Garth Brooks

Ok, if you don't like country, that is fine. But I do. Growing up my favorite artist was Garth Brooks. Before I got to go see him live, he retired. That was a sad time. The man has won entertainer of year 6 times in 9 years. He must know how to put on a show. He is also the highest selling solo artist of all time. Again, he must know what he is doing. So when I heard that he was putting on a show in L.A. I had to go and was going to spend almost any amount of money to go. Tickets went on sale and in five minutes he sold out Staples Center. So they added another show, five minutes later, another, another. After it was said and done he sold out five shows at Staples Center in five minutes a show. I didn't not get tickets. So I paid a lot more than I should have and bought my wife and I tickets.

Needless to say, but I am going to say it anyway. The show was amazing. I couldn't imagine a better show. The coolest part was watching him absolutely loving his life. His love a performing and playing music was so clearly seen, it was contagious.

Another cool story: After he left for the first time, he came back about one minute later, saying "you never know what is going to happen. I was backstage and this lady on break, said that she always wanted to meet me and asked what it is like being me. I have always thought that the best way to learn is to jump in with both feet." At that he asked for (i forgot her name we will call her lupita) to come up on stage. This little old lady come out. He had the crowd cheer for her. He then sang her a song and had the crowd sing to her. He then had anybody that brought a camera to take it out, and snap a quick picture of the two of them together. The place lit up. It was crazy. And to make sure she never forgot this moment. he gave her his hat.

I know the stories are much cooler, being there, but I thought I thought I would tell them anyway.

I'm Back (said like that creepy girl in Poltergeist)

Really I have no excuse for my lack of blogging in the last three months. Well, I guess I have one, it is just a bad one. I am lazy. For whatever reason, it started feeling like homework. (Wait I have a good reason, lent). But homework that I didn't really have to do, so I didn't. Anyway I am back, I had tons of things to blog about but didn't. I would try to remember them, but that is an impossible task. I will just have to start over. Sorry friends, but I also have no idea what is going on in your lifes. So if anything really important happened let me know.

As a side note: my cat, is in heat. She goes crazy rolling around on the floor, every once in a while, and will not shut up. She keeps us up at night, and screams all day. i think she is calling all the boys over. Our boy solomon is just confused at why she is acting so strange. he is neutered.

James "Freakin" Taylor

On Thursday Colette and I went to see James Taylor for our anniversary. The show was hands down the best show that I have ever seen. (Colette agrees with that statement). I have seen some amazing shows, but James Taylor is simply in another league. A place one would expect him to be in after doing this for 30-40 years. The show was the perfect combination of laid back tunes to the upbeat and flat out rock n' roll tunes. The man has kept his youth and even though he was bald he still had the energy and excitement of a little kid. His band was equally amazing. Each member (drums, keys, bass, electric guitar, and three vocalist) knew their place and filled their role perfectly. The only sad part of the show was a heckler. Who pays money to go and see an artist just to yell at them. I didn't hear the whole comment but as James Taylor was telling us what a song was about, somebody yelled something to the affect of "shut-up and sing." Peopled yelled back and so James decided mid-story, mid-sentence to just play the song. I was annoyed and so was he, and I still don't know what the song is about. Later in the show, James sort of got back. In the middles of Steamroller, a blues tune with a bit of vocal vamping. He added a "Shut up and sing" in the middle of it. And then before the next song said, "this next song, at risk of opening my g__ damn mouth, is..." It was awesome. Anyway the show was amazing and I can't wait to get another chance to see the man.

As a side note I saw Brody's parents at the show.

Updates

-Colette and I were able to go see Phil Wickham when he was up in Redding, Ca. The show was amazing. He trully has a talent for playing worship. As well he has an amazing right hand when it comes to playing guitar, I am sure it is good for other things too, like writing. Thank you Brody for that little trip.

-We finally sold the van. At 1:00 in the morning three guys drove up from the bay area and decided that this was the van they needed. I say they chose wisely, it is a good van. I am also completely relieved to have the van gone. Now the only thing left to do is pay off the bills and cover the remaining balance. As well I am waiting to hear back from everybody else who are going to dispute that they owe any money whatsoever. People who will sacrifice a friendship over a few hundred dollars amaze me.

-Colette started school again. A week from Wednesday will be her second day of school. She is excited to get underway and will graduate in January of 2010. The best part is that we will be able to afford for her to be in school. We were not sure what sort of financial aide we were going to get, but we are going to get enough help to cover what we cannot afford to cover.

-That is about it, Colette and I are both sick so I am going to sit and do nothing for the rest of the day.

Second Saturday

Last weekend Colette and I had some good friends come up from Southern California and spend some time with us. It was a great time. Relaxing but busy enough at the same time. On Saturday night we went to Old Sacramento, which is a good time, and proceeded over to Downtown Sacramento for this thing called Second Saturday. I know this will come as a shock to you but it is on every second saturday of each month. Basically it is just a lot of art galleries that open up and you can walk around for free and they have wine and cheese and people that think they are really cool and important hang out. As well there are lots of various street performers and musicians. There were a few highlights to the night. First would have to be the fire twirling people. Basically they were just scantilly clad girls twirling balls of fire around on the end of chains. Now before you think I am a pervert, they funny part was the group of three men that had planned their evening around these girls. They had lawn chairs, beer, and cameras. They sat there noddding their heads and grooving to the music. Every once in a while, one guy would nudge the other and they would give an agreeing nod to say "yeah, I saw that too."
Second would have to be the band Art Lessing. You can check them out at artlessing.com (i'm too lazy to make the link). they were just two guys playing various homemade instruments that sounded really cool. They are hard to describe. So go check out there music and just so you know, their music is much better live.
The last thing that was more funny than cool was when we ended up in the gay area of downtown Sacramento. I was not aware there was one, but we found it. We were just walking around and we all happened to look inside a club to see a man wearing nothing but leather chaps and tightie wighties dancing on the stage. We then looked around and noticed the plethera or gay people wondering around. One member of our group was hit on by a middle aged man. Minutes later we were flashed by some lady walking by, she was a little bit drunk. and fortunately at least wearing a bra.
So all in all a good night: art, music, friends, perverts, gay people, and boobs.

The Fight - A combination of what Colette and I saw.

Stopped at a red light, a few cars behind us a black lady, we will call her LN1, hopped out of a white car and ran up to a mini-van that was stopped in front of us. (Sorry I am not politically correct. Though I can't call her an African-American, I don't know where she is from). The black lady from the mini-van, LN2 (again sorry), must have seen her coming as well because as LN1 reached her car she got out of hers to the sound of a pop. There was a few seconds of taunting from LN2, "what you gonna do, what you gonna do" and then the fight started. Now I know I described these women as black, but they were also big women, not scrawny little things like me. The fight consisted mostly of hair pulling and quickly turned to the ground as LN2 got LN1 down and was sitting on her as the hair pulling continued. At this point I was waiting for 911 to answer their phone, and noticed that LN2 was not only pulling hair but was now pointing a small gun at the head of LN1. (Think back to pop). Before the gun was there, there was was no way I was going to try and stop them, and I certainly wasn't going to do anything with a gun in the picture. Slowly, as I would imagine in most gun fights, the gun started pointed in other directions as they wrestled for control of the gun. The direction I remember the most would be the one where it was pointing at the car Colette and I were in. This was not a fun moment in time, thinking this could end really bad for a number of people including Colette or me. 911 finally answered and I explained to them the situation, while on the phone with 911 a new person entered the scene. A muscular white guy, MWG, left his car and walked over to the battle. (Again, if calling a black person black is wrong, then calling a white person white is wrong, but I don't know where he is from either). He being much braver than me wrestled the gun away, thank God, and let them continue to pull each others hair. About 30 seconds later, the cops arrived. Within seconds two female officers that did not look any bigger than me, had LN1 and LN2 separated, in cuffs, and in the back of the squad cars. SWAT happened to be around the corner with nothing to do so they showed up as well. During all of this excitement I noticed MWG run to his car and take off, which I thought was suspicious since he had the gun. I had the wherewithal to get the license plate number from his car, but missed one letter, shame on me. And just as quickly as the battle began, the battle was over. We stayed around for a while since we were "in the front row" and witnessed the whole thing. By this time the white car had pulled up next to us and the driver conveniently mentioned nothing about the lady getting out of her car, and said she was simply on her way to pick up her children from school. We gave our statements and all our information and they let us on our way. I would say the best part of the whole thing was the SWAT guying asking an officer, "So you don't need anybody shot?"

Props to the cops for extremely fast response time, and great work separating the battle.

Bad Attitude

I am sure that you have all had experience with the type of person that questions everything that you tell them to do. This is not always a bad thing. Kids do it and they are cute. Yes, it gets annoying, but you aren't (at least you shouldn't be) getting pissed off. The problem comes when the attitude of this is person one of disrespect. I had a kid in my class like this today. I am used to getting questioned by students. Usually they are trying to get away with something. "Do we really have to do this as homework?" "I know you said no talking, but can we work together?" Questions like that are not that big of a deal. But this students questions were much more disrespectful. After I said no cell phones, he said, "Why not, you're just a sub." When I said no sleeping (it is school after all), he said, "What? We can't sleep either, man what the heck." He just drove me crazy and I thought I would spread the joy.