Strange Bedfellows + Mark Konkol’s Road Trip + Penguin Problems

ACROSS AMERICA — Music steered Patch columnist Mark Konkol to Texas, the modern melting pot of Americana and rock 'n' roll, country, blues, soul and R&B that for nearly a decade has flowed out of Dallas and Austin to small and large stages across the country — sometimes on the way to the Grammy Awards.

The happy tales of traveling bands he hoped to share will have to wait due to a freak accident at the heart of a tragic, and miraculous, story of what happened the day the power went out in East Dallas.

It involves music producer Jeff Saenz, a near-fatal electric shock from a downed power line and a response as big as Texas from musicians, artists, strangers and friends.

“He's got bro insurance,” said James Burt a producer for Saenz’s Modern Electric. “I'm upset and distraught with the situation but 100 percent positive that our crew has his back and whatever Jeff does next it's going to be as bad-ass as everything he as already done.” Read the full story on Dallas Patch.

Strange Bedfellows

So, a big cat — a serval — got loose and wandered into a Georgia woman’s house and jumped in bed with her. “It was terrifying,” Kristine Frank said. “When I looked, it was as tall as my bed, so I could see its head and ears. That's when I knew it was not a normal house cat. I just froze and yelled for my husband. I said, 'That's not a cat and I don't know what it is.’ ”

The cat escaped, but officials with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources were finally able to capture it five days later. Read the full story on Brookhaven Patch.

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“I love being a paramedic. It's something that I've always wanted to be and something I always wanted to do. My uncle was a paramedic ... and that's what got me into it.”

— Paramedic Kristopher Keyser, who was honored after saving a drowning 4-year-old lying face down in a backyard swimming pool, via Fairfax Patch

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