Hip Young Things

While I’m staying at one of the New York Casino hotels during the summer, which can be a pretty unpleasant place to be. The humidity alone is unbearable, my hair will look atrocious, but I’ll be checking out the abundance of free outdoor concerts. I’ve located two that seem promising. The River to River Festival and the Central Park Summer stage.

I found River to River Festival on the Internet. It takes place each summer from June through August, at many different public venues which covers all of Downtown New York. Like from the southern most tip of Manhattan up to Chambers Street and across the island from river to river. There will be world class performing arts festivals with a broad sweep of programming and it’s all free. The reason for the events being free is to enhance the vitality of cultural life in Lower Manhattan, which in turn will support its economic and social health to generate new audiences for the arts. The River to River Festival intends to remove barriers to the experience of live arts with the use of free admissions and being at the most popular, most outdoor public venues which they hope will attract a diverse audience. The Festival was founded after September 11, 2001 for the revitalization of Lower Manhattan.

The Central Park Summer Stage, from what I’ve read in the papers, is the most famous of the summer venue. It has been going on for 20 years and this summer arts festival will be showcasing a wide variety of live performances, from dance shows to plays and concerts. There will be a fantastic musical act performing for free outside in the park. This makes me wonder why would anyone go inside a stuffy club when there’s free outdoor music?  This year’s festival will kick-off with TV on the Radio. Then, Dirty Projectors. Sounds, like my miserable summer in New York will be the best ‘free’ time I’ll ever have.

South Yorkshire is region in England that was primarily established through its mining and steel industries. The area, however, has been inhabited since prehistoric times and many artifacts from the Paleolithic era as well as Mesolithic era have been found. Some of these include the cave art in the Creswell Crags and the Mesolithic House located in Deepcar. Tourists who visit the region and stay in a a South Yorkshire hotel are often interested in these ancient remains.

The Creswell Crags contain several caves that were inhabited during the last ice age. The art found in these caves is an incredible display of history and early populations of humans. They date from forty three thousand to ten thousand years ago, a length of time that is nearly impossible to imagine for most people familiar with history extending only two thousand years ago. These caves were generally inhabited on a seasonal basis by various nomadic groups. They also represent an occupational status that continues through to the bronze and iron ages.

The Mesolithic House is a collection of remains that includes a circle of stones that form a round hut structure. This dates to approximately 8,000 BC. The Mesolithic period is commonly considered to be the middle stone age. It occurred between the Paleolithic and Neolithic ages, which represent the old stone age and new stone age respectively. It began during a period of global warming, not as it is known today, but rather a relief from an earlier ice age. The period ends with the introduction of farming and agriculture in humans. There is potter and tools that date from this period, and cultures and populations of humans are generally categorized by the type of pottery they created. These ancient remains are only some of the historic features of this area, and many more landmarks and attractions are found throughout this naturally beautiful setting.

The US open tennis tournament has been focusing on its green initiatives to help educate people and make the tournament as eco-friendly as possible. The first thing that the tournament did was to hire on of the top environmental consultants and started to figure out how they could make the tournament more eco-friendly and how it could be done. The first thing that was done was to partner with the Evian water company and create ways to recycle for people who are attending the event. That way every time that someone buys and drinks a water bottle at the event they have the option to recycle it. The program had a goal of recycling about 500,000 plastic bottles and 20,000 aluminum cans at the tennis event.  The water company made sure to put about 80 receptacles around the event so that the recycling effort and goals could be met easily.

Something fun that is done in the effort to recycle is that the tennis balls that will be used at the event will then be recycled and donated to youth tennis programs around the country. So kids could be using a little piece of tennis history as their serving ball. They thing about 20,000 balls will meet this fate after the tournament takes place. That is just too cool!

Hybrid vehicles are being utilized at the event as well. 20 percent of the tournament vehicles will be hybrid. This will help cut down on the amount of emissions and help with the green goals for the tournament.

Last year, Heidi Klum and Billie Jean King helped to design t-shirts, hats and other tournament souvenirs for the event that were made out of organic materials like cotton. The hats that were made for the tournament are made of about 50 percent post consumer waste, and could contain the plastic of a two liter bottle!

Bill Fontana will present his performance art piece throughout the summer at the Baltic Center of Contemporary Arts.  The show will run from July 18, 2009 through October 31, 2009.  His show is titled “Tyne Surroundings” and will be performed each time in the Baltic’s public staircase, a six flight set of metal stair casing that is a sculptural work of art in its own right.  The is a multi-media, multi-sound installation, with acomposition of live noises that will be projected from some of the landmarks along the Tyne River, including the Tyne and Millennium Bridges, the Sage Gateshead, and the Souter Lighthouse, combined with pre-recorded sounds and music.  Many will be traveling and staying in the hotels Northumberland county supports this summer in order to experience these once in a lifetime opportunities of art and sound.

The projections are made possible by transmissions from a radio, and by a set of cables, fiber optic…that will transmit live the amibiant sounds from each of the landmarks in the staircase of the Baltic.  The staircase will become an acoustic space of monumental size.  The composition of the music each performance will change, as the ambient sounds will be ever changing, incorporating into the composition , even the sounds produced by those attending the shows, and their footsteps as the ascend and descend the metal stairs.  This is the way in which BillFontana has been creating for more than thirty years.

His goal is to transform the architectural structures with an emotional infusion of real life, creating an emotion that was not present in the structures before.  He has previously worked in such structures as the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, USA, the clock towers in Big Ben, London, England, and in the Japanese Buddhist temples in the bell towers.  His work for the Baltic will include the ambient noises of the River Tyne that have not been recorded or amplified previously.  Such as the echos made by the arch over the Millennium Bridge, as well as the sounds created as the Bridge is opened and closed.  These sound combined with the sounds of the public brings an immediacy and a real life aspect to the experimental works of Bill Fontana.

Lounge on the Farm was the best music festival ever. It took ‘extravaganza’ to the next level. It was set in the idyllic surroundings of Merton Farm in Canterbury and hosted over 160 bands spread across 6 stages. The bands were local hero’s to cutting edge, up and coming renowned heavy hitters. But, I wasn’t a concert goer, I got to be a part of the staff. That’s the only way I could afford the Festival and the Canterbury Hotel.  I could’ve camped, but after what I witnessed, I’m glad I didn’t.

Both Friday and Saturday, several attendees of the Festival were unfortunate subjects of tent theft. There were also some intimidation’s going on too. We identified the perpetrators; they all had valid wristbands for the festival, which meant they bought tickets online or at outlets. But, these particular people were ejected by us through the course of Friday and Saturday. Not sure why they were there. The whole Festival was so cool and amazing, I was really wondering why they felt they had to ruin that for some people. To top it off, on Sunday, a few of those we kicked out, managed to find their way back in and started causing trouble all over again. We, of course, spotted them right away and removed them. We took special note of who these people were, and hope next year, we’ll be able to stop them from even entering the Festival.

The Festival is about having fun, good tunes, great local food, drinking in the outdoor sunshine and above all laughing among friends. Over the years, we’ve all  travelled miles and paid through the nose, but now we have Loungers, a music festival right in our backyard, so to speak. A place to enjoy your mate, your favorite uncle, all kids and grand-dads. So, all you who want to cause bad vibes, go somewhere else, we got your number. Don’t come back, unless you’re ready to just lounge, laugh and enjoy.

For those staying in a Kettering hotel,  especially those traveling with children, the Wicksteed Park is one destination that should not be missed.   The park was created back in 1913 when a man named Charles Wicksteed acquired a plot of land in the meadow of the county of Northamptonshire.  This was situated close to the town of Kettering, and Wicksteed had the intentions of creating a model town, the perfect village.  His goal was to create a beautiful place that was safe for children.  At the time many families were living in homes that lacked a yard, lacked gardens…and the children were forced to play in the streets and on the sidewalks.  He believed that children need open space, parks and playgrounds that are surrounding by natural beauty.

Wicksteed was the owner of an engineering company at the time, and provided many of the parks with benches and equipment for playgrounds, locally and outside of the area.  Even today, many parks throughout Europe have products from his company.  When the park was first created it brought visitors from far and near.  Trains and special trams were in operation for the express purpose of bringing people to the park.  Gradually, the reputation of the park grew and is now pretty famous throughout Europe.

This was the first of the United Kingdom’s leisure parks’ and the design and the idea has been taken and re-used for other parks throughout the country.  When Wicksteed passed away, his board of administrators determined to continue with the work that he had accomplished in his life time.  They remained inspired.  The park is free to the public and offers an incredible playground set in lush gardens and walkways.  The lake that is located within the park is one of the aspects that draws visitors, as at one time it was just a stream, but Wicksteed’s purpose and vision allowed people to see it the way he saw it.  The stream had been running through the valley for thousands of years, but Wicksteed was the first to see the beauty of it, and it is now, forever cherished.

I took the North Sea Trail, a very scenic coastal trail which traverses the east coast that borders between Scotland and England. The Borders Hotel where I was staying told me about the trail, and highly recommended I hike it before I head on up to Scotland. I appreciated their suggestion and thanked them for noticing that I’m an experienced hiker. Nice touch.

The North Sea Trail is a considerable hike, the distance carries on both South and North from the starting and ending points of the village of Burnmouth, Scotland and the England town of Berwick upon Tweed. This North Sea Trail section merits my attention due to its abundance of wild sea landscaping, nature’s beauty at its best and innumerable migrating sea birds and their nesting ground nesting cliffs. This is the area where the land mass of Scotland collided with the land mass of England well over a million years ago.

I found the walk relatively easy, except for the 650 meter uphill start, but that’s well worth it to be able to get all the view which stunned me at every turn. I walked about six miles and glad I had a good pair of walking shoes and shoes that were water proof. I saw other hikers along the trail with inadequate hiking shoes and they were suffering because of it; one person wore sandals and had to keep stopping to knock little pebbles out. The first view is towards Burnmouth and the North Sea and is the most spectacular. I got to see the beach at low tide which revealed the ancient volcanic formations. Then I came across some local Scengland residents who earn my admiration, because they make their living in a dangerous and harsh conditions, beautiful yes, but a very hard way of life. I so enjoyed my entire walk that I strongly urge you to stop along the Scengland and find out for yourself.

My husband and I just returned from Roundhill after taking a two and a half day break camping in the New Forest area. Before camping though, see my husband likes camping and I do not, we booked a room at one of the Brockenhurst Hotels so I could enjoy a nice luxurious bed and hot shower during our time off also. New Forest campsite is a beautiful spot, though, don’t get me wrong, it’s just he understands my needs for creature comforts and I understand his needs to be out in the wilderness.

The campsite is lovely and had plenty of space for pitching. New Forest is my husbands favorite spot to camp. I enjoyed being bugged by ponies, cows and donkeys who wander around freely. But, we did have to keep our food locked up and away from them. They all had a tendency to take a bite if we weren’t looking. There are signs posted all over saying not to feed them, but the animals don’t read well.

Luckily, I took a hot shower at the hotel, because my husband told me that the showers at the campsite were not hot. I just smiled at him all the while thinking to myself, yes dear, that’s why I like hotels! Oh, and then I did have to say that we are campers in a tent, this isn’t a five star hotel. He just laughed. We did find the staff here very friendly and helpful. There’s also an 11pm curfew which seemed like no one adhered to though. Lots of children still running around and making all kinds of noise playing. I didn’t mind too much, because I knew this was the last week of summer holidays and the site was full. Overall, though, I must admit, this campsite is quite beautiful, just don’t expect peace or tranquility because there’s too many children around.

The Rolling Stones have been making music and performing concerts for decades. Their front man and lead singer Mick Jagger is recognized throughout the world. They are an English band that was formed in London in 1962. They officially came together when Mick Jagger and guitarist Keith Richards joined pianist Ian Stewart and multi-instrument player Brain Jones. Drummer Charlie Watts and bass player Bill Wyman would complete the early line up. Jagger and Richards formed an early songwriting team in the band and have remained the primary writers through their history.

Rolling Stones concerts are often closer to being festivals and at the least are major spectacle events. They have played to sell out audiences around the world and back major stadiums and arenas. The merged onto the US scene in the 1960s as part of what is now considered to be the British invasion. Many London and other areas in Britain musicians and bands crossed the water during this time and found greater success in the United States that was previously considered to be possible. The also coincided with the emergence of rock ‘n roll as the major social force it has become.

The Beatles are the band that is most strongly associated with the invasion and they are also credited with reinventing rock as music genre. The Stones have created many albums and hit singles through the years. Every song on their concert play list is a crowd favorite, and they could play all of their hit songs in once concert, as there wouldn’t be enough time. Concert tickets sell out fast and fans often save their ticket stub as a souvenir of the event. Some of the Stones’ most popular songs include Gimme Shelter, Satisfaction, Jumpin Jack Flash, It’s Only Rock and Roll, Angie and Sympathy for the Devil. The list could go on and on, and represents only a fraction of their hits.

Is a performance by the renown cellist Yo Yo Ma a concert, a recital, an event or all of the above? It is uncommon for a solo musician who plays a classical instrument to achieve the amount of interest and following that has been bestowed on Ma, though he draws audience members in much the same manner as a rock star. Okay, he may not fill a stadium-sized arena, but that may be due more to the manner of the performance than the amount of fans he has. A solo cellist does not run and dance around the stage like rock star, nor do they typically have elaborate light shows or a band to enhance the overall effect. Watching a performance by Yo Yo Ma is much easier to appreciate in a smaller venue with fewer people in attendance. Where ever he is, concert tickets for his performances sell out quickly.

Ma is Chinese though he was born in Paris, France. His father was a music professor which is part of the reason he had such an early exposure to the cello, and great encouragement and support in learning it. They family moved to New York when Ma was four. Prior to playing the cello, which he began studying when he was four, the same year he moved to New York, he had studied violin and viola. By the time he was seven he had already begun public performances, and at that young age he performed for President John F. Kennedy. After high school Ma studied at the Julliard School of Music and Columbia University before finally reenrolling at Harvard, where he received his bachelor’s degree in 1976. He would later receive an honorary doctorate by the same prestigious school. Ma has an enormous repertoire and has released many cd’s featuring a diverse collection of music. He has played with some of the world’s top orchestras and also performs solo shows.