Volume 9 – #8 – August 2006

TRAMPLE THE WEAK AND HURDLE THE DEAD.
We’ve been spending lots of time with masses of society at airports all over the country this summer. Until about ten years ago almost all of our long distance travel was by van or the Donut (our van/bus Frankenstein thing that looked like an armored Brinks truck). These days, we have the “luxury” of getting to far away places by air 90% of the time. On one hand, it’s great. What was once impossible is now possible. If a promoter in California is willing to fly us out, provide our equipment needs, put us up someplace not too scary and pay us a fair wage, we’re there. It’s as easy as climbing a good-sized mountain. Well, apparently, flying has become an option for everyone, cause they’re all at the airport with us. I was in the restroom in an airport somewhere recently (it doesn’t matter where you are, similar to Interstate truck stops) and I saw the back of large man whisk by me wearing a t-shirt that read, “Trample The Weak. Hurdle The Dead.” I didn’t see his face or the front of the shirt. It could have been a shirt for some contemporary Christian band or Norwegian Death Metal band, or maybe a keepsake from a charity sporty thing, like a “race for the cure” shirt. The guy was pretty beefed-up enormous, with a shaved head and lots of tattoos; you know, normal stuff. Whatever, it was a very entertaining moment. Airport men’s rooms are brightly lit places and usually full of guys going about their business like robots. Seeing this big, intentionally scary creature, walking by zombiefied businessmen and catching a glimpse of myself in the mirror with a guitar strapped to my back, made me laugh. I don’t know why, exactly. I just had to go buy a pretzel for $4.00 and a coke for $2.50, to complete the experience. It’s a good thing I enjoy seeing the seating strategy that large groups of people utilize when they’re forced to wait in a specific area, yet maintaining as much personal space as possible. Humans are so much closer to animals, even bugs, than we want to admit. Our basic needs are rather uncomplicated. I’m equally amazed that most of us can manage to get out of bed and put our clothes on properly, much less, get into cars and drive on crowded asphalt trails. Those are practically the only two ways that humans are “more advanced” than animals: we can dress ourselves and drive things around more orderly than, say, dogs or cats would. I wonder if dogs would make better car drivers than cats? You know, now that I think about it, we wouldn’t be better off if people were more like cats or dogs. Their T-shirts could easily say something even more aggressive, like, “Attack the weak. Eat ‘em when they’re dead.”

Speaking of travel, in addition to walking around airports and sitting in planes and rented vans, we’ve also been playing music in a wide variety of venues and settings. We’ve made many new friends along the way and look forward to returning to everywhere. Gosh, Bozeman, Montana was great, Nelsonville, Ohio was great, Pagosa Springs, Colorado was great. Carlsbad, California was great. What’s going on? The gigs get booked, we show up and usually anywhere from 100 to 10,000 music lovers show up, as well. Amazing. We were delighted to hang out with radio legend Dr. Demento at our show at McCabe’s in Santa Monica and felt the freedom at Ashkenaz in Berkeley.

Polka God, Li’l Wally (Walter Jagiello), died on August 17 in Miami Beach, Florida. I believe he was 76. In the 1950s and early 1960s Li’l Wally revolutionized American Polish polka music by popularizing the sound of a small combo (as opposed to the more common big band) and slowing the tempo way down in order to put more emphasis on the funky polka rhythm section. He was also known as a master of self-promotion and played drums, trumpet and concertina in bars, polka clubs and concert halls all over the country, but most often in Chicago, where the second greatest concentration of Polish people live in the world (after Krakow, of course). Rest in peace, Li’l Wally.

DUMB IDEA. Somehow, someway, aid to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region needs to pick up dramatically. Brave Combo will be happy to participate in a second round of benefit concerts, if there are any promoters out there pulling them together. Otherwise, what can we all do? I had an idea. Perhaps different towns and cities around the country could adopt a particular area in or around New Orleans, like Denton could pay for cleaning up a city block. If 1000 towns got involved, 1000 blocks could be cleaned up. Is this a dumb idea from a naïve man? We need a good organizer and a good fund-raiser type to contact city councils and mayors around the country. I’m sorry if I missed something obvious about why this can’t work and have just exposed how truly simple-minded I am.

Speaking of the obvious; fringe-wearing, cigar chomping, funny-singing, mystery-writing, Kinky Friedman may be the next Governor of Texas. We’ve been asked to perform at events that support his campaign and have said, “Hell, yes!” Are we starting to feel the winds of change in this great state and great country? Maybe. Maybe not. Change is hard, even if it’s easy. The current ruling administration may not even be a good comedy act anymore, but they’re already settled in. Why upset the apple cart? Change to most people means going out on a limb, no matter how small that change is. So, we’ll see what happens, but it’s totally possible that those are indeed winds of change rustling the leaves. Exciting times.

And speaking of exciting times, isn’t it wonderful how the guy that didn’t kill JonBenet made the fighting between Israel and Lebanon settle down and become unimportant. And now everything’s fine; just like it never happened. The same with the bird flu. Mounting deaths in Iraq made that threat disappear. I haven’t thought about bird flu in a long time. The guy that didn’t kill JonBenet also made North Korea go away. I guess that starving refugee problem in Africa is all worked out, huh? Haven’t heard about it in a while. But I know what the guy that didn’t kill JonBenet wrote in someone’s yearbook 20 years ago and what he ate on an airplane ride from Thailand. Have we all just given up?

Brave Combo’s show with the Richardson, Texas Symphony Orchestra is confirmed. This will be our fourth excursion into the land of harps and bassoons and many violins. It’s happening on January 20, 2007. Keep your eyes on our itinerary for developing details. But, in the more immediate future, it’s polka time! If you desperately need to satisfy your polka urge, we have Westfest, Addison Oktoberfest, Kansas City Oktoberfest, Soulard Oktoberfest (St. Louis) and St. Arnold’s Brewery Oktoberfest (Houston) all coming up in the next two months. Several of these are multiple day shows for us. Make your plans. We’ll throw some waltzes in, too.

So, another newsletter comes to a close. Usually I try to think of some mildly clever, gentle way to segue to black, but I don’t want to think that hard right now. See ya.