I WENT TO MONTREAL OVER THE WEEKEND AND ALL I GOT WAS…

…bronchitis.

To be honest, the bronchitis started the night before leaving for Montreal. Despite feeling not completely well, I had a great time.

We flew to Montreal on Friday morning, arriving around 10 AM. The weather was perfect: clear skies and a slight chill in the air. This was just right for walking. Although, our backpacks did get rather weighty after a while. At least it wasn’t blazingly hot.

Hotel check in was not until 3 PM. So, we first headed for the tourist information center. There we purchased three day passes for the museums and the subway (aka – the Metro). The Metro lines were easy to figure out. The stops were announced in French. Not being French-speaking people, we got a chuckle out of the pronunciation of a few of the stops, especially “Pie IX,” which sounded like “peanuts” to us.

After being properly informed as tourists, we hopped on the Metro and went to the Botanical Gardens, which is next to the Olympic Park. It’s a beautiful place! It was a little early in the season for most outdoor flowers. The tulips were beautiful. There were several other flowers blooming in various sections of the outdoor gardens. The indoor gardens were very pretty. There were different greenhouses with different climates. We took a lot of flower photos inside.

The Insecterium at the Botanical Gardens was our next stop. Did you know that there are some insects that are so large they look like they could carry you away? There are some darn ugly bugs in the world! Most of the ones at the Insecterium were dead on display, thankfully. Just seeing them on display was enough to give you the creeps. The moths and butterflies were quite lovely. The beetles and the spiders were the nasty ones.

For dinner Friday night, we went to a Swiss restaurant. We started our meal with cheese fondue. Then we had filet mignon fondue with several dipping sauces. And for dessert… yes! chocolate fondue! Oh man! Soooo good!

On Saturday we went to the Fine Arts Museum. The Canadian arts section was especially interesting. There were several amazing walrus tusk carvings and other stone carvings. Many of the paintings captured the feel of Canada’s wilderness with it’s cold mountain and great northern expanses.

We explored Old Montreal on Saturday afternoon. We were able to find an outdoor cafe to eat lunch before we became overly cranky from walking and hunger. Then we had the best dessert (again). I don’t know if there is a name for this. We had balls of fried dough covered in honey and sprinkled with cinnamon with vanilla ice cream on top. Arissa added chocolate syrup to her’s and I had caramel. We were so stuffed! But I was tempted to eat another one. It was so good that I could probably keep eating it until I got sick all over myself… and not care!

We went to the Collective Soul concert at Metropolis Saturday night. They put on quite a show! Long too! They were much better than when we saw them in Asbury Park last month. The venue was much larger. The crowd in Montreal LOVED the band! After several songs, the applause went on so long and became so loud that the band couldn’t start the next song. All they could do was stand there and accept the crowd’s admiration. A few songs later and they crowd did again. This time they sang their approval. Collective Soul has not been on tour in several years. This kind of reception to their performance must have been so reassuring to them. One of the reasons for the length of time since their last album and tour is that the singer, Ed Roland, had been through a divorce and is now a single father. Since I can relate to that way of life and the struggles that it brings that when the crowd cheered with so much enthusiasm, I felt proud for Ed that he has found a way to get back to playing the music that he loves.

We didn’t have time for much on Sunday. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 2:55 PM. We did manage to tour the Montreal Biodrome though. The Biodrome is also near the Botanical Gardens at the Olympic Park. It consists of several sections representing different climates with live animals. The tour was very interesting. I wish we had more time to linger and watch for some of the more elusive birds. We got great photos of the penguins. That seemed to be the point of highest interest for most people. Everyone laughed as the penguins waddled along the rocks then plunged head first into the water. They look rather clumsy on land, but they are graceful in the water. I got a laugh out of a French-speaking couple sitting on the bench in front of me when one of the penguins, shall we say, “moved his bowels.” The woman rattled off something excitedly in French. Then she looked at her husband and blurted out, “He shit!” I laughed so hard to myself that I almost did!

Going through security at the Montreal airport, I was “selected” for a random search. I was surrounded by four security personnel, all speaking in French and pointing at me and my backpack. Now, it might be confusing when people are speaking a language which you don’t understand and they are speaking about you. But I have to say, it’s not very intimidating when it’s French. I mean, these were security people, responsible for protecting the public from international threats. Speak something tough sounding! Like German or Russian or some Slovak tongue. But then again, I doubt that they considered me much of a security threat as I stood there holding a box of Canadian Maple Cream cookies. I think the women just wanted to look through my luggage and take a peek at my undies!

The flight between Montreal and Newark took just over an hour. That was good as I really wasn’t feeling very well by Sunday afternoon. Arissa and I were both worn out by the time we sat in the plane. We both listened to music and napped on the way home.

I miss Montreal. It is definitely a place to keep on my list of places to visit. So they better keep the fondue fires burning and the security people ready. One day I’m going back!

(Originally posted on the website Heron Flight)

ZOE STRAUSS

(Originally posted on the website Heron Flight)

Arissa and I made a trip to Philadelphia to see a photo exhibit by Zoe Strauss. Zoe lives in Philadelphia. Her photos are primarily of the area in which she lives. They tend to capture life as it is in that section of Philadelphia.

The exhibit was held underneath I-95 at the corner of Front and Miflin Streets. Laminated copies of Zoe’s photos were mounted on the concrete support columns beneath the highway. There were nearly 300 photos. Their true to life quality in an outdoor urban setting added to the overall impact of the exhibit, especially when one reached the far end of the lot and found a few homeless men sleeping along the fence.

Many of Zoe’s photos can be viewed and ordered at www.zoestrauss.com.

IT ONLY TOOK FIVE HOURS

(Originally posted on the website Heron Flight)

Joel wrecked his knee. He was playing tackle football, got plowed to the ground, and his right leg was forced straight out and over extended. Most likely he has torn ligaments in the back of his knee.

We had an appointment with the doctor at 6:30 PM. We left home at 5:30, picked up Joel and headed to the doctor’s office. Joel and I were only with the doctor a few minutes. He basically told us that we needed to go to the emergency room and sort of laughed at us for not doing so in the first place. I told him that our insurance has changed and it costs much more for an emergency room visit. I asked if he could just give us an order for an x-ray and then he could treat Joel. He laughed again and said, “No!” You can bet your sweet bippies that we won’t be going back to that guy ever.

We drove from the doctor’s office to the hospital near our house. The place was packed with sick and dying folk. So we had to wait a little bit. But once taken into a room, the staff took care of Joel fairly quickly.

The worst part of tonight’s ordeal was that Joel was experiencing considerable pain. Every bump in the car caused him to wince. Every jostle of the wheel chair going into the hospital made him moan. Getting him out of the wheel chair and onto the x-ray table was torturous to him.

To make matters even worse, we had a nurse named Enrique who had no patience whatsoever. He was grumpy and extremely hard to understand when he spoke. It sounded like he had a three-day-old piece of rubberized sausage shoved down under his bottom lip. I just about pummeled the guy when he impatiently and roughly pulled Joel up further in the bed when the poor kid was painfully doing his best to move. Lucky for Enrique that a very patient female nurse came in to assist Joel.

The doctor on duty was cool. He took his time with Joel and explained things clearly to us. He was thorough. He saw a mysterious line just below Joel’s knee on the x-ray. So he sent Joel back to have his good knee x-rayed for comparison. That was a good call. There was no line on the good knee. That line turned out to be a small fracture.

Yes, Joel hurt himself pretty good this time! Tomorrow we need to have an MRI done on his knee. Then we have to see the specialist. Hopefully he won’t need surgery.

NEITHER RAIN, NOR SLEET, NOR THE LACK OF A STAGE

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(Originally posted on the website Heron Flight)

Thunderstorms plus electric guitars and amps sounds like a mighty dangerous combination! Wasn’t it Jimmy Page who was nearly electrocuted at a rainy outdoor concert back in the 70s? All the sparks and high voltage might make for a great stage show. But only once! If the mighty Led Zeppelin cancelled the show, should we take the chance?

We were scheduled to play in Princeton, NJ at 12:15 PM on Saturday. I woke at 6 AM and could not lay still. I was too excited. So I decided to beat the weather and load the drums in the car early. It was drizzling by 6:30. By 7:00 it was pouring! According to weather.com, there was a 90% chance of rain and thunderstorms for the Princeton area on Saturday afternoon. Most of the week prior had been perfectly sunny. It was disappointing that it was raining on Saturday.

However, I said that if there was a 90% chance of rain then that meant that there was a 10% chance of sunshine! 10% is a significant margin of possibility! It is ten times more than 1%. If we focused on the 10% we just might have a 100% good day!

And so we did!

My friends Landon McDonald and Oran Minikus had the opportunity of playing with Angela Clerico for this show in Princeton. The three of us had been playing together at the beginning of the year. I worked with Angela on some of her original music last summer. She recently got in touch to ask if I had any interest of doing studio drumming for her. I said, “Sure!” and told her of Landon and Oran. At the beginning of April, Angela told me that she was invited to play at Princeton’s “Communiversity Day.” She asked if the guys would be interested in playing several songs as a band with her. I said, “Universal Commie Day? Sure!”

All social agendas aside, we were able to pull together six songs for the show. We did “Moondance” by Van Morrison, “Hard Day’s Night” by the Beatles, “You Wreck Me” by Tom Petty, and three of Angela’s original songs (which are damn friggin’ good!). We received good applause after each song, applause that was almost loud enough to drown out the shouts of the guy hawking his kettlecorn nearby.

Here’s a video of Angela’s song “Hit the Road.”

It did not rain at all while we were in Princeton. That is a good thing because we were forced to set up directly on the pavement on Witherspoon Street. We arrived early and waited for nearly two hours for the stage guys to come and set up the stage. Instead, at noon, 15 minutes before show time, the canopy guys hopped out of a truck and set up… no, not a stage… a canopy, of course. They anchored that sucker down and told us to go ahead and set up. If you look closely at the picture above, you will see that just to the right of the guitar case in front of my drum set is something that closely resembles a manhole cover. Funny thing! It IS a manhole cover! What a great disappearing trick that would make for a stage show if Angela suddenly dropped down into that thing! But that could be a risk worse than the possibility of electrocution. Only God knows what lurks in the sewer ways beneath the streets of New Jersey!

All things considered, we had a great time playing in Princeton. It was a lot of fun. I think my 10% theory paid off. The sun came out later in the afternoon. We all had lunch together. We bought bags of kettlecorn, the quality of which definitely legitimized the hawking. The booths were interesting, especially the one where you could put complaints about the president on Post-It notes and stick them to a representation of Dubbya. But that’s a song to sing at another time.