October 16, 2005
Brad Paisley in Concert
On Saturday, October 15th, Heidi, Sydney and I attended the Brad Paisley in concert at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. "You took a 3 month old baby to a country music concert?" you ask? Yes. Sydney had a great time, even though her ears were muffled with cotton balls under her hat.
The two opening acts, Sugarland and Sara Evans did a great job of getting the crowd warmed up, with a selection of hits and upcoming releases. Surprisingly, I enjoyed listening to Sugarland more than to Sara Evans, although I think my decision is based on the better musicality and stage presence of Sugarland... Sara's part of the show was very good, but I believe, despite her beautiful voice, her band was not allowed to shine and the song selections included too many songs with too many 5 note choruses... the long-hold-high-notes started to grate on me a bit. Despite my reaction, she's got some fantastic songs. Her performance was simply not as great as I had hoped.
I've purchased a few of Brad Paisley's songs from iTunes and MSN Music, but I must confess that I don't own any of his full albums. Even so, his show was filled with hits from the last few years, including a song Heidi and I consider to be one of "the songs" that hold special significance for us. It's great to hear songs that are familiar, but Brad also played a number of new songs that were great crowd pleasers and very funny, too.
As a musician, Brad is a phenomenal guitarist and singer. His lyrics are 100% country and the music leans heavily on his playing style, combined with great steel guitar and fiddle backup. His band was given a chance to shine through a series of feature performances during the set, showcasing each member of the band's talents.
All things considered it was a fun show and I would definitely see him again in concert if given the chance!
See more information, music, videos at CMT.com and the artists' web sites:
Sugarland
Sara Evans
Brad Paisley
October 10, 2005
And so it begins...
Graduate school actually started a few weeks ago, but I'm still in the first class of my program. the Master's oc Communication program will run for roughly 18-20 months, keeping me very busy with classes almost every week until mid 2007.
The homework load has been about what I expected, but I have not been preparing well for the rigors of returning to school. Finding a place to study has been challenging with an energetic household, but I don't want to be far from my family. I spend lots of time at work, and now at school too, and balancing these commottments with the priority I place on my family is quite a balancing act.
I'm incredibly engaged by most of the reading materials, but I am getting bogged down with all the theories, people, and information. It's a lot to digest in such a short time, and I hope my ability to consume and synthesize information gets better over time. Right now, I feel a bit overwhelmed, but I suppose that's normal.
The projects we're working on are intended to help us learn more about the broad discipline of communications, while giving us an opportunity to get back into research. Research will be a major component of the program, as the end result of the months of study will culminate in a thesis or project. I am nervous about it, but mostly because I have not ironed out the details of my family/work/school schedule yet.
I hope to use this space as a place to house my thoughts, inklings, opinions, and ideas as I go through the program. I may be here a lot, or I may be swamped and unable to get much time in for self reflection. I'm planning to shoot for the middle ground and see where I go.
Onward and upward!