The Manic Mechanic

I always make it a point to watch the annual Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts show bestowing the Kennedy Center Honors on very deserving and diverse individuals for their contributions to the performing arts world. This time, the honorees were prima ballerina Natalia Makarova, actor Dustin Hoffman, blues man Buddy Guy, late-night host David Letterman, and rockers Led Zeppelin. Aside from the obvious presence of the honorees, the roster of greats in the respective fields of the recipients is nothing short of incredible. The performances given to each of the honorees not only highlight the peak of each artists' careers, but the mutual respect between them and their peers is obvious and beautiful. This night was no exception. In fact, it was almost magical.

I sat myself in front of the television last night and let myself become completely wrapped up in the show. I had familiarity with all of the honorees, even Natalia Marakova, getting a bit choked up as a number of familiar dances were performed reminded me of Mom and her constant immersion in opera and ballet. I became giddy and amazed at all the performers, as they followed each other during the show. The performances given in honor of Buddy Guy were outstanding, with Jeff Beck and Beth Hart, Tracy Chapman and Bonnie Raitt bringing down the house. I could not wait to see what awaited Led Zeppelin, who were being inducted as a band and with Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones as individual artists.

Lenny Kravitz performed "Whole Lotta Love." The Foo Fighters did "Rock and Roll." Then Jason Bonham, son of late Zeppelin drummer John Bonham was called to the stage, and, well, I'll let the video speak for itself:

Yeah, color me blown away. I hope these videos aren't nuked by YouTube for some silly infringement bullshit. I saved my own local copies.

One more thing. Throughout the performances President Obama and First Lady Michelle are seen thoroughly enjoying each performance, either engaged in the speeches given both seriously and comedic, and completely into the music. They get it. I cannot for the life of me imagine a Mitt Romney and his wooden wife even pretending to enjoy the songs for the scary bluesman or those drugged out rockers. Stairway to Heaven? That'll be a minimum of ten percent of your salary, please. Thankfully, tonight was all about art (of all kinds) in excellence, mutual respect, and a whole lotta love.

Our weekend at Knoebels was nicer than expected. For one, the weather was damn near perfect, if a bit on the hot side. The biggest surprise was the campgrounds. It is HUGE. There are actually two campgrounds, and between them there are over 800 individual sites. Plenty of room between the RV/trailer sites, and the tent sites have lots of room as well as platforms on many sites. Jeff and I got to thinking that we should plan a big gathering for an extended weekend if not a whole week sometime in the future. It's that good. Most of the campers had decorated their sites and the cabins in Halloween themes, and some wandered the park in costumes. Had we known, we would have brought decorations along.

As I said previously, this was the weekend of the "Covered Bridge and Arts Festival". Hundred of crafts vendors along with dozens of food sellers filled the park. Most of the rides were also operational during the weekend as well. Those two facts made for a crushing amount of people mostly milling around the crafts tents and pavillions.

Now, I am not one for huge crowds milling about. Add to it the unseasonably warm weather and that pervasive smell of cinnamon, potpourri and polyurethane that seems endemic to such venues and the result is a huge pounding headache for me. I coped with the headache, though. All told, there were eleven of us bears 'n' cubs taking in the sights, sounds, smells, food and rides along with the trinket shopping.

All was not perfect, though. The tone of the day on Saturday was set a few notches lower when Jeff and I, fresh off of riding the "Skyway" (essentially a rehabbed ski lift that takes you up and down a mountain next to the park for a scenic ride), came upon a vendor selling a huge variety of cutting boards made from a synthetic hard material similar to Corian countertops. I still had my little camera in hand from taking pictures while on the Skyway when the 'proprietress' hurried over to where we were standing. "You are not taking pictures, are you?" she loudly bellowed, holding a cutting board like a paddle seemingly ready to block my use of the camera. "There can be no pictures taken of my product. Please dont take pictures." She kept getting closer and closer and getting between me and the tables. "I am not taking any pictures, nor do I intend to. The camera is OFF, see?" She went on more and more, as if to say she does not believe me. I told this woman that she can look at everything I had taken just to be sure. She went on and on. She watched like a hawk as we looked momentarily over the overpriced cutting boards, which I was actually interested in at first before that scene played out. We wandered off, with Jeff exclaiming loudly enough and with me in agreement that we would not buy anything from that seller now if our lives depended on it. I started to stew a bit more (I dont like being called a liar) and was tempted to go back and confront the woman but decided against it. If there is one thing I have noticed regarding these 'crafts' sellers, it's that so much of it is a variant of the same old clichéd themes available from everyone. The market for $70 dollar cutting boards made from scraps of Corian will dry up rapidly once some Chinese factory starts churning them out for less than ten bux at the local Wal-Mart. No photos needed.

All of us had good fun walking around, critiquing products, buying trinkets and riding the rides later on in the day. Too much good food, lots of eye candy (Jeff really liked the guy selling bean soup with his big arms). I went back to the camper briefly to rest my sore shoulder and headache, then it was an evening of coasters and other rides in the dark. Knoebels is one of the last remaining parks that does not charge for parking or to enter the park, and you pay as you go for rides. You can also pay a flat rate and ride everything all day.

It feels kinda sad to be putting the trailer away for the winter. I cannot complain though, we had a total of five outings with it this year (Deep Creek Lake, MD, Provincetown, MA, twice to Hillside and now Knoebels). We got the thing with the thought of doing more traveling, and so far we are keeping to that promise to ourselves. Barring any problems with free time, next year we hope to get even more time on the road. I'm the type that likes to consider the journey as well as the destination as part of a whole vacation experience. And despite high fuel cost, driving around while lugging a house along behind us is still a bargain compared to flying and staying at a hotel in many cases. We are gonna do more.

( Here be pictures! )

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I've been in a bit if a funk lately (LJ audience: "What else is new?!?"). Having trouble focusing on stuff that needs doing, getting fed up at work at the sorry state of affairs cause by (mis)management, etc. It's that 'one step forward, two steps back' rhythm that I sometimes fall into. Not to worry, really, things usually turn themselves around eventually, usually if I blog and bitch enough about it (and get offa my duff).

Jeff and I have one more little camping trip at the beginning of next month. It's back up to Knoebel's Amusement park for their annual "Covered Bridge and Arts Festival" weekend. One of their last operating weekends of the year, this is when the pathways and pavilions inside the park become home to craftspeople showing, telling and selling their wares, with artists and live music throughout the day. The park's major rides and attractions are also in operation as well. This should be a fun and relaxing weekend, the last before I put the trailer away and winterize it 'til next year. It should also earn some extra gay points as well.

If anyone is interested in this, let me know It'd be great to hang out and enjoy the weekend. Plus, it's free. Cant do better than free.

I need to do something about the computer infrastructure here at the Garage of Mayhem. The server aint gonna last much longer, the uber-UPS that powers it needs repair, and I need to upgrade to gigabit as well as add some huge NAS disks. Once winter rolls in and most of my time is spent indoors, it will be time to bring my shit into the 21st century. All my stuff needs some serious backing up, as well as at least one copy of everything outside the house or in some other safe place. A simple LAN-attached bigass drive out in the garage would do, but that environment might not be the happiest place for it. Decisions, decisions. I also gotta host my domains and make use of them. I need something better than what Comcast throws in with their 'net service. This is one of the primary reasons for ot posting much in the way of pictures and other goodies. No convenient space.