Showing posts with label Allentown. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Allentown. Show all posts

Saturday, July 19, 2025

Cube & Thread's Pop Of Red ...

 “The object of art is not to reproduce reality, but to create a reality of the same intensity.”

                     ~ Alberto Giacometti

                             ~ 1901 ~ 1966

                           ~Swiss sculptor

The Cube And Thread brings a bold pop of red to Cedar Creek Parkway, Allentown, Pennsylvania on a beautiful late May afternoon.

The public sculpture was created by artist Paul Sisko in 1977 and gifted to the city by the late philanthropists Phil (1915 ~ 1997) and Muriel (died 2004) Berman. Phil Berman was the retired owner of the iconic Hess’s Department Store, which he acquired in 1968 and had been headquartered in Allentown.

The Bermans were American art collectors, philanthropists and the founders of the Berman Art Museum at Ursinus College, Collegeville, Pennsylvania, Phil’s alma mater.   Phil was the chairman of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Muriel was an honorary member of the board. They endowed many Jewish charities including Hadassah as well as funding the “Philip and Muriel Berman Sculpture Park” in Allentown.

The sculpture is an 11’ x 13.5 ‘ steel and stainless steel piece featuring a large cube with a screw-like element extending from one side. It was restored in 2025 by the Heritage Conservation Collective of Philly. Initially painted red, the sculpture had become rusted and decayed. The restoration involved refinishing the piece and bringing it back to its original vibrancy.

Monday, July 7, 2025

Liberty In Light ...


“Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”

   ~ from the inspiring Inaugural Address of

  President John Fitzgerald Kennedy

  ~ 1917 ~1963

  ~ 35th President of the United States of America

  ~ 1960 ~ 1963

  & U.S. Navy veteran

Liberty’s red hot rays of ravishing light burst across the summer night sky during the 2025 Fourth of July Fireworks set off from J. Birney Crum Stadium, Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Happy Birthday, America! Bravo!

How wonderful it would be to have fireworks ~ and the fire of patriotism ~ in our hearts every day!

Sunday, December 22, 2024

Marquee Music ...

“The hills are alive with the sound of music

With songs, they have sung for a thousand years

The hills fill my heart with the sound of music

My heart wants to sing every song it hears

My heart wants to beat like the wings of the birds

That rise from the lake to the trees

 

My heart wants to sigh like the chime that flies from a church on a breeze

To laugh like a brook as it trips and falls over stones on its way

To sing through the night like a lark who is learning to pray


I go to the hills when my heart is lonely

I know I will hear what I’ve heard before

My heart will be blessed with the sound of music

And I’ll sing once more”

         ~ “The Sound of Music”

        ~ from Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “The Sound of Music”

                 ~ Broadway ~ 1959

                     ~ film ~ 1965

Follow The Sound of Music on a mid-October evening and you’ll arrive at the marquee of The Nineteenth Street Theatre in the heart of the quaint West End Theatre District in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

The Nineteenth Street/Civic Theatre is an historic community center that hosts theatre, arts education and film. It is the oldest cinema in Allentown, opening Sept. 17, 1928. In July 1957, the property was purchased by Allentown’s Civic Little Theatre.







 















 


 



 

Monday, November 18, 2024

Street Keys ...

“The only truth is music.”

  ~ Jack Kerouac

   ~ 1922 ~ 1969

 

A cool piano mural jazzes up the side of the future 1812 Piano Lounge, slated to open in spring 2025 at 1812 West Allen Street, Allentown, Pennsylvania, in the vicinity of the West End Theatre District. I shot this on a mid-October evening in 2024.

 

The mural is the work of local artist Lauren Kuhn.