2013 Road Trip Photos #4: Travel Bits from Day One

August 1, 2013 By Randall A. Golden in Travel Tags: animals, groundhogs, Pennsylvania, photography, photos, rabbits, road trip, tourism, travel, vacation Leave a comment

The bulk of Day One was a repeat of our Days One from several previous vacations: barreling through the vast expanse of Ohio with minimal stops so we can reach the states beyond. The only Ohio stop that left an impression was lunch in Dublin at a chain called Jason’s Deli (which we don’t have back home). I liked their heated lunchmeat fare more than my family did, but their mostly teenage staff weren’t quite focused on service. When we needed a box for leftovers, I stood at the counter for a few minutes watching half a dozen employees crowded behind the same counter all chatting, teasing each other, fiddling with supplies, or otherwise too preoccupied to afford me the courtesy of a simple “May I help you?” till I lurched closer to the counter and raised my voice. We’ll be skipping Jason’s on future road trips, then.

Unlike that motley crew, Pennsylvania certainly seemed happy to welcome us, once we were free of Ohio’s clutches.

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Chicago Photo Tribute #8: Little Details off Michigan Avenue

July 28, 2013 By Randall A. Golden in Travel Tags: architecture, Chicago, Historic Water Tower, Magnificent Mile, Michigan Avenue, photography, photos, statues, tourism, travel, Tribune Tower 2 Comments

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover, as begun last April:

[This coming] weekend is the fourth annual Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo (that “C2E2″ thing I won’t shut up about) at Chicago’s McCormick Place convention center, which my wife and I will be attending for our third time. As a tribute to this fascinating city, and an intro to C2E2 newcomers to provide ideas of what else Chicago has to offer while they’re in town, a few of this week’s posts will be dedicated to out experiences in the Windy City when we’re not gleefully clustered indoors with thousands of other comics and sci-fi fans.

As luck would have it, my wife and I will be heading northwest once again in two weeks for this year’s Wizard World Chicago. What began last spring as a short-term miniseries, and then became slightly irrelevant as the event passed, is suddenly relevant once more. Call it the circle of geek-convention life.

With some of our past Chicago experiences, we’ve taken a time-out away from the cons for local sightseeing as a husband/wife quality-time thing. Today’s feature presentation is that shiny attractor of affluent tourists, the Magnificent Mile, the long line of upscale clothing stores and skyscraper-shaped malls dotting both sides of Michigan Avenue northward from Wacker Avenue.

We’ve strolled the Mile a couple of times, but we never buy anything. Any MCC readers with impeccable fashion tastes have surely discerned from our past photos that our clothing budget is far more modest than our convention budget. We have our priorities.

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2013 Road Trip Photos #3: Punxsutawney, Part 2 of 2: All the Groundhogs of the Rainbow

July 26, 2013 By Randall A. Golden in Travel Tags: groundhogs, photography, photos, Punxsutawney, Punxsutawney Phil, road trip, statues, tourism, travel, vacation Leave a comment

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

Before we settled in at our hotel, we detoured for one exploratory stop in the famous li’l town of Punxsutawney, annual Party Central for the American celebration known as Groundhog Day. The town’s most famous resident is Punxsutawney Phil, the groundhog who supposedly determines America’s winter destiny by crawling out of a hole and letting the sight of his shadow, or lack thereof, foretell whether or not winter would end on schedule. The town is littered with artistic tributes to Mr. Phil himself. Walk twenty feet with your eyes closed and you’re liable to trip over one of Phil’s many simulacra.

I wasn’t kidding by much. In addition to the individual works, Punxsutawney also sports a collection called “Phantastic Phils” — over thirty different fiberglass groundhogs scattered all over town. Each Phil is between four and five feet tall, has its own title, and is painted by different local artists in assorted fashions or practical occupations. My wife captured a fraction of them on camera, as a sort of self-appointed scavenger hunt with a time limit.

Most indulgent on Phil’s part: “The Wizard of Weather”. In this scenario, Phil clearly dreams of controlling the weather so that his forecasts would never, ever be wrong again, even if he had to alter reality and fix the weather to match his predictions. This is a glimpse into our new way of life if Phil ever turned to the dark side.

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2013 Road Trip Photos #2: Punxsutawney, Part 1 of 2: All Hail Phil

July 23, 2013 By Randall A. Golden in Travel Tags: Groundhog Day, groundhogs, holidays, Pennsylvania, photography, photos, Punxsutawney, Punxsutawney Phil, road trip, sculpture, statues, tourism, travel, vacation Leave a comment

The first half of Day One was spent rocketing across the wide expansive of big fat Ohio as quickly as possible so we could spend the evening in Pennsylvania. Before we settled in at our hotel, we detoured for one exploratory stop in the famous li’l town of Punxsutawney, annual Party Central for the American celebration known as Groundhog Day.

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2013 Road Trip Photos #1: the First of Two Springfields

July 20, 2013 By Randall A. Golden in Travel Tags: Madonna of the Trail, movie theaters, Ohio, photography, photos, road trip, Springfield, statues, tourism, travel, vacaction 3 Comments

Each year our family embarks on an American road trip in a different direction. My wife and I snap photos of all things pretty and peculiar. I create a travelogue partly for fun and partly for my own future reference when my memory fails in my twilight years. Someone needs to remind future-me of the good ol’ days. It might as well be present-me.

This year’s journey was a nine-day trip from Indianapolis to Boston and back again, with a few stops in each direction. Regular MCC followers were previously privy to photo-a-day highlights while we were on the road. In a series of non-consecutive entries, I’ll be sharing a plethora of photos from each of our major stopovers in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Ohio, and upstate New York. Our experience wasn’t always sweetness and smiles, but we did our best to capture the sights and souls of our immediate surroundings.

The links to the full series, including the nine on-the-go entries, will be collected on a new main page shortly, same as was done for our 2012 road trip. Anyone who missed a chapter, joins in progress, or Googles their way here a year from now will be more than welcome to hop aboard. As always, comments and suggestions are welcome.

[SPECIAL NOTE: The following entry was lightly remastered September 4, 2023, at the request of sculptor Mike Majors, whose works featured prominently in our visit to Springfield, OH.]

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2013 Road Trip Notes, Day 9: Back to Our Cells

July 15, 2013 By Randall A. Golden in Travel Tags: Mansfield, Ohio State Reformatory, photos, prisons, road trip, ruins, tourism, travel, vacation Leave a comment

The last day of vacation is always the worst. Our trips are spent living several days outside the confines of the everyday rat race, determining our own itinerary, making up our meal schedule as we go, enjoying the activities of our choosing in faraway places where our normal responsibilities can’t follow us. Inevitably the time arrives for transitioning from the freedom of the open road to the confines of our ordinary lives and the cubicle jobs that fund these expeditions.

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2013 Road Trip Notes, Day 8: Pink Nightmare Family

July 13, 2013 By Randall A. Golden in Travel Tags: A Christmas Story, Cleveland, museums, photos, pink bunny suit, pink nightmare, road trip, tourism, travel, vacation 2 Comments

This merchandise display is the perfect illustration for my new sitcom idea, Pink Nightmare Family. Two sons and two daughters are forced to fend for themselves after they’re abandoned by their intolerant parents, who don’t understand why their kids insist on living every moment of their lives inside four matching pink bunny suits. They never notice the strange stares from everyone around them. To pay the bills, they open a novelty lamp shop. They never take the suits off, but they never smell disgusting because of TV magic. All the plots will be recycled from every other sitcom ever, but with bunny suits, which will hopefully become the Next Big Thing. I, for one, think the world is ready for a cross between Party of Five and Full House, plus bunny suits, minus Dave Coulier’s Bullwinkle impressions.

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2013 Road Trip Notes, Day 7: Signs of Life Before the Internet

July 12, 2013 By Randall A. Golden in Travel Tags: Binghamton, Marconi, photos, radio tower, road trip, tourism, travel, vacation 2 Comments

Some roadside attractions don’t look like attractions unless you arrive properly informed and prepared to conduct an exhaustive, block-by-block search for the attraction in question, sometimes navigating around unexpected special events, poor road signage, streets that change name every 2-3 blocks, unwelcome construction zones, major Mapquest malfunctions, or our own distracting misconceptions. The way of the road-trip warrior can be a daily obstacle course whose reward is valuable only if you think it’s valuable.

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2013 Road Trip Notes, Day 6: Though the Hakken-Kraks Howl

July 11, 2013 By Randall A. Golden in Travel Tags: Dr Seuss, Dr Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden, Massachusetts, photos, road trip, sculpture, Springfield, statues, tourism, travel, vacation Leave a comment

On Day One of our vacation we stopped briefly to view statues in Springfield, Ohio. Today we stopped to view statues in Springfield, Massachusetts. Together they make interesting bookends, particularly since one of today’s attractions was a sculpture of a book.

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Chicago Photo Tribute #7: Art of the Navy Pier

July 4, 2013 By Randall A. Golden in Travel Tags: art, Chicago, Great Lakes, Lake Michigan, museums, Navy Pier, photography, photos, sculpture, statues, tourism, travel Leave a comment

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

[This coming] weekend is the fourth annual Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo (that “C2E2″ thing I won’t shut up about) at Chicago’s McCormick Place convention center, which my wife and I will be attending for our third time. As a tribute to this fascinating city, and an intro to C2E2 newcomers to provide ideas of what else Chicago has to offer while they’re in town, a few of this week’s posts will be dedicated to out experiences in the Windy City when we’re not gleefully clustered indoors with thousands of other comics and sci-fi fans.

Next on deck: our stroll through Chicago’s Navy Pier. What sounds like an off-limits military installation is in reality a stretch of public entertainment options that extends into Lake Michigan. Docked beside it are a handful of select cruise ships that offer sightseeing or party services for the right price. Budget-minded tourists like us are free to take photos and imagine the fun.

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Chicago Photo Tribute #6: Art from a Present Century for a Change

June 28, 2013 By Randall A. Golden in Travel Tags: art, Chicago, martin creed, Museum of Contemporary Art, museums, photography, photos, tourism, travel 5 Comments

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

[This coming] weekend is the fourth annual Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo (that “C2E2″ thing I won’t shut up about) at Chicago’s McCormick Place convention center, which my wife and I will be attending for our third time. As a tribute to this fascinating city, and an intro to C2E2 newcomers to provide ideas of what else Chicago has to offer while they’re in town, a few of this week’s posts will be dedicated to out experiences in the Windy City when we’re not gleefully clustered indoors with thousands of other comics and sci-fi fans.

Today’s feature presentation: our visit to Chicago’s own Contemporary Museum of Art, a refreshing, sometimes challenging change of pace from other, more congenial museums. Missing are the ancient masters, the rock stars of previous centuries, the aging artifacts from long-ago-and-far-away B.C., and those nice Presidential portrait painters who weren’t paid the big bucks to confront your assumptions or distort your horizons.

Well before you reach the entrance, the MCA draws your attention with looming, whirling significance.

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My Daily View of Downtown Indy if I Stop, Breathe, and Look Around

June 22, 2013 By Randall A. Golden in Indiana Tags: Capitol Dome, downtown, Indiana, Indiana Statehouse, Indianapolis, musings, postaday, Soldiers and Sailors Monument, tourism, travel, Weekly Photo Challenge 6 Comments

Despite any work-related stress or discontent I might experience on any or every given weekday, I admit the perks package is above and beyond what friends tell me their employers begrudgingly eke out. One of the less financially grounded, technically more tangible perks: if I can tear myself away from my monitors for a moment, I have ceiling-to-shin-level window seating with a view of two of downtown Indianapolis’ most prominent landmarks.

To one side: the Indiana Statehouse and our official Capitol Dome.

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Chicago Photo Tribute #5: the Museum of Broadcast Communication

June 22, 2013 By Randall A. Golden in Travel Tags: Chicago, entertainment, Museum of Broadcast Communication, photography, photos, television, television history, tourism, travel 1 Comment

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover nearly two months ago:

[This coming] weekend is the fourth annual Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo (that “C2E2″ thing I won’t shut up about) at Chicago’s McCormick Place convention center, which my wife and I will be attending for our third time. As a tribute to this fascinating city, and an intro to C2E2 newcomers to provide ideas of what else Chicago has to offer while they’re in town, a few of this week’s posts will be dedicated to out experiences in the Windy City when we’re not gleefully clustered indoors with thousands of other comics and sci-fi fans.

…To be continued! Eventually. We’re out of time before C2E2 kicks off tomorrow, but I have a few more Chicago galleries in store, once my annual C2E2 mania subsides.

Now that C2E2 2013 is essentially over (except for one final entry I keep procrastinating), I’m resuming the Chicago Photo Tribute miniseries mostly so I can finish what I started, and partly to get back into the swing of MCC’s travel-minded side in honor of our upcoming 2013 road trip.

During one of our previous Chicago visits, my wife and I took a quick tour of the Museum of Broadcast Communication, currently housed in the first three floors of a former parking garage, with additional floors available for future expansion. The MBC is dedicated to the preservation and presentation of things related to TV and radio, initially on a modest budget by all appearances, but not without a few charming pieces if your expectations are modest and you’re truly interested in specific bits of entertainment history.

Our first sigh upon entering: original doors from the set of The Oprah Winfrey Show, the talk show hosted for twenty-five years by one of Chicago’s most famous living personalities.

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A Maudlin Moment about Moribund Marquees and Missing Metropolis

June 4, 2013 By Randall A. Golden in Travel Tags: Anderson, marquees, Massac Theatre, Metropolis, movie theaters, musings, photography, photos, postaday, signs, tourism, travel, Vandalia, Weekly Photo Challenge 1 Comment

Every empty marquee tells a story:

Once upon a time, there was a community gathering place where citizens and neighbors shared adventure, laughter, heartbreak, tension, jingoism, victory, sorrow, dreams, and amazement in a cozy, rarefied atmosphere bereft of stereo sound, digital imagery, comfortable upholstery, or ads teaching you baseline smartphone manners. Many a childhood memory was born there, many a relationship begun there, many a care in the world set aside for two hours inside a temporary escape hatch offering inspiration or respite.

Something something something, and then it closed forever and now it’s an eyesore, and did you hear about the acrimonious lawsuits raging behind closed doors as we speak, but hey, at least we have a Redbox kiosk on every other corner. And they all lived in isolation ever after.

The name of the town changes like a Mad Libs answer. Sometimes the part about the lawsuits is redacted because no one cares enough to sue anyone else over its demise. But the rest of the story is frequently the same.

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Indianapolis Comic Con 2014: Hoax, Dream, or Imaginary Story?

June 1, 2013 By Randall A. Golden in Comics/Lit, Conventions & Events, Indiana Tags: Action3, comic book conventions, comic books, conventions, entertainment, Indiana Comic Con, indiana convention center, Indianapolis, Indianapolis Comic-Con, lists, tourism 5 Comments

Ghost Rider, C2E2 2011

Comics! Anime! Video Games! T-shirt vendors! Whovians! Uglydoll! This never-before-shared file photo from C2E2 2011 has it all! (Unlike Indianapolis. For now.)

The Indianapolis Comic Con. Comic Con: Indianapolis. The Indianapolis Comics Expo. ICE2. Wizard World Indianapolis.

Several theoretical names have floated fancily through my head over the decades, ever since the erstwhile Comics Buyer’s Guide taught me about the magical world of comic book conventions when I subscribed to them in 1986. I’ve always wondered if Indianapolis would ever be respectable enough to merit a large-scale comic-con of its own. We had little comic book shows on the east side a few time a year that occasionally drew one or two special guests. Circa 1989 or 1990 someone threw a shindig in Indy called HoosierCon 1, but I had to work the entire weekend and missed it. I never heard a peep about it after the fact, sequels never manifested, and Google tells me no one in world history has ever rhapsodized about it online. I presume plans went awry.

This week the Indianapolis Star reported that someone out there wants to make my pipe dream a reality. A young Florida-based company called Action3 Events and Promotions has scheduled a comics convention for March 14-16, 2014, in our very own Indiana Convention Center. It’s as yet unnamed and not yet listed on their official site, but official enough that they’re proclaiming its proposed existence in public interviews. That much alone is a positive sign.

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Indy 500 Festival Parade 2013 Photos, Part 5 of 5: Balloons and Floats for the Win

May 27, 2013 By Randall A. Golden in Conventions & Events Tags: balloons, entertainment, floats, Indiana, Indianapolis, Indianapolis 500, Indy 500 Festival Parade, parades, photography, photos, Sesame Street, tourism, Turbo 1 Comment

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

The next five entries (to be posted over Memorial Day Weekend as quickly as time and endurance permit) represent a fraction of the pics my wife and I snapped. In many cases, encores and additional takes of specific subjects may be available if anyone out there is interested in seeing more, or is looking for a loved one who was in one of the many marching bands that day. For first-time MCC visitors, please note my wife and I are relative amateurs, obviously not trained professional photographers, sharing these from a hobbyist standpoint because of fun Internet joyfulness.

The grand finale: giant inflatables and dioramas! First in line is my personal favorite of the bunch — Super Grover!

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Indy 500 Festival Parade 2013 Photos, Part 4 of 5: a Salute to the Marching Bands

May 26, 2013 By Randall A. Golden in Conventions & Events Tags: Ben Davis High School, entertainment, Indiana, Indianapolis, Indianapolis 500, Indy 500 Festival Parade, marching bands, parades, photography, photos, Purdue, tourism 5 Comments

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

The next five entries (to be posted over Memorial Day Weekend as quickly as time and endurance permit) represent a fraction of the pics my wife and I snapped. In many cases, encores and additional takes of specific subjects may be available if anyone out there is interested in seeing more, or is looking for a loved one who was in one of the many marching bands that day. For first-time MCC visitors, please note my wife and I are relative amateurs, obviously not trained professional photographers, sharing these from a hobbyist standpoint because of fun Internet joyfulness.

No parade is complete without marching bands. It’s right there in the parade regulation handbook: you must invite at least three different marching bands or else your parade will be subject to ridicule and foodstuffs hurled at you overhand.

If anyone out there in Internetland is interested in seeing additional photos of any of these bands, we took extras of a few of them. Just say the word and MCC will be happy to oblige with additional uploading and sharing and such. It’s all part of the service.

First in line: the Purdue University All-American Marching Band. Look closely for impressive baton-tossing action.

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Indy 500 Festival Parade 2013 Photos, Part 3 of 5: Star Wars! and Other Fashion Choices

May 26, 2013 By Randall A. Golden in Conventions & Events Tags: 501st Legion, cosplay, costumes, entertainment, Indiana, Indianapolis, Indianapolis 500, Indy 500 Festival Parade, OneAmerica Walking Flag, parades, photography, photos, Star Wars, tourism 3 Comments

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

The next five entries (to be posted over Memorial Day Weekend as quickly as time and endurance permit) represent a fraction of the pics my wife and I snapped. In many cases, encores and additional takes of specific subjects may be available if anyone out there is interested in seeing more, or is looking for a loved one who was in one of the many marching bands that day. For first-time MCC visitors, please note my wife and I are relative amateurs, obviously not trained professional photographers, sharing these from a hobbyist standpoint because of fun Internet joyfulness.

In this installment, we feature a selection of special-interest groups who marched through downtown Indianapolis on May 25, 2013, in the name of their respective organizations for the sake of parade-based goodness.

When Han Solo and Princess Leia Organa rolled by on a float of their own, longtime readers can imagine this writer’s response. At last, a parade attraction that really speaks to me!

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Indy 500 Festival Parade 2013 Photos, Part 2 of 5: Some of Your Qualifying Drivers

May 26, 2013 By Randall A. Golden in Conventions & Events Tags: auto racing, drivers, entertainment, Helio Castroneves, Indiana, Indianapolis, Indianapolis 500, Indy 500 Festival Parade, parades, photography, photos, tourism 5 Comments

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

The next five entries (to be posted over Memorial Day Weekend as quickly as time and endurance permit) represent a fraction of the pics my wife and I snapped. In many cases, encores and additional takes of specific subjects may be available if anyone out there is interested in seeing more, or is looking for a loved one who was in one of the many marching bands that day. For first-time MCC visitors, please note my wife and I are relative amateurs, obviously not trained professional photographers, sharing these from a hobbyist standpoint because of fun Internet joyfulness.

Per parade tradition, the thirty-three drivers who qualified to race in that year’s Indy 500 also participate in the 500 Festival Parade. One driver, Charlie Kimball, bowed out due to illness. We captured over one-third of the other thirty-two.

Last year’s winner, Dario Franchitti, starts this year in the middle of Row 6.

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Indy 500 Festival Parade 2013 Photos, Part 1 of 5: the Special Guests

May 25, 2013 By Randall A. Golden in Conventions & Events Tags: celebrities, David Soren, entertainment, Indiana, Indianapolis, Indianapolis 500, indianapolis colts, Indy 500 Festival Parade, Michael Pena, parades, photography, photos, tourism, Turbo Leave a comment

This year marked the third time my wife and I attended the 500 Festival Parade in downtown Indianapolis. It’s become an annual date tradition for us — partly to see the floats and bands, partly for the famous names, and partly because downtown Indianapolis is a much livelier place when it’s overrun by happy visitors. (Our 2012 photo collection is still available in the MCC archives for value-added flashback viewing.)

Unlike last year’s sunny weather and soaring temperatures that posed a physical challenge to some patrons, this year was cloudy with temps in the low 60s — cool, relaxing, and painless, just the way we like it. I was surprised to see only two food trucks downtown this time (kudos to the NY Slice and the Edwards Drive-In Dashboard Diner for their support), but elated to see a steady turnout of parade watchers nonetheless.

The next five entries (to be posted over Memorial Day Weekend as quickly as time and endurance permit) represent a fraction of the pics my wife and I snapped. In many cases, encores and additional takes of specific subjects may be available if anyone out there is interested in seeing more, or is looking for a loved one who was in one of the many marching bands that day. For first-time MCC visitors, please note my wife and I are relative amateurs, obviously not trained professional photographers, sharing these from a hobbyist standpoint because of fun Internet joyfulness.

We launch with a few of the famous faces who came to town for this special occasion, and not just the Indianapolis 500, the self-billed Greatest Spectacle in Racing. First in line: actor Michael Pena, who I thought rocked in Crash and World Trade Center. He was in last year’s End of Watch and will be heard in DreamWorks’ upcoming animated film Turbo.

Driving the pace car this year at the 97th Indy 500 will be Jim Harbaugh, former Indianapolis Colts quarterback and now head coach for the San Francisco 49ers.

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