I've sucked at blogging lately, I know. Thought I'd come in tonight and dust a few cobwebs off.
Nashville Star -- in person, I think Shawn Mayer looks like she could be a star. She's been playing Tootsies here in town for a while now. There are a few of the girls that really I just want to hug and say go home and be a teenager. Because they'd get eaten alive on Music Row. A couple of the guys are rather... obnoxious. Like they're afraid their 15 minutes of fame might run out any second, so they have to cram everything in right now. Melissa Lawson was definitely the one I related to most - we sat and talked about her kids -- the youngest of whom is 9 months.
Which brings me to the biggest revelation of Nashville Star radio... the contestants are SEQUESTERED. Like jurors. Cell phones taken away, no access to the internet, no contact with their family. The only way they even know if their family is in the audience is if they happen to see them from the stage. At one point, they weren't allowed to see the newspaper for a few days (probably around premiere time.) Quite honestly, I couldn't do it. This is the first year Nashville Star has done this with the contestants, and I have no idea if other reality shows do this, but I was shocked. Especially given that one of the girls is 16.
The production crew was awesome to work with though, and really went out of their way to make sure XM looked good on tape. We aren't in our new studios yet, as y'all know, so that's a bit of a bummer. But at least tune in to Monday night's show and see the XM gang on NBC. 9pm ET!
My favorite part of the show was watching Jon fret over what shirt to wear!
On the subject of reality TV, I just discovered last week that CMT is doing a little show of their own called "Can You Duet." They picked a winner last week, they get a record deal on SonyBMG. Was it just me, or did that show have zero buzz?
On a more personal note... I have a budding songwriter in the family. Delaynie has always written her own little melodies, from the time she was a toddler in the highchair and she'd hum out a tune over and over. Well last spring she and I wrote a little song together, based on that old sailor expression that my dad taught her (and me, 30 years before.)
Red Sky at Night - Sailors Delight!
Red Sky at Morning - Sailors Take Warning
It turned out pretty cute, and she recorded it acapella and sent it to my dad for Father's Day. If I could figure out how to put up MP3's here, I'd share it, because I think it's kind of neat. It's a "round the campfire" kind of songs. We made a pretty good co-writing team, so watch out!
A couple of media events on my to do list this week - including a Trace Adkins #1 party and a Toby Keith press conference. I will let you guess which one I'm excited about.
This is going to be another insane week... I'm hoping to take Thursday and Friday off (as battle pay for Fan Fair week)... I'm heading to Illinois to meet Ryan this weekend. 8 hours in a car with no air conditioning is not good, so I have to get my car worked on sometime... whenever that may be... I'm really hoping that I can talk Gary into taking Friday off and going with me. A) His truck has air B) I don't think I'm up to driving all that way alone. (Isn't it funny how you are going merrily through life, and then when some quack doctor decides something is wrong with you, their "cure" means you barely have the energy to get out of bed?) Anyway. I'm sure I'll blog from the cornfields, but the place may get dusty around here again in the meantime.
So how's your summer?
OH - which reminds me. I would like to take a vacation. I have a free Southwest plane ticket, 3 nights at a Marriott hotel and almost $500 Disney dollars. But I don't do Disney in the summer. Where should we run away to for the weekend without spending a lot of money?
The short list:
Cleveland (Delaynie's dying to go)
Niagara Falls (Gary wants to go)
Hattiesburg, MS (Gary's sister lives there)
None of that sounds exciting to me. Probably because none of them involve the ocean. Or because any of them require more energy than it takes to get out of bed. But I'd like to go explore somewhere funky and peaceful and fun. Not horribly hot or crowded. Does such a place exist?
Before heading to bed, I checked my blog stats, which I haven't done in 2 weeks. Funny batch of google searches that got people here today:
"Kelly Clarkson Pictures of Hair on Reba Duets Show" (St. Joseph, MO -- used to go there all the time to see my stepsons!)
"Carrie Underwood Love Life" (which comes up pretty much daily, however, this time is was from someone in Dubai!)
"Angela Hacker Bookings 2008" (Guessing that search didn't turn up a lot of results?)
"Sommet Center Tower XM" (Hopkinsville, KY -- come on down and see it for yourself!)
The search of the day, however, goes to the person in Ann Arbor, MI who searched "J. Smooze" and wound up at this post, reporting on an event I can't for the life of me remember attending.
Nashville Star -- in person, I think Shawn Mayer looks like she could be a star. She's been playing Tootsies here in town for a while now. There are a few of the girls that really I just want to hug and say go home and be a teenager. Because they'd get eaten alive on Music Row. A couple of the guys are rather... obnoxious. Like they're afraid their 15 minutes of fame might run out any second, so they have to cram everything in right now. Melissa Lawson was definitely the one I related to most - we sat and talked about her kids -- the youngest of whom is 9 months.
Which brings me to the biggest revelation of Nashville Star radio... the contestants are SEQUESTERED. Like jurors. Cell phones taken away, no access to the internet, no contact with their family. The only way they even know if their family is in the audience is if they happen to see them from the stage. At one point, they weren't allowed to see the newspaper for a few days (probably around premiere time.) Quite honestly, I couldn't do it. This is the first year Nashville Star has done this with the contestants, and I have no idea if other reality shows do this, but I was shocked. Especially given that one of the girls is 16.
The production crew was awesome to work with though, and really went out of their way to make sure XM looked good on tape. We aren't in our new studios yet, as y'all know, so that's a bit of a bummer. But at least tune in to Monday night's show and see the XM gang on NBC. 9pm ET!
My favorite part of the show was watching Jon fret over what shirt to wear!
On the subject of reality TV, I just discovered last week that CMT is doing a little show of their own called "Can You Duet." They picked a winner last week, they get a record deal on SonyBMG. Was it just me, or did that show have zero buzz?
On a more personal note... I have a budding songwriter in the family. Delaynie has always written her own little melodies, from the time she was a toddler in the highchair and she'd hum out a tune over and over. Well last spring she and I wrote a little song together, based on that old sailor expression that my dad taught her (and me, 30 years before.)
Red Sky at Night - Sailors Delight!
Red Sky at Morning - Sailors Take Warning
It turned out pretty cute, and she recorded it acapella and sent it to my dad for Father's Day. If I could figure out how to put up MP3's here, I'd share it, because I think it's kind of neat. It's a "round the campfire" kind of songs. We made a pretty good co-writing team, so watch out!
A couple of media events on my to do list this week - including a Trace Adkins #1 party and a Toby Keith press conference. I will let you guess which one I'm excited about.
This is going to be another insane week... I'm hoping to take Thursday and Friday off (as battle pay for Fan Fair week)... I'm heading to Illinois to meet Ryan this weekend. 8 hours in a car with no air conditioning is not good, so I have to get my car worked on sometime... whenever that may be... I'm really hoping that I can talk Gary into taking Friday off and going with me. A) His truck has air B) I don't think I'm up to driving all that way alone. (Isn't it funny how you are going merrily through life, and then when some quack doctor decides something is wrong with you, their "cure" means you barely have the energy to get out of bed?) Anyway. I'm sure I'll blog from the cornfields, but the place may get dusty around here again in the meantime.
So how's your summer?
OH - which reminds me. I would like to take a vacation. I have a free Southwest plane ticket, 3 nights at a Marriott hotel and almost $500 Disney dollars. But I don't do Disney in the summer. Where should we run away to for the weekend without spending a lot of money?
The short list:
Cleveland (Delaynie's dying to go)
Niagara Falls (Gary wants to go)
Hattiesburg, MS (Gary's sister lives there)
None of that sounds exciting to me. Probably because none of them involve the ocean. Or because any of them require more energy than it takes to get out of bed. But I'd like to go explore somewhere funky and peaceful and fun. Not horribly hot or crowded. Does such a place exist?
Before heading to bed, I checked my blog stats, which I haven't done in 2 weeks. Funny batch of google searches that got people here today:
"Kelly Clarkson Pictures of Hair on Reba Duets Show" (St. Joseph, MO -- used to go there all the time to see my stepsons!)
"Carrie Underwood Love Life" (which comes up pretty much daily, however, this time is was from someone in Dubai!)
"Angela Hacker Bookings 2008" (Guessing that search didn't turn up a lot of results?)
"Sommet Center Tower XM" (Hopkinsville, KY -- come on down and see it for yourself!)
The search of the day, however, goes to the person in Ann Arbor, MI who searched "J. Smooze" and wound up at this post, reporting on an event I can't for the life of me remember attending.
22 comments:
I love Niagra Falls have been twice its beatiful and there is a good amount of stuff to do. that would be my chocie.
Come out to Seattle. It's beautiful in the summer, and doesn't get that hot which is actually one thing we HATE about it here). Lots of things to do that aren't terribly expensive (the Pike Place Market, ferry rides, lots of nice parks and hiking, renting canoes, etc.). And I know for a fact that Southwest flies directly to Seattle from Nashville, because we just took that flight back from CMA Fest ;-)
I think I'd go for Niagra Falls too. I just would want to see that piece of nature.
My summer hasn't really started yet. The weather is not acting as if it is summer at all. But I am having a good time just the same. Watching lots of football (soccer) matches during the European Championships. And looking forward to picking up our puppy on August 3rd (and visiting it 4 times before that!).
But first I am going to make a trip to Copenhagen to meet up with a friend and to drive to Hamburg with him to see Bruce Springsteen in concert!
Seattle rocks!!! May be too close to a certain person, though. ;-)
You could go stay in a champagne tub in Niagara Falls, though!
And umm...why does Delaynie want to go to Cleveland? :)
Oooh... Seattle! Interesting. My dad loves Seattle, but I've never been.
Delaynie, as some of you know, is obsessed with wolves. She wants to be a zookeeper when she grows up, and wants to work with wolves.
This obsession with wolves all started with Balto. (Who was a real wolf, not just an animated Disney one.) When we went to Central Park she had to go see the Balto statue.
Balto's body is stuffed and mounted in a museum in Cleveland.
Can I say eeeeewwwww? :P Tell her it smells. :)
Maybe they have wolves at the Seattle zoo.
You do NOT want to come to San Antonio. It's incredibly hot down here. UGH Feels more like August than June. Every time I drive by the Guadalupe or Comal Rivers they are full of tubers (people floating on intertubes not roots ROFL).
Our summer started off with a bang. We had a party on May 31st and My oldest fell down the stairs and broke her leg. One week before high scool graduation. Boot on her leg until some time in July. She has surgery, not related to the leg on July 2nd.
Needless to say her summer is shot. And I"m back to driving her everywhere becaus she broke the right leg.
I'm 99% sure they do have wolves at the Seattle zoo (which is very nice). Live wolves are far more interesting than stuffed ones!
If you do seriously consider coming out here, send me an email (sharding@dogcow.org) and I'll give you more ideas of stuff to do.
Cleveland is okay. I used to live around there growing up. The hall of fame isn't all it's cracked up to be. If you go to Niagra Falls in the middle of July you could see Reba. :) Tickets might be sold out though. Not sure.
My summer is going well. I'm taking an online class which sucks. But, I'm getting lots of Starbucks time in.
Cleveland is okay. I used to live around there growing up. The hall of fame isn't all it's cracked up to be. If you go to Niagra Falls in the middle of July you could see Reba. :) Tickets might be sold out though. Not sure.
My summer is going well. I'm taking an online class which sucks. But, I'm getting lots of Starbucks time in.
I like wolves too. Have been in a Norwegian wild life habitat a couple of times, where the owner is a part of the wolves herd. It is pretty amazing to see her go into them, and tell how she acts around them and why.
Seattle sounds great although I've never been... but I vote for Maine. Quiet, not too hot, ocean... and close to me! :)
I'm currently in the cornfields - gorgeous weather right now... hope it holds up for you. I've got babies all over so I should go bond.
Enjoy your week and weekend!
- lish
Comments on the show itself after watching the first two episodes: At least the judges are giving some constructive criticism. No one is really standing out for me, but I did think Charley Jenkins went home too soon. At the risk of seeming to be unpatriotic, Tommy Stanley's performances have done nothing for me.
That's really strange that they are sequestering the contestants.
I caught the XM clip. The shirt worked. :-) Side note...I didn't see the original airing on NBC for the first episode, but instead caught it on CMT...where there was a commercial for Sirius. I was curious to see if NBC would have the commercial on tonight's show, but it didn't. I'll try to remember to catch the radio portion on Thursday night.
I don't normally watch CMT, but I had seen something about the duet show and watched it one time but couldn't deal with Naomi Judd's comments on an ongoing basis so didn't continue watching.
Are you going to share the lyrics to the song if not the audio? What did your dad think about it?
Trace? Toby? I think we all know which one you're excited about attending. :p
Out of the three choices, I would pick Niagara Falls as well. Seattle will get you to an ocean, but so will Cape Cod. Wherever you go, you need to take more than a weekend to relax and get away from it all.
Have fun in the cornfields this weekend!
Paula
Well that settles it. We'll have to go to Norway!
My dad LOVED the song, has sent it to every Navy guy he knows, including the 5 that work for him.
I will work on getting the audio (and the Keith Urban audio... google "Keith Urban onesie" sometime and see how far that story traveled!) There's gotta be a way.
BTW -- Gary's driving this weekend! Woo Hoo!
The Keith Urban onesie clip was on CMT Insider. I can snag the audio from it, but I don't think it's technically kosher to repost audio from CMT's broadcast...
I'd be happy to have you here.
here is a site you can try for for your mp3 file http://boomp3.com/ I have never tried it, but a friend recommended it.
Excellent that you don't have to drive!! :D
You could always come see Mount Rushmore.... wolves galore out there - but not in a cage!
No, definitely don't snag the audio from CMT.
I have it, it's non-exclusive audio... will check out that site Jona mentioned.
I tried a Wiki one yesterday but didn't like it.
Nice pic of you and Suzanne at Trace's #1 party on musiccitytv.com
Nice find Susan.
Nice pic...and they let you out without the standard issue XM shirt!
Paula
That photo is a lesson in never being too lazy to put on your makeup.
I can't believe Brad put that up... it was a VERY odd story that he even took that in the first place!
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