Before I tell you about Sue's and my wonderful whirl-wind tour of New York, I'd like to announce that my first on-line album is now available!!! After signing an agreement with on-line distributor Tunecore, GERMANATE08's Dub Executioner is now available for download from a wide assortment of fine retail establishments: iTunes, Amazon, emusic, Napster, Rhapsody, to name a few. Make a donation to my college fund today! 

I've also posted a couple new trax to my Myspace and Garageband sites, check them out if you are inclined to shake yo booty. 

So, Sue and I had a great time seeing as many 

of our friends and family as we could 

over the Holidays, spending an 

action packed two or so weeks in Pennsylvania and

New York. Thank you so much to Shaun & Nanci, Nan & Pop, Suzie & Stewart, Bob, Bente and co, Greg & Stacey and my mom for the generous accommodations. 

Some of the mattresses we slept on were more comfortable than our own, which Sue and her bad back appreciated greatly. And thank you to all who accommodated our busy schedule and fit us into their plans so we could see and hang

out with as many of you as we could. 

We were excited to eat pizza, bagels, dirty-water dogs and soft pretzels; to smell the wafting of half a dozen restaurant kitchens commingled as we walked down the street; to have to look up to see the tops of buildings, to hear and see many languages jumbled together; and to see trees, trees everywhere! Even the traffic was somehow comforting. 

Some of the highlights during our trip were the celebrating of Boxing Day at Suzie & Stewarts, watching Tremors (again) with Bente (and Flemming pretending not to be interested), slaying zombies(!) with Thomas, sharing much good home-cooked food all along the way, hanging out in the NYC, going to galleries in Chelsea and eating Ukrainian food. And oh yeah, the night we spent at the Waldorf-Astoria (yipes!), in the biggest hotel room/suite I've ever seen, courtesy of mommy (view from the room above). 

Bethany demonstrated her planning (and cooking) prowess in getting many friends together for a lovely meal. Other friends converged on Bubba's for a New Years Day par-tay, and in the city to spend time with us our last weekend in town. We watched the New Years Eve fireworks at Prospect Park from Jodi's apartment, very excited that we didn't have to go out

into the frigid cold and wind to see them. And I got my butt whomped at pool more times than I care to mention by senior citizens. They may not be able to stand up straight but they sure can throw a snake shot with some extreme english and leave you snookered as all get-out.

We didn't get to see everyone we wanted to and we're sorry for that, but we'll be back again, so be ready for us. We love you all and hope you all had a wonderful Holidays! 

Love. Sonny & Sue 

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.