Chris Cagle at Buck Owens' Crystal Palace

This past weekend, I drove 2 hours north and headed to Bakersfield to see Chris Cagle in concert at Buck Owens' Crystal Palace. It was a GREAT show (and do I dare admit--((gulp))--my 36th time seeing him in concert?) Over the years I have seen the highs and lows of Cagle come and go, and I am pleased to say that this was defitinitely a high. The show was terrific--filled with lots of humor on Cagle's part. He joked with the crowd, did goofy little dances, acknowledged a heck of a lot of people who wanted to be acknowledged, (yeah, me too!) and smiled through the whole show. Loved that! I had a feeling it would be a great show. Right now Chris is riding into town on the back of a long-needed hit, "What Kind of Gone", and performed in a venue where he had a history of putting on a damn good show seven years ago.

So, here are some of my photos from the show...if you know Chris, then you know it's a rare occasion that he doesn't have on that black t-shirt...so stop by the photo album and take a look. He looked great--and sounded even better.

Follow the link below or on the margin at the right to check out the rest of the photos--and leave a comment or two--it's always fun to see what fans have to say about this photo or that one.

Chris Cagle Photo Album

Sword Tube Set

Here is an old set of my tubes--made back when the first "Pirates of the Carribbean" movie came out. Hope someone can find them useful.

(Click on image to go to 4Shared download)

Halloween Tubes Set 2

Brrr...finally I am starting to feel a change in the weather. After the 100+ degrees earlier in the week, the 44 degrees outside right now feels chilly and refreshing. I am so looking forward to fall.

Well, here is set 2 of my Halloween tubes. I hope you can give them a great new home (and lots of use).

Tubed by Cyndi-Lu for "Lu’s Tags & Moose Mountain Stats" http://moosemountainstop.blogspot.com/

This set was saved as a .rar file. Hope you can open that up...if you can't, drop me an email and I'll help you out.

Download Halloween Tubes Set 2 HERE

Halloween Tubes Set 1

I love Halloween. It's my favorite holiday for so many reasons. When I was a kid, I had to wait for permission from my mom to hang up the Halloween decorations (because I would hang them up in September, if I could), but mom always made me wait until the calendar read "October". My mom had this tradition where we couldn't go out and Trick-or-Treat until we had eaten a full dinner. Our Halloween feast always consisted of the same thing (and still does to this day!) grilled cheese sandwiches and a hot bowl of Campbell's tomato soup. YUM!! Maybe I love Halloween because I love the fun of putting on a costume and being someone else for a day, or maybe it's the opportunity to go door to door and actually beg for my favorite candies. LOL. "Please let the next house have Reese's or Bottle Caps..." I love the rich colors of Halloween, I love the weather--be it a chilly, nippy night of a rural Ohio Autumn evening, or the warm Santa Ana winds of southern California (I experienced both growing up). I love decorating the front of the house, stuffing old clothes with newspapers to make a scarecrow/dummy to sit on the front porch, hanging ghosties from the trees, stretching web-like cotton across the bushes in the front of the house, and playing creepy music for the kids to shiver to when they come to the door. I love the smiling and learing faces on the pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns and I even love going shopping for the perfect candy to pass out (which usually means lots of mini candy bars).

Tubed by Cyndi-Lu for "Lu’s Tags & Moose Mountain Stats" http://moosemountainstop.blogspot.com/

With Halloween on the way, I thought it would be a great time to post some tubes I have made. This is the first set of several that I plan to share. Everything is zipped up and waiting at 4Shared....come and get 'em! If you do download, please leave a comment. I'd love to hear what you think of my tubes.

Download Halloween Tubes Set 1 HERE

2-Minute Tim McGraw People.com interview

This month Tim McGraw appears on the cover of "Country People Magazine". In it he is interviewed about his ten year plan (can you believe he wants to be retired by then??) He also talks about touring with the kids, his upcoming Christmas movie called "Four Christmases, running for Governor of Tennessee and the new cologne that bears his name (and has the stamp of approval from Faith Hill, his wife. Check out the 2 minute video that is posted at People.com by clicking the link below.

Check out the video HERE

Kenny Chesney at Starfest '96

So, I thought it would be fun to pull up some old concert photos, refresh them a bit, and share them again. It's been a long time since I have looked at any of these photo albums tucked in the back of my closet and a lot has changed since then. Cameras have evolved into digital wonders, scanners have really improved in quality, and hair (in Kenny's case) has gotten a "little bit" shorter.

When I took these photos twelve years ago, Kenny Chesney was just a fledging concert act trying to make it big--and boy did he ever. Who would have thought that the kid in the too-tight beige wranglers with the nasaly voice would become the Academy of Country Music's Entertainer of the Year for three years running? Certainly not I. I kid a lot about Kenny, but even I recognize the many years of hard work that led him to where he is today.

These photos were taken at "Starfest" in 1996. Starfest was the west coast's answer to Nashville's FanFair in the east. For three years in May, the Los Angeles County Fair Grounds in Pomona, California was taken over for a long weekend and invaded by country music stars and fans alike. Several stages were set up for performances and newer acts like LeAnn Rimes, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Tracy Lawrence, and Toby Keith sang their hearts out looking for a bigger audience to buy their records. Every radio station that could get its signal heard was there and buildings were packed with the artist's booth hawking autographs, photos, and assorted swag. It was a great time for everyone and seemed like a huge success to us, the fans, but unfortunately, Starfest collapsed during it's fourth year. Promoters claimed bankruptsy, took our money (after we pre-paid for our seats), and ran.

To see the individual photos, you can go to:

http://public.fotki.com/Cynfulthoughts/concert_photos_mcgr/photos-kenny-chesne/

For this lay-out, I used the kit "Summer Blues" which can be found at: digimom@digimomdesigns.com

Tim McGraw "Swing" Wallpaper

Happy Tuesday! Gee...I seem to be on a roll. Don't get used to it--I have been known to disappear for weeks (ok...months) at a time! LOL. Anyhow, here is the latest edition to my McGraw wallpaper collection. Since it takes me a while to make these things, I sized it for myself and figure if anyone wants to use it--you'll make it work for you. So that being said, both of these sizes are fit for wide-screen use. One is 1024x600 and the other is 1280x800. Works for me. Anyhow, hope you enjoy it, hopefully there is more to come, and I'd love to hear what you think of this paper. (Oh yeah--one more very important thing, a big THANK YOU to Kim. I used the scrap kit called "Fried Green Tomatoes" by "Kim's Scrappin'" at http://kimscrapping.blogspot.com/)

Artwork ©Cyndi-Lu for "Lu’s Tags & Moose Mountain Stats" http://moosemountainstop.blogspot.com/

Download 1024 Wallpaper HERE

Download 1280 Wallpaper HERE