molto mario and traveling abroad thoughts

2 topics for this blog:

molto mario and traveling

the molto section:
"I wanted to get to Italy and see the cooking hands-on. I went with the intention of staying six to ten weeks and I stayed three-and-a-half years. I lived in a perfect little town with these two brothers whose obsession in life at that point was to show me how cool Italy was. We would drive seven hours to taste cheese and then come home. It was not unusual for them to go anywhere just to show me a moscato grape."
-mario batali

sounds like the way to live. where do i sign up?

the traveling section:
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. "
-Mark Twain

i think it's time to travel a bit. maybe a 3-6 month trip in the next couple years. i'm getting the bug. now i just need to build a scholarly or professional pursuit into the trip and i'm all set. this is something to think about for my week at lake erie.

so, as molto mario says...

peace and pappardelle,
-me

leo carillo

this was one of my favorite places to surf in southern california. why?

1. point break, anchored by that huge rock

2. abundant wildlife - dolphins, fish, seals... but beware of the mussels that give you little cuts.

3. north of malibu, away from la la. less crowds, more beautiful.

4. clean water rating: A+. Venice Beach: F, Malibu: F. It's nice not swallowing someone's fecal matter when you are catching waves

5. awesome memories with friends

k, that's all. one of these summers in the next several years I will make it back...

the big one: another reason not to live in los angeles

we all knew it was coming, you can feel it in the air in lala land. now, here's some scientific basis behind that eerie feeling. it might not happen tomorrow, but at some point... it will come. plus, if you leave now you don't have to deal with all the fruits and nuts. bonus!

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyid=2006-06-21T173055Z_01_L21522318_RTRUKOC_0_US-SCIENCE-EARTHQUAKE.xml&src=rss&rpc=22

the telluride bluegrass festival

Ok, here's how telluride happened...

It started with this posting on craigslist:


"Hey there,

One of my best friends was planning on coming to town, but she had some last minute business stuff prevent her from flying into colorado. It's also pretty late notice for my friends to get off work... so, here's the deal.

I have 1 extra 4 day pass to the telluride bluegrass festival... which is FREE for you. I'm looking to go down with someone who is very laid back, friendly, and ready for a really good time. Actually, an epic time... this is going to be an amazing trip. We're going to meet all kinds of rad people, listen to fantastic music, and let the good times roll. So, back to you... Male or female, doesn't matter. If female, I require NO drama. Actually, that goes for everyone... NO DRAMA. I prefer someone in their mid twenties. Also, we'll probably be camping - so you have to be comfortable with that. "


Well, it worked. I found a random girl to go on the trip with me and she turned out to be a great festivarian.

And was I right about this being an epic trip? Of course I was... Here are some highlights:

Miguel from oregon. Dude was stoned out of his gourd. It was hilarious. Repeatedly mentioned making the drive from oregon to colorado and successfully passing through two "zero tolerance" states. He also brought up stephen stills, and we talked about the album "manassas". After trying to figure out what town the album was recorded in... We suggested longmont probably 5 times. Then out of the blue, miguel says, "LONGMONT! LONGMONT, COLORADO... That's the town". Yeah miguel, I think you're smoking medical herb to relieve your herb problem. Ha, it was hilarious.

Dudie poo from indiana. Campground is deserted, but he's alone, drunk, and blasting the band "rusty truck" at 150 decibels from his truck. Why isn't he at the festival. Try "Cos I don't give a F^@%!" and "I'm from F^@%in Indiana, just look up at the mountains right now. All I effin need is right here! Cos I don't give a F^@%!". Well put, dudie poo.

Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings. She invites a guy onstage. They dance. He suggestively dances with this 60 year old black woman in front of 10,000 people. You wouldn't want to be with your mother as you watch this. It was so wrong but so funny. Someone must have a tape of this somewhere.

Backstage passes. Gotta roll backstage. Thanks asstonian.

Grilling. A fest isn't a fest without some italian sausage, sweet onions, and bell peppers. Those are my favorite 2 vegetables.

Ice cream miracle. Actually, the dirty dreaded kids were looking for a "merakel" and tried to fund their ways with homemade ice cream. I think the flaver was called "raspberry choco dreads". Yeah, sounds delicious.

Oh did I mention the music? If you haven't heard of him already, check out casey driessen. He used to play with blue merle a couple years ago, and he's in a nashville band called wisechild. But regardless, he's a mind blowing fiddle player. http://www.myspace.com/caseydriessen

Ok, time to end this post. I didn't mention the flecktones or sam bush or the decemberists or yonder mountain or luke bulla or nickelcreek... But they were all awesome. Long live future man.

peace

my photo on whygo.com

check out this photo that was published on whygo.com, a travel website. i took this in humboldt county in northern california. take a visit to http://www.whygo.com - it's a cool site filled with daily travel quotes and pictures meant to inspire. my pic was published today, june 13.

speakin of traveling, i'm headed to telluride tomorrow for the bluegrass festival. check back for updates!

peace

ps: the photo is of the crab traps along a cove in the pacific ocean

donnie leaving on a jetplane

life plays out every day, and i re-realize that it's paying attention to what is happening NOW that makes life vibrant. when i'm paying attention to what's happening in the moment, aware of god's presence in friends, peppers, music, beer, everything... i live more deeply. living spiritually doesn't mean creating times and spaces to do rituals, it means accepting what i already have and embracing it and looking at the present with gratitude and hope.

which brings me to last night. see, my best friend donnie is headed out of the country for 2-3 months and last night was such an in-the-moment righteously kind joyful moment. it's embodied in the audioblog, check it out. it might be a bit fuzzy, but i guarantee that ramin and daniel's rendition of "leaving on a jet plane" is nothing like you have ever heard before. i'm talking about pure PASSION. bruce springsteen sounds like an 'effin smurf compared to ramin's vocals. this rivals anything that has ever been put to music. it's brilliant, and wouldn't of happened without us all being there... enjoying the moment and not thinking about tomorrow and all the things we've got going on in life.

also, donnie's europe world cup fly-bar (that's a glorified uber pogo stick) pogrimmage blog will be up soon. i'll keep you posted.

ps: the picture was on donnie's birthday - an epic (E P I C) night a couple months ago. the broker inn, karaoke, whiskey, getting kicked out of the sundowner saloon, need i say more? the picture is early in the night, which is obvious if you were present that night. wow

me in the emergency room

what we have here is my feet in the emergency room. all it took was stepping on a 4 inch long 1/8th inch wide nail, piercing my shoe, through my sock and into the middle of my left foot. ouch. i was at the garden plot doing some work... and i just got out of my car near the garden and BAM - right into me. so, i pulled it out, unloaded some soil from my car, then spent over an hour at the emergency room.

tetanus shot - check

antibiotics - check

vicodin - check (this is not a bad thing)

then i returned to the garden b/c, seriously, i had a little more work to do. we're talking about the well-being of peppers here... come on. a man can't ditch out on tending to the peppers when a mere nail enters the foot. we're talking about the livelihood of summer '06 teetering on the brink of disaster, and dammit, i stand for the peppers.

peace.

another good omen

2 rainbows in a week?

my grandfather

*click on the picture to get a better view

I'm blown away right now. I just found a letter from my grandfather when he was mayor of Mingo Junction, OH. I was googling his name, and I came across this letter from his desk. This is incredible. It's amazing to see where you've come from, and I'm fortunate enough to have some absolutely incredible blood in my family.

This letter is from my mom's dad, Albert Olexia. Grampy is still alive and I believe he's 87 now and still taking it one day at a time, as he likes to say. He's also known among my friends for another one of his sayings. Every time I walk into my grandparents old little house in Mingo, Grampy asks me "What's the word, Rusty?". I look at him knowingly, but shrug and say "I don't know, what is the word Grampy?". At that's when it comes out... My 87 year old grandfather smiles, looks at me, and says...

"Let the good times roll".

And when he says that, I can't help but feeling that I might be the luckiest person alive.

a good omen

here's the latest sign from boulder. this was taken wednesday at the farmer's market... i'd say it's a good sign. in a year and a half in L.A. i never saw a rainbow, go figure. boulder, what a great place.

roto-till this...

WHO KNEW GARDENING COULD BE SO EXCITING?
click on the image to get the full effect.
feel free to click on "comments" below and leave a message...

hilarious - this cabbie is awesome

ok folks, this is an impressive display of brilliant impromptu bullshitting. so, the bbc in england was doing a news report on music downloading, and they hurrily dragged the "expert" on stage for a news interview... however, instead of the "expert", they got his cab driver! so, here you have a french african cabbie bluffing his way through an interview on a subject where he doesn't have a clue. amazing. cheers to this.... what a guy. check out the links...

http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=386136&in_page_id=1770&in_page_id=1770

http://img.dailymail.co.uk/video/cabbie.wmv