Last night, “early morning”, I had the privilege of again experiencing the midnight showing of the “late night, double feature picture show” that is “Rocky Horror” at the historic Belcourt Theater in Nashville.

Nashville may be a blue dot in a sea of evangelical/fundamentalism, but damn that blueness was a welcome refuge last night, which speaks to the spirit of what makes “Rocky” so special.

An hour before the show opened, people were lined up outside the theater, many in costume, despite the unusually cold fall night.

Prior to the show, the lead actor read a statement from the show’s organizer which essentially laid out what made/makes “Rocky”, in that the midnight shows were always a safe forum for people of all backgrounds: Gay, straight, trans, weirdos, freaks, geeks to be themeselves, without judgement. That sense of belonging and empowerment was, for some, first experienced at those midnight shows. That feeling of community was especially appreciated, at least for me, last night. To hear a theater full of folks cheer when the impromptu call out of “Is Donal Trump a White Supremacist?”...to which “The Expert” replied “That is a fact”, to overwhelming audience laughter....and Dr Frank N Furter was ask “What do you think of President Trump”, it was incredible to hear the roar of the crowd as Tim Curry glibly said “I think we can do better.”
As the show let out at nearly 2am, it felt like the end of a family reunion of long lost family members. Folks were hugging and laughing and cheering as we went back into the reality that is our daily lives. It was an irreligious, offensive, unrepentantly glorious gathering, yet the evening...err “early morning”, was a great inspiration and reminder that , even here in the “Buckle of the Bible Belt”, the home of the Southern Baptist Convention, and...hell, even a gathering of white supremacists that was shut down by protest earlier in the day....even here, the resistance is alive and thriving.

Will always love this song...the lyrics are just hauntingly beautiful!

https://imgur.com/gallery/dqkoD

We started Halloween early at our house! Now we have to replace a few pumpkins thanks to the unusually warm weather!

My best friend and I have know each other since we were elementary school age. We were a natural fit because we were both nerdy, both only children, and we both were farm kids in TN. He’s the only brother I’ve ever know, and we’ve surely fought like siblings when we were teenagers, but we’ve never not been close. He is the godfather to my kids and I’m the godfather to his daughter. He recently got back from a deployment with the Army and we’ve been catching up on our favorite pastime, going to concerts. Our wives tease us about us going on dates together, but it’s all in jest because they know we both have a passion for music and we both enjoy concerts and neither of them have that same degree of passion, so it’s a win win, especially on nights the girls coordinate to do something together while we go out.

Anyway, we both live in the Nashville area and this weekend was a unique event in that we went to concerts on back to back nights. Last night we saw Jason Isbell at the Ryman, which was an incredible show...his fiddle player and back up singer, who is also is also his wife, was his opening act...both were sensational. Tonight we saw Chris Stapleton at the Bridgestone, which was also amazing. So, cool thing from tonight’s show, Chris Stapleton called up on stage his buddy Chris Pratt to sing with him on his signature song “Tennessee Whiskey” and an extremely cool thing from last night...listen up liberal country fans...Jason Isbell had the local chapter of the ACLU inside the Ryman signing up volunteers as people came into the venue...(I don’t usually mix politics and music but I thought that was incredible!)!!

So...these songs are to friendship, and an incredible weekend with my brother!

I’ve noticed this multiple times today and it’s making me somewhat agitated because I know damn well how to use that punctuation mark and it’s making my posts look dumb!

So the RW is nuts...but you guys knew that. Here’s a little insight into that madness from my own little world here in TN.

Backstory, for those that don’t know, I’m a physician in middle TN near Nashville, grew up here in this community and went away for several years and moved home about a year ago. The Nashville area is pretty purple, a blue dot in a sea of red, and the suburb I work in is now extremely red, wasnt always that way but I digress.

In our OR, we have a nurse who is a Navy vet. The guy likes to try to buddy up to me because I’m also a Navy vet. The thing I can’t stand is that this guy is like the boisterous vet in a bar that can’t stop talking about his service and all the amazing things he participated in, in other words a bullshit artist. So this dude claims that he was in “intelligence” and he knows things that are top secret and most Americans don’t know...cough, bullshit.
Yesterday, the guy was pontificating about the mass shooting in Vegas and he goes “Clearly this Guy was a ‘Manchurian Candidate’. His brother was on the news saying how normal he was and how he got a phone call out of the blue and took off to Vegas. I’ve seen that type of thing before. They probably were playing ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’ and triggered his training and the real question is who is behind this!”

I heard this walking by the front desk of the or and stopped dead in my tracks. I said “What’s so hard about accepting that this was a middle aged white dude that did this? If it was a POC or a Muslim would you be saying that crap?”

His response, “I’m just saying...that’s what the brother said and it’s just too convenient.”

My response: “Dude, you need to turn off the Alex Jones and watch some real news like CNN...cause that crap is frying your brain” and I walked off.

That folks is the epitome of the RW mindset...that’s why Trump was elected, and that’s why Jesus Christ himself as a Democratic candidate wouldn’t be able to convince these fools to vote for him!

My favorite...