Garbage Rides the Rails, Part II

During the return trip to Boston today, large portions of Penn Station were roped off so that the Yankees could board a chartered Amtrak train to Philadelphia.

Garbage rides the rails.

Is it emblematic of our culture that the formerly industrial Northeast appears to ship nothing by train except garbage to the rest of the country?

Desert Home, Jacumba, Calif.

I love this. We got stopped by the Border Patrol while shooting this one. Nice guy, wanted to chat about football.

I don't know shit about football.

I'm too tired to link all the desert pictures up right now. Need to be in NY in the morning. Time to pack.

Escape to San Diego, 2008, Part I: The Coast

I am a manic American. When I tire of America, I escape into America. My brain tells me to go somewhere, and I go. I am a slave to the landscape, less so to the people. I photograph everything. I also write about what I see, in little spiral notebooks and blog posts and lyrics, and set the lyrics to music, and play the songs in rock clubs. This is how I live.

A year ago, I grew very tired of whatever I had been doing. I decided to engage some temporary manifest destiny and go west. Thanks to the graciousness of my host, I was able to explore San Diego and its vast desert backyard. This is what I saw.


I found this guy hard at work in Pacific Beach. Somehow, seeing him made having the day off even more awesome.


Arrival at the beach, Wednesday morning. A welcome sight to a denizen of the miserable northeast.



Get down tonite!


Looks like I started writing the lyrics for the INFRASTRUCTURE song "Republic, Michigan" while having a burger for lunch at this Irish pub. We just played the song for the first time at Harper's Ferry two weeks ago.


Rust.


Car window sunset.


Ocean Beach street scene.


That's me, yo. I'm about to ascend Iron Mountain in 95° weather. Iron Mountain is in Poway, northeast of San Diego.


The summit.


You can see the entire San Diego skyline from Iron Mountain's peak.


Looking away from the city, you can see a big cross erected among the rocks.


This is what doing homework at San Diego State looks like. I read an entire noir novel on the beach the first day, Kenneth Fearing's The Big Clock. Tremendously impressive. I wish I'd been aware of it when I taught my literary noir course at Tufts.


The military industrial complex is a huge part of the San Diego economy.


San Diego lifeguard.


San Diego FD.


Friday evening, Mission Beach.


Green house, Mission Beach.


These four Hispanic guys were working their asses off in ninety degree weather, while frat parties began to rage and vacationers whizzed by on beach cruisers. They were covered from head to toe in sun-blocking gear.


Obvious.


Part II: The Desert, soon.

LAS (SoCal 08/Dignity Hunt 08)

Stopping in one American West on the way to another.



I will explain this photograph and caption as soon as I can. It's from October 22, 2008. It is currently October 23, 2009, 1:11 a.m. The temperature has dropped from 72 degrees to 56. I can hear wind chimes outside, but no people. The fire engine just left the station and blew its horn once.

When the guys at the pizza shop ask me why I'm not working today,

I tell them I'm working at home. Just back from a business trip. On the phone and staring at a laptop for ten hours.

"How far can you throw the laptop," they ask.

Coming back from a trip can often be a letdown, at least until I find my friends. Even a stifling airplane cabin is full of life and movement. Sometimes home is not.

F*** Alaska Airlines.

Who loses a plane's maintenance logbook and forces 150 passengers to sit strapped in for 40+ minutes while they look for it? Only 5+ hours of flying to do when (if) they find it.

The plane's Muzak is now repeating itself.

why the hell

do you read this?

P.S. Stay Positive!

Gee, I wonder if anyone will learn anything from reading this.

From Amazon's "Product Description:"

Ehrenreich exposes the downside of America’s penchant for positive thinking: On a personal level, it leads to self-blame and a morbid preoccupation with stamping out “negative” thoughts. On a national level, it’s brought us an era of irrational optimism resulting in disaster.

Who is the target audience for this book? Literate, bourgeois idiots who don't know they're idiots because they don't read books that tell them that they're idiots?

Tiger Shark, Death Beach, Biloxi, Miss. (DS09)

ABBQ Prep: NPR Contributes

Check out this great little piece on the proliferation of "boutique police agencies" in Texas.

And extra special thanks to...

Dan Meade.

Dan shot over 500 photos and hours of video of the band this weekend, and wrote up his experience here.

Check it out.

It's so awesome to have these allies, supporters, friends.

Thank you!

Thanks to all who made it to the show last night! Even more thanks to those who helped us hand out demos, took photos and videos, and bought us drinks. Playing your band's second show ever in a cavernous and legendary club can feel humbling yet strangely natural at the same time.

We pulled off a pretty good set. Most impressive were the comments we received from other musicians. Everyone always calls our band "fun to watch," which makes me want to go on tour. Now.

Next show is 11/7 at All Asia in Cambridge.

INFRASTRUCTURE, Tuesday Night!

If you live in or near Boston, you should come to this. My band plus four bands I haven't heard of, either. Sure to be an awesome time. We start early: 8:30.

Meade describes INFRASTRUCURE as:

"The Beach Boys on heroin."

Southern Fried Rabbit, Columbia, Miss. (DS09)

Deep in the Mississippi Vortex. Of course, a lot happened here.

Meanwhile...

• Just got Telecaster out of shop. Dude told me I lucked out and "probably had a better guitar than most Americans," as my tele is a Mexican.
  
• Just bought MAN-CAM (hd camcorder) for MAN-AM VLOGGING
  
• Erich coming in tomorrow to start final rehearsals for the Harper's Ferry gig.
  
• Meade also coming in for photo/video documentation, Man Am site construction
  
• Just saw "It Might Get Loud" which confirms that I think the right thoughts.
  

Sunset at POW Lake

Dan, shown here doubled over, has been infected with what was likely H1N1. Rachel, back at the car, would test positive for H1N1 a week later. And that was just the aftermath. A night of gunshots and circling packs of coyotes was just about to begin...

The DJ on WERS just said:

"Silver Line airport service is experiencing 10-15 minute delays due to traffic."

So, we have a transit line from downtown to the airport that takes 30+ to go two miles. Add another 10+ minutes if you're going to Terminal C or E, because the bus takes that long to board clueless tourists at the first two terminals, and you could have a 40-minute trip to the airport from downtown.

Massport executives, who must surely commute to work using the Silver Line, continue to assure us that "it takes 10 minutes to go from South Station on the Silver Line to any terminal at Logan."

Not only is that a physical impossibility, but it's hopelessly out of touch. I use the Silver Line whenever I can, and I can testify that its most ironic attribute is that it works at any time except rush hour.

Also:

I'm an idiot for not setting up any gallery (photography) shows yet. I need an agent/manager.

Yesterday, James said:

"You've paid more dues than anyone I know..."

And now it's time for the payoff.

The ABBQ roster has grown to record size!

This is awesome.

Dan at Tybee Island, Ga. (DS09)

R.S.V.P.

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=142612308666.

INFRASTRUCTURE at Harper's Ferry....8 days!

It's official: What was formerly the last German restaurant in College Point is now hosting original music.

Check out this article from one of the local community weeklies. College Point, by the way, is the "working class factory town" in Queens where I'm from.

The Five Corners Restaurant is dead, there's nowhere to get German food in or near College Point, and the Germans themselves will all die or move to Long Island (or Boston). But we might now have a venue for Infrastructure to perform in during the FOURTH ANNUAL COLLEGE POINT PUB CRAWL.

Stay tuned.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Infrastructure will be performing an all-original opening set at Harper's Ferry in Allston Rock City. 8:30 p.m. sharp.

It's early, so please come on down. The show is getting TIGHT. We'll also debut some new songs, including my favorite Infratune to date, "$"