Hardrock69
09-05-2006, 10:58 AM
Just got back yesterday. Saw a lot of things I had wanted to see for quite sometime.
One unexpected highlight: I got shown around the Soldano amp factory by Mike Soldano himself.
A really cool guy. He is running a rather small operation...he sez the production is about 1 amp per day.
But needless to say, it was really cool to be able to hang with him and just bullshit for a little while.
Many thanks to him for taking time out of his schedule to show me around.
Other highlights:
1. Finally got to pay my respects to both Jimi Hendrix AND Bruce (and Brandon) Lee.
2. Checked out the EMP Museum, as well as the Science Fiction Hall Of Fame & Museum
3. A friend of mine and I were roommates in the early 80s, and were in several bands together. We had to move out of our house in Dallas rather abruptly....and he moved back to Seattle where he was from originally. I owed him 500 bucks when we parted, and that was a monkey on my back ever since. I am an honest sort of dude, and also a sentimental bastard. I value close friends, and my friend was so fucking cool it bugged the shit out of me ever since that he & I parted that way.
I kept track of him through another friend who lives in Everett, and then when the Internet arrived I was able to keep up with the bands he was in.
So anyway, I found out his exact address, and showed up at his house while he was having band practice in his garage.
I opened the door, and he was there with his band. He had not seen me in 23 years (had not spoken to me for 20), and had no idea I was going to show up.
So I walked in and his jaw dropped. I walked up to him and said "Here...have a thousand dollars" and put 10 100-dollar bills in his hand.
Needless to say he was shocked, and had a huge shit-eating grin on his face.
I hung out wwith him for awhile last week (he is the guy who knows Mike Soldano real well, and he used some of the cash I gave him to buy a used Hiwatt 4 X 12 cabinet from him), and on Saturday we drove down to Portland, Oregon as his band had a gig scheduled there.
4. I found the house I had lived in in 1978 when I was stationed at Ft. Lewis in the Army. I was shocked to discover it was no longer a private residence, but had been turned into a VFW.
5. I took a self portrait on the steps of the apartment building where the Cameron Crowe movie "Singles" was filmed. I am not some kind of die-hard nut about the movie, but it WAS a cool flick, and it was a neat kinda Seattle landmark, as well as only being about 5 blocks from Bruce Lee's final resting place in the Capitol Hill area.
I will post some pictures later this week. I brought my new Olympus digital camera and my new digital video camcorder with me, and learned a lot about using both. I took about 300-400 photos while I was up there.
The traffic was brutal. You cannot travel up there very efficiently unless you are driving during the day when rush hours are NOT occuring.
The scenery is fucking grate, and I seriously did not want to leave.
Financially (thanks to the internet) I got great deals:
R/T airfare from Gnashville to Seattle: $200
Rented a P/T Cruiser for 6 days: $185
Motel 6: $331
Memories: Priceless.
I am glad to be back....I did not have internet access while I was up there (note to self: Buy a laptop before the next excursion up there). I am already thinking of the day when I can go up there again....total travel time each way was about 8 hours, which wasn't shit (this included layovers).
That is all for now.
Cheers, everyone!
:cool:
One unexpected highlight: I got shown around the Soldano amp factory by Mike Soldano himself.
A really cool guy. He is running a rather small operation...he sez the production is about 1 amp per day.
But needless to say, it was really cool to be able to hang with him and just bullshit for a little while.
Many thanks to him for taking time out of his schedule to show me around.
Other highlights:
1. Finally got to pay my respects to both Jimi Hendrix AND Bruce (and Brandon) Lee.
2. Checked out the EMP Museum, as well as the Science Fiction Hall Of Fame & Museum
3. A friend of mine and I were roommates in the early 80s, and were in several bands together. We had to move out of our house in Dallas rather abruptly....and he moved back to Seattle where he was from originally. I owed him 500 bucks when we parted, and that was a monkey on my back ever since. I am an honest sort of dude, and also a sentimental bastard. I value close friends, and my friend was so fucking cool it bugged the shit out of me ever since that he & I parted that way.
I kept track of him through another friend who lives in Everett, and then when the Internet arrived I was able to keep up with the bands he was in.
So anyway, I found out his exact address, and showed up at his house while he was having band practice in his garage.
I opened the door, and he was there with his band. He had not seen me in 23 years (had not spoken to me for 20), and had no idea I was going to show up.
So I walked in and his jaw dropped. I walked up to him and said "Here...have a thousand dollars" and put 10 100-dollar bills in his hand.
Needless to say he was shocked, and had a huge shit-eating grin on his face.
I hung out wwith him for awhile last week (he is the guy who knows Mike Soldano real well, and he used some of the cash I gave him to buy a used Hiwatt 4 X 12 cabinet from him), and on Saturday we drove down to Portland, Oregon as his band had a gig scheduled there.
4. I found the house I had lived in in 1978 when I was stationed at Ft. Lewis in the Army. I was shocked to discover it was no longer a private residence, but had been turned into a VFW.
5. I took a self portrait on the steps of the apartment building where the Cameron Crowe movie "Singles" was filmed. I am not some kind of die-hard nut about the movie, but it WAS a cool flick, and it was a neat kinda Seattle landmark, as well as only being about 5 blocks from Bruce Lee's final resting place in the Capitol Hill area.
I will post some pictures later this week. I brought my new Olympus digital camera and my new digital video camcorder with me, and learned a lot about using both. I took about 300-400 photos while I was up there.
The traffic was brutal. You cannot travel up there very efficiently unless you are driving during the day when rush hours are NOT occuring.
The scenery is fucking grate, and I seriously did not want to leave.
Financially (thanks to the internet) I got great deals:
R/T airfare from Gnashville to Seattle: $200
Rented a P/T Cruiser for 6 days: $185
Motel 6: $331
Memories: Priceless.
I am glad to be back....I did not have internet access while I was up there (note to self: Buy a laptop before the next excursion up there). I am already thinking of the day when I can go up there again....total travel time each way was about 8 hours, which wasn't shit (this included layovers).
That is all for now.
Cheers, everyone!
:cool: