Stupid, stupid me

I'm sure anyone that happens on this site realizes that there are popups.  I want to get rid of them, in my callow youth I added them, thinking people would see them and spend money on whatever the pop up was and in return earn me lots and lots of money.  Well, it don't work like that.  All the popups do is annoy people.  I want to get rid of them, but I don't know how.  I don't even remember what sites I got the pop ups from....stupid, stupid me.  Is there anything I can do about this madness?  I'm sure everyone will be very happy if I get rid of these popups.  All I can claim is temporary insanity. 

King Kong Returns

Go to www.volkswagen.com to see the trailer for the new movie coming out this Decemeber.  I'm not too sure what I think of all this remaking of old movies and tv shows.  What ever happened to doing something original?  But with modern special effects it looks pretty good so far.  One of my favorite Peter Jackson movies is The Frighteners with Michael J Fox, a movie that combined horror and comdey.  Anyone else ever see it?

Back From Iraq

I have a friend, Mike, that just got back from Iraq.  Unfortunately he's only back for two weeks, than he has to head back again.   The good thing is that he only has another three months to go and than he can come home for good.

Drugs at Bonnaroo? You're kidding!

Was there a drug problem at Bonnaroo? 

 

No, there definitely was not a drug problem there.  You could get anything you wanted there. 

 

The first day we were there, the first night, right after we set up our tent there was a guy with a backpack walking from tent to tent, asking if you wanted any mushrooms.  We passed but the group across from us bought some from him.

 

On my way to the portajohn someone asked me if I wanted to buy some pot.  Later someone asked Nick if he had any ballons. 

 

The group of girls that were camped behind us spent the whole three days stoned out of their mind.  They never went to any of the shows, they never left their tent area, they sat around and laughed and commented how high they were.  Which wasn't bad when we weren't there, but at three in the morning when we were trying to sleep it was a pain.

 

You could smell the pot in the air the three days we were there.  It was like a mist that just drifted around. 

 

Now I'm not real big in drugs.  I don't take them, even pot, it just gives me a headache, but I don't really care if others do it.  I lean more towards legalizing drugs if truth be told.  But what I dont' understand is, if you're going to spend all the money to get to Bonnaroo and the price of tickets and everything else, why would you spend the entire weekend in your tent stoned out of your mind and not seeing or hearing anything going on?

Day Two: Nashville

Bonnaroo was not till tonight, today was for exploring Nashville.  After leaving our wonderful hotel we headed out.  We had gotten directions from the hotel, which exit to get off to bring us into downtown Nashville.  We were cruising along on the Interstate, getting closer to our exit, only one more exit, than a long stretch with no exits and suddenly we were like way past our exit.  What happened?  Where did our exit go?  We drove for a little longer, than decided to get off and head back.  Going back we found our exit and got off.  For some reason the other side was missing our exit.

 

It was only a little after eight, so it was still early.  We found a parking lot, right down the street from the Gaylord Center and the Country Music Hall of Fame.   Three dollars to park for the entire day!  I couldn't believe it.  In New Orleans it costs twenty dollars to park for half a day.

 

This was going to be a mellow day, just walk around and take in the sights.  We really had nothing we had to see, just explore a little.  The Hall of Fame wasn't open yet so we headed up towards Broadway.  We passed the Gaylord Center and saw the long line of people waiting to get in.  On the radio in the car we had heard that there was supposed to be a parade on Broadway at nine. 

 

This weekend was the start of the Country Fan Fair, a big even for Nashville.  Later I read that there was like 140,000 visitors to Fan Fair for the weekend.   After walking around awhile we decided to find a spot on Broadway to watch the parade.  There was people lined up and down the street, but not any really big crowds.  I'm used to Mardi Gras, with the police barricades put up and hundreds of people lining up against them, pushing towards the floats, yelling "Throw me something Mister!"

 

Here there were no police barricades, no huge crowds, no police working the crowds.  And when the parade turned the corner we saw that there wasn't really that much of a parade.  I think there was about a dozen cars with country stars and someone told me later so soap opera stars in the open back seats.  The only one I recognized was Cowboy Troy.  But the people were able to go up to the cars and get autographs, so that was kind of cool.

 

After that we went and got something to eat.  Than headed to the Hall of Fame.  The Hall of Fame is three floors, you start the tour on the third floor and work your way down.  On the bottom floor is the actual Hall of Fame, with plaques for all the members of the Hall of Fame.  The other two floors were displays of country music's history.  It starts with the old singers and as you go down towards the bottom it gets closer to the present.

 

Now I'm not a big country music fan.  There's stuff I like, but I'm not that big a listener to it.  But the Hall of Fame was really very interesting.  Jason and the Scorchers were in it, they had a display.  I was somewhat surprised by that.  They're not exactly mainstream country. 

 

The actual Hall of Fame is impressive.  It's just a circular room with the plaques on the wall, but walking around and reading them, it was reading a part of history.  Jimmie Rodgers, Johnny Cash, Carter Family, they were all there and more.

 

After the Hall of Fame we wandered around Nashville some more.  I won't bore you with all the streets and stuff.  A few highlights:  We went to the Ryman and took some pictures, walking down one street on the outdoor balcanoy of the House of Blues there was a young woman singing.  I can't remember her name now, but she wasn't bad.  She was giving small concerts out there every hour.  One thing we noticed while we were there, on almost every street corner there was a police officer.  I'm sure it was for the Fan Fair. 

 

We decided to eat before we headed out towards Bonnaroo.  We ate at Hooters.  (What can we say?  We like the food...yeah, right.)  Than it was time to head for Bonnaroo.  It was around two when we left.  We had heard so many horror stories of how long it took to get into the campsite we figured we didn't want to take a chance.  Nothing started till tommorrow, but we figured it was going to take us half the night to get in and set up so we could catch a few hours sleep before it started.

 

Nashville is about an hour outside of Manchaster where Bonnaroo was.  Once we go back on the highway our thoughs on how long this was going to take didn't improve.  They had signs up on the highway that said Bonnaroo traffic on the right, regular traffic to the left.  We figured that if they were putting traffic signs up this far back, it wasn't going to be good.  But all the way it was clear sailing. 

 

When we got to the exit we were supposed to get off at it was closed.  On the other side of the highway we could see the cars backed up along the service road, it looked like a long line.  We kept going, figuring we would get off the next exit and head back. 

 

The next exit had another entrance to Bonnaroo.  We got off, went up the service road and than turned into a field full of cars.   We were there, we could see the entrance ahead of us, there was about a dozen cars in front of us.  This couldn't be right, we couldn't have gotten in that easy.  We waited in line about an hour and a half, maybe two hours before we were up at the entrance.   No one had even searched our car.  We could see them looking in some cars, there seemed to be no real pattern to what cars they picked.  They asked us if we had glass bottles, when we told them no they said ok.  They put our bracelets on us, gave us our free cds and booklet and told us to follow the cars.  Another thirty minutes and we were parking in the field where we would set up our tent.

 

I couldn't believe it.  I had heard such horror stories.  In fact in the next day I would be talking to this one girl that has been to all the three previous Bonnaroos and she told me that last year it took her group 28 hours to just get in.  That's right, 28 hours they waited in line.  She said they were almost out of gas, they couldn't leave to get it, they would have lost their place in line.  Some of them walked to a gas station, but they didnt' have any gas cans for sale.  They bought a couple gallons of milk, poured the milk out and filled the containers up with gas and went back to their vechicle. 

 

Basically the set up was you park your car and set up your tent next to it.  Pretty simple.   We parked, said hello to our new neighbors on either side of us and set up camp. 

 

Across from us was a group of people that had a nice set up.  We found out from talking to them that they too had been to all the previous Bonnaroos.  They had their tents and than they set up a screen tent and in the screen tent had a table and basically made this their kitchen. 

 

The one guy on our right  had a pick up and set up a table in the back of his pick up and was selling food and stuff.  We hardly ever saw him go to any shows, he did a few, but mainly sat at the back of his truck trying to make some money.  On our left was a couple that ended up going to as many shows as possible.  I'm terrible with names, I know all these people introduced themselves, but I can't remember any of their names now.

 

In the pics I took you can see the sea of cars and tents, but the pictures don't do it justice.  There was cars and tents as far as you could see.  We found we were only about five/ten minutes walk from centroo, where all the concerts and stuff took place.  From talking to some of the other people there we found that they were parked/camped almost an hour's walk from centroo, that's how big this place was.

 

As we were setting up camp I realized something we had forgotten.  We had brought a small grill and had hamburgers and hotdogs to grill.  One thing we forgot....a spatula to turn the hamburgers.  The hotdogs wouldn't be that much of a problem, but it would be hard to turn the hamburgers by hand.

 

After we got set up we headed into centroo.   Once we got there we realized that this place was big.  They had five stages where the acts performed.  They also had four "cafe" tents, where local acts performed.  These were smaller areas, set up with three or four dozen tables where you could actually sit down and watch the acts.  There was two main stages, What and Which Stages.  The other three stages were smaller but still big enough.

 

We ended up just wandering around looking.  They had a comedy tent.  They had a movie tent that ran 24 hours.  This tent was also air conditioned. 

 

They had tents selling food.  There was also tents set up sellling clothes, cds, all sorts of things.  They even had some music set up at the smaller stages for tonight.  We walked around and listened to a few acts before heading back to our tent.  By the time we got  back it was close to midnight and we figured that we better get some sleep so we could start fresh for the next day. 

 

It was exciting, we were here at Bonnaroo, ready to hear some great music.

Master of Disaster

John Hiatt's newest cd is out.  It's called (duh!) Master of Disaster.  Really good stuff.  Not quite as good as Bring the Family and some of his classics, but still very good music.  I don't think he could write a bad song.  I saw him last year in concert, acoustic.  He put on a great show, just him and his guitar and at one point keyboards.  He told stories inbetween songs, his story about the first time the Beatles were on Ed Sullivan was fantastic.  Next month he comes back to the House of Blues with the North Mississippi Allstars, who also play on his newest cd with him.  I'll be there, right at the stage.

Everyone Wants To Be A Rock and Roll Star right?

Anyone remember the group Semisonic?  They had one big hit, Closing Time.  They put out three albums (excuse me, cds) and have not been seen much since.  Their drummer, Jacob Slichter wrote a book entitled SO YOU WANNA BE A ROCK AND ROLL STAR.  It's about the start of the group, their travels on the road, their path to stardom such as it was, and their way back down on the other side.   It is a great book.  I read it all in pretty much one sitting, once I started I just didn't want to put it down.  He talks a lot about the inside mechanics of the music business, how a record company makes a song a hit, what a group has to go through, all very interesting stuff.  Even during all their trials and troubles you can still feel his love of music throughout the book.  It ends with the group reuniting in their home town for some small club dates, just getting back together to play.

Batman Begins

The feeling I got watching this movie is what I hoped to have gotten while watching the last Star Wars, but didn't.

I'm Pregnant!

Look at that belly! It looks like I'm pregnant! God, I need to lose some weight. On the other side, I really wished I could have brought my Canon Rebel camera in with me to Bonnaroo. You can barely make out that arch in the background and you can't read any of the words on it. I had to use a disposable camera while I was there and I didnt get anywhere near the level of pictures I got when I was at JazzFest. 

Messed Up the Pictures Again

I forget everytime that if I want a picture to be first in line, it needs to be the last one I post.  I always do it backwards.  I meant for the Nashville pictures to start with the last one and go in opposite order.  It really doesn't matter, just my anal side coming out.

Nashville #1

This is the line to get into the Gaylord center for registertion for fan fair. I'm not sure of all the details, but I gather you have to register (and pay) before you can get in later to meet all the country stars.  

Nashville #2

Inside the Country Music Hall of Fame. This is one of the only pictures I took inside that came out. It's one of the walls covered with gold records. 

Nashville #3

The Ryman, the original Grand Ole Opry. We didnt' go inside, but just took this picture from outside. 

Nashville #4

Cowboy Troy in the parade. 

Nashville #5

The day we got to Nashville was the start of the fan fair, a big deal in Nashville. This year was the first year they had a parade to kick it off. Sadly to say that was the parade, about a dozen cars just like that one. Coming from New Orleans and Mardi Gras I have to say, it wasn't much of a parade...I wanted to yell throw me something mister! Only one name I recognized in the parade, Cowboy Troy. Nick knew Lila McCann, but I'm not much of a country fan. 

Nashville #6

Ernest Tubb's record shop. We went in and I actually managed to find a cd I needed, Rodney Crowell's Jewel of the South. It was in their bargin bin for $5.99, so I even got a deal on it. 

Nashville #7

The outside of the Country Music Hall of Fame. See the big guitar outside the building, they have these giant size guitars all over in Nashville, it seemed like on every street corner almost. 

Nashville #8

Nashville. Up ahead on the left is the Garyord center and to the right is the country music hall of fame.  

Bonnaroo: On the Road

It's what I know you've all been waiting for, the start of my mulitple posts on Bonnaroo, followed  by pictures (if I can find where I laid them down, I think they're in my car, I've got to go look).  This post is the on the road post.  Wednesday of last week.

 

Tuesday night I had to work, I got off at six in the morning.  Nick took an extra day of vacation so he was off that night.  He had went to Houma to see his girlfriend and was going to drive up that morning to meet me.  I figured he would probably get here around nine or so, which meant if I rushed home from work, jumped in bed I might get about three hours sleep before he got here.

 

Of course when I got home I had to get on the computer to check things out first, but I was off in about thirty minutes.  Nick called about eight, he was getting here a lot sooner than I thought.  I got up and jumped on the computer, I wanted to try and leave a few posts before he got there.  Instead I surfed around reading some blogs and before I could leave a post on my own Nick was here.

 

We loaded up his car and prepared to head off for our stops before we headed off on the road to Bonnaroo.  We figured if we were on the road by noon it would be cool.  First stop was to head back to work so I could exchange the disposable cameras I had bought the day before for twice what I saw for two disposable cameras we also sold, which I missed.  Of course stopping at work might not have been a good idea, we stood around and talked for awhile, everyone wanting to know when we were leaving...now if you'd let us. 

 

Next stop was Walmart.  We were camping at Bonnaroo and bringing a small grill and had to stop and get some food for us to use on said grill.  We weren't going to get a lot, some hamburgers, hotdogs, drinks and chips.   Which pretty much is what we got.  Actually first we went to Sams and got most of the items.  We needed ketchup and mayo, and didn't feel like buying a big package of them at Sams, so that lead us to Walmart. 

 

After that we had to make another stop at my house.  I had forgot my pillow.  We were using sleeping bags, but I can't sleep with my head flat out with the rest of my body, I need something soft to lay it on. 

 

Finally at noon, we were actually on the road to Bonnaroo.   It was a good drive, I thought I'd sleep part of the way, since I hadn't gotten much sleep, but I ended up staying awake for the entire drive.  Nick has satellite radio so that was cool.  We kept jumping from channel to channel, finding great songs that you just don't hear on the radio.  From oldies to new stuff, it was really good. 

 

We stopped for gas and once to eat.

 

Our plan was to get to Nashville tonight, spend the night, spend most of the next day walking around the city and than heading out to Bonnaroo that afternoon/evening to get in.  It actually didnt' start until Friday, but started letting people in on Thursday.

 

We got into Nashville around eight.  We didn't know that Country Music Fan Fair was the same weekend in Nashville.  This is a country music affair that brings in close to 150,000 people to the city.   So guess what we found at our first stop for a hotel?  You got it, no rooms at the inn.  Than one hotel wanted almost a hundred dollars.  We just wanted to use the room to sleep the night and get up early the next morning to head out, we didn't want to spend that much money on a room.  We ended up having to drive through Nashville and ended up in North Nashville, not in the best section of the town, when we finally discovered a hotel that had rooms and wasn't going to cost a fortune. 

 

By this time it was after ten, so we each took showers and hit the sack pretty quick.  We watched some news and it was weird the attitude the newscasters had about Bonnaroo.  They all talked about it like it was some sort of big drug hippie thing, which admitely it was and is to an extent, but they talked so down on it, I was surprised to hear that type of attitude, I'm sure the event brings a certain amount of money to Nashville, just due to its proximity to the site.  But than they'd mention their fan fair and it was like the second coming.   Which I guess explains a lot right there.

 

Stay tuned for more: Nashville and Bonnaroo coming up!

John Fogerty Rocks

Last night went to the John Fogerty concert at the House of Blues.  It was great.  I mean, so many of his songs are classics, I get goosebumps just hearing the start of some of them.  They've become so much a part of the world now. 

 

I love watching him in concert.  He always seems to be having so much fun, bouncing around on the stage and singing.  He brought out Rockie Doopsie for Jambalya.  Afterwards Rockin Doopsie was walking around in the auidence and I shook hands with him.  He told me that he first played with John when he was 12 years old.

 

But I have to agree with Ryan Adam's comments from the night before.  If you're going to a concert to listen to music, why stand around and talk and get on your cell phone and talk, listen to the music people.  It can get pretty annoying.

 

But all in all it was a great concert.

Buffy Returns

Just got back from picking Buffy up from my parents. She had a great time out with them, visiting her best bud, Sadie. I thought I'd post these old pics of Buffy when she was still a puppy with Sadie. 

Ryan Adams Does Not Like the House of Blues

You know, after three days of non stop music you'd think I'd be ready for a few days of no shows, but you'd be wrong.  Today, my first day back I had tickets to go see Ryan Adams at the House of Blues.

 

We were waiting in line to see Ryan, to make sure we got close to the stage, I hate standing in the middle of the crowd, and were talking to these two guys behind us.  Now what would the odds be that there is someone else as crazy as me that would drive back from Bonnaroo and go to a concert right away?  Well, pretty good I guess, cause one of these guys had just come back from Bonnaroo.  He still had on his arm bracelet.  They had seen Ryan like three or four times, drivng all the way to Tennessee to see him.

 

Now normally I would not have went to a concert right after coming back from Bonnaroo, but it was Ryan Adams.  After Wilco he was one of my top performers that I had not seen that I wanted to.  (And don't ask about tommorrow night when I go see John Fogerty.  I know, but it's John Fogerty at the House of Blues, how can anyone pass that up?)

 

I've read that Ryan can be tempemental at shows.  And also that he has stage fright pretty bad.  Well it was pretty obvious about the second from the moment he came  out.  He wears his hair long and keeps it in his face.  And he hardly ever looks at the audience.  Even when he steps to the end of the stage for a guitar solo he keeps his head down or turned away from the audience.  As far the second, well read on....

 

He put on a great show.  Doing a lot of stuff from the new cd, but going back and doing older stuff too.  No Whiskeytown, but from what I've heard he refuses to do anything from the group.  He did So Sad(To Be Young), the first cut from his first solo cd, so he went back a ways in the song selection.  He did New York.  He did Magnolia Mountain from his new cd, my favorite song from Cold Roses.

 

The band took a break and Ryan did a song on guitar by himself. Strawberry Wine, he messed up once and muttered an apology than went back, but ended up making up a lot of lyrics as he sang, even smiling as he did it.

 

Than he went over to the piano and did a song.  After the song he started talking about when he was down here in New Orleans to record the Love Is Hell cd.  He mentioned a few times that people talking while he was singing was a pain and he didnt' like it. He finished the song and said he was taking a ten minute break and would be back to do another two hours.  He had already did about two hours.  He said that he was going to go find a concert where he could talk while the group played and walked off stage.

 

He came back and did his first song.  Than he stopped, you could tell he was pissed off.  He started talking about how he hated singing while people where talking on their cell phones, or to other people, etc.  Especailly he said people that got comp tickets.  He said this was always a problem when he played the House of Blues.  He was really getting himself worked up.  Finally he said that he would give the people that really didn't want to be at the concert five minutes to get out, than he'd be back.  And with that he walked off stage.

 

True to his word, he was back in five minutes.  He started trying to explain himself.  He said he just wanted to make his music and not have to put up with all this other stuff.  He said after he finished this tour he would never play a House of Blues again.  Than he did a song, something new I think, I didn't recongnize it.  Than he did a Phil Lesh song, no idea, cause I'm not familar with Phil Lesh's songs.  But it was a long one.  After he finished he went towards the back of the stage, putting his guitar down and it looked like he was going to get another one, but he turned and walked offstage.  His band was not expecting it, they were all standing around waiting to start the next song.  They looked after him and realized that he wasn't coming back so they left after him.

 

I would probably have been upset if he had did this at the start of the concert, but he had already played for over three hours, which is longer than most acts perform.  And I really don't blame him.  It is very annoying to be at a concert and have to listen to someone yell in the cell phone while talking to someone else.  I'm there to listen to the music, not your coversation.  At a R.E.M. concert my brother and I listened to these two guys behind us complain that all the songs R.E.M. were playing was just sell outs to the crowd and they wanted to hear Radio Free Europe, everything after that was basically just a sell out.  Why did they even come I wondered?  And I imagine it has to be hard when you're performing and trying to do a softer song and hear someone yell for some other song, or hear someone talking about something not even related to the music.  I think he would be happier just making cds and not having to go out and promote them or anything.  I'm glad I got a chance to see him now, who knows what he'll do in the future.

 

Two Pics that have absolutely nothing to do with Bonnaroo

These two pics have nothing to do with the last week, but I took them right before I left, just to make sure the camera I had was working. I like them and thought I'd post them before I get into all the music stuff. 

Did Anyone Miss Me?

I've been gone since last Wednesday.  Just got back from Bonnaroo, literally just walked in and what's the first thing I do....get on this computer, am I crazy or what?  I meant to leave a message before I left saying I was going, I even typed it up but forgot to push the button that sends it to the blog.  This is just a quick return message, you'll be getting more posts about Bonnaroo than you'll want to read in the coming days, for now I think I'll go head to bed, it took us ten hours to get back home. 

Buffy at School

This was from about two years ago, when Buffy was going to doggie school. This was her graduation day!  

Happy Man

Just an update on my Dad.  Went to see him Saturday.  He was sitting out on his porch, eating a creamsicle, his oxygen tube running under the door to the tank inside, just as content as could be.  He sounds like his old self, able to talk.  He still won't be doing any hundred yard dashes but he's getting around, slowly but surely. 

When I got there my Mom was mowing the yard. They have a riding mower so she loves mowing it, driving around the yard like a mad woman. She had a towel tied around her head like she was some Japense warrior. I have a strange mother

I think just being home is helping him.  Thanks for all the good wishes from everyone out there, it's meant a lot.

Cleaning

Not much to post this weekend.  I've spent all day today cleaning.  And I'm still at it.  I swear I've swept up enough dog hair to make a small dog.  Buffy should be bald.  Well, back to cleaning.

Meet Archibald

I've got a new pet, shhh don't tell Buffy.  Look on the sidebar and you'll see Archibald the penguin.  Click on him and you can play with him, make him dance and if you're not careful he'll fall off his little chunk of ice and fall into the water.  What can I say? It's been a sloooow day.

He's Home!

My Dad got out of the hospital today!  He's eating and breathing well enough that they let him go home.  He has to use oxygen right now, but they said that should only be for about a month or so.  I got off work and got to the hospital just in time.  When I got there he was dressed and the nurse was just coming back with a wheelchair for him.  I followed them home, so I help him get in the house.  He can't walk very long at the moment, just walking from the car to the porch he had to stop and rest twice.  But when I left him he was sitting on his chair on the porch, as happy as could be.

This Time Next Week

Today being Wednesday, this time next week I will be somewhere on the road to Manchaster Tennessee.  What is in Manchaster Tennessee I hear you all ask?  Why that's where the Bonnaroo Music Festival.  A friend, Nick, and I are traveling up there and spending three days camping and listening to some great music.  Who will be there you ask?  Well just let me check my listing right here and I'll tell you some names. 

• Old Crow Medicine Show
• Joss Stone (one of my favorite performers, saw her at the House of Blues and she is awesome)
• The Gourds
• Alison Krauss
• Allman Brothers
• John Prine
• Drive by Truckers
• Ray Lamontagne
• Kings of Leon
• Black Crowes
• Iron & Wine
• Rilo Kiley
• Widespread Panic
• Old 97s
• Heartless Bastards
• My Morning Jacket
• Modest Mouse
• Earl Scruggs

 

Ok, that's just some of the many acts that will be there.  There's so many there that I want to see, there isn't going to be enough time in the day.  And there's some that of course are performing at the same time.  But life should be so difficult that the biggest concern is who to see.

Good News!

Ok, I hope I'm not jinxing this by saying it before the fact, but it looks like my Dad will get to come home tommorrow.  They took the tube out the day before yesterday and let him start eating somewhat real food.  The last time he had trouble digesting it and had to start over.  This time it seemed to work, his stomach was digesting it.  Tonight they gave him a whole baked potatoe and some salad to eat.  Tommorrow his breathing doctor has to see him, but the one doctor today said his breathing was allright.  He might have to take oxygen home with him for awhile, but all that has nothing to do with his surgery (except for it effecting his breathing) but with his former pack a day habit.  So everyone cross your fingers and let's hope he comes home tommorrow.