Monthly Archives: July 2018

…that’s the name that josh gave our song collection aka our EP album that we recorded last friday. dash and shave is what we called ourselves instead of josh and dave. the first song we recorded that day was shampoo for my teeth. lyrics:
i wanna keep it simple
i wanna keep it neat
i got two potatoes
i got a piece of meat
i don’t complicate it
i go with the flow
just where it’s goin’
i don’t have to know
toothpaste is just shampoo for my teeth
mouthwash is deodorant for my breath
toothpaste is just shampoo for my teeth
mouthwash is deodorant for my breath

rich maxwell loves marbles. i met rich outside of homer’s one day while he was visiting with fred kornis. within a few minutes we were talking about how cool it would be if a marble roller track would cross the corner of 80th and metcalf. if you google “rich maxwell” and “marbles” you will get more results than you can shoot an aggie at (remember aggies?) anyway, rich emailed me a few days ago & asked how he could hook a makey makey circuit board up to a marble track to make sounds and/or music like i do with vegetables. i can’t wait to see what he does next!

josh’s family is moving to las vegas next week so this week he and i have been spending a lot of time together. tuesday we:
-went to the northmoor castle
-explored the caves at park university
-played ping pong in the student center (josh’s first game!)
-spent an hour and a half at tapcade
yesterday we:
-split 8 tacos at jack in the box
-went back in time at the johnson county museum
-practiced church music
-crashed movie previews at the rio (josh had never been inside)
today we’re gonna record some original music for posterity, but if the winds of change blow us in a different direction, we will follow!

our good friend dave lofton was in town yesterday. he crashed at our house last night, and we talked over coffee this morning. it was a pleasant visit, but i don’t always leave myself open to opportunities to hang out with friends. sometimes i have anti-social tendencies, and i start resembling a hermit. i almost resisted the idea of having company over, but then dave walked in the front door and it felt like 1986 all over again.

i brought beep goes the weasel to the herman family reunion so the kids could make music on celery, bell peppers, and bananas. no one was more surprised than i was when we figured out how to play the peter gunn theme! in this recording, jenny’s little cousin jaden is playing the two high sustained notes while i play the other part. the first time i heard this catchy riff was when i watched the blues brothers. then few years later a video game designer used it for spy hunter.

yesterday i woke up in marengo, IA after thunderstorms took the edge off the triple digit heat index. it was the last day of the 46th annual herman family reunion. reminders of years past (like this pic of jenny & andi in the 1970′s) were all around the 4-H hall where the family gathers. we circle up for spaghetti and hot slaw on friday night, circle up for lunch and dinner on saturday, count to see how many hermans made it, sing, pray, and eat. oh yeah, the auction raised over $3,000 this year despite a low turnout. i’m still a herman every fourth of july weekend, couldn’t be prouder!