And in entertainment news...

With their debut album certified platinum, country music's latest sensation is local Atlanta trio, Sugarland, and they aced the CMA award nominations yesterday -- that's Country Music Association for you non-believers -- with three, including Vocal Group of the Year!

The reason this is so exciting for me is that I feel like I know them. I don't, really, but see the lone guy in the group? That's Kristian Bush, and I've been a fan of his since way back when he played The Depot at Emory University in 1992 with his then-musical-partner, Andrew Hyra. They were 2 guys with guitars, folk-rock to the Nth degree, and I absolutely fell in LOVE with it, and with them. They wrote cutting lyrics and singable melodies -- my kind of tunes. I have every album. I saw them at least 8 times. My roommate and I shared this little fan-dom, and we weren't alone -- Billy Pilgrim, as they named their act, still has scores of devoted fans although they broke up several years ago. Some of their fans are annoyingly rabid -- to the point where they're still whining in emails to the list-serv, "Why doesn't BP get back together?!?!" (Yes, I'm still on the list-serv.)

Meanwhile, Kristian has taken this wonderful turn with his music and is SUCCEEDING! It's impressive because he's thirty-something. He has a wife and a little boy. He has played the local bar circuit and sold CDs out of his trunk his whole life. BP did well, and signed with Atlantic records at one point, but it wasn't the perfect management situation for them, so they gave it up. And how courageous of them -- the chance to be on a major label, but they didn't want it if they couldn't be in control of the music. And now lookee -- he's Platinum! He's going to win a national award! He is so cool. And yes, yes I did: I knew him when. Sort-of.

One of the band's managers/closest friends -- she's mentioned in the liner notes, right at the top! -- works here, at my company, during the daylight hours. So my degree of separation is ONE, direct to my musical hero (and, admittedly, one of my few celebrity crushes, hee). Guess that makes this entry less congratulatory and more "screaming girly fan." But really, I'm very proud of them. They deserve it, no doubt about that.