Tuesday, August 19, 2008

He Came, We Saw, and I'm Speechless



So last night I was lucky enough to accompany Kris to the Bruce Springsteen concert. I will get to the concert in a minute, but first a detail of the days events. We arrived in Richmond around 3:20 pm. The plan was to go to the Richmond Coliseum and get a wristband for a chance to get into the pit at the concert. For those that don't know that is the area down in front of the stage where all the crazy fans go and stand the whole concert for the chance to get very close to the artists. I had never been down there and Kris heard from her "source" that the pit was where you had to be for this show. So Kris says that there will be maybe 150 people in the pit. By the time that we got there, we were numbers 481 and 482. It was hard to believe that many people had already been there but it's all about the draw so it didn't really matter. After that we walked about 4 blocks (6 total because of bad directions but hey all part of the experience) to the Capital AleHouse. It was a huge restaraunt/bar and we were rushed for time since we had to be back to the coliseum by 5:00pm. We both had salads and mine was very good. It would be nice to go back there and sample some of their other foods and beer.

So after eating we rushed back to the venue and were placed in line to wait for the drawing. In talking to the crowd we found that over 1100 wristbands had been given out! I was kind of down because I really wanted to get in the pit for Kris. We then found out from people in the crowd that they were taken 700 people for the pit! At that point we were anxiously awaiting the draw. They pulled a fan out of the 500-599 group next to us and he pulled out number 7. After a some quick math we realized that we were going to get in the pit and we along with everyone else from 7 to 707 all started celebrating. It was 5:20 now but from this point on the excitement was unbearable. We finally we allowed in the coliseum at around 6:00. We went in staked our territory in the pit and then begin several trips to restrooms and vendors for water and souvenir shirts. I knew in advance that the show was scheduled to start at 7:30 but Bruce would not be on until around 8:30 based on Kris's "research".

At exactly 8:29pm, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band walked onto stage at the Richmond Coliseum and the next 3 hours were a complete showcase of vocal supremacy, masterful instrumentation, and rock and roll like it should always be enjoyed. I did not know as many songs as Kris did and yet every song they played sounded like something I had known all my life. When Bruce is on stage he commands the entire stage. He commands it but he doesn't overpower as every member in the band has their place and their moments. And Clarence Clemons, what else can you say. This man is the epitomy of cool, soul, rock and roll, and he is clearly the heartbeat of the band. Everytime he busted out one of his famous sax rips the entire crowd cheered. Dressed in all black with shades on the whole night and a purple chair to sit in on stage I wanted to be Clarence Clemons, at least for one night.

During the show, Bruce never left the stage. He sang 28 songs that night and never left the stage! He played for 3 hours! No artist today does that by themselves and this man has been doing this for 35 years. I don't have the words to express what I experienced last night. Kris, thank you so much because I know that if it wasn't for you I would not have gone. Once again you prove that you are awesome!

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Honoring a Fallen Hero



Please take a minute to visit this link:

Officer Down Memorial Page: Michael Smith Phillips

I lost a fellow brother in the Law Enforcement community last Thursday, August 7, 2008. I went to his funeral today and it was a powerful scene. There were over 1000 uniformed police officers from over 30 police departments from across the country. At times like these I reflect on the dangers that come with the job that I do. I accept my mortatility and embrace my fear. I do it on this day for Michael Smith Phillips.

Tomorrow I go back to work. I will put aside the fear and do my job the best that I can. The job I love to do and that I think I'm pretty good at.

Monday, August 11, 2008

The Olympics are here! How could you miss them.

I will start by saying this is my first venture into the blogging world. I have a couple of friends who are experts in this field so hopefully they will give me tips and insight to make this thing work. So to the topic at hand...

I LOVE THE OLYMPICS! I always have and I always will. I don't have very many early memories but I do remember Carl Lewis winning the 100 Meters at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. Or maybe it was my dad jumping up and down but anyway since then I have loved the Olympics. I love the Summer Olympics and the Winter Olympics although I played more Summer Olympic sports so I think I like them better. I bleed red, white, and blue and root for all Americans in all sports. I also have cable meaning that between NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, and USA there is practically 24-hour coverage of all of the events. Now there doesn't seem to be any real schedule to it but that's ok, it's easy to find something.

I watched the Men's 4 X 100 meter freestyle swimming final this morning. It came on last night and I TIVO'd it (well actually I have DVR but it's all the same to me). I was yelling at the TV! This was pure drama, pure excitement, pure joy that we won. We have been getting kicked around a little lately in the eyes of the world and this one little time we got to stick it to them. It made me proud to be an American. To see the celebration by our athletes was inspirational and made me feel like I could do anything I put my mind too. I guess this blog kind of fits into that mold.

So I will say that it's nice to get my first blog post out of the way and I am sure that I will get better.

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