seeing Ghost(s...(b.c.)

a friend of mine introduced me to one of my all time favorite bands and i will be forever thankful. i am even more thankful for the time he bought a ticket for me to go see that band with him and his girlfriend.

we drove about two hours south of phoenixopolis to tucson- a town whos name apparently i cannot wrap my east coast mouth around and always pronounce it wrong when speaking to locals, and we spent the day exploring the Biosphere 2 (you should see it), the domes and downtown tucson.

ill do a post later about the Biosphere because i love that place and manage to visit it like once every three or four months and i think its a treasure. but right now im going to talk about Ghost. or well, Ghost b.c. when they tour here in the states due to some bullshit band than had the name before them and that no one ever heard of from back in the 70s or something.

Ghost was founded my what is probably a bunch of swedish guys, but no one is really sure since they place in full robes and masks without revealing their identities. the whole theme of the band is Papa Emeritus and the Nameless Ghouls are i guess a satanic cardinal and his faceless priests or servants. the showmanship and theatrical nature of how they performs is amazing. for people who are reading this that arent fans of metal music, dont worry. im sure Ghost isnt actually a bunch of satanists. its just music.

 

their sound is very blues, old rock, 70s showmanship and melodic. think Blue Oyster Cult, early Black Sabbath, ABBA, and a touch of Mercyful Fate. for the casual listener, remember- showmanship and concept. i personally love most of the music lyrically. i think its well written, poetic and flows amazingly with a clean, crisp sound. the guitarists are very talented, the drummer is spot on and the music flows. i especially love the covers they choose to do. who would have ever guessed ABBA or the Beatles could sound terrifying?

So i would highly recommend giving either album a listen. Opus Eponymous is their first and was what got me hooked, and Infestissumam is a well paced and executed sophmore album. ill leave you with a link to youtube for their Beatles cover.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLFFUIZfX9Q

Antelope Canyon where the Soul whispers

i have traveled to a lot of places. i even had the luck of being born and raised in what is often referred to as one of the most beautiful places in America. when i have i was lost for words by the beauty of a place, i am making a very big statement. it honestly took me over a year to be able to construct full, adult sentences in regards to what i saw.

 

in northern arizona there is a place located near the city of page that is called Antelope Canyon. This canyon is on Navajo lands and has two parts, called  Tsé bighánílíní (and wikpedia tells me this means the place where water runs through the rocks) which is Upper Antelope Canyon. the other half is Lower Antelope Canyon, named Hazdistazí, (wikipedia says spiral rock arches).

 

 

 

now ill get the tour guide stuff out of the way. this is probably one of the most recognizable places photographed in America. youll see photos of this place everywhere. the canyon was formed by erosion and flash flooding. the upper canyon is level so if you have physical requirements for travel than youre in luck, plus walking through pure shafts of sunlight that kiss your soul as it resonates through what is one of the most spiritually touching locations in the world.

i would not call myself religious, but i do feel a connection to the universe. i drove four hours to stand in a sketchy looking parking lot in the shadow of what looked like a giant power plant from the future where blue skies met orange sands. after paying about the same amount for a ticket s i would a decent meal i was ferried onto a modified off roading truck along with a few other people and driven though a shallow wash.

 

i remember thinking during the ride that the picture i had seen really only had one thing in common with the area i was in. the dirt was orange and that it reminded me scifi renditions of mars. but then the truck pulled over and we were ushered to a crack in the face of a sharply angled orange sandstone wall. the crack in the canyon. what i didnt know at this moment was that i was about to have a moment of spiritual growth.

at this point ill just let the rest of the pictures talk. because unless youre there, youll never feel the heartbeat of the universe, God's kiss, the perfect moment, Om... call it what you will.

a little town called rhyolite, nevada

so i enjoy road trips and driving, which i think is a very American thing. kind of like how people associate biscuts and tea with England, safaris with Africa, surfing with Australia and wild, cold wilderness with Canada (or people wearing flannel). but vehicles and roads have a very spiritual place in American hearts.

recently i got a chance to stay in vegas and drive around southern nevada and i had a blast. one of the places i went to was rhyolite, an abandoned mining town that is part art museum and part ghost town.

in 1906 rhyolite was booming, had tons of people, electricity, schools, hotels and a lively night scene. by 1916 the town was dead. since then its been slowly crumbling away until people who cared showed up and decided to fix some of the structures and turn it into an open air art park or sorts.

now known as the goldwell open air museum it features scultpures from a few different artists, maybe most prominently a dutch guy named Albert Szukalski who did the last supper and ghostrider out of fibreglass, using locals as the models.

the place is pretty wicked, and quick the drive to get to. but most certainly worth the trip. i loved it.

 

Now this place is nestled between two... Im from a coastal town so they look like mountains to me, but they might just be hills. And since this was a mining town there are open mines. At this point most of them are blocked off to protect visitors, but there are some that arent. So if you go to explore this place just be careful if you leave the paths.

I will also mention that if you choose to visit here you shouldnt take the route i did. Just stick to the highway. Theres a paved road that leads right to it... theres also an unpaved road. This road is an ass and will be dusty and make your compact car cry tears.



Nesting for dragons

so, i recently had the fact that i have officially hit adulthood pointed out for me in a truly blatantly obvious way. i wanted to know how my credit score was doing. as you can see the day started off on a somewhat normal note.

so i called a mortgage lender to ask.

what struck this wild hair up my ass? i have no idea, maybe the idea of being able to borrow a huge sum of money to purchase a box to live in gets my panties all fired up. or perhaps my dark dragon internal clock has determined that since i am never having children i need a super awesome lair to fill with goodies and to lounge around in my undies while occasionally snacking on the remains of adventurers who have decided to attempt to slay me....

so anyway.

i found out i have super awesome credit for someone who is mid twenties, and divorced. (if it ever happens again its because ive been hunted down like a lion on a safari with a tranqued out blow gun by a country boy who will probably chain me by my ankle to an oven due to my cooking skills)...(dammit)

after a surprisingly short conversation i was then told of my pre-approved amount, as well as what i can finance up to. we discussed things like HOAs, fixed rates, wine and what kind of iced mocha coffee tastes best once its warmed to room temperature. long story short- i have a letter that says i can buy a home.

which has started the coolest hunt to find a lair, a batcave, a fortress of solitude, a temple for the soul, a nest, a party place, a crash pad, or... to sum it up. a place that im going to be stuck paying off for a really long time that i can store my shit in and sleep at.

this has also brought a nearly aneurysm inducing panic attack.

insurance? dammit. bills? dammit. HOA? dammit. responsibility? dammit. i have to buy a fridge? dammit. neighbors ill be stuck with for more than a year? dammit. what color do i paint the walls? dammit. how many bedrooms do i want? dammit. i can finally focus on my slightly gay passion of interior design? dammit- the pressure!

what will be awesome is rubbing my nuts on everything contained within my four walls of awesome. im going to make my house my bitch.

i also managed to spell dammit wrong about 12 times while writing this post.