The Old Man and the Sea

Magnet #228 - Shrimpy McShrimperson

A friend of mine bought this for me at the San Gennaro Festival last year, just because he was there, and just because it was a funny little thing.

What he doesn't know is that my dad is a big-time seafood eater. Won't touch meat or fowl of any kind, but if it swims in the water, he's generally all over it.

Growing up, we had two sets of meals cooking - the Filipino dishes for my dad, usually with shrimp, crab, squid, fish, etc., and then the American dishes for my sisters and me.

I swear half my early childhood was spent on a fishing pier or lakeshore, or driving to seafood restaurants or fish markets. The restaurants were dotted all over NC - Pat 'n Mick's in Albemarle, or any Mayflower Seafood, or hell, even the kids at Captain D's know my dad.

The fish markets were the five-hour drives to Washington, D.C., or South Carolina. That eased up a bit when my dad got to be friends with the fishmonger in our hometown, and knew when the freshest deliveries were made. You see, that's what you do in Salisbury, NC, you end up pals with the fishmonger...the one who owns Spanky's, the (best) homemade ice cream and sandwiches shop in the town square. (And that's what I miss about the 'bury, ya'll.)

The fishing hasn't stopped though. You'd think by now my parents would have fished out the entire eastern seaboard. The funny thing is, my mom is actually the better fisherperson - she's a veritable Ariel of the sea, while my dad always catches the ones that got away.

It's kind of unfair, I suppose, given that mom usually ends up having to clean the fish in the end. Whenever I hear or see seafood, I can still see my mom as she's angrily gutting the fish...and hear her voice ringing in my head, "joy, never marry a man who loves fish!"

I scream, you scream

Magnet #227 - Purity Ice Cream

Found this little gem on yet another road trip upstate. Of course, we got lost several times along the way...ended up in some chickens' front yard. But, whatever. What's a road trip, without getting lost?

We did some sightseeing - there's a fun museum on Cornell's campus and we went to student stores...but that's a whole other magnet.

Ithaca claims to be the hometown of America's Ice Cream Sundae - you can't claim that without me hunting it down to try it. So, we called a friend upstate to ask for her old haunts, and she recommended the cutest ice cream store ever.

Voila! Purity Ice Cream - they've been around since the mid-30s, and though the ownership has changed hands, they're still using some of the original recipes. I live for pieces of Americana like this, off the beaten path joints that only the locals know about. They had a great merchandise section, but most important - the ice cream was marvelous.

And what could be better than having a sundae, on a Sunday, in the birthplace of sundaes.

It's a great, big beautiful tomorrow!

Magnet #226 - Unisphere, Symbol of the 64-65 World's Fair, Queens

So, this weekend is Open House New York, where several buildings and attractions in all five boroughs of NYC open their doors for the public.

I freakin' love this weekend - where else can you get more than a hundred tours around town - all free! They have several different types of tours, geared toward kids, architecture, sustainability, the arts, etc.

The only problem I have with OHNY (besides that it's sponsored by Target who hasn't built a damn Manhattan location yet, thus taunting the crap out of me), is that it's only for a weekend, and it's virtually impossible to do more than a few tours in that amount of time. And, then, you have to localize your tours, so that you're not running around all five boroughs like a madwoman.

For example, this is the first year that I'm doing Queens. Yesterday, we did the Trolley tour around Flushing Meadows/Corona Park, where we had a young tour guide tell us about the different areas inside the park. And later today, we're hopefully going to be able to make it on to the Architectural tour.

Another obsession of mine are the two World's Fairs (1939, 1964) that NYC has hosted, both in this park. The Unisphere on this magnet was built by US Steel for the 64 World's Fair, and was meant to symbolize peace through understanding. Corporate sponsorships were the order of the day, and it allowed them to unveil several supercool things to the world, such as:

• Disney launched the Carousel of Progress and It's a Small World.
  
• Ford debuted their Mustang, in this weird automated carousel of cars thing, where people could get in line and ride the car of their choice. Some of the guys that used to climb through the fences to avoid the entry fees say that they used to just come for the day, and ride the Mustang, timing their places in line to "get" the Mustang. And then once it was over, queue up again for it.
  
• The Vatican brought Michelangelo's Pieta all the way from home!
  
• The Belgian Village featured Belgium Waffles - which stands out for fairgoers as one of the most memorable foods of the fair.
  
• Clairol launched some sort of hair product there (hairspray?), and they hired several local girls to be hair models.
• New York State's Tent of Tomorrow Pavilion was a highlight (/pun intended) of the fair. I've heard from a coworker that it was just the coolest thing ever because of the glass ceiling. But also on the floor of the pavilion, Texaco sponsored a to-scale roadmap that you could walk all over, and see all of the Texaco locations in NY. Pretty nifty. Nowadays, the steel infrastructure is definitely falling by the wayside, its last bit of notoriety being used as spaceships for Men in Black.
• Robert Moses (one of the city's most renowned planners/builders/all around city-shaper) had built an almost 10,000-square-foot panorama of the city - with almost 900,000 buildings! You can still visit it today at the Queens Museum of Art - and it's superfabulous. I could literally spend hours looking at it. It's basically in this giant room, with a veranda kind of thing along the wall, and you look down on it trying to pick out certain buildings and stuff.

Oh, I do tend to go on about this stuff, this is probably my longest post ever. Sorry - it's just fascinating the amount of money that people poured into this fair that ended up pretty much a financial disaster.

Anyway, so most of this fun stuff you can find out online, or at the terrific Queens Museum in Flushing, there's actually a superdupercool documentary about the fair that PBS did. They show actual footage of the fair, and interview several attendees. So freakin' neat.

Anyway, off to the fair...grounds!

eta:
So, I wrote all of the above before the 2-hour walking tour with an architecture professor and his PPT with superneat personal pictures of the fair. All of that, plus reading a postcard book on the way home, might qualify me to be able to give that tour all on my own now. Heh. Anyone want to go to Queens? I'll totally FB my staycation in Queens sometime tonight. Odd. I had wanted this year to be my Get-to-know-Brooklyn year, but it's turning out to be my Get-to-know-Queens year, instead. Heh.

eta2:
Those that know me, know that I love eta'ing my own posts. But, here's the FB pic album of the weekend.

Fore! Geddaboutit.

Magnet #225 - Fripp Island Resort

I've never been to the Fripp Island Resort, a friend of mine brought this supercutesy magnet back for me. Had to go look up what this place included, and it's your basic luxury resort in the South. Golf and Beach. Beach and Golf. By all accounts, a lovely place to vacation. And play golf.

I picked this particular magnet because today in 1895, the first U.S. Open Championship tournament was held in Newport, RI. It was a 9-hole course, a 36-hole competition, and played in one day. And the winner was this Brit named Horace Rawlins. His winnings? $150, a gold medal and the cup trophy. Not sure who the corporate sponsor was.

Ahhh, you're noticing the golf theme, huh. You're gonna see golf pop up from time to time during the next several weeks, as I've picked up a client with an keen interest in golf. Golf.

Dudes, ya'll don't even want to know the nongolf shenanigans going on the last time I was on a golf course 15 years ago. It's why I'm fairly allergic to golf and golf courses.

But, you can't sit in a room full of avid golfers and not know the difference between a range and a course (they're lucky I didn't say diamond), a club and a bat, or Tiger Woods and Tigger. So, it's Golf for Dummies for me.

Shut it. I can hear you laughing from here. I've had wonderful success with the Dummies (and Idiots) guides. Besides, I just need something to give me the basics.

Then, I gotta go get me a hot golf pro.

What you say?

Magnet #224 - Happy Bunny's I just don't listen

I'm hard of hearing. No, really, I am. It's ok. I've always been, since I was in Kindergarten. Apparently, I told the doctors back then that it was my parents fault, something about either poking out my eardrum...or yelling too loud. Oops.

Supposedly, I'm not alone. No one knows the real number, but they estimate that there are between 22 to 36 million deaf and hard of hearing here in the States. And, supposedly, it's like one of the most under-reported ailments!

A couple of years ago, the doctor said that clinically, I probably should have hearing aids. But, that if I don't think I'm missing anything important in my business meetings or wherever, then I didn't actually have to get them.

So, I figure that my 30s are way too young to get them. I'll wait til my 40s. Or 50s.

Or, never. There's a part of me that's ok with not hearing everything. Like, I can't imagine how insanely loud the trains in the subways are. I see people cover their ears, but nope, doesn't bother me. Or, like in movies, when those obnoxious people talk on their cell phones or feel the need to explain the movie to the person next to them. Nope, doesn't bother me.

My friends and family think I have selective hearing - because sometimes I do hear their conversational whispers and asides. That's partially true. Sometimes, I just don't want to listen to what they're saying.

It's a little taxing on anyone having a conversation with me, when I'm always saying, Sorry? What? What'd you say? It's kinda funny, because my best friend married a guy who has trouble hearing out of one ear...so she's totally been prepped for having to repeat her conversations.

Oh, and it totally freaks me out when someone comes up from behind. This is especially true at work when I'm concentrating on something, and someone comes up behind me and softly says my name, or taps my shoulders. I totally freak out, causing them to freak out and feel bad, profusely apologizing for all the freaking out.

And, of course, I'm just waitin' for my worst fear to come true...and that's me sitting in a meeting, taking down the client's direction, and we end up producing the wrong creative because I heard wrong.

But, until then, just know that if ever we're spending time together and I'm nodding away, best to make sure I actually heard you. Or goodness knows what your ad might look like. Oops.

The Pacey with the Fringe on top

Magnet #223 - Joshua Jackson

So, FOX picked up the back nine for Fringe. That means a full season of my Pacey!

I'm superhappy about this. Because I love my Pacey. And, as I mentioned before, I was just hoping FOX kept it on long enough for me to learn what Pacey's name is on this show.

Now that we know that Fringe is supposedly topping the list as the best new show this season, and might actually air the rest of the season, they're gonna have to improve a few things.

I'm not liking Anna Torv any better - I'm still waiting for the spark that they must have seen to have cast her. It's like watching Meredith Grey on Grey's Anatomy...or Dawson Leery from Dawson's Creek. We're not paying attention to the supposed lead, we're glomming on to the other more likeable characters.

I'm not liking the cases (though this week's was probably the strongest of all we've seen so far). Admittedly, I don't like procedurals - I've been known to FF through the Bones cases. But honestly, these supposedly Fringey cases are more milquetoast than anything.

I'm not liking the mythology. Though that could be because I have made it my mission to not fall for any more of JJ Abrams' ancillary marketing tactics with fake conspiracies, fake websites, fake phone numbers, fake commercials, etc. You'll not get me, JJ. It's also that the Pattern's just not that compelling. The Observer is a little silly.

I don't like how they're lifting from Doctor Who. This last eppy had a blatant rip from the Midnight eppy of this past DW series. C'mon - JJ may call it an homage, but that was way too obvious - and? Midnight was executed better. I wouldn't have thought twice, except that this is the second concept from Doctor Who. The other was that "magical man baby" story about the government trying to grow soldiers. Hi. That's The Doctor's Daughter without the instant DNA reader/replicator and the slightly squicky behind the scenes RL dating between the Doctor...and his (onscreen) daughter.

So...what do I like?

I like that they film in New York - even though I've not bumped into Joshua on the streets yet.

I LOVE that they film at Gehry's IAC building. If I'm not mistaken, it's what they're using for Massive Dynamic's interiors. Freakin' great building.

And to bring it full circle. I love that my Peter Bishop's got a regular gig in my living room every week.




Yeah, sorry, Joshua. Calling you Peter's just not gonna work out for me. Once a Pacey, always a Pacey.

Will the real Wladziu Valentino Liberace please stand up? Please stand up.

Magnet #222 - Liberace Museum

Awww, yeah. The heights of cheesiness, baby!

Actually, I know Liberace was this bigger than life guy, and toward the end he was more of a caricature of himself. But this funkily-designed museum off the beaten path in Vegas gave me a different perspective on the real Liberace.

Behind the candelabra, funny outfits and razzledazzle jewelry was a musical genius. No, I swear!

He came from a musical family (heh, band geeks would get this, but his dad played with Sousa. Sousa!), and started playing at four years old. I dimly recall there being a giant ring at the museum - there was some story about how he deliberately practiced with big, fat heavy rings, in order to strengthen his fingers. I mean the guy played to capacity crowds the world over, television shows and accolades left and right. Dudes, he even has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. (ok, ok, that's twice the maintenance his estate has to do)

Anyway, as a child growing up in the 80s, I just remember the exaggerated version of Liberace. Apparently, that whole ring thing worked out for him, since everyone between the Hiltons and the Queen Mum contributed to his collection of big-ass rings. The guy wore outfits with monkey fur, for goodness sake.

But, like I said, he started out and was a serious musician...and a serious superstar. No. Really, just ask any of the many little old ladies who visit this museum - every day. They don't play, man, they luuuuurve that guy.