Day 2, Green Day Campaign: Find Adrienne

We're moving right along with our campaign to get Green Day. (For background, see the "Help Me Get Green Day" post below.) Eric Jones of the Alltel is on board. Lots of "excitement" (or as much excitement as a room full of reporters can muster) has been exuded, unleashing stories from the past when the band played here in Mankato.

For instance, I came to find Adrienne Armstrong, Billie Joe's wife, babysat for coworker, Jim Rueda, and worked at Pagliai's with his wife, Cheryl. This gave me a great in when I e-mailed Adeline Records today, which Adrienne co-owns (at least, I hope she answers e-mail there, but probably not).
Here's what I said:

Hi there. My name is Amanda Dyslin, and Adrienne (if this is you, and I hope it is), you used to babysit for my Free Press coworker sitting right across from me, Jim Rueda in Mankato, Minn., where I am at this very minute. You also used to waitress at Pagliai's, where Jimmy's wife, Cheryl Rueda, worked.

I am contacting you because here in Mankato we have launched a campaign. I have heard so many stories over the years: people who went to school with you, people who had the hugest crush on you, people who saw Green Day perform at Marty's and in St. Peter, people who were part of Mankato's little punk scene from the early 1990s. So even though Green Day is so far out of our league at this point, our campaign is as such: Get Green Day to play a show in Mankato.

The Alltel Center only fits 7,000, and the price they can pay is less than what the band is accustomed to at this point. But we're putting all of our efforts into making this happen and trying to appeal to your sense of nostalgia. Eric Jones at the Alltel Center is offering free schwarmas for a year, or the key to the city, or renaming Hickory Street "Green Day Way." ...Actually, I'm not sure how much of that we can actually do, but we'd try.

I've started blogging about it at www.katotainment.blogspot.com, I've put a call out on our Web site at www.mankatofreepress.com to get people to share their Adrienne and Green Day stories with us, and we've been calling everyone we know who might have some sort of tie to you from the early '90s. We plan to continue writing and blogging about this for as long as we need to. I hope this e-mail finds you well (or finds you at all!) It would be wonderful to hear from you. 507-344-6388.

Thank you very much,
Amanda.

We are asking anyone who has memories of seeing the band perform here or who went to college with Adrienne to submit their stories to us so we can write a big ol' story that might help get them to come.
Send your stories to adyslin@mankatofreepress.com.

Oh, by the way, what's standing in our way of getting them here? According to Eric, Green Day is quite used to playing 15,000-seat venues now that they're megastars. They also are used to earning a lot more per show than we are able to pay here in smalltown
Mankato.

We need to appeal to their sense of nostalgia. We also need to reach them some how. I'm open to any and all ideas.

Wish us luck!