The Teapot Dome Scandal and the Wacky Wacky Salt-Shakers

Wow! That comment thing really went over well. I have 4 readers-- other than my mom! (who adorably wrote to tell me she saw the comment gadget but couldn't figure out how to post one. Sometimes things are prohibitively technical for a reason Mom!) This, of course, has incurred the jealousy of bloggers worldwide (ok, perhaps only the jealousy of one blogger, in Ohio, whose readership [currently, n = 2] is about to go through the roof after I link his blog to my blog here, and all the overflow from the Bloomington Velo-News finds itself completely hooked on the latest musings and sociopolitical commentary from a baseball coach in Ohio. Thanks again for the nod GP!)

As you know, I was traveling a fair amount during my first 6 months of living in Arlington, and I got back from the last trip (details below; is that bad, to link to my own blog?) and was feeling a bit guilty and pretty behind schedule at work. So I was glad not to have any trips on the horizon, since it is usually the sprinkling of trips throughout my calendar that provides bookends around periods of supposed productivity during which I always have such a hard time getting anything done. But this time, the coast was clear and I was going to be able to come back to Arlington and just work! With abandon! You know, get ahead in the game! Maybe have something to show for it at the end of the day. Yeah, well I have been in Arlington for like a month straight and I am itchin' to hit the road! Good thing I have tentatively planned to go on tour with Shane around Thanksgiving.
Tour, you ask?
Yes, tour.
But Schaack,....um... you don't really play an instrument.
Um,... yeah,..... well, performance isn't entirely about musical capabibilites alright!

From where does this cockamamie idea stem? Well, last December I decided to make good on a vow I had made to myself about 6 years previous (for the full story, told in situ, click below; notice there is none of the actual music posted. There is a reason for this.)

Basically, I wanted to do an open mic night before I graduated and to help take the edge off, I somehow convinced/was blessed by all my friends who play instruments joining me for the event. We made a band called The Teapot Dome Scandal and the Wacky Wacky Salt-Shakers and we went on the "For One Night Only" Tour. Despite the fact that I have little to no musical ability, this was a magical night. You can probably tell by the impossibly wide smile on my face that it was one of the most fun nights of my life. It was certainly more fun that the vast majority of the other things I did during the pursuit of my PhD. It was so fun, in fact, that Shane Lewinski (Schaackmobile Hall of Famer and Wacky Wacky Salt-Shaker) had a brilliant idea shortly afterwards. He suggested that we go on tour, and play a bunch of open mic nights from town-to-town over a several day period-- like a real tour! Except, once again, without the musical talent or nagging details of setting up any shows! Our excitement reached its zenith when we realized that if we went on tour, we would get to make concert t-shirts!!!! After blowing an o-ring at the thought of having graphic art made specifically by or for us and a list of small dive-bar names printed on the back of a t-shirt, we decided we should probably try and write some of our own songs instead of counting on 80's glam rock ballads for our bread and butter. So far, I/we have written a handful, but it is definitely going to be hard to recapture the magic of that cold Thursday evening at the typically depauperate open mic night at the Player's Pub in Bloomington-- living out a dream, and bringing ten additional people along for the ride (not to mention the wildly supportive friends and patrons that came to watch and somehow knew that clapping was the most beautiful sound that would be made that night), is way better than any song I might be able to write. Anyway, that's my next planned trip-- November 21-25th, 2009. If we are crazy enough to make t-shirts, that's what you're all getting for Christmas.
The Teapot Dome Scandal and the Wacky Wacky Salt-Shakers are:
Sarah Schaack (guitar, volcals, tambourine)
Darron Luesse (guitar, vocals; drove 5 hours to surprise me and ended up in the band)
Shane Lewinski (guitar, vocals, rhythm egg, castenets; drove 5 hours to join the band)
Francesco Catania (guitar, vocals; labmate, original recruit for the band)
Stacy Hoobler (drums; actual musician & friend, provided much-needed base/bass for the band)
Matt Rosenthal (electric guitar; recruited to the band the night before)
Dan Jacobs (harmonica, melodica; stars & guitars regular, destined to be in the band)
Eunjin Choi (vocals; saintly undergrad working in the lab, ended up being recruited to the band)
Very nice dude at the bar (banjo; joined the band during the show)

Geraint Parry (announcer)
Sam Miller (videographer)

Like GP said during the show--
with 5 guitars and a banjo, what could go wrong?