St. Cloud, Minnesota

Edition #23 — Sun, 2 Sep 2001

ROLAND'S ROAD REPORT

Hi, and welcome to this edition of the Realitycheckers.com newsletter.

Sunday in St. Cloud, Minnesota, and I'm multi-tasking — trying to fit as many activities in at the same time as I can. I got up late because of a late night, now I'm trying to fit in 5 minutes of being outside while burning a CD of scanned artwork for our band promo, writing this newsletter, and deciding what's for supper cause I was too busy to go shopping yesterday.

Oh, and I haven't packed yet and we're leaving tomorrow at noon for Superior, Wisconsin. My room, perpetually looking like the one bomb shelter that took the direct hit, always takes a while to rebuild into shipable items.

So I guess it's just another day on the road...

Little Miracles

Last week was a sort of magical week, in some respects. The week before my hands were in really bad shape cause all the skin on my fingers had come off due to my allergy to metal (contact dermatitis). I said to the other guys "What I need is a week off so that my hands can heal".

We arrived in Little Falls, Minnesota, and had 2 days off anyway. Then, on Wednesday, we went to set up and I noticed that the poster on the wall said "Eagle River" was playing that week. I convinced everyone to hold off on carrying the heavy stuff until we knew what was what. Turns out that Rick and the two agents we use had a "miscommunication" several weeks back about where we were supposed to be. Turns out we're supposed to be somewhere else. But not here.

I laughed because I knew what was happening: I was getting my week off! Though we were on standby in case another gig came up, nothing feasible came through for the weekend. My fingers healed quickly.

Hanging With The Nuns

The second incident was that I had been wanting to get photos of a Monarch Butterfly for my website. When I got to Little Falls I noticed a nun's convent off the highway and near our motel. A day later on my way back from shopping I went there and starting walking around their gardens. Lo and behold, in a large treed walkway, suddenly hundreds of Monarch Butterflies started flying around my head. They were gathering for the migration. The resident nuns claimed that they'd never seen them there before.

Needless to say, I returned with my still and video cameras.

I even brought two of them, Boris and Natasha, here with me to St. Cloud where I could take further footage. I fed them sugar water, as per the instructions of the butterfly experts on a website I found, and the three of us got along famously here at the Thrifty Motel. They left two days ago. I thanked them for their part in my artistic endeavours, and then they flew off...

Hopefully we'll see each other again in Florida this winter — if they don't make it to their resort in Mexico. Actually, I have a friend in Mexico who once sent me pictures of where all the North American Monarch Butterflies go for the winter. It's pretty fascinating how much they get around. The trees there in "Michuacan"? are slathered with the little guys so that they look like the leaves of the trees. Awesome.

What works of art those butterflies are! The colors, wow! Who designed them, anyway?

"Yeah baby, I'm with The Rick Justice Band!"

The name of our band is changing to "The Rick Justice Band" and we're finishing our new promotional package. My new computer's seeing a lot of action as a result. Rick also taped our lives shows digitally through his computer and I heard his compilation CD of both our rock and country live shows yesterday and it sounds awesome! The sound quality is the best I've ever heard from any band I've been in. How we sound is something I never noticed in the midst of playing live, but now I know what the audience is hearing — and they're definitely getting their money's worth.

We're all proud of our having attained this level of performance. My hard work has paid off in that I'm sharing the stage with three incredible musicians and I like what I'm hearing from my end. I actually sound like a bass player now. I will post the contents of this CD as MP3 files on "Realitycheckers.com". Soon, I promise. I'm sure that our friends and families will be much impressed. I know I am...

Time Flies When You're Having Fun

Holy mackeral, it's September. Only another year of touring before I return home. I'm starting to think I may stay with the band for longer. Especially if we become better known, as is already happening. I've never been in a band where people come up everywhere we play and say "You guys are the best band I've ever seen here, and I've been coming here for years". It's a good feeling, regardless of what compliments are worth in the rest of the world, to know that others are happy that you're there for them. I often philosophize about the "service" that my playing performs, aside from providing me with a vehicle for getting me to my own destiny. Our performances seem to make a lot of people very happy.

Nothing wrong with that, right?

Sending my love out to all you little butterflies out there. Till next time,

Roland

(P.S. We're in Georgia beginning of December. This is getting good and warm.)


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