The writing’s on the sidewalk

I’ve already espoused Bryan’s ability to create very appealing works with oil paints or a white-board marker, but up until now you were probably unaware of his skills with sidewalk chalk. They are impressive, as you will now no doubt agree.

A couple nights ago, Bryan, Naomi, Dash and I had a downright adventure on campus. Maybe I’m getting carried away here and misusing the term “adventure”; perhaps it was more of an “excursion”. That’s sure to offend no one. In any case, we rolled to the strip of lawn in front of Denny Hall, right on central campus, with the necessary tools for the havoc we planned to wreak: Dash’s guitar Ashley, the twin sister of my own Mary Kate; several covert beers; a bucket of sidewalk chalk; and our contempt for authority. This last proved the most instrumental, as it enabled us to drink the beer (probably against the law for us, we’re not sure, but definitely for Naomi, the little dear), which in turn engendered some awesome guitar performances and more than a little freestyle drawing. My first drawing you can see in the corner of Bryan’s, the heart with wings inscribed with “BG”. I thought to myself, “what’s the cheesiest thing I could possibly draw?” and came up with that. It’s a metaphor, see: my overarching love for Ben Gibbard takes wing and soars above the clouds. It’s cheesy and genuine at the same time. Then, as Bryan worked on his centerpiece, Dash responded with this beauty, followed immediately by something labeled “evil crab” that we sadly don’t have a picture of. You can probably imagine it based on the title. Meanwhile, Naomi continued the sea life theme. I added the lightning bolts and the decisive title. Dash and I rounded out the collection with this and this, respectively. Dash made the prediction that our stretch of sidewalk would be the happiest part of campus the next day. I hope so.

We have no way of knowing for sure, having neglected to squat next to our creation and ogle passersby to watch the effect, but I do know that, shortly after we’d put the finishing touches on just about everything and were busy rocking out on Ashley, a group of Taiwanese exchange students, each of them sporting a camera and a bubble tea, came walking along and halted in their tracks, saying “Ohhh, beautiful!” over Bryan’s artwork. They took pictures of everything, including several of Bryan and one of all of us. We couldn’t have hoped for more enthusiastic fans.

After so much awesomeness, you’d think we’d call it a night; but no. We craved more. We walked over to Hagget Hall, the dorm next to McCarty, and waited around until a larger group of Taiwanese students entered the building, at which point we made a big show of patting our pockets and asking each other “do you have the keys?” before following them inside. Our target was the grand piano behind the front desk, an invaluable aid in our Quest to Rock – Bryan can play piano like nobody’s business. Once inside, however, we discovered the piano already in use by the RA on duty and her friend, who were recording “Ave Maria” for a wedding. The RA had a tremendous voice, and we settled down to listen to their three takes as we waited our turn, applauding after each performance. Eventually she asked us what we were doing in the building, and before anyone could say anything I told her how we’d broken in. Honesty is the best policy. Luckily she had a sense of humor about it, and only chastised us mildly before leaving us with the room to ourselves. Bryan and Dash rocked for a bit, but as we only had one guitar and I can’t play piano to save my life, Naomi and I got left out. It was fun nonetheless.

It’s not over, campus. We’ll be back. Bryan’s apparently got a line on some washable paint – I shiver to think of what he could create on the side of the law building with it.