Monterey Travel Missive #3

I was too dismissive of 1410 KRML-AM yesterday. I've spent more time listening to them than any other local station at this point. While KKUP may hav esome stand out programs, it really is reggae all damn day, KRML-AM is varied but in an intelligent programmed way. I also noticed that they also offer cable radio (a medium I thought was extinct) on Comcast at 93.7. That pipes their signal loud and clear into 90,000 homes. They also claim to be the only radio station broadcasting jazz 24 hours a day. While that claim is somewhat spurious, they are still a great jazz station. They also were featured in the 1971 Clint Eastwood flick Play Misty for Me, for whatever that's worth.

While I'm on the Jazz tip, I finally caught a music show that held my attention on 88.9 KUSP. http://www.kusp.org/ I'd written them off as a NPR talk outlet until I caught this one show today around noon. The program Cintinental drift was truly inspired. It was a mix of old and new blues, jazz and even funk. But it was kind of tied together in an organic way. Leon Red Bone, 30 s blues, the meters and Jimmy Smith aren;'t normally in the same program... but hey can be. It's beginning to make sense that Monterey is the home of the Monterey Jazz Festival.

I got into Recycled Records today and picked up a copy of an older Bakomono record. I paid $8.00 and just realized I could have bought it used online for 3 cents + shipping... This is why small record stores are going out of buisness. But it's a good band, and a long out of print record, it was worth the 8 clams.

Today I ate lunch at El Torito and sat in the bar overlooking Monterey Bay. The food was largely unimpressive but the view was great. I sat a a table smaller than half a newspaper and overlooked the incoming waves. The Pacific was very active and would shake the building at times as it rushed over and under the rock that Monterey sits upon. It is very striking how much more active the Pacific is than the Atlantic. I was warned many times by many locals about the tourists that get swept out to sea right off th ebeach because they didn't know how violent and powerful El Océano Pacífico is. The salsa was good and used excellent tomatos which made me remember harvesting them, and made me hungry for good vegetables.

Monterey Travel Missive #1

I landed at Monterey Peninsula Airport airport yesterday, and after accidentally driving into the high security lot behind the air traffic control tower I eventually found my way down to Rte 1. I drove past Sand city which as far as I can tell is a big beach and Home Depot... possibly a Berkley art project representing the two halves of the male brain. I got a cheap hotel in Marina in walking distance of the beach and got used to the idea. I heard some fantastic radio already. On the AM band I caught the last half of Radio Ranch, a program on 1240 KNRY-AM. http://www.knry.com/Programs/RadioRanch.htm

Host J.P. Mick Vernon reads cowboy poetry by himself and others in between obscure and not-so-obscure country oldies tunes. It is a totally unparalleled program in all of radio land. He told a story about a young girl riding colts and developing a preference for a very old mare, then played some Dale Evans ...and it totally worked. He was included in the 2005 Nevada County Poetry Anthology and is also the author of The Lyrical Lawman Rides, a book of original cowboy poetry.

90.3 KAZU used to be a local scene powerhouse, with a morning show that often beat out Nic at KCRW in local polls. But Melanie was ousted from that slot when management decided that Monterey needed a third NPR news outlet in the market... I often wonder if she picked up a show somewhere down the road. This afternoon they were running something that ran simultaneously on 88.9 KUSP. They seemed impotent and dull.

Still in market are 88.1 KZSC the U. or Santa Cruz and 91.9 KSPB at Robert Louis Stevenson H.S. I am sure I'll check those out during the week ahead.

I drove up the road a bit and bought some supplies for the traveling I'll be doing over the week. two boxes of low-cal snack bars, an apple, a 6 pack of water, a six pack of Dew, a bag of bagels etc. Across the way on reservation road I found a consignment shoppe of called Del Monte Bargains. It was run by some middle-aged Slavic woman, possibly Russian with corn rows. Her accent was thick, and it made her explaining too viscous. I bought 4 books, supposedly at a dollar each but she took about 3.50 when I turned out my pockets:

Burma Road by Nicol Smith
The Fall by Samuel R. Delany (ironically a Philly Local)
A Winter Walk by Tolbert McCarroll
Solomons House by the Cowell College History Workshop... some kind of hippie college let the class of 1970 print a book. It's spectacularly fragmented so far.

I had brought A movable feast with me. I like reading Hemingway when I travel, as he reminds me why it is good to do so. But I think it may go back in the duffel. I have so many options now.