Imagination Movers

This was mainly a group that catered more to kids, but they were good.

Terra Diablo

This was a band from Scotland that I had never heard of. Wandering around the tents before any of the concerts started one of the tents suggested we check them out, they were selling their current cd for five dollars. So we did. And enjoyed them. They were really good, so of course we went back to buy their cd.

VoodooFest Pics

I know it looks pretty empty in these pics. I took them during the first half of the day, when it wasn't that busy. By one/two o'clock the place was getting crowded and within another hour it was packed. If I had taken another picture than you would have just seen crowds of people.

VoodooFest

VoodooFest has come and gone. It was one of the best concert days ever. The weather was perfect, the site was great, and the music was the best. Or to put it better: Larry and I were sitting on the grass, leaning against the fence, watching all the pretty girls go by, listening to Shooter Jennings and eating some great red beans and rice, when Larry leaned over towards me and said "It doesn't get any better than this."

And he was right.

TV Show Roundup

Just some observations on some of the new shows so far:

Heroes: The first episode I wasn't thrilled with, but each episode since has gotten me more hooked on this show. The newest show continued the streak. The scene with Nathan about to get beaten up or worse, when he just zips into the sky and takes off...very cool.

Studio 60: I hate to say that I'm not sure about this one. I loved West Wing. As the West Wing was ultimately the story of Josh Lyman, I think this show will be about the friendship between Bradley Whitford and Matthew Perry. Some of it is very good, but the biggest problem is that it just doesn't seem to be about anything. I know it is, but after watching an episode it just seems to have not mattered.

30 Rock: Can't say much, I've only seen one and a half episodes, but from what I've seen it's pretty dumb. I was thinking this would be good. I like Tina Fey. But this show is so over the top with its humor it just loses me. It's like a long Saturday Night Live skit.

The Class: Started off terrible I thought. Gotten a little better, but it had no where to go but up. I still think it has some really terrible characters and writing but every now and than it made me chuckle.

Veronica Mars: Love it, still one of my favorite shows on tv. I just hope it survives, they've only ordered 13 episodes. If you're not watching this show you should be. With West Wing no longer on it is probably the best show on tv right now.

LOST: Some very interesting moments. I'm not crazy about Kate picking Sawyer, I think she should have picked Jack. The problem with this show is that it's hard to judge until you watch the entire season. I remember watching season two and not really liking it that much, but later when I watched it all on the dvd collection I found my thoughts changed. Still the first episode had a Wow scene right from the start.

Smallville: Only caught one episode so far, missed the first episode of the season. I've come to the conclusion that Lana is....well I don't' want to say what I think she is. She condemns Clark for keeping secrets but she is quick to keep her secrets and she doesn't seem to have much problems with Lex keeping secrets. Clark needs to get over her and move on. I still think that they should have killed her off instead of his father last season.

How I Met Your Mother: This series has grown on me. Of course Barney is great. But I think the writers have boxed themselves into a corner, Robin and Ted have been written to belong together like Ross and Rachel in Friends, in an episode from the first season evidently Ted tells his kids about Aunt Robin, meaning Robin isn't the Mother in the title. To me they've written these two characters to belong together. But maybe they're working that out now, with bringing them together, eventually they'll have to break them up. Maybe get rid of that feeling in the series.

Friday Night Lights: This is the show that all the non sport geeks are saying that "I don't like football, but I like this show." It's that good a show. They've kept me watching and like the geek above, I'm not really a fan of sport shows or sports.

That's about all the shows I've been watching. I haven't been able to catch all the episodes of any of these shows. NBC.com has been showing the entire shows, I managed to catch the newest Heroes since I had to work that night. I'm not sure if all the networks are doing this or not.

And finally the third season of WINGS just came out on DVD this week.

Funeral

Today was Mr. Fred's funeral. They played the LSU fight song at it and if anyone knew Mr. Fred they would know it was so fitting. He would have loved it.

VoodooFest Is Coming!

This weekend is VoodooFest. Lots of good acts: Red Hot Chili Peppers, Drive By Truckers, Shooter Jennings, Amanda Shaw, Living Things, Meters, Whigs, My Chemical Romance, Irma Thomas, Wu Tang Clang, Cowboy Mouth, Kings of Leon, Duran Duran and lots more. Two days of fun and music...can't wait.

How Many WIth My Name?

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 2,068 people with the name John Holland in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

What's In A Label?

I've been going through my old posts and labeling them. I've created categories for each post, such as Music, TV, Books, Politics, etc. Is it any surprise what my biggest category is? Nope, didn't think so. Music leads the pack by far. I'm not done yet, there are a lot of old posts to go through. And some of the posts probably should belong in more than one category. I'm sure I've missed some of the categories I should have put certain posts in.

This will make it easier if for some reason you want to read more of my previous posts on a certain subject. You click on the label at the bottom of the post and it pulls up all the other posts on that category.

I know, I know, if this doesn't show how geeky I am, nothing does.

What's Up With Firefox?

I keep hearing how much better Firefox is than Internet Explorer. I've actually downloaded and use it now and than. I just tried again. I pulled up my blog and it looks terrible on Firefox. It doesn't show everything. If you've been looking at this site on Firefox you're not seeing everything. It doesn't show my header picture from Alaska. The whole sidebar looks terrible, leaving stuff out or pushing things together.

Anyone have any idea why this is happening? Is there something I can do about it?

Asylum Street Spankers

I saw this on Peter David's site and found it too good not to post:

Mr. Fred, R.I.P.

As I've mentioned before in these posts I work in retail. One of the people that work with me as the door greeter is an older gentleman named Mr. Fred. Now this isn't just some door greeter, when you walk into our store Mr. Fred really greets you. Customers love to come in our store just to be greeted by Mr. Fred. Every kid that comes in gets a high five from him.

Mr. Fred is a huge LSU fan. And when I say huge, I mean huge. He can tell you what happened at a LSU game from twenty three years ago. He counts down the days between LSU football seasons.

About two months ago Mr. Fred had a heart attack/stroke while mowing his lawn. He went into a coma. He never woke up.

We put one of those huge greeting cards on a table at the front of the store to be signed by any customers that wanted to. We filled it completely, back and front. We put another one out and it was filled too. Not a day goes by that customers are asking about him.

Tonight I found out that he died a few days ago.

Crescent City Snow

Crescent City Snow
By Susan Cowsill

I feel like a kite without a string
Only my tail to guide me
Just paper and sticks and tattered sheets
Waiting on a friendly wind

Hold all our memories in one hand
So tight that you won't let them go
And in the other hand we pray
That the wind and the panic and the rain
Will all turn to a
Soft and quiet snow

A long time ago when I was young
I used to know everything
And now it's today and I am sure
That I don't know anything at all

Hold all our memories in one hand
So tight that you won't let them go
And in the other hand we pray
That the wind and the panic and the rain
Will all turn to a
Soft and quiet, gentle peaceful snow

When the Saints come marchin' in
I'll be walking to New Orleans
Eating beignets at DuMonde'
Singing Joni at the Carrollton Station
Hanging out at Jackson Square
12 o'clock I'll meet you there
Down on Frenchmen with Big Chief
Trying to find a place to eat
Tailgatin' at the Dome
Man I can't wait to go home

Our precious hearts are all shattered
Scattered across the land
But I know that I am going back
To the place where I know who I am

Holding all our memories in one hand
So tight that you can't let them go
And in the other hand we pray
That the wind and the panic and the rain
Will all turn to a
Soft and quiet, gentle peaceful, N-O-L-A,
Crescent City Snow

3 a.m. at the Circle Bar
Where the hell did we park the car
6 a.m. at the Christmas Lounge
Man we got a hell of a town
A town where you grandma tells my grandma
While they are sitting by the fire
And we all go down to the Audobon Zoo
Where they all ax (ask) for you
And they say
Who Dat
Who Dat
Who Dat say dey (they) gonna beat dem (them) Saints
Who Dat
Who Dat
Who Dat say dey (they) gonna beat dem (them) Saints
Oh when the Saints come marchin'

The All New All Improved Beta Version

Whenever I posted on my blog I've noticed that little note to the side that said there was a new improved Beta version aviable. Today I decided to go for it. I was a little scared. I was afraid that I would lose everything on my blog. I've spent a lot of time and a lot of hours on this thing, I sure didn't want to have to start completely over.

It updated and everything looked the same. Now I could change it from a template to a layout design, where they said it would be easier to add to the blog. Instead of using html it would use a lot of drag and drop. I tried it...to find it elminated everything on my blog except for the posts. Luckily it made a copy of my old blog that I could go back to. Somehow there has to be a way for me to add all my old stuff to the new layout style blog.

Most of this stuff you the reader will never see. It really just effects the behind the scenes of the making of this blog. One thing you can see it that I can now label each post. Like when I talk about Will Hoge I can label it music and if you click on the music label at the end of the post it will pull up all the posts I have labeled music.

The only problem is that I have to go back and label all my old posts. It lists over five hundred post I have made since I started this blog. So it may take me a little time.

RiverBend is Back!

On my sidebar is a blog entitled "Baghdad Burning". It's written by "Riverbend", a woman, or as she puts it, girl blogger from Iraq. The first years worth of her blog has been collected in a booked entitled Baghdad Burning. She talks about what everyday life in Baghdad is like for those that have to endure it. It's at once uplifting and heart rending what happens to the people living there. Her last blog post was August 5. I was starting to get worried. In Baghdad there is so much that could have happened to her and no one would ever know. But today she has written a new post on her blog. I'm glad to see that she is still alive and well. Or as well as can be expected living under the conditions that she has to.

I don't see how anyone could read her blog and still support the war.

Check out her blog, you won't be sorry.

Lost

The creators behind Lost say they know where it's going and how it ends. I think that is important, that there be an ending. Every eposide of Lost throws some new surprise or mystery at us. After awhile you have to wonder if they really know what they're doing or just throwing a bunch of weird stuff out there to make everyone wonder what is going on. If there is really an ending, an explanation for everything that is going on, than that will be a good thing. But therein lies another problem. Lost is on network tv. If it continues to be as popular as it has been do you really think ABC will let the creators end it when they want it to end? I've read that the creators say it's pretty much a five year plan. That everything should come to a conclusion within five years. Now if Lost continues to pull in the numbers that they have for the first two years, does anyone really believe that ABC will let them end it when they want to? They'll make it drag out for another few years, until everyone gets tired of the questions and no answers. It's almost like you want it to slowly lose auidence share each year, till in the fifth year ABC tells them it's ok to kill the show.

Coincidence or Conspiracy

The other day I was looking for something to read and I noticed a book on my shelf called "What Really Happened?" by Cifford Irving. Back in the seventies Irving had written an authorized biography of Howard Hughes. Hughes hadn't talked to the press (or just about anyone) in at least fifteen years when Irving announced that he was talking to the mysterious billionaire. His book sold for at least a million. The only problem was the he lied about the whole thing. He had never talked to Hughes. He was gambling on the fact that Hughes was so press shy and let's face it, crazy, that the man would not come forward to contradict Irving's books. But Hughes did come forward and tell the world that he had never talked to Irving. The writer ended up in jail. This book is his story of what happened, how he came to write the book and everything else that went along with it.

Now comes the weird part. I just saw that Richard Gere has a new movie coming out late this year or early next year. It's called Hoax. And guess what it's about? It's based on Clifford Irving's "What Really Happened?"

Now when I picked up the book I had no idea of the movie. And just after picking up the book I see the movie is coming out. I feel like I'm living in an Oliver Stone movie. :)

Who's Ezra and why do they think they're better than him?

Went to see Better Than Ezra last night at the House of Blues. BTE is a home town band. Heather, Nicole and Sean all came to see the show. I've never seen them before. (The band that is, I've seen my friends before.)

I was very pleasantly surprised to find Susan Cowsill was the opening act. I am a big fan of hers and would have paid to just go see her in concert. She put on a great show.

By the time BTE came on the place was packed. I will say that they have a very fanatical following. I don't know if I've ever seen the place as crowded. And most of the audience sings along to every song. They put on a good show, but I am probably the only one in the 1500 there that liked the opening act more. I like their show, they did some covers, all their hits, but there was just something lacking about it. Everyone there would disagree with me but I felt like it was lacking passion, which I thought Susan more than made up in. Like I said I enjoyed the show, just wouldn't rate it as one of my top shows.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!

I have to admit with everything going on lately I almost forgot today was his birthday.  Monday at work someone mentioned that it was Columbus Day and I went oh crap!  For some reason I always associate Columbus Day with his birthday.  I realized than that it was only a few days away.  So here it is.

I'm not going to make this a long post about him, I've done that before and will probably do it again before long.  All I want to do on this one is one thing and wish my Dad a HAPPY BIRTHDAY and many more to come.

 

MY CONCERTS II

The second in an ongoing list of the different acts I've seen in concert. As senility sets in I'm trying to remember them. I'm not trying to list them all at once, I figure off and on as I go on. And it's been awhile since I made the first list. Which you can find here

http://altjirangamitjina.blogspot.com/2005/05/my-concerts.html

• Wilco


• Ryan Adams


• Will Hoge (numerous times)


• Joss Stone


• Whigs


• Hawthrone Heights


• Marah


• Bob Dylan (numerous times)


• Paul McCartney


• R.E.M.


• Cher


• Leann Rimes


• John Hiatt


• Alan Jackson


• Martina McBride


• Incubus


• Brownsville Station


• Kings of Leon


• Wallflowers


• Sum 41


• Kenny Chesney


• Uncle Cracker


• 3 Doors Down


• John Fogerty


• Gatemouth Brown


• Sonny Landreth


• Shannon McNally (numerous times)


• Wolfman Washington


• KT Tunstall


• Gretchen Wilson

This list jumps all over the place. A lot of acts I've seen in the last few years, but a few from even longer ago. But there's still a lot more to come