Pickles and the MiM schedule

Here's some shameless self-promotion - my review of the new Whitesnake CD is now published on Daily Vault.com.

In addition to having a review published - always a good day in my mind - I woke up today. That's better than not waking up in my book.

Second of all, the Pickles cartoon in the newspaper today was hilarious:

I think there are a lot of husbands in the world who read that and think, "Wow. How'd they get the hidden camera set up!"



Third, the Memphis in May 2008 time schedule was released. I think the lineup looks pretty good but, honestly, not as good as last year and not as good as 2004. I think the main gist of my opinion comes from my musical tastes.

I think it would be a good time - the two times I went were a lot of fun - and I admit to liking to being with the guys in a strange city. The weather has cooperated about 75% of the time - there has been rain both times I was in Memphis - but the people are great. I think that there is something to be said very positively for the city of Memphis. There are a lot of attractions and walking down Beale Street and absorbing the history of this avenue is inspiring. The food is outstanding and as long as you don't go to a busy restaurant, you're fine.
This year, though, instead of being in Memphis, I'll be in Iowa. The last time I missed 'the next year' after a Memphis trip, my family went to Disney World in Orlando.

As a side note, in 2008, there's actually no big vacation planned. We are going to not go on a major family vacation. Instead, we're going to go to the Grand Canyon next summer and fly down instead of driving. My parents are taking the kids to Mackinac Island in MI so that's their vacation and my vacation is 5 weeks of camping in Elkader. We will park our camper in our spot on Friday, June 13th (oh how I do not want to have bad weather or issues that day!) and not move it until Sunday, July 13th. Do not expect a lot of updates during that month!


Fourth and finally, there's a lot of good information about Metallica's ninth studio album @ Wikipedia. I have been a Metallica fan since 1988. Shortly after I graduated from high school, it seems, I started getting into their music. In college, prior to the Black release, I was ridiculed for liking Metallica. "That's not music," I remember a friend of mine telling me. That same friend thought "Enter Sandman" was awesome when it was released. Radio stations never wanted anything to do with Metallica's Kill 'em All, Ride the Lightening, or Master of Puppets releases when they were new. Yet, now, the two local rock stations, KRNA & Rock 108, now proudly play vintage Metallica. I've heard "For Whom the Bell Tolls," "Fade to Black," "Seek and Destroy," "One," "Harvester of Sorrow," and, just yesterday, Rock 108's "6 Pack at 5" show started out with "Blackened." I saw the band in August 2004 and they were excellent. I even bought that gig from http://www.livemetallica.com because it was so stellar. I don't really care when the 9th studio CD is released - it could be Christmas for all I care. I just want it to be a good release and for the band to fully integrate Robert Trujillo's bass into their sound. That's the key - incorporate the bass into the next generation of Metallica.