More Updates

Well its been awhile and I have been having a crazy time.  So here are some updates.

Portland

This was a completely different experience than in Seattle.  The city is a very walkable city, it took me 3 hours to walk the perimeter of the city.  

I saw one of the best shows I've seen so far, Speech and Debate.  I may be biased on my opinion since I did speech and debate in high school.  All of the scene titles were different categories in speech and debate which framed what was going on in the scene.  I definitely recommend seeing, or reading this play, even if you aren't familiar with speech and debate would get the jokes.  It was a truly rewarding experience.  

It was unfortunate that I couldn't stay with a couch surfer.  I had contacted one, but he never responded to me.  So I was forced to stay at a cheap motel.  It was right in the center of town so getting to places was very easy.

I met a woman through the couch surfing website and we had a couple of drinks one night and talked about socialism and communism until 3 o'clock in the morning.  It was a great time to spend with someone.  We watched the sunset one night and talked for a long time again.  

A slew of updates

Well folks it seems that this blog is in high demand.  So I guess I should update.  I will try to keep updating as I travel.  But just to catch up here are the last couple of cities I've been to.

Coming back from West Chester to Milwaukee.

I wouldn't never write about a train ride, but I am infuriated with Amtrak and it's horrible service.  A train ride from Philly to Pittsburgh should have taken 6 hours, the trip took 11.  The next train from Pittsburgh to Chicago should have taken 10 hours, took 18.  4 Hours were spent with no power and not moving.  It really was a terrible experience.  The made me late for my next train to Milwaukee, which I arrived 10 minutes late for, and they would not hold the bus.  Myself along with many others had places they needed to be and complained about the service.  The customer service representative said she would give me a credit for another trip on Amtrak which I replied to I don't want to take Amtrak ever again.

Minneapolis.

- It was really good to catch up with some of the Playwright's Center Staff that I was with last summer.  It felt so weird going back there and remembering different land marks, and restaurants.  Being there the 5 days maybe me long for being in Minneapolis again.  I stayed with a married couple about 4 miles outside of the downtown.  There were some very cold nights and my air mattress I have been sleeping on sprung a leak, so sleeping was always an adventure.  The days were filled with going to museums and exploring some of the Minnesota Parks.  I attended a show at the Guthrie called Old Wicked Songs.  It was very interesting, and I'd prefer to see anything there except for the premier of Little House on the Prairie the Musical.  It has been sold out for months.  The two shows that were most memorable was Distracted at Mixed Blood Theatre and Ionesco's The Chairs at Pangea World Theater.  Distracted was a wonderful play concerning a mom whose son was just diagnosed with ADHD (ADD) and whether she should drug her son and make him numb the rest of his life or endure the hardships of yelling, screaming, and arguing.  The Chairs at Pangea World Theater sparked my interest because the company is a foreign theater just like I'm trying to do with RPG.  All in all Minneapolis was a great time, with a sweet amount of strip clubs.

Denver.

Driving to Denver was a long adventure, but seeing the prairies and Rocky Mountains were simply incredible.  Denver is heavily populated with Mexican Americans and Native Americans, this was completely different to any other city I've been to thus far.  I stayed with a woman in the mexicanist of mexican places, with head shaving, three legged dogs in all.  The city is pretty much like any other city, only with the ROCKY MOUNTAINS in plain view.  Truly incredible.  Saw some interesting museums and saw a disgusting exhibit by Donald Judd, look him up, I abhor him, and you can find his work all over.  

Traveling to Seattle.

Well I thought Delaware was the worst state, but now Idaho/Wyoming beats it by a longshot.  From Denver to Seattle is a 19 hour drive through the Rockies and prairies of Wyoming.  Now in Minneapolis was cool, mid 50's each day, Denver was warmer, high 60's each day, and Seattle was going to be in the mid to upper 60's, but once I hit Wyoming and the temperature said 24 degrees, I knew I'd been in trouble.  So I'm about 8 hours into driving and what do I see, snow, not just a little, but a lot of snow, the highway is close, but luckily I could get on an adjacent highway.  Now I'm about 4 more hours away and just crossing the Idaho border and what should happen, intense snow begins to fall and I have to exit the highway and stay the night at a cheap motel.  So there goes my not seeing snow until march.  

Now I'm in Seattle and I will update this excursion in the next couple of days once I head off to Portland (PDX).  Hope all is well.

Durktown, USA (The greatest city in the greatest country in the universe.)

Show Me The MUNY

Well folks it has been another week and another glorious city done.

St. Louis has been chock full of good times:

The MUNY= the largest structure I have ever seen, it houses a professional musical theater company in the park every summer.

The Art Museum

Seeing the Cardinals lose to the Pirates, o well you can't win them all.

Seeing Hamlet 2 and Vicky Christina Barcelona= two pretty good movies, not great, pretty good

Productions of King Lear, Sunset Limited, and an original play

Stumbling upon a cellist in a dangerous part of a neighborhood

Basically the crazy capers that ensued with the person I was staying with, wow= board games, cats, ransacked apartment, comfy bed

Very adequate book stores, however getting a really sweet book about Ubu Roi and Alfred Jarry

A story about me going to the police because I heard a gun shot, long story

Above all enjoying how the city is in a state of expansion of culture and arts.  It was a really good time to stay there

A sweet BBQ/Root Beer Brewery

The cleanest/modern library I've ever seen

Going to the Arch and them confiscating my pocket knife (Its a National Park), however the arch was a sweet time

Well that about wraps it up- I'm chilling in Indianapolis for a week attending the fringe festival.

Durktown USA

Ohio- the state of 3 cities

Well folks,

Ohio has been an awesome time.  A lot safer than Detroit.  I had stayed about a week in Cleveland, a day in Columbus, and Cincinnati for 3 days.  

Some highlights from Cleveland= a pretty awful production of Harold and Maude the musical, a really easy railway system, a great host that I stayed with, great lakes beer, a bookstore closing and getting ten books for 2 dollars, going to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and having a conversation with someone who felt the Beatles are overrated as well, meeting Ted Nugent, yeah, Ted "Cat Scratch Fever" Nugent, seeing a pretty ok X-Files film, and an awesome chicken sandwhch.

Columbus= My car broke down, I had to stay a night...nothing else.

Cincinnati= seeing a community production of Fiction by Steven Dietz, great play, bad show in an equally bad neighborhood.  Rock Bottom Ale, finding the best book store known to man, so many books, magazines, and pictures.  Seeing one of my new favorite shows of all time, Jerry Springer the Opera at New Stage Collective.  Seeing Roman De Gare, a french thriller in an old movie house.  

Well thats all for this time, see you later

Detroit- City of Faygo and Hot Dogs

Well I have left Detroit and arrived in Cleveland.

Detroit was an interesting time filled with almost witnessing a knife attack on the bus as well as in an alley way.  I have witnessed a depressing side of my travels with seeing poverty, ruined buildings, decay, and crack addicts, prostitutes and low down scum.  It reminds me o

f home. 

There are some bright spots though: The Henry Ford Museum with the sweet, sweet old cars, and the even sweeter IMAX where I saw The Dark Knight (pretty good movie).

The Museum of Contemporary Art and Design was awesome, the museum is set is an old warehouse.  The the brick lined interior was really neat to see.  The displays were really interesting to see these types of works in a not-so friendly area.

Seeing Panhandle Slim and the Oklahoma Kid at the Purple Rose theatre was a great time.  The theatre was founded by Jeff "King Pin" Daniels and he wrote the play I saw as well.  Truly a very interesting show commenting on the beauty of life and memory.

Seeing Gonzo was probably the best time though.  If you have the opportunity to see the film, please do so, it is so informative to see a true visionary at work.  

Finally the cuisine of Detroit could be best described as cheap, dirty, treats.  Now second only to malt liquor in Detroit's drink of choice is Faygo.  You know Faygo, it's the poor man's RC Cola, yeah RC Cola.  With its Red Pop, and Rockin' Rye the soda is everywhere.  The food consists of primarily of hot dogs smothered in sloppy joe/chili/cinnamon mixture covered with mustard and onions.  Nothing but the best for Detroit.

It has been fun, but off to do more exploring.

Durktown, USA

Pittsburgh- You call that Little Italy

Well, it has been awhile since I have been traveling.  I had a month siesta to wrap things up, hang out and plot the Renegade Performance Group---ask if you don't know what that is.

I traveled to Pittsburgh for the weekend to see two shows- The Wonderbread Years at City Theatre and Playboy of the Western World at PICT.  Both shows were excellent, but the most rewarding thing was opening the program of Playboy of the western world and seeing 70 pages of original dramaturgy, wow- i wish I could accomplish that for a show.  

The Andy Warhol Museum was just exquisite and an unbelievable experience and recommend it for anyone.  I stayed in a section called Little Italy (Bloomfield), it really had a couple of Italian places and their meters were painted red, white and green.  Nothing doing.  I will be up in Detroit for a couple of days with very little internet access, please call, or text if you want to find out more.

Durktown USA

Don't Eat the Tomatoes- A New York Sayonara

Well this is the last day I am in the New York/New Jersey area.

This has been one crazy week, memories of giving homeless people dirty looks, throwing food at pigeons, spraining my foot and hobbling around the city, seeing Adding Machine, Sunday in the Park with George and Jump.

Memories of touring Brooklyn College, Columbia University, and Rutgers.

Rice to riches=best rice pudding store imaginable.  Seeing the performing garage where the Wooster Group displays their shows, trying to see the Annuals, but staying home because I had food poisoning- don't eat the tomatoes-they have salmonella, don't eat them, seriously. 

Now there is nothing better than in 80 degree weather freezing with chills and going to a stuffy emergency room for 7 hours, so seriously don't eat the tomatoes.

All in all a pretty rocking time, I will be back in the Philadelphia/West Chester area for the next three weeks.

Durktown, USA