They fucking forgot my birthday, and other summer ramblings

All righ, all right. I havent blogged in awhile. Every time i type that i am going to deffinately blog more, i just dont. I dont know if i get to busy, or if i get performance anxiety or what. I am currently pointing fingers at a certain quilt i have been busting out.... Anywho, quick recap. So what do i think about when i think of John Hughes. I remember the summer of maybe 86. We had just gotten a our first vcr (yes i am old) and we had 2 movies. Sixteen Candles and Nightmare on Elm Street. My friend Brandy and i watched those 2 movies over and over, I guess somehwere that says alot about me. John Hughes would go on to be responsible for many other great movies from my youth, Breakfast Club, Some Kind of Wonderful, Pretty in Pink, National Lampoons Vacvation, Ferris Beuller and Weird Science. But Sixteen Candles was, and always will be my favorite. It was a little bit of Molly's natural beauty, her goofy parents, her hilarious grandparents, her ridiculous brother, her sharp best friend friend and her love Jake. I love the fact that the geeky girl got the guy, and got worshiped by the geek in return. I loved how he knew exactly what teens were thinking, and he introduced us to so many talents, including my love John Cusack. He shaped the way i think about movies, inforced a love of comedy, and just really stood out as an iconic figure to me. I Loved John Hughes........





Ah, what can i say, i am a lucky girl. My summer was bookended by some of my favorite boys. Started with Donnie and ended with Adam. A kind of ironic mirror image of my youth, hmmm. Let me think about that.... SO, anyway. A rainy night a few weeks ago me, Dave and my brother Luke headed on up to my fave place in Nastyville. It was sold out so the venue was packed and at 8,all 16 members of the 3 bands that would play that night took the stage and rocked out the opening with a cover of Van Morrisons "Caravan," and i knew i was in trouble. Frontman Adam Duritz decided instead of opening acts, the 3 bands and friends would play together in a big jam all night. And thats what they did for four straight hours, nearly blowing the roof off the Ryman.

So, Michael Frenti and spearhead took the first solo, and kicked it up with their mix of reggae and funk, and even threw in a cover of Michael Jacksons "Billie Jean", frat boys dancing and sloshing beer. It was a bit of a welcome back for Michael who had suffered a ruptured appendics, weeks in the hospital and a close brush with death to have his return debut at the church the Opry built.

So, i was kinda excited to see Augustana. I was a big fan of their hit "Boston" last summer and i knew they were big fans of the Crows, so i was psyched. They were really little guys, i kept wondering if they were even old enough to grow facial hair. They looked a lil emo, but when the lead singer Dan opened his mouth, mine hit the floor. Dave and i looked at each other with huge eyes and just said, wow. He sounded nothing like he did on the radio. The pop sound was replaced by a flawless voice, love child of Bob Dylan and Janis Joplin. And about halfway thru the show, the band gathered in the middle with guitars only and said they were gonna do an acoustic tribute to the Ryman, and did so with their song "Sweet and low." It was so eerily quiet you could have heard a pin drop, and the beauty of it brought me to tears.

The Crows were awesome as usual. Adam was his usual emotional self
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At one point jumping off a speaker and landing on his knee, that he had injured a few weeks ago and had cut open and drained at Vandy the day before. Never phased him, he continued to rock out.

All the guys were so hapy to be playing the Ryman, all appeared to be close friends and just looked like they were having the best time ever. They played my fave song which i have never heard live, just the way i always pictured it, as a huge jam session.

And as usual, it became a sing along, to Rain King and Mr Jones, just as it should be. It wouldnt be summer without an influx of Crows. Love that man. Stupid blogspot will never upload my videos, so you can check them out, along with more photos on my facebook page...