scenes from the Riverdale, Hampton VA

Hardly the better or the best pictures of what used to be known as the Riverdale movie theater.



Just maybe some of the more recent pics, taken this past mid-May.












I neglected to get this sculpture into the overall shot (as it is in the image found on CinemaTour).



Like the time capsule at the old Newmarket, this sculpture is one of few connections to this theater as it was years before. Back when I saw Escape from the Planet of the Apes here (the first of the series I'd managed to see). Or saw long lines outside waiting for Jaws.

time capsule at Newmarket Theatre

Waiting for the movie to begin, my mind would boggle over the dates on this plaque. Especially that second one: Sept. 13, 2015.




Go up those steps in the picture above and somewhere just to the left or the right you'd find that plaque. But no movie to wait for.



Heck, these pictures were taken in 2000 and it was a very closed theatre then.




The newer Cinema 3 & 4, last I saw (sometime after these photos were taken), had become a church. Hardly the first time I've seen that happen.

While I sit and think of every science fiction movie I ever watched and await the arrival of the now retired WB froggy singing "hello my Ragtime gal" along with transistor radios and whatever other mid-60s ephemera the now very retired Newmarket Theatre shoved down into the concrete under that plaque, I strain just as hard as I did decades ago to see the shiny vision of a year 2015. Maybe not the real year just seven and a half years away. But the one seen so long ago in 1965, when movie theatres came in multiples of one and 50 years of relevance was not so much to hope for.

Meantime, a shout out to Anita whose Sickmalls blog entry on the Riverdale movie theatre got me to finally scan these pics. And to my friend Derm, the man with the Time Capsule plan.

And I've added the Newmarket Cinemas (its last incarnation) to the Cinema Treasures website so I can see what someone else has to say.

Lifted

Another new homebrew music videos of one of my old tunes.

Unlike "Egypt Lane", which was inspired by a specific place, "Lifted" is a more abstract piece (tho' with some old live video thrown in).

pictures of Stuckey's

It was late September 1999. My usual route south to my mom's was washed out courtesy Hurricane Floyd. So I took I-64 east toward Williamsburg VA to a back route I knew to the Jamestown Ferry.

Along the way, there was a Stuckey's.

Angels sang. Pralines were purchased. That's more or less how it was in those days . . .



No interior pics, but I seem to recall wood beam rafters and wood paneling. (Might've been praline-induced reveries . . .)

I've just sent these pics along to Stuck on Stuckey's, a cornucopia of info on the once great roadside chain.

[UPDATE Nov. 2008: SOS has since gone offline. But like many other old sites, it has an archived version now available on the Wayback Machine. The dead link's been fixed.]

Haven't been back since--no idea if the building stands now or what. I only know it's not listed at the Stuckey's official site.

Aunt Mimi on the road

And in the front yard.

A homespun video I shot this afternoon of Steve Malatesta (right) & Derm Whittaker (left). Together they're called Aunt Mimi and they're caught in medias res singing the Buck Owens tune "I Don't Care".

gathering light

Long exposure photos of the trumpet player at the Maria McNeil Group show last night.



Why just the trumpet player/trumpet? Two words, in mock caveman tones: trumpet shiny . . .

(And let me add, in Stone Age syntax: trumpet player good, band good . . . )



Shiny indeed--lit up like Xmas.







Pics of the whole band on unterkayness.

termite control

A favorite bit of neon from the MA Route 9 strip.

Hard not to imagine banks of equipment and serious folk in lab coats exerting their radio command over vast termite populations.

Or maybe it's the termites at the helm? (Watch out Georgia-Pacific . . .)

If that's so, like Kent Brockman, I welcome our new (?) insect overlords.

If not, please await further instructions from CONELRAD.

turkey hen & chicks

Prevailing with the woodchucks is this hen with her three chicks.

Not the clearest pictures, but below you might pick out the third chick on the far side of the hen.


And here the hen spreads her wings.

rolling in clover

Neighbor Dave in the midst of his mowing the field next door left a patch of clover standing. Closeups below:






and pushing up daisies--here are some of the daisies Dave left up:





And folks here are all in favor of the dandelion:

Eyeballs & Eels

Video of parlor rockers The Loved Ones live at the Middle East upstairs, Cambridge MA, 6 May 1993. Part of a telecast hosted by the Wrong Hero.

Performing here without a safety net (or PA):

Dale Kutyna--singing & strumming

Greg Binns--snare & ride

yrs truly--eelectric guitar

More Loved Ones here and here and here and here. And here.

On YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_65wbxxzyg

Originally posted on unterkayness.

Egypt Lane, alt version

Yes, another version of my homebrew music video.

What's different?

Changes made in the video in verse three ("Sun's shining down on the bay . . ."). A shot inserted to break up the long shot there.

Originally posted on unterkayness.

On YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcp0PKdCufE

Chucky prevails

Our resident woodchuck, Chucky, had a bit of a close call couple days ago with a coyote. My wife noticed the coyote stalking Chucky, and not pausing for a photo opp. (i.e. no pics of said coyote), we chased him off.

Later that day, I noticed Chucky was walking the stone retaining wall out back as if to the strains of Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" or the theme from Exodus.

The next day, yesterday, I saw that Chucky had bigger reasons to celebrate, two little Chuckies. One is scampering with the elder chuck in the silent video above. You'll find some glimpse of both of them in the photo below:



UPDATE: There are indeed not two but four little Chuckies. Video below of the foursome and the elder hanging out:

Figaro, regal cat with the common touch

As my brother put it: Figaro, beloved friend and Maine Coon cat, died.

Figgy, Big Fig--he went by many names--shared a house with my niece, my sister-in-law & my brother. Fig was 18 years old. A lordly but sweet fellow who'll be missed by many.





[Originally posted on unterkayness.]

recent view of Egypt Lane

The footage of Egypt Lane seen in my homebrew music video is Super-8 film shot about 10 years ago. The video above I shot yesterday.

The demolition of the Atlas Tack factory, the excavated soil and such are all part of an ongoing Superfund cleanup. While things may not look the same as 10 years ago, hopefully the project will make this a cleaner and healthier environment.

Franz Kline cornstalks & other flora

Franz Kline who? More images from VA visit back in May.


Kinda Kline-ish below . . .


Other flora . . .

Egypt Lane

A venerable song of mine plus also venerable Super-8 footage (casually transferred to video) equals the very homebrew video above.

Includes stop-action animation, time-lapse photography, treated film and such, in color and black & white. Most of the live footage was shot at Eqypt Lane (the song's namesake), a small street in Fairhaven, Massachusetts that leads to Buzzards Bay.

While this video is very much my own mess, I have to tip my hat in appreciation toward the acid movie of my friend Steev (& his compadres in the Mental Hygiene League), the Super-8 films of Kaye Lazar, the Brothers Cobb, the work of Fiat Lux, and the likes of Chris Marker, Stan Brakhage and Andrei Tarkovsky. Numerous others would get the nod, including my wife (who was nice enough to share her painting studio), her grandfather (an 8mm and Super-8 enthusiast in his day) and my camera-wielding brother, Roy.

Also Mark and Clay and Mary, wherever you all are, and Jim Taylor and . . . [being dragged from the podium now]

POSTSCRIPT: The footage of Egypt Lane was shot circa 1997. So anyone from the area could tell you that the Atlas Tack factory with the tall smokestack has since been razed. The stack & most of the building is gone and a bike path now runs by the old lot, across Egypt Lane and eastward to the edge of town. Here's a recent view on video.

On YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnXMKbSTaL0

outstanding in their fields

Moving to the audio portion of our program, here's a snippet of a recording I made of some birds and one somewhat faraway cow.



A couple of days later, in the evening after a drenching downpour flooded my mom's backyard & the surrounding fields, many frogs near & far were serenading anyone who'd listen. In this next recording, there were also fireworks booming from towards the James River (maybe part of the Jamestown 400th Anniversary celebration?) some 10 or 15 miles away. Later on, dogs joins the choir.



Meanwhile, field recordists are picking up cool sounds from all over. Like Quiet American's collection of short soundscapes called one minute vacation.

scenes from VA Rt. 10

Last time I probably saw this old ambulance was when it was still fairly new, being driven in a local parade.



From what little I can tell, it's now up for auction. Sealed bids.



It's a cool old vehicle. Hope it finds a good home and the Surry Volunteer Rescue Squad gets a good bid for it.



Further along Rt. 10 towards Richmond, there's a venerable gas station sign.


Not pictured is the red Union '76 sign on the flip side. (The very cool gassigns.org has a page of these.)

faraway cows

Okay, sure--these cows do seem kinda close.

But I was alluding to a song my friend Dale Kutyna wrote some years back. It's a slow gliding kind of thing entitled, well, "Faraway Cows". Pretty & mysterious in a majestic way, like these cows.