I'm in the process of changing this site over to an actual web host, instead of my free earthlink space. So for right now the www.lostinlouisville.com address isn't forwarding correctly. This site will be available for a little while but once it isn't, you might want to update your links.

***Update***
I managed to keep the domain name forwarding, but it doesn't look like I can FTP the files to my new web space yet, so the move will have to wait. This move is particularly good because I see Blogger was hacked and my FTP info might have been compromised. Nice.

***Update 2.0***
Take that FTP problems! I used the archaic file upload tools provided by my host to move the site. And now it's up and running. A few minor adjustments and all will be well.

***Update 3.0***
The adjustments are complete, and everything is looking good. The hosting company I'm using is extremely cheep, and as such has some weird things going on with the addresses. So, for those of you with links to this site, you can use www.lostinlouisville.com for the front page or blog.lostinlouisville.com to go directly to the blog. Easy enough, right?

Posted 3:20 PM by Jackson Cooper |

I saw in LEO that Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire is supposed to be playing at Barretones this Friday (tomorrow). I jumped over to Bird's web site, and it's not listed. But it is listed on Barretones' web site. So I'm going to assume that it's happening. I'll be there, and you should too. ABBOF puts on a stellar show, and last time I saw them at Barettones, they rocked the house down. The Features are opening.

Posted 9:40 AM by Jackson Cooper |

Brent over at The Ville passes along this link to the Stax Museum website. It makes me very, very happy to see that this is getting off the ground.

My buddy and I made the pilgrimage to Mecca Memphis a couple of summers ago. Our first stop, as it should be, was Sun. We paid the price and took the "tour" which consists of walking into the three room studio and listening to the underinformed tour guide tell you things you already know. But it was well worth it just to stand in that room. It's a magical place where so much of the music I love was born.

The next stop on our self guided tour of Memphis was Beale st. It was nice to see, and we grabbed a decent bite to eat, but there really wasn't much happening on a weekday afternoon. I'm not big on the touristy kind of places there, so we just walked by BB King's and Elvis Presley's. Looking for something else to do, we wondered over to the Smithsonian Rock 'n Soul exhibit. We were both very pleasantly surprised by this collection of artifacts of American music. Get the headphones and take the audio tour. It's well worth it.

While on the audio tour, my buddy picked-up the address for Stax. Given that some our favorite music came from that record label, we thought it was a good idea to go find the place.

So we grabbed the map and found the street. Neither of us being terribly familiar with Memphis, we anticipated an adventure. And as you might have guessed, Stax was not in the best end of town. We were definitely the whitest guys around. But it wasn't an awful neighborhood. Just poor. As a traveling duo, we've seen much worse. Like the time we took the wrong exit and ended-up in the wrong neighborhood in the south end of Chicago. Or every time we visit our buddy in Atlanta who lives by the federal prison.

We got to the right street and began to watch the numbers. Not many buildings had an address prominently displayed, so we had to be vigilant. but when we got to the spot, there was no missing it. There was a large, freshly bulldozed lot with a small sign that read: "Future site of the Stax Museum." We were disappointed that we didn't get to see the Stax building, but very glad to see that they were building a museum to commemorate one of the greatest American record labels. And it could do nothing but good for this obviously neglected side of town.

We made a quick ceremonial drive by Graceland, only stopping for gas and snacks before heading home.

Posted 10:01 AM by Jackson Cooper |

Lileks is back after his week-long hiatus and delivers a stinging indictment of his Windows tech support folks. Well, not exactly. He's actually quite understanding and sympathetic in dealing with Windows issues, especially for a Mac user.

As a reluctant tech support guy, I know the "reboot and reinstall" line all too well. I'd say that 95% of the everyday problems on our network can be solved by a reboot. And four of the other five can be solved by a reinstall. It's just the nature of Windows to require these things on a regular basis.

Unfortunately, this means my job can be horribly dull at times.

Posted 9:26 AM by Jackson Cooper |

So Caleb planted the idea in my head of hosting a Louisville blogger party. I'm all for it. I want to meet the people I have taken to reading every day. But I doubt that my apartment would be a suitable location. It could probably stand to hold the necessary number of people, but I don't know how people might feel about going to the home of a stranger. Or how my neighbors would feel about it, for that matter.

I'm open to suggestions. Would you like to meet at a bar? Is there anyone else out there with a more suitable home?

Drop me a line, or just leave a comment here. I'll be glad to coordinate everything.

****Update*****
It looks like a better date might be December 14, to accommodate folks in school. If this date would prevent anyone from attending, speak up.

Let me know what's good for anyone interested in attending.

Another Update Here

Posted 9:42 AM by Jackson Cooper |

Now for a recap of the weekend's festivities:

Friday. The plan was to go to work, go home, go to see Superdrag and Guided By Voices, then head down to the Galt House for some IBMA partying. At least, that was the plan.

I did go to work. But while I was at work I checked the show schedule for IBMA and noticed that Old Crow Medicine Show was playing at 6:35. That gave me plenty of time get down to Headliners to see Superdrag. So I went straight downtown from work. I managed to find a decent parking spot and got in just in time to hear IIIrd Time Out finish their set. I have heard all sorts of wonderful things about these guys, and they were good. But after a week of straight Bluegrass, I was ready for something different.

OCMS came on next and delivered that something different I was seeking. The soundman, while doing his very best, couldn't manage to get the sound right. The bass was fading in and out and going back and forth between trebly and bassy for the first four or five songs.

But it was still good to see those guys play, and especially in front of hundreds (if not thousands) of bluegrass fans. They play an old-timey string band type of music, and I love it. By the end of the set the sound was passable, and the crowd really got into it.

After their set I went up to the room to hang out for a little while before heading home and to headliners. There were a few people in there just hanging around and chatting. It was a rare quiet moment in the First Quality suite, and I enjoyed it. Not long after arriving, my nearly dead cell phone rang. After a few attempts to gain a decent reception, I determined that it was my friend Ashley calling to say that she was down at the Galt House, and where was I. I told her to come on up to the room, but wasn't sure if she understood.

The room started to fill up shortly thereafter. Steve from Shreveport, LA came in with much of his family. Others came in to pick, and the volume began to rise. Around this time, I noticed someone familiar in the room. I'd seen him before, and he has a bad habit of showing-up at events like this. Events where I know I should be having fun. He had his typically dark and brooding aura about him, and he was staring me down from just inside the door.

I started to feel uncomfortable, and thought about walking around. I called Ashley back to see where she was. She was on her way up to the room.

My intent was to leave as soon as she got up there, and to go see what was going-on around the hotel. But that awful bastard was still sitting in the room, hovering over me now whispering in my ear. He'd say little things that he knew would upset me and then laugh a little, knowing that he was starting to get to me. I wanted to get out of that room and try to shake him, but I knew I needed to wait for Ashley.

She finally made it up to the room, and she was with her boyfriend. I wanted to leave, but he grabbed my arm and whispered in my ear one more time. "You don't want to go hang around with them." And he was right.

The thought of running around that hotel with her and her boyfriend made me sick to my stomach. I'd rather be alone than be the third wheel again. So I stayed in the room. And when they asked me if I wanted to go walk with them I declined. "I'll call you a little later and meet up with you" I said, knowing I wouldn't.

More and more people piled into the room. They started playing and singing even louder. But I could still hear him talking. He knew I wasn't going to call them and that I wasn't going to meet them to walk around. And he let me know.

I couldn't take much more. I needed to get out of there, and quick. So without saying goodbye to anyone I grabbed my jacket and hit the door. Down the hall, to the elevators. They were all up around the 15th floor. That's too ling to wait. I went down the stairs, across the street to the garage and into my car. But he had followed me down, and was waiting at the exit of the garage with a nasty look on his face as I pulled out and went home. It felt so much like running away. And it was. But I needed to get home. There's no use trying to be around other people when he shows up.

Saturday. I had to take my laptop down to the Galt House for them to use at our booth. We were expecting a big crowd on the weekend. And as I was starting my car to head down, I got a call on my cell phone. It was someone down at the booth. Apparently nobody working on the weekend was told how to set up the computers. "I'm on my way down,” I tell him. I got down there and straightened everything out. This was the only glitch with the computers the entire week.

From there it was out to work for a couple of minutes and then to my mom's for laundry. I always look forward to these semi-weekly visits. I get to relax, visit with my mom and I always eat well out there. It was a much-needed break, and it helped me shake the dark cloud from the last evening. After the laundry was done and the visit was over, I went home, put the laundry away and changed clothes.

I decided to tempt fate and head back down to the Galt House. To hell with him. I'm going to have a good time. And I did. I stayed late, wondering from room to room to hear the picking and singing. My mood was considerably better, and he never showed his face. I stayed until 3am before heading home to crash.

Sunday. I promised my boss that I'd help with breaking down the booth, so I went down to the Galt House around noon. They were already putting instruments away and packing the merchandise. I helped load the remaining items, pack stuff to the truck, and take apart the computer set-up. We were done by 3. That left me plenty of time to get to the baseball game, which I had almost forgotten.

It was another rough game for me physically. Another outfield tumble left me bruised, muddy and sore. I got some good hits and was robbed by a couple of outstanding defensive plays. I damn near broke my finger on my last at-bat. I'm not exactly sure how I did it, but I jammed the middle finger on my right hand while swinging the bat.

Despite all the pain, and the fact that we lost, it was a very satisfying game. The extreme physical exertion did me good. It cleared my mind and sapped the remaining energy from my body, allowing me to sleep like a baby.


Posted 10:05 AM by Jackson Cooper |