It's the final countdown! da da daa daaaaa, da da daa daa daaaa! Less than 24 hours left before Sue and I head to the airport with a number of my fellow students to begin our Guatemalan adventure! Muy muy nervioso! It's actually going to be an amazing experience and I can't wait to get started, but I was holding my breath as I typed that and I probably won't exhale until the rollercoaster has gone over the top. As long as I don't scream like a tiny little girly-girl, everything will be a'ight. 

We'll be there for seven weeks learning Spanish, doing volunteer work and seeing the sites. Seen here is the city of Quetzaltenango, also known as Xela, where we will spend 

most of our time. 

We have much packing to do to prepare for our seven week adventure, so

let's get on with this dang blog already! 

Sue and I had fun visiting the farm of our friend and Sue's co-worker John McCormick. John invited a bunch of the Newman peeps to his beautiful farm and made lots of great food and let us play with the chickens and goats, our first Kansas farm experience.

This past week we got to experience our first Wichita Riverfest, by far the biggest event that our adopted city throws each year. The fest takes over the downtown with live music, lots of food, arts and crafts shows and lots of other fun stuff for people to do. It went on for just over a full

week with stuff going on every day and night. The river itself cramped the festival's style slightly early in the week when it flooded it's banks just a little. No major damage but the river walk was under water as you can see here. Thursday night was Cajun Night, with good gumbo, red beans and rice and a rocking Zydeco set by Chubby Carrier and the Bayou Swamp Band straight from Louisiana. See brief video clip above. Personally, one of my favorite things about the festival was that it made the downtown actually feel like a downtown. 

I guess you could call me a published writer if you really wanted to. And personally I demand that you all call me that instead of using my real name from now on. Ok, it's just in Newman's weekly paper, The Vantage, but since this is the first time I've ever published anything anywhere, you might as well humor me and treat me

and treat me like I just won the Pulitzer. My pieces have appeared in the last three editions of the paper this semester. They're mostly music reviews with one political oped piece to spice things up and 

make myself a few enemies. If you have fifteen minutes left at work you really want to kill, then you can go to my

new alt-blog , http://www.donutofdoom.blogspot.com/ where I've decided to post the stuff I'm writing (and there are videos!). Just please don't send me any hate mail. 

Oh and I've also created another blog as part of my official Student Assistant duties, http://www.newmanstudyabroad.blogspot.com/. It's for Newman's Study Abroad trip to England next year, full of lots of fun and cool things to do wile in the UK. The fact that I've never been to England shouldn't impact my credibility as a blogger, should it? You'd still trust me and go where ever I told you should go in a county I've never set foot in myself, wouldn't you?  Anyway, you can check that out too if you want, I donno, whateva.  

Lots of fun and exciting stuff has happened since we last chatted,

but I can't remember any of it, so I'll just let everyone know that Sue and I will return from Guatemala on July 9th. Less than a week after that we'll be coming to the New Yawk area for a week. We already have our tickets to see VNV Nation on July 18th and I was super-duper-psyched to find out that I'll even get to catch a good deal of the Coney Island Siren Fest going on that same day. 

Anyhoo, wish us luck on our journey, I know it will be amazing, and I'm all twittery and giddy with excitement. We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible when we're in town. 

Love, Sonny & Sue

Kansas is the land of beautiful sunsets, so here are a few, enjoy! 

Happy Easter and Passover to all! Here's hoping you had a lovely, relaxing weekend. We're having a rainy, cool day here but still got to enjoy the holiday with our friends Sonja and Michael at a nearby restaurant with some of their family. 

 The food was good and so was the company. And we've had a long weekend since we work for a Catholic University. Too bad Sue's had to get

 over another cold. A lot of people have been sick around here lately. Could have something to do with the fact that it's around freezing every morning and over 60 by the afternoon. 

I just completed a new tune. It's called Primordial and it's posted to my MySpace page if you'd like to go check it out. Let me know what you think! Some of you may remember the strange habit our cat developed after Sue left a real live (ok, dead) small animal pelt out one day.

Sara has claimed it for her own and hunts it repeatedly. Above, I have posted actual videographic proof of this nightly occurrence to silence the doubters. You can't really hear it on the video but there's a a meowling, growling sound that goes along with it. 

Even though I haven't taken an actual studio art class yet, Mary, the director of the Art Dept has seen to it that I get my hands dirty

learning all the various processes. Today Sue and I were carving designs on a pair of clay rattles, made by forming a pair of equal sized clay bowls, filling one half with several small pieces of clay wrapped in tissue paper and then joining the two halfs together. Once they're fired, we'll paint 'em up all snazzy like. Seen here is the result of my first print-making experience. Incase you were wondering, 住 zhù means "life" and 树 shū means "tree". 

Last weekend Newman held it's annual Literary Festival, the brain child of Bryan, one of Sue's coworkers

in the English Dept. Events went on  

from 9 in the morning to midnight Saturday and Sunday and all involved, including Sue, were exhausted. I divided my time between the Fest and fundraising for Project Vitamina with Sonja and other students at a local Sam's Club, which also went on all weekend. Sue did a presentation on Medieval Riddles, which I unfortunately couldn't attend (thankfully the couch is very comfortable). Cheryl, a former student of Sue's from Stony Brook also flew out just to present and stayed with us. But I think my favorite part of the fest was actually Bryan's reading which included poems from several of his published books on topics ranging from superheros, SciFi, horror movies and pop culture. Cool stuff (available now!).   

So, I promised myself I'd find space here at some point to give props to some of Wichita's cooler local establishments. Here are just a few. 

The Donut Whole - this new local joint is a cool addition to the scene. They offer a myriad of cake donuts (!) made in all sorts of

wacky and playful flavors such as Bacon & Maple (!!) and Fruity Pebbles (!!!). While some of these may sound a little scary, trust me, theyz gooood. The place has

 a cool kitschy look decorated with odd salvaged bits from the area's industrial past. It's a comfortable

place to savor a root-beer donut with a bottle of all-natural root-beer, or various coffees or teas or other sodas, enjoy the free wifi, listen to cool music and occasionally check out a live band on their modest stage.

     

Eighth Day Books - yes it sounds like a Christian bookstore (not that there's anything wrong with

that!), and I guess it technically is one, but this 

locally owned

establishment has an eclectic and

inspiring collection of books from all disciplines stuffed inside a cool old house (even the upstairs bathroom accommodates several bookshelves). The seating, mostly old church pews, isn't the most comfortable, but the staff are knowledgeable and passionate about books in a way you can only find at a small mom and pop store. In addition to loosing yourself in the deep stacks, you can attend the free Latin or Greek classes held there every other weekend. We hope they continue to hold the big chains at bay for a long time! 

The Spice Merchant - The spice must flow!!! Oh yes, another of Sue's favorites, this sprawling warehouse space with the cool turkish looking exterior, is home to a crazy assortment of raw spices and teas, coffee beans, and a great selection of hot sauces among other things. Sue has been known to get lost for hours (ok, it just seemed that long) walking the no-frills racks filled with odd and interesting cooking sauces. It's a hands on kind of place where they make or prepare a lot of the products themselves - you won't find the usual brands there - and like The Donut Whole, they're a big supporter of local producers. 

Perhaps we'll get the chance to take some of you on a tour of the local favs personally! Anyway, I hope you're all having a pleasant holiday and hope to speak to you all soon. 

Love, Sonny & Sue. 

 

 

That's right folks, we're still here, surviving the BLIZZARD OF OH NINE! We haven't had to resort to cannibalism or set fire to our couch to keep warm...yet. We only hope that there is a society for us to return to when the blinding whiteness dissipates. But that could be a while, I mean, there's like, oh, five or six inches out there. Why are you laughing at me? The dude on the news sounded, like, really worried. Anyway...

So, I finally figured out how to post videos to this blog (I's smart),

so please click above to check out the new video I threw together in my sleep for my remix of State Shirt's Up Up Up Up Up. Actually, I think the video came out pretty neat even though it's more pirated (arh!!) footage from around the interwebnet. It's a mix of time-lapse and super slow-mo stuff, and I'm pretty happy with how the remix came out too for those who haven't heard it. You can also go to my YouTube channel to see videos I've made for the other songs. 

Oooh Oooh Oooh! Did I also mention that we survived our first tornado! Ok, we don't actually know if there WAS a tornado or not but the sirens were going and the sky was flashing and it was way exciting (in that uh-oh-I-think-I-just-crapped-my-pants kind of way)! I posted a video of the warning above also just because those sirens are mad spooky, yo. They're all at different pitches and they roll over you from different directions at different tones and forming these spooky, Close Encounters like,

discord harmonies. Anyway, you can kind of hear it on the video.

So, Sue and I had a fun and relaxing Spring Break visiting Dad Crane and Pauline in San Diego. It was my first time there so I was excited and as you can see from some of these shots, it is beautiful. I think the entire area is a secret government research site for  

developing the perfect climate. For the most part it was sunny and in the 80's the entire time except when we went out to the desert. We were also there at the tail end of the "rainy" season so the landscape was unusually  

lush and green for us.

We got to walk around Balboa Park in town

and visited some of the museums and hung around the cool Gaslamp district the evening of Saint Patrick's day which was teaming with drunk fools, I mean, Festive Revelers. 

We had fun and Dad showed us a good 

time, wining and dining us at all the local casinos. Thanks Dad! 

Sue is still clawing her way out from under her student's draft papers but enjoyed having a week to relax and has made use of this snowed-in weekend to 

try and catch up. I've already finished with my eight week Art History class and I did well (99.76). All I have to do now is 

maintain that 4.0 average or don't bother coming home. I'm sure she was just

kidding...right honey? Sweetie? Ehem. Anyway I'm all enrolled for the fall: Design, Photography Writing, Philosophy and Chinese which is being offered over at Friends U. I can't wait to be desperately busy and stressed

downing energy drinks like they're water! 

Actually it's going to awesome. Not  

everyone gets this chance and I intend to make the most of it. 

Meanwhile, I'm still finding the time to finish a new song which should be done this week. It's going to be called Primordial and has more vocals and a 

more consciously developed hook than most of the others. Finally, thanks to all those who've downloaded my latest album, Dub Executioner! Thanks for the support! 

Sue and I will hopefully talk to you all soon. Take care of yourselves and we love you! 

Sonny & Sue. 

  

 

Ok, so it's been the better part of two months since the last time I blogged, but I have a good reason: I finally landed my ass a job! And I couldn't have asked for a more convenient gig considering Sue's and my schedules. I'm working as the student assistant for the Art's & Humanities department at Newman. Sure, it's only part time and doesn't pay amazingly, but it works out well. Some of my responsibilities are 

mundane office work but I also get to do a wide array of things like photographing and 

documenting all the artwork on campus, or taking photos at a recent event, or putting together 

Powerpoint presentations for one of the art professors. I spend a great deal of my time in the Art Dept which is convenient since that's my major. I also couldn't have asked for a better boss (she hates when I call her that.), our friend and my band mate, Julie. Here she is rocking out with some other local musician friends at the Artichoke Bar last Saturday night. The Artichoke is a cosy joint for seeing live music, a little awkward layout when there are more than a couple musicians, but their sandwich selection kicks booty. The dude in the back with the hat is Henry

our bassist, and Kelly our drummer is also back there though you can't see him in this shot. 

The other thing we

did last weekend was to drive to Kansas City in an oh-so-comfortable U-Hall truck to pick up our beautiful new couch! I think Sue was actually levitating when our friends

Sonja and Michael helped us bring it up

 and set it in place in our apartment. Mmmm red-leather.

Sue has already christened it with her drool. She basically refuses to sleep in our bed  

anymore unless we get red leather sheets or something. While in KC, we managed to visit the 

 Nelson-Atkins Museum which is a very cool museum with a nice ancient collection and a 

really neat modern section. We didn't get to see all of it this time but we will be back, I'm sure.

Sue also insisted that we visit the Museum of Hair. It's both not as lame and more strange

       than you're thinking. Having nothing to do with hair styles, it is the only museum in the world (we think) that features the victorian art of Hair Sculpture. No one has practiced this art since the early 19oo's but people apparently used to take hair from their family members and weave these remarkably intricate wreaths and other designs, replicating flowers and birds and all sorts of things. This is Sue with our tour guide who walked us through the collection of some four hundred creations. It was surprisingly interesting since many of the pieces serve as detailed family histories complete with names and dates and historical info about the families.

So, the other thing that has been keeping me busy are the classes I've 

been taking. This weekend I finished my first art project for my art history class. It's based on a 3500 year old Manoan vase. I found the vase in a thrift shop and Sue let me use her old paints. I was a bit rusty after years of not touching a paintbrush, but it felt good to get my feet wet again.  

I haven't had a lot of time to work on music lately but I did complete my first remix! The band is State Shirt, the song is Up Up Up Up Up and my mix, which is quite different from the original, can be heard as the first track on my MySpace page. Check it out when you get the chance. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. The original is a moody indie-rock jammy with nice vocals and changes. My version is a sooped-up techno/dancehall hybrid. There is an outside chance that if the band likes the mix, they may include it on their upcoming remix album. 

Sue and I have booked our flights for San Diego to visit Dad Crane and Pauline over Spring Break. It will be my first time there and I look forward to seeing the house and hanging with them. 

We hope you all are doing well and hope to see you soon. Sue has a bad cold right now, so send her your love and wishes for a quick recovery. 

Love Sonny & Sue.     

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