Concerts

I need to start making a list of the concerts I've been to before I completely forget these things.  Yikes.

2007     Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra @Knoxville
2007     Grand Ole Opry - Clint Black, Trisha Yearwood, Porter Wagoner, Cole Deggs and the Lonesome, Cherryholmes, Jan Howard, Bobby Osborne and the Rocky Top Xpress, The Whites @Ryman Auditorium, Nashville

2008     Paramore, Jack's Mannequin, and Paper Route @Memphis

2009     Zoso and Appetite for Destruction @Knoxville

2010     Asher Roth, Flogging Molly, Passion Pit @Knoxville (Volapalooza)
2010     Rodrigo y Gabriela @ Knoxville

2012     Anberlin @Purdue
2012     Papadosio @Bloomington
2012     Big Gigantic @Bloomington
2012     Coldplay and Robyn @Houston
2012     Michael McDonald, Donald Fagen, and Boz Scaggs Dukes of September @Houston
2012     The Flaming Lips, Willie Nelson, Snoop Dogg @Houston (Free Press Summer Fest)

2013     Lynyrd Skynyrd and Bad Company @Indianapolis

2014     Doobie Brothers and Boston @Houston
2014     Don Felder, Styx, and Foreigner @Houston
2014     Ringo Starr & His All Starr Band @Houston
2014     Paul McCartney @New Orleans

2015     Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band @Houston
2015     Jerry Jeff Walker @Austin
2015     Elton John @Houston
2015     Old Crow Medicine Show and the Avett Brothers @Houston
2015     Jackson Browne @Houston

2016     David Gilmour @Madison Square Garden
2016     Pearl Jam, Van Morrison @New Orleans Jazz and Blues Heritage Festival
2016     Journey and the Doobie Brothers @Houston
2016     Def Leppard, REO Speedwagon, and Tesla @Houston
2016     Flight of the Conchords @Houston

2017     Metallica, Volbeat, Avenged Sevenfold @Houston
2017     Roger Waters @Louisville
2017     38 Special @Houston
2017     Alice Cooper, Deep Purple, and Edgar Winter Group @Houston
2017     Foreigner, Cheap Trick, and Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin Experience @Houston

2018     Leon Bridges @Houston
2018     Peter Frampton and Steve Miller Band @Houston
2018     Jonny Lang and Los Bandoleros @Houston
2018     Gary Clark Jr @Houston

2019     Turnpike Troubadours @Houston
2019     Fleetwood Mac @Houston
2019     Yonder Mountain String Band and Dangermuffin @Houston

2019     Queen @Houston
2019     The Rolling Stones @Houston
2019     Heart and Joan Jett and the Blackhearts @Houston
2019     KISS @Houston
2019     Eric Clapton w/ Bill Murray, Joe Walsh, John Mayer, Albert Lee, Buddy Guy Band, Tedeschi Trucks, Doyle Bramhall, Alan Darby, Gary Clark Jr., James Bay, Keb Mo, Lianne La Havas, Los Lobos, Robert Cray, Robert Randolph, Tom Misch, Vince Gill and Band, Bradley Walker, Jerry Douglas, Jonny Lang @Dallas
2019     Tenacious D @Houston

2020     Trey Anastasio @Houston
2020     Grace Potter @Houston
2020     The Eagles @Houston
2020     The Who @Houston
2020     Chicago and Rick Springfield @Houston
2020     Steely Dan w/ Steve Winwood @Houston
2020     James Taylor and Jackson Browne @Louisville
2020     Black Keys w/ Gary Clark Jr. @Houston
2020     Journey and The Pretenders @Houston
2020     Backstreet Boys @Houston

2021     Jason Spooner & Jay Psaros @Plymouth

2021     Shakey Graves @Houston
Hopefully many more to come.

Trip to Utah

I recently took a trip to Utah for a class and thought I'd post my favorite pictures from the trip here.

Arches National Park

Theropod footprint

Delicate Arch under the Milky Way

Tyler's artwork

Milky Way over Moab

Whoa what?!

Castle Valley

Castle Valley

Castle Valley

Onion Creek diapir

Come Up the Years
Jefferson Airplane - 1966

I ought to get going
I shouldn't stay here and love you
More than I do;
'Cause you're so much younger than I am.
Come up the years, come up the years
And love me, love me,
Love me.

A younger girl keeps hanging around,
One of the loveliest I've ever found,
Blowin my mind, stealing my heart
Somebody help me before I fall apart.

I ought to get going
I shouldn't stay here and love you
More than I do;
'Cause you're so much younger than I am.
Come up the years, come up the years
And love me, love me,
Love me.

The things she's doing keep turning me on,

And I've been happy to go right along

I know it's time that I've said goodbye

I know that I can't leave,

No matter how hard I try.

I ought to get going
I shouldn't stay here and love you
More than I do;
'Cause you're so much younger than I am.
Come up the years, come up the years
And love me, love me,
Love me.

Today was an awful day

Today was an awful day.

Well, I've finally finished. I have defended and submitted my thesis. I am a Master of Science.

What a relief.

Seriously couldn't have finished this thing on time without my friends. Holy cow. I love you guys.

I really don't know what else to say here. It's been a long a winding road.

Next stop: Houston.

This is Life

I am not well-known and do not expect at this point in my life that I will ever be remembered for anything monumental or worth putting in a book. Perhaps someone in the years to come will stumble upon something I have done or to which I have contributed, and perhaps they will for a moment daydream and wonder who I was, pondering my life much in the way that I ponder about the lives of the people who leave behind their anonymous footprints in the snow...

I have frequently battled with the collective mindset of history's greatest philosophers who boast ardently of love and life and purpose, waxing poetic about human nature. I have questioned the validity of their words for fear that my existence in this world in this time is an error, that an ingredient essential to human nature was missing at my conception...that I am doomed to a life forsaken of the ability to thoughtlessly embrace such vital elements as love, life, and purpose without condition. And yet, I have always dreamed of and striven toward the fabled sense of fulfillment and passion intrinsic to being unconditionally loved and in love with another.

Today's society is two-faced: We worship the ideal of true love and romance, yet we criticize those who abandon logic for love. True love is all that you need to survive, yet we never cease the selfish scramble to fill our lives with that which brings security. And yet, in the most average of people, there glow the faint embers of hope. A hope that, despite the cruel and insensitive expectations of this world for how we should live and die, such beautiful ideas as love and romance may magically exist for us or perhaps even someone close to us, and that this may restore our faith in humanity.

I am through questioning fruitlessly about the concept of being in love, because I have found someone who stands apart from this world of miserable cowards, of which I am a member, afraid to recklessly embrace passion between themselves and another lost soul. I have found someone so genuine in heart whose sense of love, life, and purpose are so romantically entwined and embraced that, in coming to know her, she has released me from my own and from society's shackles of uncertainty and self doubt regarding true love and life. My glowing embers are brought to life by her faith that romance is as powerful an element in our lives as we desperately hope it can be. I am alive.

At long last, the marching band show from my freshman year of high school.

2003 Cabell Midland Marching Knights - Knights Around the World

Hopefully the 2004 show pops up somewhere.