A WELL THOUGHT OUT SCREAM
Two of My Riskier Decisions: Going to Rwanda and Letting David Allan Coe live in my Basement
Maddancer #4 Two of My Riskier Decisions Going to Rwanda & Letting David Allan Coe Live in My Basement I remember getting the call from an agent asking me if I might be interested in writing a book about the genocide in Rwanda and the difficult process of healing that the nation was going through. He already had a deal in place with an established Christian book publisher and they had tried two or three writers who regularly wrote books for the Christian market. The problem was that the CBA (Christian Booksellers Association) writers did a fine job writing about the forgiveness seminars and healing programs created by Bishop John Rucyahana, but they kept skimming over the horror of the genocide itself. He said his agency heard that I was a Christian and they read my bio and saw that I’d written books on Jim Morrison and Oliver Stone
Maddancer #3 : A Celebration of the Strange : Downtown Nashville 1969
The recent floods in Nashville, Tennessee, brought to mind my years as a songwriter there. Nashville is home to some of the nicest and most talented people in the world. But Nashville in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s was also home to some strange folk. Of course, a lot of these people only came out at night and that’s why the most bizarre place I have ever regularly visited was the Pancake Man Restaurant located in the downtown Nashville Holiday Inn. Now I’m admitting that I myself and the three to five other songwriters who lived in that wild house on Central Avenue then were pretty strange ourselves – which is why we belonged with the late night Nashville crowd. Before I digress, let’s break down the basic after midnight clientele of the Pancake Man. First you had your Grand Ole Opry performers. Now, this was back
Maddancer Blog #2: The Illinois Winter Olympics
Maddancer Blog #2: The Illinois Winter Olympics Well, we just concluded the first Illinois Winter Olympics which were held primarily in my front yard. The most popular event was Shoveling the Driveway, the gold medal for which was won by a neighbor from down the street who cleared a vehicle path in 12 minutes, 34 seconds – a new record. I took the silver and had a shot at the gold until I fell down and, knowing I had lost, began practicing for the snow angel event. My friend F. Johnston was a double winner – taking home the gold for Bradley in two events – Car Jumpstarting (16 vehicles in 42 minutes) and Snow Writing (the entire Declaration of Indepen-dence in one burst — some credit must go to the six beers consumed moments before). The Sand and Cardboard Under the Tires event went to M. Leppert of Kankakee
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