Lusisiana 1

The one place in the South properly run, promoted, with personality and flair above its neighbors, not so much into BBQ as it has the French connection, blah blah blah, it's called LOUISIANA. And we LOVED it.

Day 5, 11/13/14. the TEXAS 2

Strange thing is that although everyone talks in great words about San Antonio and Austin, we didn't find them that crazy good looking, so we kinda rushed thru them. In fact some of the best time was spent in the brand new Courtyard by Marriott in San Marcos, half way between the two star cities, built for a huge outlet.

Day 4, 11/12/14. the TEXAS

The TEXAS. most aggressive state in trying to convince everyone they're better than the rest. we thought about Fort Stockton, first and only stop before San Antonio. because there rests the Road Runner and this is Americana at its best in the middle of nowhere with no apparent reason to stop unless you're cool enough to appreciate weirdness, or drive-thru liquor stores, or people capable (and willing) to live their only lives in the middle of such deserted-ness - something no different than other alike plateaus - in which drinking, playing pool, drinking, TV watching and shooting are the must do things to help life live and thrive.

Day 3, 11/11/14. Billy The Kid on the way to El Paso

El Paso is Jo's least favorite from the whole trip. I have no counter argument. But before El Paso is Las Cruces, and Las Cruces is pretty and tiny and true mexican town, nothing in common with Texas, and here is where Billy The Kid was tried and sentenced to hang.

Day 2, 11/10/14. Tucson Airplane Hotel&Spa / OK Coral

There is a place where airplanes go to rest, get stripped down off their engines, sprayed with a certain solution, and put in rows on flat surfaces under the clear desert sky. It's just outside Tucson, on the SE, continuing to Tombstone which we reached after. Can one miss Tombstone if only 50 miles away? And why would ya when this will remain for ever the quintessential scene of the 19th century WEST. In the end we turned to be overly impressed with those lives lived in Tombstone that day, particularly Kate Big-Nose and her roller-coaster being, fast like it was today, passionate like today will never be...

T.G.L.E.

we're going to do this beginning tomorrow. it will be pretty awesome. to us it will be The Greatest Loop Ever

absolute freedom

Monument Valley was a fixation since childhood, watching Marlboro commercials unfolding with similar scenery. One feeling I always received was total freedom. I thought that you and your horse, into the wild, is matched by nothing.

Indiana Jones Loop

This is beginning tomorrow.

Voyager 1. An update.

Voyager has reached Interstellar Space. What would be there besides nothing? A hint on Truth? A shadow of Eternity? Or just nothing because as long as you SEE things it means you're on this side of the story, the one where you know nothing, and at the right time, when this side expires and you must enter the OPPOSITE, that hint or shadow finally become visible. So then why sending Voyagers since they cannot find anything truly interesting? On one side because we're stubborn and think we will one day find the hint or shadow while we're still perfectly able to SEE. This is not to blame in any case; it's something not forbidden or against the hint or shadow. It may look like a waste of time but to do nothing it's even more of a waste of time, we must do something. We want Voyager to be a proof of a perfectly legal and accepted "trying". We don't wanna bother anyone, and if by any chance we see the "hint" or the "shadow" we'll pretend we saw nothing. In reality we all know what's that like, what's on the OPPOSITE. We kinda know it's an in&out thing; a come and return business. The Voyager will stay for some time even after its death when we won't be able to communicate with its antennas and radio transmitters. The future ones of us might even be able to reach it and bring it back, clean it and put it in some museum. Or maybe not, would kinda be disrespectful for the guys in the '70s who sent it. So they'll let it go and go deeper and deeper into nothing. PS: As of now, it takes more than 17 hours to hear from Voyager 1. In about 40,000 years, it will be closer to the star AC +79 3888 than our own sun. So be patient. PPS: and today, 11/9/2013, were 10 years since I left my own solar system (with a similar mission) where breakfasts like that awaited me in the morning.

the flute

a year after I was born

Buildings and Trees

In NY, at the beginning of May, something challenges the glass and steel...

Brutalism

In Washington DC, Brutalism is king. The buildings that major state departments call it home, have been put up in the '50s in what I guessed had been an endeavor to institute sobriety/puissance in the ongoing head to head feud with then USSR. Please ignore the lady in photo 6; the plan was buildings only. In May, the very beginning, 2012.

voting for commies

Wanna know some story from the past?

Let me tell you, Indomitable West, how voting was in Communism.

First, it was really, really simple, and I remembered this when my mom took me in the voting booth to be with her. I was little and far below the wooden counter, but she, my sweet date, showed me the pencil (take a wild guess why pencil) and piece of paper with only two names on it. 

(Did I mention this was in Eastern Romania somewhere in the mid 80’s with hints on the near collapse but doubts it could happen - they still looked strong, the commies, still gaining weight eating by western standards.)  

She even said to me it was going to be quick because it was truly useless to vote since the chosen one was in fact picked by the commie heads and the vote was purely symbolic. 

For the record, in 1948 when Russians took over the Eastern Europe, the communist party participated - for show only - in the election that followed along with the democratic parties to see who wins. It was revealed in 1989 that the Liberal Party won with 98%, so only 2% were commies, but the Russians switched the numbers and made the Communists win the show and change the history. 

Back to voting, and so being useless, people - on the risk of being beaten, jailed, which actually never happened in the lack of iphones and cameras to preserve every move - wrote or drew various things ranging from their wishes to their disgusts. A few I heard: We want blue jeans, Fuck you, Open the borders, Bring us Dallas (the TV series), Free porn etc. etc. 

In our booth mom said, not quite serious, to look around, meaning other than at her and at what she would write/draw. I was surrounded by thick ivory draperies that killed the views, so I tried to guess who she voted for, who in fact she crossed over with the pencil - that's how you had to vote. It looked to me that she did more than a straight line over some name, she did a circle, am sure now, possibly with three lines inside the circle, one cutting it in two and two little arms from the center pointed down. A drawn curse? Nah, she wasn't that vicious, she had class, she read Emile Zola and liked Gregory Peck and Errol Flynn, so take another wild guess about her vote. 

Back out, alone dad had beed quicker and waited with a grin on his face, then came closer to mom's ear and seconds later she became laughing copiously. I looked around and saw many other couples laughing and their little children puzzled like me. Do you think people are the same happy when they vote these days?

Women's day today.

Take your woman out, boy, treat her nice, let her have driving license, go to movie alone, have a job, dress with miniskirt, and trust me, when she'll be happy, you'll harvest that big time.

bygone armoires

Danube, the Delta and stuff