I saw the Loch Ness monster in the Ashokan Resevoir, again, last night — but she appears to be severely dehydrated.
Thus, I stopped going to film festivals. But I still love movies. I love them to death.
Ron Rybacki
Woodstock
AMAZING
Using the Evelyn Wood’s reading dynamics technique when watching a previously recorded Michael Veitch show, I heard him talk about the activity of the Town of Woodstock’s Police Department which, if the citizens of this town were aware of, should make them feel secure and protected. Hopefully he will continue in this positive vein and more information will be forthcoming.
Howard Harris
Bearsville
THE HAMAS CHARTER
It’s inhumane madness coming from both sides. This may help those who still have difficulty with this premise. In January of 2006, candidates representing the Hamas in the Gaza were victorious in the Palestinian elections, overcoming the traditional leadership of the Fatah and PLO. Today, Hamas refuses to renounce violence and refuses to recognize Israel. Hamas has been explicit in its Holocaust Denial. Furthermore, the Hamas Charter was instrumental to mobilize support during the Palestinian election.
The Hamas Charter contains 36 articles. Here is a sample of a few quotes: Article 7 of the Hamas Covenant states: “The Day of Judgment will not come about until Muslims kill the Jews, when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Muslims, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews.”
Article 22 states that the French Revolution, the Russian Revolution, Colonialism, and both WW I and WW II were created by the Zionists. It further states “There is no war going on anywhere, without having the Zionists finger in it.”
Article 32 of the Hamas Covenant refers to an anti-Semitic forgery, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion: “Today it is Palestine, tomorrow it will be one country or another. The Zionist plan is limitless. After Palestine, the Zionists aspire to expand from the Nile to the Euphrates. When they will have digested the region they overtook, they will aspire to further expansion, and so on. Their plan is embodied in the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion”, and their present conduct is the best proof of what we are saying.”
If Nelson Mandela and his ANC even hinted at such a threatening doctrine to President F.W. de Klerk and the Afrikaans, the Apartheid in South Africa would still continue today, as it does in Gaza. Instead, Mandela’s every step, every word, every action, every document worked towards reconciliation. Hence, both South African men, not frozen in fundamentalist thought, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993. In sharp contrast, the Hamas Charter is a volatile document. To many minds, it’s intentionally written to justify a forthcoming blood bath of Jews. And to many, their missiles and large-scale suicide attacks confirm this intent. For example, from 2000 to 2004, Hamas was responsible for killing nearly 400 Israelis and wounding more than 2,000 in 425 attacks. From 2001 through May 2008, Hamas launched more than 3,000 Qassam rockets and 2,500 mortar attacks against Israeli targets. With this hard fundamentalist stance, they will never get it right. The Palestinians clearly lack the wisdom of a Mandela.
Jay Cohen
Woodstock
FESTIVAL GRATITUDE
The Woodstock Film Festival would like to extend its heartfelt gratitude to all of those who participated in the success of the 11th annual Woodstock Film Festival. The Festival could simply not exist without the support of our gold sponsor, 120dB Films, and all of our generous sponsors. We’d like to thank our hard working board of directors and advisory board members, the amazing local businesses, politicians, and organizations whose help enabled the production of the festival, and the towns of Woodstock, Kingston, Rhinebeck, Rosendale and Mount Tremper who welcomed us and partnered with us. We thank artist Portia Munson for creating this year’s beautiful poster. We also thank the participating filmmakers and industry members who traveled to Woodstock from near and far, and the many wonderful hosts who graciously opened their homes to them. Thank you to the community at large for attending film screenings, panel discussions, concerts, and events. Finally, the Woodstock Film Festival is very thankful to the 321 volunteers and staff members without whose help we could not make the Festival happen. We thank you for your incredible dedication, professionalism, creativity, hard work and caring attitudes. Your work is what makes the Woodstock Film Festival such a welcoming and supportive environment, and we hope that you ended up receiving even more than what you put into it. We really are not able to conduct the Festival without the amazing show of support that we receive, and we are extremely thankful for the creative and supportive community which we all compose. We can only hope for the same success for the 12th annual Woodstock Film Festival in the fall of 2011. See you at the movies!
Meira Blaustein, Laurent Rejto and everyone at the Woodstock Film Festival
Woodstock
BLACK AND WHITE BLUES
Daddy can you please help me?
There’s something wrong with my TV
200 channels of shit you see
And I can’t find Hop a Long Cassidy
He said son I’ve got bad news
In a fight against time you can only lose
His longhorns all have lost their moos
And Hoppy died from the black and white blues
He was the toughest cowboy on the block
Smiling at me from my brothers lunchbox
Losing him was quite a shock
I guess his time ran out of clock
Hoppy sure could save the day
Shake the ladies hands then ride away
Back to the sage and Windy Holliday
But I don’t think that he was gay
So daddy can you tell me please
What brought Hoppy to his knees?
He handled bad guys with such ease
What finally put him in the squeeze?
He said son I’ve got bad news
Hoppy died from the black and white blues
Lorin Rose
Bearsville
STEALING GANESH
Sad to report that there are those among us who feel the necessity to steal something simply because they wanted it but did not want to pay for it.
On Saturday, September 25, I had an estate sale and had many items out including a 2 Ft. Metal statue of the Hindu God, Ganesh. A petite woman with a sour face and frizzy gray hair asked my daughter for the price, she replied $20. The visitor didn’t like it, asked me, I replied that $15 would take it. I went into the house, and when I emerged, found that the woman had walked off with it tucked under her arm.
Since Ganesh is the Remover of Obstacles, I guess it fits. Karma, baby. And here I thought Woodstock was the land of peace and love. Hmmmmm.
Karen Altschul Kingsley
Woodstock
TERRIFIC FILM FEST
We have been educated, entertained, amazed, humbled, surprised, saddened and found hope. How? We saw a fantastic mix of films at the Woodstock Film Festival this past weekend. Some will find their way to major theaters, some only to Upstate Films. Some will get to TV or NetFlix. Others will not and it will be a shame. What a privilege to have this all brought to our town (and to Rhinebeck, Kingston, Rosendale and even Mt. Tremper!).
The Festival was also healthy for Woodstock: full tables at restaurants, people having a good time, and the participation/collaboration of so many venues in town and beyond. In casual conversation, two industry people told us they would be looking for houses here in the next year. As Woodstock’s Economic Development Committee pointed out so smartly, we have so much to build on here. Woodstock can welcome an expansion of our “creative economy” with open arms and use it to help turn around the doldrums of the past decade. The Film Festival’s plan to purchase a building in the middle of town for both Festival activities and the work of the Hudson Valley Film Commission is a good start. If you want to help them, you can!
Thank you to Meira, Laurent, Nikki and the entire crew at the WFF for a terrific 11th Annual Woodstock Film Festival!
Susan and Dick Goldman
Woodstock
WAAM ART AUCTION A SUCCESS
The Woodstock Artists Association and Museum held the 8th Annual Woodstock Fine Art Auction this past Labor Day Weekend with several works soaring well above estimates thanks to the enthusiasm of the standing-room-only crowd of bidders! As always, we must thank our wonderful team of volunteers and staff at WAAM and at the James Cox Gallery who help in countless ways, including coordinating consignments, vetting works, installing the preview, hosting events, registering bidders, transporting art, and assisting with live, phone, and Internet bidding.
Tremendous appreciation to all our volunteers. There are too many to name here, but the list includes members, Board members, and friends in the community. Many of our volunteers return year after year and we are so grateful for their time and energy!
Thank you to the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild and to the Center for Photography at Woodstock for lending chairs and equipment.
As always, the WAAM staff Ben Caswell, Beth Humphrey, Emily Jones, Mark Kessler, Patricia Seminara, and Carl Van Brunt proved their outstanding commitment to the organization by ensuring that yet another auction went off smoothly and profitably. Special thanks to consignment coordinator Derin Tanyol, collection assistant Pamela Wardwell, and intern Alexandra Mercogliano Wheeler for their assistance throughout the summer.
Once again, our co-sponsor the James Cox Gallery and its expert team led the project and handled a tremendous amount of technical and administrative work. Thank you to James Cox, Mary Anna Goetz, William Noonan, Quinn Ferris, Dinah Neals, Leslie Geertsema, Susan Cobb, Laura Stephan, and Merlyn Kaml. John David Wilt served again as “relief” auctioneer and we thank him for his ongoing participation. Alex Nehow provided technical support for Internet and phone bidding, as well as the sound system.
Special thanks to Ulster Savings Bank for sponsoring the auction for a second year and to all the consignors, donors, and bidders who make every auction possible. Your participation goes a long way in supporting the WAAM and we are very grateful. Watch our website, www.woodstockart.org for information about next year’s auction. See you next Labor Day weekend!
Josephine Bloodgood, Executive Director
Woodstock Artists Association and Museum
GOOD GUEST RELATIONS
Wow is all we can say this year! The warm welcome the Woodstock community gave to the multitude of people who showed up for the Woodstock Film Festival was amazing. Those of us on the Guest Relations team are truly grateful to all the generous Woodstockers who once again hosted people in their homes (and put up with our daily housing switches), the incredibly cooperative hotels, including the Emerson Resort and Spa, The Woodstock Inn on the Millstream, Twin Gables, and the Wild Rose, and the restaurants who fed both staff and visitors. It was obvious to everyone who came what a great place this is to visit and how special it is to actually get to live here. We feel very proud of the town we live in and thank you all for making our job easier.
Nikki Goldbeck, Laura Kandel, Gabrielle Kleinmann, Roberta Jehru, Barbara Silver, Gail Nussbaum
Film Fest Guest Relations
THANKS FROM PAST PRESIDENT
As I complete my two-year term as President of the Woodstock Chamber of Commerce and Art, I want to thank my Board, the Chamber and the community for this extraordinary opportunity. Thank you to Board members who have made enormous contributions: Babs Moley, Corporate Secretary and owner of River Rock Health Spa; Joanne Osenenko, Treasurer and Branch Manager of Rondout Savings Bank; Virginia Barthel, owner of Booked by Barthel; Naomi Schmidt, designer/owner of Naomi Graphics; Vita Roth, artist; Scot Hastie of Pardee’s Insurance; Nick Altomare of TDBank; Pierre-Luc Moeys, owner of Oriole 9; and Ray Carucci, owner of Life Is Good.
Also, thanks to Norman Bacon, our fabulous web designer; and to Julia Blelock and Weston Blelock for managing our PR and tourism, building a cooperative relationship (and a fantastic bus trip!) with Bethel, and creating the successful ‘Experience Woodstock’ program. Thanks to Ray Carucci for creating a ‘What’s in Store’ booth at the Farm Market and, along with Tiny Stainker, producing the Sidewalk Sales and our Christmas Holiday Open House. Thanks to Renee Englander for our ever-expanding Halloween events, Jeff Harrigfeld for a summer of Music on the Green and Kevin Christofora for our family New Years Eve.
Some of our accomplishments these past 2 years have been: Financial – Our finances are sound; all accounts are entered into QuickBooks; we will begin to convert to an annual billing cycle; and we are completing our Budget for next year.
Our Membership list has been brought up to date and many new members have joined.
Chamber Insurance now covers the events we sponsor: Sidewalk Sales, Summer Concert Series, Woodstock Farm Festival, Woodstock International Walk for Peace, Halloween, Holiday Open House, & Family New Years Eve. The By-Laws have been rewritten and approved.
Website – We are very grateful to Norman Bacon who has not only designed a wonderful site, but also maintains it beautifully. Even more exciting, his search engine optimization work has put us on the map.
The calendar for the entire year has been posted on our Website thanks to Babs Moley.
The Information Booth has been roofed and painted and operated for 2 summers under the knowledgeable expertise of Shellie Lipton.
Health insurance has been expanded by adding MVP to our existing CDPHP coverage.
Membership Workshops included such well received offering as a three-part seminar by Paul Roth on Conversations, the story of Woodstock and the introduction of the ‘Main Street’ program by Jennifer V. Schwartz, Deputy Director, Ulster County Planning Board.
We’ve created a working relationship with our town board and the Woodstock Arts Consortium. We’ve focused on tourism through our ‘Experience Woodstock’ package and have developed a relationship with Bethel, the ‘other Woodstock’. We’ve increased the Board to 11 members and need to replace members whose terms are up.
Working on the Chamber Board has been exciting and rewarding. We will be holding elections for new Board members in November. If you would like to serve, please contact the head of our Nominating Committee, Weston Blelock, at wblelock@woodstockarts.com.
Over the past two years, the goal of the Woodstock Chamber of Commerce and Arts has been to unite Woodstock, harnessing the creativity of those of us who work in commerce, the arts and town government, and focusing that remarkable energy toward co-branding and co-marketing to rebuild Woodstock’s image as a tourist destination. This benefits the entire Community — retailers, restaurants, lodging, artists, writers, musicians, entrepreneurs, travel industry, real estate and residents — and it provides all of us wonderful opportunities to celebrate the richness of our lives in this extraordinary place.
Remember, we are Woodstock, the Colony of the Arts.
Thank you for letting me be a part of this.
Joyce Beymer
Past President, Woodstock Chamber of Commerce and Arts
OUR THERAPY DOGS NEED YOUR HELP
With the help of Brian Shapiro on the County level and Kevin Cahill on the State level a Therapy Dog Bill is in committee of the State Legislature. This bill will give Certified Therapy Dogs the same rights as other Assistance Dogs.
We need your help.
One year ago, we asked the Ulster County Legislature for a supportive resolution to request the State Legislature to review and expand the law that regulates therapy dogs. The legislature passed this resolution. The resolution basically said that Certified Therapy Dogs should be treated no differently than other Assistance Dogs. They should be allowed to enter public places and take public transportation just as other dogs that do assistance work. More and more therapy dogs are being sought out by, and taken by their handlers to hospitals, schools, nursing homes, rehabilitation centers, libraries (for read-to-a-dog programs, emergency sites, etc). Since our therapy dogs work in public places where food is prepared and eaten, it’s only reasonable that they should be able to enter all public places. The medical and psychological benefits of therapy dog visits have been documented in scientific literature for decades.
Because so many facilities that we service are distant from the locations where we live with our dogs, if we have to go to the bathroom, or need to eat we cannot leave our dog in the car in hot or cold weather. It can cause the dog’s death or minimally, the authorities can break into the car and/or ticket us
The exam that our dogs go through is set by national certifying organizations is rigorous and extensive. Our Certified Therapy Dogs are trained, even tempered, social and very civilized, yet public accommodations and public transportation facilities are not available to them at this time.
We and the dogs are volunteers. Neither we, nor our dogs receive payment for our services
Kevin Cahill, introduced bill number A11468 in the State Legislature.
Click on the link below to add your support. Pass this on to anyone that might help.
http://open.nysenate.gov/legislation/bill/A11468 and add a supportive comment.
Our Therapy Dogs and we, their Guardians, thank you for your help,
Fran Breitkopf, Woodstock
John Ensminger, Stone Ridge
(Editor’s note: We are rerunning the above letter because one of the signatures was misspelled in the paper last week.)
RUPCO’S WATER-LOO
What was RUPCO thinking? Surely it had to expect a large crowd with many questions at Tuesday’s public Town Meeting. With its history, real or imagined, of fuzzy math, questionable facts and tortuous arguments over the course of a, pardon the pun, very draining Planning Board review process, one would think it was time to rein in the famously “tenacious” legal team and send in the clowns, hoping to score some “good citizen” points by actually addressing a few of the peoples’ real concerns.
But that’s not the RUPCO way. Instead of mending fences or building bridges, their reps sat stone-faced as their lawyer tried, awkwardly, to be both juggler and tight-rope walker to a less-than-enthralled audience.
From where I sat, it seemed like he first asked Council members to, essentially, protect RUPCO from the angry mob of citizens wielding poisonous, um, questions, then turned around quick as a praying mantis and told the Town Board that, as far as RUPCO was concerned, they had no authority beyond the ministerial act of rubber-stamping the Planning Board’s approval.
Cue the school teachers. Did RUPCO not do its homework? In the face of charges of not playing by the rules, and being a taker not a giver, perhaps arrogance and bullying were not the best strategies to adopt. Thankfully a few Town Board members, past and present, were on hand to tell RUPCO to mind its manners.
And isn’t that what this all boils down to really? Yes, the concerns are serious and legitimate, including safety, health, the environment and fiscal fairness. But taken together, all we wanted to hear, and didn’t, was how RUPCO expected to be treated like a welcome new neighbor when it wasn’t in any manner being neighborly itself. We’re still waiting.
Joe Nicholson
Woodstock
A SOLUTION
I’d like to offer a solution to a couple of the most vexing problems of our times: The Farm Animal Sanctuary and the Woodstock Commons.
Move the Farm Animal Sanctuary to the Woodstock Commons site. Farm Animals are natural, and everyone wants to preserve the site’s natural setting. Nature + Nature = awesome! Zoning? Whatever! Even the “square” neighbor in Willow who wrote last week said that one can get used to the pungent smell of animal crap and the rustic pre-dawn crow of the happy rooster!
Farm Animals attract celebrities and their concern for the pressing issues of the day. And lots of money. What will the RUPCOgees bring to town? No cool celebs, that’s for certain!
Farm Animals are really cute — not like poor people. Which would you rather have to look at? An adorable baby lamb, or scruffy Section 8 urchin rooting through your garbage can?
Fact: Rescued farm animals have to have “hip” surroundings to thrive. Let’s face it, Willow is nowheresville!
Farm Animals do not drive so there will be minimal traffic concerns. OK, so there will be people coming to look at these remarkable survivors of man’s savagery and exploitation; but they’ll probably be driving small electric cars, not the big rust buckets that poor people drive — ha ha!
Anyway, that’s my big idea. You’re welcome, Woodstock
Gary Vaggio
West Hurley
ARE YOU OWED BACK WAGES
Are you owed back wages? Were you not paid your prevailing wage?
The Workers Rights of Ulster County is conducting a survey for workers who may be eligible for back wages if you worked on construction projects in Ulster County funded by the federal government. This survey will include all people who have worked on the Kirkland Hotel, the Stuyvesant Hotel, the Hasbrouck Avenue property, 134 Hunter Street, the Petit House Condominiums and the Van Buren Street property, all in Kingston, as well as Park Heights in Rosendale and Buttermilk Falls Townhomes in Ellenville.
We want justice for all Ulster County workers and will make every attempt to get you the money you deserve to be paid based on the prevailing wage.
Please send your name, address, e-mail address and phone number to: The Workers Rights of Ulster County, P.O. Box 306, Bearsville, New York 12409 or e-mail us at WRofUC@Yahoo.com.
Harvey Brody
Woodstock
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