Picture Sunday - The Director's Cut!

Hello, end of weekenders, and welcome to another round of Picture Sunday.

I seem to have been a little bit absent from your lives this past week. I didn't blog one single time. Now, first of all, I have to confess that the lack of acrochallenge was simply forgetting. I meant to do it Monday night before podcasting. I forgot. I meant to do it after podcasting. I forgot.

I've also been in something of a funk this week. It happens, you know. You get to thinking too much, about your lot in life, and before you know it, you're right smack-dab in the middle of a funk. I endured the blue haze around my psyche for days, hoping that if I waited till the weekend, I'd have just the outing to break me out of it.

And I did wait, and it worked.

Because Saturday I went to see the Hackensaw Boys! It had been an achingly long 3 ½ months since I've seen my favorite band. That time was in the tiny but teeming town of Floyd, VA, and included the added attraction of my Dear Nephew and his friend coming along.

Last night was at my favorite Hackensaws venue ever, the good old 123 Pleasant St. club in Morgantown, WV. And guess what. My Hackensaw crusading has paid off, because not only did the Dear Nephew and his buddy come along to this one, but they brought two more friends.

Mr M was kind enough to come along with me, we got to 123 early enough to grab a booth and have a couple of beers (well, me, Mr M was ever the teetotaler). At one point dear ol' Ferd ambled in and told us that there would be no opening band (yea!), and because of that the Boys wouldn't start until 11:00 (boo!). It was 9:15. Due to some unforseen circumstances which I shall not mention, Mr M announced a trip back to the hotel was needed, so I handed over the keys, grabbed another beer, and stayed in my booth a while.

Half a beer later, I saw the club was starting to fill up pretty fast, so I grabbed beer and coat, had a quick restroom stop, then headed to the main section of the club, where I ran into - I mean, ran face-first into - the Dear Nephew. He said he saw my car heading out of the parking lot and thought I'd gone, but there we all were, me, him, and the three buddies, and how lucky was it that we ran face-first into each other right at the stage. So we stayed there and talked till it started.

On the journey for one more beer, I happened up Salvage Hackensaw (what a nice boy), Cousin Spits (what a nice boy), Ferd again (what a nice boy), and Sean, who I've been calling Plantain Hackensaw all this time, until I recently found out he's actually Plang-Tang Hackensaw (what a nice boy). Since I was bolstered behind a few beers, I summoned up the courage to ask P.T. if he was now permanent (I had a strong feeling Kooky-Eyed Fox would be back with them tonight), and he laughed and said, "I do not know. I might be." I told him good, and headed back to the stage.

(It's strange, this banjo player thing. I have absolutely nothing against the Kooky-Eyed Fox, he's great, but Sean's such a nice guy, and I really like his style and what he brings to the band. I don't want him to leave. Maybe two banjo players? I don't know. I guess it's a win-win situation.)

The show was sold out. Now, I didn't realize that "sold out" applied to hole-in-the-wall clubs, but apparently it does. I do know that by the time the show started you couldn't have fit one more person in that place with a shoe horn. It was packed to the gills, and I never did see Mr M again till it was all over.

The band was in fine form. It was a blast, I danced, the boys behind me stomped, we all enjoyed it immensely. They did the greats and the great-greats, played for over two hours, and after it was all over I met back up with Mr M and we said goodbye to everyone. For now. It's never really goodbye, though. Just so long.

Now, as for pictures, I didn't take a single snapshot of the boys during the concert. And there was a reason for that. I decided earlier in the week that since I have this ultra-cool camera Mr M gave me for Christmas, with a movie feature on it, that I was going to become Cecil B DeHackensaw and see what I could do with that feature. I didn't know how much storage space I'd need, so I made the decision beforehand to try and get one song on stage and one out in the crowd. (Those in the know know the Boys always do a song or two out in the audience.)

So instead of Hackensaw Boys pictures this week, you get Hackesaw movies. The first is onstage, and it's a new song they've been doing lately, a song whose title I do not know.

Hackensaw Untitled New Song!

The next one is out in the crowd, as you can tell by the fact that it's pitch black dark. Thank God for people taking flash pictures, it was the only light we had. But you can make out some Ferd (that's him singing), Plang-Tang (that's his face right in my camera), and Baby J (what a nice boy). It does give a nice feel of what it's like to be down there in the thick of things, though.

Whatcha Gonna Do With The Baby?

So there. If that doesn't convince you ne'er-do-wells who haven't made it out to see the band yet to go, nothing will. Except maybe my foot up your fundament.

A great trip, just what my blue psyche needed.

Now for the recipe du jour. And now, don't get excited, folks. It's a dumb idea. It's a bad picture. I'm apologizing in advance in every way I know how. It's just that I spent most of today working on the above movies, I wanted to at least watch some of the Super Bowl (I hate pro football, but a local boy plays for the Giants), and all I had at hand was a bag of Brussels sprouts. So from the "Super Bowl Snacks" file at cardland, will you please give a smattering of applause to Brussels Sprouts Candle.























Yep, there it is, teeming like the heap of mediocrity it is. I liked the idea of flaming Brussels sprouts, but I didn't like the idea of burning my house down trying to set some on fire. So I made a base of sprouts into which I could set a lit candle. I figure the upside of this recipe is that if your electricity goes out and you can't watch the ball game, at least you can see to pick a sprout off the candle.

Yeah, I know.

Happy week.

Betland's Olympic Update:
* Many thanks to Mr M who gave me some advice on how to get these videos formatted to upload. Points off though, when he laughed in my face when I told him how I was originally trying to do it.