Surfing The Channel

Archive for January, 2010

When thinking of cultural “melting pots” of the United States, many cities may come to mind, cities such as Manhattan, or San Francisco, or Los Angeles.  However, there is one city that may get overlooked, and that is the city of Boston.  This is the a city that is rich with history not only within itself, but one that is also of the most significance in regards to the history of the entire country.  There are many neighborhoods in the city today, each with their own characteristics and their own personality, and one that is known throughout the city as the cultural “melting pot”, is Beacon Hill.

It is not only the mix of the people from all over the world, but in Boston, hotel buildings, and apartments, and mansions, and eclectic boutique shops, and elegant restaurants are surrounded by artists, musicians, and poets…made from and made up of the vast number of immigrants who have been calling this neighborhood home since the 1600′s.

During the 17th Century this was home to many of the first European immigrants and settlers, and the Puritans, many of whom built the beacon at the top of the hill for which the neighborhood is named, which would signal an attack by the enemy troops.  Addresses in this location became quite desirable.  By the early 1800′s however, the surrounding neighborhoods became filled with “undesirables”.

But as time continued on, various cultures began to make Beacon Hill their home, from the African Americans in the years following the Civil War, to a wave of Jewish immigrants during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  This became a focal point for the civil rights movement, and a leader in the history of among many elements of society, the fight for equal rights.

Walking through this neighborhood, it is evident that history exists, in the array of architectural style.  The Boston Athenaeum is located here, and contains a vast library of books from the personal libraries of Henry Knox and George Washington, paintings, sculptures, and other artifacts that illustrate the years of history that stand behind this area of Boston.

A walk down Charles Street will open up a view into the history of tomorrow…the people, the activity, and shops of today.  Surrounded with charm and heavy with the weight of historical importance, this is a neighborhood of Boston that one should really explore by simply walking the streets and talking with the people who have lived there for generation after generation.

Sure, the summers in Austin can get kind of warm and are also rather humid. But so what, it’s still an amazing city and it’s the music capital of the nation, remember? Joe still wasn’t convinced that he should move with his best friend and music partner to the capital of Texas. It wasn’t that he had any specific hesitations regarding the city of Austin, and it certainly had its appeal, he was just happy in his own town of Albuquerque, New Mexico and didn’t know if he was ready to leave. Matt pressured him and continued to talk about it day and night.

Joe was getting frustrated and really didn’t want to leave his other friends and his family and move to a city where he didn’t know anyone and didn’t even have a job. Of course Matt called him a chicken and reminded him that if he wanted to make it in the music business he had to take chances and make sacrifices. And he had to make his career happen, it certainly wasn’t going to do manifest on its own.

So, after about a month of all of that pressuring and name calling and even character insults his best friend continued to lob in his direction, Joe agreed to go with Matt and to check out a great place to stay in Austin for a week. And as made up as this might sound, almost as soon as they arrived in this great Texan city Joe knew it was where he needed to be. He couldn’t remember the reasons for his former hesitations and really didn’t even care. He thought the city had a great vibe and he couldn’t believe all of the clubs that featured live music. He knew he and Matt would be able to break into the club scene and they even decided to play at an open mic at the Water Club Tank. Joe played guitar and sang back up to Matt who played keyboards and was the main singer. That night they played with just the guitar and vocals and had a very nice response. They decided to check out another open mic before they left and when it was time to go home they felt like they were leaving their home. But they would be back.

A few years ago, in Paris, I realized I had acquired a fear of heights when I considered entering the glass elevator to the top of the Eiffel Tower, which would have sent me soaring one thousand feet above the ground.  My heart accelerated in anticipation and, for the life of me, I couldn’t make myself step inside the elevator car.  When I reviewed my memories of height-related experiences, I could come up only with myself as an eight-year-old climbing alone a one hundred and ten foot lookout tower in Washington state.  My parents were waiting above, accessible through a trap door that took up a quarter of the lookout tower’s observation room, having gone ahead when I expressed my reluctance to climb the wooden structure.  I hadn’t had any such negative reactions anywhere else, such as flying in a plane or riding up to the top of the Seattle Space Needle.

In fact, then as now, I really enjoy Seattle and the Seattle Center, which is about a 74 acre site that the Century 21 Exposition used.  I would love to travel to Washington today and check into a hotel on the pier and revisit those excellent childhood memories.  It would be a chance to see again the International Fountain, which you can see at any time of the year, with twenty spouts, shooting out jets of water in different patterns to the beat of world music, which changes every month.  More recently, in 2004, the World Naked Bike Ride or the Body Pride Ride uses the fountain as a stopping point.  That was definitely something that wasn’t happening when I was a kid.  While I couldn’t find clothing-optional bicyclists, I could ride the Seattle Monorail here, which was my first experience with monorails.  There’s also the Fun Forest Amusement park, in which I recall clearly a fun house ride that put you on a cart on a track that led in and out of “scary” sights.  I’m sure if I were to see it again, I’d consider the ride exceptionally tame.  In the sixties, though, it was just fun.  And, in fact, I was so in love with the space program that anything with the name space in it, had me hooked.  I’m positive that riding to the top of the Seattle Space Needle, a full 605 feet tall, didn’t trigger any fear of heights.

Perhaps I’ll never know why I couldn’t go to the top of the Eiffel Tower, although when I went to Las Vegas last, I was somehow able to force myself into the glass elevator on that Tower’s replica.  Granted, it was only half the height of the original, perhaps five hundred feet, and I was anxious all the way up, despite the view.  Overall, though, I believe I prefer the view available at the top of the Space Needle, Seattle and Puget Sound stretching out before me.  I could probably even see my hotel from there!

We headed down to Fisherman’s Wharf early in the morning to hire bikes from a company called ‘Blazing Saddles’. It was 9am by the time we got our bike and started toward the Golden Gate Bridge. The weather was a bit chilly, which was a good thing; kept us cooled down. The trip to Golden Gate Bridge was about an hour and when we got there, we got off our bikes and took several pictures. We could see the whole bay of San Francisco, the Bay Bridge and Alcatraz.

We then biked over the bridge leading to Sausalito, which is another very picturesque town. Our cycling into Sausalito was pleasant and fun, it was all downhill, we could have cycled downhill all day! But, then we realized that we’d have to bike back up that hill to get back to the San Francisco side of the Bridge. Ugh. When we stopped at a outdoor hot dog vendor stand, we asked the vendor if many people ride their bikes back up the hill to cross the bridge, he told us that tourist mostly take the ferry back.  Last night, we were saying how much weight we’ve put on by eating at our favorite restaurant in San Francisco, all of them! So, we looked at each other and knew we’d be tackling that hill on our way back.

We spent the rest of the afternoon biking through out Sausalito and up to Old Mill Park, which is this wonderful retreat up in the forested mountains. We saw many striking homes nestled away from the dirt track we were on. Finally, it was lunchtime, so we found a spot in the mountain that was quiet and peaceful and ate our packed lunches. After a refreshing meal, which our favorite restaurant packed for us, it was time to head back. As we were packing up, a family of deer entered our view, they were grazing along the dirt path. We stayed as quiet as we could, but then one of the deer spotted us and they all bolted. That was great!

We did make it back to our hotel, but we were beaten. That hill was quite a struggle for both of us. We cycled over 30 miles today and it is time for the hot-tub, that’s if we can walk there.

From Boston, we took the bus to New York City; we traveled on route 84 and the best thing about traveling on a bus is the cost! It only cost us $11 for the both of us to travel about 4 1/2 hours. The bus was full, but not crowded and we managed to grab the table seats, which was great for me to take advantage of the free wi-fi.

The bus ride itself was uneventful as we traveled along the freeway. Before we knew it, we had arrived at the edge of New York City, uptown with great views of the Bronx. We went down Amsterdam Avenue, which goes from the top of Manhattan all the way into the central part of Manhattan. We couldn’t help but giggle at a sign we passed saying ‘Divorce – only $399 – Spouse’s permission not required.’ I laughed even harder when I was my loved one writing down the phone number. Don’t worry, we’re still very happily married! The topper to this story is the sign was posted on the side of a church! Ah, New York, you gotta love it.

Our bus continued down into Manhattan and then we finally arrived at Penn Station, which is next to Madison Square Garden. We jumped off and got on the subway, where shortly we arrived to our luxury hotel that was easy to book on-line.  The best thing about our hotel was its location, only a few blocks away from Times Square and from South Central Park! We freshened up in our hotel room and by the time we headed back out, it was 7:30pm and there was a massive thunderstorm about to brew. We found a place to buy umbrellas, since we didn’t pack anything in case it rained.

We opened up our umbrellas a became one of the mass of people walking around all the big corporate buildings and the lights of commercialism, all the while trying to keep dry. After we walked around for about an hour, we soon realized that central New York is more expensive than we anticipated. We counted on most of the touristy places to be inflated, but we didn’t count on out of the way restaurants to have exorbitant menu prices! In Boston, we were treated to some fairly inexpensive meals. The same meal here is about $50 more!

After some diligent searching, we managed to find a small bar named Charley O’s, they had a happy hour on all their drinks and on the food as well. We got there just as this big band began to play, so we settled back for a couple of hours and proceeded to have several happy hours.

In 1934, long before the streets were lined with coffee shops, costume warehouses, and the smaller and quaint hotels in LA, the corner of Third Street and Fairfax in the city of Los Angeles was an open and empty expanse of land.  A small group of farmers pulled their pick-up trucks in, let down their tailgates, and started selling their fruits, flowers and vegetables off the back.  Much to their surprise, they hit on something that the people in the area needed, and within minutes of setting up, cars filled the empty lot with customers strolling through the trucks, and buying the farmers’ wares.  And thus the Fairfax Market was born and has become one of the longest standing institutions in the city.

To walk through the Market now, with the adjoining Grove Shopping Mall, it is hard to imagine that this area was ever wide open and non-developed.  Just a few months after the market was opened, the first Fall Festival took place in October, this is still a tradition that is widely popular to this day, more than seventy-five years later.  More than ninety percent of the stalls, booths and restaurant counters in the market are independently owned and operated, with many of those businesses being some of the original ones from 1934, such as Magees and the Ultimate Nut & Candy Company.  Along with the eighty-five plus businesses, the second floor contains not only the home office of one of the first banks in America, the Gilmore Bank, but many other offices as well.

Many different stars have been spotted having breakfast or lunch in the market.  I myself sat next to Alanis Morisette one morning as we both enjoyed our crepes.  Not only is this a popular location for tourists, but many locals frequent the produce stalls, and make the Fairfax Market part of their weekend go to breakfast rituals.  If you walk in for the first time and find it to be a tad bit familiar, many movies have used this market as a location throughout the years.  Should you just be visiting, you will definitely want to make a stop here, and should you live in Los Angeles, well then, you are already aware of the market and all of its wonders.

I still desire to see everything there is to see on Broadway, but I’ve reached a point where I now don’t rush to see everything as early as possible. Thanks to finding New York Broadway tickets on-line and at prices I can afford, I’ve managed to see the shows I want, when I have the time and the money.

West Side Story was one of the Broadway musicals that was on my list, and when it first opened, was out of my price range. But, after searching on-line, I managed to find discount tickets with decent seats in the Mezzanine for a Sunday matinee. Below is my personal review of this particular musical production.

I prefer song to dance, and the beginning of West Side Story starts with dance, it was a long time before a musical note was played, but once the music began, I really enjoyed the exquisite dancing and beautiful music. It’s unusual for me to say this, but it was the dancing that was the highlight of the show. The reason for this ‘out-of-character’ preference is all the non-dancing parts are centered around the lead characters and they both, the actors playing Maria and Tony did nothing for me. The actors playing Anita and Bernardo were great, but there’s not enough them in the show.

The director of this production thought he’d be innovative by the use of Spanish in the dialogue and in some of the songs. But, for me it didn’t work, I really would have preferred hearing English spoken with a Puerto Rican accent. I really don’t understand the directors reasoning behind this decision. It took me away from the story instead of including me in the story. Then, Tony was the only character who didn’t have a costume change. He wore the same jeans and t-shirt through out the entire musical!

All I can say, is I’m really glad I didn’t pay full price for the show.

Phoenix is now behind us as we drive to the Pacific coast. The drive was uneventful, except that the temperature outside the car was hot enough to boil an egg! We were in disbelief when we heard on the radio that the temperature was ‘cooling’ down to 104 degrees around 5pm. We had a good laugh when we passed a sign that said ‘Arizona State Prison next right’ with a sign below it saying ‘Don’t pick-up Hitchhikers’. When we entered California, we were greeted by a winding road, mountains and huge fields of wind turbines. Our excitement grew as we raced to Los Angeles.

We turned off I-10 onto Hollywood Boulevard and encountered Batman, the Joker, Belle from Beauty and the Beast, a KISS member, Pinocchio, and tons of other interesting characters busking around the Chinese Palace Theater. These characters make their living posing with tourists for photo opportunities.  After we cruised Hollywood Boulevard, we turned onto Sunset Boulevard. We were soaking in all off Hollywood. Then we spent some time driving through Beverly Hills in hopes of seeing any glamorous millionaires. But, we didn’t see a single celebrity. We then headed to Malibu Beach.

We found ourselves winding down a road on the mountain of death; the decline was very steep and there were many sharp curves, which made us a little nauseous. By the time we reached the bottom, our brake pad were worn out. We drove up and down Malibu, trying to find some accommodations at one of the Malibu hotels and we were lucky, since we made no reservations, to find a hotel with a room available at a reasonable price. Reasonable for being on a beach! It was already night time, so we went straight to bed; we were exhausted from our long drive and playing tourist.

We woke up at sunrise and headed out to the beach. The rolling waves, the beautiful sand and the mountains in the background made for a perfect day at the beach. After being refreshed from a great day playing in the ocean and laying in the sun, it was time for us to continue our way up the Pacific coast highway.