View from the Juliette Balcony 
(Grand Midway Hotel, Windber, PA) 

Sitting on the candle-lit Juliette balcony with Damien playing through the tapestry of character studies that is his ‘Hobos Opera. Looking down at the railroad and casting my mind back to the previous night, when peering out from the same crows nest, I saw John Cassady, tortured son of Neal, lying prostrate with his old silver head next to the tracks in an eerie echo of his fathers demise and was struck by the notion of John being Crucified on those tracks, nailed to the light of his fathers legend, living forever in the long shadow of Dean Moriarty. Snapping back to the here and now of Damiens troubadour spell, I glance through the window and down the haunted hall where an appreciative seated throng has assembled, gathered in by the glow of song. The stars! The stars! The stars! 

- David J Windber 2009