Cultural Destinations Enlightenment Stray Threads
Browsing Category
Cultural Destinations
Cultural Destinations Enlightenment Stray Threads
When Life Becomes a Game of Name that Tune …. “I can live that life in four bags”
Posted on October 19, 2022
Beginnings …. Endings …. Transitions …. First Steps …. Last Steps …. Setting …. Narrative …. Climax …. Denouement
I am unsure of where exactly I am on the story arc – only that I know that the back cover has not been closed yet.
Cultural Destinations
Margaritaville…What is Reality Other than a State of Mind
Posted on March 8, 2019
March 8, 2019 Margaritaville Hotel, Pensacola Beach, FL
Taking the Scotch tasting on the road….. Realized last week that it is coming up on almost three years since I have been to Margaritaville Hotel. Decided I needed a visit for inspiration and recalibration. A Buffett refrain has always been a deep thread running through my life – tying my successes and failures together into a blanket. I now wrap myself in that blanket for the next couple of days like the warm security found in youth – escaping the reality on the outside for that one that lies between my ears.
Sunday, 7 Oct 2018
Afternoon, Lafitte’s Blacksmith Bar, Bourbon Street
Reflecting in the dark recesses of one of the oldest standing buildings in NOLA (or the US for that matter). Breathing in the air from 250 years of energy to pass through this establishment. Realizing my hope of channeling inspiration to create literary works in the vein of Faulkner or Williams has dissolved into something more akin to a frequenter of “The House of the Rising Sun”…….
So I had this strange dream.
I was in a dark room – it may not even have been a room, just a void. It was hard to tell, as the only reference point was what appeared to be a doorway in the distant. For some reason, I was completely drawn to this doorway – like a primal need to get to it and through it. As I approached closer, I found that the doorway was too panels of satin and lace – beautiful, but seemingly impenetrable being held tightly together by a single, small, yet intricate knot. I examined the knot – tightly wound and neat.
Ever more consumed with the desire to throw aside these panels and enter to the other side, I began to probe the lot with the tips of my fingers – hoping to find a weak point to make gain on its captive force. Working my fingers, sometimes feverishly and roughly – at others, slower and with greater attention. Seeking any advantage, I begin to pull gently at the bound mass with my teeth. Realizing that the wetness from my mouth softens the binding twine, I fully employ both my lips and tongue in the endeavor. Working together now, my fingers are finding purchase in their toil to loosen the grip this knot has. My tongue now able to flick itself deeper into the small mass, turning almost fleshy with the moisture, yet still holding a even smaller center that remains hard like a precious pearl. I feel that I must be getting close now. Suddenly, with a simultaneous combined massage of my finger tip across the now fleshy twine and a press of my lips against the hard remaining pearl, the knot releases and the panels are freed.
Free to enter now, I do so. As I walk through, i am awash with euphoria…….
Then, I wake up.
Saturday, 6 Oct. 2018
Morning in NOLA, Royal Sonesta Hotel, Bourbon Street
A toast for breakfast…..to those gone that we never knew and those here that we hope to know……
Friday, 5 Oct. 2018
Arrival in NOLA, Royal Sonesta Hotel, Bourbon Street
So much energy in this city and this area in particular. Attempting to drink in and absorb some of that energy for use in my own life. Knowing that from an intellectual, literary and cultural aspect, I should be channeling Tennessee Williams or William Faulkner. However, I am instead consumed by channeling Jean Lafitte. Swashbuckling, action-driving, adventurous, commanding —- in navigating the channels of the river of life, who better to call the helm than a Pirate……
Cultural Destinations
Things You Come Across…..Perfection Said Previously
Posted on September 23, 2018
I have been fortunate to be personal witness to a number of experiences so far in my life from many settings:
Black cab ride past Big Ben in London
Bullet train passing a majestically rising Mount Fuji
Stars and a crescent moon ascending up from the Gulf of Oman in Muscat
Tango practice in a park in Buenos Aires
Drinking sangria in the Plaza Mayor in Madrid
Site of the Caribbean from atop one of the Pitons in St. Lucia
Awe-struck from the first glimpse of the Coliseum in Rome
The suggestive excitement from a performance at The Crazy Horse cabaret in Paris
The grandeur that makes the Grand Canyon just that
Yet as varied and specific each of these sites and experiences are to the individual location, there is always evident those things that are common. Whether in a foreign location, or merely a different locale in the States, there are always people together; families play and share time. Parents keep both an excited eye on the happiness of their children at play and a wary attention which is the universal sign of protection. Games are played, food is shared, moments are made. No matter how far-flung we perceive others in the world to be, at the heart, we share more than we may care to recognize. Recognizing what we share chaffs against our need to have boundaries – to group this vast world into ever tightening divisions so that we can assure ourselves – for God only knows what reason – that there is an “us” and a “them”. If we could somehow break free of that dependency to separate and segregate, we might find, in the end, that we are much more together in this existence than apart.
Image: https://goo.gl/images/95gH8j
A Real Flower arrangement in the 15 Floor Lobby of the Nagoya Marriott Associa – They change these arrangements regularly. But they also maintain the one on display daily. This is not a pleasantry only practiced by the Nagoya Marriott. I have found these large floral displays in most hotels I have visited in Japan.
