Lovely day to fly to Rochester

Kate looks good in her Birthday Dress!

I picked it out! Ha!

Kat and me at the Kennedy Ctr

At the Playhouse Square Theater complex in downtown Cleveland.

Howard, Delores, Morgan, Bari, and Me... Lovely place. Great sold-out crowd.

This is what waking up in a Cleveland hotel room on a frigid December morning looks like

Plus, its Monday. If I were tubercular and on fire this might be an actual nadir of my existence.

Amazing the things you find...

This is the giant candle that Porter Koontz and I used to play chess by out in the backyard ages ago, back when we lived in Columbia. He passed away several years back and I promised to burn it in his honor. Then of course, I couldn't find it. Well, found it: R.I.P. Porter.

Yes...it's a Teddy Bear. With an Uzi..

Bring the kids! Plenty of ammo for everyone!

Desperate in Scottsdale

Generally something you don't want to see...

All the durn kids!

So nice to see them all in the same place. Someone always had to be standing near Ken. He tends to fall over, and actually has a huge wound in his head from doing so. Jo is the designated obstruction in this case.

Cop rant again: ignore harder

Apparently, if purified water is used by criminal elements to make drugs, then we need to take the ability to have pure water away from the citizens.  Can any amount of drug use possibly equal the damage inflicted on society by its "protectors?"  Rhetorical question: no. Nothing is more destructive to society than the ruling classes heavy-handed attempts to protect it. Who will save us from our brutal, stupid, classist saviors? I --once again-- in advance of any trouble I may ever be in, which I don't anticipate, since I'm not a trouble maker, not like that matters to the cops-- would like to take the opportunity to say in advance I will not cooperate with any police bullshit ever and will request a lawyer immediately, even if not even remotely involved and no matter the innocuousness of the questioning.  It doesn't mean guilt; it means I do not trust in any way, shape, or form the people who are supposedly there to protect us.  NWA had it right. F the police.  If they wanted justice they'd be heroes. But all they really want is closure...or more often, for you to shut up with your dissenting opinions. This is becoming Jackboot Land.  

If I have to move out of here, I will miss this place...

Cop Rant: Ignore

In their haste to beat, hassle, and degrade anyone who doesn't agree with the fat, rich pricks that seem to be the only ones they "serve" and "protect", the cops are becoming far less discriminating. Go Amerika!

The Gaylord at National Harbor....decking out for the holidays.

They may do trees better than anyone. And I'm picky about my trees.

Ladies and gentlemen, Herman Cain and his Hot Slices!

Yay! That was fast!

Hey, it mostly worked!

Except for around the edges of the door seal. I guess it's Easy-Off for me...

As ill-regarded performance-types, we get a lot of mixed messages like this

These two things were 30 inches apart.

Good luck, Pops

Very odd hotel room in upstate NY

The old and creaky Parker Inn, conveniently attached to the lovely Proctor's Theater in Schenectedy. Andy had a normal room just like mine --same size and everything-- but with a giant working range at the end of his bed. No pots or pans...but one bigass built-in stovetop. Very strange.

Riviera Theater, N. Tonowanda, NY

Pre-show, this groovy old cat played the most involved and intricate Wurlitzer I've ever seeen. It rose out of the Pit and was wonderously connected via 1930's technology to --not only sundry pipes from the slender piccolini to the robust, 18-in diameter profundos scattered through and around the house-- but also to multiple marimbas, vibraphones, xylophones, player pianos, glockenspiels, and something called a 'chrysglot.' Awesome.

Alright, everybody off your asses...

Room 625, Restored King Edward Hotel, Jackson, MS

Overlooking what I'm pretty sure is the depot you bedded down at those many years ago, Dad. Rolling freight right now... thick windows... can't hear a thing.

Dinner at the fabulous Mayflower Cafe, Jackson, MS

Freaking delicious: looks like a diner; eats like Ruth's Chris's.

...or Joey Ramone

I'll stop now, I promise.

Just making sure....

that Dad isn't Edna, from 'The Incredibles.' You never see them in the same place at the same time, come to think of it...

Happy Halloween!

Trip to Jackson, MS tomorrow

...about which I have many concerns. Least of which not being the fact that if you google the Jackson Hilton Garden Inn and zoom into the street-level view, everything in the area seems condemned. Including the hotel. Especially the hotel.  Curious.  Perhaps I should take a sleeping blanket just in case.

Also, amusingly, nearby --across the railroad tracks (which there does not seem to be a right side of) and down the street-- you get the rare juxtaposition of a homeless shelter across the street from a Ferrari dealership. Sweet.

Just making sure...

...that Dad is not the late, infamous, murderous Dr. Richard Sharpe.  

Thanks, Dad!

Just got here; works great!

Century Blvd, near LAX

This giant, ancient, somewhat unsanitary-appearing donut is a local landmark.

Room 1103, Hotel Angeleno, Bel Air, CA

My room looks directly on the weird and cool Getty Museum. Somewhere nearby in these gentle rolling hills O J Simpson once sat in a  Bronco's back seat with a gun to his head and could not work up the courage to spare us all from reality television.

Dangling men on the San Mateo Bridge

I didn't get my camera ready in time to get a dramatic photo of a helicopter hovering and lowering men onto a massive high-voltage power-line tower, but you can see the men that had just been lowered onto the adjacent one. Pretty badass.

San Ramon PAC, San Ramon, CA

I'm the devil checking in Khaddafi...or Qaddaffi...or whatever...

30 miles east of Sea-Tac...

Let's see, all the usual Seattle stuff you always see: raining? Check. Independent  coffee joint? Check. Cactus? Check...uh, wait a minute....

Five day west coast trip.

Not taking the barbell. Off to Dulles!

Jo loves it when My hair does this...

Early...leaving Hartford.

Most tables are by the window for the view

A commonality which seems to have escaped the Hartford, Connecticut Hilton's restaurant.

Seriously, what the f is with Spartanburg? Crime City!

Unexplained Wilmington

Off to Wilmington on a little plane

The Barking Crab, Boston Harbor

Jon and I ate pounds of delicious lobster there the other day. Yum!

Rm. 325, Boston Long Wharf Marriott

Foggy Boston harbor.  Probably full of soggy Bostonians, shattered by the Red Sox epic collapse last night, which actually set an all-time record for failure. Hard to do after all these years of baseball.

Three hour drive this morning

Athens, TN to Asheville. And so far super foggy AND sunny the whole way. Weird, but pretty.

Days Inn, Athens, TN

Not only are these pictures askew to slightly different degrees, they are firmly bolted that way; you can't straighten them.

:)

The Gratuity is Entitle to Him