Country Music Hall of Fame

No visit to Nashville would be complete without a little Country Music. I’ll be honest with you, I know next to nothing about Country music beyond some Patsy Cline and the occasional Johnny Cash. I vaguely remember some Kenny Rogers Gambler movie that I saw on TV. I also seem to remember watching a little Hee-Haw when I was about 9 years old. My latest impressions have been that Country is now essentially interchangeable with pop music. Lots of overproduced “crossover” music.



With that being said, I didn’t know what to expect from our visit to the Country Music Hall of Fame yesterday. First off, the building itself is wonderful. It’s got a sort of modern industrial look to it, with lots of exposed steel, glass and wooden floors designed by local architect Tuck Hinton and Associates. Hats off. I’ll also note that whomever did the A/C work did a spectacular job with the tough spaces they had to work with.















The hall is three stories tall. The displays themselves range from showcase style displays of memorabilia to interactive displays. There were two featured displays. The first was Kitty Wells “The Queen of Country Music” . I have to claim ignorance here and I’m sorry to say I hadn’t previously heard of her. She is most notable for being the first woman with a big country hit that demonstrated that women could be commercially viable. The display include lots of personal jewelry, clothing, photos and some video of performances.







































The second was a large interactive display of the Hank Williams family. Lots of photos and personal items. I know of Hank Williams and I know that Hank Jr is a big star, but again, know next to nothing about them. The displays included video interviews of Hank Jr and his children which were informative and touching. The interactive display was a sort of video scrap book where you could browse along and read old newspaper articles. I was so pooped out from trying to drink everything in on the floor above that I really couldn’t focus enough attention on this stuff.

My favorite display was a series of listening “booths” called “Rediscover a Classic” where you would find a very nice display of a classic 45 record and a recording to enjoy. Some real offbeat yodeling or borderline crooner stuff. It appears that they rotate these pretty regularly.

Which brings me to another impressive facet of the Hall. They archive and preserve a massive amount of recordings. Take a look at the shelves upon shelves of recordings and the recording equipment where they systematically transfer the recordings to tape for preservation.































There were also lots of video displays of rare early footage of performers. I particularly liked one of the Jordanairres, a gospel quartet and will definitely be looking them up.

There was also a particularly well done, “Country Music in TV and the Movies” ½-hour semi-documentary that ended with Johnny Cash doing his version of the Nine Inch Nails song, “Hurt” where he reflects on his life to a montage of images from his past. It is by far the better version of the song and hits you like a ton of bricks.

There were also some really off the wall items being displayed such as















Carl Perkin’s “Blue Suede Shoes”






























































Webb Pierce’s “Silver Dollar Convertible” complete with six-gun door handles.















Elvis Presley’s “Solid Gold Piano”

Lots of stage jackets and gowns too including this lovely Patsy Cline one.




















Elvis may have been the King of Rock N Roll but boy did he have tacky taste.

Now from tacky to classy. Take a look at the wall of gold records lining the rotunda wall.















The display makes quite an impression. The record display continues on some interior walls where you can listen to quite a few of them by hitting a button on the display. Nice touch.

















































"Hello, I'm Johnny Cash"

After, all that, the presentation Hall of Fame plaque room was a bit of a let down. The room was a bit plain and a some of the lettering on the displays didn't match the original font when the artist's year of death was added to a previously made plaque. A minor complaint, but it felt a little cheap to me.
















































I enjoyed the visit very much. The presentation really showed the breadth and depth of the genre and really opened my eyes to how much variety there is in "Country" music.

Pansies

We're in Nashville, TN on vacation. Christine ran the Country Music Marathon on Saturday and we are sticking around for a few days to sightsee. Yesterday was an action packed day. One of the highlights was visiting the Cheekwood Botanical Gardens where the Pansies were in bloom. Cheekwood was the mansion and grounds built by Christopher Cheek and Mabel Wood who made their money in Maxwell House coffee! The home and gardens are beautiful.

Here are some photos of the pansies for your enjoyment. I'm sure they all have different names but I was too lazy to record them. Hey, I AM on vacation, you know.




















































































































































Some more photos of the grounds can be found here. Cameras weren't allowed at the mansion. Too bad because there was a pretty good Faberge exhibit there, including 3 "Imperial Eggs".

I'm walkin...

Christine and I are getting ready to go on vacation. I leave Friday for Nashville where Christine will be running in the Nashville Country Music Marathon. I'm really looking forward to this trip. The following weekend, we will be in Eureka, CA to participate in the Avenue of the Giants 1/2-marathon. I haven't done a 1/2 since the debacle that was the San Francisco Marathon last year where I did it, with little recent training. I paid the price in severely swollen feet and lots of pain...

I've been trying to squeeze in some walking over the last month and a half. It's been tough with my heavy riding schedule and because of work. I've managed to get in a few 5-6 milers on the weekend and have been trying to walk Monday nights with some former walk team friends.

My half marathon is in two weeks. Standard procedure is that you taper (rest) the week before the event so that means that this last weekend was my long mileage weekend. I wasn't looking forward to a long walk in the heat the day after a 70 mile, 4400 feet of climbing ride but c'est la vie. I headed out on Sunday morning at 8am armed with my new kicks and a goal of 10-miles. I decided that it is really too late to work on speed so I was just going to concentrate on getting the miles in. There is a ridiculously long time limit of 8 hours at the Giants event as there are many people running the full marathon. Time won't be an issue so I've elected to just take my time and do the distance. I would normally average a few minutes over 3 hours for a 1/2-marathon when I was doing them regularly. This time, I've set a goal of finishing within 4 hours.

I didn't quite get the 10-miles on Sunday but I'm happy with the 9 and a quarter. I could have definitely gone further but I had miscalculated the distance and I was too close to home and it was too hot to go after 3/4 miles walking around the block. I'm going to do some more work the following week and will hopefully be ready for Avenue of the Giants.

Training Log - April 14-19

Monday: 3.5 mile walk at Balboa park with some former Walk Team mates. We picked up the pace a little bit an boy did I feel it afterwards.

Tuesday: Spin class canceled due to rain. I worked late instead.

Wednesday: Rehab United Cross Training class. Hard circuit workout

Thursday: Repeats on Soledad Mountain. Got two climbs in before I ran out of light. Bought some new walking shoes!

Friday: Worked late

Saturday: Team Ride. 71 Miles, 4400 feet of climbing.

Sunday: 9.25 mile walk. HOT!

Team Ride - April 18, 2009

Toughy this weekend. We have pretty nice weather here in San Diego but every once in a while it gets HOT! This weekend we were treated to a lovely combination of low 90's temperatures and a gruelling 70+ mile ride in East County. Take a look at the ground we covered!



















The little loop de loop at the top is repeat visits through Gopher Canyon, a particularly sweltering patch of real estate.

It is not unusual for each of the ride groups to include riders with a spectrum of riding desires and abilities. Ideally, it is best if the riders are have roughly the same abiity level and ride goals. Realistically, this doesn't always happen. I tend to suffer in the heat, while others can excel in it. Some riders excel at climbing while others excel at setting a blistering pace on the flats. Our group has been having trouble riding together as a Team the last few weeks. We had an unfortunate event last weekend where the group got split up for a decently long time which resulted in extra work for some of the riders to reestablish the paceline. No fun. I know that our group isn't alone in this. Perhaps by coincidence, the Coaches decided to really have us focus on riding as a group as much as possible this week. There were a few groans from some of the group but everyone was game to give it a go.

There's too much to tell, but overall I think riding together went a long way to improving trust and solidifying us into a Team rather than a collection of riders. Some riders had to rein it in a little bit, and all riders seemed to be more expressive in their needs. The end result was a slightly slower pace, but a group that really rode together as a Team. Things are really starting to gel. Very exciting stuff.

Totals were 71 Miles and 4400 feet of climbing! I went through 10 bottles of water.

San Diego Custom Bike Show

Following are a few photos from the San Diego Custom Bike Show that took place on April 8th. This event was put together by a group of five local frame builders to showcase hand made or custom bicycles. The main guy is Brian Baylis, a local frame building legend. He's been building custom frames for over 30 years and is know for the high quality of his bikes and his fancy painting skills. Brian, along with a few others at the show were former employees of Masi bicycles located in Carlsbad, CA. Masi is an Italian brand and they opened up a production facility locally.

The show ran Friday through Saturday. Friday was primarily a set up day for the exibitors but was unusual because there were several hands very interesting seminars. While not an aspiring builder I found the seminars to be very interesting.

They started off with Brian speaking to a room of seated guests but soon turned into a very fun informal huddle around him as he lectured and answered questions while filing away on some nice looking lugs.

Following was a great hands on lecture by Dave Bohm of Bohemian Bicycles on using jeweler's tools to make head badges or other artwork for your bike. He encouraged people to take up the jewel saw and do some of the cutting while he spoke. I was so enthralled that I forgot to take photos! Sorry.

Last but not least was Rob Roberson's demonstration on how to to install braze-ons on the cheap by scavaging parts from old bikes and making any tool you need to do the job. His demonstration on how to adjust the fork blades to adjust rake or even out the length was great.















Brian shaping lugs















Getting down and dirty















Filing lugs




















Rob Roberson's braze-on demonstration




















Rob's Fork Rake adjustment Technique




















If all else fails...use brute force!

The following photos were from the exhibit floor on Saturday and Sunday. These and other photos can be seen here














Bamboo Bike!

















































Bruce Gordon Touring Bike

Bruce is another master frame builder.















Wizard #43















Select the photo to read the story.

Wizard Bikes were made by the show organizer, Brian Baylis and his partner Mike Howard after they broke away from Masi. They only made 75 frames. This is number 43. I understand that frame #1 was at the show but I somehow missed it :(

Drillium!

Drillium is the practice of drilling holes, filing or cutting away metal to shave off weight and generally beautify the bicycle. The following Masi is an extreme example of that style. The guy riding it needs to be jockey size to not have the bike collapse under him.



































Slotted Forks















Slotted Chain Stays

Following is my favorite bike of the show. It is a Mario Confente. Mario was another one of the MASI guys. He trained under Mr. Masi himself and was sent to the US in the early 1970's to manage their new operation. The factory was local being in Carlsbad, CA. He broke off on his own and moved his operations to LA and started building under his own name. He died young and had a reputation for peerless work. Double-click on the photos to get a look at the details. Wow. A bike like this sells for over $10,000.



























































I'm happy to report that the show was a success and the group has just announced the date for the 2010 show. Mark your calendars for April 8 through 11, 2010.

If it wasn't for bad luck...

...I'd have no luck at all. Woe is me.

Last week was a doozy.

1) My soft-top convertible had the top get stuck in place while closing.
2) Got my wallet stolen at Union Station in LA and barely made it home
3) The battery in my truck, which has sat idle in the garage for 3-months went bad and had to be replaced when I needed it the most.

Well last night after getting home from spin class I wanted to take out my contacts after showering. The strange thing is that I couldn't find my glasses in my gym bag. Hmm, must have left them on my desk at work after changing into workout clothes. I make my way to work this morning and they aren't at my desk. Oh no. I get back into my car and head back home to find the crushed eyeglasses and case in the middle of the street. It seems that they had fallen out of my bag while I was unloading my car after my workout and had been repeatedly run over during the night. After some futile cursing and driving wheel bashing, I sucked it up and went back to work for the day.

It's easy to feel sorry for myself but I suppose I have to keep everything in perspective:

1) the car is repairable, and here I am bitching about my convertible.
2) I didn't really lose anything in my wallet that wasn't replaceable and I canceled all the cards so quickly that no one had a chance to use them. I was only out the time and cost to replace my driver's license.
3) here I am complaining about my second vehicle.
4) I have a older pair of not so stylish, glasses, that are nearly the same prescription as the ones that were crushed so I don't need to immediately go out and replace them.

I've got a good woman, a good job and my health. Some people have real problems so I'll shut up now.

Training Log - March 30 - April 3

Monday: Nothing. Rest Day

Tuesday: Spin class with the ACE Team

Wednesday: 3 - Mile walk

Thursday: Skipped spin class. Feeling sick again and it was cold and dreary out.

Friday: Snuck out of work for a few hours to attend the first ever San Diego Custom Bicycle Show.

Saturday:

Sunday: