There's the bad, and there's the good.

Remember that great scene in The Grifters when Annette Bening gives the landlord a choice between collecting his rent or...?

"The money...or the girl. The money...or the girl."

Of course he doesn't take the money. I, sad to say, if I were him right about now, would have no choice but to take the money in that situation. I'm not making near enough now. The search for a better job continues.

On the bright side of recent news, the pool is now open! I do love that aspect of apartment living.

My shuffle likes to rhyme.

Tonight while on shuffle, the iPod played Geoff Baker's "Locket" followed by Caitlin Rose's "Docket."

I'm guessing the iPod is sad that I didn't have Herbie Hancock's "Rockit" available for play. All of a sudden, I'm a little sad about that as well.

Uh-oh.

I just received a voicemail. I'm working late tonight. An hour later than the people who have been good enough to give me rides to and from work lately while my car's been on the fritz.

But I don't wanna walk six miles home at midnight tonight.

Well, I have been meaning to get back into shape. I'll just call this Day One of training for next year's Country Music Marathon.

Prince at Coachella

Brooklyn Vegan has pics and video.

AT&T Blue Room brings it to your room.

If I clock out on time and get home fast enough, I'll get to watch Gogol Bordello play their Coachella set tonight. Their start time is approximately 11:15 Nashville time. I'd like to also see Love and Rockets, but they don't take the stage until just after 1:00 A.M. and I'd like to be in bed by then.

Who needs a life when live and awesome concert webcasts like this are available? Big thanks to AT&T Blue Room for making this possible. They're doing Bonnaroo too. Forty-four more days until that little festival plays in my living room.

[Edit to add: I'm thinking there's a small chance that Tom Waits might show up during Gogol Bordello's set. He appeared with Gogol Bordello's Eugene Hütz in a quirky little film called Wristcutters: A Love Story and I don't think he lives far from Indio, California, where Coachella does its thing. It's not likely but I'm here just in case.]

Exchanging gold bands and rocking to the E Street Band.

From the New York Times Weddings/Celebrations page:

"Then their 393 guests headed for the three-story gilded Grand Ballroom, where this time Ms. Pottruck and Mr. Goldman entered legally, to the music of Bruce Springsteen. A 14-piece band played 'Badlands' as the best pals once again showed their playful instincts by rocking out with their fists pumping in the air."

I love this couple already. Their love for Springsteen is huge. (The article also mentions them almost getting arrested for crashing Springsteen's Rock Hall induction ceremony.) She's a redhead - as is Bruce's wife - and I wonder if they considered entering to Springsteen's "Red Headed Woman." It's a bit racy but would have been perfect for the removing of the garter.

Excerpted lyrics:

Well listen up stud
Your life's been wasted
Til you've got down on your knees and tasted

A red headed woman
A red headed woman
It takes a red headed woman
To get a dirty job done

Tight skirt, strawberry hair
Tell me what you've got baby, waiting under there
Big green eyes that look like, son
They can see every cheap thing that you ever done

This Hermitage hermit blogs again.

Wife came home. I went out. She had her wild weekend. Now it was my time to give myself a wild night before going back to work tomorrow. Would I get liquored up at the nearest bar? Wander into a rock club and hear a new favorite band? At least walk around with camera in hand and work on my night shots?

None of the above. I drove around downtown and I drove around East Nashville but never could commit to doing anything fun or interesting. I did stop in at The Groove, a record store in East Nashville, but I was in and out in ten minutes. My big night out consisted of the above driving around and ended with a stop at the Taco Bell near my workplace where I ate, read the Nashville Scene and listened to podcasts on the iPod.

The cool part of my night is below:

I logged in (on?) tonight just in time to watch Portishead live at Coachella. The music sounds wonderful as I sip from my wine.

A marriage doomed.

I've got the iPod playing from a playlist of songs with no names, at least no names that were identified by the computer. It's nice. Most of them are jazz songs that are from my dad's CDs and they are a joy to relax to. I don't know who I'm listening to though because it's all "Track 01," "Track 03," "Track 06," etc.

Anyway, I know the song that just came on. It's Mendelssohn's "Wedding March." I feel the urge to stand up and wait for a girl in a white dress to walk by. It took me a bit to remember why this song was on my iPod. It's not from one of my dad's CDs. It's from a project that my teacher wife did. The kindergarten class at her school recently learned that the letters Q and U loved each other very much and wanted to spend the rest of their lives together and so they got married. They had a ceremony and I'm told that it was all very cute.

Of course, I had to be me and tell my wife that I'd seen the letter U running around with lots of different letters (some in this very sentence!). I told this to my Scrabble-playing dad and he reminded me of Q's dalliances in words such as "qaid" and "qintar."

I give them a year at best.

"It ain't called babysitting if they're your own kids."

After a couple of nights of staying in hotels with her friend and lusting after that "dreamy Jon Bon Jovi," my wife should be home sometime today. For me, it's been fun hanging with the kiddos and not having to clock in at the job. We've goofed around, walked around outside looking for bugs, fed the ducks, and played on the playground. I've also broken up any number of little arguments between the two. It's been awesome, but it's time to get out and play by myself for a bit. My noggin needs a break from Noggin.

I'm ready to take my wife's van downtown and get in as much trouble as ... (checks wallet) ... 22 bucks will allow. OK, maybe I'll stay home tonight after all. It's just as well. I added some of my dad's favorite jazz CDs to his iPod and now they're on my iPod too. I have them playing now and I'm feeling quite mellow as a result. I just may take a stroll to my local library if my wife gets home in time. At least I can get out of there without spending any dough (late fee of $13.20 notwithstanding).

If anyone wants to catch a movie or something, let me know.

"Turn Me Loose"

Question: How do you go to bed when the Raconteurs are playing live from Coachella in your living room?

Answer: Forget all about the stupid question. Rock out and watch the goosebumps form on your arms while you give into the awesome, awesome experience.

Again, AT&T Blue Room. The Coachella lineup is just sick. I'm tuning in all weekend.

(I just remembered that Coachella headliner Prince was on Leno tonight. I forgot all about it. Ugh.)

Coachella from my couch-olla.

Some good Coachella sets are being streamed live from AT&T's Blue Room.

I love the Internet. Coachella's way over there. I'm way over here. I'm watching it now.

Have a nice night!

Sasha Say...

from Sasha Frere-Jones: Online Only: The New Yorker:

The fact that the new Annie single, “I Know Ur Girlfriend Hates Me,” is not so different from “Chewing Gum” or Annie’s three other great songs is irrelevant. Outside, spring is playing dominoes with summer and it doesn’t matter who wins. Inside, right here, the weather will be exactly the same if you play the Annie track over and over.

All economic problems solved.

Stimulus checks are on the way. I think we'll spend ours on gas.

And Tom Sawyer might even let you whitewash his fence if you ask nicely.

This staying home with the kids thing is easier than I thought.

Now if I could just convince his sister that scrubbing toilets is fun, I'd be all set.

McDibb's, 135 Cherry Street, Black Mountain, North Carolina

A couple of you might appreciate this postcard that I found on flickr.

McDibb's even has a page on Wikipedia. I knew that David Wilcox played there a lot, but I had no idea that Bela Fleck and The Indigo Girls were also frequent players back in the day.

I'm not shaving for the next three days.

While my lovely (and Bon Jovi-obsessed) wife spends the the next three days goofing around Nashville with a friend and staying in hotels (tonight: Bon Jovi concert; tomorrow night: who knows?), I've got the weekend off from work so that I can watch the kiddos. We'll have no car and will make do with what our immediate surroundings have to offer. I foresee lots of walks around the apartment complex, feeding bread to the ducks, playing at the playground, etc. When the rain comes, we'll just stay inside and draw on poster board, read books, and build forts with couch cushions.

I'm just happy to not have to shave for a few days. I'll be a bit scruffy looking by the end, but hopefully somewhat rested. Then again, depending on the kids and their behavior, maybe I'll wake up Sunday morning thrilled that I get to go back to the structure of my job. Either way, I look forward to this small break from the daily routine of dragging a sharp razor across my face.

Gotta run. It's time to play on the swings.

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My 'Wake Up' Moment

I'm now the parent of an adult.

Happy Birthday to my 18-year-old son. I am, of course, very proud of him.

I give him points for thinking the whole thing out.

The four-year-old in the house is moving out. He said so to his mom the other night. I guess he's tired of repressive rules such as, "Don't hit your sister."

Click over to my wife's blog to read all about it: "I'm not living here anymore."

New Buk on DVD

Here's good news for Bukowski fans like me. His last two poetry readings have been released on DVD. It's time to collect stray dimes, put them into envelopes, and make a purchase.



From Press Release Newswire:

Fallbrook, CA (PRWEB) April 22, 2008 -- Charles Bukowski's last two live poetry readings have just been released on DVD. The readings, considered performance art by many, were given in late 1979 in Vancouver, Canada and in early 1980 in Redondo Beach, California. They were captured on videotape but remained unreleased until now.
The late Charles Bukowski (1920 - 1994) recently had his books, manuscripts, and poems archived as a part of the permanent collection of the Huntington Library. His writing is brutally honest, not for the squeamish; its directness and unpretentious nature makes it accessible to those readers willing to face his raw and compassionate vision of the human condition.
His novels, short stories, and poems have been translated into many different languages and published around the world. His writing has also been adapted as major motion pictures (Barbet Shroeder's Barfly, Factotum, and Tales of Ordinary Madness). He was the subject of the 2004 documentary, Bukowski: Born Into This. But he was most notorious live, both onstage and off. ...the rest >>

She's my Coney Island Baby

Every night she comes
To take me out to dreamland
When I'm with her, I'm the richest
Man in the town
She's a rose, she's the pearl
She's the spin on my world
All the stars make their wishes on her eyes

She's my Coney Island Baby
She's my Coney Island Girl

She's a princess in a red dress
She's the moon in the mist to me

She's my Coney Island Baby
She's my Coney Island Girl

-Tom Waits, "Coney Island Baby"

Ari and I love to sing this together. She's my sweetie.

More... From Two Rivers to Shelby Bottoms, the bridge we crossed.

From Two Rivers to Shelby Bottoms, the bridge we crossed.

That would be, "Open To Pedestrians" Now

Joshua, circa 2004

Honeymoon, Almost Six Years Ago

CERN was open to the public recently.

Oh, how I wish I was there for that. Thousands of people got to tour the site, learn about the technology behind it all, and see that big, beautiful Large Hadron Collider that has had me so transfixed for the last year or so.

The headlines are all about the chance that scientists will accidently create a black hole which will instantly suck us all up and put an end to life as we know it. The actual chances of this occurring are so minimal that it's ridiculous to even mention. What we could stand to learn about those mere seconds In The Beginning -- after The Big Bang -- interests me and excites me to no end.

Dennis Overbye writes about it in the New York Times today. Read his article here.

I love the CERN pictures at flickr.

Stream of Consciousness for your Entertainment

Being a hotel bellman, I read with great interest an article on elevators this week in The New Yorker. I timed my waits at elevators tonight. Grand total for my nine hour shift: 18 minutes.

I don't spend as much time walking our city's Greenways as I should, but I really can't wait for the opening of the bridge that connects the Shelby Bottoms Greenway to Two Rivers Park. Josh Hunter took a fantastic shot of it here.

My car's broken and I'm broke. Thankfully, many coworkers live near me and work the same shift. I feel like I'm back in high school and bumming rides to school so that I don't have to take the bus. (Oh how I wish I lived on a bus line that kept a late night schedule for a Hermitage-dwelling 2nd shifter like me.) This sure beats paying for gas these days.

For a few days next week, Finland will be minus one beautiful person and Nashville will be plus one beautiful person. (And I would have written this even if she didn't read this blog.)

KCRW plays the coolest music.

Steve Martin's The Underpants is coming to James K Polk Theater in May. I read the play a few years ago and it's quite funny. Picasso at the Lapin Agile is still my favorite of his plays.

Portishead's Third is reviewed by Sasha Frere-Jones here.

Sometimes, it's even tough being four.

The only player jersey I ever bought.

Happy retirement to #9.

The Truth As Spoken By Newt Gingrich

The most eloquent words I heard from a politician yesterday came from Newt Gingrich. Actually the words weren't even spoken yesterday. I listened on my iPod to an archived speech he gave to the National Press Club on August 11, 2007. Like his politics or not, he's right on the money about how elections these days are terribly presented to us. It's just sound bites and "Gotchas!"

Here are a few excerpts from that speech (full text here):

"For the most powerful nation on Earth to have an election in which swiftboat veterans versus National Guard papers becomes a major theme verges on insane. I mean, it’s just — and to watch those debates I found painful, for both people. They’re both smarter than the debates."

"And so we now have a system that is overly focused on money, overly delegated to technicians, and in which candidates are held to a rigidity standard that is very dangerous, while their answers are held to a sound bite and 30-second standard, which is just frankly absurd. What’s your answer on Iraq, in 30 seconds? What’s your answer on health care, in 30 seconds?"

"And on top of that, you have the challenge of the news media, which unfortunately was taught by a cross between H.L. Mencken’s cynicism and Theodore White’s wonderful writing but focused far too much on politics as a horse race, and on an unavoidable desire for “Gotcha!” And what does that do?

It turns the candidates into rigidity, because if a candidate says something in March of 2007, and in the course of the campaign they learn something fundamentally different, and they mature, and they change, and in August or September or October, they adopt a new position based on having grown during the year, they will promptly have flip-flopped."

Titans '08.

Sept. 7: Jacksonville Jaguars @ 12 p.m.
Sept. 14: at Cincinnati Bengals @ 12 p.m.
Sept. 21: Houston Texans @ 12 p.m.
Sept. 28: Minnesota Vikings @ 12 p.m.
Oct. 5: at Baltimore Ravens @ 12 p.m.
Oct. 12: Bye
Oct. 19: at Kansas City Chiefs @ 12 p.m.
Oct. 27: Indianapolis Colts (Mon.) @ 7:30 p.m.
Nov. 2: Green Bay Packers @ 12 p.m.
Nov. 9: at Chicago Bears @ 12 p.m.
Nov. 16: at Jacksonville Jaguars @ 12 p.m.
Nov. 23: N.Y. Jets @ 12 p.m.
Nov. 27: at Detroit Lions (Thurs.): @ 11:30 a.m.
Dec. 7 Cleveland Browns @ 12 p.m.
Dec. 14: at Houston Texans @ 12 p.m.
Dec. 21: Pittsburgh Steelers @ 12 p.m.
Dec. 28: at Indianapolis Colts @ 12 p.m.

Holly Cole Does Not Disappoint

Sadly, Scarlett Disappoints

So that Scarlett Johansson album I was so excited about? The one where she covers Tom Waits songs? I heard three tracks from Anywhere I Lay My Head this morning and have determined that it's crap. Sorry. I wanted to love it, but I don't know what the hell she was trying to do here.

I've heard her sing before and she's got a nice voice. This, however, is an album produced to hide her voice, as if she's just not capable at all. Kinda like the way producers approach Britney Spears' records, except here with early '80s recording technology.

Click over to The Eyeball Kid [Edit: Songs have since been removed from their source.] to hear the three available tracks. The only one that I almost like is "I Wish I Was In New Orleans." Backed only by music box with emphasis on Scarlett's interpretation of the words, it kind of works.

To hear a superior album of Tom Waits covers, check 1995's Temptation by Holly Cole. Smoky, sexy, and oh so soulful. Exactly what I was hoping for from Scarlett.

"Help me Drive D. You're my only hope."

Hey, Drive D. If only I was a bit more tech savvy and brave, I could put so many pictures and music on you. It would help out Drive C so much. We can do this. I know we can.

Good Morning, Blog Readers!

Tom Waits Facts Site

Found at The Eyeball Kid, Tim Roth's Tom Waits Facts Site

An excerpt:

Did you know?

Tom Waits was born with a stillborn twin brother. Apparently the defenseless fetus had chafed himself to death on his twin’s stubble.

Sneak Peek

If you've never seen me at work, click for a quick peek.

Judy Grimes is Just Kidding

Peter Himmelman is playing Lollapalooza this year. Well, kind of.

This year's Lollapalooza show in Chicago looks to be one of the best yet with a lineup that includes Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, Kanye West, Wilco, and The Raconteurs.

I perked up with surprise to see Peter Himmelman's name on the list. Of course this year there's a kids stage (Kidzapalooza) and that's where he'll be. I love him mostly for his more heady, adult material but it's the kids stuff that's given him the most attention in recent years. It's interesting to me to see how he's cultivated this measure of success by finding his niche. While an introspective and thoughtful song like "Beneath The Damage And The Dust" is among my favorites, my kids prefer his song called "Feet." (I think "Feet" is pretty awesome, too.)

Anyway, I guess it says something about Lollapalooza's age that they even have a Kidzapalooza stage. It's been seventeen years since that first one and many of us who were at that first one have families now.

This brings to my memory a quote from the cool blogger at Sitting Still about a Dan Zanes show she and her family attended in Asheville. A friend of hers came back to where they were sitting and said, "I just ordered two Newcastles and two juice boxes at the same bar. It was weird."

In the midst of a "Calgon, take me away" moment, I see possible diversions from the chaos.

From the Blair School of Music website:

MONDAY, APRIL 14, 2008
Steve and Judy Turner Recital Hall
8:00 p.m.
THE BLAIR COMMISSIONS:
NEW MUSIC FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
World Premiere of Music for Trio by American composer LOWELL LIEBERMANN
Leslie Norton, horn; Carolyn Huebl, violin; Mark Wait, piano
other works:
Trio for Horn, Op. 40 - Brahms

TUESDAY, APRIL 15, 2008
Ingram Hall
8:00 p.m
Vanderbilt University Orchestra
Robin Fountain, conductor
The Planets - Holst

I'm late to the party, but I gotta talk about M.I.A.

At the close of 2007, it seemed that every music critic's top ten list had M.I.A. (the lovely Maya Arulpragasam) at either the top spot or close to it. I was confounded. I hadn't heard of M.I.A. before November or so and what I finally heard ("Boyz") was good but nothing particularly special to my ears.

Then I borrowed the disc from the library and played it once. It was cool enough. I liked it enough. But I still couldn't understand its effect on all of those music critics. I listened to it again. And again. By the weekend, M.I.A. was all I was listening to.

M.I.A. is nothing if not infectious to me. I'm reminded a bit of The Go! Team from time to time, but there's just something more raw and nasty here. Words like "guttural" and "primitive" come to mind. This girl Maya from Sri Lanka has a tight grip on whatever the hell it is she's trying to do. The drums and her cadence are at the same time both basic and inventive as hell.

Sasha Frere-Jones describes the music in the New Yorker: "The over-all effect is like what a politically minded class of fourth graders might do for a term project if they had access to a lot of electronic toys: joyous, spring-heeled, impatient, unafraid to speak out."

And now it excites me to no end that M.I.A. is coming to Nashville to play at City Hall on May 5. Tickets are pricey (for me) at twenty-seven bucks, so I may pass and just keep spinning the disc from home. If you go, tell me all about it.

Welcoming the 2008 Nashville Film Festival

The Nashville Film Festival (NaFF) starts next week and runs from the 17th to the 24th. I want like anything to attend but I'll be busy doing other things. Anyway, I'll pay as much attention to it as I can from online. Here's hoping that attendees blog about it and share all kinds of wonderful information from the event.

Meanwhile, I subscribe to Bill Marriott's blog and his latest post is about some short films presented by Ritz-Carlton and American Express. This ten-minute film focuses on a weary traveler checking into a Ritz-Carlton hotel. I like it.

Hey cyclists! Cross (dress) that bridge!!!

Of course, the bridge itself isn't exactly "open" yet, but that doesn't mean that you won't have a blast hanging with like minded folks who like to ride and drink Yazoo.

Official site: Cross Dressing The Bridge

h/t: Nashville Metblogs

East Nashville is west of me, and Southside Johnny plays Waits in my living room tonight.

The moon is high, I'm clocked out, at home, and shirtless in my quiet living room with Georgia sleeping next to me.

Southside Johnny's album of Tom Waits covers will be released soon. "Yesterday Is Here" is streaming at his site. It sounds oh so groovy.

Give it up for Southside Johnny.

h/t: The Eyeball Kid

She's all up in his grill.

Hearing sad country lyrics sung from my little guy is more than I care to take.

It's true that I've been listening to a lot of Caitlin Rose lately. What is also true is that the kids pay attention more than I know. The other day while cleaning up a bit around the house, I absentmindedly sang a line from her "One Speed Confessional" but stopped there not moving onto the rest of the chorus.

Me: "Well, I rode past your house two times..."

Four-year-old Joshua picked right up where I left off: "...And I don't care for quiet nights/'Cause quiet nights mean lonely nights to me."

I'm not sure if there's anything that sounds more sad and affecting than a child singing Townes Van Zant-like lyrics. I'll have to make a note to not play "He Stopped Loving Her Today" by George Jones when the kids are around. I don't think I could handle hearing my little guy sing that one.

On a related note, below is a video of him singing karaoke with his Nama a couple of Christmases ago. Big congrats to her. She was recently on an Alaskan cruise and took first place in the ship's big karaoke competition.

What do Luciano Pavarotti and Ashlee Simpson have in common?

They have both lip-synched performances that were advertised as live.

His fiction, my fact.

Oh, how I relate. One sentence in, and I know that this is a short story I'm supposed to read.

The Lie
by T. Coraghessan Boyle

I’d used up all my sick days and the two personal days they allowed us, but when the alarm went off and the baby started squalling and my wife threw back the covers to totter off to the bathroom
in a hobbled two-legged trot, I knew I wasn’t going in to work. ...click for the rest.

East of this is where I be.

I live just outside the reach of Google Street View. Makes me feel a bit like I'm living off the grid. Not really though. I'm all plugged in around here.

Prince's Hot Chicken: "It's a cleansing."

Clear approx. 8 min for this great, great, great mini-doc about local fave Prince's Hot Chicken.



h/t: Jill at Poetry Hut Blog

Sounds Like...

It's one in the morning and I should be sleeping. Of course, I'm listening to music instead.

The good people at KCRW just played a song I'd never heard before by an artist I wasn't formerly aware of. Gemma Hayes sang "This Is What You Do" and I felt a bit transfixed for a moment. I liked it a lot. It's really a beautiful tune. Throughout its trip from KCRW to laptop to ear buds to my ears, I kept thinking that she sounded like a female Matthew Ryan. I can't explain it more than that. I heard Matthew Ryan for the first time at Grimey's the other day and I don't know any of his songs. I just know that this song sounded a lot like one that he sang during that in-store performance that I liked so much. This song by Gemma Hayes had the same raspy-voiced delivery and something else I can't quite put my finger on. Whatever. I want more Gemma Hayes and more Matthew Ryan on my iPod.

Also... I made a rare stop on local radio tonight at 102.9 The Buzz and I got to hear the new Kid Rock song, "All Summer Long." I admit that it sounds pretty good, but it just ain't original at all. The whole thing walks that line between tribute and rip-off and I'm not sure where it does which. He sings of listening to "Sweet Home Alabama" as a kid and even throws in that song's famous guitar lick verbatim. That's tribute. His voice reminds me of John Mellencamp's, neither tribute nor rip-off, just a relaxed and raspy voice. Sounds good. The part that really bugs me however is most of the rest of it which sounds oh so much like "Werewolves of London." I don't own that fantastic Warren Zevon song so I can't give it a quick listen to compare and contrast. It's only memory I'm going on but it's been nagging at me all night. Is it just similar? Is it much closer than that? I always get confused about copyrights regarding songs.

Zevon fans (Kat Coble?), you hear it too, right? If you haven't heard it, go to KidRock.com and listen to "All Summer Long." I'm curious as to your thoughts.

Hug Your Doggie

The Joys of Buying Music from Real People

Walking back to my car this afternoon after buying Caitlin Rose's EP, it occurred to me how happy I was that it wasn't available on iTunes. Unable to click a button for instant download on my computer, I was forced out into the world to make said purchase. Once I arrived at Grimey's New & Preloved Music, I noticed how little available parking there was. Busy for a random Tuesday afternoon, I thought. Well, maybe not a random Tuesday. R.E.M. and Moby both had new releases today, but it still seemed like something more might be going on.

So I parked in a neighboring business's lot and made my way to my local record store's back entrance. Outside its doors on the porch, people were hanging out and talking. The temp was nice and seemed perfect for just that. Folks were killing some time and talking whatever (probably music) with friends, probably sipping Yazoo and enjoying the moment. Anyway, I made my way up the stairs and into the door to find quite the crowd of people gathered together waiting for live music to happen. Now all of the cars made sense, yet another free artist performance at Grimey's. Amidst the bins of record albums were fans of Nashville's own (since '93 anyway) Matthew Ryan.

I walked past the fellow music lovers, found Caitlin's CD, and paid my five bucks (worth every penny). Before leaving to finish my errands, I stuck around to hear Matthew Ryan sing a few songs. Every part of me was happy in the moment. I didn't know anyone and I made no connections with anyone there. Yet I felt more in place there right then than almost anywhere else I can think of.

Leaning against a CD bin, I thought about my current appreciation and the potential of such a social setting as this. With iTunes (which do I love), I could have had the music I wanted but I wouldn't have stumbled upon this beautiful live music. I wouldn't have shared physical space with people who probably share the same obsession regarding music as I do. iTunes robots can generate further recommendations for me depending on my purchase, but they can't match the joy of talking about an artist's work with the clerk behind the counter of the retail record store.

With their good prices, friendly and knowledgeable staff, and frequent free shows and events, Grimey's does it right. They don't just sell product. This is retail destination. I'm always reading about the fantastic live shows by recording artists, be they local or passing through. Check their photos page for a sample of the many in-store performances that have rewarded fans here over the past few years. With any luck, I'll have the 19th off to celebrate Record Store Day at Grimey's which coincides with their semi-annual Big-Ass Spring Festival and Outdoor Sale.

$400/month rent divided by 3 roommates = Nice

This is where I lived when my wife and I started dating. Nestled snugly between Murphy Road with its pubs and hip produce markets and Charlotte Avenue with some of Nashville's rougher individuals, it always made for an interesting walk around my neighborhood. Aside from the occasional person asking me if I could spare some money, I never really felt unsafe there.

Of course, I imagine Paige had her own opinions about her safety when she'd hang out there at night while I was still at work. I mean, there had to be a reason that all of the windows and doors had bars on them. It occurs to me now to wonder if she asked me to move in with her just because she never wanted to sleep alone there again.

"Bars on the windows
Bars on the doors
Hell, we even had bars on the floors."
- Dash Rip Rock

I'm really loving Google Street View Nashville. I wonder what other old haunts I'll think to look for.

My kids are NSFW

The kids are eating lunch peacefully together as I sit on the living room floor reading your blogs. They've been at each other all morning and I'm really enjoying this break from settling disputes over who gets to play with whose toy.

Now they're playfully jabbering away at a comfortable noise level and all is well. But... it suddenly occurs to me that there's a word I hear that should not be coming from their little mouths. I perk up to make sure I'm hearing what I think I'm hearing. "Dammit." Back and forth, they are repeating it to each other in the sweetest of voices. Crap. Time to get back to parenting.

Me: Hey! Kids...

Kids: What?

Me: Do not ever say that word. Where did you hear it?

Joshua: Nowhere.

Me: Um. No sir. You heard it somewhere. Otherwise you wouldn't know that word. Where?

Joshua: I heard it in my Ninja Turtles movie.

OK, I have no idea if this is possible. Did they utter that word in one of the Ninja Turtle movies? I just go back to a lecture about how they are not to say that word. Then his little sister pipes in.

Ari: I heard it on Dora.

Me: No you did not. I am absolutely sure that Dora would never say that. She is a good girl and good girls don't say that word.

Of course, I'm not so sure about Swiper though. I wouldn't put it past him.

Ugh. I don't know where they heard it. I'm sure I've been careless a time or two, but that's typically not my go-to cuss word. Mine's worse.

My wife however... ;)

Anyway, lunch is over, the bad word is behind us, and they're watching Dora quietly together.

I'm listening to every word.