Cowboy, Indian, Bear Friday, Feb. 13 2009 at Jackpot Saloon

Bart texted me and told me about this local band he was digging on, Cowboy, Indian, Bear, at the Jackpot Saloon in Lawrence.

Attendees: Me, Bart

Money spent: $25 ($5 at the door, $20 on beverages)

Adrometer rating: 0 (Bart ranks near the very top of the friends-Adro-approves-of list. Why, I don't know, but we want to keep this dream alive.)

Overall rating: 1 The opener was decent, but CIB didn't do much for me. Good venue, good company, but the show was less than memorable. But for $5, what do you want?

Met up with Bart at Rick's for a pre-show pitcher. Mikey was bartending, so the pitcher only cost $5. Me and Bart hadn't hung out in a while, so it was good just to catch up.

We decided around 11 p.m. to get on over to the Jackpot to make sure we got in OK. $5 at the door, the manager was working the door. Medium-sized crowd. We grabbed a booth and a round and chilled while the first band, who I believe was called "Versus," played. They were good, solid background music. Bart's drink of choice was Makers Mark on the rocks, mine was cold beer.

I asked Bart to try to describe CIB for me, and he said, "Radiohead meets TV on the Radio." That got a laugh out of me, that's a pretty bold comparison of anything. But remember, he was drinking MM on the rocks.

While we sat there Ryno sent Bart a text telling him he needed to get down to Abe & Jake's immediately for a private party and free beer. "Everyone you know is here," Ryno texted him. "Not so, because I'm hanging with Jones right now," Bart texted back. "You both need to get down here. Immediately."

We decided to forgo the middle band for free drinks. At A&J, there was sure enough a private party with lots of people we knew... I even got a chorus of "Jones!" when I walked in the door. We drank there for an hour before deciding we should get back to Jackpot for the headliners.

Walked in at the perfect time for CIB. They were just about to play their first song. The crowd had picked up a lot. Nice showing for a local band.

CIB was a little too mellow for me. Not bad, by any means, I just wasn't too into it. Plus, I think I was in the mood for something that rocked a little harder.

Still, a good time with a good friend, and even a little side-trip to free beer land... made for an eventful night.

No tickets for this one, so you just get photos from the night -- at Jackpot and at A&J.

New Orleans Hornets (93) vs. Chicago Bulls (107)

Caught an NBA game while in New Orleans on business.

Attendees: Me, Neuty, Hollister, Roger, Bill Newton and Lisa Kenney

Money spent: $15 (tickets were $27, but work picked it up. $15 spent on two beers)

Adrometer rating: 0 (actual) 2.5 (in my mind)

I left Adro a VM about the game, but she never got back to me. In my mind, she had been kidnapped in New Orleans. In reality, her and Evey went to bed early.

Overall rating: 2.5

Our seats were pretty high up, and Chris Paul was injured in the previous game. Plus, the home team got thumped and looked pretty inept with their floor leader in street clothes.

I hadn't been to an NBA game in a loooong time. Perhaps the last NBA game I was at in Dallas at the... 2001 GCSAA Conference and Show.

I'm an NBA fan, so it was nice to get back to a game.

The arena -- New Orleans Arena -- reminded me a lot of Kemper. If that was the case, our sears would be comparable to upper-level seats.

It was good to see Kirk Hinrich play again, though he did not start. Julian Wright played an uneventful 12 minutes.

There were a couple good dunks, of course, I missed the highlight of the game -- some crazy Tyrus Thomas alley-oop dunk. I was talking to Roger at the time and we both missed it.

Here are some highlights of the game.

Here is the box score of the game.

One thing interesting about the game... On Monday night, me, Adro, Evey and Judy went to a place called the Royal House Oyster Bar (at the corner of Royal and Saint Louis) for dinner. The best steak I've had in recent memory and the best meal we had in our ten days in New Orleans. Anyway, sitting at the table next to us was Hornets player Devin Brown. I wouldn't have recognized him, I really don't know who he is, but the waiter told us he was a Hornet. So that's kind of cool.

Then, at the game, Brown comes off the bench and plays a hell of a game. He was actually named player of the game with 17 points and 7 assists.

Good time. Me, Neuty and Bill went out afterwards to have a few hurricanes at Pat O'Brien's and a cigar. The post-game partying was actually more memorable/fun than the game itself, but isn't it always?

A new blog?

This one is pretty simple.

It's a diary, or a log, of all the concerts/sporting events/movies/whatever I go to.

Basically, if it takes a ticket, I'll try to write about it.

Please note: this blog isn't really meant to entertain. In fact, this blog isn't event meant for you. (That doesn't mean you aren't welcome to read it and check it out.) But what I'm saying is, this blog is simply intended for me to keep track of the shows I see. I'll update it as I can.

This idea was inspired by Mar's concert blog. What dawned on me is, in my 15-years of seeing concerts, etc., it would be nice if I had a journal where I tracked who I saw, when, for how much, and who was with me.

That's what this will be.

Wouldn't it be great if I could go back and see who was with me at that Kill Creek show at the Bottleneck in 1997? Or the Cake show that same year? Harvey Danger? Frogpond? Local H at the Granada?

Odds are, I've got the ticket still. (I try to save all my tickets, but I've never gone through and put them together in the same place.) What I don't have is the story behind the ticket -- was the band good? Who opened? Did I get hammered? Did Wally Sczerbiak score 40 points? Was it my first movie with Adrianne? Did she love it while I hated it? Was Thom Yorke there?

These are questions I'll try to answer. The blog will probably have this format:

Event

• Photo of me and whoever I'm attending the event with


• Scan of the ticket


• Money spent at said event


• Adrometer (where, on a 0 to 5 scale, how much trouble said event cost me with Adro)


• Overall rating (0 to 5 scale)


• A write up on what I thought of the event

We'll see how this goes. I figured I'd start this in 2009. Now that I've got a few events under my belt for the year, I want to get started.