What posses people to become obsessed with a movie, book, or artist? What posses them to live and breathe a movie, let's say Pirates of the Caribbean? What posses people to become so obsessed that they would want to dress like a Pirate to watch this movie? How could a 2 hour and 30 minute production consume enough of one's time to go pick out an outfit to look like Captain Jack?

But people do it for other big movies too... Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter. Is it because these movies are fantasies, and they rescue the fans from their everyday struggles. Is it because for 2 hours or so, these fanatics can go to a galaxy far, far away or attend Hogwarts to learn how to defeat their arch-nemesis. And I guess if they would be traveling to all these incredible places, they might as well dress like the locals.

However, it seems to me that people go way overboard. I'm not saying its wrong to go overboard... I just want to understand why. I thought about all this because I saw Pirates last week and people actually dressed up as though they were about go sail the 7 seas. To say the least, I was a little taken aback.  

Posted by Daniel King at 04:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

This past Sunday, I attended my first Indy  500. Apparently, its the largest sporting event in the world, but I couldn't believe that until I saw it for myself. I would estimate about 750,000 people were there at the race.

For those who don't know much about the race, myself can be included in this catagory, it is a race of 200 hundred laps, or 500 hundred miles. I honestly thought the race would be more like NASCAR. How mistaken I was! The Indy 500 is more like a go-kart race... except these go-karts exceed 200 miles per hour. And this kinda makes sense because most of the drivers are really small. Danica Patrick, my favorite, is only 5'2 and weighs 100 lbs. I dont think any of the drivers weighed more than 150 lbs. Watching the race was cool, but I concluded that I was too fat to ever drive one of those cars. Google the Indy 500 and check out the cars for yourself.

This year, 3 women were in the race. Danica was the favorite to place the top 5. When the race was rained out she was 3rd! Crazy right... but because the rain stopped, they decided to dry off the tracks and finish the race. Danica finished 8th overall... and thats not bad for a woman in her early 20's. I think she'll still get a signing bonus. 

Posted by Daniel King at 04:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

These past 3 weeks, I have been working hard trying to uncover the hidden history of African Americans within Indiana. I have 10 counties to research. In these counties I look for historically Black churches, cemeteries, schools, neighborhoods, etc. I never know what I am going to find in a county. Sometimes I find a ton of stuff, and sometimes I find nothing. Yesterday, I found the unmarked graves of some coal miners who were murdered during the 1870's. I guess my job is to tell the untold stories of the forgotten Blacks throughout history. Each day is like a treasure hunt: I have a map to each county and I search through out it for monuments that attest to the Black experience.

On a lighter note, I'm going to the Indy 500 this weekend. I hear its the largest sporting event in the world, and it grosses more money than 7 SuperBowls combined. Soooooooo, it will be interesting to see how true that is.   

Posted by Daniel King at 11:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I've been out of school for about 3 weeks now, and I have done a ton since my last day as a Freshmen. I went to the Kentucky Derby last weekend... well, not the Derby itself, but the parties in Louisville. The Derby was under extreme security since the Queen of England decided to make an appearance. So we just settle for swimming, playing cornhole and washers, and hanging out for Derby.

Only too soon was it time to come back to Crawfordsville to clean the house. It took us 2 days to clean Beta from bottom to top...and allow me to stress that we indeed scrubbed, mopped, swept, cleaned, and waxed Beta Theta Pi from bottom to top. It wasn't that bad because we all laughed and joked the whole time while cleaning. It was the last time we had to clean as Freshmen... so we made the most of it.

Later in the week, I started my Know Indiana Internship. I was assigned 10 Indiana counties and I am to drive to each of them to find African American artifacts. I'm looking for historically Black neighborhoods, churches, and schools. I'm looking for streets and parks devoted to African Americans. I'm even searching out Black monuments. Basically, any artifact that reveals Black history is what I'm searching for... It's like a big treasure hunt...

Finally, this past weekend, I attended Graduation. It was a lot like high school graduation, except a lot shorter. It was kinda hard seeing the Seniors walk across the stage. Apart of me wished that moment would never come, but apart of me also knew it was time for them to begin new chapters in their lives. I'm gonna miss them... and their pet dogs too (Riley).

Posted by Daniel King at 07:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)