Williamsport Web Developer Weblog | Brief notes on what I am up to as a web developer in Williamsport PA, Lycoming County.

Brooklyn Urban Exploring

Posted on 8/28/2016 by Robert S. Robbins

Yesterday I made my first extensive trip to Brooklyn. I have thoroughly explored Manhattan and my recent trips to New York City have gotten very repetitive. Fortunately Brooklyn is like a whole other side of New York City for me to explore. Brooklyn is in the process of becoming another Manhattan. I saw plenty of evidence of that on this trip because some parts of the city are like a massive construction project with numerous skyscrapers going up. This wasn’t my first venture into Brooklyn since I’ve walked across the Brooklyn Bridge and wandered around DUMBO before. I’ve also made a trip to the Brooklyn Museum. But yesterday I spent most of the day in Brooklyn and saw more than one neighborhood.

There was a street fair on 8th Avenue which caused a traffic jam and forced our bus to find an alternative drop off location. Eventually the bus made its way to 49th Street and left us off at the Worldwide Plaza. I walked to the 49th Street Subway Station located outside of Olive Garden on the north end of Times Square, across from the TKTS Ticket Booth, and took a N train heading downtown. My big concern was to determine how much travel time to allow for getting back to Manhattan from Brooklyn. I think 25 minutes is about right. The subway goes across Manhattan Bridge so I got a good view of the Brooklyn Bridge before the subway went back underground to reach the Atlantic Avenue / Barclays Center station where I got off.

When I exited the subway I was on the far side of Atlantic Avenue and could see Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower directly in front of me. The Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower is one of the tallest buildings in Brooklyn and serves as a good landmark for orienting yourself. My first goal was to locate all the theater in the Brooklyn Cultural District. Most of these theaters are associated with the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM). Unfortunately there was quite a lot of construction going on in the area which made getting good photos difficult. In addition to the BAM facilities, I saw the Mark Morris Dance Center, the Polonsky Shakespeare Center, and the BRIC Arts Media House. I walked a little further that I intended to and found Junior’s Restaurant and Long Island University.

Barclays Center Station

But eventually I walked back towards Atlantic Avenue and found South Oxford Street because I wanted to see the South Oxford Space, a performance space run by the Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York. Several theater companies are using that as their address. Unfortunately this building was having its facade restored. The entire building was covered in a black drape so I couldn’t even see what the place looks like. As it turned out, this wasn’t far from the Fulton Street entrances of the Lafayette Avenue Station where there were several things I wanted to see. I found the mural of Comandante Biggie (aka The Notorious B.I.G.) and the bookstore, Greenlight Bookstore, which was one of many book stores I wanted to check out. I searched practically the entire store for the drama/theater section where I found the perfect book, Bacchae: A New Translation by Robin Robertson. This is like the fourth translation of this ancient Greek play by Euripides which I have bought. Ordinarily, I would not read multiple translations of the same play, but Bacchae is a very significant play since it is the earliest example of shamanism in drama. I have been reading multiple translations of Anton Chekhov’s plays but that is only to become very familiar with them after forgetting most of their plots.

After buying that book I had a little shopping bag to carry around for the rest of the day but at least it had handles. I walked back to Atlantic Avenue and took lots of photos of the Barclays Center, Atlantic Terminal and Atlantic Center, and the Barclays Center subway entrance. It is surprisingly difficult to find good photos of Brooklyn landmarks online even though I saw plenty of tourists taking photos. There was a statue of Captain America in front of the Barclays Center and everyone was taking photos of that, but it was unexpected for me because I haven’t seen it in photos online.

Captain America Barclays Center

I was going to walk all the way down Atlantic Avenue to the Grand Army Plaza and Prospect Park but after coming across the intersection with Fifth Avenue I decided to go down that street instead. Fifth Avenue was the street I did a Google Street View walk through of just before my trip so it was fresh in my mind. I took a lot of photos of establishments on the street corners for my notes. Fifth Avenue cuts across many side streets so you need to look for distinctive establishments to determine your progress along the street. Eventually I reached 1st Street where there was a Mexican restaurant I added to my notes as a probable place to have lunch, Calexico. I did indeed stop in at Calexico for a bite to eat. But all I ordered was a drink and a single taco, which didn’t prove to be much of a meal. At least I got to use their restroom although I think I blew a fuse using the hand dryer. I almost left my book at this restaurant but fortunately it occurred to me that I was a little light handed before I got too far down the street. I located the Brooklyn Superhero Supply Company and the Record and Tape Center store before leaving Fifth Avenue.

Calexico

I want to say a little more about this street since it was a typical urban experience which I find particularly fascinating. These kinds of main drags are like retro city retail streets before the shopping mall and Walmart killed downtown. Fifth Avenue was lined with diverse retail stores, restaurants, boutiques, and other sorts of establishments. Some of the stores where old and decrepit and some were brand new and cutting edge. It seemed like a magical street offering all sorts of unusual dining options and stores with hidden treasures. This alone makes Brooklyn worth exploring even though I did not spend much time going into various establishments.

After returning to 1st Street I walked up the street to look at the brownstones and eventually reached Prospect Park. But before I went to Prospect Park I did make a side trip on 7th Avenue to find the Community Bookstore, a famous Park Slope bookstore. There I bought a copy of Humboldt’s Gift by Saul Bellow. This novel was on my wish list because it is a a roman à clef about Bellow’s friendship with the poet Delmore Schwartz. To be honest, I don’t know when I will find the time to read this book. I’ve probably bought books six years ago in New York City which I still have not read. I have a huge backlog of books to read.

Prospect Park

I didn’t spend a lot of time researching Prospect Park so I only walked across the Long Meadow until I reached the hiking trails of the Midwood, Brooklyn’s oldest remaining forest. I felt like I was back in Pennsylvania! Eventually I managed to find the entrance to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden which I sort of remembered as something to check out. But I didn’t really have any details on it in my notes so I was surprised by the $12.00 admission fee. I thought it was worth it because the Brooklyn Botanic Garden is an extensive series of gardens including a rock garden, a rose garden, a cherry tree esplanade, and a Japanese pond. I also saw the Celebrity Path and took photos of many of the stepping stones. This was a pleasant break from the urban environment but it was a very hot day, too hot to be outside.

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Japanese Pond

When I left the Brooklyn Botanic Garden I managed to find the portion of Flatbush Avenue that cuts through Prospect Park and followed that to the Grand Army Plaza. I did walk pass the Prospect Park Zoo which was tempting but it was getting late and I wanted to leave enough time to complete my planned itinerary. I definitely didn’t want to miss the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Arch or the Brooklyn Public Library which I photographed in addition to many other sights in the area.

Grand Army Plaza

I circled around the Grand Army Plaza to find Vanderbilt Avenue, another major thoroughfare which I explored on Google Street View. I walked up Vanderbilt Avenue until I located yet another bookstore, Unnameable Books. Unnameable Books was a very cramped book store but after finding their drama / theater section I found a book to buy, Aunt Dan & Lemon by Wallace Shawn. Wallace Shawn is best known as an actor. He had a role in The Princess Bride. But he is also a playwright and well respected in the New York City theater community. Now I had three books to carry around. I stopped in at the coffee shop and bakery next store to drink an iced latte since I was dying of thirst.

When I reached the corner of Vanderbilt Avenue and Atlantic Avenue I walked west back to the Barclays Center and entered the Atlantic Avenue / Barclays Center Station to take the subway back into Manhattan. This subway ride was not uneventful. First a group of young black men insisted on doing some subway dancing for tips on the journey back to Manhattan. Then a black woman suffered a seizure on the subway car I was in, forcing the train to halt at the 34th Street Station. Everyone had to get off that train and take the next train to arrive on the other side of the platform.

Once I was back in Manhattan I immediately went to the Drama Book Store where I bought a copy of The Weir and Other Plays by Connor McPherson. Then I walked to Bryant Park and took photographs of a few literary statues there. Since I hadn’t eaten much all day I went to Obao on 9th Avenue where I ordered a drink at the bar because the restaurant was too busy to get a table. It didn’t look like anybody was going to take my order at the bar so I left and walked down the street to Two Boots Pizza where I had a slice of a pizza called The Bird and an unsweetened tea. While eating my pizza I overheard a playwright talking to a woman. It may have been an interview with a journalist. For the rest of the evening I didn’t do anything in particular except wander around taking odd photos of anything that caught my eye. Nevertheless I did take some interesting photos this way; policemen on horses in Times Square, The Little Theatre near Sardis (don’t know the story behind this place), the trash left by the 8th Avenue street fair, a sneak shot of a homeless person, and Engine 54, Ladder 4, Battalion 9 fire station.

Homeless Man

This trip to New York City was inspiring because it opens up an whole new borough to explore. It will be like finding a virtual duplicate of New York City with entirely new neighborhoods to wander around and new experiences to be had. Brooklyn might not have as many attractions as Manhattan, but I am eager to explore its culture and check out the creative scene as far as possible. I think I will visit Williamsburg during my trip to New York City next month.

Posted in General, Travel | Tagged Brooklyn, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Grand Army Plaza, Greenlight Bookstore, Park Slope, Prospect Park, Unnameable Books | Leave a comment

Number One Is The Only Natural Number

Posted on 8/26/2016 by Robert S. Robbins

I’ve just finished reading Man and His Symbols by Carl Jung and the final chapter concerns how mathematics does not represent reality. After thinking about it, I realized that numbers are purely conceptual. The number two is purely conceptual as a count of two is never absolutely valid.

Let me explain. Say you have two apples. The count of apples is two. But what you really have is one apple plus another apple or a different apple. Lets say I present you with two objects, an apple and an orange. Now tell me if there is one or two. While there are two pieces of fruit, there is only one apple and one orange. The count of two is only valid if you apply a concept or category. In other words, two is always in some way conceptual. In fact, all numbers in a count are in some way conceptual.

In computer science, this can be illustrated using object oriented programming. When I create two objects of a class and get their count, I expect the count to be two. But under certain circumstances the count will not be two. Lets say the objects have the same number of properties. If you only look at these properties, the count will be two. However, if you look at the value of the properties they may be different. So when you do a little reality testing and test for deep equality, you do not get equality and a count of your object may be one. A count of two always depends on applying a concept of objects being the same in their properties but they will be the same only on some superficial level, in terms of a limited set of properties.

Posted in General, Programming | Tagged mathematics | Leave a comment

Black Forest Trail

Posted on 8/21/2016 by Robert S. Robbins

Yesterday I hiked a portion of the Black Forest Trail, one of the hiking trails along Pine Creek on the western edge of Lycoming County. Other hiking trails in that area are the Golden Eagle Trail and the Bob Webber Trail, but those trails include steep climbs so they can be a bit of an ordeal. The Black Forest Trail will probably become my favorite since it has a long stretch which is completely level. It is ideal for when you want to take a long walk in the woods without really exerting yourself.

Black Forest Trail is up around Slate Run, a small village along Route 414. To reach the trail you turn left onto Slate Run Road just before you reach Wolfe’s General Store. After crossing the bridge over Pine Creek you turn right, drive pass the Hotel Manor, continue up Slate Run Road until you reach the trail parking area which is just a place to park along the road. If that parking area is full you can drive further up the road until you see a sign posting a 15 mile speed limit for a turn. The parking area just before that sign is where you park for another section of the trail that leads to a incredible vista view.

But that is getting ahead of my tale. I parked at the primary trail head parking area. There was only one car already there. The trail makes a sharp decent until you reach the trail register where you can choose to go left or right. I initially chose right but I encountered some obstructions and the trail just took me back to Slate Run Road where there didn’t seem to be anywhere to continue. On my way back I went slightly off trail to reach Slate Run. I saw a couple hiking on the other side of Slate Run with their dog even though the trail did not appear to cross this small creek.

Black Forest Trail

When I got back to the Black Forest Trail register I went left. This part of the trail continues for a very long way on a former railroad grade so the trail is perfectly level and fairly wide. It is this part of the trail that seems ideal for casual hiking. After about an hour hiking in that direction you will come back to a turn in Slate Run Road. This is where the 15 MPH sign is located with another parking area. Although the Black Forest Trail appears to end here it will continue on the other side of the road once you walk pass the turn in the road. This part of the trail is a steep climb to one of the most spectacular vista views I’ve seen in the area. You will find a 300 degree view of the mountains including a long view down the Pine Creek Gorge. You have to earn it through a very strenuous climb but it is definitely worth the effort. However, if it is a hot and muggy day, I don’t think you should combine these hikes because that really saps your strength.

Canyon Vista

On this hiking trip, I brought along my new camping stool, the TravelChair Slacker Chair Folding Tripod Camp Stool. I thought this stool was a little too heavy to bring along on a hike but it is not too bad. The real problem is that it won’t fit in a backpack and carrying it around is very awkward. It has a shoulder strap but the strap is way too short. Eventually I clipped it to my backpack to keep it out of way. I’m going to buy a shoulder strap to replace the one that came with it. Nevertheless, this camping stool was very useful because it allowed me to take a rest anywhere on the trail.

Hotel Manor

By the time I got back to the trail register I was so drained of energy that I could barely climb back up to the parking area. It had become hot and muggy by then and my shirt was thoroughly soaked with sweat. I forgot to bring a change of shirts. After recovering a bit in my car, I drove down to Hotel Manor for lunch. This hotel offers a great view of the Pine Creek and the Pine Creek Gorge through its large chalet windows which you find in many grandiose hunting lodges. I ordered a fairly basic meal of burger, fries, and a Pepsi but the burger was pretty good. Not exactly fine dining but not fast food fare either. They had a large stuffed black bear so I took a photo of that. After lunch I went to Wolfe’s General Store to see if they still rent bikes for the Pine Creek Rail Trail. Although they do seem to offer this service, I had just eaten a large meal and was too tired from hiking to do any biking.

Wolfe’s General Store

Instead of heading back home straight away I decided to go to the Woolrich Outlet Store. Woolrich sells outdoor clothing. I’ve been hiking in the same clothes I wear at the office which is a little too formal. I especially wanted something to replace my white dress shirts. So at the Woolrich Outlet Store I bought two checkered shirts, one short sleeved and one long sleeved, for $63.00. I think that is still too expensive but since Woolrich is a local company I can count on their clothes being locally fashionable. Their outdoor clothing has to be fashionable for outdoor recreation in the area.

Woolrich Outlet Store

After leaving the town of Woolrich I drove through McElhattan and decided I might as well stop in at Zindel Park to take some photos with my new camera. I passed the old Henry W. Shoemaker estate, Restless Oaks. This spooky old house now has a For Sale sign so I guess there is no interest in preserving the legacy of the folklorist Shoemaker. On the way back from Zindel Park I saw a deer but I spooked him when I stopped my car to take a photo.

Zindel Park

Posted in General, Travel | Tagged Black Forest Trail, Hotel Manor, Pine Creek, Wolfe's General Store, Woolrich Original Outlet Store, Zindel Park | Leave a comment

New Hope and Ivyland Railroad Sunday Brunch

Posted on 8/9/2016 by Robert S. Robbins

For my final day in New Hope the major goal was to ride the excursion train. I had a reservation for Sunday Brunch on the New Hope and Ivyland Railroad train for 10:30 a.m. However I checked out of my hotel around 8:00 a.m. and parked at Union Square again. This time I used my credit card to pay for a parking receipt that was good until 3:15 p.m.

Since I had several hours before the train departed, I walked over the New Hope-Lambertville Bridge into Lambertville and took some photos of various establishments including The People’s Store and Panoply Books on North Union Street. I didn’t really spend a lot of time researching Lambertville, but this small town in New Jersey does give you many other options when you are visiting New Hope. Eventually I found an entrance to the Delaware and Raritan Canal and decided to follow its towpath. The New Jersey canal towpath was a lot more crowded than the Pennsylvania side had been last evening. It may have been because it was a Sunday morning and there was nothing else for people to do. I walked so far that I reached the Route 202 toll bridge before I finally turned back to walk on the other side on the canal. While on the return trip I came across an abandoned railroad freight car which had been painted with graffiti. It was a pretty interesting sight so I took many photos of that. Eventually I came out at Bridge Street and walked back across the New Hope-Lambertville Bridge into New Hope.

Delaware Canal Railroad Freight Car

Before the Sunday Brunch train ride I still had time to visit the Bucks County Playhouse where I walked around the building to the Delaware River bank and took photos of the Aquetong Creek dam spillway which forms a man-made waterfall right next to the Bucks County Playhouse. I finally made my way to the New Hope and Ivyland Railroad at around 10:00 a.m. when the ticket booth opened. I picked up my ticket which came in an envelope with one of their brochures. Although the train boarded at 10:30 a.m. I think we waited an half hour before it actually started moving. They waited until they had brought all the food onto the train. There was a dish of grapes, fruit, and a few small muffins to munch on before the main course. I didn’t remember what I ordered but it turned out to be the Monte Cristo with Griddled Turkey, Ham and Swiss Cheese. This was a huge sandwich so I was only able to eat half of it. The train ride lasted 45 minutes and there wasn’t much to see except for the woods. It was quite similar to the excursion train at Jim Thorpe PA. The train went a little faster on the way back than it had on the way to Lahaska Station.

New Hope and Ivyland Railroad

Upon my return to New Hope I had three final things to do before heading home; buying a book at Panoply Books in Lambertville, doing the Parry Mansion tour, and visiting the New Hope Arts Center. I walked across the New Hope-Lambertville Bridge yet again and made my way to Panoply Books on North Union Street. There I bought Wormwood Star: The Magickal Life of Marjorie Cameron which has been on my wish list for long time. This is a biography of an occult artist. The fact that this bookstore had this book may be another consequence of New Hope’s peculiar concentration of psychics and Wicca stores.

Panoply Books

I got back to New Hope in time for the first tour of the Parry Mansion at 1:00 p.m. The tour was supposed to begin with a short film but they were having problems with the laptop so we skipped that. I saw various rooms on the ground floor and bedrooms on the second floor decorated according to the style of various eras; Colonial, Federal, Empire, and Victorian. After the tour I rushed to the New Hope Arts Center where I saw an exhibit of local artwork. I finally left New Hope for the three hour drive home at 2:00 p.m.

New Hope is definitely one of the best small towns in Pennsylvania for a tourist. Only Jim Thorpe PA would be comparable. I was impressed by the many boutiques, the many art galleries, and the many fine restaurants. Even though I thought I wouldn’t find enough things to keep myself occupied, I was actually a bit rushed to experience everything. The walks along the canal towpaths certainly require a lot of time. I’ve gathered enough information on New Hope to plan future trips but since New Hope is so far away I probably won’t make any casual weekend trips.

Posted in General, Travel | Tagged Delaware and Raritan Canal, Lambertville, New Hope, New Hope and Ivyland Railroad, Panoply Books, Parry Mansion, The People's Store | Leave a comment

Bucks County Playhouse Trip

Posted on 8/9/2016 by Robert S. Robbins

Over the weekend I made a rare overnight trip to a small town in Pennsylvania. I spent the entire weekend in New Hope PA. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t stay somewhere overnight when I can just drive home, but New Hope is three hours from Williamsport so driving for six hours in one day would be tedious. The main purpose of this trip was to see a play at the historic Bucks County Playhouse. So technically this was a theater trip.

On July 23rd I did make a preliminary trip to Doylestown and New Hope in order to visit two museums and take some photos in preparation for this lengthier trip. Based on that trip, I had a better idea of the route and adjusted my notes with a few details on tricky turns. I just want to add that I passed the Buckingham Green Shopping Center before reaching Lahaska.

Upon reaching New Hope I parked at the American Legion on the Delaware Canal Towpath again which cost $10.00 for the day. I arrived at 10:30 a.m. and had to kill some time before the play began at 2:00 p.m. I walked along South Main Street and took more photos but the sky was cloudy so my photos are a little dark. One thing I made sure to find was Lenape Park, a small park next to the railroad tracks which is easy to overlook. I also walked across the New Hope-Lambertville Bridge into Lambertville where I took more photos of various establishments since I had failed to explore North Union Street on my previous trip.

I did stop in at The People’s Store Antiques Center which opened at 10:00 a.m. This antiques mall has four floors of dealer spaces. Much of the merchandise was high quality and very expensive. I saw a lot of tempting antiques but eventually I only bought a fancy arts and crafts pin which had an interesting design. That was only $20.00. Looking at the antiques was like visiting a museum with an interesting collection of cultural artifacts. There were many other antique stores in Lambertville but I did not have the time to explore them all.

After walking back across the bridge into New Hope I went to Farley’s Bookshop where I bought the DVD Gods and Monsters starring Ian McKellen and Brendan Fraser. This movie was on my wish list because it takes place in Los Angeles which will be the destination for my vacation this year. I also bought the book Introducing Jung but this turned out to be a book I’ve already bought and read. It had a different cover so I did not recognize it. I am currently getting back into studying some aspects of Jungian psychology for my playwriting. After that I had lunch at Karla’s Restaurant on West Mechanic Street where I ordered a crab cake sandwich and a cocktail, a Sidecar. I sat on the enclosed patio which was full of hanging plants. It reminded me of the sort of cafes you find in New Orleans.

Karla’s Restaurant

After lunch I think I went for walk along the canal towpath and eventually wandered up North Main Street where I took a photo of PNC Bank. This is practically the only place in town with an ATM so I wanted to document that for my notes. I stopped in at Phantasm Comics where I bought a paperback book, Sin-A-Rama: Sleaze Sex Paperbacks of the Sixties Expanded Edition. This was probably the most adult thing in the comic book store. I bought it because I like paperback books. I returned to my car to store my purchases and then proceeded to the Bucks County Playhouse for the highlight of my trip.

The play I saw was The Divine Sister by Charles Busch. I somewhat familiar with Charles Busch since he is famous in Off-Broadway theater in New York City. I’ve read a few of his plays and bought his novel, Whores of Lost Atlantis, which I haven’t read yet. Charles Busch is a famous playwright and transvestite. The Divine Sister is a farce and a parody of all the movies featuring nuns. Although this play was not quite my cup of tea, it was sufficiently interesting to justify my trip. Since it was a Saturday afternoon matinee show I could have avoided an overnight stay in New Hope, but there were several other things I wanted to do in town. I noticed that the entire row in front of me failed to return after the intermission. I don’t know if they were offended or just wandered off. I almost fell asleep during the show because the heat had left me exhausted and the cool, dark theater encouraged taking a nap. Several old songs from the 1950s were played during the show and I was so tired that I began to have curiously vivid visions of the 1950s.

Bucks County Playhouse

When the play was over I drove to Rodeway Inn And Suites about one mile out of town in order to check into my room. I selected this hotel because they offered an one night stay. All the bed and breakfast places in town required a two night stay for the weekend and that would have been more expensive. After freshening up a bit I drove back to New Hope. This time I parked at Union Square which has 268 parking spaces so it as easier to find a place to park. This parking lot had parking kiosks which required some study to use. I feed in some quarters and got a printed receipt which I had to display on my dashboard. If using a credit card, you had to insert your card first, remove it, and then add time before printing the receipt. This parking lot was right next door to the New Hope and Ivyland Railroad excursion train station.

I had a dinner reservation for 8:00 p.m. so I intended to remain in town until after that. The first thing I did was arrange for a Wells Ferry Boat Ride. There was one final boat ride at 5:00 p.m. and they almost cancelled that because they were expecting thunder storms. But fortunately I was able to go on the final boat ride of the day. The boat tour was a 45 minute ride on the Delaware River up to the toll bridge and back down to the Bucks County Playhouse to end at the far side of the New Hope-Lambertville Bridge on the Pennsylvania side. The boat landing was below the Landing Restaurant. There wasn’t a whole lot to see on the river but I saw many lavish river homes. I did get some great photos when the sun was lighting up part of the river bank against the dark and threatening storm clouds. When we returned to shore I rushed back to my car before my parking ticket expired and to get my umbrella which I had forgotten to take with me. That was very lucky because there was a thunderstorm and pouring rain shortly after I reached my car. I waited it out in my car. After the rain was over I saw a rainbow over the New Hope and Ivyland Railroad. I got a kick out of that because it reminded me of all the rainbow flags around New Hope that show gay pride.

New Hope Rainbow

Since many establishments closed at 5:00 p.m. it looked like there would be nothing for me to do for three hours until my dinner reservation. So I decided to go for a long walk on the canal towpath. I walked all the way north to the Route 202 toll bridge to New Jersey. This was a very pleasant stroll along what looked like a swampy, flooded road through the woods. I passed some abandoned railroad cars and saw a few lavish homes along the towpath. Some of the homes had pools and various types of rustic stairs up to the towpath. A saw a yellow house with its light on that looked especially idyllic along the canal. Towards the Route 202 toll bridge I even saw a few cars on the towpath which must be allowed to reach a few residential homes. On the walk back I noticed an entire family of deer watching me from the other side of the canal. I took a few photos of them but the light was growing dim by that time so those photos aren’t that great.

Delaware Canal Towpath

I got back just in time for my dinner at Marsha Brown Restaurant. I saw a rabbit on the lawn of the Mansion Inn right next door to the restaurant. Since he didn’t run away I was able to get some good photos of him. It is hard to get a photo of a wild rabbit. At the Marsha Brown Restaurant I ordered an Ice Tea and the Chalmette Scallops atop New Orleans style pork bacon and greens. I’m not sure if the Ice Tea had any alcohol but it did not seem to have any effect upon me so probably not. This was an expensive meal, over $50 with tip, so I put it on a credit card. I saw a bit of the Olympic Games Rio 2016 playing on the widescreen TVs. Although I was going to go right back to my hotel after dinner, I did wander down South Main Street as it was getting dark. I entered the Three Cranes Gallery Boutique where I was a bit tempted by the wooden Buddhas and gem stones but the prices were a bit high. Overall, the quality of merchandise in the New Hope stores was excellent and could tempt a person to spend a lot of money. The shopping was a little high end compared to comparable Pennsylvania small towns. For desert I had two scoops of Coffee Ice Cream at Moo Hope Ice Cream which was still open and quite crowded at around 9:00 p.m.

Mansion Inn Rabbit

Posted in General, Theater, Travel | Tagged Bucks County Playhouse, Farley's Bookshop, Karla's Restaurant, Lambertville, Marsha Brown Restaurant, New Hope, The People's Store Antiques Center, Wells Ferry Boat Rides | Leave a comment

Greenwich Village Theater Trip

Posted on 7/31/2016 by Robert S. Robbins

Yesterday I made yet another trip to New York City because I just can’t get enough of that city. For this trip I focused on Greenwich Village even though I’ve explored that neighborhood many times before. I did manage to find many new establishments to see and discovered a few things.

Upon arrival in New York City I walked to the Worldwide Plaza subway station and took a C train down to West 4th Street. I had to add value to my Metrocard. It is mark of sophistication to add value to your Metrocard instead of just buying a new one, but I still struggle a bit with the vending machines. There were some people hovering around the vending machines to offer assistance, but they were not MTA employees. They were hustlers looking for a tip.

I emerged from the subway on West 4th Street just outside the IFC Center. From there I quickly located some nearby establishments of interest; the Minetta Lane Theatre, the Blue Note Jazz Club, and the Village Underground. My next goal was to find the Edna St. Vincent Millay House, one of the narrowest residential buildings in New York City at just nine and a half feet wide. I was particularly interested in finding this because I read the biography of Edna St. Vincent Millay, Savage Beauty, and mention this tourist attraction in a play I am writing. Nearby I found the Cherry Lane Theater. I was actually going to see the play Out of the Mouths of Babes there but the performance was canceled when one of the elderly stars fell ill. I still saw plenty of advertisements for this play around the village. I saw a few tour groups being lead around the area and the Cherry Lane Theater was one of their stops.

Edna St. Vincent Millay House

After that I went on a long walk locating various establishments of interest to me. For example, I located Stick, Stone & Bone on Christopher Street. This store sells crystals, dreamcatchers, sage, and various other items for shamanic rituals. I will explain my interest in that a little later. I also found the White Horse Taven where Dylan Thomas drank himself to death. That bar has many other literary associations. I visited the Westbeth Artists Community and saw the entrance to the LAByrinth Theater Company. I even entered the public courtyard and took a photo of that since I did not find any decent photos of it online. The Westbeth Artists Community is a former industrial building which has been converted into residences for artists. There is such a demand for affordable housing for creatives in NYC that Westbeth Artists Community has a long waiting list for new residents. I almost walked pass HB Studio, an actors training studio, without noticing it but that was on my list too.

From there I basically just wandered around Greenwich Village taking better photos of landmarks that I’ve already seen before. I did notice a police presence outside the Stonewall Inn, but it was just one cop and a squad car with its lights flashing. The Christopher Park is now the Stonewall National Monument and I saw the new signage.

For lunch I went to Umami Burger on 6th Avenue in Greenwich Village. I’ve read about this burger chain in all of the travel guides to Los Angeles where the restaurant chain originated. I order a Pepsi with real sugar, the Maple Fries, and the Truffle Burger. The Maple Fries were insanely tasty; like candy, bacon, and crispy fries all rolled up into one delicious package. I regret that I could not finish the fries after the burger filled me up. Seriously, you could have made a meal out of just the big helping of Maple Fries.

After lunch I tried to locate a few more places on my list; Patchin Place, Henrietta Hudson (a lesbian bar), and finally Barrow Street Theatre where I was going to see the play, The Effect. This was my major reason for spending the day in Greenwich Village but this play was a replacement for the play I was going to see at the Cherry Lane Theater. After locating the theater I wandered very far trying to find some other places on my list but I got a bit lost and eventually had to return to the theater in time to see the play.

Although The Effect wasn’t the play I wanted to see, in many ways it was a better choice because it concerns the same subject matter that my play The Shaman is about, how to cure depression. The Effect is about how psychiatrists try to treat depression using drugs while my play is about how spirituality can be used to cure depression. Actually that just provides the excuse and dramatic action for my play. It’s real purpose is to convey my radical ideas on inspiration and visionary art. Lately I’ve been struggling to expand my play so that it is at least 90 pages for a typical full length play, so anything that gets me thinking about it serves that purpose. I bought the published version of The Effect and finished reading it just a few days before my trip. This staged version changed the dialogue a little for American audiences since this production was brought to the United States by the National Theatre of Great Britain. The play had a impressive hospital setting. In fact, the stage set looked better than the theater itself which had a very shabby lobby and decrepit restrooms.

If you’ve read the plays of Sarah Kane or Mark Ravenhill then you know British theater has become very daring, in a style of drama that is called in-yer-face theater. This was reflected in this play which had some shocking nude scenes and a scene of simulated masturbation. The nude scenes were mostly done in a bed with a overhead camera providing a projected image. They weren’t all that revealing but I was sufficiently tired to find that pretty arousing. The masturbation scene might have been simulated since it occurred under a blanket but it looked very real. You definitely won’t see that in community theater! I was kind of tipped off that there might be some controversial scenes after reading the script but the script merely suggested how far the director might want to go and I was surprised that the performance didn’t try to avoid doing those scenes. To make a pun, the effect this had on me was to eroticize the play and give it a greater emotional impact than it should have. This effect was possibly heightened by my fatigue.

The Effect

When I left the theater I found it was raining. Fortunately I had bought an umbrella at a CVS pharmacy earlier in the day when there was a mild rain shower. But for the rest of the day it was raining. I went ahead with my plans in spite of the rain. First I went back to the Stick, Stone & Bone store on Christopher Street. Since I’m currently polishing my play on shamanism I thought it would be appropriate to visit a store in Greenwich Village devoted to shamanism. I found many photos of the store interior online which suggested the store sells books on shamanism, but I did not see many books in the store. All they really had in abundance was polished stones and crystals. I bought a large carnelian gemstone for $34.00. This was just a token purchase since I don’t really think crystals have any magical properties. I was hoping to find books like the one I’m currently reading, The Nature of Shamanism by Michael Ripinsky-Naxon which provides a scholarly analysis of how shamanism functions as a religious metaphor. Still, my token purchase of something at a shaman store after seeing a play about the purely medical treatment of the dispirited state establishes a symbolic connection which has a certain significance given the play I have written. Maybe it will provide a curious biographical detail for future scholars.

Stick, Stone and Bone

Just pass the Stick, Stone & Bone store I noticed that there were stars set into the sidewalk in front of the Lucille Lortel Theater on Christopher Street. Maybe the carnelian gemstone had the mystical effect of making me notice this detail. I would not have noticed the stars if I had not gone shopping at that store. These stars, like Hollywood stars set in the sidewalk, where definitely of interest to me since they were all for playwrights. I took photos of the stars for Israel Horovitz, Neil LaBute, Lee Blessing, Paula Vogel, Tennessee Williams, and Charles Ludlam.

My goal was to do some more shopping. I found Casa Magazines near Abingdon Square Park but the store was very small and crowded and I couldn’t find any French magazines so I left without buying anything. Then I finally located the British restaurant A Salt & Battery. I considered going in for a small bite to eat but they did not appear to have any table space and eating outside in the rain was not an appealing proposition. So I walked far to the east and located the Gothic Renaissance store on 4th Avenue. I’m way too old to dress goth so I just took some photos of the exterior. I saw several other people taking photos of the extravagantly strange window displays but you can’t find such photos online for some reason. Next I went to the Strand Bookstore which was annoyingly hot and crowded in spite of the rain. Fortunately they had plastic bags for umbrellas so everyone didn’t have to drip water over the books. The Strand Bookstore has an impressive selection of used books on their drama book shelves. I found a rare book that was on my shopping list, Divine Fire: Eight Contemporary Plays Inspired by the Greeks by Caridad Svich for only $10.00. Not far from the Strand Bookstore was the geek paradise of Forbidden Planet and although I did walk on by I quickly made the decision to peek inside. I wasn’t going to buy anything since I’m not into comic books but I did buy a graphic novel, Monstress, because the artwork was particularly fantastic and kind of mystical.

I was getting tired of the rain so I walked to Union Square and took the subway back uptown to 42nd Street. At Times Square I saw some huge billboards for the film Suicide Squad and I took lots of photos of them. The character of Enchantress is particularly intriguing to me because she seems to personify the anima, the shadow side of the male psyche which often takes the form of a femme fatale. I walked up to West 44th Street and headed east to find the Algonquin Hotel which has some literary significance. Finally I went to Barnes & Noble on Fifth Avenue. This is supposed to be their huge flagship store but it looked no larger than a typical Barnes & Noble. I bought two books there; Chinglish and Playwrights Teach Playwriting.

Suicide Squad Billboard

For my next trip to New York City, I plan to explore Brooklyn. Manhattan is getting a little boring even if I can still find more obscure details to discover. Brooklyn is still the great uncharted territory for me, the unknown. Recently I’ve come up with the theory that travel lifts my mood because there is something really satisfying in exploring uncharted territory, as long as you feel perfectly safe doing so. This could have something to do with how man evolved from a hunting and gathering society. The mind isn’t built to settle in one place for too long. It needs the stimulation of exploring new environments.

Posted in General, Theater, Travel | Tagged Barnes & Noble, Barrow Street Theatre, Cherry Lane Theater, Christopher Park, Edna St. Vincent Millay House, Forbidden Planet, Greenwich Village, Lucille Lortel Theater, Stick, Stone & Bone, Strand Bookstore, The Effect, Umami Burger, Westbeth Artists Community | Leave a comment

Bucks County Trip

Posted on 7/24/2016 by Robert S. Robbins

Yesterday I made a trip to Doylestown and New Hope in Bucks County. This was sort of a preliminary trip for an overnight trip I have planned for August 6 to August 7. I had nothing better to do this weekend so I decided to visit the James A. Michener Art Museum and the Mercer Museum to give myself more time for other things on my weekend getaway. But since it did not take that long to see both museums I had time to drive to New Hope too.

It takes three hours to drive from Williamsport to Doylestown. I used the Pennsylvania Turnpike and drove pass the Hickory Run Service Plaza, through the Lehigh Tunnel, and pass the Allentown Service Plaza to get off at the Quakertown exit, Exit 44. I had to pay a toll of $6.05. Although I had detailed directions on where to go once leaving the turnpike, I still relied on GPS to get to Doylestown. Things went very smoothly even though I encountered some tricky intersections.

I parked in the James A. Michener Art Museum’s parking lot and took some photos of both museum exteriors while waiting for the James A. Michener Art Museum to open at 10:00 a.m. Fortunately, I had timed my departure just right so I arrived at my destination only a few minutes early. The James A. Michener Art Museum is a fairly small museum. I think it only took me 45 minutes to see all the exhibits. I saw the Lenfest Exhibition of Pennsylvania Impressionism, the George Nakashima Reading Room, Daniel Garber’s “A Wooded Watershed”, and the James A. Michener: A Living Legacy exhibit.

James A. Michener Art Museum

At the museum store I bought The Ladies of the Corridor, a play by Dorothy Parker. Dorothy Parker used to own a farmhouse in Bucks County. I did not know that she ever wrote a play. I also bought a novel by James A. Michener, The Fires of Spring. I’ve never read any of his novels even though you see them at used book sales all the time.

I then walked over to the Mercer Museum which is just across the street from the James A. Michener Art Museum. This completed my tour of the Henry Chapman Mercer attractions since I saw Fonthill Castle and the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works on a bus trip in the Spring. I didn’t expect to like the Mercer Museum but it was more interesting than I expected. A collection of pre-industrial hand tools doesn’t sound very appealing but there were also old carriages, sleds, a whaleboat, and a Conestoga wagon to see. All of these objects hang from the walls of the central courtyard of this immense concrete castle. After exploring the six floors of pre-industrial artifacts I walked through the special exhibit, Long May She Wave: A Graphic History of the American Flag, which included a lot of flag art and flag-related objects and artifacts.

Mercer Museum

The final establishment in Doylestown I visited was the Doylestown Bookshop, a large book store on Main Street. It was a short walk from the museums but the temperature that day reached a high of 97 degrees so even a short walk was a bit of an ordeal. I had trouble finding any interesting books at the Doylestown Bookshop but eventually I settled for New York City: A Cultural History since I am very interested in New York City’s many contributions to American culture.

I left Doylestown around Noon so I had plenty of time to drive to New Hope. I have been planning my overnight trip to New Hope for the past three weeks so I was thrilled with the prospect of a sneak preview. I wanted to take plenty of photos to complete my custom travel guide for New Hope. Although this tourist town is very popular, I still found it difficult to find decent photos of many establishments.

Driving to New Hope was more difficult than I expected since there were several turns where it was not obvious in which direction to go. Still, I managed to always make the correct decision and my GPS helped me to keep on track. I will need to do some more research on the roads for my overnight trip. Eventually I drove pass the place where I will be staying, a roadside hotel outside of town. There are many fancy bed and breakfast places in New Hope but most of them required a two night stay.

Finding a place to park in New Hope is a real challenge, but I managed to find a spot at the end of New Street near the American Legion on the Delaware Canal Towpath. This cost me $10.00 but there was plenty of room to park.

I walked along South Main Street and took lots of photos of various establishments which I knew about from my research. However, there were a few surprises since Google Street View is a little outdated and many of the tourist photos I’ve collected are old. I was quite thrilled to see the Bucks County Playhouse which was the major inspiration for my trip. This is the official State Theater of Pennsylvania. The play Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike by Christopher Durang is set in Bucks County and the playwright actually appeared in his play in a production at the Bucks County Playhouse. I wish I had seen that. I am going to see the play The Divine Sister by Charles Busch. I’m a bit familiar with the work of Charles Busch, a cross-dressing playwright, since I’ve read a few of his plays and bought many of his books. I suppose the theater is doing his play because New Hope PA has a lot of gay pride.

Bucks County Playhouse

New Hope PA also seems to have many psychics and pagans. I saw at least three storefronts for Psychic Readings and there were two stores selling Wicca merchandise; Mystickal Tymes and Gypsy Heaven. I visited both of those stores. I was interested in buying some books but both stores had a poor selection. They were both selling mostly New Age books on Wicca. Now you might say that I take mysticism seriously and I can tell if someone else really knows anything about it by the kinds of books they would choose to read or sell. Neither of these stores offered anything of interest to me. But at the Gypsy Heaven I did buy the book The Goddess and The Shaman by J. A. Kent Phd since I’m trying to finish my full length play on shamanism. I need to read a good book on shamanism to get a few ideas on how to expand my play and maybe replace some bad lines.

Gypsy Heaven

Although I planned to spend as much time in New Hope as possible it was brutally hot so it became impractical to remain outside for long. By 3:30 p.m. I was completely exhausted and feeling very poorly so I had to leave. But before that I managed to walk across the bridge over the Delaware River to explore Lambertville in New Jersey. I also visited Farley’s Bookshop where I bought the book Five Plays by Anton Chekhov. I really don’t need another book of his plays but this one was translated by a different person and I really need to familiarize myself with this plays. I am constantly coming across references to his plays. For example, Christopher Durang’s Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike is based on Chekhov’s plays, mostly The Seagull and Uncle Vanya. I had lunch at the Blue Tortilla Restaurant where I ordered a pink lemonade and Enciladas Verdes. After that I was finally out of cash so I had to go to the PNC Bank to use their ATM.

Posted in General, Travel | Tagged Blue Tortilla Restaurant, Doylestown, Doylestown Bookshop, Farley's Bookshop, Gypsy Heaven, James A. Michener Art Museum, Mercer Museum, Mystickal Tymes, New Hope | Leave a comment

Angel Falls Hike

Posted on 7/17/2016 by Robert S. Robbins

Today I went hiking on the Loyalsock Trail in Sullivan County on a quest to find the Angel Falls. This was a very arduous journey. Just finding the trail was pretty difficult. First you go North on Route 87. I’m sort of familiar with Route 87 because you get on it when leaving Walmart in Montoursville. You drive north on Route 87 until you get to Ogdonia Road on your right. Unfortunately there are no landmarks on the way that will alert you when you are getting close to that road. All I can say is that it is pass Barbours but before Hillsgrove. I did take a photo of exactly where you turn off Route 87 for future reference. My GPS was annoyingly useless.

Ogdonia Road

Ogdonia Road is a gravel road. Along the way you will see a big sign reading “Entering Loyalsock State Forest”. Eventually you will see a sign for Brunnerdale Road pointing to the left. The Loyalsock Trail parking area is just across a bridge on Brunnerdale Road, not far from the crossroads. There is room for maybe five cars and I only saw one truck already there.

Entering Loyalsock State Forest

Brunnerdale Road

Loyalsock Trail Parking Area

The entrance to a portion of Loyalsock Trail was pretty obvious. It follows the creek Brunnerdale Run. You then follow Loyalsock Trail as it steeply climbs the mountain. Do not go off trail! I saw a red disk marker which read “LT Relocated” and wondered if I should try to follow the original trail. You definitely should not go off the trail. Eventually I found a tree with another red disk marker that read “Angel Falls”. This was my first sign that I was on the right track! At this point you stop following the Loyalsock Trail and look for a trail marked with round blue markers. This is the trail to the Angel Falls. Eventually you reach a trail sign reading “Camping Closed Beyond This Point” just before you arrive at the top of the falls.

LT Relocated

Angel Falls Red Marker

There is no clearly marked trail down to the foot of the falls. At this point I had to go off trail although I did see some old trail signs, a blue circle with an X mark in the center. This appears to be an old trail that is no longer maintained. I scrambled down the hill to find a boulder strewn area besides the falls where there is a rope swing. I also went further down the creek, Falls Run, to see another waterfall, possibly Gipson Falls.

No Camping This Area

Angel Falls

Gipson Falls

You definitely need hiking poles for this hike because there are many steep parts of the trail and climbing around the waterfalls is very difficult. You will also need waterproof hiking boots because I had to cross a few streams and parts of the trail were muddy and covered in water. I thought the hike was a bit of an ordeal and the Angel Falls isn’t a very safe place due to the lack of a good trail along the falls. I don’t recommend this hike unless you are feeling adventurous. On the other hand, this is a great hike if you want to go deep into the woods to see something pretty amazing.

Posted in General | Tagged Angel Falls, Brunnerdale Road, Gipson Falls, Loyalsock Trail, Ogdonia Road, Sullivan County | Leave a comment

Tioga County Trip

Posted on 7/17/2016 by Robert S. Robbins

I’ve been driving north to Tioga County so often that I’m no longer blogging about it. Usually I do the same thing on every trip. I go to Colton Point State Park and do some brief hiking to the lookouts for the vista views. Then I go to Leonard Harrison State Park and take some photos from its more lavish lookout. And finally I go to Wellsboro and buy a book at From My Shelf Books and maybe have lunch. On my last such trip I did discover another trail at Colton Point State Park, the Barbour Rock Trail, which is handicap accessible. That trail leads to yet another vista view.

However, on Saturday I found enough different things to do that it is worth a blog post. First I went on an Ole Covered Wagon Tour. I’ve heard about this but I did not know where the place was located. It happens to be very near Colton Point State Park off Route 6. I was able to make a reservation online. The summer classic tour is only $25.00. I arrived a half hour early and used their portable toilet located behind the Ole Covered Wagon Tour shack. That is worth mentioning because after a long drive or a two hour covered wagon ride you are going to need to go to the bathroom. There were a few bikers on the tour which wasn’t surprising because hordes of bikers can always be seen in Wellsboro. I think bikers just like the scenic drives in Pennsylvania. They really congregate in some of the tourist towns like Wellsboro, Jim Thorpe, and New Hope.

Ole Covered Wagon Tours

The covered wagon tour took two hours and went along the Pine Creek Rail Trail. That was the first time I’ve been down along Pine Creek. A few cars passed us on the trail and according to the tour guide this is allowed if you own a cabin on Pine Creek. We did see a deer which came down to the creek for a drink. The wagon stopped so we would have time to see the deer and take some photos. Everybody had to get off the wagon before it could turn around for the return trip. The tour guide had us pass around some photos from the lumbering era but I’ve seen many such photos before from my collection of local history books and travel guides. We also got to pass around some horse shoes and a nail.

After the tour was over, I drove back to Wellsboro and bought a book at From My Shelf Books. I bought Bodega Dreams by Ernesto Quinonez because it was on my New York City Amazon wish list. Then I went to Harland’s Family Style Restaurant for lunch. This place has escaped my attention because it is not located on Main Street. But I tend to drive pass it now that the From My Shelf Books store has moved. I ordered the Pine Creek Burger which came with fries. Service was a little slow but the restaurant was pretty nice, one of those old fashioned places that you can’t find anymore.

Harland’s Family Style Restaurant

After lunch I drove to Hills Creek State Park using my GPS device. This state park was a bit difficult to find and my GPS had me driving along rural gravel roads until I was completely lost. But I did manage to find the state park. Actually I only got lost on the way back. Hills Creek State Park has a lake and a public beach but the hiking trails don’t seem particularly interesting. I parked at the Tauschers Trail trailhead and hiked through the pine plantations. I saw lots of cabins along the trail. Eventually I came out to the lake area and found the public beach. There was a refreshment stand where I bought an ice cream cone. There was a good sized crowd at the public beach and some people were having reunions at the pavilions.

Hills Creek State Park

Finally I drove to Mansfield and took some photos of establishments on Main Street. There are probably only ten establishments of any interest on Main Street. Mansfield is a really small town. Except for Mansfield University there is almost nothing there. I went into Red Rose Antiques Mall where I bought an used DVD of Warm Bodies. That was probably the first time I actually entered any establishment in Mansfield.

Red Rose Antiques

In conclusion, I did four new things on this trip to Tioga County:

Ole Covered Wagon Tour
Harland’s Family Style Restaurant
Hills Creek State Park
Mansfield antique mall

I like driving north to the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon because it is a very scenic drive and it is the closest tourist destination for me.

Posted in General, Travel | Tagged Harland's Family Style Restaurant, Hills Creek State Park, Mansfield, Ole Covered Wagon Tours, Pine Creek Rail Trail, Tioga County, Wellsboro | Leave a comment

Trip To NYC To See The Crucible

Posted on 6/26/2016 by Robert S. Robbins

I saw another Broadway play yesterday, The Crucible by Arthur Miller. I’ve been seeing a lot of Off Broadway plays but for this trip I wanted to see something on Broadway, no matter what the cost. I didn’t particularly want to see The Crucible by Arthur Miller because I associate that play with boring English class material, but this production promised to be really creepy with horror film style special effects. This production of The Crucible is better than a trip through a haunted house!

Since the play did not begin until 2:00 p.m. I spent the morning in the vicinity of Union Square. There are several theater establishments in the Union Square area I wanted to find, even though I’ve explored the area before. I used my Metrocard to take the subway from the 49th Street station (outside Olive Garden in Times Square) downtown to the Union Square Station. I think I took an R train. One of the things I’ve finally figured out is that you don’t have to wait for a particular train. The N, Q, or R trains all take you to Union Square Station so just get on the first train that arrives regardless of its letter.

In the Union Square area I quickly located the Daryl Roth Theatre, the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute, Vineyard Theatre, and Irving Plaza. The Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute was my inspiration for spending part of my day in Union Square. I’ve been reading several books on acting in order to understand the actor’s place in the theater community. You could say that theater exists for the sake of actors and not for the sake of drama as a form of literature. However, that is a cynical viewpoint and I have been pleasantly surprised to learn that many theater actors are actually intent on being great artists. I find that very encouraging. The theater actor uses his imagination to become the character, so the world of the imagination is very important to the actor. I have a powerful imagination which I can use to give illusions the force of reality so I can understand this aspect of their craft. However, there is a significant difference in that my imagination is not well suited to creating characters or a story. But a story is just a narrative applied to random events in order to give life meaning. I can appreciate the longing for meaning in life and creating a story gives life its significance. You could argue that a fictional narrative is not the true story or the truth of life, but human beings are incapable of understanding the world in any other way. Our scientific understanding of the universe actually goes against human nature and causes depression if taken too far. And as far as character goes, I can appreciate the desire to reach beyond the surface of relationships to really connect with another person by revealing deeper emotions, the hidden life of the deeper self. I’m interested in depth psychology even if I’m not interested in character as an abstract concept in and of itself. So given that understanding I think I can relate to actors. In any event, the entire world is entranced with the performance of actors, especially movie stars, and it is worthwhile to figure out why that is. Why do we worship these people as our new gods? There is an answer to this question.

There are also many book stores in the Union Square area so my secondary mission was to do some shopping. At the Alabaster Bookshop, a very small book store, I bought Five Plays by Anton Chekhov, translated by Marina Brodskaya. I’ve read all of Chekhov’s plays a long time ago but he is one of the most influential playwrights, probably only second to Shakespeare. I’ve forgotten what some of his plays are about and this has made it difficult to understand some of the frequent references to his work found in much of theater discussion. For example, all of the books on acting I’m reading mention Chekhov and Stanislavski. I think I can justify re-reading these plays in different translations. I also went to the Barnes & Noble store at Union Square and located their Drama section on the fourth floor. They had a large selection so I was tempted to buy many books but eventually I settled on John by Annie Baker and Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike by Christopher Durang. Both of these plays are set in Pennsylvania.

Alabaster Bookshop

I had a list of establishments to locate and I managed to find every single one; Forbidden Planet, Classic Stage Company, The New School, and Quad Cinema. Near the Quad Cinema I came across the 13th Street Repertory Company which wasn’t on my list but I took a photo of that too. I also walked all the way to Gramercy Park and took photos of the Players Club and the statue of Shakespearean actor Edwin Booth. This statue is located in the middle of the park which is not open to the public so I took the photo through the iron gate using my camera’s zoom.

Edwin Booth Statue

After finding everything I came to see, I returned to the Union Square Station and rushed back uptown to be in the vicinity of Broadway in time to see The Crucible. I got on a Q train and had to get off at 42nd Street since its next stop would have been 57th Street, too far uptown from where I wanted to be. As it was, I had to walk uptown 6 blocks to reach 48th Street. After taking some photos of the Walter Kerr Theatre, I wandered around the neighborhood looking for someplace to eat after the show. I found the Sombreo Mexican Restaurant on 48th Street and made a mental note to try that place. But I actually went to a Starbucks at the Worldwide Plaza where I had a large, iced coffee and a yogurt.

Walter Kerr Theatre

I have written a separate theater review of The Crucible in my previous blog post. I thought it would be funny to review the play as if it were a serious attempt to practice the dark arts. So here I will only mention a few details of the experience worth noting. First, the line to get into the theater was surprisingly long even though I arrived a half hour early. There was somebody at the head of the line to check bags but he only shone his flashlight into the bag without really examining the contents. I had a shopping bag of books and my small Pacsafe shoulder bag which I use if I’m not wearing a jacket with pockets for my stuff. After finding my seat, I located the men’s room which was located on the left and up a flight of stairs. The show ran for three hours so I wanted to empty my bladder. However I must have been so dehydrated that I didn’t find it possible to urinate at all.

I had a front row seat so I got a good view of Saoirse Ronan, the star of the show. She appears in all the advertising for the show. But I did recognize two other actors. Ciarán Hinds who plays the Deputy Governor Danforth looked familiar to me. He has appeared in many films, but none that I’ve seen so that is a bit strange. Wait a minute, he was in the film The Woman in Black and I probably remember him from that. Thomas Jay Ryan played Thomas Putnam and I recognized him from Travels With My Aunt by the Keen Company.

After the play was over I went immediately to the Sombreo Mexican Restaurant on 48th Street where I had a drink and a three course meal from the Pre-Fixe Dinner menu; garden salad, Chicken Fajitas, and Chocolate Mousse. I had to assemble the fajitas myself but at least I got to make them the way I like them. This meal cost me $50.00 so it was not cheap and too expensive for Mexican food.

Sombreo Mexican Restaurant

After dinner I walked all the way to Last Rites Gallery on West 38th Street, ten blocks downtown. This is the only art gallery in my custom travel guide and the only art gallery I wanted to visit. Last Rites Gallery specializes in gothic art and art that explores the darker side of our imagination. I saw the artwork of Henrik Uldalen, whose paintings remind me of the work of Francis Bacon, and paintings by Odd Nerdrum.

I then located the Baryshnikov Arts Center on West 37th Street. The Baryshnikov Arts Center is devoted to dance, one of the performing arts I pay little attention to. And finally I walked all the way back uptown to 56th Street and located Carnegie Hall to take some good photos of that.

This trip serves to keep my theater mania at a high pitch. I want to feel mania bordering on a dark obsession to fuel my playwriting ambitions. On the other hand, I want to manage this mania so it does not consume me. After all the theater can be a harsh bitch. The theater treats everybody like a beggar and rejects the vast majority of her suitors. I have to keep reminding myself that I am feeding theater to my ravenous vision and it is my vision which truly fuels my mania. My imagination is awesome and self-sustaining, inspiration feeding into itself, but it does require an object. I wonder what theater artists would think if they knew what I was really doing?

Posted in General, Theater, Travel | Tagged Last Rites Gallery, Sombreo Mexican Restaurant, The Crucible, Union Square, Walter Kerr Theatre | Leave a comment

The Crucible: Dark Play Of The Occult

Posted on 6/26/2016 by Robert S. Robbins

Yesterday I saw The Crucible at the Walter Kerr Theatre on Broadway. I was really shocked by what I saw for apparently Broadway has turned to the dark arts in its quest for box office success. I’ve never thought of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible as an occult masterpiece, but of course it is. The play is all about witches and their witchcraft. Broadway artists must now be practicing witchcraft too, for I saw many things occur during the course of this play which I cannot explain.

For example, after the intermission a wolf loped out onto the stage. A real live wolf loose in the theater! The wolf sniffed around the stage a bit and then stood stock still in the spotlight, looking out into the audience like it was an actor hitting his mark. My God, it was unnatural! You could not train a real wolf to do such a thing. It had to have been a devil dog. These Broadway sorcerers conjured up a devil dog in the shape of a wolf and set it loose on the stage. The fools! What if the devil dog had jumped off the stage and gone for our throats! You can’t control a wolf. Or can you? If you practice the black arts I suppose you can make a wolf do anything. You can even make it your actor!

Several of the young actresses in the play were clearly being possessed by spirits and in that state, strange things would occur onstage. For example, the writing in chalk on the blackboard would slowly transform into other words, words of power, and spectral moths appeared on the blackboard, like living chalk moths.

The play was set in a contemporary classroom and this too shows a certain craftiness for most people have been introduced to The Crucible in the classroom. This play is frequently taught in high school English classes. So setting the play in a contemporary classroom was clearly intended to invoke those memories, making the mind more susceptible to these dark workings.

I’m sure many people will make excuses for this Broadway play. They will claim it is merely entertainment, a work of the imagination. But you must take care in what you put out into the world. In the world of the imagination, a work of the imagination is very real. To the psyche, the soul, everything that occurs in the imagination has a symbolic meaning and is part of its reality. Disturbing images and weird occurrences are genuinely disturbing and weird to your unconscious. Your psyche does not have your reason to distinguish between illusion and reality. Practicing witchcraft in the theater summons dreadful things from the spirit world and makes them a living presence in our world. The theater is all about creating illusion on the stage, giving works of the imagination a physical presence in the world. It is a conjuring!

Posted in General, Theater, Writing | Tagged Broadway, occult, The Crucible, Walter Kerr Theatre | Leave a comment

How To Legitimately Piss And Moan About The Theater

Posted on 6/10/2016 by Robert S. Robbins

I like to read articles on the Howl Round web site for its lively discussion of the theater and playwriting. I’ve noticed there are a lot of articles about gender politics and other social justice warrior concerns. I’m not going to argue against diversity in the theater since I think we need variety in the theater and promoting diversity will lead to a greater variety of plays. But lets talk about variety of content.

If you are a critic of the theater community, and feel that there is a crying need for a certain type of play to be seen, that certain voices be heard on the stage, then I would argue that it is your responsibility to step up to the plate and write the plays you want to see. Think about it! If you like great tragedies and you are bitching about how the theater does not do enough tragedies on contemporary issues, then write one. The theater cannot put on plays which don’t exist. The theater cannot do imaginary plays by imaginary playwrights. No, somebody actually has to write all these plays that you imagine are out there just crying to be put on the stage.

You might argue that you don’t have the time to write a play. So now you are not only complaining that the theater doesn’t produce plays which don’t exist, you are also complaining about not seeing plays which you don’t even think are worth your time to write! This is completely irrational and totally unfair to the theater community.

Now you may argue that you anticipate writing the plays you would like to see would be a waste of your time because you anticipate that every theater would reject them. That may be. But there are thousands of theater companies doing new plays and until you have submitted your hypothetical plays to all of them, you just don’t know. You aren’t being fair the broader theater community to just assume that they would reject the sort of plays you see a crying need for. This is a form of arrogance, not pessimism.

Finally, you may argue that you are not a playwright. This is why theater companies and some corporations commission plays. Somebody sees a great need for a play to address an important topic for their community but they don’t feel qualified to write it themselves, so they commission an accomplished playwright to write the play. Obviously you probably can’t afford to commission a play from David Mamet on your serious topic. But there are plenty of under-employed playwrights who would probably accept a commission for as little as $500 or less. If you can’t even afford that, then invest your own time in writing the play. If you are not willing to invest any of your time in this great enterprise then it could not have been very important to you anyway. Sure your play may be rejected by every single theater that you submit it to, but now you can legitimately piss and moan about the types of plays the theater refuses to put on. You will have earned the right to be a complainer!

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Daphne’s Dive NYC Theater Trip

Posted on 5/30/2016 by Robert S. Robbins

On Saturday I made yet another trip to New York City as part of my extensive exploration of the New York City theater community. However, the play I selected to see was partly based on the ticket price, a bargain at $25.00. Nevertheless it was a new play by a playwright who is on my radar.

I had a long list of relatively obscure establishments to locate. All I did was take a photo of the exteriors but just finding these places was an useful exercise. More preciously doing the research was useful and taking these photos only put me on the scene and reinforced their reality.

The first place I located was the Professional Performing Arts School, a high school for the performing arts much like the school featured in the film Fame. While researching this school I came across the New York City Department of Education Comprehensive Theater Examination and it was interesting to read their criteria for evaluating students.

Professional Performing Arts School

Next I found The Actors’ Temple, a synagogue where actors worshiped which still retains a connection with the theater community. Sometimes this synagogue serves as a performance space so I might need to know where to find it some day. My research has gone beyond the obvious to delve into the really hidden places which most tourists would not be interested in.

The Actors Temple

My next goal was the Actors’ Equity Building on West 46th Street. I must have passed this building many times while crisscrossing Times Square but I never realized the actor’s union had an office in this building. There was a Sysco truck parked right in front of the entrance so I had to come back to this building later.

Another tiny theater I sought out was the Davenport Theatre on West 45th Street. This theater is operated by a producer, Ken Davenport, whose web site looks suspiciously like a multi-level marketing scam. However, he seems to be a legitimate Off Broadway producer and I’m sort of familiar with his work from the Your Broadway Genius newsletter I receive. So my research on this theater sort of connects the dots.

Davenport Theatre

There was one major Broadway theater I’d never photographed because it is hidden away on West 41st Street, the Nederlander Theatre. After taking a photo of that theater I ventured into the Garment District where there are a few acting schools. I located the William Esper Studio and The Barrow Group. I don’t have much interest in acting but it would be useful to ponder how actors go about building a character. I also located 520 8th Avenue which happens to be where the Theatre Communications Group has its offices. There are also many performance spaces in that building.

Theatre Communications Group

After running all around Midtown taking photos I was very thirsty and began to think about finding a place to eat. I was planning on going to Obao on 9th Avenue again but as I walked along Shubert Alley it occurred to me to give Junior’s Restaurant a try. Junior’s Restaurant is right on Shubert Alley across from the theater posters. It occupies a prime Broadway location. The place was really packed but I only had to wait ten minutes for a table with a fine view of Shubert Alley. I ordered a grilled cheese sandwich with bacon and a coffee shake. This meal was nothing special but it was pretty good and only cost me $25.00. The portions where huge so I did not finish my sandwich or eat all my fries.

After lunch I went to the Drama Book Shop for my obligatory shopping spree. I checked out the Russian plays book shelf for a copy of Leonid Andreyev’s play He Who Gets Slapped. There is a great silent film of He Who Gets Slapped starring Lon Chaney. I found the entire film on YouTube and copied it to my smartphone to view on the long bus ride to New York City. This silent film really got to me and it inspired a great idea for yet another play. What I found moving about the story was the humiliation of the intellectual. The intellectual protagonist is humiliated and betrayed and winds up a melancholy clown in a circus where he suffers the slings and arrows of an outrageous fortune in the form of repeated slaps to the face. It is a brilliant metaphor for the degradation of the noble mind and soul. My idea was to update the story to make the intellectual a recent college graduate forced to work at a McDonald’s in a Ronald McDonald clown costume. This is very humiliating and it is precisely what is being done to the finest minds of the current generation. I think this play idea has a lot of potential and I spent most of my day in New York City in a state of excitement over the prospect of writing it. Unfortunately the Drama Book Shop had nothing by Leonid Andreyev so I bought three other books; Still by Jen Silverman, Funny, Strange, Provocative: Seven Plays from Clubbed Thumb, New Downtown Now (Young Jean Lee).

Now I had to carry a bag of books around with me for the rest of the day. I wandered up and down West 42nd Street because I’ve been reading a book Ghosts of 42nd Street by Anthony Bianco which describes in great detail the history of 42nd Street and how it was rehabilitated and redeveloped into what we find there today. I noticed that the American Airlines Theatre was still playing Long Day’s Journey Into Night which I saw on my previous trip. Eventually 2:00 p.m. rolled around and it was time to see a matinee at the Signature Theatre. The play I selected was Daphne’s Dive by the Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Quiara Alegría Hudes. Quiara Alegría Hudes was born and raised in Philadelphia and the play was set in Philadelphia so that provided an excellent reason to see this play. I visit Philadelphia almost as often as New York City and Quiara Alegría Hudes is one of the Philly associated playwrights whose work I follow.

For the first time, I had a seat which placed me below the level of the stage so I was looking up at the actors. I’ve never been seated below the stage before. Daphne’s Dive proved to be a serious and moving play set in a dive bar. Philadelphia has many dive bars. There were many references to Philadelphia in the play and I got a kick out of that. Fortunately nobody yelled out “Yo Philly!” in hometown pride. The stage set was very realistic. It really did look like a dive bar. The cast was very multiracial but predominantly Hispanic. I was very tired and I’m afraid my mind wandered as I occasionally spaced out, but most of the time the play held my attention and I focused on the drama. There was some lesbian hot and heavy action in the play which was slightly shocking and an improbable off stage self-immolation which seemed a little excessive.

After the show I passed the Playwrights Horizons theater which I took great interest in. I’ve recently submitted my new full length play to Playwrights Horizons after realizing they accept submissions. This is probably a very competitive market but my play is really audacious and makes extraordinary claims. I must confess that I’m a bit hesitant to even put it out there. It would be huge if Playwrights Horizons did choose to do my play and I’m sure it would cause a lot of controversy. My mind is ablaze with an unfathomable glory and if even a hint of that made it to the page and then the stage then I would be undone. To me this seems like a very real possibility and yet it would require an impossible level of technical achievement. It is all a question of communicating the ineffable.

Playwrights Horizons

The next goal of my trip was to visit the Paley Center for Media, one of the minor museums I never got around to. Some travel guides describe the Paley Center for Media as a museum with exhibits but I didn’t see anything like that. Instead I was only directed to the media library which had computers with widescreen monitors. You could call up any old television show episode you liked from the media library and it would play at your work station. Being a snob, I selected a television version of Hamlet starring Christopher Plummer as Hamlet and Robert Shaw as Claudius. This was the 1964 Hamlet at Elsinore. I didn’t care much for Christopher Plummer’s Hamlet but Robert Shaw was mesmerizing as Claudius. I was only able to watch an hour of this movie before closing time. Ordinarily I would not waste time watching a movie in New York City. Actually being in the city is better than just watching a movie set in the city. Travel is your chance to experience exotic locations instead of just fantasizing about them.

I still had two hours in the city so I wandered around the Theater District and Times Square taking photos with my new camera since it takes much better photos than my old digital camera. On the bus ride home the bus broke down after leaving the Lycoming Mall. Fortunately we were almost home so they just sent another bus to pick us up and it did not take very long to drive the remaining distance to the bus depot.

My mind was in an over-excited state all during this trip to New York City. My interest in the theater is approaching the level of mania. I’m wary of becoming too obsessed with theater because it is extremely difficult to get anywhere in that business. Putting too much energy into playwriting can only lead to disappointment and bitterness. But on the other hand I possess something tangible. My imagination is so very, very powerful. It defines my world and determines everything I do. I do not think it is like anyone else’s imagination. I suppose that seems vain but I’ve never found much evidence of overwhelming inspiration in other artists. I feel like I live in another world, an enchanted world which only shares a surface resemblance to the common world. Even the world of fantasy the entertainment industry derives all its power from is nothing compared to the enchantment I’ve known. Most significantly, nothing ever created is as profound as one’s own dreams. This should be a simple truth but I’ve never heard it said.

Posted in General, Theater, Travel, Writing | Leave a comment

Talent Discovery

Posted on 5/14/2016 by Robert S. Robbins

I just finished reading the book Respect For Acting by Uta Hagen and watched a documentary on actress Charlotte Rampling, The Look. The book and the documentary remind me that actors can be serious artists and not just attention whores who want to stand in the spotlight. It is important to realize that. What a serious artist ultimately wants is nothing more than recognition. It is necessary for a playwright to find serious artists in the theater or there can be no recognition. You can be cynical and imagine that the theater only exists to aggrandize actors and make them into stars. The writer can only be an underpaid servant of such a superficial enterprise. Fortunately I think writers and actors have the same goal, to explore humanity. As serious artists they are peers.

Not everyone is a serious artist with a genuine interest in exploring humanity. There are writers who are writing just to be writing, with nothing really on their mind and no artistic aim whatsoever. Obviously serious theater artists don’t want to be bothered by such writers. Then there are actors who just want to achieve fame and fortune on the stage and screen. They care nothing about the intellectual and artistic aims of the plays and films they are doing. A movie star will often trample all over the screenwriter’s script to the extent that you have to become a director to retain any control over your vision.

So how does a serious artist gain recognition from other serious artists? Obviously nothing I write will ever come to the attention of actress Charlotte Rampling. It easy to evaluate the body of work of an established and highly successful theater artist. What you have to do is find the serious artists who have yet to become highly respected and successful because these people are still approachable. Theater companies expect writers to do this by reading their Artist Statement and evaluating their body of work. Unfortunately artist statements are often brief boilerplate pieces of writing that tell you nothing and by the time it is apparent that a theater company is comprised of serious artists, they will already be beyond your reach or swamped with submissions. Finding your true peers at a point in their career when they are approachable is actually a very difficult task.

It is equally difficult for a new theater company to find the playwrights who will make their fame. Established playwrights won’t want t0 waste their new work on a small theater without much of an audience. David Mamet is not going to submit his new play to a community theater or an amateur theater company. What a new theater company really wants to do is find an emerging playwright to nurture so they can be associated with the discovery of America’s next great playwright. The writer just wants to find a theater with serious artists who can grasp what he is trying to achieve and provide the necessary talent to bring his vision to life. An ambitious theater company doesn’t just want to do proven masterpieces of the stage. They want to get credit for discovering talent. They want to make a contribution. They want to give the world great new plays that they developed.

Unfortunately discovering talent, the serious artist waiting to be discovered by his peers, seems to be a haphazard process that depends on sheer luck. Theater companies don’t have clear, well-written artistic statements so you can tell where the artistic director has his head at. So the serious writer can find it very difficult to evaluate a theater. It is hard to say if an unproven theater company would appreciate your work or give you a shot. Meanwhile theaters get swamped with scripts that they don’t have time to read carefully so it is sheer luck if they come across what they are looking for.

Part of this problem could be solved by writing a detailed artistic statement. This would help other serious artists get some sense of what is important to you. Obviously not everybody has the time to write a well thought out essay and nobody has the time to read a lot of detailed artistic statements. But there is clearly an advantage if you are the rare bird who bothers to write an essay.

There are a few existing writings on the theater which describe an aesthetic you can reject or enthusiastically accept. It can be very revealing to read somebody’s thoughts on these texts. For example, The Dramatic Imagination: Reflections and Speculations on the Art of the Theatre by Robert Edmond Jones was much admired by Marian Seldes, a serious theater artist. Other theater artists dismiss the book for its purple prose and mysticism. This reveals an attitude which is against the pursuit of high ideals and too lofty aims. There is nothing wrong with rejecting the premise that theater should pursue a spiritual aim, something greater than life. Maybe you think theater should only hold up a mirror to life without aggrandizing any aspect of reality. I think a reaction to this book is very revealing and I would prefer to work with people sympathetic to Robert Edmond Jones’s vision.

Posted in General, Theater, Writing | Tagged Charlotte Rampling, Respect For Acting, Robert Edmond Jones, theater, Uta Hagen | Leave a comment

Belles, A Theater Review

Posted on 5/8/2016 by Robert S. Robbins

Last night I saw the play Belles by Mark Dunn at the Community Theatre League. Mark Dunn is the Playwright-in-Residence at the Community Theatre League. This is a bit of a mystery to me since he does not appear to have any connection to the area or this theater. But I thought I should see at least one of his plays.

The stage set was very interesting with six areas marked off to represent six different locations. There was furniture in each area but no walls. This allowed for several distinct locations without requiring any set changes. Lighting was used to draw attention to different parts of the stage and actors would only appear in their part of the set as needed.

I was sitting in the front row on the same level as the stage so one of the actresses was right in front of me. It gave me the illusion of being in the play since I had the same perspective as a person in her personal space.

The play involves six sisters who never actually meet during the course of the play. All of their interaction occurs over the telephone. Ordinarily it would be a mistake to have the dramatic action occur through a telephone conversation. That is a rookie playwright mistake. But it works if both parties are actually present on stage. For some reason, all the phones were old cordless telephones instead of modern smartphones or cell phones. This may have been for historical accuracy or maybe it was specified in the script and can’t be changed.

Each sister had her own story and a part in a shared narrative. Although the play began as a comedy it did have its serious moments and even reached a tragic climax before returning to a comedic ending. I thought it was a well-written play and deserves to be better known than it appears to be. Unfortunately you can be a fairly successful and accomplished playwright without becoming rich or even enjoying modest literary fame. I think minor poets may enjoy greater literary fame than a minor playwright!

My own ambitions to become a playwright are going well. Getting my one act play Errant Souls produced at Shawnee Playhouse was a big step up. Now I have a full length play, The Shaman, ready to submit. I am reserving this play for a major competition since I am no longer interested in just getting a production anywhere. In other words, it is no longer necessary to simply establish my ability to get something done. Currently I am working on another full length play which represents another way to explore my major theme. I plan to have four plays on the same theme because it is difficult to decide upon the best approach. And I plan to expand Dawn Eclipsed, a play about how higher education prepares you for a world which does not exist and how you cannot live up to your full potential. Once all these plays are written I will concern myself with the problem of promoting myself. There is no reason to think about that until I have a body of work to promote. In the past, the negativity that pervades the playwriting community has discouraged me from even attempting to write anything. But now I see that I was putting the cart before the horse. You can’t become embittered about being neglected before you’ve even done the work! I have become more philosophical about the whole thing. The fact that playwriting won’t make you rich and famous means you should not get too upset if you aren’t any good at it.

Posted in General, Theater, Writing | Tagged Belles, Community Theatre League, Mark Dunn | Leave a comment

I’m A Travel Photographer With A Photo Credit

Posted on 4/30/2016 by Robert S. Robbins

I take hundreds of photos on my trips and upload them to Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/youtuber/. Currently I have 34,915 photos on Flickr. I often go to the trouble of giving my photos titles and tags. This has finally paid off because a few of my New York City photos have been published in a book, New York Non-Stop: A Photographic Album ISBN: 978-0789329400

New York Non-Stop A Photographic Album

The publisher found my photos on Flickr and sent me an email asking for permission to use them. In exchange, I got a copy of the book. That makes me a travel photographer with a photo credit! Six of my photos were used in the book on pages; 36, 102, 210, 216, 283, and 337. It is actually a very nice book and I would have bought a copy anyways because it has many photos that capture the essence of New York City.

This is not the only time a publisher has asked for permission to use one of my photos. I often take photos of obscure theaters and entertainment industry establishments which are of potential interest for news stories on celebrities. I also go out of my way to photograph establishments when I cannot find a decent photo of the place on the Internet. It irritates me when theaters don’t put photos of their building on the Internet. Theater is something that you have to be physically present for. You have to find your way to the theater and be on time to see a performance. Therefore it is really crucial that you know where to go and what to look for. There are many theaters in New York City which don’t have a building facade. They can be hidden behind massive billboards or located deep within a skyscraper. The only evidence of the theater will be lots of advertising on the street. The Gershwin Theater and the Circle in the Square Theatre in the Paramount Plaza building are easy to overlook and the famous Palace Theatre is completely hidden by massive billboards.

I have been using a point and shoot pocket camera, a Fujifilm FinePix JX400, but now I use a SONY Cybershot DSC-RX100 which takes high definition photos. It takes much better photos under low light conditions too. On my last trip to New York City I was extremely pleased by the quality of my photos.

I suspect publishers are using the Internet as a cheap source of photos instead of hiring a professional photographer. I’ve noticed many web sites will use photos from Flickr too. This means even your average tourist can become a casual travel photographer. There are a few things I do which probably help. First, I do a lot of research for my trips so I know what there is to be photographed. Second, I often take the trouble to give my photos titles and tags so they can be found.

Posted in books, General, Travel | Tagged New York City, Photography, travel photography | Leave a comment

Exploring Wilkes-Barre

Posted on 4/23/2016 by Robert S. Robbins

Today I explored the city of Wilkes-Barre. I visited this city briefly three years ago but it has become a top priority since my older brother moved into that area. He now lives somewhere between Ricketts Glen State Park and Wilkes-Barre. So to reach Wilkes-Barre I drove along an alternative route on PA-118 East instead of using Interstate 80 East. I drove through Dallas PA and then used PA-309 South to reach downtown Wilkes-Barre.

I took 390 photos while walking around Wilkes-Barre. The reason I took so many photos is because it is hard to find any photos of this city. Nobody seems to be that interested in poor old Wilkes-Barre! I couldn’t even find decent photos of the college campus or landmark buildings. It is frustrating trying to plan a trip when you can’t find many photos of your destination. My 390 photos will be a bonanza for future explorers of Wilkes-Barre, assuming I take the time to title and tag all of my photos on Flickr. Wilkes-Barre has probably never seen such an avid tourist, taking photos of everything in sight.

The first order of business was to find someplace to park. On my previous trip I parked on the street and had to worry about feeding quarters into a meter. On this trip I found a big parking lot on South Pennsylvania Avenue where I could park all day for only $3.00. This put me in the vicinity of the Stegmaier Brewery building, the Jewelcor Building, and an abandoned railroad station so I took photos of all that. Unfortunately it was a bit cloudy throughout the morning but my new digital camera takes decent photos under low light conditions.

Stegmaier Brewery Building

After that I proceeded towards Public Square and took photos of City Hall and Best Western Genetti hotel where the Oyster Restaurant is located. I took lots of photos around Public Square and then walked along South Main Street. I went pass Barnes & Noble, Boscov’s, Martz Trailways and then took a photo of the Wilkes University gate. I could not find a single decent photo of this university entrance gate online. You would think that surely somebody would have taken a photo of it. Not being able to find any photos taken in a city suggests to me that nobody finds your city the least little bit interesting.

Wilkes University Gate

I took a few photos of Wilkes University properties but I did not wander too far onto their campus. However the campus is pretty much part of the downtown area so it is not like you are trespassing. One building I made sure to locate was the Dorothy Dickson Darte Center, the university’s performance art center.

I then walked into the lovely park along the Susquehanna River. This was the East branch of the Susquehanna River. Williamsport is on the West branch of the Susquehanna River. I walked over the Market Street Bridge to Kirby Park. I took my pedometer with me on this trip and I walked eleven miles today, a new record!

Once back over the Market Street Bridge I took photos of the big hole left by the demolition of the Hotel Sterling. Then I walked through the campus of King’s College and found the Luzerne County Courthouse. I then walked back and fourth along River Street to take photos of many buildings fronting River Street. I should mention that I don’t mind this sort of activity because I love to look at old buildings with interesting architecture. Part of the appeal of travel is to see new places and notice details that would escape you if it was a familiar sight. I could sort of do this in Williamsport by walking down a familiar street and taking photos of what catches my photographer’s eye.

River Street Buildings

At this point I really needed to find a restroom so I walked to Barnes & Noble which was open by then. I had to ask for the key to the restroom although the lady from the information desk actually opened the Men’s room door for me. Their selection of theater books was thin so I bought Simon Stephens: A Working Diary (Theatre Makers). I’ve never heard of this British playwright because I don’t follow British theater as closely as American theater. However, I see that he wrote The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time which I’ve heard about, but which I don’t really know.

After buying a book at Barnes & Noble I picked up a copy of The Weekender and Electric City, the free weekly entertainment tabloids. These provide valuable insight into the local culture. I returned to my car to drop off these purchases. From there I walked all the way to Hazle Street where I expected to find the manufacturing facility of Nardone Brothers Pizza. Unfortunately there was a fire at this bakery and the business never rebuilt this manufacturing facility. I found it all boarded up. It was a waste of time to walk that far but I did see an interesting abandoned factory which looked very creepy.

Frederick Stegmaier Mansion

I then walked back into town and found the Frederick Stegmaier Mansion. From there I wandered around the Wilkes University campus some more and eventually found my way back to Public Square. I searched for a place to have lunch and found What the Fork, a small fast food place. The interior was kind of shabby, as if the establishment was still being constructed. I ordered a Bacon Burger and a Fountain Drink. At that point I was getting kind of tired of walking around Wilkes-Barre. The sun was not coming out so I was unlikely to take any better photos. I did buy a copy of the local newspaper, The Citizen’s Voice, before returning to my car.

It was still kind of early so I entered the GPS coordinates of the Wyoming Valley Mall into my GPS device and managed to drive to the Wyoming Valley Mall, although not exactly according to the instructions. The Wyoming Valley Mall is quite similar to our Lycoming Mall but it did not have a book store. I went to f.y.e. (for your entertainment) and bought a Blu-ray DVD of Tomorrowland for $29.67 which was kind of expensive. This was the movie I saw in San Francisco so it has some sentimental value for me.

Wyoming Valley Mall

I bought the DVD at 12:56 p.m. so it was still kind of early to go home. I decided to squeeze in one more attraction, the Seven Tubs Natural Area. I entered the GPS coordinates into my GPS device. Fortunately, I had this in my notes. I managed to find the Seven Tubs Natural Area easily enough after a short drive. The Seven Tubs Natural Area is a gorge where a stream has cut deep into the sandstone to create many pools and waterfalls. It is yet another spectacular rock formation deep in the woods and well worth seeing. I wasn’t prepared for a long hike so I only climbed a short trail to see the various whirlpools. After that I was finally ready to go home. I took the usual route to Interstate 80 West.

Seven Tubs Natural Area

This trip really advanced my knowledge of the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton metropolitan area. There are many possible reasons for me to visit this area so learning my way around is worthwhile. Although Wilkes-Barre isn’t a very famous city, it was interesting enough to wander around and that was more interesting than staying home to work on the computer.

Posted in General, Travel | Tagged Frederick Stegmaier Mansion, Jewelcor Building, Luzerne County Courthouse, Nardone Brothers Pizza, Seven Tubs Natural Area, Stegmaier Brewery Building, Wilkes University, Wilkes-Barre, Wyoming Valley Mall | Leave a comment

Long Day’s Journey Into Night – A Laugh Riot

Posted on 4/17/2016 by Robert S. Robbins

Yesterday I went to New York City to see my favorite play “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” by Eugene O’Neill. This was my first bus trip to New York City with my new camera, a SONY CyberShot DSC-RX100, which takes much better photos than my old Fujifilm FinePix JX400.

As usual I took a Susquehanna Trailways bus to New York City and on this trip I sat right next to the escort with a good view out the driver’s window. The bus is now dropping passengers off on West 49th Street and 8th Avenue because the Times Square Church no longer allows them to drop off passengers there. This puts you near the Eugene O’Neill Theater which was appropriate for this trip since I was seeing one of his plays, although not at that theater.

The play did not begin until 1:00 p.m. and we reached New York City by 10:00 a.m. so I spent a few hours in Times Square getting some high quality photos with my high quality digital camera. One of the establishments I made sure to photograph was the Times Square Arts Center which is a shabby arts center that rents black box theaters for play festivals. One of those play festivals recently posted a call for submissions on Reddit. All of the play festivals in New York City require the playwright to produce his own show in exchange for the exposure, but most theater professionals seem to regard this as a poor opportunity and a bit exploitative. In any event, I wanted to document where the festival was held.

I walked down to West 37th Street to visit Magazine Cafe. This store should not have been open until 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, according to my notes, but they were open so I went in and bought a copy of the French literary magazine, Le Magazine Littéraire. New York City is one of the few cities in the United States were you can find books and magazines in foreign languages so I always try to buy a few on a trip. This supports my future travel plans.

After buying the magazine I walked back up to 42nd Street and took photos of The New York Public Library and Bryant Park. I’ve taken plenty of photos of The New York Public Library before but none of them will probably compare to the high quality photos I took with my new camera. Also, it was a bright and sunny day, perfect for taking photos.

New York Public Library

Next I went to my favorite book store, the Drama Book Shop, which only sells plays and books on the theater or acting. I go there so often that my Acting Edition Club discount card has seven stamps. This time I bought The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh, the play I saw in San Francisco, Detroit by Lisa D’Amour, and The Night Alive and Other Plays by Conor McPherson.

I brought my pedometer on this trip and it recorded that I walked 19,805 steps which is approximately 10 miles! I did not use the subway on this trip. I walked everywhere since I was keeping to the midtown area. From the Drama Book Shop I walked a short distance to West 42nd Street and made sure to photograph the exterior of the theater where I was going to see the play, the American Airlines Theater. This is located on the flashiest part of 42nd Street so I took plenty of photos of other establishments in the vicinity.

Long Day’s Journey Into Night

It was then close to 11:30 a.m. so I walked further up town to West 45th Street and 9th Avenue to find my new favorite restaurant, Obao. This restaurant opens at 11:30 a.m. so I was the second customer to show up. I ordered the same thing I ordered last time; the Crispy Pork Belly, the Spare Rib on Sugarcane Skewer, and Chai Tea. This meal only costs around $25.00 which is half of what I usually pay for a meal in New York City, $50.00 for something that isn’t all that special. I’m getting tired of feeling cheated so I’m feeling less adventurous concerning restaurants.

Lunch was over in less than half an hour so I had plenty of time to walk back to West 42nd Street and the American Airlines Theater. This was the major goal of my trip so I did not want to be late and miss the show. Once inside the theater I took the elevator to the fifth floor to use the restroom. The play ran for three and a half hours so I wanted to be sure I could last that long without a restroom break. When I got up there I found a lecture on the play taking place in a ballroom so I stood around and listened to that before the show began. My seat was in the rear mezzanine so I had to watch the play from above, like a god. Since the play featured several movie stars I would have preferred a front row seat where I could get a good look at them, but this was the best seat I could get. It wasn’t so bad. I had a good view of the chandelier, various spotlights, the balconies, and a god-like view of the stage so I was very aware of the theater surroundings.

It was a real thrill to see Long Day’s Journey Into Night in New York City. This is my favorite play by my favorite playwright although I might rank Hamlet a bit higher. Although the Roundabout Theatre Company and the American Airlines Theater is technically Off-Broadway, this is as close to Broadway as this play is likely to get. You could not ask for a better cast. The highly respected Irish actor Gabriel Byrne played James Tyrone and was perfect for the part. The Hollywood film star Jessica Lange played Mary Tyrone. I remember her most from the 1977 film King Kong although she probably doesn’t want to be remembered for that. But what is larger than life than King Kong? Mary Tyrone does not equal King Kong in stature. And Michael Shannon played James Tyrone, Jr. He also played General Zod in the superhero film Man of Steel.

Unfortunately, the most remarkable thing about this play was the astonishing tone deafness of the audience. Long Day’s Journey Into Night is a searing tragedy about four characters in torment. But this audience was laughing throughout the entire play! They were so out of touch with the intended mood of the play that you could not help noticing it, and it became the most remarkable thing about the whole experience. Now there is some comedy in the play and a little witty dialogue so I did not find it remarkable when the audience chuckled at the maid Cathleen and the business with the bottle. But the audience continued to laugh uproariously, giggle, chuckle, and titter every chance they could get. Towards the end of the play I found myself just waiting to see what lines would get a laugh next.

My first clue that something was amiss was when Nietzsche got a laugh. Every mention of Nietzsche set the audience to laughing. This really puzzled me. What’s so funny about Nietzsche? Am I missing something here? Then the audience began laughing at lines you aren’t supposed to find that funny. For example, when Edmund asks his father, “Did Doc Hardy tell you I was going to die?” the audience howled in laughter, presumably because it sounds like a reason for Tyrone to give him a whole ten dollars. Sometimes I could see the audience’s point in finding something funny, like the dim, tiny little light that Tyrone turns on after relenting on the electric bill. But at other times my jaw dropped at astonishment at what the audience choose to laugh at. For example, when James tells Edmund, “Hell, you’re more than my brother. I made you! You’re my Frankenstein!” the audience laughed at the mention of Frankenstein. My reaction was, seriously? What the hell is wrong with you people? You are going to laugh at that? This is one of the biggest moments in the play and it is not intended to get a laugh!

This audience seemed to be just waiting to find the next big laugh and it had an evil genius in finding laughs within the play. For example, Mary Tyrone excuses her husband’s behavior by mentioning his ignorance, “Please don’t think I blame your father, Edmund. He didn’t know any better. He never went to school after he was ten. His people were the most ignorant kind of poverty-stricken Irish.” This got a big laugh from the audience which obviously thought this was meant to be some kind of insult. Two more examples of inappropriate laughter were when Tyrone accidentally reminds Edmund of his consumption and Edmund accidentally reminds Tyrone of Mary’s addition to morphine. Both slip ups got big laughs from the audience.

How can one explain this tone deaf audience? Maybe they were all tourists. Maybe they knew nothing about Eugene O’Neill or this play and were just expecting a Broadway play. In that case, they were obligingly willing to chuckle at every display of wit and just showed poor judgment in finding the humor in the play. Still, these people must have a very poor sense of tragedy. They have no tragic sensibility!

There was one 15 minute intermission which was not enough time to use the restroom. In the lobby, I bought a critical edition of the play with a foreword by Jessica Lange. Apparently she has played the role of Mary Tyrone previously in London. I saw this play in London at the Apollo Theater in 2012. Laurie Metcalf played Mary Tyrone in that production. It was equally thrilling to see my favorite play during my only trip to London. I would also like to note that the stage set was awesome and featured a shining body of water visible through the house windows which managed to suggest the lake. They also used fog to make some of the scenes especially eerie. The dining room also filled with fog. That may have been unintentional but it looked very creepy and gave the play a haunting quality. At the end of the play, during Mary Tyrone’s final scene, the rest of the cast was frozen around the table in a tragic tableau. I should mention that the performance was flawless and the actors were obviously not playing the scenes for laughs. I think the audience was entirely to blame for refusing to take the play seriously.

When the play ended it was almost 5:00 p.m. so I did not have time to visit the Paley Center for Media which closed at 6:00 p.m. Since I was psyched by the play I spent the rest of my time taking photos of the various Broadway theaters. My new camera meant I would get some of my best photos ever. I especially wanted photos of the Helen Hayes Theatre which was showing The Humans by Stephen Karam and the New Dramatists, both on West 44th Street. Eventually I walked to West 52nd Street to locate the Paley Center for Media which I may visit on a future trip. On the Avenue of the Americas (Sixth Avenue), I found a Barilla Restaurant where I ordered a Rustica pizza and a small can of Sprite. From there I returned to Times Square and made my way to West 49th Street and 8th Avenue to wait for the bus home.

Times Square

This trip really served to refresh my enthusiasm for the theater and playwriting. I’ve been reading some theater textbooks lately but that only serves to bore me. I’ve been thinking about how I can keep my interest at a very high level. My idea is that I have to start thinking of the theater as sacred to invest it with greater significance. Right now my major goal should be to complete some worthwhile full length plays. Once that is done I can put my mind to the problem of getting them produced in a major theater. There is really no point in complaining about your prospects until you have something to promote.

My next trip to New York City will be on May 28 when I will see Daphne’s Dive by Quiara Alegría Hudes at the Signature Theatre.

Posted in Theater, Travel, Writing | Tagged American Airlines Theater, Drama Book Shop, Eugene Oâ€™Neill, Long Days Journey Into Night, New York City, Roundabout Theatre Company, The New York Public Library | Leave a comment

Saying Goodbye To Microsoft SQL Server 2005

Posted on 4/12/2016 by Robert S. Robbins

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 reached its end of life today and will no longer be supported. So today at work I migrated my databases to Microsoft SQL Server 2008 and uninstalled Microsoft SQL Server 2005. I figured I might as well get rid of it because I have a lazy habit of using it by default. I had to update several projects for this change in SQL Server. My development SQL Server databases were using a different version of SQL Server than my production databases and that is never a good thing.

I am also making this change at home. I am running too many instances of SQL Server anyways in order to meet the requirements of various projects. A developer’s system eventually becomes very complicated with a wide variety of development software installed.

By the way, Microsoft is now giving away copies of SQL Server 2014 Developer’s Edition.

Posted in Business, Databases, General, Programming | Tagged Microsoft SQL Server 2005, Microsoft SQL Server 2008 | Leave a comment

Fonthill Castle Bus Trip

Posted on 4/3/2016 by Robert S. Robbins

Yesterday I went on a bus trip to Bucks County with Sherry Ault Tours. We visited Fonthill Castle, the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works, and Peddler’s Village. I’ve read about Fonthill Castle in my Philadelphia travel guides which cover the surrounding areas. This was a rare opportunity to go on a bus trip to see some of the attractions outside of Philadelphia.

First we had a tour of the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works which was an interesting look at pre-industrial manufacturing of tiles. There were some tiles available for sale in the gift shop but I didn’t think they made for an attractive knick knack. I’m not really that interested in tiles or pottery.

We had to wait an hour in the bus before our Fonthill Castle tour. Since we were a large group, only thirteen people could go a tour but several groups were being lead through the castle simultaneously. We just had to stay out of each other’s way. Fonthill Castle is an amazing mansion. It is an unique mansion made out of poured-in-place concrete. Going through the mansion was like walking through a weird, spooky funhouse filled with old prints and artifacts. It was also a little like an old hobbit house.

Fonthill Castle

After the Fonthill Castle tour we went to Peddler’s Village. I’ve been there once before on a rare shopping trip which included Rice’s Market. Unfortunately, the Canterbury Tales Forever book store I remembered was gone. I immediately had lunch at Hart’s Taven where I ordered a coke and a kielbasa sandwich with French fries. That meal only cost me $12.16 and I left $12.25 for a 9 cent tip. I didn’t tip more because I was cheated out of change when I ordered breakfast at Burger King in the Hickory Run Service Plaza. They didn’t even give me the sausage in my sausage croissant! That was enough to piss me off so I decided to pay it forward. I’m getting a little tired of being cheated at every turn lately so now I’m looking for ways to pass along the screwing.

Although the book store was gone, I did manage to find a book to buy at My Favorite Shoppe which was selling a few expensive first editions. I bought Dan Wakefield’s New York In The 50s. This book interested me because I’m currently reading a history book on Greenwich Village which probably covers some of the same material. I also own Dan Wakefield’s novel Selling Out which I still have to read. That novel is about a writer who goes to Los Angeles to write for television.

We spent several hours at Peddler’s Village which was way too long for me because I didn’t want to do a lot of shopping in gift stores. I did look around many gift stores which I treated as pop art galleries. That reminds me, I did buy a small print of a painting of the Bucks County Playhouse. It only cost $3.50 and it is a rare example of artwork that uses the theater as its subject matter. There actually is a Bucks County Playhouse and I should add it to my travel guide.

Peddler’s Village

I forgot to mention that this was my first trip using my new digital camera. I bought a SONY DSC-RX100B camera because my Fujifilm digital camera was beginning to get a little worn. This new digital camera appears to take better photos under low light conditions. It was a cloudy day on this trip but most of my photos are sharp and clear. Although the SONY DSC-RX100B is more bulky than my Fujifilm digital camera, it still fits in my pocket.

Posted in General, Travel | Tagged Bucks County, Fonthill Castle, Moravian Pottery and Tile Works, Peddler's Village | Leave a comment

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