Finding Tupelo in Athens, GA

Matt signals that Wuxtry Records in Athens passes the "Tupelo Test."

Captain Tupelo is of course as everyone knows, "The World's Greatest Junkie Superhero." and forgotten Punk Rock legend.

Golden Globes

Honey-pot Ants at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in DC.

Grand Canyon Part 2

Our first stop to peer over the edge of the canyon turned out to be a good one. Unfortunately I had busted one of my toes horsing around with Joana at Zion a few days earlier and it still hurt, so we didn't hike down into the canyon. Someday we'll go back and do that though because it's really so big that I had a hard time relating to it from up on the rim. Photo of us by an anonymous, friendly, fellow tourist.

Grand Canyon Part 1

The day slips away while we watch from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon near the Tovar lodge.

Rambling Rose

A rambling red rose frames Joana in the courtyard of the Cameron Trading Post Lodge. Cameron, Arizona 2004

Lake Powell Part 2

We found a secluded cove where we anchored the boat and ate lunch. Afterwards I went for a swim and the water was almost warm enough. Late May 2004

Western Cloud Mountains

Julius the Bull Rider

We met Julius while visiting Mary Anne at the Shonto School. He is a Navajo Bull Rider and invited us to come watch him practice at the Shonto rodeo grounds. I will just say that while I respect all the bull riders' courage and their amazing abilities, what they are doing seems absolutely crazy tome! Everyone (aside from the bulls) seemed to be enjoying themselves though, and there are some fringe benefits. When we told Julius we lived in Connecticut he told us he had competed in the huge tribal gathering in Connecticut called Schemitzun and had won several thousand dollars and a new pickup truck that he drove back across the U.S. to Arizona. Hopefully it has comfy seats because his backside had to be hurtin'.

There was an old woman who swallowed a fly.

Carnivorous pitcher plants in the greenhouse of Longwood Gardens.

Seasonal Shortcut.

Following the snowmobile tracks across Harrisville Pond to the village center. Harrisville, New Hampshire.

A Monument to George Washington

The Washington Monument has attracted the attention of protesters over the years.

Norman Mayer protested the insanity of nuclear weapons in 1982 by driving a van up to the monument and threatening to blow it up. They shot him dead.

_

Dwight_Watson drove a tractor into a pond in Constitution Gardens near the Monument in 2003. He also claimed to have explosives. He was protesting the fact that he couldn't make a living growing a highly addictive, fatal disease causing drug (tobacco) without continued government subsidies. He served fifteen months in jail.

Neither man had explosives.

Conspiracy Theorist's Moral of the Story-If you are going to protest, do not protest something meaningful for purely selfless reasons. Protest something ridiculous for completely selfish motives. That way the powers that be might sympathize and let you live.

Looking Up in DC

Interior domes of the Museum of the American Indian (top) and The National Gallery of Art (bottom). The former makes me think of Porky Pig saying "Thats all folks!"

To Form A More Perfect Union

At the Greenbelt (Maryland) Arts Center (formerly Greenbelt Center School) one in a series of limestone friezes by WPA artist Lenore Thomas depicts part of the preamble to the Constitution of the U.S.

Greenbelt, Maryland.

Have A Seat!

Cameron Trading Post in Cameron , AZ.

Used Book Storage

The Beineke Rare Book Library at Yale University is a very interesting structure. A protective glass box inside a cube of translucent marble that glows softly inside from the natural light outside.

It feels like someplace Kirk and Spock would visit. The sacred repository of all knowledge of some ancient alien race silently biding it's time on some long forgotten distant planet.

Well it was 17 years ago today, that the Cicadas last came out to play.

May 2004-My third time around with "The Locusts" as we called them when we were seven. I took Joana down to Maryland to see the Cicadian invasion. She liked them! Now that's a cool girl.

"The Streets of Charleston-A QM Production"

These shots look to me like scenes from one of those cop shows I used to love as a kid in the '70s. Let's call this one "Smokey and DeGennaro" and we'll say it's about two cops from up north. The big guy, Smokey, is an easy going, laid back, by-the-book detective and Degennaro is a streetwise vice cop who isn't afraid to bust a few heads. They are on special assignment from the NYPD, "on loan" to the Charleston, South Carolina police force. Think "McCloud" meets "My Cousin Vinny."

This episode finds them on the trail of some redneck gun runners who have teamed up with the Irish Mafia. The gang sends cheap, saturday night specials up north and brings shipments of "extacy" pills back down south hidden inside kegs of Guinness. Thanks to some creative "good cop-bad cop" routines our heroes convince some sorry stoolies to give up the location of the gang's hideout. But things go badly and Smokey buys the farm when they are ambushed in a set up. Later he's laid to rest in the ancient burial ground and in the closing scene DeGennaro vows to bring the culprits to justice.

Next episode we find out Smokey is OK thanks to a bullet-proof vest. The funeral was staged to fake out the bad guys. The show gets cancelled after only half a season but a spin-off about Smokey's little brother "Babajayjay" who is a yoga instructor turned turned private eye runs for two more years.

Bzzzzzzzzzzz

The purple bumble bee of Coral Pink Sand Dunes.

Magic Hour

We walked over desert scrubland for about a half a mile to the un- developed overlook. It was a couple miles south of Page, AZ and the Glen Canyon Dam. The sun was setting, small birds zipped by our ears, and we were happy to be there together.