Who is John Q. Hammons?

“He doesn’t just let things happen, he makes things happen.”

“John Q. Hammons saves lives.”

Just two of the totally awesome statements in this staggeringly piece of video hyperbole regarding hotel magnate John Q. Hammons.

John Q. Hammons is a legend in Springfield, a business giant who’s name graces two office buildings, the [...]

Things Seen on the Road – World’s Largest Cross

I love leaving the comfy ideological lock-step of California to see how the universe is organised outside. While my home city and state are by no manner deprived of religion, or even the “extreme religion” of the truly devout, Christianity’s oddities in California have an outpost quality. I look at my road trips [...]

Raod Trip Joy – Bass Pro

I’m in love with Bass Pro. It’s one of the highlights of my visits to Springfield. A massive wonderland where I could, should I feel the need to, purchase everything from a pontoon boat to a $2000 crossbow, Bass Pro is possibly the largest sportsman’s supply store in the world. It even has a [...]

Blake’s Lotaburger – Santa Fe, New Mexico

So apparently all I eat in New Mexico is hamburgers.  So What.  I like hamburgers, and it’s the only state where they’ll throw green chilies on them, so I load up while I’m in the state.  Besides, I gotta warm up my meat gland before the barbecue onslaught that begins when we hit [...]

Bobcat Bite – Santa Fe, New Mexico

This was my second visit to Bobcat Bite. The Bite has weird hours and days of operation, and although the details are a little fuzzy now, I’m sure that we actually planned our trip around their schedule – the burger is that good.

above – Bobcat Bite, from the parking lot. Bobcat bite [...]

On The Road Again

I’m on the road as of two days ago.  Lots of food and art crap coming!

Slobodan Dimitrov’s Artist Portraits

This is AGCC business, but I’m so happy about it that I’m pimping it here. Slobodan Dimitrov is a photographer who’s best known for his amazing body of work documenting labor in Southern California. In addition to being a brilliant photographer, he’s also in possession of one of the keenest minds I [...]

Small Plates & Small Game – Late Night Rat In Kalasin

I’m still going through my Thailand photos, but this is the end of the road for “novel foods.” I’ve just switched to my new Thinkpad, and I’m trying to process all of the photos on my old computer. I’m also trying to knock out some old business before I get on the road tonight [...]

Waiter! There’s an ant in my soup!

May my hair sweep the floor as I bow low in apology for the above bad post title.

While I was in Kalasin province, we went out to what my hosts described as the “Temple on the Mountain”. The temple is a massive Buddhist complex near the Laotian border, with a mountaintop spire that’s [...]

Beer Party at the Hotel Mariakapel

My dear friend Edith Abeyta is still in the Netherlands, salvaging the wreck of a residency gone wrong. She sent me the anemic, photocopied invite to the Something’s Brewing exhibition, though. The backside is the same, but in Dutch. The multicolored tickets are for the beer that was brewed as part of the project.  [...]