The Travel Journal Continues With Our Florida Story (Part II)

I had a very old friend tell me recently that he lives vicariously thru the travel journal that my blog has become. There will eventually be a full blog detailing this friend, and the true level of importance that he played in my life, but for now, I'll leave it at the fact that this is someone I've know since grammar school (3rd grade, matter of fact...), and even though we're the same age (he's got me beat by about 4 months), he's the older brother I never had. He was the one who opened my ears to all sorts of new and interesting music, amongst many other things. So having said that, I believe I'll delve into Florida Trip Part II...


When last I was detailing my sojurn to The Sunshine State, I hadn't even made it to my uncle's house yet. He and his wife were kind enough to allow me to stay with them for most of my week there, which, for various reasons, was greatly appreciated. So before I go any further, big thanks to Ray & Monica, along with Lenny & Grace (their 2 cats, who never really were quite sure what to make of me the whole time I was there...even so, they were more social than my parent's cat, who never came out from under the couch the entire time I was around back in October).

And, in case you're wondering about my photographic memory for all these details and things in this and other blog entries, it's actually all the photographs I take that stir the memories. I upload all of the literally hundreds of pictures I take each vacation to my computer, and by having them arranged in the order I took them, I can piece together everything I saw and did. Seeing the pictures helps to stimulate the memory, and I can fill in all the gaps after having had the brain kickstarted by a few images. So not only do I enjoy taking photographs as a hobby/art form, but it also serves as a tremendous memory aid, without which I'd be losing many valuable details of my trips. And now that I have a terrific pocket-sized digital camera to go along with my full-sized SLR, plus the camera on the iPhone, I can literally visually document my entire vacations, and enjoy many more details than I would have been able to remember unaided for the rest of my life...or however long my hard drive holds out.


My uncle lives in a very nice house in the middle of The Villages. His back yard spills out onto the fairway of a hole on a golf course. Picture perfect location for relaxing. I was provided with the cat's room for sleeping...which is actually better than it sounds. It's a guest bedroom that the cats have just appropriated for themselves, and they were less than thrilled about, and a little confused as to why, they were being chased out of it. I promise you I tried to make friends with them over the course of the week, but they weren't interested in doing much more than staring at me from a very safe distance. Oh well...

Waking up on Monday morning was VERY nice (how often does an average working person get to say that?!?). I hadn't slept straight thru, but every time I woke up, I'd sooner or later pass out again...and when I woke up for good, I still stayed in bed for another hour or 2. It must have been pushing noon by the time I stumbled out of the room and into the world, so I had breakfast while my uncle had lunch. We then took a brief tour of some of The Villages, which does seem like a very nice community, and caters nicely to your average working man/woman who has earned a retirement. We then wound up back home, where I believe I indulged in a nap (yes, there was to be lots of sleeping this trip...aaaahhhhh...). Then Monica, who is of Italian descent, made a wonderful Italian dinner, which is something always greatly appreciated by me. Even though my mother has no Italian ancestry, Italian cooking was something of a specialty of hers, and I grew up on her fantastic meals. I still have vivid memories of playing outside my house as a young child on Sunday afternoons, having fun while playing, but also slightly salivating as the aroma of slow-cooked marinara sauce wafted from the kitchen towards where I was. So it was a nice treat to have an authentic home-cooked Italian meal. Needless to say, after filling up on meat and pasta, there was more sleep headed my way...


Tuesday was actually going to be a fairly big day. I initially just picked this particular week becasue the way my schedule fell, I only had to use 3 days of vacation time to get 8 days off. Then, I figured, why not actually go somewhere and see a little more of the world. After settling on Florida, I took a look at the NHL schedules, and lo and behold, both Florida based teams had home games that week. Too good an opportunity to pass up. So after hanging around the house for a while in the morning and early afternoon, and taking many pictures of the beautiful property on the beautiful day, my uncle and I hopped in my rented Mustang and made the hour-and-change drive southwest down to Tampa Bay. We were there to catch a game at the St. Pete Times Forum between the host Lightning and the visiting Columbus Blue Jackets.

I enjoy watching hockey live, and in Las Vegas we have a minor league team (Wranglers) that a few of us from work will occasionally go see. To get to an NHL game requires a drive of a few hours in any one direction, or a flight. In the last calendar year I've seen games in Phoenix, Vancouver, New York (Long Island to be specific), and Los Angeles, and now would be adding Tampa and Sunrise (home of the Florida Panthers). I use it as an excuse to go to places, or, if I'm already heading to a place, I see if I can squeeze one in. So this was serendipity.

Obviously more to come...



Blog Post Soundtrack; John Frusciante, Booker T. & The MG's, The White Stripes (live), Madhouse, Pearl Jam (live, covering The Who), Vivaldi, Björk, The Doors (live), Metallica, John Connelly Theory, Judas Priest (live), The Misfits, Santana, KoRn, Audioslave (live, covering The White Stripes), Mondo Generator, Queens Of The Stone Age (live, covering Subhumans), Monster Magnet, P J Harvey, King Missile, Led Zeppelin, Bill Hicks, Fear Factory, Richard Jeni

Florida...An Actual Vacation...

So after my recent hectic trip to New York City last fall (which I still haven't finished telling the story of...), then followed by the Christmas season (busiest time of the year for a mailman), plus a couple quick there-and-back trips to Los Angeles (each for different reasons, but both pretty cool), I was pretty much in need of an actual vacation. One in which the emphasis on the word "vacate" would be very heavy. I was aware even before any of the aforementioned events that I would be wanting to have a week filled with pretty much nothing, and had begun planning this trip back in September. I managed to make it fit in nicely with my work schedule, found very reasonable flights, set-up the rental car, places to stay, and was good to go.

By the time the trip actually rolled around, I was pretty much ready for a nice break. As much as I enjoy my job, and running around doing things all over the place, the time had come to not do a hell of a lot for a bit. I was leaving on a very early Sunday morning flight, and amazingly, a friend offered to take me to the airport. I was perfectly happy just driving and parking the car at the McCarran lot; I told friends even before they asked that there was no way they were taking me. Not many people would want to pick someone up at 4AM on a Sunday to bring them to an airport...thanks, Rob!

Even though I was forced to switch planes in Atlanta (a direct flight was just not possible), I still had a very nice ride there. Got out, trammed my way to my next
flight's terminal, got on, and we were airborne within 10 minutes. All things in life should go so smoothly. Once I arrived in Fort Lauderdale, I went to my rental car counter. Having already paid for the rental car months ago, it wasn't much to get me to upgrade a little. For a very small additional fee, I wound up renting a black 2011 Ford Mustang for the week. The son of a co-worker friend has a 2008 model, and I do kind of like the new Mustangs, so I thought this would be an excellent opportunity to see just how much I might actually enjoy driving it. Over 1,000 very comfortable and smooth miles later, and I can see me buying one of those in the future.

Roughly the first quarter of those 1,000 miles on the Mustang were put on while driving away from the airport towards my main stay of the week. I have an uncle that lives in The Villages, a 50-years-of-age-plus community in Central Florida, about halfway between Orlando and Gainseville. It has over 70,000 residents, making it the largest 50+ community in the United States. It's about 260 miles from the airport in Fort Lauderdale, but I planned it that way. I got a better deal flying into there, and I really enjoy driving...and I was on vacation with little to no timetable to stick to. Just the way I wanted it.

Somewhere along the way up north I found me a Cracker Barrel restaurant (using the AroundMe app on my iPhone...if you travel at all, a rather invaluable tool to have), which I'd been looking forward to going to for some time. I was first introduced to Cracker Barrel by artist Charles Vess back in late November of 1997, when I stayed at his studio for a few days conducting an interview that was intended to be published in The Comics Journal. Vess has been in the field of comic books and illustration for probably close to 40 years now. One of his best known projects is probably Stardust, which he did in collaboration with author Neil Gaiman. He was, in fact, working on Stardust at the time I stayed at his studio. The book was eventually adapted into a movie starring Claire Danes, Michelle Pfeiffer, Robert De Niro, Ben Barnes, and a host of others. For a variety of reasons, the interview remains unpublished to this day, but I think it was a great in-depth piece, and someday I'll get around to fully transcribing it, and maybe it will eventually get published somewhere. And the trip itself will make for a nice blog entry someday, too.

Cracker Barrel's are not to be found in the Northeast, and definitely not in New York, where I grew up. But once Vess introduced me to them, I've been hooked. It's a Southern chain, with good Southern cooking and hospitality. Vess' studio was in Abingdon, Virginia, within spittin' distance of the Tennessee border. The closest ones to me here in Las Vegas are in St. George, Utah, and Kingman, Arizona. I always hit the Kingman one on the way to and from Phoenix, and whenever I travel to other areas of the country that have them, I include them in the on-the-go itinerary. Using the AroundMe app, I located one in Stuart, FL, and loaded up on a good meal there. They were also kind enough to seat me near a wall outlet so I could charge my dying iPhone...the Mustang I rented did NOT have an iPod dock, which I found rather odd, so it was in desperate need of recharging, as was I.

I see that this entry is starting to take on a life of its own, and due to being a little jet-lagged, and having gotten in very late (didn't get to bed until after 2AM, and was awake a little after 6AM), it's obviously not going to be finished today, so I'll just post what I've got, and come back for more later...


Blog Post Soundtrack; Soulfly, Queen (live), Hater, KoRn, Rage Against The Machine, Yawning Man

I Like Some Noise While I'm Sleeping

Over the course of my working day I get to see many cool people, and in talking briefly here and there, I get reminded of stories. Don't ask me how this one came up, but here's a good one...

Back in the summer of 1994, I was working at Barnes & Noble in the stockroom. I unloaded trucks, entered inventory into the system, did some light maintenance work too. Two of my favorite bands were touring concurrently, and of course both were going to be in the vicinity on consecutive nights.

Soundgarden was playing in Manhattan on a Thursday evening. I worked that day, then went home, changed, picked up my friends, and we drove into the city for the show. I was living in Queens at the time, so although it was geographically close to Manhattan, NYC traffic is, well, NYC traffic.

So we get to the show, which of course we were looking forward to. They were playing at The NY State Armory, which none of us had ever seen a show at before. No one could remember a show ever being there at all. Turns out, there was a reason for that.

When you go see shows in clubs, it typically is hot. Lots of bodies jumping around in a small, dark, confined, not-very-well ventilated space, usually produces an excess of warmth that tends to be uncomfortable, but not unbearable. Of course, that same description applies to any summer day in NYC as well, so just imagine it that much more uncomfortable, but still tolerable. It's easier to put up with when there's a good band onstage.

As to the reason no one could remember a show ever having been done there by anyone; there wasn't. Why? Because part-way thru this Soundgarden show, it was becoming increasingly apparent that this venue was not designed to hold this many bodies in it at one time. After the initial burst of energy from the band hitting the stage, the crowd became rather subdued, due to the oppressiveness of the heat. There really wasn't much movement from anyone on the floor, because it was kind of exhausting just standing there. I'm pretty sure there was even a cloud forming above us in the venue due to all the heat and humidity. At one point, even Chris Cornell, Soundgarden's singer, thanked the crowd for being at the show, remarking something to the effect of they knew it was ridiculously hot, even for a concert.

Having seen Soundgarden a couple years earlier with some of the same friends, we knew that when Kim Thayil, their guitarist, propped his guitar onto the backdrop, feedback reverberating loudly and repeatedly throughout the venue, it was our cue to go. Last time they did that, the lights stayed out, so everyone expected the band to come back onstage for more. A good 5 to 10 feedback-filled minutes later, the house lights came up, and we let out a collective groan as we now knew the show was over. Having learned our lesson, as soon as he propped up the guitar and left the stage this time, we left the sauna we were in and bolted for the (relatively) cool air of a NYC summer night, leaving behind most of the crowd who, like us the previous concert, were hoping for more. Never had we been so happy to get into 85 degree air with 85 percent humidity, because it was an Arctic breeze compared to the interior of the NY State Armory. Drained and dehydrated, we made our way back to the car for the journey home. I must have made it to bed sometime after midnight, maybe closer to 1AM. The only problem was, this was Thursday night, and I still had to go to work on Friday.

Now, having been at work since 8AM (maybe earlier, I can't remember) Friday, I left around 3PM to go get a different friend. Him and I, along with 2 of his buddies, were going to see Metallica in Middletown, NY, that night. Suicidal Tendencies and Danzig were opening, so we kinda wanted to see the whole bill, as we liked all of them. Getting to Middletown involved a drive of between 90 minutes and 2 hours, and if I'm sitting still for that long, especially having worked and been up half the previous night at a physically exhausting concert, I'm gonna fall asleep. Even if I'm the one driving.

Somewhere along the gently winding, soothing, calmingly flat road that is the Taconic State Parkway, I know I woke up at about 60 MPH, and was quickly startled to full alertness when I realized I was not driving in the same lane as I had been prior to falling asleep at the wheel. Since all 3 of my passengers were completely passed out, no one but me noticed this, so I was the only one who had a heartbeat racing at breakneck speed. While I was still very tired, the rush of adrenalin from this incident was enough to keep me awake for the rest of the journey.

We weren't in time to catch Suicidal Tendencies from the beginning. In fact, I think we walked into the Orange County Fairgrounds near the end of their set. It was time to decide where we wanted to be for the show. As this is a horse racing track, the stage was set up on the infield of the track, the home stretch was the floor for the crowd, and the seats lining the home stretch were also available for those who wanted to sit. Say, me, for instance.

Even though this was an outdoor, open-air concert, and we were sitting about 20 rows up, plus had the width of the track between us and the stage, the noise level was still plenty high. Danzig came onstage, and gave a great show, performing all songs that I really liked, including a couple of fairly obscure ones from his catalog. I was eventually able to get a recording of this show later on, so I can still enjoy it today on my iPod.

After Danzig left the stage, I was still feeling pretty good all in all, and was fairly psyched to be seeing Metallica. We were having a good time, enjoying the show, the weather was nice, our seats were pretty good, things were fine. Metallica were 3 years on from their self-titled radio-friendly megahit album, which I personally found extremely disappointing. At the time it came out, I nearly chucked the tape I made off the CD out the window of my car upon first listen. I gave it more of a chance, but to this day, there's really only 3 or 4 songs from that album I can listen to, and those rank at the very bottom of a "songs I like the most from Metallica" list, were such a list to be made. However, in their live shows, they've always been very good about mixing in a healthy dose of things from every album, both in an effort to keep the old fans happy, and to show the new fans they've got some other cool stuff too, and those newbies should run right out and buy those CD's right now, so the incredibly greedy members of Metallica can make even more money (a subject I will leave for another post someday, for it will require even more space than this one...).

I can't exactly remember when during the show it was (probably when they were playing some of the drippy new stuff that I didn't like), but I finally had to just sit down. As the song went on, I felt myself starting to drift off, and as loud as they were, I started to feel myself going to sleep. My eyes were closed, and I didn't even try to fight it at this point. I could still hear everything, I knew where I was, and I knew what was happening, but I was definitely getting some much needed sleep. Since I was now asleep, I can't remember for sure, but I think I woke up sometime in the middle of the following song, feeling a little groggy and out of it, but relieved at the same time. I slowly got back into the swing of things, and by the end of whatever song it was that I woke up during, I was pretty much back in the real world. The rest of the Metallica show passed by without further incident, and when they were finishing Enter Sandman, their big single from that self-titled album, we made our way out back to the car, figuring this was the last song...only to hear them, from the parking lot, kick into So What, a cover song by The Anti-Nowhere League that was probably the best thing to come out of Metallica's Black Album sessions, and a song I had yet to see them perform live. I looked at my buddy, who understood the significance of what was going on, shrugged, got in my car, and started on the long drive home.

Amazingly, by this time (again, post 11PM as we left the Fairgrounds), I was actually feeling quite good. My 5-10 minute power nap thru 100+ decibels must have been enough to recharge the batteries, for I actually enjoyed the drive home thru the misty late-nite wilderness of upstate New York. And upon reaching New York City, there isn't any time to be sleeping while driving. Driving in NYC is too much of an extreme sporting event to be doing anything other than paying 100% full-on attention. I must've gotten into the house around 1AM or so, and thankfully it was now early Saturday morning, and I didn't have to be at work until Monday morning. And I took full advantage of that, going promptly to bed, waking up sometime after 2PM Saturday afternoon. I'm fairly certain I didn't wake up once during that 12+ hour block of time. Ah, to be young and stupid...

I've since acquired both video and audio copies of the Metallica portion of that show, so I have both seen and heard anything I may have missed while dozing during their performance.



Blog Post Soundtrack; Led Zeppelin, P.J. Harvey, Eagles Of Death Metal, Iron Maiden, Shootyz Groove, The White Stripes, The Misfits, Clutch, Portishead, A Perfect Circle, The 5, 6, 7, 8's, Metallica, Nirvana, The Doors, The International Noise Conspiracy, Ike & Tina Turner, Tricky, Apocalypse Now Soundtrack, John Lee Hooker, Pearl Jam, and probably other stuff that I'm not sure if I was writing or not when it played...