e ho enc lted W g rs telli Insu e d ea ir In Not R r e d, Fo r Th ire e p ef ns Pr Be I To
The Hudson Valley
ChroniC
THE First ever Gala BRIDGE ISSUE
volume 2, no. 5 • August/September 2009
Stimulus Clouds
INSIDE: Ring Girls & Other Knockouts! Takin’ It to the Bridge! Killer SUDOKU! MORE!
ON thE Web at hvChronic.com
Walking On Air It took a miracle or three, but the Walkway Over the Hudson is truly happening
How federal dollars are directed away from the projects that need them the most
Photo by Paul Joffe
Photo by Steve Hopkins
Traffic crossing the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge (which because it is in such good shape has received zero dollars in federal stimulus funds) disappears into a fogbank.
By Steve Hopkins
mishmash of maps, impenetrable jargon and strange, unhelpful data organization provided on the Obama adue to a fundamentally flawed allocation methministration’s much ballyhooed recovery.gov site is virtuodology, hundreds of millions in federal ecoally useless. Thankfully, though, there are a number of nomic stimulus dollars trickling their way into outfits that have taken it on for the rest of us. The most the rebuilding of the nation’s crumbling infrastructure forthright and helpful of all reference databases, down are being co-opted by “low hanging fruit” projects, choto the regional level anyway, is the fine work done by sen for their relatively favorable position in the approval ProPublica (propublica.org), which has parsed the data pipeline, rather than because of any potential public benstate by state and county by county, and presented it in a efit or mitigation of serious health and safety hazards. simple format with an overview at the top of the page. According to a recent Associated Press piece, “Tens of It’s still rare to be able to match up a specific projthousands of unsafe or decaying bridges carrying 100 ect with a specific amount of stimulus money, however. million drivers a day must wait for repairs because states The state DOT, for example, divvies up its portion of the are spending stimulus money on spans that are already spoils through in good shape or on a confusing easier projects like alphabet soup repaving roads.” of funding So, what’s the mechanisms, deal around here? little of which In New York is discernState, not a week able via its goes by without website. “A lot another announceof this comes ment from the govthrough difernor’s office or ferent pools, from one legislator allocated to or another about different facthe infrastructions,” says ture projects beDensmore. ing undertaken in “ C D B G their districts. It’s (Communit y summer, and conDevelopment struction crews Block Grant) are everywhere, funds didn’t it seems. Yet how have specific much of that is stimulus projnormal mainteects; whoever nance and how got money just much would have augmented been left undone CDBG funds save for a shot in in all their the arm from the lines. They stimulus? added more The extremely dangerous, structurally deficient Wurts Street Bridge, despite being prepared Tracking stimumoney to the for repairs in 2008 by DOT crews, received no stimulus funding and has been removed from lus money to the lotraditional the project pipeline for at least two more years. cal or even regiongrant cycle. al level, much less to a specific bridge or road project, is They said, ‘We’re gonna give more money than we did a daunting task. If you’re trying to get past the blizzard last year.’ And in some places there were TEP — Transof press releases to find out, say, how much money was portation Enhancement Program — projects, awarded actually lavished on a bridge to nowhere in western New under the traditional funding lines, and then there were York compared to what the Walkway on the Hudson or TEP stimulus projects, which were upgraded or transthe Wurts Street Bridge between Kingston and Esopus muted into this ARRA (American Resource and Remay or may not be getting, you’ve got your work cut out covery Act) thing. So it’s hard to sort out. Some things for you. Knowing people on a project’s inside — like flowed through county lines, some through municipal Steve Densmore, who consults for the Dyson Foundalines, some through nonprofit lines.” tion and who told me how much federal stimulus money What is relatively easy to determine, through the Pro(about $500,000; see accompanying story, page 1) found Publica website, anyway, is that the economic stimulus its way into the Walkway Over the Hudson war chest — money, both nationwide and filtering down through the can help. state, is being divvied out mostly to public education, Other than that, you can just about forget it. The Continued on Page 3
D
Four-year-old Maxwell Hopkins tests his legs on the nearly completed Walkway Over the Hudson on August 25, as construction crews have a celebratory dinner party in the background.
By Steve Hopkins
I
t’s almost September, which means that in a little more than a month, the much-anticipated Walkway Over the Hudson will be completed, buffed up, inspected and ready for the teeming hordes to clamber aboard the former Poughkeepsie-Highland Railroad Bridge for a massive grand opening celebration of the world’s longest, possibly highest and by far coolest pedestrian bridge. That this has even come to pass is, for those who remember the specter of the visionary but organizationally challenged Bill Sepe hawking his pipe dream of an aerial walkway to a largely unmoved public, nothing short of a miracle. And it is happening despite a still-nagging $10 million fundraising shortfall for the $38.8 million project, and despite the thorny issue of access from the Poughkeepsie side over a swatch of land owned by CSX. The details of the proposed spectacle have received a lot of ink already, and will continue to do so over the next month. Nonetheless, let it not be said that the Chronic failed to alert anyone as to what will go down on October 3. For one thing, the event is free — although there’s no way in tarnation they’re going to be able to crowd everyone who descends on Poughkeepsie and Highland that day onto the bridge, big and long and sturdy as it is. In fact, everyone present on the span for the ceremonies will either be working the event or will have been invited. But all is not lost. According to Steve Densmore, press liaison for the Dyson Foundation, there are plans to erect a large video screen in Waryas Park so the uninvited can see what’s happening up top. And what a happening it will be … Before a throng of onlookers that will include every regional political and social dignitary imaginable — a pair of long, flag-festooned nautical ropes will be dragged into the middle from each end by a battalion of volunteers, where they will be tied together to symbolize the pedestrian joining of Po’town and Highland, Dutchess and Ulster, east and west, European and indigenous, and any other two elements or ideas you might want to put together. Gov. David Paterson and others will speak, bands will play, kites and windsocks will be flown, there’ll be a dual grand parade flowing in both directions featuring giant Hudson Valley-appropriate puppet wizardry and all sorts of other wonderment. There’s still a call out for 500 people to animate the puppets as well as for parade marshalls, parking guards, stage managers, attendants and the like; go to walkway.org to find out about these and other volunteer opportunities. Not all the action will be on the bridge, though. At the very least there’ll be rowing races and a flyover by the barnstorming aces of the Olde Rhinebeck Aerodrome. If you don’t believe a word of this, or think there might be something else going on that you don’t want to miss (there most certainly will be), call or e-mail the friendly and always helpful Jeanne Fleming at (845) 758-5519 or Continued on Page 4
Page 2 • AuGust/September 2009
The Hudson Valley
CHRONIC
Blood, Sweat and Determination One kid’s quest to promote his first boxing show
By Molly Maeve Eagan
A
sa Coddington is only 22 years old, but right now he feels like he’s 42. Because no one else at his age would try to pull off what he’s trying to do. On Saturday, Sept. 12, he’ll find out if his first boxing show will be a success. It takes an immense amount of work to put on an event of this magnitude. Most boxing promoters are seasoned trainers with years of promoting and training under their belts. Even for them, it takes months of work and years of connections to make a show happen. But Coddington may just have the passion, drive, and chutzpah to pull it off. At 6 months old, Coddington was adopted from Colombia by a couple from Kerhonkson. He began training at the age of 10 under the instruction of Brian Demorest, when his sister brought him to visit Stan Hoffman’s Boxing Camp near his home. The boxing camp is famous for producing such fighters as Regilio Tuur, who is famous for knocking out reigning world champion Kelcie Banks in the first round at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, and former world heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman. Coddington’s parents refused to let him fight until
he was 18, at which time he won his first bout. But he soon turned his attention to training, first out of Demorest Gym, then out of Zenergy, both in Kingston. When Zenergy closed, Coddington approached Lyle Schuler at MAC Fitness on the East Chester Bypass. Schuler, recognizing his determination and skill, allowed him to begin a boxing program, which quickly succeeded. Coddington established the Fists of Fury Boxing Program, and now trains more than 30 clients, ages 5 to 65 from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days a week. “He’s a very gifted trainer who can work with people of all different levels,” says Patti Davenport, a farmer from Stone Ridge, who’s been training for 9 years. “He works your mind, body and soul with all his heart.” Schuler says he is willing to put his faith in Coddington because “he works hard, he doesn’t complain, and he’s exceptionally dedicated to his clients. He deserves a chance.” Of course, Coddington has Schuler’s MAC enterprise behind him, but the work is largely his. There are programs, posters, flyers and t-shirts to be made, ads and press to produce, sponsors to pursue, tables and chairs
to fill, a charity raffle to organize, and fighters to coordinate. But Coddington is up to it. “This is the biggest challenge of my life,” he says, “and I intend to win.” Asa will be working the corner for seasoned amateur boxer Josh Carle, 26. Also scheduled on the card from Kingston is Tom Finch from former world champion Billy Costello’s gym, as well as a father-son team from the International Boxing Association of Monticello. Fight Night at MAC will be held on Saturday, Sept. 12 at MAC Fitness on the East Chester Street (9W) Bypass. Boxers from Albany, Ulster, Dutchess, Orange and Sullivan counties will fight on the card. Doors open at 6 p.m. Fights start at 7 p.m. Tickets are $15 in advance; $20 at the door. VIP tables of 6 are $150 and include appetizer and entrée, provided by Savona’s, and beer, wine or soda, provided by Keegan Ales. Tickets are on sale at www.wbpm929.com or at MAC (845) 338-2887. Local business raffle prizes include Le Canard, Sky Top, Hickory BBQ, and Stella’s restaurants, Woodstock Harley Davidson, Ink, Inc., and many others. The raffle will benefit the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
Bridges as Art G.A.S. Visual Art & Performance Space presents “Bridges and the Span of Time,” a two -gallery group exhibition of artworks in all media of bridges of the Hudson Valley from New York City to Albany. This 50artist survey exhibition, which takes place from Sept. 5 – Oct. 31, 2009, is one of Poughkeepsie’s Hudson-Fulton Quadricentennial events. Curated by Franc Palaia, the show takes place at two downtown Poughkeepsie venues: G.A.S. (GalleryandStudio) at 196 Main St., and just seven doors east at the Salvation Art Gallery at 214 Main St. Both galleries are located four blocks east of the train station and the Mid-Hudson Bridge. There will be an artists’ reception on Saturday, Sept. 5, from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m. The exhibition features the work of the following artists and collections: Spencer Ainsley, Michael Asbill, Michael Bader, Thomas Weeks Barrett, the New York State Bridge Authority, Darryl Bautista, Bruce Berger, Michael Bowman, Richard Collins, Dick Crenson, Margaret Crenson, Shawn Dell Joyce, Jerome Deyo, Nancy Donskoj, Ed Fausty, Jeanne Fleming, Cliff Foley, Tarryl Gabel, Michael Gallo Farrell, Ralph Gabriner, Claudia Gorman, John Gould, Eunice Hatfield-Smith, Linda T. Hubbard, Ted Kawalerski, Kay Kenny, Joanne Klein, Robert Lipgar, Mark MacKinnon, , Greg Martin, Mike McNamara, Greg Miller, Theodore Miller, Doug Nobiletti, Franc Palaia, Ron Plimley, Greg Raciti, David Rocco, Dan Rowland, Fred Schaeffer, Ted Spiegel, Benjamin Swett, Michael Sibilia, Matthew Slaats, Laura Gail Tyler, Harry Wilks, Patrick
CHRONIC The Hudson Valley
Editor & Publisher Steve Hopkins Associate Publisher Emeritus Paul Joffe Contributors Molly Maeve Eagan Harry Seitz Advertising info@hvchronic.com Steve Hopkins Rosie McPherson Matt Rohr
Contact us at: phone 914-388-8670 fax 866-800-4062
steve@hvchronic.com Photography Paul Joffe Fionn Reilly Andy Uzzle Steve Hopkins
The Hudson Valley Chronic PO Box 709 Pleasant Valley, NY 12569
Wing and Ian Wickstead. “Bridges and the Span of Time” celebrates the Poughkeepsie-Highland Railroad Bridge, all 17 Hudson Valley bridges and the 2009 opening of the Walkway Over the Hudson, the world’s longest and highest pedestrian bridge. This exhibit will consist of approximately 150 works, and includes paintings, large-scale panoramic photographs, sculpture, photo-light boxes, drawings, prints, archival photos, lenticular and stereoscopic photos and mixed media works on the theme of bridges. Video and archival film footage will also be presented. There will also be a series of related gallery Jerry Deyo’s Walk Down Albany Street, a 1968 oil on canvas. events, sound and video presentations, book signings, and lectures: • Saturday, Sept. 5, from 1-3 p.m., author and histotographer Dick Crenson will screen several videos and rian Carleton Mabee will give a slide talk on the history the turn-of-the-century archival film, “Sitting on Top of of the Poughkeepsie Railroad bridge and book signing the World.” of “Bridging the Hudson.” • Saturday, Oct. 17, musician and composer Joseph • Saturday, Sept. 19, from 1-3 p.m., noted photograBertolozzi will give a musical presentation and discuspher Ted Spiegel will discuss his 30 years of photographsion of “Bridge Music,” his ground-breaking perforing bridges of the Hudson Valley. He will conduct a book mance where he used the Mid-Hudson bridge as a musisigning for his many books about the Hudson Valley. cal instrument. • Saturday, Sept. 26, from 1-4 p.m., panoramic phoIn September and October, curator Franc Palaia will contographer Greg Miller will give a PowerPoint presentaduct tours of the show for groups and individuals. Reservation and book signing on his new book, “The Hudson tions and appointments are required. Call 845-486-1378. Valley - An American Treasure.” Gallery hours at G.A.S. are: Friday – Sunday from 12 to 6 • Saturday, Oct. 10, from 1-3 p.m., filmmaker and phop.m. For more information, visit www.galleryandstudio.org.
Nobody’s Business Bridge to the past, bridge to the future F
or all the comments I get from people about how they’re jealous of my seeming to have done just about whatever I wanted and lived a pretty interesting and varied life compared to their more settled, responsible paths, I still feel sometimes like I missed the exBy Steve Hopkins periential boat. Truth be told, the first thing I ever wanted to be was an architect, a road I was talked off of by a crooked guidance counselor getting kickbacks for shunting kids into certain schools. I ended up not going to college at all in the normal sense, but that’s another story. More specifically, I really wanted to build bridges. In fact, when I was about 8, I designed and built a span across a sandy ravine with a creek running through it. It was made from a pair of long, straight trunks from fallen pine trees, cris-crossed with boards stolen from a construction site and packed with mud, sticks and rocks. It had railings, and was sturdy enough to last a couple of years until the banks eroded out from under it. So here I am nearly 50 years later, a crackpot journalist pontificating about bridges in my own gonzo newspaper, which serves as a sort of bridge to sanity and
quasi-respectability during these terrible, harsh times. I still love the things. They’re a big reason I’ve lived 90% of my adult life within five miles of the Hudson River. I like to walk on them, bicycle over them, stop on them and smell the brackish air, watch the boats and ships glide beneath them, stand under them and admire the superstructure. I’ve commuted across them on my bike when living in Brooklyn and Queens. I dragged a fat lawyer over the Brooklyn Bridge in a pedicab, probably the single greatest physical feat of my life. They pack an air of mystery: For many years when I lived near Troy, I would see the same homeless, wild-haired old Black man walking slowly across the Congress Street Bridge between Troy and Watervliet, no matter what time of day or night it was. He would always see me, nod and smile knowingly. Was he real, or a ghost? I never stopped to find out. I can’t tell you how pleased I am that in this year of the Hudson-Fulton-etc. Quadricentennial, people are paying attention to bridges again, at least for a little bit. That the event was used as an excuse to fund the construction of a walking/bike path over a glorious old railroad bridge. That a musical juggernaut took it upon himself to turn one of my favorite bridges into a musical instrument. This may even inspire me go back to school and become an architect. Thomas Paine was a writer and crank, too, and he somehow got it together to go to France and sell them on a pretty good bridge design of his own. Weirder things have happened. Ask Joe Bertolozzi.
The Hudson Valley
CHRONIC
Stimulus Clouds
AuGust/September 2009 • PAGE 3
From Page 1
health and social programs, and mostly in the cities. Fully $7.5 billion of the state’s $10,626,186,240 received so far has come in through two federal agencies: the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services. The federal Department of Transportation is responsible for doling out just $777,500,408 — less than a billion, and less than 8 percent of the state total — to shore up the New York’s crumbling infrastructure, largely through state DOT but also directly to counties. Of that $777.5 million, Mid-Hudson counties have gotten precious little stimulus money, both in terms of raw dollars and of per capita spending. As far as money awarded specifically to counties for transportation projects, Dutchess County is getting $5,515,676; Ulster County $13,561,000; Orange County $6,464,489; Columbia County $8,844,725; Greene County $1,834,477; Putnam $695,725; Rockland $20,207,930; Westchester $56,647,840. Included in Dutchess’ total is $317,951 for a new park & ride lot on Rte. 199 near Rte. 9G in Rhinebeck; $965,000 for rehabilitation of a bridge carrying Lime Kiln Road over the Ten Mile River, which includes cleaning and painting of steel truss members, deck waterproofing, concrete repair work, sidewalks and a guardrail. There’s $1,240,000 for various paving jobs in multiple municipalities, and $391,000 to resurface Buckinghan/ Inwood Avenue between East Cedar and Fulton streets in Poughkeepsie. Ulster’s infrastructurally-flavored stimulus largesse includes $2,645,455 to pave and improve Route 209 in Marbletown; $4,700,000 to replace the Main Street bridge over the Rondout Creek in the Town of Wawarsing; $200,000 to build a pedestrian walkway along Ravine Street in the Rondout section of Kingston; $893,000 for sidewalks in Gardiner from the Reformed Church to the Library; and $2,223,556 for preventative paving of Route 28 in Shandaken. You get the idea.
A bridge too near
The New York State Bridge Authority (NYSBA) is a quasi-public organization that funds itself through the collection of tolls. Not one dollar of its operational or maintenance costs comes from state taxes. Because of this and the fact that the agency is so on top of maintaining its five Hudson River crossings (the Rip Van Winkle Bridge between Hudson and Catskill; the KingstonRhinecliff Bridge; the Mid-Hudson Bridge between Poughkeepsie and Highland; the parallel Newburgh-
Beacon Bridges; and the Bear Mountain Bridge), the NYSBA has gotten absolutely nothing from the stimulus package. “We’re trying for some funding for the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge in round two,” says authority PR spokesman John Bellucci, in confirming the Chronic’s time-wasting research that led us to give him a call. “But so far, you’re absolutely right; we’ve received no stimulus money.” OK, so far so good. Other goose-eggs turned up include stimulus funding for CSX-owned railroad bridges like the long, high, scary-looking thing going over the Rondout Creek in Kingston. And, speaking of the Rondout: Not included in Ulster County’s stimulus total — and consistent with the damning assessment of the Associated Press — is the much-needed, much-delayed renovation of the old, extremely rusty Wurts Street Bridge joining Kingston’s Rondout section with Port Ewen across the creek. Designed by the firms of Holton Robinson and John A. Roebling (the guy who designed the Brooklyn Bridge), the span was begun in 1916 and completed in 1921 (construction was suspended through World War I until 1920 for lack of supplies and due to money problems). According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, the bridge is one of the most structurally deficient in the nation, deserving a rating of 2 out of a possible 10. Verbiage on one bridge monitoring website describes its condition as “basically intolerable, requiring a high priority of corrective action.” It looked for all the world as if the Wurts Streets Bridge renovation was in the planning stages a year ago as cores were drilled and cables were inspected. Crews tested to determine the scope of the bridge project, but in the last year or so it seems planning was suspended as the site was not considered as “shovel ready” as other projects looking for stimulus money. Around the same time, state DOT’s then-commissioner, Astrid Glynn, was quoted as predicting “a deficient bridge wave.” She resigned in May of 2009 to spend more time with her family, just as the Obama stimulus money was hitting the streets. Days later her successor, acting DOT commissioner Stanley Gee, addressed the New York State Infrastructure Summit in Manhattan with these daunting words: “Keeping our existing infrastructure safe and in a state-of-good-repair will clearly be a challenge. Last year, the Department of Transportation completed a needs study that examined what it would take to bring the state’s multi-modal transportation infrastructure to a state of good repair. The study documented $175 billion in infrastructure needs, and this did not include the
needs of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the Thruway Authority or the New York State Bridge Authority.” That’s $175 billion. Nearly 200 times the amount trickling its way into New York through the stimulus package. Understandably in the light of the above, no press release has ever been sent out trumpeting the issuance of the $3,283,000 it has been estimated would be needed to bring the Wurts Street span up to snuff. The state DOT estimates they’ll get around to considering repairing the bridge again in a couple of years. Meanwhile, the DOT spends thousands each winter to dump salt on the thing to keep it — and its too-steep approaches — from turning into a deadly bobsled run. It doesn’t help that just an eighth of an mile downstream there’s a relatively new four-lane highway bridge carrying what is now the real Route 9W across Rondout Creek, rendering the historic Wurts Street Bridge functionally redundant. The above is just one story among many hundreds in the Mid-Hudson region, and thousands across the state, that confirm the fact that stimulus money is not necessarily going where it’s needed. Indeed, the following familiar-sounding pair of sentences, which could have been uttered by any politician but which were in fact recently uttered by U.S. Sen.Chuck Schumer regarding stimulus projects in Ulster and Sullivan counties, must be taken with a grain — or a ton or two — of salt: “This funding from the economic recovery package is muchneeded and a wise investment in our transportation infrastructure. These projects will help jumpstart the economy by creating and retaining jobs, and make critical upgrades to our decaying roads and bridges to make travel safer and easier in [insert your town here].” In the end, it’ll depend on which town, or which bridge or road in which town, you insert into the above equation. Happy driving, and keep your eyes peeled for “bridge out” signs.
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The Hudson Valley
CHRONIC
Page 4 • AuGust/September 2009
Walking On Air
From Page 1
ture and Parks (the department) were able to keep that money in the budget, recognizing how important making this investment was to the commitThe price of admission ment of the bridge, and to making it The speeches are bound to be lengthy, if only the signature project for the Quadrito get all the thank-you’s registered. There is a centennial, which didn’t really have long list of heroes and heroines responsible for many landmark projects associated turning Sepe’s lonely obsession into what will with it. There are also a couple of Enbe a magnificent state park, an international vironmental Protection Fund grants landmark and an engine for tourism in the rethat are rolled into that $17.5 million gion. Not least among them is Sepe himself, figure — one for $500,000 from the who had the foresight back in 1993 to recogprevious year and one for $600,000 nize the hulking, blackened structure’s promthat would have been announced last ise before anyone else, founded the nonprofit year but was delayed due to the state Poughkeepsie-Highland Railroad Bridge fiscal crisis until this year.” Company and set about trying to almost sinMany other sources have been glehandedly will the idea into being by taking tapped to amass what Densmore calls people for walks atop the uninsured span to the “$28 million and change” pledged admire the stunning, peaceful views. One of to the project so far. As previously menthe 150-odd individuals who heeded Sepe’s tioned, there was the initial big-ticket call was Fred Schaeffer, an unassuming attorinflux of $875,000 through Congressney who took over as lead cheerleader for the Ed Kowalski (left), chef/owner of Lola’s Café in Poughkeepsie, takes orders from an octet of VIP guests man Hinchey and $2 million from the Walkway project in 2000 and has steered the dining on the Walkway Over the Hudson on August 25. Clockwise from far left: Steven Chickery, Dyson Foundation, both of which came organization toward safety consciousness, Chase Booth, Mario and Lynn Borelli, Maureen and Stu Lake, Gray Davis and Denise Chickery. in 2007. “And then Hinchey got anothsolvency and success, with the help of another er $475,000,” says Densmore. “In addition, the New York when there are so many important things that aren’t beconvert to the cause, philanthropist Rob Dyson. It was State Senate, through the offices of Steve Saland, donated ing funded?’ What was remarkable was that the state Schaeffer’s stewardship and Dyson’s involvement, among $1.25 million last year as a member item, or ‘earmark.’ delegation held firm. In the secondary phase of funding, a number of key factors, that convinced Congressman “We received another federal earmark, $950,000 from that was critical. Early on, Congressman Hinchey was Maurice Hinchey to stick his neck out and lobby from Senator (Chuck) Schumer, that is a HUD-funded initiathe first one to come through with a large commitment his perch on the House Appropriations Committee for tive,” says Demsmore. “They don’t just give you money of funding. There’s no doubt about that. But that fundwhat turned out to be the initial big-ticket financial shot from a big black box; it has to flow through a governing would have had no place to go if the Dyson Foundain the arm for the project, a $875,000 “earmark.” And ment program. We also got a $200,000 Recreation and tion hadn’t come through when it did, to bring all the it was the Dyson Foundation that, in 2007, jumpstarted Trails grant; it’s a federal program flowing through partners together in a meeting, to say ‘Let’s commit to the headlong rush toward the project’s realization with a Parks. There was also $440,000 from the federal Save the base funding necessary.’” $2 million stake to fund a series of studies and have the America’s Treasures program.” Actually, says Densmore, the state-funded amount structure inspected properly. After that, dollars as well The state was a source of other funding as well. “An has even grown somewhat from Spitzer’s original offer. as public support started pouring in, particularly in light additional $2.4 million has been awarded as a Trans“About $17.5 million or so is slated to come from the of Schaeffer, Dyson and company’s decision to link the portation Enhancement Program (TEP) grant, which is New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historproject to the upcoming 2009 Hudson-Fulton-Champlain federal money that flows through the state Department ic Preservation,” says Densmore. “State funding comes Quadricentennial Celebration, thus enlisting state muscle of Transportation,” says Densmore. “That grant was from Parks through various lines. Essentially it’s two and additional millions to help get it done on time. awarded and then was transformed into an American installments of $8 million each over the last two fiscal That the $16 million promised by the Spitzer adminisRecovery Act-funded item, which allowed us to cover years that were originally committed to the project — tration in January 2008 survived both the governor’s fall our match requirement. It was upgraded from a standard but we had to go through a laborious process this past from grace and the subsequent Great Recession-induced TEP grant of $1.9 million — which would have required year because of the recession and the difficulties with state budget crisis is yet another in a series of near-mirus to come up with a $500,000 (20 percent) match — to a the state budget to keep what we were promised. It was acles. “When it got to the state legislature,” says Dens$2.4 million, fully funded grant. That money is entirely a difficult year for everybody. What’s astounding is that more, “there was a lot of spirited debate about, ‘Why are for the waterfront elevator, which we weren’t going to they held the line. The governor (Paterson), the legislawe investing so much money in this bridge at this time tackle if the funding didn’t come through. That piece of the project will be completed in 2010.” Then there are the private donations, many of which come in relatively small increments from an army of local and regional boosters. “We received a million-dollar grant from Scenic Hudson early on, which was very important because it was a commitment from an outside, non-governmental entity; an environmental group,” says Densmore. “There was $500,000 from the Poughkeepsie-based Jane W. Nuhn Charitable Trust, and anopeningcelebration@walkway.org.
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The Hudson Valley
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Walking On Air
AuGust/September 2009 • PAGE 5
From Page 4
other $500,000 from the Dutchess County Industrial Development Agency (IDA). As it stands now, we still need to raise about $10 million. With the add-ons, it’s essentially a $38.8 million project. We’re not expecting, as you might deduce, to raise the full amount before we open.” Without going into details, Densmore allowed that the shortfall is being covered, at least in the short term, until the remainder of the funding is received.
When it all shakes out, I predict access will be gained through the CSX property, if a bit more expensively than Mr. Steinhaus would have liked. Just know that, when all the link-ups to this thing are completed, you’re going to be able to ride a bike from East Fishkill to New Paltz and beyond, without having to worry about getting hit by a car or breathing nasty diesel fumes, while taking in some of the finest scenery on the globe. It’s going to be awesome.
Access of evil
The eighth wonder of the 19th century
Meanwhile, the crews are laying the final slabs this week, putting the shoulder-height railings up, tying everything together for the big day. I’m really not going to go into everything about the newly re-imagined structure here — it’s not the purpose of this piece, and it’s all been said before, many times. For details, visit walkway. org, which has everything you’ll ever want to know, including answers to frequently asked questions about access, safety, and other concerns. What I will touch on is the still unresolved issue of the CSX land, which involves a petition entered by Dutchess County to, according to County Executive Bill Steinhaus, “obtain abandoned CSX property through condemnation at risk,” so that access to the Walkway from the Dutchess side, with its potentially vast bike path system, would be ensured. CSX, which has granted temporary access through the property so as not to be seen as a total stick-in-the-mud, is nonetheless fighting the petition, the decision on which was supposed to have been made by June 19, but which continues to drag on. If the railroad company wins, it retains the right to deny access. If the county wins, Walkway is in business, no matter what. The issue has been something of a political football, with Sen. Charles Schumer nosing into the process in June, saying it was he who negotiated the temporary easement with CSX and making Steinhaus livid. “Had Senator Schumer chosen to pick up the phone to call anyone at the county level about this legal process, we would have been happy to let him know the land transfer process is well under way,” said Steinhaus at the time.
Sick Sudoku
Part of the lure of the bridge, at least for this fan, is its interesting and noble history as a key transportation component of the Industrial Age. “It’s actually one of the greatest structures built in the 19 th century, if not ever,” says Schaeffer. Taking its central structural premise from the Brooklyn Bridge, it was constructed — overbuilt with steel provided by Andrew Carnegie, an investor, says Schaeffer — atop four massive, 10-storytall stone-and-cement-filled oaken caissons embedded deep in the sandy river bottom. “Despite 50 to 60 trains a day running across it for years, despite all the tides in the river, those caissons haven’t moved an inch.” When it was constructed in 1888 the bridge was, at 6,767 feet, the longest span in North America and the second-longest on the planet. “There were some who called it the eighth wonder of the world,” says Schaeffer, crediting the span with contributing greatly to the nation’s westward expansion by providing the only transportation link south of Albany by which coal, steel and grain, troops and supplies could be transported from Pennsylvania and the Midwest to New England, and manufactured goods from New England’s teeming factories could be sent to the Midwest. The bridge’s heyday lasted for nearly 60 years, before the advent of the nation’s interstate highway system and a decline in manufacturing in the Northeast caused a major contraction in the railroad industry. By the 1960s, maintenance and upkeep of the bridge had deteriorated to the point that water was no longer piped along the spark-prone tracks, leading to a much-photographed smoky blaze on May 8, 1974 (photo-
graphs of which, by John Fasulo, are currently on view at Café Bocca in Poughkeepsie). By 1976 Penn Central had been merged into Conrail, which continued to neglect the now-closed span and ended up selling it for one dollar to Gordon Schreiber Miller, a convicted bank swindler, in 1984. He and his successor, Vito Moreno, were unable to keep up with the taxes on the bridge, and ran into trouble with the U.S. Coast Guard, which in 1986 began levying fines of $22,000 per day because there were no navigation lights on the four massive support caissons sticking out of the river and threatening ships in the inky blackness. Moreno or a subsequent owner (the ownership trail became a bit murky for a bit as the Pennsylvania-based cadre of investors tried to keep a step ahead of financial ruin) deeded it to the Poughkeepsie-Highland Railroad Bridge Company, Inc., in 1998. Since 1993, Sepe and his cohorts had been acting as a band of squatters, physically asserting themselves into the picture by not only conducting the aforementioned tours, but by hanging Christmas lights and an American flag from the thing and making critical repairs, including fixing the navigation lights. The historical aspect, in fact, is what should have made the Walkway project a no-brainer for massive federal stimulus funding, when the only stimulus money came in the form of the aforementioned $500G add-on that obviated the need to put up a 20 percent match on the $1.9 million TEP grant from state DOT. Densmore puts it down to bad timing. “The amazing thing is, if we had put this out to bid concurrent with stimulus, we could have paid for half the bridge with the stimulus money,” he says. “It was perfectly aligned with the stimulus goals and the way the stimulus liked to fund things. But the problem was, we bid and let the project a year before the stimulus came along. And it was bid and let in one enormous contract; so 90 percent of the expense was in this one contract. Whenever you get into federal and some state programs, you can’t un-ring that bell. They don’t want to pay for what’s already been done.” But it’s been done, and that’s what counts. Thanks, everybody, for pitching in. See you on October 3. I’ll be the guy hanging out with the Indians.
Puzzle # S0007
As any die-hard puzzlehead knows, Sudoku is not a game; it’s either a means of warding off dementia, or a form of dementia in itself. Either way, this seemingly harmless little pastime has become an unspeakable facet of daily existence for millions of silent addicts, and a likely root cause for the simultaneous and precipitous drop in the GNPs of several the world’s leading economic powers. Enjoy this 7th in a series of brainstoppers. Again, for the solution, go to hvchronic.com. If you figured it out, go buy yourself something so you can add a little to all the economic stimulus going on.
E
Scrumptious.
very week this very special downtown urbanflavored farmers’ market exerts an inexorable pull on the community, as people are drawn in by the sights and smells of fresh, locally grown vegetables and fruits, fabulous artisan breads and baked goods, zesty ethnic hot meals, beautiful flowers and plants, great regional wines, and a convivial, bazaar-like atmosphere. On every single Friday from now until late October the market will offer a nonstop menu of wonderful happenings to feed the heart, mind, soul and stomach. Fridays, 10 am to 3 pm in Mural Park on Main St. in Downtown Poughkeepsie, just east of Market Street.
The Hudson Valley
CHRONIC
Page 6 • AuGust/September 2009
Takin’ It To the Bridge
Move over, James Brown; Joe Bertolozzi is the hardest-working man in show business By Steve Hopkins
J
The gong show
He chanced on one such tangent when his wife bought him a Javanese gong. “Being a composer, I knew that there were many different types of gongs out there,” says Bertolozzi. “So I got this one gong, and it was very cool, and then I said, ‘Let me get a Chinese gong, and another type of Chinese gong,’ and before you know it I had about 50 or 60 gongs. And I made a rig out of my Ultimate Support system I’d had for my keyboards, the
Photo by Steve Hopkins
oseph Bertolozzi is nothing short of a force of nature, a man for whom the word “no” seems beyond the range of a usually sharp sense of hearing. Perhaps that’s the result of the life-changing childhood earache that led him to be alone in his bedroom for hours listening to the Disney version of the life stories of Bach, Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, stories and music that inspired him to announce to the world at 9 years old that he was going to be a composer. And now that a composer he has become, he still can’t seem to hear or understand the word “no.” That’s partly because Bertolozzi, who grew up in Poughkeepsie and went to school at Mount Carmel, has full-blown visions in his head that demand to be converted into reality. One such vision was the notion that he could compose music for and “play” a 3,000-foot-long suspension bridge that carries 14 million vehicles a year back and forth across the Hudson River between Poughkeepsie and Highland. Plowing through obstacles like the steamroller Eliot Spitzer wishes he was, Bertolozzi willed into being — in the middle of the Great Recession, mind you — a technically difficult and logistically improbable feat called “Bridge Music,” an 11-song recorded suite of percussive pieces featuring the Franklin Delano Roosevelt MidHudson Bridge as a multitimbral instrument. In doing so, he managed to set off a minor international media feeding frenzy, as crews from The New York Times, Reuters and the BBC descended on Poughkeepsie, smitten with the very idea of what he was attempting. Now that Bertolozzi has completed his mission, he’s set his eyes and ears on the Eiffel Tower. Don’t think for a minute he can’t pull it off. Bertolozzi is a hybrid, a cross between a classically schooled musician and a self-made man. Yes, he went to Vassar and majored in music, but by that time he had already for years been composing music for stage productions at The Bardavon. “I realized it was going to be a tough sell, getting an orchestra to play my music at the age of 13 or 14, 18 or 19, and I figured theatrical plays don’t typically have live music with them, although they did in the past,” says Bertolozzi, as if getting a mercurial, self-involved regional theater director to let a teenager write music for a serious play by Tennessee Williams was as easy as tossing a football in the backyard. “So I went to a couple of directors and I said ‘I’d be willing to write music for your play, if you give me credit for it in the program, you know, ‘Original Music by …’” Of course, he was successful. “The first one I did was called ‘The Eccentricities of a Nightingale;’ it was a Tennessee Williams play. It was done by the Hollywood Repertory Company at the Bardavon; it was an in-house company they were trying to get established.” Having cleared the huge hurdle of getting his stuff performed and heard at an early age, Bertelozzi played his unfolding career smartly. He used his musical talents to score lucrative gigs directing music at churches, synagogues and schools, while continuing to compose longer and more involved works even as he searched for alternative angles to get himself and his music noticed.
Apache A-Frame, which they don’t make any more, and I arranged them for a solo percussion project.” He calls the rig the “Bronze Collection,” and as is his M.O., he scored work with it. “I was getting some bookings — I actually played at the U.S. Tennis Open as part of the grounds entertainment. When I’m playing, my arms are swinging; the gongs are arranged around me in a ‘U,’ at knee-level, chest level, and overhead.” Yet again Bertolozzi’s wife, as his unwitting muse, played a major role in the next stage of his career. “So my wife again, God bless her — never thinking that that single gong would reproduce into 60 pieces — was standing one day next to a poster of the Eiffel Tower. She took a swing at it like I was hitting one of my gongs, and she went, ‘Bong!’ “And I thought to myself, ‘You know something? Everything vibrates, and if you hit that in the right place, you could get a tone out of that!’ And she immediately regretted having done that, because she knew what was going to happen. I’m always looking for ways to have my music played, and why not something like this? I thought, I can play the Eiffel Tower, I can write music for that. The concept was in a direct line with what I’d already been doing. Of course I don’t speak French, and I don’t have any contacts in Paris, so I thought, why don’t I try to do this on a domestic level?” Well, why not?
Suspension of disbelief
A short series of consciousness leaps later, and Bertelozzi was on the doorstep of the New York State Bridge
Authority, lobbying hard for a chance to implement his “Bridge Music” project. After a period of study and comparative analysis, he had settled on the Mid-Hudson Bridge, a stone’s throw from his boyhood home, as his chosen target. “Number one, it had to be a suspension bridge, but I also wanted one that gave you access to as much of the bridge structure as possible from the sidewalk,” says Bertolozzi. “Because I didn’t want to put musicians up over the handrail, I mean, it’s dangerous; there are issues of insurance … I was trying to keep costs down, and liability and risk management down. I also wanted as intimate a space as I could get. You know, it’s 3,000 feet long, but you feel like there’s a connection between Highland and Poughkeepsie. If you take a look at the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, you can’t even see the other side. In fact, when they designed it, they had to accommodate the curvature of the Earth, because it’s so long. The George Washington Bridge was so urban, and didn’t have the beauty that this bridge does. The sidewalk on the Bear Mountain Bridge doesn’t give you the same access that this bridge does. This was the best way to go, I thought. It was good as a venue, it was good to make music from.” All he had to do was convince the Bridge Authority and about 1,000 other entities to agree with him. “I made a few calls, and I arranged a meeting with the chief engineer,” says Bertolozzi. “If he signs off on it then it’s up to the board if they want to allow something to happen.” First off, the composer had to assuage their fears about safety. “The idea was to play the bridge live as a series of five live concerts: Friday night, Saturday afternoon, Saturday night, Sunday afternoon, Sunday night, with 24 musicians, playing live from sheet music. So I would go out and write the music and position you in front of a handrail and you’d have your music. And every time your note came up you would pick up the right your mallet and go ‘bong.’” But first, Bertolozzi softened them up by playing selections of his orchestral music. “Writing a symphony is like the Gold Standard,” says Bertolozzi. “If you can write for a symphony orchestra you can supposedly have a grasp of musicianship. So I showed them that, and this album had sold pretty well, so I had a commercial element to it as well, them I played them a recording from my Bronze Collection, the gong thing which was like a step between that and the bridge, and I told them my music for the bridge would be more along the lines of this. ‘As you can see from the first one,’ I said, ‘I know how to handle background, foreground, melody, texture, rhythm, you know …’” After the end of the meeting the engineer shook Bertolozzi’s hand and said, “Well, at least you didn’t turn out to be a nut job.” He got permission to go onto the bridge for three days and record samples to put together a demo, which he would play for the board. “If you don’t like the demo, then we’re done, no harm, no foul,” Bertolozzi says he told them. “But if you do like it, I want you to give me permission to pursue this, and use your name, saying that I’m trying to put together this kind of event, and that I’m sanctioned by the New York State Bridge Authority.” He went out with a small crew and recorded the sounds. “I recorded each surface several times,” he says. “I would hit them hard, medium and soft; then we’d hit it hard, medium and soft with the metal mallet, a rubber mallet, a Lucite mallet and a wooden mallet. We had between nine and twelve strikes for every note. And then when we were done with it we had to go into the studio and identify them.” Bertolozzi insists there was no electronic manipulation of the recorded tones to get a sound, pitch or tonal quality the bridge was not providing naturally.
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“The whole concept was to play the bridge; we weren’t going to play an effects box. I wanted to do this initial suite with the integrity of it just being the bridge. I’m not saying that I’m against that aesthetic; maybe with the second album there’ll be more processing involved. But I didn’t want the first one to be that. In fact we added reverb to just one sound.�
Pass me that ‘bong’
Just logging all the sounds was a daunting task. “Talk about a headache,â€? says Bertolozzi. “Just going through, bong, bong, bong. We had like 700 samples to go through. Except that I knew what I wanted to do, I was like, ‘Oh, Jesus. This is taking longer than I thought.’ “Every file had this big long name, like ‘Northwest Abutment Saddle, South Side Flange 1,’ just so we could find it again,â€? says Bertolozzi. “And then we’d have to listen to it. You know, I’m hearing a middle C, and I’m also hearing an F-sharp just below it, and I’m also hearing like an A-flat three octaves higher.â€? The recorded tones were rarely aligned to what might be a composer’s wish list. “You know, it wasn’t calibrated as an instrument, it was calibrated as a bridge,â€? says Bertolozzi. “But all those different properties were there, so the names of the tones would say ‌ for example, if the first one was the loudest tone: middle C, we’d label it, plus all the overtones and undertones. Some tones were just like a thud. But others had these different overtones going on, which was important because in the context of writing the music, sometimes if you combine one, which has three notes, and another one that has two notes, and when you put them together it might either cancel what is the loudest note, or if not cancel it, it might reinforce the high note. So that you didn’t hear those low notes any more. What you would be hearing is that the third part of the hierarchy would be reinforced by this other note. So it’s very contextual. And when I was writing the music, I found out right away that I could use one surface to produce more than one note, depending upon its context.â€? The three-day bridge recording session was in June of 2006; the demo, of “Bridge Funk,â€? which turns out to have been the first song one hears on the album or the completed installation recording, was completed in September. Bertolozzi played it for the assembled board of NYSBA at their October meeting at their headquarters in Highland. “It was funny, because there was a table, I swear to Christ, a table the length of this building, like I’d never seen a table like this. And all the board of directors are sitting around it, and I had five minutes to make my pitch. So I took some time in the beginning — I was scripted, I was rehearsed — and I said, ‘Here’s the outboard handrail. Here’s the spindle on the south side. And they’re like, ‘Yeah, yeah, that’s what it sounds like. Yes, of course.’ And I said, ‘Now, here’s the song.’ So having given them the context — and ‘Bridge Funk’ was the first song that I wrote — I played those things. It starts out in little bits, and then, ‘Oh, it’s got some rhythm to it,’ and then everything comes together and they’re like, ‘Oh, wow, this thing is cool.’â€? In fact, they were astounded, and gave Bertolozzi the green light. “I just said, it’s not going to cost you any money,â€? says Bertolozzi. “I’m going to need to use your name, and if I need a letter from you every once in a while, I’d appreciate that, too. So they wrote me a letter, and they let me go.â€?
Chasing the brass ring
Almost immediately, Bertolozzi started garnering attention from the international press. “In 2007 The New York Times came and did a video and a story; and Reuters was there, BBC. I was doing international interviews, just for the idea. Of course, at that time it was still intended to be a live event. I was gathering this stuff in my arsenal so that when I went around to raise money, I could say ‘Look, they covered this now and it was just an idea. They’re going to follow up on it when it’s for real, so ‌â€? His intention was to approach corporations and get them to front advertising dollars to finance the live broadcast. The budget was $2.2 million. “The economy was already bad five years ago,â€? says Bertolozzi. “When the time frame came for me to raise the money, it was last June to September, which was when everything started going bad real fast. I drew together all these different threads of people I knew in the business, trying to get advice on how to go about this, how to raise money without spending any money. I was doing great with the press. And what they told me was that these corporations typically commit their money a year out by quarter. So if you wanted to have something done in September, which was when this was originally slated for, of this year, you’d have needed them to commit the money in September of 2008. In order to get it on their plate for 2008, you’ve got to get it to them the quarter before that. So that means July through September, I was contacting, for various reasons. Verizon, Pepsi, Coca Cola, all these different corporations that spend $2 million a week, on print maybe — and $2 million on television, $2 million on radio ‌ you know, they have that kind of money to spend. And I was trying to get them to say this was going to be a national celebration, even though it was on a regional basis. “I was trying to liken it to the Jamestown 400th anniversary,â€? he says. “The people at Jamestown had their stuff together. The New York State Fulton-Hudson Quadricentennial Commission — the first thing Gov. Paterson did was to slash their budget, massively — the commis-
sion went through five executive directors in as many years. They would meet twice a year. You would go to one meeting, and they’d say we’d like o welcome our new director, and you’d go to the next meeting six months later and that director was resigning. And then the next year the same thing would happen again. So as an entrepreneur, I couldn’t point to this stable organization that was making something happen. So I was kind of out there on my own.� The Quadricentennial Commission had originally planned to stage a number of “signature events� around the state; the Poughkeepsie area felt lucky to have been chosen as the venue for at least two of them, one being the gala Walkway Over the Hudson opening on October 3, and the other being, through Bertolozzi’s incessant lobbying efforts, his live “Bridge Music� concert. The concert was slated for September. “But then because the money was taken away by the state, they telescoped everything into this one event (the Walkway opening),� says Bertolozzi. “At the same time, anyone that I might have had as a possibility of financing this was just going south. I was talking to Rolling Rock for a while, because they had a promotion about the moon — moonvertising, do you remember this? It was this bogus advertising campaign where they were going to project ads on the moon, they were going to the next frontier. And you could tell it was one of those goofy kind of commercials, but they were leading up to a certain date. They said, you know, ‘On August 30, 2008 we’re gonna project on the moon,’ and so here’s everybody watching the game, and it’s that night, and .everybody goes out to look at the moon and nothing happens, so the next day of course they have a commercial that said, you know, ‘We had technical trouble, but we’re workin’ on it.’ So I was going to them, I said, ‘Look. You know, Henry Hudson sailed up the river on the Half Moon; this could be a Half-Moonvertising kind of thing. I was trying to work every angle possible. That was one instance, where I was talking to the guy, and he said, ‘Joe, I gotta get off the phone, we’re puttin’ fires out left and right, I gotta get back to you.’ While I was talking to him, Anheuser-Busch was bought by a Japanese company. With all that, there was no way I was going to get a $2 million project off the ground.�
Let’s go to the audiotape
Bertolozzi went to the Dyson Foundation, Central Hudson and other local benefactors, but no one was prepared to take on another cause in a down economy. “So I could have just let all that work go by the wayside — but that’s not me,� says Bertolozzi, who credits Poughkeepsie Mayor John Tkazyik with reawakening an idea he had entertained earlier. “This was October of ’08. I had a meeting with the mayor of Poughkeepsie, and he said, ‘Can’t you have some kind of speakers to play the music? You don’t have to have it live, do you?’ And I was thinking about this. My wife, again, had suggested something like this earlier on, but in my mind this was a live event, and that was the whole importance of the thing. And when he mentioned it in that meeting, I thought maybe I should visit this a bit better, and I spoke to somebody who was another advisor, and he said, ‘Let’s turn this into an installation; you have all the sounds, you can write the music still. It just won’t be live.’ And in fact, this was something I was hoping we would do after the live event; have a permanent fixture. But the way it turned out, this came first. And this only cost $13,000 or $14,000.� Once committed to the idea, Bertolozzi turned on the fundraising afterburners. “I still had to go out there and raise the money. In fact, if you go out and look at the signs on the bridge, on the CD itself, and on the brochure that I have, I list everybody who sent me $25. Some sent me $100, some wrote me a letter, some gave me a lead that went somewhere. All those people helped make this, but I did have to develop that.� Most importantly, he found a seam with Dutchess County Tourism and Ulster County Tourism. “They’re going to spend the money for tourism somehow, why not spend it on ‘Bridge Music?’ It was Dutchess Tourism’s Mary Kay Vrba who came through in the clutch. “She went to the Dutchess County IDA for a grant, and they allocated money to Dutchess County Tourism for ‘Bridge Music.’ That was amount matched by Ulster County, and that got us to about ten grand. The remaining money was money that, again, I raised from patrons.� And that was that. “The real story here is how all these municipal and public concerns came together to make this happen for everybody’s enjoyment,� says Bertolozzi, waxing magnanimous. “I just wanted to play the bridge. But of course, I had to bring all this other stuff together to make it happen. And I couldn’t have done it without $25 here and $10 there; it all added up. Along with tremendous goodwill and cooperation from the City of Poughkeepse, the Town of Lloyd, the County of Ulster, Dutchess County, the New York State Bridge Authority, I mean, just tremendous cooperation.�
No static at all
“Bridge Music� is playing 24 hours a day, year round, on FM 95.3. You can hear it in spots along the Poughkeepsie waterfront, at Waryas Park, and at listening stations, including one in the middle of the bridge, which will run from April 1 to October 31, when they come down for the winter. “Each radio installation is site-specific,� says Berto-
AuGust/September 2009 • PAGE 7
locci. “We broadcast to a 200-foot radius — the FCC allows people to have a 200-foot broadcast without getting a license. The Waryas Park installation makes it accessible to people who are afraid of heights, afraid of bridges, infirm, or when it’s raining out or otherwise impossible to go on the bridge. You have to find a channel that isn’t broadcasting. We chose 95.3. Right now they haven’t opened up the bidding for new frequencies in this area. If they did open it up and somebody wanted that frequency and bought it, we’d have to find another one. We looked at AM and other possibilities, but this was the best option in terms of sound quality, and was the least hassle. Also, we’re using full-resolution MP3s. MP3s normally run at, I think, 128 kilobytes per second. And these are running at, like, 2100 kilobytes per second. So it’s like the actual recording, not cut down.â€? The FM broadcast sounds like any other classical FM radio station; each piece is announced, and there’s a station ID at the top of the order. On the bridge pedestrian walkway, the installation is an on-demand menu of choices, with a sign that tells you what you’re choosing. Meanwhile, it looks as if Bertolozzi will probably be able to capitalize further on the project and its notoriety. He’s already received inquiries about doing installations in Montreal and Dubai. But for now he’s content to take a break and watch the “Bridge Musicâ€? CD (on Delos Records) sell. “The album went to number 18 on the Billboard crossover chart, and 35 on the classical chart,â€? says Bertolozzi, “so it’s making an impression.â€? The composer claims he’s shot, and needs “a serious bit of R&R. For five years, except for my church jobs, this has been nothing but ‘Bridge Music.’ I work for Vassar Temple in Poughkeepsie, and Christ Episcopal Church in Suffern, and I direct the Poughkeepsie Boys’ Choir. Plus I have a family I like to spend time with. Somewhere in there I wrote a piece for the Eastman School of Music, and I wrote a couple of other pieces, plus all the fundraising and other stuff — this was not all fun and games. I had to go to meetings on signage, and riverfront meetings, and seriously un-sexy things to make this happen. “I’m writing a piece for a friend who plays French horn, but I’m not even thinking about it until September,â€? continues Bertolozzi, not sounding quite believable when talking of relaxing and taking things easy. “I just want to be free of that kind of work ‌ although, the original idea was to play the Eiffel Tower. So I would like to pursue that; I have something to prove that it can be done. I invited the cultural attachĂŠ of the French Consulate to come — I haven’t heard back yet. I’ll just keep on inviting her until she comes.â€? Now that’s the Joseph Bertolozzi we recognize. “We’ll see,â€? he says, getting all pumped up again. “I’ve got a lot of good press, and the album is coming out in Europe in October.â€? Go get ’em, Joe. Our money’s on you.
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The Hudson Valley
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Page 8 • AuGust/September 2009
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