New Year’s Eve And Down In The Doldrums Of A Blue Moon

First Night 2009

My day-off and I’m sleeping the day away. Not sure if I should attend First Night in NOHO. On my day-off I’d rather take a break and get away from the NOHO scene. Stayed @ home and read a little and went thru Northampton history and days gone by. Had planned to get away from the house and go downtown w/ Niles but that was cancelled at the last min. Ho-hum, ho-hummmm… Asked Robin if she were attending the event? She said, “Yes.” I asked if she had a camera to tape it? She said “No!”

I regret missing it.

GUILTY OF EVERYTHING, as Beat poet Herbert Huncke said. Northampton’s Transperformace 19 was barely covered or videotaped. Not even for cable. There was some great footage posted by F. Alex Johnson of his Jimi Hendrix impersonation but that’s pretty much it. I guess my New Year’s resolution this year will be “take part in more events, videotape them and put them all on YouTube and NCTV.

First Night will be happening any min now so folks will be attending the shows seeing the fireworks and watching the ball rise.

At the Elevens will be Los Hijos Unicos, School For The Dead, The Fawns and The Ray Mason Band.

Tasha Yar, New Years Eve 2009 (photo by cherlovestrong)

Sierra Grille - New Year's Eve 2009

The Sierra Grille, who are not on the Performance Schedule, will be having Tasha Yar, The Golden Boys and the debut of The Glitter Guerrillas. Those who will be attending First Night must purchase a button for $20.

Button for Adults

As I said before, I was digging thru some old documents and artifacts of Northampton history. Going thru my scrapbooks of madness (and yes I have a bunch of them) I was looking @ some pictures and drawings I put in a while back. I was thinking maybe 2006 until now.

Since it was a Blue Moon, I was wondering if that was the reason why I was so down tonight (hence the name). Cherlovestrong told me that everyone was acting kinda funky that night. A full moon can do that to you. Here’s my favorite version of the song “Blue Moon,” sung by the Marcels. This one’s a classic:

On facebook I wrote, “The moonlight tonight may affect everybody, even…GIVE ME THAT OLD TIME RELIGION, THAT OLD TIME RELIGION.” This was a reference to Captain Beefheart’s song “Moonlight On Vermont,” where lunacy prevails and RELIGION is the only means to measure one’s pains.

Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band

Moonlight may have affected some people that night, but other than that the city of NOHO did well.

Well, the only decent footage I found on YouTube was a WWLP news clip. This was broadcasted a few hours before the ball rose on the Hotel Northampton.

Here is some raw footage of the ball rising that WWLP posted on YouTube.

Screencap - WWLP First Night 2009

Other than that here is a clip that somebody took of the fireworks going off over the parking garage. Cherlovestrong had recently posted a clip, taken from the same exact angle and location. I heard them from my apartment but wasn’t able to see them that good. Sometime after midnight, I heard somebody shooting off fireworks in the field beside Hospital Hill.

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When sifting thru the scrapbooks and data discs, I found a lot of images and videos of old city council meetings, events, artwork and misc. items. This will be a big project going thru these notes and info but as you can tell, I’m really big on the past rather than the present. I have been compiling some videoclips for NCTV shows but there is so much stuff to do and so little time to do it.

Called it a night on the 2010 New Year morning. Here is one of my facebook posts to start off the New Year with. Captain Beefheart’s “This Is The Day.”

Another Day In Paradise

2009 H1N1 Influenza Vaccine

I started the morning w/ a call from Bob about us visiting the clinic down on King Street for the free 2009 H1N1 Influenza Vaccine. I heard from someone that in Springfield, MA you have to pay for it and even show your Masshealth card.

Shame on them. Arrived there and got down to business, which was painless and easy. I understand there’s another shot that people are getting. This one’s a spring flu vaccine. The receptionist told us her daughter receive the shot. It may not apply for us big people. Luckily, I be fine.

Kollmorgen driveby

I saw that the Kollmorgen site was coming along well. Bev and I headed down to Memory Magic and lots of work to be done, as Bob said. Flo was unsure if she did the best job on the cassette tapes. It’s just “transfer them to the computer and I will edit them the best I can.” The written instructions were a plus, as Bob said, but Bill suggested that I tighten them up a bit. I asked if he would like to collaborate. He is the copywriter; I’m just the artist

Tape to be transferred

Before work I sent a message to Bill Dwight of the Bill Dwight Show, asking him if there was a meeting tonight concerning the fires in town. No response. Oh well, that sounds like Bill.

Is there a meeting tonight?

Bev later informed me that it was being held @ the WW2 Club on Union Street. After work, I called Robin asking if she was attending this meeting. She said she was but told me they changed it to the College Church on Pomeroy Terrace.

Ward 3 meeting (full house)

It was a full house tonight and half the city was there. The media was there too: TV stations, radio personalities, bloggers, photographers, you name it. I’m surprised it wasn’t aired live, since it made the national news (CNN, Fox News and even Telemundo). Thankfully, Northampton Community Television was there to tape it, and will be aired sometime soon.

Here’s a WWLP YouTube clip of the event.

This masslive article can explain it better than I can.

Robin finally came by and we left – That was pretty much it. The police and fire chief gave us good advice. Paraphrased “If there’s anything suspicious you see going on in your neighborhood, let us know.”

Got back home and added these pieces of literature into my scrapbook. I’ve been hearing and seeing a lot more firetrucks these days, which is good since any call to Northampton Fire Department should not be ignored. Even if it’s a strange smell in the air, a smoke detector going off, anything that might be suspicious. Had to upload these just for world viewing, although they may be already online. Here they are:

No Incident Is Too Small To Call

Back Side

Here is also the “Professionalism through Courage and Dedication” sheet. This was the first sheet the fire officers handed out to us during the meeting:

Professionalism through Courage and Dedication

As it says “No Incident Is To [sic] Small To Call.” MARK MY WORD! You’ll be hearing a lot of firetrucks even more these days because of this note. As I said before, let’s hope the city can solve this perplexing mess, and finish the mayhem @ Ward 3 once and for all.

Ho-hum Weekend – An Unexpected Turn of Events

A quiet day-after from Christmastime. I woke up on the later side and told Niles that I was going to head downtown to check out the scene.

Headed downtown in that feeling-quite-comfortable kinda way, w/ my headphones on and Mp3 disc playing sweet tunes. Listening to yet another mix of oldies but goodies. There’s some newer (late 90s) stuff on it as well, i.e. Green Day’s “Pulling Teeth” and Foo Fighter’s “For All the Cows.” But some of my faves are the old ones: “Psycho” by The Sonics and Bootsy Collins’s “I’d Rather Be With You” a solo recording that was later remade by N.W.A.

The neighbors still had their Xmas decorations out. I remember hearing about folks leaving their Christmas tree in their window till Easter. It was cold but I was sweating buckets since I had many layers on. I loved it too.

Walked down and noticed this on the dike beside the West Street bridge. Who can this be about? I don’t know but it definitely seems mysterious.

R.I.P. Sam

On my way downtown everything was still dead quiet. Forbes Library is closed for the holiday season. I stopped by and they had a sign on the glass stating that.

Forbes closed for the holiday

Headed down to Turn It Up and it was packed. Sales were happening and folks here or @ other stores were returning things they couldn’t use (or didn’t want). No need to fret on my part, I keep everything. On my way back I noticed that the ‘lost dog’ sign beside the famous West Street factories was still hanging but looked a bit faded.

Lost Dog

Is he still lost, I wonder? How about that lost cat that been poking around town for a while? Is she still missing too?

Too many question today, uh-oh.

Back @ home and watched some of NCTV. The station has been running the same shows for two weeks already. I turned in a show the other week about the rise and fall of Hospital Hill/Village Hill. It hasn’t been aired yet. It’s not like it was back in the 90s when you could turn in a show and it would be played that day. Everything is now scheduled in advance — that’s how it works.

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Segue to Sunday morning and I was sleeping past 3pm. Niles was in a walking kinda mood but I wasn’t. I had done an all-nighter the day before and had a troubling conversation w/ a friend. Thank God, everything is alright now.

I did a little writing about the hard times that’s common around the holidays but was reluctant to print it. All I can say is some folks can be hardheaded when it comes to communication and, yes, communication is not always effective. It wasn’t a full moon, but trouble was on its way. I could feel it.

Got up and burned a CD of Hot Butter’s Popcorn. The title track was originally done by contemporary American composer Gershon Kingsley.  Hot Butter also does a great version of “Mah Na, Mah Na.” I had planned to use this in the deconstruction video of the same name, but I didn’t have any samples @ the time. It’s not too late to rewrite.

HOT BUTTER - POPCORN

POPCORN - Originally by Gershon Kingsley

Refused to get out of the house today to my regret. Hopped onto facebook and saw the news that all my friends posted.

Serious stuff. Northampton’s Ward 3 has been known for it’s suspicious fires, but this one caught everybody’s attention. Let’s hope that everyone in town can make it thru this one, and let’s hope the police and all those involved can solve this ASAP. That is all.

Monday morning Gazette's front page news

Christmas Rundown

Christmas Eve wake up and nothing to do. Called Bev but she’s no where to be found. Grandpa Ron and Mom came by to celebrate the holiday. I gave Gramps his gift: a copy of Barry Miles’s “The Beat Hotel.” I asked Ron if he’d be able to read it and not fall asleep. He said anything about The Beats would not make him tired. Same here.

Ron read me his new poem, which will soon be posted on his blog. Also, he brought over an old paperback copy of Homer’s Iliad, and some past Valley Advocates. The last Advocate he brought over he had written on it “Save For Dann.”

Valley Advocate "Save For Dann"

It was the Timmy Young tribute issue, which really irked me since I needed it for my files. Oh well, it now has character.

I had on NCTV and all they were airing was the Northampton Community Calendar. We changed it to the news and we heard about the hit and run of the homeless man. Sad news to hear on Christmas Eve. I played them a DVD of the ServiceNet llamas and after that they headed home and called it a day.

I made a few posts on facebook. Here’s something that I aired on NCTV for Christmas last year. This is called “A Lo-fi/Lo-bit Xmas.” It’s a compilation of wacky public access videoclips I found online. Also included in this mix is K Gordon Murray’s “Santa Claus.”

Santa Claus

Santo vs. The Strangler

It was originally directed by Mexican filmmaker Rene Cardona, Jr. and had a Mexican language soundtrack. Murray later dubbed it into English and re-edited it for a 1960 US release. Cardona also directed many Santo Mexican wrestler films, which Murray also remade for an English speaking audience. Murray is also known as the “King of the Kiddie Matinee.”

Mad Christmas

I also uploaded some cool Mad Magazine covers and a print by Graham Rawle from his book Wonder Book of Fun.

Graham Rawle's Christmas Art

Niles wanted to do something. I did too and was hoping to go downtown. Niles wanted to stay on Village Hill grounds. The area hasn’t changed since last week. We walked around the cold grounds and it all seemed dull and gross up here, as a facebook friend once said about this area.

Stopped back in and dug thru some more files and memories. Another pop culture favorite is this Beatles BBC outtake, “Crimble Medley.” I’ll be listening to The Beatles 1968 Christmas Record tomorrow. A musique concrete holiday treat, all compiled by the late Kenny Everett w/o The Beatles being there as a full band (this is 1968 White Album Beatles as you know).

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Segue to Christmas morning. Began the day w/ updating and maintaining the blog. It’s really not a true blog after all. It’s more like a webpage that I’ll work on top to bottom. I plan to even this thing out by updating w/ new entries and going back and filling in the one’s I missed. The ‘after the storm’ entry was the latest addition.

heading to Edwards Church

Here’s what happened today. Down to Edwards Church for a short meal. Saw Ms. Flo was there and her husband and some of their friends. It was pretty packed. The media was photographing the event as well.

Meal servers @ Edwards Church

Naked NOHO

Niles was getting fidgety so I quickly ate my meal and left. We headed downtown and the streets were naked. Thornes Marketplace had no one in front for a change. We walked around town and got a few pics. We came back and I uploaded some images to the web. Here’s something I found on the bookshelf:

VMag, Xmas 1999

A Vmag from the end of the century, Christmas 1999. I miss that magazine.

Niles was hoping to stop somewhere downtown again to get a coffee. I was wondering if anything was even open. Christmas Day and the town is naked means the only thing that might be open is a Chinese restaurant. Anyone for sushi?

No one to meet for coffee since everybody was out and about with his or her family and stuff on the holiday. I was hanging out w/ Niles for a few hours listening to Esquivel and trying to find some classic Raymond and the Circle Xmas music videos to post. Here’s a special one. A parody of Jethru Tull’s  “Aqua Lung” called “Santa Lung”

Always need Raymond and the Circle for the holidays, yada yada yada…

Niles and I took a little walk around town again. Here’s one of my neighbors Christmas decorations. They also put out a spectacular display for Halloween.

Santa and Frosty seesaw

Back up the hill we came across this in the road beside the community gardens.

road wrapping

But Village Hill isn’t completed yet? Is this an early gift to us from the mayor? Back inside and calling it “taking a vacation for the holidays.” Later on Niles and me watched the rest of the Santa Conquers the Martians I started. A classic holiday b-movie, if ever there is one. HOORAY FOR SANTY CLAUS.

the comic book

No Storm But Lots Of Work

It never snowed (much), as folks in Northampton, MA know. As Bill Dwight called it, a “snow fraud” or ‘storm fraud’ for that matter. I looked out my window expecting to find something, but no – ZILCH! Niles called me up asking if I wanted to go to church and I got up immediately, headed outside to take out the trash and got a few pictures of the dusting on the sidewalk.

light dusting

Niles and I got a ride down to church and I immediately got a photo of the band warming up for the singing of the hymns. I headed down to the library and looked at a few books. Eros Defiled: The Christian and Sexual Sin by John White looked interesting. The sermon began and pastor Steve spoke. Tried staying awake for it but an 8am wake up w/ no caffeine wasn’t the best way to go.

Eros Defiled

Our driver told us how he usually steps out into the break room to get a cup of coffee or some fresh air outside. However, I awoke when they started singing “Go Tell It On The Mountain.” That reminds me of the public access TV viral video I saw on YouTube called “Henrietta and Merna.” It features a mother-daughter team singing that very song. The mother looks half-tired but the daughter looks like she’d seen better days.

Niles wanted to leave so I told him to wait until I got a few pictures. Here’s the famous downscaled nativity scene they have up every year. I took the same pic four years ago when the church had a different pastor. I haven’t seen him since.

downscaled nativity scene

I came back home and got down to reading and doing some writing. The rest of the day was pretty slow and boring. Chatted w/ a facebook pal on the phone about the wild days before Xmas and all the family issues that may come up for that person. I expect the new day to bring lots of work for Memory Magic. Work is way behind and customers need their media conversions in ASAP.

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Segue to Monday 12pm and Christmas orders to be finished. This was a 12 hr workday w/ some food break in between. One customer wanted a slideshow disc w/ music. I gave her a CD featuring two songs: “Alone Again Naturally” and “All By Myself.” She later complained that the latter song was being played underneath a photo of her granddad’s funeral. No sad songs! she stated firmly. I then decided to add some poppy Fleetwood Mac stuff, Paul McCartney/Michael Jackson’s “Say Say Say,” and Deniece Williams’s  “Let’s Hear It For The Boy.” I took off The Police’s “Every Breath You Take” at the last min. No need for stalker songs over grandfather’s funeral. The rest of the job was VHS conversions of a parade and a D.H. Lawrence movie (we really had fun with that one).

After work I checked out my facebook page for a bit but haven’t been posting many things these past few days. I guess it’s the winter season that has been dragging me down. Here’s something that’s not Xmas related that I posted a few days ago: Porter Wagoner ~ The Rubber Room. I’ve been listening to this and Wendell Austin’s “LSD” these past few weeks. These songs are on my favorite psychobilly influenced album Wavy Gravy.

wavy gravy compilation

You can find it on doctorfuckwit’s WordPress blog. There’s also a great review of it on Dooyoo.

A Walk Downtown Before The Storm

Holidays are approaching very soon. Saturday was a ho-hum day, even though I was able to get out of the house and walk downtown some. I’m still in the primitive times since I still don’t have an iPod and been using my Mp3 CD walkman. That’s okay, even though I have to do a Fonzie job on it sometimes. I’m probably not gonna give NCTV anything for Xmas. The creative block is still present and the effects from caffeine hasn’t really hit me yet. Maybe by 1 a.m.

The Academy of Music has no more sign in front

Headed downtown and noticed that The Academy of Music is messing it’s display sign in front. The scrolling marquee most likely replaced it completely (see previous post). Before that I went to Forbes Library and got the paper. In todays paper, the lighting of the last candle for the Chanukah menorah in Pulaski Park. Today is the last day of Hanukkah. Here’s a daytime picture of the menorah all by itself.

Happy Hanukkah in Pulaski Park

I didn’t get it but the Xmas tree is right beside it. Check out what Tom Devine has to say on his blog.

It was definitely a cold one today. I heard it’s supposed to be worse. A storm is coming its way. It already hit D.C. pretty hard and now it’s snowing in New York City. My granddad says it’s the kind of weather to just stay @ home and write Christmas cards. Anyway, I’m holding back on attending some shows tonight because of it, even though Local Mediea has been posting them on facebook. Now she’s telling everyone to drive safely and party where you can:

Local Mediea Says..

Today @ Turn It Up I picked up this beauty:

Donovan: Like It Is, Was, And Evermore Shall Be

Donovan’s Like It Is, Was, And Evermore Shall Be on the Hickory label. It’s not psychedelic (that’s just marketing) but old-school Dylanesque folk. Practically every song on the album sounds like a Dylan cover. I found this in the dollar bin amongst the Chuck Mangione and Frank Sinatra records. Maybe not worth much but definitely a good find.

Kollmorgen site waits for more snow

Here’s Kollmorgen site in the winter. I wonder what it will look like tomorrow, if the storm hits us. The work was put off for bit due to the last snow day. Let’s hope, another break from the endless noise pollution on Village Hill.

Spent some time inside gathering some old tapes for uploading onto YouTube. There’s a lot of things I’ve been way behind with. There’s so many tapes gathering dust that need to be attended to. Here’s something that I recently uploaded, which happened back in 2008 @ Sierra Grille: The Bamboo Steamers singing “Stuart Little.”

I’ll be waiting in bated breath for the first flakes of snow to happen and try to fight off the winter blues for 2009. Tomorrow’s another College Church service and I’m eager to hear what Steve has to say, leading us into the holiday week.

My Day Off & End Of Year Things

Ms. Flo @ Memory Magic

Yet another day off today from Memory Magic. I fear what I may find tomorrow morning @ work, since everyone’s still new to this thing of media conversion. I’m still learning myself. A lot of jobs these days are like that. Trial and error, DIY. We’re pretty much living in a DIY world these days. College degrees don’t mean too much in this day and age, and autodidactism hasn’t been given enough attention and value put upon it. So these folks @ the job are learning in this manner. Stay tuned for the upcoming article on Memory Magic, possibly to be printed in the Gazette.

Tried burning a few DVDs of Xmas shows. These were archive.org files that didn’t come out too good. One of these was A Visit to Santa. A vintage looking short film of Santa bringing kids thru a department store, most likely to ask them what they’d “want for Christmas?” Here’s the YouTube version:

Tossed it outside beside the dumpster, doing a Boo Radley thing for whoever may find it. Need to reburn some stuff and compile more borrowed and original clips for airing. Possibly the classic Raymond & The Circle’s “Santa Lung” and “Jingle Bells.”

Saw Niles for a few hours and we ordered a pizza. I originally wanted to go grocery shopping but it was too freakin’ cold out to do anything. I stayed home instead and got some snapshots of Wright Builders‘ working on Kollmorgen and the townhouses. Here’s a photo of the townhouse work they’ve been doing all day. This was for the foundation of one of the new homes.

Wright Builders crane in action

My show, Village Hill Northampton Videojournal, will be airing on NCTV sometime next week. It covers the many changes that has happened on Hospital Hill.

Steve Susco right before NCTV was told to turn off their cameras

Mayor Clare tells everyone to be mindful of the 3 min rule

Watched some of NOHO’s final city council meeting for 2009. This one was the usual until Steve Susco came up to speak and went over his 3 mins. The mayor had the cable station turn off the camera and mic until he stopped. He had one more comment to make, but the mayor said he has to come back for the next meeting to make it. I posted a photo and it received some interesting comments. Wait until next year and see what comes our way.

Headed down to Pleasant Street Videos. Said hello to all the folks there and then down to Turn It Up!, where I picked up a few of these flyers. A show is going on this Wednesday @ The Elevens: Boots Got Soul, Sound System, etc, etc. A Timothy Young town crier would no doubt promote this one, mainly for its eye-catching design: a picture of Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin in a loving embrace.

Gainsbourg & Birkin in a loving embrace

Jane Birkin/Serge Gainsbourg

Here’s the cover to their album Jane Birkin et Serge Gainsbourg, featuring the hit song “Je t’aime… moi non plus.” I was hoping to find a video of great color and catchiness but Melody Nelson (the concept piece that has it) is rather slow and minimalistic. Here’s a b/w but fun music video of Gainsbourg singing his song “Elisa.” Birkin just tags along.

Down to Sierra Grille and not very enthused and sort of tired after that pizza meal. The bands that were playing that night were: BUNNY’S A SWINE w/ FRIENDS OF YOURS & MOVING PICTURES. Cherlovestrong forgot her camera again and this time it was up to me to get the footage. I shot the first act and that’s it. The band was Friends of Yours, a duo girl/guy act, she on guitar, him on drums. I caught almost everything, got back home, uploaded and posted it. Here’s the clip:

Northampton 2009 Election & Aftermath

The big day of the election. Wasn’t able to go early since I had to do a little shopping, and I saw a few familiar faces in the supermarket who talked about politics, but ended up going there later in the night. I went down w/ Bev after work. Here is the ballot sheet.

Ballot sheet for Northampton 2009 election

Robin is gonna vote for whom?

One of the old guys @ the senior center notice I had a camera and called to “Florence” or “Dot” or whoever to watch me. I ended up seeing Robin on my way out. She wanted me to photograph her voting but I was trying to be inconspicuous. Above is a photo of her checking in. We’ll see who wins this one.

Segue to Wednesday morning….

Well, Higgins won again, as I heard from my grandmother. I also heard Gene Tacy on the news discussing the Landfill vote: Yes 3,107 – No 5, 482 (Tacy woke me up @ 7:30pm).

Landfill sign in closet

Here  is an old Landfill sign I picked up during one of the protests. I keep it in Mimi’s litter box closet. Beside it is a painting I did of the mayor as Joey Ramone performing @ the Transperformance: Look Punk.

The Ventures - TV and movie themes

Grasshopper (soundtrack)

Went downtown to Turn It Up and picked up a copy of The Ventures doing TV and movie themes. It doesn’t say anything about it on the back or front, but w/ titles like “Hawaii Five-O,” Mission: Impossible” and “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” you know what the rest will be. There’s also a version of “No Matter What Shape (You’re Stomach’s In)” which sounds identical to The T-Bones one. I also picked up the soundtrack to the film The Grasshopper just for the cover and insert design.

The day @ the job was quiet and lonely. No one showed up so I was working by myself trying to get some jobs finished ASAP. No focus today since I need life around me to work — most of the time.

Bardsley's headquarters no more

During my break I took some pictures of the old Michael Bardsley headquarters. Everything is down. I saw a guy loading some signs in the back of a truck on my way back to work. Very close and what an interesting race that was.

Mary Clare Higgins wins

After work I headed back to the supermarket to pick up the paper, but they were sold out. I had to get it out of one of those newspaper boxes by the liquor store. Here it is. I notice Sue Stubbs, the CEO of Servicenet, is congratulating Clare on her win. There’s the famous sculptress Lu Stubbs (Sue’s mother) with the white curly hair on the left.

Here’s a video I found on YouTube, part of my subscription updates. A Clare Higgins post-election chat conducted by the Daily Hampshire Gazette. Wish the sound was a little louder, people.

Ellery Eskelin - Green Bermudas

Hung out w/ Niles for a bit, listening to a few CDs. I wasn’t in the mood for anything poppy so I decided to put on Ellery Eskelin’s Green Bermudas. I’ve been listening to this for @ a week now. My favorite track is “Mary Jane’s Dilemma.” I remember talking to record producer/music critic Byron Coley about this album, who told me he produced this CD on his Eremite label. Eskelin is the son of “song-poem” musician Rodd Keith.

Rodd Keith Eskelin

I also put on Anthony Braxton’s “3 compositions of new jazz.” Niles really loved this one. I showed him some of the diagrams Braxton uses for naming his compositions. He doesn’t list them by names, just as symbols and figures.

The night ended w/ another show-and-tell of scrapbooks and Flickr pages. I haven’t done art for awhile but I showed Niles some of the past stuff. Eventually it will all be seen, when I have the courage and energy to scan, upload and post. Until next time.

Not So Very Halloween-Like

Halloween was pretty much a bust. Northampton was very low-key and I saw very few people in costumes. What I did see is Michael Bardsley standing out before the upcoming election coming this November 3rd. I walked by and said “hi.”

Bardsley stands out at Noho intersection

What I did miss, most of the other bloggers got down on their blogs. Check out Nohodome for his Halloween sightseeing adventures in NOHO, MA. In the morning, I woke up w/ the Bill Dwight Show. He had Michael Kirby on discussing the Carney/Vidal-McNair debate that happened this past Thursday.

Carney/Vidal-McNair debate

I watched it on Northampton Community Television and tried taking some notes, getting the gist of it but losing my attention span towards the end. A better write-up can be found on Daryl LaFleur’s Northampton Redoubt.

Backtracking a little bit…..

Florence Inn Skeleton

I notice after work on Friday, @ the Florence Inn, they had a motion-activated skeleton sitting on a chair. I tried videotaping it w/ my Point-and-Shoot camera, but it was too dark. Whenever you moved, he came alive, making a few off-colored remarks to whomever was standing there.

Frogs

Down to Pleasant Street Videos, I rented the movie Frogs starring Sam Elliot. Me and Niles watched it on this low-key Halloween night. Slow moving @ the start but picking up speed toward the middle. The film also stars Ray Milland, famous for The Lost Weekend but was also in another cult classic, X: The Man With X-Ray Eyes. On Friday, trying to get into the Halloween spirit, I watched the film Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things. Bob Clark, the director of the film, later made Porky’s and A Christmas Story — you know, the “Red Ryder model air rifle” one.

Some of my most recent facebook posts that are Halloween related include Halloween Safety Education Film, parts 1 and 2. These were the kind of safety videos released during the days of razor blades in apples and such. Another nostalgic piece I posted was Raymond and the Circle’s “Call The Exorcist.” Whatever happened to Raymond, anyway?

Old Bistro 186

Walking thru the city and seeing the very few sights that day. One in particular that caught my eye was the work they’re now doing on the old Bistro 186. I haven’t heard of any plans yet or read anything in the paper recently. Will this be the same restaurant-performance space it used to be or is their something new on its way? We’ll have to wait and see.

Ended the night talking w/ Niles about traveling to Europe and the things I would do there, while dozing off on my recliner. We just caught another airing of Night of the Living Lush, something that aired on cable back in the late 90s — the way Northampton Community Television used to be like. I almost went completely asleep when the last things I talked about were the parks in Germany and Norway, bringing back memories of Brattleboro and Bill Dwight wearing his speedo. I think we can end on that note for tonight.

Getting Ready For Halloween

wright builders groundbreaking event 10/29/09

This past Thursday, on my dayoff from work, I found out that Wright Builders Inc. was having a groundbreaking event for building 12 townhouses on Village Hill. I unfortunately didn’t videotape the event since I locked my stupid keys and camera inside my apartment and the maintenance men had to let me back in. Instead I got this photograph (seen above) of the mayor and others city officials breaking ground for the new units.

A lot of work had to be done @ Memory Magic this week. Several orders (VHS-C to DVD and cassette tape to CD) have to be finished before next week. The night before I was trying to get some writing together for my Gonzo2000, Halloween zine.

Gonzo2000 (Halloween Issue)

The cover features an image of J.R. “Bob” Dobbs, the icon representing the Church of the SubGenius. On the right side is a picture of Timmy Young. On the bottom left is a picture of Bonnie Ascher.

Bonnie Ascher (photo by Bill Dwight)

Bonnie Ascher obituary in Daily Hampshire Gazette

Bonnie Ascher 61, passed away Sunday, Oct. 25, 2009, at Mass. General Hospital in Boston. In the zine I talk about the day I introduced myself to Bonnie, asking her “What’s your name?” “I’m Bonnie,” she said. “I’m Dann,” I said “Nice to meet you.” Bonnie walked off with her shopping cart, looking as if to say “who in the hell was he?” A simple yet embarrassing introduction that you can laugh at. I remember seeing Bonnie back in the early 90s when she had her bicycle. She used to carry bags full of bottles and cans which she hung over each side of her bike. Later on she lost her bicycle and used a shopping cart instead. My friend Nancy who knew her, told me that she was a hard worker. A hard worker with many a stories to tell. Nohodome has a nice write-up on her. There’s a great picture of Bonnie sweeping the ground outside next to Pop’s Package Store. In the background is that great mural of the man hovering over a tree.

Took a break from Sierra Grille this week. Tonight was supposed to be the Halloween party, but I didn’t have a costume. Hope cherlovestrong got some footage of the show, cuz I didn’t…

Cher made a video last year of the Northampton Zombie Pubcrawl, an annual event that happens in the city of NOHO where everybody dresses as zombies and goes drinking from pub to pub. A put together a clip called “Looking For Northampton Zombie Pubcrawl,” of me and Bev searching for the event (see above). I was planning on airing it on NCTV this Halloween, but unfortunately missed the deadline. I gave them “Night of the Living Lush” instead.

Halloween VCD

You might’ve seen some of these if you went to Turn It Up! Records the day before Halloween. These are some VCD discs that I left at the store, that features short films which aired on Northampton Community Television back in the late 90s. One of my favorite is called “The Warlock Project” or “The NCTV Warlock.” The video is a parody on The Blair Witch Project only it ends on a more sillier note.

Look out for more great zines in your stores and great community access programming on your cable TV station. Let’s see what this Halloween has in store for us and the Northampton, MA community as a whole.