Movies, Music, Hockey...(and Ducks?): Late April into May 2015

Thursday, April 23 - We attended Game 5 of the opening round of the NHL playoffs tonight which was a fantastic 5-2 mud-hole-stomping win over those hated Blackhawks by the Predators!  The game included a franchise-first-ever playoff hat-trick by our awesome, young winger, Filip Forsberg (who should have been in the running for rookie of the year).  Below is a quick video of the aftermath of that fantastic feat:

(Editor's note:  The Preds went down swingin' a couple days later in the next game in Chicago by a score of 4-3, giving the series to the Blackhawks  by a 4-2 margin.  A tough way to end an exciting season.  See ya next season, guys!  2nd Editor's note:  The Blackhawks amazingly went on to win the Stanley Cup this year.  Well, if ya gotta lose..)

Friday, April 24  - We attended the Closing Night of the Nashville Film Festival (NAFF) with a screening of the quirky comedy, Welcome to Me starring Kristen Wiig.  We hung out at the Closing Night Party afterwards and had some free booze and food and heard the announcement that this was the most attended NAFF ever in their history.  Congrats to this great event!

Tuesday, April 28 - We saw Ryan Adams  tonight at The Ryman in the second of his two shows that SOLD OUT very quickly.  Now we know why.  He puts on an excellent show with a great voice and smooth guitar play.

We had a great dinner beforehand at UP, a rooftop lounge down in The Gulch atop the new Marriott hotel.   The temps were a little cool and forced us to sit inside, but the vibe and views are great and this will be an excellent place to hang out this summer and beyond.

Ryan had a very cool, laid-back stage set-up  complete with a vintage Dr. Pepper machine and an arcade game.  He's definitely the real deal.  He had guest appearances by Jason Isbell and his wife, Amanda Shires plus his opener, Natalie Prass (who we weren't overly impressed with).   The coolest moment of the night was when he did a cover of "Summer of '69" by BRYAN Adams, a song he infamously freaked-out about someone jokingly '(and drunkenly, so the story goes) kept requesting from the crowd the last time he played The Ryman.  Below is a snippet of that cover:

Saturday, May 9 -  Today we cashed in a little Christmas stocking-stuffer fun with a Chattanooga Duck (DUKW) ride.   What a hoot!  This is a much more interesting outing than it might look with great views of the city from the water.  We should have done this a long time ago!  Later that evening we watched the Memphis Grizzlies get a playoff win at the fairly new World of Beer bar/restaurant downtown with our friend, Mike.  We closed the evening with a stop by the also-new Casual Pint craft beer bar and market on the North Shore.  Both are great new additions to this continually-growing town.

Ashlee's pic of me riding in the Duck made the Tennessee Aquarium in the background look like a watercolor painting.

A photo of a Duck from a Duck passing each other on the Tennessee River in downtown Chattanooga.

Sunday, May 10 - We had an excellent Mother's Day brunch at Beast and Barrel on Chattanooga's North Shore.  The food and mimosa bar were top-notch!

Monday, May 11 - Tonight we saw Ed Kowalczyk, founder and lead singer of the 90's rock band, Live,  at The City Winery for a SOLD OUT show as he performed the entire classic 1994 Live Throwing Copper album acoustically in an on-going 20th anniversary celebration and national tour. It was an excellent show that ended with several other Live songs as well as a couple new solo tunes. The food and wine we had before and during the show were great and this new Nashville venue continues to impress us.

We even got to meet Ed after the show.  The big surprise of the evening for us was that he had Zak Loy, lead guitarist of one of our favorite bands, Alpha Rev, accompanying him on stage. I think we shocked Zak a bit when we recognized him from his "other job."