Category: Travel

What I see, breathe, and learn all around the world.

The roar that lies on the other side of silence

soliderfieldcrowdThe first time I saw U2 was in June of 2001. They had just released All That You Can’t Leave Behind and it seemed like a good first concert. I somehow managed to miss going to any when I was younger, for some reason when everyone my age was going to HFStival I was standing in line for midnight movie showings. The main thing I remember about the concert is that while I knew the standards, the classics, there were clearly some I had never heard. There were the songs everyone wanted to hear (40, Bad, Unforgettable Fire) the songs which people seemed to lose themselves in, the songs that brought excited murmurs, gasps, and upraised arms.

And if the mountain should crumble,
Or disappear into the sea.
Not a tear, no not I stay in this time.
Stay tonight in a light.
Ever after, this love in time.
And if you save it all, save you love.
Dont push me too far tonight.

Then 9/11 happened.

IMG_1916I found myself nearly a month after that day driving up to Baltimore for my second U2 concert. We were late getting to the arena and found out that Garbage canceled because Shirley Manson had gotten sick. It didn’t matter, while it was the same music, the same band–everything felt different.

Not to seem over-dramatic, but only four weeks after the attack the mood in the country remained fervently patriotic, and we were all hurting—and to some extent still uncertain of what would come next; and while U2 is an Irish band they always seemed to have their own special connection to these United States. I’m not sure if it was just the music, or something Bono said, but I think that this is when I realized whenever Bono, the Edge, Adam and Larry came to town I would be there.

Early morning, April 4
Shot rings out in the Memphis sky
Free at last, they took your life
They could not take your pride

IMG_18952005, the band releases How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, a record which had more misses than hits for me. High up in the MCI Center, I stared at an enormous sign urging everyone to Coexist, grinning from ear to ear. It didn’t matter that people around me seemed underwhelmed, it didn’t matter to me that I was one of a few people standing up in my section. Things were good.

And I know it aches
And your heart it breaks
And you can only take so much


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Fast-forward to 2009. I flew to Chicago and found myself high up in Soldier Field staring at an enormous claw (which I later learned is actually supposed to be a spaceship). Why Chicago? I wanted to do something different and decided to go for the first show of the North American tour (don’t worry I am seeing them again at FedEx field in two weeks). So after a six mile run along the lake, a lot of good food (I love Rick Bayliss, but more on that in the next post) we took a cab to my first ever football stadium (big, enormous, cavernous). They started the concert with a new tune, Breathe–which is where the title of the post comes from–and ended with a new tune, Moment of Surrender. In between we got a little Elvis Costello, Beatles, and the ever classic Stand By Me.

Then there was the moment when the amidst the band’s silence thousands of people broke out into song:

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I have climbed the highest mountain
I have run through the fields
Only to be with you
Only to be with you

I have run, I have crawled
I have scaled these city walls
These city walls
Only to be with you
But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for
But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for

I think the best part, however, was standing next to a little kid who decided that he wanted to be The Edge. Wailing on his air guitar and jumping up and down, up and down, with his oh-so-tall father (he must have been 7 feet tall at least) it was infectious. All the way through City of Blinding Lights, Vertigo, Crazy and Sunday, Bloody, Sunday he played and mimicked the passion and love for the music that was floating through the stadium. We were wowed by the lights and the large screens which twirled around to provide close ups of the band, extended to provide their own light show, and watched as bridges moved over the floor crowd’s head to allow for closer access to the rest of the stadium. While I suppose I can excuse certain lyrics about ATM Machines, it was, in the end, a very, very good show.

magicToo late
Tonight
To drag the past out into the light
We’re one, but we’re not the same
We get to
Carry each other
Carry each other
One

For more pictures visit my Picasa album. For the set list and a review go here. Click here to see my video of Stuck in a Moment.

Chicago & U2

Philly by Food

Continental Midtown
Continental Midtown

While I was in Philadelphia I ate at some fantastic places.

Mugshots

Right across from Eastern State this place has a little fun with its location serving meals with names that fit right in with the criminal justice system. Things like Bonnie & Clyde or like my sandwich “The Scapegoat” which is local garlic herb goat cheese, with spinach, tomato, red onion and pesto on ciabatta. I love goat cheese.

Capogiro’s
Really Really good Gelato. Enough said.

El Vez
A Stephen Starr restaurant this place has great ambiance. I ate here for New Years a few years ago  and loved it.  This weekend we had the black bean enchilada and the chicken taco’s and some tasty sangria. All good, and with a giant motorcycle rotating around the bar it was a great meal!

Tria
After El Vez we made are way over to Tria for some desert. The Lemon tart/cake had just the right amount of  tartness combined with sweet delicious blueberry compote.

I had a delicious cabot clothbound chedder from Vermont and we tried a Tawny Port ( “10 YR. OLD,” RAMOS PINTO, NV) from Portugal and a Port “Ink Grade Vineyard” Heitz Cellars, NV from Napa. We both liked the second Port better than the first (a little less of an aftertaste).

Continental Midtown

madnarin orange and coconut
mandarin orange and coconut

I’m just going to list what we got. Visit the website and check out the pics here and on my picasa page. This is a great little place. Chic and really trendy.

We started out the meal with a orange and coconut palatte cleanser. I had the Corn and pepper omelet  with Nutella toast. My friend had banana fritters (get these!) and a breakfast quesadilla.

So, next time you’re in Philly check some of these places out.

Something has to be First/Entering a Fortress

Side Wall of Eastern State Penitentiary
Side Wall of Eastern State Penitentiary

Let’s create a little atmosphere first, shall we? It’s a broad stony wall pitted with greenery and reminiscent of a medieval fortress.  I’m sure if you pick a particular point you’ll realize that the wall is all you can see in either direction–despite the rows of restaurants in front of you. At night its a little creepy, with crevices and corners for shadows to conceal themselves in…..and its enough to make your skin crawl.

This weekend I went to Philadelphia to visit a friend from graduate school who works at Eastern State Penitentiary. Let me say from the outset that I had heard how amazing this place was–and the website does do a good job of setting the stage, but nothing prepared me for actually being there.

Eastern State was a working prison from the mid 19th century through to 1970. In 1994 it reopened as a museum and has been doing well ever since. It is best known for its annual Terror Behind the Walls haunted house which boasts all sorts of spectacular scary stuff.

While we were there my friend got to talking about the popularity of “Dark Tourism”, or tourism to epi-centers of grief and suffering. This means–Battlefields, Concentration Camps, Dungeons, and of course, Prisons. I’ll be the first to admit that I must have mentioned just how cool Eastern State was about 50 time during my 2 hour tour–and I’ve come to the conclusion that it has to do with the broader stories that are being told here. While partially about architecture and the attempt to build a prison where everyone could be seen from a central point, but it also revealed the beliefs of the architects toward reformation and the human condition.

Charles Dickens visited Eastern State at one point and walked away unimpressed–this is from chapter seven of his American Notes (quotation is from the six page history provided on the Eastern State website).

In its intention I am well convinced that it is kind, humane, and meant for reformation; but I am persuaded that those who designed this system of Prison Discipline, and those benevolent gentleman who carry it into execution, do not know what it is that they are doing….I hold this slow and daily tampering with the mysteries of the brain to be immeasurably worse than any torture of the body; and because its ghastly signs and tokens are not so palpable to the eye,… and it extorts few cries that human ears can hear; therefore I the more denounce it, as a secret punishment in which slumbering humanity is not roused up to stay.

Of course visiting a place like Antietam is a little different from Eastern State–we travel to hallowed ground because those deaths are honorable, having occurred for a cause greater than themselves. At Eastern State it is a little different–Al Capone stayed here, and there were magnificent escape attempts and a very serious riot during the 1960s.

So go visit! My favorite area? The newly rehabilitated Synagogue–where the walls prior to rehab are cleverly hidden behind matching wooden panels.

Check out my Philadelphia Picassa Slideshow–later this week I’ll bring you a quick post my trip through Food.

Also: Here is my blog post from the PreservationNation.org Blog which looks at things a little differently.

Eastern State Penitentary and Philly