Saturday, September 22, 2007

Eighth and Final MVS Quarterly Report

Here's something of a portfolio of projects from the past year or so. If you have some time to spend, this is here for the taking.

Bike Art:
one benefit of working at the Zuni Avenue Bike club is a seemingly limitless supply of funny little bike parts. Add that to a couple slow days, a wandering mind, and a wire-feed welder and you get the following.


My computer desk.



Leonard the elephant, complete with bounceable legs and wagging tail. Sure is a cutie.



A bike rack built for some friends, made of front forks and rims


Bike art goes gothic. This is Aberforth the candelabrum.


Here is a lifesize replica of the little bugger I found in my sleeping bag once while camping. Just kidding, I never actually saw a scorpion whilst in Tucson, but I'm told this is what they look like. The cool thing with this one is that if you boing the springy tail, it actually moves the pincers around so it looks like it's alive.


Speaking of making friends, this is Gregory the gargoyle. He sits and listens to me when no one else does.


Music:
The two-to-three month monsoon season is a spectacular time to compose. Sitting outside with a mandolin watching the clouds move across the valley with the scent of dampened creosote bushes preceding the storm is definitely going to be one of my long-held memories of Tucson. Though I meant to record an entire album before I left, I was only able to fit in two songs, literally recorded hours before leaving Tucson, so if you're ok with quick and dirty production, you're welcome to listen. They look like movies, but that's the only way I could post them.

Sailing to Marana
- written during the flooding of '06. Marana is a town/district near Tucson where Community Home Repair does a lot of work. This may be the first in a new genre of "home repair ballads" which will soon sweep the nation. Or not.



Tin Can Life
- a head-shaking tribute to all those clients who are stuck on the underside of life, but still somehow manage to maintain hope. I don't understand it, but I expect they've got a better sense of the meaning of life than I ever will. The song is based on the stories of people I encountered through my assignment with Community Home Repair.




Movies:
The feature we've all been waiting for. This was created by our unit as an introduction to ourselves at the annual retreat. Contains mild language and rude suggestions (but in all modesty I still think it's pretty fun). Also available on YouTube here.



Oh, and theater:
For the annual church campout, the unit created a "Mennonite Soap Opera." May contain vulgar biblical references.