One more from my recent trip before returning (virtually) to the Pacific Northwest.
Chuck Berry is being immortalized with a statue on the Delmar Loop in St. Louis. The sculpture is across the street from the Blueberry Hill nightclub, where Berry plays once a month. The unveiling isn't taking place until later in the month but the sculpture is uncovered for all to see.
I enjoyed the quilt show so much I returned yesterday for another hour of red and white goodness. Since I was not too far away walked down Park Ave and paid my respects to the soon-to-be-no-more Borders at 57th Street. As a bonus I believe that is 60 Minutes host Morley Safer walking in front of the store.
The Park Avenue Borders is the second largest store the chain will be closing as part of their bankruptcy. When I first arrived in Bowling Green in the summer of 1990 I asked several people where I could find a good bookstore. To a person they said Thackeray's in Toledo was great but even it paled in comparison to Borders in Ann Arbor.
Once I received a paycheck and was solvent again, I took the slightly-over-an-hour's drive to Ann Arbor. Wow, people weren't kidding. The State Street store was an unending labyrinth of books. There was a seemingly random assortment of walls, nooks, and steps up and down, the shelves filled with books of all kinds. Following a visit to Borders you could walk around the corner to Drake's Sandwich Shop on N. University and enjoy "the Cornell" sandwich upstairs in the Martian Room. Drake's closed first, being replaced by a Bruegger's and their terrible bagels.
To a reader who grew up in a county with no general interest bookstores (it has one, a good one, now!) Borders was overwhelming. Oh, I had been to the Nebraska Bookstore, (when it was on R St. and good and after it moved to 14th St. and became a crappy souvenir store with books as an afterthought) many times, and I had been to Powell's in Portland, but the State Street Borders was in a different league. They lost a lot of charm when they moved to the old Jacobson's on E. Liberty but I went to see Douglas Coupland, Tom Robbins and David Foster Wallace give readings there.
I haven't bought anything from the Park Ave. Borders in years, mainly because 57th and Park is not somewhere I ever need to go and because the post-Borders brothers Borders turned into a large, but not very interesting, chain many years ago.
Ice Cream Wall
The War Club
The Lost World Caverns are just outside of Lewisburg, WV. It seemed like a good place for a post-lunch walk. I took the self-guided walk rather than the four-hour guided hike. In 1973 a guy named Bob Addis sat atop the War Club stalagmite for 15 consecutive days, making the Guinness Book of World Records for longest time sitting atop a stalagmite. I don't know if that record is still, ahem, standing.
On this trip I saw three mythical beings. There was the already mentioned Mothman. At one of the festivals I also saw The Woman Who Was All Eyes and Ears. It was in one of those tents with the screaming "See the Amazing Site! Witness the Heretofore Unknown!" banners that you have to pay a dollar to see what's behind the curtain. I was expecting something grotesque with all those eyes and ears but she was actually quite lovely (and, I'm not supposed to reveal this but I will, she only had two eyes and two ears).
You can see the third mythical beast in the long exposure photo. The Lost World Caverns is the home of Bat Boy, who was discovered there in 1992. He was flying around the cave non-stop but I managed to capture the sunlight reflecting off his back as he flew outside, presumably on his way to meet the president or to steal a car.
I was prepared for the Liberace Museum to be an over-the-top experience, and it was, but it was also a really good museum. The museum is in two buildings in a strip mall far away from The Strip. It told his story, had his cars, pianos, and outlandish outfits. The museum also had a gallery or two dedicated to the Liberace Foundation, which has provided scholarships to more than 2000 college students over the years. Plus you can't go wrong with an autographed gift from Bobby Unser.
All in all Liberace was a heck of a guy. Here he is in a duet with Minnie Pearl, accompanying Cassius Clay, making a proper entrance, flying out of the bicentennial Rolls, and playing a Gershwin medley.
The impromptu memorial to Michael Jackson near the Apollo Theater is quite a sight. The Jackson 5 won amateur night at the Apollo in 1967. I walked by the theater yesterday and saw that the construction fence next to it has thousands of farewells on it, people were being interviewed by reporters, and there was an almost limitless variety of Michael Jackson ephemera for sale.
Run away it's Leona Helmsley's mausoleum!!! When he died in 1997 Harry Helmsley was entombed in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. In 2004 a community mausoleum was opened near Harry's place of rest. Spending eternity near common people was not acceptable to the Queen of Mean so she went and found a more suitable plot in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. The site is in a nook at a distance from other graves. A volunteer for the cemetery, not the talkative Old Dutch Church guy, told me that she demanded that, contrary to cemetery convention, the 1.4 million dollar Helmsley mausoleum face away from the other burial plots.
The mausoleum does have a nice stained glass window of New York's skyline. The Helmsley's once owned the Empire State Building so I'd guess other buildings of theirs are also featured in the window.
I hope this did not frighten anyone too much!
The list above is best read chronologically, from the bottom up. Following the recent "breaking news" spam outbreak I got several days of Paris Hilton news. She is one busy lady! I like how most of the headlines are salacious except for "Paris Hilton Gets Nod To host "The Price is Right"".
The Homestead, Amherst MA
Often when I drive between New York and Boston I'll take a short detour to either Northampton or Amherst, usually Northampton. Since I stopped to see the Friendly Giant of Chicopee, Amherst was easier to get to on this trip.
One highlight of Amherst is the Homestead, the house Emily Dickinson lived in for almost her entire life. The house is modest-looking from the front but it is a mansion that's a lot deeper than it is wide. It is a short walk down Main Street from the center of town, where I had parked.
That was the longest two-block walk I had ever taken. By the time I got to the house I was gasping for air. This was the low point of not feeling well and I spent a long lunch debating whether to find an urgent care facility, return to New York, or continue on to Boston.
I saw my doctor a couple of days ago and I'm either allergic to tree pollen or have bronchitis. He diagnosed the latter when I went into a violent coughing fit in the examining room. I'm pleased to say I went for a five-mile walk today with no coughing episodes.
Anyway, Amherst is a picturesque college town, and I wish I had taken more pictures, but I mostly just sat at the Black Sheep Deli and contemplated what to do next and also wondered why Amherstians (Amherstites? Amherstipuddlians?) flock to the Black Sheep as the two times I've been there my sandwiches have been mediocre at best.
Darth Vader walked through Madison Square Park last evening while I was waiting for my Shake Shack 'Shroom burger. Everyone kept a respectful distance after the Dark Lord of the Sith waved his light saber around a few times. Then he headed off in the direction of Tabla.
I wonder what's inside the Mr. Crack van?
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