12/30/09
6:45pm
well here i am all ready to go on my little train trip to albq, new mexico!
i took the red line one block from my home to union station and i'm now on the southwest chief @ amtrak ready to depart.... and we're off!
well i can't say i recommend coach seating, (except for the low price) very uncomfortable, too many peoples and children!
windslow- AZ- train station
trying to sleep with a group of old guys snoring, babies crying and an annoying women who keeps calling her BF and telling him EVERY boring detail of her trip! "hi honey, I'm in the fourth car from the dinning car. we just pasted barstow, i'm going to blow in your ear." finally @ around 11pm i had to politely tell her, " excuse me lady, could you go downstairs or something."
besides the physical discomforts, the visuals are amazing.. dark images of desert that you can barley make out so you have to image what the landscape might look like. lonely little towns with opulent train stations from more glamours past times. quiet little homes and trailers. all little gems.
12/31/09
5:55am
waiting for the dining car to open.... so hungry i could eat a horse. finally opens @ 6:30am. i have breakfast with a lady named bernadette, she is from north carolina, and coinkadinkally she was staying with her sister in los feliz! what are the chances. breakfast wasn't bad, considering.
gallup- new mexico
7:06am
watching the sunrise and the scenery is spectacular! ohmygod the sun against the snow covered desert of arizona is breathtaking.. it's so simple, so subtle, no one would ever travel out here just to experience this.. but it is fantastic. it is the subtle change that deepak chopra keeping taking about like a mantra in his book- healing the body & soul.. i'm reading this book.. yes i'm metaphysical.
11.45am
i arrive at the train station in albuquerque, new mexico! my final destination. raymond's- BF tim is supposed to pick me up, but my train is early and he is not here. so i decide to walk to gertrude zachary: a fine antique shop run by eccentric biddy- gertrude zachary. the last time i was in albuquerque she was not open. according to raymond, she is rarely open. well guess what? she is not open this time either.
albuquerque, new mexico- train station- my final destination!
gertrude zachary- fine antiques
tim pulls into the empty parking lot and away we go! tim is a bundle of hyperactive energy. or as he puts it, "obviously i'm more robust than elvis presley, but not in a corpulent manner."
1pm
tim drives briskly as i take-in the sites & sounds of albq NM, one of my fave places. i used to come here on a regular basis back in the 80s when i used to collaborate with art photographer joel-peter witkin. between LA & albq i helped put together 13 of joel's most famous images, including leda & the swan, (with the goddess bunny as model).
that was then, this is now- we stop off for tea @ bassass coffee.. tim says the coffee is good, (i don't drink coffee) the tea was fine, but do not order the scones! dry as a bone. they gave me my money back. albquerqueans are very accommodating.
we stop by and pick up matt. one of raymond's friends..... not my favorite person, but he'll do in a pinch. matt is a reborn republican from alta dena, california. apparently his grandfather or someone had money once upon a time, (hence the republican stance) now he is just plain ol white trash. looks kinda like the guy from married with children, likes to think he looks like edward norton. people in albq can also be somewhat delusional.
we drive up to jemez springs- HEAVEN ON EARTH! what a beauty of a gem of a gorgeous little hamlet. pass by all my favorite places- the bath house, (built in 1906 for john dillenger) jemez mountain B&B, (i wave to peter the owner) los ojos bar, (listed as one of the top 10 bars in america by esquire magazine!) the Buddhist retreat and meditation center, (natural hots springs!) and then raymond's house!!. i plod thru snow and there is raymond, busy @ work in his little workshop. what a magical soul he is. just sitting there in his little sanctuary. just like the TV series- everybody loves raymond.
i always wonder if he realizes what a fantastic area he inhabitants. most people always want what they don't have, so perhaps he longs for the big city lights.
now settled in at raymond's place, luanna & peter, (from the jemez mountain B&B) stop by. they are wearing santa hats & xmas lights around there bodies. they are a sweet couple.
later that night- raymond, tim, matt and i spend what i think was the best new years eve of all. sitting by the fire, chattin, drinking green tea,
( that i brought from tenren), sipping makers mark whiskey, listening to tim recite quotes from nietzsche, and watching the dvd of i am legend on my laptop, ( my friend rick owens did will smith's costumes.... btw will smith is gay... so is jada pikett) .
the new years moon is a blue moon. very rare will not happening again for a long time. it is good luck. a very good omen for 2010.
This New Year's Eve, there will be a blue moon in the sky. No, not literally blue; the term "blue moon" actually refers to when there are two full moons in a given calendar month, an astronomical rarity that occurs just seven times every 19 years, hence the famous phrase "once in a blue moon."
What's more, this New Year's Eve, people living in the Far East will see a lunar eclipse, making this an even rarer...er rarity. A blue-moon eclipse only happens once roughly every 15 to 20 years.
i am so happy! i love life.- HIPPY-PAPPY-HAPPY NEW YEAR.
1/1/2010
slept like a little baby boy in raymond's workshop, now my crib. tim & mat jabbered almost all night long, about who knows what... their chatter became my white noise. i wake up to the view of morning sunlit snow of raymond's front yard. a frozen stream and snow covered hills called the cat meza.
i get up around 7am.. tim is still up reading from 20 different books @ one time. 5 of them about nietzsche, one is about schopenhauer, also the canterbury tales, leviathan, blink and mein kampf, (?). well 19 out of 20 'ant that bad.
spent the entire day will tim & matt, chatting, watching movies and going online. relaxing and fun. oh also in attendance are raymond's 3 huskie dogs- kia, azula & chauegha.
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