"It’s not the First Amendment, it’s not religious freedom, it’s not church and state, it’s not…abstract. It’s the fourth grader who gets his ass kicked at recess because he sat out the voluntary school prayer in homeroom. It’s another way of making kids different from other kids. And they’re required by law to be there. That’s why you want it front and centre. The fourth grader. That’s the prize." -Toby in an episode called "Shibboleth" from Aaron Sorkin’s The West Wing
School prayer is fine so long as you’re a christian or a Catholic.
I watched Bill Clinton crush that twerp from Fox News. It made me remember what it was like to have a president who could construct sentences. He said something very profound. Democracy is more than majority rule. It’s about minority rights, too. When we stop protecting the minority, we begin to lose our most important freedoms.
Last night I asked Mike, one of our employees at the Purple Wave, if he’d ever heard of a book called What’s the Matter with Kansas? He said, "No, but it must be thick."
I went to the Union last night to see Thomas Frank, the author, give a lecture. He makes a big assumption, both when he speaks and when he writes. He goes on and on talking about how liberals are the scourge of America and presumes that his audience will understand that he is quoting the conservative perspective. I looked around at the hilljacks in the audience and wondered if they actually understood his satire.
Where do I begin? We had some killer shows in Hays, arrested a guy for impersonating a police officer, played Lawrence and Topeka and Kansas City and Manhattan and hosed an amplifier since the last log. I had the time of my life playing with Blaine, Pete, Titts, and Russel in Emporia and had a good-for-the-soul experience getting paid pennies at Buster’s. I had an amp rack fall off the stack in the back of my truck and, because it was strapped on, fall back and leave a huge dent in the side of my bed. There was a coup d’état in Thailand, Ford and Intel fired a bunch of people, the crew of the shuttle lost some bolts — though I’ve done the same on a Massey Ferguson — the crock hunter died, someone messed with Texas in football, and the West Wing is getting better the second time around. Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip is going to be the shit-diggity. The band has a mascot, Mason has new drums, we have a monthly at Bobby T’s, we booked Thanksgiving at Buster’s.
We’re getting ready for Peace Treaty this weekend. Big show, little dough.
G said Bobbie tried to find me a girlfriend in [Waylon] Jennings. I wish I could remember. She should have tried harder.
For the record, I cleaned the carpets of the van upon our return. I also didn’t get nearly the sleep I wanted as I was driving home. Bobbie kept waking me up, offering to drive.
Seriously, Bobbie did kick ass. Bobbie, when we end up firing your husband, please stay on as tour manager…
I kid. We had a fantastic show, both Thursday and Friday. Thanks to everyone who came out to Bobby T’s, thanks to Dusty for rocking balls as always, thanks to Matt for playing the sound board, thanks to Greg for wanting us every month, and thanks to my Peavey CS800 amplifier for resigning two hours before the show during sound check and not during the show like any other amp would have done. Thanks to Midway in Kensington for the Massey Ferguson pictures, thanks to Jim for playing with us at Jennings and to the guy who claimed to be in the KKK after the show for not burning or hanging us, or whatever those hilljacks do to liberals in western Kansas.
I’m sitting here drinking and writing lines of PHP code for the Wave website. Someone at our web host changed the rules on me today. It’s like someone making a new rule and not telling me that pronouns no longer need antecedents. Our website was hosed.
My truck is still clutchless and lacking a transmission.
I was thinking today, as I was looking at the “Support our Troops” magnet on the side of the pickup I was driving if that meant by default to not support the war. I thought also how supporting the war was a vote against the troops. I hadn’t made that connection before today. That thought surprised me. I’m thinking more about politics these days as I recently began re-watching the West Wing, a series I watched from season 1 through 7 not six months ago. Here we go again.
“What’s next?”
I miss my family. I haven’t been to Sharon in too long, and it’ll be a while before I get to go home. We’re headed for Hays and Topeka this weekend and for Kansas City next.
We’re selling 3000 head of geese a week from Tuesday. I’m not making this up. It’s fitting, really. I got my ass kicked by a goose when I was a kid. The thing came at me, wings dispread, head locked down in attack position. I was only four or five at the time, but I guess I had already figured out how to piss off poultry.
My truck is going to have its transmission rebuilt in addition to the new clutch. I figured $1800 was a better amount to spend than $800.
Getting ready for this weekend. It’s frustrating, managing the laundry list of things to do before heading to Bobby T’s, including ensuring my crew is ready for the auction in Lincoln, NE, tomorrow in my absence.
Bid on the geese. Put them in your freezer. Make pillows. Feed them to your lion herd.
Here I sit loading Counter Strike. I’m getting ready to go to Phillipsburg for an auction. I’ll have to drive a Chevy. I’m having a new clutch put in my truck. Nothing like a $1000 repair after spending the same on new equipment.
Put a grill guard on last week Got another 6" Ready to gobble some deer this fall
It’s been a long weekend. We missed Dusty at Duffy’s in Lawrence. We saw someone get into a brawl. He had something like 30 staples in his head the next day by the time we woke up at 1:00pm.
Down after a relaxing weekend Wayne and I went out and painted Aggieville with Sam and friends on Friday night I think she called us “weak” when we left for Bob’s Diner G and Cherie and I went to Lawrence Met up with Mason, Bobbie, Kim, and Randy at the Arthur Dodge and the Horsefeathers show They made up some story when we got back about stopping to eat I just watched a documentary about Lucero They rock. I’d like them more if I could understand the words.
This weekend marks a turning point. It’s the end of aarontraffas.com. We’re moving forward with the new site and changes are quickly being made. I personally like the corn picture at the footer of the website. Check out the new show details page. If you select satellite view and zoom in, you can see the cars in the parking lot of the place we play. The layout still sucks, but the geeks at Chivalrous Productions tell me it will be fixed this year.
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