Look how far you've come...

While flipping channels at Kay and Bob's house this morning, I noticed a strange occurrence. Do you know what movie MTV was showing this AM? Rudy. That's right. Sean Astin...Notre Dame...you know. 

First of all, we can now say that MTV is no longer Music Television. I mean the last music show went off the air last week: TRL. I remember getting home from class in college (or high school too, sorry Mom) and turning it on to see what the new videos looked like. 

Secondly, I guess Rudy is a great, heartwarming story. I am glad that people who watch MTV now have the opportunity to watch this. Run's House is the same thing. Maybe this is what we need.

On another note, I just watched part of Kid Rock's Storytellers on VH1. It was filmed at The Factory, where I work. So that's pretty cool. Kid just turned into a Southern Baptist worship leader and had the audience turn around to say hello to the people around them. This is my least favorite part of a church service. And now it's making its way into concerts? Oh man...if this happens at a concert I attend, I might not be attending anymore.

Coldplay

I had the privilege of seeing Coldplay in concert about 2 weeks ago. Sorry it takes me a little while to get videos uploaded. I really do not know if another concert will top this one. It was one of those shows where I was so concentrated and excited about the next thing they were going to do that I had no idea what my body was doing ha...I was probably bouncing up and down, I really have no idea. I wish I had gotten it on tape when they sang Viva La Vida, I had to call my friend Court and play it for us because it was kind of the theme song of our summer. It was incredible, Chris Martin could have basically stopped singing because the crowd was singing so loud, I got chills at that point. There wasn't a song that was a let down. If you get a chance to see them pay whatever you can because it was an experience I will never forget. I have some videos below. I'm a little sad tho because when I upload the videos to youtube the quality is not as good. Any suggestions on this bloggers?

Death and All His Friends...for Erin

PS there was a warning sign on the front row because of the lights that flash during this song. They were unbelievably bright, like I'm pretty sure if the front row went blind.

A personal fav. Lovers in Japan...they really pulled out the things in the video that depict Japan, I loved that.


This was when the entire band made their way through the crowd and into the balcony to perform two songs. Literally like a section over from us. People were leaping over seats...it was incredible

Kay and Kings of Leon

What do these two entities have in common? Both are Southern and damn proud of it. Both wear girl clothes. And....that's about it.

My warning to Kay is to never get anywhere near a KOL concert. There is nothing about it that will please her.

My warning is to everybody else out there is to run to your nearest KoL concert. They were AWESOME.

Last night, Erin, Lindsay and I bundled up and headed downtown to rock out. Let me first say that the crowd demographics at this concert were much different than what I have experienced in the past. First of all, I've never been frisked before a concert. I was. I've never seen beer cans so big. I've never seen so many pairs of girl jeans on non-girls. This was a night of firsts.

This could be considered my first rock concert. I made the comment to E & L that I have rock legs but a pop heart. My legs want to move to the beat, but I don't know what to do with the rest of me. I also am a snapper so I usually keep my hands in my pockets or clasped together.

(As an aside, the Nashville Municipal Auditorium has the softest bathroom tissue I've ever used at a public bathroom. No lie. The other two didn't notice...I did.)

We missed The Whigs, but made it just in time to hear We Are Scientists. It was general admission and the floor was packed out. We decided to stick it out in the bleachers. They really were perfect seats. We sat through We Are Scientists and saw everything and stood through KOL and saw everything. Perfection.

Highlights of the evening...

- Tight girl jeans
- Marajuana smoke
- Crowd surfers
- Crowd surfers who had one leg above their head and then fell on his head.
- Crowd surfers who didn't wear pants or underwear (yikes.)
- Woman standing in the entry (light) to the arena (dark) dancing so we saw her silhouette (can you say Stevie Nicks? thanks E.)
- The guy we thought was surely going to yell "Free Bird"
- The guys behind us who continually yelled "F__K Yeah!" and "This is my song!"
- My eyes watering from the smoke.
- The same guys behind us who said they were going to their car to get a joint.
- Oh, and the music was awesome.

So Kay, stay away from any KoL concert. I'm sure you'd classify it as Heavy Metal, because that's what you call any music with a beat. I'll take you to Celine Dion sometime. I mean she's borderline Metal.

Random Thought of the Day While Driving

When I was at school at MSU, there was this kid who would stand on a sidewalk in the main part of campus and wave to people as they walked or drove to class. There was really no reason for this act of friendliness. There was an article about him in our school newspaper and it was sort of cool to be friends with him. I wasn't friends with him but I'm cool enough.

So today I was thinking about random acts of kindness. I am not someone to do something like this. 

I also had a guy in New Orleans tell me it was National Give Someone a Kiss Day and he gave me a peck on the cheek. That's my kind of day!

Random I know. 

I have a confession...

So we all know that I love Maks...BUT I have to say I've developed a little crush on a little Derek Hough. Its true, I think he's presh. Maks will always be my #1, but look at Derek just look at him


Is it weird to anyone else that he dates Shannon Elizabeth?

The Break-Up

Can't we all just agree that THIS is not working? Let's put this show to rest.

What's that smell?

Some of you may know about my fear that I could smell. I mean, who of you would ever tell me? It's one of those things that I fear, another one being that I may have a limp. From Mental_Floss I give you the 15 most famously filthy people in history:

Benedict of Aniane:

Saint Joseph once preached, “He who has bathed in Christ has no need for a second bath.” Early Christians took this literally and never bathed. Benedict was an odd monk that spent most of his life in rags, rarely eating, and speaking only in awkward outcries. He wascanonized for saving monasticism in the 8th century, through which he spread the idea that bathing was a vanity that facilitated sins of the flesh. This meme stuck with Christians until the 18th century.

Henry IV of France:

One of the most popular French kings, Henry tried to provide his citizens with a “chicken in the pot every Sunday.” Even though he believed in changing his shirt every morning, a rarity in 16th century France, he also loved hunting and refused to bathe or mask his odor with cologne afterwards. His mistress often told him he smelled like carrion. His second wife fainted from his stench the first time she met him and doused herself with perfume just to have sex with him on their wedding night.

Miyamoto Musashi:

The Japanese have a long history of promoting hygiene, but Musashi was a different story. He spent most of the 17th century wandering Japan as a vagabond warrior, sword fighting anyone he ran across. His fighting style involved wielding two swords above above his head and was so complicated that none of his pupils ever mastered it. He never married, cut his hair, or bathed unless he was visiting a feudal lord because he did not want to be caught unprepared. Besides, there were better things to do like sword fighting.

Louis XIV of France:

During the 72 year reign of Louis, France established an absolute monarchy, Versailles was built, and The Sun King waged war with everyone. Possibly hydrophobic, he refused to bathe unless his doctors forced him to and took two, possibly three, baths his entire life. He preferred to be dusted with scented powder and washed his face with a rag soaked in alcohol. Louis refused surgery on a gangrenous foot, leading to his death, and would lose chunks of it around Versailles.

Frederick II of Prussia:

Frederick transformed Prussia from a European backwater to a world powerhouse, and then spent the rest of his life shuffling around Sanssouci with a pack of Italian greyhounds, berating anyone that cleaned up the ankle-deep dog shit. Possibly insane, he started refusing to bathe and stopped changing his clothes for years. When he died, in 1786, the shirt on his back was so rotten with sweat that his valet used one of his own to bury the king.

Charles Howard

A staunch opponent of George III, the 11th Duke of Norfolk rebuilt and refurbished Arundel Castle. In a time when bathing was starting to gain acceptance, he never took a voluntary bath his entire life and became known as the “Dirty Duke” as a result. His valets would trick him into it by getting him drunk and then scrubbing him down. He once complained to Dudley North that he had tried everything to cure his rheumatism. North quipped, “Pray, my lord, did you ever try a clean shirt?”

Ludwig van Beethoven:

Influenced by the Enlightenment, a deaf Beethoven pushed Romantic music to the forefront in the 18th century. His refusal to bathe stemmed from the constant pain of lead poisoning. It also made him extremely crabby at concerts, he commonly threw things at people talking during his concerts. A speech impediment made it hard to understand Beethoven and often resulted in violent tirades if he was asked to repeat himself. The few friends he had would sneak away his clothes to wash while he slept.

Karl Marx:

As the mind behind Communism, Marx wanted the working class to rise up but instead helped totalitarian regimes justify their existence. He suffered from pus leaking carbuncles and boilsthat were worsened by chain smoking, heavy drinking, and belief that cleanliness was a bourgeoisie excess. Marx took pride in pages of the original manuscript of Das Kapital that were splattered with blood from his lanced boils, claiming that it proved he understood the plight of the proletariat.

Henrietta Green:

With an estimated net worth of $3.8 billion, Green became one of the richest women in historythrough her extreme frugality. She avoided surgery on a hernia because it cost $150, ignored her son’s broken leg until it had to be amputated, and tried to swindle a dying aunt out of money. The few times she bathed, she did so without hot water and soap, and she spent her entire life in a series of black dresses that she wore until they wore out. In her later years she became extremely paranoid and died while arguing about skim milk.

Diego Rivera:

A famous Mexican muralist, Rivera helped bring art to the common Mexican by kick-starting the Mexican Mural Renaissance. He was also briefly married to Frida Kahlo and became famous for his constant cheating. Incredibly obese, often ballooning beyond 300 pounds, and avoided bathing (possibly because he didn’t see the point of if he could meet women without it). When one of his wives, Lupe Marin, met him for the first time she asked, “Is this the great Diego Rivera? He looks horrible to me.”

Chairman Mao Zedong

Mao’s harsh socio-political programs killed millions of his countrymen but helped turn China into a world power. He never brushed his teeth or bathed his entire reign. Instead, concubines were forced to scrub his body with damp towels while be chewed tea leaves to clean his teeth. When offered a toothbrush by one of his physicians, Mao refused on the grounds that tigers didn’t brush their teeth either. You can’t argue with that logic.

Geoffrey Pyke:

A British spy during WWII and an innovator, Pyke is best known for developing pykrete, a type of ice that is extremely slow to melt. He wanted to use this material to build a fleet of ships that were impervious to U-Boat attacks. A typical boffin, he abhorred wearing socks and usually presented himself in a rarely washed suit. Pyke also hated bathing, rarely shaved, and avoided cutting his hair. Conversations with Pyke were just as wild as his appearance, as he often launching into extremely technical diatribes when questioned.

Howard Hughes:

Hughes transformed from a polished, handsome aviator and movie producer to a 90 pound skeleton that only trusted Mormons. It started in 1957, when he locked himself in a studio with milk, chocolate, and Kleenex to watch movies completely naked. Upon emerging, he refused to bathe and trimmed his hair and nails only once a year. He became a recluse, living in Las Vegas and the Bahamas, and was so unidentifiable when he died that police had to use his fingerprints to make sure it was actually Hughes.

Ernesto Guevara:

The Argentine revolutionary, Che Guevara helped Fidel Castro bring Communism to Cuba. He loved rugby, cigars, and Rolexes, but hated bathing his entire life. As a child he was called “Chancho”, pig, by friends and took pride in wearing the same shirt for a whole week. He kept this trend going through most of his life, rarely bothering to bathe or change out of his olive green fatigues. He became one of the most famous t-shirts in history after he died.

Marilyn Monroe:

Considered an example of the feminine ideal, Monroe went through a long string of lovers that included Joe DiMaggio and John F. Kennedy. But according to a Clark Gable biography, Gable described her as extremely dirty, and not in the sexual sense. According to Gable she suffered from irritable bowel syndrome, rarely bathed, and ate exclusively in bed - shoving what was left under her bed.

Ooooo....that's a dealbreaker.

The other day, someone mentioned a person in a story who had a horrifically bad last name. It's the kind of name that makes you feel sorry for that person because they have to sign their name, introduce themselves, etc.

There are names that I say are deal breakers. These are the names that may hinder a relationship (romantic) with someone because of the terrible sound of the name. Some of these names are: Seaman, Butts (I know some really awesome Butts, but my opinion still is not changed), Choate. You get my drift. 

What are some deal breakers for you? You know you've got them. 

I know, I know...love conquers all. If you are really in love with someone, you won't care. But at the very least it will give you pause. I also know that I shouldn't be turning people down for something as ridiculous as a name. But I don't want to have to keep my own name upon marriage. A deal breaker name may cause this.

My cousin the hippy

I don't think I have ever talked about my cousin Brian on here. He's great. I just hung out with him tonight and felt the need to tell you about him. I think what I love most about him is that he reminds me of our grandfather and I miss him more than I could describe to you. Brian is very much so a hippy. I love having hippies around me, there is a part of me that would very much like to be one but I think we all know that is not really who I am...there is just that little spot in my personality that wants it to take over my personality ha. He made me want to go backpacking...I even tried on his old pack. Sadly it didn't fit, I have a very short waste.

He lives in Irondale, middle of nowhere but loves it. Always leaves his front door unlocked...knows all of his neighbors. Can walk to the city diner. I got a little nervous while I was there because of where we were and then realized hi I lived in Africa in the middle of nowhere...get over yourself.

He's really fun to talk to...you really never know what your going to talk about. He works for the railroad and has met some hobos that way because you know they travel by jumping carts on trains. He told me some of their stories and I loved it. He met this one girl from Uruguay that was an orphan and she was sold into slavery so she escaped on a ship and then finally made it to America and has lived on trains ever since. He had a picture of her, she was beautiful...he called her an angel :). Oh and he said she makes her own bow and arrows and kills what she is going to eat with that. I mean wow. There was another couple that he met and actually let stay in his house. He left to go fishing the next day and by the time he got back his house was completely clean with a note from them. Then when they got to Canada they sent him a card that he showed me. I was so interested in all their stories...I mean who knew, thats like an entire group that you just don't think about existing.

I cooked dinner and we listed to Neil Young and lots of blue grass Ha. While we were there he talked about making moon shine and I just laughed...later on that night he pulled out a diagram of how you actually do it that he had printed from the internet. I guarantee you he will find a way to make it in his basement.

I listened to M.Ward on my way home from hanging with him in honor.

Another one bites the dust.

There are quite a few things in life that make me smile. A great concert is one of them. Add on top of that being able to mark off one of your "concerts I have to see before I die" and I'm giddy. (This is a second thing in about a month that I've marked off the list...remember I have now shot a gun.)

So you can imagine the look on my face throughout last night's Coldplay concert in Atlanta. In honor of this momentous occasion, November's playlist will consist of Coldplay awesomeness. Enjoy 13 of my favorites along with the album they are on, in no particular order.

1. Fix You (X&Y)

2. The Hardest Part (X&Y)

3. In My Place (A Rush of Blood to the Head)

4. Daylight (A Rush of Blood to the Head)

5. We Never Change (Parachutes)

6. Shiver (Parachutes)

7. Viva La Vida (Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends)

8. Life in Technicolor (Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends)

9.  Death and All His Friends (Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends)

10. 42 (Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends)

11. God Put a Smile Upon Your Face (A Rush of Blood to the Head)

12. Green Eyes (X&Y and A Rush of Blood to the Head)

13. Only Superstition (Brothers & Sisters)

I promise the Coldplay hysteria will subside soon. For now, let me relish in the moment.

(I'll let Berge give her play by play of the concert. In the meantime, I'll post a few terrible photos from my iPhone. It's the only not awesome feature of the awesome iPhone.)

Lovers in Japan

That's right, they came and sang two songs just about 30 yards from us.

Viva La Vida (with all of Coldplay's friends)

Not at the show, but I'm sure he would have had a stellar time...Tim Gunn.

I have failed as a blogger. Since my last post, Coggin celebrated a B'day. We elected a new prez. My computer's power cord started smoking. I found out my friend Becca likes the smell of skunk just like I do. I met Tim Gunn (well "met" is a relative term.) I haven't made a new playlist, but will soon. 

Life's been good.