Such a place didn't require imagination in Emeryville because it drove right up in front of the Expression College for Digital Arts.

It was a big blue bus with John Lennon's self-portrait plastered all over it, aptly named the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus. It's basically a roving recording studio that tours the country in true rock-star fashion for about 10 months of the year, stopping at schools, festivals and concerts to give young people a chance to try their hands on the fancy equipment and maybe coax them into music careers.

It's along the lines of getting to tour a fire truck at school, but way cooler.

"This is way cool," said Expressions sound arts student Ben Heydler, taking a break from drum thumping last week to check out the bus.

Indeed, the bus made some groupies out of the Expressions students last week. "I want this parked in my driveway," said sound arts student Amber Melby, tapping her foot and bouncing her head as Heydler resumed the thump.

"We just want people to take away a smile," said Robert Healy, one of the program's engineers, who happened to be an Expressions alum. "As long as they're happy, having fun and learning something. We're encouraging people to be creative -- not only in music, but in life."

The nonprofit bus program is sponsored by corporate donations and made possible through an agreement with Yoko Ono. It's an offshoot of the seven-year-old John Lennon Songwriting Contest, which provides opportunities for both professional and amateur songwriters around the world.

The bus has been cruising the country since 1998, but was recently rebuilt with all new technology, to the tune of more than $300,000. It's stuffed to the brim with soundproofing and state-of-the-art mixers and keyboards and headphones and DJ stations and connectors and patch panels and lots of things of which the technically challenged have never heard.

During the day-long bus stay, students got to work on songs, record them, mix them, and even make a music video to take home.

Elijah Shamy stood at a two-turntable console with a computer screen mounted to the wall, which responded to every sound with a cyber hieroglyph -- much like a heart monitor. He let the vinyl records play for a second or two, then stopped one, jolted it backwards, then did the same thing to the other one too.

"He's beat-juggling one song," Healy explained to a technically challenged reporter. "It's the same record on both turntables, so he's creating a new song by juggling pieces of them back and forth."

Ah. Of course.

Melby understood. "That's just totally awesome," she said.

The Oakland Tribune: Cityside
Leanne McLaughlin, Managing Editor
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