Friday, August 24, 2007

Halloweenhead Himself















Some video clips from one of my favorites, Ryan Adams:




And my favorite right now **

** You Tube only had two versions of this particular song, but they had a gazillion versions of Wonderwall and When The Stars Go Blue. Anyway, this was the less visually distracting version of the two. The lyrics are killer.

Adios, San Jose!! Been real... been fun.... but it ain't been real fun.

Don't change for anyone, out
Ramblin' Ed

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Painted Tourist Toenails

Some pictures from the 2 word cities. There's a lot of pictures, but at least they're boring....
(These tootsies were actually on a tourist in Boston's Quincy Market)

Hilton's Temple of the Five Pillows. Those are some super soft pillows, too.

Marriot is not to be outdone, though. We have a heavyweight pillow fight going on, it would seem. But seriously, what th deal? I have to throw most of them on the floor to even get into the bed. It looks cooler than it is.

If you look closely, those are all the same dude. You know him, for it is "The Thinker". I am not bright enough to figure out the implied symbolism though. "Thinking in circles" doesn't seem quite right and that's all I've been able to come up with.

The sundial on the side of this building took me by surprise. It was keeping pretty good time, too.

I loved walking through this neighborhood. Don't know why, I just felt comfortable there.

The name of the area is on the lamp post. It was on storm drains, etc too. I thought that was cool.

Uh pirty flour. Liked it.

We took the train from Santa Clara up to San Francisco. As you can see, we were not alone. Massive transit. (Note: The train quit running and we had a $112 cab ride home!)
Hey!?! Whaddya mean by that crack? We arrived in the area a few hours before a Rage Against The Machine concert. We witnessed weidness all about us.

Read the delightful yellow sign. What could possibly be more polite?

The dude was quite mellow. very so often he would stir just enough to take another sip of a coke, or at least I assume it was coke, then go back to resting.

The green was pulling the yellow one. They looked surprisingly like a diner to me.
Trolley. Cable car. Whatever.

Four clowns.

I just liked how if you looked through the sailboat masts you could see Alcatraz.

The Rock. Alcatraz. Didn't bother to go there. I have a thing against going to prison on purpose.

Me and Larry hiding Alcatraz behind our heads.

This picture is more about the buildings on the hill in the background than about the seals and seagulls. So, check out the buildings on the hill in the background.

Ork...Ork...Ork. The sound of seals, right? Actually these dudes were just hanging out. They were pretty quiet.

I like riding the trolley on the running board outside. I am surprised this hasn't been lawyered out of existence though.

I liked this building. Why? Why not? Yeah, I know, that was like being back in the third grade.

At the Rogue. Apparently, there is a Rogue Brewery up in Oregon. Also, apparently, they brew a lot of different stuff with names like Dead Man's and Arrogant Bastard. I was switching between the two and calling it Dead Bastard.
I gotta go on the fragrance tour -Gene Simmons
It's not that you're wrong, it's just that I'm right, out
Ramblin' Ed

Monday, August 13, 2007

I've Been Stoned, Drunk, & Naked Telling Lies

I was listening to that in a song this morning and it made me smile. I will plead the fifth as to whether any, or all, of it holds any autobiographical significance. But I will say that I have self-admitted several times to being unclothed and on the wrong side of a hotel room door. Um, more than once it would seem. But that's all I'm saying. Anyway, the song, for those interested was by Anders Osborne on his album Ash Wednesday Blues.

Well, while we're on a musical note...ha ha ha... I have to ask. Am I the only one who gets absolutely choked up listening to Reba McEntire's version of the old song "Fancy"? I get a lump in my throat when she kinda whisper/growls "it's alright, mama. I understand."

And last thing, on a musical theme. I was out stomping in Kansas City on Saturday night. I found the proverbial smokey juke joint. It was in an old, old hotel that was renovated but still felt like 1940. They had a humidor and small batch bourbon. A great band was wailing out jazz/blues and the occasional R&B song. 1 block from my room. I settled in.

The next morning, when I awoke, I brewed a pot of coffee and queued up my rather extensive collection of White Stripes videos and watched them... back to back to back. Jack White is a guitar god. Check out 7 Nation Army or Hardest Button to Button. In fact, I'll email the Hardest Button video to anybody that wants it. It's mesmerizing. Oh yeah, he does a remake of Dolly Parton's old song Jolene. Amazing, in a screeching and careening sort of way.

In military electronics there is the concept of PFM which serves to simplify complex circuits and functions. Say something runs a process 32,000 times per second. The process is vital but can neither be measured nor adjusted. As an instructor, you will inevitably be asked, "Well then, how does it work?" and the answer is, "PFM, shipmate." So I used the term in my civilian class and got the what I like to call "dumb ass" look back in response. "Um, Ed... what exactly is PFM?" "It means that it works by magic." "Magic?" You know, pure magic." "Well, what's the 'F' stand for?" "Never mind, Carl. Just hit the ' I Believe' button." "The what??"

Pictures of my travels later. Barely got this wrote as it is. When did I get so lazy??
The best things in life don't make any sense, out,
Ramblin' Ed

Thursday, August 02, 2007

Of Lizards and their Wanderlust

OK, I don't normally tell people what to do. Really, it's not in my genetic make-up. But seriously, folks, you gotta enlarge these git bigger photos as you go along. Otherwise you're just going through the motions. And we both know you're better than that, right?

So I was fishing and the lizard was with us. He comes with us often. I tink he lives in the boat and hasn't figured out that when we move it and hook it up to the Jeep that we're heading out. He comes out and basks in the sun. I think he takes our little fishing excursions to be his own little private walkabout. Silly lizard, trips are for squids.


Sunning hisself. Whistling a really old sea chanty. Where the heck did he learn that?? And even more importantly, is that little bugger mocking me? Hey lizard boy... You don't cast a very big shadow for one who thinks he's so bad. "Well, fisher boy, I wouldn't say I'm bad... but bad people don't mess with me."


And then, taking me totally by surprise, he bailed on the boat. "Jesus!", I said. partly out of surprise and partly because who knew lizards could walk on water like that. Dangdest thing. A part of me thought how cool it would be for a largemouth to explode out of the water on him, but another part of me just sat there in slack jawed amazement. Zzzzzip up on to a water plant and he was free. (All that was missing was a little tiny bandana full of his lizard stuff tied up on the end of a stick on his shoulder. Little claw thumb in the air, hitching a ride to anywhere man... anywhere but here. So long buttholeville, don't wait up.) Then he headed up on to the shore and disappeared. Maybe he's happier now. Or maybe a snake ate him. Hard to say. Even harder to account for a lizard's wanderlust.

This place was so cool. I didn't stop in though. Too many white people.

I got stopped by a pollster who was old and needed dental work and asked to watch two Quizno's commercials and answer a few questions afterward about my opinions. I said sure. It took a couple five or seven minutes and when I was done they gave me a ten dollar bill. I walked across the way and found that a cold Guiness draft was a mere five dollars. So I had two. Thanks Quizno's. Wish I had had kinder things to say. (Note: When you git bigger this picture be sure to check out the sunbeam in the bottom of the glass. Now how cool is that!)

In Quincy Market getting me a little eyeball liberty. The shadows, of course, make me all the more mysterious.

Some kind of fully loaded goober-mobile.

This building is so cool. Looks like a crown.

Chalk hearts on the asphalt.

I got my tab at The Point. It was just me and the bartender girl. We had talked about, of all things, outside porch decks and marble bathrooms. I don't know how I get in the conversations that I do. When I went to pay my tab I said, "If I'm reading this correctly, your name is Pinkring?" "No, it's Celeste. But I do like your pink ring."

So I arrived at the Woburn bus station. It was a beautiful summer day so I figured I'd hoof it the mile or so on down to my office. I hadn't gotten out of the bus station parking lot before I passed this pair of ladies panties laying in the grass beside the sidewalk. Uh-huh. I see. Gonna be one of them kind of days. A few blocks later I found a quarter. I do believe, however, that the two finds were unrelated. At least I hope so.