Wading Through It

That Sound You Hear? » In God We Still Trust by Diamond Rio
Current MP3 Count » 5,093
Big News » A guy who died last week had a most unusual wake. Per his family's arrangements, James Henry Smith's body was placed in a recliner facing a television set looping memorable Pittsburgh Steelers highlights. I think this goes a little past the definition of "fan." No lie.

Now, today's story...

I owe to you good people a good story, for it's been days since I've written anything of substance in this space. Then there's the minor issue of blogger's block. But fear not, I will wade through it. Nothing can hold me back.

Not even having nothing to write about.

Nothing.

So.

Weather's good. It's been good. Hurricane Dennis is creeping through the Caribbean. Hell, by the time I post this, he could very well be in the Gulf. Yeah, but he's not coming here though. No worries.

What else?

I suppose I am a little peeved by the United States Postal Service at the moment. You know I took that test recently in order to get myself set up with a job with them. Yes, well, it's been four weeks tomorrow and I have yet to receive word back from them on the status of my score. Sure, everyone knows the post office is slow, but there is a line. Isn't there?

I hope you listened to tonight's audio clip. It's a piece of a Diamond Rio's new single. This is the third cut they've promoted for their forthcoming album. Surprisingly, radio hasn't been playing their music much. The "One More Day" guys. The "I Believe" guys. For crying out loud, the "Meet In The Middle" guys. It's good music!

If you have the ability to read, then surely you know I went to see them in concert a couple weeks ago. It was an awesome show. Probably my favorite concert ever. And I've seen Brooks & Dunn. And Toby Keith. (And, if you swear not to tell anyone, the Dixie Chicks — before they started hassling Toby.)

Diamond Rio played "In God We Still Trust" along with a few other new songs that will likely end up on the new album (tentatively slated for later this year). They played the previous two singles which were "Can't You Tell" and "One Believer" as well as a pair of songs I'd never heard.

"Redneck Love Gone Bad" was prefaced by Marty Roe who expressed his hope that it was the story of a girl who dumped him in college. But he's not bitter. I Googled the song and found out that Shannon Lawson has previously recorded it. I downloaded his version, which was all right, but the Rio's is superior.

Earlier in the show they played a song that I believe is called "State of Emergency." That's kind of what it sounded like. It's so hard to understand what people are singing in concerts. All I remember is that I liked it.

So. Before I succumb to the blogger's block and call it a night, I'd like to mention a new web site I'm launching this weekend. For lack of a better idea, I've titled it "Roll Credits." If you hate TV, you can stop reading. Because that's what it's about.

I've been a regular visitor of all sorts of television web sites for many years now. That said, it troubles me that, by and large, most of these sites care little about the people who actually are responsible for making the show happen. As a future producer, I'll attempt to rectify this with my own site (that no one will visit).

Yep. So look for a link this weekend. I bet no one's reading this. They all stopped up there where I said "you can stop reading...".

That was a mistake.

Switch Off: Okay, so how lame was the "Word of the Day"? I know, right? Okay, well it will be back, of course. But for the time being, I just wanted to say that for those of you who have been holding your breath with regard to my short film "Stax" and are still alive, I have good news. It's coming this week. You'll be able to watch it and enjoy all that goodness. I promise.

You can breathe now.