The 'yankee' race day (Pocono 500)

Whatta day to hit the race track! With the area suffering under a heat advisory, it was NOT the day to plan to be outside of the cool comfy A/C .. but we had tix for the Pocono 500 on Sunday, and so we endured.

Chuck and I were joined by his niece Cindy and her hubby Mike and they were enjoying their first NASCAR experience. Mike's a long way down the road to Country-Redneckville. Not so Cindy (they're both Boston-area natives -- city folks), but they both seemed to enjoy the race. Cindy had a very nice Nikon digital camera with a huge lens and snapped photo after photo of the cars, the people and everything. Maybe with being on a hiatus from her video production job, she'll be able to create a blog and you'll see her (much better) photos. But for now, you are stuck with mine.

The other intrepid photog...

A shot of victory lane.

Staying out of the sun under the stands --

apparently the heat makes Mike act like his pup Lily.

...finally, a shot without Mike making a face (4th shot).

This woman's T-shirt was the most OUTRAGEOUS I have ever seen. She posed for people with cameras in the stands -- I was one of the last to get out my camera and shoot (being in shock and all). She knew I was taking the photo and waited to turn to sit down until I finished. The back of the shirt has the number 88 on it which is Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s car number.





Maybe her action as described on her shirt gave Kyle Busch (easily the most unpopular driver among the fans) some bad luck. He hit Juan Pablo Montoya and caused a fire for Montoya (his car seen here, smoking). Anyway, Kyle Busch was a DNF for Pocono.
Chuck enjoys listening to the various drivers converse on the radio with their crew chiefs...on a scanner sold especially for this purpose.

I don't know who won -- and it really did not matter. It was a fun day, but I'm paying with a sunburn that's about to turn to peeling skin! Hope that Chuck won't be afflicted by sun poisoning like he had after being outside all day for the Atlanta 500 in March 2002.

PC? Country Music?

While taking some fliers about the neighborhood, I was listening to my mp3 player. It's loaded with a mix of contemporary Christian/Worship songs, contemporary country and pop (not current pop--from 'my' era). You know you hear the lyrics SO much better when you have it sent directly to your ears--especially if you have a slight hearing impediment like I do (tinnitus).

I was listening to country artist Taylor Swift's new song, "Picture to Burn." Like many country songs, it is a "story" song about a girl who's been jilted by a guy--she found out the guy was a jerk. He wouldn't even let her drive his souped up truck, as the chorus goes ... "I hate that stupid old pickup truck you never let me drive."

Some of the words in the first verse had escaped my apprehension while hearing it over the radio...until I heard it through my player. I was surprised to hear that the first verse says:

...so go and tell your friends I'm obsessive and crazy

that's fine I'll tell mine that you're gay...

see for yourself on the "Country Music Television" (CMT) website.

http://www.cmt.com/lyrics/taylor-swift/picture-to-burn/13498460/lyrics.jhtmlNow I wasn't surprised that this content was there -- country music is filled with traditional values and attitudes, one of the reasons I'm a big fan. Remember "Courtesy of the Red White and Blue" and "American Soldier," both written by Toby Keith. You may remember that "Courtesy" actually caused a big flap on an Independence Day concert after 9/11 when Toby was to sing it and one of the big three network anchors took him to task. Remember too that the Dixie Chicks are now no longer part of the country 'in' group because of bashing Prez. Bush.

HOWEVER...I had missed clearly hearing this lyric when I had heard it numerous times on the radio and several times on the TV (music videos and a couple of award shows I caught).

SO... the next time I caught it on the radio I listened for the line... and it wasn't there. Then I had the TV tuned to the country music channel (we get three..CMT pure, CMT and Great American Country --- GAC). I typically keep the closed captions enabled, just makes it easier to watch and keep the sound lower. I watched the caption display, and guess what...the lyric on that last line of the first verse was DIFFERENT!

Instead of "that's fine, I'll tell mine you're gay," it says

"that's fine you won't mind if I say...

"I hate that stupid old pickup truck..."

Check it out yourself on CMT's video archive: http://www.cmt.com/videos/taylor-swift/215750/picture-to-burn.jhtml

Note--BOTH these are on the VERY SAME site.

What's going ON here? You tell me? I think they're selling out our traditional values for a mass of moola.

However, the lyrics as originally written by Taylor Swift, who's also the composer and lyricist are all over the internet in the original form. (Google it and you'll see, just type in "picture to burn lyrics.")

I wonder if she had the guts to sing it the way SHE wrote it on one of the awards shows. Next time I catch a rerun of one of one of the recent awards shows I'll check it out to see what lyric she used. I definitely know she performed this song on the CMT video awards show.