Just a quick shout out to my sister, my ally, my co-conspirator, my confidante, my friend... Here she is at the ripe old age of 3, a mere 25 years ago! How can it be that it seems like everything happened just yesterday?
December, is becoming-- dare I say it?-- a reality. We spent the weekend working on songs and playing guitar (and banjo!) as we planned (and eating hamburgers, and doing photo shoots, and making videos-- mainly of drunken dancing at Saturday night's BBQ, mind you-- and most of the other things that were on our to do list). But the whole thing got turned up to eleven when we went into the Lab of Luxury studios here in Arlington yesterday to record some of the songs we've been working on. After making sure we had our instruments, tuner, picks, lyrics, the teach-yourself-how-to-play-banjo book, and plenty of nervous energy, we went over hoping to record scratch tracks with which we 
could practice a little bit over the next month, perhaps in an attempt to not suck when we went on tour. Our able producers (Jeff Streicher and Jesse Meik of Jude the Innocent fame-- album from them, coming soon!), however, somehow transformed our simple little ditties into ACTUAL SONGS!!! I don't know how they did it (neither does Shane, he thinks they used magic) but somehow or another, we now have three seed songs for an EP. Currently labeled "The Arlington Sessions", this recording session exceeded our wildest hopes and dreams. It was so fun, I have to recommend that everyone who 
might read this go out, pick up an instrument, write a song, and record it. It is the most fun thing you could possibly do. Even my schaack-optimism was dwarfed by the final product, an example of which you can hear below. Of course, when we are on tour, Jeff and Jesse won't be there laying 
awesome drum tracks and intoxicating bass lines, so it will sound a little bit more like good ol' me and Shane, but it was so fun to watch the song grow and develop as we layered the music and at least some new elements can be re-created on stage with castanets and some fearless harmonizing. Like I said, go do this if you can. You will wonder why you do anything else. More DWO tour details soon!
photo credit: Shane Lewinski
No need to buy tickets! No need to plan ahead! Why do U2 go through all the trouble of hauling that 360 stage around when they, too, could take advantage of neighborhood open mic nights??? We would love to see any friendly faces that might be able to make it and promise to dedicate our inevitable cover of Every Rose Has Its Thorn to anyone who drives over 10 miles to come see us! Hopefully living on the road won't harden us too much and we'll be able to fend off the heaps of groupies trying to make out with us all the time-- perhaps that hardship can even be parlayed into future songs of heartbreak and desperation!
I have been a delinquent blogger, I know. But keep in mind that delinquent blogger = non-delinquent post-doc, so it isn't such a terrible thing. I mentioned last week that I would say a few words about the 9th Annual Texas Bigfoot Research Conference which was held in mid-September at the University of Texas-Tyler (a sister school!) since I, too, like research. For those of you who don't already know, although the mythos of Bigfoot (aka Sasquatch, the Yeti, the Abominable Snowman-- take your pick, different names but the same hairy, giant, elusive, hominoid-like creature) is worldwide, it has certain areas of high concentration. Like Canada (where I am from). And Texas (where I now live). Although I wasn't able to attend this particular conference, several delegates from my department went, including Christian Cox (pictured above with typical Bigfoot evidence and namesake; happy birthday Christian!) These colleagues of mine attended, in addition to 400+ other people (who presumably did NOT go as a joke), reported back on the latest findings, and, of course, brought me a t-shirt. The annual meeting consists of a full day of 40 minute talks from experts on a variety of topics ranging from "Sasquatch 101" to this year's special guest, Bob Gimlin (Mr. Gimlin is one of two people credited for making the only not-revealed-to-be-a-fake-yet 1967 Sasquatch video still in circulation; see still frame below). 
Unlike what you might expect of a research conference, the talks aren't so much about evidence for Bigfoot as much as they are about how to catch/prove/photograph/depict/describe Bigfoot more effectively during inevitable future encounters. It also sounds like there is a fair amount of Bigfoot-skeptic bashing, Bigfoot belief-declaring, and Bigfoot sighting retelling. My understanding is that pretty much everybody there has either a) seen Bigfoot or b) expects to, which would indicate maybe Bigfeet aren't so rare afterall, since the conference is so well attended. In addition to the researchers interested in Bigfoot, there were researchers interested in people interested in Bigfoot -- from the psychology department. They passed out surveys to everyone in the audience in hopes of continuing their efforts to identify what characteristics typify Bigfoot believers and, perhaps more interestingly, Bigfoot researchers, such as those attending this conference. Their data reveal that typical Bigfoot believers tend to come from low income households and usually have little to no education. But Bigfoot researchers? Interestingly, they defy definition, fit no profile, and 
typically represent no single demographic category. Why? Well, perhaps it is hard to predict exactly what kind of scientist would risk their career and credibility chasing after a legendary creature most often shown to actually be someone running around in an ape suit or a misidentified bear. However, in the spirit of scientific objectivity, after devoting an entire post to the topic, I feel obligated to provide the link to where you should file a report (hopefully more peaceful than the one recounted by this nature-loving mountain climber, above) if you should see one. And for those of you who have now come to expect an interactive blog reading experience or simply want to avoid doing research (on Bigfoot or any other topic), check out the song/video by Tenacious D called Sasquatch on youtube here.
