August (Still Summer… seriously.)

 

August (Still Summer... seriously.)

When the month of August begins, it’s still summer. When the school season begins, the summer’s still going. My other ideas keep going and going and going.

When back in Lawrence, I thought up with something different and totally new.

Have you ever heard of the Kaw River Roots Festival? If you didn’t yet, then let me explain.

It happens every year in August. That’s two days of roots, bluegrass, and Americana music along the bank of the Kansas River at the historic Abe & Jake's Landing in beautiful downtown Lawrence, KS. My suggestion to this event is that someday I can join in the festival and watch the music play here at Abe & Jake’s.

For the past years, Americana music has been the home of the sunflower state. In many states, this genre of music is called “American Roots” music. It’s an amalgam of American music formed by the confluence of the shared and varied traditions that make up the musical ethos of the United States, specifically those sounds that are emerged from the Southern United States such as folk, gospel, blues, country, jazz, rhythm and blues, rock and roll, bluegrass, and other external influences. Americana is also contemporary music that incorporates elements of various American roots music styles, including country, roots-rock, folk, bluegrass, R&B and blues, resulting in a distinctive roots-oriented sound that lives in a world apart from the pure forms of the genres upon which it may draw. While acoustic instruments are often present and vital, Americana also often uses a full electric band.

At South Park, there’s also a Kansas State Fiddling & Picking Championship. It’s in the last weekend of August in Larrytown.

One time my mom and I were at South Park, and we both watched my dad play with his friends from Americana Music Academy. He loves playing good music, in fact, we heard a song from the soundtrack of the movie ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou’. That song was “Keep On The Sunny Side” by The Whites. Fact: this song was originally by The Carter Family.

Now here are my next ideas for Larrytown. To support the Americana Music Academy, I’m planning on making music videos and put them up on YouTube. Everyone will love my new music videos I made once I visit Lawrence in October. Here’s a list of music videos I’ll be creating.

1.   “Pie” by Steve Mason

2. “Mama Don’t Know” by Sissy & Earl

3. “Nolan On The Moors” by Thom Alexander

4. “Sweat Like James Brown” by Majestics Rhythm Revue

5. “High Dollar Baby” by Michael Paull

I’m gonna starting planning on recording the video for the first music video. This time, I’m using my puppet Rocky Fox for some blue screen footage.

Whenever I think of music in Larrytown, I listen to it and I serenade with it.

My favorite part of August was that I enjoy swimming in the outdoor pool, rent music at the library, go for a bike ride downtown, get some ice cream at Cold Stone Creamery, and cooling off. One of my other favorite things to do is spend my Fridays with my friend from C-Tran, Speed Mack. We hang out and mess around, make good music, watch some TV, and have some pizza. Speed Mack and I were like the kings of hip hop, and he likes to live it up. Word!

I remember all the good times I had together with Marcel. I even have his sticker on my dresser. Shout out to you, Speed Mack.

When football season comes, I wanna watch the Jayhawks win again. Where? Simple. At the KU Memorial Stadium!

I can’t wait until I can join Best Buddies once again. The only problem is that it starts in September at the KU Union, where the match party is located. Now, if Best Buddies we’re to have summer activities for the program, I’d join in too. And I think that would be totally cool. It would also be called “Best Buddies Summer Program”. It would go from the month of May starting Memorial Day to the month of August. Then the Best Buddies program will return to its normal fall schedule. That would even make Best Buddies even more fun because we love getting together and making new friends there. I even remember that time we got together for a dance party there. You know, I should’ve danced ‘The Sponge’ there.

So there you have. The month of August and the info of the Kaw River Roots Festival and others.

The moral of this month’s blog is that you should always enjoy yourself.

Now before I move on, here's another song I wanna talk about with you. Today it's about a song called "Pie". (3.1415926535897932384626433 etc. Ad Infinitum.) One time, I was busy inside my house in Learnard St. in Lawrence, and my mom and dad wanted me to hear this new song by Steve Mason. I listened to it and I really loved it. I even heard my dad yell out "PYROMANIACS" as I laughed it out. 

Now get this. If you can tell the difference between this math symbol and this dessert, what can you see?

In this song, Steve sang the differences between the number of π in this mathematical equation and the taste of an after-dinner dessert. I really liked that song a lot by the slice, if it's 3.1415, still it's nice!

As it always said in that song, "Let's pretend we're eggheads up with more than half. I'll tell an 'S.O. Tarek' joke, and then we all will laugh." HA!

It's the ratio of what's going on to what's coming around.

P.S. If you haven’t heard of the Kaw River Roots Festival yet, then… oh never mind. You already knew.

Right now there's plenty more to come, so I'll be talking more about some other Lawrence topics soon. Stay tuned.

(But trust me on the sunscreen. Seriously...)