This morning, at about 9:15, I was driving on I-40 East toward Little Rock. It doesn’t matter why. What matters is that I encountered bumper-to-bumper traffic at a time and place that usually allows me to drive with great speed and intensity. A trip that typically takes me a solid 20 minutes (pedal to the m-e-t-a-l, y’all) took me FOUR TIMES AS LONG.
Surely, a traffic jam this severe could be chalked up to an accident, right? I mean, accidents happen. But hold on to your butts: This had nothing to do with an accident.* It had everything to do with this sloe-eyed sweetie from Jacksonville playing a free concert in the Rivermarket.
I wouldn’t believe it except that I saw droves of teenage girls and middle-aged women (and the occasional reluctant/not-so-reluctant male companion) trudging through the humidity from President Clinton Avenue with my own two eyes. I even ran into my sister and her family.
I go to Conway on a weekly (if not twice-weekly) basis, and I have to admit that while I take a certain measure of pride in seeing anyone from the Natural State get their moment on the national stage, I’ll be happy when I can drive through that city without seeing his name on a business marquee everywhere I turn.
* Unless your definition of “accident” is the fact that American Idol has been going strong on network television for eight seasons for no other reason than the fact that AMERICANS, BY AND LARGE, HAVE TERRIBLE (by which mean “no”) TASTE.
Tags: american idol, conway, kris allen, music
May 9, 2009 at 3:43 pm |
that’s right. we definitely hauled ourselves through downtown to see our hometown hero. wouldn’t miss it. and i know that running into us was the highlight of your day, as it was ours, except for the fact that we saw kris allen in person. and by in person, i mean, from a few hundred feet away with 20,000 other screaming arkansonians around us. i’ll remember this day forever.