STP By The Lehigh River

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club / Stone Temple Pilots
Musikfest - Bethlehem, PA
Stone Temple Pilots has been one of my favorite bands since I was in middle school.  Last night's show was a part of their reunion tour, and they performed an excellent set.

Some of the folks in attendance uploaded video to YouTube, including clips of Wicked Garden, Big Bang Baby, Vasoline, Lady Picture Show, Creep, Interstate Love Song, Sex Type Thing, and Trippin' On A Hole In A Paper Heart.  The video above is a playlist with the songs in order that they came in the setlist.  Speaking of which, here are the setlists for Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Stone Temple Pilots.

For as happy as I was to be lucky enough to see Stone Temple Pilots in concert, the venue was pretty disappointing.  Musikfest is a very cool festival with lots of food and vendors in the hours before the show, however the concert itself may have been most quiet rock show that I've ever been to.  We had lawn seats, so I didn't expect it to be insanely loud, but my girlfriend and I were able to speak at a regular volume during the music and still understand each other perfectly.  I'm not sure if there's a sound ordinance in town, but if that's the case, they'd be better off finding a different venue altogether for the live performances of Musikfest.

The Morning Call - Allentown, PA  (August 7, 2008)

I'm sure the show was louder for the folks who were closer to the stage.  The problem is that you have to be an ArtsQuest member to even have the right to buy seats near the stage.  Between the poor volume and their exclusionary ticket selling practices, I might think twice before buying a ticket to see another live performance at Musikfest.  At the very least, I'd investigate the other stops on the band's tour and choose another show nearby before I'd return to see a show at the Straub Riverplace.  Even if it's a few hours away, it would be worth the drive to attend a rock concert the way that it's meant to be.

The Morning Call - Allentown, PA  (August 8, 2008)

The Morning Call - Allentown, PA  (August 10, 2008)

Musikfest

Musikfest
Bethlehem, PA (2008)

We got tickets to see Stone Temple Pilots at Musikfest in Bethlehem, PA, so we got to town earlier in the day to walk around, eat some food, and experience the festival.

There was a Celtic store called Donegal Square that wasn't far from where we parked.  We stopped in and found a few CDs, some of which were holiday music and had been marked down.  There was a very cool little cafe attached to the store called Grandma McCarthy's Tea Room & Bakery where we stopped for refreshments.  I had a French press coffee and some scones.

Obama campaign headquarters was not too far away.

The ruins of the 1771 Dye House have been excavated by Yale University.  It was once a building where clothes and other fabrics were dyed different colors, and is a part of Bethlehem's Colonial Industrial Quarter, which has been given the distinction of being the country's first industrial park.

There are a lot of peaceful spots between where we were parked and the festival grounds.  The building over my shoulder in the first picture in this set is the old Bethlehem Union Station, which was built in 1924.

There's a ton of good food and beverages available at Musikfest.  There's not a lot of shade in this section, but they had misting stations set up with fans to help folks cool down, which is what Angie is doing.

There were a few shows that I wanted to check out, but money is a little tight since I went back to college.  If money were no object, I definitely would have wanted to see Live, Collective Soul, Kool & The Gang, Boston, Poison, Earth Wind & Fire, Jethro Tull, and John Fogerty.

Do The Mashed Potato...

The Potato Dance mural
Musikfest - Bethlehem, PA
The one in the center danced so hard that he fell down and dropped his lil hat.

Do The Day, And Let The Day Do You

Duma Key
Stephen King (2008)
I can't recommend this highly enough - one of the most interesting and creative stories that I've read in a long time.  Jerome Wireman might be favorite Stephen King character ever.

The Rain Seat

I took this picture of my Grandpa when we got back from the Transfiguration Church Picnic on Sunday.  Sometimes he likes to sit on the front porch and watch the rain.

Try Throwing A Two-Seam Fastball With This

Dollar City
Terrace Plaza - Hazleton, PA
This gave me the strangest visual.

Sense of Right Alliance

Dollar City
Terrace Plaza - Hazleton, PA
I want to see a superhero movie starring this group.  Imagine Batman teaming up with Superman, Symbiote Spider-Man, the Green Power Ranger, Shrek and Lightning McQueen (with a yellow paint job) teaming up to form the Sense Of Right Alliance to save the world.

Movies Under The Rainbow

The Dark Knight / Journey To The Center Of The Earth
Laurel Drive-In - Hazleton, PA

I'm not sure if it's was my actual first movie, but my earliest memory of seeing a movie out with my family was at the Laurel Drive-In.  Dad brought me here to see The Karate Kid: Part 2 when I was five years old.  Back then, the Drive-In still had the little speakers hooked up to poles that you would park next to so that you could hear the movie.

This place has been in operation since the 50's and it's still going strong.  Most nights, it's ten bucks per car to see two movies.  They have a great selection of food and snacks, all of which are inexpensive, and it's just a few miles from my house.

It rained last night when we were at the Transfiguration Church picnic.  Thankfully, it stopped before we got to the Drive-In, and we got to see a beautiful rainbow that arched over the entire parking lot.

This is the inside of the orange building in the photo with the rainbow.  It's where they project the movie from.  It's also the snack bar with a few arcade games.  I think I've played this Ms. Pac-Man machine every time I've seen a movie here for over 20 years.

 

The movies that were playing last night were The Dark Knight and Journey To The Center Of The Earth.  The Dark Knight is the sequel to Batman Begins, and with the exception of The Crow, I think it's my favorite movie based on a comic book that I've ever seen.  I didn't think anyone could ever outdo Jack Nicholson as The Joker, but the late Heath Ledger delivered a performance that is second to none.

Journey To The Center Of The Earth was a good family adventure film.  It's not the kind of thing I'm likely to want to watch again, but I'm glad to have seen it.  Brendan Fraser was solid, as always.  I've never read the book, so I don't know how far it strays from the source material, but it was enjoyable.  I will say that even watching this on a 2-D drive-in screen, it was pretty obvious which scenes were shot entirely for the purpose of showing off the 3-D special effects.  It didn't ruin the experience or anything, but it was very noticeable.

Farmers Market Superheroes

Super Heroes action figure set
Hometown Farmers Market - Tamaqua, PA

You can find some pretty crazy bootleg toys at the Hometown Farmers Market.  Take, for example, this team of super heroes.  Wouldn't you love to see these six guys get together with swords to fight crime?

The graphics and phrases on the package are pretty amusing, but the real star of the show here are the toys themselves.

First, there is a very smug looking Superman hanging out with a silver gloved Batman.

Then we move from DC to Marvel Comics.  There's Spider Man with an odd peanut-shaped head, and a very constipated looking Thing from The Fantastic Four.

Finally, there's Disney/Pixar's Mr. Incredible, and last but not least, the White Power Ranger.

At six bucks, it works out to a dollar per figure.  In all likelihood, these things fall apart seconds after being taken out of the package, and I wouldn't rule out lead-based paints, but those are the chances you take with the Farmers Market Superheroes.

We'll See You At The Movies

UA: The Movies at Schuylkill Mall
Schuylkill Mall - Frackville, PA

I love the aesthetic of the Schuylkill Mall in general, but my favorite part of the mall is the United Artists movie theater.  It's not fancy - just a four screen theater with modest seating and a small arcade to the left of its entrance, but it has a lot of charm because it's virtually unchanged since the day that it opened.  My grandfather brought me here to see a movie a few times when I was a kid in the 80's, and it's still exactly as I remember it.

For Radio, Take Maximum

I haven't fit in this t-shirt since I was 15 years old.  My dad was dating a girl whose sister worked for a record company in Russia.  When she came back to South Florida, she brought a few of these t-shirts and gave one to me.  It's from Maximum 103.7 FM, a rock station on the radio in Moscow.  Their slogan on the back of the shirt translates to "For Radio, Take Maximum".

McPanda

Kung Fu Panda Arch Card
McDonald's (2008)
Stopped for a late ice cream last night and found that they've got these awesome Kung Fu Panda gift cards.  The minimum to load on a card is $5, so I did that first and then used it to pay for the ice cream.