Summer so far...

My summer semester is half-way finished. It wraps up on the 31st, then we have two weeks off. Every evening is full of homework, but I'm pretty accustomed to it now. It all seems to be flying by really. I should finish JALC in the fall and be at SIU in the spring. Woohoo!

My swimming in the morning is getting better. When I first started four weeks ago, I almost died after 3 laps. I'm up to 14 laps now and will probably keep it up even after the summer term is over. Why stop?

Saw Tom Waits with Corey R Robertson two weeks ago at the Fabulous Fox Theater in St. Louis. Waits is just incredible and I'm very satisfied after finally seeing him. It all would have not been possible had Corey actually received a confirmation email in a timely fashion when he ordered his first ticket.

Emily starts LPN school this fall. We're pretty excited. Another step forward!

We go on our first family vacation since 2001 this coming Friday! It's nothing big; just a St. Louis weekend excursion, but the kids will have a blast. Six Flags, the Arch, the Zoo, etc. Elena and Riddick have never been to any of them, so I can't wait to take a million pictures!

Our van got pulverized...sitting in our own driveway! Our neighbor backed a U-Haul box truck into the back of the van, crunching in the rear door. It won't close now, so I'm pretty pleased. She's supposed to contact her insurance company tomorrow. Yeah...first vacation in seven years, and we won't be able to take our van. The insurance company better front something compatable. There's six of us you know.

I passed the first part of my praxis exams, the basic skills test. Never before in my life have I aced any sort of standardized test, and I got a perfect score on my language arts section! It's almost as exciting as when I won a pair of Donkey Kong shoe laces from DK cereal when I was a kid!

I'm singing the National Anthem at the Miner's game this coming Sunday, July 13 at 2:00 p.m. at Rent One Ballpark here in Marion. I had a lot of fun doing it last year, and it's a privilege to do it once again. Emily will also be singing the anthem on Saturday, August 2 at 7:00 p.m.

Vacation Bible School is upon us. Is it already that time of year?! We're not going to be able to help out this year, so our hats are off to all of the volunteers that will be taking care of our kids!

I put up some pictures of a great Sunday afternoon at Dick and Francine Sander's house. They are such wonderful people that treat our children like their own grandchildren, and our children love them as such. For me, an afternoon at their house might as well be a vacation, since I get to relax so much ---and it's only ten miles from our house! Rohan got to finally fish with the fishing pole that our friend Larry Wheeler bought for him. And Elena caught her first fish as well!

My sister is getting married in Louisville, KY on the weekend of Rohan's and my birthday. The great John Maragni is going out there as well to help me do music during the ceremony. It should be a pretty fun weekend.

I've been invited to go to a IEA Student Program leadership training course at the end of the month in Bloomington. I'm pretty excited about that as it will help me to achieve more in my short time as president of our chapter at JALC before leaving to go to SIU. As DG sang, "Everything counts in small amounts!"

I have no idea with all that is happening when we are going to schedule a birthday party for Rohan! Like recent years, he wants to have a slumber party, but the weekends are all full. He'll be crushed if we don't have one. I've said it before: great planning Larissa!

We took Rohan to go see Modest Mouse at the Pageant in St. Louis this past Tuesday. My awesome friend Scott, who is basicially part of our family, got to go up with us. It was Rohan's first rock concert and it was a blast. He got to stand on the edge of the under 21 area which is raised above the floor, so he had an awesome view of the band which was only about twenty feet away. He definitely wasn't ready for how loud it was. We also got to watch the show with our great cousin Alex and his girfriend Amber and their friends.

Our landscaping project continues at our house. We've ripped out so much, and put down fabric, it's really coming together. However, it's taking so much time, of which we really don't have, and even as much as we're planting I don't think that it will really come together until next spring. But it's fun playing in the dirt for now!

I'm finally semi-retired from building! Our final project which was a house that we built for Emily's cousin and her husband is finally completed. I had sub-contracted the siding to another group, and they really drug their feet on the project until the home-owner fired them, so I had to finish it recently. I've been around building all of my life. I used to spend my summers as a child in my dad's wood shop at Crab Orchard High School when he would build cabinets. I started working for him during summer vacation beginning when I was thirteen. I worked on and off for him throughout the next ten years, especially after I got out of high school, honing in on my craft. For the past thirteen years I've slowly gone over to managing the business, although both of us still have always worked along-side eachother on the job site. I've had a lot of great memories, and it's kind of sad reaching this turning point in my life, but it's for the best. I can honestly say that I'm very proud of everything that my dad has taught me, and I'm proud of every house that we ever built.

Elena is taking violin lessons from our good friend Deavyn. You should see it: she's so small and the violin is just a small ---it's just too much. She's so proud of knowing how to take the violin out of it's case and how to rosin her bow. And I'm proud of her! I need to get some pictures up.

Rohan's ball season is already over! He had three rain-outs, so really there weren't that many games. There is supposed to be a fall league for his age-group, so we'll see what happens. All in all he had a great time. His team wasn't that great, but he really improved from last year. He only struck out twice; his best hit was a triple; he got a lot of experience playing second base; and he even caught a pop-fly!

We got to see Ryan and Erin for a bit this past Thursday. We had a great time messing around in the back yard for little time we had with them. We were supposed to meet her family yesterday, but of course the van was killed on Friday.

Big thanks to Jeremy and Sara Johnson for a great time on The Fourth! They fed all of us and all of Emily's family. A great chore for sure. We love their family and wish we could do more with them! We also watched the Marion K.C. Hall fireworks with them and Emily's sister Kendra and her family in a car wash parking lot with an easy escape route to avoid traffic jams. Ha!

Through Dint of Heavy Wishing practice is going great! And yes, there is new material that will be recorded soon. We cannot wait to begin playing out again! Our first show back will be Friday, August 15 at John Brown's on the Square in Marion. Go check out the Heavy Wishing page for more details, and add us as a friend for crying out loud!

Once

We bought a lot of movies tonight, because that is something that we love to do. One of the movies was "Once". What can I say? It’s an absolutely beautiful and brilliant movie. If you’ve ever loved music, because music is all you’ve ever had at any point in your life, and if you’ve ever loved, because that love was something that you could never have...then you’ll get this movie. If not, don’t waste your time. I’m going to go play guitar in the dining room now...because it’s almost midnight, and it’s finally quiet here.

Love,

Derek

Early Morning Gutter Twins

Emily and I made it up to Chicago two weeks ago in a whirlwind trip to see a late night Gutter Twins show. We left around 4:45 in the late afternoon and got to my brother’s place off of Division around 9:30. A rather eventless trip, which cannot be complained about. I will say there was a gas stop North of Champaign that I remember quite well, because of a wind chill that almost stripped the flesh off of my face. However, besides that, like I said, the trip was rather eventless.

We settled in to Ryan and Erin’s place, had some drinks, and checked out a bunch of videos on YouTube. Anything that we could find that was relevant to the evening. Mark Lanegan interviews, old Screaming Trees performances, Afghan Whigs and Twilight Singer stuff...you get the picture. I was pretty stoked about seeing Lanegan, as I had never seen him live before. Ryan saw him with Dulli and the Twilight Singers the last time they were in Chicago, and said his performance (or lack of) was a curiosity to behold.

Close to 10:30, Ryan called a cab, and soon we were on our way to the Metro. I lamented not having enough time or money to make it a true rock evening, because I had only the week before found out that Bob Mould was playing a show with two other bands at the same venue at 7:00. Like my friend Corey said, "Can you imagine all of the rock history in that building on just that one night?!?!" Simply mind-blowing.

Doors weren’t supposed to open for the late show until 11:00. We arrived around 10:40 and found a line that stretched down Clark St. to the end of the block and back up another street. I should point out that none of us were wearing coats, because we were unsure of any coat check, and that it was a wind chill of six degrees Fahrenheit. In other words, pretty warm. Oh yeah, and it was snowing. I haven’t been that cold in a long time, and I’m usually pretty good in situations like that.

Moving right along, when we finally got into the building, tickets scanned, and into the main room, the realization hit me that I hadn’t been to the Metro since ’92. In my mind the place was a lot bigger than it really was, but of course I had also experienced it through the eyes of a 19 year old newbie musician on stage. The place had barely start to fill up, so we got an excellent position a free-throw away from the stage, front and center.

The first band was called Great Northern, and they had driven to Chicago, straight from L.A., for thirty-seven hours. That’s some hard-core travelling. They were a four-piece consisting of a female lead on vox and keys, then a bassist, guitarist, and drummer. The lead singer and guitarist also each played tambourine and would on occasion double up on a floor tom for emphasizing some parts. I thought that was pretty cool, although I think it was more for visual effect than anything else: the lead singer was doing this on the first song when the drummer’s right hand was idle, so you get my point. All in all, I was happy that they didn’t suck. That happens a lot with opening acts. Yet, not only did they not suck, they were actually quite good. Wonderfully strong vocals from the lead and the guitarist. His vocal were almost in her range, with almost the same tone. I hate to make comparisons, because I’ve always felt I was victim to some really bad ones, but if I had to I would say she sounded like a cross between Tori Amos and Aimee Mann. That’s the best that I can come up with. Altogether a great full sound, nice breezy pop songs, with good chords and earnest feeling. I think they did about a half hour set, or maybe a little longer.

There was about a thirty minute long set change, which was a little too long for me, but what are you going to do? The band proper came out, and then Dulli and Lanegan followed after a good dozen or so bars had been played in the first song "The Stations". Of course, the place went absolutely crazy as soon as Lanegan’s growling voice engulfed the room. And wow, what an incredible sounding room it was. It was so round and full. My brother was right though: Lanegan does nothing but stand in front of the mic stand with his eyes closed. If he opens them, it’s usually between songs and he’s staring at the floor beside him. He’s got such a mystique about him though, it affords him the privilege as a performer to get away with being so non-involved in an outwardly physical way.

Then there’s Greg Dulli. Come on ---do I really need to say anything about this showman? You’re always on the edge just wondering what’s going to come out of this man’s mouth in between songs. His carthotic screams leading in and out of crescendo phrases were dead on. As usual, Dulli delivered all of the goods that we came to see and made the trip worth it.

Besides Lanegan and Dulli on guitar, piano, and organ, there were four other players. Ryan said that the keyboardist/guitarist was part of the Twilight Singers, and had even opened the show for them when they were in town previously. The drummer was someone I didn’t know, as well as the bassist. The lead guitarist was also from the Twilight Singers.

I wish I was more familiar with Saturnalia, but it was only released several days before the show, and to the best of my knowledge didn’t make it to iTunes until after that weekend. I listened to it stream several times on their MySpace page the Monday prior to the show, but was doing school work, so I didn’t really "know" it. I’ve since downloaded it from iTunes.

We probably made it back to my brother’s place sometime after three, and hung out until about four, eating frozen pizza and watching a Pixies DVD. Somehow we were up by 10 and on the road by 11:30. I actually went to Chicago for 15 minutes last year around this time, so this trip wasn’t so bad. I got to see Ryan and Erin, some great music...and even enjoy a quiet breakfast on the way home at an IHOP with Emily. What more can you ask for?

Here is their set list that I found HERE

Setlist:
The Stations
God’s Children
All Misery/Flowers
Live With Me
7 Stories Underground
Idle Hands
Circle The Fringes
Bête Noire
Down the Line
I Was in Love With You
Each to Each
Front Street

Encore
I’m Ready
River Rise
Papillion-Shadow of the Season
No Easy Action
King Only
Methamphetamine Blues
Number Nine

R.I.P. Heath Ledger

This really bummed me out. I've liked Heath's work ever since the Fox network's Roar, back in the late 90's, and had been totally stoked about his upcoming portrayal of the Joker in the Dark Knight. In more ways than one, this echoes Michael Hutchence. Very sad.

If I May Boast

In the last eight weeks I have gone from weighing 187 lbs to 162 lbs. I didn't really set out to lose 25 lbs...it just seemed to coincide with changing the way I eat and starting an every other day workout program. I never really thought I'd look "thin" again. I guess I'm posting this as incentive to myself to keep the weight off, lest I fall off of the wagon. I do love melted cheese you know...