Ballet-o-mane Alert

Coming right on the heals of Nancy Ellison's latest coffee table book In Grand Style: The Glory of the Metropolitan Opera is what you might call a companion book In Classic Style: The Splendor of American Ballet Theatre.

This oversized, deluxe volume celebrating the exquisite spectacle that embodies the excellence of American Ballet Theatre, recognized by Congress as "America’s national ballet company," presents the unfolding beauty, grace, agility, and sheer force of its most recent productions. Distinguished photographer Nancy Ellison depicts such enduring ballet classics as La Bayadère, Othello, The Sleeping Beauty, Manon, Romeo and Juliet, Swan Lake, and Giselle, and captures the virtuosity of such unforgettable dancers as Angel Corella, Nina Ananiashvili, Alessandra Ferri, Julio Bocca, and Ethan Stiefel. ABT’s artistic director, Kevin McKenzie, has written an illuminating essay about this preeminent company. The combination of dynamic bravura dancing in dreamlike settings will be a sheer delight to ballet lovers everywhere.

It is not due to ship until May so you have plenty of time to put in you pre-orders. Ravenboy got a preview peek at a limited copy that a friend borrowed from the publisher. and sent a few sample photos that he is in.

A couple of Romeo & Juliet photos seamed together allows Ravenboy to have a twin on the stage.

Midsummer Night's Dream Rustics. Gumby boy is on the far left and then crouching and facing the camera in the photo on the right. He is in a shaggy wig.

Equinox

As a celebration of the equinox, we had purchased tickets to one of our favorite bands that started it's tour in NYC on Thursday. Ravenboy was back in town for a week of rehearsals before his company travels to the west coast. He was happy to be able to join us.

We had some business to take care of in the morning but met Ravenboy for lunch and gave him his ticket. He had to work until just an hour before the concert and was going to rush uptown to meet us after he showered at... The Equinox (of all places on that special day, ok it's not that funny, he showers there almost everyday.) We knew he would be cutting it close but he thought he could make it in no time when he learned the concert hall was just off of Times Square.

After sitting in the sun in Union Square, we walked Ravenboy back up to work and then on to his place to drop some stuff off. We trotted down to Utrecht, right across from Halloween Adventure, to try to take care of some more business but failed. Back to Union Square, we caught an express up to UWS to check on a couple of our letterboxes (more on that below). The journey between our two UWS letterboxes was intersected by one of our all time favorites, Harry's Burritos! It was too chilly for outdoor seating to have opened up but the jolly maître de sat us in a cozy two seater where we could people watch all of Columbus Avenue as we noshed on chips and salsa. It was just like old times having a meal at Harry's. I swear I am going to get up the nerve to take a photo of that bizarre lenticular photo of Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis and a riding crop someday. It's almost like shrine in there and I will be crushed if they ever remove it.

We wandered downtown to where the concert would be. Times Square was absolutely unnavigatable! Almost everyone was stopping to take photos and it made for a human traffic jam. We sought refuge in Heartland Brewery. It was just a block off of Times Square and packed. The long bar that bragged of many exciting micro brews was packed 3 deep. We struggled to the far end, I laid my hand (clutching a $20) on the corner of the bar and we got served within 5 minutes of entering the place! Things had been like that all day for us; each time we entered a business the staff saw to our needs with extreme speediness. It was an extremely satisfying experience to have had so many potentially stressful errands to run behind us. We raised an equinox glass and darted next door to the concert.

Ravenboy made it with 20 minutes to spare. He said the express trains were super speedy and I saw why he had been unconcerned about making it to the show on time. We hugged and visited and went down to our seats in the front row. Granted, we were well right of center but this concert was less about the visual show than the music. EVOC describes itself as "a powerhouse five-piece band, a string quartet, and two outstanding vocalists—brings the towering emotion and timeless musicality of opera into the 21st century." You have to hear them to believe that they are better than rock, better than opera. Truly, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts you are imagining. By the end of the show, my cheeks were wet from bawling at the beauty and passion of the vocalists and my throat was raw from cheering. I had never imagined screaming "More Puccini!" at a rock concert but it happened.

A brief time was left for visiting and catching up with Ravenboy that night because he had to work in the morning. We all laughed over chai, he showered me with birthday goodies and then I cut his hair at midnight. We crashed and slept soundly in his lovely brownstone building. The day was equal to the night and both were pretty near perfect.

Thinking back on letterboxing, we did find Miss Moon's Poor Clark Kent. It straight up admits to having no log but the placement and carve are worth the visit even to those purists who will not consider it a "letterbox" proper. RGBisMe hammed it up at the location (only one of 4 like it left in Manhattan) but the photo looks more like he is being abducted by aliens than turning into Superman.

It was pleasing that Imagine was doing well. Not to be ungrateful but I wish the person that had swapped out the last logbook for some scraps of paper would have offered to send it to us or just told us the log needed to be replaced. We would have paid postage or gotten Ravenboy to do it within the week. I love seeing the myriad signature stamps and I have specific logs for each letterbox.

We also checked on Peter the Fisherman. The box was not hidden under a ledge behind a wall but was hanging in the bush near it. It probably got hung up when the last letterboxer tried to replace it. That made it a challenge to find as we were groping around two feet lower than where the box was hanging. In the 3 months that it has been hidden, it has managed a couple visitors a month. Sadly, the ziplock bag for the logbook was already gone. We swapped it for the one the stamp was in and will replace that as soon as we can. Again, a heads up would have been nice. We had no idea a bag was missing from this box.

Through a series of discussions, the Crayola Posse have concluded that our expectations of quality control and respect are different than mainstream letterboxers (or at least those who are more vociferous). We promise to continue to treat any letterboxes we find with the utmost respect by handling them in ways that will insure their integrity. This includes having our victory celebratory snack well away from the letterbox and handling the box without food on our hands. We will also do our best to contact the placer if there seems to be any problems or concerns with the box, it's contents or it's location. We would hope the same from others but have concluded that we can not expect it. Because we feel the direction letterboxing is taking is markedly different from how we wish to participate, we will choose different outlets for many of our personal creations. Some of our creations will remain as letterboxes, many others will be similar and will still have the option of being logged as letterboxes. The main difference will be in our expectations of how they are created, presented and handled. Most are now works in progress. We are very excited in how they make us feel like we are stepping out of the darkness and into the light.

My Anniversary

I had these photos all ready to blog about my anniversary and life got just too full to do it. Ravenboy took us out to a super cool restuarant called Jekyll & Hyde's.



It was like Chuck E. Cheese for adults. The waitstaff and hosts all interact and there are little shows throughout the meal. They came around offering fun shots and we tried a couple of them. Ravenboy extracted some directly from his Dad's neck. I liked the other flavor better because I am not a big passion fruit fan.

The meal was good but the decor and shows are what made this place so much fun. It was a challenge to find the bathrooms down a hallway of seemingly just rows and rows of books. Sometimes the waitstaff and some of the actors seemed to try to get in each other's way and there was some underlying tension. It made for a spooky evening on a different level. We stayed to watch as many shows as we could before saying goodbye to our new friends and heading off to more good times.

Ravenboy has a favorite hangout called Fat Cat's. It's a chill pool hall that features live jazz bands. The store cat and dog are always around if you look hard enough for them. If the pool tables are all taken, you can always play a little shuffleboard, ping-pong or chess while you wait.
Our evening there started off with a laugh as the bouncer was methodically taking IDs at the entrance. Most of the clientele at this point of the evening was NYU students. When RGBisMe handed the man his ID he looked up and just cracked up. He said, "I should have just looked at you, man, Get in there."

The pool tables were all full so Ravenboy got us some drinks and we grabbed a shuffleboard table. I started off in rare form by trying to shoot the little skeet like disc down the table, up-side down. Ravenboy kindly set me straight.

The store dog made his rounds and we finally got a pool table. It was parents against son, then son and mother against father and a final game of guys against gal. If it weren't for Ravenboy scratching on his final 8 ball shots, he would have aced it all. What mattered the most was that we had a blast before were went back to Ravenboy's and crashed. It was the best anniversary celebration ever.

Central Pennsylvania Hiking in March

Most of the letterboxes we went looking for were either frozen into place, under a foot (that's 12 inches) of snow, or under so much ice we couldn't even say for sure that we had found the right location.

Hiking on trails that were solid sheets of ice were the most challenging. That and snow that was packed so hard and then had glazed over. That is what we found this weekend in the northern third of Pennsylvania.

We visited Friday with Tracdc and Satan. She was lucky enough to get a photo of a bald eagle and it's nest along the Juniata River.

Today we found more snow, more glazed trails and a wonderful 4+ mile hike to a find a local geocache. The trails around Shingletown Gap were just lovely. We walked in the valley by the stream and hopped some rocks ridge top. Hill Climber multicache is a perfect sample of great hiking within miles of my home.

Holey Turnpike!

What type of adventure can one get into on a day where it is pouring down rain in icy torrents? Exploring abandoned tunnels along a section of the old PA Turnpike! Last week we were invited to join in the hunt for a difficult geocache in the abandoned Sidleing Hill tunnel.

The history of the area is interesting. When the Pennsylvania Turnpike opened in 1940 the four lanes of traffic narrowed to two lanes at each of seven tunnels. By the 1960’s, four of the seven tunnels on the original Turnpike received a second tube to accommodate heavier traffic: Allegheny Mountain, Tuscarora Mountain, Kittatinny Mountain, and Blue Mountain. The other three tunnels were bypassed and abandoned. This adventure starts near the eastern portal of the abandoned Sideling Hill Tunnel.

The now abandoned section has an unofficial bike trail that goes through it. We used a lot of the information for the Pike to Bike website. Google and Wiki searches will get you more interesting tidbits if you can't get enough.

Our goals for the day were four geocaches; PA Turnpike Cache #1, PA Turnpike Cache #2 "The Cache Down Under", PA Turnpike Cache #3 "The HoJo Cache" and PA Turnpike Cache #4 "The Four Way Stop" . The most difficult one, PA Turnpike Cache #2 "The Cache Down Under", was the one many of us had our sights set on for logging as milestone finds.

RGBisMe and I arrived near the HoJo cache bright and early before meeting up with the good geocachers of the day. We had some letterboxing in mind and didn't want those plans to get in the way of everyone else's.

On our way to the tunnel, we stopped and found PA Turnpike Cache #3 "The HoJo Cache" leaving a surprise for Redtailforester when he stopped by later. It was very rainy on and off all morning but we were able to log into this cache during a dry moment.

Back onto our bikes, we went off to take a peek into the tunnel before meeting up with the rest. This is when we planted our new letterbox, Holey Turnpike. Now you might recognize that name, and it's not just because it's cute. Jbzfarm had an awesome letterbox planted along the turnpike called Holy Turnpike! We need to give them proper credit for doing a little spin off of the name and make sure to mention that in the clue. Gotta give credit where credit is do, no? Might there be soon to come, a series along the entire thoroughfare called "Wholly Turnpike"?

The whole crew of adventurers included 2GuysNamedMoe, Redtailforester, feralgyrl, Angrist, HolyCowboys, George1, carels, RGBisMe and myself. We were so honored to be invited along for this milestone adventure. Everyone who came to hunt this cache brought ideas and tools and expertise with them. I knew that the day would not end without finding this cache and it was great to see how we all came together to tackle it.

Exploring high and low, the tunnel was just amazing. Success did not evade this group and we all reconvened to sign the log, pop the cork and celebrate. What a good time sharing snack and celebratory drinks. We snapped many photos. Congrats to The Moe's 600th, George1's 600th, HolCowboy's 400th, Carels' 4500th milestone finds! We celebrated finding a round number of "things" ourselves.

One the way out, I noticed that lack of lunch and much celebration made for some more interesting adventures. Biking in this tunnel was challenge enough, very disorienting in the dark. Some cachers were game to take on our WOM clue for the new letterbox and stopped to stamp in before heading out to find a cache just on the outside of the tunnel. Very sporting of them.

I wasn't smart like feralgyrl to head on to the port-a-jane. I hung around to log into the geocache all the while having to pee like crazy. Carels had gone exploring up the one bank so I climbed the opposite side of the tunnel to "find a tree." Just as I got to the top level of the tunnel, Carels pops his head out from the old structure on the second level. Too cool! I quickly "found a tree" and ran around behind to find him and HolyCowboys inside exploring where the giant exhaust fans for the tunnel were. They helped me through a broken window of a door and Carels showed us how you could walk above the roof of the roadway for the entire length of the tunnel. George1 snapped a photo of me sticking my head down through an exhaust vent way above the ground level and Carels took a photo of me and HolyCowboys by the giant fans.

I think it was because the tune of Raiders of the Lost Ark started in my head or that HolyCowboys and Carels magically turned into Nicholas Cage and Jon Voigt in National Treasure that I found myself exiting the second level over a deep chasm. I couldn't see the bottom but Nicolas Cage told me to be aware that there weren't any stair but just put my leg and brace it to the left on the ledge. HolyCageBoys has legs that go on forever as opposed to my 26" inseam. I committed to the decent at the same moment I realized that strategy wouldn't work. I relied entirely on my upper body to carefully lower myself along the old rusty hand rail for 10 - 15 feet. Nicolas Cowboy was there to spot me or cheer on my plummet to death if I fell and I think Carels-Voigt was singing another John Williams movie score unless this was all in my champagne bubbled brain. All I am sure of is that the folks from ground level were a little surprised to see the 3 of us emerge from a place where they had seen no stairs to go up.

The party continued back at the trail head with a lovely cake brought by the Moes. Sugar and wine and beer and champagne, we all needed some lunch enroute to the other end of the tunnel for the final geocache in the series. The weather was quite rainy all day and torrents of water poured down the way some of us approached the location of the cache.

This would have been a miserable day if it had been shared with any other type of folks. Those who love a good laugh, sharing thoughtful ideas, stories of great hikes are the best kind of people to hang out with. Thanks for sharing your milestone day with us peeps.

We all took a bunch of photos. I will try to add more below this.

Carels hit 4500!!

George1 celebrates in his own way.

A milestone kinda day.

Carels makes the moment special.

Me and my bike under a cold air vent.

RGBisMe having a good time!

Hucklebuckle.

Birding on Lower Trail

Maga11 and I have been getting together regularly but not everything is something to put in my blog. I took some nice photos of our outing yesterday but also have to share what happened earlier in the week. The heavy rains meant I would probably have extra work with flooding and use of a shop vac. I wasn't looking forward to dealing with the needs of other tennents and their basmenet apartments so I asked he if she could come and get me away from the place for a few hours. We had a nice day of shopping, running errands,lunch of hot & sour soup with hot tea, art supplies and topped it off with shopping coffee at Wegman's.Wegman's is one place where we can get the brand of teas that we like. Before she left, I had to drop off some things with RGBisMe and asked if she wanted to stop in at my apartment at all. She said she would have to because she had to get her tea out. I mistakenly thought she had to pee, she meant the Wegman's tea she had purchased was in my bag of groceries. Now a pit stop is sometimes refered to as "getting the tea out."

The flooding came and the work associated with it also but the next day was quiet pretty. The swollen Juniata swirling against it's banks didn't stop Maga11 and I from getting out in the sunshine. We hiked a couple of miles on the Water Street section of the Lower Trail. The snow pack had not disappeared from most of the trail and the sun made it tricky footing for the most part. We only ran into one other walker during our couple of hours on the cold and slushy rail trail.

It was early for a lot of the cheerful birds I enjoy on their spring migration but we managed to see some regulars. Other than the letterbox we were in search of, Yellow Throated Warbler, we also saw and heard some Pileated and Downy Woddpeckers and a Kingfisher. It made us look forward to spring and getting out more often. Thanks for brightening up part of a dreary week Maga11!

I'm Still Standin'

I have been busy and ill and involved and distracted and working and creating and not blogging about it. I am fine, still standing and reveling in various life's aspects, dedicated to challenging the Earth's collective imagination. If you haven't figured it out, I am still in pursuit of true indigo.

January and February were great months filled with a lot of fun. Ravenboy came home for a week in between winter storms on the direct bus from Chinatown to home. It was crazy just to pick him up across town and drop him off at the same location. It made for quite a wonderful and mellow week before he had to get back to work.

Another real highlight for me was that Ravenboy used a real live tax preparer this year. I was so relieved not to have to figure out how to deal with all of this extra paperwork (royalties from PBS, workman's comp, self-employment tax, etc).

RGBisMe and I have been chompin' at the bit waiting for the snow to melt for long enough to check out some of Archaeobirder's new letterboxes. We did sneak in finding his Don't Squeeze the Charmin - very cute carve!

Inspired by Ravenboy's latest body art acquisition, I have been refining the design I intend to get as a tattoo. He worked for over 4 years making sure it was something he wanted. I am close to putting the final touches on a design based on a piece of artwork that is almost 300 years old. Terribly exciting for me.

We have been cooking a lot out of a great cookbook, Veganomicon. It has recipes that have been tasted and tested so that they are at a point where you don't feel you have to change a thing about them. It has an amazing chili verde that I can not get enough of! NAVS annual Vegetarian Summerfest is quite local this year for those of you who might be interested in such things.

We started reconnecting with a friendly local group of hikers, bikers and geocachers. It was so nice to not have a lot of expectations when getting together with these people. They have been so excited to have us join them. It's a relief to have contacts who regularly like to hike and bike locally.

I had the flu and survived.

I have been tweaking how I approach the whole letterboxing hobby so that it suits my needs and conflicts minimally with others'. I finally got my premium membership confusion on Atlas Quest taken care of. I have transferred many of our letterboxing clues to a new website. I have been fixing clues that were in error. I have been retiring letterboxes that will not be replaced. I have been creating a new letterboxes, one that is stocked with smaller related boxes for finders to take away with them (if they so choose) to plant.

I invested my birthday money in a guerilla art project to transform Bratz dolls into people I know and photograph their stories. To answer a question that I know one person will certainly ask me, no the dolls are not images of any letterboxers.

This weekend I am planning to join a group of adventurers in exploring the abandoned PA Turnpike tunnels. The exciting part is we are being included in this hunt to mark some of the geocachers' milestone finds. Some will be finding their 400th some their 600th. It got me curious to how many things we had found and I added them all up. It turned out that we had just hit a milestone too so we will be popping a champaign cork with even more enthusiasm this weekend. Cheers!