By Bob DorrToday I am thinking that an Iowa driver's license is one of the "best buys" on the planet. More on that after the facts for the mammels...
It's the bad news and the good news regarding tomorrow night's (Fri) Iowa Public Radio celebration in Ottumwa. The good news: The IPR-Classical frequency will hit the air Friday morning, Mar. 21, as announced. The bad news: The IPR-Alternative Music frequency (the stream that airs the shows I produce) will not. The good news: it WILL hit the air asap, so The Show Goes On! Long story/short: Some of the extremely technical (knitpicky) requirements of the FCC granted license would not EXACTLY be right, so the IPR lawyers thought (since we've been waiting for this frequency to be granted for nearly 10 years!) that we should have everything EXACTLY right before hitting the airwaves so that this long awaited frequency could not be taken away from us. Good things come to those who wait! Anyway, the Blue Band show will go on and now IPR has decided to tape the show to air it on the first day that the frequency DOES go on! So join us at the Bridge View Center (http://www.bridgeviewcenter.com) in Ottumwa and be on the recording! The event/meet & greet starts at 5:30p, Blue Band plays 7-9p, Uncle Al will join Heath in the horn section and Mr. Phil will be along to fine tune the sound...
Next week, Saturday Mar. 29, join us at the Riverside Casino, south of Iowa City. We play the show lounge 8:30-midnight. We'll also be celebrating Pinkstuff and Mike's anniversary so BRING CAKE!...
We added another 4 dates to the calendar this last week. We've still got ALOT of open Saturdays in April and June. Make me an offer we can't refuse...
I'm just not getting the hang of this My Space thing. What's up with "ranking" your friends? I have a nearly 7 year old E-Mac. It's programs and memory (like it's owner) are failing. It crashes every time I ask to "see all my friends" It no longer even let's me "approve my friends" without giving me grief (kinda like my mom when I was 16) Anyway, bear with me while I try and figure this out...
Mr. Phil and I are scheduled to spend a little time with the New Year's Eve recordings during the next two weeks, expect to hear some of those tunes on that My Space page as well as the Listen To The Band page on our website. It's a GIANT sound: 3 horns, Hammond organ, two (sometimes 3) guitar players, two drummers, harmonica, and lots of voices. The Hotel Fort Des Moines has invited us to do it again this year. Blue Reunion II-NYE 2008!...
OK, the driver's license thing. First, my advice is to NEVER let your driver's license expire. The state of Iowa is EXTREMELY lenient in extending the expiration date (you get the rest of the month of your birthday PLUS the entire next month!) but I still didn't remember (there's that memory thing I was talking about earlier) (what was I talking about?...oh, yeah) So I was cruisin' down Hwy 330 heading to Des Moines last Saturday afternoon for the tent gig at the Twisted Parrot (that was alot of fun wasn't it?) (I always love it when the crowd is young enough that beautiful young women come up to me and say..."you were always my mom's favorite band, she always used to drag us to the State Fair to see you"...) Anyway, while I was driving, I started to think about how long we've kept The Blue Band going and how I wasn't getting any younger and I just had another birthday two months ago and... HOLY SHIT, I wonder if my driver's license is still valid...no, the expiration date was Jan. 12, 2008. I was FREAKED!! What if I was stopped because a tail light was out or any of the other reasons you can get pulled over?! Let's see, a band truck, being driven by a guy without a valid license. YIKES! Paranoia strikes deep. But that was just the beginning. I got home without being stopped, but the driver's license station was not open on Sunday. Nor Monday. What if they ask me how I got out there to renew my expired license?! Apparently, being closed for two days in a row makes Tuesday THE BUSIEST DAY FOR LICENSE RENEWAL STATIONS! I had to stand in line in order to find out what line I should be standing in. Then, because my license had expired 17 days beyond the lenient two month extension, I had to take the written test! YIKES! It's been nearly 40 years since I had to take a drivers test! These days it's by touch screen and it gives you a running total of how you're doing. You're allowed to miss seven questions and still pass. I had missed 6 with 9 questions still to go. YIKES!! Fortunately I guessed correctly eight of the last nine times and qualified for the license renewal (whew) That's when I found out what a bargain an Iowa Driver's license is (seriously) You are granted FIVE years of driving privilages as well as having a proof of identy card for $23! Five years of driving for less than $5 A YEAR??!! Cool. So check your license, you don't want to take the test, it was drivin' me crazy!...
I'm doing the Saturday night Backtracks Rock'n'Roll history show live again this week, 7-10p, check in at 800-772-2440, ext. 5, listen anywhere on the planet at www.kuniradio.org...
See ya on the Blue Highway (I'll be the licensed driver in the big white truck) I hope yer bunny is good to ya this Easter, Happy Spring (spring has officially been here for nearly 3 hours now) (celebrate by bringing CAKE!) Rub yer washboard, and remember we love you. Bob Dorr & The Blue Band
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