Tonight is the Cherry Creek Radio Company Christmas Party, so listeners along with Smith and Bushman shared their worst company Christmas Party moments.  Please, step away from the Karaokee machine.

Tis The season for Holiday Specials.  Click here for a listing  of when your favorite holiday special will air on Television this year.

Join Smith and Bushman for this high energy, family-friendly concert at the Electric Theater.   Come see the Aquabats, Suburban Legends, and DJ Lance Rock from the hit children’s show on Nick Jr.  Yo Gabba Gabba!

This year Sunny 106.1 wants to give you and your family a gift to kick off the holiday season!

Click Here To Enter Online!

It’s the holiday season at the Disneyland® Resort, where a holiday magic unfolds, and a fairytale castle sparkles as it transforms into a shimmering winter palace,and snow magically appears out of thin air! See what happens when Halloween and Christmas collide at Haunted Mansion Holiday, inspired by Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas! Enjoy holidays around the world on It’s a Small World Holiday! You can even meet the big guy himself, Santa Claus! It’s the Holidays at the Disneyland® Resort – The Merriest Place on Earth! 

Each morning at 8:00 am, Smith and Bushman will announce a daily qualifier. When you hear your name, call us back at 46-SUNNY (467-8669). Smith and Bushman will announce a weekly winner of four 3 day Disneyland® Resort Park Hopper Tickets every Friday at 8am!

Today is the day folks!  Election Day 2008.  For those of you who are still undecided, you can get most of your questions about candidates, issues, and poll locations answered by visiting www.leaveyourprint.com

The important thing is that you get out and VOTE!  This is a historic year and a historic election. 

Also, you can visit Kari Bushman’s Blog to see a list of songs to vote to on this historic election day.

Be sure to visit Kari Bushman’s Blog for a list of songs for haunting this Halloween!

As promised, here is a photo of Jon Smith’s Mr. T costume: 

 And then there’s this little cutie…she’s so little!  Thanks to Anna Finlayson for the photo! 

Jon Smith\’s Blog

Jon Smith\’s Videos
 

In Today’s News You Are Better Off Without

German traffic police have been left looking for muppets by a British prankster.  An Audi TT with British registration plates has been repeatedly caught speeding on roads. But because speed cameras are set up for left-hand drive vehicles, the cameras keep missing the driver’s face.

Instead, they keep capturing clear views of a muppet. 

 Sargeant Craig Harding from the St. George Police Department dropped by to talk traffic safety, and to deliver a word of caution…Slooow Doown!  St. George Police are going to be cracking down on speeders even those exceeding the limit by only 5 or 6 miles per hour.  Be careful out there.

Brent from The Corpse Nightmare also stopped by to give away some free tickets.  The Corpse Nightmare is the  #1 Halloween attraction in Southern Utah.  And The Corpse Nightmare is now open nightly from dusk to midnight through Halloween!  Go early to avoid the long lines Halloween night.  Jon Smith will be broadcasting live at The Corpse Nightmare this Thursday (October 30th) from 7:30 to 9:30pm.   Join him for a good scare.  If you dare…….

The MRAP that picked me up from JSS WASHASH was very crowded, and you can’t really see out of them.. So I pretty much just slept on my way to my new home. Sleep is something you take when you can get it here. It doesn’t really matter what time it is.

They dropped me off and tossed my gear out the back and drove off with no instructions. I had NO idea who I was supposed to be looking for, but as with most situations here in Iraq. If you wander around sooner or later, people point you in the right direction. I went around a group of T-Walls and walked toward the three story building known as JSS KHADRA. THe building is white and turquoise, in a checkerboard pattern. With old style Iraqi flags painted down the columns. I would later learn that this was once the Ministry of Transportation building, and Iraqi Police Station. Thats right, I’m living in an Iraqi DMV.

As I walked up I heard a bewildered “who the *%$# are YOU?”. Lt Scott was the one asking the questions, he didnt seem to have ANY clue that I was coming. Even with that, he welcomed me in, and started showing me around. Khada is made up of a couple of buildings, but again only a 9 foot concrete wall seperates us from the rest of the city. The big difference between this and Washash, was that here we share our space with the Iraqi Army. The IA guys try to emulate the Americans best they can, much to the amusement of the US soldiers. The IA wear kevlar vests with no plates in many occasions, and put knee pads around their ankles, even when they HAVE knee pads on their knees. (The knee pads on the ankles thing was popular among US soldiers around 2005-2006 before it bacame mandatory to wear them the proper way). many times they’ll have radios that dont work attached just for the look. Thier uniforms never match, and they lack alot of discipline. The iraq Army is just a normal job here. You apply and can quit whenever without consequence. They CAN, however be thrown in jail for ten days for falling asleep, or even WORSE to them is having their head shaved. Yeah, I don’t know either. Thats just what they told me.

A quick note. Iraq is the home to about 68,000,000,000,000 flies. I feel like one of those kids that needs 75 cents a day to get the flies to leave them alone.

Khadra was alot nicer than Washash, and alot bigger. Some of the guys made an outdoor bar and barbeque. Even though they can’t drink on Iraqi soil, it’s cool that they have a place to hang out. This new group also enjoys Halloween more than any other I’ve seen. They have decorations EVERYWHERE here at the JSS. The iraqi guys thing they are evil pagan infidels for hanging skulls and zombies all over. It really creeps them out.

LT Scott showed me around a little more, including the Iraqi Motor Pool and CCP. Which is Casulty Collection Point. Anytime there is a death in the area. The body can be picked up here. It smells delightfull, as you can probably imagine.

I was given the bunk of a dude that is out on leave, and it’s very very cramped. about 14 guys, both soldiers and Iraqi interpreters (“terps”) living on bunks in an area about the size of a two car garage.

I’m being kicked off the computer now, so I’ll have to do more tomorrow

bye campers!

ELJON

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Meanwhile, back in St. George…..

Kari Bushman broadcasting live from Gold’s Gym from 2-4pm!  484 N. Mall Drive–It’s Gold’s 2nd Anniversary in St. George, so to celebrate, you can become a member for only $16 a month!  That’s unheard of!  Full access to all 16 Utah locations of Gold’s Gym for only $16.

Learn more by visiting Golds Gym today!  Take a virtual tour right now!

(That means I have been off the American base, and living out in small areas outside the fortified areas with soldiers)

Internet and the like have been VERY limited, so blogging has been a little tricky. So I’ll do my best to catch everybody up.

After leaving Camp Prosperity, the members of Blood Platoon told me that I’d be teaming up with a different group for the rest of the week. So they gave me a ride to their group CP (command post) to meet their CO (commanding officer) and set it all up. We went to JSS Adl first, which at one time was a four story Iraqi shopping mall. THIS was amazing to see! Both the inside and outside are riddled with bullet holes, and the soldiers have used what seems to be the entire lumber section of a Home Depot to create living spaces, offices, and meeting rooms in what used to be stores. The center of the building is open all the way to the roof. Like most malls there is a fountain in the middle with escalators going up to each level. So you can see down to whats left of the fountain from every room. The escalators are still there, and still work, though they are rarely turned on for power reasons, as well as several remnants of individual stores. (signs, shelves, posters, etc)

It’s very surreal, and almost post apocalyptic to see what was once a center of local commerce, completely transformed into a military base. We then went to Camp Liberty for our meeting, where I was able to get some “pougie bait” That’s soldier talk for souvenirs. I grabbed some stickers for my file cabinet

I spent the next few hours hanging out at JSS Washash. Washash is a very small place. It was once some Iraqi dudes house. Depending on which soldier you ask, it was either a Sheik, Sadaams cousin, a local busniess owner, etc. Very little room and no privacy whatso ever. No shower, and only green torpedos (outhouses) for bathrooms. It’s surrounded by nine foot concrete walls, but other than that it is right in the middle of Baghdad. So close you can hear the cars drive by on the other side. The building itself has all the windows blocked out by sand bags, and “sniper netting” on the roof, one soldeir was putting a kevlar plate in one of the windows last week, and had it shot right out of his hand by nearby sniper. As they tell me, “someone is ALWAYS watching”

you hear alot about the dogs in Iraq. They are litterally EVERYWHERE. Sine the army does not allow mascots, or pets, the boys at Washash have their “Security Dog”, Scout. A cute little puppy that only likes guys in ACU’s. Anyone else comes around he FREAKS out.

The soldeirs do all they can to make Washash feel more like home. Including adding a patio to the side, While helping unload supplies, I saw a big guy named PFC Updike slam his finger with a hammer. He barely made a sound, even though blood was gushing from the wound. The medic gave him a few stitches, and he went right back to work… These guys are the real deal.

I wandered around the house noticing little things. the wall sconces, holes from picture frames, etc. I never in my life thought I’d be sleeping in some Iraqi dudes house in the middle of a war. It’s been an amazing experience. I did some call in’s with Bushman, talked to two guys from Southern Utah, and waited for my ride. I was sad to leave, I had already made some good friends in the group, and now I would have to start ALL over again.

Food has to be trucked out to the JSS, and that only happens every three days. You can imagine how creative they have to get for the meals on that third day. Turns out the food escort was my ride to my next JSS.

This time I got to ride through Baghdad in an MRAP. A VERY large vehicle meant to replace the Humvee. I like the Humvee better. I could not see much from the back of an MRAP.

Next stop! JSS Khadra!

More on that in a minute.

***side note. My laptop did not survive the journey. So I’m recapping my trip from hand written notes, using shared computers on base. So I wont have pictures posted until I get home, and am recapping the blog best I can.. It’s sucks I know. but oh well.***

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Meanwhile, back in St. George…..

Amazing Larry stopped by for another Amazing look at movies opening in St. George this weekend:

As seniors in high school, Troy (Efron) and Gabriella (Hudgens) struggle with the idea of being separated from one another as college approaches. Along with the rest of the Wildcats, they stage a spring musical to address their experiences, hopes and fears about their future.  If there is anyone in your household under the age of 18, chances are you already have your tickets for this one.  And the dirty little secret of the HSM flicks is – they’re actually not half bad, executed with solid professionalism, boundless enthusiasm, and wholeheated willingness to embrace a world of ‘dances ‘n songs!’. It’s an immersive musical sensibility that recent big-screen musicals like Dreamgirls and Chicago shied away from with their jazz hands wide open.

This film got a double-ding from Bushman as it stars Edward Norton (ding) and Colin Farrell (ding).  A family of prominent New York City cops is shaken to its core when one brother (Norton) uncovers a scandal at his sibling’s precinct.  For those who have been tracking this film through its initial production and subsequent re-shoots, this October 2008 release date is a relief on the one hand and somewhat distressing news on the other. Perhaps Gavin O’Connor’s first excursion into dark territory doesn’t look as good on film as it does on paper? Still, Bushman would pay to watch Edward Norton and Colin Farrell read the dictionary.

For those looking to get into the Halloween spirit this weekend.  Saw V offers a blood-curdling, spine-chilling alternative.  Forensics expert Hoffman (Mandylor) goes on the hunt in order to prevent being identified as the newest person to carry on Jigsaw’s legacy.