Published in The Post-Star (G1)
9/21/06
The symptoms are subtle, but serious: Emerging from the local pub's "sports trivia night" with an armload of loot after screaming out the name of an obscure shortstop. Telling your girlfriend she reminds you of Endy Chavez, and thinking it's a compliment. Yelling "YAAAHHH!" in a stranger's face because their outfit bears a familiar team logo.
The diagnosis: Baseball on the brain. If you've got it, well, we can understand. Not only is there a tantalizing possibility that two New York teams will slug it out in this year's World Series, but there's the equivalent of baseball paradise practically in your backyard -- The National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.
The museum is the most famous of the town's many attractions, and it certainly deserves attention. A true fan could spend all day wandering through the information-packed exhibits, memorizing trivia and stats, or just gazing at their favorite player's plaque in the gallery of famous players. Only about 7 percent of the museum's massive collection is on permanent display, but the public gets a chance to view a few items from the archive in the education gallery each day.
On the other hand, if the only thing the words "Babe Ruth" make you think of is a trip to the vending machine, you're probably going to fall asleep during the introductory movie at the Hall of Fame. Instead, check out some of Cooperstown's other cultural treasures, like the New York State Historical Association's museums about a mile north of the village.
The Fenimore Art Museum's permanent collection includes many landscape paintings, historical portraits and photographs, as well as an impressive collection of American folk art. Don't miss the current special exhibit of works by Grandma Moses, a Washington County native whose sweetly simplistic paintings of rural life made her one of the most commercially successful artists of all time. Other current exhibits through Dec. 31 include the art of American Indian women, masks from around the world, photographs by Milo Stewart Sr. and landscape paintings by the Hudson River School.
The Farmers' Museum is an interactive exhibit of rural 19th-century life that includes a re-created historic village and a working farmstead complete with live animals. Special attractions open through mid-October include the Empire State Carousel, a handcrafted merry-go-round that uses contemporary folk art to depict New York's history and "Mysteries of the Lake," an exhibit about the history and ecology of nearby Otsego Lake.
Downtown Cooperstown offers a bounty of baseball-themed souvenir shops and eateries like The Doubleday Cafe and The Short Stop Restaurant. If you order a beer, try a local brew like Ommegang's Belgian-style Hennepin ale or Cooperstown Brewing Company's Benchwarmer Porter. Both breweries are just a few miles outside of town and are open for tours most afternoons.
By the end of a day in Cooperstown, you might have gotten that baseball fever out of your
system temporarily.
Or you might just find yourself fighting an overwhelming craving for peanuts and Crackerjacks.
--
IF YOU GO
The Farmers' Museum and The Fenimore Art Museum, across from each other on Route 80 just north of the village, are open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Oct. 9, with reduced admission and hours for the remainder of October. Admission to either is $11 adults/$9.50 seniors/$5 children age 7-12, and free for kids 6 and younger. Joint admission to both museums is $17.50 adults/$8 kids. Combination tickets are available with the Baseball Hall of Fame. More information at www.farmersmuseum.org and www.fenimoreartmuseum.org.
The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, at 25 Main St., is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. Admission is $14.50 adults/$9.50 seniors and veterans/$5 ages 7-12 and free for kids 6 and younger. Combination tickets are available with the Farmers' Museum and/or the Fenimore Art Museum. More information at www.baseballhalloffame.org.
.Brewery Ommegang, 5 miles south of Cooperstown on county highway 33, is open for tours and tastings from 12 to 5 p.m. daily. More information at www.ommegang.com.
Cooperstown Brewing Company, 10 miles south of Cooperstown in Milford, is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily for tours and tastings. Admission $3 adults/kids free. More information at www.cooperstownbrewing.com.
Fly Creek Cider Mill & Orchard, 3 miles northwest of Cooperstown in Fly Creek, is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily for self-guided tours and tastings through mid-December. More information at www.flycreekcidermill.com.
GETTING THERE
The simplest route from Glens Falls is to take the Northway south to I-90 west. After about 11 miles, take Exit 25A onto Route 88. In Duanesburg, pick up Route 20 west (Western Turnpike) and continue about 30 miles. In Springfield, turn left onto Route 80 South, following the west shore of Otsego Lake into Cooperstown. Park near the museums and take the free trolley to downtown. Total drive time: Two to three hours.
From Saratoga, a more scenic route on smaller roads follows Route 29 west to Route 10 to US-20 to Route 80. Consult Google Maps (www.maps.google.com) for detailed directions. Total drive time: Two hours.
For a map of downtown Cooperstown, go to www.farmersmuseum.org/visitor/getting_here.htm.
Friday, September 29, 2006
Thursday, September 28, 2006
DVD review: Apres Vous
Published in The Post-Star (G11)
9/21/06
Apres Vous (2003). Directed by Pierre Salvadori. Starring Daniel Auteuil, Jose Garcia, Sandrine Kiberlain and Marilyne Canto. 110 minutes, French with English subtitles. Rated R for language.
This quirky French comedy based in a Paris bistro serves up a hearty portion of laugh-out-loud humor, garnished with a sprinkle of philosophy and a lemony twist.
The plot's main ingredients mix when the bistro's head waiter, Antoine (Daniel Auteuil), stumbles upon a suicide attempt by a morose loser named Louis (Jose Garcia), who is stewing in self-pity after a bad breakup.
Sounds like a recipe for heavy drama, but director Pierre Salvadori prefers black comedy. Viewers may be surprised to find themselves cracking up at the sight of a man with a noose around his neck.
Don't worry, Antoine doesn't let him succeed. In fact, he is so moved by pity that he invites Louis into his home, the first in a series of well-intentioned overtures that soon create a sticky mess of personal, professional and romantic complications for both of them.
Antoine gets Louis a job at the bistro -- nearly losing his own as a result -- and tracks down Louis's ex-girlfriend, Blanche (Sandrine Kimberlain), by pretending to be just another customer in her flower shop. In the meantime, Antoine's relationship with his own girlfriend (Marilyne Canto) is cooling.
Hmm, anyone smell a romantic triangle cooking?
It's not a terribly original idea, but it's artfully presented, and Auteuil's expressive acting is the frosting on this tasty treat of a film. (That's the last food pun, we promise.)
Want more?
If you like Auteuil in the role of a rescuer, check out the 1999 French romantic drama "The Girl on the Bridge," in which his character stops a depressed girl from jumping off a bridge by offering her a job as a human target for his knife-throwing act.
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Coming north, with help
Published in The Post-Star (B1)
9/17/06
When Kevin O’Brien of Lake Luzerne saw the folk group "Peter, Paul and Mary," on television in 1986, describing the devastating effects of civil war in Central America, he was moved — literally.
He was moved to such an extent that he and his wife, Diana, ended up a few years later on a plane to El Salvador, where they adopted an almost 4-year-old boy named Terrence Julio from an orphanage in the city of Zacatecoluca.
In the nearby capital city of San Ramon, Marta Cuellar and Maribel Torres — two girls about Terrence’s age — had loving families, but little else. The civil war had ended, but severe poverty and lack of infrastructure crippled the country. Access to good education was limited and expensive. The future didn’t seem to hold many options for kids like them.
"In El Salvador you have to pay for school, and it gets more expensive as you go up," explained Maribel, who has six siblings. "My sister helped me, and I got a scholarship from a local business for 10th and 11th grade. But some kids just don’t go."
The girls were about 10 years old when they met an American woman named Mary Beth Gallagher, a lay volunteer with the Maryknoll Catholic missionaries. She taught them soccer and English, encouraged them in school and told them they were full of potential.
"I think everything was started by her," Marta said recently, reflecting on how her life has changed in the past decade.
Marta and Maribel, along with Marta’s brother Samuel Reyes, are the first proteges of a new local charity, Nueva Esperanza del Norte, offering "new hope from the North" to Central American students.
Like many other young people in their region, they have long dreamed of studying in the United States, but thought it was out of reach.
Their journey began three years ago, when Mary Beth asked Maribel and Marta if they wanted to spend a year of high school in the United States through a program called Youth for Understanding. The girls said yes — but the program fees were beyond their means.
"Usually, only wealthy families can do something like that," Maribel said.
Meanwhile, thousands of miles away in upstate New York, Kevin had woken up one morning with an inexplicably strong thought running through his mind.
"It’s time for us to go back to El Salvador," he told his wife.
Later that day, he started chatting with a stranger at the grocery store — "a guy with a smile bigger than the front end of a Buick." The man’s smile broadened when Kevin mentioned his interest in El Salvador.
The man turned out to be John Gallagher, Mary Beth’s father.
"I truly believe that this was destined," Kevin said as he retold the story.
Kevin got in touch with Mary Beth, and the O’Briens visited her on their next trip to El Salvador. She told them about Marta and Maribel, and they offered to help.
It was an offer with no expiration date, apparently. The O’Briens hosted Marta for her junior year at Saratoga Springs High School, and helped find a host family for Maribel, who spent her senior year in Cambridge.
In 2005, Kevin returned to El Salvador to attend Marta’s graduation, and began to brainstorm about how the girls could come to the U.S. for college. The result, still in its fledgling stage, was Nueva Esperanza del Norte.
When Marta’s brother Samuel heard about the new program, he asked if it could help him, too. He had a day job at a thread factory, and attended night school for engineering, but felt he could get a much better education in America. Kevin agreed.
A year later, Marta is again living with the O’Briens, whose son Terrence is now a 19-year-old freshman at St. Lawrence University. Maribel and Samuel are staying with Tony and Peg Mangano in Saratoga Springs.
Tony and Kevin are longtime friends who both have a background in social services. Tony is the former assistant director of mental health for Saratoga County, and Kevin the former director of Catholic Charities for Warren/Washington County, now running a counseling practice in Warrensburg.
"We’ve always talked about working on some sort of project together, and when I came up with this idea, I just called him up and said, ‘Tony, this is it,’ " Kevin said.
Double H Hole in the Woods Ranch agreed to provide the students with summer jobs — Marta and Maribel worked in housekeeping, and Samuel was a kitchen assistant — so they could adjust to the culture and earn some spending money before school started this fall.
The girls are now settling into their first semester at Adirondack Community College, where they hope to do well enough to earn scholarships to four-year colleges. Marta wants to study social services and start a nonprofit organization in El Salvador; Maribel wants to study health and become a pediatrician. Samuel, currently completing an intensive language program at The English Connection in Saratoga Springs, will soon apply to engineering school. He plans to use his degree to work on improving El Salvador’s infrastructure.
They all agree that education is the key to escaping poverty, and it’s a key they hope to hand to many others.
"I want to be a social worker, helping kids in rural areas who can’t afford an education," Marta said. "Like what Marybeth did ... like what Kevin is doing for us right now."
--
MORE INFO
Nueva Esperanza del Norte, which means "New Hope from the North," is a new nonprofit organization that seeks to equip young people from Central America with U.S. college educations so they can return home and join the fight against poverty in their countries.
The first participants recently arrived from El Salvador and started classes at Adirondack Community College.The program has no paid staff, and welcomes volunteers to help in areas such as transportation, tutoring, Web site development, and fundraising.
For more information, call founder Kevin O'Brien at 623-2144.
9/17/06
When Kevin O’Brien of Lake Luzerne saw the folk group "Peter, Paul and Mary," on television in 1986, describing the devastating effects of civil war in Central America, he was moved — literally.
He was moved to such an extent that he and his wife, Diana, ended up a few years later on a plane to El Salvador, where they adopted an almost 4-year-old boy named Terrence Julio from an orphanage in the city of Zacatecoluca.
In the nearby capital city of San Ramon, Marta Cuellar and Maribel Torres — two girls about Terrence’s age — had loving families, but little else. The civil war had ended, but severe poverty and lack of infrastructure crippled the country. Access to good education was limited and expensive. The future didn’t seem to hold many options for kids like them.
"In El Salvador you have to pay for school, and it gets more expensive as you go up," explained Maribel, who has six siblings. "My sister helped me, and I got a scholarship from a local business for 10th and 11th grade. But some kids just don’t go."
The girls were about 10 years old when they met an American woman named Mary Beth Gallagher, a lay volunteer with the Maryknoll Catholic missionaries. She taught them soccer and English, encouraged them in school and told them they were full of potential.
"I think everything was started by her," Marta said recently, reflecting on how her life has changed in the past decade.
Marta and Maribel, along with Marta’s brother Samuel Reyes, are the first proteges of a new local charity, Nueva Esperanza del Norte, offering "new hope from the North" to Central American students.
Like many other young people in their region, they have long dreamed of studying in the United States, but thought it was out of reach.
Their journey began three years ago, when Mary Beth asked Maribel and Marta if they wanted to spend a year of high school in the United States through a program called Youth for Understanding. The girls said yes — but the program fees were beyond their means.
"Usually, only wealthy families can do something like that," Maribel said.
Meanwhile, thousands of miles away in upstate New York, Kevin had woken up one morning with an inexplicably strong thought running through his mind.
"It’s time for us to go back to El Salvador," he told his wife.
Later that day, he started chatting with a stranger at the grocery store — "a guy with a smile bigger than the front end of a Buick." The man’s smile broadened when Kevin mentioned his interest in El Salvador.
The man turned out to be John Gallagher, Mary Beth’s father.
"I truly believe that this was destined," Kevin said as he retold the story.
Kevin got in touch with Mary Beth, and the O’Briens visited her on their next trip to El Salvador. She told them about Marta and Maribel, and they offered to help.
It was an offer with no expiration date, apparently. The O’Briens hosted Marta for her junior year at Saratoga Springs High School, and helped find a host family for Maribel, who spent her senior year in Cambridge.
In 2005, Kevin returned to El Salvador to attend Marta’s graduation, and began to brainstorm about how the girls could come to the U.S. for college. The result, still in its fledgling stage, was Nueva Esperanza del Norte.
When Marta’s brother Samuel heard about the new program, he asked if it could help him, too. He had a day job at a thread factory, and attended night school for engineering, but felt he could get a much better education in America. Kevin agreed.
A year later, Marta is again living with the O’Briens, whose son Terrence is now a 19-year-old freshman at St. Lawrence University. Maribel and Samuel are staying with Tony and Peg Mangano in Saratoga Springs.
Tony and Kevin are longtime friends who both have a background in social services. Tony is the former assistant director of mental health for Saratoga County, and Kevin the former director of Catholic Charities for Warren/Washington County, now running a counseling practice in Warrensburg.
"We’ve always talked about working on some sort of project together, and when I came up with this idea, I just called him up and said, ‘Tony, this is it,’ " Kevin said.
Double H Hole in the Woods Ranch agreed to provide the students with summer jobs — Marta and Maribel worked in housekeeping, and Samuel was a kitchen assistant — so they could adjust to the culture and earn some spending money before school started this fall.
The girls are now settling into their first semester at Adirondack Community College, where they hope to do well enough to earn scholarships to four-year colleges. Marta wants to study social services and start a nonprofit organization in El Salvador; Maribel wants to study health and become a pediatrician. Samuel, currently completing an intensive language program at The English Connection in Saratoga Springs, will soon apply to engineering school. He plans to use his degree to work on improving El Salvador’s infrastructure.
They all agree that education is the key to escaping poverty, and it’s a key they hope to hand to many others.
"I want to be a social worker, helping kids in rural areas who can’t afford an education," Marta said. "Like what Marybeth did ... like what Kevin is doing for us right now."
--
MORE INFO
Nueva Esperanza del Norte, which means "New Hope from the North," is a new nonprofit organization that seeks to equip young people from Central America with U.S. college educations so they can return home and join the fight against poverty in their countries.
The first participants recently arrived from El Salvador and started classes at Adirondack Community College.The program has no paid staff, and welcomes volunteers to help in areas such as transportation, tutoring, Web site development, and fundraising.
For more information, call founder Kevin O'Brien at 623-2144.
Thursday, September 21, 2006
New rabbi comes to town
Published in The Post-Star (D1)
9/11/06
When Hurricane Wilma ripped the roof off her Florida home last fall, Rabbi Cathy Nemiroff decided she'd had enough of life in the South.
"Seeing the wind break the glass and blow through the house was really something," she said. "I was interested in leaving the area anyway, but at that point, and especially in the aftermath ... I said, 'I'm not doing it anymore.' "
She didn't realize it at the time, but there was already a place waiting for her in the North.
At Temple Beth-El, a Reform Jewish synagogue in Glens Falls, Rabbi Richard Sobel had just announced his retirement after 25 years.
When Nemiroff and Temple Beth-El were connected through the Reform movement's placement office a few months later, both sides immediately liked what they saw.
"I came up for an interview in April, and they offered me the job on the spot," Nemiroff said. "I was very pleased, because I liked it both in terms of the congregation and where it was located."
She moved to Glens Falls in June, and overlapped with Sobel for one month to ease the transition. Her office is still mostly bare, with only a few books on the shelves and some papers on the desk. She lost most of her books, artwork and other possessions to water damage after the hurricane, she said, but members of her new congregation have already offered to help.
"I've been very touched by how welcoming people are here," she said.
Nemiroff grew up in Queens and on Long Island, the daughter of non-practicing Jewish parents. She remembers her father speaking Yiddish with his parents, immigrants from Russia and Ukraine, but he wouldn't teach it to her.
From the beginning, she had what she calls "a love of Judaism that was insatiable." She attended synagogue with friends when she could, and tried to teach herself Hebrew from books. After high school, she traveled to Israel.
"Judaism is the thread that keeps coming back in my life," she said.
For the next two decades, she worked as a technical writer in Minnesota, eventually becoming president of a synagogue that she helped to start there. When she returned to Israel on a congregational trip, her interest in Judaism grew even more.
"I knew it was time to step out of computer land and into the Jewish world," she said.
Nemiroff enrolled in rabbinical school at Hebrew Union College, and studied in Los Angeles, New York and Israel before graduating in 2002.
She served several congregations in south Florida after that, including a Reconstructionist synagogue and a "very diverse" Reform congregation, but wished for a smaller, full-time congregation of her own.
"I like smaller congregations because I have the opportunity to get to know people more closely and see them through different life stages over the years," she said. "It's rare to get to do that, the way Rabbi Sobel did here."
There is a strong core of about 100 families at Temple Beth-El, Nemiroff said, and they are always open to new members and visitors.
"We really welcome anyone who comes through the door, regardless of their Jewish lifestyle, including intermarriages and alternative lifestyles," she said.
Although Nemiroff hopes to introduce new things to the synagogue in terms of music, prayer and teaching, she plans to keep some old, beloved traditions as well.
"I don't have any expectations of changing things overnight, and I don't think that would be right," she said. "First, let's find out what people have been doing, and what they want."
--
9/11/06
When Hurricane Wilma ripped the roof off her Florida home last fall, Rabbi Cathy Nemiroff decided she'd had enough of life in the South.
"Seeing the wind break the glass and blow through the house was really something," she said. "I was interested in leaving the area anyway, but at that point, and especially in the aftermath ... I said, 'I'm not doing it anymore.' "
She didn't realize it at the time, but there was already a place waiting for her in the North.
At Temple Beth-El, a Reform Jewish synagogue in Glens Falls, Rabbi Richard Sobel had just announced his retirement after 25 years.
When Nemiroff and Temple Beth-El were connected through the Reform movement's placement office a few months later, both sides immediately liked what they saw.
"I came up for an interview in April, and they offered me the job on the spot," Nemiroff said. "I was very pleased, because I liked it both in terms of the congregation and where it was located."
She moved to Glens Falls in June, and overlapped with Sobel for one month to ease the transition. Her office is still mostly bare, with only a few books on the shelves and some papers on the desk. She lost most of her books, artwork and other possessions to water damage after the hurricane, she said, but members of her new congregation have already offered to help.
"I've been very touched by how welcoming people are here," she said.
Nemiroff grew up in Queens and on Long Island, the daughter of non-practicing Jewish parents. She remembers her father speaking Yiddish with his parents, immigrants from Russia and Ukraine, but he wouldn't teach it to her.
From the beginning, she had what she calls "a love of Judaism that was insatiable." She attended synagogue with friends when she could, and tried to teach herself Hebrew from books. After high school, she traveled to Israel.
"Judaism is the thread that keeps coming back in my life," she said.
For the next two decades, she worked as a technical writer in Minnesota, eventually becoming president of a synagogue that she helped to start there. When she returned to Israel on a congregational trip, her interest in Judaism grew even more.
"I knew it was time to step out of computer land and into the Jewish world," she said.
Nemiroff enrolled in rabbinical school at Hebrew Union College, and studied in Los Angeles, New York and Israel before graduating in 2002.
She served several congregations in south Florida after that, including a Reconstructionist synagogue and a "very diverse" Reform congregation, but wished for a smaller, full-time congregation of her own.
"I like smaller congregations because I have the opportunity to get to know people more closely and see them through different life stages over the years," she said. "It's rare to get to do that, the way Rabbi Sobel did here."
There is a strong core of about 100 families at Temple Beth-El, Nemiroff said, and they are always open to new members and visitors.
"We really welcome anyone who comes through the door, regardless of their Jewish lifestyle, including intermarriages and alternative lifestyles," she said.
Although Nemiroff hopes to introduce new things to the synagogue in terms of music, prayer and teaching, she plans to keep some old, beloved traditions as well.
"I don't have any expectations of changing things overnight, and I don't think that would be right," she said. "First, let's find out what people have been doing, and what they want."
--
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Movie about Jon Katz filmed on local farm
Published in The Post-Star (D1)
9/10/06
On the Skiff family's land in Easton, the scene is usually simple: a dirt road, a 200-year-old farmstead, about 80 beef cattle and two goats.
Last month, the landscape also included five semi trucks, a pasture-turned-parking lot, two catering tents, and a herd of about 70 movie executives, actors and crew members.
Outside an old, white house, a shaggy-haired young man perched in a high-backed canvas chair, smoking a cigarette and fiddling with the knobs on a tower of sound recording equipment.
"Rolling!" someone called out, immediately hushing everything but the wind in the maple leaves and cornstalks.
A New York City-based production company had set up camp for the week to film portions of "A Dog Year," a movie about the life of local author Jon Katz.
The film is directed by George LaVoo, produced by Liz Manne of Duopoly, and financed by a "modest budget" from HBO Films, Manne said. Picturehouse will distribute the film to theaters next year, probably by early summer.
Katz moved from suburban New Jersey to an old farm in rural Hebron in 2000 and soon adopted a homeless, high-strung border collie named Devon. The tale of that transition forms the basis for his books, "A Dog Year" and "The Dogs of Bedlam Farm," on which the film is based.
As Manne put it, "This is a story about a guy having a sort of existential, mid-life crisis...who takes in a border collie that turns out to be crazier than he is."
In the interest of preserving Katz's sanity as a writer, however, the film crew did not descend on his home, called Bedlam Farm. Instead, a scout scoured Washington County for similar-looking farms with scenic views, and discovered the Skiffs' 550-acre property in Easton.
Other portions of the movie were filmed at John Irwin's farm in Greenwich and the Bedlam Corners store in West Hebron. The Skiffs' property was used primarily for the scenes that include Katz's house.
Carol and Stewart Skiff have run the farm for 50 years, and their son and daughter-in-law, Tom and Michelle Skiff, live in a house next door. All of them were startled -- but in the long run, thrilled -- by the chance to have their property used as a movie set. Tom and Michelle's house was "de-renovated" to mimic the look of Katz's home when he first moved in, a process the crew promised to reverse once filming was complete.
The crew's presence definitely interrupted the Skiffs' daily routines, they said, but it was worth it.
"Oh, it's just been wonderful, very exciting," Carol said, beaming.
Jeff Bridges plays Katz in the film, but local people got involved in smaller roles.
Stewart was an extra in the scenes filmed at the Bedlam Corners store, and their grandson, 12-year-old Chris Herbst, was a stand-in for one of the film's main characters.
Madison Keator, a 6-year-old Ballston Spa native who now lives in Ohio, played Ida Armstrong, the daughter of Katz's neighbor Anthony. Her flair for drama was apparent when a reporter asked if she thought she would like to be in another movie.
"I don't know," she said, falling backward onto the grassy lawn with an exaggerated sigh and a wide, gap-toothed grin.
Most of the crew hailed from New York City, and several compared the rural film shoot to a vacation. They doted on the Skiffs' pet goats, sunbathed in the fields, and explored local attractions like the Washington County Fair.
"It's been such a welcoming, fun experience," Manne said. "We've been treated with incredible warmth and hospitality."
One sunny afternoon, Stewart offered crew members a ride up the grassy hill in the back of his old Dodge pickup truck. At the top, they all scrambled for their cameras when they saw the panoramic mountain view.
"Oh my God! It's so...wholesome!" exclaimed one woman.
Later, Carol giggled as she told the story of a set painter who was so unaccustomed to rural life that he had to ask her what a certain abundant substance on the ground was.
"It was cow manure," she explained, nudging a dried chunk of the stuff with her toe.
--
Q&A with Jon Katz
Bio: Jon Katz, author and Hebron resident, is having one of his novels, "A Dog Year," made into a movie that is being filming locally.
Q: Did you want to play yourself in the movie?
A: No, I'm crazy, but I'm not stupid (laughs). And they didn't ask me, anyway.
Q: Did you watch the filming?
A: I visited the set a few times, but I didn't want to visit too much because I thought it would be strange for the actors, too distracting.
Q: Were you involved in other ways?
A: Yes. All the movie dogs were staying on my farm, for one thing...In the middle of all this, lambing started, and I had eight border collies running around those poor sheep, who were about to have a nervous breakdown.
Q: Did you like the dogs?
A: They're different than my dogs. They all have contact lenses and hair extensions and get spray-dyed every morning so they have the same coloring. And one morning, the trainer, who was also staying with me, asked me to tell them a story about my dog, to inspire them. I said, "That's a little weird, even for me." But she was very charming, so I did. They stared at me the whole time and gave me licks when it was over. It seemed like they wanted the story.
Q: Wow. Any other ways your life was disrupted?
A: One day, a raiding party -- I call them movie thugs -- came to my house and stole a bunch of my clothes, just stuffed them in a trash bag and took off while I'm standing there yelling...they used them to make Jeff Bridges look like me, the same sort of rumpled L.L. Bean look.
My daughter heard this and said, "Let me get this straight. Are you trying to telll me that Jeff Bridges wants to look like you?" (Laughs.)
Q: Was he wearing your actual clothes?
A: I think they just tried to copy them...One intern rubbed sandpaper on a shirt for like two weeks to make it look like what I wear.
Q: What was it like, seeing someone else pretending to be you?
A: Very strange, kind of surreal...And Jeff Bridges had a stand-in, so there were basically three Jon Katzes wandering around. That almost sent me over the edge. (Laughs.) But it's very flattering and humbling to have such a good actor playing me. He's a method actor, so he wanted to know all about my marriage, my writing, my moods...we had these endless debates about what Jon Katz is really like. Funny, because personally, I don't find myself all that interesting.
Q: So, do you think you'll like the movie? Are you pleased with it so far?
A: I don't know. It seems like it went very well, but I haven't read the script, deliberately. A movie's different than a book, so I don't feel that they need to be literally faithful to the book...
I think it'll take some adjustment for me. People have started asking for my autograph, saying "You're that guy they're making the movie about!" There's a glamour around movies that there isn't around books...I think I'm still kind of in shock a little bit.
---
9/10/06
On the Skiff family's land in Easton, the scene is usually simple: a dirt road, a 200-year-old farmstead, about 80 beef cattle and two goats.
Last month, the landscape also included five semi trucks, a pasture-turned-parking lot, two catering tents, and a herd of about 70 movie executives, actors and crew members.
Outside an old, white house, a shaggy-haired young man perched in a high-backed canvas chair, smoking a cigarette and fiddling with the knobs on a tower of sound recording equipment.
"Rolling!" someone called out, immediately hushing everything but the wind in the maple leaves and cornstalks.
A New York City-based production company had set up camp for the week to film portions of "A Dog Year," a movie about the life of local author Jon Katz.
The film is directed by George LaVoo, produced by Liz Manne of Duopoly, and financed by a "modest budget" from HBO Films, Manne said. Picturehouse will distribute the film to theaters next year, probably by early summer.
Katz moved from suburban New Jersey to an old farm in rural Hebron in 2000 and soon adopted a homeless, high-strung border collie named Devon. The tale of that transition forms the basis for his books, "A Dog Year" and "The Dogs of Bedlam Farm," on which the film is based.
As Manne put it, "This is a story about a guy having a sort of existential, mid-life crisis...who takes in a border collie that turns out to be crazier than he is."
In the interest of preserving Katz's sanity as a writer, however, the film crew did not descend on his home, called Bedlam Farm. Instead, a scout scoured Washington County for similar-looking farms with scenic views, and discovered the Skiffs' 550-acre property in Easton.
Other portions of the movie were filmed at John Irwin's farm in Greenwich and the Bedlam Corners store in West Hebron. The Skiffs' property was used primarily for the scenes that include Katz's house.
Carol and Stewart Skiff have run the farm for 50 years, and their son and daughter-in-law, Tom and Michelle Skiff, live in a house next door. All of them were startled -- but in the long run, thrilled -- by the chance to have their property used as a movie set. Tom and Michelle's house was "de-renovated" to mimic the look of Katz's home when he first moved in, a process the crew promised to reverse once filming was complete.
The crew's presence definitely interrupted the Skiffs' daily routines, they said, but it was worth it.
"Oh, it's just been wonderful, very exciting," Carol said, beaming.
Jeff Bridges plays Katz in the film, but local people got involved in smaller roles.
Stewart was an extra in the scenes filmed at the Bedlam Corners store, and their grandson, 12-year-old Chris Herbst, was a stand-in for one of the film's main characters.
Madison Keator, a 6-year-old Ballston Spa native who now lives in Ohio, played Ida Armstrong, the daughter of Katz's neighbor Anthony. Her flair for drama was apparent when a reporter asked if she thought she would like to be in another movie.
"I don't know," she said, falling backward onto the grassy lawn with an exaggerated sigh and a wide, gap-toothed grin.
Most of the crew hailed from New York City, and several compared the rural film shoot to a vacation. They doted on the Skiffs' pet goats, sunbathed in the fields, and explored local attractions like the Washington County Fair.
"It's been such a welcoming, fun experience," Manne said. "We've been treated with incredible warmth and hospitality."
One sunny afternoon, Stewart offered crew members a ride up the grassy hill in the back of his old Dodge pickup truck. At the top, they all scrambled for their cameras when they saw the panoramic mountain view.
"Oh my God! It's so...wholesome!" exclaimed one woman.
Later, Carol giggled as she told the story of a set painter who was so unaccustomed to rural life that he had to ask her what a certain abundant substance on the ground was.
"It was cow manure," she explained, nudging a dried chunk of the stuff with her toe.
--
Q&A with Jon Katz
Bio: Jon Katz, author and Hebron resident, is having one of his novels, "A Dog Year," made into a movie that is being filming locally.
Q: Did you want to play yourself in the movie?
A: No, I'm crazy, but I'm not stupid (laughs). And they didn't ask me, anyway.
Q: Did you watch the filming?
A: I visited the set a few times, but I didn't want to visit too much because I thought it would be strange for the actors, too distracting.
Q: Were you involved in other ways?
A: Yes. All the movie dogs were staying on my farm, for one thing...In the middle of all this, lambing started, and I had eight border collies running around those poor sheep, who were about to have a nervous breakdown.
Q: Did you like the dogs?
A: They're different than my dogs. They all have contact lenses and hair extensions and get spray-dyed every morning so they have the same coloring. And one morning, the trainer, who was also staying with me, asked me to tell them a story about my dog, to inspire them. I said, "That's a little weird, even for me." But she was very charming, so I did. They stared at me the whole time and gave me licks when it was over. It seemed like they wanted the story.
Q: Wow. Any other ways your life was disrupted?
A: One day, a raiding party -- I call them movie thugs -- came to my house and stole a bunch of my clothes, just stuffed them in a trash bag and took off while I'm standing there yelling...they used them to make Jeff Bridges look like me, the same sort of rumpled L.L. Bean look.
My daughter heard this and said, "Let me get this straight. Are you trying to telll me that Jeff Bridges wants to look like you?" (Laughs.)
Q: Was he wearing your actual clothes?
A: I think they just tried to copy them...One intern rubbed sandpaper on a shirt for like two weeks to make it look like what I wear.
Q: What was it like, seeing someone else pretending to be you?
A: Very strange, kind of surreal...And Jeff Bridges had a stand-in, so there were basically three Jon Katzes wandering around. That almost sent me over the edge. (Laughs.) But it's very flattering and humbling to have such a good actor playing me. He's a method actor, so he wanted to know all about my marriage, my writing, my moods...we had these endless debates about what Jon Katz is really like. Funny, because personally, I don't find myself all that interesting.
Q: So, do you think you'll like the movie? Are you pleased with it so far?
A: I don't know. It seems like it went very well, but I haven't read the script, deliberately. A movie's different than a book, so I don't feel that they need to be literally faithful to the book...
I think it'll take some adjustment for me. People have started asking for my autograph, saying "You're that guy they're making the movie about!" There's a glamour around movies that there isn't around books...I think I'm still kind of in shock a little bit.
---
Saturday, September 16, 2006
Want some coffee with your sugar?
Published in The Post-Star (G1)
9/7/06
SARATOGA SPRINGS -- As the evening sunlight slipped off the sidewalks of Broadway last Sunday, several glowing Skidmore students emerged from the new Saratoga Coffee Traders storefront, having discovered the stash of "retro-themed" candy inside.
"Oh my God! Did you know they have Lemonheads? I used to love those!" squealed one of the girls.
When Jon Galt and Mike Zimmerman first met a dozen years ago, they never dreamed it would lead to scenes like this.
Their degrees are in acting and film, respectively, not business. And even when they stumbled into retail about five years ago through a "serendipitous" series of events, their chosen niche was health food, not candy.
After two years in Ballston Spa, they moved their business to Saratoga Springs and added a yoga studio and coffee shop. The store, called Healthy Nation, built up a loyal -- but limited -- customer base in its location on the far southern end of Broadway.
"There wasn't a lot of foot traffic, and there was no place to park," Zimmerman said. "And I think the name was too vague. People didn't know they could get coffee there."
So when their landlord announced plans to tear down the building this year, they decided it was time to close and regroup.
This time, they've rented a storefront right in the heart of downtown, and picked "a hit-you-over-the-head blatant" name and logo, Zimmerman explained. The logo depicts the Spirit of Life, a famous Saratoga statue, holding a cup of coffee in one hand and a lollipop in the other.
"We're hoping maybe the third time will be the charm," he said.
The decor is simple, letting the art on the walls take center stage. They have added a few creative touches -- like chairs upholstered in old coffee sacks, and a single, slender stalk of bamboo decorating each table -- giving the place a casual elegance. The menu includes salads, wraps, snack platters, bagels and locally made ice cream.
They have scrapped the health-food part of the business, replacing it with candy, the irony of which does not escape them.
"We thought people wanted granola," joked Galt. "They don't! They want Gummi Bears and Jelly Bellies!"
But they haven't given up the part of the business that both of them are most passionate about -- all of their coffees and teas are 100 percent "fair trade," which means that the growers of the coffee beans receive a living wage for their work. It's more expensive that way, but the prices at
Saratoga Coffee Traders are on par with other local coffee shops.
"We're going to eat that loss because this is something we value. ... If I can sell a cup of coffee and make 80 cents profit, but making, say, 50 cents means that someone else gets access to education, running water and food -- well, why do I need to make that extra profit?" Zimmerman said. "I really believe that non fair-trade coffee is killing people in the Third World."
Their brews are also totally organic, since coffee and tea grown in other countries is often sprayed with pesticides that have long been banned in the United States for their toxicity to humans.
This isn't just a marketing gimmick, they said, it's a soapbox.
"I believe it's part of our duty to educate the public about it," Galt said.
But the dueling Angelina/Jennifer tip jar on the counter?
Yeah, that's a gimmick.
---
IF YOU GO
Saratoga Coffee Traders, 447 Broadway, Saratoga Springs, is open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and 7 a.m. to midnight Fridays and Saturdays, which will eventually feature live music. The art gallery currently features "The Saratoga Race Track: Up Close and Personal," an exhibit of oil paintings by Rumara Jewett. Future exhibits will rotate on a six-week basis.
9/7/06
SARATOGA SPRINGS -- As the evening sunlight slipped off the sidewalks of Broadway last Sunday, several glowing Skidmore students emerged from the new Saratoga Coffee Traders storefront, having discovered the stash of "retro-themed" candy inside.
"Oh my God! Did you know they have Lemonheads? I used to love those!" squealed one of the girls.
When Jon Galt and Mike Zimmerman first met a dozen years ago, they never dreamed it would lead to scenes like this.
Their degrees are in acting and film, respectively, not business. And even when they stumbled into retail about five years ago through a "serendipitous" series of events, their chosen niche was health food, not candy.
After two years in Ballston Spa, they moved their business to Saratoga Springs and added a yoga studio and coffee shop. The store, called Healthy Nation, built up a loyal -- but limited -- customer base in its location on the far southern end of Broadway.
"There wasn't a lot of foot traffic, and there was no place to park," Zimmerman said. "And I think the name was too vague. People didn't know they could get coffee there."
So when their landlord announced plans to tear down the building this year, they decided it was time to close and regroup.
This time, they've rented a storefront right in the heart of downtown, and picked "a hit-you-over-the-head blatant" name and logo, Zimmerman explained. The logo depicts the Spirit of Life, a famous Saratoga statue, holding a cup of coffee in one hand and a lollipop in the other.
"We're hoping maybe the third time will be the charm," he said.
The decor is simple, letting the art on the walls take center stage. They have added a few creative touches -- like chairs upholstered in old coffee sacks, and a single, slender stalk of bamboo decorating each table -- giving the place a casual elegance. The menu includes salads, wraps, snack platters, bagels and locally made ice cream.
They have scrapped the health-food part of the business, replacing it with candy, the irony of which does not escape them.
"We thought people wanted granola," joked Galt. "They don't! They want Gummi Bears and Jelly Bellies!"
But they haven't given up the part of the business that both of them are most passionate about -- all of their coffees and teas are 100 percent "fair trade," which means that the growers of the coffee beans receive a living wage for their work. It's more expensive that way, but the prices at
Saratoga Coffee Traders are on par with other local coffee shops.
"We're going to eat that loss because this is something we value. ... If I can sell a cup of coffee and make 80 cents profit, but making, say, 50 cents means that someone else gets access to education, running water and food -- well, why do I need to make that extra profit?" Zimmerman said. "I really believe that non fair-trade coffee is killing people in the Third World."
Their brews are also totally organic, since coffee and tea grown in other countries is often sprayed with pesticides that have long been banned in the United States for their toxicity to humans.
This isn't just a marketing gimmick, they said, it's a soapbox.
"I believe it's part of our duty to educate the public about it," Galt said.
But the dueling Angelina/Jennifer tip jar on the counter?
Yeah, that's a gimmick.
---
IF YOU GO
Saratoga Coffee Traders, 447 Broadway, Saratoga Springs, is open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and 7 a.m. to midnight Fridays and Saturdays, which will eventually feature live music. The art gallery currently features "The Saratoga Race Track: Up Close and Personal," an exhibit of oil paintings by Rumara Jewett. Future exhibits will rotate on a six-week basis.
Monday, September 11, 2006
Local paper mill cleans up its act
Published in The Post-Star (A1)
9/4/06
Editors note: This is the second in an occasional series about the relationship between industry, public health and the environment in our region.
For more than a century, the Finch, Pruyn & Co. paper mill has been pumping money and jobs into the local economy.
It's also been pumping what the Environmental Protection Agency refers to as "toxic releases" into the air and water, earning it a consistently high spot on the list of the state's top pollluters -- but times are changing.
Globalization and other changes in the paper industry have thinned the forest of profits for Finch Pruyn in recent years, prompting the company's board to announce in June that it is seeking to sell the Glens Falls mill.
The mill has also been experiencing a downturn of a more positive kind, however.
Since 1998, when the EPA's Toxic Releases Inventory ranked Finch Pruyn as the second-biggest polluter in the state, the mill has reduced the amount of toxic chemicals it releases to the environment by 88 percent.
In the EPA's most recent statewide rankings, based on 2004 data, Finch Pruyn fell to 9th on the list, and 2005 data points to a further reduction.
"With all types of chemical releases, Finch Pruyn's goal is continual improvement ... and it's a continual learning process," said company spokesperson John Brodt. "Our goal is to get them down lower and lower."
Nagging nitrates
The majority of the mill's toxic releases are "nitrate compounds," which Brodt said are a natural byproduct of the company's wastewater treatment process. The mill uses ammonia as the main ingredient in the process that turns wood chips into pulp to make paper, he explained.
Although Finch Pruyn still releases about 80,000 pounds of ammonia into the river and air each year, that number was much higher before the mill built its existing wastewater treatment plant about 30 years ago.
"The bacteria in the treatment plant attack the ammonia and convert it to nitrate compounds, which are generally considered a more environmentally benign substance than ammonia," Brodt said.
About eight years ago, the company began striving to minimize its nitrate releases as well. It's complicated, said Brodt, but basically, limiting the amount of oxygen in the wastewater forces some of the liquid nitrates to convert to nitrogen gas, which is not on the EPA's inventory of toxic pollutants.
The effort has been highly successful -- Finch Pruyn's most recent report to the EPA shows a total nitrates release of 396,070 pounds in 2005, less than half of what it reported the previous year.
"It's a biological process, and it's not possible for the bacteria to convert all of the nitrate to nitrogen gas, but we do whatever we can to make it as efficient as possible," Brodt said.
Cleaner chlorine
In the past decade, Finch Pruyn has also cleaned up its manufacturing process by converting the bleaching process from "elemental chlorine" to chlorine dioxide, a few years before such a change was mandated by the EPA.
According to an EPA fact sheet, chronic exposure to organic compounds formed by chlorine in drinking water have been linked to bladder and rectal cancer, while exposure to chlorine gas can cause serious respiratory problems.
Chlorine dioxide is considered less harmful, although it can still form highly toxic compounds called dioxins, unlike other bleaching technologies that are totally chlorine-free.
"All of these things are a balancing act ... balancing environmental protection with the public's demand for bright white paper," Brodt said.
What's that smell?
Most people who live or work near Finch Pruyn have experienced the strong smell the paper mill can produce on certain days -- it's been compared to everything from rotten eggs to hotdogs.
The probable source of the odor, Brodt said, is sulfuric acid, a byproduct of fuel combustion.
Although Finch Pruyn has its own hydroelectric facility on the Hudson River, it's not always enough to meet the mill's power needs. Some days, the mill also burns wood chips and bark, natural gas, or fuel oil, which produce byproducts including sulfuric acid (71,000 pounds in 2004) and hydrochloric acid (28,000 pounds in 2004).
Any of those could be associated with a smell, Brodt said.
"It's difficult to pinpoint ... but certainly we strive to minimize odors as much as possible," he said, adding that residents may call Finch Pruyn at any time to complain or inquire about a particular odor, and a representative will investigate and respond as soon as possible.
Something in the air
Despite the "scrubbers" in the stacks of Finch Pruyn's mill, some chemicals inevitably escape.
One of the highest-volume air emissions included on the mill's Toxic Releases Inventory for 2004 was methanol, which Brodt said is primarily a byproduct of the pulping process. Finch Pruyn released 75,000 pounds of methanol into the air in 2004, in addition to 94,200 pounds released in wastewater.
An EPA fact sheet states that chronic methanol exposure has been linked to headaches, vision problems and gastric disturbances in humans, and to certain developmental disorders and birth defects in animals.
As Brodt pointed out, however, the Toxic Releases Inventory is a limited tool -- it does not include information about human exposure levels, or how a chemical may be diluted or changed in the outside environment.
"Obviously, Finch Pruyn and all other manufacturers reporting this data have all their permits in place," he said. "Questions about risk would have to be directed to the EPA or DEC."
--
9/4/06
Editors note: This is the second in an occasional series about the relationship between industry, public health and the environment in our region.
For more than a century, the Finch, Pruyn & Co. paper mill has been pumping money and jobs into the local economy.
It's also been pumping what the Environmental Protection Agency refers to as "toxic releases" into the air and water, earning it a consistently high spot on the list of the state's top pollluters -- but times are changing.
Globalization and other changes in the paper industry have thinned the forest of profits for Finch Pruyn in recent years, prompting the company's board to announce in June that it is seeking to sell the Glens Falls mill.
The mill has also been experiencing a downturn of a more positive kind, however.
Since 1998, when the EPA's Toxic Releases Inventory ranked Finch Pruyn as the second-biggest polluter in the state, the mill has reduced the amount of toxic chemicals it releases to the environment by 88 percent.
In the EPA's most recent statewide rankings, based on 2004 data, Finch Pruyn fell to 9th on the list, and 2005 data points to a further reduction.
"With all types of chemical releases, Finch Pruyn's goal is continual improvement ... and it's a continual learning process," said company spokesperson John Brodt. "Our goal is to get them down lower and lower."
Nagging nitrates
The majority of the mill's toxic releases are "nitrate compounds," which Brodt said are a natural byproduct of the company's wastewater treatment process. The mill uses ammonia as the main ingredient in the process that turns wood chips into pulp to make paper, he explained.
Although Finch Pruyn still releases about 80,000 pounds of ammonia into the river and air each year, that number was much higher before the mill built its existing wastewater treatment plant about 30 years ago.
"The bacteria in the treatment plant attack the ammonia and convert it to nitrate compounds, which are generally considered a more environmentally benign substance than ammonia," Brodt said.
About eight years ago, the company began striving to minimize its nitrate releases as well. It's complicated, said Brodt, but basically, limiting the amount of oxygen in the wastewater forces some of the liquid nitrates to convert to nitrogen gas, which is not on the EPA's inventory of toxic pollutants.
The effort has been highly successful -- Finch Pruyn's most recent report to the EPA shows a total nitrates release of 396,070 pounds in 2005, less than half of what it reported the previous year.
"It's a biological process, and it's not possible for the bacteria to convert all of the nitrate to nitrogen gas, but we do whatever we can to make it as efficient as possible," Brodt said.
Cleaner chlorine
In the past decade, Finch Pruyn has also cleaned up its manufacturing process by converting the bleaching process from "elemental chlorine" to chlorine dioxide, a few years before such a change was mandated by the EPA.
According to an EPA fact sheet, chronic exposure to organic compounds formed by chlorine in drinking water have been linked to bladder and rectal cancer, while exposure to chlorine gas can cause serious respiratory problems.
Chlorine dioxide is considered less harmful, although it can still form highly toxic compounds called dioxins, unlike other bleaching technologies that are totally chlorine-free.
"All of these things are a balancing act ... balancing environmental protection with the public's demand for bright white paper," Brodt said.
What's that smell?
Most people who live or work near Finch Pruyn have experienced the strong smell the paper mill can produce on certain days -- it's been compared to everything from rotten eggs to hotdogs.
The probable source of the odor, Brodt said, is sulfuric acid, a byproduct of fuel combustion.
Although Finch Pruyn has its own hydroelectric facility on the Hudson River, it's not always enough to meet the mill's power needs. Some days, the mill also burns wood chips and bark, natural gas, or fuel oil, which produce byproducts including sulfuric acid (71,000 pounds in 2004) and hydrochloric acid (28,000 pounds in 2004).
Any of those could be associated with a smell, Brodt said.
"It's difficult to pinpoint ... but certainly we strive to minimize odors as much as possible," he said, adding that residents may call Finch Pruyn at any time to complain or inquire about a particular odor, and a representative will investigate and respond as soon as possible.
Something in the air
Despite the "scrubbers" in the stacks of Finch Pruyn's mill, some chemicals inevitably escape.
One of the highest-volume air emissions included on the mill's Toxic Releases Inventory for 2004 was methanol, which Brodt said is primarily a byproduct of the pulping process. Finch Pruyn released 75,000 pounds of methanol into the air in 2004, in addition to 94,200 pounds released in wastewater.
An EPA fact sheet states that chronic methanol exposure has been linked to headaches, vision problems and gastric disturbances in humans, and to certain developmental disorders and birth defects in animals.
As Brodt pointed out, however, the Toxic Releases Inventory is a limited tool -- it does not include information about human exposure levels, or how a chemical may be diluted or changed in the outside environment.
"Obviously, Finch Pruyn and all other manufacturers reporting this data have all their permits in place," he said. "Questions about risk would have to be directed to the EPA or DEC."
--
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
Profile of local theater director
Published in The Post-Star (D1)
8/31/06
Even on what she calls a "flat" day, Andrea Lyons is like a hummingbird, flitting around the Charles R. Wood Theater in a flutter of animated conversation, colored by frequent giggles.
In terms of job performance, though, she compares herself to a different creature.
"I'm the start-up person, the gorilla," she said, waving her arms over her head like an ape. "I don't let anything get in my way of getting things off the ground ... Now, it's time for someone to come in with a more long-term vision."
After getting the Charles R. Wood Theater off to an impressive start in her 4 years as executive director of the fledgling performing arts venue, Lyons is poised for a new challenge.
Starting Sept. 11, she's taking over as director of administration and operations at the Glimmerglass Opera in Cooperstown, where she had her first theater internship as a Hartwick College student in the early 1990s.
"I'm very fortunate to have been a part of this, and now to be able to go somewhere really cool, where I already know people. I can use what I've learned here -- and probably learn a lot more," she said.
Glimmerglass, a renowned opera company that brings the sparkle of top-notch professional talent to the quiet rural landscape of Cooperstown each summer, is entering a time of transition as several longtime staff members take their final bows.
Lyons will report to the newly appointed general and artistic director, Michael MacLeod, and said she's looking forward to getting to know him and the rest of the staff, which swells from 24 to almost 200 members during the summer season.
But she's also reluctant to leave Glens Falls, a community she has nestled into with ease in the last few years.
After graduating from Drexel University in Philadephia, Pa. with a master's degree in arts administration in 2002, she applied to work with what would eventually become the Wood Theater. She was intrigued by what she saw as a "prime example of community cultural development" and wanted to be closer to her parents and her hometown of Greenwich.
"Honestly, I never expected to get the job ... I was psyched just to get a tour of the building," she said. "I was very blessed that the board gave me a chance to do this. I was only 28 -- I didn't expect to be in a role like this until much later in my career!"
She cleared the first major hurdle -- construction of a permanent theater within the former Woolworth's building on Glen Street -- by 2004, earning the nickname "Bulldog" from the project manager almost immediately.
"I think he may have meant it as an insult, but I was all over it!" she joked.
Although the theater is still in the midst of a $500,000 capital campaign to pay off construction debt, Lyons said she thinks the board made the right move when it decided to break ground before the funds were raised.
"That was the thing my board has done that has made me the proudest," she said. "If we'd waited, well, construction costs have skyrocketed."
At first, the theater contained only a stage, lighting and sound equipment -- not even chairs or table to conduct a staff meeting. Lyons scavenged, begged and borrowed to find the rest.
"I'm pretty shameless," she said, beaming. "I'm proud of the resources we've been able to accumulate."
She is proud, too, of the city itself.
"I'm going to miss all of it," she said. "People, mostly. And I'll miss what I call 'the moment,' which is about 10 minutes to curtain ... watching everyone walk in from all directions ... it's like Glen Street starts to vibrate a little with the energy of the people. It's the community coming together to embrace this cultural event."
She sounded close to tears for a minute, then broke into another wide grin as noise from the Glen Street construction project invaded the hush of the mostly-dark theater.
"Hear that?" she said. "That's the sound of progress."
#
8/31/06
Even on what she calls a "flat" day, Andrea Lyons is like a hummingbird, flitting around the Charles R. Wood Theater in a flutter of animated conversation, colored by frequent giggles.
In terms of job performance, though, she compares herself to a different creature.
"I'm the start-up person, the gorilla," she said, waving her arms over her head like an ape. "I don't let anything get in my way of getting things off the ground ... Now, it's time for someone to come in with a more long-term vision."
After getting the Charles R. Wood Theater off to an impressive start in her 4 years as executive director of the fledgling performing arts venue, Lyons is poised for a new challenge.
Starting Sept. 11, she's taking over as director of administration and operations at the Glimmerglass Opera in Cooperstown, where she had her first theater internship as a Hartwick College student in the early 1990s.
"I'm very fortunate to have been a part of this, and now to be able to go somewhere really cool, where I already know people. I can use what I've learned here -- and probably learn a lot more," she said.
Glimmerglass, a renowned opera company that brings the sparkle of top-notch professional talent to the quiet rural landscape of Cooperstown each summer, is entering a time of transition as several longtime staff members take their final bows.
Lyons will report to the newly appointed general and artistic director, Michael MacLeod, and said she's looking forward to getting to know him and the rest of the staff, which swells from 24 to almost 200 members during the summer season.
But she's also reluctant to leave Glens Falls, a community she has nestled into with ease in the last few years.
After graduating from Drexel University in Philadephia, Pa. with a master's degree in arts administration in 2002, she applied to work with what would eventually become the Wood Theater. She was intrigued by what she saw as a "prime example of community cultural development" and wanted to be closer to her parents and her hometown of Greenwich.
"Honestly, I never expected to get the job ... I was psyched just to get a tour of the building," she said. "I was very blessed that the board gave me a chance to do this. I was only 28 -- I didn't expect to be in a role like this until much later in my career!"
She cleared the first major hurdle -- construction of a permanent theater within the former Woolworth's building on Glen Street -- by 2004, earning the nickname "Bulldog" from the project manager almost immediately.
"I think he may have meant it as an insult, but I was all over it!" she joked.
Although the theater is still in the midst of a $500,000 capital campaign to pay off construction debt, Lyons said she thinks the board made the right move when it decided to break ground before the funds were raised.
"That was the thing my board has done that has made me the proudest," she said. "If we'd waited, well, construction costs have skyrocketed."
At first, the theater contained only a stage, lighting and sound equipment -- not even chairs or table to conduct a staff meeting. Lyons scavenged, begged and borrowed to find the rest.
"I'm pretty shameless," she said, beaming. "I'm proud of the resources we've been able to accumulate."
She is proud, too, of the city itself.
"I'm going to miss all of it," she said. "People, mostly. And I'll miss what I call 'the moment,' which is about 10 minutes to curtain ... watching everyone walk in from all directions ... it's like Glen Street starts to vibrate a little with the energy of the people. It's the community coming together to embrace this cultural event."
She sounded close to tears for a minute, then broke into another wide grin as noise from the Glen Street construction project invaded the hush of the mostly-dark theater.
"Hear that?" she said. "That's the sound of progress."
#
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