Record Stores Are Slowly Going the Way of Yesterday!

Re-Wind: Traveling the Western Highway Route 66

When my friend and I were traveling one time the lyrics to this song helped us plan our route. You never know when pop culture will aide you in discovery. Sometimes you might end in a farmers field but hey that's only in Flagstaff. 

Well if you ever plan to motor west

Just take my way that's the highway that's the best

Get your kicks on Route 66

Well it winds from Chicago to L.A.

More than 2000 miles all the way

Get your kicks on Route 66

Well goes from St. Louie down to Missouri

Oklahoma City looks oh so pretty

You'll see Amarillo and Gallup, New Mexico

Flagstaff, Arizona don't forget Winona

Kingman, Barstow, San Bernadino

Would you get hip to this kindly tip

And go take that California trip

Get your kicks on Route 66

Well goes from St. Louie down to Missouri

Oklahoma city looks oh so pretty

You'll see Amarillo and Gallup, New Mexico

Flagstaff, Arizona don't forget Winona

Kingman, Barstow, San Bernadino

Would you get hip to this kindly tip

And go take that California trip

Get your kicks on Route 66

The song to me has come to mean America for me.   I can not think of anything more freeing than pointing my car towards distant horizons, and doing that Route 66 dream.   The dream that Kerouac would have said, "Jack, gotta go!"

Happy Fourth of July Everyone!

Alexander Rothbard: The Sale Part Two

(Continued from July 3rd 2010) I reached into my bag and brought out five cartons of Philip Morris and 500 Flat 50's.  I started my presentation and the dealer interrupted with, "What else do you want to sell?"  He bought my entire stock, built the display himself,  asked for two posters and went outside and put them up with paste, a perfect angle shot.  That did it.  It was the most difficult job in my life to hold back the tears.  I thanked the dealer and went out.   It was a little after 2:00 p.m. and my bag was empty.  However, the sale did not cheer me because he had bought,  I did not sell.  After five minutes of thinking "Why" ,  I returned and asked the dealer why he bought. the Philip Morris from me.  He stated that he had watched me through this window while I was making up my mind to come i, said I looked real "beat" and in need of a lift, so when I came in and put those cigarettes on the counter and started to talk, he could not help but try to cheer me.  I then noted that he took the flat 50's and opened them up--again.  "Why?".  "For the one cent sales"  was the answer--a new one on me.


That sale did the trick.  I bought five cartons of Philip Morris back from the dealer and a carton of Flat 50's, with the provision that if I did not sell them he would buy them from me--again. From 2:30-6:30 p.m.  I not only sold the cigarettes but also sold, displayed and merchandised 5 additional cigarettes from this same dealer since there was no jobber in the area, and he called a jobber and ordered 10 Philip Morris for delivery to him the next morning.  A most unforgettable sale.

Ramblings of Greg 7.2.

I am not writing well today.  Nothing is really that bad, it’s just one of those other days.  It has been a lazy morning here in Florida.  It has been rainy and the clouds hang low like a present rumor.

My wife plays the guitar in the other room. Her soul soars on high.  

Sometimes writing is difficult, there really is not much going on. 

But you need to write every day, no matter what!   So today I sit here trying to think of what to say that might be somewhat positive.  

My arm hurts. Probably from cutting too much meat, filling customer orders, and cleaning up.  Why does ones ears not hurt from listening too much?  

Tonight I will be going to feed the homeless at Munn Park from old Chinese carry out containers, and food made by my friend Miguel Vazquez.  

Cheers to my Nederland friends, and the three guys I met in Israel.   We had a blast partying in the Old City of Jerusalem in 1997, London Underground, Arizona Bar, and spending all my money so that I had to borrow some to get back to Egypt.   I have never planned very well, and have had to rely on the courtesy of strangers.  I have learned  a lot from these adventures though. I am so happy that y'all beat those brats from San Paulo.  

Eric El Camion Hates Imperial Bedrooms by Brett Easton Ellis

Imperial Bedrooms

By Bret Easton Ellis

(Knopf, Hardcover, 9780307266101, 192pp.)

Publication Date: June 15, 2010

Categories: Literary

Eric El Camino has hated me for loving Brett Easton Ellis novels. His feelings were a flame of burning desire. His rage burned like a bonfire set by an eddy on the beach.   He would put a chock hold on me and hang me in my locker, because he was the authority on what was good literature.  He was only thirteen but he knew better than all the other kids, and he was willing to use violence to prove it.


I consider Brett Easton Ellis one of the best writers of all time. He is one of my guilty pleasures.  There was a time when his books, even American Psycho, shaped how I interpreted the times I was part of. Ellis books are always dark, but inside that dark is a flickering light that gives hope, a promise of future glory. They are a true reinterpretation of the American Dream. Something happened to the American Dream between 1997 and 2010 (tragedy at Columbine, the twin Towers, space shuttles exploding on a return flight, the dot boom fiasco, the BP Oil Spill) taking the alluring world of Ellis and twisting it into a knot. An unyielding knot holding hope and joy locked into an affair with disillusion.


Today, I listened to the album that coincides with Ellis's new novel Imperial Bedrooms and think,

"Wow, I can't wait to read his new novel!"


I also think I will download the soundtrack and raise a toast to my innocence.

Artistic Recycling of the Post Communist Block

Tuesday: Cheap Date Nites

Tic Tac Toe Picture Hunt

Materials:

Tic Tac Toe Board (3by 3 grid)

Camera

Procedure:

You and your date will take pictures of subjects.

Here are 9 pictures ideas to get you started.
You can either do three in a row diagonally, horizontally, or vertically.
Or do all 9 (black out); that means all pictures have been taken.

1. Deli Clerk at Publix Holding Head Cheese.
2. A boy wearing a football t-shirt.
3. A truck with large, large tires.
4. A bumper sticker saying something political.
5. A man with a cigar.
6. Wildlife local to the area (Gator here in Florida).
7. A person with crazy hair.
8. A dentist holding a drill.
9. A person with dreadlocks.

I am sure you can come up with better ideas. You should ask people for permission before you take their photos. The main point is to just have fun finding these pictures.
Post your pictures online.
Share with friends.

Happy Hunting! Tell me how it went.

Use Everything-Get Creative