Holi Fest - 2012

Photo source: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150652193703110

So I've been to the Holi Fest in Spanish Fork before and this year I thought I would probably skip it since I have gone in 2010 and 2011. But it turned out that I have friends who had not been yet so I went back for another dose of colored corn starch. It's something you should experience once and as long as I have friends who haven't experienced it, I will probably continue to go back. If nothing else it makes for some fun photos.

Holi Fest Tips

• Only wear clothes that you are willing to throw away. Sometimes the color will come out and sometimes it will not.
• A bandanna and sun glasses can help protect yourself. Contacts are a bad idea.
• Bring a change of clothes for wearing to keep your car clean.
• Be prepared to be hit with colors long before you make it to the temple. If you are bringing a camera make sure its protected.
• Bring garbage sacks to put your colored clothes in or to protect your car seats.
• Bring a camera. This is an event that deserves photos. Even if you leave the camera in the car while you are at the festival.
• Save some of your colors to apply right before the photos. Otherwise you might just look purplish gray in all the photos.

Matt Nathanson & Kelly Clarkson

A few months ago my buddy, Ty, asked if I wanted to attend the Kelly Clarkson concert with him and some friends. I love Kelly but I'm normally a smaller concert venue kind of guy. Despite that I knew that I would have a great time with great friends and some amazing talent. So I said, "Yes!"

Fast forward four months and it was time. Yay!

Matt Nathanson was the opening act for Kelly. If you've heard anything from him, you've heard the song, Higher, in the video shown above. He was great but didn't play long enough for me.

Kelly came out and played for about an hour and a half. She's got an amazing voice. I loved how personable she was in between songs, just so "girl next door." She seemed to play most of her hits and she also performed two covers. One of the covers was Carrie Underwood's I Know You Won't (which I love!) It also happens to be one of the songs I recorded. Check my recordings out below:

Rex Lee Run 5K - 2012

Last Saturday I rejoined two of my good friends to rerun the Rex Lee Run 5K. We did it together last year with a few other friends. You can read about it here: Rex Lee Run 2011. When I first thought about running this race again this year I thought that I would do the 10K instead but the close it got, the more I realized that I was not prepared for that. So we all ended up running the 5K. The weatherman had said that it was supposed to be rainy and windy. I was pleased that it was neither until we finished the race.

The course starts with a lot of up hill for the first mile. I was determined this time to take it slower and not expend all my energy passing others getting up the hill. I think it worked out better for me. This year I finished about 50 seconds faster than last year with a time of 29:49 minutes.

Here's a little comparison between this and last years stats:

This Year - 2012	Last Year - 2011
29:49 Minutes	30:40 Minutes
196/452 in Gender	323/581 in Gender
8/25 in Age Division (40-44)	10/19 in Age Division (40-44)
314/1144 Overall	489/1356 Overall

My friend, Bryant, who placed 1st in his division

It's just a tradition now! :)

At one point this white-haired guy runs up by me and passes me a bit. Later I catch back up with him and run along side him for a while. Soon I realize that he is talking to me even though I have my headphones in. I removed my headphones from my left ear to hear what he was saying. He said, "We're not that old." What?! I'm like, "I may not be super young but really? You are putting us in the same category?" Well he did finish before me so I guess I shouldn't be too offended. :)

Guster & Submarines

Last Saturday (March 10th), my friend, Robbie texted me and said "Brian we should go see guster tonight!" I replied, "Hey stranger! You're a Guster fan?" But my fancy iPhone decided that I actually meant to say, "Hey stranger! You're a hustler fan?" Ooops! Fortunately I read the text before I actually sent it. :)

Long story, short, we got tickets and headed to In the Venue after a stop a Crown Burger. It was Robbie's first time there and he was quite taken with the ambiance and the burger.

At the show we hooked up with my nephew and his friend, Eileen. Instead of the normal standing only room there were chairs filling most of the floor. I've been to tons of concerts at In the Venue and never have I seen chairs. By the time we got there they were all filled of course. But we did find a great standing spot not too far from the stage where we could lean against the wall.

Up first was The Submarines. I had never heard of them but immediately decided that I liked their sound. They are a pop duo out of LA and during their whole performance I kept thinking how the girl looked and moved like Ellie Goulding. Here are two of their songs that I recorded. Of course I didn't end up recording my favorite song of theirs.

I believe this was the first of Guster's acoustic shows. It seemed that they hadn't really figured out how it was going to work. But that made it even more fun. I had forgotten just how crazy they are! They took requests and sometimes they couldn't remember how the songs went. See the X-ray Eyes video as an example. Also they took questions from the audience. My favorite was "What's wrong with your hair?" To which he replied, "What's wrong with your hair?!" :) Anyway, check out the recordings I made of them below:

My Kind of Town

New York, New York. It's my kind of town. At least I hope so! I've never been to the Big Apple but soon that will all change. I just booked my flight for a short visit next month. Stay posted to get all the details upon my return. I can tell you that I will be seeing a few shows and that the one I'm most looking forward to is Evita with Ricky Martin.