offManhattan

If you are a fan of American literature or if you went to high school at some point over the last 100 years, then you have read at least one or more of Mark Twain’s 30 books. Knowing him as a novelist, satirist, humorist, and worldwide lecturer, I was curious to explore the West Hartford home he lived in during his most productive period in the latter part of the 19th century. In a brief span of years, he wrote such classics as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, and The Prince and the Pauper, to name just a few.

There isn’t a bad seat in the house. When the lights turn vibrant colors, the dramatic music and the dancing on air begins, every person is pulled into the thrilling two-hour ride that is Cirque du Soleil. While it is usually better to be right up front in the action, beneath the Grand Chapiteau on Randall’s Island, the nosebleeds will do just as well. Save your extra penny for the chicken club panini.

Kooza is like stepping inside the mystical world of Narnia, except there are no Hollywood tricks, no superimposing, and the mostly adult crowd is whispering, “This reminds me of when I was a kid.” Between the Wheel of Death, the three contortionists, a Unicycle Duo, and the waggish charm of clowns, there is no time to check blackberry emails or worry about paying the bills.

The real magic of Cirque du Soleil is making a recession disappear for a night. Less than 10 minutes later, when you’re off the bus and back in Manhattan, the conversation is still about the tiny tattooed man who balanced on 10 chairs, the flying stilt-strapped performers, the peeing dog, the juggler…

If you get Steve Irwin-excited at the sight of sparrows, cardinals, and hawks in Central Park, flock to this shop in Mineola, Long Island for an exotic change of scenery. A fine feathered establishment since 1984, For Birds Only is best known for its stock of parrots, cockatiels, Parakeets and Lorikeets looking to have a good time.

The distinct cadence, tone, and mood of a spoken word performance transmits a certain sense of vitality and energy that the printed page cannot. And with the resurgence of Poetry Slams nationwide, many bars, cafes, and lounges in Brooklyn have emerged as the focal point of a vibrant literary scene, where patrons are reminded by local poets and writers that we all have something important to say.

The term “spoken word” was originally given to the visceral style of contemporary poetry during the 1990s, when the focus was on the performance and content of the production. Today, the term also covers the recital of prose narrative and monologue readings, which evoke the cultural values of Beat poets and writers like Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and William Burroughs. And while some fiction and poetry readers can be highly politicized, dramatizing racial, economic, and gender injustices, others try to dissolve the social and cultural boundaries that generalize the human experience. Whatever the case, all poets and writers are united by their drive to deliver a good story. Keeping this in mind, make your way to these five Brooklyn venues where delicious food and talented folks are sure to awaken your consciousness.

If I could personify spring, I’d make it a man. When the time arose for him and me to have a serious chat (right about now) I wouldn’t worry myself with texting, i.m.’s or an @tweet message. I’d go old-school and just dial his number. And when he answered, I’d say in my most serious tone, “We need to talk.” I’d tell Spring just how temp-eramental he is; one weekend he’s cold and windy as winter, while another he’s as hot and heavy as summer. That said, spring will start becoming more reliable soon, and when he does, four frolic-worthy places in Brooklyn will be waiting.

“Hiking Breakneck Ridge is easy. Lots of beginners do it,” my friend Jason assured me when I expressed reservations about scaling 1,260 feet of sheer rock in Hudson Highlands State Park. Putting uncertainties aside, on a bright Saturday in autumn, I traded in my ballet flats for hiking boots to tackle the steep and striking cliffs up north.

With its close proximity to New York City (only an eighty-minute train ride from Grand Central), stunning vistas of the Hudson, Storm King Mountain, Mount Taurus and West Point Academy, it’s no wonder why Breakneck Ridge is an immensely popular hiking destination for those seeking to escape the frenetic city pace, if just for a day.

If current economic conditions prevent you from jetting off to the Great Barrier Reef for a week of sailing, consider making the trek across the Hudson to New Jersey to perfect your scuba diving.

The Hoboken Dive Center, which opened in 1994, is a PADI shop offering diving certification classes and local dive trips. But what, you might wonder, is there to see underwater around here?

“There is as much sea life here as you’d see in the Caribbean,” said Sandy Shaw, the HDC manager and a dive enthusiast. “People are surprised.”

Harvest Day, Pocantico Hills, NY— On an early Friday morning in April, the farm is waking in intervals of snorts, squawks, chirps, gobbles, and baaahs. Inside the greenhouse, before the pruning farmhands arrive, sprinklers are pshhing over rows of lettuce, parsnips, carrots, rhubarb, and spinach. Situated on 80 acres of well-toiled land, Stone Barns Center for Agriculture and Food might at first sport all the characteristics of any other farm, but it hardly is.

“We’re trying to catalyze the different connections and interactions with the community, schools, and with the gardening public,” says Jack Algiere, the Center’s four season grower. Lily, his border collie, sits nearby with a recently fetched stick in her mouth while Jack explains how the farm is involved in ecologically sound practices. “Six acres of veggies and a half acre of greenhouse is really a pretty small farm. Yet this place is a lot more efficient, produces food for thousands in a single day. The problem with big farms is that they start to forget about the individual’s relationship to the earth, which is what makes us different.”