Celebrity

Yesterday my name was in the paper for the third time this week. Since the concert last Friday was shut down, there has been three articles in the paper, two letters to the editor, and over a hundred comments online. I guess at the very least the whole situation got people talking, which is what I really wanted anyway. The concert tomorrow night has been moved indoors to prevent noise complaints. I don't know if we are going to go or not. At this point, I will probably give up my political career--until the next time the mood strikes me. I will try to keep future rants to this blog. I would like to point out that at least half of the comments on the Reporter News website completely agree with me. The rest of them just missed the point entirely. The next few days promise to be trouble free. This weekend I have a million things to do around the house. I'm hoping to get at least two of them done.

In other news, Tiffany and the baby are doing just fine. He is starting to kick a lot. I have even been able to feel it a couple of times. We have an appointment on Tuesday, so I will possibly know more then. Have a great weekend!

15 minutes

Warhol said everyone will be famous for 15 minutes. I'm thinking I might have come closer to half an hour. I had my name in the paper for the second time in less than a week. It's really bizarre to me that people even read the paper in this town. After loosely quoting me in the previous article, they decided to print my original letter to the editor. Maybe it sounds a little negative, but I still agree with everything I said. It's probably better that I wrote it on Saturday. Now that I have had a few days to think about it, there is a lot more I wish I had said. If anyone wants to read the letter to the editor, you can find it here. As best I can tell, it is completely in tact. They did change the title. I guess I can live with it, even if it is lame. Nothing has really come of any of this anyway. The police seem to have differences of opinion depending on who you ask. Some say noise complaints, others cite bar closing time. The promoter blames the bar. The bar blames the band. Unofficially, we all know it's because Abilene hates rock music. There is another show at the same bar on Sunday night. I haven't decided if we are going to go or not. Either way, I will be curious to see what happens. I am going to try and keep my name out of the paper for the rest of the week.

I Burn.......or Abilene does not rock

I had to get up early Saturday morning for the satellite people to come fix my TV (yes again). I was a little cranky and tired, and while I was waiting for them to get here I decided to write a letter to the editor of the local paper. I am one of those people who believes that everyone is entitled to my opinion. It's one of the reasons I have this blog. Anyway, I didn't think much about it after that. At about 8:30 last night, I got a phone call from a reporter. I spent about 20 minutes on the phone with her. There was a small write up in the paper today, and although I don't think it's particularly well written, it does have my name in it. She did tell me that they are working on a full column on this event to run Monday or Tuesday. Also, she said it would be up to the editorial department to decide whether to run my original letter. If they don't, I will post it here later. Perhaps later tonight I will give an account of what happened. Until then, you can read this.

Cleveland Rocks!

A couple of years ago, my cousin Chuck got married in Cincinnati. Tiffany and I flew into Cleveland (on the other side of the state) a couple of days early so we could check out the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. My cousin Brad met us as well. At the time, my thinking was, "When am I ever going to be in Ohio again?" As it turns out, we decided to go back to Ohio. Once again this was Rock Hall related. It's possible that I have an addiction--not to Ohio, but to the music. 2009 was the first year that tickets to the induction ceremony have ever been sold to the public. Another deciding factor was that Metallica, one of our favorite bands, was being inducted this year. It seemed like a once in a lifetime opportunity that we just couldn't pass up. We flew in on Friday afternoon. We ended up just ordering food from room service and staying in the rest of the night. Saturday morning we got up early and headed to the museum before the masses showed up. In 2007 we spent nearly five hours looking at everything. I figured we could do it much quicker this time. As it turns out, we were there just shy of four hours. I still could have spent more time there, but we did cover some stuff this time that we missed before. The top two floors were filled with Springsteen memorabilia this time, which I thought was awesome. By the time we left, there was a line around the block to get into the museum. We headed back to the hotel to get ready for the ceremony that night. I don't think either of us knew what to expect, but we knew we were in for a treat. The induction itself lasted about four hours. Most of the inductees performed, as well as gave speeches. Metallica played Master of Puppets and Enter Sandman. The four current members were there, as well as former bassist Jason Newsted. Also present were many friends and guests of the band, including Ray Burton (father of original bassist Cliff). It was definitely a unique experience, and I am extremely glad we went. I do have one complaint though. The guys sitting to my left basically talked the whole time, and the two people to our right spent the whole time playing with their Blackberrys. Why do these people even bother to come? It seems like we always end up next to these people. All in all though we were there with a good group of people who came to enjoy themselves. I knew there were other people like us, I just didn't know we had to go all the way to Ohio to find them. At the end, all of the inductees came out, as well as a few special guests and played two more songs: Jailhouse Rock and Train Kept a Rollin'. My guess is that this is my last trip to Cleveland for a while, but I have learned to never say never. I hope it is not my last trip to the Hall of Fame. Recently they opened a branch in New York, and I hope we are able to check that one out as well.

Here is a list of the 2009 Inductees:

The performer inductees: Jeff Beck, Little Anthony & the Imperials, Metallica, Run-D.M.C., Bobby Womack

Early Influence Category Inductee: Wanda Jackson

Sidemen Category Inductees: Bill Black, DJ Fontana, Spooner Oldham

"There's nothing wrong with Ohio, except the snow and the rain.

I really like Drew Carey and I'd love to see the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame"

--Ohio (Come Back to Texas) by Bowling For Soup