HUNTINGTON -- Screams are coming again from the Big Dipper, Marshall University is saying farewell to hundreds causing graduation parties to pop up like midnight-blooming wildflowers.
There's a WWE Smackdown in town, Billy Joel's wife sharing West Virginia home-grown recipes at Borders, two back-to-back nights of national-act Christian rock, and that little beach-combing country poet and pirate, Kenny Chesney brings the party to Charleston.
Whew! Catch your breath and dive in, looks like we've got ourselves a busy weekend.
Here's a look at a half dozen weekend highlights.
Arena gets tag-teamed
MU president, Dr. Stephen Kopp and Earl Ray Tomblin better get those speeches a moving at the Big Sandy Superstore Arena.
No seriously, because the Undertaker has got next and he's chalking up.
The Arena embraces the madness Saturday with a morning Marshall graduation followed by the high-flying WWE Smackdown and ECW show, "Wrestlemania Revenge," a night of championship wrestling featuring a SmackDown Tag Team Match of the Undertaker and Batista vs. Edge and The Big Show.
Other wrestlers include Finlay, MVP, CM Punk, Chavo Guerrero, Matt Hardy, Mark Henry, Michelle McCool, Victoria and many others.
Show time is 8 p.m. Tickets are $20 to $40 with ringside tickets at $60.
Corona Cowboy in Charleston
Get an early slice of summer and the weekend Thursday as Corona Extra Presents Kenny Chesney Poets and Pirates Tour 2008 with special guest LeAnn Rimes at the Charleston Civic Center.
Showtime is 7:30 p.m. Thursday.
Don't come rolling into those seats late because you'll miss Prichard native singer-songwriter Traci Ann Stanley, who opens the show with her all-star band Bud Carroll and the Southern Souls with Carroll on guitar, Jimmy Lykens on bass, Steve Barker on drums and guest Mark Haas on keyboards.
Stanley and her crew just won the WQBE-FM contest to get the honor of opening the show.
Tickets are $69.50 and $59.50 plus applicable service and convenience charges. Charge by phone in Charleston at 304-342-5757, Huntington 304-523-5757, Ticketmaster Express 866-448-7849, Morgantown 304-292-0220.
Skillet and Seventh Day Slumber
Christian music fans, the Lord and local promoters have heard your prayer and your scream for the full metal jacket of Christian rock.
That cloak of many power chords falls this weekend with two big back-to-back shows.
Seventh Day Slumber and Casting Pearls team up for the Awake Project's concert set for 7 p.m. Friday, May 9, at Boyd County Middle School in Ashland. Doors will open at 6 p.m. and tickets are $3 in advance or at the door.
Seventh Day Slumber is a four-man Christian metal band from Dallas led by front man and songwriter Joseph Rojas, a former felon and drug addict who's armed with a powerful life-changing testimony.
Tickets are available at Family Christian Bookstore, Huntington Mall; Mustard Seed, South Point; Shield of Faith, Ashland and Adams Christian Bookstore, the Ashland Town Center.
For more information, go online at www.theawakeproject.com.
Keep the "Jesus Rocks" T-shirt at least semi-clean because Atlantic/Lava records band Skillet, that just burned up a set at Winter Jam, is back in Huntington at Veterans Memorial Field House, 2590 5th Ave., playing its hits including, "The Last Night," one of the top Christian songs of the year for this Grammy-nominated rock act.
Showtime is 7 p.m. Saturday, May 10 (doors open at 6 p.m.). Other bands include: Thousand Foot Krutch, Decyfer Down.
All general admission tickets are $16, plus service charges, when purchased through iTickets.com by May 9. Tickets are $20 at the door.
Go online at www.skillet.com and http://www.myspace.com/skilletmusic.
Homegrown chef makes appearance at Borders
Stuck on what to get mom for Mother's Day?
Make a run for the Borders at the Huntington Mall.
At 2 p.m. Saturday, Cabell County native food critic and writer, Katie Lee Joel, will be at the store signing her just published new book, "The Comfort Table."
Packed with more than 125 recipes, "The Comfort Table" (Simon and Schuster, $25) is filled with a bounty of home-grown and freshly-twisted recipes from Joel, her husband, her friends and her family for starters, salads, soups, entrees, side dishes, breads, breakfasts, desserts and drinks.
They range from her grandma Dora Harshbarger's to-die-for biscuits and her stepdad Jim Becker's hill-tromping morel mushroom recipe to Joel's new twists on home-cooking and drink recipes gathered right off a Marshall University football tailgate table.
Joel, who writes for Hampton's Magazine, Gotham and the Huffington Post, and is a frequent judge on the Food Network's "Iron Chef America," made a recent appearance with her husband, Billy Joel, on the "Oprah Winfrey Show."
Throw mama on the train
Cost for moms to get into Camden Park Sunday? $1.
Cost for a new Big Dipper coffee mug for mom, $9.99.
Getting to see the kids with smiles wider than the Ohio River? Priceless.
Camden Park, West Virginia's only amusement park, lets moms in for $1 Sunday when somebody else (pony it up dad) pays full price ($20.99).
The park, located just five miles west of Huntington along U.S. 60, is now open weekends in May.
Hours are 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, May 10-11, 17-18, and Memorial Day weekend May 24-26. New this year at the park, which has more than 30 rides and attractions, is the 18-hole miniature golf course, and a 50th anniversary celebration of the Big Dipper, the park's wooden rollercoaster. Go online at www.camdenpark.com for more info.
Reggae into the weekend
Eric Easley, who has been stirring up incredible music and entertainment around Huntington for a long time, brings back his reggae-themed MU graduation party.
Last year, he brought the reggae from a Seattle DJ, and this year, he's turntabling up that same vibe with Reggae Explosion 2: Reggae Vs. Hip Hop, an end of school bash with DJ Press, DJ Ill-Spin and DJ Miz.
Reggae Explosion is set for Thursday, May 8, at the Paradox Rift, 2127 Manchester Ave., beside the new Dot Hicks Field. Go online at www. e2ntertainment.biz.
7-day Archive
