Bang, That's Wild!: Atomic BBQ Party 2011

Rockin' Away at Rockaway Beach

Chewin' at a rhythm on my bubble gum
The sun is out and I want some
Its not hard , not far to reach
We can hitch a ride to Rockaway Beach
- The Ramones

Saturday, July 2nd, 2011. It's the start of the July 4th Holiday Weekend, which according to my calendar means Scott Huffines and Kristin Miller's annual July 4th cookout and fireworks party (aka "The Atomic BBQ") - this year celebrating not just American Independence Day but also the unveiling-to-the-masses "hard opening" of the newly renovated Party Shed and a 50th Birthday Party for Teresa Eckhoff - down on Rockaway Beach ("the Redneck Riviera") in Essex. That alone was reason to celebrate, but Saturday also marked the Slickee Boys' final Baltimore performance later that night at their latter-day drummer Giles Cook's club, the 8x10 in Federal Hill.

Prelude: Hot Damn, Bummer in the City

Unfortunately, I had to start the day at work at the downtown library. As I walked from my parking lot in toward work, the first person I encountered was a sickly, shaking junkie bent over and regurgitating his breakfast all over his shoes and the pavement along West Franklin Street, nearby the Congress Hotel (where many people in years past have spilled their beans after exiting shows at the former Marble Bar and Galaxy Ballroom; apparently, the tradition continues).

Having officially entered Zombieland (home to the Walking Dead of Head), I then proceeded to suffer through a day of suffering the insufferable - like the very first patron I helped, yet another glazed-eyed wastrel, who whispered to me, "Ya got any, like, you know, sex videos here? Like, gay sex films?"

"No," I replied, immediately bursting his balloon. "Think about it, sir. Do you really think a city- and state-funded public library would be able to rent adult films without controversy? This is a family-oriented public venue, after all."


NOT coming soon to a library near you!

"Yeah, I guess you're right," he said, his eyes momentarily unglazed. "Guess I wasn't thinking."

I bit my tongue. Still holding on to his naughty fantasies, he proceeded to survey the "Action" video racks, perhaps hoping that this genre included not only Westerns and War Movies but also some "below the belt" action of the risque variety. To each his own, I always say.

Finally the 5 o'clock whistle blew (free at last!) and it was time to head for the Shed in Essex!

We Head to the Shed for the Atomic BBQ Party

This is the scene that greeted us as we "piered" in on the new Shed:

(Photo by Theresa Hornung)


(Photo by Theresa Hornung)

Ah! Looking across the tranquil waters lapping up against the shores of Essex's Redneck Riviera, we spotted the twin-towered beauty that is the CP Crane Plant, known to locals as "Oz." (Dummy tourista me erroneously thought the Back River shit plant's "Godlen Eggs" were hiding behind the towers!)


The Twin Towers (Photo by Theresa Hornung)

The first two peeps were ran into were Jane King and Melissa Darwin, who were celebrating their "Half Birthdays" and exchanging gifts. Just as Paul Weller "never travels far without a little Big Star," Melissa never travels far without a little camera for the opportune "Photo Op," and she snapped this nice photo of Amy and I that actually makes us look human (now that's talent - thanks Melissa!):



We then saw Jeff Alphin, the other half of the Jane & Jeff dynamic duo, who was working the grill. He cooked me up the best grilled cheeseburger I've ever had.

Because I had to work, we missed the Go-Pills - the first of several ensembles that ukelele-strumming and skin-pounding Skizz Cyzyk (The Human Beatbox) performed with on this day - as well as special guest Mink Stole, and only caught the tail-end of the Frankenbillies (this plucky string band was basically the rechristened Millbillies, featuring Garage Sale guitarist Dave McDonough).


The plucky Frankenbillies get all strung out
(photo by Theresa Hornung)

But, luckily, Rob Hornung of Monsters from the Surf brought along his handy-dandy Flip video camera and his wife Theresa snapped away on her digital still camera to document everything.

American Bandstand: Atomic BBQ Edition

Following is a clip of the Frankenbillies harping on their strings, lulling the audience into trance-like contentment like Orpheus plying his lyre to soften the hearts of Hades and Persephone and retrieve his beloved Eurydice from the Underworld. (Or something like that!)

Watch the Frankenbillies play "Rock Me Mama." (Video by Rob Hornung)


And here's Rob's footage of the Go-Pills for those who (like me) missed taking their medication:

Watch Go-Pills play at Atomic BBQ.


Watch Go-Pills & Mink Stole with trumpeter John Irvine.


Watch Go-Pills & Mink Stole sing "Coocoo Rockin' Time."


Watch Go-Pills with Randy Austin, Jr.'s savvy solo.


As the clip above proves, Randy Austin, Jr. is an essential element of the Go-Pills sound. He's the oldest member of the group and his history is quite a story in itself. On a day on which the Slickees Boys were calling it quits at Fed Hill's 8x10 Club, it was fitting to see a guy directly connected to their origins. You see, back in the mid-'70s Randy used to play guitar in a DC band called Overkill - a Catholic University quintet hailed as DC's first punk band who put the Slickee Boys on the bill back when they were nobodies in 1976.

In their definitive history of the DC punk scene Dance of Days (Soft Skull Press, 2001), authors Mark Andersen and Mark Jenkins quote Slickees founding member Kim Kane recalling how hard it was to get a local gig. "Now we had a band but where were we gonna play? Who would we play with? By pure accident, we discovered this band Overkill, who had done a couple of gigs. They let us get up and do a six song set in between breaks in their set at My Friend's House [a crab and beer joint in the Maryland suburbs]."

Overkill may be long gone, but the Slickee Boys made sure they were never forgotten by including Overkill's "Heart Murmur" in their set list and on their hard-to-find 1977 limited edition LP Separated Vegetables.


Separated Vegetables (Dacoit 1001, 1977)

The first band I actually really heard (after running around stuffing my tummy with burgers, cookies, cake and snacks!) was Monsters from the Surf who, like Garage Sale, play retro rock of the finest variety, from surf- and psych- and trashobilly to Nugget-rich garage and punk rawk. Their regular drummer hadn't made the trip to Essex, but not to worry - Skizz the Indefatigable Beatbox sat in, having had learned the setlist by listening to their CD just the day before! (Who needs practice? Keep it fresh, young fellows!)


Monsters from the Surf, with Skizz sitting in on skins
(photo by Theresa Hornung)

Fittingly, their opening number was none other than The Ramones' "Rockaway Beach." I watched as Tim Finnerty snapped pictures of the band; Tim himself was (synchronicity!) wearing his red Ramones t-shirt. How perfect was that!

Watch Monsters from the Surf play "Caveman."


Watch Monsters from the Surf play "Planet X Surfers."


Skizz was spelled on one song by Frederick artist - and former Skeptics drummer - Steve Blickenstaff, shown below selling his "Eyeball Girl" portrait to Rob Hornung. (Attention Atomic Books Archivists: This famous image adorned the back page of the first Atomic Books catalog.)


Steve Blickenstaff and Rob Hornung (photo by Theresa Hornung)

Steve sat in on a cover of yeh-yeh chanteusse France Gall's "Laisse Tomber les Fille" (better known in April March's English cover version as "Chick Habit"), aided and abetted by Therese Hornung and a gal pal on vocals.

Watch Monsters from the Surf play "Chick Habit."


Monsters from the Surf ended their set by putting pantyhose filled with tennis balls on their heads and covering The Trashmen's reductio-ad-absurdum rock anthem "Surfin' Bird."

Watch Monsters from the Surf play "Surfin' Bird" while wearing and swinging pantyhose filled with tennis balls.


This was true performance art at its finest and a tough act to follow, which in this case just happened to be The Happy Hulahans - another band featuring the legendary Randy Austin, Jr.! Their Dan Hicks meets Hawaiian hula hop music was a soothing backdrop to a thoroughly relaxing evening.

We talked for a good while with Billy McConnell and his bubbly new girlfriend Nicole. Billy delighted Amy by gifting her with a DVD of Queen's 1974 show at the Rainbow (we watched it the very next day!), and delighted me by saying I was even skinnier than him.


Billy and Nicole

"Are you OK?" he asked. "You sick or something?" This was high praise coming from a stringbean like Billy, who actually walks around wearing Nicole's jeans - though he's manly enough not to sport camel toe.

Billy impressed us with his patriotism, telling us he recently bought an American flag that was actually "Made in America"! He did throw the salesclerk for a loop when he specifically asked, "Is this flag inflammable? I just wanna make sure it burns!" That Billy!

There were many food delights awaiting inside the Huffines-Miller Compound, but none tickled my fancy as much as the carryout platter Tom Scruggs arrived with: jerk chicken, red beans and rice, hot sauce and gravy! This was from some place on Marlin Avenue called "Jerk Mon Chicken," which sounds like something Anthony Weiner would tweet (or sext). Gawd almighty it was spicy good! I drank two beers in quick succession trying to cool down. Thanks Tom!

Next up were the headliners, Garage Sale - yet another Skizz band, and yet another call to duty for Frankenbilly Dave McDononough and trumpeter John Irvine. They've always been the "house band" at all things Atomic (Books, TV, BBQ, etc.).


Garage Sale say: The night time is the right time!
(photo by Theresa Hornung)

Following are some video clips of Garage Sale I recorded using my Flip camera.

Watch Garage Sale play "The Savage," "Queen of Venus" and "Scrambler."


Watch Garage Sale play "Two Stroke Smoke" and "Song of Hope."


One of Garage Sale's best cover songs is their version of "Taco Wagon" by The Young Fresh Fellows (a band for whom Skizz directed a brilliant ad hoc music video, "Barky's Spiritual Store").

Watch Garage Sale play "Taco Wagon."


Garage Sale also do a mean version of The Bangles' rare "Bitchen Summer," an early instrumental which LA DJ Rodney Bingenheimer included on his 1982 Rodney on the ROQ: Volume 3 compilation album.


Recovered Rodney ROQ Rarity: "Bitchen" Bangles

Their cover was captured by Rob Hornung, as shown below.

Watch Garage Sale cover The Bangles' "Bitchen Summer."


And here are some more Garage Sale clips courtesy of Rob Hornung's fancier Flip camera (you can also see 'em all at his YouTube channel, monstersfromthesurf).

Watch Garage Sale play "Queen of Venus."


Watch Garage Sale play "Lonely Bull" with John Irvine on trumpet!


Watch Garage Sale play "Pedal Pusher."


Watch Garage Sale play a medley including "Brentless."


Bang, That's Wild! The Fireworks Begin!


"Love American Style, truer than the Red, White and Blue
Love American Style, It's me and you!"

As the sun set and darkness filled the sky, it signaled that fireworks were imminent. It was "Bang, That's Wild!" time, and everyone was giddy with excitement for the pyrotechnics that soon pierced the firmament with bright, multi-colored light and explosions. Yes, it was time for the 15th annual Fireworks at Eastern Yacht Club (presented by the Marine Trades Association of Baltimore County), which always makes me think of the theme song to one of my fave guilty-pleasure TV shows of yore, Love American Style.


Bang, that's wild! "Love American Style" at Rockaway Beach

Though my girlfriend Amy is a native Dundalkian, she had to admit that Essex's Rockaway Beachers really know how to throw a party - a long and hallowed tradition in these parts. If you need further proof, look no further than this 1950s "July 4th Parade" clip Scott Huffines recently found:

July 4th Parade, Rockaway Beach, Maryland, 1950s?

Cross Street Meat Market

The Atomic BBQ Party was a blast and a collectively good time (though we missed not seeing our dear friends Scott and Adele there!), but the inevitable traffic backup that always occurs on Turkey Point Road following the July 4th fireworks display - not to mention the never-ending challenge of trying to find a parking space on a Saturday night in Federal Hill - resulted in us not getting to the 8x10 Club on Cross Street until around Midnight. But our lateness had a bonus: instead of paying $14 at the door, the doorman let us in for free! (Score!) Then, just like Owen Wilson's character in Woody Allen's new film Midnight in Paris, we were ushered into the Wayback Machine and began a journey down Memory Lane to the rock and roll of our past.

But as we walked down Cross Street on our way to the club, which was closed off to traffic to allow for the teeming collegiate masses gathered there, we both felt like we were discovering a new world. Or, as Amy put it, "It's like Mardi Gras down here!"

I recognized No Way Jose Cafe, but all the other bars along this stretch were new to us. Admittedly, both Amy and I are fairly cloistered suburban recluses who are late bloomers when it comes to discovering new "hot spots." Not that the new Cross Street would qualify as a hot spot to us: all the bars looked the same, daisy-chained together into a sort of collective College Bar Ghetto of wall-to-wall big screen TVs, Sports Bar decor, and collegiate chug-a-lug drink specials to entice their crowd of casually dressed Guy Slobs and over-"dressed" (albeit scantily attired), over-intoxicated hoochie mamas trying to avoid falling over in their 6-inch pumps. I hadn't seen this much meat on display since my last visit to Fuddruckers (tellingly located on "Market Street" at the Power Plant!).


Cross Street Meat Market: USDA Primed and Well-Marinated


Cross Steet Girls: "Let's get hammered at this non-descript cookie-cutter sports bar, hook up with some hunky horndogs & then get hammered some more back at their unkempt cribs and wake up in a pool of vomit and other bodily fluids!"

In other words: the Cross Street Market strip has been turned into another Power Plant Live! party zone. No wonder the streets were buzzing with a fleet of yellow taxi cabs whizzing the under-agers to and fro their bar hoppin' destinations.

Slickee Boys Bid Baltimore Bye-Bye!

Farewell! A word that must be, and hath been -
A sound which makes us linger yet - farewell!
- Lord Byron ("Childe Harold's Pilgrimage")

Slickee Boys: "A sound which makes us linger yet..."

Neither one of us had been to the 8x10 in years. Amy thinks the Marble Bar Reunion show was the last time she last entered its hallowed doors; for me it had probably been - syncronicity! - a Slickee Boys New Year's Eve show back in the mid-'90s. (I remember it well now. I was dating this party-hardy waitress who liked to dance and she got wasted - probably the only reason I got lucky later that night; I'm pretty sure she was even awake for it! I'd like to think the Slickees played a part in that brief encounter and they will always hold a place in my heart if only for that reason.) As then, so now: the place was packed - as it always is when the Slickee Boys come to town.

The Slickees were always my favorite local band (followed closely by the band that inspired them, The Razz, circa when Tommy Keene joined them). (Come to think of it, I saw The Razz's farewell Baltimore show as well - they opened for The Ramones at Martin's East...a weird show in that we watched the torn-jean, motorcycle-jacketed Ramones while sitting at banquet tables serviced by waiters! I recall Adolf Kowalski watched at least half of this show before disappearing under the table...). They were always a guaranteed fun time - and an education, as well. Hearing them play obscure covers of Sixties garage and psych bands inspired me to search out the obscure source material that so heavily influenced their rollicking rock setlist - bands like Balloon Farm ("A Question of Temperature"), The Squires ("Going All the Way"), Downliners Sect ("Glendora"), and all the others. Though they officially broke up around 1990 when Kim Kane left to concentrate on his side band Date Bait, they ultimately couldn't stay away from one another and continued to get back together for reunion shows - typically around the time between Christmas and New Year's Eve - both in DC and Baltimore.


Slickee Boys: Breakin' up is hard to do

Though they released numerous singles, EPs, and albums (and, later, CDs of course), the Slickees sound was, like Detroit's legendary MC5, never really captured in the studio. Their rep and their legend was built on their dynamic live performances, where they seemed to feed off the energy of their adoring fans. Tonight was no different.

Two of those adoring fans were Mike and "Jailbait Janet" Ramsey of Severna Park, who spotted us right away as we were inching our way towards the stage. Janet was an old friend from college days at Towson State University; she used to go out with Adolf Kowalski (of my old band Thee Katatonix), who allegedly was somewhere in the vicinity, along with Chick Veditz ("Chick's Legendary Records"), Mike and Gail Maxwell, Sharon Rudolph, Dave Wilcox (Chelsea Graveyard) and, well, many many friends of yore from Marble Bar days and beyond, too many to count. I actually introduced Janet to Mike Ramsey, back when Mike and I worked for a software company in Columbia, and when I go to my grave I can look back on my life and think at least I did this one good thing, for they've been happily married-with-children (Megan and Dylan) for what seems ages now.


Rockheads Mike and Janet Ramsay

Amy and I walked in right in the middle of a long Slickees jam-out on The Chocolate Watch Band's "(Are You Gonna Be There At the) Love-In," the flip-side of the Slickee's 1980 single "The Brain That Refused To Die" and a staple of their live set. They then proceeded to seque into The Status Quo's "Pictures of Matchstick Men," one of Marshall Keith's favorite psych-guitar workouts, followed by The Dogs' "Death Lane" (this cover also appears on the Slickees' 1985 LP Uh Oh...No Breaks!). From this point on, the floor never stopped shaking as people were jumping up and down, and all around, nonstop like they were inside a Moon Bounce with a liquor bar. Amy herself took advantage to pogo up and down like she was working out to one of her high-impact aerobic tapes. (The girl can't help it - she loves her rock and roll!)

Watch Slickees play "Love-In," "Pictures of Matchstick Men" and "Death Lane."


Irony was not lost on the festive crowd when the Slickees next tore into Mark Noone's original "This Party Sucks," for this party definitely did not suck!

Watch Slickees play "This Party Sucks."


Next up was "Jailbait Janet" (I felt happy that Janet Ramsay got her own personal Slickee shout-out tune), a song I've loved since first hearing it on 1977's Afrika Korps LP Music To Kill By, followed by the only possible set-closer for a July show - last show or not, a summer sayonara meant it had to be their MTV hit "When I Go To the Beach."

Watch Slickees play encores of "Jailbait Janet" and "When I Go To the Beach."


And that was it, the end of an era for the Slickee Boys and their reign in Clubland from 1976-2011.

Bang, Zoom...We Meet Jim Moon!

Afterwards, as Amy and I were standing in line to buy Slickees CDs, a big dude walked over to me and said simply, "Accelerated Decrepitude!" Since that's name of my blog of pointless ramblings, I figured I must know the guy somehow. Actually we knew each other through the wonder of the Internet (the great Wired Community), though we had never met until tonight. The guy then said, "I'm Jack of Hearts."

"Wow!" I said excitedly, motioning to Amy. "This is the guy who took all the great photos of the Marble Bar bands and the Slickees and The Monuments!"

My initial reaction was, "Whoa! He's a big fella - I hope he isn't gonna kick my ass for re-posting his band pics without asking persmission," but as it turned out he was just as excited to meet me, having seen my reposting and digging the rest of my blog. He said he had figured he'd run into me eventually, given our mutual interests in good bands from the Golden Years of Balto-DC punk and post-punk, but it took the Slickee Boys final show in Charm City for it to happen.

Jack of Hearts then clued us in on his true identity.

"I'm Jim Moon. 'Jack of Hearts' is from the Dylan song," he said.


Jim Moon is the Jack of Hearts

"Sure," I replied, "From Blood on the Tracks, my favorite!" It all made sense because, of course, the Dylan song not only featured the titular outlaw bank robber "Jack," but also a character named "Big Jim"; at 6-foot-2 and a former Harley-riding biker (bikers being the ultimate symbol of American Road Outlaws), Big Jim Moon certainly fit the bill!

Amy and I had racked our (admittedly feeble) minds trying to figure out who this "Jack of Hearts" guy was, since we loved his photos and wondered if we knew the guy Back in the Day, since he obviously frequented the same venues we did. I had even published a number of them, along with a link to his awesome Flickr photostream. As I wrote back then in my "Marble Bar Pix" post:

"Attention all Marble Bar alumni, whoever and wherever you are. A talented photog going by the nom de Internet “Jack of Hearts” has a fantastic Flickr photostream of bands (local and national) that played Baltimore’s Marble Bar back in the early ’80s. His profile lists his occupation as Fire Alarm Tech, but the guy’s a great picture snapper. (I wonder if I met him back in the day?)...Jack’s band pics profile The Cramps, Monuments, Judie’s Fixation, Oral Fixation, Slickee Boys, Ventures, John Cale, Sex in Miami, even the infamous 1982 Johnny Thunders show at Roger and Leslee Anderson’s historic rock club when an inebriated Thunders stormed off the stage after being beaned in the head by an errant beer can!"

Now I've known a lot of talented local photographers over the years - Jennifer Bishop, Greg Dohler, Elisa Nichols, Janet Little, and Sam Holden among them - but Moonie may just be the best of them all. Though he officially makes his living as a "Fire Alarm Tech," Big Jim is a shutterbug par excellance and his "jack of Hearts" photostream of late '70s and early '80s bands (especially from Baltimore's Marble Bar, Galaxy Ballroom and Trenton Street Station/Parrot Club - not to mention all the DC-area clubs) provide the best photographic record of this period. Period.

Though originally from New Jersey, he moved here in the mid-'70s and quickly attached himself to the local punk and New Wave music scene, specifically chronicling the exploits of DC's Slickee Boys and Annapolitans Judie's Fixation. When I asked him how he came to know Judie's Fixation, he said it was through guitarist Brian "Lumpy" Jones - they both were DJs at the same radio station. It also explained why Jim Moon has all those great photos of Lumpy's post-Judies band with Cindy Borchardt, The Monuments.

Amy and I both picked up the last Slickees CD release, 2006's awesome live compilation A Postcard from the Day, which collects some of the best tunes from live shows in Maryland, DC, Virginia and even CBGB's in New York - all recorded at the peak of their powers during their 1980-1982 heyday.


A Postcard from the Day: Don't you wish you were here?

We didn't notice until we got home that the liner notes thank Jim Moon "for setting the spark on this project" (not to mention The Razz "for paving the way"). Last, but not least, it thanks "our great fans for keeping us going all those years.'

I'm so glad we got this CD, because it's now quickly become my fave Slickees listening disc, its 24 tracks including all the essential originals ("Here To Stay," "Gotta Tell Me Why," "Here To Stay," "Jailbait Janet") as well as some delightful covers of set staples like the Herman's Hermits singalong "Henry the VIII," "Somebody's Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In Tonight" (by Fleetwood Mac's Jeremy Spencer as "Earl Vince and the Valients"), The Sonics' "Cinderella," "Ain't Gettin' Any" (by the UK Monks - not the Germany-based American group with the tonsurial haircuts and robes - you know, the ex-Strawbs wiseacres wot wrote "Nice Legs, Shame About Her Face"), The Gizmos' "Mean Scream," and Paul Revere & The Raiders' "Louise" and "Stepping Stone" (the latter perhaps best known by its Monkees cover version), not to mention ertswhile Slickee bass player Howard Wuelfing's chestnut, "Control." I always thought Wuelfing was the Glen Matlock of the Slickee Boys, the one who always wrote the really poppy, catchy songs.

As Lord Bryron put it, this farewell CD is truly "a sound that makes us linger yet...," forever capturing the memory of what a live Slickees show was all about: energy, fun, smiles. And the sound of bodies in gleeful motion.

Foresight is Emboldened, Hindsight is Golden

The next day, Amy and I were burned out from the sensory overload of the night before, so we went down to The Charles to see the new Woody Allen movie, Midnight In Paris. It was an enjoyable, if slight, entertainment - certainly not an essential title in his filmography (his Golden Period for me will always be The Middle Years of '70s through early '80s - Sleeper, Love and Death, Annie Hall, Manhattan, Broadway Danny Rose, etc.). But as a film about looking to the past as a sort of Golden Age of better times (in this case, Paris in the Swinging '20s and Paris in the Belle Epoque), well, its timing was impeccable. It made me think of Garage Sale, Monsters from the Surf, the Slickees and all that great Sixties and Seventies music people of my generation keep returning to, and what it means (if anything).

I don't usually read Christianity Today (in fact, I never have!), but I ran across an article by Steven D. Greydanus that summed up the new Woody Allen movie pretty well, as well as my own feelings about this nostalgia kick that Boomers like Amy and I seem to be on...this Finding Refuge In Memories of Good Times past - be it listening to the familiar music of our youth, watching "Golden Era" Sixties TV shows and movies, or just hanging with old friends and sharing old memories.

Midnight in Paris is about the allure of the past, of times and places that loom large in our imagination, when it seems things were more than what they are. It's also about the illusion of perspective: the past looks romantic to us from our vantage point, and if we went there we might contrive to bring that perspective with us, although to the people actually living then, the past was simply the present. Or one could look further back to other golden ages.

Are golden ages golden while you are living through them? Time and memory sift the past, retaining what is golden and sweet while leaving the chaff behind. In our own day, perhaps, we are more conscious of the chaff, while the good wheat remains half-hidden, not fully appreciated in its day. Time will reveal it more fully to our children.

Or perhaps the past shines as it does because for us, like Picard, the past is bathed in the rosy glow of our own remembered youth (or, if we are young ourselves, that of the glowing memories and anecdotes of our elders). But was our youth itself as rosy as we remember? Is it all just a trick of perspective, the way ordinary surroundings become the mysterious horizon when you get far enough away?

Where is it all going? What's remarkable about Midnight in Paris is that in the end it's about seeing through the illusion of nostalgia and yet not being disillusioned — about cherishing the past, while living in the present.
- Stephen D. Greydanus, (Christianity Today)

That's it in a nutshell: Amy and I have learned to "cherish the past while living in the present." And this weekend encapsulated that feeling with its melding of Good Old Times and Good Old Peeps and living in the moment. The moment was Saturday night, and it was all good!

Related Links:
Go-Pills (Facebook)
Monsters from the Surf (Official Web Site)
Monsters from the Surf (Official Home Page)
Monsters from the Surf (Facebook)
Garage Sale (Facebook)
Stephen Blickenstaff.com
Slickee Boys (Facebook)
"Jack of Hearts" Photostream on Flickr
Jack of Hearts' "Marble Bar Photostream"
"Marble Bar Pix" (Blog about Jim Moon's Marble Bar pics)
RockawayBeach TurkeyPoint (Facebook)
monrovia (Billy McConnell's YouTube channel)