Some cool stop smoking phoenix images:
Wreck
Image by stevelyon
Melba and I were on the 10 driving to Phoenix today, and on the way there was a slowdown from a pickup truck that had tipped over in the median.
Someone who had stopped for that accident left their truck almost in the traffic lane, and a car passing by the parked truck swerved into the path of another car, a 50-ish guy in a new Jag XJ.
XJ driver ended up spinning the XJ trying to avoid the first car and rammed it into a guardrail ass first. All we saw was a lot of tire smoke and bouncing plastic chunks.
There were about 8 cars between us and the accident, but none of those 8 stopped, so I pulled over and helped out for about 10 minutes.
Day 143/365 – Buon Compleanno!
Image by Kevin H.
Today was the sixth and final day of my trip to Venice. It’s also my birthday. It was a day spent largely disguised as someone cultured and refined rather than as an uncouth Midwestern bumpkin. I got a bit of a late start this morning, but I kicked things off with a trip to the Ca d’Oro Museum (14th-16th Century paintings, sculptures, and tapestries) and then wandered around the last neighborhood of the city I had yet to explore, the residential area of Cannaregio. I saw a church full of Titian paintings and lots of Venetians doing their shopping at the market on a Saturday and then it was time to head back to the hotel and get dressed up for an afternoon at the opera.
Before I left home I found an on-line ticket broker and bought myself a ticket to see the opera "Romeo et Juliette" at Teatro La Fenice, a theater that has certainly earned its name of ‘The Phoenix’ given that it has burned to a shell and been rebuilt. Twice. It was an afternoon showtime, so before it began I stopped and had a good lunch (pasta and bean soup, squid cooked in its own ink with polenta, ricotta cake, and two glasses of Prosecco) at a restaurant right on the steps of La Fenice.
La Fenice itself is quite a show. It’s a little, gilded, cloisonne music box of a theater. Photography inside is prohibited but I managed to sneak a few shots. Judging by the number of camera flashes I saw going off, I wasn’t the only one (although I had the decency and sense to turn off my flash at least). The opera was great. They went with a very contemporary staging that had a glam rock, goth, anime, rave feel to it and the set was an enormous record turntable that actually rotated at times and had a moving arm (from which Juliet plucked the needle to stab herself at the end). It was the first time I’d seen a pink-haired Juliet. She even had matching pink laces in her combat boots. She was a phenomenal performer, too. And she was smoking hot. It sounds a bit like an odd choice of production design, especially for such a historical venue, but it really worked well. The story is about 13 and 14 year-olds after all.
After the show I popped into a cafe for hot chocolate and a chocolate and nut covered cookie that served as my birthday cake, and then I went to see another musical performance — this one by musicians and singers in powdered wigs and 17th century clothes. I had hoped to get to attend a peformance of local composer Antonio Vivaldi’s "Four Seasons," but evidently they have a rotating schedule and today it was a sampler platter of baroque classical music pieces and arias from various operas. It was held at the Scuola Grande di San Teodoro — a big, historic music school and concert hall — and was quite good.
From there, it was time to head to the casino and see if I had any birthday luck. The casino in Venice is the oldest operating casino in the world and, as it’s located in a former palace, it’s quite swanky. When I walked in there in my suit I had to resist the urge to announce myself as "Bond, James Bond." That would have blown my sophisticated act real quick. I managed to quickly lose 50 euros in five straight spins of the roulette wheel and then spent a few minutes wandering through the various rooms with one hand in my pocket and a glass of Prosecco in the other, fronting like I was cool and sophisticated while I checked out the paintings and chandeliers and other gamblers. It was definitely a high-roller kind of a place. There were people making bets of hundreds and even thousands of euros at a time, which made my little ten euro bets seem a bit anemic.
Being in Venice is like living inside a poem. Tomorrow we reach the final stanza for me however, and I have to pack up my belongings and head back to the decidedly more prosaic DC. It’s been one hell of a trip.
(February 28, 2009)
223-”April 29th, 1992 (Miami)” by Sublime
Image by Michael D. Dunn
I love me some Sublime. And wouldn’t you know, today is April 29th.
———————————————-
(I don’t know if you can, but can you get an order for Ons, that’s O-N-S,
Junior Market, the address is 1934 East Anaheim, all the windows are
busted out,… if he wants to)
April 26th, 1992
There was a riot on the streets
Tell me where were you?
You were sittin’ home watchin’ your TV
While I was participating in some anarchy
First spot we hit it was my liquor store
I finally got all that alcohol I can’t afford
With red lights flashin’, time to retire
And then we turned that liquor store into a structure fire
Next stop we hit, it was the music shop,
It only took one brick to make the window drop
Finally we got our own P.A.
Where do you think I got this guitar that you’re hearing today?
(Call fire… respond mobil station. alamidos in anaheim, its uhh flaming up good…)
When we returned to the pad to unload everything
It dawned on me that I need new home furnishings
So once again we filled the van until it was full
Since that day my livin’ room’s been much more comfortable
Cause everybody in the hood has had it up to here
It’s getting harder, and harder, and harder each and every year
Some kids went in a store with their mother
I saw her when she came out she was gettin’ some Pampers
They said it was for the black man
They said it was for the mexican
But not for the white man
But if you look at the streets, it wasn’t about Rodney King
It’s this fucked-up situation and these fucked-up police
It’s about comin’ up and stayin’ on top
And screamin’ 1-8-7 on a mother fuckin’ cop
It’s ain’t in the paper, it’s on the wall
National guard
Smoke from all around
(Units be advised of an attempt 211 to arrest now at 938 Temple, 9-3-8
Temple, many subjects with bats trying to get inside the CB’s
house…they’re trying to kill him)
Cuz’ as long as I’m alive, I’ma live illegal
Let it burn
Wanna let it burn, wanna let it burn
Wanna wanna let it burn
(I feel insane)
Riots on the streets of Miami
Whoa, riots on the streets of Chicago
On the streets of Long Beach
In San Francisco
Riots on the streets of Kansas City
Tuskaloosa, Alabama
Cleveland, Ohio
Fountain Valley, Paramount, Vista Buelle
Eugene, Oregon
Eureka, California
Hesperia
Santa Barbara
Winnemucca, Nevada
Phoenix, Arizona
San Diego
Lakeland, Florida
fuckin’ 29 Palms
(Need a unit to… structure fire and numerous subjects looting)
(10-15 to get rid of this looter)
