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Vol. VI, No. XLI
Westchester’s Most Influential Weekly
So Many Films...
So Little Time!
The Second Annual YoFi Film Fest Lights Up The
Yonkers Waterfront • Oct 17, 18 & 19. See page 19
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Thursday, October 16, 2014 • $1.00
Page 2
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, OCTOBER 16, 2014
Lightning Protection!
Editorial
This week we mark the fourth anniversary of the death of Pace College
student, D. J. Henry. It is still difficult to
understand what caused the police to
draw their weapons on what was clearly
just a group of college kids trying to
have fun. They were perhaps a little loud,
maybe even rowdy, but theses were clearly
good kids who were just hanging out
on a Saturday night, not a mob bent on
destruction. There was no need for armed
force here to disperse them. Our hearts go
out to the Henry family as they continue
to fight for justice in the wrongful death
of their son.
In the course of the day, the police in
each of our communities are called upon
to be many things to many people. Law
enforcement officers keep our streets safe,
assist the ill and the injured until EMS
arrives, respond to domestic disputes,
ASSOCIATED
crime scenes and sometimes, crimes in
progress. It is a challenging, difficult and
in some communities, a very dangerous
and often thankless job. However, the use
of lethal force is calculated to have fatal
consequences and should never have been
used to deal with young adults on that
night in Town of Mt. Pleasant four years
ago. Crowd control of a group of college
kids should be well within the skill set of
any police officer anywhere in America.
LIGHTNING
Rod Company, Inc.
www.alrci.com
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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Dear Editor:
“The Roosevelt” TV presentation by
Ken Burns, as a historical documentary
becomes questionable because of these
factual omissions.
First Omission – Franklin D.
Roosevelt (FDR) failed and prohibited the disclosure of an imminent
attack on Pearl Harbor to the Naval
Base Commander Admiral Kimmel
and General Short that prevented any
defense. We are now told that FDR
believed America could not go to War
without cataclysmic disaster which would
have shortened the War.
Second Omission – FDR executive
order interned 13,000 Italians to prison
of war camps throughout the county.
Third Omission – FDR, Patrician
views are reflected when he ordered the
Justice Department classification of all
Italian Americans or American Citizens
of Italian Heritage as Enemy Aliens. This
wartime program had the FBI squads of
agents to conduct illegal night raids on
their apartments, arrests, detention and
kidnappings of the 4 million plus families
from 1941 to 1944, which happened
in the7th Ward [Italian Section] of the
City of Yonkers. It was a massive Federal
Occupation by the F.B.I. and others.
There were no publications of this act of
terror and fear, because that person would
be charged with sedition that might affect
war morale and jailed, now described as
“The Secret War”.
Fourth Omission – Theodore
Roosevelt’s famous outcry, “It was a great
Patriotic Act” when 12 Italian Stevedores
were jailed and hanged by a mob in New
Orleans after being found not guilty on
Trial for murder against a Sheriff. This
affirmed this Patrician Racial beliefs and
prejudice or bias toward some Americans.
Fifth Omission – Theodore
Roosevelt tyrannical occupation of the
Philippines with suppression and aggression of the native people who suggest
independence with severe loss of lives.
These many omissions were permitted with the so called principle of
“artistic privilege by a TV Director and
commendable but they are in conflict
with the definition of History which is
“A chronological record of significant
events usually including an explanation
of their causes”. Webster New Collegiate
Dictionary.
The omissions are the holes that exist
in legacies.
Was it History, Was it Ken Burns
“His Story”.
A Witness to History,
John N. Romano, WWII witness
Mission Statement
Table of Contents
Editorial...................................................................................................2
Letters to the Editor.........................................................................2
Government/Community Section....................................................4
Society.................................................................................................4
Spirituality..........................................................................................5
Community.......................................................................................6
Government......................................................................................7
Religion...............................................................................................8
Technology Creative Disruption.................................................10
Education.........................................................................................11
Arts/Enertainment..............................................................................12
Literature..........................................................................................12
Opera................................................................................................12
Eye on Theatre.................................................................................13
Calendar...........................................................................................16
Cultural Perspectives.....................................................................17
Yonkers Fil Festival.........................................................................19
Legal Notices........................................................................................16
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of FREEDOM OF THE PRESS. The Guardian will cover news and
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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, OCTOBER 16, 2014
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Page 4
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, OCTOBER 16, 2014
Government/CommunitySection
Cuomo vs. Astorino: It’s a Snooze Campaign
By NANCY KING
With less than a month
until Election Day, the New
York State Governor’s race
has become so boring that
it’s barely worth mentioning. One would think that with such a
short period of time left in this campaign,
that things would really be heating up but
instead, this campaign has even the most
seasoned political analysts yawning. Even
their commercials are boring. The Cuomo
campaign has dragged out longtime
Westchester Republican Larry Rockefeller
to explain in thirty seconds why he, as a
life-long Republican will be voting for
Democrat Governor Andrew Cuomo.
Astorino this week released an ad on the
internet that depicts his three school age
children laughing at a television set while
allegedly watching what is supposed to be a
negative ad about their dad. If you don’t have
access to a computer or the internet, then
you won’t be able to watch the cash strapped
County Executive’s commercial. Using
minor children in a political ad campaign
is probably supposed to present an air of
innocence and purity about a candidate’s
intentions but it is also kind of creepy.
Press conferences this week have
also morphed into the realm of just
shrugging one’s shoulders. On Monday,
the Governor treated media and local
officials to a ferry ride on the Hudson to
welcome the Left Coast Lifter, one of the
largest floating cranes in the world, to our
little corner of the Hudson. The crane
is here after having traveled 6 thousand
miles and through the Panama Canal to
build the new Hudson River Bridge and to
help tear down the old one. The Governor
excitedly told all in attendance that not
only were we getting a new bridge but at
the discounted rate of 4 billion dollars in
construction fees. When the Governor
was asked how much the toll would cost
on this discounted bridge, all that was to
be heard was the gentle lapping of those
Hudson River waves.
Astorino’s big press conference of the
week occurred on Wednesday when it was
announced by his office that there may be
a patient at Phelps Memorial Hospital
in Sleepy Hollow who might have contracted Ebola. He traveled to West Africa
and now was displaying flu like symptoms.
Of course we all received this press release
within moments of the Ebola patient who
was being treated in Dallas had died. By
the time the press conference had ended,
Dr. Sherita Amler cautioned everyone that
this was a low level risk. By 5:00 PM the
individual in question had been cleared of
the virus and all in attendance were left
shaking our collective heads as to whether
we were really at risk or was this just a
free media moment for the Republican
candidate.
The week in this sleepy campaign still
has both sides still bickering about debates.
The governor has agreed to a televised
debate to be aired in the Buffalo region
and the Astorino campaign has opted
out of a scheduled radio debate. Perhaps
the County Executive himself is coming
to realize that this race for governor has
become a non-race and that the voters just
don’t really care.
In the meantime, with just a few
short weeks left in this race, there isn’t too
much left to say about this race; it’s boring.
Perhaps in a month both of these guys can
get back to doing the jobs that the poor
voters elected them to do.
SOCIETY
HELP WANTED
LABOR RELATIONS
SPECIALIST
WESTCHESTER COUNTY
CSEA, New York’s leading union,
is seeking resumes for a Labor Relations Specialist position serving
Westchester County. Requires knowledge of labor relations, ability to negotiate/administer contracts, resolve
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car for business use. Fluency in Spanish desireable. High School Dipolma/
Equivalency & 3 years full time related experience or BA in related field
or acceptable combination of work
experience and education.
Email cseajobs@cseainc.org
or send resume to
Director of Human Resources,
PO Box 7125, Capitol Station,
Albany, NY 12224.
Please note LRS-WG
on all correspondence.
Equal Opportunity Employer
The Tragic Death of DJ Henry Four Years Later
By NANCY KING
October 17th marks
the four year anniversary of the murder of
Pace University student
Danroy DJ Henry. Henry
died of gunshot wounds after former
Pleasantville Police Officer Aaron Hess
catapulted himself onto Henry’s car
and shot him through the windshield
at point blank range. In the four years
since this killing, of a young black man
by a white police officer there have been
numerous other deaths of black men
and women at the hands of white police
officers. Kenneth Chamberlain Sr. here in
White Plains, Travon Martin in Florida,
Michael Brown in Ferguson Missouri,
and Charles Gardner in Staten Island.
These deaths have been high profile
murders but what are we doing to stop
it? Nothing.
In the Henry case, Westchester
County District Attorney Janet DiFiore
seated a Grand Jury and without much
surprise, cleared all police officers of any
wrong doing in this case. There is an
old saying that a DA can indict a ham
sandwich if they wish to do so but it was
clear that Ms. DiFiore chose not to indict
any of the police officers involved and
threw the old ham sandwich theory right
out of the window. Since then, the Henry
family has filed a Federal wrongful death
suit for the murder of their oldest child.
After months and months of painful
depositions, that case is slowly making its
way through the Federal justice system.
The twists and turns of those involved in
the case have also taken on a strange life
of their own.
Since October 17th 2010, the Town
of Mt. Pleasant, where the killing
occurred has undergone a series of
changes. Finnegan’s Bar and Grill, the
establishment where all those students
were partying on that night has gone out
of business. Supervisor Joan Maybury
has abruptly resigned as of last week
and the Police Chief Lou Alagno has
retired. The only officer to tell the truth
in a deposition, Ronald Beckley never
returned to work, takin an early retirement after testifying that he was the one
who shot Officer Hess, injuring him in
the leg; not DJ Henry’s car which is what
Hess testified to as to what happened.
One officer told the truth, is ostracized
from the law enforcement community
and never returns to work. A life ruined
for telling the truth. The most bizarre
twist to this whole story goes to then Lt.
and later Chief Brian Fanelli.
Fanelli, who had been the commanding officer that night, is often thought to
have concocted the whole Hess being hit
by a car to protect that officer. Soon after
the shooting, Beckley confided in Fanelli
and told him that he had discharged his
gun, had shot Hess and believed Hess to
be the aggressor in this instance. Fanelli
wove such an intricate story that a jury
surmised that young Henry was indeed a
threat to the police. However earlier in
2014 it was revealed that Fanelli himself
turned out to be a threat to the community. He was indicted on Federal charges
that alleged he was downloading and disseminating child pornography. Fanelli,
plead not guilty and claims he only had
the porn on his computer for research. At
this time, Fanelli has lost his job with the
police department and is currently under
house arrest until his trial gets underway.
As for Dan and Angella Henry,
they are watching their wrongful death
suit take that long and winding road
through the judicial system. Their grief
however has been channeled into the DJ
Dream fund, a non-profit that supports
healthy programs for children. With 5K,
10K and bicycle races, Dan and Angella
Henry have sent children to sports camps,
purchased back to school supplies and
have sponsored dozens of educational
programs. With broken hearts, they have
turned their grief into a positive force for
change while they wait for justice.
However, the question still remains
as to why police departments around
the country have declared a war on men
of color. Most of the time the reasoning behind these murders is that those
murdered were a threat to the officers.
The real reason is that a clause in the
Patriotic Act authorizes police departments to use deadly force when there is a
perceived threat. This allows our national
police departments to shoot first and
worry about it later. It happened to DJ, it
has happened to Trayvon, Michael, Ken,
and Eric and without change, murders by
the hands of the very men and women
who are hired to protect us, will continue.
Dan and Angella Henry, through their
philanthropy, and their faith in the justice
system are making sure that their son’s
death though tragic will not have been
in vain.
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, OCTOBER 16, 2014
Page 5
SOCIETY/SPIRITUALITY
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
In Memoriam: Father Benedict J. Groeschel, C.F.R.
Fr. Benedict RIP
Fr. Benedict J. Groeschel, C.F.R., died
Saturday, October 4th, on the same day as
St. Francis of Assisi, after praying a rosary.
He was a renowned retreat director, author,
lecturer, teacher, counselor and guide to
many, perhaps the most well known priest in
the United States. It was my privilege to call
him co-founder of Good Counsel helping
homeless mothers and babies, my spiritual
director and friend.
Fr. Benedict and I met during the winter
of 1980 while I was at a mission helping
homeless and runaway kids in Times Square.
He came during the most difficult day I was
there, gave a homily filled with practical as
well as spiritual insights which began a long
personal collaboration in helping the poor
and helping those who help others.
Considering the plight of homeless
mothers and babies, whom I saw coming off
the streets into this mid-town Manhattan
shelter, I asked Fr. Benedict, “Why didn’t
someone do something to help homeless
mothers go back to school, find a job (and
as he would often say) ‘take that next good
step in life.’ “ His final response was that he
would help me if I wanted to start a home for
mothers and babies.
Good Counsel homes is operating
nearly 30 years now helping mothers return
to school and find jobs. Fr. Benedict helped
me every step of the way, was the founding
chairman of the Board, was a personal and
professional guide as we worked with difficult situations and he was a major reason
Good Counsel was able to open our Daystar
home for special needs mothers who are
not only homeless, but have a mental health
diagnosis and/or an addiction.
For a while I worked with him at the
home he began for young men, St. Francis
Home in Brooklyn. I’ve seen him calm the
anger and rage of young men. He was sympathetic and inspiring to them as well as to
Good Counsel’s young women.
While traveling with him on pilgrimages in Italy, France, Ireland and
England, he was often met by people who
were familiar with his writing, his tapes or
appearances on EWTN, the international
television network. He always was himself,
kind, friendly, helpful.
Many times I’d meet with him late at
night because he was counseling priests up
until midnight.
He’d often sleep only four hours a
night. When he once complained to Mother
Teresa of Calcutta, whom he was appointed
as liaison by the then Cardinal of New York,
Terrance Cooke, that he was always tired. He
related that Mother asked him, “How long
do you sleep?” He responded, “Four hours.”
Editor’s Note:
On August 27, 2012 Father came
under fire, for suggesting that “youngsters ages 14-16-18 seduce priests;”
a statement that he retracted on Aug.
30th, stating that “he had not intended
to blame the victim.” This was a sad
episode in a life dedicated to public
ministry, which benefitted countless
thousands.
Those close to Dr. Groeschel
suggested that this statement was
very out-of character; perhaps a
She replied, “That’s the problem.” “What?”
he asked. “You sleep too much.” Fr. Benedict
enjoyed that kind of humor.
Fr. Benedict often said he was looking
forward to going to “Purgatory, because it
was like Jersey City” where he grew up.
Many people believe Fr. Benedict to
be a saint. While he was not perfect, his
preaching and work with the poor touched
millions of lives. When he was going to
speak to priests on a retreat in Florida on
January 11, 2004, he was hit by a car and
nearly died. Thousands of people wrote how
he had personally changed their lives. Many
combination of aging, injuries incurred
following motor vehicle trauma several
years earlier and Fr. Groeschle’s work
with impaired priests conspired to
create his lack of judgment in this
instance.
Sexual abuse is an evil that that
savages the souls of those that are victimized and cannot be tolerated or
covered up. Legal minors cannot give
consent; blaming victims is not acceptable. Report all instances of sexual
abuse to the authorities at once.
were converted or strengthened in their faith.
Some remained in their faith but listened
to him because of his incredible spiritual
insights and practical wisdom.
He will not be forgotten and of his 40
plus books all still in print, I believe many will
be read for centuries to come.
May Fr. Benedict rest in Your Peace oh
Lord.
Peace,
christopher bell +
https://www.facebook.com/opensi
www.goodcounselhomes.org
www.postabortionhelp.org
Diana O’Neill
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Page 6
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, OCTOBER 16, 2014
COMMUNITY
Fidelis Care to Open Yonkers Community Office
Non-profit health plan invites public to join celebration
YONKERS, NY – (October 7,
2014) - Fidelis Care, a Statewide
health plan with more than 1.1 million
members, invites the public to celebrate the grand opening of its Yonkers
Community Office.
Conveniently located at 419B
South Broadway, Yonkers, NY 10705,
the Community Office was established to make free and low-cost health
insurance coverage easily accessible to
neighbors in Yonkers.
With open enrollment for Medicare
Advantage underway and open enrollment for New York State of Health: The
Official Health Plan Marketplace beginning on November 15, this Community
Office will be a resource for neighbors
to learn about all Fidelis Care products
and receive assistance with enrollment.
It will also serve the needs of current
Fidelis Care members.
Following
a
ribbon-cutting
ceremony on Wednesday, October
22, neighbors of all ages are invited to
the grand opening celebration at the
Yonkers Community Office from 1:30
to 5:30 PM. There will be music, refreshments, giveaways, and face painting for
children. Fidelis Care representatives
will be available to answer questions
about health insurance and help eligible
residents apply for enrollment.
The grand opening celebration continues at the Yonkers Community Office
on Thursday, October 23 from 9 AM to
5:30 PM, with Information Day about
the Affordable Care Act. Residents can
meet with a Fidelis Care representative
to learn about health insurance options
for the entire family.
On Friday October 24 from 9 AM
to 5:30 PM, the public is invited to
Fidelis Care in Your Community Day,
featuring entertainment and giveaways.
Fidelis Care’s Yonkers Community
Office is open Monday through
Saturday, from 10 AM – 6:30 PM. For
more information, call (914) 233-5222.
About Fidelis Care:
As the New York State Catholic
Health Plan, Fidelis Care offers quality,
affordable coverage for children and
adults of all ages and at all stages of life,
including products available through
NY State of Health: The Official Health
Plan Marketplace. With more than 1.1
million members Statewide, Fidelis Care
was founded on the belief that all New
Yorkers should have access to affordable, quality health insurance. For more
information, call Fidelis Care at 1-888FIDELIS (1-888-343-3547) or visit
fideliscare.org.
Follow us on Twitter at @fideliscare and on Facebook at facebook.com/
fideliscare.
COMMUNITY
Evening of Honor
At a fundraiser at Westchester
Broadway Theatre in Elmsford to benefit the
Hudson Valley Honor Flight,WBT donated
a portion of all ticket sales for the opening
night of SOUTH PACIFIC. The $10,000.
total donated was to sponsor the October
18th inaugural flight from Westchester,
with the second flight following in April of
2015. WBT owners Bob Funking and Bill
Stutler received a proclamation of merit
from County Executive Rob Astorino for
their efforts on behalf of the veterans.
The October 18th Flight was a mission
accomplished! CDR Bob Foster of VFW
Post 228 said, “Transporting 186 people
across the country and well over 200
throughout a city, half with physical handicaps, is an engineering marvel at best and we
did it. What a team we have! As always, I
was touched to the deepest part of my heart
WBT Presents 10,000. check to Honor Flights. L-R CDR Bob Foster, VFW Post 2285; Fred Abatangelo, Hudson Valley Honor Flight; Bob
Funking, Owner; Vito Pinto, WC Veterans Agency; Morgan Rappe, Edgemont HS Senior Veterans Club; Frank Kimler, Hudson Valley Honor
Flight Executive Board; Bill Skennion, Hudson Valley Honor Flight; Bill Stutler, Owner
L-R CDR Bob Foster, VFW Post 2285; Bob Funking, Owner; Bill Stutler, Owner; Fred
Abatangelo, Hudson Valley Honor Flight; Vito Pinto, WC Veterans Agency; Bill Skennion,
Hudson Valley Honor Flight; Frank Kimler, Hudson Valley Honor Flight Executive Board
by each veteran I spoke to and laughed with
throughout the day. Also laughing with
you all about some of the funny stuff that
happened along the way was priceless.”
Hudson Valley Honor Flight is a nonprofit created solely to honor America’s
veterans for all their sacrifices. We transport
our heroes to Washington, D.C. to visit and
reflect at their memorials at no cost to the
veterans. Honor Flight Network recognizes
American veterans for their sacrifices and
achievements by flying them to Washington,
D.C. to see their memorials at no cost. Top
priority is given to World War II and terminally ill veterans from all wars.
In the future, Honor Flight Network
will be expanded to include Korean War and
Vietnam War veterans. In order for Honor
Flight Network to achieve this goal, guardians fly with the veterans on every flight
providing assistance and helping veterans
have a safe, memorable and rewarding experience. For what our veterans have sacrificed
and have given to us, we consider what we do
a small token of appreciation!
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, OCTOBER 16, 2014
Page 7
GOVERNMENT
November’s Elections Won’t Resolve Much of Anything
Oct 1 2014: Unless
the recent election talk of
bipartisanship and finding
common ground becomes
a reality, dysfunction and
lack of productivity in
Congress is likely to continue.
Members of Congress are home now,
campaigning for the upcoming elections.
Their messages are all over the map, and
for a good reason: they have very little to
brag about.
The Congress that just recessed
until after the elections makes the 80th
— the one that Harry Truman blasted
as “do-nothing” — look like a paragon
of productivity. This year’s members did
manage to avoid a shutdown, but that’s
about all. Congressional leaders spent
the better part of the year avoiding tough
votes.
They didn’t pass an annual budget.
They made no pretense of weighing U.S.
policy against ISIS or, really, any other
foreign or defense policy issue. They
didn’t tackle immigration reform, climate
change, tax reform, the minimum wage,
or domestic surveillance. They passed
fewer bills than any other Congress in
60 years. In the 3 ½ months between the
beginning of August and mid-November,
they’ll have been in session all of 10 days.
Small wonder that voters are in a
sour mood when it comes to Washington.
They want to see our elected leaders
tackling issues that confront the country.
They want less partisanship. They don’t
understand government’s frequent
failures, and crave more competence. On
every front, the people they’ve elected
have disappointed them.
This may be why there is no dominant
theme in this year’s elections: voters seem
more focused on a variety of issues than
on one dominant issue. Apathy is high
and we are headed for low voter turnout,
even by the standards of mid-term elections. Voter outrage at Congress is not
translating into a message of rejecting
incumbents.
This has made the tone of the
election rather interesting. Candidates
appear to have picked up on voters’
dislike of mean-spirited campaigning, and for the most part are showing
restraint. The deeply partisan politics we
saw in 2010 and 2012 has abated. Where
a couple of years ago there was heated
talk of storming the gates in Washington
and potentially shutting the government
down, that kind of campaigning is just a
memory this year. Candidates may not
be embracing Washington, but they’re
not attacking it as they once did. There’s
even talk of bipartisanship and building
bridges, sentiments that were nearly
invisible in recent years.
Given President Obama’s lack of
popularity, there’s a general sense among
members of the political class that
Republicans have an edge in the election
and may well take over the Senate. A
battle to control the Senate can have
significant consequences, yet it’s unlikely
that much will change on Capitol Hill
in the near term. Mid-term elections
are usually about the President, and
Republicans are largely content in this
election to attack him, while Democrats
are content talking about anything but
the President.
Even if the Senate majority changes
hands, it will do so only narrowly. Given
that a party needs 60 votes there to accomplish much of anything, whoever controls
the Senate will be able to maneuver only
on the margins; resolving tough issues
head-on will be difficult, maybe impossible. Unless the recent election talk of
bipartisanship and finding common
ground becomes a reality, in other words,
the dysfunction and lack of productivity
that have become defining characteristics
of Congress in recent years are likely to
continue.
This is ironic, because large amounts
of money are being poured into the
fall elections, especially in races for the
Senate. You’d almost think transformational policies were at stake. In truth,
though, these elections are more of a
run-up to the presidential race in 2016.
And even then, the attention on the
Senate is probably misplaced. Polls are
showing that a number of gubernatorial
seats are likely to switch hands in both
directions, and if anything this year’s 36
gubernatorial contests will have more of
an impact on politics two years from now
than what happens in the Senate.
In short, whatever happens on
Election Day this year, it’s unlikely that
much will change in its wake. This may
hardly be the most important election
of our lifetimes, but the business that
Congress left unfinished is still waiting.
The nation needs an elected leadership capable of rolling up its sleeves and
meeting our challenges head-on right
now, not a few years hence.
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 our educational
resources and programs, explore our
website at www.centeroncongress.org. Go
to Facebook to share your thoughts about
Congress, civic education, and the citizen’s
role in representative democracy. “Like” us on
Facebook at “Center on Congress at Indiana
University.”
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THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, OCTOBER 16, 2014
RELIGION
The Perversity of Righteousness—A 180-Degree Moral Shift
By Luke Hamilton
It is downright difficult to shock or awe anyone
anymore. The convergence
of instant-media platforms
and invisible data networks,
which connect these platforms to millions of
eyeballs, means that anything which happens
in the world is eligible for prime time. Like
most situations involving groups of anonymous strangers interacting with each other,
the trash floats to the top. Our palates
have grown jaded and calloused, taught to
seek the thrill which lies just beyond the
boundary of social approbation. The slope
becomes more slippery the further we slide
down the hill, increasing the pace and inertia
of our demise. Once-forbidden debauchery
now sells clothing lines, attracts prime-time
viewers, garners political support, spawns
lucrative charities, and dominates headline,
byline, and through-line of our news cycle.
Shocking is mundane and the outrageous is normal.
There is however one way guaranteed to
get the panties of the masses in a collective
bundle: mention Christ, the Bible, God, or
His people; elaborate on His plan of salvation for a sinful and fallen mankind; affirm
the exclusivity of the Christian message in
the words of Christ Himself, (“Enter by the
narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad
is the way which leads to destruction,” Matt
7:13). Should you communicate this simple
message to the right audience you will soon
find yourself, like Abraham Van Helsing,
holding aloft a torch in a dank and dusty
crypt, surrounded a horde of snarling individuals, intent on your demise.
Because righteousness is the new
depravity. Purity has become debauched.
Proof of this exists all around us. Public
schools in Chicago announced last year
that they are mandating the teaching of
Sex Ed—for Kindergarteners. This material
is to include homosexual relationships.
Apparently, 5-year olds need to know about
sodomy. Parents in Freemont, California
recently forced the removal of a Sex Ed
curriculum that sought to teach 9th graders
about bondage and sex toys. The maddening
thing is that instead of being treated like the
perverse ideas they are, these initiatives (and
others like them) clearly have the support of
their school district administrators or they
would never have gotten off the ground in
the first place. The sexualization of children
is now an educational goal. The flipside of
this coin are the stories of children being suspended from school for saying “God bless
you” to a classmate. Little ones being told
they are forbidden from reading their Bibles
during elective reading periods. A young girl
being sent to change out of her “Virginity
Rocks!” t-shirt because it’s too sexual. These
stories have happened and will continue to
happen as the moral poles of our society
continue their 180-degree shift.
Outside of the school room, those
who stand for righteousness are attacked
even more viciously. Phil Robertson, the
patriarch of the Duck Dynasty clan, was suspended from his television show for stating
his religious belief regarding human sexuality in a magazine interview. Tim Tebow,
after openly speaking about the faith which
drives him and his commitment to remain
sexually-pure before marriage, finds himself
blacklisted in the NFL. This was clearly not
a “football decision” since the Jets kept Mark
Sanchez on the roster. Chick-fil-A was
roundly derided when its founder declared
his honest support for traditional marriage.
Hobby Lobby has been the target of ridicule
and derision ever since it sued the Obama
Administration in order to avoid being
forced to subsidize abortifacient birth control
for its employees. The list grows longer
daily, of individuals and companies who are
ostracized for their attempts to manifest a
God-honoring position in their lives and
businesses.
The light borne by groups and individuals who seek the righteousness of God
is a powerful stimulant. The light illuminates the darkness and makes those who
lurk there painfully aware of their iniquity.
Consequentially, the source is attacked, in an
attempt to shutter the light and plunge back
into the unmolested darkness. Some of those
who have carried light into the darkness
go astray because they mistakenly believe
that the light they bear is the light of their
own righteousness. It is not. It is the light
of Christ. The best we can hope to become
is a faithful mirror. Just as the moon has no
effulgence of its own but reflects the light of
the sun, believers have no intrinsic righteousness of our own but reflect the righteousness
of the Son.
Make no mistake, carrying His light
into the darkness isn’t a quest undertaken
only by the brave or the adventurous. It is a
command for every believer to fulfill in his
lifetime. The bare minimum of our commission is to be prepared, as the Apostle
Peter commands, to give a reason for the
hope within us to whomever asks. Sadly,
we no longer have to venture far to fulfill
this mission, as the darkness envelops us
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where we stand. Simply standing for His
truth in today’s world is enough to attract
the enemies of righteousness and beckon
to those who have gone astray in the moral
twilight in which we are mired.
How does this duty to bear God’s light
into the world square with the modern
world’s assessment of objective truth as
offensive? It doesn’t. After all, truth is offensive to who have a stake in a lie. The question
to consider is, do we believe the Gospel to be
the truth? If we do not, then why claim to
believe it? If we do, then what shame can be
had in bringing it to others? These thoughts
and questions are asked honestly and with
abundant introspection. Standing for God’s
righteousness is not something which comes
easily to anyone, even though there are those
who seem naturally suited to it. If it was
easily done, we wouldn’t have to fight toothand-nail to try to protect righteousness from
being replaced by sacrilegious debauchery.
Yet fight we must.
“If sinners be damned, at least let them
leap to Hell over our dead bodies. And if they
perish, let them perish with our arms about
their knees, imploring them to stay. If Hell
must be filled, let it be filled in the teeth of
our exertions, and let not one go unwarned
and un-prayed for.”
– C.H. Spurgeon
Luke Hamilton is classically-trained,
Shakespearean actor from Eugene, Oregon
who happens to be a liberty-loving, rightwing, Christian constitutionalist. When
not penning columns for ClashDaily.
com, Hamilton spends his time astride the
Illinois-Wisconsin border, leading bands of
liberty-starved citizens from the progressive gulags of Illinois to [relative] freedom.
Hamilton is the creative mind/voice behind
Pillar & Cloud Productions, a budding
production company which resides at www.
PillarCloudProductions.com. He owes all
to his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, whose
strength is perfected in his weakness.
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, OCTOBER 16, 2014
Page 9
set forth into motion, a Republic with a Bill
of Rights, which protected specific human
activity.
Men have explored and harnessed the
power of the natural world to enhance and
advance the human condition. But today
it seems as if we are a society are fueled
by consumerism and banality. Gone is the
wonder. We are force-fed a culture of materialism and vice-chasing.
Politics is the art of human manipulation and I am equally as terrified as I am
fascinated with the concepts of power,
influence and public deception.
It’s always good to look at the human
element behind any historical context. Take
a glimpse at the past because it casts a glow
on the present, which will shine a light on
the future.
I notice that though I try to see the
world with amazing clarity, there is so much
information and so many moving parts and
variables, that it creates a cloud of distortion. We now have to rely on the accuracy
of those who have recorded history and
we have to filter through the intentions of
those who continually rewrite history. By
ignoring politics we inadvertently invite a
conjuring of human despotism.
When good people turn a blind eye
to the madness of others we cannot avoid
history from repeating itself… and monsters
are reborn. We must remember that before
Adolf Hitler, there was a Genghis Khan,
and before him, a Nero. Before the Roman
Empire, there was a Roman Republic.
Monsters among men are not new to
history. This is why we must pay attention
to the patterns of the past and the trends
of our history - or else we are doomed to
repeat them.
This is why, I now admit to myself, I
am into politics.
Follow on Twitter @kurtcolucci
GOVERNMENT/COMMENTARY
Are You “Into Politics?”
By KURT COLUCCI
I think most readers of
this newspaper are politically conscious and at the
least socially aware. These
are two characteristics that
I assign to myself, if not out of necessity, at
least for humor.
Friends, family and co-workers frequently come to me for advice on politics
or social commentary in an attempt to
make sense out of current events. They say
things like “well, you are into politics”. This
is usually the point where I take a step
back and withdraw into a moment of selfreflection, draw a deep breath and attempt
to trick myself into believing that I’m not
“into politics.”
I am, however, fascinated by complex
human relationships and amazed by how
current events are carved out from the past
and how they will affect our future.
I’m focused on, and interested in, the
management of human action and human
ability. There is no escaping politics in
our modern day. Politics has become the
art of human manipulation, a sort of a
modern-day black magic where competing groups work diligently to trick people
into believing that the illusion of choice is
real. Our present and our future are both
grossly affected by politics and legislation.
Whether we pay attention to “politics” or
not, we all feel its effects eventually.
I, like many readers of this newspaper,
am fascinated with the history of our species
and the evolution of human relationships.
Human relations have always been very a
unique, confusing and fascinating study to
me. This leads me to the central question of
this writing: what is the origin of government and the resulting political structure?
Our species has evolved from small
groups of hunter-gatherers who banded
together for the sake of securing their own
survival. They applied their human energy
in a collective effort to fight off predators in an attempt to survive the terrifying
elements of the natural world.
Our attempt to organize society
precedes anatomically modern human
beings. Throughout history, some peoples
have had, and Asian nomads still have,
portable living structures; this is an amazing
concept. This was an invention borne out
of necessity because early humans were
nomads and hunter-gatherers. It was
necessary for humans to organize and compromise, to achieve a new type of social
structure, in order to coordinate human
action for the sake of survival. Did they call
this primitive organization government?
Who knows? The bottom line is simple.
People have worked together for the sake of
surviving the harsh natural world, which is
as beautiful as it is unforgiving.
There is an elusive nature to the
concept or study of man’s quest to harness
the power of the collective, in order to
serve the needs of society as a whole. In our
modern day it may seem counter-productive, but at one point in our existence it was
a harsh necessity.
Here’s the quick breakdown of events:
Long ago, when people were huntergatherers fighting the elements of the
natural world and the predators within it,
including other human beings, people had
to organize because they were stronger
as a group, than they were as individuals. Eventually our ancestors learned to
cultivate the land and with the advent of
agriculture and irrigation systems, were able
to plant their feet in one static geographic
area. This ultimately gave rise to cities and
markets, which allowed for production
and safe and consistent trade. A greater
civility evolved from this as standardization of weights and measures allowed
for efficient trade. Roads for easy travel
emerged. As cities grew bigger people
began to identify with a specific geographic
area, creating boundaries around lands that
were governed in a certain manner. At
times there were conflicts between these
governed territories. Looking back through
history we can see that the organization
of human energy created something that
could be to be manipulated. Diverse communication systems, which started as cave
drawings and ultimately evolved into the
complex satellite data transmissions that we
see today, allowed for the forging of mass
consent. This is what I consider to be the
beginning of political evolution.
Those of us who pay attention to
human interaction are labeled “political” as if
this label is some sort of badge of dishonor,
almost a societal Scarlet letter around our
necks. Far too often we hear people say “I
don’t get into politics.” My question to this
is usually “why? Why wouldn’t you want to
learn your past to understand your present
condition and more accurately predict your
future?
The fact that anyone would willfully
ignore their current human condition and
all the influencing factors that affect their
future amazes me.
I fall victim to the belief that politics is
nothing more than the collective administration of human energy. This includes laws
for societal organization and the enforcement of these laws. But politics is a lot more
than just public administration-after all that
is the role of government. And there can be
no government without politics.
There is always an underlying philosophy to how a society is governed. Whether
it’s the ideology of self-government or
centralized control by a state. The founders
of the American Republic tried to find a
balance between a central authority and
individual autonomous states, able to
make their own decisions locally through a
Democratic process; the rule of law being
the highest ideal. That is why the founders
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Page 10
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, OCTOBER 16, 2014
Creative Disruption
It’s Not All Bad, Is It? – No, but …
by John F. McMullen
A resounding NO to
whether it is all bad– but,
unfortunately, you’d never
know from today’s news.
We read or, more likely, see
on television, usually only of the beheadings, Ebola crisis, murders, racial unrest,
cop shootings, high profile rapes. car-jackings, etc. It is the awful incidents that get
our attention while good news goes under
our radar.
Harvard professor, Steven Pinker, an
experimental psychologist, cognitive scientist, linguist, and popular science author,
writes in the Preface to his 2012 book,
“The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why
Violence Has Declined,” “Believe it or not –
and I know that most people do not – violence
has declined over long stretches of time, and
today we may be living in the most peaceful
era in our species’ existence. The decline, to be
sure, has not been smooth; it has not brought
violence down to zero; and it is not guaranteed to continue. But it is an unmistakable
development, visible on scales from millennia to years, from the waging of wars to the
spanking of children.”
Granted, Pinker wrote this before
the outrageous brutality of ISIS and the
bombing, rocket launches, and drone
strikes by the US and its partners and
these actions may have affected (or not)
his designation of this as “the most peaceful
era in our species’ existence” but the study
is voluminous, impressive, encompasses
from prehistory to the 21st Century and
is well worthy of our attention.
Professor Hans Rosling is, with
Raymond Kurzweil, in all probability, the
individual whose TED Talks are watched
annually by the most viewers in the world.
TED (“Technology, Entertainment, and
Design”) talks (www.ted.com), started in
1984 with regular conferences beginning
in 1990 throughout the world. The presenters have included Bono, Bill Clinton,
Joan Goodall, Bill Gates, Malcolm
Gladwell, Richard Dawkins, Google
founders Larry Page & Sergey Brin,
Kurzweil, and Rosling – each presenter is
allowed 18 minutes to present her / his /
their case. Since June 2006, the talks have
been available for free watching on-line
and, as of April 2014, there were 1,700
talks available on-line (on November 13,
2012, the number of viewings passed the one
billion mark).
Rosling is a Swedish medical
doctor, academic, statistician, Professor
of International Health at Karolinska
Institute and co-founder & chairman
of the Gapminder Foundation (www.
gapminder.org/). The foundation has
developed powerful graphic presentation
tools to display statistics in a non-dry,
interesting manner (the main tool is
available for free use at the web site).
Using this Gapminder tool, Rosling gave
a fifty-nine minute presentation on the
BBC, “DON’T PANIC — The Facts About
Population: The world might not be as bad
as you might believe!” on November 7,
2013 (www.gapminder.org/videos/dontpanic-the-facts-about-population/#.
VDXU3ZUtDX4” in which he showed
that the world can support the projected
world population growth.
In September 2010, Rosling had
given a TED Talk, “The good news of
the decade?” (www.ted.com/talks/hans_
rosling_the_good_news_of_the_decade/
transcript), in which he reviewed the
progress made throughout the world
in response to the United Nations’
“Millennium Development Goals.” There
were specific goals laid out in eight areas:
“End Poverty,” “Gender,” “Maternal
Health,” “Child Health,” “Environment,”
“Control of Infection,” “Education,” and
“Global Links Between Nations.” Rosling
said “I like these development goals, and that
is because each and every one is measured”
and took the audience though a detailed
statistical analysis which showed that the
2000-2009 decade demonstrated real
progress in all of these areas (it must be
pointed out that these figures were compiled
before the Ebola outbreak and we now see
problems in the worldwide attempt to control
infections).
Bringing the analysis closer to home,
we only have to look at President Obama’s
October 2nd talk on US economic progress
at Northwestern University in Chicago
(http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/03/
us/politics/in-illinois-speech-obamatrumpets-economic-successes.html -- the
video of the speech is at this site as well
as the New York Times reporting on the
talk). In the talk, the president said “What
I want people to know is that there are
some really good things happening in
America,” ticking off progress in energy
self-sufficiency, manufacturing numbers,
health care costs and other areas. Some of
the points that he made:
•B
usinesses have added more than 10
million jobs in the last 54 months, the
largest job growth in our history.
• The deficit has gone from 9.8% to near 3%
in the president’s time in office.
• The policies of the administration slowed
the growth in health care costs while
“helping more Americans gain quality
affordable health coverage. We’ve reduced
the uninsured rate among adults by 26%,
bringing health coverage to more than 10.3
million people.”
• “Our High School Graduation Rate is the
highest it’s ever been.”
• “Unprecedented investments have been
made in clean energy” with Wind Power
Tripling and Solar Power Increasing
Tenfold.
Republicans and Democrats to the
left of President Obama will certainly
question these figures and will attempt
to debunk them, maintaining that other
policies would have produced even greater
improvement. The fact remains, however,
that these figures look pretty good – and,
if they could have been better, that’s great
too.
So we have three looks at different
aspects of the world’s current position
and that of the United States and they all
indicate that things are far from as bad
as they seem from our watching of the
nightly news.
There are, however, underlying challenges that we must face as we go forward
– and these are the ones that this column
has focused on since its beginnings, 130
columns ago. Technological innovation
had led to the creation of a substantial
number of high-paying quality jobs while
eliminating many more across the board
(from high paid executives at Kodak to bank
tellers, checkout clerks, factory workers as well
as middle managers across all industries).
Since these workers are scattered all over
and not-concentrated in any particular Congressional District, this aspect of
economic change has not received the
attention it so richly deserves (there is
now a National Science Foundation project
charged with investigating the impact of
technological change). Additionally, since
many of the displaced are either too old,
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THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, OCTOBER 16, 2014
Page 11
administrative functions could be spread
across the large firm. Now, the feeling
that is coming into vogue is that smaller
entities focused more narrowly will be
more profitable and, in addition to HP
(and EMC, already under pressure from
investors to split), there are calls for DuPont
and Pepsi to also separate functions into
different companies. The surprising fact
(at least to me) is that the HP split will
result in the laying off of 50,000 people
(HP’s figure; industry analysts estimate
55,000). To keep this number in perspective, Google’s total number of employees
is about 49,000 – so HP is laying off more
people than Google employs!
The message, then, really is that
the picture is more complex than it may
seem. The good news is that things aren’t
anywhere nearly as bad as the television
presents but buried under that statement
is the fact that we have a lot of work to do
in both understanding the new complex
problems brought on by technological
innovation and then dealing with them.
changers normally happen under our personal
radar until we find that the world as we knew
it is no more.
that even the best states have only a tiny
fraction of their students equipped for the
rigors of the industry.
The
highest-performing
state,
Maryland, saw just over 1% of the class of
2013 pass the AP Computer Science exam
(defined as receiving a score of 3 or higher
on the 5 point scale). North Carolina, which
falls in the middle of the pack, saw fewer
than 3 in 1000 students pass. Louisiana,
the lowest-performing state that still had a
passing student, saw just 4 students in 10,000
pass the exam. Two states- Wyoming and
Mississippi saw zero students pass. A look
at the performance of traditionally underrepresented groups in computer science is
even more sobering: as Education Week
affirms, in some states, “no female, AfricanAmerican, or Hispanic students took the
Advanced Placement exam in computer
science.15
Improving access to and success in AP
computer Science courses is critical to preparing students for the jobs of today and
tomorrow. An online petition started by the
non-profit Code.org encouraged citizens
to sign “if you think every student in every
school should have the opportunity to learn
computer science.” As of early 2014, more
than 1million people had signed, while
more than 20 million people worldwide
completed the program’s Hour of Code.
During Computer Science Education Week
in December 2013, Code.org announced a
partnership with Chicago Public Schools
(CPS) to make computer science a core
subject (as opposed to merely an elective) in
CPS schools.16
In Wisconsin, Governor Scott Walker
signed a bill that would increase the number
of credits in math and science a high school
student needed to graduate, while permitting computer science classes to count for
the math requirement.17 Alabama followed
suit, meaning 16 states total allow computer
science courses to satisfy high school math
requirements.18 Such trends are encouraging developments and show the steps
thoughtful state leaders can take.The business
community would do well to use their voices
to advocate for continuing this push.
To read the complete report, visit: www.
Creative Disruption
It’s Not All Bad, Is It? – No, but …
Continued from page 10
too uneducated for the new higher level
jobs being created, or, unfortunately, too
unintelligent for the new tasks, many do
not show up in unemployment figures
as they either give up altogether or take
much lower paying jobs (often creating
mortgage problems or limiting their children’s
opportunities).
There are also changes caused by
our new mobile social media technology
which some observers see as very negative.
This series has dwelled on these issues previously and will return to them next week.
Finally, there is the “out-of-nowhere”
push for major companies to split their
firms to allow unconfused focus on specific
activities – Question: “Is Hewlett-Packard
a services company or a manufacturer of
desktop systems?” Answer: “The question
will soon be moot as HP is split in two
companies.” Consolidations used to be
pushed with the idea that a large company
would have a savings in personnel as
Creative Disruption is a continuing series
examining the impact of constantly accelerating technology on the world around us. These
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
EDUCATION
Leaders and Laggards
The US Chamber of Commerce Foundation Report 2014
This week, we excerpt page 36 of the
U. S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation
Report: Leaders and Laggards 2014, which
examines the effectiveness of schools, nationally to prepare students for high-tech jobs in
computer programming:
Similarly, in a 2012 survey of students and
employers, the National Association of
Colleges and Employers found that 52% of
the 196 major companies it surveyed were
hiring in the field of computer science. 12
The BLS found similar high pay and high
Schools Failing to Prepare
Students in Computer Science
growth rates for computer and information
systems managers (18% growth predicted
by 2020 and an average salary of $115,780
per year),13 computer programmers (12%
growth and $71,380 per year), computer
systems analysts (22% growth and $77,740
per year),14 and database administrators
(31% growth and $73,490 per year).14 In
other words, in a wide array of computer
science- related professions, anticipated
growth in jobs and salaries suggests a burgeoning and lucrative field – not to mention
a necessary one in a 21st century economy.
Unfortunately, a look at passage rates on
the Advanced Placement Computer Science
exam – one measure of student preparedness
for these fields in high school- demonstrates
Large technology firms like Google,
Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, and Twitter
have spurred significant growth in the
American Economy. These companies hire
large numbers of employees who are trained
in computer science, pay them well, and
position them to create new and innovative
products that make all of our lives better.
These major players are not alone. The
Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) predicts a
30% increase in demand for software developers by 2020 (a growth rate they call “much
faster than average” for the labor market as a
whole). Estimated average pay for software
developers was $90,530 per year in 2010.11
Sleep-Away
Camp
uschamber.com. This article is printed with
written permission from The U. S. Chamber of
Commerce Foundation, 1615 H Street, NW
Washington, DC 20062-2000
Page 12
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, OCTOBER 16, 2014
Arts/EntertainmentSection
LITERATURE
The Song of Rest
By Najah Muhammad Ryan
Sitting at an angle on the window
ledge, she was overtaken by the sound
of rain tiptoeing on the terrace. It was
tapping in harmony with the time on
the ticking clock, parallel to where
she was sitting. The young women
gazed longingly at the half moon, as
its dim light barely seemed to touch
the right side of her face, neck, and
the top of her shoulder. Illuminating
in the near distance were a few
candles, just bright enough that one
could faintly notice the deep blue
color of the hallway walls. Blue like
the sea-- for in that moment it was
a dark and rich passage. The clouds
grew heavy and so did her thoughts;
so did her eyes. Each blink became
one step closer to eternal rest. They
were slow and sumptuous, keeping
the beat bass of the sounds around her
like the West African Doundounba;
drumming, drumming. She began
to hear the echo of her soul; a
somewhat ritualistic groove. Each
sound began interweaving; pounding
open and shut like hand on drum.
The rain sounded like a brekete, the
clock a kenkeni, her heart a dun
dun, and the sound of the tussling
trees became shekeres. Each sound
played out the pulse of her thoughts,
her breath and her heart; an equally
taunting yet soothing melody. From
her peripheral vision she saw the
muffled reflections of the glinting
candles dancing around her, similar
to how the Iroquois and Chippewa
dance the circle of fire. In her final
moments she was alone, but not
completely forsaken, for she had the
rain, the clock, the candles, the trees,
her heart, the moon, and the night.
Together they were the most beautiful lullaby; the gentlest guide. Surely
the women drifted away at the final
shut of her eyes; and let go into the
sound of peace, the song of rest.
©Najah Muhammad Ryan 2014
OPERA
Taconic Opera Commences 17th Season With Verdi’s Falstaff
Yorktown, NY:
Taconic Opera opens its 17th
Season with Giuseppe Verdi’s final
opera, Falstaff, based on Shakespeare’s
hilarious comedy, The Merry Wives of
Windsor. After an illustrious career
in dramatic opera and being considered its undisputed king in his day, the
composer actually came out of retirement in order to add a comedic gem to
his crown. Unlike his earlier “bel canto”
operas, Falstaff is a “verismo” opera in
which the orchestra becomes as vital
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and important as the singers. For audiences and singers, Falstaff is considered
a comedic masterpiece.
The company is bringing back
Jorge Ocasio in the title role. Ocasio
has been the funny-man (buffo) in
the company’s recent productions of
Italian Girl in Algiers, Daughter of the
Regiment and Don Pasquale, and has
induced audience reactions from genuinely amused chuckling to outright
explosions of laughter. He is a comedic
master who is thoroughly engaging
during every moment on stage. The rest
of the cast match him in both singing
and acting ability and create an unbeatable ensemble.
Performances will be held at the
Yorktown Stage, 1974 Commerce St.,
Yorktown Heights, NY on Saturday,
October 18 at 8:00 pm and Sunday,
October 19 at 2:00 pm. A wide range
of ticket prices are available and significant reductions are offered for seniors.
To encourage youth attendance,
student prices are only $15 regardless
of seating selection. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit the
company website at www.taconicopera.
org or call the toll-free number: (855)
88-OPERA (855-886-7372).
Opera For Children
Over the past 16 Seasons, Taconic
Opera has reached out to as many as
6000 school children a year in their
schools. In addition, since the year
2000, over 10,000 children have
attended our mainstage operas (the
same one’s that our adults attend)
at special Thursday morning performances set aside especially for schools.
During these performance, The cast,
orchestra, technical help all get off of
work and donate their time so that
children can be exposed to this art
form.
Dan Montez, General Director of
Taconic Opera, founded the company
in Westchester in 1997 so that he could
have a career in Opera, without traveling all over the world. Mr. Montez is
a professional tenor and he has sung
principal roles in over 50 productions
on stages that include Lincoln Center,
Carnegie Hall and the
San Francisco Opera. Additionally,
Mr. Montez has also performed
in numerous oratorios and recitals
throughout the United States.
Mr. Montez is also an accomplished stage director, composer of
two oratorios: Enoch and Jonah, and
author. Some of his recent books
include: Don’t Believe It:
How to follow your dreams in spite
of those who say you can’t; Singing For
Your Supper: What they don’t teach
you in school about an opera career;
and Singing in Your Sleep: The personality you will need to have a career
in Opera.
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, OCTOBER 16, 2014
Page 13
EYE ON THEATRE
Flummoxed Playwright, Autistic Youth
By JOHN SIMON
It’s Only a Play
A persistent rumor
has it that the uncouth
drama critic in Terrence
McNally’s “It’s Only a Play” is based on
me. First seen Off Broadway in 1986, the
comedy is now on Broadway, brilliantly
directed by Jack O’Brien on Scott Pask’s
opulent set.
Playright Terrence McNally
We are in the bedroom of Julia
Budden (based on Irene Selznick—all
the characters are caricatures of real
people), which serves as cloakroom for
the offstage opening-night party for the
latest play by Pater Askin (i.e., McNally),
a prospective flop. The legendary guests
are named by Gus, the young coatroom
attendant with grand ambitions, as he
brings in their expensive, often eccentric, garments soon to be a monumental
pile. McNally has effectively updated the
play with contemporary figures and references. Thus Gus’s remark, “I am pretty
sure I saw Rosie O’Donnell talking to
the Pope.”
On comes James Wicker, a ham
actor friend of the playwright’s, now
uncast because of an ongoing role on
a seemingly everlasting TV series. He
being able to do the lead so much better
or, failing that, casting Harvey Fierstein
(whom he cleverly impersonates) or at
least Nathan Lane (who he is, playing
Wicker).
The text is not short on sexual and
homosexual jokes, and even his being
repeatedly misaddressed as Wacker
takes on lewd implications of wanker. A
Continued on page 14
Nathan Lane and Rupert Grint in “It’s Only A Play”
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THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, OCTOBER 16, 2014
EYE ON THEATRE
Flummoxed Playwright, Autistic Youth
Continued from page 13
major butt of jokes is the theater critic
Ira Drew, some of whose murderous putdowns we hear, though I must
protest that I do not write plays and
peddle them under a pseudonym.
The boudoir harbors the telephone,
on which countless supposedly private
calls are made to newspapers, agents
and friends with typically catty wit. “It’s
Only a Play,” however, is funny even if
you don’t know on whom everyone is
based. Even I am not sure who is the
model for the stage and screen diva,
foulmouthed Virginia Noyes (think
noise!), just released from jail and
wearing a court-assigned ankle bracelet
that sounds off most inappropriately.
(Tallulah Bankhead perhaps?).
Also present is the director of
the evening’s fiasco, a famous but pottymouthed British import soon to be
knighted, outlandishly clad and behaved.
And there is the befuddled author,
Askin, unable to overcome his begetting
a turkey, and in a state of perpetual, melancholy daze.
As Wicker-Wacker, Nathan Lane
is majestically grandiose, his every
expression and gesture—even his
silences—unremittingly
uproarious.
As the injured, suffering playwright,
Matthew Broderick is almost as funny.
As Virginia Noyes, baritone-voiced
Stockard Channing, makes bitchy pomposity uncommonly endearing. With
her tricky voice, Megan Mullally flutters
imperiously as a skittish grande dame;
as a snarky directorial wunderkind,
Britisher Rupert Grint is all pretentious
precocity; as Gus, Micah Stock is exemplarily besotted. F. Murray Abraham
makes a diabolic drama critic much
grander than I could ever dream to be.
Admiring mention must be made of
Ann Roth’s unfailingly droll costumes,
Lady Gaga’s being a comedic knockout.
Altogether, McNally has written a
joyously absurd farce, with characters
both appalling and appealing, as only a
play by a master can make them.
The Curious Adventure of the
Dog in the Night-time
I may be more old guard than avantgarde, but I find “The Curious Adventure
of the Dog in the Night-time” a little
too determined, not to say hell-bent, to
amaze and shock. Innovation is all very
well, but less so when it proves obsessive
and distracting.
Rupert Grint, Megan Mullally, Matthew Broderick, Nathan Lane and Stockard Channing in “It’s Only A Play”
With its Conan Doyle-inspired title,
this is the story of Christopher Boone,
a small-town autistic fifteen-year-old,
mathematically savant but humanly
idiot. His beloved dog, Wellington, has
been murdered—a garden fork protruding from his corpse—and the boy is
determined to track down the killer.
He proceeds to “detectivize” with
seemingly impeccable logic, but his
autism forbids his being touched,
entering other people’s dwellings, and
not fearing innocuous bystanders as
threatening strangers. He likes being
alone in tight places, and would enjoy
being an astronaut on a spacecraft with
Continued on page 15
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, OCTOBER 16, 2014
Page 15
EYE ON THEATRE
Flummoxed Playwright, Autistic Youth
Continued from page 14
preferably no one else on it. But he must
find the dog killer first.
There is his annoying father, Ed,
who keeps telling him to keep his nose
out of other people’s business, and his
pathetic mother, Judy, in hospital for
a minor ailment, but there killed by a
stroke. Or so his father tells him. In fact,
she was having an affair with a married
neighbor, and is now living with him in
London.
Although scared of trains,
Christopher takes one to London. He
finds his mother, eventually getting her
to return to their burg, where he will
also be in time for an advanced math
test enabling him to get to university
and a career beyond. His one good
angel is Siobhan, the special education
teacher who got him to keep a helpful
diary, from which he and she take turns
reading aloud.
All this, which sometimes makes
fun of being a play, is adapted from
a novel by Mark Haddon, told in the
first person, and probably more easily
digested. Adapted somewhat chaotically for the stage by Simon Stephens,
it indulges in every conceivable fantastic device. Thus the three permanent
walls constitute a grid of squares, some
of which are pigeonholes from which
all sorts of things emerge, to combine
with prodigious projections and yield
the wildest agglomeration. The floor, a
similar grid, allows Christopher to draw
on it in chalk, run a toy train over it, and
al race across it in reversible patterns.
This only begins to convey the
oddest assortment of cluttering phenomena, notably a bunch of cubes that
minor characters keep breathlessly
rearranging in variously suggestive configurations, when they are not lofting
the boy skyward and toying with him, or
just sitting ominously around the edges
of the set.
The dialogue is suitably fanciful, as
for example Christopher’s “I see everything. Most other people are lazy. They
do what is called glancing, which is the
same word for bumping off something
and carrying on in almost the same
direction. And the information in their
head is really simple.”
The actors are to be congratulated,
not least for their good British accents.
At this, the highly talented recent
Juilliard graduate, a most convincing Christopher, is particularly adept.
Expertly directed by Marianne Elliott,
the entire cast is impeccable, with Enid
Graham ( Judy), Ian Barford (Ed), and
Francesca Faridany (Siobhan) particularly outstanding. Fine décor and
costumes by Bunny Christie, adventurous lighting by Paule Constable,
thrilling video by Finn Ross, choreography by . . . but enough of listing the many
collaborators.
See it by all means if you relish the
bizarre. Otherwise you might just let
dead, like sleeping dogs, lie.
John Simon has written for over 50 years on
theatre, film, literature, music and fine arts
for the Hudson Review, 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 Washington Post. To
learn more, visit the www.JohnSimonUncensored.com website.
It’s Only A Play
Gerald Schoenfeld Theater
236 West 45th St.,
New York, NY 10036
Photos: Joan Marcus
The Curious Incident of
the Dog in Night-Time
Ethel Barrymore Theater
243 W 47th St,
New York, NY 10036
Photos: Joan Marcus
Page 16
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, OCTOBER 16, 2014
CALENDAR
News and Notes from Northern Westchester
By Mark Jeffers
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My wife and I are
trying to get in shape for
all the wonderful charity
walks and runs in the area.
The problem is while she is
running up hills; I am tiring just lacing up my
sneakers! Not to worry though I did manage
enough energy to write this week’s “out of
shape, but working on it” edition of “News
& Notes.”
Speaking of walks…the Leukemia
& Lymphoma Society’s Light The Night
Westchester Walk will be held on November
1st at Rye Playland. The society funds treatments that are saving the lives of patients
today. LLS is making cures happen by providing patient support services, advocacy for
lifesaving treatments and the most promising cancer research anywhere.
Over at Lasdon Park in Katonah
they are having a Terrarium Making
Demonstration on Sunday, November 9th,
at 2pm, join the horticulturist and learn how
to make your own garden in a globe.
The 13th Annual St. Patrick’s Golf
Outing will be held on Monday, October
20th at the Salem Golf Club, remember
keep your left arm straight and head down,
that’s what my buddy Brian always tells me
when trying to golf.
How about some sipping and
reading…The Friends of Mahopac Public
Library are holding their fourth annual wine
tasting on October 16th at Sterling Cellars
in Mahopac.
Do you have plans on Saturdays in
November…you may want to “moo-ve” on
this and plan to stop by the Hilltop Hanover
Farm in Yorktown Heights and join farm
performances being held at The Katonah
Village Library on Friday, November 21st
and Saturday, November 22nd, all times are
at 8pm. The cast includes Holland Renton
of Larchmont, Cyrus Newitt of Bedford
Hills and Julie Thaxter-Gourlay of Westport,
Conn. The play will be directed by Sam
Morell of Armonk.
It’s time again for the Fall Foliage
Festival presented by the Town of Mt.
Pleasant Recreation & Parks Department, it
will be held at Broadway Field in Hawthorne
on Saturday, October 18th.
You know time is flying by when I
mention that the Katonah Museum of Art
is opening its museum shop for the holidays;
the shop is open Tuesday through Sunday
until January 4th.
The gang over at Muscoot Farm in
Somers is presenting a Blacksmithing
Mark Jeffers resides in Bedford Hills, New York,
with his wife Sarah, and three daughters, Kate,
Amanda, and Claire.
CALENDAR
Saturday November 1
MONDAYS - 8:30 AM
Blacksmith
Workshop with
Bill Fitzgerald at
Muscoot Farm.
Muscoot Bird
Walk
Space is limited; registration required.
Find a photo you can use similar to
attached screen grab
With Anne Swaim
of Saw Mill River
Audubon.
Find a photo similar to attached screen
grab
WESTCHESTER
GUARDIAN
LEGAL
ADVERTISING
Sunday November 9th
Terrarium Making
Demonstration
Lasdon
Park,
Katonah
Find photo of a
terrarium in a globe
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filed NY Sec. of State (SSNY) 9/8/14. Office in
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educational director Carol Lake to visit with
the cows, and learn about the farm and educational center from an insider’s perspective.
The Lions Club of Bedford Hills is
very excited to celebrate its 75th year as a
vital part of the Bedford Hills and Northern
Westchester community on October 18th at
7pm at the Holiday Inn in Mount Kisco.
Congratulations and well wishes go
out to Bedford’s Hollywood star couple
Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds as they are
expecting their first child.
The Small Town Theatre Company
will produce a staged reading of the Pulitzer
Prize and Tony Award Best Play “Proof ” at
both The Hergenhan Center in Armonk
and Katonah Village Library in Katonah.
The performances will take place
on Friday, November 14th and Saturday,
November 15th in Armonk with additional
Workshop, Saturdays in November 1 & 15,
9am to 2pm. Adults 18 and older can learn
the basic skills of blacksmithing with craftsman Bill Fitzgerald.
Happy Birthday…we hope that
everyone will stop in to Charles Department
Store in Katonah and help them celebrate
90 years in the business. Like their parents
and grandparents before them, Dave and
Jim Raneri take pride in serving their customers. The store has a little bit of everything
and what they don’t have, they will order for
you. Last year my wife was on the hunt for
a particular cookie cutter and they had it for
her within a week.
We are heading out this weekend to
pick apples, they are so many great northern
Westchester orchards to choose from, and
don’t forget to fire down some hot cider…
see you next week.
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whom process against it may be served. SSNY
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LLC: 3411 Silverside Rd #104 Wilmington, DE 19810.
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Office location: Westchester County. SSNY has
been designated as agent of the LLC upon whom
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process may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of
process to The PLLC 1 Oakway Scarsdale, NY
10583. Purpose: Any lawful activity.
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whom process may be served. SSNY shall mail
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THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, OCTOBER 16, 2014
CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES
Arab Inspirations
By Sherif Awad
The history between
Italy and Egypt goes back
to the love story between
Cleopatra and Julius
Caesar until, centuries later,
many Italians came and lived in Cairo and
Alexandria, becoming Egyptian residents
in a cosmopolitan and contemporary
society of the past two centuries. If history
books and some historical films spoke
about the Arab heritage in Andalucía,
fewer reflected the Arab presence in Sicily.
Yet, on the other side of the
Mediterranean, the travelling Arab
cinema and literature has influenced the
Sicilian born Aldo Nicosia who now
teaches Arabic language and Modern
Arabic Literature at the Italian university
of Bari. Dr. Nicosia, who also speaks a
fluent Arabic with Egyptian slang, has first
published in the year 2007 Il Cinema Arabo
(The Arab Cinema), a book discussing
Arab cinema after writing many articles
about Tunisian poetry, literature, dialectology, cinema, censorship and socio-political
issues in the Arab societies. With the same
publishing house Carocci, Nicosia recently
issued a new book called Il romanzo arabo
al cinema (The Arab Novel in Cinema)
where he discusses and compares the
original text and film adaptation of four
novels. A Q&A with the author:
SA: First, let us know about Arab
heritage in Sicily now and in the past
AN: When we speak about Arab
heritage in Sicily, first we should have
in mind a banal but basic geographic
datum: Sicily lies in the heart of the
Mediterranean sea, so we share with Arab
world same weather, same light of air, same
colors, same vegetation, same tastes and
ingredients used in cuisine, same behaviors
and attitudes in life. Yet many Sicilians
ignore or decided to ignore these “facts
of similarity”…Why? Maybe because the
sea seems to everyone a border bigger than
lands and mountains in dividing people.
Moreover, Italian people have an innate
trend to be colonized by other nations or
cultures, exactly like Arab people. So we
forgot where we are found, our neighbors
and looked towards northern Europeans
models and styles, trying to imitate them
in all aspects of life (except food, maybe, at
least so far, and democratic values). Many
Sicilians ignore the huge effects of Arab
conquest of Sicily and the flourishing conditions of the island during the Normand
period. Yet, if you consider the Sicilian
dialect and the agriculture terminology or
surnames or names of places, you feel surrounded by Arab names adapted to rules
of Italian phonetics or corrupted by time.
To consider the Arab roots of Sicilian civilization are fashionable only when we talk
in conferences, as if we talk about something past, gone with the wind. But when
Sicilians criticize Arab societies, they just
criticize their own ills, such as the lack of
personal responsibility, the lack of sense of
nation, of public interest, the individualism
or the tribalism of social behaviors.”
SA: “Why did you develop an
interest to study and teach Arabic literature in Italy?”
AN: “Many Arab friends have asked
me the same question. No one asks you
why to choose to study English or French
or German, considering that we southern
Italians share fewer things with northern
Europe (apart from an imagined history
or war events) than with Mediterranean
people. As I told you before, we turned our
back to south and looked towards north,
attracted by what is considered on the top.
Moreover we see that in every map north is
found on the top and south on the bottom,
except in al-Idrisi medieval maps. So even
Arab friends are surprised from the fact
that some persons from Europe could
be interested in Arabic history, language,
and so on. For me it was more natural and
spontaneous to get interested in what my
Arab neighbors do, think and live their
lives. Even religion differences seem to
me a superstructure and not a basic divide
as weather conditions, temperatures and
common struggles to survive during long
centuries with same objective difficulties.
Moreover we are an island, so Sicilians
were separated by the heart of Europe by
sea and long land distances.”
SA: “What can you tell us about your
students? Why Italian young men and
women prefer to study Arabic?” AN: “Since 2003 I had taught Arabic,
I mean a language that scholars call
Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), just a
convention to define a product that is not
good to have full communication in the
Arab world. Personally I prefer to teach
living Arabic languages, the so-called and
Continued on page 18
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Page 18
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, OCTOBER 16, 2014
CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES
Arab Inspirations
Continued from page 17
despised “dialects” (and Arab cinema helps
me a lot to achieve that goal). Till 2012,
I taught in the university of Catania, so
almost all students were Sicilians, except
for some of Arab origins, mostly from
Tunisia and Morocco. After the events
of 9/11, we noticed an increase in Arabic
courses enrollment all throughout Italy.
Of course Sicilians students who studied
history well or were just looking at their
facial features in a mirror, decided to
study Arabic language and Arab-Islamic
civilization, the language of their ancestors. Some choose those subjects out of
exoticism, or a kind of fashion. MSA is
tough even for mother tongue Arabs, so
you can imagine what means for Italians,
so some of them, after a few months, give
up, but that is a very normal reaction.
Some students choose Arabic, dreaming
a well-paid job in Dubai. There are girls
who have met boyfriends from Maghreb
areas, so they are eager to discover their
background cultures. Some boys feed forbidden dreams with eye-winking women,
covered by veils, or belly dancers: maybe
they don t dare to admit that!”
SA: How do you use Arab film in
your lectures at the university to teach
the Arab language? AN: “I use to project many Arab
films (subtitled in English or French or
Italian) in my courses of Arabic Modern
Literature, representing many different
Author Aldo Nicosia
countries, periods and issues. I find that
students need this kind of material to feel
themselves more involved in the treated
subjects than having to do so with sometimes boring papers and written stuff. The
problem is that some students need to be
encouraged to visit Arab countries. So
cinema could be a visual door to the Arab
world for them, or maybe a way to kick
their bottoms out of classroom chairs for a
full immersion in the Arab culture! Many
films I chose were adaptations of wellknown Arabic novels, so I guess it was
interesting for students to compare their
own film that they had built while reading
the novel, and its filmic translations on the
big screen.“
SA: In your first book The Arab
Cinema, which films you have chosen to
discuss? What issues you noticed being
depicted in Arab cinema? Il cinema arabo, published in 2007, was
the first attempt (as far I know in Italian
language) to use cinema as a mirror in
which you can see a reflection of all the
social, political, cultural history of the Arab
world, since the 1967 Naksa till nowadays.
In the case of Egypt, the analysis covered a
deeper period, since the thirties of the 20th
century. I discussed issues such as cultural
identity, Arabness, religion, the place of
the individual, effect of wars on societies, Palestine, emancipation of woman,
censorship, fundamentalism, and many
other –isms. It was not easy to squeeze and
connect in 128 pages all the events and
stories and to select them and eliminate
important titles, since I hadn’t in my mind
to write a directory of Arab films.”
SA: “Now to your new book The
Arab Novel in Cinema: What was your
criteria in selecting the four novels
amongst hundreds of other novels in
Arab literature?”
AN: “As I state in the back cover
page, I chose Miramar, al-Kitkat and
The Yacoubian Building, to cover different phases in the history of Egypt, and to
represent different microcosms of it. The
source novels are very famous and enjoyed
approval and praise from both critic and
public. Their adaptations stirred several
issues and showed how censorship or autocensorship works in the mind of a director,
as intellectual and citizen. The fourth was
the 1973 Syrian film Al-makhdu’un (The
Duped) by Egyptian director Tewfik
Saleh. It was inspired by a Palestinian
novel, Men under the Sun, was a personal
acknowledgement to the revolutionary
force of Ghassan Kanafani’s fiction and
Tawfiq Saleh’s art of direction. I consider
that, among the four films analyzed, being
the best example of adaptation and respect
of the spirit of the novelist. I can say that,
in some respects, it adds to the novel
source new meanings and shows Arabs
the huge culpabilities of authorities in the
1948 nakba. That’s why that film was not
broadcast in any Arab country.”
SA: “What were the main differences between original text and film
adaptation as you compare it in your new
book?”
AN: “Among the Egyptian films, we
can appreciate a certain degree of humor
in the first part of the film Miramar, not
present at all in the melancholic atmosphere of Mahfouz’s novel. In Yacoubian
Building, director Marwan Hamed can
be praised for the boldness in visualizing many taboos of Arab societies, such
as homosexuality, even if its treatment
sounds more stereotyped than in Alaa
al-Aswani’s novel. By directing al-Kitkat,
Daoud Abdel Sayed created a successful
and original piece of art, showing great
independence from Ibrahim Aslan’s novel
Malek al-Hazin (The Heron). Art is free
to express and recreate new atmospheres
and concepts, even not connected to the
literary source, and in that case no one can
use the common cliché that adapted films
betray novels.”
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, in
Egypt, 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://varietyarabia.
com/), in the United Arab Emirates (UAE),
the Al-Masry Al-Youm Website (http://
www.almasryalyoum.com/en/node/198132)
and The Westchester Guardian (www.
WestchesterGuardian.com).
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THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, OCTOBER 16, 2014
Page 19
Brewing Company, X2O, Slovenia Vodka,
Zuppa Restaurant and Lounge, Dolphin
Restaurant and Lounge, 66 Main Street,
Hudson Park, Anna Artuso’s Pastry Shop,
The Yonkers’ Downtown BID, Blue Door
Gallery and Numeric Pictures.
Visit the Website: http://yofifest.wix.
com to see the screening schedule.
YONKERS FILM FESTIVAL
So Many Films! So Little Time!
The Yonkers Film Festival Returns This Weekend
From 6PM Friday, October 17th
to Sunday, October 19th, the Yonkers
Waterfront will be transformed into a
film-lovers fantasy world. More than 75
films will be screened throughout the
three-day event, which takes place at the
Riverfront Library in Yonkers, across
the street from the train station. Ticket
holders will be able to chose among
features, shorts, documentaries, animation
and student work.
The festival opens with a Red Carpet
Reception on Friday Evening, catered by
Chef Peter Kelly and X2O, accompanied by beverages from Slovenia Vodka,
Wine in Due Time and Yonkers Brewing
Company. The Opening Night Feature
is IFC Film’s “God’s Pocket,” which was
primarily shot in Yonkers starring the
late Philip Seymour Hoffman and also
John Turturro. Members of the production team will be on hand for a short Q
& A after the film. On Saturday night,
the festival will screen Drafthouse films’
“THE DOG,” the real story of the bank
robber in Dog Day Afternoon. Attendees
will have the opportunity to see many
more features, shorts, documentaries,
animation and even a midnight movie,
throughout the weekend. Saturday and Sunday start with free
programs for kids in the morning: G-rated
Kid family friendly film selections from
KidsFilmFest and fun, educational, film
related workshops hosted by the Jacob
Burns Film Center. Kids Film Fest
selections will be screened
on Saturday 10/18 & Sunday
10/19 at 10:00AM in the 1st
floor Auditorium Theater
and include short animation,
live action and documentary
film. The films will repeat
throughout the morning.
Starting at noon, there
are more films, as well as
“mini film school” lectures
and workshops, including screenwriting (taught
by UCLA’s co-chairman of
their screenwriting department
Hal
Ackerman,
author of the book “Write
Screenplays That Sell”), the
animation process (with
some of the Blue Sky Studios
animation team who made
Ice Age, Rio and Epic), How
To Break Into The Business,
a social media marketing workshop and
the famous NY Loves Film Road Show,
where attendees have the chance to meet
the team from the New York State
Governor’s Office for Motion Picture and
Television Development during a roundtable discussion of all things productive re:
producing in New York State – tax credits,
location scouting, finding stages and crew,
and more. Whether you’re a first time
filmmaker wondering where to start or a
veteran producer looking to catch up on
the latest, this informal face-to-face Q&A
is an invaluable opportunity to Meet Team
NY and hear firsthand about all the great
things New York State has to offer. And
of course, each night will once again end
with After-Parties at a nearby restaurant
or lounge, offering festival goers a chance
to mingle and network with fellow filmmakers and film fans.
Yonkers is quickly becoming
“Hollywood on the Hudson, thanks to
Dave Steck and Patty Schumann,” noted
Mayor Mike Spano, who is “proud that
the film festival will return to Yonkers for
a second year.”
YoFi Fest is presented in part
through the generous support of The
City of Yonkers, The Yonkers Film Office,
Westchester County Tourism & Film,
AT&T, ASR Group/Domino Sugar,
Sound Associates, Generation Yonkers,
Empire City Casino, Cross County
Shopping Center, Yonkers Tennis Center,
Yonkers Contracting Company, The Jacob
Burns Film Center, Alamo Drafthouse
Cinema, KidsFilmFest, Metro-North
Railroad, McLean Avenue Merchants
Association, Wine In Due Time, Yonkers
Page 20
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Thursday, OCTOBER 16, 2014
Joy Carden
FIRST VICE PRESIDENT
Hudson Valley Bank
Yonkers, NY
Yonkers is on the move.
It’s diversified, it’s accessible, it’s a fun place to be.
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