Archive for the ‘Travel’ Category

Jun
24
2010

The String Section’s Screaming Like Horses in a Barn Burning Up

My favorite thing about summer is the concert season. I’ll put up with the heat if it means I get to see a lot of great bands in return. In fact, I kicked off concert season back in April when I saw Matthew Perryman Jones and Wakey!Wakey! in New York, and then followed it up by catching MPJ again a few days later when he came through Charlottesville, and then heading to Richmond a few days after that to see The National for the first time. One week, four concerts. Two weeks later, I hopped a train to Philly to catch the first show on Josh Ritter’s U.S. tour for “So Runs the World Away.”

After that, I had nearly a month of no concerts at all before reaching June 3rd, which kicked off another music-filled week with the first of three concerts.

Kelli was my partner-in-crime for June 3rd’s show. We closed our office a little early and hit the road to Richmond to see Patty Griffin at the Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens. We weren’t thirty minutes from home when storms treated us to torrential downpours that carried us all the way to Richmond. We could barely see where we were going, and cars on the interstate were driving with their emergency lights flashing. All this, and we were on our way to an outdoor concert.

Ten minutes before we reached our destination, however, the clouds parted and we drove out into a beautiful day. We thought we were home free, but as we stood in line with our chairs and blankets to enter the garden, dark clouds were gathering in the sky once again. We went in, got some food (as we hadn’t had time to stop for dinner), and claimed a nice spot on the lawn. We had just commenced our picnicking when a staff person came around to tell everyone to go inside because a storm was coming and there was lightning just a few miles away. We packed up everything and went inside the building to eat. By this time, the concert was supposed to be beginning, and I worried that they were going to call it off. Half an hour later, the storm still hadn’t come, and we decided to go back outside and walk around. The sky to the west of us was yellow, and we could see that it was raining hard just over the ridge in the distance. They opened the larger building and we went back inside again, hoping for a reprieve.

By that time, the concert was running an hour and a half behind, and there still hadn’t been more than the threat of a storm. I was getting antsy, so I went outside to walk around and take some pictures. We were at the botanical gardens, after all.

As I was walking around, Kelli called to alert me that everyone was making a mass exodus from the building back down onto the lawn. We followed along and found new places on the lawn. Of course, by then it had just started to rain. Luckily, Kelli brought her umbrella!

Seems like nobody gave up and left while we were waiting out the non-storm. The lawn was full!

With the end of the rain came a beautiful double rainbow, making a half-circle around the stage just in time for the show to begin!

The opener moved quickly because the show had been delayed, and it wasn’t long before Buddy Miller graced the stage. He is legendary. He only did one song solo before he invited Patty Griffin out on the stage, and she backed him on a few more of his songs.

They all left the stage and Patty re-emerged alone, but quickly brought Buddy Miller and the band back out and they rocked the house as the sky darkened.

I was a little too far from the stage to get any good video footage, but I did record a clip of “Death’s Got a Warrant” as I marveled at Patty’s vocal strength. The video certainly doesn’t do her justice, but you can get the general idea:

For the last 30 minutes of Patty’s set, we also had a lightning show to our west, and we knew another storm was on the way. The show was cut a little short because of it, but it still felt like a full show, so we weren’t disappointed. And we had just gotten back to the car when the rain started again, and as soon as we hit the main road, it was storming again just in time for our drive home. At least it didn’t storm out our show!

Tuesday, June 8th was the Wakey!Wakey! show in Charlottesville, so Kelli and I attended that show as well. This time, we were joined by three others to give us a van full. My friends (and fellow One Tree Hill fans), Amanda and Katie, joined us for the show, and Kelli’s friend Carrie tagged along as well. She hasn’t discovered One Tree Hill, but she had heard of Wakey!Wakey! and liked their music enough to attend. It was a blast to do an all-girls road trip to Charlottesville for the show.

Once we had arrived on the downtown mall and parked, we set out on foot to find some dinner. Mike Grubbs (lead singer of Wakey!Wakey! and Grubbs of One Tree Hill) was standing outside the venue talking to some fans. The Grubbs-sighting certainly turned up the excitement a bit!

The first restaurant we went to had a longer list of what they didn’t have than what they did have from their menu, so we gave up on that and instead walked over to a pizza place where I got dinner for $2.25. Not bad!

We were lined up outside The Southern before the doors had even opened, and even after they opened the doors to the café side, we waited for what seemed like eternity for doors to open to enter the venue. As we stood a few feet back from the door (so as not to be in the way), some clueless guy barged in front of us, spread his arms in front of the door and proclaimed, “Nobody better try to steal my spot in line!” I was sorely tempted to say, “You mean like you just stole ours?” but I just rolled my eyes and let it go.

As we were waiting, I spotted Patrick and Tanya setting up the merch table. Wakey!Wakey! has flown up the charts fairly quickly, but most of the band (aside from Mike Grubbs) can still fly under the radar without being spotted by fans. However, I had already fallen in musical love with Patrick’s violin playing when I saw them in New York, so I was quick to recognize him. He hung around and chatted with us for a while and was really delightful. I adore talented musicians that also have a charming personality.

Finally, the doors opened and, despite the jerk-y line-cutter guy, we still ended up with a great spot inside to watch the show. None of us had heard of the opening act, The Spring Standards, but they put on a great show and we all really enjoyed them.

And just to make sure none of us ever forgot them, they hammed it up covering “Kiss From a Rose” and delighted the crowd. I filmed a clip of it, but someone else at the show actually caught the whole thing, so I’m going to post their video instead, as it’s far superior to my own:

The Spring Standards called Mike Grubbs out on stage for their last song, and it was apparent that these two groups have really enjoyed touring together. Then, with a thrilling opening set completed, it was time for Wakey!Wakey!

I watched most of the show from right next to the stage on the side where Grubbs was seated at his keyboard. Everyone in the crowd was having a great time, and we were all in it together, making it easy to move around to take pictures on either side of the stage. The show was all-ages and Mike’s mother was in the audience (for her first time seeing them perform) so he made sure to edit out all the questionable words. This caused him to stumble over a line when he nearly missed his edit, at which point he chuckled and yelled “I love you, Mom!” before continuing with the song.

Their sound is a little too “big” to get along with the little bitty speaker on my camera for video, but Grubbs played a few songs without the band, including this little number, which he said he had just written that day, was sure it would be a hit, and he was still a little nervous about playing it in front of people. You will see why that got quite a few giggles from the audience.

I also shot this very back and forth video of “Twenty-Two” from Patrick’s side of the stage. I wanted to capture when he put down his violin and took to whistling for this song:

After the show, all the members of Wakey!Wakey! were on hand to sign our “Brooklyn” posters and pose for some pictures. I got Patrick to smile for me:

And here’s a group shot of the whole gang with a very happy Katie:

We got home very late (or early the next day, depending on your perspective), but it was well worth it for a great night out with the girls…and of course Wakey!Wakey!

On Thursday (June 10th), Jessica, Thai and I took the day off and set out for a day in Richmond, to be capped off with a Josh Ritter concert that night. We started the day by having breakfast at Cracker Barrel (gotta feed the child bacon and eggs or she doesn’t function) and then we hit the road, playlist at the ready, for our great adventure. When we got to Richmond, our first stop was Ray’s for some delicious custard to give us something cold before braving the heat of the day. From there, we drove on to Maymont Park, a beautiful and expansive park which was donated to the City of Richmond following the death of its owners, James and Sallie Dooley.

Maymont is a Victorian estate of the Gilded Age, and the Dooleys’ home is an extravagant display of the wealth James Dooley made rebuilding Richmond and much of the South following the Civil War. The beautiful gardens on the estate were kept to Mrs. Dooley’s exact specifications, and she walked the grounds daily to make sure everything was kept up to her liking.

Photography is not allowed inside the house for security reasons, but you should definitely stop by for a tour if you are ever in the Richmond area. On the day of our tour, they were focusing on the many Tiffany pieces the Dooleys owned and/or commissioned for their home. My favorite aspect of the Maymont Mansion is the large stained glass window above the stairwell. It was (and still is) quite unusual for a private home to feature stained glass.

We did take several pictures of the Maymont grounds, and toured both the Italian and Japanese gardens. I’ve thrown several of Jessica’s pictures in with my own here:

We all crossed over the stepping stones at the koi pond, and Thai pointed out all the fish to us.

Thai got very adventurous with the waterfall in the Japanese gardens. I got very… terrified, and was happy when she came down. The child has no fear.

Of course, we were outside in the hottest part of the day (on a very hot day), so we were all overheated and ready to get back to the car. On the way back up the looong stairwell from the bottom of the waterfall, we got more than we bargained for when we ran into a snake!

He was directly in our path, leaving me to say “What do we do now?” and Jessica to reply “We resign ourselves to living here, that’s what” and both of us to yell “THAI! GET AWAY FROM THE SNAKE!” as she kept inching closer to him as if drawn in by force.

She eventually stepped over the snake and went up the stairs, putting the snake between us and the young’un. Jessica has a greater fear of snakes than even I do – and I am pretty well terrified of them myself, so we had to wait for the snake to crawl away (and luckily not in the direction of us or Thai) before we could continue our climb up the stairs.

Needless to say, we were all quite happy to get back to the car and the A/C, where there were no unwanted wildlife.

Our greatest disappointment of the day came when we arrived at The Cheesecake Factory and discovered that they were closed due to “technical difficulties” which actually translated to “plumbing catastrophe.” We were broken-hearted, but we were also on a schedule, so we had our late lunch at Baker’s Crust instead. By the time we finished eating, The Cheesecake Factory had reopened, so we stopped in to get a cheesecake to go (Jessica had brought a cooler for that very purpose).

From there, it was on to the Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens for the show. (They have weekly concerts through the summer and had played host to Patty Griffin just the week before.) We took a few more pictures of the lovely gardens (and we had a better day to do it than Kelli and I had the week before):

As we walked down to the lawn for the show, we saw this adorable hippie family walking in with their little girls in sundresses and flowers in their hair. The littlest girl kept calling out for her “Daddy’s” attention and then she would gleefully say “Josh Wittuh!” as if to make sure that was really who he was taking her to see. So. Cute.

Jessica really enjoyed the opening act, Sahara Smith, who told us (to our great surprise) that it was her first show on her first-ever tour:

Thai was very helpful in counting down the number of songs the other opening act had remaining before Josh Ritter was going to take the stage. She didn’t even know Josh Ritter, but she was sharing in my excitement, which I always appreciate. Having impeccable music taste for an 8-year-old, however, she was a fan by the end of the night, making sure she could listen to his music on Jessica’s iPod, and making sure we got a good picture of him playing. Jessica’s camera was much better for this task, and she snagged a few great shots for me (and Thai). The first picture is about the best my camera could do in this setting.

I learned something new at this show. Josh’s bass player (among many other stringed and brass instruments) Zack Hickman actually hails from our very own Lynchburg, VA. He is an incredibly talented musician and a delight to watch on stage.

Having secured a spot up front, center stage for the show in Philly, I was content to hang back and enjoy this performance from the comfort of my camping chair. And aside from their propensity for getting in my way, I enjoyed watching the crowd gravitate to the stage song by song. He certainly knows how to engage the audience and he is a powerful performer as well as a prolific songwriter.

I didn’t have the presence of mind (or the unobstructed view) to take any video at the show, but here’s a performance of “To the Dogs or Whoever” from David Letterman after “Historical Conquests” came out (the album before this one). So, Letterman and I present:

Josh Ritter and the Royal City Band

I will be happy to see him time and time again. In fact, you’d be hard pressed to keep me away.

I have no more concerts on the schedule until The Avett Brothers at Myrtle Beach the weekend after my birthday, although I have been compulsively checking Lucero’s tour dates, hoping they come near me. Is there anything else I shouldn’t miss?

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in Music, Travel | No Comments »

Jun
09
2010

It’s a Long Way to Heaven, It’s Closer to Harrisburg

It’s now been a month since I got back from Philadelphia, and I am just getting around to the post-trip wrap-up blog. It’s pitiful, I know, but I’m going to plead “better late than never” on this one.

My best friend and oft-travel-buddy Jessica had expressed interest in doing a Philly trip a while back, so when Josh Ritter’s original tour dates were released, I eyed the Philly date and asked if she wanted to coordinate travel dates. She agreed, and we booked train tickets to Philly at the same time that we booked our flights to New York.

Doing two trips less than a month apart was a whirlwind endeavor, but it was worth it. I left the Philly itinerary to Jessica, so she could plan our stops at the many historical must-sees in the “Birthplace of America.” I joked with her before the trip that she could look at the SITES, and I would look at the SIGHTS. That little wordplay described our approaches very nicely. We’d walk up to an old building with a plaque on the side, and Jessica would rattle off three paragraphs of pertinent historical data, and I’d smile, hoist my camera, and say “Oooooh, pretty.”

As you’ll see in some of the pictures below, I tinkered around with them a bit to capitalize on that old-world look of Philly’s historic district. I had fun with them, so hopefully you’ll have fun looking at them.

*****************

As always, I was less than thrilled with having to wake up at the crack of dawn to catch our train, but that is a necessary evil on travel days. This was also my first bona fide train ride (not counting the trains that circle Busch Gardens in Williamsburg). I was a bit tentative about having to sit in one place and just ride for 6+ hours, but I managed to occupy myself fairly well with my laptop and the lunches that Jessica so nicely packed for us. Thai, meanwhile, watched Supernatural on her portable DVD player:

We arrived in Philly just after noon, so once we got to our hotel and settled in a bit, we had time to get a jump start on our itinerary. Jessica hadn’t scheduled any official stops for our arrival Thursday afternoon other than a walk down to the water, but we decided to seize the day and go ahead and cross a few places off of our list. Our first stop was barely a block from our hotel – the Christ Church Burial Ground, most famously known as the final resting place of Philadelphia hero Benjamin Franklin.

We then proceeded to Christ Church, which was founded in 1695 and birthed the American Episcopal Church. Its regular congregation included 15 signers of the Declaration of Independence and numerous Revolutionary War leaders, including George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Betsy Ross (who was no longer welcome at the Quaker Meeting House following her marriage to John Ross). When the steeple was added in 1754, Christ Church became the tallest building in North America for a time.

George Washington’s family pew is pictured here:

Several individuals are buried inside the church, with grave markers in the floor. This was a mark of great honor.

The oldest item at Christ Church is this baptismal font, gifted to the church in 1697 by a church in London. This is the font in which William Penn was baptized, and it is still in use today. The tour guide told us not to be deceived by its age – it is by no means fragile. When they use it for baptisms, it takes 4 men to lift the lid.

After spending some time admiring the inside and outside of the church, we proceeded towards the water, going out to the river via Penn’s Landing.

We stopped for dinner on our way back, and we were all wiped out from our travels, so we were happy to retire early back at the hotel. We went to bed early to rest up for a long day of sight(site)-seeing on Friday, but at 1:00am, I awoke with a clear explanation for my unshakeable headache and complete exhaustion the day before – I was sick. Luckily, I brought medicine with me, so I just had to make it to the ice machine (about 10 feet from our hotel room door) so I could take some pills without waking the entire room. I found my key and wandered out into the hallway in my pajamas and slippers, and walked, and walked, and walked. Eventually I came to a dead end, considered sitting down on the floor to cry, but turned around and finally found my way to the ice machine and back to our room…just around the corner from the ice machine. I took the medicine, crawled back in bed, and munched on the ice to dispel the nausea. Thankfully, I managed to fall asleep, and awoke the next morning feeling much better.

At that point, I was thankful that we had jump-started our itinerary on Thursday, so we could take a more leisurely pace on Friday. We started out with breakfast at a diner, which was tasty and cheap. From there, we proceeded along our way, taking pictures of pretty buildings along the way.

We came to the “ghost house” of Benjamin Franklin, so named because no one knows exactly what it looked like, so all that stands are white frames showing the dimensions and basic style of the house.

Franklin Court is also home to the still-operating B. Free Franklin Post Office, the Printing Office and Bindery, and the restored office of the newspaper published by Franklin’s grandson. Below the court, there is an underground museum filled with artifacts from Benjamin Franklin’s life.

Subsequently, we visited the U.S. Mint, which did not allow photographs, but we did see a half-dollar replica on the wall regarding the issuance of the charter in 1786 for the founding of our own little Lynchburg, VA! And in true form, we saw nobody working!

Our next stop was possibly Philadelphia’s most recognized symbol – the Liberty Bell. I expected a tediously long line there, but was pleasantly surprised to discover that we merely had to go through a quick security check and then roam the museum at our leisure. To be perfectly honest, I expected the Liberty Bell to be quite a bit bigger, and Jessica was more than a little amused when I admitted to thinking it was a replica from afar.

Leaving the Liberty Bell, we were headed back to the hotel for a little bit of rest prior to our scheduled tour at Constitution Hall. On our way, however, we crossed paths with this delightfully purple horse and carriage combo, and decided to use our extra time to take that tour, highlighting some of the sites, and taking us through the aptly-named Society Hill.

One highlight was riding past this balcony, where George Washington delivered his 2nd inaugural address:

Our carriage dropped us off at our hotel, where we still had time to freshen up before going to Constitution Hall, where we were treated to a rather moving presentation on the U.S. Constitution and perused the exhibits upstairs before proceeding to Signers’ Hall, where Thai posed with a statue of James Madison – the President for whom she was named.

We were also able to add our own signature to the Constitution, and Jessica signed us up to get certificates to commemorate the occasion. I haven’t received mine yet, but we’ll see!

Constitution Hall also displayed flags from all 50 states, hanging in the order in which they joined the Union.

We made a point to look for Virginia’s flag, hanging tenth in line. (Delaware was first in 1787, and Pennsylvania, second; Alaska and Hawaii were last to join, in January and August of 1959, respectively.)

Leaving the Constitution Center, we walked to Franklin Square (not to be confused with Franklin Court from earlier), where we stopped to enjoy a snack of French fries and ice cream by the fountain.

And we all rode the carousel, too. Jessica had to act like an adult and ride the bench on the carousel, but Thai and I both loaded up on animals (they weren’t all horses), and enjoyed the ride.

Following our little afternoon stint at the park, we walked to Elfreth’s Alley, “our nation’s oldest residential street,” which has been home to more than 3,000 people since 1702.

Just a few blocks from Elfreth’s Alley sits the home of Betsy Ross, which is unmistakable upon approach:

No photography was allowed inside her home, either, but we enjoyed the brief tour just before the house closed for the day. On our way back to the hotel, I spied this collection of artwork lining the street:

(I’ll save you the headache – it says “You will be least appreciated by those for whom you do the most.”)

The place we tried to go for dinner had closed down permanently, apparently, so we just popped into the nearest sandwich shop we could find (which is not nearly as easy as it sounds) before heading back to the hotel.

We had separate plans for the evening. Friday night was my Josh Ritter concert, and Jessica and Thai had decided to take in the Phillies-Braves game. They had to leave before me, so I got a little time to rest before heading downtown, where I knew I’d be standing up for several hours (and standing in one place is not my best event).

Here are some pics Jessica took at the ball field, where they had a blast:

When it was time for me to go down to South Street, I hailed a cab and mere minutes later, I was seemingly in another world. South Street felt like a cross between SoHo and Nashville’s Honky Tonk District. There were bright lights and colors and people everywhere taking it all in.

I should have given myself a little more time to explore, but I wanted to go ahead and claim a spot at the front of the stage. The show was at the Theater of Living Arts, which was a beautiful venue. This marquee made me so happy!

Dawn Landes (who happens to be married to Josh Ritter) opened the show with her band. She played probably a 45-minute set to kick things off.

After the stage change, it was time for Josh Ritter, and I was so thrilled to be there. The only person more excited than me, I think, was Josh Ritter himself, because he bounded onstage like a kid who’d waited his whole life for the chance to be on stage and finally got it! It was the first night of his tour (in the U.S.), so I thought that might have played a part in his enthusiasm, but after talking to a friend who’s seen him multiple times, I learned that he always comes armed with plenty of gusto!

I was very close to the stage, affording me the chance to snap some pretty decent pictures. One of these days, I am going to get a camera that is actually made to do these sorts of things. In the meantime, it’s just me and my point and shoot.

The set included almost every tune from the newest album, as well as some old favorites, and each song was fantastic. It was cool to hear the crowd singing along, too, especially when the instruments quieted down and you could just hear Josh’s voice over a chorus of hundreds of people. I love being at a show where everyone is invested – they didn’t just drop by with a vague inclination to hear some live music – they came with passion and they knew every word.

Appropriately, when Josh sang “In the Dark,” he had them bring down the stage lights as well as the house lights – all but a few dainty chandeliers, and we all sang quietly together.

The serenity of the soft moments was matched by the fervor of the loud, driving songs, and everyone was into it.

The encore began with a beautiful rendition of “Moon River” before immediately kicking up several notches for “Snow is Gone,” and ended with a sing-along edition of “Wait for Love,” prompting Dawn Landes and her band to join him on-stage to sing along with the audience on the final song.

By the time I made it back to the hotel and showered, it was about 2am. Jessica and Thai were fast asleep and I was still wired with adrenaline. Somehow, I still managed to be the first one awake the next day. Since we were all a bit slow on the upswing Saturday, we ordered room service for breakfast instead of rushing around to get ready and shuffle off to a diner.

Our first stop Saturday was a scheduled tour at Independence Hall. In addition to being a prime historical location, it’s also among the most photogenic of Philadelphia’s buildings.

Our tour was extremely informative, and inspired a bit of wonder even in me, considering the events that took place within those walls.

Jessica was even more star struck, as you can see in her expression here:

Next door to Independence Hall is City Hall:

Having finished our tour there, we set out to see several other places on our list, walking some beautiful grounds along our way.

One such stop was at Carpenter’s Hall, where the men who worked on the Declaration of Independence held secret meetings, dressed as carpenters, so that if the British came around, they would have a logical reason for being together at night. Later, this same spot became home to the Carpenters’ Company, who were, as best I can tell, a bunch of snobs who refused to grant Thomas Jefferson admission into their stupid club.

We also traipsed through some beautiful gardens along our route, and I believe this one is in the English style:

It was around this area that we also encountered this adorable dog, shown here resting while his owner chatted on his cell phone. I wanted to take him with me!

We walked past a few other historical homes, several of which we could not enter, and made our way to Washington Square, which houses the Tomb of the Unknown Revolutionary Soldier. Many unidentified soldiers were buried within the park’s grounds.

The heat was really wearing on us by this time, even though it was barely afternoon. We pressed on to our last two stops: the Declaration Graff House and Edgar Allan Poe’s house, and we found both to be mysteriously closed in the middle of the day on a Saturday. We still haven’t solved that mystery, but we chalked it up to bad luck and instead retired to the hotel for a break from the heat and a little rest before heading out again.

Since we had really blazed a trail through our itinerary, we didn’t feel guilty about laying down for an afternoon nap on Saturday. I think it was refreshing for all of us. I still wasn’t feeling quite up to par, and the heat plus lots of walking is a recipe for exhaustion. Vacation, after all, should include a little rest.

Saturday night, Jessica treated us to dinner at the famous City Tavern, where, among many other historical figures, John Adams liked to go to enjoy “a feast of reason and a flow of soul.” The staff at the Tavern were in period dress, and the menu featured some of Martha Washington’s own best recipes. The table was beautifully set, as well.

Thai made friends with a gentleman who was working the room, keeping in character and entertaining diners with his interaction.

After a hearty dinner (and dessert!), we had tickets to go on a Ghost Tour (Thai’s idea, for sure), so we walked toward the Signer’s Garden to wait for our spooky tour to begin. Of course, we saw some picture-worthy buildings on the way.

Our tour amounted to walking from one place to the next as our guide would lead us, and then she’d stop and tell us about ghostly encounters that had taken place in that particular building or on those grounds. There seems to be a great need for Ghostbusters in Philadelphia.

No one was more enthused by the tour than Thai. She stuck close to the tour guide’s side and hung on her every word.

After our tour, we grabbed some snacks and dragged ourselves back to the hotel once again. We got showered and packed up and got in a good night’s sleep before our travel day on Sunday.

Sunday morning, we had time to go down to the Reading Market Terminal (essentially the community market), where we had breakfast and walked around to find some things to pack up for our “picnic” on the train ride home. Then, we went back to the hotel to collect our bags and head to the train station, homeward bound following a great trip!


Tags: ,
Posted in Music, Travel | No Comments »

Apr
22
2010

Farewell to the City and the Love of My Life

Seven years ago, I made my first trip to New York City when I was invited by some friends to attend the As the World Turns fan club luncheon with them. I wasn’t much of a traveler back then, but these gals bought me a ticket and begged me to join them, so I threw caution to the wind and headed north.

Since then, I have been to New York almost fifteen different times, and every time, I seem to love it just a little bit more, and find myself feeling more and more at home. This past weekend, I attended the final As the World Turns luncheon, saying “goodbye” to a show I’ve watched for a quarter of a century before it leaves the airwaves in September. (I bid a similar adieu to Guiding Light last October.) That made this trip feel like a farewell in many ways. For starters, these fan events have been the catalyst for my regular NYC trips for seven years, leaving me to wonder when I’ll visit the Big Apple again. In the larger sense, though, this trip carried the weight of the realization that I would be saying goodbye to some people that I may actually never see again, which is as appalling as it sounds.

Still, even with a bittersweet tinge marking this trip, I had a glorious time sharing the experience with dear friends.

My best friend, Jessica, along with her 8-year-old daughter, Thai, accompanied me on this trip. They had been planning one of their own, and we decided to lump our trips together in the interest of finances and fun. We set out for NYC on Friday morning, by way of a JetBlue flight from RIC to JFK. We made it into midtown Manhattan just after noon, dropped our bags off in the room, and set out on our first adventure to the Statue of Liberty.

First, we stopped by a street vendor for some hot dogs. I tend not to eat hot dogs, and I REALLY tend not to eat food that: was cooked outside, is currently outside, or is sold in a building where you can also buy motor oil. That being said, I hadn’t eaten since lunch the day before, so I actually took a bite of one of Thai’s hot dogs – a New York City first for me. Jessica even had to ask for clarification, because she thought she was seeing things. (Later in the weekend, I took THREE bites of a pretzel from a food cart. I’m a wild woman, I tell you!)

Eating on the run like true New Yorkers, we headed for the Subway station to ride downtown. Thai enjoyed the experience immensely; first, for all the germ-laden surfaces she could touch immediately before adjusting the gum in her mouth; second, for trying to stand up while the subway was moving. Luckily, she stayed within catching distance.

Possibly due to the foggy skies or chilly weather, the ferry line for the Statue of Liberty was very short. We breezed right through security and braved the wind atop the boat for optimum views en route to Liberty Island.


This was my first time actually going over to Liberty Island. Previously, I have opted to ride the (free!) Staten Island Ferry to simply get a good view of the statue, but it is a nice experience to actually go over to the statue at least once.

When we returned to Battery Park, we hopped back on the subway and rode up to visit one of my favorite locations, Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Little Italy. I’ve been to Riverside Church on the Upper West Side and to Trinity at Wall Street, and while I suppose those are larger and more celebrated, they still do not outdo this place in my mind.

After leaving the cathedral, we proceeded to another hallowed location: Pinkberry.

I got a mix of plain and pomegranate yogurt and topped it off with strawberries, kiwi, and blackberries, pictured here in all its glory. Jessica and Thai both got chocolate yogurt with strawberries and fruity pebbles, and while they were enamored with the taste, it was the nastiest looking cup of stuff I have ever seen, so I will not be sharing those pictures.

When we left Pinkberry, we proceeded to walk through Little Italy and head down to Chinatown. Thai has a reading assignment coming up at school about Chinatown, so her teacher suggested taking her down there so she could report back to the class about what she saw. She was not overly excited about the prospect of doing something school-related on our trip, and she seemed even less interested in walking the necessary blocks. In fact, having seen enough of Chinatown to satisfy Thai’s teacher, we discovered Thai’s favorite New York City attraction – the taxi cab.

We took the cab to a place called S’Mac, which serves only macaroni and cheese – in other words, my mecca. The menu featured many different varieties, or you could build your own, and I didn’t even recognize all the cheeses listed. While my mind boggled at the possibilities, Jessica ordered a regular mac and cheese for Thai and cheeseburger macaroni for herself (pictured). I settled on the Four Cheese with Bacon.

That’s when things got interesting. We were seated at a table near the kitchen, and Jessica and Thai’s order came up first. The delay seemed longer than necessary between the arrival of their orders and mine, but I attributed that to my overwhelming hunger at that point. When my piping hot skillet arrived, I quickly grabbed a fork and dug in, but while I was still blowing on the first bite to cool it down, an older lady seated by the window got up, crossed the restaurant, and stole my skillet of mac and cheese right from under my nose (and my dangling fork that still held a bite full). I was in shock, and the waitress came over and explained that I had gotten that lady’s food and she got mine. She then asked if I wanted the skillet she was holding (which had come from the other lady’s table, as evidenced by the blanket of pepper on top and the gaping hole in the side where she had taken her first bite). I declined that generous offer and said I would wait for a new skillet. In the meantime, I finally ate the bite that was on my fork, which is probably the best bite of macaroni and cheese I have ever tasted. Only a few moments passed before the waitress returned and offered me a “new” skillet – still oddly covered with pepper and caved in on one side. This time, Jessica flagged the waitress down and pointed out that this skillet didn’t have bacon in it, which I had overlooked due to sheer astonishment and disbelief. What I really wanted to do was go punch that other lady in the face and take my skillet back with the magically delicious mac and cheese. I couldn’t do that, anyway, because after STEALING my food from me, she took one bite and then brought it back up to the counter and told them it was cold and she needed another. Unbelievable. I did eventually get my order, two bites into which, Thai asked if we were ready to leave. *blink*

After our candid camera experience in fine dining, we proceeded uptown to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, aka “The Met.” Jessica loves all things historical, and Thai seems to have picked up on the gene, so while they ooh’d and ahh’d over various old pieces of pottery and stone busts of various old dead people, I simply looked around for pretty stuff to photograph:

 

 

 

 

Given our early morning wake up time and our long day of travel, we were ready to head back to the hotel fairly early (by New York standards). We did linger around Times Square and let Thai take in all of the lights before passing out in the hotel.

On Saturday, our itineraries went two separate ways. Jessica and Thai went off on their own to take in the Empire State Building, the Museum of Natural History, and the Hayden Planetarium. They also did a little napping and a little shopping, which were NOT on the itinerary. Bloody insurrectionists.

Meanwhile, my friend Christina came in from Staten Island, and Terri flew in from South Carolina, and together, we went down to the ballroom (in our hotel) for the As the World Turns luncheon.

Having procured a script from the final episode of Guiding Light at the luncheon in October, I entered the raffle for an As the World Turns script as well. (The final episode hasn’t been filmed yet, so that script obviously wasn’t available.) I did end up winning one of the scripts, which will be quite welcome in my collection. After lunch, we were off to the meet and greet lines, and while I made the rounds, I figured I’d just post a few highlights.

First, this fellow from France, whose name I have already forgotten, was in NYC with his parents, who had flown him over for his birthday so he could attend the luncheon for the first time. As the World Turns, he said, is his favorite show. Here he is sporting an autograph from Eric Sheffer Stevens.

Since this was the final luncheon, several actors returned to see the fans even if they hadn’t been on the show in years. One of my old favorites, Peter Parros, was on hand and told me about his company, Ten Talents Productions, which produces comic books and a cartoon aimed at ministering to children. Another familiar face back to visit was Jon Prescott (pictured), who was only on ATWT for a short time, but made such a great impression on me years ago that I had to go and say hello to him again.

On the list of the most talented people I have ever had the pleasure to meet is Tom Pelphrey, and he was also on hand to greet the fans, even though he wrapped filming on ATWT months ago. His line was one of the most popular at the luncheon, and certainly with me. I cannot say enough good things about his acting (the man can make a simple play reading riveting) and he has one of those infectious personalities that is a joy to be around. The incredible success that he has had during his very short career so far tells me that the whole world will know his name one day.

On the topic of talented youngsters, let’s go even younger (I’m a cougar now, apparently) and mention Mick Hazen, who seemed like such a little boy just a few years ago, and suddenly he turned 17 and shot up to six feet, three inches tall! More importantly, he’s a wonderful actor, and I think we’ll be seeing a lot more of him after college. No matter how tall he gets, he’ll always be sweet little Parker Munson Snyder to me. I resisted the urge to pinch his cheeks like an old lady.

After the luncheon, I walked over to Latitude Bar & Grill to participate in another grand tradition: Martinis With Henry. I was fortunate enough to be present when this tradition was born, and it has grown to a much bigger group over the years. Trent Dawson (the “Henry” of Martinis with Henry) has always and will always hold a very special place in my heart. I hope my next trip to NYC will be to see him tearing it up on Broadway.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After reuniting our group at the hotel, we headed out once again to visit the Top of the Rock. Great view and that light room is fantastic.

Afterward, we walked across the street to Rockefeller Center so Thai could check out the ice skating rink.

By then, it was time for me to part ways again so that I could head down to the Lower East Side to see Matthew Perryman Jones play at Rockwood Music Hall. I was a little tentative about hopping on a subway alone and going to a part of New York I was entirely unfamiliar with at 10:00 at night, but the inducement was strong enough, and partly I just wanted to prove to myself that I could do it.

When I made it down to 2nd Avenue, and walked up the stairs out of the subway station toward the street lights and graffiti, I almost ran smack into Jon Prescott. We laughed at the coincidence – New York City is such a big place in a very small world. He remembered from our earlier conversation that I was headed to the show, so he pointed me in the right direction. I found the line of people waiting to go inside the Rockwood and waited with them for a few minutes. The act before was finishing up, and when he did, enough people exited the hall to allow those of us on the street to get inside. I found a seat at a table against the wall (I don’t like standing in the midst of a big crowd), and shortly my table was filled with strangers, all there for the same reason as me. The guy next to me initiated conversation, and it took only minutes for us to discover that we had a lot of common musical interests. Then, no one could shut us up! We talked in detail about Derek Webb and Caedmon’s Call (whose drummer, Todd Bragg, is touring with Matthew Perryman Jones) and we even tossed some music suggestions back and forth.

Watching Matthew Perryman Jones perform (and he is fantastic, by the way), the whole essence of the evening struck me. I was in New York City, having come downtown alone, sitting next to a fellow Caedmon’s Call buff, listening to one of my favorite artists perform just a few feet from me. It is hard to explain the emotion of a moment like that, but it was beautiful.

I was in such great spirits that I forgot I was taking a different train back, so I hopped off one stop too early and, weighing my options, decided to just enjoy the 14 blocks back to Times Square on foot.

Even though I was the last one in bed Saturday night, I still managed to wake up first on Sunday morning. (Anybody who knows me also knows how ridiculous that is.) With a chorus of snoring around me, I contemplated slipping out on my own again, but as I started to move around, I saw some signs of life, so I waited for Jess and Thai to get moving so we could head down to Central Park.

Thai was eager to ride a horse-drawn carriage, so we took the 45-minute tour of the park with a guide named Kevin and a horse named Beethoven.

When our ride was finished, we still had about an hour before we were supposed to meet Terri and Christina for lunch, so we decided to go to the Conservatory Gardens in Central Park, since we didn’t have time on Friday. I am glad we were able to fit that in, because the gardens were absolutely gorgeous, and this wasn’t even peak season!

Our group gathered together again to chow down on some delicious (and cheap!) pizza before heading to our matinee of Mamma Mia at the Winter Garden Theater. David Andrew MacDonald – once the evil villain, Edmund, on Guiding Light – was playing the much more affable role of Harry for Mamma Mia, so we were excited to see him on stage. The show itself was fantastic, and we all found ourselves singing and dancing along. Of course, there was plenty cause for laughter, too. Broadway is the only place on earth where platform boots and spandex can add up to a good time!

After the show, we waited at the stage door in the hopes of saying hello to David. He was the first one out the door and as charming as ever. We talked to him and he signed our playbills and posed for a picture.

Thai was more excited by that than we originally anticipated, and she wanted to hang around and see who else might come out from the show. We were happy to oblige her, and she got more pictures and signatures from Mamma Mia’s “Tanya” and “Sophie.”

From there, we had to say goodbye to Christina, because she had to get back home to return to work the next day. She headed down to Battery Park to catch the ferry home, and the rest of us were Brooklyn-bound.

We made it to the Brooklyn Heights Promenade just as the sun was setting, and were able to enjoy the view (and take some photos) as the sky got darker and the lights got brighter.

We hopped on the subway again, but this time Terri and I left Jessica and Thai behind as we transferred trains to go back downtown to the Rockwood Music Hall again. They have recently built a new space next door to the original hall, and refer to it as “Stage 2.” In a brilliant stroke of luck, Wakey!Wakey! was playing there Sunday night! Terri opted to come along, although she had never heard any of their music before. We weren’t sure how our music tastes would line up, but I appreciated the company all the same, and just hoped that she’d enjoy the show.

When we walked in the door, the first person I saw was Mike Grubbs, lead singer of Wakey!Wakey! (and bonus: Bartender “Grubbsy” from One Tree Hill). I am pretty sure the combination of those two things made me a little too giddy, but he obliged me with a photo and we talked a bit. I related how I’d fallen in love with their music upon hearing “War Sweater,” and then when he popped up in a recurring role on One Tree Hill, that was the icing on the cake for me.

We settled in for the show – again, mere feet from the stage. Two songs in, I looked back at Terri to gauge if she was enjoying herself and she nodded yes. Meanwhile, I was over the moon! It is disappointing when you love an artist and then you go to a show and realize that what you really loved was the miracle-working producer who put the album together. In this case, though, it was quite the opposite. I’ve been a fan of the music for quite a while, but seeing them live was – wow – spectacular!

The whole band played most of the show, and Grubbs did a few songs on his own as well. Rosi Golan even joined him onstage for a rendition of “Blame You.” When the whole band was playing, I was quite taken with the violinist, Patrick. Amazing!!

Somewhere around the middle of the show – and I don’t even remember what song was playing – Terri tapped me on the shoulder. When I turned around, she was grinning and giving me a big thumbs up! Needless to say, Wakey!Wakey! has a new fan, and since Terri asked me, “Man, what did I miss last night?!” – she’s probably home looking up Matthew Perryman Jones as well. We both talked to Mike Grubbs again after the show, and then I got to meet the band’s manager, Wesley, which was a delight after having corresponded sporadically on Twitter.

Monday morning, we all slept in, but still woke up exhausted. There wasn’t much on Monday’s schedule for that very reason. Terri was meeting another friend for breakfast, so Jessica, Thai, and I walked around Times Square some more, hitting the Hershey store and the M&M store, much to Thai’s delight.

We had lunch at Junior’s (and packed our cheesecake in our purses to go), met Terri at the hotel for the goodbyes, and jumped in a cab back to the airport.

The cheesecake never made it out of the city, since we ate that while we waited at our gate, but before long, we were on a plane headed back to Virginia.

Thai certainly seemed to enjoy her first-ever trip to New York City, and I can only hope that, like me, she finds something new to love about it every time she goes from now on. For my part, I am sure I will find another reason to go back to the Big City soon enough – you can bet I’ll be keeping a keen eye on the schedule down at Rockwood Music Hall!

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Music, Travel | 1 Comment »

Oct
18
2009

Who Will Illuminate the Days, New York?

I love New York.  That probably seems a little backwards for someone whose favorite place in the world is Bedford, Virginia.  All the same, even though my rural town in the foothills of the Blue Ridge will always be home, there is something about New York City that makes me feel alive.  Every time I go, I find something new to love, and this trip (my 16th?!) was special in several ways, not the least of which was these three beautiful ladies:

 

Most of the time, my trips to NYC happen solo.  I’ve always met up with other friends once I arrived, but aside from a day trip with Andrea, I’ve never taken a friend from home with me into the city.  This time, however, I got to share the experience with some of my very best friends.  (I know they are my best friends by the way they willingly handed over all control to me so that I could plan everything down to the minute and print out color-coded itineraries for them to follow.) 

We set out for Richmond bright and early on Thursday morning to hop a JetBlue flight to JFK.  Our flight was listed on a 30-minute delay when we checked in, but we still landed in New York earlier than scheduled.  On a tip from my pro-traveler friend Matthew, I had arranged for a car service to pick us up at the airport, and I freely admit to feeling quite impressed with myself when a van pulled up bearing a sign with my name on it.

The first sight of the city is always a rush:

We checked into the Wyndam Garden in Chelsea and marveled at the very tiny hotel room.  Of course, everything in New York is tiny and pricy.  The hotel room, while smaller than the living room of my apartment, costs as much per night as my apartment does per month.  Once again, I must tip my hat to Matthew, since thanks to him, we were able to stay for 4 nights for the cost of one.  (Matthew – you are our hero.)

With not a moment to lose on the itinerary, we set off on our first mission to find the birthplace of Theodore Roosevelt.  Jessica has a small obsession with presidents (and anything historical), so we added that to the to-do list for her.  That is not to say that we didn’t all enjoy the tour.  It was quite informative, and what our tour guide didn’t know, Jessica certainly did.  She was right in her element.

From there, we proceeded toward SoHo, Chinatown, and Little Italy, stopping in one of my favorite places in New York – St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral.  It is spectacularly beautiful, and pictures cannot do it justice.

Around the corner from the church, we found Kelli’s first itinerary stop – the Pinkberry yogurt shop.  Jessica and I opted for fresh fruit toppings (which were delicious), and Kelli and Jessa went for decadence with chocolate and strawberries. 

We continued walking and checking out shops – Kelli, Jessica, and Jessa each bought $5 scarfs, and Matthew came to meet us in the city.  It was wonderful to see him again, and he was certainly pleased to meet the other ladies I brought along.  We spent some time walking around with him (making him look like the luckiest man in New York to have such an awesome entourage) until we had to go back to the room to get gussied up for our trip to the theater Thursday night.

We went to see Wicked at the Gershwin Theater and we had fantastic seats overlooking the stage.  The show was incredible.  I can’t say enough good things about it.  It was full of great laugh-out-loud moments, and the production was truly magnificent.  If you’re planning a trip to the city, make sure that show is on your schedule.

After the show, we met up with Matthew again, and he took us to a diner where we had a very late dinner.  Afterwards, Kelli and I decided to go with the mentality of “the city that never sleeps” and stay out with Matthew until the wee hours of the morning.  He showed us a wonderful time, wooing us with jukebox selections to cater to his ladies, including New Kids on the Block for Kelli and Ryan Adams for me.  We all tuned up in a passionate Journey sing-along when he played “Don’t Stop Believin.’”  (And we weren’t the only ones!)

Friday morning came a little early for all of us, so we got a bit of a late start.  We hopped a subway uptown to see Riverside Church and Grant’s Tomb, located within a few blocks of one another near Columbia University.  Riverside Church was another breathtaking display of carvings and stained glass.

When we tore ourselves away from the sanctuary, we encountered some light rain outside.  The ladies put their scarves to good use, and I got wet and snapped a photo in commemoration.

Grant’s Tomb was also a sight to behold and another historical stop for Jessica.  We all pledged our allegiance to the Confederacy, of course, but enjoyed a respite from the rain outside.

By the time we took a subway back down to Columbus Circle, the rain had cleared away and we didn’t see anymore of it throughout the rest of our trip.  We had lunch inside the Time Warner building adjacent to Central Park and did a bit of shopping as well.

We wanted to tour Central Park and had considered taking one of the traditional horse-drawn carriages.  We planned to compare prices against the pedicab drivers, and we opted for the latter.  For one thing, the pedicab tours cover a lot more ground and last three times as long.  For another, the drivers had great accents and were a-dor-a-ble.

Jessica and I climbed in one cab and Kelli and Jessa took the other.  The boys drove us alongside one another (in and out of traffic!) and gave a great commentary on park history as we went along.

They stopped us at three different sections of the park and gave us time to get out, walk around, and take pictures.  One of the drivers even volunteered to come along and take group photos for us.  Our first stop was at the Bethesda Fountain, where we saw a man playing guitar and another one blowing bubbles for passers-by.

The next stop was at Bow Bridge:

 

 

 

 We had time to go walk across the bridge and then we did the “Friends” pose by the fountain in the courtyard.

 

 Our last stop was “Strawberry Fields” which pleased our Beatles-loving Jessica greatly.  We even happened upon an impromptu Beatles jam-session and stopped to listen and sing along before continuing on our way.

When we reached the park’s edge (and the end of our tour), I think we all thought about pooling our money to see if we could talk the boys into driving us around the rest of the city (or the rest of our lives), but we begrudgingly bid them adieu.

Instead, we set off on foot to see a bit more of the city, including the Trump Tower, St. Patrick’s Cathedral Rectory, Rockefeller Center, and the NBC store.  Matthew joined us again to make a stop dictated by our cupcake-connosieur Kelli – the Magnolia Bakery. 

We parted ways for the first time on Friday night, as Jessica, Kelli and Jessa headed out to see Jude Law in Hamlet (and believe me, they were more interested in the actor than the story), and I headed to a benefit concert at the American Red Cross.  This was my 5th year attending the show – hosted by Bradley Cole and his band – to raise money for the Red Cross.  It is always a raucous time as various multi-talented actors take the stage to perform anything from ballads to show tunes to classic rock and roll.  Before the show, I had the pleasure (*wink*) of meeting Zach Conroy (below) and seeing a lot of old friends again.

I had a nice chat with Alex Cole (he is absolutely delightful), Bonnie Dennison (who said she was busy with auditions), and Lawrence St. Victor (few men are that gorgeous while also being so sweet and kind).  I was especially glad to see the always-charming Trent Dawson backstage.  He later rocked the house as I knew he would.

From my seat, I saw David Andrew McDonald slip in towards the end of the show.  He had been performing several blocks over in Mamma Mia, but stopped by to see everyone after his show.  I was fortunate enough to get to talk with him for a few minutes, and I am also very jealous that my friend Candace (who was in NYC at the same time that we were got to see him light up the stage on Broadway.

 

 I caught up with the rest of my clan where they were having a very late dinner.  Food becomes an afterthought to me when I’m in New York City, because it just seems to take valuable time away from everything I want to do, but I certainly could not do the late night dinners.  As a group, we weren’t so great at the late night anything, opting instead for much-needed sleep to get through the next day.  Kelli turned out to be the adventurous one, and she went out every single night.  I was very proud.

Saturday morning, I got up first (the horror!) and left everyone fast asleep to head uptown to the Renaissance Hotel for breakfast with Bradley Cole.  I also got to see my dear friend Shari again!  It had been way too long.  We had a delicious breakfast (I was actually starving from missing dinner the night before), and the Renaissance Hotel was swanky.  We had a lovely view of Times Square from the dining room.

The sign for Wicked was level with the window on the other side of the dining room, so I got Shari to snap this picture of me on our way out.

From there, we went to the Marriott Marquis to check in for the Guiding Light Fan Club Luncheon.  I have never seen so many people there!  The luncheon had been sold out for months, and that was after arrangements had been made to open the event up to several hundred additional people.  We saw many familiar faces and a lot of first-timers as well, who had made the trek to say goodbye to our 72-year-old show.  There is always a raffle for props, wardrobe, scripts, and photos, but I normally don’t participate in those.  The exception was the year I won the Company sign (which is an especially treasured memento now).  This being the last year, I decided to try for another coveted item.  They had several scripts up for raffle – both signed and unsigned – but perhaps the hottest commodity was the signed script for episode 15,762 – the very last episode Guiding Light ever aired.

Needless to say, I was thrilled to hear my number called to win that piece of television history.  On my way back to the table after claiming my prize, I met Shari who was waving her ticket and heading toward the stage.  She had won one of the other scripts from another episode in the last week of shows.  The cherry on top came when I was deciphering all the signatures and found one I didn’t recognize.  I had almost written it off as a mystery until I had an epiphany and realized that the signature belonged to Justin Deas.  The man is brilliant (and has six Emmys to prove it), but he is very private and never does fan events, which makes his signature very rare indeed!

Scripts in tow, Shari and I made the rounds together to various actors’ tables.  We started, of course, with Tom Pelphrey.  We both adore him and he is one of the best actors I have ever seen.  He also added his signature to my script.

John Driscoll (a fellow Virginian and all-around lovable guy) flew back to New York from L.A. to share the day with us.  Hopefully I will get to see him again soon.

We saw many old favorites and even got to meet Fiona Hutchison for the very first time.  I was delighted to get to see Mandy Bruno and Rob Bogue again.  Let it be known that if there is ever a movie about my life, she is the one I want to play me!  I had forgotten that, last year, I gave them some mix CDs that I made.  They had not forgotten, however, and raved to me about my music taste (always my favorite compliment to receive) and said a few of the CDs have never left their car CD player.  I am always happy to broaden someone’s musical horizons!

After the luncheon, we upheld another long-standing tradition and went up to the Broadway Lounge on the 8th floor to unwind.  Jessica came to join us and we kicked back, got a bite to eat and listened to the selections from the lounge singer plunking away at the piano behind us.

While I was at the luncheon, Jessica, Kelli and Jessa had (finally!) gotten up and made their way downtown to catch the Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty.  They were very pleased with themselves for successfully navigating the subway system (no small feat right now, while the subway system is basically in chaos!) and they had a great time.  I snagged some of their pictures for your viewing pleasure.

They also used their Amanda-free time to grab a burger (I don’t like burgers) at the world-famous Parker-Meridian.  I heard mixed reviews, from “It was WONDERFUL!” to “It was just like any other burger.  Except it was $14.”  So if you’re headed to New York, you’ll have to decide for yourself about that one!  Either way, they had their burgers and walked through Times Square while I was otherwise occupied at the luncheon.

Our whole group met back up at the New York Waterway for a 90-minute City Lights Cruise in the New York harbor.  Long-time readers will remember that I took that cruise (in the rain!) last fall and loved every second of it.  Our tour guide this time was not as good as the one I had last year (not that anyone could top him, truly), but it was still enjoyable.

It got a little chilly out on the water, but it was worth it just for the views.  None of us had a camera that could quite capture the city lights from a moving boat, but you can sort of get the idea:

When we got off the boat, we saw this debonair gentleman on the side of a bus.  I think Kelli speaks for all of us:

 

 (Incidentally, I was certain I recognized him, but it wasn’t until I got home that I was able to confirm that he is, in fact, Matt Bomer, who once played a beloved character on none other than my dear Guiding Light.)

 We hadn’t quite had enough of the New York skyline, so we proceeded on to Rockefeller Center, where we bought tickets to the Top of the Rock. 

Unlike going up into the Empire State Building, we did not have to stand in a ridiculous line for two hours to make it to the top.  Also, since we weren’t on the Empire State Building, we could actually see the Empire State Building!  We took our time at the top, enjoying the city views and even the cold breeze that accompanied it.

Our next stop was The Rum House, where we once again met up with Matthew and some of his friends.  As a special treat, Matthew took to the microphone and serenaded us with a few tunes.  We felt like very special guests, and everyone enjoyed his animated performance.

Sunday morning, we woke up to our last full day in the city.  We had packed so many activities into our first three days that we were able to take Sunday at a leisurely pace.  Still, we covered a LOT of ground.

We took the subway down to Wall Street, where we were greeted by church bells emanating from Trinity Church.  We had lunch at another fantastic deli (Jessica noted that New Yorkers know how to make a sandwich!) and toured Trinity’s sanctuary and grounds.  Alexander Hamilton is buried at Trinity Church along with several other notable historical figures (which I only know from asking Jessica “Who’s that?” every five seconds). 

From there, we walked on to St. Paul’s Chapel, which is part of the Trinity parish.  It is the chapel where George Washington attended during his presidency, and it also gained fame after 9/11 by escaping completely unharmed from the destruction all around it.  Since it was right across the street from the World Trade Center, it became a place of refuge for survivors and mourners and still houses many memorials to that day, including an altar with pictures of the fallen, and letters that poured in from school children across the U.S.

 

From there, we walked across to Ground Zero and stopped into the Memorial Preview Site.  The walls showed a timeline from that fateful day, and a TV mounted on the wall played moving interviews from some of the people affected by that tragedy.  It is painful but important to remember those events.

Our next expedition was to cross the Brooklyn Bridge.  As we walked towards it, we happened upon the Stage Deli, which Jessa had hoped to find, so we slipped inside for some cheesecake and a place to rest for the trek ahead.

Our walk also led us through City Hall, where we stopped and took some pictures before proceeding onto the pedestrian access of the Brooklyn Bridge.  I am not sure why, but I didn’t expect quite so many people to be walking across the bridge.  We just blended in with the crowd, since we were all marveling at the triumph of architecture and the views on either side of us.  I remember being told that it is the one place in the world where you can have a plane flying over pedestrians, walking over cars, driving over boats, floating above a train (the subway).

The bridge is over one mile long, but we walked the full length of it and ended up in Brooklyn.  We walked down to the Brooklyn Bridge Park and the Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park and seized the perfect photo opportunities with a clear view of the Manhattan skyline, the Hudson River, the East River, and the Manhattan Bridge.

I had read online about Grimaldi’s Pizzeria, which is considered the best pizza in the state of New York.  It was near the park, so I figured we may as well check it out.  We were surprised to see a long line of people waiting outside just to get in.  I walked to the front of the line and asked the locals if the pizza was worth the wait.  They assured me that it was and estimated the wait time at about 45 minutes.  That 45 minutes turned out to be about twice that, but we figured we may as well wait since we were already there.  The pizza was indeed amazing.  The ingredients were fresh, and the pizza was cooked in a bona fide coal oven, which cooked it to perfection.  We were even able to watch the pizza being prepared, which was an impressive sight – and serious business!  Papa Grimaldi himself (I’m just guessing about his name) was there seating people and making sure that everyone was enjoying their food.  I got the feeling there may have been dire consequences for the chef if anyone was not enjoying their food! 

After dinner, I dragged my freezing comrades up a very steep hill to reach the Brooklyn Heights Promenade.  They obliged me and the reward for all of us was perhaps the most beautiful city view I have ever seen.  We found ourselves looking right at the Manhattan skyline in all its glory.  I felt like I could have stood there forever, just drinking it all in.  All of the walking we did that day (and all of the waiting in line for pizza while the sun went down) was worth it for that transcendent moment.

We hopped on a subway not far from the Promenade and made it back to our hotel before 10:00.  It’s probably blasphemy to go to bed in New York at such an early hour, but that it what we did.  (Of course, by “we,” I mean me, Jessica, and Jessa.  Kelli rocked the New York nightlife once again in our stead.)

Monday morning, we got up, packed up, and went back to Times Square for a few more photo opportunities and a little shopping. 

We stopped into some of the standard places like the Hershey Store and Toys R Us.  Any place that has Reese cups bigger than my head or a lifesize Barbie’s Dreamhouse is a place that I need to be! 

We capped off our trip with lunch (and cheesecake!) at Junior’s before meeting our car back at the hotel.

All in all, I’d say the trip was a great success.  We all made it back home still friends (which doesn’t always happen, you know!) and I think they’d all be willing to travel somewhere with me again in the future!

Sure, it was a little bittersweet to say goodbye to Guiding Light, but my greatest memories of the show are wrapped up in the last 7 years of going to New York, meeting other fans and the actors themselves, and forging friendships in both groups.  I have built many strong and lasting relationships on that foundation, and no network cancellation notice can ever take that away.  In my mind, Rev. Rutledge’s candle is still burning in the window.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Travel | 2 Comments »

Aug
19
2009

It’s Only Gonna Make You Love Me More

Monday was my birthday.  Sorry if you missed the momentous occasion!

I have become known for going over the top with my birthday celebrations, but you only go ‘round once, after all, and my birthday is the one day during the year when I can legitimately expect the world to revolve around me.  My wonderful friends are great about indulging me during this time of the year, and since August is the only month without a significant national holiday, everyone needs a good reason to celebrate, right?

I’m not even really finished celebrating yet (there are only so many hours in the day), but so far I have enjoyed an evening at the spa (Jessica’s gift to me), a short visit to Richmond to see Tracey and Adam (who took me to the Cheesecake Factory!), a lunch with my two best friends, a party at my apartment, and a full day of wearing a plastic “Happy Birthday” tiara, which secured many hallway greetings from friends and strangers alike!

Most notably, this year’s celebration included a very special birthday trip to Wilmington, NC.  The trip was Kelli’s idea and then our pretty fantastic bosses helped bring it to fruition the first weekend in August.

Wilmington is a beautiful place for anyone to visit, but our trip had an extra incentive.  Wilmington is the home of Screen Gems studios, where over 500 movies have been filmed, in addition to several TV shows like Dawson’s Creek, and – most importantly! – One Tree Hill.

The following recaps some of the places we saw on the trip, paired with screencaps from the show for reference.  You can probably tell the difference between pictures I took and the screencaps, because — well — there aren’t any people in the pictures that I took, aside from a few appearances by Kelli and myself.

(I guess this is where I should say *spoiler alert* — I mean, I didn’t give away the whole plot or anything, but spoiler-free purists should probably beware.)

We drove down armed with a long list of locations to visit, not the least of which included a tour of the studio itself.  While we waited for the tour to begin, we entertained ourselves by looking around the building, where we saw the Tree Hill Police car, and took photos in front of the One Tree Hill sign.

The tour itself was fun and informative.  Photos were not allowed inside the sets (a rule from the CW), and they were “hot” sets (i.e. already prepared for filming), so we were told not to touch anything.  We toured three sets, starting with Lucas’ house (Peyton’s Comet was parked outside), then moving on to the TRIC Office set (which is not inside the physical location of TRIC in downtown Wilmington), and ultimately to Brooke’s house set, which Kelli and I were both ready to move into because it is so beautiful.  Since we couldn’t do pictures, I just put together screen caps so you can get the general idea:

It was great to see a set that’s been in use since season one.  And yes, the bullet hole is there.  I checked.

The TRIC office set was really awesome.  The art department for One Tree Hill is no joke.  Even up close, the brick and the steel beams in the ceiling looked very real, when in fact, they’re all made of wood, allowing them to take down or set up the ENTIRE set in 20 minutes or less.  I loved the stained glass behind Peyton’s desk, and her albums on the wall.  There were also CDs sitting everywhere on set, just as you’d expect.  It struck me how small Peyton’s desk looked compared to how it appears on screen.  It’s amazing what camera angles can do!  The piano and sound board in the studio are the real deal, though.

Brooke’s house was a beautiful set!  Once again, the art department gets kudos for making wood look like marble in Brooke’s kitchen.  We were able to see the living room (very small!), both bedrooms, the bathroom, and the kitchen.  (The stairs, as you might guess, don’t actually go anywhere.)  Our tour guide opened up Brooke’s fridge and cabinets to show us the contents.  She explained the types of product placement – one is contractual (Sunkist, anyone?), and the other is simply from companies who send a box of peanut butter, etc., hoping they’ll use it to dress the sets.  Sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t.

The rest of our time in Wilmington was spent driving around to various other filming locations to snap photos of familiar and iconic places.  Perhaps the most emblematic of them all is the River Court.  Season one started on the River Court and barely an episode has passed over the years that has not featured it in some way.  For my part, anytime Lucas and Nathan face off on the River Court – as friends or foes – is a great moment in my book.

The names from the season 4 finale have completed faded away, but I could still see the faint outline of The Cure lyrics that Peyton painted across the court in season 5:

Here’s Kelli on the River Court bleachers:

The basketball posts and the light poles on both sides of the court were filled with messages from fans all over the world.  They were all fairly recent, so I imagine they are painted over often for filming purposes.  I took some photos, but did not have a marker on me to contribute!  I’ll just throw my lot in with the “Always and Forever” folks.

On the opposite side of the river is the downtown River Walk, which has also been featured many times and is a staple of the show as well as the town of Wilmington.

My greatest interest in the River Walk were these little tables!  I think it’s safe to say that this scene, in the third episode of season 1 (“Are You True?”), is the episode that hooked me on One Tree Hill, and the beginning of the story that has kept me coming back through six seasons.  (Always and forever, indeed.)

We also saw several of the houses that have been used for exterior shots on the show.  Most of them are privately owned, so we did not want to get too close or linger too long.  Even so, I got a few pictures, and a few of the houses were for sale and vacant, so I got a closer look at those.

Peyton’s House

I think more trauma has gone down in this house than in any other Tree Hill location.  Poor Peyton.

The Scott House

I couldn’t get a view of the basketball hoop, but I’m sure it’s back there!

Naley’s House

This is one of the ones that was for sale!  Conveniently also one that I most wanted to see.

Lucas and Karen’s House

Lots of weighty conversations have taken place on that porch.

Jake’s Savannah House  (not actually in Savannah, obviously)

Haley’s House

I should have stayed there.  Perhaps James Lafferty would have eventually shown up and kissed me.  (Heh.)

Brooke’s House  (Felix and Anna’s house was, in fact, next door.)

“The girl behind the red door.”

Whitey’s House

I *love* Whitey and the sage wisdom (and crotchety old man attitude) that he brings to the show.  A lot of great advice has been dispensed from a rocking chair on his porch.

Naley’s Apartment Building

We didn’t see much of the outside of Nathan and Haley’s apartment, but this is it:

The community college in Wilmington doubles as Tree Hill High School, and here is the courtyard and walkways often featured on the show.

Who doesn’t love Keith Scott’s Body Shop?

Dan and Carrie faced off here – and Dan won.  Because he is awesome with a side of evil.

Kelli and I actually stopped in this diner for lunch and only realized later that it, too, has been used on the show.  Samantha and Jack frequented this diner in season 6, and Kelli and I sat right about where Peyton and Julian are sitting in the picture below.  I would like to think that Kelli was sitting there in Julian’s spot.  I know she’d like that.  (And for the record, we shared a ham sandwich, and it was gooood.)

This church and day school combo served as the same on the show.  Keith had a bit of a rough day here in season 2 (as did Nathan, and Jules, and Lucas, and Karen, and wellll…everybody else besides Dan), and then in season 5, Jamie went to school here.

Some emotional conversations (of the one-sided and two-sided variety) have happened in this cemetery.  The grave markers used on the show are not permanent fixtures – they are only set up as needed for filming. 

I think we all remember what happened at this mall.  But I try to focus on the Pretzel Stand aspect, myself.

Remember the boy draft dates?  Mouth and Peyton had a wild night here with Mouth’s grandpa.

I think this was one of Kelli’s favorite stops, seeing as it was home base to her all-time favorite Tree Hill resident, the infamous Chris Keller (aka Tyler Hilton).  It’s also the Record Shop where show creator Mark Schwahn put in some guest appearances over the years.  Since Tyler didn’t really make any of these photos, I made a little something just for Kelli that I’ll thrown in right here, too.

This church was the location used for most of One Tree Hill’s memorable 100th episode.  I don’t think this was anybody’s favorite day either – except for maybe the fans!  This episode is one of my favorites.

“You should have your mail forwarded here.  Did they give you the same cell as last time?”   “I don’t know.  They redecorated.”   Ah, the Tree Hill Police Station.

 This was on our location list, but we hadn’t planned to go see EVERYTHING, and this was kind of in the “insignificant places” category.  That is, until we realized that it was right next to our hotel!  They tried to make Deb go to rehab, and she said no, no, no… and tried to escape.

This show-owned store in downtown Wilmington has also been a part of One Tree Hill since season 1.  Back then, it was Karen’s Café, and now, it’s the store-front of Brooke’s Clothes Over Bros store.  (The “Jammin’ Java” across the street served as Karen’s Café in the pilot episode.) 

This is the bridge from the show’s title sequence in seasons 1-4.  It’s also been used for other scenes in the show, as seen below.

TRIC is another show-owned building in downtown Wilmington.  This warehouse has seen a lot of great acts come through Tree Hill!  The Wreckers, Jimmy Eat World, The Honorary Title, Fall Out Boy, and so on.  Apparently we’re in for another live performance in the early episodes of season 7!

While we were doing our One Tree Hill tour, we covered a lot of tourist attractions by default, and were led to a few other pretty places that the average tourist may have missed.

For one, the Hugh McRae Park probably isn’t high on the tourism list, but it was a beautiful area.  The ducks were very excited to see us, and followed Kelli around the park until they realized she didn’t have any food for them.  This park has been used a few times on the show.  Dan and Keith took a stroll down memory lane that did not end very well in Season 3, and Peyton and Skills had a heart-to-heart in this park before Jamie’s 5th birthday party.

The Airlie Gardens are in Wilmington, and they’ve played host to quite a few TV shows and films because their grounds are beautiful.  Kelli took a liking to this bottle statue at the beginning of our path:

We walked for a while through a series of beautiful trees and then found our primary destination – the Pergola.  The grassy area, walkway, and fountain constituted part of Andy’s yard in Season 2 of One Tree Hill, and Karen and Andy watched the meteor shower at the edge of the water.  This scene should also be familiar to fans of Dawson’s Creek.

As we circled around the rest of the gardens (I think it was about a mile walk, if memory serves), we spotted this view that looked distinctly like part of “Dawson’s Creek” –

We drove down the coastline, headed to Fort Fisher beach, and encountered a major thunderstorm.  The rain was pouring down, and we were losing hope of actually getting to see the location down on the beach.  But, about 2 minutes before we reached our destination, we drove out of the rain into a beautiful day!  We found some public parking and a public access area to get to the beach.  When we walked out onto the beach, we were looking for a very specific spot.  Eagle Eye Kelli looked down the beach to our right and said “Over there!”  We walked down the beach and climbed up the rocks to take some pictures of this beautiful wedding location.  For my part, I loved seeing the woods, next to the rocks, next to the sand, next to the beach.  Usually I find beach photographs a little one-note and boring, but I can definitely see why the location scouts chose this area for filming.  It was truly magnificent, and Kelli and I got in a nice stroll along the beach in the process!

We drove back through more rain and had lunch at a great little restaurant (what was it called, Kelli?) while another storm passed over Wilmington.  The rapid weather changes created some beautiful effects in the sky.  Pictures never do justice to that kind of thing, but here’s one through-the-windshield shot that attempts to capture the moment:

Another Tree Hill wedding took place at Greenfield Lake, which spans a huge area in Wilmington.  We were fortunate enough to happen upon the right spot without too much driving around – I credit my eagle-eyed companion once again, who spotted the bridge we were looking for over the water.

We had to get adventurous going out to Orton Plantation.  The heavy rains from earlier in the day had us four-wheeling through the mud and gravel road leading up to the plantation.  Running along one side of that road was a creek full of alligators.  I refused to glance to the side, but Kelli inadvertently saw quite a few of them poking their heads up.  Fortunately, we saw them on our way OUT of the plantation – otherwise, we might never have gotten out of the car.

The lady in the visitor’s center/ticket office gave us a brief rundown of the plantation, and provided us with a list (several pages long) that talked about various movies and TV shows that had used the plantation for filming.  The listing for One Tree Hill, unfortunately, was not entirely accurate, but it did point us to the house where they filmed the interior shots of the beach house when “MURDERER” was written on the wall:

We also saw (and were able to go inside) the chapel used in “A Walk to Remember” – Kelli and I both loved that movie back in the day.

The lady in the visitor’s center provided us with bug spray, but it either did nothing to actually deter the bugs, or there were just a freaking LOT of mosquitoes and such hanging around.  For that reason, we cut our tour a bit short, but we were able to get the general idea.  I even climbed up in the “tree house,” and you can see Kelli peering up at me from the path below:

I had to go home and re-watch the DVDs (amazing, I know) to figure out the exact location of the wedding ceremony.  Turns out, they did the ceremony on the private lawn of the Orton Plantation house.  There is an elderly gentleman who actually lives in the house, so while we were welcome to photograph the house from the gardens, we did not go onto the lawn.  The wedding reception – I was surprised to learn – was actually filmed on the plantation as well, in a huge white tent on the lawn beside the chapel.  I had assumed it was done inside the studio somewhere.  I know from some of my actor friends that they generally hate filming weddings, because everyone has to be there alllll day long, so everyone can film their pieces and still be a part of the congregation.  I imagine that could have gotten fairly miserable for everyone if they were filming on a hot day!

When it was time to pack up and head back home, we had one stop to make about an hour north of Wilmington.  I am guessing most folks skip this location, since it’s so far out of the way, but I was intent on seeing it and Kelli obliged me.  Fortunately, it probably only added about 30 minutes to our trip.  It was well worth it for me, because this bridge from Ep. 322 (“The Show Must Go On”) was part of the most climactic season finale in the show’s history.  I loved that entire episode, and while Haley was standing on the bridge screaming, I was standing in my living room screaming.  Plus, Led Zeppelin was playing, and it really doesn’t get much better than that.  (And yes, we definitely listened to “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You” as we were driving up.)

I can’t remember the details of all my birthdays through the years, but much like I remember spending my 25th birthday in Hollywood, I’ll always remember 28 as the birthday I went to Wilmington.  And for the record – Wilmington was way better.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Travel | 14 Comments »

May
08
2009

Like We’re All Half Crazy and All at Least Half Alright

I am not sure how many years my friend Terri has been asking me to join her for the Marco Island SoapFest, but this year, I decided at the last minute (about two months beforehand in Amanda-time) to go for it.

 

My primary reason for going was to spend another fantastic weekend with Terri, Christy, and Heather, since we had such a blast during the Best (Worst) NYC Trip Ever.  I had also never been to Florida, and thought this would be a golden opportunity.  (Thank you, tax refund.)

 

The catalyst for the trip was the Marco Island SoapFest, bringing actors from all four east coast soaps (Guiding Light, As the World Turns, All My Children, and One Life to Live) together for a fun weekend benefitting several children’s charities, most notably the Eimerman Educational Center, which provides outreach for children with autism.

 

I lucked out and scored a comparatively cheap flight right out of Lynchburg with a connection through Charlotte, so I parked my car at the office and Daddy dropped me off at the airport Friday morning.  Since US Airways (and a lot of other money-grubbing airlines) have instituted fees for checked baggage, I refused to fall victim to their ploy and shoved everything into a rather large carry-on.  That was also one way to ensure that my luggage actually made it to Florida with me, and I didn’t have another ordeal like the one in New York last fall.  I even managed to abide by the liquid rule (nothing larger than a 3oz container, and all containers must fit into a quart-size ziplock bag.  My biggest bottle?  Anti-bac, of course!).  I was pretty proud of myself:

 

 

I had a three hour layover in Charlotte on the way down, which I passed by grabbing a bagel, propping my feet up on my suitcase, and enjoying the miracle and wonder of my iPod (forget the wheel; this is man’s greatest achievement):

 

 

I made it to Fort Myers airport without incident, where I met up with Heather in the main terminal and grabbed a late lunch at Chili’s while we waited for Christy’s flight to arrive.  Then, we hopped in our rental car (a Charger – why on earth didn’t I take a picture of that?) and used my awesome phone’s GPS to navigate to the island, which was about a 45-minute drive.

 

 

 

 

We stayed at the Hilton Resort, and all of the staff were extremely friendly and attentive, from the valet who welcomed us, to the bellhop who attended us and upgraded our room (and our view) simply because we asked nicely.  We immediately threw the balcony doors open and took a breath of fresh ocean air.

 

 

Heather and Christy had made plans for dinner Friday night before I joined the trip, so I decided to use the time for a walk along the beach.  All I had to do was step out the back door of the hotel to get to the beach:

 

 

The sand was actually more shells than sand, so I was glad to have my flip-flops, but I did slip them off long enough to walk barefoot through the surf.  I explored until it was time for sunset, and then I went camera crazy, snapping photos from various locations I had scoped out beforehand.  The beach was not nearly as crowded as I expected (especially for sunset), but I did find a few couples to incorporate into my photographs.  And yes, as I hinted with one of the pictures below, I did take some time to just sit in the sand and watch the sun dropping down towards the ocean.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After sunset, I wandered up the street by the hotel looking for some dinner.  Nothing jumped out at me except for the fact that I was tired from very little sleep the night before and my feet were starting to hurt, so I just went back to the hotel to relax for the evening.  Heather and Christy were kind enough to bring some food back for me, and we hit the sack to rest up for the long day ahead.

 

Once we finally got up on Saturday and checked to see when Terri would be arriving, we decided to head out to the beach.  I am honestly not that much of a beach person, but since most of my trips keep me going non-stop, trying to see all the sights and make the most of every moment, I must say that it was wonderful to simply lay on the beach, soak up the sun, listen to some Ryan Adams, and watch the waves.  So, most of my view Saturday afternoon was this:

 

 

Terri arrived at the hotel a bit frazzled from her trip, but just in time to get some beach time before we all started getting ready for Saturday night’s dinner at Bistro Soliel (at the Historic Olde Marco Inn).  It was a dressier affair, so I’d like to take this moment to give a shout-out to my awesome friend Jessica who loaned me her LBD (little black dress).  I got several compliments on it!

 

We were at a VIP table with John Driscoll, a fellow Virginian and an all-around likable guy.  He just scored a great gig on The Young and the Restless, which he was supposed to be keeping under wraps.  He quickly realized that, thanks to the internet, we knew more about his forthcoming job than he did!  We enjoyed dinner (which I must say was delicious) and got a chance to mingle around the room a bit.

 

 

Beth Ehlers (formerly of GL, now of AMC, and one of my lifelong favorite actresses) flagged me down from the next table over to say hello.  We kept trying to catch up, but a lot of fans were coming up to her, so we decided to try again later!

 

 

After dinner, there was a Q&A session and an auction.  Earlier that day, the actors had volunteered their time to paint with some of the children, and the resulting artwork was up for bid.  Most of the paintings (by autistic children of all ages) were quite good, even if they were of rainbows or fish or flowers.  Some of the paintings were downright impressive, but one in particular (of Wolverine) went above and beyond:

 

 

I didn’t bid on anything because I didn’t have the extra money, and most everything went for several hundred dollars if not into the $1000 range.  Many of the actors bid personally, which was generous since all of the money was going to such a great cause.  Some of the children were even present to display their paintings, and of course garnered hearty applause from the audience – and loosened some purse strings as well.  Thorsten Kaye sent bids soaring high for Ricky Paull Goldin’s jacket (which he wore as Gus on GL), and won it.  His design is to use it to taunt Ricky, who is quite a bit smaller than Thorsten.  I hope to hear about the “part two” of that particular story.

 

Brown Shirt Man (who I met in Las Vegas back in 2005 and is infamous to my long-time blog readers) caught sight of me during the auction, so afterward I went over to say hello to him.  He was as charming as ever, of course.   I also said hello to Trent Dawson and talked to him briefly before we left to go back to the hotel to change clothes and head out again.

 

Since we called for the car around 11:45, our valet smiled and said, “See you tomorrow, ladies!”  It was good that we (and by we, I mean everybody but Terri!) got a lot of sleep the night before, because I am certainly no longer used to the night life!  Nonetheless, we headed for Almost Famous Mel’s Smokehouse and BBQ for the Celebrity Bartender Bash.  That event was a lot of fun, even if it was SO HOT in the building.  We chose a cooler corner and stayed in it – unless, of course, the DJ played a great song and we (mostly I) felt compelled to dance.  On the dance floor, I remembered why it is great to be one of the few sober people at the bar – you can watch everyone else make complete fools of themselves, and still remember all of it the next day!  Among the fun – me and several gay men dancing to Love Shack, and a loud, profanity-laden tirade from a girl who was supposed to be passing out shots, but instead stopped to entertain (and perhaps you could say “assault”) us with her story of how she “voted black” but then apparently realized afterwards that she did not like anything Obama was doing.  (Side note: this is why it is usually a good idea to, you know, VOTE ON THE ISSUES and research the candidates so you don’t have a rude awakening six months after you vote black/white/woman/hope/change.)  She also regaled us with stories of her home country, Australia, and her hometown, Detroit.  (Yes, as in Michigan.  Go figure that one.)  And after twenty minutes of yelling (10 minutes of which could have been eliminated if she had cut out all use of the F-word), she announced, “This is why I am joining the Navy and becoming a minister.”  I could no longer restrain myself and cracked up laughing.  I bet she still has a headache from that hangover.

 

All things considered, we had a wonderful time.  I finally did get to catch up with Beth Ehlers for a few minutes.  I must say – she seems happier than ever, so I am happy for her.  I met some new friends – Cheryl and Tommy – who Heather and Christy had dinner with on Friday night.  Together, we had a great time, a LOT of laughs, and spent some more time with John Driscoll, Trent Dawson, Austin Peck, and Jeff Branson (Brown Shirt Man).  Aaaaaand, Terri discovered that despite her valiant efforts to sway him, Brown Shirt Man is still mine all mine. *grin*

 

 

 

We ended up closing down the place, and we had all passed the point of exhaustion, which as you know, leads directly to giddy, so we sat up for a while at the hotel eating 5 varieties of pretzels and having ridiculous conversations.  I was the first one to fall asleep just before 4am, so we started Sunday with a lot less energy than we had the day before!

 

To counteract the problem, Heather, Christy, and I headed to one of their favorite diners for a protein-powered breakfast to face the day.  Terri stayed behind to pack up, because she was going to head back to the airport that afternoon.  (Talk about a whirlwind trip!)

 

We set sail at noon on the Marco Island Princess for a cruise around the island.  This was the third and final “event” of the weekend.  I am not sure what the final count was for money raised, but if anybody knows, please pass it along!  With just a cursory count in my head, the dinner and the cruise alone brought in several thousand dollars just during the auctions, and I have no idea how much the bar event brought in, depending on how much people were drinking, I suppose!  (I was not drinking, but I did shake my moneymaker!  So, I was doing my part!  HAHAHAHA!)

 

The cruise was really lovely.  Heather secured us a table in “prime real estate” (as John put it) on the upper deck corner of the boat.  We were still out of the sun for the most part (since Christy and I are fair-skinned), but we were in the best place to catch a breeze, take in the view, and chat with everyone who passed by there at some point throughout the afternoon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Heather bid in the auction on the boat and won the painting that John did with a little girl named Tierney.  I totally stole this picture from her album from the weekend, but since I took the picture, I think that makes it OK:

 

 

After the cruise finished, we had to say goodbye to Terri so she could head back to the airport, and Heather, Christy, and I were once again on our own.

 

 

We were also exhausted, so we decided to get some rest.  I decided to go sprawl out on the beach with my iPod again, and Heather and Christy rested in the room for a while before heading out on shell-hunting and picture-taking expeditions, respectively.

 

Afterward, they introduced me to strombolis at a local pizzeria with a very attractive waiter, and then we went on another photo-op tour together.  This was mostly for my benefit – and my love of fountains – and I was oh-so-grateful.

 

 

 

 

 

By that time, we had enough room to go by the Cold Stone Creamery for dessert.  Christy does not have an ice cream shop of that nature in her hometown, so that is a bit of a tradition, too.  We were wiped out from the day once again, so we retired to our room, packed our bags, and got some much-needed rest.

 

Monday morning, we still got to sleep in since we’d done much of our packing the night before, and we spent a little time out on the balcony before checking out and heading back toward the airport.

 

 

We arrived in time to have lunch together at Chili’s before going our separate ways.

 

 

My trip home went very well.  I arrived at the gate at Ft. Myers just as my plane was boarding, and despite having to run through the Charlotte airport from Concourse B to the far off corner of Gate E32b, I still arrived at my gate just in time to board for home – even with stopping in the main terminal to take this photo.  (Yes, I do love Jeff Gordon.)

 

 

Mom picked me up at the airport at home, and I was back in my apartment shortly past 5:30 on Monday.  I loved my trip, but there is always something comforting about being back home!

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Travel | 1 Comment »

Apr
22
2009

I’m Always Driving in my Mind

This weekend, I set off on a Pilgrimage to Mecca.  Granted, my “pilgrimage” was a two hour road trip to Jamestown, NC, and my Mecca was the Derek Webb concert at Friendly Hills Church, but the basic idea was the same.  Derek Webb’s music has always served to restore my soul, and Derek himself restores my faith in Christianity.

 

I’m not trying to lay all of that at Derek’s door – he is a good man, but a man all the same.  But God has worked through his music to teach me many things in the last decade, and I do not take that for granted.  So, whenever Derek plays within a few hours of home, I make it a point to go.

 

My usual cohort bailed with some lame excuse about a vacation with her husband (heh), so I thought I’d be making this trip solo.  At the last minute, though, my friend Katie came through in the clutch and agreed to come along.

 

I introduced her to Derek’s music on the way down, and much to my delight, before we even crossed the state line, she was excited about seeing the show.  She even recognized some of the old Caedmon’s Call catalog, either from radio years ago, or from the fact that we’ve been friends for almost as long as I’ve been listening to Derek’s music, so I’m sure she’s heard it before through me.

 

We made great time on our trip and scoped out the church before heading to Fuddruckers for dinner.  We still made it back to the church nearly an hour and a half before showtime.  Derek was there, so I got a chance to talk with him a little bit before the show.  He was setting up merch, and two awesome gray-haired church secretaries were preparing to sell tickets.  With the opening band and sound guys and various folks milling around, I guess they were trying to account for the people in the foyer, and they turned to me and said, “Are you with the entourage?”  Ha!  I’m pretty sure Derek has never had an entourage, and will never have an entourage, but I guess if he did, I may as well be with it.  Derek explained that we were friends and were just catching up, but still every time one of them saw me through the evening, they would say, “And who are you again?”

 

We talked a bit about Noisetrade.com, Twitter, his two adorable children, and my hopes for an arranged marriage between his two-month-old daughter and Levi’s one-month-old son.  (Because, seriously!  Can you imagine the musical genius that would come out of that?)

 

 

I also took Derek a gift – a copy of The Unlikely Disciple, which Kevin Roose personally autographed to him.  I figured it was only fair that after introducing Derek’s music to Kevin, I should introduce Kevin’s book to Derek.  Before I gave it to him, though, another guy walked up and asked me what book I was holding.  I flipped it over to show him, and he said, “You’re not gonna believe this.”  He proceeded to whip out his iPhone and show me that a mere two hours earlier one of his friends had texted him to say, “Next time you’re in B&N, pick up a copy of The Unlikely Disciple.”  I just said, “Well, there you go.  I guess you better get a copy now!”

 

Derek had not heard of the book, so I gave him the brief rundown, and I have a feeling he will enjoy reading it.  I snapped a photo of him with the book, mainly for Kevin’s benefit:

 

 

Derek headed backstage before the crowd rolled in, and I headed back to my spot on the front row that Katie was saving for me.  Before the show, I made it a point to go and make friends with the guy who said he was going to make a bootleg of the show.  He was a fan from way back, too, so we had something in common.  Devoted, too!  He told me that he has driven 14 hours on occasion to hear Derek play!  I would do that, too, but thankfully I’ve never had to, because he usually has a show within a few hours of me three or four times a year.  (Oh, and just for the record, Derek is 100% in support of bootlegs.  So it’s not like I’m outing this guy or anything.)

 

There was an opening act, whose name escapes me at the moment (isn’t that awful?) – I think it was something Pete.  I really liked his voice and some of his song concepts showed great potential.  He was a young guy, so I am sure he will continue to grow and get better over time, and then perhaps I will hear his name again and remember it next time!

 

Derek sent a tweet from backstage saying he was trying to decide what to play.  (I had already submitted my request, or I would have responded.)  I like that he shoots from the cuff, and I love that he actually asks for requests.  As he says, “I can’t promise I’ll play any of the songs you want, but I’d like to hear what they are.”

 

I lost track long ago of how many Derek Webb shows I’ve seen, but I think Saturday’s was one of the best.  The atmosphere at the church was great, and the crowd was smaller, but obviously devoted.  Most of all, Derek seemed to be in rare form, and while he sports a wry sense of humor that always gets a chuckle out of me, I found myself actually cracking up laughing several times, along with the rest of the audience.  He joked about “the closest thing to a hit that I’ve ever had” that was on Grey’s Anatomy, and about why he and Sandra got married so soon after they started dating.  (“I did not want her to get to know me any better until we were on the other side of an irrevocable lifelong commitment.”)

 

 

When he called out for requests, the old songs started popping up, as they often do.  He agreed to play some of them even though he hadn’t played them in years, and as he stood on stage strumming through chords trying to remember the right key, he quipped, “I don’t want to hear any complaining.  This is what you paid good money to see.”  One request in particular gave him trouble.  He even got about a verse into it and suddenly stopped and said, “Oh!  I know what the problem is!”

 

Thus began a long and thoroughly entertaining story about the song, “Dance,” after which Derek looked at the requester and said, “This is all your fault, sir.”  He noted that his diatribe might have made a good blog entry, and said he needed a proxy blogger, and I agreed to the job.  But first, a few points of reference:

 

“Dance” is a song Derek wrote about his grandmother.  It appeared on the Caedmon’s Call album, “Long Line of Leavers,” and then after Derek went solo, it popped up on “The House Show” (a live album) in a different style.  So, for this sub-blog entry, pretend I’m Derek Webb, and I’ll try to do justice to his story:

 

I know what’s wrong with this song.  There are two versions and I’m trying to mix them together.  I wrote this song about my grandmother when I was in Caedmon’s Call for the album “Long Line of Leavers.”  Our producer at the time – and he was a really great producer – came to me and said he liked the song, but there were already too many songs on the album with that sound.  So, he sat down and played this jazzy, smooth version of my song, and I absolutely hated it.  I hated everything about it.  But, even though it was my song, a band is a democratic system, and I only got 1 out of 7 votes.  So, it went on the album and then I just pretty much refused to play it for the next 5 years.

 

That’s why, when I went solo, my first album, “She Must and Shall Go Free,” was all Americana.  I had to get it out of my system after it had been suppressed for all those years!  Then, I found a copy of “Dance,” the way I originally wrote it.  It feels strange to hate a song about your grandmother, you know?  I don’t hate my grandmother.  So, I gave the song another chance and realized it was a pretty good song.  So, I went back to playing it how it was meant to be.

 

So, do me this favor, if you have that Caedmon’s record, skip that song.  Or, if you have it on your hard drive or whatever, just delete it.  Do it for me.

 

 

Derek then proceeded to play the song as it was intended, and he’s right – it’s better that way.  I didn’t take note of the full setlist, but from what I remember several days later, he also played “I Want a Broken Heart,” “Awake My Soul” (by request), “Wedding Dress,” “A King and a Kingdom,” “A New Law,” “Name,” “This Too Shall Be Made Right,” and “A Savior on Capitol Hill.” 

 

 

When he talked about marriage (“I have been to the other side of the mountain and have come back to tell you that it is good.”), he played two Sandra-inspired songs, “I Wanna Marry You All Over Again,” and “I Hate Everything (But You).”  For the single folk, he played “Table for Two,” which has long been a favorite of mine.  I flipped my camera to video for that one:

 

 

 

 

As time was running low, he said he was going to play two more songs, and I added, “And one of them is ‘Somewhere North,’ right?”  “Oh!  Right!”

 

“Somewhere North” is in my top 5 favorite songs EVER, in any genre and from any artist, so I request it often.  When he plays it live, it has two extra lines that were not on the album (40 Acres).  I guess that was probably another one of those scenarios where he lost on a vote.  I recorded that one, too:

 

 

 

 

I had told Derek before the show that I probably wouldn’t be around afterwards, since we were driving back to VA that night.  But, seriously, who am I kidding?  We hung around after to chat.  Plus, by the end of the show, Katie was a full-fledged Derek Webb fan (Derek quipped, “I should put you on the payroll”), so we waited around for Katie to get her CD signed.

 

We started talking about music along the lines of Midlake, St. Vincent (Derek has already heard the demos from the new album and said it is fantastic), Patty Griffin (who reminds me very much of Derek’s wife, Sandra McCracken), and of course, Ryan Adams.

 

Here is a picture of Derek and Katie.  (Yes, I cropped myself out.  So sue me.)

 

 

The drive back to VA wasn’t nearly as tedious as I had anticipated.  We stopped for some snacks along the way and jammed to my Dance playlist for something to keep us wide awake.  We got home about 1:00, which I thought was not bad at all.  Of course, I promised to take Katie along on the next Derek Webb road trip.

 

Prior to Saturday’s concert, Derek had been in Texas for a week working on his upcoming album, “Stockholm Syndrome.”  He said we should hear something official on that within the next month or so, and I, for one, cannot wait.  He said it’s different than anything he’s done before, which I have no trouble believing, since every solo album he’s released has been quite a bit different from the one before.  But I’ve learned over the years that there really is no such thing as a bad Derek Webb song.  Not even “Bus Driver,” no matter what Derek says.

Tags:
Posted in Music, Travel | No Comments »

Mar
20
2009

Tennessee [Doesn't] Suck

This past weekend, my dearest friend Jessica and I embarked on a journey to the musical mecca that is Nashville, TN.

 

I had only been to Nashville once before, which is when Mom and I went to see Levi Weaver when he was touring with Imogen Heap. 

 

I love music, which probably comes as no shock to any of you, but there aren’t very many artists I would travel such great distances to see.  Levi Weaver is definitely one of them.  So is Derek Webb.  The other is Ryan Adams, and he was the reason for the trip this time.

 

Jessica is not a huge Ryan Adams fan, though she is slowly and surely beginning to see the light.  Fortunately, she is a big fan of yours truly, and she was more than happy to accompany me on the trip to see some Nashville sights and come to the show with me.

 

So, we set off on our journey Friday morning, armed with MapQuest directions and a 9 hour playlist I created for the occasion.  3 hours of that was probably Ryan, to the point where Jessica looked at me out of the corner of her eye whenever she heard one of his songs come on.  I maintain that 3 hours of Ryan Adams was pretty conservative, especially since we were going to his concert.  And she cannot deny squealing with joy and cranking up the volume when she heard certain Ryan Adams songs tuning up.

 

We’d both missed breakfast, so we were overjoyed to see a Perkins sign after we crossed into TN.  We stopped and had breakfast for lunch before getting back on the road.  We gained an hour on our drive since we were crossing into the central time zone.  We hadn’t made any plans for Friday night, and opted instead to explore our hotel.  Luckily, we got the hook-up and were able to stay at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel for a fraction of the usual cost.  You could walk around that hotel for three days and probably not see everything, so we had plenty to occupy us for the evening.

 

I wore my “I *heart* Sheldon” shirt that Kelli gave me for Christmas, so this picture is for her:

 

 

Jessica and I took a boat ride on a river than ran through one section of our hotel, taking pictures as we went along.

 

 

 

 

We stopped for a bit to watch this fountain, which I remembered from when Mom and I visited before:

 

 

We had dinner at an Irish pub in the hotel, where we enjoyed the company of an adorable Englishman who humored us by chatting about what brought him to the states while we gazed lovingly in his general direction.

 

Saturday morning, it was raining, as it had through most of our drive on Friday.  Not to be deterred, we grabbed our umbrellas and headed downtown.  Many people had recommended the Pancake Pantry to me before we left, and since good food is quite important to us, we marked that down on the list of places to go and see.  We were warned beforehand that there would be a line, but that the wait was worth it – no matter how long it was.

 

When we arrived, despite the rain, we discovered that the line was out of the building and wrapped around the corner of the block:

 

 

We made friends with the people who lined up behind us and chatted with them until we got inside the building.  Because there were only two of us, we got bumped ahead in the line and didn’t have to wait quite as long as most people.  The man handling the line was no joke!  He kept everyone single file against the wall, getting table counts, and ushering people to their tables with great efficiency.  When he pointed at us and said, “You two are coming with me,” we got to steppin.’

 

As the name implies, pancakes are their specialty, and they have a million flavors.  Now, I like pancakes as much as the next person, but if I am eating breakfast out somewhere, that simply must involve some bacon and eggs.  So, we both ordered plates that included bacon, eggs, and pancakes.  We were allowed to substitute our three plain pancakes for two specialty pancakes, so Jessica ordered blueberry and I got chocolate chip.  We started chit-chatting with the couple seated next to us, who were Nashville natives who were planning a vacation to our area in Virginia.  Their food arrived shortly, including some tasty-looking potatoes, so Jessica and I had to flag our waitress down to say, “Hey, can we get some of those?!”

 

It was all worth it, as everyone had said, because I am pretty sure I have never had a tastier breakfast in the entirety of my life.

 

After breakfast, we made our way over to The Parthenon, where we took some photos outside before proceeding inside to the museum.

 

 

There was not much to see inside until we got to the third floor and this statue of Athena, which was a sight to behold:

 

 

 

From there, we drove toward the river and found a place to park.  We walked onto the bridge and took some photos overlooking Nashville, as well as a few shots of a fountain next to the parking lot.  (We both have a thing for fountains.)

 

 

 

 

We proceeded to our next must-see spot – the Ryman Auditorium, home of the Grand Ole Opry.  The building is beautiful inside and out.

 

 

 

We took the obligatory photos at the microphone, where many greats have stood before:

 

 

 

And then Jessica (and maybe me, too, but it’s my blog and I plead the 5th) recorded an album at the Ryman, which is a clever marketing scheme to get tourists to pay $15 for a CD.  But hey – it was cool.  And in case anybody wondered, Jessica does a mean Patsy Cline.

 

 

And of course, we seized every opportunity to take a classic long-arm shot to commemorate our trip:

 

 

After our backstage tour at the Ryman, which was very informative (and our tour guide was the cutest little old man), we headed to the Honky Tonk District to check out the sites there and do a little souvenir shopping.  (Jessica, not me.  If you want Nashville stuff, go there yourself.)  We killed a little time by stopping into The Stage and listening to the live act there at the time.

 

About the time we were leaving to go grab some dinner, Jessica realized her cell phone was MIA.  We retraced our steps to no avail, and ultimately decided that she must have laid it down on the counter in one of the stores and someone scooped it up.  There was nothing we could do about that, of course, so we proceeded on to the Old Spaghetti Factory for a dinner that was almost as good as the breakfast we had Saturday morning. 

 

We took our dessert to go and went back to the hotel to get some rest before Sunday.  When we stopped at the TN Welcome Center on our way in on Friday, Jessica spotted a brochure on Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage and decided we must go there.  You know how I feel about Ryan Adams?  Yeah, well, that’s pretty much how Jessica feels about dead Presidents.  She reads books about them all the time.  For fun!  I swear I am not making this stuff up.

 

So, naturally, we had to go to The Hermitage.  We were running late and decided to just grab brunch at the café on-site.  Our luck with food did not hold up through Sunday.  I paid WAY too much for soup and salad, and Jessica paid even more for soup and a ham sandwich.  In better news, it turned out to be Andrew Jackson’s birthday, so all admission fees were half price!

 

The exhibits and certainly the house and grounds were very interesting, even to someone who could not care less like me!  It was especially entertaining because anytime a tour guide would say something, Jessica would chime in with many more details.  She knows her stuff.

 

Here she is, happy as a pig in slop, as my Daddy would say:

 

 

 

I even found something exciting out in the garden.  It’s my favorite flower, the purple hyacinth!  Perhaps ol’ A.J. was a fan?

 

 

As it happened, the boot store we had stopped in on Saturday did eventually turn up Jessica’s phone, so we planned to go get that prior to the concert Sunday night.  First, we went back to the hotel to relax for a little while.  When we decided it was time to go downtown and grab some dinner, something else was missing – the car keys.  Jessica went and searched to no avail, and then called security to let her into a shop in the hotel we’d been in just before close so she could buy more souvenirs for her family.  A while after she left the room, I had an epiphany of sorts and realized where the keys might be.  Since she didn’t have her cell phone, I called the front desk and had them radio security and tell them what store to go to.  All’s well that ends well, I suppose, as Jessica found the keys, I confiscated them, and we headed downtown.

 

We picked up the cell phone and used the GPS on my phone to get to a restaurant called Monell’s, which was recommended to me as good country cooking, which is music to my ears.  We found the place, but they had closed at 4, which was a bummer.  The trip to 6th street was not a complete waste though, since we got this photo as an ode to the FAIL blog.  Remember how I said we were on SIXTH street?  Well:

 

 

Our backup plan for dinner was a place called Otter’s Chicken, so we drove about 10 minutes down the road only to discover that it, too, was closed.  We were rapidly approaching the time that I had planned to go and line up for the concert, so we just went back to the parking lot we had scoped out earlier and took our chances on a restaurant on the corner called Tazza (meaning “fresh”).  It was pretty good, but by then I was almost too excited to eat.  When I looked at Jessica and said “I don’t think I can eat anymore,” she looked like she was considering rushing me to the hospital.  It could have something to do with the fact that I tend to eat my food and half of hers.

 

While we were finishing up, my friend Levi called and said he was already in line.  We walked up the street to meet him at the War Memorial Auditorium where the show was held.  Levi’s wife Heather was pregnant and a few days overdue, so he was expecting to get a call at any time.  But he is also a huge Ryan Adams fan (and the one who introduced me to Ryan’s music, by the way), so he was at the concert keeping his cell phone close.  I was really glad to see him, too, so that was a great bonus of the weekend.  Here he is, making a face, per the usual:

 

 

And me and Jessica (her shirt was awesome):

 

 

And the stage!

 

 

The show was at 8:30, with no opening act, so I fidgeted and grinned like an idiot waiting for it to begin.  We talked to some of the folks standing around us while we waited, and found a few other folks who were familiar with Lynchburg and Charlottesville, so that was a neat coincidence.  (Or, as the aforementioned Sheldon would say, “a situation people unfamiliar with the law of large numbers would call a coincidence.”)

 

I knew I’d never be able to get really good pictures at the show, between my not-so-great camera and my holy-crap-it’s-Ryan-Adams shaking, so I didn’t try for many.  But here is one.  The blurry man in front of the blue rose (or the “cold rose,” if you will) is my Ryan.

 

 

I found the complete setlist from the show online (apparently there are many people who live-blog all the happenings, but I am too entranced in the music to do such things in the middle of the show), so here we go for those that care, and I’ll insert my thoughts here and there:

 

On stage 8:40 pm

1. I See Monsters  (WOOHOO!  Great opener!)
2. Fix It
3. Everybody Knows
4. Crossed Out Name
5. Come Pick Me Up  (The crowd always loves this one.  I mean, it’s a great song, but not THE greatest.  I guess it’s the one everyone knows?)
6. Cobwebs
7. Two
8. Freeway to the Canyon (Neal Casal)
9. banter + improv – “same shirt as me”
10. Beautiful Sorta
11. Let it Ride  (Yay!)
12. Natural Ghost  (I love the beginning of this song.  “I was waitin’ around for somebody to die.”  And they rocked the ending.)
13. Grand Island (Neal Casal)
14. band intros
15. Born Into a Light
16. When The Stars Go Blue  (This was a really beautiful moment at the show which I was not expecting.  I forgot what a great song this is as long as you keep it away from people like Tim McGraw.)
17. Evening Joke w/ Jon Graboff
18. Goodnight Rose  (This song goes on forever with the extended jam session at the end, but it was cool.)
19. Lost Satellite (Neal)
20. Rescue Blues  (First of all, YAAAAAAAAAAAAY!  I love this song.  At this point, Ryan put down the guitar and just sang at the mic for three songs. Lovely.)
21. Oh My God, Whatever, Etc.
22. The Sun Also Sets  (I liked this song on the album, but it was great live.)
23. Why Do They Leave  (Another song I love.)
24. Bartering Lines
25. Shakedown on 9th Street  (They played this at twice the album tempo.  I have no idea how Ryan even got the words out that fast.  Especially “I was just gonna hit him, but I’m gonna kill him now.”)
26. A Kiss Before I Go
27. Magick  (I don’t think anyone is going to say this is the best song Ryan’s ever written, but I thought it was fun when I heard it on the album and it really rocks out live.  I don’t think there was anyone NOT rocking out for this one.)

Off stage 10:42 pm

On 10:44 pm (Encore, at which point Ryan declared, “Oh ****, we’ve never gotten an encore before!”)

28. Wonderwall  (Ryan does this song way better than anyone else ever has.)
29. Sink Ships  (This song always makes me laugh because I used to think it said “Africans” where it actually says “Applicants.”)
30. Cold Roses
31. Mockingbird
32. Dear Chicago  (Ryan did this song kinda fast, too.  I prefer the slow version, but hey, whatever.)
33. This is It  (This is a great one, and I don’t think he plays it often live, so that was a nice treat.)

Off 11:09 pm

 

I tried not to formulate any setlist in my head of things I wanted him to play.  When an artist has SO. MANY. SONGS. there is just too much to choose from to hope for any song in particular.  I couldn’t help but hope for “The Rescue Blues” since he had played it the night before, and I got my wish on that one, but I guess, if there was anything missing from that awesome show, I would have wanted to hear:

 

1.        Any Whiskeytown song.  Really anything.  But if he asked me, I’d probably say “Faithless Street.”  Or “Ballad of Carol Lynn.”  Or “Black Arrow, Bleeding Heart.”  Or “Hard Luck Story.”  Like I said, too many songs.

2.       Any song on the piano.  First choice, “Sylvia Plath.”  I thought I might get to hear “Stop,” since that was on Cardinology, but alas, Ryan ignored his piano for the evening.

 

For your viewing pleasure (and mine), I found some YouTube videos from the show.  The quality isn’t great, but it’s still cool to watch them and think “I was there!”

 

Magick

 

 

The Rescue Blues

 

 

Why Do They Leave?

 

All in all, it was a fantastic show.  I can’t argue with two and a half hours of Ryan!

 

I would like to make a remark about the audience.  First of all, don’t yell out requests at Ryan Adams’ shows.  Everybody knows that.  (Although I cracked up when Ryan yelled back something totally intelligible, which is, of course, what it sounds like to him when people yell requests and things.)  But secondly, if you don’t realize that you shouldn’t be yelling out requests, at least do not request “Tennessee Sucks.”  I don’t care if it is your favorite song – don’t yell out anything with the word “sucks” at a concert.  That can be misconstrued, ya know?

 

When the show was over, there was nothing to distract us from our aching feet and aching backs, so I bid farewell to Levi outside and Jessica and I headed back to the hotel to crash.  What we didn’t know at the time is that, while we were crawling into bed for the night, Levi and Heather were headed to the hospital!  Their sweet baby boy was born Monday morning.  I think it speaks volumes about the coolness of this kid that he waited until his Dad got home from the Ryan Adams concert before he decided it was time to roll.  He’s pretty smart, anyway.  He even opened a twitter account before he was born!  I hope to meet the little fella soon – preferably when he’s about 2, can talk, and isn’t so breakable.  In the meantime, I will love him from afar for the perfect little angel that he is.

 

Save the drive home on Monday, there is not much else to report about the trip.  It rained all the way home, and we passed the time – at least the last 4 hours – by watching/listening to the 5th season of One Tree Hill.  Jessica watched, on my iPod, and I drove.  It was a stroke of genius, really, because it’s like listening to a really good radio station, but with dialogue.  And it kept us both awake, alert and interested on what might have otherwise been a very tedious drive.

 

I will keep that in mind next time I make a long trek somewhere!

 

Now, who wants to go see Josh Ritter in Norfolk on April 3rd?

Tags: ,
Posted in Music, Travel | No Comments »