The country still faces a war and grave problem in the form of Taliban insurgents and other terrorist groups but hope is still what its people believe in.

In a country where three workers do work to construct a road and six policemen protect them, rebuilding must be a hard task. The insurgents frequently attack on road constructing companies, clinics, schools and laborers. Still the photos below shows a new look of different parts of different provinces including Kandahar, the former stronghold of the Taliban, which brings hope to people.

Reconstruction

A site near a famous shrine in Kandahar that is now beautifully constructed. Hundreds of people visit the shrine every day and then come here for a relaxation.

Beauty

This beautiful dam is in the Bamyan province where the Taliban had demolished two historical Buddha statues.

Greenery

A view of Nengrahar's Noor Valley which is located between Kunar and Jalalabad. This valley is famous for its greenery.

Dance

People enjoy traditional music and dance. Extremists had banned this during their rule.

Music

People enjoy the traditional Afghan music. Extremists had banned these activities during their widely condemned rule.

Women

Shukriya Barakzai, Member of Parliament, is speaking in a public meeting. Though there are still many barriers and problems for women, it is a very big development that they now can participate in every walk of life.

Glasgow is not the gritty, working-class metropolis of legend. It never was, and there are many attractions and things to do in this Mecca of the North.

Glasgow, in fact, is one of the UK's most visited cities. It hosted the Great Exhibitions of 1888 and 1901, became an industrial powerhouse in the twentieth century, and has returned as a place of culture since the Second World War. The city hosted the popular Glasgow Garden Festival in 1988, and was designated European City of Culture in 1990. In 1996, it hosted a spectacular Festival of Visual Arts. More than two million tourists visit from within the UK and from Europe and more distant areas every year.

The Old and the New

Glasgow is home to many of Scotland's principal performing arts organisations:

• The Scottish Opera
• The Scottish Ballet
• The Royal Scottish National Orchestra
• The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
• The National Youth Orchestra of Scotland
• The Citizen's Theatre

In addition, there are many new small and "experimental" venues and lively pubs and clubs, especially clustering around the Glasgow centers of learning. Since the city's first university was established in 1451, Glasgow has been hailed as a powerful seat of learning. Lord Kelvin, Adam Smith and James Watt are just some of history's great thinkers associated with the city's academic past. Today's educational establishments include:

• The University of Glasgow
• Strathclyde University
• Glasgow Caledonian University
• The Royal Scottish Academy of Music
• Glasgow School of Art
• College of Commerce
• College of Building and Printing
• College of Food Technology
• Glasgow Hotel School (Strathclyde University)

Visitors are often surprised to learn that Glasgow has the largest retail sector outside of London. Residents and visitors from around the UK and overseas are drawn to the city's expanding shopping outlets, which include:

• Shopping malls like the chic and trendy Princes Square, the enormous St Enoch Centre, Sauchiehall Street Centre, Parkhead Forge, the historical Argyle Arcade, and the Buchanan Galleries (opened 1999)
• The main pedestrian shopping thoroughfares of Sauchiehall Street, Buchanan Street and Argyle Street. .
• The unique and colorful Barras weekend street market
• The smaller, character filled outlets of the city's bohemian West End
• A wide range of top class cafés, restaurants, pubs and wine bars

The city of Glasgow is proud of its tough industrial past and current vibrant economy. The city employs City Centre Representatives to help shoppers and visitors around the city, and a comprehensive City Watch close-circuit TV scheme keeping a watchful eye on the streets.

 

In North Africa, there are 80 blocks of such pyramids scattered around the Egypt's Nile River, which have become one of the most miraculous places in the world. The highest pyramid called Cheops Pyramid and it was build by overlapping pile of boulders together. In the making of pyramids, Egyptians were not using any adhesive, glue or nails to attach the pile of boulders and one could even hardly find cracks or gaps among the rocks or stones from the overlapping plot. Nevertheless, the structure is extremely firm and strong that the sharp blades or swords could not even pass through. In addition, Egyptian Pyramids have experiencing 5,000 years of strong wind's erosions and yet these artifacts are remained not touch by the nature. They appeared to stand alone like warriors in the desert. These towering pyramids are such spectacular and superior buildings human had ever made on the Earth.

This is a mysterious place encountered in the Antarctic Island. People call it “a dry valley with no snow cover.” Antarctic is a place with fewer inhabitants and dwellers and thus some unexplainable phenomenon happenings in Antarctica remain mystery to the outsiders. Approximately 14 million square kilometers of the total area of the Antarctic continent have the snow cover. When viewing from the high sky, the central of the Antarctic is like a pot's lid plateau. Most of the areas vividly have their surfaces covered with snow with its thickness reaching 2000m and sometimes may attain the thickness up to 4,800m. In winter, the surrounding ice combines with the ice from the ocean to form up one smooth, large plateau to which people can hardly distinguish between the land and the sea.

Bermuda Triangle is located in Western North Atlantic, which comprises of seven major islands, 150 small islands, some islands composed of reefs group. Any high-tech devices or equipments will become malfunction when reaching this mysterious place and thus the survivors may have encountered problems to communicate with the outside world. Because of its extremely mysterious characteristic, people have called this place as a devil triangle.

In China, people have named this desert as “Moguicheng” or a city of devil. “Moguicheng” is famous in Xinjiang, China. When someone is strolling towards the castle in a sunny day accompanying with a gentle blowing breeze, one may heard a nice rhythm coming from the distance. The melodies are just like 10 million shaking bells, and sometimes one may feel the music like gentle flicking of 10 million guitars' strings. However, when cyclones come, bulks of sands are rising up in the sky by the strong winds, the sky turns pitch dark suddenly like a hell, and the nice music no longer heard but turns into strange sounds. The sounds resemble the roaring of the tigers, trumpeting of the elephants, and sounds by pigs that are being slaughtered, babies' crying, shouting of the women who are going to die, and alternately the sounds change to shouting, mourning and quarreling. The storms are then swirling aggressively by shooting up to the sky accompanying by terrified wolf growling sounds in the cloudy nightfall. People are wandering who had built this city and where do the sounds come from?

This island is legendary full of Surreptitious and specter. Westerners prefer sailing by venturing many historically strange events occurred here in the history of seafaring. In 1707, the British captain of the Andean Julius had discovered this land; however, it was strange that he could hardly reach this land. He later affirmed that this was not an optical illusion, so he marked the “land” on the map. 200 years later, the admiral Makaluofu and his inspection team who were sailing to the North Pole on their icebreaker vessel called "Ye Ermake," accidentally came across this piece of land. In 1925, Navigator called Woershi, too, passed through this land and he memorized the outline of the land. Nevertheless, the investigation team comprising of scientists, who sailed to this land in 1928 never found any islands as claimed by the previous navigators.

This place is located in Henan, China, and local people called it “bingbing bei” or the back of the ice. When midsummer approaches, people tend to move to places that are cool and refreshing. Although the change of four seasons, namely summer, autumn, spring and winter is an unchangeable law, in certain parts of the world, this theory seems not to be applicable. They are some fortunate people live in “warm” zone. This phenomenon is applying to people dwelling in the eastern mountain areas of Liaoning Province, China. They are experiencing warm temperature while other areas of China are experiencing the changes of seasons. Thus, this area has named after this phenomenon as "temperature anomaly zone." This "geothermal anomaly zone" extends from 1.5m out of the town of the left riverbank of Hunjiang to the end part of the right riverbank of Hun River and to the foothills near Guandian Province. The entire length for this "temperature anomaly zone" is approximately 15km, occupying the areas of approximately 106,000 square meters. The advent of summer is always accompanying with a decline of temperature in the area of "temperature anomaly zone." When the temperature reaches as high as 30 degree Celsius during the summer, the temperature is minus 12 degree Celsius at one-meter deep into the underground of this area, and the ice froze underground. When someone dips a drop of water one-meter deep into the underground of this area, the water will immediately turn into ice.

Shennongjia is located at the intersection of Sichuan, in Hubei zone, with the meeting of two rivers, namely China's Yangtze River and Hanjiang River. This region comprises an area of 3,250 square kilometers, accounting for more than 85 % of woodland. The average elevation is 1,700m, with the highest point of 3,105 meters, and with the characteristic of various types of climate. When speaking of Shennongjia, people here will think of “savage.” Since ancient times, large numbers of documentations have revealed the existence of savage roaming around this area. Legendary, people could even hardly identify the authenticity of the savage. The effort of collecting evidence on the existence of savage was initiating by the relevant departments from 1977 to 1980. They had collected savage hairs, footprints and feces left by the savage. This proved to us that a kind of bizarre animal might have existed in Shennongjia not long ago.

This is the famous ancient city of Teotihuacan in America, which called “death to the road.” This region stretched from a so-called main road of “death to the road” to the north-south roadway. In the tenth century AD, Ards heroes who were the earliest team walking along this way leading to a castle found nobody in the city, and thus they believed that the buildings on either side of the road were gods' tomb lands. In 1974, a Mexican person called Dayton • Halisi said that he had found a suitable unit measurement for all these streets and buildings at this city at the International American meeting. This unit length is 1.059m using a calculation from a computer. For example, the units for the Teaodiwakan snake temple, the moon and the Sun Pyramid is the height of 21, 42, and 63 "units" respectively with the ratio of 1:2:3 based upon the ancient calculation.

People not allowed entering this Kunlun Mountains as its name suggested as "The Gates of Hell." This valley is a death valley, which further claims the Kunlun Mountains "The Gates of Hell." The remains found in this valley were the furs, bones, skeletons of wolves, bears and hunters and some scattered lonely tombs, rendering the world in the death of a ghastly terrifying atmosphere. The Xinjiang Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources of a geological team in China had recorded a true story in the year of 1983 on a group of hungry horse that was grazing the grass and disappeared suddenly in the "The Gates of Hell." A herdsman went into the prohibited area of "The Gates of Hell" to search for his horse. After few days, he was found missing but the horse emerged at the foothill of Kunlun Mountains. Later, the herdsman was found lying on a small hill with his clothes badly torn off, barely footed, eyes widely opened with an angry look, a shotgun gripping in one of his hands showing that he was reluctantly to die. The miraculous thing was that no wounds or signs found around his body to show that he had attacked.

Canada Niagara Falls is the world's most mysterious places in the world. Niagara Falls constitutes a part of Canada and the border of United States, the New York State and Ontario, Canada, separating from the Niagara River by flowing northward from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario with a total length of nearly 30 miles. Located in the north, covering an area of 250,000 square miles, Niagara Falls is a smooth exit to these lakes. Its maximum water flow reaches 250,000 cubic feet per second. Niagara Falls is indeed very awesome.

This Geysering is a magical spring found in the upper part of the Yarlung Zangbo River in Tibet, China. The spring bursts out in a short while and stops for a while before following by other bursts. The burst goes on, stops and goes on. In other words, its eruption cycle is continuous for a few minutes, auto stop after a few dozen minutes; and followed by another burst and so forth. It bursts like an eruption with a huge, shocked sound. It vents out some high temperature steam from the mouth of the spring. The spring then expands immediately into one to two meters in diameter, and rushes out as water column as high as 20m into the sky. In addition to China's Geysering, in the place near Reykjavik, capital of Iceland, the Geysering is renowned in the world with its diameter of 20m. When there is drizzling rain, this water column can even soar up as high as 70m into the sky.

It is a country that has been blessed with many tourist attractions, its ministry of tourism was created in the 1970's to encourage investment in this sector. Tourist attractions include amongst others; wildlife parks, highlands, lakes, Mankon Fondom (kingdom) and museums.

Despite government's efforts over the past decade to boost the sector, its growth has been hampered by poor infrastructure and mis-administration. However, this has not deterred foreigners from visiting the country's attractions.

Tourists Climbing Mount Cameroon

One of the main sites that attracts many foreigners and nationals alike is "Mount Cameroon" also known as "Mount Fako". It is situated in Buea, in the Fako division of the South West province of the country.

It measures 4100 kilometres, the highest point in Central Africa and the second highest point in Africa after Mount Kilamanjaro in Kenya. The mountain rises from the coast through tropical rainforest to a bare summit which is cold, windy and occasionally brushed with snow.

The Mount Cameroon forests are under threat from uncontrolled forest exploitation and encroachment for agricultural production. A population of approximately 350,000 people live within its immediate vicinity, around half of this population live in the urban settlements of Limbe and Buea.

The Bakweri, Bomboko and Balundu people traditionally live on and around the mountain, together with the coastal Bimbia clans; the livelihoods of these people are directly or indirectly supplemented through the harvesting of the forests resources such as timber and non-timber products such as removing bark for medicines, gathering wild vegetables, collecting rattans for making furniture and hunting.

The mountain has erupted six times in the previous century, the latest recorded eruption was in March/ April 1999. During the eruption, the lava flow destroyed farmlands in localities found on the slope of the mountain such as Bakingili, Batoke and Upper farms.

In local folklore the God of the mountain is known as Efasah Moto, it's believed to be composed of two halves, i.e. man and stone; it is also believed that it takes care of people by providing them with water, shelter and food during their journey up and down the mountain. Visitors are allowed to harvest what they can consume while on the mountain but are not allowed to take away anything provided by Efasah Moto. Belief in the God provides an interesting cultural link to ecotourism and sustainable use of resources.

Apart from individuals or groups who go for excursions on the mountain, there is an annual international race that is organised by the Government known as the "Mount Cameroon Race of Hope". The initiative was started in 1995 by the company that brews Guinness.

The race usually brings together hundreds of athletes with scores of them coming from abroad. The starting point of the race is the Molyko Omnisport stadium and participants pass through upper farms, huts 1,2 & 3 before reaching the summit and returning back to the starting point. Participants are divided into male and female categories, they are then further sub-divided into professionals, youths, and amateurs.

The first winner of the male category usually takes just over four hours to complete the race while that for the female category usually takes around 4 hours and 30 minutes. Prize money is in the region of two thousand pounds.

Today, the artist playing in the music room at the back of the pub is Kwame. D, a singer-songwriter from Ghana, now based in Leeds. Performing songs the audience can relate to, Kwame starts our musical day off well. A twenty minute walk takes us to the New Roscoe which, with the influence of legendary Leeds music promoter John Keenan, has live music every evening plus Sunday afternoons. The pub showcases local bands plus many excellent tribute bands, as well as 1960s icons such as Chris Farlowe.

This Sunday afternoon, the place rocks with Wakefield-based “The Welsh T Band”. You can see why this band took the 2005 Colne Blues Festival by storm with their high powered blues / rock renditions. Another ten minute stroll takes us to a quieter gig, at the Duck and Drake, close to the famous Leeds Kirkgate Market. The “Duck” is a throw back to the old days of a city center pub, where regulars gather. Image-wise, it is as far from the glitzy wine bars and restaurants of city center Leeds you could find, but is now becoming one of Leeds' most popular music venues.

Yorkshire's answer to James Blunt is playing in the form of Shaun T Hunter, a singer-songwriter who gives his audience a performance in a homely, friendly atmosphere that leaves the punter feeling guilty, for not having to pay an entrance fee. This is grass roots entertainment that surely deserves a wider audience.

To finish a musical Sunday, we visit the HI-FI Club. Situated towards the Corn Exchange, it is a venue easily missed due to its innocuous frontage - a simple door takes you downstairs to a club which is frequented by all races and creeds, giving a multi-cultural feel to an inspiring venue which proves that music can overcome any type of boundaries or prejudice.

The return of sax legend Snake Davis to Leeds ensures a full venue. Snakie, who has toured the world with M. People, Pet Shop Boys and Jim Diamond, to name but a few, returns on a regular basis to the city where he studied music at the Leeds College of Music. I for one can remember him busking in the Leeds city center while he was a student.

As usual, Snake Davis gives a stunning performance, including an incredible version of Elvis's “Suspicious Minds”, which brings the house down. Truly fantastic end at midnight, which concludes a ten-hour day of live music brilliance.

Next morning, I got up at 5:30 (we were first to perform at 8), had my breakfast, and got on the bus to go to the music festival at the University of Washington. When we got there, we practiced a little at a rehearsal studio, and then started performing in a massive theatre. There were only a few people in the audience, but we kept going. The adjudicator corrected some things, but overall, we did fine. We watched some other middle and high schools play (the audience grew bigger). We went to a street called University Ave. and bought some snacks. At 11:30, we went back to the university and attended music “clinics”. There was a clinic for each instrument. I went to the trumpet clinic, and the teacher there explained about the history of the trumpet, about the forerunners, such as the conch shell (a seashell). It works the same way as a trumpet does, but less complicated. He also explained about and showed us some types of trumpets, like the E flat, the F, and so on, and played some tunes. It was a great experience, as it got me to know more about my instrument. The players of the other instruments also said that it was a good program.

We had to leave midway through the festival, and had to miss the other performances and the closing concert, but we had to get home, didn’t we? So we had lunch at the same street that we had a snack on, and went on the bus back to Seattle. At around 2:30, we arrived at Pike Place Market to do some shopping. I browsed around the shops, sampling the food, looking at the gifts and clocks made on slabs of wood. There were some very interesting things in the market, but none of them seemed worth buying. I don’t think anyone else bought much, either. We got on the bus at 4:30 and headed home. We had to fill out a custom form, but I won’t bore you with the details. We arrived at NWSS at 7:30.

This trip was great as it was my first non-family trip, but, more importantly, my first music performance at another city (and country!) This trip will hopefully be the first of many to come. I am very looking forward to next year’s trip, and no matter where it will be I know we will play our best.

Yes, you read right. It is a cave. Or, at least, it is part of a cave. Let me explain.

It all started on a sunny afternoon about 600 million years ago when continental drift caused the Americas to pull away from the European and African motherlands. In doing so, a shallow valley was created between modern day Alabama and Newfoundland. By 400 million years ago, the area had been flooded to turn into a sea where the Appalachian Mountains now tower. Sediments built up on the ocean floor, as sediments often do, followed by a layer of limestone from ancient marine animals and seashells. Over time, these two layers were smashed into one layer of metamorphic rock.

As eons passed, two of the Earth's tectonic plates crashed together the cymbals of a toy monkey. The older of the two plates, the one made up of the metamorphic rock, eventually pushed over the younger layer, pushing skyward the Appalachians. As the ground pushed itself to new heights, the sea drained way and left only a slow drip. This drip was just enough to create some of the most beautiful natural decoration known to man.

Deep in the heart of the newly formed mountains, a giant of a cave had been formed. Water drained down through the ground, through the buildup of metamorphic rock to form a calcium carbonate solution, and then into the great hole underneath. Once into the open air, the solution sheds spare carbon dioxide and forms lime. Stalactites reach down, stalagmites push up, and a musical instrument is conceived.

After 400 million more years (give or take a century or so), a tinsmith from Luray Virginia holds a candle over a limestone sinkhole, hoping to see what was inside of it. The cold air rushing out was enough to blow out the candle. Andrew Campbell knew what that meant. There was a cave down there. He kept his hand close to his vest, only letting a handful of people know. On August 13, 1878, Campbell, along with photographer Benton Stebbins, two other men, and Andrew's 13 year old nephew Quint dig loose rock out of the sinkhole. After four hours, they manage to make a hole large enough to slide through. It was then that Andrew, followed by Quint, slid down a rope and into the largest cavern system in the eastern United States.

Andrew Campbell had a problem: He did not own the land above his newly discovered gem. Instead, it was in the possession of Luray citizen Sam Buracker, a man who had accumulated plenty of uncollected debts. Just over a month after the cavern had been discovered, the land was to be sold at public auction to repay some of Buracker's debts. Naturally, Andrew Campbell and Benton Stebbins made sure that no one had found out how valuable the land actually was. Naturally, they purchased the land.

Once the sale was final, they dropped their mountain-sized bomb. For three years, attorneys fought the “Battle of Luray Caverns.” Buracker argued that, since he did not know the actual value of the land, Campbell and Stebbins had committed fraud and demanded the deed back. By April of 1881, the Supreme Court of Virginia agreed with Buracker and nullified the purchase. The property was then sold to The Luray Cave and Hotel Company, a subsidiary of the present-day Norfolk and Western Railroad Company.

Over the next 20 years, the property changed hands several times. In 1901, T.C. Northcott leased the land over the cave in order to build Limair, a sanitarium that became the first air-conditioned home in America thanks to the cool air of the cave. Four years later, Luray Caverns Corporation, a company started by Northcott, purchased the caverns outright and began the process of turning it into the mega-tourist attraction that it is today. Forty-nine years later, the Great Stalacpipe Organ was born.

Enter Leland W. Sprinkle, a mathematician and electronic scientist. Mr. Sprinkle did not get his daily fill of music working at the Pentagon. I have no idea what Mr. Sprinkle did at the Pentagon, but in Luray Caverns he built the Great Stalacpipe Organ. It took three years of searching to find the correct stalactites that, when tapped by electronic mallets, produced a precise match of a musical scale. He then wired the mallets back to a central keyboard.

Leland located the keyboard in a cavern room named the Cathedral due to its enormous size. The whole instrument, mallets and all, covers three and a half acres of the caverns around the room, making it the world's largest by a great measure. A key is pressed, and a symphonic quality tone is emitted the tapped stalactite. While the instrument is still fully capable of being played manually, today it is attached to an automated system that works much like a musical jewelry box.

The organ is not the only amazing feature at Luray Caverns. You do not get to be the most popular caverns in Eastern America by being a one trick pony. Also along the tour you can see Titania's Veil, a pure calcite flowstone formation, Pluto's Chasm, which stretches for almost 200 yards, and Saracen's Tent, recognized and one of the world's best-formed drapery structures.

Admission to Luray Caverns tops out at $19 for adults. Children 12 and under are admitted for about half that. Included in the price of admission to the caverns is the Car & Carriage Caravan, a history of the United States told through cars, carriages, and coaches. Also at the Luray Caverns complex is the Garden Maze, where for and additional $6 you can wander the one acre, one-half mile pathway. Another interesting attraction is the Singing Tower, also know as the Belle Brown Northcott Memorial. Forty-seven bells, ranging in weight from 12 ½ up to 7,640 pounds, performs regular free recitals in the spring, summer, and fall.

Luray Caverns is located just ten short minutes from the central entrance to Skyline Drive. Open every day, year round, tours depart every ten to twenty minutes. For more information, contact them at 540-743-6551, or visit them on line at luraycaverns.com. But when you visit, don't ask to play the organ. They will not let you. Not even if you beg. I tried.

“Memphis, home of the blues, birthplace of Rock & Roll.” That is the city's slogan. Our first stop in Memphis was the Gibson factory. Gibson has 3 factories. One in Memphis, Tennessee; one in Nashville, Tennessee; and one in Montana. Seeing the Gibson plant was pretty interesting, seeing how the Les Pauls and ES-335s were made. They make everything at Gibson hand made. There are no production lines at Gibson. It helps keep the idea of quality made. 4 out of every 100 guitars do end up getting “axed” though, but that's not too bad. They destroy the ones that don't make it to Gibson standards because Gibson doesn't sell 2nd quality instruments.

After we left Gibson, we drove to 926 E. McLemore, off of McLemore and College. Does anyone know what stood here once in music history? A show of hands? Soulsville, USA once was here. Yes, folks. Stax Records. Stax Records was owned by Jim STewart and Estelle AXton. Have you figured out where the name STAX Records came from yet? It had to be torn down though back in the late 1990s, and when they rebuilt it, it became a museum. Within this 10 mile radius of the city lived several really well known musicians in the 1960s and they all recorded there. All of them being white and black proving that music knows no colors. Music knows no race. That really hit me hard! It really made me teary eyed. Another thing that touched me was the control room and studio part of the museum. Where the studio part of the museum is at is the same exact spot where the original studio stood. This is where Booker T. & the MGs (Memphis Group), Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Sam Cooke, among others have all recorded. Everything in the studio area was rebuilt to look exactly like the original, except for the “burn holes in the carpet.” The control room area even had the original equipment used and even the original master tapes. They were saved after rioting broke out in 1968 when Martin Luther King was assassinated outside his hotel room at Lorraine Motel which is also in Memphis. It is now known as the Civil Rights Museum.

It is really very sad what happens to places because of what people can do. After Martin Luther King was killed, rioting broke out in every major city in America, including Memphis and the cities never really did recover. It really made black folks hate white folks, which made Stax fall under because at Stax white and black people got along together well, and that didn't happen anymore after King's assassination. And when Otis Redding was killed at the young age of 26, a year shy to be in the 27 club*, around the same time, the company just folded. Isaac Hayes and a few other soul kats tried to keep it going, but because of the assassination in 1968, Stax never really returned to its old ways. After a few years of struggling, the company folded. In 1974 the building got boarded up, and over the years it started getting run down. It had stayed that way for 30 years. In the late 1990s, the city of Memphis realized how historical the building was and tried to remodel and renovate it without much success so they tore it down and rebuilt it in the original location. If King wasn't shot, Stax would still be going strong today. All of America's ghettos probably wouldn't be as run down as they are now, also.

On Saturday, we went to Daniel Brom's repair shop in Fairview, Tennessee. Fairview happens to be a suburb of music city. Nashville, Tennessee. He is supposed to be the greatest guitar luthier ever. It was really awesome to see what he does with restoring guitars to get them to the original look. After spending 2 hours at his shop, we went to downtown Nashville where Gruhn Guitars is located. Gruhn Guitars is the most famous vintage guitar shop in the country, if not the world. It now sits where a place called Buckley Records once was. George Gruhn used to have his business 2 stores up before his business boomed in the early 1990s. Tut apparently has 30 or so guitars on consignment there, 10 or so on the lower level that everyone can see and 15 or so on the 2nd level. The 2nd level is where “special clientele” gets to go shop. Vince Gill was on the 2nd floor a couple months ago filming something for New Years on PBS. He picked up one of Tut's guitars and started playing it and said he really liked this guitar and that he was too poor so maybe Amy (his wife) can get it for him. After that film was shown on PBS, there was so much interest in that guitar that Tut thought it finally was going to sell, but it never did.

After we left Gruhn Guitars, we went to the Ryman Auditorium. That is where the Grand Ole Opry used to be back in the 1940s - 1960s before it moved to its present location at Opryland in 1974. The auditorium almost got demolished, but instead it got put on the national historic registry. I am glad for that! We got to stand on the actual stage and have our pictures taken. It was really such a tear jerker! I mean, Johnny Cash had once stood here on this very stage!

After leaving Ryman, Johnny and I were allowed to walk Broadway to see all the different clubs and stores. We passed about 7 different clubs, each one playing some kind of live music. There were even some street performers. I had Johnny tip one of them.

One of the clubs we passed was Tootsies. This club is pretty famous in its own right because during the days of the Grand Ole Opry, the players would hang out there and knock back some brewskis before heading across the alley to the stage door entrance of the Ryman. By the way, the Everly Brothers were discovered at the stage door entrance to the Ryman.

After we left Downtown Nashville, we drove to Opryland, USA. That is where the Grand Ole Opry is now. When we got there, they were obviously preparing for that night's Grand Ole Opry show. There were people moving stuff, and trucks all over by the stage area. While driving through, we noticed about 7 or 8 satellite dishes. My guess is those are so the show can be broadcast nationwide. We saw the Gibson factory there too, which was pretty cool. It is located in the Opryland Mall. The factory is also a Gibson store where you can buy Gibson merchandise like Guitars, Mandolins, and shirts, etc.

On Sunday, we woke up at 7:30 and had breakfast because we wanted to get on the road and head back home at a decent hour. We did have a long way home ahead of us.

We got on the road at 9:00, and were back in Memphis at noon. We saw Graceland first. For $30 you get the mansion tour, Elvis' car museum, costume museum, his airplanes, and a museum that showed how he had fun. To see it all really takes 4 or more hours, and it's very exhausting. They even have numerous gift shops to browse, an arcade and a couple of dining spots.

To the side of the mansion is where Elvis is buried. For years I thought he was buried behind the house, but it's actually on the right side of the house. His mother, grandmother and dad are buried right next to him. There is an eternal flame burning for him at his gravesite. It is such a real tear jerker. Makes you really shiver and really puts a lump in your throat. On the mansion tour they don't allow you to go on the 2nd floor of the house because that was his most sacred place, so when he passed away in 1977 and it became a museum, Lisa Marie made sure no one would go up in respect for her father.

On the walls outside of the gates to the house people have left their marking. The other museums at Graceland are short ones, but are still very interesting. The car museum shows every single car Elvis had owned. It included even his famous pink Cadillac that was his mother's favorite car. He even had a cool looking 1973 Ferrari Dino and a 1966 Rolls Royce.

After that we saw his planes. He owned 2; the Lisa Marie is his most famous one. It was originally a plane for the Delta Airlines but when he bought it in the early 1970s; he had it remodeled to suit his standards. There is a bed, dining table, etc. in it. Lisa Marie even celebrated her birthday one year on it with her dad. Since it was his favorite jet out of the 2, he named it after his only child “Lisa Marie.” When the pilot would radio in to the control towers, he would say that “Hound Dog 1” was about to land. That was the Lisa Marie's code name.

The costume museum houses all his different costumes he wore on his shows. The after dark museum showed us how he basically liked to have fun. Apparently, Elvis was an insomniac only getting about 4-5 hours of sleep. This would explain his addiction to sleeping pills.

The whole Graceland experience really takes the energy out of you. Makes you really not want to do anything more. It makes you feel really “Elvis'd Out.”

After we left Graceland, we drove to 706 Union Avenue. This is where Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley, and Jerry Lee Lewis had the famous Million Dollar Quartet jam session and where the most famous picture in Rock & Roll history was taken, which was during the famous jam session. The very first rock song, Rocket 88, was recorded here in the late 1940s. After Sam Phillips quit running his studio there in the late 1950s, it closed down. It became a scuba shop for a few years. When it was a scuba shop, they had plywood on the walls, which was easy to take off so you can see the original tile. Everything at the studio is original down to the neon sign in the window that says “Memphis Recording Studio.” The only thing not original is the “Sun” sign at the top of the building. And will stay that way for the rest of time because it is now on the national historic registry. It is the only recording studio still used today that is on the national historic registry. The entrance to the museum isn't through the original entrance to the studio though. It is the entrance to the place next door which was a diner in the days that Sun Records made history. When it was turned into a museum, you enter through the door where the diner was located. They even had the original recording equipment. They wanted everything to remain as it was 50 years ago! They even had the original microphone Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis, and Carl Perkins, etc. had to lay down their vocals thru. The piano that Jerry Lee played on “Great Balls of Fire” is also there. A real tear jerker!! Very historical!

After leaving there, we drove by the famous WDIA building where WDIA had its radio station. This is the radio station that played Elvis' cut of “That's All Right” for 3 hours. After he cut it, Sam Phillips took the record to his friend DJ Dewey Phillips (no relation). Giving Elvis his first #1, making him a star. It is still in operation today. It's a news/talk station on the AM dial. AM was all you can get back in those days. There was no FM or XM. After getting a couple pictures, and dealing with some idiot in a wheelchair fussing that a cop had to stop, we got onto I40, to head back home.

You know, this area of the country really is the perfect place for music history to happen, and it couldn't have happened at a better time. You got the Mississippi Delta in the south, which includes Clarksdale, Mississippi. There was a lot of culture down here where a lot of black folks, who were back in the late 1800s finally freed from slavery, were playing their music, and inventing the blues and even jazz in New Orleans. And than you got the people in the backwoods of Tennessee and Kentucky who invented their hillbilly music, better known as Bluegrass or country. People headed north for a better life. Ending up in Memphis or Nashville, or even as far as Chicago, where the famous Chess label once stood. All this happening right after the radio was invented. And with all the music, and culture happening in this 300 or so mile radius, people wanted to be heard and people wanted to get them heard. Radio and the recording industry were still in its infancy. There was no mistake or coincidence that music history happened here in this location of America. And because of what people done in the first half of the 1900s in this part of the country musically, people travel from all over to come to Nashville and Memphis for music history of all sorts and to hear music of all sorts.

It was really neat. We had an amazing trip, and it was very exciting. I wish I would've had more time because there is just so much to see. You really have to plan a week vacation to visit Memphis and Nashville. I also realized on this trip that I really need to start getting involved in keeping music history alive, and the music itself alive. Either by donating money to help renovate the historical buildings that were involved, or something of that sort. I have even thought about starting my own foundation that raises money to save and renovate such buildings, or pays money to save instruments that the numerous well known players have played, etc. This trip was very heartfelt, and it really touched my heart and soul, and now it's time to sit down and listen to some Elvis, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, BB King, Otis Redding, Booker T, and go to sleep.

Ah, the invigorating scent of Paris. It filled my lungs and stole my heart. I let it engulf me as I strolled down the Champs-Elysees one July afternoon. I savored each breath like it was my last, and they were, in fact, my last breaths of Paris. I inhaled my last doses of France, and was suddenly aware of, and saddened by the fact, that I was flying to Germany the next day. I would return home from there.

The streets were a swarming with people, dogs, and cars, but they were so different. In Paris the streets go, “ooh la la,” not “blah blah blah” like the ones in America. Pretending I was Charles de Gaulle (or Hitler) I marched under L’Arc de Triomphe, and then passed cafes, designer stores, and the invasive, pervasive McDonalds before I arrived at the door of the Virgin Records superstore.

I explored the three floors of oh-so-much music - a wing for each genre. Imports, rarities, singles - this place had everything. Luckily, restraining myself from buying superfluous objects during my stay in France had paid off (I merely splurged on them in one desperate attempt to spend my francs). I avoided shopping earlier in my travels as I dreaded having more luggage to tote up several flights of hotel staircases. I had retained almost all of my spending money before I walked through those doors, and dispensed of a large portion of it within the hour, feeling extreme guilt for spending my Europe money on CDs that I could have bought in America. Instead of buying a nice, French souvenir, I acted like a stupid American and spent my money on cheap, manufactured crap. Oh well, the important thing was that I found something to buy.

I narrowly escaped financial doom and headed to the nearest metro station. The beautiful brilliance of that day was only augmented by my descent down into the dreary depths of the station. Gloomy air hit me like a damp towel. It struck me that this is the real Paris. Down there all types of people are alike. All grasping for their balance with a sweaty hand on a sweaty pole. Down there the dirty old men have an excuse to grope, and offer a “pardonez-moi” in return. Down there the man in rags plays his violin for change, filling the underground streets with the most melancholy of sounds.

The Champs-Elysees, the Eiffel Tower, and Notre Dame are only parts of the potempkin village that outsiders are supposed to see. They take their chartered buses to the tourist attractions, and CLICK! - they have a photograph - a permanent image of what they believe is Paris. They can look in a traveler’s guide, and see a picture identical to one they took. It comforts them to know that they hit all the “right” places, as they would not want to waste their money by going somewhere that is not cited in the guides. Even the ones who do use the metro, or end up on a not-so-picture-perfect street put those images out of their minds. A characteristic inherent in almost all human beings, is that they have the ability to only remember the things they want to remember. They manage to push the bad stuff to the abandoned corners of their minds, where it can only be conjured up in dreams.

Paris’ Own City of the Dead

After some contemplating of my perceptions, I saw that I was to reach my destination: Pere Lachaise Cemetiere. Oh, how I had longed for this day. Ever since I was twelve I have been completely in love with Jim Morrison, and I’ll even admit that visiting his grave was one of my primary reasons for going to France in the first place. I stepped off of the train in my lizard-print tank top, a long black skirt, and my twenty-hole Doc Martens, ready to find the resting place of the Lizard King, and of various other artists that interested me.

I arrived at the cast-iron gates of Pere Lachaise, purchased a postcard of none other than the Lizard King himself, and grabbed a map of the cemetery. I walked down the cemetery’s path and was in total awe of that city of the dead. The roads of the cemetery formed blocks, much like the streets of a city. On each “city” block, there were the gravestones and memorial statues of the wealthy and the famous. The monuments were outstanding. Some resembled small cathedrals, and even had elaborate stained glass windows. Others were statues of the deceased, while some were gothic-style mausoleums. Pere Lachaise brims so full of corpses, that only a foot or two of grave gravel separates each plot.

I continued my trek, walking some distance behind two young males, whom I assumed would lead me to Jim’s grave, while trying not to appear to be following them. I felt as if the world would converge at that spot. It was July 2nd, the eve of the anniversary of Jim’s death. Looking up, I saw that my brilliantly beautiful day had become overcast, and that with every step, I was approaching a dark huddle of clouds.

I turned onto the street that harbors Morrison, and immediately recognized the grave of my rock idol. It is a simple square headstone that rests on a rectangular stone border. Inside the border, fans had dropped cigarettes, joints, pictures, flowers, and United States dollar bills, perpetuating the cycle of “leaving something for Jim” and “taking something to remember the visit.” I noticed that there was nobody else there, and wondered where those two boys had gone, when I looked up to see a police officer standing a short distance away, watching my every move and giving me a loathful glare. I suppose I was automatically a suspect since I was here to see Jim, though I do not know for what crime. I had heard that Morrison’s grave caused much tension between the visitors and the police.

I stayed there for several minutes, immersed in the cemetery breeze. After a short meditation, it struck me that it was going to storm very hard, very soon. I grabbed a small orangey-pink rock from the side of the gravestone, and rushed to find my other destinations: The graves of Oscar Wilde, La Fontaine, and Edith Piaf.

Just as I was leaving Jim’s grave, the sky opened with a loud BOOM! followed by a CRACK!, reminding me of Riders on the Storm. The most ungodly torrent of rain poured over my head. Drenched, I ran with my camera to the other graves, taking hurried photos, and running towards the gates in a street that was overflowing. I ran to look for cover from the lightning and rain, but was unsuccessful, and I found myself isolated by a river rushing across the graveyard’s stone path. There was so much water, the sewer drains could not take it all in, and it just continued to rise.

The wrought-iron gates were several streets over, so I was forced to remain in place, huddled against a stone structure, until the rain had ceased, and the street-rivers had gone down. I sloshed my way to the exit and saw the opening of the Pere Lachaise metro stop, the stairway to hell. Acting as if it had never surrendered the sky, the sun returned, filling surface-Paris with its radiance. However, I knew that the dark underground was waiting for me, and I disappeared into its depths.

Ministry of Sound is located near the Elephant and Castle tube station, a dodgy neighbourhood with very few decent bars nearby. Any pre-clubbing cocktails should definitely be consumed outside the vicinity of Elephant and Castle.In hindsight, I should have heeded this as an omen, but I remained optimistic.

I visited on a Friday night in hopes to experience clubbing bliss with London’s hottest movers and shakers. This popular nightclub/ global empire is world renowned for featuring some of the best DJs on the planet, so I was eager to discover first-hand what the hype was all about.

The club opens at 11:00, so I arrived at 11:30 in hopes that I would arrive before the masses but alas, the queue was already winding down the street. The security here is second-to-none. My bag and I were both thoroughly searched before I was allowed entry. A bit of a nuisance, but also reassuring as you don’t have to worry about potential armed assault from other revellers.

The cover is a bit steep at £15.00, but I figured that they had to pay for their extensive marketing somehow. Once inside, I wasn’t that impressed. The club was far smaller than I had anticipated, the staff members were unfriendly and the drink prices were ridiculous (a double Jack and Coke was $8.00)!

I wandered upstairs to get a birds-eye view of the dance floor below. I noticed that there was a VIP area to my left, so I sauntered over to the bouncer to inquire about entry. He informed me that this privilege was available for a mere £80! Talk about highway robbery. The exorbitant fee would have been justified if there were acrobats dangling from the ceiling, pole dancers on the table and champagne flowing like water, but alas none of this fabulousness was present.

Bored upstairs, I trotted back downstairs to explore the other dance room, which was featuring hard house music. The sound system was blaring almost to the point of distortion and this room was also nowhere near capacity, and therefore, was also disappointing.

My friend and I grew tired of this overpriced, over-inflated club within a few hours and decided to call it a night early, although we could have danced until 6 AM had we so desired. One would need very deep pockets and low expectations to party all night here. Sadly, the highlight of the evening for me was helping myself to the free Ministry of Sound pins at the door only so I could say “been there, done that.”