We’re In For The Night

Raising-Arizona-William-Forsythe-John-Goodmanearlier today i realized it was the first friday of the month. that means that a lot of people are walking around the crossroads art district despite the cold. i used to be one of them– but staying home tonight just seems more appealing. i can tell people i’m saving up my energy for dec. 16. that’s when i’m scheduled to join an underground artist from india, and beep @ salon kitch.

Thanksgiving 2016

baby_babyi got to jam w/my nebraska nieces yesterday. georgia, molly, and i are playing a cat stevens song–> HERE in honor of thaddeus and maryam’s good news… they’re expecting a baby in june!!! a big thanks goes out to diane for suggesting we record something, and then capturing the moment. up until this point we were just playing songs by leonard cohen, warren zevon, and old crow medicine show.

Sunday Drive

usandrockjenny and i drove to mclouth, ks today to see a rock in the road. her brother steve told us about it last week. he said the residents couldn’t remove it, so they just paved the road around it a long time ago. i’m guessing that now it’s a vestigial rock, and at one time it had to resemble a dinosaur egg. on our way back home, i asked jenny to snap a photo of me in front of a giant tepee outside of lawrence.IMG_20161120_142646

We Beeped Cold & Small

3handslast night at salon kitch, beep goes the weasel was seriously stripped down to bare essentals. it was the least amount of gear i’ve ever had to lug to a gig. we made this kind of music with 13 baby carrots and two synthesizers that can fit in your shirt pocket. thanks to reggie and maddie for being hand models in the pic above. the temp got down to the 40′s, but we still managed to pull a few folks off the street to beep inside the salon.

The Bully Who Was Bullied

editon a recent episode of mortified (episode #78) i found out that zack ward who played a bully in a christmas story, drew from personal experience to act out that role so well. here’s a clip from the podcast where he talks about his bullies, and how their insults started to sound the same after awhile.

#gonzibbetts!

jessanddandan gonzales and jessica tibbetts were married last night! jessica is one of jenny’s cousins that we’ve gotten to know better after she moved to the KC area. we’ve watched her grow up since she was a little girl, and we’re so happy for her and dan (he’s a great guy!) more pics will be coming to prove that we were actually there.

Gumby’s Back!

gumbyartistwho is that green clay figure sculpting things out of clay? IT’S GUMBY! oh the irony. i mean after all… HE once was a little green slab of clay, and now his reruns are back on my TV thanks to a roku channel called night flight. jenny watched a few of these 5 minute episodes, and laughed at the animation sequences that inspired my imagination as a toddler. like the song says, “if you’ve got a heart then gumby’s a part of you.”

Guitarian Revisited

youngianeight years ago i recorded an abracadiner episode with ian mull. he was 10 years old at the time, and he could already play things on the guitar that made my jaw drop. a couple of weeks ago ian joined me for a neighborhood oktoberfest, and blew me away again. matt hawkins (the guy on the other side of me in the 2016 pic) is an amazing mandolin playing, paper toy making genius. i’m very fortunate to have such talented friends that say “yes” when i ask them if they want to play in a band called the enduros.

At Homer’s And Home For Halloween

batmanlatte2pumpkinstoday was my 12th halloween @ homer’s. i opened with chloé. she made a cool cinnamon bat latté, and we both put faces on miniature pumpkins. nobody even minded the weird spooky music we played until noon… ok, that’s not completely true. some folks rolled their eyes when they heard midnight howls and banshee screams coming over the main speakers. i couldn’t pass on a 3 hour compilation of 1960′s halloween novelty songs that i found on spotify. it even had some cool movie promos like this one.

charliebrownas i make this blog entry in my living room it’s a little after 7pm and we’ve had three trick or treaters come to the door. their costumes were spiderman, one of the power rangers, and a scary clown. the charlie brown gif above is courtesy of odysseyonline.com.

What The Mailman Brought

mailmani received a nice thank you card from the president of the strang line homes association a couple of days ago for providing normal and abnormal music at an event across the street. that’s when i played as beep goes the weasel, and as the enduros for a neighborhood oktoberfest block party. matt hawkins and ian mull joined me as the enduros. ian played a perfect note for note lead guitar part on the old santo and johnny tune, sleepwalk.