Great Gillibrand ad

Kirstin Gillibrand is campaigning to take the congressional seat (NY 20th) from Republican John Sweeney.
She has this great ad modeled on the movie "Good night and Good luck." Kirstin went to UCLA so maybe she had a connection to David Strathairn or someone who knew him, in any case it's a step up from most politcal campaign ads.

The F-word on IFC

On Nov. 6th the eve of the elections Independent film channel will broadcast a movie I helped write. There were many writers on this semi-scripted half fiction half documentary about the Republican National Conventional in NYC in 2004.

My contribution is a character named Ghee ranting near a megaphone sculpture.

LA ex-pats

We met a neighbor today at the coffee shop. She lives about 5 houses down the street and mentioned that the couple 6 houses down recently moved here from LA. He is a screenwriter and she is a computer graphics animator. What are the chances?

But it'll be a while before we can meet them, since they are spending the winter back in LA. (clever)

In and around the lake.

My dad and I took his canoe out for the first time in ten years or more. We paddled around Round Lake. Unfortunately the trees there were just past peak (read: dead) so the scenery wasn't as impressive as it would have been 2 weeks earlier. We started at a creek in the NW end of the lake and covered the entire northern and eastern edges. It's not a very big lake. We saw a couple Canadian Geese. And some Blue Heron. Check out hose giant nest in the dead tree tops. It seems like an alien landscape to me.

We found a spot on shore that had been used for a campfire so we pulled ashore and stretched our legs. Following a path we discovered we were on an isthmus with lake to the west and swamp to the east. It certain weather the trail is probably submerged/impassable. Then we found a tiny abandoned hunter's shack. It was 4x8 feet had a door and 2 windows (broken) and contained the remains of a mattress and bed frame. A bit beyond it was a 20x20 cinderblock house. It too had been abandoned for at least 40 years. It had a full basement, one bedroom, tiny kitchen area, living room, attic, no bathroom. It was wired for electricity and had a water pump system. The roof was collapsing. The stairs to the basement we missing.

Two more out-building were nearby each about 5x10x10. One house an electric generator. They were wood frame and might have been about 100 years old. Past them the path was more like a gravel road. Near the shore line someone had trucked in sand and made a nice small beach.

The road in (or out) was swampy and impassable on foot. What an isolated retreat someone had here. It was probably a hunter's cabin gone slightly elaborate but I wonder if anyone lived here year round off the grid.

Back in the canoe we followed a winding creek southeast out of the lake. Until we both asked "Do you hear a waterfall ahead?" We did. And we couldn't see around the next bend. We slowed . As we got closer to what looked like a drop in the stream I paddled to a tree limb and grabbed hold to stop us.

It was a small drop. Maybe only 8 or 10 inches down. We didn't get close enough to find out. We turned the boat around and paddled back.

Saratoga Battlefield

We squeezed a bit more value from our National Parks Pass and visited the National Park at Saratoga Battlefield over the Columbus Weekend. It was there in October 1777 the British suffered their first defeat at the hands of American patriots.

While we visited a troop of British army re-enactors were on hand, re-enacting...?...surrender apparently.

Trees

Yep, it really is this beautiful here.
Nature's fireworks are in full effect.

Bush on N. Korea UNSPUN

The President is smack up against his hypocrisies now that an Axis of Evil nation actually does have WMDs. What's our response to a real WMD threat? We could deny them luxury items. This points an even brighter light on the false reasons that were given to justify the Iraq war.

Trashion

So I made an effort to find our people in this neck of the woods. The die-hard burners were in Maryland for a regional called Playa Del Fuego, but some local burner artists contributed to a fashion show of recycled materials called Trashion. It was a great event with 2 bands, performance art, a fashion show and puppets!

It wasn't really a puppet show, more like 3 people holding life-sized puppets while they danced to pre-recorded music.

Autumn

Just a quick reminder that some parts of the world are experiencing autumn.

We watched the local HS football game today. The freshman team. They were pretty good.