Aaron David Holst

I just reviewed what I'd originally typed here and it read all too much like bragging. Not my way, sorry.
I'll lay it out succinctly...

Graduated from MHS.

Lived in my Audi for a while.

Moved to Davenport and earned my Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting, minoring in Art History, English and History proper, with a concentration in 20th Century German History.

Got some tattoos.

Put together a decent music group and played the 6-state midwest area for about 2 years and made a chunk of change.

Moved to Iowa City and earned my MA in Sculpture and Painting (double concentration) and MFA in Printmaking and Painting (double concentration).
Started a commercial sound reinforcement and production corporation.
Began actively composing, recording, touring, etc. with a couple of different music projects.

Got some more tattoos.

Moved to NY and started teaching. Served as a Cultural Philosophy and Studio Arts professor and Aethetics Theoretician for about 12 years total.
Taught during the academic years and toured the states with my music group during the summers.

Got even more tattoos.

Met Erin, got married, adopted Trixie and Norton and quit teaching and moved back to Iowa to start our family.

Got, yep, more tattoos.

Picked up a no-brainer job so to allow myself the ability (time, energy, etc.) to concentrate on music and my family.

Welcomed into this world the most wonderful little boy I have ever known and named him Waylon Francis.

Am, as of late, beginning to burn with the need to return to teaching. We'll see what happens with that.

Also am suffering the desire to get more tattoos.


Shalom, le'hitra'ot axar kax, osher uvree'ut.

...Something about a dill pickle slice sent airborne from the hand of one big-haired, tight-pants-wearing Rockstar-wannabe in the MHS cafeteria and landing on Chuck Van Hecke's head.

I have more and I think I like this too much.

What of the Junior year Talent show fiasco? Four idiots onstage performing as a band called Axxis and pulling a "fast one" on Frank Ocasio and crew by playing the 8 minute, SEVEN guitar solo, song instead of the drippy ballad they had preferred we play. I vividly recall seeing Frank and Dennis Kirkpatrick scramble to shut us down. We were scolded with many fiery words and thrown out immediately after we completed our performance. I think the whole idea was mine and Jason's (Donato). Bad kids.

How about the dance our Senior year (again with Donato and Jamie Hopkins), where I was forced to noodle guitar solos a la Yngwie for what seemed like an eternity while the band, Alfred Hates Batman, wrestled with gear issues. My huge hair and shredded pants were not to be forgotten. There is a video of this event floating around out there somewhere and, last I knew, Mr. Wall had it - of course, that was more than 20 years ago.

Another gem of a memory is of my wearing spandex pants our senior year, for an entire day - and Administration said nary a word, to get the best of my partner, Wendy Franklin, who was notorious for showing too much on any given day. Again, bad boy.

Does anyone else remember the poorly-conceived-and-managed TAG program? Wendy Kirkpatrick? Who was enrolled in that program besides me? I know there was a group of others in it, but cannot remember a single face or name.

I do believe that I was the reason for Kelly Morgan's high blood pressure and greying hair, having had more one-on-ones with him than bathroom breaks. I had one dandy little argument with him one afternoon about smoking, during semester finals, immediately outside the break in the fence atop the parking lot (just off school grounds), while I smoked a cigarette. He yelled at me for smoking until I reminded him that I was 18. We then chatted about life for a while and he opened up quite a bit, surprisingly. I was so very relieved that he (apparently) had no idea I'd just smoked hash.