Friday, September 25, 2009

'Merica, Music, Men and Kindred Spirits

When I was 18, I was in a hostel in Rome drinking wine with some fellow english speaking travellers. I met a boy who seemed to have alot in common with me. We lived thousands of kilometers away from eachother but were somehow listening to the same music, watching the same tv shows and developing the same world view. Everybody else called it a night and we started wandering around Rome and did so well into the wee hours. We passed by all the major monuments, with wine in hand, we ate gelato in some little cafe with cute old men watching soccer. We shared all kinds of things with eachother that we generally don't share with strangers. He said he was from Colorado and that I should go to Red Rocks one day because it is the most amazing outdoor amphitheatre in the world. 7 years later I heard of many of my favourite bands playing at this Red Rocks place and I decided along with a cute boy that we could and should make it happen.

So we drove from Calgary to Colorado. It's about 1800km one way, and you have to drive through 2 entire states; Montana & Wyoming. The journey was great for many reasons. America is an f'd up place, the festival was ever so entertaining, and I had a very cute, burly and entertaining travel partner.

Part 1 - 'Merica

Travel south for 300 km and you will hit another country and you'd assume that things would be pretty similar to Canada. You learn almost immediately after crossing the border that things are not quite the same. The differences are almost impossible to describe. Signs for fast food restaurants and gas stations are uncomfortably bigger and taller, you can buy beer these gas stations, people somehow have odd accents, there are about 2000 casino's per capita, and healthy delicious food is nowhere in sight.

Take the city of Billings, Montana for example. There is something that makes me uneasy about this place. You can't help but notice that the town was built around the railway and oil refineries or the stench from these refineries. Our goal was to stop, eat some semi-healthy food, stretch our legs, and get back in the car. We spent almost an hour driving around unable to find a restaurant other than Taco Bell. The entire city looks like the wrong side of the tracks. Finally, on our 3rd loop through the city where we ended right downtown where there was 1 suitable restaurant with some sort of cheese-sauce buffet taking place.

Keep in mind, we were in the free world. People in 'Merica can learn, worship, think, consume, watch and read whatever they desire. The world is their oyster. Yet they choose Taco Bell, refinery row retirement complexes and all you can eat cheese sauce.

I came home and learned that Billings is in fact voted by Men's Health magazine the #3 best place in America to Raise a family. It is known for their hospitality industry (there are 480+ restaurants), there are in fact 3 oil refineries, and people are not sent here or forced to stay but they make a conscious decision to make this place their home. Maybe they find the industrial stench refreshing as it equates with cash money and freedom. Maybe I wasn't there long enough to see the beauty of this place, or maybe people are scared to leave.

Part 2 - Music!

So many great bands, songs and dancing opportunities, but I will just talk about one. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I don't even like them that much typically, but their show was amazing. Every seat in the red rocks was incredible in that you could see every detail on stage and hear everything perfectly. During the song "Maps" I started crying and I have no idea why. Then I went home, watched the video and saw that Karen O. was also crying during this song, and a bunch of comments below the video of people saying they started crying during the song too. People were nice, the beer was delicious, and bands were great. Red Rocks is incredible, and pushing idiots aside so I could be in the front row for HEALTH makes me a better person.

Part 3 - Men.

There's no way I will talk about this on here even though nobody is reading this. Let's just say when he dropped me off at 3am after 4 days together and 3600km worth of conversation, I would have been happy to get back into our little Malibu and start the whole journey again.

Oh yeah, two days after returning from this journey, this boy from Colorado who I met in Rome in August 2002 found me on facebook and reminded me of our stroll through the city that night. He lives in Japan now and just had his first baby a few days ago. Strange.