One of Norway’s Biggest Exports is Black Metal Music
Yesterday we met a man named Eirik Hitland Johannessen, a 30-year-old graphic designer who is about to open a retail store in the center of Bergen. He’s made his living selling tee shirts with clever designs, playing on familiar words with ironic twists. Some of his designs: a play on […]
Oslo Mourns their Great Loss; The Nobel Peace Center Illuminates Great Work
It was a sparkling August day in Oslo today as we got out into this vibrant and clean city to meet some of the local people who make it that way. But first, in the lobby, we discussed the events that devastated the country on July 22 when a Norwegian […]
Simone Larsen: A Domesticated Rock Star Shares Her Old Neighborhood
We arrived in Oslo today at 8 am, and it was a quick and easy train ride right into the center of the city. At the Thon Hotel Panorama the view looks out over the fjord where cruise ships disembark. This morning the Queen Elizabeth was moored right in view, […]
Shall We Kiss? It’s a Slippery Slope…
They meet, by chance, and he gives her a lift back to her hotel. They strike up a conversation, and soon, they’re dining at a nice restaurant. It was a pleasant date between strangers, and at the end, Gabriel leans over to kiss the lovely Emilie. But she says no. […]
Doing My Part to Boost the Economy, I Buy a Kayak
I did my part over the weekend, spending $200 on a new kayak and saving the sales tax. It’s interesting how much the state can motivate people to patronize usually sleepy businesses on a summer sunday just by eliminating the sales tax. Some where I read that that this move […]
Art in the Orchard: Culture in Nature
What a perfect day to stroll through a fruit orchard and view sculpture. Art in the Orchard opened this afternoon, and for the next few months you, too, can take this stroll through the orchards and woods to see fascinating artwork…Click to learn more!
Disturbed Theater: Bawdy Burlesque and Lots of Laughs
disturbed-theater (click to view photos) Ok, so dancing around with your dead wife isn’t a particularly funny scenario…but throw in some nubile, scantily-clad burlesque dancing girls, a lively soundtrack…and you’ve got an evening of fun. Disturbed Theater put on their annual smorgasbord of sketch comedy, improv and a wonderful dash […]
Seeking the Interesting Local People Who Make Places Come Alive
In a few days I’m heading off to Norway. I will be joined by my photographer pal Paul Shoul and we will fly into Oslo then meet some interesting local people, so far we are still setting up visits to meet them. Whenever I travel I ask my hosts to […]
Trivia at the Harp: Put Down that Damn Cellphone!
For ten years every Tuesday night, Harpo Power, the friendly patronne of the Harp in North Amherst, has stood up on a chair at 9 pm and begun asking trivia questions to a packed house. Teams of four and five people usually include “a science geek, someone young for the […]
“The Whole Thing Just Rolled Over and Lay Down–Like a Big Cow”
I read a passage in a book that I’m reading that made me laugh out loud on the treadmill. It’s a book called The Big Rich, which chronicles the great fortunes made and lost by four famous Texas oil men. The first of the big rich to buy a serious […]
Oswego Speedway: Sixty Years of Racing Tradition
For sixty years on Saturday nights, a sound has roared out of the north side of Route 104 in Oswego, a city on Lake Ontario in Western New York. It’s the unmistakable growl of cars going fast around a track, the sound of a culture of racing, of generation […]
A Summer Morning in Lake Ontario in Oswego
We are staying in a house where giant Lake Ontario forms the edge of our infinity pool. Out beyond the grassy yard, there is a sitting area built out of rocks, and steps have been created with the flat stones that line the bottom of the lake, leading down to […]
I Want to See the Great Lakes, She Told Me. I Was Puzzled
I remember in 2000 when I spent a summer living in the youth hostel on Martha’s Vineyard I met a young Brazilian woman there. “Where do you want to travel in the US?” I asked her. “The Great Lakes, I want to see those lakes,” she answered. At the time I […]
Giving Green Cards to Immigrants who Create Jobs Makes $ense!
How do we create more jobs in the US? One way is to offer US citizenship to entrepreneurs from other countries to get them to start their companies here instead of in their home countries. Think about Sergey Brin, Jerry Wang, and the many other immigrants who started some of […]
Mountain Park: What a Wonderful Addition to Local Music!
Eric Suher had that same happy look on his face when he greeted me last night at Mountain Park, same as that first night two years ago when he opened this lovely outdoor venue with his first show. I think this venue is one that makes him smile since it’s […]
Superior Donuts: Watching a Man Get Unblocked
Arthur Przybyszewski is a blocked man. Ever since he split for Toronto in 1970, and heard his father’s last word to him…”Coward!” he’s been blocked, and no one, not his ex-wife, not his energetic young employee, not even a woman who wants him can draw him out. His father started […]
Keep Calling, He Said, “That’s What People Love About You.”
Friday night arrives 52 times a year and I am growing used to a familiar unpleasant sensation. Maybe this happens to you, too. As the clock ticks toward the end of the workday, I glance up, and think about whether I’ve made any plans. Something makes me feel as if […]