My little brother, the rockstar

My little brother John (at left) is a guitar player. Not just any guitar player. A GREAT guitar player. He picked up a guitar my mom bought for my twin brother Austin (at right) a few years back and has since gotten three more guitars (including his prized Gibson Les Paul.)

Well, Wednesday evening my little brother played out for the second time but the first time with a full band (minus a bass player). He did an outstanding job. He played with local legend "Red Dog" (I don't know his real name, that's just what everyone calls him) along with one of his teachers from high school. To say he impressed would be a bit of an understatement. He got to play on some classic songs, including Lynyrd Skynyrd's "All I Can Do Is Write About It," The Allman Brothers "One Way Out" (which he played lead on) and the song in the video below by The Band called "The Weight." Check it out and feel free to let me (and him) know what you think.

Getting Taterized

Thursday I had the chance to go down to an old stomping ground of sorts. I took a 30 minute trip from my home in Sunny View, NC to Isothermal Community College to see Shelby's own Tater perform live in Studio B at WNCW. In the summer of 2006 I got the chance to intern at WNCW, a dream gig for me since i'm such a big music fan. I know many of the people down at WNCW and i've gotten to see many outstanding artists (Jason Isbell, Trent Summar, Darrell Scott, DesChamps Band, Dixie Hummingbirds just to name a few) in the studio thanks to the kindness of the WNCW staff (Dennis Jones, Kim Clark, Martin Anderson, among others).

In any case, here is a video of Tater (Luke Edwards, Roger Padgett, Phil Simmons & Kelly Hull) performing a song from their new live album "Where the Metal Meets The Grass" called "Anatomy." I shot the video using my personal digital camera and was impressed how well it came out (even if the drums sorta make it hard to hear everyone else).

Long time, no post

Been a little bit since my last post, so I figured I'd throw one up here.

Things have been interesting lately over in little 'ole Polk County, where I make the drive from every day to come here to The Star. Let me sum up things just a bit.

Last Sunday on my way home I passed 6 cop cars with someone arrested and bent over the hood of a car. We NEVER see that many cop cars at that time of night unless something serious happened. So, I kept an ear out to see what had happened. Well the next day as I was making a run to the grocery store I passed a small trailer park less than a quarter mile from my house. It was taped off with Police tape and a firetruck and two cop cars were parked outside. This led to me guessing that the trailer had been a meth lab. My mom didn't think so, but I disagreed and said it probably was. I didn't see any fire damage and saw no reason for the police and firemen to be hanging out there.

A few hours later I get a phone call. Sure enough I was right. It turns out in fact that the 6 cars I saw the previous night were directly related. Apparently the police had gotten a call about three suspicious people walking down the road and when they stopped them that led them to the trailer on our road. Bingo, they found the meth lab. Go figure.

And oh yeah, a local Pastor's home caught on fire last night. I was going to the grocery store to get my mom some milk and I turned around and saw a flame coming up over the trees. The fire apparently started in an upstairs bedroom but was snuffed out pretty quickly once all the firemen got on the scene. Luckily no one got hurt.

News just likes to happen around me. I don't know why.

Thoughts of Halloween

Tomorrow i'll be another year older, another year wiser, another year closer to death. But hey, it's Halloween after all! So I decided to sit down here today and discuss one of my more "interesting" Halloween's.

One year when I was a kid we were doing our regular trick-or-treating and we stopped at our neighbors house. This family, whom had a few children that we went to school with, was good friends of ours at the time and we knew them pretty well. My brother and I went up to the front door and knocked. No one answered. But we heard something. Then we heard it again. I wasn't sure what it was, but it sounded like an engine starting up. We walked around to the side of the house to see what it was and about that time the front door FLEW off its hinges. My brother and I turned around just in time to see someone in a Leatherface mask with a chainsaw coming running at us. I think I was about a mile away in less than 10 seconds.

My mom says all she saw was him come out the door then my brother and I bolt past the van in the driveway and into the street. She couldn't stop laughing, and frankly I can't blame her. Our neighbor Rick had gotten us really good. As far as being scared, that had to be the worst scare on Halloween i've ever been a part of.

Something scary happen to you on Halloween? Tell me about it by posting a comment on my blog or dropping me an email!

Halloween and me

So Halloween is coming up. It is easily my favorite holiday of the year. Well, its not an official holiday, but I count it as one. Why? Well for one, what other day do you get fed untold amouts of candy? I mean really, that's a holiday all on its own. But on top of that, I was born on Halloween! Do I need any other reason to love October 31? Nope.

In any case, i've gone out of my way to track down a cool (well, my definition of cool anyway) costume for this year. I have no idea where or when i'm going to wear it, but by gosh i'm gonna wear it. Here is a picture of my self in said costume (I just got the last part of the costume, the mask, in the mail today).

Pretty cool huh? My dear friend Hannah, whom I went to school with at UNC Pembroke, helped me out with the costume. She is the master of costumes, so of course I went to her to plan for Halloween this year. What are you going as for Halloween this year? Let me know by emailing me or droping me a comment on my blog!

NASCAR has a short track date

NASCAR heads out to the oldest track on the NASCAR circuit, Martinsville Speedway, this weekend for the only short track race during The Chase. It should make for an interesting, not to mention nerve racking, race for a lot of the drivers. Here are my predictions for this weekends race.

This week's winner will be: Jeff Gordon
This guy is on FIRE and I see no reason why he won't continue being on fire. He's won the last two events and he finished second here in the Spring behind teammate Jimmie Johnson. Gordon had the fastest car in the Spring but he just couldn't get Johnson out of the way. I don't expect that to be a problem this weekend.

Don't underestimate: Johnny Sauter
The last time the NASCAR crew's visited a short track was Richmond and Johnny Sauter impressed there by running in the Top 10 most of the night. He ended up with a 5th place finish after starting 35th. This week his starting position is much better (13th) and I expect him to finish around the same spot, if not higher.

The underdog: Tony Raines
This guy has been fast this weekend. I don't know why, but he has been fast. He starts 10th on Sunday and was the fastest car in Happy Hour. Don't be shocked if he puts the No. 96 Chevrolet in the Top 10 this weekend.

The Top 10:
1. 24 Jeff Gordon
2. 2 Kurt Busch
3. 5 Kyle Busch
4. 48 Jimmie Johnson
5. 29 Kevin Harvick
6. 1 Martin Truex Jr.
7. 96 Tony Raines
8. 99 Carl Edwards
9. 43 Bobby Labonte
10. 31 Jeff Burton

Racing in Charlotte

NASCAR has invaded its hometown once again. The NEXTEL Cup series is racing tonight at Lowe's Motorspeedway and its sure to be an action packed event. With that being said, here are my predictions for tonight's event.

This weeks race winner: Kasey Kahne
I'm expecting a lot from Kasey this week, considering how bad his year has been this may just be too much. But I'm gonna stick to my guns. I feel like Kasey can win this weekend at Lowe's, he's won here before and usually has a car that can win at this race track over the likes of Gordon, Johnson and the Roush camp.

Don't underestimate: Casey Mears
Everyone remembers that Casey Mears won the Coca-Cola 600 in the spring using fuel mileage. What everyone forgets is that he was running up front, in the Top 5 no less, most of the evening. So its not like he was a 20th place car and stole the race. He was a Top 5, Top 10 car at worst, and won the race. So for those that expect little from Casey this week I have this to say: be prepared to be surprised.

The Underdog: Bobby Labonte
This guys been fast ... he looked like a top 5 car last week at Talladega before his little mistake. This week he took his car and qualified it third for today's race. Look out folks, Petty Enterprises might finally be on the right track.

My Top 10 Predictions:
1. 9 Kasey Kahne
2. 17 Matt Kenseth
3. 48 Jimmie Johnson
4. 24 Jeff Gordon
5. 12 Ryan Newman
6. 16 Greg Biffle
7. 25 Casey Mears
8. 43 Bobby Labonte
9. 2 Kurt Busch
10. 01 Mark Martin