The monsoon season is still going strong. Monday, Mesa Chandler had a
70 mile an hour wind gust that knocked over trees, planes and some poor
woman in Apache Junction was getting swept away in a canal that used to
be a street. Last time they had major monsoons here was 1999, about
the time I was here at that time. Geezus I must be the fucking
rainman. Tuesday morning after the weatherman promised a clear evening,
we got woke up at 3 AM by a heavy thunderstorm. I thought I got away
from that crap at Iowa, so next day I decided to high tail it up to the
north country and Kingman and finally, we got a complete sunny day.
Looks like I'm going to do the Route 66 trip to Oatman and then move on
to Bullhead City and see how much the gas is in Needles before retiring
back to Kingman tonight and then return to the rain forest called Mesa
tomorrow. The top ten will be completed once I get home.
Other
things going on here in AZ. The Fuddruckers in Fiesta Mall closed down.
So I've been on a diet of Mexican food and probably will gain back that
15 pounds that I lost. Been doing some morning walks around Mesa and
now here in Kingman. It's a bit more windy up in Kingman which means we
won't get our face burned off by the 100 degree heat.
For
concerts we missed Dave Matthews by a day, but just in time to see
Poison (pass), Frank Marino N Mahgory Rush. Motorhead, Judas Priest and
Heaven And Hell are playing a metal fest in Tempe tonight but I'll miss
that. I heard the new Motorhead album and have to say it's probaly
their least interesting since No Sleep At All.
For bargains,
haven't found much and most of what they play at Zia's and FYE are
fucking rap. Which means from here on out, we'll just have to stay
close to home and go to Madison or just shop online. Went to one
Hastings store in Flagstaff and that was a joke. A used cd at 10
bucks?!? Blow me.
Traffic here has been quite easy to get around
with, unless you go to Phoenix and then it sucks and somehow I got stuck
in rush hour and couldn't get anywhere. So looks like I'm staying the
hell away from metro Phoenix till we go home and BTW, the Mesa airport
so far has been a surprise, got in and out quite well but got a show
from a couple playing suckface in front of people and some tampon head
woman, almost ran into her while she was throwing baby up in the air.
Save that shit at home sweet tits. Airports are no place for romper
room or real sex. Some of us folk don't get any anymore.
The
highlight so far was spending the afternoon on the BNSF overpass outside
Seligman. Got to watch some nice monsoon clouds spreading rain far away
and got to count trains and have the wind blow. It may have been the
highlight of the year.
So far cheapest gas found was 3.49 a
gallon and highest 4.14 at Grand Canyon Caverns between Seligman and
Peach Springs on AZ 66. I'm sure that fucking hurricane Gustav (who
thinks of these stupid assed names for hurricanes?) is going to play
havoc with oil prices again along with OPEC but for now, i got the
finances and I got the traveling bones in me so let's do this before we
can't no more.
What is it about Kingman that I love so much? I
donno, the trains, the small town feel of downtown although Andy Devine
Blvd. is so damn busy. Sure ain't no cd stores of note and Hastings
don't count anymore but I'll check them out as a courtesy call. The AZ
week ends early Sunday afternoon when I get home, so after tomorrow,
I'll be away from a computer.
I'll add more things as the day progress but now my 30 mintes are up. Off to catch the
wind...............................................
Gas in Needles was 4.79 a gallon FYI.
Last night while up in Kingman I got to miss out on a big monsoon
gullywasher that reminded me of the 40 days and 40 nights of monsoons up
in Iowa. Sky Harbor and Chandler had 75 to 77 mile an hour wind gusts
and rained about an inch in ten minutes and flooded a lot of the lower
roads there in the supposedly sun valley and knocked power out of lotta
places. Sure hope that crap is done by the time i get back tonight. As
I finish up my Kingman escapade I must say that the Kingman Route 66
thingy managed to mellowed me out before a sneeze attack returned me to
my old lovable self.
On the way back down from Stirgraves Pass, got to see a whole bunch
of cows on the old mother road. One horny bull was trying to get some
in the middle of the road. Wondered if that was the inspiration of that
old Beatle song Why Don't We Do It In The Road. Whatever you want
Future Steak on a Plate.
At Pawn World, yesterday got to see one of Arizona's Finest Freaks.
Appently he had a tiff with the owner on something and while I was
searching through the dollar bins, saw this freak staring back at me.
Pretty much gave him my "fuck off" look. Must of scared him off hehe,
sometimes I even scare myself with "the look".
Needles has got to be the gateway to Hell. It was 110 in the shade
and there's nothing downtown except empty buildings and seedy hotels
with folk pushing stolen carts and trying to bum money off the
tourists. Always pays to not dress up they didn't bother me. Had a
pretty good shake at the Route 66 Hamburger place to which the guy gave
me a cup and half of chocolate malt. Needless to say I was impressed.
Then I saw the 4.79 a gallon gas price at Union 76. Time to move on.
The old Route 66 road is getting more rougher as the years progressed
on and all it's good for when your in California is to knock your car
out of alignment. I don't think I'll be driving on that part on the way
to the Colorado River. At least Arizona keeps the road better
maintained.
One thought about Bullhead City which is five degrees cooler than
Needles, the traffic down there is terrible, even worse than Phoenix at
times. But for intense heat without the cartpusher money hustlers in
Needles it's perferable.
I'd love to return to Kingman if in the area or in Vegas. I still
believe that this is the place to get away from it all. Time to hit the
road y'all, next time you hear from me will be at home.
Top Ten Of The Week
1. Life On Earth-Robin Trower 1981 Hooking up with Jack Bruce, Robin
did two albums with Bruce with uneven results. Chrysalis had a bright
idea to combine the best moments of those albums to a single overview.
Hard to find and it does add all but one song from BLT and takes half a
side from Truce, which wasn't that great but Robin did get Reg Isadore
to play drums on that from the Bridge Of Sighs years.
2. Big Steal And Borrow-Swinging Steaks 1994 Band that made a
interesting album for Capricorn and then got Gary Katz (Elliott
Randall's ex friend) to produce it. This album is kind of a cult album
and is also hard to find but I did get it at Pawn World in Kingman for a
couple bucks while meeting some freaky fuck up there.
3. Ain't Life Grand-Widespread Panic 1994 Don't ask me why I've been
in a WP mood of late, WP was even on Austin City Limits Friday night.
They're still jamming away, one of the oldest jam bands around and John
Bell is a distinct singer in the way of Lemmy is with Motorhead.
4. Long Island Lady-Marshall Tucker Band 1983 Marshall Tucker had
distribution problems when they reissued their back catalog in the late
90s. Sure you can get the early albums up to Carolina Dreams on KTel,
but anything after that it was hard to get. They moved over to Platimun
Records, saw them go bankrupt then moved over to Beyond Records and
they went belly up. They're now on Shout Factory but for all problems
they had with mentioned labels, those albums you can now find for five
bucks or less at FYE or selected Goodwill stores up in Waterloo. By
then, Marshall Tucker Band was becoming more country than rock but Just
Us, the 1983 album shows them embracing a jazzier side before returning
to be a country band.
5. This Is The End-Charlatans UK 2008 New track from new Charlatans
and judging from what I heard from this album and digipak it may be for
reviewing their album.
6. Take It All-Badfinger 1972 From Straight Up, this album
showcased Badfinger to be a decent Beatles soundalike band but they have
got to be the most hardluck band to ever be in rock and roll. Their
tales of label and management fuckups would get them in the R n R Hall
Of Fame on the first ballot. Only Joey Malland remains the sole living member of the band.
7. Sally Can't Dance-Lou Reed 1974 One of the few times that the
single version was better than the album version. The disappointment of
Modern Times was that they stuck the album version while Walk On The
Wild Side had the two minite forty eight single version on that album.
The album cut is a bit more grimmer too. The reissue of Sally Can't
Dance, they do add the single version.
8. I Hear Her Call My Name-Velvet Underground 1968 Rush hour in
Phoenix or Prescott or Sedone is not the place to hear Velvet
Underground music, or even hearing VU's Heroin.
9. I'm Telling You Now-Freddie and The Dreamers 1963 Another minor
band from Merseyland riding on the British Wave of The Beatles, I think
they were a step ahead of Gerry And The Pacemakers but a step behind The
Dave Clark Five who were grittier. Fred Garrity looked more like of a
clone between Jerry Lewis and Buddy Holly and although they did have
their moment in the sun, I do recall seeing a lot of their Mercury
albums being sold for fifty cents at Eisner's Grocery Store in Lincoln
in the late 60s. Hard to believe I can remember such things but can't
remember yesterday for the life of me.
10. Theme From Route 66-Nelson Riddle 1960 The theme of the Arizona
trip. Taking a spin on Arizona 66, the longest reminder of Route 66 as I
drove to Kingman from Ash Fork and then back again. Had a interesting
CD to listen to on this treck, it was a classical album of songs set to
driving on Route 66 and it was fun to hear them that way but I would
like to make a suggestion that they should have had Hugo Montegero's
version of Good Bad and Ugly instead. But we'll give them points for
paying EMI to use this song on the cd. The CD is called Drive
Time/Route 66 and can be found as selected Route 66 tourist traps across
that highway.
While it stormed in Phoenix, the metal gods performed that night at the Cricket.
Judas Priest, Heaven and Hell (Dio Black Sabbath era band), Motorhead and Testament. I didn't go but here's a review of it. (updated the link due to issues with the old link-something about it being an attack site, whatever that is).
http://archive.azcentral.com/ent/music/articles/2008/08/29/20080829judaspriestreview.html
