Following this week's G8 Summit, during which world leaders addressed the pressing issue of global warming, Gov. Bill Ritter (Colorado) announced he is embarking today on a weeklong climate-change expedition to the Norwegian Arctic.

I have wanted to make a pilgrimage to the historic venue called The Stone Pony in Asbury Park, NJ since I first started to learn about good music in the early 90's.

If you have never gone on tour with your favorite band into the southeastern corner of our fine nation, you are missing out. Patchwork skirts are replaced by sundresses. Patchouli and dope are replaced by Old Spice and cigarettes. And syncopated dancing with eyes closed is replaced by fists in the air and raucous sing-alongs.

Relentlessly winding upwards along Berthoud Pass, my brain lights up like a pinball machine in action and BAM my thoughts of needing to extol some elder wisdom on my co-hort becomes apparent. The event we are quickly approaching entry into, is unlike most of the "festivals" she has attended in the past.

There's nobody who can speak about the land as a Southerner can. Though I'm not from the swamps or pine forests of Florida, but the isolated hollers of the foothills of the Smokey Mountains, I know exactly what JJ Grey means when he says, "After being away on the road for weeks at a time, there is no way to describe the joy it brings me when I catch my first homeward glimpse of them [the pines of his homeland]."