This whole deal began after I got divorced...

I needed to keep busy, see? So I started hitting up drinkin' joints and music venues in sleepy Fayetteville Arkansas, taking in the bands, forming a couple-a-few thoughts on them and scratching them down on these ones and zeroes of this here internet. Not to mention I also played in a few bands around town. So I got decently ingrained in the music scene in Fayetteville. 

I also stayed busy by getting involved in local politics in Fayetteville as well as across the state. I volunteered on several campaigns: local state house races, a U.S. Senate campaign, and a gubernatorial campaign. At present, I have a pretty spotty record at picking winning candidates. 

Then there was the whole being a PhD student in the midst of all the above. I somehow managed to write a dissertation on the academic impact of attending a branded charter school network in the rural Arkansas Delta. And though I am one of those dang "lefties," I bend with the breeze that blows toward the k-12 education reforms that usually put a sinister smile on a right-winger's face. Specifically those policies that are implemented in the spirit of helping poor kids and kids of color have a fighting chance in our overly pale upper-middle class society. 

So yeah. I figured this might be a good way for me to bring all of these things together and bloviate on in one spot. I've separated this site into three blogs; one for each topic area in case you give less a damn about some topics than others. Hopefully, all who land here will get somethin or another out of your time spent.