Holiday to the Boredoms (part 1)

A few months ago I impulsively bought tickets to see the Boredoms at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival in Monticello, NY this past weekend. Combining the event with a recent desire to want to see the rural mountains of New York state, Nicole and I took a few days to travel north to fulfill the musical and natural goals. As with many things we do, it was quite an eventful outing, and I had the camera with me for a good deal of the time.

Pittston

A few weeks ago, the travel section of the post listed a couple restaurants in the Pittston area as recommended dining areas. Pittston rests between Wilkes-Barre and Scranton and was right on our way to New York, so we decided to stop in one of the Italian eateries.

Now, having lived in that area for a year while attending grad school, I gained a small amount of knowledge regarding the organized crime legacy the town held. In the lonely drive (only accompanied by dreadfully heavy rain), I joked to Nicole that this Italian restaurant could, in fact, be a mob hangout.

I either have a bad sense of humor or an interesting ability to predict the predictable future.

It is, of course, quite possible that I completely interpreted the events of the meal incorrectly. Gangs of men talking about point spreads and handing envelopes across the table could be purely innocent acts that I blew well out of proportion with my own imagination. But, what good is life without a little imagination (especially when the food was average at best).

Nevertheless, no pictures of Pittston. Use your imagination.

Monticello

For the second year in a row, the ATP festival in New York was held at a country club called Kutcher's near the south-western tip of the Catskills. The area is doubtlessly depressed, and we drove about with little luck finding anything to do beyond eating and playing with a dog at a local new age store. In their decay, the surrounding towns hold a lot of character; with abandoned resorts and many closed businesses, Monticello made me wonder what the term was for a town that wasn't quite a ghost town, but was by all appearances heading in that direction. Sadly, I couldn't think of one.

A friendly dog who welcomed us to town.

Nevertheless, we made the best of the surroundings and prepared the next day to explore the Catskills State Park.