Home, Home 'Neath the Plains...

Elspode · 04-12-2006, 04:00 PM

I had no idea where to put this little tale. I thought Current Events might be right, but then I realized that that's mostly for stuff everyone knows about through media and such. Home Base? Maybe. Finally, I settled on Entertainment, because damn it, I was entertained by it all.

A couple of years ago, our organization retained the services of Russell Buddy Helm (www.buddyhelm.com), author of "Way of the Drum", to present a spiritual drumming workshop at our 2005 festival. It was great, and I established an ongoing relationship with Buddy. We bring him in a couple of times a year now to do his workshops at a local Pagan store, and we're working to get him a wider audience (his seminars are excellent, and his theories of healing through rhythm extremely useful). When he's in town, he usually stays at my place, since he's kind of running on a shoestring. Consequently, I get to have a lot of time to hear his old rock and roll stories, tales of his days as VP of Post Production at Lorimar during the Dallas/Falconcrest days, and so on.

Buddy was a drummer with a band called Bethlehem Asylum during the early 70's, touring and playing with the Allman Brothers. He also was with Tim Buckley for five years as a touring and recording drummer, and has worked with Frank Zappa, Ray Manzarek and lots and lots of other people as a session drummer. While the tales of the good old days are a gas, it is his current spiritual mission that is the most intriguing, and he travels the country meeting people and passing on the secrets of improving your life through rhythm.

No one that Buddy has ever met could possibly be as intriguing as Ed and Diana Peden, a couple I met night before last when we drove Buddy to the Kansas farmlands just West of Topeka. After Buddy finishes his work here in KC, he usually goes on to Wichita, where he has a promising young traditional percussion student with a rich daddy, or to the former Atlas underground missle facility that is the home of New Age/Renaissance facilitators/ex-hippy types Mr. and Mrs. Peden.

If you do a Google search for "Peden Silo", you will find a great number of articles and photos about these two amazingly nice people who purchased an abandoned, water-filled, first-generation ICBM facility in the middle 80's, outfitting and moving into it as their permanent home in the middle 90's. Mrs. Elspode and I got the grand tour when we dropped Buddy off there Monday night, and it is a truly amazing place. Over 6,000 square feet of former control center, missle support bay and missle silo (this first-generation silo was a horizontal configuration, where the missle was erected using a cable system after the nearly million pound launch door was cranked back) buried underneath 3 feet of dirt and concrete, 18" concrete floors underlying it all, and surrounded by a 35-acre piece of Kansas plains. All for a guy who really isn't a suvivalist.

Over the years, and with a considerable investment of funds, they have made an entirely warm, comfortable and charming place to live, complete with a performance space sporting a stage and ambiance courtesy of the TV show "While You Were Out". They have a commercial kitchen adjacent to this huge area, which can easily seat 60 or 70 people comfortably. True to his baby boomer roots, Ed has amassed a nice collection of vintage instruments and amps, and an astounding number of hand drums. They had drummed there long before Buddy came along, but his presence now assures a crowded and grooving experience two or three times a year. Because in some places the concrete structure has 20' ceilings, they have added even more living space by running a balcony around some of the perimeter, adding a small apartment which they rent, as well as Harry Potteresque bunk beds for their daughters, now grown, when they come to visit.

The actual living space is what was formerly the missle control center, and they have the old launch console and some of the electrical hardware on display. They are immediately adjacent to the 100 foot+ long corrugated steel tunnel (with a massive steel door that makes an ominious echoing "boom" when firmly closed) that connects the former launch/missle service bays to the former control center, a path that most of the online articles still refer to as their front door. Indeed, it was so, before they built a nice "greenhouse" entry area to provide more light attached to their living spaces.

I encourage you all to take a look at Buddy's site to absorb a little more about this talented Floridian/Californian, and to check out the available info on the Pedens. Ed and Diana aren't hard to find, having been on the Carson show, in People magazine and in most of the major dailies around the US at one time or another.

I love knowing interesting people. I only wish it made me more interesting by association.

dar512 · 04-12-2006, 04:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Elspode

I love knowing interesting people. I only wish it made me more interesting by association.

We find you interesting, Els.

Griff · 04-12-2006, 07:58 PM

Dude, thanks for another peek into doing life your way. You are way more interesting than most of us.

xoxoxoBruce · 04-20-2006, 10:17 PM

Damn, you heathens meet the most interesting people.

04-12-2006, 04:00 PM	#1
Elspode When Do I Get Virtual Unreality? Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Raytown, Missouri Posts: 12,719	Home, Home 'Neath the Plains... I had no idea where to put this little tale. I thought Current Events might be right, but then I realized that that's mostly for stuff everyone knows about through media and such. Home Base? Maybe. Finally, I settled on Entertainment, because damn it, I was entertained by it all. A couple of years ago, our organization retained the services of Russell Buddy Helm (www.buddyhelm.com), author of "Way of the Drum", to present a spiritual drumming workshop at our 2005 festival. It was great, and I established an ongoing relationship with Buddy. We bring him in a couple of times a year now to do his workshops at a local Pagan store, and we're working to get him a wider audience (his seminars are excellent, and his theories of healing through rhythm extremely useful). When he's in town, he usually stays at my place, since he's kind of running on a shoestring. Consequently, I get to have a lot of time to hear his old rock and roll stories, tales of his days as VP of Post Production at Lorimar during the Dallas/Falconcrest days, and so on. Buddy was a drummer with a band called Bethlehem Asylum during the early 70's, touring and playing with the Allman Brothers. He also was with Tim Buckley for five years as a touring and recording drummer, and has worked with Frank Zappa, Ray Manzarek and lots and lots of other people as a session drummer. While the tales of the good old days are a gas, it is his current spiritual mission that is the most intriguing, and he travels the country meeting people and passing on the secrets of improving your life through rhythm. No one that Buddy has ever met could possibly be as intriguing as Ed and Diana Peden, a couple I met night before last when we drove Buddy to the Kansas farmlands just West of Topeka. After Buddy finishes his work here in KC, he usually goes on to Wichita, where he has a promising young traditional percussion student with a rich daddy, or to the former Atlas underground missle facility that is the home of New Age/Renaissance facilitators/ex-hippy types Mr. and Mrs. Peden. If you do a Google search for "Peden Silo", you will find a great number of articles and photos about these two amazingly nice people who purchased an abandoned, water-filled, first-generation ICBM facility in the middle 80's, outfitting and moving into it as their permanent home in the middle 90's. Mrs. Elspode and I got the grand tour when we dropped Buddy off there Monday night, and it is a truly amazing place. Over 6,000 square feet of former control center, missle support bay and missle silo (this first-generation silo was a horizontal configuration, where the missle was erected using a cable system after the nearly million pound launch door was cranked back) buried underneath 3 feet of dirt and concrete, 18" concrete floors underlying it all, and surrounded by a 35-acre piece of Kansas plains. All for a guy who really isn't a suvivalist. Over the years, and with a considerable investment of funds, they have made an entirely warm, comfortable and charming place to live, complete with a performance space sporting a stage and ambiance courtesy of the TV show "While You Were Out". They have a commercial kitchen adjacent to this huge area, which can easily seat 60 or 70 people comfortably. True to his baby boomer roots, Ed has amassed a nice collection of vintage instruments and amps, and an astounding number of hand drums. They had drummed there long before Buddy came along, but his presence now assures a crowded and grooving experience two or three times a year. Because in some places the concrete structure has 20' ceilings, they have added even more living space by running a balcony around some of the perimeter, adding a small apartment which they rent, as well as Harry Potteresque bunk beds for their daughters, now grown, when they come to visit. The actual living space is what was formerly the missle control center, and they have the old launch console and some of the electrical hardware on display. They are immediately adjacent to the 100 foot+ long corrugated steel tunnel (with a massive steel door that makes an ominious echoing "boom" when firmly closed) that connects the former launch/missle service bays to the former control center, a path that most of the online articles still refer to as their front door. Indeed, it was so, before they built a nice "greenhouse" entry area to provide more light attached to their living spaces. I encourage you all to take a look at Buddy's site to absorb a little more about this talented Floridian/Californian, and to check out the available info on the Pedens. Ed and Diana aren't hard to find, having been on the Carson show, in People magazine and in most of the major dailies around the US at one time or another. I love knowing interesting people. I only wish it made me more interesting by association. __________________ "To those of you who are wearing ties, I think my dad would appreciate it if you took them off." - Robert Moog Last edited by Elspode; 04-12-2006 at 04:15 PM.

04-12-2006, 07:58 PM	#3
Griff still says videotape Join Date: Feb 2001 Posts: 26,813	Dude, thanks for another peek into doing life your way. You are way more interesting than most of us. __________________ If you would only recognize that life is hard, things would be so much easier for you. - Louis D. Brandeis

04-20-2006, 10:17 PM	#4
xoxoxoBruce The future is unwritten Join Date: Oct 2002 Posts: 71,105	Damn, you heathens meet the most interesting people. __________________ The descent of man ~ Nixon, Friedman, Reagan, Trump.

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