Travel Notes

I spent Thursday night and Friday in rural northern New Jersey in a town called Vernon (technically the Township of Vernon). I stayed at the Alpine Haus bed and breakfast which was a great change from the sameness of staying at the Marriotts or Hiltons of the world all the time.

My room was very comfortable. Complete with wireless Internet and my own bathroom (many people are hesitant about staying at bed and breakfasts because not all have private bathrooms). Breakfast was unreal with a fresh muffin, fresh fruit and freshly prepared French toast stuffed with raspberry cream cheese. With bacon! I heartily recommend the Alpine Haus.

The night before I had dinner at the Vernon Inn. The place is more of a bar with pub food than anything and it is one of those places where everyone has known each other all their lives. It fit my needs perfectly because I was just looking for someplace to grab a quick bite while having a couple of beers watching the NCAA games. (I later found out that the place is supposed to be haunted!)

What caught my attention though was the music. It was great. A mix of music as good as you’d find in any Manhattan bar including a song that really caught my attention by Phish called Chalkdust Torture. The variety was via an Internet Jukebox with the selections made by the people at the bar.

I got to thinking of how great technology is. A bar in a rural town now has access to the same songs you’d hear at the hottest LA clubs. Because I’m me – I also started thinking about how this technology could be used to screw with people.

My mind wandered during timeouts in the Xavier / West Virginia game to thoughts of how just $5 and a selection of nothing but Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra could really change the mood of the bar from everyone having a good time to everyone wondering if they were somehow transported to a community room at a retirement community on BINGO night.

The funny thing (funny inside joke funny) is that you really couldn’t get mad at someone for playing Dean Martin or Frank Sinatra songs. It’s not like you’d be playing Barry Manilow or Barbara Streisand. People would just be forced to use a Bobby Knight phrase – sit back and try to enjoy it. Of course I’d have to also play the Liza Minelli version of New York, New York just to screw with any Yankee fans in the bar.

I guess someone must have been thinking along the same lines as me because suddenly it went from a very interesting mix to 80’s kitsch.

You had Hammertime, Bell Biv Devoe singing Poison (as an aside if Bel Biv Devoe was a MLB player – they would be either Bobby Crosby or Bill Hall), Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton singing Islands in the Stream and Jenny (867-5309). All that was missing was The Humpty Dance or De-Lite singing The Grove is in the Heart.

Everyone had a good time though. Except I guess West Virginia who lost the game because they couldn’t hit any free throws at the end of the game.