We passed this tattoo parlor's web 2.0 billboard on Rte. 28 outside of Kingston and had to snap a photo. Pat's Tats is definitely online and on Twitter, but so far, it's only got three tweets! Pat, we want more!
Comix publisher Vertigo reveals a few pages of their upcoming September title, a graphic novel inspired by the incredible true experiences of local painter Inverna Lockpez, and brought to vivid life by comic artist Dean Haspiel. The gist:
From the moment Fidel Castro captures Havana in 1959, 17 year old Sonya believes in the promise of the Cuban Revolution. A medical student with aspirations of becoming a painter, she joins the militia and finds herself caught between idealism and ideology.
The Ashokan Center has been forced to scale back somewhat on its ambitious plans for its new arts and environmental education campus in Olivebridge, the Woodstock Times reports. But founders Jay Ungar and Molly Mason are making the best of it:
Alas, Ungar, Mason and crew have reigned in some of their original green ideas...as have all of us, over the past year. There will be less road making than originally planned, more use of natural materials from the property, as well as nearby City road-moving projects, to help keep down costs. And instead of being completely energy self-sufficient, it will be a low energy campus...a compromise, but much better than it had been. Yet still a demonstrable learning tool for the many who will be educated about environmental issues at the Center.
"It's become a way more thoughtful design," Ungar said this week. "With five to six thousand school children coming through each year, we want the buildings to be part of the learning experience."
The Nom Nom Good food co-op in Cooperstown wants a label to reflect that their food is farmed on land that has not been leased for gas drilling.
I am looking for a symbol to put on our advertising to show that we do not support gas drilling, or more specifically, that our food is grown & raised on land without gas wells. If a symbol exists, it would be great to standardize it and have all like-minded farmers (& value-added producers) use it in their labelling, so we can recognize and support those farmers.
This recent Earth Island Journal story on gas drilling in upstate New York and Pennsylvania suggests it might be a moot point: According to Hancock farmer Mark Dunau, most farmers who are leasing their land to gas companies don't plan to stay in the farm business anyway.
Dramatic money worries are in the air today. In the Daily Freeman, Ulster County Executive Michael Hein has a plan to save Ulster County $8.6 million with a hodgpodge of measures, including shutting down some local healthcare offices:
Among Hein’s cost-savings plans is the elimination of Health Department satellite offices in Saugerties and Highland and on Broadway and in Midtown Kingston. The offices, which Hein said are underutilized, would be replaced with scheduled mobile clinics held in those areas.
The thing is, it doesn't really seem to need it, according to the village clerk (via the Daily Freeman):
“There is an intercom right outside the front door of our office that they can press and we will come down, or the sign on the door says for them to go the Police Department and a dispatcher will call for us to come down,” Village Clerk Carolyn Pardy said. “Basically, we will go to them if they can’t come up here,” she said. “It doesn’t happen often — probably no more a dozen or two times in a year. We don’t have a lot of foot traffic in here except the four months a year that we collect water bills and the one month that we collect taxes.”
That's what the experts on last night's panel about tiny Fleischmanns, NY, said. They were discussing the movie "Bienvenidos a Fleischmanns," by filmmaker Jessica Vecchione, which chronicles the growth of a vibrant Mexican community in the village over the past decade. The four panelists, all faculty members at SUNY College at Oneonta, had a lot to say about immigration patterns in rural upstate New York. Some clips:
Sociology Professor Ho Hon Leung:
Foreign Languages faculty member Maria Montoya:
From the Woodstock Film Fest:
HIGHER GROUND, which will mark the directorial debut of Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air, Down to the Bone) is looking to hire local Hudson Valley crew members for May-June film production. Please note that this is a low budget independent film.
They're also looking for cast housing in Kerhonkson.
Earlier: Vera Farmiga dishes about George Clooney, goat semen.
The Daily Star reports:
A 23-year-old Oneonta woman was arrested on misdemeanor charges Monday for allegedly allowing her toddler to play with a box that contained a hypodermic needle ... The girl had been pricked in her left index finger when she reached into a baby wipes box, according to a statement on file in Oneonta Town Court from a Fox physician assistant who treated the child.
