theJEDMAN NATION-A New Wave Manifesto

Documenting the JED Experience

Sunday, July 20, 2008

I was at Tanner's the other night and I ran into the Commish. The Commish is this friend of theQUICK. I basically know him because he is the commissioner of one of my fantasy football leagues. He also helped me with my Sprint bill when the evil empire was trying to charge me too much. The Commish is awesome. He reads the blog. I don't really know him very well, but he reads the blog. He does not have to be told to read the blog. He just reads. the blog. That is support. He is on the JEDMAN bandwagon. Get on the bandwagon the rest of you. It is the right thing to do.

I fought some foo the other night. I saw the Foo Fighters in the big rock and roll show. There were about maybe 10,000 Foo Heads in the Kemper Arena. I was surprised by the turn out. The Foo Fighters are pretty good. That guy Dave from that Nirvana band is pretty good. He can sing and he can scream. Plus, he has long flowing hair. All the guys in the band had hair. No bald guy rock stars allowed. Guys or anyone with long flowing hair are my heroes. I dream of having hair like that. They played all the songs that I know. The stage was at one end of the arena. There was a long cat walk to the other end. At one point in the show a circular stage dropped to the arena floor at the end of the cat walk. They band moved down there. More pickers came out and they played some more songs. Dave talked a lot. He kind of has a potty mouth, but he was funny. He made fun of a guy in the crowd that had two beers. He made fun of some guy in the band that played triangle.It was a good show. The Foo played for around 2 hours and 20 minutes. That is pretty good value for the $55 ticket. This woman in front of me was blazing up the whole show. That is not legal. She had trouble standing up by the end of the show.
After the show, we ended up at some bar at 9th and State Line. I did not know that such a place existed. Through dark warehouses and train tracks was this club in the middle of the bottoms of Kansas City. The smokers were all upset because they couldn't smoke there. It literally 20 feet from free smoking KCK. I had to laugh. I can't wait for the full smoking ban everywhere even in Raytown. There was some lame band playing in there. Thankfully we only stayed for a little while. It was past my bedtime.
I read this book about this guy who went around the country with the goal of being a dishwasher in all 50 states. It was great. The guy was a slacker but he did take some pride in dish washing and he held the belief that jobs were made to quit. Quiting was the best part. Being able to quit and leave at anytime was what kept him going. The guy was my age. He put out a zine at the same time I did years ago about his dish washing escapades. He actually got popular, but wanting to remain a slacker. He had some funny stories. He didn't quite make all fifty states. I wish that I had the guts back then to do something stupid like that then write a book about it.

.: posted by Jed 8:49 PM

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

I don't really think anyone is reading this. It seems that people have to be reminded to read my blog. I guess I don't write with the frequency that most would like. Also, I've been dropped by Iberian Notes on their list of top blogs. I'm guessing this is personal attack by Bon Chap thejedman or he just deleted it somehow. I think my real fans should check my blog everyday. You never know when I'm going to write something truly fascinating. You don't want to miss it. I should have to remind people. The Jedman Nation is always there for all to see. Real fans will make a point to see it everyday wether I write once a day or once a year.
THE END OF THE WORLD I
Anyway, I'm at the end of the world. I'm one block from the World Famous Squid Roe. C is at work so I'm by myself. I've been walking around the town. I ate some fish tacos. My stomach has been a little upset, so I can't drink beer with the normal gusto that an American visitor is expected to so here. However, a couple of days of having some beers in the hot sun is fun, but even that gets old. When it is hot like that, the beer really tastes good, but moderation is the key in this beer drinking paradise among other things. Last Sunday, we went on this sail boat ride. It was awesome. The boat was called the Spin Doctor. We basically rode around the bay of San Lucas and there were beers on the boat. It was fun. It was more fun than the Pirate Boat and the big cruiser vessel that I went on 2 years ago. It was very damaging to the water taxi service. We went around the cape into the open sea. The waves crashed over the boat soaking this woman with the cold Pacific agua. C's hat bit the dust as it flew off her head. It was fun. I might make that a regular trip on my adventures from the end of the world.

If you want to see gringos, hit Cabo Wabo. It is all americanos on most nights. It is Sam's bar. I call him Sam. Sam is my buddy. Sam is my pal. I didn't get mad when Sam threw up in my car. It is a big bar. They have a house band that plays every night. Everytime I have been to Cabo Wabo, it has been the same guys in the band. Sam must pay them well. That is probably a good gig to have playing rock and roll songs in a nice big bar to a festive crowd. They are pretty good. I wish I could get that gig. I should be in the band. I'm a good front man. I just don't sing that well, but a front man I am. That is the problem with Sam and I: we are both front men. Cabo Wabo is fun. It is a tourist bar. Prices are higher like in Squid Roe, but it is a must see in San Lucas. Make sure you hit it when the band plays. I think they play for an hour and then they have a DJ for an hour and it is like that all night. If you go give Sam my best.

If you want to dance, you have to hit Squid Roe. The Squid Roe is quite the scene man. I go there to Dance. I live to dance. I can't imagine a day without dancing. I danced in the cage this time high above the two story Squid.

The END OF THE WORLD II
I'm back. It is two days later. C is at work again. My routine is pretty simple. I get up. I take advantage of the fruit toast and coffee on the hotel patio by the pool. Then, I drink coffee and read by the pool in the morning. I take a shower. I watch some TV. Then, I head off into town. I usually buy a big water to carry around because I walk a lot and I sweat even more. I find a place to eat. I usually hit one of the cheap tourist places. I don't eat on the marina. That is high priced gringo styled food. I like to avoid those places. I do hit Taco Loco. It is a tourist place, but it is cheap. I get four fish tacos and a beer for $7. It is pretty good there. They make the food up fresh. you can see them making it in the kitchen. From there, I may go to the Internet cafe like I am now just across the street from Squid Roe. Yesterday, I went to the beach and ate lunch and put away a couple of margaritas de fresa. After a couple of hours, I usually hit Rip's for a couple of Pacificos on the way home. If you get one drink here they give you two. In the USA the drinks are so big that they are often two drinks anyway. Then, I hike the 15 minutes up the peninsula back to the hotel. There, I swim off my hotness to cool off. I take a nap and watch TV and wait for C to finish working. I know. The excitement is intense. Remember the life of theJEDMAN is always intense.
The other day my routine was thwarted. I have a cooperate rich guy connection here and I was able to get a massage. I had never had one before. This woman came to the hotel with her table and set up. I plopped on and she rubbed me down for about an hour. It was nice. It was the kind of ethical massage that I've always heard of. Usually I'm a little uptight about people touching me that I don't know. I don't even like it when naked men walk around in the Baily's locker room to the locker next to me and start talking. I don't like going to new doctors and having them poke and prod me, especially that time I got my colon checked like guys my age are supposed to do. I met the people that day. They knocked me out and who knows what they did. Usually I want several dinners, some drinks, two ball games, a concert, some movies, some walks in the park, a drive to the country, a few trips to the supermarket and picking me up from jail to occur before all the poking and prodding occurs. Well, I have not ever been in jail, but there is always a chance. This massage was really relaxing. I felt really good after. I even dosed off for a few minutes. She was nice and it was a free cooperate tourist thing. I tipped her $30 for her effort. For a few minutes, I felt like a rich guy. It was intense, but less intense than normal. Remember the life of theJEDMAN is always intense.

The END OF THE WORLD III
My last weekend at the end of the world, we drove up the desert to La Paz. La Paz is the capital of Baja California Sur. It is on the Mar of Cortez or the Gulf of California. We drove across the mountainous desert peninsula of BCS. It was fun. It was hot and dusty. There is not much out there but some cows, goats, and cacti. We did see a tourist relieving himself on the side of the highway on the way back down highway 19. He could have at least got of the road a little bit. The Highway 19 from San Lucas to Todos Santos is winding, narrow and a little peligrosos. We stayed at the Casa Jalisco. I know a guy in Kansas City whose brother-in-law owns the place. The room was very nice and big. It was a good place. The problem was the location of the hotel, not in the pretty area and far from the Malecon. The Malecon is the sea wall of the bay of La Paz. It stretches for several kilometers along the bay of La Paz. It is very nice stroll along the bay. On the other side of the street, there are shops and restaurants. It is a very nice area. We ate at a restaurant El Patron out on point at the beginning of the Malecon. We sat right by water as the sun set by the sailboats. It was pretty. I ate some sea bass. It was one of the best pieces of fish I have ever had. We drank some good Margaritas. It was very nice. As the sun went down more and more people came out to the Malecon. It was quite the seen. There were not too many gringos around. We walked along the Malecon. As we returned, there were a lot of people standing around. As we got closer, there was a pick up truck in the wa

ter. All I could see was the antenna. They had some tow trucks there to pull it out. I could never figure out how the guy drove that truck in there. It was crazy. I talked to some guys drinking some Tecate Light on the Malecon. They had no idea what Kansas was. They thought everyone in the USA was from New York. Statue of Liberty was all they knew.We need Superman to get that truck out.

On Day 2 in La Paz, we cruised up the coast of the bay to a beach called Balanda. It was pretty. There were a lot of people there. The beach was not that big, but the water went out forever in this little inlet. The water was clean and clear. It had white fine sand. You could walk out forever and not go under. I was way out and the water was only up to my chest at the deepest. It was a perfect 72 degrees. I could have stayed out there forever. I put on sun screen. This was smart. I have not done this before and have been burned to death. Sun screen works. Balanda was kind of the low rent beach. There were no facilities. There were a lot of families there. There were dogs there. There was a wiener dog there that outran thees two little girls that could not grasp the leash as the dog ran up and down the beach. It was cute. There were people with makeshift canopies to protect from the sun eating chips and hammering down big Pacificos. The one great thing about the ocean, it is like one big bathroom. After the Balanda Beach experience, we hit the next beach over. The name of it eludes me, but it was a bigger beach with restaurants. We ate some more sea bass in this nice moderately priced place with waiters and napkins. The eyes came with this piece of fish. Actually, it was the whole fish except for the guts. This beach was nice. You could seen the exit to the bay of La Paz into the open Cortez Sea. The water was clear and clean

with white sand. It was a little cooler here. It was

beautiful. After the beach we headed back into town. We went to the mall. I walked around reading sign. It was OK. It was a nice mall. Mexico is a poor country, but people have money to buy stuff. Baja California Sur is probably doing better than most states in Mexico. As the sun went down the Malecon filled up. I guess people without air bake in their houses all day and as soon as the sun goes down they hit the Malecon to cool off and hang. This is the ultimate loitering place. It is a teenagers dream. Families pop out and walk around. I saw this little kid about 4 years old on a electric motorcycle bike. He had a full helmet that wrapped around his jaw and googlies. The bike when about 4 MPH and he was cruising around on it. It was funny. He almost went down this embankment. It was a great place. It is fun. Loitering is OK USA. We should allow more of it and design places to do it.

I went to the big supermarket CCC in La Paz. In the beer aisle, Modelo the big beer company in Mexico has a cute beer girl there. I guess she is there to help you make a selection and if you don't pick a Modelo beer, well I don't want to tell you what that means, but don't ask her out to lunch. It is kind of funny. They don't do that here in the US because you would upset some conservatives. It is just fun. Mexico might be behind the times in the way women are viewed, but the superfiscial man in me likes things like this even though I'll probably get into trouble for it.

In San Jose, they sell fresh bottles of OJ on the street. I drank one everyday. It was great. I love fresh squeezed OJ. It is good there. BCS has a lot of vitimen C options. With all of those limes they put in beers and squeeze on the fish tacos. I love it.

I got a fish burger at Zipper's. It was a real piece of fish. It was good. Zipper's was an american like bar right on the beach with american like food and american versions of Mexican food. It is right on the beah, so the view is pretty. I could sit there all day. It was great to go their after sweating in the cave all day.