If you live in San Francisco, you should join us for Fray Day 8. We all hit it last year and it never fails to make you laugh or tear up or merely sit back in awe of PEOPLE and how powerful all of our stories are.

I’m pretty stoked on seeing beatboxer Kid Beyond, too!

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Speaking of cool stuff happenin in the bay area… you have GOT to check out this kid’s videos!! Cosmo (yes, that’s his name and yes, I sooo want to name my child Cosmo some day!!) was in one of the classes I spoke to a few weeks back. You might recall me telling you I was going to go, but I don’t think I ever posted about how it went, but it was really cool:

My friend Manny referred me to a computer teacher who asked him if he knew anyone that could talk to her classes. Soon after Susan from Albany High School emailed me and despite my heavy workload I couldn’t help but say yes! I love meeting and talking to youth.

So I went (a few weeks back) and spoke w/ 3 different classes about what I do and “how I got where I am today” and how, if they’re interested in the arts or web work, they might go about getting started, etc.

I think overall the classes were into it, but it’s hard to say with High Schoolers, as they have low attention spans and are by default not apt to show their true emotions in a classroom of their peers (read: won’t raise their hands even if they do like what you’re polling them about). But – I had fun! And I’d imagine from their point of view I was a relatively interesting speaker, and not some old fart talking really slow about nonsense. (hahaha gimme a couple years though…)

Aaaanyway – it was very cool and one thing I did through each class was poll them as to

1.) Who has their own website already?

2.) Who has their own blog?

3.) Who likes to do art of some kind; i.e. draw, illustrate, paint, whatever.

Well, shyness aside, I was suprised to learn how few of them did!! Literally only a couple in each class. Can that be right? I even heard a few “What’s a blog?” and I was all “Really!?!?”

I did however meet a kid who says he’s done a bit of PHP, which is great. And he said he was going to email me in case I had projects that need help, but I haven’t heard from him. The other kid I spoke with after my talk was this kid, Cosmo. Cosmo’s way into video work and he tried to show me some of his movies that day, but the computer we were on didn’t have the plugin, was being slow, etc and we ran out of time. So I wrote down his URL and finally went & checked it out lastnight and…. Oh. My. Gawd. This kid is TALENTED!!!

Susan, his teacher, said her job is too keep his head from getting too big. :p Apparently this kid is so good he has a hard time focusing, but instead spends all his time doing all these awesome videos and editing. Truly fantastic!

So you have to check out his videos… These kids are all into this thing called Parkour/Freerunning – which I’ve never heard of until checking out his site lastnight.. To get a good idea of what it is, check out the FIRST video listed on this page called “Slide to the Vibe”. That should peak your curiousity a bit and if you want, you can read more here on “What is Parkour?“.

Alright, so the coolest thing is seeing ALL the videos and short movies these guys have created. Honestly, I’m so impressed. The fight scenes are AWESOME. The sound effects are AWESOME. Man – teens these days are *so* incredible!!!

I’m going to have one of our BAM kids interview or profile his work on our site for sure! SWEEEEEET!!!!!!!

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In other SUPER SWEET STOKING ME LIKE CRAZY news, I got to practice on a drum set tonite!!!!! I can’t tell you how frickin RAD it was!!!!! I’ve always been with my drum teacher and I have had *no* interest in practicing on my drum pad, so getting in front of a kit was key. And I did!!! And it was AWESOME!!!

I was on fire! I loved being able to take it as slow or fast as I wanted to. I was kinda nervous that I wouldn’t be able to work on much – but Warren (my drum teacher) had written down this small beat from a Ben Kweller song I brought in, so I tried to work on that. I thought for sure I wouldn’t remember what the heck all these lines (music notes) meant and wouldn’t be able to get it on my own – but I did!! I got the flam down!!!! wooohooo!!! I’m flaming!! hahaa

It was great to be in there on my own to slow it down, break it apart, do beats over and over and over until it felt right.. Go from looking at the music to looking at the drums to closing my eyes. Talking to myself, saying beats out loud.. I even tried rockin my whole body with the music like a drummer would on stage if he was totally into it – and it helped!

I was stoked. It’s my friends (old next door neighbors) who have this SWEET music room in their basement, and they’re being suuuuuper cool about letting me come over and practice and will probably get me keys so I can go over during the day when they’re at work so we don’t have to even bother eachother. And they’re just right over the hill from me! I’m. So. STOKED!

It’s especially awesome because part of me started feeling like if I am not practicing, what’s the matter w/ me? Maybe I don’t really want to play the drums? Maybe it’s not a priority and I should just spend my extra time doing the illustration business I want to develop more, etc. But the thing is… when I get in front of that drum set, I am so excited!! I get like a kid in a candy store. I’m smiling from ear to ear… giggling and full of energy. Yes, I absolutely must keep learning the drums :)

Rick & I are going to have a date soon where we rent a space to start playin together. He just got this sweet new guitar he’s LOVING which is so exciting… and now that I can do flams – WATCH OUT!!! :)