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PRESORTED
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WHITE PLAINS NY
Vol. 10, No. VII
Westchester’s Most Influential Weekly
Thursday, February 19, 2015 • $1.00
Evaluating
Congress
2014
The Center on Congress at
Indiana University Report
Page 5
WWW.WESTCHESTERGUARDIAN.COM
Page 2
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, February 19, 2015
Government/CommunitySection
COMMUNITY
Will Branding Help New Rochelle?
By Peggy Godfrey
Last year, New
Rochelle city government
committed
$95,000 to North Star
Destinations, for a
branding survey and plan that will be
used to improve the business climate.
The claim was made, that a brand
for New Rochelle will be created by
North Star. Consequently, the processes used to communicate the city’s
brand will result in the creation of
tools to manage the conversation,”
according to the Chief Executive
Officer of North Star Destinations.
When city council at their
February 10, 2015 meeting heard the
interim report by Ed Barber of North
Star the results were somewhat
unanticipated. Barber explained that
the city’s “brand” is what people say
about you when you are not around,
but “branding’” is “what you do about
it.” He used an hourglass as a visual,
the top of which he called “understandings,” the inverted middle,
‘insights”, or where the city is now
and the larger base is what is yet to
come or what was termed “imagination”. Evaluation would follow.
Benchmarks needed to be created to
measure success.
Continuing, Barker said the
research instrument has elements of
the community, consumer and competition and then he showed a list of
elements relating to each of the three
parts of the hourglass. He then added
that there had been a tremendous
community response and that 1261
questionnaires had been received.
However, the rating scores were
below the national average, especially
the answers on conducting business
here. There was some negativity and
Barber suggested New Rochelle has
a crisis of identity. Referring again to
the hourglass, he said they will not
build on this negativity. There were
other studies that found when the
affordability of nearby communities
was rated New Rochelle was in the
middle.
While New Rochelle “struggles
to stand out,” it is looking for a
competitive advantage according to
Barber. Examples related to transportation were that New Rochelle
is not only located on the rail line,
but it also has an exit on I-95. Many
people don’t know the rich history of
New Rochelle and that story needs
to be told. He also suggested the city
“partner” with the higher education
institutions in the city and noted
that people connect in a community
through its social offerings, welcoming nature, and attractive appearance.
New Rochelle can draw from a
wide range of strengths in developing
a brand: our history, arts, education,
originality, creativity, and the diverse
cultures represented here. A strategic
brand platform will be created and
brand action ideas will include such
assets in the city as parks, businesses,
and schools. North Star Destinations
will compile their conclusions in a
final report.
Mayor Noam Bramson found
the process useful and emphasized
that the specific brand platform
was not on signs but on the public
focus of the clarity of the message.
Councilman Lou Trangucci then
asked Ed Barber what the strongest and weakest findings for New
Rochelle were in their survey. The
answer was that there was a compliment of advantages, but the weakest
was that “not everyone was aware of
the reasons why they came... or stay
here.’ His remedy was making sure
residents have access to a narrative
about New Rochelle.
Councilman Barry Fertel then
commented that this was not a scientific study and the responses given
were not scientific. He was then told
it was a random sample and everyone
had a chance to answer. In response,
Fertel added he felt people who have
negative views are more likely to
answer. Continuing he said he was
impressed with the analysis because
it gives the council ideas about where
they should concentrate. In answer
to Councilwoman Shari Rackman’s
question on the time frame for completing the study, the answer was two
to three months.
Several residents have commented on this presentation to
city council. Betty Lewin felt the
company did not explain anything.
Mission Statement
Table of Contents
Community.............................................................................2
Guardian Opinion...................................................................3
Entertaining............................................................................3
In Memoriam..........................................................................4
Government............................................................................5
Community.............................................................................6
Creative Disruption.................................................................7
Travel.......................................................................................8
Eye on Theatre.......................................................................10
Film Retrospective.................................................................12
Legal Ads..............................................................................14
Calendar................................................................................14
Cultural Perspectives.............................................................15
Mary at the Movies...............................................................16
How can they get a true sampling of
people’s opinions when the sample
was so small in relation to the number
of people in the city. This is not a true
reflection of the general population.
Bob Petrucci spoke on behalf
of himself and his wife. “We agree
with Councilman Fertel’s feeling that
the survey was not scientifically significant. Some have called it aimless.
We know of no one that completed
the survey because they felt it was
unrealistic. Question: How many of
the City Council members and their
families completed the questionnaire? Also the project seems to be
never ending. As we understood it,
the cost was to be $15,000. Now it’s
already $95,000. Going forward will
anything else be done to cost taxpayers even more? By the way were there
any RFP (requests for proposals) or
was this a no bid contract given to an
out of city entity? And finally, which
of North Star’s other clients achieved
increased revenues (above project
costs) from their services. One
would have hoped the project would
have been more relevant than this.
Does it bother anyone that North
Star and RDRXR have a previous
relationship?
Sam Zherka, Publisher
Mary Keon, Acting Editor /Advertising
Publication is every Thursday
Write to us in confidence at:
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Read us online at:
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The Westchester Guardian is a weekly newspaper devoted to the unbiased
reporting of events and developments that are newsworthy and significant to
readers living in, and/or employed in, Westchester County. The Guardian will
strive to report fairly, and objectively, reliable information without favor or
compromise. Our first duty will be to the PEOPLE’S RIGHT TO KNOW, by the
exposure of truth, without fear or hesitation, no matter where the pursuit may
lead, in the finest tradition of FREEDOM OF THE PRESS. The Guardian will cover
news and events relevant to residents and businesses all over Westchester
County. As a weekly, rather than focusing on the immediacy of delivery more
associated with daily journals, we will instead seek to provide the broader, more
comprehensive, chronological step-by-step accounting of events, enlightened
with analysis, where appropriate.
From amongst journalism’s classic key-words: who, what, when, where, why, and
how, the why and how will drive our pursuit. We will use our more abundant time,
and our resources, to get past the initial ‘spin’ and ‘damage control’ often characteristic of immediate news releases, to reach the very heart of the matter:
the truth. We will take our readers to a point of understanding and insight which
cannot be obtained elsewhere.
To succeed, we must recognize from the outset that bigger is not necessarily
better. And, furthermore, we will acknowledge that we cannot be all things to all
readers. We must carefully balance the presentation of relevant, hard-hitting,
Westchester news and commentary, with features and columns useful in daily
living and employment in, and around, the county. We must stay trim and flexible
if we are to succeed.
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, February 19, 2015
Page 3
GuardianOpinionSection
OPINION
4AM: The World Of The Ambitious, The Restless, and The Wise
By Kurt Colucci
How many people
do you know who
make it their life’s
work to live a masterful
existence?
Over the past few decades,
countless books, video programs and
courses have been developed to help
people “achieve” greater “success” in
their lives. The “self-help” industry
is a $10 billion dollar business* in
the U. S. but human achievement
is not realized by watching a series
of videos or attending weekend
seminars: rather, it is the result of
hard work and focused effort.
So much emphasis has been
placed on the word “achievement”
that it has become this mystical
and near mythical goal; worthy of
only the select few that we see on
television and in movies. This is not
the case. The driving force behind
human achievement finds its origin
in many sources and it takes many
forms; personal improvement is
something that we can all strive to
achieve. How do we tap into this?
Simply put in the time and put in
the work. Get up early. Work hard at
whatever it is you do until really late.
Do it again the next day, and the
next day, and the next day until you
become a master at your craft. This
doesn’t necessarily mean getting up
and going to work for someone; it
can be mastering an instrument,
becoming an amazing video editor
or web designer; a better student,
mother or a good boss. Human
achievement takes countless forms.
The one common ingredient is not
just hard work, but smart work as
well: the on-going analysis of your
progress to date; relentlessly searching for ways to improve and seeking
out the advice and insights of those
who have already attained the goals
you have set for yourself. And yes,
that usually means getting up early
and going to bed late.
There is a world that exists before
most open their eyes – it is the world
of “4 A.M.” --The time when most
are resting, but the restless are awake
with the energy of the universe that
is there for the taking. It is the world
of the ambitious, the restless, and the
wise; a world of achievers and dream
seekers with passionate visions just
waiting to be realized. Though some
goals may indeed be unreachable,
most are actually within our reach…
we just have to put in the time and
effort.
It’s so easy to look at the professional gymnast, football player,
baseball player, boxer, and the MMA
fighter and appreciate their achievements. The physical attributes are
visible. The result of their hard
work is on clear display. But there’s
another area of human achievement
that is less worshipped and nearly
unnoticed ---that of the intellectual
master. People will not gawk at that
person’s brilliance nor intellectual
abilities and capacities because they
are not visible. However, when the
byproduct of a person’s mental faculties manifest in financial form, like
the 20 -year-old tech genius driving
a $400,000 Ferrari down the street,
people take notice.
Human achievement is also on
clear display in the more mundane
aspects of our daily lives, whether it’s
a single mother raising two children
with no help, working two jobs to
keep the lights on; or the company
owner that took an idea and manifested it into a physical reality that
yielded him millions of dollars.
What often appears to be talent
is actually the end result of getting
up and doing the things that you
don’t necessarily want to do, but
which you understand will help
you achieve your goals. The feeling
of accomplishment and sense of
reward that comes from a day of
hard work or a hard workout is
worth the effort. And on some days,
challenging and pushing yourself to
simply complete a basic task is an
achievement in itself.
Not many people tell us that
we are one good decision away
from changing our lives for the
better. Usually a successful life
does not come from the result
of one good decision: it comes
from many decisions and many
choices including many failures
that lead to many achievements.
We build on the momentum of
our actions. Sometimes you have
to take two steps forward and one
step backward, but forward moving
ENTERTAINING
Don’t forget to follow on Twitter @
Kurtcolucci
*Brainblogger.com
May 24, 2014
Lindsay
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Twenty years ago Annette hosted her
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good time…so much so that is now
an annual tradition. There are some
very clever recipes in this 104 page
cookbook, full of easy to assemble
crowdpleasing dishes: from Apollo 13
Cocktails (powered orange drink mix
and Vodka on the rocks), Seabrisket
and Braveheart Bavarian Chocolate
Cake, to Brokeback Mountain of Ribs
and The King’s Peach. Many of the
ingredient lists along with preparation
times are short: a bonus for busy hostesses. I rate the decision as to whether
positive momentum will always lead
to a better tomorrow.
I would like to share something personal with the readers of
the Guardian this week. In my high
school yearbook my senior quote
was “I want the world handed to me
on a silver platter; I want to be a one in
a million overnight success.” Eighteen
years later, when I look back on that
mindset that I had at 19, I want to
slap myself because that is so far
from who I am today. We live and
we learn. It is very irritating to hear
people say, “you live and you learn”,
but despite all the irritation that it
causes us, this statement is true. We
can build on the positive momentum
of our efforts day-by-day and from
one experience to the next.
The best way to uncover our
potential is to challenge ourselves to
become better each day: that is what
fuels our journey to success.
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or not to buy a cookbook by how many
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there are quite a few here that I know
I will enjoy. The book is also available
at the author’s website: Kitchannette.
com. Ms. Zito is currently working on
her next cookbook. / MK
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Page 4
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, February 19, 2015
In Memoriam
Bob Simon—1941-2015
By Lee Daniels
Bob
Simon,
veteran journalist and
award-winning correspondent for CBS’ 60
Minutes, died on Feb.
11 at the age of 73. Mr. Simon had
many harrowing experiences during
his career as he reported the news
from many warn-torn places around
the world, including the Vietnam
conflict, Yom Kippur War of 1973,
the 1989 protests in Tiananmen
Square, and the Persian Gulf War of
1989. Ironically, he died in a fatal car
accident, riding in a livery cab after
work in Manhattan.
Mr. Simon belonged to a very
special breed of men: extremely intelligent, tough, courageous, resourceful,
dedicated and talented foreign correspondents-a rewarding career, but
one in which risk is an accepted corollary of everyday work.
His career at CBS News
spanned 47 years, during which, he
was appointed the bureau’s Chief
Middle East Correspondent in
1987. Mr. Simon also reported
from war zones in Cyprus,
The Falkland Islands, Sarajevo,
Grenada, Somalia, and Haiti.
I was fortunate enough to meet
Mr. Simon in the health club I
belonged to in New York some years
ago, and enjoyed a pleasant conversation with him and his wife. He was
very personable, and in the short
time we sat together in the gym’s
reception area, we only had time
to briefly discuss our mutual experiences as exchange students in
France.
Mr. Simon’s description of the
ways he coped with his 1991 captivity in Iraq, in an interview filmed
after his return to the U.S., made a
lasting impression on this writer most
poignantly, his recollection of special
moments with his family: including walking into the ocean with his
baby daughter (Tanya Simon, now a
producer at 60 Minutes) in his arms.
Mr. Simon’s book about the experience, Forty Days (1992, Putnam
Adult), describes in greater detail the
mental exercises he forced himself
to do,during his harrowing time as a
political prisoner who was denied the
right to basic cleanliness, proper diet,
exercise, and contact or communication with others.
Former UPI and U.S. News and
World Report foreign correspondent
Bob Simon, veteran journalist and award-winning correspondent for CBS’ 60
Minutes, died on Feb. 11, 2015
and author Nick Daniloff was also
held as a political prisoner in 1986,
by the KGB in Moscow under false
charges for alleged espionage.But,
Like Mr. Simon, he, too, went on to
continue a successful career as a journalist after he was released.
“There are many things to make
us sad these days, but our job is to
survive and leave our space a little
better than when we first occupied
it,” Mr. Daniloff said last week when
reached for comment about Mr.
Simon’s passing.
Prior to his work as a journalist,
Mr. Simon was both a Fulbright and
Woodrow Wilson scholar, and served
for three years as a U.S. Foreign
Service Officer. During his career
as a reporter, he was the recipient of
two Overseas Press Club Awards, the
Peabody Award, and two Emmys.
He is survived by his daughter,
Tanya, and wife, Françoise, both of
New York.
Lee Daniels, a former reporter for the
Lower Hudson Journal News and
Reuters, is Arts & Entertainment
writer for the Westchester Guardian.
His work has appeared in the Danbury
News-Times, Litchfield County Times,
and Orlando Sentinel. He is the winner
of the first-place prize in Non-Fiction
in the 2013 Porter Fleming Literary
Competition.
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THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, February 19, 2015
Page 5
GOVERNMENT
Experts Surveyed on Congress’s Performance Give The Institution a “C-minus for 2014
News From The Center on Congress
The Center Reports
that they won’t be seen as just a “say no”
party come the 2016 elections?”
To see the survey questions, go
to http://www.centeroncongress.
or/2014-political-scientists-survey
Lee Hamilton is Director of the Center
on Congress at Indiana University.
He was a member of the U.S. House of
Representatives for 34 years.
For information about the Center’s educational resources and programs, explore the
website at www.centeroncongress.org. Go
to Facebook to express your views about
Congress, civic education, and the citizen’s
role in representative democracy. “Like”
us on Facebook at “Center on Congress
at Indiana University,” and share our
postings with your friends.
and for “working through groups
that share their interests to influence
Congress.”
“There are no B grades on any
of the questions we ask about the
citizenry,” Carmines said. “They’re
all either C’s or D’s. The exerts are as
negative in their evaluation of the citizenry as they are in their assessment
of Congress.” What’s ahead for the
experts’ report card? Have Congress’s
grades “bottomed out?”
Carmines speculates: “It really
depends on how Sen. McConnell and
Speaker Boehner want to frame the
issues going forward. What is their top
priority? Is it satisfying the most conservative House and Senate members?
Or will the leaders of the congressional
Republican majority focus on possible
area of compromise with President
Obama, and really enact legislation, so
The Center on Congress is a research
center of the Office of the Vice Provost
for Research at Indiana University
Bloomington
The Center on Congress | 1315 E.
Tenth St, Suite 320, Bloomington,
IN 47405-1701 | 812-856-4706 |
congress@indiana.edu
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The Trustees of Indiana University |
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For the second straight year, a group
of academic experts who were asked to
evaluate Congress’s performance gave
the institution a barely-passing grade
of C-minus.
“This is a dismal assessment,” said
Indiana University political scientist
Edward G. Carmines, who is Director
of Research for the Center on Congress
at Indiana University.
The C-minus grade for 2014 is
the same mediocre mark the institution earned in 2013. In the Center’s
nine-year series of annual evaluations
of Congress, this is the first time that
both sessions of a Congress have been
rated so poorly. The expert’s overall
ratings have never been anything for
Congress to brag about; the highest
mark, C-plus, was reached in 2008 and
2010. But that looks lofty compared to
the 113th Congress’s two –year dwell
in the cellar of C-minuses. “We asked,
‘Overall, how would you assess the
legislative record of Congress over the
past year?’” said Carmines. “Eighty-six
percent gave Congress either D or F
for 2013.”
Data on 2014 were collected
on-line in late December and early
January, after the second session of the
113th Congress adjourned; the survey
elicited the opinions of a select group of
30 top academic experts on Congress
from around the country.
“Our interest is not to dwell on
past shortcomings, but to develop a
sense of what areas are most in need of
improvement, as well as what areas are
generally handled well by Congress,”
explained Center Director Lee
Hamilton.
There were a few bright spots for
Congress. The experts gave members
a B grade on “being accessible to
their constituents,” and B-minus
grades on “making their workings and
activities open to the public,” and on
“broadly reflecting the interests of their
constituents.”
“In terms of Congress being a representative and open institution, the
experts believe it’s attained some high
level of performance,” said Carmines.
“It’s not all gloom and doom.”
But, added Carmines quickly, “it’s
mostly gloom and doom.” On a range
of other performance measures, the
experts held Congress in extremely low
esteem.
“The experts rated the entire
Congress very low on two questions
that ought to be of particular concern
to the interested public,” Carmines said.
They gave Congress a D on “fulfilling its
national policymaking responsibilities,”
and on “dealing with the long-term
implications of policy issues, not just
the short term.” Congress landed in
the D-plus doldrums on four questions: “relying on facts on data to reach
decisions;” “protecting its powers from
presidential encroachment;” “keeping
the role of special interests within
proper bounds” and “reforming itself
sufficiently to keep up with changing
needs.”
The survey included questions asking the experts to separately
evaluate each of the two chambers of
Congress. “Consistently, the House
is rated lower in its performance than
the Senate,” Carmines said. “On the
question of ‘keeping excessive partisanship in check,’ the Senate grade was
poor, (D), but the House was worse
(D-minus). On the Question, ‘ Does
the legislative process involve a proper
level of compromise?’ the House got
a D-minus, while the Senate earned a
C-minus. On ‘allowing members in the
minority to play a role,’ the House got
a D, the Senate a C. And on ‘allowing
multiple points of view on an issue to
be heard,’ the House got a D-plus, the
Senate a B-minus.”
As in the past, the 2014 survey
included a set of questions asking the
experts to assess the public’s knowledge
of and interaction with Congress. In
the nine-year history of the survey, the
public has never received high marks,
and the same was the case for 2014.
The public got across-the board
D grades for “following what is going
on in Congress on a regular basis,” for
“voting in congressional elections,”
for “understanding the main features
of Congress and how it works,” for
having a reasonable understanding of
what Congress can and should do,” and
D-plusses for “being able to get to the
core facts of issues before Congress”
and “understanding the role of compromise in Congress.”
The experts gave citizens C grades
for “contacting their members of
Congress on issues that concern them”
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Page 6
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, February 19, 2015
COMMUNITY
Libraries: Our Hidden Treasure
A Brief Review of the Westchester Library System and the Yonkers Library Part I
By Glenn Slaby
Our treasure of
free public libraries
can be traced back to
colonial America. In
1656, Boston merchant
Captain Robert Keayne willed his
collection of books to the city. Later,
Anglican Reverend Thomas Bray
established 70 libraries for public use
between 1695-1704.
In 1731, Benjamin Franklin
and friends established the Library
Company of Philadelphia, a subscription library that served as a
model and inspiration for many
other libraries in the colonies. The
American library as we know it today,
developed between 1850 and 1900.
During the 1920s, the role of public
libraries began to shift as federal
support for libraries expanded.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
History_of_public_library_advocacy)
The Westchester Library System
(WLS) is located at 540 White
Plains Road, Suite 200, Tarrytown,
NY 10591, 914-674-3600, http://
www.westchester libraries.org.
Established 1958, the WLS connects
38 independent branches and 44
structures (some cities have libraries
in two or more distinct locations) of
Westchester County library buildings. It is state-chartered and run by a
fifteen-member board of trustees. This
cooperative’s mission is to enhance
and improve the County’s libraries
and to ensure that all residents have
excellent library service regardless of
their location. The responsibilities of
the WLS include, but are not limited
to cataloging and processing, maintaining information technology, inter
library loans and delivery, community
outreach and Career and Educational
Counseling services.
This interconnection between
cities, towns and villages means that
patrons have at their disposal every
book, magazine, CD, DVD movie
in Westchester County - retrievable
through the interlibrary loan system.
Your library card, through the WLS,
allows you remote access at home
and at a library branch, to extensive
electronic reference databases providing articles and information from
hundreds of magazines and abstracts
from many publications, books,
records tapes, Ebooks, audiobooks
music etc… . And your Library card
is absolutely FREE!
Electronic sites are available
through the WLS web site via the
tabs. Their Listen and Read tab
provides: OverDrive, Freading,
Project Gutenberg, Comics Plus:
Library Edition, Google Books, a
Free Music Archive and more.
The Job and Career tab provides
the following applications: the
Learning Express Career Center,
the Job and Career Accelerator and
the WEBS counseling services.
The Learn tab presents the following apps: Learn English, the
Lynda.com, University of Fashion,
etc. Other services include Career
and Education counseling services;
various adult services, youth services,
job and career programs and TASC
(GED) material.
Behind the scenes, the library
staff maintains this network and
process the materials entered
by member libraries so all of
Westchester’s citizens have access.
(Sources: www.westchesterlibraries.
org https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Westchester_Library_System)
The Yonkers Riverfront Library,
located at 1 Larkin Center, Yonkers,
New York 10701, across from the
Hudson Line Yonkers train station is
the main library for Yonkers and one
of three branches serving the city. Tel.
(914)-337-1500.
http://www.ypl.org/riverfront.
Mr. Ed Fancone, Interim Director.
The library, formed in 1883, also
consists of the Grinton I. Will
branch and the Crestwood branch.
All three branches offer a variety of
modern public library services. The
Library is a founding member of the
Westchester Library System (WLS),
the free consortium serving the residents of Westchester County.
Mission
Statement:
“The
Yonkers Public Library is committed to serving the community and
fostering the personal growth of all
its citizens. We encourage a love of
reading among children, and support
people of all ages in pursuits involving
lifelong learning and the enrichment
of leisure time. The Library seeks
to address the needs and interests
of our patrons by providing varied
information resources, popular
materials, up-to-date technology,
expert guidance and a well-rounded
program of community activities.”
Computer classes are given at
all three branches. The Riverfront
Library of the Yonkers Public
Library offers the full range of
modern public library services and
collections. Among special collections and services, are extensive
business, technical, grant and governmental information sources in
printed and electronic formats. The
region’s collections of federal government documents are housed here, in
the Federal Depository collection.
Library patrons are able to access
the Foundation Center Directory
Online. The Riverfront Library also
has meeting rooms, a state-of-theart auditorium, nearly one hundred
computers and a typewriter.
As the New York State Federal
Regional Federal Depository for
United States government publications, the State Library receives and
permanently keeps a copy of almost
every document distributed under
the Government Printing Office
Depository Library Program.
“The Federal Depository Library
Program was established by Congress
to ensure that the American public
has access to its Government’s information. GPO administers the FDLP
on behalf of the participating libraries
and the public. Information products
from the Federal Government are
disseminated to these nationwide
libraries that, in turn, ensure the
American public has free access
to the materials, both in print and
online.”
(http://www.gpo.gov/
libraries/?utm_source=rss&utm_
m e d i u m = r s s & u t m _
campaign=federal-depositor ylibrary-program.)
The Federal Depository collection at the Riverfront Branch offers
“a core collection and specialized
government documents including
the US Government Manual, Federal
Register, CIA World Fact Book,
Public Papers of the Presidents of
the United States, census information, and more,” including,
The Congressional Record, the
Congressional Directory, the Social
Security Handbook and so much
more, so ask for guidance, there is a
lot of interesting information available to you. (The Mount Vernon
Library is also a Federal Depository.)
In addition, the Library owns a
microfilm edition of depository
(1956-June 1992) and non-depository (1953+) Federal documents.
The Grants Information Center
is one of more than 400 Cooperating
Collections of the Foundation
Center having comprehensive information available on foundations
and corporate giving. As a partner,
the Riverfront branch “houses an
extensive collection of free print and
electronic resources that help nonprofit organizations and individuals
identify sources of grants and foundation funding”.
Children’s services include
Homework help, book awards,
Learning Express, Online practice
test and a Parents Guide to summer
camps. There are various classes
throughout the week (except
Sundays) and they vary greatly,
ranging from the Greyston Garden
club to bilingual story time. The
Homework Helper program, for
children in grades 1–7, provides
homework assistance during afterschool hours: Mon. -Wed. 4:30
- 6:30 P. M. and Thurs. 4:30 – 6 P. M.
in the Arts & Crafts Room. There is
also America Reads and Miss. Kat’s
Crazy Winter Days events.
Teen
programs
include
homework help, book awards and
Learning Express, in addition to prospective jobs via help wanted online
postings displaying opportunities in
their city as well as throughout the
county. Classes for February and
March mostly occur from Wednesday
to Saturday. Activities are light with
the main focus on TASC Connect
formerly GED. These TASC classes
are for adults as well and take
place on Wednesdays, Fridays and
Saturdays from 10 A.M.to 1 P. M.
and Thursdays from 5 to 8 P.M. Teen
Thursday activities include arts and
crafts, apps, movies board and electronic games from three to five P. M.
The wide selection of adult
services include computer classes
range from “Beginners e-mail” to
“Microsoft Word;” book clubs and
“Tips and Tricks for Resumes”.
There is also the Senior Information
Center and a “Writer’s Corner.”
For more entertainment, the library
offers feature films on weekends and
the weekly Knitting and Crocheting
workshop Tuesday mornings from 10
– 11:30 A. M. Events are scheduled
throughout the month of February to
commemorate Black History Month.
A Medicare Assistance program
is offered Every Tuesday, except the
last Tuesday of the month, from 10
A.M. to 1 P.M. and a notary is available on a limited basis. A job coach
is available every Wednesday from
11:30 A.M. – 1:30 P.M., offering
free assistance at the Riverfront
Library and on alternate Wednesdays
at the Will Branch. Persons who are
blind or who suffer from low vision
have access to a Kurzweil Reading
Machine, that scans printed materials and reads them aloud. Free
downloads are available for eBooks
and audiobooks that are part of the
Westchester library system.
The Riverfront’s Computer
center dubbed “Tech Zone” is in
the planning/development stage but
current computers have applications
ranging from “General Computer
Learning” and a typing class to
Windows, Excel, Access, Social
Networking and Mobile Apps.
According to the Board minutes,
“ideas were shared to expand existing
youth services at the Library in collaboration with the Yonkers Public.
Schools vis-a-vis student volunteers,
school visits, student internships,
grant writing and donation assistance”. This is an ongoing project to
improve the already good relationship between the school system and
the library.
Do not forget the Libraries collections of CD’s, movies and music,
as well as books for those who like
the feel of paper and the joy of
turning a page. The Friends of the
Yonkers Library holds book sales
four to five times a year. This new
and ever growing world of information via electronic formats/computers
can seem overwhelming and repetitive but the great staff at the libaray is
there to serve you. For further questions, call: 914.337.1500 (Riverfront)
visit their website: www.yp.org
Glenn Slaby is married and has one son.
A former account with an MBA, Glenn
suffers from mental illness. He writes
part-time and works at St. Vincent’s
Hospital in Harrison where he also
receives therapy.
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, February 19, 2015
Page 7
Creative Disruption
Are Drones (and Robots) Different As War Machines?
By John F. McMullen
In a recent column,
“TheTechnology Is Always
Ahead Of Us,” I expended
a good deal of space on
the use of drones in recent modern
warfare and expressed the opinion that
none of the computer related “killer
apps” (such as the first computer, “ENIAC;”
the first spreadsheet, “Visicalc;” the first
graphic browser, “Mosaic;” or the “iPhone,”
which essentially killed film processing and
music store sales) “created moral dilemmas
for the users of the new technology once it
was deployed. This has not been the case for
the development and deployment of drone
technology.”
Upon reading the article, a colleague at SUNY Purchase, Dr. Jeanine
Meyer, sent me a note taking issue with
a paragraph in which I compared drones
to other previous weapon “upgrades” –
referring to the recent translation of a
2013 book by a French philosopher,
Gregoire Chamayou, “A Theory Of
The Drone,” into English -- I wrote
“Chamayou points out that drones, more
than any war device before, have altered
the relationship of soldier and enemy. In
ancient times, armies battled face-to-face,
“man to man.” Then the advent of first,
bows and arrows, and then guns allowed
combatants to disengage somewhat but still
to see those that they were targeting. The
development of field artillery widened the
gap more but forward spotters and friendly
infantry could assess the accuracy and resultant damage from artillery shelling. This
method of warfare is analogous to that
engaged in in the air – fighter pilots see who
they are shooting at (and who is shooting
at them) while bomber pilots know where
they are supposed be dropping bombs.
Additionally, these “soldiers” were at risk
– from enemy artillery, anti-aircraft fire,
opposing bombers, etc. In some ways, it was
still “man-to-man.”
In response to this view, Dr. Meyer
wrote “I disagree about drones being
very different than other bombers, guided
missiles, torpedoes, etc. All of these hurt and
kill civilians (collateral damage). All have
some level of human control, which is not
perfect.” While I may agree with Dr.
Meyer about guided missiles, I disagree
about the others. Bombers and torpedoes impose some risk on the part of
those deploying the weapons, whether
from enemy fighters, anti-aircraft fire,
other submarines or depth charges. I
think the image of someone sitting in
Nebraska targeting and killing someone
in Somalia (a country outside of our “war
zone”) is more than a difference in scale;
it is rather a difference in the concept of
warfare.
Chamayou looks at it this way
-- “Warfare, by distancing itself totally
from the model of hand-to-hand combat,
becomes something quite different, a ‘state of
violence’ of a different kind. It degenerates
into slaughter or hunting. One no longer
fights the enemy; one eliminates him, as one
shoots rabbits.”
Drones are not the only advanced
technology that may change the
nature of warfare. The “Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency”
(“DARPA”), the same agency that
gave us the Internet (The “D” was added
later to “ARPA” to indicate more clearly
the purpose of the agency), is investing
billions of dollars in the development of
technology devices for warfare known
generically as “warbots” (“War Robots”)
– robots, drones with greater range and
accuracy, and “nanobots” (tiny drones the
size of molecules, virtually undetectable
that could infiltrate the enemy and then
raise havoc). The best literature that I
have come across on this subject is P.
W. Singer’s 2009 “Wired For War:
The Robotics Revolution and Conflict
in the 21st Century.” Coincidently,
Martin Van Crevald’s New York Times
review of Chamayou’s book (referenced
in the previous article -- http://www.
nytimes.com/2015/02/01/books/
review/a-theory-of-the-droneby-gregoire-chamayou.html)
lumps the works together -- “’A Theory
of the Drone’ is perhaps best read in conjunction with P. W. Singer’s ‘Wired for War’
(2009), which deals not just with drones
but with other military robotics as well.
Together, the two books will provide readers
with as good an overview of the subject as is
available today.”
Robots are viewed both as aids
and replacements for human soldiers
on the battlefield. The goal is obviously
to inflict as much destruction upon the
enemy while minimizing or eliminating
danger to one’s own forces. While this
certainly sounds like a reasonable, even
desirable, course of action it is fraught
with danger.
The United States won World War
II because of its technological and manufacturing superiority, not, no matter
what the war movies show us, because
of greater bravery by US armed service
forces. We out-produced Germany,
Japan, and Italy and developed the
world’s first Atomic Bomb.
The Atomic Bomb is a good
analogue for today’s robotics revolution.
It ended one conflict but its existence
ushered in over fifty years of a “Cold
War” with great fears of overall nuclear
destruction – a fear that continues to
exist because of the vast disbursement
of nuclear weapons beyond the “Great
Powers” to such as constant antagonists
India & Pakistan, North Korea, Israel,
and others that we may not know about.
On a recent radio interview with
famed mystery writer (and history PhD)
Sara Paretsky (https://s3.amazonaws.
c o m / b t r. s h o w s / s h o w / 7 / 3 2 4 /
show_7324655.mp3), I was surprised
to learn that Robert McNamara,
Secretary of Defense during the
Vietnam War, was considering the use
of targeted nuclear missiles during that
conflict. Paretsky’s husband, particle
physicist Courtenay Wright, was, with
Freeman Dyson and others, a member
of the “Jason Project” that analyzed such
schemes and thankfully aided in their
rejection. It may well be that intelligence
estimates gave McNamara confidence
that neither Russia nor China would
retaliate in some way to such action –
but, then again, intelligence estimates
also told us that China would not come
to Korea’s aid when it apparently was on
the verge of losing that “conflict.”
In short, the United States, more
than any other country, is opening the
door to a new kind of warfare without
necessarily knowing all the ramifications. Might not a terrorist group with
heavy financing soon, if not already, be
able to launch a drone attack against the
United States? I think that such a happenstance is a probability, rather than a
possibility.
Singer writes that some robotics
researchers, such as Illah Nourbaksh
at Carnegie Mellon University are
refusing to participate in projects with a
military connection. Singer quotes Sun
Microsystems founder Bill Joy’s writing
on the subject – “The experiences of the
atomic scientists clearly show the need to
take personal responsibility, the danger that
things will move too fast, and in a way in
which a process can take on a life of its own.
We can, as they did, create insurmountable
problems in almost no time flat. We must
do more thinking up front if we are not to
be similarly surprised and shocked by the
consequences of our inventions.”
So we have philosophers such as
Gregoire Chamayou considering these
technology warfare innovations to be
new and different from the days of the
bombers and submarines, technologists
like Bill Joy warning us that we may be
ushering in another Atomic Age (with
all its negatives) if we are not careful,
and robotics researchers becoming
“Refusniks” (Singer’s term).
Yet, on the other side of the coin, we
have an ISIS whose barbarism seems to
know no limits in an age where any likeminded hacker with sufficient resources
may develop drones which could attack
US cities from within US borders, from
anyplace in the Americas, or from the
Mideast. If we remember that Steve
Wozniak crafted the first Apple
Computer from very low-cost components and relate that to $300 drones
being sold on Amazon and in Barnes
& Noble, how can we doubt that we are
vulnerable?
So we are faced with hard choices
– choices that most of us are willing to
leave to those who know more about
warfare and technology than us. If,
however, we agree with Chamayou and
Joy that these choices involve ethics
and morality while possibly leading us
into a world more terrible than we can
imagine, then we owe it to ourselves
and our descendants to learn as much
as possible about our choices and try
to influence policy. We must protect
ourselves from crippling attacks but yet
preserve our values – tough choices (but
an educated citizenry may wind up with
more in-depth knowledge than its elected
representatives – and that’s tragic).
A little scary, huh?
Bottom Line – I believe that drones
and robots are different from previous
weaponry.
Creative Disruption is a continuing series
examining the impact of constantly accelerating technology on the world around us.
These changers normally happen under our
personal radar until we find that the world
as we knew it is no more.
Comments on this column to johnmac13@
gmail.com
John F. McMullen is a writer, poet, college
professor and radio host. Links to other
writings, Podcasts, & Radio Broadcasts
at www.johnmac13.com, his books
are available on Amazon, and he blogs
at
http://open.salon.com/blog/
johnmac13.
© 2014 John F. McMullen
Page 8
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, February 19, 2015
TRAVEL
BERMUDA­—The Tropical Isle A Stone’s Throw Away
By Richard Levy
In less time than it takes to drive
out to the Hamptons or watch a movie
at the Hawthorne Multiplex, you
could be in beautiful, idyllic Bermuda.
That’s right, in less than two hours you
can be on this prosperous, tranquil,
semi-tropical island, brimming with
bougainvillea, British tradition and
calypso overtones, making Bermuda a
great choice for a last minute holiday.
The island is covered with
charming pastel colored houses and
old-world colonial architecture. A
little over four hundred years ago, a
British sailing vessel ran aground on
this Mid-Atlantic archipelago and the
very special island nation of Bermuda
has had a continuous British influence, ever since. Bermuda is not as
hot, lush or as tropical as islands that
are closer to the equator but Bermuda
makes up for it in a million different
ways. More sophisticated and upscale
than many other islands, if Bermuda
were an automobile it’s so classy and
refined, it would be a Rolls Royce.
The pace of life in Bermuda is
sedate and if you are looking for a
vacation destination that is laid back,
yet sophisticated, this is the ticket.
The island attracts many couples
aged 50 plus: people who’ve been
almost everywhere else and return to
Bermuda repeatedly; finding here, a
beautiful “safe haven” in which they
can relax. Bermuda is also a great place
for honeymooners.
Hotels, restaurants or any special
activities here do add a 17% tip to your
checks, making Bermuda more expensive than islands in the Caribbean, but
worth it.
The weather in Bermuda is sunny,
balmy and Spring-like year-round.
The warmer, high season starts in
April when the temperature averages
about 70-80 degrees, but right now
it is still lovely: temperatures are in
the 70’s during the day and 60’s at
night: comfortable, but too chilly for
the beach. A little known fact about
Bermuda is that island residents rely
upon rainwater to fill the island’s
water tanks: there are no wells here.
A few days of vacation spent
relaxing in Bermuda will make you
feel like you’re away on a tropical
Island that is somehow off the coast
of the UK: think London without the
rain, fog and hectic traffic. Instead you
are surrounded by swaying palm trees,
gorgeous pink beaches, sunny weather,
magnificent rock formations, soaring
cliffs and deep blue glistening water.
Bermuda’s constant and refreshing sea
breezes carry a hint of the salt air.
Everything happens in Bermuda’s
three main Parishes: Hamilton, St.
George and Dockyard. My favorite
way to enjoy all Bermuda has to offer
is to rent a scooter, which runs about
$80 for the first day and $45 a day
after that. (Smatt’s Cycle Livery, 74
Pitts Bay Road.) You’ve never driven
a scooter? No worries! As long as you
are adventurous and fit, the folks there
will show you how to ride and give
you lots of safety tips. But be sure to
heed these warnings: 1. Drive defensively. 2. Drive within speed limits. 3.
Bermuda follows British traffic regulations, so stay on the “left side of the
road”. 4. Don’t ride in the rain or at
night. 5. Don’t ride after you’d had a
rum punch! Tourists cannot rent cars
in Bermuda and the hills make cycling
a challenge. (So take my advice and
call a taxi, which is the fastest and the
best way to go anywhere on the island
at any time.) There are also many
inexpensive buses which will take you
everywhere on the Island, but sometimes the wait is long and viewing
Bermuda from the window of a bus
is not the same as the wonderful “up
close” experience on a scooter or as fast
as taking a taxi. After all, you only have
a few days.
Do rent a scooter for at least one
day and venture out onto the island
to discover their beautiful, secluded
beaches and coves. If you enjoy
cycling, rent bikes and explore “The
Railway Trail” which goes right across
the entire Island: a picturesque adventure that is also a safe and easy ride, as
cars are not allowed.
One afternoon you must stop for
the traditional Brunch at the Hotel
Fairmount Southampton. High-tea is
usually accompanied by verrrry British
munchies like mini-cucumber sandwiches and freshly baked apricot and
fig scones, served with fresh kumquat
jam and authentic Devonshire clotted
cream. (About $50 for two people but
absolutely worth it.) Kick back and
relax at Bermuda’s most famous pub
and watering hole, The Swizzle Café;
the popular North Rock Brewing
Company, or Frog and Onion Pub
You can swim with the dolphins
at “Dolphin Quest” in Dockyard
parish. Play games with our fellow
mammal friends and even kiss them:
the dolphins love this and appear to
understand what it means. Yes, it is
expensive, but very enjoyable.
If you’ve always wanted to do
some “whale watching,” plan to visit
during March and April, when the
Humpback whales are migrating
to their Northern feeding grounds:
Bermuda is one of their favorite pit
stops along the way. Watch in awe as
they leap out of the water on Elbow
Beach, but the best place to whale
watch is on the eponymous West
Whale Beach. Fantasea Bermuda
Tours will bring you so close to whales
you can almost touch them! Get even
closer to huge sharks and a zillion
other colorful fish at the Bermuda
Aquarium with its 140,000-gallon
tank. (And hope it doesn’t burst while
you’re there.)
No visit to Bermuda is complete
without visiting Gibbs Lighthouse,
standing high above Bermuda
Harbor. One of the world’s oldest cast
iron lighthouses; it was constructed in
England and shipped here in 1840.
The views at the top are fabulous, if
you are up to climbing the stairs.
For Bermuda’s best shopping,
head to the lovely stores in Hamilton
and there is no sales tax. Authentic
Bermuda shorts come in every
possible color and can be found at the
English Sports Shop on Front Street
for approximately $39. Bring back
Bermuda Rum cakes, which are delicious souvenirs and also make great
gifts.
Continued on page 9
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, February 19, 2015
Page 9
with an ocean-view double-room for
$1,239* per person including taxes
and fees, (* the available rate on the
day this story was researched; prices
vary seasonally and according to availability.) Check with jetbluegetaways.
com to make sure this package is still
available for dates you’re considering
and be sure to ask them about their
up-and-coming packages.) Elbow
Beach is one of Bermuda’s finest
beaches.
Bermuda is famous for “pink
sandy beaches,” one of Mother
Nature’s miracles. The fine white
sand here has magically blended over
hundreds of years with the radiant
crushed red coral and the result, is a
stunning “pink hue” to the sand which
you won’t find on any other island. Of
course, the locals say that the sand is
pink because the island is so beautiful
and the “beach is blushing”.
If you love snorkeling, the best
place is Church Bay Beach, where
only 100 yards out you’ll feast your
eyes on blue angel fish, parrot fish and
many other colorful fish in these very
calm waters. You can rent gear at the
Fairmount Southampton Resort Gear
Shop nearby. If you are into diving,
you’ll have an opportunity see many
old wrecks thanks to the “Bermuda
Triangle.” Dive close by and see spectacular coral formations along with
thousands of colorful fish darting all
around you, but no sharks. (Contact
Blue Water Diving for details.)
Bermuda has many wonderful
restaurants for every budget, featuring mostly fish caught the same day.
My favorites are Port ‘O Call on Front
Street in Hamilton or Mickey’s Beach
Bistro at the Elbow beach Hotel. You
must start with the delicious, but very
spicy Bermuda fish chowder made
with lots of seafood, veggies, a dash
of Gosling Black Seal Rum and some
sherry pepper sauce, (amazing); then
order the fish-of-the -day, which is
usually simply grilled with a special
island citrus sauce. The Bermuda
fish cakes with black plum sauce, or
pan-fried rockfish in an apple beurre
blanc sauce are also wonderful. A very
popular local dish is “salt cod and
potatoes,” – wash it down with one
of the local beers. You can’t miss, with
any of these delicious Bermuda dishes,
so be sure to try them all. Other restaurants that won’t disappoint you
are: Tom Moore’s Tavern, Ascots,
Bolero Brasserie, Barracuda Café
and Beau Rivage. For dinner and for
dancing-your-meal-off- afterwards,
go to the wonderful Cairo Café,
with authentic North African décor,
great atmosphere (Like Rick’s Café
Americain) and a fabulous, original
menu. Make reservations for dinner
at 8 PM and stick around for dancing
after 10 pm.
If you are considering an escape
to Bermuda for a few days or more,
remember that since Bermuda is
only 650 miles away and a mere 160
minutes by plane from NY, you can
always catch a taxi to JFK, any day
after work, catch a flight to Bermuda
and be there in time for 9PM dinner
at a lovely beachfront restaurant. Don’t
forget to pack your passport!
TRAVEL
BERMUDA­—The Tropical Isle A Stone’s Throw Away
Continued from page 8
If tennis is your passion, you’re in
luck because Bermuda has 70 tennis
courts: one tennis court for approximately every six residents and more
per person, than any other country. Be
sure to bring your racquet and your
own tennis balls as they will cost you
$7 a can here.
Where should you stay? There are
a number of fabulous, super-luxury
hotels, many mid-priced boutique
hotels and charming guest cottages,
but my favorite place to stay is the
spectacular Cambridge Beach Hotel
& Spa. If you decide to splurge and
stay at the Cambridge, perhaps
you can economize on meals and
shopping to stay within your budget.
Everything about this place is “
fabulous”: the rooms, the food, the
drinks, water sports, the beach and the
service. The hotel has all of the amenities you could ever wish for, including
a wonderful Holistic Healing Center
and the location is perfect.
The Fairmont Southampton
Resort features Bermuda’s finest golf
course. Another hotel I love is Reefs
Hotel, perched high on a breathtaking
cliff. Or consider the newly constructed Turners Hotel, luxurious and
expensive. If you prefer a guesthouse,
stay at Granaway Guest House, a
charming 1734 Manor House with
beautiful gardens and very comfortable accommodations. (Go to
Bermuda.com for details, costs and
availability of hotels you’re considering to check out special package rates,
or call 1-800-BERMUDA.)
There are a number of airlines that
fly to Bermuda, but as always, I love
flying with Jet Blue. Right now they
have a special “Bermuda Get-A-Way
Package” where your 4th night is free
and you each get a $100 Spa credit.
The package includes round trip
airfare from JFK, 5 days and 4 nights
at the fabulous “Elbow Beach Hotel”
All photos, with the exception of the
lighthouse photo on pg 8, courtesy of The
Bermuda Department of Tourism.
Page 10
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, February 19, 2015
EYE ON THEATRE
From Weird to Workaday
By John Simon
David Greig, who
wrote “The Events,” must
have been drunk, on
drugs, or otherwise delusional. He is said to be
one of Scotland’s foremost dramatists,
so maybe the two things aren’t mutually
exclusive. We get muddy-mystical, pretentious, and mostly nonsensical ninety
minutes of wasted life onstage and off.
Greig and his director, Ramin Gray,
traveled to Norway to interview anyone
who could tell them anything about
Anders Breivik, who bombed government buildings in Oslo and killed 77
young campers on an island nearby.
They also met a female vicar who runs
a community choir. From that, and the
desire to be innovative by reviving the
ancient Greek, community-financed
chorus, they came up with “The Events.”
There are, Claire, the protagonist,
a cleric and choirmistress, and the Boy,
the antagonist, who plays all “the other
people she encounters, remembers or
imagines.” And there is the Chorus,
local community choirs, different for
each performance. I got the rather
scruffy Stop Shopping Choir, performing commendably, including some
minor speaking parts, for all in unison or
individual members.
The set consists of a piano,
numerous stacked up chairs, an urn
dispensing tea (or maybe reindeer piss),
and three stepwise ascending platforms,
on which the chorus is sometimes
joined by the actors. At one point, Claire
unstacks the chairs for the choristers to
sit and face the pianist for a bit for no
conceivable reason, before returning to
sit on the steps. Then she re-stacks the
chairs—this is the play’s principal action.
Accompanied by the able pianist
Magnus Gilljam, they sing to the not
unpleasant music of John Bowne either
traditional Christian hymns or Boy’s
favorite song, “Bonkers” by Dizzee
Rascal.
The script does not specify movements, so the director, doubtless with
authorial consent, invents some perfectly
arbitrary ones. Claire may talk on the
cell to her lesbian partner, Catrina; who
is one of many characters Boy sometimes becomes. At one point, he even
skips rope with a shiny green rope.There
is much sprawling on the floor, including some fully clad sex. And sometimes
there is minor violence between the pair.
But, mostly, they talk, often in
mystical opacities: about mass murder,
religion, or whatever. They keep going
off on perplexing tangents as non-sequiturs proliferate.
Much talk about community, about
presumably Australian Aborigines, and
Vikings who come in tall ships. They
shack up in forest caves, where they feed
Tonya Pinkins and Dianne Wiest in Rasheeda Speaking. Photo by Monique Carboni
on poison mushrooms and reindeer piss,
thus becoming berserkers who emerge
ready to kill.
There is talk about the soul leaving
the body and not returning; also about
shamanism. Further, about protecting the tribe from softness, “a softness
born from cheap togetherness, which
is an illusion fostered by elites who
cling on to power and wealth through
Darren Goldstein and Tonya Pinkins in Rasheeda Speaking. Photo: Monique Carboni
immigrant labor and globalization.”
Out of nowhere, Boy announces that
his daughter knows as many words in
Polish as she does in English. Suddenly,
Boy asks “How did it go with Dr.
Palmer? CLAIRE: Interesting. BOY:
That’s good isn’t it? Is it good? CLAIRE:
It’s good.” And no more about that. Or
there is something about fellows using a
traffic cone as a didgeridoo.
Boy says he is on the side of the
poofs and the theatricals. Claire tells
him, “bodied by your energy, I will cross
through the symbolic portal.” Boy says,
“I have a washing up bowl beside me
to catch the vomit. I am trying to stand
outside the stream of my consciousness
and note my thoughts.” Claire tells of a
boy (him?), “We adopted him, and now
Continued on page 11
Tonya Pinkins and Dianne Wiest in Rasheeda Speaking. Photo by Monique Carboni
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, February 19, 2015
Page 11
kind of detail they deserve. It is like the
chamber musical interplay of a violinist and pianist, both masters of their art.
And it may just be sufficient reason to
attend “Rasheeda Speaking.”
New Leader, New Criterion, National
Review, New York Magazine, Opera
News, Weekly Standard, Broadway.com
and Bloomberg News. He reviews books
for the New York Times Book Review and
for The Washington Post. To learn more,
visit his website: www.JohnSimonunsensored.com
EYE ON THEATRE
the thing doesn’t quite make
From Weird to Workaday humor,
sense. Doc seems to have only Mrs.
Continued from page 10
he is at Cambridge University studying
law. / He’s at Strathclyde University
studying technology./ He’s at college./
He works in a shop./ A garage./ He’s
happy. /He’s dead. / He died, he’s dead.”
It all ends with the choir chanting
repeatedly, “We are here. We are in
here,” which also appears as a supertitle
that stays on at play’s end.
The actors? Neve McIntosh is
white, Clifford Samuel is black. They
constitute the Actors Touring Company
that has toured the world with the play
for two years, generating a spirit of community wherever they go. It is hard to
assess the actors, since there are no clear
criteria by which to evaluate them. But
they seem competent. Yet again a show
is getting raves from reviewers for what
I perceive as nonsense.
Rasheeda Speaking
“Rasheeda Speaking” by Joel Drake
Johnson takes place in Dr. Williams’s,
a Chicago surgeon’s, front office. Here,
at side-by-side desks, are middle-agedsecretary-receptionists, Jaclyn, who is
black, and Ileen, white. The only other,
and minor, character is elderly Mrs.
Rose Saunders who walks with a cane
and doesn’t think clearly; a daffy patient.
They are supposed to be fairly
ordinary people, who nevertheless
manage to speak and behave somewhat
unusually. Jaclyn, who has been out for
five days with a nervous disorder she
attributes to toxins in the office air, is
back, facing the excess of stuff piled
on her desk and her many unwatered
plants. And there is the Doctor who
plans to fire Jaclyn, whom he keeps
calling Jackie, for some unspecified, “not
fitting in.”
The whites are all unacknowledged racists, however seemingly liberal.
Jaclyn defends herself by ironies and
little tricks she plays on Ileen, such as,
unobserved, shifting her stuff from one
drawer into another, and then denying
it. Doc and Ilene usually come in before
Jaclyn—whom they pretend to be
tardy—and indulge in verbal horseplay.
Doc promotes Ileen, after eight years, to
office manager, which makes scant sense
what with a staff of two. She is supposed
to observe Jaclyn’s odd behavior and jot
it down in a notebook, meant to justify
her dismissal to Human Resources.
Unfortunately, though there is some
pungent writing and a fair amount of
Saunders for patient, and even she never
enters his examining room. Jaclyn, who
treats her a bit rudely, or Ileen, who is
oversolicitous, have to supplement her
cane, ushering her into the waiting room.
Doc and Ileen pretend to be totally
free of racism; Rose spouts something
she got from her son, to the effect that
blacks have their own angry culture
in revenge for their former slavery.
Doc and Ileen seem to be very cozy
with each other, even though Jaclyn’s
maneuvers elicit Ileen’s minor nervous
breakdown, and reduces her to bringing
a hidden guy to work and an apparently
permanent walkout.
Talk is rather everyday, but a trifle
snappier, more charged, often witty. It
becomes fanciful only in Jaclyn’s monologue about Rasheeda. That is what a
bunch of white collar workers, young
affluent whites, generically call the
middle aged black women who, like
them and Jaclyn., ride the same bus to
work.
Why did it take six months for Doc
to want to dump Jaclyn? Why isn’t there
a clear sense about the women’s respective duties? Why is Doc so huggingly
affectionate with Ileen that Jaclyn jokes
about adultery between them? Why
is the appropriate location of a hole
puncher debated at some length and a
source of friction? How can Jaclyn wax
suddenly poetic and eloquent? Is she
also racist, grousing about the behavior
of some Mexican neighbors?
Moreover, do surgeons lack
empathy with their patients as they
tell dirty jokes while operating? Or
tell dirty jokes with a favored female
member of their staff? Would Dr.
Williams, after six months, still call
Jaclyn Jackie? Would he, in collusion
with her co-worker, plot the sacking
of a female employee who shows no
evidence of laggardliness?
But yes, the dialogue can be fun.
Jaclyn about Doc and Ileen’s feelings
about each other: “It’s not a bad thing.
I don’t think it’s bad. Although it is
adulterous.” Or this bit: “ILEEN: Not
everyone is a racist. JACLYN: Really?
I’ll have to think about that.” Or Jaclyn
as she is facing away from the allegedly threatening Ileen: “Now don’t go
shooting me in the back, Ileen. I know
you people have a tendency to do that.”
The fine actress Cynthia Nixon
has directed fluently, and Allen Moyer
(set), Jennifer Tipton (lighting), and
Toni-Leslie James (costumes) have
contributed handsomely. The real glory,
though, is in the performances. Darren
Goldstein as Dr. Williams and the
wonderful Patricia Conolly as Rose are
just right, but the two leads are matchless. It would take paragraphs upon
paragraphs to convey the sassiness of
Tonya Pinkins (Jaclyn) and unassumingness of Dianne Wiest (Ileen) in the
John Simon has written for over 50
years on theatre, film, literature, music
and fine arts for the Hudson Review,
Clifford Samuel in NYTW’s The Events. Photo by Matthew Murphy
Neve McIntosh and Clifford Samuel in YTW’s The Events. Photo by Matthew Murphy
Page 12
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, February 19, 2015
Guardian Film Retrospective
Film Classics: The Wizard of Oz
By Robert Scott
Before
discovering the advantages of
the sunny climes of
California, the American
movie industry spent its early years
in New York. Proximity to Broadway
theaters was one reason. Stage plays
conveniently supplied players as well as
plots for early silent films.
Movie makers also eagerly bought
rights to best-selling novels for conversion to screenplays. When it was
published in 1900, L. Frank Baum’s
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz took
America by storm. A new kind of children’s fantasy told in conversational style,
the book captivated children and adults
alike.
Its decorative illustrations in color
were unlike any that had appeared
before. Featuring two dozen full-page
color plates and spot illustrations on
nearly every page, it was the most elaborately illustrated American children’s
book up to that time.
Baum described his book as “a
modernized fairy tale in which the
wonderment and joy are retained and
the heartaches and nightmares left
out.” An instant success, it became the
best-selling children’s book of the 1900
Christmas season.
By the time the book’s copyright
expired in 1956, a total of 4,195,667
copies had been sold, making it one of
the most popular children’s books of the
twentieth century.
In 1902, author Baum turned his
book into a musical comedy titled The
Wizard of Oz. Starring Fred Stone as
the Scarecrow, it opened at the Grand
Opera House in Chicago. The following year it moved to New York, playing
on Broadway for three seasons and then
touring the country for eight years.
As a movie, the children’s classic
has had a checkered history. Several
versions were made in the silent era. The
first, in 1910, a one-reel film lasting 13
minutes, was based in part on Baum’s
1903 Broadway stage hit. Nine-year-old
Bebe Daniels, who would later star in
films such as Rio Rita and 42nd Street,
played Dorothy.
In 1925, popular slapstick
comedian Larry Semon directed a
seven-reel feature film in which he
played the Scarecrow. Oliver Hardy,
later the rotund half of the Laurel and
Hardy team, played the Tin Woodman.
Nineteen-year-old Dorothy Dwan
played Dorothy. She and Semon were
married just before the film’s release.
Sam Goldwyn bought the movie
rights to Baum’s book in 1934 for
$40,000 and sold them to MGM four
years later for $75,000. It was a quick and
easy profit for Goldwyn, who had done
nothing about making an Oz-based
movie. Released in 1939, MGM’s
film would become the studio’s second
her to just be herself. Victor Fleming
took over from Cukor and filmed the
bulk of the movie until he was assigned
to Gone with the Wind. Veteran director
King Vidor served briefly to wrap up the
early monochromatic Kansas scenes.
The Cast
feature in three-strip Technicolor. The
first had been Sweethearts, a 1938 adaptation of the Victor Herbert operetta,
starring Nelson Eddy and Jeanette
MacDonald.
Before it was completed, MGM’s
version of Baum’s book would require
the services of ten screenwriters and four
directors. In addition to the ten featured
players, a small dog and 124 dwarfs of
both sexes playing the Munchkins were
added to the cast. The “little people,”
as the studio called them, were mostly
refugee circus performers from Europe.
Often engaging in scandalous debaucheries in the Hollywood hotel in which
they were quartered, they were a housing
headache for MGM.
The Screenwriters
Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, Judy Garland and Jack Haley in the Wizard of Oz
Screen credits show Noel Langley,
Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan
Woolf as writers of the 1939 screenplay. In typical Hollywood collaborative
fashion, others who worked on the
many script revisions, often simultaneously, included screenwriters Herbert
Fields, Herman Mankiewicz (later the
writer of Citizen Kane and All About
Eve), Jack Mintz, Sid Silvers, John Lee
Mahin, humorist Ogden Nash, and
poet Samuel Hoffenstein.
The Directors
The film had four different directors: Richard Thorpe, George Cukor,
Victor Fleming and King Vidor. When
filming started, Judy Garland wore
a blonde wig and heavy “baby-doll”
makeup. Before he was fired, Thorpe, a
workmanlike director, shot two weeks of
material, none of which appears in the
final film. The studio found his work
unsatisfactory and called on George
Cukor temporarily until a new director
could be found.
Cukor did not actually film any
scenes, but he drastically modified Judy
Garland’s appearance. He got rid of the
wig and the baby-doll makeup and told
In 1938, MGM had 120 salaried
stars and feature players under contract.
From these, the studio managed to cast
six of the major roles in The Wizard of
Oz. It turned to agents only for the
Wicked Witch of the West (Margaret
Hamilton), the Cowardly Lion (Bert
Lahr), Auntie Em (Clara Blandick) and
the little dog Toto.
Some accounts claim that the
title role and a salary of $75,000 were
reputedly offered to W.C. Fields, who
unsuccessfully held out for $100,000.
This seems unlikely. At that time, Fields
was occupied in writing and starring
in You Can’t Cheat An Honest Man for
Universal Pictures.
Comedian Ed Wynn turned down
the role of the Wizard because it was too
small. After a number of popular stars
rejected the role for the same reason,
to match the rest of the cast MGM
decided to include four additional parts
to increase the screen time for the actor
playing the role of the Wizard.
Veteran MGM contract actor
Frank Morgan was assigned the five
roles. Even so, the film occupied little
of Morgan’s working time—less than
a week as Professor Marvel and a few
more weeks as the Wizard and the
other minor roles. Morgan (birth name,
Wuppermann) was an heir to the
Angostura Bitters fortune.
Usually playing jovial or befuddled
characters, like many other Hollywood
stars Frank Morgan had a drinking
problem. His favorite drink was champagne, and he always carried a supply
in small attaché case fitted out with a
minibar.
From time to time on the set, he
would repair to his dressing room “for
a little snifter.” Although his alcoholism never caused him to muff his lines,
his occasional attempts to stop drinking
left him short-tempered and irritable.
On the Oz set, director Victor Fleming
once told him to “get back on the champagne kick so we can live together.”
Frank Morgan died of a heart attack
in 1949 at the age of 59. Choosing not
to be buried in California, he lies in the
Wuppermann family plot in Brooklyn’s
Green-Wood Cemetery, as does his
Continued on page 13
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, February 19, 2015
Page 13
Guardian Film Retrospective
Film Classics: The Wizard of Oz
Continued from page 12
brother, Ralph Morgan.
Top salaries of $3,000 a week went
to Ray Bolger (the Scarecrow) and Jack
Haley (the Tin Woodman), followed by
$2,500 to Frank Morgan and Bert Lahr.
Margaret Hamilton received $1,000 a
week, and held out for and got a guarantee of six weeks’ work. As it turned out,
she was on the picture for four months
and racked up a salary of $18,541.68.
For each week’s work, Billie Burke
(Glinda) took home $766.67 and
Charley Grapewin (Uncle Henry)
$750. Judy Garland (Dorothy) had to be
content with a mere $500 a week. Toto,
the little Cairn terrier, earned her trainer
$125 a week.
Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan,
Judy Garland’s birth name was Frances
Ethel Gumm. She hated her name and
changed it as soon as she could. In 1936,
when she was 14 years old, she made her
first movie, a musical short for MGM,
as Judy Garland.
To control her tendency to chubbiness, the studio alternately dosed her
with amphetamines to speed up her
metabolism and control her weight,
followed by sleeping pills to bring her
down from the amphetamine high. As
a result, she became addicted to prescription drugs and continued to abuse
them during most of her adult life and
troubled career.
Judy Garland would die in London
of an accidental overdose of barbiturates
on June 22, 1969, a dozen days after her
47th birthday.
Makeup Problems
Elaborate makeup was a time-consuming chore for the players in the film.
Long hours were spent in the makeup
chair while elaborate facial changes were
made to the Scarecrow, Tin Woodman
and Cowardly Lion. Judy Garland’s
dumpy teenage figure required a tightly
laced corset that also flattened her
breasts.
Originally cast as the Tin
Woodman, dancer Ray Bolger insisted
he would rather play the Scarecrow, a
role his childhood idol, Fred Stone, had
originated on Broadway in 1903. Lanky
Buddy Ibsen, cast as the Scarecrow,
switched roles with Bolger.
Unfortunately, the special makeup
for the Tin Woodman was toxic. Ebsen
had a violent reaction to the aluminum
powder dusted on his face and hands,
and wound up in intensive care in the
hospital. In the makeup used on his
replacement, Jack Haley, aluminum
paste was substituted for the aluminum
dust that had poisoned Ebsen.
Memorable Quotes
Dorothy’s line, “Toto, I have a
feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.”
was voted as #4 on the American Film
Institute’s 100 Greatest Movie Lines.
“There’s no place like home” was voted
as #23. “I’ll get you my pretty, and your
little dog, too” squeaked in at #99.
Songs
The songs in The Wizard of Oz were
the result of the collaboration between
prolific songwriter Harold Arlen, who
was only 33 years old, and lyricist E.Y.
“Yip” Harburg. (Over his long career
Arlen would work with 31 lyricists.)
Harburg was earlier responsible for
the lyrics of the anthem of the Great
Depression, “Brother, Can You Spare
a Dime?” and the hauntingly beautiful
Judy Garland in the Wizard of Oz
“April in Paris,” introduced in the 1933
Broadway musical Walk a Little Faster.
Among the dozen Oz songs, the
wistful classic “Over the Rainbow”
would become a Judy Garland standard.
It was voted #1 in the American Film
Institute’s list of “100 Years of the
Greatest Songs.”
The AFI board noted that the song
“captured the nation’s heart, echoed
beyond the walls of a movie theater,
and ultimately stands in our collective memory of the film itself. It has
resonated across the century, enriching
America’s film heritage and captivating
artists and audiences today.” Another
Arlen song, “Ding-Dong! The Witch Is
Dead,” was voted #82 on the AFI song
list.
Paradoxically, “Over the Rainbow”
was almost removed from the final
print by autocratic MGM head Louis
B. Mayer because it had been shot “in
a barnyard.”
Honors
Margaret Hamilton, Judy Garland and Billie Burke in the Wizard of Oz
At the 1950 Academy Awards,
The Wizard of Oz won only two Oscars.
(MGM’s other big film, Gone With
the Wind, won ten Oscars that year.)
Arlen and Harburg won for “Over the
Rainbow,” voted the best song. Another
Oscar went to Herbert Stothart for the
best original score.
The Wizard of Oz was voted #6 in
the AFI’s 1998 list of top movies in 100
years of film making, #1 in fantasy films,
#26 in inspirational movies, and #3 in
movie musicals. Judy Garland was voted
#8 in the AFI’s list of 100 top movie
stars.
Aftermath
The film began shooting on
October 13, 1938, and was completed
on March 16, 1939, at a record-breaking cost of $2,777,000. It earned only
$3,017,000 on its initial release. After
the expenses of prints, distribution, and
advertising were added to its production cost, the loss to MGM was nearly a
million dollars. It came close to making
a profit during its first re-release in
1948-49, when it brought in another
$1,500,000.
It did not really begin to make
money until 1956, when it was leased to
TV. By 1976, theatrical distribution had
yielded MGM a total of $4,800,000.
The combined take from leasing the film
for TV, first to CBS and then to NBC,
was more than twice that--$9,950,000.
The Wizard of Oz received only a
single mention in The Guinness Book of
World Records. Ironically, this was for the
dubious honor of being the film to which
a live-action sequel was added after the
longest period of time. The 1985 sequel
titled Return to Oz was released 46 years
after the original. Regarded now as a
more faithful adaptation of the novel, it
has acquired a cult following.
Robert Scott taught creative nonfiction
writing at the Writer’s Digest School for
eighteen years. He lives in Croton-onHudson, NY.
Page 14
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In the Matter of a Proceeding Under
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QUAYVAUN ALLEN (d.o.b.9/11/11),
Docket No.: NN- 00277-14
FU No. 139941
A Child Under Eighteen Years of Age Alleged to be Neglected by
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LAQUANAYA WARD,
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Respondent.
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News and Notes from
Northern Westchester
By Mark Jeffers
Welcome to the
Lenton season, I was
going to give up bad
jokes for Lent, but
then what would I
write about? So instead will try to
be nicer, so sit back and enjoy this
week’s “because nice matters” edition
of “News and Notes.”
The Westchester County Health
Department is offering residents
the opportunity this month to get
free flu shots, along with vaccines to
protect against six other diseases at
the White Plains clinic on February
20th, call 914-995-5800 for details.
To prevent spreading the flu, cough
or sneeze into your elbow and wash
your hands frequently with soap and
water. If you do get a respiratory
infection, stay home until 24 hours
after your fever subsides to avoid
spreading your germs. Clean surfaces
you touch often, such as doorknobs,
water faucets, refrigerator handles
and telephones. Get plenty of rest,
exercise and eat healthy food.
Since I generally roll gutter
balls, I found this story to be quite
impressive: John Jay High School
sophomore
Alex
Melnychuk
recently bowled 290 in a single
bowling game and has a game-high
series of 763; both all-time highs for
the school.
On Sunday March 1st Via Vanti!
Restaurant & Gelateria in Mount
Kisco once again plays host to its
second annual “Dining in the Dark”
experience benefiting Guiding Eyes
for the Blind. The event includes
a delicious 5-course tasting menu
plus gelato. Guests will be offered
blindfolds to test just how discriminating their taste buds are with
prizes awarded to the diners with the
savviest palates. $75 per person and
seating is limited. At least this time,
I will have an excuse for making a
mess when I eat…
Registration is now open for
the Westchester County Coed
Volleyball Tournament, to be held
Monday and Tuesday, April 6 and
7, from 7pm to 11pm each night,
at the Westchester County Center
in White Plains. The tournament is
open to men and women, 18 years
of age and older. The tournament
will be played in Round Robin
format on Tuesday to determine the
ranking of each team, with a double-elimination tournament for the
championship round on Wednesday.
Two playing levels of competition
are offered: recreation and power
recreation. Awards will be given to
the winning teams and runners-up
in each division.
Electronics retailer Radio Shack,
which filed for bankruptcy last week,
announced it will be closie six stores
in Westchester County including
those in White Plains, Yorktown
and Hartsdale.
Once again the Katonah
Museum of Art celebrates the
amazing talents of our local high
school seniors. This annual program,
in its 32nd year, gives aspiring artists
an opportunity to participate in all
aspects of a museum exhibition. The
exhibition features artwork by more
than 400 local high school seniors
from more than 40 high schools
in Westchester, Putnam, Dutchess,
and Fairfield counties. The students
not only create the artwork, but also
work under the guidance of museum
and art professionals to organize,
publicize, curate and mount their
own exhibition. The showcase is free
and runs from March 1st through
March 8th.
I feel a bit classier just mentioning this, as the Moscow City Ballet
will perform “Swan Lake” on March
13th at the Westchester Community
College in Valhalla.
The Yorktown Chamber of
Commerce brings the businesses
and residents of Westchester
County the 7th Annual Home &
Lifestyles Expo, to be held Saturday,
February 21st, from 11am-4pm
at the Jefferson Valley Mall in
Yorktown Heights.
Good luck and best wishes
to Andrew Selesnick, who has
been selected to be the KatonahLewisboro School District’s next
superintendent.
Our thoughts and prayers go out
to the families that were impacted
by the terrible Metro-North train
tragedy last week.
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, February 19, 2015
Page 15
The documentary uses no music
and no voiceovers, making the resultant film feels like a long TV report
offering a lot of scientific facts and
figures. For instance, many people in
Fukushima are living in an area where
the radiation level is 20 times higher
than the international standard, and
4 times higher than in Chernobyl.
The WHO issued a shocking report
in 2013, warning that more children
in Fukushima will come down with
thyroid cancer and leukemia.
Atsushi Funahashi debut feature
Echoes (2001) won three jury and
audience awards at the Annonay
International Film Festival in France.
His second film Big River (2006) was
shown at various film festivals (including Berlin, Pusan, Karlovy Vary, Sao
Paolo, and Shanghai). Funahashi
lives between Tokyo and New York,
making film & television projects in
both the USA and Japan. His US documentary For the Joyful Moment of Life
(2005), won a Telly Award. His latest
short Radioactive (2014) received the
Edward Snowden award at the Signes
de Nuit International Film Festival.
All 5 of his recent feature films were
invited to the Berlin International
Film Festival and have been screened
throughout Europe, Asia, and the
Americas. “I am a Clint Eastwood’s
big fan and his Flags of Our Fathers is
one of my all-time favorite movies”,
laughed Funahashi after the screening.
CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES
Nuclear Nation II
By Sherif Awad
Straddling
the
line between art and
cinema, a collection of
avant-garde and experimental films highlights
the special section known as FORUM
in the Berlinale. This year, as international journalists attending the 65th
Berlin International Film Festival,
we were approached by the NY/LA
Matt Johnstone Publicity Company
to watch Nuclear Nation II a sequel
to the 2012 documentary in which
its director follows up the stories of
those exiled from Futaba, the region
occupied by the crippled Fukushima
Daiichi nuclear power plant.
Futaba had been promised prosperity with tax breaks and major
subsidies to compensate for the
presence of the plant, ever since the
1960s,... until the townspeople lost
their homeland on March 11, 2011.
The documentary portrays their lives
as refugees living in an abandoned
high school and in temporary housing.
The film questions the real cost of
nuclear energy and unbridled capitalism framed against the backdrop of
the agonies and frustrations of those
who have lost everything. The political
fallout from the nuclear disaster results
in conflict between residents, and the
mayor is forced to resign. Many decide
to move back to Fukushima prefecture, just outside the evacuation zone.
Director Atsushi Funahashi
The townspeople are divided by the
arbitrariness of evacuation, radiation
levels, and compensation guidelines
from the plant’s operator. And then,
the Japanese government announces
a plan to turn Futaba into an official,
literal wasteland.
Director Atsushi Funahashi, who
helmed both parts of Nuclear Nation,
says that many people have forgotten what happened in Fukushima.
“For them, it is an ancient history”,
he adds. “But radiation still leaks from
the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power
plant. Contaminated water is flowing
into the ocean, unstoppable, though
the Prime Minister has announced
it is under control. Almost 4 years
after the accident, more than 100
thousand people are still displaced.
Most of them are living in temporary
housing or subsidized apartments in
Fukushima. It is becoming a modern-day concentration camp. All the
townspeople of Futaba (about 7,000
people) have been forced from their
homes since 96% of the town is a socalled Difficult-To-Return Zone.”
Residents living like refugees, from Nuclear Nation II
Nuclear experts examining the Futaba region
Born in Cairo, Egypt, Sherif Awad is
a film/video critic and curator. He is the
film editor of Egypt Today Magazine
(www.EgyptToday.com) and the Artistic
Director for both the Alexandria film
Festival , and the Arab Rotterdam Festival
in The Netherlands. He also contributes to
Variety, in the United States and is the
Film Critic of Variety, Arabia (http://
amalmasryalyoum.com/ennode189132
and The Westchester Guardian: www.
WestchesterGuardian.com
Page 16
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, February 19, 2015
Mary At The Movies
Movie Review: Project Almanac
Teen Dilemma: David Raskin
( Jonny Weston) is a wildly talented,
nerdy kid who invents things. The
good news is he has been accepted
to MIT; the bad news is that while
he was awarded a $5000 scholarship,
MIT costs a whole lot more. David’s
mom is currently unemployed and his
family has had it hard since David’s
father was killed in a car crash on the
day of his seventh birthday party, ten
years earlier.
David sets about finding a project
he can use to win another scholarship,
searching the attic to see if his father
left anything lying around that might
have project potential. When he and
his sister, Christina, find a video of
David’s 7th birthday party, he notices
something very odd: 17 year-old
David is watching the party unobserved, reflected in a mirror. How could
that have happened? A little more
digging, this time in his dad’s cellar
workshop, reveals some kind of device
and detailed plans. Turns out, Dad
worked for DARPA and he invented
something really amazing: if only they
can figure out how it works! Whoa!
David enlists two friends Adam Le
(Allen Evangelista)
and Quinn Goldberg
(Sam Lerner) to construct a device based
upon the instructions
David’s dad left while
his sister Chris, films
everything. Jesse, the
girl David crushes
on, owns a car that is
integral to the plot.
If they can get this
device to work, all
kinds of problems
will be solved; trouble
is
actions
have
consequences….
This is an enjoyable sci-fi movie with
“Ground-Hog Day”
and “Back to the
Future” elements that
will resonate with
audience members
as they recall all of
the drama of getting
through high school.
Most of the film
is shot up close as
though
through
Chris’s videocam and
the constant up close
single perspective does
get a bit exhausting by
the end of the movie
but the actors playing
the five teens are very
believable, as are the
dilemmas they face.
Running Time:
116 min. Director Dean
Isrealite;
Producers
Insurge
Pictures,
Platinum Dunes, MTV
Films. MPA Rating:
PG-13 for some language
and sexual content.
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