#like using the soldering irons @ school for jewelry
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i wanna get into like metalforging and welding but i am so so so afraid of fire i am like some sort of small mammal or whatever the opposite of a moth is
#im fine once i get used to it#like using the soldering irons @ school for jewelry#but my fireplace requires that u stick ur Entire Ass Hand inside to ignite it and my heart races every time#fire tw#jic#the concept and aesthetic of fire fucking Rules but it is also owch very hot and scary
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Nancy Drew and Education
So apparently the Clue Crew is full of teachers? Who knew. Well, as a former homeschooled student, current teacher, and (hopefully) future homeschooling parent/teacher I have been planning on integrating the games into lessons for a long time. Below the cut I have just a few of my many ideas (some more fleshed out than others). Feel free to use, adapt, or add your own!
SCK:
- Braille
o How blind/vision impaired people navigate the world
§ How we can make it more accessible for them
o How do braille books and printers work
- ASL
o Memorizing the alphabet and basic signs
§ Build up fluency
o How HOH/deaf people navigate the world
§ How we can make it more accessible for them
o Connections of ASL to other signed languages
§ French Sign Language versus British Sign Language
- Dangers of gas leaks
o What to do if you smell or hear gas
- Inequalities between mens and womens sporting opportunities
o See Women’s Soccer
- What are performance enhancing drugs
o What is the difference between #steroids and the steroids your doctor might prescribe
- How drug running is a gateway crime
- Why blackmailing people isn’t good
- More reasons to never move to Florida
- Why you shouldn’t go to an actual high school part one
STFD:
- Television in NYC
o Soap Operas
o How television sets work
o Role of director
o Teleprompters
o Props
o Agents
- Theatre in NY
o Broadway
§ Learn a show
o Carnegie Hall
- Dangers in the ways we obsess over celebrities
o Paparazzi
o Stalkers
o Respecting privacy
- NY taxi system
- NY regional accents
- NY as a center for immigration – salad bowl
o Ellis Island
- History of NYC
o Geography of NYC
- Typewriters
- Towers of Hanoi
- Encoding
- How to make chocolates (with or without poison)
- Read along:
o New York the Novel (Edward Rutherford)
o The Power Broker
o All of a Kind Family
MHM:
- San Francisco Gold Rush
- Earthquake and Fires in San Fran
- Golden Gate Bridge
- Angel Island
o Asian (Chinese) Immigration to the USA
- Chinese Zodiac
- Fortune telling (and why it’s not okay)
- Bed and Breakfasts
- San Francisco today
o Technology boom
o Overpriced everything
§ How this hurts established residents
§ Homelessness in San Fran
- Bandits in the American West
- Hauntings in American buildings
- How to remove and install tile
- Renovations – refurbish something
- Antiques
o Visit an antique shop
- Importance of fire safety
- How to install lighting fixtures properly
- How to fix a dumbwaiter
o How not to be a dumb waiter
- Tangrams
- What is the Victorian period
o Significance of Queen Victoria
- Read Along:
o Little Brother
o Paper Son: Lee’s Journey to America
o Angel Island Gateway to Golden Mountain
TRT:
- The French Revolution
o Marie Antoinette
o Women and the French Revolution
o Worldwide effects of the Revolution
o Historians of the French Revolution
- Writing history
o How we can focus on different events in history, how we can be sympathetic to certain people, how we can fulfill different spaces in the historical narrative, criticism of history as a field, entering history as a field
- Wisconsin Dairy industry
- Alarm systems and how they work
- Fingerprinting
- Elevator safety
- Ski lifts
o Skiing
- Vandalism
- Taking care of libraries
- Latitude and longitude
- Keeping records of good events and bad events
o Nothing you do will ever stop me from loving you
- Some people keep different sleep schedules
- Journalism
- Making translations
- Why France has different holidays – to keep the ski lodges from getting too full
FIN:
- History of theatre spaces
- Use of film at theatres
- Magicians
o Houdini
o Learn a ‘magic’ trick
- Library of Congress
- Demolition – wrecking balls
o What’s involved
- Plaster casts
- Historic register of buildings
o Visit a local historic building
- Price of concessions and movie tickets today
- Nickelodeons
- Celebrity stunts for attention from press
o Celebrity endorsements
- Jazz music
o Dancing
- Kidnapping stories
o What to do if someone tries to grab you
- Rubber vs. electricity
- Art/artists of the 20s
SSH:
- Numbering systems (particularly ones not based on 10)
- Cultures of South America
o Maya
§ Cultural understandings
§ Connections to what appears at Beech Hill
o Aztec
o Inca
- Myths of lesser civilizations because of European preconceptions
- Why do countries have consulates/embassies in other countries
- What is amnesia and other medical memory issues
- Provenance and why its important part one
- Roles and responsibilities within a museum
o Visit a museum
o How to be critical of a museum and how knowledge is presented to you
- Modern art
o Make your own
o Visit a modern art museum
- Periodic Table of Elements
- Positive and negative molds for casting
DOG:
- Prohibition
o Speakeasys
o Amendments to constitution
o Drinking age restrictions
§ Comparison of USA to European countries
o Connections to modern drug policies
- Recognizing and photographing local birds
- Dangers in the forest – ticks and other pests
- Why water sources are important
o Flint water crisis
- Visit a state park
o Importance of maintaining public land
- Alcatraz
- How to care for dogs
- Noise pollution
o Light pollution
CAR:
- History of carousels
o Visit a carousel
- Lathes
- Harmonicas
- Band organs
- Writing messages with lemon juice and other hidden inks
- How to iron
o How not to iron
- How to make a sundae
- How amusement park rides are designed
- Soldering
- What is parole
o Welcoming those who have been in prison back to society
o Problems with the American prison system
§ How it disproportionately affects minority groups
o What can be done in prison reform
o Abuses in prison
o Making mental and spiritual help and guidance more available
o Making sanitary products available
o Prison for profit hurts everybody except the prison owner
o Educational opportunities for those in prison
o More half-way help
o Juvenile sentencing reform – more out of system help
o Respecting humanity of prisoners
o Ending the death penalty
- Depression
o How to get help
o How to help others
o Dealing with loss
DDI:
- Native peoples of the Pacific Northwest
- Orcas and other whales
o Whaling industry in Northwest and Northeast
o Things whale products were used for
o Visit natural history museum with whale exhibition
- Visit an aquarium with a good reputation
o Problems with places that do not take care of their sea life – particularly large sea life like whales
- What is a chowder and how is it made
o Try or make chowder
- Crabs
o Restrictions on different types of crabs – what type is local
o Try a crab dish
- Importance of different knots
o Get some rope and learn how to tie different knots
- Know the NATO alphabet and letter flags
- Boating knowledge
o Go on a boating trip – know the port and starboard sides
- Learn how to kayak
- Try to learn how to skip rocks
- Visit a lighthouse
o Importance and histories of lighthouses
- Smuggling – what is it and why does it happen
- Shanghaiing
- Chess
SHA:
- The continuous oppression and mistreatment of Native Americans
o From Mayflower to Pocahontas to Trail of Tears to Dakota to DAPL to Reservations to food deserts to voting rights to much much more
§ How to support current Native voices and concerns
o Why Native Americans are not a costume
o “Possession” of Native American objects and land
§ Arrowheads and native jewelry
o Broad overview of regional Native American groups – using their own voices
§ Special focus on local Native American groups
· Is there a local museum/educational resource that is either Native created or known for respecting Native voices
o Current Native Americans of note (ex: politicians, activists, artists)
o While the previous focuses on Native Americans in the modern day USA – also discuss First Nations from Canada and Native Groups from more southern areas
- Why temperature and pan matters when baking (show what happens in the oven when it goes wrong)
- Magnets and how different metals react differently to magnets
- How to take care of a horse and other farm animals
o Visit a local farm
o Try horse-riding
- Dangers of rattle snakes and scorpions
- Lassos and how to use them
- Legends of outlaws in the American West
- Ghost towns
- Flower stitches when knitting/crocheting
- Petrified wood
- How to make a campfire
- Picking fruits and veggies when they are ready
- Flower language
- Read Along:
o Native American folk tales
o Motorcycles and Sweetgrass
o Gone Away Lake
o Black Beauty?
CUR:
- Where are the moors
- Different regional accents within the United Kingdom
- British foods
- Latin
o Learn fun phrases and prayers
- Ancestry and genealogy
o Map your own family tree and recognize family crests
o How adoption has historically been a binding and irrefutable concept for lineage
o Find places your family lived
o Leaving a history for your descendants
§ Write a story book for them
o British Royal Family
§ Why incest is bad
- Parrots and their intelligence
- Secret passages in old buildings
- Alchemy
o Connections to modern understandings of science
o Historical understandings of elements
- Astrological signs
- Witch trials
- Legends of lycanthropy and other monsters
- Importance of not taking other peoples medicines
- Runic alphabet
- Feeding your pets a healthy diet
- Typing practice
- How to embrace the idea that home taught students are evil geniuses
- Forges and melting points of different metals
- Carnivorous plants
- Succulents
- Constellations in different places
- Read Along:
o The Secret Garden
o The London Eye Mystery
o Beastly
CLK:
- Great Depression
o Causes and effects
o Who was hurt
o Who was not hurt
o Areas of America
§ Dust bowl
o Famous people and literature
o Homelessness and poverty
§ Bread lines
§ Soup kitchens
§ Anti-homelessness architecture
§ Connections to mental illness and veterans
§ How we can help those who do not have homes today
- Early Telephones
- Shakespeare
- History of Nancy Drew
o Mildred Wirt Benson
o Edward Stratemeyer
- Fishing – why different fish respond to different bait
- Orphanages in the early 20th century
- Gas prices and accessibility of cars through time
- How to make pie
- What is jurisdiction and what is significant about crossing state lines
- How do banks work
o Safety deposit boxes
- Identify theft
- How to use a sewing machine
o Sew an item of clothing
- Mini golf – why and what
- Mirrors and their usefulness
- Stamp collections
-
- Radios and call signs
o Comparison to modern internet forms
- Telegrams
- Read along:
o Shakespeare
§ Midsummer Night’s Dream
§ Others
o Pollyanna
o Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
o The Grapes of Wrath
TRN:
- Trains
o Steam trains
o Visit a train museum
o Take a train ride (if not a normal event)
o Importance of transcontinental railway
o Trains around the USA today
o Trains around the world (TGV, bullet train)
- Abraham Lincoln
- Mark Twain
- How to make a good burger (you leave off the PB&J)
- Slugs
- Periodic Table of Elements – abbreviations
- Gemstones
- History of Mining
o England (Newcastle upon Tyne)
o American West
o Appalachia
o Company Store
o Health issues for miners
o Danger of mines
o Current issues for mining
- Dancing the Hurley Burley
- People who collect creepy dolls
o History of porcelain dolls
- Embroidery
o How to
o Patterns/symbols
- General Stores in the American West
o Sears
- How to make taffy
- Find a well maintained and beautiful tomb and research who is entombed
- Focusing light through a magnifying glass can start a fire
- Read Along:
o Murder on the Orient Express
o Mark Twain books
DAN:
- All lessons in French
- How using different ingredients and different amounts of ingredients can affect the outcome of your cookies
- Paris métro
o History
o How to read/follow a métro map
o RER
- Montmartre and other Parisian neighbourhoods
- History of Île de la France and Square de Vert Galant Parc and Pont Neuf
- WWII and the French Resistance
o Cross of Lorraine
o Vichy France
o Abuses of the French gov’t in this period
- Paris and the fashion world
- Beauty standards and the rejection of natural beauty by society
o Dangers of weight and figure standards
o You are beautiful as you are
- Catacombs of Paris
- Famous French Dishes (from this region)
o Or Bretagne since I know and like them better
- The French Café
- Moulin in France
- Tea and how hot leaf water can taste so bad but still be good for you
- Buildings of Baron Haussmann
- Paris History
- Decoders
- Importance of vitraux historically, culturally, and religiously
- Read Along:
o Little Kids
§ Madeline
§ Babar
§ Petit Ours
§ Plume
o High School
§ Hunchback of Notre Dame
§ Les Mis
§ Dale Van Kley
CRE:
- History of Hawai’i and her native people
o How the USA screwed them over and continues to do so
§ Land colonizing today
o Listen to voices from Native Peoples
- Pearl Harbor
o USS Arizona
- Native myths and legends
- Local flora and fauna
- Surfing
- How to make bead necklaces
- Snorkeling
- Entomology
o Find some local bugs and identify and observe them
- Horticulture
o See if you can graft something
o Watch a carnation placed in water with food dye
o Regrow a fruit or veggie from the leftovers
- Go looking for seashells – see how many complete shells you can find
- Be aware of pesticides and the dangers they offer
o Dangers of organic food too
- Make something with pineapple in it
- Fishing – different kinds of native fish
- Volcanos
- Hula
ICE:
- Wolf sanctuaries – respecting wildlife and their place in the wild and not the domestic
o What to do if you see a wolf in the real world
- Fur trapping in Canada history
- Regions and Capitols of Canada
o Visit Canada?
- How the Canadian government works
- Use of French language in Canada
o Unique features of Canadian French
- Ice fishing
- How to cook omelets, salmon, etc.
o How to not add paprika cause like ew
- Fossils
- Radiation
o Marie Curie
- How to be a good maid
- Snowballs/ice balls
- Ice skating
- Winter weather safety
- Avalanches
- Saunas
- Birthmarks
- Fax machines
- How to not lie about bird watching
- Frozen water safety
- Modern offenses against First Nations by Canadian Government
CRY:
- Culture of the Arawak and Caraïbe
o Voodoo
- Mardi Gras in New Orleans
- Hurricane Katrina and aftermath
- French Influence
- Eyes and their parts and functions
- Teeth and their parts and functions
- Alligators in the Southern USA and how they are dangerous pests
- Graveyards/cemeteries and how to be comfortable in them
o Modern burial practices
o Why are they above ground in Louisiana?
o Places where they are running out of space for the dead
o Historic violations of final resting places
- Ventriloquism
- Lizards and how to care for them
- Rube Goldberg machines
- Curio shops
- Crystal Skulls
VEN:
- International crime
- Organized crime
- Scopa
- Italian basics
o Learn an Italian aria
- Italian food
o Not just spaghetti
- History of Venice
o Current issues in Venice
- Carrier pigeons
- Micro-dots
- “Observing the architecture”
- Try to make gelato (or just get gelato, either way you get gelato)
- Disguising yourself – put on an outfit and try to get me to not recognize you
- Picking locks
- Secret codes
- Solfege
o With hand signs
o Learn a song in solfege
- Carnivale
- Learn how the sausage gets made
o How to deal with food poisoning
- How to secure your living space against burglars
o Glass breaks, motion sensors, keypads, magnets, and more
- Read Along:
o Heist Society
o The Prince
o Merchant of Venice
HAU:
- Irish lessons (as much of this in Irish as possible)
o Why the Irish language is important
- Geography of Ireland
o Provinces and counties
- Irish names
- Why Ireland has disliked and should dislike the UK
o Historically
o Famine
§ Emmigration
o Easter Rising
o Troubles
o Present-Day
- Importance of alcohol in Ireland
o Uisce beatha
o Guinness
§ Guinness world records
- Irish music
o Irish instruments
o Learn some Rebel songs
- Ogham runes
- Irish foods
o Something with lamb, who cares what
- Don’t use friends for land development
- Bogs
- Chemical Reactions
- Rockets
- Inventions and secrecy during WWII
- Religion in Ireland
o Pagan traditions
o Christianity
o Catholic/Protestant tensions
- Irish wedding traditions
- How printing presses work
- Irish castles
- Sheep sheering/raising sheep
- Irish legends
o Fae
o Leprechauns
- Don’t drive and talk on the phone
RAN:
- Why blackface is problematic? (the fact that this needs to be said is problematic in and of itself)
- Scuba diving
- Sailing
- Bermuda Triangle
- Bats
- Primates and their intelligence
o Problems with animal research
o Koko
o Jane Goodall
- Island resort culture
- Metal detectors
- Pirates
o And the Caribbean
o Their abuses
o Different kinds
o Modern day pirates
- How do walkie-talkies work
- US mistreatment of island territories
- Read Along:
o Bloody Jack (Meyer)
WAC:
- Edgar Allan Poe
o Stories
o Baltimore
- Piano
- Victorian Dining traditions
o How to set a place for fancy dining
o How to fold napkins
o Table manners
o How to serve someone at a fancy dinner
o How courses might work
o How to use your silverware
- Why you shouldn’t go to an actual high school part two
o Just fyi – that’s not how uniforms work
§ Have a school inspired dress code for a week
- Bullying and why you absolutely will not be a bully
o How to respond to bullying
o Importance of talking to adults and counseling
- Logic puzzles
- Research the founding of a local school
- Stringed Instruments
- Plagiarism
o Turnitin
- Making sandwiches – like a good deli style sandwich
- Photography scavenger hunt – make a digital (or physical) yearbook
- Squirrels
- Orthographic projection
- DNA/RNA
- Saving every major project on three different thumb drives
- Getting along with roommates
- States and Capitals
o Countries and capitals of the world
TOT:
- Tornados
o Technology used to observe tornados
- Meteorology
- Prairie dogs
- Life on the great plains
- Great Plains Native Americans
- Small towns in the Midwest honestly be like that
- Defensive driving
- Make a disaster kit
- Know what to do in various natural emergency situations
o What is the local alert protocol
o What do local authorities recommend
- How to maintain and fix a car
- How to fix a broken device
- What is tenure
- How to budget
o Go to the grocery store on a strict budget (however much you come in under budget is your candy budget)
- Read Along:
o Little House
SAW:
- Basic Japanese phrases
o Learn to count
o Writing in Japanese
- Sudoku, nonograms, renograms
- Japanese ghost legends
- Japanese culture
o Tourism
§ Ryokans
o Space – everything small
o Politeness/formalities
o Hot springs/baths
o Tatami and paper walls
- Japanese cultural dress
o Kimonos
o Lolita? Fashion
- Japanese names
o Last name first
o How to address others in Japan
- Martial Arts
o Ninjutsu
§ Traditional tools
- Japanese tea ceremony
- Schools in Japan
- Teaching English as a foreign language
- Japanese subway/train system
- Pachinko and Japanese gaming
- Japanese vending machines
- Robotic animals
- Bento
- Japanese foods
- Origami
- How to fake a haunting
CAP:
- Basic German phrases
o How to make a German word
o Connections of German to English
- German food favourites
o Especially cakes
- Storytelling as a cultural entity
o How memory has worked differently in different times
- Glass blowing
- How castles provided for the local community
- Bavaria in Germany
o Cultural dress
- Glockenspiel
- How to make board games
- Monster stories of central Europe
- How to monitor security camera remotely
- Read Along:
o Heidi
ASH:
- Arson
o Watching how different accelerants burn a piece of paper
- All politicians are at least somewhat self-serving
o But write a letter to a local politician anyway
§ Different ways to contact elected officials, and why some don’t work
- How to make ice cream
- How a police investigation works
o Problems with police departments around the world – specifically USA
o Ways that police work unfairly targets minorities
§ If Nancy is innocent how many others are
- How to use matches and lighters safely
- Why you should not return to the scene of a crime – particularly a fire
- Making sure smoke detectors work properly and the system is connected
o We might not go to school but fire drills are still important
- What is a mass spectrometer
- Who to call if you’ve been arrested
- What to do if you get pulled over
- How the media can skew the truth and make their own narratives
- Sound mixing
- Be careful with what you say/post/record
o Keep receipts and clarify when possible
TMB:
- What not to do at an archaeological site
- Ancient Egyptian History
o Pantheon, notable figures, relevant events
o Pyramids, sphinx
o Pharaohs
- Modern Egypt
o Arabic alphabet
- History of archaeological digs in Egypt
o Why they’ve been problematic
- Dangers of the tombs
- Mummys
o How they are put together
- Tomb raiders
- Importance of water in the desert
- How to piece together a broken artifact
- How to gently brush off an artifact
- There is no such thing as a dictionary for ancient Egyptian
- Aliens did not build the pyramids
- Senet
- Desert life safety
- How mirrors can be used to light a room
- Read Along
o Rick Riordan
DED:
- Nikola Tesla
o All his fun stuff
o Tesla Coils
- 3-D printing
- Gummy fingerprints
- Faraday Cage
- Basic electric concepts
o How to build a circuit board
- Chemical safety
- How a lab might work
- Valuing different skills within academia
- Ultraviolet light
- How motorcycles work
- Freelance photography
- How to use academic databases
GTH:
- Slavery in the United States
o Origins
o ‘End’
o Civil War
o The connection to “southern culture”
o Continued abuses of Black people in America
§ Importance of recognizing Black voices and what they are saying
§ Listening even when it’s uncomfortable
§ Checking privilege when you have it
o Jim Crow Laws
- Plantations
- Gone With the Wind
o The good and the bad
- Civil War spies – female
- Carbon monoxide poisoning
- Burned out houses are not a safe space
- Do not go digging through people’s coffins – rest in PEACE
- Understanding that your family can be flawed
- If you don’t want to get married, if you’re not happy in a relationship, end it
- When a member of your family is sick you take care of them
- Make a will, just in case your cousin kills you
- Bachelor and bachelorette parties should feature activities that everyone is comfortable with
- Read Along:
o My Last Skirt: The Story of Jennie Hodgers, Union Soldier
SPY:
- Scotland and their identity
o Celtic Nations
o Independent Scotland
o Call a Scottish person
- Unicorns and other mythical creatures in Scotland
- Scottish food
o The appetizing parts
- History of spies
- Biowarfare
o Code Orange
o Other teenage stories dealing with anthrax
o Current events and concerns
o Historical biowarfare (smallpox blankets)
- Ziplining
- Archery
- How to bug someone
- Tartans and plaids
o Kilts
- Augmented Reality Glasses
- Record players
- How to reset a circuit breaker
- Read Along:
o Gallagher Girls
o Code Orange
o Little House (Martha)
o Little Brother (Doctorow)
MED:
- Don’t meet your heroes
- New Zealand
o Maori culture
- Survivor style game shows and realism
- I’m not saying Aliens can’t exist, I’m saying they def aren’t involved here
- Kayaking
- Submarines and what they can do
- Turtles
- Earthquakes
- Be careful with rope bridges
LIE:
- Provenance and why it’s important part two
- Greek art and how it was originally painted vibrantly
o Abuses of Greek art through the ages
- The British Museum and the issues with that
- Greek pantheon
o Legends and notable figures
o Religious traditions
- Iliad and Odyssey
- Art forgery
- How to fire clay pots and pottery
- Memorizing lines for a play
o Staging for a play
o Role of a director
- Theatre
o Lights
o Curtains
o Fly system
o Sound
- Greek alphabet
- Historical importance of the Greek language and culture
o Alexander the Great and Hellenization
- Olympics
o Historic and modern
- Greece and the European Union
- Make something with pomegranates
- Read Along:
o Iliad
o Odyssey
o The Thief
o Percy Jackson
SEA:
- Iceland
o Culture
§ Naming traditions
o Language
o Music
o Food
- Shipbuilding
o Historic and modern ships
- Ice caving
- Northern Lights
- Tides
- Snowmobiling
- Poetry
- What is xenophobia
MID:
- Some games just shouldn’t be made
- American witch trials
o What actually went down
o Misconceptions
- Treating people with albinism as real people
- Arson is bad
- Herbal remedies and how they can interfere with modern medicine
- Witchcraft and how not to
- Salem MA
- Ignorance promotes fear and hatred so we do our best to learn about others
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What’s Up With Your Weekend, 1/5-7/18:
Friday:
First Friday Exhibits:
Crayons to Canvas Art Drive celebrates 10 years of providing creative outlets to under served communities with your donation of new art and school supplies to benefit Ethel Phillips Elementary School and DDSO - Developmental Disabilities Service Organization. Raphael Delgado Art Studio. 5-7:30PM.
Opening reception of Corey Bernhardt Solo Art Exhibition at 1810 Gallery. 6-9PM.
(WAL)PAPER, by Tyson Anthony Roberts in his second solo exhibition at WAL Public Market Gallery. 6-9PM.
This Is Important - exhibition by Daniel Bernick features his “Free Your Mind”-oil on canvas artworks with parking next door, food, drink, and music. ARTners Collaborative. 6-9PM.
Encore Reception: Artist reception for INTERSECTION, artists Kathy Dana & Donald Satterlee at Beatnik Studios. 6-9PM.
Intro to ShopBot: Take this class to learn the basic safety and use for the Midtown Hacker Lab's 60" x 90" CNC router. Learn to cut and engrave using various bits and settings for the equipment, and how to set the software up that runs the equipment. Hacker Lab. 6:30-8:30PM. $15-40.
Friday Night Flow + Grow: Come flow with Niva Flor and grow with mini workshops and a vinyasa yin inspired yoga flow. Topics will be brought for by WOC from the community to discuss multiple topics regarding health, wellness, finance, and much more. Huglife by Niva Flor, 2648 33rd Street + Broadway. 7-8:30PM.
SacAnime Drink & Draw: Grab your art supplies and join an evening of coffee & creativity. Whatever your skill level, hang out with other artists in a relaxed environment and make some new friends! Oblivion Comics & Coffee. 7-10PM.
Holy Diver: Ring in the first weekend of the New Year with this punk rock show featuring Junkyard, The Brody’s and Short Trip. Holy Diver. 7PM. All Ages Show. $12-15.
ClueLess at the Crest: Relive the 90s with Cher, a rich high school student who tries to boost a new pupil's popularity, but reckons without affairs of the heart getting in the way. Crest Theatre.7:30PM. $8-10.
Saturday:
Intro to Soldering: Take this family-friendly class to learn the basics of how to solder for electronics. Beginners are welcome! This class is for adults, but children aged 10 and older are welcome to accompany their parents. In this class, you will learn about safety when Soldering, then familiarization with using a Soldering Iron, Solder, Solder wick, Solder suckers, grounding, and more. This is a hands on class. Students will be learning to solder on a small Simon-like game with LED's, buttons and a buzzer. (There is a materials fee of $20 associated with this class.) What you Make, you take home with you! Hacker Lab. 10AM-2PM. $15-40.
African Marketplace: This market place features several small black owned businesses that show case their products ranging from Handcrafted Jewelry, Skin Care, Fashion Apparel, Art, Delicious Foods, Deserts, etc. The marketplace will also feature a kids corner, a Drum circle and music. African Marketplace, 2251 Florin Road. 12-6PM.
IntroBelly Fusion: Learn the basics of Belly Dancing and how to apply them to a combo all while having a ton of fun. Think about movement and music and their relationship; sweat, laugh and dance! Hot Pot Studios. 12-1PM. $12 Drop-In.
Elvis’ Birthday Presents Viva Las Vegas: Celebrate the King of Rock & Roll’s birthday with this movie classic featuring Elvis Presley and actress Ann-Margret and their undeniable on screen charisma and chemistry. Crest Theatre. 7:30PM. $8-10.
Lipstick Presents: We Are Your Friends: Dance away a night devoted to the mid 2000s Blog Haus jams with Lipstick’s DJs Shaun Slaughter & Roger Carpio. Old Ironsides. 9PM. 21+. $5.
Sunday:
Coffee and Conversation: Join City Council Member Tamika L’Ecluse for coffee and conversation in the heart of South Land Park. Tamika is eager to learn what matters to you and how we can make your neighborhood better. Barrio Cafe. 12-1:30PM.
Blues Jam at Torch Club: Anyone who likes to play blues guitar is welcome to join the Sunday jam. Torch Club. 4PM.
It Happened One Night: Relive the best of the 1930′s with this classic American pre-Code romantic comedy film with elements of screwball comedy. Directed and co-produced by Frank Capra and featuring Clark Gable, this film tells the story of a pampered socialite (Claudette Colbert) who tries to get out from under her father's thumb and falls in love with a roguish reporter. Crest Theatre. 7PM. FREE.
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HMH Teen Teaser: HOW TO MAKE A WISH by Ashley Herring Blake!
It’s finally here! HOW TO MAKE A WISH by Ashley Herring Blake publishes today, and it is the book you have been wishing for for years. (Pun 100% intended.) When Grace’s fun-loving but emotionally immature mom uproots Grace’s life (again), she winds up living in her mom’s boyfriends house, right across the hall from his son—her ex-boyfriend. And things did not end well between them. She’s prepared to spend her summer moping and planning her great escape to Manhattan to study music, when she meets Eva. And suddenly she doesn’t want to escape her life, but live it as fully as possible, with the girl she’s falling for.
Now you can read an excerpt of this emotional, poignant novel about first love and loving by letting go, right below!
CHAPTER ONE
She waits until we’re driving over the bridge to tell me. This is a strategic move. Wait until your temperamental daughter is suspended over the Atlantic Ocean to drop the bomb, thereby decreasing the chance that she’ll fling open the car door and hurl herself over the edge.
My mother is many things. Beautiful. Annoyingly affectionate after a few drinks and mean as a starving snake after several. Quick-witted and hilarious when her latest boyfriend isn’t turning her into some sycophantic sorority girl. But a fool?
No.
My mother is no fool.
She swerves to pass a car that’s already going at least ten over the speed limit. The ocean, a dark sapphire blue, swings out of my vision and back in. I grip the handle above the window, shifting my gaze over to Mom to make sure her I forgot this silly thing again seat belt is securely fastened.
“What did you say?” I ask. Because I must have misheard her. Surely, my subconscious anticipated returning home to some catastrophe after leaving Mom on her own for the past two weeks, and it conjured up something totally absurd to lessen the blow.
“Grace, don’t make a big deal out of this. It’s just an address,” Mom says, and I bite back a bitter laugh. She loves that word. Just. Everything is just. It’s just one drink, Grace. A birthday is just a day, Grace. It’s just sex, Grace. My entire life is one gigantic just.
Well, I’m just about to go ape shit if you’re serious, Mom.
How’s that for a freaking just?
She steers with her knee for a few terrifying seconds while she digs a cigarette out of her purse and sparks it up. She blows out a silver stream of smoke through the open window, and I watch her fingers. Long and elegant, her short nails perfectly manicured and glossed eggplant purple, like always. She used to press our fingers together, kissing the joined tips and making a silly wish on each one. I would measure my hand against hers, eagerly waiting for the day when mine was the same size. I thought that the older I got, the older she would get and the less I’d have to worry about her.
“Pete’s place is really nice,” Mom says. “It’s so unique. Wait till you see it.”
“Pete. Who the hell’s Pete?”
She glances at me and frowns, flicking ash out the window as we exit the bridge and drive onto the road that leads into town. “I started seeing him before you left for Boston. I told you about him, right? I’m sure I .º.º.” She trails off, like not being able to finish a sentence automatically releases her from any obligations.
“You’re serious, aren’t you?” I ask, struggling to keep my voice even.
She laughs. “Of course, baby. This is a good thing. Our lease was up and that dickhead of a landlord wouldn’t renew it because he claimed I still owed him three months’ rent for that dump he called a beach house. And things with Pete were going so well. He’d just moved and needed a woman’s touch.” She giggles and snicks the cigarette butt out the window. “That’s what he said. A woman’s touch. Such a gentleman.”
Oh Jesus. I recognize that tone, that girly giggle, that glassy look in her eyes. I can almost mouth the next words along with her, reciting the lines of a painfully familiar play. I’ve been off-book for this shit show for a long time.
Cue Mom’s dreamy sigh.
Three .º.º. two .º.º. one .º.º.
“He might be the one, baby.”
My fingers curl into fists on my bare legs, leaving red nail marks along my skin. When I left a couple weeks ago, I swear to hell Mom didn’t have a boyfriend. I would’ve remembered. I always remember, because half the time, I’m the one who reminds her of the asshole-of-the-month’s name. Okay, maybe that’s a stretch, but I really thought she’d run out of options.
Cape Katherine—Cape Katie to locals—is a tiny spit of land jutting into the Atlantic with about three thousand residents, a quaint downtown with lots of local shops and restaurants, and an ancient lighthouse on the north end that’s still maintained by a real-life lighthouse keeper. We moved here when I was three, and in the fourteen years since, I’ve lost count of how many guys Mom has “dated.”
And the whole lot of them has had the honor of being The One for about ten minutes.
Mom turns onto Cape Katherine Road. The Atlantic rises up on our left, flanked by rocks and gravelly beach. Early afternoon sun spills coppery sparkles on its surface, and I take a few deep breaths. I’d like nothing better than to jump ship, streak down the beach, and throw myself under its waves, letting it roll over me. Let it have me for a few minutes, curling my body this way and that, transforming me into something free and weightless.
But I can’t do that.
For one, it’s cold as hell this early in the summer.
And whatever knot my mother’s woven herself into with He-Might-Be-The-One-Pete, I’m the only one here to untangle it.
“Okay,” I say, pushing my hair out of my face. “Let me make sure I’ve got this straight. In the twelve days since I’ve been in Boston, you moved everything we own into a new house I’ve never seen to live with some guy I’ve never met?”
“Oh, for god’s sake. You make it sound like I’m dragging you into some disease-ridden jungle or something. I’m telling you, you will love Pete’s house.”
I don’t really give two shits about Pete’s house.
I’m more concerned about Pete.
Mom flips on the radio while I try to decide if I want to vomit, scream, or cry. I think it’s some awful combination of all three.
“Mom, can we please talk about—”
“Oh, baby, hang on.” She turns up the volume on Cape Katie’s one and only radio show, hosted by Cape Katie’s one and only radio host, Bethany Butler. It’s on every morning and evening, and people call in and tell Bethany sob stories about their missing cat or how their coffee burned their taste buds off or something equally inane and irrelevant. Mom freaking loves it. She’s a total sucker for anything potentially tragic and unrelated to her own life.
“You heard it here first, Cape Katians, so keep an eye out for Penny. She was last seen on East Beach .º.º.”
“Who the hell is Penny?” I ask.
“The Taylor family’s corgi!” Mom says, a hand pressed to her heart. “She got loose from Tamara while she was walking her on the beach, poor thing.”
“.º.º. And remember, Penny is very skittish around men with red hair and—”
I flip off the radio. “Seriously, Mom? A corgi?”
“It’s sad, that’s all I’m saying. They’ve had her for a decade. She’s older than Tamara.”
“Yeah, cry me an effing river,” I mutter, looking out the window, the familiar sights of my town flashing past me in a blue-and-gray blur. “So do we still live on the cape, or are you just swinging by our old place for one last haul?”
“Of course we live here, baby. Do you really think I’d take you away from your school and all your friends right before your senior year?”
I choke down a derisive laugh. I’m not sure which is funnier: her comment about all my friends or the fact that my brain can’t possibly conjure up half the crap in my life that comes from being Maggie Glasser’s daughter. I would never think any of it. But it all seems to happen anyway.
CHAPTER TWO
Ten minutes later, Mom pulls into a familiar gravel driveway. It’s one I’ve seen a million times before. As kids, my best friend, Luca, and I used to fly over this winding, rocky path on our bikes until the trees split and revealed a little sliver of adventure right there at the edge of the world.
“Mom, what are we doing here?” But she just grins as she throws the car in park and opens her door. “Mom.”
“Stop being such a stick in the mud, Gracie. Come on.”
She climbs out and I follow, craning my neck up, up, up to the top of Cape Katie’s whitewashed lighthouse. A red-roofed bungalow sits below it, tucked into its side like a little secret.
Mom comes to my side and slides her arm around my shoulder. The wind tangles her dirty blond hair.
“This is going to be so great,” she says.
“What is going to be so great?”
She giggles and gives my arm one more squeeze before practically skipping up the drive toward the house. I gulp briny air, willing the crashing ocean to swallow me whole.
I shoulder my duffle and follow her to a small detached garage next to the side entrance to the house. The yawning door reveals stacks of open cardboard boxes, some of the contents draped over the sides. Glass beads, scraps of metal, and a soldering iron from Mom’s handcrafted jewelry business are spread over a large plastic table. I spot a pair of my sleep shorts—black with neon pink skulls—puddled on the dirty cement floor, along with a few piano books.
“I’ve done a bit, but we still have a lot of unpacking to do, baby,” Mom says, heaving a box overflowing with our decade-old towels into her arms. She chin-nods toward another box, but I fold my arms.
“Are you for real? Mom, the last I heard, the lighthouse keeper was about a hundred and ten years old. Please tell me you’re not shacking up with Freddie Iker. His best friend is his parakeet.”
She breaks into laughter, dropping the box in the process. Her tank top strap slides off her shoulder as she guffaws, really throwing all she’s got into it. My mother’s laugh has always been infectious, clear, and light. I hate to crack even a hint of a smile at the stuff my mother finds funny, but most of the time I can’t help it.
“Good lord. I’m not that old.” She pulls her hair into a sloppy bun on top of her head and picks up the box again. “Or that desperate.”
My smile morphs into a massive eye roll. Over the years, Mom’s traipsed guys as young as twenty-one and as old as fifty-four through our many homes, so I’m not sure how to even begin to respond to that one.
“Freddie retired and Pete took over last week. He’s got an electrical background and has some really innovative ideas for the museum. He even wants to incorporate some of my jewelry in time for next tourist season. Isn’t that something?”
“It sure is.” I grab my sleep shorts and music books from the floor and tuck them under my arm. Not sure which is better. An old geezer who can’t even get it up or some starry-eyed electrician with ideas. Ideas are dangerous around my mother.
I shade my eyes from the sun hanging just over the tree line and take in my surroundings. My new home. An SUV with peeling black paint on the hood is parked on the other side of the garage. It looks vaguely familiar, but considering there are dozens of these kinds of cars on the cape, that’s not too surprising.
“Pete’s at some budget meeting in town, but I think Julian’s home,” Mom says, heading toward the main house. She sticks a key in the side door, and the hinges squeak as she nudges it open with her hip. Cool air rushes out to meet me.
“Julian?”
“Pete’s son. He’s a nice boy. I think he’s about your age.”
And with that, she disappears into the house, leaving me open-mouthed in the doorway. This just keeps getting better and better. What’s next? Sharing a room with Pete’s mother? Maybe a lunatic ex-wife is bunking in the lighthouse tower who screams like a banshee at night and has to be chained to her bed. Hell, at this point, I’m waiting for Mom to tell me Pete’s actually a polygamist and she’s been chosen as a sister wife. I comb through the roster of my high school for a Julian, but I’ve got nothing.
I follow Mom into a shabby-chic-styled kitchen with chrome-rimmed white appliances, white cabinets, and navy blue curtains with red lobsters all over them framing the window above the sink. The living room is a mixture of our old leather recliner and scarred coffee table and a bunch of junk that looks like it just got dragged out of a frat house. There’s a plaid couch sporting a busted spring and duct tape, along with a TV the size of a car mounted over the fireplace. The only redeeming thing about the whole weird scene is the wall of windows revealing the sprawling blue ocean sparkling under the sun.
We head down a narrow hallway. At the end, Mom opens a door next to the bathroom and gestures me inside with a flourish of her hand.
“This is you. Isn’t it nice? So much natural light.”
I enter the room, and it’s like walking into one of those dreams where everything seems familiar and foreign all at once. The space is square and small and white. My twin bed is shoved into the far corner under the wide window that’s also facing the ocean. White furniture, mine since I was four, is arranged smartly around the room. Mom has already spread my plum-colored sateen comforter that she found for half-price over the bed and filled my closet with my hanging clothes. The few books I own are stacked neatly on my little desk, and framed photos are displayed on the dresser. Sheer white curtains sway in the breeze from the open window. My eyes drift to the wall above my bed, taking in the framed print of a beautiful grand piano on the stage at Carnegie Hall, an empty auditorium lit by golden light and waiting to be filled with an audience, a pianist, music. Luca gave it to me for my birthday two years ago. Mom’s actually managed to hang it straight, no cracks in the glass or chips in the black wooden frame or anything.
Aside from the stray things in the garage, Mom has worked on my room. My eyes burn a little, imagining her organizing my space before she even unpacked her own things.
“So, Pete’s and my room is at the other end of the house, and Julian’s just across the hall,” she says. She peers anxiously at me, no doubt searching for signs of an impending explosion.
And, oh, do I feel it brewing. Despite the homey feel, this is still a room I didn’t choose and never planned for. My throat feels tight from holding back all the eff-bombs I want to drop right now. Not that I usually rein them in too much in Mom’s presence, but she looks so damn hopeful. She’s trying really hard to make this a good thing.
“Okay,” I say, as usual.
“It’s going to be so lovely, baby,” she says. “I mean, it’s the lighthouse! I know you love this place and have always wanted to live right on the beach.”
I nod, looking out my window at the rocks dotting the shore, angry waves spitting white foam all over their surfaces. She’s right. I used to love this lighthouse. It always seemed so magical when I was six or seven, but you can only hold your own mother’s hair back while she pukes up vodka so many times before you get a little disenchanted.
“Oh!” Mom says so loudly, I startle. “With the move, I almost forgot.” She grins at me and digs into her back pocket, retrieving a folded rectangle of paper. She opens it up, her smile growing wider as she holds it out to me. “This is for you.”
I take the wrinkled paper, almost scared to look at it. Because what now? As usual, when it comes to my mother, curiosity and hope nearly smother me. My eyes devour the writing.
When the content registers, my head snaps up, gaze locking with Mom’s. “For real?”
She nods. “For your audition. We can drive there pretty cheap and stay at that hostel, tour the Big Apple during the day, eat off the street carts. We need to plan ahead if we want show tickets. I’ve picked up a few shifts at Reinhardt’s Deli, and with some help from Pete, I’m saving a little. You need to do more than audition when you go, baby. You need to see where you’ll be living next year, and I want to be part of that. I’m so proud of you.”
I stare back down at the paper, which tells me there are two beds at a New York City hostel reserved under Mom’s name for July thirtieth through August second. Underneath that is Mom’s chicken-scratch handwriting, listing all the things we’ve always talked about doing in the city. It’s got the usual stuff, like visiting the Empire State Building and Times Square, Central Park and Ellis Island. But it’s also got the Grace stuff—auditioning and touring Manhattan School of Music. Seeing Hedwig on Broadway. Finding a way to get a backstage tour of Carnegie Hall and standing on the stage, maybe even sliding my fingers over one of their piano’s keys.
“Thank you,” I manage to whisper. Part of me knows she timed telling me about this trip to perfectly coincide with this move to the lighthouse, a little peace offering. The bigger part of me doesn’t care.
“Of course, baby. It’ll be the perfect weekend. Just wait.” She pulls me into her arms, crushing the already-crinkled paper between us, and presses a kiss to my forehead.
“Well, I know you’re tired from your bus ride,” she says, releasing me. “Get settled in. You can meet Julian later and .º.º.” Mom must see all the roiling emotions mirrored on my face, because she pats my shoulder and is out the door without finishing her sentence.
I drop my stuff and sink onto the bed, finally overwhelmed. To clear my head, I close my eyes and mentally go through the beginning of Schumann’s Fantasie in C major, Opus 17. The piece plagued me at the piano workshop I just completed in Boston, the complicated, rapid fingering and the ethereal, dreamlike quality of a first movement a pleasing sort of torture. The music is pretty kickass, all chaotic and angsty. And it kicked my ass, which I have to appreciate.
Now I play it on my bed. I imagine myself on an auditorium stage or in a practice room at some college. Manhattan School of Music. Indiana University. Belmont in Nashville. Though Manhattan is my white whale, my dream, and the thought of going far away and staying in dorms that I can actually live in for longer than three months makes me giddy, it also freaks me the hell out. I can’t imagine actually moving away. Leaving Mom alone to flit from one house to the next, one guy to the next, one skipped meal to the next bottle of beer.
My fingers fly over the wrinkled comforter, the music alive and real in my mind. Nerves coil in my stomach—but whether from auditioning and laying my whole future on the piano keys in front of a few judges or leaving Mom, I’m not sure. Either way, I keep pressing into the soft cotton until my left hand collides with a box. My eyes flick open and absorb the room again.
My room.
I unzip my duffle and dump its contents onto the bed, sorting through dirty clothes and the ones clean enough to wear again, even though they smell like the inside of my bag. I rearrange a few things around the room, moving my composition paper from desk to my nightstand—when I can’t sleep, I make up dumb little songs in bed—and find a picture of Luca and me that Mom had tossed on a shelf in the closet and place it on my dresser. Luca looks predictably happy, grinning through his curly mop of hair with his arm slung around my shoulder at the beach last summer.
Halfheartedly, I order my little universe. No matter how many times I tell myself it doesn’t matter—that I’ll have to pack it all up in a matter of months anyway—I can’t resist trying to make a place my own. This lighthouse that I used to love and now suddenly hate is no exception.
I grab my toiletry bag and venture into the hallway to check out the bathroom. It’s clean, a claw-footed tub with one of those wrap-around shower curtains sits against the wall under a frosted-paned window. The tiled sink is cobalt blue, and an antique-looking light fixture sends an amber glow through the room. It smells like wet towel mixed in with some crisp, boyish scent. Aftershave, maybe. A navy blue toothbrush sits in a holder by the sink. I throw mine into an empty drawer. Call me unreasonable, but sharing toothbrush space with a guy I’ve never met just seems weird.
I unpack my face wash and deodorant and then stuff my empty bag under the vanity before flicking off the light. As I enter the hallway, the door to my left swings open and my eyes dart over.
I swallow a few colorful words and press my back against the wall.
He’s tall. I mean, of course, I knew he was, but he looks gigantic in the tiny hallway. Intentionally messy light brown hair. Hair I used to yank to get his lips back on mine whenever he started sucking on my neck too hard.
“Oh my god,” I choke out. “What are you .º.º. How did you .º.º. Why are you .º.º. ?” I swallow, trying to get my breath back as his mouth—a mouth I know way too damn well—bends into a smirk. It pisses me off to no end.
“What the hell are you doing here?” I finally spit out.
Jay Lanier pops his hands up on the door frame and leans toward me. Leather cuffs circle each wrist, and ropy muscles in his forearms ripple with tension. His smirk morphs into something so self-indulgent that I wish I had long fingernails so I could claw it right off his face. His gaze trails up my body, pausing at every possible spot that I never planned on letting Jay Lanier glimpse ever again, even through a tank top and shorts. I glare at him, but my hands are trembling and my stomach heaves, my mouth watery.
He laughs softly—demonically, if you ask me—and leans closer.
“Did I ever tell you that Jay is my nickname?”
My mouth drops open.
He smiles, a maddeningly slow spread of his mouth like the fucking Grinch. “No. I don’t think I did.”
I try to conjure some insult, anything to put me on equal ground here, but only incoherent combinations of four-letter words come to mind.
“Welcome home, Grace,” he says.
And then he slams the door in my face.
We are so excited for you to read HOW TO MAKE A WISH! If you liked this excerpt, click the links below to purchase the full book.
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A Final Conversation With Shawn Perine
Dustin Snipes
Co-workers rarely interview each other, even in magazines. But in April of this year, I held an extended, on-the-record chat with my boss, Shawn Perine. At the time, Perine was the editorial director of Muscle & Fitness, Men’s Fitness, Muscle & Fitness Hers, and Flex magazines. He was also my friend.
The interview was for a feature called “Fit Jobs,” in which we planned to do mini-profiles of six people with cool jobs in the fitness industry. There was a celebrity trainer, an NFL strength coach, a bodybuilder, a fitness model, and a fitness entrepreneur. For the final job—fitness editor—I talked to Perine for more than an hour one Friday night in his office, tape recorder rolling.
[RELATED1]
Then a couple of things happened, one ordinary and the other tragic. The ordinary: The feature never ran. Instead, we split up the parts. (You may remember seeing some of these.) The tragic: In September, Perine was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. He remained unbelievably positive during his fight with cancer, but a few days ago, on December 11, he passed away. He was 51.
Perine was a special dude. He was smart and funny, and, as one colleague put it, quirky. As a leader, he had a little Michael Scott from The Office in him. He was like Michael Scott with better biceps. What happened to him was and is incredibly sad, but as you’ll see in this interview, some of the things he experienced in his life—and the friendships he formed—went beyond anything he could imagine.
This is Perine's story.
M&F: Did you always want to be the editor of Muscle & Fitness?
SHAWN PERINE: What should I say? No? I started reading Muscle & Fitness when it was called Muscle Builder magazine in 1979. I was 13 years old.
You got a subscription?
My dad bought me my first copy, and it was magical. It really changed my life. I had seen the film Pumping Iron prior to that. I fell in love with the idea that I could build my body up through resistance training and nutrition, and so this magazine was a revelation, and I read it religiously from that point on, and later Flex magazine as well when it came out in 1983. I bought the first issue and began reading that. I could never have dreamed I’d be running these magazines ever, not in my wildest dreams; so no, I never thought I would, but I'm glad that I do.
Did you ever get a subscription?
Absolutely. What year? I'm not sure, but sometime probably in the mid-’80s when I was finally able to afford a subscription. Definitely the first magazine I ever subscribed to was Muscle & Fitness, and the second would've been Flex.
From the time you were 13, you were bodybuilding and lifting weights frequently?
That's right, yeah.
Did you want to be a bodybuilder?
I did. I wanted to be Mr. Olympia. I wanted to be the best bodybuilder. Like I said, I had watched Pumping Iron, I idolized Arnold and the top bodybuilders of the day, and that was my goal. When I joined my first gym as a member, it was in 1982. I was 16, it was Mr. America's Body Shop on Long Island, and it was owned by a former Mr. America, Steve Michalik. I'll never forget. It was late August, 1982. I walked in and I shook his hand, and he said, "What's your goal? How far do you want to go?" I said, "I want to be Mr. Olympia."
[RELATED2]
Wow. At 16?
At 16. I didn't play sports really. When I was younger I did, but by that point I was just like, "I've got to focus all my attention on bodybuilding, because it requires all my attention." Obviously, that didn't work out. What I didn't account for is that genetics play a huge role in your ability to be tall or have a certain hair color or eye color, and also to build muscle. I had very little ability to build the amount of muscle needed to compete, so I did other things.
At what age did you realize, "I'm not going to be Mr. Olympia"?
It probably started sinking in when I was, like, 18 or 19. I still had this dream that I would compete and that I would win and I'd be great, but something didn't seem right because I'd watch other guys who grew much more quickly than I did, and I rationalized, "Well, they're probably doing things I won't do—extra things—to get there." The truth of the matter was, the biggest limiting factor was my genetics. Once I was in college, those dreams were done, and I focused on my major, which was architecture.
You wanted to be an architect?
I did, yeah.
You were still lifting?
I never stopped lifting the whole time, but my priorities changed. I lifted for myself. I lifted to get as big and strong and defined and everything as I could, but competitions were off the table at that point. I promoted a competition, though, after college. In 1990, at Hofstra University, I promoted an NPC competition called the Diamond Cup Classic. That was interesting.
Did you compete in it too?
No, I ran it. I was like the Robin Chang [VP AMI Events] of the contest, so that was really interesting. I had my Mr. America's gym owner, Steve Michalik. He got a lifetime achievement award, and my friend whose gym I trained at, an NPC Nationals winner, Tom Terwilliger, who was also an IFBB pro, he guest-posed at it. Interestingly, I had an over-50 division guy, a guy named Elliot Gilchrist, competing in it. There were exactly two guys in the over-50 division, this one guy, Billy something, and this other guy, Elliot Gilchrist, who is in the book Pumping Iron. He was in his 70s when he competed in my show. So I thought, "How interesting. All these years later, this guy from the book is competing in the show I'm promoting." That was kind of nice.
But in college you wanted to be an architect?
I got a degree in architecture, yes.
From what college?
New York Institute of Technology. On Long Island.
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Then what did you do?
I decided I didn't want to be an architect. I got my degree, it was a five-year degree; I completed it, but I had always been a bit of an artist, and I wanted to incorporate design into whatever I did moving forward, so I started designing furniture. Anything I could design and sell to make ends meet, I did. I designed jewelry, I designed lamps, and I built them myself. I learned how to do some soldering, some welding. I did woodworking because my dad did it. I did some gallery shows of my furniture. Then it wasn't really going anywhere, so I saved up all my money and I bought a Mac.
What year is this?
This is probably ’94. I bought an old-school Mac, and I think I got some black-market versions of Photoshop and Illustrator, the Adobe suite at the time, and I taught myself the programs and I became a graphic designer. Somehow I lucked into a graphic design job at a magazine, and I was a designer for a while. Then I worked my way up to being an art director over the years.
What magazine?
Videography. It was like, sound and engineering video magazines. I worked as a graphic designer/art director for almost 10 years, and I wound up working as an art director with companies like Brooks Brothers, Polo, Ralph Lauren, Hanes. I did some stuff.
Then what happened?
This was 2001, 2002. The Web was becoming a thing, but I didn't know how to design for it. I only designed for print. I had to learn, but I didn't want to take a course. I just figured I'd teach myself, so I gave myself a project to build my own website. I had no idea what it would be about, but I said, "If I put myself to this task, I'll finish it and I'll have learned something when I'm done." I said, "Well, you know, I loved bodybuilding when I was a kid."
So you designed a bodybuilding website?
Bodybuilding had changed by that point, between the late '70s when I was interested in it at first, and by this point, the early 2000s. Big shift. I think a lot of people were reminiscing. But there was no place on the Internet where you could read about that stuff. I said, "OK, I'm going to build a website, kind of an ode to these classic days of bodybuilding." I called it "Iron Age". It was a glossary of all the bodybuilders who competed between the '50s and the '80s.
You wrote articles for this site?
I wrote articles about different bodybuilders and contests and all sorts of stuff. Then I created a forum for it, and lo and behold, people started finding my site and they joined the forum and they started discussing this. As it turns out, a lot of people were interested in it. We built it up to 4,000 or 5,000 forum members, and Greg Merritt, who was the senior writer for Flex magazine, stumbled upon my site. Greg reached out to me, and he said, "Hey, you're a decent writer and you know this stuff. Would you mind if I refer you to Peter McGough, who's the Editor-in-Chief of Flex?"
Nice.
Peter reaches out and says, "I like what you're doing. Would you care to freelance for us? Try it out?" I said, "It's a dream come true. I bought the first issue of Flex on the newsstand in '83." I freelanced, and it went well. I got a few articles in and everything gelled. Then about a year and a half later, Peter said, "I want to bring you out to LA. I want you to work here.” In May of 2004 I finally moved out to L.A. and became the senior writer for Flex.
He offered you the job and you moved out there?
Yeah, and I was actually contending for a very good position at a New York fashion company—it might have been L'Oreal—for an art director position. I was in contention for that, and I told the recruiter, "No, take me out. I'm moving to LA, I'm becoming a writer."
Even though that job would’ve paid more?
It would've paid a lot more, but I was following my passion. I just thought there was a bit of a kismet here. I had been reading these magazines since I was a kid. I'd put the whole dream on the back burner; I'd never thought I'd achieve any kind of notoriety, fame, success in this field, and lo and behold, when I least expect it, this is offered to me. I said, "I can't pass it up."
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You took a pay cut from what you were making?
Yes I did, but it was worth it.
So then you're writing articles for Flex and Muscle & Fitness?
I was out there in L.A. for seven-and-a-half years. I would get Muscle & Fitness assignments from Peter every now and then—some features. I did a couple of cover stories. That was always an honor.
Have you been with them ever since?
There was about a year between 2010 and 2011 that I wasn't with the company at all. The company was undergoing a transition, moving the base of its operations from L.A. to New York. During that transitional period, I wasn't with the company.
Then almost exactly a year later, I got a call: "Do you want to come to New York and interview to be Editor-in-Chief of Muscle & Fitness?" I said, "Yeah, I always enjoyed it." It felt about time to move back to New York. It was a little over seven years. Then the rest is history.
You interviewed and got it, and then you became editor of Flex as well?
Yeah, over time, I guess that I did a good enough job that my boss had faith in me, gave me more responsibility.
When did you become editor-in-chief of Muscle & Fitness?
That would've been in November 2011.
What’s the best part of your job?
The best part of the job is working with the team. It really is. I always say, you spend most of your waking hours with your co-workers—not necessarily with the people you love, with your children, with your spouse. It's with your co-workers, and you have to gel with them. You have to have a good relationship with them. Fortunately, I think we all have a really good relationship on this team. I look forward to that. Sometimes on the weekends—I don't know how many people think, "Oh, I can't wait for Monday so I can go back to work for the week"—I do look forward to seeing my co-workers during the week, so that's a big plus.
Anything else?
The other best part of the job is the finished product. When we get the boxes of the new issues here in the office and we open them up and there's that fresh cover looking back at you, and you flip through it and you see your month's worth of work in print, it's a really satisfying feeling. It's great.
from Bodybuilding Feed https://www.muscleandfitness.com/athletes-celebrities/interviews/final-conversation-shawn-perine via http://www.rssmix.com/
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