Alaska Governor (and former Vice Presidential candidate) Sarah Palin is quitting mid term.  According to all the news stories, effective July 25th, she’s handing over the reins to her Lieutenant Governor.   

Why?  Good question. 

It’s possible she got tired of being the brunt of jokes. 

It’s possible she got tired of politics.

It’s possible there’s a serious health issue.

It’s possible she wants to concentrate on a presidential run in 2012.

It’s possible there’s a scandal on the horizon and she chose to bow out of the spotlight before it comes to light.

It’s possible she just got bored.

Whatever the reason, she is refusing to finish the job she asked the people of Alaska to give her and she’s refusing to give her constituents a good reason. 

Pretty lame, if you ask me.  But, hey, good riddance.

July 3rd, 2009 | Category: National, Politics | Comments (1)

I haven’t watched The Today Show (or any other morning “news” show, for that matter) in years.  I used to watch about 45 minutes to an hour of the show every morning while I got ready for work.  My television was my alarm clock.  It would go on when it was time to get up and it would go off when it was time to leave for work. 

And then Al and I combined households and the morning routine changed somewhat, including a different alarm system.  So, I don’t see The Today Show anymore.  And I can’t really say that I’ve missed it. 

This morning, a friend and I were chatting and she was telling me that The Today Show has become The Michael Jackson Memorial Show.  Apparently, Matt Lauer was touring Neverland (which, I’m sure, will become known as Graceland West) and their “news” coverage was all about Michael Jackson, his will, who will raise his children, the controversy surrounding his upcoming concert tour, blah, blah, blah. 

And so, my friend said that she was going to write a letter to the producers of The Today Show:

Dear Producers:

I can assume by the coverage of Michael Jackson that everything is resolved in Iran, the troops are peacefully leaving the urban areas in Iraq, and Afghanistan is totally awesome?  Oh, and the drug wars in Mexico are under control, the health crisis has been solved, and the economy is peachy keen?

Honestly, Americans need to get over their fascination with celebrities.  Yes, the death of Michael Jackson warrants a bit of coverage… but this All Michael Jackson All The Time stuff is getting completely out of hand.  Is there nothing else that The Today Show could be… or should be, as a supposed news program… covering? 

I understand that The Today Show is simply providing the programming it thinks its viewership wants.  Therefore, I guess I can only bestow upon them 50% of the blame.  The other 50% of the blame goes to the people who are eating this shit up with a spoon, knife, and fork. 

Do people really care more about who is going to raise Michael Jackson’s children than they care about the situation in Iran?  Do Americans find Michael Jackson’s Last Will & Testament more newsworthy than, say, what’s going on with health care in this country?  How does the death of a celebrity trump actual news, not to mention issues that really affect people? 

Of course, I’ve never understood the whole paparazzi thing either.  Why are tabloids so willing to pay these people money for photos of celebrities… or, perhaps more accurately… why are people so interested in seeing candid photos of celebrities that it becomes good business for tabloids to offer paparazzi such outrageous sums of money for these kinds of photos? 

So, my friend and I have now dubbed The Today Show “Entertainment This Morning,” as it has officially become as sensationalistic, voyeuristic, and unnewsy (can’t you just hear Stephen Colbert’s voice when you read that word?) as Entertainment Tonight. 

Wake me up when it’s over and we can return to our regularly scheduled news programming, which has been in progress all along, but the “mainstream” media* has just chosen to ignore.  Bah!

*Thankfully, most of the blogs I read have been covering actual newsworthy current events. 

July 2nd, 2009 | Category: Current Events, Entertainment, Gripes, National | Leave a comment

I am not, nor have I ever been, a Michael Jackson fan.  There.  I’ve said it.  Or typed it.  Whatever.

He had a couple of songs I liked, but not enough to ever buy an album or CD (although I do have a Michael Jackson CD… I won it via a radio station contest).  He was a good dancer and was entertaining to watch, but I don’t recall ever making a concerted effort to tune in when he was on television.

He was a musician and a dancer.  An entertainer. 

And his bizarreness kept him in the limelight and elevated him to ultra-celebrity status, even when he wasn’t working.  The extreme plastic surgeries and make-up, the molestation charges, his denial that there was anything at all improper or untoward with a grown man sleeping in the same bed with young kids… it was all just too creepy and, frankly, it made me like him even less.  Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know… abused as a kid, tortured artist, whatever.  Dude was seriously odd and had more than enough money to seek professional help.

From what I’ve seen on television… and good grief you can’t turn the television on without seeing/hearing something about Jackson’s death… it appears that perhaps Jackson may have died the same way as his ex-wife’s father, Elvis Presley.  Prescription drug overdose.

Sad?  Yeah.  But not nearly as sad as when entertainers die in a manner that was not of their own doing… Marvin Gaye and John Lennon spring to mind.  Or even when they die of natural causes or disease, as opposed to murder.

But, hey, what do I know?  I never understood the cult-like following Jackson had in the first place. 

June 29th, 2009 | Category: Entertainment, Music | Comments (2)

Farrah Fawcett lost her battle against cancer today.  Unlike a lot of people, I don’t think of Charlie’s Angels when I hear her name.  Instead, I think of Extremities, The Burning Bed, and Small Sacrifices.

When I was reading about her death on cbsnews.com, I also noticed a blurb about Michael Jackson having a heart attack and, reportedly, he is “not doing well.”

Also on the page with the information about Jackson was this blurb:

Kate: Jon’s The One Who Wanted Out

Well, now there’s a shocker.  A guy whose wife treated him like her ninth child, constantly berating him and making fun of him, wanted out of the relationship.  Stop the presses.

It’s been another busy day around here so, sorry, that’s all I’ve got time for.

UPDATE: TV news stations are all saying Michael Jackson is dead.  Of course, the cynic in me can’t help but wonder if it’s not a huge publicity stunt in anticipation of his upcoming “comeback” tour.  Hey, I can’t help it.  Conspiracy Theories.  I love ‘em.

June 25th, 2009 | Category: Entertainment, Movies, Music, RIP | Comments (2)

Busy, busy busy, busy, and even more busy-ness around the Steinfeld Estate these days.  Fortunately, several things that have kept us busier than we’d like to be will be taking their leave soon.  Aaaaaaahhhhh.

And, in the midst of all of this busy-ness, it seems that, indeed, being shat upon by a bird is quite the good luck, as we’ve had a bit of that around the Steinfeld Estate since the bird poo incident. 

More on that later but, NO, (* heavy sigh *) I am NOT pregnant.  Gah.  That would not be GOOD luck around here. 

When I called my friend this morning to tell her of the good fortune that recently befell the Family Steinfeld, we laughed about all the things people do for good luck, including some Catholic rituals (she being raised Catholic and having attended Catholic schools was particularly well-versed in The Catholic Ways) and she said to me on the phone, “Well, I’d rather be shat upon than Catholic.” 

It just so happened that her husband was walking by as she uttered those words into the phone.

And without missing a beat, he asked, “Well, they’re pretty much the same thing, aren’t they?”

Fortunately, those two friends will be visiting us in August, at which time celebrations and jocularity, along with visits to Waldameer, Niagara Falls, Bemus Point, and some of their favorite local Erie dining establishments, will overflow.  Can’t wait. 

June 24th, 2009 | Category: Friends, Humor | Leave a comment

Yesterday, Al and I spent a good deal of time at Gerlach’s and Mason Farms looking for perennials for a park that has been adopted by some friends.  We’re helping them with their project.  We got some hoses, some bulbs, and some weed inhibitor.  Although we don’t usually like to use harsh chemicals, the park has been neglected for so long, and the weeds are so prevalent, that we knew we were going to have to use desperate measures.  We’re also donating quite a few perennials from our own well-established garden, to cut down on the cost of buying all new plants for the park.  And there are a few plants at the park that are worth saving… so we’ll just transplant them to a better area and let them spread. 

But the more interesting part of the day was before we’d even left our property.  As we were walking to Al’s car, I felt something “splat” on the inside of my left arm… the inside of my elbow area.  It felt like a huge bug had flown into my arm. 

I looked down at my arm.

Not a bug.

I was under a very large tree at the time.

It was bird poo.

I was went upon by a winged one.

From the size of the splotch, I’d say it was a rather sizeable creature.  I didn’t want to look up to see if I could spot him for fear he wasn’t quite done.

Al got a bottle of water out of his car and a towel that he had in the trunk.  He quickly rinsed all poop off my arm and dried it with a towel.  What a guy.

And then I remembered that being target practice for our feathered friends is supposedly good luck. 

I’ll buy that.  After all, it only seems fair.   

June 22nd, 2009 | Category: Consumerism, Gardening, Humor | Comments (1)

Nearly two years ago, I wrote this blog entry about Al being an extra in a movie being shot right here in little ol’ Erie.  The movie, Signs of the Time, is now being released and I just got an e-mail this evening from Crystal Pix, Inc. that the film is going to be screened right here in Erie at the Spirit Quest Film Fest, which runs September 4-6, 2009 at the Erie PIayhouse. 

Here’s the bulk of the e-mail I received:

Signs of the Time has been selected for the Spirit Quest Film Festival in Erie, PA.  We are very excited to be showing the film in Erie since portions of the film were shot at Erie’s Ainsworth Field during the summer of 2007 and feature many Erie residents as actors and extras.
Saturday, September 5th
   7:00pm
Erie Playhouse
13 W. 10th St.  Erie, Pa. 16501
Tickets will be available in the near future by visiting: www.spiritquestfilmfest.com

Prior to this e-mail from Crystal Pix, I was not aware of the Spirit Quest Film Fest.  According to the website, this is the inaugural year for the festival, which was founded by Greg Ropp (President of the Eerie Horror Film Festival) and Matthew Johnson. 

Got a movie you’d like to enter?  The deadline is August 1, 2009, so you’d better get a move on.

And just a thought, but wouldn’t it be nice if one of our film festivals was able to use the Plaza Cinema that’s just sitting there empty…all sad and lonely…begging for movies to once again be shown on its screens?  Plenty of parking, four screens, the lobby area for selling memorabilia, paraphernalia, and tchotchkes.  But hey, what do I know?

June 19th, 2009 | Category: Entertainment, Erie, Movies | Leave a comment

Back when I was a kid, a lifetime ago, give or take, one of my favorite things was going to the drive-in.  My siblings and I would be freshly bathed, dressed in our pajamas, and loaded into the Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser Station Wagon (yes, just like the one on That ‘70s Show, right down to the “wood” paneling on the sides).  In addition to freshly washed children, my parents would also load up a couple of paper grocery bags full of popcorn that my mother popped at home, a Tupperware pitcher of Kool-Aid and cups, and, I’m sure, something for them to drink, as well as pillows and blankets.  While my father was known to drink Kool-Aid, my mother detested the stuff.  My guess would be that she had a bottle of Tab for herself, as that was her soft drink of choice back in the day.  We kids would usually fall asleep shortly after the second feature started. 

Later, as a teenager, one my friends and I all started driving, we would go to the drive-ins, although I don’t recall ever using it as a place for making out.  There were places you could go and do that for free.  And in private.  I guess I was never into PDAs, even back then. 

The first X-rated movie I ever saw was at the Peninsula Drive-In.  There were four of us and we were curious.  We were 16 or 17 and had no problem getting in to the movie.  Unfortunately, about 20 minutes into the first movie, the skies opened up and released torrents of rain upon us.  We waited for a while, thinking the rain would surely subside, as it usually did, but no such luck.  After about 15 minutes, we gave up and left.  But I still remember the name of that movie… Insatiable. 

Anyway, all through the years, I loved going to the drive-in… whether as a kid, a teenager, or an adult, although when the clip-to-your-window speakers were ditched in favor of listening to the movie on your car radio, the drive-in lost a bit of its allure for me.

And then all the drive-ins started closing.  If memory serves, Sunset and Peninsula Drive were the two we frequented most often.  The Peninsula Drive-In Theater is now the Tom Ridge Environmental Center at Presque Isle.  Without calling my mother or someone else a bit older, I can’t exactly tell you where the Sunset Drive-In was. 

And now, check this out… drive-ins are making a comeback, but in a different kind of way.  They’re Guerilla Drive-Ins.  Any empty warehouse with a parking lot, a digital projector, and an FM transmitter and guess what?  You’ve got yourself a drive-in.

The roots of the guerrilla drive-in movement has been traced to Santa Cruz, Calif., where Wes Modes started a collective to screen outdoor movies around 2001.

Want to learn more about it and, perhaps, start a chapter where you live?  Check out the MobMov website.  It seems to include all the information needed. 

The weirdest part of the whole thing is that Al had a similar idea a couple of years ago.  He thought it would be a great idea to get neighborhoods together - You pick someone’s back yard and your neighbors bring lawn chairs, beverages, and food, and you show a movie on someone’s house (or hang a sheet up on the clothesline).  If we can find the equipment to rent somewhere, we might just give it a shot this summer.  We’ve got the perfect backyard for it. 

June 18th, 2009 | Category: Humor, Movies, Technology/Geekiness | Comments (6)

As is our routine, I was out and about relatively early this morning walking the pooch.  Early was good today, since we managed to beat the rain.  Whew. 

Puppydog and I were standing at a corner waiting to cross a street.  Two cars proceeded through a stop sign while we stood there.  Well, I stood.  Puppydog sat rather nicely.  The third car in line, however, motioned for us to cross the street while she waited.  Yay for the nice driver.

Then, a bit later, when I was out running a zillion and two errands, I stopped at Ralph Miller Jewelers to get a new battery for my watch.  It’s just a cheap Timex, and old, too, and looks like it has clearly seen better days, but it works like a charm (when the battery isn’t dead) and it’s nice and plain looking, just the way I like a watch.  I handed the watch over to the woman behind the counter and she told me it would be just a few minutes.  I then proceeded to look at all the shiny sparklies.  And they had some lovely shiny sparklies.  The only two kinds of stores I can spend any length of time in without losing my mind are book stores and jewelry stores.  I didn’t even get to look at everything they had to offer before the woman returned to the counter and told me my watch was done.  And the best part?  She buffed the scratches out of the crystal.  For FREE!  It looks like a brand new watch. 

Finally, on my second to last errand of the day, I stopped at the Whole Foods Cooperative with the main purpose of the stop being to get the pooch her favorite peanut butter (the freshly ground stuff they have in the back in the bulk section).  Although it looks a little, um, disgusting when it comes out of the dispenser, it tastes awesome.  On rare occasions, the pooch actually lets us have some of her peanut butter.  I also picked up two other items (a tofurkey habañero wrap for lunch and a bag of BBQ crinkle cut chips that were on sale) and proceeded to the check-out area.  There were two lanes open and I got in the lane that was lacking customers (there was one woman in the other lane unpacking her loot from her cart onto the conveyor).  However, the woman running the register of the lane I picked apologized profusely, but said she had to shut her lane down to help another customer at the service desk (he was an elderly gentleman who was trying to return something and didn’t seem to have his receipt).  Not a problem.  I wasn’t in any particular hurry and the customer in the other lane didn’t have a ton of stuff, so the wait would not be long.

I proceeded to get in line behind the other customer who had finished unloading all of her groceries and, as I reached for the little stick to put on the conveyor to divide our orders, she spoke to me.

“Oh, no, honey… you don’t have to wait for me.”  She then turned to the cashier.  “You ring her out first.  She only has those three items.” 

“Are you sure?”  I asked the woman.  “It’s okay.  I can wait.” 

“No, there’s no reason for you to stand there and wait for me.  You go on ahead.” 

I thanked the woman profusely, as standing there are debating the issue was only going to waste everyone’s time.

The cashier rung me out very quickly and, after telling her I didn’t need a bag for my three little items, I again thanked the other customer, bid both her and the cashier a good day, and left the store. 

Of course, my day was also spattered with some assholes, too… all those people running stop signs and red lights (one nearly hit me at a four-way stop a/k/a an “all-play” or a “free-for-all”).  But those encounters fazed me much less yesterday than they normally would.  I guess I was just too high on nice for the assholes to bring me down. 

June 17th, 2009 | Category: Consumerism, Driving, Erie, Walking | Leave a comment

I’ve got a question for my running friends and my cycling friends.

Here in good ol’ Erie, Pennsylvania, we don’t have much in the way of bike lanes on our roadways.  We’ve got what’s known as the Multi-Purpose Trail at Presque Isle State Park, which, on a good day, is wide enough to accommodate cyclists, rollerbladers, joggers, and walkers (except for those new “surrey” type cycle things that take up the whole damned width of the path – whose bright idea was that?)

But we’ve got precious few designated Bike Lanes, the most popular being Bike Route Z, which goes from the New York State Line to the Ohio State Line… including right through downtown Erie.  And it’s the downtown portion of it that is causing a bit of consternation.  Here’s the dilemma:

Packs of runners/joggers/walkers using the bike lane.

On any given weekday, between about 11:30 a.m. and 2:00 p.m., there seems to be an abundance of people out for a nice lunchtime jog/run/walk.  And, as opposed to using the sidewalks, they like to use the Bike Lanes.  And many of them (hello… downtown lawyer dudes…I’m talking to yoooooooooou) do not get out of the way when an actual bicycle has the nerve to use the Bike Lane. 

Now, if I’m reading the law correctly, technically, pedestrians, be they walking or running, are supposed to use the sidewalk when one is available. 

Here’s the Pennsylvania law pertaining to pedestrians using sidewalks:

Section 3544. Pedestrians walking along or on highway.
      (a) Mandatory use of available sidewalk.—Where a sidewalk is provided and its use is practicable, it is unlawful for any pedestrian to walk along and upon an adjacent roadway.

      (b) Absence of sidewalk.—Where a sidewalk is not available, any pedestrian walking along and upon a highway shall walk only on a shoulder as far as practicable from the edge of the roadway.

      (c) Absence of sidewalk and shoulder.—Where neither a sidewalk nor a shoulder is available, any pedestrian walking along and upon a highway shall walk as near as practicable to an outside edge of the roadway and, if on a two-way roadway, shall walk only on the left side of the roadway.

      (d) Right-of-way to vehicles.—Except as otherwise provided in this subchapter, any pedestrian upon a roadway shall yield the right-of-way to all vehicles upon the roadway.

But, around here, and I’ve seen this firsthand, packs of runners are not getting out of the way of bicycles in the bike lanes.  Instead, I’ve witnessed bicycles being forced to veer into the car lanes to avoid head-on collisions with runners who seem to be insisting that they have the right-of-way in the bike lane and that their “packs” have the right to the entire lane… they don’t even fall into single file when a bike approaches.

And damnit I’m irritated.  It’s not bad enough that we cyclists get angry motorists yelling obscenities at us or telling us to “get off the road” or  “use the sidewalk” when we’re riding legally… and it’s not bad enough that motorists use the bike lanes as turning lanes or parking lanes… and it’s not bad enough that we have very few bikes lanes at all… but now we’ve got runners/joggers/walkers who think they should be able to use the lanes, not in addition to cyclists, but instead of cyclists.  And I’m more than just a a wee bit peeved about it. 

So, I’m asking cyclists and runners to weigh in on this.  Am I out of line expecting pedestrians to yield the right of way to cyclists in a dedicated bike lane?  Or, at the very least, fall into a single file line so the cyclist can at least use a portion of the Bike Lane?  Is it overly bitchy of me to expect that cyclists should have the right-of-way on a state designated Bike Route/Lane, especially when there is a sidewalk available for pedestrian use?

June 16th, 2009 | Category: Cycling, Erie, Laws, Walking | Comments (8)

No, not the Allentown in Pennsylvania made popular by the Billy Joel song.  I’m talking about a section of Buffalo, New York, just outside of the downtown area and very near the theater district. 

Yesterday, Al and I headed east in the Prius to attend the Allentown Arts Festival.  We’d gone to this festival once before and were very impressed, but we got there a bit late, it was a sweltering hot day, and we didn’t get to see a whole lot of the festival before the exhibitors started packing up.  But we did go to Anchor Bar for wings that day, so not all was lost. 

Yesterday, however, we arrived on the scene at about noon (the festival started at 11:00 a.m.) parked in a lot about two blocks from the festival (it was the side yard of an automotive business and they charged us $8.00 for the day) and proceeded to the festivities.  And…oh my!  The festival was much bigger than I remembered it being a few years ago.  I don’t know if it’s actually grown since then or not… I’m thinking that we were just so pressed for time on our previous excursion that we just didn’t get to see a lot of it.  There were exhibitors for blocks, and blocks, and blocks.  And I’m not talking about exhibitors selling plastic canvas needlepoint Kleenex box covers.  These were artists and artisans.  There were quite a few photographers selling their prints, watercolorists, sculptors, potters, and painters.  With very few exceptions, all the exhibitors were showcasing very high quality work.

From the shot above, you can’t really get a feel for the throngs of people who were at the festival.  It was taken as we were just entering the festival and hadn’t yet gotten to the first vendor.  The event was packed.  We had to wait in lines to get into some of the vendors’ tents. 

There was a guy there from Brockway, Pennsylvania who makes the most gorgeous Mission style furniture.  Al and I are considering contacting him and taking a drive to his place to get some chairs for our dining room and a table that would look great in they foyer.  I also see from his website that he has bedroom furniture, too.  It seemed to be reasonably priced, especially considering the high quality, and the rocking chairs were so comfortable I didn’t want to get out of it.

And there was another exhibitor I remembered from our last trip…Yardbirds.  Unfortunately, they were sold out of the things I really wanted, but we did purchase this adorable little frog.  He’s now prominently displayed in the Steinfeld Estate Gardens.  And he even has a solar spotlight on him so he’s visible at night.  Because he’s just that cute.

There were also cops there.  I know, not surprising, especially at a festival of this size.  But these cops… were on horses!  Yes, I got to pet horses.  A few of them, as a matter of fact.  And you know I’m all about the critters, no matter what size, so even if the festival had been a  bust (which it most definitely was NOT), I would have been happy about the whole horse thing.  I think it’s also worth noting that all of the officers on horseback were exceptionally pleasant.  And I didn’t see a single one sporting the neo-nazi skinhead look.  Kind of refreshing, it was.

We took a break around 2:30ish to have some lunch.  We were considering getting “festival food” from one of the many food concession stands involved in the festival… until we saw a local restaurant, The Falafel Bar.  We ducked in there for a little lunch and, not only was it delicious (I had the falafel & hummus wrap and Al had chicken souvlaki), the portions were huge and lunch for the two of us, including beverages, was under $16.00.  We would definitely be frequenting that place a lot if we lived there. 

With the exception of about a half an hour we spent sitting and eating in The Falafel Bar, Al and I were walking around the festival the entire time, because there was that much area to cover and that much to see.  At about 5:00 p.m., or just shortly thereafter, we determined that we had walked down every street that had exhibitors. 

The Allentown section of Buffalo is absolutely gorgeous.  The architecture of many of the buildings is seriously something to behold.  Since we knew we were going to be walking quite a bit and possibly carrying purchases, we chose to leave the good camera at home on this trip, which is just as well, because with all the exhibitor tents lining the streets, it would have been difficult to get good shots of the buildings.  However, I think Al and I will be taking a photography excursion back to Allentown at some point this summer or fall.  The area is absolutely breathtaking.  It’s a great mixture of single family homes, apartments, restaurants, and shops.

Of course, I also want to get back to The Darwin Martin House and Graycliff to see what progress has been made since our last visits.  And I’d like to go to another show at Shea’s.  And I’d like to visit the Buffalo Zoo (admission is free if you have a membership to the Erie Zoo). 

Our elected officials need to visit places like the Allentown section of Buffalo.  They need to attend events like the Allentown Arts Festival.*  Seriously.  It’s a 90 minute drive that they need to take.  And while they’re there, taking in the vibrancy, the historic beauty, and the diversity of the area, they need to think how they can encourage and foster that right here in Erie. 

If you want people to stay in Erie, you have to give them something worth staying for.  And if you want businesses to relocate to Erie, you have to show them that we’re someplace their workforce will want to reside.  And if you want any kind of tourist industry, you have to give visitors interesting and unique destinations and beautiful things to see.  Erie has potential, damnit.  Can’t we get our officials, as well as our residents, to work to realizing that potential, instead of, you know, getting all excited about a slots parlor and tire incinerator?

* I think perhaps our former mayor, Rick Filippi, might have had something like this in mind when he change “We Love Erie Days” to “CelebrateErie,” but those days are gone now and the festival has returned to its more carnivalesque roots.  CelebrateErie, how I miss thee.  

June 15th, 2009 | Category: Downtown, Driving, Entertainment, Erie, Travel, Walking | Comments (4)