Author Archive for jon

Question

Where the heck is James Wright?

Shellunion

update_reunion1.jpg

I prefer to use bullets, if that’s alright with everyone.

  • The wife and I both finished school with our respected degrees back in May 2009. 2 weeks later we moved into my parents’ basement in Washington. It was a fun summer. Needless to say, we’re both very glad to be done with school and to be living much closer to family.
  • Christy and I bought a house back in September. It’s located in downtown Saint Charles, MO. We’ve had our fair share of undisclosed surprises, but we love it and the work that it comes with. Come visit!
  • The same day we closed on our house, we went and got a cat. Her name’s Scorpio. She came with that name. She’s a pretty good cat; meows a bit too much if you ask me.
  • I’m still working at Starbucks. Christy is teaching at an alternative school in downtown St. Louis.
  • I’m not sure if I told everyone, but my sister had a baby back in September 2008. His name is Jaydon David Shell, and he’s a blast and an enormous blessing to our family. I’m a big fan of being an uncle.
  • I’m participating again in Whiskerino 2009. It’s the last one ever. Pictured above is a beardless me. I hate shaving, but I’ll do it for this. It’s quite the experience.
  • We’ve been going to a church plant here in St. Louis called Mosaic. I’ve been leading worship for several months, and I’ll be going half-time after the first of the year (expect a support letter in the mail!). We love the church family there; it’s been a blast getting involved and meeting everyone.
  • I hope this will suffice. I miss all you guys.
    (I’m not very good at the photo collage blending effect.)

    Homecoming

    After 6 years away, I’m coming back, and I’m bringing my wife with me. We’ll be living in Washington for the summer in my parents’ basement. I’m really looking forward to being in closer proximity to most (or some?) of you. We’re setting sail Saturday morning, so if you’d like to help us move Saturday evening and maybe a little on Sunday, we’d be greatly appreciative. My cell phone number is the same!

    Hosting

    My friend Christ Westrick, the man that has hosted The Vifl for the past year or so, is canceling his hosting service to save some money.

    So, that means we need to find a new hosting home for the Vifl. Can anyone put us up? I’d like to start transferring all the stuff over asap so that Chris doesn’t have to worry about it anymore. Anyone? Anyone?

    Muxtape

    I wanted to introduce you guys to Muxtape, where you can “make mixtapes that play anywhere.” I set up an account in a matter of seconds, and started uploading songs write away. I thought it’d be a neat way for us guys to share music we’re listening to and to find new stuff we like. Sign up, upload songs, and post your profile link the comments of this post. Please?

    Micro-blogging and Tumblr

    Micro-blogging is a thing of the future, and I’m trying the sucker out. Very low-maintenance and highly customizable. I highly suggest everyone look into the greatness that is Tumblr.

    Vifl Winter Mix ‘08

    Alright boyaz, here it is. I went ahead and converted all files to .mp3 format.

    winter_08_small.jpg

    Vifl Winter Mix ‘08
    Download (82.5 MB)

    Tracklisting:
    01. Interpol - Next Exit
    02. Death Cab For Cutie - A Movie Script Ending
    03. Beirut - Forks and Knives (La Fête)
    04. Aaron Robinson and Ryan Malina - Revive
    05. Bonnie “Prince” Billy - Love Comes to Me
    06. Counting Crows - Goodnight Elisabeth
    07. Denison Witmer - Love in Mind
    08. Andrew Bird - Plasticities
    09. Nada Surf - Your Legs Grow
    10. The Gloria Record - I Was Born in Omaha
    11. Great Lake Swimmers - Moving Pictures Silent Films
    12. Isaiah Muller - Fine Like Wine
    13. Wilco - Someone Else’s Song
    14. Josh Ritter - Best For The Best
    15. The Winston Jazz Routine - I See a Map
    16. Band of Horses - The Great Salt Lake

    Vifl Mix

    I’ve been toying around with the idea of making seasonal Vifl Mixes - spring, summer, etc etc. I don’t like the idea of burning them and mailing them out and charging everyone a dollar or something. SO, from now on, I think I’ll just upload them to a server and make them available for download (and free cover art, too!) for free.

    I’m getting on this a little late, so I’ll be starting work on the winter mix today, and will hopefully have it all finished and ready over the weekend.

    Whatchoo guys think?

    Library of Congress on Flickr

    I wasn’t aware of this, but the Library of Congress has a Flickr stream of tons and tons of old photos of American culture. Check out there 1930s-1940s in color set, it’s incredible.

    The Kempfs’ Christmas Card

    Did anyone get one? Did anyone laugh out loud at the mail box?

    No idea, boys.

    Maybe someone who knows something about Wordpres and PHP can look into it?

    Whiskerino ‘07 is underway.

    Day 1 has come and gone. This is the beginning of something very special, indeed.

    Pieces.

    Last night I had a little pre-Whiskerino ‘07 fun with the beard. Figured it had to all go tomorrow anyways, might as well look awesome.

    While we’re posting tasty vids…

    I saw this today and cracked up:

    I thought this was interesting…

    From Finding Rhythm:

    I love the bit where one of the kids suggests that America “can’t stomach” the war in Iraq…then he fumbles to find any kind of reason why he hasn’t enlisted. Priceless.

    In some ways I can’t really blame these kids. They are simply walking the same path as their leaders, our president and vice president who were able to avoid the messiness of actually taking part in active duty during war time. It’s easy to see how the success and influence of their political heroes would rub off on the young ones.


    Vifl Summer Mix '07

    Download it in iTunes or order your own.

    The Shimmy

    This site is sort of like a John Cougar Mellencamp song.

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    The Guys

    Jon Shell
    Leo Kempf
    James Wright
    Daniel Myers
    Lewis (Frog) Stone
    Jacob Snyder
    Randy Dimmett
    Drew Vedenhaupt
    Matt Harr
    Ryan Gelinas
    Jeff Miller