CMT Blog: Lifestyle

I have a girlfriend who refers to her midsection as "the situation." Another one who calls it her "pouch." And another who calls it her "second trimester." Like we all have a little more junk around our bellies than we'd like. But I have a really, really hard time believing Carrie Underwood has the situation. Yet she told Parade magazine, "My abs are my trouble area. If I gain weight, it's around my hips and my belly. And if you have on a great dress and it fits everywhere but your belly, that's not good. It may take me the rest of my life, but if I'm 80 and I have abs, I'll be happy!" God love her for admitting that and working hard to achieve her goals, as opposed to simply relying on the lazy-man's liposuction (Spanx) like the rest of the world. The rest of the story hits on things like how happy she'll be to be cooking and eating with family over the holidays, and hopefully, taking in a football game.

I had a fabulous 40th birthday party. But apparently, not quite as awesome as actor Matthew McConaughey's. He turned 40 Wednesday (Nov. 4) and used his MySpace blog to fill everyone in on his party: "I celebrated last night with a surprise performance by one of my favorite artists Jamey Johnson....there were some epic stories told, lot of laughs and definitely some roasting. Somehow! No blood or glass broken, and that's cus the gig was so organized by lady and we went 'til 4:30am." Which I'm sure will lead to even more epic stories told at his next big party. There was no word on what Johnson played, but I'm guessing he probably didn't sing "Happy Birthday." That wouldn't have been very outlaw of him. But the event must've given McConaughey a chance to reflect on all that's good in his life because he ended his blog with this bit of sage advice: "Remember, in good times and bad times, now times and all time, just keep livin." He must not be in a mowin'-down-the-roses stage of life yet.

She's married to Keith Urban. So when I see that there's a story in the British GQ magazine about Nicole Kidman opening up about "extreme love," I assume she means she is just very much into Keith Urban. She's an actress, after all. So, of course, she's going to be dramatic and say things like, "Give me risk, danger, darkness!" She's not just going to say, "Keith's great. We're in love." And, yes, the article does also dig a little deeper and gets Kidman to reveal that she's explored strange sexual fetishes. (As if the corset and thigh-high boots she's wearing on the cover didn't make that crystal clear.) But she also goes on to describe her marriage to Urban by saying, "It's a very extraordinary, adventurous place to be: incredibly raw, incredibly dangerous, and you're very much out at sea. You're exposed. You could drown." So to me, the story is one that gave Kidman the opportunity to tell it like it is. And while it's easy to hone in on the one sentence about strange sexual fetish stuff (which might have been nothing more than wearing a blindfold during sex, and who hasn't done that?), the bigger picture is that she really digs Keith Urban.

I'm in New York City for the next few days to catch some music, take some meetings and reconnect with some friends who have recently relocated here. I also decided that I'd come up as a reward for my diligent marathon training so I started my celebration at a cool venue called City Winery. One of my all-time favorite singer-songwriters, Shawn Colvin, was wrapping up a three-night stand there last night, so I savored a glass of house Zin and a few hours of acoustic music. Now that's what I like: wine, women and song. She sang "Trouble" early in the set, then quipped, "And this is the most uptempo stuff I've got." Colvin used to live in New York City so it was like a quiet homecoming for her. I was also able to catch an opening set from Matthew Perryman Jones, who just happened to be accompanied by the musician I wrote about yesterday, Peter Bradley Adams. Of course, jubilant celebrations ensued much later in the night when the Yankees won the World Series and I have a feeling that the city will be moving slow this morning relatively speaking. I'm venturing out now for coffee, so I'm about to find out.

When Faith Hill was on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on Monday (Nov. 2), I knew she'd probably talk about her new parfum. But what I didn't know is that she would also be giving away her secrets for staying in such fabulous shape. And they are: cardio, elliptical, Pilates, old-fashioned lunges, chasing after three kids and picking up Tim McGraw's laundry. Well, technically, she didn't call that last one exercise. But she did say that in the new home they just built, she tried to make it easier for her hubby to actually put his own laundry in the hamper but that it hasn't really worked out quite the way she wanted. "One thing I did try to do was put the hamper in his closet, a little closer to where he might actually hit it occasionally," she said. So I guess that means that even after selling 40 million albums, McGraw is just another mere mortal who leaves dirty socks on the floor.

Growing up in the South -- and being brought up on country music -- made going to a show at the Grand Ole Opry House something I've always wanted to experience. On Tuesday (Oct. 27), I found out that's just what it is -- an experience, not just any old concert. I realized this during the introductory video just five minutes into the show. At 4' 11", Little Jimmy Dickens climbed a stepladder in order to stand eye-to-eye with 6' 6" Trace Adkins and invited Adkins to become an Opry member. It was obvious from Adkins' facial expression that he was elated. The audience doubled over with laughter at the first sight of Dickens on the ladder but the laughs quickly died down as Adkins' emotion apparently overwhelmed him, leaving everyone else with a warm sentiment and a big smile -- and the show hadn't even started yet.

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Sorry, ladies. Brad Paisley called into a Grand Rapids, Mich., radio station and gave them a big fat "no." They had asked him what he was going to tell Playgirl magazine. "I've actually turned that down," he said. "They've asked a few times, and no. They can forget it. They ask everybody. They ask every male country singer. Trust me. No. No way. Not in a million years. That's ridiculous. That's just not what I'm about." He also says there are probably fantastic articles in the magazine that has run pictures of Keith Urban and Billy Currington in the past. Why is he so determined to keep all his clothes on? "I've got a lot of fans that are teenage girls here and there, and I don't want them buying that magazine just because I'm in it," he said.

If for no other reason, getting a flu shot is good for staying totally dialed in to all things country. Because while I was waiting for mine, I ran across this story in Reader's Digest and learned some new things about Tim McGraw. Like how he thinks his voice isn't all that special. ("I'm not a virtuoso. I just do it my way," he said.) And how he can't live without family, exercise and Italian food. He also talks about how good his wife Faith Hill is at making the traditional Southern Thanksgiving meal, how he sings "Hotel California" in the shower, how he watches a ton of football, how he might want to remake the football movie North Dallas Forty someday, that he cries during commercials because he's half Irish and, lastly, how one of his favorite times of day is bedtime because that's when he and Faith get into bed and breathe.

"All the girls in our school kind of used Halloween as an excuse to take all their clothes off," Taylor Swift recalls about the upcoming holiday. "My best friend Abigail and I have always been sort of anti-teeny-tiny, little costumes." I love that. Even at my age, I still know women who insist on being not just the nurse, the cat, the teacher or the hippie, but the slutty nurse, cat, teacher and hippie. As for the girls Swift knew in school, she added, "They would tan weeks in advance so that they could bare it all on Halloween. I'm like, 'That's not the point.' You're supposed to be scary." Last year Swift was Chewbacca and had the special-edition costume. No word on what she'll be for Halloween this year. But considering her budding romance with Twilight star Taylor Lautner, maybe she should be Bella to his Jacob.

If you know anyone who takes country's drinkin' songs a little bit too seriously, then you will love what Joe Nichols is doing to help them kick some bad, bad habits. One of the songs off his new album is "An Old Friend of Mine." And it is basically a break-up song, only he's breaking up with the bottle. "Today I said goodbye to an old friend of mine/My hands were shaking and my knees were weak/As I poured my last shot and I drank my last drink/And I heard freedom ring when that bottle hit the floor and I just walked away not needing anymore." Very powerful words, especially with nothing more than some haunting piano behind Nichols' deep rich voice.

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