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I have admitted on several occasions that I have what is pretty close to the perfect life. This is one of those weeks why its pretty close not absolute. I turned 42 on Monday. I've never been a big celebration person, don't like being the center of attention, but I married someone who although she thinks shes an introvert, loves being the center of attention...especially as it relates to her birthday. Tara loves her birthday and loves to celebrate her birthday, she actually attempts to celebrate the entire month. This is not a narcisitic thing - I mean, I guess it is but not in a negative way. She loves gifts and she loves to eat, two things that usually go with your birthday. Also, she wants other people to participate. I live gifts and I like food but I would rather people mail me the gifts and have dinner by myself - usually. Therein lies the rub. How do we manage to celebrate my birthday? Tara knows I don't want to make a big deal but she does. I know that Tara enjoys ...

This last spring Mike from Growild came out to the house and wandered the property with me, a consult. While wandering he spotted a clematis growing in the middle of the yard, I didn't have a clue what it was or how. He suggested I plant it on the fence near where we found it. I did and slowly it climbed. This week was something special, it started to bloom. Since I was unfamiliar with the plant I didn't know what to expect. I am impressed. It grows rather quickly but seems to be quite tame and trainable. I don't think the blooms will get much bigger but who cares. They are lovely looking white flowers with a wonderfully delicate scent. I have found two other clematis plants in the yard, one I replanted and its growing but much more slowly, the other is in the middle of the lawn. I hope to get to it before Johnders tramples it and find a good spot for it. Yea plants! Powered by ScribeFire .

I saw a Phish Halloween show...it was the 96 show " Remain in Light " by Talking Heads . I went with my friend Kevin and the seats sucked. It was the Omni and we were at the top - no tapers tickets for me for that show. The excitement was energizing. Everybody was guessing which album there would be. Then we got inside and they gave out handbills, like the Broadway type, and not being a big Talking Heads fan I didn't understand the cover photo (Remain in Light with Phich members instead of Talking Heads). We trudged our way up and up and up some more. We squeezed into the seats - they are much smaller when you are that high up and I filled Kevin in on the show. He'd never been to one of these type shows (3 sets, etc). So an hour or so later Remain in Light begins and it was intense. I didn't know they album so I didn't know what was going on. I remember being excited to see El Buho , who'd I'd gotten to know in Nashville and I remember thinking how ...

The Colbert Report Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c Is it Time to Care About Soccer? - Alexi Lalas www.colbertnation.com Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Jeff Goldblum Powered by ScribeFire .

This is not a good week for musicians and I missed this news completely. A true maestro. NYT Obit: http://shuurl.com/R5422

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From: nashvilleneighborhoods@googlegroups.com Sent: Saturday, June 06, 2009 6:57 PM To: Nashville Neighborhoods Subject: Do you want commercial-type "LED" signs in your neighborhood? Dear Nashville Neighbors, DO YOU WANT "LED" DISPLAY SIGNS IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD? If not, now is the time to act. Please help protect Nashville’s neighborhoods against unwanted lighted signs. If a bill coming before the Metro Planning Commission this Thursday afternoon is approved, all residential neighborhoods in Nashville could be cheapened by the erection of bright, commercial-type, light-emitting diode (LED) signs, blinking from 6am.until 10pm. every night. Councilman-At-Large Charlie Tygard is sponsoring Bill #2009-463 that will allow the installation of electronic LED signs to in residential neighborhoods at specified locations (schools, churches, social clubs, etc.) at a distance of only 250 feet from nearby homes. We believe this is totally unacceptable and will have an extrem...

Ali Larter ...could be b/c her character on Heroes is a Sanders. She's really not my type but there is something about her. Now that I'm catching up on Heroes I just had to put this out there.

Since I stopped taping live music I have struggled to find a hobby . Something I enjoy the process and the payoff. I have some video games I like to lay play but nothing I'm passionate about. I love Splinter Cell and FIFA but at some point they are just games. I never, or at least not yet, developed any handicraft skills. I did beadwork when I was a teen but I'm not a carpenter of anything like that. I haven't fished since I was a teen either. I don't have many friends and with the ones I do have we don't "do" things. At some point after meeting Tara and her mom I started seeing the things Bonnie was doing with gardening and somewhere along the way I heard about native plant gardening . I've talked about it before but the basic idea is you plant things that live where you live and they should survive, even thrive, with little effort on your art.. It is the lazy man's gardening. If done properly it is also a habitat building form of gardenin...

Jon was a college classmate of mine. The 2009 Pulizer Prize for a distinguished and appropriately documented biography or autobiography by an American author, Ten thousand dollars ($10,000). Awarded to “ American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House ,” by Jon Meacham ( Random House ), an unflinching portrait of a not always admirable democrat but a pivotal president, written with an agile prose that brings the Jackson saga to life. Finalists: Also nominated as finalists in this category were: “ Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt ,” by H.W. Brands ( Doubleday ), a richly textured and highly readable exploration of the inner Roosevelt , presented with analytical acuity and flashes of originality; and “ The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century ,” by Steve Coll ( The Penguin Press ), an epic tale extending far beyond Osama Bin Laden and the calamity of 9/11, rooted in meticulous research and written with ...

Spin says Grimey's is the 8th best Indi Record Store in the country! Congrats to Mike, Doyle and the rest of the best. 8. GRIMEY'S 1604 8th Avenue S., Nashville, Tennessee Why It Rocks: Five years ago, Grimey's Records outgrew their space and moved into its current stylized, three-pedimented building, which it shares with Thirty Tigers music marketing and distribution upstairs and popular venue the Basement downstairs. Grimey's is definitely the meat of this sandwich, with an amazingly broad selection (for its size), very affordable prices, and history as a stalwart of indie cool in a town that's known for a very different kind of music scene. Fans Say: "Best store in Nashville (that doesn't deal exclusively in country music). They've got a real good selection of new/used vinyl, indie and import CDs, DVDs, and books. And they probably do some of the best in-stores anywhere. Pound for pound, it's one of the best in the country." -- Bob Mehr...

How Barack Obama resurrected The Dead http://shuurl.com/A4429 ============================================================ Yahoo! News http://news.yahoo.com/

New MTA 60-foot hybrid bus on display at Nashville Earth Day Festival The Nashville Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) will join Nashvillians celebrating the environment at Nashville Earth Day Festival activities on Saturday, April 18, in Centennial Park . MTA will display one of its new 60-foot hybrid buses on-site to promote the use of public transit to help improve air quality and reduce traffic congestion. The Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) also will have a booth with staff members available to talk about the Music City Star , car pools and van pools. The free, city-wide event runs from 11 a.m. until 7 p.m. and features different sections of the park representing different areas of the environment, such as air, water, recycling and sustainable living/land conservation. The local festival includes family-friendly games, activities, food and live performances. The 2009 theme is "Together growing a greener Nashville" and will feature the live music of Susan Ted...

Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream by Doris Kearns Goodwin Years ago I started seeing Doris Kerns Goodwin on TV and whatnot. I was impressed, I thought, if my history teachers had been this cool I probably would have learned something. The Obama-mania started and she, being the author of his favorite book, was everywhere and I still liked her but figured I should check out the books to see if the hype is worth it. It is. She is a wonderful writer. History books just aren’t this entertaining and its sad b/c there is so much to be had. Kerns had unique access to Johnson and that serves her well with fleshing out the man behind the title. She makes him seem real. She points out some very strange idiosyncricies and yet again, shows me that you’ve got to be messed up in the head to want to do this job. Johnson intrigued me b/c I was so curious how a southern, white man could be so instrumental in getting the civil rights bill past. She answered that. She also answered how he s...

Earth Hour Logo Originally uploaded by Earth Hour Global . Don't forget! Sat, 8:30 pm local time... Turn out the lights for an hour and see what happens! In Nashville you should hop over to DrinkHaus or some other highpoints just outside of downtown to see the lights go out or you can do other stuff, just shut the lights out!

Spring has sprung and the Men's National Team is coming to Nashville ! For these and several other reasons I decided to buy a new jersey. Now, I am a geek for cool gear, whether it be soccer or electronic, and that has always caused problems with US Soccer gear b/c Nike and US Soccer have always underwhelmed me. You look at the hip things Umbro and Puma do regularly and the things Adidas does sometimes and you see what I'm talking about. After much procrastination the bug to buy got too big and started to search... Initially, I thought the official website or Nike would be best, mainly b/c that's how I shop. I like security of name brands but I decided to look for a cheaper price. After some surfing and googling I ended up at soccerpro.com . It was fun tooling around their "store" they carry all sorts of stuff and have some great prices on some things including the jersey I ended up with. What I first noticed about the site was how much it caters to team gea...

To celebrate the new MLS season I am going to see the Men's National Team play Trinidad & Tobago . Where would I get to see a World Cup Qualifier , you might ask? Atlanta ? Chicago ? Miami ? No! The Men's National Team is gonna play a World Cup Qualifier, a true CONCACAF match right here in Music City, USA !!

I don't think I have hidden my love of Nashville . The city of my birth has continued to grow and change and expand and improve. This week I have seen two prime examples of this... This morning my bus was late by a couple of minutes and as I was hoofing it past TPAC who steps off the Hillsboro Rd bus and says "Good morning." but His Honor, Mayor Karl Dean . How often to residents of a city the size of Nashville run into the mayor getting of the city bus, let alone on day that is predicting 60% thunderstorms?  Mayor Dean is making some bold strides in the city and, of course, catching slack for it. Any mayor who rides the bus on a day like today can't be all bad. The other example is the awarding of the Charlie Robinson Award to Donna Nicely (opens .pdf), Director of Nashville Public Library . The Charlie Robinson Award honors a public library director who, over a period of seven years, has been a risk taker, an innovator and/or a change agent in a public libra...

Fool: A Novel by Christopher Moore I gave up on a Christopher Moore book. :-( It might have been timing but it was not moving me in the slightest. See more about Fool: A Novel

I admit when Tara and I went to New England last summer we did drop in the LL Bean store. We exchanged things, I don't think we bought anything. African-American Boycott of L.L. Bean Enters 80th Year

This morning I accepted the challenge of participating in a program that will attempt to help me live a better life. Bonnie told me a few months ago that a friend of hers was participating and liked it. Bonnie thought it would be helpful for me. See, I am a drug addict , no no that's not it. I mean to say I have hypertension . I am medicated for it and have been for close to a decade. Although there were some lifestyle changes as soon as Tara & I got serious - less beer consumption, less eating at places like TGI Friday's - more are needed. I don't get enough sleep, I can't stay motivated on any kind of exercise routine. I walk a little and go to the YMCA periodically. So I have decided to participate in the grant funded program at Center for Lifestyle and Health Management . Today was orientation and I was assigned to a mentor as well as given a date (3/6) for my labs and first consult. For the first 6-10 weeks I will at least speak with my mentor once a week an...

What does your music library say about you? Put Your iTunes  (I used Media Monkey ) on shuffle. For each question, press the next button to get your answer. You must write down the name of the song no matter how silly it sounds! Put any comments in parentheses after the song name. Tag at least 10 friends What do your friends think of you? Cuttin It Up; Raekwon , Ghostface Killah , Killa Sun, Chip Banks & Polite If someone says, “Is this okay?” You say? Two Shoes, Cat Empire How would you describe yourself? Each Wave That Breaks, Piers Faccini What do you like in a boy/girl? Peace, Prosperity & Paper; A Tribe Called Quest How do you feel today? Jailbreak, Thin Lizzy (I think this is more for Tara today) What is your life’s purpose? I Can't Go to Sleep, Wu-Tang Clan What is your motto? Whistling Past The Graveyard, Screamin' Jay Hawkins What do you think about very often? Go-Go Gadeget Gospel, Gnarls Barkley What do you think of your best friend? Shoo-Ra, Dr. John as Ma...

Can I just say how nice it is to work for people who are compassionate about the people who work for them and passionate about their business? From my boss all the way to THE boss I see that on a daily basis, reiterated and reinforced, no matter the external nor internal conditions. I do have a wonderful life. Addendum: I do realize I have coworkers who's mileage will differ and I am saddened to hear that.

I've seen a couple of things recently from Facebook expressing concerns and outrage about Obama 's work thus far, mostly related to the stimulus package . I've thought about this and I think we - humans - have such a desire for immediate solutions and we - Americans - have such a need for quick fixes that people are not seeing the forest for the trees on some stuff. One person pulled a partial quote from Sen Lindsey Graham something about " the President is AWOL on leadership ". The whole quote is Lindsey Graham criticizing Obama b/c he was doing a press junket (sp) instead of talking to Republican leadership about the stimulus. Well, the way I understand it is the citizens who vote are the republican leadership and the democratic leadership . This doesn't seem so far fetched to me. Obama won the election with a huge % of the electorate which plays right into his need and desire to take his position and explanation to the general public and they will, in ...

What is the most common phrase in your house? "Mommy, can I?" "Honey, do you know where my is...?" In our house it is something like "Tara, Hold on. I can't hear you." or "Jai, I can't hear what you are saying when you walk into another room." Tara admittedly and sometimes quite obviously can't hear. I on the other hand still hear pretty well, especially considering my live music history. At least we are considerate enough and smart enough to say more than "Huh?"

I worked in record, video and bookstores for a long time. I accumulated lots of those items, many of them were great at the time but I'm not interested anymore or I have upgraded format or whatever. For a long time I used paperback swap and swap a CD but I hate their point system. Then I discovered bookmooch which I love everything about but I lamented that I had no place cool to swap CDs and movies. A couple of weeks ago I rediscovered swaptree , apparently I signed up last year but never used and forgot about it, which is just the place. On swaptree you can trade across platforms...CD for book, DVD for video game! I now have a place to get better stuff, not necessarily a reduction in stuff but a more efficient stash of stuff. Signup and get some cooler stuff than you already have.

I've already expressed concern over Obama's administration not being enough of a change and now, the third candidate for a job in his cabinet is getting called out for some tax issue. FUCK! Did these people not do their research or is it just that hard to find someone who doesn't cheat on taxes? Performance czar withdraws candidacy : NPR

People love to hate. We all do it. I hate on people who date Scarlett Johansson or marry Halle Berry , people hate on me b/c I tell them no, East Coast hates on West Coast , Hollywood hates on America and the list goes on. Its ok to be hater depending on what you do with that hate. The good people shake their heads and move on the bad ones turn their hate into a real thing. We all know republicans hate on democrats and vice versa. Now that democrats are in the White House its a full-time job for republicans. I think its nice to put things in perspective. Thanks to Kevin for the comic...

In addition to her political career, (Condoleeza) Rice is an accomplished concert pianist as well as a big-time National Football League fan. I knew she was a smart woman and I knew she was a concert pianist but I had no idea she was a football fan. Can you see Condi with one of the big foam horse hats? (Surely she's a Broncos fan, since there's no pro ball in Alabama.)   Condoleezza Rice signs with William Morris Agency

They just brighten the day.

Whitehouse.gov

Skydog: The Duane Allman Story by Randy Poe Most people who know me know what a powerful influence Jimi Hendrix was in my life. He lead me down a wildly diverse but unique musical road. He also gave me some inspiration. I was a black kid who liked his music, he was a black man who played his music. Being an adventurous and slightly obsessive guitar fan I started to listen to rock radio and when I was a kid I heard “Rambling Man”, “Southbound” and “Jessica” on the radio all the time. I loved them because they had lots of guitar. As I read more and associated things…I thought Charlie Daniels was cool. I identified – quite bizarrely – with being Southern, and I mean redneck Southern. So, the Allman Brothers couldn’t be far off my radar. In college I was moving from a metalhead to a blues fanatic and again, the Allman Brothers were there. They were played on the same radio as Metallica and AC/DC and all the classic rock – guitar rock – I loved but they played blues songs and really ...

We bid farewell to a wonderful person and coworker. She has made my job much easier .

Today was a day of frustrations. I can't find my wallet. So I can't go to the dog park by myself. Tara suggests we go to Shelby Bottoms together. A completely bonkers, out-of-control Johnders and I walk in the rain. Tara feeds Julia back in the car. We go to Turnip Truck , I didn't know we were going to Turnip Truck... We come home, I finish cleaning the house. We eat and then Julia goes completely bonkers & out-of-control. She won't settle down for shit. Tara and I have a few words...nothing unusual but with both of us being tired and with the rest of the days frustration it was a more snarky than usual. I know she's frustrated too - breastfeeding, lack of sleep but this post is about me. It was a shitty day.  Thank God for FIFA 09 & Genmaicha Tea