SamPratt.com: 10 posts from July 17, 2011

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10 posts from July 17, 2011 - July 23, 2011

July 23, 2011

Saturday Art: David Shrigley

From his 2009 solo show in Norway.

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July 22, 2011

BetaBeat, a tech journal published online by The New York Observer, reports that Etsy CEO Rob Kalin is stepping down. Kalin is known locally as the driving force behind Etsy’s decision to open a customer service center in Hudson, but from the sound of things this shouldn’t have any effect on the expected 50 or so jobs being created there. A source tells me that six new hires were made there just recently, and are looking to find another 5-10 people by September.

in Cities | Hudson, Economic Development, Technology | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Waterfront, Kingston, 1906

Kingston Point Park, via the “always interesting” Shorpy.

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Fun with anagrams

HUDSON CITY

COUNTY DISH

NOISY DUTCH

CONDUIT SHY

ITCHY SOUND

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July 21, 2011

Bart a non-starter?

Hudson’s attention in the past 24 hours has been riveted on the Hudson City Democratic Committee’s feverish efforts to restore the possibility of candidate Nick Haddad’s name appearing on the top line of the ballot. A paperwork deadline was missed, thus invalidating the HCDC members' petitioning efforts for Haddad. (Those petitions had already been recalled once before prior to filing due to a shakeup in the Dem ticket.)

Less attention has been paid, meanwhile, to another developing situation on the Republican side of things: namely, persistent rumors that GOP Common Council President nominee Bart Delaney has dropped out of the race.

Word is that Delaney (currently serving as 5th Ward Supervisor) failed to accept the Conservative and Independent nominations, and would like his name removed from the Republican line as well. If true, this would leave Dem nominee Donald Moore—who himself is a replacement for his party's initial choice, Sarah Sterling—unopposed. Another source has it that former Dem chair Linda Mussmann wants her close ally and former Dick Tracy mayoral aide Lynn Sloneker to replace Delaney on the Republican line if he drops out, but that does not appear to be technically possible at this point.

Notably, perhaps, Delaney did not appear in this group photo of the Hudson Republican candidates when they announced their slate less than six weeks ago.

in Cities | Hudson, Elections & Voting Rights | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Quotable Vonnegut

All persons, living and dead, are purely coincidental.

— Kurt Vonnegut

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July 19, 2011

Hudson on screen

A trailer for The Man at the Counter, an independent short film shot largely at The Cascades in Hudson, can be viewed by clicking here. It's about “a young boy who spends the summer working at a coffee shop in a small town.” The project was funded in part via Kickstarter, which has a short video about the making of the film here.

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Skip the movie and run

Critics who’ve been raving about Midnight in Paris surely must have taken a bit too much absinthe. Woody Allen’s latest is total schlock—and not in a some fun, campy, or otherwise knowing way.

A variation on the same time-traveling gag is repeated over and over again throughout the film: Salvador Dali/Henri Matisse/F. Scott Fitzgerald, oh my god, I so admire your work! If you only remember the names of a couple of writers and artists from your schooldays, but want to feel smart when you recognize Hemingway or Picasso, this movie is for you. (And don’t worry: If you don’t recognize them, Allen will make sure to hit you over the head several times with their names.) Midnight in Paris is tailor-made for those who have never been to France, but have a poster of the Eiffel Tower on their wall anyway.

Meanwhile, Owen Wilson (who’s usually very watchable) is the most transparent yet miscast Allen surrogate yet. His every line was written with the 35-year-old Allen in mind, but it’s a miserable fit. It’s just embarrassing to watch the great Woody go through this routine: “I can't play the lead anymore, so I’ll make someone play me. Badly.”

And every ten minutes Allen has to remind you that the theme of this movie is capital-N Nostalgia. This isn’t some postmodern breaking of the show-don't-tell-rule. This isn’t a Godard conceit. It’s just lazy filmmaking, which never gets past the thematizing stage. It’s “about” nostalgia to the same extent that Desperate Housewives is about matrimony. It never goes beyond announcing and repeating its theme—like some Broadway musical which keeps reminding you that you’re seeing a Broadway musical in every number, because it has nothing else to say.

Corny doesn’t begin to describe this sub-middlebrow mess. I’m a big Woody Allen fan, and I almost never leave movies, but my friend and I got up and left after the first excruciatingly-stilted 70 minutes. Every one of those minutes made my life both shorter, and poorer.

Match Point? Now there's a great, late Allen film. This one, c’est une perte de temps.

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July 18, 2011

MJQ at the Waterfront

The cover of the Odds Against Tomorrow soundtrack by the Modern Jazz Quartet featured a photo of the Hudson waterfront. The transmission towers across the Hudson can be dimly seen in front of the Catskills, along with the remains of old pier pilings.

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