Der Dritte Mann

As a tribute to everyone's favorite GoNOMAD writer Max Hartshorne, Mutti and me watched 'The Third Man' tonight on TCM. Max is in the greatest city in Europe - Vienna all week, where the British noir classic was filmed postwar 1949. Of course, it's been 57 years and the city looks a lot nicer than the bombed out black and white shell the film captured. It's easily one of the top ten best movies of all time and so the Austrian capital has a way of marketing it's popularity by offering walking tours. Tours that include filming locations like Café Marc Aurel, Square "Am Hof", Josephsplatz, even the sewer scenes. I wonder if the tour includes zither music? Anyhow, much of the sidebar conversations in the film are in German (without English subtitles) so it helps to have a German in the house to translate. It made Mutti and me yearn to return to Vienna. The cobbled lanes, the hidden courtyards and the yummiest Sachertorte in the world. Follow Max's adventures on his own blog this week and don't forget to rent the movie that made Orson Welles go on to to produce a popular radio and tv series by the same name.

"In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder, bloodshed — they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, five hundred years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."

Homage To My HomeGrown Titanium Mountain Bike

I need a break from editing. I have an idea. Think I'll hop on my 21-speed and top off some errands today. Before I do, I better lube up the chain and pump some air back into the tires. Oh, my beautiful Schwinn S96 with Rock Shox, how I've neglected you lately. You served me so well in my twenties too - winning me a handful of trophies in competition races and introducing me to other athletes in the area. You took me biking down Palomar Mountain in '96 and saved me high priced ferry rides to Martha's Vineyard. You didn't need much maintance but I tinkered with your stock Judy XC fork anyway and replaced your skinny saddle with something more accommodating. One day, when I had just moved to this quiet little town, you tossed me over your handlebars like a bucking bronco. It was actually the ditches fault. Damn ditches! Why do they make them so steep? Bloody and bruised I walked you back home, all 10 miles - or at least it felt like 10. Sadly, now, you simply hang from the garage wall like a dingy old fur coat, collecting dust and needing a new home. Well, today is different. Today, I'm taking you for a ride. Just to the bank, post-office and pharmacy - I'll break you in easy this time. I'm afraid I'm no longer the marathon biker I used to be and your getting a little rusty yourself. :)

Ambitious Expectations

Hello again all my loyal blog readers. GoNOMAD had a few chinks in it's gears but after a quick overhaul they're back and better than ever. Be on the look out for 'Travel Shorts' on Panama and the accompanying article on this site very soon. I've been scrutinizing every frame and facet of video for a possible showing on PBS but as of now, it's recommended that I airlift myself back to the Canal Zone for more footage. That's going to be pricey unless I can get some funding for the airfare. For all you video novices out there...to put things into perspective - an average half-hour travel show that you see on the Travel Network or Discovery Channel easily requires 20 to 30 hours of tape footage. That's a whole lot of shooting going on. But hey, when your in a country like Panama exploring native cultures and visiting festive and hospitable people where a gringo face is always welcome back - then it's worth the price. I can't wait to showcase this country!

Midnight Mowing

Dueling mowers in the dark, that's what my Sundays have come to! As darkness falls earlier heading into Autumn, my Punjabi neighbor, Ms.Rani and I can't seem to squeeze in all the things that need to get done around the house quick enough. She and I were pushing our little Troy-builts around and around our colonials in record time. My mistake was adding too much fertilizer and her's was lowering the blade on her mower. But, she and I have cut our lawns so often this summer that we can do it in the dark. And dark it got too. Pitch dark. No waning crescent, no passing vehicles, no back porch light. I finished 10 minutes ahead of her so I spayed a spotlight down infront of her mower like a welcoming lighthouse beacon. She'd do the same for me - that's just the sort-of neighbor I've got.

Freaky Friday

Ahhhh, yes, the weekend is here and Upstate NY has no shortage of independent and underground artists, musicians and writers to entertain me on a Friday night.

'The Tell-Tale Heart'' was always my favorite short story from the master of horror fiction, Edgar Allen Poe. A man's revulsion of an innocent old man's milky blue eye leads to murder, dismemberment and revealing of a guilty conscience. It's super scary but also terribly analytic - a combination of psychology, mystery, drama and soul. Tonight, the show's talented Set Designer took me to see the Albany Civic Theater re-enact the play called 'Murder By Poe' by Jeffery Hatcher. Sadly, the Times Union contributor panned the performance when it debuted 2 weeks ago but a qualified Adjudicator, myself and a small appreciative audience thought it was absolutely brilliant! We all agreed that Poe's most popular stories are reenacted by nine ambitious young actors with skill and gusto, especially Packy Anderson (played William Wilson/Inspector/Policeman) who learned his lines in less than a week.

As you're heading into Halloween next month check out this play before it finishes up this Sunday. It's the perfect spooky set of chambers, characters and crimes.

Is It Friday Yet?

I must have done something really bad in my former life to deserve this. My local Assessors Office screwed up the calculations on the square footage of my house along with (mistakenly) thinking I had a front porch attached to my house. This, in-turn hiked my property tax bill by thousands of dollars. Yes, thousands of hard-earning moola - which 'yours truly' had to cha-ching another maxed out credit card to pay for. Welcome to New York State everyone! Try as I might to remedy THEIR mistake, I'm out of luck until their grievance window opens back up in 2007. Top that off with a small business owner like myself trying to keep up with nebulous sales tax issues every quarter. Good God, someone please help the little people in life! It's days like this that I long for my next big adventure with GoNOMAD!

Serigraphs in Saratoga Springs

My talented photographer friend, Ms. Judy Sanders , let me in on a Saratoga Springs secret today. This equine spa town of 28,000 has a Greenich Village! Four blocks west of Broadway is a cozy little art district housing several galleries and one bistro. None of the shops were open, including the contemporary Mimosa and urban funk West Side Gallery, but that didn't stop Judy and I from pressing our mugs against the glass to see inside. One busy owner of a charming small space selling frames and original action art saw our curiosity and welcomed us in. His name was Frankie Flores and his medium of choice is a broad one - airbrush, silkscreen, acrylics, watercolor, pencil, gouache and oils. He explained to us that the day to visit is Sundays, with free music and opening receptions for all. The 1800's neighborhood is adorable now - not like it was a decade ago when street thugs and absentee landlords kept businesses from popping up. On a bright crisp Autumn day stop by and browse a wonderful collection of Abstract Expressionism from self-effacing Frankie Flores. This beats going to the track anyday.

It's "USA" week!

We're heading into my favorite time of year. The leaves are changing colors, the temperatures aren't as humid and the smell of fresh apples and cider are in the air. But the real reason for my delirium is the kickoff of the un-official 'USA' week - 'Unmarried and Single Americans Week.' Today, single adults outnumber couples with children as the most common type of household in America, over 96 million singletons and still growing. Like it or not, we're not alone with more than double the number of women than men staying single well into their forties.

Staying single doesn't mean single women are opposed to dating or marriage. Just the opposite. It's a matter of trust and reciprocating. Why pour out your soul to a guy/gal who's not ready, worthy or can't reciprocate? It's risky, scary and tough to bounce back from. With the statistics in our favor (New York state has more singles than any other) being single is more a lifestyle then a choice. But, what do singles do with all that bottled up passion and emotion? Easy. In my case, I travel, others dedicate themselves to a cause, still more go on to adopt children and raise them as productive little citizens. From "Sex and the City" to online dating, pop culture celebrates single life with as much vigor as endorsements from top politicians and the easing of societal pressures.

Again, it's a matter of tremedous luck and timing to find that perfect mate and for those who carry a winning ticket, your now in the minority so savor it!

Brush with Lawlessness

I knew Mutti was coming in from Deutchland on Tuesday but surely, I thought, I could squeeze in a few hours of hard labor before her plane jettisoned down the JFK runway. Boy, was I ever wrong. Mutti flew in at around 10:30am and yours truly didn't hit the road until 9:30am. My few hours of 'hard labor' turned into apologies for having to abscond early to remember a promise I made to pick her up on time.

I had 1 hour to drive what normally takes 3 to get all the way from Albany to NYC. Would I make it in time? Would I hit rush hour traffic crossing the GW? Would the law enforcement patrols be kind enough to look the other way as I barrelled down I-87? Might the plane be delayed coming in or maybe Mutti would have a tough time finding her luggage? I needed delays at the airport and clear skies on the road to avert the terrible mood Mutti would be in if I left her stranded at the airport.

"Damn, if only she had a cell phone!"I barked to myself. But it was too late to blame anyone but myself and I took it out on my poor car. I pushed the pedal to the medal and clocked a speed not quite advisable to repeat on a blog. I hitched myself to the back of a black Beemer and darted through traffic like a downhill alpine skier. Weaving, darting, hugging the curves - I knew I was defying the very laws of physics trying to drive a distance of 140 miles in little over an hour.

But, alas, it wasn't meant to be and I got nailed, double nailed, super nailed, right before the Palisades Parkway. A whopping 83mph in a construction zone -OUCH! Super Ouch! Needless to say, Mutti waited for a lot longer than she would have if I would have only driven slower...

Advice for Brian Lamb

There's a wonderful new documentary playing in theaters that first appeared in April at the Tribeca Film Fest called 'A "Saint's" life.' It's a touching portrait of the life story of Father Mychal Judge, a chaplain for New York City's fire department who was killed administering last rites during the World Trade Center disaster. He's the Franciscan monk immortalized in a famous photograph of firefighters and NYPD carrying his limp body from the wreckage. I hadn't heard of the movie until I sat down last night and caught an interview with the film's director on the one of last remaining nonpartisan television networks, C-SPAN.

While the director of the film, Glenn Holsten, remained openly candid about his subject's sexuality (Father Judge was gay), I thought CEO Brian Lamb was brazenly curt and nescient about the whole issue. The chief on-air host delivered a list of meddlesome, dead-pan questions that fostered a prejudice that he may or may not have. Whether he knows it or not his questions revealed that he thought celibacy was only possible in heterosexuals, that small town America is intolerant, and that firemen are too masculine to accept a gay priest. The director, Glenn Holsten (also gay) looked more like he was on trial defending his and his subject's biology rather than the merits of the man. At one point, Lamb bluntly asked a personal question about Holsten's own adoption of a baby boy from Vietnam.

"Now, how were YOU able to adopt from Vietnam?" asks a straight-faced Lamb.
With a smile, Holsten adds..."Ahhh, the usual way...through the adoption process."

Not that I'm looking for the 50 years experience of a guy like CNN's Larry King or the compassionate reporting of NPR's Terry Gross but it would be nice if Mr.Lamb re-examined his crass elocution and compulsive reactions before he does another Q&A, not just for the viewers sake but the person he's interviewing as well.

Sloppy September

"The leaves of brown, came tumbling down,
Remember that September, in the Rain.
The sun went out just like a dying ember
that September in the rain..."

3 minutes after this shot was taken today at Albany's annual Jazz Fest, the clouds opened up and deluged everyone including the bands. Children and parents ran for cover while thunder and lightening streaked across the sky. Albanians are resilient though and as soon as it stopped, soaked crowds shouted for the 'show to go on'. And so Alejandro Torrens & Grupo Sabor, Mose Allison and Diane Schuur carried on with the evening lineup. It's doubful that Branford Marsalis made an appearance though. Again, around 6pm, our unpredicable weather surges forced umbrellas up and show curtains down. So much for jazz on the Riverfront again this year.

HomeTown Hobbies

Pop a squat with a friendly Mohawk and share an Indian peace pipe (tobacco grows like weeds here in Akwesasne) then enjoy a delicious Michigan hot with Poutine fries at Bokies Drive-in in Malone. Sorry, not responsible for heartburn or indigestion following the two. Including "spin-the-bottle" and sneaking across the border to drink in Hull, there was little else to do as a 15 year old growing up in the St.Lawrence Valley. Still, it's a worth a trip to the Robert Moses Power Authority (generating 2/3rds of the hydro-electric power for NYC) if your passing through... Enjoy.

Otters, Birds & Fish, Oh My!

Upon my travels through the Adirondacks on Sunday, I stumbled upon the newly opened "Wild Center Museum" in Tupper Lake, NY. I only had time to use their facilities and pick up a few brochures but from the looks of it, I'd be soarly missing out if I didn't return to take in the exhibits. This new museum was designed by the same company that designed the Air & Space Museum so you can imagine the creativity that went into each kiosk. There were hundreds of families there for Labor Day enjoying a giant glacial ice wall, an indoor forest and river and live feedings of ottors, birds and fish. Don't miss it if your traveling through the Adirondacks on your way to climb a high peak this Autumn.

Ping-Pong Travels

My journeys through Panama culminated in great fanfare. Our last night we dined under a straw umbrella overlooking the Pacific Bay and an illuminated Panama City as an exciting backdrop. The skies overhead blew up every few minutes with white puffs of distant heat-lighting followed by low rumbles. I ate a scrumptuous plate of squid in creole sauce followed by 2 margaritas and a chicken soup with tubulous tree roots that tasted more like potatoes than plant life. Delicious.

But, like a migrating flock of birds on acid, I'm now nowhere near Central America but instead 10 minutes from Canada. I'm staying with the nicest couple this side of the St.Lawrence River; showcasing their sprawling neck-of-the-woods, including a tobacco farm, a haunted 'underground railroad' house from the 1820's and one of the largest Antique collection shops in the North Country.

More to come with photos too. Now, it's time to hightail it to a lost camp somewhere in the Adirondacks. Two friends await my arrival.