I was serving as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which makes me one of those guys with the white shirt, tie, and black nametag wandering around wanting to talk to you about a certain blue book. I was living in an apartment in Perpignan with three other missionaries. We were divided into teams of two, and each team shared a bedroom and study area, while there was a common living area, kitchen, and restroom for the two teams. The facilities were definitely not equal, and seniority in the apartment generally determined who got the better room, study area, etc.

It took my companion (members of each team are referred to as “companions”) J.B. and I exactly 30 seconds after the other team was transferred to a different area to start claiming all the good stuff left in the apartment – the good set of bunk beds, the good mattresses, the good study area, and so forth.

While we were rearranging the furniture in the bedroom for our convenience, we had taken the mattresses off the bed to make it easier. I had leaned my mattress up against the wall to keep it out of the way.

I should note at this point of the story that most of the light fixtures in the apartment were of the “bare bulb” variety: to keep costs down, the apartment wasn’t outfitted with fancy sconces or anything like that — the wires just came out of the wall and there was a light bulb attached with a very basic connector. Not exactly spartan accommodations, but not luxury either.

Having done a good deep-cleaning and rearranging of the apartment, J.B. and I went to get some dinner and pick up the arriving team of missionaries at the train station. After that happened and everyone walked back to the apartment, I went into our bedroom to get something from my desk, turned on the light, and retired to another room to read without turning the light off on my way out. (It was starting to get dark outside, and the natural sunlight into the room wasn’t cutting it anymore.)

A few pages into my book, I noticed that there was a funny smell coming from… somewhere. At first I chalked it up to my neighbor’s cooking, but soon I realized that that wasn’t what it was. I got up and investigated the smell a bit further, and found that it was coming from our recently-claimed bedroom. I looked around some more and pinpointed the source of the funny smell to… my mattress. Specifically, the part of the mattress that was still in contact with the light fixture. More specifically, the part of the mattress that was on fire because of the contact with the bare light bulb.

I called “Fire!” and immediately dragged the mattress out to the spacious living area — I guess I figured there was more room to maneuver and less stuff to catch fire out there. I grabbed a large blue bowl, filled it with water from the sink, and with J.B.’s help, stuffed the mattress halfway out the living room window and doused the fire. We were four stories up, but thankfully that window opened onto a small alley, so I don’t think anyone got an unexpected shower. We retrieved the mattress from out the window, sat it on the living room floor, and sat down on the couch. By this time the other team of missionaries had finished unpacking and had come to investigate and have a good laugh at our expense.

In the middle of our conversation, I looked over at J.B. and said, “Mattresses smolder, don’t they?” He looked at me, realization spreading over his face, then agreed. We then set to work doing the only thing we could do — systematically tear the mattress apart to make sure that there weren’t any “hot spots” waiting for us. After a few minutes, we were satisfied that we weren’t going to burn up in the middle of the night, took a few pictures for posterity, and then retired for the evening… after putting a spare mattress on my bed.

I was inspired to create this a few weeks ago while I was going through a somewhat rough period in my life. I had seen a couple of “melted crayon” style art projects on the Internet, and decided to do a variation on the theme, by removing the original melted crayons I used to create the rainbow cascade and inserting black crayons in their place.

For me, this symbolizes that color can flow even out of the darkest periods in our lives. You might get your own meaning out of this, which is perfectly fine.

And why “(first draft)”? If there’s one thing I’ve learned as a writer, it’s that ideas can always be revisited/revised/etc. This is my first time doing a piece like this, and I plan on revisiting this medium again, so I can get a better result.

Fall

from Citizen Saint’s album “Waiting For the Light” (2008)
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This is one of my favorite bass lines to play because of its driving nature. I was listening to a lot of Muse while we were working on this song, but I don’t necessarily consider that a huge influence on this piece other than the fact that there are a lot of notes played really fast. This was also my first piece where I experimented with having the bass line parallel the vocal line rather than the drums or guitar. I’m very pleased with how it turned out. Plus, the guitar solo on this song, by Kent, is one of my favorite ever of his, and really turns this song into something uplifting. We would always close our live shows by playing this song.

Until Tomorrow

from Citizen Saint’s album “Adventures of the Crestfallen” (2009)
[soundcloud url="http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/35587959" iframe="true" /]

One of the things I was experimenting with on this song was making the song into distinct sections. This one has three sections: the verse is very funk-inspired (I think I was listening to a lot of Tower of Power around this time), the part under the guitar solo is an asymmetrical riff based around the chord progression. The post-chorus/outro part is more pop-oriented. I think I achieved my goal with this song, and I almost feel like the bass line creates its own “song” within the overall song while staying true to the theme of the larger work. We would always open our live shows by playing this song (under threat of me quitting the band).

Stromboli bread was something I used to make fairly frequently with my parents, so I thought it was only fair to carry on this tradition with my own children.

Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients:
3/4 cup warm water
1 package active dry yeast
1 tsp salt
1-1/2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp vegetable shortening
1/2 cup milk
3 cups all-purpose flour, approximately
10″ stick pepperoni, thinly sliced
1 c shredded mozzarella cheese
1 can sliced mushrooms, drained
1 egg
1 t oregano
1 t basil

Preheat your oven to 375F.

Steps:
1. Dissolve yeast in water and let sit for about 5 minutes until the yeast gets frothy.
2. Stir in salt, sugar, shortening, and milk.
3. Mix in the first two cups of flour
4. Gradually add the remaining flour until the dough becomes soft and smooth (not sticky) to the touch. You may need more or less flour than specified.
5. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead.

Please note: you do not have to let the dough rise!

6. Roll the dough into a flat rectangle on a lightly greased baking sheet.
7. Beat the egg and whisk in the oregano and basil.
8. Brush half of the egg wash on the edges of the bread.
9. Place a layer of pepperoni down the center of the bread (3-4 slices of pepperoni wide).
10. Place shredded cheese on top of pepperoni.
11. Evenly distribute the mushrooms on top of the cheese.
12. Pinch the sides and ends of the bread together to seal the pepperoni, cheese, and mushrooms inside.
13. Flip the bread over and brush it with the remaining egg wash.
14. Bake the bread in the oven for 20-25 minutes.

My daughter told me “Dad, if I had a trophy to give you for this bread, I would!” Our kids ate it up (literally) and begged me for more. It was awesome!