The West.

[mnaz]

It's a hundred-six in a haze that outlived dust, a gentle pain. Quality time. The lay of the land meets at a vanishing point if I were to stop and trace it. Spent asphalt slips by, slips under a blinding flat flowing like a dark oak masterpiece. The bar was ornately carved art, hauled ten-thousand miles across the desert from San Francisco in the gold rush. The hunting is always good, though not as certain as blown sand and rubble and heat. A dry heat. Sound carries farther in a dry heat, misjudges the wind. Shout the contours. Scour the bluffs. I should go down and pour a blue oak vision, carved intricately out of cracked clay.

[constantine]

a haze that outlived dust - damn good line. sets the tone immediately.

[saw]

cool lines and imagery....i mean hot....

[the mingo]

there is passing thunder here as I post ya, mnaz, deep, heavy, muscular thunder...cool here & now comes rain...this is my first read of the day, I loved the smooth shift of gears from heat to hunting & back to heat here.

[mnaz]

thanks dino and saw and mingo. The heat was never as oppressive as knowing you could never literally chase down the other side of it.

[mnaz]

I saw that I had a (brief) request over the weekend to post a photo of the mythical desert gold rush bar ... Well, first one that came to mind was the Exchange Club in Beatty, NV. (Granted, it's not actually 10,000 miles from San Fran-- love that embellishment thing sometimes). But I don't have a photo of the bar, and couldn't find one. So I'll just cheat and post a pic of the Palace Saloon bar in Virginia City, which I found on a great site called latimemachines, which has lots of great photos of historic California and Nevada buildings and signs, etc. Check it out..

http://www.latimemachines.com/renx054.jpg

[Lightning Rod]

bars are like choppers and hot rods and custom cars
american baroque

this would be a great idea for a picture book, nazz
Great American Bars

here is a good one to start with

The Jersey Lilly

combination bar and courtroom


http://upload.wikimedia.org/

[mnaz]

Nice one, L Rod. Judge Roy Bean... I remember his character from some old '40s Western, I think. Actually it would be great picture book idea-- so great that it's probably been done a few times I would guess...

Perhaps my biggest regret from all that time I spent on the road is capturing only very few images of all those decaying motels and diners I spent time with, and some of those zany '50s Space Age-ish structures along Route 66, now rusted into absurd po-mo props. I was too lost in all that open Space beyond the highway I guess. Opportunities missed. Maybe next time...

[Lightning Rod]

yep, I found this:

http://www.legendsofamerica.com/book-de ... loons.html

but somebody has already done everything

just because it's been done before doesn't mean that it can't be done again better or just a little different

That would be a great book to research....

We would of course have to bend an elbow in each bar just to verify that it is a real bar.

Title: Bar Hopping

let's do it nazz

if it's a best seller we could do whorehouses next

[mnaz]

Good point. That book you linked covers only the old west, and mainly with historic photos. I thought of a couple more must-see old time Western bars-- The Santa Fe in Goldfield, NV (nearly a ghost town now), and the Buffalo in Silver City, New Mexico. I told the guy sitting next to me that I'd heard "the Buf" was the most dangerous bar in the West, and he said, "Well, you can pretty much get your ass beat anywhere if you look hard enough for it"...

Yeah, the historic old West is cool and all, but I'd be more interested in the juxtaposition of everyday 21st Century mundane objects with the history. And chasing down the grease-stained atomic kitsch that may still be lurking among the Marlboro billboards and pawn shops... Yeah. That could be good. One never knows. I may be looking for a job some time soon. But I gotta get my teeth fixed first.