A Travel Log

2009-07-08T13:11:00.000-07:00

07/01/2009 5:18 PM

Joplin, Missouri

The drive so far as been less than epic and much as anticipated. 'I could drive this drive blindfolded,' I told my Canadian friend yesterday when he wished me well. 'Well, that is if there weren't any cars around.' This is my sixth or seventh sojourn from Evansville, Indiana back to Los Angeles, California. I would like to make pretend and believe it is my last, but that borders on a kind of self-delusion that would find its logical end on the Pampas of Argentina in the arms of some lovely brown, busty creature if I allowed myself to follow it for too long.

The migraine started screaming about 20 miles outside of St. Louis headed West. Bang, bang went my head. A foul creature I probably created by my perennial refusal to do as my Mom would insist, “Stop. Eat something.” The road trip has never been about setting a moderate pace and stopping at the first sign of wear and tear. No, damn that concept; such a trip can wait; wait until I'm 65, bored, and longing to re-live a youth misspent. My road trip was always the heedless, head long, headstrong rush into the unknown future at the Western End or Eastern End of the United States. Stopping was something I did for gasoline, for the grease soaked bag of garbage fast food, for the minimum amount of required sleep before climbing back into whatever Econo-Box sedan I'd managed to procure.

But then there was this migraine pounding at the back right half of my head. This made driving a problem.

My normal cure of Excedrin and Regular Coca Cola simply wasn't cutting it. Just take more. Couple more pills couldn't hurt, right? My mind was filled with the recent horror stories about liver failure and acetaminophen. This curtailed my normal pill-popping fervor. My liver; I need that, right? By 3pm stopping wasn't an option; it was a requirement and Joplin, Missouri laid 18 miles ahead.

I had stopped in Joplin before. At least once, maybe twice, perhaps even thrice but never on the posh side of town at the Holiday Inn with an attached convention center. I do not know Mayor of Joplin, nor have I ever heard the Mayor of Joplin speak but I heard him as I caught a glimpse of the Holiday Inn's Lobby decked out in Faux Ozark and fake waterfall. This was the thing, I heard him proclaim, that no doubt made Joplin Missouri a bit better than all the other dozen Midwestern towns I had just burned through. This was the mecca that would place Joplin on the map, no doubt. The Holiday Inn with the attached Convention Center would sucker in all the Shriners, Politicos, and Business Associations longing to conventioneer at an affordable convention destination.

Upon checking in the Round Faced Chubby Lady with the Sweet Smile and the Desperate Eyes gave me two green tickets for a shindig named “The Manager's Reception”. The tickets good for two free , alcoholic drinks. Shame; me, here in Joplin, invited to The Manager's Reception, and not a thing to wear.

The Parking Lot was filled with SUVs and Trucks bearing McCain / Palin 08! Bumper stickers that their owners still wore proudly. Or perhaps simply didn't wish to scrape off after defeat. The Halls filled with more White, Red Ruddy faced Conventioneers. Forty something and no doubt checked out on their own vacation away right here in Beautiful Downtown Joplin.

One in particular I recall... A Blonde, bobbed blonde hair and skin tanned in a red brown leather roamed the halls in short shorts, clutching a can of Miller Lite. She seemed to have the passcodes to a couple rooms which she would bounce in and out of. What was behind those doors I wondered? A toot of meth, another Miller Lite, a gangbang for mournful Republicans? I guess I could go to the Manager's Reception. No doubt she would be there. She looked like the kind of sort who would be anywhere, especially if handed two free drink tickets. Perhaps the Blonde with the Bobbed Hair and Leather Skin tan could be enticed into showing me what lay behind those doors she held all the keys for.

But no; the headache; the acetaminophen; the liver failure. Best not chance it. Best to stay inside tonight, lay low, not even try to keep up with the wild and crazy Conventioneers that had been drawn to Joplin, Missouri. I would stay inside and let Brian Williams tale me tales of doom coming from the State of California instead.

On the ride up to the third floor and my room I was joined by two maid. 'I'm three,' I said, pointing limply to the elevator key panel. 'Oh that's okay,' she declared with a Missouri twang, 'I don't know where I'm going.' 'I've had those days.' The other Maid turned and smiled at me. Whether from a healthy methamphetamine habit or an under-employed boyfriend that liked to knock her around, a gap gaped from where her front teeth should have been. 'Yeah! Boy!' she punctuated her laugh.

07/02/2008

Santa Rosa, New Mexico

A restless night at the Holiday Inn Joplin, Missouri. Pillows too small, room too cold, and the overall foreign sterility of the hotel rooms is a combo for insomnia. I was an out of practiced traveler who's brain refused to switch off and accommodate the essential strangeness that comes from sleeping in strange places for a $120 a night.

Today was an unremarkable burn through Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle, ending up here, Santa Rosa New Mexico. A town that seemed to have built itself around the economy of providing the road weary with lodging for a night or two. As far out as Amarillo the billboards blared, “SANTA ROSA! 18 HOTELS!” And 18 there were. All seemingly crammed together on a 5 mile drag.

But as I sit at the desk of the Hampton Inn leafing through brochures proclaiming that, yes, I too could learn to scuba dive in a hardscape, desert town my thoughts do not lie in Santa Rosa. Passing through Oklahoma, near the Texas Oklahoma border, I came to a town.

The name I forgot as soon as I left. Four old men in cowboy hats and slow voices sat inside the local gas station. They drawled from one subject onto the next. I got the sense that this conversation had been meandering, topic to topic, for tens of years, starting nowhere and going nowhere. No plan of action ever formulated. The drawled out talk was all their was for these four guys in cowboy hats.

The Denny's was across the street from the gas station and the four cowboys, bolted to a Days Inn and hurting for business. There was a single waitress, Maria, barely able to converse in English, handwriting notes for extra clarity. How had this girl barely a woman from another country, presumably Mexico, had found her way to the forgettable town in Oklahoma on the Texas Oklahoma border is a mystery to me.

I do not know what it means, or whether it means a thing at all. Like all other members of the human race I am a Significance Junkie practicing the art of pattern recognition in a chaotic world. Maria does necessarily mean anything. But its her, and her hand scrawled 'Thank You!' on the back of my Denny's receipt, that occupies my mind tonight in Santa Rosa, New Mexico.

07/03/2009

Los Angeles, California and Points Between

Flat out road running today. Piling speed upon speed until I reach my destination. Trepidation creeps in. Despite my veil of confidence I have no idea what awaits me in Los Angeles.

North Korea Waves A Taepodong in Our Face

2009-04-02T15:21:00.000-07:00

From MSNBC.com:

SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea has begun fueling a long-range rocket, U.S. officials told NBC News on Thursday, as President Barack Obama warned that launching the missile would be a "provocative act" that would generate a U.N. Security Council response.

The three-stage Taepodong 2 rocket is sitting on a launchpad, the sources said, adding that "final checkouts and preparations" are under way for an "imminent launch" — meaning North Korea appeared to be on track to launch the missile sometime over the weekend.

And, at the same time North Korea is attempting to successfully launch their Taepodong 2 missile, they are still holding CurrentTV (aka Al Gore T.V.) journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling prisoner and threatening to put Lee and Ling on trial for "hostile acts" which are punishable by Fifteen years in a labor camp.

EchoingPhil Bronstein's colum today, I've got to ask, Where is the Outrage? The Traditional Media has said nary a peep about the imprisonment of Euna Lee and Laura Ling, and CurrentTV, according to reports on Gawker, appears to be actively suppressing any mention of their situation and scrubbing the story from CurrentTV's website.

Even on Daily Kos there has been only a handful of diaries on the topic. None of them getting anywhere near the rec list. We've got buckets of outrage to spare when President Obama does something we deem as "un-progressive" but we can barely muster up a drop of the stuff to help draw attention to the plight of two American Reporters being held in a North Korean gulag.

Shame on us.

I fear that when Phil Bronstein writes:

That silence has raised the notion that perhaps old liberals just sit back and let the young impressionables do their dirty work. Prison is hard.

He may be speaking a hard truth.

Euna Lee and Laura Ling deserve better from the U.S. Government, better from their employers and colleagues, and better from each and every blogger who is fortunate enough to sit behind a desk without fear of being hauled off to prison.

Welcome to The Tour

2009-04-02T15:09:00.000-07:00

Eh, not really that much of a re-launch. I went in and cleaned out a bunch of old blogs and related content in an effort to freshen up the place a bit. I also took down the links for outdated Blog Exchanges (so 2005) and got rid of the ads for the moment. They consumed space, and never made me a dime so GONE.

If you are new to this site and to me if you look off to your right you will find everything you'll need to know. My IMDB credits, my resume, a couple of old scripts I've shelved and really only use for writing samples. In the coming weeks I am actually exploring the idea of Open Sourcing a couple scripts under a Open License, or something. I'm not entirely sure how that will work, but I am thinking towards that direction. I've also added a Rate Card for writing services -- think of it more in terms of a guideline than a hard and fast rule.

And the big addition is that I've added a Twitter Widget where you can read all my wonderful, wonderful 140 character thoughts.

In the coming weeks I'll probably be cross-posting some of my feverish politically oriented scribblings posted on Daily Kos here. I'll also be doing more personal blogging here. Maybe. No promises.

Keep it Sexy, America.

TEST

2009-04-01T15:07:00.001-07:00

Cleaning old stuff out, reduxing a few things, will be back to running order in a day or two.

Larry Madill: A Writer Gone Sane

A Travel Log

North Korea Waves A Taepodong in Our Face

Welcome to The Tour

TEST