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

Smells Like Kansas

Hello again folks. 

Sue keeps threatening to take over my blog one of these days, and if that ever happens (you know, with all that free time she has) you can hear more from the Good Doctor about how her classes are going and how she likes Newman. To me, it seems like a much better atmosphere than what she was subjected to at Stony Brook. She of course is very busy, but it seems that she's more supported and appreciated by the administration also. 

As for me, things have been picking up. I've found a group of musicians to jam with, I've started up a new MySpace page to post the new music I've been working on on my own, as well as some of my older tunes. If you want to check out some kind of weird electro stuff, go to my page www.myspace.com/germanate08, be my friend or something, whateva. 

I may even have a job lined up, but I don't want to jinx it so I'll talk more about that later.

 

As you can see, our apartment is starting to look more like a home. All we need is a couch and maybe another bookshelf or two. Speaking of couches, last weekend Sue and I drove three hours to Kansas City so we could visit the nearest Macy's and turn all of our gift cards into a brand new leather couch. Swanky!

Like this one, only in red. 

While we were there we checked out KC, had some chow and listened to some live Kansas 

City Blues at this neat, though touristy outdoor area featuring plenty of bar/restaurant type places that allow you to sit outside and watch the band while you drink or eat. Then it was off to Lawrence, the home of Kansas U, and that place is all it promised to be; jam packed with plenty of cool shops, coffee houses, music venues, record shops and hippies, everything a good college town should have. 

Too bad we live three hours away. But it's good to know it's within reach if we need to recharge our Northeast Liberal Elitism. Sorry, second time in as many blogs that I've gone for that joke. I promise I won't bring it up again until the next one. 

That brings us to this weekend and our phantasmagorical trip to

the KANSAS STATE FAIR! Woohoo! I haven't been to a fair this big

 probably ever, at least not since I was much younger. This shindig had everything: livestock auctions, chickens and bunnies, llamas, panels judging every conceivable category of animal, produce, flowers, herbs...uh, corn art. There was a huge sculpture made of butter, a chainsaw artist, alligator wrestling, pig races, deep-fried everything, hot beef sundae (you probably think I'm making this stuff up now, don't you?) every class of farm equipment 

you can imagine...oh and Country Music? Did someone ask for Country Music? Ooooh yeeaaah, more

 Country Crooners than you can throw hand grenades at! Oh I think they had

 hand grenades there too, along with tanks and machine guns, just for fun though. 

Unfortunately, it was a cool, damp, muddy

day, but the fair was hoppin' nonetheless and we had a good time. To say the least, it was a

cultural experience. I still don't like Country Music though. 

Autumn arrived with zero subtlety this week. Mother Nature takes Labor Day "The Official End of Summer" very seriously 'round these parts and dropped the temp. about thirty degrees in a few hours and there it's stayed since. Eagerly looking forward to the brutal winter everyone has been gleefully promising us. 

Oh, one last note on our cat, Sarafina, for those who've expressed concern.

She has recovered from the move swimmingly, and in fact seems happier than she's been in years. She actually has room to run, repeatedly, from one end of the apartment to the other, an activity that must have seemed pointless to her in the walk-in closet I called an apartment in Astoria, Queens. She is by far more playful than she's been in a while, so I'd say the move has been good for her. And here is photographic proof that she is up to no good I tell 'ya. 

Anyway, friends, loved ones, peeps, that's all until next time. Be well and we'll talk to you soon. 

Love , Sonny and Sue.