Rodeos are for the literate too!

My wife and I went to our first rodeo last night. We got to check out the whole thing from the sky-box with one of my friends from the band and had a really good time. It's hard to believe that I am from and still live in the South and have never been to one. I had watched them on TNN when it was still a network, but never in person. It took a little time to figure out what was going on and then add in that the box was full of people I did not know. Time to turn on the social skills or put on the 'life of the party' hat. Yeah, I don't have one, so I talked to people about random things to fill time, not realizing that the practice would help me out later. Guys were roping, riding bucking broncos and bull, wrestling cows to the ground, and roping each other. There were some women too, but they only knocked over barrels and jumped on moving horses. Rodeos haven't moved much past the days of male dominated society, but outside of that, don't think of Rodeo and Rednecks having lots in common. It was a fairly modern event featuring pyrotechnical effects, a JBL sound system, and very little country music. It was like a wrestling event with all the random rock music including Billy Idol, Joan Jett, AC/DC, and Neil Diamond. I enjoyed that more than other parts actually. My friend told me that hardly any of the 'cowboys' competing tonight actually listen to country music. Most enjoy hip-hop or jam to rock music. I felt sorry for the animals, but my friend insisted that the animals were well taken care of by the contestants and caregivers and that most of what they do while competing on and with animals doesn't do any damage. He rodeos (Is that actually a verb?) himself, so either he believes that or just says it to believe that it's okay, I am not sure which.

As we left we ran into an old friend of mine whom I have not seen in quite a while. We got into conversation and talked nearly an hour. It went well since there was a lot to catch up on, but talking for that long can be difficult even for me. I almost ran out of things to talk about; okay, I mean safe things to talk about (safe meaning that we wouldn't get into an argument or irritate the crap out of each other), which has only happened a few times to me while actually talking. My wife enjoys these times and refers to them as rare. We covered everything from jobs, to wives, to old friends, and old grandmothers. There wasn't much else left to cover, except for the invite to do something sometime. He still hasn't done it from the last time and even mentioned to me that he had just done that to another one of our 'old' friends even though he had meant to call. Sometimes I miss this friend, but other times I think about how much different things are now. Maybe I would feel better if I got a few things of my chest and then I might care more about getting together with him to hangout, but as of now, it's not something I think about on a regular basis. Rarely ever do I sit around and wonder what people are doing and it's only for a moment if that even happens. I think it's funny how every time I run into one of my old friends that they tell me "Man, I've really been thinking about you lately!" I think in my mind, "That's interesting, because I really don't think about you." I am sure if we get together, we will go into more detail about what was discussed before and other more uncomfortable topics will pore forth, but I will wait to see if that happens. Maybe things will go a lot better than they did the last time we went out and met to eat. If everything else fails, there's always the old stories about us and the friends we never see anymore.

Friday night will be our next concert. Our website is www.thearenos.com and we will be opening for the Crabb Family. This is their farewell tour, since they are breaking up later this year due to reasons beyond their control, from what I understand. We are playing a six song set and hope to record with Gerald Crabb later on this year. (Who knows, I might be able to land a song or two on the project. I would really feel successful then, if finishing two songs is a big deal to me now. Writing daily will really help me if I know I will have to sit down and wait until the time is up, I will hate feeling like I am just wasting time.) It will be fun. My wife will be coming (she never goes to our concerts because she doesn't really like the style of music, but she loves the Crabb Family and hates that they are breaking up), so will my parents and maybe a couple of other friends. It will be interesting and I might have students actually show up and recognize me as a minor celebrity (haha).

I am currently reviewing all of the music on my iPod and it's taking an awful long time to get through it. I will have to backtrack to cover it all, but I will finish eventually. This is another way to get myself to write daily.

#'s

Actually the iPod starts with numbers rather than A. 3 Doors Down is the first entry and the song "Let Me Go" is a great one. That's the difficult thing about having one of their cds: the two radio songs on the album are great, but the rest is a generic mix of modern and southern rock. This song was supposed to be featuring on one of the Spiderman soundtracks, but they decided to keep it and use it as one of the two song album quota for radio songs.

311 is next with "Amber". This is one of my favorite songs of all time and it rings through my head ever so often, leaving me humming it because the chorus is all I can remember word-wise. Too bad they did so much rap rock and attempted to be The Cure, their pop music is good.

A.C. Newman's The Slow Wonder is a really enjoyable album for cleaning up around the house. It stays upbeat most of the time and it's full or great, crafted pop songs. "Miracle Drug", "Drink to Me, Babe, Then", "On the Table", and "Most of Us Prizefighters" are a great 1234 song combination, "On the Table" being my personal favorite. I would listen to Newman's solo work over The New Pornographers anytime.

We are not even ankle deep into the stuff in A yet, but it's time for sleep.