PANTS OFF DANCE OFF

I awoke this morning to the sound of snowmachines warming up as I crawled out of my loft.  The neighbors were getting ready for a joy ride.  So I stepped out to make pleasant conversation and low and behold a shattered U-joint is on the ground behind my truck.  After crawling underneath my truck I discovered...all my u-joints were fine.  Strange... shattered pieces of metal in the driveway... Then again my neighbors buddy lost a CV-axle in the driveway on Christmas.  It probably was that.  -40F will do weird things to metal.

Tonight is the night where the stars align and the temps will rise to near zero and the PANTS OFF DANCE OFF will commence.  I'm playing with a group of great local musicians to see if we can conjure the best pantless dancers in Fairbanks.  It is going to be wild.  There is nothing like the lull of post-Christmas / pre-New Year to get people to come out.  People won't realize they are broke until after the New Year from spending too much money on Christmas so this is the time to get them to belly up to the bar and take those pants off....and shake what their Mammas gave them.

The man wants you to wear pants.  Seriously.  They were invented to keep you down.  Release your inner dance demon and come compete for great prizes at the PANTS OFF DANCE OFF tonight at the Marlin in sub-tropical (haha) Fairbanks, Alaska.    

Darknesses

This is the time of the year I plan very few gigs and I become a recluse cabin dweller out on the outskirts of town.  The wife and I barely go into town unless it is for some necessities.  I literally spend my time watching paint dry and just keep piling wood into the stove.  The lack of vitamin D is apparent.  You really don't know what it does for you unlike you need it.  The temps have finally dropped to around -40F (which is about -40C for my non-American friends) and it makes going outside to get some "D" even harder.  But life goes on.  I will continue sleeping 14+ hours a day until the sun comes back.  It is only a matter of time.  I'll just try to keep busy for the 10 hours I am awake a day.  Got the truck loaded now for a water / propane / trash run.  How I do like driving that truck.  I can't even being to think of how many ukuleles I could haul with that truck...oh the possibilities.  Perhaps I will drive around for the three hours it is light out.  Will that help?  Not too sure.

I'm playing my last two shows of the year this Saturday at the "Pants Off Dance Off" and then the New Years Eve party with the Fairbanks All Stars.  Both gigs are at the infamous basement bar known as the Marlin.  It is a place near and dear to my heart.  Nothing like cool basement clubs where anything goes. I get to play this show with a handful of real Alaskan pros.  It is going to be awesome.

Soon after the new year it is time to head back east to see family and play some interesting gigs.  I can't wait this darkness is getting to me.  Forty below, the ice and snow, and the darknesses.  That's right, there is so much of it that you need to create new words to describe it.  The deep freeze wouldn't be so bad if the sun was actually out.

 

Mullets, alternators, and the forty below.

I am convinced that the mullet is making a comeback.  I'm not saying I would be hip to getting one.  I am just saying that they might be making a come back.  There was a foreigner I ran into in town.  He was rocking one.  Went to Wal-Mart and saw another.  There is even this little woman in town with a high and tight mullet. It is extremely well kept.  Business in the front, party in the rear.  Who knows it could just be the darkness getting to me.  The countdown to solstice continues.  Just a few more weeks and then we will be gaining sunlight.  Boo-ya! 

Big truck died on me the other day... well... It all started with my van's transmission crapping the bed.  Stuck on the side of the highway about 100+ miles from my place at the end of Windy Pass.  Lucky it was only -10F or so outside.  My buddy from the Cantwell Lodge came and rescued me and hooked me up with a rig for the week so I would still make my gigs at the Yukon Bar in Seward (520 miles from Fairbanks).  I can't even begin to thank them.  Mike and Janet are the best.  GO TO THEIR LODGE!! Right off the Parks Highway.  Explore downtown Cantwell.  The legendary rival community to Sicily, AK. the fictional town from the TV series Northern Exposure. 

Anyway the wife started up the truck so we could use it to go retrieve my van off the road.  Turns out it needed an alternator.  It died.  So I got that done today and even replaced the belt while I was at it.  Thank god it wasn't too cold today.  Now just to do the CV axles on my new Subaru I picked up tomorrow.  Should be good to roll to Anchorage then.  Last trip of the year.  Humpys Great Alaskan Alehouse here I come downtown Anchorage      

The temps dipped down last week to the high -30Fs.  It was cold being stuck on the side of the road.  Hopefully my new beater with a heater makes it or this ukulele guy is going to be hitching it.  I have to leave a day early.  Looks like there is an ice storm on the way.  Time to pack the arctic gear and get ready for whatever is thrown at me.