froehliche geburtstag mutti

today is my mom's birthday, so i though i'd post a cute picture of us together. this was taken right before i left for my first high school dance. mutti spent countless hours sewing the dress i'm wearing- right down to the last minute. the annoyed look on my face is on account of my brother (who took the picture) holding me up because i was already a half hour late. other things i like about this picture: i look like a giant in my heels (not that i wouldnt dwarf mutti anyway), the chevelle is in the background, as is the minivan that barb smashed some years later, mutti's hair and her smug look of....disapproval?, and my inexpert hair styling and non-existant makeup (in my defense it was my first dance). anyway, have a great birthday, mutti.

"tom sawyer, you tricked me. this is less fun than previously indicated."

this weekend i went home and discovered how fun powerwashing could be. maybe it's the closet neat freak in me, but i liked watching all of that dirt disappear. also, tagging the walkway was pretty cool, too.

lowdown updates

for those of you who have been dying to see more lowdowns action, check out our website- we actually updated it. the mp3s are now of much higher quality, there are some new pics, and there are directions for ordering your very own copy of our live kopn radio show. also, we secured a much more user-friendly url- find us now at www.sweetandlowdowns.cjb.net.

be there or be square

everything's cooler in lebanon

when mutti and vatti returned from beirut, they told me that mary ann and matthew particularly wanted me to have this package of fruit cream wafers. why this was, i'm not sure, but it may have something to do with the fact that while the package said it contained 12 wafers, in reality there were 13... i was reluctant to try these at first, but then discovered that they're quite tasty and addictive. they kind of taste like a bowl of fruit loops. i'm kind of sad because i only have 2 left...

blast from the past

parley was cleaning out his room today and found an old newsletter from our dorm. the featured article was covering the mr. tiger male beauty pagent. i had long forgotten that i was an escort in that pagent for this guy named fred (he was the singer for parley's ill-fated band, the tellers). the girl that was supposed to escort him bailed at the last minute, so i was recruited... alongside guys in tuxedos and girls in prom dresses, fred wore plaid bondage pants and a leather jacket for the formal competition. as his escort i wore jeans, a studded belt, and a black tank top (see poor-quality picture below). as expected, fred didnt make it past the first eliminations. this was probably the most involved i ever got in a school function...at least there's some kind of record of it.

you're not punk and i'm tellin' everyone...

shellshocked and awe

well, hold onto your hats, 'cause this is an actual post...

so this past weekend i was in jackson, missouri for the 4th annual shellshocked music festival. for those of you that are not familiar with missouri geography, jackson is very close to cape girardeau, half an hour from sikeston, and not quite considered part of the boot heel. my bandmate josh is a downhome jackson boy and one of the original founders of shellshocked. he and two other guys decided to put a venue together that allowed young bands the opportunity to play...and the rest is history. (the southeast missourian ran an article about it- props for mentioning 'grasscore') anyway, josh got our band, the sweet and lowdowns, on the bill this year.... so friday afternoon we packed our bags, grabbed our instruments, and headed down south.

so here's a recounting of events during the week:

friday- i rode with josh in his truck, and daniel followed behind in his car. the car ride was spent listening to tunes (i got josh to listen to tmbg's 'flood', and he in turn tortured me with garth brooks), buying sodas and hot dogs at gas stations, and me sassing josh (ie- pointing out that the only bilboard for miles was for tatoo removal, laughing at the city of fruitland, etc...). we arrived in beautiful jackson around 4:30 and josh had to go practice with another band he was playing with at the festival. while he was doing that, daniel and i played horse, and he annihilated me- 'h' to my 'horse'. afterwards we drove around josh's farm for a bit, then headed down to sikeston to eat dinner at lamberts- arguably one of the best restaurants i've ever been to. there i tried (for the first time) fried okra, catfish, hog jowl, and sorgum. old southerners mocked daniel's mowhawk, and i ate too many rolls. we drove home completely stuffed...

saturday- the day began around noon, when we drove to the jackson park band shell to set up and do sound checks. the skies were dark and cloudy and we were crossing our fingers that the storms would pass over without incident. mother nature, however, had other plans. daniel and i left around 2:30 to grab a burger. after about 3 miles, it started to sprinkle. we debated whether or not to call josh and break his heart....but decided not to. 5 seconds later, water started dumping down on us. so, we called josh, told him trouble was headed his direction, and they sheltered all of the important sound equipment just in time. when we returned to the band shell, there was a giant river in front of the stage (which carried off two garbage cans and a tent). there was talk of cancelling, but it was decided that we'd go on with the show. the festival continued without incident, although not many people showed up (josh counted 60 at most). we played probably our worst show to date- lots of sound problems, couldnt hear each other, but people still liked us and we got several compliments afterwards. josh threw an afterparty at his house, and we splashed around in the pool, watched futurama, and played video games and poker. went to bed exhausted.

sunday- slept in till about 1pm. daniel left early because he had to get back to kc. josh and i bummed around till about 4, then drove back. stopped in stl for a bit and visited with mutti and vatti. drank 3 cream sodas and ate 10 slim jims (stomach status: undesirable). arrived in columbia around 10:30. ate the rest of the slim jims (couldnt help myself).

all in all, i really enjoyed the weekend. it was fun to see a new town, meet some new people, and play a show. i only wish that saturday's circumstances were a little better- the rain was stressful for everyone- and that we played a better show than we did. i dont think we got any pictures of the show...or of anything else that weekend, otherwise i'd post some. so....that was it :)

ding ding ding!

yeah, so mary ann guessed correctly...i found a copy of 'panda and the magic serpent' in the dollar bin at wal-mart- on dvd no less! of course, they didnt do any remastering or anything, so the quality is pretty bad... but it's still the same movie that we'd watch with our cousins over and over and over again. i made my friends sit down and watch it with me and they thought it was hilarious. and, an interesting side note, this movie is considered by most to be the first animated color film to come out of japan and has been pretty influential. who'da thought?

what ever happened to those books grandmother and grandfather gave us? i remember reading one at their home in michigan about this spirit boy that could control the water and turn into a dragon...i really liked the illustrations.

it's amazing what a buck can get you these days...

international google fame

so i was playing around on google and noticed that my blog profile is the only thing that comes up when you search for 'suzspot'. also, when you google my full name, the first hit is the sweet and lowdowns page we created on comomusic. our actual page comes up third. when you google the other bandmember's names, our site is nowhere to be found. i'm not sure why, but this gives me a sense of pride.

perhaps this isnt as iconic as i thought...

there have been requests for a second clue, so here he is. any others would be a little too obvious... i'm not sure how mutti and vatti knew what this was, yet kate and mary ann have no clue at all. i'm positive that if barb saw this she'd know in a heartbeat.

the leader of the white pig mob.....the white pig.

this is why i still shop at wal-mart

so i was at wally world a week ago and i found something in this 'dollar bargain bin' that literally made me jump up and down for joy. i'm not going to tell you what it was, but the little guy pictured below should jog your memory...

hmmmmmmm! the crystal ball is lighting up!

hair apparent

after reading kathleen's blog, i poked around for that picture of dad for illustration of his wild, curly hair. i think at one point it was actually bigger (the year the truck broke down and uncle carl had to rescue us), but this is the only picture i had. i also posted some other 'strange hair' pictures for your viewing pleasure.

also, the spell checker on this thing could use some work... it told me i should replace 'kathleen' with 'staleness'. while some may argue that the two are synonymous, i happen to disagree...

ok, so maybe dad's hair wasnt as big as i though it was....but still... also of note are mutti's glasses, mary ann's perm, kathleen's grown out 80's bangs, barb's 'mulletesqe' haircut, and my ridiculous expression.

my famous 'before the cut' picture. having grown out my hair till the second semester of my junior year of high school (along with my friend sara, on the left), i proceded to hack it all off into a regrettable pixie cut.

parley on the bus...probably my senior year of high school ('99)...back in the glory days of his spiked hair.

what...people read this?

so i checked my blog today and lo and behold, two people had left comments. two people. and these werent even people that i told about the pictures i put up... (granted they're family, or somehow family-acquainted...i guess people talk.). well, thanks for reading, guys
i may just have to post more, seeing that i have a captivated audience.