saLAD dAYS AND THE pLANEtARIUm

I was driving to work today and heard several Led Zeppelin songs on the radio. As I was driving I was reminded of a time in my life when I was 16,17,18 and LOVED Led Zeppelin! (I still do) At that time in my life all of my friends and myself could now drive and had cars. If you had read my prev posts you know the "trouble" we got into w/out cars. Now we were mobile! One of our favorite things to do on the weekends was drive to Ft. Myers. This was about 1 hr away from Naples where I lived. It was so exciting because it was so different from where we lived. It is a much bigger city, with a lot more going on. At that time, back in the late eighties/early nineties Naples basically closed at 6:00. It was boring! We loved to go to Ft. Myers for something different. One thing we did regularly was go to the planetarium.
The Ft. Myers planetarium was off in a woodsy-type of are. Very secluded. The building was very rustic, and the huge telescope stuck out of the top. There were two levels, and the bottom level had picnic tables had benches, etc. A lot of times we would bring our sleeping bags and alcohol and sit at the picnic tables and watch the stars, but my favorite time to go there was for the laser light shows. Especially when they had Laser Zeppelin and Laser Floyd. Basically you went into the big room w/the telescope and instead of opening the ceiling they used lasers to generate almost like a video or something to the music. The programs for each were the same every time, but we loved them. They really did a good job of coordinating them to the music, the beat, and even the lyrics. My all time favorite was a huge cash register at the beginning of "Money" by Pink Floyd. I love music and this was a way to really connect myself to it. I see Laser whatever advertised at Cleveland or Sandusky planetariums, but I don't think if I ever went it would compare to that moment and that time in my life with those friends.
Another hangout we went to was Salad Days. It was a dance club that I think served alcohol. You had to be 18 to get in for girls and 19 for guys. The first time I ever went was on my 18th birthday. My friends were actually playing there that night. They had a band called, "Paradox Green" and I always thought they'd be famous someday. I had their demo tape and listened to it in my car the on my whole drive from Florida to Ohio when I moved here. What was so great about Salad Days it that it was just a rally cool scene. They only played underground music like Nine Inch Nails (at the time), Ministry, the Cure(at the time), etc. At that time there was no such thing as "Alternative" music. We went there and danced and had fun, and occasionally they had a live band-usually on Saturday nights. I was so excited to go to Salad Days for the first time, a lot of my friends were older and had already been going there. I had to just hear about it and wait until I could go. It was worth it! As for Paradox green-they broke up when the guitarist Matt took off for California. I dated him briefly when Leith and I were on a hiatus. He was SO talented, but kinds screwed up. Last I heard he had a baby with the girl that broke my brother's heart(see post-Jimmy) and he cried over for so long. She moved to California with him and then moved back to Florida w/out him but w/ the baby. No one knows what happened to Matt. When there are new "up and coming" alternative bands from CA- I always look to see if he's in it!