Colleen Kane

Abandoned Borscht Belt 3: The Pines

Last October, I explored the abandoned site of The Pines resort in South Fallsburg, New York.

(Image via this wonderful collection of vintage resort postcards)

The Pines had 400 guest rooms, a golf course, tennis courts, a ski chalet, an ice rink, and two swimming pools. Its theater and nightclub hosted the usual Jewish Alps entertainers of the day such as Robert Goulet and Buddy Hackett. It closed in 1998 when a developer bought the property from the Ehrlich family. This article details the bankruptcy of that developer and possible future for the property.

The postcard above shows what The Pines looked like in the 1960s. As you might imagine, it doesn't look like this bright and tidy any more.

 

Swag by Swagwest

Ever heard the term "swag"? It's supposedly an acronym for "stuff we all get" (for free). But really, we don't all get swag, or it wouldn't be worthy of a special nickname, would it? If it were something we all got, swag would mean like, "old," or "beaten down by life."

I'll tell you what swag is: it's stuff some of us get for free, usually for promotional reasons. It's actually how some of us, ahem those of us in publishing who only make like 10 grand a year, supplement our incomes and lifestyles, because we don't have a choice. And so, unlike other dignified adults who have worked in their professions for years and receive the expected monetary compensation, some of us in publishing don't have your "home ownership," your "new clothes and furniture," your "cars with functioning passenger side doors," your "option of having children," but we do have...15 spare pairs of fancy shampoo and conditioner.

Well, that is no longer true about the shampoo, but let's just say that after working at Naked Man Magazine, I didn't have to buy shampoo for a long time, and while I have had to purchase body wash, I anticipate never having to buy bar soap again.

Jealous? If you're not yet, let me show you some of the more successful and not-so-best swag from this year's South by Southwest conference/ trade show/ festival in Austin, Texas, where they start you off with a bag or two full of free stuff and you are constantly handed items for the duration of your time there. 

Oklahoma...Okay

The hubbs and I rang in the New Year like this, which pretty much beats most other new year celebrations around the planet.

Frog Festival

You may have seen bumper stickers saying, "Keep Austin Weird." There aren't any such mottoes about Louisiana, and that's because weirdness in Louisiana is about as endangered as nutria. On Saturday, Kara and I went to experience some genuine Louisiana weirdness at the Frog Festival in the self-proclaimed Frog Capital of the World, Rayne.

We laughed, we made rude comments amongst ourselves about genetics, we wondered if perhaps we had licked some hallucinogenic frogs.

This is Halloween

Here is me as Meg Fright of the imaginary rock and roll zombie combo (zombo) the Fright Stripes, based of course on the real life rock and roll combo the White Stripes. The hubbs doesn't like to be pictured on this blog, but he was Jack Fright. (I don't think Meg Fright's drum technique would be much different from Meg White's, by the way.)

 

So of course we went to New Orleans, which is one of the best places on Earth to celebrate Halloween. I want to say it's The best, but more on that in a moment.

The Youngs and the Olds

Early on Saturday, I departed with friends Kevin and Alicia to observe some Cajuns in their natural habitat. First we went to the Zydeco brunch in Breaux Bridge, which was amazing. Not the brunch so much, because due to a crazy mix-up we never had any food: it was the dancing. It was more than the dancing, really.

While the three of us agreed the band wasn't music we would listen to on purpose at home, they were part of something larger here, and I couldn't think of a more rocking show I'd been to all year. The dance floor was packed with revelers, the floor pulsed with their steps in time, and it wasn't yet noon. Here's the thing: collectively it seemed there was something more in the room than just sounds and people moving in time. Like, isn't this the transcendent feeling you want from a musical performance or any kind of mass gathering, really that hardly ever happens? Yes.

 I hope I'm not overstating the Zydeco brunch, but I wouldn't want to understate it either.

We Thai'd One On

Sawadee ka!

The hubbs and I are back from two absolutely incredible weeks in Thailand. Photos can't do justice to the natural beauty of Krabi, a beach paradise in the southern part of Thailand where we spent the majority of the trip. Nonetheless, I posted a photo retrospective on Facebook, which you can see here.

The trip had such an inspirational and restorative effect that I ain't blogging it! I scribbled down too many notes and quotes to try to fit it all in a blog post or two; I'd rather give this more thoughtful treatment in an essay. Maybe the Buddhism somehow rubbed off in Bangkok (the south is more Muslim) because I'm feeling more presence of mind than before the trip, with the Twittering on two accounts and the blogging and the freelancing and the Facebooking and this and that splintering my attention in every direction. So I'm going to try to hold onto that frame of mind as long as I can for productivity's sake (and general enjoyment's sake).

Also, I've posted another city to my Disappearing Downtowns blog: Waco, Texas, and I hope you will check it out.

Road Trip to Birmingham

The news that Sonic Youth was performing July 12 at Sloss Furnaces, a rusty old haunted industrial site, quickly became a must-see event, even though it was two states away. Both the hubbs and I have lost count of the number of times we've seen SY, but both regret missing the time they played inside the footing of the Brooklyn Bridge. Finally we had a comparably dramatic setting to see them.

Kevin, the hubbs and I embarked on the scenic route to Birmingham on Saturday, via Highway 61.

Wedding Weekend: Imperfectly Perfect Times, Part Two

[photo above by Vrai]

The wedding reception went by in a blur. People clinked their forks on their glasses, us newlyweds kissed, there was a first dance, but without thinking I had already pulled my brother onto the dance floor before that, since he knew how to dance to the big band version of "Creep" that was on.

Amanda and I pantomimed James Brown being covered with his cape and bursting up out of it, and lots more dorky dancing went down, I could barely think of eating my food, we had a terrific groomsman speech, which the videographer completely missed capturing along with the first dance (he's new at this, and we got him free anyway). We visited from table to table, and before we'd even invited guests to come n' get the cupcakes, the guests who were leaving early the next day were already making their exits.

What? All that planning and it was over so soon? Yes, all the marrieds had warned us that was what happens, and our event was no different.

Oh! And my dress exploded.

Bachelorette Outta' Control™

I was in NYC this weekend with the fiance to take care of some last-minute pre-wedding business such as haircuts and tying one on with bffs to celebrate getting married. And now, a photo-intensive retrospective.