I’ve been to going to Mountain Jam for awhile, which is a three day music festival that’s held at the Hunter Mountain Ski Resort in Upstate NY. It’s a very good festival, with an interesting mix of old acts and new — discovered and undiscovered.

On my first visit I noticed that the mountain also has what is billed as the longest zip-line in North America. I’ve always been intrigued by these things, but not so much that I actively went out looking for one — now I didn’t have to.

With Hunter Mountain only two hours from the house, I made a mental note to get around to it one of these days, which never shows up on my calendar — even though the years keep peeling from it.

I’ve been trying to substitute such squishy resolutions with the actual making of arrangements, and though it doesn’t always work, I’ve had some successes. Taking the Zip-line tour is one.

Here’s a little movie I made about my outing:

If you’re looking for some excitement, not too far from home and costing about $120, check out Zipline Tours of Hunter Mountain. Fantastic!

Everything Reminds me of Something Else

As I crossed the alpine bridge, it reminded of a Laurel and Hardy Movie called Swiss Miss. It was made in 1938 and even for them, it’s plot is particularly ridiculous — and it is a gem.

The duo are mousetrap salesmen who have relocated to Switzerland. Why? Stan believes that since the Swiss make so much cheese, they’ll have a much larger mouse problem  — which will increase the demand for mousetraps! Through many absurd plot twists, the two end up having to deliver a piano to an isolated cliff house that can only reached by a suspended alpine bridge.

The only clip I could find was colorized (ruined) and I apologize for that, but the bridge crossing begins at around 1:40:

In 1932, Laurel and Hardy had another movie called The Music Box that involved the delivery of another piano — this time up a long staircase in Los Angeles. I’m including the link for all 28 minutes, which is a very nice, clean copy of the original.

The Music Box won the first academy award given for a live action, short film (comedy). Also, you might be interested to know that the stairway that appears in the movie still exists and is between the addresses of 923 and 925 Vendome Street in the Silver Lake section of Los Angeles.

Till next time.