Williamsport Web Developer Weblog

Carnegie Science Center

Posted on 5/12/2013 by Robert S. Robbins

For my last day in Pittsburgh I was tempted to rush home but I’m glad I squeezed in one last tourist attraction. I visited the Carnegie Science Center before going home.

I had breakfast at the Priory Hotel before checking out. I wasn’t sure I was entitled to this but I stayed four nights so I should get four breakfasts. There were no extra charges on my bill so this was a relatively inexpensive vacation. I drove from The Priory to the Carnegie Science Center. It wasn’t very far to drive but I had to be careful of one way streets. It cost me $5.00 to park at the Carnegie Science Center. I bought a general admission ticket with an IMAX movie.

The Carnegie Science Center was crawling with kids. There were several bus loads of kids running around. It must be a popular school trip for miles around. Fortunately, the museum isn’t exclusively designed for kids. They did have an elaborate model train layout with Pittsburgh area scenes like Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater house. But my favorite exhibit was the Robot Hall of Fame. They had life sized models of C-3P0, R2-D2, B9 from Lost In Space, Robby the Robot from Fantastic Planet, HAL 9000, and even a robot from the 1971 film "Silent Running". There was an actual android at the entrance to roboworld™. I also went through the USS Requin (a World War II submarine) docked along the Ohio River alongside the Carnegie Science Center. For lunch I had a slice of pizza and strawberry milk.

I had to wait until 1:15 p.m. to see an IMAX movie about the Hubble space telescope so I walked around outside on the river walk trail. Fortunately I found the memorial to Mister Rogers and took lots of photos of this sculpture of him looking towards the Pittsburgh skyline. I must have been right in the area where the shootings take place in the Jack Reacher movie which was filmed in Pittsburgh. I saw that film last night. It was thrilling to see this movie after my trip to Pittsburgh where I saw the exact same views of the city.

The IMAX movie about the Hubble space telescope was awe inspiring. It was the biggest movie screen I’ve ever seen, like having the entire sky for a screen. It included shots of the space shuttle launching and the universe full of galaxies. Before I left I bought a DVD Pittsburgh’s Big Picture since I may be back in the city some day. There wasn’t much else worth buying in the Carnegie Science Center store.

The drive home was completely uneventful but this was of great interest to me because I want to know how to drive around the state. US 22 East has a lot of stop lights along the way. I had to take US 220 North near Altoona PA. Some day I may want to see the famous Horseshoe Curve. Tyrone PA looks like an interesting little industrial town that I don’t know much about.

My next trip will probably be a bus trip to Baltimore. I also plan to drive to Wilkes-Barre which I know from local television and maybe a weekend trip to Philadelphia. To avoid getting locked out of my car again I will try to get an extra spare key. I have also ordered a belt clip and case for my cell phone and a belt key clip because I need to keep things on me. This trip was a learning experience but I need to step up my game and be better prepared for emergencies and problems.

Posted in Travel | Tagged Carnegie Science Center, Pittsburgh, robots | Leave a comment

Pittsburgh Vacation Thursday

Posted on 5/12/2013 by Robert S. Robbins

Thursday was my last full day in Pittsburgh. I had to check out of my hotel on Friday morning. My goal for the day was to ride the famous inclines for a view of the Pittsburgh skyline and to explore the South Side. I called the Yellow Cab company for a taxi to the Station Square because I didn’t want to walk to the North Shore Station and then take the subway all the way. That would have required a transfer to the light rail system. The cab fare came to $20.00 because the driver did not have change.

Station Square is a shopping mall with a few restaurants, hotels, and even a sports stadium. This is where you can book trips on the Just Ducky Tours, the Double Decker tour, or the Gateway Clipper Fleet. I guess all the tour operators are located here to be near the inclines, a major tourist attraction. I went up the Monongahela Incline to reach Grandview Avenue and its series of overlooks. The fare was $2.50 and I paid at the top. Unfortunately it was a bit overcast early in the morning with a few light showers but I took lots of photos anyway. The walk along Grandview Avenue required climbing two hills which was very tiring for me. I saw the fancy restaurants on Grandview Avenue but they were all too formal for my taste. I went back down on the Duquesne Incline where you pay the fare at the bottom. From there I walked all the way back to the Station Square. I was tempted to walk across the Fort Pitt Bridge to reach the North Shore but fortunately I found the stairs to reach a lower roadway.

At Station Square I had a large latte at Crazy Mocha, a local coffeehouse chain. I then entered the shopping mall and waited until 10:00 a.m. when the stores opened. I bought a travel guide at Bradley’s Book Outlet, The Business Traveler Guide to Washington DC by Jason R, Rich ISBN 978-1-599181-424. Washington DC is one of the largest cities within 250 miles of Pittsburgh so it made sense for them to have this book. Cleveland and Toronto are also within 250 miles of Pittsburgh. At Hometowne Sports I bought a Cheerleader Plush Bear wearing a Steelers jersey because you can’t leave Pittsburgh without something with the Steelers logo plastered on it. There is sort of a visitor’s center at the entrance to the Shops at Station Square so I picked up a few brochures for future research.

It looked like rain so I bought a ticket to the Double Decker Tours guided historic tour. Fortunately there were only a few light sprinkles of rain so I sat on the top deck. There were 21 stops on the tour so I got to see a lot of Pittsburgh. First we went to the North Shore which I was already familiar with. Then we went to the Strip District, then downtown, then to Oakland where I was yesterday, and finally to Southside Works where the bus waited 15 minutes. I rode one more stop to East Carson Street where I got off. East Carson Street was where I was planning to go anyway so it beat walking. I had lunch at Fat Head’s Saloon where I ate a large cheeseburger with fries. I then walked into the ghetto to find a Family Dollar store. I’m joking, but Family Dollar stores are for poor people. There is one in my neighborhood. I was looking for some handkerchiefs but I had to make do with some paper facial towels and some cheap shoe insoles. Back on East Carson Street I found my way to City Theatre which I made sure to photograph. City Theatre is one of the theaters that may be involved in the Pittsburgh New Works Festival so I definitely wanted to locate the place. East Carson Street is Pittsburgh’s main party street with lots of bars, clubs, hip restaurants and trendy clothing stores. It is a very wild place at night where the police frequently need to show up.

I walked all the way back to Station Square which was a long way to walk in the hot sun. But since the sun was out I decided to go up the Monongahela Incline again to take some better photos of the Pittsburgh skyline. However, I did not walk all the way to the other incline. I just went back down the Monongahela Incline. At Station Square I bought a soft drink to rehydrate and called a cab. Once again Yellow Cab kept me waiting for almost an hour but they finally showed up. I waited because my feet were killing me.

Once at the Priory Hotel I wasn’t inclined to do anything else but I did walk to Max’s Allegheny Tavern where I ordered a German Peach drink and a Bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato sandwich. I should mention that I was staying in the Deutschtown historic neighborhood on the North Shore. It is a very nice neighborhood with a great view of the Pittsburgh skyline across the Allegheny River. The houses are Victorian and made with more stone than is usual. The only downside was a housing development across from my hotel which made the neighborhood a little ghetto.

Posted in Travel | Tagged City Theatre, Duquesne Incline, East Carson Street, Monongahela Incline, Pittsburgh | Leave a comment

Pittsburgh Carnegie Museums

Posted on 5/12/2013 by Robert S. Robbins

I spent most of the third day of my vacation at the Carnegie Museums in Pittsburgh. If you only have one day in Pittsburgh you should probably visit the Carnegie Museums. I don’t know why the local travel agencies don’t offer bus trips to the Carnegie Museums in Pittsburgh. Clearly it is a world class tourist attraction that rivals anything else in Pennsylvania. Getting to the Carnegie Museums from my hotel was a little difficult because I had to go to Oakland. The hotel shuttle bus does not go to Oakland. I decided to call a taxi. I really should use taxis more often on my trips because I waste a lot of time walking long distances. I always wind up with sore feet but I avoided any blisters on this trip. I used the Yellow Cab company and it cost me $15.00 (tip included) to get to Oakland. I arrived around 9:30 a.m., a half hour before the museum opened, so I walked around a few blocks and photographed the Cathedral of Learning, the Stephen Foster Memorial, the Giuseppe Moretti statue of Stephen Foster, the Heinz Memorial Chapel, and of course Dippy the dinosaur.

There are two museums between the campus of the University of Pittsburgh and the campus of Carnegie Mellon University; the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and the Carnegie Museum of Art. However, the museums are connected and you can visit both together for just one price. You can enter at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History entrance which has a convenient circular drive for cars to drop you off. I had my umbrella with me and I was asked to put it in a locker. The Carnegie Museums have self-service lockers. I’ve never seen self-service lockers before. You find a locker with a key, open it, put a quarter in the mechanism inside, and then close the locker and take the key with you. Fortunately I did not forget to retrieve my umbrella before I left.

I was at the Carnegie Museums from the time they opened to the time they closed, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. It really takes you that long to see everything. The first thing I saw was the mineral exhibit which was quite impressive. They have large pieces of crystals, gems, gold, and mineral deposits. They even had some radioactive material but I did not spend much time standing in front of that! The dinosaur fossil exhibit was also impressive with massive mounted skeletons. Like most natural history museums, the place was packed with kids on school trips.

They also had a collection of natural habitat dioramas with taxidermied animals; North American Wildlife and African Wildlife. The Botany room was empty, no visitors, but I saw an exhibit on the poisonous plants of Pennsylvania which was informative.

The Carnegie Museum of Art was more interesting. I saw the Hall of Sculpture which can be seen in the 1980s movie Flashdance. I had that Irene Cara song "Flashdance… What a Feeling" playing in my head the whole time. I also found the Hall of Architecture which was quite impressive. This hall has massive life size casts of various architectural details from antiquity. For example, there was a large model of the Parthenon and some casts of the pediment marbles. Of course, I saw the original Elgin Marbles in the British Museum last year. They also had a cast of the Porch of the Maidens from the Acropolis in Athens.You could look into the Carnegie Music Hall but it was roped off.

I saw lots of artwork in the Heinz Galleries and the Scaife Galleries. My favorite painting was The Garden of Adonis – Amoretta and Time by John Dickson Batten. There was a special exhibit of Japanese prints including some Japanese theater actors which I found interesting.

I had lunch at 1:51 p.m. at the Carnegie Café. I ordered a chocolate milk and a salad with Maryland crab cake. Ordinarily I might have left after that but I wanted to spend as much time in the museum as possible so I checked out the third floor. The third floor had exhibits on Eskimos, American Indians, and Ancient Egypt with a few mummies. The Polar World exhibit on Artic Life included some interesting information on Canada’s First Nation peoples. I also checked out the Decorative Arts and Design galleries which I would usually skip.

Before I left at around 3:42 p.m. I stopped off at the art store and bought a book on Art Deco. They did not have a good selection of books unless I wanted to carry around a heavy art book. Art Deco is one of the great retro looks and there is plenty of Art Deco to see in New York City so I thought this was a good choice.

After leaving the museum I decided to explore Oakland since it would be a shame to leave too quickly. I had no plans to return to this part of the city. I walked to Schenley Park and found the Phipps Conservatory but it was too late in the day for a visit. I also saw the Frick Fine Arts Building. There was a very impressive fountain in front of the Frick Fine Arts Building. Unfortunately, my research did not uncover any information on this fountain but I walked all around it and got some great photos of the fountain with the Cathedral of Learning in the background. It is a shame the fountain was not on and spouting water. On the bridge over Panther Hollow I saw a mysterious collection of padlocks chained to the fence. It looked like some sort of public art installation.

There are several bookstores in Oakland because there are huge universities in the area so I visited Caliban Books. I looked for the plays of August Wilson but I did not find any, so I bought a road map of Pittsburgh and the book Symbolist Theater by Frantisek Deak. The book was a great find because I’m definitely interested in Symbolist Theater. I think Symbolism may offer the only way for theater to present the experience of a dream onstage. I’ve recently reread William Butler Yeat’s symbolic play At the Hawk’s Well and the analysis of it in A Jungian Approach to Literature by Bettina L. Knapp. I was impressed by how that play managed to dramatize a mythology through ritual and symbolic actions. I was planning on eating at Crepes Parisiennes further up the street but they were closed by then.

I then tried to take a taxi back to my hotel. First I called the Yellow Cab company but they kept me waiting for an hour. Then I tried to call for a Classy Cab but they said it would be an hour for them to pick me up. I got fed up and told Yellow Cab to forget it, I would take a bus back to my hotel. So on this trip I learned that you can’t rely on getting a taxi in the evening in Pittsburgh. I confirmed this the next day. This is the sort of detail I like to note.

I was really angry at the prospect of walking all the way back to my hotel after being on my feet all day in the museum. But as I was walking down Forbes Avenue I came across the Original Hot Dog Shop so I decided to stop in for a bite because their hot dogs are famous. I had a cheese dog with chili and a large cup of Sprite to keep myself hydrated. The Sprite was flat and tasted like carbonated water. That fueled my anger and deserves to be recorded for all time as part of my trip report. Damn flat Sprite! Eventually I noticed that Forbes Avenue was a one way street so there were no bus stops in the downtown direction. I crossed over to Fifth Avenue and caught a bus at Carlow University. The bus dropped me off near the Steel Plaza Station so I was able to ride the subway to the North Shore Station and walk from there to the Priory Hotel.

Posted in Travel | Tagged Caliban Books, Carnegie Museum of Art, Carnegie Museums, Carnegie Natural History Museum | Leave a comment

Pittsburgh Vacation Tuesday

Posted on 5/11/2013 by Robert S. Robbins

On the second day of my vacation I had breakfast at the Refectory, the dining room at The Priory, the bed and breakfast were I was staying. There was quite a spread for breakfast so I had some ham and cheese, fresh fruit, yogurt, a donut, orange juice, and coffee.

My first goal for the day was to visit the Andy Warhol Museum. This was one of the main reasons for my trip. I’ve wanted to see the Andy Warhol Museum for a long time. Andy Warhol is an idol to me because he was closely associated with Deborah Harry and I used to be a huge Blondie fan. I even had a collection of Blondie memorabilia which could have filled a museum. Unfortunately, I sold my Blondie collection to buy my first car. In addition to Blondie, I was fascinated by the New York punk rock scene, the Velvet Underground, and the Andy Warhol crowd. They represented everything that was cool and creative about New York City. Skipping ahead a little, I did buy a book Andy Warhol’s New York City: Four Walks at the museum store. Maybe I will visit the Warhol sights on my next trip to New York City.

It only cost me $10.00 to visit the Andy Warhol Museum. I think there was a 50 percent discount because a few floors were partially closed off for new exhibits. To be honest, the Andy Warhol Museum wasn’t very impressive. They had a few of his silkscreen paintings and his art films playing on the walls but his work does not lend itself to art exhibits. I was unfamiliar with a few aspects of his oeuvre. For example, there were black and white photos stitched together which I have never seen. One room was filled with silver balloons just like the Silver Factory. At the museum store I bought the New York City guide book I mentioned and a short biography Andy Warhol by Arthur C. Danto. I was just going to buy the Victor Bockris biography on Amazon but it is already in my book database so I must have read that a long time ago.

After leaving the Andy Warhol Museum I walked across the Andy Warhol Bridge to reach downtown Pittsburgh. I walked around the cultural district taking photos of the theaters but it seemed like each one had construction work going on in front or there was a school bus parked out in front. I ordered an iced coffee at Starbucks to keep myself hydrated. At noon I had lunch at the Primanti Brothers on Market Square. The Primanti Brothers sandwich is famous for having coleslaw and fries between the slices of bread with the rest of the sandwich. Unfortunately this makes the sandwich hard to eat without getting sloppy. I only had a few paper towels to clean my hands but I used the condensation off my cup of soda to wet my hands slightly, an old trick. I could only eat half my sandwich. At some point I came across the Pittsburgh Welcome Center where I picked up a city map and bought a DVD of The Perks of Being A Wallflower, a movie shot in Pittsburgh.

My trip to Pittsburgh wasn’t all fun and games. I also wanted to try out the public transportation in case I ever find myself in Pittsburgh again. Pittsburgh doesn’t have much of a subway system but it is free so I entered the Gateway Center Station and rode the subway to the North Shore Station. The exit was near the PNC Park baseball park so I had a long walk to get back to my hotel. Generally it was easier to cross one of the Three Sister bridges to get downtown than to use the subway. I didn’t need to buy a ticket or anything. You just freely enter the subway station and walk onto a train.

After a brief stop in my hotel room I headed back out to visit the Mattress Factory, a museum of contemporary art which mostly features room sized installations. This museum is hidden away in the Mexican War Streets section of the North Shore. I was kind of far to walk to and some of it was uphill so I decided to try a bus. The bus is the main form of public transportation in Pittsburgh. You can only reach many sections of the city by bus. I attempted to pay the $2.50 fare when I got on but the driver told me to pay when I got off. When I did pay the fare it rejected a Canadian quarter I happened to have. This is why I hate to ride a bus! It is always more complicated than you think. I got off at Federal Street and then had to walk many blocks west trying to find the Mattress Factory. The museum is well hidden in a residential area.

The name of the Mattress Factory amuses me because it is similar to the Pajama Factory here in Williamsport. Now Pennsylvania just needs a Pillow Factory to complete its bedding theme for the arts. The Mattress Factory is a fun museum of underground art. The most famous installation is the Infinity Dots Mirrored Room by Yayoi Kusama. You have to take off your shoes or put paper slippers over your shoes before entering. The room itself was surprisingly small and square. I didn’t like how I was in the reflection so I only took a few photos. Another room was like a theater with spooky apparitions appearing onstage accompanied by discordant music and rambling monologues. I liked that installation the best. Another great permanent installation was It’s All About Me, Not You by Greer Lankton, a recreation of an apartment crammed with dolls, pill bottles, and shrines to Patti Smith and Candy Darling. One room really mystified me since it appeared to be nothing more than a room to experience a complete absence of light. Going through this museum was sort of like going through a funhouse or a haunted house. Before I left I bought an expensive book on Yayoi Kusama’s work.

I walked back to my hotel which wasn’t too tiring because it was downhill. I remember it was around 4:00 p.m. and I had a show to catch at 7:00 p.m. but I decided to do something adventurous and walked downtown. I had an one hour massage at Zhang’s Wellness Center. The massage was very relaxing. I almost fell asleep. By the time I got out of there, it was almost time for my show so I had another iced coffee at Starbucks to rehydrate.

The highlight of my trip was seeing the play Clybourne Park at the O’Reilly Theater. The O’Reilly Theater is home to the Pittsburgh Public Theater. This theater is also where the last August Wilson play was premiered and the great playwright saw his last play produced here just before he died. I bought Clybourne Park for my Kindle so I already knew the story. The play is about how white neighborhoods feel threatened when black families move into the neighborhood. In Act Two, the play is about how black neighborhoods feel threatened when whites gentrify the neighborhood. This play was perfect for Pittsburgh because it is a city of many ethnic neighborhoods. The program had an article about how August Wilson’s Hill District was razed to build the Civic Arena Stadium. The Civic Arena has been torn down so I did not see that famous landmark. The O’Reilly Theater is an impressive theater with a balcony and many seats. They did not have a full house but the audience was very large. The stage design was very realistic. I thought that must be how some of the historic houses on the Mexican War Streets must look inside.

Since I entered a play into the Pittsburgh New Works Festival I may need to return to Pittsburgh. I don’t want to be too optimistic. I think my play was really bold and unusual but it may be too outré for the general public. I think it really is a matter of the odds. When a writing competition gets hundreds of submissions the odds are going to be against you. It does not matter how good your writing may be, you don’t stand much chance when the odds are against you. However, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are the only cities in Pennsylvania with major theaters producing new work so it is important to be familiar with both cities.

Posted in Travel | Tagged Andy Warhol Museum, Clybourne Park, Mattress Factory, O'Reilly Theater, Pittsburgh | Leave a comment

Pittsburgh Vacation Monday

Posted on 5/11/2013 by Robert S. Robbins

I decided to spend my vacation in Pittsburgh because a proper visit to that city was long overdue. Pittsburgh is the second largest city in Pennsylvania but I had only been there a few times. My first trip to Pittsburgh was to see Deborah Harry perform at the Metropol. This club still exists but it is now known as the Club Zoo. I remember I took the Greyhound bus to Pittsburgh for that. Hurricane Hugo made the trip a real nightmare. My next trip to Pittsburgh was for a job interview. It is a shame I did not get that job because I’d be living in Pittsburgh now. My most recent trip to Pittsburgh was a Susquehanna Trailways bus trip to the Pittsburgh Zoo.

I spent a lot of time planning the drive on Google Maps. I printed easy to read directions with photos of exits and highway numbers. I used my GPS but it was giving me crazy directions. The long drive went smoothly except for one truck that pulled off the highway but left its back end sticking out in my lane. I also did some aggressive driving once I reached Pittsburgh because I wanted to follow my precise directions. I had to go through the Squirrel Hill Tunnel on Interstate 376 and this proved to be a very congested area. It took me around four hours to drive to Pittsburgh.

Since I could not check into my hotel until 3:00 p.m. I decided to visit the Strip District until then. So instead of heading directly to my hotel I went over the 16th Street Bridge and parked in a large parking lot under that bridge for $6.00.

The first thing I did was have breakfast at DeLuca’s Restaurant which is famous for its breakfast. I ordered a California Omelet which had slices of avocado in it. My seat had a plaque honoring some TV food critic or chef who had sat there. DeLuca’s Restaurant is a very famous diner! The Strip District did not impress me. It resembles Philadelphia’s Italian Market with ethnic grocery stores and discount stores selling crap. I did buy a few travel guides at Bradley’s Book Outlet which was right next to the diner; Working and Living France ISBN 1-86011-128-9 and Venice ISBN 1-86011-822-4 Cadogan Guides and the 11th edition of Rich / Poor Man’s Guide to Pittsburgh. I also managed to snag a copy of the Pittsburgh City Paper before returning to my car. After that I returned to the Strip District to buy some Steelers souvenirs at Mike Feinberg Company at 10:28 a.m.. I wasn’t particularly interested in the Steelers but they are a Pittsburgh institution.

Shortly after depositing that purchase in my car I was horrified to discover that I had locked my keys in my car! This was a disastrous way to start my vacation. I was already feeling bad about the drive to Pittsburgh so now I was quite glum.

I needed to use a restroom so I decided to go ahead and visit the Heinz History Center at 11:07 a.m. where I could think about what to do. I didn’t enjoy the Heinz History Center because I was too worried about my car. But I did see a great exhibit 1968: The Year That Rocked America. There were all sorts of Sixties pop culture artifacts that I remembered, although I was only fours years old in 1968 so most of this stuff was from the previous generation as far as I was concerned. I remember seeing Mister Roger’s hand puppets. I know I watched that show as a child.

There was also an antique robot which I’ve never seen before, Elektro built by Westinghouse in 1937, and various exhibits on the industrial history of Pittsburgh. I also wandered around the Sports Museum a little which was nicer than I expected because it includes a wide variety of sports. At the gift shop I bought the book Pittsburgh In Stages because exploring Pittsburgh theater was one of the reasons for my trip.

When I returned to the parking lot I tried to get a parking attendant to help me but he couldn’t do anything. I decided to walk all the way to my hotel on the North Side since they seemed to be the only ones who might help me. I actually did bring my spare car key along with me but it was in my luggage. I should try to get a spare key made that will fit in my wallet like my house key. I had also left my cell phone in my car. I really need a belt clip to carry that thing.

After walking downtown I crossed the Andy Warhol Bridge to reach the North Side. I took lots of photos on the way to make good use of my time. When I reached the Priory Hotel I asked to check in and then told them about my predicament. This began a learning process of what you should do if you lock your keys in your car. The hotel staff thought I should call the police but the police did not appreciate being called about a lockout when it is not an emergency. So the hotel staff called a locksmith for me instead. Unfortunately the locksmith kept me waiting until after 3:00 p.m. so eventually I just checked in. After waiting another hour I called another locksmith from my hotel room phone. I still had to wait another hour until that guy showed up. I was worried the locksmiths were going to keep me waiting until it was dark.

But eventually someone showed up and picked me up at the hotel. I gave him directions to the Strip District parking lot because I had the route mapped out very precisely. At least I learned what happens when you call a locksmith to get back into your car. First, they have to make sure it really is your car so the locksmith asks to see your driver’s license. After he gets the car door open he also asks to see your registration. The locksmith used two inflatable bags to force the car door to open just a crack. Then he used a metal rod to push the latch of the car door. So he did not mess with the lock at all. This cost me $200 which I paid using my credit card. When I get home I am definitely going to do something to keep a spare key on me.

I then drove extremely carefully to the Priory Hotel. I was freaked out about how badly my trip was going so I made sure I didn’t do anything else stupid.

That evening at 7:29 p.m. I had dinner at Max’s Allegheny Tavern which is a few blocks from my hotel. I walked there because I wanted nothing more to do with my damn car. I ordered an Allegheny Club sandwich, a glass of Chardonnay, and bread pudding for desert. Their homemade potato chips were the best I ever tasted.

Even though it was quite late, I then walked across the Rachel Carson bridge to explore the cultural district. The sight of the Pittsburgh skyline at night finally began to make me feel better about this trip. I was especially impressed with the Alcoa Corporate Center because you could see each floor and its offices light up in the night.

Before returning to my hotel room I went into the nearby Giant Eagle grocery store and bought a copy of Pittsburgh Magazine, some Dr. Scholl shoe inserts, some pens, nail clippers, cough drops, and a bottle of flavored water to rehydrate myself.

Posted in Theater, Travel | Tagged Pittsburgh | Leave a comment

Cash On Delivery at Community Theatre League

Posted on 4/26/2013 by Robert S. Robbins

Tonight I saw the British farce, Cash On Delivery at the Community Theatre League. I think I will write more extensively on this experience because I don’t think I have been giving enough attention to theater artists. Every artist would like a serious writer to devote some serious thought to his work.

I was kind of tired this evening and for some reason I really wanted to daydream about an idealized university. This has become a habit when I am siting in the theater of the McDade Trade and Transit Centre. I think this theater reminds me of a college theater but it is associated with a reimagined downtown scene so it encourages me to get into a surreal mental state. It is difficult to describe inspiration but the Community Theatre League’s performance space always causes me some cognitive dissonance. I only mention this because I was almost more interested in my own reverie than I was in the show until it started.

I’d never heard of this play. The title is misleading because the play has nothing to do with deliveries. The play is a comedy about an unemployed British man who is defrauding various government social agencies by making up bogus claims for his imaginary tenants. When caseworkers show up with some documents to sign, he has to keep the farce going by juggling mistaken identities. The action of the play was rather complex because you had to follow the conflicting stories and misunderstandings of multiple characters. I could identify with the story because I work for a community action agency which also provides social services on behalf of the government.

The actors used terrible British accents, not that I minded. There were a few references to British culture but fortunately my trip to London gave me the necessary background to understand the play. It is particularly important to understand the local government in the UK which is made up of councils. For example, a council flat is a housing project.

The subject matter of this play is bound to delight conservatives who like to imagine that there is massive welfare fraud but since the play takes place in the United Kingdom I don’t think it is as political here as it might be. I thought the play was hysterical and the audience could not stop laughing.

I sat in the front row at stage level so I had to be careful to keep my feet tucked in, or I would have tripped the actors as they ran by me. And since this was a farce, there were often actors running across the stage. When you have a play based on mistaken identities you often have people running off.

The stage design was impressive for community theater. Of course, it is easy to throw some furniture on the stage but the backdrop was a realistic front wall. The window was particularly interesting because it appeared to be using some sort of 3D effect to give the illusion of depth.

I never have anything to say about the actors but they probably want some recognition. Keith Wagner (Eric Swan) had the starring role which required a lot of reaction to events which he managed beautifully. Brian McKeon (Norman McDonald) also gave a good performance reacting to nonstop craziness. And Laura Hartranft (Linda Swan) managed just the right touch of indignation.

The next play I will see is Clybourne Park at the Pittsburgh Public Theater (O’Reilly Theater in downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania’s Cultural District). I already have my ticket. This theater is where August Wilson premiered his last play shortly before he died. I entered my best script in the Pittsburgh New Works Festival.

Still no word on the staged reading of my ten minute plays in New York City and Los Angeles. I did recently write another ten minute play for a promising contest. Getting a staged reading of a ten minute play does not appear to have been a particularly difficult goal. So I have written a full length play. Unfortunately I don’t think it is very good. I’m not sure I want to do anything with it. I think I need to outline more action for a full length play.

Posted in Theater, Writing | Tagged Cash On Delivery, Community Theatre League, Williamsport | Leave a comment

Arsenic and Old Lace at Lycoming College

Posted on 4/10/2013 by Robert S. Robbins

Tonight I saw the 116th play I’ve seen onstage, Arsenic And Old Lace at Lycoming College. Since I keep a list of all the plays I’ve seen, I know this was also the 25th play I’ve seen. I vaguely remember a Community Theater League production years ago.

Lycoming College Theater productions have always been my favorite local productions because they select plays with some literary merit and create lavish sets. The set design for Arsenic And Old Lace was no exception. It was a two story set dominated by a fairly long staircase. Although the stage looked like a realistic Victorian house, the lighting made everything look a little more vivid than it should be. As realistic as theater can be, it always seems a little more vivid and alive.

There was one mishap in which an actress fell while trying to sit on an ottoman so a stagehand duck taped it to the stage during intermission. Another amusing mistake occurred when an actor reached up to adjust his gag after his hands were already supposed to be tied. These little incidents merely added to the comedy. For some strange reason, all the police officers were played by women.

Arsenic And Old Lace is a farce dating back to World War II. I’ve been reading a biography of the stage actress Eva Le Gallienne so the play invoked the theater of her era. Eva Le Gallienne was a very beautiful actress even for the 1920s and she was a real artist. I think I have fallen in love with her just from her photos and her artistic integrity. I found some audio recordings of her reading Baudelaire poems in French at http://fleursdumal.org/audio/

Fortunately my playwriting efforts are finally meeting with some success. I should have two staged readings in the next few months which will be videotaped. One staged reading will occur in New York City and the other will occur in Los Angeles. This sounds more impressive than it actually is though. Five plays out of 35 plays submitted were selected by the New York City theater company so the odds were pretty good. The Los Angeles staged reading is something I paid for because it was quite affordable. Still, that is the only encouragement I need. I had very modest goals for my 10 minute plays. Now I will need a new goal. I’m working on a full length play. I’ll have a dramaturge look at it at the very least.

Posted in Theater, Writing | Tagged Arsenic And Old Lace, Lycoming College, theater | Leave a comment

Washington DC 2013

Posted on 4/4/2013 by Robert S. Robbins

Yesterday I made my sixth trip to Washington DC in order to explore the city. Although I did the usual visits to museums, I tried to accomplish a few goals related to my relocation planning. I also located a few theaters for the sake of my playwriting ambition.

The tour bus dropped me off at the National Air and Space Museum and it would have been easiest to walk to my destination, the Newseum, but I wanted to finally try the DC Metro system. So I walked to the Smithsonian Metro station several blocks away and bought a farecard from a complicated vending machine. The Metro vending machines look like the instrument panels of a commercial airline jet with a confusing array of buttons, digital readouts, knobs, bill slots, coin returns, and ticket printers. But I managed to buy a $5.00 farecard and not the $20.00 farecard it tried to sell me. I then had to follow my simple directions to go one stop on the Orange Line and then one stop on the Green Line to arrive at the Archives Station.

From the Archives Station I walked down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Newseum. Most of the museums in Washington DC are free because they are part of the Smithsonian Institute but two of the more popular paid museums are the International Spy Museum and the Newseum, a museum devoted to journalism and freedom of the press. The Newseum won my patronage because they show you the daily front page of newspapers from cities around the United States. I’ve found this useful in researching the local media of cities I may relocate to. But it cost me $21.37 to visit this museum.

I only had six hours in Washington DC so I only devoted three hours to the various exhibits in the Newseum. I felt a little rushed which is typical for my visits to Washington. The museums are huge. I’ll have to consider a week long trip to Washington DC to really do justice to the city and its attractions. Anyway, I watched a 20 minute 4D movie (3D plus seat motion) which was genuinely impressive. There were lots of information bubbles that really seem to float in space and appear right in front of you. It was definitely the best 3D experience I’ve ever had.

There was also a part of the Berlin Wall and an East German watchtower. This made me feel a little privileged because I’ve actually been to Berlin and saw the Brandenburg Gate. The Newseum only had large photos of the Brandenburg Gate and video from the party which occurred when the travel restrictions were lifted.

I had lunch at the Newseum café which was one of those self serve cafeteria deals that I prefer. I had chocolate milk, a cheese burger, and a parfait. I didn’t want to eat too much because I had plans to eat at a restaurant later.

One of the more sad exhibits at the Newseum was the actual broadcasting tower from the World Trade Center’s North Tower. It was really mangled. They also had parts of the engines from the planes that struck the towers. If the museum were built before 2001, they probably would have used the Moon Landing for an exhibit of front page news on all the world’s newspapers but since this is a fairly new museum, 9/11 was the biggest story they could commemorate.

I also saw exhibits about contemporary digital media and mobile devices for receiving the news online, including mention of Wikileaks, and lots of presidential photos. The entire Washington DC culture seems to be obsessed with their embodiment of supreme world power, the President of the United States. There were murals of Obama everywhere, portraits of Obama in the art museums, and all sorts of Obama souvenirs for sale by street vendors. The Newseum also has an outdoor terrace on the top floor where you can take some great photos of the United States Capitol Building which isn’t that far away. Before I left, I bought a book The Making of McPaper: The Inside Story of How USA Today Made It which was the most interesting book I could find even though I’m not that interested in USA Today.

After leaving the Newseum I headed North to explore the Penn Quarter area. I located the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company entrance, the Lansburgh Theatre of Shakespeare Theatre Company, and the Ford’s Theatre which is famous for being the place where president Lincoln was shot. President Abraham Lincoln was shot by an actor. I think I’ll bring that up if I ever have any trouble with an actor. I will say something to effect, “an American theater actor hasn’t been such trouble since that guy who shot Lincoln.”

I had lunch at Teaism, a Japanese restaurant on 8th Street. I ordered a salmon bento box because I wanted to try this Japanese meal. A bento box is just a meal served in a bamboo box with compartments for different dishes. After eating about half of that meal, I wandered around the Penn Quarter area taking a few photos of various establishments, and bought a copy of the Washington Post, but then I came across the National Portrait Gallery / Smithsonian American Art Museum so I decided to pop in there. This was a good decision because I saw some amazing art.

The most amazing artwork was by Adam Chapman. He created digital paintings in which the lines and patches of color are slowly floating around the canvas because the painting is actually a high definition digital screen. But the artwork looks like a real canvas so you are genuinely surprised and delighted when the elements of the painting begin to float around. This is pure genius!

I also saw the exhibit Poetic Likeness: Modern American Poets which was portraits of major American poets, photos mostly. I was familiar with most of these poets because I’ve been interested in writing for a long time. But I especially like the Bravo exhibit with portraits of entertainers. This exhibit included many portraits of theater artists like Lynn Fontaine and Joseph Papp. It was nice to see theater artists honored by fine art in a major art museum. I even saw a bronze bust of playwright Arthur Miller. I tried to take a photo of this bust but unfortunately it turned out blurry. My digital camera displayed a blink warning which amused me. It is a bronze bust! How could it blink?

I stumbled upon the Kogod Courtyard at the National Portrait Gallery / Smithsonian American Art Museum which is an amazing architectural space. I should visit these combined museums again because I was really rushed for time and could not examine the artwork at leisure.

I observed many other little details on this trip but I won’t bore you with that. I really expanded my Washington DC travel guide notes in preparation for this trip so my knowledge of the DC area is improving. Washington DC has some excellent resources for the aspiring playwright like the Inkwell Theatre so I may want to travel there on business some day.

Posted in General, Travel | Tagged National Portrait Gallery, Newseum, Washington DC | Leave a comment

A Playwright’s Visit To The Theater District

Posted on 3/17/2013 by Robert S. Robbins

Yesterday I made my 23rd trip to New York City to explore the Theater District. Now that I have revived my old dream of becoming a playwright, these trips to New York City have a new sense of purpose. After spending so much time and money visiting New York City as a tourist it is great to put that knowledge to some practical use.

This trip was a virtual repeat of my last trip to New York City. However I did have a new list of establishments to locate after reading The Back Stage Guide To Broadway by Robert Viagas. That book is a little out-of-date but still useful for finding the hidden gems in the theater district.

I read the play After The Revolution by Amy Herzog on the four hour bus ride to New York City. That should have been enough time to finish reading the play but I had to wait until the sun came up since we left Williamsport at 5:30 a.m. This play was published by Smith and Kraus Inc for Playwrights Horizons, the theater I was planning to visit, which is why I brought it along.

The first thing I did upon arriving in New York City was to photograph the Broadway Theater on the corner of West 53rd Street and Broadway. This theater is interesting because its Art Deco sign actually uses the Broadway font, my favorite font of course. This theater was on my list but I was actually looking for the Carolines comedy club which I found a little later. I also took a photo of the Ed Sullivan Theater with its big Late Show with David Letterman sign. Then I made my way to Times Square and climbed the steps of the TKTS ticket booth to take some obligatory photos.

But then I made one of the more important stops on my pilgrimage and found the birthplace plaque of the playwright Eugene O’Neill. This is one of the hidden gems I learned about from reading The Back Stage Guide To Broadway. The plaque is actually located on the outside wall of a Starbucks at 1500 Broadway, right under the JVC Globe. It is very hard to spot unless you know it is there. Eugene O’Neill wasn’t born in a Starbucks. There used to be a hotel there.

Eugene O’Neill is my favorite American playwright. I have a small collection of books on O’Neill and I’ve read several biographies on his life. I like his work because he wrote many tragedies and he was something of a mystic. He wrote many plays in which a mystic plays out a tragic fate. For example, Dynamo is a strange play in which the main character tries to find god in electricity and the dynamos in a hydro-electric plant. Unfortunately most of O’Neill’s plays on the spiritual quest are forgotten. Anyway, this plaque on Broadway indicates where O’Neill was born but you don’t feel anything special there because Times Square is so different from the Broadway he knew. Everything is buried under giant billboards and massive digital signs that bombard you with advertisements.

After that I located the Shubert Theatre, one of the most famous theaters on Broadway and a landmark that represents the entire Theater District. Of course, I saw this theater on my last trip and took a few photos but it was late at night and my photos did not turn out so well. The Shubert Theatre is currently running Matilda the Musical, based on a children’s book by Roald Dahl. I also took some photos of the posters along Shubert Alley but unfortunately these photos are blurry. One poster caught my eye, the poster for The Nance at the Lyceum Theatre, starring Nathan Lane as a burlesque impresario. That sounds interesting.

I then had breakfast at Café Edison. There is nothing terribly remarkable about Café Edison on West 47th Street but according to The Back Stage Guide To Broadway this is where many theater workers come to eat. I ordered Eggs Benedict which I kind of regretted because it was too much greasy food for me after having my gall bladder removed. Café Edison is sort of a shabby New York City diner but I guess it is more authentic than the Times Square restaurants which overcharge the tourists.

After breakfast I was debating with myself on whether to visit the Empire State Building on this trip. I wondered if I would have enough time before my Playwrights Horizons play began at 2:30 p.m. And I didn’t want to revert back to tourist mode. But in the end I decided to visit the Empire State Building which was fortunate because the viewing conditions were good in the morning but it began to snow in the evening when the play was over. I really rushed downtown and even managed to get to the 86th floor of the Empire State Building in surprisingly short order. I took lots of amazing photos of New York City so it was totally worth it. It was actually very crowded on the observation deck of the Empire State Building. I forgot to mention that there was a St. Patrick’s Day parade going on in New York City so I saw crowds of tourists wearing the green everywhere.

From the Empire State Building I quickly made my way back to the Theater District using the subway. I then proceeded to locate and photograph a few more establishments on my list. For example, I took many photos of Times Scare on 42nd Street near the Port Authority Bus Terminal. However, I was not really interested in Times Scare, an overpriced haunted house. I was interested in the Manhattan Repertory Theatre which occupies a space in the same building. I also located the Second Stage Theatre nearby which is easy to overlook because the first floor has various retail establishments so you don’t notice that the building is a theater. This is why I spend so much time locating theaters and other interesting establishments. There are a lot of places hidden away in the Theater District.

Based on my sales receipt I know I visited the Drama Book Shop at 11:49 a.m. where I spent $54.92 on some books and a magazine. I bought Five Modern No Plays by Yukio Mishima because I’m interested in Japanese theater. I’ve been watching a few Japanese movies based on Kabuki. And I bought New Dramatists Best Plays by the Graduating Class of 2001 because New Dramatists is one of the more important institutions for playwrights. I located their church building on my previous trip. Another book I bought was A Bright New Boise by Samuel D. Hunter because I liked his play The Whale which I read. The magazine I selected was The Dramatist: The Regional Theatre Issue. I used to be a member of the Dramatist Guild back in the 1990s but I have not applied to rejoin yet because I don’t think there is any need for it at the moment.

After that bit of shopping I remember that I decided to go to a restaurant to kill some time before the Saturday afternoon matinée performance of the play I had selected to see on this trip, The Flick, at Playwrights Horizons. I walked all the way to Kodama Sushi on West 45th Street but they were closed. According to my notes they should have been open by then on Saturday but a sign on the door showed they did not open until 5:00 p.m. So I decided to go to Bourbon Street again, mainly just to use their bathroom. At Bourbon Street they were playing TV footage of the St. Patrick’s Day parade on their huge flatscreen TVs. It must have been live coverage because it was snowing on the parade and I could see it snowing outside the restaurant. The restaurant was all decorated for St. Patrick’s Day. I ordered a glass of white wine and the Alligator In A Blanket which is really tasty.

By the time I was done eating it was snowing really hard but fortunately I had a ski-mask and some small gloves crammed into my coat pocket. Needless to say I did not pull down the ski-mask in New York City! I just wore it as a hat. I arrived at the Playwrights Horizons covered in snow. I was glad to attend a three hour play because it meant three hours without being in the snow.

Attending a play at Playwrights Horizons was the highlight of my trip. I was interested in this theater since it is devoted to the playwright. I’ve bought a few of their books so I know they do good work. For example, I bought their published edition of Samuel D. Hunter’s The Whale which was one of the best plays I’ve read lately. That play required a morbidly obese actor or an actor in a fat suit so you can tell that Playwrights Horizons is willing to do challenging work which requires an investment in stage design and costume. The Flick was also a play which required an elaborate stage design.

I’m glad I selected The Flick as my third play to see in New York City because it was something special, special enough for this special occasion. My ticket cost me $80.00 which seems pretty steep for Off-Broadway and the play ran for three hours but I think it was worth it. The stage design for The Flick was really interesting and kind of magical. You walked into the theater and found a few rows of seats on the stage which almost matched the theater seats. I thought about joking that my ticket was for a seat on the stage where I would be in the play as an actor. This is a brilliant stage design because it is practically a form of self-reference. It would be cool to watch a play about a theater audience, seated onstage so as to mirror the actual theater audience. That would really mess with people’s head.

The Flick by Annie Baker is a great play about the mundane lives of the working poor. I could totally relate to the characters because I used to have a shitty job like that. It is amazing how Annie Baker managed to find the drama in that situation. It is a great example of how to find the dignity and pathos in the lives of people labeled “losers”. I’m not sure if you will ever see this play in a community theater because it requires an expensive set design. Even the lighting design was kind of amazing because the play begins with the blinding light from the film projector and the triumphal music of a big budget film. This was surprisingly effective and exhilarating. One of the actors, Mathew Maher, also played in David Henry Hwang’s Golden Child which I saw on my previous trip. The Signature Theatre is just down the street from Playwrights Horizons.

Now it is time to reflect on my passion for theater. The purpose of this trip was to rekindle my passion for theater. Exploring the Theater District is a great way to experience the physical reality of Broadway, to make it seem real and to see yourself as being there. So far I have written 14 ten minute plays in the last four months so I’m pleased that I have managed to do the writing. But I have not received any real encouragement yet. Maybe I am just wasting my time.

But regardless of my actual involvement with New York theater, which may never happen, I have decided to carry on with my project of making it part of my creative life. My creative life goes on regardless of whether I think about it or plan it. I can’t help but be inspired and I have become addicted to inspiration. I am really enchanted with the fruits of my inspiration and I spend a lot of time and money pursuing that sense of enchantment. It does not matter what object I use for inspiration. It could be theater or it could be something else. New York City itself is a great object for inspiration. So I don’t feel that theater has any power over me. Theater may only offer me discouragement but it will not matter. The important thing is, can I continue to draw inspiration from the theater?

Unfortunately theater has forgotten its duty to create a sense of enchantment. Few people regard theater as being anything sacred because the theater has rejected its role as the sacred space where the sacred will be revealed to you. But fortunately I understand the real potential of theater and I can make it a sacred space in my imagination. Now the question is, should I continue to write plays? I have not considered this to be essential. A theater that is to exist only in your imagination has no need of a script. But I can see how this might be wrong. A fantasy theater has a tendency to be formless and writing a script gives form. So maybe playwriting is not a pointless exercise.

But back to the narrative of my trip to New York City which lasted for a few more hours. After the play was over it was still snowing outside so I decided to return to Kodama Sushi which would be open by then. Kodama Sushi was another restaurant recommended in The Back Stage Guide To Broadway as a popular place for a meal after a show. Kodama Sushi was kind of amazing due to my recent interest in Japanese theater. Kodama Sushi was very Japanese. I was even able to order a glass of sake which is something I’ve been meaning to try. I had to eat my sushi with chopsticks. I was thinking of asking for a fork but I did not see anyone else eating with a fork. I will have to order some chopsticks at home and learn how to eat with them. New Yorkers seem sophisticated enough to know how to eat with chopsticks. It must be one of the skills they learn living in the big city.

I spent the last few hours wandering around Times Square dazzled by the bright lights and all that jazz. I did see a scary drunken fight break out near the Muse Hotel on West 46th Street. This was sort of expected with everyone drinking for St. Patrick’s Day.

In conclusion, this trip was exhilarating and that is what I was really after. It is fuel for the fire. I also made additional observations in the field and advanced my research on the New York City theater scene. I am fortunate to live on the East Coast where I can visit New York City fairly often. Many people may only go to New York City once in their lifetime and don’t have the opportunity to thoroughly explore the Theater District to find its hidden gems. Maybe some day I will have to find my way to a theater because they are doing my play. I shall be well prepared for that day.

Posted in Theater, Travel | Tagged New York City, Playwrights Horizons, Theater District | Leave a comment

The Whale–Samuel D. Hunter

Posted on 2/17/2013 by Robert S. Robbins

I was going to review this play on Amazon but I bought this book from Playwrights Horizons. The book was published by Productions In Print, a print-on-demand publisher, so it is a book without an ISBN and cannot be found on Amazon.

I should write an essay on this play that begins, “I was very saddened by this book, and I felt many emotions for the characters”. That is an actual line from the play. The main character, Charlie, a morbidly obese man, is trying to reconnect with his angry daughter by forcing her to write essays. So the play is essentially about using writing to form a connection with others. This is a good theme for a playwright who hopes to form a connection with the audience through his writing.

But I did not see this play performed in the theater. I remember seeing a poster for The Whale when I walked past the Playwrights Horizons theater on my trip to New York City. I took a photo of the Playwrights Horizons theater and perhaps that will be my only connection with the place. Maybe I’ll only ever see the exterior of the place.

The Whale is an important symbol in the play but I’m not sure what the whale is meant to represent. Charlie is obviously the size of a whale. Ellie’s essay is on the book Moby Dick; or, The Whale. And the biblical story of Jonah who was swallowed by a whale while trying to escape the call of God, plays an important part in the play. Maybe Samuel D. Hunter isn’t too clear on the meaning of his symbolism himself or left it deliberately vague to confound the critics. But my guess is that the whale represents something big, like God, and our failure to connect with God destroys us.

Posted in Theater, Writing | Tagged Playwrights Horizons, Samuel D. Hunter, The Whale | Leave a comment

Brooding During “A Chorus Line”

Posted on 2/7/2013 by Robert S. Robbins

I have just returned from seeing “A Chorus Line” at the Community Arts Center. I have been looking forward to this night for a month. Williamsport has a lot of theater for a city its size, but I still only get a chance to see a musical or a play every once in a blue moon. You certainly can’t go to the theater every night in Williamsport.

The Community Arts Center is an impressive theater. It is larger than some Broadway theaters and about as grand as a theater can be. Unfortunately I don’t go there often because they program the worst dreck they can find. Maybe this is actually typical of what is offered in any regional commercial theater, but I can’t see paying $40.00 for something I won’t like. But “A Chorus Line” is definitely worth seeing because I’ve been exploring Broadway on my trips to New York City.

I could barely pay attention to the show because I fell to brooding during the entire performance. All during the show, I thought about the one act play I recently submitted to the Pittsburgh New Works Festival. I can’t tell you too much about that play because it is suppose to be anonymous for the judging process. Therefore I cannot put anything on the Internet to tie me to the script. But my play wrestled with some the same issues that are explored in “A Chorus Line” so I began to brood about that.

I struggled to get into playwriting back in 1995 but eventually got discouraged and gave it up. I decided it wasn’t worth it. But sometimes you avoid one form of tragedy only to suffer another form of tragedy. I did not completely forget the theater. Once I began to travel I always researched the theaters in the cities I planned to visit. I would locate these theaters and take a photo (mostly because theaters neglect to put any decent photos of the building on their web sites). And when possible, I would see a play in a theater in the big city. That really requires an overnight trip so I can’t do that often.

I have stifled my genius because I could not bear to yearn for the theater too deeply. That was too painful for me. But if the theater speaks to your soul it will eat at you to abandon it. This is expressed beautifully in “A Chorus Line” so it made me really sad to watch the drama unfold. Fortunately, I think that if the theater speaks to your soul that powerfully then it is resonating with some greatness within you. At the end of “A Chorus Line” the dancers come out in their dazzling, glittering costumes and the audience goes wild. I thought to myself, “You fools. That is just fake sparkle and a little song and dance. I could show you so much more than that. Give me your stage. Give me your stage and I will astonish you!”

Posted in Theater, Writing | Tagged A Chorus Line, Broadway, Community Arts Center | Leave a comment

A Jungian Approach To Literature

Posted on 2/5/2013 by Robert S. Robbins

I have finally begun to read “A Jungian Approach To Literature” by Bettina L. Knapp. I have owned this book for a long time but I’ve only recently gotten around to reading it. This book includes a few Jungian interpretations of plays. I’ve read the first chapter on Euripides The Bacchants which is a classic example of the shaman archetype. I wanted to read the chapter on William Butler Yeats’ play At The Hawk’s Well but I discovered that my paperback book of Yeats plays did not include that play. So I had to order a book of Yeats’ complete plays. Hmm, I just checked my database and found that I have read At The Hawk’s Well. Maybe it is in one of my many collections of World Drama.

I respect Jungian psychology because you can easily find hundreds of examples of the archetypes expressed in myth, stories, and even popular culture. In other words, the theory seems very sound and genuinely useful for understanding the mysteries of human nature. It is almost frightening to see how consistently certain patterns will play out in the psyche, whether you are aware of it or not. It is no secret that Hollywood uses Jungian psychology to create compelling entertainment. I am also reading "The Writers Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers, 3rd Edition" by Christopher Vogler. This is a popular book for screenwriters because it gives you a formula for writing a story that will have a definite psychological impact upon the audience.

Today I ordered the book “Way of the Actor: A Path to Knowledge and Power” by Brian Bates. I was looking for a book on the psychology of the actor because actors are the gatekeepers of the theater community. Everyone in a position to make a decision in the theater is an actor. The playwright is expected to write for the actor. You might argue that the playwright should write for the audience but the play will never be seen by an audience if the writing is not in service to the actor. I’m being cynical, but I don’t think theaters are interested in what their audience wants. The theater is all about the actor. So it is very important to know what makes the actor tick. What does the actor secretly want? You may think the answer is simple. The actor is an attention whore and just wants to stand in the spotlight and be adored by the audience. But depth psychology tries to get to the fundamental layer of being, the archetypes. The actor may want to appear godlike, a manifestation of the sacred, and be worshiped by the audience. And the audience will indulge the actor because they feel spiritually empty and need something greater than themselves to worship. Greek hero worship was actually a form of religion which raised man to the gods. But I digress, the “Way of the Actor” book sounds really intriguing based on the book description, “Brian Bates believes that this is still the case today—that actors and actresses fulfill an important function in our culture as modern-day seers and shamans. He portrays the actor as a creator of visions who transports spectators out of their habitual ways of being and leads them on a journey of self-discovery.”

I don’t want to be an actor, but an actor stands at the threshold I mean to cross and the way to get by the guardian of the threshold is through cunning. I have to write something for the actor that promises to give him what he secretly desires. Maybe a monologue that can be used for an audition. There is even an app for that! I sometimes think plays are only published to give actors monologues for their auditions. I should probably figure out how to write a killer monologue. Maybe the actor wants a piece of dialogue that is as eloquent as poetry. Then it has to be a poem from the soul of an actor. Maybe the actor wants a part that will make him a star. Then you have to write a role that permits the actor to outshine everyone else.

This is a major challenge because you can’t be too obvious in pandering to the actor. Actors spend all day thinking about the motivations of their character so they are versed in pop psychology. They will easily spot an obvious attempt to flatter the actor. Fortunately Jungian psychology excels in suggesting various ways to express an archetype through symbols.

Posted in Theater, Writing | Tagged actors, Jungian psychology, playwriting | Leave a comment

Two In Italy by Maud Howe–A Book Review

Posted on 1/11/2013 by Robert S. Robbins

I promised myself that I would actually read the expensive book I bought at the Complete Traveler Antiquarian Bookstore during a trip to New York City and write a review. I bought this book for $75.00 on October 27 2012 after visiting the Morgan Library and Museum which gave me a hankering for old books. Two In Italy was published in 1905 by Little, Brown and Company in Boston. The author’s full name was Maud Howe Elliott. More information on her can be found at Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame.

I am perhaps the only person alive to have read this forgotten old book. You won’t find any reviews of this book online. There is no information on its contents to be found anywhere, although you can apparently find some e-book versions because its copyright has expired.

Two In Italy is somewhat similar to the work of Henry James who also wrote about his travels in Italy. The writing style is completely different but Maud Howe Elliott and Henry James were contemporaries and they were both Americans living in Italy. Two In Italy is a collection of travel stories. It is a vexing book to read because it lacks any proper introduction to the characters. Even after reading the entire book I still have no idea who J or Patsy were.

The first chapter is entitled Anacrap’. As far as I can determine, this chapter takes place in Anacapri, a comune on the island of Capri. This chapter contains an amusing story of a monkey holding a furry white rabbit as a muff to keep itself warm.

The second chapter is entitled The Inn of Paradise. A church of St. Agnese is described which must be Chiesa di San Michele Arcangelo in Anacapri, Capri, Italy. This church has a mosaic floor of painted majolica tiles featuring animals and an unicorn which is clearly a description of Chiesa di San Michele Arcangelo’s tile floor. You can see a photo at http://www.afar.com/highlights/its-all-about-the-floor. Two In Italy is not much of a travel guide but at least it led me to discover that tile floor.

The third chapter is entitled Buona Fortuna and concerns the mystery of some wine by that name. The fourth chapter is entitled The Castello. Castello is the Italian word for castle. A Prince Montefiascone owns the castle. Montefiascone is a town and comune of the province of Viterbo, Italy, located on a hill on the southeast side of Lake Bolsena so the castle must be the Castle of Bolsena. On page 96 there is a clue that this is indeed the castle, “…it’s the Castello in the background; I can even make out the five towers and the lake.”. There are also some clues in this chapter on the era in which this book was written. King Umberto I of Italy is mentioned and he reigned from 1878 to 1900. Pope Leo XIII is also mentioned and his papacy began in 1878 and ended in 1903.

Chapters five and six are both entitled Savonarola Finnerty (What I Heard of Him) and describes the misadventures of an artist who goes to Venice to escape an epidemic of cholera in Naples which threatens to spread to Rome. There is no information on the true identify of this artist to be found online since all references to him point back to the book Two In Italy but he apparently created a colossal sculpture of The Oversoul which he shipped to the United States. This statue was intended for the White City by the Lake, a reference to the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893, “…then still a dream, now a glorious memory.”

Chapter seven is entitled The Hermit of Pietro Anzieri and describes how an Italian American finds a bride in the Abruzzo region of central Italy. The rivalry between Roccaraso and Pescocostanzo gives this chapter a kind of Romeo and Juliet drama. The final chapter eight is entitled In Old Poland so it does not even concern Italy. This chapter reads the most like a pure travel diary and contains amusing descriptions of Germany before the World Wars.

Posted in books, General | Tagged Italy, Maud Howe | Leave a comment

Philip Goes Forth–The Damned Foolery Of Playwriting

Posted on 12/30/2012 by Robert S. Robbins

While researching the Philadelphia theater community I came across the forgotten playwright, George Kelly, who wrote a play entitled The Torch Bearers to satirize the Little Theatre Movement. The Plays and Players Theater in Philadelphia is supposedly the community theater that play satirizes. But I was more interested in his play about a playwright with no talent, Philip Goes Forth. I managed to find a copy of this play published in 1931 by Samuel French.

Philip Goes Forth is a curious play. It moralizes against dilettantism in the theater and basically argues against pursuing a dream of becoming a playwright, this by a writer who was fairly successful as a playwright. It seems very arrogant for a playwright to lecture dilettantes in this fashion. But this is an old play which reflects an old fashioned view on things. For example, Philip’s father dismisses his son’s ambitions with the line “It’s a lot of damned foolery.” which sounds like something your grandfather would say.

Playwriting is a hobby, not a profession, because you cannot make a living at it. This has been true for decades as this old play illustrates. George Kelly seems determined not to permit you to have any illusions about that. His main character, Philip, has a head for business and a dream of writing plays but George Kelly makes it clear that Philip should stick to business. “You’re a business man, Philip, – gone wrong.” Philip is shown the error of his ways by the example of a discouraged musician who shoots himself at their boarding house. George Kelly does provide an example of the true artist in the figure of Miss Krail, an eccentric poet, who is too mad to care about her future. “Nobody has to worry about her future; it’ll be all the same to La Krail, whether it’s a palace or a park bench. She’s got something to save her against it.”

Every character in this play reveals a secret dream to write plays, a dream they have been wise enough to ignore. I suppose you could account for George Kelly’s peculiar perspective by remembering that the Great Depression forced people to become more hard headed and practical. Nowadays you would not encourage a young person to pursue a Master of Fine Arts degree because it would leave him heavily in debt with no job prospects. But George Kelly seems incredibly harsh and unsympathetic to the dying of a dream.

Personally, I do not question my vision although I may doubt my talent. In other words, my imagination is quite impressive if I do say so myself, and I am only willing to entertain doubts about my mastery of a particular craft. I am easily inspired and my inspiration shows me some incredible things which could only exist if I were to create them. George Kelly was one of those artists who did not understand vision. He strikes me as someone hopelessly fixated on the mastery of the craft. He was the sort of artist for whom genius lies in the brushstrokes and not in the dream of the painting. Philip Goes Forth is a well written play but George Kelly is a forgotten playwright because he was out of sympathy with theater folk.

Posted in General, Theater, Writing | Tagged George Kelly, Philadelphia, playwriting | Leave a comment

Off Broadway Trip

Posted on 12/9/2012 by Robert S. Robbins

Yesterday I made my 22nd trip to New York City. The purpose of this trip was to explore the theater district more thoroughly. I wanted to locate and photograph many theaters, particularly Off Broadway theaters in the Hell’s Kitchen area.

Unfortunately the trip got off to a bad start because after parking in the parking deck I realized I had forgotten my camera. I was really pissed off at myself for forgetting my camera because I needed it for an important aspect of the trip. I usually bring my camera in a small shoulder bag that I use for my small electronics. I was too focused on my iTouch and new cell phone to notice that I’d forgotten to put the damn camera in the bag.

So the first thing I had to do in New York City was spend several hundred dollars on the unnecessary purchase of a new camera. Fortunately there are many stores in New York City selling electronics; cell phones, digital cameras, lap tops, and all the other electronic gear that is so popular now. I only had to cross the street from where the bus dropped me off to find a little store selling digital cameras. I bought a Fujifilm FinePix JX400 for less than $200.00 with a 4 GB SD Card. This is comparable to my regular Canon PowerShot A1300 which I forgot to bring. However, it does have one major drawback. It uses a rechargeable camera battery instead of the AA batteries the Canon PowerShot uses. This meant that later on I had to find another camera store to buy an additional camera battery which was expensive. I have to admit that the Fujifilm FinePix does seem to take better pictures than the Canon PowerShot. The camera store sales person thought I was French and tried to speak French with me which was funny.

The first photo I took was a photo of Ellen’s Stardust Diner and the Iridium Jazz Club next door to it. The Stardust Diner has become a significant landmark to me because the bus always leaves us off in its vicinity so I’ve seen this restaurant on every trip to New York City. I never noticed the small Iridium Jazz Club until I researched the area for this trip. Unfortunately most of their shows start at 8:00 pm which is usually when my bus leaves. At this point I should mention that I have begun to research overnight trips to New York City. I could drive to New Jersey and take public transportation into the city. There are several motels and hotels in New Jersey which are far cheaper than anyplace you will find in Manhattan. But this requires navigating the massive New Jersey highway system which gets quite confusing in the greater metropolitan area and knowing the New Jersey public transportation system; PATH subway, buses, hotel shuttles, etc.

After that I headed to Times Square. Native New Yorkers avoid Times Square like the plague but it becomes more significant if you are interested in Broadway Theater. A lot of the billboards and digital signs are advertising Broadway shows, and Times Square is where you will find the TKTS ticket booth selling discount tickets for Broadway shows. I spent a lot of time here because I wanted to familiarize myself with which street the Broadway theaters were located on in relation to Times Square. For example, I was interested in the Paramount Building because it houses the offices of the Dramatists Guild. The ground floor of the Paramount Building is taken up by a Hard Rock Café and if you don’t do your homework this building will go unnoticed as a commercial establishment. It is important to note that this is on the southern end of Times Square while the TKTS ticket booth is on the north end. Going towards the southern end takes you to 42nd Street where many of the Off Broadway theaters are located. The distinctive Yahoo! sign is gone from the south end of Times Square so don’t look for that.

One of the more interesting streets I explored was West 45th Street where two of David Mamet’s plays are currently running. His play The Anarchist is a flop at the Golden while just down the street his play Glengarry Glen Ross is a huge hit at the Schoenfeld Theatre because Al Pacino is starring in it. But I also located the home of New Dramatists and the nearby Actor’s Studio. There was a limousine trying to park across the street from the Actor’s Studio which led me to think a movie star was visiting.

At 12:00 I went to the Theatre Row Diner for lunch. Although located on West 42nd Street it is closer to the many Off Broadway theaters on that street than to the Broadway theaters around Times Square. Fortunately the restaurant was not too crowded and I was able to get a seat. It has a nice interior with photos of Marilyn Monroe. I ordered the Grilled Chicken Louisiana club sandwich which was a little too big for me to eat. Lunch only cost me $15.00 so this is definitely a more affordable option than the fancy restaurants I visited on my last trip.

After lunch I went to the Drama Book Shop for a little shopping. This bookstore is the best place in the city to find books of plays, although I think it mostly caters to actors. I had intended to look for the work of Steven Berkoff, an experimental British playwright famous for playing villains in major movies, but unfortunately I forgot his exact name. Well … I don’t think they had anything by him anyway because I did look in the Bs. Instead I bought the centennial issue of The Dramatist published by the Dramatists Guild of America. I used to belong to this organization back in 1995 but I stopped paying dues. I also bought Plays From Playwrights Horizons: Volume Two because Playwrights Horizons was one of the Off Broadway theaters I located on 42nd Street. This bookstore even has a small performance space and I think something was going on during my visit because I could hear it.

Then it was time for the highlight of my trip, a matinée (i.e. afternoon performance), of a play by a playwright I’m familiar with at an Off Broadway theater. I selected the Signature Theatre Company because they have a new and impressive facility, the Pershing Square Signature Center, with three stages, a café, and even a book store. It is rare for a theater to have its own bookstore but I love the concept! The reason for that may lie in the Signature Theatre Company’s unusual practice of devoting an entire season to a single playwright’s work. In other words, they give the playwright a lot of love. I wanted to see The Piano Lesson by August Wilson because that playwright is associated with Pittsburgh PA but unfortunately that play was sold out on that day. Fortunately I did manage to get a seat for Golden Child by David Henry Hwang. I’m not entirely unfamiliar with David Henry Hwang because I must have read some of his shorter plays in some anthology; his name appears in my reading list database. Before the show began I bought a copy of the play at the Signature Theatre Company’s bookstore which was much smaller than it appears from the online photo. The Golden Child was a great play! It was like a trip to Chinatown, only better. I had a center balcony seat so I had a godlike perspective on the human drama being played out. I especially liked the scenes with ghosts so maybe I should write a play with ghosts. I like the supernatural aspect of that. The only complaint I have with the Pershing Square Signature Center is that they don’t have a coat check so everyone had to arrange their winter coats and shopping bags around their seats. I was actually too bundled up for the day because it was extremely warm in New York City for December. I could have been comfortable with a light jacket and I never even put on my winter hat.

After the play my next destination was the Empire State Building. Frankly, it was a big mistake to visit the Empire State Building that day. I feared that it would be bitterly cold that high up but the actual problem was zero visibility. Everyone in the building was warning visitors about the zero visibility but I decided to go up anyway. Unfortunately they weren’t kidding and you couldn’t see anything at all. There was just a solid white wall of fog. Looking straight down you could barely see some traffic. I forgot to mention that coming in to New York City was also disappointing because you could not see the skyline from the New Jersey approach roadway, The Helix. Where the New York City skyline should have been there was just a solid wall of white fog as if the city had disappeared. I did pick up my Empire State Building Official Souvenir Book which I ordered online with my ticket only to get a voucher which I had to present at the ticket counter. I also bought a New York City Digital Postcard at the Empire State Building. I decided to buy this because I was tired of searching online for quality photos of NYC landmarks.

For the rest of the trip I just hung out on Times Square like any other tourist. I saw the famous Naked Cowboy in Times Square. He was still practically naked because it wasn’t too cold. He was banging a bongo drum while a belly dancer danced. There were all sorts of other street performers including Mickey and Minnie Mouse, the Statue of Liberty, Batman, and even the Predator. The Predator tapped me on the shoulder when I was in his way at a crosswalk. I also saw a few camera crews filming a professional entertainment reporter (or so I assume).

To conclude, this trip was certainly very inspirational. I’ve been giving some thought recently on how to sustain my interest in playwriting. I know some powerful techniques to develop and stoke an obsession but it is difficult to maintain my interest in something for long. I’ve been thinking that I really need to dream of a fantasy theater, a theater that would be more profound and mysterious than anything that exists, and then work on creating material for that vision of a theater. This has the advantage of allowing for a mythos. In order to sustain an obsession you really need to satisfy the mythic imagination. You need to be dealing with matters of high significance and commercial entertainment and even literature often can’t touch that.

Posted in General, Theater, Travel | Tagged Broadway, Empire State Building, New York City, Off Broadway, Times Square | Leave a comment

The Threepenny Opera For $12.00

Posted on 11/14/2012 by Robert S. Robbins

Tonight I paid twelve dollars for a three penny opera. That is how much prices have been inflated since 1928 when this musical was first written. The Threepenny Opera is the most famous work of the German dramatist Bertolt Brecht. I have read twenty three of Bertolt Brecht’s plays so it was a thrill to finally see one performed live. During my trip to Berlin I could have visited the Berliner Ensemble but unfortunately I did not find time for that. However, it is interesting that The Threepenny Opera is set in SoHo, London and I did visit that neighborhood during my trip to London. That is part of the thrill of travel.

I forgot to mention that I saw this musical at the Mary L. Welch Theatre on the campus of Lycoming College.

The costumes and set design for this production were very elaborate and professional. The entire cast wore Cabaret style makeup which made them look like zombies. I actually found this the most fascinating aspect of the show. I am strangely fascinated by theatrical makeup and the Expressionistic aesthetic of this production was very surreal. It gave the show just the right touch of German decadence. "The Ballad of Mack the Knife" was a catchy tune which sounded very familiar. I may buy a DVD and cast recording CD of The Threepenny Opera later on. Tom Ryersbach played the part of Jonathan Peachum. I recognized him from many Community Theater League performances.

Hopefully the residual inspiration of this musical will encourage me to continue writing ten minute plays. I am working on one now for a playwriting contest which I’m eager to finish. I am also still expanding my travel notes on New York City to include more Off Broadway theaters. My next trip to New York City will probably be a tour of the Off Broadway theaters but I don’t know if I can find an actual show to attend in the afternoon. However I can visit the Drama Book Shop again and have lunch at the Theatre Row Diner. New York City has always been a major theater city.

Posted in General, Theater | Tagged Bertolt Brecht, The Threepenny Opera | Leave a comment

Writing Ten Minute Plays

Posted on 11/12/2012 by Robert S. Robbins

I have begun to write ten minute plays. I used to be interested in playwriting but I eventually got discouraged. I have decided to get back into playwriting because there are new opportunities. After I have written enough ten minute plays I can gather them into an ebook and sell it on Amazon. I have to admit, this does not seem very worthwhile because every book of plays I have recently purchased had no reviews on Amazon. Anyway, writing a ten minute play only requires writing ten pages of dialogue so it does not require much effort.

During my research for trips to major cities, I gathered a lot of information on theaters. I know the location of various theaters in New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Pittsburgh. I even include theater in my language learning by buying plays written in French, German or Italian and books about French theater. I recently bought a book on Italian theater. I have been expanding my New York City travel notes to include more Off Broadway theaters and I may visit the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood on my next trip because there are many small theaters there.

I have bought a few books to help me to write and market ten minute plays. I have a fairly large collection of play collections but I did not have a collection of ten minute plays so I bought, 2010 The Best 10-Minute Plays (Contemporary Playwrights Series) edited by Lawrence Harbison. I picked this book because it has fifty one plays and it is fairly contemporary. It should give me a good idea of what subject matter and style are popular for ten minute plays.

2010 The Best 10-Minute Plays (Contemporary Playwrights Series): Lawrence Harbison (Editor), Lawrence Harbison: 9781575257723: Books

ISBN: 1575257726
ISBN-13: 9781575257723

I also bought the latest copies of the dramatist market guides. I’m familiar with these market guides from my previous playwriting which must have been way back in 1995 because that is the old editions I have. I bought the Dramatists Sourcebook, 26th Edition and the The Dramatists Guild Resource Directory 2012.

Dramatists Sourcebook, 26th Edition: Theatre Communications Group: 9781559363778: Books

ISBN: 1559363770
ISBN-13: 9781559363778

The Dramatists Guild Resource Directory 2012 (Dramatists Guild Resource Directory: The Writer's Guide to the): Dramatists Guild of America: 9781585104604: Books

ISBN: 1585104604
ISBN-13: 9781585104604

These books should also help me to research all the obscure theaters in the cities that I visit. The Dramatists Guild Resource Directory even includes independent bookstores for some reason. One institution that I’m particularly interested in is the New Dramatists so I bought a book of their best plays.

New Dramatists: The Best Plays by the Graduating Class of 2000: Todd London: 9781575252698: Books

ISBN: 1575252694
ISBN-13: 9781575252698

So far I have written two 10 minute plays. I intend to write my next play based on some of the online drama that I have witnessed on YouTube. YouTube loves drama. Various online communities are an endless source of drama. It would be hysterical to bring some of that online drama to the stage.

Posted in General, Writing | Leave a comment

New York City Before Its Destruction

Posted on 10/28/2012 by Robert S. Robbins

Yesterday I made a farewell visit to New York City just before its destruction by Hurricane Sandy. This was my 21st trip to New York City making it my most visited city. I may have spent more time in Philadelphia since I make more overnight trips to that city.

The bus left very early at 5:30 a.m. so we made it to New York City before 10:00 a.m. During the bus ride we watched Mirror Mirror on DVD, a charming movie about Snow White. The bus dropped us off in front of The Manhattan at Times Square Hotel rather than in front of the Times Square Church but it’s the same general area on West 51st Street and 7th Avenue, right across from the Stardust Diner. The bus did not leave until 8:00 p.m. so I had ten hours in the city.

I was pretty relaxed about this trip. It was almost nostalgic. I’m a lot less intimidated by New York City now. My travel notes are pretty extensive for New York City but I did discover two deficiencies. I noticed that my notes lacked a media category for newspapers, magazines, television, and radio. Usually I research a city’s newspapers and lifestyle magazines and try to obtain copies. Also, my notes on the New York City subway system are really inadequate. I don’t have notes on the major subway lines and stations like I’ve created for other cities. Fortunately I managed to get around with surprisingly little difficulty but I need to work on my travel notes.

My first destination was the Morgan Library and Museum. I visited this museum on a previous trip but Pierpont Morgan’s 1906 library was closed then so it was a major disappointment. I got to the Morgan Library by taking the D train from the 53rd Street and 7th Avenue station, a short walk from where the bus left me off. One thing I want to make a note of, is that I wound up buying a $20.00 metro card because I did not have a ten dollar bill. I probably only needed the cheaper metro card for this trip. Anyway, I got off at 42nd Street – Bryant Park which is near the New York Public Library. There was no scaffolding on the New York Public Library so I finally got some decent photos of that building. From there I walked a few blocks along Madison Avenue to reach the Morgan Library and Museum which had just opened for the day.

Pierpont Morgan’s 1906 library is definitely worth visiting if you love books and want to see one of the grandest libraries ever built. The museum began with a mansion but now it is a complicated complex. You can find a model of the museum on the lower floor. I wasn’t sure where to find the library but eventually I found the entrance on the first floor towards the back, pass the collection of objects. The first room I entered was Pierpont Morgan’s Study. This room has some fine examples of Italian art which was interesting to me because I’m planning a trip to Italy next year. I’ve just begun to learn more about Italian art. The study also has a bank vault where Pierpont Morgan kept some of his more valuable books. It’s not every library that has a bank vault! The next room I entered was the Rotunda, an opulent room with mosaic panels and ceiling paintings of the ancient world and the Renaissance. It was based on a Roman Villa. I appreciated this grand room a little more than I would have because I’ve begun to read a textbook on ancient Rome, The Romans: From Village To Empire published by the Oxford University Press. I’ve only read 60 pages of this textbook but I’m finding it a little dry and boring. I prefer A Traveller In Rome by H.V. Morton which is more entertaining. I recently read the chapter on the Vestal Virgins which I found barely mentioned in the textbook.

The East Room is the main room of Pierpont Morgan’s 1906 library. It is a three story library although I could not see how anyone could reach the balconies. According to the web site, “Two staircases, concealed behind bookcases, provide access to the balconies.” So that explains it! Anyway, there were rare manuscripts on display in glass cases. I saw a letter from Napoleon, a letter from Charles Dickens, and a letter from J.D. Salinger. The final room I entered was the Librarian’s Office which has a few pieces of Egyptian, Greek, and Roman sculpture. The only other thing about the Morgan Library and Museum I want to mention is that there is a Portrait of Mrs. J. P. Morgan, Jr. by John Singer Sargent on the lower floor gallery (which doesn’t have much to look at).

After leaving the Morgan Library and Museum I walked a few blocks to the Complete Traveler Antiquarian Bookstore. This is the perfect bookstore to visit after Morgan Library and Museum because after seeing all of Pierpont Morgan’s rare printed books you can actually buy one here. I found the door locked and proceeded to walk down the street but the store manager opened if for me when I turned back. I bought a copy of Two In Italy by Maud Howe for $75.00. It was horribly expensive but a better souvenir than anything you could buy in the Morgan Library and Museum bookstore. This book was published in 1905 making it 107 years old. I plan to actually read the book and write a review online to make its purchase worthwhile. It seems to be a personal account of a trip to Italy by a virtually forgotten American writer, back when a trip to Italy was not commonplace. I was specifically looking for this book because I checked out the bookstore’s stock online and then did a little research on this particular book.

My next destination was Bourbon Street Bar & Grille on West 46th Street, Restaurant Row. To get there, I took the Times Square express from 42 Street – Grand Central station. It was unnecessary to actually enter Grand Central station because the subway entrance was across the street. But I took a few photos of the exterior of Grand Central station. At Times Square I followed the directions for the 8th Avenue exit. This required a long walk through various tunnels which I’ve never seen before. I emerged at a corner of the Port Authority Bus Terminal which left me confused about which direction to go, but I quickly found the 8th Avenue corner from where you can see the New York Times building. I wanted to visit the Bourbon Street restaurant to get a little taste of New Orleans. It has a New Orleans themed exterior and interior with wrought iron balconies and a stuffed alligator over the bar. I ordered a Vieux Carré cocktail and two appetizers, Alligator in a Blanket and Shrimp Cocktail. I’m in no danger of becoming an alcoholic because I hate the taste of alcohol. The Vieux Carré cocktail was probably excellent but I found it quite nasty, like most mixed drinks. I was wondering if the Alligator in a Blanket would use real alligator, or chicken to fake out New Yorkers. It must have been real alligator because it was not like chicken. The meat looked like a slice of sausage but it tasted different from pork, chicken, or beef. That was not much of a meal and it cost me around $45.00. The Vieux Carré cocktail did make me feel a little woozie for awhile.

I retraced my steps to the Times Square subway entrance to head downtown for my next destination, the Strand Bookstore. Ordinarily I would not make a special trip just to visit a bookstore, but I know the Strand Bookstore carries a few books in foreign languages and I wanted some books in Italian. I am in the process of learning Italian for my trip to Italy in the near future. I need to mention that I took the Q train downtown to 14th Street – Union Square. The Strand Bookstore is still under its permanent sidewalk shed but I did take a few photos of it anyway because I could not find a photo from my previous trips. I bought a Strand postcard just for the professional photograph on the front. Anyway, at the Strand Bookstore I bought Amberville by Tim Davys. This novel seems to be a crime novel set in an alternative universe where everyone is a stuffed animal. The cover is Edward Hopper’s classic painting Nighthawks, with the diner patrons replaced by stuffed animals. That painting is one of the most spoofed paintings in the world. The copy of the book I bought is in Italian. Since it was translated from English, I can just buy the English language version for comparison. I also bought John Kent’s Venice: A Color Guide To The City because I still plan to only visit Venice on my first trip to Italy.

After that little bit of shopping my initial trip goals were met so I needed some unplanned activities. I decided to visit the French restaurant, L’Absinthe, on the Upper East Side because that was the other restaurant I’ve been meaning to visit. It took about an hour to reach the restaurant. I retraced my steps to the 14th Street – Union Square subway entrance and took the R train uptown to 59th Street. From there I had to walk east to Lexington Avenue to find a subway station for the 6 train. Along the way I walked pass the Rizzoli Bookstore associated with an Italian publishing company. I would have stopped in there but I was already weighted down by books. I think I found the East 59th Street & Lexington Avenue subway station because I only had to go one stop to 68th Street – Hunter College. The restaurant was on East 67th Street. I arrived at L’Absinthe just before 3:00 p.m. when the kitchen closed for lunch but I was able to order the Duck Leg Confit. However, my main reason for visiting L’Absinthe was to try absinthe, of course, the infamous Green Fairy drink from France that was banned last century. I ordered a glass of Vieux Carré absinthe. The fact of the matter is, I actually own a bottle of Vieux Carré absinthe which is brewed by Philadelphia Distilling. I came across this while researching New Orleans and bought a bottle at a local liquor store. I also bought an absinthe glass, an absinthe spoon, and some sugar cubes. The waiter asked if I knew how to prepare it. I played dumb because I wanted to see if there was anything I was missing. He brought an absinthe fountain over to my table to slowly drip ice water over the sugar cube. But other than that little detail there was no difference in how I can prepare the drink at home. The drink tasted just like it does at home and cost me $15.00 which is outrageous. It was the same stuff I have at home. I recognized the bottle. Still, it was nice to drink an absinthe in the proper atmosphere because L’Absinthe is a beautiful brasserie. And the Duck Leg Confit was excellent. I’ve been meaning to try that classic French dish. That meal also cost me around $45.00.

From there I walked west to Central Park and then north to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. At that point, this trip to New York City became exactly like my previous trips because the Metropolitan Museum of Art is open until 9:00 p.m. making it one of the few things you can do late in the evening. During this visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art I concentrated on the Greek and Roman Art on the first floor because as I mentioned before, I was reading a textbook on Ancient Rome. I took lots of photos of Roman statues which I may be able to appreciate later. The Met Store was much larger than I expected. I don’t think I ever went to the large store on the first floor. They had a lot of books but I only bought Museum: Behind The Scenes At The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Danny Danziger.

When I left the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I walked east to Lexington Avenue and then a few blocks south until I found a subway station for the 6 train which I took downtown. I arrived on West 51st Street in plenty of time so I walked over to Times Square to take a few photos until 7:45 p.m. This is what I do on every trip. I’ll have to find something else around West 51st Street for the last hour.

Worrying about Hurricane Sandy did put a damper on my trip. Everyone in Central Pennsylvania is worried about serious flooding like we experienced last year with Hurricane Irene. I’m going to seriously consider moving if we are going to have a major storm every year. There is nothing a bibliomaniac hates more than a flood. If I do move, I would like to move to an East Coast city that is closer to New York City. Maybe someplace on the outskirts of Philadelphia.

Posted in General, Travel | Tagged Absinthe, Bourbon Street, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Morgan Library, New York City | Leave a comment

Washington DC Tour

Posted on 10/14/2012 by Robert S. Robbins

Yesterday I made my fifth trip to Washington DC. This was a AAA Travel trip which I discovered by accident while searching the Internet. However, the bus was a Susquehanna Trailways bus as usual. So far I have not seen any local bus tour use any other sort of bus, although I see Martz buses from Wilkes-Barre at New York City and Washington DC. Skipping ahead, while at Union Station I saw Louisiana Trailways buses from New Orleans in the bus parking deck. I found this interesting because I’m planning a trip to New Orleans and I wondered how they made a trip so far north. It must require an overnight stay in a hotel.

The bus left us off near the Lincoln Memorial so I had to walk to the National Museum of American History. Fortunately the work on the reflecting pool was completed so I finally got some classic photos of the reflecting pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial. I came across the Vietnam War Memorial on my way to the National Museum of American History so I took a few photos of that too. When I got to the National Museum of American History I saw the Susquehanna Trailways bus parked right in front of it so I could of stayed on the bus to get there.

The National Museum of American History isn’t a particularly interesting museum but I’ve been to most of the other major Smithsonian museums on the National Mall. I also only had about two hours before the bus took us to Union Station for lunch. I went through the museum in kind of a rush but I did see the original Star-Spangled Banner and Archie Bunker’s chair. I also saw the grand George Washington statue which makes him look Roman, and the "America on the Move" exhibit which was very impressive. I think this transportation exhibit alone is worth a visit to the National Museum of American History. In the museum gift shop, I bought The Gardner Heist by Ulrich Boser, a non-fiction account of a famous art theft from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. This book was published by Harper Collins but has an Smithsonian Books imprint. I chose this book because I am somewhat familiar with Isabella Stewart Gardner from my research on Venice. She designed her art museum to look like a Venetian palazzo. Unfortunately, Boston is too far away for a day trip but I may visit that city someday.The other book I bought was A New Orleans Voudou Priestess: The Legend and Reality of Marie Laveau by Carolyn Morrow Long which of course has to do with my plans to visit New Orleans. I really can’t afford a major trip right now but I’ve done enough research on New Orleans.

As I mentioned, the bus took us to Union Station at noon for lunch. I found this interesting because I got to see the Amtrak station. I didn’t get a good look at Union Station because the interior was covered in black netting for remodeling and I did not see the exterior at all. Really the bus just took us there for lunch because Union Station is renowned for its restaurants. I found the Barnes & Noble bookstore where I bought two more books; Fodor’s Italian for Travelers which I bought because it has extensive pronunciation notes and a small New Orleans Encounter guidebook by Lonely Planet. This book store was well stocked with travel guides because it is in a train station used by travelers and tourists. I had lunch at Cajun & Grill which I hoped would offer New Orleans cuisine but instead I found your typical Asian buffet.

After lunch a local tour guide got on the bus and we used the Susquehanna Trailways bus as a hop on / hop off tour bus. This was kind of unusual because ordinarily the Susquehanna Trailways bus isn’t used for touring the city. But I liked it because I got to see many more of the sights without doing a lot of walking. First we went to the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial for a rather lengthy lecture on his presidency during the Great Depression and World World Two. The tour guide was a retired history teacher so he really knew his stuff. Then we got back on the bus and went to Capitol Hill which I’ve seen before. There was some construction going on for the Presidential Inauguration which will take place after the election. After that we drove along Embassy Row without getting off the bus at all. This was particularly interesting to me because some of the embassies offer cultural programs. I suspect Washington DC is a great city for anyone fond of international travel. It is a very international city with a lot of resources for learning a foreign language. For example, there is Alliance Française de Washington, The French Embassy’s La Maison Française cultural facility, and the Italian Cultural Institute in Washington.

We also drove around the Washington National Cathedral which is still being repaired from when it was damaged by the earthquake last year. And finally we were left off at Lafayette Park, directly across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House, so we could get close to the White House. It was very thrilling to be so close to the White House. I saw security patrolling the roof and the corner where television reporters are filmed for the nightly news. This reminded me of my visit to London earlier this year when I walked pass No. 10 Downing Street and saw the Houses of Parliament. I felt less like a tourist being in my own country.

Unfortunately the bus driver got lost so we were left waiting for an entire hour after visiting the White House. I did not bring my jacket so I was a little cold. The tour guide left us and walked to a nearby subway station. I took careful note of that because I’m just about finished visiting the Smithsonian Museums along the National Mall and the monuments. On future trips to Washington DC I will want to visit some of the more residential areas which requires using the subway system. Dupont Circle and the Adams Morgan neighborhood seem to be good places to catch some international cuisine and culture. Then there is the Georgetown area which I have not seen.

In two weeks I am going on another bus trip, to New York City. I have not been to New York City in a long time. Although I’ve read most of my NYC travel guides, I have not read any of the books I’ve bought on previous trips to NYC so I really should read them for inspiration. I still think New York City is the greatest city in the world and the most exciting city to visit.

Posted in General, Travel | Tagged Embassy Row, National Museum of American History, Union Station, Washington DC, White House | Leave a comment

Scranton–A Visit To The Electric City

Posted on 9/30/2012 by Robert S. Robbins

Yesterday I made my long overdue trip to Scranton Pennsylvania. I’ve been thinking about exploring this city ever since I began my exploration of Pennsylvania. Although Williamsport is in the NEPA television coverage area, the drive to Scranton takes over two hours which is too far for a casual trip. During the long drive I listened to the CD from The Complete Idiot’s Guide To Learning Italian because I would much rather travel to Italy. Scranton does have an American Italian festival, La Festa Italiana. Fortunately, the drive to Scranton is fairly straightforward with only three exits to make. Scranton has plenty of parking garages so you don’t need to hunt for a parking space.

Scranton has a bad reputation as an economically depressed city. The city has recently been in the news when the mayor tried to pay all the city employees minimum wage, even the police and firemen, because the city has run out of money. But if I ever need to look for a new job I may need to travel to Scranton for a job interview. This has been my justification for local travel. I figure it is a good idea to travel around the state while you still have a job and not wait until you are unemployed. I also plan to explore Wilkes-Barre after doing more research on that city.

I parked in the Casey Garage downtown, not far from Courthouse Square. The first thing I did was to walk around Courthouse Square to take lots of photos because most of the city landmarks are in that area. The most interesting discovery was a small statue of Jason Miller in the Plazza dell’Arte section of Courthouse Square. As I mentioned in my previous blog post, I met Jason Miller when he visited the James V. Brown library here in Williamsport. I also saw him in his one-man play Barrymore’s Ghost which he performed at our community college theater. Unfortunately, he died in 2001 of a heart attack. According to Wikipedia, the bronze bust of Jason Miller was actually sculpted by the actor Paul Sorvino.

The Steamtown Mall did not open until 10:00 a.m. so I spent an hour taking photos of various Scranton landmarks. I often could not find any decent photos of Scranton online while researching the city. So I made sure to photograph the following; the Brooks Building, City Hall, the Scranton Electric Building, the Scranton Cultural Center, the Albright Memorial Library, the Mears Building, Lackawanna College, Saint Peter’s Cathedral, Hotel Jermyn, and the Scranton Times building.

I found copies of two free papers; the Weekender and Electric City published by the570.com. It is kind of impressive that Scranton and North East PA can support two entertainment weeklies. Williamsport does not have enough happening to even fill a two column event listing. I shall study these papers to see what entertainment resources the area has to offer. Later on, after I had some change in my pocket, I also bought a copy of The Times Leader. Hmm, it looks like I neglected to buy a copy of The Times-Tribune because I did not realize that Scranton has two newspapers.

After the Mall at Steamtown opened, I searched for The Dunder Mifflin Store where you can buy merchandise based on the television comedy The Office but I was unable to find it. That store may have closed because the show has been cancelled. But I did buy Season Two and Season Three on DVD at fye. I only watched Season One in preparation for my trip. I also bought a DVD of Interview With A Vampire, one of my favorite movies. I have this movie on laserdisc but it was worth buying the DVD for some extras. I watched this movie last night. I plan to visit New Orleans next year so this film was interesting for that reason. While at the Steamtown Mall I found the connecting walkway to Steamtown so I managed to get more photos and video of the trains from the walkway.

Then it was time for lunch. I could have eaten at the mall but I wanted to try someplace with more local character so I went to Coney Island Lunch where I ordered both the Texas Wiener and the Texas Hamburger.

After lunch my next goal was to visit the Everhart Museum in Nay Aug Park. I probably should have driven over there but instead I walked all the way from downtown to Nay Aug Park, passing the University of Scranton along the way. It was a long walk with much of it uphill but I need more exercise anyway.

The Everhart Museum is a small museum but it only costs $5.00 for admission and it has some neat things to see. There are a few dinosaur fossils including a complete mounted skeleton of a Stegosaurus. The stuffed bird collection was excellent and pretty comprehensive. In addition to a Natural History wing, the museum has a Folk Art wing, an African Art collection, and a gallery of American paintings.

Since I was already in the Nay Aug Park I spent some time at the park. I saw the David Wenzel Tree House but the gate was closed and padlocked so I did not get to go into the tree house.

I also found the old Nay Aug Zoo which was closed due to the poor conditions under which the animals were kept. I took some photos of the abandoned cages because it looks kind of creepy.

When I found the Davis Trail at Nay Aug Park I followed that to find the observation decks for the Nay Aug Gorge where you can view a waterfall. It is sort of like a Ricketts Glen waterfall right in the middle of a Scranton city park!

The long walk back to downtown Scranton was a little easier because it was all downhill. I had something to eat at the Eden Vegan Café. I ordered a fruit smoothie and a chiliburger which came with a meat patty that was not made from real beef. After eating I went next door to Embassy Vinyl were I made a token purchase of a jazz CD, Heart Of Gold by Ellis Marsalis. I vaguely recalled that this jazz musician was associated with New Orleans.

The last thing I did in Scranton was visit the Trolley Museum. I tried to walk to the museum but I should have gone through the Mall at Steamtown and then use the crosswalk which is what I eventually did after going through the Steamtown Mall parking garage. Unfortunately the last trolley ride was at 3:00 p.m. so I only got to see the museum exhibits. My final purchase was the book If You Can Play Scranton: A Theatrical History: 1871-2010 by Nancy McDonald which I bought at the Steamtown bookstore. This book turned out to be autographed by the author although I did not realize that when I bought it.

In October I am going on bus trips to Washington DC and New York City so I have something to look forward to.

Posted in General, Travel | Tagged Electric City, Everhart Museum, Jason Miller, Mall at Steamtown, Scranton | 1 Comment

Carnegie Science Center

Pittsburgh Vacation Thursday

Pittsburgh Carnegie Museums

Pittsburgh Vacation Tuesday

Pittsburgh Vacation Monday

Cash On Delivery at Community Theatre League

Arsenic and Old Lace at Lycoming College

Washington DC 2013

A Playwright’s Visit To The Theater District

The Whale–Samuel D. Hunter

Brooding During “A Chorus Line”

A Jungian Approach To Literature

Two In Italy by Maud Howe–A Book Review

Philip Goes Forth–The Damned Foolery Of Playwriting

Off Broadway Trip

The Threepenny Opera For $12.00

Writing Ten Minute Plays

New York City Before Its Destruction

Washington DC Tour

Scranton–A Visit To The Electric City

Now Reading

Planned books:

Current books:

Recent books:

May 2013
S	M	T	W	T	F	S
« Apr
			1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8	9	10	11
12	13	14	15	16	17	18
19	20	21	22	23	24	25
26	27	28	29	30	31