ITALY TRIP PART 1: Two Days on the Venice Canals (Days 94 - 95)

(Being the beginning of my adventures for the days of:)
APRIL 6 - 7, 2011

WELL! Where do I even begin?! The Italy trip, as a whole, was AWESOME. Just what I needed: world travel, lots of sun, and beautiful sights. London's been great, but I was definitely looking forward to experiencing an entirely new country for eight days! Plus, it was my first visit to Continental Europe. Love it.

First things first: there's something about Italy that is just so.. Italian. After flying over the Alps, which was sweet by the way, all of sudden - you're in a new world. You watch the green landscape fly by as the mist lifts in the early morning and makes it's way north to the mountains, but it's not a landscape you feel you've seen before. Where the American midwest and the British countryside are unique in their own ways, there's something about the Italian countryside that transports you back to the days of 'The Godfather' and classic Spaghetti Westerns. The red roofs and white adobe houses scattered through acre upon acre of olive fields and oddly-shaped farmland, with their pale arches and well-kept gardens, have seemingly been around for decades. And that's the main thing about Italy: it's so OLD. Even before you get to Rome, with it's 2000-year-old ruins and ancient monuments, there's a feeling of age - that everything around you probably outlived you several times over; that the people, at least the older ones, are still probably upholding traditions passed down several generations. It's a strange and exciting feeling.

But it's still completely overshadowed by the wonderful feeling of being somewhere entirely new, which I hope will seep through some of my lame commentary! While I ended up taking over 400 pictures throughout the entire trip, I'll try to make this a bit more than a picture book, or an exhibition of 'Look where I am!'. The adventures were great, the sights beautiful, and I hope anyone reading this one day gets to experience the same things I did. Or just do some traveling in general: it's an amazing experience.

Well, I might as well start with the trip! This post is going to be just Venice, as one post for the whole trip would probably kill your computer processors.

The adventure really began Tuesday night even though our flight was early Wednesday morning. My two fellow travelers, Mary and Yuliya, and I hopped one of the last tubes up to Baker Street to catch a bus to the airport. We got there around 2am, planning to find a nice spot to hang out in and maybe catch a little shut-eye. We were three of maybe 1000 with the same idea; it was nuts! Stansted Airport, while known for being a hub for the cheaper airlines, is also apparently known for hosting all of those cheap flyers overnight! Almost every chair in the huge check-in desk area was taken by sleepy passengers waiting for the desks to open around 4am; after that, all along the walls, lying on the floors, were more flyers curled up in sleeping bags or blankets that they brought themselves (obviously much more prepared - or experienced - than us!). Anyway, we found an empty spot along one of walls and tucked in for a couple hours until the desks began opening, and the flyers began waking up to queue, around 4:30am. After that, it was off to a new land!

And so the pictures begin..

Heading to Italy!

The Alps!

Landing at Treviso Airport a couple kilometers north of Venice

Our hostel in Venice! Well, not really in Venice, since the city is on an 'island' and all the hotels there are pretty expensive for college students.. This was back on the mainland, in the town of Mestre - only a 10 minute train into venice! The hostel was pretty good - clean, close to the station, and safe.

On the train - first view of Venice! And so the sunny days and blue skies began..

Venezia Santa Lucia Train Station in Venice

The tourist-packed streets of Venice frequenting the hundreds of souvenir shops. A bit sad how overrun it gets.. but even beneath that layer of touristy glitter, there's still a magic vibe about a floating city in the warm waters of the Mediterranean.

First look at the canal, and first time I've ever dipped my hand into the waters of the Mediterranean.

At this point, wandering around the very walkable city was the best way to explore. So expect a bunch of random pictures of neat stuff that I saw!

Another shot of the busy canal

SO many bridges in this place and I loved every one of them - such beautiful construction, even for something so simple.

One of several bell towers.

Neat building along the canal

So this happened to us a couple times: we go exploring through the hundreds of skinny alleyways, and all of sudden, one will just throw you right into the canal. It just ends, no warning or rail or nothing. One minute you're on land, and the next, you're looking right down into the canal!

More cool buildings along the canal.

Loving the weather. 70s and sunny!

More canal, and a cool bridge!

Then we caught a ride on one of the Vaporetti - one of the main methods of transportation around the canals; kind of like buses on water! Basically the same route as those extremely overpriced and tourist-laden gondolas for only a tiny portion of the cost!

Just more cool shots along the canal.

No idea. Probably just one of the hundreds of really old, really neat churches

Cool buildings

First look at the Rialto Bridge! A really cool-looking bridge, though most of the time pretty packed with tourists.

Gondolas on the canal

Another neat building

So pretty riding along the water, just looking at the buildings

Santa Maria della Salute Church. 

What a neat building

Inside

The domed ceiling

We found a spot along the canal..

.. and my travel-worn partners decided to take a quick nap! Such sleepyheads.. on the first day!

Loving that blue water

Looking back at the Salute

Across the water, the San Giorgio Maggiore church.

The Doge's Palace, where the ruling families in Venice lived!

St. Mark's Basilica

The bell tower, or Campanile

Outside Doge's Palace

The doorway to St. Mark's

Neat clock

Ferrari stores are EVERYWHERE in Italy. Crazy.

I doubt they're selling these right out of the store.. plus, how'd they get it here?! There aren't really roads, just alleyways. And it's all bridges and water!

Another look at St. Mark's. Very neat building.

The view from St. Mark's Square

Gondolas winding through the many offshoot canals eventually flowing back to the Grand Canal

Rialto Bridge

What a view

.. but this is how busy the Rialto Bridge gets..

Old buildings

Rooftop garden and a bell tower

Another bridge

A couple fun musicians!

Another square - Italians love these!

Then we randomly stumbled upon a University or something.. Pretty

Lots of random people though. And a couple musicians just wandering through the crowd

Ocarinas!

And a guitar! Neat old music store

Yay Venice! Missed walking around in jeans and a t-shirt!

Then we visited Doge's Palace, which was pretty neat! The view of St. Mark's from inside the main courtyard

The 'Golden Staircase', which led up to the apartments. Gilded with 24-carat gold. Man, crazy how rich the royalty was.

A sneaky picture of one of the rooms, since they didn't like cameras!

The domes of St. Mark's from a window

So pretty

Another neat room with a couple globes and a bunch of maps

Old weapons down in the armory

Apparently, one of the largest rooms in Europe. Don't really remember what it was though..

Another view outside from a window

Then the palace began leading down into an old prison! 

First delicious pizza in Italy! When tasked with finding a pizza place that we had passed hours earlier, I was a little doubtful of my abilities, though my sense of direction, I've found, is quite strong. You see, Venice and practically a maze of alleyways and canals, with no real system - basically, maps are pretty much only are useful for pointing out a direction. But I totally found it. It was nuts.

I'll get more into the food later, but suffice to say: it was awesome. Not one bad meal.

I don't know if you can see, but we found a random football (soccer) field in the middle of the city!

Venice lit up in the evening.

Pretty.

Near our hostel, a neat fountain lit up in Italian colors!

As awesome as Venice, there's not a lot of actual 'attractions'. The whole city is the attraction, which is why it gets so overrun with tourists and gimmicky souvenirs. It's a bit of a bummer, but like I said, the beauty of Venice, especially under blue skies, isn't diminished at all. The canals are pretty, the architecture is amazing, and the sinking city won't be around forever!

By Thursday night, the first leg of our trip was coming to a close; the only thing left was the morning train south to the next destination: Florence, or Firenze to the Italians. We were leaving a floating city of beautiful sights for the art and food of Florence - so exciting!

Good music for exploring Venice:
Beirut - 'Venice', off their double EP 'March of the Zapotec/Holland'
Love Beirut. Such a unique band, focused around main man Zach Condon. One of the most unique voices in indie/folk. Like their first album best, but the EP's pretty good.

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First of probably three posts - one for each city! I'll probably retro-actively update this post with a couple pictures from my phone, but we'll see.
Cheers!

Pre-Italy Recap! (Days 85 - 93)

(Being the events of:)
MARCH 28 - APRIL 5, 2011

With my trip to Italy on the very near horizon (literally, as I'm leaving tonight!), I figure I should probably clear up my camera, organize my final thoughts, and catch up the blog so as to have a fresh slate when I return! After sloshing through all that text this weekend in the last post, I've got a good amount of neat pictures to post, so I'll stick with pretty thin highlights again. This past week had it's fun moments, but it's most certainly all just been a build-up to my trip; even money-wise. So I'll try to think of what I've been up to lately.. hmmmm..

- Math quiz Monday. Wasn't too bad. Not much else to say! It was my final week of actual classes at King's, which is just crazy to me. Nothing to do until May now! Well, other than travel!!

- New Anthony Bourdain episode in the Ozarks (boondocks of Missouri, basically) was pretty good. Tony eating squirrel..? Sure, I guess I'm in!

- Figured out the room situation for next semester at Case: Suite 115, House 1 of The Village. Jot that down in your fancy phone-machines - it's gonna be party central wooooooo

- Watched a couple good, classic flicks this week. And where else to go for some solid classics than to Hitchcock. I checked out 'Vertigo' first, as it appeared higher on the list I've been consulting (AFI's Top 100: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AFI%27s_100_Years...100_Movies_(10th_Anniversary_Edition)). Pretty solid movie, but really anything with James Stewart is quality in my book. A little quirkier story-wise than I remember Hitchcock being, but still a good film.

- Before I hopped back onto the Hitchcock train, I found another film on the list that interested me: 'The Bridge On the River Kwai', starring Alec Guinness (or Obi-Wan, as I shall henceforth refer to him, albeit while he is turning in his grave). Wasn't sure how I felt about this one; I certainly liked it, and thought the acting was one of it's best qualities. Obi-Wan was really good, and I'd never seen him outside of Star Wars, which I found out he didn't really enjoy making (well, rather that he didn't like the fan-base's obsession with his character, worrying that he's be typecast afterward). Anyway, the story was good for a while, then it just turned into Obi-Wan going a little crazy towards the (kind of abrupt) end. Still a good flick though, and I'm glad I checked it out.

- Back to Hitchcock for another one I'd been meaning to watch for some time: 'Rear Window'. Oh hey, James Stewart again! I'm intrigued already.. I may have actually liked this one more than 'Vertigo', even though it's lower on the list. Both gave me "Woah, what's going on?!" moments, but this one added a suspense factor that still holds up very well over 50 years later in the era of bad horror/thriller movies. I also liked how the story basically ended up exactly how the main character predicts at the beginning; it's the ride there that made it an interesting, engrossing film, leaving you with questions the whole time. Plus, it's Jimmy Stewart. I mean COME ONNNNN! He was in 'It's A Wonderful Life!', one of my favorite films of all time! You gotta love him..

- Well now that you feel all I did was sit around in my room all week and watch movies, I'll tell you that I also watched Pens games! .. which, granted, did still involve me sitting around. But there was method to my madness in the form of saving money for Italy (and afterwards, if I have any left! No seriously, I better. Or I'm gonna start selling myself on the street.. nah, just kidding; I'll probably just be that semi-homeless looking guy playing popular classic rock songs on his guitar near the touristy areas. Solid.). Anyway, Pens were up and down this week. Dropped a couple to Philly and Tampa, though they were playing decently enough. Just couldn't generate the necessary offense. That didn't seem to be a problem Saturday night though, when the beat on the Panthers, 4-2. Great play from Johnson in net (sooo sweet having an awesome back-up behind Fleury, who's been absolute class over the last month or two), and a big goal by Michalek, with an empty-netter by a mohawk-sporting Craig Adams. Love it. Couple of big games coming up with only three games left in the regular season. Eastern Conference is so jammed up in the top, it's still up in the air as to who will be playing who come playoffs in the next couple weeks. Right now, looks like Tampa, with the Pens taking home ice. Fine with me as long as everyone stays healthy, defense/Fleury keep up the amazing work, and the power play starts doing something. Crosby's been skating more and more, actually being OK'd for non-contact practice and traveling with the team, which is a HUGE step in the right direction towards him coming back this season. Every Pens fan is crossing his fingers that we'll see 87 in the playoffs, but Crosby himself admits that he'll play it by ear. If he comes back, it's Stanley Cup or bust. Eastern Conference better watch out.

- On Tuesday, went out to dinner for some Chinese in Chinatown with some pals. It was a lot of fun, and delicious! We were all catching up before heading out on our separate trips over the break. So jealous of some of them, but I'm definitely just as excited for Italy!

- Finally finalized my classes for the next two semesters: 15 credits each. Not sure how difficult each will be; it will certainly necessitate some serious work from me, but shouldn't be ridiculously difficult. We'll see. Crazy that I'm onto my final year. But that's what I talked about in the last post so no reason to get into all that future jazz again.. Main point: I'm excited for next year. Am I excited for everything after that? Sure, but we'll see how it goes. And how that million-dollar idea is developing..

- On Friday, had a Borough Market picnic with more pals as a final goodbye before break and travel. It was a lot of fun, with SO much good food. I definitely had to go with a parma ham and fresh mozzarella baguette with an apple, a HUGE brownie, and some wine. We just hung around the little area outside Southwark Cathedral; it was pretty popular that day, even though the weather wasn't particularly fantastic (kind of gray and windy). I took some more pictures of the area and the market before heading out:

In between the market and the Cathedral

Busy today!

Borough Market, awesome as always.

Ahhh food!

.. more food!

MEAT!

So much fruit!

Beer! So many different kinds! I'll have to come back here to add to my collection!

The leaning tower of (delicious!) brownies! 

Headed back after that for a pretty tame Friday night after some plans fell through. Oh well!

- After nothing really happened Saturday (a lot of people already left for travel!), Sunday wasn't much different. Typed up a final copy of our Italy itinerary, finalized some details here and there, booked tickets for airport transportation, made lists of the main things to see in each city and good food to eat, etc. If anything, it just got me super excited to go! Ahhhhh. As I went out looking for a cheap dinner, I realized the sun was just going down in a pretty pinkish-blue sunset, so I headed down towards the river for some pictures: 

Looking eastwards along the south shore and the National Theatre

Parliament/Big Ben lighting up for the evening.

Here's where I started to get artsy with my London Eye photos.. forgive me haha..

I like this one.

.. and this one might be my favorite. So pretty.

- At some point I also found time to watch 'Casablanca' since I had neglected it's top-5 position on that list at first. I'd always heard of it as like some big cheesy romance flick, but gave it a chance since it was so high on the list. Didn't regret it: thought it was pretty good, and not just because Humphrey Bogart's character's name was Rick. No, it was pretty solid, so.. yeah.. don't know what else to say about that!

- Yesterday, got a bunch of final things done: went and got a ton of Euros, printed out any papers/documents and such that I'll need, beat a couple people in Words With Friends on my iPhone (love you Brittney haha! Ray, that's what you get. Wooooooo), then kind of wandered around Trafalgar/The Strand/Fleet Street for a bit as the sun came out. There's a poetry contest this week at Kings, 200-quid grand prize! Topic is 'The Strand', which is the busy street that connects Trafalgar Square with Fleet Street to the east, running parallel to the river and past Kings itself. I set up shop up on one of the ledges of Nelson's column in Trafalgar Square, ate my lunch, watched the tourists, looked over at the Strand, and took pen to paper. Here's what I came up with on my first draft:

Go Tell The Thames 

From Nelson’s fair pillar, 

Piercing dusty London clouds, 

Conducting the wind 

As the Thames will the current: 

The arcing Strand. 

To St. Paul’s pallid domes 

Rising in the East, 

And marble columns 

Glowing gold as the sun 

Breaches the gray morning 

And flows down the Strand. 

Now go tell the Thames, 

“Take note of your brother 

Who shares your Northern shore, 

Carrying time as you to waves; 

Faster even than your ocean-borne swells; 

Carving paths of stone and granite, 

Still always adorned, the Strand.” 

And those bustling feet 

Parading your streets, 

Move onwards to Fleet 

And onwards to home.

Not fantastic, but I'll finish it up before I leave. After hanging there for a while, the sun came out and I just decided to walk around and snap some pictures:

The National Gallery, from my perch up on Nelson's Column

Countdown to the 2012 olympics in London. Crazy. I can't imagine how insane it would have been to be here next year during all THAT hype. And I thought the wedding was bad..

Walking down towards Big Ben.. The main entrance to Horseguards

Some neat statues of major British leaders during WWII

Neat. Randomly in the middle of the street though

Monty, you dog.

Statues and neat architecture. London knows what's up.

One of the guards outside Horseguards. Must suck to know your job has transformed from a ceremonial position to a tourist attraction.

Walked down the Strand, onto Fleet Street, then turned to cross Blackfriar's Bridge. View towards the west

Looking across the river. St. Paul's in the distance on the right

A big ship and some neat old buildings.

The Queen's Walk, near Gabriel's Wharf and the National Theatre.

One last view of The Eye in the bright sun before heading home.

- Well, it won't be so necessary to bask in the rare English sun for the next week: 70s and sunny for MY ENTIRE TRIP IN ITALY. So awesome. I'm so excited!

Hmm I don't think there's much else to say.. Today I just hung around packing and cleaning, finishing up a few odds and ends. Well, in that case - I'll be back on the 14th with tons of pictures, some souvenirs, fun memories, and maybe even a tan!

Good music of the moment:

MGMT - 'Electric Feel', off their album 'Oracular Spectacular'

Still deciding how I feel about these guys. They've got some good songs, but I feel they're getting too popular in the club-pop scene, leading to less effort on some of their songs. Oh well, I'll see what else they push out later

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See you in a week!

Cheers!

Thoughts On The Past, A Look To The Future

(A brief respite from my usual updates to dabble in a bit of reflection and conjecture.)

As it becomes undeniably clear that my time at King's, and in London, is sadly nearing it's tail-end, I've slowing been running out of things to entertain myself with, which of course leaves an abundance of time to think.

About life, what I want to do, where I want to go, who I want to be.
About my budget, my impending final exams, summer internships, my final-year courses at Case.
About how, in a year from now, I'll be out buying suits for job interviews with companies possibly all over the states, or even the world.

Granted it's been a decently uneventful week, with patches of productivity here and there, but when am I doing all this thinking?! And why?!

Maybe it's the fact that I spend more time looking at photographs of amazing destinations rather than visiting them, or the approaching break, with people's many-paged itineraries spanning multiple countries, that lights a fire in my mind and imagination. I'll never tire of living vicariously through Anthony Bourdain, but when will it be my turn? When can I begin my journey actually discovering this amazingly huge and exotic world, rather than stagnating in a desk-chair? Inevitably, I tell myself that what will come, will come, and that if it's something that I truly want to experience, than it becomes an eventuality.

Somewhere, sometime down the road, I'll be reading this from a hammock in Thailand, laughing at my youthful naivety and childish yearnings to explore and to wonder. But don't we all? Aren't we all fated to tire of our nest, to bust out the newly-developed wings and hop out of the tree? Granted, there's always the chance you'll plummet to the ground, or end up on someone's dinner plate..

But it's the future, nonetheless.

While I'm in the zone, I'm just going to type away. No idea what's coming, or why I'm thinking about these things, or even why I'm doing it on here.

Might as well start with a bit on the past before I get back to my 'future' rant. Plus I'm feeling music-y right now. So.. yeah..

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A long time ago, I noticed that sometimes when hearing a particular song, my mind flashed back Lost-style to a moment or a feeling ingrained in memory. Whatever I was doing at the time was forever defined by that song, and so became one of my systems of categorization or relation: music. Over the years, the filing cabinets in my head continued to grow; whether it was Linkin Park's 'In The End' procuring memories of my first time playing Nintendo's 'Zelda: The Ocarina of Time', Good Charlotte's 'Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous' transporting me back to middle school dances, or even Sean Paul's 'Get Busy' and t.A.T.u.'s 'All The Things She Said' reminding me immediately of playing the original Medal of Honor PS2 game with my best friend Tom. And those are just to name a few quite literally off the top of my head.

Anyway, I've recently begin associating music with entire phases of my life. No idea why, but hearing a certain song just takes me back, if only for a moment. And that's awesome in my opinion. With my love of music, what a great way to remember. Some of the bigger examples:

Grade School: I've gotta go with Linkin Park's 'In The End'. Literally defined my pre-teen musical existence and laid a foundation for a rock-based musical taste.
Runner-ups: Smash Mouth's 'All Star' (Who didn't love Smash Mouth?!) or anything by Weird-Al. Just reading that makes me laugh.

Early High School: It was all about Avenged Sevenfold's first album. Angry, loud, rhythmically solid, musically enjoyable - just what the teen ordered.
Runner-up: Probably AFI's 'Sing The Sorrow'. Just remember loving that album. Blink-182 and Red Hot Chili Peppers were big as well.

Middle High School: Hands down - Taking Back Sunday's 'Tell All Your Friends'. The obvious choice for those 'emo' years. Still a fantastic album, even today. Definitely the point in my life where I just wanted to make and enjoy music. Right around then, I started teaching myself the guitar. Plus these guys held my 'Favorite Band of All-time!' moniker for years after.
Runner-up: Bright Eyes' 'Fevers and Mirrors'. Still another fantastic album from what became an acquired taste. Props to my boy Joe Weinzierl for getting me into them early on - considering they're still in my top ten for favorite bands, with Conor Oberst at #2 for favorite writer, I'd say he done me good. More great Joe finds: Against Me! and The Aquabats!

Late High School: Another easy choice - Say Anything's '..Is A Real Boy'. Still might be my favorite album of all-time (man, I'm throwing the 'all-time' around a bit much, aren't I?). Max Bemis = #1 favorite song-writer, even if the following albums weren't of the same caliber.
Runner-ups: Either Arcade Fire's 'Neon Bible' or Modest Mouse's 'We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank'. Both solid albums. And that was about the time I really started getting into music, what with the multiple bands, and the major beginning of my song-writing career.

Then it was off to college, the land of infinite musical discovery and possibility (thank you Shakespeer pre-shut down, and torrents!).

Freshman Year
First Semester: Realistically, I was still very much into Say Anything. But the song that transports me back is forever going to be Beirut's 'The Gulag Orkestar'. Probably defined my future folk-binge more that I'm even aware, and began my long future of finding, and falling in love with, non-mainstream bands.
Runner-ups: Neutral Milk Hotel's 'In The Aeroplane Over The Sea' and Andrew Bird's 'A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left'.
Second Semester: Animal Collective's 'Winter's Love'. Any song that has 110 plays on my iTunes and held the 'Most Played' spot for almost two years has to be good. Just amazing stuff, and probably one of the most potent flashes of sitting in the Pierce third floor common room with some people, watching snow fall outside.
Runner-ups: As funny as it is, it's gotta go to Animal Collective's album that came out at the beginning of that semester - 'Merriweather Post Pavilion'. Amazing album; almost an entirely new sound from a band I thought was just some crazy, experimental folk. Have to give a bit of credit to The Decemberists as well.

Sophomore Year
First Semester: Sufjan Steven's 'Illinois'. Another contender for favorite album of all-time, with Sujan holding his own in the top-5 for favorite writers. The song 'John Wayne Gacy, Jr.' still gives me chills and sparked an entirely new style of songwriting in my own music.
Runner-ups: The Shin's 'New Slang', Death Cab For Cutie's 'The Sound of Settling', and Radical Face's 'Welcome Home'.
Second Semester: Sufjan Steven's monopoly over my entire sophomore year was complete when I fell in love with his instrumental album 'The BQE'. Just a fascinating and enthralling piece of work that had me considering music composition for sometime. Remember how 'Winter's Love' used to hold the top spot in most plays? Yeah, this ENTIRE ALBUM replaced it. That means I've listened to this entire album more times over the last two years than just a single song. If it's any indication, the most played song from the album has 170 PLAYS! Unreal.
Runner-ups: Cursive's 'The Ugly Organ' and Brand New's 'The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me' (this album actually makes me think of lunch breaks in my car while working at Baker over the summer).

Junior Year
First Semester: Local Native's 'Gorilla Manor'. Loved this album, but no idea why it reminds me SO much of last term.. Any song just throws my back into that tiny room in Noble, or walking to class along Euclid.. Crazy.
Runner-ups: Johnny Flynn's 'A Larum' and Weezer's 'Pinkerton'

Something else crazy happened last semester: I started REALLY getting into classical music and classically-composed movie soundtracks. Just found it to be fantastic study music. So special mention goes to every John Williams composition EVER (his station is my Pandora study station!) and Thomas Newman's 'The Shawshank Redemption' soundtrack, amongst all the classic composers who show up on that station as well.

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Now that's not to say that any or all of these artists or albums made it to the top of my 'desert island' list, as my esteemed pal Anthony Bourdain would say (granted, they probably would, but I'm making a point). These are just examples of songs or albums that will forever be programmed in memory as representing a specific time in my life; it's quite interesting, really. At least I find it so. And it being my blog, what I say, goes. Quite literally.

And you, the reader, are not entitled to an opinion on the matter. You may enjoy my aimless recollection, attempt at humour, and meanderings through personal musical-related history. Or you may enjoy my pretty pictures, of which there probably won't be many until I get back from my trip to Italy.

There will certainly be an abundance of pretty pictures after that!

.. but I will agree with you that the whole music thing was quite random. Let's just go with 'Rick's feeling musically nostalgic and wants to preserve records of that music and those memories for posterity's sake'. Plus, this is going to be a hoot when I'm reading it thirty years from now from a wristwatch hologram projector in the back of my flying car. Most def.

--

Anyway, now that I've traipsed through the past a bit, it comes back around to that future-speak of 'what-if's' and 'where-to's'. Well, to put it bluntly: in my boredom during intermission of a recent Pen's game, I began something I'd always considered a bit silly until I started making it. It was a Bucket List. Now, there's the contingent (part of myself included) that believes a 20-year old making a Bucket List is a tad unnecessary. But like I said earlier, I've given myself far too much time to just think and imagine, mostly in the wee hours of the evening. And so, after looking through National Geographic's "Ultimate Adventure Bucket List", I figured 'what the hell?', and gave it a go.

SO. As a record for future me to behold, add to, and cross off from, here's what I came up as a start (in no order whatsoever):

Rick's Bucket List (so far!)
- Climb Mount Everest

- Hike the Triple Crown (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_Crown_of_Hiking)
- Publish a book
- Get a song on a national radio station (and/or record and sell an album)
- Invent something
- Be in a movie
- Visit all seven continents (most definitely including Antarctica!) 

- Swim in every ocean (man, that Arctic Ocean is going to be cold..)
- Kiss the Blarney Stone
- Go to the top of the Empire State Building
- Swim in the Great Barrier Reef
- Visit every US state at least once (Number left = ~28, I think!)
- Stand on the Great Wall of China 

- Visit the rainforest
- Learn to surf
- Go skydiving
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That's the best, most realistic list that I could come up with right off the start. I'm sure I'll think of a bunch more things over time. We'll see how it goes..

But to end on a hopeful note, I have a long and successful life ahead of me, so there's no reason to worry about the future, or to 'plan ahead' any farther than I need to. Plus, everything's going to be much easier when I'm a millionaire in a couple years. Wooooooooooo

No, but seriously. I've got some ideas.. gonna blow your mind..

.. and the music careers bound to hit it off any day now..

.. any day now..

Cheers!