2015 Reading Goals

A book with more than 500 pages
A classic romance
A book that became a movie
A book published this year
A book with a number in the title - Five Quarters of the Orange
A book written by someone under 30
A book with nonhuman characters
A funny book
A book by a female author - I Am an Emotional Creature: The Secret Life of Girls Around the World
A mystery or thriller
A book with a one-word title - Southbound
A book of short stories
A book set in a different country
A nonfiction book
A popular author's first book
A book from an author you love that you haven't read - How to Build a Girl
A book a friend recommended - Shalimar the Clown
A Pulitzer Prize-winning book
A book based on a true story - The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
A book at the bottom of your to-read list
A book your mom loves
A book that scares you- The Martian: A Novel
A book more than 100 years old
A book based entirely on its cover
A book you were supposed to read in school but didn't
A memoir
A book you can finish in a day
A book with antonyms in the title
A book set somewhere you've always wanted to visit
A book that came out the year you were born
A book with bad reviews
A trilogy
A book from your childhood
A book with a love triangle
A book set in the future
A book set in a high school
A book with a color in the title
A book that made you cry
A book with magic
A graphic novel
A book by an author you've never read before
A book you own but have never read
A book that takes place in your hometown
A book that was originally written in a different language
A book set during Christmas
A book written by an author with your same initials
A play
A banned book
A book based on or turned into a TV show
A book you started but never finished

Bad.

Bad. Bad, bad, bad.

Since January:

I completed another trip around the sun
Read approximately 14 books, including several I need to update on that challenge
Was awarded the opportunity to serve as pivotal staff for not one but two major SCA events in the future (Gleann Abhann 10th Year and Gulf Wars XXV)
Became the head coach for the Twin City Knockers
Served as announcer for a few other leagues and a tournament
Started dating a cool guy, then stopped because cool doesn't mean compatible
Sold my Scion
Bought a Ford
Attended at least 12 musical performances so far, but man, who can keep count?



2015 is totally my year. I'm just too busy to write about it!

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!

Screw it. Time to put down some roots.

Lots has happened.

I sold a house. Turned 35. Bought a house. My father passed away... there's been family drama, and mourning, and sadness and some words that can't be taken back. I had a surgery. I got depressed and spent a lot of time sleeping, gained some weight, and relied way too much on friends to keep me afloat and remind me to eat.

The entire month of March, and part of April is a complete fog.  I know that things happened and I have some recollection of bits, but for the most part, I retained not much and I don't really think that's a bad thing. 

Today, though... today is May 1.  I don't find particular relevance in Beltane, normally, but I do get that it's the time for rebirth and renewal and fertility and new shit, and I guess I'm at a good place to try to grab onto that, even if it's just seasonally appropriate and not particularly spiritually infused.

This garden is imperfect. There's not a square corner to it (nor is it square to the house).  It's sturdy, and strong, and soon it will have the first part of my spring garden situated in it's walls, just as soon as I get more dirt and peat moss into it and level it out.  It ain't pretty but it will be useful, and I did it entirely on my own, and I find some value in that, even if it's in having done it somewhat wrong.  

The wine tree behind it was a gift from a family who loves me- it got planted last night, too.  I'm looking forward to watching it's blooms.  Hell, I heard rumor that a blue flower might be blooming on it today.

Roots, ya'll.

January Wrapup....

Funeral Services: 2
Live shows enjoyed: 4
Pounds lost: 19.8
SCA Events stewarded: 1
Houses sold: 1
Time spent reading: avg of 22 minutes per day
Time spent creating art: avg of 18 minutes per day

On 2/1, I moved out of my house.

On 2/2, I met the house I want to move into next.

A whirlwind weekend of music and art, a roadtrip, and a bicycle (Shows 1-3 of 2014).

The first weekend of 2014 brought me....

A late night Friday. The Ian Quiet Band was hitting the stage at AMP at Mojo's, which is a no-cover-charge, Jam-as-you-like musician's session thing.  The talent there has been great the few times I've hit it.  To hone their set for Saturday in Monroe, IQB did 4 songs as part of the showcase.  Coconut Donut, With or Without You, Mommy Got a Tramp Stamp, and.... oh. Something else. I cannot remember what the first song was!  They sounded great.  The other artists sounded great. We left when the very talented Blues guitarist who went up a few sets later was doing a great job of rocking us to sleep with his smooth riffs... very good, but we weren't ready to sleep yet!  So, we headed to The Boot.

Now, I'm not going to claim practices that I can't, but I was taking it very easy on the alcohol. I had two beers early in the evening, then was nursing water for the rest of the evening.  The Boot is not a bar that I've ever enjoyed soberly at 2 AM.  The Boot is also my Case-in-Point example for my belief that nothing good ever happens past 2 AM in Downtown Shreveport.  However, I was enjoying time out with wonderful people, and it was too early for the night to end.  We watched some horrendous karaoke and I watched a friend exercise a Machiavellian approach to flirting that was pretty damn adorable.  I wanted to stick around to hear Katrina and Ian belt out "Just a Girl" but I had to get myself to bed.

An Early Saturday. Well, I went to bed around 3:30, so 9:00 FELT early!  I fed myself a good breakfast then took out for a ride.  I wrecked my bike on the first and banged myself up a bit, but got the broken parts repaired pretty easily, so I didn't want to not ride on such a pretty day.  I logged 8 miles.  Highland is aptly named.... fucking hills. HILLS. Everywhere.  My ride took me into downtown, along Clyde Fant, and then back towards home via the neighborhoods around Shreveport-Barksdale.  It was a meandering route with no real intention other than to ride.  Came home, did a bit of sewing, and took a nap to prepare myself for...

A Late Night Saturday.  I checked out Ian's solo show at the Karpele's Manuscript Museum.  Now... as a museum, I'm not impressed with their current collection. I went to see it last weekend with a friend who was in town, and it was a little underwhelming. As a cool old converted church, though, it's tops.  The acoustics are great, and his show was good though it's my opinion that the audience didn't know whether to behave as though we were at church, or at a concert.  The crowd response was very muted and I think that the ambience turned everyone more introspective than a normal show would have caused.  They did a screening of The Hummingbird, a film starring Ian from the Louisiana Film Prize competition last year, and I really enjoyed it though I was expecting something FAR happier and lighter, for some reason.  Then he played a few songs on the pipe organ, and that was amazing.  More of that, please!
I then stepped in and acted as his Road Manager to get his adoring fanbase held at bay because we were on a mission.  We took off to meet the rest of the band, got everyone into cars, and headed to Sal's Saloon in Monroe (with a brief stop to pay homage to the Duck Commander Headquarters, because exercising free speech is important to us, too).

That's an album cover if ever there was one...

The show KILLED.  The introduction of a theramin to some of their songs was great, and well-placed.  The vocals were clear and powerful.  I can't tell you the setlist, but it was excellent, and was also laid down on a recording by the Very Friendly Sound Guy.  Prestor John was also a super-treat to see, and their set was likewise, stellar.  The 3rd band, Mailbomber... well, not my speed. Good, but not what I was in the mood for.  We took off, hit a What-a-Burger (best grilled cheese sandwich of my life, I swear), and I made it into my bed at 4:30 AM.  A car full of drunk people made the right home quite entertaining, and it passed quickly.

And then...

Seriously, Sunday morning?  9 AM?  9?????  No. Too early.  But, I was awake and the boycats wanted breakfast.  I had the great ambition of riding to the Line Avenue Brookshire's, but by the time I made it to King's had determined that I was just not going to get warm enough. I went to that Brookshire's instead, and only rode about 3 miles, round trip.  I took a nap. I sewed, and got my loom warped, and I spent the evening with friends all engaged in crafts in my tiny apartment listening to what James called the "Best of Roller Rink Music: 90s mix."  I wrapped up the night with a sweet cozy cat pile and a book before a solid night's sleep.

If all of the weekends of 2014 could be just like this one, I would not complain.