Lead Thoughts

New Web Address

2009-10-09T02:20:00.000-05:00

After much talking about, we've finally decided to go ahead with renting a hosting server, which has provided a home more my sites - which have been otherwise off the air since the move to the US.

Both Blogger and Picasa have made for good temporary solutions for both my blog and photos, but it's going to welcomed only having to write blogs in one location, rather than having to write it and then copy it over to Blogger.

To go along with hosting, I've gone and registered my own domain, as well as one for Lost Horizons. With the new home of my site being http://www.markord.com/, no-one has any excuses or justification for snotty comments about not being able to remember the URL of my site.

Hence this will be my last blog on Blogger, unless something terrible happens. The fun will continue at http://www.markord.com/weblog.php

A Bone To Pick With The Phoenix New Times

2009-09-26T23:23:00.001-05:00

So, this week's edition of the Phoenix New Times came out this yesterday morning. With leaving for Kansas City early yesterday morning, I tried, but failed to find the Best Local Band category.

With a bit more time tonight to search around, I've found - with disappointing, though somewhat expected results - Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers took the title. Of course, this isn't that surprising - for reasons that are the same as why I have a bone to pick with the New Times. Firstly, pitting them The band firstly has been around for 11 years. Secondly, the band has an organized (albeit not as organized as years ago) online community - which was informed to vote for the band. Which is fine, but it's kinda ridiculous of the New Times to pit the likes of Roger Clyne The & Peacemakers against the truly local bands like Strange Young Things, Sugar Thieves and the other nominees who I'm not even familiar with.

My biases aside against Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers and pro Strange Young Things aside. it really makes this such a pointless category, and kind of misguided I think. Clearly the definition of "local band" is not restricted to acts with national wide reach, and given that, why not just put the Gin Blossoms in the nominations - who would similarly crush these really "local" bands. Maybe next year they should great a second category "Best National Local Band" so that there is at least some competition and worth to the "Best Local Band" category.

Rant ended. But let me say that Strange Young Things are by far the best local band of 2009 in my mind!

Missouri To Arizona In Photos (And Back Again)

2009-09-22T15:23:00.000-05:00

The best of the photos from last week's trip to Arizona... (Click the collage to see the album)

Adios Phoenix...For Now

2009-09-17T23:37:00.000-05:00

There really is no rest for the wicked - we were up and at them and out of Aaron's place by 7:20am, headed back to Missouri! We're currently in Tucumcari, New Mexico for the night. It's been a fairly nice day of driving, despite the patches of rain that we've had both in Arizona and New Mexico.

Driving out through part of Tonto National Forest was awesome - as always, the scenery was breath taking - saguaros as far as the eye can see, and amazing rolling mountains. Similarly, the New Mexico landscape in and around the border is really nice (although, quite different to the Sonoran Desert). I did think to myself that the trip back is somewhat disappointing to the trip out to Arizona. Going to Arizona, everything incrementally gets better and better - until the complete overload of beauty (at least for me) of the Sonoran Desert. Going back however, you kind of blow your load (or mother nature blows her load ;-) ) in the first few hours, and it gets slightly less exciting - which means that tomorrows 11+ hours driving probably won't be quite as inspiring as todays.

We do however have the promise of a little bit of rest once we get back to Missouri (likely to only be "a little" actually) which I'm sure will keep our spirits up as we head through Texas, Oklahoma and finally get back to Missouri!

The Streets Of Guadalupe

2009-09-16T23:18:00.006-05:00

After getting the apartment taken care of, I wanted to drive through Guadalupe before heading back to Casa Grande, partially to get my bearings on it's proximately to the apartment.
Surprisingly to me, we're north of it, rather than south of it. I've only been through it a select number of times - maybe twice in 2005, probably at least once in 2006, and then on the way home last night. Going through it again tonight really helped me get my bearings on it - as has been true of a lot of the east valley over the past week.

I was particularly on the look out for Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, which I actually missed last night. Pretty much immediately thinking about it, we were approaching it off to the right / west. Now this was a sight to behold. The church looks amazing no matter when you see it (back in 2005 I was immediately blown away by it - and only later discovered that it's the church seen in a lot of the ¡Americano! era Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers photos). But tonight, with the sun setting at dusk over South Mountain as a backdrop to the church was really a site to behold - completely amazing. A picture says a thousand words, but I don't have one to post here, since photography is forbidden (however, I may be confused about that only applying to when a religious ceremony is occurring). A completely amazing sight to see in any case!

One thing I haven't previously noticed, which I love, is that Priest Drive transforms into Avenida del Yaqui (translated - Avenue Of The Yaqui) and then right back to Priest Drive south of Guadalupe. The transition of such being exactly like Guadalupe itself - there is no subtle transition any of the 3 sides that border Tempe - it's an immediate transformation into the historic / south of the border feel town, and an immediate transformation back to the modern American feel of Tempe. It's really quite amazing to me the way Guadalupe is nestled inside Tempe, and doesn't at all feel effected by the modern suburbia around it. This is true even with the huge Arizona Mills mall directly north of it over Baseline. The idea of living somewhere with a community / town such as Guadalupe in it is really cool!

It was similarly cool that noticing that the section of Guadalupe Road in Guadalupe is signed as Calle Guadalupe (as appears to be true of all the roads in Guadalupe, looking at Google Maps), as we looped around east, heading back towards Tempe to see the extent to which Guadalupe streaches (1 square mile as it turns out) before getting on the I-10, headed for Casa Grande.

Guadalupe Cemetery

2009-09-16T23:09:00.001-05:00

While driving around the area around the apartment complex, we stumbled upon Guadalupe Cemetery. Completely unexpectedly, as it's located in Tempe, in amongst the suburban streets north of Baseline. Neither of us any idea that it existed (it goes without saying that I didn't if Katie didn't).

We only saw it briefly from the dead end of south Beck that leads into it, but it looked like it'd be a beautiful cemetery. I have no idea whether it is open to the public / people not of the Guadalupe community, but it was pretty amazing stumbling across it.

And Scene...

2009-09-16T22:43:00.003-05:00

Our extra day in Arizona got off to an early start, driving back up to Tempe, dropping off some of our clothes that we're not taking back, and then heading over for an 11:30 appointment at the one apartment that we singled out out of the batch we drove by last night. In short we like what we saw. Compared to the front runner yesterday, it's a bit bigger, a bit cheaper, got a bit better crime rating, and is a bit closer to downtown Tempe. A bit better on all sides basically.

After the appointment we went over to Pete's Fish And Chips for lunch, to discuss this over food. Much to my dismay, I threw cigarette lighter in the trash. Not on purpose, of course! I took a brief walk down Apache to try and fix the situation of not being able to light a cig, but unfortunately Pete's is basically surrounded with just accommodation. However, it we had a delicous lunch, and red the Tempe Daily, which had an interesting article about Resturant Mexico's constant displacement around the downtown area. We'd just been talking about that yesterday afternoon, noticing that the building it was last in on Apache has been demolished. The site is no doubt awaiting another freakin' high rise to go up there. What the hell goes through the heads of the people in charge of this town, I don't know.

In any case, after finishing our food, we moved to the back of Pete's for a bit more quiet, and after a while moved the pow-wow to Tempe Beach Park, since the garbage smell at the rear of Pete's was getting to me - as to was the lack of nicotine, I'm sure! So we swung past the Safeway on Broadway to grab a lighter, and then over to Tempe Beach Park.

While ironically it was noisy over there since there was a construction crew putting together stages for Arizona Fall Fest, it was pretty nice being out there. We crunched the numbers, weighed crap up, played devil's advocate - and decided to go with the apartments we looked at this morning. And then went through our plan to make it happen. So following this, it was over to the Tempe library to use the internet, over to Kikos on University to send a fax, and then back out to the apartment complex to put in our applications. Basically an afternoon of criss crossing across Tempe taking care of business. We got our application in around five, which brought with it a huge sense of accomplishment. After this we spent some time driving around the surrounding areas - again - but this time with the perspective of it being our new home if the application in accepted.

Of all the major things we set out to achieve in Tempe / Phoenix, as of about 5pm tonight, we achieved them all. not bad considering that we arrived around 5pm last Thursday, and we were done by 5pm Wednesday this week!

Apartment Decisions Continue...

2009-09-15T23:46:00.003-05:00

It's been another long day out in the Valley Of The Sun, trying to sort out living arrangements. Earlier in the day it was a case of weighing up whether we're going to live on Mill Avenue, or further south close to Elliot Road. We did some research this morning on things like crime and what not, and went back out to both apartment complexes.

The way things are shaping up, the Elliot Road location is looking much better, despite the painfulness of the better size at South Mill. And the fact that Yucca is ridiculously within walking distance of the complex on South Mill. Something that makes the decision incredibly painful.

I've been wanting to take some video driving around downtown Tempe, and we got that down this afternoon, and towards the end of that, we, without much explicit discussion expanded our apartment search to others in Tempe (a few hours earlier it was pretty much just down to the two aforementioned apartments). At some point, stuck in traffic on Apache, right in the middle of the ASU area, I had the presence of mind to tune into The Blaze in the car - ie: on a real radio! I've been listening to the station for years online, and have been meaning to do that this trip, but have consistently forgotten whenever we've been downtown. So, this afternoon I finally did it, tuned into The Blaze on a radio (and checked their old frequency - 1260AM - funnily enough, nothing appears to be broadcasting on it at the moment). It was enjoyable that at around 6:20 the played They Way We Talk (The Maine). Driving down Rural, tuned into The Blaze and hearing The Way We Talk, there is just something damn cool about that!

We found a few other complexes that may work for us, and hence we're going to delay our trip back to Missouri until Thursday (originally we were leaving tomorrow) to do some more research, and hopefully have things narrowed down tomorrow.

Shelby James @ Rula Bula

2009-09-14T23:37:00.001-05:00

I Love When My Reputation Proceeds Me

After killing time, we headed back to Mill Ave., and parked near Mission Palms, which was just a short walk to Rula Bula. Which I'd guess I'd always thought of being closer to the University end of Mill. But y'know, aside from the big touchstones (pretty much the 7th block, and Monti's at Rio Salado, by memory of Mill always gets a bit screwed up.

The size of Rula Bula was also surprising and impressive. I have a recollection of looking in there years ago, but had no idea that it spanned two shop fronts. In anycase, Shelby was setting up by the time we rolled in. The place was particularly quiet, making it wasy to pull up a stool at a table with a really good vantage point.

When Shelby started playing, it was a mixture of covers, with a few originals interspersed through the mix. Probably not surprising, since his Monday night gig was providing music for the eating / drinking crowd of Rula Bula. At one point early on, Katie went outside to talk to Aaron on the phone, after which we were talking about how he should by a Folsome Prison shirt while he's down there, and how cool that'd be. Ironically, in the middle of the conversation (without overhearing it), Shelby launched into Folsome Prison Blues. Incredibly spooky! And also the fact that it's the second time in a few days that it's been played (Stephen Ashbrook being the other time) and we had only dropped Aaron at the airport to head out there two days ago!

At some point he launched into Scarlot Harlot, which was an impressively more 12 bar bluesy rendition, conpared to the album, which was really cool to hear. In hindsight, I really wished I'd recorded video of it. But my camera batteries were starting to go, and I was holding out for Dance Like Jesus. After Scarlot, Shelby asked for any requests and Katie called out for Just Like Heaven by The Cure. That's our new thing - to try see how many people we can get to play it. An idea that we came up when we saw Ashbrook launch into it in Kansas City (and then again the other night at Martini Ranch on spotting Katie's Cure t-shirt). Alas, Shelby didn't know it. I'd been planning on catching him in between sets and requesting Dance, and since The Cure request didn't pan out, I just called out for that. Which changed the whole direction of the set list, since he now realized someone (us) was there to see Shelby James songs, not covers! And hence launched into that, and two others off Downs On 9th.

When it came time for a break, he immediately came over to our table and apologised for the "gospel covers" and that he didn't realize that we were there to hear his stuff. After some introductions, and determining that he recognized Katie (as they "ran in the same circles" - probably largely Los Guys shows and explaining the move from Australia to here, he asked if I was into Dead Hot Workshop. And then if I had been at the Stephen Ashbrook show on Friday night. Why yes, of course I had, but how the hell did he know? He proceeded to explain that he was working on his new album at Curtis' studio over the weekend and he'd mentioned that I'd been at the Stephen Ashbrook show and was from Australia and was really into the Tempe music scene (enough to move here). So, once again, my reprutation proceeded me. It really goes to show what a small world it is (at least in the Tempe music scene), to see Curtis (without any prior knowledge) playing with Stephen Ashbrook on Friday night, Shelby being at his studio on the weekend, and then us going to see Shelby on Monday night! I had wanted to, particular with Rula Bula being so quiet, introduce myself to Shelby and mention being into his stuff, and all the work of doing that was removed by that twist of events! We ended up having a really cool talk about the music scene, past and present and our travels, which was really cool. We also mentioned that we were after his second disc, which unfortunately he didn't have any copies of on him.

After quite a decent talk, he took his break and then played his second set. By this point, Rula Bula was quite empty, with us being the only people there except for a few people at the bar - which really turned into a nice little private show for us, focusing on his own songs, both "from the CD you don't have" and some stuff off his new record which he's putting the finishing touches on at the moment. Too cool, and made me really glad that we noticed that he was playing tonight.

It had admitedly been a long day, and thankfully he finished up at midnight. "Thankfully" just because we had the 45 odd minute drive back to Casa Grande ahead of us, and we didn't want to leave prematurely given the personalized performance we were getting.

After the show we said bye to him, and that we'd back out here in about a month, so he'll definitely see us again, and he wished us luck on the trip back. After a smoke / watching his stuff by his truck while he finished up some stuff at the bar, we headed back to Pepe for the drive back to Casa Grande - giving Baby Mercury (Domo) the first listen since picking it up at Zia the other day!

Once again, another great night out in Tempe!

Today In Tempe

2009-09-13T22:23:00.000-05:00

This morning we dropped Aaron off at Sky Harbor, then proceeded to Tempe Town Lake to take some photos of the "Healing Field" - flags displayed across Tempe Beach Park in memorial of Sept. 11. The walk around Tempe Beach Park (and over the Mill Ave. bridge to get an overall photo) was filled with conversation about the changes in Tempe over the past 3 years, all too visible in all directions at Tempe Beach Park. Which continued the whole way back to the car, and as we hit the old Ash Avenue bridge - where the last 20 minutes of conversation was so pogniant, as we were greeted by huge advertisement for the development of a "War Memorial", plans of which include screwing with the ruins of the Ash Avenue bridge. Having a memorial at Tempe Beach Park is fine, but screwing with the historic bridge? It's disgusting. The changes going on with the ascetics of this town is horrible, and whoever is responsible for it really needs their head checked. But more on that later...

From there we spent some time at Fiesta Mall, then headed over to Four Peaks for lunch. Actually we'd tried Pete's Fish and Chips, which was closed on Sunday, and it turned out nice, because sitting at Four Peeks on the warm Sunday afternoon eating 8th Street chicken tenders and researching apartments was perfect. Before leaving we briefly went inside to use the restroom, which was cool that I got to see where the door from Four Peaks to Uranus Recordings once was.

After lunch we drove back out to Mesa to look at some apartments we'd shortlisted. We'd tried earlier in the day to use the downtown wireless to check on shows happening tonight, which was a total bust, and since we were both tired, we headed back towards Casa Grande and dusk. The desert south of Phoenix was absolutely beautiful with the sun setting behind us over South Mountain.

Ironically, on getting back here I discovered that Last Exit's lineup had canceled and Los Guys were playing a free show tonight! Could have been brought to our attention hours ago! But given our tiredness and the fact that they probably wouldn't go on until late, it was probably for the best that we didn't know about it.

Stephen Ashbrook @ Martini Ranch

2009-09-12T23:45:00.001-05:00

Tonight was the first time I've been to the area of north Scottsdale where Martini Ranch is located, and obviously the first time I've been to Martini Ranch. The night life area was certainly vastly different to our preferred Tempe haunts, going towards the rep that Scottsdale gets. Or the cute way people refer to Snottsdale. The only bars I'd previously been to in Scottsdale fit with me (Sugar Daddies, Pranksters Too), but clearly this area lived up to the more pretentious stereotype.

On parking and walking down to Martini Ranch, we could here that Ashbrook had already started, with the sounds of Better Than Anything spilling out onto the street. And sounds being 'full band' sounds. By today I was convinced that he was going to be solo again, based on Facebook, but alas he had the whole band for Arizona. There was a little bit of a delay getting in because of my ID - it's the second time my permanent residency card has almost been a problem. It doesn't make sense to me, given the fact that it's federally issued and I'm sure harder to fake than a driver's license. But there you go... A second bouncer however allowed is in, which meant we didn't have to go back to the car to get my passport.

In anycase, Martini Ranch was actually a cool place to see a live act, despite the Snotsdale location of the venue. It was cool seeing Stephen in a proper live venue and with the full band, since we'd just seen him the other week solo / acoustic in a corner bar in Kansas City. Getting both experiences made it really worthwhile. The other cool part is that he'd mentioned the Martini Ranch show when we talked to him last time about moving to Arizona, so it was pretty cool actually making it to the show - which was unplanned, we didn't even realize he was playing until yesterday.

It wasn't long before I started to look at who was in his band - firstly I couldn't see a guitarist. Looking behind Stephen I saw a familar face behind the skins - Curtis Grippe (Dead Hot Workshop). I didn't immediately recognize the bass player, but some immediate excitement from Katie cleared up that it was Thomas Laufenberg (Pistoleros, Ghetto Cowgirl, Dead Hot Workshop - and her guitar teacher before moving to Australia). Too cool! We had no idea that either of them would be joining Stephen for the show! Which made wearing my Dead Hot Workshop t-shirt (purely something I'd brought to put into storage, and was on the top of the pile of clothes) quite fitting.

Before long Thomas noticed Katie and gave her a wave, which I think his presence helped her with the strangeness of being back. Not to long into set, Stephen announced noticing that there was a Dead Hot Workshop t-shirt in the crowd, and promptly introduced Curtis and Thomas, and announced that they'd do a Dead Hot cover. Sweet! Something that really made my choice of t-shirt quite worthwhile! He then immediately referred to Katie's Cure t-shirt, and mentioned doing Just Like Heaven recently at a friend's wedding, and that he'd do a cover of that also - which he launched into the very next song. It was really cool that we got singled out from stage and covers of songs by the bands whose t-shirts we were sporting!

Once the band left the stage, I mentioned to Katie that I hadn't gotten my cover! However, as soon as Stephen came back for the encore, he scanned for the Dead Hot Workshop and said they were going to do the cover they promised. There were clearly a few other Dead Hot supporters in the audience around us who commented on Dead Hot to me. Pretty cool. After playing Mr. S.O.B, he then launched into Folsome Prison Blues which we enjoyed given Aaron's upcoming trip to Folsome.

After the show we went out of the back to have a smoke and move away from the crowds. On the way out we passed Stephen who stopped and said hi, and brought up seeing my t-shirt and we briefly mentioned how we'd seen him in Kansas City, at which point he remembered the fact that we were moving out here. Then once we got ourselves situated, Thomas came over and said how he was so surprised to see Katie back - wanted to know about how Australia was, etc. etc., and filled us in on what was going on in the music scene here, including some cool Dead Hot Workshop news. In addition to which he seemed quite excited that he was now (and has been for quite a while, which isn't news to us) their bassist. I thought it was funny that he apologised for not remembering my name - given that he met me once 3 years ago at a guitar lesson, I was far from offended!

We went inside briefly to purchase Drive, which Stephen mentioned onstage that there was some copies of for purchase. It was funny to me, since today I'd thought to myself that it would be a cheap night, since we loaded up on the 2 CD's we didn't have in Kansas City (except for Drive, which appeared to not be available either online or at the show), so we wouldn't have to fork out anything but the cover charge. But with the news of the availability of Drive, that all changed. Of course, it was just an added $10, and we're both really glad to finally have the Stephen Ashbrook discography completely rounded out. Visiting the merch table also meant that Katie was able to pick up a Stephen Ashbrook sticker, destined for the back bumper of Pepe, to replace the one that was a casualty in the death of Mr. Burns almost 3 years ago.

We milled around for a bit because I wanted to say hi to Curtis - as a matter of fact, the Dead Hot Workshop t-shirt I was wearing was given to me by him when my other one was stolen in Tempe. Once there was a break in the conversations he was having with people I went up to say hi, not 100% sure that he'd remember me. Of course, he did and said that when he Stephen mentioned the t-shirt he looked out in the crowd and thought "is that Mark from Australia?!? What is he doing here?" Pretty cool! He was also curious to know whether or not we knew he was going to be playing with Stephen, or whether it was a surprise, which it obviously was. So it was great getting to say hi, because Curtis is always so nice. He let us know about the benefit show that Dead Hot is playing at the end of the month, which we won't be around for, but we assured him that after mid October we'll be seen a lot at Dead Hot shows.

After chatting to Curtis, it was time for us to back, particularly given the 45 minute drive ahead of us. By this time Rock Lobster was in full swing inside. The idea of an original artist like Stephen Ashbrook, who is a big deal, particularly in Arizona circles, opening for an 80's cover band is so bizarre to me!

In any case. it turned out to be a really great night with a full surprises - and 100% was worth coming out for, despite that given the last few days it'd have been easy to stay home and sleep!

Too Much To Do On A Saturday Night

2009-09-12T11:46:00.002-05:00

Hmmm, man, there's too much to do tonight, and not that much for the rest of the time we're here, which is slightly annoying.

Stephen Ashbrook @ Martini Ranch
Strange Young Things @ Flicka's Baja Cantina
Los Guys & Shelby James at the Mark Kopentis @ The Ruby Room

I don't think there is any doubt that we'll go see Stephen, but I'd obviously love to see the other two shows!

When In AZ... CD Release At Yucca

2009-09-11T23:13:00.002-05:00

We got to Yucca just a little after 9. Walking in was disjointing, as a lot of changes have been made, the biggest being that the stage has moved from the west wall, to the east wall. Initially it was weird, and walking past that section to get past the stage made you feel like you were naked. Maybe that is why it was a quick march to the front of the bar where Aaron was propped up on a bar stool. With news that Strange Young Things weren't going on until 11, it was quickly decided to head out to Dean's.

For us it turned out to be a comical affair, as Roeder sped off into the night on the 101, leaving us far behind. After completely missing where he got off, we turned around, and then promptly went the wrong way down Chandler Blvd. Once we hit Kyrene we decided that it was best for us...well, for everyone involved, to abort and head back to Yucca. It had certainly been a long day, particular for Katie with all the driving around the valley we'd done, evident by here nature draw to turn right off the 101 to get to Yucca. Thankfully having my bearings (at least in Tempe, if not in Chandler) avoided another long drive in the wrong direction.

On returning to Yucca, The Rebel Set has just started playing. By the stage was deafening - I have always had a problem with the full band sound at Yucca, and this was no exception. We headed back to the front of the bar and sat around while the band played. Once they'd finished, I went out for a smoke, stopping on the way out to pick up a When In AZ... drop (download) card.

Standing out the back of Yucca, I commented to Katie that it was weird not seeing anyone you recognized at Yucca - not even Venus was behind the bar. Ironically, about 2 minutes later Branon (former owner of The Last Exit Bar & Grill) walked in. After finishing the smoke, we walked in, in perfect time as Strange Young Things started playing virtually immediately.

Y'know how said I've never liked the full band sound at Yucca? That changed when Strange Young Things took the stage! Holy cow! Admittedly the full bands I've seen at Yucca is limited (The Black Moods, Flathead, Necronaughts) verses more striped down acoustic performances, but I'd never heard it sound as good at Yucca. An immediate standout aspect of the performance was that whoever was on the skins (not Rich) was thumping the complete shit out of them and was really impressive. Overall, the show was a lot like I would have expected / imagined - Corey hamming it up, and the band completely rocking out. One aspect that was surprising was how many new songs they played, considering that Look What They've Done To My Champagne Music came out under a year ago.

It was somewhat of a shorter set, which I'd have expected given the who When In AZ... lineup of 5 bands. But we still got quite a few of songs of the record - When In Rome, Left Breast Pocket, Get Your Fire For Free, Lonely Hearts Are Wild. The awesomeness of Strange Young Things was apparent in the new (and unfamiliar) songs - in that they were as enjoyable to watch / hear as everything off the album. Can this band do any wrong? At this point, it seems not. Before they'd gone on, Katie said she expected to see me up the front, since we drove 20 hours for show, and certainly throughout and after I was convinced the performance was absolutely worth it (well, combined with what we've already, and plan to in the next few days) achieve in Phoenix.

After their set I introduced myself to Nick who put the compilation together and I'd emailed a few weeks ago. Once Kirkwood Dellinger started up, we moved back to the front of Yucca to chat. Funnily enough a few songs were recognizable from hearing them so much on Point Of Ventre. After which, it seeming like time to. All things considered, and with how wiped she was, I was surprised that Katie held on up until this point. I'd seen Strange Young Things, picked up the compilation and chatted to Nick, basically everything I wanted to achieve was done, so I was fine to go. It was funny to step outside and realize that it was 1 o'clock!! The only band we ended up missing was Source Victoria, which was fine by me. We're going to have plenty of time and opportunity to catch them in the future anyway.

Funny part of the night - obviously getting to go back to Yucca, it's hard to not to think of it's best regular, the King Of Last Call, if only briefly. I'd kinda thought about the possibility of seeing Steve at some point, but didn't expect to see an appearance, pretty much because of the genre of the bands playing tonight. But sure enough, after Strange Young Things played, in walked someone under a dark baseball hat, black sleeveless shirt, shorts and sandles - the recognizable Larson outfit. I guess it goes to show, some things at Yucca just don't change!

Houses, Houses and Houses

2009-09-11T20:53:00.002-05:00

Surprisingly, given the last 2 days of driving, and the rather late night last night, there wasn't much issue waking up early this morning. In no short part due to the drive of getting things worked out.

We were out of here by 10, headed back to Phoenix. Our first stop, after Quicktrip for sodas, was to pick up the latest Phoenix New Times, to get our nightly calendar for the week that we're here sorted out. With that under controll we made a start on checking out the few houses that we've been looking at online. The first, stop was the one in Mesa that we saw a while ago, but has since been sold. The location didn't seem as great as it seemed on the map, but everything about the place, including the neighborhood looked like it unfortunate that it sold.

From there, it was back west to south Phoenix by South Mountain, to the territorial style place that I love on the outside, but the floor plan didn't seem idea. It too seemed a bit further out than I expected, and it seemed like the land looked a lot bigger in the photos. It was definitely obvious that the views from the roof balconies it had would be amazing though. Forgetting about the view of South Mountain, it looked like you'd have a complete view of the valley given the incline it was on.

From there we circled around South Mountain to the larger, but less cool looking place in Awatukee. The location of this one, particular after driving there, seemed so perfect. However, on taking a look at the outside of the house, the condition of it certainly came into question. A while ago I questioned whether it wasn't a party house, and looking at it in real life, that idea seems more likely. While we'd probably still give it a look, from the outset it looked like more work than it's worth, given that peaking in the windows we immediately saw holes in the walls.

From there we went over to our 1pm meeting with a realtor, which all went smoothly.

With that out of the way around 3, we headed up towards the last house on our list, in north Phoenix. The further north we got, and particular after we passed Camelback Mountain, the frequency of "wow, this place is too far" really increased. Particularly once we finally got to where the house was. However, after a few minutes from looking at the house from the outside, all that gibber jabber started to dissipate! Because this place was gorgeous and I think we were both even more impressed with it than we had been with the photos online. And awesome territorial style house, with the perfect desert landscaped garden boot. In hindsight I can't believe I didn't take any photos of the place.

After spending a good deal of time salivating over the place, we headed back south, swung by the storage facility and dropped off some other stuff Katie had left at Aaron's while in Australia. Since we had a bit of time to kill before meeting Aaron at yucky we went down to Zia Records. Funnily enough, was the cheapest visit to Zia Records I've ever had - invariably because there is so fewer CD's that I need these days. Obviously we were headed straight to the "Local" section at the back of the store. The only thing I found that we absolutely needed to pick up was Domo's Baby Mercury, which was pretty sweet to find, because I stupidly wouldn't have thought to look for it. Other than that we found Gloritone's Cup Runnith Over. Walking out of Zia's with only two CD's is such a rarity. And as it turned out, with our Zia card (which was still valid and had points), we got the Domo CD for half price. Thank you Zia!

We then went for a drive down Mill, since we'd spent 'rush hour' in Zia, with the plan to head to TGI Friday's for dinner - which, considering that we hadn't eaten all day (it's been that busy!) sounded like sound a fantastic idea! Driving over the Mill bridge, I noticed Tempe Beach Park filled with flags, which made me realize that it's of course September 11. So we circled around, since it seemed like such a good photo. That turned into a whole unsuccessful debarkle, and we aborted, deciding to come back later as the flags will still be up until Monday. So with that unintentially substantial diversion, we headed out to Mesa for some grub.

On getting there, we discovered that not only is our favorite Fuddruckers gone (which I knew about), so too is the TGI Fridays close by! Damn you global financial crisis, and damn you Buller for being so out of date! ;-) So from Mesa, we ended up traveling all the way back west to Arizona Mills and finally got to fix our hunger at the Five And Dinner. It was the first chance that I've had to properly scan the New Times listings for shows. Although I'd been planning to do that on the road, there has been no time to do that, with too much other stuff to take in.

After dinner we ending up killing some more time at Arizona Mills, before Aaron was at Yucca wondering where the hell we were...

Hello Tempe Arizona

2009-09-11T10:39:00.004-05:00

We hit Phoenix around 4:45pm, coming through Glendale, and the traffic on the 17 was nice pretty much the whole way around downtown Phoenix, and we were on schedule to meet our appointment at the storage facility at 5pm. And then we hit the Phoenix traffic close to the 60....and there went our whole being on time thing.

Nether the less we got there before 5:30pm, got our storage space, and unloaded the car. Unloading the car made me realize just how much stuff we managed to bring in this load - it was quite impressive! The clothes bag we brought for the roof rack worked wonderfully. Given all thee rain we drove through at various places along the way, spending the extra money on the $50 one felt really good. After unloading everything and loading it into the storage unit, we both felt pretty wiped - and I felt reasonably sick - just the two days of driving, Tempe's heat and the work of unloading the car. While being feeling sick, feeling that way with a vibrant sunset over Tempe, and saguaros all around wasn't that bad. It was rewarding that the sick feel was due to the effort to make it to Tempe, which we'd pulled off successfully. We decided that our plan from here was to get some food and head to Casa Grande.

Burger King was close by. In the process of getting there, we crossed over Southern and noticed that Yucca have a new cool sign on the side of the building. While I didn't feel hungry - actually, the thought of food made me feel sicker, after having some huge gulps of the Coke, I started to feel better and was glad that I got some food.

Soon later we made it to Casa Grande, and to Aaron's. who is graciously putting us up for the week. It's been fun shooting the shit about music with him, and sort of unfortunate that after tomorrow he's leaving for Folsome and so we won't have much time to hang with him until we return.

Stephen Ashbrook @ Martini Ranch

2009-09-11T10:34:00.004-05:00

The other week we chatted with Stephen Ashbrook about Martini Ranch and that he'd been playing out there sometime soon. We just got into Tempe last night, and as it turns out, Stephen is playing at Martini Ranch tomorrow night! Not sure yet whether he's solo or with the full band, but it looks like we should go, although there are a lot of things going on tomorrow night.

Onwards To Arizona

2009-09-10T16:45:00.001-05:00

Texas, New Mexico and The Grand Canyon State

Our aim was to hit the road at 7am this morning, much like yesterday we didn't quite hit that, but weren't too far off our target. If we'd skipped breakfast, we probably would have been closer, but when are we ones to pass up a free continental breakfast? Never, that is the answer. We were both impressed with the Texas shaped waffles on offer at the Baymont Inn. It turned out to be a really nice place to stay, especially given the super cheap price we paid - and all of our clothes were still on the roof of Pepe when we went out to load up the car. Sweet! So we were back out on there road by 7:40am.

The drive through Texas was much like that of yesterday - quite flat! A little way out of Amarillo there was a lot of fog, however that lifted as the morning wore on. As we approached the border, the landscape changed a little, beginning to look a bit more like the landscape of New mexico that I remember from a few years ago. Which was further true once we crossed over the New Mexico border. Gaining the extra hour was quite appreciated too! We stopped for gas, not that far over the border. Getting out of the car for a smoke, things felt closer to home - just the landscape, the large mountain behind the gas station, everything looking a bit more Mexican / native American.

The drive through New Mexico was really nice, and really much more scenic than yesterday's drive. Once we hit Albequeque things started to became a lot more familiar, as the route to Arizona from there is basically what we took in 2006. A little after midday we stopped for gas again at a look out over the Continental Divide, which was really cool. The mountains were quite beautiful, in the typical New Mexico way.

Hitting the Arizona border was pretty exciting for obvious reasons. It was cool that the highway leading up was familar with the red cliffs to the south of the highway. Just like every other border crossing in the past two days, the change in landscape was obvious around the border. While northern Arizona doesn't quite have the same landscape as southern Arizona / the Sonoran desert, it did feel quite at home.

It was funny the number of Stephen Ashbrook related things we saw along the 40 - the first being the Meteor Crater - which at the show Stephen told a story about he and his band took a road trip diversion to check it out, was appalled by the $13 entry fee, which doesn't get onto the crater, and opted for going through a hole in the fence and sitting up on the crater, before long with the fuss at the bottom waiting for them. The prelude being that they got away with a warning, and paying the $13, since they'd gotten to see the crater!

Then we passed a souvenir place called "Geronimo". The change in temperatures was definitely noticeable, and confirmed that we were in Arizona! Of course, not that long out of Flagstaff the temperature dramatically dropped, with a huge dark cloud over Flagstaff. Driving through Flagstaff the heavens opened, and it continued to pour rain as we were heading south out of Flagstaff, really slowing us down. Which was slightly annoying, since we were starting to race against the clock to get to Tempe by 5pm to unload the car at the storage unit.

It was pretty exciting for me as the landscape changed again, from the pine tree / Colorado like look around Flagstaff changed more and more to the desert, and eventually the first saguaro cacti emerged on the landscape. We had to make a stop in Black Canyon City for gas - the small town looked really nice, though we didn't have much time to take it in, as it was about 4:30. I'd definitely be somewhere that we'd like to come back to some time, maybe when we're not racing against the clock. After filling up, we kept on trucking, Katie relying on me to get her back to the I-17, rather than Buller.

Time To Roll

2009-09-09T21:10:00.004-05:00

One day of traveling down, we're here in Amarillo, TX. Virtually half way between Warsaw, MO and Phoenix, AZ.

Last night was a late one, slightly reminiscent of packing, but a hell of a lot stressful and painful. Hell, we actually got more than an hour's sleep, so it was only slightly reminiscent of that experience. Really the only thing that made putting together our new first load of stuff was getting some web development work finished before leaving.

All in all, while we were planning to be gone by 7am, the extra packing that we didn't get on the road by 8am, but all things considered, that wasn't too bad.

Just shy of Springfield in Bolivar we stopped for some supplies and extra straps for the roof rack, which also put us behind a bit. Pretty much just getting them on. Otherwise it's been a very smooth and good trip, aside from the pissing rain from Springfield until a little after we crossed the Oklahoma border.

Somewhere along the way it was strange to realize that despite the fact that we are literally road tripping half way across the USA, Oklahoma is technically my only new state (out of Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona). With that said, previously I've only spent a few hours in Fort Worth at the airport for a layover.

Oklahoma was nice to travel through, and it still amazes me how US states are physically distinguishable. Oklahoma, while neighbouring looked vasted different to Missouri, reminding my somewhat of New Mexico - moreso with red dirt rather than red rock, but still. And again, the landscape changed soon after crossing the Texas border. Not to far across the border it became apparent to me that the Texas landscape reminded me of that of rural Australia. The most noticeable thing about the Texas (northern Texas at least) landscape - holy crap it's flat! I've seen flat plains before in different places, but northern Texas really takes the whole flat plains to an impressive extreme!

All in all, we arrived at the hotel just after 7:30pm, which was not bad, all things considered. Katie Pricelined the room, which we got for $41, which is pretty sweet, since it's a fairly nice place. Priceline has treated us fairly good thus far actually. thank you William Shatner! ;-)

So after a rest tonight, it's another early start, the final 11 and a half hours to Phoenix / Tempe.

The Trek To Arizona Begins

2009-09-09T00:37:00.003-05:00

Tomorrow morning we set out on our first (of two) trips out to Arizona.

I'd be remiss to not quote Marc Norman at this point...

"My life is packed in a suitcase
This room isn't my home
22 hours from Phoenix
And vacant roads I don't know"

Particular since we actually are about 22 hours Phoenix. And since they won't be roads I don't know the on the second trip...

We'll be out there for about a week, returning to Warsaw for a bit longer, and then moving our asses back out to the Sonoran desert for the final time.

International Space Station Over The Night Sky

2009-09-06T21:07:00.002-05:00

Over dinner we caught wind that the International Space Station was going to be visible tonight at 8:59, and decided that we should check it out. It was apparently going to visible from the south west, so over dinner I attempted to estimate what direction south west was.

I've been working on code tonight, and hence didn't bring up Google Maps zoomed in on the house until a few minutes before the event. Even with the map in front of us, it was difficult to tell where we were supposed to look. Why? Try living in the boon docks and you'll understand. So as it hit 8:57 we hurried upstairs and out onto the patio, still arguing which direction south west was.

Since the night was so clear, I figured that we had a decent chance of seeing it without working out the direction in which to be looking. The only challenge we faced was the amount of trees surrounding us. However after a minute or so of joking that we wouldn't see it because we couldn't work out where south west was, Katie spotted it, from the get go obscured by the huge tree next to the porch. A pretty cool sight, like a confused shooting star, heading up, rather than down. After about 30 seconds it had cleared the tree, and not long after, started to curve and fly across the sky above us. It was quite impressive how bright, and hence visible it was. The sighting lasted a good few minutes until it started to fade (rather quickly at one point) off in the north east.

Pretty cool to see. And I will say that my sense of direction ain't half bad - the point where we initially saw it was pretty much exactly the direction I was pointing while eating dinner. Even when I'm twisted around out here, I can still get my bearings obviously.

No Suck Promise Delivered

2009-09-02T23:58:00.000-05:00

Stephen Ashbrook @ Davey's Uptown Ramblers Club

Stephen Ashbrook gives a "no suck promise" on his live shows, and he definitely delivered on that last night.

It was a few weeks ago that we noticed that he was playing in Des Moines, looked up tour dates and saw that he was going to be coming to Kansas City. So it was about a 2 hour drive for us up to Kansas City.

On driving up to Davey's Uptown Ramblers Club both the area and bar looked impressively seedy, and since we it was close to an our before the show, we opted for driving around a bit, rather than killing time in the bar. We came across a World War I monument, and looked around there until about 7:20, and then headed back to the car. After trying to find the safest place to park, we walked over to the bar - and then realized there was parking in the rear, so we moved the car which made us both feel better.

On entering the bar, it became apparent that looks were deceiving, because inside wasn't as alarming as it looked driving up. After taking our cover charge, Michelle, the waitress set us up at the bar. Inside was quite dark, with most of the lighting coming from the red neon signs, and with Stephen off to the side talking to people, it was very reminencent of being at the Yucca Tap Room. Small dark, divey but good feeling bar, waiting to hear some Tempe musician (despite the fact that he moved to Portland years ago, for me - and many people I'm sure), Ashbrook will always be a Tempe guy), it completely had that familiar Yucca Tap Room feel.

Stephen took the stage at 8, kicked off with songs from the new CD White Balloons. We'd been discussing the album the other day, and Katie mentioned how she didn't particularly like the sound / production of the new album, but was interested in hearing what they'd be like stripped down and more traditional Ashbrook sounding, figured she'd probably enjoy them more. Right after playing You Are Here and 21 Young, that idea was certainly confirmed. They're not particular favorites of mine of the new album, but they sounded great stripped back to just Stephen with an acoustic guitar. For me, You Are Here was particularly awesome acoustic.

Having listened so much to Ashbrook live recordings, most everytime he spoke ("welcome out", "thank you" etc) it was really like "wow, I'm finally seeing Ashbrook").

Not surprisingly, early on he played Kansas City, and anyone who has been reading my blog out late knows that I've quoted the lyrics ("sitting in a holiday in, outside Kansas City. Sipping on a warm beer, poking out cold chinese") almost every time I've been to Kansas City in the last 3 months (particularly when we stayed in a Holiday Inn ). So it was really cool when he gave the back story on the song - touring with a band, getting stuck in Kansas City due to tornados; his friend would get the beer, and he'd be the one to get the chinese food. Funnily enough, a while ago I mentioned to Katie that it'd be cool to find out which Holiday Inn it was (because I'm a geek like that), and as part of the story he described it as one with a mini golf course in the middle of it. So we no doubt need to research that.

As for the set, it was a typical Ashbrook set - long, and including pretty much everything that you wanted to hear. He starting taking / encouraging requests fairly early on. I took a photo of the set list after the first set, and looking it in highensight, the requests from the crowd were definitely what drove the show.

Early on he played Geronimo, which was great to hear, and was the only new song that didn't sound better acoustic. Not that surprising, just because the album version of that song is perfect. Obviously hearing Rock N Roll was great and I took video of it.

Towards the end when he played Fastest Car one woman in the crowd encouraged many of the other females to get up and dance by the stage (the stage only really being defined by two monitors on the floor in front of Stephen) including Katie which was kinda cool. Towards the end he also pulled out a "obsquire cover" - Just Like Heaven by The Cure. Very cool to get to see that. I wish I'd taken video of it.

After the show we went up to grab some CD - I've been waiting for ever to get Double Live @ Long Wongs and we'd discussed that we really should get White Balloons. There was also a t-shirt, so I was hoping to replace my "I don't need to be discovered because I was never lost" t-shirt that was stolen in Arizona. So we waited up the front while he chatted and talked to some people. Then he came over and said hi, and introduced himself, and we said how Katie had seen him before and that I'd been a fan for quite a while but this was my first show. He mentioned that one of his rock climbing buddies had just returned to Melbourne, and was interested in the fact that we were moving out to Arizona. Without much explanation he was all over the fact that it was the music scene taking us out there. And that right there is one of the reasons why Stephen Ashbrook is really cool. He hasn't lived there for years, but still knows the importance of it. He talked a bit about the old days and how easy it was to play 5 times a week, how the smoking ban (introduced years ago) really hurt the scene, and of course the "Long Wongs Smell". Before saying bye, we mentioned that we were after some CD's. On asking for Double Live and White Balloons, he informed us of his "2 for $20 deal". Sweet...as Double Live was $15 and White Balloons was $12. Unfortunately he didn't have any of the right sized t-shirts with him, so we passed on that for now.

But that right there is why you should support artists like Stephen Ashbrook. Aside from his music being great - it was $5 dollars each as the cover, for 2 and a half hours of entertainment, and then sells 2 of his CD's for $20. How can you beat that? That's right, you can't.

So all in all it was a really enjoyably night. It was also really cool to get to see him out here, because without a doubt we'll see him in Arizona (which he always returns to for shows), but those shows are really packed, so it was really cool to have gotten to see him in a small bar, in an acoustic setting (Arizona shows are normally fully band) with only a handful (not that it wasn't a good turn out) of people.

The aforementioned video of Rock-n-Roll...

When In AZ Tracklist

2009-09-01T11:21:00.001-05:00

The When In AZ compilation is released today. I was able to check out the track listing last night before i crashed, and liked what I saw. Of particular note are the old school (in my mind Strange Young Things are old school, even though they're not) Tempe bands contributions:

Strange Young Things - C14N14 (The Sugar Thieves)
Jim Bachman - My Guardian Angel (The Pistoleros)
Truckers On Speed - A (Dead Hot Workshop)
The Sugar Thieves - Left Breast Pocket (Strange Young Things)
Los Guys - Scarlet Harlot (Shelby James & The Cryin' Shames)

I'm looking forward to hearing the vocal treatment that Meridith gives to Left Breast Pocket.

While I'm committed to waiting until the release show at Yucca Tap on the 11th to get the compilation (which is probably a wise thing - given the download restrictions on Hughsnet, and the compilation weighing in at 55 songs) I really can't wait to hear the above tracks.

Violet Wild On Local Frequency

2009-08-30T23:54:00.001-05:00

Ironically, after having a long conversation on the way back from Wheaton the other day about Violet Wild, we're listening to them on Local Frequency (The Edge) tonight. Even more ironic is that part of that conversation was how in my mind they're due for some new stuff (although the album came out a year ago, it's all effectively from 2006) and the first track they played may be a new song. Or admittedly a cover, we can't 100% tell. It'd be nice to think it's a new original in anycase.

A short and succinct appearance on the air (also playing Bump On The Head and Glorious Day), no doubt to promote the upcoming show with Better Than Ezra at the Marquee. Which luckily Katie had the presence of mind to try win pre-sale tickets for ("oh yeah, that's right, we'll be there by then!"). Due to a scramble to determine the number to text, we probably missed out, but it's a nice reminder (to me at least) that my first Violet Wild show may be opening for Better Than Ezra.

The Blaze Keeping My From Hearing Strange Young Things

2009-08-27T17:38:00.000-05:00

What a major disappointment. Today at 2, the organizers of When in AZ were to be promoting the compilation, with Kirkwood Dillinger and Strange Young Things. Sweet....

Funnily enough, we commented this morning that we wished / hoped that Strange Young Things would be up first so that we had the option of skipping Kirkwood. As it turned out, it would have been really nice if they had of been, as the Blaze's Shoutcast server died right after Kirkwood/Dillinger. Argh!

I know it's college radio, but it's pretty frustrating given that I really wanted to hear Strange Young Things and catch their in studio performance.

At least there is a listening party in a few hours on Radio Phoenix. Probably won't give me my Strange Young Things fix, but at least we should get to learn more about the compilation.

In other news, today has been the first time I've tuned into The Blaze for a while / since being here (can you say 'Hughsnet Fair Access Policy'?? ) and 'The Blaze 1330 AM' definitely sounds weird.

I guess in a few weeks we'll be able to drive to ASU and sit in the car and listen if this were to happen again.

Now Playing: Not The Blaze 1330 AM

Seizures Has Arrived

2009-08-26T20:26:00.000-05:00

Katie came in this afternoon after a trip to the mailbox, and our copy of Seizures arrived today. Pretty good turn around time given that it was released on the 21st in Oz (effectively the 22nd here) so it only took 4 days to get to east jesus Warsaw Missouri. Unfortunately sans the fridge magnet that their website mentioned was included in the Limited Edition CD/DVD pre-order deal. Oh well.

My initial thoughts are that it doesn't grab me as much as their other releases, in no short part due to the different sound, although I was expecting it. Which admittedly Too B Or Not Too B is their only album that clicked instantly. Both United Paper People and Hymns took a bit for me to get into, so maybe that's all that Seizures needs.

There is something really ironic about moving to the US (and more specifically Arizona) being really good for making CD purchases I want to make easier and cheaper, but the second CD I buy once over here is an international order from JB HiFi! Will the need to import CD's end. (With the exception of Kisschasy, the answer is actually inevitably 'yes'. Give me Zia Records on University and local shows, and typically that should be all I need).

RCPM Board To Move

2009-08-26T16:47:00.000-05:00

There is something comical to be found in the fact that a little under a year since the Peacemakers Watering Hole as we knew it (well, with remnants of how we knew it) was shut down and moved migrated to a corporate message board hosting environment, it's moving again because the company (Echo Music) went bust.

In related news, last Friday while killing time at Borders in Lee's Summit Katie came across a book that had the petrogyph logo that people were mentioning years ago.

When In AZ

2009-08-26T15:24:00.001-05:00

I came across Where In AZ...Music Compilation last night by virtue of The Blaze's twitter feed. Sounds like a really cool concept.

I'm yet to find a track list for the compilation, but the fact that Los Guys, Strange Young Things and Truckers On Speed are listed as contributors excites me.

As does the fact that we should be in Phoenix in time for at least one of those release shows!

One Jensen Comes Back, Another One Leaves

2009-08-24T19:18:00.000-05:00

Wow, the wonders of going to bed at 10:30 means that I woke up at 6:30am and was up by 7 this morning. I think it was a shock to Shelly, who has experienced us crashing on her couch with jet lag and not waking up until after 10!

The kids left for school not long after that, which is kind sad that we probably won't get to see them for a while after we move, as it's quite unlikely that we're going to see them again before we move. Although, I thought that was the case the last time we were in Union, so stranger things have happened.

Christopher took off from work so he could join us in dropping off Brad at the airport. It was funny, at some point this morning, being envious of all the places in Europe Brad is going to see, and just in general getting to do the whole international traveling / living in a foreign country thing. At some point I had to stop with the memory that hello being envious of living in a foreign country is ridiculous, because I've been doing that for the last two months, and am shortly moving to Arizona! Hello, wakey wakey! Which I guess goes to getting used to living in the US (which I'm really glad about) even though we're still in the transitory stage.

The trip out to St. Louis airport was pretty cool, since I enjoy airports, and it's a US airport that I've not yet seen (though no doubt with the Union Jensen's living - well, in Union ) I'm sure I'll be flying to and from it at some point in the future!

Afterwards we headed back to Union and had lunch, and headed back to Warsaw earlish. We both felt that it'd be worthwhile not getting home too late, but no doubt also felt that we weren't in a rush, and hence were both in agreeance, without much discussion on stopping at Mermac Caverns. At $18 per person, we were also in agreeance that it wasn't something we really needed to do. Which is a shame, it would have made for a nice hour out of our day, but that's pretty rich for some stalagmites. So we hit the road again, going through Lebanon, which looked like a reasonably nice city.

As we got closer to Osage Beach, we decided that since we weren't in a huge rush, that we should try to take Interstate 7 home...since it was light, we could establish what the FUCK was going on that night coming back from the Bret Michaels show where Buller was hell bent on having us drive off the closed road (the old highway 7) into the lake. Coming from the east, it was all pretty easy to get on to the new highway 7, which seamlessly took us over the lake, rather than ending dead right before it. There was much commentary in the car as we went past the place were we got stuck that night. So there is that life mystery worked out!

Chilis

2009-08-21T13:19:00.001-05:00

Somwtimes spending 10 minutes deciding on lunch really pays off. Yaay for Chili's nachos & chispy chicken tacos!

Strange Young Things Nominated For Best Of Phoenix '09

2009-08-14T15:16:00.000-05:00

Cool news - Strange Young Things is nominated for Best Local Artist in this year's Best Of Phoenix by the Phoenix New Times.

Over the past 12 months their album has been my third most played record (behind Charmers Green's Remedy For Everything and The Maine's Can't Stop, Won't Stop- both of which I've had longer than Champaign Music) and I don't even have the entire record yet. Which admittedly is going to be one of the first things I fix when we get to Phoenix! So my hope is that they take it out.

They really should given the competition - Silver Medallion, Roger Clyne & the Peacemakers, Carvin Jones Band, Strange Young Things, The Sugar Thieves, Rizir, Hemi Dave - only three I've heard of (SYT, RC&PM and The Sugar Thieves) and The Peacemakers even being on their seems like a joke.

Voting is happening here Phoenix New Times - Best Of Phoenix Poll.

Violet Wild Opening For Better Than Ezra

2009-08-12T23:33:00.000-05:00

Via a myspace bulletin - Violet Wild are opening for Better Than Ezra on September 22nd at the Marquee. 3 thoughts:

Sweet gig for Violet Wild
Maybe they can break out Sick In Bed and In The Blood back to back
We're scheduled to be in Arizona by then

WTF MTV?

2009-08-10T14:18:00.000-05:00

Can someone please explain to me why on earth MTV is airing Scrubs? It's great for my Scrubs fix, but WTF?

Bret Michaels @ The Horny Toad

2009-07-26T23:56:00.001-05:00

So, after much deliberation, we decided to go to see Bret Michaels tonight. I wasn't sure what to expect, which made for it not being an easy decision at $50 a ticket, but at the same time, it was too hard to pass up being not that far away, AND being a few days after seeing Poison.

The drive down to Lake Ozark was pretty nice, and made for a good opportunity to listen to the new Better Than Ezra album that we picked up the show.

The show was at The Horny Toad, the whole area was upscale and resort-y, and luckily we were able to pull off a sneaky coop and park for free. On walking down to get tickets we saw Bret's tour bus etc., which would have been more exciting, but of course I'd seen it and taken my photo by it on Tuesday night at the Poison show.

The venue was pretty cool, though clearly has some design issues with the positioning of the stage and stage side bar. After unsuccessfully trying to get a table (phoning and booking one would have been smart) we took up a position down by the stage. And waited. And waited. The house band was playing - since it was such a later decision to go to the show, we got their later than we probably otherwise would have, but still, the two hour wait seemed pretty long.

At 9 it looked like something was going to happen, however there were 3 fake intros, someone from Rock Of Love coming out, so by 9:15 I was ready for getting the sho on the road. Once the band came out I was really glad that we'd made the trek and forked out the money for it.

We'd opted for staying down the back to avoid having to deal with the drunks, which seemed like a good idea, until in front of us filled up at the very last minute. I'd told myself that it was okay, since I really only needed to pay attention to Bret, but I was actually impressed by the entire band. And ironically, we may have had to deal with less drunks (or at least less people walking around) closer to stage. In anycase, the entire band rocked, the drummer was particularly impressive to watch, and the bass player looked uncannily like Tim Minchon.

It was a high energy show. My expectation was a few Poison songs and the majority of the show being Bret's solo material. So the decision to come was solidified as the broke right into the Poison back catalog, which they continued for the whole show, only playing two Bret Michaels Band songs, and three covers. It was certainly cool getting to rock out to the Poison material in a more intimate setting, which clearly from Tuesday night it's obvious that that's something you're not going to get at Poison show, given how they're still packing the arenas to this day.

Another thing that was great was that the solo stuff they played were the rockers - first Go That Far, which Bret introduced as the theme song for Rock Of Love and Bittersweet which I was actually somewhat familiar with and really dig. The set list went something like...

Look What The Cat Dragged In
Talk Dirty To Me
? Go That Far
? Knockin' On Heeaven's Door
Bittersweet
Fallen Angel
?Something To Believe In
?Sweet Home Alabama
?Drift Away
Every Rose Has It's Thorn
Unskinny Bop

Encore

Nothin' But A Good Time

With I Want Action and Your Mama Don't Dance somewhere in the mix I'm pretty sure.

Another appreciated thing was that after Unskinny Bop Bret announced that they weren't going to fuck around with walking off stage, and ripped right into the encore, which was really cool. Admittedly this could have just been because they'd gone on 15 minutes late, but I thought it was really cool, and wish that happened at more shows. Do away with the whole killing time and the vibe and keep the party rockin' I say!

After the show it seemed like something was going on right of stage, which turned out to be Rock Of Love ladies there for photo opportunities - and photo opportunities with the C.C DeVille from Poison Overdose, a local Poison tribute band. He seemed to be in demand the whole night after the show, and funnily enough I kept doing double takes, thinking I'd just seen C.C out of the corner of my eye, and checking to confirm it was the guy from Poison Overdose.

We checked out the merch table, which was future proof to why Poison can take 12 buses out on tour. There is no shortage of smart business going on, with about 6 different shirts for Bret Michaels Band, CD's, countless glossy photos of Bret, DVD's, bandannas. There are some bands *cough* that really could take a leaf out of the Bret Michaels book of money making. Case in point, we donated another $40 to his kids trust fund, getting a t-shirt and CD. I shudder to think about he amount of money we've put into the Bret Michaels/Poison bank account in the past week!

After the purchases, we hung around to see whether something was going to happen. The rest of the band came out, and there was the local Ozarks Fox TV crew out, given the whole Rock Of Love factor, but no sign of Bret Michaels. At least not before we left at about 11:45 anyway.

Thankfully we didn't have any problem getting out of where we parked the car. Funnily enough, we'd commented on how nice the drive up had been. The drive back wasn't as enjoyable, as Buller was dead set on having us drive into the lake. The whole debarkle occurred where the 5 meets the 7. Buller was convinced that we should proceed into the lake where the 5 ended, and continually had us turning around to try have us do it again. Being pitch black, despite attempts I couldn't get us onto the 7 either. Looking at what was going on, Buller's maps were out of date, as we were on the old highway 5, not the new highway 5. Katie was quite mad at Buller, but in her defense, Google maps is out of date in the same way also. Either way, we got home ago after backtracking back to Camdon. Not before Katie seeing a UFO and Buller taking us back down this dirt road past Baptist Camp - which she was convinced was the work of the aliens, overtaking Buller to take us to Baptist Camp. hahahaha.

Thank You Metal Mania

2009-07-26T00:11:00.003-05:00

VH1's Metal Mania is so reliable. On noticing it was on, I told Katie that hopefully they'd play a Poison video that Rob Stevenson was in so I could point out where I recognized him from.

We've been sitting here for maybe an hour, and without fail, here's Every Rose Has It's Thorn.

Thank you Metal Mania / VH1 Classic!

Sitting In A Holiday Inn, Outside Kansas City

2009-07-24T09:20:00.003-05:00

Okay, this time we're actually in a Holiday Inn, but it's also technically inside Kansas City. But it's enough for me to quote Stephen Ashbrook's Kansas City. Before we came here, we'd considered getting chinese, so we could be "looking down a warm beer and poking at cold chinese", however we haven't.

In anycase, last night was Toad The Wet Sprocket at Harrahs Casino, and tonight is a free Better Than Ezra show before we head back to Warsaw.

I Went To Bed Too Late, And Got Up Too Soon

2009-07-22T20:06:00.000-05:00

Given that we crashed after 3am last night, and were awake by 9:30am, the opening lines from Look What The Cat Dragged In rang true for me this morning. Immediately on waking up my head was hurting - maybe not from too much booze, as per the song, but neither the less, the song seemed quite appropriate this morning.

We got on the road a little after 10, headed back to Des Moines, Iowa to see some sights that we missed out on last time and to have a movie night with Dianna.

On getting into Des Moines Katie tried to replace her falling apart glasses before we headed out to Walnut Woods Sate Park. It seemed like it had changed a fair bit since we were last there, looking a lot more park like down by the creek than when I was there, my memory of which was walking through a lot of brush.

After that we drove out to Urbandale to meet up with Diana. With much indecison about where to eat, or whether to eat at all, I made the executive decision to go to Fuddruckers. Which was a good decision because a) I was really starting to feel quite weak from the late night and no food and b) it was pretty cool getting to eat at a Fuddruckers in West Des Moines. After which I felt much better - well, still tired, but better, and we headed back to watch Young Frankenstien and Spaceballs.

Poison @ Sprint Center, Kansas City

2009-07-21T23:57:00.001-05:00

The first half of my birthday was reasonably uneventful. Despite our original plan to leave for Kansas City by 2, we didn't make it onto the road until 2:45. Which was also immediately delayed when we couldn't get the GPS to work, and thought the connection had broken off the power source socket. After about five frustrating minutes of trying to pry it out, we thankfully realized that the end of the GPS wasn't stuck in there, before doing any damage. As it turned out, the end of the GPS had come apart in the backseat, parts of which we'd found the other day and had no idea what there were. Thankfully, we still had all that parts, got everything back together and were able to hit the road once again.

On the way, more about the show unfolded. Since uncovering that my present was seeing Poison on my birthday, I've particularly not asked Katie any questions or looked up any information. So, along the way, she revealed that the gig was Cheap Trick, Poison and Def Leppard. And hence, unfortunately the Poison set was going to be shorter than if they were opening. But still, back in the day I was into Def Leppard, and seeing Cheap Trick would be cool. It was a nice drive up to Kansas City, of course with the hits of Poison playing.

On getting there we found the Sprint Center easily enough, and set out to find some cheap parking - some lots were $10, some were $20, both pretty expensive. I was cool to just drive around, but in the back of my head I was aware that Katie might have something planned, and hence time might be an issue. But before long we found some street parking just a few streets away.

On getting out of the car and getting ready, Katie handed me my present, which I jumped back into the car to open - by which point it was about 5:10pm. I opened them up to find a set of drumsticks (which turned out to be Rikki Rockett stick) guitar picks, a Poison coloring book, bandanna and t-shirt - all of which I was pretty stoked with as it was. Once I'd gotten a brief look at everything, Katie interrupted saying "and you may notice I'm also wearing a Poison t-shirt...because part of your present is also a VIP backstage tour at 5:30, so...we've got to go!". Which was clearly part of this whole thing that she'd managed to keep a secret! Unaware of whether I needed to be wearing the VIP t-shirt in the package, I threw it on over my OTHER Poison t-shirt, and was ready to roll. Which kinda made the effort put into looking for my other Poison t-shirt last night funny.

So, we needed to find the box office to pick up the tickets, and getting from the back of the Sprint Center to the front proved to be quite a pain. Ironically, we walked up where a bunch of Def Leppard fans were no doubt waiting for their VIP tour to begin. We made it around to the front, noticing that the Power And Light District was right across from the Sprint Center (where Better Than Ezra are playing on Friday night), and found where the Poison VIP tour crowd was congregating. We quickly got our tickets and went over there. Ironically, we weren't on the list, but were added without a problem by the guy running the show, no doubt because the ticket said the ticket price.

After a bit of waiting around, the guy giving the tour did some introductions - introducing himself as Rob Stevenson, whose name I immediately recognized from the Sight For Sore Ears video, and the kid handing out the laminates as Zac Dall - Bobby Dall's son. Too cool. Katie said that she could tell it was Bobby's son as soon as she saw them. Rob ran through all the rules, and I particularly liked his rules about the band - "Treat this like you are at the zoo. The band are wild animals. DO NOT approach the wild animals, let them come to you.". He also explained that the Def Leppard backstage experience was food and drink backstage, where as his was a tour and a rundown of how everything works backstage, which is clearly a lot cooler.

We headed into the arena, which in itself was a cool experience. As we went down through general admission, past all the seats, I thought how cool it'd be to have one of those seats for the show. Given the whole thing was a surprise and exciting, I hadn't had time to think about it much, and still figured that we'd probably have seats pretty far back. The first part of the tour was to go up on stage, so we waited for a bit however, Bun E. Carlos started soundchecking, so Rob abandoned that part of the tour for the moment, and took us through the backstage area.

We went past Bret and C.C's dressing room, with the first stop being Bobby Dall's dressing room. A great thing with Rob's tour is that it really wasn't rushed, and there was plenty of time to check everything out.

From there, we went out the the back of the arena where all the gear trucks and Leppard's buses were. Rob gave a rundown of what went on back there, and that Poison had 12 buses on this tour, each worth a measly $800,000 each! He also gave a rundown on their lighting rigs, and the fact that on this tour they were allowed to have their own lightning, pyro and could use Lep's led screen but couldn't use their confetti because "Def Leppard doesn't want to clean up the stage". And then recounted how they weren't allowed to use pyro on the Kiss tour a few years ago because pyro was "Kiss' shtick". Which did absolutely make me think how tonight is going to be awesome, but I'd also love to get to see a Poison headlined show in the future.

Their buses were parked out the back of the arena, so we headed out there, and Rob took groups of 6 onto the bus for a tour, and gave us a rundown of the buses, and the fact that the one we were on was Bobby's up until a week ago.

After the bus, we went down for photo ops by Bret Michael's traveling gym, which had a huge advert for his new book. Both Katie and I were really impressed that they were lugging around a portable gym, and could afford to do so. Like we've been saying each time we'd gone into JB HiFi and passed the ever growing Poison rack of CD's, Poison is the new black! While out there, Rob explained that these days the guys have found ways to fill in their days to avoid the "problems" of the road that they've had in the past. Bret works out, Rikki takes his motorbikes on the road (the trailer for which was parked in front of Bret's bus), C.C runs and Bobby plays golf (which explains the golf clubs in his dressing room).

The tour went back inside, past the dressing rooms, and stopped abruptly with C.C DeVille standing outside of his dressing room. This was the only band member we saw one the whole tour, and I was very happy that if we were only going to see one band member, that it was C.C DeVille! In my mind it all happened really quickly, and there was may people scurrying to get a photo of C.C, including us. It would have been really cool if it was the days of C.C charging $1 for a handshake, $2 for a photo, because I would have gladly paid. We both think that if we'd been in a smaller group there might have been more opportunity to meet him, but apparently the VIP package tickets sold like hot cakes in Kansas City, because there were close to 20 people on the tour. It wasn't long before Rob called out "thanks Cecil" and ushered us back towards the stage. Probably to C.C's relief, as a few in the group were struggling with the "don't approach the wild animals" rule. Despite it all happening very quickly, and not getting to "meet" C.C per se, it was pretty fucking cool having the opportunity to stand within a few feet of my guitar hero since age 11!

The tour was supposed to only go for half an hour, but must have gone for longer as we didn't get to go up on stage because it was so close to show time. At some point on the tour I'd broke, and asked Katie about our seats, to which she told me that I'd "be really happy with them". And let's just say that I was - second row, right in the center, in front of the stage runway. We initially thought we would have been on the left (which would have been great as a C.C vantage point, but our actual seats were much better for an overall view of the whole stage). After getting to our seats, Katie went to get a drink and some food, and Cheap Trick came on moments later, at 7 on the dot.

Cheap Trick were enjoyable, but of course I'm not as familar with Cheap Trick as the other Jensen's. Obvious highlights were I Want You To Want Me, Surrender and The Flame, which I think was my favorite of the night. The throwing of the Kiss record into the crowd during Surrender was also really cool. Something completely expected by Katie, but like I said, I'm not as educated on what a Cheap Trick show entails. Another enjoyable factor was the handfuls of guitar picks that Rick would grab and throw out to the crowd.

There was only 15 minutes between sets, and pretty much right on 8pm the lights dimmed and the recognizable voice over boomed "Make welcome, all the way from Hollywood California, the grand slam kings of noise...POISON". Woo! Pretty cool that to this day they're still using that intro. And so, after 21 years of being a fan, I was finally getting to see them live! Our seats were amazing, I had a great view of everything, which wasn't lost of me, and was...just such the best way to get to finally see Poison for the first time! They came out, launching into Look What The Cat Dragged In. One of many things I really enjoyed was that C.C has his long hair back, which was teased. Albeit it wasn't as high as in 1988 , but even so, was glammed up relative to him now being in his late 40's, which was...another thing that wasn't lost on me.

Despite being an opener, it was really worth the money, with them playing an hour, and getting through all the hits. There is no doubt that I'd love to see them headlining in the future and play for longer, but I absolutely didn't feel ripped off by the fact that they were opening. One thing that hit me pretty quickly was the fact that...it's 20 years after their hayday, but the show really didn't feel like I was missing out not getting to see them back then - lighting was great, the sound was great, and they had the pyro and fireworks just as they would have back then. The only slightly disappointing thing, which had nothing to do with them, was that neither they, nor Cheap Trick were allowed to use the stage runway (though Robin and Rick did actually come about half way down it at one point). Now that would have really been something, as they would have been right on top of us if they could have. (Again, why weren't Poison the headliner!?!).

Their set list was:

Intro
Look What The Cat Dragged In
Ride The Wind
Fallen Angel
Your Mama Don't Dance
Guitar Solo
Something To Believe In
Drum Solo
Every Rose Has It's Thorn
Unskinny Bop
Talk Dirty To Me

Encore

Nothin' But A Good Time

Despite being the openers, we still got both the C.C guitar solo and Rikki drum solos, both being abbreviated, which was appreciated given the hour stage time - but I was glad that they were still in the set.

Highlights:

Ride The Wind - not something I would have expected given the shorter stage time, so that was really cool
Fallen Angel - for no particular reason other than it was Fallen Angel and I rocked the fuck out to it
Unskinny Bop - Bret and C.C doing a jam at the beginning that I've never head before. Something Poison do live that I haven't heard before? What a rarity! I will also say that, unlike probably the rest of the population, Unskinny Bop has never been one of my favorite Poison songs - but it sounded fucking great tonight! I also enjoyed Bret telling the roadie who ran out to take the acoustic guitar, that he wasn't ready because he was rocking out too much

The whole show was amazing, and was really as good of an experience as getting to see them back in 1988! Given the fact that they were openers, I wasn't expecting an encore per se, and wasn't sure what to think when they ended with Talk Dirty To Me and said their goodbyes without having played Nothin' But A Good Time. How would that be? Finally seeing them live and not getting Nothin' But A Good Time? But thankfully they came back out and launched into it, which was obviously another highlight.

Right after they finished, we went over to the left hand side of the stage to meet Rob to pick up our signed photographs. I couldn't work out why we had to wait, but Katie has since reminded me that the band signed them right before the show - so although we didn't get them signed in a meet and great setting, the actually were personally signed at the show.

After picking up the photos, we milled around near the sound desk while Def Leppard set up, and had a post game wrap up. Despite having been into Def Leppard at the time (and still enjoy listening to Hysteria from time to time) and it being a sweet deal getting to also see them, my load was blown on Poison. Despite having JUST seen them, get them back on stage, sign me up. Y'know, you get that after waiting 21 years I guess!

In anycase, we went back to our seats and waited for Def Leppard. Admitadly, their stage setup was quite impressive. And I can't help but be impressed how well all of these bands are doing, years and years after the fall of hair bands. Though, clearly there is a resurgance. Which was obvious to us last year after going to Monsters Of Rock 6 in Melbourne, with no shortage of tribute bands, even in Australia. And being here, clearly hair bands are the darlings of VH1 classic. To quote Josh Kennedy, "rock is fucking dead, right?".

It took me a couple of songs to really get into it, purely just because of coming off seeing Poison. It was pretty impressive how good the guys looked, definitely given their age - in particular the ripped Phil Collin. It took no time before different members strutted down the cat work, which futher rubbed in the fact that Poison didn't get to, and how unbelievable it would have been if they could have. I must say that suppressing openers when everyone on the bill is a huge international name is stupid. I actually hate it even when you've got unknowns opening - give everyone the same PA / sound / lighting, let the best band win. But even moreso when you've got three massive bands. Poison and their confetti I can understand when the headliner is going to come on 15 minutes later, but restricting openers to particular parts of the stage? Come on. Similarly, if an arena has screens, let everyone use them. It actually was no issue to me in this instance, because our seats were too good to even bother with the screens, but if we'd been way back, not really been able to see the stage and the screens hadn't been used for Poison I'd been really pissed. But anyways...

I'd expected Def Leppard to pull out a lot more newer songs, as I think they have a new record out, however I think they only played one new one, and otherwise belted through the greatest hits, which was quite enjoyable. They put on a good show, testament to that fact was that Katie, who has never resisted any bashing Def Leppard opportunities over the years (or bashing me because I liked Def Leppard) really enjoyed the show.

One of the highlights for me was Animal, again, something that I wouldn't have neccesarily thought they would have played. Another cool thing was that Phil Collin had a neck mounted camera on his guitar, which was really cool, and it's been quite a long time since I've seen one of those.

The acoustic section, where they did Two Steps Behind was pretty cool for us, given that they all (minus the drummer) came out to the end of the runway and were right on top of us for that whole portion of the set.

During the encore break, Katie turned to me and asked what Def Leppard hits hadn't been played, to which I replied "Let's Get Rocked". Moments later the band came out and Joe Elliot posed the question "Do you wanna get rocked?". Which just goes to show my knowledge of hair metal.

After the show we headed back to the car, and then proceeded to take an elongated tour of Kansas City, trying to find somewhere to eat. Finally we gave up after heading to a Wendy's that no longer existed and settled on McDonalds. Tough times call for touch measures. And then headed to the hotel. When all was said and done, we got bed at sometime after 3am, which was pretty impressive given that the show ended at 11!

Once Again - You Want Poison? You Got Poison!

2009-07-20T13:02:00.000-05:00

Ironically, given my post the other day, but for my 32nd birthday, I'm seeing Poison, thanks to my lovely wife!

21 years of being a fan of the Grand Slam Kings Of Noise. I finally get to see them tomorrow night for my birthday! Seeing Poisond (the Australian cover band) last year was a hell of a lot of fun, but will pale in comparison to seeing the actual band.

Funnily enough Katie came across an American Poison tribute band playing in Kansas City on Friday night (which conflicts with the free Better Than Ezra show we're going to, and was quite excited despite the conflict. I'd enjoy seeing them at some point, but as I said to her, I think it'd loose something in translation 2 nights after seeing the real Poison!

Here's to Nothin' But A Good Time...

Boco Baseball In Columbia

2009-07-18T14:29:00.000-05:00

An early start this morning as we headed out at 8:30am to Columbia to watch the Show Me Games, which the Boco Blast (Andrew's little league baseball team) were playing.

Once again, it was actually quite enjoyable watching the game. Personally, it's a lot more enjoyable watching a game that Andrew is playing in, than say watching a major / minor league game. Today's was somewhat more riviting also, given that it's one of Andrew's last games. The news of last weekend is that Andrew is taking a break from baseball to concentrate on his music career. In all seriousness, he's dropping baseball for drum lessons. Which both uncle Mark and aunt Katie were quite excited to hear! It was only two weeks ago in Union that we were commenting on how he has some obvious music ability, after he serenaded us in the basement while we watched him one night while Megan was playing a softball game.

Boco Blast had it rough, being 2 to 9 most of the game until the 4th inning as they started loading up the bases and by the 5th and had caught up 5 to 9. Because of the time limit on little league games, the 5th inning became the last. The coach had given Andrew a talk last week end (we heard all about it from Ma and Pa Jensen - Chris is the coach is question), so it was unnerving to me at Katie the fact that Andrew was up to bat in such a pressure filled situation. After two strikes, and swung and connected with the third pitch, but unfortunately was caught out, so no win for Boco Blast, but still a nice comeback later in the game.

You Want Poison? You Got Poison

2009-07-12T19:19:00.001-05:00

Last night before crashing, Katie and I watched a little of Metal Mania, because when we flicked over there was a live video of Fallen Angel on. Which prompted me to saw how I wish I had the Live, Raw & Uncut, which is on the boat, and won't be here until god knows when.

5ronically enough, HDNet are playing it tonight and we're watching it right now. Ahhh, satellite TV is brilliant.

Lazy Day

2009-07-11T16:51:00.000-05:00

Today has been such a great lazy day, coming off the past week - which has been a lot of fun, but we both feel a bit worse for wear from it.

To be honest, this has been the first day in forever where I've been able to truly relax. We woke up this morning, did some stuff until about midday, and then promptly took another nap. Which was Katie's idea, I was actually going to do some stuff, but it took nothing for me to pass out - for the next four or five hours! Katie woke me up just before 5 because of the Mythbusters episode about to air.

For the rest of the night we just watched Mythbusters, as the Discovery Channel was playing episodes back to back. As a testament to truth in advertising, we weren't too far into the pop corn episode before we had paused it (can I say how much pausing live TV rocks?!?) and were in the kitchen making popcorn! Hmmmmm, popcorn!

It has definitely been such a nice day of doing nothing, and was really needed!

Chesterfield & Driving Back To Warsaw

2009-07-10T22:53:00.000-05:00

Ahhh, it's been a good day. The Christopher Jensen's left early this morning for the All Star Fan Fest in St. Louis, so after seeing them off we slowly got ready to leave. Our initial plan was to be up here from Monday to Wednesday, however the car hunt / buying the car (largely buying the car) delayed our departure until today. It's somewhat surprising that we've been here for 5 days. It's been really nice up here, but after the car hunting, and buying yesterday, we're ready for some downtime back in Warsaw.

The plan for today has been to get the screws for the rear license plate on the Vibe fixed, then check out where Katie used to live in St. Louis, and then head back to Warsaw. There had been some suggestion that we should just have the dealership mail the correct screws to us. But since I had wanted to go to the old house anyway, and also just wanted the problem fixed, we decided to drive in anyway. A good thing, since the thread for the screws were stuffed, so new screws wouldn't have done us any good anyway. All in all it took us probably about half an hour to get that sorted out. I was definitely happy that we got it fixed now, rather than having to deal with it later.

After a smoke, and walking in to wait inside the dealership, Follow You Down was on over the PA/radio. Rock! Which prompted me to want some sort of iPod hookup for the drive home. We'd looked yesterday after picking up the car, and found no cheap options. The cheapest FM transmitter was $48, and because we only have CD, the cheap ($9) cassette option was out of the question. So I pretty much resided to getting a $48 FM transmitter as a temporary solution, despite that neither of us wanted to spend $48 on a temporary solution. With a trip to Walmart, we actually found a FM transmitter kit for $24, including a wall iPod charger - which even if we deck the car out with an AUX jack, I'll still get use out of. Sweet - just what we were looking for - a temporary solution that didn't cost too much.

From there we decided to have Fuddruckers for lunch, which began the finding Fuddruckers in St. Louis expedition. The first two that Buller sent us to no longer existed. Katie was ready to give up, but I suggested trying the third option, which was successful (despite the fact that we'd driven all over outer St. Louis in the hunt!) Absolutely worth it though. While the two times I've eaten at Fuddruckers were good, the didn't fully live up to my previous experiences. Today however did. Woo!

After lunch we drove out to Chesterfield and drove by Katie's old house and neighborhood and then down to here first primary school, which was a lot of fun. It's been really cool to get to not only see parts of her life in West Des Moines (which I'd seen in 1999 also), but also here it St. Louis.

From there, we drove back to Warsaw. The iPod FM transmitter worked well, and proved to be a good purchase. It's not perfect, but for $24 it definitely does the job, and it's been great having tunes for the drive. It's also really nice that our car has two power sources, since the transmitter requires one, and on was already occupied by Buller. The drive was also good for assessing our purchase of the car. Yesterday, driving it, there was some concerns about whether it drove as well as when we were test driving it (obviously a case of being really sensitive to things after you've spent $8k), but today I'd totally forgotten about any concerns.

On the way back there was a really great sunset (much like when we drove back from our last road trip). This looked particularly awesome while driving over the lake. I've seen quite a few good views out over the lake, but not been in the position to take any photos. The upside tonight was that the bridge rehab (it has a drug habit to kick ) is underway and is reduced to one lane at 30mph, which helped in snapping some good shots of the sunset over the lake.

Got The Vibe?

2009-07-09T19:22:00.007-05:00

So, the car search is over! Shelly and the kids have been such troopers throughout the whole process.

While we've been looking for several weeks, the past two days have been an intense, focused assault on car dealerships in the outer St. Louis area.

Personally I found that I was impressed with the Chevy Imparla, which Katie wasn't necessarily (like the Grand Am). Katie was taken by the Kia Rio and Malibu options, which I was not a fan of. With the exception of the Jeep Cherokee (which made it back onto the short list briefly on Tuesday after a false quote on gas mileage on the sports model), there has not been much common ground in what we like.

Surprisingly, that all changed yesterday, when we were pointed to a Pontiac Vibe which was only 1 of 2 cars under $8,000 at a dealership we were at. I'd already ixnayed the Vibe yesterday because I didn't like the look, and thought there would be blind spot issues. I must have been in a weird mood, because I agreed to take a look at it. Initially I wasn't even a fan of the color (salsa red). But hey, we were on a focused mission thanks to the 'assertive sister in-law', and with only two cars to try on the lot, we got in - and before long, thought we should take it out on the road. Pretty much minute by minute the car seemed better and better, and to fit our requirements. One of which being that we could pretend we were in a Jeep, but have above average gas mileage (and which blows the gas guzzling Jeep away). After a long, and by far the most thorough test drive we've done, we took it back, for first time strongly agreeing on a car.

We also test drove the Grand Am (up until now, one of my preferred cars) for the sake of argument. It was a great deal (nice price, surprisingly low mileage), but after the Vibe, the Grand Am didn't seem as cool.

Further looking (about 2 more dealerships) was boring, because nothing now compared to the Vibe. At the end of the day we went back and asked to take the Vibe home for the night, particularly since we hadn't driven it on the highway.

Basically, after much deliberation, we decided the Vibe was our car. Well, I think we'd decided long before that. Late last night Katie found an earlier model with fewer miles - in WARSAW - of all places! At a lot that we looked at weeks ago. By this point we'd decided to buy the one we'd test drove, and considered how we were going to break this change in plan to Shelly in the morning.

Long story short, we had the Warsaw Jensens take a look at the '06 Pontiac, and after deliberation over lunch with Chris and Shelly, and then just ourselves, we decided that we were going with the '04 Vibe we'd test drove. Much to the relief of Shelly I'm sure. It's somewhat surprising, that it had taken past midday to achieve all this, that the dealership hadn't called concerned that they weren't going to see their Vibe again! After setting up insurance, we headed towards St. Louis to make the purchase. Which was relatively smooth, but laboriously long, and something I don't necessarily want to do again for quite a while (I seem to be saying that a lot these days! ) But after hours of waiting, by about 5:30 we were new owners of the Pontiac Vibe, for better or worse.

St. Louis Gateway Arch

2009-07-06T23:02:00.002-05:00

Today we drove from Union to St. Louis with a day planned for visiting the Gateway Arch and Botanical Gardens. Sadly our trip was delayed from Katie getting one of her blinding headaches (her retina's are scared).

We made it to St. Louis by around two, and due to some problems with Buller, we ended up in East St. Louis (in Illinois), which was clearly the bad side of town. Ahhh, it brought back memories of Detroit. In anycase, we finally made it back to the Arch. It's impossible to miss, but getting the right roads to get there...

Surprisingly Katie has never been inside, despite having lived in St. Louis, and it was a disappointment that she didn't feel well enough to go to the top of "the Effiel Circle" (as she called in as a child when she first saw it). I however did. The 'tram' to the top was not what I'd expected. A very Star Trek looking pod that sat 6 people - uncomfortably.

The view from the top was kinda cool, and it was certainly a different type of high observation deck - immediately feeling that you were on the arch when you got to the top of the stars from the pod tram. It was kind of a clusterfuck up there, definitely a much more confined space of a viewing platform than say Melbourne's Rialto, or Sydney's Skytower. A cool experience being up there, but I think the view of the tower from the outside was actually cooler.

We got some really cool photos from the outside, before driving back to Fenton to watch Meg & Andrew's swim meet. We did get somewhat twisted around on the way out and ended up going somewhat through the downtown area. St. Louis definitely seemed like the largest downtown I've been through. Clearly I've been to larger cities (Chicago and Detroit are two recent examples), but have moreso driven around them. In anycase, it's was definitely an interesting contrast to Phoenix, which has a much larger city (ranked 6th largest according to Wikipedia, St. Louis does not rank), but whose downtownw is nothing compared to St. Louis.

Photos to come...

Springfield Cardinals vs. Midland Rockhounds

2009-07-05T23:43:00.000-05:00

The Union Jensen's had organized for us to all to go to a Springfield Cardinals (minor league) game. And as such, were all distinguishable from the other Jensens by their Springfield Cardinals get up. So we set out in a convoy after midday towards Springfield, killing some time at the Missouri Sports Hall Of Fame and Conversation area.

Since we had front row seats just passed the dugout, unprotected by nets, everyone, including Katie expected that she was destined to be knocked out by a wayward foul ball at some point throughout the game. So much so, that she posed by a warning signing when entering the ball park. Alas, she did not suffer any such misfortune throughout the game.

While we neglected to pick a team on the way down (due to getting wrapped up in other conversations), by about the 4th inning, we agreed that we were rooting for the home team. It made sense, given she was getting a Springfield Cardinals hat with a meal deal that she found (drink, pop corn, hot dog and a cap for $13.50 - while the hat itself retailed for $20 at the stands). Of course, the home team were victorious.

The Union Jensen's managed to get picked to play Family Feud during tge 3rd Inning. Chris knew someone who...I don't remember the details. It was a bit of excitement in any case. The kids proved triumphant for team Jensen, correctly identifying capital cities that were on the board. Christopher however didn't do as well, but they still beat the other family and walked away with $59.

After the game we said bye to Brad, Jamie and the Warsaw Jensens and followed the Union Jensens to - well, Union!

My First Independence Day

2009-07-04T23:45:00.000-05:00

I think it's pretty safe to say that I've had a fair decent and patriotic first 4th of July. It started, well, for me, by adorning the overly patriotic red, white and blue shirt the Jensen's had got for me at the Bass Pro Shop, much to everyone's amusement, including my own.

The morning started with a $3.50 breakfast, followed by watching Megan and Andrew fish at the Truman Lake fish hatchery. From there, there was a little tour of the bustling metropolis which is Warsaw Missouri for Jamie (Brad's girlfriend) before heading back to the house for all sorts of festivities. Showing everyone the video we took in Australia, playing Guitar Hero, and then after a while, getting the demonstration of what a freak Brad is on Guitar Hero (something that needs sto be witnessed to fully be appreciated). And then, an activity which very much felt American - shootin' guns! So, admittedly, BB guns, but all the same, it felt very fitting to be outside, virtually draped in the American flag, firing off rounds at drink cans. Yee haw!

After an early dinner we headed down to the local ball field to get set up to watch the fireworks over the lake. We stopped along the way to pick up some booze ($9 something for a 6 pack of Coronas folks!) and of course, my shirt caught a lot of attention from the locals!

We'd hit the ball park early (about 7:30) to get a good spot for the fireworks show, scheduled for 10:45. While out there, there was a really cool sunset, and also a very decent lightning display happening in the huge clouds to the east.

While I think I've seen somewhat better choreography, I think this is the best fireworks display I've seen in terms of volume, it was quite impressive. The only complain, which Christopher seemed to also think, was it was a lot shorter in comparison to the fireworks we saw last night, lasting about 15 minutes. Which is still a lot longer than firework displays I've seen in Australia.

After the fireworks we went back to the house for...more fireworks. Brad, Jamie and Christopher went down by the pond to set off their fireworks, while Megan danced around with sparklers. Surprisingly, Andrew had fallen asleep on the way back from the lake and slept through the whole thing. There were a few hairy moments with some wayward fireworks shooting out horizontally, rather than vertically. After the first incident, I retreated up closer to the house with Megan, and not long after one looked like it was going to take Christopher out as it shot up the hill towards the house. However, by the end of the display, everyone still had all the limbs intact, and no-one was on fire.

Pre Independence Day

2009-07-03T23:30:00.002-05:00

Tonight, with word of pre Independence Day fireworks on the lake, we all headed down to watch them.

I've got to say, there is something that felt very American about sitting in the back of the pickup truck and watching fireworks over the lake - and having a car near us blasting Nothin' But A Good Time from he stereo! Too much fun.

While I've seen somewhat better choreographed fireworks shows (New Years at the start of this year being an example), the length of the fireworks was vastly different than I'm used to in Australia, lasting about 25 minutes. And to think, it's not even 4th of July yet.

For the past two or so weeks, fireworks tents have been popping up (which was interesting given the heat wave around the time we went to Branson), and today the parking lot for Kovak's Fireworks was absolutely packed. The Jensen's are prepared with fireworks, I'm hopin' to see some stuff blow up real good tomorrow! ;-)

The Maine On Fuse

2009-07-01T14:30:00.000-05:00

Katie has switched over to Fuse in the hopes of seeing The Maine on this show about the Vans Warped Tour that's on. Sure enough, not after too long, there they are doing a filler section on fashion. We were hoping to see one of their videos, but sadly there was none. But what a success story. I remember just over two years ago watching a YouTube video of them playing in someone's backyard, and now you can just flick on the TV and see them.

And of course, the fact that I can turn on the TV and see them in a success story in itself!

Cute face, slim waist...

Go Baby Cry

2009-07-01T00:46:00.000-05:00

I came across a new Gin Blossoms song the other day - Go Baby Cry. Maybe the new album really is in the wings. That may be a big call, but it certainly makes me anticipate a new album if this song is anything to go on.

Apparently Jamie Woolford is involved in the production, which is such a great thing - I hope that remains true when it comes to the end product.

Other exciting news is that there are new Let Go and Domo albums in the works. Rock!

I suppose you think it's funny getting wasted on us all...

Think Outside The Bun

2009-06-27T21:13:00.000-05:00

Today for lunch we went to Taco Bell, my first Taco Bell experience. One thing I've been missing in my life is fast food Mexican. I'm a fan.

Other than that we spent the day looking at cars, in 100 odd degree heat. There was a promising find with a Honda Civic, but anything that is too good to be true always is - it turned out to have a salvage title. Hmph. It did however give me the sense that I could live with a Honda Civic, though we'd probably not find something worthwhile with that price tag.

One upside of the day was getting a pair of jeans. Not my absolute favorite jeans, but for $12 (wha? for Lee jeans?!?) they do for now.

Michael Jackson Dies

2009-06-25T18:20:00.000-05:00

Katie had gone up to grab me a drink, and came back down with what I was expecting - the announcement that Michael Jackson is dead.

It's been so long since we've said anything serious about Michael, just hearing "Michael Jackson is" seemed like a joke or off the cuff comment was going to follow. So much so, that my mind set was on that line of thought, so much so, that it took about 3 seconds for the reality of the words to set it. A very weird feeling going from a comedic mindset then into the very serious, disturbing disbelief mindset.

It's certainly weird being in the country with such a news story breaking.

The Missing General Lee

2009-06-25T00:59:00.004-05:00

Sitting inside a real General Lee today reminds me that the oddest thing to not come across in the packing is my 1981 1:25 scale (according to some Googling) die cast model.

I noticed the absence of it about a month and a half ago while packing, and haven't had a chance to think about it again until today. And the fact that is very unusual that I wouldn't have it in my possession.

In 1984 it suffered a fate - well, not that different than a lot of the 390 odd real Dodge Chargers that were used in the taping of the show - very banged up. I clearly remember being on holiday in Queensland, repeatedly launching the thing off over a rock, again, not unlike in the show. Which now, I really regret. Well, actually, I remember regretting it hours after doing it. It was really fun in the moment, and then the Mark-ness kicked in and I regretted the damage I'd inflicted, even at 7 years of age.

With that being said, I remember having it, in it's worse for wear condition for years and years later. Although the wheels didn't stay on as well as they once did, the paint was scratched up, and at some point I had the chassis apart from the body (god knows why?!?), I had all the parts. I can't remember either giving it away, nor tossing it, and more to the point, can't imagine myself doing either. Unless I had a moment of insanity greater than launching it off a rock in the middle of a caravan park in Queensland.

So I pose the question - where the hell is my die cast General Lee?

Hollywood Wax Museum and Mexican Jumping Beans

2009-06-24T17:11:00.002-05:00

It's been a fun day in Branson - kicked off by go karting, then to the Hollywood Wax Museum. Most figures were pretty good, some were pretty bad. Particularly bad was Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) who looked like a reworking (very unreworked) sculpture of Heath Ledger. Captain Jack however was awesome. And that's all that matters, right? It was enjoyable to me that the flash was giving Katie a 'headache' when I made her pose with David Hassleholf and Pammy Anderson, but she was magically cured when we got to Captain Jack, and Johnny in a wedding scene.

We had a dismal shopping experience at Branson Landing, though we did get some some Mexican Jumping Beans, which are pretty damn cool. I expected to fix my jean situation at the Levi's outlet store, however it was all quite disappointing. At least I got as far as finding some stuff to try on, which is further than I could get in Australia at least!

I'm Just A Good Ol' Boy

2009-06-24T16:45:00.001-05:00

By far, this is the definition of living out your boyhood dreams.

More photos of the General Lee here.

I'm convinced that the search for a new car is over, I just can't seem to get Katie to go for it!

Branson, MI

2009-06-23T20:57:00.002-05:00

We're here in Branson, MI, at the Settle Inn in the Outback Room - the hotel we're at has themed rooms. The other Jensen's are in the Pirates Of The Caribbean Room.

The original plan was to stay in Springfield tonight. Well, actually, the original original plan was to not leave for Branson until tomorrow. In Springfield we went to the Pro Bass Shop / Outdoor World, which was quite an experience. Actually, the insane number of deer heads in the entrance alone was quite an experience! :-) The place was massive, with a ridiculous amount of...well, anything to do with outdoors. A redneck's heaven, no doubt. I'm not sure that words can do it justice. Here's a link... http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CFPage?storeId=10151&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&appID=94&storeID=15

After that, and taking a look at Best Buy and then another trip to Fuddruckers, the decision was made to continue on to Branson, about an hour away. I've heard many a thing about Branson in the 13 years of knowing Katie - pretty much the Vegas of the midwest...except without the casinos (?). I've conferred with Katie, and indeed there aren't any. It does seem weird to compare something to Vegas when there isn't a casino in sight, but it's a fair assessment surprisingly all the same. The town is full of amusements and live shows.

Deer

2009-06-22T14:48:00.000-05:00

We've heard a lot about deers in the backyard, but until today, we hadn't seen any, thought apparently there was one one morning last week. However, we finally got to see one today, with a doe.

Surprisingly, the doe wandered across the backyard, despite the flashes coming from the downstairs window as I was taking photos.

Pretty cool.

Major Lodge Victory Tour Quick Summary

2009-06-22T01:06:00.004-05:00

We're back from what I'm dubbing as the Major Lodge Victory midwest tour. For now, here's quick summary...

5 days
2,176 miles
6 states
3 shows
1 small VW bug
3 passengers
1 bed
2 floors
1 after show bar experiences with 3 Blossoms
1 guest listing (thank god for saving $45 each on a triple bill over 3 months with two other artists we'd never ever care to see - kudos to Bill!)
1 Emmett DeGuvera sighting
1 complete drenching in under 30 seconds
1 weapons pat down to get pancakes
1 highway semi inferno
...and many Major Lodge Victories along the way!

More to come in retrospective blogs...

Back In West Des Moines

2009-06-21T22:00:00.000-05:00

This morning we said bye to Kristin and headed back out on the road destined for West Des Moines. Surprisingly I've coped well in the backset of the VW for well over a thousand miles, but admittedly the leg room in the front seat is appreciated.

Driving into West Des Moines there wasn't that much that I remembered, until we past the Kum and Go and McDonald's by Perkins. Sadly, the McDonalds (the first place I ever went with Katie after the airport 10 years ago) has since closed down.

The Perkin's car park was also very familiar, as was the entrance to the restaurant, though, inside not so much. I also remember the pancakes being a lot better, but maybe I ordered something different the last time I was here.

Part of the trip to West Des Moines was to catch up with Katie's friend Diana, who ironical is the only one of Katie's friends I met in 1999 who still lives in Des Moines. It was cool seeing Diana again, and she came with us for a trip around town to check out the sites. Surprisingly a lot of West Des Moines looked different that I remember. No doubt because it has changed in the last 10 years, but I think also because I am looking at it differently than I did 10 years ago. Back then it was my first time in the States, everything was very new and foreign. These days this is so less the case, and so much has happened and changed in the last 10 years. Katie also thought things looked different, and she was here (briefly at least) two and a half years ago, so at least it's just not me.

The first place we stopped by was the old house. Over the past few years there have been many times I've wanted to go back to the house, because I had so much of a good time there. Before my trip to Arizona in 2006 I'd hoped to be able to get out there, but that didn't happen. So I was looking forward to going past there. Of course, with the Jensen's no longer owning the house (ironically it wasn't that long ago that they finally got it sold!) it wasn't quite the experience I was looking for. Apparently Brad drove past there recently and found it very weird that other people were now living in there, and I had a similar reaction (which seems funny to make the comparison, since I only lived there for 2 weeks, compared to his 13 odd years). Still really good to have driven past 604 38th Street, just not as good as if the Jensen's still lived there.

From there we drove past Katie's elementary school, behind the old house and then by Valley High, which to me looked quite similar to when I went there with Katie for her radio show, although apparently there have been significant changes to the school.

From there we drove down to Valley Junction, and then to downtown Des Moines, which seemed a lot larger than I remembered it. I doubt that it actually is (and according to Katie, although it's changed somewhat, the size hasn't particularly) and I accredit this again to a difference in me in 10 years. 10 years ago I was seeing Des Moines from the perspective of largely only knowing Melbourne Australia (which is clearly much larger than Des Moines), now I'm seeing it with a lot more life experience and having had seen much more of the world.

After dropping Diana back at her car at Perkin's we went past a few other important places of West Des Moines in the history of Mark & Katie. I was quite happy that the field behind Carlos O'Kelly's was just as I remember it being 10 years ago, and it really didn't take much imagination standing out there to be taken back 10 years ago. Such a familiar feeling, moreso than a lot of the places we went by today. Also, standing out there, almost 10 years after the fact (in August), with everything we've seen and done since then, being married as opposed to two crazy kids in love, was...really cool.

After that we headed out to 'The Trail' which again was really cool to go 10 years after the fact, and was pretty much exactly the way I remembered it. Immediately on driving into the parking lot I was taken back to it being about 5pm and having my first cigarette in America there. Being there, it was kind of bizarre to think it was 10 years ago, because I remember it like it was yesterday. After a cool walk and chat out there, in the quite muggy heat, we headed back to the car. The other destination we would have liked to have gone to was Walnut Creek, but since it was 4pm and it was going to take us an hour to get there, we decided to do that next time. Hopefully we'll get back to West Des Moines before we move to Arizona.

Another funny sign for the trip as we passed the exit for Cumming, IA. Climax in Michigan, Cumming in Iowa, good times.

Surprisingly, Buller had our ETA back in Warsaw as 9pm - which sounded good to us. It's been a fucking awesome road trip, but the idea of getting back at this point sounded really nice.

The drive back to Warsaw was pretty nice, and Buller's ETA on getting back was right on the money, getting back to the house just after 9:15. Certainly getting back before the sun totally set was nice.This morning we said bye to Kristin and headed back out on the road destined for West Des Moines. Surprisingly I've coped well in the backset of the VW for well over a thousand miles, but admittedly the leg room in the front seat is appreciated.

Driving into West Des Moines there wasn't that much that I remembered, until we past the Kum and Go and McDonald's by Perkins. Sadly, the McDonalds (the first place I ever went with Katie after the airport 10 years ago) has since closed down.

The Perkin's car park was also very familiar, as was the entrance to the restaurant, though, inside not so much. I also remember the pancakes being a lot better, but maybe I ordered something different the last time I was here.

Part of the trip to West Des Moines was to catch up with Katie's friend Diana, who ironical is the only one of Katie's friends I met in 1999 who still lives in Des Moines. It was cool seeing Diana again, and she came with us for a trip around town to check out the sites. Surprisingly a lot of West Des Moines looked different that I remember. No doubt because it has changed in the last 10 years, but I think also because I am looking at it differently than I did 10 years ago. Back then it was my first time in the States, everything was very new and foreign. These days this is so less the case, and so much has happened and changed in the last 10 years. Katie also thought things looked different, and she was here (briefly at least) two and a half years ago, so at least it's just not me.

The first place we stopped by was the old house. Over the past few years there have been many times I've wanted to go back to the house, because I had so much of a good time there. Before my trip to Arizona in 2006 I'd hoped to be able to get out there, but that didn't happen. So I was looking forward to going past there. Of course, with the Jensen's no longer owning the house (ironically it wasn't that long ago that they finally got it sold!) it wasn't quite the experience I was looking for. Apparently Brad drove past there recently and found it very weird that other people were now living in there, and I had a similar reaction (which seems funny to make the comparison, since I only lived there for 2 weeks, compared to his 13 odd years). Still really good to have driven past 604 38th Street, just not as good as if the Jensen's still lived there.

From there we drove past Katie's elementary school, behind the old house and then by Valley High, which to me looked quite similar to when I went there with Katie for her radio show, although apparently there have been significant changes to the school.

From there we drove down to Valley Junction, and then to downtown Des Moines, which seemed a lot larger than I remembered it. I doubt that it actually is (and according to Katie, although it's changed somewhat, the size hasn't particularly) and I accredit this again to a difference in me in 10 years. 10 years ago I was seeing Des Moines from the perspective of largely only knowing Melbourne Australia (which is clearly much larger than Des Moines), now I'm seeing it with a lot more life experience and having had seen much more of the world.

After dropping Diana back at her car at Perkin's we went past a few other important places of West Des Moines in the history of Mark & Katie. I was quite happy that the field behind Carlos O'Kelly's was just as I remember it being 10 years ago, and it really didn't take much imagination standing out there to be taken back 10 years ago. Such a familiar feeling, moreso than a lot of the places we went by today. Also, standing out there, almost 10 years after the fact (in August), with everything we've seen and done since then, being married as opposed to two crazy kids in love, was...really cool.

After that we headed out to 'The Trail' which again was really cool to go 10 years after the fact, and was pretty much exactly the way I remembered it. Immediately on driving into the parking lot I was taken back to it being about 5pm and having my first cigarette in America there. Being there, it was kind of bizarre to think it was 10 years ago, because I remember it like it was yesterday. After a cool walk and chat out there, in the quite muggy heat, we headed back to the car. The other destination we would have liked to have gone to was Walnut Creek, but since it was 4pm and it was going to take us an hour to get there, we decided to do that next time. Hopefully we'll get back to West Des Moines before we move to Arizona.

Another funny sign for the trip as we passed the exit for Cumming, IA. Climax in Michigan, Cumming in Iowa, good times.

Surprisingly, Buller had our ETA back in Warsaw as 9pm - which sounded good to us. It's been a fucking awesome road trip, but the idea of getting back at this point sounded really nice.

The drive back to Warsaw was pretty nice, and Buller's ETA on getting back was right on the money, getting back to the house just after 9:15. Certainly getting back before the sun totally set was nice.

New Lenox, IL

2009-06-20T23:31:00.001-05:00

Photos

With a much shorter trip to New Lenox, Illinois, we were able to take it a bit easier this morning, which was nice.

Very little of our stuff had dried out, and I noticed that even my passport, which was in my pocket and inside a plastic pocket had even gotten wet. But at least this morning there was no sign of rain. Around 11 we packed up the car, and headed over to the near by Fuddruckers, which Katie had spotted a sign for last night.

Pulling in, we parked next to a SUV, with both right hand side tied slashed. Ahhh, the true Detroit experience. After the fact it was considered that possibly the tired getting slashed happened in travel, but who knows. Either way, we sat where we could keep an eye on the bug, just in case. Which, once we sat down, I saw the irony in - if someone had come up to slash our ties, what the fuck was I going to do about it? Go out there and put a cap in the ass?!?!? In any case, after 2 and a bit weeks I've finally got to go to Fuddruckers.

On the way out of Detroit I pulled out the iPod and we listened to Michigan - Tramps & Thieves take on Michigan, rather than Katie's. We didn't really experience the freezing cold winds that Scott sings about, though it was tempting to change the words to be about the pouring rains of Michigan. Otherwise the trip back across Michigan was fairly uneventful. I will say that out of all the states we've traveled, Michigan seemed to be the less interesting scenically to me. It might have been different if I'd gotten to see the Great Lakes (ironically we drove from Lake Michigan to Lake Huron, though didn't really see them).

We arrived in New Lenox around 4pm, just after the doors opened. The girls were somewhat concerned, or at least surprised by the police presence, which admittedly there was quite a bit, however the show appeared to be put on by the New Lenox fire department, and possibly police department. Someone had forgotten to put us on the guest list - in Detroit, I was willing to pay 10 bucks to get into the VIP area if we had to, but paying $45 each for this 3 concert series was going to be a bit pricey, so it made sense to wait why Krissy followed up on that. Despite the 83 degree heat we waited until 5:30 without any shade. But Billy came through, and we got in.

The second opening band was a cover band playing the hits of the 90's. What I thought was cool was that the mayor of New Lenox got up and sang Close To Me (The Cure). While the band was playing we say Gary setting up the merch table, and once before heading closer to the stage we went up and checked it out. It was nice to finally be able to check it out in daylight without anyone around. Immediately I knew that the "20 Miserable Years" t-shirt had to be mine! And Katie was thinking the same. They started selling them either last year or 2007, but I'd not seen a picture, nor really heard anything about it...and hence had not really thought about it in a long while. But finally, they've come through, the t-shirt is perfect. It was also an opportunity to see what the deal is with the charity that Robin mentioned at the Wisconsin show - and to stuff a dollar in the jar and take one of the postcard / flier.

After the trip to the merch table we moved down to the grass. I was keen to get up front tonight. Being a few rows back in Wisconsin was fine. I'd planned to be closer up in Detroit, but given the circumstances, it was fine hanging back. But tonight, it was front row, or bust...at least for me, making Kristin and Katie somewhat uncomfortable, given that they've been yelled at similar type of shows. Which I wasn't ready to stand for. We stood by the side of the stage, and once the band started and more people moved in front of the stage, I darted for the front of the stage...almost leaving the girls in the dust.

Arguably this was the best show of the last 3 nights. It was also the first show I've been to where we weren't uncomfortably crowded at the front, although the front of the stage did fill up once the band started.

The setlist was much the same as we saw at Waterfest.

Follow You Down
Until I Fall Away
Fool For The Taking
Found Out About You
Long Time Gone
As Long As It Matters
Miss Disarray
Allison Road
Supergirl
Lost Horizons
Til I Hear It From You
Hey Jealousy

Encore

Rocket Man
Hands Are Tied
Now

Stand out moments were Johnson losing his shit at the end of Long Time Gone, bending the neck of the new Fender against the amp - trying to achieve what exactly, I'm not really sure, but it was rocktastic! And surprising to see the level of rocking out so early in the set.

One thing very evident with Robin is how good he is with the kids - not that this wasn't tre is Oshkosh as well, but it did seem that there were more kids front of stage at this show, and Robin played to them quite well. I'm sure that part of it is having a kid himself. The other noticeable thing is that Robin perfectly plays the rockstar frontman these days.

Being right up front made for some really good photos, especially when Johnson came right out front of stage rockstaring it up. With the stage so low, and Johnson so far forwards, on two occasions I almost got taken out by his flailing guitar neck.

Another highlight was the dueling outro solo on Super Girl, where Johnson went over and jammed with Jess. It did however also make me think how much I'd like if they brought the Hands Are Tied closer with the ridiculous solo back. With that said, they still did a blistering version of Hands.

Again, Hey Jealousy sounded fantastic, like the other night, better than I've ever heard it. They closed out again with Now, which is such a great rocker, which I could really get used to them doing it.

Again, Robin mentioned working on the new album before playing Miss Disarray, and there was no mention of the new live album, not were there any copies for sale, which really makes you wonder what the hell is up with that album.

After the show we milled around for a while discussing it, because I'd virtually ditched the girls for the front row (they were right behind me). Little did I know that they were waiting for a setlist, and if I'd known I would have done more to try get one. Daryl did come out later and said 'hi' and handed us some Scotty picks.

Given how good this trip had been, I was good to go and we headed towards the exit, interrupted by Katie's announcement about 'shirtless Robin'. It was cute how quickly Kristin diverted to the fence on the side of the stage. I was clearly in the presence of giddy school girls - yes, the both of them. We said 'hi' to Robin, had a photo taken, and I had my pass signed.

Videos from the night:

Scotty soloing on Super Girl

Scotty & Jesse duel guitar attack on Super Girl

Scotty rockin' out on Hands Are Tied

Scotty on Now

The decision was made to make the trip back to Marshalltown tonight, facilitated somewhat by the fact that the Blossoms show had started at 8pm, which worked out conveniently. The trip was largely uneventful with the exception of a semi inferno in the middle of the highway in Iowa. Another first for me. Though, pretty much for the girls as well. It was quite impressive of a fire, and had must of just happened, as there were fire trucks, but no police or signage away from the accident.

After taking a short smoko break, and Kristin taking over the driving for the last part of the trip we got back to Marshalltown a little before 4am and crahsed on Kristin's floor again.

Riverfest - Detroit, MI

2009-06-19T23:33:00.000-05:00

Photos

Today we woke up at 9 for the longest leg of our trip - Oshkosh, Wisconsin to Detroit, Michigan.

Once again, Deb was too nice, making us all breakfast before we left, and chatting about the Blossoms over breakfast.

Once on the road again we traveled south around Lake Michigan towards Chicago. Unfortunately I didn't have the foresight to put on South Milwaukee (Loretta) as we passed Milwaukee.

Once we got closer to Chicago the traffic hit. To me, it was very reminiscent of being is Los Angeles. Though Katie claimed that she much prefers Los Angeles traffic to Chicago traffic. All in all the traffic cost us about an hour. At one point I really wanted a smoke, and considered jumping out of the car and walking along side it down the freeway while having a smoke.

Neither the less, seeing Chicago from a distance was pretty cool. Almost being taken out by the Los Kapsi (La Nu Sensacion De Tierra Calintente) tour bus, as it decided at the last minute, from the left lane it wanted to take exit 51C, not as cool. By the time the traffic had cleared it was very nice to be back at cruising speed.

From the Chicago area, we crossed over the Illinois border and traveled along the bottom of Lake Michigan. From there it was north into Michigan, and then 4 hours across Michigan to motor city Detroit. Somewhere along the way we passed the second comical sign - the exits for Climax. As we went past the second sign I called out "ready girls?" Certainly by this stage we were sure that we were going to miss Starship, and we couldn't afford any delays because Buller had us scheduled to arrive at River Days at 9:15 - 15 minutes before the Blossoms took the stage. I won't lie to you, although we seemed to be okay, Balloon and Crap Festival anxiety began to rise in me. And then the rain hit. We were arguably only about halfway across Michigan, traffic was a bit slower, and the rain didn't help anything.

By the time it was dark, the rain was pelting down, only about 15 miles out of Detroit, Katie declared that she'd had enough. For the past 45 minutes we had some major doubts that the show hadn't already been rained out, and pulled off the highway to recoup. My wishful thinking was that the rain had delayed everything, and the bad would go on later and we'd be fine. The girls thought it was more likely that the show had been rained out and we hadn't missed anything. Either way, after a 10 or so minute break, Katie was back with us. The girls questioned whether we should just find a hotel, but I made the executive decision that we should continue on to Detroit. I mean we were only 15 minutes out, what do we have to lose? So we continued on. At which point Katie started writing her new hit song "I'm not sure about you Michigan". Look for it coming to a record store near you.

Michigan....
I'm just not sure how I feel about you Michigan
When Robin gets hit by lightning he goes 'pheff'
I'm just not sure how I feel about you Michigan
Are you fucking serious Michigan?

Will the rain ever stop?
I'm willing to give you a chance
But I'm just not sure about you Michigan

You've got Motor City
But I'm just not that sure about you Michigan

Anyways, we made it to motor city. Finding the venue was interesting, Buller seemed somewhat confused, but we got down there. Not before almost ending up in Canada though. At one point we turned down a street which prompted turned into a border entrance to Canada - without much warning. It was actually incredibly uncannily like the Port Of Entry for Mexico / USA in Nogales. Pretty much curve around this short street, and there you are, about to enter Canada. Which I thought was really cool, and I really dig the fact that I've now been to both borders - even if we really hadn't planned on this one.

Getting back on track and driving past the venue, despite people were leaving, we could hear some music. So we parked the car in the parking garage across the street, and high tailed it across the midway when I thought I heard Hold Me Down (having serious Balloon and Crap Festival flashbacks, with Krissy in toe.

We got to the stage, where there was no band playing, and not much of a crowd, but a bunch of people mopping up - including Daryl. Major Lodge Victory! As I'd suggested, the Blossoms hadn't played, and it appeared that the might. It certainly seemed that the mopping up was in preparation for a rock show, rather than a cleanup. Of course, there were some questions about whether it was actually going to happen. Lightning strikes were sill flying around - so refer to the Robin lyric in Katie's Michigan song. One annoyance was a barrier around the stage - weird since this was a free show. Once we mustered the ability to ask security, the barriered section was for corporate sponsors. Lame! Particular since the rain had really thinned out the crowd.

It soon became apparent that the Gin Blossoms were going to play, and closer to the start of the show, security ushered the corporate sponsor VIP's into the front rows from the tents, and then cleared the barricades. Woo! Major Lodge Victory number...well, I've lost count at this point. The MC came out and thanked all the sponsors, and in what sounded weird thanked 'GM. Who aren't sponsoring River Days this year, but...". The intention of the shout out was clear, but still came out sounding...well, frankly, comical.

The band took the stage, said hi to Detroit and then announced that they'd better get to it, since the set was going to be shortened to 45 minutes because of the rain.

Follow You Down
Found About You
Fool For The Taking
Long Time Gone
Super Girl
Allison Road
Til I Hear It From You
Lost Horizons
Hey Jealousy

Despite not being as close as we would have otherwise have liked, and the abbreviated set, it was a thoroughly enjoyable show. Which is the brillance of seeing a number of shows consecutively. If you one does go 100% according to plan it's not a huge problem. I'd planned on being front row tonight, but the fact that we were back a fair way was cool to me, because it's the first time I've seen to show from that perspective (always being up front at other shows).

Not long into the set, Katie noticed that Emmett DeGuvera (from Tramps & Thieves) was back stage, hanging out with Daryl, which was pretty cool. Pretty far from Tempe, however Katie figured that he was in Detroit visiting family.

Throughout the show there were quite a few lightning strikes, which prompted visions of Gin Blossoms going up in a cloud of smoke here an there. At times, the look on Robin's face implied he was having the same vision.

Everything considered, it was a really good show, and in my mind completely made the 7 or so hours drive worthwhile. After the set, Robin announced he'd be back at the merch table, which was kind of surprising, given how small the crowd was and the weather seeming fair miserable.

We milled around there for a bit, moreso to see if we had more chance of seeing what was for sale, however, it was a crappy little tent where it was impossible to see anything. One thing we all enjoyed was hearing Robin's commanding voice saying "can we move the table 15 inches THAT way so that I'm not getting dripped on".

Not long after that, Katie mentioned how great it was that the rain had held off for the show. At that point, it had just started to drizzle. And apparently, that comment upset the gods. Within about 30 seconds of making the comment, the heavens opened. We had been about ready to make a move anyway, and we darted across the midway, with absolutely no shelter to be found, we were absolutely drenched in under a minute. Arguably it's the most intense downpour I've been out in, and we really might have well have just jumped in the adjacent Detroit River - we would have not have gotten any less wet if we'd done that! By the time we got back to the car, there was not an inch of my clothes that weren't sopping wet. After ringing out what clothes we could, the plan was to find a cheap hotel where we could dry out.

Without too much fuss we found a Discomfort Inn close by, checked in and changed out clothes. On the way in, the girls had spotted an International House Of Pancakes, which prompted much excitement from the front seats of the car, and it was decided that we'd go over there. After a hilarious 15 minute aimless drive trying to get in to the parking lot we pulled in, and Krissy announced that it looked pretty gangster-ish. From the back seat I couldn't see that much. Though, once walking in, it was obvious what she meant as we were stopped in the entrance, awaiting a weapons pat down. There's a good an American experience for me right there - a concealed weapons check while just trying to get pancakes.

Once getting in, the front of the building was boarded up and wrapped in 'caution' tape. Initially, particularly given the pat down and the fact that we were the only three anglo people in there, I wondered who had been murdered there, and how recently. However, obviously a car had come through the front of the building. All in all, it was certainly a unique Detroit experience! With that being said, it was a actual lovely post show dinning experience, and our waitress Smilie was really nice.

After finishing eating we headed back to the hotel, for our first sleep in a bed since embarking on the trip, which was greatly appreciated.

Waterfest - Oshkosh, WI

2009-06-18T23:08:00.000-05:00

Photos

Day 2, and we're headed to Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

After pulling ourselves up off Kristin's floor and hitting the shower, we headed out on the road again. This time for me in the back seat, so Kristin could ride shotgun. There has been talk about whether to hire a car, given the size of the bug, but I'm confident we can make this work. With that said, I have absolutely no idea why VW even bothered putting backseats in this car.

We hit the Iowa / Wisconsin border at Dubuque, crossing the Mississippi River, which isn't something I'd been expecting to do on this trip, so that was pretty cool. It was kinda funny passing signs for Melbourne (Iowa) yesterday, and the Wisconsin bridge today looking like a smaller version of the Sydney Harbor bridge.

Katie had said that she really liked Wisconsin, and I completely have to agree, it's quite a nice place to drive through, and again, different to Iowa.

Overall it's been a good drive to Oshkosh. We pulled into town about 5pm, and came in right by Riverside Park, which worked out nicely since entry before 6pm was $5.

The first band was Common Time, a high school jazz band. Notably, the bass player looked like a 18 year old Bill Leen. Cool. I noticed it, and about 30 seconds Katie leaned over and said the same thing!

Up next was Three Beers 'Til Dubuque. While they were setting up there were some major concerns when a horn section, including saxamaphone was brought out. However, it turned out that they were a cover band, and were actually quite good at what they did, and turned out to be not a bad opener to stand through. A particular highlight of mine, and seemingly a lot of the crowd was their version of Call Me Al.

A continually comedic factor of the night was an anglo Jesse Valenzuela look alike standing off from the side to us. Much like with the kid from Common Time, moments after I noticed him, Katie leaned over and said "did you see Jesse's dad over there!". I am remiss that I didn't take a photo of him. At some stage throughout the night I think we all almost got taken out by him, as he stumbled around. Good times. Speaking off being taken out, I almost did by some other old dude as I caught a Waterfest t-shirt after one of the sets.

The Blossoms took the stage at 9. By this time, the front of stage area had filled up, and we assumed our positions Bill / Scott side. As soon as the band started, it was obvious how busy I've been and how little I'd thought about the reality that I was about to see the Blossoms again - because there was an immediate "holy shit, I'm seeing the Blossoms!!" moment. It was also obvious how out of the loop I feel, just with not being that up on what's going on because of everything that has been going on in our lives over the past year, and hence had no idea of what to expect from the setlist. I guess the other thing that was obvious immediately was why I love this stoopid band. I haven't necessarily thought about it that much over the past year, and have been so immersed in other Tempe bands for the last few years. But right from the get go, I immediately remembered.

The setlist was vastly different than any I remember, but of course, I've been out of the loop for quite a while. As best as I can piece together from memory...

Follow You Down
Until I Fall Away
Fool For The Taking
Long Time Gone
As Long As It Matters
Found Out About You
Miss Disarray
Supergirl
Lost Horizons
Allison Road
Til I Hear It From You
Hands Are Tied
Folsome Prison Blues
Hey Jealousy

Encore

Rocket Man
Now

Robin mentioned working on a new album before Miss Disarray. I've been vaguely familiar with the song (probably listened to it three or so times), it definitely sounds really good. There was also mention the Jesse wrote it - Katie and I, until now had figured it was a Robin song.

At some point throughout the show, Bill noticed us. And later on while at the front of the stage Scotty saw us, clearly with some disbelief, and through me a pick.

The show rocked. It was great that they've still got Lost Horizons is awesome. Folsom Prison Blues was an unexpected surprise. Of particular note was how rockin' Hey Jealousy is sounding live.

After the show we hung around for a bit, went up and said hi to Robin, who was greeting people from the stage, and then wandered over to the merch booth, although it was really too dark to see what they had.

Without much of a plan of what we were doing next, we headed for the exit, and were greeted by the Appleton's, who Krissy and Katie had figured would be at the show. Who are the Appleton's A family they both know from here, who are affectionately known as the Appleton's purely since they live in Appleton, WI. There was much fan fare about us being back and the fact that we are now married. After much milling around at the entrance of the venue, seemingly to the chagrin of security , they offered lodging, and also suggested that we should head to Oblio's bar for drinks before hand. Given the reason behind it, I was more than up for it...

Oblio's Lounge, Oshkosh, WI

Oblio's Lounge was a small, quite noisy redneck bar in downtown Oshkosh. We milled around for a while, trying to chat over all the noise. Before long, a black van pulled up, and out piled Daryl, John, Bill, Jesse - ie: the whole band sans Robin. To finally have the post show bar Blossoms experience (that I've heard so much about over the years, but never experienced) so soon after moving here was the start of the Major Lodge Victories of the trip. We got to have a cool chat with Bill, who was quite interested in the fact that we were back, and congratulatory at the news of our marriage. Of course with, Katie, Kristin and myself being the stunning conversationalists that we are, he was no doubt bored to tears. Admittedly, the noise of the bar didn't help anything. I'm very keen to have a proper conversation with Bill, but not having the repore with him (yet hopefully) that the girls do, I was more than happy just being in the presence of the Leen, and occasionally helping him out with a light for his cigarette. Given the very brief meeting I got in 2005, just sitting across from him in the bar and listening to his nuggets of wisdom was too cool for school. Is there any question as to why the girls (meaning Katie and Krissy) love him? No, no there is not.

After a while Johnson showed up, which I was pretty happy about, since I can easy chat with Scotty, without having to rely on the girls for an introduction. Immediately he came over to hug and say 'hi', asked what the fuck we were doing in Wisconsin and too congratulated us getting married. Congrats from Bill and Scotty, pretty damn cool. He had to run to fraternize, but said he'd be back soon.

On his return he complained that none of us were drinking, and proceeded to take orders for all of us and supply us with liquior. we had a good chat about Katie's trip to Australia, getting back, whether we were living in Iowa and the fact that we'll be heading out to Phoenix soon.

Once we all decided that we were leaving, Scotty walked us out - clearly drunk, telling me that I was "an attractive man..." (no doubt implying that Katie has done well) "...if I were single..." to which I replied "Don't let that stop you!", which left Scotty in stitches. Major Lodge Victory 2!

The quote of the night was "I've made a mockery of my life." Gold. It's quickly becoming the catch phrase of the trip.

From the bar we drove to the Appleton's and were greeted with fresh home made hash browns, which was too nice, especially at 2am in the morning, and a lot more than I expected - I was grateful for just a floor to crash on!

Home For Now

2009-06-16T04:10:00.000-05:00

Because I'm sure there is someone back in Australia interested, here is where we call home for now.

The house from the front.

The backyard and pond shot from the balcony. This shot neither illistrates a) the size of the block, nor b) how high up that balcony is!

More Photos here

Up & Coming Crumbling Road Trip

2009-06-15T20:26:00.006-05:00

Two days until we head out on our road trip of the north midwest.

First stop in Ames, IA to stop in with Brad for lunch, then to Marshalltown to pick up Kristin (and free lodging for the night). From there it's to Oshkosh, WI for the first of the Gin Blossoms shows at Leach Amphitheater. From there it's the surprisingly long drive to Detroit, Michigan for Blossoms at Detroit River Days. Surprisingly, Starship are opening. Who know they were still a band!

Then it's to New Lenox, IL for the final Blossoms show in this jaunt.

Thu 06/18/2009 - Waterfest, Leech Amphitheater, Oshkosh, WI
Fri 06/19/2009 - Detroit River Days, Detroit, MI
Sat 08/20/2009 - New Lennox Commons, New Lenox, IL

View Map

Trillian Reconnecting To MSN

2009-06-15T19:09:00.000-05:00

One long standing annoyance I've had with Trillan is that it will not reconnect to MSN after hibernation, standby and a few other situations. Which has been a huge pain, the only solution being to close it and repoen it, which on a laptop is really annoying.

With a bit of Googling I've come across the following which seems to have sorted things out. Trillian reconnection problem

I've opted for adding an entry in my local hosts file for messenger.hotmail.com instead of changing the Trillian preferences.

3 Rules Of 'dd'

2009-06-14T17:26:00.000-05:00

The three rules of 'dd':

1. Don't dd an active disk
2. Don't dd an active disk
3. Don't dd an active disk

When it came to making a final image of my Linux system disk, my Knoppix CD had already been shipped, and with time left before we left ticking away and so much to do, I decided to fly by the seat of my pants, and do the dd image of my server from the live system with all the partitions mounted as read/write. I mean, what could possibly go wrong with that?

Admittedly I'd planned to be also bringing the system drive with me, which I think made it easy to fly by the seat of my pants, a plan that was abandoned at about 3 in the morning as we ran out of room in our luggage.

Of course, the repercussions of such a decision are becoming obvious as I'm attempting to put the image back onto a disk - which appeared to work fine, although the computer would regularly lock up. Running a 'reiserfsck' on the root partition however indicated why - more errors than you can point a stick at!

From the outset, an older image of just that partition appears to be working better, luckily.

Warsaw Jubulee Days

2009-06-12T23:29:00.000-05:00

Today we drove into Warsaw for Jubulee Days. The concensious all around was that it wasn't all that jubulous! That's certainly what Katie and I thought, Irv and Chris seemed to not have any high expectations based on their past years here.

I haven't had that much of a culture shock - I don't know whether it's because of the whole thing with living here being 10 uears in the making, having spent time in the US before, or just a case of with everything that's happened in the last year, but whatever it is, I haven't really had one. However, walking around Jubilee Days I definitely had a sense that I was in small town middle America.

At the end of the day there wasn't much to see beyond a couple of food stands, two tents of arts and craft. Irv had phoned earlier in the day with news that there was a trained monkey, but it seemed that he wasn't appearing until tonight, and we weren't coming back and paying $15 just to give a monkey a penny to put in it's pocket.

As Katie commented, Foundation Day in Union was much better of an experience.

No More Analogue TV

2009-06-12T20:58:00.000-05:00

Today signalled the end of analogue TV in the US. Not that it effected us, we're currently spoilt with satelitte directTV, but it is funny to hear about 911 calls being made due to people's TV's not working.

Blogs And Photos Back Online

2009-06-11T02:15:00.001-05:00

The last minute decision to only bring my laptop in the move has raised the dilemma of having no way of hosting either my blog or photos online. Both of which I'm going to use the most now, more than ever.

However, tonight I've sorted out both problems, temporarily hosting my blog on Blogger and thanks to the brilliant suggestion of my wife, my photos on Picasa. I'd signed up for Blogger the other day, and wasn't too impressed with no easy way to import from my actual blog, nor manually set the times of posts. While I haven't found a solution to the first issue (cutting and pasting from my actual blog is a bit of a pain, but will have to do for now), the time issue was just an oversight on my part. I even got the theme looking mostly like my actually blog. Some cleaning up is still required, but it'll do. For now, Lead Thoughts is now at

http://lead-thoughts.blogspot.com/

Picasa has worked out perfectly, given the desktop application to do all the syncing. I really had no interest of uploading each photo manually (one of the reasons I use Photobox), and given the internet speed here, it'd be an absolute nightmare. So thank god for the automation in uploading provided by Picasa! For now, my photos are here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/mark.ord/

All I can say is that Google rocks, given that I'm using them for about everything right now (mail, calendar, blog, photos).

And That's Why The Midwest Is So Green...

2009-06-10T23:16:00.001-05:00

On the way back from Clinton from watching Up (the latest Pixar 3D flick) the rain pelted down again by the time we'd hit Warsaw. It's the third time in about as many days that we've had a huge storm. This morning was a really nice day, but seemed like the middle of winter by the time we'd gotten home. Yesterday was cloudy all day, and quite stormy last night, and it stormed pretty good on Monday morning at Christopher's.

The lightning and thunder here is pretty impressive also. Last night one hit quite close, which took out the power for a moment and sent the dogs in a frenzy.

Living somewhere where there is a drought, you just become accustomed to it, and it becomes the norm. It's not until you go somewhere else that the contrast really hits you, and you consider that there might be something to all the press around the drought in Australia.

Car Hunting

2009-06-09T23:27:00.000-05:00

Today we did some initial car hunting in Sedallia. All we can say it is unfortunate that Jeep Cherokes have such poor gas milage! We found a nice 2001 Jeep Cheroke within our price range, but the gas milage makes it hard to justify - to the chagrin of both of us.

Union, Missouri

2009-06-07T09:59:00.001-05:00

Today we've driven across Missouri to Union to see the other Jensens. The drive from Warsaw to Union was about 3 hours. While listening to the radio, I thought about the fact that I'll now be able to listen to AR40 re-runs - incredibly ironically, 2 minutes later when Irv changed the station, there was Casey Casum counting down the top 40 from June 1977!

It was cool seeing Chris, Shelly and the kids again, especially since Meg and Andrew are now my niece and nephew.

It happened to be Union Foundation Day, so we went downtown for the celebration. It was pretty cool for me, seeing the whole small town thing. We also got a tour of Chris' office two blocks away - with a shot gun casing in the carpark. Of all the places to see a shotgun shell casing - the parking lot of a layers office.

This afternoon we went to watch Andrew's little league baseball game, which was really enjoyable. I found that I enjoyed it more than major league games that we've gone to, and I think that is because a) the game is a lot quicker (there is less standing around on the field, or at least it seems that way) and b) my nephew is playing, which makes it a whole lot more interesting. Andrew made what was apparently the best hit of the season so far, and the Boco Blast won easily.

3 Ways You Know You're In America

2009-06-06T18:46:00.000-05:00

Three ways you know you're in America:

You can get Marlboro Lights - none of this Marlboro Gold crap that came in internationally 3 years ago! And with the white filters! Woo!
A carton of Marlboro Lights is $40.49 (AU$51.06) - verses ~AU$89 in Australia
You can hear the Gin Blossoms in Countrymart in the middle of Missouri within 3 days of touching down. Hearing Long Time Gone on the radio was just plain bizarre (cool bizarre). I know it was a single, but it never seemed like a real single!

Sitting In A Holiday Inn, Just Outside Kansas City

2009-06-04T11:46:00.000-05:00

Okay, so we're at the Harrah Casino Hotel, and in Kansas City, but how can I resist quoting Kansas City? That's right, I couldn't.

Last night getting in and seeing Katie's parents was pretty damn nice! After everything we've done in the last 28 hours, it was pretty damn nice to finally relax somewhat and just sitting in the back of the truck, headidng out to the casino where we were staying. Another thing that has been nice is sleeping in a bed. It's the first time we've done that since Monday! But not before some Wendy's fries, nuggets and a frostie. All of which was kinda average, except for the frosty (which could never be bad!). It absolutely was no effort to fall asleep!

Surprisingly I woke up at about 8:45 this morning - which has been par for the course over the epast 2 weeks, which I can't really work out. While I was still at work, I was struggling to get out of bed, and we've been so sleep deprived over the last 2 weeks, yet we haven't slept in at all! After a bit of a walk around the casino, we headed out to Warsaw, a 2 or so hour drive.

A bit of comic relief was driving through the town of Tightwad. Yes - Tightwad! Both the Tidwad bank and Tightwad Souvenir Store was funny to see.

The folks place is pretty sweet, and I have had to keep reminding myself not to get too accustomed to the creature comforts of a big screen TV, 200+ cable channels and really having nothing to do right now but enjoy it! In a lot of ways, it's pretty hard to not mistake this for a retreat - with 3 acres, nothing but green forest behind us, and more wildlife than you can poke a stick at, it really does feel like a holiday retreat.

We picked up Diggs, who has really seemed to have grown up and settled down in the past 3 years, and meet Maggi for the first time, who is a complete nut. The amount of wildlife eoutside of the dogs has also been impressive. We've also seen a water snake in the pond, and firebugs tonight, which is a first for me.

The Final Leg

2009-06-03T22:20:00.002-05:00

Finally, about 5 hours after our original departure time, we're on our way to Kansas City, Missouri. The last leg of this adventure known as moving to the United States! Well, for the very short term, anyways. And not a moment too soon I would say - as we head into our 27th hour of traveling.

Ironically this is the first time I've pulled out the laptop in the air the whole trip, and it's the first time someone in front of me has reclined the seat - though it's not too bad. The sun is setting as I speak and I got some cool shots of that, which pleases me. As the sun begins to set, it really makes this feel like a 2 day ordeal, which maybe it has been - I don't even know anymore. But it's definitely been a wearing experience. The fact that I keep falling asleep in mid sentence is really proof of that! However, it's almost over - 2 and a half hours to Kansas City, once we make it there we'll be able to relax somewhat!

Back In Phoenix!

2009-06-03T17:33:00.000-05:00

So now I'm in Pheonix, Arizona. Just inside the airport terminal, since it doesn't make sense to venture out, but even so, it rocks my world. I love this place. With how ridiculously busy everything has been, there has been virtually no time to think about what we're doing. Though, yesterday after getting on the plane, I did get flashes to coming over here in 2005 anf 2006 - and had to remind myself that it would be a little while before I was going to get to see Phoenix. So being redirected through here with a 2 hour layover rocks my world! It's about 105 degrees here today (significantly warmer than LA) which was really notible when disembarking from the plane. The other awesome thing coming off the plane was that smell of the desert. Immedidately it felt like I was home.

To be honest, we're both starting to run on petrol fumes - after everything with packing and getting no sleep, the 14+ hour flight to get to the States, and now our arrival being pushed back until 11:05pm tonight (we'd otherwise already had been in Kansas City) - so I'm getting to the point of travelling being done. I love it, and in someway, I hardly ever want it to be over, but at the same time, you can only go for so long. And it's certainly feeling like we're approaching that point, despite how awesome being in Phoenix is.

Hello U.S.A

2009-06-03T11:00:00.000-05:00

Ahh, the land of large Cokes that are large. We're at LAX, waiting for a flight to Phoenix, as because of the delay to our Sydney to Los Angelos we missed our direect flight to Kansas City. Which originally seems like a huge pain in the ass, but the fact that we're connecting through Phoenix as a result rocks my world. I might just have to jump off there.

It's also preferable to the flights originally suggested by the South West ticketting assistant, which was LA to El Paso, to Dallas, to Kansas City. And this point, that many connections just wouldn't have been fun. I love the whole flying and travelling thing, but with the amount of carry on luggage we have, getting off and on planes is a real pain!

In anycase, entry into the US was very smooth and arguably quicker when I've been here on holidays with visa wavers. Since this time around I was in a different line (first time immigrant), the process was very streamlined, since there weren't that many of us (I was the only person in the line). It turned out that the immigration interview on this end was just going through customs, and getting finger printed. The processing was done while we went and got our luggage, and was waiting when I went back up to the counter where I'd come in.

Getting through customs was just as easy, though it was a huge line. Since our flight got in late, we were pressed for time, and I was dreading the potential delay at customs, since we had no shortage of suitcases with our whole lives packed in them. But it turned out to be a very quick process, with the only concern being whether we had any food products.

From here it was just a case of getting to the South West terminal - in about 20 minutes. Just like when I was here in 2006, it sucked doing the walk from Tom Bradley International to Terminal 1, especially since that with all our luggage it didn't make sense to try and get on a shuttle. Despite deciding to go the other way before getting here, I directed us to go clockwise around the airport, which once we got to terminal 1, seemed like a bad call (though, looking at the LAX map in highensight, it was absolutely the right decision). It really seemed like a deja vu of 2006, rushing around in a circle with luggage, pouring sweat. The only caveat this time was that we were pretty sure there was no way we were getting on our flight to Kansas City!

After getting all our luggage rechecked, and paying the US $120 in excess baggage (which is actually great given what we have) there was sometime to relax somewhat and have a smoke. Funnily enough, the desk clerk at South West, who was quite helpful, asked whether we wanted to repack our bags, to somewhat avoid the excess baggage fees. Little did she know of our packing ordeal of last night (what it actually last night? Now that we're in a different timezone, I don't even know anymore!), and we were MORE than happy to just pay the full excess baggage fee!

It's been a completely wild ride, with absolutely no time to fully process what is going on, and standing outside the terminals of LAX was the first time that I've really been able to take in the fact that we're here - we've done it. It's been a long time in the making, and so much work over the past year, but now, here we are, in the USA. There's still a lot of work ahead of us before Operation Desert Rock is complete, but still, we've moved all of our stuff, we're here and I'm now officially a perminant resident. It's interesting how you can work so hard and put so much effort into something, and then standing at your destination, it all seems like it was relatively easy and there is a sense of surprise that you're there. I think there are a lot of contributing factors to it, andd one of the large ones being how busy we've been and not having time to dwell too much on the reality of making the move. In anycase, it was finally really exciting realising that we're here!

After a little decompression we headed through security, which was incredibly quiet in terms of people - maybe because it was Wednesday afternoon - which was a much appreciated thing, as going through security at LAX is almost always a stressful experience due to the volumes of people. After that there wasn't much left to do but get a drink, head dto our gate, and wait for our next flight.

T Minus 2 Hours And Counting

2009-06-03T08:00:00.000-05:00

The sound of your name after a single hour sleep is like knives. Or not, given that I ended up virtually ignoroing Katie attempting to wake me up at 6am, thinking I was dreaming. Notice of our ride being here however got me sorted out pretty goddamn quickly however. So, we're leaving the the US today, and I've had under an hours sleep, and Katie has had under or half an hour!

This morning has been fairly utilitarian, taking care of the bare baics needed to get us overseas. It definitely feels like nothing could be better than more time, now it's crunch time, it needs to happen.

Do You Need Anything From Duty Free?

2009-06-02T23:52:00.001-05:00

I've Got To Get Out Of This Endless Day

If you know the Ike Reilly song, you know the reference is about travelling and crossing timezones. But it's been incredibly appropriate today, and we haven't even left the country!

We were up until around 1:30sm frantically packind, before crashing. Then getting up at 6:30 to meet Kellie in the city for breakfast. From there it was to Melbourne Uni to get Katie a t-shirt. Quite funny that we haven't gotten around to it in two and a half years, and comes down to the wire the day before we leave! In addition to that we my new mobile phone to swing past and pick up. Doing all that stuff in the morning seemed really productive, but also ridiculous given just how much we had left at home to do (ie: pack).

Admitadly the packing situation looked a lot better - just not AS good as you would hope, considering leaving the country tomorrow! Certainly by this point, I'm really over it, and wouldn't recommend moving internationally to anyone. It's also clear to me that resigning from work two weeks before moving to another country is clearly an error in judgement. It can be done, as we're testimant to. but holy shit, I don't know what I wwas thinking when deciding on that. Well, I do, finances, and giving work as much notice as I could, but it's a really unwise thing to do! Being where we are today two weeks ago might be okay, but being there today is just too intense! If I do this ever again (whwat?!? ) I definately have learnt that trying to finish up everything in two weeks is ridiculous. I should have definitely finished up work a month before departing! Just something I realized today when I was having a smoke and pondering how exactly I got to this point in my life! (Moving tomorrow and having way too much to pack).

Somehow, we've found it in ourselves to keep packing, in conjunction with catching up with Stew & Fiona and going out for dinner with Cath. Going out for dinner was particularly nice, and took our mind off the horrible truth of what was left to do at home, at least for an hour or so. Katie finally got to experience TGI Friday's at Shopping Townw, although half way through our meal, the reality of a 14 hour flight had set in for her and sh was looking a bit worse for wear.

After dinner, it was back to it. This is the home stretch, and clearly the worst part of things, as you can't delay dealing with something, because now, time is up!

Around 11 or midnight we hit a potentially disasterous snag, with huge concerns how we were going to fit stuff into suitcases. Firstly size-wize, which I was able to solve with my awesome packing abiliy - except thaat it REALLY blew out the weight of the cases. This almost resulting a complete meltdown (it's not a great discovery at 11pm, when you're departing for the airport at 7:00am the next morning, and you've been over the packing thing for quite sometime as it is!). How there wasn't a complete meltdown, I'm really not entirely sure, but we managed to work around the issue by around 2am.

Almost as surprising is the fact that we got the issues sorted out. By 2am we had come up with the solution to determine what things weren't critically important to take on the plane, and rather ship over at a later date.There is no doubt that as our departure has come closer and closer, it's been easier and easier not to be precious about stuff. Somehow, by 5am, we had gotten evertything packed, and virtually everything else taken care off. Within reason anyway. The pinata didn't get broken. Artistic photos of the wedding flowers weren't taken. Some other stuff didn't happen. But we somehow got ourselves into a position where we could take a shower and then get at least 1 hours sleep before waking up for the trip to the airport.

Hence, back to the Ike Reilly thing - it really has been an endless day, despite not having crossed a single timezone! I've got to get back to the U.S. - A (because if for nothing else, this packing / moving thing is killing me!)