I'D KILL TWO BIRDS BUT I DON'T HAVE THE STONE....

So this year is half over and there seems to be no end in sight. Yet we keep spinning toward that big pay off at the end. The problem is, no one knows just when the pay day is a coming'. If the world was ending tomorrow there would be very few things I'd miss. Maybe a few people, a few records, some books and those little pieces of joy we all get, in short supply. Yes, Boys and girls and all transgenders just the same, without a doubt the cup is half full and I'm sick about everyone crying about the spilled milk. As my mind cries out for the lost weekends of my youth, my body keeps on saying, "Hey man I'm the one that gets the butt end of that deal and I'm not going there." I'm like a kid 2 days after Christmas, all the toys are broken and the batteries are all dead but this too will pass or so I'm told.

Why is it, that the new kick seems to be the shine object that is held teasingly from the string a few feet in front of our face while we speed faster and faster on this hamster like treadmill? Maybe we all need to sit down look to the left and right and try to figure out just who is the cat outside the cage pulling the string but then again it's all too depressing to figure out. What's even harder to figure out is why the happiness we have is slowly without a clear doubt becoming less and less important. My biggest fear is to become one of those good old days has beens, like the ones I've know all my life. It's easy to play joyfully in the could have beens ifs and the nothing compares too, but that is the slowest form of suicide isn't it? Time to forge ahead into that dark place inside the evil forest of the future and leave the ghosts where they lay. OK, all I'm going to say before getting into the all the latest things happening here is stop throwing your trash into my little part of the planet and keep that dog of your's on a lease because he keeps killing the roses.

June went out with a big ass storm ripping out KKDM (the only station in town that has ever did anything for the music scene. Due to the hard work of Sophia John) and scaring the shit out of everyone and leaving most of the town without power. Ever noticed that once the powers out there really is nothing to do but talk. Try being in the basement with people you haven't spent more then 15 minutes with in years due in part to the hell you put each other through growing up. Sometimes that can be a good thing but it always seems to remind me of just how little I have in common with these people.

Next up was the whole rock-n-role slam of the 2nd and 3rd with the likes of Gas Huffer, Kirk St James, The Teenage Frames, The Chicken Hawks, and REO Speeddealer. The Frames are by far the greatest Mod band to ever grace the Midwest. They lift the spirit off the rafters each and every time the grace this city. They smoked everyone the 2nd converting many a new cat with that crazy thing they can only do. Kirk St James is great but kinda drops the energy level a bit and they seemed a little down on the whole tour thing. Gas Huffer just go home and give it up, you had something once but that something seems to have left you on the side of the road somewhere outside of some God forsaken farm town in Ohio.

Now on to the 3rd. One of the joys of owning your own business is the knowledge that whenever you want or need to be somewhere some one will come in 5 minutes before you close to make sure you're late. In other words I missed the Chicken Hawks. I got there just in time to see the local Squid Boy, two things come to mind: 1) I've seen this band way too many times. 2) I really didn't like them that much the first 8,000,000 times I saw them. They are nice guys and god they have lasted longer then anyone else around here so I have to give them that. Then again I was pissed about missing the Hawks. I did get to spend some time catching up with Pete. Their new record is going to be out on the 18th. The release party in Souix City with The Teenage Frames and Victim's Anoynomism (they're doing one reunion show). The Album will be on RARF. Of course, REO Speeddealer came on stage and saved the day and many a soul with their hot rod R-N-R. We ate later (I got home at 6am) and they told of their own therories on the JFK thing. I told them they should go on Art Bell. 

On the 4th weekend I hide out and gambled and won $100 at the local slots place just to go up to Tama and give it to the Indians playing Blackjack. The dealer hit more 21 then I've ever seen but you know I'll be back soon to regain that $100 I loaned them. Here is something that at this moment is pretty hush, hush but the world will know on Tuesday night so what the hell. SlipKnot signed their contract with Roadrunner Records in front of the Axiom on Tuesday July 7th. Big back pats all around to the SlipKnot members, KKDM and of course the most over worked and under rated member of the SlipKnot camp Sophia John. The other thing that's going on in that camp is a line up change and cancelling PigFEST and their show later in July at Safari. I can't go into the details but it seemed that it was a move that needed to happen to keep the band together. So who will be the new member? I can't say due in part to the threat of losing one of my favorite body parts.

My liver thanked me for not drinking and even my stomach and I have made friends of late. Last night the king of all tour van breakdowns, The La Donnas, showed up on Safari's door step asking to play. Since two bands had already cancelled that night Jake let them play. This really boasted my spirits to say the least. Toward the end of their set they asked me up on stage and since the spirit was moving me I went up and helped them through a version of Louie, Louie (nothing like frat rock to get people away from the bar). I think I made up all the lines except the chorus and to say the least it was a blast. I see good things in my crystal ball for these guys if they could just get a better van. I guess they got a distro deal with Epitaph.

Well enough of this, I got more important things to do then talk to you all. So enjoy the summer and remember as Christian from Radio Caroline puts it, "Keep up the good work and we're all counting on you."

DaVo 7/11/98