Ben Folds UMKC- Kansas City, Missouri 4/5/2008

Welcome, jpar.  It sounds like you live pretty close to me.  I've lived all over the KC metro area and beyond (Bonner Springs, Mission, Lawrence, Topeka), but now I'm stuck in Emporia for graduate school.  I was just curious where you're at in this Kansas/Missouri conglomeration. 

I'm over in the Waldo/Brookside area, still recovering from watching one intense game of basketball. I used to live in Topeka, I worked at the Capitol for a bit. It's a good town. I still head down there to see my best friend Dave as often as I can. Emporia is a... lovely city. 

Lmao.  Emporia is Cow Town.  They closed down Tyson, so at least it doesn't smell like a slaughterhouse anymore.   I miss Topeka, but I REALLY miss Lawrence.  You're in a nice area.  Pretty much in the center of everything. 

Want to hear something crazy?!!  Two degrees of separation here.  I know Dave.  Big Dave.  Theatre Dave.  I like Dave.  I had him in two of my classes at WU.  And I know you from his MySpace page.  Didn't put it together before.  That's nuts. 

Well, welcome here.  I remember Dave saying something about having a friend who loved Ben Folds, and I thought that was pretty cool.  And here you are. 

  

I've always felt like Lawrence was a nice place to visit, but I have no desire to live there again. This area of KC reminds me a little of the place I lived in TTown, only it's in Missouri, so it's a little more pro-slavery than I'm used to.

Dave's one of the best people I know. Talk about a real quality human being. And we do some killer karaoke...

Yeah, I know that if I moved back to Lawrence, I'd suddenly remember the constant 100-dB bass lines that throb throughout the city all hours of the night.  I can still hum the melody of my downstairs neighbor's favorite bass line from 2001. 

Sounds like you have a cool setup in Missouri with the obvious exception of the slave trade.  In Emporia, there are billboards—yes, more than one—that say "Accept the Lord as you Savior OR REGRET IT FOREVER."  I might be in a Stephen King novel.  Or a Ben Folds song. 

I don't know him really well, but from what I've seen, Dave is one of the most impressive people I've met in a long time.  In a genuine, unintentional kind of way, like he never really wanted to be awesome because it's too much responsibility, but he's fumbling his way through it anyway, figuring out how it works and making the best of it.  Very cool guy.   

We should probably be MySpace friends.

Yeah, I know that if I moved back to Lawrence, I'd suddenly remember the constant 100-dB bass lines that throb throughout the city all hours of the night.  I can still hum the melody of my downstairs neighbor's favorite bass line from 2001.

I used to live right across from the back entrance to The Bottleneck, so on nights when I wasn't there, the shows would keep me awake rattling my windows. But a central location for me is a must...

Sounds like you have a cool setup in Missouri with the obvious exception of the slave trade.  In Emporia, there are billboards—yes, more than one—that say "Accept the Lord as you Savior OR REGRET IT FOREVER."  I might be in a Stephen King novel.  Or a Ben Folds song.

Nothing gets folks willing to convert like a good old fashioned dose of  to convert like a good old fashioned dose of fear.

I don't know him really well, but from what I've seen, Dave is one of the most impressive people I've met in a long time.  In a genuine, unintentional kind of way, like he never really wanted to be awesome because it's too much responsibility, but he's fumbling his way through it anyway, figuring out how it works and making the best of it.  Very cool guy.

It's really eerie to read this, because it's almost exactly how he once described me, and totally how I feel about the man. It's refreshing to know someone who can make you smile just by thinking about them. There aren't many of those folks left it seems. Of course I could be jaded. I did have to take a drive through Jesusland last week, and my faith in humanity always gets a little shaken up by that.

We should probably be MySpace friends.

I second that motion!

I never lived anywhere fun in Lawrence, but I guess one thing about Lawrence is that you're almost in the middle of it anyway as long as you're somewhere within the 6th-23rd-Iowa-Mass-Street box (actually, this might have changed--I haven't spent much time there for the past 7 years).  But right by The Bottleneck would have been awesome... except for nights when you actually wanted to sleep, like you mentioned. 

Now I'm mentally comparing Emporia to Lawrence.  They're different planets.  It's not just the billboards.  A couple of weeks ago, my doctor explained to me why God made our hearts that way he did.  And I'm not kidding--half of the books in every bookstore are Christian books, and books in general are difficult to come by.  This is supposed to be a college town, but it's not like any college town I've seen before.  I just moved here 3 months ago, so I guess I'm still adapting.

Glad I could freak you out by using Dave's words about you to describe him.  Lol.  No, I think that's great.  It sounds like the two of you have a lot in common.  This is a good thing.  And don't let Jesusland get you down.  Behind all the beautiful McMansions, off a nondescript road, there's an old warehouse where unaffected people meet every year to see genuine smiles and exchange ideas.  Probably not, but it's a nice thought. 

Hey, maybe I'll see you at the Wakarusa Festival.