-People in S. Indiana / Kentucky are NICE. I’ve met some nice people in my day, but these people are just NICE. Loved the people.

-Teppanyaki Japanese food. Yes, please.

-Louisville: pronounced ‘Loouhvle.’ If you are not from there, you cannot pronounce it correctly.

-Clarksville, IN: 2nd largest clock in the world (next to Big Ben).

-Surprised to open the concert program at the very nice Ogle Center on the Indiana University-Southeast campus, see moosebutter there all red-track suited and jumpy, and to also see a picture of my wife’s cousins, the 5 Browns, concert pianists, scheduled in the same hall next February. Surreal.

-Airport food: EXPENSIVE and almost never particularly good. This is not a new discovery, but one that bears bitter repetition.

-Loouhvle International airport music: Muzak megablend delights. Tacky, tacky piano rendition of ‘Tonight’ from West Side Story, lots of seventies string renditions of pop songs, and James Bond music.

-Chicago Midway airport music: Christmas. All Christmas. Week before Thanksgiving. Really, are we stupid?

Live show pics here.

Chubby’s Tacos, right near Duke University. Great, affordable, LARGE mexican food. And, all their dishes are biodegradable: their spoons are made of potatoes.

Cook Out: burger place, but they cook the meat like it’s grilled on a BBQ. Ate there 3 times. Also, chili fries. Also, good shakes. Also, I pretty much wish there was one by my house.

Bojangles: chicken n stuff. Ate breakfast there: sausage, biscuits n gravy. Pretty much delicious.

http://www.voicecouncil.com

Star Wars videos here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lk5_OSsawz4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGYAPr6UKhs

I was live-looping, and it seemed to go over well with the crowd: they responded well, and didn’t seem to mind that it was just one guy providing all the parts to the songs.

Held each August in Ogden, UT, A Cappellastock brings in big-name a cappella acts, and the audience is treated to a show full of variety. This year, in addition to the hosts performing, I sang, they were treated to the emcee skills and frenetic vocal percussion/scratching sounds of Paul Sperrazza, the pre-show music featured several great high school groups and some local semi-pro talent, as well as Southern Gospel quartet Mountain Blue, and the whole show was wrapped up by headliners Blue Jupiter from NYC.

Seriously great show.

Three years ago I came into Ogden for A Cappellastock and saw a place on the main drag called the Utah Noodle Parlor. I love me some oriental noodles, and I was disappointed that they were closed the day I was there. This past Friday I saw that they were open, and that I needed lunch, and 3 years of anticipation came to a head as I eagerly ordered some pan-fried beef noodles and took it back to my hotel.

I’m sure whoever cooked this was someone’s beloved child, so I won’t go into detail, but this was without a doubt one of the five worst restaurant meals I’ve ever eaten.

It was just bad. Bland, soggy, the beef tasted like sawdust… It was a major, major disappointment.

Just goes to show what blind anticipation will get you some times!

Oh, and best part of the show: Jared from T Minus 5 falling on and breaking a lava lamp. It wouldn’t have been funny if he had been hurt, but he wasn’t (at least he didn’t show it!).

http://www.casa.org/blog/144

http://www.casa.org/blog/144

Thurs Jan 29 fly back to Vegas.

Fri Jan 30 drive to Las Angeles late after watching a concert by Face, from Boulder, in Las Vegas.

Sat Jan 31 Las Angeles A Cappella Festival.  Drive home late after the show.

Sun Feb 1 after church, drive to Utah with the whole family crammed in the car.

Mon Feb 2 relax?

Tues Feb 3 fly to Reno again, more shows with Toxic Audio.

Mon Feb 9 fly to Salt Lake, pick up the family, start the drive back to Reno.  Weather: snow.  Driving: bleh.  Stop in Elko for the night.

Tues Feb 10 drive the rest of the way back to Reno.

Fun?

Right.  Glue.  A couple weeks or so ago I saw a set of shelves advertised on craigslist – free – big things, looked heavy duty, so I drove across town at 2 am to pick them up.  Turned out they were heavy duty, and just plain heavy, and definitely bigger than I thought – I had to make 2 trips – but they are AWESOME and we can always use the storage space.  A few of the pieces were cracked, so we picked up some wood glue at the store and I’ve been slowly piecing everything together.

The only disadvantage of new shelves is that the whole house has to be re-arranged to fit them in.  There’s a built in advantage in that, though, which I note every time I haul a big box of garbage out of the house.  Garbage that’s been packed and moved three times in the last four years.  Garbage that is now GONE thanks to a bit of careful sifting.

I ended up going to be at 10 pm New Year’s Eve.  Nice sleep.  Hung out and opened presents with the kids Christmas morning, but other than that, the days feel like regular days – which is rare, and wonderful!

Mister Tim, Dylan Bell, and Wes Carroll doing the jam thing, SoJam 2008

Mister Tim sings his thing... note the awesome laptop stand!

Mister Tim gives a cupcake what for

Mister Tim and Wes Carroll hit some 'dm' and 'psht' at SoJam 2008

Mister Tim introduces FORK! at SoJam 2008