Author

Monte R.

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

2021: My Travel Year in Review

by Monte R. December 13, 2021

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.

December 13, 2021 0 comment

The Card Counter – Paul Schrader

by Monte R. September 29, 2021

written by Monte R.

Every film fanatic has a short list of certain filmmakers they’re fascinated by for whatever reason.

For me, screenwriter/director Paul Schrader is high up on my fanatic list. I consider his screenwriting on the same sophistication level with screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky (Network), who is arguably the greatest of all time, in my opinion. His masterwork is the screenplay for Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver (1976).

As a former Calvinist theology student, Schrader studied film at UCLA and he started, ironically, as a film critic. Back in early 1970s while at AFI, Schrader wrote a book on the art of film analysis called The Transcendetal Style in Film: Ozu, Bresson and Dreyer. That book blew my mind when I read it back in the late 80s as a teenager. It was fascinating to read an intellectual dissection of film as an art form, with ties into the nature of religion.

I’m also a big of Yoshiro Ozu and Carl Dreyer and for Schrader to keenly observe the similarities between their works – whether deliberate or not consciously or perhaps just human condition – it made a big impact on me and my understanding of the power of filmmaking as an art form, beyond just a commercial enterprise.

My life working in the music business crossed paths with Schrader on the periphery, due to our shared appreciation for the band The Call. Fronted by singer/songwriter Michael Been, both Paul Schrader and director Martin Scorsese were also fans of the band. Who knew? I’ve heard stories from The Call drummer Scott Music about Scorsese and Schrader coming their gigs in NYC back in the 80s.

Scorsese cast Michael Been to appear as the apostle John the Apostle in his 1988 movie, The Last Temptation of Christ. Schrader later hired Michael Been to score his 1992 movie Light Sleeper, which was part of his “God’s lonely man” series of themed movies (Taxi Driver, Bringing Out The Dead, Light Sleeper, First Reformed).

In 1999, I worked with Michael Been on releasing The Call’s only live album, Live Under The Red Moon on my indie record label, Conspiracy Music. Sadly, Michael passed away in 2006 from a heart attack.

In 2021, Michael Been’s son, Robert Levon Been (Black Rebel Motorcycle Club) was hired by Paul Schrader hired to co-score his latest movie, The Card Counter, starring Oscar Isaac and Tiffany Hadish.

There’s a scene where we see Oscar Isaac‘s back filled with a tattoo inscribed with Michael Been‘s lyrics from Light Sleeper. Robert Been’s Card Counter score is excellent – the movie, too. Highly recommended.

September 29, 2021 0 comment

Family Featured

Seattle Summer Vacation with Kids

by Monte R. July 27, 2021

written by Monte R.

We had planned an RV trip across West Texas to New Mexico for spring break earlier this year. That plan went bust when the RV we planned to rent wasn’t working, which I’m now learning is commonplace with RVs. There is something always broken on the dang things – just too many contraptions to maintain.

The kids, especially Miles, really wanted another attempt at an RV road trip. So for their 2021 summer vacation, I hatched a crazy plan to fly to Seattle, Washington and rent an RV. Then drive it to one of the national parks (Olympic or Mt. Rainier) in the area. I figured summer in Seattle would be mild weather. I do love the Pacific northwest scenery, too. We all needed a long break after a year of Covid lockdown.

It wasn’t easy given the reopening travel madness. RV rental prices were crazy high. I found a reasonable priced RV to rent on RVShare (it turned out to be problematic rental, unfortunately, but it still worked).

Julie went along on this trip as I thought it would make it all easier with the kids. I’d been to Seattle two times before many years ago.

We spent eight days in July using some cheap seats I found on Alaska Airlines – three days in Seattle downtown at the Hyatt House Seattle, which was next door to the Seattle Center/Space Needle Park, then four days renting an RV. Hyatt House is a great concept hotel with small kitchenette and large rooms – highly recommended.

The first three days went pretty good: weather was nice, there was lots of things to do and see. The kids loved the park with the water fountain, elaborate jungle gym. I liked the Space Needle and Museum of Pop, which were on my bucket list of places to visit. The Pacific Northwest sunsets were stunning.

Pike Place Market was just a tourist zoo. While it was nice for some pictures, it was too crazy busy for my liking. I really didn’t enjoy it much – long lines for everything. The Seattle Aquarium was ok, but I’ve been to better. We also did the Seattle Great Ferris Wheel. The Asian food was a highlight – fusion, Thai and Vietnamese.

Seattle had some interesting things to do. I like the scenery on the waterfront. Many of the city business skyscrapers were still was noticeably shuttered due to the pandemic. There is a noticeable homeless problem. The inflation on food was noticeable. Many stores remained shuttered or at limited capacity.

While we had some initial problems with the RV rental. It was an older 31ft Class C and it looked better in the pictures online. At last minute, we decided to head to Mt. Rainier National Park, as it appeared closer than Olympic National Park.

Mt. Rainier National Park is vast, like maybe the largest national park I’ve ever visited. The scenery is nice. It was packed with tourists. The parking lots in that place were built for far fewer cars, so that was an issue. The steep mountain roads were rough on the RV engine. We had some nice hikes.

We happened upon some really nice RV parks, which were trip highlights. The kids loved being in the RV (the ‘house on wheels’) so it all went fine. We had a mishap with another driver hitting the RV (not our fault) but those things happen. I did really love scenery with the rolling hills and tall trees, with mountain lakes and vistas everywhere.

Except for the RV mishaps, everything went well. The kids loved their summer vacation.

July 27, 2021 0 comment

Family

Southern New Mexico/West Texas Road Trip

by Monte R. March 31, 2021

written by Monte R.

For our kids’ spring break, we had planned an RV road trip across West Texas to New Mexico. But, as luck would have it, the RV rental was not working. Instead, we hopped into my Nissan Pathfinder and set out on the journey. The kids were totally disappointed the RV wasn’t available but, in the end, it all worked out. You just have to roll with it, maybe that was the lesson the trip.

I was happy the kids were finally getting a trip after being locked down for over a year from the Covid pandemic.

This was my first time in Southern New Mexico, although I’d been to the Sante Fe decades ago. I have good memories of the area and the state.

As we were driving across West Texas, which I consider one of the most god-forsaken dystopian areas in the USA (on the ugly side with all the oil well pump jacks), we hit a giant dust storm. It was something else – a giant blanket of red hue filled the sky, visibility was very low. We had to slow down and drive until we got out of it.

We spent the first night in Roswell, New Mexico, which is famous for being one of the first places in the USA where “aliens” supposedly landed. I could care less whether it was true or not, it’s just fun pretending that is is true. The entire town goes all in on the alien themes, even some the fast food restaurants are designed with space ship/alien themes. The UFO Museum was about what you expect – and it was a fun place to visit for a day.

We then ventured into Ruidoso, New Mexico, where we rented a cabin for three nights. The area driving into Ruidoso was pretty – rolling hills and valleys – the kind of scenery you think of when you hear “Southwest USA”. Ruidoso was ok enough, a bit touristy and too many people. We found interesting things to do every day from hikes to snow tire sledding.

We then hit up White Sands National Park, which is about an hour south of Ruidoso. That was the highlight of the trip for me and I think the kids, too. I really loved that place. A giant white sand mecca with stunning vistas. The magic hour sunset was incredible.

The next day, we drove through the small mountain town of Cloudcroft, which I wished we had spent some time seeing instead of driving through so quickly. I visually liked that area much better than Ruidoso (less touristy and over populated).

We ended the trip going to Carlsbad Caverns National Park, a place I’ve wanted to visit my entire life. Like so many other things, it wasn’t easy to get to. It’s way out in the middle of a desert with nothing around. We got lucky getting reservations given the Covid limitations and due to limited capacity, it was almost like getting a private tour/visit of the caverns, something that’ll probably never happen again post-Covid. It was really cool to see and visually impressive – lots of walking inside as the caverns are massive. I wished I’d just taken the elevator down instead of the long walk at the cave entrance.

March 31, 2021 0 comment

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