My first celebrity interview!

Being a new reporter I've already experienced a lot of first; first time to watch myself on television, first time to be live on air- not knowing that I was on air (ouch!) and I'm sure to have many others during the next year, like today.

Today I got to do my first celebrity interview! Texas Country Music sensation Kevin Fowler was in Abilene to headline Zopapolooza and I got to sit down with him in his tour bus to have a chat!

This was really exciting for me because I've been listening to Kevin ever since he hit the music scene back when I was in high school.

Since I'm a fan- and this was another first for me, I was understandably a little nervous, but Kevin and his crew were so nice that I quickly got really comfortable and into the swing of things.

He's been playing at Zop's for the past few years, but he's been playing in Abilene for years before that. Kevin says he loves Abilene for the support his fans here in town have given him over the years (and you know I love anyone who says great things about my city!).

He's headlining the show so he won't go on till late tonight and after that he and his crew are heading back home to Austin so they can be home in time to watch the Super Bowl. What team is Kevin rooting for? He says since the Cowboys aren't playing he won't be too upset by whoever wins. I'm with you Kevin, maybe next year!

Till next time-Courtnee

Several nights of music and magic instore for Abilene!

For a city the size of Abilene I'm often surprised by all the culture we have and that city employees work hard to bring in.

Showing off some of our local talent this weekend and next is Cooper High School as they perform their winter musical, Walt Disney's High School Musical. The show closely resembles the popular made for TV movie that recently released it's third sequel in theaters last October.

Performances start at 7:30 on Thursday, January 29th and also run on Friday and Saturday the 30th and 31st. Then again February 5th thru the 7th with a special matinee performance at 2 on Saturday the 7th.

You can contact Cooper Theater for tickets.

If you enjoy the high school's performance than you'll love it when Broadway comes to Abilene next week on February the 3rd. The Broadway Series next show is Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. This fast paced musical, set in the French Riviera and follows two con-artist trying to out do each other while swindling an American actress out of her money.

If musicals aren't your thing, but you do enjoy a good show then you might want to catch David Copperfield when he comes to Abilene on February 28th. The Broadway Series just added him to Abilene's venue.

If you've ever wanted to win the lottery be sure to check out his show Grand Illusion where he teaches audience members how to pick the winning lottery numbers (keep in mind the title of his show is the Grand Illusion).

Tickets for both these shows start at $34.50 and are available by contacting the Civic Center or you can go to startickets.com.

If you do get a chance to check out any of these shows (or any others) please let me know about!

Till next time-Courtnee

Abilene's ONLY Winter Weather

If you've ever looked at any of my previous blogs then you know that I usually talk about places to go and different things to see in and around Abilene. But the blog is titled Abilene Buzz and I take that to mean that anything about Abilene is relevant and fair game.

I can't tell you how proud I am of Abilene for the low number of wrecks it reported over the last few days of bad weather.

From Monday evening till Wednesday afternoon we did not have as many wrecks or accidents as we did earlier this month when the weather suddenly turned colder. And police reported that the wrecks we did have were minor wrecks compared to the ones from January 5th.

There are many things that can be attributed to the lower number of accidents. First the city of Abilene, which worked hard with the state to make sure the roads were probably sanded. I was out shooting video at 10 o'clock one night and saw trucks sanding Loop 322 and the next morning at 5 there were more trucks still braving the weather to sand the loop and other roadways once again.

Then there were all the news crews (both television, newspaper and web) and the radio stations that worked hard to let the people know about the dangerous road conditions and encourage people to stay at home if at all possible. Several of my fellow reporters were here until 11 Tuesday night covering the weather and then were back with me at 5:30 on Wednesday morning so we could let as many people as possible know what was going on. We even had other people from different parts of the station volunteer to come in and help the reporters and photographers. (I can't tell you how many cups of coffee it took me to get here that early, and I don't even like coffee!)

And finally the people of Abilene were great about taking the advice that was offered them! As many of you that could stayed home and off the roads, keeping potentially dangerous roads clear.

I prefer warmer weather, but I don't mind the cold (as long as we get snow, instead of ice!), but what I would like is for mother nature to settle down and pick one or the other, because this 19 degrees thing in the morning and 50 degrees in the afternoon is killing me!

Till next time-Courtnee

Around the Big Country

I spent part of the weekend in San Angelo; my grandparents recently moved there and I thought I'd take advantage of spending some time with them without the rest of my family. As my grandfather and I were driving around San Angelo trying to find a place to eat I kept seeing all these really cute antique shops or clubs that I thought my friends and I might want to go dancing at and I realized, despite having friends that live in San Angelo I never take advantage of the short drive to see and do something different.

That got me to thinking about all the towns surrounding Abilene; Brownwood, Sweetwater, Anson and tons of other communities. Every town must have neat little shops to go shopping at, or local community theaters that are surprisingly good for their small size, hole in the wall restaurants that only locals know about- but the rest of Texas should, or even local dances or festivals.

The Big Country is just that- a big country.

In my last blog I wrote about one of my favorite places in Abilene, but I'd like to encourage each of you, either your not from Abilene or you just know of a great place, to comment. Let me and everyone else know about it.

I'd like to go and check all the places out, and with all the new reporters who aren't from the Big Country, I'd love to take them with me and have them really experience West Texas.

Till next time-Courtnee

Some of my favorite Abilene spots- part one

During our first (and most likely ONLY) major freeze of the year there were over 80 wrecks and I'm embarrassed to admit that- while out reporting on the wrecks- I was one of them. Because of a back and neck injury that I received during that wreck I haven't been able to go back to work. And since I'm not allowed to drive (my pain pills make me fall asleep randomly :) ) and haven't been at the newsroom I thought I'd stay in touch via my blog by telling you about some of my favorite places in Abilene.

If you've been in Abilene for a while you might recall the Abilene Duck Races held every summer. They went on for years but the last one was around 20 years ago, I barely remember them at all and the only reason I do is because of my fathers involvement. My dad, Dale Hembree, is a local veterinarian and used to reside as the Duck Doctor, or "Duc-tor" during the races. They were held in downtown Abilene and it must have been in July or August because it was always brutally hot during the races and everything took place outside, except for free cartoons that were shown in the historic Paramount Theater. I remember begging my mother to let us go in and cool down, but she would insist that we spend part of the afternoon outside with my father.

The fact that the Paramount was the only place that was air conditioned had little to do with my desire to go in (and the cartoons were even less appealing since I have never enjoyed them), the real reason that I could not wait to get inside was the theater itself. If you haven't been inside, I can't encourage you enough to go a watch a movie or catch a play.

The Paramount was built in the 1930's and is a great display of the grandeur of that time period. The inside and outside feature a Spanish-Moorish interior architecture, including gold inlay cravings surrounding the stage- but that's not the best part. Somewhere, usually about halfway through what ever show you are enjoying you will glance upward and completely forget about the show you are watching. The ceiling is midnight blue with clouds that float across the ceiling, with twinkling stars appearing between the clouds (okay-they're lights not stars-but have some kind of an imagination!). It's breath taking, and the closest thing I will ever get to seeing the enchanted ceiling at Hogwarts.

I'm a history buff, so if the history of the Paramount hadn't already won me over, the ceiling would have.

The Paramount operates year round often showing classic and new movies and houses numerous live performances....it's even been used to make short movies including one called 'The Dummy' in-which a ventriloquist dummy comes to life, and yours' truly has a cameo in it. It's an awesome movie (despite the fact that they misspelled my name in the credits) and I own the DVD if anyone wants to borrow it. :)

Till next time-Courtnee

Video Game Virgin

Okay, I admit it, I'm a video game virgin...I have never played a video game except for once on a school trip when I played on a friends hand held Tetra...a game that everyone else mastered 20 years ago and I am still currently fascinated by it.

So when I was told to go cover a gaming competition I had no idea what was in store.

There's a new store in the Mall of Abilene called the Gamerz Dome where groups or individuals can go and play games against each other...I'm so new to this that the only game I recognised was Halo 3, luckily that's what they were playing at the tournament.

6 teams of 4 competed against each other, the individual games took only minutes but the competition took all day.

It was easy to get caught up in all the excitement once they started competing. The team captains would yell instructions to the other players as they faced off. You could hear individuals celebrate as they made another kill and their victims 'oh man!' from the other side of the room.

As much fun as the teams appeared to be having I think I'll stick to just watching, I'm pretty sure my inexperience would shine through and I'm pretty positive I would just end up shooting myself, even in the virtual world I'm pretty uncoordinated.

But if you're into gaming you should check out the Gamerz Dome at the mall, they have a list of their upcoming competitions posted on their myspace page.... The Gamerz Dome... and for all you parents, The Gamerz Dome has strict rules about language, games that they can play and so forth, plus they encourage you to come out and play with your kids, maybe you can do a father/son competition! Or you can always start a competition in your living room between your family and your neighbors!

Till next time-Courtnee

Introductions

Having been born and raised here in Abilene, I never went a weekend without hearing the sentence (or more likely moan)..."there's NOTHING to do in Abilene!"

Well, let me tell you, I have never spent a moment bored in Abilene. Maybe I just have a better imagination than most of my friends growing up, I don't know. But what I do know, is that if you stick with me, the weekly "Buzz" (shown on Thursday nights at 6) and my blog, you will never have another "there's NOTHING to do in Abilene!" moment again!

With everything that goes on in the Big Country, there's always something going on and I plan on letting you know the where and when, but to do that I need your help. If you have an event or occasion that you think the rest of Abilene and the surrounding area can benefit from, let me know! Send me an email at chembree@krbc.tv.

Till next time-Courtnee