Monday, May 4, 2009

Interesting Week

The past week has had a quite varied set of activities and for the most part of have been a lot of fun.

It started Tuesday when I did trivia with Dabney and our team won again and getting ready to take on the best in the city for prizes and cool stuff. I think our team has a pretty good chance because we have a lot of areas covered with different people in the group. We play trivia at Tug’s on Mud Island and on five game winning streak, when you win you get a $50 gift card which makes for a pretty inexpensive night out.

On Wednesday Dabney and I went to Drinking Liberally and there was lots of talk about Arlen Spector becoming a Democrat, Al Franken trying to become a Senator, Tenn State Democratic politics and variety of other topics. For the most part it was the usual gang at DL, and we had a good time talking about this and that.

Thursday The Paridiso had a preview of the new Craig Brewer project Five Dollar Cover. It is a series of 15 5-7 minute videos that are about several Memphis musicians. We saw all the segments shown back to back and it was excellent. The project is all local with the crew, actors, and musicians all having local ties. In addition performing several of the musicians such Al Kapone, Amy LaVene, Valerie June and Muck Sticky play fictionalized versions of themselves. I would assume of the story draws from their real lives, but some is completely made up. I was very excited about this project. It does a really good job of showcasing the local Memphis music talent and the various venues in mostly midtown and downtown. I will be very curious to see how Five Dollar Cover will be received outside of Memphis. They will be showing it on MTV in 30 minutes blocks and will have web site with additional information and music from the performers. All indications are if this goes well it will be a template for other cities.

Friday I went with my friend Jubal downtown to see what turned out to be the only dry of Beale Street Music Festival. Dabney did not want to go downtown, which why Jubal got her ticket in the first place. Dabney is not into big crowds and something like music fest is a nightmare scenario for her. I have mixed feelings about big shows like that, they can be a lot of fun but they can be a big pain in the butt too. Jubal and I saw most of the set of Medeski, Martin, and Wood and a good bit of The Cult and G Love & Special Sauce. We decided not to stay for any of the later acts like Ben Harper or Steve Miller Band. For the most part of that group MMW was the group I wanted to see the most and since they were one of the first bands to play the crowd was pretty small. They are kind of jazzy jam band and were good for me because it is band I can listen to with my jam band friends without getting the urge to shove things in my ears like I do sometimes with the Grateful Dead or Widespread Panic. The Cult was interesting too even though it was pretty much setting the wayback machine for 1985 when The Cult was at the top of their game. I think a few hours without rain and a couple of bands that I wanted to see was about all the music fest I needed.

Saturday night Dabney and I met with Jubal, Elisa, and few others at the Young Ave Deli for dinner and beverages. The important thing to remember about going to the Deli is do not get in hurry because they are going to be slow if it’s packed or empty. A couple of the people complained and did not seem to get it when we said they were slow. All in all it was a good evening for me. I got to catch up with a couple of friends and also got to see game 7 of the Bulls/Celtics series (Celtics won BOO). There was some conversation but it got tricky at some points because it does not take much for Deli to get very loud.

Sunday was a pretty full day for me. Dabney and I met our friend Katie at the Hi Tone for Sunday brunch. If you are in midtown and looking for a good brunch place I would consider the Hi Tone. They have good food and reasonable prices and a bonus is the two times we have gone there have not been big crowds. So we ended up staying a couple of hours talking about this and that. That afternoon I had a Running Gag rehearsal and we had the second part of auditions we were having to get one or two more new members. I thought the people trying out did a really good job and I will be curious to see what the other guys think about how they did. I think we have a good chance to bring some exciting new blood into Running Gag. The day ended with our friend Liz Ricon throwing us a wedding shower at her apartment. Dabney knows Liz because they both worked on the 2006 Cohen campaign and I met her through Drinking Liberally. It was a bit odd because many of our political friends were out of town at Tennessee State Democratic retreat, but we still had a good time and it was very nice of her to throw us a party like that.

This coming weekend we are having a memorial party/ camping trip for Kiah, Kiahpallooza. All of us will be getting together on this big plot of land in Salisbury, TN. According to Kattie there is going to be at least 100 people showing up for this, and really I can’t think of a better way to say goodbye to our friend.

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