Poetry by Krystal

We are officially announcing a partnership between Colbyintheraw and Poetry by Krystal, Joplin’s premier poetic experience. Check back on the Poetry by Krystal page found here or available by clicking the tab near the top of the page. She’ll have new poems up frequently and others will be archived for your reading pleasure. Check it out here.

Great Weekend

I spent the weekend with my girl and my family. It was a wonderful and busy adventure, and I’m sore. We went to St. Louis, got cherries at Soulard’s farmer’s market, Schlafly’s sticky toffee pudding, Boathouse at Forest Park, City Museum, ferris wheel, fireworks, got smores all over our faces at Kayak Coffee, paddle boated really hard, tried to catch ducklings, and accidentally went to Illinois 3 times.

This is a hobo, wrapped in tin foil to cook over a fire. Picture courtesy of picky-palate.com

Then we played with my 5 nieces and nephews. Played hard. I’m wo’ out! We all also ate at Lambert’s and made “Hobos,” Allison’s recipe for cooking some good food over an open fire. Wrap up meat, potatoes, carrots, onions, ketchup, barbecue sauce, and whatever spices you fancy all together in tin foil and put it on a wrack above your fire pit. It’s so good.

Bored Kid

This kid sure was bored in the Brazil v. Italy soccer match. And it sure is funny. Be sure to watch it for at least 17 seconds. You’ll laugh a lot.

Family Photos

While going through old boxes, my family just found this old photo album from the 40s and 50s in Southeast Missouri. The photos are really cool, and it’s weird how everyone looks alike. You should check it out here.

Summer

Summer has been hard, but fortunately, I’ve had some free time to make stuff. Scratch that…lots of free time. My parents’ backyard used to be flat with some pretty flowers and lots of dirty. Now it has a beautiful fish pond (landscaping still unfinished). It’s 18 inches deep in the middle. I used to have no canvasses and no money to buy them. Now I have a couple that I built out of boards and stuff. I used to have no Harry Potter costumes. Now I have two robes, some black glasses, and two wands with which to see the 6th movie premier at midnight. The wands are hand-whittled, leather bound, and stained. I didn’t make the robes, but I made everything else. Check it out.

Stencil

After catching some inspiration close to 2 years ago from Zach, Zach Allen, I decided to try my hand at stenciling my own t-shirts. Here are my first two attempts. First, we have my Dinner Club shirt. Dinner Club is a weekly activity for the clients of the GOALS program at work. Every Tuesday night, we go out to dinner, and we consider it a club. There’s also a youth dinner club. Since every club should have t-shirts, I thought I would submit this design to the club members and see about making a dozen of them or so. Next, is my Parengo Publishing shirt. Parengo Publishing is a company I’m trying to start. This is the logo of said company, created by the astonishing Jason Courtney of 82 Design. If you’d like a shirt, send some money my way and we’ll talk.

Good memories

My boy, Glenn, posted some new photos over on his site Two for Joy. Other than Glenn himself, I’ve waited with more eagerness for these photos than anyone else alive. He beautifully shot a black and white roll of medium format film in his old hipster camera all around Chicago. This one is my favorite from the batch, as this is the same diner where I ate that red velvet cake. It was a really cool place. Also, the rest of the shots are really good. Be sure to check out the one of my head next to a silver bean as well as the one of Nathan Carter eating a sandwich. Nathan is one of Joplin’s best journalists and a loyal friend. Anyways, great shots Glenn. Can’t wait to see more.

As he knows it

My good friend and colleague, Trésor Yenyi, just got a great article published in the Spring edition of the McGill Foreign Affairs Review out of McGill University in Canada. Trésor grew up in Congo and writes about the horrors he and others experienced and which he is now working to eradicate. The article, “Eastern Congo as I Know it,” begins on Section 1:27 (up in your browser’s pdf page number box), but a brief bio of Trésor appears in the “Contributors” section on 1:2. It is a solid read and an honest look at some very real tragedies seen by his own eyes. Congrats dude. Great job.

Below his article, there is another Congo article with some great pictures. Some are gruesome, however, so consider yourself warned.

Back to Joplin

Well, my internship fell through, etc. etc. So now I’m moving back to Joplin the week of July 6th. I’m not exactly sure where I’m living, but I’ve found a couple of small, probably dumpy places that are affordable. I’ll be returning to my old job a few hours a week at Community Support Services. Primarily, though, I’m committed to an 8-5 business casual office job (internship) at the Joplin Globe, writing features and such. I never thought I’d work in an office my entire life, but here it goes. Four weeks doing something pretty fun shouldn’t be too bad though right? Anyways, let’s make plans to hang out or something. Call me. I’m back.

Stories!

I just launched Storiesintheraw – a Colbyintheraw affiliate which seeks to hear everyone’s funny or interesting stories. Please spread the word, upload your stories as videos, and check back to hear everyone elses’!