The Lawrence Kansas Monthly Blog

  July Edition July is the month for Independence Day and still the middle of summer. But that doesn’t just start there. It happens anywhere in Lawrence. People buy fireworks and shoot them off in the neighborhood, the fields, at the farm, and everyone here gets to watch them explode. Why? Because it’s America’s birthday. And signing is what we celebrate on the 4th of July every year because that’s the day it was signed on, in the year 1776, Philadelphia, PA. I remember the time my family and I went to the park to watch the fireworks 💥. I really love watching them a lot. I also remember that one time my dad and I bought fireworks to light up in the front yard. We’d watch those bottle rockets fly. When my family and I lived in the farm in 2005, we got together and lit up the fireworks there. I’ll never forget my 4th of July party I threw there. My friends were there, and everyone else too. We had hot dogs, plenty of fruit and chips, and soda. I even showed everyone a trick you can ...

  June: The Start of Summer We’ll it’s summer time again, and school’s out! Everyone’s out swimming again, the sun is shining, and it’s time to have some fun. My summer plans are as always planning on a vacation we can go to, go to water parks of my choice, scream on some roller coasters, and ride my bike downtown. My other plans are in fact a downtown block party outside of the public library, a pool party somewhere at the outdoor aquatics center, go places with my “Best Buddies”, others. But the most important thing I love to do during summertime in Lawrence is an event I always love going to. Title? St. John’s Mexican Fiesta, right here at 1234 Kentucky St.   I’ll never forget the time I went with Dylan and Kaitlyn. It was a very awesome time to be here. I enjoyed authentic food, smashed confetti eggs on my head, and enjoyed some exciting music and dance. The dancers were wonderful and beautiful. And or course, the band playing was the bomb. I really loved the music they pl...

"May" There Be Plenty of Stories And Ideas [May Issue]   In the month of May, it's almost summertime. But first off, Memorial Day comes. Right now, I wanna talk about the next ideas for the month of May right here in Lawrence Kansas. Every May on the 27th-30th, there's a Busker Festival downtown. According to Downtown Lawrence's website, it says here that it's four-day street performer festival in the fun, funky and historic downtown of Lawrence, KS. Over 25 different acts are scheduled and lots of surprises on the streets. Best of all, its free to attend. Only you decide how much to tip the performers. At the Lawrence Busker Festival, things can get really weird every year. My future idea for attending the Busker Festival is to bring my Axtell puppet with me to the event and do a little segment.  If I had to pick one puppet to take with me, it would be either Buzzy the Bee or Rocky Fox. For example, if Buzzy wants to talk about music at the festival, he would...

  Go Jayhawks! [April Issue] Last week I got word from my dad that KU won the 2022 National Championship, and I was happy for the Jayhawks to win. You know, I wish that I could go see the Jayhawks game once again in Lawrence. It's like that time my buddies Ingrid and Ashley took me to the football game as a Best Buddies event. Heck, I even got a high five from Big Jay. Anyways, the Jayhawks are one of my top 5 college teams of all time. And that's why I dig KU. I even like to visit the Kansas Union anytime. Now I have some fresh ideas for the next mural in Lawrence. I've made a collage example of an upcoming mural idea piece titled ’Rock Chalkin’ With CJ’ (a.k.a. Rock Chalk Madness) and this new mural idea will be made outside at KU or somewhere in downtown Lawrence. I posted that idea for the next mural on Van Go's page on Facebook. This is what the mural will look like. Now in the middle of April, I would meet up with my Cordley teacher Lois Orth-Lopes and get togethe...

  The March Issue   Every March in downtown Lawrence, we get to do something special that time of year. During that month, I join the St. Patrick’s Day parade with the people from the Americana Music Academy. They play good Irish music on a float where I got to be in. On the float, I wave to the people when they watch. St. Patrick’s Day happens every year. And after the parade, everyone in Lawrence gets to celebrate while wearing green, get together with friends, and go eat at an Irish pub and grill called Dempsey’s Burger Pub. One time, I went there with my friend Lois Orth-Lopes for lunch right after the parade, and we both love that place to enjoy every St. Paddy’s Day in the month of March. I have a feeling that maybe when I come back again, I can join the parade again. I’ll never forget this very moment when I joined the parade with this wonderful music. This link to this video on YouTube is right here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lC3etVbW4qs Everywhere I go that holi...

  Best Buddies For Life Way back in 2004 for the first time, I joined a program called Best Buddies in KU. For 13 years, I’ve joined that program for fun events, special occasions, parties, and hanging out together. And best of all, I really enjoyed it a lot. Now to make things clear, I wanna get the chance to join Best Buddies once again. So, let’s review some of the buddies I met for my first time. 1. For the first time in Lawrence, I met a friend for the first program for Best Buddies. His name is Mark Lyda. He and I had a lot of fun together. We got together, listened to some music, we got to see The Incredibles, and got together for watch the Super Bowl. One time, I was waiting here at Free State looking for Mark and we got in the car and went to Pizza Hut for dinner. I really enjoyed the buffet in this place. In Pizza Hut, there’s another chain called WingStreet. Mark Lyda even gave me a CD of his own music. It was a great year for the first Best Buddies program. 2. The secon...

   The Day Of My Life In Lawrence Part 2 When I was a kid, I got the time and met new friends here in Lawrence. Back in the day, I met a friend named Elizabeth Tally at the Children’s Center at 1000 Sunnyside Avenue in the University of Kansas. I got the time to learn new things, play around with the video software, dance to the music of Greg and Steve, played outside on the playground, ate a sack lunch together, did some story time, and a got to watch a little Sesame Street. Okay like one time when I was inside the children’s center and when we were about to watch a video presentation, the TV started the play Sesame Street’s 25th Birthday Celebration. It was way back here in 1993. It was a musical event that happened long time ago. It was shelved in ‘93 until it was aired on public television in 1994. I wish that I could watch that special again and watch Big Bird and all their friends from Sesame Street sing along. En Vogue was in it. Queen Latifah was there. Little Richard....