Summer into Fall

The wintertime is the perfect time to catch up on a blog, especially after 4 blizzards, subzero temperatures, and too much Fall traveling. With about 1 1/2 feet of snow still on the ground in Lincoln, our warm-up to 40 degrees was a 70 degree temperature differential from early January, when the low was -30 degrees. So we sunbathed and had a cookout this weekend, and thought about planting our garden......yeah right, there's more cold weather on the way.

We miss those 70 degree January days of Oklahoma. As I've driven back and forth to from Lincoln to OKC to play gigs with my band and record a new album with them, I've noticed the north end of the "Sunbelt" stops somewhere near Salina, Kansas on I-35 and El Dorado, Kansas on I-77, which is the better drive through the Flint Hills. North of those points, whether you live in Fargo, Minneapolis, or Lincoln, the weather is the same. Gray and bitter cold. Now I understand the literature of Northern and Central Plains, dark and brooding, is directly tied to the weather. I wear bright clothes sometimes, hoping they will bring the sun out!

Below are some highlights from the summer and beginning of Fall. Hopefully these will bring the an early spring just by putting them up.

Dave and Erin at their wedding in upstate New York the past summer.

Dave and Erin.

Ellie and Michael Martin.

Don Weston and Renata

Chris Ogilivie.

Paul Dellevigne.

Spencer and I.

For some reason, a long game of kickball ensued with the wedding party, which was a good idea since most of Dave's friends required a good "sweat" to exorcise the previous evening's festivities before the wedding ceremony. This is Devon Williams.

Devon, Renata, and Eva.

Chris.

Don.

Devon and Chris.

Paul. One must note that Paul no longer wears suits anymore, and has a diverse wardrobe of jeans, non-leather bottom shoes, and casual bowlings shirts. This is a "California look" via Philly.

Chris with the "kickball," which was more like a medicine ball. It hurt your foot when you kicked it. And it was funny when someone got hit in the head with it, balls hitting people in the head or groin is always funny for some reason.....

Before we went to the wedding, all of us were at grandma's house in Annapolis, and this is Spencer learning to swim in his "floaty" vest.

Spencer on Chesapeake Bay. Strangely enough, he is dressed exactly like Paul Dellavigne here.

My dad reading a book with Spencer.

My Zephyr

The fall has been full and interesting this year. I've been traveling both for my editor job and also to play frequent gigs with my band, Zombie vs. Shark. The shows have been intense and much fun, especially playing in Norman at Universe City, which is an all-ages venue and has the old-school, anarchist type of setup. There's no door charge, only donations; no stage, you play on same level as the crowd; and it's full of the same weird kids looking for something different than what's made-to-order, ready-to-wear from the corporate music industry, just like when I grew up in the 1980s.

In a word, it reminds me of the music scene when I was a young adult, perhaps a little bit better since the cops don't break up the shows, and with larger crowds, so it's kind of flourishing. Perhaps this signals, like the Nixon-Ford and Reagan eras, an efflorescence of left-leaning youth who are disillusioned with the return to the 1950s during the Bush Era. Whatever is happening is encouraging, because the kids and young adults seem to be doing for themselves all this music and the art that goes along with it. There's an intense wave of artistic and political creation going on that has not been witnessed in a generation.

Whatever is happening seems much better than me sitting around trying to write another book, so I've confined that to the early mornings so as not to take time away from creating music with my band, Zombie vs. Shark. Getting into the flow of life with the four friends in my band, and articulating our view of life, collaborting on scoring our songs, just can't beat by sitting alone writing a book. It's probably better, since doing all this stuff gives some depth and perspective on life, which is necessary to write a good book. I also have a full-time day job as an editor, so writing seems like work when I'm at home, so there's no pressure to do it.

So basically......I'm justifying my procrastination in getting my writing done........and loving every minute of it!! Rock on, bang your head, trip out, or do a stage dive, whatever turns you on.

Philip Rodriguez, our boy-wunderkind, new singer.

Ron Haas, connoisseur of French radical thought.

Robert Scafe, our songwriter who puts the "brood" in our sound so it's dark and twisted.

Jeremy Gragg, a.k.a. Big J, resident, organic Oklahoma intellectual....better than Will Rogers.

100W, 4X12 Marshall stack and a hunk of Mahogany by the name of "Guild Nightbird II."

One of Phil's two instruments, the microphone.

1x15, 200W of power, with Lemmy-esque fingerwork.

The other 100w, JMP powered 4X12 Marshall, with Mahogany named "Gibson."

Ron and his loud kit......equal parts Keith Moon and Karl Marx.

Winter into Spring

I have not posted a blog since last January, right before Tabby, Spencer, and I prepared to relocate from Norman to Lincoln. Moving is always a drag, and this one was made more difficult by the myriad remodeling to be completed before we listed the Norman digs, and departed for Lincoln. It began in February and we finally moved in late May. It was super gnarly and the last bit of work on the house was the hardest, since I decided to blow it off, you know, "until later" as any self-respecting homeowner/self-contractor would do it.

Why spend all that time, like a Rodin, trying to make that 85 degree corner "look" perpendicular, when you can be running in mud puddles with Spencer? Why would you try to make level, like Marcel Duchamp, that 5 degree dip in the floor when you could be at the skatepark? Why would you try to tie-in two walls of different composite materials, like Dan Graham, when you could be playing a gig with your band? I'm not an artist, and no trades-skilled person is. Exactly, you know what we're talking about.

So when we made a bid on a good HUD-owned home in Lincoln, it was time to hustle to the finish line and deal with those crummy legacies of owning and remodeling a poorly remodeled home.

And we also bought another fixer-upper, since we're old home junkies, and why pass up a good deal, especially when all housing has been over-inflated and over-speculated since 2002? Who wants to pay more than you should for a piece-of-(add your expletive here; you can add "heaven" there if you're opposed to profane language)?

Below are some highlights from the winter and spring, and I will blog again very soon, so stay tuned.....

Home Sweet (piece-of-_ _ _ _?) Home in Lincoln

Spencer playing on the old storm shelter. We were glad we never used it (except Tabby when she called me while in Lincoln in May, the day after I left, during the gnarliest tornado outbreak last spring. Thanks Big J, Jaysie, and Tara for going over there to help her out!)

Getting ready to dismantle the vent....

Flower Child

Grinching it.

The boy and the dog.

Running through the backyard buffalo wallow.

These are some shots of the house, remodeled. We lived in it, finished, for about two weeks.

Living room.

The backyard and studio. Of course, the garden was very nice the day we left, in full bloom.

This was the studio, where we recorded the Zombie vs. Shark album, and was a hangout spot during the spring and summer. It was also the guest room.

The back deck.

Sunset in the Flint Hills, on the move to Lincoln.

A summer sunset in Lincoln.

At the new house.

Dark cloud over Lincoln (physically and mentally...).