4 I The Lovell Chronicle I May 13, 2010 www.LovellChronicle.com
Music takes you
places even if
the band goes
nowhere
My first band was called the Royal
Diamonds. It was made up of me, my
two cousins, Mike and Scott, and my
sister, Jenny, when we were all younger
than 10. We didn't know how to play
any instruments at the time, but we had
a concept. We made leather headbands
studded with faux diamonds and drew
concert posters featuring personified
diamonds playing guitars, drums and
keytars.
After we never came up with any Brad
songs or did anything except dream Devereaux
about the possibilities of the band, the A Flock of Words
band broke up. Or it just ceased to be.
Either way, the Royal Diamonds were no
more.
A little later in life, we began to take music lessons. I
started playing guitar, my cousin Mike took up drums and
Scott got into the keyboard. My friend Dan played bass and
his brother, Andy, played drums and we all started jamming
together a lot.
By jamming, I meant we played the one song we had
written over and over and over and over again. We usu-
ally played that 3-minute song for three hours at a time.
Keep in mind, this was when I was a true beginner, and [
played chords with my index finger barred across all the
strings, 'moving up and down the neck for different chords. It
wouldn't sound quite right to a trained ear, but at least it was
a sound.
The group went through more band names than the
amount of songs we learned. We were called Ephalunt, Scud
and Sleeve, before settling on Sludge Monkies.
Needless to say, the Sludge Monkies never made it out of
the basement, but the musicians stayed in touch and contin-
ued to play together in the coming years.
It was in my sophomore year in college that I started
picking up my guitar more often. I met another guitar play-
er, Josh, who revitalized my interest in music. We played for
countlessh0urs i n the ]obbY of 6urdorm room, writing our
own songs or playing a bunch of acoustic songs. It was here
in the trenches we learned many hard lessons of improvisa-
tion and writing music.
After a few semesters in the dorms, my roommate, Dan,
and I were feeling a little cramped. Josh was also interested
in finding a new place to live, and a bass-player friend we
had met just days before, Jake, was also game. We started
to look around a little and the catalyst for us actually get-
ting a house was when another guy in our dorm, Steve, bit a
girl while at a party in the dorm. While I don't support biting,
Steve swears it was all in good fun.
Steve was kicked out of the dorms and needed a place to
stay. Another friend, Alex, who loved playing Chinese board
games, rounded out the crew of housemates.
Once we all moved in together, we started to play mu-
sic during any downtime we had. We learned a lot of cover
songs and wrote a few of our own, eventually landing a free
gig to play at the WMU girls rugby team end-of-the-year bash
at Kraftbrau Brewery in Kalamazoo.
We prepared endlessly and put on a great performance,
complete with 20-minute space jams, guitar shredding, a few
mishaps and a lot of fun. We didn't get paid, but we'll always
remember that night. We played the next year at the Rugby
bash also.
We never had a name because we couldn't agree on one,
so we were just called the Rugby Band by most people. We
even wrote a custom song for the team and played it during
the two performances.
After a few friends graduated, Josh and I hit the local
music store looking for fliers of other musicians and bands to
play with. We answered one add for experimental music and
met a group of guys at their practice house in the next town
over.
At the time, Josh was playing drums, and we joined an-
other drummer, guitar player, bass player, and keyboard play-
er, with me also playing guitar. We practiced a lot and start-
ed to get in-sync with each other as we developed our own
songs and covers of a variety of bands including the Grateful
Dead, John Lennon and Tears for Fears.
When we finally booked our first gig, we settled on a ri-
diculous name, the Forest Willow Lords. Our first gig was also
our last, as the school year ended and soon after I moved to
Wyoming to get a real job.
Music has always been a big part of my life and it contin-
ues to be. I haven't had as much time to dedicate to being in
a band in Lovell, but I have had a chance to play with some
impressive musicians around here. It is always a good time.
Throughout my musical life, I took several hiatuses, only
to pick my guitar back up and play with more enthusiasm
than before. I guess it's my way of avoiding burnout of some-
thing I love so much.
While I haven't "made it big" in the music world, the skills
I have learned and the memories, both comical and momen-
tous, will last for life. I still feel good when I pick up my gui-
tar to play and that is something I hope will never disappear.
SURE IS
QUIET IN THERE FOR
A SLUMBER PARTY-NOT
EVEN ONE WORD OF
GIRL TALl<...
GIRLS DON'T
TALl(, ANYMORE, THEY
OHLYTEXT!
Letter to the editor
New Arizona law is racist
Dear Editor,
Like most people I was enraged
by the article on Arizona by Diane
Badget, because Arizona isn't only
enforcing a law that's been around
forever, they're actually acting ille-
gally by violating the civil rights of
real American citizens. The govern-
ment has a sick sense of humor by
only allowing those who look like
legal citizens to be unaffected by
this law and that's exactly what's
happening.
I thought this was America,
where every citizen is equal and
our diverse cultures and heritages
are what make us a great nation.
This law makes it so police harass-
ment goes unnoticed, deeming it
acceptable to discriminate against
one race. I don't know about you,
but to me racial discriminating is
appalling.
I am of Mexican American de-
scent, and can see both points of
view. Yours, just like Governor
Brewer's is revolting, and illegal.
The government can implement
other measures that don't include
racism. I mean what decade are
we living in? Every citizen has the
right to be free, not harassed or
discriminated against because of
something they should be proud
of.
No one should have to live in
fear of society trying to take away
their freedom. Illegals are a prob-
lem, but this doesn't just affect
them, because next time who is to
know what loophole the govern-
ment will find to get around our
civil rights.
It is you, Mrs. Badget, who
doesn't know the impact that this
law will have on not only the adult
community, but on our youth, as
well. What are we showing our
children? It's OK to be racist? Well
it's not, and if you think it is you
should go back to the Stone Age
where you belong.
No whole race should be pun-
ished for the actions of a few bad
men and how do you know what in-
tentions illegals have? How many
do you know?
This topic hits home with me,
because I have family in Arizona.
Before stating your opinion you
should have the facts, state all
points of views and try not to be so
narrow minded.
A quick look at water
Water is the essence of life, whether
you are consuming it or flushing it. A typi-
cal adult will use up to 100 gallons of wa-
ter a day. A family of four will use over
30,000 gallons of water flushing the toi-
let yearly. The yard around our home is a
big user of water. A typical 5,000-square-
foot lawn in our area will use more than
100,000 gallons of water per season to
maintain the grass.
Water is extremely important to the
well being of livestock. One will need to
provide six to 20 gallons of water per cow
per day depending on how hot the weather
is. Sheep need one to two gallons per day
and chickens just under a gallon a day.
One of the big improvements I have seen in the
South Big Horn Basin in the last 10 year has been
the rural water work projects. Expensive as it has
been, it has improved the well being of those living
in the farm communities tremendously. I've drunk
many a glass of water from the wells around the
area, and it was nothing to write home about. High
sulfates, salts and other particulates in the water
were hard to swallow.
As a kid growing up in Hidden Valley out of Riv-
erton, I used to let the natural gas bubbles evapo-
rate out of the glass before drinking it. I drank alkali
water out of the well at sheep camp in the Muskrat
Creek Country south of Shoshoni that would give
anyone the Tijuana Trots. Ah, those were the days.
Anyway, the water from rural water projects
tastes just dandy compared to what you could pump
out of 90 percent of the wells in the area. What price
can you put on health? Just the higher salt content
of many of those wells compared to the artesian wa-
ter is surely improving blood pressure reading con-
siderably down on the farm.
Jim Gill
Ag Chat
The Wyoming Seed Certification Pro-
gram is administered by the University
of Wyoming. The coordinator for the pro-
gram is Mike Moore. His office is locat-
ed in Powell at the Powell Research and
Extension Center. He can be reached at
307-754-9815 or by e-mail at mdmoore@
uwyo.edu. He works closely with the Wy-
oming Crop Improvement Association.
Mike Foreman of Powell is the current
president. The WCIA is an organization
of seed growers with a common interest
in the Wyoming seed industry.
Certified seed may be sold bagged or
bulk. Bagged seed must be packaged in
new containers and have an official certified tag at-
tached to each bag. Certified seed sold in bulk must
be accompanied by a bulk sales certificate complet-
ed and signed by the grower. There are four classes
of seeds or propagating materials recognized in the
Wyoming Seed Certification Program: breeder, foun-
dation, registered and certified. Breeder seed is the
original propagating material used to increase the
genetic material for foundation seed. Foundation
seed is propagated as the source of registered and/
or certified seed. Registered seed is the parent stock
for the production of certified seed. Certified seed is
the planting stock recommended for commercial pro-
duction.
Obviously, the program is needed to maintain
the genetic purity and integrity of a given seed
source. It also sets standards by which seed will be
graded for things like the presence and amount of
weed seeds, foreign material, etc. Wyoming has a
great program. If you are interested in growing cer-
tified seed, I would encourage you to contact Mike
for more information.
2010 ME0000BER
2009 AWARD-WINNING NEWSPAPER
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