Lego Art In Ames

From Des Moines Register

Harrison Barnes - Hoopster

For some reason it is crazy to me that Iowa would ever be home to the country's top high school basketball player but that is exactly where the state found itself last year when Harrison Barnes finished up his time at Ames High.  Now at the University of North Carolina Barnes is projected to be a top 10 pick in the NBA draft should he decide to leave NC after one year. So this short kid from central Iowa will soon be a newly minted millionaire and we shall see if he ever high rolls it back to Iowa.  From the sounds of it in this video he has a pretty good head on him and certainly Iowans should follow his career and feel a sense of pride wherever he ends up. Of course unless he ends up in Oklahoma City playing for some good ole'  boys/team thieves, but thats another story for a different blog.

The Nadas

Any band that can stay together and relevant for over 15 years and get written up in Playboy magazine certainly deserves some props.  Surely Bon Jovi fits this bill, and while I am not talking about the songster from Jersey, the Nadas did open for him.  While I am not the most familiar with their music I am quite fond of some of the videos I have pulled up included the one below.  Finally there is a hardened spot on my liver for the band, as one of their lead singers was in the same fraternity as pretty much half my high school (go Adel-DeSoto Tigers) and whenever I would venture to Ames I invariably would be drawn into beer stained discussions on how cool their "brother's" band was.  Kudos to the Nadas for lasting so long and carving out quite the niche in the Midwest music scene.

Twister - The Film

The 2nd highest grossing film of 1996 Twister also happens to be the only film I ever auditioned for.  I remembered taking the day off from mowing laws for my uncle and driving to Ames to have my photo taken and say a few words.  For about 48 hours I was convinced that I would be called back and that a role would be created specifically for me.  Alas I now live in Seattle and not Hollywood so you know how that dream ended.  The other thing I remember from that day was all of the Oklahoma licence plates on the cars on set, certainly Iowa is not as well known as the Sooner state for tornadoes but some of the most deadliest have hit the ground there recently and I would have loved to have Iowa been featured in the film as opposed to portraying a falsehood for all the viewing public to see.  Now you know, Helen Hunt got whipped by the wind in the Hawkeye State.