Mumford & Sons - Awake My Soul (Live)

I am listening to Way Back Home by Band of Horses. If you have never heard this song, please do so at your earliest convenience :) Every single time I listen to it, it gives me chills. It's like the Beach Boys had their children and they created a band for the modern times. It even has the "wall of sound" so famous from Phil Spector (who unfortunately shot a woman in his home and is now a murderer).

Anyway, the point of this post was that I have been terribly homesick lately. You may have noticed. My heart is on the sleeve of the internet and I am a pretty honest and open person. Now "Infinite Arms" is playing, another great song from BOH. These songs make me feel like I should be cruising along HWY 98. Am I having an early midlife crisis? No. I am happy with my life, family and current situation. However, it's too easy to want more. Isn't it. Sometimes, I want only to take my whole family back to Bay County to live, grow up and enjoy the special places that I know and that Phillip and I enjoyed as an early married couple for a few years. Nothing is the same as home, or being close enough to get there in less than 8 hours.

It has been a hard month to be honest, we took Nick to the ER at midnight about two weekends ago because he couldn't breath. He is fine now. Croup, they said, an easily passed viral infection. I spent the past few days washing everything in the house. Airing out, fresh sheets, throwing out some stuffed animals and explaining that to our kids. In the meantime, Mumford and Sons music helped me out too. Music doesn't give solutions but it certainly helps a scared parent out at times.

When your kids are suffering, there is a part of your heart that will never be the same again. Trust me.

Stars - Take Me To The Riot

Posting some vids from Deluna Artists

Deluna Fest this year will be awesome. I am a big fan of many of the bands that are coming and also love seeing new stuff "live" and then have some new bands to talk with Phillip about. (Bad grammar, it's Friday what do you care). This song gets better as it builds. The vid was directed by the same folks who did some kick butt White Stripes and Foo vids.

If any of you can make it to Pcola for any of the now 4 day Deluna Fest, please do so! We met up with some good old friends last year and of course that has been Phillip and my own hometown at different periods in our lives. We love it! It has the cosmo feel of a larger town with some homegrown friendliness and a ton of great downtown venues, symphony halls, and art museums. In fact, the first Warhols I ever saw were in downtown Pcola, and although I saw many more years later at Boston Museum of Art, the Pcola one I drove there with a few girlfriends...was my first high school brush with art that was not out of a textbook. (Panama City caught up a few years later ;)

Tata for now, but be ready, because I am into a musical mood and there ain't no stopping that train.

Cold War Kids - "Hang Me Up To Dry"

A small post

First, I wanted to ask all of you how you are doing this evening and let you know that we are doing well. This includes alot- A TON. "Alot" can mean different things but we really are doing fine. The kids aren't in the ER. I am so finely mellow after staying in Gulf water for more than just a few minutes- got to swim, soak and talk to some exotic people from far away places (New Yorkers) who were so friendly I had to step back and stop myself from asking if they had lox for my bagels at home.

This place is strange still, my birthplace, the "tampa area" I was born. So many family around, so many holidays spent here throughout my youth (many ones I was ticked about but got over it as I grew up), so many familiar places that my parents went to high school, got married at, family burial sites (McMullens in the house!) and deep sentimental ties (McCarthy/Mock families also) that have been so nice to revisit, especially since my parents come here often.

Family aside, in the end, all I wanted this morning was to not have to THINK, PLAN, CLEAN Or WORRY for just about 4 hours. And ,thanks to my best friend, Phillip, I did. And he gets his. We trade off days sometimes, but this one was overdue for both of us. He had 5 days off in a row, and keeping two young boys happy for 12-14 hours with a nap is hard to do> But, we do it! We take them everywhere....3rd Fridays, wine festivals, Tarpon Springs, the mall which has an indoor playground, the beach,the playgrounds, the gym with a daycare...you name it, we find something to haul them to...just like our own parents did.

I remember sitting in the back of a pickup truck with a camper top with a tub full of scallops leaving Gulf County years ago. My parents didn't ASK if they could take us scalloping..we just did it. Some days, we would end up driving around northern Bay County looking at Antique stores in Eufala, Dothan, Chipley or Youngstown, and come back with cool treasures, just because we were told that is what we were doing that day. We didn't question...we went with the adventure.

Whether you take your kids out on a boat like mine did our whole lives, or you take them to a zoo...the memories you give them stay with them forever. I am proof of that.

But keep in mind..it's ok to take a "break" - each parent getting away to remember and live their hobbies or loves is healthy and needed.

Sharks beware! There's a mommy in those waters! Nothing is more watchful, sharp, or in desperate need of soul Food.

Twitters Anonymous Needs a Meeting Place

There is a ton of stuff to write about like how politicians shouldn't be sexting pics of their weeners to girls they don't know (personally) ...I mean if you're in love (talking to you, Mr. South Carolina) then by all means write love letters and fly around the world to see your women on the side (and ruin your family). But please have some class and at least use POLAROIDS.

Whatever happened to keeping your semi-delusional and fantasy dreams to "yourself" and going old school like FDR did with his famous Lucy. It may make your wife miserable, but at least she has the option to leave you before the entire world knows what a 15 year mind you have. (not you the reader, but the politicians who may happen to read this, in my own fantasy). Technology has come a long way, baby, but it's not been long enough for some minds to grow up with it.

Twitter me this - if anyone wants to see your private parts, they should be at your house, listening to the jazz flute, eating some fondue, and stoking your fire. NOT sending you semi-adolescent pics of themselves with a towel draped suggestively around their torso. NOT someone we need in our government, or in our school systems, churches or other leadership roles.

Besides that, the Big Dipper is out and the heat is too. I have never felt such a hot spring before and I thought the places we lived before had outdone it. No. This place has the prize. Most of the year it is really nice and breezy and peaceful, but I truly think the crazy traffic and heat makes people crazy here this time of year. I almost envy the people I know who live in much different and exotic climates. We have talked alot the past year about where we might live next and all I saw is...further north! We love our family here ALOT but this traffic and the feeling being boxed in this far south is weird and unexpected. At least in the panhandle there are roads taking you to anywhere, immediately - west, east north and south and with alot less time :) I used to get to NOLA in about 4 hours, TX in 6, and ATl in 4.5... That's just a start for most of us trippers who like to drive Out West or just up the Mississippi Delta or to the NorthEast to see old friends.

Oh well, we love what we can do here, and that's alot. Everywhere we have lived, we have found interesting people and places, and sentimental special spots for our family to revere.

What does that have to do with Twitter and the Twittering nude pics of congressmen? Nothing, and thank God.

no moon out here tonight

supposedly there is something going on outside with the moon tonight. no luck here in our neck of the woods. It has been a crazy but good last few days. Kids are still sniffling but no trips to the ER after last week. That was a lesson in being a parent. One of the reasons I used to not want to be a parent was because I knew that being on meant getting your heart broken. It is true, and it happens. The children can scare the shit out of you, and you have to deal with it. There is nowhere to run, and no one to help them but yourselves.

I was always a commitment-phobe, and would get real antsy anytime someone wanted to get serious. I knew that I would react the same way if I ever had kids. This personality trait is one I am constantly working on. A really good friend of mine and I had a talk recently about how the same is true of many things, and how "how" we were as teens or even 20 year olds doesn't really change, but circumstances push against you, and you have to learn to grow emotionally and accept responsibility anyway. Some might say this is "growing up" I say it is deeper than that, not so black and white. I say it is not that easy and that our true nature or personality whatever you want to call it, is a cloudy and unmovable as the weather outside tonight. No moon, just a mass of humid clouds dumping large amounts of heaviness.

In the end, the pay off is that on good days, the light comes out and what we have to do is clear as the sun is bright, or the moon. Enjoy the moonlight, wherever you are. Tell me how it looked!

Mad Men "The Suitcase"

If you have never watched "Mad Men" please do so at your earliest convenience :) We just watched an episode from season 4 titled "The Suitcase" and I have to say it is the best writing for a t.v. show I have seen in a long time. In order to better appreciate it, you would have to see the previous seasons, I admit. On it's own, it was like a post modern Tennessee Williams play, but including more winks and nods towards the impending doom of modern times (Mad Men takes place in a 60's Manhattan ad agency, but there's so much sub plot nodding to race issues, gender issues and it's a general last hoorah of an age before the hippies come in...and they do. As beatniks, and they are not the enemy here, trust me.).

This show represents two decades after WWII when people thought they would live forever, have sex without consequences, and marry without doubts. I love how the writers show women trying to find their way, using their brains and their other attributes to get ahead, and without being judgemental. The men do the same thing, and in this show, all is equal in the end. Whoever has the brains, in each story line, gets a prize. But is it what they really want, or what society is telling them what they should have?

Besides that, the corporate sessions they have of actual ads (Samsonite, Playtex, Ponds, Pan Am) are great , the story boards of old, the radio and tv ads being drawn up and played out in offices that are in the end, million dollar accounts, all with some cocktails at lunch hour and real life history (freedom riders) thrown in to make it seem "real."

I never thought a team of such great writers and actors could be assembled for one place. And it is here. "Mad Men" is for the curious, the open minded, the people willing to revisit a past they may not have known, but their parents did. It is a place to laugh and sometimes get a tear jerked out by scenes that are artfully carved. And, it is art. I said it- there is art on tv. "Mad Men" deserves all the critic's awards it has gained, and it's fan are rabid. I'm on the leash. It's that good.

Bay High Story Vol. 1 Story 2

Back in the day, things were not much different. You had alot of teachers wearing different hats. For example, sports coaches teaching a math, English or Spanish class each semester in order to fulfill their full time job standards. Almost all of these coaches were very good at teaching these subjects, and all was well. There were a few though....

Subject "C" was a coach who taught a secondary math course. They also were a popular coach although there were many who wondered why that particular person was so popular. This coach taught a "class" of a skill that was required to move on to the next grade. Bad move. This coach was always being fawned upon by people who were so insecure as to think they needed to do this in order to get a better grade. In fact, they were right. There were certain people who resisted the coach's unslightly moves and somewhat illegal way of talking that they ignored them. Thus they got worse grades.

This happens alot we are sure. However, to see it happen so blatantly, some students should have spoken up sooner. The coach/teacher was not a good teacher, and would never really answer questions in order to help those that did not wear short skirts or kiss some ass. Is this person still around. You betcha, in some way. Betcha some people better make sure their kids are safe if they are enrolling in good old Bay High, Stay High. Betcha others will always keep an eye open. This coach was better at watching the girls kick a ball around a field then in coaching their math skills. Nobody's perfect but if you sign up to teach, you better be ready for the fall out if you play the field.

What a wanker!!

the thing about kids is that they remember EVERYTHING. They don't forget that you promised another afternoon drive to the beach to have dinner sandwiches with veggies (my fave way to eat as a family...no high chair cleanup or floor mopping afterwards.) No, they won't forget. EVER. Not even after a full day of church, gym, nap, playtime, bubbles, coloring and general center of the world-ness.

Kids. kids kids kids kids. one just gave me a toy blue pick up truck on my knee. Back to parenthood for me. Hope you are having a great day!

Bay High Story Volume I

I promised you guys some Bay High stories, some of you went there, most of you didn't. However, maybe in the stories I start posting you can relate to in some way. Either way, enjoy. All names have been changed to protect the innocent.

Wow. I've got alot. Here's the first one.

At our school, there was a fourway stop. Very infamous. It's still there, just a little different. It had mostly student parking surrounding it. A particular character, A, had just had a dramatic and youthfully romantic relationship that had crashed and burned via locker love letters, late night phone calls (some intercepted by A's parents) and general high school drama and hormones. After a few weeks, A was just getting used to being a single person when the "other person" started dating someone else (C). The other person is "B" - keep up people. Anyway, after some more late night phone calls from person "B" who couldn't seem to make their mind up about what blonde to date (A, or C). they left the radar. However, just as A was moving along in young life, C, in a white sporty convertible type car with their older friends, spotted A walking with their friends at the 4 way stop. A mother f'in standoff ensued. I kid you not- the "German" car that C was in, although not driving, revved up and tried to run down A. No casualties, but the friends of A talked about exactly what happened and were so shook up they almost told authorities. Let's just say karma is a bitch. Which is appropriate. C, B, and their pals had some hard, tabloid times ahead and at least A and their youth left.

More to come, high school was alot of fun, but people were nuts. Next story will be more funny less crazy. It's all true though!!

Kings of Leon and Victoria's Secret have a wedding

Very recently, the lead vocalist for Kings of Leon (Caleb Followill) married Victoria's Secret model Angel with Wings and a G-string (Lily Aldridge). I first heard of KOL while living in Nashville as they were still a somewhat underground Southern rock Tennessee band, who burst forth with a more arena rock sound a few years back. This year, they released an album that I liked even more, as it went back to their somewhat haunting, high mountain sound and Caleb got his Western wear leathery voice back. Welcome back to the South, Caleb.

Anyhow, this is not about their music. This is about rock stars who marry models. It is so common but i wonder how these things happen. Here is a made up scenario for Caleb and Lilly.

(Caleb) "Hi, I'm Caleb, the lead signer for Kings of Leon. You're hot. Wanna jump in my limo and hang while we're in Toronto after the concert?"

(Lily) "Where is Leon?"

(Caleb) "What? Oh, never mind, I think you're foreign so that's ok that you don't know who we are. Anyway, you're hot. Wanna make out in the bathroom?"

(Lily) "You're all grungy, scruffy and smell like cigarette butts and whiskey, but you're famous so that's ok. Let's go make out."

(Caleb) "Right on, beautiful. Let me text my other girlfriends to tell them I'm booked for the night."

(Lily) "What?"

(Caleb) " Nothing, honey bunch. You're a flower in bloom. You're an angel and I'm the devil so let's make some sweet music.

(Lily) "Sure, you're hot so..."

(at this point Lily texts her Ukrainian model friends the following message: "I'm going home with a King, from Leon. Aren't you jealous?"

well, Mrs. Followill, maybe not so jealous after all! Congrats to the happy newlyweds!