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Be assured this is a much shorter interview than the previous interview with Greg.

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Here’s Greg’s full interview. It answers some of the lesser asked questions, which we’re sure you’d want to know the answers to. It’s a little longer than our other vlogs, but we opted not to chop it up into installments, and hope you enjoy (and appreciate) it. If for some reason you don’t like it, remember, there’s always the music.

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As many of you know, earlier this year we released an album of our ballads entitled “Something Beautiful”. Having planned this perfectly in time for Valentines Day, it was a huge hit. Many of you appreciated the ballad CD idea, and wanted an album of our more upbeat songs as well. Either that, or you didn’t like our ballad CD, and wanted a CD of our upbeat songs instead. What we’ve come up with is “Something For The Rest Of Us”, an album to keep you moving, help you clean the house, get the car washed, keep you conscious on the drive, and many other things you want to be awake for. The album will be available soon on our website, so watch for that announcement.

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Guess what was fun – the show in Baraboo!  And, really, with a name like Baraboo, could it be anything but?  Not to mention the fact that we were in the one and only Al Ringling Theatre!  Yes, that Al Ringling.  Talk about a cool theatre with muchas history!  Keep reading below to find out more!

The Al. Ringling was “America’s Prettiest Playhouse” from the very beginning. The American Theatre Historical Society says it “pointed the way to the great palatial theatres of the following decade…One of the finest examples of palatial design applied to a motion picture theatre in this country. The envy of Broadway.”
Such are some of the accolades showered onto the theatre, and Baraboo and Sauk County can be proud hosts of this beautiful structure. But how did it all begin? Why a theatre of this magnificence in a town the size of Baraboo?
From the start, Baraboo appears to have always had a theatre, beginning with Taylor Hall in the tiny village in the 1850s. By 1880 there was demand for an Opera House, resulting in a structure seating 1,000. It was described then as a “commodious” place. Fire destroyed it in 1905, and the city soon offered $4,000, a fabulous sum in those days, as an inducement to a builder, but the offer went unaccepted. Several small theatres did exist during the time, the first moving picture being shown on November 12, 1897.

Baraboo and The Ringlings
C. August Albrecht Ringling was born in Chicago on December 13, 1852, the eldest of seven brothers (there was one sister), the sons of August Frederick Rungeling, an immigrant to the United States. Of the brothers, the founders of the circus included Charles, Otto, Alfred T., and John, as well as Al. As a group, the brothers were to make the family name, earlier simplified by their father to Ringling, synonymous with the American circus.
Al. Ringling was 23-year-old carriage finisher when the August Rungeling family settled in Baraboo in 1875 after brief stays in various towns in Wisconsin and Iowa. In his free time, Al. practiced circus acts and organized the local children into a little performing troupe. The first actual Ringling performance, where all five show-minded brothers took part, was presented as a vaudeville-type show in Mazomanie, Wisconsin, on November 27,1882. Two brothers danced, two played instruments, and one sang. Albert was to become a juggler, John a clown. With their first profit of $300, the brothers bought evening suits and top hats.  And after that – it was time to make history!

Not only is Baraboo home to the theatre, but Circus World Museum as well!  Circus World’s collection of circus artifacts is perhaps the largest in the world. It includes over 210 original wagons and vehicles once used by American, English and Irish circuses. Circus World houses an exceptional collection of circus ads and posters, with over 9,500 multi-colored circus posters that range in size from half-sheets to a large 80-sheet Buffalo Bill Wild West poster measuring 9′ high and 70′ long. The collection also includes thousands of journals, manuscripts, business records, original fine art oil paintings, hand bills, heralds, programs, artifacts of circus performers and a collection of rare photographs and negatives.  I believe they have ice cream too!

Now, with all this information on this wonderful Wisconsin gem, how could you not go?  Not to mention, one of my favorite hangouts (Wisconsin Dells) is only minutes away!

I do have to say however, we had the most fun simply from the crowd’s response to the show that night!  You guys were great!  The drive back to MN that night through a wonderful mid April snowstorm not so much, but I believe it was Mrs. Garret who said “You take the good, you take the bad, you take them all, and there you have……….Baraboo, WI!!!!!!

Greg

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So we were in Hilton Head, SC, last week and I must admit I was fairly excited to see the place… a tourist destination for years, profiled as part of the “low country” in so many travel/destination blogs and home to a few people of note.  But it was not for me… I understand that it’s historic and has a certain raw beauty bordering on the Atlantic but when one realizes there is little public access to said beauty (unless of course you spring for a large house or condo within one of the numerous gated communities), that the landscape has become dotted with car dealers and furniture marts only your rich aunt might like, and that it all closes down at 7:00 for most of the week (presumably to keep undesirables out?)… well, if I was an older corporate type who wished to die on a golf course, then that might be the place for me.   On the other hand, perhaps I was just on the wrong part of the “island” and the 1/3 I saw did not represent the whole.  Entirely possible.  I should mention that just 45 minutes away?  Savannah, GA.  I stopped for a few hours to see the historic district (featured in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and Forrest Gump to name a few) and I wish I could’ve lingered, just walking the cobblestone streets.  For some reason that was a place resonating with the weight of history and mimosa trees and the whispers of a past.  I could’ve just gotten lost and stayed.  But hey, I’d miss the snow.

Shaun

Tonic Sol-fa

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For the past few years, we have worked in close collaboration with Blue Bunny Ice Cream based in the great state of Iowa.  Why is Iowa a “great” state and Blue Bunny equally as wonderful?  Well(s) for starters, Iowa is the land of my origin and where my parents, siblings and their spouses and 99% of my nieces and nephews reside.  As for Blue Bunny, that goes without saying, but I am going to say it anyway.  With its headquarters located just a few short miles from my home town of Sioux City, Blue Bunny Ice Cream was and still is ever-present in our summer days, trips to the pool, little league victories and even the staple dessert after our Christmas Eve meal and my brother’s December birthday celebration – breaking out the Peppermint Stick Ice Cream is an annual tradition at our house.  With Two More Scoops of Real Ice Cream packed into every container is there really another choice?  I think not!

My enthusiasm for Blue Bunny does not stop with the incredible selection of Ice Cream flavors, no sir-y-bob.  I would be remiss if I did not mention the tasty varieties of cottage cheese offered by the Wells Dairy and the Blue Bunny family.  Why cottage cheese?  Well(s), it is a little known fact (and maybe for good reason) that years (and years) ago I played a grocery stock boy for a Wells Blue Bunny cottage cheese commercial.  I gladly promoted the finer qualities of Blue Bunny cottage cheese to inquiring shoppers.  After talking about a mile a minute (over and over and over again to get the best take) a segment popped up with a close up of a cottage cheese container being slowly opened while a rich voice  persuasively pronounced “FRESH!”  I’d like to think it was an instant classic carefully preserved in the commercials archives of Blue Bunny.

I would be willing to go so far as offer a couple tickets to a concert or maybe a CD or two and even a container of Blue Bunny Ice Cream to the first person that can find and submiit footage of that treasure.  I warn you, there may be not be a winner here.  For all I know, the original footage may have been lost, destroyed, damaged or otherwise disposed of due to reasons and/or legal ramifications beyond anyone’s control.

Mark

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This vlog epitomizes a phone conversation with Greg. At some point there’s a realization by those listening (and probably by anyone on the other end of the phone) that although much was said, not much was communicated. In his defense, this does have to do with directions getting us to a final destination, however, this isn’t much different that most of his other conversations. Believe us.

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Oddly enough, but at this point not surprisingly, we have another situation in the vehicle.

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The snow and ice are gone (hopefully), the roads are clear and “we” are feeling more confident about driving the truck and trailer in the beautiful spring weather.  This all mean the time has come to repair the damage the Tundra and restore it to its original glory.  This is going to require two weeks of down time in May and/or alternative transportation.  I am hoping that we (the body shop actually) can complete the repairs in the two week window and avoid the limited alternative transportation options.  This is not the first time we had to consider and.or use another means of travel.  I fondly remember driving a Hyundai Scoupe and rental truck for months (after our van was totaled) as we waited for our new vehicle to arrive from Ford and Waldoch.  I also recall breaking down on the way to a few shows and having to rent a car and rental truck, unload the trailer, load the rental truck, hit the road, load-in and set-up in a flash and then jump on stage for the evening performance.  Good times!  Hopefully in a month or so I can report that the Tundra looks like new and we didn’t have rent a Geo and a U-Haul in the meantime.

Mark

Tonic Sol-fa

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