brainsplotch

I attended one evening of one day of the annual Rockin' the Suburbs SuburbsFest. Having already blown through 96 or so hours of vacation time for Europe, I wasn't sure I'd have enough for two days, plus I need to save up for trips to Baltimore and Savannah. So even though the fest was in Michigan (or maybe because the fest was in Michigan) I only went for one day. I'm not sure why I feel the need to explain myself, but there it is. The one night I was there (Saturday night) I was pretty, pretty, pretty good (as Larry David might say). I saw several podcast friends, as well as the RTS "house band" Frank Muffin, the Stick Arounds (from Lansing), and an excellent young band from GR/west Michigan called Money Soup. When I say they're young, I mean it. I'm not sure any of them are over 21 years old. They play a funk/soul/jazz/pop hybrid and write their own material. I'm astounded at how good they are at such young ages. Their drummer, Lainey, is a pure ...

July is, amazingly, almost over, so I'd better get a post in. It figures that after being so prolific during our European vacation, I'd go silent for almost the entire next month. I'm at that stage in which I can't believe there was a time that I spent 2 1/2 weeks in Europe. It now seems like a long time ago, even though it was only a month ago that we returned home. July has been marked by a lot of dog-sitting bookmarked by a podcast recording on July 3 (Book Bound podcast) and friends wedding on July 5--and a Tigers baseball game in Detroit with some other podcast friends (from Rockin' the Suburbs). This is also the month of Wet Leg and their excellent new album Moisturizer , which I was skeptical about but now absolutely adore. They have to be one of the most promising bands to appear in a long time. Moisturizer eclipses their first album. "CPR" is undoubtedly my "song of the summer." It's just so catchy, breezy, humorous, and fun.

The one somewhat positive development of our delay yesterday was we had to stay over night at the TWA Hotel next to JFK Airport. It was built in 1962 as the TWA Terminal (I think I have that right), and is a masterpiece of mid-century modern architecture. It's like stepping into the Jetsons animated show (which, when you think of it, introduced kids everywhere to the mid-century modern design aesthetic--whether they knew it or not). I wish we'd had more time and energy to enjoy it, but we were fried from our travels from Edinburgh to New York. By the time we got through customs, the entire process of which had to have taken more than an hour after disembarking our plane. We had to walk what felt like a half-mile down a long, wide concourse just to get to customs. Then the process freaks me out. I'm always worried I'll say something stupid and get in trouble--but it was quick and painless. There were so many people that I think the customs folks just wanted to get us thr...

We're standing here at Gate 14 for NYC/JFK because there really is no place to sit. Our flight was delayed three hours, so we'll be spending tonight at, presumably, the 1962 mid-century modern TWA Airport. Then we fly out early tomorrow to, wait for it, Columbus, Ohio where we have a two hour layover until we make our last leg to Detroit. Then the one hour or so drive to Okemos. It's gonna be a long few days of travel. I can't tell if Edinburgh Airport is small and just feels busy because it's Saturday, or if it's always this busy. The place is crawling with people today.

Monday, we took the train from Liverpool to York. I can at least say I passed through Manchester and Leeds on the way to York. York itself is an ancient city with Roman walls still circling it. The walls are accessible for walking and offer a tremendous vantage point. We also toured York Minster, which was incredible. Not that I am any expert on the grand cathedrals of Europe, but York Minster ranks right up there with ones I have seen like Westminster and Notre Dame.  We also walked down the Shambles, a winding street the resembles Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter books. It plays up the similarity, with a few Harry Potter/magic-themed shops. It's just a tad touristy. (Like we somehow aren't tourists, too? I really should quit with this elitist attitude). We retired to our hotel, where there was an open mic music event taking place downstairs. The music was, shall we say, of varying quality. (But I respect anyone willing to put themselves out there). We had a few cocktails t...

Every shower in every hotel or airbnb varies in size and to what degree a PhD in engineering is required to either a) turn it on, b) get the hot water to work without giving oneself third degree burns, or c) both. Negotiating how to get to and from every train station and whether walking is an option: this is an adventure. Realizing unequivocally that Europe's public transportation system is a thousand times better than the United States' and that isn't likely to change in my lifetime. The "see it, say it, sorted" public service announcements at the UK train stations will be in my head for awhile. Aside from the first few episodes of Dept. Q on Netflix when we were relaxing in our hotel our first night in London and some of the Isle of Wight festival whilst in Liverpool, we have barely watched any television here. That said, it's gonna drive me nuts if I don't find out if the heart attack victim survived and woke from her coma in the emergency 999 reality ...