Saturday, August 1, 2009

All the way to August

From http://danbuckley.blogspot.com/

It has been an interesting summer for your good friend Lt. Dan.

I got to take three vacations so far this summer. In June I took my family to visit my Grandma in Reno, NV. She had been in poor health earlier this year and we wanted to introduce her to her new Great Grandson. That was a wonderful visit. It was our third time visiting her and for the first time we stayed in a Casino in town. It was the Peppermill Casino and it really was beautiful. We were in a great room that overlooked a huge swimming area. There were two big pools, three hot tubs, a waterfall flowing from five stories up into an oval heated pool. The water felt like a massage from above. That really was a great experience.







Unfortunately, as in our first trip there when our first daughter was less than a year old, we ended up in the Emergency room again. Last time she had an ear infection and a terrible fever in the middle of the night. This time she had strep throat and an ear infection. Plus, the fever wouldn't respond to the medicine she was on. That was pretty stressful and expensive again. We did buy trip insurance with our travel package and they supposedly will pay the balance of what our insurance company does not. I'll be sure to let you know if that works out. I would highly recommend end it if it does.



For the fourth of July we went to the beautiful area of Galena, IL. It was a fun weekend celebration, although it was also the weekend that Steve McNair was killed. That was such tragic news to receive on the way to the party. I got a text message from a friend, who was in Nashville watching the local coverage. No one there knew at the time, since it was an outdoor barbecue. It was such a harsh and shocking crime. I'll always remember Steve for the hard working athlete he was.

We had a great time on the fourth though. Fireworks are not available in that area and we had brought a bunch of good ones from Tennessee. I guess we have a reputation for having some pretty good fireworks in this part of the country. The do sell them for pest control in Wisconsin but no one had any of those. So my father in law and I shot them off for about an hour. When we were done, the downtown Galena fireworks display began. It was perfect timing and great we could see them well on the hill, without dealing with any kind of traffic or inconveniences.






We not only celebrated the independence of our country that day, we celebrated my father in law's birthday! Check out how cool is cake was!





The week after July fourth, I had the opportunity to attend the Forecastle Festival in Louisville, KY. I went with my good friend Justin, whom I've known since he worked at Lightning 100, back when we were at the L&C Tower in downtown Nashville. We had a great time there. We arrived Saturday afternoon and got a hotel room at the Residence Inn by Marriott. Justin negotiated a killer deal, since they only had one room left, which had maintenance issues. They told us the room only had one of the two sinks in working condition. LOL! Like that mattered!



We saw some great bands at Forecastle. A UK funk band called the New Mastersounds, The Black Crowes, Yonder Mountain String Band, and Widespread Panic headlined two nights. One of my favorite bands we caught was the Avett Brothers. They have a show booked in Nashville at the historic Ryman auditorium on Halloween. The Ryman always seems to have great shows on Halloween. I remember moe. playing, one of the only bands that will never be invited back. Not because they weren't great on stage, but because the show got a little too wild for The Ryman. I wonder if Widespread Panic will ever play there again? My guess is that they will not. I know the Ryman had to do some major cleaning, after their October three night run a couple years ago. They also shattered all previous beer records that week. I was lucky enough to do an interview with Dave Schools backstage and attend a backstage party with their keyboard player Jojo. He has been living in the Middle Tennessee area for quite a few years now.

There is lots more to tell and not enough time to write. I have lots of chores to do this weekend. My wife and kids are returning from that vacation in Galena on Monday! I am really excited to see them! It's time to clean the house! I sure have been enjoying listening to music today though. Caught a bunch of Fred's show Retro Lightning. He was featuring the year 1971. I love listening to the late 60's early 70's music on Retro. It always feels like a bit of an education and I like that. I've also been listening to The Raconteurs wonderful record Consoler of the Lonely. It is one of the rare albums that resonates track for track with me. I just love listening to it. I also just listened to the new Features record again, Some kind of Salvation. What a great album that is! As I'm sure you'll hear many times again from me, I am a sucker for horns. I just love how they work them into some of the songs. It's the kind of music that puts you in a good mood, while you listen to it. I actually had the chance to interview them again this past Tuesday. They had self-released their latest album almost a year ago, and it was just made available nationwide, thanks to some help from their old friends Kings Of Leon. The Followills and Features have toured together in the past and have similar success patterns, as far as being bigger over seas than in the Unites States. I really believe the Features should blow it out with their latest effort. Time will tell of course but I am definitely pulling for the guys!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYX1wXgpT-E