BlogPoll Roundtable: EDSBS I Wanna Talk About Me Edition
Stranko’s hosting the latest BlogPoll Roundtable! Woo-hoo! I’m late, so I’ll get right to it.
WARNING: This post is loaded with links to audio and movie trailers, so . . . beware.
1. Education. List the region of the country you were born in, what universities you attended and at least one other you would have attended if your alma mater didn’t exist.
I grew up just outside of the Quad Cities (Rock Island and Moline, IL and Davenport and Bettendorf, IA) in a little town called Taylor Ridge, Illinois. After several years of playing in a rock band, I moved to Florida to enroll in the Music and Video Business Program at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, where I played a little, wrote a little, and recorded a little, including Gotta Do, one the songs I link to below.
After several years in South Florida, I moved to Nashville and enrolled at Belmont University to get a BBA with an emphasis in Music Business. The Belmont experience was great, and I would recommend the university to anyone. The place is a veritable breeding ground for talent. One of my favorite writers — James Isaac Elliott — is a professor there, and fellow students Brad Paisley, Ginny Owens (warning: audio!), and Selah’s Todd Smith are all having great success today as artists. And those were just the ones that were there at the same time as I was. Steven Curtis Chapman was there and gone before me. As was Trisha Yearwood (warning: audio!). The list goes on and on. Music Row is filled with Belmont grads you’ve never heard of working behind the scenes.
But as for me, providence moved me further east to Knoxville, Tennessee for UT Law School (I was wait-listed at Vanderbilt in Nashville until it was too late), where I became addicted to blogging (heavily influenced by my torts professor, a.k.a the Blogfather) and to Volunteer football. I have since moved further east (and a bit north) to the Tri-Cities (Johnson City, TN, Kingsport, TN, Bristol, TN, and Bristol, VA (and yes, that’s only three)).
2. Sports Affiliations. List your top 10 favorite teams in all of sports in descending order. For instance, your alma mater’s football team may be number 1, but perhaps there is a professional team that squeezes in before you get to your alma mater’s lacrosse team.
As a lawyer, I feel an uncontrollable urge to state that I am not affiliated with the University of Tennessee. Or any other university. Or anyone. No affiliations here. Not a one. But here are the teams I like:
- Tennessee Volunteers football
- Tennessee Volunteers basketball
- Indianapolis Colts
- Tennessee Titans
- Lady Vols basketball
I’m with Orson – I can’t name more than a handful. The more you have, the less obsessive can be about each one.
3. Movies. List the movie you’ve watched the most, your favorite sports related movie, the movie you secretly love but don’t like to admit it (possibly a chick flick or b film), and the movie you were (or still are) most looking forward to from this summer’s season.
Movie I’ve watched the most: From the Hip, is a very under-appreciated film starring Judd Nelson, Elizabeth Perkins, and an exceedingly creepy John Hurt. The Amazon plot synopsis really doesn’t do it justice, and the tagline (“Getting to the top means working like a dog!) entirely misses the mark. The movie is a great self-discovery film, and it’s absolutely creepy in some places and downright hilarious in others. The courtroom argument over the admissibility of the word “a**” is hilarious. Every time.
This is Spinal Tap is a close second.
Favorite sports-related movie: Remember the Titans. Bruckheimer + sports = summer solace.
Movie I secretly love but don’t like to admit: Pride and Prejudice. What can I say? I live in a house full of females. Even the dog is a girl. And really, you do have to marvel at the ability of the Brits to absolutely zing somebody and still maintain good form.
4. Music. List your favorite band from middle school, high school, college and today. Also, as with the movies, include the song you secretly love but don’t like to admit.
Middle school: Kiss.
High school: any rock-anthem, big-haired 80’s rock and roll band. See, e.g., Bon Jovi, Van Halen, Van Hagar, etc.
College: Well, since this is the I Wanna Talk About Me edition of the BlogPoll Roundtable, I’m going to say . . . me. An original of mine — Gotta Do – was the lead cut on the school album, and it got a little (very little) airtime on cable access t.v. The song’s pretty dated (it sounds like it was written in the early 90’s, which it was), but at the very least, you have to hear the improvised guitar solo. Everything but that and the drums is me. Me, me, me. And me.
Gotta Do, by . . . me.
You can hear some more of my stuff at my other blog – View from East Tennessee – which is currently down due to a migration mix up on the part of my hosting provider. Probably just as well.
Today: Favorite Musical Groups: Brad Paisley (and not just because he was at Belmont at the same time as I was), Tower of Power, John P. Kee, and Steven Curtis Chapman. There are a lot of others. It’s mostly about the song, except with Tower of Power, where it’s mostly about the horns. You gotta love The Educated Bump (Click on the iTunes buttons to listen):
Favorite Albums:
Spilt Milk. Think the Beatles meet Queen. Well-crafted, quirky lyrics all wrapped up in a nice, melodic package and peppered with interesting musical events all happening at the same time. Not a bad (or even mediocre) song on the entire album. It’s by a group named Jellyfish.
5. Books. Favorite book you’ve finished, worst book you’ve finished and the book you really should read but haven’t gotten around to it.
Favorite finished book: Thr3e by Ted Dekker. Brilliant.
Book I really should read and worst book I finished: Blink, the Power of Thinking without Thinking, by Malcolm Gladwell. It’s both because it’s a book that I probably should read and because I’m afraid that if I do, it will be the worst book I’ve ever finished. I really liked The Tipping Point, and so I rushed out and got Blink as an audiobook to listen to in the car. Gladwell’s whole premise is that you can make good decisions about most things in just a couple of seconds. Well, I decided about that fast that I wasn’t going to like the book, so I quit listening to it. Hmmm. Maybe he’s right, which would mean I should read the thing. But if I do and I like it, then I didn’t make a good decision after two seconds, did I? You see my dilemma.
6. Travel. Favorite city you’ve ever been to and the one place you still must visit before you shuffle off this mortal coil.
Favorite city: Knoxville, TN. Duh.
Need to visit: Athens, Tuscaloosa, Auburn, Fayetteville, South Bend. Places like that.
7. What do you love most about college football in 20 words or less?
I knew Kyle was going to have trouble with this one. Let’s see:
In today’s time-shifting culture, it’s one of the last things huge crowds experience together in real-time.
