Memphis in May

The city is abuzz. You can feel it in the air. May is here and it’s Memphis’ month to shine. For those that don’t live here, Memphis In May is a whole month of festivities that take place mostly downtown. It’s kind of like a celebration of all that is Memphis. Things kick off this weekend with the Beale Street Music Festival. 3 days, 4 stages and more that 60 musicians, bands, and musical groups converge down by the riverside to rock our freakin’ socks off. Next weekend is the Barbeque Fest featuring the World Championship Barbeque Cooking contest. (My dad should enter that. He’d win hands down. And no I’m not biased!!) The month includes tons of other activities and culminates at the end of the month with the Sunset Symphony which is a huge orchestral concert down of the bluffs next to the river (at sunset obviously). It’s a fun time to be in Memphis. I’m avoiding the Music Fest this year. There aren’t any bands that I’m really interested in fighting the crowds to see. Plus I have to work Saturday and Sunday night so I’d have to leave before things really started jumping anyway. The really big acts are the last to hit the stage each night. 2 years ago Dave Matthews Band came. That was really cool. I stood in the same spot for over 5 hours the last two of which I was jumping up and down and screaming and singing through when Dave came on. I had sprained my ankle the day before playing soccer so the jumping was painful. By the end of the night I could barely feel anything from my knee down in both legs. It didn’t matter though cause I was in the perfect spot, dead center, less than 30 feet away from one of the coolest bands around. That was an incredible experience. I’ll never forget the security guys up front making a killing selling bottled water to the fans for 5 bucks a pop. Water they probably bought at Sam’s Club in packs of 32 for 5 bucks a piece. But a least they were cold. Our wonderful free market economy at work. The festival gets bigger and bigger each year but they just haven’t been pulling in the acts that I’m interested in seeing. I am planning on going to the barbeque fest next weekend though. I’ve never been but I here it’s a blast. One of the guys I play soccer with is a member of a club that has a barbeque tent down there every year. As it’s been explained to me, they have their own secret recipe for barbeque which they enter into the contest each year but that’s really just an excuse to get together with friends and party for 4 days straight. My friend is going to get all the soccer guys that want to go free admission to his tent. I won’t be drinking (since I don’t drink) but I’m curious to see what the atmosphere is like down there. I’ve been hearing about the Barbeque fest ever since I moved to Memphis. I’m curious to see what it’s all about.

X-2: A Great Beginning

Just got back from X-2: X-Men United. Awesome movie. Terrific start to the Summer movie season. X-2 actually has an compelling story line which is atypical of your usual summer blockbuster. It’s a definite see again movie. Kind of long but you don’t feel the length and when it’s over you want more.

Somewhere I Belong…… Midi?

Question. Why in the world would somebody try to search for the song, Somewhere I Belong, in midi format? I haven’t researched my logs enough to see whether or not it’s the same person but come on dude or duddette. I love Linkin Park but come on. Midi? Who listens to midi files any more? Ever heard of MP3s? Over the last 2 or 3 weeks my blog has popped up on 10 to 15 web searches for Somewhere I Belong midi. It’s 2003. Midi is still used extensively by musicians to control various instruments while on stage and in the studio but what use is it to the average consumer? Listening to midi music is like listening to audio from an early to mid 80′s video game. Why submit yourself to the agony?

Pete and Pete!!!

You gotta love late, late night TV. It’s been a while but I just had another Pete and Pete sighting. I used to love that show. It was quirky and off beat. Just my style. Now all I need to come across is a Wonder Years rerun. That was the bomb show. Ahhhh…. the television of my youth. They don’t make shows like they used to. Where’s the A-Teams? The Dukes Of Hazards? How about Knight Rider? Let’s bring those back. I’ll take those over crap like Joe Millionaire and Are You Hot any day.

I Wish I Could Bend It Like Beckham

The week is turning into quite a movie viewing extravaganza. I saw Better Luck Tomorrow twice over the weekend and today I saw two movies, Bend It Like Beckham and Confidence. Tomorrow it’s X2 – XMEN United!!! I really liked Bend It Like Beckham. It’s not that often that you get to see a movie about soccer on the big screen. I found it to be a really sweet, touching film. Doggone funny too. The soccer action was a bit slow and predictable (kind of like Lady Bugs) but it fit well within the movie. (Speaking of Lady Bugs can we please get movie featuring mens soccer Hollywood? Victory featuring Sly Stallone doesn’t count. A) It’s old as dirt. B) They only play soccer for the last 20 minutes of the flick and accept for Pele, it sucked. Moving on…) Bend It revealed several things to me. 1) Indian (as in from Asia) family life is quite interesting. Of course it was exaggerated for theatrical purposes but it appeared that the film did a good job of giving the audience a birds eye view of what life is like for Indian people in England. Especially Indian women. It’s an interesting contrast to your average American family life. 2) David Beckham is cool but he’s dang ugly with all his hair shaved off. I guess you can do that once you’ve snagged and married a hottie like Posh Spice but come on Becks. Go back to the long hair. It was much cooler. 3) The Indian wedding ceremony is a very, very interesting. 4) Girls/women who play soccer are hot. (I already knew that but the movie helped reiterate the fact to me.)

Confidence was a cool movie as well. Great heist flick. I liked it because it keeps you off balance the entire time. It sucks you in, let’s you get comfortable and then flips the script on you. What you think know, you don’t really know. That all I’ll say plot wise. It’s a fun ride. Walking out of the theater I couldn’t help making mental comparisons to Ocean’s Eleven. They are very similar films. Having just seen Confidence and having not seen Ocean’s Eleven in a while I don’t want to say that I liked Confidence better. I will say that Confidence is much more edgy and I like edgy. I also like that there weren’t any real mega superstars in the film. Sure Dustin Hoffman is in there. Andy Garcia as well. They’re both really good and well respected actors but I’ve never been a big fan of either. Edward Burns puts in a strong performance. His character is supposed to be cool as a cucumber and he pulled it off really really well. Another highlight was Rachel Weisz. Mega yummy!!! I was a bit dissappointed that she was little more than window dressing and eye candy in this flick. From an acting standpoint I must say that I enjoyed her performances in Enemy At The Gates and The Mummy series much more. If you’ve got to look at eye candy though Rachel Weisz eye candy ain’t nothing to sneeze at.

All in all this has been an enjoyable day. Two great movies. Lunch at my favorite Indian restaurant and this evening I got to watch the Lakers dismantle the Timberwolves to move into the second round of the NBA playoffs. Tomorrow it’s X2 time and possibly the first softball game of the season if we don’t get rained out. That’s a big if. (Check the archives if you don’t remember the cruel jokes mother nature played on my team last year on days where we were supposed to have softball games.)

Hmmmm

There’s the potential that I might have a date coming up in the very near future. The girl in question is someone I’ve never met. We were as they say “set up”. So far we’ve only exchanged emails but I’ve got her number and will be calling her in the next couple of days. She sent a picture of herself which was a pleasant surprise. She’s very cute. (The fact that she is cute wasn’t the surprise. The surprise was that she would attach a picture to the very first email she’s ever sent me.) Seems rather eager. Is that a bad thing? Sounds like something I’d do.The fact that she’s cute IS really nice icing on the cake though.

I’m trying to not to think about any of this too much. Trying not put too much weight or emphasis on the whole situation. She seems really nice and based on what my friend who’s doing the setting up has told me about her she seems like the type of young lady I’d be interested in. Anyway, I’m going to try to play it by ear. If things work out they work out. But I’d be lying to myself if said I wasn’t a bit nervous. My last date was a year ago and that was yet another “set up”. After that I promised myself I’d never do the set up/blind date thing again because that date was absolutely horrible. But here I am again. Who am I kidding? I’m not exactly the Mac Daddy. Since I broke up with my girlfriend right before I graduated from college, Okiboy has been in a bit of a dry spell. Admittedly it’s been at least partially self imposed. That last break-up stung quite a bit. I seems like whenever I open up and lay my feelings on the line things end badly. That’s why as of late I just haven’t felt like exerting the energy. What’s the use you know? I’ve been using the excuse that I’m trying to knuckle down and focus on my career. Getting myself established, etc., etc. In reality I just don’t want to exert all that effort and end up getting hurt again.

So let’s see where this goes. I’m looking forward to getting to know this girl. We’ll see if it goes anywhere. I’ll keep you posted.