On a recent visit to the most worshipful emporium to the banana (aka Chicago Museum of Contemporart Art), I was struck by a particularly arresting message. No, not the one about anything is possible when you’ve watched a potato crawling across a wall.
My main reflection was that religion really can mess with your head in a most dissonant way…
Until we speak again, remember it is not only in America that religious cats get to throw you a curved ball or two.
Some people thrive on hot air and gas, but few promote it in bright lights. Everything below the name is multi-storey car parking!
Until we speak again, while you are in Chicago (or anywhere else) try to stay above the twit guano.
When you come to New Orleans you can take for granted they will give you great music and fabulous food. However, you can also expect to be educated in statements of the obvious…
Every step you take will be teeming with life…
They will occasionally greet you with renditions of music hall favourites played on a steam-driven piano…
And, especially for the invading Brits, here is where you’ll find the dogs bollocks (with added shades of cool)…
They will even showcase ubiquitous American violence in an historic fashion…
So, until we speak again, remember that New Orleanians will always have time for you, except when they can’t quite make it!
So, there I was at BB King’s place. What else do you do for your 60th? He wasn’t there, but that was my fault, I didn’t tell him I was coming! However, some cool blues cats were present…
Thirst needed to be quenched, so do what the locals do… An ‘Urban South Holy Roller IPA’ might do the trick…
But fabulous blues also seem to drive an appetite. It looks like a hot beef ‘po boy’ is also called for…
So who needed the appetite interruption act? It seems that some cats just get preferential treatment, eating or not.
Maybe I’m just being an over sensitive old git! Clearly some bluesmen have different priorities (if you catch my drift).
Anyway, the whole point of this ramble is just to remind my follower that a visit to Newawrlings is going to provide fabulous experiences, if you are ok about expecting unusual stuff!
Until we speak again, worry more about yourself. I’m just taking in ‘The Big Easy.
As much as I would like this heading to be applied to Juno and Bella, thus reversing two tragic demises of recent years, in reality it is an update for my loyal follower. The Coal Exchange building, deep in the heart of Mount Stuart Square, has been apparently left to rot and collapse through gross negligence by local and national Welsh administrations. How nice it is to refer to an ‘iconic’ status on perimeter hoardings, while the subject of said reference basks in a catastrophic state of neglect behind.
![Coal Exchange exterior decay [3]](https://stevemorgan57.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/coal-exchange-exterior-decay-3.jpg?w=584)
![Coal Exchange [6]](https://stevemorgan57.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/coal-exchange-6.jpg?w=584)
Rumour had it that developers of a boutique hotel would be the saviour of the building where the very first £1 million cheque was handed over. No, that’s a historical fact not an inflated cost of a suite in the proposed new hotel!
Well, in March 2017 there were distinctly positive signs, for those who hold a candle (rather than an incendiary device) to the preservation of Cardiff’s architectural heritage! 
Then, just as Spring in May should bring a promise of new beginnings, so the revival of a favourite old building seems truly under way…
![Coal Exchange May 17 [2]](https://stevemorgan57.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/coal-exchange-may-17-2.jpg?w=584)
![Coal Exchange May 17 [3]](https://stevemorgan57.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/coal-exchange-may-17-3.jpg?w=584)
![Coal exchange May 17 [4]](https://stevemorgan57.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/coal-exchange-may-17-4.jpg?w=584)
With extensive work still to be completed across most of the site, the ultimate sign of intent is captured… as bona fide hotel residents arrive to occupy some of the small number of rooms early opened.
![Coal Exchange May 17 [6]](https://stevemorgan57.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/coal-exchange-may-17-6.jpg?w=584)
It seems that Signature Living have sympathetic plans for the regeneration of the building, that will recapture its historic past as well as provide a sustainable basis for looking forward. And while there will be the inevitable carping about handing a community resource over to a commercial venture, the photographs at the top of this post are evidence enough of the only other real alternative!
Until we speak again, Juno’s View promises to bring documented evidence of the interior in the near future. [However, in the interim period, behold views of Chicago and New Orleans coming here very soon!]
So, what did we learn from watching more than 124,000 seconds of Championship football home matches at the Cardiff City Stadium across 2016/7? The main message to take into the summer:
Football is… a bunch of fat blokes sitting down, telling a bunch of fit blokes running around, what to do.
And, for those cats who prefer the scintillating excitement of watching on TV from the comfort of their sofa…
Until we speak again, choose your refreshment to get into shape, and build your ridiculously high expectations for your team, in time for the new season in August!
[For the record the Mighty Bluebirds have risen from 24th in October 2016 to finish 12th at the end of this season. Project that rise forward, and… no, I’d better not go there, at least until too much sun has fried my brain.]
[With acknowledgements to Zak Show.com & 9GAG for the original images used to illustrate this post.]
Perhaps religious rituals are not as sacrosanct as we were led to believe! Is this a declaration of a new Welsh Pope?
Until we speak again, they say the Jury’s out, but it looks to me like the Jury’s Inn!
JUNO's VIEW 