October is....

October is....

My favorite month of the year. Or at least it used to be when I lived in Michigan and we had a little thing I like to call "seasons", which are practically non existent here in Texas. Actually, there are 2 seasons here in Texas. We call them "So Hot I Might F--king Melt" and "Oooooh no, it might actually ice and we better close down the whole town for 3 days". There's no happy medium. I miss the medium. I need the medium. The temps have been gradually cooling down here, and I think we might finally be over the 90 degree days. This week the highs are supposed to be in the 70s, which is not at all resembling the falls I knew up north, but I will take it. I can open my windows and put on my button tab hat and pretend like it's cold outside.

ACL. The Austin City Limits music festival was 2 weeks ago, and once again my cousin and her husband, The Doctah and I went. And once again, we had a great time. Despite the crappy

weather. Friday's weather was amazing - high around 80, sunny, beautiful, perfect. Saturday it

rained all day (which was fine with me, since I didn't go on Saturday) and by Sunday, the entire

park was a mudpit. A stinky, smelly, messy, disgusting mudpit. And let me tell you what, kids,

there were some crazy fools walking around that park in their bare feet. Not Caps, no sir. I didn't want to get any of those crazy worm-like diseases The Doctah was warning me about.

Thank goodness for my $6 Target rain boots. Best $6 I've spent in a long time. One of my

favorite parts of ACL is getting to check out new and little known bands. This is both good and

bad of course, as we saw one guy who was HORRIBLE, but I feel bad slandering his name on my blog. But really, really awful. On the flip side, though, I found a new band that I am totally having a love affair with. The Avett Brothers.

Little known fact about me: I am a sucker for a banjo. I love it. Throw in a couple of grungy looking brothers, an upright bass that the guy actually picks up while he plays, and some really

catchy tunes that are a funky mixture of bluegrass, folk, rock and punk, and you have The Avett Brothers. It's a musical snack. (anyone name that movie?) I immediately came home and downloaded 2 of their albums and haven't stopped listening them since.

Football Saturdays. I have a long standing Saturday morning date with Lee Corso and a cup

of coffee.

The Cowboy likes to sleep until noon on Saturdays (except when he goes fishing, like he did

today), so I get up early, brew a big pot of coffee and lay on the couch and watch College Game Day. Lee Corso is a crazy old coot, but my October Saturdays aren't complete without him, Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard and Chris Fowler. I'm not one for the NFL, but I love college football, and I look forward to Game Day every week.

Halloween! It would stand to reason that since October is my favorite month, Halloween

in my favorite holiday. Well it's not. Thanksmas is. That's a combination of Thanksgiving and Christmas. More on that later. But I do like Halloween, I think it's a lot of fun. It's the only other holiday that I actively decorate the house for.

Our friends always have a Halloween party (see this post, and this post from last year), and we

all have a lot of fun dressing up and getting together. The jello shots help, too.

Yummy. There are certain foods that I only make in the fall/winter months. One of those foods are the pumpkin chocolate chip muffins.

If you haven't seen this recipe yet, please click the link and make them now. NOW. If you have seen the recipe and haven't made them, shame on you. And if you have seen the recipe, made

the muffins and sang my praises, then you are welcome. They are, as Neil Diamond would say, so good. So good! So good! Neil Diamond knows what he's talking about, people. Don't ignore Neil.

The other food that I wait 'till October to make is Gobbles. Gobbles is my family's name for homemade chicken noodle soup. It's my grandmother's recipe. If you are wondering, as many do, why we call it Gobbles, so far as I can tell it's because she sometimes makes it with leftover turkey from Thanksgiving. I never make it with turkey, but I suppose it would taste just as delicious. This is the recipe I've been promising you all week, and I'm going to be cooking up a big pot of soup tomorrow, so the blog will follow immediately. Here's a sneak preview:

Oh mommydaddy. Neil approves of this one too.

I hope everyone out there is having a great October!

(ps - the last thing that October means to me is that I start listening to Christmas music when I'm alone in my car. Yes that's right. I'm not proud, but I do it. Hey, they put the decorations out in September, why can't I listen to the music? Don't judge me.)

Freaks and Geeks

First of all, does anyone but me remember that show (Freaks and Geeks) that was on NBC for like a minute a few years ago? Circa 2000? It was only on for one season, if that, and it had James Franco and Seth Rogan? I think it was produced by Judd Apatow, who of course we now know from his movies such as The 40-Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up, and Superbad (among others). Anyway, I loved that show!!! It was hilarious!!! I was so bummed when it got canceled.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand that was a huge tangent because I'm actually here today to talk to you more about ACL. And the freak show that you get to see live and in person at ACL. Don't get me wrong, I love it. My cousin said it best when she put that "anything goes" at ACL. And that pretty much sums it all up. It's a great place to go and people watch. Which I did a lot of this past weekend.

Now I'd like to point out that I am not judging. You all know me, I'm a lover not a fighter. My life philosophy is do unto others. As long as you aren't hurting anybody else, it's all good by me. Carry on. Plus, I mean, let's be honest, I am in no position to judge anyone.
Right?
But I did see some nuts there.
This guy was so high, he could barely stand upright, let along keep his eyes open. He kept leaning over to one side, slooooooooooowly, and then his buddy would push him upright and he'd leeeeeeeeeeeeean over the other side. His eyes were half closed the whole time, and he seemed to think everything was hilarious. He was having fun. God bless him.
You can see the back of this guy's head in the picture of High Guy above. I call this guy Johnny Mustache. For what I hope are obvious reasons. I have no comment about the hat. Ok, yes I do. I have a comment. I love it. Where can I get one? Johnny Mustache would you please let me have it?
Despite all evidence to the contrary, I assure you that my cousin Angela was not chemically enhanced in any way, shape or form at the time this picture was taken. She didn't even have a beer the whole time we were at ACL. Only iced tea for her and her husband, the Doctah. To tell you the truth, I'm not sure what the hell she was doing in this picture, because unlike her, I did have some beers. So I don't really remember this.

Moving on.Monchichi? Monchichi is that you? At ACL? Are you putting your little Monchichi thumb in your mouth? Or are you smoking a j? I can't tell. Take those shades of Monchichi Man and let me see you!
THIS GUY WAS AWESOME. Take a minute and carefully study this guy. Look at the shorts, in particular. Yes, they are cutoffs. Jean cutoffs. Tight jean cutoffs. Look at the facial hair situation. Handlebar mustache. Chops. Feathered sides.Here's a better shot of the face. I was unable to get any closer shots of this guy and every time I tried someone walked right in front of my camera. I didn't want to be obvious. I imagine his name is something like Steve. Or Chico. Or Robby. And I imagine that Steve/Chico/Robby dresses up like a cop in his spare time. With the whole get-up. Cop hat. Badge. Baton. Maybe even long pants if he is feeling crazy. He just has that "look" to him.

The funniest fun-ball I saw there was at the Kevin Fowler show. I didn't get any pictures of this guy, but behold! I did get a video. This video doesn't do this guy justice. He was a dancing fool. He was getting down like no one I have ever seen. He was all by himself. He was approximately 55. He. Did. Not. Care.



Ok I just watched this video and it's crap. I am sorry. I'm going to leave it here, though, because although you can't see the guy dancing, not even a little bit, what you can see is that I start to laugh as I'm watching him, and the camera starts to shake. Ang and I had tears rolling down our cheeks from watching this guy. After the show, everyone standing around him gave him high fives for all his "spectacular" moves. He looks a lot like Elaine from Seinfeld. I've been told I have a similar dancing style. This guy and I, we were kindred spirits.

That's all for my ACL posts. I will resume my regularly scheduled blogging tomorrow. I got a new job, so for awhile I'm not sure how often I'll be able to blog. I might actually have to, gasp!, work. Imagine!

Happy Birthday Mike!

My cousin Mike's birthday isn't until the end of October, but let's take a moment to wish him a happy birthday. And while we're at it, a Merry Christmas. My cousin Ang bought Mike (her brother) a 3 day pass to ACL (Austin City Limits) last year as a birthday/Christmas combo. For whatever reason, Mike could not make it down here this past weekend to attend the festival, so I used his ticket instead. Happy Birthday Mike! Merry Christmas! And thanks!For those not in the know, Austin City Limits is a 3 day music festival, held annually in downtown Austin's beautiful Zilker Park. Austin is the live music capital of the world, or so I hear. So it's a good fit. The music varies from Gospel, to children's performances, to country, to hard core rock, indie and alternative, Cuban, jazz, etc. There is quite literally something for everyone.

I did not go down on Friday, which I am bummed about because I heard I missed some awesome performances by the Eli Young Band, Patty Griffith, Alejandro Escovedo, N.E.R.D., and Jakob Dylan. Just to name a few.

Saturday and Sunday were awesome though. We saw so many great bands and performers that I already love, and we got to check out a few new acts that I will definitely be looking for next time I go to download some tunes.

I took a lot of pictures. Now, I'm sure most of you have been to concerts and attempted to take pictures. It's not exactly the easiest thing to do, especially if you are in a crowd of thousands (?), and a bit of a distance from the stage, and have had some beers. So keep that in mind when you view my pictures, and remember, I'm no Ansel Adams.

Saturday's favorites included Robert Earl Keen, who I thought I had taken some pictures of, but I can't find them. I think I thought I was taking pictures of him, but got the crowd instead. Happened a lot, I can tell you. So instead, here is a picture of REK that I didn't take.
Looks sorta like Gary Busey, no? Or Kris Kristofferson? (J that was for you)

Others that we saw Saturday include the Nachito Herrera All-Stars. These guys were awesome! A Cuban Jazz Latin type band. They totally rocked and had everyone dancing.

And Iron and Wine. A totally mellow, very dark and beautiful sound. We didn't get to see much of them, which bummed me out. But I am definitely going to be downloading some of their stuff.

My 2 favorites from Saturday were John Fogerty and Alison Krauss & Robert Plant
John Fogerty was awesome. He sang mostly CCR stuff, which was cool. You sort of forget how many great songs this man has written. Or, I should say, I sort of forgot. Every song he would start, we'd all be like "Oh yeah! John Fogerty sang this!". And let me tell you what, for an old dude, he still rocks out with his cock out. Had to say it.

Speaking of old dudes who jam out with their clams out, Robert Plant?!!!??!!!!! Oh my, he is amazing. And he and Alison Krauss paired together? Whodathunk? But it works. They were wonderful, mystical, fabulous, and lovely. Here is the only picture I got of their set. This is unfortunate.
Sunday was another day filled with great musical acts, but more importantly, it brought us this unfortunate moment in fashion.
Don't judge me, people! It was hotter than balls out there. And we were in the beating down sun. Waiting to see Blues Traveler, and the mean man in the blue shirt told me we couldn't sit under our umbrella. Oh, how I wanted to hurt that mean man. So I had to make do with what I had and what I had was this here handkerchief.

This Unfortunate Moment in Fashion was brought to you in part by The Sun, Handkerchiefs, and Blue Shirts.

So yeah, Blues Traveler. They always put on a great live show. That band loves to jam. I swear, they would sit up on that stage for 3 hours straight and jam if they could. John Popper makes sweet sweet love to that harmonica.
And while we're on the subject of big boys who jam out, let's talk about Gnarls Barkley. If you're anything like me, then you know approximately one Gnarls Barkley song and it goes like this
Does that make me CRAAAAZAAAAAAAAAAAAAY
Does that make me CRAAAAZAAAAAAAAAAAAAY
Does that make me CRAAAAZAAAAAAAAAAAAAY
PrAHbobleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Well kids I am here to tell you that Gnarls Barkley is pretty damn good. There are two of them, and I don't know which one is Gnarls and which one is Barkley, but whatever, that big dude pictured above knows how to GET DOWN. I was very impressed. And this time we were allowed to use our umbrellas, so suck on that Mr. Blue Shirt.

My favorite performance of the whole festival (and I know people are going be like, Are you SERIOUS?) was Kevin Fowler on Sunday night. Look, I live in Texas now, and I am country. Kevin Fowler is as country as they come, but that redneck puts on one hell of a good show.

He is entertaining, funny, and he engages the crowd.
We stayed and watched a bit of the Foo Fighters on Sunday night, and they sounded good from where we were. Which is to say, very very far away. We didn't see too much of them, and we left early before their show was over to avoid the crowds.

So thanks again Mike. Hope you get something else you can't use for your birthday or Christmas this year. Like a new car. Or a cruise. Or a new Coach purse. Just give me a call.