The summer growing season has passed, but interest in local food seems to be heating up.
Much of this interest can be traced to the experience of New Albanians attending the recent Milwaukee leadership training, like Ted, who posts a video you need to watch: Growing Power Inc. Community Leadership Institute, the Power of Urban Farming.
Another attendee sent this link: Urban farms plant seeds of hope; Indy woman fights blight with garden on lot she bought for $500, by Dan McFeely (Indy Star). New Albany has plenty of patches like this one. If John M. is reading, how did the St. Marks garden work out the past summer?
Many of us were there for the grocery coop meeting: New Albany working toward grocery co-op (News and Tribune), and there's a Facebook page for the possibly emerging New Albany Grocery Coop movement.
Do we have any updates from the New Albany Farmers Market? I seem to recall hearing of a proposal to have a winter program of some variety.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
America’s Most Wanted – with a slice o' Coffey Cake on the side.
Do we deserve any of this?
You know, as punishment for some variety of karma wastage?
Not unexpectedly, the main local news sources are choosing to entertain us even further by enlisting Dan Coffey in the cause of subjective analysis, enabling him to fulfill the only political mandate that he really knows: Interjecting his own agenda into places where it seldom belongs.
So it is that the same etiquette-challenged council president who earlier this year mistook Studio’s for a costume party and impersonated a copperhead snake, later threatening bodily harm to an educated citizen, now helpfully notes that there is a reason why his fellow council time servers didn’t admonish him at the time.
Remarkably, it gets even worse. Apparently it’s Halloween every day on West 7th, as Coffey makes the reporter wait on the porch while he ducks into a nearby water closet, dons the plush vestments, approaches the stand with a plastic cup of Welch’s and a plate of stale Ritz crackers, and straddles a standard of piety that congenitally escapes his own political realm.
We know from the start that Coffey's as perpetual a political non-entity as we’re likely to witness in our lifetimes, but just for the fun of it, we'll take him at his caterwauling word and concede that yes, it’s true: There are a few places downtown that sell alcoholic beverages.
Of course, this plain fact has nothing whatsoever to do with Benedetti’s consumption (if any) and arrest. There are places to drink in the suburbs, too, and also package stores. One might run a basement distilling operation and pour the yield into a flask.
Then again, we already knew that rarely does a nonsensical Coffey utterance correspond with reality outside of his pre-determined spin-cycle needs, and in his present zeal to co-opt Benedetti’s misfortune for his own personal and political self-aggrandizement, Coffey is able to play a double game, holding out an olive branch of sorts to lure the council woman into his obstructionist hovel, and blaming downtown revitalization (“them people”) for the first of what we can expect will become a long list of evils and travails.
Amid the exaggerated nothingness of Coffey’s stunted game playing, it’s worth recalling that the downtown food and beverage establishments slated for ritualistic attack by the Coffey cabal were made possible by the state's special riverfront development area rules for three-way licenses, and in turn, these rules could not be implemented without an affirmative vote by the city council.
That's right: New Albany’s city council duly approved the riverfront development area and the regulatory regime leading to the “saturation” against which Coffey froths – not yesterday, but in 2006 – and by a unanimous vote. Even Steve Price was for it, at least after being assured that the video poker machines at the VFW remained safe and sound.
Yes, and this means that three years ago, Coffey voted in favor of what he now finds expedient to decry, surely dismissing the inherent hypocrisy as a standard that doesn’t apply to him. Exactly how does Coffey explain his previous vote?
We’re left to guess that as is customary with him, he didn't have the right information at the time – and has been busy fabricating freshly spurious “facts” ever since by means of the sausage grinder he keeps for just such cases.
As always, it’s a purely depressing spectacle.
Has Skittles the Cat registered for a primary run against the Wizard next time?
You know, as punishment for some variety of karma wastage?
New Albany councilwoman says ‘I’m innocent’; Diane McCartin-Benedetti arrested for DUI, by Matt Thacker (News and Tribune).Score at least one point for the council woman. Lest we've forgotten, Americans are presumed innocent until proven guilty, or at least that's the assumption. She’s not a black male, and that bodes well for her in purely statistical terms (kindly note that I abhor profiling in any form).
New Albany City Councilwoman Diane McCartin-Benedetti didn’t have much to say Monday following her weekend arrest for operating while intoxicated by refusal. However, she said her story will be told at a later date.
“I’m innocent and the facts will be forthcoming,” McCartin-Benedetti told The Tribune.
Not unexpectedly, the main local news sources are choosing to entertain us even further by enlisting Dan Coffey in the cause of subjective analysis, enabling him to fulfill the only political mandate that he really knows: Interjecting his own agenda into places where it seldom belongs.
So it is that the same etiquette-challenged council president who earlier this year mistook Studio’s for a costume party and impersonated a copperhead snake, later threatening bodily harm to an educated citizen, now helpfully notes that there is a reason why his fellow council time servers didn’t admonish him at the time.
… Coffey said he does not condone McCartin-Benedetti’s action, but he does not expect the council will take any action against her because it has no policing authority.Indeed it doesn’t, although ethical authority might be a different and reachable goal, but as with his own transgression and the manner by which it was swept under a rug of indifference, Coffey sees to it that there’ll be no concepts like that on his watch.
Remarkably, it gets even worse. Apparently it’s Halloween every day on West 7th, as Coffey makes the reporter wait on the porch while he ducks into a nearby water closet, dons the plush vestments, approaches the stand with a plastic cup of Welch’s and a plate of stale Ritz crackers, and straddles a standard of piety that congenitally escapes his own political realm.
“I hate to see anybody in a difficult situation, but the bottom line is we all make mistakes,” Coffey said. “Sometimes it actually ends up making us a better person.”Verily, that’s a straight line for the ages. Where’s Milton Berle when you need him most? However, there’s even more mirth to come:
Coffey said McCartin-Benedetti’s arrest underscores a growing problem in New Albany.That’s one breathtaking grandstand.
“If you look at all the development downtown, it’s all been alcohol establishments,” Coffey said. “Downtown is just saturated with them.”
We know from the start that Coffey's as perpetual a political non-entity as we’re likely to witness in our lifetimes, but just for the fun of it, we'll take him at his caterwauling word and concede that yes, it’s true: There are a few places downtown that sell alcoholic beverages.
Of course, this plain fact has nothing whatsoever to do with Benedetti’s consumption (if any) and arrest. There are places to drink in the suburbs, too, and also package stores. One might run a basement distilling operation and pour the yield into a flask.
Then again, we already knew that rarely does a nonsensical Coffey utterance correspond with reality outside of his pre-determined spin-cycle needs, and in his present zeal to co-opt Benedetti’s misfortune for his own personal and political self-aggrandizement, Coffey is able to play a double game, holding out an olive branch of sorts to lure the council woman into his obstructionist hovel, and blaming downtown revitalization (“them people”) for the first of what we can expect will become a long list of evils and travails.
Amid the exaggerated nothingness of Coffey’s stunted game playing, it’s worth recalling that the downtown food and beverage establishments slated for ritualistic attack by the Coffey cabal were made possible by the state's special riverfront development area rules for three-way licenses, and in turn, these rules could not be implemented without an affirmative vote by the city council.
That's right: New Albany’s city council duly approved the riverfront development area and the regulatory regime leading to the “saturation” against which Coffey froths – not yesterday, but in 2006 – and by a unanimous vote. Even Steve Price was for it, at least after being assured that the video poker machines at the VFW remained safe and sound.
Yes, and this means that three years ago, Coffey voted in favor of what he now finds expedient to decry, surely dismissing the inherent hypocrisy as a standard that doesn’t apply to him. Exactly how does Coffey explain his previous vote?
We’re left to guess that as is customary with him, he didn't have the right information at the time – and has been busy fabricating freshly spurious “facts” ever since by means of the sausage grinder he keeps for just such cases.
As always, it’s a purely depressing spectacle.
Has Skittles the Cat registered for a primary run against the Wizard next time?
Monday, November 09, 2009
Some afternoon porno irreverence.
No doubt with Reclaim Our Culture Kentuckiana's recent propaganda barrage ringing in his ears, one of my friends posted this comment on Facebook:
Previously: C-J: "New Albany again rebuffed in battle against adult bookstore."
According to google, Louisville is number one, two years running, when it comes to internet users searching for porn! As a former Louisvillian, I have never been more proud!!!I replied:
Finally, some recognition. The flip side of it is that many of us hereabouts are so backward, we didn't actually FIND any of it.I say: Keep it local. Makes you wonder why people bother with the Internet when Cleopatra's is right down the street ... and on the way to the boat.
Previously: C-J: "New Albany again rebuffed in battle against adult bookstore."
But it was a peachy photo-op, wasn't it?
In the Guardian, Timothy Garton Ash recalls the fall of the Berlin Wall in the context of the year 1989, "the biggest year in world history since 1945."
With Mikhail Gorbachev's breathtaking renunciation of the use of force (a luminous example of the importance of the individual in history), a nuclear-armed empire that had seemed to many Europeans as enduring and impregnable as the Alps, not least because it possessed those weapons of total annihilation, just softly and suddenly vanished.Nowhere in this article does Ash so much as mention Ronald Reagan's name ... nor should he.
Time flies, and walls come tumbling down.
Twenty years ago, the Berlin Wall began falling. Mr. Gorbachev had a hand in it, although he did not obey Ronald Reagan's exhortation to the letter, grab a jackhammer, and assist in the actual demolition.
Pilsner, Putin and Me (Part One).
Pilsner, Putin and Me (Part Two).
Pilsner, Putin and Me (Part Three).
Pilsner, Putin and Me (Part Four).
Why the Berlin Wall came tumbling down, by Charles S. Maier (Telegraph.co.uk)Last year I posted this four-part essay that tells the story of why I was in East Berlin in 1989 just prior to the GDR's collapse. I've been remixing these to send to my friend Suzanne, who'd I'd have never known if not for sharing a communal tent with her and six other volunteers that summer. Recently we began corresponding again after a gap of a few years, and it's been good to hear from her and know that life's okay in what used to be East Germany.
... By the summer of 1989, socialist fraternity was fraying badly, and Hungary was no longer willing to act as a gatekeeper. Once Budapest party leaders allowed East Germans to exit to Austria in September 1989, the final act of the GDR began.
Pilsner, Putin and Me (Part One).
Pilsner, Putin and Me (Part Two).
Pilsner, Putin and Me (Part Three).
Pilsner, Putin and Me (Part Four).
Sunday, November 08, 2009
"Liberty Green Knows How To Pave A Street," and a potpourri of other links.
All week long, I kept pasting to this list of links. Why stop now?
Someone interjected this progressive paving link into another blog's fevered discussion of judging the length and breadth of human progress on planet Earth by the results of a New Albany city audit. You're forgiven for missing it -- the story and the discussion: Liberty Green Knows How To Pave A Street (Broken Sidewalk blog).
Baseball's finished and the damned Yankees won. Now it's the off-season, and time for board gaming, as in Strat-O-Matic Puts Negro Leagues in Play - NYTimes.com.
I wrote about World War I in the Tribune on Thursday, and an expatriated New Albanian correspondent sent me this link to YouTube: Green Fields of France, by the Corries. Many thanks, D. It's a touching song. Meanwhile, the Guardian's assessment of a noted literary figure of the era is also appreciated: Siegfried Sassoon: The reluctant hero Books The Guardian.
As the conclusion of volume two of Richard Evans's majestic three-volume history of the Third Reich nears for me, an obituary almost passed unnoticed. Richard Sonnenfeldt, chief interpreter at Nuremberg, died on October 9th, aged 86, (from The Economist).
Closer to home, councilman John Gonder comments on last night's health care vote: 220 and 51 is OK By Me.
On the topic of intrusive government, or not, there's Booze Politics News and Thoughts, from Lew Bryson's blog. Noteworthy is the notion of "too broke to fix" in the context of (any) state's alcohol regulations.
Speaking of which, the Courier-Journal tells us that a New Albany city councilwoman (was) charged with driving while intoxicated. My gut instinct is that there is little relevance in this, although if I don't make a passing nod at something being reported in the C-J and already the subject of Twitter banter, there'll be accusations of playing favorites. Folks, if you're going to play the drinking game, you need to organize your commute accordingly. 'Nuff said.
I'm hitting the road for Sunday bicycling.
Someone interjected this progressive paving link into another blog's fevered discussion of judging the length and breadth of human progress on planet Earth by the results of a New Albany city audit. You're forgiven for missing it -- the story and the discussion: Liberty Green Knows How To Pave A Street (Broken Sidewalk blog).
Baseball's finished and the damned Yankees won. Now it's the off-season, and time for board gaming, as in Strat-O-Matic Puts Negro Leagues in Play - NYTimes.com.
I wrote about World War I in the Tribune on Thursday, and an expatriated New Albanian correspondent sent me this link to YouTube: Green Fields of France, by the Corries. Many thanks, D. It's a touching song. Meanwhile, the Guardian's assessment of a noted literary figure of the era is also appreciated: Siegfried Sassoon: The reluctant hero Books The Guardian.
As the conclusion of volume two of Richard Evans's majestic three-volume history of the Third Reich nears for me, an obituary almost passed unnoticed. Richard Sonnenfeldt, chief interpreter at Nuremberg, died on October 9th, aged 86, (from The Economist).
Closer to home, councilman John Gonder comments on last night's health care vote: 220 and 51 is OK By Me.
On the topic of intrusive government, or not, there's Booze Politics News and Thoughts, from Lew Bryson's blog. Noteworthy is the notion of "too broke to fix" in the context of (any) state's alcohol regulations.
Speaking of which, the Courier-Journal tells us that a New Albany city councilwoman (was) charged with driving while intoxicated. My gut instinct is that there is little relevance in this, although if I don't make a passing nod at something being reported in the C-J and already the subject of Twitter banter, there'll be accusations of playing favorites. Folks, if you're going to play the drinking game, you need to organize your commute accordingly. 'Nuff said.
I'm hitting the road for Sunday bicycling.
Saturday, November 07, 2009
A spirited affirmation.
A little further research reveals Gardner was 69 and La Mira 29. Their daughter Viola was born a few years later. The spirit(s) was strong even then.
Friday, November 06, 2009
Is there someone or something we can sue for false advertising?
I know that it's lazy of me to cross-post, but just the same ... let's have a brief educational moment.
Certainly this is the best recent example of corporate cluelessness in plain sight that I've seen. Note that just because a beer differs from the flavorless norm in the sense of light-this or that, it doesn't necessarily imply that it is "craft" or "specialty."
Thanks to Clay (via John) for this vision of conceptual futility, courtesy of the Buffalo Wild Wings branch by the Mall St. Matthews in Louisville, Kentucky. Remind me not to go there any time soo, will ya?
Certainly this is the best recent example of corporate cluelessness in plain sight that I've seen. Note that just because a beer differs from the flavorless norm in the sense of light-this or that, it doesn't necessarily imply that it is "craft" or "specialty."
Thanks to Clay (via John) for this vision of conceptual futility, courtesy of the Buffalo Wild Wings branch by the Mall St. Matthews in Louisville, Kentucky. Remind me not to go there any time soo, will ya?
OCRA Main Street award to Bank Street Brewhouse.
The Indiana Office of Community & Rural Affairs (OCRA), which administers the statewide Indiana Main Street program, released its list of Indiana Main Street award winners yesterday.
Develop New Albany board members previously contributed nominations, and so of course I was aware that Bank Street Brewhouse was under consideration, but color me completely astonished: We've been selected as the Indiana Main Street Business of the Year.
Jeffersonville Main Street also was recognized for its wine and retail walk, and deservedly so, and two of its board members have been recognized for their service.
Wow. The awards ceremony is in Indianapolis at the Statehouse next Friday, and Rich, to answer your question -- I do own a suit, you know, and actually wore it once last year.
Thanks to everyone who had anything to do with this. It's an honor, and quite flattering.
Develop New Albany board members previously contributed nominations, and so of course I was aware that Bank Street Brewhouse was under consideration, but color me completely astonished: We've been selected as the Indiana Main Street Business of the Year.
Jeffersonville Main Street also was recognized for its wine and retail walk, and deservedly so, and two of its board members have been recognized for their service.
Wow. The awards ceremony is in Indianapolis at the Statehouse next Friday, and Rich, to answer your question -- I do own a suit, you know, and actually wore it once last year.
Thanks to everyone who had anything to do with this. It's an honor, and quite flattering.
Thursday, November 05, 2009
Today's Tribune column: "Forgotten fields in Flanders."
There's another, oddly connected anniversary coming on November 9, which will mark 20 years since the Berlin Wall fell. The armistice in 1918 didn't end the Great War. The fall of the wall might have.
BAYLOR: Forgotten fields in Flanders
By all such standards, the Great War was especially horrible. The specific horror of this conflict, which eventually came to be known as World War I out of a contextual necessity to keep our historical accountings of human suffering clearly ordered, surely represents societal innocence shattered on an unfathomably massive scale.
Bank Street Brewhouse Grand Opening Week begins Tuesday, November 17.
Having "electored" to begin winter hours at the Bank Street Brewhouse, and feeling that after eight months of work, we're feeling great about what we've accomplished so far, it seemed a good time for a Grand Opening gala. Here's what I have so far. There'll probably be a few alterations, and I'll inform you of these.
Tuesday, November 17
It's Villiger 1888 Cigar Night on the patio. In conjunction with our friends at Kaiser’s Tobacco Store, where so much of Roger’s paycheck is deposited each week, we’ll host our first-ever cigar night with cigars, promos and giveaways. A representative of Villiger 1888 will be on hand. 1888 is a new hand-rolled premium cigar from the Dominican Republic by way of Switzerland’s 121-year-old Villiger tobacco firm. There will be a small fee (as yet undecided) for participation that will include ample cigar(s), beers and a chances to win door prizes. “Session Beer” pint specials at BSB all day long, and food specials to be announced.Wednesday, November 18
Bank Street Brewhouse's Official Ribbon Cutting ceremony, and suitably propagandistic speeches, featuring representatives of city government, Develop New Albany, One Southern Indiana and the Pants Down Progressive local political insurgency. The show begins at 6:00 p.m. We’ve saved kegs from the batch of Elector that New Albany Mayor Doug England (with David Pierce, above) helped brew earlier this year, and the “mayor’s batch” will be pouring all day. Expect “Grant Line Garage Brewery” beer specials all day long, perhaps Jared's single hop series on the handpull, and food specials are to be announced.Thursday, November 19
NABC encourages its friends and customers to attend the Conway Fire Equipment Museum Pledge Night, 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. at the Grand Convention Center, where NABC’s Community Dark will be on tap at the cash bar. Before, during and after the event, there’ll be food and beer (Beak’s Best, Bob’s Old 15-B) specials at Bank Street Brewhouse.
Friday, November 20
There is a possibility of musical entertainment in the evening. More on that later. Food and beer specials will last all day long (specifics to be announced).
Saturday, November 21
Singer, songwriter, poet and author Misha Feigin offers dinnertime musical entertainment inside the Bank Street Brewhouse from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., with food and beer specials to be announced.
Sunday, November 22
Build-Your-Own Bloody Mary Bar from Noon to 3:00 p.m.
I'm sometimes asked: Why the Bloody Mary?
Because it is a traditional match with beer and beer-based cuisine, and as such, the natural extension of Chef Josh’s kitchen … especially the way NABC does it. In the few short months since its inception, our Build-Your-Own Bloody Mary Bar has been acclaimed as a downtown New Albany institution. Select the spices and ingredients that you'd like, watch as it is served over ice in a 20-ounce NABC pint glass rimmed with your choice of Celery Salt or Smoked Sea Salt, and then finish it off with a skewer of unique garnishes.
Thanks for your support, and we're looking forward to a fine, progressive winter season in New Albany.
Best headline of the day, so far.
Britglish practiced by native speakers ...
France: 'Autistic Tories castrated Britain in Europe'
Minister says Cameron pledge to reclaim EU powers is 'pathetic' and will leave UK isolated
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
Help?
Does anyone have access to electronic information about the forthcoming pledge gala (November 19) at the Grand, to be staged by the Friends of the New Albany Fire Museum?
I've searched the Web in every possible combination of terms and can find nothing except the Tribune news story from September 15. There's a Facebook page that denies entry unless I'm approved as a member (say what?), and there's a poster in the Bank Street Brewhouse. I'd really like to publicize this as part of the Brewhouse's grand opening week and drive traffic that way, but in the absence of easily accessible information, this is not altogether easy.
What's more, there doesn't seem to be a Grand web site any longer -- just a blog of some sort with no blanks filled in. Whassup there?
I appreciate any help you can provide for this quest, which shouldn't be this damned hard.
I've searched the Web in every possible combination of terms and can find nothing except the Tribune news story from September 15. There's a Facebook page that denies entry unless I'm approved as a member (say what?), and there's a poster in the Bank Street Brewhouse. I'd really like to publicize this as part of the Brewhouse's grand opening week and drive traffic that way, but in the absence of easily accessible information, this is not altogether easy.
What's more, there doesn't seem to be a Grand web site any longer -- just a blog of some sort with no blanks filled in. Whassup there?
I appreciate any help you can provide for this quest, which shouldn't be this damned hard.
C-J: "New Albany again rebuffed in battle against adult bookstore."
Thanks to P for the link to the C-J, which I don't always see. He wrote:
"Did you see this? What a sad waste of our resources to have fought such a losing battle. Hope ROCK chipped in for our losing attorney fees."
Right on, brother, but I suspect Reclaim Our Culture Kentuckiana is too busy wielding Tony Dungy as a fundraiser for the ongoing anti-Theatair X theocrat's designer jihad to bother much with Cleopatra's, or whatever it's called now.
Note that the most interesting part of the article excerpted below is the comments section.
"Did you see this? What a sad waste of our resources to have fought such a losing battle. Hope ROCK chipped in for our losing attorney fees."
Right on, brother, but I suspect Reclaim Our Culture Kentuckiana is too busy wielding Tony Dungy as a fundraiser for the ongoing anti-Theatair X theocrat's designer jihad to bother much with Cleopatra's, or whatever it's called now.
Note that the most interesting part of the article excerpted below is the comments section.
New Albany again rebuffed in battle against adult bookstore, by Harold J. Adams (Courier-Journal).
The City of New Albany must decide whether to keep fighting following another loss in its long-running battle to shut down an adult bookstore.
The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week denied the city’s request that the full court reconsider a September ruling by a three-judge panel blocking the city from closing New Albany DVD.
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