Planes, Trains and Oh Eff This S***

And being Canadians, the group was grateful and wondered if we’d like to check it out. Jay couldn’t make it but I was happy to accept. There’d be blogging and photos and interviews. Free press for the festival? Sure.  Does journalism work this way? Well, that’s a sticky wicket. Here’s the justification:

1) This is music journalism, not journalism journalism.

2) 2014 really sucks, I need to get out of town and this is the only way I can afford to do it.

3) C’mon – ya’ll worship people like Hunter Thompson and Truman Capote. Ooh, look at all those gonzo drugs and hobnobbing. Not exactly the integrity of a Judith Miller* and they made enough money that they didn’t have to live in a van.**

Anyway forgive me because I’ve been awake for about 30 hours now and will need to stay awake for another six. And in none of that time will there be any music blogging.

I was supposed to be in Quebec City last night. Instead planes kept holding patterns around Newark, N.J., (a connecting flight) as thunderstorms with 50 mph winds kept them in the air until they almost ran out of gas. Our plane went back to Virginia for fueling and we stayed on the tarmac for hours. At least I wasn’t like this one guy from Ireland who was flying back there from Los Angeles with his new American bride.  It was about 7 hours for that flight alone and they gave us a cookie.

By the way, Los Angeles is displaying artwork that is quite soothing to anxious and nervous travelers. …

In all, 70 planes arrived late to Newark, leaving about 1,500 people stuck there with nothing to do.  The 3 a.m. time frame did not look like that Las Vegas “All By Myself” video. It looked like this ..

… minutes before customer service for United shut down.  United customer service at 3 a.m. translates to, “Sorry sir, all flights are booked through July 4.”

” – But Orbitz says it’s not. I have it on my phone, see?”

“Go sleep on the floor. Lorraine, that’s my last customer for the night.”

(Somebody did make up for it finally – Now stuck in the Montreal airport which, unlike Jersey, has Wifi. And cafe servers that look like Kasey Chambers and say, when she sees a photo of the singer on my laptop, “Oooh ya she’s cute.” ***)

That’s probably all you can handle. Then again, it’s a blog so editing is not part of this newfangled art form.  Next time you hear from me, it will be somewhat relevant and journalism. Gonzo journalism.

And here’s another messed up LAX art piece.

* See what I did there?
** It’s a pretty cool van. All I can afford, but it’s pretty cool.
*** Followed by, “You need to stop staring at me or I will call security. Au revoir.”