MWOLC

Last weekend I was fortunate enough to attend the inaugural Midwest Outdoor Leadership Conference (MWOLC) at the Ohio State University. The conference itself was chalk full of sleepless nights, interesting seminars, and a good representation of some like-minded interests. It is always reassuring to be gathered with a large amount of people that share similar passions as yourself, to allow a perpetual excitement build as you spread new ideas between each other.

Now of course we had to do some climbing along the way. With a little detour and a late night driving, we found ourselves waking at the Red River Gorge in Slane, Kentucky. We hopped on the refrigerated rock and did our thing. As continued by this weekend,  My climbing career consists mostly of falls and curse words (sailor mouth!), but I always have fun far off the ground and hanging on a rope. Adventures like this push your restart button and give you that get-up and go feeling; so start your engines, forfeit some sleep, and find some excitement in your life.

In the meantime, you can check out a small example of a Lead Climbing fall 

(whipper snapper):

Jake Wallace & Nora Metz

Video/Catch courtesy Chad Lincoln

-BDL

Writing About Meta-Reference

I have never struggled so hard coming up with content for a specific blog entry as I have done with this one. Meta-Reference (more specifically meta-fiction/film) is something that has long since intrigued me well before I even realized what it was. I had seen movies before that involved meta-reference, but the movie that really got me thinking about writing about meta-reference was Charlie Kaufman's "Adaptation".

As I stayed up late one night, completely pulled into the movie, I began twisting my brains around the idea of character realization and the devices we use to tell our stories. The quick (but confusing) run-down on Adaptation: Charlie Kaufman (character) plays himself (screenwriter) as he sits through the production of his latest screenplay (Being John Malkovich (also a crazy movie)). Charlie Kaufman is hired to adapt a real-life book (The Orchard Thief) into a screenplay. Charlie Kaufman (character/screenwriter) unintentionally includes himself in the screenplay (based on the real book) and what inevitably happens is that the movie (Adaptation) begins to be about Charlie Kaufman (whichever) writing the screenplay for the movie (no-longer based on the book) of which we are already, and have been, watching for an extended period of time. So in brief, Adaptation is a movie about watching itself being written (I think).

This warped my brain around so much that I dedicated time and patience to research and eventually blog about the whole ordeal, only to find that I could not formulate a reasonable way to present the information regarding meta-realization. I threw around "clever" ideas such as referring to myself writing the blog, and then referring to myself about referring to myself writing the blog, and then as a dramatic twist I would refer to myself about referring to myself about referring to myself writing the blog. But I decided that it would be way to confusing.

So finally I decided to perhaps give some solid definitions and examples of Meta-Reference (Fiction & Film). If you are familiar with the movies "Stranger Then Fiction" or "The Never-Ending Story" you are already familiar with Meta-Film. In both of these movies, the main character is simultaneously involved in two distinct plot lines that refer to each other in unity and self-consciously address the devices of story-telling being used. The main characters of the plot reveal that they are aware of their own story being told, thus share an odd similarity with the intended viewer.

Or perhaps either of Stephen King's "The Secret Window" or "The Dark Tower" series. Where in the first of the two, the main character becomes (or is) the main sinister character he himself is writing about, or the ladder where Stephen King himself is an essential plot character who (as a character in the story) needs to finish writing the story (of which he is in) so the main characters can continue on. Real Crazy Stuff.

I may have just confused myself further upon re-reading what I have wrote, but I hope the message gets across. For further insight onto Meta-Realization follow this link: Meta-Reference Articulated


BDL

Read a Book or Two, Or Twenty

"The Grapes of Wrath" is an American made epic that chronicles the Joad Family as they set their sights out west towards the land of opportunity. As one of John Steinbeck's most well-known, and debatably best works of fiction, "The Grapes of Wrath" stands on it's own as a masterpiece that depicts not only the lives of those awe-struck citizens that paved the way into the Great Depression, but also the culture and imminent peril that had swept across our Great Nation during those times.

After reading any work of fiction, once that last page has been turned and the narrative has come to some sort of conclusion, the reader should be left with something. It's not necessarily anything quantifiable, and it certainly has nothing to do with an absence of anything (time, energy, brain-cells, etc.), but it leaves you with something like a scar. Certain readings leave the skinned-knees scar, a little redness but for the most part it will subside, other books however, like "The Grapes of Wrath," leave you physically altered. This sounds terrible at first, but I assure you just the opposite. When I finished this book I was introduced to what it means to be hungry, to be desperate, and to cling onto nothing but hope, because no matter what you own or who you answer to, no one can take away your hope for a better life.

If you have not done so, I urge you to pick up "The Grapes of Wrath," (can be found at your local bookstore, online, or in every high-school and secondary education facility across the nation). Here's an interesting tidbit for your next trivia night: "The Grapes of Wrath" gets it title from the "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," and the title itself is mentioned in text in a later chapter:


"And in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." - John Steinbeck