Briefings from a Spa City Metalhead : February 2015

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Sharing my father's cousin's story, MY LIFE - A study in contrasts | The Valley Breeze

My grandmother Alice raised me under her roof during crucial times of my teen life, and her niece wrote about her/their/our family in her RI newspaper column that is running this week, and it rules, please, read this!MY LIFE - A study in contrasts | The Valley Breeze

Here's some Remillard family photos I got from my grandmother Alice, some are unmarked. The lady sewing is my great grandmother, I was told, so, that might be Odile, or her daughter.

Monday, February 23, 2015

NYC Ballet legend Shaun O'Brien and the Excelsior Spring

Come spring and summer, you're sure to find me amongst the old grey-to-no haired folks, in one of two places, history tour walks and garage sales. I love old relics of sorts, finding gems of yesteryear's US pop culture, and striking deals. Recently, I came across two amazing wooden wheelchairs amongst a slew of strange collectables. The sale was an estate sale for a couple that had both passed away (just 2 weeks apart) in 2012. The contents for sale led me to Google search this couple, for their possessions held an amazing story that someone must've had to have known. After searching, I found it was an amazing male gay couple, who had been together for 61 years and when NYS legalized gay marriage, they wed in 2011. The couple was Shaun O'Brien, (I remember seeing his Irish family crest), and Cris Alexander. Cris was obviously a famous photographer, due to the number of proof prints for Warhol's Interview magazine, that I curiously thumbed through. I found out later that earlier in life he was an Broadway actor, namely the original "Chip" from "On the Town," later to be done on the silver screen by Frank Sinatra. Shaun O'Brien was a NYC Ballet actor/dancer for 40 plus years,-since it's first year of inception. He was most famous for "Coppelius" in "Coppelia" He died 3 years ago today, so in ode to him, Thanks Shaun! Here is a mask prop from the play,

I read somewhere that at their Saratoga Springs home, they hosted many ice cream socials, and were a blast, indulging in fascinating stories. I also acquired those Saratoga cigarettes in post below, some fine China, that I probably shouldn't use, but, you can take the boy out the trailer park... (hey I didn't smoke the cigs!) I digress, anyway, I went back to buy the wheelchairs but only one remained,(how dare someone split them up!) So, needless to say, I have one cool wooden antique wheelchair. I noticed a marble block with some etching, so I picked it up and it read "EXCELSIOR SPRING WATER SARATOGA, NY", I bought it for a reasonable price, and found out later, it's from the actual Excelsior Spring!

I dug around a bit and found these from the Saratogian 1867

I guess around this time of year in 1966, Excelsior was mainly a bottling and shipping plant on Excelsior Ave, and the trucks they used ran on their own gas supply, stored at the plant. The main gas tank leaked and seeped into the plant, which, during winter, there was zero ventilation and once the heater kicked on and the gas fumes had built, it made a deadly mix and exploded the building into pieces. That's why my piece of marble granite/Saratoga history looks like cannon shrapnel. From the SS Public Library

Let's name it "Saratoga"

The name "Kayaderossera", perpetuated by the Iroquois nation, meant "land of the crooked waters,"and "Kayaderossa's creek or "kill" led to a lake named "Caniaderiossera" now known as Saratoga Lake. The area was a fertile hunting ground known by the Iroquois as "Sarachtogoe" (English speaking folk called it SARATOGA)

Anyway, the book goes on to talk about white people, their horses and water, but this isn't a book report, it's about the name "Saratoga," a widely proliferated moniker. There is several cities west of here named after Saratoga in the US, due to it's shared redeeming qualities of spring water. Lampasas, Texas used be called the "Saratoga of the South" and today, Disney World has a Saratoga Springs resort

What I have found to be the coolest thing named "Saratoga" besides the warship, because that is absolutely bad ass, is the car, the Chrysler Saratoga New Yorker, here's a photo of a local at the polo grounds....

and the Zippo car just plain rules everything

and for your Zippo, ladies used to smoke these long lanky Saratoga cigs, with cigarette holders, it was like a foot long!

then. finally, being the Spa City Metalhead that I am, these dudes popped up on my radar, Saratoga, the spanish metal band

The Algonquin Building always has my heart

This beauty is currently under renovation, and I sure hope it still maintains it's old creepy and creaky charm! They were blowing out some condensation the other night that fogged up Broadway, it was creepy cool.

I spent many o' days here as a teen, couch surfing and partying, we used to shoot water guns at pedestrians off the balcony with old bong water. I remember when we had a party and some random guy barged it, (before the auto door lock) and beat everybody up, including my brother who got thrown down the first flight of stairs, meanwhile, my friend witnessed it all handcuffed to the couch. Good Times. Oh, the elevator, it's like none other, it took faith... I painted that checker board window back in 1990...

Saratoga Stinks

It's that all too familiar smell of rotten egg, and orange mess that plagues my town. And I love it. It's blamed as being "sulfur water" but critical analyzation shows sulfur in the gas, and trace amounts in the water. There is a sulfur odor, but mineral analysis of the water consistently shows almost no presence of dissolved sulfur. The sulfur is in the form of the gas hydrogen sulfide, which degasses from the water very quickly....