Colleen Kane

Colleen Kane writes!

This old blog and web presence here at ColleenKane.com has been like a garment aging on a hanger in the back of the closet looking more outmoded every time you accidentally bump into it. 

But THIS SITE at ColleenKaneWrites.com  is not! Finally I have a respectable online portfolio for my writing. 

Why not just redirect ColleenKane.com to the new portfolio site? Because I want to preserve some of the posts here, and don't want to mess up Abandoned Baton Rouge, and just ugh too much. I'm a working mom now! Ain't got the time. 

Yes! Mom! I was in my third trimester of pregnancy in the photo above, in beautiful Greece, and now she's about to turn one. 

And yes! Working! So far still working from home and I'd like to keep it that way, but open to other setups. 

 

 

How to Put Less Garbage Into the World

Hi! It's that time of year again: time for a new post on an old website. Freelance is keeping me very busy, but here's a thing I wrote on this weekend of the Paris Accord for my own self and for Medium. 

How to Put Less Garbage Into the World

A fun essay on going to a nerd con, Gen X, corpses, and mortality.

As you know if you follow me on any of the other social medias, I MET JOEL HODGSON FROM MST3K! 

And now, a 7-minute read about my experience. I promise it's worth your while. 

Lita Ford Hugged Debbie Gibson and Everything Was Okay

(Why you, a non-cosplaying adult person, should totally go to a nerd con.)

 

Co & Co.

Here's a little thing I started on the Tumblrs and I hope you will follow me or award hearts to some pictures which apparently are known as notes? I am old. Please help. 

It's called Co & Co., and it's where I collect my photos of "co" also "&" and also me, your pal, CoKane. Mostly I find them in ghost signs, because I love them, and this project creates a focus for my photos so they don't get too out of hand. 

There you go: Co & Co.

Many tumbles 

So ghostsign

WHAT IS INTERNET

Down on the Farm

It's been a summer of massive change for your seldom-blogging pal CoKane. I moved again. This time it's just myself and Miss Addie the dog. Yeaaah. That's all that will be said on that topic for now.

On to my new rural existence! This undated historic photo of a dairy farm in South Jersey shows the old farmhouse where I live now. 

This detail shows the house, before it had its current wraparound porch, and when it had more old trees.

Sandy

 

 

We were very lucky in Downtown Brooklyn during Hurricane Sandy. All we lost was cable and Internet for a few hours. 

However, after navigating downtown Manhattan in darkness and witnessing the devastation in Rockaway, I wanted to share some of what it was like. 

Crescent City

 

 

Hey, you know what I didn't yet blog about, besides almost everything these days? My brief trip to New Orleans over Memorial Day weekend.

Part one of the Louisiana trip consisted of this project in Baton Rouge. But part two was that I needed a break. I really needed the kind of good time New Orleans allows to roll and roll again.

First, though, I have to show off my most nutrageous thrift store find in many moons.

 

I shall call this marvelous (Baton Rouge) thrift store find "LAxidermy."

I think it cost either $4 or $7. Usually I remember all my bargain prices because it adds to the enjoyment, but in this case I kind of blacked out in my haste to exchange money for this treasure. All I remember is the guys working at the store chiding me on the way to the counter: "Girrrrl, what you gonna do with them little bitty horns? That's Bambi. We got a 8-point over here!" They showed me that up front there was a mounted full-grown deer head plus a mountain goat head for sale. I explained that I was going home on a plane so it might pose a bit of a problem to bring a full-size animal head.

Incidentally, I had a moment of terror going through airport security to fly home when I remembered I had the antlers packed in my carry-on. They're going to take away my LAxidermy! It would be a tragedy worthy of  my own Lifetime Original Movie. But then it breezed through the scanner and I was like, "Oh yeah, it's Louisiana." Knitting needles on the plane? Forget it. Bonelike body part that animals use to fight and stab each other? All aboard!

Anyway, totally worth it. Whenever I need cheering up, I should just remember that I OWN THIS THING NOW.

Why Not Take All of B?

If you haven’t ventured over to Alphabet City lately (I hadn’t in a while myself), some longstanding neighborhood staples have been disappearing from Avenue B.

Gone are: the terrifying sculpture of faded wet stuffed animals and scrap wood that was the East Village’s own version of the Close Encounters mound, the 30-plus year old eatery Life Cafe (inspiration to and a setting for the play Rent), and as of the end of this month, the Lakeside Lounge (great explanation of why that place mattered here ). The only one of my old haunts left on that strip is 7B, and now that can’t be certain either.  

However, the biggest news to me was the imminent closing of the 16-year-old veggie dive Kate’s Joint, which owed $30 grand in back rent. Although I hadn’t frequented the place in years, it was a major setting of my life in New York.  

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.

 

Abandoned Borscht Belt 2: Mohonk Mountain House and Tamarack Lodge

Earlier this month, Leah and I continued our exploration of the former Jewish Alps (part 1 is here). We spent the weekend  with a great group of hosts (who fast became new pals) in the town of Rosendale, which I found positively charming (and just now realized I'd read about before in the Times).

Leah and I began on Saturday with the still-in-business Mohonk Mountain House, which is often cited as the inspiration for The Shining. It was also seen in No Reservations, in the episode when Tony went up the Hudson. The enormous lodge's hodgepodge of structural styles made a much more dramatic impression in person than it did on the show.