Texas Lou

Archive for the ‘Music’ Category

Last night was a blast!

Cheryl, Jennifer, Kristen, and I headed out to the Charlottesville Pavillion to celebrate the first day of summer and see Colbie Caillat and Sheryl Crow play!

We started out the evening at my apartment with a quick glass of wine and then headed to the downtown mall.  You may remember me writing about Ventana a few months ago and their very unique margaritas.  Well Ventana was offering a discount to all Sheryl Crow ticket holders so we decided to stop in for a pre-concert cocktail.  I finally got to try the cucumber margarita.  It was delicious!  It wasn’t as good as the jalapeno margarita, but it was definitely the perfect refreshing beverage for a hot summer day.  Jennifer tried the strawberry margarita and Cheryl had the habanero margarita which I tried the last time I was at Ventana.

After drinks, we headed to the Pavillion for the music.  We enjoyed some awesome Star Hill Lucy as we chatted and listened to Colbie Caillat play.

When Sheryl Crow took the stage, we got to hear all of our old favorites and some new ones too!  We danced and sang and had a great time and even bumped into some more friends!

Overall, it was an awesome first day of summer.  We definitely started Summer 2010 off right!

If you live in the Charlottesville area and are free this Thursday, June 24th, you should come out to the Batesville Store in Batesville.  There will be food, face painting, and music by Eli Cook.

10% of all money made that night will be donated to my Team In Training team to benefit the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

The event will take place from 6 to 9:30 PM.  The atmosphere will be family friendly so please come out, bring your friends and kids, and have a good time for a good cause!

You can check out our flyer for more info:  batesville store fundraiser.

Hope to see everyone there and don’t forget to donate toward my goal of $4000 @ http://pages.teamintraining.org/va/nikesf10/leslieelsaifi !

A while back, a good friend was poling her friends on facebook about their favorite roller rink songs from back in the day.  She asked me if I was old enough to have experienced the roller rink craze.  My answer:  OF COURSE!!!  And for those wondering, my most memorable roller rink song was Come and Get Your Love by Real McCoy.  I have great memories of skating in circles, trying desperately not to fall, and thinking I was soooo badass to the beat of this song!

The conversation between my friend and I lead me to wonder about those who had not had the opportunity to skate like no one was watching as a kid.  I quickly thought about the city that I currently live in.  Charlottesville doesn’t have a roller rink.  I wondered if they had one in the past.  I quickly dialed Ben’s number to ask him what seemed to me like the most important question (but probably seemed to him like a pointless one).

Ben’s answer was no, Charlottesville had not had a roller rink in his twenty-seven years as a resident.  This saddened me.  All of these Cvillians, and I’m sure countless others hailing from small town, Anywhere, had been deprived of the roller rink experience.  They had no roller rink songs, no memories of skating beneath flashing neon lights to the beat of some one hit wonder while trying to impress their friends.

But then I realized, what they lacked in roller rink experiences, they made up for in other ways.  For example, I never experienced a snow day living in south Texas, but Ben’s childhood was filled with them (especially from the blizzard of ’96 that I hear about so often).

I still hope my kids get to enjoy the roller rink experience someday, or the twenty-first century equivalent.  Hover boarding perhaps?

During the past couple of months, some people have commented that they heard a song that reminded them of me.  I’m not sure why, but I was flattered by these remarks.  Maybe it’s because I am a fan of the songs that reminded them of me or maybe their statements just say that they were thinking about me and its nice to be thought about.  Either way, it makes me glad that people can relate to me through music.

Yesterday I attended the Crozet Music Festival with some friends from work.  We went to support a group of guys from VGT who have a band called Coal River.  These guys were AWESOME!  They sang some really good cover songs as well as some of their own unique tunes.  If you’ve got some free time and feel like hearing some great local music, check out their MySpace page.

In addition to listening to some great bands, there were several local wineries and breweries there.  Hill Top Berry Farm & Winery (mentioned in an earlier post) was there and had a newly bottled wine called Lavender Metheglin.

From Hill Top Berry Farm & Winery’s website:

Metheglin is derived from the Welsh word “meddyglyn” which means healing drink.  In ancient times, healing spices were added to mead resulting in a  drink with healing powers.  Lavender, believed to promote good health, is also soothing and relaxing and is associated with romance and seduction.  Possessing a beautiful golden color and a bouquet of fresh lavender flowers, this slightly sweet mead can be enjoyed heated or paired with desserts such as blackberry cobbler.

This wine was amazing and hopefully it really does have healing powers since I’ve been fighting a cold.  I loved it so much that I bought 3 bottles of it.

In addition, I sampled wines from Well Hung Vineyard (love the name and their label) and Flying Fox Vineyard which had some really good wines (and really cute labels).  I’m going to have to make it out to Flying Fox’s tasting room to try their 2006 Petit Verdot which won a Gold Medal in the 2009 Virginia Governor’s Cup wine competition.  It tied for first place with Barboursville Vineyards ‘ Octagon 2005 and Jefferson Vineyards‘ 2006 Meritage (according to the owner) and I loved both of these wines.

Local breweries in attendance included Starr Hill, Blue Mountain Brewery (was really sad I missed out on their Humpback Oktoberfest but will have to make a trip out to Nelson County to try it and their up-and-coming Chocolate Pumpkin Porter), and Devils Backbone Brewing Company (I had the Gold Leaf Lager which was delicious).

In the end, it was an awesome night with lots of friends, good music, good food, and great wine and beer (despite my cold).  I will definitely be attending again next year and you should too!

Saturday night I went out with some girlfriends to a club called Three that hosts 80s Night every Saturday.  The most perfect part of the evening, besides hearing Journey off course, was getting to sing and dance with my ladies to “Girls Just Want To Have Fun” by Cyndi Lauper. 

You know how at parties, there’s always a drunk girl screaming, “It’s My Song!” at the top of her lungs when a certain song comes on?  Well that was me when the DJ started up “Girls Just Want To Have Fun”…except for the drunk part because I was designated driver on Saturday.  It’s my absolute favorite song of all time, has been my ring tone for 6 or 7 years now, and it is my number 1 song of choice when it comes to Karaoke!

I highly recommend checking out the Miley Cyrus cover of it as well. 

So next time you hear that song, think of me, the obnoxious, drunk girl in the middle of the dance floor belting out “When the working day is done, oh girls just want to have fun” like her voice doesn’t sound terrible and like no one is watching.  Hopefully that will put a smile on your face!  🙂