Promoting My New Short Story

My latest short story, Except For Patches, appears in the 2007 issue of Kansas City Voices, an annual periodical of prose and poetry.

Except for Patches is the story of Perry, a teenager having a bad day. He's losing battles on many fronts: home, school, the neighborhood. He's got swollen knuckles, a fat lip, and no bag of weed, and the party hasn't started, and then there's the bit about the six pack rings and the slot car track. But I'm giving too much away, except for Patches. Look for it in the 2007 issue of Kansas City Voices at area bookstores now.

Long Live the Unicorn

I don't consider purchasing many movies on DVD, but I might consider this one.

Hyperopia Plays Lawrence

Hyperopia opens for The Effigies tomorrow (Friday) at the Jackpot Saloon in Lawrence, KS. You may recall that Hyperopia features Lori Wray (Von Bulows) with Steve Eddy (Micronotz, Cryin' Out Loud), Steve Dahlberg (Ricky Dean Sinatra, Cryin' Out Loud), and Kirk Larson (Random Aztech, Cryin' Out Loud). All these veterans have played Lawrence many times, but this is their first appearance as Hyperopia in the river city. Go see them!

Dr. Research was right about Global Warming

Bell Telephone produced a series of science programs in the late 1950s (for television, I think) that were later shown in classrooms around the country like mine (circa 1979) in the Shawnee Mission district. The star of the series was Dr. Frank Baxter, aka Dr. Research. Here he is, with a guy who looks a lot like the Night Stalker Darren McGavin, talking about global warming. This is one example why the fims endured as long as they did. The makers had their science shite together.

Embarrassment Video (with Smoking Vocals)

Here's the Embarrassment doing Wellsville at the Flatiron building in Wichita in 1981.

Get Smart! Again

Much has been written and said about Lawrence's two kingpin alternative bands of the 1980s, (Mortal) Micronotz and Pedaljets. That's not to say that there weren't other bands - like Get Smart!. The post-punk trio developed a Kansas following in the early eighties and departed for Chicago before I arrived in Lawrence in the fall of 1983. We knew they aspired to bigger things and it was not a surprise when they landed a record deal and releashed an album (Action Reaction) in 1984. Get Smart! toured that year and appeared in Lawrence no less than twice. They headlined the 1984 version of Day on the Green Hill, an outdoor show that also featured Rick Frydman, Todd Newman, and the Pedaljets. Lisa, Frank, and Mark returned to Lawrence that fall for a SUA-sponsored free concert, so there were no "big time" hard feelings among the local scenesters that I was aware of. If anything, Get Smart's Lawrence fan base outside of the KJHK staff dwindled due to natural college-related attrition. Still, they released another album in 1986, Swimming With Sharks.

Love the Internets: Their catalog is available in portable mp3 format here. Try They Walk In Pairs or Berlin On The Plains.

Halloween Time - Centron Style

Thanks to visitor Jason for posting a link to the "Scum of the Earth" halloween party flyer from 1985 on my post about the time the Residents played Lawrence. And while you're checking that out, stop by Jason's web log, Scar Stuff that features tons of Halloween fun including two versions of a Centron film about Halloween Safety. One even features young Jason himself.