November 16, 2006

The Crazy World We Live In

Some of you know that I am a big fan of Tim Hortons. No, not the hockey player, his donut shop. There's a Tim Hortons in Mount Pleasant. Tonight, on my way to class, I stopped at Meijer to pick up a couple of CDs (Shooter Jennings' Electric Rodeo and Bowling for Soup's The Great Burrito Extortion Case) and look at treadmills. Afterward, I decided to go to Wendy's for dinner. Okay, then the Tim Hortons' sign advertising the chili caught my eye.

I thought to myself, "No, Rick, don't go there because that advertisement that plays on 95.3 is so annoying!" The advertisement talks about hearing a rooster crow, then playing the crow slowly backward and it tells you to go to Tim Hortons. It's pretty stupid, but apparently catchy. The chili won out and I headed into Timbos. Well, much to my chagrin, they were out of chili. Marketing in action. "We're actually waiting for the truck to arrive," said the cashier. (That doesn't do me any good ...)

Off to the Wendy's next door. Nope, too long of a line. Where is your patience? I headed to the Mission Street Wendy's and bought dinner. I ate it outside the classroom in Pearce Hall on Central Michigan University's campus. Wow! I'm giving way too many details.

Are you wondering who Shooter Jennings is? He's the son of outlaw country crooners Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter. Shooter has been recording for a few years and has a couple of cool country albums. I never really had listened to his music until I picked up his album tonight. I was checking out the Deadstring Brothers Web site and saw that they were opening for Shooter this week. They have a concert tonight and tomorrow night.

Last Saturday I was talking to Crazy Steven Losey and asked him if he knew anything about the Deadstring Brothers. He said, "It's funny you should ask. I think I'm going to be at one of their shows later this week. Like Thursday." We got to talking because I was actually thinking of checking out one of the shows, too. My old middle and high school locker neighbor, E. Travis Harrett, is the Deadstring Brothers' drummer. I told Losey this and he made some funny comments about all the people I claim to know, etc. He mentioned that maybe I could help him cover the show. That might not be exactly what he said, but I think maybe I'll take my camera along and see how official I can act. How would one act backstage? Never been there. Never done that.

So, tomorrow night, I'm going to the show in Grand Rapids ... with credentials. I don't think I've ever really had credentials. I'll get to talk to Travis and introduce him to a writer from Modern Drummer magazine. Last time I saw Travis' band was with my good friend "Wild Bill" Zak. It was in Mt. Pleasant, proably about 1996 or so. Travis was in The Dopes back then. I was a young teacher and Bill was a college student. Now, we're both old teachers and Travis is still rockin' and rollin'. It's a crazy world.

I was going to end this post ... but I once heard that Travis went to Miami to lay tile between gigs. He was working on one job, got bored, threw his clothes off and jumped off the edge of the house and into the water below. That was the end of that job, apparently. I can't remember who told me the story (probalby my dad) but I laugh every time I think about it. That might be a good lead for an article ...

Thanks for tuning in!

The Deadstring Brothers

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