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Monte R.

Born in the farm fields in Ohio. Monte R. currently resides in Austin, TX.

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Los Angeles – Summer Vacay with Kids

by Monte R.
written by Monte R.

Nice to back in Los Angeles again, this time with my kids. I missed the perfect 75F weather every day. This was a trip we planned back in 2020 but the pandemic disrupted all those plans.

The highlights were the Warner Brothers Studio Tour and Funko Hollywood toy shop, and Manhattan Beach, which I enjoyed visiting again.

The homeless situation in the Los Angeles area is awful – tent cities and dilapidated RVs parked on city streets. It’s sorta grim and dystopian.  It was like this when I lived there back in the late 90s. Inflation was bonkers – everything from food to gas was up 50% nearly everywhere.  But the perfect weather! Coming from Texas 100F heat in the summer, it was like paradise.

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FamilyFeatured

Columbus Ohio – Summer Vacation with Kids

by Monte R.
written by Monte R.

After six years, finally got back to visit my hometown, Columbus, Ohio in July.

Coming from Austin, which has become so busy and over populated, I felt like I was on vacation. Columbus is so easy to get around and it’s just not as busy and congested. I’d like to move back home one day.

COSI, Anthony Thomas Candy Factory, Carfagnas Italian, Crazzy Greek, Graeter’s Ice Cream, Skyline Chili, Flyers Pizza, Donatos Pizza, Ninja Citi

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Blow Up of Blow Up – Michelangelo Antonioni Documentary

by Monte R.
written by Monte R.

How did I previously miss this 2016 documentary “Blow Up of Blow Up” about one of my favorite filmmakers of all time, Michelangelo Antonioni? There isn’t even a trailer available online, which is unfortunate.

The only place you can see it is on HBO – link here. I stumbled upon on it last month.  It’s an in depth documentary on the making of his 1966 film, Blow Up.  It remains one of his first international productions, albeit distinctly in his own style, and it was one of his most successful films financially. This movie is really about Michelangelo Antonioni’s personal philosophy and approach to art and photography and what it all means to him.

I’ll be the first to admit, Antonioni ain’t for the masses – he’s a filmmakers’ filmmaker.  He’s doing it for the art of it – there’s little ‘commercial’ value in anything he ever made.  He was pushing the bounds of cinema with questions that were pretty deep, complex and required a level of sophistication and context to appreciate.

The doc itself (directed by Valentina Agostinis) offers some amazing insight into how the movie was made, how locations were chosen and how/why Antonioni crafted the storyline and so forth.  So many people were still alive to offer their accounts – it’s really cool.

My favorite quote in the doc:

“Michelangelo Antonioni sorta broke up The Yardbirds and was therefore instrumental in creating Led Zeppelin. So we can put Antonioni into rock history.” – former Yardbirds manager Simon Napier-Bell

There’s a famous scene in the movie with The Yardbirds (comprised of Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page) playing in a nightclub.  Antonioni harassed Jeff Beck into smashing a guitar (which he was reluctant to do – it wasn’t “cool” at the time) leading to on set conflict between all involved. The Yardbirds broke up soon thereafter.  The movie set the precedent for guitar smashing as means of on-stage performance thereafter.

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2021: My Travel Year in Review

by Monte R.
written by Monte R.

Well, another year of the COVID-19 virus pandemic blues comes to a close.  It’s been a pretty depressing couple years, especially without freedom to travel without virus restrictions of some type.

The vaccines have finally helped open up the world again in parts, however, the variants (Delta + Omicrom) keep impeding re-openings, which stutter and stumble.  We’re now going into year three of the Covid virus pandemic nightmare but with more hope than before, at least.

On top of all that, the Death Cult Republicans attempted a coup of our US government in January. Vox ran an article on the coup ending democracy recently “The world as we know it is ending. Why are we still at work?” and that’s about the most “American” thing I’ve read lately.

Virus and political horrors aside, I finally was able to travel some this year domestically: New Mexico (post), Las Vegas, Seattle (post), Sarasota (Florida) and San Francisco and even Cancun (which is almost like part of Texas). Heck, now that I think about, I sure did travel a bit this year despite the pandemic problems, which made it all a bit more expensive, unfortunately.

The lingering effects of the pandemic remain evident everywhere I visited – understaffed hotels and restaurants were the biggest problem.  Long lines, limited menus, higher prices for pretty much everything, especially food and rental cars. Costs aside, I was just happy to be traveling again!

To recap some of the trips, in April, I took a short trip to Cancun with Jenny to spend a few days at the Excellence Riviera Resort.  It’s an adults only resort – the spa at the resort is an incredible highlight I did not expect.

In June, we went to Las Vegas.  We stayed at Nomad MGM and the brand new Virgin Hotel which replaced the old Hard Rock Casino, which I used to frequent back in the day with my brothers.  I really like the new dark English gothic design of Nomad MGM and the sunny desert vibes of the Virgin Hotel and Casino. The interactive art exhibit, Meow Wolf, was also super awesome.

For my 50th birthday, we took a trip to San Francisco.  It had been at least ten years since I last visited, when my aunt passed away.  The city was less busy than I expected likely due to the vaccine card requirement to eat/drink anywhere.  We stayed the Palace Hotel.

For the second part of the trip, we headed up to wine country.  We drove up through Sonoma and Santa Rosa, visiting some nice wineries along the way.  We visited the Charles Schultz Museum in Santa Rosa and ended the trip in Bodega Bay, which had an amazing Pacific coast line view.

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