May 6, 2008
I saw this sign today and it reminds me of a video I made when I worked for Camp Lurecrest. During Staff Orientation we presented the Summer team with all the campwide policies and rules for the Summer. We figured it would be fun to make a video for each set of policies (because just sitting in a room and reading over policies day after day is only fun during the school year; once Summer hits, you have to really up your fun quotient - also, using the word “quotient” is completely a school year activity).
Each Summer there was a big trend of staffers requesting the specialty soy milk in the dining hall instead of good ol’ cow water. Since the camp’s pantry was limited we needed to find a way to tell everyone to chill out on requesting soy so heavily, unless they really needed it. To address the issue, we decided to make a spoof European art film. What resulted was one of the weirdest videos I’ve ever made (which also turned out to be one of my favorites that Summer), about an elusive sage named Soy, a dramatic girl who sought after him, and her weird faux-german parents. The video felt strange, dark, and vaguely sensual - you know, perfect things for a Christian Summer camp. My boss, who really liked me, told me to not show it anymore. We only showed it to campers once (the youngest group I think) which proved to confuse them, and some counselors said it creeped them out. All in a days work, my friends.
I’d like to think Soy left me that note in this picture and is living in the underground tunnels of New York City, watching over me, in his creepy striped pajama unitard. Here’s the video:
