Q&A
CONTRIBUTED BY GLEN ROSE
Q: You come up with a lot of your material in something you call a Scriptorium. What is it like there, and what about it inspires you?
like there, and what about I inspire you
Keen: "I got the idea for a Scriptorium from Willie Brahn of Wreckles Kelly. They have what they call the Shed. It's an after-hours blowout type of place. To get in you just have to know the password, and it's a fun place. But Willie once told me, every man has got to have a shed. The Scriptorium is my shed. It's got lots of guitars, lots of books, a fold out jail bed and a fridge stocked with beer and Big Red. It's remote, a place of extreme solitude, which inspires me because it's just my world there."
Q: How did you get your break?
Keen: "I don't know man, I'm still waiting for my big break. I just plod along and workin' it. If I had to say I got one single break, it was people beginning to play my songs on the radio. In Texas, some radio stations used to have, in the early '90s, Texas Music Night, where they'd play songs of local artists. My songs started showing up on these nights, and regardless of the world of music promotions, my songs kind of promoted themselves."
Q: How much of what you write comes from your own experience versus what you think is your listeners' and fans' experiences? For example, is "Corpus Christi Bay" something that actually happened?
Keen: "It's funny you mention that. I was just down in Corpus Christi a couple of weeks ago fishing with my brother. This time it wasn't to wreck another one of his marriages but to fish, drink and tell stories. That song is my story. A good deal of my writing is my personal experience, and I make it into something really interesting. But you have to have some sensibility about your audience. I don't want to tell a dull story, so sometimes you have to make it interesting. But I'm always honest with the feeling of the songs."
Q: Your tours seem to be mainly centered around Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. What do you like most about Lawrence and Kansas.
JAYPLAY SAYS
Keen: "I love Lawrence. It's the quintessential college town. Sometimes, walking down the street, it's like scenes out of a movie, it's that perfect. My good buddy is Richard Frydman, and he is Kansas to me — that laid-back, sure-of-himself type of guy. I think Kansans have a real sense of themselves. People talk a lot about how much pride Texans have about their state. To me, Kansans are the same way when it comes to state pride, and rightfully so. They have a real sense of 'this is where we're from and this is how we live.' That's great. And y'all have some monster bucks, great fishing and hunting overall."
Q: Have you been deer hunting in Kansas?
Keen: "No, I haven't. I've had some great offers, but man, we're playing all the time. It's tough to find the time. But I'm working toward it. In south Texas, we don't have the same intimate type of hunting as you. When you're on 20,000 acres, it's tough. Sometimes it's more like a truck has to go herd the deer up. From what I know of Kansas hunting, you're on less acreage, so proximity wise, you're actually on top of the deer. I'm going to make it up there to hunt sometime in the near future."
Q:What's your drink?
Keen: "Jack Daniel's. I've found you can go from Phoenix to Frankfurt and people know what you mean when you say Jack Daniel's. There's never a question."
BUY↓
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FLASH DRIVES
Designer USB Flash Drives are popping up all over the Internet. Some, such as SushiDisk, www.sushidisk.co.uk, and I-Duck, www.usstore.co.uk are just rubber toys with tiny USB sticks glued into slot cuts in their sides. Others, like those from Mimoco, lab.mimoco.com, are specially created USB stick cases. Mimoco offers USB sticks that resemble Chewbacca and Darth Vader as well as many characters created by the company.
Freshly Squeezed Flash, freshlysqueezedflash.com, carries designer flash drives too. Rachel Hill, the site's creator, combines toys from the 99 cent store and USB drives to create keychains that can store files up to 1 GB. If you're not interested in her classic car, Care Bear or "bling" models, Hill will create a custom drive just for you.
Whatever your tastes, there's no reason to go back to off-the-shelf USB drives. Head to one of these Web sites and pick out a drive that fits your personality.
Caleb Regan
CLICK
WWW.THEBRICK
TESTAMENT.COM
Are you interested in the Bible but too busy — or lazy — to read it? Head to The Brick Testament, www.thebricktestament.com, and click through the Rev. Brendan Powell Smith's illustrated Bible stories for an entertaining alternative. Powell, who is not actually an ordained member of any church, has built scenes from 246 Bible stories entirely out of Lego blocks. Bonus: Powell provides an easy-to-understand rating system, including N for nudity and S for sexual content.
Becka Cremer
11.09.2006 JAYPLAY <17