Mafia III - Today Is Not Now

A couple of years ago - I'm not sure how many anymore - some friends asked me to do their wedding video.  I was happy to do it, and in the course of the wedding, one of the groomsman fainted.  Ever creative, my brothers and I decided to make a short "movie" about him fainting.  Except instead of fainting it was an assassination attempt by the mafia.

I will not vouch for the quality of that particular video.  I will vouch for its amusement.

A couple of years later, we made Mafia II - Armed and Dangers... well, maybe.  Again, I won't vouch for its quality.  This summer, my brothers and I filmed the last of the Mafia trilogy:  "Mafia III - Today is Not Now".   David is currently working on editing it. The trailer is below.  Before you watch the trailer, there are a few things the viewer must understand:

• Each of us - me and my two brothers - play one good character and one bad character.  This may clear up some confusion in the 
• We do not now, nor have we ever, claimed that the story lines made all that much sense.
• We do not now, nor have we ever, claimed that the dialogue was Emmy-winning quality. 
• I will say David did a great job on the cinematography aspect of this one. I feel like its a good end to this particular series. 

With out further ado - the trailer to Mafia III:  Today Is Not Now.

Home Away From Home - pt 2

click here for the first part of this post (sorry - I said I'd do it the next day, but I didn't.  Deal.)

6. Water: In Bahrain, few people drink out of the faucet. Most people buy bottled water, and many people (including us) have large 20 gallon jugs delivered to their doorstep (those take us about a week to go through). So I always feel a little weird here in the States when I go to put water in my cup from the faucet.

7. Church: on Sunday - not Friday. In my four years in Bahrain, I still say things like, "when I went to church on Sun - I mean, Friday". But now that I'm in a America, where church IS on Sunday, I still mess it up! "This last Fri- I mean, Sunday at church..."

8. Light switches: When entering some rooms - kitchens and bathrooms - the light switches are on the OUTSIDE of the room. Often, I will start to enter a bathroom and get confused when I can't find the light switch before entering. Sometimes, here in the States, there happens to be a light switch on the outside of the bathroom that goes to something else. Mayhem ensues when I inadvertently turn off all the living room lights or turn on the bedroom light late at night, waking up Alison and Eva.

9. Al Abraaj: Al Abraaj is one of our favorite restaurants in Bahrain. Its cuisine is Arab, along with select Indian and Chinese dishes. The best thing is their homous. Sometimes Alison and I will stop there before a movie just to get bread and homous, and then take some home with us. I am convinced that some entrepreneur is going to make millions of dollars opening up Al Abraaj's all over the US. I may miss Chipotle while in Bahrain, but I miss Al Abraaj more while in the States.

10. Clothing: The Middle East may get flack for being conservative, but oi... there's always a little bit of shock returning to the states and seeing the more revealing clothing that women here wear. One thing I appreciate about Bahrain is that the dress is more conservative.

This actually relates to movies. Bahrain has censors that watch movies and cut out scenes they deem are too sexual. I really like this, because it means I don't have to worry about it too much when I go to the movie theater. It used to be that the cutting was fairly obvious, but they've gotten better over the years, and I often don't even realize that a scene has been edited out. This proves a problem because I may see a movie I really like (without the inappropriate scenes) and then recommend them to friends and family back in the states. Then THEY watch those movies WITH the inappropriate scenes and then I end up looking the fool! So I've learned to be more careful in my movie recommendations.

I'm sure there are more things, but I'll save those for next summer. Regardless, we love living in Bahrain, but we also feel a strong sense of "homeness" when we come back to the states - even if there is a little bit of confusion along the way!

ps - for those of you wondering, our current ETA for Bahrain is September 3rd.  Insha'alla that date will hold. 

Home and Holiday - Pt 1

I have now lived in Bahrain longer than any other place I've lived with the exception of growing up in Wisconsin. As Alison and I prepared to leave Bahrain for the US this summer, we realized that we felt like we were leaving home to go on vacation, and that it no longer felt like we were going HOME.  That's not to say that we haven't had a good time in the States or that we don't like being in the US.

To be honest, there are some things that will always be refreshing when we come back to the home culture.  The more that I move between the US and Bahrain, the more I find that I appreciate about both sides.  Here are 10 things that I've found different, confused by or just plain liked about each place.

1.  Movie Theater Seating:  I went to Inception with Alison and my brothers the other day, and I always forget that, in the US, I can pick where I want to sit when I enter the auditorium!  Theaters in Bahrain have assigned seating, and you pick your seat on the chart when you purchase your ticket.  So every summer when I watch a movie in the states, I get blank stares from my fellow patrons when I ask where we're supposed to sit.

But I also like having assigned seats in Bahrain.  This is particularly useful when the theater is busy (as it often is).  I can then  strategically pick my seat before hand:  in a corner, on an aisle, or with a single seat between me and the next person (because you know no one is going to pick that one seat between two people).

2.  Traffic:  Its amazing that I haven't gotten any traffic tickets this summer.  Particularly in the small town of Aledo, Ill.  In Bahrain I'm used to just going around anyone/anything that is currently in my way, and having roads be suggested routes rather than hard and fast boundaries.  Part of that is due to the high congestion on the roads.

However, I do appreciate more predictable roadways, slowly meandering through small towns and countryside roads and being able to drive with the windows down.

3.  Chipotle:  Someone needs to open a Chipotle in Bahrain.  I would eat there often.  An Olive Garden would be nice, too.

4.  Caribou Coffee:  While the number of Caribous are growing in the States, I'm never far from one in Bahrain.  Thank you Bahraini investment company for buying out Caribou!

5.  Seasons:  I like my Stateside summers, but the winters in Bahrain are a delight!

To Be Continued Tomorrow!

Happy Anniversary!

Yesterday, Alison and I celebrated our two year anniversary!  Its been a wonderful two years of being together and growing our family.  Sometimes 2 years seems like a long time, but then someone told me yesterday that they had been married 49 years.  Now that's some perspective. 

We're in Aledo, IL - a small town of about 3700.  We went to go to the nicest restaurant in town, and it was closed.  At 6:30 on a Monday night.  And so were most of the other restaurants!  However, we did find something, walked around Aledo for a little bit and got some ice cream.  Very fun evening. 

Here's the most recent picture of us.  David took this picture yesterday while taking family pictures.