Do It Go

With its proximity to beaches as well as other spectacular natural spots, with gorgeous possibilities for gold, snorkling, or just exploring the great unknown, Cape Town has it going on.  It’s been a major center for world culture and industry for some time, and recent years have seen a rise in its popularity as a tourist destination.  Those who have known about the splendors of the place have probably been wondering why it’s taken the rest of the world so long to catch on, but the word is definitely out.  It has everything, including great hotels: check these out.

There is a fantastic night life, of course, and just about everything else big cities have to offer.  But there’s definitely something that’s hard to find in New York.  Penguins.  Cape Town has one of the most active conservation movements in the world, and it’s certainly taken the penguin cause under its wing (pun perhaps intended).  The Penguin Conservation Centre rehabilitates penguins who have been victim to oil spills, among other things, and has taken care of thousands and thousands of these fascinating birds since it opened in 1968. Sanccob is another center that rehabilitates penguins, with similar success rates, and a similar history.  The focus is not strictly on penguins, but all of South Africa’s seabirds, which include penguins, along with Gulls, Gannets, Cormorants, and Oystercatchers.

The focus is not entirely on oil spills, of course.  They work with injured or otherwise endangered birds as well.  The focus is on conservation and preservation, so that the lives of South Africa’s penguins can be saved and protected, and so that future generations can understand the delicate balance where we live.  In the global scheme of things, South Africa has been at the forefront of environmental awareness, and the green world owes a lot to the people doing excellent work here.

Tags: http://www.capetownhotel.net, Penguin Conservation Centre, Sanccob
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This song came out somewhere in a state of amnesia for me, and when I finally did hear it, it had been something even old fans already loved for a couple years.  I’m like a lot of their original fans, I followed them from Murmur up to Life’s Rich Pageant, and even though Green got me through some hard moments, it was only a few moments.  It may be that the angst I felt when I was 23 had already started to diminish by the time I turned 23 1/2, but there’s something about this group that wakes up an old feeling somewhere.  A couple of songs later, and I’m nursing some forgotten pain like a new toothache, and the world is suddenly very bright.

R.E.M. was something my girlfriend and I would listen to while having one of those long, life-changing talks where you discover there’s another interesting person in the world besides yourself.  We’d talk about how we wanted to find our way to a cheap hotel in Los Angeles where we could hole up and practice our art.  Maybe we could call Michael Stipe by then, maybe we’d be friends, and he’d want to work with us on a new project.  We had ideas about an installation about poisoning in history, and he would be a kind of Mortimer Brewster figure with a shaved head and a lot of darkness.

Those things are still coming somewhere in the future, but for now, I had the chance to listen to Electrolite on my way to L.A. one summer night, and the result was kind of stunning.  This was a new R.E.M. all right, with new ideas and new textures.  The deep and often unintelligible critique of the American Dream was very solid in this, and it still had that weird way they have of making you want to cry a little bit while you’re eating.  The most sensational time I had, however, was another trip, riding my friend’s motorcycle down Mullholland Drive, looking at the Hollywood Bowl, and this song came up on the car stereo next to me at a stoplight.  It would have been so much more poetic had the driver been my old girlfriend, but much more like R.E.M. that it was a middle aged man in a Hawaiian shirt, who looked a lot like me.

Tags: cheap hotel in Los Angeles, Electrolite, R.E.M.
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You can’t find absolutely everything in New York, but if you try, you can always find something that’s pretty close to what you’re looking for.  Sometimes it’s the search that’s the only thing that matters, the process of gathering clues together, and thinking about what will happen when the day comes.  It can become a kind of obsession, and some of these, if they are invoked voluntarily, and with a heavy dose of good humor, can be more fun than a real obsession.  They can also work to keep that strange reptilian part of the mind occupied, convinced that it’s doing something enormously important.  

Except sometimes, for me, I get carried away, even when it’s clearly just a game.  I was at a party and someone was talking about Where’s Waldo, and I remembered being in the Where’s Waldo Fan Club very briefly.  I understand it was only a club for a year.  They said something about how difficult it would be to find the character in New York, because there are too many people.  Also, it seemed unlikely that anyone would decide to dress up like Where’s Waldo there, because it seems as though it might be an extraordinarily risky thing to do.  So I booked a hotel here and set off for the Big Apple.

It has changed a lot in the past few years, and it actually does seem like a place where you could dress like anything, and no one would mind, and these days, perhaps not even hassle you.  It’s a different city than I remember, but that’s always been true.  I started looking, but before I could make any headway, I got lost in my own thoughts.  I was reflecting on the appeal of Waldo to me, and how I always like matching games when I was little.  There was something about that in this.  And it also seemed significant in how my own sense of balance has shifted to discover that, when I did see Waldo it didn’t surprise me at all.

Tags: http://www.newyorkairporthotel.com, Waldo, Where's Waldo Fan Club
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I wasn’t planning on going home for awhile, at least not until I got out of my 20s.  The high school years were tragic enough, as they are for everyone who thinks differently, or dresses differently, or has different ways of making decisions, and that was certainly my case.  It did not matter so much that of all the friends I had, I could only trust one, because in the end, even that one started to become somebody I didn’t recognize.  But when my father started to get sick, I had a feeling I’d be back sooner than later. 

We meet in the lobby of one of those luxury hotels in Atlanta, the ones where everything is there for the asking.  This is the kind of Southern charm and hospitality that I’d missed when I was growing up.  It was ironic, then, to be sitting in front of the woman that I thought I would never forgive.  She married my father after I’d given up on hoping for the mother I never had.  She was worldly, and liked to travel, and was all of the things that I did not want in a mother, so I never gave her the respect that I can now see that she deserved.  I also noticed that she had given up on waiting for anything from me, and seemed oddly at peace with it.

 There’s something about Southern families that remind me of the saying about blood being thicker than water.  At times, it felt like I was living in a Beth Henley play.  But at moments like these, when we were talking and planning the services, I understood that there are ties that bind and can be as strong as a bloodline.  Or nearly so.  Six years of taking care of one of the most unreasonable human beings in the world had turned her into a member of the family.  She understood more about him that any of us, and even knew about some of his hidden obsessions.  I’ll never understand why my father hated Bob Hope so much, but she did, and at this moment, it was just enough.

Tags: Beth Henley, Bob Hope, luxury hotels in Atlanta
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Ben was too excited to catch his breath after his best friend and also bass player in their band told him that they had just received their first invitation to play live in a club in Austin. This was the first major goal their band Rear View had developed since they first came together six months ago. In addition they believed in taking their development slowly after a month of playing together. They felt they had real potential and were writing original music and lyrics and they didn’t want to overexpose themselves too early or get stuck in an immediate rut. So, they gave themselves a year to get their first Austin gig and while Ben was breathless at the news, Troy, the more rational and calm of the two, had his concerns that the band may be moving too fast.
The members of Rear View had driven into Austin numerous times in the past and had seen bands play at clubs such as the Carousel Lounge, The Dirty Dog Bar and The Warehouse Saloon and Billiards. Each of these places were among their favorites whenever they came to town. Last year they reserved some rooms in one of the hotels Austin and spent the whole weekend there and went to the Austin City Limits Music Festival. They had such a great time there that they decided to make a special trip every year and stay the entire weekend. And while it was definitely a great time they decided they should be allowed to go every year because it was work related and they would study some of the bigger musician’s performances.

The Carousel Lounge was Ben’s favorite club in Austin. He liked it for many reasons, such as the atmosphere and staff, but also because they hosted an assortment of performances and every time they went there he was guaranteed to see something different. And he always had a great time at the Carousel. Troy, however, had a strong preference for The Dirty Dog Bar. He greatly appreciated the warehouse feel of the building and he also loved that it was a combination of sports and live music. This was something he always felt would be a good blend and it allowed alternative bands to gain new audiences. It was also unique in Austin as the only extreme sports themed live music place. Troy had ambitions of using the three eight foot screens as part of a live music show someday. But for now, he felt the need to keep the other band members tamed down and use this upcoming performance in Austin simply as experience performing together. They weren’t ready to burst onto the scene and he knew it.

Tags: hotels Austin, The Dirty Dog Bar
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Miami was the place where I saw Oshun for the first time, or knew I was seeing her, for the first time.  She’s the African goddess of love and all the fine things in life, and related to rivers, too, they tell me.  I caught a glimpse of her one night when I was dancing.  It was very late.  You could say that I really didn’t know what I was seeing, and at the time, that was certainly true, but I know for sure I saw something that couldn’t have been anything else.  I was there to visit an old friend, he’d invited a few old college buddies down to visit him the week before he was getting married.  We were supposed to spend the weekend entertaining him, then help pitch in with the wedding ceremony.

I love Miami’s luxury hotels, they have a spirit of true accommodation that speaks to my own taste for refined things.  I love waking up with nothing but possibility ahead, and in truth, it makes me so excited I can also get a little nervous.  So it was good that we were there with something specific in mind.  We had to entertain Joey.  His favorite places in Miami are way too numerous to mention, and even more troubling to remember, because I am still very unclear about everything that night.

We started off at a local pub, a nice place that serves a pretty likable crew of regulars.  This was a real boys night out, but we decided we weren’t going to do the traditional bachelor party thing.  He was really devoted to this girl, and didn’t want any of the usual kinds of fun that you see in films.  So a pub lead to a few games of pool, and somewhere in there was a dinner, and then a club.  Between the dinner and the club is where things started to shift. I hadn’t had much to drink, so I can’t put it to that, but there was something strange when I started to smell cinnamon and clove in the air.  And oranges, too.  I thought it was the city, and the citrus.  The smell was much, much stronger in the club, and in one moment, the woman that I had been dancing with turned into something else.  She told me later that was Oshun I was seeing.  I can’t describe her very well, other than saying I saw something in her eye that was more than a sparkle.  And their wedding was blessed from that moment on.

Tags: cinnamon and clove, Miami's luxury hotels, Oshun
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A city this large is bound to have a lot of ghosts, and a lot of memories.  It doesn’t hurt that it’s one of the most vital centers of culture in the world, attracting artists from every nation, and every generation births another batch of young and talented people who see this city as their destination to begin or complete a life work.  It’s particularly exciting to find footprints of your most beloved icons somewhere in the city, and it’s almost dizzying to realize how many famous writers, poets, and musicians have been here.  You can try booking a hotel in Central Park near where your hero once walked.

Or jogged, as the case may be.  In a particularly absurd death, Bob Marley had his last run here, suffering a stroke while jogging at only 36 years of age.  Fans often overlook the very mundane details of such a spectacular life, but it was cancer that was discovered when he’d had a toe removed that eventually took his life.  He was born under a rising star, and rode it as far as he possibly could.  His achievements were no less than legendary, giving a remarkable depth to a music that moved millions, and inspired change.

It still inspires change.  Every generation that gets enchanted by Jamaica’s home-grown music discovers the influence of Bob Marley.  Although there are scores of excellent musicians who follow in his footsteps, both in terms of musical talent and revolutionary fervor, none can match his enormous impact, and perhaps that’s exactly how it should be.  In Central Park, these are enormously significant footprints, and they cannot be erased by time, and there’s no signs of willingness to forget.  The beat goes on, and the lyrics are poignant reminders of a visionary who was not afraid to stomp the terra.

Tags: Bob Marley, Central Park, hotel in Central Park
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For not getting hardly any sleep, I got up pretty early and headed out on a bus to South Beach, Florida. Stepped of the bus and headed straight into the water. It was so nice! Being from the west coast, the warm waters of the Florida ocean is a real treat, I stayed in for hours, even when it started to rain. But, was was so unbelievable, was when I looked further out, I saw a water sprout! It was pretty far away, but it was still cool!

I got out of the water and had nothing to dry myself off with, forgot to bring a towel. But, I figured it didn’t matter when I went in search of food. There were plenty of beach side restaurants that I’m sure caters to all types of beach people. I got a slice of New York style cheese pizza and then caught the bus back to my accommodations, really one of the best resort hotels Florida has to offer to be honest about it. When I got back, I headed straight for the resorts pool for a few hours. There were only a few guests poolside, so it was really great to almost have the pool to myself.

After cleaning up, I went to the restaurant in my hotel for dinner. I didn’t recognize most of the dishes, but I’m the adventurous type so I just pointed to an entree and hoped for the best. I lucked out, the dish was called Veal Oscar, and man, was that the most tastiest meal I’ve ever had. Later, when I got back home, a friend of mine told me what veal was, and I felt a little sad, but it tasted so good, so I didn’t stay sad for long.

One of the hotel guest invited me out to this Booze cruise where there was an open bar. I drank way too much and danced with some of the funniest people I’ve ever met, all the while the boat took us to a place called, well I really can’t recall, but I didn’t stay there for too long, because I was pretty much out of it. Luckily, the guy who invited me on this booze cruise, made sure I made it back to my hotel. Nice guy.

I had no idea that Florida would end up being one fun filled day and night after another. I really thought it might be boring, I really did. But, boy, was I ever wrong.

Tags: resort hotels Florida, Veal Oscar
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Mom was joking on my phone the day of my arrival to Seattle, she said it rains a lot in Seattle. Coming from the UK, that’s not surprising and it didn’t surprise me that upon my arrival, it was raining, actually pouring, not that light mist I read about in the travel guides.

After finding one of the Seattle luxury hotels where I have reservations, and checking in, I headed to the library. I took a quick look in the Lonely Planet guidebook for Seattle. They say Seattle has only about 55 days without rain and the other 310 days have some fog or MIST or a presents of clouds. Again, another guide book not mentioning a down pour. Luckily, it only lasted a few hours and then it changed to the well known cloudy mist. I couldn’t see any of the top of the skyscrapers.

I went to the Experience Music Project after the library, and found out the Seattle was the home town of Jimi Hendrix, but it was in New York where he was spotted and in London where he made it big. The EMP complex cost $450 million to create by one of the Microsoft co-founders. The building is the weirdest thing I’ve seen to date. Apparently, it is controversial among the Seattlites because it was inspired when the architect bought many guitars and smashed them all up and used this pile of broken guitars as the inspiration for this building.

Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed the EMP complex. I learned a lot about the history of music, about the guitar, the West coast music scene, and tons about Jimi Hendrix. The founder is a huge fan of Jimi Hendrix, and actually, this building was to be all about Jimi, but thankfully, he expanded upon the idea. There was a section where I could mess around on a few instruments. The EMP provides a MEG (an electronic guide) that I could point at an exhibit, or key in a number, and the MEG informed me, via headphones, about the exhibit I’m looking at. Got to give kudos to the Microsoft co-founder to have up-to-date electronics in his building.

Tomorrow, I’m off to Portland, but first I’ll check out the Seattle music scene tonight.

Tags: Experience Music Project, Jimi Hendrix, Seattle luxury hotels
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