Waking Up to Hand Grenades

My name is Nik Brink. Sex Truck, Paranoia Music and The Muzzlers are my bands. I attend Columbia College Chicago. I am a photographer, writer. and sculptor. ESTP.

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Visit Original Link

A track off my band The Muzzlers upcoming new EP, “As A Matter of Courtesy”. The Muzzlers Bandcamp

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New Sex Truck Mixtape Here

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This is a mix tape I was just making for my girlfriend, but I ended up liking it so much, I mixed it all down into an hour long mp3 and posted it for everyone.

I had a good day today. The cold, dry weather reminded me of football season coming soon, and it's always a good day when that happens, for me. I went driving around with my windows down and I could feel the cold hair on my newly shaven head. It was very refreshing.

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I got my head shaved today. I've done 15 loads of laundry this week.

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I went to Pierogi Fest on Saturday. This happened. I ate pierogi for the first time. It was good. I had no idea what to expect.

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This is the live recording of my band's show on Friday the 13th of July, 2012. We played for a crowd of less than 10 people, and it was the most fun I've had playing music in a long while.

You can download it here.

Jon on guitar and vox, Andrew on guitar and bass, and I'm playing drums.

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kellyturk:

Bob Brink bought beverages. He walked, Nik and I drove, and I think we all enjoyed the drinks. What a good morning.

Great morning with the girlfriend. Didn't wake up until 11:45am. This has been a great weekend so far.

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Today is my brother's birthday. We're going to Red Lobster for dinner with my brother's friend James. I just played video games with him for a few hours because that's what he wanted to do. Birthday games are the best kind of games. I'm going to band practice tomorrow and Sunday night, it looks like. I'm getting nervous about playing this show. I need a new bass drum head, as the one I've been using broke clean through last night.

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Kelly and I are sitting on the couch watching out the window waiting for the hail to start. I've never seen hail before.

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Kelly’s teaching the dog how to do tricks.

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Wrong blog, oops.

[kellyturk]

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At the carnival with Kelly.

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House sitting with Kelly. I don't know if she knows I took a picture. She's studying for her test on Monday. Polypeptide.

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The film we shot for the 24 Hour Film Race premiered tonight at the Portage Theater on Milwaukee. The music I made for the soundtrack won "Best Original Score" out of all 29 films at the festival. Even got a certificate to prove it! I could honestly, really not have done it without Andrew, Jon and J.T. helping me out. Really, this is the best effort we've had from our whole crew yet. I am so excited that I've been working on music for so long, just doing it because I love it, and then this happened. I can't even express my excitement in words.

If you want to watch the movie, you can, HERE. You can also watch the short, behind the scenes video I shot during the making of the film, HERE.

On another note, The Muzzlers are playing a secret show soon, so we're going to be practicing a lot in the next few weeks to get ready for it. I am learning how to play drums all over again with a kick pedal, but it's actually going a lot more smoothly that I thought it would. Everything is sounding much tighter, and I can't wait for people to hear it.

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The Muzzlers are in the studio again. We've been recording a few new songs and I think they're turning out really well. This weekend should be fun. I have a lot of exciting things lined up. I'm going to watch Game of Thrones on Thursday night with Julia, and then see Kelly on Friday night. I think we'll go see a movie and grab some dinner? And then on Saturday I have to record Ryan playing guitar before his birthday party (that I am also going to.) I got offered a job today out of nowhere, so I'm sending in my resume tomorrow before class. Wish me luck everyone.

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My grandmother gave me all of my grandfather's old ties today. She was going to donate them all to the Salvation Army, but she brought them out and asked me if I wanted any of them before she did. All of them are like, handmade Italian silk. So I took the whole hanger full of them and told her I wanted them all. My grandpa's juice was obviously up to 11, because he had some pretty amazing ties.

Sorry I haven't been updating as often as I'd like, I've just been busy with my list and getting everything planned and ready to go. I am still excited, and everything is proving to be a lot more work than I thought, which is great. That means I picked good things to try to accomplish. I am challenging myself to get shit done. And that will be even more rewarding when the tasks are finished.

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Went to the Cubs game today. They lost 8-7, but it was exciting right at the end, and I didn't have to pay to go, so it was worth it anyways. Hanging out with J.T. and Chris was a lot of fun, and I forgot how funny some of the people are who sit around you and yell at the players all game.

Two beers and a hot dog cost $20, however, and that seems to me like highway robbery.

After the game we walked to "Cheesie's Pub and Grub" on Belmont. I HIGHLY suggest everyone try that place once. The grilled cheese sandwiches they serve there are amazing, and the staff are all super friendly. It was a crazy good dining experience.

J.T. lives right down in the thick of everything. It's so cool that he can walk less than 10 minutes and be right down on Addison and Clark. It took us no time at all to walk to Wrigley, Cheesie's and then back to his apartment. When we got back, we sat down and ate sausages that Chris brought from some magical sausage farm in Wisconsin, and watched an X-Men movie.

I have to get to sleep now, because tomorrow I'm going to be staying up for 24 hours straight in order to write, shoot, edit and submit a film for the 24 Hour Film Race. Wish me luck everyone!

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I hung out with Kelly yesterday. It was awesome. We don't get to see each other very often. It's amazing how even after your away from some people, no matter how long, you just click with them instantly and you go right back to being great friends just like that. She's going to be working at a hospital pretty soon, so she doesn't have a lot of time even now, as it is. I am thankful for any time I get to spend with her. We watched an awesome episode of Futurama with my dad, where they did 3 different styles of animation all in one episode. First it was 1920's Black and White "Steamboat Willie" style, then in was 8-Bit, and finally, the last 3rd was crazy 1990's Japanese Anime. It was amazing. I suggest everyone try to find that episode. It was really well done, and very funny.

Today I am going to go to the Cubs game with J.T. and Chris... J.T. is another one of those people I don't get to see very often, so I am excited to see him for the whole evening, get drunk and watch baseball. Maybe we'll go back to J.T.'s after the game and play some RockBand like old times. (We haven't gotten a chance to do that since he moved out of Oak Park.) I would enjoy getting the band back together. lol.

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I got a new tattoo yesterday. It's the double thumbed peyote fist made famous by Hunter S. Thompson. HST is my favorite author/public figure, and I've wanted this tattoo for a very long time. I think the artist did a great job.

Tonight Kelly and I are going to hang out, which is awesome, because I haven't seen her in a very long time. After I drive my brother to school, I'm going to road trip down to Indiana to pick her up and go have dinner. I am excited.

This weekend is going to be crazy busy, but I am looking forward to all the film making I have ahead of me. The Month in a Minute project is coming along really nicely, and the 24 Hour Film Race should be a blast. I also bought some passes for paint balling that I'm looking to sharing with a few of my friends. 

I'm trying to make the most out of my limited time this summer, and I feel greatly accomplished already for all the stuff I've gotten done. I look forward to working on and finishing the rest of it.