last Monday

I still have a few pictures from our trip to Tennessee. You might as well enjoy these, because I haven't taken any pictures this week. I guess I could get some of me at work if that would be interesting. Tiffany is in Midland this week doing some training for her new job. The cat and I are taking care of ourselves.

Monday morning after Bonnaroo, we took a small side trip to Lynchburg to visit the Jack Daniel Distillery. We both thought it was really interesting. For a little less than $10000 you can actually buy your own barrel of whiskey. It seemed like a bargain to me, but Tiffany wasn't going for it. After we left there, we made a stop at a civil war battlefield outside of Murfreesboro. Generally I like this kind of stuff, but there wasn't much to see at this one. Also, it was hot and we were tired after the long weekend. By the time we got to the hotel in Nashville, we were exhausted.

As I was sitting here typing this, a bird just slammed into the living room windows. It is now laying dead on the back porch. Hopefully I won't get bird flu or anything when I remove it. To be honest it almost scared me to death. I really thought somebody had thrown something at the window. Life gets more interesting everyday.

One more thing: I was really sad to hear about the death of George Carlin on Sunday. He was an amazing comedian who managed to stay relevant and funny for his entire life. He will be missed.

The Last Waltz

Remember that we are pretending these updates are current and not something that happened four days ago. In actual time I had to go back to work today, but in my mind I am still on vacation. As long as my mind is there, my blog readers might as well be too.

Sunday was a lot more relaxing than the previous two days. Due to the "Kanye Incident" the night before, we didn't even get out of bed until around 11. When we got to the festival grounds, we took a couple of hours to get some food and try to catch up on anything we had missed. The first performance we watched was by Jakob Dylan. For all you non music fans (why are you reading this), he is Bob Dylan's son. I guess if you aren't a music fan, you may not know Bob either. Whatever. After leaving "This Tent" we headed to "The Other Tent" to catch Aimee Mann. She has an amazing voice that I probably could have listened to all day. At the end of her set, we took the time to ride the ferris wheel. This thing looked a lot less safe than most of the rides at the fair, but I figured if everyone else was doing it why not me. I don't even know what's fun about ferris wheels. It did allow us to get some cool aerial photos of the whole place. After that, we went and scoped out a good spot for Robert Plant and Allison Krauss. This was easily my favorite show of the day, and I liked all of them. Finally around 9 pm Widespread Panic hit the stage. Although not my personal taste in music, I can definitely see why people like it. They played about 3 hours and that ended Bonnaroo for 2008. Tiffany and I will be accepting applications for anyone who wants to go with us next year.

Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting (Day 3)

The third day of Bonnaroo was another long day, but probably one of the best. We had some cloud cover, and it was a little cooler thanks to the rain the night before. I am noticing from these pictures that we are starting to look tired, but honestly I didn't notice it at the time. We caught some of Little Feat before heading over to Mastodon. After that we headed to the main stage for B. B. King. This guy is 82 years old and still amazing. We also caught partial sets from Ben Folds and Jack Johnson before settling in for Pearl Jam. They played nearly three hours with a few rarities and a couple of great covers. They finished around 1 AM and we made quick stops to see some of Phil Lesh as well as Sigur Ros. Around 2:30 we went back to see Kanye, who was supposed to go on at 2:45. After a couple of delays and an increasingly restless crowd, he actually hit the stage at 4:30. We made it through about two songs before heading back to catch the shuttle. By the time we made it to the hotel, the sun was up.

As a sidenote, I had planned to eat alligator for dinner that night. When I went to the booth, I was told they were out of gator. I ordered chicken on a stick and was told they were out of sticks. I ended up with chicken on a plate with a fork--not nearly as interesting as the alligator plate would have been.

Day 2: Metalliroo

I actually started writing this post Saturday morning, but I didn't manage to get it finished. I am trying to sqeeze in a few hours of sleep. Just pretend you're getting these updates in real time. I will try to remember what happened two days ago. It will work out fine for everyone.

Friday was a tough day at Bonnaroo. Unfortunately, several bands that we wanted to see were on different stages at the same time. We made an effort to catch at least part of the sets of several bands. We started out with Umphrey's McGee, followed by the great Les Claypool. After that we headed to the main stage for The Raconteurs, then back to the Which Stage for some Willie Nelson. We made a final trip to the main stage (which is actually called the What Stage) for comedian Chris Rock and Metallica. Rock was hilarious, and Metallica sounded better than they have in years. I think it was probably the first Metallica show for most of the people here (it's #11 for me), but everyone around us seemed to be having a good time. The place was packed. Afterwards, we went to get some food and settle in for some late night jams from My Morning Jacket. No sooner had we sat down than it started pouring rain. We found some shelter and were able to enjoy the band for a little while before heading back to the hotel. Saturday was another crazy day. We didn't get in until after the sun was up. I will probably try to post again later. In case I don't make it, Happy Father's Day, dad.

Bonnaroo report: Day 1

After a long day of travel, we managed to make it here in one piece. We are staying in a hotel offsite, but there is a shuttle that picks us up here and takes us onto the grounds. It is nice to have a real bed and a shower, but if we do this again I wouldn't mind camping. Last night we spent most of the time just walking around and checking the place out. There are tons of booths selling clothing and jewelry. All kinds of food is available, including steak kabob pitas (see picture). I am going to assume those tomatoes are salmonella free. If this is my last blog, that was probably a bad assumption--I feel fine today though. The only band we paid a lot of attention to last night was The Sword. They are a new metal band from Austin who we were curious about. Overall I thought they were pretty good. Also, we watched some of the Lez Zeppelin set. Yes, that's Lez not Led. They are an all female Zeppelin tribute band from NYC. There is one more band from Austin that is playing tomorrow night called Ghostland Observatory. I think they play at 2 AM, so maybe we will still be up. Tonight's agenda involves Les Claypool, The Raconteurs, Willie Nelson, Chris Rock, and Metallica. I'm sure there are thousands of other people whose plans involve totally different bands. There are three stages and various other tents where things are going on 24 hours a day. I think there is something for everyone. They even have a movie tent where last night they were showing the NBA Finals among other things. For a festival of this magnitude, everything seems pretty well organized and surprisingly clean. We'll see what it looks like when the weekend is over.

Summertime Blues

Who would have thought that building the house was the easy part? Getting everything moved and set up is a lot more trouble. Actually, this house is becoming more like a home everyday. We finally saw Indiana Jones last week. I have to say that I was pretty disappointed. They probably should have just stopped at three. All of the Indy movies are pretty cheesy, but this one is covered in it. I do know several people that enjoyed it, so don't let my opinion stop you from seeing it. Lots of people like bad movies; look at the box office numbers for Titanic. Fortunately, Indiana Jones is not the summer movie that I was most looking forward to. That honor belongs to The Dark Knight which opens next month. By then I will have forgotten all about this travesty of a film. In house related news, I finally got all of my speakers mounted in the living room. Now I can critique films from home. We also got our new mattress last week. It's like sleeping on a cloud. Having a king-sized bed is new to us. There is now plenty of room for both of us and the cat. We may have to get walkie talkies to communicate from opposite sides of the bed though. We have a lot to do this week before we leave for Tennessee. In case you haven't read earlier posts, or have a short memory, we are going to the Bonnaroo festival on Thursday. From here, the summer picks up quite a bit. I should have plenty to write about and keep my loyal readers (Mom) satisfied. I will try to squeeze in one more post before we leave, but who knows. If I don't get to it, have a good week. I will talk to you all soon.