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Favorite Concord son, Goody, is spearheading an environmentally-friendly festival next month aimed at raising a little awareness – and a lot more money – so I wanted to give him a shout out. He’s been pouring his heart and soul into this for months now and, if I’m not getting my next wedding dates mixed up, I will be headed up with some other C-town legends to show some support – Wells, Maclean and Bryant are also involved. I’ll be twirling around with devil sticks whilst snacking on free-range chicken and organic goat cheese. I’ll be slathering my filthy, unkempt armpits with patchouli and clearing chambers on a 10 foot binger. I’ll be… passing the mic to Mike now:

The Legend of Don Dicisco is a one day art/music/ecology/energy/food festival that aims to illustrate the importance of contiguous habitat and contiguous thought. The event will raise money for a farm conservation project of the Vermont Land Trust and Audubon Vermont’s Environmental Education Program. The Legend includes a dozen artists exhibiting their work, six bands, a team of ecologists delivering talks/walks/demonstrations, working alternative energy displays and a celebratory feast comprised of foods from local farms. The Legend will take place Saturday September 17th at the Green Mountain Audubon Center in Huntington. Notable participants include Bernd Heinrich, Susan Morse, Robert Spear, VINS, NECI, Sunweaver, Chelsie Bush, Michael Rothschild, Abigail Pratt, Seth Jarvis, Gordon Stone, Paul Asbell, Jon Fishman.

Tickets are available through the Flynn Regional Box Office and may be purchased at http://www.flynntix.org or by calling 1-802-86-FLYNN.

For a full description of the event please visit: http://www.legend2005.org or contact Legend director Michael Goodwin at michael@legend2005.org or (802)234-9415.

Saturday night, while up in Canada, our crew drove to Smiths Falls to an old family friend’s house. Wentworth has lived in the same digs on the Poonamalie Lockstation for as long as I have been alive. We used to keep our boat, the PyeSeas docked nearby, and I spent a good portion of my childhood annoying people in the general vicinity. I’ll mention this evening in greater detail when I get around to processing all the accompanying photos. For now – let’s just say you haven’t lived until you’ve heard 3 hours of Newfie jokes told by the drunken Newfies themselves.

“Did you hear about the Newfie 2-seater airplane that crashed near a cemetery? They’ve recovered 136 bodies and they’re still counting.”

The Rideau Canal System, was built by the British from 1824 – 1832: Back then, the Rideau was a wilderness of lakes, rivers and swamps. In the middle of this wilderness, with many men dying from malaria, an engineering marvel was created. Over 1,000 workers, the vast majority of whom were Irish or French-Canadian, died during construction. Considering the era and technology available, building the canal makes the Big Dig look like a half-assed sandcastle.

There are 23 locks on the system, and I’ve been through every last one of them. I carry many great summer memories of the community that surrounds boating up and down the waterway. As a child I was often bored – it can take hours to get through one station – but overall they were great times. I have to get crackin’ on the long day ahead, but if you’re interested read some more of the truly amazing history here.

Janet and I are headed up to Portland again tonight to see the parents – this time with Mike and Joanna in tow. JJV may even make an appearance. If someone asked me if I was sick of all the traveling I have had to do this summer, I wouldn’t give them some predictable, sarcastic answer. Not at all. Rather, I’d simply snatch up a blunt soup spoon and detatch one of their ears for them. Talk amongst yourselves. I’ll give you some outdoorsy topics as I’m looking forward to the woods:

1. Have you ever been camping? If yes, do you go often? If not, why not?

2. Are you an outdoorsy person, or would you rather stay inside the comfort of your house? Why?

3. Which do you prefer, hot weather or cold weather? Why/why not? How do you cope with each?

The 3rd redesign just got sent back to us – and I love it. Ladies and Hooligans, Chris and I are proud to present – GoonBlog. Be sure to refresh the page a few times to see how the design cycles slightly, and we welcome your comments. There are still some layout/content shifts to work out (Hockey news RSS feed, calendar, etc.) but this is 95% of the finished product. Thanks to Mike from EWebscapes for putting up with our pickiness. Tell a friend.

We were cruising at about 35,000 feet last night when I started to notice that the Russian guy sitting two rows in front of me was just a little ‘off’. It wasn’t a gut feeling, or an inkling or a hunch. Rather – it was the fact that he got up, walked into the stewardess’s galley and came out with two meals which he then proceeded to wolf down while the takeoff seatbelt sign was still on.

The stewardesses, hostesses, whatever you’re supposed to call them nowadays – were towards the front of the cabin, but soon enough one of them walked back and caught Vladimir chowing down. And on a special, pre-ordered kosher meal no less. She looked at me incredulously and asked hypothetically “What the hell does he think he’s doing?” To which an older man seated directly across the aisle from me answered “You need to get security watching that guy”. Jason then threw in his $0.02 – very loud and in no uncertain terms, “I wanna knock that friggin’ idiot out”. I liked his idea better. It’s a scary world, and when you’re airborne airborne head-shaking and tut-tuting at the idiosynchracies of others should always be foregone in favor of one .45 caliber round behind the ear from an Air Marshall’s glock.

I was supposed to get to my Boston office around 9 a.m. this morning. We had an overnight, red-eye flight from Vancouver to Toronto, and then an immediate connecting flight through to Boston. It was too perfect. In reality, we never stood a ghost of a chance of making the connection, and as 10 other Beantown hopefuls chirped at a gallery of Air Canada employees Jason and I choked back the bitter and got boarding passes for Pittsburgh.

From Pittsburgh we managed to eventually get to Boston a good 7 hours later. Due to a storm Saturday night, air traffic was backed up and we waited an hour on the tarmac and then another hour in a holding pattern before we finally got home. 20 hours, four airports, a rental car and a taxi later – I was unlocking my apartment door and being scolded by a cat. And it was heavenly. I do not want to see the inside of an airplane again for a very, very long time. Unless, of course, it’s one of these.

You’ve all heard me mention GoonBlog several times over the last three months. It’s actually been live for a few weeks now, and Chris and I have been hard at work in our rare spare time finding our voice and putting some content together while the graphic design takes place in the background. I have a lot of faith in this project for a variety of reasons, so I decided to pony up some duckets for a professional design.

We didn’t want to ‘roll it out’ until it was 100% done – but I’ve just gotten the first mockup back from the graphic designer and I want some feedback before I give him another round of changes to make. Click here to go to the designer’s site, and then select GoonBlog from the dropdown menu on the right.

I almost really like it. The gloves as a background image in each post, the Stanley Cups beside the titles, the center ice design at the top – but I’m not ‘wowed yet’ and I desperately want to be. The designer is obviously talented, and followed my exploratory round of suggestions to the letter, but it needs a ‘little something’. Here are a few of my ideas, and I look forward to hearing some of yours, dear reader.

– Cartoon players are duking it out rather than checking.
– Post cell is shaded with a light grey instead of surrounded by a thin border.
– Less real estate used at the top of the screen for the graphics.
– “GoonBlog” is more condensed and both words are on the same line. Saves space and will allow us to repurpose it as a logo.
– Yank the crossed hockey sticks.

Those are some of my first impressions. Detroit and I look forward to some of yours. We didn’t want to ‘drop the curtain’ before we officially ‘dropped the gloves’, but we have – so rip into it and slug us with some feedback. And be sure to have a look at the current version of the site so you can get the big picture/bored to frozen tears.

I was driving in the “War Pig” (our ’88 Ford half ton truck) when upon the radio, which only got Oldies 103.3, I could faintly hear “Alabama Getaway” by the Grateful Dead. I thought it strange that the station know for 50’s and 60’s hits would be playing the Dead, but I dismissed it, and turned it up. After the tune was over the DJ says, “sad news from California, Dead frontman Jerry Garcia was found dead this morning.” I was in Carlisle on a windy road, and when I got the news I damn near drove off the road. Jerry is dead. The Long Strange Trip is over. Wow. Heavy words to be sure. I picked up the radio and buzzed JD. He hadn’t heard the news, and was just as stunned.

Upon my return home, I came in the house, and grabbed the mail. In the box was an envelope with the unmistakable Steal Your Face symbol. My Fall tickets for several shows at the Garden, and RFK had arrived. Thanks for kicking me while I am down. My phone rang constanly for the next couple of hours. “Did you Hear”, and “Jerry’s dead” was the common theme. Stories of shows past, and theories on what the rest of the band was going to do were the most common topics. We thought of driving North, as Bob Weir was playing the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom that evening, but instead, we went to the Razzi to comeserate over a couple of pints.

Henry was pissed. “Well, there goes the fucking fall tour” I think was his exact quote. We drank at the Razzi, and listened to the Dead. People that asked to have the music changed were met with a tirade of swears, and generally dirty looks from JD and I. Luckily we spent enough time and money in the joint we pretty much had the run of the place. When we had our fill, we walked home to sleep it off. It’s hard to believe it’s been 10 years since Jerry died. As the song says, the Music Never Stopped. RIP Jerry.

Submitted by Chris (aka Detroit Velvet Smooth).