Drugs are not cool. Former drug users on the other hand...

I saw this documentary called American Movie a couple years ago and it changed my life. The movie follows around Mark Borchardt in his quest to make his first feature length film, Northwestern. A little back story on Mark - Mark is one of those weird dudes that probably played a lot of D&D as a kid and instead of reading The Boxcar Children or The Hardy Boys like all the normal kids, he was probably obsessing over Mad Magazine, obscure comic books, and re-creating scenes from Night of the Living Dead by the age of 10. What a nerd. I used to hate kids like that growing up, they were always poor and smelled like baby food and they always wore glasses with tinted lenses for some reason. Anyways, as I grew up, matured, and ditched all of life's social norms, I realized those little poories were actually pretty rad dudes for doing their own thing and living in their own little world.

Ok, so back to Mark Borchardt, the focus of the film. Dude loves horror movies. Loves them. His first serious attempt to make a horror film is a short titled Coven, pronounced "COE-ven". Mark's plan is to distribute Coven to 3,000 customers, which would net him enough money to film his dream, Northwestern. Mark has a best friend, a totally awesome friend, easily one of the most fascinating people alive, a model citizen, a life coach - perhaps, named Mike Schank. Mike used to do drugs. A lot of drugs. Like, in and out of the hospital, kind of drug use. Like, has been sober for years but you wouldn't know it from talking to him, drug use. TOTALLY RAD! I don't do drugs and I haven't for almost eight years now, but I totally respect people that used drugs so hard, they are forever out of their mind. Even though I condone that lifestyle, I still cannot deny the fact that they are fascinating people.

When I was in high school we had this completely crazy dude come to our church and speak. His name was Randy Hogue. Dude was a former drug addict, and you knew that from just looking into eyes. Yeah, he was that legit. So Randy comes to church and speaks to the teenagers. Great idea number one. We were encouraged to bring friends this particular Sunday, in hopes that Randy and his stuttering/incoherent message would lead these people to Christ. Yeah, right. Great idea, number two. So I brought some friends with me, and we sat in amazement as Randy actually picked up a metal chair and threw it at the ground, yelling "take that devil, you have no power here". That quote is totally solid too, he actually said that. Ok, after that Randy Hogue story, I guess I take back the part where I said I respected former drug users.

Anyways moving along...Mike Schank is the mellower/more awesome version of Randy Hogue. The whole point of this post is to showcase Mike Schank and to spread the word about how real this dude keeps it. So, here it is, from American Movie, I give you, Mike Schank: