Famous People @ MindSay

   On the last cruise, we became friends with a fantastic musician named Tim Starnes. He is from Chattanooga, and is a professional musician who sometimes tours with some pretty famous people, and also does studio work.
Here is our picture with him.


Several weeks after the cruise, we were laid over in Nashville, so we went downtown. We first went to Legends Corner where we saw a guy named Thom Shepard perform. He wrote the David Ball song, "Riding With Private Malone" and the Craig Morgan song, "Redneck Yacht Club". We spotted Mark Wills in the back of the room and got our picture taken with him.


   After an hour or so, we decided to walk down Broadway to see what else was going on. We saw several tour buses parked on the street and when we got to them we saw one of those velvet ropes, like they have in Hollywood, going into one of the venues with a long line of people behind it. We didn't bother getting in line because we figured the odds of us getting in were between 0 and 0. But as we walked on down the sidewalk we heard someone yelling "Eddie, Eddie". I thought, "That would be quite a coincidence if we ran into somebody we know here in Nashville". Then we spotted our new buddy from the cruise, Tim, coming down the sidewalk.
   He asked us if we were here for the showcase. I said "What showcase"? He said "Cody and some other country music stars were having a showcase there". Cody McCarver is the keyboard player for the "Confederate Railroad Band" and he has a couple of country hits himself. Then Tim said, "Come on. I'll get you in". It's a good thing nobody in the line behind the velvet rope had a feather, because they could have knocked us over with it as we walked by them and were escorted inside.
   One of the first country stars that we saw was "Cledus T Judd". He was a co-host for the event.


The other co-host was "Mr Belding" (Dennis Haskins) from "Saved By The Bell".


Here is Cody McCarver performing. That's Jimmy Dormire in the background. He's a great guitar player.


Cody spotted us and came over and told us how much he appreciated us coming "all the way to Nashville to be at his showcase". I didn't know what to say at first, but then I thought, no, I'm not going to lie. I said, "Man, we were just walking down the street and Tim ran us down". He looked a little disappointed and I quickly said, "But we're sure glad to be here", so the awkward moment passed quickly. We saw him in Knoxville a few weeks later and he told his buddies that story and we all got a laugh out of it.
   Several other new country stars performed as well.




This is Amanda Hinkel.


And this is Daryle Singletary, who performed several songs.


About half way through the the night, Danny Shirley, Confederate Railroad's lead singer, came strolling in. He came over to where we were and talked to us a bunch. Then Mark Wills came in and he and Danny stood there beside us, talking up a storm. How cool is that?


I didn't have to move to take this picture. This is where we were all standing. Danny did a radio interview during the time he was there and they gave him some very nice T shirts, which he gave to us before he left. It sure is nice to be liked.

Sorry to post such a long blog but nights like this don't happen very often and I wanted to post quite a bit about it. Here is one more picture of our buddy, Tim, playing fiddle on stage. He also played harmonica and lap steel.

So my night went pretty well tonight
between the hours of 6 (when I went in)
to 8... Those hours are usually like
the times when I get slammed with people.
Well the bar next to the motel had some
famous country western group there, and
it was like drunks r us. Well, we had
around 80 cars towed off the property,
and it was just really horrible.. These
people were calling me at the front desk
cussing me because they said their air
conditioner was not working. It got ugly
and we had to call the police on them, and
they split before the police got there, with
no refund on the rooms. We do not give refunds
anyways. Well the police came and serched the
room, and I went to the room with the police
to try the air conditioner and to lock it
with a deadbolt so the people could not
come back and try to stay in the room..
Well needless to say the air was working
just fine, she had it set on fan and not
cool... Well then I had to deal with the
drunks from the bar that had their car towed.
The police were probably called 7 or 8 more times
to come deal with them, and I thought it was
funny that the people that were raising a scene
got 2 tickets, one for disturbing the peace,
and another for public intoxication. So my night
was bad from getting threatened to getting cussed out
to almost having my car towed away (which I didn't b-c
I work there) to refusing peoples request to switch
rooms to dealing with complaints about the bar to
not having a ciggerette during all this.
I think it is so funny now, and I think this
night has made me so much stronger...
Its 3:21 here so I am about to go to bed...

And Another Thing, I have no idea why my
time for my blog is set a hour behind, does
anyone know how to get it where it needs to be??

~Tee Jay

After watching VH1's Bands Reunited: Information Society, I started to get angry at the host and camera people for disrupting my favorite band's members' lives.  I didn't like the way they sprung on them.  And the more I watched other bands reunited get sprung on and asked (or should I say forced?) to meet past members they may have had a bad falling out with, the more I started to feel guilty for just watching the drama unfold -- it's like as soon as some people get recognized for their talents or genius we all want to get inside them and disrupt their private lives and bother them with all kinds of unappropriate questions.  Once you're famous, it's as if the world assumes it owns you, and to hell with you if you can't handle that kind of attention, right?  Whatever.  All I know is that there are times while I'm watching a documentary or reading a biography where I start to feel, well, for lack of a better word, stupid.  At other times, while putting together a wiki page or other kind of fan page or while participating in discussions about famous people in online forums I start to wonder: "Why am I talking about these people like I know them?" 

 

Of course we're all gonna do it.  It's only natural to feel like they are a real part of our lives even if it's only the music making our heads swim with love.  But I also find it funny that fans talk about their favorite personalities as if these people are living next door.  I still have conversations off line with friends where we address celebrities on a first name basis.  Anyone who overhears our chatting would assume we were talking about people we know intimately, but truth is, we don't!

 

So let me get back to the Information Society reunion...  First off, I've been a fan ever since I first heard "Walking Away" and "What's On Your Mind" in 1988.  The reason why I've been a fan is mainly because I loved the music.  I wasn't into them only because I thought they were better than me or that I worshipped them for their clothes or hairstyles.  In concerts and videos they entertained me with a mix of different musical genres and styles I liked.  Plus the music just fit my own personality well -- a funky blend or industrial potpourii of synth pop and electro hip-hop.  I especially loved the computer samples intertwined with the vocal stylings of Kurt Harland.  An obsession with their personal lives never entered my mind... well, not entirely.  As soon as I saw them in interviews, read magazine articles, and noticed that Amanda and several other members were coming and going...  no matter how lovely the music, there were stories going on behind the scenes and it's only human to get a bit curious as to what is going on.  But would I ever dare to walk up to one of the guys in the band and directly (rudely) ask them about their personal relationships?  No.  I'd leave that up to the  Lifetime TV movie people.  Or wait maybe a few years for people to get nostalgic enough to want to re-examine their life stories in based-on-a-true-story fictional dramatic reconstruction of their time and lives. 

 

But that's just it, fiction is a fine way to celebrate the legend of a band, as long as it is handled well.  Fact is better, but too often the true life stories of famous people are written and unauthorized by those with a chip on their shoulder or a worshipful bias.  With that said, I don't always agree with journalists and authors of sensational, or so-called exclusive biographies.  I don't need someone to form my opinions for me.  I would rather hear the true stories from the artists themselves...  However, it must also be frustrating to have everything you say broadcast to the world as if it's written in stone!  I can see how a mental complex can form when you've got too many people following you and leaning on every word you say.  It must be so frustrating at times, yet I can't experience the weight of that kind of fame, only imagine it.

 

Sometimes we are allowed to see only peeks into the lives of our favorite artists and perhaps that's all we should see.  We should care more about what we think than what someone famous thinks, right?  And yet it's that very thing which can direct our attention to something important.  We do tend to look up to these people like human gods because they are in the spotlight, not us, and being in that light gives them the privledge to speak (or sing) and be heard by millions.  Not everyone who committs to being in a band acquires that heavy dose of fame, but some do and I don't think everyone is equipped to handle that kind of publicity.  At some point, once a band gets enough hit songs under their belt, you have to prepare for the onslaught of prying eyes and ears, in fact that's the whole point of producing popular music.  Again, I can only imagine this and wonder how I've contributed to the illusion fame puts on some of these people.

 

But what makes me feel somehow comforted is seeing my favorite artists being the normal people they are.  I like that kind of disillusionment.  I want to see them being human.

 

And yet there is that little thrill shivering through my belly at the thought of meeting them in person.  No matter how much I remind myself that these people are human and normal, the excitement of meeting someone I admire can still excite a deliciously sweet anxiety I don't mind experiencing.  So, when all is said and done, seeing a favorite artist in a television show is the safest way to experience what it might be like being in the same room with them.  But I still believe we should shut off the cameras and let them decide when they want to be in that spotlight!  Don't you agree? 

.I've always wanted to go to a therapist. I don't know... famous people have therapists. Rich people have therapists. It's a general rule that to remain sane, happy, wealthy, and famous, one must first have a therapist. And now I do. A free one. One I really like.

.Meet Stephanie the Therapist.

.Stephanie is thin, blonde, and reasonably attractive. She's in her third year of graduate school and is working on her doctorate. This means she already has a bachelors degree in psychology and two years of graduate school under her belt. That's, of course, more than many celebrity therapists who charge more than $free for there services can say.

.I discovered very quickly into the openning session something that I'm very happy to know. I'm not crazy. Not in the slightest. She went down the list, and almost nothing applies to me. Sure, I experience loneliness, I'm sad about my love-life, blah blah blah. But I've never thought about suicide. I've never thought about killing or hurting someone else. I've never seen or heard things that other people couldn't experience themselves (Though I took this question as an opportunity to discuss my history with pink elephants). Ultimately, I suppose that I'm rather boring.

."If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?"

."Well... I don't like that question. I feel like if I ever changed something about myself I wouldn't like what I did. But... I dyed my hair yesterday."

."Really?! It looks so natural!"