Summer Dreams 07-22-21

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Things to do in Greater Cooperstown

Dreams ►

Thursday, July 22, 2021

► Lights, Camera, OtseGO County Region prepares for its film closeup InsiDE: ReSTAURANT REVIEWS for the PERFECT VACATION, Page B6 Home

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AllOTSEGO.com

21 Railroad Avenue, Cooperstown, NY 13326 • 607-547-6103 • info@allotsego.com

B-2 Summer Dreams

Thursday, July 22, 2021

what’s fun

in Otsego County

BEST BETS

Serving you for over 70 years!

Online Restaurant Curbside Delivery Catering Gift Shop Sauce Production

Thank you for your patronage! www.brooksbbq.com 607-432-1782 5560 NY Rte 7 Oneonta

Baseball Hall of Fame awards, Oneonta outdoor concert, more.

Calling all baseball fans! cost is $20 per adult. At 7:30 p.m., Tune in for the 2021 awards cerSaturday, July 23, at Hyde Hall in emony live on the MLB Network. The Springfield Center. Call 607-547-5098 ceremony will include the or visit hydehall.org. things Ford C. Frick Award winner • for broadcasting excellence, Come one, come all to learn to do!

Al Michaels; the 2020 Frick about the “Good Old Days” Award winner, Ken Harrelof the patent medicine indusson; the 2021 Baseball Writtry and snake oil salesmen in ers’ Association of America Oneonta. Find out about the Career Excellence Award “Dimmick Kidney Cure” and winner, Dick Kaegel; the 2020 Dr. James Munyon, who sucBBWAA Career Excellence cessfully sold more than 72 Award winner, Nick Cafardo; dif-ferent products in the USA, and the 2020 Buck O’Neil Canada and Europe.

Lifetime Achievement Award Larissa Ryan Presented by Amy Schulz winner, David Montgomery. and Jack Ewen. Free, open to Presented by The National Baseball the public, from 1 to 3 p.m., Sunday, Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooper- July 25, at the Swart-Wilcox House stown on Saturday, July 24. Call 607- Museum in Oneonta. Go to swartwil547-7200 or visit baseballhall.org. cox-house.wordpress.com/2021-sum• mer-sunday-series/.

The Oneonta Community Concert • Band invites the public for an evening Spend a relaxing evening at the golf concert ‘Going Out’ exploring the course listening to classic rock music activities we’ve all missed for the past performed by the Brian Murphy Duo. year. Bring your lawn chairs, blankets, Listen from your car, in a chair or and enjoy the show. Free, open to the while wandering the trails. At 7 p.m., public. At 7 p.m.,Thursday, July 22, Monday, July 26, at Meadowlinks in Neahwa Park in Oneonta. Go to Golf Course, 476 County Route 27 in Oneonta Community Concert Band on Richfield Springs. Call 607-432-4026 Facebook for more information. or go to Oneonta-Musicians• Association on Facebook.

Violinist Jorg-Michael Schwarz and the Musicians of Ma’alwyck will recre►ON THE COVER ate the music the Clarke family would Director Mark Savage prepares have listened to at the Hyde Hall. The to film a scene in Middlefield on performance is based on the diaries of George Templeton Strong, a friend of Wednesday, July 14. the Clarkes, who kept detailed notes on Photo by Greg Klein/AllOtsego.com. the music of the era. The evening will include readings from his diary. The

Thursday, July 22, 2021

Summer Dreams B-3

Kevin Limiti/AllOtsego.com

Executive Producer Jeff Miller stands in front of a film set in Middlefield, where he was filming ‘Bring Him Back Dead’ on Wednesday, July 14.

Lights, camera, Otsego County Summer film shoot for ‘Bring Him Back Dead’ highlights industry’s growth in Cooperstown, Oneonta

By KEVIN LIMITI MIDDLEFIELD — The push to bring the film industry to Otsego County produced big results in July, in large part thanks to efforts of Film COOP and scenery in the region that the filmmakers couldn’t get anywhere else.

Tucked away at a “hideout” location, the small-budget action film “Bring Him Back Dead” was shot at a Middlefield cabin last week, with the type of energy one would find from a Hollywood production previously not seen in Otsego County; actors, actresses, film producers and directors all passing by with artistic determination in their heads.

Korey Rowe, the owner of Otsego Media, which is co-producing the movie along with Millman Productions, said in spite of bad weather, they were on schedule to complete the film this week. He said the authenticity from shooting in Middlefield and around Otsego County is greatly helping the crew.

“We’re able to get a huge response from the local community, thanks to Film COOP,” Rowe said on-set Wednesday, July 14.

The cabin belongs to Patricia

Slater and to her late husband, Eric Hunter Slater.

“You can’t pay for that kind of beauty,” Rowe said. “We’re able to get some amazing frames.”

Rowe said by using the cabin, they were able to save millions that would otherwise have gone towards paying to build a set. He also said Slater was able to show them different spots to shoot, which they ended up using in the production.

The Slater cabin was rented for two weeks; the location fees are one aspect of the economic impact that filming brings to a region. Catering, general merchandise, dry cleaning, local hires and out-of-town hires with per diems to spend are other ways a film production brings money to a local economy.

“Bring Them Back Dead” stars Gary Daniels and Daniel Baldwin.

Other locations that will be used in the film are in or around Cooperstown and Oneonta.

Rowe and his company produced “Asteroid” last summer in Oneonta and other parts of the region, including filming on Main Street in Oneonta.

See FILM, Page B4

B-4 Summer Dreams

Thursday, July 22, 2021

Entertainment business growing in Otsego, region FILM/from Page B3 He said after seeing what he and his colleagues were able to do with a low budget on that film, other people in the industry at large took note. After working on a freelance assignment out of state, he met several people who were working on preproduction on the upcoming heist film.

Rowe got connected with “Bring Him Back Dead” Executive Producer Jeff Miller and Director Mark Savage. He convinced them Otsego County had exactly the locations they needed for their movie. Part of the draw was he convinced the filmmakers he had a vacant jewelry store at Southside Mall in the town of Oneonta that they could rent and then “rob.” Once he proved he could also get the hideaway location they wanted, hidden from neighbors and roads, he booked the job, not only for the county but for his company.

Rowe called “Bring Him Back Dead” a fight movie and said the natural locations enhanced the lure for the filmmakers.

Rowe said he is happy the production is on schedule, which even included an injury where an actress got a screw impaled in her hand which had to be screwed out and she was then taken to the hospital. However, the actress was back on set that very same day.

Most of the crew is from the Otsego County area, he said.

“We’re trying to create jobs and bring in revenue,” Rowe said, while acknowledging that the production is “hard, physically and emotionally.”

Katie Keene, an actress who plays the role of Lisa in the movie and who is originally from Kentucky, said Otsego County reminds her of home.

“Maybe I can just look for some property,” Keene said.

“This is kind of like home to me.”

Keene, who plays a somewhat mischievous character in the movie, said she was happy to be working on the film.

“This is an act of love. It’s our passion,” Keene said.

Miller, who is from Los Angeles, is one of the big bosses on the project, overseeing Rowe and his crew as they work to get each day’s “dailies in the can.” He said working with the people in Otsego County has been great.

“People are very friendly,” Miller said. “They seem like they are open and hospitable people.”

He also said there are certain advantages to filming in Otsego County he could not get in other places. “It gives us a different look from the South California me.”

The Freeman’s Journal/ Hometown Oneonta Editor Greg Klein is also the board president of Film COOP, which is the first film commission office in the state’s Mohawk Valley Economic Development District.

Film COOP, rhymes with hoop, is short for Cooperstown and also is an acronym for Cooperstown, Oneonta, Otsego (County Film) Partnership. The nonprofit is not a co-op, but it is essentially the agent for the region to the film and entertainment business, attracting productions and the economic benefits they bring.

As board president, Klein is the de facto film commissioner and executive director of Film COOP. However, he said the group would not be where it is today without Rowe, whom Klein called the group’s biggest donor, in both time and money.

Therefore, he said it was See Film Page B5

COLOR ODYSSEY

Emma Amos (American, 1937–2020), Equals, detail, 1992, acrylic on linen canvas with African fabric borders, 76 x 82 in., private collection

310 Genesee Street, Utica, New York • 315-797-0000 • mwpai.org Monday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday noon to 5 p.m.

Many Thanks to our Exhibition Sponsors Lead sponsor: Gilroy, Kernan & Gilroy Insurance Associate sponsors: Elizabeth R. Lemieux, Ph.D., Alan and Linda Vincent, and M&T Bank/Partners Trust Bank Charitable Fund, a donor-advised fund of The Community Foundation of Herkimer and Oneida Counties Emma Amos: Color Odyssey is organized by the Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia, and is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Willson Center for the Humanities and the Arts, University of Georgia.

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Dreams

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Advertise what you’ve got going on in Summer Dreams!

Call 607-547-6103 for details!

Thursday, July 22, 2021

Summer Dreams B-5

Dylan Avery

Unatego Central School graduate Paul Slawson works as a boom mic operator Wednesday, July 14, during the filming of ‘Bring Him Back Dead’ in the town of Middlefield.

Area’s natural beauty drew filmmakers to Otsego shoot FILM/from Page B4 “exciting to see Korey’s success.”

“His family and mine made the same decision about not wanting to stay in Los Angeles, and Korey and I share a passion for being able to make films and other entertainment here instead,” Klein said. “It is great to see him actually doing it.

“The great thing about this movie, is it was a win all the way around,” Klein said, “for Korey, for Otsego Media, for the filmmakers and for Film COOP. We put out a call for a hideaway location on our Facebook page and within a week they had scouted several locations in the county and determined this is where they wanted to film. And Korey did such a good job finding them locations, they hired him to film the movie for them.

“It was just win-win-win and that was great to see,” he continued.

Klein said there are other projects in preproduction that will film in Otsego County this year, including an upcoming movie about

local bar owner Eva Coo and her murder trial. He and Rowe will also be shooting a television pilot together in the winter, he said.

“Our goal is to build a new industry here and it is beginning to happen,” Klein said. “It is an amazing thing to watch happen and it is an amazing thing to be a part of as it happens.”

In the fall, the film commission plans to host about a dozen female filmmakers for a destination weekend location tour of the county, the 2021 Women in Film Peak Leaf Week Location Tour and Networking Event.

The tour, which is designed to bring industry decision makers to see everything Otsego County has to offer, in terms of filming locations, will run from Thursday, Sept. 30, to Sunday, Oct. 3. It will include trips throughout Otsego County, as well as to The Stanley Theater in Utica.

Go to Film COOP on Facebook or www.film-coop.com for more information.

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Thursday, July 22, 2021

B-6 Summer Dreams

Staff Picks

Larissa Ryan Business Manager Schneider’s Bakery One of my favorite food shops in Cooperstown, Schneider’s, is also one of the oldest.

It’s one of those shops where if I stop in I just have to buy something. For me, that’s usually one of their chocolate croissants, which are always delicious with chocolate in the middle and light and flaky bread on the outside. However, there are also many kinds of cookies.

They also serve oatmeal, soup and coffee. Also, if you like homemade bread but don’t necessarily have the time or the skill, Schneider’s has bread (white, wheat, rye, and even pumperknickel).

It’s no wonder this staple of Main Street has been around since 1887.

Schneider’s Bakery 157 Main Street Cooperstown 607-547-9631 Tara Barnwell Publisher Undercover Eggplant When you want a sandwich, a true sandwich, you’ve got to go to Undercover Eggplant in Oneonta.

On my last visit, I got a Cuban sandwich. It wasn’t traditional, but it was certainly delicious. Full of pork, ham and cheese, it was very tasty. My favorite there is the po’boy, a Cajun style sandwich with Andouille sausage, melted provolone tomato, red onion and creole sauce.

Did I mention their sandwiches are huge? There is always enough to take home for another meal.

Their sandwiches have great names; The Neahwa, City of the Hills, and West End; someone just told me how good the pizza is there too. They recommended the garlic eggplant pizza with

Our best bets for local dining

battered eggplant, creamy garlic, mozzarella and a touch of marinara. I can’t wait to try that next!

Undercover Eggplant 421 Chestnut St., Oneonta 607-432-9900 Greg Klein Editor Mel’s at 22 One of our go-to places these days is Mel’s at 22 in Cooperstown.

Chef-owner Brian Wrubleski is the father of one of my board members at the nonprofit Film COOP, but I think most people here would tell you his food is excellent, even without a connection to Mel’s.

The soul of the community is a good way of looking at Mel’s, from the taste of the food to the story behind the name. Mel, also known as Maryellen, is Brian’s late wife, who died in 2013.

There is a shrine to her near the door of the restaurant and I always think of the extended Wrubleski family when we get our food.

The teen and I are burger people and Mel’s burgers are among the best in town.

Sometimes I get the bun-less burger, which is almost like a hamburger salad.The Ms. of the house likes the blackened chicken sandwich.

Extra tots are always a good side to order, too.

For a change up, I like the bacon mac and cheese, which was about three servings for me.

The restaurant has a great decor, and seems picture perfect for a TV show or movie. Hmm, maybe we can film something there in the future?

I should also mention how popular the Friday fish fry is, especially during the Lenten season. Check the website for specials, and online ordering, too.

Mel’s at 22

22 Chestnut St., Cooperstown 607-322-4012 www.melsat22.com

Kevin Limiti Reporter Wise Guys Sammy’s There’s a buzz in Oneonta about Wise Guys Sammy’s.

I don’t often get excited about sandwich places, but the hype was so high I found myself ordering the “Easy Rider” sandwich from them.

Now I am convinced.

The name of the restaurant implies some kind of mob-esque aesthetic, but you can leave the knuckledusters at home, because your hands are going to be full with the gigantic sandwiches that they have.

The “Easy Rider” is chicken cutlet with bacon, pepper jack cheese, chipotle garlic mayo, and topped with lettuce and tomato.

It’s a very hearty sandwich and I was impressed.

I definitely will return to visit.

Wise Guys Sammy’s 261-267 Main St., Oneonta wiseguyssammys.com/ Kathleen Peters Graphic Designer Nicoletta’s Italian Café If you are in the mood for some traditional southern Italian food with a dash of old world charm, Nicoletta’s is your place to go.

The four of us who dined there all had different ideas of what makes a perfect Italian meal. Our choices were: Bisteca Bianco, a filet with fettuccine in a white gorgonzola cream sauce; pork medallions and pasta with vodka sauce; shrimp and scallops with angel hair pasta in a lemon caper butter sauce, and veal parmigiana with spaghetti.

The portions served are too large to finish unless you are really hungry, so plan on taking some home. We all

had a salad to start, and we all passed on dessert.

Nicoletta’s Italian Cafe 96 Main St., Cooperstown

607-547-7499 www.nicolettasitaliancafe. com/

NOW OPEN! You Pick Blueberry Farm

INGALLS BLUEBERRY HILL Cooperstown off of Route 28 • 607-547-2600

P R O F E S S I O N A L T H E AT E R O F T H E G R E AT W E S T E R N C AT S K I L L S

JULY 23-AUGUST 15

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A provocative and surprisingly funny debate about love, marriage, and the price we pay to be who we are.

OUTDOOR STAGE

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For times and reservations: FranklinStageCompany.org

Summer Dreams B-7

Go to www.

AllOtseGO.com for What’s Happening this week.

in OtsegO COunty

Thursday, July 22, 2021

Central New York’s Best Gastropub!

5418 State Highway • 28 Cooperstown 607-282-4525

Authentic Italian Food!

5438 State Hwy 28 • Cooperstown 607-282-4031• boccaosteria.com

new york pizzeria

Brick Oven Pizza!

75 Chestnut Street Cooperstown 607-547-2930 126 Main Street Richfield Springs 315-858-0405

B-8 Summer Dreams

Thursday, July 22, 2021