NYC: It was a blast. I’m really grateful to my friend Bob for letting us stay at his place on the Lower East Side. It is so much better to be able to hang out with locals and check out their haunts rather than hang with tourists and watch them get drunk and spill hot-wing sauce on their midwest teddy-bear sweatshirts. It was especially good for Jens because he got to relax and hang out in NYC and just check it out at his own pace.

We pretty much just walked around and took pictures during the day and went out to bars at night.

My friend Bob is the type of guy that like to sarcastically suggest that you do stupid things that would have dire consequences. For example he’d say something like “Hey, why don’t you go over there and slap that cop in the face. It’ll be alright. He won’t do anything.” These comments can usually just be ignored.

In one of the bars we were in there was a large rambunctious dog barking and howling trying get its owner’s attention. Bob said, “Dude, you should go kick that dog. It’s just playing. It’ll be alright. He won’t do anything.” To which I replied, “Shut up dick, drink your beer.”

First let me say that this bar, 151 I think it was called, was very dark. A few moments later I got up to go to the toilet and on the way I kicked the dog right in the head. He was laying on the floor in the dark. The beast instantly latched its jaw to my foot and I could feel its teeth through my shoe as I yelled, more out of fright than pain. He let go and I went to the bathroom. When I came back Bob was very proud of himself for pulling the Jedi mind-trick on me.

A few minutes later while he was outside using his phone, I went to the toilet again and, remembering what had just happened, started to slow down in case of a dog laying in wait. Too late. This time I kicked it in the ass and the same thing happened all over again. Bob was very disappointed that he missed the second attack.

Back in reality, Germany, work with a thud.

Upon leaving Knoxville we drove through Virginia on up to Washington DC. We got to the hostel, droppped off our stuff and proceeded to find the area with young people and pubs. We were having some trouble finding our way so I asked two hip looking dudes where the party was at.

“I don’t know. We are from Germany.”

Hey so are we, sort of. So that is how we met Paul and André. They were also doing a road trip of the East coast but going north to south instead of the other way around like us. They were just as lost and clueless as we were so we all got along just fine. We warned each other about what to expect on the others respective forthcoming leg of the journey; Cops in Georgia and Florida, Cops in Jersey and New York, Girls in NYC, Girls in Miami.

We all got pretty toasty and I remember a bar with a small white guy on piano singing Jim Croce songs with a voice like Louis Armstrong. On the way home I remember Jens yelling obscene things in German trying to see if it gets anyone’s attention. It didn’t. Maybe he was just yelling them for the sake of being able to and not have anyone understand. That is probably a great feeling: In public in front of God and everybody telling the world just exactly what you feel about it and not worrying about people freaking out about what you said. So public, yet so private.

The next day it pissed down rain so we went to see a few things and took some pictures. Saw the Washington Monument, The White House and the Vietnam Memorial. Even though that memorial is out in the park is is very private. It is hard to find unless you were looking for it. It is just this huge swath of black marble cut into a shallow hillside. There are a lot of names on the Vietnam Memorial. Too many. I was born the year after the last troops were pulled out so I missed the whole era and everything that was going on back then. I just can’t see what the whole thing was about. I can’t see what, if anything, was accomplished. Sad.

From DC we drove on to Stamford, CT bringing the road trip part of the journey to an end. We spend the next few days in Stamford and then on monday the 5th went in to the city to stay with my friend Bob for 3 days.

More about the Stamford/NYC adventures coming soon.

OK Soooo…

Here in Stamford CT. the trip so far has been a blast.

In Atlanta we just ended up taking some night photos that hopefully will be cool. Jens was

laying in the middle of busy intersections trying to get the best shot. Sacrificing it for

art. The hostel there is really nice. If you are in Hotlanta on the cheap, I recommend you

check it out. it”s the one on Ponce De Leon street. We went to a few bars but it seems that

the only place we could find a decent beer with good atmosphere was an Irish pub.

Also highly visible in ATL were the spinning rims on cars, or as I now calls them, “spins”.

I have read about therm but I had yet to see any until I was in America. I am not into what

the kool kids call “Bling Bling”, but I could see myself getting some spins. Sportin those

super fresh all up on my nissan. I would be rocking the Lueneburger Heide. Notice how I

expand the Umlauts because I don’t know how to do them on an American Windows computer.

Anyway, Atlanta was cool but it was only a day.

Next stop was Knoxville, TN. Jens has a cousin that lives there with her American husband.

They are some of the nicest folks I have ever met. They have 2 teenage sons who are also

very nice but not very talkative. It was very weird to be speaking so much German in

America.

While we were there we went hiking in the Smokey Mountain National Park and we even did

some fishing. We each caught a couple of Blue gill and some bass. All were too small to

keep so we threw them back. There might be picture forthcoming.

We had a good time there and Jens’s family was very hospitable.

Of special cultural interest: There are no skunks in Europe apparently (If this is

incorrect please let me know). This is what Jens has told me anyway. When we arrived in

Knoxville and were looking for the house we came upon a dead skunk in the road. The smell

was pretty strong and completely filled the car. Jens was shocked at how bad it smelled and

almost died of laughter right there on the spot.

More to come…..

Status: Atlanta 1:36am local time.

We bailed out of key west on Sat morning and headed to Miami. There are lots of beautiful people in Miami. Lots. Stayed in a cool hostel in the Clay Hotel with an interesting cast of characters. Got there after dark so we didn’t get to see all of the madness on the beach. But we still saw lots of really beautiful women.

Today drove to Atlanta. On the way we enjoyed great jazz, R&B, country and hip hop on the radio. I enjoyed Jens’s on the fly from English into German translations of blues lyrics and other genres.

In Atlanta we went out for drinks and took ltime lapse exposure photos of the skyline. Tomorrow we head out to Knoxville for a few days.

When the trip is over I will have to add to these entries and clean em up. These Internet terminals are expensive.

Tampa was nice. It was good to see family and friends. Jens and I cooked a super meal for my parents. One night we went to this great bar down the street. They had an old jukebox full of 45’s still. Noone has those anymore except these guys. There was old Willie Nelson, Etta James, Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, Hank Williams and much much more. They had to kick us out at around 2am

We got to Key West yesterday and promptly started on the local scene. That went till 2am. Woke up in a room in the hostel with japanese students discussing something. Rented some bikes, went to the beach, looked at chicks, rode some more, looked in a shop full of old restored guitars, drank some more, got some food, watched the sunset at Mallory square, called Jens’s cousin in Knoxville, and went to the internet cafe, wrote this entry. We might stay an extra day but we are not sure yet.

Jens and I are here in America where everything is now low-carb this low-carb that. We are in St. Petersburg FL. The weather is great. We spent today at the beach and yesterday we went sailing.

As an aside…..

Giving a German a Budweiser or almost any other American beer is almost like an insult.

Stereolab was cool. It was a super good show. It was in the Phonodrome on the Reeperbahn. At first I was right up front and we could see evrything nice and clearly. Unfortunately, I was standing right next to the huge stack of speakers and due to the EXTREME VOLUME it started to feel as if there was a loose piece of tissue paper flapping around in my ears. So I moved to the back where I couldn’t see anything but it sounded great. Stereolab is one of the most unglamorous bands you will ever see. They just get up there and rock. They don’t really interact with the audience much because they are too busy making great music.

One note of sadness: One of the recognizable characteristics of Stereolab’s sound in the past has been the spacey vocal harmonies between Laetitia Sadier and the late Mary Hansen. Without Mary something is missing but it is still interesting. She will be missed.

Preparations for American Roadtrip 2004 are underway. Just reserved a rental car from Avis. Our main concern with the rental car is the sound system. Having a way to play our CDs is absolutely crucial to the mission. It all rests on that. If we have to pay for an upgrade, so be it.

I will be spending the weekend making compilation CDs for the ride. There will be lots of:

• American classic rock: Allman Bros, Doobies, Beach Boys, Jimi Hendrix, Eagles, Skynard, etc.
  

• Hip Hop: Gangstarr, Erik B & Rakim, NWA, The Roots
  

• Country: Willie, Waylon, Cash, George Jones, Haggard, DAC
  

• Hard Rock: Queens of The Stone Age, Sonic Youth, Led Zep, Black Crowes (shmc), Black Sabbath, etc
  

• Motown and classic R&B: Marvin, Temptations, Supremes, James Brown, Al Green, Otis Redding
  

• Blues: Robert Johnson, SRV, Junior Walker, Muddy Waters, J. L. Hooker, BB King,
  

• And much much more..
  

Tonight I am going to see StereoLab. Should be cool. Haven’t heard any of the new stuff yet. Might also just be a bunch of indie rockers/closet music critics standing around with arms crossed and being seen. Not be confused with the “Space Rock Status Guy”. Speaking of which….

Kevin Shields “interview” in the Guardian: I lost it.

Boy oh boy where to begin?

I will start with some geek stuff. At work we have been getting pounded by these worms, Netsky and MyDoom. We don’t have to worry about getting infected because we have an almost all Mac network but our inboxes fill up with the messages anyway. 20 every time your email client checks your mailbox is pretty annoying.

So I try installing this filter based on a perl script that scans incoming messages for attachments. However, in order to do that I needed to install MIME-tools that run with perl. But that required an update to Perl 5.8.1. That required downloading, compiling and installing. I had never done that before and was always put off by things that required me to get down and dirty in the shell/Terminal. I usually look for a Mac OS X specific package somewhere and install that.

This time I couldn’t find a package that worked. So I got my faithful Unix PowerTools and figured out some stuff, did some research and figured it out. So it was a very good experience. I’m very proud of myself.

So enough of that.

I’ve been tutoring this 11 year old in English. He had been getting 4s (kinda like Ds) and last week he had a test and got a low 2(B+). Tomorrow his parents are having me and M over for dinner to thank us. I get paid in beer, cigarettes, and the occasional meal. I’m not really comfortable with making money with it yet because I don’t really know what I’m doing. What if he got an F and his parents shelled out cash? Then I would feel like I ripped ’em off.

All I do is go over the homework with him and explain why something is right or wrong, correct his spelling and work on the pronunciation. I think it is the extra one on one attention that makes the difference. I have no training in teaching so I don’t really know what I could do better.

I did give him a copy of Sgt. Pepper’s and told him to listen to it a few times and we will go through a song together. I’m thinking “When I’m Sixty-four” or “Fixing a Hole” or maybe even “Getting Better”. The lyrics for those songs are pretty much straight forward. The other songs are a little too far out there to try to translate and explain to someone. We’ll see.

I went to Hamburg last night see Damien Rice play. I heard a few songs beforehand and to be honest was not too excited but I was invited and M accepted the invitation on my behalf. It was a good show. Kinda of like David Grey but a little rougher around the edges and without the wacky drummer. For the encore, Vyvienne the cellist, played Seven Nation Army by the The White Stripes alone on stage. It was very cool. The opening act was Josh Ritter. Also good. Very entertaining. The show was at a club called Knust, which I am told means the heel of a bread-loaf in Low German.

So it looks like Kerry is going be the democratic candidate. I hope he’s tough enough to deal with the super neocon republican media smear tactics that are sure to come his way. And seeing as he is a politician after all, I hope he will be able to dish it back out.

If I was voting with my conscience I would be voting for Kucinich. I voiced my support for him already a few times here. This time, however, it’s all about beating Bush. Kucinich brought up some good issues and was a strong critic of Bush. Unfortunately nobody cared. I hope he never shuts up. He is the kind of strong critic that needs to be there telling it how it is. As far beating Bush was concerned, he never had a chance. So if Kerry is the one, so be it. Somebody has to beat Bush. I hope he does.

A cool video but I dunno about the song though.

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