So it came to pass that a friend of mine, Jeff Shavel, got into making home made ice cream. He shopped his early wares around town and got some interest, and so it was about time to put it to the test. He rounded up a crew of suckers and dragged him to his lair for the many hours of torture to follow. The project? A double-blind test of 25 different versions of vanilla ice cream. Hell, I tell you. Hell. (And chilly at that!)

It was actually quite an interesting experiment. How carefully have you ever really considered the texture, consistency, color, and even the flavor of your ice cream? You'd be surprised how much difference there is.

Now in theory the pros spit out each of the taste samples. Of course there was no way I could bring myself to do that and to make matters worse, between each taste we had to eat crackers and drink water. By the end of the day I was growing quite rotund. But I can't say that I was unhappy. Just ready to buy a couple gallons of my favorites... to eat in a few months after recovery.

OK, so, that story told I should probably drop the bomb about the marriage...

of my sister! (Gotcha!) Despite the fact that he his a lawyer he seems like a reasonable sort. He did, after all, spend a good amount of time in Austin before heading up to New York where they are living now. She is going to teach library stuff to some kids up there so if you've got some kids of your own... I'm sorry.

Speaking of kids, what's up with the explosion? Two of my friends here in town just dropped the gates for two new humans. That's enough. No more. The number of available souls awaiting reincarnation is too few and they're dipping into ex-ants, ex-beetles and ex-lawyers to make human. It's too much.

So without hindrance of either of the above mentioned live-halters, I'm continuing to bounce about as usual. I have a new band together doing original music that is something like Dillon/Zappa/Waits/Acid Jazz/Techo type stuff. Much fun. It feels wonderful to be writing music with creative people again. We don't have a name yet, but we are planning a journey of exploration to discover one. It involves an RV fully of psychopathic, partying bandmates and a cruise to New Orleans. I can't wait!

In recent trips, I hit Colorado for the 4th of July. Wendy and I drove up to see my parents anniversary in Breckenridge. The locals were kind enough to put on a big fireworks display for them and host Spyro Gyra and a number of other bands. Not to shabby. We spent a good amount of time hiking and roaming about before zipping over to Boulder to meet up with Lisa Kvasnicka and do some rock climbing up in Ft. Collins. I must admit that this whole idea of ownership that humans are so attached to couldn't be more ludicrous or annoying when it comes to rock. Three feet in from the road was some of the most beautiful bouldering rock I'd ever seen. Untouched, unused rock in the middle of miles of ranch land. Three feet from a "humans be gone" fence. I'm sure if someone could keep me from photographing it they'd do that too. Fortunately nature has its ways. I found some rock so close to the highway that there wasn't room for a fence. Of course, there wasn't much room for my back and the passing cars, either. Ah, the challenges that make real rock climbing exciting!

The film part of the Kai brain has been active as well. I worked on a 16mm short film called "Pleasureland" a few weeks ago, loaded my "Tao of Beer" footage into a Macintosh G4 for editing, and lived out on a ranch south of Austin for the last week. The latter was quite a project. The movie is a digital feature called "Across the Room" done by a group out of Ft. Worth. I ran sound and gripped for hours in the blazing Texas sun (we had no AC in the house either). We scrounged up police cars and ambulances and strapped expensive gear all over them as they drove down twisty little back roads. We filmed for hours in a hospital as various staff alternately snapped at us or swooned at the fact that we were making a movie. We managed to get an ER doctor and a cop and would have even had a helicopter (yes, I was stoked) but it rained that evening. At night, after working until 3:00 AM or later we slept in an old ranch bunk house filled with huge and beautiful spiders. I was in heaven.

One of the greatest moments, and the kind of thing that you just can't plan, was during the shooting of the opening sequence. The actor drove down from Ft. Worth in the evening and the next morning at the crack of dawn... or, well, soon thereafter, we headed out to a small barn where some horses were kept. I was pretty excited just to be able to play around with them as I haven't spent any time up close with the huge rodents. I actually had to keep them away from the hay and found myself yelling "shoo!" and "bug off!" at creatures 5 times my size.

When we first arrived to set up gear, two small stray puppies popped up out of the weeds near a fence. At first they wouldn't get very close, but as soon as we ignored them they started following us around. By the time we shot the scene, well... The first show was a wide angle of the barn and as we watched the actor load hay bails into the barn, there was a small whimpering near me. One puppy then padded into frame, across the field, and over to the barn. Just as he arrived, the actor performed the heart attack. Immediately the puppy ran over and began whimpering and licking his head. It was perfect! And when we went in for close ups, every time he fell to the ground the two puppies would run up and lick his head. On one take they actually grabbed his hat and ran away with it. That's movie magic.

Upcoming big projects include the wrap up of my "Tao of Beer" film, getting the band ready for live performance, and testing for my third stripe towards black belt in Kuk Sool Won. As a much bigger project, Wendy is about to buy an dilapidated old house in east Austin. I'll be tearing out and moving walls throughout the house, putting in tile, sanding floors, and ripping holes in the exterior walls for doors and windows. I can already feel my testosterone pumping! Of course before I can work on that I have to finish my Nym Rod (writes words in the air when spun) for Burning Man and hit Tuscan (possible next town of great coolness) on the way out there.

If you're at Burning Man, stop by the "Brainwash: Mental Washateria" camp and find me. If you are in Chicago around Oct 5 or so, call me at home. If you are sitting on your bum in front of the tube, write me an email you slack!

Sooner!
Kai