ajchen.com

My good friend Sarah approached me a few months ago to see if I’d be interested in working on a piece for Antenna Magazine‘s Winter 2011 issue. I’ve never had any of my writing published before so I was excited for the opportunity; plus, the concept sounded like a lot of fun. The piece compares 24 hours in the day of a dad (me) versus a single man, and my updates were limited to 25 words or less per hour.  I received a copy in the mail this week and finally got to see the completed piece. It’s on newsstands now, but I also scanned it for your reading pleasure. Many thanks to Sarah and Kaity for including me.

I really enjoyed working on this this for several reasons. Firstly, it was fun to compare my life to someone’s who is in such a different place. I didn’t get to read his half until I got the final issue, and while his blurbs didn’t exactly bring back fond memories of licentiousness I do vaguely remember what it was like to be able to come and go as I pleased. My life really does look a lot different now, and it’s especially clear when you see our hourly activities side by side.

Secondly, I’m thankful to have some sort of documentation of what things were like during our first year with Logan. 2011 has brought so many changes for our family and for my work; I’ve had to learn how to handle more responsibilities and get things done in less time. It’ll serve as a good reminder as to how God has provided for us and helped me to make the necessary adjustments along the way.

Lastly, in reading the final piece over, I realized that despite the challenges that come with juggling a company, a retail store, marriage and fatherhood, I really am having a good time. I ran into an acquaintance who works at Antenna while visiting Sarah who told me, “man, I wouldn’t want to be you.” It reminded me of when I got engaged and several coworkers told me in jest that I was going to be miserable. Marriage has been good to me, and becoming a father has been an amazing experience. I won’t lie – there are occasions when I wish I had more time and less responsibilities, but those are fleeting thoughts.

I’m too busy having fun with my wife and kid.

I understand why the NFL lockout happened. The physical nature of the sport makes the game an extremely dangerous one to participate in: each time a player steps on the field, it could be his last. The average lifespan of a football player’s career is short. The long-term repercussions of this sport’s injuries are yet unknown, and as players get stronger and faster, the game becomes increasingly more hazardous to play. Say what you want about athletes being overpaid, but I feel like NFL players deserve the money they earn.

As the lockout came to a close, several players emerged from it with the intention of holding out for a better contract; these individuals felt the one they signed was not fair and equitable for their current level of play. The shortened offseason also lead many players to jump ship to greener pastures where more guaranteed money was offered. I don’t blame them – the unifying cry in the NFL amongst players seems to be “you gotta do what’s right for you.” I can see where they’re coming from.

This past Monday, I watched the Giants and Bears square off in a preseason game. As Ahmad Bradshaw, the starting running back for the NY Giants, gashed the Bears defensive line with a solid run, the camera immediately shifted to his backup, Brandon Jacobs, hooting enthusiastically for him on the sideline. Jacobs used to be the starter for the Giants two years ago, but over time his carries were taken away by Bradshaw – the smaller, faster back who seemed to be on the rise.  Last season, Bradshaw became the featured back while Jacobs had to settle for fewer chances coming off the bench. Being as competitive as he is, Jacobs had a few press conferences last season where he bristled at reporters’ questions over his new role as backup. Despite this potential wedge, though, Jacobs and Bradshaw developed an unlikely friendship over the season that really showed its mettle just recently.

When faced with salary cap issues as the lockout ended, the Giants organization knew that they wouldn’t be able to resign free agent Ahmad Bradshaw at his asking price. It began looking like the team would lose him, until Jacobs stepped up and offered to restructure his contract for lower pay in order to bring Bradshaw back. Despite surely giving up carries and minutes (as well as money), Jacobs felt that the Giants had a better chance of winning with both players on the field instead of just one – he wanted his friend back on the team. In an industry (yes, it’s an industry) where players seem to always be looking out for themselves, reading about a player’s selflessness was encouraging. But seeing them on the field together cheering each other on was a beautiful thing.

I read this book in my early teens after church while my parents were in choir practice – I still remember flipping through old books that hadn’t left the shelves in years, and being intrigued by the cover. Having grown up in the suburbs, Rev. David Wilkerson’s moving account of ministering to latin gangs in Bed-Stuy in the ’50s transported me to a different world. He also founded Teen Challenge - a network of faith-based drug rehabilitation centers for teens – as well as the Times Square Church (which I’ve visited several times).

Rev. Wilkerson passed away two weeks ago in a car accident at the age of 79.

In many cases, we may, by the rules of the gospel, be obliged to give to others, when we cannot do it without suffering ourselves… If our neighbor’s difficulties and necessities be much greater than our own, and we see that he is not like to be otherwise relieved, we should be willing to suffer with him, and to take part of his burden on ourselves; else how is that rule of bearing one another’s burdens fulfilled? If we are never obliged to relieve others’ burdens, but when we can do it without burdening ourselves, then how do we bear our neighbor’s burdens, when we bear no burden at all?

-Jonathan Edwards

A few years ago, Johan, Jeff and I started a project called NHTVSN. It was a two-part company that consisted of a graphic tshirt line and an online video ‘zine. The idea was to use the videos as an avenue to gain publicity for the tshirt line; when we had started, very few online publications like this existed. We also wanted to use NHTVSN as a springboard to give some of our creative friends a bigger audience. Jeff had gone to school for filmmaking and was excited to apply his skills in a new and creative way. Although these were all great ambitions, our primary goal was for NHTVSN to become an easy moneymaker. At the time of its launch, the streetwear market was exploding: boutiques were opening in both big cities and small towns seemingly every week, stores couldn’t seem to buy enough product to supply their customers, and the economy was stronger than ever. Because we wanted to protect 3sixteen’s brand integrity, we felt compelled to start a diffusion line that would still be graphically executed at a level we were happy with, but would also allow us to work with bigger accounts that we didn’t want to give 3sixteen to.

The first season did pretty well – we sold the tees to some of our existing 3sixteen retailers and also opened up some bigger chain stores with the line. It wasn’t a huge release but showed a lot of promise. The videos were received with open arms; because Youtube had horrible encoding at the time, we chose to host them ourselves and resultingly brought the entire website to a grinding halt a day after launching it. 6 months later, we wanted to interview some people on the east coast for our second issue but Jeff wasn’t able to contribute due to scheduling conflicts. And that’s when we met Kellen Dengler.

Seemingly out of nowhere, we received an email from a recent film school graduate who was moving to NYC to pursue a career; he wanted to know if we had any 3sixteen internships available that might fit his skillset. We checked out his work and liked what we saw, so I met with him in person to chat further – it became clear that his talents would apply perfectly to our NHTVSN video series. We completed our second issue with Kellen filming and directing the series, and to this day, I’m really proud of the way everything turned out. Since then, Kellen has progressed onto some amazing things; I could sit here and list all the people he’s filmed with, but it’s probably easier to take a look at his portfolio.

We closed up shop with NHTVSN after our second season; we found that it demanded too much time and attention for us to be able to turn it into something profitable at the time.  The recession certainly had a major hand in its failure – a quick look at our retailer list will tell you that many of the accounts that bought NHTVSN are no longer in business.  Despite this, we couldn’t be more thankful for the friendship that we formed with Kellen through the process. He’s a very busy man but has always made time for us to work on additional projects for both 3sixteen and later, Self Edge.

Since refocusing fully on 3sixteen these past few years, I found myself missing the storytelling that we got to do through the NHTVSN project. After much brainstorming, we started work six months ago on a new initiative with Kellen entitled Singularities, and we’re finally nearing completion. The trailer is above, and we plan to launch the entire series of videos in early 2011. You can visit the dedicated website for more information on the project: 3sixteen.com/singularities