EULOGY

Brad Delp, the lead singer of the band Boston was found dead yesterday in his home. He was 55.
I just have to say that Brad and Boston were a very large influence on me as a young kid discovering rock music.
The song "More Than A Feeling" gives me chills EVERY time- despite the fact that it might be one of the most over-played songs in the "classic rock" radio format. I knew how to play every note of that song on the guitar before I knew how to play chords. Even Kurt Cobain admitted to ripping off the chord progression of the chorus when he wrote "Smells Like Teen Spirit".

I pride myself in my vinyl record collection, & Boston's debut album was the first that I owned. My older brother Josh & I played that record over & over in our bedroom. Boston was unfortunately piled into the "corporate rock" genre with other throwaway bands like Journey, Styx, Kansas & Foreigner- but given a true listen, one could easily see that there were few similarities.
Boston was light years ahead of those & pretty much every other band of that time, from songwriting, guitar tones & melodic solos, vocal harmonies & especially a production standpoint.
And the defining factor was the supersonic, out-of-this-world voice of Brad Delp...
Be it full voice or falsetto, he could hit notes with ease and and an amazing purity that not even most women could attempt.
Easily the most beautiful, soaring & purest voice in rock & roll.

-Jonny-

VACATION TO...

So last weekend we were feeling the need to get out of town.
Last time we had the urge to do this, we ended up taking a weekend vacation to Tulsa, which was great, but this time we thought we should hit the road a little harder.
So we stepped it up to... Bartlesville!!

We've actually been wanting to go stay at the historic Price Tower (built by architect Frank Lloyd Wright)
for a long time, so this was our chance.
It was just as cool (or cooler) than we thought it would be. First of all, it was built about the same year as
our Lortondale house & I swear, all of the decor & furniture looked like it belonged in our house...
Plus, we got the family discount...

So it was the perfect getaway.

Also, Scooter got his own little vacation, staying over at Grandpa & Grandma Wright's house with Uncle Jeremy...
He had a blast, but was very ready to go home when we came to pick him up (as you will see in the ride home pics) & he must have had a crazy time, because when he got home he crashed. Hard.
Now for some pictures:

Mom, let's go!


Price Tower


The Angel & The Tower


Our Room



The Ride Home




And Out Cold.

DR. SCOOTER

J. Scooter Ripley Wright also endorses Dr Pepper.
He thinks it's delicious!

So if you've got a thirst that regular toilet water won't quench (or if you're too small to reach it...)
Then drink Dr Pepper!
It's what Scooter drinks!




Mmmmmmm, Mmmmm!

JAX & PEI WEI

So we had an epic Pei Wei friday last week, like the olden days.
The highlight of the lunch had to be Jax eating his chicken & making funny faces after every bite.
He was really mugging for the big audience he had that afternoon.
I happened to get a couple of shots of his little act.

-Jonny-

AFTERNOON AT THE ZOO

Last Friday Synthia, Kayleen, Mindy, Jax and I went to the zoo. It was a really pretty day and there were hardly any people there so we had all the animals to ourselves. There was a baby chimp—the first in 16 years—and that was out main attraction. Jonny said that there is no way we could spend 2 hours looking at a baby chimp, but he was very wrong. We were very amused by these animals and their new baby. It became apparent that they didn't want us looking at the baby. The mother and father would walk around trying to get away from us. We did feel a little like stalkers but they all seemed pretty happy so that made it better I think. They were very human like and were kind of ooohhhin and ahhhing over the baby–playing with its tiny toes, etc. At one point the father even went to get a blanket to cover the baby. This was also the only thing I could never get a very good photo of, so I got one of the zoo website.

-Angelene-








Synthia and the monkey are totally checking each other out here.



Kayleen picked out a new outfit for paul. We think it will be a perfect fit.











The big happening at the zoo was that the tigers looked like they were going to totally attack us. As we came around the corner we saw the 2 tigers watching us walk forward and then they looked like they might just jump right over to us. Which I think is impossible—but it was totally scary. You can also see the lions watching in the background. Synthia was scouting the location for a place to hide incase things turned ugly.







I'm Scared

WELL, YOU KNOW IT WAS BOUND TO HAPPEN

Scooter just signed an endorsement deal with Malt-O-Meal for his own line of cereal...

(The big selling point was the "helps lower cholesterol" bit- since Scooter does that so well)

AAAAAAHHHHH!!!

Micah & Cheryl are married!!

Here are a few pics from their beautiful day....