Categories
Uncategorized

My muse has left me…

    I have had no desire to take pictures so far this
trip. I managed to get off a dozen shots of my favorite subject (my
cousin Beth), but I have not unloaded the large format gear at all. I
have been having fun just going places and seeing things, it hasn’t
occured to me to get the cameras out, even my 35mm ones. I was kind of
hoping that going back to where my photo fever started would spark me
again… Since I’ll mostly be on my own tomorrow, I’m going to make the
concerted effort to shoot some, I’ll let you know how it goes…

Isaac

Categories
Uncategorized

The Ithaca report…

    God I miss this place… It feels as good as ever to be up here. There are some places that I just feel right
in. The DC area isn’t one of them, but Ithaca sure is. This trip has
started the whole “There has to be something I can do here for a
living” thought process again. SIGH, as usual, there doesn’t really
seem to be anything up here for me, maybe if I looked harder…
    The place has gone through some changes. Rt. 13 is
unrecognizable it is so built up. There is now a Walmart, a super
Kmart, Lowe’s, Bed bath and Beyond, Barnes and Noble, etc strung all
along Rt. 13 from Wegman’s an North. Speaking of Wegman’s, it’s moved.
Remember how it used to be right next to Topps? Well, there is now a
Barnes and Noble and Bed bath, etc there where Wegman’s used to be.
This completely freaked me out when I first looked for W’s. They have
moved a little bit further away into a massive new store. There is no
more Rogan’s. I about cried when I heard this, but there is now a place
called King’s subs and Franco’s Italian resturant where Rogan’s used to
be, the pizza is the same (thank God), but I don’t know about the rest
of the food… Both Joe’s and Little Joe’s are gone. Rt. 13 south of
Wegman’s is now separated into one way streets. The Woolworth’s
building has been torn down and something else is going up…
    Surprisingly, I had no problem getting around town.
Those of you who suffered through me driving you around back then will
not believe this, but I have not gotten turned around once, even with
the new traffic patterns. I have even got Cornell and collegetown
mostly figured out, and I rarely went up there when I was going to
school here…
    Binghamton is mostly the same, although I’m not sure
if it has become noticably more run down or I’m just not used to it any
more. They tore down my wharehouse. It was the old Lander’s cosmetic
wharehouse, and I loved the inside of it dearly… I’m happy to report
that the buildings on the other side of the tracks from the old
Lander’s buildings are now being used. I went to both Sharkey’s and the
Little venice, and I plan on going back to the Little Venice on my way
out of town… I scored a Jascha Heifetz album with some digging at the big thrift store in Owego. It’s a bach album, both the Sonata No. 1 and the Partita No. 2 (a personal favorite of mine) are on there. Like all thrift store albums, this one needs a little scrubbing, but it looks like it’s in good shape other than that. My main place for buying old records is gone. It was a little purple shack in Johnson City run by a dirty old man. He sold both used records and old copies of Hustler, Penthouse, etc. 10 years ago, that was a viable business. Nowadays the used market for LPs has dried up and people that want dirty pictures go to the internet…Tomorrow will be my last day up here, Sob…. Beth has
classes tomorrow, so i won’t be able to spend as much time with her as
I have been these last couple of days, it’s been great seeing her.
Since she doesn’t have a car, she rarely gets off campus. It was great
to show her the various falls and local haunts off of the Cornell
campus. It’s going to be tough going back to work…

Isaac

Categories
Uncategorized

I made it!

    I’m in my hotel room in Ithaca right now. Things
have changed quite a bit, at leat along Rt. 13 (Elmira Rd.). There used
to be Wegman’s and Tops, and that was about it. There is now a Walmart,
A Lowes, an enormous (looks like 2 stories) Hollywood video. There are
now strip malls all along the main drag… Oh, and “Deaf Child Blvd.”
is no longer. The street is still there (that incredibly narrow one way
street on the way to Wegman’s), but they have taken down the “Deaf
Child” sign. It’s now just like any other street… They did change the
traffic pattern at the end of the street though, you are no longer
supposed to make that slight left to take the short cut to Wegman’s.
I’ll get a better feel for the place tomorrow when I do some real
looking during the day.
    I stopped in Binghamton along the way. Checked out 9
Serrall ave, my grandmother’s former home. It looked pretty good, they
seem to be taking care of the place. Downtown looked a little more run
down, it’s just a general feeling, but maybe it’s that I’m no longer
used to it. The big news is that they tore down my wharhouse! This was
the old Lander’s cosmetic wharehouse. It had a beautiful, enormous
mosiac tiled floor and really dramatic decorated colums inside. It must
have been used as a ballroom or something. The main building is still
there. It has a a beauftiful, old fashioned elevator (the kind with the
sliding scissor doors) surrounded by a marble staircase with brass
handrails. It’s really pretty, too bad nobody gets to see it. Ate at
Little Venice, it was as good as I remember… I was looking for
Sharky’s but couldn’t find it. Where are (were?) they? If worse comes
to worse, I can get my speedies at Pancho’s, but I always preferred
Sharky’s… I’ll let you guys know what Ithaca has turned into
tomorrow…

Isaac

Categories
Uncategorized

New website

OK, I’ve got a better looking site up now. Right now it has the same
content as the old one but I hope to add some more essays in the coming
weeks. Here’s the address:

www.homepage.mac.com/isaacc7/

That last backslash is important, the site won’t load without it. I
think this is just some .mac wackiness. I’d recommend getting to the
blog through the home page, that way you’ll see if there’s been
anything added. I promise I will add stuff at a fairly regular basis. I
have rough drafts of “A Crash Course in Coasian Economics”, “In Defense
of Ugly Pictures”, and, “What Camera Should I Get?” With any luck,
they’ll start appearing on the site within a week or so.

Isaac

Categories
Uncategorized

Play Ball!

    The pain has started again… As a Chicago Cubs fan,
I am looking forward to another season of agony as they manage to
squash my dreams yet again… But I’m glad the season is underway. It
was a long winter without any hockey. Plus I now know spring is here
and summer is on the way!
    I’ll be going up to Ithaca on thursday to go on the
“Isaac feels old” tour… Actually, I’ll be hanging out with my cousin
and taking pictures. I’ll also be pigging out on all the food I miss so
much. Hopefully my jeans will still fit when I get back. I’m already
enjoying not working, today was the last day on the job until next
thursday. Ah freedom! I’ll have internet access in my hotel room, so
I’ll try to post if something interesting comes up.

Isaac