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Train Trip Diary: Amtrak Cardinal and Hiawatha

The next day I left Philadelphia at the crack of dawn. My Lyft ride overcharged and I actually complained and got a refund! (First and only time I’ve done that.) It was ridiculous, they had a Sunday morning surge yet there was no traffic, like the streets were empty no traffic. I have to credit Lyft, they were very decent and prompt about addressing it and I got the refund right away.

The overnight train I took that day was the Amtrak Cardinal to Chicago – which goes from New York to Chicago via a southerly route through Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio and Indiana (though I got on the train in Philly).

From the Amtrak Cardinal train, Alexandria, VA.

Manassas, VA

Cinco de Mayo in Manassas, VA

Culpeper, VA, station.

“Love” sign in Culpeper, VA.

Waiting in Staunton, VA

New River view in West Virginia.

White Sulfur Springs, W. VA. (home of Greenbrier)

Blogger in West Virginia, his 48th state.

Mainly took this train because I wanted to see some of West Virginia, which is one of the two states this trip (the other one being North Dakota) that I’d never been to. And it was lovely, what I could see from the train, most of the state through daylight hours. Lots of farms, small towns, small mountains covered in forest, river valleys. Actually, through most of the time in West Virginia, the train route hugs a river (the New River) through the valley it makes. Gorgeous.

Dusk came concurrently with the entry into Ohio, where the train followed the Ohio River to Cincinnati, then turned inland from there up to Indianapolis and had a layover of sorts, including a servicing of the train. It then arrived in Chicago Union Station in the morning and I was able to make the late morning train to Milwaukee, arriving there around noon.

Most of my time in Milwaukee was visiting family, and not on any trains. Although, one of the days I went down to Chicago on the Hiawatha:

The morning train gets you there about 12:30 and I took the last train home, which left Chicago’s Union Station about 8 pm (so gets back to Milwaukee at 9:30).

I went to the Art Institute, which is a pleasant walk down Adams Street toward the Lake and it’s right there, it’s one straight shot, basically. The day was very bright and sunny, a bit crisp, but even that warmed up considerably.

I hadn’t been to the Art Institute in likely a decade, so I did a survey of their collection, from seeing some of the American masters like Whistler and Hopper as well as the fantastic European impressionist collection they have there. I love the Art Institute, it really inspires me. All art museums, really, but the better ones are just amazing.

Whistler’s Mother, hanging at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Edward Hopper’s “Nighthawks” – Art Institute of Chicago

Hopper: Nighthawks detail.

Impressionist collection (Monets?) Art Institute

Seurat: A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte

Self-Portrait in a Fur Cap

Joseph Wright of Derby

Canova: Head of Medusa. Mood.

Chicago from Millennium Park

Like usual, I didn’t plan out exactly what I’d do after, so I did go to a Pret a Manger type place, (actually it wasn’t a type of place, it WAS that place) had a sandwich and charged my phone. Then I walked up Chicago’s Magnificent Mile, stopped to window shop at a Crate and Barrel, then went to Millenium Park to look around (and find a bathroom).
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One of the houses our family lived in for a time in the 70s and 80s was being used as a “Breast Cancer Showhouse” this year and we got a little tour – excellent since I hadn’t been in this house since my parents sold in the mid 80s.

It was a place where you could find solitude even while in the midst of your 10-person family. I’m grateful we had that and will always consider myself lucky to have lived there for even the short time it was.

Blogger in Milwaukee.

Yet another spring streetscene in Shorewood, WI.

One of my old bedrooms.

Another of my old bedrooms.

Attic hallway to an old bedroom of mine.

My dad in front of his old house.

Other things that happened that day: 1) I finally found a low sleeper car fare for the Empire Builder trip to Portland, Oregon. It was $375 on top of what I’d already paid (for the pass). That includes meals, 4 full ones plus a boxed breakfast, plus free water and coffee (not insignificant, because a bottle of water or a cup of coffee on the train costs $2 a pop and I drink a lot of both) So for 2 nights I thought the $375 was a great deal. Next post: Empire Builder and Portland

VIDEOS:

Misc Virginia from Amtrak Cardinal

Arrive in Charlottesville, VA:

Along border with West Virginia, train climbing

Remembering the 1992 Los Angeles Riots

photo by waltarrrr

April 29 — the day the 1992 Los Angeles Riots began, and what I remember, or what I think I remember. I discovered earlier today that April 29 is also the birthday of the late film director Fred Zinnemann, who made the film “Julia” in 1977.

That film, one of my favorites (which starred Jane Fonda, Vanessa Redgrave, Jason Robards and Maximilian Schell), is based on a short story called “Pentimento” by playwright Lillian Hellman. The word pentimento means “an alteration in a painting, evidenced by traces of previous work, showing that the artist has changed his mind as to the composition during the process of painting.”

In that movie it refers to the unreliability of memory. Those Rodney King riots happened now 20 years ago, but I’d like to think that what I remember about that time is accurate.

I was on vacation in Hawaii the morning of the 29^th, not happy that I had to return to L.A. that afternoon. Specifically, I was in Kihei, Maui. My best friend and sometimes partner Jeff King had been killed in a car accident the month before, and this was my first time getting away from all that in a real, physical sense.

I had to go to work the next morning and this was a flight that would get to Los Angeles late, around 11 p.m. As we stood in line waiting to board (this was very pre-9/11, way before TSA) I heard somebody say something like “they let those cops off. They’re already rioting in L.A.”

I took this as misinformed bravado. There were many younger people on this plane; perhaps it was still spring break in places, I don’t know. I mean, how could any jury let the cops off, we had all seen the videotape. It was just unthinkable.

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I did notice a quite messy but still quite attractive straight couple in the line. Both extremely blond and tan and I thought to myself, those two are high. Hanging on to each other for dear life, obviously very much in love or lust, the type you might tell to please get a room.

Get a room they did. In fact, they barricaded themselves in one of the two toilets reserved for the hoi polloi. It may have been the case that there were only two bathrooms on the entire plane, and they were using one for their mile-high club activities. Don’t forget that 1992 was long before the internet or common cell phone usage. I don’t recall getting any other L.A. Riot information on the flight back; the attendants were incensed at this couple and trying to break into this bathroom for what seemed like hours.

The couple never did come out, to my knowledge. Continue reading →

Paramount Planning Upgrades to Lot

link to LA Times story: Paramount Pictures plans $700-million upgrade to Hollywood lot

Jim A. sitting in front of Paramount Gate, earlier in 2011

Great to see that the powers that be at Viacom find the opportunity to reinvest and upgrade the studio a good idea.

I worked there in the late 80s to mid-90s; still probably the most fun location to ever have a paying job, at least in my working life. And that was before the on-lot Coffee Bean, which in my way of thinking adds much currency to the entire idea.

When reading this piece, it was like a deja vu: Frank Mancuso’s name was mentioned not once, but twice, and in reverence both times. It was like my old boss there (Deborah Rosen) had a hand in the story (maybe she did, who knows) – as it was her job to get favorable corporate communications for the studio. Interesting certainly that the names Brandon Tartikoff, Stanley Jaffe and Sherry Lansing were not brought up at all, and Brad Grey only in passing.

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That’s another thing about Paramount: as much fun as it was being a nice place to go to work, what with all the flowers, fountains, movie stars and whatnot, I and just about everyone I knew there (well, almost everyone) eventually got fired (including the aforementioned boss) – kind of like that water tower which isn’t really a water tower at all, just the top of an enormous meat grinder.

There is no grudge, I know all too well that everything ends. So I’m glad they’re in the process of creating jobs for future Paramount ex-employees.