DaBRAIN

[caption id="attachment_599" align="aligncenter" width="544" caption="DaBRAIN gets some air"][/caption]

DaBRAIN and I have known each other since the fall semester of 2003 at the University of Delaware.  We were in the same vocal studio with our wonderfully fantastic vocal coach, Dr. Evans.  Or, PEV, as we called him.

[caption id="attachment_590" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="PEV"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_589" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="PEV and DaBRAIN, at the Vocal Studio Christmas Party"][/caption]

But at that time, DaBRAIN was simply known as Brian.  We didn't strongly bond, and he didn't earn the name DaBRAIN, until January 2006, during a mutual globe-hopping venture that took us to South Africa.  Our trip was of our own making.  We paid our own way to travel halfway across the world with a group of lovable misfits to volunteer at orphanages and hospices in both Kwa-Zulu Natal and in Gauteng.

DaBRAIN and Njebe = So Hungry

We had to move all 1100 of these blocks

Down this big ol' hill in KZN

It was there that our mutual love for Strong Bad became known.  From the moment the trip started going haywire (which was when our first flight couldn't land due to bad weather in DC, causing us to miss subsequent flights and delay our arrival in South Africa by almost a whole day - but that's a whole other story), we used the Strong Bad voice to find comedy in every situation we faced.  Brian became DaBRAIN, which was how his name sounded when speaking Strong-Badian.

Strong Bad

It was also in South Africa, that I convinced Brian that growing a beard was an absolute must for him.  I was known to our Zulu friends as Njebe - which is the Zulu word for "beard".  I was happy to have a friend with me who also was wearing a beard on his face by the end of the trip.

[caption id="attachment_595" align="aligncenter" width="489" caption="Beard and dagga (cement, not marijuana - the two sound the same in Zulu)"][/caption]

DaBRAIN and I had a chance to catch up in Delaware last week after a long hiatus apart.  He's now working in the political arena, working on winning campaigns and more importantly, answering complaints about proposed changes to bow-hunting laws in New Jersey.

Here are some photos we took...

-JoeySee