Horse Frame!

It's September and time for the Utah State Fair. I love the fair and we went last night to celebrate a friend's birthday. Happy birthday, Anna! The fair is people watching at its best, even better than the airport. In addition to the plethora of deep-fried foods, farm animal stench, and carnival rides that couldn't possibly be safe, we also checked out the rodeo. I've never actually been to a rodeo before and honestly, I found it a bit perplexing.

Have you heard of mutton busting? Basically, children aged 2-6 (yes, 2!) strap on helmets and then climb onto the back of a mutton. They are then let free from the holding pen and hang on for dear life as the mutton streaks across rodeo grounds. Here's a www.youtube.com video to give you some idea:

Seriously, who'd let their kids do this? Suddenly, I feel a lot less guilty about the time my kids spent watching TV or playing video games.

Otherwise, it was the usual mix of cowboys trying to beat farm animals into submission. I couldn't help but root for the animals. Probably the best part of the rodeo was the entertainment. I’m not talking about the rodeo clowns (they were weak) or the rodeo queen (wow, aqua net!) but the musical stylings of Ban. Let’s just say that he was in rare form last night. Virtually every song that they played at the rodeo which was a surprisingly broad spectrum of music not just the country stuff you’d expect, Ban would change the lyrics to include the words horse, bull, or rodeo. Hence, 'Freeze Frame' became 'Horse Frame' shouted with the same intensity as the original 80s recording by the J Geils Band. Anna created this album cover just in case Ban decided to compile those treasured songs into something to be enjoyed by the masses.

Go to the fair, it's fun! I think next Sunday is the demolition derby...