I did not turn on my PC yesterday or Saturday, but I made it safely to Memphis, TN, for WritersUA. The conference is ~200 TWers.
Sunday AM, I woke up fairly early, got showered, and left to go walk around Memphis. I talked to a couple down by the Mississippi River. The husband graduated from the U of I in 1978 and is president of the Memphis Blues Organization. His brother runs an Italian restaurant in Oelwein
The four of us (Karen, Karen's brother Mark and Mark's wife Susie, and I) went to Graceland. We had the tour that included seeing the airplanes Elvis rode on. The tour of the house was as interesting the second time (I went through it in 2004 when I was in Memphis for the Memphis in May concert). I really like the racquetball room with the gold records that line the tall walls.
After Graceland, we went through the Sun Studios tour. It was interesting to see where Elvis recorded and the place he stood in the actual recording room. The tour guide really got into the samples of music he played. I understood where he was coming from b/c if I were ever a tour guide for Metallica's HQ, where they record, I would be just as happy every day. Of course, Metallica's HQ is in San Francisco so that is one job I will not have to worry about having in my life.
Last night, we began our night with supper @ the Hard Rock Cafe. I had a BBQ cheeseburger and it was good. There were a lot of memorabilia about Elvis. There were also a lot of signed guitars.
Then we went to Rum Boogie Cafe. The band playing was good. Then they brought up a guy who looked a lot like John Popper from Blues Traveler. He wasn't impressive. The two guitarists were outstanding, taking extended solos. There was a nice interplay between the drummer and the bassist, whose axe had 5 strings. The bassist had a sports coat on and kind of looked like a geek. The leader of the group had thick glasses and had no hair on his head. The drummer had a Pearl set with two crashes, a ride, and an upside down splash. He had only a bass, snare, mounted, and floor tom. He did some visuals during the course of the night that were impressive.
We walked out of Rum Boogie and about 4 doors down, another band was playing. They had a drummer, bassist (also playing 5 strings - must be a Memphis thing), guitarist, two saxophones and two trumpets. The bassist announced that one of the saxophonists just had his seventh great grandchild be born; one of the trumpet players looked like he was 18. It was a diverse landscape on stage.
Without going into too much detail, I went to the bathroom. I struck up a conversation. It turns out Daniel, the person I started talking to, is from Australia. His story of flying into New York and then making his way across the country with his wife was fun to listen to. We talked about the current state of the music industry and how Justin Timberlake doesn't belong in the Hard Rock Cafe... at all. I brought up Metallica and how they needed to take younger bands on the road with them like how Ozzy Osbourne had taken them out on the road way back in the day (on their Master of Puppets tour). He lamented the lack of a centralized scene like Memphis in Australia. He stated that the talented musicians in Australia are abundant, but there is not a central scene like Memphis or Nashville (his examples). I wished him well on his travels. The conversation capped a great night and made it that much better.
The next session is starting... until later...
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