That may be all, folks...

It seems that my passion for ridiculous bloggery has subsided. I had a lot of hits, and even had a couple of posts go semi-viral. Never really inspired a lot of commentary and interchange between readers.

I may be back, but will more likely be catching on to the next big thing, just as it too becomes passe'.

Thanks for indulging me.

I'm thinking about growing a ponytail...

because my wardrobe, physique and weak-ass facial hair makes me almost this guy:

Road Trip Planning-Chattanooga, TN

Baby and I are planning a weekend getaway to Chattanooga to see John Prine (and Leon Redbone) at the Tivoli Theatre.

We always enjoy our trips to East Tennessee. The folks there are so... colorful!


We found a cute little B&B on the internet.



Stay tuned for all the details when we get back.

Road Trip!

Jeff and I are splitting after work Friday to travel to visit our old friend David in Panama City, Florida.
David has recently acquired a scanner of some sort and has taken to posting some embarassing and unflattering pictures from our misspent youth. Not cool.
I'm not looking forward to the drive.

It promises to be an interesting experience, hopefully it will inspire me to start updating this stupid blog more often.

Life List: "Big Pink" Saugerties, NY

One of my ambitions in life is to visit and be photographed in front of this house. "Big Pink" is a pink house in West Saugerties, New York located at 56 Parnassus Lane (formerly 2188 Stoll Road). The house was built by Ottmar Gramms, who bought the land in 1952. The house was newly built when Rick Danko, who was collaborating with Bob Dylan at the time, found it as a rental. It was to this house that Dylan would eventually retreat to write songs and play them and try others, in its large basement. The 2 track recordings made by them, as sort of audio sketch book, in the basement itself, came known as the Basement Tapes. These tapes were circulated among other musicians at the time, and hits were made of "Too Much of Nothing" and "The Mighty Quinn" as recordings by other artists, 'Peter, Paul and Mary' and 'Manfred Mann' respectively. The house became known locally as 'Big Pink' for its pink siding. Members of Mr. Dylan's band (with Mr. Dylan himself writing one and co-writing two ) wrote most of the songs on Music From Big Pink at or around the house, and the band then adopted the moniker, The Band. Two of the songs written were on the Basement Tapes. Naturally enough, the house became the site of the rehearsing of the album, the actual recording of which took place in New York and Los Angeles.[1] The house was sold by Mr. Gramms in 1977 to M. Amitin, who rented the house to Parnassus Records a label specializing in classical music which used the basement as its headquarters. In 1998, Mr. Amitin sold the house to Don & Sue LaSala, who maintain the house as a private residence and keep the creative tradition alive by creating music in the Basement with friends from the Woodstock area and beyond.



This is a really cool photo essay by someone making the same pilgrimage, check it out: Click here for photo essay

Accepted!

Sometime on the afternoon of Dec 1st, I'll become the proud owner of a .43 acre mushy spot on top of a rock.

It's All Happening!

Our friend is having her 40th Birthday this month and has rented out the DanielDay "DremMecca" gallery for the event.

The "e-vites" have been sent, and rumor has it "Our Man In Charleston", Scott Freeman will be there.

I'll believe it when I see it.

House Planning and Land Speculation

I have to apologize to my loyal core following who dutifully checked in every few days until it became obvious that I was no longer updating this blog in a timely fashion.
They've all migrated back to looking at dirty pictures, online gambling or whatever else they did before.
I have a valid excuse for my distraction, I'm actually involved in trying to buy a piece of land near me for a homesite. My friends think I'm nuts, they love my house and think I should never part with it. To them, I say: "make an offer.."

The deal is complicated by the fact that the lot won't "perk". Probably due to the fact that it is very near the top of Shades Mountain, and is approx 3 feet of earth over sandstone. We're having to determine how much it will cost to have a non-conventional septic system installed.


I also have to determine the suitability to build the kind of house I want.

I'm also interviewing builders.

Bear with me.

It's never too early..

This is an image of what I would look like should I decide to be a Marvel Superhero for Halloween this year.


I'm still sort of leaning towards dressing as a "Masked Mexican Wrestler"...

Life List: Giant's Causeway and Old Bushmills Distillery-Northern Ireland

I don't drink much(or particularly well)but my preference is Bushmills Irish Whisky. I got two bottles for my birthday.

I want to do a Northern Ireland Fly-Drive vacation and visit the distillery, which has been there since 1608.


The Giant's Causeway is just a couple of kilometers from Bushmills.

The Causeway appears on the cover of the Led Zeppelin album Houses of the Holy.

The Causeway proper is a mass of basalt columns packed tightly together. The tops of the columns form stepping stones that lead from the cliff foot and disappear under the sea. Altogether there are 40,000 of these stone columns, mostly hexagonal but some with four, five, seven and eight sides. The tallest are about 40 feet high, and the solidified lava in the cliffs is 90 feet thick in places.


Before the famous coast road was built in the 1830s visitors complained about the ruggedness of the trip. But there was one shining compensation on the journey: the town where tourists made their last stop before the final push to the Causeway was Bushmills. Ever since 1608 saddle-sore travellers had been revived with magnums of the King's whiskey at the world's oldest (legal) distillery, which is still in business.

Ridiculously Premature Vacation Planning: Amsterdam

I know we just got back from a couple of summer trips, but once the afterglow starts to fade, it's time to start thinking about the next one.


We are tentatively discussing doing a gathering in Amsterdam next summer, pooling resources to rent an awesome Canal House for a week.

In my experience, Amsterdam is so much more fun when you have a few friends along.



Everyone would make their own way over, we are considering flying in to Brussels, Paris or Frankfurt and possibly renting a car for some rural discovery. I've always wanted to go back to Ansbach Germany where I lived in my late twenties, but that may be another time.

Let the countdown begin!

I looked on my "Retirement Income Projection" gizmo at work, and have determined that I can retire in 10 years and 17 days.

I will be in a single-digit countdown starting on my birthday.

As I count my blessings:

1) I have collected many friends around the country and the globe, and will enjoy visiting/crashing on their couches. Of course, many of these people remember me marginally, (if at all) so there will be those "Honey, who is that guy again?" questions.


I plan to travel in this manner until word of my (anticipated)incontinence speads.

2) I'll probably be able to save money by hitchhiking.

3) Baby and I will be able to spend as much time at the beach as we like!

I will be doing some preliminary couch surfing over the next several years, as till retirement I have to travel "on the cheap" to make my grandiose visions come true.

All readers who wish to host me in their city, just let me know.

Who's first?

Texas in July

It looks like I will be attending a wedding in Austin, TX July 18th. I will definitely be visiting "Threadgills" for world famous Chicken Fried Steak and a BBQ Joint called "The Salt Lick" for BBQ Brisket. As Leanna says about Barbecue: "It's Texas-We eat COWS in Texas".

Rusty Weir was one of the first Austin musicians I heard, along with Jerry Jeff Walker. I love his stuff. He's still in Austin, but in poor health.

Road Trip Planning: Oxford-Clarksdale Mississippi

I'm veering from my regular routine of obsessing over our semi-distant trip to Taos this summer to start planning a long weekend in Mississippi.

I've always wanted to visit Oxford, MS, which is notable for The University of Mississippi (Ole Miss), William Faulkner, The Grove on campus, great Restaurants/Bars, and the prettiest girls in the SEC. We'll just have to see about that.

Secondly, I love to photograph nature, rural scenes and run-down crap (have you seen my work?) and I love music which sends us on to Clarksdale in the heart of the Mississippi Delta. I hope to go in the fall when the cotton is in full boll and being harvested. It will take a little coordination to get all that on a weekend when Ole Miss is playing an away game so we can find a room in Oxford, though I would like to see the legendary pre-game tailgating in The Grove.

Back to Clarksdale, though. I'd like to stay at the place described here: http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid271552680/bctid1350269410

In fact, I sort of envy this guy. It looks like he's made a pretty cool life for himself.

Pole?? Smoked!!!

I'm back from the dizzying heights of "Pole Climbing School" and fully qualified to break my neck in ways I never imagined previously.

It turns out there wasn't much to it. The biggest adventure was the travel to and from Indianapolis in a March snowstorm.

"In my mind, I'm already gone..."

We are vacationing in Taos, NM this summer. We have booked a really spectacular Adobe mini-mansion for the last week in June with another couple and I am starting to obsess about this trip.

I like to travel in a way that immerses me in the local culture, allowing me to imagine what it would be like to live there. Taos has a strong Cowboy, Indian, Artist and Hippie culture and is celebrating the anniversary of the filming of "Easy Rider" in Taos with an art exhibit curated by Dennis Hopper and some other events. It's being billed as "The Summer of Love 2009" or some such.

I've taken my imaginings a bit further and created this age-progressed photo of us should we decide to go "off the reservation", and throw off the shackles of the bogus materialistic hangups of contemporary society. We could build a "yurt" off the grid, sustaining ourselves with proceeds from Leanna's weaving and necklace making, and I could bang out tunes on my guitar for tips.

This is what we will look like.



So, that's an option.