holaolah

A Long Overdue Shout Out

I miss working on the farm with my new/old buddies Elam "Eazy-E" Zook and his trusty sidekick Blue. You can thank them for my "when animals attack" profile photo. He's a unique soul that Elam: an Amish Unitarian Grandpa whose gears are always turning to find ways to work smarter (as opposed to harder). And he's a blogger to boot. Blue, well, he's a black dog with one blue eye. He's a hell of a field mouse hunter as well.

We only worked together for a season, but I think I made some friends for life. Awww!

BBC NEWS | World | Americas | School attack shatters Amish idyll

Dave recently moved from Lancaster to London. You can imagine that he was a bit taken aback last night when he tuned in to the BBC to this story...
Link: BBC NEWS | World | Americas | School attack shatters Amish idyll.

Dwight Yoakam Visits Lancaster

If you look really hard you can see Dwight. Awesome show. I owe my Auntie and my Uncle for the tickets.

you cannot eat trousers, and that is all the missionary has given us

I ran with a gang of poets in high school. We carried Swiss Army knives.  I was a high ranking official among them. We were all deeper then; had note books bulging with naive verses, bound with string to keep them all in, to prove it. We wrote with fountain pens and coffee stains. We passed around a tape of Steve Scott's "The Butterfly Effect."  It was part novelty, part textbook. We laughed at it and studied its verses line by line and let our cigar smoke swirl accordingly.

Seems like this guy had a similar experience with the recording.

I hadn't heard this stuff in 12 years until today. I've thought about it a lot and recited parts of the poems in Steve's stilted style over the years.  Special thanks to Dave for seeking the glory of the old days and hunting down this gem on eBay and dropping it in the mail.

Here's a poem for you to download and experience...
Slow Motion: (a) Slow Motion / (b) A Rumour of Seperate Worlds / (c) Signals.mp3

now all that is left is emo and gangstas on cocaine

This is a very emo time here at the hola pad. I would have titled this post "holy effing ess!!!!!" but the prophetic utterances of frontman Todd are more poignant for these days characterized by crying eyes heavy laden with mascara, dudes in ladies jeans, and the premature world weariness most evident in the emotional development and troubled times of today's suburban youth.  All that is to say that I'm very proud to have "Emo" by The Snails as the first rock mp3 ever posted to holaolah.

I just got the song and I just couldn't wait to share.  My preliminary review would go something like this... "The Snails bring up some very good points: whatever happened to all the good bands and their good songs? Why does everything have to be so EMO? The Snails hold a mirror purchased at Hot Topic up to the botoxed face of rock & roll and make it take a long hard look at what its become. Hopefully rock will see what it's supposed to see and change its emo ways baby..."

Ladies and gentlemen callers who are also readers of this most inane blog, it is with great honor that I now present The Snails. Long may they rock and you can now download the song and help get America's emotions in check. 
The Snails - "EMO"
(right click, save as... for the older rockers who've never downloaded a song from the emoweb)

Danger - Travel Advisory

I don't know if you're a comments reader of this blog but I found this one to be quite disturbing. If you're out on the local roads this weekend, take extra caution and keep your eyes peeled for this young man. Just kidding Pete, take it easy out there. You've made it this far so take it easy. Don't let the sound of your own wheels drive you crazy.

nothing here is perfect

My very good friends Movies With Heroes released "Nothing Here Is Perfect" today. It's their biggest, tightest, most ambitious, and best effort yet. I've got much respect for the band because they know how to work it and they deserve an A for tenacity and stick-to-it-iveness for surviving the ups and downs of 10 plus years of trying to make it in the rock game. They exemplify the beautiful struggle. Help a brother's brothers out and listen to them and possibly purchase this finely crafted work of rock. The record is on iTunes as well, so you don't even have to step outside into the dark night to find out what the kids with their hearts on their sleeves are listening to these days on their walkmen boom boxers.
UPDATE: I just got wind that the MWH CD is going to be available in Hot Topic stores. This story keeps getting better.

TUNA TIME

An Hola family classic!

Goodbye

Today we burried our dear friend and surrogate mom, Ruth Thomas. It was a hard day. We sent her off in style and celebrated her life. Lots of tears. A few laughs. Much joy. We'll miss her, but I don't think she'd want us to do that. It's hard to find comfort right now. For me, heaven has become sort of abstract, out there, pie in the sky. To find comfort you've got to think about it in simple terms, it's not easy for me to do that these days.

Say Happy Birthday to Lisa!

while I've still got 20 minutes left in the day...

Today is my buddy Lisa's birthday. I won't tell you old she is because it's impolite to talk about the ages of ladies for fear of offending them and dangling their agedness before them. I hear that's not a cool thing to do. If you think of it, give her a shout and just say, "Ryan says you're cool, so you must be! Here's to you on your big day and an iTunes gift certificate to you! I know it might seem random, but if Ryan says we should, well than we really should."

If you're stumbling over that directive, here's some evidence on why Lisa is a cool cat... I've known Lisa and her main man Drew for about four years or so. Their kids eventually came along and they introduced me to them as well. For a young family, they really seem to know what it's all about. They have this way of parenting that makes it look pretty easy and that it's not that scary. They emphasize the important stuff and keep their cool and their faith through the tough times. Lisa is probably one of my biggest blog influences because she's been at it for "so long" and her posts have this way of making you smile at the silly stuff Abbey and Josh do or tear up when she talks about needing a vacation or sharing a spiritual insight. So, that's just the tip iceberg on why you should hurry up and wish Lisa a happy birthday and send her itunes or at least start reading her blog instead of mine because she's got a lot more heart and soul and cute kids saying funnier stuff than I do.