Day 17 Little Rock A.R. song: We Want the Airwaves - The Ramones

Matt and his wife Robyn took me to the famous Peabody Hotel in downtown Little Rock. They have these ducks that they bring into their large fountain. Everymorning at 11:00 a.m. they ceremoniusly bring them out to the pond. Led by a man who is dressed like he is Prince William's PR guy. These ducks follow him along the red carpet into the nice fountain. I was surrounded by a multitude of senior citezens in tourist clothes where I heard them murmur, "Isn' that somthin'?" and "My wife finally trained me to be like that." I had to hold my laughter in, because for some reason, I wanted to burst into loud laughter.

Immediately afterwards, we joined a massive gathering of locals to greet a welcome home to hometown celebrity Kris Allen from American Idol, one of the 3 finalist so far in American Idol. The locals went crazy for him, chanting his name as he came out on stage and sang us a couple of tunes. He is probably the biggest celebrity from Arkansas since Bill Clinton.

Covering the Event was every local news station. I went and spoke to the reporter for channel 7. She gave me about 25 seconds of her time and told me, "It's all about bein' at the raught place at the raught time." As I was walking away timidly, Robyn encouraged me to talk to one more station. I was too shy, but she reminded me of why I came out and told me it will be o.k. So I approached the Cute, blonde reporter Ashley from channel 11 news. She gave me as much time as I wanted. She spoke with me and told me, "You're doin' the raught thang. It's just soooo haard to break in this businuss. But its really a great job, and once you're ENN, YOU'RE ENN. I'll watch your reel and I'll e-mail you what I think. Good luck on your trip, you're livin' the dream."

I have found it funny how I have heard much of the same lines over and over again. But I know she meant them. If it wouldn't have cheapened me, I would have asked her if I could buy her dinner, but I smiled and shook her hand. And told her thanks for her kindness. Aside from Ben's cousin, thats the only person in T.V. that would talk to me.

We then tagged a couple more radio stations. One where the Program Director would have met with me, but he had a seven hour on air shift ever since Clear Channel went on a firing spree. He didn't really have much time for me. But, the classic rock station once again seemed intrigued. The receptionist whispered to me that the night time jock position may be opening real soon. They seemed real excited to give me some feed back and maybe more. It's been real fun seeing how everyone I meet seems to be behind me all the way with my journey.

We capped the night off with a double A baseball game. The Little Rock Travelers vs. The Tulsa Drillers. The ball park was awesome it has a perfect view of the city in the background, the weather was absolutely perfect, in fact, it was girlfriend weather. Except I was with Matt, which was just fine with me. But there is just something about a baseball game at night that is like nothing else, I wish I was a real writer so I could encapsulate my true feelings of the sights and smells and exitement of a professional baseball game. At the end of the game we walked out and they cranked on the speakers Bob Dylan singing, "Like a Rollingstone". With the night air being amazing I felt like a million bucks.

Little Rock is a great town to raise a family in, it seems to hold a certain value that other big cities just seemed to lose sight in. I don't know what it is like for a single guy, but it seems very family oriented.

Scripture: 1 Timothy 3:4-5