The Evolution of a Band Camper

Our son attended band camp this week, his first time. Ya see, he's going into high school, entering ninth grade, and this is his first taste of high school - before everyone attends that is. He plays saxophone.

MONDAY: First day: Hey buddy, why don't you go lay down for a bit." he said, "no, I'm okay, I'm not tired, I'm just exhausted." Exactly :-).
After a shower, he plopped himself down on the couch, and sitting up, promptly went to sleep with his chin propped up by his arm.

TUESDAY: End of day two: We're out at our local favorite Mexican establishment for dinner, enjoying the chips n' salsa. He says, "I'm not sure I can do this. There is so much music to learn, I just don't think I can do it." I told him, "listen my man, it's only been two days. You can't learn it all in two days. Cut yourself some slack." Fortunately he's an over achiever, but the side effect is you can put too much stress on yourself. Mom and I are giving each other the "look" across the table.. uh oh.. is this the beginning of the end of high school band? We put our own fears aside and see what tomorrow brings.

WEDNESDAY: Day three - hump day - here we go: I worked late so I was up late. Mom reports that our band camp survivor was energized this morning, ready to go. After last nights comments, this is a glimmer of hope. Mama decides to go pick him up a bit early, to hear the band. She is quite impressed at what they've learned in two days. He comes home and goes next door to play with a friend. This is a "normal" thing here. This is a very good sign.

THURSDAY: Which day is this? After mama's comments yesterday I tell her I want to go early today and hear the band myself. We enter the band room, my first time, and the band is playing. Frankly, I'm quite impressed. Such a full wall of sound assaulting us. My first impression is simply, Wow! Our band camper is obviously feeling the energy being a part of the band. This band director knows what he's doing, and the band follows his commands promptly and at attention. I've been thru this before with 2 other sons in high school band, and it was much larger than this one. They won a national award one year as the Best High School Band. So to hear our boy's band, although much smaller, put out such a wonderful sound, I am quite impressed.

FRIDAY: Last day. Band camper tells us "I wish this wasn't the last day of band camp." Mama and I almost fall out from this announcement. As we pull our jaws back up off the floor we realize he's made it! He gets it! He's become a part of the team, and he feels the pride and accomplishment in being involved in the band, which he also realizes his band sounds good.

And he went armed with his super soaker for the "after" activities which involve squirt guns and water balloons. So "this" is what it's like to be in band :-).

Tonight we dine! (at the band camp dinner for students and parents). What desert to bring? Hello, bakery? Yes, we'd like six dozen lady fingers for the wood wind players. 2 dozen eclairs for the tuba section, and how about a big ol' chocolate cake for percussion? Yep.. that sounds about right.

Stephen King Latest News and Updates

Never Fear! Here's some latest news and updates I'd like to share with ya.

STEPHEN KING:

Stephen King's cover art for his next release, FULL DARK, NO STARS, is featured here and is expected November 9, 2010 from Scribner. Coming in at 384 pages, FULL DARK, NO STARS, continues his novella series releases that began with DIFFERENT SEASONS decades ago. Great title, and the cover has me curious about the content.

Hardcover: 384 pages
Publisher: Scribner (November 9, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1439192561
ISBN-13: 978-1439192566



The story titles and plot synopses for Full Dark, No Stars are:

1922
The story opens with the confession of Wilfred James to the murder of his wife, Arlette, following their move to Hemingford, Nebraska onto land willed to Arlette by her father.

Big Driver
Mystery writer, Tess, has been supplementing her writing income for years by doing speaking engagements with no problems. But following a last-minute invitation to a book club 60 miles away, she takes a shortcut home with dire consequences.

Fair Extension
Harry Streeter, who is suffering from cancer, decides to make a deal with the devil but, as always, there is a price to pay.

A Good Marriage
Darcy Anderson learns more about her husband of over twenty years than she would have liked to know when she stumbles literally upon a box under a worktable in their garage.


THE ENTERTAINMENT KING.

Uncle Stevie, aka Stephen King, has been writing for Entertainment Weekly magazine for several years now with reviews, views and the like. If you've missed any of it or just want to revisit, you can. You can view his entire output at the EW site.
Stephen King's Entertainment Weekly columns and reviews - You can view all of them here.


AMERICAN VAMPIRE

The American Vampire, an original series by Stephen King and Scott Snyder, has just completed it's first story arc. Definitely for mature readers, this American vampire lore grabbed me by the boo-boo from the get-go and I've enjoyed each and every issue that's been delivered here at the Overlook Connection Bookstore. You can read more about it and pick up a complete first printing set at our store. You can also read more about the series below.

ORDER a First Printing set of AMERICAN VAMPIRE at the Overlook HERE!


SCOTT Snyder continues on with the American Vampire series, Stephen King departs.

VISIT The Stephen King Catalog website HERE!

Hot Chocolate with Ghosts at the Shawshank Redemption Prison

Must be something in the air this week... First Stand By Me 25th Anniversary celebration and now I learn you can visit the prison where the Shawshank Redemption was filmed, the century old Mansfield Reformatory prison in Ohio. The Reformatory's Preservation society hosts evenings where you can search out the spiritual world, and they'll give you a cup of hot chocolate to boot.
Hey, if we're ever in the area, I'll be ordering a double shot of choc while searching out the peeling halls. My son pointed out to me that Ghost Hunter's has also been there recently. That must be some good chocolate.
See more about The Shawshank Redemption Prison here!

See the Official Website of Mansfield Reformatory Prison

Brownsville, Oregon aka Castle Rock

The incredible Stephen King story "The Body," was made into a wonderful film by Rob Reiner called Stand By Me. I still consider it one of the best King film adaptations ever produced. This year marks the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of the filming of Stand By Me in Brownsville, Oregon. The town, which became Stephen King's fictional town of Castle Rock in the story, recently celebrated the anniversary with several activities, including a pie eating contest. You might remember the story within a story that featured 'Lardass Logan' (where does King come up with these names? :-) who made the pie eating contest a form of revenge on the town. Talk about savoring the moment. So grab a piece of pie, any pie will do, and hop on over and click the link to read the local article on this enduring classic.

Read a Local Article on Stand By Me HERE!

PCB, Grown Ups, Zombies and We Have Trees Down

Excuse me while I wipe the blog cobwebs off here. Been a few weeks since I've stopped in to say hello and muse on thangs. Time to catch up and pass along the latest.

NO OIL! Had a ten day vacation with the family down in Panama City Beach and took a load off for a few days. Lots of seafood, especially raw oysters and beer! One thing we love to do is go down and have have a mess load of shrimp and crab legs steamed in Old Bay and/or lemon pepper seasonings. MMmm Mmm good people. No oil on the beach! They did have people checking in the mornings combing the beach up and down, but nada.. nothin' clean as a... well you get my meaning. Water was almost sauna warm at times. If you're ever down that way you should visit some local favorites like "Dusty's" on Front Beach road. This place is always busy, even in the off season, because it's a favorite with the locals. They shuck oysters right there in the bar and Scotty O' has been the world shucker champion 3 times! I believe he had to go to Ireland for that one. He's been there for at least 15 years or more. Another fave of ours is "Hunt's" in downtown Panama City. Their cajun baked oysters and fried seafood platter are the best (no honey, I SWEAR I didn't eat no fried food.. ;-).

We always save some of the summer movies to see while we're down there in PCB and TOY STORY 3 is just fantastic. Do yourself and your family a favor and make a night of it - fun dinner, see the movie, maybe a double scoop afterwards (we had Dippin' Dots - man they're making a fortune offa that). It's a wonderful film and yeah that had ten years to make this and tweak that, but the proof's in the pudding. And the writing in this film is just plain good. I've been catching every Pixar film when it's released (The Incredibles being a real fave of mine) and if you've been watching the Toy Story series, this is a nice coda to it all. I was surprised at the emotion that I, and my family, felt during this story. That's a big pat on the back to Pixar, Woody and Buzz.

A TREE DOWN: A couple of days back and recouping from vacation (funny how that happens) and had a wind storm that was almost a tornado. Might as well have been.. it took down our 80 yr-old Oak tree in the backyard, which took down another huge Maple tree. Thankfully it went backwards and not forwards - which would have been our house. These trees covered our wonderful courtyard and pavillion and we are truly in mourning here at the Hinchberger hacienda. We have to be thankful that we're all okay, and the house is in one piece. Everything has been cleared away now, and I haven't seen this much sun in our backyard - ever. I am making some good out of the bad though... the Oak tree, which was ten feet in radius!, was cut very high, and we're going to build a gazebo around it! No joke! It's going to make a great bar and a new addition to our back area. And we still get to enjoy the ol' red Oak we've loved for all these years. But this time we'll just be sharing a Tecate (with lime) on it. I'll work on putting some pics up for all to see.

My son and I went to see GROWN UPS the new Adam Sandler flick with Chris Rock, Kevin James, Rob Schneider, and David Spade. A lot of fun, and what my wife calls a "boys movie" and she's probably right in this case. However, as with a lot of recent Sandler films, he's been working on more family friendly films, this is one you can enjoy. Certainly there is suggestive material, but it's not flagrant. Being that I'm around the same age as Sandler, I always enjoy his music picks from the 70's and 80's - let's me go back... time to make another CD collection ;-).

Brian Keene's THE LAST ZOMBIE first issue arrived! The long-awaited original story (with more story arcs to come as I understand) has begun. The artwork, by Fred Perry, is good, effective. I do wish it was a little lighter in their faces, but it's a personal preference and doesn't change the fact that I am already intrigued and looking forward to issue no. 2.

You may have noticed the the front page to The Overlook Connection Bookstore website has been updated. We've worked on making it a little more uniform and easier to see what we have in stock, and what's coming up. Let me know what you think. In fact I'm open to any suggestions and ideas you might have to make it easier to visit our store.

Hey, that's it this time out, but I should be back soon with a lot more