Summer BBQ Series - 2008

Summer BBQ Series 2008 from Jimmy Tran on Vimeo. 12 Weeks, 12 BBQs. It started with Paul, Freeden and me trying to schedule biweekly dinners over the summer in an effort to resurrect our over the top dinner feasts from summer of 2005. Thursday BBQ expanded and became my reprieve from a summer of QE studying and fieldwork planning. It's memories like these that I'll probably hold dearest while researching in China this next year, perhaps singing "Yes Berkeley" when I start feeling nostalgic for warm summer nights and the comfort of familiar smiles. It's certainly what happened to my childhood best friend Mike Struwin after he and his girlfriend Jen left the beautiful shores of Lake Michigan for life anew in far away Portland, OR. "Yes Michigan" is a cut from his 6th and latest album (http://www.solserenade.com/band.html), a tribute to Jen and to the amazing life they left behind back in small town Michigan. Paul Albertus begins the video w/ a July 4th recitation of an excerpt out of Walt Whitman's "Inscription to a later edition of leaves of grass," evoking images of friends and memories accrued over one's lifetime, a fitting introduction to the memories created this summer on Thursday nights at 5645 Miles Ave. And of course I had to squeeze in Ryan Adams "Pearls on a String," acoustically resonant with Mike's piece and one of my favorite finds from this past year.

Thanks to everyone for making the Summer BBQ Series 2008 such a success...