Kilroy et al: Tour Diaries Day 3 / 4 : SPlog : Smile Politely

Kilroy et al: Tour Diaries Day 3 / 4

Posted in SPLOG to Photo by Smile Politely Editors on Thursday, May 28, 2009 at 10:25 am

Ed note: We often publish C-U band’s tour diaries when they head out on the road to represent us in the great wide open. The content here is just as it appeared when they send it to us. So, grammatical errors and offensive language may abound, but that’s part of the fun.

Day 3: Saturday, May 16

We went to a farmer’s market in Des Moines just outside of the parking garage that we slept very poorly in. We found a coffeehouse to get our caffeine fix but there was a weird magician character and a salad-dodging, old television comedian that was not our cup of tea. We decided to leave Des Moines pretty early and arrived in Ames around 11:00. Right away we found the place we were playing and a nice little café called Café Beaudelaire. The accomodating waitresses provided us with our caffeine fix while we wrote this diary and were pretty attractive to boot.

Then we hit the streets to busk a little bit. Otto had a show back at Bentley’s Pub in Champaign with Santa, so he missed out on Ames. We had bongo drums and two guitars and made some fun jams. We took a green self-guided tour of the Iowa State campus, which was pretty beautiful and filled with trees and greenness in general. We busked a little more outside of a pond on the campus with Brian playing the singing saw, which drew a few looks from people passing by.

At 7:00 we loaded-in at the Ames Progressive. On the first look we knew it was an intimate, environment for a show. Four bands played, we played last being the non-local band. The other bands, Paddle Captain, We Are Ourselves, and Rodeo Drive were all very good. Our set went really well, despite being without Otto on bass, keyboards, backing vocals, and occassional cat. We ended with an unplugged version of the song ‘Engine’ by Neutral Milk Hotel, since the room seemed conducive to an unplugged song or two. The audience was very respectful and paid attention to the music, a nice change after playing to walls in Des Moines. The bands that played before us stuck around to hear our set as well, a much appreciated gesture.

That night we stayed with Nate from the Ames Progressive and his girlfriend Kate, who we are quite thankful towards. Zach and Sean from We Are Ourselves also hung out for awhile and we all drank while listening to old Bob Dylan and Beatles vinyl albums. Needless to say, we slept much better in Ames than in Des Moines. In the morning, we had some coffee with Nate and Kate and then went out to breakfast before leaving for Omaha.

Midget Report: Negative

Day 4: Sunday, May 17, 2009

We got into Omaha around 4:00 and found a coffeshop near the PS Collective that was closing but kindly let us hang out outside and use their internet. We also met up with a few of Edward’s friends and had a few drinks. One of his friend’s friends offered to buy us a few pitchers, which we deeply struggled to turn down coming from such an attractive female youth. Brian noted that perhaps we should accept these kinds of offers more often.

The PS Collective turned out to be an interesting place because there were no sound people running it, so bands just sort of helped each other out. We ran into a few technical difficulties on two songs, but overall it went pretty well and was fun. We played with Fortnight and Dimlight, both local Omaha bands who seemed to share a propensity for the late night hours and the music that accompanies it.

After the show, we went to an old town section of Omaha with multiple bars loosely based on a ficticious theme of frog and, less specifically, amphibian ways of life. Despite these troubling themes, Omaha was a lot friendlier than the salad-dodging capitol city of Des Moines. We had our most comfortable sleep at our friend Greg’s air conditioned basement.

Midget Report: Hopeful, but could have been a member of the youth cohort

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Jason, Savoy could easily join the CPL tax district, which is probably closer to most Savoy residents than the Tolono library is. But my impression is that Savoy residents as a whole don’t want to pay the cost of the CPL (Tolono’s library taxes are cheaper), even…

Posted by Dan Schreiber to the entry 'Champaign Library to start charging Tolono and Mahomet residents on 09/02/10.

I’ve never gotten the privilege of all the services CPL cardholders get. I just want to be able to go out of my way to drive to the CPL to check out books, pay fines, maybe buy some coffee, and enjoy the library. None of those activities…

Posted by Jason Brechin to the entry 'Champaign Library to start charging Tolono and Mahomet residents on 09/02/10.

These days, there is more to using a library than checking out books. At one time, paying into the Lincoln Trails system probably would cover the expenses incurred by other libraries in the system. Now, with Internet, videos, coffee shops, wireless Internet hubs, etc., I suspect the…

Posted by Robert Knilands to the entry 'Champaign Library to start charging Tolono and Mahomet residents on 09/02/10.

(speaking as a Savoy resident) By paying taxes to support a member of the LTLS, we are paying our “fair share” to use any LTLS library—Tolono, Champaign, Urbana, etc. This is how library systems work. The 6% of CPL’s circulation represented by Tolono users is NOT significant…

Posted by Jason Brechin to the entry 'Champaign Library to start charging Tolono and Mahomet residents on 09/02/10.

I read Timbo’s argument. I think the key word is “speculating.“

Posted by Rob McColley to the entry 'Champaign Library to start charging Tolono and Mahomet residents on 09/02/10.

Timbo makes a smart, sound argument. Reread it.

Posted by tmcdade to the entry 'Champaign Library to start charging Tolono and Mahomet residents on 09/02/10.

And, I might add, no one is being prevented from using the Champaign library. They are just being asked to pay their fair share if they are going to use it as their primary library.

Posted by Dan Schreiber to the entry 'Champaign Library to start charging Tolono and Mahomet residents on 09/02/10.

The equation is pretty simple here. If you want social services, then pay the taxes required to run those social services. These things only work if everyone puts in their fair share. As a heavy user of the Champaign Library, I say bravo to this new policy.

Posted by Dan Schreiber to the entry 'Champaign Library to start charging Tolono and Mahomet residents on 09/02/10.

What is the increased marginal cost of serving a resident of Savoy or Mahomet? I suspect negligible. What is the increased revenue to be realized by this new policy? I suspect very little. Aside from these financial aspects, what are the most probable results from this new…

Posted by Timbo to the entry 'Champaign Library to start charging Tolono and Mahomet residents on 09/02/10.

Katie, have the residents of Savoy and Tolono thought about having their taxes raised a little to help their public library expand? That’s a possibility for them. And then everybody wins.

Posted by Tracy Nectoux to the entry 'Champaign Library to start charging Tolono and Mahomet residents on 09/02/10.

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Illinois has simply had no luck at all in these Mizzou games. None. I think maybe we’re do for a couple of bounces to go our way. If we get one or two (or sever or eight) breaks, I think it’s a win.

By T. McDade to the entry 'Arch Rival preview on 09/02/10.

By Dan Schreiber to the entry 'Champaign Library to start charging Tolono and Mahomet residents on 09/02/10.

Sorry, but I am lagging behind on updates to the map. Also, some construction projects were delayed from their original start date. On a more positive note, I am putting together a map of haunted houses in Central Illinois. I have a few plotted already, and I…

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By Jason Brechin to the entry 'Champaign Library to start charging Tolono and Mahomet residents on 09/02/10.

By Robert Knilands to the entry 'Champaign Library to start charging Tolono and Mahomet residents on 09/02/10.

By Jason Brechin to the entry 'Champaign Library to start charging Tolono and Mahomet residents on 09/02/10.

I read Timbo’s argument. I think the key word is “speculating.“

By Rob McColley to the entry 'Champaign Library to start charging Tolono and Mahomet residents on 09/02/10.

I would be interested to hear more about the “word on the street”—how are individual hauling companies fulfilling their promise to recycle?

By haulers to the entry 'Champaign to close recycling drop-off center on 09/02/10.

Timbo makes a smart, sound argument. Reread it.

By tmcdade to the entry 'Champaign Library to start charging Tolono and Mahomet residents on 09/02/10.

I joined on 09-09-09 after living here over a year, and having to listen to my dad tell me how his best friend is, like, #27 or something crazy like that, and how said friend never lived further than 50 feet from the Illini Inn while going…

By emma reaux to the entry 'Mug club! on 09/02/10.

And, I might add, no one is being prevented from using the Champaign library. They are just being asked to pay their fair share if they are going to use it as their primary library.

By Dan Schreiber to the entry 'Champaign Library to start charging Tolono and Mahomet residents on 09/02/10.

Curtis Orchard is always good for an hour or three, especially if you have rugrats.

By Timbo to the entry 'The fall of Champaign-Urbana on 09/02/10.

By Timbo to the entry 'Champaign Library to start charging Tolono and Mahomet residents on 09/02/10.

Looks like you are also all members of the killer sideburns club.

By Pete to the entry 'Mug club! on 09/02/10.

Thanks for the article, Ben. I was not familiar with this band until now and even though I won’t be able to attend the show on Friday they are now on my radar. A *good* jam band is hard to find, and these folks appear to fill…

By Rex Bennett to the entry 'Zmick: Don't fear the jam on 09/02/10.

Nice article, love the Dead quote in the beginning. If they can get down here to Central FL I’ll definitely be heading out to the show. Some of my friends have finally stopped wincing when I say “jam band.“ I’ve now tried my best at more descriptive…

By @bbryon to the entry 'Zmick: Don't fear the jam on 09/02/10.

@Annie: Yeah, my bad. That was the best part! Drinking + memory exercises = fun @Rob: According to Ask the English Teacher, “My dictionary says ‘drunk’ is an archaic past tense of ‘drink.‘“ We’re all about the new grammar around here.

By Joel Gillespie to the entry 'Mug club! on 09/02/10.

Katie, have the residents of Savoy and Tolono thought about having their taxes raised a little to help their public library expand? That’s a possibility for them. And then everybody wins.

By Tracy Nectoux to the entry 'Champaign Library to start charging Tolono and Mahomet residents on 09/02/10.

good call on that Herring recording, Josh. Love that version of Exit Music….here’s a clip of the Cinco de Mayo show (from about six months prior). As I recall, this Shakedown went on for roughly a half hour, while getting into the Trampled Underfoot jam in the…

By Ben Valocchi to the entry 'Zmick: Don't fear the jam on 09/02/10.