New Year's Eve With Ekoostik Hookah

Finally!!!
I've got some catching up to do again. It seems like I start a lot of these blog entries that way.......

Anyway, before I go out of town this weekend, I've got to at least get my New Year's Eve blog posted. Some of you have probably already seen pictures on Facebook, but look again anyway!!!!

Ryan and I were very excited to see Ekoostik Hookah for New Year's Eve this year because it was our first ever New Year's show with them. After it was all said and done, I'm kicking myself for missing it all these years!! It was the best New Year's I've ever had!! We definitely started the new year off right that night!!

The show was at The Newport in Columbus, Ohio. It is one of the large venues in Columbus near the Ohio State Campus. I also know from talking to the guys in the band that it is one of their favorite places to play. That always makes for a great show when you know the guys are enjoying it too!! There is a blacony that is normally closed off for the shows, but they had it opened up for New Year's Eve, so I hung out up there and played with my new camera a lot!! (That camera is now broken.)

This picture was taken pretty early in the evening before things got too crazy!! We had several friends from Indy who joined us for the trip. It was wonderful ringing in the new year with a big group of great friends!!! There were about ten of us and two hotel rooms.....nice and cozy!!!

This is Kelly Anne and me before the show started. We were hanging out in the back of the room watching for people we knew, and of course, spying on anyone from the band who we could find :-)

This is our friend Stephanie from Toledo. We don't get to go to a lot of the same shows, so it is always good to see her. She's tons of fun....always has glitter and fun stuff to play with or toss onto the stage...wink wink!!!

Kelly's hubby Dave was there too.We love him!! We all had New Year's hats, although mine only lasted an hour or so before I lost it, but I never lost that horn!!! Had it all night long!!Yep, that's the one!! I bought some for Dave and Kelly too!! It's always more fun when you have props!!I was all over the place that night. I spent a lot of time up front like I usually do, but with everyone who was there being spread out all over the place, I found it hard to stand still for long. I wanted to see everyone and play with everyone!!! I'm pretty sure I danced for miles, literally!!!John Mullins had his hair down that night. It was kinda weird to see him like that, but I guess I liked it alright. I definitely prefer the ponytail though. Looked like he even used some hair spray on that do!! Ryan had ahold of the camera for a lot of the night, and kept taking random photos from above everyone's head. This is the only one where I actually recognized anyone....and it was me!!!I loved it that the balcony was open. It was a great place for photos.I was happy to be up there when Eric, the drummer, was singing. We never hear enough out of him, and the few times that he does sing, I'm usually not anywhere where I can actually get a good picture of him.

I spent a little while up there hanging out with different people and taking lots of pictures. The sound was spectacular up there and the view was great, but I always feel like I'm missing out on something if I'm not right up front where all the action is. Some people might call that nosy :-)Another view from the balcony. This was after midnight...there's confetti everywhere!!!TeShannah was there to ring in the New Year with us!! I just love her!! I believe this was just before we both fell down in eachother's arms....and the sad thing is, I was drinking Pepsi!!!!Of course, I had to throw in a picture of Sweney, the guitar god!! He was on fire that night. You could tell that the whole band was having a great time. We got to hear some of our favorite songs along with several suprprises. The one that totally blew me away was when Cliff sang "Hoist That Rag" by Tom Waits. I think I might have peed my pants a little :-)

Hope eveyone had as a great a time as I did for New Year's Eve this year. If so, then there's a lot of us off to a fantastic start!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

Facebook Blues

Well, my new addiction has come to a crashing hault today. I was having a good day, working, and checking into my facebook page every now and then, chatting with Lisa and some other friends until I came back from lunch. Them BAM!!! I go to get back on facebook to finish the conversation I started just 30 minutes ago, and it's BLOCKED!!!! Just like that. I didn't even get to finish my conversation!!!

Big Brother is watching..............

On the up side of things, my blog will no longer suffer the loneliness of me having facebook. I'm sorry little blog. I will not ignore you any longer.

Ekoostik Hookah in Louisville, Ky

On Saturday January 17th, Ryan, me, and a big group of friends from Indy headed down to Louisville for The Forecastle Festival. That is a festival that supports local musicians, artists, and gives people who are volunteering their time for a good cause a great place for exposure. The Festival was held in building appropriately called The Green Building. The entire energy system running everything in the building is run on green power. Also, all of the remodeling on the inside of the building has been done with recycled materials. It was a pretty cool place.

The entire group from Indiana was very fortunate in the fact that we were even able to get into the show. I had been in contact with Dave Katz from Ekoostik Hookah several days before the show to find out availability of space for our group, and he knew very little other than the fact that the room they were playing in only held about 150 people. We decided that as long as all of us got there early enough, there should be no reason to worry. We would be there in plenty of time to get tickets (which were not available online or over the phone), and then we could just hang out until Hookah came on.

The show wasn't scheduled to start until 7:00 and Hookah was going on at 9:00. We got there around 3:00 only to find out that the show had sold out a couple weeks prior. (Tickets were available to purchase at a local record store) Dave Katz was pissed when he found out that no one had even informed the band of this. Luckily, the fellow running the show was extremely gracious, and very excited to see so many people from out of town that he put us on the guest list. We still made our $12.00 "donation" to get in, but if it weren't for that situation, we would have driven all the way down there for nothing. I would have been really pissed!!!! After all the names were added to the list, we all set out to explore the town a little.


The guy who put us on the guest list recommended this place called 21c Museum, PROOF on Main Street. All we knew was it was a cool place and to look for the red penguins: It was a very interesting place, and seemed a little uppity for our taste at first. After sitting on some big comfy couches with a glass of wine and a petrified log as a table, Ryan hopped up to explore a little. We had no idea when we walked in how cool this place actually was. From what you could see when you first walked in, it was just a hoity toity restaurant with some nice art hanging on the walls. But no, that doesn't even come close to describing what this place is all about. It was awesome!! Here's the website so you can go explore it yourself: http://www.21cmuseum.org/museum/Default.aspx
I will not be able to catch the true exctiement of the place in words. You'll have to see pictures and read for yourself. I did snag a few pictures of exhibition items that were there while we were there. Here are a few:
This is my picture of the ginormous chandelier.
This is THEIR picture and description of the ginormous chandelier.
Located at 21c Museum Hotel; Louisville, Kentucky

Marking the grand opening of 21c Museum Hotel in 2006, the International Contemporary Art Foundation commissioned Werner Reiterer to create an interactive chandelier, Untitled, to be located on the corner of 7th and Main in Downtown Louisville, Ky. It was Reiterer’s first public sculpture in the United States.

The sculpture consists of a brass chandelier connected to a bell located on the reception desk of Proof On Main restaurant. When a visitor to the restaurant rings the bell to call for a table, the chandelier begins to breathe in and out deeply while the lights simultaneously pulsate. This clever disconnect between artwork and unknowing participation by the visitor is one of the many ways the artist explores the notion of rules in art and the way visitors are intended to engage with art. Though the effect of the work is alluring at first, the custom made pole from which the chandelier is suspended is reminiscent of a gallows. This alludes to the macabre in Reiterer’s work, suggesting the Ku Klux Klan, lynch justice and the continuing use of the death penalty in most U.S. states.

The artist Dominic Rouse had a display of his artwork that was extremely eery, but made you very curious nonetheless.

Dominic Rouse (British), Angeline, 2002. Archival Epson Ultrachrome K3 pigment print. Image courtesy of the artist. © Dominic Rouse

In his work, Rouse often treats the the subject as a object of purity, innocence, and perhaps a victim. For Angeline, he has put this blindfolded girl in the desolate backdrop of a hotel in Cambodia as she is ready to step on a piece of broken glass, suggesting tension with an icon of virtue. Taking the title from a John Martin song, Rouse states that the work is a "lament for lost innocence."

Dominic Rouse (British), Dance for no-one, 2001. Archival Epson Ultrachrome K3 pigment ink print. Image courtesy of the artist.© Dominic Rouse

In this surreal image, the artist has stripped the performer of her audience. Rouse was fascinated by the idea that the dancer's formal training always occurs in private and that the profession demands the constant risk of injury. Inspired by a modernization effort from the Catholic church in the sixties, Rouse found the sacred to be inconsistent with this new endeavor to secularize tradition. He attempts to reconcile these two elements with the dancer who, mirroring that sacred world, may "illustrate those acts of kindness, acts of love that go unnoticed."

Felipe Barbosa (Brazilian), Ursa Major (Great Bear), 2006-2007.Teddy bear covered with small explosives. © Felipe BarbosaBarbosa’s work often challenges the meaning of the objects he appropriates by altering their physical compositions and creating unexpected and formally engaging situations. By covering a readymade teddy bear with snaps (novelty firecrackers), the artist has depleted the cuddly and affectionate associations of the bear and make it more volatile and threatening.Similar to Golden Rhino by David Mach, made entirely of live matches (currently installed in Proof), Barbosa shifts the focus from use and intent of an object to its formal qualities - allowing new ideas and associations inherent to the materiality of an object to be more recognized. The materials such as matches and snaps not normally associated with sculpture loose their original function and become purely aesthetic. Sean Bidic (American), In the absence of voyerism #6 and #7,2002-2006. © Sean Bidic

The "Absence of Voyerism" was totally creepy. It was located in the restrooms, and as you can see here, it has little LED screens in the mirror with eyes that continuously move around as if they are watching you. Very disturbing!!

That is just a very small portion of the art we got to see that day. The best part of it was: it was all free to see. There were interactive pieces of art that you could move around with and play with, so we all had a blast in there. You could even carry your drinks around the whole museum....I felt very chic walking around with my wine glass in hand checking out all the art. ;-)

After all our fun at 21C, we headed down to an area called Fourth Street Live. It's basically like a block party all the time. The roads are blocked off to motor vehicles and everyone just hops from bar to bar. There were several places to eat down there and we chose the one simply called "The Pub." It turned out to be a great place for cheap drinks and good food.....just my kind of place. AND the guys who worked in there had to wear kilts. Our bartender, Chip, was a pretty husky fella. He kinda looked like he should have been playing center for a pro football team...until we saw him in the kilt. Then I couldn't help but let my mind wander......"I wonder if he's wearing any underwear"...........It was confirmed later on that he did NOT wear underwear to work!!! Oh Chip!!This is a picture of the whole gang, minus myself. (someone had to take the picture!!) From left to right we have our neighbor Marcus, Ryan from Indy, Kelly Anne, Juanita, Andrew, Dave, my Ryan, Lizz, and Matt.Andrew, Ryan and Marcus found this cool statue down the street from 21c and spent some quality time trying to look intellectual by standing near it.Then Lizz and I jumped in.............

Although the Green Building was pretty cool, the area where they put Ekoostik Hookah to play was not so hot...literally. It was freezing out there. They did have some pretty massive space heaters out there that made it tolerable, and of course, we got warmed up when the band came on. The set up was very similar to a half finished garage. There was an open roof, but it had been covered with plastic bags. Looked like lots of hefties to me. The stage was obviously put up temporarily, and the light show was projected onto the inside of an over-sized garage door. somehow it all worked though.



Talking with the band before they came on, you could tell they were all very frustrated, but once they took the stage, they let all that go and just had fun with it. In fact, I think they got to the point where they just played it out like they were practicing. Not necessarily putting on an official show. Which, for the true Hookah fans, is sometimes even better because you lose sight of that "rock god" way you looked at those guys before. Those situations are my favorite times with the guys because that's when you realize they're just normal people like the rest of us.
There was a pretty good turn out for Hookah's set that night. There were several people who came to the festival just for Hookah. We went into the trip knowing that we were only getting one hour of play time with the band, but it was totally worth it once it was all said and done. Like I said, the band was very laid back and not so serious as usual, so we really had fun with them. Cliffy even covered Tom Waits "Hoist That Rag" again. He's only covered it once, and that was New Year's Eve so I'm hoping this is a regular in the rotation soon. Hearing that song alone was worth the price of admission.


Considering we only had one hour of Hookah, this was one of the most fun times I've had on a road trip to see the band. We actually made time to see a little bit of the city where they were playing instead of leaving at the last minute, getting into town when the doors are opening and leaving as soon as the show's over. that' show we usually do it, so this was really nice for a change. I love Louisville. There always seems to be so much going on down there. I'm ready to go back and spend some time there again soon. Maybe Ryan and I will have to make a quick getaway down there sometime this summer.

Lil Miss No Name

Well, I did it again............
I saw this poor little girl running in the middle of alto road in the snow on my way to work today and just HAD to stop and help her.

With all the snow on the ground, she was blending right into the background as people were flying past her. I don't think most of them saw her. The car in front of me had slowed down and started honking, but it didn't help get her out of the road. I think it just confused her even more. She kept running back and forth in between lanes. By the time I got close to her, I just couldn't take it any more, so I flipped on the flashers and jumped out in the middle of the road with her.

She came right up to me when I got out of the car. She was trembling party from fear, but also from the cold. Bless her little heart....she had ice frozen in between her toenails, so I know she had been out for awhile. I stopped at a couple houses in the general area and asked if anyone recognized her or would claim her, but that didn't happen. Deep down, I'm kind of glad it didn't, because even if she does belong to someone, they weren't taking very good care of her.Of course, it was one of the few days that I was actually running on time to work, and this little doll totally blew that out of the water for me.....I am so bad. But anyway, I turned back around to take her home, called my boss and told him what I was doing ( I don't think he thought it was a very good excuse for being late) When I got home, Ryan came barrelling out of the bedroom wanting to know what all the chaos was about. Our dogs always go nuts when I first bring another animal in the house.As soon as he saw her, he knew. I felt kind of bad because I had to turn around and leave right away to get back to work, but Ryan fell inlove right away, so it was no problem at all. I'm just getting ready to leave work and go back home to see how the day went. Ryan dropped her off at the groomer's to have her bathed and get her nails trimmed, so she has hopefully had a nice day of pampering. We will be trying to find a home for her on our own like we have the last few dogs we have rescued, but if we don't find something within a couple weeks, we will turn her over to the Companion Animal Association. We have just found it easier to place dogs in homes without the huge adoption fees. Of course, we're only providing very basic care for these dogs while we have them. We have not had any costly vet visits with the rescues yet, so we have been fortunate.Once again, I'm throwing a line to everyone who reads this: If you know anyone who might be interested in giving this little girl a new home, please let me know. We think she is a chihuahua and it's a female. That's about all the details I have at this point. I'll know more after tonight.

Another Three Day Hookah Run

Last weekend came early for me. I wish they always would.

I got off work Wednesday night so excited about the days to come that I could hardly sleep. I was getting ready for my three day Hookah adventure. That's always so much fun!!!

Thursday afternoon, Ryan and I headed down to Indy to pick up my girlfriends Kelly Anne and Julie B. From there we were headed to Newport, Kentucky. Ekoostik Hookah played at The Southgate House there. That is one of my favorite venues. It's the creepy old house where the Tommy gun was invented. Same place I've dreamt about for several years now.The Rumpke Mountin Boys opened up for Hookah. They are a great bluegrass band from Ohio. Ryan and I have seen them a couple times over the last few years. It's always fun to see them again.I absolutely love the mandolin. This guy totally tore it up too!!Once the show got started, we all made our way to the front like we usually do.

Kelly Anne, Ryan, and I...............Hangin' in the "Muffins Middle." Hookah fans will know what that means :-)The crowd up front in Kentucky was really kind. Normally, it gets kind of brutal up front. People pushing you out of the way and drunk people falling on you...yada yada. But here, it was different. I never once had anyone's elbow in my eye or anything.Newport, Kentucky is directly across the Ohio river from Cincinnatti. So, we are attributing the nice crowd to the Cincy kids. I've always heard good things about them and always have had good experiences when in Cincinnatti, so it's all their fault that we had it so easy that night. John Mullins has all these nice "bowling" shirts, as he calls them. We had an extended conversation after the show about buying them on sale. Now I'm on the hunt for a shirt for not just John Mullins, but Eric Lanese as well.

Eric fell in love with Ryan's freaky unicorn and rainbow shirt, so we have to try to find one for him now. He wanted to trade shirts with Ryan, but Ryan wouldn't do it because his was a gift from Jeff and Karen in Portland.

Yep................that's the shirt. Makes mama proud!! The website it came from has it named "Afternoon Delight." HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We all had a great time Thursady night. I was texting setlists to our friend Kelly Jo in Michgan. She was patiently awaiting Friday to roll around so she could join us up in Michigan.

So, we all drove back up to Indiana after the show. After dropping Julie and Kelly Anne off in Indy, Ryan and I headed home and made it to bed by about 6:30 AM.Friday night, Ekoostik Hookah played at a little venue in Lansing, Michigan called Small Planet. Kelly Anne and Ryan weren't able to join is for this show, so it was just me and Julie. We met up early with Eric, the drummer, and had dinner. He put us both on the guest list so we didn't have to pay to get in the show. I felt so important!!! I hung up front in the Muffins Middle like usual. Kelly Jo was up there with me for awhile. Julie came and hung up there for awhile, but she was hanging out at the back with Buddy, the light guy. This is my buddy Curtis from Chicago. I'm always glad to see those Chicago kids. Another friend from the windy city, Travis was there, and I finally got to meet his girl, Jess. I was really glad to officially meet her. We all talk on the Hookahheads website a lot, but never had an official introduction until Friday. It was lots of fun!!This is me and Julie cracking up about something that was hilarious, apparently.........This is me, Julie, Eric the drummer, and some strange chick that had to jump her skinny little ass in our pictures at the last minute.............tramp!!!Me, Kelly Jo and Julie..........well into the night.Sweney ROCKS!!!!!!!!!

After the show was over in Michigan, Julie and I headed back to Indiana again. Lansing is a really easy drive from home....straight up I69. We stopped and got some food to keep us going on the road and off we went.

We got back to my house at about 7:00 AM. Julie slept on the couch for a couple hours before heading back to Indy. I, on the other hand, slept ALL DAY LONG!! It felt awesome!!

I got up at about 5:00 PM feeling alive and refreshed and ready to do it one more time.

Ekoostik Hookah was playing at The Lafayette Brewing Company in Lafayette, IN. I love it when they play there because it is the closest venue to home for us.

Most of the neighborhood from West Middleton came to the show. Several of us met for dinner before the show started. When we got there, Eric and Julie were eating dinner and Eric informed us that we were on the guest list again..............THANKS BUDDY!!!! Like I said before....I feel so important!!!

This is a few friends from the neighborhood: Jason, Marcus, a friends of theirs whose name I do not know, and Ryan. I was really happy that a lot of our friends were able to make it to this show. There was a pretty decent size crowd there and that always makes me happy because it keeps them coming back!!

Julie, Ryan, Kelly Anne and Nate with someone behind them. I still don't know whose hands those are!!The LBC is a great place to see a show for a couple reasons. First of all, you can get right up to the stage. It is literally about as high as my ankles. Secondly, the floors upstairs where the live music happens are all hard wood, and you can feel them bouncing underneath you if you get enough people moving at the same time. That's never hard for Hookah to accomplish.I'm always happy when we can spend time with Dave and Kelly Anne. They are so much fun. The next big adventure is just around the corner. Two days and counting...to be exact!!!Ryan drank coke and I got to drink some wine that night. I had been the designated driver the last two nights in a row, so I was ready for my turn to roll around. I was definitely "in my happy place" just like my shirt says.............


Julie and me before heading out for the night.

What a great weekend!!! It has only taken me two weeks to get it posted here. Sorry!!! it's hard to do all this stuff AND blog about it!!!