A place for fellow ne'er do wells to converge in an orgy of laziness
and mindful mindlessness....oh, and watch cool videos
Today was just what I needed.
Nothing says Fall to me like a relaxing drive down Route 15 to my hometown of Johnson, Vermont. My sister was my co-pilot and we stopped at old haunts along the way to do some filming for my 100th episode of Stuck in VT.
Hearty lunch in Johnson, a cemetery stop over, a woods walk at our old apartments, apple cider and donuts...it just does not get any better.
If you wanna see more foliage, check it out on Facebook!
Last night Burlington was consumed by a ferocious ice storm that made me want to stay home and hide under the covers.
This morning Lucy and I ventured out to Centennial Woods for a walk through the damaged forest. Above us trees swayed, creaked and moaned. The paths were littered with massacred tree body parts and I expected a branch to come thudding down on my head at any moment.
As much as I hate shoveling my driveway over and over again, I am loving all this beautiful white fresh snow. Our daily walk in Centennial Woods is that much prettier with every snowfall.
New Year's Eve was spent tromping through a winter wonderland and being thankful for all 2007 brought and the simple fact that WE LIVE IN VERMONT! There are more winter wood pics on Facebook.
My friend Susan is visiting from Oakland with her boyfriend Brian this week. Susan and I have been friends for 20 years (!?) and met at VT's GIA which is basically a summer camp for arty freaks (also attended by my HS pal, Guppy Boy's Zach Ward mind you).
We got to talking about Oakland and how different life is there from here. I got a bit nostalgic, I admit it. I started missing the spectacle, the immense views, the ocean, the speed, the lit-up night sky, the "Ooohs" and the "Ahhhs" and my favorite Italian restaurant Lo Cocos' tiramisu.
My nostalgia turned to mud, however, when I discovered that the Bay Bridge is CLOSED for the weekend for the new freeway construction (coverage here). This means that you have to take a HUGE, traffic-filled detour to get into the city which basically means you are SCREWED.
That is the thing about life in the Bay Area, you are ridiculously dependent on cars, freeways, BARTS and the like. Without transport over the water, you are stuck. Kind of like how I am stuck in Vermont but different.
To make matters worse, I discovered that a MAJOR part of the freeway recently crumpled into nothing - POOF. In April, a section of the MacAurthur Maze collapsed when a tanker truck caught on fire (story and creepy pics here).
I used to take this bit of freeway home EVERY single night. And in an instant it was just...gone?! And it was not even an earthquake that took it out, just a tanker truck? How random? How surprising? How Bay Area.
Even more astonishing, the connector was rebuilt only 26 days after the original accident for the minor fee of $90 million. Ba da bing.
Life in the Bay Area is fluid. You gotta roll with the bridge closings, freeways collapses and other sporadic punches or you will get knocked out.
I could not be any more glad that I am stuck here in VT where life takes a much slower pace and there are no bridges or freeways to fall on top of my head, just packs of carousing college students looking for the next best party.
I drove out to Greensboro Sunday for the opening day of Circus Smirkus. Although I grew up in Johnson, I never spent much time in the kingdom. Never too late to make up for that now!
After shooting the vlog for 4 hours, I was exhausted. Even though I don't actually do much physically, shooting and interviewing leaves me spent and dried out, not much more than a husk.
The 1.5 hour drive home was stunning. Storm clouds threatened and I stopped for a chocolate shake and fries. It mixed well with the cotton candy, hotdog and popcorn consumed earlier.
Vermont, you take my breath away...forget those things I said about San Francisco last month, you are mon petite chou!
I know, I know, time to shut up about Sonic Youth already but it has been a long time since I posted any cloud pictures and this sunset reminds me off...you guessed it, the Sonic Youth show Sunday! HAW!
At long last, the Sonic Youth vlog detailing the post-show activities Sunday night at Higher Ground.
This show kicked some major VT ass. What could be more inspiring than seeing/hearing artists still rocking the shit out of life decades into their career? Hells yeah.
Thanks to Sonic Youth for coming to VT, to Higher Ground for bringing them here, to JDK for making their super cool, thought-inspiring posters and to all the psyched SY fans who talked to me after the show (many of whom were Canadian...hmmm).
This marks the first episode of Stuck in Vermont that "officially" falls under the grand auspices of Seven Days - the hottest paper in town if you ask me. It is a partnership I am super excited about and there is no where else STVT would rather live! So be on the look out for a Stuck in VT vlog/blog on the Seven Days site in the future and many more vlogs about local artists, events and shows!
That is the thing about VT, even when you are buried under a mountain of snow, it isn't so bad because there is so much to do while you are stuck, waiting for the snow to melt...
And on a legal note, a huge thanks to Sonic Youth for letting me use their killer song "Incinerate" off their hellah hot new album Rather Ripped and also to Geffen Records, Universal Music Enterprises and Silva Artist Management for filling out all the very complicated paperwork and giving me a much needed lesson in copyright laws.
And to the Jennifers at UMe and SAM for making this all happen - and in record time!! You are both getting VT care packages in the mail, mark my words, maple syrup and flannel. Oh yes, beware!
What on earth were Sonic Youth doing in Vermont you may ask? Beats me but I think it has something to do with Higher Ground being AWESOME! Oh yeah!
I was up all night vlogging some post-show fan interviews so this has to be brief (yeah, yeah, not my style). Mid-week there will hopefully be a Seven Days-approved Stuck in VT episode about the post-show festivities after the epic Sonic Youth show (cross those fingers). 
In the meantime, here are some of my whacked out show pics (oh, to be flashless, ouch). I stood up close to the speakers and felt the vibrating sounds wash over me like Niagra Falls mixed with crack cocaine. It was like being underwater and swimming in an undulating sea of dissonant noise. Delicious and refreshing, Sonic Youth always satisfies.
And what other band asks the audience for book recommendations mid-show? A rock band that reads? They are one of a kind, yes siree.
