A Tale of Two Lous
Oct. 21st, 2001 01:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ateolfwell, David and i went through w/ our little road trip to St. Louis and Louisville, forcing Justin to come along w/ us at the last moment...it was quite great...the night before (thursday evening) we went backwards in the Twin Peaks marathon and watched the pilot episode as that was skipped in the renting process...afterwards we hung out for a little while, making vague plans for the trip...i had to go out to FedEx and get a hollogram sticker for my badge...this meant sitting around a while in the screening area waiting for a manager to come up there w/ a sticker after calling them, as i couldn't get past screening w/out it...it sucked...
road trip music situation: David just got an Explorer and like the day before the cd player that came w/ it ate his copy of Transformer (well, it's currently stuck in there anyway...) and it doesn't have a tape player...so w/out cds we decided we were gonna try and get one of those little radio transmitters so you can play a discman out to your car radio...we went out to the Walmart in West Memphis but they didn't have it...then to the Walmart out in Raleigh...nope...all over the damned place for nothing...we decided we'd see if we could dig up a boom box or something or maybe try radio shack in the morning (it was already well into the early hours of the day...not too many hours from sunrise...about 5am or so i believe...) Justin went back home 'cuz he had to do something w/ his grandfather at 6ish as well as take car of other pre-leaving stuff...David and i went out to my house so i could gather my essentials for the trip/tell my mom i was going/such stuff...next: the road...
on the way to Justin's, i suggested trying K-Mart for cds-making-happener...they too did not have what we were looking for...then we decided we'd try purchasing some speakers for the discman...they didn't have any battery powered ones, but we thought we'd just go ahead and get the one pair of 1/8" jack speakers they had...we got in the vehicle, put in a cd, hooked up the speakers, and hit play...a fair amount of laughter from us...far worse than our hopes/expectations...we could barely hear anything...well, it was at a reasonable volume if the car wasn't moving or anything, but out on the highway...bollocks...at it was 8am-ish so nothing else that we could really try was open yet...and yes, we had been up the whole night...
so we pick up Justin and head out onto the open road...two and a half cds into it, we decided it just wasn't going to work so we just listened to the radio the rest of the trip...all those cds unlistened to...we managed to survive, however...a few hours later we hit St. Louis...we end up out in the suburubs but we get a map and manage to find out way to Vintage Vinyl...:
Tom Waits: Mule Variations
Lou Reed: Metal Machine Music
Can: Tago Mago
John Coltrane: Interstellar Space
yes, i already have Metal Machine Music, but i got my copy a few years ago, a good while before Buddha reissued it...so it was some german import and none of the times for the tracks coincide w/ the times on the original record for some reason...they're all weird time lengths somewhat revolving around the lengths of the actual album (16:01)...also the reissue has the lock groove looping a few times at the end of the track which isn't on my original...so i bought it again...and Mule Variations was actually used...which i never see...as well as Interstellar Space...
we drove around a while and found some pizza shop in the Bevo district...it was damned tasty pizza...then we headed over to the downtown area...lots of driving around, but we eventually parked near the arch and walked to it...a little while of walking underneath it and admiring how fucking beautiful it is...and then it was that Justin shared w/ us the greatest thing ever...something he discovered when he was 10 or so on a school field trip up there...the hill in front of the arch, going down towards the river...rolling down it...oh my god! it was so fucking fun...it's a really tall hill, pretty steep w/ two stepped parts (1/3 and 2/3 of the way up) although, being so tired and delerious, doing so was extremely nauseating...i was only able to do it twice, and w/ a long break in between runs...but goddamn it was fun! everyone should go to St. Louis just to roll down the hill in front of the arch, by crikey! also i'll add that Vintage Vinyl was far less great than it was when we went 2 years ago...oh well...
after that we immediately started heading in the direction of Louisville...an hour or so outside of St. Louis we stopped off and went to a motel...the Thrifty Inn seemed pretty appealing...a room for "two" was only $45something after tax and everything...we got there like 8something at night and there's some guy w/ his door open, decked out in camo, strapping several guns to himself...he might've been a hunter or something, but that's a really fucked-up time to go out hunting...but who knows what ppl do out in Mt. Vernon, IL...our room actually wasn't a shit-hole too...it was actually pretty pleasant, i found...and then we slept...damn that was nice...so the next day i wasn't all delerious...imagine...the girl at the desk had informed me that our key cards got us a 10% discount at the Denny's so we went there for breakfast...
after that we continued on the few more hours to Louisville...saw the world's largest standing clock across the river at the Colgate factory...made our way to Ear X-Tacy...going towards it there was a guy completely decked out in camouflage, passed out on some steps by the sidewalk...comments about a battle w/ a bottle and the bottled winning were made...funny stuff, i say...but the record store:
cds:
Nico: Desertshore
Thurston Moore, Walter Prati, Giancarlo Schiaffini: Opus: Three Incredible Ideas
Eno: Here Come the Warm Jets
Public Image: s/t
X: Los Angeles
New Order: The John Peel Sessions
Mars: 78+
Suicide: The Second Album + The First Rehearsal Tapes
shirt:
Joan of Arc
this record store was fucking great...going back there in the not-too-distant-future would be nice...after that we went to some coffee place and sat and drank stuff for a few minutes...i saw this Gang of Four cd as i was leaving the store, decided not to get it, but then later, it was bugging me so i had David swing back by the store (it was almost around the corner anyway) and i'd run in and get the cd...but then i changed my mind again and didn't get it...it was some comp and i didn't really know anything at all about it so i just went back to the car...more driving and then back down south on the way home...Lousville has some fucking beautiful architecture, by the way...
and some point shortly after Louisville, we stopped off to get gas...there was a Sonic next to the gas station...they were having a car show of sorts there...just a wee bit odd, that's all...
about 25 miles from Nashville there was a huge traffic back-up...we were in it for about an hour and a half...this also just happened to coincide w/ all of us having to pee really bad...it was fucking hell...many times i contimplated using the empty Pespsi Twist bottle...but i waited it out...earlier, just before Ear X-Tacy, i bought a Barqs red cream soda (which wasn't very good) and upon twisting the cap, it sprayed out all over my crotch, i commented about that having possibly been some sort of foreshadow to this later event...luckily it didn't pan out...at one point, there was some bald, moustache, neckish guy in a pickup next to us...he kind've shouted at us and pointed his finger like a gun and made some noise, laughing...it was in a very amicable sort of way...we had asked him if he knew what was going on...he didn't...he then informed us, shouting amidst the slowly crawling cars that it didn't fuckin' matter 'cuz he was on acid...it was pretty funny...we made it out...got off at the second exit and went to a Dairy Queen...i'll add that the cause of the backup was three 16-wheelers had been in some wreck and one (as well as part of the other) lane was blocked off...and i just have to say that the Dairy Queen restroom was purely heaven...
a little ways after Nashville, David decided that he was tired and i took over the helm of the suv...it was really awkward at first, the steering wheel being looser than i'm used to, as well as a much larger vehicle than i'm used to, but after a while i had all grown used to it...shortly later we arrived in Memphis...a little note: really bad classic/cock rock's good for keeping yourself awake while driving...i guess it's the whole rockin' thing...but anyway, we arrived in Memphis and all was good...it was a fucking great trip...we enjoyed ourselves immensely...such a thing should happen again, i think...not too far off in the future...
road trip music situation: David just got an Explorer and like the day before the cd player that came w/ it ate his copy of Transformer (well, it's currently stuck in there anyway...) and it doesn't have a tape player...so w/out cds we decided we were gonna try and get one of those little radio transmitters so you can play a discman out to your car radio...we went out to the Walmart in West Memphis but they didn't have it...then to the Walmart out in Raleigh...nope...all over the damned place for nothing...we decided we'd see if we could dig up a boom box or something or maybe try radio shack in the morning (it was already well into the early hours of the day...not too many hours from sunrise...about 5am or so i believe...) Justin went back home 'cuz he had to do something w/ his grandfather at 6ish as well as take car of other pre-leaving stuff...David and i went out to my house so i could gather my essentials for the trip/tell my mom i was going/such stuff...next: the road...
on the way to Justin's, i suggested trying K-Mart for cds-making-happener...they too did not have what we were looking for...then we decided we'd try purchasing some speakers for the discman...they didn't have any battery powered ones, but we thought we'd just go ahead and get the one pair of 1/8" jack speakers they had...we got in the vehicle, put in a cd, hooked up the speakers, and hit play...a fair amount of laughter from us...far worse than our hopes/expectations...we could barely hear anything...well, it was at a reasonable volume if the car wasn't moving or anything, but out on the highway...bollocks...at it was 8am-ish so nothing else that we could really try was open yet...and yes, we had been up the whole night...
so we pick up Justin and head out onto the open road...two and a half cds into it, we decided it just wasn't going to work so we just listened to the radio the rest of the trip...all those cds unlistened to...we managed to survive, however...a few hours later we hit St. Louis...we end up out in the suburubs but we get a map and manage to find out way to Vintage Vinyl...:
Tom Waits: Mule Variations
Lou Reed: Metal Machine Music
Can: Tago Mago
John Coltrane: Interstellar Space
yes, i already have Metal Machine Music, but i got my copy a few years ago, a good while before Buddha reissued it...so it was some german import and none of the times for the tracks coincide w/ the times on the original record for some reason...they're all weird time lengths somewhat revolving around the lengths of the actual album (16:01)...also the reissue has the lock groove looping a few times at the end of the track which isn't on my original...so i bought it again...and Mule Variations was actually used...which i never see...as well as Interstellar Space...
we drove around a while and found some pizza shop in the Bevo district...it was damned tasty pizza...then we headed over to the downtown area...lots of driving around, but we eventually parked near the arch and walked to it...a little while of walking underneath it and admiring how fucking beautiful it is...and then it was that Justin shared w/ us the greatest thing ever...something he discovered when he was 10 or so on a school field trip up there...the hill in front of the arch, going down towards the river...rolling down it...oh my god! it was so fucking fun...it's a really tall hill, pretty steep w/ two stepped parts (1/3 and 2/3 of the way up) although, being so tired and delerious, doing so was extremely nauseating...i was only able to do it twice, and w/ a long break in between runs...but goddamn it was fun! everyone should go to St. Louis just to roll down the hill in front of the arch, by crikey! also i'll add that Vintage Vinyl was far less great than it was when we went 2 years ago...oh well...
after that we immediately started heading in the direction of Louisville...an hour or so outside of St. Louis we stopped off and went to a motel...the Thrifty Inn seemed pretty appealing...a room for "two" was only $45something after tax and everything...we got there like 8something at night and there's some guy w/ his door open, decked out in camo, strapping several guns to himself...he might've been a hunter or something, but that's a really fucked-up time to go out hunting...but who knows what ppl do out in Mt. Vernon, IL...our room actually wasn't a shit-hole too...it was actually pretty pleasant, i found...and then we slept...damn that was nice...so the next day i wasn't all delerious...imagine...the girl at the desk had informed me that our key cards got us a 10% discount at the Denny's so we went there for breakfast...
after that we continued on the few more hours to Louisville...saw the world's largest standing clock across the river at the Colgate factory...made our way to Ear X-Tacy...going towards it there was a guy completely decked out in camouflage, passed out on some steps by the sidewalk...comments about a battle w/ a bottle and the bottled winning were made...funny stuff, i say...but the record store:
cds:
Nico: Desertshore
Thurston Moore, Walter Prati, Giancarlo Schiaffini: Opus: Three Incredible Ideas
Eno: Here Come the Warm Jets
Public Image: s/t
X: Los Angeles
New Order: The John Peel Sessions
Mars: 78+
Suicide: The Second Album + The First Rehearsal Tapes
shirt:
Joan of Arc
this record store was fucking great...going back there in the not-too-distant-future would be nice...after that we went to some coffee place and sat and drank stuff for a few minutes...i saw this Gang of Four cd as i was leaving the store, decided not to get it, but then later, it was bugging me so i had David swing back by the store (it was almost around the corner anyway) and i'd run in and get the cd...but then i changed my mind again and didn't get it...it was some comp and i didn't really know anything at all about it so i just went back to the car...more driving and then back down south on the way home...Lousville has some fucking beautiful architecture, by the way...
and some point shortly after Louisville, we stopped off to get gas...there was a Sonic next to the gas station...they were having a car show of sorts there...just a wee bit odd, that's all...
about 25 miles from Nashville there was a huge traffic back-up...we were in it for about an hour and a half...this also just happened to coincide w/ all of us having to pee really bad...it was fucking hell...many times i contimplated using the empty Pespsi Twist bottle...but i waited it out...earlier, just before Ear X-Tacy, i bought a Barqs red cream soda (which wasn't very good) and upon twisting the cap, it sprayed out all over my crotch, i commented about that having possibly been some sort of foreshadow to this later event...luckily it didn't pan out...at one point, there was some bald, moustache, neckish guy in a pickup next to us...he kind've shouted at us and pointed his finger like a gun and made some noise, laughing...it was in a very amicable sort of way...we had asked him if he knew what was going on...he didn't...he then informed us, shouting amidst the slowly crawling cars that it didn't fuckin' matter 'cuz he was on acid...it was pretty funny...we made it out...got off at the second exit and went to a Dairy Queen...i'll add that the cause of the backup was three 16-wheelers had been in some wreck and one (as well as part of the other) lane was blocked off...and i just have to say that the Dairy Queen restroom was purely heaven...
a little ways after Nashville, David decided that he was tired and i took over the helm of the suv...it was really awkward at first, the steering wheel being looser than i'm used to, as well as a much larger vehicle than i'm used to, but after a while i had all grown used to it...shortly later we arrived in Memphis...a little note: really bad classic/cock rock's good for keeping yourself awake while driving...i guess it's the whole rockin' thing...but anyway, we arrived in Memphis and all was good...it was a fucking great trip...we enjoyed ourselves immensely...such a thing should happen again, i think...not too far off in the future...
