Mezz vs. orchestra: It’s the people around you

by Tom Johansmeyer on

I settled into my seat at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre in Manhattan on Saturday well in advance of the curtain’s rise. My wife and I were eager to see “God of Carnage,” which had received great reviews and featured a high-profile cast. For a change, we had seats in the mezzanine section – rather than our usual preference for orchestra. It wasn’t a big deal, and we were prepared to accept the greater distance from the stage. By the end of the show, however, we vowed never to sit in the mezzanine section again. The people around us made the difference.

I see it all the time, and I know I’m not alone. A busload of tourists stumbles onto the sidewalk and crowds around the theater‘s doors. Some push; others linger. Both fail to understand the concept of forming a line … or joining one that already exists. Or, a group of people who live a mere hour from the city spend six months planning their annual trip into the thrilling metropolis and can’t contain their excitement at being able to see an actual celebrity working. You are noticeable a mile away, and yes, you’re being judged.

So, if you are headed into Manhattan to enjoy a Broadway production, please heed the following advice. You’ll make the experience better for everyone. Most of it is common sense, but unfortunately, there are people out there who need a detailed list.

Don’t be loud; don’t linger
As I climbed the stairs, I was stuck in the middle of a crowd of nine people who made their annual trek from New Jersey into Manhattan to get a bit of “culcha [culture].” They screeched as they plodded about how they should be featured as the Real Housewives of New Jersey, poking each other about their respective shitty marriages. The conversation kept them from taking their seats efficiency, causing a logjam that stretched all the way back to the entrance. So, while we were treated to diatribes about their husbands, guests out of earshot were stuck in place without even knowing why.

Advice: Shut up, and get to your seat quickly. Talk when you’re settled in … and do so quietly.

Arrive on time
This seems as though it shouldn’t need to be said, and I’ve only rarely encountered it when sitting in the orchestra section. Yet, in mezzanine, it’s more common. A man arrived around five minutes after the production started, had trouble getting to his seat in the dark and tripped over my foot (okay, I’m not entirely innocent here). He was the punctual half, though. His companion arrived 15 minutes later and made an even bigger scene.

Advice: Do I have to spell it out? You know when the show starts: plan accordingly.

Don’t clap when the curtain comes up
Yes, when you see the likes of James Gandolfini and Marcia Gay Harden on stage, it’s exciting. Your urge is to applaud, to slap your hands together as violently as possible. Meanwhile, what are James Gandolfini and Marcia Gay Harden doing? They’re talking! And, we can’t hear them! Let the actors perform. That’s why they are on the damned stage.

Advice: If you just want to see celebrities, hang around outside the theater and wait for them to arrive or depart. Otherwise, watch and listen. That’s the whole reason you spent $70 a ticket.

Don’t talk during the show … duh
Again, does this really need to be explained? For some reason, the people down in the orchestra section have figured out that the actors do the talking; the audience does the listening. In the mezzanine section, however, the actors do the primary talking, and the spectators provide a running commentary. Guess what? Everyone knows that James Gandolfini played Tony Soprano. They don’t need to be reminded. And, it’s no better when you complain about the nine New Jersey housewives in front of you who have been talking through the entire play. Are you really any better?

Advice: Shut your mouth, and remember that the only people who should be talking are (a) paid to do so and (b) told what to say.

That’s all it takes – four simple rules. I know it seems unwelcoming of me to dump all this on you, but if you exercised even a shred of common sense this article would be unnecessary.

Now, if you live in New York – or did at one time – here’s the best advice of all: sit in the orchestra section. At the risk of being called a New York snob (as my wife and New York snob friends have done already), you’ll have a better time if you join the other New York snobs who … guess what? … are there to enjoy the production.

Amazing Destinations That Can’t Be Reached By Car

by Kraig Becker on

Modern transportation has made it extremely easy for travelers to get to just about any place in the world. Each day there are international flights that can take us to the four corners of the globe and modern roads and trains will deliver us to the best sights and monuments to be found at our destination, before whisking us back to a comfy hotel, complete with hot and cold running water, room service and a big comfy bed.

But not all of the world’s great places are accessible by vehicle. There are still some amazing destinations that fall way off the beaten path, that will force us to work a little harder to take in their splendor. The Times Online has put together a collection of these places, which they’ve dubbed “Holidays you can’t reach by car“, with a variety of unique locations that you’ll have to trek, paddle, or both if you plan to ever see them in person.

One of the more intriguing places to make their list is the Source of the Ganges River in India. The famous river which plays such an indelible part of Indian culture gets its humbles start at the foot of the Gangotri Glacier, located in the Himalaya at 12,600 feet in the Garhwal region. Anyone wanting to make the journey should be prepared for a ten day trek that will take them high into the mountains, past ancient caves where Hindu practitioners still meditate in their search for enlightenment.
The Omo River in Ethiopia is yet another interesting destination to appear on this list. The 470 mile long stretch of water drops more than 6000 feet over its length before emptying into Lake Turkana, while passing through rocky gorges and over beautiful water falls, offering up great whitewater in the process. The trip can only be made by raft or kayak, and along the way travelers will encounter crocodiles, hippos, and remote villages that still remain mostly untouched by the outside world.

There are plenty more similar treks, climbs and other adventures on the list as well, offering up great destinations that don’t just fall off the beaten path, they leave that path far behind. But for the adventure traveler, there is plenty to like here, with some ideas for your next trip that you may not even have considered before.

The House On The Rock – a hidden gem in the Midwest

by Scott Carmichael on

While on a tour of attractions in Wisconsin, one of the places that made my list was “The House On The Rock”.

The House On The Rock is the vision of architect Alex Jordan Jr. Apparently, Mr Jordan had a dream of creating a house for himself, nestled away in the Wyoming Valley in Wisconsin. As the house progressed, people started to visit his house, and while it was never intended to be a tourist attraction, so many people wanted to see the amazing architecture, that Jordan started asking for 50 cent donations.

Before I arrived at the House, I had tried to do some research, checking out their official website, and reading reviews. But nothing I found online prepared me for what I encountered when I arrived. The House On The Rock is an absolutely astounding place, and in my opinion an attraction everyone should visit at least once.

The tour begins in the recently constructed welcome center, which has bits of Frank Lloyd Wright inspiration. In it, you’ll find the ticket desk, a gift shop and a small cafeteria.
Even as we made our way to the first part of the tour, I hadn’t the faintest idea what to expect. As it turns out, part 1 is the house on the rock itself – the residence of Alex Jordan.

The house is insane – carpet on the walls (and ceiling), packed full with Japanese artifacts, art, robotic musical instruments, plants and peculiar heating elements hidden away which were apparently put there to prepare food.

There isn’t a corner in the cramped house left untouched – every single bit of wall has something decorating it.

The final room in the house is the “Infinity Room”. This is where you begin to realize that the house on the rock is something very, very special. The Infinity Room is 300 feet long, 220 feet of which hangs unsupported over the valley. The “room” has over 3000 windows, and once you get to the end, you can look down through a window in the floor. The view is quite simply spectacular.

After the Infinity Room, you are directed through other portions of the house, up over a deck on the roof, to the end of the first portion of the tour. It was a this point where I started chatting with one of the tour guides, who told me “I ain’t seen nothing yet”. Oh how right he was.

The inside of the bathrooms – as I said, every single corner of this place has something decorative.

The second portion of the tour led us through the “streets of yesterday”, a recreation of a 19th century street, complete with fire station, sheriffs office and stores. The amount of antique stuff in this portion is staggering, every single store and office is filled with priceless artifacts from the past.

The next room was the one that impressed me most – the Heritage of the Sea is jawdropping. Inside this massive building is a 200 feet tall whale, and the spiraling walkway takes you around a tour of 100’s of antique boat models.

Face to face with a 200 feet whale – between the size of the whale, and the height of the building, you can’t help feel amazed at the detail put into the exhibit.

On the ground floor of this exhibit is where you’ll find a massive automatronic orchestra playing Octopus’s Garden, and doing quite a good job of it too.

At every single turn there is another collection of something – most of it seemingly completely random, displaying things like a Christmas plate collection and Fabergé eggs.

One of those completely random exhibits – a car with a heart shaped spa tub, towing a pyramid filled with elephants.

One of the final portions of the tour takes you through “the music of yesterday”, featuring multiple rooms with music machines. As with most of the machines on the tour, you’ll need one or two tokens to activate the music. Token machines take $1 and $5 bills and are found at random points throughout the tour.

By now, I was mentally exhausted – there is only so much a person can take in on a single tour, and the amount of exhibits really was beginning to become too much. The final exhibit at the House of the Rock, is the largest carousel in the world. And my, what a massive carousel it is. With over 20,000 lights, 269 carousel animals and 182 chandeliers, this thing is so big, that you can’t really grasp its size. One word of warning though – the carousel is for viewing only, kids (or adults) can not ride it.

Despite the cold temperatures outside, the massive amount of lamps on the carousel made this room uncomfortably warm.

As with all other parts of the tour, every single corner of this attraction is decorated with something – the ceiling and walls all display carousel animals and ornaments and in the corner is a working carousel power plant.

Everything about the House on the Rock is impressive – from the sheer number of different collections, to the wacky and confusing design. One thing that I liked was the way the tour is setup – there are no tour guides, and very few signs telling you what you are looking at. The obvious purpose of all the exhibits is to just relax, and enjoy the sights and sounds instead of trying to cram 1
00’s of years of trivia into a few hours.

The tour I took included portions one and two of the exhibit, parts of portion three were closed, and won’t be open till the summer season begins.

The House on the Rock is located in Spring Green, WI. Spring Green is about 40 miles from Madison, WI and about 200 miles from Chicago. The region is also home to the famous “Cave of the mounds” and Frank Lloyd Wrights “Taliesin”.

Admission to the House on the Rock is $28.50, which includes access to all portions of the tour. Unused tour segments are valid for a year. Children under 3 are free. Opening hours are 9am-6pm during the summer season (May 1st – September 6th) and 9am-5pm during the autumn season (September 7th – November 1st).

If you plan to visit the House on the Rock, and need more than a day, you can spend the night at the House on the Rock resort or inn, each located a couple of miles from the attraction.

Ransacked museum reopened in Iraq

by Jamie Rhein on

For anyone who wonders about the importance of the arts and historical places to a culture, head to Warsaw, Poland. Warsaw, after WWII looked a bit like Swiss cheese. An massive effort on the part of the country was made to rebuild or restore some of the important buildings’ as a way to signal that Polish resolve and strength had survived. When I visited there, restoration was still taking place in the historic district.

In Iraq, there is a similar effort going on as shown by the reopening of the National Museum in Bagdad that fell to looting and damage during the American invasion. When an invasion happens, an unprotected museum doesn’t fare well. “Hey, look folks, there’s a whole lot of antiquities and great art for the taking! Yeeehaw!”

Basically, that’s what happened. Priceless artifacts by the thousands were taken on out of there like no body’s business. Some were recovered at the border. Maybe a few folks came to their senses with theft remorse and returned them. At any rate, there is enough in the museum to have it reopen which it recently did, although some say it’s too soon for the items, some dating back 3,000 years, to be seen by the public.

The Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki disagreed with those who said no, are you nuts? He believes that the museum’s reopening, if only for those with special permission to see it–and only on special days is a symbol that “‘We have stopped this black wind, and we have resumed the process of reconstruction.'”

I’m wondering if he has ever been to Warsaw? He could probably relate. The New York Times article gives impressions of those who worked at the museum. They’re with their prime minister. (al-Maliki’s quote is from the article.)

Tuesday Travel Trivia (Week 22)

by Aaron Hotfelder on

Welcome back to Tuesday Travel Trivia, the only weekly quiz whose results are now accepted instead of the SAT and ACT by the admissions departments of most major universities.

Congratulations to last week’s big winner Nate, who got an impressive 9 out of 10 on some very difficult questions. Way to go, Nate– you’re going to college!

Think you can be this week’s champ? Read the following questions and leave your answers-slash-guesses in the comments. Come back next Tuesday to see the answers. No Googling!

  1. Africa’s largest desert, the Sahara, is also the world’s largest hot desert. What desert (also the setting for a track in Mario Kart) is Africa’s second largest?
  2. Think of the name of a travel-related lawbreaker that starts with S. Remove the S and one other letter, and the remaining letters, in order, will name another lawbreaker. What are the two words? (Thanks to Will Shortz for this brain-buster.)
  3. Millions of people have watched the Youtube videos created by “Dancing Matt.” But what is Matt’s last name?
  4. China has two territories that are designated as Special Administrative Regions. One is Macau. The other is one of the most densely populated places in the world. What is it?
  5. What country’s flag, seen above, is the world’s only one that is not either a rectangle or a square?
  6. Identify the famous comedian behind the following bit: “Are there keys to a plane? Maybe that’s what those delays are sometimes, when you’re just sitting there at the gate. Maybe the pilot sits up there in the cockpit going, ‘Oh, I don’t believe this. Dammit…I did it again.'”
  7. The name of what ten-letter African country contains four separate (not overlapping, not anagrammed) English words in it?
  8. What 1991 road-trip film ends with the two main characters driving off a cliff?
  9. What delicious Middle Eastern dip is made primarily of mashed chickpeas?
  10. What two large bodies of water does the Cape of Good Hope divide?

Check out last week‘s questions and answers below the fold…

  1. What large midwestern city in the United States dyes its river green every year for St. Patrick’s Day? Answer: Chicago
  2. What Joni Mitchell song named for a US state opens with the lyrics, “Sittin’ in a park in Paris, France / Readin’ the news and it sure looks bad / They won’t give peace a chance / That was just a dream some of us had”? Answer: “California” (a damn good song)
  3. The city of Podgorica is the capital of one of the world’s newest countries. Which country is it? Answer: Montenegro
  4. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently presented a button to Russia’s foreign minister which Clinton thought said “reset” in Russian. What was the actual translation? Answer: Overcharge
  5. Portions of The Da Vinci Code are set in what popular European art museum? Answer: The Louvre
  6. What is the only country in Africa which does not belong to the African Union? (Hint: It is a member of the Arab League.) Answer: Morocco
  7. You’d like to travel overland directly from Thailand to India, but alas, you cannot. What country stands in your way? Answer: Burma (Myanmar)
  8. What seven-letter name is given to the mini-laptops that many travelers bring with them on trips? Answer: Netbook
  9. What outdoor outfitter was named after the side of mountains in the northern hemisphere that is usually the most difficult to climb? Answer: The North Face
  10. The most recent season of Survivor, which premiered on February 12, was filmed in the state of Tocantins in what South American country? Answer: Brazil