Feb 26

Yesterday, was an all day driving day, 450 miles to be exact. We had a great Mexican breakfast in Carlsbad and drove on out. There was not a whole lot to see on the drive, we were on the 285 going through Pecos and Fort Stockton, then to the I-10 east and got within an hour of our destination, San Antonio. We stopped at Kerrville, it was this neat historic town that is know for it’s annual folk music festival.

After attending on of the best folk festivals we’ve ever been to, we drove that hour and checked into one of the best hotels in San Antonio, which we booked online at this site. A side note: I only paid $2.07 for diesel, which is by far the cheapest gas I’ve paid for on this little road trip of ours, and that helped us do more financially, than we thought we would be able to do, thanks to cheap diesel in Texas!

We arrived New Years Eve, because we wanted to be somewhere different for the beginning of 2010, someplace with fresh energy and a place that offered a different atmosphere than what we are use to back in California, and you can’t get much more different than Texas. We celebrated New Years Eve in our hotel room.

Then, New Years Day, which was a beautiful day, about 70 degrees, we decided to check out the Alamo. We’ve both seen it in movies and read about it in our history books, but we wanted to see the little mission for real. We thought we’d be the only one’s to tour it, being New Years Day and everyone recovering with hangovers, but we were so wrong. The place had a throng of people, is was totally mobbed! Apparently, everyone in San Antonio had the day off and decided that there was no better time to see the Alamo! So, we opted to do the Riverwalk instead and relax with listening to live music. So much for the Alamo!

Feb 16

Georgia keeps getting cooler all the time.  Not that it needs any help, or excuses, since it’s always been one of the more interesting places in the country.  There’s a very diverse population, with a fascinating history, and it seems like it’s always been ripe for seeing new works of live art.  This coming season, one of the more exciting events, which will likely fill Georgia’s hotels with interesting rock and rollers form all over, is the Pink Floyd Experience.  The show has a pretty big price tag, but from all the reviews and the word of mouth, it’s definitely worth the cost of the ticket.

Seeing this in Atlanta will also be another boost to the value of the show, since the music community here is very open, but at the same time immensely discerning.  That’s exactly the kind of crowd this show needs, with its amazing special effects, and complex music that changed the way we listen to rock.  Pink Floyd itself is a spectacularly interesting story, with lots of strange and sudden changes, and a lot of loss.  They’ve singularly raised the bar on the idea of concept albums, taking the cue from the Who and pushing it to new extremes.  One of the long-times themes of the band, madness, has worked its way into a lot of the work, and it makes for interesting stories for the next generation.

Pink Floyd’s earliest clues that madness would haunt the band came from its magnetic front man Syd Barrett.  He could not hold onto the chord keeping him in this world, and he left the band after creating music that moved rock into the realm of art.  The Wall, one of their most successful works, was based in part on him, and turned out to be excellent fodder for fans who felt uneasily on this side of sanity themselves.  The original members aren’t playing in the Pink Floyd Experience, but the ones who are playing tribute to them have got the sounds down solid, and carry an enormous passion for the music.  It will be a night to remember for a long time to come.