Bringing the Drama

the new Ryan Adams album, Cardinology, came out today. i have been listening to the album via the stream from facebook a lot since it debuted last week. i love these songs. i haven’t really loved an album so fast before. hearing the songs live just flipped my anticipation for the album into overdrive. i emailed friends during the day at work to talk about it or sat listening to the stream and IMing friends about how good the songs were and gushing about the lyrics. it got a bit ridiculous.

finally today, i was able to go buy the cd (the vinyl is on order and won’t be here for a few more days). i didn’t have any issues getting it at best buy this afternoon, which was nice. i’ve had issues before trying to get new releases because most of the time the workers at BB suck at music. i went running tonight, and ate dinner when i got back. now i’m relaxing with some hot chocolate (it’s getting down to 35 tonight!) before bed listening to the album. what a great way to end the day.

Ryan Adams road trip 2008 Night 2, 10/17/2008

so the morning of the ATL show, i drove up to Birmingham to meet up with my friend Susan and then drive to ATL. in order to waste time, i ate at a Subway near her house (have y’all tried the chicken pizzalorio [pizaloria, pizzaiola?] yet? it’s a $5 foot long and worth every penny). then i sat in my car, read my Bible, sent texts, then called someone to gush about the show the previous night. i could not stop thinking about the new songs. Susan called me to let me know she finally got home, i met her at the house, and we left, with what we thought was PLENTY of time to get to Atlanta. little did we know how things would change.

i drove her car so that she could catch up on sleep, and everything’s going fine. traffic is moving well, i was on my way to another Ryan Adams show, what could go wrong? i’ll tell you what could go wrong! traffic came to a stand still somewhere around Anniston, and for the next hour, we were basically stopped. STOPPED! i must say on my drive from home up to Tuscaloosa the previous day i saw two 18 wheeler wrecks, one in which the truck had flipped off into the trees in the median, and another where the truck had turned over spilling what looked to be bags of rice. both of these accidents were on a sunny day, last Friday was kind of dreary. i figured with the traffic stopped, there must be something major. after an hour, we finally got moving, and the way the interstate was set up, the three lanes merged to two for construction. normally this is not a major deal until there is an older man in a white minivan who is stalled in the right lane. STALLED IN THE RIGHT LANE IN A CONSTRUCTION AREA! this man appeared to not know the rules of trying to move your car off of the roadway when we passed. i blew the horn at him. Susan called the stalled vehicle in to the highway patrol so they could maybe GET HIM OFF THE ROAD! as we went further down the road we saw a massive accident of i think two 18 wheelers which was pulled off into the median. the traffic going the other way was at a crawl, but eastbound I-20 was moving smoothly. we deserved it!

because of the traffic mishap, we had to skip stopping at Jeff and Adriene’s and went straight to the venue. we stopped for Chick-Fil-A at the same exit we were getting off at, and got to the parking lot at 8:20 (or something like that). we made our way inside, and i stopped at the merch booth to get my poster. while in line i was able to weigh in on a conversation about the new songs with the people in front of me. i thought they were cool, until the couple in front of me decided to buy 2 shirts, and have to check sizes on each, and then kind of also think about getting a poster, but then not, then rethink if one of the shirts they got was the right size OMG JUST BUY YOUR STUFF AND MOVE! it was 8:32 by this point, i was trying to play it cool and not freak out, but these people, seriously were pushing on my nerves. the guy behind me had been making comments to me about if i was going to be able to buy my stuff and move ASAP when i got to the front, and i told him i was ready. i also bought a shirt, and i knew the size when i got to the front. also, the guy asked me if i was on the Archive, which i told him i was. we exchanged user names, but i honestly forgot his. his g/f (i guess?) kind of rolled her eyes at us. i thought meeting people from the internet was not considered weird anymore? i made my way to my seat with about a minute to spare.

the show started and the band sounded spectacular. the venue was an open air ampitheatre which seemed to have been built recently, so the acoustics were great.

they started with Born Into A Light and kept rolling with a fantastic Cobwebs. when i first had heard that song, i didn’t really know what to think, but after seeing it live i really started to love it. the show kept building though, Bartering Lines was insane. Wonderwall was AMAZING! i was a little distracted in Tuscaloosa for this song, because ‘that’ girl got up twice DURING the song, but in ATL, all the people around me were staying in their seats. it was awesome. after they did Off Broadway, Ryan said something about his voice going out, and he was sorry, but they were going to do their best. this was the last show of the US headlining tour, i was hoping they were going to play extra long, so the voice thing didn’t sound too good. the weird thing was, then they played The Sun Also Sets, which is a hard song to sing the way he does live. i didn’t understand, but i appreciated the effort to give us the full experience. between songs Ryan mentioned the voice thing, which after being repeated, i started to feel the show was going to be cut short. after Shakedown, he finally apologized for what seemed like the 20th time, and said he felt humiliated, but he was not going to be able to go on. i felt bad for him, because he kept apologizing, and his posture was just one of defeat. when he said that was it, the band kind of looked at him puzzled, and reluctantly followed his lead and left the stage.

Susan and i figured maybe he’d go drink some tea with honey, or the band would convince him to come back on and sing quieter songs that wouldn’t be so taxing on his voice. he had sung the regular songs without changing the setlist in spite of his voice issues, which made me wonder why he did that. people started booing. and then it got louder. we were going to wait until they started taking everything apart though, which they hadn’t yet. i figure it was about 10 minutes or so before the houselights came on. the roses on the backdrop were still lit though, and we figured once they turned those off that would be the end for real. the people booing kept saying things like they wanted a refund, or that they should have known this would happen. i was more sad about what could have happened than what should have happened. they had sounded so great, i was disappointed for it to end like that. about 15 minutes after the band left the stage, they turned the roses off, which signaled our time to leave.

this week, Rouses, the locally owned grocery chain, had redfish fillets advertised in their weekly ad. i love redfish. after work one day, i stopped by a store and bought a single fillet. i had grand dreams to prepare it, but ended up doing a hack job. my friend Andy had shown me a way to use the grill to make grilled/steamed catfish, and upon not finding any recipes for redfish where i already had the ingredients, i went with a variation on the grilling/steaming method. basically it’s making a foil compartment with the fish, the spices, the liquid seasoning(s), and throwing it on the grill. it comes out fantastic if you use the right amount of seasoning. unfortunately for me, i used way too much cayenne pepper. i used cayenne pepper, garlic powder, a splash of Dale’s, a splash of Worcestershire, and some butter. oh, and some of the local chain’s Vidalia onion and tomato dressing. i put it out on the grill, cooked up some steamed broccoli and some brown sugar oatmeal, then went and pulled the fish off. the broccoli came out fantastic, i’ve become good with the steaming. the oatmeal was okay. the fish was ridiculously hot. i scraped as much of the pepper off as i could, but it was not enough. i ate about half of it before throwing the rest out. next time i’ll cut back, if not completely cut out, the cayenne pepper. otherwise, the other seasonings were good, so they’ll be used again.

i had bought some peaches at walmart the other day. i know i know, i should go to the farmers’ market, but i’ve been busy on Saturdays and haven’t been able to go. who knows if the two little old ladies are still selling peaches? anyway, so i got these California peaches at walmart, and was letting them ripen on my counter. i went to eat one tonight, and two out of the four had already gone bad. they were not ripe enough yesterday, but today were so ripe they were bad. i don’t know how that happens. if that weren’t bad enough, one of the remaining peaches that i cut up had absolutely no flavor and was dry. you know how you can turn the color down on a tv until it’s all the way gone? that’s how eating this peach was, there was no flavor, no hint, no anything. i thought the white flesh peaches were bad because they didn’t have the flavor of traditional peaches, but tonight was just awful. it was very sad.

Ryan Adams road trip 2008 Night 1, 10/16/2008

i left last Thursday for Tuscaloosa and arrived in time to eat dinner with two of the people i had had lunch with in Birmingham last month. the restaurant was taking FOREVER with our food, but we were able to scarf down our food and make it to the show with about 7 minutes to spare. none of us had been to the theatre before, so we made our way through the throng of people who were trying to get that last mixed drink or can of beer (they had CANS of beer) before the lights went down. i bought my poster for the night and made my way down to the 2nd row.

the first set was good, and i really liked the new songs, especially Born Into A Light and Sink Ships. my friend David had gone to the Dallas show, and told me how much he liked Stop, but when they played it i didn’t really like it that much. the organ they used sounded like a baseball organ, and i couldn’t hear the lyrics very well. upon hearing the studio version (legally!) i have changed my opinion. it’s so heartwrenching! btw, i thought the steel guitar during Shakedown was brilliant.

the people next to me did not show up until the 3rd or 4th song. how does that happen? if you have 1st or 2nd row for a show, why would you show up that late? it was a guy and a girl, and the girl kept climbing over me to go get another drink, and when she’d come back, she’d try to pretend fall on her b/f(?), but she also kept falling on me. i didn’t get it, but i guess after the 6th time, she apologized, as if at that point an apology meant anything. i didn’t ask them about their tickets, and once everyone stood up and moved up front for the 2nd half, they were gone.

about the moving up, when the band came out for the 2nd set, Ryan said something like if it was okay with security, everyone should come up to the front and fill in the space between the front row and the stage (which was probably 10 feet). of course as soon as he said that, everyone did, i just moved further towards the middle of the 2nd row. i’m kind of over the standing amongst a large group of people if i don’t have to.

one of the highlights of the 2nd set was Meadowlake Street. the way it started off so slow and soft and then crested with the entire band was amazing. they also played Note To Self, which was one of my favorites off of Rocknroll, and i loved hearing it live. Cold Roses also was great, esp when Ryan hit his guitar pedal for the last solo. they ended with Crossed Out Name and that was it, two and a half (roughly) hours later. seriously great stuff.

you can listen to any and all of the Tuscaloosa show here.

so i know i need to type about the Ryan Adams shows from last week, but today i went to the doctor for a followup to the MRI i had done Thursday. he looked through all the pictures and didn’t see a labrum tear, or at least not one bad enough to require full on surgery. he said he saw something that was a little suspect, and told me to keep doing therapy (at home and the gym, not going to PT) and if i still had pain after a month or so, to call him and he could do a quick outpatient scope and fix the damage. my shoulder has felt light years better than it did a month or so ago, so the PT and being smarter about how i move it have definitely worked.

btw, the MRI on Thursday was actually an arthrogram. because labrum tears are hard to see in a regular MRI, they injected a dye into my shoulder so any tears would show up better. i had to go an hour early for them to inject the dye. the radiologist deadened the area then put some blanket type things up over my face so i couldn’t see the needle (which was probably a good thing, because i think it was probably pretty big). it didn’t really hurt, giving blood probably hurts worse, and i don’t think it’s that big of a deal. i had to wait an hour after they injected the dye before the MRI could be done. after the hour passed, they walked me back to the truck where the machine was. they laid me down on the bed thing and put my shoulder in some kind of contraption to keep it still. one of the nurses gave me earplugs because she said the machine was loud (and it was, so i was really glad for the earplugs). they moved me back into the tube and started the test. i was supposed to keep as still as possible which wasn’t too hard, although i was keeping my eyes closed because there was about an inch or two from my face to the wall of the tube. i think i may have dozed off, i have no idea. i think it lasted about 30 minutes before they moved me out of it. the nurse said a couple of the pictures came out blurry, but she said everything else went fine, and the number of blurry ones was no big deal. she said she took about 120 images. after it was over, my shoulder felt pretty stiff and sore, but nothing too bad. i went home and packed, then headed up to Tuscaloosa. more on that tomorrow.

also, today at work i saw an article on a plugin Mini. kind of expensive at $850 a month now, but hopefully soon i can get a car that requires no gas and i can plug it in overnight to use in the morning. combine that with eventually having solar power to produce electricity, which would also charge the car, and you have a completely self sufficient system going. the road trip aspect of plugin cars needs some work though. a range of 150 miles wouldn’t have done me any good this past weekend. if they can get the range up to 500 or 600 miles, they’ll have something.

so on my way home tonight i stopped to get my haircut for the first time since June i think. i’m going on Ryan Adams Road Trip 2008 starting tomorrow. it’s going to be awesome. i’m not sure if it can approach last year, especially Dallas, but maybe that’s my way of keeping my expectations down. anyway, about the haircut….i stopped by the haircut place by my house. they take forever, but they’re right close and they do a good enough job. there were 4 people in front of me on the sheet and only two ladies cutting hair. it took a little over 30 minutes for my name to be called. i thought about walking out and just going back tomorrow, but then i’d go “i’ve already been here for 15 minutes, it’s gotta mean something!” there were a couple of people there getting their hair washed AND cut. if you’re a guy, and your hair isn’t complicated, you do not need to get it washed! i think his sister was getting her haircut. i noticed she had blonde hair, but it wasn’t really blonde, it was DYED. she took off her rubber band to let her hair down so the lady could wash it and cut it. HAIR DISASTER! her very dark roots were showing. i noticed the blonde wasn’t really blonde, but more like a pale yellow. AWFUL. i wanted to make a comment about it, especially after i learned her brother was the one that dyed it, and he is a hairdresser! WTF?!? a cruel joke on her i think.

this year’s RA Road Trip will begin in Tuscaloosa. i’ll be hitting up the show tomorrow night with a 2nd row ticket. the people next to me will be people who bought their tickets off ebay, or at least from a broker. i kind of want to ask them about it, but i’m just hoping they’re not annoying people who think Tim McGraw wrote When The Stars Go Blue. (cleanse your ears by watching this version if you’re into covers, or the original).

i’m spending the night at a friend of a friend of a friend’s house. my friend CJ was supposed to go to the show in Tuscaloosa also, but she chose Mexico. she gave the tickets she won to two of her friends who i met in Birmingham. one of the guy’s is staying the night in Tuscaloosa at a friend’s house, and i’m staying there.

on Friday, i’m meeting up with a friend in Birmingham and going to the ATL show. we have 4th row tickets. it’ll be the final stateside show for the Cardinals before they had across the pond (and to my friend Chrissy) so hopefully it’ll be “we’re done with this part of the tour let’s play 4 hours” craziness! two shows in two nights. after hopefully being able to watch the GT/Clemson game in peace with Jeff and Adriene, i will venture home to hopefully end up back at my house by midnight. should be a packed weekend, but i wouldn’t have it any other way.

i went yesterday to the gym. i saw CGG. i avoided making eye contact with him walking over to where the locker room is. he was talking with some guy amongst the machines. i get into the locker room and am facing the lockers and i get a pat on the shoulder “Hey Scott, working out again?” he went to the back of the locker room to get something, and then on his way back, stops and goes “you still rehabbing that shoulder?” “yeah” “cool, i rehabbed mine earlier”. that was it, he was gone. the awkward conversation was shorter than last time, but no less creepy. i went and worked out, and noticed he had left, so i’m thinking he gets done with work about 5:30, so i guess the key is to go after that time. i don’t plan on changing my schedule or anything, but i will remember for next time.

today was supposed to be a day i go running. i ended up not going, so i feel a little lazy, but i want to get to bed early tonight (BEFORE 10 pm!), so i figured it best not to go running 4 miles at 8:30. however, i did get some great deals on stuff on my way home. i went shopping for a new set of headphones to use when i go run, because the $8 pair i bought at Walmart have been falling out of my ears. apparently if i go on a long enough run, my ear sweats a certain way that makes the right headphone fall out. i googled some better headphones and found people recommending these funky green ones. i stopped by Target on the way home (i had stayed late at work, so it was like 6:30 when i got there). they didn’t have the green ones, and the ones they did have i wasn’t really into. i decided to take a walk over to Circuit City. before i left Target, i noticed the Lego Star Wars game for Wii was on clearance for $20. i was tempted, but i was on a mission. at CC i saw one of my friends from work so i talked to her about property taxes (we live in the same neighborhood) and work issues. after talking with her, i found my way to the headphones. they were a bit hard to find, and of course when you actually need an employee in this case, they are all somewhere else. anyway, i found the ones i saw at Target that i wasn’t too jazzed about, and they were $4 cheaper. nice! as i’m walking away, i look for any alternatives, and i saw the green ones! they were on clearance for $22! SCORE! i bought them. then i went back over to Target and bought the Star Wars game. i got home about 8:00 thus not going to go run. i’ll be back at it Thursday morning though (no work Thursday because of MRI and then RA ROAD TRIP 2008! [more on that later])

the three teams i care most about in football are the Saints, Clemson, and LSU. before Sunday, i had to endure all three losing in excruciating fashion, especially the first two. the Saints game last Monday night was at the time one of the worst games i’ve seen in a long time. they made SO MANY mistakes, and then still, in spite of the mistakes and the bad calls from the officials, had a chance to win at the end. unfortunately they did not. i still had hope, because Clemson was playing on Thursday and they had beaten Wake Forest two years in a row. however, they came out and looked AWFUL. the entire game was a train wreck. neither team could do anything. then Clemson scored a TD to take a 7-3 lead, but ultimately fell 12-7. awful. and now they are pretty much out of the ACC title hunt. also, now the fans are in turmoil with all the controversy surrounding the coaching staff. okay, that’s fine, because LSU still had to play. LSU looked the worst of the three teams and lost by 30. THIRTY! ugh.

yesterday’s Saints game made up for a lot, because they looked great, offensively and defensively. it didn’t exactly make me feel like a couple of weeks ago, but it makes me think they are geniunely one of the better 3-3 teams. look out Carolina!

today Clemson’s head coach stepped down. i was a little distraught after the Alabama game, but got over it. after the Maryland game, i really was upset with the offensive coordinator, but also the QB. after Wake though, i wanted someone fired. esp after Auburn fired their OC. why couldn’t Clemson do the same? the timing of today’s announcement surprised me, but not the result. if it turns out that they can get the new coach they want, then that’s cool. the most upsetting thing is the whiny comments from the former starting QB who was benched the other day, but with the head coaching change, may be restored to being starter. i would hope not, because a leader who’s into kicking someone when they’re down and not taking responsibility is not someone i want leading my team.

so long Coach Bowden. i’ll always remember the first game against Marshall in 1999. the 62-9 win over Missouri. the heartbreak i felt after GT in 2000. the euphoria after “the catch” in 2000. the OT win over GT in 2001. (MCKELVEY……TOUCHDOWN!) the miraculous win over FSU in 2003. 63-17. the 2004 Peach Bowl. 1st and 35. the incredible games in 2006. 7-2 against the gamecocks. thanks for all you’ve done for my school.

[shoulder update: i went for my 2nd appointment at the orthopedist on Wednesday and he recommended another month of PT. i had talked it over with the PT i had been seeing, and decided i would ask for an MRI if he did not recommend it first. i asked him about getting an MRI done now, because of the job possibilities (nothing yet, but i don't want the shoulder thing hanging out there if i don't have to) and a limit on PT visits in a year. he understood, and i have an MRI scheduled for next week.]

ever since i started going to PT for my shoulder, i’ve been going to the gym three times a week to lift weights and stuff. the PT place is at the gym, so i figured i had no excuse to not go lift weights afterward because IT IS RIGHT THERE! anyway, i am able to do everything that doesn’t involve lifting something over my head or machines where my arm is lifted. one of the first times i started going, this gym employee kind of startled me because i was reading something on a bulletin board, and this guy walks right by me and goes “hey” as i’m turning around. he kind of sideled up to me because i had no idea he was going to be right there. we had this awkward “i didn’t mean to scare you/oh don’t worry, it’s okay” conversation. now though, every time since that i’ve seen him, he makes sure to say hey. it’s kind of creepy. when i go to the gym, i just want to work out, i don’t want to have awkward head nods or conversations.

fast forward to today…..i walk up to get my keychain scanned by one of the people at the desk and there’s the guy! and as the girl behind the desk starts to walk over, he goes “no, i got this one” (creepy). apparently he thinks he’s my friend. so he scans my keychain which pulls up my info and he says “have a good workout scott”. i hate that! they used to have the scanner where you could scan the keychain yourself, but they changed it a few months ago, and now you have to have one of the employees scan it. so sometimes they use your name which bugs me because i don’t know their name, but they are telling me to have a good workout. anyway, so i go change clothes and start doing PT on my shoulder (i’ve stopped going to actual PT until i get MRI results) and Creepy Gym Guy comes up to me. he says “looks like you’re rehabbing your shoulder, what’d you do to it?” so i had to tell him how i didn’t know, and it might be a torn labrum or an impinged muscle, they don’t know, i won’t know until i get an MRI, etc. nothing i wanted to talk about with someone i didn’t know, i just wanted to pull the handle on this machine down 25 times and move on. so then he starts saying how he messed up his shoulder and he had to do rehab and how he missed playing golf, then he asked me if i played golf. i was wishing the guy would leave me alone. i get it, i get that he wants to be friendly, but i don’t want to talk to him. he asked me where i played golf, and i told him the course out by my house, but only cause it’s the cheapest. he said he knows a guy that lives out there, and if i know him. (there’s like 500 people in that neighborhood, i don’t know anyone) i told him i didn’t, so he says “oh, he’s probably 10 years older than you, what are you like 28?” i answered “yeah, something like that.” after that exchange i guess he had to go wash some towels or something.

this was not the only awkward conversation i had of the day….when i got to work this morning, i noticed BO Guy was already there. he usually gets there about 8:00 am with his rolling briefcase. i acknowledged him by saying “hey, you’re here early”. uh oh. then i had to have a 10 minute conversation where i learned when he lived in California, he would wake up at 4 am, start the broiler (not sure what was on the broiler), go run 2 and a quarter miles, then come home, flip the broiler, then take a shower. he would leave his house by 6:30 to get to work by 6:50. the whole time i was going “dude, i didn’t want to get into all of this.” so weird.

on Saturday i went into NOLA with some youth group people to participate in some mission work. it was me, one other adult, and three kids from our church. we were meeting up with people from other youth groups to do some stuff in the 9th ward. they broke us up into different groups to go do 4 different projects and mixed up the groups so different people from different youth groups would meet each other. i led three other guys to go move mattresses in preparation for a giveaway next week. basically we showed up at a flooded out gym at a church, and moved mattresses and box springs inside to stack up against the wall. the mattresses were donated from a hotel in Dallas and are going to be given away to people in the neighborhood in the next week. initially we started with an 18 wheeler full, so it was a daunting task at first to see what looked like an endless trailer full. in addition, there were supposed to be 10 people to do the job, but we only had four due to the small number of people helping today. we got it done though, even though we were undermanned, and had some fun along the way.

however, it wasn’t all total awesome fun time. we’re a united methodist youth group because we’re at a UM church. i get that. we got shirts today with a GIANT UM logo. at lunch we had to read these devotionals that were like a page and a half long. then when we got back to the church we originated from, they had a whole worship service, complete with communion. it just seemed too complicated to me. the shirts, i can deal with a logo on the shirt, but a huge logo? the devotional at lunch, reading that sheet of paper, just seemed a little much. when we finally got to the prayer, the kid that said it said a great one. why couldn’t we just have gone with that? then after, the worship service, we had been out all day doing work, we were tired, and yet i felt like i was sitting through a service that was for the leaders to make themselves feel good at leading worship. the first song had lyrics like “I am free indeed” and yet i was sitting there thinking i was trapped and not free! there was also this part of the service where the different groups got up to the front to talk about their project, so i went up there when my group did. the leading pastor asked us a trick question almost. we’re up there and all talked about our day and how hard we worked, and the guy asks us if any of the people there at the old gym were members of the church we were at. we had no idea, but we didn’t think so, which we responded with, but then he says “well, there was one lady who was a member of the church.” dude, what was that for? i should have asked him that. we finally were able to leave at 4:30.

the main thing though was going out there helping people. i was proud of the guys i worked with, and of all the other kids who showed up. i just wish the adults involved wouldn’t have made the rest of the day so jampacked with irrelevant stuff.