In the wake of the Democratic Party’s National Convention, the Amenia Democratic Committee held a kick-off event for the 2024 election campaign season on Sunday, Aug. 25, at the Indian Rock Schoolhouse pavilion. Candidates spoke and volunteers signed up for supporting tasks. At the end, candidates, officials, and volunteers gathered to show off lawn signs that will appear throughout the town.
AMENIA — Continuing momentum fueled by the recent Democratic National Convention, the Amenia Democratic Committee held a kick-off event on Sunday, Aug. 25, at the Indian Rock Schoolhouse pavilion, gearing up and organizing for the upcoming campaign push to the November elections.
While the group of nearly 50 volunteers gathered, music was provided by folk guitarist Joseph Sobol, who had written a piece called “The Timothy Waltz,” set to the tune of “The Tennessee Waltz.” He said it was a piece that just had to be written.
Town Supervisor Leo Blackman rallied support and the spirit of volunteerism to get the vote out, while observing that in his position as a town official, his approach to leadership is importantly non-partisan. He did admit to be “jazzed” by the national convention.
Town Board member Rosanna Hamm reported that at last year’s election, of the 864 registered Democrats, only 401 cast ballots.
“We need to get out and vote,” Hamm said, encouraging everyone to talk with their neighbors, an example of something that can be done.
Candidate for Dutchess County Comptroller, Dan Aymar-Blair of Beacon, spoke of positive energy he was finding during his canvassing door-to-door. And, he noted that at 5’11”, he is the tallest person running for Comptroller.
“We need financial oversight in Dutchess County,” Aymar-Blair said, noting that the county has a $600 million budget, but a debt of more than $1 billion. He added that residents need his experience (20 years in public finance) and his independence in the office.
Representing candidate Michelle Hinchey in her bid for state Senate District 41, Eddie Monroy, her deputy campaign manager, described her as “an advocate for communities in rural New York.”
“To reflect our values, we have to be engaged and committed to voting this year,” Monroy said. He noted that over the past three years of service, Hinchey had endorsed 74 bills.
“I work really hard and I show up for other people,” said Town Board candidate Charlie Miller, who reviewed his work with a variety of town committees, including Housing and Wastewater. Miller is running for a one-year term to fill the Town Board seat vacated by Leo Blackman when he was elected Town Supervisor.
“I’m a fiscally responsible person,” Miller said, describing his commitment to research to understand fully issues facing the town.
Energized by the event, attendees stepped up to volunteer to canvass door-to-door, make phone calls, mail postcards, and most carried away a stack of lawn signs.
Seth Rogovoy at the screening of “A Complete Unknown” at The Triplex.
When Seth Rogovoy, acclaimed author, critic, and cultural commentator of “The Rogovoy Report” on WAMC Northeast Public Radio, was asked to lead a talkback at The Triplex in Great Barrington following a screening of the Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown,” he took on the task with a thoughtful and measured approach.
“I really try to foster a conversation and keep my opinions about the film to myself,” said Rogovoy before the event on Sunday, Jan. 5. “I want to let people talk about how they felt about it and then I ask follow-up questions, or people ask me questions. I don’t reveal a lot about my feelings until the end.”
The film, directed by James Mangold and starring Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan, portrays young Dylan’s arrival in Greenwich Village during the early 1960s. The film depicts his interactions with key figures like Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, and Suze Rotolo (called Sylvie Russo in the film), while also exploring Dylan’s evolution from performing traditional folk songs to writing his own, including iconic tracks like “Blowin’ in the Wind.” The narrative touches on his struggles with fame, identity, and the pressure to conform, culminating in his controversial electric performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.
“I went into seeing the film with an open mind,” said Rogovoy, “recognizing that this film is not for me. It’s not for ‘Dylanologists,’ for experts. It’s a Hollywood film. I don’t think it does harm, but I think it doesn’t do a lot of what it could have done.”
The film presents a sentimental narrative with many historical inaccuracies. “According to Elijah Wald, whose book the film is based on, he said he likes the film but that it’s entirely fictional,” said Rogovoy.
The talkback itself was lively, with audience members sharing their thoughts on the film’s nostalgic appeal and its historical inaccuracies. Several attendees mentioned how the film helped them relive the cultural transformation of the era.
“It brings to mind the first time I heard that music, and the change it had on our culture,” shared one audience member.
Another attendee, who was just a baby during the time period depicted in the film, said, “I loved how much of his music they did play. It wasn’t just one verse and then cut away. I really got a renewed appreciation for his genius. I’m going full Dylan when I get home.”
While Rogovoy’s approach during the talkback was to facilitate discussion, audience members were eager to hear his analysis. His 2009 book, “Bob Dylan: Prophet Mystic Poet” explores Dyan’s connection to Jewish liturgy. In contrast to “A Complete Unknown,” Rogovoy offered a reminder of “I’m Not There,” the 2007 experimental musical drama co-written and directed by Todd Haynes where six actors portrayed different facets of Dylan’s persona. He described the film’s nonlinear narrative as offering what he called “a Dylanesque portrayal” of the artist, capturing more of the complexity of Dylan’s identity. Rogovoy characterized Chalamet’s portrayal as “one note.”
“And how do we know about the essence of Bob Dylan at that time?” asked Rogovoy. “Well, because there are a number of documentary films with footage of that time, which I’m sure that they (the filmmakers and cast) all viewed again and again. My understanding of Chalamet’s preparation was that he really immersed himself in everything to be a credible Bob Dylan. But in the end, I just found him to be entirely monochromatic.”
The screening and talkback provided a nuanced platform for discussing “A Complete Unknown”—a film that, while not without flaws, ignited a conversation about Bob Dylan’s influence and his enigmatic role in shaping American music and culture.
The author planted this Yellowwood tree a few years ago on some of his open space.
As an inveterate collector of all possibly winter hardy East coast native shrubs and trees, I take a rather expansive view of the term “native”; anything goes as long as it grows along the East coast. After I killed those impenetrable thickets of Asiatic invasive shrubs and vines which surrounded our property, I suddenly found myself with plenty of open planting space.
That’s when, a few years ago, I also planted a Yellowwood tree, (Cladastris kentukea). It is a rare, medium-sized tree in the legume family—spectacular when in bloom and golden yellow in fall. In the wild, it has a very disjointed distribution in southeastern states, yet a large specimen, obviously once part of a long-gone garden, has now become part of the woods bordering Route 4 on its highest point between Sharon and Cornwall.
It has always intrigued me that so many species, whose native ranges today are much further south, grow so well here. Besides Yellowwood, that includes, for example, the Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum) of southern swamps whose natural range reaches into southern New Jersey. However, it also grows in Litchfield hills gardens and, incongruously, even as a street tree in New York. Among others are PawPaw (Asimia triloba), Carolina silverbell (Halesia carolina), American snowbell (Styrax americanus), Redbud (Cercis canadensis), and Sourwood (Oxydendron arboreum), a good-sized tree with white flowering racemes and outstanding brilliant, deep red fall foliage. Besides our local swamp and Pinxter azaleas, others that are very hardy here include the early-flowering Pinkshell azalea (Rhododendron vaseyi) of the North Carolina mountains and from the mountains of Georgia, the rare-in-the-wild, July-flowering Plumleaf azalea, (R. prunifolium). Robust and larger in habit and most stunning of all is the Flame azalea (R. calendulaceum), which historically grew as far north as southeast New York, where it is now extirpated.
After some research, I learned that Cladastris kentukea might have grown over a much wider and more northern area, but during the last glaciation episode, it survived in the wild only in those isolated southern locations. That it survived at all so close to the glaciers edge is in itself an indication of cold hardiness. It is estimated, based on fossil plant and pollen records, that with the retreat of the icecap around 16,000 years ago, trees migrated again northward at a rate of approximately 50 km per century. This may apply to prolific sprouters such as maples, ashes and oaks, but it could be much slower, I suspect, for the many rarer plants which don’t get around by wind, squirrels, and birds, or are—unlike our common trees—finnicky to sprout from seeds. I can also imagine how many of the rarer trees and shrubs, for example Fringetree (Chionanthus virginicus), became collateral damage during the 19th century clearcutting for charcoal and farming. In any case, Yellowwood didn’t manage to recolonize its former range, and a similar scenario may apply to those other woody plants with a more southerly distribution today but that are perfectly hardy up here.
Climate change, which used to occur over millennia, now seems to happen within half a century. Birds, like the Carolina wren, can adapt quickly and become abundant after just a few warm winters—but plants are stuck. They need help to keep up with such rapid change. In the case of trees and shrubs, human gardeners can assist them in expanding their ranges into areas that are now warm enough for them to live thrive again.
I bought a sapling Water tupelo (Nyssa aquatica), native to southern swamps, from a Missouri nursery. It has survived two winters so far—albeit quite mild ones—in a woody swamp here at 1100ft elevation. One hundred years from now, who knows—ugar maples, which thrive in cold, snowy winters, might be replaced with sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua), a more southern hardwood.
I found space for trees by clearing thickets of invasives. The modern trend of transforming excessively large lawns into natural meadows also provides an opportunity to plant native trees with an understory of shrubs and ferns, whether as a stand-alone copse or a forest edge. This is not meant to replace flowers and grasses but to complement them, based on the understanding that, in our region, the primary ecosystem is forest—an exceptionally species-rich one to boot, with over a half dozen oaks alone.
Compared to watching grass grow, watching a tree—any tree—grow is almost exciting, given a bit of patience. Early on, protection against deer is necessary, but later, maintenance is relatively minimal; the leaves can simply fall and stay where they may.
Fritz Mueller lives in Sharon.
A scene from “Exterminators of the Year 3000”
The Lakeville Journal’s Bad Cinema desk sincerely hopes everyone had something better to do last summer than sit inside and watch appallingly bad movies. Anything would do. Hiking. Antiquing. Going for coffee.
Even — and we realize this is strong stuff — writing poetry.
But now, winter is here. For those looking to while away the hours during the hibernation period, here are five more of the most spectacularly bad flicks currently available on streaming services such as Tubi, Freevee, and Sickee, not to mention Plex, Yecch and Blecch.
“Silent Madness” (1984): This ‘80s slasher was originally in 3D. Nobody cares but there it is. The best film ever shot in Nyack, New York, the cast includes some names regular people may have seen in normal movies. Loony bin in New Jersey lets psycho killer out by mistake, and psycho killer starts picking off sorority girls. Starts off nicely with death by vise grip, but then a whole lot of plot intervenes. Really bad mise-en-scene. As Jean-Luc Godard once said, “Le pfui.”
“Deliria” aka “Stage Fright” (1987): Italian slasher, in which the cast and crew of a play about a serial killer called the Night Owl are locked into the theater by the tyrannical director until they get the darn thing right. Well, the joke’s on Mr. Big Shot Director because local psycho Wallace is also in the theater, and he starts killing everybody. And he does this while dressed as a big owl. With plucky heroine and ambiguous ending.
“Truck Turner” (1974): Isaac Hayes is Truck Turner, bail bondsman and smooth lover, forced by circumstances beyond his control to clean up the streets and get his jailbird girlfriend a kitten. With gratuitous nekkidity and unironic fried chicken. The terrific soundtrack by Hayes adds a great deal, with toe-tapping, car-crashing numbers such as “Pursuit of the Pimpmobile,” “Hospital Shootout,” and “Drinking.”
“Exterminators of the Year 3000” (1983): Aka “Mildly Miffed Max,” this Road Warrior rip-off was made in Italy and Spain for about $11.87 (that’s $37.62 in today’s dollars). The big difference between this and the Mad Max films, besides talent, is in this one it’s water, not gasoline, that everybody’s after. There are a lot of cars crashing around and some weird dialogue that doesn’t make much sense and girls in leather pants which must have been really uncomfortable in the desert.
“Shrunken Heads” (1994): Here at The Lakeville Journal’s Bad Cinema desk, we like to save the worst for last. This flick, brought to you from the entire Elfman family, neatly and concisely explains why it’s never a good idea to get too close to your local voodoo practitioner. (A simple “Hello, how are you?” will suffice.) This incredibly strange film should have made “Eat Da Whizzo” a national catchphrase, but didn’t. With shrunken head sex, sort of, and righteous retribution against the bad guys. Highly recommended, especially if you’re in traction.
