Travel

I’m in Dublin today and tomorrow and this cyber cafe ain’t cheap, so I’ll just briefly say that the trip is going well, I’ll be back in the States this weekend, and I’ll be putting together a micro-site detailing the trip then.

Tourist trap #2: Blarney. As we already know, I generally find castles to be pretty wicked, and Blarney Castle, though overrun by site-seers of every shape and size, was no exception. It was older and bigger than Bunratty Castle, less “renovated,” and a larger percent of it was open to the public. It was pretty spectacular. If there’s a next time, I’ll have to bring a flashlight to explore the dungeon, which turned pitch black… See more →

We arrived at Shannon International Airport via Aer Lingus shortly before 6:00 AM, Ireland time (1:00 AM Philadelphia time). It was a five hour flight from Boston to Shannon, about 80 minutes from Philadelphia to Boston, take-off delayed by about 90 minutes, so we were lucky to make our flight out of Boston.

We rented a van that resembled a wheeled breadbox, continually reminded my father to stay left, and were off.

First destination, Bunratty… See more →

Tomorrow afternoon I leave for a week in Ireland with the fam, armed with a stack of Irish literature for the many hours destined to be spent on planes and in cars. Luckily, the Transportation Security Administration issued their new list of items banned from carry-on luggage just in time, so I can feel safe knowing that no one carrying a spear gun will be allowed on the plane.

My iBook will be sitting this… See more →

I survived the trip home, and apparently spring arrived while I was gone. The ice cream man is in full effect. Since I missed the first half of the Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema, I’m diving in tomorrow night with a late screening of the U.S. premeire of Versus. Looks delicious.

Detroit is interesting in a ghost town kind of way. About half of the city’s buildings are vacant. And aside from business hours, there is virtually no activity. Weird. None of this stops the place from having some sweet bookstores, though, and looking through those took up much of the day. I also got to check out a nifty arcade in the ’burbs called Marvin’s Mechanical Museum, which had a ton of weird antique coin-op… See more →

I’m in Detroit today. Last night I got a little driving tour and today we’re gonna do some book-shopping and sock monkey picture-taking and punk rock finger-pointing. Results later.

Last night was a fund-raising party at the Heaven Gallery in Wicker Park for the upcoming Version02 Festival (which I’m really sad I’m going to miss). Despite huge potential for overhipness, it was a genuinely great time, and I met a bunch of really nice people. I was also familiarized with the very slick SELECT zine.

Thanks to Kelly and her FluX Core pals for showing me a good time.

My generous hosts and I got back a couple hours ago from seeing a gorgeous digitally remastered 70mm print of 2001: A Space Odyssey at the Music Box Theatre. Wow.

This afternoon I paid my inaugural visit to the inside of The Art Institute of Chicago (I took some fabulous photos of my sock monkey around the exterior last spring). Lots of cool stuff in there, including a number of Lautrec and Renoir paintings I’ve… See more →

Today I drove seven hundred something miles to Chicago. If you didn’t know, Ohio and Indiana offer little in the way of intriguing scenery. But I did see a sign in Ohio for “Gore Orphanage Rd,” so now I’ve got another name to choose from when I start my metal band.