"Saturday Ramblings..."

One Head Light...

The Wallflowers was one of my more favorite bands from back in the '90's...

What ever happened to the '90s?

Oh yeah...

'96-97'

My Dad died...

The Divorce...

never mind... silly question

What ever happened to The Wall Flowers??

They made up their minds...

and they started packing...

I would have figured that they had some staying power, but maybe the days of becoming a major headlining act and hanging around for many years is gone.  After all, they have these TV shows that claim they can find our  next new musicians... and they do... but they don't seem to last.

I liked The Wall Flowers' version of 'Heroes' better than David Bowie's... and I like Bowie's version. I just like the cover better...

...they left before the sun came up that day...

Does anything really ever last?

I don't think so...

'The Way'

Now, this was a cool song, and,I think, a WAY COOL music video...

To the best of my knowledge, the song was the only song ever recorded by the bass player... and I think it was their only real hit... 

Why don't bass players get any love??

I mean, when it comes to groupies, the bass player gets the left overs... I think the bassist comes in (no pun intended) after the drummer...

... and the bass he used in this video. I LOVE a Fender Jazz Bass with the ash tray and pick-up cover.

they just drove off and left it all behind them...

I feel like these old vehicles today... maybe I need someone to come in... knock out the dents... give me a new coat of paint, re-wire me, and see if I have any additional mileage left in me.

But where were they going without ever knowing the way...???

I think I have turned the corner.  I kind of feel kind of normal today... I don't feel 100%... I don't feel like going out and starting a fight or anything...

~shoes~

'ZZ Top...'

'I remember Ruby...

She always dressed in Red,

Wearin' skin tight pants,

Lord, and how she could dance...'

Three chords and a cloud of dust...

I would wear one of those jackets in a heart beat!!

Anybody know where I can get one?

I DO own a hat like those!!

These guys get more mileage from that description than any other band I know...

I didn't care that much for their techno-phase...

'Down At The Balinese'

Babies... mere babies...

'Mexican Blackbird'

'Aw, let's drive that old Chrysler to Mexico, boys...'

'Blue Jean Blues'

I have been a fan of this band since... way back!!


Meanwhile...
back at the  ranch...

At the time you are reading this, I am, hopefully, recovering from surgery... While I am out and under the influence of whatever they use to knock me out, I hope I have visions of ZZ Top and their gals racing through my head...

I'm hoping that the doctor will have good news...

In the meantime... 


I'll keep the three chords and a cloud of dust thing going...



Thank ya... thank ya ver' much...


I am so not looking forward to this...
*sighs*


~shoes~

"Clint Eastwood..."

I have to admit... I'm a big Clint Eastwood fan...

I also like John Wayne...

but, this is about Clint.

Have you ever wondered about how many people his characters have killed or shot up?

... but I gots ta know...

... we just aren't going to let you walk out of here...

"... whistlin' Dixie..." 

... a shave and a hot bath...

'...he should have armed himself...'

I wonder if he's ever tired after all of that shootin'?

It just doesn't seem to pay to anger Clint and then get in his way...

~shoes~

"My Trip... Aachen, Germany"

Charlemagne

Karl The Great

I took a train from Frankfurt to Aachen, Germany... arriving the afternoon of June 28th. There was no one at the train station to meet me... I had difficulty finding anyone who spoke English that was able to help me... so I set out to find my lodging and to get my bearings on the city.


If any of you are ever responsible for someone from another country visiting your  city, make sure someone is at the airport/train station/wherever to meet and greet them... and get them to their accommodations.

Aachen is a very storied city... it is best known for its association with Charlemagne and the Holy Roman Emperors that followed him.  Charlemagne's Cathedral is located in Aachen, as are many important artifacts of that era.

The school that I visited... and where I lectured, is located here.  All in all, I had a good experience here, although, it was in Aachen were I was probably the sickest.  I would wake up, have something light for breakfast... have about a 45 minute walk to the school... teach my materials, and then return to my room.  Most of the afternoons there, I would get in bed and try to rest/recover.  For someone who is seldom physically ill, I spent a great deal of time under the weather.

A City Gate

(My photo)

At one time in Aachen's history, the city was fortified... completely walled in, and in the walls, were eight gates just as the one above.  To put everything in perspective, there is a life size statue of a man to the right of the open gate in the structure.  Invading armies would have great difficulties breaching these city walls.  In World War II, Aachen had the distinction of being the first German city to fall to the allies.  The city suffered great damage during the battle.

Guard At The Gate

(My Photo)

Aachen, as I stated above, was the first German city to fall to allied forces in WWII... the damage to the city was significant...  I've read that the city of Aachen was 85% destroyed... unbelievable...

(obviously not my photo)

Anyhoo...

(not my photo)

This is Charlemagne's Cathedral, The Aachen Cathedral... construction of this magnificent building began in the late 8th century... now, in order to put things in perspective, here is what the people living in my part of the country were building at about this same time...

Now, if you are thinking, Hell, that's nothing but a pile of dirt... you are exactly right.  This is one of the Winterville Mounds, located about 40 miles south of here.  As a matter of fact, the mounds are dated to about 1000 AD, which means that these mounds were built about 200 years after construction of this cathedral in Europe started...

(my photo)

This is the main entrance to the cathedral...

(not my photo)

(not my photo)

I attended a Sunday Morning Mass in this building on my last Sunday in Aachen.  I sat in this rotunda area where Charlemagne and other Emperors of the  Holy Roman Empire celebrated religious services...  me, a long-haired leaping gnome of a professor that lucked up into this trip.

I tend to not be a very religious person... I'm more spiritual than religious, but when you sit in such an environment... and see all of this... you start to think that maybe... just maybe... hmmm.  I do have great respect for others' religious beliefs, whether I agree with them or not...  that's the least I can do.

That chandelier in the above photo dates back to about 1400 AD... unbelievable...

(my photo)

This is one of the towers of the Cathedral... believed to be one of the oldest structures of the church, and is believed to have been erected around 780 AD. 


I read that in the bombing of Aachen, that the Cathedral took a direct hit from a bomb, but... given that the bomb was a dud and didn't explode, the Cathedral received minimal damage.  The article stated that the  size of the bomb, had it detonated, would have destroyed the  entire structure...

(my photo)

(my photo)

The sides of the structure had all of these statues situated around the windows... so much to see... so much to take in... I'm sure I missed a host of more minute detail.

Located a few blocks away was the Aachen City Hall...

(my photo)

I was told that once upon a time, it was connected to the Aachen Cathedral, but that damage during WWII destroyed the building that connected the two... in the area between the two buildings, you could see 'old' architecture that was blended into 'new' architecture... I'm pleased that they worked to keep as much of the integrity of the original structures as they could.

Charlemagne

Aachen City Hall

(my photo)

What I didn't do...

I didn't take photos of the store fronts... I didn't take photos of the streets... I didn't take photos of the people...


One evening when I was down by the City Hall, there was a most wonderful antique car show... and the car that caught my eye was a 1934 Bugatti... BEAUTIFUL!!!


The next day, there was a antique tractor show...  I saw Ford tractors and John Deere tractors that I never knew existed...

I wish I had felt better...

I sent many a text to people back home telling them how sick I felt...

There were parts of  this trip that were totally uplifting...

There were parts of this trip that were upsetting...

... but that's Life...

Isn't it?

~shoes~

"More Weird Shiznit..."

Vibrators...

I'm fairly certain I had a sound, valid reason earlier this afternoon when I performed a google search for'vibrators'...

Unfortunately, I can't recall what it was...

Of course, this is how many of these kinds of blog posts of mine come into existence...

Technically speaking, the gear shift above is fulfilling the responsibility of a 'dildo'... and not a vibrator...  of course, if the user of the dildo has palsy, or just a really really bad case of the shakes, then I suppose that a dildo would fulfill the definition of a vibrator, but the comparison would be like that of a manual push lawn mower versus a gas-powered lawn mower.

Anyway... I digress...

Here is an another example, I guess, of the above explanation... a manual tooth brush that was attached to a vibrator in order to provide the effects of an electric tooth brush.  That appears to be a rather nice vibrator and, I suppose,  not a very efficient use of said instrument.

I don't know who Ron is... or his wife... but she seems to have held the title of 'Miss Vibrator USA of some given year... and is alleged to have owned over 250 vibrators. I'm thinking that Ron must have had some serious self-esteem issues...

One might be using a vibrator...

... if she is making a face like this.

This photo has nothing to do with dildos, vibrators, electric toothbrushes... or anything like that... but it does remind me of something that happened to me a couple of years ago...  it had to do with the proximity of the headboard of the bed to the plug for the  lamp.

Of course, the effect was the same...

This must be an interesting place to work...  I'm thinking that there might be a great incentive to not bend over...

Now this is just funny...

I hope she's not a relative.

I have to be thankful that no one saw fit to give me one of these for Father's Day...  That is just a really troubling image...

And, I guess... last and most definitely not least...

here is what appears to be an industrial strength vibrator...

Is that a two-stroke engine??

I wonder how many brain cells I destroyed while working on this post?

~shoes~

"My Trip... Frankfurt, Germany"

Frankfurt Am Main

I teach at a small university in the Mississippi Delta...Back in January, a colleague passed by my office... stuck her head in the door and asked... 'Shoes, how about going to Europe this summer...,' to which I replied, 'sure, why not...'


A few weeks later, the scenario kind of repeated itself, and I asked if she was serious about the offer... she said she was... I asked for details, and it seems that there is an organization that promotes international studies, from both the standpoint of the students as well as professors...  I assured her I was interested, and the event just kind of took a life of its own.  Granted, I think she did a great deal of the work behind the scenes... setting up schools and basic itineraries...


When everything fell into place, I was going to fly into Frankfurt, Germany from Detroit, spend a few days there, and then head to the next destination.  I've never traveled outside  of the country before, and that was one long-assed flight.


I left Detroit at 5.30 PM, and arrived in Frankfurt at 8.30 AM (Frankfurt time- FT), which was 1.30 AM my body time. I was in serious sleep deprivation already.  I found the airport there to be very confusing, but that could easily have been  due to lack  of sleep and not being able to find many English speaking people to help me.

Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof

(not my photo)

I was able to take a train from  the airport to the Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof (train station)... according to an article I read, the station was built around 1895, survived the bombing that the city suffered during WWII, and serves 350,000 people a day.  If you saw how efficiently the trains enter and leave the station, that number becomes very plausible.


I arrived at my hotel at 10.45 AM FT... they took my luggage and stowed it for me... and I just went off and sat in the corner somewhere to rest... I was so tired. They must have felt sorry for me... I was given a room and I crashed.   I don't recall how long I slept.

(my photo)

Frankfurt is the financial center of Germany, and is home to the European Central Bank.  The European Union and the Euro Zone have been under great economic pressure... and there are questions about whether or not it will survive.  At the time I was there, an 'Occupy' movement had set up camps on a large mall area around the sign (above).  Seeing this kind of activity helped me to formulate my lectures that I would give, and use it as a means of learning what the students thought of the economic chaos that exists in Europe and the rest of the world today.  For the record, Germany and The Netherlands have the lowest unemployment rates in Europe, and possibly in the world... hovering around 5.4%.  These people are hard working, and do seem to spend their money in their respective economies.


Having witnessed an 'occupy movement' first hand, I am not impressed.

Frankfurt Am Main

(my photo)

There is a mix of new and old in the city.  That is the Frankfurt Cathedral in the left hand side of the photo above... I took the photo from one of several pedestrian bridges that cross the Main.  The story goes that allied bomber pilots were told to NOT damage that cathedral... not due to religious significance, but strategic reasons.  The cathedral was used as a landmark and a means to guide bombers to their targets.


Frankfurt was bombed five times during WWII.  The woman that I married was born in this city... her Mom was a young woman in Germany during the war... and in one of the bombing raids, quite a few members of her mother's family were killed, and my former MIL became the matriarch of the family.  I try to stress to my children that there aren't many American citizens that have great grandparents and  other family members that died as a result of the bombings in Germany.


In addition to the connection that I  have to Frankfurt through my former marriage, my great great grandfather was born and raised there.  My mother was of German heritage  and both sides of her family were from this area of Germany.

The Church Of The Three Kings

(my photo)

Another important cathedral in Frankfurt is 'The Church of the Three Kings,' with much reference to the honor of The Magi... this structure dates back to the mid 1300's... and it is still used today.  I sat inside this beautiful place and wondered if my great great grandfather, Balthazar Ohl, visited here... or if members of my in-laws' family ever visited here.  

(my photo)

I liked this photo because of the juxtaposition of the new and the old (Church Of The Three Kings)... Frankfurt is the only city in Germany with skyscrapers... Even though there is much construction occurring in Frankfurt rough one-third of the tall buildings are vacant.


 Frankfurt has a 'red light' district which  serves as home for both the legalized prostitution trade as well as legalized drug use.  The 'red light' district butts up (no pun intended) to the financial district... and the women are very aggressive.  I think what I wasn't prepared for was the extent of the legalized drug use, and how the users just gathered on the streets and rode out their highs.  If drugs are going to be legalized, I am not sure this is the manner in which it needs to be depicted.


I started feeling sick in  Frankfurt... I was thinking that it was all due to jet lag and sleep deprivation.  I spent two days in Frankfurt before heading to Aachen  for my first teaching  assignment...

Next Stop:  Aachen, Germany

~shoes~

"Stripping..."

Have you seen the story about the Bourbon Street stripper who was seen leaving the club with two club customers last week?

Body parts that have been identified as hers are washing up on Mississippi Gulf Coast beaches.


According to a news story, "Lockhart's remains began washing up on the Mississippi Gulf Coast hours after she disappeared  Her decapitated, limbless torso was found Thursday, then her head and parts of her limbs through the weekend."


Supposedly, the young woman, Jaren Lockhart, 22 years old, had been propositioned by the  couple on a prior visit, but she refused to leave the club with them.  I wonder what transpired over the interim that caused her to reconsider  and leave with them this time?

Two people have been arrested... a male (with sex offender status) and a female.


I can't even begin to imagine the terror... the horror... of the  last moments of her life.


My son had been in a fairly long-term relationship with a girl, and I was surprised a few months ago when  he said he and  one of his buddies were going to a strip club in Memphis... they made a day of it. In our conversation that followed, my son said that things that transpired should not be discussed between a Dad and a son... I interpreted that to mean he had a really good time...


Evidently, his girlfriend wasn't informed that such a trek was planned, because when she found out, she broke up with him soon afterwards.  Their relationship had been stressed... maybe he did this so she would get mad and break up.  Who knows why we make the decisions that we do.


There was this woman I used to date... we spent a long weekend in New Orleans... and somewhere in the conversation, it came up that she had gone to NOLA with a previous BF... they had gone to a Bourbon Street strip club, and that the fellow paid one of the dancers to go back to the hotel with them.  She then said that at some point, she told the dancer to get lost...


I guess I am surprised at the level of trust that can be created on short notice... in a short time.  How did that dancer, then, not know if she would be safe? I wonder if this happens on a regular basis in some of the NOLA clubs, or clubs in general...  There are things in Life for which I am greatly naive...

I remember visiting my daughter once in  NOLA... and finding 'comp cards' from a strip club, along with plexiglass heels and an  assortment of wigs...

"Daddy... it's NOT what you think!!!"

...my daughter offered without my having said or asked a thing.

...but I was thinking it...

Imagine going into a strip club and discovering that your daughter is a featured attraction!!  AUGH!!!!!

I have dated a woman who claims to have been a stripper... one who had to have been a stripper... and one who should have been  a stripper...

Anyway... this isn't about strip clubs... or strippers... maybe it's about expected safety... or maybe being unawares of the surrounding dangers...  I mean, there are stories in the news about husbands, wives, teachers, preachers, politicians committing similar horrible crimes.

Can we really trust anyone else with our safety... with our emotions...???

~shoes~

"Music Trivia.. Part I"

What do these songs all have in common?

Extra points if able to  connect this song...

~shoes~

"Weird Shit...

... I've Run Across Lately...

Ouch!!!

A Sure Fire sign that the Honey Moon is over...

Touche!!

HAR!!!

Wasn't there a 'Seinfeld' episode with this reference in it?

Been there...

Felt this before...

See The caption under the previous photo...

...still applies...

Poor bastard...

Sounds like me...

A combination Voo-Doo Doll and Knife  Holder Set...

That could explain a great deal of my aches here lately...

Hmmm... who all have I  pissed off lately???

~shoes~