Category: travel Page 18 of 19
I was in Los Angeles and witnessing the death of Virgin Record Stores, as the “final 2 days” of sales of all merchandise in the Los Angeles store sounded the death knell of a once-thriving industry,
First, it was Denver and Orlando Virgin Mega-Stores that closed. Chicago soon followed suit. Word was that Virgin Entertainment Group North America was getting extremely low rent in very desirable locations and, as a result of that and the general struggling of the music industry, Virgin was bought out by Vornado and related real estate companies in 2007. In New York, for example, the store was only paying $54 a square foot in an area where rent easily runs $500 a square foot.
The demise of Virgin in Los Angeles (pictured here during its final 2 day sale at 80% off) follows on the heels of the closing of Tower Records in 2006. Tower had been established in 1960. In England, a similar closing Zavvl Music occurred, and FYE closed very recently as well.
The high cost of CD’s, the advent of downloads and MP3’s, a glut of product on the market, and the economic crisis can all be blamed for the fall of Virgin in the United States, but, with the closing of the Los Angeles store, a once-thriving business with locations in major cities has joined Tower Records on the scrap heap.
I’m here in the Big Apple and have attended both the Backspace Writers’ Conference and the BEA (Book Expo America). The Book Expo is an event I have attended for the past 5 years, ever since it was held in Chicago at McCormack Place. Then there was one in Washington, D.C. and a couple in New York City at the Jacob Javits Center.
One thing is for sure: you are going to have top-notch authors everywhere and there will be interesting programs and speakers. The morning Master of Ceremonies last year was Stephen Colbert, and the author of “1000 Splendid Suns” spoke. This year’s M.C. was Craig Ferguson, and the advertised author was Pat Conroy (“Prince of Tides,” “Beaches”). Unfortunately, Conroy—who had Davenport ties with his (now deceased) brother a priest at St. Anthony’s in Davenport at one time—was ill and, at the last minute, unable to attend the luncheon. (Rumor I heard was that he had surgery 2 days prior).
Still, the Backspace Writers’ Conference being held on W. 32nd Street at the Radisson Martinique Hotel featured keynote speaker David Morrell (“Rambo”) and at least 12 separate agents visited and shared wisdom with the would-be authors. Morrell was receiving an award for being so supportive of the conference, initially, but there were other speakers throughout the day.
Unfortunately, I was unable to hear his keynote address today in the afternoon, as I was helping hold down a table at the BEA for one hour (2:30 to 3:30 p.m.) advertising my first collaborative novel Out of Time and meeting and greeting a variety of authors, booksellers and readers.
One notable event occurred with “Sully,” that would be the pilot who put his plane down safely in the Hudson River, saving all 155 passengers onboard, spoke to the assembled crowd. (See photo). On Saturday night, musicians Steven Tyler of Aerosmith and Clarence Clemmons, “the Big Man” of E-Street Band fame were speakers.
All-in-all, with the weather improving to perfect by today, it has been a busy and fun-filled 5 days, and, except for having to find a dentist in midtown Manhattan to fix a tooth that flossed into oblivion, a very productive trip.
The daughter made a trip back to the Midwest (specifically Chicago’s Midway Airport on Delta) last Thursday from New York City where she has been interning in the music industry since January and sat next to one of “People” magazine’s “50 Most Beautiful People” of 2003.
She slept all the way and didn’t recognize television’s Daniel Sunjata (Condon), Franco Rivera of “Rescue Me” for the past 5 years and 58+ episodes. When asked about this, later, she said it was because “he was wearing a hat.”
The husband (pictured here with the actor) did recognize the handsome and talented actor and took the opportunity to tell him how much we enjoy the show, adding, “My wife is going to be so pissed that she isn’t here.” (He’s right about that.)
Sunjata was born in Evanston, Illinois on December 30, 1971, and was also nominated for a Tony for Best Actor in Richard Greenberg’s “Take Me Out” on Broadway in 1970. He is six feet one inches tall and attended both Florida A&M, the University of Louisiana, where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts, and NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where he was awarded a MFA.
Daniel is African-American, Irish and German and has had some of the best lines on “Rescue Me” over the past 5 years of his appearance in 58 episodes,, both those expressing his strong belief in a conspiracy theory regarding 9/11 and in exchanges discussing ethnicity or a variety of weird topics, like the ones listed below:
“Rescue Me: Bitch (#2.11)” (2005)
Franco Rivera: Oh, sh*t. Sean Garrity readin’ a book. That’s the first sign of the apocalypse.
Franco Rivera: I don’t know if I can believe you or not, Tom. See the Tommy Gavin I used to know was a lyin’, cheatin’, schemin’, brawlin’, skirt-chasin’ son of a bitch. I looked up to him. You always knew where he stood, but this new Tommy, this, uh, fancy coffee-drinkin’, pastry-eatin’, kind, sweet, sincere one, uh-uh, Bro, I don’t trust him as far as I can throw him.
“Rescue Me: Sensitivity (#2.5)” (2005)
Sean Garrity: So you’re over the fat chick?
Mike Silletti: Totally.
Sean Garrity: Yeah? So what’s with the new girl, what’s her name?
Mike Silletti: Allison.
Sean Garrity: Can I tell you something bro, concerning Allison? She’s gigantic.
Mike Silletti: She’s tall.
Sean Garrity: No. Shaq is tall. Ok? Yo Yo Ming is tall.
Franco Rivera: Yao Ming.
Sean Garrity: Yo.
Franco Rivera: Yao.
Sean Garrity: No, I was just-I was just saying hi. Your chick is gigantic.
Franco Rivera: Oh, he’s back with the fat chick?
Sean Garrity: No, he’s dating a vet, now.
Franco Rivera: What war?
Sean Garrity: No. Vet, like cats and dogs.
Franco Rivera: And she’s fat?
Mike Silletti: Tall.
Franco Rivera: Oh, how tall are we talkin?
Mike Silletti: Like, not that tall, like 6’2″ 6’3″ and a half?
Franco Rivera: So what, are you only doing Guiness book chicks now, is that it Probie? Fattest and tallest, I mean, what’s next, a chick with three tits?
Sean Garrity: Oh, that’d be great wouldn’t it? You know I dated a chick with three nipples, one time? Well, I thought it was a nipple, it turned out to be a boil… Long Pause… Anyway, an extra tit would be great.
(On pejorative stereotypes applied to groups.)
Don Kleinman: Ok, we have a hand up. You think you’re prejudiced?.
Tommy Gavin: Yup.
Don Kleinman: Against who?
Tommy Gavin: Well let’s see, uh, Chevy Neons that cost 12 Grand to buy but have $8,000 paint jobs and 9 spics inside them smokin’ weed, that’s one thing.
Don Kleinman: Ok, now listen, the term “spic”…
Franco Rivera: It’s Ok, I’m a spic.
Tommy Gavin: Crazy chink broads who don’t know how to drive in the first place and now they have cell phones stuck to their ears while they’re doing 65 MPH down 6th avenue, huh? Right? And the crazy chinks on bikes with 10 pounds of chinese food strapped to the handlebars…
Don Kleinman: Ok, see, now the word “chink” is what I like to call a problem word.
Sean Garrity: …raises his hand… Yeah, uh, if I were a chink I’d rather be called a chink then a gook.
Don Kleinman: Ok, now hold on. Listen to me please. Chinese people would not like to be called gook or chink or pan face or zipper-head or…
Franco Rivera: See? That’s another thing-Puerto Ricans, we even get shafted when it comes to racism. Chinks get like what, 4 ethnic slurs? We get one-spic, that’s it. The Irish, they got: Mick, Paddy, Donkey. The Italians, they got: Guinea, WOP, Deigo…
Sean Garrity: …raises his hand… Yeah, uh, Sphagetti Bender…
Franco Rivera: Ehhh, Sphagetti Bender went out of style during Sinatra’s first marriage.
Mike Silletti: …raises his hand… Greaseball?
Franco Rivera: Yeah, greaseball. There ya have it. That’s four.
Tommy Gavin: That’s right, you know, same thing with the Jews, right? Heeb, Kike, Jew-Boy, Benny…
Franco Rivera: Shiloch
Tommy Gavin: That’s five.
Franco Rivera: Yeah, black people, forget about it. Spear-Chucker, Jungle Bunny, Raisin Head, Porch Monkey, Spook
Tommy Gavin: Shyne
Sean Garrity: Tar-Baby
Franco Rivera: It’s endless, totally unfair.
Tommy Gavin: Yeah
Don Kleinman: …all turn and look to the front at Don who is looking in complete disbelief…
Franco Rivera: What?
“Rescue Me: Pieces (#3.9)” (2006)
(On having sex with Heather Mills McCartney)
Kenny Lou: I’d hit that.
Tommy Gavin: You would?
Kenny Lou: In a heartbeat. Wait, who are we talking about again?
Tommy Gavin: Heather Mills McCartney, ex-wife of former Beatle Paul.
Franco Rivera: I’d do her.
Tommy Gavin: Really?
Franco Rivera: Oh yeah man.
Tommy Gavin: Even though she’s only got the one leg?
Franco Rivera: Tommy, it’s a bonus man.
Tommy Gavin: How is it a bonus?
Franco Rivera: Well it gives you an extra sexual position to enjoy for one, that being her laying on her side, the side with the leg, you straddle said leg and do her sideways without having to worry about the extra pesky leg getting in the way.
Tommy Gavin: What about the stump?
Franco Rivera: I didn’t think about that. Pass.
Daniel Sunjata, the college-educated actor who plays a Hispanic firefighter on the series created by Denis Leary was gracious and amiable while waiting for the luggage to come out on the carousel. He laughed when my husband mentioned how upset I would be at missing this opportunity to meet and greet the 38-year-old actor, who seemed to be talking to a girlfriend on his cellphone as the plane landed.
Sunjata was generous, gracious and friendly, and obligingly posed for the photo you see here, with another beautiful person, my spouse of decades.
We’re here on the beach at the Royal Sands, and Ava and Elise seem to have taken to the native culture.
Our trip will be cut short by about 2 days as a result of my passport going missing at O’Hare on Saturday. (Never was found.) Fortunately, on Monday, we learned all you ever didn’t want to know about what you have to do if you have a passport that is lost or stolen. Thankfully, we were not abandoned in Canada (yes, Canada) with no jackets and only summer-weight clothes, which might have happened, has I not discovered the MIA passport just as we were to board to fly to Ottawa (Canada) from Chicago and then transfer to Air Canada to fly to Cancun. I can hear you saying, “Wh-a-a-a-a-t?” Such is the world of “free” air miles.
As a result of the loss of the passport, we spent 4 days in Chicago sorting everything out and ended up buying the more “direct” route, AND, since I shared the news of the mishap with the daughter (in NYC), she shared the information that she was on “spring break” right then, and I said, “Well, buy yourself a ticket and ‘Come on down!'” She said, “isn’t it too late?” My response: “I bought 2 tickets at 3 p.m. yesterday for Wednesday at 9 a.m., so I don’t think so!” She ended up flying through Philadelphia and the son and wife and twins (not quite 3 months old) and the daughter (just turned 21) are all here with us…through Saturday, anyway.
We’ve not done too many ‘daring’ things, although there was an attempt to rent jet skiis today, which was foiled by the high winds and treacherous waters. The weather, so far, has been perfect: balmy, a bit windy, but warm. Coolest it has gotten is 79.
Take a look at today’s activity for the little girls. First, it was the Obama Inauguration. Then, it was the Super Bowl. Now, it is watching the ocean while enjoying their favorite beverage.
Life doesn’t get any better than this.
Lionel Richie just completed his set and Kellie Pickler is hanging on to the iron barriers the police spent all afternoon setting up. The temperature, with wind chill, is around 5 degrees. Ryan Seacrest, in his earmuffs, looks better than Luke Russert and Carson Daley in hats.
Some time ago the daughter (and friends) took off for Madison Square Garden to hear “My Morning Jacket” play. I took her to hear them on a bill with Dave Matthews, Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals, Jurassic5, and Neil Young during a MoveOn.org concert for Kerry lo those many years ago (Ames, Iowa). She saw them at Bonaroo. The friends from school traveled here by bus and train to hear them again and decided that freezing outside in the cold was less desirable than going to a concert at Madison Square Garden, so they are gone, having fun, we hope.
Before they left, via subway and bus, she delivered 2009 glasses ($6 a pair) purchased from vendor’s around Times Square.
We are fortunate because 7th Avenue, the street shut down for the festivities, with stages and the ball, itself, at the end near the DoubleTree Guest Quarters, will allow us outside the door to watch the ball drop soon, without our having to become penned cattle for the entire 8 hours of waiting that some have endured.
Here are a few shots of the night.
It’s December 31st, and I’m gearing up for New Year’s Eve in Times Square. Yes, THE Times Square. New York City, New York. Over a million people are expected to attend, in person, and over a billion to watch on television. (I’ll be the one wearing the pink hat, pink gloves and pink scarf.)
This year, there is a brand new New Year’s Eve ball, courtesy of the people at Waterford Crystal in Waterford, England. This brand new ball is 12 feet in diameter and weighs nearly 12,000 pounds. It is covered with 2,668 Waterford Crystal triangles, and it is going to be a permanent fixture on the roof of One Times Square, which is just down the street from our digs in the Sheraton on Times Square.
Originally, I tried to get us closer to the scene of the action, at the Doubletree Guest Quarters. When I called up, I asked if they still had room, and the registration clerk said, “Yes.”
“How much is a room on December 30th?” I asked.
“$699.00 a night.”
“How much is a room on December 31st, New Year’s Eve?”
“3399,” said the voice.
“$33.99?” I naively asked, my Midwestern values kicking in.
“No. Three thousand three hundred and ninety-nine dollars,” said the clerk.
“No wonder you still have rooms,” I replied, while hanging up.
For a while, I tried for the Helmsley, with its $410 a night rooms on Central Park.
It wasn’t until the son spoke up and offered up his 40,000 Starwood Points for redemption that I decided we could afford to get any room on Times Square, and we are happily ensconced at the Sheraton on Times Square in Manhattan, at 7th Avenue and 51st Street (not to be confused with the ritzier Sheraton Towers kitty-corner across the street.)
We have been watching the preparations for tomorrow night’s celebration. The creation of a permanent perch for the ball was over a year in the making and cost over $5 million to make. Because of the sphere’s massive weight and size, engineers had to build an entirely new roof and reinforce the steel columns down to the 16th floor to allow the ball to drop 141 feet to usher in the New Year tomorrow night.
Jeffrey Strauss, President of Countdown Entertainment has said that the bigger, brighter ball will remain in place to celebrate other holidays like the Fourth of July and Valentine’s Day, and Tim Tompkins, President of the Times Square Alliance was quoted in an Associated Press article as saying, “Now it is going to be up there shining throughout the year. I really believe it’s going to be the next Empire State Building.”
I don’t know if Tim and Jeffrey are right, but I’m hearing about the “etiquette” of watching the ball drop, and I’ll be out there in what promises to be snow and bitter cold checking it out tomorrow night.
Today’s big adventure took place in Barstow, California, where we visited the Route 66 Museum supervised by Deborah Hodkin in the basement of a historic Harvey Hotel at 681 N. First Avenue. You approach the museum across a bridge not unlike the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge in that it has a turn in it, and you can see the entire railway below. The museum is open only on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, with the hours being 10 to 4 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday.
In the old days, people alighted from the trains and stayed in the Harvey House Hotels. There was even a 1946 movie starring Judy Garland that romanticized the Harvey House female employees, who had to take a vow not to marry while employed by the Harvey House and had certain other morals clauses in their work agreements.
We watched a movie, hosted by Marty Milner of “Route 66” television fame, that tracked the Mother Road (so named by John Steinbeck in “The Grapes of Wrath”) all the way from 
Chicago to California, with Milner at the wheel of a classic Chevrolet Corvette.
Completed in 1911, the Casa del Desierto boasted a rail depot, restaurant and hotel complex and it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The original alignment of Route 66 was in front of this building, between the railroad tracks. Route 66, itself, was made from the National Old Trails Road, which crossed the Mojave Desert.
This Museum was founded in 2000 and charges no admission, but accepts donations. Volunteers staff the Historic Harvey House and the museum hosts special exhibits and upcoming events, including a Miss Route 66 pageant, a Route 66 Quilt Show, Artists & Authors and Desert Writers’ Day and group tours of the facility. Students attending Barstow Community College may also apply for the Barstow Route 66 Mother Road Museum scholarship, designed to bring more awareness to Main Street, USA. For more information on the scholarship, check www.route66 museum.org.
Today’s journey took us from Sedona (AZ) through a tiny corner of Nevada (Loughlin) on into California. Along the way, we stopped in Williams (AZ), Seligman and Kingman (AZ), and are now in Barstow, California.
Williams was the last town to capitulate when Route 66 was officially decommissioned. They fought in the courts, but finally lost the battle. Now, Williams has some downtown displays, a purportedly haunted bar called “The Black Cat,” and, according to the woman who assisted me at a roadside gas station, her own house is haunted. (Mainly by a cat belonging to the previous owner who built it.)
Seligman had a Polar Express train display, but little else.
Kingman has a haunted motel called the Beale Hotel on Main Street, and another place where a local doctor took his victims to murder them.
It took from 11 a.m. until 8 p.m. to reach Barstown, California, where we are now.
Here in Sedona, we lunched at Bistro Bella Tierra at 101 North Hwy 89
A, F29 in Sedona, Arizona, a lovely place with a great view that is nestled amongst other shops in a shopping center. We strolled through the shopping center afterwards and took part in a wine tasting (5 Arizona wines for $10; try the white merlot.) The onion soup was just the way you always hope it will be, with cheesy goodness, and the view was spectacular, featuring (from where we sat) the red rocks of three formations: Cathedral Rock, Snoopy, and the Coffee Pot.
As we have dinner reservations at L’Auberge de Sedona, a truly class act amongst the hotels and motels that dominate this town of 14,000, we ferreted it out down L’Auberge Lane (or Little Lane) and were given the guided tour by Graham, the concierge, whose wife was born in Glen Ellyn, Illinois.
L’Auberge rooms start at $225, move up to $325 for the cabins with a garden view, and top out closer to $500 in the cabins with a creek view. There is extensive remodeling going on at the hotel, which is nestled amongst the trees and bushes of Oak Creek, and the concierge mentioned something about “an outside shower” under construction. We could see that a shower-sized extension to the cabin was being added, and we wondered if one would be able to be viewed au naturel.
A British couple (last name Craig) with whom I spoke in the lobby was off on a hike and chatted with me prior to leaving. Hiking seems to be a big thing to do here, as are hot air balloon rides and helicopter rides over the splendor of the canyons.
About 300 million years ago, the oceans that covered Sedona retreated, exposing layers of sandstone and limestone. [I seem to remember something about “upthrusting” and “downthrusting” from my years in Earth Science with Dr. Sherwood Tuttle (at which I was very bad).] There are also formations with names like Thumb, Steamboat and Bell Rock that surround the Sedona area.
There are numerous fine restaurants, one of the best of which was Dahl and Diluca’s at 2321 W. Hwy 89A. This is a freestanding place across from the Safeway Shopping Center with a romantic décor and wonderful Italian food. It is very fancy, which we did not know, as we entered in our jeans and tee shirts. Others dining this night were attired just as casually. The waitress, who was from Pittsburgh, was very efficient and friendly. We wanted fettuccini with shrimp, but we craved Alfredo sauce, not the red sauce mentioned with it on the menu. Only fettuccini with chicken had Alfredo sauce, the chef obligingly used prawns and Alfredo sauce, instead.
So far, we have not encountered anyone who was actually born here. The concierge in our hotel is from Chicago, originally. Graham, the concierge at L’Auberge de Sedona, is British. The woman at the gift shop where I bought candles, May, was originally from the Sacramento area. Her husband’s retirement brought them here, but she “misses the ocean.”
We learned about “vortex circles,” rock formations representing places where electromagnetic field energy naturally collects, creating energy whirlpools that can flow clockwise or counter-clockwise. Because the human body is made up of electromagnetic energy, students of the phenomenon such as Page Bryant of Sedona, claim that the rock vortex circles can have a range of effects on the human body.
Some believe that, if the vortex is too strong, it can weaken the human immune system. They maintain that compasses and electronic devices like cell phones and watches won’t work properly around such energy vortices. I can testify that this is the first hotel on our trip where the promised network connection in the room doesn’t work (although it works in the hotel lobby).
Other vortex believers say that the effects on the human body will be a form of healing and spiritual growth. They believe it can realign the energy in one’s body, increasing health and vitality. Terms like “upflow” and “inflow” and other meditation techniques are common in Sedona. Valleys, canyons and caves are inflow sites, while mountains and mesa tops are outflow sites.
Meanwhile, on the “Good Evening, Arizona” Channel 3 news, Patty Kirkpatrick tells me that Attorney General Michael Mulkasey fainted onstage during a speech at the Marriott. Mayor Gordon of Phoenix failed to come to a complete halt at a red light for the second time and was picked up by a traffic camera. A high of 78 in the valley today and it will dip into the fifties tonight. There will be a high of 80 tomorrow.
An erratic freeway chase came to a halt in Columbia as the arresting officer pounded Stephen Zombra, the driver, who was charged with drug possession, among other things. A traffic stop in Oklahoma City also led to 130 mph chase photographed by KWTV in Oklahoma City. One thing is for sure: there are wide-open spaces out here in the wild, wild west and it is easy to do 100 mph with nobody around for miles (not that WE would ever do such a thing).