Friday, January 18, 2013
PHOTO CONTEST
Announcing a photography contest for the "2014 Picture Brockport Calendar Contest". Twelve photos will be chosen to be Photo of the Month and 1 photo for the cover. Our photo theme is "Best of Brockport" and will focus on snap shots celebrating our village. We will begin accepting entry photos on February 1, 2013 until September 1, 2013. Calendars will be available in time the the 2013 Holiday Season. More information and details about how to enter will be posted on our website soon(www.probrockport.org). A press release will be submitted to various outlets next week (so you're getting the inside scoop!).
Additionally, we would love to mark dates on the calendar of significance in our village. When did the trolley stop running? When did we get paved sidewalks? When were lift bridges installed? We can't put everything on the calendar, but we will consider all suggestions as our team puts together an appealing reflection of our village into the 2014 Picture Brockport Calendar. If you have any thoughts, please email them to us at probrockport.org@gmail.com and put "2014 Calendar" in the subject line.
My daughter, Kelly, gave me the book, The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce, for Christmas. I enjoyed it immensely, and highly recommend it.
Editor's note: The Brockporter Book Of The Week is a regular feature of the Brockporter Online News Magazine which appears on most Fridays. The book is available at the Lift Bridge Book Shop at 45 Main Street, Brockport, NY or from the Brockporter Amazon book carousel in the right hand column. If you have a book review for this feature please send it to davidgmarkham@gmail.com.
Editor's note: The Brockporter Book Of The Week is a regular feature of the Brockporter Online News Magazine which appears on most Fridays. The book is available at the Lift Bridge Book Shop at 45 Main Street, Brockport, NY or from the Brockporter Amazon book carousel in the right hand column. If you have a book review for this feature please send it to davidgmarkham@gmail.com.
In the January/February, 2013 issue of the AARP bulletin on page 36 is an article which states:
"Buyer Beware - AARP is urging the New York State Public Service Commision (PSC) to look into why energy service companies are charging more for electricity and gas than utility providers do.
The independent suppliers often claim to offer lower prices. However, a utility watchdog group, the Pulic Untility Law Project of New York, found that upstate residential cutsomers bying energy from such companies paid on averge $413.00 more for electricity and $235 more for natural gas over the past two years compared with what they would have paid with the tradional utility National Grid."
Editor's note: Here is Brockport I have been approached many times by independent suppliers to buy my gas and electricity from them and I have always declined and stayed with the traditional National Grid and R, G, & E. Having read this article, now I am doubly glad I did.
"Buyer Beware - AARP is urging the New York State Public Service Commision (PSC) to look into why energy service companies are charging more for electricity and gas than utility providers do.
The independent suppliers often claim to offer lower prices. However, a utility watchdog group, the Pulic Untility Law Project of New York, found that upstate residential cutsomers bying energy from such companies paid on averge $413.00 more for electricity and $235 more for natural gas over the past two years compared with what they would have paid with the tradional utility National Grid."
Editor's note: Here is Brockport I have been approached many times by independent suppliers to buy my gas and electricity from them and I have always declined and stayed with the traditional National Grid and R, G, & E. Having read this article, now I am doubly glad I did.
By Monica Beck
Counterpoint: Django Unchained
Many reviewers and abstainers (such as Spike Lee), consider Quentin Tarantino’s latest movie, Django Unchained, as just another example of the glorification of violence and blood lust in modern cinema. It is possible to look at the film in another way however. Few, if any, filmmakers have depicted slavery so realistically, willing to stare into the face of brutality. Its treatment of the institution of slavery gives it a strong revisionist tone.
In this American spaghetti Western, Tarantino pays homage to director Sam Peckinpah who specialized in making the same type of revisionist, graphic westerns, while the music and landscapes smack of Sergio Leone—wide open spaces and anti-heroes seeking justice. Tarantino creates some comedic moments in response to the painful subject matter.
The story takes place in the 1860’s, just prior to the Civil War, as slavery rages on. Tarantino does not spare the viewer; slavery is depicted in his very own way— over-the-top, blood, and guts fashion. He refuses to sugar coat it in any way. His anti-hero and main character, Django, a newly freed slave (Jamie Foxx) teams up with a bounty hunter ‘Doctor King Schultz’ played by Christoph Waltz. Tarantino draws parallels to slavery, human bodies as commodities, as Schulz states “I deal in flesh like the slaveholder”. In his case however, the bodies are worth more dead than alive. Django is a natural marksman and relishes his newly found avocation. After making loads of money killing white villains, he and Schultz take on the next-to-impossible task of rescuing Django’s wife from slavery. She is a captive on a plantation in the Deep South where brutality is the daily norm.
Some say Tarantino’s film glorifies violence, I say it just magnifies the dehumanization and brutality inherent to the uniquely American system of chattel slavery. His scenes depicting ‘over the top’ violence, act like a spotlight which shines on a forgotten era whose horrors have been ignored for far too long. This is a courageous film—Bravo Tarantino!
Editor's note: The Brockporter Film Of The Week is a regular feature of the Brockporter Online News Magazine which appears most Fridays.
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Further, Rand wrote that half of all workers in the United States do not have a retirement plan and for those who do, the likely retirement benefit is less than $80.00 per month. Rand writes:
"This makes social security even more important as a source of retirement income. For those likely to fall into "low income" retirement, Social Security will represent over 80 percent of their income."
Senior citizens will increasingly become the 47% that Romney disdainfully discussed during this Presidential campaign. The 1% have no idea of the rough days ahead for the aging U.S. population as they pressure the politicians to reduce the so-called "safety net" and entitlements such as Medicare and Social Security. Political rhetoric aside, the "golden years" for most U.S. citizens will be years of poverty and simplified life style necessitated by the lack of financial resources. Rage born out of financial desperation will significantly impact the politics of the U.S. unless kinder, gentler social policies are created and prevail.
What this mean for people in the Brockport area remains to be seen. We have seen services and funding cuts to the senior citizen center over the last few years and an increase in people served by the Brockport Food Shelf. Seniors will work longer in order to supplement their income if they are able. What further accomodations and adjustments that will have to be made as increasing seniors sink into poverty remain to be seen.
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
From the New York State Conservationist magazine, December, 2012:
Rabies in Deer
In less than one month, from August to September 2012, the DEC Wildlife Health Unit diagnosed rabies in three white-tailed deer, one each from Monroe, Tompkins and Genesee counties. Residents had reported seeing the deer wobbling, walking in circles and having difficulty raising their heads. All three deer were euthanized and taken to Cornell's Animal Health Diagnostic Center where rabies was confirmed at the Wadsworth Laboratory. Visit the Wildlife Health web page for details on what to do if you suspect rabies in an animal, or if you come across sick or injured wildlife.
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