Thank you sir, may I have another 4 years?

Thanksgiving 2007, Texas Style

We made our annual trip to Sherman, Texas again this Thanksgiving to visit with Ed and Paula Meacham. This is the second year we traveled there to attend the Cowboys game on Thanksgiving day, I smoked a turkey and we cooked all the usual side dishes for the traditional dinner at Texas Stadium.

Since we arrived a day early we were looking for something to do on Wednesday night when I found out the Dallas Stars were playing the Anaheim Mighty Ducks at the AA Center. Ed was all in so we jumped in the vehicle and headed to Dallas. We had a hard time finding tickets which was rather surprising, but then again the Stars were playing last year's Stanley Cup champions. We scored tickets just before opening faceoff, we were worried about what kind of tickets we got when we found that we were about 10 rows back from the ice even with the goal! About the time we sat down the house lights were dimmed and they rolled a carpet onto center ice. We then discovered that it was a special recognition ceremony for Mike Modano for being the NHL's all-time scoring leader for an American born player, not to mentionthe Stars' all-time leading scorer.

The Ducks jumped out and scored the first goal early in the first period and there was no score in the second. Then a few minutes into the third period, who else but Modano slaps a goal from the left wing. A few minutes later Hagman scored to put the Stars up 2-1. They hung on to win and Modano was named player of the game. As the Ducks were exiting the ice up the tunnel just two seats away, Paige was looking over the rail at the players when one of the security guards said something to her. I wondered if she had done something wrong when she turned around to show us that he had given her a puck! Ed said he'd been to lots of games and had never seen them do that before. We were all pretty stoked over it.

The next day we headed back to Irving to go to the football game. We had the smoked turkey, dressing, lots of other dishes as well as lots of delicious beverages. Last year I think it was around 85 degrees, this year the high was 38 degrees with a 20mph wind. There's nothing like entering the stadium, it's complete bedlam. We had just entered the stadium when we heard a loud cheer. We looked up and saw the Cowboy Cheerleaders entering the stadium just above us.

The game got underway and the Cowboys jumped out to an early lead. The strange thing was that early in the 2nd quarter Crystal said she thought she saw snow falling. It was obviously cold, but I would never imagine that it was cold enough to snow. A few minutes later I saw a few flakes fall and then it really started falling hard. It snowed almost the entire 2nd quarter and they just stayed cold the rest of the game. The Cowboys held on to defeat the Jets 34-3, but there still nothing like a live NFL game.

#6 Most Influential Album - "Fandango!" - ZZ Top

It ws 1975, a time when the shallowness of silk shirts, platform shoes, roller skates and disco ran rampant.There was actually a lot of really good music during this time - Bad Company, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Grand Funk RailRoad, Bachman Turner Overdrive, Deep Purple, the Rolling Stones had lots of good stuff too. There were few actual rock stations around Cave City, the closest was FM 102 in Jonesboro, and if the weather conditions were suitable you could pick up Rock 103 in Memphis. Otherwise you had to settle for AM stations which were inundated the airwaves with southern hellfire and brimstone preachers, old time country and yes....disco.

I remember the first time I heard "Tush" off ZZ Top's Fandango! album. I believe it was on the jukebox at the Sugar Shack, the local burger joint in town. There was a jukebox near the front door that had a wide variety of pop and country songs (I remember the song "Sugar Shack" was set to play repeatedly when people weren't paying to hear their selections), and I remember hearing the crunching chords that opened the song and thinking I've never heard anything like it ever. I took a pause from my game of pinball to go to the jukebox to see if I could see the name of the song, and there on the front of the jukebox was a miniature album cover of the two cowboys with bass/guitar with their long-haired drummer. I knew I had to learn more about this band, so the next time I made it to my local discount store I picked up the 8-track. I remember getting home and cranking it up and to my surprise the album turned out to be a live album. I thought I had bought the wrong one, but sure enough I saw where "Tush" was on it. I went ahead and let the tape fade into the raucous roar of a crazed live crowd, then the boisterous introduction but the gravelly-voiced announcer, "GET READY FOR THE FANTASTIC....Z...Z...TOP!!!!!" and the band ripped into "Thunderbird" which just blew me away. That was followed by a cover of Elvis' "Jailhouse Rock" which I actually thought was kinda lame. Following that was "Backdoor Love Affair (which was actually released on their first album)/Mellow Down Easy/Long Distance Boogie" which I thought was great.

From that point, the album switched from live to studio with "Nasty Dogs and Funky Kings" which was a small sample of their later "Eliminator" sound. "Blue Jean Blues" really slowed things down with a classic hardcore blues ballad, then followed by the incredible storytelling in "Balinese". "Heard It on the X" and of course "Tush" were favorites, but nothing will ever compare to the classic "Mexican Blackbird."

Although ZZ Top's first couple albums were largely overlooked, which was sad since they truly were great albums, this album really put the band on the map. So the next time you're down in Acuna, or driving that old Chrysler down to Mexico, be sure and pick up Fandango! on 8-track and.....I mean, load the mp3's on your iPod and take Billy, Dusty and Frank with you.

Can you roll me another Bull Durham please?

9/11 Remembered - Where Were You When The Towers Collapsed?

One of the most widely asked questions asked by the generation which preceeded mine was "where were you when Kennedy was assassinated?" Although I don't really remember it, I know exactly where I was, I was lying in a crib since I was barely a month old. It was a moment in time captured forever in the minds of those who were old enough to remember it.

The question of the current generation is "where were you when the towers collapsed?" I remember it as if it happened yesterday. It was a brilliantly clear, crisp September morning which I was fortunate enough to be able to ride my Harley to work. As I made my way to work, I distinctly remember riding alongside David Hidy, a local banker, who was driving his beautiful dark blue Corvette. I remember pulling up beside him and waving and he waved back. I roared on to work and took a seat at my desk much like every other morning. I began the workday planning my projects when Ginger Nail popped up on MSN Messenger and asked if I had seen what happened. I told her I had no idea what what she was talking about so I tried to pull up CNN.com, which is one of my favorite news websites. For the first time ever, the site was down and only displayed the message "Due to heavier than usual traffic, our website is down." Being that I'm in the web development business, I knew it had to be major to bring their servers down. Eventually the sites came up with plain text and only very few pictures of what had happened. Due to the heavy traffic it took a while before I could actually see video of the event.

It took a while for the gravity of the situation to sink in. Once it did I just felt numb, angry, disappointed and betrayed that the people in charge had gotten too relaxed and let our guard down. The World Trade Center had already sustained a previous attack spearheaded by the same terrorist, it's unfathomable that we would allow it to happen in the same place for the second time.

This past weekend I was fortunate to have provided sound for the Sara Low 5K Run which was held at Batesville High School where Sara Low (pictured above) was a flight attendant in one of the airplanes that crashed into the World Trade Center, ran track and led the Pioneers to a state championship in track. I hadn't really thought much about it until right before the event began. Mindy Lace, friend of Sara gave a very emotional speech in remembrance of her friend followed by a prayer and special music, then a speech by Mike Low, Sara's father who attended the memorial service at Ground Zero.

Dwight Eisenhower once said "A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both." I believe this is more evident in our country now than ever. We should never forget the events of 9/11, and keep our troops in Iraq and everywhere else in the world in our thoughts, as well as hope that the leaders of our country will do everything in their power to prevent such an atrocity from ever happening again.

#7 Most Influential Album - "...And Justice For All?" by Metallica

I grew up during the "album rock" era, which included midnight album spotlights chock full of selections by Robin Trower, Pink Floyd, Yes and many others who produced albums which in some cases entire sides of the album (Google "album" sometime if you're too old to know what they were) were only one song (listen to Pink Floyd's "Meddle" and you'll see what I mean). By the time the 80's rolled around, apparantly the ADD era was ushered in and people could no longer contain a train of thought for any longer than 3 minutes and 30 seconds. I never really cared for the bubble gum so-called "metal" of the 80's where men looked and dressed more like women and the women did. Motley Crue had a couple decent albums then quickly sold out, but beyond that is was pretty much all cookie cutter cheese.

Metallica broke that mold with "..And Justice For All?" released in 1988. Often referred to simply as "Justice" this album is a monster without apology, which I believe the average length of each track was around 6 1/2 minutes.

If you've never heard this album, I highly recommend listening to it with headphones on. "Blackened" kicks the album off and it's one of the most definitive metal tracks ever. The twin guitars fade in signaling that something big is about to happen and it does.

"One", in my opinion is one of the most ass-kicking metal tracks of all time, which if you've ever seen the video you would understand it is clearly a song about the results of war, and contains clips from the classic film "Johnny Got His Gun". The album contains other strong tracks such as "Shortest Straw" and "Eye of the Beholder", but "Dyers Eve", which ends the album, is one of the most overlooked tracks on the album which after years ended up on many of the band's set lists on their recent concerts.

The first time I saw the band, amazingly enough, was in Bald Knob, Arkansas at the site of all the old Strawberry Jam concerts put on by Barth Grayson, which featured two other bands Raven and Axe. I think there were maybe 300 people there and I believe people stayed away either because they were either scared to death of that type of music or just didn't get it. I thought Metallica was the best band there, but to me they were slightly better than the average garage band which I played in at the time. After their set, the members just roamed around the crowd and drank beer and cheered on the other bands like everyone else. Little did I know at that time would they become such a global force in the decades to come.

I really liked their previous releases "Master of Puppets", which could have easily registered higher than "Justice", and "Kill 'Em All" was a great debut, but the "Justice" album really captured the true essence of the band and very few other albums have ever, or ever will, match this type of creativity and energy.

Rockin' The Water Carnival

Doghouse played at the White River Amphitheater in Batesville on August 4. The concert was part of the 64th annual White River Water Carnival, an event which has been a staple of the Batesville community. This year, Steve Thomas and the Batesville Chamber of Commerce decided to beef up the concert series this year by bringing the Oak Ridge Boys on Friday night and southern rocker Jimmie Van Zant on Saturday night.

The weather was extremely hot on Saturday when we loaded in around 3pm, there was a slight breeze coming off the river, but the humidity was unbelievable. Further Down from Jonesboro opened the show and put on their usual outstanding show. We took the stage just as it started to turn a little dark, but it was still extremely hot, so hot my fan felt like a hair dryer blowing on me.

We played in front of approximately 3,000 enthusiastic fans who really showed their support. The sound and lights were incredible and if it sounded anything out front like it did in my monitor, it was awesome. After we finished out set, we were actually called back for an encore! We met back stage trying to figure out what to play, so we came back with The Cult's "Love Removal Machine."

As we exited the stage, Jimmie Van Zant's band mates all complemented us on how good we sounded. I asked Jimmie if he would mind having his picture taken with my daughter and he happily agreed.

Jimmie tried to call Paige out during Skynyrd's "What's Your Name" but she bolted. JVZ played all the Skynyrd and .38 Special favorites and the crowd just ate it up. His original stuff sounded great as well, and really surprised me with a cover of Styx's "Blue Collar Man" which sounded fantastic. Toward the end of the show, the two backup singers (the blonde is Jimmie's wife) got Paige up on stage to do a number with them (click the image below to see the video).

Paige's 11th Birthday Bash

It's hard to believe that it's birthday time for Paige again. It seems like only a couple weeks ago that we were reserving the Mickey Mouse pool for the last one. It's very disturbing how fast she's growing up. It's like the old folks used to tell me when I was growing up that time seems to accelerate as you get older. I'm a believer now.

Anyway, it was an unusually cool July day for Arkansas, highs in the low- to mid-80's with exceptionally low humidity, it really felt more like late September or early October. The water felt great though but getting out was the worst thing since it felt so cool.

I spent the majority of the day cooking chicken wings and pork kabobs, Crystal was busy with the drinks, cake, ice cream. I iced down the drinks and Paige and I headed to the pool a couple hours early to get some swimming in and get things set up.

Lots of Paige's buddies from school were there, some of which were out of town on vacation or were unavailable. We wished they all could be there, but maybe they can make it next time. She got the usual obscene amount of presents and swam for a long time, she basically passed out as soon as we got home.

So that's it for this year, I'm sure next year's party will be another extravaganza, maybe I'll cook up some extra stuff. Regardless, we look forward to the next one already! It always makes us feel really good to see the kids have that much fun.