My Nose in The Book

I finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows at 10 minutes to midnight Sunday night (If you have not please stop now and come back when you have). I feel like I raced through the book so I have already started to give it another go, albeit a slower one this time. Overall, I was happy with the book. It tied up a lot of loose ends left dangling through the seven books. There are some detailed questions that I have but nothing on a grand scale was really left out. I have a mind to start over from the beginning and see the trail of breadcrumbs in their entirety while it is all so fresh.

Last week while dining with friends we were discussing theories about the end and my theory was: Harry is a horcrux so Harry has to die but I think he'll live in the end, at least I hope he does. This whole series dealing with good v. evil cannot end with evil prevailing. I was surprised to find out that my views were both right, not so contradictory as I had earlier believed. When Harry was walking into the forest, accepting it was time for him to die, I told myself that was it and shed some tears. I was pleasantly surprised when he was allowed to come back and was not surprised at all then how it ended, given the second chance.

I was a Harry/Ginny and Ron/Hermoine shipper. They have both been foreshadowed for quite some time though I can understand the Harry/Hermoine shippers. I had to laugh at Harry & Ginny's child Albus Severus and figured that maybe James' middle was Sirius. I thought in the lot somewhere there had to be a child named after Fred, but if George had a son that would be an obvious choice above all others involved. And Draco's Scorpious, that was the biggest laugh of all.

I have not been happy with my favorite fan site, Mugglenet, not saying something about the book in print. They've let their readers do it, and reading a ton of comments saying a lot of the same thing has gotten tiresome. They have their, I'm sure, lovely podcast but as I only have dial up and no ipod (yes I'm frighteningly not tech savvy) I have no idea what was said. I've talked to one friend about it but no others. I know one hasn't even begun it yet. My husband put off reading with me the series over the winter and has barely began the first one (but has seen the movies) so he also doesn't want to know anything so I have to be silent at home too. If someone out there has read it, get a hold of me so we can talk. If you haven't read a page of the series, get thee to a library or bookstore!

You Can't Have Too Many Friends

I finally removed my yearbooks from my parents house recently and came across my senior book. In it, I wrote about spending time with my group of friends in high school going to the drive-in among other teenage pursuits. It got me thinking about how I miss having a group of friends. I don't think I've had a group of friends since college. None of my friends really like each other, as far as I can tell. Luckily they got along at my wedding and all of its festivities. Then I saw April post about a girl's night out with a group of friends. If I wanted to have a girl's night out, who would I invite? My hometown friends who have never associated with each other and then be able to schedule a good night away from their kids? Probably not. My friends in Lexington? No, I doubt they'd want to hang out with each other. A mix of them all? Just the ones with no kids? Just the ones with kids...wait that scheduling would never work. I couldn't invite my sister at all, I think she only likes one of my friends.

I've been spending time with my friends, separately, for almost 10 years now. Some I see more than others, but with marriage I see all of them less, as I expected since I've seen it happen to each friend who has gotten married. Now I'm finally in the club and I see them even less. It saddens me. You need your girlfriends at every stage of life, and my girlfriends are at different stages in their life. I wish I could find a good mix of them to form a circle instead of lines shooting out in different directions.

The Commonwealths

April was book-ended by some fabulous shows and always exciting travel. Easter weekend took us to the cold and snowy mountains of far western Virginia and far eastern Tennessee to see Scott Miller and the Commonwelth for their CD release party two-night stand at The Down Home in Johnson City, TN. We stayed in Bristol, VA to take advantage of a two night free stay on earned points so we were about 40 minutes away from the venue. About the distance from the homestead to the Dame, actually.

The Friday night show we arrived and saw no sign of the few people we knew who were supposed to be holding seats for the group of acquaintences to us and friends to others. Luckily they drifted in soon and snagged some up front. I say luckily, but Josh had a monitor in his lap all night that was making his beer drinking from the pitcher a little harder than it should of been, but I digress. It is always nice to sit up front. Scott and the guys looked happy to be playing together again after Scott's solo stint over the winter (which we happily enjoyed on another cold evening in Dayton). Other than Shawn's hi-hat malfunction the guys were in good form and ready to rock. Saturday night we arrived early to snag a table up front since we were closer than our Knoxvillian friends to the venue and after standing out in the cold waiting for the doors to open we finally got in to find no tables up front; coats were draped everywhere and we had to sit and wait for a looong time with Josh seething. Luckily, we got a hold of Jason and he said another boarder was already there with a table so we introduced ourselves and ended up having a great night swapping stories until showtime and then enjoying a great show with a great group of fans. We headed back home Easter Sunday tired, but happy we made the trek.

The last weekend of April we ventured up to Newport to the always fabulous Southgate House to see the boys again. They featured a new lineup and were on fire. It was pretty hot in the basement too, but that coulda been the bourbon talking. (Thanks to myspacer Angela Dina for posting a pic so nice I just had to share.) We met up with some old faces, met some new, and had a great time again hanging out with our board friends. Knowing these people have made these shows so much more enjoyable than I ever imagined. We're also getting to the point that we recognize people from past shows so I'm reminded of my fuzz days of happily bouncing around the room talking to all my "show friends" who I got to see once a month. After the show we ended up chatting up Scott, Shawn, and his one-night-only keyboardist Mike Webb for about an hour. Mike was way cool and plays keys with The Wreckers on their tour, of whom I'm also a fan (10 years ago I would have completely found myself in their lyrics, but 10 years out I can still appreciate it). It was a great night top to bottom.

It is sad to realize that there are no Miller shows in our area until the end of June, I've gotten so used to seeing them here recently. The next show is June 22 at Phoenix Hill Tavern, a place worth visiting itself there's so many corners to hang out in. If anyone is still reading this, please come out and let me know that you are, you'll definitely treated to a great time, I promise.

On Any Other Day

Guess who has tickets to The Police at Churchill Downs? That's right, its me. We picked the cheap tix, $50, and ended up in the second section back from the stage, the dirt track (turf track is first section). How cool will it be to stand on the track at Churchill Downs watching a band from my childhood? Mom liked The Police so I of course got into them myself, being I was only in elementary school and mommy knew best. I figure $50 isn't too much to pay given that sucktastic bands come through Rupp for $60 all the time.

Update on the overpriced music festival, the site says Seven Mary Three is headlining. I have friends in the know and 7M3 has not confirmed this gig, as of yet.

Coming attractions...the Easter weekend journey into the mountains of Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee to see our favorite mountain man, Scott Miller and his Commonwealth playing a sold out two night gig in the hills of Johnson City, TN. We'll be spending our sleeping time in Bristol, VA the true birthplace of country music. As the man himself says, "No asylum for traitors or cowards."

Pop, Crack, Damn

I was just settling in for a nice relaxing night this past Sunday when I made a wrong step and felt my ankle buckle and pop. I went down right on top of it and screamed on the way down worrying Josh to death. We got me up on the bed and elevated it and put ice on it and by Monday morning it was huge and I couldn't walk. Josh got me crutches on Monday, and by this evening I'm now down to a cane (its nice having grandparents-in-law nearby), which is much less cumbersome than crutches. This makes the third time I've injured my ankle enough to need crutches, first time 5th grade, second time 11th grade, so I figure I'm way overdue for that kind of injury. On top of that, the computer decided to crash so I've just done the recovery this evening and am now typing away, happy to have my connection back.

Speaking of cumbersome, I read in our local paper today that the $200 per ticket (right now, introductory price, get 'em while they're "cheap") music festival has booked Seven Mary Three and Nappy Roots as the headlining acts for a 4 day festival. I've got my 7M3 spies on the job, and would most likely be seeing them for about $30 if memory serves this Saturday if it weren't for my sister moving and needing help and my now-bum ankle. We hope to me moving ourselves this year, so you get what you give, if you will, and hey its family. At least Josh is able.

Not much else is going on in these parts, I've been catching up on my reading and Josh has been in front of the tv tonight, March madness and all. Our brackets got busted with Texas Tech and Duke losing, but hey I'll give up a point on my bracket to see Duke lose anyday.

Love Is a Mix Tape

If you're stopping by my little popsicle stand, chances are you've met me and we've shared either a concert or a music discussion. Therefore, I heartily entreat you to pick up Rob Sheffield's (yep, the "Rolling Stone" guy) Love Is a Mix Tape.

I saw it on a Valentine's table at Joseph Beth while buying Josh books for Valentine's day, and the title grabbed me. I've made many a mix tape in my day starting the day I got my dual cassette with turntable magic box on my 10th birthday. I still have many tapes in a milk crate out in the storage room that I really need to bring in after reading this book.

I read the first page and couldn't put it down even though I had too many other books I wanted to get him. Out of all of the ones I got, I think we have both enjoyed this one the most. This book made me laugh out loud at the words he wrote and the memories it brought back to me; songs I had not thought about in years came flooding back. This book also made me cry; big huge sobs that a book has not produced in quite some time. If you came of age in the 90's, either through high school or college or grad school, this book will take you back to that time and you'll relive those not too distant memories. You'll also realize how much things have changed in the short time that has passed.

The thing that brought Josh to me was my love of music and it was around us all through our courtship and now into our marriage. Reading this book it is amazing how it can bring people together and feed love as Shakespeare said. Music brought me the love of my life, but it also brought so many dear friends to my life and for that I'm truly grateful.

Just What I Promised

So, its been what, nearly 8 months since I've posted? So much has happened, mainly getting married last September, there's me and my wonderful husband on our wedding day. We've also had a couple kids since then...kidding, not yet, it hasn't been that long.

We've mostly been getting used to this marriage thing and hanging out with family and friends in our nice, little hometown. (Hey, Craig!)

Speaking of our nice, little hometown there is supposed to be a music festival coming to town in September but we'll see if it actually happens. I can't get any good info out of the local organizer as to exactly where it will be or who will actually be playing even though the tickets ($200 a piece) were supposed to go on sale on March 1. In my humble opionion, he's trying to be Bonnaroo without the name recognition but the same concept and ticket prices. Bonnaroo isn't that far away, in Tennessee, we're in Kentucky, its not like this area of the world is lacking a big time festival. California has Coachella, Texas has South by Southwest, Tennessee has Bonnaroo. It might be different if we were in say, Minnesota, and for all I know they have something too. Besides the relative nearness to Bonnaroo, I just don't think that he's going about it right. Why charge more than what Bonnaroo charges for a festival that doesn't have any clout? Why not charge much less to get the word out and more people out, and the locals out even and build it up instead of starting it up like its already something with a reputation. If it flies, good deal man, but at this point in the game I just can't see it.

Since my blog name is 8 shades of blue, you better believe I'm a Democrat and we've got quite the gubernatatorial primary coming up. Like most loyal Democrats, I am completely opposed to the Lunsford-Stumbo ticket given Lunsford's un-Democratic actions since he ran the last time all the way up to last fall and I've never been a Stumbo fan. They actually wanted me to be their myspace friend and I just had to deny them. At this moment, I'm a Miller girl. I was very impressed that he came out very quickly after Lunsford announced and denounced his turncoat ways which gave him (Miller that is) a ton of free press to boot. People don't always remember what happenened last time around and people need to be reminded.

Speaking of people named Miller, go check out Scott Miller and the Commonwealth. They are our new favorite band and will be playing near these parts on April 27 at the Southgate House in Newport, KY. We'll be traveling down to Johnson City, TN for their cd release shows Easter weekend and we are really looking forward to seeing the man and his band once again.