It’s his new project that I’m most excited about, though. He has rewritten FFOZ’s Torah Club Volume 4. The earlier TCV4 went through each Gospel and then Acts at the pace of about 2-3 chapters per week. The new TCV4 uses a harmonized version of the Gospels. In his answers, Daniel explains what’s new about TCV4—and what might be fairly challenging.

1. Why was a revision of the Torah Club commentary on the Gospels necessary? And what happened to Acts, which formerly was included?

The revision is necessary because we want our Gospel commentary to be comprehensive. The original was spotty and left out a lot of material, or covered material in only a summary fashion. Plus, I wrote that commentary seven years ago. I’ve learned a lot since then, and the scholarship of Messianic Judaism in general has advanced a lot since then. It was time for a more mature version of the commentary, lest it become obsolete. We pulled out Acts in order to accommodate more room for more commentary on the life and teachings of the Master. We plan on offering a new volume in the future with the Acts material also expanded which will incorporate a significant amount of material from the epistles. We are really trying to facillitate better learning.

2. What are some of the things readers will be surprised by?

Readers will be suprised at just how much material we are packing in, and how much is new material that they have not heard or considered before. We are taking on a lot of tough issues. To help prepare for this rewrite, I did a lot of work studying anti-missionary objections. We are addressing those objections. Readers will be surprised at how radical a straight-up, literal reading of the gospels can be. It’s pretty revolutionary.

3. How can an increased understanding of the Jewishness of Jesus affect theology and practice in the greater Christian community?

Understanding Jesus’ words correctly should have an impact on how we implement those words. Theologically there is a lot of trouble. A Jewish reading of the Gospels dislodges a lot of presuppositions, and knocks down some sacred cows. We aren’t going to tell people what to believe or how they have to interpret the Gospels, but we are going to say, “Check this out. This is the Jewish way of looking at it. This is probably what it meant to the early Jewish believers.” That can present a lot of challenges for Christianity. There’s room for all of us to grow in the paths of discipleship. Greater Christianity certainly does not need to start practicing Judaism, but we do need to realize that true Christianity is a branch of first-century Judaism. That’s the place to start.

4. In one of your video promos for TCV4, you say the following:

The problem is that until you study the gospels, which are Jewish, from a Jewish perspective, you don’t know that you don’t know what they’re talking about. But when you study from a Jewish perspective, all of a sudden the lights go on and you realize, oh, that’s what that was, that’s what that means. … For the most part, outside of a Jewish reading of the New Testament, people don’t know what they’re reading.

This is a very strong, challenging statement. Are you saying that  Christians haven’t truly understood the Gospels very well for two millennia?

Yes.

Ask a closed question, get a closed answer.

One of the more welcome public-address announcements at my place of work is “Dr. Church is in the building …” Twice a week, those of us who mostly sit in front of computers for a living get chiropractic adjustments from Dr. Ryder Church of Peoria (Ill.) Chiropractic as a work perk. To be honest, I never cared too much for chiropractors until I started getting adjustments from Dr. Church. He’s knowledgeable and direct, and doesn’t hesitate to respond to questions. So I asked him some. (And no, he doesn’t like the term “back cracker.”)

1. In the past, chiropractors had little respect in some quarters. Has that improved in recent years?

While it is true that in the past we had little respect, I do believe that the many benefits of chiropractic have earned us a respectable position with the public and with other healthcare professionals. Referrals from the medical profession have been on the increase now that they realize the great benefit for the patient in doing what no other treatment can. Advancements in technology have generated hundreds of scientific studies proving the benefits of chiropractic where just decades ago all we had were mere speculations.

2. What does an adjustment accomplish?

In its simplest explanation, an adjustment corrects a subluxation and restores proper nerve conduction back and forth from the body to the brain. A subluxation is when one or more of the bones of your spine (vertebrae) move out of position and create pressure on or irritate spinal nerves. Spinal nerves are the nerves that come out from between each of the bones in your spine. This pressure or irritation on the nerves then causes those nerves to interfere with the signals traveling to the different parts of the body causing malfunctions. Your nervous system controls and coordinates all the functions of your body. If there is interference with these signals, parts of your body will not get the proper nerve messages and therefore will not be able to function at 100%. In other words, some part of your body, organ or tissue will not be able to work properly.

While it is true that most people go to the chiropractor for a pain related event, Chiropractic was founded on and continues to be taught to our patients that restoring overall health is the ultimate goal of the chiropractic adjustment.

3. At what point do you send someone to a medical doctor?

Every patient is different in how they respond to care but most chiropractors follow a protocol as to when to refer to a different specialist. Obviously, if the patient has a condition that is not in the scope of chiropractic (i.e. life-threatening conditions, heart or lung conditions, fractures, tumors, dislocations) the referral is immediate. If a patient under chiropractic care is not responding in a time frame in which the chiropractor feels they should, a referral is made.

4. What other types of healing do you recommend people investigate besides chiropractors and medical doctors?

I have recommended patients seek physical therapists, acupuncturists, naturopathic doctors, nutritionists and other alternative health care providers. I also have recommended exercise physiologists and personal trainers. The body is not a system of individual parts. All parts work together to make up a whole. To focus on only one part and neglect the others only does the body a disservice.

If you want to find out more about Dr. Church’s services, take a look at his web site.

Related Articles

• Chiropractic FAQs – Lansing Chiropractor Tips (slideshare.net)
• Whither Chiropractors? A New Study Shows Many Folding Up The Table (blogs.forbes.com)

Derrick is 34 and has been at the P-D since 2005. He covers nothing but Cardinals, “24/7/365.” He also is a radio personality and this year published the book 100 Things Cardinals Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die.

The University of Missouri grad responded to my pitiful request to answer these questions “for an old journalist” by replying that he refuses “to believe there is anything like an ‘old journalist.’ Journalists don’t get old. They just get seasoned, smarter and furlough’d. Oh, and our handwriting goes to hell.” (He’s not kidding.)

1. You seem to do a large amount of work during baseball season–writing game stories and features, doing all kinds of stuff online, including the 10@10 entries on your Bird Land blog. How much of a challenge is it for you to get 10 at 10 done nearly every day during the season? (Note: Derrick’s 10-point post no longer has its own name; it’s a normal post on his Bird Land blog.)

You can just delete the qualifier there. There’s no need for the “during baseball season” line any more. It’s always baseball season and there’s always an audience for baseball coverage, especially in baseball-mad St. Louis. In the year and one month of doing the 10@10, I’ve found it a twofold challenge. First, the goal is to get it out by 10 a.m. each morning. That has proven impossible on some days, but I’ve yet to have one drift past 10:59 a.m. So, the spirit of the headline stays true, if stretched. Sometimes after a late night at the ballpark, it’s just difficult to get the gears going early enough to make a coherent 10@10. (Some would argue I fail at that, too …) Second, the content. I do try to keep notes every day on subjects that could make a good 10@10 entry or stats to look up. I also star quotes and anecdotes in my notebook that just won’t make the paper, but are perfect for a part of the 10@10. It all goes back to deadline. I’ve found that deadline is a great motivator. Writers’ block? There’s no time for stinking writers’ block when something has to be done, now. Perpetual deadline is my muse.

2. In the past, the Cardinals’ press box buffet had a pretty good reputation among sports reporters. Is it still impressive, or have ballclubs had to cut back? How does the Busch press box feed compare to those at other ballparks?

I am the wrong person to ask, as my colleagues in the press box will tell you. I won’t bore you with the reason, except to say it dates all the way back to my time with The Times-Picayune in New Orleans, where, my friend, let me tell you about the press box food there. It was a culinary celebration of jambalaya, crawfish, pralines, you name it. Any way, the short version of the story is I was bothered by something that happened routinely in the LSU media room and I stopped eating there. I brought my own food to the game, if I needed food at all. I’ve done the same thing ever since. I do have a weakness for pretzels and popcorn and will buy those from the food stands at whatever ballpark. But if I can avoid eating at the media dining center–no matter the cost (free, $5 or even $10)–I will, with the exception of the rare free box of popcorn or soft-serve ice cream.

3. Is there a lot of chatter among reporters in the press box during a game? Do you and the other P-D reporters on the road interact a lot with reporters covering other teams? Do you share info?

Yes, there is a lot of chatter. (And my chatter I mean sarcasm, playful needling and opining.) Yes, we interact. One of the best parts of traveling is getting a chance to mingle, talk and every so often clink pints with beat writers from other cities. Some of my dearest friends in the business are baseball writers, hockey writers, football writers, and basketball writers in other towns. Sometimes the press box is the only time during a series or the regular season we get to talk. Share info? Well, we do compete. Competition is essential to the job, and any time there is competition that means there is a winner. Who gets the news first matters. But we also know when to cooperate. An example that comes to mind is when there is one writer on the road sometimes you’ll swap quotes with the other reporter so that the game story has info from the other clubhouse. Quotes can be currency like that. News is a treasure you often keep to yourself until it’s published.

Exit questions: Who’s taller: Bryan Burwell or Bernie Miklasz? And how do you pronounce Bernie’s last name?

Mick-Liss. Not too tricky. Bernie is taller, I think, but I didn’t attend this year’s sportswriters combine.

Follow Derrick on the P-D website at his Bird Land blog, on Twitter at dgoold, and “like” his Bird Land page on Facebook.

Seth Ben-Ezra

It started when I was young. I’ve always liked the color black. After all, it’s the color of space and ninja! So I wore black a lot and became comfortable wearing black. I don’t really like having to think about clothes and fashion and the like. I get very uncomfortable when people look at me. So, wearing black makes getting dressed easier for me.

Over time, though, I’ve discovered other reasons that I wear black.

I want to be the kind of person who is honest with those around him. When I wear black, I feel like I’m presenting my true self, the person that I really am. I’m not trying to fool you or impress you or dress myself up. I’m simply what you see, and hopefully that will be a good thing for you. But if not, at least I was honest with you.

And black is the color of my inner self because I look at the world and see so much pain. I see all the hurting people and the oppression and the injustice, and I weep for those who are crushed. Black is the color of mourning, and so I wear black. I weep for the drug addict and the single mother and the battered wife and the unemployed husband and the family driven from their home by war and the baby torn apart in the womb and the prisoner warehoused like an animal and the woman raped in her home and the man whose masculinity is slowly crushed by the casual cruelty of his employer.

It’s only recently that I discovered the music of Johnny Cash. So, you can imagine my surprise when someone pointed me at “Man in Black”:

Well, there’s things that never will be right I know,
And things need changin’ everywhere you go,
But ’til we start to make a move to make a few things right,
You’ll never see me wear a suit of white.

Ah, I’d love to wear a rainbow every day,
And tell the world that everything’s OK,
But I’ll try to carry off a little darkness on my back,
‘Till things are brighter, I’m the Man In Black.

Yes. This. This is exactly what I mean.

That’s why I wear black.

Seth Ben-Ezra

Q2. Explain the process of creating an RPG.

First, I have to give a disclaimer. I’ve published three roleplaying games, am on the verge of releasing a fourth, and have three or four others in various stages of design, and each process has been a different experience. So, rather than give a general answer, I’ll tell you about the process I went through for two different games to give a sense of the different ways that a game can come into existence. First, I’ll talk about Dirty Secrets, which had a fairly standard production process. Then I’ll talk about A Flower for Mara, which was a very different animal altogether.

Dirty Secrets is my detective noir roleplaying game. Think Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe, and you’ll be in the right vicinity. However, Dirty Secrets isn’t intended to be a period piece. Rather, you create a detective story in your home town, last week. So, when I play Dirty Secrets, it’s set right here in Peoria, where I live, in modern times.

The seeds of this game were planted in my mind a number of years ago when I was exposed to the works of James Ellroy. Game designer John Tynes had listed Ellroy as an influence, saying, “If you want to read the best in new horror fiction, avoid the ‘horror’ book rack—Ellroy is fighting on the front lines of the human nightmare, and has handily left the sad remnants of the horror field in his wake.” After reading Ellroy’s Los Angeles quartet (The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential, White Jazz), I understood what Tynes was talking about. These were dark stories of crime, corruption, and depravity, where everyone is hiding something and no one is truly clean.

Sounded like the perfect stories for Christians to be telling. After all, we’re the ones who proclaim that man is truly fallen, right? But do we really know what that means? Have we really accepted how twisted we are? It is only in this context that the goodness of the Gospel shines forth. When we see the darkness for what it is, the light is all the more precious.

I didn’t do anything with this idea until August 2006. That was a fairly stressful period in my life, and I often deal with stress by being creative. So, one Sunday afternoon, I sat down and banged out my first draft of the game rules.

They were awful. But that’s part of the process. You write some rules, see how they don’t work, and then you write new ones that work better.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

During Dirty Secrets I consciously developed a creative technique that I’d used unconsciously in the past. I call it “media immersion”. Basically, when I’m in full-on design mode on a game, I will immerse myself in all kinds of related media and, as a corollary, avoid all media that is unrelated. My thinking is that this will better enable me to internalize the various aspects of the genre I’m working in. I’ll be more in touch with the “rules” and general feel of the genre (e.g. the first-person narration of many detective stories or their generally melancholy tone) if I’m spending lots of time around that genre.

For Dirty Secrets, this meant that I read a lot of books. I read all Raymond Chandler’s novels. I read Red Harvest and The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett. I read everything by Ross MacDonald that I could acquire. (I have nearly all his Lew Archer novels now.) I watched the classics (The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep, Chinatown) and discovered new works (Brick). On the musical front, I assembled a personal soundtrack of jazz, trip-hop, and chillout, featuring artists like Portishead; Bitter:Sweet;Esthero; and Medeski, Martin & Wood. This way, as I was listening to music, I was surrounded by the sort of stylish, neo-noir urban vibe that I wanted for my game.

For nearly a year, I lived in a noir world. My wife is incredibly longsuffering.

Someone once compared designing a roleplaying game to the deconstruction of literature. That may not be always true, but it’s a fair description of how I usually design my roleplaying games. While I’m doing my media immersion, I look for common threads between the various stories. Then I design rules to try to recreate those particular themes, tropes, or experiences. For example, in Dirty Secrets, all the narration is from the perspective of the detective. The players are only allowed to describe what he can sense. This is because the detective genre is ultimately about an single detective pursuing the case. It’s a very lonely genre, actually, and I reflect that in my game.

At this stage, I’m feverishly reading books, scribbling ideas, brainstorming rules, and then seeing if they accurately reflect the stories that I’m reading. Then, at some point, comes the dreaded necessity of playtesting.

Game design is ultimately a cycle of creating rules, testing them, and then changing them based on your testing. The fancy term is “iterative design”, and it can be a real drag sometimes. This is where most designers fall short. It can be a whole heap of Not Fun to gather people who will play your unfinished game and then get them to tell you where it isn’t working.

For Dirty Secrets, we decided to be hyper-organized about playtesting. My wife, my sister, and I playtested twice a week for two or three months. Each night I would lay out the new rules that I’d made. Then we’d play while I took notes on what was and wasn’t working. Then, at the end, my wife and sister would tell me what they thought of the game so far. Then I’d go off and write new rules. Repeat for a while.

At this point, I wrote up a beta playtest draft and put the word out on the Internet that I was looking for outside playtesters. I managed to land a couple of outside playtests and listened carefully to what these players had to say. This is an important step, because these people are learning to play the game only from the document that I wrote. This is when you find out all the bits that you thought you had explained well enough or that you assume that “everyone knows”.

With this information under my belt, I sat down to write my manuscript. This was sometime in early May. Our goal was to publish and release at GenCon, a major game convention held in mid-August in Indianapolis. Three months isn’t really enough time to do the job, so there was a lot of cramming. I actually took a week off work to help around the house so that Crystal could finish laying out the book. Even with that, I remember sixteen-hour days as we rushed to get everything ready to go.

However, we eventually got the books printed and were able to release the game as planned at GenCon in August 2007. All told, the game took just about a year to produce.

It was at this particular GenCon that my particular Internet community became exposed to Jeepform, a  different form of roleplaying that was being developed in the Scandinavian countries, particularly Sweden. As I heard about some of these ideas, I thought about a languishing project of mine about a dead woman named Mara.

A Flower for Mara started as someone else’s idea. Ben Best, a friend of mine, was working on a screenplay about a man and daughter who were haunted by the ghost of his dead wife. But really, the point of the story wasn’t to be scary. Rather, it was about this man learning to move on with his life and maintain a good relationship with his daughter after the death of his wife. Well, I thought that it was a great idea, and I had all kinds of opinions. For instance, I named the wife. “Mara” is the Hebrew word for “bitter”, which seemed like an appropriate name in a story about death.

Over time, the project was increasingly my project. So, Ben and I traded ideas. I took the Mara story, and he took a different idea that I’d had which interested him. So now I could take the Mara story and run with it however I wanted! But, um, what did that mean? I’m no screenwriter, and I didn’t really think that I’d ever be able to see it through to film anyways. I started the process of adapting the story to the stage. I even had a friend write a draft because she is much better at writing dialogue than me. But the logistics of putting on a play were beyond me.

And the project languished. Every so often, someone would look at it and say, “You know, we really ought to do something about the Mara play.” And we’d all nod, and that would be it.

But, when I started hearing about Jeepform, I suddenly thought, “You know, this would be perfect for the Mara play.” After all, I’m not a playwright; I’m a game designer.

The process for this game was very different from Dirty Secrets. Because I had three years of background for the story and a draft script for the play, I almost felt like I was adapting the play to game form. So, for example, the game has four acts for the four seasons of the year when the story takes place. Each character gets a scene in each season where he is in the spotlight. And so on. The final result feels a lot more like a free-form play than a traditional game.

The playtest cycle was shorter on A Flower for Mara than Dirty Secrets, though this is mostly because there are fewer rules in A Flower for Mara. We playtested three times, though the changes made between iterations were fairly minor.

In light of our experience with Dirty Secrets, we set specific deadlines for production of A Flower for Mara to avoid a last-minute rush. The fact that the manuscript was only a third of the length of Dirty Secrets probably helped.

Once again, we managed to get the books produced in time for GenCon, so we released A Flower for Mara in August 2008. Again, the game took about a year to produce.

Designing and producing my games is a lot of work. But it’s all worth it when the proof shows up from the printer and I’m holding the final product in my hand. When I am touching the book that we’ve worked on and I find that I’m giddy and excited, then I know that we’re finally finished.

Seth Ben-Ezra

Seth Ben-Ezra doesn’t just play role-playing games–he writes them. By day, the 32-year-old mild-mannered (and I mean mild-mannered) Peorian with a wife and six children is a systems team leader at Samaritan Ministries. Apart from that, Seth blogs here and creates a variety of role-playing games. But what goes into that creation? Glad you asked … Here’s Seth’s answer to Question 1. The next two or so will follow in coming days.

Why are you so entranced with role-playing games?

In order to answer the question, I should probably explain what a roleplaying game is. The simplest explanation is that a roleplaying game is a game of make-believe, similar to what children play. However, unlike the children’s game, a roleplaying game is organized make-believe. The rules tell the players what kinds of things they are allowed to say in the game, and oftentimes the rules add uncertainty or randomness to the imaginary events to keep things interesting. For example, in my detective roleplaying game Dirty Secrets, the game randomly determines the murderer so that all the players are surprised at the outcome.

So, what is so appealing to me about a bunch of grown-ups playing make-believe? The answer rests in the power of stories.

One reason that we tell stories is to try to explain life to each other. This isn’t necessarily a difficult concept. Consider the story of “Little Red Riding Hood”. This is a story about the dangers presented by strangers and outsiders, especially to young women. (This is particularly apparent in the French version of this story, where the wolf eats Little Red Riding Hood. No rescue from the woodcutter in this version!)

Or, for that matter, consider the classic film Die Hard. John McLane is so sympathetic because he is putting his life on the line to protect his wife. (His estranged wife, I might add.) As such, Die Hard actually exemplifies a honoring of marriage that is somewhat surprising for a Hollywood film.

But these are all stories told to the masses by “professionals”. What roleplaying games allow us to do is create homebrew stories formed from the thoughts, questions, and concerns of our immediate community. Through roleplaying games, people can make stories about the things that they care about. Through these stories, the players can talk to each other about their hopes, their dreams, their fears.

I have this nagging sense that some examples would be helpful. So, I’ll talk about some specific stories that arose from roleplaying games to show what I’m talking about.

If you’ve never heard of Japanese mecha anime, then the idea of Bliss Stage is going to sound more than a little strange. In this game, you all pretend to be teenage resistance fighters who survived an alien invasion of Earth. Since the aliens exist in a dream world, you fight them by forming a large robot in the dream world from your relationships with the people around you and using it to attack them. Thus, the damage that your robot suffers in combat is reflected in your relationships with those people.

I told you it was a little strange.

So, our resistance cell was located in the ruins of Peoria, which is where I live. Over the course of the game, it became increasingly obvious that the group was fighting a losing battle. There were simply too many threats to this little community in the city. So, at the end of the story, they pulled up stakes and left, heading north into the country to find a safe haven.

This ending bothered me. I didn’t want the cell to leave. I wanted them to stay and fight, to the death if necessary! But why?

Upon some reflection, I realized that this story had connected with me because I saw parallels with my experiences with Christians. I look around at the choices being made by Christians to leave the city and live in “safety” in the country. This really bothers me, because you’re supposed to stay and fight. Right?

But, what if you’re not in a good position to fight? What if you’re so hopelessly outnumbered that the wisest course is to withdraw in order to regroup? Could this be what my fellow Christians are doing?

I have found that I have a lot more patience now with the Christian agrarian movement, specifically because of the story we created by playing this game.

Okay, the next game is a bit easier to understand.

Breaking the Ice is a game for two players, where you play two people who have just started dating. Together you play through their first three dates and then, based on how the relationship developed, determine their final fate, either together or separate.

I played this with my wife once. Her character was Candy, a high-strung programmer, working long hours at her stressful job. (If you imagine this character being played by Meg Ryan, you’re on the right track.) My character was Lester, a poor black single father living in the projects, selling drugs in order to support his kids.

In the end, this romance ended up being about so much that is important to my wife and I. Love overcame both race and class divides; it also overcame resistance from her family. The two characters found shared experience in their separate struggles, and they came together to support and carry each other. And sure, they had to sacrifice so much in order to be together, and it certainly wasn’t a picture-perfect ending. But, in the end, they had each other, and that was truly a beautiful thing.

And this is an example of the very personal nature of these stories. This romance arose partly out of the memories that Crystal and I have of our own developing relationship, which was born in fire and shaped by sorrow. So many stood against us, so few stood with us. And yet, we have each other, and it is a beautiful thing.

Lester and Candy’s story was really our story, told to each other to remember where we came from and to reaffirm our love and devotion to each other.

(If you’re interested in reading a fuller write-up of this story, you can go here: http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=24600.0)

I wrote A Flower for Mara partly as a memorial to my mother, Linda Ben-Ezra, who died suddenly in July 2003 at the age of 51. This wasn’t the first death of someone close to me. In the first half of 1997, four people who were close to me died, including my paternal grandmother and maternal grandfather. As a result, I’ve had ample opportunity to grieve and to watch others grieve.

So, A Flower for Mara is a game about the family of a woman named Mara who died suddenly in the spring. The group plays through the first year after her death, dealing with the grief and pain and relational fallout. The game is set up to be performed like a play. Instead of sitting at a table, the players stand, walk around, and talk to each other as if they were on-stage. The physicality of the game provides the players with additional emotional connection to the story.

But that’s not all.

At the beginning of the game, each player is given a flower that he will carry during the game. This flower represents his character’s grief over the loss of Mara. During the game, if he decides that his character has begun the process of overcoming his grief, he puts the flower down in a designated place. However, at the beginning of the game, the player also wrote down an actual experience of his that caused him sorrow, grief, or pain. In order to put down the flower, the player must break character and tell the rest of the group about that experience.

In this case, the story functions differently. As we tell each other this story of sorrow and grief, we create a safe place to talk about the things that have hurt us, sometimes quite deeply. And then, we talk.

I don’t repeat the stories that I’ve heard while performing A Flower for Mara. It wouldn’t be right. If you weren’t there, you haven’t earned the right to know. At the same time, I feel responsible somehow for those I’ve performed A Flower for Mara with. They were open and vulnerable with me, for even a moment, and now I feel like I owe it to them to care for them.

I know that roleplaying games often have a bad reputation associated with them. You know, a group of pimply nerds huddled in a basement pretending to be wizards instead of doing something social or useful. However, I actually believe strongly in the power of roleplaying games to enable people to tell each other stories and, in the process, learn to speak to each other honestly.

Adam Gerik

I’ve always been a little jealous of Adam Gerik. He’s a talented photographer, but also a consummate skinny nerd who is not ashamed of the fact. Adam, who is 26, describes himself as a “visual journalist” for the Peoria Journal Star daily newspaper. He’s been a photographer there for nearly four years and now oversees video production for pjstar.com, the paper’s Web presence. When I was religion editor at the JS, I was always grateful to work with him. He was able to capture images that complemented the story but still stood on their own. In fact, I became so impressed over the years by his work that I took to calling him “Gerik the Great.” It just seemed to work. And it just seemed right that he would be the first subject of 3 (or so) questions. — MM

1. Why do you ride trains instead of fly or drive?

Perhaps it’s my way of rebelling against my Kansas roots, where the pavement is king and trains only roll through in the middle of the night. I had never ridden Amtrak before moving to Illinois. In fact, I was so absolutely train naive that a smartass conductor told me the toilets were $3 and I reached for my wallet. (http://ofadam.com/2005/11/announcement-2/) Oddly enough, I had only flown as a little kid before making Peoria my home… and although flying as an adult seemed magical at first, it soon lost its appeal after I saw a video of cattle being led to pasture and I now avoid it if I can. Time is valuable, but I consider train time to be twice as valuable as plane time.

And if you’re an anachronistic fetishist, the rails win every time.

 2. What about video can never give you the satisfaction of still photography?

Well, video can’t stroke my ego like a still photo can (or at least not yet!). I’ll pretend that I’m kidding, but it’s nice jamming newsprint stained with my byline into a person’s face when meeting for the first time. I suppose I could haul my laptop everywhere, or actually use the YouTube application on my phone, but there’s something about paper that screams importance. We’ll have to get past that if there’s any hope for journalism surviving in a state we recognize.

I think we tend to remember events as photographs and not as moving images. Video presentation online leaves a lot to be desired, and if we keep improving the quality and size of the display, this may make me more satisfied in producing videos. I have my fingers crossed.

 3. How will photography suffer when daily print dies?

If you’d asked me this question a few years ago, I would have agreed with you. But sites like Boston’s Big Picture (http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/) really show that web presentation can equal or even exceed traditional print presentation models. We here in Peoria are fortunate to have a printing press that won a Top 50 color in the world award a few years ago, but we’re definitely in the minority… most communities suffer on printing presses designed for black and white, not color. It’s just a matter of getting newspaper editors to realize that running large photos online is just as worthwhile as doing it in the print editions.

What I am concerned about is the devaluing of content online. When everything is free, how can you pay people what they’re really worth?

 4. Why do men without shirts often pop up in your photos?

Is this an ambush interview?!

ofadam.com is Adam Gerik’s blog and includes many of his photos. adamgerik.com is more photo-heavy.