No? Not buying it? Ok, well then the truth that I will now convey to you is simply this: I have either been (1.) extremely busy or (2.) extremely lazy or (3.) a combination of both. As it stands it seems that I am now no longer unemployed but rather currently find myself daily walking down the hallowed corridors of Terrence C Reilly School #7 in Elizabeth, NJ as a substitute teacher. The 4th and 5th grade antics keep me rather busy during the day and, relatedly, cause me to drop into deep coma upon arrival at home. In addition, upon waking from previously mentioned coma, I then find myself either planning for the work I daily do with my 8th graders of Digital Media Technology or planning for what I do with my fine and highly intelligent colleagues of The Bridge Youth Ministries or planning for other things I do with Connection or planning for how to transition from a lowly substitute position to a full-time paid staff position at work or planning my plots for world domination. I tell you, there has been much planning going on, and concurrently many meetings (argh!). In addition there has been, as well, the execution of much of said planning. Resultantly, there has been little time to do much else, Internet related or otherwise.

Fortunately, due to being a substitute teacher and constrained to the schedule of a public school, I have been fortunate enough to have had the last week and one-half free due to Christmas vacation. Fortunate in the fact that I have had a clear schedule since December 23 but not quite as fortunate in the fact that, being substitutive in nature, I am unpaid for such time off. Alas, I am grateful for the vacation and time to sleep and Xbox and venturing out into worlds of fun and then sleeping some more. Likewise I am also excited to get back into the swing of things come Monday.

And so, I come to the end of this brief update into the past four months. I do have some photographic wonderfulness that I will attempt to post soon as I have had time to process the images I have taken since September in the past week. And I hope that our next meeting will come some time before Spring Break sometime in a few months. I hope you have missed me as I have missed you, but I will forgive you if this is not the state you find yourself in.

Clean! from William Hartz on Vimeo.

Also, it is Retreat season for The Bridge and we have Jared Hall coming this year!

The Bridge’s Retreat X: Jared Hall from William Hartz on Vimeo.

That is all.

Bridge: Midtown’s Independence Day Weenie Roast from William Hartz on Vimeo.

In honor of the United States’ annual tradition of grilling processed meat in order to celebrate the anniversary of our nation’s outmaneuvering the collective might of the British Empire’s military with a bunch of farmers, The Bridge: Midtown hosted a weenie roast, aka Independence Day barbecue, in the back lot of the Liberty Center, as this was the only suitable location for fire-making in the urban heart of Elizabeth, NJ.

Combining some archaic technologies (such as “fire” and “barbecue sauce”) with the latest advancement in meat-cooking (aka the “greatest grill you will ever see”) four individuals, some young and some not so much, endeavored to prepare a vast array of weenie for consumption by both the Bridge’s Midtown group and its “Bridge, Jr tykes.

And so, while most remained inside for music and games and laughing in celebration of this, our nation’s 233rd birthday, this is the story of the brave souls dedicated to crafting the perfect hot dog.

A full set of images from the grilling and night inside can be seen here: bit.ly/weeniepics.

Have it Your Way from William Hartz on Vimeo.

Here’s a short video we shot as an aid for @carloscedeno‘s teaching for Sunday morning.

Conversations – Episode 00 from William Hartz on Vimeo.

A few weeks ago we setup a conference call between myself, @gabehernandez, and @ashpin to see what the possibilities were for us to do for that evening, for we were bored. Upon the dialing of the call, @gabehernandez answered but @ashpin did not. Wondering why she would ignore a call, even while she had just sent us a text message, we were left to speculate as to the reasons for her phone-silence as well as to form a plan of action for the night.

I began the recording shortly into the conversation.

>Trethewey Life Story. from David Tate on Vimeo.

There’s a girl in our youth program who, last week, told us about her friend who had leukemia. During the night, one of our leaders prayed for the girl and her family… for courage, strength, healing, etc.

Well, we found out a day or so ago that the girl with leukemia died on Monday. Sad. And this is when the questions began to come out. Some of the kids who knew the girl were wondering why their friend still died even though we prayed for them and their healing. They could not comprehend why someone close to them would go through something like that nor why “God would let them die.”

Tonight is the first night that we are meeting as a group since it happened, and we know that this something we are going to have to address with everyone. While it’s hard to deal with death under any circumstance, the hastened death of a teenager to such a terrible disease, topped with these deep, theological questions is particularly difficult. At the same time, it provides the opportunity to really show the kids the realities of life and the God who doesn’t promise to take you out of every hard time but who says that he will be with you as you go through them.

I am both looking and not looking forward to the conversation at the same time.

And coincidentally, I found that my friend David, at the same time, has posted the above video on Vimeo, dealing with very similar circumstances.

These are questions we all have to deal with at some point or another in life. They are not easy questions, but they can help build us up and process the grief and confusion, ultimately helping to bring healing and understanding.

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed. Psalm 34:18 (NLT)

Palm Sunday at Christ Fellowship from William Hartz on Vimeo.

As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, tell him that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away…” The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey and the colt, placed their cloaks on them, and Jesus sat on them. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?” The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”
Matthew 21:1-3,6-11 (NIV)

So Palm Sunday was a month ago. I know, I know… I’m really late in posting this. The church I go to, Christ Fellowship, put together a choir to go with the band for the special service they wanted to have, and they wanted to record the set they performed.

I tried to record the audio direct from the mixer to get the best sound, but I was not the one actually mixing the set that day, and it didn’t come out how I wanted it to. We ended up using the camera audio in the video, even though it’s not optimal. I really need to get the multi-track recording features of our mixer up and running so we can make these things look right.

Anyway, here is the video of the worship set from Palm Sunday in the church. It’s 1/2 hour long, so please be patient if it takes a wee bit of time to load up.

Street Music from William Hartz on Vimeo.

One thing I love about living so close to New York is all the interesting people you meet on the street when going into the City. I remember seeing homeless men dressed up like Big Bird laying on the side of the road, people selling pick-up lines for a dollar, so many different people who want to tell you their stories, and street artists. I particularly enjoy these street musicians who share their talent on the corners and alleyways for all to hear. I usually stop and give these artist a dollar or two, as is customary, in their open instrument cases on the ground next to them.

Recently, a friendly man named Kevin has been hanging out in front of or near the Liberty Theater on Elizabeth Ave in Elizabeth, playing his sax throughout the evening. He comes and goes as he pleases, but I’ve noticed that you can most regularly hear him on Wednesday nights starting around 9 or 10 pm. He shows up and the Avenue, whose concrete and brick-lined buildings act like a sort of a channel for the sound of his horn to reverberate down, is filled with a variety of songs ranging from R&B tunes of old to hymns to patriotic themes.

I recently found out that, at one point, he used to go to our church and, one thing leading to another, he now finds himself doing this. He seems to enjoy himself, though. He stands on the corners and sidewalks, playing his saxophone for anyone who is interested in stopping and hearing and perhaps chatting a bit.

Some people see it just as noise, but I really enjoy his presence in our city and think his music really adds some nice ambiance to our home. We need more street artists like him.

Photoshoppin’ from William Hartz on Vimeo.

Teddy Bear Riot from William Hartz on Vimeo.

Here’s a little behind-the-scenes preview for the rules video for Retreat9. Every year, as a way to make things a little fun, we record some kind of humorous take on the rules to present them to the kids once we arrive at the conference center.

This video is Mike Regalado recording a part to be used in the video. I’m not going to say what the video’s theme and look will be just yet. We’ll post the final work once the retreat is over in March.

I came up with the concept for the video, Jose Castro produced and set the whole thing up, my brother Micahel filmed and is doing the editing. Mike Regalado wrote this little piece and performed it.

I think it may come out really good in the end.

Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn’t seen it) from Joe Nicolosi on Vimeo.