July 17, 2008
Thank you, Lawrence. Thank you for being blue in a sea of red. Thank you for being gay-friendly. Thank you for being different than everything I grew up with in Kansas and wanted to escape. But thank you for still being part of Kansas, anyway, and teaching me to learn to live with those contradictions. Thanks for the nights with a novel and a notebook on the Java Dive porch way back when, drinking coffee and eavesdropping on the oddest conversations. Thanks for the night The Hardaways played "Abbey Road" at The Replay, one of my most treasured music memories. Thanks for Arthur Dodge and Danny Pound and the Midday Ramblers and The Kinetiks and The Anniversary and Josh Powers and Approach and Drakkar Sauna. Thanks for the Bottleneck, the Jackpot, the Replay and the Jazzhaus. Thanks for Guitar Dave and the saxophone guy at the corner of Seventh and Massachusetts. Thanks for all of the music that I'm not mentioning. Thanks for all the Halloween nights on Mass Street, my favorite coming when I saw a man with a mustache, John Deere hat and astronaut suit eye a couple of young women and ask, "Y'all been to space?" Thanks for Dave Loewenstein and Lora Jost and Paul Flinders and Aaron Marable and Jill Ensley and Deb Stavin and Leslie VonHolten and Art Togeau and Fields Gallery and the Spencer Museum of Art and The Percolator and the downtown sculpture exhibition and all the coffee shops, restaurants that made art -- good art! -- part of the living environment. Thanks for the Hall Center for the Humanities and the Dole Institute of Politics at KU, for getting to hear and meet Robert Caro, Sherman Alexie, Samantha Power, Colby Buzzell, James Carville, Chief Justice John Roberts (even if he gave a lousy speech), Salman Rushdie, Bill Clinton and more. Thanks for The Raven and The Dusty Bookshelf. Thanks for my first bite of Indian food. And my first bite of Thai food. Thanks for Burrito King, Henry T's, Johnny's, Rudy's and Zen Zero. Thanks for Free State beer and Wheatfields bread. Thanks for the bar menu at Pachamama's. Thanks for the year hanging out with the Japanese girls from KU, who introduced me to sushi. Thanks for Saturday morning breakfasts at Paradise Cafe, may she rest in peace. Thanks for midnight showings of "Pulp Fiction" at Liberty Hall. Thanks for Liberty Hall being the place where I saw "Trainspotting" and "Welcome to the Dollhouse" and "Being John Malkovich" and "Ghost Dog" and "Amelie" and "American Movie" and "Spellbound" and "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" and so much more. Thanks for being a place I could drink a beer while watching those movies. Thanks for the Liberty Hall summer and winter parties. Thanks for being a place where I could walk out of my office and find Ani DiFranco sitting on the front steps, where I could nearly knock over Jacob Dylan on the sidewalk, where an accidental glance by me could send Joe Jackson fleeing La Parilla into the frozen night. Oh heck: Thanks for the anarchists, who -- when they weren't doing silly things like throwing cakes -- seemed to try to make the community better. And thanks for the lifetime of jokes I'll hear whenever I mentioned I once covered the National Anarchist Convention. Thanks for East Lawrence. And Oread. And Old West Lawrence. Thanks for K.T. Walsh. Thanks for the river trail. Thanks for the farmers market. Thanks for Larryville.com, back when it was fun. Thanks for three Final Fours and the relatively nonviolent downtown celebrations that went with each of them. Thanks for being the place I met my wife. Thanks for La Prima Tazza, my home away from home and the community that replaced church for me once church no longer had a place in my life. Thanks for all the friends I made there, too numerous to mention. Thanks for opening the world -- yes, the world beyond Lawrence -- to me. Thanks for eight great years. Thanks for everything I've failed to mention. A community is more than the sum of its parts, but it doesn't hurt that Lawrence's parts are fabulous. Thanks, Lawrence. I may be leaving, but you'll always be home. Note: Though this Cup O' Joel is retired, [this one keeps on keepin' on][1]-ed. [1]: http://joelmathis.blogspot.com
Comments
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buck (Buck Rowland) says...
Joel, you will be missed as well, but hardly forgotten. And one day, you will be back, just like the Marable for whom you give thanks. Thank you for the coverage of my work when I was doing it. Now, go out and show the rest of the world what a great place to live is like. Best of luck AND congratulations.
July 17, 2008 at 10:39 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
mitzibel (Misty Nuckolls) says...
Congratulations, Joel. . . . there's something in my eye. Yeah, that's it . . .
July 17, 2008 at 11:47 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
chewyfally (Falestine Afani Ruzik) says...
Where's the "Thanks for my first acid trip during a trip to Stull Cemetery?"Don't act so innocent, Joel.
July 17, 2008 at 1:39 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
leslie (Leslie vonHolten) says...
Fally: well, turns out there's a Joel I never knew out there!
July 17, 2008 at 2:26 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
alm77 (anonymous) says...
Where're you goin'?
July 17, 2008 at 9:43 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Joel (Joel Mathis) says...
Hi folks:Thanks for the nice comments. Lawwrence.com was a great place for me, both personally -- my wife read my blog here before moving to town, and I enjoyed getting to know many of you commenters -- and professionally. (Or, in Misty's case, having a stunning decade-later reunion. I knew her when she was acting in community theater in Southeast Kansas.)Buck -- I should've included your old radio show in this list. I loved it.I'm off to Philly -- the Philadelphia Weekly, to be exact, to be the online editor for the alt weekly. We've got a child on the way (due in September) and that's the time people usually move AWAY from Philly, as I understand it, but my wife and I want to have the big city experience and this job seems like a good opportunity.Lawrence is still home. We did consider jettisoning journalism entirely to stay here, but it turns out nobody will pay me to do anything BUT journalism. (Seriously: I applied to -- and got rejected by -- a certain Lawrence garage door manufacturing concern.) Or something that looks like it. So we're off! It'll be an adventure, but I anticipate we will return with some regularity. And you know what's great about the Internet? I'lll probably jump into the conversations around here from time to time, still. Just like the other commenters (that I know of) from Ohio, New York, Virginia and California, and probably a few other places.I love you guys. Seriously.
July 18, 2008 at 2:58 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Joel (Joel Mathis) says...
FWIW, my lovely wife and I will be at The Pig around 7 p.m. Monday to have a last drink there. Any visitors-slash-well-wishers would be welcome and appreciated.
July 18, 2008 at 8:36 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
bloozman (anonymous) says...
Joel -- I could drop your name with some fine folks I know out that way who probably would be willing to meet you and the Mrs for a drink and point out some points they find interesting in Philly. If you're interested, e-mail me.I've admired you adventurousness since you first entered the newsroom in a certain SEK town. Keep on truckin'.
July 20, 2008 at 4:41 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
raerae (anonymous) says...
Gee, Joel, it's been great reading you. There are some nifty ex-Larryvillagers out there in Philly, I hope you run across them. Having corresponded with you a long time back when I was GlobalNomad, I've enjoyed your columns for quite some time and the conversations. This one made me quite a bit misty. Gee thanks, I think.Roya
July 21, 2008 at 3:19 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
OnShakedown (Chris Tackett) says...
joel, best of luck and thanks for being thought provoking and entertaining for as long as i've known and read you. and thanks for writing the post i should have written when i left. maybe i'll copy and past all the stuff you mentioned that would have been in mine and add a few of my own to post. it seems we love many of the same things about lawrence, as i'm sure most people on the site do too. enjoy philly and keep in touch, chris
July 21, 2008 at 7:41 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
beatle919 (Marcy McGuffie) says...
Hey - congrats to you and the Missus! What a sweet blog (and we thought we'd seen the last of Cup o' Joel). May you and yours be blessed - this sounds like a decent opportunity, for sure. Happy 2nd anniversary too - so easy to remember since we all married on the same day!
July 22, 2008 at 11:40 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
OtherJoel (anonymous) says...
AAARRRRRGGGGH! It's Tuesday and I just read about the Pig thing. I am the worst evar drink-meeter. Let me know if there's an encore. When are you heading out?Anyway, HUGE congrats on your pending parenthood and new job. And thanks for giving an ex-out-of-towner a wonderful introduction to Lawrence. Best of luck, buddy -- Joel the Other.
July 22, 2008 at 7:40 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )