Seattle’s Experience Music Project: For Rock Music Lovers

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EMP, sitting at the base of Seattle's Space Needle, was designed by Frank Gehry.

(SEATTLE, WA) The Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum or, as it is now commonly known, EMP sits below Seattle’s famed Space Needle like a recently landed alien starship. The brainchild of Microsoft gazillionaire Paul Allen, it focuses on the history of rock music. Although the Science Fiction Museum officially closed in 2011, current exhibits celebrating Battlestar Gallactica and Avatar carry on the tradition. [Read more...]

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Vancouver’s Stanley Park

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Stanley Park boasts one of the world's loveliest promenades.

(VANCOUVER, BC) New York has Central Park, London has Regent’s, and Paris has the Bois du Boulogne, but none of those great public parks can match the views from Vancouver’s Stanley Park. [Read more...]

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‘Mary Stuart’ at Seattle’s A.C.T. – A Review

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Friedrich Schiller’s 1800 drama, “Mary Stuart,” is receiving a smashing production at Seattle’s A.C.T., A Contemporary Theatre, and reminding New Yorkers like myself to never get snooty about how much better theater is in the Big Apple than anywhere else.

In fact, after spending an evening with this splendid company, Gothamites might find themselves wondering why they have to make do with empty calorie musicals instead of the raw meat of Schiller’s disquisition on power politics, religious hatred, and humankind’s seeming inability to ever do the right thing. [Read more...]

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Vij’s Indian Restaurant in Vancouver: A Review

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Vij's is a mecca for those who love innovative Indian cuisine.

Vij’s Indian restaurant is not on any of Vancouver’s well-worn tourist trails, but it should be. And for those who love innovative Indian cuisine, it probably is already. [Read more...]

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Stratford Shakespeare Festival 2011

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I was told the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario, has been suffering the effects of the world-wide downturn. Receipts are down by a third, I heard, and Americans, who once flocked there, are staying away in droves, they said, now that the once lowly loonie (or Canadian dollar) is worth about ten percent more than the once almighty U.S. greenback.

Well you couldn’t prove it by what I saw on a visit to the 2011 edition of this showcase of dramatic art that has been going strong since 1952.

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Rainy Days Are Fun Days at Universal Orlando

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A bit of bad weather doesn’t have to be a Disaster! … you can just Ride It Out

Hogsmeade at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter(ORLANDO, FLORIDA) — It’s too much to expect perfect weather for the duration of your Universal Orlando vacation despite Florida’s reputation as a tropical, sun-filled paradise. The good news is that the rain is usually of short duration as in “hot, humid, in the low nineties with a chance of afternoon thunderstorms.” The better news is that there are enough activities to make you feel that you haven’t lost any precious touring time, as noted by Seth Kubersky and Kelly Monaghan, authors of Universal Orlando 2011: The Ultimate Guide to the Ultimate Theme Park Adventure.
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Abstract Expressionist New York at MOMA

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The Museum of Modern Art has put its usual fourth floor miscellany of the highlights of twentieth century abstract art into storage to mount a sumptuous display of Abstract Expressionist masterpieces.

The show is titled “Abstract Expressionist New York,” which struck me as something of a tautology. I’m no art historian, but I have always thought of Abstract Expressionism as a peculiarly New York phenomenon, no matter how far its ripples might have spread.
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Stratford Shakespeare Festival

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The small town of Stratford, Ontario has charming 19th century homes and the river Avon runs through it. Get it? Stratford? Avon? What better place for a Shakespeare Festival?

That’s what Tom Patterson thought when in 1952 he convinced the town fathers to finance a trip to New York on a quixotic quest to convince Tyrone Guthrie to comes to the tiny burg to start one. To Guthrie’s eternal credit, he agreed and then convinced Alec Guinness to come over to launch the first season – in a tent, no less!
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Niagara Falls

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To Niagara in a sleeper

There’s no honeymoon that’s cheaper
And the train goes slow.
Oh, oh, ooohh.
Off we’re gonna shuffle,
Shuffle off to Buffalo!

Straddling the U.S.-Canada border, Niagara Falls is the great cliché of American tourism, which may explain why it took me so long to check it out. What was I waiting for?

Let’s start with the obvious. Niagara Falls (or more properly the American Falls on the U.S. side of the border and the much larger Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side) is one of the most spectacular natural wonders on the planet. And thanks to New York’s Niagara Falls State Park, the oldest state park in the nation, taking it all in is an easy and inexpensive day’s outing.

The highly recommended Niagara USA Discovery Pass ($33 adults, $26 for kids 6-12) offers one stop shopping for the park’s two must-see attractions, plus three other lesser experiences, plus a day-long pass on the motorized trolley system that links them all.

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The Old Croton Aqueduct Trail

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A leisurely stroll through New York’s backyard

I was looking for an easy stretch of trail on which to warm up for a hike along Hadrian’s Wall. What I found was a bucolic window on Westchester County’s storied past and historic mansions, all just a short train ride from the canyons of Manhattan.

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