in a city of masters

Okay, I'll admit it. I'm still basking in the glow of Saturday night's amazing experience. The word "concert" doesn't do it justice.

It was my first time to see U2 live, and the first time they've played Nashville in nearly 30 years. (They played MTSU in 1987). I'm glad I didn't see them play in another city, because seeing them here was so special.

I've lived in and around Nashville my entire life. It wasn't that long ago that the entertainment business didn't give this city a second thought.

Few outside Nashville knew or even cared when the CMA Awards were. Country acts were seldom seen on network television.

All that changed in the 1990s when country music started hitting the mainstream. Garth Brooks was filling arenas. People outside Nashville were starting to notice the depth and breadth of talent here.

It had been here all along.

Back to Saturday night - the heat and long wait for the reset after the opening act had made the crowd somewhat lethargic, in my opinion.

Early in the evening, Bono mentioned the fact that they had not played Nashville since 1981. When he said, "In a city of masters, we will stay students. We are students. Will you sing with us?," everyone forgot how hot they were. People realized he "gets" Nashville. When he dropped names like Johnny, June, and Amy, well, he had that crowd in the palm of his hand.

Bono also said, "You people are extraordinary people in all your areas of music," which is probably the highest compliment he could bestow.

I've said for years that the best kept secret about Nashville is that there is more to it than just country music.

By the end of the evening, the performance and experience was so incredible, I could barely take it in. But wait, there was more.

After the last song, Bono asked a man in the front, "What do you want to play?" He pulled the man on stage and handed him his guitar. What those of us in the audience didn't know at the time was the man was holding a sign that said, "Blind Guitar Player."

He wanted to play "All I Want is You" for his wife. The man started playing, Bono sang, and the rest of the band eventually joined in. When the song was over, Bono gave the man his guitar.

Years from now, I think people in Nashville will ask each other, "Were you there the night Bono gave the blind guy his guitar?" Everyone there was given an evening they'll never forget.

Channels you get with a Nashville Comcast DTA and Digital package

We just got our notices from Comcast about the digital switchover coming to our neighborhood. Basically, we're going to get nothing on our TVs without a digital box.

Luckily, for the TVs we watch the most, we have our TivoHD hooked up with a cablecard, so we're covered there. However, in the extra bedroom, we have a TV hooked right into the line, so we had to do something.

Comcast offers two options, only one of which is free, so that's the one we took! It's what they call a Digital Transport Adaptor or "DTA" for short. Essentially, it's the least amount of technology they can put on the end of the cable to get you digital channels. The upside is that now everything is crystal clear... ghosting is a thing of the past. The downside is that it won't get all the channels that we get with the cablecard, and we still don't get Comcast onDemand.

The DTA in the extra bedroom is hooked up to a standard definition Tivo, so it's yet another Guided Setup and picking the channels we receive. In case you're in the same boat with your Tivo, hopefully, Google will pick up this post and you'll be able to see the list of channels that we get:

2-70 no change (62, 67-69 are still missing premium channels)

80 G4

81 Toon

99 Univision

100 CSPAN2

(it is beyond me as to why they don't put Weatherscan local in the clear on these boxes!)

104 Bloomberg

105 CSPAN3

110 Science

115 Bio

116 History International

118 Style

119 Lifetime Movie Network

123 Oxygen

127 Toon

128 Sprout

130 Discovery Kids

137 Hallmark

162 G4 (again!?)

176 Leased Access

177 TV Guide Network

179 Gameshow Network

229 WUXPDT2 (TheCoolTV)

241 WNPTDT2

245 WKRNDT2 (Middle Tennessee Weather)

246 WSMVDT2 (Telemundo)

248 WLLC-LP (Telefutura)

249 WTVFDT3 (ThisTV)

250 WTVFDT2 (NewsChannel 5+)

920 An inactive Comcast channel

it was just a matter of time...

Yes, Joe the Plumber wants to make it big in country music. I'm not making this up. Back in May, we had a plumber here, and of course, he told me about the studio he has in his house. Maybe he and Joe could start a duo. Look out Kix and Ronnie!

Look for Joe in Nashville Used Music in a few months selling his guitar for bus fare out of town.

up and down, up and down

Today's my first shot at riding public transportation to work. Lydia's coming downtown twice, and by eliminating my trip, we save about six bucks in gas.

Our fair city has a bus system as its sole form of public transportation. The one notable exception is the Music City Star, our lone rail line from downtown to the east. The bus system appears to be, at least at first glance on my trip, a great government institution: big, old, operational, and inefficient. When I got to the intersection where I boarded, the bus didn't stop at any of the bus stop signs. It stopped in the middle of a parking lot. I had to ask when I got on if I was supposed to get on there.

Also, in the first ten minutes I've been on this "express" bus, we've wound our way through five different back streets when we could have gone straight down Old Hickory Boulevard. Interestingly, on these back streets, we've picked up people along the way at "non bus stop" locations. It makes me think, of course, "well why can't I have a bus come straight down my street instead of making this ten minute walk in the morning??"

37X is a double bus, and when I boarded, I was passenger number two. A little awkward, because I had no idea where to sit. I made my way past the first passenger to the second half of the bus. Now that we're moving, I've figured out that there's more noise back here... it's where the engine is (duh.) So next time, closer to the front.

When I ran my trip on the website, it showed the fare as $1.35 each leg. When I boarded, it shows $1.85. I knew they were going to be raising the rates, but it's a little frustrating (read: "governmenty") that they haven't updated the information to the public. Since I'm on a one-way trip, I'm paying cash today, but in the future, I may go for a multi-ride ticket to make it even cheaper.

So far, the clientele on my ride is all business people... and I'm just inferring by state of dress and age that they're all government people. Since the main bus stop is right in the middle of a bunch of city and state government buildings, that's probably not a stretch. School's out, or we might have some magnet kids with us.

But, the real upside to the whole thing so far, if you haven't figured it out, is that my broadband card is working, and I can GET STUFF DONE on the trip instead of just sitting in my car by my lonesome on I-65. Or I could just blog. Which I am.

incredible fainting goats

Tonight on the Discovery Channel's series "Dirty Jobs," host Mike Rowe visits our neck of the woods: the Fern Hill Fainters Farm in Cross Plains, TN.

At the farm, they raise a unique breed of goats that have myotonia congenita. This condition causes them, when stressed or scared, to have their muscles seize up and they appear to faint for five to ten seconds. It's bizarre!

The Fern Hill folks represented Middle Tennessee well. Watch the repeat at 11:00 if you can, then stop by their site and sign their guest book!

liveblogging Room at the Inn

Our church is part of Room in the Inn, a program to help the working homeless find a new start. Each Sunday night from Thanksgiving to Easter, our church hosts 25-30 men for the evening so that they can get a shower, a good dinner, a good night's sleep, a good breakfast and lunch the next day while they work and save to establish a new life.

Normally, the Sunday School departments take turns serving as greeters, servers, clothes washers, and overnight hosts. This year, our nights included Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, so it was tough for us to "field a team" with everyone traveling and having prior plans. Our coordinator called me last week and I agreed to work tonight (with Lydia's blessing, of course.)

This may go down as the most boring liveblog in history, but hey, it's my first try. :D

5:00 arrived - Leadfoot (Lydia) somehow beat me here even though I left home first.

5:10 - Lydia helps Miss Sherry, Betsy Kay and Becky set up the dinner and stash the snack bags.

5:25 - the guests start arriving. We have 28 tonight.

5:30 - I lead prayer and dinner begins. I'm given the duty of spooning out the barbecued chicken. Five women from The Next Door have volunteered to serve the dinners. Somehow in the hurriedness of the serving, we miscommunicate and prepare 27 plates.

5:35 - I meet Juan^*, who was shirked the dinner. It turns out that I habla about as much as he speaks English.

5:40 - Since I was the one who mis-apportioned the chicken, I drive to Wendy's to pick up dinner for me and Juan.

6:00 - Dinner's done except for me and Juan. We dine together and I explain in very broken Spanish that I don't really speak Spanish... I've just worked with little kids. He's very appreciative for the dinner anyway.

6:15 - Dinner's all cleaned up. The coffee is made, and the dinner helpers are headed out. Lydia gives me a new year's kiss. I tell her if she's still up for the ball drop to give me a call. Come to think of it, this is the first new year's eve we've been apart since we got married.

7:00 - The Next Door women head out to their New Year's party. That leaves me, Pete and Michael to hold the fort to tomorrow morning.

8:12 - The big attraction is the Green Bay football game. The pool games have wrapped up and it's getting quieter.

8:27 - Michael and I dismiss Pete. Michael told him to tell his wife that we said he snored too loud and told him he had to go home. He's coming back at 5:00.

8:33 - At a quick count, we have 17 who have already chosen to sack out. I'm on the web in the rec office and have a great view of the folks in the game room and the gym. Michael's in here reading.

8:47 - Lydia's online. All's quiet here on the front.

8:58 - Our last smoker has come in. I can tell he's supposed to be here because a) he has a name tag and b) he's in scrubs. When the men come in, they can check out scrubs to sleep in, and we wash the clothes that they bring. Tonight, the Next Door women are doing the laundry, making it an easy night for us overnight hosts. They're fantastic.

9:32 - The game is still on, but Chicago isn't really playing. The decaf is still piping hot. I'm in for my second cup.

9:37 - No more viewers for the game. We've got three pool players and 22 sacked out.

9:58 - Two at the pool table, two at the TV (seems to be a bit of renewed interest in the game.) Michael's in the kitchen, but I can't quite tell what he's trying to do... maybe just size things up for tomorrow morning.

10:09 - Brian^* comes to the window. "Hey man, I hurt my leg."

He's reinjured a wound on his lower leg and says that "blood is spurting out." Another guest comes to his aid with a towel and makes a pretty loose tourniquet around it. Brian says this has happened before, and he had to go to the hospital, so we call 911. The operator is great.

10:12 - A fire truck pulls up outside, and Michael goes out to help.

10:18 - Brian's still talking to the firemen. Michael says they're going to take him. Chances are we won't see him back... not because we don't want to, but because the ER on New Year's Eve will be a bit busy.

10:25 - curfew warning. Three guys in the gameroom. Brian's still outside with the firemen. I wish we had some sort of intermediate "quick medical" service between an ambulence and "get yourself in here." I guess that's a fire truck.

10:28 - The fire truck leaves.

10:32 - The TV is off, and our last two guests are in the gym for the night.

11:01 - just watched the ball drop on CNN. I'm headed upstairs for a sleep. My phone is set to wake me up at 5:00 a.m... hopefully there won't be any more posts before then.

^*The names of the guests were changed to protect their privacy.

billy in nashville

As of about right now, there is a statue of Billy Graham just down the street from my office. I can't see it from my window, but I did have the opportunity to attend the unveiling ceremony and hear from several LifeWay folks, Nashville folks, Billy's grandson Will and Cliff Barrows. Memorable quote from Will:

Many of you have asked about how my grandfather and grandmother are doing. And the best way to describe it... is that they are... old.

Cliff reminisced about various crusades and led us in "How Great Thou Art." I really do appreciate the chance that I have in my job to experience historic occasions like this and be able to say, "I was there when..."