Odds and ends

An interesting site when you have plenty of time to kill—Neuropolitics. Did you know conservatives prefer dogs to cats, that extroverts are more religious than introverts, that liberals prefer colors from the middle of the visable light spectrum? Does any of this mean anything if it's true? Be sure to take the new spring survey linked at the top of the page.

Ella of Box of Books has chosen the next Slave of Golconda book--Owen Wister's The Virginian and I'm psyched. I found a pristine used copy on Saturday with Charley Russell illustrations and a Frederic Remington cover as well as a collection of Wister's essays on the Old West and a huge treasury of art and literature on the West. Read along and post your thoughts on your blog on April 30.

Finished Tom Groneberg's One Good Horse. More about that later.

Watched the Oscars last night, possibly the first time I've watched the entire thing. Lily Tomlin and Meryl Streep made the show. Jon Stewart was good, but too subdued, and I was disappointed that the cameramen couldn't bother to show Annie Proulx when Larry McMurtry made a point of mentioning she was there when he was accepting the best writing award.

The Rodney Crowell concert Saturday night was fabulous. Last time he was at the Neighborhood Theater he played a laidback acoustic evening with guitarist Will Kimbrough, but he brought a drummer and bass player along this time, as well as Kimbrough, and they really rocked. Kimbrough, who I now have a bit of a crush on (between the red blazer he was wearing and his overlong curls, he was giving off a definite Dr. Who vibe), sang Cash's part on "I Walk the Line (Revisited)" and the crowd was on its feet giving standing ovations two numbers into the set.

Will Kimbrough has a blog.

We met a couple who'd driven down from Roanoke while standing in line waiting for the doors to open and they sat with us during the show. Turns out they were also big Dwight Yoakam fans and had gone as far as Texas to attend his concerts. We all agreed he ought to patch things up with Pete Anderson and the rest of the boys. They'd seen Scott Joss performing with Merle Haggard not too long ago.

And here's an old article about Gillian Welch and David Rawlings that I somehow missed when it first came out.