A few random pics......

(and, as per usual, click on the pic you want to see for a larger image)











Shadows on the Oregon Coast



Views from McCarren......Las Vegas, September 2007 -

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The simulacra of New York City.....faux Manhattan

Stratosphere Tower and Downtown Las Vegas

Unimpressive vista from my Boulder Highway hotel room, looking North

Denver.......October 2007 -

Watched my Rox sweep Philly live at Coors in three. Took a couple pics.....

As usual, rode my skooter to PDX for my flight to DIA.

Something caught my eye.....

Now, usually, there's always some really cool skooters and motorcycles in the two-wheeled parking area at PDX (which is also no charge to park at as long as you're outta town).......nice Yamaha Vinos, Suzuki Bergmans, BMW cycles, etc. Not really any Harley-Davidsons there at all....Harleys are for sheep and lemmings and people who haven't a single fucking original thought in ther heads! NOT very many of that sort in Portlandia!

So I look outta the corner of my eye, and see THIS. Right next to a killer Moto Guzzi......

Complete with a jackalope hood ornament.....

Now, I DESPISE flying into Denver from a westerly path.....turbulence leaving the mountains coming into the flatlands. Just a very unpleasant experience, especially if you aren't a good flyer. (And I DO NOT fly well...I clutch my seat and hyperventilate.....ask any friend or family whose ever flown with me) So, I land at DIA early Saturday Morning where a friend of mine fetches me, and we head directly from DIA to an early morning mimosa and pancake party (more mimosas than pancakes) at my friend Susan The Danser's house......

Proceeded to watch the Rox sweep Philadelphia, went up in the mountains to Central City the next day, and I flew back to Portlanda Monday Morning! Glad I wasn't able to get World Series tickets.....

Not really going anywhere forra while.....off to Albuquerque in a week, but that's about it. I snap anything cool....I'll let you know!!

-E-

Went to Vancouver a couple weeks ago.........


......wasn't one of my more enjoyable trips to Vancouver for a few different reasons (namely, an exchange rate that right now gives you $1.03 Canadian for a US Dollar, a three-plus hour wait on a goddamm MONDAY at the border, not really going out and doing much, and a couple other reasons)........a few nice pics, though........and I got some Swiss Chalet outta the deal, so it wasn't too bad of a trip!!

View from hotel room balcony

View from hotel room balcony with camera set to 15X Digital Zoom










Lion's Gate Bridge, North Vancouver, B.C.






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Also made a trip to Buffalo last weekend. Nothing really new or interesting....few pics again....


Saw this advert at the baggage claim at Buffalo-Niagara International......












.....and I was like: "What The Fuck???!!!?"


Buying a boat is "affordable"?? Did these people have just the slightest eeensey inkling of a clue what the median wage is around Western New York?? Do they harbour even a fucking guess as to just what a February National Fuel Gas bill (National Fuel Gas, by the way, is widely regarded around Western New York as being N.F.G.) does to an average Buffalo household??? Maybe this pic will give them a clue:

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And, after receiving said N.F.G. bill in March (sometimes, literally, to the tune of $350 or more a month), you then rush to Duff's, for 20 of the best wings known to exist in Western New York (better than The Anchor Bar, yes, and better than La Nova....best in BUFFALO, I said.....not overall - MY wings that I make are best overall....and Wingstop would be second, but since neither my wings nor any Wingstop franchises are in Buffalo, Duff's have the best wings there, then) washed down with five pitchers of Genny and four Vodka-Loganberries to help you forget about that $350 Natural Gaz bill....

I'm outta town for the next two weekends, I'll post again when I can! Hope you enjoyed 'em.....

-E-

Notes from the desert.......
(as per usual....click on the fotograffs to enlarge them....you know the drill.....)


......went to Las Vegas this weekend.

Hung out with my father and our buddy, Jack Fertig. Hadn't seen Jack in 20+ years, but he's still a weird cookie.....I mean, this is a guy who, after a game we saw his son play basketball in a tournament in Vegas, Jack's son was complaining to him about how an opposing player was talking trash to him during free throws.

Jack went ahead and quoted the movie BASEketball to his son.......only Jack Fertig.....although, if I had chosen to have kids, it's probably something I, too, would do.....

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Few interesting things I noticed .....


Well...that's what I get for Pricelining a car.....

Got to my rental car counter at 11:50pm, a bit tired, just wanted to get my old-man car (I had Pricelined a "full-size car - Mercury Grand Marquis or similar" for $22 a day). Apparently, so had several dozen other people as EVERY SINGULAR, SOLITARY CAR RENTAL COMPANY counter in the McCarren Airport car rental centre was dead empty!!!!! Except the one that Priceline stuck me with (I ain't gonna say who, but suffice to say, their TV adverts used to have a former Buffalo Bill running through an airport in them). Three car rental people at the counter (one of them SPECIFICALLY serving "#1 Club Gold" customers and only two serving everyone else) and the queue of customers was WELL OVER 35 people!!!! Well, it took me well over an hour to reach the front of the queue! By the time I was being waited on, the counter agent tried to fucking SELL, I repeat, SELL me an upgrade!! This was probably not E's most shining moment.....but it did get me a nice car for no additional charge!! When I saw what they gave me, it shut my ass up good....and I now recommend Hertz Car Rental for ALL of your transportation needs whilst traveling!



















I mean, this thing just SCREAMED testosterone!!!! There is something to truly be experienced by cruising the Las Vegas Boulevard Strip in this car with the top down.......or flying off into the vast emptiness of the Nevada desert at 100+M.P.H. also with the top down!


Great Expectations.....

Made a side road trip to Death Valley, 'cause I had (for some bizarre reason) always wanted to go there......ever since I was a child! This was NOT the best planning on the part of this blog! Generally, doing a convertible with the top down, into Death Valley, in the end of July, whilst wearing a black t-shirt is NOT the brightest idea.......fuck it! I did it anyways! 117 degrees is kind of interesting....never knew just HOW much I would learn to like water!









However, I was extremely unimpressed. The $20 entry fee (I think The Great Sand Dunes National Park in Southern Colorado is, like, ten bucks) really didn't do much to change my mind.......there are FAR more stunning, spectacular, and unique places in Colorado, Utah, Northern Nevada, Western part of South Dakota and even in Central and Eastern Oregon than Death Valley!!!! Fucking Californians......always over-hype everything.....still, though, being a Geographer, I really get off on the silliest shit.....like being at thee lowest point in North America, Badwater, which is basically a salt flat, but still, kinda neat (from my perspective, anyways)....

Great Expectations Redux.....












A friend of mine who ventured recently into Northern California, told me about how he had gone to a fast food restaurant called "In-N-Out" and he couldn't stop raving to me about it. I would later hear that former Californians kill for this place (as the chain is located almost exclusive within the state borders of California), and even Jack Fertig praised this place! Apparently, there's a couple of 'em in Vegas.....all right...let's have a go, then.....

From everything that I had been told, I was literally expecting this restaurant to send me into Excited Delirium (a.k.a. - That orgasm-like feeling one experiences whilst being Tasered by a Cop)....

Errmm......no. I mean the burger itself was pretty decent (far better than, say, McDonald's or Burger King...but certainly NOT thee best burger I have ever had [THAT, bar absolutely fucking NONE, belongs to CityGrille on Colfax in Denver]), but not amazing! The french fries possessed the appearance, consistency, and taste of grey sculpting clay......rather disappointing given all that I had heard about this place.....but still, they do very Lefty things like buy from suppliers who practise sustainable farming techniques, buy products locally, etc. etc. so kudos to them for that!



Man, how some things change in a few years.....

Went to Bally's to watch the Colorado Rockies match vs. the Los Angeles Dodgers (literally, the ONLY thing I would bet correctly on whilst I was in Vegas) and was a bit appalled. They used to have, ON CASINO PROPERTY, this weird high end shopping mall (no, literally, think Cedar Hills Crossing or The Boulevarde Mall) that had slot machines dead in the middle of the hallways (like, where the kiosks would normally be positioned) and you could sit there with a beer or mixed drink and a cigarette and play the slot machines right in the middle of a mall (I know this because in 2001, I actually DID just that). It was the weirdest thing.....

Today, I guess Bally's took the slot machines out, and the State of Nevada declared the mall a "public area" so they banned smoking in it.......man, as one bartender told me "This place is becoming more and more Californicated every day!"


This ain't Disney World.......

I actually remember Las Vegas' ill-fated attempt to try to actually lure FAMILIES to town....reasoning being (I assume) that mommy and daddy would gamble away the children's college fund whilst junior and juniorette would be in any number of video game arcades, bumper cars, go-karts, etc. etc. sort of attractions that places around town had put up! Thank Christ they now went back to pushing Vegas as thee true sin city ("What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas").....because that is what appears to have taken hold.

There are now 'Hos all over the place, and, whilst I guess that I don't get out much, I had seen my very first hooker pick-up live. Nope.....never seen that before live in my life!! I mean, yeah, we'd all seen the movies and TV crime-drama shows where the hooker is just standing around in a sleazy mini-skirt on a street corner and some John stops by and she jumps in his car. But I swear, I had NEVER seen that live in real life before!

I was on West Tropicana Blvd. when I was pulling outta a gas station and lo-and-fucking-behold.....first, two ladies of the evening standing directly in front of the convenience store entrance wave me over with a coy smile (I pretend to not notice them) and then, as I'm pulling out onto Tropicana Blvd. after fueling my 'stang, this S.U.V. with New York State plates slams on it's brakes and picks up this skanky-ass looking girl who hops right in! I mean, this guy literally avoided by inches getting crushed to a pulp in a rear-end near-accident by the pick-up truck directly behind him....it was just bizarre!!!

Nope.....sex still sells big in Vegas! Just go to The Library and research it yourself...









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Gettin' ya coming and going.....

I had never noticed this before 'cause I almost never check baggage when I go to Vegas. At the baggage carousel in McCarran Airport in Vegas, whilst you're waiting for the baggage monkeys to finally toss your bags onto the belt, you can drop a few bucks into a slot machine......holy shit! HOW ingenious is THAT? Man, if they did that at Buffalo, they'd pull the city AND the county out of the fiscal black hole they're both in now!












I had read in several places that you're never supposed to play the slots at the airport. The reasoning being that most casinos want YOU to make SPECIFICALLY THEIR casino your prime (and preferably only) destination....therefore, they treat you VERY well, and they have a bit of a vested interest in ensuring that you win a reasonable amount of times!

The airport, on the other hand, KNOWS that you are NOT going to gamble primarily at the airport because of the swimming pools and the great stage shows and the general ambiance (if you do make McCarran your primary place to gamble, then you've got serious issues), so, thus, they have ZERO incentive to see that you actually win anything at all, ever!!

I stupidly went against my own advice as my flight was twenty minutes delayed.....dropped a five into a "Wheel of Fortune" video slots machine, and walked away with $23 a few minutes later.....go figure!! I guess I was destined to gamble at airports!



Ain't no thing as "Old Vegas" anymore......


....and that absolutely blows!!

I was cruising around with the top down looking for old school dives to go play and drink in! I remember some.......The Stardust, The Frontier, and a whole bunch of others!


Not anymore....


Now, The Stardust had been imploded in the spring of this year, The Frontier (where I had once stayed) just closed down July 16th, 2007, The Sands closed on June 30, 1996, then got imploded, then that atrocity The Bellagio was erected on the site, and the Klondike (pictured below - a place I loved: 10-cent roulette, $1.99 FULL breakfasts [like eggs, toast, bacon, sausage, homefries, etc.] and a starring role in the movie Vegas Vacation) was officially shuttered June 28th, 2006!

Pretty much, thee only things left of Vegas former glory is The Sahara and The El Cortez and anything downtown. That is sad, really....when you see places like Steve Wynn's pretentious steaming heap of shit going up all over the place....it just ain't the same!

And, the final disillusionment in the land of illusion......


That fucking SIGN!

Yes, you know the one I'm talking about! I'd been to Vegas about four or five times before this, but I had NEVER been able to see the sign live. I mean, judging by TV, movies, magazine photographs, video games and everything else, damm.....well....that thing must be absurdly large! Christ, that's gotta be, like, AT LEAST 100 feet in height....like, 60 feet wide and 30 feet from the bottom of the white diamond to the top of it!!











Christ, was I ever disappointed!

And, not only that, but there's fucking TWO of them (so much for the "one and only" concept)!! I found this out by driving around town.....the other one's on Boulder Highway!!!

What a sham......I want my money back!!!

-E-

"In the desert, In the dry
before the breaking of the rain
the temperature in the shade has reached 110 again"

Midnight Oil
Bullroarer

This is NOT what The Ramones were thinking......

Warm, balmy day on the Pacific Coast at Rockaway Beach, Oregon. 10 June 2007

Gay Day, Buffalo, NY 2007




Man, Gay Day is probably one of thee most fun times in Buffalo! Just love these pics. Took dozens but I'll try to suss out the best few of them for ya -

Do NOT stand....march instead!

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Start of the parade.....Elmwood Avenue

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Best seats in the city!

9 out of ten lesbians agree.....

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THERE'S the beef.......

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Gay bingo. Emmm-hmmm........

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A car straight outta the Gay 40's......

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Git Out and Move Her In!

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This really pissed me off. Fucking opportunistic morons!!! Jesus, these glad-handing politicians were nowhere to be found at this event four, five, six years ago, when it wasn't nearly as large as it is now. Today? They were all over the place!! Christ on a bike!!

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THIS I couldn't figure out!! I mean, OK, I can understand State Liquor Authority regulations requiring you to be 21 years old or older to go under the "big tent".......but I do not recall seeing anything at all in New York State statute code anything about how the S.L.A. requires you to become a member of Pride Buffalo. Golly......

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Cool tat....the Hiawatha Belt of the Haudenosaunee


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Generic Buffalo Pictures......

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Yummy! Rock Salt!!! Ahhhh......Western New York Winters......

But still......I mean, where else can you see houses like this. Shit, I lived a few blocks from this house for many, many years and I constantly paid it no mind.....ever.....

....guess you don't realise what you have got 'till you no longer have it.....












But oh wait! It's no longer a house....but rather it's been drawn-and-quartered into apartments. Damm.....and I bet you can snag a one-bedroom in the turret section on the top floor for less than $500 a month. Ahhhh.......sad, really. That same third-floor turret one-bedroom anywhere West of the Mississippi?? Try, like, $1000+ a month (in Portlandia, it'd probably go for $1350 or so a month.....Seattle? Like $1500+ a month)!!










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And, finally, before I get TOO wistful.....I see this sign at Buffalo-Niagara Airport. And then realise that "...yes, Graduate, you too can plan your future in Buffalo-Niagara! Indeed....go ahead and plan on how you is gonna pay back $50G's or so in student loans on six bucks an hour!"

But still....they gave me a free hotel room at the Seneca Niagara......a Corner Jacuzzi Suite to boot!

Enjoy!!!

-E-

"Hey, ho, way to go Ohio......"


....went to visit family I hadn't seen in a while in Northeast Ohio. Nice cookout hosted by my Brazilian Cousins-in-law with grilled, marinated Brasil-style gaucho beef (probably one of my top five favourite foods of all-time) and this Margarita-like drink that is popular in Brasil made with flavoured vodka, several limes, water, and this stuff........I have no idea what it was.....

Was gonna stop in, and ask for the latest election results, but thought better of that idea.....

Diebold World Headquarters, North Canton, Ohio......"Delivering ALL of Ohio's Electoral votes to George W. Bush!"

Saw a White Castle.....had never seen one live before (I used to go to this amazing club called the QE2 in Albany, NY that was constructed inside an abandoned White Castle) and thought they all died out except for in New Jersey, but apparently not.....

Skybus Airlines counter......Port Columbus International Airport.....$10 a flight....no shit!!!! Check it out!

Got bumped from my ATL-PDX connecting flight, so, with a night at The Sheraton Gateway Atlanta Airport and a free flight all courtesy of Delta Airlines, I went in search of a pub.

Not finding anything where I could drink AND smoke an Export A Green in the pub anywhere near my hotel, I grabbed the shuttle back to the airport and asked the shuttle driver (a sixty-something Egyptian immigrant) where to go! Now, knowing two persons who currently live in Atlanta and two others who spent more than 10 years living there, you'd think I'd have too many options.

No dice.

One who resides there now is a girl who's rather racist, and I really didn't have much of a desire to hang out with her. Another is a girl who woulda been fun to hang out with, but to find her, I'd have to call up a person who.....uhhhh.....had relations with this girl (which turned into a very ugly situation) and that woulda been a bit too weird.

A third is a guy who used to reside there for many years, but I couldn't get ahold of my sister to grab his fone number (she too was traveling the time, and wouldn't have had the number on her anyways), and the forth is a guy I know from my Denver days, but the only person who I knew who had his number is this guy in Denver who I don't really talk to much anymore, and probably wouldn't even know where to find him............

......so.........

I rely on my hotel shuttle driver!

I tell him that I want to utilise Public Transit (I really was in zero mood to rent a car), so he suggests that I take the MARTA train to a place called "Buckhead" (or something like that). So I grab the train at the airport!

Niiiiiccce!!! Clean, modern, and uses magnetic paper tickets that utilise touch-sensors to get you past the turnstyles (kinda like The Oyster card in London, except these are paper cards)....probably thee nicest train I've ridden on....nicer than a lot of Amtrak routes! These trains have little TVs all over the railcar, and, by tuning in a certain FM frequency on your radio, you could get the audio for the TV. Played the most recent local newscast, and other stuff. Jesus.....THIS is a transit system! Plus, it's on it's OWN RIGHT-OF-WAY.....so, when it hit Downtown Atlanta, it didn't share a trackway with the street and proceed to move at three miles-an-hour.

Now, I could write a 100-page dissertation on how Atlanta's MARTA got rail RIGHT and how Portlandia's Tri-Met totally fucked it up, but we'll leave that for another day.......

.....anyways, this Buckhead place sucked!! Big, sterile glass-and-steel office buildings with beautiful people hanging out in overpriced yuppster bars. Talked with a bartender at one of these yuppie bars who was sporting a Mohawk and a ripped union jack T-shirt and he told me to go to an area called "Little Five Points".........

.............too much fun! If you get a chance......check that area out!!

Caught the last train to my hotel, talked to a LOT of friendly people on the street all over the city and on the trains, and promised myself that I'd make it back here! I was impressed.....now, if only they could do something about the Goddamm heat and humidity, they might have an amazing place!

MARTA rail station, Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport

TV (one of, like, six in that car alone) on the MARTA train














MARTA "Breeze" reloadable paper rail pass













View from platform of Buckhead rail station













View whilst walking aimlessly around Buckhead district













MARTA train


-E-