Mondays are for recovery: An insane damn weekend.

Friday night: Dinner and a Movie
Dinner:  Abby Singer's Bistro
Movie: Whiplash

Dinner was great; rushed, because by the time our food was brought it was practically time to be finding our seats downstairs, but that wasn't really a fault of anything other than cutting it too close on the time.  We made the film in time, but ended up in the second row... fortunately, the Robinson Film Center's front rows are still good seats.

The Movie.... wasn't what I expected. It was great, but for some reason I was expecting a little less abuse and a little more "This One Time, at Band Camp...."

I have no idea why I was expecting that. That said, it was a seriously good movie.  A bit slow in places, but the plot development was strong and the score was spectacular.

Saturday Day:  Winter Wonders XXIX

SCA time!  Due to scheduling logistics I decided to just attend for the day, so I was up and driving by a bit after 7:00.  A lot of my day was spent just visiting with my favorite people; I had a meeting and that evening, the Order of the Pelican announced the induction of two pretty awesome people (to happen at a later date); I was happy to herald for Their Majesties and Duchess Onora was a horribly bad influence.  I heard that Feast was great, but I couldn't stick around...

Saturday Night: FIGHTS, The Rusty Shacklefords, Kill Matilda @ Hangar 21

Two bands I'd never heard before, and one that I love dearly!  It was going to be That Kind of Night... so my +1 and myself took a cab there, knowing we wouldn't want to drive home again at the end of the night.  Bonus, we discovered that Shreveport taxis are really cheap.

FIGHTS is a local band whose genre as per Facebook is "Punk/Indie/Post Hardcore."  I don't even know what Post-Hardcore is, but from the sounds of it it's what I have referred to, historically, as Cookie Monster music.

I like Cookie Monster music. Think about it- Cookie Monster in a band? What wouldn't be to love. I couldn't understand most of the lyrics but the musicians were solid good.

The Rusty Shacklefords are punk rock. Period.  They cover Fugazi and Black Flag and The Stooges and have several of their own tracks, including the pretty catchy "Mommy Got a Tramp Stamp" that got them on the 99X shitlist, which is an excellent place to be, in my opinion. This was their first gig back in a long time after a break, and even longer since Mike, the original guitarist, rejoined the lineup.  Ian Quiet, frontman of the Ian Quiet Band and also a soloist joined them for a couple songs, too, including playing synth on their cover of "I Wanna be Your Dog."

Kill Matilda is a band on a North American tour from Canada.  I'm not gonna lie... it had been a long day and I had had a few Vodka & Cranberries by this point.  They were excellent musicians and the lyrics I noted were good, albeit my recollection of their set is a little bit blurry.

Sunday:  ROAD TRIP!

The Quad State Derby Dames were hosting a mash-up bout with a Hunger Games theme. We started out the night with 23 skaters, and did a reaping on the spot to sort them into the Capitol VS the Mockingjays.  The Capitol was victorious, and calling the game was a lot of fun.  As the new coach for TCK, I was thrilled to see my skaters represented on both teams well, and they all held their own brilliantly, even the new girls.

NSOs, refs, and other volunteers

But I gotta back up.

First, Adam and I hit Chicken Express for some late-afternoon hangover recovery chicken.  Chicken Express is a largely Texas thing, and it's scarce.  They're locally owned/operated, and at the Texarkana branch, I saw something I'd never seen before:  Scripture on a food receipt. I don't mean "God Bless ya!" I mean a several-line long verse.  Unfortunately, I've lost my receipt, but a Twitter user named Coach Jacobs took a pic of his (slightly different verse, same receipt)....

Praise the Lord and pass the Chicken, ya'll.

2015 Firsts: First Wedding & First Concert

Saturday afternoon, I married my first couple of 2015!

Brandy and Shaun are both former coworkers of mine, so it was doubly cool- I recall when they started dating, about 4 years ago.  This was a small family wedding in the side room of a favorite restaurant of the family; proof that weddings need not be over-the-top to be special!  Brandy helped me write the ceremony and we included having Shaun's two children come forward to make their own vows to strive to maintain a healthy and loving family; I'll definitely be keeping that!

(No pictures included; the bride isn't a fan of cameras, so I know she'd not appreciate that!)

Sunday night was a treat, ya'll.

Victoria Williams has been a favorite songwriter of mine since the 90s.  That came about through the "Sweet Relief" album on which Soul Asylum covered her song "Summer of Drugs" - I'd bought the album specifically because I was (and still am) a huge fan of theirs. But the rest of the album was really good, and it inspired me to find some recordings of her actually playing her own music.  I knew she was from Shreveport, but she's lived in California for a long time, and I'd always hear about her having been in town 3 weeks after the fact.

So, Sunday night, the Fairfield House Concert Series hosted a show with her, and I made reservations within about 2 seconds of figuring that out. The opening act, Landon Miller, is the lead of a local band I've seen a few times named Engine.  While I will admit that the band's stylings aren't always what I crave, his solo act was great.  His voice is full of emotion and his short set was a great way to relax and get into the energy of the room.  There was a small break while the audience could sample offerings from Stone's Throw Cafe, and then Victoria took the stage.

Photo Credit: Cassie Chappell

Let's start with her touring band. The bassist and pianist are married, and the drummer also plays guitar on some pieces.  While the band started with a setlist, it soon turned into an "open request" sort of night, and songs got rearranged, and it was amazing and chaotic and soothing.  It was entertaining to note that the pianist would have really preferred to stay on-book, but she had a great attitude about it.

Victoria's voice is absolutely ethereal; in addition to the guitar, she also picked up a banjo, two harmonicas, and-- that awesome item to the right in the photo- a Japanese stringed machine similar to a zither.  Her set involved commentary between herself and the band, and a local fiddler- whose name I didn't catch, sadly- joined in for the second portion of the set and did a beautiful job of adding more depth to the performance, even on songs he didn't know before that night.

The set ran a little long... but was exceptional.  Her rendition of Opelousas (easily my favorite song of hers) was stirring, and creative, and off-book enough to not even remotely resemble Musician Karaoke.  There were singalong portions, Elvis covers, and a number of songs I'd never heard nor heard of, but they were soulful and sweet.

Out til 10 PM on a school night isn't preferred on a Sunday, but it was well worth being up a bit late to get to see.  2015 is off to a great start!