FISH SOUP FOR THE SOUL

We welcome you to visit our new website at www.archuletafanscene.com that is the new link for Archuleta Fan Scene

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Editor’s Note: Fish Soup for the Soul is the page on my blog where my guest bloggers and I can post our rants and raves. It’s where I’ll write about the frustrations and rewards of running a Fan Site, or anything else that comes to mind. It won’t follow any rules or format and will probably be completely random at times. I hope our readers will relate.

So, why did I name this page Fish Soup for the Soul?

Back when David Archuleta did one of his first interviews (watch here) for American Idol he was asked the question, “What’s the grossest thing you’ve ever eaten?” David answered, “This one Fish Soup my grandma made.” For some reason that answer stuck with me. Maybe because I can imagine David smiling and eating it anyway so he didn’t hurt his Grandma’s feelings. Sometimes in life we have to do things we don’t particularly want to, in order to do what’s right. That’s Fish Soup for the Soul. Try some. It’ll stick to your ribs.

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Say It Isn’t Sow

Okay, I get bored…a lot. So I decided to make this comic based on the little pig David used to draw with his signature. This first one wasn’t meant to be THAT funny. It’s main purpose was to set up the stories to come. If you click on it you’ll be able to see it full size. I’m not so good at this yet, but hey, I had fun. Hope you like it anyway. 🙂

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My ODD Intervention

Hmm…time to poke fun at myself today. The following conversation is loosely based on an actual event that happened at my friend’s house last night….VERY loosely based, Haha!

“Todd, we think ODD is taking over your life. Your friends hardly get to see you… we need to talk.”

“Shhh! This is the part where he busts into his falsetto Woo-ooh-woos!”

“We’re seriously going to snatch your face off if we have to hear that SNIPPIT CD one more time. It’s really hard to have a conversation with some one who’s flailing their arms and Woo wooing.
You need intervention.”

“OMD! Haha! That’s awesome!
You’re joking right?”

“We’re seriously thinking about calling in Dr. Drew. You need celebrity rehab.”

“I’M FINE.
Dr. Drew? Hmm… I wonder if he knows Oprah… Oh! I missed the last woo. That one’s my favorite. Dangit!”

“Todd, you’re in denial.”

“I’m in denial? De-Nile! De-NILE! Haha!”

“Todd, enough with the baby Moses impressions already, PLEASE get out of our laundry basket. And… what’s with the 11/11 tattoo?”

“Do you know people all over the Internet have reported seeing 11:11 on clocks everywhere for years! Now I know why! I think he’s trying to tell us something in ‘My Hands!!!!’
I heard it means you’re an ANGEL incarnate! SPAZ! SPAZ!”

“Sigh. Like today for instance. Remember when we went shopping? And we agreed to let you look through magazines, oh, like Tiger Beat to see if there were any articles about David?”

“Yeah? Haha.”

“Well, we didn’t know we were going to have to wait an extra half hour while you checked Good Housekeeping and Field & Stream.”

“OMD! That reminds me!
Have you guys heard David sing ‘A House Is Not A Home’ or ‘Nature Boy??? SPAZ!!'”

“FORGET IT! JUST FORGET IT!!!! AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!”

“See, I knew you guys we’re overreacting. I’m hungry. You hungry?
Who’s up for some Thai Food?”

11/02/08

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A Day Off For A Change

I’m taking the day off from Fan Scene today to drive down to Sunrise, Florida with a friend to hear Barack Obama speak. I don’t normally attend political rallies but I want to see history in the making. Even if Obama doesn’t become our next president he’s still the first African American presidential nominee in our country’s history. Today he’s speaking at the Bank Atlantic Center, the same arena I saw David on the American Idol’s Tour.

10/29/08

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Dream Meditations on the Archuleta Plateau

Last night I dreamed about David Archuleta. Now you’d think that after more than four years of running David’s Fan Sites I’d dream about him all the time, but I don’t. In fact this was only the third time.

The first time was back in 2005. Lupe called and offered to fly me out to Salt Lake City to see David perform at Abravanel Hall. I would’ve loved to have gone. But I’d invited friends from Illinois to come visit me here in Florida and I’d already bought their tickets and made arrangements. I couldn’t disappoint them. Besides, I was working for a non-profit organization and Abravanel Hall was a black tie affair. I couldn’t afford to rent a tux even if I could’ve gone. I had to decline an invitation from the Archuletas which would have been a great opportunity for us to get to know each other better.

That night I had my first dream: I was in the Archuleta’s house sitting around a coffee table playing Monopoly with the family. Everyone was laughing and having a good time. I didn’t even care that I was losing as usual. I’d brought my guitar and wanted to share a song with David that I’d written. I don’t remember anything else about the dream but that.

The second time I dreamed about David was when he was on American Idol. There was some concern on the message boards at the time that David didn’t really have his heart in the competition, that he wasn’t competitive enough to win. If you’ve ever seen the movie “The Princess Diaries,” there’s a scene where Mia’s friend Lilly is trying to convince her to accept her rightful title as the Princess of Genovia. Lilly tells Mia she’ll have a better platform from which to promote her charity/social causes once she becomes the Princess of Genovia. I’d been thinking about that a lot, so in my second dream David and I were outside of some school talking on the bleachers. Our conversation was straight out of that film.

The third dream, from last night, was the strangest of all. I was back living in the mid west but I was lost somewhere downtown. I saw what I thought was a familiar building and decided to go in for directions. I entered and walked down a flight of crumbling concrete steps to a record store in the basement. Strangely once I was inside the store, instead of getting help, I started asking if they had David’s new CD. The guy behind the counter said all they had was some promotional material and showed me a white CD he’d received that wasn’t available to the public. I asked him if I could at least see it. He handed it to me and I opened it. At first I thought there were no pictures, only words.

The inside cover reminded me of a couple of LP’s my older sister used to have in her collection. I don’t remember if it was the Beatles or Led Zeppelin, maybe both, that used to have – how do I explain this? – like a cardboard wheel attached to the cover that had various “windows” cut out. When you took your finger and turned the wheel you could see different parts of a background picture through the window. I took the unusual white CD in my hands and turned the wheel inside the cover, trying to get the full picture, one window at a time.

The background scene wasn’t at all like something I’d expected. It was a scene from the old children’s cartoon Pokemon and full of characters. I was trying to figure out the meaning, much like I did with my sister’s albums sitting on the floor of her bedroom when I was a kid, then the next thing I know a girl came out from the back of the store with something in her hand. She showed me a promotional poster they’d received and asked if I wanted it. I was excited and thanked her, then immediately started wondering if I could get David to sign it so I could give it away. I neatly rolled up the poster and headed back up the stairs and out of the store. Once outside I forgot all about trying to get home, thinking of nothing but the poster and the smile on the face of the person who would own it.

I woke up this morning wondering if all the time we put into Fan Scene is making any difference for anyone at all, or if it’s all just a dream.

10/28/08

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Coming Soon...

 ...a Cartoon of Enormous PIG-nificance!