We're not in Kansas anymore . . . . .

I recently returned back to my home town in Western KS. to visit my folks for the Holidays. I haven't been back in sometime and not much had really changed. Mostly, flat brown pastures, with a few scattered trees that trace along the rivers and creeks, and the ones that outline the towns. The only other trees are long lines of trees called shelter belts. These are rows of trees planted in the 40's to keep the gusty western Kansas winds from blowing the dry soil away. You can also see for miles out there. From my folks front porch I can see about 7 small towns dotting the horizon and at night you can see the lights of many others. While out hunting, I also noticed how many old cars, decrepid farm machinery and other junk that litter the tree rows and abandoned farm yards. The people in that area never trade tractors, cars, or throw anything away. They just drive the wheels off of them and stash them nicely in a tree row. Even though I grew up there, to this day I'm not quite sure why. One thing however, did catch me off guard since living in the city, the rural area wave. Weather you know someone or not, people wave, and wave back. I did, for the first time, realize each person's wave is as distintive as their personality. Some folks have the standard back and forth wave, some have the #1 finger just off of the steering wheel, while others just give you a little flip of the hand. Nothing, however can top my friend Stoneys' wave. He uses the, not too uncommon, in my neck of the woods, gunfighter wave. This is when you take both hands off the wheel, make a pistol with your thumb and index finger and in gunslinger fashion, shoot at the vehicle, following it all the way till it passes. It's a bit dangerous but at least I always know who it is. I hope this little blog will make you want to visit someday. Come down and see some of the sites, like the largest hand dug well, the largest ball of twine, or just meet some real nice people.

- Justin

Home is where the heartland is. . . .

In 6 min. . . benjamin wagner's new record officially "hits the streets". Granted it's not the next new U2 record and there aren't lines at record stores waiting for the stroke of midnight. But judging by my excitment it may as well be. Now to be honest, I already have the record, in fact i have been hearing it every step of the way. You need this album! I was told one time, when it comes to songwriting "what comes from the heart goes to the heart" and this album does just that. How he manages to be surrounded every day by music dilluted by fads and trends and come out writing songs that are real, solid and drenched in integrity is beyond me, but he did it. It is a real honor to be asked to be a part of benjamin's heartland record. This big city cat had the worlds best musicians at his fingure tips, many of the ones we oogle on television walking by his office every day, but he chose to come to iowa and collaborate with us and then trust us to release it on Authentic Records. Get in line. It is almost midnight. Buy this record, listen to this record, tell your friends about this record. Who knows if enough people hear it, maybe he'll be in MTV someday.
- Jason

Technology is awesome!

So we get home after a night drive from Milwaukee (I mean I slept the whole way but still) at about 8amish this morning. I’m thinking, yay, we’ve got this big show tonight, I’m gonna go home and get some gigawebbing done, maybe catch up on some stories on the old TiVo, and do some laundry, but first I have to go pick up my van that died before we left, and has been sitting at Drake Garage for like 2 weeks.

So Mike, Jason, and I are in Sweet Thing (the old band van that has seen it’s day, and that day is long gone) leaving for Drake Garage, and we notice a wonderful grinding noise every time Mike pressed the brakes. So we’re thinking, oh rat farts, we’ll have to drop off Sweet Thing where we pick up my van, because the brakes in this thing are obviously done. Just as we’re making our hi-tech observations, and congratulating ourselves on a well thought out plan, some lady comes from the lane right of us in her Buick and starts to turn left. Mike had three choices, crank it left and turn in front of her, thus getting us around the corner first, slamming on the none existent brakes, or just T-Bone her and collect the insurance money. Mike chose the first choice without even skipping a beat, and in fact used the gas to get around the corner even faster.

So Mike is where he’s going, I dropped Jason off, and I’m home now. Alright, I’ll catch up on gigawebbing. Check some emails, do some update stuff, you know, just party in general. Well guess what, the modem’s flashing, the bad way. No high speed. Alright unplug the modem, restart the puter, none of the regular stuff worked. This is perfect timing. It’s not like there’s a big show to be worrying about today…………Turns out someone was drilling where they weren’t supposed to be drilling and cut some main line.

The nice lady on the phone says it’ll be a couple hours. Alright, I’ll catch up on some TiVo. I’ve been waiting to watch my stories for like 2 weeks now. Oh guess what, it’s got like 8 episodes of Monster Garage and American Chopper, but none of the shows that I had really wanted to see. (I’m not going to tell you the show, because you might like me less. Let’s just say there are a bunch of people LOST somewhere, and each episode tells you NOTHING. So I lost my LOST……Luckily someone, but I won’t say who, [Jason] is a fan of the show too, and his TiVo has a DVD burner on it, so he’ll just bring them and I’ll catch up on the road. Only if I get through all the episodes of White Shadow…

So none of the other shows on the TiVo list look appetizing right now, and I’m sure as hell not going to watch TV in real time, so I sit here, technologyless. I could go get strings right now, but why not procrastinate a little. I don’t have to be back to the bus till 4 for this little show tonight. This little opening slot gig we have tonight here in Des Moines……..opening for this guy, umm what’s his name? He’s from the east coast somewhere…what’s his name again…..oh yeah…BON FRICKIN JOVI BITCHES

By the time you read this I’ll be plugged back into the world.

Jon
10am