Author Archives: H-Bomb

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About H-Bomb

I am a karaoke-singing attorney. I'm based in New York City but I travel all over the world to sing.

H-Bomb’s Friday Photo, week 28: an abandoned amusement park near Chernobyl

Posted on August 23, 2013 by H-Bomb

Happy Friday, people! This week I decided that in the spring of 2014, I will finally make it to India. A visit to the Taj Mahal, is, of course, an entry on many bucket lists; and I know that the mausoleum that Shah Jahan built for his wife is just one of many unforgettable sights that await me in that exotic land. Naturally, I’m also looking forward to checking out the Indian karaoke scene! 🙂

Now that this blog is up and running again, the end of the work week means it’s time for another weekly photo from the travels that I’ve already completed. Today’s featured image comes from Pripyat, a ghost town near Chernobyl in the Ukraine. In Pripyat there’s a small amusement park that was supposed to open on May Day (May 1), 1986. Due to the catastrophic accident at Chernobyl’s nuclear plant on April 26, 1986, Pripyat was permanently evacuated and the amusement park never opened.

One of the attractions at the park was to have been a bumper car ride. Those bumper cars never carried a single paying passenger, and have been decaying for over 27 years:

decaying bumper cars

This scene is a reminder that in the end, nature always reclaims her own. This photo was taken during my visit to the Russian Federation, the Ukraine, and Moldova in May 2013; and it’s easily my favorite photo from that trip.

Oh, and one other thing: Ben Affleck??? I mean, really?

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Categories: Europe, H-Bomb's Friday Photo, travel | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Country no. 28 on my World Karaoke Tour: meeting new comrades in Russia

Posted on August 20, 2013 by H-Bomb

We’re back! Since I last checked in here, the count of countries on my World Karaoke Tour has increased from 27 to 30. It’s time to start recapping how that occurred. Okay, that recap is actually long overdue, since my latest trio of international karaoke appearances happened all the way back in May 2013 — three whole months ago.

During that month of May, the Russian Federation, the Ukraine, and Moldova became the latest stamps on my passport, as well as the newest U.N. member nations to be added to my World Karaoke Tour. My initial stop as I made my foray into the former Soviet Union was Russia, by way of its capital city of Moscow. After I landed at Domodedovo International Airport, my vacation was underway. (Domodedovo is one of two international airports serving Moscow; the other, Sheremetyevo, is the one in which Edward Snowden remained in limbo for several weeks before Russia granted temporary asylum to him in August 2013. Unlike Mr. Snowden, I’d obtained a Russian entry visa and I had no trouble making it through immigration. :))

RUSSIAN CITY NO. 1: MOSCOW

Highlights of my daytime hours in Moscow included Red Square (featuring the magical-looking St. Basil’s Cathedral that’s seen in the photo above, plus Lenin’s tomb); the Kremlin; and a tour of some of the city’s ornate and beautiful metro stations. Those and other Muscovite points of interest will be covered here in due course. But, in keeping with the mission of this blog, what truly made my sojourn in Moscow a success was the evening I spent singing at the Karaoke Boom Club (that’s Караоке Бум in Russian). Continue reading →

Categories: World Karaoke Tour | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

H-Bomb’s Saturday Photo, week 27: giant fishes in Tokyo

Posted on May 11, 2013 by H-Bomb

Happy Saturday! I had a good reason for not getting this weekly photo up yesterday. I’m currently chilling on a Boeing 747-400, 35,000 feet above the North Atlantic, headed to Frankfurt. From there, I’ll catch a connecting flight to Moscow. As you know, I have big plans for the next couple of weeks — for both karaoke and sightseeing — in Russia, the Ukraine, and Moldova. But this trip almost collapsed at the last minute, due to a booking error by United Airlines that left me ticketless on the eve of my departure — even though I’d made my flight reservations all the way back in July 2012. So last night I had to spend hours on the phone with, and tweeting with, United customer service agents. I’ll have more to say at a later time about the bad experience that I suffered at the hands of United; but finally, at about 11:00 pm last night, they got me rebooked on the flights that I should have been on all along.

Now that that’s out of the way, it’s time to share with you this week’s featured image from my prior travels. That image comes from Tokyo, Japan. One of the most unusual things I did there was to visit the morning tuna auction in that city’s famed Tsukiji fish market. The giant tuna that are auctioned off can weigh hundreds of pounds, and their prices are commensurate with their size; earlier this year, a Bluefin tuna at Tsukiji fetched a record $1.78 million US. Here, you can get a sense of just how supersized those fish can be:

sleeping with the fishes

I had to wake up at 4:45 a.m. to see this auction, and it was so worth it! I’ve never seen anything like it.

This photo was taken during my visit to Japan in April 2008.

Categories: Asia, H-Bomb's Friday Photo, travel | Tags: , , , | 6 Comments

H-Bomb’s Friday Photo, week 26: Nashville after dark

Posted on April 26, 2013 by H-Bomb

Happy Friday, people. This evening, here in New York, I’ll be participating in one of my favourite activities anywhere in the world: walking across the Brooklyn Bridge!

But now it’s time for me to share a photo from another city that my travels have taken me to. This week’s featured image comes from Nashville, Tennessee in the southern United States. It shows Broadway, Nashville’s main downtown street for nightlife, all lit up in neon.

Nashville neon: looking down Broadway at night.

This photo was taken during my visit to Nashville in February 2013.

Of course, I don’t only travel in the United States; my World Karaoke Tour brings me all over the globe. But one place where I haven’t yet sung is the sky. I’ve long wished to have the experience of singing karaoke on an airplane, but that opportunity hasn’t yet arisen. Today, however, I learned that earlier this week, on a Finnair flight from Helsinki to Tokyo (two cities that I’ve been to), the cabin crew offered passengers the chance to sing karaoke in-flight!


Naturally, I’m disappointed that I’m only now hearing about this. 🙂 I really hope that Finnair will repeat this inspired entertainment offering, or that some other airline will see fit to do the same thing. It’s about time that I got the chance to sing in the friendly skies!

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Categories: H-Bomb's Friday Photo, North America, travel | Tags: , , , , | 1 Comment

H-Bomb’s Friday Photo, week 25: a ceremonial gate in Madrid

Posted on April 19, 2013 by H-Bomb

Today brings to a close what has been a somber week here in the United States — especially in the cities of Boston, Massachusetts and West, Texas. And as I write this, things aren’t over yet in Boston, with the city in lockdown, one of the suspects dead, another suspect still at large and a significant possibility of accomplices who haven’t even been identified yet. So this isn’t a particularly happy Friday.

But the world has always been a dangerous place and full of cruel people; and we must carry on and do the things that bring us joy. For me, of course, one of those things is travel. This weekend I won’t be on the road, but I’ll be attending the New York Travel Festival. If I’m going to be stuck in my home city, I might as well be at an event that will have me thinking of adventures in far-off places.

And I’m also reminded of other lands every time I post a new picture in my Friday Photo series. This week’s featured image comes from the Spanish capital of Madrid. It’s a capture of the Puerta de Alcalá (the Alcalá Gate). Designed by the Italian architect Francisco Sabatini, this neo-classical monument was completed in 1778. It can be found in Plaza de la Independencia; it was moved to that location in the 19th century. Originally it had stood at the eastern boundary of the city, so it was actually a functioning gateway. Today it’s purely ceremonial.

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This photo was taken during my trip to Morocco, Gibraltar and Madrid in February 2011, during which Spain became country no. 22 on my World Karaoke Tour.

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Categories: Europe, H-Bomb's Friday Photo, travel | Tags: , , , , | 1 Comment

Touring Egypt, part 4: the earliest Egyptian pyramid in Saqqara, plus the ancient capital of Memphis

Posted on April 14, 2013 by H-Bomb

The pyramids in Giza date back over 4,500 years, a scale of time that can be difficult to comprehend. But none of the Gizan monuments can claim to be the oldest pyramid in Egypt. That distinction goes to the step pyramid built for King Djoser. You’ll find it in Saqqara, which, like Giza, is an easy day-trip from Cairo (Saqqara lies about 19 miles south of Cairo’s downtown). Saqqara is not a city; it’s a giant necropolis that, in antiquity, served the corpse-disposal needs of the nearby city of Memphis. During my September 2012 vacation to Egypt, my tour group spent a morning in the remains of Saqqara and Memphis.

SAQQARA: A CITY OF THE DEAD

Djoser’s step pyramid: a trend-setter

The centerpiece of Saqqara is the step pyramid, which was completed before Djoser’s death in 2611 B.C. — thereby predating the pyramids in Giza by about 100 years. It features a more primitive “step” pattern, rather than the smooth sides of most pyramids you’ll see.

Djoser's step pyramid at Saqqara.

Djoser’s step pyramid at Saqqara.

Although it has bragging rights within Egypt, this edifice might not be the absolute oldest pyramid in the world. Continue reading →

Categories: Africa, travel | Tags: , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

H-Bomb’s Friday Photo, week 24: the statue of the Immaculate Conception in Santiago

Posted on April 12, 2013 by H-Bomb

Here in the United States, today is National Grilled Cheese Day! Whether or not the U.S. is your home country, consider celebrating by partaking of one of those classic sandwiches! And wherever you are, a happy Friday to you.

By the bye, in case you missed it, I was interviewed this week by one of my favourite travel blogs, The Lazy Travelers. If you haven’t already read that interview, please check it out!

Our featured image today comes from the Chilean capital of Santiago. The Christ the Redeemer Statue in Rio de Janeiro is justly celebrated; but no one ever talks about the Virgin Mary statue in Santiago.

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Of course, this sculpture, also known as the statue of the Immaculate Conception (Virgen de la Immaculada), is quite a bit smaller than its counterpart in Rio; it measures 14 meters in height, and stands on an 8.3-meter pedestal. But this is still a pretty cool landmark in its own right.

Built in France, the statue is believed to be a reproduction of a Roman sculpture originally designed by Luigi Poletti. It was installed in the 1920s atop Cerro San Cristóbal, a hill that rises about 880 meters above sea level and 300 meters above the rest of Santiago.

This photo was taken during my visit to South America and Easter Island in September 2010. During my stay in Santiago, Chile became the 20th country on my World Karaoke Tour!

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Categories: H-Bomb's Friday Photo, South America, travel | Tags: , , | 2 Comments

H-Bomb’s Friday Photo, week 23: the Roman Pool at Hearst Castle

Posted on April 5, 2013 by H-Bomb

I hope you are well as another weekend gets underway. I’m pretty excited; I just received word today that the Russian entry visa that I applied for has been approved! So now I can really start looking forward to my epic adventure in Russia, the Ukraine, and Moldova, for which I depart five weeks from tomorrow!

No doubt, some future candidates for the H-Bomb’s Friday Photo series will come from that trip. This week’s featured image, however, was captured in the American state of California. Specifically, it’s a scene from Hearst Castle, the magnificent mansion that newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst (1863-1951) built in the town of San Simeon. (San Simeon lies roughly halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco on the central California coast; it’s about 230 miles from each of those cities.) Mr. Hearst was a larger-than-life figure who was the inspiration for the title character in the classic Orson Welles film, Citizen Kane. The house that was made to order for him reflected his megalomania; and the tiled indoor swimming pool known as the Roman Pool was no exception.

hearst castle pool 1

The Roman Pool is believed to be modeled after an ancient Roman bath. Adorning it are eight statues depicting Roman gods, goddesses, and heroes. One of those statues is visible in the photo above. The mosaic patterns on the walls are taken from a 5th-century mausoleum in Ravenna, Italy. Forming the mosaics are over one million glass tiles called smalti, some of which are infused with actual gold.

This pool is located inside Casa Grande, the main building on the grounds of Mr. Hearst’s estate. And here’s a bonus photo! This is what Casa Grande looks like on the outside:

Casa Grande

The photos above were taken during a visit I made to California in June 2003. By the way, in case you were wondering, Hearst Castle is now a museum operated by the State of California. It’s a United States National Historic Landmark, and it’s listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Would you like to visit Hearst Castle?

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Categories: H-Bomb's Friday Photo, North America, travel | Tags: , , , , | 5 Comments

A long weekend in Nashville, the cradle of country music

Posted on April 4, 2013 by H-Bomb

Nashville, the capital of Tennessee, is nicknamed “Music City,” and it’s particularly identified with the uniquely American form of entertainment that is country music. In February 2013, I spent a long weekend in Nashville, sandwiched around an overnight journey to the nearby city of Murfreesboro. During my all-too-brief stay in Nashville, I delved into the history and heritage of country music by exploring some of the places that honour and preserve that past. As well, I checked out out some of the other institutions that make Nashville special.

The Parthenon: a taste of Greece in the American South

Upon arriving at my Nashville hotel on a Friday night, my first order of business, naturally, was to sing karaoke in the hotel bar. But immediately afterward, I jumped into a cab and headed to a unique attraction: a full-scale replica of the Parthenon, complete with meticulous re-creations of the friezes on the pediment and entablature.

Nashville's full-scale duplicate of the Parthenon.

Nashville’s full-scale duplicate of the Parthenon, in Centennial Park.

Conceived as a temporary installation for the Tennessee Centennial exhibition in 1897, Nasvhille’s Parthenon was completely rebuilt with more permanent materials by 1931. Its floor plan duplicates that of its Greek doppelganger, and filling that floor is an art museum. The collection focuses on 19th and 20th century American landscape paintings, but its signature piece is a gilded, 42-foot-tall statue of the Greek goddess Athena, a reconstruction of an identical sculpture (known as “Athena Parthenos”) that once stood in the original Parthenon in Athens (but was removed by the Romans in the 5th century A.D.). Continue reading →

Categories: North America, travel | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

H-Bomb’s Friday photo, week 22: an erupting geyser in New Zealand

Posted on March 29, 2013 by H-Bomb

Happy Friday! We’re getting further into the spring season here in the northern hemisphere. But this week’s featured image comes from a place where it’s now autumn: New Zealand. In the city of Rotorua on that country’s North Island, I saw erupting geysers.

Thar she blows!

New Zealand, which sits astride the Ring of Fire, is a geological hotspot; for example, no fewer than 48 active volcanoes can be found within 20 kilometres of Auckland’s city centre. Geysers tend to predominate in areas of significant volcanic activity, and Rotorua (situated within a region called the Taupo Volcanic Zone) is no exception. Within Rotorua, the particular location of the geyser seen here is a field called “Te Whakarewarewatangaoteopetauaawahiao,” meaning “The gathering place for the war parties of Wahiao.” Here’s the sign to prove it:

Damn long place name

In the days before email, filling out envelopes addressed to that particular “gathering place” would not have been fun. Anyway, Te Whakarewarewatangaoteopetauaawahiao contains at least 65 different geyser vents, although some shoot up their water vapour more frequently than others. It’s one of three places in the world where I’ve witnessed geysers in action; the others are Iceland, and the northern California town of Calistoga. I’ve not yet visited what is probably the most famous geyser on the planet: Old Faithful at Yellowstone National Park in the American state of Wyoming. I hope to make it there at some point.

The photos in this post were taken during my visit to New Zealand in January 2010.

Have you ever seen a geyser in person?

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Categories: H-Bomb's Friday Photo, Oceania and South Pacific, travel | Tags: , , , | 3 Comments

Touring Egypt, part 3: tomb raiding in the Valley of the Kings

Posted on March 28, 2013 by H-Bomb

Tut tutMany people have witnessed the fabulous treasures that were recovered from King Tutankhamun’s tomb. Some of those artifacts have gone on traveling exhibitions that toured the world beginning in the 1970s (just ask Steve Martin); and the collection — including the famous gold funerary mask — is permanently housed in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

It’s comparatively rare to stand in the presence of King Tut himself. Unlike the stuff that was buried with him, the most legendary of all Egyptian monarchs still remains (in mummified form) in the subterranean chamber in which he was deposited following his death in 1323 B.C. That tomb can be found in the area known as the Valley of the Kings. My wanderings through Egypt in September 2012 included a visit to that valley, and the unique chance to gain an audience with King Tut.

A really upscale (and really old) cemetery

The Valley of the Kings is a sprawling necropolis on a desert plain on the west bank of the Nile River, near the city of Luxor and about 300 miles south of Cairo. In ancient times, the full name of the site was “The Great and Majestic Necropolis of the Millions of Years of the Pharaoh, Life, Strength, Health in The West of Thebes.” (Thebes, one of the largest and wealthiest cities in the Bronze Age world, was a precursor to Luxor.) This particular burial ground was quite exclusive; the only people laid to rest within its confines were kings and select noble personages. (Nearby is a separate Valley of the Queens, in which wives and children of pharaohs found eternal repose.) Its clients received accommodations befitting the stations they had occupied while alive; most of the tombs are voluminous and elaborately decorated.

Entering the Valley of the Kings.

Entering the Valley of the Kings.

The first corpse to be interred in the Valley of the Kings was probably that of Thutmosis I, who perished around 1500 B.C. The last tomb constructed at the site was built for Ramses XI, who passed away in 1078 or 1077 B.C., but it’s believed that he wasn’t buried in it.

Like the pyramids in Giza, the tombs were a tourist draw even in antiquity. Continue reading →

Categories: Africa, travel | Tags: , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

H-Bomb’s Sunday Photo, week 21: reflections of Macau

Posted on March 24, 2013 by H-Bomb

Happy Sunday! I know I need to get better about sticking to a reasonably regular posting schedule on this blog. So I’ve started using Google Calendar to schedule writing time. Hopefully that will help.

Before I get to this week’s slightly delayed featured image (i.e., the latest installment of what is usually called “H-Bomb’s Friday Photo”), I would like to announce my latest travel-related news. For the fifth consecutive year, I’m gong to spend a New Year’s Eve overseas. I’ll be ringing in 2014 in Ireland! More on that as those plans develop.

From Europe to Asia: our latest weekly photo comes from the Far Eastern gambling mecca of Macau. About an hour’s ferry ride from Hong Kong across the Pearl River Delta, Macau was a Portugese territory (and the last European colony in China) until 1999. Since then, it has been a Special Administrative Region of China. Geographically, Macau consists of a peninsula plus two islands.

The mega-hotels and casinos that you’ll find on the peninsula rival anything on the Las Vegas Strip, and even include some of the same names (such as the Wynn and the Venetian). In addition, many of those hotels are garishly illuminated at night, with those lights in ever-shifting colours:

Macao casinos

In the photo above, you can see the Wynn (where I played some blackjack), and behind it the Grand Lisboa. Of course, there’s much more to Macau than places where you can indulge in games of chance. Reflecting its heritage, the territory boasts some outstanding examples of colonial Portugese architecture. And naturally, I sang karaoke there. 🙂

This photo was taken during my visit to Hong Kong and Macau in December 2009.

Incidentally, speaking of karaoke: as I’ve recently mentioned, I’ve now become interested in country music. The next song that I’ll be attempting in that genre is one that I think has the potential to become my new personal anthem: “On the Road Again” by Willie Nelson. You can watch Mr. Nelson performing it here:


I think this song perfectly sums up my worldview, because I truly can never wait to get on the road again!

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Categories: Asia, H-Bomb's Friday Photo, travel | Tags: , | 4 Comments

H-Bomb’s Friday Photo, week 20: an impossibly colourful building in Helsinki

Posted on March 9, 2013 by H-Bomb

Hola! To all my readers of the female persuasion, happy International Women’s Day! Today is also a Friday (well, it still is in a few of the world’s time zones, anyway), and you know what that means: it’s time for another featured photo! Okay, admittedly that didn’t happen last week, but we still have a pretty good track record overall. 🙂

This week’s featured image comes from the Finnish capital of Helsinki. It’s a building that you’re unlikely to see in many travelogues, but one that I felt compelled to seek out because of its distinctive appearance and amazing colours:

colorful Helsinki building 1

Located in Helsinki’s Arabianranta district, the building, fittingly enough, houses a design school. (Specifically, that institution of higher learning is the Arabia campus of the Aalto University School of Art and Design; the architect behind it is Pentti Kareoja.) And because the photo above is sort of abstract, here’s a bonus picture of it that provides more of a context for its shape:

colourful Helsinki building 2

The place was off the beaten path, to say the least, and was quite far from Helsinki’s city centre; but in my opinion, the exorbitant cab fare that was required to get there was well worth it!

These photos were taken during my visit to Finland in June 2006.

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Categories: Europe, H-Bomb's Friday Photo, travel | Tags: , , , | 4 Comments

It happened. I met another H-Bomb.

Posted on March 5, 2013 by H-Bomb

Actually, it’s happened twice now.

I’ve been singing under the sobriquet “H-Bomb” since 1992; the story of how I acquired that nickname can be found here. It’s rare to find another karaoke singer who uses any stage name, let alone mine. But occasionally I’m alerted to the presence of another H-Bomb in the karaoke world. When that occurs, I feel compelled to meet my namesake.

This is the story of how a world traveler like me ended up in the unlikely locations of Poughkeepsie, New York and Murfreesboro, Tennessee — and how establishments in those places, as well as in the larger Tennessee city of Nashville, became some of the most rewarding additions to my World Karaoke Tour.

April 2009: Poughkeepsie, New York

The town of Poughkeepsie in upstate New York is best known as the home of Vassar College, an elite liberal arts institution that was once known as one of the “Seven Sisters.” In 2009, that town landed on my radar screen for a reason that had nothing to do with higher education. A friend who lives nearby had driven by a local establishment called Planet Wings, and she reported that its marquee sign was advertising a “KARAOKE . . . BY H BOMB” show on Thursday nights.

Planet Wings sign

The marquee sign outside Planet Wings in Poughkeepsie, in April 2009.

So, on Thursday night, April 2, 2009, after work, I took a commuter train from Manhattan’s Grand Central Terminal to Poughkeepsie. Continue reading →

Categories: North America, Uncategorized, World Karaoke Tour | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

H-Bomb’s Friday Photo, week 19: Nashville’s Union Station

Posted on February 22, 2013 by H-Bomb

To my fellow Americans: Happy National Margarita Day! And to everyone worldwide: I hope you’ve had a very happy Friday. I missed a week in this Friday photo series because I was on the road, visiting Nashville, Tennessee. But I’m back and better than ever! And this week’s featured image comes from Nashville. It’s a photo of that city’s Union Station:

Nashville Union Station

Opened in 1900, this Romanesque revival edifice originally served as a railroad terminal. Today it’s a luxury hotel (it calls itself the Union Station Hotel). The interior is reportedly quite ornate, featuring a lobby with a 65-foot barrel-vaulted ceiling and stained glass windows. (Regrettably, I didn’t have a chance to step inside; during my taxi ride to the airport at the conclusion of my visit to Nashville, I made a quick stop that only allowed me time to photograph the exterior.) The building was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1977.

This photo was taken last weekend. 🙂 I’ll have much more to say in the near future about my visit to the great state of Tennessee.

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Categories: H-Bomb's Friday Photo, North America, travel | Tags: , , , | 4 Comments

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