Sunday, August 3, 2008

Days Eighty Nine thru Ninety Five....


Where was me, then......??


Right.


Reno.


Nice, spacious, mellow Amtrak ride into Reno. Train pulled up into the newly undergrounded station around 1:30pm Sunday afternoon. (The train tracks actually now run underneath the city. In the past [up until 2006], they were at street grade level and they actually ran dead through the heart of the Virginia Street tourist area. There was nothing more fun than hearing a freight train blare its whistle at 3AM directly underneath your hotel room).


Weird....this is thee closest I've been to Oregon in months.....yet, my skooter remains in hospital 1000 miles to the East.


Walk the two blocks from Amtrak to Fitzie's (Fitzgerald's......I'll almost always stay at Fitzie's or The Sands Regency when in Reno), grabbed my room and took a nap. My mum wasn't slated to swing into town until 11:00pm Monday....soooo.....


Woke up, went to the casino downstairs, played slots, drank pints and crawled into bed at 3AM. Thass one thing I really enjoy about Nevada as opposed to, say, Colorado, Niagara Falls Ontario, Washington State, or several other places – They DO NOT cut off the pints at 2AM (or sooner, in a lot of places....AND, in some of the places mentioned above, they close the whole fucking casino at 2:00AM!!!!!)....thus, you DO NOT feel rushed when playing......makes for a significantly more relaxed gambling and drink experience.....


Monday, woke up, found that I had zero ca$h and only a bunch of credit and debit cards.....so no brekker at The Nugget casino and diner (GREAT food....it IS where I eat when in Reno) 'cause they do ca$h only. Went to a Credit Union, deposited some cheques, fetched my rental car at Reno-Tahoe International, and went and had lunch instead at a Thai restaurant. Pad Thai.....good stuff....


Mum flew in at 11PM, was ecstatic to be back in Reno, and we went back to Fitzie's.


Hung in Reno for two days where I never once had seen a clock.......serious time warp. A city consisting basically of gambling and alcohol......a perfect marriage in the divorce centre of America. All track of time and space is lost here.....


Broke out of that on Wednesday, when we went up to Lake Tahoe. I really was captivated by the Geographic beauty of the area and thought about returning sometime shortly to go camping there. Couldn't stand the weird, shi-shi, pretentious attitude of the casinos in Stateline, Nevada, on the South Shore of Lake Tahoe. Shit, one casino, Harvey's, had a Goddamm jewelry store inside it. Montbleu Casino was obnoxious in the way that it's thee place to go and to be seen. Trendy dance music blaring throughout the entire casino.....it's the place I woulda really gotten into about 15 years ago somewhere on The Bowery or in Toronto or in Los Angeles or on Rue Sainte-Catherine
in Montreal.......but now, that entire type of atmosphere just bugs the living shite outta me....


My mum, however, was enchanted by both, the Geographic beauty as well as the casino scene in Lake Tahoe. Thus, she made the determination to extend both of our flights and stay in Tahoe and Reno an extra few days until Saturday.

I was not terribly into this idea, as I had very little spare time left to act as a cushion should anything happen dring the Denver - Rockaway Beach final leg of this adventure......plus, I was getting to the point where if I had seen one more dice table or slot machine, I was gonna throw up.....but I wasn't totally averse to the idea either, as I had bought this flight as my mum's birthday gift....and she was having an amazing time, soooo........




Whilst in Tahoe, I saw The Dark Knight. Now, generally, I do not run out and go see hyper-hyped-up films that are awarded sainthood by the major media outlets. However, there IS only so much drinking and gambling that one can do before it begins to seem like work, soooo......

.....it was worth it.

Normally, I am very skeptical about overblown movies and their glorious reviews an' shit.....but man, does Heath Ledger give the acting performance of a lifetime! Christ......watching his character was just chilling.

The screenplay wasn't very well written, and it tried too hard to press upon the audience the shades of gray in morality and right. But shit, if I really wanted to see that, I coulda rented Blade Runner and bought a six pack and stayed at home (and seen a film with a lot better screenplay). I also felt that Christian Bale really should do something about that bad over-acting problem of his and his attempt to put on a fake voice that sounds like he'd just got done smoking 25 packs of unfiltered Camels in the last two hours......but overall.....yeah.....it's easily worth the dropping of nine buxx on Heath Ledger's performance alone. It almost makes me want to go out and rent Brokeback Mountain, since I've never seen it before....




Also did a job interview in bed via telephone Friday Morning around 9AM. These folks apparently were in a severe rush to interview, and, when I had explained to them that there was dead zero chance that I could physically be present for said interview, they were very kind to interview me by phone, sooo........

.....all job interviews should be done in bed by telephone. It removes the nervous tension associated with job interviews!!




Flew outta Reno-Tahoe International Saturday afternoon, got into Denver Sunday Night, and stayed at a hotel in Cherry Creek for two nights that I got on Priceline for, like, thirty-five buxx a night plus taxes. Had a LOT of friends in and around Denver offering to put me up, but the Geographic location of this place only made sense since I had no wheels, neither two nor four of them, and this place wasn't really far from DIA (Denver International Airport), was close to the skooter hospital (giving me an EARLY START OUT Monday Morning), and it was a place where I could be alone, drink vino, and smoke Export A greens, and write.....

Reno – Tahoe was neat all in all. The only three casualties were my mum losing her wallet (NO ca$h lost....just a coupla credit cards and her ID......a LOT of fun watching her get interrogated for half-an-hour at the airport by the TSA before they'd let her git on the flight home to Buffalo), spilling coke on her cell fone (which is fatal, as, had it been tap water, it'd be just fine when it dried out, but Coke, as we all know, is a corrosive agent, so that was fatal.....fortunately, it was a very base, easy-to-use Samsung t219....not like a Blackberry or some shit like that), and the final casualty was the time factor for me.....which now dictates that I gotta gun 300-plus miles a day to make the end-of-tour party on Friday the 8th at Rockaway Beach.

No more easy rides from this point......

Home in Oregon on 8-8-08....

.....lucky day, say the Chinese....

.....guess it's only fitting......


-E-

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

If you are a fan of Batman or have even read the comics and graphic novels, you will see there is a reason for the voice. However, I do agree that it is painful to hear, and they should have done a better job. The fault, however, is not all Bale's.
http://movies.yahoo.com/mv/news/ap/20080803/121779624000.html

Ledger's performance of The Joker is spot on. I found myself saddened the entire movie because there will never be another movie with Ledger as The Joker, and, really, no other actor will ever come close. It may be time to retire the character of The Joker in the movies and bring out some of the other Batman villains.

HRD said...

All I can say about Ledger and his performance as The Joker: "Ah wish ah could quit him."

CN250 said...

Right, but as Yahoo stated, Adam West didn't do that. I don't know what the hell these directors of these various incarnations were/are thinking - this entire raspy growl voice thing seems just stooopid!

I wholeheartedly agree - I really think that the Joker should be retired after this.....

Wasn't Brokeback Mountain your all-time favourite movie, V?

Anonymous said...

Batman was around WAY before Adam West. My God, that old series was a joke and didn't even come close to capturing Batman the way he was originally written.

Batman is NOT a do gooder...he is NOT a superhero...he is a human. He became Batman because his parents were killed. He is unstable at best. He has this very evil person underneath trying to escape...much like all of us do.

The TV show was a joke. It was to Batman what the Monkees were to the Beatles.

HRD said...

Skooter ... Ah wish ah could quit yew.

And no one should be slagging the 1960's Batman series. It was funy, campy, and best of all gave us he best Batgirl ever: Yvonne Craig.

The Batman serial from 1943 (?) is awesome, the getup as hilarious, especially the actors made up to look Japanese. It was racist, yes, but it played upon the very real fears of the time. I think Batman actually worked for the FBI in this serial.

Anonymous said...

Ah Tommy, I am not saying the old Batman show wasn't good, but it was not to be taken seriously. To compare serious Batman actors to Adam West is just wrong. I loved the old show, but it is hardly all there is when it comes to Batman. It isn't even the best.

On a side note, when I lived in Salt Lake and waited tables at this Greek restaurant, Julie Newmar (the orignal Catwoman) used to come in all the time. She is still quite beautiful.

HRD said...

"To compare serious Batman actors to Adam West is just wrong."???

I DEFY you to name an actor who could deliver a line like "some days, you just can't get rid of a bomb!" with the conviction of Adam West. Okay, maybe Bruce Willis. And could any other actor have kept a straight face and stayed in character whilst pulling Bat-Shark Repellent out of their utility belt?

I didn't think so.

;-)

Anonymous said...

Meh, he was wearing a mask and also does a voice over for Family Guy where he plays himself as mayor. The guys has "issues."

:)

HRD said...

Michelle, I didn't want it to come to this, but ... I'm Batman.

Anonymous said...

Then I only have one question for you....

Who is the Boy Wonder....Robin?

HRD said...

Let's just say that he is my 'ward' and that there's nothing wrong with that ... and leave it at that.

CN250 said...

Now, Now, boys and girls.....let's try to behave. Camp and cheeze is good, and thass what the 60's show was all about. If Adam West tried that raspy voice shit, it would have been HILARIOUS!!!!

Wow.....Julie Newmar was a frequent visitor to the Beehive State?

Anonymous said...

Julie Newmar lived in Park City when I was working at the restaurant I mentioned.

Park City being the closest thing to the real world that Utah has to offer. Many celebrities (both old and new) live in or around Park City.