I am overwhelmed with life. These are such intense days. I may take some time off and record a confusing album. I remember one time when Brave Combo took a vacation from Brave Combo. I was twelve years old and I went with my family to play goofy golf and I fell through the floor of the crazy lopsided house, permanently screwing up my perspective on just about everything. I apologize to anyone I may have inadvertently offended since then.

Phyllis Diller has a copy of POLKASONIC. Or, at least, I gave her one backstage at the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon. Her dressing room was a few doors down from ours. I met her in the hall and told her I really like how she gets "in the zone." I saw her in concert once and loved her. Her voice sounded exactly like Phyllis Diller and her delivery was hypnotic. Shecky Green's dressing room was right next to ours. He was very jovial and sang us a little song. I don't know what all to say about this event. It was so bizarre and entertaining. Everything is worth mentioning. The security was extremely tight and almost everyone had a rather serious edge. Jerry seemed to like us quite a bit, but it was a little uncomfortable having him stare right at us for so long. I don't think he would remember our name at this point, but that's okay. I've watched our performance a couple of times and it's pretty good, though they wouldn't let me turn the guitar amp up as loud as I wanted. The studio audience dug it and Ed McMahon said "Yeah," or something like that. It was especially interesting that we were experiencing this on no sleep, after playing Westfest (Central Texas Czech polka festival) for two days. Maybe we can get Jerry Lewis to do the telethon from Westfest next year. I'm finally thinking clearly again.

We went to Europe for a couple of weeks (August 13 - 29) and played in a different city every night. We mainly played big park concerts in various towns around Belgium and Holland, then wrapped up the tour with a show at the Lowlands Festival (Holland) and headlined a polka extravaganza in Berlin, Germany. It was groovy cool and we were hip hepcats. Most of the time we were staying at a small hotel in Beerse, Belgium. It only had five rooms and we got them all. The ground floor of the hotel was a bar that never closed as far as I could tell. Our road manager, Gabriel, would pick us up around 3 PM every afternoon and haul us to a different town to do our thing. Around 1500 - 2500 people would come out each night and listen and occasionally dance, but hardly anyone knew how to polka. The Lowlands festival totally rocked, as did the concert in Berlin. The trip was grueling, but rewarding as well. We feel very lucky to have such opportunities to learn and spread the word. And we're certainly grateful for all the support we receive. The coolest thing (literally) is that we missed 2 1/2 weeks of the Texas heatwave.

Speaking of Texas heatwave, four days after our August 12th show in Denton at Rick's Place, the club burned. I think we were the last band to play there. We'll miss it. Maybe we can start playing at gas stations or police stations. It would be wild if we became like the official polka band of the law. Maybe we could push for legislation that would protect polka. Actually, that might exist somewhere already. A documentary film crew from Germany was at Westfest this year and I talked to them about protecting the integrity of polka music. Coincidentally, the director of the film was also in a band that played with us in Berlin a few days earlier. So, how weird is this? She started an interview with us in Berlin and we wrapped it up in West exactly one week later. That was the same day that I saw Danny trying to teach a snake how to riverdance with a scorpion. You know, Danny's way into that cause he's British or something. If you get Danny crying, he'll riverdance anywhere. Jeff likes to boogaloo. Bubba likes to salsa. Alan likes to disco and I like to run in place and call it dancing. We are sexy, dancing fools. I am constantly amazed at what a fool I am. But sometimes I know exactly what I'm getting myself into and I do it anyway. When I was in high school, my friend Cliff and I would ride around in his Dad's car and listen to eight-track tapes of Bob Ralston (Lawrence Welk's organist). The music was nice, but creepy. I imagined the organ covered in cobwebs in a dark room, playing itself. Anyway, we would stop at the 7-11 and I would get a Big Sam's sandwich. The sandwich would be inside a plastic bag in a heated metal box, so it would get very steamy and spongy. They didn't taste that good, but I really liked them. There was something about the combination of Cliff's Dad's car, Bob Ralston's sound, the Big Sam's sandwich and Texarkana as a back drop that worked. It felt good, sounded good, tasted interesting and looked good. One time my mother stopped at a 7-11 and bought a Big Sam's sandwich for lunch because she'd heard me going on about them. When she told me, I felt sorry for her.

This month is packed with shows. There are lots of town concerts around Texas, the annual Addison Oktoberfest, an early club show at in Austin and a quick trip to Omaha, Chicago and St. Louis. Please check our itinerary for details. Come out when you can and stare at us like Jerry Lewis did when he told us to kick it in the head.