Halloween

35,000 people on State Street + $10/person just to enter State Street = a crapload of revenue for the city of Madison.


Happy Halloween to my Australian family from this guy dressed up as a kangaroo with a stuffed bunny in his pouch.

Mayer Hawthorne and the County

Catching a quick Korean meal with good friend John before the concert.

There is half a chicken carcass in that soup and it looks much better than it tasted.

Then off to see Mayer Hawthorne and the County at The Rathskeller. Intimate, energetic and awesome.

Mayer Hawthorne is one heck of a showman!

Highlight of the night, a pyschedelic rendering of "Green Eyed Love" replete with chunky guitar solo. Here's a little taste from a Sydney concert last January:

I am throughly enjoying the nu-soul movement currently coursing its way up the music scene.

Opening band was Gordon Voidwell. Light, energetic danceable new wave pop with heavy eighties overtones. Like Prince meets the Tom Tom Club.

... with two trap sets.

You know you still have a way to go as an artist when you are left to pack up your own equipment while the opener's crew is setting up on the stage you just finished rocking.

Great Start to a Week on the Road

Headed down to Madison again today with an SUV full of books to sell. Fifteen boxes to be exact. When the buyer asked me how $150 sounded, I answered, "About $25 short of the speeding ticket I was just issued driving down here." All for the want of a Jimmy John sub. Expensive sandwich.

Walking around campus, I think it is no coincidence I eventually pursued architectural restoration as a career. Here are some of my favorite old haunts from the town I called home for nine years:

Autumn in Wisconsin

Fall in Wisconsin looks not so very different than fall in West Virginia... it just comes quicker, as does the sunset. I am beginning to wonder why I was so very intent on leaving so very hastily. There are some people in my life who can never be replaced and I am missing them very much.

Bald Eagles on the River

One month ago, I saw a similar sight on the Mississippi.



Having just biked down from historic Fort Snelling, my companion and I spotted a bald eagle soaring above Mark Twain's mighty river while a paddle boat lazily made its way downstream. A magical moment, we felt as if we had just fallen back in time.



I am experiencing very different feelings this time around.

Best To Do It Quickly

That's got to come off and I know it's going to hurt.

Well, it was nice while it lasted but perhaps it was too soon for me to get back on the bike.

Which Life Path Am I On?

Sometimes life picks you up in its gentle breeze and takes you where you need to go...

...and sometimes life simply takes a dump on you.

I am trying to figure out just where I am in that bigger picture right now.

The Road Less Traveled

Before I left Wheeling, I mentioned to someone whose words I have come to admire and trust that I was feeling lost. In our talk, the book "The Road Less Traveled" by M. Scott Peck was referenced. I do not generally read self-help books, but when I found a second-hand copy for $3 shortly after our talk, I was compelled to pick it up. Opening the book to chapter one, I was struck by these three opening words: "Life is difficult."

It is funny how three words that seem so discouraging can be so comforting. This first leg of my journey is proving to be a lot more difficult than I had anticipated.

Renting

When I moved to London eleven years ago, I shared a little loft with four roommates in a run-down apartment building just a few blocks away from Kensington Gardens. The landlord rented it out on a week-to-week basis, explaining that with such high turnover in tenancy, it was the most profitable way for him to lease. And it just happens to be perfect for itinerants like myself.

Here, I cannot even find anyone who is willing to lease month-to-month, three months rent cash-in-hand plus security deposit. Does it really make more sense to let an apartment sit empty rather than lease it guaranteed rent money for three months? Even the sublets I have looked into are only taking nine month commitments. I am all of the sudden feeling very trapped in my current settings.

Check out that amazing sunset view from Queensway Blvd!

Oh, how I miss city living.

It Is Very Easy To Overlook Things

When you do not take the time to observe.



And yes... that is meant to have greater meaning than these pictures would suggest.

Pokegama

A day spent on the lake with close family friends.



And for any of you who remember the low-budget educational series Storylords that ran on PBS in the mid-eighties, I met the son of Thorzuul today. Seriously.

For your viewing pleasure, here is a riveting episode called "Identifying Main Ideas and Details." This was mandatory viewing in elementary school.



Thorzuul and his wicked laugh show up at about the 2:30 minute mark. Right when the kids jump on the stationary bike to time travel through stuffed mice and lasers piercing a faux Obiwan Kenobi. Seriously. Is it any wonder so many of my generation are maladjusted when this is the educational substance our heads were filled with when we were young?

Kayaking the Red Cedar

While kayaking down the river today, it occured to me that perhaps life isn't a road with many forks where you choose the path you take next, like I have been thinking. Perhaps life is more like a river, with a current you are swept up in that takes you to where you are heading. And no matter how many little forks in the stream to take, no matter hard you paddle against stream, or how many diversions to the riverbank you take, sooner or later you end up back in the current, and the river continues to take you to the destination you were intended for.



If that is the case, any effort in which you divert from the current only wastes energy.



So logically, I should just be content to let to the current take me where it intends to, because no matter how hard I fight it, sooner or later, I will reach a point where I no longer have the energy to go against it and I will swept back into my intended path.



I am trying very hard to do let the current take me where it will.



But the question remains, why is nearly every fiber of my being trying so hard to fight it?

The Wise Old Pine Has Spoken

As I watched the sun rise, sending its first rays sparkling over the frost-covered reeds of the marsh this morning, meditating upon my (not-so) lone pine, the old conifer spoke to me. It told me I am just as out of place in this environment as it is. When it told me this, I was so overcome with emotion I was compelled to wrap my arms around it. And there I stood for the longest time, just hugging the tree, tears streaming down my face.

My lone pine may have roots deeply embedded in the land keeping it where it is, but I do not. Perhaps this part of my journey is not about exploring my old roots, but freeing myself from them.

More Signs I Am Back In Wisconsin

In Wheeling, when I would walk down to the convenience store to pick up a gallon of milk, I would often stand in line behind meth-heads buying a pack of Newports and a 40.

Today, standing in line at the Kwik Trip to buy bananas, I found myself behind a person buying a pack of cheese curds and a half a dozen doughnuts. Also, there were no homeless people eying the ashtrays outside the door and no ladies of the night (and day) to glare at me from the street corner.

Look At Me

Back in an office, in Wisconsin, doing web design.



It's almost like I never left. Almost.

Jet Trails, My Lone Pine, and Sandhill Crane

Six Miles on the Ice Age Trails

Autumn Is In the Air