Its not everyday Jon Bon Jovi yells, 'thank you Eau Claire' but now for the first time in history it has happened. Liz and I were standing on a sand bar in the middle of the Chippewa river at the time, having waded through thirty meters of water to get as close as possible to the local music festival without actually crashing it. Jon Bon, clearly mellowing with age, has now turned his hand to country music which put him at the top of the bill of Eau Claire's very own 'Country Jam USA'. All week the town has seen a huge influx of pickup trucks and grass chewing, stetson wearing music fans. Apparently though, the country crowd doesn't hold 'rock' in too high regard, and from comments I overheard in town, the arrival of Jon was being taken as a slight imposition even if he has converted to the fold. "I'm going to country jam" one lady said "but I don't care much for Bon Jovi" she muttered as she carried her groceries out of the shop. So it was that the fans at the Jam divided into two camps, those who didn't care for Jon, and those who didn't care for country. It seems it's not just the politics over here that are plagued by bi-partisanship, although the power of Jovi managed to unite the crowd in classic style. No one can deny that even those who detest Jon and his white rock buddies can't resist punching the air and loosing their voices to 'Livin on a Prayer' and so it proved at Country Jam.
No doubt you're all aware I'm not the only high profile Brit whose come stateside lately. The Beckhams have decided to join me, which has aroused a considerable amount of interest. This is especially surprising given that the world hot dog eating contest gets five times higher ratings over here than the average major league soccer game. I'm not sure whether that says more about eating contests or soccer. Incidentally, reigning champion Kobayashi, competing with a serious jaw injury, couldn't hold onto his title despite beating his own record of 60 hot dogs in 12 minutes. Anyway, back to the Beckhams, Posh gushed that she had 'No idea' so many people would be waiting to greet them, before waxing lyrical about hanging out with the Cruises and having Leno over for tea. Presumably she did have some idea she'd be appearing on one of the planets biggest chat shows that evening. Its embarrassing to see star struck Brits being idiotically obsequious in Hollywood.
In the next couple of days Liz and I will be moving to our new apartment in St Paul Minnesota. We've got a U-Haul truck and lots of charity shop furniture. Next time I post I'll put some photos up of the place. I've been in and out of the city having job interviews for the last few weeks, so have been pretty busy. OK, thats about it!
2 comments:
Kobayashi, the little big man from Japan.
Need someone to fly the flag since the Mongolians took over sumo anyway.
Hope you guys have a chance to visit us in Portland. We even have soccer fans here. They wear scarves to the games and like to get drunk in the bar across from the stadium. Only 5 minutes walk from our apartment. Almost reminds one of Chelsea.
Take it easy on old Posh. It takes an incredible amount of intention to look exactly as stupid as one sounds. Good luck with the move.
Post a Comment