Scott Desgrosseilliers

Boston Bachelor Party Dance Off

This needs no words

Women Unscripted

A long journey that began with The Luge Effect concept is now something we are calling Women Unscripted.  Dedicated readers and fellow Chicago party people may recall the Luge Effect:  Part-movie idea,  part social perception experiment, and a great reason to throw the party of the summer.  After months of pouring over the tapes from the Luge Effect, two things emerged.  The original concept of showing social perception before, during, and after a party was not being satisfied with the footage we’d captured.  BUT, and this was a huge but, the pre-party footage of the women Luge Effect stars was fascinating.  So we kept our minds open and slowly spun the narrative around the lives of our Chicago women.  Here is the trailer for the show:

Our goal is to create a reality show that captures city women in their dramatic everyday lives.  Think Sex and the City meets the Real World with a dash of American Idol style voting.  In addition to the theme of the trailer you just watched, we intend to implement a virtual girlfriend on the show.  Viewers will be able to call/text/web-form a vote on a ladies’ social situation and the lady will be fed the information real-time to decide how she is going to handle her life.

The Treatment.  A treatment is the format that a tv show gets pitched and evaluated against other shows.

The Website.  Explore and learn more.

One Year of Blogging

One year seems like a long period of time.  Hell, if I have to wait a week for something it feels too long.  I was tinkering with my blog layout and found that my archives extended back into March 2007.  It hit me I’d been blogging for over a year.

A blog comes in handy for doing a life year review…whether you want to or not.  It’s all there on the screen and in public for people to see what you’ve been up to.  When I look over my blog articles for the year, a number of things stick out at me.

My most viewed blog article:  the engagement story, 370 views on 12/13/2007.  My favorite story gets the most views.

My most viewed photo album : the luge effect party,  4336 views on 6/20/2007.  Nothing excites people like video cameras and the promise of reality tv!

The most popular google search term that I get hits for : “Water on the elbow”.  I remember that I wrote this blog because I was frustrated that I couldn’t find good information on it when I googled around for it.

I wrote most about travel and least about scott news. 

People got very irritated with my city vs. the burbs post.  Readers loved the frouple story while my favorite topics are about human perception.  My mother wanted to me to stop writing about getting drunk with my friends after the brewery tour post. 

I wish I didn’t post about the triathlon, because I didn’t do it and now I feel like I have to this year.

It is tricky to keep up the pace of blogging.  Sometimes, like this month for example, life gets too hectic and you just don’t have the time or care to post.  I moved in my fiancée this month, undertook an allergy shot regiment that left me sick as a dog, completed a bunch of wedding related items, and spent many many hours preparing a new meditation website I am launching next month.  All of these activities have given me great ideas on future blog posts, but I have found that when you are inspired to blog, you have to get in front of the pc and do it.  Otherwise it is 4 days later and you forgot why you wanted to blog about something to begin with.

This year I pledge to post more.  I have slacked lately and it keeps bothering me that I can’t get off my ass to post a few topics a week.  I’ve got a few interesting things going on that I look forward to sharing with my faithful readers –

• Women Unscripted.  The Luge Effect tv project took a twist and became a reality tv proposal to document women living the big city life.  More on this in a week.
• TheMeditationMind.com – I am going through a process to plan, market, and monetize a website idea around meditation.
• Personal Development book – I post from time to time on personal development.  I am going to continue doing that and use the basis of the blogs as a book outline.
• Wedding in September – Listed last here but first in importance, there should be a few entertaining stories to come out of the wedding journey.

Thanks for reading this past year.

Engaged!

The boat was floating in perfect position directly in front of the Magic Kingdom.  The fireworks display started going off directly over Cinderella’s castle.  After weeks of planning the moment was ready.

“It’s been a perfect day” theGirlfriend said. 
“The only thing to make it more perfect would be if you would be my wife,” I said. 

Her mouth gaped open and she put her hand over her heart.  For the first, and probably last time ever, theGirlfriend was speechless.   5 seconds seemed like an eternity. I realized I had no idea if I had actually asked her, and if so what her answer was, so I then managed to ask her to marry me and she now is known as theFiancee.

In hindsight if I proposed once or twice, if I got on one knee, any pertinent details at all - I can’t tell you, I think I had an out of the body experience.  The journey from Neighbor to Girlfriend to Fiancee has shown me that following your intuition and feelings as a guide can open up entire new worlds beyond what you think is possible.

I crafted a pretty sweet proposal plan a few weeks ago.  However, once I knew the date and the plan, I started getting antsy and was worried I would propose to her without everything being “perfect”.  So I had the ring shipped down to my grandmother in Florida, if I didn’t have it, I couldn’t give it.  Plus, theFiancee would have no chance of snooping around and finding it in my stuff.  I plotted with my family to ensure she would have no idea the proposal was coming and we set off for the best weekend I’ve ever had.

Friday my brother got married in a small intimate ceremony at my mother’s.  Everything went off perfectly and I am sold on a small intimate ceremony for our wedding.  Andy was thrilled and much more calm than he would usually be in a pressure situation.  I delivered a shockingly appropriate toast, casting off my plans to discuss how he got his nickname RoniBreath as a young Andrew and sticking to how happy his new bride makes him.  Then we were off to Orlando to see Cirque du Soleil.

Or at least I thought we were. When I got up to the ticket window the seller looked at the tickets, typed on his computer, and told me I was all set for Saturday’s show.  Oh shit!  I explained to him this was the start of a honeymoon weekend and is there anyway we could see tonight’s show in exchange?  Especially since I would be proposing the next night during the same time!  The ticket seller, in one of many things that would go my way this weekend, exchanged the tickets for dead-center seats about 10 rows up, the premium seats for the show.  Bonus!

The La Nouba show at Cirque du Soleil, how does someone describe this?  The show manages to almost overwhelm your senses with music, lights, and performers doing incredible things.  There is so much going on the panoramic view from your two eyes can’t take it all in, you have to constantly keep darting your eyes across the stage, up in the air, looking towards the ceiling, and at each eye’s gaze target you see something that makes you exclaim out loud.  My mother must have exclaimed “Jesus!” every half minute or so, especially when there were high-wire acts involved, it was hysterical.

Saturday I awoke and felt calm and excited.  Unlike in the movies or popular culture where the bachelor wakes up filled with dread, I could not wait for the big moment.   We spent the day at Epcot.  Disney has a new innovation at Epcot since I had last been there, called FastTrack, which allows you to get a cut the line pass during a designated time period.  This is golden.  I was continually shocked at the people that did not take advantage of this as we raced past them in line repeatedly.  Around 11am the Epcot rides seemed less desirable because the world showcase was open.  The Epcot World Showcase recreates a number of countries across the globe, you literally walk from country to country.  We had the great idea to have our own around the world drinking party, having a beverage in each country.  I was a little concerned this could lead to a disaster in the engagement plans, but fortunately the rules of our around the world party were that SOMEONE had to drink in each country, not everyone. 

After Epcot we had dinner at Citrico’s in the Grand Floridian hotel.  This is the elegant hotel on the lake in between Disney World and Epcot.  The big moment was approaching.  The master plan called for both my mother and brother to claim they were too tired to go on the boat ride I had arranged for the fireworks that night.  If I had told theGirlfriend that we were going on a private romantic boat cruise, she would’ve been all hawk-eyed about an impending proposal.  During dinner I left the table to go check out the boat and make sure it was adequately prepared.  I received a frantic call from theGirlfriend.  “Your family is insisting they don’t want to go on the boat! What are we going to do!”  I told her the boat was non-refundable so I guess we’d have to go on it alone.  But while that was the master plan and it was working out perfectly, I had a change of heart.  I felt it would be better if my parents and brother were on the boat during the proposal, especially after seeing the boat’s layout and ensuring we’d have privacy.

I stopped at a Disney convenience store to get some beverages we could toast the engagement to.  The checkout clerk told me I could only purchase 2 items.  “Get me the manager!” I sternly commanded.  The manager showed up and I told her “Listen, I’m proposing in 15 minutes.  And I intend to have a toast afterwards.  I understand you have this 2 item rule and I want more than that.  Make it happen!”  She smiled and did so.  I felt like Teen Wolf when he is buying a keg of beer in the store, and his eyes start to glow and he gets wolf-like.  I am not sure what happened to my appearance but I got the store to sell me what I wanted.

The last part of the plan was getting everyone on the boat.  My mother had already passed me the ring under the table so as far as she knew, the plan was to stay off the boat under all circumstances.  We walk towards the boat and I get Melissa on it first.  I turn to my mom and tell her to get on the boat, it’s fine.  She and Dan get on it.  My brother is unaware of the change in itinerary, he is telling me that his bride is seasick and can’t go on.  I walk up to him laughing and whisper that it’s cool, get on the boat, so they do.  The boat ride is perfect.  We are treated to a light show and then the boat maneuvers dead center in front of the Magic Kingdom.  I am trying not to make it obvious, but I can’t help keeping a death lock grip on the ring through my pants.  I’m afraid it could be lost at sea – funny story for everyone but me if that happened.  The fireworks start up and if you’ve been reading this from the beginning, you know what happened next.

It is my brother and my understanding that females will wear black on December 8th next year to mourn us both being taken off the market on the same day.

The Luge Effect

Mark and I are throwing a huge social experiment/reality-based movie party/experiment on June 16th.  The plan is to film a few different social groups before, during and after a long drunken party night.  The Luge Effect will hopefully permeate everyone's brains and create a memorable night. 

For those who have decided to stagnate in the suburbs for too long and can't remember what a luge is;  It's a block of ice with a mini waterslide cut down the center of it.  This creates a luge that allows various types of liquor to effortlessly glide down to someone's gullet.  A few of these and life becomes quite nice.

This party came about through the power of attraction as manifested by Mark.  He has been obsessed with making a movie.  I couldn't get a week to go by without him bringing up the topic.  "Scott, we gotta make a movie."  I would bitch, "We don't have a script, we've never made one, I am too friggin' busy.  Make it yourself, I'll watch"  He would answer "You gotta do it with me."  This conversation repeated itself over our weekly Big Bowl lunch, at happy hours, 3am while doing shots with Paco and Bonn, Sundays at brunch...he would not let it go.  Finally he organized a lunch between myself and the film guys he knew.  The goal of the lunch was to brainstorm ideas.  I was not thrilled, it sounded like mental masturbation, we would all get excited about stuff and get nowhere on it.  At least I was going to get free big bowl.  However, on the walk over I thought that there has never been a great party movie.  I don't mean a movie where everyone gets loud and obnoxious.  Something that captures the unique social dynamics that occur during parties.  I brought up the idea at brunch and the rest of the gang loved it.  So we're going to throw pre-parties, a party, and a post-party brunch, film it all, and see where the dust settles.  Worst case, we have something funny to watch with some friends.  Best case we can quit our jobs.  Here is the description of the event from the evite -

Do you want to become famous? Or, at least settle for getting drunk and hooking up?  We are willing to bet you like the sounds of that, hence you are invited to our Luge Effect party.

The Luge Effect is a reality-based movie to explore peoples perception before, during, and after a social event. How many times has your weekend experienced the following timeline?

1. Meticulous planning of exactly what to say to that certain someone at the perfect moment during that weekend’s social event.
2. The night of the party arrives, drunken mayhem ensues, all plans tossed out the window.
3. Hung-over at brunch piecing together the previous nights events, everyone seems to remember things quite differently.

What is reality? Is it your perception of what is happening as it occurs? As the memory fades into the past, does your recollection at any point in time constitute the reality of the situation? As new details emerge and submerge over time, can you accurately say with conviction what occurred?

Help us find out, on film, while doing ice luge shots and speaking your mind at the drunken confessional booth. Please be prompt, we have the pool deck 7-midnight. We may be the stars of Sundance 2008. If not, we can at least have a kick-ass film viewing party at the end of the summer.