FIELEing Fine in FRANKLIN

March 14, 2009

An Irish/early St. Patty's Day festival probably should have weather indicative of Ireland and that was the definitely the case yesterday for Fiele Franklin. Despite the inclement weather, we donned our raincoats and decided to check out this free event. This was the sixth year Franklin has held this festival in its historic downtown area, but the first time we have attended. The rain mercifully let up as we pulled into town after picking up our friend, Nate, but you could tell the earlier downpours had definitely affected turnout. There were only a sprinkling of people milling about downtown and it looked like several vendors had decided not to set up because of the weather. We strolled around and popped into a few stores and put our names on a waiting list for lunch at the local Irish pub, McCreary's. This little pub was quite popular, but definitely worth the half-hour wait. The food was tasty and the beer choices were quite varied and very affordable. A "late lunch" turned into about a 3-hour "sit-in" of trying different beers and just hanging out in the festive atmosphere inside. Our friend, Carolyn, joined us a bit later and the frivolity continued. Nate and Rob decided to tackle the beer-tasting event that concluded the festival while Ashlee and Carolyn opted for a bit more shopping and socializing. The beer tasting event was set up in over twenty different locations in downtown Franklin and allowed patrons to taste beer and shop at the same time (good marketing idea!). For more information on the beer, check out Rob's beer blog entry.

http://seerobsbeerblog.blogspot.com/

Brother, Sister Hazel Is A Great Band

Friday, March 12, 2009 To have been together for as long as they have, the Gainesville, Florida-based band, Sister Hazel, sure seem to be "Happy" to still be together and playing great music. We caught up with the band once again (this was Rob's fourth time seeing them and Ashlee's second) at The Wildhorse Saloon down on busy Second Avenue in downtown Nashville. Since it was a Friday night, we hopped on the late afternoon Music City Star train leaving near our house in Lebanon and rode it downtown so we both could imbibe a bit and not worry about driving. Unfortunately, the latest return train leaves Nashville at 9:30 PM which wasn't of any use to us since the show didn't start until 8 PM and Sister Hazel didn't take the stage until 9. So we arranged for a car service to take us back home a little after midnight. We did this last year during the Crawfish Boil: http://collagebarrage.blogspot.com/2008/05/twist-em-pinch-em-suck-em-chase-em.html and it worked out great. This time was even better because we got a much better rate for the car service using Metro Livery. Nice clean sedan, polite and safe driver. Money well spent. http://metrolivery.com/ After getting off the train we had an early dinner at Big River Brewery and enjoyed their new Irish Red Lager they had on tap. The rain held off for our short walk over to The Wildhorse. Doors opened at 6 and we showed up arond 6:45 and their was a line to get in the place. It moved quickly at least and we found a table on the main floor and Ashlee was introduced to the wonderful taste of Newcastle Brown Ale (she's given up wine for Lent and it's opened quite an avenue for discovering the great taste of well-made beer - wonder if she'll ever go back?). Opening for Sister Hazel was Michelle Malone who we thought was trying a little too hard to look and sound like Sheryl Crow, but after a few songs it was evident that her sound was actually a little harder than Crow's and not half bad. We abandoned our table when Sister Hazel took the stage and moved on to the main floor within just a few feet of the stage. The band's latest album release was an acoustic set of their greatest hits and crowd favorites, but it was evident after just a few seconds that this was NOT going to be an acoustic concert. The boys took off running and never looked back for an hour and a half of their best songs like "Your Winter" - "Swan Dive" - "Beautiful Thing" plus a great version of The Police's "Every Little Thing She Does." They closed the show with their amazing power ballad "Champagne High." This was the first concert that either of us had seen at The Wildhorse and we were impressed. Nice large venue, good acoustics and great sight lines from all over three floors. We opted to pay a few more dollars for a "meet-n-greet" with the band backstage after the show and weren't sure what to expect. Would it be a long wait and then an assembly-line-like procession with a quick intro and autograph opportunity?? Nope, it was a real meet and greet in a nice roomy lounge backstage just a few minutes after the show with the guys just mingling with the fans taking pictures, shaking hands and signing autographs. We met each of the band members, Ken, Ryan, Drew (who looks a lot like our friend, Kevin Swinger), Jett and Mark. They each signed a "Chasing Daylight" CD jacket of ours and posed for a few pics. The Wildhorse also had a staff photographer on site taking pictures of fans with the band that they post to their website and let you download for free. A very impressive and enjoyable overall experience. Looks like we will have to visit The Wildhorse again if the right opportunity comes along. After our brush with minor stardom we still had about 45 minutes before our car was scheduled to pick us up, so we dodged the raindrops once again and walked over a few blocks on Broadway to check out The Big Bang - a dueling piano bar that we had heard good things about....we heard right...man, what a fun place!! They were in full swing when we got there banging out one great sing-a-long tune after another. The place is small but there is plenty of seating. We have definitely got to get back down here and spend more time at this fun place!

Oh I Wish I Was an Oscar Maybe Winner

As we prepare for our friends', The Edmondsons, party for The Oscars coming up in a couple weeks, it's time to do our homework and start checking out the "Best Picture" nominations of which we have seen exactly zero up to this point although we have been wanting to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The Reader - 2/2/09 Our first choice tonight was The Reader - a post-Holocaust story set in Germany starring Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes. Winslet is also up for an Oscar nomination for her strong starring role. While the story took a little time to set up making the first hour a bit slow, the second half became very compelling. A haunting ending made this movie a great start to the Oscar competition and very worthy in our opinion of the nomination for Best Picture. Thanks to our friend, Casey, for going with us to see this unique film. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - 2/3/09 As slow as the thick gumbo from New Orleans from where this story is set, but just as satisfying is The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Dream-like in story line and presentation, this movie was beautifully filmed and brought together. However, the leads, Brad Pitt (up for Best Actor as well)and Cate Blanchett, were solid but not electrifying in their performances; it was fairly predictable in story line; and there are no truly unique qualities to the film to set it apart in motion picture history (way too many similarities to Forrest Gump). All these factors lead us to believe it's probably deserving of the Oscar nomination it got ths year, but it will struggle greatly to place or show, let alone win. Slumdog Millionaire 2/4/09 Blown away. Simply blown away. Slumdog Millionaire is an amazing movie that definitely leads the pack so far in terms of our opinion of Best Picture. Rob gives his utmost apologies for bashing this movie and the praise it's been getting without even seeing it (honestly, the trailer for it does it ZERO justice). It truly is a remarkable achievement. Totally shot in and around the slums of Mumbai (formerly Bombay), India, in broad, sweeping shots and brutal close-ups, Danny Boyle, the director, deserves all the accolades he has been getting and much more. The actors, all unknown in the U.S. until now, all turned in terrific performances. So far this film would also be the leading contender for Rob's "They Should Make Ensemble Cast an Oscar Category." The story was both smart and involving. As close to a perfect film as you will ever see. Again, we were simply blown away. Thanks to our friend, Casey, for going with us to see it, and to the Mt. Juliet police officer for just giving Casey a warning when he rolled through that red light on the way home. Milk 2/5/09 Overall a good film but pretty much your run-of-the-mill bio-pic. Sean Penn gives a strong, subtle and respectful portrayal of slain civil rights activist, Harvey Milk, who was the first openly gay person elected to public office in the United States back in the mid 70's. Director Gus Van Zant did a superb job of melding stock footage from that era into his film while also shooting some scenes in a way that made them look like stock footage as well giving the whole picture a nice documentary-style feel. There was a decent ensemble cast but no one's character really stole any scenes from the powerhouse that is Penn, who is also up this year for an Oscar for lead actor . He could snag it, but we don't see this film breaking out of the pack of contenders for Best Picture. Slumdog Millionaire retains it's strong lead in our opinions. Last up will be Frost/Nixon which we will have to travel to Nashville to catch this weekend or next week because the theatre here in Mt. Juliet was only showing it at 10:25 PM this week?? We do applaud the Providence 14 at Mt. Juliet for at least having all the Best Picture nominees playing. The lame Roxy 8 Theatre here in Lebanon had exactly zero playing. Par for the course here...yip, yip. The Wrestler 2/6/09 Our friend, Carolyn, invited us to dinner and to go see The Wrestler at the Green Hills Theatres in Nashville. While The Wrestler is not a Best Picture nominee it does have a lot of Oscar buzz for the lead actor front-runner, Mickey Rourke. After a great dinner at Mirror Restaurant, we got to Green Hills just in time for the start of the movie. The Wrestler takes a no-holds-barred (pun intended) look at professional wrestling and the struggles of a washed-up star of it and his struggles in and out of the ring. Rourke is amazing and will probably take home an Oscar for this performance. Good movie overall and a nice addition to our week of nominated flicks.

Frost/Nixon 2/22/09

Well, we couldn't have waited any longer to see the last contender for "Best Picture" than we did for Frost/Nixon. We stepped out of the theatre after viewing it with just an hour and half before the awards started being handed out. We can't really use any of the tired cliches like "we saved the best for last" or "it was worth the wait" to describe Frost/Nixon. It was a solid movie throughout with a great protrayal of Nixon by Frank Langella (well deserving of his Oscar nomination for Best Actor), spot-on directing by the ultra-talented Ron Howard and a great supporting cast. However, a "Best Picture" nomination seems to be a bit of a stretch. We think we found out which of the nominees could have been left out and The Dark Knight included as a "Best Picture" hopeful. But it was not meant to be I suppose. We don't see this one getting any awards.

FOOTNOTE - 2/23/09

The Edmondsons' party was superb as was the The Oscars telecast. Hugh Jackman did a suprisingly good job as host and we were happy to say that we saw all the main-category Oscar winners (Slumdog Millionaire as Best Picture and it's director, Danny Boyle, for Best Director; Kate Winslet - Best Actress; Sean Penn - Best Actor; Heath Ledger - Best Supporting Actor) in their respective movies and agreed with all of them except Best Supporting Actress...frankly we just don't care to much for Penelope Cruz or Woody Allen movies so we never saw it or her performance and we probably won't ever see it. It was great fun attending all the wonderful movies over the last month and getting the chance to discuss them with our friends before and during The Oscars. We look forward to doing it all again next year.

Point This Beast North - Caribbean Winter Retreat - Days 8 & 9

January 2nd and 3rd, 2009 Two days at sea seems like a long haul, but with a ship like the Celebrity Solstice there are plenty of things to keep you occupied. We played several games of bingo but never even got close to seeing any prize money. At least Rob was able to win our bingo entry fees back plus a whole lot more with two first-place and a second-place finish in one-table poker tournaments in the casino totaling $480. These tournaments were played on the new dealer-less and card-less style electronic tables. Each night the ship's main theatre had wonderful live shows including aerial acrobatics similar to Cirque du Soleil which they said had never been done on a cruise ship before. Reading, relaxing and eating were popular activities as well with too many visits to the pizza bar (man, they make good ones!) and Rob's constant challenge of our waiter, Ben, each night at dinner. Rob usually ordered a NY strip steak along with his entree and then one night ordered three entrees asking that one be brought out for the appetizer course, one for the salad course, etc. Ben was a professional and gladly obliged every silly whim. We found a great piano bar one evening and stayed late singing along despite being the most under-dressed in the room. Rob's other obsession, besides NY strip steaks, was trying to read each and every famous quote posted above the urinals in each of the public bathrooms throughout the ship. He says there is just something about reading a quote from Oscar Wilde while relieving one's self - very sophisticated. TV-watching is always relaxing, and with the great screens in the staterooms chock full of free and pay-per-view movies on demand and the discovery of the giant screen in the Celebrity Central Theatre broadcasting NFL playoff games, it was a guilty pleasure to plop down in front of the boob-tube for a while. Oh yeah, and there were plenty of opportunities to drink...one of our other favorite past-times.

A Dutch Captain in a French Port Livng the American Dream - Caribbean Winter Retreat - Day 7

January 1st, 2009 Happy New Year! Captain Paul has got it made. A great job, a beautiful wife, the body of a 25-year-old (he's well into his 40's) and healthy disgust for the French. Captain Paul was our guide today in our third and last port of call, St. Maarten, as we headed out for a day-long snorkeling adventure that would take us to three different locations. Evelyn chose to sit (or should we stay "shop") this excursion out, so it was just us and who Ashlee refers to as "that boy-kid." After sorting out who our driver was from the melee that was the cabbie/bus/tour stand near the port (geez, what a circus!), we were off to the French side of St. Maarten Island which is split evenly between them and the Dutch who lay claim to the port where we were docked. The waters of St. Maarten were by far the loveliest so far we had seen and the French side is a bit more tranquil and serene and as Paul says, "the French chose the best spots - the bastards." Paul is captain of the Awesome Too, a beautiful 30' powerboat which offers small charters in St. Maarten which we highly recommend. You can find information on his tours at http://stmaartencruiseexcursions.com/StMaartenIslandSnorkeling.htm. Our first stop after a 30-minute ride out of the quiet marina and into the "real ocean" was off the shore of tiny Tintamar Island. After our first snorkel we swam to the beach and Captain Paul invited us to partake in a mudbath he concocted of volcanic ash on the island which he guaranteed would take ten years off - did we mention he looked very young for his age - so we were sold. This "mud" was actually a very strong cleansing and exfoliating agent and felt amazing on our skin. After letting the sun bake it dry it was back into the ocean for an exhilarating cleansing that left your skin smooth and silky not to mention the water seeming colder thanks to all those open pores. We motored another five minutes to Penal Island enjoying cold Carib Beer on the way for our second snorkel. Here we were able to hand-feed the friendly (and anxious) fish soft bread. Amazing! Again, the water was crystal clear and we enjoyed some of the best snorkeling we have ever done. Another five-minute ride with a slight detour past a nude beach (no binoculars were provided unfortunately) and some more Caribs brought us to Green Key. Saving the best for last, this late-afternoon snorkel was amazing with incredibly beautiful coral lit by the sun's rays and some larger sea life as Ashlee saw a pretty big lobster and Rob spied a sea turtle thanks to Captain Paul sharp eyes. We motored back to the dock afterwards with more cold Caribs and good music playing on the stereo. Man, what a great way to spend the first day of 2009! This was mutually agreed upon to be our best excursion of the cruise and St. Maarten definitely makes our list of places we want to come back to if we get the chance.

A Fortress With a View - Caribbean Winter Retreat - Day 6

Wednesday, December 31st, 2008 "Hello, my name is Pompy." With that simple introduction we were off on another driving tour at our second port-of-call, St. Kitts - one of two islands that make up the tiny nation of St. Kitts and Nevis. While waiting on our tour to start, we had taken a short walk around the port and capital city of Basseterre and quickly surmised that this was, in all honesty, quite a poor country. Businesses, houses and even government buildings were shabby and in disrepair. The streets were crowded and littered with trash. Obviously, our first impression of St. Kitts was not very good. Things did improve somewhat once we were able to leave Basseterre on our tour and some of the lush natural areas of the island came into view. Unexpectedly, we started and ended most of our tour privately with just us four and our driver, Pompy, in a small bus that could accomodate up to 14 people. We did make one detour to pick up some obnoxiously loud and brazen Texans who had went to the beach earlier that day on the slightly more upscale side of the island and needed transportation back to the port. Once we got rid of them, the scenery and the peacefulness got much, much better. Our first stop was at the former Romney Manor Plantation . This is an interesting place historically, as well as, the current home of a thriving artisians studio known as Caribelle Batik, an early form of tie-dying clothing. The plantation grounds are also now a beautiful botanical garden. Our final and best stop was Brimstone Hill Fortress, a hand-built 18th century stone fort sitting high up in the lush rainforest with tremendous views of the coastline and neighboring islands. Today was another rather short day ashore, but it was, of course, New Year's Eve and time to start preparing to ring in the new year. We counted down the year 2008 and brought in the year 2009 out at sea on the main deck around the pool area as a live band played and thousands of our shipmates cheered with us. Not quite the celebration we saw in New York City a few years ago that topped 1 million participants, but still a pretty uniqure way to usher in the new year. Evelyn turned in early and Matt hung out a with a gaggle of teenagers he had befriended on the boat within a day or two of sailing. We were thinking of turning in early as well after we finished our bottle of champagne just after midnight, but strolled to the Lawn Club on the back of the boat to escape some of the melee around the pool area and struck up a conversation with some nice folks from Texas (obviously not the same ones from our earlier tour experience) and New Jersey. Three hours and another bottle of stolen champagne later (Rob says it was justified...who charges $30 for two glasses of champagne on New Year's Eve??), it was bedtime. Another great, long day cruising and the end of a great year for us and the start of what we hope to be yet another one.

San Juan via Orlando -Caribbean Winter Retreat - Day 5

Tuesday, December 30th, 2008 Today was our first port of call, San Juan, Puerto Rico. Our amount of time in port was rather limited (2 to 10 PM) as were our options for shore excursions. We arranged a private car tour of Old Town and the rest of San Juan via Fairway Transportation - we highly recommend their services: http://fairwaypr.com/index.html. Our driver, Orlando, picked us up at the port in a beautiful new Lincoln Navigator and we were off in style. Besides the comfort and class of our car, it was also a relief to have someone driving who knew the area and how to navigate the crazy traffic in San Juan. Man, what a mess! Tiny, crowded streets and what Orlando called the "Puerto Rican way" of driving (i.e. half-hearted observance of stop signs, aggressive merging and constant tailgating) would have made any visitor behind the wheel a nervous wreck, but he took it all in stride with a smile. Orlando gave a great tour and provided a lot of information about his city, his U.S. territory and his people. We wound around Old Town with stops at the two forts that flank the city (the latter included a beautiful park encompassing it and a seaside historic graveyard), a couple of beautiful churches, the capitol building, the governor's house, the business district in the newer part of San Juan and the large Hilton proprety that lies between the new and old sections of town ( this was a request by us for future reference in case we want to stay here again). After the tour, Ashlee and I made the foot-climb from the port back up into Old Town for a peek in a few shops and a stop for a couple of beers at the Old Harbor Brewery (San Juan's only microbrewery). Well worth the walk! As we wondered back to the ship for our late evening departure, we surmised that another visit to San Juan and some of the rest of Puerto Rico is definitely on our list of things to do in the future.