A very Indiana thing to do

Today while I was working the main Residence Life desk, the students and I were talking about things that I had to do before I left Indiana if I really wanted to say I had a true "Indiana experience". The conversation was spurred by the John Mellencamp concert I saw last night.

The concert was great. Little Big Town opened the concert and though they are a very new country band without a lot of well known songs, they sounded great live. Mellencamp put on a great show - everything I expected. He gave a few liberal speals (which I loved but did get a boo or two in this crazy red state), he cursed (to be expected), and he smoked on stage (I do not like smoking- nasty habit - but I do have to say he does smoke like a man: cigarette between the middle and ring finger, doesn't hold on to the cigarette when he is inhaling. Definitely not effeminate like most men who smoke!) The songs were great though Mellencamp kept whispering to his band members - hope he wasn't chewing them out - I heard he can be quite a mean guy. Anyways, Mellencamp played a lot of great songs but he forgot to play "Dance Naked" which is one of my faves. He did play a few blues songs which I didn't like. I understand that as an artist it might get boring playing "Jack and Diane" every time you are on stage but he has such a vast collection of songs that he does not need to be playing songs he never covered before especially when he doesn't play all of his popular songs! I didn't get to buy a concert shirt because they did not have my size in any of the shirts I liked (talk about poor merchandising!) Mellencamp did earn some bonus points though when he did not play an encore. I so dislike bands that "pretend" the show is over and then come back for another song or two - really, play all your songs and then end the show. Whoever thought of the first encore is stupid and thankfully Mellencamp didn't do it (neither does one of my favorite bands - SoCo!!!!).

Anyways, back to my conversation with the students, when I first moved to Indiana everyone said I would get to see Mellencamp because he plays all the small towns in Indiana since he is from Seymour, Indiana and sings about small towns. I almost didn't get to see him but thankfully he went on tour just at the right time! I had a student that told me last summer I would need to do three things before I left Indiana:

1. Almost hit a deer
2. Watch a Indiana High School basketball game
3. Get struck by lightening

Um, yeah, sorry Anthony, I haven't done any of that crazy stuff!

The students today decided I should go to a Demolition Derby and visit a meth lab. Apparently they think that demolition derbies and drug usage are specific to only the state of Indiana. I did attend a demolition derby out here last August and it wasn't any different then the one in Yucca Valley that I saw like 10 years ago. And I don't know why I would go to a meth lab...I have known enough people whose lives have been f*ed up by that stuff (there but for the grace of God go I) so I don't need to see anymore.

It is funny though to hear what everyone thinks is unique to this area. I would like to eat dinner at an Amish restaurant (Kourt and I are going to do this in a couple weeks) and I think I should see an Indy race sometime this summer.