Last August, I drove by a building on 412 Broadway in Schenectady – only to see hazard tape surrounding it. Construction crews coming in and out of the facility. I really hope it isn’t what I think it could be… but then again, I won’t know if I don’t ask. Hey, there’s a hardhat construction…
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A memory in tile
I barely remember my Grandpa Ben. My few fleeting childhood memories of my paternal grandfather involve my riding in a little baby stroller as he pushed me around the Franklin Park Zoo in Boston. Unfortunately, he passed away while I was still a toddler, so my memories of him are few and far between. Last…
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Bye-bye Trading Port / Freihofer’s ghost sign…
Five years ago, I photographed various “ghost signs” – vintage advertisements that were painted on the brickface of buildings – throughout the Capital District. One such sign was on the corner of Washington Avenue and Colvin Avenue, and it was right next to the Mobil station. Okay, this was a nice find. This may have…
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A coffee-table book on Frontier Town’s history and legacy
I’ve written about Frontier Town, the Adirondack Wild West theme park, in past blogs. I’ve even taken some photographs on what’s left of the amusement park’s campus. And over the weekend, I received a new book on the park’s history and legacy. The cool thing? It’s a coffee table book with tons of pictures and…
Read MoreRemembering Betty George and “Moo”
There was once a time when the Capital District’s on-air television and radio personalities were as big in our area as national personalities. You know, Commander Ralph Vartigan, David Allan on Pick-A-Show, Ernie Tetreault and Ed Dague and Howard Tupper and Bob McNamara on the local newscasts… And then there was Betty George. The first…
Read More“Love Child” – a television drama about forced adoptions
If you’ve ever watched the MTV television series Teen Mom, you’ve enjoyed the trashy ups and downs of unwed teen mothers and what they’ve done with their lives and their careers and their boyfriends and their baby daddies … and sometimes what they’ve done with their babies. Now what if a series like Teen Mom…
Read MoreHelen of Troy, New York
It has been said that the legendary Helen of Troy had a face that launched a thousand ships to war. And hopefully, if fellow Times Union community blogger Don Rittner has his say, “Helen of Troy, New York,” a revival of a 1920’s Broadway smash play, will be a performance that will launch a thousand…
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Can we save Frontier Town’s “Log Chapel”?
Listen up. I have a proposal for you. And although I’m not 100% sure how we can do this, I hope that by at least mentioning this, that someone will figure out a way to make it happen. All of us in the Capital District remember the beloved amusement park Frontier Town. You know, just…
Read MoreRachel Dolezal and minstrelsy
So here’s what’s going on in Spokane, Washington. The head of the local chapter of the NAACP is currently being questioned as to whether or not she is, as she claims to be, a black woman; or is she a white woman pretending to be black. And thus we now have the story of Rachel…
Read MoreWhy no tears for another collapsing church?
When the Trinity Church in Albany started to buckle and crumble, there was an outcry. “Save the church,” we shouted. “It’s part of the neighborhood. And if we can’t save the church, let’s at least save those stained glass windows that might have been forged by Louis Comfort Tiffany himself.” When St. Patrick’s Church in…
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