March rambling: Odyssey of the Mind

Vote for Rebecca Jade!

The team from Wizard’s Wardrobe, the one-to-one literacy program in Albany’s South End,  won an Odyssey of the Mind program’s regional competition. And they’ll travel to Syracuse next month to compete on the state level!

If you would like to donate to Wizard’s Wardrobe to defray the additional expenses of travel, please go to the Wizard’s Wardrobe website or send a check to Wizard’s Wardrobe, PO Box 61, Albany, NY 12201. I should note that my wife is the Program Director of Wizard’s Wardrobe.

News and features

‘Cowardly’: NY Times Pummeled for Ignoring NC GOP Nominee’s Hitler and Holocaust Remarks

SCOTUS failing

Incomplete vs. overshoot
Biden Met the Challenge (SotU) 

Boeing: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

The real problem with anonymity

The Death of Peak TV

Grandparents and Their Coresident Grandchildren: 2021

The Advventures of Prisma and Hydrofera Blue

THE ART AND HISTORY OF LETTERING COMICS by Todd Klein, a free online book by Todd Klein and why you might want to check it out 

From eerily prescient to wildly incorrect, 100-year-old predictions about 2024

Iris Aptel. renowned New York designer and style icon dies aged 102

How to Move a 1,000-Pound Rescued Manatee (Swimming Isn’t an Option)

Why Peter Pan Needed a Dusting and The Guy Who Flew to School and The Philadelphia Poison Plot and Can Killing Vampires Cure Tuberculosis?

Wikipedia is home to a list of lists of lists.

SMH: Catskill High School

Catskill, NY, is about three-quarters of an hour south of Albany. The basic facts are not in dispute. Choral director Michelle Storrs-Ryan was conducting a rehearsal for the upcoming high school production of Cinderella. Storrs-Ryan said facetiously to the young performers, “Be quiet, I’m going to get the tape!” according to a student named Madison, who said she volunteered. Madison took the piece of tape, put it on her mouth for about 30 seconds, removed it, and everyone laughed.

Well, almost everyone. Someone reported the occurrence, and the district superintendent, Dan Wilson, suspended Storrs-Ryan and school Principal Junait Shah.  Several protests and walkouts involving students and parents have occurred over the suspensions. Many want the superintendent to be removed over what most considered a “non-incident.”

Meanwhile, Cinderella is scheduled to premiere on March 15. The show’s choreographer, Marcus McGregor, is trying to hold things together. But would the student actors want to continue without their beloved director? McGregor was quoted in the March 12 Times Union that the show  wouldn’t be ready by then, with a dress rehearsal over the past weekend canceled.

Having seen several productions at Catskill High School – my niece Alexa was in them – I can attest that the shows were quite good to excellent and that her students adore her. Unsurprisingly, I have seen universal anger on the Catskill Community Board page on Facebook regarding the treatment of the teacher and principal.

The Board of Education released a statement noting its regularly scheduled board meeting would be March 13. As Frank S. Robinson pointed out, this is an insanity machine

Albany Public Library trustees

Albany people: Want to be a library advocate for the community? Consider becoming a library trustee!

The APL is looking for three new library trustees this spring. Two seats carry full five-year terms, while one seat carries a partial term of one year.

Albany residents interested in running for a seat on the board need to complete and submit nominating petitions by May 1. Please visit the website for full details and to download a nominating petition

There will be two information sessions for people interested in running:

You’ll learn more about the nomination and election process, and what it’s like to serve on the APL board. Several current trustees will discuss their experiences. The trustee election is set for May 21.

MUSIC

The San Diego Music Awards voting is open until March 27th at 5pm. I’m voting for #21 Best Video: My Reason by Rebecca Jade and #3 Best Jazz Album: Side Streets- Peter Sprague.

The Jade Element – Move On: Live from Higher Ground Music & Media

Peter Sprague Plays Have You Heard featuring Leonard Patton

Eric Carmen of the Raspberries and a solo career, died at 74. Here are some K-Chuck Radio songs

American Festival Overture by William Schuman, with Leonard Bernstein conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra.

J. Eric Smith’s favorites: NoMeansNo and The Damned and CAN

Coverville 1478: Cover Stories for Manic Street Preachers, Corinne Bailey Rae and The Alarm and 1479: Cover Stories for The Who and Justin Bieber

The Sirens by Reinhold Gliere

Bob Dylan – Things Have Changed

Scandal in Oz: Was “Over the Rainbow” Plagiarized? Concert Étude, Op. 38 by Signe Lund, played by Rune Alver; Over The Rainbow – Judy Garland

With A Little Help From My Friends – Joe Cocker; I am namechecked!

Steve Lawrence, the Grammy and Emmy winner who made up pop music duo Steve & Eydie with wife Eydie Gormé, has died. He was 88.

Paul McCartney Photographs 1963-64: Eyes of the Storm is coming to the Portland (ME) Art Museum Opening September 14th, 2024 until January 19th, 2025

Indie Lens Pop-Up

The Tuba Thieves

I have attended two Indie Lens Pop-Up events at the Pine Hills branch of the Albany Public Library. What’s that?

“Indie Lens Pop-Up is a neighborhood series that brings people together…for film screenings and community-driven conversations. Featuring documentaries seen on PBS’s Independent Lens, Indie Lens Pop-Up draws local residents, leaders, and organizations to discuss what matters most, from newsworthy topics and social issues, to family and community relationships.”

Here’s a list of screening partners. The one for my area is the local PBS television station, WMHT.

The first event on December 6, 2023, was the showing of the first part of A Town Called Victoria. “A south Texas town is thrown into the national spotlight when a local mosque is burned down in an apparent hate crime.” I remember the event. One dynamic shown in the film involved the ethnic tensions of the black, white, Hispanic, and Muslim communities.

The showing was followed by a conversation with the roughly two dozen viewers. A couple in the audience had regularly visited Victoria, so their insights. It was an excellent interaction.

The entire three-hour documentary is available from your local PBS station through mid-April.

On January 3, Razing Liberty Square was presented. “The Liberty Square public housing community in Miami becomes ground zero for climate gentrification.” This was a function of the fact that Liberty City was built on higher ground than the Miami coastal areas. Black people weren’t initially allowed to live on the coastline. With global warming making coastal Miami vulnerable, developers and politicians suddenly targeted the long-neglected area.

It was a good conversation. Sadly, there were only four in the audience, plus the facilitator. The film started airing on PBS starting on January 29.

Upcoming

The following films at the Pine Hills branch of the Albany Public Library, 517 Western Avenue, near Allen Street, will be:

Wednesday, February 7, 6 pm: Breaking The News. Women and LGBTQ+ journalists launch startup The 19th* to buck a broken news media system.

Wednesday, March 13, 6 pm: Matter Of Mind: My Parkinson’s.  Three individuals navigate their lives with determination in the face of Parkinson’s disease.

Wednesday, April 24, 6 pm: The Tuba Thieves. What does it mean to listen? An exploration of musicality set against a theft.

Boxing Day 2023

my ever-present past

in process

Boxing Day 2023 was intriguing.

The doorbell rang around 7:30 a.m. It was a guy from the City of Albany’s Department of General Services. He and his colleagues would trim the branches from the trees in the neighborhood. A branch of our neighbor’s tree was leaning heavily on the power lines in front of our house.

Were any of the cars on your side of the street ours? No, our car was across the street. Even though I’m car blind – I don’t recognize vehicles well – I could identify our next-door neighbor’s from an item he placed in front of the car so people were less likely to run into it while parking.

They spent over an hour trimming one tree. It had a lot of problematic branches, and they had to cut them into smaller parts. Then they put those branches in in the mulcher.

I suspect they picked that week to do our street because there is an elementary school on the block, and many teachers park on the street. Too many people grumble about government employees, but I was quite pleased with these.

Book review intro

I stopped at the bank to get cash. I had to wait because a bank employee showed a young woman how to use the ATM. 

Then, I took the bus to the Albany Public Library’s Washington Avenue branch to meet the author, Michael Sinclair. He has written a series of 1920s mysteries centered in Albany or Schenectady, NY.  

Interestingly, his presentation was much more about Albany’s history, complete with many photos, and less about the books.

My past converges

After the talk, I talked to a reference librarian who’s often at the desk when I’m there on Tuesday afternoons. Michael Sinclair thanked her for some technical assistance, mentioned that he had graduated from UAlbany’s library school in 2003 and that the APL librarian had attended a decade earlier. 

I asked her, “When did you graduate?” “1992.” I graduated in 1992. She asked who I knew from there then.  I mentioned two future NY SBDC colleagues and my ex-wife. “She was married to this guy who was in the program.” I shook my head and said, “That was ME!” 

Okay, so that was weird. Then she said, “And you used to go out with” this woman I dated off-and-on from 1978 to 1983. How did she know THAT? She used to work for said girlfriend at her office at UAlbany, and I would go there occasionally. So the librarian and I used to talk 40 years ago! She said I had a big ‘fro at the time; I didn’t think so, but it was an occasionally scruffy mess.

Altercation

As I’m standing at the reference desk, we hear one person yelling at another. And it got weird. I won’t talk much about it here because no great harm occurred, though it was unsettling to the library staff and me. Oh, and I was wearing a Santa hat at the time. The police arrived after one of the two had departed. 

I went home, and then my wife and I went to the movies, which I wrote about separately.  

How was YOUR Boxing Day 2023? Mine didn’t involve boxing, but it came close.

Ironweed’s 40th, Lux aeterna, RISSE fundraiser, FFAPL gala

Requiem and other texts

Here are four events coming in the next month that I want to plug. I avoid noting these here because most people reading my blog don’t live in New York State’s Capital District. Still, they’re all events I have a special attachment to. I’ve mentioned the last one before.

The NYS Writers Institute is celebrating Ironweed’s 40th anniversary with the first-ever marathon public reading of the novel written by Albany’s native son, William Kennedy, which won the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction and put the author’s hometown on the literary map.

The special event will begin at noon and continue through 8 p.m. on WEDNESDAY, November 1 (NOT Thursday, Nov.1, as the flier suggests.)

“It will be hosted at the Albany Distilling Co. Bar and Bottle Shop, maker of Ironweed whiskey, at 75 Livingston Ave. in the North Albany neighborhood where the author grew up and where some of the fictional scenes in the Depression-era narrative set in 1938 take place.”

To sign up for a time slot as a volunteer reader, visit: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C084AAFA72FA3FAC52-45194995-albany#/

The final chapters of Ironweed will be read on stage by the novel’s author and invited VIP guest readers, beginning at 7 p.m. at Capital Repertory Theatre, 251 N. Pearl St., adjacent to Albany Distilling Co. Reservations are required. Go to: https://capitalrep.org/event/ironweed/

The ticket prices are a donation of $10, $25 or $50. All proceeds will go to benefit the food pantry and free meal outreach at Sacred Heart Church, 33 Walter St. in Albany, which was Kennedy’s parish when he was growing up.

“The novel takes place across three days — All Hallows’ Eve, All Saints’ Day, and All Souls Day — in the jagged, heartbreaking journey of Francis Phelan, an alcoholic vagrant and former Albany professional baseball player.”

Neighborly

Refugee and Immigrant Support Services of Emmaus (RISSE) Annual Fall Fundraiser: Homecoming Open House

Sunday, November 12th, 2023, 2:00 – 4:00 pmRISSE, 715 Morris Street, AlbanyJoin RISSE as “we celebrate our newest neighbors and the newcomers who have made the Capital Region their home. The event will showcase performances and food from a variety of cultures from around the world.

“Learn more about RISSE, our partner agencies, and our collective work welcoming refugees, immigrants, and asylum seekers to the Capital Region.”

Click Here to Register Now!

This event is free and open to the public. However, donations are appreciated and encouraged.

Lux Aeterna is a 1997 five-movement piece by Morten Lauridsen (b. 1943) perform. As First Pres’ music director, Michael Lister, noted: “It is a sensitive and moving setting of the Requiem and other texts and will be a time for us as a community to remember and honor those of who we have lost from our community over the several past years.”

First Presbyterian Church is located at 362 State Street, Albany, at the corner of Willett Street, across from Washington Park.  There is parking on the street and in the park. The music will be in the sanctuary on Friday, November 3, at 6 p.m., while the art display in the adjacent room will start at 5:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. 

Century

The Friends and Foundation of the Albany Public Library (FFAPL) look forward to seeing you on Saturday, October 21st, as we celebrate 100 years of the Albany Public Library!  The Centennial Celebration will be held at the newly-expanded Café Madison at 1108 Madison Ave. Albany, NY, from 6:00 – 9:00 p.m. Cocktail attire is suggested. Tickets are available via the link above.

The evening will feature music, a silent auction, a mystery wine pull, stationed hors d’oeuvres, and an open bar. FFAPL has partnered with Harding Mazotti’s Rideshare Home Program to provide free rides home from the event! Scan a QR code at the event to get a free Uber voucher for pick up at Café Madison (Up to $200).

If you plan on driving to the event, street parking and nearby parking lots are available after-hours, including the Pine Hills Library.

If you are not able to attend the event but would like to support Albany Public Library, please check out the online auction showcasing unique products and experiences from local businesses.

August rambling: it does matter

Roger Green reviews John Green (no relation)

392 “Educational Intimidation” Bills Have Been Introduced in the US Since 2021

How the Myth of Colorblindness Endangers France’s Future: The refusal to gather data on race and ethnicity is exacerbating inequality, increasing social segregation, and preventing badly needed reforms.

How did Frederick Douglass become a conservative spokesman?

A New Monument to Emmett Till Doesn’t Measure Progress, But It Does Matter?

A raid on a Kansas newspaper likely broke the law, experts say. But which one?

Is Mental Health a Workplace Issue?

Ingenious librarians: A group of 1970s campus librarians foresaw our world of distributed knowledge and research, and designed search tools for it

The little search engine that couldn’t. A couple of ex-Googlers set out to create the search engine of the future. They built something faster, simpler, and ad-free. So how come you’ve never heard of Neeva?

India lands a spacecraft near the moon’s south pole, a first for the world as it joins an elite club. WAY cool.

Brain-reading devices allow paralysed people to talk using their thoughts. Two studies report considerable improvements in technologies designed to help people with facial paralysis communicate. But the devices must be tested on many more people to prove their reliability.

Why do upstate New Yorkers call it city chicken when it isn’t even made of chicken?

Now I Know: The Translator That Sucked The Life Out of Dracula and  Ulysses Subtracting (Land) Grant? and You Can’t Eat Here (And Don’t Really Want to Anyway) and The Man Who Lives on Cruise Ships and The Fans Who Saved The Day (For the Bad Guys) and The River Race that Doesn’t Like Water

OBITS

Jerry Moss, A&M Records Co-Founder and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Member, Dies at 88

Clarence Avant, ‘Godfather of Black Music,’ and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Member, Dies at 92

Bob Barker, Famed Game Show Host, Dies at 99

Plus, people I’ve known IRL:

Billie Anderson, 93, a pillar at Trinity AME Zion Church in Binghamton, NY, the church I grew up in, died July 23. Then  her daughter Penny Sanders, a contemporary of mine, passed c. August 17

Dwight Smith, 93, a longtime member of my current church, choir, and Bible study, among other things, died August 7

Marilyn Cannoll, 93, who was the head of the Schenectady Arts Council when I worked there in 1978, died on August 9

John Wolcott, 90, a “rebel with a cause, a purveyor of justice and the truth,” died on August 17

Jacqui Williams, who I knew from Filling in the Gaps in American History, died on August 22. She spoke at my church in 2015; though the website is defunct, the Facebook page has lots of information

Matthew 5 is too “woke”

From Newsweek: Evangelical leader Russell Moore said that he saw Christianity in “crisis” because the teachings of Jesus were being viewed by a growing number of people as “subversive” to their right-wing ideology. The idea of “turning the other cheek” and other teachings of Jesus are being rejected as “liberal talking points.” Theologians described it as a rift within the conservative Christian faith that had come to be defined by support for djt.

It’s a dichotomy between theological evangelicals concerned primarily with Christian character and “political” evangelicals intent on winning the culture war, experts told Newsweek. See also: Daily Kos.

The Georgia indictments

djt has a “plan” for America called Agenda 47, and it’s a helluva thing.

Albany Public Library

Proceeds from the event benefit library programs and services. Purchase tickets here.

Tuesday noon book reviews at Washington Avenue large auditorium: I suppose I should plug September 12 | The Anthropocene Reviewed:  Essays on a Human-Centered Planet by John Green.  Reviewer:  Roger O. Green, MLS, retired librarian, NY Small Business Development Center, & current board member, FFAPL.

Also:

September 5 | Two Photography books:  Uncommon Places by Stephen Shore & Empire by Martin Hyers & William Mebane.  Reviewer:  David Brickman, exhibiting photographer, art critic, & FFAPL treasurer.

September 19 | The Heat Will Kill You First:  Life and Death on a Scorched Planet by Jeff Goodell.  Reviewer:  Richard King, retired attorney.

September 26 | A Conspiracy of Mothers, a novel by Colleen Van Niekerk.  Reviewer:  Miki Conn, author, poet, artist, storyteller.

MUSIC

Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door– the PFC Band, in memory of Robbie Robertson

Coverville 1453: The Gamble & Huff Cover Story and 1454: The Robbie Robertson Tribute 

Peter Sprague Plays Coltrane’s Giant Steps

My Home by Antonin Dvorak

Brahms: Academic Festival Overture (Solti, CSO)

Peter Sprague Plays Badge featuring Leonard Patton

The Boy From… – Linda Lavin, written by Esteban Río Nido

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