Journal Entries
Castles Made of Sand
Posted May 22, 2007
Rome, Italy – May 22, 2007
Piazza Vittorio Emanuel II
Mrs. Phred located a concert featuring a Jimi Hendricks theme last night. The musicians were FMJO, a group of about 20 Italian performers that you might classify as talented big-band jazz. They were heavy on horns, with two drummers and a guitar.
The auditorium was about a two-mile walk north of the tourist area which ends at the big piazza with the twin churches. Crossing the streets in Rome is intimidating at times. When we found the auditorium and got our tickets, we still had time for a sandwich (paninni?) and a glass of white wine.
The huge auditorium complex had three or four different concerts going on simultaneously. The Hendricks crowd was dressed less formally in stylish Italian casual. There was an amazing amount of kissing going on in the audience before the performance. Men kissing women, men kissing men… Kiss-kiss, Hello, how are you? I’m so glad to see you again.
We missed most of the explanation of the work in Italian, but evidently a local composer, who performed with the group, had written several hours of orchestral music loosely based on the work of deceased American rock star, Jimi Hendricks. There were two guest performers. One was an electric guitar player who did a credible job of reproducing the discordant and distorted sounds of Hendricks. The other was a stylishly dressed male vocalist, who sounded very much like Hendricks at times.
When the music started and they played “Hey, Joe!”, I felt an electric shiver down my back. Most of the musicians got a chance to be featured sometime during the two-hour performance. They were all very talented. One trumpet player was amazing. Most of the performers and audience could not have been born when Hendricks died, yet they obviously recognized his favorites. You could close your eyes and see the sharp musical sounds as strange bright creatures with short lives...
For an encore the band came back and did “Castles Made of Sand”. We grabbed a taxi for a Mr. Toad's wild ride back to the hotel and some midnight gelato. The lemon sorbet was served in a real hollowed out frozen lemon. Mrs. Phred wonders why we don’t have stuff like this back home. I guess it wouldn’t be home, if we did, would it?.
On the other hand, back home Jimmy would set himself on fire and come screaming on stage sliding down a trapeze wire from the back of the auditorium...the band did not perform Jimi's freaky discordant version of "The Star Spangled Banner"...but they did "They called the wind Mariah"...
Ciao!
Discuss this Journal entry [8]
Latest reply: May 22, 2007
Swimming the Ionian Sea
Posted May 8, 2007
Wow! Sicily sea water is really cold.
A judge here found a woman innocent of a money-laundering charge. His reasoning was that women are far too stupid to engage in such a complex activity.
We've worked our way down from Rome, visiting Sorrento, Positano, Paestrun, Tropea, Schiller, Salerno, Messina, Naxos, Catania, Siracusa, Etna...I love Italy and the food...we eat like pigs and lose weight with the walking...
I'm in a sticky-fingers internet point...the boat back in Rome should have a more reliable connection...
More later...Oh! If you say a-shoo-ga-ma-no in Sicily, they usually hand you a beach towel.
Discuss this Journal entry [4]
Latest reply: May 8, 2007
Double Mojitos
Posted Apr 29, 2007
JFK International Airport - 4:35 PM - April 29, 2007
Our flight to Rome leaves in an hour. At Tampa International we saw a sign advertising mojitos and I suggested a double to Mrs. Phred at 11 AM...
Strangely on the flight to JFK, I was offered a seat in the emegency row and then the flight attendant brought three double mojitos at no charge and without my asking (sometimes life is inexplicable)...
Excuse any typos (hic!)...the sun will come up over the Atlantic tonight and tomorrow we sleep in Sorrento...I brought my old black fins and new mask in carry-on...hoping to snorkel the Med again...
Phred
Discuss this Journal entry [5]
Latest reply: Apr 29, 2007
History of The Conch Republic
Posted Apr 24, 2007
Collier-Seminole State Park, Florida - April 23, 2007
You can usually find conch in grassy sea beds in warm tropical waters. A Cayman Islander taught me to cook them chemically by soaking them overnight in lemon juice. Conch fritters and conch chowder are widely available in Key West as is Key lime pie.
There is only one way in and out of the Florida Keys. At Florida City, at about mile marker 120, US 1 branches out to other choices. Yesterday, another fatal traffic accident on US 1 near Florida City stopped all traffic in and out of the Keys for three hours last night. This happened just after we passed through.
In 1982, the US Border Patrol set up a checkpoint at the chokepoint on the north endof the Keys and began to randomly search motorists’ cars for drugs and illegal aliens. This is not an unusual tactic for the border patrol. If you drive in Texas, New Mexico or Arizona today you will be stopped and interrogated somewhere on a road north of the Mexican border and subjected to similar scrutiny.
Once, coming out of Laredo, Texas at night, I was directed off the interstate and stopped in front of a blinding searchlight. The uniformed officers questioned me about parrots and waved me on. As I pulled past the searchlight, I saw several officers with assault rifles pointed at me and I was very glad that for once I had no parrots.
When the Border Patrol tried the same tactic in the Keys in 1982, the citizens resented both the inconvenience to themselves and the impact on tourism. After their protests went unheeded, the mayor of Key West decided that if Key West was to be treated as a foreign country, then it might as well be one.
The city announced its independence from the United States of America on April 23, 1982 and declared itself to be the Conch Republic. The Mayor visited the Admiral in charge of the Key West Naval Air Station and broke a loaf of stale Cuban bread over his head. After that, Key West immediately ceased hostilities and applied for a billion dollars in foreign aid from its giant neighbor to the north.
The Conch Republic still sells passports to tourists. The 9/11 hijacker, Mohammed Atta, bought a set of these online in early 2001, demonstrating both an abysmal lack of understanding of the American culture and a missing sense of humor.
The Republic later annexed the old abandoned “seven-mile bridge” after a boatload of Cubans landed on it a few years later. The Coast Guard sent them back to Cuba after stating that since the bridge was severed on both ends, the refugees had to be returned under the "wet feet/dry feet" policy. Under that policy, refugees who make it to dry land can stay. Those intercepted at sea are returned to their country of origin.
Discuss this Journal entry [1]
Latest reply: Apr 24, 2007
Three Ways to Vomit Underwater
Posted Apr 22, 2007
Pigeon Key, Florida – April 22, 2007
Mrs. Phred was sleeping on the couch when I woke up at 6 AM today. As I make coffee, she moves back to the bedroom. Yesterday the strap on one of my 25 year old black fins broke while snorkeling, so I replaced both straps. I throw the dive bag and weight belt in the Toyota and start hitting the dive shops at 8 AM. The story is the same everywhere. “It’s too rough to go out”.
http://community.webshots.com/slideshow/558772371yvbOKU
The wind is 20 knots and the seas are seven to ten feet. I listen to one operator explain to another customer that he wants him to have a good experience. There is no experience as wonderfully memorable as grabbing a dive ladder that’s plunging up and down twelve feet and going up like a rocket on the up tick.
Besides, conditions like that induces nausea in 90% of the other divers and always gives me a chance to help them out by explaining the three known methods of vomiting underwater, two of which may lead to death. (Note 1) You can always tell when someone loses it in tropical waters because clouds of yellowtails start biting their cheeks.
After the fourth turndown, I regroup and ask Mrs. Phred to walk with me two miles out on the old “seven mile” bridge to Pigeon Key. On the walk we see a woman pushing a baby carriage ahead of us. She turns around and we try to keep straight faces as we see a little dog in the carriage. I snap a photo surreptitiously.
Along the way we see hundreds of large black stingrays bottom-feeding, a large nurse shark and a sea turtle. Stingrays have furry skins that feels like very plush velvet. Nurse sharks are very docile and only bite if you find them sleeping and pull their tails.
A number of years back I was diving in the gulf about 60 feet down with my 16 year old son on a limestone ledge when we came upon a truly strange object. My mind instantly said “alien cocoon”. Then the object resolved into a 300 pound sleeping turtle. I grabbed his shell and he towed me out of the sight of my son very quickly. This is considered illegal harassment of turtles.
Pigeon Key is two miles south of Marathon Key. Henry Flagler ran his overseas railroad across the seven miles separating Marathon and the next key and used the small Pigeon Key in the middle of the gap to house up to 400 construction personnel. The existing structures on Pigeon Key were built around 1909. Pigeon Key was the Southern terminus for the rescue operations after the 1935 Labor Day hurricane. There are over 5,000 huge concrete pilings spanning the gap. Even the water to mix concrete had to be run down in wooden casks on railroad flatcars.
The seven mile railroad bridge reopened as a two-lane toll road in 1938. Tolls were discontinued in 1952 and the old “seven mile” bridge stopped carrying traffic in 1982 when the new bridge opened.
Note 1:
1. Throw up through your regulator. The downside of this is that big chunks may clog the regulator, making it unusable. Most divers now have a spare regulator, so this is not necessarily fatal.
2. Remove the regulator and throw up. This method is likely to lead to aspiration of water and death.
3. Remove the regulator and hit the purge button to create an air bubble in which to vomit. This is considered the best form.
Discuss this Journal entry [1]
Latest reply: Apr 22, 2007
Phred Firecloud
Researcher U1293358
Write an Entry
"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a wholly remarkable book. It has been compiled and recompiled many times and under many different editorships. It contains contributions from countless numbers of travellers and researchers."