A Couple Of Political Observations

Is it me or did anyone catch how the media totally missed the fact that President Barack Obama did not attend the celebration for the 20 year anniversary of the falling of the Berlin Wall? November 9, 2009 marked the 20 year anniversary of an important event in recent history... the fall of the Berlin Wall. Many heads of state travelled to Germany to take part in the remembrance of the beginning of the end for Communism. This included British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, French President Nicholas Sarkozy and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. Even Mikhail Gorbachev and Polish anti-communist leader Lech Walesa were in attendance. But US President Barack Obama was no where to be found.

Pres. Obama claimed his agenda was just too full for him to attend. It's funny. In early October when his schedule was full, but he was able to find time to travel to Copenhagen with his wife and Oprah Winfery to lobby for the Olympics to come to Chicago. Not to mention, Obama has travelled abroad more during his first year in office than any other US President.  It makes one wonder where his priorities are.

The US was a major player in the Cold War.  Doesn't it look bad that the US President is absent from this important global celebration? The US had no representation in the event at all.  At the very least, he should have sent Vice President Joe Biden to represent the United States. Sure, we run the risk of him opening his mouth and making a gaffe. But we've had 8 years of that; one more time is not going to hurt anything.

The second thing that I have observed is Obama unable to make a decision regarding the war in Afghanistan. Granted, those are tough decisions to make. But that's what a US President needs to do. President Obama receives daily briefings so he should know everything that is going on. He has received opinions and advice from our generals, experts and his staff for the past several weeks. It has now come to the point where it has been made clear there are only a few options to take. Mr. Obama wants to devise another option for him to take.

Let me read between the lines here. As a typical politician, he is looking for the magical option that will make him look good politically, first and foremost. Winning a war against terrorism and reducing the risk of losing lives is second to that.

Put simply, what we need here is leadership. With leadership, you have to make a decision. Sometimes, making no decision can be more harmful than making the wrong decision. Mr. Obama, it's time to shit or get off the pot. Traveling to Asia and reestablishing ties there has its own merits. But the Afghanistan situation has been going on for months. Whatever action we take there will need time to implement. And right now you are wasting time by not making a decision.

And one last observation... anyone notice, and correct me if I'm wrong, that the current time table for all troops out of Iraq is in 2011. Wasn't that time table set by the Bush Administration? Didn't Obama say he was going to bring the troops home from Iraq first thing once in he was in office? Did he not say he was going to focus more on Afghanistan as well? Time will tell.

Correction & Amplification: Turns out, Obama did send Secretary of State Clinton to Germany for the 20th Anniversary remembrance.  However, I still think that looks pretty weak that every other country's top leader was there but the United States'.

Apple vs Microsoft

I think my favorite commercials on TV currently are the PC and Mac commercials... the one where the PC character favors Microsoft founder Bill Gates and the Mac character favors Apple founder Steve Jobs. These commercials are sometimes more entertaining for me than the actual program I'm watching.

The battle between Microsoft and Apple has probably been going on for 20 years now. Most of those years, Microsoft has been the declared winner. But only in sales and marketing. I think for the most part, the Apple Mac product was probably far superior. Unfortunately, it never gained any traction with the consumer. I always speculated that Microsoft catered to the business and corporate users while Apple catered more towards desktop publishing. This gave Microsoft and PCs an early advantage as all businesses needed "number crunching" software. However, I believe things are starting to change.

Previously, Apple was pretty much on life support while Microsoft was making money hand over fist. I had read somewhere that if you had purchased $100 worth of Microsoft stock in 1989 and held it for 10 years, it would have been worth $60,000 in 1999. But with the Internet/tech boom of the 90's, you would have done really well if you got out in 1999. Since then, Steve Jobs returned to Apple and the company was once again innovative. Since that time, the company introduced the iPod product, the iPhone and have for the most part reinvented the Mac product line.

In the summer of 2008, I was in the market for a new laptop computer. I had first considered a PC laptop, but I knew it would have come equipped with Microsoft Vista. Vista is a full blown, multi-definition of "failure," "disaster," and "headaches." And I was tired of these computers that would take 6 or 7 minutes to completely boot up, only to then run in a slow, unstable environment. I had a friend who had previously purchased a Macbook. He didn't have enough time to fully review it for me, but claimed he liked it for the brief amount of time he did have it. Well, since I mainly use a laptop for surfing the Internet, e-mail and other generic uses, I decided to take the plunge into the world of Mac.

There's a bit of a learning curve to using a Mac, that is if you've spent 25 years using Microsoft. I got home with the Macbook and it was able to log onto the Internet by plugging in a Cat 5 line into my home network. My wireless router was too old and was incompatible with the Macbook. So then, another purchase... the Apple Time Capsule. This is a 500GB backup drive with wireless router. It took no time to start up and was many times faster. And it worked well with my PCs in the house.

Over time, I preferred working on my Macbook over my PCs. This summer, I replaced my office PC with a new iMac. Works like a charm. It is so much faster and stable. It also doesn't take as much space and it is by far quieter; there's no clunky fan sounds. And better yet, in less than 45 seconds, it is fully booted up vs. my PC with took about 7 minutes.

Earlier this month, I did encounter my first problem with an Apple product. My Apple Time Capsule crapped on me. I believe the hard drive in it was fine, but the power unit quit working. As with everything else, it stops working shortly after the warranty expires. I called Apple support and was able to talk to Dave, an American citizen in California. Dave was extremely helpful. To make a long story short, Dave worked with me to find an option to exchange out the unit for a minimal price. However, I thought I might have to get some files off of that hard drive. He also help me with that, though it turned out I didn't need to. Dave is the first customer service rep that I have ever dealt with that not only returned my call, but 5 minutes after he left a message on my voice mail, called me back again in hopes I was available. Apple customer service has to be the best customer service I have ever used.

In less than 2 days, I received a new Apple Time Capsule, I put the old one in the same box, sealed it up, tore off the top sticker, which then displayed a new one that was pre-paid and I simply dropped it off to be sent back to Apple. Incredible!

I have since purchased an iMac for my home computer and it's due to arrive on Wednesday this week. I have pretty much, 99%, converted to Apple. So, goodbye Microsoft. Yea, I know Windows 7 came out last Thursday. Good for you, but I think I'll stick with Mac.

If I were to make a prediction, I will say in 10 years, if that, Apple will have gained far more market share than PCs. Millions of consumers are using iPods and iPhones and are completely satisfied with them. This is their introduction to other Apple products. If these iPods and iPhones are so good, they will probably check out their computers as well. It's only a matter of time.

Bubbles After One Year

It's been exactly 1 year to the day when we got Bubbles. One more dog and 364 days later, here's what we have. The first picture is the second day we had her. The second picture was taken this evening. Those are the same pair of boots and the same spot in the great room. The grow up so fast. She's now 88 pounds last we checked and the vet believes she'll outgrow Elliott.


Overall she's been a real good dog; and Elliott is probably even a better dog (he comes when he's called). But Bubbles can be a real stinker. Just like a little sister, she'll pick on on Elliott provoking a fight. And she can be a bit sneaky too.

Both dogs have made life interesting. Here's to many more happy years.

Say No To 2016 Olympics In Chicago

This is likely to be another boondoggle in the making. Only in gigantic proportions. I'm speaking of the possible selection of Chicago hosting the 2016 Olympics. Not only would this decision allow the international community to experience Chicago and Illinois corruption up close, but will most probably end up becoming another money loser for our near-bankrupt state.

Chicago is at odds against Madrid, Tokyo and Rio De Janerio for hosting rights. It has projected a cost outlay of $4.8 billion to prepare the city to host the Olympics that year; the lowest of all the contending cities. Now I'm guessing it will cost much more. When was the last time you saw a government entity come close to projections. Once the corruption begins, the paybacks are made and palms greased, it's going to cost much, much more. And who is going to pay for all this? That's right, you and me.

Instead of the City of Chicago solely paying for all this needed infrastructure, the State of Illinois will most likely be paying for much of it. Should the Olympics prove profitable, it will be Chicago who reaps the rewards. Moreover, the taxpayers who reside in places such as Quincy, Mt Vernon or Carbondale will be paying for Olympic infrastructure. And when the games are finally being played, what benefits will the people in these fine towns see?

Supporters state that some games will be held outside of Chicago and that fans will be staying at hotels hundreds of miles from the host city. That's very probably and the outskirts of Chicago will likely see benefits of some sort. But taxpayers further downstate, like Carbondale, will not see any benefits. Why should they have to pay into this, take the risk and have absolutely no return?

And that's assuming there will be return. From what I understand, many cities that have hosted the Olympics have, overall, never realized a return on investment. It's more of the "build it and they will come" mentality.

I'm not even going to speculate how the crime element may be run out of Chicago for the Olympics and part of it relocates to Peoria.

The wheels are in motion and Chicago is already one of the finalists. We'll just have to wait and see what the International Olympic Commission decides.

Housewives Are Desperate

I started watching the television show Desperate Housewives when it first aired. It was entertaining. The original promo clips featured a naked Teri Hatcher running around the neighborhood. What American, red-blooded, heterosexual male wouldn't want to see that?

However, last season really sucked and in my opinion, the show is not worth investing the time to watch it. For whatever reason that I can't find, the producers of the show decided to "reboot" it by moving it 5 years in the future. So we are to understand it is now 2014 on Westeria Lane? There has not been much technological change from what I can tell.

One of the characters did buy a Lexus with a refrigerator, so I guess we have that to look forward to. Another character in the show was unemployed and was attempting to get back into the work force. He was having a difficult time and he believed it was because he was older. This character claimed he was asked about Twitter at a job interview and he stated he did not know what Twitter was. Ok, if it's 2014 and you don't know what Twitter is (in all likelihood, Twitter will probably be dead by then), then you don't deserve to get hired.

There were a few references to how bad the economy was in the last season. So I guess our current recession will continue for the next 5 years. There were some other continuity issues as well. One particular couple had two kids in the 5 years the show leaped over. However, these kids looked to be about 7 or 8 years old. The father of these kids was made blind from an accident a couple seasons earlier. Behold, there's now an operation to let him see again. In another gaffe, the 16-year old daughter of Teri Hatcher's character has now graduated from college, is gainfully employed making good money and is engaged to be married... all in 5 years, from high school sophomore to 20-something fiancee.

The biggest flop of the season past was Hatcher's character Susan and her husband were in a car wreck that killed a woman and her child. Susan can't deal with this turn of events in her life and demands a divorce. WTF? Where does this come from? Mike, Susan's husband finally says "sure" and signs the papers all the while she's crying, now thinking that this might be a mistake. Mike moves on and starts banging another neighbor which he later gets engaged to.

Meanwhile, the man whose wife and child were killed in the car accident plots his revenge. He buys a house in the neighborhood and starts a band with Mike and others. He buddys up with everyone. Ultimately, he wants Susan and her child to get killed at the same place and same way his family was killed. Then episode after episode last season, there was no story development whatsoever. On episode showed us some handyman who died that everyone on the street loved. The recounted stories of this guy whom we've never seen or heard of for 4 or 5 seasons. WTF? Then they did the same thing when they killed off one of the major characters. The stories went nowhere.

For the season final, Mike is off to get married with the other neighbor girl. The psycho that moved into the neighborhood just gave up on his original scheme and instead decided to kill Susan and her son by taking them camping in the woods and just shooting them. He instead was able to get them to the same location of the accident and arranges to have Mike run into them, but then he chickens out and lets them go. Mike, Susan and their son are ok, the psycho is dead and by the end of the episode, there is another flash forward where Mike and Susan are getting remarried (though they never show her, you just know it's her... saw that coming months ago).

That was completely worthless. A season of TV watching I'll never get back. I doubt I even tune in this season.

Shopping

Tonight I made a routine visit to the grocery store to pick up our usual staples. Nothing too exciting. I've lately been shopping at the Kroger's in Chillicothe. Not that I'm a loyal Kroger's shopper. Quite the contrary, I really don't care for Kroger's. But it saves a bit of time traveling to Schnuck's and better yet, the sales tax revenues will go to Chillicothe rather than Peoria. It's a safe bet that the town of Chillicothe will use those revenues far more efficiently than the city of Peoria. Let's get back to why I'm writing this post.

As I stood in the checkout lane, a manager asked the bagger if they had asked me if I wanted paper bags. Sensing that the bagger could get into some trouble because he didn't ask me and that he did not use plastic bags, I came to the rescue and said that it was ok. In fact, I even pointed out I would prefer paper bags. And that got me thinking...

There was a day, long ago, I remember when there were no paper bags. One day, sometime in the late 70's, Mom was interviewed on the local news about these new plastic bags. She gave it a good review. But after 30 years of plastic bags, is it really a good deal.

For starters, I like paper bags because you can place more goods and products into them. With plastic bags, you can put a couple boxes of cereal into them and then you're done. Another reason plastic bags suck is environmental reasons. Paper bags are biodegradable; plastic is not. Of course, paper is not the greatest. As the paper will decompose, the ink for anything printed on it will leak down into the water supply. Think about that the next time you're eating at McDonalds. What was it, 15 to 18 years ago, they replaced all the styrofoam containers for their burgers with paper wrappers. While styrofoam will last forever, it would just look unsightly sitting in a landfill along side plastic bags. Parts of this refuse might even be used by birds and squirrels in next building. But all that ink on those paper wrappers will wash down into our water supply.

So I don't know, take your pick on how you want to destroy the environment. But for me, I prefer paper bags as you get more bang for your buck!

Are Blogs On The Way Out?

During the past few months I've noticed not much going on in the way of blogs, more specifically, not many new posts being written. Not that there's a lot going on here at RLO Today.

Several blogs that I regularly read, or used to read, have become more inactive or just completely dead. A number of my friends in the Jaycees had blogs. None of them write for them anymore it seems. Other local blogs appear to be waning as well.

I wonder if blogs were just a fad that lasted a few years, or is it other social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter slowly taking bloggers out of action. I'm on Facebook regularly. And the thing with Facebook is you can leave brief comments on any of your friends or your profile. Others can respond as well to your comments. And so the same can happen on blogs.

But Facebook I think is set up in a way that makes it more entertaining and convenient. You can write some short one-liner as opposed to preparing a manifesto on a blog. The same can be said about Twitter. Though I don't have a Twitter account, I just don't get the fascination of Twitter. At least Facebook allows you to post pictures and videos as well as a few other things. Twitter just allows you 140 characters of text. What can you actually say with that?

And how about MySpace? Does anyone use it still? I have always thought that it was easier to use than Facebook, but Facebook offered some different features that MySpace didn't. MySpace does now, but its probably too late and perhaps the damage is done. MySpace lasted about a year or so in popularity and now its done. Very fickle users.

I don't know if readers of blogs have declined any over time. I still wonder if blogs are facing the same problem with MySpace. Knowing society today and its short attention span, I also suspect that Twitter and Facebook too will suffer a demise such as MySpace.

The Russians Are Coming

The other night I had a dream that the Russians were after my convertible. The reason being was that they wanted to reverse engineer it and learn new technology. At one point in the dream, I was walking back to my car to get something out of it and to check on it. As I was walking to it, I was thinking to myself that if the Russians wanted this car so bad, why don't they just buy one for themselves. I mean, there no real classified technology in it. In fact, there's a car just like this sitting on the used car lot at Greene Chevrolet.

When I woke up, I realized I had yet another odd dream. "What made me dream that?" I asked myself. It occurred to me that I might be watching too many episodes of The A-Team. Hulu.com has episodes available of the A-Team. But seasons 3-5 are going down the first week of September, so I need to get them in when I can. So I guess I more or less have overdosed on The A-Team. But I love it when a plan comes together!

The weird dreams still continue and probably always will. Last night I was on an outpost on the planet Pluto, complete with warm temperatures, trees, grass and atmosphere. Who know where or what I'll be doing tonight.

Review: Green Day

I'm probably a bit late in getting this review in, but I checked out Green Day at the United Center in Chicago on July 13, 2009. (At left, Jack with the Green Day tour bus in the backdrop)

Green Day is Jack's favorite band. When I saw they were on tour promoting their new album, 21st Century Breakdown, and that they were stopping in Chicago, I thought to see if Jack would like to go see them. He wasn't sure at first. I then asked if Buffy's nephew and niece, Max and Sara, would want to go. Turned out Max was up for it, but Sara had horse camp that week. Jack as well as Dennis finally decided to go. So I bought 4 tickets. As the date got closer, Shari and her niece got tickets for the same show, only 1 section over.

So we all headed up to Chicago on Sunday, July 12 and got a couple of rooms at a hotel on Michigan Ave so we could spend some time there. That night we went up the John Hancock building to its observation deck... and at night. Cool. After that we wondered aimlessly on Chicago streets. Jack was worried about all the homeless individuals we saw after he witnessed a homeless man in his underwear. He showed concern about them and wanted to give them money. We tried to explain that many of the homeless people only appear that way and instead are scam artists trying to get money from other people. "Why would they do that?" asked Jack. Good question.

The next day, we had breakfast at a local Greek restaurant at a total bargain price of nearly $90. I could have made a better breakfast. We then wanted to check out the new skydeck at the Sears Tower. After a bus ride and witnessing a argument between an older and younger woman, we arrived at the Sears Tower, only to learn it was at least an hour and a half wait to get to the skydeck. Therefore we switched to Plan B... Navy Pier.

We spent the late morning and most the afternoon at Navy Pier, looking around, going through fun houses, feeding birds, etc. In the late afternoon we went back to the hotel, where I got a quick nap and got cleaned up for the big show.

Getting ready to leave for the United Center, you could tell Jack was getting excited about seeing Green Day. This was really his first rock concert. He had seen the Blue Man Group and the Trans Siberian Orchestra, but he was about to see a real rock group.

We arrived at the United Center to find a group of people demonstrating something. They held up tabloids to help promote their cause. Dennis walked to an older gentleman who was demonstrating and asked for one of their tabloids. It cost $1 for one of them. Turns out they were demonstrating for Communism. If they were trying to advance their cause, would they not want to offer these pamphlets for free. And charging $1, sounds like capitalism to me. When Denni' returned, he said that he'd rather argue with the old guy all night then go to the show.

We were finally seated and waited for the show to start. I pointed out to Jack all the usual concert things; warm up band, backdrop and the mosh pit. Once Green Day started playing, we all stood up to see the band. Jack was really excited now. At times he would sing along with the band and have his hands in the air.

Green Day started the show with the first few songs from their new album. They also played plenty of songs from American Idiot and older songs from the 90's such as Basket Case, Hitchin' A Ride and Time of Your Life. The coolest thing they did during the show was they picked a 12 year old out of the audience to come up to the stage and play guitar with them. This was prompted when Billie Joe Armstrong, the frontman, asked for someone who can play guitar. We were sitting in section 120, row 17, the very far right of the stage. I was too far away. But Jack insisted I raise my hand. He even tried holding my arm up.

The kid they eventually picked held a sign that said "I can play and I'm 12" along with pictures of guitars. Billie Joe brought him up, briefly tested his guitar playing skills without the guitar amped up and then gave him the go. He got to play Billie Joe's guitar and the strap was so long that he had to sit on a floor monitor to play. They went into Jesus of Suburbia off the American Idiot album, and this kid knew it and played it perfectly. At times, Billie Joe would hold the microphone up to him and let him sing a few lines... at the same time he was playing. The vocal wasn't great because he still had a 12 year old kid voice. But I was still impressed. And this kid's name was Jack. He was invited to play on the next song, but he didn't fully know it.

There were many times that Billie Joe would try to get the audience fired up by more or less chanting at them and getting them to chant back. That's ok once or twice, but after a dozen times or so, it gets old. Then they played an extended medley of Sweet Home Chicago, Shout and a few other older cover songs. They could have played a couple more of their own songs in that time.

Towards the end of the show, you could tell Jack was getting tired. It was a long day for him. Overall, I enjoyed the show, but it had a few weak points. On a scale of 10, I'd probably give it a 7 to 8. But Jack really like it and will probably always remember going to his first rock concert with his Uncle Rick.

Anniversary Of The First Moon Landing

As you know, July 20 this year marks the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing. To celebrate, I'd like to post an e-mail I received in 1995 regarding this historic event. Though I've learned that this story is a work of fiction, it is still a great story. Enjoy!

On July 20, 1969, commander of the Apollo 11 Lunar Module, Neil Armstrong was the first person to set foot on the moon. His first words after stepping on the moon, "That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind", were televised to Earth and heard by millions. But just before he re-entered the lander, he made the enigmatic remark:

"Good luck, Mr. Gorsky." Many people at NASA thought it was a casual remark concerning some rival Soviet Cosmonaut. However, upon checking, there was no Gorsky in either the Russian or American space programs. Over the years many people questioned Armstrong as to what the "Good luck Mr. Gorsky" statement meant, but Armstrong always just smiled. On July 5, 1995, in Tampa Bay, Florida, while answering questions following a speech, a reporter brought up the 26 year old question to Armstrong. This time he finally responded. Mr. Gorsky had died and so Neil Armstrong felt he could answer the question.

In 1938 when he was a kid in a small Midwest town, he was playing baseball with a friend in the backyard. His friend hit a fly ball, which landed in his neighbor’s yard by the bedroom windows. His neighbors were Mr. and Mrs. Gorsky.

As he leaned down to pick up the ball, young Armstrong heard Mrs. Gorsky shouting at Mr. Gorsky. "Sex! You want sex?! You’ll get sex when the kid next door walks on the moon!"

Lake of the Ozarks - Day 3

A spontaneous getaway to find traditional summer vacation activities of sun, fun and possibly hillbillies.

Thursday, July 9, 2009 - Our big plans today were renting a pontoon boat and heading out on the lake. We scheduled the boat for hours, starting at 10am. The lady at the boat rental place claimed we'd need 15 minutes to do paperwork. Of course we would.

We were up at 8:30am and quickly cleaned up a bit and headed to... guess where... the Horny Toad for breakfast. I could begin this story by saying... The sea was calm this morning my friends... well, it was calm this morning and looked to be 90+ degrees later in the day. At any rate, we finished up breakfast and got to the rental place probably around 9:45; right on time. However, we had to wait for others to book their boat. Once we had our boat, it was the first time I'd ever launch while at the wheel.

The pontoon we rented was a 22 foot, 50 horsepower engine. So we were not going to go anywhere fast. Once we cleared the marina, I put it into full throttle and we went a whopping 10 mph. Impressive! The lady at the rental office gave us some ideas of where to go and where to stop for drinks, which is the direction we headed in. I took my Garmin GPS and plugged in the coordinates of the marina, just as a fall back in the event I do get lost. This way I can find our way back. It works better than leaving bread crumbs.

The rental agreement specifically stated we were forbidden to take the boat to Party Cove. Party Cove is exactly what the name implies. Full of college kids and party-goers, drunks and delinquents. I really want to go some day, but today would not be the day. Besides, with this 50 hp engine we had, I would have to have the boat for the full day.

We stopped at a place called Jolly Rogers, a pirate-themed bar and grill and had a couple of Blue Moons (they didn't have Heinenken... and it was after 11am). I did an ok job at docking and re-launching. I kind of like yachting. We headed back in after this.

The rest of the afternoon was spent at the resort's pool/bar. We didn't stay as long this time around as we'd already had plenty of sun earlier in the day. We were quite entertained by the 4 women who were getting really tipsy at the bar and later ordered 4 pizzas. They were obviously on a girl's trip.

For dinner, we decided to try something else other than the Horny Toad. We cleaned up and went to an Italian place called Lil' Rizzo's. It was basically another Avanti's with a bunch of little kids in it. The food was really good though.

Afterwards, we continued to shop for dogsitting gifts and was successful this time around. We returned back to our room, where I am no posting to the travelogue-blog and listening to a really good rock band from the outdoor stage at... you guessed it... the Horny Toad. Right now they are doing an impromptu version of the Eagles' Hotel California.

We plan to head back home tomorrow. If something exciting or interesting happens tomorrow, I'll check back in. If not, it has been a good time down here at Lake of the Ozarks... wait, these guys are now doing Van Halen's Eruption... followed by Feel Your Love... this is cool. Anyway, we noticed there hasn't been a lot of people down here. We speculated that it will fill up over the weekend, which we'll be out of here then. But someone told us earlier that the economy has a lot to do with it as well. So I guess we timed out a good time to visit. You better hurry if you want to check it out for yourself.

Later.

Lake of the Ozarks - Day 2

A spontaneous getaway to find traditional summer vacation activities of sun, fun and possibly hillbillies.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009 - I awoke today to discover I was a redneck. Yesterday, I ran out of sunblock, but thought there was enough to get by. Appearently not as parts of my neck were a bit red this morning. It didn't burn however.

We slept in. Last night we were in bed early. It was nice not having Old English Sheepdogs licking you in the face at 6am. We headed next door to the Horny Toad for breakfast probably around 10am. This is where we more or less made some plans for the day. It was decided to head south to Camdenton, MO to see the Bridal Cave.

As you drive down Rt 54 towards Lake of the Ozarks, you will see tourist signs for this and other attractions. The name appears to come from the fact that several couples have been married in this cave. It looks that with the proper lighting, many of the rock and silt structures in the cave appear as stage curtains.

After finishing breakfast, we headed out to the Bridal Cave. It looked simple enough on the map of the Lake we had. There was a big arrow pointing to it, right off of Rt 5. Unfortunately, we forgot the map, but I thought I remembered it well enough. We got on Rt 5 and drove, and drove and nothing. No signs... nothing. You know, if you're going to run a tourist trap, you need to advertise a bit to get people there.

Buffy ran into a grocery store for directions, which the lady inside didn't sound too sure where it was at. But off of her directions, it started to dawn on me as we had to take "old" Rt 5. The map I was looking at did not, at least fully, show "new" Rt 5. We came to old Rt 5 and then asked the question, left or right. We turned right. Wrong move. Turned around once the road ended and shortly there after pulled into a Quik Mart and asked more directions. This time the lady knew exactly where it was at.

We arrived just in time to catch the next trip into the cave. We learned how people used the cave as a hideout of sorts hundreds/decades of years ago. It was somewhat a tight squeeze to get through and a couple of points. The guide would point out natural formation that looked similar to an angel, jellyfish, Cousin Itt (from the Addams Family) and the Energizer Bunny. We also got to see, a sample at least, of what the early spelunkers used to explore the cave; a thin ladder and wooded foot bridge only 12 inches wide.

At the end of the cave was a mystery object we could look at in a pool of water about 20 feet deep. They are not sure exactly what it is, but believe it to be a part of a boat or raft from uncounted years ago, speculating that someone tried to build some craft to float through and out of the cave. However, the only exit out of the cave is either the way we came in or through a tiny tunnel underwater. The guide explained that only 17 people have made it out through the underwater passageway and it is extremely difficult and dangerous. For starters, the passage is too small for anyone to take scuba gear. In addition, the water is 40 degrees and hypothermia would set in roughly 10 minutes. The sand and silt is so fine on the bottom, that the smallest moves will stir it up to where one would not be able to see.

Leaving the Bridal Cave, we decided to take a different route which would take us accross a toll bridge. Two dollars and fifty cents and it still looked like an ordinary bridge. Oh well.

We stopped in Lake Ozark near the Bagnell Dam and parked the car so Buffy could shop for dogsitting gifts. She didn't find anything, but I at least picked up a T-shirt and some more sunblock. We finished up stopping at a bar and grill called Casablanca's for some good deep fried bar food and beer.

The rest of the afternoon was spent at the hotel's pool area. They have one of those pools that you can swim up to and order a drink. And by that time, it was happy hour... drinks were half price. Did we die and go to heaven?

For dinner, we were back at the Horny Toad and watch an "old man" band. This place has an outside stage and there's music every night. Tonight's band, which I didn't catch the name, was a bunch of older guys (late 50's, possibly early 60's) that played very well.

Tomorrow we have a pontoon boat reserved and we plan to do a half day on the late. Check back later.

Lake of the Ozarks - Day 1

A spontaneous getaway to find traditional summer vacation activities of sun, fun and possibly hillbillies.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009 - Today we headed out around 9am with the convertible for Lake of the Ozarks. Buffy and I decided to take this trip just last week and did little planning for this trip. From many summer vacations going to Missouri while growing up, I knew which route to take. Though this time around, I decided to go from Rt 24 to south IL Rt 100 through Beardstown, IL like we did over 25 years ago. Though many things have changed over that route, it still brought back some memories. We also got to drive through the small Illinois town of Marbletown. We approached the city limit sign that did not indicate any population size. Two hundred feet further on the opposite side of the highway was the other city limit sign. Makes Mayberry look like a metropolis. I suspect this route was a little longer to go, so that's probably why nowadays, we travel from Rt 24 to Rt 107.

We stopped at the Lighthouse restaurant on the banks of the Mississippi River for lunch. We usually stop here for lunch when going to Missouri to butcher hogs. That's in the winter and we can normally watch the bald eagles flying around. They weren't around today. In the restaurant, some were watching circus coverage the Michael Jackson memorial. I noticed the older people watching it, but the teenagers in the place, like me, could have cared less.

Back on the road, we followed US Rt 54 into Lake of the Ozarks. Roughly 300 miles from home so it was a good road trip for us. Now we had to find a hotel as we made no reservations anywhere. I just figured we'd pull into the Holiday Inn somewhere. But Buffy wanted to stay someplace that had it's own bar. We stopped at a scenic overlook where Beth started making a couple of calls to girlfriends who have routinely vacationed at Lake of the Ozarks. We first got a tip on Tan Tar A Resort, but that was a little too far back away from everything... and probably a little more than what I wanted to spend.

Beth's girlfriend Mary Jo then called us back and said she'd set us up someplace. Mary Jo called back again and gave us directions to a nice place and got us a deal at $99/night. We followed the directions back into Horseshoe Bend to the place she got for us. We were unsure as we quite didn't get the name of the place, but atlas, we found the correct location... the Resort & Yacht Club of Toad Cove. You read correctly... Toad Cove.

The room was very nice. Three TVs; one in the bedroom area, one in the living area and one in the bathroom. There's a kitchenette with mini-stove, microwave and coffee maker. The countertops look to be granite, though I sure its some Corion or other cheaper composite. And all for $99 a night!!

Next door is the Horny Toad Bar and Grill, which is where we had dinner. After dinner, we walked around some, had a drink then headed back to the room. We were in bed by 8:30pm and were dead tired from all the driving, sun and wind. Tomorrow is another day!

Wacko Jacko: Enough is Enough

I don't know about anyone else, but there is way too much pomp and circumstance and media attention to his passing. Today is to be his memorial service. If you didn't know better, you'd think the President of the United States had died. This past weekend, rouge nation North Korea launched not one, not two, but 5 missiles, with the intention of hitting Hawaii. You'd think that would get the top headline but no, its about Michael Jackson and what toilet paper he used. What is wrong with the American public?!

On two different occasions within a ten year period, he has been charged with child molestation. Jackson even admitted to sleep overs with children in an interview and called it "charming." And remember back in the 80's he was prancing around with Emanual Lewis. I have no doubt that in his mind he actually believes there is nothing wrong with his sleepovers. I believe Michael Jackson to be mentally ill, who has surrounded himself with greed executives and yes men that had fueled him to other strange behavior. This is a guy (and I use that term loosely here) who would otherwise be homeless, living on a park bench somewhere had he not got a break in show business.

And by the way, what was so great about the Jackson 5 anyway? And what was so ground breaking about his Thriller video? It was a longer than normal music video, using the same special effects from the movie An American Werewolf in London and a cheesy dance routine from monsters. In the last 10-15 years, he wanted a comeback album, tour... whatever. However, he appeared to be very frail, even at one point, coming into a courtroom with a cane. So he plans basically a Vegas act for London's O2 arena. From the video clips of his rehearsals, he's not doing anything too dynamic. I just don't understand all the fascination of this once black man, to a white man, to a white woman to grey alien.

So let's face it. Jackson is gone. Deal with it and move on.

Nothin' But Troubles

Earlier this week, we took Bubbles to the vet. She previously had some type of bladder infection or something and we though she was having it again. Good news is she was fine. While at the vet's office, they weighed her and she weighed 80 lbs. No longer a little dog.

Bubbles can still be onry if she wants to be. This week we noticed several small pieces of wood laying in the dining room. Bubbles often sneaks in a stick to chew on. But Beth vacuumed the dining room today and discovered these small wood pieces were not sticks from the outdoors, but rather from one of the legs of the dining room table. She chewed it pretty good, but we may be able to salvage it and fix it cosmetically.

This is probably the worst thing she's done as a puppy. So you have to expect damage to something eventually. It has now happened. Bubbles, Bubbles... she's nothin' but troubles!

Careful What You Wish For

It was a couple of firsts for Nootril Drop, the band I'm in.

We already had scheduled to play on Friday, June 19 at the Princeville Heritage Days beer tent. But a day or so before that, we got word that we were invited to play for an hour at the Peoria Steamboat Days on the CEFCU Center Stage on Saturday, June 20. For all those out of town, this stage is located on Peoria's Riverfront. A lot of the more popular local bands play there. And playing there has always been something of a goal for us. So not only 2 gigs in one weekend, we get to play a venue long sought after.

Friday arrived and we had storm after storm. We still arrived in Princeville to determine if we were even going to be able to play. When talking with the organizers and checking things out, we learned that the band they booked for Saturday were told they were booked for Friday. Hmmm. So we used that mistake to our advantage and negotiated to play the next night on Saturday. So now we have 2 gigs on the same day/night.

Playing the CEFCU stage was a blast! We all had a good time and it went by real fast. It was hot and humid out, but there was something of a breeze going on. But it still didn't matter. We were playing the CEFCU stage.

When we were done, Ted Sumner, who is also in the band with us as well as a PACE (Peoria Area Community Event) volunteer went to talk to some of the other volunteers. He then discovered that this gig was a quasi-audition and that they wanted to book us for the Taste of Peoria in August. This is very cool.

Once we were packed up, we bolted for Princeville to do it all over again; only this time we had to set everything up ourselves. And it was terribly hot and humid among the cornfields of Princeville. But this show went well also. There was probably about 200 people in the beer tent with a handful dancing to the music at times. We even handed out a business card or two. Needless to say, we were wiped at the end of the night. But it was the first time we played the CEFCU stage and the first time we had 2 gigs in one day.

We have another gig coming up next week. Nootril Drop also played Dennis and Shari's annual Pigstock last week and two weeks before that we played Ambulance Days in Princeville. It's getting to the point we're finding gigs each and every week. I'm not so sure that's something I really want, so I guess I should be careful of what I wish for.

We will get a break; nothing's booked for July... yet.

TV Guide's Top 100 Episodes

The new TV Guide is here! The new TV Guide is here! And they have counted down, in yet another pointless countdown, the top 100 TV show episodes. Without surprise, the Seinfeld episode "The Contest" won the coveted number 1 spot. Among the top ten were notables such as episodes from All in the Family, Mary Tyler Moore and a token episode of I Love Lucy. Others in the top 100 were from Cheers, Twilight Zone, M*A*S*H and even an episode of Batman from the 1960's. Some odd choices I thought were selections from newer shows such as The Big Bang Theory, House and 30 Rock.

But what really surprised me were some classics that didn't even rank. How about the episode where Gilligan messed up the castaway's rescue on Gilligan's Island? Hilarious. And where in this list is the episode of Three's Company where everyone had that misunderstanding? Or how about the one on The Munsters when Marilyn brought her date home and his hair stood on end and he ran off when he met her Uncle Herman and Aunt Lily? Come on!

Number 100 on the list was the episode of The Brady Bunch where Marcia breaks her nose. So maybe the list isn't a complete loss.

I Finally Went To See Star Trek

... and it really doesn't sit too well with me. But I need to realize it was only a TV show, not real history.  But watching the original Star Trek as far back as I can humanly remember, this movie seems a bit like history revision. I read somewhere that the movie was to be a "reboot" of the Star Trek franchise. In doing this, and without giving too much away, the story calls for a change in the timeline in the 23rd century... so I guess it wouldn't be history revision. It was revised before it became history.

Anyone who knows me knows I'm a big Star Trek fan. I don't dress up in the ears or costumes and attend conventions (I will confess I did dress up as Capt. Kirk for Halloween one year). But from watching the show for 40 years, I've come to learn much about it and its characters. The one thing about the series in the 1960s was that it held a lot of consistency. More so that any other TV show of the time. That also continued into the Next Generation series. But the new movie loses some of this consistency. Over all it was good move, but if I were the producer, I would have made a few changes that could have maintained the original Trek story.

Spoiler Alert. Don't read any further if you haven't seen the movie yet or Star Trek doesn't interest you.

The main change I would make would be the removal of the Uhura, Sulu and Chekov characters. In the movie, the story is set during Kirk's days in Starfleet Academy. Uhura, Sulu and Checkov were a few years younger than Kirk. There was no way they would attend the Academy at the same time. Instead, the movie showed Sulu and Chekov as commissioned bridge officers on the Enterprise, while Kirk was still technically a cadet. I would have brought them in in a second prequel movie, if any.

I would have made minor changes with Spock, McCoy and Scotty. Come on... in the movie, Kirk was still a cadet, but Spock held the rank of Commander. That was his rank in the original series in the 60's. So you mean to tell me Spock had stayed a Commander for 12-13 years with no promotion.

There were many other things that did not stay consistent with the original series, but that can largely be explained by the timeline being changed. 

I did enjoy when Kirk's parents were deciding on a name for the future captain of the Enterprise. The special effects were great. The casting was done very well as the actors portrayed their iconic roles almost like the originals (Dr. "Bones" McCoy was exceptional). I liked the fact they kept the usual catchphrases (ie "I've given her all she's got, Captain"). I also liked the fact that they kept the same, although improved, Starfleet uniforms from the 60's original. 

I really didn't like the fact how Kirk became captain so quickly. And Captain Pike's timeline was largely changed. It appeared Kirk took command away from him. In the original Trek, Kirk mentioned that he met Christopher Pike only once.  Additionally, I did not approve the fact that the planet Vulcan was destroyed. That will be a major change in the Federation for the 23rd and 24th centuries.

But then again, it's only a TV show/movie... "get a life!"

Family Portrait

Just thought some of you would like to see the family portrait we had done earlier this year. The pictures came back a few weeks ago and turned out pretty good. I guess we all clean up well.

For Christmas, we all pitched in and got my Mom a family portrait along with any needed framing. The pictures were taken, if I remember, in March... well after Christmas. Better late than never.

Recent Happenings - May 2009

It's been a while since I've checked in. Here's a bit of what's been going on...

Bubbles & Elliott - The dogs graduated from obedience school on May 9. We were very proud of them as they both won awards. Bubbles came in second place with Buffy in the experienced handlers category. Elliott came in third place with me in the inexperienced handler category. We took the class with friends of ours, Jennifer and Charles and their dogs, Hazelle and Noah. Hazelle and Jennifer came in 1st place in the experienced handler category. And I don't know if this is something to brag about, but Noah and Charles came in 1st place in the senior category.

Nootril Drop - When it rains, it pours and I'm not talking about the recent weather. We go for some time without any gigs, and then we have been hit with many of them. We played Oliver's Pizza in Peoria Hts last week. Yesterday we played our first wedding close to Manito, IL. Both gigs went pretty well, though I was a bit nervous about the wedding gig. I'm use to playing to drunk people in a bar that will likely forget that evening as opposed to playing to people getting drunk at an event they want to remember. I think I'd rather be forgotten.

We've got another gig for Ambulance Days in Princeville in a couple of weeks and then Dennis and Shari's hog roast 2 weeks after that.

Unwelcomed Visitor - In late April, I came home to check on the dogs. I let them out the back where Bubble went out onto the deck.  I followed with Elliott behind me. There on the deck sitting between 2 different planks of wood was a 3 foot long black snake. Don't ask me how it got there. 

Bubbles walked past it and never noticed a thing. I made Elliott go back inside.  While there's little or no threat of it being poisonous, I didn't what the dogs to get a bunch of snake bites from it. To make a long story short, I made the dogs stay inside. I speculated that the snake worked its way up on the deck in an effort to grab some robin eggs which were probably laying in a nest underneath the deck.  

I allowed about and hour and a half for it to leave but no go. It continued to weave itself in and out of the deck railing spindles. Interesting. In the meantime, I tried to look up what kind of snake it was on the Internet. I found a really close match, which said it likes to lay eggs around April/May in gravel and rocky areas. Baby snakes then hatch around July. We have a bunch of river rock under our screen porch. And that did it for me. I then issued the death warrant for our unwelcomed reptilian visitor.

Remembering an experience from when I was real little and my Dad did a snake in with a hatchet, I tried the same thing. Unfortunately, I was not as successful and only pissed this thing off. I allowed it to weaken and then finished the job with a flat shovel and a whack on the head.

Snakes are fun to watch, but I still hate them.

Dream Block

Well, it's over!  The local museum referendum passed yesterday, roughly 51% to 49% or by a mere 409 votes. A real landslide, I know. I don't have the actual numbers in front of me, but it was defeated outside the city of Peoria with about 60% of the vote. That to me was expected because I doubt people in places like Glasford and Brimfield are going to visit this museum on any regular basis. 

And since the referendum did not win by a strong margin, I think this tells us the museum will not be as popular as their supporters are claiming it to be. Peoria is a small, mid-western city and that's all.  Perhaps a "Chicago-wannabe" but that's all. It is not a tourist destination and it never will be. Get over it. 

The museum supporters and organizers rant on how people will travel for miles to be marveled at the Caterpillar Experience and the Riverfront Museum. They also predict how this museum will revitalize the downtown area. So basically, the John Q. Public family of 4 in Anytown, USA are sitting at their kitchen table. They are deciding on where to go for summer vacation. "Hawaii? Disneyworld? Yellowstone? I know, Peoria, IL. They have great museum." If the museum organizers and supporters actually believe something like this is going to happen, they are woefully naive. If so, I have a bridge in a large, eastern US city to sell them... or perhaps they'd be interested in some swamp land. If a museum is going to factor into someone's vacation, chances are they'll go to Chicago's museums or the Smithsonian in Washington DC.

I have trouble visualizing 360,000 museum and Cat Experience visitors per year. Here is what I did visualize about 7 years ago when the debate started about what to do with the old Sears block. First of all, the Shoppes of Grand Prairie would not have happened. The richest soil and best farmland in the world shot to hell. Since Peoria has some fetish about copying things from Chicago, perhaps continue with "Rivertower Center," a take off of Watertower Place. Build a 7-9 floor tower. I originally conceived underground parking, but did not factor in flooding concerns... oops. But on the street level, contain a grocery outlet and drug store to help facilitate people who live downtown. The drug store would even contain an old fashioned soda fountain. The other floors would host specialty retail shopping that you'd find at the Shoppes of Grand Prairie. Certain areas or even a floor or two could be allocated for a museum. The very top floor would be a fine dining restaurant with 360 degree view of the city (killer seats to have for fireworks). Also include an IMAX (with the dome screen) on one end of the block. And here's the kicker... all done by private investment (though I imagine the city would take care of some infrastructure needs).

My dream block is not perfect by any means. It doesn't fit 100% with the Heart of Peoria Plan as it doesn't contain any residential use. But if you want to revitalize downtown, if you want to create a regional draw, then this plan I believe is far superior to the one we now have for the old Sears block. But what is done is done and we have to move on the best we can. I hope for the sake of this community that these museum organizers are correct... because if not, it will be very tough times for Peoria.

Review: The Fab Faux

F*ing. Great. Show.  

Dave Cookson and I travelled to Chicago to see The Fab Faux this past Saturday for a dose of some good Beatles songs. It had to have been one of the best shows I've seen in quite a while, with great music and some pleasant surprises. 

The Fab Faux is far different than your ordinary Beatles tribute act. The group attempts, and is successful almost always, to precisely perform an accurate reproduction of the music of the Beatles. There's no costumes. There's no wigs. There no phony English accent. Just music of the Beatles. And as a huge Beatles fan, that's all I want.

The band is comprised of Will Lee, bassist in Paul Schaffer and the CBS Orchestra (featured on the Late Show with David Letterman) and Jimmy Vivino with Max Wineberg's band on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Three other professional musicians, Rich Pagano (drums/vocals), Frank Agnello (guitar/vocals) and Jack Petruzzelli (keyboards/guitar/vocals) round out the main core of the band. Then include the Creme Tangerine strings and the Hogshead Horn and you've got one hell of a band.

From what I know of the group, it was originally conceived by Will Lee. He had lived in the same building as Jimmy Vivino and while the two were sharing an elevator ride going to their respective gigs, Will brought up the idea to him. Jimmy, trying to be polite, pretty much said that he didn't want to be the bearer of bad news, but Beatle tribute acts have already been done. But the difference was that the band would attempt to recreate the music as precisely as a symphony would recreate Mozart. Thus the band was on its way. And in order to learn the songs and how they were performed, they downloaded bootlegs of studio outtakes of the Beatles off the Internet.  

Dave and I left a little earlier than we had originally planned due to expected sleet/snow in the forecast. So I drove the truck which would prevent us from driving on Lake Shore Drive. Instead, I found an alternative route into the city, which I think got us there faster than LSD. Once parked, and that took a while with a big ass F150 in downtown Chicago, we ate at a place called Rockstar Hot Dogs. It was just down the street from the Park West, the venue for the show. It was a small place, but had quality dogs, brats, Italian sausage with rock star names to them.

We then went across the street to Gamekeepers for a couple of beers. We stayed close to the Park West as we wanted to be the first in and get a good spot in front of the stage. The Park West is a small, but nice place for a show. It is all general admission, but there is a balcony and on the main floor is a dance floor, booths and tables. And it has been kept up and maintained, despite the outside design (it looked like some late 70s or early 80s futuristic design).

There was some confusion about when the doors open and the band starts. At any rate, we were there very early. All was not lost as we got to hear some of the soundcheck and last minute rehearsals. Among this was the horn section working on Got To Get You Into My Life and the string section doing I Am The Walrus. We also heard some pieces of Day Tripper and Helter Skelter.

Once they opened the doors, Dave and I bolted for the front of the stage like we were two teenagers. And once there, we were the only ones standing in front of the stage. Everyone else took a booth or table. We wondered if we were going to be allowed to stand in front of the stage. And when I say standing in front of the stage, I mean it literally. There was no fence or barrier. We actually could lean on the floor monitors.

Having a Heineken and waiting for the show to start, I noticed what looked to be a guitar pick on the floor. I went to pick it up and found it to be a Cheap Trick pick. We were perplexed and wondered it belonged to one of the roadys or something. Then checking out all the gear and equipment, we noticed a guitar amp with a Cheap Trick sticker on the side of it. 

But finally, the show started. The band walked out and took their positions and started things off with Got To Get You Into My Life. At this point you could tell that Will Lee is the major frontman of the band, though he only sings lead on about 20% of the songs. We could see the set listing as we stood front and center in front of the stage. Dave even held his hand out and Will Lee came down to shake it; we were that close. 

I wouldn't look at the set listing as I wanted to be surprised with the selection of songs. And it was a good selection. Not only did it have many Beatles favorites and popular hits, but also a dose of some obscure and less known work. My favorite might have been Martha My Dear off of the White Album. In the song when the tempo picks up and the horn section and guitars kick in, it just sent shivers down my spine.

Towards the end of the first set, they played the last 3 tracks off of the Sgt. Peppers album. During the Sgt Pepper Reprise, I saw out of the corner of my eye someone casually walking onto the stage. For a split second, I thought "that looks like Rick Neilsen (from Cheap Trick)." He turned around with a Gibson Les Paul, sporting a bow tie and ball cap... it was Rick Neilsen of Cheap Trick. That blew our minds. Dave was so surprised, he first thought it was Bun E. Carlos (the drummer of Cheap Trick). So I guess that explained the guitar pick I found and the Cheap Trick guitar amp. They closed the first set with A Day In The Life. Very cool!

The second set was as entertaining as the first. During both sets of the show, we managed to score some Fab Faux guitar picks that Will Lee would throw out to the audience. Standing next to my right were 4 kids, with approximate ages of 5 to 8. They were very into the show. And the band members usually paid more attention to them and made sure the kids got guitar picks. I even helped them out at times to make sure they got one.

As the second set was starting to come to a close, Rick Neilsen joined the band on stage one last time to play Day Tripper (which Cheap Trick had done a cover of) and Helter Skelter.  It was during Helter Skelter where Jack Petruzzelli who was singing lead, took a semi-hollow body guitar and slid the strings against the microphone stand to make added noise for the ending of the song. He then lowered the guitar into the audience to let the kids next to me play. They were a bit hesitant, but I told them was ok and prodded them a bit to go ahead on play on it. Then Dave and I couldn't resist and we started playing on it. So I guess you could say that we had a guest appearance with the Fab Faux.

But then one last surprise... they closed the show with Surrender, a song of Cheap Trick from the late 70's. Once the show ended, Dave and I was able to shake hands with Will Lee, Jack Petruzzelli and Rick Neilsen. 

After the show, Dave headed to the rest room while I waited in the lobby. I bumped into a couple of the kids that were standing next to me in front of the stage. "That was cool, wasn't it?" I said to one of them. "Yea" he eagerly responded. He asked if I was able to get any guitar picks that were thrown out. I told him that I had got a couple of the Fab Faux picks, but none of the Cheap Trick ones, with exception to the one I found on the floor. "Here, you can have this one," he said and handed me a hot pink colored Cheap Trick guitar pick. I told him to keep it, but he said that it was ok because he got 2 of them. I still told him I had others from other shows, but he insisted. I then asked him if he played anything musically as I told him I played in a band. He said he didn't, but his sister corrected him and claimed he played the drums. I asked if she played anything and she said she played piano and guitar. Dave came back and we were ready to leave. The sooner we got on the road the better as we didn't know what the weather was going to be like. I told the kids to "Rock On" and we headed back to the truck in the rain.

The ride home mostly went fast and it was very easy getting out of the city. The biggest trouble was once we got out of Chillicothe, IL. It had started snowing at that time and the visibility got so bad you could hardly see. The roads became covered so fast, you could not find any dividing lines. But we arrived home without incident and was still too pumped from the show to go to sleep.

The Fab Faux show was the bomb! So I guess it is true as the Beatles sang, "a splendid time is guaranteed for all."

Block The Block

Here is just a few of my thoughts and observations regarding the Peoria Riverfront Museum (PRM) that is being proposed.

• It has been 6 or 7 years the organizers have been trying to make this thing a reality. Not enough private donations came in, due to lack of public interest. So now they want to force it upon the public through tax increases, even still the public has no interest in it.
• Caterpillar wants to build its visitor center in conjunction with the PRM. Fine. But how is it they are laying off thousands and cutting benefits, but they can still throw $50 million into this boondoggle?
• There is NO contract with IMAX yet for a theater. Supporters are claiming the theater will be "IMAX-like." So we have no idea whether or not the PRM will have an IMAX theater.
• Museum organizers claim that the museum and the Cat Visitor Center will experience attendance of 360,000 people per year. They claim it will bring millions of dollars to Peoria and revitalize the downtown. However, they still haven't determined what the admission price will be. I don't claim to know everything, but I would think this would be a major component to determining a budget and projections.
• What happens if the PRM does not make its anticipated projections and begins to lose money? Organizers and supports do not have an answer for this question. There is no contingency plan and no exit plan.
• If it should happen, can the museum building be housed for another purpose? Very doubtful.
• Organizers claim the "Block" will create 200-300 construction jobs for 2 years.  That's great! But after 2 years, then what? These jobs dry up.
• Even if this referendum passes, there is still an $11 million shortfall with private donations. Chances are, the taxpayer will be stuck with that too.
• The referendum on the ballot calls this a "public facility tax." This is very vague and could mean many different things. The county could use this to finance other unneeded projects.
• Museum supporters never willingly state that this is a 100% tax increase.
• This referendum states that this tax will sunset in 20 years or less. As Dr. Evil once said, "Riiiiiigggghhhhtt." Here is a brief quiz: name 1 tax that has ever went away?
• Quiz #2: name one project in the past 40 years that has revitalized Peoria's downtown and made money or broke even. This is not a very good track record when you look at all the money loosing activity, ie Civic Center, RiverPlex, Midtown, Gateway Building, stadium.

Before voting, please become educated on this issue. Check out www.nomuseumtax.org for more info as well as checking out the Build the Block campaign. For me personally, a museum would be a good thing. But there is nothing wrong with the current Lakeview campus. In fact, I went there between Christmas and New Years to check out the Picasso exhibit. There was hardly anyone in the place. So why do we need a bigger museum?

The plan for the Peoria Riverfront Museum has too many flaws in it and too many things can go wrong. It is not thought out very well and there is little support for it, overall. If this was a business plan that someone came to me with for capital, I would decline the offer. 

The price tag is too high and a non-profit group should not be taking taxpayer money. The PRM is a want, not a need. Repairing our deteriorating roads... that's a need.

My endorsement is to vote NO on the Public Facility Referendum, commonly known as the museum referendum.

What You Can Do With Misguided Judgement And Spray Paint

I'm driving home yesterday, about mid-afternoon. As I drive about town, I notice all the political signs and taking note who and what is out there. I take special interest in the upcoming referendum on the "Build the Block" issue. Of course its known as a "public facility tax" on the actual written referendum. Regardless, I am interested to see how many vote no signs there are.

I'm at the intersection of Sheridan/Giles and Knoxville and I see that an opposition sign to the museum had been spray painted over.  The sign has in big white letters within a red block (no pun intended), "Vote No." Beneath that is the web site address for the Citizens for Responsible Spending, the group that is organized to stop museum plan. The word "No" and the web address was spray painted over with the same shade of red. Oddly, the opposite side of the sign was not vandalized.

Driving north on Knoxville, I noticed the exact same thing to another Vote No sign by Edgewild subdivision. But this is all I've seen; who knows how many signs have been damaged.

So, are the museum supporters so desperate that they now have to stoop to this level? I'm afraid to ask what could happen if this referendum does not pass.

All Paul

This past month I've been listening to SiriusXM satellite radio channel 33 which has been playing the music of Paul McCartney all the time. It includes his work with Wings, solo and promoting his new album under one of his aliases, The Fireman. During the 1990's, he recorded under this pseudo-name until recently his fans caught on that it was him. The only Beatles songs we hear are from his live concerts.

As a long time Beatles/McCartney fan, I've been listening often. Not because I love the music; not because to listen to music I don't have on CD (I've got 95% of his albums), but rather they occasionally have been playing rare and/or unreleased songs. Most that I've heard I've either known it existed and have never heard it or I have already heard it and have in my collection. But on 1 or 2 occasions, I've heard something I've never even known about. In fact, right now they're playing a song called This Loving Game, which I've known nothing about. I've also heard many remixes, including a disco-remix of the 1970's song Silly Love Songs. I can probably do with out that. But it's also fun to hear the original demo of a song and to hear how it progressed to the final product. It's also been fun to hear some songs I haven't heard in years. 

Paul McCartney undoubtedly has one of the largest back catalogs our there, if not the largest. I think the only artists to rival him is probably Frank Zappa or perhaps Bruce Springstein. So thank you Sirius for bringing Firman Radio to us. If you want to catch it, you'd better hurry as it ends in the next week or so.

Don't Be A Blockhead!

Last month, I received an e-mail from a friend who is currently living overseas. It was a message he forwarded to me regarding the Peoria Riverfront Museum. Obviously, someone in the Peoria area keeping him updated. At any rate, he thought this was something the Peoria Jaycees could become involved. Posted below was my response:

It would be better to "plug" to the members to vote AGAINST this referendum.  Here's why (the blue text comments are mine).

 

The Contemporary Art Center enthusiastically supports The Build The Block Campaign. We invite our members to “Be a Blockhead!” by supporting and donating to the Riverfront Museum project through www.BuildTheBlock.org

 

Don't believe the propaganda and if they invite you for some drinks, don't order the Kool-Aid.  You'd have to be "blockhead" to support this boondoggle.

Why is The Block so important to our community?

• The Block is poised to be one of the most important developments in our history, annually drawing an estimated 360,000 visitors and infusing an estimated $7 million to $14 million into our local economy. 

That's what they say now... the projections have changed as much as the wind changes directions.  And they are always based on unlikely conditions.  That's almost 1,000 visitors per day per year.  I recently went to Lakeview to see the Picasso exhibit.  There was hardly anyone there... and this was over the Christmas holiday when school was out.  What makes you think we need a bigger museum?

• The Caterpillar Experience, a world-class attraction, will not be built unless the museum is fully funded.

Cat's got money.  If they really wanted their own museum, let them build it... but not on the taxpayer's dime.  The city can give them a great deal on buying the underlying real estate and then bring in real estate tax revenue indefinitely.

• The 25-month construction phase of The Block will create our own economic stimulus package, generating more than 250 local union jobs each month and $1.8 million in monthly labor payroll.

After 25 months, then what?  Construction jobs dry up.  The museum may do well the first few months, then attendance will drop.  Then revenues drop but expenses will no doubt increase.  This museum will then be unable to support itself.  To survive, the museum will then need to be funded by taxpayer money... yet another failed project to be subsidized by you, the Peoria County taxpayer.

• The Block will provide an investment in our present and our future with hands-on learning and entertainment for people of all ages.

Is that so!  Kind of a high price tag for this type of learning.  I can probably learn more by watching the Discovery Channel or National Geographic.

What is the referendum for?

The referendum is for a Peoria County sales tax increase of 0.25% (a quarter of 1%) to pay for public facilities. The tax will close the gap for public funding needed to Build The Block. 

And this is because earlier, there was not a lot of support from private donations and the public to get this thing built.  So because there is little interest and support for this project, it is being forced onto the public by the powers that be because the powers that be want a museum.

How long will the tax be assessed?

The tax would begin on January 1, 2010, and will be assessed for no more than 20 years to pay off museum bonds issued by Peoria County. 

And then 20 years from now, they'll realize the museum cannot operate on it's own and continued subzidation will be required.  Like the $55 million Civic Center addition they built a couple of years ago to extend the HRA (hotel, recreation and amusement tax) tax because the Civic Center could not operate on its own, this museum will do the exact same thing.  This tax will never go away.  Peoria County citizens will pay for it every time they step up to a cash register.  Bend over.

How much will the sales tax be?

The tax would equal 25¢ on every $100 spent on select purchases. The tax would be assessed at Peoria County restaurants, Peoria County hotels and on non-titled, non-food retail goods. Titled goods such as boats, cars, or property will not be taxed. 

Oh yea, a little bit here, a little bit there... but it all adds up in the end.  Face it, we are TAXED TO DEATH!!

How does Peoria County sales tax compare with neighboring counties?

• Peoria County sales tax would increase from 0.25% to 0.50% You mean a 100% increase?!  OUCH!!

• Current Tazewell County sales tax: 0.50%

• Current Woodford County sales tax: 1.0%

And now for those who live in the City of Peoria... add in the city sales tax too.  Be sure you're lubed up for this one.

What should I look for on the April 7 Peoria County ballot?

Only one referendum will appear on the ballot. Below is the referendum text. The language of the referendum will not mention the Peoria Riverfront Museum, but rather "public facility purposes."

To pay for public facility purposes, shall Peoria County be authorized to impose an increase on its share of local sales taxes by 0.25% for a period not to exceed 20 years?

This means that a consumer would pay an additional $0.25 in sales tax for every $100 of tangible personal property bought at retail. If imposed, the additional tax would cease being collected at the end of 20 years, if not terminated earlier by a vote of the County Board.

"Public Facility Purposes" is very vague.  Can mean almost anything.  And sure, this round of taxation will end in 20 years, but what's to stop them for initiating another one to take it's place?  They sure did it with the Civic Center.

What happens if the referendum does not pass?

The Block won’t have sufficient public funding to proceed. The project will lose all of the public and private funds already pledged ($67 million), as well as the Caterpillar Experience. 

Good!  Then maybe we can use whatever money we have to fix real problems, like our repairing our outdated and almost collapsed sewer system at a cost of over $100 million, or to fully fund our police and fire departments, or... the list could go on.

Note: I noticed in the e-mail message that public and private funds donated were $67 million. In the last week, I received a mailing stating $90 million was already raised. On March 7 in the Forum section of the Peoria Journal Star, a letter from Caterpillar VP Sid Banwart claims over $80 million. The numbers and figures on this project change so much, no one knows what to believe. This is yet another clue to vote NO on the Museum Referendum on April 7, 2009.