Packing to head west...again

Don't hesitate to speak Your Mind

Never hesitate to speak Your Heart

They'll call You crazy, When You speak Your Mind

So never, Never hesitate

Brett Dennen

It's Friday night and I have the suitcases out and I am trying to jam as much stuff as is possible into my two bags. One thing about flying this trip is I can take much less stuff with me. One good thing is it will take me 4 hours to go from Madison to Vegas as opposed to three days.

I saw two amazing shows this week. Brett Dennen sold out the 1,000 seat Majestic Theater in Madison and played a wonderfully long set, and even threw in a nice Tom Petty cover in his encore. Jacky danced the night away while I sat in the upstairs with a half dozen friends and drank some beers. In other words she burned calories and I consumed them :)

The second show was Monday night at Schuba's in Chicago. Jacky and I drove down that afternoon had a nice dinner, some amazing popcorn from Garretts, and fabulous seats standing room at the Sara Bareilles show. I have no idea why she chose to embark on this mini-tour to really really small venues but I am so happy we took advantage of this. The capacity for the show was 180 people and the room was smaller than your average school cafeteria. This literally was the view from where we were which was right on the right corner of the stage/ She was closer to me than my tv is to me from my couch. How did we get such a good spot? We tipped the bartender 5 bucks and he taped it off for us. It's good that five dollars and a smile still can get you something today.


The show was wonderful she was funny and sharp. She told of her adventures at the Grammy and gave a huge shout out to my 2008 favorite Ingrid Michaelson. She did a bunch of songs off Little Voices, some new stuff, and covered U2, Rhianna, Cheap Trick, and Bruce Springsteen. The crowd had a great time and we were home by 12:30. And I was in the gym at 8 the following morning.




Here's a video from the show shot right from our spot:

I leave Monday hope to catch the West Coast Conference final that night in Vegas. Get to the Mountain West Conference tournament Thursday thru Sunday that week. I'll attend the Asd merchandise show Monday and Tuesday, and then have friends coming to watch the first two rounds of the NCAA tourney with them.

I head to Utah on March 22nd. It will be a really interesting 2 weeks at the ridge as that marks the first time they will have 60 people up from their max of 45. The dorms are not ready but they are hopeful, otherwise I believe some of the campers( probably me) will be herded to a local hotel. I am really excited to head back and the grapevine tells me that a pool volleyball net is awaiting my arrival :) The blog will be on vacation with me in Vegas but I will try to update daily from Utah with food pics and reports on how the Ridge is handling their expansion. I hope everyone is ready for spring. One thing for sure is my winter ends the moment the plane lands in Vegas. As always Peace and Love, Jim