Fashion Trend: Elementary School Neckties

2nd grade boys in a Lawrence, KS public elementary school started a new fashion trend: neckties!

This Story Shall The Good Man Teach His Son

I got an email from Craig last week. His son's basketball team drew the Monday night practice assignment. Coach Craig was out until February. Tim sent his regrets today. A head cold kept him away. Kurt's back hurt. He was iffy before I sent news via email of our reduced ranks. Plus we were on the schedule against the first place team. I made calls, sent email, tried to round up the usual suspects for substitute action without luck.

Then regulars Jay and Tyler heard the call and hustled in. Kurt gave it a try on his sore back, more vertical, less muscled, with good results, best of the season. Those guys stepped it up in the clutch and anchor Brent bowled his best series of the year, 600+ pins. I recovered from last week's season low 84 to post a 205 and a 510 series. We bowled our best team series of the year, 1180. It didn't matter that we lost three of four. Cue the trumpets - we happy few, we band of brothers, we came together.

He that bowled this day, and sees old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say 'To-morrow is Bowling night:'
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars.
And say 'These wounds I had on league night.'
Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember in Ernst
What strikes he rolled that day: then shall our names.
Familiar in his mouth as household words
Big Pants Pete, Edgar Winter FrankenMullet,
Westhoff and Jones, Baker and Rollins,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd.
This story shall the good man teach his son.

Video - Coyote

This Joni Mitchell song played on our Oread home turntable (930 Ohio) a million times during the 85-86 school year. I've heard two other versions of it, there's the original studio version (not bad), and another live version on a Joni Mitchell record with a jazz arrangement (not so hot). This version, captured live as part of the documentary, The Last Waltz, is my favorite. Thanks to Nik Huffman for posting a link to it on my Facebook wall.

Video - 1986 Lawrence Opera House Exterior

A brief look at the Opera House, now Liberty Hall, in downtown Lawrence, KS.

Was That a Big Piece of Cake or What?

25 Years Later

I attended the Shawnee Mission North 25 year reunion Friday night at The Other Place bar in Olathe, KS. We chatted, drank, and reminisced for five and half hours. The bar reserved a large section of tables for the group. I didn't realize the management decided to proceed with their regularly scheduled karaoke program.

I don' t have anything against it. I'm pro karaoke, believe me, but the volume was deafening. I asked the squat karaoke maven to turn down the volume. We reunion people were there to talk and we didn't require music or extra entertainment. She refused. The manager, who was busy with regular bar/restaurant duties, said he'd see what he could do, and did nothing. I lost the karaoke battle. I looked at the microphone and some of our reunion people were singing along to David Alan Coe and Salt N Pepa. Perhaps I was was wrong about the added entertainment value.

I had a blast at the reunion, despite the karaoke loudness. 75 classmates, plus assorted guests and loved ones, toasted one another, took pictures, and in some cases got re-acquainted, but for the most part, our old bonds, our previous relationships, picked up as if we'd never been apart.

This reunion was supplemental in the sense that it was put together because if we didn't do it, there would have been nothing. It was never meant to be a full-blown weekend like the 10th or 20th parties. There was no Saturday night 'hotel reception' evening with speeches and meatballs. I am grateful to Joe and Laura Campbell for taking the initiative and setting it up. The Olathe location worked well. Many alums no longer live near the old high school on Johnson Drive, west of the Mission business district.

Here's my best recollection on who attended. I may have missed a few but I think this roster is pretty accurate:

Jeanny Alt
June Audley
Kim Bagley
Pat Barry
Bryan Bird
Shelly Blakey
Joe Campbell
Ben Custer
David Draskovich
Linda Dunn
Nancy Earlenbaugh
Kim Edwards
Amy Enfield
Greg Fornelli
Dan Gadwood
Dan Garcia
Jeff Gilliland
Sally Grandgenett
Derron Gunderman
Lynn Heckerson
Joe Johnston
Fowler Jones
John Kelsh
Paul Kidder
Kenda Klemme
Angela Larson
Shelly List
Ben Lofgren
Martha Macher
Bill Moerlein
Kathy Nicholson
Jeanette O'Connell
Lora Pate
Thad Pearson
Janet Pinney
Tammy Pittman
Kim Pritchett
Betsy Proctor
Julie Robrahn
Randy Ross
Debbie Schwerdtfeger
Kim Schmelitz
Tony Schmelitz
Sarah Smith
Beth Sulzen
Carrie Thomas
Ross Thompson
Sharron Timmons
Steve Uhlmer
Sandy VonElling
Mike Wagers
Kurt Westhoff
Curtis Wilkerson
Teresa Wilson
Perry Wiscombe
Eileen Zeller

~~~~~~~~~~~ Other guests
John Courtney
Rick Passantino
Terry McCallum
Roger Anderson
Steve Parker

The Bowling Report for November 10th

Routine night at the bowling alley with the usual assortment of strikes, spares, cocktails and laughs. We won three of four games from the second place team. Kurt and Craig contributed strong games as did the rest of us at times. I was down and up and in between - a 474 series.

Video - Nightmares

We played the Violent Femmes too much on KJHK back in the 80s in retrospect and I was a chief offender. Nobody knew they'd break through to the mainstream and that's a bitter pill for the avant garde to swallow when it happens, but never mind because it happened to better bands than the Violent Femmes.

They had a high burn-out factor, thanks in part to the over exposure on the Claire Danes program, My So Called Life. Blame the Femmes themselves. They didn't withdraw from the publicity. They transitioned into a bubble pop band after starting as a cynical, quirky trio with off-beat lyrics and lots of adolescent angst. I flipped past a Disney channel original program not long ago where they appeared as themselves. It was some kind of Pre-teen comedy and Gordon and the boys appeared at a record store with hilarious consequences.

My other Violent Femmes story happened about two weeks ago in Olathe. I took my son to the high school football game and the home squad marching band performed a medley of 80s songs at halftime. They mentioned all five or six artists by name over the PA system; artists like Falco, Whitesnake, Cyndi Lauper, but no Violent Femmes. They played a few bars of Blister in the Sun. The announcer introduced it as, "And who could forget this dance club hit...". Somebody in the Olathe school district is afraid of the term Violent Femmes! Doesn't that slutty move to the Disney Channel allay a small minded high school administrator's paranoia? Lameness. Either that or they didn't know who performed it, but I doubt it.

Having slagged the Violent Femmes, I still think this is a fun song.

Violent Femmes MTV Music

Video - 20th Century Boy

I don't have a back story on this. I found it over at mtvmusic.com and thought it was cool, except for the excessive guitar flourish at the end, but this was made a long time ago. It's T-Rex and they rock. Enjoy it.

T. Rex |MTV Music

Meanwhile at FaceBook

I tagged my favorite Republican!