Amanda and I were lucky enough to see the Kelly Clarkson concert in downtown Durham last night after a long spell of not seeing a single show.

Our last was several years back. Just looking it up, it was more than several years — in fact it was our first Kelly Clarkson show in Charlotte back in 2005. Wow.

Anyway, I’ll write up a full review of the show in the coming days, but in the meantime, here’s the set list she played last night at the DPAC downtown:

Dark Side
Behind These Hazel Eyes
Since U Been Gone
Gone
You Love Me
Heavy in Your Arms (Florence and the Machine cover)
Gravity (Sara Bareilles cover)
Medley – The Trouble With Love Is / Walk Away / How I Feel / I Want You
I Know You Won’t (Carrie Underwood cover)
Don’t You Wanna Stay
Let Me Down
I Forgive You
Already Gone
Breakaway
You Still Won’t Know What It’s Like
Stronger
My Life Would Suck Without You

-Encore-

Never Again (Acoustic piano only)
Because of You
Mr. Know It All
Miss Independent

Great set. Quick stats on the breakdown of tracks per album (including the medley, but not the covers and the 1 yet-to-be-released track):
Thankful: 2 Tracks
Breakaway: 6 Tracks
My December: 2 Tracks
All I Ever Wanted: 3 Tracks
Stronger: 7 Tracks

Not surprisingly, Stronger — the newest album had the most tracks, but Breakway had almost as many, with My December and Thankful being under represented. As you get more albums, it’s bound to happen. More greats tracks have to be mothballed unless you do a monster multi-hour set.

My full concert review will be coming soon.

OK, April 21, 2012: Greensboro, NC. Who’s going with me?

Tickets go on sale for earlier dates on January 10th, so thinking the later dates should be mid-month.

Van Halen Tour Schedule 2012

A friend and former teammate of mine just posted this a minute ago and thought I’d share to my fellow cycling peeps—especially to those local to Chapel Hill, North Carolina:

The UNC Pediatric Hematology/Oncology clinic—i.e., the doctors who treat kids with cancer—are holding a fundraising ride on Saturday, September 24. It starts at McDougle Middle School, and there are both 50 and 28-mile rides. (There’s a shorter family-friendly ride, too.) It costs $50 to register, and you can also hit your friends up for donations.

Proceeds from the ride will support UNC Peds Hem/Onc’s mission to care for and cure all children with cancer and blood disorders in the state of North Carolina through pediatric cancer research, fellowship education, and other programs like cancer survivor college scholarships, and food and gas cards for out-of-town families.

I saw this on one of the cycling lists I’m on, and thought it was a cool idea, and wanted to get the word out there. A new restaurant in downtown Durham is doing some Tour de France viewing parties that can educate those new to professional stage-racing and us old pro’s.

Starting this Saturday, Bull City Burger and Brewery in Durham is hosting viewing parties for four stages of the Tour de France. It should be a great opportunity for viewers of all levels and backgrounds to have a beer and burger and enjoy the race together.

Check it out! Details follow:

This July, Bull City Burger and Brewery* will hold weekly Tour de France viewing parties. The events will be hosted by Rusty Miller, cycling coach and former professional racer, and Peter Hymas, production editor at Cyclingnews.com, the world’s biggest cycling website. Rusty and Peter will provide inside color commentary to supplement television coverage and provide topical mini-clinics and Q&A sessions during commercial breaks. The viewing parties are meant to be inclusive of cycling fans from the hard-core passionate to the merely curious. They will follow a No Spoilers format so that those who have not watched the live morning broadcast will be able to enjoy the suspense of the stage finish.

Selected stages and times are:

Saturday July 2nd at 7:30pm: A Tour Primer for the Casual Observer. 8:00pm: Stage 1, Passage du Gois to Mont du Alouettes. Today’s stage winner will earn the first yellow jersey of the race.

Friday July 8th at 8:00pm: Stage 7, Le Mans to Chateauroux. A classic sprinter’s stage with finishing speeds near 40 mph.

Thursday July 14th at 8:00pm: Stage 12, Cugnaux to Luz-Ardiden. The long-awaited first mountaintop finish will reveal who is and isn’t capable of taking the yellow jersey to Paris. And, it’s Bastille Day.

Friday July 22nd at 8:00pm: Stage 19, Modane to Alpe d’Huez. Perhaps the most storied mountain in the history of the race.

*BCBB is a new restaurant in downtown Durham featuring local pasture-raised beef and seven beers brewed on-site. With the exception of the Locopops, soda fountain, and Heinz ketchup, every item and condiment on the menu (from buns to mustard to pickles) is made fresh in-house. 107 East Parrish Street. www.bullcityburgerandbrewery.com

I’m a big fan of the Japanese automakers Subaru, Toyota and Honda. They’re all big companies, but Honda especially. Honda and Toyota have both gotten involved in robotics, but I believe Honda’s the first of the three to take take to the skies.

This one has a local angle too — with the plane being manufacturer about an hour west of here in Greensboro, NC.

I definitely will keep an eye on this project. If their planes are anything like their ground vehicles (cars and motorcycles), they’ll make quality aircraft that are reliable, efficient and affordable.

Honda Takes Flight

Missed this last year, but thinking I’ll be able to make it this year. Anyone else going?

Please remember to join us on Wednesday night – May 18th at 7:00 for the 7th annual Ride of Silence RTP

The ride starts/finishes at RTP Headquarters – 12 Davis Drive, RTP, NC. This is a NEW LOCATION.

This ride is in memory of fallen cyclists and a reminder to Share the Road. THis is a free ride that takes place annually around the world on the third Wednesday of May at 7:00 p.m. We will have a police escort by Durham Reserve Police and the ride is 7 miles long. Headlights are suggested, Helmets Required. We will leave promptly at 7 so please be there early enough to air up your tires and participate in a memorial moment before riding out. For more info on ride: www.rideofsilence.org.

It is almost time for the Tri-Cyclists’ annual time trial at Iron Gate Winery. Please join us this Saturday and stick around for some treats and posting of the times after you race.

Here is some pertinant information and please pass this on to others. Single day licenses will be available.

Registration: Registration is limited to 150 riders. For pre registration please follow the link at TriCyclists.com. Early registration will end on April 14th.

Race day number pick up and registration will open at 11:30AM and close at 12:30PM.

Course: Course is a 10.5 mile loop. There are 3 right hand turns.
The course is not closed to traffic, but law enforcement officials and course marshals will monitor the turns.

Absolutely no warming up on the course after 12:30 on race day. It is recommended that you bring your trainer with you, however, there will be some trainers available for participant use.

Race Time: First rider off at 1:00PM. Riders will start at 1:00 intervals.

Prizes: Awarded according to category/classification. Cat 5/Citizens and Cat 4/Citizens will be scored together.

Parking: There will be ample race day parking at the Winery at Iron Gate. Please follow the direction of the parking volunteers and exercise caution when approaching the race site.

For more details visit: www.tricyclists.com or www.usacycling.org
Contact:

Winery at Iron Gate
2540 Lynch Store Road
Mebane, NC 27302
Directions from I-40/I-85
1: From I-40/I-85 take exit 153 (HWY 119) 2: Follow HWY 119 N. into Mebane. 3: Cross railroad tracks, turn left at the stoplight onto HWY 119/HWY 70. 4: Go 3 Blocks, turn right between the Citgo Service Station and Mebane 1st Savings and Loan. 5: Go 3 Blocks, turn left; Go 1 block, turn right. Landmark >> Fire Station on left, Food Lion on right. 6: Follow HWY 119 N. through curve past Mill Creek Golf Course on right. 7: 1 1/2 miles from Mill Creek Golf Course turn right on Lynch Store Road. 8: The Winery is the 3rd driveway on the Left.

Looking forward to this, but not looking forward to being an early adopter to anything Time Warner Cable related. 50 Mbps downstream and 5 Mbps upstream is impressive though and would sure make uploading the daily off-site backups speedy. We already go with TWC’s upsell RoadRunner Turbo, but could probably be enticed to go up to Wideband, especially if we were allowed a trial period to test actual speeds.

Time Warner Cable Picks Triangle for Wideband Internet

UNC-TV did a great piece on the continuing to grow gaming industry right here in our backyards of central North Carolina.

With so many high tech companies in the Triangle here in North Carolina, it’s not really surprising that Verizon picked our area to launch their 4G service here in 2011. It’s their successor to the fairly prevalent 3G networks all the newest smart phones utilize. Speeds are reported to be in the range of 5 and 12 megabits per second down, and 2 to 5 Mbps up. Sprint and Clearwire have already released their fourth generation network versions in Central North Carolina.

Now if some providers of home Internet would pick this area so there would be some competition for Time Warner and Verizon’s Cable Internet and DSL respectively.

Verizon Picks Triangle for 4G Launch