1.We're # 5!!! 2. Assorted thoughts as they occur to me. 3. A medley of some of my songs, silly or otherwise. And...that's it.

I know I talk up Boston a lot but in the interest of fairness I have found a list on several websites and they all say the same thing. Boston is one of the rudest cities in America. In fact we're #5. Here's the top 10 list.

1. New York
2. Miami
3. Washington
4. Los Angeles
5. Boston
6. Dallas/Fort Worth
7. Atlanta
8. Phoenix/Scottsdale
9. Baltimore
10. Orlando

I have been to the top 5 cities and Baltimore.I once landed in Dallas on my way to California but an hour in the airport is no way to judge a city. I can honestly say I saw any real difference in the people in all those cities. Of course they are all large population centers and when you cram a large number of people in an area in a relatively small area I think you tend to be more wary of people just because you come in contact with so many.

I have been to New York a few times. Two times in the last 7 years. Both for concerts at Madison Square Garden. The last time 2 or 3 years ago. I have to say as you are approaching the city proper the skyline is most impressive. Despite the fact that I am a Bostonian (though I actually live 5 miles northwest of the city) I like New York. What can you say? It's the Big Apple.
I have been to Miami twice. It's a beautiful city. I don't know if I could live there in the summer though. The humidity here is bad enough. I wouldn't mind a few trips down there in the winter though.
I loved Washington. Granted I only went to all the tourist traps but they are pretty impressive. The Smithsonian is a must and the Viet Nam War Memorial is an emotional experience.

I have been to Los Angeles. It's everything that you've read. It's a huge, sprawling place. It sure has lots of attractions but honestly I didn't really care for it. This is just my personal opinion of course. In fact I really wasn't impressed with Southern California. If your looking for natural beauty you can forget it. Without all the landscaping and colorful buildings all you really have are a bunch of brown hills with splotches of green vegetation. You see a ton of palm trees. A very exotic plant to a New Englander but like most everything else in So. Cal. it's not native to the area. As we drove down to Sea World, which I loved, I commented to my friend Lee, "This place is ugly." To which she agreed and sighting one reason why she moved back, "Yeah but I can do landscaping year round here where as in Boston landscapers have a relatively short season and in the winter many of them contract with the state or city to do snowplowing." And this year so far has been a bust. Around here we've only had an inch or two. Lee's parents have Massachusetts roots and they lived here until the early to mid 80's. Here are 4 pictures of the scenery from southern California. 

This was taken on our drive to Sea World.

Isn't it Gorgeous?

I think this is Laguna Beach looking north towards Los Angeles. It's behind that haze.

Actually the landscape reminds me a lot of Sicily. Same climate and terrain.

 I know I've gone on a bit, as I am want to do, but I do have reasons for wanting to go back and it's not the terrain. On the plus side the coastline is gorgeous. The beaches are huge and beautiful. I had a blast in Sea World and I really liked Venice Beach. It's one funky place.
If you're interested here's a link to my old photo album of my trip on my old photo albums from the good old Spaces days.
https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=f30b5cd64eb2dafe&sc=photos#cid=F30B5CD64EB2DAFE&id=F30B5CD64EB2DAFE%21218&sc=photos   
Boston. Yeah I've been there. Nuff said.
Dallas/Fort Worth. Just in the airport for an hour though I would really be a fish out of water trying to live there. The mindset is just different from around here.
I've never been to Atlanta or Phoenix/Scottsdale.
I've been to Baltimore and it's, to me, quite similar to Boston in both size population and history. I liked Baltimore.
I have been to Disney World in Orlando. That was great but all I can say about Orlando and Florida is it's very flat with lots of Oranges. That's not a knock. That's all I saw on the 4 hour bus trip from Ft. Lauderdale to Orlando.

Boy I've turned into quite a wind bag. Sometimes I just start writing and get carried away.

Here's a medley of some of my tunes that were either unfinished or just a quick representation of some of the things I was fooling around with or finished but wouldn't subject you to in total.
The first one is called Slimy With Your Love. Beautiful donchabassy tone. Next we have me fooling around with  string sounds on a keyboard. I should have used something to keep time as it does get sluggish and keeping time is not one of my better attributes. Short blues thing is next. It was one of the first things I recorded. I just surprised myself with the guitar solo. I don't know where it came from. It just happened. Sometimes you just get in the groove. And finally we have I'm Very Sorry. A guy I once worked with just continually apologized for anything and everything. On top of that he had really poor hygiene and breath that could, pardon the expression, knock a buzzard off a shit wagon. I tried to imitate him but it just comes off as a bad Richard Nixon.
  

Well that's it. No wait! Today a lady asked me if we had Buffalo chicken cheese. I didn't know chicken in Buffalo gave milk. And besides how do you milk a chicken? I'm sure there's a dirty joke in there somewhere.

I'm outta here.