Writeronthestorm’s Weblog

America is a big place.  So, as I continue my travels, I have definitely driven past more points of interest than I have stopped at, e.g. John Wayne’s birthplace, the bridges of Madison County, Ronald Reagan’s childhood home.

But, occaisionally I do stop:

The Buffalo Bill Museum is in Le Claire, Iowa.  Although there is another one in Cody, the town that Buffalo Bill founded.  The museum here represents Buffalo Bill’s birthplace and a place that he spent much of his time:

Driving into Chicago is reminiscent of Wacky Races, but there are moments that take your breath away.  These moments are when the skyline of Chicago becomes clear.  It’s awesome.  Much more spaced out than New York, but easily as diverse.  The canals that wind through the city make a huge difference.  Particularly when the sunlight hits them and the bright turquoise colour of the water becomes apparent.

I can’t even to begin to describe how friendly everybody is.  From the really nice lady, Shar (apologies if the spelling is wrong) and Chuck and his Geordie connections to the guy who sold me sneakers (!) in the Nike shop and, of course Rick and Marilyn without whom I wouldn’t even be here…in Chicago, that is.

On top of that, the city is beautiful.  Plenty of sunshine, apart from one day of rain and a full on presentation of why it’s called the windy city that made my room on the 39th floor sway, and the lake is so huge, I had to keep reminding myself that it is a lake and not the ocean.

Select photos to follow

Were the readings accurate?

Who knows?

Certainly the palm reading made much more specific comments that I could identify with. Although, some required a bit of poetic license to connect with, like my business nowse. The palm reading was very interesting, moreso because it is based on something that is unique to each person, whereas tarot cards do have a tendency to remind me of magic tricks, which makes me especially sceptical. But you could argue that the personality traits picked out are common amongst a lot of people. I guess it sort of comes down to whether you want to believe. I have to say there were a few moments when I had to stifle my amazement at what I perceived to be accurate comments. In particular over thinking my luck, which is something that I definitely do.

The tarot cards brought up something that I must have internalised so much that I can’t think what it is. Of course, there are things that I could attribute it to, but they honestly don’t now feel significant to still bother me. Unless it’s something way out there like Angel Heart! The change in my life was accurate. I had made certain that I gave Zarg as little information as possible and, to be fair, some of it seemed to be on the money.

It did make me look into the origins of each of the readings and provided an interesting experience, as to whether I follow it up again? Apparently, people’s hands change every 5 years, so I’ll let you know in 2013.

At the IMAX theatre on Navy Pier, Chicago.  Cost: $15

WOW!  Maybe it was the 80ft screen, maybe it was the superb surround sound, but WOW!  That was some film!

It is visually stunning.  I thought that Sin City had pushed the boundaries and blurred the lines between genres, but this is something else.  I don’t know how quite to some it up.  How about technopsychadelic?!

It looks like a cartoon or a CGI movie, but it has the feel of live action, if that makes sense?  It has a glossy sheen and vibrant colours that I assume mirror the cartoon on which it is based.  I have very vague recollections of the cartoon; only a few signature moves and his outfits ring any bells with me…oh, and the monkey.

To match the look and feel there is a story adequate enough to engross you and it has an unrelenting pace that belies it’s 135 minute running time.

I don’t know if this is typical of American audiences, but the whoop and holler a bit and there was a round of applause at the end.  It is also reassuring to know that even in other countries, nay continents, I still get stuck behind Kareem Abdul Jabbar or Sideshow Bob - this time it was the latter.

The cast were excellent.  Emile Hirsch reminds me of a young Ewan McGregor.  Christina Ricci looked amazing and wasn’t in it enough for me.  Susan Sarandon seemed to be attempting to get her bosom into every shot - no complaints there.  Even the kid wasn’t too annoying.  My only reservation John Goodman as Pops.  His presence served to remind me of another cartoon / live action movie, The Flintstones, but maybe there are only a few big fat American actors about.  Actually, I have another reservation, but it’s more of a personal one; I don’t like seeing monkeys in human clothes.  Perhaps it’s due to those PG Tips adverts when I was a kid.

A final word then, or four: GO SEE THIS MOVIE!!

I’ve now covered over 2,000 miles in the car with no name, so I’ve composed a top 5 roadkill list:

Special mention goes to the peacock that did not make the list, but almost had s severe tail feather trim courtesy of the car with no name!

And also to the numerous things I’ve seen, but would have to bring in Quincy to identify.

5)  Deer - I’ve only seen one, but it was massive!

4)  Coyotes/Foxes - Seen a lot of them scattered about, literally.

3)  Turtles - More popular in the Southern states, particularly Florida.

2)  Armadillos - Loads of ‘em.

1)  Racoons - usually on their backs, legs in the air.  At least 20 so far! 

I stayed at the Artisan Hotel, a garish and run down hotel that probably never has seen better days.  Bt it was cheap and had parking, so it served it’s purpose.  It’s location was extremely convenient for short drives (around 5-10 minutes) to Graceland, the Stax museum and Sun Records.

I started at Graceland.  I booked the VIP tour the night before.  It’s more expensive, but give that I’m only really likely to do Graceland once, I thought I’d go for it.  My tour was supposed to be at 10:30am, but due to a miscalculation on my part over travel time, I got there at 9:30am.  But, that was ok, I could start straight away.

A bus took me across the road and up the driveway to the house.  The gateposts are covered with graffiti.  The first thing I thought of the house was that it was small.  And it is.  I have alwaqys thought that Elvis had the house built, so I thought he would have had it made a bit bigger.  In actual fact, he bought the house and the 14 acre grounds for $100,000 in 1957.  It was called Graceland after the original owner’s daughter.

Arriving at the house’s front door and the famous white columns, I was given a headset and given the lowdown on how to conduct the tour.  It’s a self guided tour, so you can spend as long as you want studying the finer details of the decor or pressing corresponding numbers into the headset keypad for more in depth information.

I have to say that I think Elvis is cool as fuck.  It’s easy to pick on constituent parts of Elvis like the terrible movies, but the whole phenomenon that is Elvis is incredible.  I think that anybody with an interest in Elvis generally has a favourite Elvis.  Mine is the ‘68 comeback special, although I really like the live sound of the jumpsuit era.  I asked a couple of people in Graceland and they said young Elvis and Viva Las Vegas Elvis respectively.

So when entering Graceland’s front door I did feel that I was stepping into an important piece of the history of music and pop culture.  I was not disappointed.  The decor is a little wild, but it was last decorated in the mid-seventies, so shag pile carpet on the ceiling can be forgiven.  I’m sure everybody wandering through there tries to imagine Elvis and his cronies, the Memphis Mafia, messing about or Elvis creating music, or playing with his daughter or popping pills, swigging booze and munching on a deep fried peanut butter sandwich.

Speaking of which, the tour does not include upstairs.  This is to remain a private area.  Which basically means they don’t want people to make taking pictures of the toilet on which Elvis died as the main point of the tour.

Other than the maintained living areas, of which my favourite was the racquetball annex, a lot of the rooms are full of memorabilia; clothes, posters, photos, hundreds of gold records.  There are also other parts to tour which include aeroplanes, cars and motorcycles.  There are also the graves.

A few interesting insights into what it must have been like for Elvis are:

He always would take time to speak to the fans at the gates and sign autographs, as Elvis said “I don’t mind if they rip the shirt from my back, they put it there”.  So much so that he had a mound built up to the wall so he could ride his motorcycle up it and greet the fans.

He also had a secret exit.  He would climb into an old pick up and put on a baseball cap and drive out and about.

Of course, there are souvenirs of all kinds which may seem tacky, but there was as much when he was alive.  I treated myself and the car with no name to a TCB keyring.  I also had a grilled peanut butter and banana sandwich…disgusting, by the way.  Can’t believe that was his favourite snack, but easy to see how it’d help pile the pounds on.

I then visited both the Stax museum and Sun Records. 

The Stax story was incredible.  They had a meteoric rise in the music industry and boasted some of the most talented soul artists ever, e.g. Otis Redding, and they also featured people from all races and walks of life working together to make great music.  They suffered horribly from the fallout of Dr Martin Luther King’s assassination in Memphis and never recovered.  Although, the spirit lives on. 

The Stax museum should be a definite stop for anyone who likes music.  It carries a lot of detailed stories and videos, so it takes a good couple of hours to do properly.

Sun Studios was packed.  I got there just as a coach load of tourists arrived.  From what I could see it was pretty cool.  The idea that Elvis started here, Jerry Lee Lewis started here and Carl Perkins and Roy Orbison and Johnny Cash!!  No wonder they call it the birthplace of Rock’n'Roll.

Memphis itself has a lot of music bars, but they didn’t seem up to much to me.  Almost as though they’ve lost sight of the raw determination to make music that started the tradition and now it’s just latching on to other’s achievements.

I shuffled the pack of cards, as much as I wanted and I cut the pack as many times as I wanted and put them back together in the order of my choosing. I then spread the cards across the table and picked 15 cards that Zarg then placed in this formation on the table:

XXX XXX

   XXX

XXX XXX

I can’t even begin to tell you the cards that I picked. The obvious one that I spotted was “death”, which, of course, does not mean my imminent death.

The cards revealed that there is an issue from my past that I have internalised and not dealt with. Perhaps the breakdown of a relationship or the loss of a loved one that I have never got over. Whatever it is, it is a matter of the heart. This issue is still affecting me today and it causes me to have some anxieties. For me to overcome this, I need to place the issue firmly in the past and not allow it to affect me.

I then chose a number between 1 and 10. I chose “9″. And Zarg counted out 9 cards 3 times and placed the 9th card each time on the each of the middle 3 cards in the formation.

I have recently made a change in my life and that is bringing joy back into my life. I have doubts about my own abilities, a lack of self belief, but I should believe. I am creative and that is what I love to be.

I then asked the cards 2 questions, but such is my tendency to overthink my luck, I’m not going to reveal what they were or what the answers were right now.