7 posts tagged “the gourds”
Let's try this again. I had an entire post typed and even had pics and then vox went haywire on me and I lost ALL of it. Ugh.
First off- Happy New Year folks!!
Bart and I celebrated New Years Eve in Austin, Texas. We went to The Gourds New Years Eve Masquerade Ball at The Waterford House Grand Ballroom. The show was nothing short of AWESOME. The Gourds rocked our socks off to some new tracks off of their new album Haymaker, along with all of their other awesome songs.
We did however have an awesome time, and it was awesome to see our Austin friends again after not seeing them for so long. Here are some photos from the evening. (It's a whole collections o click on the thumbnail and you'll be taken to all of the photos.)
After we left the club we went back to our Hotel room where we had a Hot Tub in the room, and believe me we made good use of that little gem before we went to sleep. :-)
The next morning we woke up and met a new friend of mine I met on Myspace for breakfast, and then drove to Franklin, Texas to see another friend who recently moved up there. On the way to Franklin we passed a few abandoned farms just off the highway and stopped to take some photos that I think came out really neat. You can view the photos here.( it might take me a while to rotate them all the right direction because for some reason they did not upload with correct orientation..weird.)
Since we've been home I've been preparing to do a second Body For Life challenge. My first challenge went so well I'm planning on doing at least 3 back to back challenges this year. It is truly the BEST way to get in shape and stay that way. My menus are made, food is purchased, and I've dusted off the dumbells. My start date is on Monday. YAY! I'll be posting updates on my Body For Life Blog on Wordpress each day so stay tuned!
I hope everyone had a happy new year and here's to being Divine in 09!!
I don't know why I haven't blogged about this yet...but yesterday's question about best photos of the year got me to thinking about some exceptional shots I got on August 13, 2007 at Warehouse Live in Houston Tx. We were there for The Gourds Cd Relase Party for their latest album Noble Creatures. It was a truly amazing night filled with lots of good drink, great music, and best of all...I got some GOOD shots!!!
Bart and I have followed The Gourds all over Texas for the past 5 years. They are an amazing bluegrass/rock/americana band from Austin, Tx. Over the years we have become good friends with all of the guys in the band and Bart even printed some T-shirts for them and made stickers for one of their tours. We always get to hang out with them after shows, and I have NUMEROUS autographed albums, and other Gourds Rarities I have collected over the years. I hope you will enjoy these shots as much as I enjoyed taking them...
Exercise Related: As I said before I got through that first Firm workout on Thursday and was damn near crippled yesterday..My legs were SO SORE.(Seriously..just standing up from a chair was extremely painful!) I took the day off yesterday to give myself some recovery time and this morning I got in the pool to do some deep stretching in the water. It was OH SO NICE for my aching muscles! I just got finished doing another workout and I'm feeling pretty good!
Tonight: Tonight Bart and I are getting our very first night out together for the summer! We are going to a CD release party for The Gourds at Warehouse Live in Houston! It should be an AMAZING show as their new album ROCKS! I'm taking along my camera so I am going to try to get some good shots of the band doing their thing... There's also a Meteor Shower tonight so we are planning on spending some "quality time" in the pool watching the meteors after we get home. Bart's parents are actually keeping the kids at their house tonight so we should be able to sleep a little bit extra in the morning! YAY!
All in all things are pretty good around here...I'm feeling relaxed, happy and fulfilled. Hope everyone is having a great weekend!!
xoxo,
Cat
As most of you know I have been deathly ill for the past couple of days....Today the kids are well enough to go back to school and I am starting to feel a LITTLE better. Especially since I made some KILLER Andouille, Chicken and Okra Gumbo last night....that shit was rockin'! My poor little coonass soul almost couldn't take it....(Thanks Mom for the recipe!!)
I thought I would put up some of the music I will be jammin to while I get my house back in order and sanitized from all the sickness germs:
This is a little Gem of an album that my big brother turned me onto while I was home in Louisiana for a visit. It's really good and mellow and bluesy....Perfect for chillin.
A day of cleaning and jammin would not be complete without The Gourds....Personal faves are Rugged Roses, Roll and Tumble, Pill Bug Blues, Dirty Plaid Coat, Ceiling's Leakin', When Wine Was Cheap....oh hell what am I saying...I love it all!
I had the pleasure of seeing Robert Randolph and The Family Band on tour this past summer with The Drive By Truckers and The Black Crowes....They totally blew me away...We could not stop shaking our butts the whole time they played....OWEEE!!
A good day of Cleaning and chilling would not be complete without a whole mess of The Drive By Truckers....If you have never heard any of their stuff I suggest you go on Rhapsody and check them out....Good Southern Rock...All country fried and shit...
Split Lip Rayfield...What else can I say except Psychobilly Bluegrass Punk....Complete with a stand up bass made out of an old ford truck gas tank.....Like Slayer with a Banjo and Mandolin....They are on Rhapsody too.....
Just like the album says....a dirty old one man band....Awesome..makes ya wanna move...
I saw these guys perform with The Reverend Horton Heat two years ago on my husband's birthday....these guys are as crazy as it gets.....The Must've Been High album is my favorite....Top Track? Must've Been High....It's on Rhapsody...Check it out..
Ahhh...The Asylum Street Spankers.....I've seen them a LOT....Always a treat....I think they have some Spankers on Rhapsody.....Definitely worth checking out....
And that my friends is it.....It's gonna be a weird day to say the least....Dayquil, Crazy music, and Defunking the germs from my home.....Wish me luck!!
I left last Wednesday morning to go and visit my family in Louisiana. I had an awesome trip but I am exhausted now that I am home.....Here I will attempt to remember accurately what all happened while I was gone...
Wednesday: I arrived in Baton Rouge about 12:30ish in the afternoon and went to mom's house to see her and Jack and the kids...we hung out and discussed our plans for going to New Orleans the next day to go to the Aquarium of the Americas and to the IMAX show HURRICANE ON THE BAYOU. My brother showed up after he got off work around 4:30ish and I followed him to his house....
We stopped at the Circle K on the way and bought some beer and liquor...went to his house and hung out and ate some kickin chicken breasts and veggies that he and Molly had grilled outside on the patio...then we imbibed ourselves on beer and shots....
Thursday morning I took Levi back to Mom's house and we left to go to New Orleans for our aquarium trip.
Here is a shot of me driving across the spillway to New Orleans.
This is a photo I shot when we arrived in New Orleans..Notice the large Clarinet sculpture on the Holiday Inn Building.
Here is a photo of a riverboat on the Missisippi River.
Here is the outside of the Aquarium.
This is one of my favorite photos from the trip. Me and Esther and Levi were standing in front if this huge tank trying to take a picture of what was inside and got our reflections instead. (Nice thumbs up Levi).
Here is another shot of Me and Esther and Levi.
Unfortuntately out of the hundreds of pictures I took inside the aquarium not many of them actually turned out very good. You would think an 8MP camera would take good pics but I guess not.
After we left the aquarium we went next door to the IMAX to watch the Hurricane On The Bayou show....it totally moved me....Mom had to get the kleenex out for me....I am still in awe of how much damage that storm did...not just to New Orleans, but also to Missisippi and Alabama. So sad.
While we were at the IMAX I walked into the gift shop and Esther had spotted this HUGE stuffed frog....I couldn't pass up buying it as a souvenir for myself...(Hey you only live once!)
This is the Frog. Cute huh?
Thursday night I had more drinks with my brother and Molly. We had dinner and passed out.
Friday morning I got up and went back to Mom's with Pat so we could go to Port Hudson National Cemetery to put flowers on Dad's grave. It was the Marine Corps Birthday so we did Yellow and Red Roses, with some other flowers. It was nice. Not fun...but nice.
Friday night mom made some Kickin Gumbo....mmmm... Make you wanna slap your....well you get the point...It was Awesome....After the gumbo I went back to Pat's house and my uncle Eric came by to see me...we had more drinks and hung out...
Uncle Eric.
My big brother Pat with a drink.
On Saturday we did a cookout. It was supposed to be the first time all 5 kids were together since Dad's funeral but my brother Rick never showed. It was a bummer but we survived it. Would have been nice to see him though. The food was great....It was LSU game day. They were playing against Alabama....
We headed over to Chelsea's Cafe at about 6:30 to watch the game, and had some Fried Mushrooms an Fried Green Tomatoes...YUM! LSU won of course so we celebrated.
The Gourds were playing that night after the game....(A great band if you should ever want to check them out) I have been friends with these guys for a few years and they were surprised to see me in Baton Rouge since usually they only see me at their Houston or Austin shows.....I explained to them that they were playing in my home town....
Here are some pictures from the show..
Kevin Russell. One of the coolest guys you could ever meet.
Max. Banjo player, Mandolin Player, Fiddle Player Extrordinaire.
Here you can see Jimmy with the Bass guitar and Claude with the Accordion.
I am not really sure what happened with this photo...but I think it looks really cool...you can almost see the motion.
Same here. Kevin has 3 heads and Jimmy has two...Weird...Wonder what happened?
The show was awesome...we left the club at around 1:30am...went back to Pat's and I packed all my stuff to get ready to leave early in the morning. I went to bed around 2 and got up at 7 and loaded the truck and headed back to Mom's to say goodbye to her and Jack and the kids.
Then I got on the road and headed back to Texas. Somehow I made a wrong turn and went an hour out of my way before I realized I was lost...so that sucked but I made it home from Baton Rouge in 5 hours and Bart and the kids were thrilled to see me.
I passed out at 8:30 pm last night and woke up at 7:30 am this morning...
Whew! What a trip!
For those of you who know me well you know I am a planner to the point of being Anal Retentive....
I mapquest everything....even stuff that is in the general area that I live in....I even mapquest from my Treo...it's obsessive..
I check the weather several times a day and everytime I am leaving the house to see if I am going to get caught out on the roads in bad weather..hell...my friends even call me "Doppler Mom" because I have A Weather Channel App on my Treo 650 where I can get live Radar at the push of a button...
I am currently planning out my trip to Louisiana.
So far it looks like rain there on Wednesday but I am not going to stress about that as the forecast could change between now and then...I am hoping it does because I LOATHE driving in bad weather...
I am still working it out whether I will get a hotel or not...it will cost a little more than 200 bucks for me to get a hotel...which isn't bad for 3 nights but I could think of lots of other things I could spend that money on..(like a tattoo!) But I have not decided where I will stay if I DON'T get a hotel....I could stay at mom's house or I could stay with my brother...both are free...but I haven't worked that out in my head yet....I am kind of leaning towards Pat's house though because he is working during the days on both Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday and the only time we would get to hang out is at night anyways...so it kind of makes sense to me for me to stay there at his house and spend the days with Mom and Esther and Levi and Jack. (I am still waiting on a call back from him though to make sure the offer is still open.) IF I do stay with him that will free up a couple hundred bucks to spend on outings and such while I am in town...(Or a tattoo!)
I think that on Thursday I will be taking my little brother and sister(and whoever else wants to go) to the Aquarium of the Americas in New Orleans....I have never been there but I read the website and it seems like a cool place...plus they have an IMAX there that is running a show called Hurricane on the Bayou that I would like to see....(Yes I have mapquested directions from mom's house to the aquarium)
Friday I am going with the family to Port Hudson to my father's grave. I can't say that will be a fun trip...or even that I am looking forward to it...but I feel a need to go and that's that. (yep mapquested that too)
I am not sure what we are doing on Saturday during the day but I know that on Saturday night The Gourds are playing in Baton Rouge at a little place called Chelsea's Cafe...(already mapquested it).So my brother and I and his girlfriend are planning on going to that...(Since it's a cafe little bro and sis could go too but I am not sure that's a band they would like) Either before or after the show I would like to go and get my tattoo fixed. I have a tattoo on my right shoulderblade that i got when I was 16, it is of a sun and was supposed to look like the Henry Rollins Search and Destroy Sun..that he has on his back....only much smaller and on my right shoulder blade...
Well...needless to say it didn't turn out looking like that....since I was only 16, and had never experienced much pain physically in my life and I was a total wimp...plus it was a friend of mine using a guitar string and some kind of pen ink I think to do the tattoo...so needless to say it didn't get completed....I have heard that homemade tattoos are much more painful than the ones done with a real tattoo gun...but I am still leary of it...as a matter of fact just the sound of a tattoo gun makes me want to climb the walls...but I have had this ugly wiggly sun outline that isn't finished long enough...it is time to cover it up so it doesn't look like I let my 7 year old come after me with a sharpie...
Here are several designs I am thinking of...
This one I like because it looks very "natural" with the stone sun and the ivy.....I figured since I already have most of a sun outline I will end up sticking with something of that General shape....
This one makes me think.."OMMMMMMMMM"
This one is cool.....but I would have the artist do something different with the eyes I think..
Not sure why but I like this one.....it's very "different"....
This one is my favorite of all...I could envision this as a large back piece....just don't know if I could sit for that long without hardcore drugs...LOL.
Here is a collection with the rest of my tattoo artwork in it that I have considered...check it out..you might find something you want to use for yourself...
Usually when I have a dream I don't remember it the next day. It is quite common for me to remember bits and pieces but never the whole dream.
Last night I had one of the strangest dreams I have had in my entire life(well that I can remember anyways), and I remembered all of it when I woke up this morning...
First let me give you a little bit of background on some of the characters in my dream...
The Gourds...This is a band that my husband and I have been acquaintances with for several years....I am also one of their biggest fans...if you are interested in checking them out go here:The Gourds Website They are a local band out of Austin Tx. and we have seen them perform MANY times. Kinda funky bluegrassy stuff but they rock!!
Ok...here's the dream:
We were living in a huge treehouse close to the mountains.....the view outside of the back of the house was breathtaking....we were up high in the air and you could see all of the mountains circling the house....the house was huge!! We had a back porch that could be used as a stage for bands to perform live music shows....Apparently on this particular night we were having The Gourds play a show at our house. In my dream there were all of these people dropping from the sky in parachutes for the show.....and right as the band went on stage we started to see tornadoes all around us....they circled the house out close to the mountains but never came close enough to do any damage to the house....and the band kept playing and we all kept dancing as the tornadoes swirled around us....
What do you think it means?? I can't find any kind of website where they help you interpret your dreams but I would be willing to bet that this one means something since I can remember it so vividly....
I wish you could have been there to see the views of all the tornadoes and mountains and people dancing....Awesome...
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