Month: January 2007

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Hitting the Jackpot at the Hillbilly Casino

I’ve lived in Nashville since 1982. For the first time ever, we went to the Opryland Hotel complex to see a band play in one of the clubs. So, what group motivated us to go mingle with the tourists? Hillbilly Casino.

If you like rockabilly, you’ll love these guys. They’re fronted by a fellow named Nic Roulette. We first saw him a few years ago when he opened up for Webb Wilder at the Radio Cafe in Nashville. We were absolutely blown away. I’ve been doing the occasional internet search on his name since then to find where he was playing, but we were never able to make it to any of his gigs. Last night we finally go to see him with his new (to us, at least) band.

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NASCAR’s New Points System, Explained

NASCAR today unveiled some changes to the points system for this coming year’s Nextel Cup Series. The changes are meant to put more emphasis on winning, and make sure that NASCAR favorites like Jeff Gordan and Dale Earnhardt, Jr., consistently make the Chase for the Championship.

As a public service, I’ve decided to publish this guide to the new system.

  • Anyone winning a race throughout the year is automatically eligible for the Chase (unless you’re in one of those underfunded single-car teams).
  • They’ve done away with the 400 points from the leader after 26 races rule. Instead, the top 12 drivers (if those drivers have led a lap) are eligible for the Chase.
  • During the regular season, the winner of a race gets 185 points. Losers get the distinction of having won some money.
  • If a driver wins a race, and there’s a full moon, then that driver gets to pick another car from the field and that car’s driver loses all of his points.
  • For the first time ever “non-points” races will pay out points. The winners of the Gatorade 150 will each receive a lifetime supply of Gatorade and 25 points. The winner of the All Star race will receive the 25 points plus have everyone in the stands added to his family call list on his Nextel phone.
  • If a race winner happens to be a woman, she’ll get 1000 extra points, just because it’s harder for women to drive and put makeup on.

NASCAR is contemplating changes to the points system in the Busch series as well. The most significant of those is that if the winner of a Busch Series race isn’t a full-time Nextel Cup driver, he automatically wins the championship and the rest of the season is cancelled.

I hope this summary of the new points systems has been helpful.

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Benny Parsons, RIP

Wow. Another NASCAR death from cancer. NASCAR Champion and broadcaster Benny Parsons died today in North Carolina.

Although I worked as a reporter for Racing Information Systems and attended about a dozen Winston Cup races, I never got to talk to him in person. I did see him from time to time, and he always had a smile on his face.

NASCAR and the world is a little dimmer now.

Rest in peace, Benny.

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A Vonage Adage, Part III

Well, I got the (finally) free phone adapter today. I plugged it into my router, then plugged the fax machine into the adapter. When I tried to send a fax, I could hear a voice telling me I was using a phone port that wasn’t active. So I guess I’ll have to call Vonage again. I’ll do that tomorrow after I get home from work. Hopefully I’ll get someone who speaks English.

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A Vonage Adage, Part II

The birds are singing, the sun is shining, and all is right with the world.

In my previous post, I’d concluded that I was just going to out and out cancel Vonage. But I decided to give them one more shot. If they didn’t agree to sending me the free phone adapter, then I was going to cancel.

I made sure to call their number before 9 pm Eastern so I could get through to the people who could deal with it. After navigating their menu structure, and choosing the “cancel my service” option, a fellow named Adam came on the line. This guy had a  slight New Jersey accent, and was friendly from the word go.

I explained the situation, and he took a look at the account. Then he summarized it by saying “you thought you were getting five things but only got three”. Yes! That’s it. So, he put me on hold for a couple of minutes to see what he could do.

Uh oh. This is gonna be the part where he comes back and tells me there’s nothing he can do. Wrong. He offered to send me the adapter in question and set up the fax line when I get it. I didn’t even have to ask. He’s even going to call me back on Monday when he sets up the fax line.

I’m getting ready to hook the phone back up and start using it. Vonage has customer service reps that can actually give great customer service; they’re just hard to get hold of apparently.

So, I’m a happy camper right now. Vonage offers a product that fits my needs, and it was really going to be a hassle to try to find something equivalent. I’m glad they did the right thing. Hopefully they’ll change the verbage on their web site to prevent this type of thing in the future.

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A Vonage Adage

We decided we needed an incoming phone line for Fine Art Touch. A friend of mine has been using Vonage for a while now, and he loves it, so I figured why not try Vonage. I went to their web site on Monday night (January 8th) where I started the order, but I had a few questions, so I figured I’d call Vonage directly and complete the order.

The person I talked to at Vonage was obviously a non-native English speaker. But his accent wasn’t that hard to understand, so I didn’t think anything about it. Anyway, I wanted to get the unlimited line ($24.99 month), a toll-free number ($4.99 month), and a fax line ($9.99 month). On the Vonage site, they advertise a “Free phone adapter if you sign up directly from Vonage”. The phone adapter supports up to two lines and lets you plug into any network port and have phone access. It’s portable so you can take it with you and anywhere you can plug into a network connection instantly becomes a phone line. Nice.

Vonage also had a nifty cordless phone available with a base that plugged directly into the network port. I figured that was perfect for what we needed. So, I ordered Vonage’s unlimited service, toll-free number, fax, and the Vtech cordless phone.

Or so I thought.

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Bobby Hamilton, RIP

Wow. I just surfed over to Jayski’s site a few minutes ago and was stunned to see that Bobby Hamilton had passed away.

I think everyone had expected him to get better, but the cancer must have been worse than publicized. I’d guess that that’s what he wanted; he didn’t want the team or the public to be distracted by or fixated on his illness.

I got to see him race at the Fairgrounds a few times. He gave Casey Atwood a lot of help when he was getting started, and Atwood drove the #43 at the Fairgrounds that was owned by Hamilton. One memorable moment was when Dale Earnhardt, Jr. was practicing for a late model race at the track. He and another car wrecked, and both cars burned to the ground. Everyone was ok, but Earnhardt was left without a ride.

Hamilton offered Little Earnhardt the use of one of Atwood’s spare cars. That season, Atwood was driving Fords. Little E had to get permission from his dad before he could drive the Ford.

The racing world lost a truly nice guy today.

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Webb Wilder, Unplugged

We went to see Webb Wilder play last night at Puckett’s Grocery in Franklin. As his website said, this was a “limited personnel gig”. That is, it was Webb and Tony Bowles, both on acoustic guitars.

I’ve been to Puckett’s Grocery in Leiper’s Fork many times, and had their great hamburgers. But this was the first time I’d been to the one in Franklin. You could fit the complete Leiper’s Fork store inside the dining area of the Franklin location, and still have room. Where Puckett’s Grocery in Leiper’s Fork is a grocery first and a music venue second, it’s just the opposite in Franklin.

A few weeks back, we saw Webb and the Beatnecks at the Bluesboro. They had a deal for $29.95 you got admission to the show and dinner for two. At Puckett’s, it was $29.95 and admission to the show per person (or you could pay a $15 cover for just the show). I like Webb a lot, but that’s still kind of steep.

But, the show was worth it. Webb opened up with a song I’d never heard before (and the name escapes me). Then went into songs like “Pretty Little Lights of Town” and others he usually plays with the full band. And Tony actually sung backup on quite a few songs! Very well, I might add.

They also did two new songs that Webb had written in the last few months, and I can’t wait to hear the whole band do them. He also did “Original Mixed Up Kid”, which the band normally doesn’t do, so that was refreshing.

The nearly 90-minute set ended with Human Cannonball.

I think it’d be interesting for Webb and the Beatnecks to do an “unplugged” show some time, with Tom on an acoustic bass guitar.

We’ll be checking Webb and the full band out at 3rd & Lindsley on February. If you’re a fan of good music, you should “pick up on it.”