Co-creators of a podcast, “Who’s the Ass?”, nominated in two categories for a Signal Award for podcast achievement, Amenia resident Jane Watson and filmmaker Frank Donnelly are thrilled by the recognition and hoping for votes from area residents.
AMENIA — A low-budget storytelling podcast created by Amenia resident Jane Watson and documentary filmmaker Frank Donnelly, and their joint venture Spiked Eggs Productions has been nominated in three categories for a Signal Award.
Watson was notified on Tuesday, Oct. 2, that the Spiked Eggs podcast titled “Who’s the Ass?” had been nominated for the national award in categories including Shows: Best Sound Design and Shows: Best Scripted (Fiction). Another Spiked Eggs podcast, “Bingo After Dark,” has also been nominated in the category of Shows: Best Editing.
Signal Awards, the Oscars of podcasts, is in its third year, seeking to uplift the podcast medium by recognizing strong, meaningful and novel audio projects. The 2024 awards are focusing on recognizing podcasts that define modern culture.
Competition for Signal Awards is stiff, with competing nominations this year going to Saturday Night Live cast entries, Wanda Sykes and more.
Produced on Watson’s kitchen table in Amenia, “Who’s the Ass?” is described as dark comedy fiction with one foot in the present world of social media and the other in an imagined past.
Commenting on the nomination and the production process on Thursday, Oct. 4, Watson said that she has lived in Amenia for 21 years, while Donnelly lives in Staten Island, their work together being largely remote. Their actors may reside in the UK or the US and participate in script reads together on Zoom.
Donnelly, an award-winning documentary filmmaker and journalist, has earned several awards for his 2015 documentary “Crossing Waters,” an examination of the ebb and flow of immigrant residents within a single low-income neighborhood in Poughkeepsie.
Watson and Donnelly work together on auditioning and casting, and then Watson takes over on pre-production and production, voice actor direction, and then post-production editing and sound design, all at the kitchen table.
The podcast episode, released Aug. 2 and titled “Who’s the Ass?” is inspired by a fable, “The Miller, His Son and the Ass.”
“The premise is how things can go terribly wrong when you try to please others, when you let strangers tell you how you should live your life. I thought immediately of how it could correlate to today’s culture of people pursuing “likes” on social media or following the advice of “influencers,” Watson said.
Watson said she liked the satiric idea of interplay between fable characters and modern culture. “There is also a bit of a clash between generations: a Boomer vs. Gen Z,” Watson said.
The concluding episode of the nominated podcast will be released in November.
“I’m a storyteller at heart,” Watson said. Watson has a background as a New York City photojournalist and later a filmmaker and she fell in love with audio drama podcasts about nine years ago. They reminded her of old-time radio broadcasts and the power of imagination.
“Just about everything you can do with a camera, you can do with sound,” Watson said, identifying foreground and background and other tricks with audio to tell the story.
How to Vote
Fans of podcasts who would like to hear the nominated episode(s) can go to any of several platforms such as Apple, Amazon, Spotify, Audible and others, and search for “Spiked Eggs Productions.”
To cast a vote for a Signal Listener’s Choice award, go to vote.signalaward.com and scroll to “Start Voting.” In the search space, type “Spiked Eggs Productions” to see the three nominations. Voting concludes Thursday, Oct. 17.
Built in 1820, 1168 Bangall Amenia Road sold for $875,000 on July 31 with the transfer recorded in August. It has a Millbrook post office and is located in the Webutuck school district.
STANFORD — The Town of Stanford with nine transfers in two months reached a median price in August of $573,000 for single family homes, still below Stanford’s all-time median high in August 2024 of $640,000.
At the beginning of October there is a large inventory of single-family homes listed for sale with only six of the 18 homes listed for below the median price of $573,000 and seven above $1 million.
July transfers
79 Ernest Road — 4 bedroom/2.5 bath home on 6.87 acres in 2 parcels sold to Matthew C. Marinetti for $1,225,000.
29 Drake Road — 3 bedroom/3.5 bath home on 2 acres sold to Harper Montgomery for $850,000.
6042 Route 82 — 4 bedroom/2 bath home on 1.09 acres sold to Spencer Thompson for $795,000.
125 Tick Tock Way — 3 bedroom/2.5 bath ranch on 1.9 acres sold to Fleur Touchard for $475,000.
August transfers
102 Prospect Hill Road — 3 bedroom/2 bath home on 6.35 acres sold to Karl Creighton Pfister for $565,000.
252 Ernest Road — 2 bedroom/1 bath cottage on .85 acres sold to Meg Bumie for $465,000.
1196 Bangall Amenia Road — 4 bedroom/2.5 bath home on 2.16 acres sold to Roderick Alleyne for $875,000.
Hunns Lake Road (#759929) — 59.1 acres of residential land sold to Argos Farm LLC for $3,325,000.
* Town of Stanford recorded real estate transfers from July 1 to August 31 provided by Dutchess County Real Property Office monthly transfer reports. Details on each property from Dutchess Parcel Access - properties with an # indicate location on Dutchess Parcel Access. Market data from One Key MLS and Infosparks .Compiled by Christine Bates, Real Estate Advisor with William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty, Licensed in Connecticut and New York.
Hunt club members and friends gathered near Pugsley Hill at the historic Wethersfield Estate and Gardens in Amenia for the opening meet of the 2025-2026 Millbrook Hunt Club season on Saturday, Oct. 4. Foxhunters took off from Wethersfield’s hilltop gardens just after 8 a.m. for a hunting jaunt around Amenia’s countryside.
Joining in the fun at the dedication of the new pollinator pathway garden at The Millbrook Library on Saturday, Oct. 4, local expert gardener Maryanne Snow Pitts provides information about a planting to Lorraine Mirabella of Poughkeepsie.
MILLBROOK — Participating in a patchwork of libraries that have planted pollinator pathway gardens to attract insects and birds to their native plantings was one of the accomplishments being celebrated at the dedication of a new pollinator garden at the Millbrook Library on Saturday, Oct. 4.
“A lot of work went into it,” said Emma Sweeney, past President of the Millbrook Garden Club, who started the local library’s initiative two years ago.
The Pollinator Pathway program is a national effort to plant native plants that native insects depend upon for sustenance and preferred plants for their own seasonal reproduction.
Jana Hogan of Ridgefield, Connecticut, Executive Director of the Pollinator Pathway program, was on hand to present a plaque to the library for its successful participation.
“A garden is not just a garden,” said garden designer Andy Durbridge of Wassaic, designer of the library’s garden. “It may serve as a model for other gardens along the line.”
Speaking to the 50 visitors at the dedication, Durbridge said that the library’s garden has a mission, that it is a working garden, planned to serve insects and birds over their seasons. The earliest plants support pollinators, while the full range of plants continues to serve the needs of those they attract, offering habitat, shelter and food.
A pollinator garden is akin to a prairie, rather than a formalized European garden, Durbridge noted.
The garden project was supported by the library’s Friends group using funds raised during the Holiday Silent Auction and ongoing book sale. A grant from the Millbrook Garden Club also provided support.
Amenia Town Hall on Route 22.
AMENIA — After gathering comments from the Planning Board and the Zoning Board of Appeals, as it considers adding alternate members to those boards, the Town Board discussed possible changes to local laws governing those boards at its meeting on Friday, Oct. 3. The meeting date, usually on a Thursday, had been changed to accommodate a holiday.
In recent weeks Town Board attorney Ian Lindars has been compiling comments from the affected boards along with comments from the Town Board. The new laws may bring the appointment of two alternate members to each board. Alternate members are likely to be required to attend all meetings and be prepared to be seated if needed and be familiar with the applications being discussed. They would also need to take training required of all board members.
Lindars will prepare a draft of the new local laws to be reviewed by the Town Board and the affected boards.
As the Town Board begins work on the town’s annual budget negotiation process and anticipating an increase in some budget lines to accommodate major projects, the board unanimously approved three resolutions. The first will override the tax levy limit imposed on municipalities by the state of New York, a limit generally tied to the rate of inflation.
A public hearing on the proposal to override the levy limit was set for Thursday, November 6, beginning at 7 p.m. at the Town Hall.
