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My Dad was a BIG country music fan, so I heard a lot of George Jones growing up.  George Jones was a real piece of work, more or less imitating a country song his whole life - getting drunk, getting married, using drugs, getting divorced, having car accidents, missing concerts.

I remember when my dad took me to see George Jones at the Pequea Silver Mines outside of Lancaster PA, and the man didn't even come out of his tour bus.  No Show Jones struck again.  Being 10, being pretty church going at that time - it was a hard thing not only for me, but for Dad to really get his arms around, since he's a pretty simple man who believed in doing what you say you were going to do.

But one thing this I've learned over the last 3 years as I see a parade of smart people play 'follow the leader' (actually 'follow the celebrity') - is how important, and rare, originality is - regardless of the gnats constantly swarming and biting.  And regardless of how imperfect that originality is.  He's the type of guy you'd actually like to meet- how rare is that?  Plus the fact that guy lived to 81 gives us all reason to hope.


Rest in Peace Mr George Jones.

"I Always Get Lucky With You'


Video

Video II



I've had good luck, and bad luck
And no luck, it's true
But I always get lucky with you.

I've been turned on, and turned down
When the bars close at two
But I always get lucky with you.

I've keep strikes against me
Most all of the time
And when it's down to just a phone call
I'm minus a dime.

There's been good days, and bad days
But when the day is through
I always get lucky with you
Oh, I always get lucky with you.

--- Instrumental ---

I've keep two strikes against me
Most all of the time
And when it's down to just a phone call
I'm minus a dime.

There's been good days, and bad days
But when the day is through
I always get lucky with you
Oh, I always get lucky with you.

I always get lucky with you...

So, I had the city weekend planned for awhile, and jeez, from a weather perspective, what a great time to be there.  This was an interesting weekend weather-wise since it was super springy nippy, always wanting to go jacket-less, only to regret it pretty quickly.

So here's my son, Spidey, digging his 'letter' chicken nuggets, and watching something on the ipad, having it propped up in a fashion I've tried and failed many times.

And then the real thing in Times Square, where I was staying, at the W.

On the 50 block walk from Times Square to the Met, we saw some fun sights, including the zoo, this puppet show and lots of early fauna.  Like they say, love was in the air, in those optimistic spring romances.

Oh right, but that skips the fact that the night before we went to the Jazz at Lincoln Center at the Time Warner buildings - they were doing this "Kings of the Crescent City' (and for all you squares out there that means New Orleans") - so they did their louis armstrong, their jelly roll morton, and 2 others, in a 1920's style that consisted of 2 trumpets, a piano, a clarinet, drums, trombone, bass and banjo.  Super awesome 5 floor space and around the corner was the dizzy gillespie friday jazz supper club.

Afterwards, we hit a pretty international scene on the 4th floor where I spent some time pondering the idea of an $8.50 bud light.

From the Park, we hit the Met, which after a protracted discussion, ventured to not pay the $25 each recommended admission, bore the brunt of the disapproval, wondered if we were issued a different color (scarlet letter) indicating we didn't pay full recommended donation price, and really enjoyed the Civil War photography exhibition - many of the photos were familiar to me from the Ken Burns thing in the early 90's, which I remember watching religiously like a dork while at the University of Pittsburgh.

The Met.

I think I've posted this photo below of the security guys at the TriBeCa Film festival Gasland 2 premiere - but the more I look at it, the more compelling it becomes - tell me these guys aren't right out of Goodfellas, all diversely menacing, you got the irish guy, the black guy with shades, the old school italian.  It's frightening.  Now remember this show of force was in response to 6 people lobbing softball questions at Josh Fox and Yoko Ono.

Only in America do the liberals (which I am one) get to totally get it wrong and still stake claim to the high road.

I've commented a few times about how it's hard to tell who the good guys are, but John Lennon must be rolling in his grave after Yoko Ono and Josh Fox participated in a gestapo like exercise in intimidation of some upstate farmers who came to see the Gasland II premiere and had the nerve to shout some questions at these 2 anti-domestic gas activists.  Considering Josh Fox has made his name protesting and Yoko Ono is best remembered for her protests with her husband, they probably are a little queasy (one would hope) about yesterdays development.

Here are the security goons that barred 5 upstate farmers (ticket holders) from seeing entering.

Then the police came to control the 70 yr old woman and a few other AARP-qualified protesters.

There's the FrackNation film maker Phelim McAleer.

Josh and Yoko.

Tammi Rosen, Press person from TriBeCa film festival, put out an erroneous statement saying the show was sold out and thats why the farmers weren't allowed in.  Thing is Tammi, that's not true since I had already been in, and wasn't allowed back in due to the simple fact that I was filming the actions of the security goons.

A pretty astonishing thing to witness in NYC, that bastion of liberalism, free speech, and free expression.  For me, it perfectly sums up why I've never been able to embrace the anti-gas imposters and carpet-baggers who have used this issue to remind us that they exist.

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The 3rd life of this important Barryville structure.

As a school, way back.

As a Church, later on.

And now as a small hotel, if the zoning and planning board thing goes good.

A very imaginative reuse and design of the space.

And a somewhat complex construction project.

By reclaiming the never used before 'attic space', adding some serious structure reinforcements, design a non-intrusive but good looking stair case, it was accomplished pretty successfully.

We had to cover up the ceiling wood to apply a code adhering 2 layers of sheetrock, which lightened up the space dramatically.

Used some big timbers for the stair systems.

Got to painting and lighting up the space.

The original school bell.

The painter.

The tile guy.

The Proprietor.

And the Man, in his Cuban Miami Party Shirt.