Random thoughts Labor Day...

thought I would check in.
Someone sent me a note recently about the last blog post I wrote months ago and it reminded me that I really need to get in here and get moving on writing again.
Things have been going well-- very well. I have been married for over 2 years now-- it's simply amazing how life just rolls on by. I am listening to a Dave and Tim concert that Lili and I went to in Koln in March of 2007! Crazy how it was 2007!
Long time ago, yet it seems like it was just a year ago.
I have been thinking alot about Dave as this is when the annual pilgrimage to the Gorge happens-- something that has been going on for about 15 years now-- again, crazy when you sit and think about it for a moment. This will mark my 57th show, with the 58th coming when the band concludes it's last show in the US for a year.
58 shows.
A titch ridiculous if you consider how much the tickets are and what is exactly involved in all of it-- but I can tell you without a doubt it has brought me countless moments of joy that few other things in the world can bring.... With that being said, I am very glad that the band is taking a year off and I intend to get a number of things accomplished within the next year-- exactly what-- well, I will save that for another post at another time :).

Enjoy the weekend-- and look for more soon! Read more!

"In Europe" thoughts of wars past, contrasting present

Over this trip to Germany, I have been reading a book that I thought was simply a travel narrative of Europe. The book, titled "In Europe", is actually an interesting journey through the last 100 or so years in Europa, from 1900ish to 2000ish. The writer begins the book at the turn of the 18th century to the 19th, contrasting the 20th as a litmus for all that was happening at the time.
This has also proven to be quite useful in my own personal journey during this time as I come to realize that I am also becoming part of Europe as more than half of my family presides directly on this contentient. Each day presents new challenges as I contrast my own life as an American with the lives of Europeans. The differences are seemingly large--we view this land in totally different ways because of the time that we have to interact with not only the spaces, but the times as well.

As an American, I think I seem to be obsessed with the wars that plagued this country for so many years, both devasting the land, the people and the culture. However, the more that I learn about it, the more I see that it is becoming so far of the past that it is rather difficult to draw the conclusions of how this place become now what it is from such devastation. The times, for the first time in nearly a century, have been, for the most part, calm for the last decade. The book, "In Europe" is more informative of the wars than anything I have come across here, either accidentally or intentionally--and its not because the people are willing to talk about it--it's moreso that they simply do not think about it. When I recite facts of things that I have been reading. For example: When the Nazi's working in the concentration camps would see someone with an interesting tattoo on their body, they would remove it from them (either killing them or just removing the skin) and make lampshades out it. When I told a couple people this, they nodded, knowing it, but of course where in conversation would that really come up. "I know the war was terrible and the Nazi's did terrible things like ________, but that's all in the past now, so...."
We all want to move on from the devasting parts of life and the reality is that the German people are now almost two generations gone from that period of time. The last super power to have a government that took its own people down a simillar pathway would have to be the Americans with the suspension of civil liberties and freedoms in the name of terrorism, led by George W Bush. That fact is still suppressed because, much like the aftermath of the war, it's too soon to really look at what has been done and accept responsibility. I wish Bush would read this book and think about the millions of people that were killed all because a group of people simply couldn't agree on things. As both wars dragged on, particularly the first World War, the people living in the trenches on both sides of the war began to realize that they had been duped into fighting for something that wasn't in reality, what any of them really stood for. The book constantly refers to the moments where the generals were running the battles from a safe distance with no regard to the people that were being killed off in the name of their own planning-- and this happened on both sides-- very little value was placed internally on the lives of soldiers. In the end the Americans were proclaimed as the victors because they had so little at stake in both wars-- America came into the first World War only when the Germans began to torpedo the American ships carrying supplies to England-- the war, just like the Second WW, had been going on for many years before the Americans got involved. When they did though, it was a massive operation with millions of fresh bodies entering a war that had all but destroyed everyone around them. The trench soldiers had been living in conditions that no one living would choose-- and were skiddish warriors at best.
Regardless, stumbling upon these moments of history on this trip are moments which I hold with very high regard. Having a book like "In Europe" makes me hungry to know more about a place which holds so much history--that makes our young country seem so young and inexperienced with tragedy. Perhaps that is why we made the mistakes we have in our young history -- we have so little history and understanding of the true tragedies of the rest of the world. That is what travelling, in a sense, is all about-- experiencing these other cultures in order to put it against our own. Read more!

Nuremberg

Lili and I have arrived in Nuremberg, Germany yesterday from Koln. We rented a rather lovely and fast Volkswagen Golf, for a very reasonable price. I am a bit sad to report that the Autobahn was not the uber fast speedway that we Americans dream to drive on-- at least not yesterday. There was more construction on the bit of Autobahn from Koln to the Bavarian border that it was very rare that I got the chance to hammer down the pedal. However, when I did, it was nothing short of exhilarating.

It took us about 4.5 hours to drive here and we arrived just after 5. Traffic was busy coming into town as everyone was just getting off of work and we headed directly to the hotel, which Lili claims to have found using her most excellent mapping skills, but I think it was more luck than anything else. We managed to find all three hotels like the one we are staying in -- ETAP. It's a budget hotel, 50 euro's a night, which is actually cheaper than staying in a hostel with a private room.

The city of Nuremberg is much more beautiful than I had imagined it and I was thinking it was going to be quite special. It ranks right up there with Dresden in the most beautiful German city thus far... and I think that once I actually soak it in, it will become my favorite German town.

There is a giant castle, schloss, at the top of the city gates, which is where the picture above is taken. It has a great overlook of the city itself, which was mostly destroyed in the WWII. In case you didn't know, Nuremberg was the center of the Nazi movement and also where the trails were held at the end of the war. It was destroyed in the war and rebuilt. Luckily, when the Nazi party was here, they were meticulous in photographing the city and all that it contained.

I have read quite a lot over the years about WWII and to be in the city where so much of it went down is quite a dream. Walking through the streets and thinking about the pleasantness that this city now offers and contrasting it with the days when the Nazi party was at it's height of control in Germany -- and most of the propagandist theater was staged right here. I imagined the city center streets lined with German soldiers as Hitler gives his speeches -- and how he watched the parades of soldiers march through the city.

Today we will walk out to the soccer stadium, which is on the same grounds as Zeppelinstadium, which is the area that he gave his speeches to hundreds of thousands of supporters. Again, most of that was destroyed by the Allied troops after the war, but they did leave parts of it. I will post those photos over the next several days.

For the record, I don't want this to seem like I am some war buff vacation, but there really are two stories to the German life-- the war and everything that happened after the war. This country has a lot of deep scars from that time period and the wound is finally healing, but that injury will forever be with the German people and it was an interesting period of time. Hitler and the Nazi Party were an evil regime and it was a dark period but they did some pretty historical things. To think that this is the hotbed of it all-- the wound runs the deepest here-- but it's also where the healing began with the Nuremberg Trials -- the fact that they tried and hanged the people that were left in the end here gives the place the opportunity to start anew--and it has.

In fact, one would have to know firsthand that the city was destroyed by bombs to realize that all of it has been completely redone because it very closely resembles a city like Prague, minus St. Charles Gate, of course.

Anyway, that's all for now as were headed to Zeppelin Field...

Read more!

Alice in Wonderland-- worth the price of admission

Alice in Wonderland
review by Timothy Hogg

This week, the movie theaters announced that (insert bullshit reason here) prices were going up slightly for regular films, but the IMAX and 3-D films were going to skyrocket. We decided to go and catch Alice in Wonderland before these outrageous prices took effect, but sadly, they went into effect on March 25th. Luckily, we had a coupon, which kept the price to $25.00 for two tickets to see Alice in 3D.
As much as I would like to go into some tangent about the outrage I feel toward the greedy people of Hollywood, this post is going to be about how WONDERFUL this film is.
Alice in Wonderland is a well known story, one of those tales that seems to get redone, rehashed every decade or so. It's one of those stories that seems to get told in cadence with the current vision of reality of the time-- the most famous being the tame Disney cartoon version-- violence rarely plays out so well in a cartoon.
This does represent Tim Burton's vision of the original story by Lewis Carroll. Like most films, Burton's version pays no attention to keeping with the consistency of the original story. Instead, this version of AIW is more Burton's version of the Disney cartoon mentioned earlier. Instead this is more of a culmination of both Alice in Wonderland and through the looking glass, but regardless of how authentic, the film works amazingly well. I think the main thing that really makes this film shine is Burton's way of storytelling has finally managed to mitigate its weird/awkwardness to normalcy. Alice's dream sequence offers Burton an open canvas of his craft and he wields a colourful brush indeed. The visuals of the world offer striking contrasts of red, white and darkness.
Burton's cast of characters are mostly from his previous arsenal of big name actors: Helena Bonham Carter, Johnny Depp and the ever creepy, Cripin Glover. The casting is wonderfully done, Bonham-Carter is nothing short of brilliant as the evil Red Queen, with Glover as her Heart patched heroine horror. The true stars of this film are the anthropomorphous, particularly the Cheshire Cat's coyness. Depp's characterization isn't particularly amazing or astonishing, in fact the bond that Alice and Hatter share almost seems rehearsed.
Regardless, the film is still at the top of the list of a decent year of films thus far. Is it worth the additional cost of admission now? Yes. This is one of those not to be missed films in the theatre--although the 3-D experience is certainly optional. Read more!

The White Stripes Under the Great Northern Lights Film

Film Review: Under the Great Northern Lights

by Timothy Hogg

It was just a couple of days ago that I was scanning through the internets as I do everyday that I stumbled upon the news that the White Stripes have a new documentary coming out soon. Tonight, for whatever reason, it was on Comcast's On-Demand service. I had seen an HD preview just a few days before and was intrigued, so I paid the $6.99.

Simply put, its a great film and probably the best music documentary I have seen in years. There is just something about Jack White and the way that he markets himself and the band that makes all of this such a neat little package. It works so well because the grainyness of the homemade film fits perfectly with the style that the White Stripes puts out musically.

The film centers on the brother/sister duo from Detroit who make the trip to our great northern partners. It serves as a perfect showcase of what the band essentially wants to do, play small shows and even smaller shows during the daytime. It makes the supergroup seem more human, quaint even. I am a bit prejudiced in that I simply love the music, its rawness authentic and because of this film, legitimate. Jack White's fame has sort of spoiled this band, which is always seemingly in contrast to Meg, who has the personality of a church mouse, quiet and cute (albeit sexy). Often as Jack plays through his philosophy on everything, Meg is often in the sequence, quiet while he roars--the same goes with the band--his guitar loudly rebelling against the demanding timing of Meg's drum.

This is what they are all about--and the film really shows them beautifully in this world of mostly black and white, antique cars and animated crowds. It's so beautifully done, comedy at times, emotional at others that it will be somewhat disapointing to see the band live in concert again someday, in full color. This is the concern when documentary rock films are just that good, it makes it difficult to really appreciate how good the band is live the next time you see them.

Read more!

Crazy Heart Film Review

Crazy Heart review

by Tim Hogg

Jeff Bridges has become the Hollywood face of the American story. His latest masterpiece, Crazy Heart, is sure to pick up a few more awards as it makes it way to the Academy Awards this month. This film has been around for the last several months, playing at a local arthouse theater or two until recently. Very much like the character, Bad Blake, this film is making a comeback that no really saw coming. Same thing goes for Bridges, who has had his ups and downs as much as the fictitious country legend, Blake.

What makes this film work so well is that Bridges knows his characters and its audience. This character is not much different than the role he is best known for, one Jeffery Lebowski. Bridges plays that character that we all know but don't see often enough, the guy who didn't become the shining star, but rather the guy who simply keeps on keeping on. Bridges plays Bad Blake, a washed up, drunken country legend that might be playing at your local bowling alley and you would never know. Blake has been moved off the mainstream concert circuit to the local dive bar, making enough money to gas up his 1978 Suburban and his kidney with enough booze to make it to the next stop, barely.

Although this is a story we have all heard before (and know that it exists every night at a local seedy motel near you) what makes this work is Bridges ability to show the soft touch in each character that he plays. This story is not about the mistakes that Blake made or the joint torch that glowed so brightly for Lebowski, it's about the human being that is evident in all of these characters. Mistakes were made, but at some point, Blake has no choice but to make amends with the demons that haunt him.

The only problem with this wonderful film is the character played by Maggie Glyllenhaal. In every Hollywood film, there always has to a woman. No surprise there. Gyllenhaal's character is the interview for a small town paper who wants to crack the story behind the legend. They quickly fall in love to move the storyline along, but her character is irrational, forcing a checkmate to Bad's drinking and meandering ways. In the end, she rejects him, but not because of what he's done or who he is but more so because she has found someone else. This is an extreme letdown for the film, which would have been much better off simply allowing her to have the strength to not put her young son through the future turmoils of a man who has no home except the long stretch of the long, lonely open road. Regardless, there are some pure lovely moments in the telling of this story and I do hope it gets the recognition it deserves. Don't wait for this one to go to video-- it's worth a look on the big screen for the stunning imagery that is the Southwest.

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travelitis

Americans are particularly funny about their travels. I have noticed it throughout my life. We tend to stay in our own country, which is understandable--it's fucking huge!! Regardless, part of the point of traveling is to go to other places to see how people live--to speak to them and see what their lives are about, how they are getting by on their side of the rock.
The more that I speak to my brethren, the more I see how little we travel. Sure, we all know those people that are serial travelers to Vegas and Hawaii for the west coast and Florida for the east coast. We don't generally go to experience culture, but rather to escape our own reality of things.

Vacation for the American is just that--to vacate, to leave, to part ways. American's don't travel, they don't wander, they don't go on walkabout. This is a generality of course--we do travel, some of do wander and a few of us might actually go on walkabout.

Someone said the other day, We don't travel like John Muir did, with nothing more than a sketchbook and an imagination and perhaps a new pair of boots.
The fact is that we must prepare for that harsh world that lies outside of that comfort zone known as home. Think about all of those things you own and assess how much of it is for that harsh world you have to travel in everyday.

All of this came about because I had recently overheard that a friend of mine was going out East for a few weeks to check it out. I offered to have a drink with him and go over some details about things I experienced while I was there--the more information you have, the more time you can have to focus on the pleasantness of the trip. Anything to speed up past the minutia of traveling helps, right?
Not quite.
This fellow actually said that he would prefer just to go about it on his own. "We have totally done our research." was the quip.
I retreated. The east is a messy place and time can easily get away from you. It's not like the rest of the world where you can get by on "roughing it". Countless hours and days can be wasted if you don't know when or where to go during certain times. But the issue was a little deeper than that-- I think this guys problem was also a common one-- people don't care to hear about your adventures as much as they want to make their own--they want to make the same mistakes that you make, they want to wait in the same lines that you wait in.
It also is hard to believe that things could be so different somewhere else until you have actually been there and seen what there is to see and do. When I got off the plane in China, I had not the slightest clue what the hell I would do if I got off that plane and there wasn't someone there to rescue me, but I would have managed and that is the adventure.
Eventually, we did get to talking a little bit about the trip he was going on. He eventually told me that I was just telling him all the things to watch out for, but I wasn't giving him any advice.
My response: it's up to you to find the diamonds--another traveller's job is to help you not fall in the mole holes on the journey.
You will never spoil your trip by talking to other travellers-- you will own what it yours, no journey is like another. It's for you to take and for you to see.
That's how it is out there. Read more!

its been awhile

Well, I have been seeing some mail lately asking if I am alive...
The answer, in short, is yes, I am still alive.
The blog is still active and I review it from time to time, wishing I could do more with it. The fact is, with all of the technology that we have and the different ways to express oneself, I am finding it harder and harder to actually do. Technology has made it really difficult for us to sit back and express anything in a long handed, complex kind of way. ADD for the masses.
So, I am trying to put it all together, to make sense of it all communicate out, blog style, for the world to consume at their own leisure.
HAITI:
I have been thinking about this terrible event a lot lately--as all of us have. 200,000 dead bodies in a city the size of Seattle. That is a lot of people, dead for no other reason than nature and poverty. I have been thinking a lot about that amazing loss and the amount of relief that has gone toward it and what's going to become of it all-- it's a difficult thing to grasp.
I think of the huge amount of different charities that were already there, trying to help that country and I think of the amount of agencies that will now be there for a long time to come-- I think of the hundreds of millions of dollars that individuals will donate to that effort and where all of that money will actually end up. I fear not where it is supposed to go.
What really needs to happen, from my layman point of view-- is a massive re-construction project, that leads to completely rebuilding port-au-prince. The new Port-Au-Prince needs rebar in the buildings, it needs infrastructure.
Sadly, I don't think it will be managed correctly, people will look for the quick, easy solution and leave the distribution up to the same methods that have been the source of donations for so many years there.
The thing I struggle with is that there is no simple resolve to this soon to be epidemic. It is going to get really, really desperate there, while the people who died from the initial blast are still rotting in the hot sun, more will perish as the heat breed disease, as people run out of supplies, things that we take for granted, like the food that we will eat tomorrow, the food and water that is in our bellies-- all of it, these people on this little island in the Caribbean, no matter how many millions of dollars we think we are sending that way, people are still going to get infections, have a lack of water and will smell death at the doorway.
This world that we all share together, sometimes it is unfair.
My thoughts are with you tonight, Haitians. I hope we will still be with you in the months to come as the struggles get more and more difficult. Read more!