I’m Still A Music Nerd
I’ve always been a huge fan of music. I’ve always loved listening to music, I’ve read books about the ‘Industry’ followed how things work and tried to soak up everything I could for as long as I can remember. And now that I work with artists and in ‘the industry’ there’s still not a lot that has changed. Now, I’ve never really ‘geeked out’ about meeting an artist or a specific person, simply because I think that’s weird, but I’m still fascinated by the ‘behind the scenes’ junk that goes on. I’ve had some pretty amazing opportunities in the past including going backstage at The Grand Ole Opry with the MercyMe guys, climbing into the rafters at the Hammerstein Ballroom with Phil Wickham and David Crowder, and even attending the Dove’s a couple of times.
Now, all you music folks that are reading this that might think you are too cool to be impressed by anything or have been in ‘the industry’ so long that, to you, it’s lost it’s magic, feel free to make fun of me all you want, but there’s a couple things over the next few weeks that make me feel like a kid in a candy store.
First up, I had a meeting this afternoon in Downtown Nashville at Universal to discuss a handful of web issues. Not a massive deal and again, I’m not normally ‘geeked out’ by much but walking into the top floor of a massive building in downtown and seeing this desk and not feeling completely out of place was pretty cool. We had a great meeting, the folks at the label listened intently, took some notes, and offered to work with me in any way I needed. Super nice, super cool guys.
As I was leaving the meeting the label and management mentioned that Billy was having a #1 Party next week and wanted to make sure that I was there. Again, not something I expected but completely honored and a little weirded out to be a part of… you know being a music nerd and all.
And finally, I found out last week that it looks like Billy was invited to play on Letterman in a week or so. I still don’t know all the details on how that will go down, but how cool is that? Something I’ve never thought of being a part of and I’m super excited to see all of that.
I know it’s a little geeky or whatever to be excited about all of these things, but I don’t really care. To me it’s like a sports fan getting to throw out a pitch or a movie fan getting to walk the red carpet. I’m a music fan and love the opportunities I have been given. Feel free to make fun of it all you want. I’ll continue on enjoying every minute of it.
Where Have I Been?
Yesterday for our anniversary Kristin and I decided to go on a bike ride. We didn’t know where we were going to go, but we knew we wanted to have lunch in Downtown Franklin and then go from there. First of all, let me say we had an awesome time and it was one of the most fun days I have had in a long time. But that’s not what this post is about.
We’ve lived in this area for almost four years now, and for as long as we’ve lived here Downtown Franklin has been ‘the place’. It’s the swanky area. It’s where the ‘high end’ restaurants are, it’s where the money goes, and it’s where people go to see or be seen. But even with all that, we love it down there. We love the little shops, we love the ability to walk around at night with other families, grab some Starbucks or ice cream and enjoy the quaint little downtown. In fact, we’d love to live there someday. We’ve even talked about it, we’ve looked at houses, but with the area being so desirable, living there isn’t much of a reality as far as money goes.
See, something like this house here is absolutely gorgeous and can be ours for one easy payment of $1,495,000. A little steep for our price range, but that’s not even what this post is about. Let me get to the point.
Yesterday while riding around and drooling over gorgeous Downtown Franklin houses Kristin and I took a side road and ended up in what felt like a completely different world. You see the red and blue line up there on that map? That was one of the circles we rode. And here’s what we saw. The house above on one street selling for one and a half million dollars on the red line and then this house literally a block away.
Now, what this is NOT, is a statement of housing prices, or how the market has changed or anything like that. While Kristin and I were riding down the ‘Blue Line’ I couldn’t help but think, ‘Where have I been? I thought Downtown Franklin was a ‘swanky’ high end area? How come I have never heard of this area of obvious neglect and poverty. We waved and talked to a few people down the street, shaking our heads at how run down some of these houses are and the fact that even after four years of living in the area we have never seen or heard of the people that live a block away from ‘where the money hangs out’. Do churches not want to talk about it? Do the folks on West Main just ignore what’s down the street?
I don’t even really have a solution for something like this and I’m certainly not being overly preachy about helping people out or anything, but I was completely blown away at the fact that this is a society and group of people that seem like they have completely fallen off the cities radar.
Any of you Franklin peeps been over there? Heard anything about this area? Any churches involved in helping this area out? Or are we too busy wishing we could walk to Starbucks from our one and a half million dollar home?
Billy Currington Update
Well, everyone is home safe and sound, and from what I’ve heard doing good. Billy Tweeted this picture earlier today and it seems things are getting back to normal. We’re still waiting for an ‘Official’ press release type thing, but it’s great to hear that everyone is home and doing okay.
Thanks for all the prayers and checking in.
Billy’s Canada Show
This picture is of my friend and Billy’s bass player Alex right after the stage apparently collapsed and he was stuck under it. I woke up this morning with a message saying that the storm hit the stage, it collapsed, and Alex has a broken arm. That’s all the news stories are saying.
I skipped this trip to Canada with Billy. It was only one show and there wasn’t really a need for me to go all the way to Canada for one show. Now, typically during the set I am walking around on the stage or in the crowd taking pictures, but more often than not I am on the stage the entire set. This is the one show this year that I didn’t go on and it’s looking like it’s a good thing I didn’t.
I’m still trying to check on the guys, who I assume are still in Canada, but I will let you know more once I am able to talk to them.
Whale Wars
Last night Kristin and I were flipping through channels and for some reason I am always drawn to Animal Planet. Well last night we stumbled on to this little gem, called Whale Wars. Now, I’d heard of this before but never actually watched it, but last night I was completely captivated by this show. I still don’t really get it, but I know that the idea is that this team of whale savers goes out and tries to stop people from whaling. Makes sense right? The thing I don’t get really is the legality of these independent whale savers going out in the middle of the Antarctic Sea and throwing stink bombs and acid at whaling boats.
Not only was the fact that this team was throwing acid at boats weird, but the defenses that the whaling boats had was pretty impressive too. Along with water cannons surrounding the ship, most of the whaling ships had LRAD’s on the top and were literally shooting these sound waves at a helicopter pilot trying to get him to crash. What the heck?! Is this for real?
Naturally, I am now recording every new episode of this show so I can watch it and try to figure out what the heck is really going on. What government is monitoring this stuff? Throwing stink bombs? Really? I’m curious how that stops people from killing whales. I suppose I need to watch it more to really grasp what’s going on, but for now I love it.
Have you seen it? What do we think?
