably majoring in something like English lit or Political Science, not fine arts. The beautiful campus probably wasn’t the deciding factor for all U of R students, but I think they all have to agree having a campus on the top 20 list of most beautiful campuses (Princeton review) is something to be proud of. Belmont is known for its music majors like Harvard is for it's law students. LA film school is a pretty obvious one.

Community College is completely different in this way. Maybe I’m wrong but community college students are the most diverse you can get. My math class is kind of the epitome of this diversity. A women in her 60’s, an old, wise immigrant from Nigeria, a stay at home mom that came straight from the gym to class in her work out clothes. We’ve got a newlywed taking classes to advance her career and support her family and the guy who sits next to her everyday and thinks he has a chance with her. The hot shot who walks in fashionably late everyday and the kid in the front row who arrives at least 10 minutes early every day.

I sat down in that class one day and the 60 year old women came in with a Ravens shirt and her hair dyed bright purple. About 5 minutes later the hot shot walks in with a bright pink American Apparel hoodie. If you’ve ever seen the neon and metallic colors in American Apparel than you understand what I mean by BRIGHT pink. I believe the color is called Fluorescent Pink, not to be confused with regular pink. Anyways, that day in math class was very distracting. I’m getting distracted just describing it.

If you walk into the cafeteria at AACC you will find a table of students playing pokemon (which I didn’t realize still existed) and kids like me cramming for a few minutes before my next class. People sleeping or studying in the mini lazyboys in the CRSC building and drama students hanging around the CADE building just across the foot bridge. West Campus is full of the music majors and nursing students. It is also somehow “smokers hangout.” Seriously, I’m going to get lung cancer just from walking to my music classes.

When I started a community college I kind of assumed everyone was there for the same reason as me. Either they couldn’t afford a four year school or their plans just fell through. I never considered the fact that people willingly go there. People like to stay close to home, their jobs and the people they love. Women in their 60’s and stay at home moms want to make more of their time. They want to take the classes they never got the chance to take before. It’s refreshing.

I seem to talk about my college situation almost too much but it's sort of the one thing right now that I can really feel God's hand in. I mean, I know He is here with me through everything but I can really feel Him intervening when it come to my life at AACC.

All good feelings aside, I still refuse to put an "I am AACC" bumper sticker on my car. Never going to happen.