This and That

Personal Notes

Happy Birthday Fred Hembeck!

Congratulations Gordon Dymbowski!

Glad you’re feeling better, Chris Brown!

Oh yeah, Roger Green, if you hadn’t noticed it yet, Lydia is completely adorable. I love the growth/development updates in Ramblin’ with Roger.

Music News

Rhett Miller (of the Old 97’s) has a solo album coming out soon. His first one, The Instigator, was an addictive strummy, power pop concoction that I just LOVED, so I can't wait for this one.

Roseanne Cash’s latest CD is out. After reading some of her comments about it, I can’t wait to get a copy. In the space of a couple years, she lost her dad, mom and step-mom (June Carter Cash), and this release is one way she tried to make sense of it all.

Our concert calendar for the first part of the year is filling up pretty quickly.

The library has a bunch of new CD’s and is doing a series of free concerts to promote the expansion of their music library. The list of artists that performing is astounding: Loudon Wainwright III, Iris Dement, Dar Williams, Ladysmith Black Mambazo! All for free! It’s almost mind-boggling.

We went to the Wainwright show a couple of weeks ago. I was a little underwhelmd, given the praise that I've seen heaped on him as a songwriter. I found him to be mildly entertaining at best. Iris Dement is Saturday and I know that will be a good show. She holds an audience like no one else I've seen and has the most wonderful dry sense of humor.

There’s a group in town trying to fill the void created when IBMA pulled their awards show out of Louisville with a brand-new bluegrass festival. For a brand new festival, the line-up is pretty impressive, with newer national acts like Mountain Heart and Cherryholmes mixed with local favorites like Hog Operation mixed with legends like Doyle Lawson and JD Crowe, topped off with nationally known, Kentucky-based folks like Michael Cleveland and Dale Ann Bradley. I’m looking forward to it.

We’re also going to see Kris Kristofferson in Nashville in March!

Miscellany

I’ve got the makings of a lengthy post on comics rumbling in my head, but I’ve as yet been unable to get it all worked out enough to finish it. I may just post it anyway, as is, because I think it’s going to be a work in progress. The gist of it is this: I’m not sure there’s a place for me in comics any more, and I have mixed feelings about that. That doesn’t mean, however, that I’m giving up comics or planning to do so any time in the future.

Oh yeah, and my dad won a contest: