Oh Geez, Oh Pete

Well, we're in Norman OK, and my mind is truly swarming. So many sights, sounds, wonderful people, great events, monster issue back issues and strange Americana history events.

What can you say about a tour that has gone from hunting gators in Gainesville FL, to standing in the spot Elvis stood when he was 10 getting his first guitar, to driving through Dealey Plaza past the school book depository?

As Jonathan Richman would say, 'whatta woild!'

Of course, the FILM is going well. I've filmed about 30 additional hours of events, interviews, and John P. driving around (he's driven all 6,000+ miles of this trip, so far, yet seemed confused when I called him 'tenacious').

I've learned so much about so much, and it's starting to come together in my brain -- the right story to tell, and how to tell it. Of course, NOW I'm going, 'I should have filmed THAT! WHAT WAS I THINKING?!?!?!', but I'm careful not to beat myself up.

So what now?

Drive back to Denver tomorrow, then do taxes and rest for a couple days, fly to DC, meet up with Crystal, try to do an interview with Ian MacKaye -- assuming our schedules can coincide -- then back to Chicago, where I need to set up and interview a couple more family/friend types, trek down to St. Louis to chat with Kevin H. (and check out Lincoln's house in Springfield), then back to Denver on May 1/2.

Then, I'm going to not think about John P., King Cat, video, film, soundtracks, or interviews for about 4-6 weeks. I'm going to re-settle into Kilgore, get a dog, hang out with my lady, plan a wedding, and enjoy the beginning of summer. Oh, and I have to start getting ready for kil GOREFEST '10.

Then, come mid-late summer, I'll start back up. I'll go through each tape, and boil down the material I want, and try to get it down around 8-10 hours. Then spend the winter running it down further and further until it's at a workable 90-120 minutes. John's talking about a summer tour of California, so I may try to figure out some of that too -- we'll see!

I'll keep updating this blog here, posting thoughts and murmers, and all input and feedback is welcome. Oh, and here's a neat-o reference to yours truly from the Austin Domy reading the other day.