July 13, 2007
Elephants On the Run in Toronto
Check out this recording on police radio dispatch in Toronto, when an elephant escaped from a local circus.
Posted by Steven at 03:36 PM | Comments (0)
July 12, 2007
Honest Ed Passed Away
"Honest Ed" Mirvish died this week at the age of 92. He was one of Toronto's most colorful citizens, owner of a legendary store as well as the two best theaters in Toronto (Royal Alexandra Theater and Princess of Wales Theater). I saw Mamma Mia! twice at the Royal Alexandra, and will never forget what a great time I had there.
Posted by Steven at 10:22 AM | Comments (0)
July 06, 2006
The Empire State Building
Leo and I finished off our day in Manhattan with a grueling ninety minute wait to ascend the Empire State Building on 34th St. We took a cab from Rockefeller Plaza to save our feet for the seemingly endless line to the elevators to the ... lines to the elevators. You have to ascend the building in stages, and it's slow going. When we finally got up top, it was a mob scene. I hope you enjoy these images ... they were harder to take than one might expect (good views are vigourously sought after on the 86th viewing deck).
Looking north at Manhattan, the Hudson River (left), and mid-town's skyscrapers.
Close up of Rockefeller Plaza, the Trump Tower, and a better view of Central Park
New Jersey and Rockland County, NY plus the Hudson River and the George Washington Bridge
The spires of the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building
A cruise liner leaving Manhattan on the Hudson, and the ferry parking in New Jersey where we started the day
Looking south at the tip of Manhattan across Greenwich Village and the financial district (the State of Liberty is the small object poking up on the island just to the right of the tall buildings downtown)
Posted by Steven at 05:26 PM | Comments (0)
The Concorde
On the ferry from Jersey, Stephen pointed out that the Intrepid Museum now has a Concorde jet as part of it's exhibits. I decided to take Leo to see this majestic machine while we had the chance.
While there, we bumped into many European tourists, some of whom had flown on this very plane. They were quite surprised that I knew it was a British/French aeroplane, and that it was such a marvelous airframe. I had a great time talking to a British couple about it and politics in general -- they were not used to a Blue State American, I can tell you that.
Posted by Steven at 10:42 AM | Comments (0)
July 05, 2006
Treman State Park, Upper Enfield Gorges
After swimming in the lower falls, we went to the upper gorges to see the natural 'un-natural' looking formations.
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Treman State Park, Lower Enfield Falls
We first stopped at the lower falls in Robert Treman State Park. The kids swam in the 65 degree water, and I took some shots of them coming off the high dive.
I caught Leo just as he hit the water, for an interesting (if not provocative) photo.
Posted by Steven at 02:40 PM | Comments (0)
American Crafts in Ithaca, NY
We visited Anne's favorite craft store in the US ... American Crafts by Robbie Dein in Ithaca, NY.
Anne and Alanna "ooh'd" and "aah'd" over the minature cast figurines, ear rings, feather masks, and artwork in the store. Barbara and I 'discovered' the place back in 2004, and I've bought Anne more than a couple of one-of-a-kind gifts there. This was Anne's first visit, and she came away with a small cache of wonderful new stuff.
Posted by Steven at 12:01 PM | Comments (0)
July 03, 2006
New York State Museum
Visited the New York State museum in Albany today. Like so many things in Albany, I never bothered to visit when I was at RPI. The whole family was with me on this trip, which started with trying to park in the Rockefeller Plaza complex. We eventually found a spot in the P-3 V-Lot, and the credit card parking system was much like the one I used in Toronto, which I prefer.
Performance Art building called "The Egg"
We ascended from the underground parking into the base of "The Egg", which I haven't been in since 1984. We walked across the plaza to the CEC building where the museum is located, passing a Rickey sculpture (of a format that we call 'Needletoid' in honor of the Chrynitoid) and several pieces of public art, including the Mickey Mouse Crying sculpture that used to be on the grounds of SMU in Dallas.
The Rickey sculpture on the Rockefeller Plaza
The museum is in the CEC building at the south end of the Plaza. We went downstairs to the concourse to cross the street, and into the Museum proper.
The Museum has three permanent exhibits, focusing on NYC, Native Americans, and the Adirondacks. We toured all of it, but at a fast pace. There's a lot there to see and read, and in particular, in the very early history of New York (New Amsterdam) I found immensely interesting.
Exhibits included early Indian villages, colonial settlements and their growth into the metropolis of New York City, the subway and skyscrapers of the city, and the cultural enclaves of NYC (e.g. Harlem, Chinatown). One very detailed exhibit documented the WWII Jewish emmigrees kept in a refugee camp in Oswego, which bore a shocking similarity to SS camps. I had no idea we did that in 1944-5.
A surprise exhibit was a recreation of the original PBS set for Sesame Street which Anne and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing. It was surreal seeing it in 3-D and at full scale -- didn't it always appear so much smaller on the TV?
The skyscraper exhibit tastefully left out the W.T.C., which was featured separately in a 9-11 exhibit which included unique samples of wreckage and recreations of the temporary memorials. It's easy for a Texan to forget how 9-11 hit everyone in NY so intimately.
Posted by Steven at 10:42 AM | Comments (0)
March 13, 2006
Iceland, Anyone?
Some of my co-workers are going to Iceland this summer (maybe even I?) to visit the (what else?) Iceland office of Maskina. The New York Times just printed a Let's Go! style review of the country and what to do there. It's a good read, and I wonder how accurate it is. I'll check the Freyr and the boys of Iceland I work with.
Posted by Steven at 04:27 PM | Comments (0)
June 17, 2005
Biggest Mickey D's in Oklahoma
On the way to see the Twine Ball in ... oh, different family trip. Well anyway, on the way to Kansas City we stopped at the "biggest McDonald's restaurant". You tell me.
And yeah, we got to KC ok.
Posted by Steven at 11:32 AM | Comments (0)
May 15, 2005
Scarborough Faire
This afternoon, Alanna and I joined her 6th grade band teacher and his girlfriend at Scarborough Faire.
One of the first acts we watched was the pipe band The Rogues on the Gypsy Stage. Alanna's teacher is a big fan of the band, and now has all their albums on CD.
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| The Rogues pipeband. | A Typical Rogues' Fan? |
The next stage featured a man who did acrobatics on a suspeded rope. He donned swim fins, climbed up on the rope, and proceeded to juggle large dull blades. It was rather remarkable. Next we encountered a llama on merry-go-round ride, and I couldn't resist the opportunity to photograph Alanna next to her nickname namesake.
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| Juggling on a rope in swim fins. | Have you ever seen a llama? Standing here, next to Alanna? |
We encountered many natural wonders, such as "Dragon's Eggs" (geodes) and moths.
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| Freshly opened "Dragon's Egg". | A Moth upon a Tilley. |
Lots of silly garb was for sale everywhere, including hats and wings.
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| There are some who call him "Jeff". | Not just Red Bull gives you wings! |
Would you believe elephant rides and turtle races?
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| Anne would love this. | The turtles were actually pretty fast. |
The highlight was a two man act Don Juan and Miguel, which was a hilarious mix of swordplay, whip work, and vaudeville. I bought their two DVDs so Anne could see the act and I could see the "Weird Show".
A side attraction was Zazool, which is an actor simulating a robot fortune teller.
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| "Don Juan" signing my DVDs. | Zazool giving out fortunes. |
Alanna's teacher really enjoyed testing the musical horns in The Horn Shoppe. I insisted on photographing Alanna in the stockade, which reminded me of the photo Mike Jones took of me in Stockbridge, MA at the tourist trap there.
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| Jeff feeling horny. | How not to not be seen. |
 | It was a long afternoon and evening, but we walked the entire Faire and saw most of the acts, including such bizarre things as the "Mud Show". One of the things that overwhelms you at first, and which never quite goes away, is the overpowering smell of large animals. I wonder if I could really stand to be on a farm. Man, that place was odiferous! The crowd was about as freaky a mix of SCA types, fen, and mundanes as I could have imagined. I saw people with frightening gumwork, and even a S&M pair with a real dog collar and chains. There was a distinct "skank" to a surprising number of folks there, but since the turn out was light, I was probably seeing the die-hards rather than a more representative mix of vistors. Fortunately, some costumes were stunning and gorgeous. The Royals on promenade were quite a sight, and the knights were unmistakable in their glinting armor. On the whole, it was a lot to take in the first time. |
Posted by Steven at 09:37 PM | Comments (2)
March 15, 2005
Lord of the Rings Musical Opens in Toronto
Check out this story about the opening of The Lord of the Rings as a musical in Toronto. The show is opening at the bigger of two theaters owned by Mirvish Productions, which also produced Mamma Mia!, which I saw last year with my family.
Posted by Steven at 06:26 PM | Comments (0)
March 11, 2005
Starship Pegasus
On my many trips between Dallas and Austin, I keep passing a peculiarly shaped building near the Monolith Dome Company (in Italy, Texas). The MDC is well known for it's hemisphere poured concrete buildings, and the funny paintings on them to attract kid's and bored adult's attention on the hiddeously dull section of I-35 that runs from Waxahachie to Waco. After Carl's decaying "Tango" Frogs, there's nothing to look at except the Czech Shop in West, TX and the outlet malls in Hillsboro, TX.
That is, until the Starship Pegasus opened.
I first noticed it on a night drive home, because it's lit up like a disco at night. I thought I saw what looked like a beached Starship Enterprise D, but I wrote it off as highway hyponosis. Turns out, I was right all along.
I'm going to have to stop here on one of my trips back from Austin, just to see if it is as silly as it looks. All that's missing is Whitney Streiber hawking his Grey Action Figure ....
Posted by Steven at 02:09 PM | Comments (2)
March 02, 2005
Toronto Anniversary
A year ago today, I rolled into Toronto to begin a contract job with ATI Technologies.
Posted by Steven at 09:09 AM | Comments (0)