So one month after my vacation's occurred, I'm finally getting the chance to talk about it. And you know the fucked up part about it? This past month's been so busy it's like I didn't even have a damn vacation. Actually, now that I'm sitting down here to write about it…I don't remember much about it, so I'll just give a few highlights. Check out my Flickr set so you can see pics that accompany this li'l slice of my vacay.

Rochester Itself

Cool. Not just temperature-wise, but the city itself was a good mix of small town closeness and metropolitan flair. Of course, this could be just because of the Festival I was in town before, but I liked it. Also, Rochester's very green — I swear I saw just as many people riding bikes, taking public transit and driving motorcycles as I did in cars. The temperature was nice and cool too, but I'm guessing that's because of its close proximity to Canada. It was much better than the ball-sticking heat of Atlanta. I could walk a mile without damn near passing out from a heat stroke. And this is with six inches of hair on my head in the summer. Please believe it.

The Hotel Room

You know the difference between a 3-star and a 4-star hotel? A 4-star hotel will see a nail sticking out of a headboard and go to great lengths to remedy the situation, maybe even replacing the entire bed. A 3-star hotel will just look at it and say "eh, that ain't so bad". Turns out I was paying more for the historical value of the room; the carpet was damp, several drawers in the room were broken, housekeeping barged in at all hours of the day unannounced (not even a courtesy knock). You know how some hotel rooms will have a small pad and pen for you to take notes and such? My room had a gnawed up pen, and when I went to get another one from the front desk, the night manager just laughed at me. I should've sprung the extra $100 for the Hyatt.

Twin and Triplet

Now I haven't seen them since they got married back almost three years ago, and it was great to hang out with them. The Saturday I was there, we basically hung out at their house (they still living like college students, bless their hearts), grilled, drank, and talked shit about the future. Twin hates living in upstate New York, and as soon as he gets his Ph.D. (which should be in a few months), he wants to take the wifey and move to Switzerland.

Naturally, she's against this.

Triplet just got her Master's a few months ago in primary education, and wants to move to Utica after Twin graduates for a teaching position. The reasonable compromise for both of them, I think, is moving to Toronto. They both head up there nearly every weekend and love the city.

"It's like visiting another country!" Twin said.

…

His Ph.D.'s not in geography, by the way.

Al Green

I went up to Rochester during the Rochester International Jazz Festival and got to see a bunch of great acts: Jake Shimabukuro, Soulive, Soul Rebels Brass Band, and of course, Al Green. Al Green still got a full head of thick, black hair y'all. Jerry Lewis ain't got nothing on Al's hair game, please believe it.

Can I just tell you? That was the quickest concert I've ever been to that cost that much. 86 dollars for a damn 45-minute set. And I guess it would've been cool if Al covered some new stuff off his new album, you know? Oh no – all old stuff. And not even the full songs y'all — we talkin' the BET Awards, hand-on-popped-hip, admonishing-the-imaginary-lady-in-the-audience, staccato gasping song fragments. Shit, I could've got a 12-pack of Newcastle and put all my Al Green mp3s on repeat and had a better time. And maybe it was just because of where I was sitting, but the crowd wasn't even hype. I mean this is Al Green! AL GREEN! I'm gonna need some more crowd participation. I bet when he came and performed here in Atlanta, he turned it out.

That's one thing I'll give Atlanta — they're a great crowd for concerts.

But Al…if you're reading? Work some new stuff in the concert, please.

Beady Belle

Yep yep — seeing Beady Belle was pretty much the only reason I wanted to come to Rochester. Soon as I heard she'd be performing, it wasn't even an issue of making it — it was going to happen. And despite getting taken all the way to East Rochester by a surly cab driver, I still was the first person there and sat right in the front row singing long to all the songs on their first US performance. After the concert, I got to meet lead singer Beate S. Lech and the band's drummer Erik Holm, and she signed all my CDs. Seriously, if that was the only thing that I did in Rochester, I'd have been happy for just that. There's always something fulfilling about seeing an artist perform live that you've watched and listened to that's grown over the years. I can't quite explain the feeling, but it certainly inspired me to stay on my own personal grind (before it grinds me to a pulp).

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