Time Control Headquarters

Im in another hotel room in California thinking about my traveling experiences and about the interesting discovery and idea I had Sunday night. I fly late, its a new habit I am taking up. The planes are often less crowded as are most airports, and of course a few more hours with my family is always good. But weird and good things happen to me at night on the road, its great.

Anyway, I picked up my rental SUV for my work. Now I ask for the least offensive, most modest vehicle I can get with 4 wheel drive. I work in very remote places quite often and a Ford Fusion just doesn't cut it. They give me a 2008 Buick SUV with heated seats, sun and moon roof, leather interior, automatic rear door, and a 6 CD changer. I am mildly annoyed by all this since I don't need any of that stuff but because its the only 4 wheel drive vehicle they could get on such short notice I have to pay about $500 dollars extra a week.  SUPER!! (wait wait I'm getting to the sharing part)

I jump in this metallic beast, turn it on, and find the 6 CD changer is completely full. Someone left two Led Zeppelin Cd's, two Melissa Ethridge Cd's, a Stevie Ray Vaughn best of CD and a really really bad Hip Hop mix CD. And it got me thinking. I was peering ever so slightly into this vehicles last users life. I can imagine they may be in their late 40s mid 50s. They may have kids or at least one young teenage daughter (it was a VERY bad hip hop mix). They may have been on a vacation to somewhere and ran the CD player on random. Or these 6 Cd's were left by one guy/girl who is supremely pissed that they just lost HALF their CD collection when they jumped out of their rental vehicle. WHO KNOWS. Its cool.

Now this got me thinking. People who travel alone, me included, are often frustrated because the local music selection is less then good, and they may be sick of their personal music library. I love finding new music, like here on Vox, and I really like sharing it, which I sadly can't do to much on Vox.

SO travelers! Lets start a new music sharing community. If you rent a car, make a mix CD and leave it in the player when you leave. Share your favorite stuff, something good or what got you going while you were driving the car. Its like making a mix tape for a stranger you want to be friends with but you may never meet...ever.  Most rental car businesses never check the car stereo and almost never return lost items left in cars. So you can be anonymous and artistic (if thats your thing) or write your name and website down.  Put your bands music in the player, see if you get noticed by someone.  You never know, you could singlehandedly open someone up to a whole new sound.     

Here is what I have been listening to the last couple of days to break me out of this lonely funk I am in. Hope it makes ya groove the way it does me. This sort of thing redeems the world in my eyes....even California.  

07 AKA the Slow Train

Lemon Jelly

This track is not the Slow train. The album I got has a weird screw-up on its numbering. It is called Stay With You.

Well Im back,

Back to the place I told myself I would never return. Home... well not home... a step down from home...Bakersfield.  Now no offense meant to the kind people of Bakersfield who may read this, but you know what I am talking about.

My job has inexplicably dropped me on some field work in the Central Valley, and with really no warning at all I am working back were I was trying so hard to get away from.  I am looking at a 12 day trip here sitting in a hotel room trying to keep myself busy.  I have so far bought two new CDs (that I found here on VOX, thanks neighborhood) and a new book on post-apocolyptic short stories. Is it wrong that I get more ideas for my own post apocolyptic stories when I come home. 

California disgusts me.  I was born and raised here, 6th generation and I can't stand the place. Why? Because its all changed for the worse.  I grew up rural ,now I go home and its suburbia. Well, actually thanks to sub-prime morgages its a state of the art ghost town. The trees and waterways are choked, lined with concrete, and stunted.  The air smells and is opaque. I am in the center of a huge valley and I can't see any Mountains... 

People are obssesed with themselves here.  That used to be a distincly LA yuppie thing, now its everybody.  Even the old hippes I grew up around are obssesed with having the right fucking eco-friendly over priced crap.  I wish I could write something funny and witty about it all. But I can't. It's too sad seeing the world paved over in front of your eyes.

Had a rough day yesterday. Got mad and ranted and raved on a number of topics and posts that I probably should have kept my mouth shut on, mostly to prevent the further spread of foot in mouth disorder.  Anyway, wanted to make it official and tell everybody who may have been put off by my comments or mis-use of facts, Sorry.

Thanks for reading. 

Greetings,

Ever felt very alone, but loved it more then anything. I am currently sitting at work completely alone. The entire staff that works on my floor are gone. So I am blasting audio files from my favorite Vox sites and writing to you fine people.

 I was hoping to maybe pass on some ides of what I hope to do with this blog. First it will be A HUB like the title says. I like the idea of people stumbling on to my site and finding my neighborhood to be a huge network of people that I do not necessarily know but their blog had a fascinating feature about it that made me want to go back to it. At the moment I have been finding bloggers with Audio files that appeal to me and adding them. I will at some point move on to topics of interest, books, writers and so on. I do hope to add my own files and photos at some point. Maybe I will add a few today.

 I will also at some point have a regular feature called "What the Hell is Under my Bed" which is a little game I play when I am on the road. You may not know this but very often people who travel tend to stash things under their hotel furniture that would shock and amaze you.  Try it out on a road trip sometime you may be very surprised to find a whole treasure trove of items someone in the family can enjoy. (NOTE: remember to wear rubber gloves when attempting this hobby).

Anyway, have fun, visit my neighborhood and good hunting my fellow Vox'neers!