Tunes-day Trio: He's a Strait Shooter

Last weekend, the one and only George Strait was in Salt Lake City for a concert.

He brought Martina McBride along, and (from personal experience) they both rocked the ESA.

So I figured this Tunes-day Trio would highlight three great songs by the "King of Country".

Note: picking just three is a tough task. He's been entertaining for over 30 years and has 59 number-one hits in his career. That's a lot of options to choose from!*

Fool Hearted Memory (1982)

That was his first hit. Classic country, eh?

Check Yes or No (1995)

Probably my favorite George Strait tune. And Becca even recognized it! Who'd have guessed that the Utah guy would know more country music than the Tennessee girl?!

River of Love (2009)

Here's his latest #1. Still going strong.

You'll be missed, George! Happy retirement!

*A small sampling of other George Strait hits: Ocean Front Property; All My Ex's Live in Texas; You Know Me Better Than That; Carried Away; Carrying Your Love With Me; Write This Down; The Best Day; She'll Leave You With a Smile; I Hate Everything; She Let Herself Go; Give It Away; I Saw God Today; Love Without End, Amen; Troubadour

Next Week
Ok, I'm thinking these Tunes-day Trio's could be even more fun if we do them together.

Here's my idea: I'll give next week's topic, and if a song comes to mind, please let me know in the comments, and I'll figure it into next week's post (if multiple people comment on the same song, then it's likely a shoe-in).

On that note, here is next week's topic: Colors

If you've got a song that's related to colors in some way (title, lyrics, artist, whatever), let me know by writing in the comments.

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Metallica Monday: Fuel

The saga of my healing from a torn Achilles tendon continues...

My doc and the PT cleared me just this month to begin doing workouts again, and it's been awesome.

Not working out was driving me absolutely crazy, so I've loved getting back to the gym.

Mainly I've been swimming and biking, and this week I've done a little on the elliptical.

And those sweet, sweet endorphins just keep fueling my fire to want to get back in shape for races and triathlons this summer, and to drop all the unwanted pounds I've put on both before and after the injury.

Which is why today's Metallica Monday song is none other than:

Fuel

If that video and song doesn't get you pumped up, I don't know what will.

So what fuels you?

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My Pot Doth Not Runneth Over

Moms like to drop wisdom on their children.
Especially on their sons.
Especially about cooking.

Due to snow conditions, I couldn't make it down to my parents' house for Sunday dinner.
Instead, I stayed home and made a little pasta.
I kept the water from boiling over by putting a wooden spoon across the top.

Which is a trick my mom taught/mentioned to me not too long ago.

See that? Sometimes we even listen to all that good parental advice.

Thanks again, Mom.

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Cowboy Rides Away: Farewell, George Strait

Some singers and bands are a must-see. If you have a chance to see them, you have to go.

U2, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Elton John, Aretha Franklin, etc, etc.

I imagine George Strait and Martina McBride would be on the country music fan's must-see list.

On Friday, Becca and I decided to take a chance and try to get into the "Cowboy Rides Away" concert at the Delta Center (ok, ok, the Energy Solutions Arena).

Tickets had been sold out for a long time, and the ones being sold on KSL.com Classifieds were all ridiculously marked-up from the actual ticket price (and I generally refuse to pay scoundrels who look to make a buck that way), so I took some cash out and we figured we'd see if we could low-ball some scalpers outside the venue.

If we didn't get in, no worries. We hadn't even considered the concert until about 10 hours earlier, so it wouldn't be a big loss if we didn't get in.

But if we did, and for less than ticket cost, thus sticking it to the scalpers, that'd be a sweet deal.

And that's just what we did.

The concert was scheduled for 7:30, and we arrived at 7:50. The scalper hemmed and hawed, debating if anyone else would come along on a cold-ish night and not already have tickets, or if we were his last chance.

He tried to get more money. A couple times.

I wouldn't budge.

He delayed. I pulled out the money, so he could see it.

He delayed some more.

I made a comment to Becca (loud enough that the scalper could hear) about going to get dinner instead.

And the scalper bit.

Ah, it feels good to have ticket price justice!

Inside the concert, Martina McBride was already singing (apparently there was no local opener), so we found our seats and started enjoying the show.

Martina did a great job and sang mostly her hits, which we appreciated.

Even famous openers are still openers, and they should focus on their main songs, right?

After a (surprisingly brief) intermission, the King of Country came out and got things started.

He played a lot of great songs, and I knew most of his stuff.

There were some more obscure ones from his early days, but they were still pretty cool to hear.

After playing a long time, going through each decade of his long and storied career, he wrapped things up, left, came back for an encore, and then was gone.

But he left us with a smile.

What concert should we try to go sneaky, last-minute on next...?

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Tunes-Day Trio: Gritty Gals

As announced yesterday in my Metallica Monday post, this is a new music series I'm gonna do here.

Welcome to the first Tunes-day Trio!

Today I figured I'd start it off with three songs I've really been digging recently.

They've got some edge to them, maybe even more so for me, considering the first songs I ever heard from these three artists seemed to be in the soft & sappy genre.

"My Oh My" by Tristan Prettyman

The first song I heard from Tristan was "Love, Love, Love". Funny how the topic can be pretty similar, but the delivery makes such a huge difference in conveying the message.

"Happy Pills" by Norah Jones

Clearly, Norah's breakout song was "Come Away with Me". Or was it "Don't Know Why"? I'm not sure. Either way, she's made a lot of music since those two and her new album is a fun chance to see how much she has stretched herself since she hit the big-time.

"Raise Hell" by Brandi Carlile

Ok, so the first song I remember hearing from Brandi was "The Story", which does get a bit heavy musically at some points. But "Raise Hell" seems to take things another shade darker, in my opinion.

If it means a chance to keep exploring and remembering awesome songs like these every week and grouping them together for your enjoyment, I'm pretty excited about these Tunes-day Trio posts.

I've already got a bunch of ideas, but if you, my beloved readers, have any suggestions for a topic, that could be a fun challenge for me to explore and try to fit what you give me...

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Metallica Monday: Tuesday's Gone

It's been a little while since I've done a Metallica Monday.

To be honest, I've been busy living life, and blogging hasn't been a high priority. Sorry.
Also, I've realized that eventually I'm going to run out of Metallica songs to use.

Which is why I'm going to use this Metallica Monday to introduce a new set of music blogposts here on Guy Smiley's Guts:

The Tunes-day Trio

It'll be a set of three songs that have a theme or something in common.
And it'll be on Tuesdays.
Hence the Tunes-day Trio

Like Metallica Monday, it may not be every week, but I'll try to make it a regular post.

Anyway, Metallica did a great, topic-appropriate cover of a Lynyrd Skynyrd's tune:

Tuesday's Gone

That maybe isn't their cleanest version (on the Garage Inc. album, FYI), but it's more interesting to watch than a lame slide-show of Metallica pics, which is mostly what YouTube has to offer.

Here's to the remaining Metallica Mondays and its successor set, Tunes-day Trio!

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Retiring My Favorite Jeans

Does everyone have a favorite pair of jeans?

Well I do.
Or perhaps I should say "I did."

Because they have reached that sad point of needing to be retired.

They'd reached that perfect level of comfort, as you can see by the worn marks from my cell phone (left leg) and keys (right leg) and served me well for quite some time.

The first time they almost died, I asked my mom to patch up the spot, and they survived another year or so. That was a tear under the leg, and wasn't really visible after she did her handiwork.

The death blow was dealt by a small worn-through spot right in the front. Cant' really patch that up, and can't hide it. So I think they've run their course.

Since they're beat up, I don't think it'd be appropriate to give them to DI or Salvation Army or any place like that. I was going to just chuck them, but that seems like a terrible waste.

Looks like there are some interesting recycled denim Pinterest ideas, but I'm not too crafty when it comes to fabrics and sewing...

How should I use them? Anybody have a viable suggestion?

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Django Unchained Was Djust Jdandy

I maybe saw the new movie Django Unchained three times last week.

Don't judge.

Especially if you haven't seen it yet.

It took me a while to warm up to Quentin Tarantino films, but after Inglorious Basterds I was hooked.

So why did I like this movie enough to spend almost 9 hours of my life watching it?
I'm glad you asked.

1. Clever writing, especially for Christoph Waltz
     His calm demeanor and straight-forward explanation of what is happening come across great.
     Seeing him as a hero in this one is a nice contrast to his villain role in Basterds.

2. Absurdly bloody gun violence
     Yes, Tarantino makes sure to include plenty of fake blood explosions, as expected.

3. Humorous moments
     You wouldn't think a raid by white supremacists could be a funny thing, but this one is.
     Django's choice of costume for being a valet is hilarious.

4. Tender moments
     Primarily between Christoph Waltz and Jamie Foxx, as their bounty-hunting friendship develops.

5. Great variety of music choices, including:
     - the 50's-TV-sounding theme song (Django, by Luis Bacalov)
     - an original song, that I can't understand but I still really like (Ancora Qui, by Elisa Toffoli)
     - classic oldies song (I Got a Name, by Jim Croce)
     - some sweet rap action by Rick Ross

     -etc, etc

6. On a serious note, I cringed at the brutally honest portrayal of slavery and how people could be treated as animals and property. But I appreciated that it was honest and didn't sugar coat such a terrible thing.
     Apparently Tarantino's taken some flak for being a white director and making this story about slavery.
     Well, Spike Lee, maybe you should have done it first. Quit complaining if you didn't have the balls.

7. Fantastic acting
     I'm particularly referring to Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leo Decaprio, and Samuel L. Jackson.
     Each plays their part spectacularly, and I'm very glad Will Smith turned down the Django role.

Now, I must put a disclaimer on my review.

This movie is not for everyone.
It's not for people who can't handle violence.
It's not for people who are squeamish about how slaves were treated.
It's not for people who abhor swearing and can't stomach use of the n-word (which is used often, as would be historically accurate [right?]).
It's certainly not for children.

That being said, if you aren't in those groups, I'd recommend seeing Django Unchained.

And remember, "the D is silent, hillbilly."

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A Solid Music Morning

Some mornings get started off on the right foot, and music is usually a big part of that for me.

Here's what I woke up to on my randomized iPod mix:
Tupac "2 of Americaz Most Wanted"

Fun fact: at one time, I could recite entire songs of Tupac lyrics. Maybe I should work on that again...

Beach Boys "Surfin' USA"

Fun fact: I used to listen to Beach Boys on the way to triathlons, in order to amp myself up.

With those two songs starting my day, how could I not be energized?

PS Honorable mention goes to Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight", which I heard as soon as I got in the car.

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We Need Your Help to End the VVS Epidemic

What's that? You don't know what VVS is?

It's an acronym for the very serious issue of Vertical Video Syndrome.

This PSA can explain it better than I can:

I've seen the horrible effects of this disease, and I've felt first-hand the pain of being exposed to it.
We must eradicate it as soon as possible.

Will you join in our crusade? Who will be strong and stand with me?*

*Yes, I just quoted Les Mis. So sue me.**

**Please don't actually sue me.

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My First Marathon: Guest Post on "Leaving the Nest"

I've been invited to do a couple guest posts, and I'll admit that I've slacked on getting them done.

But the LaMays invited me to share a first experience on their "Leaving the Nest" blog, so I buckled down and got it to them just in the nick of time.

For my topic, I chose to discuss the experience of my first marathon.

Check out my guest post, including some pictures of skinny runner me, by clicking here.

Have you guest posted before? What was your experience?

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