Ithaca Blog

Monday, July 30, 2012

Anti-Fracking Concert in Ithaca, Sunday 5 August

There have been big anti-fracking concerts in central New York before, many featuring Ithaca bands, but this weekend is the first major one in Ithaca itself.

The Cayuga Lake Big Splash is at Stewart Park, Sunday 5 August, from 11 a.m. until sunset on the lake.

The GrassRoots Festival dance tent will be set up for the event, with music from noon until 9:00. The line-up of bands is Driftwood, the Grady Girls, Double E, the Sim Redmond Band, and Donna the Buffalo.

There will be tabling by anti-fracking groups. Food and drink will be available, including Finger Lakes wines and beers.

More details are available at the Facebook page for Cayuga Lake Big Splash/Finger Lakes CleanWater Initiative.

Steve Burke
for Ithaca NY Blog

Friday, July 27, 2012

"Your Environmental Road Trip" Film at GreenStar

It's not often that a documentary film is called "absorbing," "important," and "hilarious," but that's how the Huffington Post described "Your Environmental Road Trip," which will be shown at GreenStar's Space facility on Monday 30 July at 7 p.m.

The screening is sponsored by Ithaca Bioneers. Two of the film's producers will introduce it.
The film chronicles three young friends traveling the country researching community initiatives for sustainable living, including economically.

There is an Ithaca connection, as the filmers visited Ithaca to study Ithaca Hours, the local currency system.

The interviewee from the Hours Board does not strictly remember the experience. There are a lot of journalists coming to Ithaca to study Hours. He does remember the merch bag they gave him with the film's acronym, YERT, on it. In fact he still has it. It's a handy little bag.

Steve Burke
for Ithaca NY Blog

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

GrassRoots On the Commons, Wed. 18 July

The GrassRoots Festival touches down briefly on the Commons on Wednesday before beginning full-blast in Trumansburg on Thursday.

Local rockers Jimkata play the event, an official GrassRoots production.

The music goes from 6 to 8 p.m.

Steve Burke
for Ithaca NY Blog

Sunday, July 15, 2012

To B Or Not To B-Mets

Usually we are the very soul of unspontaneity. When friends want to plan a visit or activity we say good, we generally like 3 or 4 months notice. If not 3 or 4 years.

But this morning at 9:21 a friend called and asked do we want to go see the Binghamton Mets play a day game today. This is a friend who knows us well and already knows the answer is, Of course we do; and the deal is done.

The forecast threatens rain, but we'll B-Mets anyway. It would be hard to begrudge rain, these days. We will take what comes.

There's not much going on in Ithaca today, anyway, until Mary Lorson and her band play music at Felicia's tonight at 7. We can be back for that, whirlwind guy that we are.

Steve Burke
for Ithaca NY Blog

Sunday, July 08, 2012

Woody Guthrie, 100 Years

This Saturday, 14 July, is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Woody Guthrie, the great American musician, songwriter, and political activist.

It's an apt time to be thinking about Woody. He wrote songs like "This Land Is Your Land", "Deportee (Plane Wreck At Los Gatos)", and hundreds of others about economic and social injustice in America.

He would have plenty to write about today.

The mortgage crisis? The Wall Street collapse? Woody wrote these lines in his song, "Pretty Boy Floyd":

As through this world I've wandered,
I've seen many funny men
Some will rob you with a six-gun
And some with a fountain pen.

And as through your life you travel
And as through your life you roam,
You won't never see an outlaw
Drive a family from their home.

Bob Dylan wanted to be Woody Guthrie, or be as great as him, which was not possible, for Bob Dylan nor for anyone. But everyone can learn from Woody Guthrie.

There is a fine website about Woody, http://www.woodyguthrie.org/. It starts with these words of Woody's:

A folk song is what's wrong and how to fix it or what could be
who's hungry and where their mouth is or
who's out of work and where the job is or
who's broke and where the money is or
who's carrying a gun and where the peace is. 

Woody Guthrie, born 14 July 1912, Okemah, Oklahoma, died 3 October 1967, New York City, New York.

Steve Burke
for Ithaca NY Blog

Sunday, July 01, 2012

Fireworks Return to Ithaca (on Monday 2 July)

After an absence last year, Independence Day fireworks return to Ithaca this year.

The problem last year was lack of venue, as Ithaca College decided not to host the event anymore. The year before, an errant missile set fire to a roof there. Maybe that's not the reason, but if it had been our roof, it would be a good reason.

This year, the show will be at Stewart Park, where there are few roofs.

It's the first time there, so there are bound to be problems, mostly around transportation and parking. They're saying it's okay to park in the nearby school parking lots, but we think spaces will prove pretty limited, and getting out will be a nuisance (at fireworks shows, unlike festivals, everyone leaves at the same time).

That same issue holds for the TCAT buses people will clamor for at the end. But they are free, and hopefully will be plentiful.

Biking is good, but you'll have to lock your bike to someone else's. That should work; they'll be unrideable, and too heavy to carry away (there will be no car trunks in the vicinity).

Our favorite question about the fireworks show is, What time does it start? Because you don't need to answer that question.

Steve Burke
for Ithaca NY Blog