I, Publius: Inspiration not always as intended
Five years ago, Roselle (who hates it when I call her "The Lovely") and I were sitting at the Berkshire Coffee Roasting Company. I had just embarked on a digital photography kick and Roselle had been taking pictures for some time. Most of them were taken on her many marches throughout the world.

We loved the fact that so many people had been showing their work in the great little coffee house on Main Street and we asked how one got the opportunity to exhibit. The answer came back, "First come, first served. The sign up sheet is over there." We were told that the next available opening was in September of 2005, so Roselle wrote down our names and the wait began.

We thought our time would never come but finally we got our chance. The coffee house was then being managed by the wonderful Robin Curletti, who was soon to be the owner and who we had watched grow up. Finally, one Thursday night at 6 p.m., we hung the show. Two of Roselle's friend, Suzy Lowinger ("The Art Lady") and Bonnie Silvers helped us. My stuff went up on the left wall and Roselle's on the right.

I had picked my favorite portraits. There was one of Seth Rogovoy at a Passover dinner. There was another of beautiful Linda Norris up at Lake Mansfield. I have found that, depending on how well one's cheap printer is working, one gets undeserved credit for particular photographic nuances and artistry. There is a picture of all the folks of the Roundtable at WAMC. My goal was to get people who had never seen Joe Donahue or Susan Arbetter to say, "Wow, that isn't how I pictured them." There is a picture of one of my favorite people, Clarence Fanto, former managing editor at the Eagle and now news director of WAMC. I think I really captured his soul in the photo. Katie Britton, a Korean-born American with a beautiful face who produces most of WAMC news, is also up there. Mr. Rex Smith, the top editor at the Albany Times Union and the host of our Media Project program is shown beaming next to his Chinese-born daughter, Grace.

I don't think I have ever seen a picture of a father and a daughter that captures a relationship better. They are both so happy that it gives me hope for our collective future. One of my favorites is of the coffee house owner, Robin, with her baby boy. That one is going to be donated to Robin as a thank you for all her help to two rank amateurs in mounting our show.

But the picture that is causing the most discussion is one that I shot while coming over the big bridge in Great Barrington just days before the Bush mistake in Iraq. You may remember that, at the time, a group of protesters had been standing out on the street with signs predicting what was going to happen and suggesting that it should not. I was doing the same thing in this column and on the radio and television.

What happened next in the run up to the war was that there was a counter protest from those defending Bush and his policies. They were surrounded by American flags and things were getting very testy. On at least one occasion, the police were called in to quiet things down and I think it is fair to say that they did not distinguish themselves with their impartiality.
Anyway, as we were crossing the big bridge, Roselle looks up and gasps. There was a giant, maybe 6 foot, sign being held up in front of the pro-Bush folks that said that ALAN CHARTOCK @^$*&^***. It was obscene and the word meant that Alan Chartock is inhaling rather like a vacuum cleaner inhales dirt.

Well, I gotta tell you, my day, my week and my month was made. I walked up to the guys behind the sign and thanked them for honoring me. Most were nice and disavowed any responsibility, suggesting that someone had "dropped off" the sign and that it wasn't theirs. No matter, I felt bad for them and even worse for those good peace people who never made it to the sign stage. It just wasn't fair to them. I mean, they did the hard work and I got all the credit.
Back at the coffee shop, people can't believe that I put up a picture suggesting in the vernacular that I am a human Hoover. It may have been the proudest moment of my 36 years in Great Barrington. Go take a look. It'll only be up until the last day of September. Then we may have to wait another five years.

Originally published in The Berkshire Eagle, 9/17/05
- posted by Raymond @ 9/20/2005 02:19:00 PM

 
The Capitol Connection
Randy Daniels wants to be the next Republican governor of New York. Good for him.

But who is Randy Daniels? Good question. Even though he is New York's Secretary of State, he is nearly invisible to the general public. Daniels is the highest ranked person of color in the Pataki administration. A former Democrat and CBS correspondent, he has been around for quite a while working for interests such as the Hirschfeld real estate empire. Remember Abe Hirschfeld?

Daniels was put on the SUNY Board of Trustees where he still sits in a powerful position as Vice Chair and head of the institutional investment committee. But that is certainly no reason to make him governor of New York. In fact, one of the major raps on Pataki is how he and his politically loaded SUNY board of trustees have brought a certain amount of disgrace on our once great State University by hiring a politically connected chancellor who has now been rewarded for his questionable stewardship with life time tenure and an interim appointment at an upstate SUNY College. Some way to reward incompetence. Also on that board is Edward Cox Nixon's-Son-in-Law (his real last name) who wants to be U.S. Senator and beat Hillary Clinton. What are these people smoking?

Daniels has virtually no chance at the Governor's mansion. As a transplanted Democrat, he will always be regarded with suspicion by the Republicans who vote in a primary. Although an early Pataki favorite, the departing governor now seems unwilling to make him his heir apparent. In fact, Pataki has been saying some nice things about William Weld, the transplanted ex-Governor of Massachusetts who is now the front runner for the nomination. So what makes Randy run?
One of the great problems with politicians is that they all believe that if the wind blows just right, they can be anything they want to be. Just look at Pataki. Who was this guy when he won? A third rate State Senator who ran against an out-of-gas Mario Cuomo and got incredibly lucky as the Un-Cuomo candidate. Now Pataki thinks he can be President and who is around to tell him he can't after he became Governor for three terms? His lasting legacy is that every schlemiel who has ever held office now thinks that he or she can be anything.

Daniels has a big problem. Like every Pataki appointee, he sits squarely under the governor's thumb. Cuomo was the same way. If Daniels wants to be governor, he can't work for Pataki at the same time. Pataki is the Shogun of his organization and if he and his group decide on Weld, there's no way he is going to let Daniels run for governor while working for him. We know that Daniels has not been happy about the treatment he's been getting from the grand pooh-bahs of the Republican Party in New York. There has been considerable talk about a Daniels primary in the Republican party but he certainly can't win that. That party is a closed corporation. If the leaders say no to Randy than "no" it is.

When you are Secretary of State, you have a certain number of goodies to hand out. You go to rubber chicken dinners, you give speeches. People say nice things to you and pretty soon you begin to believe your own press. Of course, Mario Cuomo was Secretary of State and he parlayed that into a governorship after he rose to be Hugh Carey's Lieutenant Governor. Daniels can't really speak out and run for political office while he works for Pataki so he is pulling the plug. I've been trying, unsuccessfully, to get him onto statewide public radio. He can't do that while he works for George Pataki who can hardly been counted as my biggest fan.

The thing that Daniels should know is that if he really thinks he can run, he'd better get cracking and introduce himself to his fellow New Yorkers. Trust me, they have absolutely no idea who the guy is.

In the meantime, he'll stay on the SUNY Board of Trustees, eating the crumbs thrown to him by the Patakiites and dreaming dreams of being governor. Ah, self delusion is a wonderful thing. It allows each of us to think that maybe one day, if we play our cards right, we will be anointed and receive what we think is our due.
- posted by Raymond @ 9/20/2005 02:17:00 PM