News That Matters - October 26, 2009

	Login |  Register
News That Matters Brought to you (Almost Daily) by PlanPutnam.Org
Contact Us  |  Shop Putnam  |  Putnam Outdoors  |  RSS Feed  |  Visit the Blog  |  Visit our Sponsor  |  Donate  |  Blogsite   |  Events
Sounds like you lie awake nights wondering if you might have insomnia. Good Monday Morning, "Why," someone asked the Congressman, "do you pay less for health insurance than I do?" "Because," he answered," I'm in a pool with 3,000,000 employees and our purchasing power drives the cost down." Then the gentleman went on to say he was still  against the government involving itself with health insurance and that he feared for the nation. Huh. I don't get it. I do not understand the logic behind those who stand against significant reform of our profit-driven health care system by adding a non-profit sector to it with the power to bring millions into the pool thus lowering health care costs for everyone. It's clear some of these folks have been duped by the private insurers and their allies in Congress but please, step back for a minute and THINK! If you're defending capitalism, what's more capitalist than competition? And, if the government drives private insurance companies out of business by offering better service at a lower price, ain't that the way the game is played? (And don't give me this stuff about "even playing fields" as that's anti-capitalist. It's sink or swim that would make Adam Smith proud.) What's wrong with keeping those profits ourselves and, rather than paying billions in advertising and bonuses and dividends, that money went directly back into health care? This past Saturday saw a candidate's forum at the Sedgewood Club in Kent. A hearty mazel tov goes out to organizer Ted May and the Sedgewood community for coming out to hear what we candidates had to say. And for the delicious cookies. If you happen to be in Carmel this afternoon at around 1PM, Lori Kemp goes to court again to defend herself in a charge against her of, well, it's hard to say. One of the guys doing blasting on her property line was on her side of the line and all hell broke loose and now - believe it or not - she's been charged with a crime for defending what is hers. Of course, had the Town and county been progressive about these things we'd not be here now but seeing as they're owned hook, line and sinker by out-of-town developers she hasn't a chance in the world. Now the question is: can she get a fair trial? Check it out this afternoon and see. Net Neutrality: We've talked about this before. This is where the telecoms cannot  create different levels of charges for use of the 'net depending on how you use it and where you go. Your kid, upstairs downloading illegal music is using tons of bandwidth so you say, "sure, he should pay more", and all is fine until you download that Tom Waits album from Amazon and get hit with the same bandwidth charges. Your aunt Ida loves to browse people's vacation pictures on Flickr and when her 'net bill comes she's shocked at the costs but you, you like doing the same but at Picasa and there's no such charge for you. Why? Because Verizon (or whomever your 'net host is) has an agreement with Picasa and not with Flickr. Do you have a popular website that sells your business or pushes your hobby to other enthusiasts? Wait until you get the bill from your ISP for all those people who visited! And that friend of yours, the one who keeps sending you those 2 megabyte treacly sweet pictures of puppies dressed as Hollywood actresses.... it's going to get expensive every time one shows up in your inbox. Imagine Verizon (or Comcast or whatever they're called now) monitoring every mouse-click and metering every bit and byte that comes either from your machine or enters it and charges you depending on where you're going and what you're doing there. And imagine the confusion if you paid more for visiting this website as opposed to that one? Net Neutrality is designed to prevent any of that from happening by continuing to treat the ''net as a single - level field - as it should be. Here are the current FCC guidelines: "Consumers are entitled to access the lawful Internet content of their choice." "Consumers are entitled to run applications and use services of their choice, subject to the needs of law enforcement." "Consumers are entitled to connect their choice of legal devices that do not harm the network." "Consumers are entitled to competition among network providers, application and service providers, and content providers." Here are the two new "principals" they announced the other day: Nondiscrimination This sort of overlaps with the existing rules, in that it forbids providers from "favoring or disfavoring lawful content, applications, or services accessed by their subscribers, subject to reasonable network management." Transparency Providers must disclose to customers their network management policies before the customer signs up for service. Providers must also disclose their network management policies to content, application, and service providers, as well as to the FCC. Not surprisingly, the telecommunications industry is going insane trying to squeeze a few more dollars out of you even if it means the ruination of the 'net as we know it. Virtual monopolies don't care. Senator John McCain, a recipient of almost $900,000 in donations from the telecoms, has become their national spokesman. The Obama adminstration, contrary to the assertion that it's full of fascists kicking dogs and kidnapping school girls, is doing its best to enforce the fairness and openness that made the internet the democratic institution it is today. Write to Congressman Hall and tell him you support Net Neutrality. You know it's winter when the Pleiades is in the evening sky in the east. Looking below this most excellent little gem of an asterism which marks the shoulder of Taurus, rises his v-shaped head, giant against the horizon. And, if you're out late enough, the hunter Orion, shield and sword at the ready, rises next. At his feet sits his faithful hunting dog and right behind him, forever threatening an attack is Scorpio the Scorpion. All together the story is told: Orion must forever protect himself from both a charging bull and the sting of a scorpion. It's a tough spot to be in! And lastly, if you head outside this evening take a look at the moon. That bright star right next to it in conjunction is Jupiter and both make a fine target for amateurs with binoculars or telescopes. Early in the mornings Mercury is up in the eastern sky, alone in the growing glare of the sun. News That Matters is taking a break until after the election. I'm wiped out. Working, putting the three hours each issue into this and trying to get elected to the Town Board... Yikes! Something has to give. I have to eat and I have to pay the landlord so he can pay the taxes and I have to get elected. And though News That Matters and its past incarnations (10 years running!) is my passion it's going to have to wait a week or so. There will be something next Monday but there will be no issue this Wednesday nor on Friday so you'll have to keep yourselves entertained this weekend. Get out and take a hike. See the new Coen brother's movie. Volunteer to canvass with my campaign. Just do something! However, up in Pawling, the West Point Woodwind Quintet of the USMA Band will perform on Sunday at 3 pm at the Holy Trinity Church, 22 Coulter Ave, Pawling, NY. Be there! And tell the Peters' I sent you. And now, The News: Putnam man killed in Greene County crash Columbia County explores government energy savings Water Bottle Deposit To Start Oct. 31 Food Advocates Envision Rooftop Gardens and Vertical Farms Growing season Miami takes "giant step" toward being pedestrian-oriented city 2 Days, 3 Nights, on a Path Named for a Devil Putnam man killed in Greene County crash HUNTER – A Lake Carmel man was killed in a one-crash crash early Sunday morning in the Town of Hunter, State Police at Catskill reported.   Joshua Menzie, 42, of Lake Carmel was a passenger in a car driven by Eric Powell, 41, of Tannersville. Menzie was pronounced dead at the scene, troopers said. At about 4:15 a.m., Powell was driving southbound on Greene County Route 16, Platte Clove Road, when the car ran off the road and struck a utility pole. Powell and a second passenger, Edmond Peyroux, 32, of Tannersville, were transported to Albany Medical Center and admitted with internal injuries. Read More Columbia County explores government energy savings HUDSON – Columbia County has teamed up with the New York State Research and Development Authority to conduct a study to determine potential cost savings in its government facilities. The several month long examination has been completed by the engineering form of Wendell Energy services. The study looked at nine county buildings – Pine Haven Nursing Home, 560 Warren Street, County Treasurer’s Office, the County Courthouse at 401 Union Street, 401 State Street, 325 Columbia Street, the Public Safety Building, Commerce Park waste water treatment plant, and 23B Highway Garage. Read More Water Bottle Deposit To Start Oct. 31 The state can start collecting 5-cent deposits on bottles of water on Oct. 31, a federal judge ruled Friday. U.S. District Court Judge Deborah Batts lifted an injunction late Friday that had held up the state’s attempt to start the so-called Bigger, Better Bottle Bill, which will allow for the state’s deposit law to be extended to bottles of water. Environmental groups hailed the judge’s decision, saying it will provide incentives for people to return empty bottles of water. “Adding a deposit on water bottles will result in higher recycling rates and noticeably cleaner communities,” said Laura Haight, senior environmental associate with the New York Public Interest Research Group. Read More Food Advocates Envision Rooftop Gardens and Vertical Farms By Bao Ong New Yorkers flock to one of the city’s Greenmarkets or upscale grocery stores when they want to buy ripe heirloom tomatoes or crisp heads of lettuce. But for proponents of urban farming, local food from upstate or even just miles into New Jersey is too far. (City dwellers can relate.) Urban farming may seem improbable in a metropolis where real estate is at a premium and green space is virtually nonexistent outside Central Park. But as Americans grow increasingly interested in where their food comes from and how it is grown in this Michael Pollan-inflected era, small plots of farms dotting New York’s rooftops could be the new wave of agriculture, according to urban planning experts and farmers. “People care deeply about being green,” said Jennifer Nelkin, a greenhouse director and one of the founders of a small company called Gotham Greens. “Whether it’s the food, environment, renewable energy or any other issue, people want to do something to help out.” Read More Growing season Galvanized by the local food movement, 20-somethings are turning to small farms to make a fresh start By Mara Lee Sunday, October 25, 2009 On a sunny morning in July, Alicia Jabbar's tank top is wet with sweat along her spine from the nape of her neck to the small of her back. She climbs onto the horizontal ledges at the bottom of a metal stake next to an ankle-high tomato plant. Jabbar, who's wearing two ponytails under a baseball cap, has to use all of her body weight to push the stake into the earth. When she's done with a row, she stands on tiptoes in her running shoes to drop a metal cylinder with two handles on the top of each stake. Clang. Clang. Clang. Clang. The noise echoes off the trees. "Twelve more rows," she says. "What time is it?" her friend Jessica Stanley calls. She's busy looping string from a box at her waist around the stakes to support the tomato plants. "Ten-thirty, and we're halfway done," Jabbar, 26, replies. They've been working since 7 a.m. and staking for the past two hours. "Sore back?" Stanley says with a sigh: "There's no way to avoid it. I try to move my hands in a different way -- doesn't matter. Well, I guess I'll pound with you." Stanley, 26, who's working in a camisole tank top, lives in an uninsulated barn on the farm and spends more than 50 hours a week weeding, mulching, harvesting and selling at farmers markets. Just a year ago, she was making $110,000 a year at Cisco Systems in Herndon, often telecommuting from the two-bedroom condo she owns in Georgetown. Now, she makes $7 an hour. She and Jabbar, along with Jabbar's fiance, Steve Hirschhorn, work for Chip and Susan Planck on Wheatland Vegetable Farms in Loudoun County. Read More Miami takes "giant step" toward being pedestrian-oriented city Historic adoption makes Miami largest city to replace auto-oriented conventional zoning with new urbanist code After a 4-1 vote by city commissioners, the city will no longer have the conventional zoning code that helped make much of the city chiefly navigable by car and created harsh juxtapositions between new high-rises and existing fabric such as bungalows and small storefront buildings. Replacing it city-wide is a new urbanist form-based code — based on the Smartcode model code template — that calls for convenient, walkable neighborhoods and gentler transitions between high-intensity and lower-scaled development. The new code known as Miami 21 "promises a healthier city and friendlier walking corridors," reported the Miami Herald in its coverage of the vote. The new code will take effect 120 days after passage. The vote was a major victory for Miami's visionary Mayor Manny Diaz, who said the results of the new code will one day invite Miami to be considered alongside cities such as Chicago, New York, and even Paris that are famed for world-class urban neighborhoods. "I'm going to tell you that history will judge us right,'' he said. Read More 2 Days, 3 Nights, on a Path Named for a Devil By STEPHEN REGENOLD NIGHTFALL came after the rain had stopped, and in the wet woods columns of fog twisted around dripping trees. It was 10 p.m. on a summer Friday, the forest moonless and still at the trailhead to the Devil’s Path. An opening in the woods off the parking lot looked like a dark door. Beyond, a small trail edged into the night, its route unseen. The Devil’s Path, an east-to-west voyage along the spine of the Catskills, is often cited as the toughest hiking trail in the East. In 25 miles it ascends six major peaks, plunging into deep valleys between climbs. “From end to end the Devil’s Path is one of the more challenging trails around,” said Josh Howard, a director at the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference, which publishes detailed maps of area trails, including the Devil’s Path. Backpackers hoping to complete the route face a total climb and descent of more than 14,000 feet. Steep ascents include cliff bands and traverse terrain that is vertical enough at times to be confused with a mountain climb. “It’s straight up and straight down, and then you do it over again,” said Mr. Howard, 33, who once hiked the entire trail in a one-day feat of endurance. Read More	Sign up to have News That Matters Delivered to your email inbox! Email: Support Our Sponsors! Joe Greico's Out On A Limb All types of tree work, all aspects of lawn maintenance, snow plowing, lot clearing, excavation, retaining walls, stump grinding. Firewood! 82 Hortontown Rd. Kent Cliffs, NY 10512 greico@verizon.net T- (914)224-3049 F- (845)231-0815 TaconicArts.com Interior/Exterior House Painting by someone you can trust. (845) 225-2104 jeff@taconicarts.com
Copyright © 2009 News That Matters

News That Matters - October 23, 2009 - Things To Do Edition

	Login |  Register
News That Matters Brought to you (Almost Daily) by PlanPutnam.Org
Contact Us  |  Shop Putnam  |  Putnam Outdoors  |  RSS Feed  |  Visit the Blog  |  Visit our Sponsor  |  Donate  |  Blogsite   |  Events
Good Friday Morning, Soupy Sales has died at 83. By now pretty much anyone with a light-colored house has already had the vacuum out sucking up lady bugs.  It's an annual event where those little guys are doing nothing more than looking for a warm, snug place to spend the winter. I really don't mind all that much but it's when they get in my food that things go bad. Their natural protection is a stink that not only smells bad but tastes even worse and just one in a glass of water will ruin the taste - and man, you know it! Heteronyms: These are those troublesome words that mean one thing when pronounced one way but something else when pronounced the other. Think "digest". It's either a collection of published materials, i.e., Reader's Digest, or it's what goes on in our stomachs after we eat. Try, "minute". Is that tiny or 60 seconds? One more: "sewer". That's either what your mom is when she's darning your socks or where your poop goes if you live in the city. But wait! Let's make it even more complex... what if we change capitalization on a word? Then we get Polish, someone from Poland, or polish, what you do to your shoes just before heading out to work. That should help you all perfect the perfect sentence. Filmmaker Mark Doerrier captures some of the musical talent that performs at The Towne Crier cafe in Pawling, the region's only such performance space. If you have access to a fast 'net connect, check out his you-tube page for some clips. Note: If you want your event posted here, please don't send a PDF or a JPG file. It's truly difficult to transcribe what could be sent out as a simple text message. While those posters may look nice, they take up bandwidth and clog up some people's email boxes. So, if your stuff ain't here, that may be the reason! Oh, and while we're at it, if your event is in February and you send it to me now, odds are it's going to get lost in the fray. But do try to get it over my way about a week or so in advance. Tonight The City, the Country, and the Changing Environment 7 PM - What do the city of Poughkeepsie and a family farm in Claverack have in common? How do their histories reveal both the power of place and the dynamic exchange between the city and the country? Professor Emeritus of Vassar, Dr. Harvey Flad, and award-winning author Leila Philip, will discuss their recently published books: Main Street to Mainframes: Landscape and Social Change in Poughkeepsie, and A Family Place: A Hudson Valley Farm, Three Centuries, Five Wars, One Family. The lecture will document both the history of Poughkeepsie and the story of one of the oldest surviving family-owned farms in the Hudson Valley. A Q&A session will engage the audience in dialogue about how lessons from the past can help shape a strong future for the Hudson Valley. This event will meet in our auditorium, located at 2801 Sharon Turnpike (Route 44) in Millbrook, New York. Merritt Bookstore will be offering books for sale. Come Back To The Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean 8 PM - Confronting illusions about oneself is never easy but ultimately cathartic when done in the company of those that know and love us best. In Ed Gracyzk’s deeply affecting memory play, Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, past collides with present as members of the Disciples of James Dean fan club come together for their 20th reunion. Presented by the Brewster Theater Company, show dates are October 16th, 17th, 23rd and 24th at 8 p.m. at The Melrose School, 120 Federal Road, Brewster, NY. Saturday Great Swamp Art Show and Celebration 11AM - Join Friends of the Great Swamp for their annual Art Show and Celebration at the Christ Church in Pawling, up on Quaker Hill. It's free and open to the public and a great deal of fun. Trust me on that. Lake Carmel Cleanup Day 9 AM - 12 Noon - The park district has lowered the lake for the winter so now is a good time to get out there and clean up all the crap that's fallen in there. Volunteers will meet at Beach 3. Liberia and the American Colonization Society 1 PM - Lecture in cooperation with Southeast Museum – “Liberia and the American Colonization Society “ by Mr. Ron Soodalter (free) Sponsored by the Putnam Arts Council. Kent Candidates Forum 3PM - At the Sedgewood Club. This event - open to the public - is to meet and greet the candidates running for various offices around Kent. Feel free to drop in at the boathouse. It's casual. Who Does She Think She Is 7PM - Tilly Foster Farm. Sponsored by the Putnam Arts Council. Who Does She Think She Is? is a feature-length documentary that explores the lives of five women artists who are also mothers. In the film, each of the women sustains the competing claims on her heart despite financial hardship, institutional disinterest, and lack of support. Historically, women have not been able to mother and make art--neither pay. So how do these women do it? And why should it matter to us? Who Does She Think She Is? tells the story of ordinary women who pursue their calling--at a price--but for whom art has the power to transform their lives, and perhaps ours, into a deeper experience of living. The film was produced by Mystic Artists in collaboration with the Wellesley Centers for Women. Come Back To The Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean 8 PM - Confronting illusions about oneself is never easy but ultimately cathartic when done in the company of those that know and love us best. In Ed Gracyzk’s deeply affecting memory play, Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, past collides with present as members of the Disciples of James Dean fan club come together for their 20th reunion. Presented by the Brewster Theater Company, show dates are October 16th, 17th, 23rd and 24th at 8 p.m. at The Melrose School, 120 Federal Road, Brewster, NY. Sunday Great Swamp Art Show and Celebration Noon - Join Friends of the Great Swamp for their annual Art Show and Celebration at the Christ Church in Pawling, up on Quaker Hill. It's free and open to the public and a great deal of fun. Trust me on that. Artist's Walk and Talk The Cary Institute will be displaying landscape artist Rebecca Allan's current exhibition, Tributary, through January 17th, 2010. Encompassing large canvases as well as works on paper, the paintings represent wetland habitats, including the Wappinger Creek—a tributary of the Hudson River that runs through the Cary Institute’s campus. Viewing hours are Monday through Friday (8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m) in our auditorium lobby. Artwork in the exhibition is available for purchase; a percentage of the proceeds will help support the Cary Institute. Interested in meeting the artist? On Sunday, October 25th Allan will present an artist’s talk followed by a short walk to the Fern Glen, a site of inspiration for one of the central paintings in the exhibition. To RSVP for this special event, please contact Pamela Freeman at (845) 677-7600 x121 or e-mail freemanp@caryinstitute.org. Into the Future: Wednesday, October 28 Kent Candidates Forum 7 PM - Join the Lake Carmel Park District at the community center for their annual Candidate's Forum. 10 Huguenot Road. There will be opportunity to meet & greet the candidates. All residents are welcome. A Special Evening of Science and Music Hudson Valley Science Café Topic:  "Song culture and song learning in songbirds" Presenter: Ofer Tchernichovski, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Biology, City University of New York PLUS:  Music and comments by David Rothenberg and Timothy Hill. David Rothenberg is professor of philosophy and music at the New Jersey Institute of Technology and author of Why Birds Sing (Basic Books, 2005).  He was the editor of the MIT Press journal Terra Nova: Nature and Culture. David Rothenberg is also a composer and jazz clarinetist, and he has six CDs out under his own name, one of which was named one of the top ten releases of 1995 by Jazziz magazine.  Timothy Hill is a singer, songwriter, guitarist and pianist, in jazz, folk, and world music. He has produced three CDs of his music and appears on eight recordings by David Hykes and The Harmonic Choir, and as a guest vocalist on other recordings. Hill performs his music frequently, and has appeared at Sin-e, Fez, Mercury Lounge, The Living Room, and Joe's Pub, alongside artists such as Jeff Buckley, Susan McKeown, Martha Wainwright, and Teddy Thompson. Hudson Valley Science Café usually meets on the 4th Wednesday of the month, except where noted.  Website: http://www.cafescientifique.org/hudsonvalley.htm Meeting site: Diana's, 1015 Little Britain Road (Route 207), New Windsor (just east of Stewart Newburgh Airport, on the opposite side of the road from the airport entrance). See  http://www.DIANASNY.com for menus and map. $3.00 admission fee includes coffee or tea. If you arrive at 6 PM, you can order from the Early Bird menu. No orders are taken during the Presentation (7:00-7:30).	Sign up to have News That Matters Delivered to your email inbox! Email: Support Our Sponsors! Joe Greico's Out On A Limb All types of tree work, all aspects of lawn maintenance, snow plowing, lot clearing, excavation, retaining walls, stump grinding. 82 Hortontown Rd. Kent Cliffs, NY 10512 greico@verizon.net T- (914)224-3049 F- (845)231-0815 TaconicArts.com Interior/Exterior House Painting by someone you can trust. (845) 225-2104 jeff@taconicarts.com
Copyright © 2009 News That Matters

News That Matters - October 21, 2009

	Login |  Register
News That Matters Brought to you (Almost Daily) by PlanPutnam.Org
Contact Us  |  Shop Putnam  |  Putnam Outdoors  |  RSS Feed  |  Visit the Blog  |  Visit our Sponsor  |  Donate  |  Blogsite   |  Events
"We must believe in luck. For how else can we explain the success of those we don't like?" - Jean Cocteau Good Wednesday Morning, Local politics are certainly heating up! Over the past few days large billboards have sprung up all over the Town of Kent asking, no, telling voters to vote no on a ballot proposition that would extend the term of our Supervisor from two years to four years. On the billboards is a website address that brings folks to what amounts to a duplicate of the billboards with no other information provided. The first one I saw was on Lloyd Shulman's property along Route 52 but they're pretty pervasive now. As has become sadly typical in these things, the web domain has no name associated with it and hence I can give no credence to whomever is behind the campaign. Come on folks, that's just chickensh*t. If you're going to take a position on a political issue at least have the nerve to put your name on it! And one more thing, if you post to the blog please don't use ALL CAPS. IT'S ANNOYING and believe it or not, articles titled in ALL CAPS are LESS READ than those using proper capitalization. People just assume you've little to say and are trying to draw attention. Thanks. For those who might have missed it, there was a special edition of News That Matters yesterday which reported on a Domestic Violence event hosted by the Westchester/Putnam Women's Center that took place on Monday night in Carmel. A link to that is here. The Sheriff's candidates went at it again last night at the Carmel/Kent Chamber's candidate's forum at McCarthy's in Kent. They came late, well after the rest of us had given our presentations and were getting ready to leave. In the end I think the best way to go is to have them duel with blunderbusses at ten paces. If they kill each other then *I* get to be Sheriff. Now, wouldn't that be something? Anyway, that's it for this morning. Yeah, short and sweet. And now, The News: On The Constitutionality of Campaign Sign Laws Farms to receive federal solar energy systems installation grants Regional solar development effort gains more federal funding Paterson Raids Clean Energy Funds to Fill Budget Gap PTSD diagnosis reform pushed by Hall Northwestern 'Innocence Project' students slapped with subpoena A particle God doesn’t want us to discover On The Constitutionality of Campaign Sign Laws 15 October 2009 Town of Carmel Attorney Gregory Folchetti, 60 McAlpin Avenue Mahopac, N.Y.10541 Dear Mr. Folchetti, We have learned that the Town of Carmel’s ordinance includes a provision that imposes certain limitations on the posting of political signs on residential property.  This ordinance sets a time restriction on allowing the posting of signs 15 days prior to an event and removal 6 days after. I refer to Chapter 156 of the Town Code of the Town of Carmel, Section 156-41A (5)(c)[1] The Town’s ordinance violates the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article I, §11 of the New York State Constitution, the New York State counterpart to the First Amendment. A political yard sign is a classic example of the core political speech that is at the heart of the First Amendment’s guarantee of the right to free expression.  Read More Farms to receive federal solar energy systems installation grants MILTON – More than $371,000 in federal loans and grants will be provided to 10 farms in the region to install solar energy systems and make other renewable upgrades that will help them cut their energy consumption. The funds were announced by Congressman Maurice Hinchey while at a media event at Sunshine Orchards in Milton on Monday. “New York is clearly establishing itself as a leader when it comes to solar energy research and development and this funding demonstrates how those solar products are being put to practical use,” said Hinchey. Read More Regional solar development effort gains more federal funding KINGSTON – An additional $2.25 million in federal money has been secured to support The Solar Energy Consortium’s efforts in the Hudson Valley. Congressman Maurice Hinchey, who spearheaded the solar energy efforts in the region, announced that at a Hudson Valley Solar Energy Summit held in Kingston. The new money now brings to close to $30 million, the amount he has secured for The Solar Energy Consortium. According to Hinchey the efforts of TSEC have already brought in around 200 jobs and there is a high likelihood that number will increase significantly over the next few years. “You need money to bring in corporations and you need money to stimulate and develop new technology,” said Hinchey. “The money is being used to generate new technology, new ideas, new economic stimulation, and most importantly new jobs for the people here.” Read More Paterson Raids Clean Energy Funds to Fill Budget Gap As part of Governor Paterson’s $5 billion deficit reduction plan, the Governor proposes sweeping $90 million from the pool of auction proceeds generated by New York’s role in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) and cutting the Environmental Protection Fund by $10 million. While we’ve come to expect cuts to the State’s environmental fund, the RGGI raid was a surprise. As far as we’re concerned, using RGGI monies for anything other than energy efficiency or clean energy development is a big mistake. Environmental and energy groups called on the Governor to back off his misguided plan to send RGGI monies into the black hole that is the State’s general fund. Click here to read the groups’ statement. Doing so sets a dangerous precedent for the nation’s first-ever plan to reduce global warming. While this one-time contribution may help balance New York State’s budget in the short run, it pales in comparison to the long-term job creation and investment benefits, as well as reductions in climate-altering greenhouse gas emissions, the monies would have achieved. Years of research related to the development of the RGGI showed that the program’s success hinges on the wise use of revenue generated by allowance auctions. The Governor’s proposal jeopardizes the success of this critical program and serves as a bad example to other cash-strapped states. Read More PTSD diagnosis reform pushed by Hall WAPPINGERS FALLS – There is no arguing that cutting through red tape to gain approval for a diagnosis for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is a top priority. Congressman John Hall hosted a series of roundtable discussions with Hudson Valley veterans on Monday, one in Wappingers Falls, to hear opinions about a rule change proposed by the Department of Veterans Affairs that would make it easier for veterans suffering from PTSD to receive their benefits. Hall will then take the input of Hudson Valley veterans to the VA while comments are still being considered pending the release of a final regulation. It was Hall’s COMBAT Act H.R. 952 that first called for reform to the current rules and ultimately inspired the VA to draft a proposal of new regulations. If a serviceman or woman comes back from Iraq or Afghanistan and is diagnosed with PTSD, currently, the law requires that they prove a connection to a specific battle or an attack or a medal or some incident,” said Hall. “If you served in the uniform in a war zone and you come back and have that diagnosed from a psychiatrist or psychologist, you have nothing more to prove,” he said. Read More Northwestern 'Innocence Project' students slapped with subpoena County prosecutors in Illinois have subpoenaed the grades, notes, recordings, and electronic correspondence of journalism students who have been gathering evidence that could exonerate a convicted criminal defendant, the Chicago Tribune reported. A judge will consider the evidence uncovered by students at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism during an upcoming hearing to decide whether Anthony McKinney, who has been incarcerated for 31 years after being convicted of murder, should receive a new trial. The university turned over the recordings of witness interviews, but is fighting the request for materials relating to the class itself. Professors involved with the project and press advocates told the Tribune the subpoena was an attempt to discredit the project, which has helped free 11 wrongfully convicted defendants since its inception in 1999. The prosecutors in the case have asserted that the Medill students and their professor are not journalists and that their work is therefore not protected by an Illinois law that protects journalists from subpoenas. Read More A particle God doesn’t want us to discover Could the Large Hadron Collider be sabotaging itself from the future, as some physicists say By Jonathan Leake Explosions, scientists arrested for alleged terrorism, mysterious breakdowns — recently Cern’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has begun to look like the world’s most ill-fated experiment. Is it really nothing more than bad luck or is there something weirder at work? Such speculation generally belongs to the lunatic fringe, but serious scientists have begun to suggest that the frequency of Cern’s accidents and problems is far more than a coincidence. The LHC, they suggest, may be sabotaging itself from the future — twisting time to generate a series of scientific setbacks that will prevent the machine fulfilling its destiny. At first sight, this theory fits comfortably into the crackpot tradition linking the start-up of the LHC with terrible disasters. The best known is that the £3 billion particle accelerator might trigger a black hole capable of swallowing the Earth when it gets going. Scientists enjoy laughing at this one. This time, however, their ridicule has been rather muted — because the time travel idea has come from two distinguished physicists who have backed it with rigorous mathematics. Read More	Sign up to have News That Matters Delivered to your email inbox! Email: Support Our Sponsors! TaconicArts.com Interior/Exterior House Painting by someone you can trust. (845) 225-2104 jeff@taconicarts.com Joe Greico's Out On A Limb All types of tree work, all aspects of lawn maintenance, snow plowing, lot clearing, excavation, retaining walls, stump grinding. 82 Hortontown Rd. Kent Cliffs, NY 10512 greico@verizon.net T- (914)224-3049 F- (845)231-0815
Copyright © 2009 News That Matters

News That Matters - October 20, 2009 - Domestic Violence

	Login |  Register
News That Matters Brought to you (Almost Daily) by PlanPutnam.Org
Contact Us  |  Shop Putnam  |  Putnam Outdoors  |  RSS Feed  |  Visit the Blog  |  Visit our Sponsor  |  Donate  |  Blogsite   |  Events
Good Tuesday Morning, A not-so-funny thing happened on my way to a town board meeting last night. Michele Renee asked me to stop in at a candlelight vigil for the victims of Domestic Violence hosted by the Putnam/Westchester Women's Resource Center. I joined County DA Adam Levy, Carmel council candidate Greg Ellner, Sheriff Don Smith, Senator Vincent Leibell and 50 other citizens on the steps of the County courthouse where the event began. Traffic slowed while the Sheriff led those in attendance in a prayer. A young man played Amazing Grace on the bagpipes then led us slowly up Route 52 and down Fair Street, candles a-glow, where we gathered at the Knights of Columbus Hall. Knowing I was now late for the Town Board meeting I had planned to attend, I kept my eyes on the clock ready to head out as soon as there was a break in the presentations that would allow me to escape politely. But once Sarah, a DV survivor, began to speak there was no leaving. Sarah told the crowd about her experience trying to live her life with an abusive spouse and the Kafkaesque existence that followed: being shuttled with her young child and dogs from this house to that, her run-in with Child Protective Services, her endless filing of police reports, her tenuous relationship with her employer as she left work for court,  constantly running to court, how her orders of protection were rarely enforced as neighbors and friends called her - rather than the police - to alert her to her partner's whereabouts. The audience sat riveted to their seats listening to this genuine nightmare-tale. Following Sarah's story was a presentation of two stories from the recently performed "Rug Room Monologues" put on by the Carmel High School drama group two weekends ago that featured a story from a young woman about physical and verbal abuse and another about trying to hold a life together through it all. The monologues were moving and the audience sat silently listening to words we hoped we would never have to hear especially voiced by those so young. Then came the reading of names of those who have been killed through acts of domestic violence. Look, DV is one of those 'silent crimes' we only hear about when something over-the-top happens like a murder or a beating that requires hospitalization or we end up with a dead child. But there's more to it than that and  it's more insidious - and more common - than you might think. I'm willing to bet we all know someone who has been victimized but has never reported nor done anything about it. It's not just about physical violence: The woman who controls her husband by constantly telling him he's not as good as other men, doesn't earn enough to maintain her desired lifestyle, that she'd leave him and take everything if they didn't have children. The man who incessantly belittles his son for not being good enough in sports or for his sexual orientation. These things hurt people. It stunts their personal growth and destroys their self-worth and in the end we all end up paying the price. It's not just the poor. It's everyone across the entire demographic spectrum of earnings, race, religion and age. Elder abuse is a serious - and growing - problem in the United States as the stress of taking care of an elderly parent or relation becomes more common. A Scarsdale lawyer is just as apt as is a laborer from Lake Peekskill. It's not just women who are being abused. Men are just as susceptible to abuse from their female or male partners. We don't hardly ever hear about it because our culture does not allow men to be victimized by women but it happens more than you think and it's just as insidious, just as dangerous and just as bad. It's not just married couples. It's families: the bully sibling. The controlling mother or father or in-law. It's dating couples and co-habitating couples of any age. And by extension, it's any inter-personal relationship; Your friends are just as apt to use physical or emotional coercion as are members of your family. Have you ever been pushed or hit by a partner? Have they ever threatened suicide, personal injury or abandonment to get what they want? Has anyone ever controlled your paycheck insisting they know better? Has anyone ever prevented you - by physical or emotional means - from seeing friends or family? Has a partner ever texted or phoned or emailed you 10, 20 or more times in an hour to get your attention for no apparent reason? But if its violence you want: A woman is more likely to be killed by someone she knows than a man is killed by a stranger. About one-in-three women are abused by a boyfriend or spouse. While alcohol or drug abuse may seem the obvious cause of abuse, there are no numbers to correlate that: Abuse happens whether altered or not. One in ten teens report being verbally abused by a boyfriend or girlfriend to an extreme, four in ten, physically. In 2008, Domestic Violence hot lines in New York fielded over 18,000 calls. These are the people who called for help. We don't know how many never call but the numbers suggest it's significantly more. And the state's domestic violence prevention website handled almost 700,000 requests for information last year alone. As the economic downturn affects us more and more each day and the stress of just paying the bills becomes more acute, we know that cases of DV are going to increase. Keep your eyes open. The charming man or woman your son or daughter is with *is capable* of acts of DV regardless of their outward appearance. If you feel at all threatened by someone you are with, take a step back and think: are they trying to control me through emotional means? Is your rough-play mutual and well intentioned or is it an outlet for anger and frustration or control? If you've been victimized the bravest thing you can do is seek help, clarification or information. No one needs to be treated this way, you most of all. This coming Friday evening, October 23, the Women's Resource Center is holding it's annual fundraiser, "Singing For Our Lives" at the Town Crier Cafe in Pawling. Tickets are $35, $40 at the door. More information can be found here. (PDF) JmG	Sign up to have News That Matters Delivered to your email inbox! Email:
Copyright © 2009 News That Matters

News That Matters - October 19, 2009

	Login |  Register
News That Matters Brought to you (Almost Daily) by PlanPutnam.Org
Contact Us  |  Shop Putnam  |  Putnam Outdoors  |  RSS Feed  |  Visit the Blog  |  Visit our Sponsor  |  Donate  |  Blogsite   |  Events
"Hipsters, flipsters and finger-poppin' daddies: knock me your lobes." - Lord Buckley. Good Monday Morning, Now that we've all had a taste of winter perhaps it's time to take sealing up and sprucing up your home a little more seriously. As well, it's firewood time and before the price skyrockets come November, perchance it's best to put your order in now. Supporting our sponsors is a good thing for you - and them. If you think Domestic Violence is only about physical abuse and that the many signs of abusive relationships are known...think again. There's a candlelight vigil at the County Courthouse this evening at 7PM to raise awareness. This event will offer resources and remember victims who have died due to DV. Be a Part of the Solution to Educate others, Be inspired by survivors, and help Stop the cycle of Abuse. Prevention is knowledge and you will be impacted by what you see, and what you hear. Be there. Contact Michele Renee for more information. Or, if you're on Facebook, look here. The movie theater in the Shoprite Plaza has closed, temporarily. It's the economy, we're told. A new owner is in the wings, we're told. How about the place was never that good, film and sound quality left something to be desired, the people who worked there were rude and so people stopped going? The Sheriff's department is investigating the Carmel Assessors office - but probably for the wrong reasons. Dead bodies are turning up in Carmel. Nothing to do with the Assessor's office though. A Sonic Burger has opened in Wappingers Falls. A throwback to a time when pretty girls (carhops) came out to your car to take and deliver your order. Burgers. Chicken. Corn Dogs. breakfast all day. A heart attack delivered right to your driver's side window! I can remember not all that long ago when communities and schools across the nation were banning Halloween celebrations because of their alleged link to satanic rituals and observances. Now it's the second largest holiday (if measured by store sales) behind Christmas. What happened? California would like it's residents to remember murdered San Francisco councilman Harvey Milk come May 22. Randy Thomasson, who runs a 'pro-family' group called Save California said, "Fathers and mothers are angry about Harvey Milk Day pushing this extreme, perverse role model upon their kids," and is urging parents to boycott schools on that day in order to save them, apparently, from hellfire and damnation. A guy out in Colorado reported that his son had been taken away by a balloon and the nation paid attention. Every news network covered the story and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of police time were spent in an attempt to rescue the boy. In the end it turned out the story was a hoax and now the guy faces serious criminal charges. Okay, he was clearly wrong. But I'm wondering if the national outrage wasn't more of a case of "we got caught believing such crap and now we're embarrassed" as much as it was anything else? Several times a week I'll get an email from someone claiming this or that or something else incredible: Microsoft will send you $25 if you visit this website. Little Stacey is dying of cancer and wants a postcard from you and you should send the request to everyone you know so she can die a happy child. President Obama will tell your 82 year old Aunt Sadie that she can't have that cancer treatment which will add 10 years to her life in order to provide health care to illegal aliens. It's endless. I just received a phone call telling me to be very careful, because the person knows that I travel alone.  Signs are being posted at WalMart and other stores warning women to be very careful when entering or exited their cars because the gang "Bloods" for their initiation are ordering new members to kill at least 34 women before the end of Halloween. I don't know how true this is, but please be careful, you never know, and Halloween is the time when a lot of things happen. People believe what they want to believe regardless of the facts. And no matter how many times I set the record straight the same people will send yet another national hoax. Bank of America is releasing your peronsal information to Wal*Mart. A three-year-old was kidnapped by a guy in a 2006 Mitsubishi Eclipse. McDonalds makes it a policy to 'forget' items from drive-thru orders. There is a law that requires college cafeterias to include laxitives in served food. Stop that! If someone sends you something - anything - that sounds too good to be true or too horrific to be sane, check the facts before you flood the 'net with your forwards. A good first place to look is at snopes.com. Bank of America reports a $1,000,000,000 loss for the last quarter. A recipient of $25,000,000,000 in TARP funds I can only assume they're not charging enough $35 over-draft and $3.00 ATM fees to their customers. That'll soon change. Cartoonist and film maker Emily Breer lives in Garrison and updates her website twice weekly. Here's one of her creations below and a click on it will bring you to her website, http://emilybreer.net/ And now, The News: A Resident Outraged New state park named for Scenic Hudson leader Franny Reese Shale and Our Water The Secret New York Minute: Every Train Leaves a Bit Late Maldives Cabinet Meets Below Waves to Highlight Climate Change Threat Prescription Drugs Kill 300 Percent More Americans Than Illegal Drugs Strong Meteor Shower Peaks Wednesday Morning For SAD Sufferers, Cognitive Behavior Better Than Light Therapy At Preventing Recurrence, Study Suggests A Resident Outraged One afternoon six years ago, Debra Hall learned the water in her Hopewell Junction home was toxic. The quest she has embarked on since that day has transformed her and her entire neighborhood By: Greg Ryan Debra Hall’s two-floor, raised-ranch home is tucked into a quiet residential stretch of Hopewell Junction, a suburban hamlet of about 2,800 people in the town of East Fishkill, but it could easily be in any of a hundred identical communities in the Hudson Valley. The front lawns of Creamery Road, the tree-lined street on which Hall and her husband David live, are scattered with the hula hoops, basketballs, and other debris that clutter a neighborhood full of children. David has two sons from a previous marriage who stay with him every other weekend. He and Debra married in 1998, and moved from Patterson to their current home in Hopewell in 2001. Both David, 42, and Debra, 48, grew up in more crowded environs — he on Long Island, she in Queens (her “New Yawk” accent still rings true) — so the couple relishes Creamery Road’s quiet nights and expansive space. They bought the house with the intention of growing old together in its bucolic embrace. While David commutes to and from the city every day for his job as an electrician, Debra spends most of her time alone at home. In 1996, she suffered a debilitating back injury while working. (At the time, she too was employed as an electrician.) Since then, she has been unable to work. Some days, the pain is so excruciating Hall can barely move around the house. She has visited 14 doctors and undergone three surgeries to implant spinal cord stimulators, but still needs to use a cane. “Every day I wake up and just have to hope for the best,” Hall says. For the first few years she lived on Creamery Road, she passed the time by cross-stitching, reading, and watching television. “I didn’t even know my neighbors,” she says. “I would wave to them, and that would be it. I hadn’t learned a name or anything.” Read More New state park named for Scenic Hudson leader Franny Reese HIGHLAND – Franny Reese was known as “the mother of the modern environmental movement.” The state and Scenic Hudson named a new 250 acre park in her memory Friday. The park, in the Town of Lloyd, offers expansive views and opportunities for hiking, mountain biking, cross-country skiing, picnicking and birding, said Scenic Hudson President Ned Sullivan. “The park is a beautiful piece of land that stretches from the west side of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Bridge, that’s the Mid-Hudson Bridge, and it extends almost a mile down river and has extensive hiking trails and provides extraordinary views of the Mid-Hudson Bridge, of the Walkway Over the Hudson that recently opened as a new state park, and of other landscapes around Poughkeepsie and Ulster County areas,” he said. Read More Shale and Our Water New York State’s environmental regulators have proposed rules to govern drilling in the Marcellus Shale — a subterranean layer of rock curving northward from West Virginia through Ohio and Pennsylvania to New York’s southern tier. The shale contains enormous deposits of natural gas that could add to the region’s energy supplies and lift New York’s upstate economy. If done carefully — and in carefully selected places — drilling should cause minimal environmental harm. But regulators must amend the rules to bar drilling in the New York City watershed: a million acres of forests and farmlands whose streams supply the reservoirs that send drinking water to eight million people. Accidental leaks could threaten public health and require a filtration system the city can ill afford. Natural gas is vital to the nation’s energy needs and can be an important bridge between dirty coal and renewable alternatives. The process of extracting it, however, is not risk-free. Known as hydraulic fracturing, it involves shooting a mix of water, sand and chemicals — many of them highly toxic — into the ground at very high pressure to break down the rock formations and free the gas. Read More The Secret New York Minute: Every Train Leaves a Bit Late By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM For a commuter rushing to catch a train, a minute can mean the difference between dinner with the family and leftovers in the microwave. What most passengers do not realize is that their minute is already there. Every commuter train that departs from New York City — about 900 a day — leaves a minute later than scheduled. If the timetable says 8:14, the train will actually leave at 8:15. The 12:48 is really the 12:49. In other words, if you think you have only a minute to get that train — well, relax. You have two. The phantom minute, in place for decades and published only in private timetables for employees, is meant as a grace period for stragglers who need the extra time to scramble off the platform and onto the train. “If everyone knows they get an extra minute, they’re going to lollygag,” explained Marjorie Anders, a spokeswoman for the Metro-North Railroad. Read More Maldives Cabinet Meets Below Waves to Highlight Climate Change Threat By Steve Herman New Delhi 17 October 2009 In an effort to highlight climate change, the Cabinet of the government of the Maldives, an Indian island nation, has held a meeting under water. Meetings of government ministers can sometimes be a dry affair. That certainly was not the case during the latest gathering of the Cabinet of the Maldives. President Mohamed Nasheed and 11 of his government ministers, plus the vice president and Cabinet secretary, donned scuba gear and plunged six meters below the shimmering turquoise surface of an Indian Ocean lagoon. The Cabinet seated behind tables, amid a coral backdrop, used hand gestures to communicate. The president is a certified diver but other Cabinet members had to take lessons in recent weeks to prepare for the unprecedented meeting. Read More Prescription Drugs Kill 300 Percent More Americans Than Illegal Drugs by: David Gutierrez  |  Natural News A report by the Florida Medical Examiners Commission has concluded that prescription drugs have outstripped illegal drugs as a cause of death. An analysis of 168,900 autopsies conducted in Florida in 2007 found that three times as many people were killed by legal drugs as by cocaine, heroin and all methamphetamines put together. According to state law enforcement officials, this is a sign of a burgeoning prescription drug abuse problem. "The abuse has reached epidemic proportions," said Lisa McElhaney, a sergeant in the pharmaceutical drug diversion unit of the Broward County Sheriff's Office. "It's just explosive." In 2007, cocaine was responsible for 843 deaths, heroin for 121, methamphetamines for 25 and marijuana for zero, for a total of 989 deaths. In contrast, 2,328 people were killed by opioid painkillers, including Vicodin and Oxycontin, and 743 were killed by drugs containing benzodiazepine, including the depressants Valium and Xanax. Alcohol directly caused 466 deaths, but was found in the bodies of 4,179 cadavers in all. Read More Strong Meteor Shower Peaks Wednesday Morning By Geoff Gaherty The Orionid meteor shower, one of the biggest and brightest of the year, is at its peak Wednesday morning, Oct. 21. Skywatchers with dark skies and good weather could see a shooting star every 5 to 10 minutes, with brief bouts that might prove busier. The Orionids, like most meteor showers, are caused by particles associated with a comet, in this case, the famous Halley's Comet. If you can't wait until Halley's Comet makes its next appearance in 2062, this is your chance to see a piece of it as it flies across the sky and vaporizes in Earth's upper atmosphere. While most annual meteor showers are pretty minor events for the casual observer, the Orionids are one of the two or three best in the year, especially as this year there will be no moon to interfere with seeing the fainter meteors. Read More For SAD Sufferers, Cognitive Behavior Better Than Light Therapy At Preventing Recurrence, Study Suggests ScienceDaily (Oct. 17, 2009) — In the September issue of the journal Behavior Therapy, University of Vermont psychologist Kelly Rohan presents the first published research study of the long-term effects of different treatments for seasonal affective disorder (SAD), a form of severe depression that occurs annually in the fall and winter seasons. The first year Rohan randomized 69 people with SAD into one of four groups: light therapy treatment, cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), a combination of the two or a wait-list control. She then surveyed participants on how they were doing the next winter – one year later. Of those treated with CBT, only 7 percent had a recurrence compared to 36.7 percent of people treated with light therapy. The recurrence rate for the combination group was 5.5 percent. When Rohan looked at the severity of the depression that did occur, however, CBT was associated with less severe depression than those treated with either light therapy or a combination of both. In a previous study that measured the acute affects of each treatment (immediately following six weeks of intervention), combination therapy was highly effective, with a nearly 80 percent remission rate compared to 50 percent for both CBT and light therapy alone and 20 percent on the wait-list. Read More	Sign up to have News That Matters Delivered to your email inbox! Email:   Support Our Sponsors! Joe Greico's Out On A Limb All types of tree work, all aspects of lawn maintenance, snow plowing, lot clearing, excavation, retaining walls, stump grinding. 82 Hortontown Rd. Kent Cliffs, NY 10512 greico@verizon.net T- (914)224-3049 F- (845)231-0815 TaconicArts.com Interior/Exterior House Painting by someone you can trust. (845) 225-2104 jeff@taconicarts.com
Copyright © 2009 News That Matters

The Dumbwaiter - Today at Arts on the Lake

	Login |  Register
News That Matters Brought to you (Almost Daily) by PlanPutnam.Org
Contact Us  |  Shop Putnam  |  Putnam Outdoors  |  RSS Feed  |  Visit the Blog  |  Visit our Sponsor  |  Donate  |  Blogsite   |  Events
Good Morning Folks, This is a short, special edition of News That Matters for the sole purpose of getting you out of your house this afternoon and over to Arts on the Lake for the last performance of Harold Pinter's "The Dumbwaiter" at 3PM this afternoon. Let's be honest: it's a crappy day. You could stay at home and veg, bemoaning the weather and watch re-runs of F Troop and I Love Lucy or you could go to the mall and run up your credit card debt or you could finally get to cleaning out the basement. So, since those options are not really options, get your butts off the couch and get yourselves to the old firehouse on Route 52 (just south of the Route 311 causeway) and see some live theater. Pinter's 1960 short play (or a long one-act, if you like) sets two hitmen in a dingy basement wondering about their next job and who their victim might be. Here's the full (edited) release from Friday's Things To Do Edition of News That Matters: Arts on the Lake is partnering with the Liberty Free (NY) Theatre to present Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter's play The Dumb Waiter at the Lake Carmel Cultural Center, 640 Route 52. The Liberty Free Theatre returns with the play that established Pinter as a master of "comedy of menace." The Dumbwaiter is about two hit men, played by Michael Frizalone and Paul Jannicola, holed-up in a dingy basement waiting to be sent out on their next job. The play is one of the first that established Pinter as a master of what would become known a "comedy of menace." English playwright, screenwriter, actor, director and political activist Harold Pinter (1930-2008) was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2005. Beginning with his first play, Pinter's writing career spanned over 50 years and produced 29 original stage plays, 27 screenplays, many dramatic sketches, radio and TV plays, poetry, one novel, short fiction, essays, speeches, and letters. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party, The Caretaker, The Homecoming, and Betrayal, each of which he adapted to film. His screenplay adaptations of others' works include The Trial and Sleuth.  He directed almost 50 stage, television, and film productions and acted extensively in radio, stage, television, and film productions of his own and others' works. Mike Frizalone is an actor/writer/singer who has performed on stage and film from Bangor, Maine to New York City.  He recently played in a new film by Peking Productions that was shot in Sullivan County.  His work at the Liberty Free Theatre includes Goods and Guns, Off The Wall, and last season’s Kinfolks and Mountain Music. Paul Jannicola is a singer/songwriter and multi instrument musician.  His compositions have been featured in the award-winning animated short, Hardly Workin', the acclaimed episodic web series, Tra5hTa1k and MTV's comedic Life in the Virtual Hills. Paul and Director Kerria Seabrooke won Best Machinima Series for the Grid Review in the Machinima Film Festival 2007 in Leicester, UK. In addition to music, Paul is an animation cinematographer whose work has been seen on the Jumbotron at 1 Times Square. Director Paul Austin's many TV appearances include Law and Order and West Wing. Recent films include Tune in Tomorrow and Sommersby. (Photo Credit: Ted Waddell) The play follows Paul Austin's evocation and updated interpretation of "The Nazz", Lord Buckley's version of the story of Jesus of Nazareth. And just who is this Lord Buckley?         Lord Richard Buckley, the hipster’s hipster, was, arguably, the most original American comedian of the 20th Century. Tall, tuxedoed and mock elegant, his appearance, behavior and intellect belied the facts of his humble California Gold Country beginnings.         Dick Buckley grew up in the idyllic settings of California's Mother Lode country. He was a natural mimic and by the age of three his mother had to admonish him not to imitate the neighbors when they came for a visit.         Entering show business rather by accident in the late 1920’s Buckley cut his teeth as an MC for countless Midwest dance marathons. It is possible that he also worked some of the last of the medicine shows in the Midwest. Eventually settling in Chicago, he worked in Vaudeville and Burlesque as well as Leo Seltzer's Walkathons at the Chicago Coliseum, and a number of gangster owned nightclubs. Mobster Al Capone loved Buckley's ability to handle hecklers and was quoted as saying “He’s the only guy who ever made me laugh.” Capone even bankrolled a short lived nightclub for Buckley called “Chez Buckley.”         In 1930’s Chicago, Dick Buckley, as he called himself, lived the high life hanging out with the hippest of Chi Town’s black and white jazz musicians. With his uncanny ear for dialect he picked up on the sounds, and the rhythms and the cultural nuances of what was then called “hep” or “jive” talk And, at the same time, began to develop the persona of Lord Buckley, a strange but intriguing mix of a proper English peer of the realm and a street corner jive hipster. Though he still called himself Dick Buckley his manner and antics began to resemble those most closely associated with his final incarnation as The Lord.         Through the ‘30s and ’40s he continued perfecting a stage act that included hilarious gymnastic routines and a mad ventriloquist routine called “The Four Chairs” with selected audience members. During WW II he did countless USO hospital Shows with Ed Sullivan who became a life long friend and patron.         By wars end Vaudeville was on the ropes, atomic bombs had radically changed political and culturally assumptions and television was about to pounce. Dick Buckley, always hip and always ready to explore change, finally declared himself “Lord Buckley”.         Casting around for a new act, Buckley, at the urging of Lady Elizabeth, his sixth wife, began offering his audiences beautifully reimagined stories from history, literature and The Bible delivered in a black jazz patois. Originally these stories were used to entertain dressing room guests. But soon Jesus, Gandhi, Einstein, Nero and the Marquis D’ Sade found their way on stage with him. He called Jesus “The Nazz”, Gandhi “The Hip Gahn”, Einstein “The Hip Einie” and D’Sade “The Mark”.         From 1947 on, Buckley, like a hipster preacher, worked small jazz clubs and coffeehouses, with occasional gigs on TV. He appeared on Ed Sullivan’s show eight times. He also appeared on The Tonight Show, You Bet Your Life, House Party and a number of other local and network programs. But for all this exposure his new and brilliant work was not bringing much financial reward. He did his best work for his worst money. And what of his works? Here's a short-take from The Nazz: "Now the fame of The Nazz is jumpin'! The grapevine is shootin' off sparks forty feet long and they talkin' about what he said and how he stood up to all these big bad cats and dug all that bad jazz and put 'em all down, and what he said he gonna do and where he's gonna be and how he's gonna be until the grapevine is jumpin' so bad there is now sixteen thousand of these studs and kitties in the Nazz's little home town where the cat live, lookin' to get straight. Well...the Nazz know he can't straighten them all there - it's too small a place, don't want to hang everybody up, nobody can make it. So The Nazz look out at these sixteen thousand studs and kiddies and he say to them "Come on, babies. Let's cut on out down the road." "There went The Nazz, swingin' away ahead of all these studs and kiddies, and sixteen thousand stompin' up a big - oh! - big swingin' beat behind him. And a great necklace of love is superchargin' and chargin' to 'em and - oh! -it's brother to brother and sister to sister and The Nazz is stompin' on a sweet swingin' beat goin' down the road, Nazz talkin' about how pretty the flowers, how pretty the hours, how pretty me, how pretty you, how pretty he, how pretty she..." Three PM. Reservations are not necessary. Twelve Dollars or Ten if you've joined Arts on the Lake. And when you get there, tell them News That Matters sent you. Be there, cats! Or you lords and kitties will be just settin' and lookin' at them hubcabs go round and round on the black and jivin' on the wonder of where your life went. JmG	Sign up to have News That Matters Delivered to your email inbox! Email:
Copyright © 2009 News That Matters