trippin’

Portland

Jul 192012

Next week, Mr. Royale and I will be traveling to Portland, Oregon. I don’t know much about the city other than every single person I have ever talked to about it has said that we would love it. I associate it with the IFC show, Portlandia, food, the films of Gus Van Sant, rain, roses, Powell’s Books, more food, and a problematic art gallery (a separate story of getting friends of friends to hijack several pieces of Mr. Royale’s art from a non-paying gallery owner who just wouldn’t/couldn’t return them).

But you, RTH’s cultured readers, have certainly traveled to Portland before. Or if not, you most likely have knowledge of the city’s music scene. Mr. Royale and I will be there three days, and in between our eating and drinking, we hope to discover more about Portland’s music life. I ask you, please help us devise a tour of noted Portland rock and roll sites.

Rockin’ Geography

Posted by Mr. Moderator

May 102012

Like a Hurricane

I’ve got a terrible sense of geography. If I haven’t been to a place—and even this isn’t a sure thing—there’s a good chance I don’t know much about where it is in relation to other places. Two of my interests have given me at least some awareness of places around the globe. Baseball has made me conscious of the spring training locations of major league baseball teams in Florida and Arizona as well as minor league towns. Songs can also give me a sense of place. As with baseball’s spring training outposts, off-the-beaten track locations noted in songs I like sometimes become my primary (or even sole) association with that location.

I had to drive about 70 miles north of my house today for work, to the town pictured above. I don’t think I passed this building, but I couldn’t get a particular song out of my head: Bob Dylan’s “Hurricane,” about Ruben “Hurricane” Carter, who was imprisoned in what was then called Rahway State Prison. Prior to doing business up there, the ONLY associations I have with Rahway, New Jersey involve that prison, both through the Dylan song and the old TV documentary Scared Straight. I don’t care how much business I will ever do in Rahway the song “Hurricane” will always be the first thing that comes to mind when I think of the town’s name.

Is there a song you associate with a specific town you’ve actually been to above all other associations you might have with that town?

Sound and Vision

Posted by ladymisskirroyale

Apr 152012

Black Sun

I recently spent on a few days up in Seattle enjoying the uncharacteristic sun, and the characteristic strong coffee, cold beer, and heavily blue and green landscapes that that city offers. And while I strongly associate Seattle with music, during my 5 days there, I noticed other ways that music is closely entwined with the visual art culture.

Sacred Sites

Posted by BigSteve

Jul 052011

When Mr.Mod mentioned recently that he was making a trip to France, people wondered whether he would be taking the opportunity to visit Jim Morrison’s grave in Paris.

Jim Morrison's gravesite

I don’t believe he did, but I was wondering if any other Townsperson had ever made that pilgrimage. I can’t imagine doing that myself, not being a big Morrison fan, though I imagine it might be an interesting sociological experiment to see what kind of people would be there.

How about visits to other sacred rock sites? I wrote about by visit to the Experience Music Project and to Jimi Hendrix’s gravesite a few years ago.

Trippin’: Pictorial Artefacts From the Road

Posted by hrrundivbakshi

Sep 052008

I just finished a nine-day drive across this great country of ours, and spotted a couple of things worth taking pictures of. Hopefully, these will amuse and/or inspire:

First, spotted in a roadside fireworks store in Indiana:

Southern boogie rock cruises to the Bahamas? No fucking way! But *this*? *This* is what I call an ass-kickin’ cross-promotion. HELL, YEAH!

Next, a fine dining establishment on the outskirts of Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin:

If you don’t know why this restaurant is relevant to us here, consider your license to rock officially revoked.

HVB

Trippin’: Science Fiction’s Got Nothing on This Experience

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Aug 262008

We recently re-ran an early Rock Town Hall (blog edition) piece by Townsman BigSteve on his visit to Seattle’s Experience Music Project (EMP). I was just in Seattle for a quick weekend work trip, and during my 2 hours of free time I made sure to check out this museum with my own ears and eyes. BigSteve’s piece had me stoked!

My hotel room offered a fantastic view of the body of water and mountains surrounding the city. The city itself was surprisingly unkempt and weatherbeaten, dare I say “grungey,” but the natural setting was impressive. Straight ahead, maybe a mile away, was the Space Needle and what looked like a colorful clump of molten plastic. This was the EMP building.

I thought about taking the monorail over to maximize my 2 free hours, but wisely, as it turned out, decided to walk. A block into my walk, the monorail train I probably would have caught had broken down on the tracks. Fire engines and rescue ladders blocked 5th Street. I crossed over to 6th Street and caught whiff of some doughnut factory. Doughnuts do not smell that good when baked en masse.

FRIDAY FLASHBACK! Trippin’: Experiences with Jimi and Roy

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Aug 222008

Another FRIDAY FLASHBACK! based on my own upcoming road trip. It’s off to Seattle, where I plan on visiting Experience Music Project, the Seattle-centric rock museum that Townsman BigSteve chronicled in one of our earliest Rock Town Hall blog posts. I’d hoped that a monthy Trippin’ series would develop, in which Townspeople would report on their own rock-related road trips, but to date I think this is the only rock road trip report. Hrrundivbakshi did report on a curiously named record store he found somewhere in Japan, I believe, so I’m holding out hope that this series will catch fire yet. Should I make it to EMP this weekend, I’ll be sure to share my thoughts. Now let’s revisit a very cool post!

This post initially appeared 1/23/07.

BigSteve, our Townsman in New Orleans, files the following report from Seattle.

I went to the Experience Music Project yesterday. I thought it was definitely worth the visit, and there was more than enough to keep me occupied for 3 hours. There’s actually not that much exhibit space, and one of the, presumably temporary, exhibits was a commercial for Disney musical product that gagged me. The history of rap exhibit was more interesting, but at least the Disney shit helped keep the busloads of kids away from the interesting stuff. The other useless parts of the museum were the interactive areas – you pay extra, go into a “studio” and `make your own CD by playing with a few computer stations. There’s also something where you pay and end up with a DVD of yourself onstage playing with other people in a band. I don’t know how it works, and I wasn’t interested enough to find out.

There’s a very nice exhibit, I assume permanent, on the history of music from the Pacific Northwest. From the Fleetwoods through the Ventures and Raiders and Sonics to grunge and punk. Lots of posters, artifacts, instruments, video – not enough time to look at it all.

The Hendrix exhibit is pretty amazing. I mean, they have the white Strat that he played at Woodstock, the guitar he was most often seen playing. They have pieces of many smashed guitars. Really I could have spent all day looking at this exhibit alone. They had lots of video of him playing, and then they had many of the outfits he was seen wearing in the videos, and you know how important fashion is to me.
Continue reading »

Older Entries Newer Entries