Binghamton's LUMA Projection Arts Festival 2026

I first learned about Binghamton's LUMA Projection Arts Festival a year and a half ago when they brought their talents to Asbury Park. On two March evenings, they transformed the Casino into a virtual canvas. I was mesmerized. Anytime I see similar mapping projections I am in awe. I hope to never learn how they do it so I can keep feeling complete and utter amazement as the shows unfold.

Don and I were inspired to make the three hour drive to Binghamton to see the display throughout their downtown in a free festival that always takes place the weekend after Labor Day. Last year's show was terrific. A year later I remember being in awe of the building showing children's artwork. How cool would be to see your artwork on the side of a building? As the night progressed, the areas in front of the buildings became more crowded.

This summer the group returned to Asbury Park. Due to construction on the facade of the historic Casino, the display was moved to the Boardwalk side, making it much more crowded. Well, that and they had the event in July rather than March, which is a much busier time of year for the Jersey Shore. This event, though, as the night got later, the crowds thinned and we were able to sit up front. Wishing we brought chairs or at least a blanket, but we made do.

Labor Day was late this year. For once it feel after my birthday, over the weekend of the 25th anniversary of 9/11. I wasn't fully up for the drive. The forecast was calling for rain around 11 pm, which would impact our drive home. It is a long drive up and back. Fortunately, Don stayed awake for the drive as I nodded off despite my best intentions.

On our drive home from Ontario this summer we discovered the Rustic Roost Cafe, a cheap diner serving American classics in a deeply red part of Pennsylvania with bathroom signs such as "wash your hands, both Jesus and germs are paying attention." Umm, okay. Cheap food. Dinner and dessert (a massive piece of chocolate peanut butter cake that was homemade) was only $32. A bargain these days. I kept my blue views quiet. Binghamton is only thirty minutes from there. 

The festival was much the same as the year before. Since learning about them in 2025 I signed up for their email list. Day of we received reminders about the forecast, and things not to miss. 

Both were extremely helpful.

On the things to not miss list was Singularity, a drone show performed three times that night inside the United Presbyterian Church. Don enjoyed it so much we went back for the 10:15 performance before heading home. I was more impressed by the UPCs Overnight Center, a three-month pilot program to provide a place for those without a place to sleep. The program is set to end on September 30. We sent a small donation. I hope they find a way to continue. I hope their mission inspires other communities. I hope we find an end for a need for such places.

We enjoyed the different outdoor shows. My favorite was E Pluribus Unum LUMA Celebrates 250 by Los Romeras featuring Michal Kawecki. It starts with hands clutching the columns, then tells the story of an immigrant family. This is repeated two more times with two more families. A European family, a Jewish family, a Black family immigrating from the South. It pulled at all the heartstrings. The others were also, good, but this one had the total package. Click HERE to see previews to feel like you were there.

Our timing was excellent. We were heading to the pedestrian bridge near where we parked our car when the first raindrops fell. The downpour did not hit until we were safely on the highway, they even paused as we dashed into the newly refurbished rest stop at the Pennsylvania border.

Some pictures from the day:

One of my favorites. We waited for this to come
up again so i could take a picture of it.

Heinz 57 Birthday

This year my birthday fell on a Sunday. The birthday itself felt like a bit of a boo hoo day. Nothing bad, but really nothing special happened. 

I recently read an Instagram story where the husband asks the wife what she wants for her birthday. She says nothing, and he takes her at her word. What she meant was she still wanted to feel special, but did not want to spend a lot of money to make that happen. Make it so she is not in charge of fixing dinner that night, have the kids make a homemade card, be a little extra nice. Make the day feel less like every other day.

That's how I felt this year.

I suggested a walk on the Asbury Park/Ocean Grove boardwalk. That morning I added in a trip to the new Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music. I also suggested lunch at the Starving Artist in Ocean Grove because I knew the longer day would make us both peckish. 

All to be capped off with dinner with mom at her house  which would be a little sad because it is the first one without dad being there, too. The first one with a card signed Love, mom, and not Love, mom and MNG. MNG stood for Mr. Nice Guy, one of dad's many nicknames.

What I wanted was for Don to call and make a lunch reservation so we didn't lose 30 minutes waiting for a table. I wanted the earrings he bought for me that are two weeks later are still sitting in a gift bag on the kitchen table (I picked them out a week earlier, he wants to swap the backs for the ladderbacks I prefer). I wanted him to pay for lunch, instead I paid half of it because the place prefers cash. Don has not paid me back. His response when I made a comment was "I could have charged it." That's besides the point. 

In the end, I didn't feel special on my special day.

The birthday greetings on Facebook, texts, and emails were lovely, but the wishes to have the best birthday ever sets the bar a little high.

Bruce Springsteen Center of American Music (at Monmouth University)

Not quite three months ago, the Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music opened on the campus of Monmouth University in Long Branch, NJ. Looking for something fun to do on my birthday, I suggested to Don that we add it into our already planned walk on the Asbury Park/Ocean Grove boardwalk. The boardwalk stroll has become something of a regular walk for us. So far this year, we went in February to see snow on the beach, on Mother's Day to spend time with Ashley, in July for the Color and Light Festival. It is just over an hour away by car and feels like a complete change of scenery.

I checked their website to see if there were tickets available, then suggested the outing to Don. It has been on our wish list since their June 13, 2026 grand opening. I was pleasantly surprised to see tickets available for every time slot despite it being Labor Day weekend.

By the time we drove to Ocean Grove, waited 30 minutes for lunch, and ate lunch, we arrived at the center with barely two hours to enjoy it. Based on things I had read, I thought that would be enough time. 

I was wrong.

A highlight of the museum (especially locals familiar with the area) is the 25-minute movie narrated by The Boss himself. Filmed over the winter in Asbury Park, it shows Springsteen driving familiar streets in his tiny two-seater convertible with the top up, stopping inside the Casino, a diner, and a record shop to talk about the trajectory of music. I know it was filmed in the winter because I saw snow on the Boardwalk, similar to our February visit.

The first floor has a rotating temporary exhibits in the far corner. We saw the exhibit entitled Chimes of Freedom: Protest, Patriotism, & the Power of Song dedicated to American protest music from 1776, when the patriots sang Yankee Doodle Dandy, to this year's Streets of Minneapolis, written and performed by Springsteen. Our nation has a long history of protest music.

The middle section is a high level room filled with evolution of American music over the centuries. In the Jon Landau American Music Gallery, I noted many of the iconic costumes are from Hard Rock International. The room brings to life the trajectory of American Music that Springsteen talks about in the movie. The roots of rock and roll stem from earlier musical influences including gospel, blues, spirituals, doo wop, jazz, country, hip-hop, etc. Each panel brings back memories. I did not see a Dolly Parton or Taylor Swift costume, both of which would fit in the room. There were a couple of items from Lady Gaga, Cher, and other superstars.

Upstairs on the Columbia records level is the Bruce Springsteen and the E Street
Band room with displays arranged by decade. These are the rooms most Springsteen fans travel to see as if it was a pilgrimage site. Well, to those traveling from afar, it is. People tour the museum, then head to the Shore to see the corner of E Street and 10th Avenue, the Stone Pony, and any other Boss reference they can think of. Inside are his Grammys and even his Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Don's favorite part was the exhibit highlighting Bruce's education, or rather his self-education. There is a table with raised shapes on it that change as Bruce talks about the books that most heavily influenced him. The room feels like a static library with pictures, and glass cases containing some of his influences. I wish I had brought my notebook to jot down titles. Don has always been impressed his wordsmithing, especially

considering he barely survived high school, and only went to the local community college for a semester (where he thrived in Creative Writing, and nothing else).

My big takeaway from the day was that Bruce
Springsteen was a packrat. The items inside the cases are all from his private collection, including keys from mid-level hotels he stayed at during his early tours. I shared a picture of his key collection on social media. Uncle Tom confirmed that was a thing in those days. Mom suggested women threw the hotel keys at him while he was on tour as an invitation. Elizabeth said she worked in a similar level hotel in the late 80s, early 90s, and said they had a key cutter in the back because keys always disappeared. Still, he saved these 50 years later not knowing someday they would be in a museum.

I am glad he saved the cheap notebooks he used to write music. His writing all his songs (seems he has the same process now) shows the evolution from the initial thought through minor changes in wording to the final product. Students will be studying his craft for decades.

In the corner is a room called "Inside the Magic" where his bandmates explain their role in the performance. You can even try to make sounds on a drum, keyboard, etc. It was lonely being in the room by myself. It begs for a group of friends to jam as they learn. Yes, there are headphones so the noise should not become too overwhelming.

A room we spent much too much time in
was "In Concert." On a very large screen a dozen (or so) of her concerts are projected in chronological order. The walls are filled with (silently) screaming fans holding signs and fully engaged in the moment. You can suspend belief and imagine yourself in the room where he is performing. The most recent was earlier in the year at Monmouth University.

In another corner are the archives. When purchasing your ticket you are given the option of archives, or no archives, with a time stamp. That feels intimidating. Both prices are the same. Select with archives. Don't worry about the time stamp unless they are crowded. Inside the room are fan scrapbooks you can touch. They remind me of the scrapbooks I created about my college years. Ones I have not looked at in years. They have newspaper and magazine articles, ticket stubs (remember those?), and other ephemera. There are also screens you can use to do a deeper dive into his music. Just add the archive room even if you only spend a few minutes inside it feeling overwhelmed, as I did.

I also enjoyed the room with famous portraits, such as ones that became album covers.

Downstairs there are large windows filled with proof that Bruce spent time performing at Monmouth University, plus his hard hat showing he was hands on with the building of the center. 

See, you need more than two hours if you want to feel completely immersed in the world of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.

Things that Unite Us

I feel like we are living in very divisive times. Times where no matter what I say, someone disagrees with me. I mean ADAMENTLY disagrees with me. The divisions make it hard to have a conversation with a new person. 

Here is my list of topics we can all agree on:

1) Dolly Parton was inspirational

2) Eclipses are cool

3) Betty White was sweet

4) We need to cocoon elderly icons, such as Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke so they can live longer

I'm not sure where to go with this list. We need to learn to listen to each other and have real conversations without screaming. 

It is hard.

While at a protest I spoke with a woman who shared a recent experience she had while traveling. She and her husband were overseas. They met another American couple about their age (I'm guessing in their 70s). The other couple was from Texas and the opposite of them politically. They had a debate. The other couple was willing to listen to views that were completely at odds with theirs. In the end, the Texas couple paid for the New Jersey couple's meal as they left. The staff commented they had never seen a dialogue like that and were in awe. I'm in awe each side could calmly share their views with the other. 

No matter where you stand on issues, I hope you can agree the nation is a mess. We need to come together to rebuild. It won't be quick, and it certainly won't be easy, but we owe it to ourselves to try.

Please list more uniting thoughts in the comments -- things we can all agree on.

Paramus Disney Store

Back in May Debbi told us Paramus would be getting a Disney Store. After college in early 1990's, Debbi worked for the Quaker Bridge Disney Store. She worked at Walt Disney World, too. Her favorite character is Figment.

The announcement about the Paramus store opening in the fall added that a store would be opening in Pittsburgh in May. Though we would be in Pittsburgh in May, we were leaving the day before the store opened. We did drive to the mall to see the outside for ourselves. 

There weren't any holes giving us a glimpse at the magic. The CBS news story said a child would be chosen to put the key in to unlock the the magic at 10 am. They also said there will be QR codes to book a time to enter the store. I'm happy to say the Paramus store did not involve that hoop for entering.

Fast forward to the fall. I learned the Paramus Disney Store would be opening on September 3. I read it would only be open for three weeks. Not sure where I read that, since other reports said it would be open through the holiday season, which makes much more sense. On our drive north, Debbi said the store won't open until 4 pm, or about 15 minutes after Mapquest said we would arrive.

The Paramus store is located inside Garden State Plaza, a far larger mall than the Ross Park Mall on the outskirts of Pittsburgh. I didn't give this plan much thought. After going to Frank's funeral the night before, seeing Don's busy work schedule, and knowing I potentially have jury duty the following week, I just made plans to drive up after having brunch with a different friend. Nothing like cramming too much into a day.

Debbi and Don were good sports about the drive. They also graciously accepted I was too tired for much more than driving to Paramus and back.

The wait was long and not well organized. In front of the store was a grid designed to resemble a theme park switchback line. The lines were too tight and narrow for strollers, and too flat to keep us from simply moving forward. Unnumbered blue wrist bracelets were handed out to prove you were in line. The line stretched past Macy's. I felt they were unprepared for the crowd since the line ended at Macy's, where two more lines formed to join the back of the official line. Perhaps we should have been given different colored wrist wraps, or something with numbers on them. 

We gave up on the chaos and merged into a hole in the official line while the cast member kept shrugging and saying "what do you expect me to do, I'm all alone." He had mall security with him to figure out the best way to organize a line. Finally they moved the line up to the second level and had it continue so they were not blocking the entrance to stores. I'll assume the line will not be this long again, though the Paramus malls did get super crowded in the holiday seasons of my youth.

While the grand opening ceremony was taking place, Debbi and I stood across the hall to watch. I did not notice a child with a large key, but other bloggers captured the moment a mini-Sleeping Beauty opened the store. Evidently, a child will be given this task every day. I'm glad to be past that stage in life where I drive my child to the mall in the hopes she is chosen.

Opening took place a few minutes after four. They kept the line moving fairly quickly. The line for the register also grew pretty quickly.

Now for the store. This write up from Disney Parks Blog is a lot more comprehensive and upbeat than I could ever be. We enjoyed the New Jersey theming attempts, even if we feel there is more to the Garden State than pizza and bagels. 

I did not appreciate the limited edition merchandise that was unveiled at D23. Evidently that and the Halloween merchandise were hot stuff. 

I saw the New Jersey themed t-shirts ($29.99) and flat tote bag ($24.99) and left them behind. The quality did not justify the prices. The Alice in Wonderland merchandise was harder to resist, but I did. The three of us, who 15 years ago I would have described as diehard Disney fans, all left empty-handed and a little sad. We were glad to see the store, but missed plush mountain and the Disney stores of the 1990s and early 2000s. According to this blog there are still 20 stores in the United States, mostly outlet stores, including one in Elizabeth, NJ at the Jersey Fresh Outlets. I thought all but the flagship location in New York City were closed.

We left happy that we made the trip. In true Disney fashion, as we waited Cast Members tried to make the line experience fun. They handed out green headbands with eyes on them from a movie I did not recognize, postcards, and Celebrating stickers. I was happy with the postcard. 

The spin through the store was a brief step back in time. That said, none of us plan on returning.