Already it has become useful.  My cat Galore does some funny things.  And maybe if I capture it on video I can win one of those funny video contest.  Who knows?  So anyway, Galore started acting strange (rolling around on the floor) on 3/31, so I quickly grabbed the camera and captured this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y568Sj9m1WA

That following Saturday, I’m at home.  I’m working around the house and noticing Galore looking out the window watching the birds eatting from the bird feeder.  Normally she just watches the birds and meows a few times.  Nothing out of the ordinary.  Then all of a sudden she started making this odd chattering noise.  I had never heard her make this sound.  I looked out the window to see a bumble bee hovering just outside the door, where she was watching.  This was her reaction to the bumble bee:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZ5TXIDL7ag

Is this some strange language that cats have with bees?  She was found as a week old kitten in a briar bush outside a Starbucks.  Maybe she encountered bees there because the only time she’s been outside is when she’s with me on the back porch.

What transpired over the past two days gave me a nice little pick-me-up that I felt I should write a blog about.

On Saturday, I was driving around, running errands and looking for a place to go for lunch. There’s a Chipotle Mexican restaurant, so I decide to grab some tacos. I get my order, sit down and notice my phone vibrating. So I either just got an email or received a text. I check the phone and realize that I received a text message. I have it set up so that I get a text message if i get a friend request or message on facebook. I look at the message, recognize the name requesting the connection, and smile. It’s a friend from college! She was one of the little sister’s of my fraternity and dated one of my fraternity brothers. Then I start recalling the things I remember about her. I remember going over to her apartment once and noticing that she had a photo of a child in Africa that she was sponsoring. I don’t recall having much money in college, and definitely didn’t have enough to spare to sponsor a child. I’m sure she was in the same financial situation as me, but somehow found a way to do amazing things. I remember her being a complete Angel.

Then I recall another cool event that happened. The only fast food restaurant that was close to campus was a Hardees. One day I’m going through the drive-thru to get something to eat before heading to class and I notice her in her car behind me. From my license plate, it was easy for her to know it was me in front of her; I had a vanity license plate that listed what fraternity I was in. Plus I probably waved to her (I don’t quite recall). I pull up to the window and pay, but have to wait for my order to be made. I’m holding on to my change and realize, how cool would it be to pay for her order (haven’t you always wanted to do that?). So I ask the person through the window how much the order was for the car behind me and I pay for hers. I get my food and drive off, picturing in my mind, what’s about to transpire when she goes to pay for her order. It’s not until a few days later that I see her again and I remember her thanking me for paying for her order. I think she was late for class, so it worked out perfectly that she didn’t have to wait too long to get her order.

So I can reply to the text message with an “add” and have her automatically added to facebook. I can access the internet with my phone, so after I finish my lunch, I pull up her profile. She has a picture of her, her husband (my fraternity brother) and their kids. She and her husband haven’t changed a bit since college. They still look great.

So when I get home later, I send her a message on facebook, thanking her for finding me and sending me the add request. I also tell her how she made my day by contacting me and reminding me of past events.

The next day is my nephew’s birthday. The family decides to meet at a McDonald’s to celebrate (birthday boy’s choice). I ride with my Dad and we get there before my brother, his wife and my nephew. We’re sitting waiting and my phone vibrates. I check it and see that I got a text message because my friend has responded to my message. Part of the message is listed in the text and I have to laugh. It says, “…Still remember the day you were in front of me in the Hardee’s drive thru and bought my lunch just because. Always so kind, sure this finds you the same.”

You know how when you look back on past events, you wonder how you’ve been perceived by others. How cool is it that when someone thinks of me, they remember something thoughtful that I did over ~15 years ago. Karma has a long shelf life and has an incredible way of turning up when I’m feeling down on myself and wondering if the things I do make a difference.

The Jakob Dylan concert was at the Variety Playhouse in Little Five Points. Little Five Points is an eclectic place. It has always been since I started going there as a teen. It hasn’t changed too much. And what’s cool is everyone there gets along. We were able to grab dinner near the venue and walk down the street to catch the show. I had been to the Variety Playhouse back in November to see Shawn Mullins, so I recommended sitting in one of the sections off on one side. If we wanted to, we could aways go down in front of the stage. So we grabbed a seat and waited for the opening act. There wasn’t any notice of who the opening act was going to be, so we didn’t know what to expect. We weren’t sitting too long when 2 guys and a girl come out from back stage and announce that they are “Anna Kramer and the Lost Cause“. Once they started playing, my friend said, “Oh, we’re going to want to stand up for this”. So, we jumped up and ran down in front of the stage. They were amazing. It’s incredible how much sound was coming from this group of 3. The songs had tones of all types of music. It had a kinda rock-a-billy style. They definitely put on an rockin’ show. Not quite what you expect from an local group asked to be an opening act at the last minute.

We ended up just staying where we were for Jakob, since we were right down front, real close to the stage. After a short break, Jakob and his band came out. It was kinda neat how leisurely it was. Jakob’s performance was as if it was with a bunch of friends just sitting around. And since we were right up front, within feet of him, we caught a lot of the nuances of the performance.
Jakob’s set-list (as listed online and from what I remember):

*All Day and All Night
*Something Good This Way Comes
*Everybody Pays As They Go
*Here Comes Now
*Evil Is Alive and Well
*This End of the Telescope
*The Beautiful Side of Somewhere
*Here He Comes (Confessions of a Drunken Marionette) [Jakob alone]
*Mourning Train [Jakob alone]
*War Is Kind [Jakob alone]
*Three Marlenas
*Will It Grow
*Closer To You
*I Wish I Felt Nothing
*Empire In My Mind
Encores:
*From the Bottom of My Heart
*On Up The Mountain
*How Good It Can Get

Jakob’s performance was excellent. It was a really cool concert. Between songs Jakob would talk with the audience as if he knew the people. It was a pretty comfortable interaction. At one point he looked over and read what was written on two girl’s shirts saying, “There is love in my creation”. He first realized that they both had the same shirt and saying. Then he commented on how that was a great line and then he questioned them asking, “did I write that?” Then he asked what song it was. And was told or realized that it was from his song, “I Told You I Couldn’t Stop”. It was a pretty funny moment. Another moment someone yelled out that they loved him and he seemed to trip over the lyrics of the song. It was an amazing night of music spent with a great friend. What more could you ask for?

Disclaimer: All copyrighted material will be removed at owner’s request.

So Audrey Spillman was down in Atlanta for the 500 Songs for Kids in May and I told her that I saw that she was performing in June on a Saturday and that I would try and get up to Nashville for the show. I had driven up before for her “Next Big Nashville“ show and it wasn’t a bad drive.

I started out from Atlanta early afternoon, knowing I had plenty of time to get there with the show starting late, and with the time change from EST to CST. I completely forgot that this was the same weekend that Bonnaroo was going on (signs warned on possible traffic), but traffic wasn’t bad going through Manchester, TN. It takes about 4 hours to get there so I made it to Nashville around dinner time. I grabbed a bite to eat and hung out until around the time when the show was about to start.

Since I had time, I located the venue and tried to find where I could park. 12^th & Porter is an odd place. It’s in an industrial area next to an auto body shop and other warehouses. When it got close to the start of the show I parked at the gravel lot at the end of the street and head into 12th & Porter. From my first impression, the place seemed like a dump; a dive bar. Garage door windows, concrete floor, odd chairs, tables strewn about and a plywood stage. This was an odd bar. I didn’t have to pay a cover to get in the front door, so I wasn’t exactly sure how this was going to end up. I purchased a beer and people-watched. I didn’t hear any music, so I assumed the show had not started.

As I’m sitting there I notice a line forming, a guy taking money and people going through a door off to the side of the bar. I originally assumed this was a bathroom entrance. After awhile (although it seemed strange to pay to go to the bathroom), I jump in line, pay the man and head back behind the door. Like Dorothy entering OZ, I exit a dreary colorless hole-in-the-wall into a nice colorful music venue. There’s another bar, a private balcony, large stage, huge speakers and tons of stage lights. I found a spot to watch off to the side. Kristi Neumann started the concert followed by Sarah Silva. They were good. I liked the songs and will have to listen to them again when I get a chance.

I took a break while the opening acts were singing to see if I recognized anyone up front in the bar. Before I had a chance to recognize someone, I hear, “Tom!”. It’s Audrey. She’s at a table, chatting with some friends. I get a hug and we talk a bit. I know she’ll be getting ready to go on soon, so we don’t talk too long. I head back into the venue and they start setting up the stage for Audrey. Then I recognize someone tuning a guitar off on the left side of the stage. It was Matthew Perryman Jones. This was unexpected. I knew that Matthew and Audrey knew each other, worked together in the studio and co-wrote some songs together. But I didn’t expect to see him at her show. I think the last I heard he was somewhere on the west coast touring. So Matthew recognizes me and jumps down off stage to talk to me. We continue our conversation from his show at Smith’s Olde Bar and I tell him that I remember him from High School. He seems surprised that I would drive to Nashville from Atlanta to see Audrey. Shortly thereafter, Audrey started her performance. As always, she was amazing. The new band she had was good and made all her great songs better. There were a few songs I had forgotten about. I forgot how good “Comfort You” and “Flood” were. Since these songs weren’t on the CD that I had of her music, I had not heard them in a while. Halfway through, Matthew jumped up on stage, grabbed his guitar and performs with Audrey for the rest of the show.

It was a great concert. Not like what I had expected and definitely worth the drive. I hung around afterward and talked with Patrick Lochridge’s parents. They remembered me from the Eddie’s Attic show on 11/13/07. Audrey came out shortly thereafter and I told her how great the show was. She told me that she would be recording an EP soon and planned to perform at Eddie’s Attic in August. She was hoping to have the CD ready in time to make the performance a CD release show. I talked to Matthew before leaving and found out that he would have his new CD out soon and that he would be back down in Atlanta performing at Eddie’s Attic with a group of performers. It would be called the 10 out of Tenn, for the ten singers from Tennessee.

This is funny. Strange occurrences happen to me all the time and I’ve written about a few. This one ranks pretty high on the list.

So I have become a fan of Audrey Spillman and her music. And had discovered Matthew Perryman Jones, based on hearing from her that they had co-written a song together and that they were working in the studio together. I had seen him at Eddie’s Attic in November (see 11/3/07 Blog) and I knew he had one of his songs used on TV and had recently had some other songs used for the shows “Private Practice” and “Eli Stone”.

From songs I had purchased/downloaded off of his Myspace page, I really liked his music. I had also heard a concert of his in Nashville that was broadcast over the internet and really like some new songs that had not been recorded. So when I heard that he was playing Smith’s Olde Bar, I thought it would be a great concert to see. The Eddie’s show was acoustic, so the Smith’s show should be a little more rockin, with electric guitars and a full band.

So after work, I grabbed dinner and headed over. I got there a little late and went upstairs to find out no one was playing yet, so I hung out downstairs until it started. An odd group from Nashville opened the show, Parachute something? I couldn’t really get into the music. Based on the billing I wasn’t sure if Matthew was up next or if the other singer, Evan McHugh was. Evan had opened for Shawn Mullins at The Variety Playhouse show that I saw on 11/24/07.

Before the music started I noticed Bob Ephlin walk into the room at Smith’s Olde bar. Bob is the owner of Eddie’s Attic and I recognized him from all the times I’ve been to Eddie’s attic for shows. I had read somewhere that Matthew once worked and started out playing at Eddie’s attic, so I guess Bob was a fan of Matthew’s music. I thought it was cool to see the owner of a competing music venue at Smith’s Olde Bar to listen to a show. One of the phrases widely used at Eddie’s Attic is, “Live Music Matters”. Seeing the actions of it’s owner, I guess that rings true.

So Matthew goes on and the performance is phenomenal. Hearing him with a band is completely different from listening to him acoustic. So, in the middle of one of his breaks between songs, he’s tuning his guitar and he asks the crowd, “so who all here went to Tucker High School?” (or something similar) and a bunch of people scream out. I think I caught myself yell out too, then start to wonder, “wait, what did he say”? I went to Tucker High School, but I didn’t understand why Matthew was singling out THS in the crowd. He continued his performance, covering all the great songs on his current album and a few that will probably be on the album he releases in a few months.

MPJ’s set list:

Without a Clue
Don’t Fall in Love with Me
Amelia
Motherless Child
Waiting on the Light to Change
Echoes of Eden
Meghan’s Song
Feels Like Letting Go
Refuge
Save You

After his performance, I see him go over and talk with Bob and assume that they know each other pretty well. And actually as Bob was leaving he stopped and asked if I was someone he knew. I told him that I wasn’t the guy he named, but that I come to shows at his place and was actually there the night before to see Brandi Shearer. And he tells me that he is a fan of Matthew Perryman Jones, confirming my suspicions.

So I notice Matthew heading to the back of the room with a group of folks. The table back there was selling his CD, so I buy one (even though I purchased & downloaded most of him current album tracks online) so that I can get him to autograph it for me. I get his attention and ask for his autograph. He looks at me and says that I look familiar and where he might have seen me. I told him that I saw his show in November at Eddie’s Attic and that I’m also a fan of Audrey Spillman and that it was through her that I learned about him and his music. He immediately realizes that he recognizes me from a picture of Audrey and me that she has running on a slide show on her MySpace page. Then I ask him about the Tucker High School reference. And he tells me that he went to Tucker and that a lot of people in the crowd went to Tucker and came to see him play. I tell him that I went to Tucker and graduated in ‘88. I said that it was too funny and he agreed. So to recap: to hear about and become a fan of Matthew Perryman Jones (a guy, I went to High School with), he had to move Nashville (years ago), befriend and co-write a song with Audrey Spillman, who I would ultimately become a fan of, and who would inform me about MPJ and his music. Weird, huh!? When I get home after the show, I look in my High School yearbook and find that when I was a Senior, Matt Jones was a Sub-freshman (we had 8-12 at Tucker, so 8^th grade was sub-freshman). And I think I remember him based on the yearbook photo. Take away the beard and consider Matthew as a skinny 13 y/o kid. Since we were in different grades, it wasn’t like we hung out, but I definitely think I remember him from High School. Too strange and funny to categorize.

]]> http://myinclination.com/?feed=rss2&p=27 http://myinclination.com/?p=26 http://myinclination.com/?p=26#comments Fri, 23 May 2008 05:59:34 +0000 Tom http://myinclination.com/?p=26

I had seen Brandi Shearer perform in January and really liked her music. I had been listening to her CD on and off since that show. So when I saw that she was coming back to Atlanta, I tried to work out my schedule to see her again. She was playing Eddie’s Attic, so I knew the show would be a little more mellow and acoustic than the show I saw at Smith’s Olde Bar. I had wanted to catch Andy Zipf also that night and was hoping I could get across town in time to see Brandi. I knew if she was the opening performer, I was screwed. So I get there and Brandi has already started. It turns out she was the 2^nd act. I missed hearing Quincy Coleman the opening act. I don’t think I missed too many of Brandi Songs and was able to catch most of her performance. She was great and I enjoyed hearing her with a new backing band. You just cannot beat a live performance. I had already bought Brandi’s CD and had her autograph it at her performance in January, so I talked to her after her performance to see when she was going to have another CD out. She seemed to enjoy Decatur, so hopefully she’ll be back soon.

After Brandi’s performance was Kate Walsh. Kate was from the UK and sang with a beautiful sweet voice. I bought Kate’s CD and got her to sign it after her show.

I saw that Andy Zipf was coming to Atlanta to play a show. He had listed Atlanta as a tour stop at one time last year but removed it. And he had not been in the area to perform since I last saw him back in Feb ‘07 at the Devil Stole the Beat show. I have several of his songs that I had purchased off of his Myspace page, but there were some MP3’s he had listed on his DiscRevolt page that I wanted to get. The only way to download those songs was to purchase one of his DiscRevolt cards to get an account number and download the songs. I had not heard of 1*FIVE*0 and wasn’t quite sure how the show would be. So after work, I headed over to the location. 1*FIVE*0 is a clothes boutique located in the newly refurb’d westside of Atlanta. One of the owners of the shop is Leslie Fram, former Music Director/DJ at 99x. They set up a stage in the front window of the shop and have music shows. Proceeds from the show go to a local animal shelter. Andy was the 2^nd act to go on. Considering the venue and crowd, Andy put on a phenomenal performance. The crowd didn’t get into his songs as much as they had at Smith’s Olde Bar. But that might have been because they were standing around clothes racks and display cases. After Andy’s performance, I was able to catch him and purchase the DiscRevolt cards. I purchased some things from the store (some folk art & other neat sundries they sold) I had to rush out because I wanted to get across town to see Brandi Shearer perform at Eddie’s Attic.

So I had made my donation last week and had my ticket/pass to the last night of the Songs for Kids concert at Smith’s Olde Bar. I had a family commitment, so I wasn’t able to get there until after 11. But since I had a guaranteed ticket, I figured I’d have no problem getting in. When I entered Smith’s I saw a line waiting to get upstairs to the venue, so I walked around them figuring I could show my ticket and go on up. As I’m passing the line of people waiting to go up, I hear someone yell out my name. It turns out it’s Patrick Lochridge, the piano player in Audrey Spillman‘s band that I had seen the week before. He saw that I had my ticket, so I told him I would see him when he got upstairs. With my ticket I got right in with no problem. They were into the final 20, so I grabbed a spot to catch the show. The night I got my ticket, they had announced that Ceelo (of Gnarls Barkley fame) would be singing the last song, “Hey Jude”. But before they reached the final 10, Ceelo jumped on stage to perform #77 on the countdown, his own hit “Crazy”. This was an unexpected treat. Other great performers were there. Levi Lowrey (who I had seen the night before at Eddie’s Attic) was there and performed Garth Brook’s “Friends in Low Places”. A neighbor of mine, Masonic lodge brother of my Dad’s, and co-owner of my favorite Pizza place in Tucker (Enzo’s), Kenny Creswell was there playing drums. Kenny’s company provides a lot of the equipment for concerts, so I’m sure he provided most of what was on stage. I even caught where on one song, one of the volunteer drummers didn’t seem to know the song, so Kenny went over the top of him (and the guy ducked out) and Kenny finished the song. Peter Stroud (Atlanta guitarist who’s tours with Sheryl Crow and who I saw perform with Shawn Mullins at The Variety Playhouse) was pulled on stage to help play guitar for a lot of the rock ballads. Angie Aparo sang Don Mclean’s “American Pie”. Shawn Mullins performed John Lennon’s “Imagine”. Butch Walker performed Night Ranger’s “Sister Christian”. The final song, The Beatles’ “Hey Jude”, was sung by Angie Aparo, with Kenny Creswell on drums, Peter Stroud on guitar, Butch Walker on keyboard, The group Heavy Mojo , and Backing vocal by Kevin Spencer and the Songs for Kids staff.

Words can’t reveal how incredible this concert was. If you missed it you missed out.

Video’s I found on youtube:

Ceelo performs “Crazy”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJOhDCNd8uo
Closer clip:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=oeOsVXM0Yko

Angie Aparo performs Don Mclean’s “American Pie”.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=GBasgGrt3oM

Kiss’ “Rock N Roll All Nite” performed by Tim Smith. Peter Stroud, Kevin Spencer, & Kenny Creswell:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wov4s2rnkPo

Night Ranger’s “Sister Christian” performed by Butch Walker, Kevin Spencer, Peter Stroud, Tim Smith, & Kenny Creswell
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gN18H-um1BE

The Beatles “Hey Jude”
Part 1:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=-GE-uhgQxmQ
Part2:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Y66k_ceR0RQ

Last week, when I had gone to see Jess Klein, I got there early and was hanging out at the bar. Eddie was there and I asked him who the singer was that they were playing over the speakers prior to the show. He told me it was Darrell Scott, one of his favorite performers that would be performing on 5/9. That seemed like incentive enough for me, so I bought a ticket to the show.

I had planned to have dinner with friends, so I was hoping that I wouldn’t miss too much of the show. When I got there, the opening act was already performing. Levi Lowrey opened for Darrell and his performance was amazing.

You never know what you might discover when going to see a live show. It was neat to see Levi as he seemed to be a huge fan of Darrell’s and seemed honored to be opening for him. Levi had only a few homemade CD’s (with handwritten song listings) which were sold out quickly. He could have sold a lot more based on the crowd’s reaction to his performance.

Darrell came on and was an incredible musician. I had not heard much about Darrell. From what I had read, he had written several successful songs that here performed by other artists. I thought he might play something I had heard before, but only played music he had released. Nonetheless his performance and musicianship were amazing.