If you haven’t seen the movie “American Flyers,” you should check it out.
Kevin Costner plays Marcus Sommers, a professional cyclist who persuades his wayward brother David (David Marshall Grant) to train and race in the “Hell of the West” (a fictional bike race in Colorado).
Together — under the fictitious "Team Shaver Sport" banner — the two learn about themselves, forge a stronger bond, and fight to win the race.
The film epitomizes what 1980s sports movies are all about. (That decade was the greatest era for sports movies, in my opinion.)
The soundtrack is all “synthesizered,” and the race footage (for 1985) was pretty decent. It also featured Soviets cyclists (because what 80s movie didn’t feature the Soviets as antagonists?).
I happened upon the movie in the early 1990s at Blockbuster Video when I was attempting to see every movie featuring Kevin Costner. In the intervening years it became a favorite of mine. (Warner Bros really needs to release the movie on Blu-ray.)
It was also a movie my brother-in-law Sean and I talked about. Sean (who died in 2017) handled public relations for professional cycling teams. He traveled all over the globe working cycling races.
When he returned from a trip, I would always ask, “How did Team Shaver Sport do?”
I learned a lot about the world of pro cycling from Sean.
I know the reputation of the sport has become tarnished because of the performance enhancing drug scandal surrounding Lance Armstrong.
The sport has a different culture than other professional sports (especially the highly-regulated sports environment we are used to in the United States). Based on the conversations I had with Sean, the issues precipitating the Armstrong scandal weren’t really all that unusual in the sport.
Part of the reason I decided to revisit the movie “American Flyers” was an episode of the “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast I recently listened to where Rogan interviews Lance Armstrong:
The unfortunate reality is that Armstrong’s scandal tarnished the entire sport in the eyes of the public — a perception that might be permanent.
It certainly isn’t the sport people envisioned in their minds, and it isn’t the sport as it was portrayed in the movie “American Flyers.”
It's worth taking the time to watch … if only to see Kevin Costner with the 'stache.
“It feels like we were just here, but it’s 23 years ago. That’s a long time...” -- Andrew Lewis
In the summer of 1995, Bridget and I had the opportunity to do internships in the public relations department at Bellevue University.
For those unfamiliar with Bellevue University, it is a small, nonprofit school nestled in … where else: Bellevue, Nebraska. The school serves various demographics, including non-traditional professionals working on their degrees, with special emphasis on military personnel. (Bellevue University's website boasts that the school is "routinely ranked among the nation's top military-friendly institutions.")
At the time we worked there, we were in the midst of earning journalism degrees from the University of Nebraska at Omaha.
Bridget’s oldest brother, Sean, was the director of public relations at Bellevue University in the mid 1990s. He brought in both of us to help him with projects and programs under his charge (the biggest being an updated student handbook).
I learned a great deal during that summer.
The experience planted the seeds for us to start our own marketing communications business the following year (a business that keeps a roof over our heads to this day).
It also allowed us to experience an often “unheralded” achievement in the annals of Nebraska sports history. The Bellevue University Bruins baseball team won the NAIA College World Series that year. They were known as the "Cardiac Bruins" for their ability to come-from-behind and keep the dream (and season) alive. The team became only the third team in NAIA history to come back and win the World Series after losing the opening game.
After the team won the national championship, Bridget and I helped Sean design t-shirts and signage and assisted with the planning for the team’s victory party at the university’s student center.
The 1995 team was recently honored at the 6th Annual Bellevue University Athletics Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony on Aug. 4 at the John B. Muller Adminstrative Services Building.
Life is full of serendipitous moments. One of the members of that team is our friend Andrew Lewis.
AJ (as Bridget and I know him) is someone we met after our time at Bellevue University. We know him through UNO Hockey — and our fan site MavPuck.com.
He acted as a quasi-SID during his time as a player on the Bruin team — a role that took on significant importance during the team’s magical run in the 1995 NAIA College World Series.
One of the things I love about sports — no matter what your role — is how they forge lasting bonds between disparate people.
It was wonderful catching up with AJ during the festivities in August. He and his family live in Kentucky these days, so it was nice to chat in person.
AJ spoke on behalf of the team during the ceremony. He is a passionate speaker and did a terrific job capturing the essence of the team’s championship run.
He even gave a “shout out” to Bridget and I during his talk: “Jon and Bridget were along for that ride... and it was a blast! I know them from UNO Hockey, and we have a great time talking about those days.”
My brother-in-law, Sean, died unexpectedly last year at age 49 from undiagnosed diabetes. He would have loved attending the ceremony — and likely would have had unique insights surrounding the baseball team’s 1995 run.
“Sean Weide was my help in the front office here at the U,” AJ told attendees. “Sean passed away last year. He was a wonderful friend.”
Bridget and I are the same age as the players on that 1995 team. It is amazing how fast 23 years fly by... and how different life looks at 45 than it did at 22.
The ceremony featured a highlight compilation from the team’s 1995 run in the NAIA College World Series — with player commentary interspersed throughout.
“No matter how much destiny you think you have, and it is a game of inches, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t,” AJ said in his speech.
AJ described the 1995 Bellevue Bruin Baseball team as being “scrappy as hell” — a team that was angry about a missed opportunity to win a championship in 1994. “We learned our roles, we acknowledged our roles, we did not accept our roles. And there is a huge difference between acknowledging your role and accepting your role.”
AJ said that while his teammates didn’t always accept their role, they worked within the framework to make sure they were the “best damn” players they could be in those roles.
While Bridget and I weren’t part of the heroics brought by 1995 Bellevue University Bruin Baseball team that summer, we were still part of a team at the university.
As I mentioned earlier, my brother-in-law Sean was kind enough to give us internships working for him in public relations at the university.
Sean wasn’t a warm and fuzzy guy in the work environment. He demanded the best when you worked for him — mainly because he demanded the best from himself.
He only had the resources to pay one of us an hourly wage. As a result, Bridget was the bread winner because she started there a couple weeks before me.
Even though I didn’t get paid for all the hours I put in, Sean came up with “creative ways” to pay me that summer. For example, he found money in his “freelance photographer” budget, and would periodically surprise me with a check for my work.
Much like the experience those young men had winning the NAIA College World Series, that experience — which only lasted a few months — had a profound impact on the professional I would eventually become.
As AJ says, “It always ends. And that goes for our team, to every team in the past, to every team in every sport... if we could give one piece of advice: Just enjoy it, enjoy each other.”
Nebraska is 151 years old. Sports aficionados here in Nebraska likely don’t realize that of the 17 colleges that have fielded a baseball team, there have been 938 seasons worth of teams.
All but one failed to win a national championship.
“One team out of 938 did what they set out to do,” said AJ. “That’s amazing, fellas.”
It is amazing, and I’m happy to have had a small part celebrating that team’s accomplishment in 1995... and recognizing the feat in 2018.
Bellevue University posted video of the 6th Annual Bellevue University Athletics Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony on its YouTube channel:
When I have the opportunity, I like to write blog posts about people in Nebraska doing creative things.
One such individual is Ryan Olsen. Olsen is a local filmmaker (based in Lincoln, NE) who is putting the final touches on his short film “Say Goodbye, Grace.” The film, according to the description on IMDB, is about a “tough-as-nails detective investigating the murder of an old friend. But can she accept the chilling, life-changing truth at the end?"
The reason I’m familiar with the project is because Bridget’s brother Sean (who died in 2017) will appear in the film (you can watch the embedded version of the film — that is on Olsen’s YouTube channel — at the end of this post).
NIFP (Nebraska Independent Film Projects) recently hosted Olsen at their June meeting at Turbine Flats In Lincoln (building pictured below). The filmmaker discussed the “Say Goodbye, Grace” project — from the film’s early inspiration to the complexities of production.
As a kid, Olsen loved “spectacle” in film. “Star Wars” and “Godzilla” were early influences (he still collects Godzilla movies — especially on VHS cassette).
(Side note: I remember seeing some of those old Godzilla movies on Saturday mornings in the early 1980s at the now-defunct Park 4 in La Vista, NE.)
Olsen is drawn to movies that have movement. He likes action and color. He recalled drawing a re-creation of the “Return of the Jedi’s” climactic space battle on large sheets of newsprint (his parents bought him the paper on large rolls that he could tear off, instead of more traditional copier paper).
The first film Olsen watched that “put him in his place” was Tim Burton’s quirky goth comedy “Beetlejuice.” He was enamored with the opening title sequence — something he mentioned that he watches time and again. The vivid imagery and movement in “Beetlejuice” was fun and exciting.
The idea of movies that take place "in a community, in a city, in a state, in a world" appeals to the filmmaker. Olsen said he mimicked that feeling a bit in “Say Goodbye, Grace” — the world is not just a handful of people... it’s so much more.
Creativity has been a constant in Olsen’s life. The Kearney native used to do a comic strip in his hometown paper called “Humor.” He shared with us a Godzilla film he made as a child featuring Play-Doh creatures and Party Poppers for effect.
When Olsen saw the movie “American Beauty” before college, he was drawn to the notion that film didn’t have to be “extravagant or crazy.” He decided to go into film studies in college because he wanted to learn how good film was constructed — as opposed to just focusing on the mechanics of using film cameras, lighting, sound, etc.
One of his earliest “pro gigs” was as a production assistant on the low-budget movie “Pirates of the Great Salt Lake” in 2004 — he made $200 for three weeks' work. In the intervening years, he has crafted a whole slew of promotional videos for small businesses and organizations in the Lincoln area — including this 2016 ad for a bar called “The Hot Mess”:
He showed us a YouTube clip of director James Cameron from a 2010 SBIFF panel discussion. Something Cameron said was particularly enlightening for Olsen: “Don’t waste a lot of time studying the problem by looking at how other directors did it. You’ve got to get out there and get busy. It’s that simple... you’re trying to inject yourself into a process that is ongoing — with or without you. So, grab a camera... make some stuff, make a film. Make a film, cut it together. The tools are here, readily available... put your name on it — now you’re a director, everything after that, you’re just negotiating price.”
This sentiment has inspired Olsen’s attitude regarding filmmaking.
Olsen funded “Say Goodbye Grace” with a fundraising campaign on Kickstarter:
He was fortunate enough to find a man in Lincoln who had conducted a successful Kickstarter campaign for $40,000 to fund a board game. The man shared his secrets with Olsen — and instilled the notion that you had to present information on your Kickstarter page "as if it’s already in progress."
One-sheet poster artwork was commissioned early on to give his project a sense of legitimacy. Olsen created all the supporting graphics for Kickstarter and social media, created crew profiles, and sketched out storyboards.
On the campaign page, he broke down how the money raised would be spent — including detailed pie charts and graphs. Olsen ended up raising more than $9,000 total from 124 “backers.” (Full disclosure: Bridget pledged $34 for “The Missing Citizen” level and will have her photo on a “Missing Person's” photo that appears somewhere in the film.)
One pro-tip from Olsen about Kickstarter: Try to raise 1/5 to 1/4 of your overall goal in first 24 hours — it shows prospective backers there are other people interested.
The board game creator also advised setting up appropriate “reward tiers” on Kickstarter — with emphasis on digital rewards over physical rewards (digital rewards are more cost-effective to fulfill).
Olsen did five months of promotion before the Kickstarter campaign was launched.
He put up ads everywhere, posted on social media, and made “Kick Cards” with information about the Kickstarter campaign.
At this point, he says he was doing 90 percent of everything — location scouting, cast, crew, Kickstarter, rewards, and writing. He says, “I was 100 percent committed and slowly losing my mind.”
On April 2-3, 2016, Olsen held cast auditions at the Hilton in Downtown Omaha. My brother-in-law Sean was one of those who auditioned. Sean worked in various media capacities during his adult life, so acting was a new interest for him.
Sean showed up at the auditions posing as a homeless man (he rolled around in some trash — illustrating a nascent “method actor” strategy for landing acting gigs). Someone escorted Sean on set — where he talked with Olsen about ideas to promote the film.
Olsen said my brother-in-law was always there to help.
“Say Goodbye, Grace” was primarily shot in the Lincoln area and at a container field in Omaha. Olsen also hired out people to film drone shots in the Pacific Northwest (where the film is set).
The film was shot over nine nights in 2016.
Olsen said he’s very excited for the film to be all said and done.
“Whenever I make a film, I’m all about the subtlety,” he says. “The sounds in the background — I am all about environment and atmosphere. I learned that from [director] David Lynch.”
He has infused his early love of color into the film. “I’m a big color guy,” he says. “Color needs to speak volumes.”
He also tried to add in different symbolic elements to “Say Goodbye, Grace.” Olsen analyzed a number of patterns and styles he saw in different films. He says, “a city during the day and a city at night are different things. In [the movie] ‘Alien,’ daytime is always rainy and nighttime is always windy. In Black Bay [the fictional location of ‘Say Goodbye, Grace’], it’s always foggy during the day and clear at night.”
As is the case with productions such as Olsen’s, everything didn’t go according to plan. He wasn’t able to film as many of the 23-page script’s pages per day as he had initially planned (despite a talented cast and crew). He ran out of money because of how meticulous his vision was — so he saved up money for his two reshoots.
He had a “scene premiere” at the 2017 Prairie Lights Film Festival (and hopes to enter the completed film this fall).
Olsen likes to do his own editing. “I have to edit my own stuff,” he says. “There is something about taking it and putting it all together.”
(He noted that he and his editor, Drake Tucker, have gotten to know each other really well over the past two years.)
Olsen and the crew have been working on the sound engineering in recent weeks. Music will be recorded at the end of July, and the film will go out for color corrrection that month as well.
“Sound and color are two more weapons you can used to assault your audience,” he says.
Olsen told NIFP he’d be willing to make a repeat visit to a monthly meeting — once the film is complete — for a screening and discussion of “Say Goodbye, Grace.”
He told Bridget and I after the presentation that he was still working on setting up a screening in Omaha.
Ryan Olsen’s company is called POW! Productions. You can learn more about his business — and the film “Say Goodbye, Grace” — at his website at http://www.powproductionsllc.com.
“We are entering a golden age of journalism. I do think there has been horrible frictional costs, but ... I look at my backpack that is sitting here, and it contains more journalistic firepower than the entire newsroom that I walked into 30 to 40 years ago.” — David Carr
As something of a news junkie who binges on information, I’ve been concerned about the state of my local daily newspaper.
I’ve watched the size and scope of the Omaha World-Herald become more svelte the past few years. It’s a well-worn tale, a reality that has hit a number of dailies around the United States.
There was a time when subscriber revenue was “gravy” for newspapers. The real money was made off of advertising — in-column ads, classifieds, and automobile advertising.
My wife and I have degrees in journalism, and we own a marketing communications business. Along with the rest of our ilk, we’ve watched the seismic shifts in the industry the past decade with a sense of foreboding.
This week, the Omaha World-Herald announced it was cutting 43 employees, and making changes to the newspaper.
I have a friend who lost his job with this round of cuts. He found out when he arrived at work that morning — it hit him like a punch to the gut.
The public expresses concern about “quality journalism” in our society. They bemoan the rise of "fake news" as a scourge on the public good. Yet, as is often the case in these situations, little is being done by the citizenry to staunch the bleeding.
Nobody likes a train wreck, but everyone likes to watch a train wreck... if you get my gist.
My brother-in-law Sean Weide spent his adult life working in media. He died unexpectedly in 2017, but I had the opportunity to work for him in the mid 1990s, and we often talked about the state of media.
Sean's most recent jobs were in the role of press officer for professional cycling teams.
Sean would tell me how the media rooms at cycling events (generally multi-stage tours around the globe) were full of bloggers. As such, he often wondered aloud why Bridget and I were excluded from press events related to UNO Hockey (since we run a fan site for the hockey program called MavPuck.com).
Bloggers, YouTubers, SnapChatters, Instagrammers, Tweeters and Facebookers have been painted with labels like “new media," "alternative media,” or worse. The question you have to ask yourself is this: When will these people and platforms — which are often "adjuncts" to so-called accredited news organizations — become all that’s left to dole out information to the public?
You see it trending more that direction each year. News organizations try to maintain editorial legitimacy by keeping newsrooms and operations staffed and stocked — all while subscribers, ad sales, and print sizes continue to plummet.
It is not a sustainable model.
What will a world look like if “citizen journalists” rule the day? Are they already ruling the day?
I realize large organizations — especially those with an entrenched leadership structure — often change at a glacial pace.
Some will point to the fact that newspapers are designed as money-making ventures. They’ll cynically say that journalistic purity has never been the sole goal for these institutions. Rather, they’ll argue that editorial content is based (at least in part) on what attracts eyeballs, and greases the wheels with potential advertisers.
Some will go further and suggest that these institutions were too slow to figure out what appealed to younger demographics.
I don’t know what the future holds for the Omaha World-Herald — or other daily newspapers around the country.
Instituting the “more restrictive” paywall in January of this year — followed by significant layoffs in February — wasn’t an attractive look for the newspaper. It will bring into question the viability of print media in the Omaha-Council Bluffs metro area — an area that spans roughly 900,000 people.
Will the next decade see newsrooms whittled down even further — only to become paper-thin versions of their former selves?
I’m not one who gets particularly sentimental as the calendar rolls over to a new year, but I thought I’d take a look back at 2017 — a year that had a lot going on.
As is the case with any typical year, there is some good, and some bad. There are moments of crisis handled, and moments of crisis averted.
But there are fun moments as well. Let's look at some highlights...
The year started off as they typically do in Nebraska — cold. Cold weather means UNO Hockey season is in full swing, and since we’ve never missed a home game in the program’s history, it is kind of a big deal for us each year.
We did discover a “game” on social media last February — "Finders Keepers" — that was sort of a crazy scavenger hunt across Omaha — where all the clues were given via Twitter (read my full blog post here). The hunt typically involved money hidden at various spots throughout the city, and hunters would race to find the loot.
My nieces won on a number of occasions. This picture is of me, Bridget, and our nieces Lauren and Julia taking a pit stop from the race and munching on donuts (in the middle of the night) at Winchell’s in West Omaha:
We also took some impromptu trips in 2017. We decided to drive two hours north to Sioux Falls, SD, leaving at 4 p.m. on March 7 to watch the UNO Men’s Basketball team play for a Summit League Championship (and try to earn its first berth in the NCAA tournament). The Mavs lost in the closing moments of play, but it was fun to be part of the March Madness atmosphere in the building.
My dad ended up in the hospital in April. He’d been having severe pain in his leg. Doctors couldn’t tell if it was pain associated with a pinched nerve, or something more sinister.
Pain killers didn’t work, and my dad’s condition worsened to the point where he was unable to walk. When the pain hit its zenith, Bridget took him to the emergency room to try and find him some relief.
It turns out he had a couple of serious blood clots in his leg, and had to have surgery to remove the clots (followed by inpatient and then outpatient rehab). Kind of a crazy sequence of events, but at least he didn’t lose his foot or leg (which the doctor said was a real possibility due to oxygen deprivation in the limb).
On April 14, we attended the League of Women Voters Mayoral Debate at the Omaha Press Club. Mayor Jean Stothert and Heath Mello sparred over various local issues impacting our city — and, as is the tradition with these forums at the OPC, attendees had lunch during the program.
We welcomed our new nephew Anson on April 29. He looks like a little bug in this picture, but he has grown in the past 8 months, and is a fun little guy to spend time with.
May 2nd saw us attending the Omaha Metro High School 7-7-7 Film Championship at the Western Heritage Museum. My niece Julia was part of a team (from the OPS Career Center) that competed in the event (read my blog on the 7-7-7 Film Championship). This picture is of Bridget with one of the Union Pacific trains on display:
On May 18, we had a chance to see and hear author Craig Johnson at The Bookworm. Johnson is the author of the terrific Longmire series of mysteries (which are the basis for the show “Longmire” that is available on Netflix). This was our third time meeting him!
We are volunteers at our neighborhood pool. I’ve written about the 61-year-old Robin Hill Pool before, and the challenges faced in keeping the aging facility running. On May 22, my nieces Emily and Lauren worked on painting the “big pool” and the “baby pool.” It was messy work (pool paint is basically oil-based rubber), but the three of us had a lot of fun talking and laughing that day, as illustrated in this picture:
My niece Veronica graduated from 6th grade at Jefferson Elementary on May 25th. The very next day, my niece/goddaughter Lauren graduated from Central High School.
Then things kind of fell apart, and life threw a wrench in the engine. My brother-in-law Sean was found dead in his apartment on May 30th. He died of complications related to undiagnosed diabetes. We were stunned. He was 49 — taken way too soon.
I lost my mom in 2013, and I can’t imagine how it feels for my nieces to lose their dad at such a young age.
But the summer wasn’t all melancholy. At the end of June we had the opportunity to brave the rising mercury and watch a couple games at the NCAA College World Series (held each year in Omaha).
We also had the opportunity to see the fireworks display at Memorial Park on June 30 with our nieces Julia and Veronica. (Olivia was also at the event, but was with friends.)
I saw the movie Baby Driver at Aksarben Cinema four times (read my full review).
On July 11, our friend Kathleen Lighthart invited us to their lake house near Fremont and we had a fun day hanging out with the Lightharts and our nieces and nephews.
That same day we dressed up like cows so we could get free food at Chick-fil-A.
We won tickets to see the local comedy/skit show “Omaha Live!” (season premiere party) at Aksarben Cinema, and won an autographed special edition poster for the show (read my full review of the event).
At the end of July, we took our nieces (and their mom Danielle) on a five-day RV trip to see the Tour of Utah. My brother-in-law Sean was an avid cycling enthusiast, and had spent his recent working years as a press officer for professional cycling teams. The trip was an opportunity for our nieces to get to see the sorts of things he did when he was on the road, and it was a chance for them to get to meet some of the people Sean knew through his profession.
I wrote a multi-part blog covering the entire Utah trip last summer — here are Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.
I also had the chance to eat at In-N-Out Burger for the first time on that trip:
Bridget and I saw the movie “American Assassin” at Aksarben Cinema on Sept. 14. We are big fans of the late Vince Flynn — the author of the Mitch Rapp book series that the “American Assassin” movie is based upon (read my review of "American Assassin").
We also like to spend time with our nieces and nephews at Vala’s Pumpkin Patch each fall. I wrote a review in 2016 about Vala’s — it is a cross between a pumpkin orchard and an amusement park.
In early October, we attended the National Resume Writers Association conference in Lombard, IL. Bridget and her colleague Kimberly took the opportunity to co-present a webinar (not related to the conference) while they were together in Lombard:
Nov. 11 saw the University of Nebraska at Omaha Men’s Soccer squad win a Summit League championship. We were in attendance (with our friend Mike) at UNO’s Al F. Caniglia Field to witness history as the Mavs secured their first appearance in the NCAA tournament.
As I alluded to at the beginning of this post, we spend a significant amount of our fall and winter months following UNO Maverick Hockey. We run a fan site called mavpuck.com, and haven’t missed a home game... ever.
Our niece Lauren is attending St. Cloud State University in Minnesota this season — a conference rival for the Mavericks. So this season has been a bit different since she’s not sitting with us at (most) games.
That said, Lauren has made it to a surprising number of home games, including the matchup with St. Cloud in early December.
Suffice it to say, it was incredibly uncomfortable sitting with her while she cheered for the Huskies (we still love Lauren... for now!)
It will be interesting to see what 2018 has in store — we're hoping it is a fun year.
I want to wish all of you a terrific 2018. Thank you for reading. This blog recently surpassed 14,000 page views, and the feedback I’ve received the past year has been awesome! I'm very blessed!
Crossroads Mall holds a special place in my heart. My family moved two blocks north of the shopping center in 1982. We spent a considerable amount of time there during my formative years...buying books, record albums, electronics, toys, clothes, and all sundry things. Bridget and I window shopped and ate lunch at the mall when we were students at the University of Nebraska at Omaha in the 1990s. I even sold magazine subscriptions at a kiosk (for Nebraska Sports Magazine, my brother-in-law's employer at the time) during the 1995 holiday season. When the mall was remodeled in the late 1980s it became, for a time, the nicest mall in the city -- three large anchor tenants, a solid food court, and even a video arcade called "Jolly Time" (where I plunked copious numbers of quarters into the Galaga machine). As is too often the case in life, good things eventually come to an end, and a series of poor management decisions -- combined with changing demographics in the area -- doomed the mall (that had opened its doors in the 1960s) to a slow, painful death.
Target (one of the remaining anchor tenants) has walled itself off from the mall's interior, like a wary organism trying to protect itself from an aggressive disease.
The mall is host to peculiar places like the "Czech and Slovak Educational Center and Cultural Museum"... which features creepy dolls and accordians...
One of my favorite places to eat in the food court was "Philly Dilly" (which had a superb french dip sandwich and french fries)... now the court roped off and left to collect dust... This drone video (from 2013) shows the mall in all its melancholy glory:
