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.