End of Summer

Labor Day weekend is over and the summer is wrapping up. This has been a weird season. Rainy and cool until the end of July and we only had a few days of pleasant warmth. The past two and half weeks have been spent upstate. In the last blog, I left off when we were in Plattsburgh. We stayed in the Rip Van Winkle motel and Jerry joked that the room was the size of a closet. The next morning we drove to the Ausable Chasm, a natural phenomenon like a mini Grand Canyon. It was pleasant to walk around the rim and see the rock formations. I bought a postcard, which I love collecting. Afterwards we took the ferry across Lake Champlain to Vermont. We walked around Burlington and then took a sunset cruise around the lake.

Back in Stockport, my family visited for Labor Day weekend. On Saturday, we went to Tanglewood for a concert with John Pizzarelli and Jessica Molaskey which they taped for their Radio Deluxe series for NPR. I listen to them sometimes if I am driving somewhere upstate. That's one of the things I do when I'm upstate which I don't do when I'm downstate--listen to NPR, read the New Yorker, and drink margaritas. The concert was great. The guest vocalist was Curt Elling whom I'd never heard of before, but he sang an amazing scat version of "Polka Dots and Moonbeams." We went back to Lenox and looked around, then had dinner in Philmont at a restaurant called Local 111--because its address is 111 Main St. and they use local food. We couldn't have hard liquor because we were across the street from a church (local blue laws). I thought it weird that just a few days ago in Plattsburgh we passed the Diamond Gentlemen's club which was right across the street from a Baptist church. The food at Local 111 was delicous. My dad had a fish was was really excellent, my dish was a lamb sausage and very good, but his fish which I sampled was really outstanding. It was like being on Top Chef and judging the different dishes.

On Sunday, we fixed an elaborate Turkish dinner which took two hours to make. My mother insisted on watching Big Brother and my brother had to watch Design Star on HGTV. Neither reality show is in my repertoire, but it was interesting to see them and what appealed. Big Brother is just dumb, the remaining four people are kinda obnoxious--esp. the girl who was head of household. I don't know what my mother sees in it. Design Star is a compettion between potential hosts for a HGTV show. In this episode, the remaining three contestants were given celebrity clients to make a room for. Kathy Griffin who will use any excuse to get on TV and get a free design job was very funny. But the room was kinda cold, I thought. It was also fun to watch them on our new big-screen TV.

Monday everybody went home and I dawdled and lazed around occasionally watching Spongebob or Golden Girls. We left in the late afternoon. At home in the city, I watched Rachel Zoe and lost interest in Brad's hissy fit with putting together Anne Hathway's two Oscar outfits (She needed one for the red carpet and another to be in the "surprise" opening dance number with Hugh Jackman.) I am anxiously awaiting The Amazing Race which starts Sept. 27 so my life will have some meaning. Not everything is awful about summer ending.

Summer Vacation with Digressions into the Disney-Marvel Deal

We've been on vacation since Aug. 20 and are now in the middle of our time off. So far we've driven to Pittsfield, Mass. to see the Barrington Stage Company to see Freud's Last Session in the studio theatre, then A Streetcar Named Desire on the main stage with Tony nominee Marin Mazzie, visited friends near Quakertown, PA, then drove to Doylestown--a cute little town with some cute little shops, went to Cooperstown and saw La Traviata at Glimmerglass. The next few days were spent hanging around the house. At one point I drove one hour to Millerton because they have a nice antiques place which sometimes has valuable Silver Age comics. I had not bought any in a while and my habit was getting to me. I needed one badly. So I bought two reprints of Avengers from the late 60s in a series called Marvel Triple Action. The art was by Don Heck whose work I have never been crazy about but the covers were great.

BTW, I heard today that Disney is buying Marvel for several million dollars. Does that mean that the Marvel superheroes will be removed from Universal Islands of Escape and transferred to Disney World and will Disney pour money into the Spider-Man musical and thereby save it? (I have not been keeping up with that situation while I've been away, so I don't know if it's on or off or what?) Jerry and I really loved Universal, but found Disney too family-and-kiddie-oriented. How will the angst-filled heroes of Marvel fit into that Mickey-Mouse framework? We'll be going to Orlando a week after we get back so I'm looking forward to it.

Today we drove up through the Adironacks and stopped in Lake Saranac, Lake Placid, and are now in Plattsburgh. Tomorrow, we'll take the ferry across to Vermont. Pretty scenery. Nice dinner at a place called Iris' Wine Bar and Restaurant.