Sean and Alee Go All The Way

In 2023, I was invited to be the officiant of my dear old friends, Sean and Alee’s wedding. It was the invitation of a lifetime and I was honored to be the one to bring their lives together. Sean and I both were tearful in the moment, while Alee was ever the dude who made fun of us for being a “bunch of crybabies.” I share this here today for posterity, misspellings and all.

Below is the Officiant’s speech (or whatever it’s called).

***YOU MAY BE SEATED.*****

Dearly Beloved

We are gathered here today to celebrate the union of Sean and Alee!

So many of us have traveled great distances to be here for this joyous celebration. There is nowhere else we would rather be than right here right now, celebrating this NEU family. Pun intended.

Hold for chuckles.

The love in this venue is powerful! Can you feel it? So many friends. family. both old, new and those friendships yet to be discovered.

Of course Friendship is the cornerstone of any great relationship and that’s where today’s journey begins.

Sean and Alee began their life first as friends. They met at College and became roommates. They lived together in a large house, each working towards their futures. Both of them were unaware that their futures were destined to be together.

Sean and Alee would stay friends after college. They would go on to start their individual lives, but they stayed close. They were there for each other through thick and thin, growing slowly towards becoming the best friends they were always meant to be.

Weddings are intended to be quiet affairs, but if we might break decorum real quick. Can we get some noise from those of us who knew long before they did that these two both were meant to be together?

It was so obvious wasn’t it? Obvious to everyone but them! Every story I’d hear, the nicknames or inside jokes from these two said it all… These two were meant for each other.

But isn’t that how the greatest relationships are formed? Time. Growth. Dedication. Love. All those qualities existed long before they found their romance. It was those years of friendship that they built the foundation of this love and their future life.

Sean works in Security and in the days before I met alee, I would joke, “I wonder what it would take to get that Top Secret clearance to Sean’s heart?”

I stopped joking the moment I met Alee. Immediately, I knew she was the key to his heart.

They are each other’s Yin and Yang. They bring each other a sense of Balance.

Who else experienced the absolute joy when they revealed that they had finally taken that obvious leap into romance?

And it was in those early days of this adventure that Sean and Alee invited my love and I on a double date at the Botanical Gardens.

We watched as these two danced around each other. Still so nervous of the relationship that was blossoming. These two had loved each other for so long, but what did it mean now?

It was in those tender moments in the gardens.. watching as the two of them held hands.. watching them gently explored what this next chapter of their relationship would become… I knew these two would GO ALL THE WAY.

Their love grew to the true place it was always meant to grow.

Today we are here in celebration of what they have discovered since that afternoon in the gardens.

The love in this room is powerful.

Look around the room and You can see the love and joy that these two represent, reflected in each of your faces. Not just our love of Sean and Alee, but the love we have for each other.

With this love in our hearts, we are helping to build the bond that will carry these two forward into their futures. That love is worth more than any of the wrapped boxes we brought with us today. Those are the real gifts that we bring to this couple by being here today in this joyous celebration.

As we continue this ceremony, think of your love of Sean and Alee. Think of your favorite moments you may have of them and hold that love close in your hearts as we welcome these two to their next chapter and adventures unknown.

OFF MIC: Shall we begin? Are you two ready?

Marriage is a supreme sharing, perhaps the greatest and most challenging adventure in life.

It is the joyful uniting of two individuals whose care and affection and understanding have flowered into a deep and powerful love.

Those who take its vows have their lives blended together into one, as the waters of two rivers are joined when they come together to form an even greater one.

The bride and groom have prepared their own vows:

—-

Alee: Do you take this man for your lawful wedded husband, to have and to hold, from this & day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health as long as you both shall live?

Sean: Do you take this woman for your lawful wedded wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health as long as you both shall live?

You may kiss the bride!

Ladies and Gentlemen.. I present to you… Sean And ALEE NEU!!!

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An ode to Alissa Rogers (1982 – 2016) Shreveport / Denver

November 12, 2022 No Comments

From Alissa: “sorry you are in that, its retardation not blooming. think about birth and also how much the sun hates us, and how fucking special it is to be able to feel a past. smell it. converse with it. have it. but to have the benefit of a future, its our internal health plan. chew on bits of ice as well, very uplifting and constructive-but socially annoying. i enjoy it during large group meetings, and dealing with the homeless. i miss our high school car rides.” -Alissa Rogers Today would have been my friend Alissa’s 40th birthday. I’m sitting in Hawaii looking at the water and my face is wet as I think about Alissa and my thoughts drift to my sister Brittany, gone now 13 years herself. I think about my friends who recently lost siblings. I think about how I wouldn’t be sitting here in fucking Hawaii had it not been for these folks who helped shape me into the pear shaped individual I am today. Here’s something I wrote when Alissa passed some years back. I miss her and think of her often. This was written in grief, and a first draft was posted. It desperately needs to be edited, but I just can’t stop crying when I read this to make the fixes…. So please forgive all the grammatical errors and such… —– Alissa Rogers was the first woman who let me touch her boobs. She was wearing these fake silicon pads you put into your bra and wanted me to feel them too see if they were real. Years later she told me that was the night she wanted to take my virginity, but I was too dumb to make a move. Alissa Rogers is the reason I am the man I am today. Alissa Rogers passed away today. I’m sitting here trying to figure out what to write about that wild, wonderful and obnoxious woman. I’ve been sitting here in silence for the last 15 minutes trying to find the right words when it dawns on me, had she been here she would have said something wildly inappropriate to break the tension. She would have made me and every one else laugh. She was fierce. She was hilarious. She was my friend. I went to Byrd High school in Shreveport, Louisiana with Alissa and I fucking hated her. She was everything I wasn’t. She was loud, obnoxious and loved attention. Of course I would fall in love with her. It happened in a dream. I had seen her out and about at places like the Karma Cup coffee house or St Vincent Mall, but I didn’t know her. Then she showed up in a dream of mine. More like invaded it. That was more her style. It wasn’t a sexual dream, it was just a dream where this larger than life girl played a part in. Somewhere a switch in my head turned my hatred into adoration. I was shy and awkward. I didn’t know how to approach her or become her friend, but fate intervened as during those late nights loitering at the Karma Cup, my best friend Michael Burnley ended up dating Alissa’s friend Jessica. As Michael and Jessica grew closer, so did Alissa and I. All these years later, I’m pretty sure the only reason we hung out in High School was because I had a car. She knew I loved her, and I would drive her anywhere. I did it gladly, just to be next to and a part of that thing that she was. She became my partner in Crime. I’d drive her to school everyday. I’d drive her around Shreveport. We’d drive to Dallas, Houston, Longview, or Tyler, Texas to see Punk Rock bands play. It was one of those days where I was driving Alissa around. We were going to go hang out with her new boyfriend Joe. I was jealous, but I was blindly in love and would do anything for her. It was on this day, my life changed for the better. We drove across the bridge into Bossier City, to a magical place called Books A Millions. It was big box book store with a gigantic parking lot, just blocks away from the mall. All the cool kids hung out in that parking lot of weekend nights. There at Books a Million, on that faithful day, We sat down at a patio table and I met Joe Upton and his friends. I remember sitting down at the table not knowing a single person at the table. I was shy. I was quiet. I was nervous and scared. Normally I would not have said a god damned thing, but something happened that day, because I reached out my hand to the person sitting on my right. I introduced myself to the guy sitting next to me. That person was Matt Crowson. Matt has become someone I’ll never be able to get rid of. Also sitting at that table were two other very important people in my adolescence, Joe & Ivy Woods It was through that group of Alissa, Matt, Joe, Ivy and later on Jason Gay; that I would find my courage. I would find my inspiration. I would find the beginnings of the path that has led me here. I had always wanted to start an underground fanzine, and guess what? Joe and Jason had one. I started interviewing bands for Joe and Jason’s KGB magazine. Alissa was a big part of pushing me to becoming more comfortable with myself. She used her powers of persuasiveness to help push me down the road I needed to be on. Fast forward a few years later and it was New Years Eve of 2001. Alissa had just returned to Shreveport after living in Denver for years. It was the first time in my entire life that it had snowed in Shreveport. I spent that evening hanging out with Alissa driving in the ice and

Elway – Tim Browne interview on Leavetaking & moving to Chicago (New Noise Magazine Issue #2 – May 2013)

July 19, 2022 No Comments

Editor’s Note: This is the raw draft of the interview published by New Noise Magazine. This draft has not been seen by an editor. There will be errors. There are three things that should immediately spring to mind when thinking of Fort Collins, Colorado: The Blasting Room, Surfside 7, and Elway. Elway, or the band formerly known as 10-4 Eleanor, have taken their small town roots and have grown into a healthy body of excellence. After six years of growth in Colorado, a place that holds the band’s namesake as sacred as Jesus Christ himself, Elway have packed their bags and sailed the seas to the concrete ocean of Chicago. We join Guitarist/Singer Tim Brown just days after recording the follow up to their 2011 debut, Delusions to talk about the move to Chicago, recording with Matt Allison and their new album: Leavetaking. You’ve moved the week of recording from the snowy mountain town of Fort Collins, Colorado to the third largest city in the states. The name of the album, Leavetaking alludes to moving on. How much about it is leaving Colorado? Leavetaking does in part refer to my moving to Chicago and the experiences that lead up to my doing so, but the overall theme of the album is not so solipsistic. The album is about parting ways with the past, and the sort of ups and downs that that entails. Of course the lyrics reflect my personal experiences to a certain extent, but in writing them I tried to focus on the emotions and thoughts that frame situations like my own rather than the unambiguous minutia about my life that may or may not be relatable. What do you hope to gain by living in Chicago vs. Colorado? I lived in Colorado for most of my life and I spent the last six years in Fort Collins. It’s a small college town. I graduated college and started touring a lot of the time. It seemed every time I was back in town more of my friends would have moved away. I just sort of receded into this pattern of drinking a ton to pass the time between tours. I don’t want to make it sound like I was at some rock bottom and I needed to get my shit together because that’s nowhere near the case. I still drink all the time; I just do it in a locale that is still exotic to me. I won’t hit rock bottom for years! I don’t resent the times I spent in Fort Collins, but after a certain point I felt like I needed to move on, you know? I moved to Chicago because I love this city and had the good fortune to meet a ton of great people here over the years. It’s always felt like a second home to me, and I’m currently quite happily exploring what it feels like to have it as my first. I suppose I am hoping to gain good times and meet different folks in a different part of the world. Same reason why we forgo financial security to tour with a punk band. You guys seemed to benefit from being one of the few punk bands in the small Fort Collins scene. Will you miss the Big Fish/Tiny Pond aspect of the musical scene in Fort Collins? Because the town is so small, the music scene in Fort Collins has a real ebb and flow to it. The only music that is constantly popular and successful in that town is jam/newgrass/dubstep or whatever is the college genre du jour. DIY punk and indie bands are a constant as well, but being able to consistently play great shows is tricky there. Our band is a byproduct of a high water mark for the DIY scene in Fort Collins. When we started playing in 2007, it seemed like there were tons of house show spots and everybody was really enthusiastic. We cut our teeth playing basement shows and Surfside 7 at a time when there was a lot of enthusiasm for what we were doing. Over the years, that feeling came and went and shows got worse and better and worse and better in infinite succession. The truly great thing about Fort Collins is that it is an easy place to have your home base. It wasn’t until we started touring really consistently that we started to garner momentum as a whole. Our friends in Fort Collins have always been very supportive. I don’t know that we were ever big fish in a tiny pond there though. There is no real punk ‘scene’ to be on top of. We built a scene playing alongside our friends in indie bands and alt-country bands to whoever in the narrow demographic of ‘music-savvy drinkers’ would listen. It was a great way to start out. With a new start there is an excitement of the life you can create in a new city. How did that excitement show itself in Atlas Studios? The prioritizing and task-management that any move requires was something of a stress factor during our time recording at Atlas. Joe and I were frenetically searching for jobs during the day before our sessions would start. We ate microwaved spaghetti and shitty white bread because we were broke and had to be a little spendthrift. The upside was that it was incredibly liberating to know that after we finished the record we could crawl out of the windowless sound cave at Atlas and get to know a new city. I certainly hope that the urgency comes across on the record. Many of your favorite records have been recorded by Matt Allison at Atlas Studios. Is there something magical in the air of that room? Is there a residual vibe from the previous artists that have shared that room with you? Before we ever came to Atlas, the thought of doing a record there was extremely intoxicating. The stuff that has come out of

Blacklist Royals Talks About Battling Cancer At A Young Age, Making ‘Die Young With Me’ (New Noise Magazine – July 2014)

July 19, 2022 No Comments