!!!

Sorry again for the lack of updates recently. For what it's worth, you'll be getting a ton in the next few weeks.

I just got off the phone with one of the more prominent E6ers who:

a) remembered my name, which was enough to make my day and rekindle my vigor for this project.
b) offered to meet up, talk to me, show me around, introduce me to other people, and just about anything else I might need while I'm down there.

Confirmation. It's happening. I leave on January 2 and return January 7.

In addition, I've also begun soliciting a few other random people (concert promoters, venue owners, UGA students, etc.) for guidance as far as what to do while I'm there, where to eat, who to talk to, and so on. The Athens music scene (and the town in general) is a pretty big part of what the Elephant Six is, so naturally I want to get a feel for it in a broader sense, which is part of the reason for my road trip in the first place.

In other news

I found out yesterday that I'll be spending my final semester on the Daily Collegian as a columnist.

(This was my first choice, so yes, this is good news.)

I hope they let me take a new headshot, given I'm going to have my face next to my column every week. The last few haven't come out so well.



My project over the next few weeks is to figure out how to be photogenic.

It's happening

It's official.

I'm heading down to Athens on January 2 and returning on January 7. I'm borrowing either Mom's new Volvo or Pop-pop's old ass Jeep to do it. A hotel has not yet been booked, but there are a few places charging around $50-60 a night, which for five nights should work out to less than $300.

Gas prices have basically halved since I initially planned this out, so that'll be way cheaper as well. I'll be driving a distance of about 1,500 miles round trip, so if I can get around 18 or 19 miles per gallon (a conservative estimate, I think) and pay around $2 a gallon, I'm looking at less than $200 for gas money.

$500 is a decent amount of money, but I also have (at least) two people going with me, and while I'm not expecting them to split the costs with me evenly (they are, after all, doing me something of a favor by coming along, even if it's not much of a chore), I think it should alleviate the costs a bit.

Christmas to possibly come early

I'd like to apologize again to my faithful reader(s) for my lack of content. Expect the volume and frequency to increase after the final loose ends of my penultimate Penn State semester are tied off at the end of the week.

That said, there are some exciting prospects on the horizon. The interview I portended in my last post fell through but seems likely to happen at some point over winter break. There's a lot of other great stuff coming up, too, to the extent that if any of it comes through, I'll feel confident in beginning to shop this project around to some publishers.