Jans Bungalows

I was driving along a main road in Ulster County when I saw this and had to stop. Its about 8-9 bungalowes, clearly abandoned. Wellllll…..not abandoned, not in use is the right term. There were two houses obviously lived in so I shot some pictures over the fence and then i noticed an antique store/junk shop right next door. I stopped in andf asked the owner if he knew what that was about.

Told me he was Jan and that was his place. He had ran it for 30 years and then Irene put 3 feet of water into every bungalow. Insurance didn’t cover any of it so he gave up. Thats when he decided to open th store. I bet if I had asked he would’ve let us walk around but I was satisfied with the over the fence shots. Didn’t think it was right to ask him.

Link to all the pics

Tamarack Lodge

Sitting on 400 acres, the Tamarack lodge was built inthe early 1900s as a simple boarding house and was expanded in 1927. At its peak it would have 300 rooms and the resort had all the activities one would expect from a retreat in the Borscht Belt of Ulster County, NY. The location primarily catered to jewish familes and provided popular entertainment of the day, which in the 60s meant Cream, the Who and Janis Joplin.

There was a massive fire in 1995 which effectively shuttered the resort.It remained functionmal till 2000 when the health dept closed them down. the property sat unused for a decade until another fire broke out destroying 30 buildings in 2012.

Now there is very little left. There are only 3 primary buildings left along with some sort of storage building and a half dozen bungalows at the back of the property. the main building floors are extremely unstable and the rar building has had a partial collapse of the roof.

You can see pictures of it before the fire at this site.

http://abandonedhudsonvalley.com/tamarack-lodge/

Unnamed research facility

i would love to tell the story behind this place but doing so would reveal its location. its a nice find and although there is some graffiti its pretty untouched and I wanna keep it that way. Plus its highly visible and highly illegal. All ill say is that it used to be a farm and later became a research lab.

all the Flickr pictures

Fire on Clausland Mountain near tunnels of Tweed

A fire on Clausland Mountain is finally under control after more then 24 hours. Several homes were threatened, but local firefighters were able to prevent any damage to them. The mountain is more than 300 acres of woodlands with hiking trails thru out. The mountain is home to the Bluefields Rifle range, more commonly known as the tunnels of tweed

History of earthquakes in NJ

Consider the recent tremble that hit NY state today (originating iN Canada), this article in NJ Monthly about the history of earthquakes in jersey and the Ramapo fault line is quite timely. it’s also pretty damn interesting.

ha-ha… they evacuated the courthouse in hackensack because of it.

jaguars just over the NY border?

Big cat sitings in Palisades NY? Really? And not cougar or bobcat, we’re talking Jaguar or black panther, those sleek sexy big black cats. Odds are it’s mis-identification since those cats do not live anywhere but South America and Asia, still…

it’s not a tardis (that would be a police box)

The Bates Motel

This is a farm house whose owner donated the land to the state many years ago. The place is really run down and we were very concerned as we walked around that we might go thru the floor… The last 2 pics are of a nearby building which we figure was either a slaughterhouse or a holding pen for sick animals.

Blue Man Group

The Blue Man Group Official website describes the show thusly: “These performances feature three enigmatic bald and blue characters who take the audience through a multi-sensory experience that combines theatre, percussive music, art, science and vaudeville into a form of entertainment that is like nothing else.” Ya, ok. So what the _#@)(@ does that mean? It is a total mind trip that involves marshmallow art, Twinkie audience participation, the most paper streamers you’ll ever see outside of Times Square New Years eve, posters you can’t possible read fully, fish art, drum art, plus a skewering of modern technology, societal norms and expectations.

The Astor Place theater is quite small so I suggest you get seats in row HH or better, but be aware that anyone in the first six rows is handed complimentary rain slickers. Trust me, you’ll need them. The first 2-3 rows of the balcony also are decent seats. Anything else and you’ll find your viewed periodically obscured. So what do they do? Well they say the Happy Birthday song to an audience member. Have you ever tried to simply say the words to Happy Birthday? Now imagine 250 people saying the words together. It’s hysterical. Its stupid. It’s riotously funny. This is a show that really can not be described. I’m not a film critic or a reviewer, all I can say is I highly recommend them.

This blue man reminded me quite a bit of Michael Berryman, a long time horror film star. His film credits include The Hills Have Eyes, One Flew over the Cuckoos nest, numerous television cameos including the X-Files.

Side Show Saturday Night

Todd Robbins is the Chairman of the Board of Coney Island USA and the Dean of the Coney Island Sideshow School, where he teaches how to do the things seen in the show. The Coney Island freak show is the last remaining permanent freak show (i.e. non-traveling) left in America. Todd Robbins has performed at Frightfest at Great Adventure, under the name Dr Zombini (this is how I discovered him, thanks to Marc Hartzman of Found on Ebay fame) The show features standard side show fare such as eating a light bulb, walking on broken glass, fire breathing, and sword swallowing. There is a lot of use of audience members, including the Flying Ebola Brothers, and the Madam Elektra act. He had this woman from the audience sit in an electric chair & enough current went into her to light a light bulb. To prove it wasn’t fake, he got sparks to come off her tongue which lit one of the torches he was swallowing.

The show begins at 1030, and lasts 90 minutes. The show is not for young children, so leave the kids at home…He typically has special performers, such as Twistina, the rubber girl, or Nippillini, a fellow who hangs heavy things from nipple rings. The show is located at 15 Van Dam St, New York