The Ohio State University

Dear Readers,

We were intending to go straight through to Pennsylvania when it struck Clark that perhaps we should hit a University in Ohio and break the drive day up. This also meant we could approach total strangers at a better hour.

After stepping off the bus at the Columbus' Ohio State, we immediately ran into this cool looking student Stephen and his girlfriend and sprung the question of collaboration. He mentions that his twin brother Shaun plays trumpet and entertains the idea of working with us the following day.

As this was a last minute decision, we had to do this without faculty permission at the start so we found an ampi-theatre by the man made campus lake to potentially setup.

As Clark and I sat there on the steps with the mobile recorder coming up with musical ideas, we sat through a jazz dance class (hysterical) and then an apparent stare-down with two academic looking people on the opposite side of the stage. Clark runs over to quell a potential wildfire and finds they both are hosting an Aztec dance on the stage in the next hour or so. Of course that precludes our usage of the space, but they like the idea of what we are setting out to do and are under some sort of impression that we'll be able to help populate the audience. They talk to someone in the Honor's department and before we know it, we have permission to set up in front of the tudor style Honor's building and can pretty much work through the night.

The brothers eventually meet up with us after classes let out. They are identical twins distinguishable by Stephen's beard and borrowed saxophone. Shaun is studying genetics, a subject he's very excited about. They turn out to be a good players and what starts out as cacaphony eventually graduates into an understanding of how they fit and counter into the song we've began.

It's lovely when we open up our process to the company of strangers and show them how good they can sound. Both brother's faces illuminated as they watched what appeared to be fragments tun into a mosaic. All the time they're playing their horns, there is another kid who has been sitting around in the sidelines kind of waiting for his turn to join in who's name is Markus.

After we are finished with the twins, Markus gets onto the electric piano and blows us all away with his effortless chops. Having played since he was four, this talented and handsome kid is going to be a success story. He is studying social work at the school.

We wrap up around one with no interruptions save the occasional drunken frat herd wandering by.

The song we created has a bit of a nostalgic seventies vibe, especially after the wurlitzer and horn application. It is a fairly optimistic tune with Merritt singing the chorus. The mood in the RV is alright considering the fact that some are feeling worn down and sort of sick. We have only two stops left on this journey.
Next stop is Philadelphia with a young, multi-instumental girl that the School of Rock has hand picked from a large list for us.

Well napped,
Nathan