Pub In The Park

Once you’ve seen the Coca-Cola Museum and the Georgia Aquarium, you may want to find your way to Atlanta’s High Museum of Art for this last days of its exhibit, Leonardo da Vinci: Hand of the Genius.  There are a few times in life when you’ll be able to witness art work that has lasted for hundreds of years; in fact, there are only two people whose work is so extraordinary, I would do whatever it takes to see their art in person.  One is Michelangelo, particularly his sculpture.  The other is Leonardo da Vinci.

One of the best museums in the Southeast, the organization has collections of classic and contemporary art.  This time around, their exhibiting fifty works of Leonardo da Vinci, as well as twenty sketches as studies, some never seen before inside the United States.  The exhibition is in three parts, stressing different parts of the artist’s life: Leonardo, the Sculptor, the Student, and the Mentor.  As a Sulptor, he planned to create the planet’s biggest and most complicated statue.  The museum has recreated the 26 foot high Sforza Horse in the Sifly Piazza.  As a Student, his works are presented alongside work by his contemporaries, the people from whom he most likely learned, such as Andrea del Verrocchio or Donatello’s famed Bearded Prophet (never before seen outside Italy, not even outside Florence).  As a Mentor, the museum demonstrates Leonardo’s influence over younger artists.  This includes Giovan Francesco Rustici and Peter Paul Rubens.  Rustici’s large bronze figures, John the Baptist Preaching to a Levite and a Pharisee, is provided as an example of this mentoring relationship and friendship.

Hand of the Genius closes on Sunday, February 21st; however, to provide more time for the public to see the works, the museum has extended its hours on the closing weekend.  Friday, February 19th, the gallery will be open from ten in the morning to midnight.  On Saturday, February 20th, it’s ten in the morning to seven in the evening; on Sunday, February 21st, the last day, you’ll have one more opportunity to see the work from noon until six in the evening.  To make sure you don’t miss it, arrange for a room in advance.  There are few opportunities to see legitimate works of genius.

For all interested parties I can now, after fifty five years of existence on this planet, testify to the wonders and fascination, even the addiction potential of bird watching. That’s right, you read it correctly, I’m a bird watcher and proud of it. It all started last summer when my best friend Delores talked me into going with her to Cape May, New Jersey. I shouldn’t say talked me into going, it sounded like a great vacation and I certainly needed one. A week in one of the beach hotels sounded just perfect. However, Delores has been a birder since just after her divorce when she was thirty three.

The divorce itself wasn’t responsible for her passion for birds it just allowed her the freedom to pursue it. She had actually wanted to watch birds from the time I knew her in college. Anyway, she had been to Cape May a few times and always remarked about what a great place for birding it was. I have to admit that I never really listened to her stories, nor did they make that much sense to me. When she told me statistics like over 400 bird species have been recorded in the area I tried to look interested but I’m sure a look of “so what” was more prominent on my face. So, to pacify me she told me that I could go diamond hunting while she watched the birds.

She didn’t really need to pacify me much, I was interested in going regardless of the 400 species of birds. And I did have a fun time looking for one of the Cape May diamonds, as they’re called. They’re really quartz pebbles that have washed down the Delaware River. I did find one and even had it polished up. It looks really pretty and I wear it attached to my birding binoculars that I also purchased on that trip. I’m telling you, once I got out and watched and learned a few of the species and their habits and visual cues I became a little obsessed with getting to know them. I know that sounds strange but it’s true. And so now I dare you. Spend one summer practicing the art of birding and I bet you’ll become obsessed with it as well. Really, I dare you.

Robert Moses forever changed not only the city of New York, but the concepts regarding public space and public parks, throughout the entire United States.  He created unprecedented escapes, concerned with the health and the well being of his fellow New Yorkers.  He knew the benefits of the retreat from busy city life, the benefits to the soul, the benefits to a healthy state of mind, and he put them, his ideas and his notions, into practice in the 1920’s. 

For more than fifty years, Robert Moses contributed to his city and to his communities.  One would be hard pressed to find a swing set seat in Manhattan, that this man did not have some part in providing.  To talk a walk today, along the streets, through parks and the alleys behind the best restaurants, New York City is different than what it could have been, could have become, because of the vision of this one man.  Moses’s first project as Parks Commissioner, was the Jones Beach State Park. This resulted in the unprecedented attendance for a park or public beach, outnumbering the attendance for the opening of Central Park seventy years earlier.  From this day forward, his designs became the standard model for parks in New York City in the decades that followed. 

In 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt initiated the New Deal.  The publicly and federally funded project put innovative and artistic people to work, in a program that affected not only the city parks, but the highways and the public spaces as well.  This was no more evident than in the city of New York.  Hundreds upon hundreds of playgrounds were created for the youth of the city, along with golf courses, public pools, zoos and recreational facilities. 

After three years of planning, the 1939 World’s Fair opened.  This was located in an area that had been a swampland and dump…but later became the Flushing Meadows Park.  From Battery Park to Coney Island, from the Upper West Side to the East Village, Robert Moses changed his city for the better, for the good of the people.  His legend is not only remembered, but replicated throughout the country.  The ingenious projects of a thoughtful man, a good man…a man of New York City.

The payday loan industry is the one, and probably only, industry that has really taken off despite the tough economic times. In some states this has led to payday loan and cash advance stores appearing on nearly every corner, fed by job losses and pay cuts. I live in Arizona where there are relatively few restrictions on who can get a payday loan and how payday loan stores operate. As a result, they have come to hold a very prominent place in the city. Some states such as Hawaii have many restrictions on payday loans while in other states such as Pennsylvania they are still strictly prohibited. Before you consider a payday loan, do some research on your states regulations.
One of the biggest differences between states is the repayment period. There are a few states that have set repayment periods that apply to everyone but there many more that do not. In some states, there are set pay periods for state employees; resulting in a similar repayment period. Other states have different repayment periods for manual laborers and clerical or professional workers. This is an important item to investigate and clarify before you sign for your money mutual montel Williams payday loan. Not repaying your loan on time can result in even more stress and damage.
Regardless of whether you go in store or to www.moneymutual.com it is important to know whether your state allows for repayment plans. If you find that your loan payment is due but you are still short on cash some states will allow payday loan stores to work out a plan or extension for your loan, other states will not.
With any loan, big or small, it is important to know what your rights are and what your state allows. There are many online resources that can help you find the information you need very quickly and easily.

On my last trip to New Orleans, while my friend was out and I was trying to get some sleep, I had a telephone call from downstairs, the hotel management asking for my help with a problem in the phone lines.  They asked me to keep the phone off the hook as they dealt with it; after a moment, I could only hear breathing on the other end of the phone, and so I hung up.  They called back and insisted I keep the phone off the hook.  I unplugged the phone and then got a call again; there was a second phone in the room.  Again, they asked I keep the phone off the hook, but something didn’t feel right about all this.  I got dressed, went downstairs, and asked at the desk.  The clerk was puzzled, then checked, and explained the calls were coming not from them, but from some other guest inside the hotel.  It was like a little horror movie.  The next time I travel to the Big Easy I know I’m going to look for one of the best luxury hotels New Orleans offers and avoid a repeat of that situation.

With the certainty of a fine hotel in which to stay, I can relax and enjoy the city the way it was meant to be enjoyed…  walking around the French Quarter, resting in Jackson Square, having a cup of coffee and a sugar powdered beignet from the original Cafe du Monde Coffee Stand, watching the Mississippi River roll past one of the country’s unique cities.  I can take advantage of the cities many great parks and museums, such as City Park, where jazz really began, and the amazing Audobon Museums, such as the Audubon Zoo, the Audubon Aquarium, and the Audubon Insectarium.  At night, I can stroll the French Quarter, take in a ghost tour, or listen to the jazz in any number of bars on Bourbon Street.  And then return at night, without fear of any more mysterious phone calls from unknown guests!

There was an Orange County girl that I knew that was also an Orange County lawyer. She was what people other myself would call something else. I would call her Other, and spectacularly so. She was born in the United States to a Haitian father and an Iranian mother with a fondness for Hamsa Hands that she kept all over the house and the car. Where most people would put those fuzzy car dice or a scented tree (you know the kind because I know you saw Se7en : the kind that were hung up in the half corpsified man’s apartment who was played by a man in half-corpsified makeup), she hung a blue Hamsa hand to protect her from the crazy drivers in Orange County. And there are crazy drivers there, but then again, there are crazy drivers everywhere now. It’s the speed at which those drivers go. When they look at the road when going that speedy speed, the white dashes making borders on the road where you may and may not go and what times go so fast it hypnotizes them and they start to drive kind of crazy. I know I do.

And that was the kind of crazy this other girl was. She had a need for speed. She had the need for transgressing and threading borders and making new borders that she then could stitch together again like some makeshift transcultural and transsocial blanket that would keep everyone warm. She did that with her work. She does that with her work. She is still alive but since she is gone and moved away from my apartment complex that she adorned with leftover Hamsa Hands she had, it feels like she is gone permanently, and has transgressed heavenly or unheavenly borders: she could handle either, whether or not they could handle her I do not know and it does not matter because those are not borders that interest me.

She worked for anyone who needed help and used the money she got from the richer clients to give a chance to the poor clients with legitimate complaints about landlords and property damage and other kinds of problems: she was a modern day saint in high heels and a purse made from old scarves her mother wore on Monday through Friday: she would help the poor, the needy, the others like her, those whose parents transgressed borders to be with one another. It was in her blood to do so. She was great and I love Orange County Lawyers now because of her and that is the only story I want to tell about her for now.

We stayed at a cheap hotel in Philadelphia and we were surprised at how clean, quiet and nice it was. The entire staff was helpful and friendly. After we unloaded the car and grabbing a bite to eat, we checked our map and found that the Valley Forge National Park wasn’t too far and it wasn’t too hard to find. We saw literally thousands of deer when we went for a hike, my children were absolutely thrilled; an excellent choice on my part.

The next day we headed to Sesame, but first we had breakfast at our hotel.

We got our tickets on-line and the plan was to spend the whole day there. The parking cost $18, which in my estimation is a lot for a family of four to afford. Once we were inside the park, we were overwhelmed and very unprepared, all my planning went right out the window. We had to rent a locker, which was $20.00, to store our belonging, like purse, camera, and our money, since we didn’t need it at a water park. Then I should have purchased water shoes, because the walkways between the water rides was hot, so we literally couldn’t walk on it. Then, the lines for the rides were just as bad as Disney, my children are young and they really had no concept of waiting in line, so most of the rides we skipped. Then the water was cold!

When it was time to grab a bite to eat, and for a family of four, eating at the water park would have cost us over $50! If I had known the food was going to be so much, I would’ve made sure my family had plenty to eat before we entered the park. It already cost us $250 to get in the park, which is extremely expensive for us. So, my whole idea of fun at a water park for the entire day was a bust. My children wouldn’t do the lines, I wouldn’t pay over $50 for food and the park was a lot smaller then we anticipated. We only managed to play in Elmo’s World and called it a day.

My family would have had so much more fun in our own back yard! When we got back to our hotel, we finally had lunch and I sent the children off to a playground not far from the hotel. I remember my parents always taking us kids somewhere fun for vacation, I just hope my kids will have as much fond memories as I have.

Well it looks like the Farmers Market  in downtown Grand Prairie is opening up again. They closed it for a while so they could make it better. Near by, you will also find quaint hotels in Grand Prairie neighborhoods waiting for a guest like you. Once you have got your bags unpacked, head for the newly expanded farmers market which will have some nice treats to take home with you. From homemade soaps to spices and homemade gourmet foods the venders are waiting to sell you your next favorite item. You can find Market Square by keeping an eye out for the water tower mixed in with green landscaping and an old barn.

There is also much more going on in the downtown area. Here you will find a few main stream stores like CVS Pharmacy and NAPA Auto Parts in case you get a cold, need a tooth brush or a fix a flat tire goo for the rental car. The specialty stores are more than likely going to be of more interest to you. You could go and snoop through the Live Oak Antique store or go smell some nice scents at the Essential Fragrances store. It is a wonderful area to just walk around. Maybe the musicians at the local music stores will let you borrow a guitar and take that lesson you are missing by being away on this trip.

You can’t walk around without stopping for something to eat. They have a few main stream favorites like Jack in the Box and Sonic Burger but I always like to give the business to the small local restaurants especially if I have time to relax. There are a few cuisines to choose from Joy Luck Chinese, Agua Azul Seafood, Amigo’s Restaurant, New York Joe’s Pasta and Pizza, Nina’s Cafe, Brass Bean for some coffee and scones and in the evening you can catch up on some sports at Theo’s Grill and Bar. So what ever you find yourself doing, enjoying your stay shouldn’t be hard.

No doubt parrots are an intriguing type of bird; most birds sing to us; how many of them are capable of saying hello and asking about your day?  Perhaps it’s because a friend of mine keeps a parrot in a cage in her living room, occasionally letting it out to walk the floor or to hop onto a stick or her finger, that I have a fondness for the colorful creature.  More than anything, though, it’s this ability to talk that draws me in: Talking birds, apparently, only mimic humans; some of them can only saw a few words or phrases, while a few, may have a vocabulary of nearly two thousand words — The Guinness World Records is filled with astonishing facts about birds, especially a budgerigar named Puck, who can contains a vocabulary of 1,728 words (if I knew that many words of, say, French or Russian, I could get along pretty easily in those countries, I would think).  If you want to find a group of talking birds all in one place, you might try out Miami, Florida, where you can visit the Parrot Jungle Island.

The Parrot Jungle Island allows you to see these tropical birds up-close in habitats that replicate their original environment.  Parrots aren’t the only animal you’ll find here.  You’ll run across penguins and flamingos, cranes, condors, tigers, llamas, skunks, even kangaroos, and reptiles, orangutans, monkeys, and chimpanzees and baboons.  There’s a quite a lot of fish and plant life, too.  The island even boasts a 900 pound Liger, a cross between a Lion and Tiger.

All this is quite close to the hotels of downtown Miami, over on 1111 Parrot Jungle Trail, via the I-395.  The island is open 365 days out of the year from ten in the morning until six at night.  The admission price is about thirty dollars for adults and twenty-four dollars for kids, although kids under two are free; if you have a Go Miami Card, the admission is also free.  And if you’re active duty military you’ll receive a free admission for yourself and a fifteen percent discount for your family.  If you’re into birds, as I am, and want to hear what they have to say to you, there’s no other place to go than Parrot Jungle Island.

My parents knew that it wouldn’t be an easy life when I told them that I wanted to be Detective Dietrich when I grew up.  There was something extraordinarily funny about this guy, and I felt right at home in the presence of his aloofness and sarcasm, and I kept watching week after week.  My whole family did, because Barney Miller was one of those shows that had a heart and a pulse, and it wasn’t easy to find these things on tv.  It’s still not very easy, and you have to really look for signs of life and intelligence to have any hopes of finding them.  For me, it’s always kind of thrilling still to hear some comedian making a reference to Lacan, or reading a blog where it sounds like the writer has heard of Deleuze.

There are many cultural critics who lament the death of the intellectual, and there are many intellectuals who write about the death of intelligence.  There are also those who say they have no time for fancy book-learning, and they seem to be growing in number with every generation.  Maybe it’s nothing new, because I seem to recall reading similar laments in Aristotle, Voltaire, and excerpts from a rare interview with Pliny the Elder.  The New York of Barney Miller had room for everybody.  That’s one thing that show taught me.  In Manhattan, accommodation is available to all, even intellectuals.

My pre-teen brain understood that deep thinkers have trouble fitting into this world.  So when Dietrich talked to Barney about how he had a long record of switching careers, I had a feeling this was in my cards as well.  I also wanted to be a lumberjack and a bee-keeper.  And I wanted to study philosophy.  I never did get the degree I started out looking for, and I never did get to work with bees, but there are enough parallels that I think I’m living the life I am supposed to be in.  Sometimes my New York feels like the one Steve Landesberg inhabits, and someday, if we ever do get to meet, I wonder if the universe will implode or we’ll just have coffee.