Suburban Sunday

My sister surprised me with a hula hoop today! (Yes, I did want one, as a  matter of fact.) I find I need to practice, though. Apparently it's not like riding a bicycle, where it all comes back in sixty seconds. So, you won't be seeing any video of me just yet. Kenny, on the other hand...

Ken is a natural-born hooper. Some people just have the skill.

 

 

Nick Lowe at the Boulton Center

                                                                                   

 

Nick Lowe came to the YMCA Boulton Center in Bay Shore last night, the second stop in his latest tour after opening in Philadelphia. Traveling light, he was, with just the one guitar.  I'm not a musician, I don't even play one on TV, but he sounds great to me, especially for a guy who's been singing for five decades now.

The only unfamiliar tune he played was from his upcoming Christmas album (which might be the first Christmas album I ever buy, as it promises to be "The kind of record that gives vulgar, tawdry commercialism a good name!"  

At the end, with hundreds of his own songs left unsung, he borrowed his second encore (as it seems he borrowed his eyeglasses) from his pal Declan M., but his voice is the point, and it delivers.

Lake George Weekend

 

 

A few days of fun with our awesome nephews in Lake George, a place I haven't been since I was their age.

Featuring: singing in the car, circus amazement, sunshine and water slides, spectacular sunsets, mountainous clouds, an exciting windy thunderstorm we didn't get caught in (you could actually see the thunder), and a full moon sailing above on Sunday night.

 

The Big Apple Circus was our first stop after pulling in late on Friday afternoon.

Okay, first stop after checking into the hotel.

Okay, third stop after checking in and getting some dinner.

The point is, yay we saw the circus!

The next morning we got out on the lake in a boat (because why wouldn't you, given the chance?)

                                                                                                                                          

 

 

 

A crack view of the south end of the lake came with lunch on the patio at the Overlook Cafe...

 



A hotel pool is the very definition of paradise when you're eight and ten (and more.)

We got ice cream at the A&W Drive-In,

 

 

which I commend for having the nicest sign in the world:

Sunday we spent the whole day at Water Slide World. My first time at this kind of place; what I found is, it's the kind of thing you just have to give yourself up to. You're here, you're hot and carrying stuff, soon you're gonna be wet on top of it all. So be it. My first time in a wave pool, or on a giant water slide. Or, come to think of it, any water slide. Yes, we took eight- and ten-year-old boys to a water park, and it's all about me.

 

They had a blast, and look at these crowds! (I kid) We practically had the place to ourselves, so it was kind of a grown-up's paradise as well.

 

One thing you can't complain about in Lake George is a lack of high-quality miniature golf courses. The place we played (all 36 holes of it) featured a special decoration: Paul Bunyan from the World's Fair! Of 1939, if those geometric shapes on the sign are supposed to mean anything. I can't find any documentation for this. Also, I'm not sure Paul Bunyan is supposed to look this menacing:

 

We worked up an appetite playing golf around the world, and went to the Adirondack Brewery and Restaurant for dinner. Our waitress gave balloons to the kids as we left, which I ended up tying to my handbag during the walk home. We were ambling down the sidewalk together when suddenly, there was an English bulldog charging full speed (well as full as his stubby little legs could go) at our little group, followed by a man yelling, "Charlie, NO! NO balloons! No balloons!!" Charlie meant no harm - it's not like he could jump very high or anything - he just loooved balloons, apparently. I wish I'd gotten a picture of him. But here's one of the walk home, sans balloons.

 

The full moon was settled in before sunset was over.

 

 

 

Dog Days of Summer Can Be Fun

...if you're hanging at the beach with these guys, that is. I posted this on my Facebook page, but had to add it here as well for my non-FB buds. For more about the group that trained the goggies, check out this article.
(Did you watch the video?? C'mon, you gotta watch the video. Click on the first link. That's it! Good dog!) If the link doesn't work, go to YouTube and search for "Dog Party On The Beach;" it should be the first vid to come up, from Tallahassee Pet Connect.

Cultural Offerings Close To Home

There's no excuse for not seeing a Marks family member in a stage performance this weekend; whether you like the rock and the roll, or you prefer the legitimate theatre, we have a talented relative to suit your taste. On Saturday, November 21st, be sure to catch Vacancy at the Vibe Lounge in Rockville Centre, just off Sunrise Highway. That's Devon on vocals and rhythm guitar. Doors open at 2 p.m., and VACANCY hits the stage around 4 p.m. (Yes, not exactly rocknroll standard time. Perhaps AARP is sponsoring the show. But hey, it leaves your whole evening free!)
And with that free evening, stop by Temple Emanu-El on Neptune Avenue in Long Beach Saturday at 8, Sunday afternoon at 3, to see my dramatically talented sister Janet bring to life the role of Gwendolyn Pigeon in the Long Beach Theatre Guild's production of Neil Simon's magnum opus, The Odd Couple. I mentioned this to someone who averred they'd never seen The Odd Couple, not in any incarnation: not the play, nor the movie, nor even an episode of the television series. I found this hard to believe.

Shameless Huckstering

Come on out to the Vibe Lounge in Rockville Centre, this Friday night, that's the 28th, two days from now - and check out the newest blood on the rock and roll block. 60 N. Park Avenue. $10 cover.

Tell the guys at the door you're there to see Vacancy. They come on about nine.

You won't regret it!

Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge

Driving through Broad Channel last month on our way back from an appointment, we passed a sign for the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge and decided to stop in. I'd never been there before, though everyone else I've spoken to since is all "...yeah, of course, all the time...since I was a kid..."

Well, it was new to me. And what a nifty place! Birds birds birds. We only saw a few during our midday visit: swans, egrets, red-winged blackbirds...but there are lots more: ospreys, being brought back from the brink of extinction with the help of custom-built nest platforms like the one I wrote about years ago, and barn owls, who are given barn-sized birdhouses. There are houses erected for smaller bird species, and special ones built for just for bats. Quite spoiled, the lot of them. Here's the big barn-owl boudoir:

The refuge is also home to diamondback terrapins, and many of their nests are right next to the trail, as you can see in the photo below. I can't tell you how long we stood there, marveling at the metalworking capabilities of the turtles, so cleverly protecting their nests, before we realized there was an adult right there, just beyond the cage, watching us! Remarkable creatures.

There are lots of sweeping vistas across the salt marshes, alternating with shady avenues of greenery. In the distance, way beyond the free avian housing, you can see the Empire State Building:

There were lots of insects as well, dragonflies and spiders and bees. And snails, of course.
This guy was in the middle of the path, in the blazing sun. I don't know what he was thinking.

He'll be extinct in no time, behaving this way.

We tried not to startle this tall, exotic specimen:

I was clearly a "casual" visitor, without a great big lens, or even a hat, and felt strangely out of place for not carrying a tripod. Everyone else was fully equipped. The bright sun made it hard (for me) to photograph the flora, but it was there. Much of it, sadly, undesirable, like the Japanese knotweed that was strangling the native yucca in a picturesque, spiralling manner.

If it ever stops raining this summer, I recommend you visit the refuge, which is part of the Gateway National Recreation Area. There's an informative and well-equipped visitor center, the trails are easy for people of all ages and abilities, and it's free. Oh, and bring your camera.

The Show Goes On Forever...

...and the fireworks never end! Rockville Centre traditionally throws their Fourth of July show after the fourth, and we remembered it at the last minute on Saturday, as we drove home from dinner and wondered, why are people setting up lawn chairs in the Waldbaum's parking lot? We parked the car on Sunrise and walked over to Mill River Park with our own folding chairs. Got a great spot, too! Look, live action:

A Day In The City

A month ago we spent the day wandering around lower Manhattan, because I got it into my head that I wanted to see the South Street Seaport. So, we did that.
Meh.
I guess the Seaport's not my thing. Then I wanted to ride the Staten Island Ferry, as I did not remember ever having done that, though I'm told that's how we got out to Staten Island the time we went to see Richard Thompson play in Snug Harbor. (That was, like, back in the nineties. Who remembers?) So, we did that. It was pleasant, but hardly the most romantic thing. Don't see what all the fuss is about for a ferry.
We were not at all tired, we were probably a step or two below "merry,'" and we rode back and forth just once.

It was Fleet Week in the city.

Seemingly, they cannot get enough of boats. They rode the ferry, too.Then we wandered around the Wall Street area, which was deserted except for tourists like us, walking slowly, admiring the nifty architectural details, like the brass on 120 Wall St.:
and this, see creatures? yes, sea creatures! here:
the seahorses on the Maritime Exchange Building at 80 Broad St., a thirty-five story building dedicated in 1931 to the cause of water-facilitated commerce.

Not far away:
this mosaic dome on the southwestern entrance of the ITT building depicts commerce uniting the hemispheres with electricity. (Commerce is a popular theme in the neighborhood.)

We weren't able to get into Federal Hall, as it's closed on Saturdays, but I took a photo of this, because it looks like George Washington is imploring the pigeon to perch somewhere else.

We also visited Trinity Church, and its cemetery, the one where Alexander Hamilton is buried along with well over a hundred thousand others. Love a good cemetery. Didn't take good photos, though.

And that was our weekend trip one day last month, back in the Time Of Less Rain when one could do such a thing...

This Weekend Was For The Birds

We visited Parrots of the World on Sunday, and lucked into baby-bird season. Most of the smallest were inside glass cases with too much reflection, but Ken took this great shot of two "older" young 'uns who were in the open.

Many of the birds are exceedingly friendly:

Some are quite presumptuous:

Others are more interested in their fellow bird:

And the mynah - well, he wasn't warming up to anybody.

The Frame More Beautiful Than The Art

And now, more old news, about stuff we did ages ago:
We took a Circle Line tour (I think it was my first) to see the river art project by Olafur Eliasson.
If you didn't get out to see his "Waterfalls" installation along the river in New York earlier this year, it's too late now. The exhibition is over, and you'll have to content yourselves with YouTube movies of the event. It was beautiful to the extent that moving water always is, isn't it? But somehow, despite the ginormous size of the constructions, the work as a whole felt dwarfed, overshadowed by the NYC skyline. The river was just too big for them. The one under the Brooklyn Bridge seemed best situated of them all, but still the eye, my eye at least, is drawn to the bridge. As a marvel, as a spectacle, as a suggestion of human scale...the bridge and the river and the skyline all attract my attention first. That was a little disappointing, because we'd seen and loved an earlier work by the artist:


In November of 2003 we were in London at the right time to visit "The Weather Project," Olafur Eliasson's mesmerizing, immersive installation in the Turbine Hall of the Tate Modern. That was a memorable experience, perfectly suited to the site and thoroughly compelling. (You kinda have to take my word for it, as it was hard for me to take a good photograph in a dark, foggy, cavernous hall lit by mono-frequency lamps and mirrors.) Other people took pretty good movies.

The Unexpected Ornament

How come I never knew about this? Do Star Wars fans know about this?

It happened years ago, but I missed hearing about it. I guess I'm really glad the kid wasn't a fan of Jar-Jar or anything. So, church and state? Ostensibly separate. But church and commercial culture? Likethis.

Is That A Banana?

We were in Freeport last week looking for a fish dinner; in addition to that, we got to witness a dockside wedding, presided over by a giant inflatable monkey. Some days are special like that.

Monster Shadow

The sun at the pool at four o'clock is just right for this sort of thing.