Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Summer Reading

This photo is not of my house but I wish it was mine. It is a house in the center of town. It has a beautiful porch. This was taken in the morning. I can visualize the occupant of this home sitting on this chair when this porch is shaded in the afternoon.
If it were me, I would be sitting in that chair with a glass of iced tea on the table. My time would be occupied reading a book. Of course, that time must be set after all of the day's chores are completed. I can't read a book aware of what has to be done without feeling guilty. I would make sure that all of those potted plants were watered before the sun bakes them dry.
I could fall asleep in a lounge chair and not be able to read ten pages. It would be better in a chair like this. I could place my book on the table instead of my lap. Maybe in between turning the pages and advancing through a chapter I could sip my iced tea and feel the moisture on the glass. It might me some moments to reflect on what is going on in the story. It is a quiet street with hardly any traffic passing by. It could become a nice summer afternoon.

Friday, July 25, 2014

Summer is going fast

I intended on writing a blog entry daily but I procrastinated. Why? Because I waited for something significant event to occur. It finally happened. I love going to New York City to see a show and walk around. The first time that I became acquainted with the term, "The Big Apple" was in my sophmore year in high school. Our English teacher gave us a survey on our first day of class. One of the questions was about our familiarity of the Big Apple. I didn't have any reference to it. The only trips until then were  train rides to Penn Station or boarding a Greyhound bus at the NY Port of Authority. New York City was a connection point to somewhere else and not a destination in itself.

Through my grown up years, New York City has become a destination, even if it is only for a day. We are fortunate to get there by train in less than two hours. It is definitely a photographer's paradise. I would be lost without my camera. I do travel with family and that inhibits my creativity to capture as much as I would like to photograph. You have to travel with fellow photographers because we are focused on what we see. There isn't any rush to get somewhere unless you have tickets to a show or dinner reservations.

This past Wednesday we went to see a Broadway show. Ticket prices for a show are high. We made our way to the center of Times Square and stood in line to buy tickets at a discounted price. TKTS is the company that purchases tickets from the theaters. Les Miserables was available at 50% of the original ticket price. We purchased three orchestra seats that were six rows from the stage. They were towards the right of the stage but we benefited because some of the performers were staged on the right.

I didn't know that all of the dialogue was sung as in an opera. Some of the songs are so poignant and some are rousing. What a remarkable adaptation of Victor Hugo's novel. I am reading it as well and have only read over one hundred pages. The show's script follows the novel closely, although if it were as faithful to the novel, the show would have to be done in a series. It's much like a film where some parts end up on the cutting floor.

We are exploring different parts of the city beyond the theater district. We are subway riders now. We had dinner on the Lower East Side at Katz's Delicatessan. My readers will be unfamiliar with the film "When Harry Met Sally". The movie was filmed on site in New York City and one of the funniest scenes was filmed at this deli.

It was along day and we caught the 8:36 pm train back to New Haven. The train stopped at every little station beside the larger towns and cities. We arrived home after 11 pm, tired and very satisfied with our day's adventure.