July 23, 2007 05:04 pm
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Horse racing.
By Ben Lockridge
There was a great turnout at the racetrack this afternoon, and I even ate litte red dirt for this video. So with that, here are some shots from the races, and then later today look for at least one more blog entry from Nathan. Again, you have two versions of the same video to choose from.
Full resolution
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By Nathan Martin
12:40 p.m.
I felt like I had walked into an entirely different world at the fair this morning. As I was driving into the fair this morning, I went ahead and parked my car at a place that I thought wasn't that bad on the side of the road. It wasn't till I made the rest of my ten minute walk into the fair that I discovered there was actual parking still available, my poor samba tennis shoes are still cursing me.
If political signs are any indication, Haley Barbour should have no trouble securing Mississippi's leadership for the next four years. "Haley, our governor" seems to be the Mississippi political catchphrase of 2007, I'm just waiting for the "Haley, not my governor"- but I think there might be snow at the fair before that will happen.
Thirteen year old Dylan Ley, Philadelphia, MS has been coming to the fair for the last four-five years. He was eviscerating a piece of watermelon this morning with a knife serving as all the utensils needed. 
Moving around the red dirt of the race track a pink clothed runner was making her paces around the same course that the horses would be moving this afternoon.
Speaking of horses,
Anthony Davis of Dallas, Texas was hard at work getting his horses ready for the races this afternoon. I never knew that you had to cover the horses eyes so they wouldn't become overly skittish from the spray of water- maybe my mom should try that with my four little brothers.
"I've been coming out here for the last four-five years," said Davis. "I work for the milk company and this is my week off. This is Goody Could, you know like 'could do it',". 
If a kid with a white shirt starts taking pictures of you, he's seriously not trying to be a stalker. Poor 3 1/2 year old Logan Johnson of Philadelphia was watching the fair goers slowly moving around, when I snapped a few pictures of him. He ran back to his father Danny Johnson, an AG teacher at West Lauderdale.
"This is his first time at the fair," said Johnson. "He's excited about the horse races and livestock show."
More random shots, and an art contest
By Ben Lockridge
12:00 p.m.
Well, I finally made it back to the fair and again the first thing I think is, "Wow, it's warm." It's a bit dusty too, but that's normal out here. Glad I brought my flip flops. (Thanks Nathan.)
I have some more random shots this morning, and some really great action at a children's art contest. The kids seemed to have a blast. I have been having problems with the higher resolution videos lately. You have two videos to choose from now. If the first doesn't work; scroll down to try the other.
High resolution video
Low resolution video
Waking Up
By Nathan Martin
9:30 a.m.
My first day at the Neshoba County Fair has come and gone, and a few hours of sleep later I’m almost ready to start this whole leg tiring process again. Hope you enjoyed a few pictures from the show last night, Esterlyn, the openers, ended up having van trouble, so Kutless just played.
Before anything else, I have to say two things: one, don’t ever wear flip flops to an outdoor rock show. I can’t say how many bleached blonde lipsticked girls wearing flip flops, and I just kept thinking, “dear buddha, I would not want to be her toes. two, press passes at a rock show are the way to go. I was able to get close enough to get some pretty decent pictures, even with my tiny camera, and there was something about being able to watch the entire crowd react to the band that was priceless. I kept thinking that someone was going to realize, “oh no, this reporter is enjoying himself way too much, he’s not supposed to be here,” but thankfully I was able to stay throughout the set.
When Kutless came onstage, the crowd was screaming, and kids were already trying to start jumping up and down. Of course the band wants to feed off of that energy and emotion, so all the members prepared for an electrifying beginning to their first song, “Hearts of the Innocent.” The only problem was that when the bass player Dave went to swing his guitar around, in a moment of true rockstar drama, the bass went flying off his body and into the barricade separating the crowd from the stage- not quite the intended effect.
The show itself wasn’t too painful. I honestly didn’t know most of the songs Kutless played, but judging by the screamed out vocals I heard coming from the crowd, there were at least a few people who had some idea what lead singer Jon Micah was singing/screaming into the microphone. The problem with hard rock shows when you don’t have any idea what the lyrics are, is that all you have to go off of, is the onstage performance of the musicians and the sound of the vocals fitting into that mix.
In that respect, Kutless played a decent show. Musically, they were actually quite good. Excellent drummer, energetic bass, and a beautiful job by the two guitarists- but there just seemed to be something lacking in the night’s performance.
Despite assurance from Kutless that Christians could play rock music, there just seemed to be something strange about the coupling of hard rock with an evangelical message. Kutless was playing as a part of “A Night of Truth,” which was sponsored by a local church in the area, and before the show started, this man made a speech about how he hoped that God would convict people in the audience. Lead singer Jon Micah followed that with his own evangelizing, but unfortunately for the first few rows of the audience, his microphone distorted anything that he was trying to say.
While the show itself wasn’t bad, and Kutless can play some very energetic explosive music, some of the biggest moments came during two worship songs, “Strong Tower,” and “Better is One Day.” You could look out over the crowd and watch the faces reacting to these familiar verses. Even though there was some fist pumping in the crowd, and screaming on stage- it was hard to figure out what everyone was mad about, the devil?
It was a little disturbing to see parents with collared shirts and hats clipped to their belt loops, trying to mosh with their children. It was like, “let’s relive the rocking glory days of our past, but in a Christian environment.”
Maybe that’s what a lot of Christian rock is, it’s a tamed down, less dangerous form of their “secular” counterparts. It takes the emotion, takes the rebellious sound, but couples it to performers and an environment that parents will be much more comfortable in. There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with that, I guess, it’s the choice of the performers and the participants, but somehow you just feel like the show was more a glorified pump-up youth group party, than any type of real artistic experience. That’s not demeaning the talents and skills of Kutless, but honestly, it would be interesting to see them play an environment where they would be forced to just play good music, rather than playing good music that never got too far away from the worship service.
There’s my hastily conceived thoughts for the morning, if you were at the show last night, tell me if I got it right, or what you thought of the band. I’ll be heading out to the fair soon, post-shower, so seriously, say hello if you see me.
Looks like we’ve got some horse races going down, a beauty queen being selected and dance music from the “Spunk Monkees” closing the night off- should be another long day.
I need to go find a strong cup of coffee.
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