Went to see my favorite musician/band in concert last night, The Edwin McCain
Band. The show was wonderful – as always is the case with me, I get so caught
up in the music, that I sometimes forget that there is anyone else in the room
with me. The venue (The Birchmere, Alexandria, VA) was new to me but a very
pleasant place to experience an intimate show. I think I’ll go back for other
shows. I enjoyed the company of friends and during the pre show, had fun comparing
musical knowledge/trivia. This has just made us more than ever interested in playing the 80’s
version of Trivial Pursuit.
From the show, I was especially happy to hear some
of my favorite non-hit songs(“Take Me”, “Far From Over”, “Sun Will Shine Again”)
from the “Misguided Roses” and “Far From Over” CD’s. One of the funniest realizations
was that Edwin seemed to morph before my very eyes in to actor Jack Black, recently
of “School of Rock” fame. 
The show was a long one by most folks standards coming
in at about 2 1/2 hours, give or take. I was amazed at what that time frame
allows a performer to accomplish, as EMB played a full-bodied selection from
all 6 of his albums. I was pleased to note that I knew a good 95% of his songs.
By the time Edwin and his lead guitarist, Larry Chaney, played the last note
of the night’s encore, I (and the rest of my gang) was ready to go home.
In the wake of the last 3 or 4 “late-late” nights this week, it has finally dawned
upon me that I can no longer run on empty for several days. I am definitely
one of those folks which requires a full 8 hours of sleep to function properly.
As I write, the compulsion to lay my head down on my desk and catch a few winks
is more than appealing, it seems like a reasonable thing to do.
I’ve had my first cup of coffee this morning, and am waiting on the effects
to finally kick in. The pertinent aspect of all of this is the recent spate
of reports that talk about sleep deprivation,
and its negative affects. There are a whole host of things that lack of sleep
can manifest from impaired judgment, to illnesses and even shorter life spans.
The thought used to be that once you lost sleep hours you could not make them
up, ever. New studies have since said that you actually could make up the sleep
deficit within a week of the deficit, if you actually add the missing number
of hours into your regular sleep time, but it had to occur during a one week
timeframe. Unfortunately, I am so sleep deprived that I cannot actually find
the link to the study that I heard about recently on either ABC’s Good Morning
America or WTOP FM News. You’ll just have to take my word for it.
The plan for tonight is an early bed-time, hopefully, to recover some of the
hours lost over the last few days. Wish me luck, and sweet dreams!
Thursday, August 5: A 1 day later amendment to this post: (which includes my obligatory clean up of sleep deprivation writing style & errors) Delegatrix pointed out during our drive in today, that Edwin’s set was 2.5 hours long, and that time estimate did not include the opening act, Blue Dogs from Charleston, SC 45 minute set. So a very long night indeed…
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