Free Dinner, Disappointing Fights, and Live Music: The Weekend Wrap-Up

Friday:

The staff and full-time faculty at the university that I work for went out to eat at Macaroni Grill. It was a good time, and the food was free. I had to control myself and not eat the delicously fattening, salty pasta. I settled for grilled salmon and rice. It was okay, when I close my eyes, it tasted just like....aw, who am I kidding? I'm fat, when I get skinny and stay skinny, I may indulge myself again.
After that, I went to Jordan's Karaoke Bar and Grill. I sang Luther Vandross' "A House Is Not a Home", Al Green's "Love and Happiness", and Bon Jovi's "Wanted Dead or Alive". The Luther was a little pitchy, I have the darnedest time with his songs. The other two were on point.

Saturday:

I got off work, ran my errands, and went back home to take a nap. I decided to stay at home and watch the boxing match on Pay-Per-View with my brother and his friends. It was underwhelming. Oscar De La Hoya lost to Floyd Mayweather by decision. Okay, this is the part that bothered me: De La Hoya was hurting Mayweather with his left jab. For no reason at all, he stops using it. His response after the fight was, "I don't know, it just wasn't the night of the jab". What the hell?! You're kidding, right. Even one of the commentators gave him grief over that excuse. De La Hoya may need to sit on down. I am not sure that his heart is still in it.

Sunday:

I went to the last day of the Beale Street Music Fest. I started off watching Egypt Central, a Memphis-based rock band. The rain started coming down too hard, and I had to find cover. It was also getting in my eyes and irritating them. I apologize to the people that I may have bumped into while "fleeing for cover". While moving from tent to tent (Most tents would not let you stay unless you bought something), I ran into Lina Fritsche (Unholy Passion, Curbside Confessions). I really couldn't speak because we were separated by several people trying to get cover. Once the rain cleared, I moved to the Budweiser Stage, where I watched Ann Peeble's performance. She's an older R&B singer. She performed "I'm Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down". I did not know that was her song. I remember a singer in the 80s doing a cover of it. She did a cover of "I Want to Know What Love Is", and she finished off with her signature song, "I Can't Stand the Rain". Many people know the Missy Elliott rap song that sampled this, "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)". Ironically, it started sprinkiling again during this song. I also ran into local poet Darque Angel. After this, I walked around and ran into Tracy(Tricks), an actress that I know, and her fiancee. Tracy and I talked about the dry spell in terms of productions filming in Memphis right now. I went back to the Budweiser stage for Edwin McCain's show. McCain did a cover of Teddy Pendergrass' "Love TKO". His last two songs were "I"ll Be" (his signature song) and a cover of Rod Stewart's "Maggie May". McCain brought out ukulele during "Maggie May". I loved it!! I went to the concesson stand for a chicken on a stick and a Sprite. I ran into Patrich Behroozi, who is a part-time tutor at my job. He was with his wife, Amy, part-time faculty at my job. Amy's been teaching online recently, so I haven't seen her in a while. It was good to see her. Patrick and I chit-chatted about how he doesn't watch trailers online, in the movie theater, or on TV (if he can avoid it), so he's totally surprised when a movie comes out. It seems a bit extreme, but that's his way. After eating my food, I ran into "Angry" Nick Jones and his girlfriend, Courtney Wright. They were there to see Corinne Bailey Rae and John Legend. I also ran into a guy who used to cut my hair back in the dorms during my college days. He was taking pictures for a website. I also saw my good buddy Mario Lindsey, but he didn't hear me yelling his name. I ran into another college buddy named Eric. We chatted, and he complimented "Angry" Nick's "Champipple" t-shirt. "Champipple" is a mixture of champagne and Ripple (two beverages) that was featuredi n a classic episode of Sanford and Son.
Corrine Bailey Rae took the stage. I was shocked at how skinny and short she was. She's still cute to me. Yes, I did scream out "I love you, Corinne". I also sang out "Sing that s----". Everybody around me laughed, though. I'm sorry, Mama. She sang songs from her debut album, like "I'd Like To", "Like a Star", "Trouble Sleeping", "Call Me When You Get This" and her debut single "Put Your Records On". I thoroughly enjoyed her.
John Legend came to the stage next. Corinne had been the opening act for John Legend for about six weeks. The music festival was the end of her spot on the tour. John came out with both arms raised pompously. I guess Kanye West has rubbed off on him. He sang several songs from his two albums. My favorite was "PDA (We Just Don't Care)". He sang it to the beat of "RockCreek Park" by the BlackByrds (look them up). That was hot!! Shout out to his female background singers. One was a dark-skinned, voluptuous African-American sister, and the other one was a light-skinned, petite, African-American goddess with a curly afro. I was in love. They would both be worthy sires of my offspring, Prince Indie (since I am King Indie). Oh, yeah, his brother was the other backup singer. He was a lucky man. The ladies "interacted" with him several times. He brought Corinne Bailey Rae onstage and they dueted on Donnie Hathaway and Roberta Flack's "Where Is the Love?" John Legend also brought a girl onstage during the song "Slow Dance". He took his button-up shirt off, revealing a t-shirt. Of course, the ladies screamed while Nick and I made faces. Skinny peolple don't look cool taking his shirt off. I told Nick it reminded me of a movie, The Birdcage. Yes, I am hating. Everybody got into it when he sang his debut single, "Used to Love You". Shout out to the student from my job that was in the crowd. His girlfriend knew Nick. It's a small world, after all. Shout out to my cousin, Sonya Saine, from good ol' Fayette County. She fussed at me for talking while she was recording John Legend on her phone. She shouldn't have been doing it anyway, she was breaking the law!!! I let that slide and enjoyed the rest of the concert. He left, then came back for an encore song. I think it was called "So High". After that, I headed for home. I stopped to talk to Richard, a guy I met that works at the University of Memphis. Also, I ran into singer/actress Latoya Baker-Smith (Just the Two of Us). She told me that she's forming a new band and is trying to work on new material. I then ran into the sister of my homeboy Paul "P-Dub" West. As I left the park, I ran into Martina, a cool person and an actress that we have used on several Pittsop Productions (Just the Two of Us, SCJ Project). She asked me where Rod Pitts was (www.pittstopproductions.com). I said that he was busy editing. Rod is always working on film. His hustles harder than me, The Hardest Working Film Actor in the Memphis Area (believe it). I finally made it back to the Peabody Place parkng lot, and I headed home.
It was a good day, I didn't eat too much bad food, and even though my feet and legs hurt from walking and standing, I had a good time.

Now, I am ready to film something again. I've been hearing about things on the horizon. I was just emailed something that is still in the draft stage, but it should be nice. Soon, King Indie will act again. Be easy, readers!!!