Hometown Oneonta - The Otesgo-Delaware Dispatch

‘Top-Of-List Singing,’ ‘Unabashed Slapstick’ Opens Glimmerglass

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Verdi’s Opera Classic Transcends The Centuries

ROBERT MOYNIHAN

‘LA TRAVIATA’

If you have to pawn the silver or sell a family antique to attend this production, do so – and throw in a few other baubles from the estate. If you don’t have an estate, give up cigarettes and drinking for a month – then buy a ticket for a Glimmerglass Opera performance of Verdi’s “La Traviata.”
You have heard it before? Not like this production – with superb direction, top-of-the-list singing, exquisite sets, and a libretto that is plausible – about credible emotions tied to the human condition of love and denial, compassion and misunderstanding.
In his middle years, Verdi obviously poured heart and soul into this work.
Amazingly, until his collaborations with Arrigo Boito, the texts used for most of Verdi’s operas are stilted and highly improbable – the usual gypsy-demons, mistaken identities and lost royalty given to falling for the wrong princesses – or maybe, after two hours, the right ones.
At times, even elephants parade on stages large and sturdy enough to support them – and of course, to carry the heavy singers doing the melodic lifting. Those are the absurd occasions for most of Verdi’s musical scores.
The plot of Traviata, however, is plausible – even after these many years – and concerns the conflict of the “upper order” of society, its mating habits, and a young man who strays into the “lower” social level.
Father interferes for the sake of the “family name.” The lovers separate, suffer remorse, and the courtesan-heroine eventually dies in her suitor’s arms.
A pat melodrama, perhaps, but sketched to such effect, and with such moving economy, that the expected devices of operatic platitude are far removed.
The Glimmerglass production, because of its combination of talents at all levels, made an evening at the opera much, much more than mere entertainment. It rose, rather, to a height rarely encountered in any artistic medium.
What made the performance so memorable? Most productions of drama and its relatives in musical form rush through language and scenes as though timed by stopwatch. Not in this production – the director Jonathan Miller recognized the realistic dements of the plot and emphasized them with adequate space and timing.
The conductor Michall Agrest also gave the score that most valuable of emotional talismans – musical rests, pauses for the narration of plot and telling emotion. Agrest knows how to shape orchestral playing so that it breathes with the soloists, with melodic lines following the expressive rise and fall of the human voice.
This ability may not be unique, but is so rare in musical performance that memories of this one evening should remain – one trusts – for the lifetimes of alert listeners.
As for the singing? Well, uniform excellence was a starting point – including the eight young artists in the cast.
As for the principals? The three major roles are often cast with varying ability. A few years ago, I heard a performance at the Vienna Opera with the soprano singing sharp, the bass flat and the tenor compromising somewhere between two extremes. None of these problems occurred in the Cooperstown performance.
The principals in the Glimmerglass production were all superlative. Malcolm MacKenzie carried the palm as the dark, interfering paternal manipulator; the tenor Ryan MacPherson was the eloquent, frustrated suitor.
Rising above even these superlatives, however, was the soprano Mary Dunleavy, who possesses rarities of multiple ability: intelligence, dramatic cunning, and splendid, unerring vocal projection of the extremes of delight and despair.
The score of Traviata may indeed be unfair to the other leading singers, for the doomed Violetta, though finally suffering a fatal end, carries the most telling and virtuosic of the score’s arias. Violetta, but for moments of the score, is the focus of the musical drama. Dunleavy shaped each phrase, dramatically and musically, with exquisite projection and timing.
To rephrase the title of a popular holiday movie – this production is indeed a “Glimmerglass Miracle on Route 80.” Pawn the silver, forego tobacco and gin, or sell great-aunt Gerty’s antique reticule and lorgnette. But see this opera.

‘Mesmerizing Music’ Casts Spell In ‘Cinderella’

SAM GOODYEAR

‘LA CENERENTOLA’

The various tellings of Cinderella all include some form of magic or wizardry or the grotesque. Who will ever forget, if you are old enough to remember, the fairy godmother’s “Bippity Boppity Boo!” in the Walt Disney animated film?
Some versions go so far as to plot murder, and there is one account that has the stepsisters cutting off portions of their feet in order to fit into the glass slipper. Charming.
The magic and wizardry of Glimmerglass Opera’s production of Gioachino Rossini’s “La Cenerentola” comes initially from the pen of the composer himself.
The music is mesmerizing and enthralling and casts a spell, starting with an extended overture full of dramatic tension and expectation.
The curtain rises on Depression-era dilapidation in the home of Don Magnifico, whose escapes from reality include wild dreams, bathtub gin and the fatuous hope that one of his two coarse, vain and ill-mannered daughters will win the amorous attention of Prince Ramiro, on the prowl for a wife, but disguised as his valet Dandini, the latter posing as his master.
The fairy godmother in this version is a Clark Kent sort of tutor to the prince, working his wiles behind the scenes to transform Angelina, known as Cenerentola (Italian for Cinderella), into a stunning beauty.
This inspired production, directed by Kevin Newbury, is not Walt Disney. It is, rather, exaltingly vintage Tom and Jerry. The slapstick is unabashed, the gags obvious and gratifying, the humor altogether in-your-face and wildly successful.
Eduardo Chama, an Argentine singer with enormous comic gifts, provides the right mix of ham and style as Don Magnifico.
John Tessier falls compellingly under the spell of Angelina in their first encounter and in so doing reminds us that, for all the high jinks and hilarity, this is a serious story about the arduous quest for love.
Quebecoise Julie Boulianne, pure innocence and modesty, emerges from the soot and shadows, literally and musically, to win the hearts of prince and spectator alike. In all cases the singing is superb.
In fact, from first note to last, the musicianship is exquisite on all fronts: soloists, chorus, and orchestra, all under the precise and robust conducting of Joseph Colaneri.
Rossini’s penchant for polysyllabic lightning-speed (Tom chasing Jerry and vice versa) ensemble pieces is on full display and the numbers are perfectly delivered, making the patter songs of Gilbert and Sullivan seem no more than peaceful, languorous lullabies in comparison. The bel canto effects are thrilling in both the danger they pose and the excellence of the execution here.
We are never happier than when we are weeping, and we confess to at least three occasions when the only possible response to the masterpiece on the stage was tears of wonder, pleasure, and happiness.
You’re in for a huge treat.

Labels: 07-10-09, The City of the Hills

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Collaboration Made Classic A Classic

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Letters to the Editor

To the Editor:
On behalf of Hall of Fame Chairman Jane Forbes Clark and the entire staff of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, I would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to area residents and businesses for supporting the inaugural Hall of Fame Classic Weekend.
When we began to brainstorm concepts, we strived to deliver a weekend of activities which would:
1) be impactful and drive attendance;
2) provide a strong foothold to establish a new tradition;
3) deeply connect baseball fans with each other and the ballplayers who participated, and
4) speak to our core mission of preserving history, honoring excellence and connecting generations.
Building the weekend around Father’s Day, a tried-and-true family holiday, gave us a platform to promote the legends of the game traveling to Cooperstown to a national audience. The players were thrilled to spend Father’s Day in Cooperstown, many with their own children.
Several have already expressed a strong desire to return. Sponsors saw value in providing support, and in part because of them, ticket prices were reasonable. We found the right partner to stage the game, in the Major League Baseball Players’ Alumni Association, a fellow non-profit that looks out for retired players.
From author readings, to honoring the original Hall of Fame dad, Pat O’Donnell, who left a photo of his dad under an exhibit two decades ago, to the Legends For Baseball Youth Skills Clinic, to the Father’s Day catch at Doubleday Field, to the game itself, the Weekend spoke to our mission and was widely embraced. We did our part. But so did you. And we thank you!
Were there some elements of the weekend that can be improved upon or changed? Of course. We listen to all comments, suggestions and criticisms, and look forward to making adjustments to provide an even better experience next year.
While we have turned our attention to Hall of Fame Weekend, when the spotlight is on the Hall of Fame once again, rest assured, we are also working on next year’s Classic over Father’s Day Weekend, June 19-20, 2010. Be sure to mark your calendar.
JEFF IDELSON
President
National Baseball Hall of Fame
Cooperstown

Jeff Idelson
President, National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

Please, Don’t ‘Help’ Or ‘Milk’ Me

To the Editor:
It saddens or outrages me to need to write this Letter to the Editor. I’m not sure which emotion is the stronger.
I had been a registered Democrat for over 20 years, but removed my affiliation when the Democrat Party “lost its way” more than three decades ago.
But when Kristin Gillibrand was appointed as senator I was once again happy and encouraged that there could be an “old style” Democrat that I could vote for. I had read that she had rural Upstate New York values.
She was reported to be a staunch supporter of the Second Amendment to our Constitution. WOW, was I wrong!
She now appears to be intoxicated by the heady atmosphere of the capital city and is now more sophisticated in her attitudes. Specifically, she is supporting greater restrictions on gun owners.
Based on what I see, that is, the “Stimulus,” the “Climate” bill, gun rights attitudes, and the government takeover of industries, I plan to vote against every incumbent in 2010. Not only will I not cast a vote for an incumbent, I will actively work against every incumbent regardless of political party. We need new leadership across the board remove the current attitudes of the Washington elite.
I am beginning to feel like one of the ear-tagged cows in Mr. Richards’ barn down the road from me. I don’t want to be managed, “helped” or “milked” by my elected representatives any longer.
JOHN F. HUNT

Redefining ‘Marriage’ Obfuscates

To the Editor:
Again we hear from Mr. O’Leary and I couldn’t agree more.
When the definition of marriage was not “in play,” there was no need to come up with an alternative definition – but now, after thousands of years, we in this little slice of time have decided that anyone can be married.
I believe that is wrong. Far from diluting the meaning of my marriage, I am more concerned with the diluting of the language – but “civil union” will have to do.
I first heard this concept in a reply to a column in the New York Post – it makes sense!!
Turn my marriage retroactively into a civil union – fine with me – I have my certificate of marriage from the establishment that matters most (emotionally) and from the establishment that is necessary for the protection of both parties and “issues” (that’s legalese for ‘children) that may or already have proceeded.
Also, the un-Google-able Mr. William F. Roberts contacted me via postcard – still worried about that whole theocracy thing.
I wrote him back and suggested that when he encounters people who might disagree with a law because of religious convictions he should not infer that they want a theocracy ... “that” is a “leap.”
I seem to be a conservative libertarian – it’s easy and fun.
ADRIAN D. Van ESSENDELFT
Oneonta

Arts Great Way To Develop Economy

To the Editor:
In order to strengthen our economy, we need to invest in incentives that produce long-term success, rather than the “quick fix” methods we currently use.
After meeting with a majority of Main Street’s business owners, I have listened to their concerns and more than anything else, we must invest in incentives that increase consumer traffic downtown.
I look to lobby for a commuter train line that runs to and from Albany and Binghamton twice a day, setting up a continuous revolving door of tourists, while also allowing residents to live in Oneonta and commute elsewhere for a suitable career.
In addition, I have spoken with the new director of The Foothills Center, Jennifer McDowall, and we share a vision of working together to market and develop the city’s arts and entertainment programs.
The addition of mainstream theater and music productions to our community is an enormous opportunity to develop our economy.
Summed up, the addition of a train line and the development of arts and entertainment programs creates a future that sees Oneonta’s economy as self-sufficient and sustainable.
So that no matter who is mayor or on the common council, we will maintain a healthy, continuous revenue flow.
It is essential that we improve our communication with each other so that we can utilize the resources we have within our reach.
It is up to us to work together in creating an Oneonta that can truly stand on its own.
JASON CORRIGAN
Candidate For Oneonta Mayor

Labels: 07-10-09, Hometown Views, Letters to the Editor

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 4:36 PM 5 comments

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Stallions, Pro Football Team, Ready To Gallop In Oneonta

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

First Home Game Saturday, July 18, Against Scranton

By LAURA COX

Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, you may have seen them, 25 men ages 18-36, getting in shape, running drills and, since helmets arrived, hitting each other.
This is what football teams do and this is what the newest team in the Regional Atlantic Football League – the (Oneonta) New York Stallions – has been doing.
The motto: “What doesn’t break a team, makes a team.”
And the Stallions, dressed in Carolina blue and white, will play their home-opener at 5 p.m., Saturday, July 18, vs. the NEPA Miners of Scranton, Pa. at Fortin Park in Emmons.
(The season opener is away, at 7 p.m. Saturday, July 11, at Seidler Field in Plainfield, N.J., vs. the New Jersey Wolves.)
After hitting a rough patch this spring – former owner and founder Donald Stanton Sr. was arrested and extradited to Arkansas on felony theft charges – the players are putting their feet on firm (but wet) ground, said Del Anthony, 37, of Oneonta, the team’s new owner and defensive coordinator.
Since buying the team, Anthony was able to secure Fortin Park as the home, something the previous owner struggled to do. While Fortin may not be ideal – the team has to provide the uprights and line the field – Anthony said he was happy to have a place to play for now and said he will continue to look for a home field for the team.
“We want to go where people can see us play,” he said.
When asked about his changing the name of the team – from Oneonta Stallions to the New York Stallions – Anthony said, “I changed the name of the team to make us more flexible to play in the surrounding communities. If we were the Oneonta Stallions it would seem funny if we didn’t play in Oneonta.”
A quick hand-raise of the team at a practice the other day showed a handful of guys who played football in college, a majority played in high school, and a couple who had never played on an organized team.
For most of the players, it’s been years.
The men come from all over the area to play including Unadilla, Walton, Delhi, Oneonta and Cooperstown.
“These guys play for the love of the game,” Anthony said, “and for most of them, it’s a second chance to play.”
The new owner believes local fans will be surprised and pleased by the talent on the team. And local pro football offers something else and something new to do on a Saturday night.
“I’m not going to tell you who the stars are on the team, because the other teams are already scouting us out,” said Anthony, “but I will tell you there is some real talent on this team.
“You’ll have to come out a watch us play and find out who they are for yourself.”
This first year as a team, he continued, will be the toughest, because the team will have to prove to the community they have some talent and worth.
In particular, sponsors have to be convinced the Stallions are worthy of support.
This is not the first semi-professional football team to give it a try in Oneonta.
The Oneonta Indians started in 1970, playing in the Empire Football League, and won two EFL championships, one in 1973 and another in 1975.
In the late 1960s, the Indians moved and their name was changed to the Chenango Storm.

Labels: 07-10-09, Front Page

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IN THE CITY OF THE HILLS

Chancellor Pays First Local Visit

SUNY’s new chancellor, Nancy Zimpher, will pay her first visit to SUNY Oneonta Monday, July 13. The public is welcome.
She will meet with faculty, staff and community members at 9-9:30 a.m. in the Morris Conference Center. All are welcome.
She will lunch with college President Nancy Kleniewski, the SUNY Oneonta College Council and College Foundation, and local legislators and community leaders.

RE-PLUNGE: A Polar Bear Chicken BBQ Reunion. by the organizers of the annual February event, is at noon Saturday, July 11, in the Lake Shore Drive South field, Goodyear Lake. CNY Radio’s George Wells and Catskill Hospice’s Huemac Garcia, who have avoided the icy plunge, will be in the dunking booth. Food, games. Rain date, July 12.

GET TOGETHER: Join the TCYP (Tri-County Young Professionals) at 6 p.m. Saturday, July 11, to see the Tigers in Damaschke Field. It’s $10 for TCYP members, $15 for non-members, $12 for kids 12 and under, including Brooks BBQ.

SUMMER LECTURES: The Swart-Wilcox House’s Summer Sunday Lecture Series begins at 1 p.m. July 12. Catherine Bellino will discuss, “History of Emmons Farms & Gardens,” and share the book she’s written about her gardens.

Labels: 07-10-09, Front Page

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Biggest Bat Built At All-Star Village

Marty Patton is making lemon into lemonade at Cooperstown All-Star Village.
Or, rather, in recent days he was turning a lightning-struck 115-foot pine tree into what he hopes will be the largest wooden baseball bat on record.
Patton intends to get the behemoth bat listed in the Guinness Book of World Records.
The sequence of events happened about 5 p.m .Thursday, July 2, when a “microburst” broke over the Route 205 youth-baseball-tournament park just north of Oneonta.
A lightning bolt struck the tree, right near the entrance, during the finals of the park’s Cooperstown Tournament of Champions, shattering the top.
The following day, Patton was advised that, even though the main truck of the tree was intact, it would be unsafe to let it stand.
So Patton contacted Hal McIntosh of Woodstock, one of the foremost wood carvers in the state and author of “Chainsaw Carving: The Art and The Craft.”
He and an apprentice were due at All-Star Village Wednesday, July 8, to complete the bat. Patton said he was told they could do the job in a day.
While Patton could find no listing in the Guinness Book right now, he remembers the big bat at Yankee Stadium of “meet me at the bat” fame, and was trying to determine what size the bat might have been.

Labels: 07-10-09, Front Page

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Hometown People

Kingston Hosts Oneonta Sculpture

Sculptor Terry Slade, a Hartwick College art professor, has installed his newest work, “Memories of the Hudson,” in Kingston Park for the ninth Kingston Sculpture Biennial.
The Biennial opened on the Fourth of July, and will remain on view through October.
“This installation commemorates the lives of the trees on the Hudson River,” Slade said, adding it was inspired by many train trips along the Hudson River and by numerous research trips to Scotland visiting pre-historic sites.
Slade has used natural branches and roots collected from the Hudson’s shores. The work’s spherical form represents the endless cycle of life, and the “standing” elements circling the sphere are reminders of growth and renewal.

Charles Hartley’s ‘Men Having Tea’ Wins Mansion Regional Art Exhibit

Charles Hartley’s “Men Having Tea” won the grand prize at the Upper Catskill Community Council of the Arts’ 2009 Mansion Regional Art Show.
Charlie Bremer’s “Counter Balance” was second and David Kiehm’s “Great Egret,” third in the juried exhibit, which will be on display at the Wilber Mansion on Ford Avenue until July 24.
This year’s juror was John Brunelli from the Anthony Brunelli Fine Arts, Binghamton.
Five awards for excellence were presented in the following categories:
• Fine Craft – Christine Alexander, “Sunrise / Turtle”
• Painting – Terry Fox, “Untitled (Red Horse)”
• Photography – David Polley, “Blue Lines for Helen”
• Graphics – Roberta Griffith, “Kaui Leaf Poem”
• Sculpture – Jeremy Holmes, “Atmosphere”

JOINS MARSH: Steve Estes has joined the Don Marsh Agency as an associate agent. Steve has 27 years of automotive sales experience, the last 11 with the Country Club Auto Group. He will specialize on commercial insurance protection, as well as personal line auto, homeowner, tenant and flood insurance.

FOX INITIATIVE: Dr. Lois Sastic will lead a new A.O. Fox Hospital team designed to assist in breast-care diagnosis and care. The team will include a surgeon, radiologist, mammography technologists, registered nurse and ultrasound technologists – all involved in the initiative.

Labels: 07-10-09, Hometown People

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Swart-Wilcox Topics Frange From Hops To Trolleys

The Swart-Wilcox House Museum’s Summer Sunday Lecture Series begins 1-3 p.m. July 12 with Catherine Bellino discussing the topic, “History of Emmons Farms & Gardens.” Cathy has lived at Emmons Farms for over 30 years and has continued the long history of gardens there. She will discuss the resulting book.
Other topics are as follows:
• July 19: “Oneonta’s Little Grocery Stores.” Landin Van Buren, Joe Rizzo and Judy Johnson MacLachlan lived through the era of neighborhood groceries before the days of supermarkets.
• July 26: “’Hop’ To It.” Al Bullard discusses the importance of the hop-growing industry to 19th century Otsego County, with related artifacts. (Also, check out the Swart Wilcox House’s crop.)
• Aug. 2: “$$$$$.” Lynn Bissell will discuss the history of money.
• Aug. 9: “Goin’ To Pot.” Ellie Stromberg, a potter for 35 years and co-manager of the Artisans Guild, discusses functional stoneware.
• Aug. 16: “Old Oneonta Schools.” Bring emphemera and memories to a discussion by City Historian Mark Simonson of the city’s former schools: Plains, River Street, Mitchell Street, East End, Chestnut Street and Center Street.
• Aug. 23: “Felting.” Local expert Theresa O’Brien shares her secrets.
• Aug. 30: “Old Trolleys of Oneonta.” Ernie Malke talks about the cars and the routes.
All lectures are free. Light refreshment will be served, and informal tours follow.

Labels: 07-10-09, Hometown Briefs

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Tigers Rule the New York-Penn Jungle

CHRIS McSWIGGIN

At mid-week the Oneonta Tigers sat, all alone, in first place, with a 10-5 record and a three-game lead on the Lowell Spinners.
The Tigers completed their first sweep of the season, taking three straight from Aberdeen at Damaschke Field. Oneonta had taken two out of three from the Ironbirds on the road the series before.
The Oneonta players have revenge on their minds as they take on the Vermont Lake Monsters in a three-game set. Vermont defeated Oneonta in two straight contests and held them to their lowest statistical outings of the season.
The Tigers have a chance to take a firm lead on the NYPL Stedler Division.
The Lowell Spinners play the pesky Tri City Valley Cats for a three game set and with victories over Vermont, Oneonta could set themselves up for another playoff run.
Oneonta would use their back-to-back losses at Vermont as momentum, beating the Spinners 9-3 in game one.
Now they have won three straight, and look to keep the fire burning.
Oneonta had a heck of a July 4, with Tigers’ first baseman Rawley Bishop hitting a grand slam and a solo home run in the Tigers 7-2 victory over Aberdeen in front of the biggest Tigers crowd this season, 1.522.
The Tigers have some solid pitching and have relied on it to get them through a lot of games. Oneonta takes on Vermont for three straight then take on Tri City in a home-away-home contest before embarking on a six-game road trip.
July 8 was Sid Levine Bobble-Head Night at the ballpark.

Labels: 07-10-09, Hometown Sports, oneonta tigers

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THE JOE STILLMAN STORY

...And How Filmmaker Was Gripped By Iraq Vet’s Courage To Tell What He Saw

By JIM KEVLIN

Jimmy Massey believed that soldiers following orders committed war crimes in Iraq.
The former 12-year Marine, honorably discharged, believes that depleted uranium used in bullets, “bunker busters” and cluster bombs will kill annother 25 percent of Iraq population over the next 25 years.
He says nine out of 10 returning veterans suffer from PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder.
And, a former Marine recruiter himself, he will tell you recruiters indulge in “economic conscription,” pursuing children of single mothers and others predisposed by economics or family circumstances to join the military.
Joseph C. Stillman – the Oneonta filmmaker’s credits range from “Evil Dead II,” a cult classic, to “Cook and Perry: The Race for the Pole” with Rod Steiger and Richard Chamberlain – didn’t expect much when he went to hear Jimmy Massey speak at Hartwick College four years ago.
Instead, what Joe Stillman heard that night has been part of his life ever since.
“This story is much bigger than I thought,” Stillman said the other day in an interview in the headquarters of his La Paloma Films on Oneonta’s Chestnut Street. “This is a film about the price one man paid to tell the truth about what he saw.”
Four years, 14 states and $125,000 later, “From Mills River to Babylon and Back: The Jimmy Massey Story,” is complete, and more than 2,000 people have viewed it across New York State in the past few months, including an SRO crowd at the Foothills Performing Arts Center on May 29.
Another showing is planned at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 16, in the Cooperstown village meeting room, 22 Main St., sponsored by the Cooperstown Peace Group, which has been holding a noontime vigil every Wednesday, rain or shine, winter and summer, in front of the post office.
As he moves on to other projects, Joe Stillman has gotten his 57-minute film on the right desks at HBO and is waiting to hear if the network will air it. It’s been entered in the Toronto, Sundance and Woodstock film festivals.
And Jimmy Massey, grateful for the support he has received from the Oneonta community, moved to town a week ago and has enrolled as an art student this fall at Hartwick College.
The man who saw the possibilities in Massey’s story, Joe Stillman, was born in Corpus Christi, Texas, in 1951, son of a civilian employee at the Naval Air Station there. Joe grew up during the Vietnam era, with Chinooks, Cobras and Hueys flying over the house en route to the air station for repairs.
“There were a lot of parallels to what’s going on now,” Joe said. The one difference: No draft.
He was an All-State Basketball player in high school and – most important to his future, it turns out – shot photos for his yearbook, La Paloma.
After a year on a basketball scholarship at Texas A&I in Kingsville, a couple of years playing rythm guitar and bass in a rising rock band, The Red Lime, and a full-time shooting job with Bayou Photo Co., Houston, he found himself in the Brook Institute, Santa Barbara, studying motion-picture producing.
“I liked telling stories,” he explained, “particularly stories that are significant and relevant, to give people a perspective on things they don’t know a lot about.”
He freelanced as second cameraman on various Hollywood jobs, met Oneonta native Rachel Schrull, then moved back East to New York City, where Rachel introduced him to “this really quiet place in Upstate New York.”
He’s lived in Oneonta, at least parttime, since 1979, but he spent the next 12 years back and forth to New York City, producing, directing and managing productions. “One year,” he said, “I was on location 48 weeks. I was home only four weeks.”
This took a toll on his family life, and the couple went their separate ways. Their son is now 23.
During this time, though, Stillman’s career advanced. Among the films he was associated with were “Lily in Love” (1984), with Christopher Plummer, Maggie Smith and Elke Sommer; “In the Spirit” (1990), with Olympia Dukakis and Peter Falk, and “The Ox” (1991), with Liv Ullman and Max Von Sydow.
In the early ‘90s, he was filming “Cook and Perry” on Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic.
“I was tired of being on the road,” he said. “It really gets to be a drag. You long for your own bed and a home-cooked meal.”
So he asked himself: If Ellesmere Island, why not Otsego County?
Back in Oneonta, he sold WSKG Public Television on a local series, and five half-hour sequences of “Susquehanna Stories” were aired to critical acclaim and awards.
What surprised and encouraged him most, however, was that 350 people showed up at a “call for actors” at SUNY Oneonta’s Morris Hall in 1991. Another 60 showed up at the “call for writers.” And another 40 at the “call for directors.”
“It validated the concept that we had an incredible supply of talent in our county,” said Stillman, who over his career has done 15 feature films, 100 other films and 700 commercials, including Wal-Mart’s featuring Sam Walton and the “Bring It Home to the U.S.A.” theme.
His local films have included “The Ricky Parisian Story,” the state trooper from Oneonta whose death in the line of duty has spurred ongoing community-service programs, and “Standing Tall: The Eugene A. Bettiol Jr. Story,” about the local executive and civic leader claimed by cancer in his ‘40s.
Not a veteran himself, “The Jimmy Massey Story” has been an education for Stillman, and not just about depleted uranium and PTSD.
“Jimmy Massey’s story is a call to action for all of us to engage in our Democracy,” he said.
When Massey first began speaking out against the war, he was the sole Iraq veteran doing so, and found himself battered by Fox News, Bill O’Reilly and Rush Limbaugh.
At one point, he was so discouraged, Jimmy called Stillman to call the whole project off. He later changed his mind.
Today, Iraq Veterans Against The War – Massey is a founder – has 1,700 member, veterans and active servicemen.
“His story gave me courage to speak out against the war,” one soldier told Stillman after one of the airings.
Still, 4,000 American soldiers and sailors have been killed, a million Iraqis, and the war still goes on.
“And,” Stillman reflected, “we’re fighting a war that didn’t have to be fought.”

Labels: 07-10-09, The City of the Hills

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WEEKEND’S BEST BETS

BRABANTS PERFORM: The Afton Fair runs through Sunday, July 12, featuring animal displays, midway, vendors, concerts and other grandstand events, including J.D. Winslow’s Brabant draught horses. Information, theaftonfair.com or 639-1525.

VINTAGE, TINY: Radio-controlled miniature replicas of military aircraft will be flying over the Gilbertsville Polo Field 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Friday to Sunday, July 10-12, Admission $3. Info, 293-7974.

SELL, SELL: Rent a table and sell your wares on the front lawn of the Holiday Inn Southside 9 a.m.-2 p.m., Saturday, July 13. Spots $10 each; table and chairs additional $10, setup begins 7 a.m. To reserve a spot call 433-2250, extension 174.

RR ANNIVERSARY: The Cooperstown & Charlotte Valley Railroad marks its 140th anniversary with a train ride featuring period costumes and a birthday cake. Departs the Milford Depot at 1 p.m. Saturday, July 13. Adults $15, seniors $14, children 3-12 $12, under 3 free. Info and reservations, call 432-2429.

LOCAL AUTHORS: Locals authors will be signing their books 1-4 p.m., Saturday, July 13, at Hobart Book Village in Delaware County. Visit hobartbookvillage.com.

ANIMALS GALORE: Some 750 animals and 3,300 youth handlers will be at the 62nd Annual Farmers’ Museum Junior Livestock Show runs 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday through Tuesday, July 14, at Iroquois Farm, Route 33, Cooperstown.

BROOK WALK: The Otsego Land Trust is sponsoring a walk along Morris Brook at 2 p.m. Sunday July 12. Then tour All Saints Chapel and Cemetery, and stay on for an optional dinner featuring locally grown ingredients at 5 p.m. at the Empire House, Gilbertsville. For reservations, call 547-2366 or e-mail connie@otsegolandtrust.org

$15,000! Shoot a hole-in-one, win $15,000 at a golf tournament to benefit Habitat for Humanity at 1 p.m. Sunday, July 12, Oneonta Country Club. Limited to 20 teams. Call 432-8950 or 433-0575.

Labels: 07-10-09, The City of the Hills

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 4:44 PM 0 comments

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Visual Jazz

SAM GOODYEAR

ART BEAT

If you have a friend or family member who loves jazz and are looking for a birthday or Christmas present, or a present out of the blue (the best kind, in our humble opinion), then you are doubly in luck.
You will definitely please that person with a brand-new, stupendously moving and beautiful book, “Jazz Studies,” a feast of photographs by Joann Krivin.
When you riffle through it quickly before purchase, as with pistachio nuts and Krispy-Kreme doughnuts, one will not suffice: you will not be able to resist obtaining a copy for yourself.
And even if you don’t know much about jazz, or think you care very little for it, you will become a convert.
Joann Krivin, who lives in Oneonta, to which she and her jazz clarinetist husband retired a few years ago after careers in New York City and New Jersey, came to jazz after years of passion for classical music, particularly opera.
It was her husband who opened the door and carried her across the threshold, so to speak. Her love and understanding of the medium are palpable in the scores of sumptuously black-and-white portraits of the artists captured by her modest and lyrical eye.
One feels the immediacy of the moment, musically, artistically, even to the point of being able almost to pinpoint the temperature of the room, the time of day or night, the heartbeat of the performer.
The intimacy is commanding yet never intrusive, and each turn of the page arrests one’s attention and inspires wonder and curiosity.
We would not be so fatuous as to say one can actually hear the music, but we do confess to a hunger for it as result of viewing these stirring images.
Ms. Krivin prefers black and white to color for the call to the imagination and interpretive powers of the viewer (as well as the photographer) the deceptively simpler visual palette engenders.
You will appreciate the myriad hues of dark and light on display here. But it is not just photographic skill that is required for what she has achieved so eloquently.“If you don’t love jazz,” she says of the undertaking,”you better give it up.”
As if having an artist of her stature among us weren’t enough, the book itself has been produced by a high-quality publishing house right here as well: the Argian Press, under the direction of founder David M. Hayes, headquartered in Oneonta. As I am so fond of saying over and over again, aren’t we lucky?
And our luck looks as though it will continue: Ms. Krivin is now working on photographic portraits of old dolls.
Not the classic, obviously important and “arty” china variety; rather, the used and worn dolls found in attics, yard sales and antique shops, patiently awaiting their comeback thanks to this keen and respectful observer.
Be on the lookout.

Labels: 07-10-09, Art Beat, Columns, Sam Goodyear, The City of the Hills

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 4:41 PM 0 comments

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Hometown History

125 Years Ago
The Fourth of July was in Oneonta the dullest day of the year. Many of the stores were closed and the streets were well-nigh deserted. Now and then a firecracker or a shout from the small boy would break the solemn stillness, but for which the character of the day would hardly have been known.
A few picnic parties passed the time pleasantly in woods near the town, while others went a-fishing or to the towns around Oneonta which were patriotic enough to celebrate.
July 1884

100 Years Ago
The Local News – The Butts garage received on Saturday a shipment of three Maxwell runabouts, one of which has been bought by Fields Hackett. The cars are two cylinder twelve horsepower machines and sell for $585.
The International Time Recording Company, in which many residents of Oneonta are interested as stockholders, has recently opened an office in Moscow, Russia and has issued a catalogue printed in the Russian language. This company now has offices open in London, Glasgow, Paris, Berlin and Vienna, in addition to Moscow.
George Reynolds, an Oneonta barber who of late had allowed intemperance to interfere with his business, was last week sentenced to 30 days in the county jail at Cooperstown. Reynolds is an excellent workman and when he is sober, a good businessman. Everybody will hope he will come out of jail at the end of his sentence determined to retrieve his recent bad conduct.
Deposits in the Wilber National Bank as of the end of June 1909 amount to $2,259,727.37. At the end of June in the year 1900 deposits in that bank amounted to $1,082,173.91.
July 1909

80 Years Ago
Uncle Sam will formally open another savings campaign this week when the new, small-sized bank notes go into the tills of banks throughout the nation. Through this method officials in Washington predict an annual savings of more than a million dollars on printing and engraving work.
Locally, more than $30,000 worth of the new bills will be received before noon. But officials stated last night that due to the demand it will be impossible to supply more than one or two notes to each customer. The Wilber National Bank will receive $3,000 in ones; $700 in twos; $4,500 in fives; $5,000 in tens; and $3,600 in twenties.
The next shipment of the new currency is expected in Oneonta on July 16 in about the same amount.
July 1929

60 Years Ago
Oneonta has been chosen as the site of a new regional poultry disease diagnostic laboratory by a Cornell University committee headed Dean W.I. Myers of the school’s College of Agriculture. The committee chose the site because Oneonta is at the center of a heavily populated poultry section farthest from poultry diagnostic services.
The laboratory at Oneonta will supplement the work of three other regional laboratories now in service at East Aurora, Kingston and Farmingdale, L.I.
The laboratory will diagnose poultry diseases on specimens submitted by veterinarians and poultry operators. Research programs will also be supported by the center as well as an extension programs to educate poultry operators in ways to prevent and control poultry diseases.
It is expected that the new center will handle 10,000 to 15,000 birds annually.
July 1949

40 Years Ago
How much can the average worker in Otsego County purchase today with his weekly paycheck? How does this compare with the buying power of a week’s work in his father’s day? In general, according to figures released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, even though the cost of living has zoomed since then, the working man is in a much better economic position now.
Twenty years ago, for example, it took 37 hours of work to buy an electric vacuum cleaner. Today, it can be bought with less than 15 hours of work. A pair of nylon stockings that required 40 minutes on the job at that time can now be purchased after 19 minutes. The average working man in Otsego County now earns enough in 19 minutes to buy a pound of bacon or a pound of coffee, which is about half the time he would have needed in 1959.
In Otsego County, income per household is 43 percent higher, on average, than it was 10 years ago. The cost of living, however, has risen only 20 percent.
July 1969

20 Years Ago
More than 100 horses and several hundred spectators gathered yesterday at Glenwood Farm to raise money for new equipment at Fox Memorial Hospital.
Anna Marie Lusins and husband Dr. John Lusins, a physician at the hospital, have sponsored the horse show for five years. Funds raised will go to acquiring new equipment for the hospital’s trauma room. Benefit dinners that are held prior to the horse show also help to raise money for Fox and the two events this year netted about $20,000.
July 1989

10 Years Ago
On the morning of July 7, First Lady Hillary Clinton and retiring U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan sauntered down a narrow road on his farm like two old friends enjoying a walk and talk on a bright summer morning.
After some introductory comments to the press corps and television cameras about the visit they had just shared in the senator’s 1854 schoolhouse which serves as his office, the senator announced that the First Lady had taken the initial step toward a run for the senate and he urged her to go all the way in the effort. On July 6, Clinton established an exploratory committee regarding her senate candidacy.
July 1999

Resources for Hometown History have been provided courtesy of the New York State Historical Association Library.

Labels: 07-10-09, Columns, Hometown History

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 4:39 PM 0 comments

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Dangers Of Natural-Gas Drilling Familiar – Ask National Geographic

The other morning on the second floor of Bassett Healthcare’s clinic building waiting room in Cooperstown, there it was, a 2005 copy of that radical magazine: National Geographic.
Before the patient was summoned, a quick flip through its famous photo pages dramatized the ravages natural-gas drilling was doing to the ranches around Pinedale, Wyo. The photos were all there: Sludge coming out of faucets, aquifers drying up, flames shooting up through the ground.
On the way out, someone had already lifted the magazine, gripped by the same subject, no doubt. Happily, the full report is online. Follow the link from www.hometownoneonta.biz; read it, listen to the slide show and decide for yourself.
•
The point is this: There is no mystery about the damage natural-gas drilling does to an environment. And with rising fuel prices, reserves beneath Otsego County have suddenly become profitable to pursue, and dozens, perhaps hundreds, of sites are being targeted for development locally.
From National Geographic’s “All Fired Up: A natural gas boom is transforming public lands in the Rockies, pitting Westerner against Westerner,” by John G. Mitchell:
• On the millions of gallons of water needed for natural-gas extraction, which become polluted: “Much of it goes into evaporation pits or reservoirs, and occasionally there have been overflows into nearby watercourses, including the Tongue River.”
• On ruined wells: “Sludge ... can come out of a homeowner’s tap when drillers de-water the aquifer feeding that homeowner’s well and cistern ... ‘We lost our water in April 2003,’ (homeowner) Allison Cole told me. ‘By August 2005, five other houses here had lost their water too. The drilling company, J.M. Huber Corp., told us, “the reason you have no water is that your well pump burned out.” And I said, “Yeah? And the reason the pump burned out is because it had no water.”’”
• Public input: The U.S. Bureau of Land Management, “seeking public comment, received nearly 50,000 letters and e-mails, 99 percent of them opposed to drilling. What surely helped trigger that rebuff was a growing awareness that outdoor recreation, even more than ranching, might hold the key to the region’s economic future.”
• Oversight: The Blancett family “sold off all but a few of their cattle late in 2003, informing the BLM that they could ho longer ranch effectively because of the agency’s failure to enforce regulations governing the 450 wells on their spread, (which) had caused unmitigated erosion, loss of forage and pollution of both water and air.”
Natural-gas drilling, particularly hydrofracking – the spiderlike extension of drills from a central core – is simply something we don’t want in Otsego County.
•
When we say “we,” we’re excluding some of the 300 landlords who have granted leases on more than 40,000 acres in the county. We say “some,” because at least some of those no doubt have suffered buyer’s remorse, signing up for too little money and without a full understanding of what likely will be a devastating impact.
Environmentalists have gotten a bad rep by declaring never, no way, no how, on every matter from the snail darter to nuclear power to whatever, but all of us should try to step back, take an objective look at what natural-gas drilling will likely bring, and decide whether this is where Otsego County, beautiful Otsego County, wants to go.
By and large, our representatives have been slow to digest the threat. State Sen. Jim Seward, R-Milford, was the first to take tentative steps, seeking to ensure landowners aren’t gulled by agents seeking leases. The county Board of Representatives is finally responding in a too-measured way, but at least it is looking at what to do about the polluted slurry from drilling operations.
Economic-development proponents would be better advised to look at I-88’s vacant exits, or investing in tourism, or broad-band to promote entrepreneurism, and avoid any Faustian deals with natural-gas developers.
We all know where Faustian deals will end us.

Labels: 07-10-09, Editorial, Hometown Views, Opinion

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 4:35 PM 0 comments

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