Hey all, I know its in been a while and this summer been super crazy for me. Not as crazy as the last 2 summers down under or Europe but almost just as mad. So I spent the first 6 months of 2005 working for the university of Vermont doing marijuana research. No No, I didn't get paid to get high all day like all of you might assume. I, maybe slightly hypocritically, was drug testing teens as a clinical research assistant in a mary jane treatment program. It was chill, my first salary job wit bennies and medical insurance. Yup, I was really in the big time. About the same time I started there, I began jamming with my friends band Bubblin' UpStream. 1 week later we began to record an album(I didn't know any of the tunes) and started gigging soon after in the area. We were the house band at Boltan Valley Ski Resort which was chill cause we needed the practice and I needed the ski passes. We had a good sound, we all wrote, sang, danced, laughed… it was a jolly old time really. Well, since this whole band thing was really funding my friends environmental nonprofit “From Bubbles to Ripples” we decided to undertake a east-west coast summer tour, A monumental challenge for any 6 month old band, but I did most of the booking for us which took lots of my time at work, (thanks UVM!!) .So May came and instead of quitting my job, my boss actually took another job and laid us all off. Cha-ching, I get to go on tour, and get paid by the government, sweet deal.
So I said goodbye to by girlfriend(exgirlfriend) and hoped on our 30 foot 1983 Iveco tour bus. This thing was sweet. I put in a footon, CD/ Sirus Surround sound, 2 chairs, table 6 bunks, and a gear cage. We played some sweet clubs on the east coast: Nectars in VT, Mt Blue in MA, Lion's Den in NY, LaBoca in CT, some crazy beach parties etc. We picked up one of the most amazing sax players I've heard to date the day before we left the east coast for Denver. It was a long haul to CO and we played 2 overly prosperous nights in the coolest 2 back to back Dead bars I've ever been in (Sancho's broken arrow and Dulcienca's 100th monkey). We left right after our last gig and just about 6am as were approaching the Lincoln monument on I-80(the highest elevation on the highway) I was sleeping until my keys player Ryan came screaming down the isle yelling emergency!! Emergency!!. I got up and realized ryan was soaked in 300 degree antifreeze and our bus was spewing all over the highway and as Ryan ripped off his cloathes, I realized how bad the situation was. He was already starting to blister heavily when I dialed 911. What was just amazing that he was able to stop the bus with a fire hose of 300 degree poison aimed at his butt. So, he was whisked away in the ambulance and we spent the next 2 days in Leramie WY, not a place I ever want to be again, ever. GM fixed the exploded coolant tank and put it conviently back where it came from (the left elbow of the driver) and we were back on the road, Ryan in crutches, and 60 percent of his ass ripped off. We got about 30 miles up I-80, and boom, overheating again, back to Leramie. Things were looking very bad until my drummers sister and my good friend Ally said the she would pay our rentals to get us to Lake Tahoe to play out the gigs she had booked us there. So, I rolled into a gig in South Lake Tahoe, just had driven 23 hours and not slept for 45 on a Saturday night with 15 minutes to be on stage. What a trip!! So we played out our gigs there and then disbanded. Some flew home, My drummer went to Hollywood, I went hiking in Yosemite, and then went to the craziest party ever: Burning Man. There are no words to describe this event but I will try: week long constant sand storm crazy nude madness Barbie death camp and wine bistro art car fire spinning shooting burning dayglow insanity all-night playa hopping bike stealing bandits and trance, lots and lots of trance. Well 5 days was enough and I got out of there with my head still attached and decieded that I needed a vacation so I flew one way to Maui to chill and possibly make a career move. I meet some chill kids and we hitched and cruised around the island discovering places that made my jaw drop to the floor. My second day on the island I made phone call that scored me my sweetest job yet. I moved to Honolulu to meet with a scientist at the university of Hawaii.
I just finished my first day at work for the university of Hawaii at Manoa. I the marine ecologist on a research team with engineers and economists. We are trying to quantify and create a working model for how ground water consumption on land effects the near shore marine environment by changing the underwater aquifer discharge into the ocean. In short, I will be spending the next few months learning a lot about what I should be doing for the next few years. The best part about this job other than that it is pretty much what I want to be doing is that I can get my PHD for free. I start taking classes again in the spring, probably something along the line of coral reef ecology.
So I’ve just been trying to settle down in Honolulu. It’s mad expensive to live here but you can’t really argue when you live 5 blocks from Wakiki beach. I ran into a great fire dancing crew and we burn almost every night down the beach making over 100 dollars in an hour sometimes. So life is pretty sweet at the moment. I will need another job to pay the bills but I’ll figure that out in good time. Anyway, that the latest update from planet Dan
--Dr. D