After a relatively painless four hour lay-over in Dallas (compared to other travelers we saw and heard about), we arrived in Philadelphia on a freezing rain soaked night. We managed to find ou friends, Shaun & Nanci's beautiful new house about an hour east of Philly. Unfortunately, we arrived just in time for the brutal 24 hour stomach bug that was sweeping through the Folkerts gang. Madelyn and Nanci had already suffered through it and Shaun was feeling cocky that evening, but succumbed and yakked his friggin brains out the following morning (sorry, Shaun).

Anyway, the house is beautiful and the hospitality was as generous as it could possibly be under the circumstances, but we did leave a little earlier than planned and so far we seem to have avoided the bug (fingers crossed).

From there we stopped off at Paul & Sherryann's for a few hours and were treated to some goodies and some tea and some good conversation.

So, here we are at Nan & Pop's at the Villa at Morlatton. It's a lovely facility with plenty of amenities and we're comfortable and well fed here. To walk off the 

copious breakfast, lunch and diner buffets we've have over the last day +, Sue and I explored the area, braving the 

railroad tracks next door and reading the gravestones on the neighboring colonial area church grounds, featuring some graves dating from the early 1700's.

One more visit in the area tomorrow and we're NY bound.

Hey all, don't have time to write much since we have a flight to Philadelphia tomorrow morning and we must be getting our sleeps, BUT I I have a treat in the form of the much anticipated blog entry by the Good Doctor herself. Enjoy! 

Here are the traveling couple during their lovely four hour stay-over in Dallas:

Greetings, family and friends! This is our promised holiday blog. “Blog” rhymes with “nog”… so pull up a chair and grab a cup of nog, and we will tell you our (brief because we have a flight tomorrow morning and have just gotten to this now) holiday stories. 

The holiday season officially opened when I finished my semester. My students are always excited when they finish their final papers and exams because they are “free.” But that’s when more work starts for me. Happily, Newman’s fall semester ends early (a full week before Christmas week) because it starts in August. 

But just when I was ready to start some serious reading for next semester’s classes, I went to the dentist. I had made an appointment for Sun & I for a routine maintenance check-up and cleaning, but apparently I hit the dental jackpot after all these years – 28 to be exact-- of the same thing every 6 months. I sat down in the chair and, after the hygienist took a look, the dentist came in. She handed me a mirror and said to take a look. What to my wondering eyes should appear? Not one, not two, but three tiny reindeer… disguised as cavities. The dentist’s two theories about why were the non-fluoridated water in Wichita or a change in dietary habits. Or both. Either way, I was astonished. About an hour and a half later, at lunch time, all drilled and filled, I stumbled out into the snow.  Really hungry by this point and informed by the dental authorities that we didn’t have to wait to eat, Sun & I stopped for some sandwiches at a local sandwich
place called “City Bites.” I had to smile at the title—having been bitten by the city of Wichita (or at least by its water supply). The sandwich looked good—roasted vegetables with some kind of mayonnaise sauce on a toasted but not too crispy roll—but it tasted a bit like toothpaste and whatever other dental substances had been applied so vigorously to my teeth. Not to mention that half my jaw was still numb from the novacaine. I slowly managed to eat the sandwich, and then, theorizing that the novacaine had also had some radiating effect on my entire head since I suddenly had a mild headache and felt very tired, went home and took a nap. Happily, Sun managed to escape undrilled, though (ominously?) his cleaning was postponed so there could be a “deep cleaning” scheduled for January. Maybe they’ll send some tiny spelunkers in to attack the plaque. I just hope he avoids my recent dental fate!

On a happier note, we are both very happy to be heading back east tomorrow morning to see as many of you as we can. I did promise to tell you a story, though, so I picked out one from the past few weeks that I thought would be amusing. It’s much more amusing to me now that I can look back on it a few days later (maybe dental work is usually that way--?), and I have to say the fillings were done very professionally—the kind that are color-matched to the teeth.  So, raising my own cup of nog here, I am ready for more holiday treats, though I probably will make sure to brush afterward!

Now maybe Sun will tell you one of his stories… 

See? This is what happens when you give kitty people food. Give'er an inch and she takes a mile. Give her a greasy sliver of chicken and she wants the whole Eight Piece. But she's cute so how can you resist? Even Benny Goodman is smiling. 

We hope that you all had yourselves a wonderfully glutenous, late afternoon nap inducing Turkey Day. For Sue and I it was an adjustment having our first Thanksgiving away from friends and family. BUT we are making new friends and we did have a fun evening with Sonja (who runs the Spanish dept at Newman) and Michael (Sonja's husband). We met up with them at a park nearby and played with their adorable white poodle and they came over our place later for a traditional Thanksgiving feast of chili and rice and assorted other cobbled together whatever was laying around the place goodies. We played games, we ate, we laughed, we base jumped off the roof, we mowed the grass of the vacant lot next door, just for kicks. You wish you were there, don't you? 

We didn't have a traditional Gobble Day, but we did participate in a local tradition this Sunday night when we attended the Christmas children's opera Amahl and the Night Visitors, 

held every year at the WSU campus. It's the local version of what Christmas Carol at Radio City is for New Yorkers. 

For those who participated in the Guess What This Sign Means

contest (um, all one of you) I can report that the sign was 

corrected, sort of, the following day to say: 

"Kids meet Puddles as the clown". 

This cleared things up greatly. Of course...I still didn't understand why Puddles was AS the clown. Did Puddles have a day job, like "Hi, I'm Puddles the Paralegal. In the evenings I play a clown, and I call myself...The Clown.". And how terrifying would it be to meet a clown named Puddles anyway? I don't ever want to meet a clown named Puddles, I don't care how may chicken fingers you let me stuff

my face with. But the revisions didn't stop there! The day after that the sign read:  

"Kids meet Puddleas the Clown". 

So the mystery is finally, unquestionably solved! Ryans is the only place I'm aware of where kids can meet some sort of ancient Greek clown. Now that's a different story. As for our lucky contestant, your Meat Paddle is in the mail. 

So if you couldn't figure it out from the above paragraphs, I have too much time on my hands. The economy has resulted in a hiring freeze for many of the local companies, especially for temp assignments, and so even though I've signed up with five different temp agencies, I haven't gotten a bite yet. I did take a civil service exam last week for the Post Office for some temp work they're offering and I should find out how I did in a week or so. 

Lack of job opportunities has been a little discouraging but I press ahead with my

ultimate goal, which is to return to school! I have enrolled and signed up for two classes in the Spring, an Ancient Art History class and a one credit prep class for the Guatemala trip we're taking next summer with the Spanish dept. In the fall I'll be a full time student. Scary but

exciting. Newman has accepted more than a full year's worth of credits from my stints at SVA and

NCC, which was a nice surprise. I was also extremely excited to find out that Friends University, which is across the way from Newman and has a partnership

 with us, is offering a class in Mandarin! I was studying on my own and at Shaolin Temple

  in New York for a few years and was not expecting to find a class here. 我开玩笑就你去吃晚饭。Take that! I just told you that your mother smells like socks. It's actually a polite greeting in Chinese. It doesn't sound as good in English. Anyway. 

Speaking of free time, I've gone a little bonkers with the videos. You know, I was putting together these makeshift videos for some of my songs so I could post them on YouTube. Well, I have a bunch of them now. You can check some of them out on my YouTube channel or my MySpace page. 

Soon I will have an album available on the interwebsnet and then I will take over

the world! Mmmwahahaha! But first, a nap. 

Love you guys, 

Sonny & Sue. 

  

 

Our cat, Sara, has developed a strange new habit since we moved here, or more accurately, since Sue unpacked this white little animal pelt (pictured here) that she got when she was younger. It's some sort of weasel-like creature and Sara located it, or I guess we could say "hunted" it rather quickly and claimed it for herself. It's obviously brought out the latent huntress in her, because now, every night without fail, she runs around the apartment with it in her mouth and wines and cries until we congratulate her on her kill. She brings it to our bed and presents it for us much the way outdoor cats do with more recently living things.  And then we hang her upside down and squirble her (also pictured here). Look at that kitty! Silly kitty. 

Anyway! Where was I? Last night Sue and I went to a nifty dance 

recital held at local studio: Safira's World Dance, featuring belly dancing and flamenco. The flamenco portion was courtesy of Alicia Harris, a visiting dancer from Spain (by way of 

Oklahoma City). Didn't bring my camera to the event but I found this pic of some of the dancers online. 

The most fun for me was joining in on the syncopated clapping, which will have to satisfy my percussionist fix since the Old Town Square Drum Circle is probably calling it quits for the winter. If I haven't mentioned them before, they met every Friday and Saturday night in the middle of the Square with plenty of drums available for those who didn't bring their own. I joined them one night when Sue was in New York and it was fun, though I haven't had the chance again since and they probably won't meet again until it gets warm. 

Meanwhile, playing guitar in a rock band has been an interesting experience so far. I'm not used to playing that style so it's forced me to actually learn how to play real chords and stuff, maybe even shred! Picking up nifty little tricks like D-Tuning my guitar. That's when you tune the low E string to an even lower D. It gives the guitar a lower sound but also makes it easier 

to play certain chords and riffs. Also started singing backup on some of the songs which has reminded me how long it's been since I've had to sing in a live band. Still rips my throat up for now, but I'm sure I'll get stronger again. 

Challenge of the Day! Tell me what this sign means. What is a "MEATPADDL" and how wrong is it that it involves kids? And does the involvement of a clown make what's happening Wed at 6 more scary or more scary? The closest guess wins a prize. 

Sue is entering the final few weeks of the semester which means she is grumbling to herself and twitching a lot. But we've managed to get most of our Thank You cards out. Some of you have already received them but for those who haven't, don't worry, they're

coming! Meanwhile, I'm close to completing the enrollment process at Newman and hope to take a couple classes next semester. Just waiting for one more set of transcripts before I can continue. I've decided on Graphic Art & Design as my major. I'd been considering a few other things, but I'd studied Art originally and it seemed to be the one thing I'd really love doing above all else. Wish me luck dusting off my long neglected skills.  

So, I can't not mention the election, which was pretty spectacular. Of course, I don't know how you go from calling Obama a terrorist supporting, secret muslim, socialist one day and graciously congratulate him on his "historic" victory twenty four hours later. It's not like those sentiments are going to go away over night, which would explain the rash of racist hate crimes that have been reported since the election. Maybe when Obama turns out not to be the anti-Christ, and ends up doing a halfway better job than Bush (and how hard could that be, 

really) it'll all blow over. Hahaha, yeah, I know, that sounded funny when I was typing it. I can dream. 

Anyway! On to subjects that we can all celebrate like the fact that Sue and I have found GOOD PIZZA in Wichita! I *bleep* you not! Il Vicino serves entirely decent wood-oven pizza, good crust, tasty sauce, big-ass calzones. It's true, it's not bad! Sue and I were so excited that we went back the following night and then had the leftovers again the night after that. It's not New York style, but it'll more than do.  

Finally, I've posted another video to YouTube for the new tune Badman Dub. This vid is spiced up with various silliness from around the web, so it's a bit more interesting to watch than the others may have been. If you get a sec, check it out. And check out the three new tunes I've posted to my Garageband site: Grasshopper Vs Mantis, Truly, and Badman Dub. All my trax are posted there for checking out or downloading. 

Anyway, we'll talk to you all soon and Sue says "Damn papers (grumble, curse)" which I think means "Talk to you soon." 

Love, Sonny & Sue.  

Taking a deep breath

WOOHOO!!!

Hey again everyone and a Happy Halloween! I hope you've all had a fun one. I have to admit, I haven't gotten dressed up for Halloween in years, and this one was no exception. But even Prof. Crane was lazy on that front this year. Here she is as Crazy Woman With A Pumpkin Tattoo On Her Neck. 

Ghoul Day fell on Final Friday here in Wichita. Like many cities,

Wichita has one night a month set aside when all their art galleries are open late and many offer snacks and wine and other goodies. I'm happy to find that it's a happening event here and the city has a very vibrant artist community. There are around thirty galleries participating around the city and we only got to visit a handful in one section but they were crowded and the art was fun.

My favorite was the Robots exhibit,  

featuring many homemade and automated creations, like a robot made from car parts that reacts to people moving near it 

and talks and a machine that creates music by

hurling a rock and rattling chains against sheet-metal. Many of the

galleries are located in those cool old warehouse buildings. The section we visited is Commerce Street, which is a brick paved ally that stretches along a block of converted warehouses. There were 

musicians playing outside and one space was used as a makeshift

concert venue. And the din of noise coming

 from the venue was the most evil sounding music I've heard here, which, from my perspective, was a promising surprise. And of course, there were many people dressed in costume. 

Last saturday I performed with the Grace Wu Kung Fu School at the annual Asian Festival. The event is held every year at the convention center downtown and features food, music and culture from the

many Asian countries represented in the city. The Grace Wu School performance is usually the big hit of the fest. Some were surprised that I would jump into a performance after only a couple months at the school, but my experience at Shaolin Temple, and the 

number of performances I've done for them, left me with plenty of forms I could handle more or less. As it turned out I just did a small part of a form for my solo stint, not feeling comfortable doing the whole thing and I participated in a group form with other students.  Here is a shot of us all posing at the end of our performance like a bunch of hotshots. I seem

to be having trouble posting videos to this blog, so here is a link to my personal MySpace Page with a video of my short form where I look like a formless blob, and a video of the group form which looks a bit better. My short form is from a form called Swallow (the bird not the motor reflex, wise-guy). 

So I guess that's it for now. 

We love you guys and will see you soon hopefully! 

Love, Sonny & Sue. 

So, hopefully some of you got your Susan fix for the time being. She enjoyed her visit, as brief as it was, and thanks to Bethany and TJ for providing rides and beds and everyone else for the companionship. Sounds like you guys partied like it's 1999, or 1988, or something, you know what I mean. Once again, Sue is too busy reading papers and pulling her hair out to write anything on this silly blog, but I can offer the following quotes:

"I had a great time! I wish it was longer!" 

"Everyone I hated in High School is now old and ugly, har!" 

That second one may be a miss-quote. Watch for a retraction in a future update. Anyway, in place of words, we have images, because they don't lie, unless you have Photoshop. These are mostly untampered though. Please visit my Flickr page to view

 ALL of the pics Sue took while in NY last weekend! There's a whole series detailing the various objects that can be placed on or around TJ whilst he is unawares, a must see! 

Another thing Sue said, is that she can't wait to see you all again around the Holidays, so keep our schedule in mind and hopefully we can meet up with everyone. We're arriving in Philadelphia  on Dec. 23rd and will be spending Christmas with Sue's Nan & Pop. We should be in New York from around the 27th through Jan. 4th, flying back on the 5th. 

I've posted a couple more songs on my MySpace page: Revolution and Relax, It's a Death Match. I know I know, why am I bothering you about every single song I finish? Why don't I just make an album like a normal person and bug you about it once a year like everyone else? I'm knew to this, I'll calm down, I promise. But check the songs out anyway. If you want. Whateva. 

MySpace is acting kind of glitchy these days, and they only let you post up to six songs at any given time, but all Germanate08 songs can be listened to or downloaded on http://www.garageband.com/artist/germanate08 

This Friday Sue and I accompanied Prof. Bryan Dietrich and the Newman Lit Club to Kansas City to visit haunted houses The Beast & Edge of Hell and I have to say, KC kicks all y'all's asses when it comes to haunted houses. These were

by far the biggest, most well run HHs either of us have seen. The first coolio thing about them is that they are all located in this old industrial district in turn-of-the-century era warehouses which is a creepy place to be at night to begin with. They take over these disused four or five story warehouse buildings and it seems like you wind your way through these places for hours, on every floor, getting the bejeezus scared out of you every five seconds. The sets and effects were the greatest 

we've seen and it's neat how the building itself adds to the creepiness with all these weird rooms built for some forgotten purpose. I swear there were people hurling themselves to the ground out of panic, and by "people", I absolute do not mean "myself", I was a rock. There were huge rooms decked out like fog laden forests that required some work to figure your way out of. Other rooms featured multiple false exits and people or things waiting to jump out of each one before you located the real exit. And both HHs ended with a long tube slide that takes you from the top floor to the bottom. There were apparently others in the area we didn't go to like one that is Edgar Alan Poe themed and another that takes you through scenes from famous horror movies. Unfortunately, all my pics of the place came out so abstract and formless that my blog won't even let me upload them. Damn those fog machines! Oh well.  

I'm not the bravest soul on the planet I'll admit, but after a while of wandering through these places, especially by the second one, I was already starting to suffer from some sort of post traumatic stress disorder. Anyhow, anyone who likes haunted houses needs to experience these at least once. The only downside was that we did it all in one night. KC is three hours away, so we didn't get home until almost five in the morning. Luckily, we weren't driving. 

I think that's all. Oh and thanks to everyone for the feedback regarding my blog reminder e-mails. We feel so loved! 

Talk to you all soon.

Love, Sonny & Sue. 

So, I'm hoping that the Kansas plate our car now sports makes my blatant speeding seem a little less noticeable. I would guess that cops pretty much anywhere have the New York plate committed to memory from a hundred feet. 

Sue and I have had another pretty eventful couple weekends. Well, me more so than Sue, unless you count grading papers to all hours of the night eventful. HEADS UP to all our New York friends and fam, Sue will be in town this coming weekend for the High School Reunion that I'm sure some of you are aware of. Enjoy! 

My musical adventures continued with an eight hour drive to Austin for Austin City Limits!

I was excited to visit one of the definitely cooler cities within a days drive of Wichita, plus I got to see my friends Erika, Alex and Eric who flew in for the weekend also. 

The pic to the right shows the gang in front of "Bat Bridge" which was a very unusual attraction. A giant colony of bats lives under this bridge, which is located right in the middle of the city spanning Town Lake. Every evening at dusk they swarm out for a little bug din-din and it makes for an impressive sight and attracts crowds of onlookers. Standing on the bridge, they form a virtual carpet of surging, flurrying activity just beneath the walkway. It seems like you could reach down and touch them. Cool!

At this time of year, however, it was almost completely dark by the time they came out so it was nearly impossible to get any good pictures of them, they don't like to stand still for photos. 

This is what it looks like when it's lighter out. The website says there are about 750,000 bats at peek season.

So, the festival: Austin City Limits, was a grueling but fun experience. Yes, I almost died from breathing clouds of dust and dead grass particles all Saturday, but there

were eight stages and a gazzilion bands, what was I supposed to do!? A sampling of some of the bands we caught: Gnarls Barkley, MGMT, Tegan & Sara, Man Man & Beck. Man Man would take the prize for band I'd never heard of who ended up being really entertaining. They're an everything and the kitchen sink kind of band with a circus sideshow sound and 

wacky stage show. Erika and Alex had to fly back Sunday but Eric and I went back to the fest again that evening, a little more prepared for the dust, and had a good time. 

Aside from the festival, we enjoyed the cool shops and local restaurants in town and got into a Rolling Stone party Friday night at a club downtown. Local band Voxtrot were one of the acts playing. Austin is a very cool music 

city and I'm sure I'll be back, maybe for SXSW! 

My mom came for a visit this weekend, Hi Mom! She stayed in downtown at the Hyatt, the nicest hotel in town. We took her to some of the good Old Town restaurants, the zoo (which is surprisingly big), the botanical gardens and the art museum. Hopefully she had a nice stay, she heads back tomorrow 

morning. We were happy to have our first guest, WHO'S NEXT!!

 A final word on my own musics stuff. I've been posting my songs on various sites like: Mediafire,

iSound, Lastfm and Myjonesmusic. I've also been throwing together some makeshift videos for

 some of the songs and posting them on YouTube. The vids

are just an excuse to get the songs posted. Check them out sometime. You don't have to watch them, just give me a rating so it looks like somebody gives a crap.  I don't expect anything particular to come from it at this point. I just want to stay creative and see what happens. And finally, I am now sort of officially a

member of Half of Reason. Oh Snap! I'm even listed on their MySpace page! I guess it's officially official. 

Make sure to see Sue when she comes up next week, if you can, but we'll both be back in NY for the holidays, so hopefully we'll see you then! 

Love, Sonny & Sue.  

 

Hello friends and family. Welcome back to our blog, the music edition. 

First, let me just say that Yay, there is good music in Kansas! I don't know how often it comes along, if we'll have to wait a while for it again, but it is possible to walk into a dingy 

bar, pay $5 and sit with twenty five other people while a guy on stage with a guitar blows your friggin' mind. A couple tuesdays ago, Sue and I went with Julie (Sue's coworker and lead singer of the band I've been jamming with Half Of Reason) to a local haunt to see Rodney Branigan. (sigh, swoon) 

Now, I've never been overly impressed with person-on-stage-playing-acoustic-guitar in the past, with some notable exceptions like Ani DiFranco & Joseph Arthur. But this dood has serious chops. First of all he can play two guitars at once! And he does this percussive thing with his hands and fingers on the guitar, working the guitar kind of like how a percussionist does the congas, and does this while playing the

thing. You won't believe me so just check out this promo video to see for yourself.  If he comes to your town, see him. 

As for me, I've posted a new song to my MySpace page: Zero (Your Number Is). It's a dub-y, drum'n'bass-y dance track, fast, fun (I hope) and over the top, the ways I likes it. Not that you asked, but it's actually a remade version of a song I did years ago. The original was kind of a mess though so I took the stuff I liked most about it and redid it. Check it out when you get the chance. Comments or critiques are welcome (though the critiques will probably be ignored, don't take it personally, sometimes I'm a stubborn ass). 

 Last Sunday Sue and I went to our first event at the Wichita Swing Society! And it was a pleasant surprise. A big crowd, a lot of young people so it had a fun, high energy vibe, and plenty of skills to go around. I get the impression they don't get a lot of bands passing through so most events are probably DJ'd but it was still promising. Now if I can just learn something more than the same three moves I've been doing since Sue first started teaching me. 

 

I didn't bring my camera to the event, these are some shots I stole from their website. 

So that brings us to yesterday and the  

Walnut Valley Bluegrass Festival!

in Winfield, Kansas! Can I get a Yeehaw!? 

 Julie again brought us to this event which is at a  small town about an hour southeast of Wichita. It's a pretty big deal 

 around here and attracts some serious crowds. There are numerous stages, lots of music and plenty of food. Call me slightly homesick, but my favorite act was the Wiyos from Brooklyn, the only NY band. They put on a fun show with an upbeat, burlesque-y, country swing sound and received the only standing ovation & encore I saw at the festival, which was interesting. The midwestern crowd didn't seem to mind that they were from New Yawk.  For those of you in the BK, if you see them playing somewhere, I recommend them, they're a fun band. 

We were told that the festival wasn't as lively as it usually is because the camp grounds, which neighbor the festival grounds (as well as the local river) were unusable due to last weeks floods. The large contingent of campers who usually attend the festival were set up somewhere else a few miles away. From what we heard, a lot of the fun comes from the impromptu

  jam sessions that spring up all over the camp grounds. However, we heard some good music, had some good (fried) food, talked

with lots of people and had fun in the sun. It was a nice warm but not overly hot day, perfect! 

Finally, we further erased evidence of our New Yawkness this week by changing our licenses over and registering the car in Kansas. We still haven't put the dang Kansas plate on the car probably because we're strangely reluctant to take this step. To demonstrate our individuality and stubborn defiance, we will probably leave the window stickers on for a while since Kansas doesn't use any of their own (take that Kansas!). Another thing Kansas doesn't require: auto inspections. You can drive around in any emissions-spewing piece of junk around here and we've seen our share. But I'm still one of the fastest drivers in Wichita, I can't help it. 

Oh and one more thing. One day last week I was home and heard a siren in the distance, and then another closer and another somewhere else and, though I'm not proud of this, I kind of shat my pants. Though it must have been something like what the tornado warnings sound like, the sky was clear blue with no storms anywhere in the region, so I doubt it could have been a tornado. Still...scaaaarrry. Something that will be hard to get used to.  

That's all for now peeps. Signing off with love from the Heartland, 

Sonny & Sue