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HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL
lIHM Adventures rocks
with ZZ Top Saturday
Special to the Journal
They say practice makes
perfect, so with almost 40
years under their belt to
perfect their distinctive
bluesy-rock sound, ZZ Top
should put on one great
show at Wild Adventures
Saturday.
Billy Gibbons, Dusty
Hill and Frank Beard have
comprised ZZ Top since the
band’s inception in 1969
and hold the distinction of
being one of the few bands
that has endured the years
without any personnel
changes.
Forming in Houston,
Texas, the band toured
and cut two albums in
their first three years, but
it wasn’t until the release
of their third effort, Tres
Hombres, in 1973 that the
band gained wider recogni
tion.
ZZ Top’s third album
contained “LaGrange,” a
song that is now consid
ered one of classic rock’s
best. Throughout the rest
of the 70’s, the band pro
duced such hits as “Tush,”
“I’m Bad, I’m Nationwide,”
“Cheap Sunglasses” and “I
Thank You.” In 1981, the
band struck gold again with
“Pearl Necklace,” “Got
Me Under Pressure” and
“Tube Snake Boogie.”
Another 1981 phenom
enon would take ZZ Top’s
career to a newer height.
With the advent of MTY the
band found a new creative
avenue. Adding a synthesiz
er sound to their blues-rock
base, ZZ Top became one of
the first bands to produce
music videos that were not
simply a variation of the
standard “band in concert”
production. Sporting their
trademark sunglasses and
beards (ironically, despite
his name, Frank Beard is
the only member with sim
ply a mustache) the band
told a humorous story in
each video, scoring big with
SOLDIER’S 2
From page $A
foot traffic.
Fourth, the local services
were too scared to come
into the area to remove trash
for the past few months
when all the fighting was
occurring so the trash piles
were immense. The amount
of rotting food and waste
materials were piling up and
becoming a source of dis
ease and possible locations
for lEDs.
Fifth, we saw the need to
offer some financial assis
tance to the shop owners
who have been unable to
make any money over the
past few months due to the
fighting and large payments
to JAM. All these areas were
identified as the first steps in
the right direction to revital
ize the market.
A two-week plan was
implemented to fix most of
the major problems.
Contracts were assigned
out to local Iraqi contractors
to clean up specific sec
tors. The sewage river was
sucked by a liquid hauling
truck and the busted pipe
was fixed. Now the entire
150 m of the street that was
once covered in 12 inches
of sewage is clean and dry.
The businesses that caught
on fire from RPGs and were
just shells of their former
stature were taken down
by the U.S. route sanita
tion team. Over 300 truck
loads of debris were taken
from the location and 250-
300 local national workers
were paid to do much of
the final clearing. A contract
was established with anoth
er local with dump trucks to
help facilitate this effort of
the 250-300 workers. We
opened up a small hole in
the wall to facilitate foot traf
fic. We opened up one hole
but have plans to open up
more in the future. Security
is still the priority and as
things get better we will be
able to make the wall more
permissive.
Next, the local services
started coming back to the
numbers such as Legs,
“Sharp Dressed Man” and
“Gimme All Your Lovin’.”
Hits continued through
the rest of the 80’s and
90’s for ZZ Top including
“Sleeping Bag,” “My Head’s
in Mississippi,” “Rough
Boy” and “Pin Cushion.”
They continued to tour and
produce albums and were
finally inducted into Rock &
Roll’s Hall of Fame in 2004.
The late Cub Koda, legend
ary Blues artist and histori
an, noted that “As genuine
roots musicians, they have
few peers; Gibbons is one of
America’s finest blues gui
tarists working in the hard
rock idiom ... while Hill and
Beard provide the ultimate
rhythm section support.”
The show starts at 6:30
p.m. with opening act
Blackberry Smoke. The
concert is included in the
price of park admission and
guests are encouraged to
bring lawn chairs to set
up.
Reserve seats are also
available for an addition
al charge of $25 and can
be ordered by phone at
229-219-7080, option 2 or
online at www.wildadven
tures.net. Reserve seats do
not include park admission
which must be purchased
separately.
The concert tops off a day
of fun at Wild Adventures
with more than 50 rides,
including nine coasters;
Splash Island Water Park,
hundreds of wild animals
and daily shows. Regular
admission is just $45 and
Junior/Senior admission is
S4O. Both include a Second-
Day Free.
Enjoy the fun of the
park all season long with
the Passport 2008 or Gold
Passport.
For more information on
any of the park’s activities,
please visit www.wildad
ventures.net or call 229-
219-7080.
area since security has
been reestablished and are
continuing to make progress
on all areas of trash.
We also hired some more
of the locals to help out with
trash removal. It is just a
good way to keep young
men employed and less of
a target for JAM to influence
with money. Finally we put
together a package to help
shop owners get their shops
reopened and cleaned up
for business.
By providing some
assistance to the owners
this allows them to hire
employees to once again
reduce the ability of JAM
to “employ" young males.
We know that a good por
tion of the individuals who
emplaced lEDs and commit
ted some of these attacks
were just trying to survive.
They go home at night, their
wife is crying, their children
are starving, and the only
job that they think they can
find is offered by JAM to
emplace an IED or attack
coalition forces.
The original market
assessment had the market
at about 35 percent and now
is operating at about 80-85
percent.
Today you can hardly walk
through the market because
it is so crowded. This is truly,
a remarkable accomplish
ment in merely 15 days. The
fighting has stopped, and
we have turned our focus
onto finding the caches and
hunting down the individu
als that were responsible for
running JAM in the area and
making sure they are unable
to come back to influence
the area. Working with the
people of Iraq has been a
great experience. I feel as
though my Taskforce and
Company has been put into
a position to make a differ
ence in our deployment.
You hear a lot of stories
about people going over
to Iraq, having a bad atti
tude for deploying, and then
that attitude reflects over
into their job. It is not about
“doing your time” as much
as it should be about “doing
your job.”
DANIELS
From page 4A
the commonly acceptable
way to live as these teen
age brothers call it. Alex and
Brett have banded together
to create what is known as
the “Rebelution,” which is a
movement aimed at Christian
young people to encourage
them to reject the low expecta
tions culture places on them.
It’s easy to go with the flow
of the culture, to passively do
what everyone else is doing.
And in today’s world of Ipods,
video games, social network
ing websites and all the “do
what you want to do” mes
sages young people hear, it’s
easy to see how simple it is to
become self-centered. Fredell
and the Harris brothers are
doing everything they can to
help their peers avoid set
tling for so little. As someone
a generation ahead of them,
I hope they are successful.
We all benefit and can learn
from their message, no mat
ter what our age.
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WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11, 2008
Houston
Lake
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