Introducing, for the first time here, ...Claire

Juche Child and child

Friday night I went down to see Robyn Hitchcock at the Hotel Congress and it was a intimate show but it was more comfortable sitting at the bar and having a better view of the stage from the reflection in the mirror. Especially since I had not really paid attention to any of his recent music except for various random appearances on80's compilations and a greatest hits cd that I remember buying from an online cd club.

The only song going through my head was his old indie radio hit, If You Were a Priest from when he was backed up by the Egyptians. Come to think of it that greatest hits record is at least ten years old and I am not sure exactly where it is any longer. Anyway, it was a very good show and he did a great cover of a Psychedelic Furs song, The Ghost In You. Since the venue is actually inside a hotel I ran into Mr. Hitchcock in the lobby while I was waiting for a cab. One of those awkward handshake deals while slightly tipsy and studiously trying to avoid fawning but still kind of cool moments. More about him later.

Saturday after work I drove up to the outskirts of Phoenix to rendezvous up with Juche and family. The eldest son had been dropped off at the grandparents and we dined with the perfectly behaved princess Claire. We ate at a place near their neighborhood, The Elephant Bar. A deceptively labeled joint as it was clearly a restaurant not a bar and their was no elephant whatsoever on the menu. I was disappointed about the lack of endangered species but the other option I chose (steak,beef) was very good.

After a wrestling match, we had a bottle of white and Mrs. Juche instituted a new wine veto rule. Juche is no longer allowed to be final arbiter for the vino selection. In the future, his preference will be duly noted and then subsequently ignored.

Waterfront park in Tempe

Sunday was camera shopping day for me. That was a comedy of errors due to the nature of the 'technical' assistance available at the mall stores that sell cameras these days. Afterward we decided to go check out the grand opening of the Phoenix Art Museum only to discover that the opening was still a week away and the Sunday paper article was a preview for the following weekend.

So instead we took a walk around the Tempe area pictured above and then had a nice lunch at Korean place. It seems the trend these days for Korean restaurants is to have a Japanese name and sushi option and the Korean dishes. Sound marketing I suppose. Awesome spicy squid in any case.

Elbows akimbo, the formerly lean not so mean fighting machines of the 1o2nd and 1o7th MI BNs and veterans of the 1989 Yakima Flyaway & Sierra Vista Tiananmen Reaction Force, as well as the 2004 Flagstaff Thunder Run, and the 2006 Bob Dylan San Diego campaigns. Ribbons yet to be designed.

Juche was in the Army almost a year before I was and I followed his path almost identically. We both went to language school in San Francisco, followed by more training in Texas, and Massachusetts before being assigned to Korea and the DMZ and then back to the States for assignment at Ft. Ord, CA.

After his discharge home to AZ , we hooked up down near Sierra Vista in 1989 while I was on temporary duty for a mission which to this day must remain classified. To protect the innocent and also because much of it is rather fuzzy. Although rumours of a video tape of this mission still abound, they have never been verified and the tape has never surfaced so all of this must remain speculation, mere or not. As it should. So after the wonderful lunch, I returned to Tucson and that is where I must take up this narrative again, but later.