Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety Jig!

Our trip to Nashville was fun, fun, FUN.  We sweated our fannies off at the Nashville Zoo Tuesday morning in 105 degree weather.  The only thing hotter than us was the elephant's butts.  It was enjoyable though, and Hubby was a good sport about waiting at every exhibit for me to take 1,621 pictures.  Then it was off to the hotel to shower and change before dinner and the concert because we had sweat right through our underwear, and frankly, that's no way to see a show.  We figured the folks in Section 106, Row L, seats 3 and 6 would appreciate it if we cleaned up before rolling into the arena. 

Dinner was good.  I ate my weight in crab legs, and then we scampered on down to the arena just in time.  The concert was outstanding.  Sometimes those older performers can be a little long in the tooth, but not these guys.  Stevie Nicks and Rod Stewart may be in their 60's but they still got it.  Their voices were strong.  Stevie was looking exceptionally good for 64, and Rod still knows how to work his fanny.  Hand to God, he moves as much and as well as he did when I saw him live in 1987.  In fact, the only difference in his approach to his shows these days are the big pictures of his grandbabies that he displayed on the big screens.  Yes, the man who brought us Do Ya' Think I'm Sexy in the 70's is now bragging about his grandkids.  And we all oohed and ahed because most folks in the audience had grandbabies, too.  Too funny.  By the way, his encore was a cheeky version of Do Ya' Think I'm Sexy while wearing a cowboy hat and a somewhat unbuttoned shirt.  If I die tomorrow, I'm ready to go, ladies.

The arena was packed with middle aged women like me who think he's still hot (see, it's not just me), and the whole evening was a trip down memory lane.  He sang all of his very best songs with an acoustic section smack dab in the middle of the concert that featured a few members of the Nashville Symphony.  Have I Told You Lately That I Love You and others.   Lovely, just lovely.  Stevie's encore?  Landside.  Lovely, just lovely.

We hit Broadway after the show, and piddled around a little downtown.  I've said it before, but I'll say it again, I just love Nashville.  It has the best people watching after dark when all of the wannabe stars and the homeless singers hit the streets, singing and playing on street corners.  And there are more tight skirts worn with boots than Little Jimmy Dickens has spangles.  It's why we call it Nashvegas.

We did find a nice hotel room at a decent price, for the two of you who were wondering.  I highly recommend the Millennium Maxwell House.  It was very clean and less than half the price of the Holiday Inn Express.  It was also quite a bit cheaper than the few downtown hotels that still had available rooms.  The Maxwell House is about a five minute drive from downtown, and they had a free shuttle to the downtown area, so that saved us cab fare, except on the way home after the show since we stayed downtown waaay past the last shuttle ride back to the hotel.  The Maxwell House is connected to the coffee by the same name, and it has a great history, so check it out sometime when you're Googling around on the internet.  I won't use up space here for that.  I'll just tell you like your mama did when you were a kid and asked her what something was and she said, "Go look it up!"  Seriously, go look it up.  It's kinda' fun.  Oh, and the hotel has a life sized statue of Jack Daniels in its bar (there is a connection between him and the hotel).  Did you know he was only 5'2"?  There's your trivia tidbit for the day.

Now it's back to work and back to getting stuff done around the house.  Mount Washmore was waiting on me when I got home, and the garden was full of tomatoes that needed picking.  Our tomatoes are rolling in.  So much so, that it's a little hard to keep up with them.  It's been so hot, and the tomatoes have been so plentiful that my diet lately has pretty much consisted of very few meals.  Instead, I just wander into the kitchen when I get hungry and eat a bowl of cherry tomatoes.  (We picked about five gallons of them this past week.)  I do that until my colon screams, "Enough FIBER already!"

This weekend will be an opportunity to relax a little, catch up on some pool time and edit some wedding pictures.  Here's hoping it cools down a little, although cooling down means the upper 90's at this point, and that's not really cool.  That's just less hot.  I'm not whining about the heat.  I promise.  Given the choice between garden tomatoes in 105 degree heat or a big heavy coat in 30 degree weather, I'll take the tomatoes and heat.  My colon might beg to differ.

The Really Big Shew

The CMT video awards were fun, fun, fun. Hubby and I had a great time. It was definitely worth the speedy trip to Nashville after work Wednesday and staying up way too late even though I had to rise at the butt crack of dawn and be at work at 7 o’clock the next morning. We saw some excellent performances by big name country artists, ogled at some celebrities and had a grand old time just watching people. Our seats were in the nosebleed section, but I negotiated with an usher for better seats, and we ended up having a bird’s eye view (with binoculars) of celebrity row, where the stars and their spouses or dates sat. We’d definitely do it again. In fact, I’d love to go back to Nashville this weekend for more of the CMA Fan Fest concerts at LP Field, but I have a family reunion to attend. I think Hubby and I could spend every weekend diddling around in downtown Nashville. We just love hanging around on Broadway, listening to some music at places like Tootsies and soaking up the atmosphere. While our stay in Nash Vegas was brief this time, a good time was had by all. But then again, when do the Hula-gen’s not have a good time?


An awards show is a little different from a regular concert in that it doesn’t have the same kind of nonstop intensity that a concert can have. There are commercial breaks, constant movement in the multiple staging areas and occasional instructions from the stage manager on what audience members should be doing. There’s a lot to watch at all times. Here was the set-up for the CMT’s:

The main stage is where the country stars and their bands performed. The small round stage is where bands and award nominees were announced. That square stage is where Kid Rock did a lot of his emceeing and where the winners were announced. For example, Shania Twain stood on the round stage to cue to the taped announcement of Male Video of the Year nominees and then ran (very carefully) to the square stage during the tape to be in place for the announcement of the winner. Once a winner was announced, said winner would run from the celebrity seating to the square stage to pick up his award. You can’t see it in the photo, but behind celebrity row is a multi-story platform that held the house band that played musical stings coming in and out of commercial breaks. They were waaay up there.

We had a great time looking down on the stars and picking them out of the crowd. “Ooh, there’s Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman,” and “Hey, that chick from Little Big Town has HUGE hair,” or “I think that couple is fighting.” Like I said, great people watching. Let me just say, there is no nose pickin’ when you’re in the VIP section, ‘cause the whole arena can see you.

Some general observations:

Things we loved:

-Kid Rock. He’s a hoot.

-There were a lot of great performances, but we really liked Rascal Flatts’ I Will Stand by You, Kid Rock and Sheryl Crowe’s duet and Sugarland’s Stand Up. The young girls in front of us were all about Jason Aldean’s performance at the end of the show. Goodness, that was a lot of screaming.

Things you didn’t see at home:

-All of the scene changing and running around during the show and the commercial breaks. During the break before Sugarland’s song, the people on the floor near the stages were handed flags and told very specifically when to start waving them during the Sugarland song and when to stop. They weren’t supposed to wave them before the first chorus and they were to immediately stop after the song and keep them down for the rest of the show. Well, they sell beer at the arena, and given the presence of alcohol and human nature, there were some folks who couldn’t or wouldn’t follow instructions. The stage manager probably lost 782 hairs off his head Wednesday night over those dadgum flags because he had to keep telling them, firmly, “Thank you for your enthusiasm and participation, but you must put down your flags NOW.” This went on way after the Sugarland segment. It was quite funny. It reminded me of those repetitive messages at the shuttle stands at DisneyWorld, “Stand BEHIND the yellow lines.”

-The panties someone threw on the stage at Kid Rock. Y'all caught a glimpse of them on the televised version, but let me tell ya’, they were large and orange and they stayed on stage for a quite a while. Really large. Really orange.

-The beer in Kid Rock’s hand. You could see it a couple of times on TV, but they kept it off camera most of the time. He appeared to keep it under control. We were proud of his restraint as restraint is not one of his strengths.

-Ironically, we missed the moment that had everyone at home talking, Shania Twain’s big fall. She bit the dust coming out of the tunnel and into the crowd, and it happened before she became visible to those of us on our side of the arena. It’s no wonder she took a tumble. Her heels were HIGH. In fact, every woman who appeared on stage had heels that were four and five inches tall. The lady in Lady Antebellum was wearing heels that were so high her feet were almost vertical. And she danced around like she was barefoot. All I can say is that she must have younger arches than me.

Surprises:

-I had no idea who Luke Bryan was before we got there. He is hot, hot, hot.

-I’m just gonna say this out loud, Nicole Kidman is better looking in pictures than she is in real life, and that’s my catty comment for the day. Well, maybe my second. Meow!

Not so surprising:

-That we all saw Sheryl Crowe’s underwear. That skirt was shorter than my attention span. I don’t know how she thought she was going to gracefully slide off that stool without showing something. Her panties were not large and orange, but thank goodness, she was wearing some.

-Joe Don Rooney is as hot as I thought he would be.

-That Justin Beiber won an award. It’s fan chosen, for goodness sakes. Every teenage girl in America has been logging in and voting for him daily since March. He was very cute, though, in that teen idol way.

-Joe Don Rooney is as hot as I thought he would be. Did I already say that?

Things I Wish I’d Known:

That you could take pictures inside the arena during that show. I didn’t take my camera in even though I had it in the car. 99% of the time you cannot take photos during a show like that, and we had to be in the arena before they closed all outside access at 6:30pm. We had a small window of opportunity to get downtown, get parked, walk to Broadway, eat a quick dinner at Margaritaville and get into the arena. I was afraid to take my camera, get turned away with it, have to take it back to the car and not have time to get back to the arena before the doors closed. Big mistake on my part. Cameras were allowed, and I could have gotten some great shots with my telephoto lens. Pffft.

-How to get in on the lottery for standing next to the stages during the show. Notice those folks were dressed mostly in black? That’s to keep them from being a distraction during the camera shots. I was standing in the guest services office when the usher led them through there on their way to the floor. I was dressed in black pants and a black top, and I was sorely tempted to just fall in line behind them and see if I could slide right in unnoticed. But then I would have had to call Hubby on the third level and tell him where I was, and let’s just say he had the keys to the car and it’s a long walk home from Nashville.

Tips:

-If you are a country music fan, the CMA festival is a great vacation opportunity. The four day ticket gets you into daily concerts where you will see many, many top name performers, you get access to the stars at the autograph parties, and it’s a way to see many of them up close and personal. Plus, there are a lot of fun things to do in Nashville. Bring lots of deodorant. It can be sticky in this part of the country in June.

-At Bridgestone Arena (and sometimes other arenas), do not be afraid to ask if better seating is available if you don’t like your seats. Some upgrades can cost money, but those sneaky little ushers are often carrying same price tickets they will swap for yours. They won’t necessarily tell you this though.

-If you’re in town, you must stop by the Ryman Auditorium. It’s a great place to see a show because it’s so intimate, but it’s also neat to tour during the daytime because of the history of that building.

-Bring comfortable shoes. You will see a lot of women walking around in sundresses and cowboy boots, and while that’s a cute look for all the Taylor Swift wannabes, their feet hurt at the end of the day if those boots aren’t broken in well. It’s a casual town, and you don’t want to be overdressed at Jack’s BBQ so don’t overdress, either.

-The tickets for the November CMA awards are on sale now.

Hula Goes Country

The County Music Television awards to be exact.  Hubby and I have tickets to the live broadcast of the show in Nashville tomorrow night.  Weee!  I can't wait.  It should be lots of fun, even if it is too hot to wear my red cowboy boots.  But look who's hosting the show...Kid Rock!  It certainly won't be dull, now will it?

Rated "M" For Mature Audiences

I debated whether or not to post about this, and then I finally decided that I would in the interest of keepin' it real as they say. Besides, we must all laugh at ourselves every now and then. I'll just warn you that this post is a little naughty, as mama says.

I'm always taking pictures of somebody or something. Sometimes in a very obvious way. I try to be respectul of the situation and the subject, but it can be a little embarrassing for Hubby to find me laying on the ground or climbing on vehicles or furniture to get a shot. I get some strange looks that are probably well deserved. I get some dirty looks, too. Not everyone wants his picture taken. I get it. No problem. It usually doesn't bother me much. Usually.

Tuesday night, when we were in Nashville at BB King's, listening to the band, the band decided to walk down into the crowd and have some fun. They spread out in a circle around us and took turns playing solos, trying to outdo each other as the spotlight highlighted each one. Well, Hula and Hubby were right in the middle of the crowd, and the band was all around us. In fact, the lead singer/guitar player was right beside me. As in so close to me I could have given him a Pillsbury Doughboy poke in the belly button. The spotlight was thrown back and forth between the band members, and I was having a big time taking pictures because they didn't seem to care and other folks in the audience had their camera phones going. I wasn't in the band members' faces, but let's just say you couldn't miss me.

The lead singer was playing to the audience by showing off some superb skills and playing with Hubby's beer bottle.

I was snapping away, right in front of him. Picture, picture, picture. And then he surprised me by playing the guitar with his teeth. It happened so fast, I didn't get the shot. When the trumpet player took over the solo, the singer looked at me and said, "Are you ready?" He was offering me a second chance. I said, "Sure!" and got all lined up and focused. There I am right in front of him, ready to go. Seconds later, the spotlight landed on the lead singer again. And me. Just me and him. He nodded to me. I nodded back. I was ready. And then...and then....as the whole crowd watched...he played the guitar....with his tongue...in what can only be described as a very suggestive way. I snapped the photo instinctively, but I was so dadgum surprised I moved and got a fuzzy picture.

Oops, the joke was on Hula. And while the full house at BB's laughed and clapped and my face flushed sixteen shades of magenta, he did it again. Staring right at me. I looked at Hubby, and he gave me a You Kind Of Asked For It look. I gamely snapped off a couple of other photos, laughed with the crowd and then sat down and died a thousand deaths.

Oh, the ways we artists suffer for our craft.

Where in the World is Hula?

On the road, behind the lens and covered up at work. It's been another whirlwind week, and I looked up today and said, "Blog? Blog who?" Time is flying at warp speed again. This week included wrapping up a special project at work, celebrating Papa T's birthday and taking a road trip to Nashville. I also did a bridal shoot at an old house in town that was fun, fun, fun, but I can't post any photos just yet because we can't let the groom see the bride until the wedding. More on that after October 2nd. Much more.

The highlight of the week for Teen Angel was a trip to Nashville for the Nickelback concert. She and a buddy went to the concert while Hubby and I walked around downtown Nashville, visited a few hot spots and listened to some great music. I know I've said this before, but I'll say it again. I love Nashville. It's just a fun place to be.

The architecture downtown gives hints of the city's past.


But there's a mix of old and new woven throughout the ten blocks of Broadway that feed the heart of downtown. Like the old feed store across the street from the Hard Rock Cafe. Even the signs on the various honky tonks and stores are a mixture of old and new. Dingy and bright. As always, we spent a little time window shopping before dinner, laughing at hokey souvenirs and soaking up the atmosphere that oozes shades of the city's country music legends from the 50's, 60's and 70's. A walk on Broadway always leaves me with the urge to buy bright red cowboy boots, and one of these days I'm going to do just that.

One of the things I like best though, are the musicians and bands that fill the bars with their songs and dreams of making it big. The big glass windows and open doors on most of the places allow the tunes to spill out into the street and give you a rear view glimpse of those dreamers. Some are twangy. Some like to rock. And others are kind of bluesy.

The most interesting to me though are the ones who don't have a paying gig, other than collecting tips in the street. They dot the street at all times of the day and night, sitting inside the doorways of empty storefronts and along the curbs. Some appear to be homeless, like the dirty couple playing a guitar, spoons and a tambourine taped to a tapping shoe. I would have taken their picture, but the angry looking man with the tattoos on his face who was sitting next to them was somewhat intimidating. I could have studied them and photographed them all night long. What leads people to that kind of life, I wonder.

Our favorite band during this trip was the house band at BB King's Blue House. They were fantastic. Hubby and I sat there for a long time, eating dinner and listening to them play. We jammed and clapped and reluctantly called it an evening when Teen Angel texted us a message about her concert ending.

The drive home ended about 1am, and we were all tired the next day, but it was a good time in the middle of the week. I don't want to do it often on a school night, but it was a fun way to break up the week. And the walk downtown gave me the idea for a hook for a song chorus. Now all I need to do is write the rest of the lyrics. Nashville makes everyone want to be a star.

Just A Moment

Nashville was great. While it did brew up a little thunderstorm and gave us flashbacks to the May 1st flood (apparently we bring rain to that city), the weather dried up quickly. There was that little incident where the gusty wind took control of my lightweight skirt and introduced more of me than I wanted to the folks on Commerce Street. Hello Nashville, meet Hula’s backside! Have you seen my new underwear?

I can report that downtown Nashville is clean and almost back to normal. The Cumberland River is tucked back into her banks.

The street musicians are back under the eaves of shops, and all but a couple of stores and restaurants are open for business.

The Ryman Auditorium was fabulous as always, and it was the perfect place to see rock icon Neil Young. We loved the show. Not many performers can pull off a one man act without a band, but he did, shuffling between a variety of guitars, pianos and even an old pump organ. The typical audience members like Mr. Smells Like Spilled Beer, Ms. Dances Like A Maniac and Sir Pees A Lot made the experience all that more interesting. We were thoroughly entertained, but it was the ride home that made me smile the most.

Somewhere around Clarksville, Tennessee at about 12:30 this morning while we were driving down the interstate I had a moment. Hubby and I were drinking convenience store sodas, eating fizzy Skittles and singing Harvest Moon to each other when I realized it was one of THOSE moments. You know, when everything seems perfect, time seems to freeze and the moment seems bigger than you. There are no worries about aging parents, teenaged children or cancer stricken friends. You are completely taken away by the music and the person sitting next to you, and you have no doubts that for some unexplained reason you will always remember this moment, no matter how old you get. I smiled in the darkness and kept singing off key.

“I’m still in love with you. I wanna see you dance again, on this harvest moon.”

Those moments are like rainbows. They are incredible when they happen, they fill you with awe and then they slip away quickly, making you long for their return. And they are so rare, that you truly appreciate them when they happen. For a brief few seconds, longer if you’re lucky, you get a glimpse into your own heart, and you like what you see. Then it passes, but because of that moment, you know you’re going to be okay, no matter what life throws at you. What a night.

Yes, Nashville is fine. And so am I.

And The Parrot Heads Went Into The Ark Two By Two

When I joked in the last post about floating away in Nashville, I had no idea how close to the truth I was. The Hula-gen’s didn’t float away this weekend, but some folks around us did. Geez. I looked at Hubby Saturday night as we drove home from Nashville in blinding rain trying to avoid flooded roads and said, “Drama follows us everywhere. Even when we try to have a good time there is drama involved.”

By now, you have likely seen news coverage of the severe flooding in middle and western Tennessee. It is a mess down there. Some fifteen people have died, hundreds of homes are under water and major roads are closed. Nashville is scrambling to get control of its roads and infrastructure, and for those of us familiar with that city, the scenes there are startling.

Above photos from The Tennessean-anonymous contributors

Those of us who live in this part of the country frequent Nashville or Nash Vegas as we call it. It is a hop, skip and jump from my city, roughly two hours. We go there for concerts and special events. It’s touristy enough to spend the weekend there when we need a quick getaway. And because of the country music industry, it’s a fun place because you never know who you’re going to run into. It’s also a popular place for specialized medical care for folks in this region, and many of us use the Nashville Airport for air travel. In my opinion, it’s a great city. It’s big enough and slick enough to be a big city, but it still has somewhat of a small town feel to it. When I worked in television, I had a couple of job offers from stations in Nashville, and Hubby and I considered moving there. For a variety of reasons, we chose to stay put, but if I were going to move to a bigger city it would likely be Nashville. All of this is to say that the streets and sights around Nashville are very familiar to many folks in these parts, and it’s shocking to see them underwater.

For those of you who have never been to Nashville, the Opryland Hotel is probably the most recognizable sight. It’s known for its lush gardens and dramatic Christmas light displays. As of two o’clock this afternoon there was ten feet of water in the Opryland Hotel and it had been evacuated. It is closed indefinitely. WKRN has some pictures of it on their website, and the damage has to be in the millions of dollars.

Downtown, which is where we were Saturday, was evacuated earlier today when water from the Cumberland River had risen onto Second Avenue covering the corner where Hubby and I stood Saturday afternoon while trying to decide where to eat. This photo from The Tennessean was apparently taken not too long after we walked through there on our way to the car Saturday night.

This evening, I saw video where flood waters are now four feet deep in the Bridgestone Arena where we sat for the concert Saturday night. There are plenty of amazing photos on various websites. I recommend the live streaming coverage from WSMV. I have practically no photos of my own since it rained so hard the whole time we were downtown Saturday I didn’t take my camera out of the bag but once. I didn’t want to risk damaging it, and it promptly started raining about thirty seconds after I whipped it out. On a positive note, I can say the built in rain cover on my new camera bag works swell.

Apparently, Hubby and I arrived in Nashville at just the right time and left on the right roads at the right time. We arrived downtown about 2pm and the roads around town started flooding soon afterward. I have never seen it rain so hard for so long. All. Day. Long. As the non stop driving rain put a halt to any tailgating, the party moved indoors. Parrot Heads from all over the country gathered in bars on Broadway near the Bridgestone Arena and watched the nonstop news coverage of the waters closing in without a care about how they were going to get home.

As I snapped this picture with my phone, I laughed out loud about how nothing seems to get in the way of a Parrot Head gathering.

Jimmy even made some kind of comment about it when he took the stage that night. The arena was full, so people found a way to get there, and I suspect a few of them came by ark.

We left the arena in driving rain with small rivers of water pouring over the sidewalks and parts of the streets. People huddled in the doorways of Tootsie’s Lounge and The Wheel as we splashed our way to the parking garage. I was having flashbacks of the night Sissy and I stood outside in tornado weather to see Eric Clapton. (For a chuckle, you can read part 1 of that adventure here and part 2 there. ) Given that experience I had brought with us towels, plastic ponchos and a change of clothes, including shoes, when we left the house that morning. It was the smartest thing I’ve done in a long time. We changed clothes in the van and scurried out of the garage to beat the crowd. The elderly gentleman working at the gate gave us his best suggestion for getting out of town without hitting roads blocked by water. His idea proved to be an excellent one, and we slid out of town pretty well. The thought of getting a hotel room crossed our minds, but we wanted to try to get home. It seems we made a good decision as it was harder Sunday to get out of town amid the higher waters. The only issue was the pounding rain and storms we drove through all the way home. As we neared home we hit three separate counties under tornado warnings. I used my BlackBerry and the radio to keep on top of the warnings, while the lightning flashed nonstop around us and the sky churned. I usually don’t get too worked up about storms, but I have to tell you my backside was pretty tight for about sixty five miles. And I am now officially in love with my BlackBerry.

We made it home around 2am, safe and tired. My grass skirt and parrot flip-flops are drying in the garage. A good time was had by all. The concert was great, and we have an interesting story to go along with it. But seriously, I really hope it’s dry when we go back to Nashville in June to see Neil Young at the Ryman Auditorium. Dry and uneventful. Oh, and to the other Parrot Heads in Rippy’s Saturday afternoon and evening, thanks for the good time. There's no one I'd rather experience a flood with.