danny found a guy to draw up a skate design for a new shirt coming out. alexander duke is his name and i think this will be my favorite shirt yet. you, dear blog followers, get a sneak peek. shirt comes out soon.

we get all sorts of interesting acts at LSE. here’s some great folks who came by last weekend, from austin texas.
thanks danny for keeping lots of the music archived on the lightnin’ salvage youtube page.

danny has gotten a guest artist to design the new t-shirt, coming out soon. the shirt design is pictured at the start of this short flick he made: ” satchel’s, drop in for a slice. ”

danny’s ideas never stop. he’s going to organize a bocce tournament, organize the ipod music, design another new shirt, and he keeps up the lightnin’ salvage facebook page of course too…

this is always the busiest week of the year for us. UF spring graduation is saturday and the college students need to get their last satchel’s fix, show their family the place, or get together with friends and celebrate. although i know it will be exhausting, i am sorta looking forward to it. it’s great to be so busy and work so hard to keep up, and see people having fun. i pray it goes smoothly.

a tornado passed over satchel’s yesterday. a tree fell on the convenient store to the west of us and another tree downed a power line across the street and to the east of us. we lost a couple umbrellas and have some minor limbs scattered around, but other than that it seems we made out ok.

it’s been quite a crazy couple weeks and i have been too consumed with work to even post. i am always trying to find ways to decrease my stress while making the restaurant more stable and efficient at the same time. those two things can often be at odds. satchel’s has changed so much over the years and is changing so much even now. as the “project” that is satchel’s/ LSE gets more complicated, i have to envision new ways to cope with stress and sculpt my vision. while i love the romantic idea of being a hard working blue collar guy who is rolling dough, chopping onions and cooking pies from dawn until dark, my current reality is thinking about my business in broad terms and wanting to create the ultimate pizza experience by tweaking the many many details that make up a visit to my restaurant. from the parking lot design to the outdoor mobiles, from the lighting to the crispy crust, from the clean bathroom to the smile on the server’s face… i am starting to understand how to develop so many ideas at once. it’s not easy and i fail at it sometimes, “biting off more than i can chew” and sometimes taking 2 steps forward and 3 steps back… and then if i’m lucky i grab a bumper and skateboard a block down the road. while all my ideas may not pan out like i imagine, it takes the guts of action and the reality of failure to make any sort of progress at all.

i know that if i am forced to choose between my family and my business, my health and my stress, my ideas and my fears – i’ll choose family, health and ideas every time. fortunately i am not forced to choose but i am compelled to make big decisions that affect all of the above. so i put it on the scales and try and get the scales to tip toward the good things. the trick is finding ways to make the business better and my life better at the same time, which is the challenge i am currently involved in. just because my life gets better doesn’t mean my business should suffer. i’m sure there’s a bunch of books about it out there, how to accomplish everything, how to encourage others to inspiration and loyalty, how to balance it all in a constructive way… too bad i rarely read a book. my wife reads constantly. she is always enjoying a good novel. me? i barely have time to shower i have so much on my list.

why am i telling you all of this? hmmm. no reason. i’m using my blog to express what i might otherwise reserve for my private journal. i’m stepping outside my comfort level a bit to paint a picture of my mind working and my heart seeking. i think of this all as a big art project, as an experiment, as performance art. you come to my restaurant and my goal is to feed and entertain you. you come to my blog and my goal is to feed and entertain you… tell you a story, spin you a yarn. sing you a song, make you a movie.

the photo above is my mom and dad (and i think the dog is cha-cha.)

i can hear the crowds chanting outside my window day and night. i couldn’t even go out for a cup of coffee because the streets around my house are mobbed… everyone wants to see ALL the new Bad-O-Films. ok, ok. here’s the last one. make sure to watch the “lost footage” at the end that was found… bad-o befriending some local boys. i hope the internet still works tomorrow. this could really shut it all down…

Bad-O-School for Gifted Mutes 2 plus Bonus Bad-O Footage from satchel on Vimeo.

just when you thought your day couldn’t get any better…

Bad-O at the Beach from satchel on Vimeo.

well folks, it’s the moment you have been waiting for. bad-o-mime 3D is here. it’s almost 5 minutes long so don’t watch it unless you are thoroughly ready. get a snack, get a drink, sit back and get ready. if you haven’t seen bad-o-mime or bad-o-mime 2, now is definitely the time to catch up. the best part is that more premiere bad-o-movies are coming this week! so check back and get ready for the bad-o-explosion that will hit your town very soon. bad-o is real. bad-o is the baddest mime around.

BAD-O-MIME 3D from satchel on Vimeo.

the new bad-o is on deck. in 3D. ssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. do not tell anyone about this. bad-o mime 3D could be the biggest thing since Elvis and when the youtube and internets shut down soon when Bad-O hits, don’t come running to me. i warned you.

life without the internets is harder than you think. when you see bad-o-mime 3D in the next few days, you may experience something of the divine. it’s not like you’ll know it right away – or you’ll even feel anything different the moments after watching… no – it’s not like that. it’s the sort of thing that seeeps in your veins like sweet tea made properly or spanish moss seeping into its’ host tree. one day you are ancient and about to die and you just know – AH – bad-o-mime was the meaning of life – i get it now. AHHHHHhhhh…

anyway, i need to work up the poster and dvd cover. all that will come your way soon.
i am “hoping” that i might be able to cull 3 (three) short films from my new bad-o-footage. i suggest that while you wait you re-watch this bad-o- favorite for a refresher.
there are 4 bad-o-movies out now. can you name them all? more importantly, have you SEEN them all?

trivia question #2: which bad-o-films are most popular, by number of hits on vimeo and/or youtube combined?

possible new titles to soon be released: 1. bad – o – mime 3D
2. bad – 0, B- sides
and 3. school for gifted mutes 2 and 3.
you want to be there. you want to be able to say you were one of the first million who saw it when this thing is the first to hit a trillion hits next week. trust me.

i’m not taking any pictures, i’m not making videos… i’ve just been workin’. today my mouth dropped open when i was in the back of the lot talking on my phone and i see the mother of all charter busses pull in the lot. a group of kids from harlem were on a massive field trip and came for lunch with a camera crew in tow. fortunately the neighbors let me park the bus in their lot because there’s no way that bus would have ever gotten out once the lot was full of cars. it barely got out as it was. the place was packed at lunch and dinner and in between i talked on the phone non stop. work work work. it starts early and goes all day. you should see my list for tomorrow. wow. wish me luck.