Cross Town Thoughts
2015 the “future” when movie came out in 1989. It’s here. Constellations clear.
Turn of the calendar at Side Trek Falls. West End Pub’s crunchy grilled sandwiches overlooking Bridge of Flowers. Turkey with kim chee. Ham and cheese with chipotle sauce. Broccoli slaw with dried cranberries zesty refresh. 
Visit to Wandering Moon jewelry. Laura Roberson’s artistry and collections afford auld lang silver cheer. 
Did Jerry Jones pay off ref to pull pass interference call? Ask Chris Christie.
Back to CNN’s Parts Unknown. Anthony Bourdain this week brings us to Massachusetts. Assumed it would focus on Boston dining scene. Wrong! After taking us to his beginnings in Provincetown, land’s end of Cape Cod, he reveals that’s where his heroin addiction began. From there, he comes here. To Western Massachusetts. Route 91 North to SideTrekFalls. And Greenfield.
Heroin has been epidemic in these parts for decades. My former “facialist” first clued me in to the problem in Northampton in the late ’90’s. Kids of clients dead. From smack. It has only gotten worse as the economy declined. And when hometown sports heroes get injured, need surgery, they get hooked on oxy’s. Yup. Doctors as dealers.
Behind our red barns, beyond our fertile meadows, under our bridges of flowers. What you don’t see is a sorry scene. Bourdain is a brilliant journalist. 
The Judge movie produced by and starring Robert Downey is finally hitting the screens. Filmed in SideTrek Falls locations around Western Massachusetts. Just follow the road over that red bridge. Speaking of which, Jennifer Garner’s production company has sold a sitcom to Fox about a young couple wanting to move to New York City but get pregnant and are stuck in Agawam. Down 91.
Michelle O finally got through to Barack. Man up! Fire that blankedy blank woman. Then there’s Zeke Emanuel who advises President on medical issues. Don’t worry. Ebola won’t come to our shores. It’s not good to listen to a physician who has announced that people should only live to 75 anyway.
I don’t dwell. Much. That often. Bon weekend.
A new neighbor gave me her 2011 book. Finally got to it. Brooke Hauser’s The New Kids tells stories of newcomers to America at a Brooklyn high school for immigrant students. Every adventure could be a novel of its own. Journeys from China, Tibet, Sierra Leone, Burma. Beautifully written and true, it recounts these children’s harrowing paths to our shores and continuing travails. Yet, hope and inspiration prevails as the American dream is unique to each of them.
Northampton’s Peter Kobel finished a 5-year tome, The Strange Case of the Mad Professor: A True Tale of Endangered Species, Illegal Drugs and Attempted Murder. A twisted trail that leads an off-kilter academic to NYU Anthropology Department Chair. He went to jail in the early 1980’s for manufacturing LSD and quaaludes, ostensibly for research on lemurs in his lab there. When paroled, he sent poisoned chocolates to the sentencing judge. Back to jail.
Jason Reitman’s movie Labor Day, filmed in Shelburne Falls, is making its debut at the Telluride Film Festival. Based on Joyce Maynard’s novel, it’s timely for the holiday as her former paramour J.D. Salinger is back in the news.
Braised Hake. RecipeDetours.
Another film to be set in SideTrekFalls, our favorite tableau. The Judge, starring Robert Downey, Jr., Robert Duvall, Vera Farmiga, is rumored to start production in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts this summer. A drama/comedy.
Still haven’t seen Labor Day come to the screen yet. Jason Reitman’s movie set, starring Josh Brolin and Kate Winslet. Based on J.D. Salinger’s paramour’s book.
Dr.Husband’s Shelburne Falls header photo above.
Travelled to our favorite SideTrek tableau, Shelburne, a new way. Took a bucolic route from Conway past Bill Cosby’s rolling colonial acres. Off off the beaten trek. A blue clapboard Garrison on an old post road. Book mills, inns dot the meandering byway, scenes of Indian skirmishes as part of the Mohawk trail.
The Bridge of Flowers was in earlier than normal bloom. Town is abuzz. Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin are coming. They will be filming Labor Day based on a novel by Joyce Maynard. It’s about a 13 year-old boy, his Mom, secrets. Set in a fictional New England hamlet, Holton Mills. Juno director, Jason Reitman.
We made a stop at Wandering Moon jewelry boutique and hit pay dirt. For me. Silver bracelet by a Manitoba artisan. Owner Laura Roberson’s finely crafted earrings. As we headed out to Route 112, a metal sculpture guy bid us adieu.
Back home through Goshen past the original 1775 Williams House.
Photos by the talented Dr.Husband, including the Richard Russo-esque header – State Street, in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts.
Side Trek . NYC 