Hello, Hiatus: Off to Bonnaroo '09 and then Newfoundland, ho!

Well, Mama is mostly packed and ready to head out to her third consecutive Bonnaroo. I'll do my best to post from the festival-- probably more like glorified tweets than actual posts, seeing I'll be working on an iPod touch. But right after Bonnaroo, I take off for Newfoundland and Labrador, and while I'm there, I'm afraid Loueyville.com will fall silent til sometime in July.

We'll miss you! But it's a much needed and-- if I do say so myself-- much deserved vacation!

In the meantime, enjoy the Flyover Film Fest, Better than Ezra at 4th Street, Superman at the midnight Baxter movies, and all the other lovely things your city has to offer you in June.

Looking forward to getting back in touch when I get home!

Kisses,
Lou

Bonnaroo Tix Have Arrived! Let Summer of Awesome Adventures Begin!

Ah... Bonnaroo. This is year three for me & Roommate.

On the surface, Bonnaroo seems like the most un-Lou thing in the world:

• I don't do drugs. And neither should you. (PSA brought to you by the "Ask Me About My Other Vices Coalition of America")
  
  
• Despite the fact that I'm a liberal wing-nut, I don't particularly enjoy the company of hippies. (All that hula-hooping and hacky sacking and juggling sticks stuff makes me nuts.)
  
  
• I am crowd-phobic. And I have a particular aversion to drinking in crowded places. (After my first day of drinking at New Orleans Jazz Fest, I never had another drink at Jazz Fest in the other seven years that I went. Booze + crowds + sun = freakout!)
  
  
• I despise jam bands. (A twenty minute drum solo?? Really??)

But I do love my 'Roo. I do love camping. I do love any excuse to be dirty. (Yeah, take that however you want to, dear reader.) There are few things I love more than good music outdoors. I love the (overpriced) food. I love the marketplace, even the stalls that sell the strange hippy shit. I do love drinking back at the tent, listening to bands in the distance. I do love the people watching. It's all good. It's all fantastic.

But 'Roo '09 is just stop one in Lou's Summer of Awesome Adventures. The day after we get home from Bonnaroo, I'm hopping a plane to Halifax, Nova Scotia where I will be meeting up with a friend that I haven't seen in probably fifteen years to accompany him on a road trip through Newfoundland and Labrador.

Have we been in touch all these fifteen years? Uh, no. Am I basically taking a two week roadtrip with a Facebook Friend? Uh, yes. That's why it's called an Adventure.

What's the worst that could happen? (Rest assured, we have many mutual friends, all of whom attest that he's not a crazy ax murderer. Phew.)

Then we're back in the Ville for the month of July and then off on a solo road trip up the East Coast from Baltimore to Boston and beyond. Thelma and Louise without the Louise and without the whole-driving-a-car-off-a-cliff thing.

Why is Mama filling you in on her summer plans now? Because the Summer of Awesome Adventures officially begins in around six hours. (Cue: "School's Out for Summer!") Woo Hoo!

I'm looking for local adventures, too! I'll keep you posted!

Sunday Afternoon Randomness

Yeah, sure, I have real work that I could be doing, but it's a bright sunshiny Sunday, and I have zero motivation juice. So here's some mostly NTDWL randomness for you:

• Bri Tunes: Roommate and I had a great goofy time checking out Brian Williams' new music blog. Yes, that Brian Williams, from MSNBC. The first interview is with Deer Tick from Brooklyn, and if you've ever longed to hear Brian Williams utter the phrase "Give it to Me Right" check out his introductory blog. Made me go a little bit wobbly in the knees. Brian Williams = another Loueyville crush.
  
• Carla's AT Experience: Follow my kick-ass, tough cookie friend as she walks the Appalachian Trail alone. Gorgeous pictures and a very thorough log of the journey. Carla's doing this right.
  
• The Bonnaroo Schedule is out! No overlapping artists that will break my heart. I always get a bit nervous when first looking at the schedule. Sometimes they do stupid shit like pitching Bruce Springsteen against Elvis Costello (they didn't, but it wouldn't have suprised me). Looking most forward to the 1:00AM Nine Inch Nails show, honestly. For those of you 'Rooing this year, my hot tip is the Low Anthem at 10pm on Thursday night. The Low Anthem opened for Lisa Hannigan at the 930 Social concert. As I sat in the audience, I downloaded their album Oh My God Charlie Darwin. Great stuff.
  
• On a personal note, I just celebrated my one year Cancerversary-- diagnosed May 7, 2008. I can't believe how much has happened this year, but it's really flown by. Last year, I went to Bonnaroo 2008 just 12 days after my bilateral mastectomy. I'm looking forward to going to a 'Roo that I will likely REMEMBER-- I was so hopped up on (legal) drugs last year. The one moment burned into my brain from 'Roo08 is Pearl Jam singing "Alive" and feeling very... alive.
  
• On a Loueyville note, somebody's got a birthday coming up!!... May 27, Lou turns (the terrible) two! Mama's gonna reboot sometime between now and then. Fun trivia: Lou's first post was about Birdzerk!

NTDWL: Super Bowl Commercial Peeve & Bonnaroo 09

I know, I know, this has nothing to do with Louisville. But my other two time-wasting hobbies are the general consumption of pop culture and reading Louisville, pop culture, feminist, and liberal blogs. So, of course I tuned in to much of the Superbowl, only to watch the commercials and BRUUUUUUCE! (Who by the way is headlining Bonnaroo 2009, more on that in a sec.) And, of course, like a good feminist, I was fracking disgusted by ads that showed dudes biting into chips and chick's clothes flying off. (I won't even touch the Danica Patrick ads-- what a waste of a potentially awesome role model for the young girls in NASCAR families.) And of course, I read all the blogs decrying said ads.

But I haven't seen one blog or article discuss the ticked me off the most-- because it was the most "innocent." WTF was up with the Bridgestone Mr. Potato Head ad?? You know, the one where Mr. Potato Head drives and Mrs. Potato Head nags and bitches and yap, yap, yaps until.... they hit a pothole and her mouth pops off! And suddenly all is right in the world.

Ugh. It still makes my blood boil...

... But on Superbowl night, said boiling blood was soooooothed by the sweet sweet sounds of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, who, as I said, will be headlining Bonnaroo 09. Artists announced today include Nine Inch Nails, Wilco, David Byrne, Al Green (!!!), Elvis Costello, Allen Toussaint (and we can only hope a performance by Elvis AND Allen who recorded and toured together after Katrina), and many, many, many bands to make the indie crowd go all gooey including the Decemberists, Animal Collective, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Ting Tings, and Bon Iver. (I give 'em all a [animal] collective shrug... Bonnaroo's as good a time as any to give them all a little check-out). Anyway... Lucinda Williams, Neko Case, Jenny Lewis, Erykah Badu... some serious chick power at this 'Roo.

Mama is so there. Maybe this time, she'll remember it.