Responsibly Wild Blog

This January begins Season 2 of the CRI Kids' Show . I've done some really fun stuff this past year PB & AJ of course, Big Stuff, Rewind, Various Graphics & Kids' Show Shorts, and in season 2 I have a new contribution to the show that I'm getting really excited for. Check out the treatment for P.J. Pickle-Pants PJ Pickle-Pants Runtime: 90-120 seconds PJ Pickle-Pants is a 13 year old boy who is a free-spirited, day-dreamer who puts off things like homework and chores. His best friends Harry Lettuce-Head & Bailey Banana-Belly always call and come over to play but PJ’s Dad, Peter Pickle-Pants wont let them play till PJ does his work. To inspire them Peter uses imaginative examples of why their work is important. The kids learn why they need to do certain things and have fun doing it. Characters PJ Pickle-Pants - - - - - - - - - - - Main Character Peter Pickle-Pants - - - - - - - - - PJ’s Dad Harry Lettuce-Head - - - - - - - - - - PJ’s Best Friend Bailey ...

Marieta and I have been homeowners for a year and two days. That's pretty wild. And now that I just typed that I realize we have been living in Iowa for a year and a half. Time flies doesn't it? Owning a house is a true sign of "growing up." In the last year we've run a rather successful garden, bought some minor pieces of furniture, a lawn mower, organized our garage, had several people over for dinner and get togethers, and just this weekend hung up window treatments (Have I been watching too much HGTV or what?). Maybe going domesticated is lame in some respects but I love having a whole house to lay around in, jam in my basement, store all sorts of stuff, organize my movies and comic books. So awesome. I have a freaking man cave. That's cool. I gotta decorate that thing sometime. Paint, posters, Maybe frame some of my favorite comics and CD art to show off my style... Who knows.

A blog I'm a huge fan of, Film School Rejects , has this regular feature called Coroner's Report where they review horror films. I normally pass it by because they are movies I've never heard of and I don't watch a lot of horror; However, the poster for the film they reviewed this week, Growth , was enticing enough to read through a little of the review. Halfway through I found this gem: " The sexiest part of the movie is probably her joke about “tickling [her] accordion,” which is decidedly less sexy when we find out she actually has an accordion." Hilarious. If you care to read the whole review based of this blurb, here's the link . Peace

Here's my Saturday; wake up at 9, go to the farmers market at 10, get home around 1130, and sit around until 7pm waiting for DirecTV to show up to install my satellite. So much for a 12p-4p install window with a call coming within the first half hour of my wait. No No No, I had to call the 800 # around 5p asking where in the heck our dude was. Turns out they screwed up and nobody got the message. In the middle of that call they send out a "seek and install" signal to any install guy available and I get a call. Dude says he'll be there between 530 & 6p. Not so much, 7p rolls around finally someone comes a knockin' at my chamber door. I am like everyone else. Over the course of several wasted hours waiting for something to happen that never does I get angry and bitter. But unlock like everyone else this raging pit bull turns into a cute little puppy the moment he sees the object of his affection. I seriously was sitting there re-reading Hitchhikers Guide, heard ...

So the buzz across the super highway today was there are supposed to be awesome auroras around midnight tonight... I'm pretty stoked to check em. Only thing is I have to kill some time until midnight so... What's Up? heh... All kidding aside, how's it goin? Been a while huh? What have I been up to? Well... I went on half of RAGBRAI last week. That was pretty cool. Invited my dad and Jordan along. It was a load of fun. I can't wait to do it next year. Hopefully it will swing through some places I have never been before (like this year.) Of course I took some pics and videos but I'm going to wait to unleash that until I get it my Dad's pics. He stopped all over the place for pics. Mine were mostly taken from my bike while cruising along. Can't wait to see my pics? O-kee, here are a couple to tide you over. Here we are (or more appropriately Jordan and my dad) riding into Clarksville on our first day of the ride. Pretty cool little town about 20 some miles into...

Now before anyone thinks I am super lazy please know that I ran in an organized 5k race on Saturday morning, spent an hour at the DSM Farmers' Market, biked 22 miles, and hung out with a lot of people this weekend. Also, if Marieta didn't have to spend all of her free time on her Master's classes I would probably have only seen one or two of these films but since she is tied to a desk studying... I have a lot free time. So here is how useless I was this weekend. Friday 1. The Spirit - Scarlot Johannson is the worst actress of all time and her looks are HIGHLY overrated. The film was baaaaaaaad, but fun in its badness. Not so bad it was unwatchable. Saturday 2. The Last Airbender - M. Night is done for. Everything he left his mark on in this thing (the acting, the plot, the voiceover) was absolutely terrible. That being said I hope they make the sequels because I dig the mythology and I have never watched/read anything Airbender related. Ditch almost all of the a...

I promise, I wont turn this into "Hey guess what I found in my garden today" blog. I am just swept up in the frenzy of birthing tastiness from the Earth. Here's another picture post. Here's Marieta picking some peas out of sad bean poles. We put the poles up too late and the peas haven't seemed to take to them very well. Doesn't seem to be stopping them from getting big and fat. Not that big, but the biggest yet. Zucchs aren't a pick and pop type of veggie. Gotta pick out the stamen and clear out the critters that have made the blossoms their home. I have to do it because Marieta is scared of the critters. Check out the haul. 1.5 lbs of baby zucch and 7.5 ozs of blossoms. Plus a handful of peas and beans. Don't they just look tasty? Happy 4th everybody.

So today is the greatest day in our home-owning yet! I could tell you all about it... or I could show you! Check out these pics. So we woke up with plans of thinning out the over growth on our backyard hill... Well while eating breakfast Marieta noticed that we had squash blossoms outside. So we ran out there to check em out. Holy Biscuits! All of our plants are flowering and ready to spit out some baby veggies. We harvested all the blossoms and baby zuchs. So.... good.... So Friday we couldn't see these guys from the kitchen... NOW WE'RE ABOUT TO EAT 9 ZUCHS!! Have you ever had Squash Blossoms? Oh buddy... you are missing out... Everyone loves fried zuchini. Well you don't know good till you've had fried squash blossom. All dusted up and ready to dance. Looks kind of like they are getting a carmel bath. To borrow a phrase from our favorite Food Network personality Alton Brown... Golden, Brown, AND DELICIOUS!!!! One of the most exciting things about becoming a homeowner...

I gotta say... as an Iowa State fan you have got to love this. The Big 12 is dead as we know it and that couldn't be a better thing. What worked in the Big 12 for Iowa State? Tradition? Sure, but a whole lot of good that turned out to be. BCS? Well considering we've played in ZERO BCS GAMES I don't think anyone should be losing sleep over that for the moment. Money? Are you kidding me? All the money our conference made went to the big schools. How can a school with a $25 Million budget compete with a $125 Million school. So as far as I'm concerned this is a GREAT thing for ISU. Colorado may have opened the door but I think we should slam it hard after all the greed filled goliaths are gone. Everyone has been talking about how ISU has no leverage in this whole ordeal. That is true and we should be celebrating. Those schools are about to leave and join mega conferences where the decent-bordering-on-bad teams will get absolutely pummeled. They are all gonna jump for the...

That is the latest video from PB & AJ. I am pretty proud of it. I think the song has a good message while staying fun, the video is a lot of fun, and it gets me excited for the next PB & AJ song. This is our 7th song. So far we have done Old MacDonald, Twinkle Twinkle, Hickory Dickory Dock, The Alphabet Song, Eat Right, Days of The Week, and now Outside. The last three are originals. I used to say I really wanted to write a kids album sometime... well guess what I am close to half way there. Can't wait till Christmas, we should have like 20 jams by then! Peace. If you're a facebook stalker, you'll need to search for PB & AJ on Facebook to see the video (or just go to my blog).

Last Wednesday I got to attend an advance screening of Iron Man 2 . Now that everyone has scene it, it's not that big a deal. However, I have a blog and I do critique films for my job ... this time we did something special. We did a two minute review for the news and then we let the camera roll and we just went with it. Here's what came of it: Yes I do bash this film pretty hard, and no after a week to cool down I do not relent, except on Sam Rockwell. I saw this film again on Sunday and I think he does an admirable job, he's just looks like a trained monkey compared to Robert Downey Jr. If you haven't seen it make sure you hear them say at the beginning that the Stark Expo is one week long. Everything that happens in the movie happens within a week... c'mon... C'MON! Oh well, Fun, nothing great and after the first film destroyed all other superhero movies this one should have, and could have, done the same. Still, I can't wait for Iron M...

We were busy like bees this weekend. Friday after work Nick Welter and I moved about 15 wheel barrels full of dirt to our raised beds. I was so freaking beat after all that digging that we were lights out in bed by 10 o'clock. I would feel like a loser but when you are working with shovels and dirt... you can't help but feel manly. Saturday, we woke up early around 8 and danced our way over to the Downtown Des Moines Farmers' Market. I brought a camera and this is what it looked like. Packed to the gills. Was a good time, ran into my old bud Dan Givens, his fiancee, and his parents, and talked to some of our favorite farmers. Love the locally grown produce... now if only they would split it into prepared food at one end, and farmers at the other. Get the fools out of my way who only came down there to buy a breakfast burrito. Saturday night Marieta and I drove all the way to Cedar Rapids for the Iowa Broadcast News Association awards dinner. It was cool and I got a second p...

Marieta and I are burgeoning documentarians. Something I've always wanted to do; however I've never had a topic that I felt warranted extrospection. Well things have changed. Marieta loves food, I enjoy eating, and we both carry a torch for the sustainable farming movement. Farmers Markets, Locavore, Organic; these are important words to the Bobergs V.2008. Recently we saw " Big River ," the follow up mini doc to " King Corn ." Both focus a lot of their run time on Iowa and farming in the state. For the most part it makes things look bleak. Well that just isn't so, some people in this state are growing ethical produce, raising livestock in a sustainable fashion, and sell products in a consumer friendly way. Welcome to " Sustaining Iowa ." You know when you have what you feel is a good idea and want to keep it hidden till it's come to fruition? Couldn't do it. I've talked with family, some friends, done a small amount of fil...

Tis a good day to be a Boberg, our tax return has a arrived. Sadly I think we missed out on the schedule M refund. if you have a job you get 400 bucks. That easy. lucky for us there are tax amendments. review your return and if you missed it as well. If you did simply fill out a 1040x and the schedule M form. easy stuff. all right my oil is changed, time to split. Peace

On March 20th, 2010 the 3rd Annual Scotty B Pool tournament took place in Jamaica, Iowa. 16 choice billards players were invited to compete in a tournament that consisted of 32 rounds of play. With that said... this looked like a perfect excuse to film a quick mockumentary. Please watch the entire piece as my favorite part is after the credits. Thanks for killing 6 minutes with me. Peace.     

Never have I gone this crazy on a bracket. In the first round I have 8 upsets. Generally I go pretty chalk in the first round. I'm feeling pretty good about my Final Four though. Kansas doesn't have face every team in their bracket just 5 of them, and of those 5 maybe 3 will give them a game. my Final Four is Kansas, Syracuse, New Mexico, and Baylor. What? Don't give me that, New Mexico is a good team and can really play. I watched a couple of their games this year and they were as entertaining a team as I have seen in a while. I'm pretty stoked for this tourney. My bracket will get ripped to shreads but who cares it's just fun to have a reason to cheer for teams in which I have nothing invested.

This past summer the man known as Martin Martini Ini gave me like 25 VHS filled with Horseshoe Spatula performances from the past 12 years and a bunch of other random craziness he gathered thru out the years. Things were pretty crazy when he handed them off but I'm finally getting to digitizing them. Here's a tasty shot circa... 2001? Sometimes facebook stalkers need to actually visit my blog to see the fun stuff; http://stuntbunny.blogspot.com Maybe you don't find that cool or even interesting in the slightest but being as these guys were my favorite band I love this crap. Also, ingesting all this footage allows me to spend a lot of quality time in my basement, and it is in need of some serious attention. Boxes upon boxes of randomness. In fact check out what I found last night while rummaging around: Yeah you remember Slingo. LIke 1997/98 this game rocked. I don't remember getting this handheld version... must have been like a stocking stuffer or something... Before I...

Two years ago Marieta and I attended a screening and community forum in Oakland, Califoran on the film King Corn . The documentary is basically two dudes learning all the uses of corn and how corn came be the wonder crop (and not in a good way) that it is. As a way to give the film some narrative they move to Iowa for a summer to grow an acre of corn on their great grandparents land. Really interesting and intelligent documentary. Well guess what... they're back, and this time they are looking into the environmental impact their acre of corn. Check it out: Big River Trailer from Wicked Delicate Films on Vimeo . Sorry Facebookers, you'll have to click here to watch this video. I'm excited to see this. They are touring the film around according to the Big River site . Even cooler than that! It's showing in Iowa, thanks to Practical Farmers of Iowa. Oh I'm going, who is going with us?

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This may not be the dream of living out Josh Baskin's job in Big but damn if it isn't close. The CRI has been producing a show for children called "Kids Show." Up until this week I've played a pretty minor role in the show; producing songs that my coworker AJ and I perform as "PB & AJ," but I've finally stepped up to the plate and started solely producing a segment called "Big Stuff." At first I was a little hesitant because I wasn't exactly sure how to tackle it but after just deciding to shoot something and just do it I think it may be the coolest thing about my job. Check out the first segment of Big Stuff: Snow Plow. I shot, edited, voiced, animated, scored, and did everything and anything involved with this segment (Well I did have a bunch of coworkers help me yell big stuff a few times...) I'm pretty stoked about doing this thing. I think I'll do wind turbines for the next segment. Anyone got any ideas what else I shou...

So a couples weeks ago Marieta and I were having some Jimmy John's in Valley West Mall when this mother pushed her stroller up to us and started dressing her baby for going outside. It reminded me of A Christmas Story where the main character's little brother is wearing so many layers he can't put his arms down. Anywho! I kept thinking how funny little babies are and it's weird how I was once that small. After pondering that for a couple seconds I got to thinking why do people stop growing? Seems like poor planning. If people continued growing throughout their lives I think elders would be respected much more. Who is revered the most? Really tall people. You just kind of respect that this person is so huge they could crush you if they wanted to. With the way the world is set up right now kids often grow taller than their parents, and without physically looking up at someone I think respect and admiration is kind of lost in the process. I mean imagine if your 18 years ol...