Austin City Flippin' Limits!!!!

Ok. So I grew up on PBS and after I got into playing guitar at age 11 I grew up on Austin City Limits. One of the draws of working at PBS/KNME-TV in college was that they aired ACL, even though our station had nothing to do at all with the filming of it. Something about the mystique of that show stuck with me. Mary Chapin Carpenter has been on it quite a bit, which was my big harbinger of coolness back in the day...and of course everyone from Johnny Cash to The Dixie Chicks to Bonnie Raitt to John Prine to Alison Krauss etc. etc. has graced that stage. I own a coffee table book about ACL for crying out loud. Some people came prepped with chairs and reading material. So I was pretty stoked when we got the chance to see a taping yesterday for Band of Heathens. There's a process you go through to get in, and since I work 8 jobs but none of them have a precise schedule I was free to stand in the 106 degree heat outside KLRU at 4 PM to snag a couple of numbers for Katie and I. The numbers allowed us to come back that night and they let us in the studio until they ran out of room. We made it in no problem and I spent the night gaping at that famous stage. In line! Happy! It is pretty much exactly like it looks on TV. There's the skyline backdrop, the trees (are those fake? I always assumed), the piano on right side of the stage. During the taping they named just a few of the people who have played that piano...Ray Charles, Jerry Lee Lewis, Fats Domino...crazy the amount of history. The ACL studio will be moving to a new location downtown soon, so I'm thrilled I got in to see this stage before it shifts locations. I'm sure the new one will be awesome, but I'm a little stuck on nostalgia with things like this. The most amusing part of the evening was that we were to turn off our phones for the taping, and in fact have them off in the building completely. But of course I can't stop Twittering things, especially things as cool as this, so I tweeted a photo of the stage before anything started and then turned my phone off. Afterward I checked my replies and the producer of Austin City Limits had tweeted, "You are so busted." Hehheh! Of course they have a search set up for ACL stuff. Too funny. I told her when I play their show I will tweet from the stage. She said no one had done that yet, so I hope no one does until...you know...2020, when I might get my shot. Anyway, the power of social media at work: proven. Famous skyline! MCC with the same famous skyline! Wee!