Issuu

F R E E S e p t e m b er 8 , 2 0 2 1 / V o l u m e X L I I , N u m b e r 3 / O u r 4 7 t h Y e a r

COVID

STATUS

Cases high Severe illness low

Cornell will keep on keepin’ on despite virus

UPDATE PAGE 5

QUO

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Online @ ITH ACA .COM

ROCKIN’

COMING

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WICB offers something for everyone

A look at Cornell Cinema’s season

Crossword event returns Sept. 25

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Newsline

VOL.XLII / NO. 3 / September 8, 2021 Serving 47,125 readers week ly

F E AT URE S Lights! Camera! Action! ��8 Newlywed stars of silent silver screen filmed action-packed movies in Ithaca in 1914

Fall Arts Preview �� 11 Puzzling �� 15 Finger Lakes Crossword Competition gears up for its ninth year.

Newsline ��3-5 Opinion �� 6 Letters �� 7

ART S &E N T E RTAINME N T Sports �� 16 Film �� 17 Film �� 18 Times Table �� 20 Classifieds �� 22 On the Cover: Marque at the State Theatre of Ithaca (photo: casey

ON T HE WE B COMMUNITY

Legacy Foundation celebrates 75 years of giving back

n 1945, five communityminded bankers, Paul Brainard, William Burns, Sherman Peer, George Rogalsky and Gerald Williams, decided they wanted to do something to give back to the community they loved. They established a non-profit, now called the Legacy Foundation of Tompkins County, that would donate resources to be used to enrich the quality of life for Tompkins County citizens. According to Jean McPheeters, the current director of development, part of the inspiration for the current name comes from the way they attain their funds. “We wanted something where people would leave a legacy in their wills and leave something to their community,” she said. This way, the foundation doesn’t have to rely on fundraising every year. Board members speak to people they know and ask them to consider adding the Legacy Foundation into their will. “You may want to make sure the community continues to be a place you’d enjoy living in,” she said. “The money is

invested and 5% is used annually.” The foundation grants gifts for a variety of things, from providing a large amount of money for a new furnace at the Brooktondale Community Center, or donating $500 to an organization who needs a new computer. There are applications open twice a year for organizations to make their case about what they need and why. Board members come together to read and rate the applications. “There’s always more requests than there is money,” McPheeters said. “Part of my job is asking why specifically

this thing or this time […] It’s always difficult to make these decisions.” While difficult in normal times, McPheeters said the pandemic complicated things to another level. “At the beginning of the pandemic we really changed how we did things,” she said. “We were very concerned about the needs in the community. We said we’re getting rid of twice a year applications, tell us what you need and we’ll figure it out.” She said they worked to get money out as quickly as possible, particularly in the area of food banks, shelters

T a k e

▶ Streets Alive! - The 16th Streets Alive! Ithaca, the perennial open-streets festival, will take place on Sunday, Sept. 19 from 1-5 p.m.; Cayuga Street from Ithaca High School to Court Street will be closed to motorized vehicles. This is one of the first festivals to return to Ithaca since 2020. Every Streets Alive! since the first in 2012 has

Food Net and the new Alex Haley historical marker, two projects funded by the Legacy Foundation

T a n n e r H a r d i n g , M a n a g i n g E d i t o r , x 1224 E d i t o r @ I t h a c aTi m e s . c o m J a i m e C o n e , E d i t o r , x 1232 SouthReporter@flcn.org C a s e y M a r t i n , S ta f f P h o t o g r a p h e r P h o t o g r a p h e r @ I t h a c aTi m e s . c o m C h r i s I b e r t , C a l e n d a r E d i t o r , x 1217 A r t s @ I t h a c aTi m e s . c o m A n d r e w S u l l i v a n , S p o r t s E d i t o r , x 1227 Sports@flcn.org Steve L awrence, Spo rts Co lumnist St e v e S p o r t sD u d e @ g m a i l .co m M a r s h a l l H o p k i n s , P r o d u c t i o n D i r ec t o r / D es i g n e r , x 1216 P r o d u c t i o n @ I t h a c aTi m e s . c o m F a i th F i s h e r , I n t e r n , x 1217 FF i s h e r @ I t h a c a T i m e s . c o m

and healthcare. They donated $50,000 to Cayuga Medical Center to help them purchase more machines to do rapid COVID testing. “We knew how critically important that was, and we were so overwhelmed with the good job they had done,” McPheeters said. Board president Mary Opperman said it was important that they made sure people who already had an elevated need pre-pandemic didn’t fall further below the watermark. “Their sources of funds were interrupted, people lost their jobs or businesses were

Sharon Davis, Distribution F r o n t J i m B i l i n s k i , P u b l i s h e r , x 1210 j b i l i n s k i @ I t h a c aTi m e s . c o m L a r r y H o ch b e r g e r , A ss o c i a t e P u b l i s h e r , x 1214 l a r r y@ I t h a c aTi m e s . c o m F r e e l a n c e r s : Barbara Adams, Rick Blaisell, Steve Burke, Deirdre Cunningham, Jane Dieckmann, Amber Donofrio, Karen Gadiel, Charley Githler, Linda B. Glaser, Warren Greenwood, Ross Haarstad, Peggy Haine, Gay Huddle, Austin Lamb, Steve Lawrence, Marjorie Olds, Lori Sonken, Henry Stark, Dave Sit, Bryan VanCampen, and Arthur Whitman

continued on page 7

N o t e

welcomed thousands of people with the opportunity to play, walk, ride and wander safely on the streets for an afternoon. From the bike rodeo and Circus Culture acrobatics to strolling musicians, with many activities along the route and a food truck or two at Thompson Park, there is something for everyone. Organizers will be implementing

Visit our website at www.ithaca.com for more news, arts, sports and photos. Call us at 607-277-7000

all state and local health precautions in effect on the day, and asking all volunteers to mask regardless of vaccination status. Bike Walk Tompkins can’t put this festival together without 40-60 volunteers, so interested people aged 16 and up are invited to sign up for a shift Intersection “Superheroes” at https://www. streetsaliveithaca.com/.

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All rights reserved. Events are listed free of charge in TimesTable. All copy must be received by Friday at noon. The Ithaca Times is available free of charge from various locations around Ithaca. Additional copies may be purchased from the Ithaca Times offices for $1. SUBSCRIPTIONS: $89 one year. Include check or money order and mail to the Ithaca Times, PO Box 27, Ithaca, NY 14851. ADVERTISING: Deadlines are Monday 5 p.m. for display, Tuesday at noon for classified. Advertisers should check their ad on publication. The Ithaca Times will not be liable for failure to publish an ad, for typographical error, or errors in publication except to the extent of the cost of the space in which the actual error appeared in the first insertion. The publisher reserves the right to refuse advertising for any reason and to alter advertising copy or graphics deemed unacceptable for publication. The Ithaca Times is published weekly Wednesday mornings. Offices are located at 109 N. Cayuga Street, Ithaca, NY 14850 607-277-7000, FAX 607-277-1012, MAILING ADDRESS is PO Box 27, Ithaca, NY 14851. The Ithaca Times was preceded by the Ithaca New Times (1972-1978) and The Good Times Gazette (1973-1978), combined in 1978. F o u n d e r G o o d T i m e s G a z e tt e : Tom Newton

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It h ac a T im e s 3

INQUIRING

N e w s l i n e

CONSERVATION

PHOTOGRAPHER Land Trust, residents protest as NYSEG prepares to auction Bell Station land By C a se y Mar tin

WHAT’S ONE POPULAR THING THAT YOU

HAVE ZERO PERCENT INTEREST IN?

“Billie Eilish” -Daniela L. & Mannayah L.

“Popits…One of those bubble fidget toys… people love them for some reason!”

ichael Jamison, senior manager of corporate communications for NYSEG, stated Sept. 1 that the company will go through with its planned auction of the Bell Station, even though it has received requests for cancelation from the Finger Lakes Land Trust and thousands of Tompkins County residents. “In the interest of transparency and fairness, and understanding that there are a lot of stakeholders with a lot of varying opinions on it, the company made the decision that the fairest and most transparent way to deal with the property was to hold an auction for it where everybody had the chance to bid and purchase the property,” Jamison said. “So that’s what we’re ultimately moving forward with.” One of those stakehold-

ers is the Finger Lakes Land Trust, which for the past eight to 10 years has acted as the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s (NYSDEC) agent in acquiring the 470-acre property that features 3,400 feet of shoreline on the east side of Cayuga Lake. Executive Director Andrew Zepp said he was more surprised with the way the auction is being marketed rather than the auction itself. “We were under the impression that it was going to be sold for energy production purposes,” Zepp said. “We thought we would have an opportunity to work with whoever acquired it to strike the appropriate balance of conserving the shoreline and providing for solar. This is a very different situation where it’s clearly being marketed for residential

development whereby the public access opportunity would be lost as would the renewable energy opportunity.” The listing on Ten-X states in the description that “the property is a perfect candidate for potential waterfront residential development with agricultural secondary use and recreational forestry/tertiary use.” The prospect of the property being auctioned off and the winning bidder constructing a residential development poses environmental risks. “The entire shoreline is wooded hillside that if it’s up for development [there] would be clearing on state slopes, which as we see these more intense rain events we’re having, leads to more runoff into the lake,” Zepp said. Such an outcome would also thwart opportunities for providing public access to the property’s shoreline and planning solar energy development on the eastern portion of it. “At a time when we see — particularly during the pandemic — more and more people appreciating getting out

to our parks and conservation land, that we have a capacity issue,” Zepp said. “Taughannock State Park, for example, lately has been closed because the parking lot is full. So we do not have enough areas to allow the public to get out and enjoy these places.” “Our position is that the public good will be best served in the long term by NYSEG and its ratepayers being compensated through a fair market value process, but also that the end result is this combination of conservation, renewable energy and public access,” he said. “That’s where we think the auction, as presented, is not in the public interest.” (The Town of Lansing’s Comprehensive Plan designates Bell Station as “future public access conservation land.” In addition, the property is categorized as a “priority” in the NYSDEC’s 2016 Open Space Plan as one of several protection projects along the Finger Lakes shorelines.) The public has made it clear

son instruction, and we have been looking forward for many months to a vibrant, fully active fall.” She added that the school will continue its testing program to gather data and monitor active cases and close contacts. One of the challenges, Pollack said, is the high number of students in quarantine. As of Sept. 3, 34% of quarantine rooms are available, with 122 of 185 rooms occupied. Students in isolation keep up with classes using Zoom rooms and by crowdsourcing notes and recording lectures. Pollack said she envisions three potential outcomes for the semester. Ideally, Pollack said, the number of infections on campus decreases to the point the school can return to green status, which loosens restrictions on gatherings and other activities. If transmission levels are low enough, testing frequency could also drop. She said the best way to achieve this is through vaccination, masking, keeping activities outdoors and participating in surveillance testing and contact tracing. The second outcome Pollack envisions is that the semester continues as it’s begun, with

higher rates of infection than last year but little to no severe illness, and little to no transmission within the classrooms. “That will certainly mean significant stress on our community as we manage and support large numbers of students in isolation, but it may be the only way to balance our goal of providing in-person education with keeping the community as healthy as possible,” she said. The final and worst outcome would be a continued rise in infections to the point that the university no longer has the capacity to support isolation, or to where there is a significant level of transmission in the classroom or other campus settings. “Should we reach that point, we would need to implement additional restrictions, up to and including having all students quarantine in place and moving all courses online, or even shutting the campus down as we did in March of 2020,” Pollack said. As of now, the university will stick to the status quo and hope for the best. -Ta n n e r H a r d i n g

-David G.

COR NELL-19

“Have you heard of Olivia Rodrigo? She’s big on TikTok. I don’t get her music at all…” -Mackenzie G.

“Bar Crawls.” -Liv P.

“Friends….THE SHOW! Not like…my friends.” -Kat M.

4 T

h e

Ithac a Times

Cornell maintains status quo despite high case numbers

lot of things are different this academic year when it comes to COVID-19. With 95% of the oncampus population vaccinated at Cornell University, and a much more infectious variant making the rounds through the campus, city, county and country, decisions are being made using old and new criteria. At this point last year, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo said schools must shut down if they had 200 positive cases in two weeks. This year, Cornell has had 304 positive cases just in the week from Aug. 26 to Sept. 1. The positivity rate is sitting 1.14% and there were 52 positive cases on Sept. 1 alone. The school is operating at alert level yellow: moderate risk. But for now, university administration is going to stay the course, continuing with on-campus, in-person learning. “We’re in a very different

/ Sep t ember

8 – 1 4,

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position now than we were in the last year, facing decisions that are in many ways even more complex,” university president Martha Pollack said in a letter to the university community. Indeed, while the vaccines aren’t necessarily providing great protection against contracting the disease, they are providing steadfast protection against severe illness. Pollack said none of the students who have tested positive so far this semester have been seriously ill and none have been hospitalized. This fact has been echoed repeatedly by the county’s public health director Frank Kruppa, who said the vast majority of the vaccinated people who become infected with the disease are asymptomatic or have very mild symptoms. Pollack said students and faculty have “clearly said that they want to return to in-per-

continued on page 19

UPS&DOWNS

N e w s l i n e

Ups The city has launched a pretty impressive and interactive website to collect suggestions and feedback from the public regarding the Reimagining Public Safety initiative. You can find it at www.publicsafetyreimagined.org.

COVID

t seems like every day Tompkins County sets a new record for most positive cases — either for a daily total or for the overall total. On Sept. 2, the county crossed the 400-case threshold for the first time ever. By the next day, the total was 439 active cases. On July 22, there were only 4 active cases in the county, but cases have continued to rise dramatically. Thirty-four county residents have died in total. However, while there isn’t much that’s “good” about those statistics, it’s important to contextualize them. Despite the current 354 active cases on Sept. 7, only five people are hospitalized. That’s pretty much on par for the spring, and down significantly from January, where there were hospitalizations in the high teens and low 20s. In April of 2020, right at the start of the pandemic, there were seven hospitalizations while there were just 27 active cases. This is proof that the vaccines are working to prevent severe disease, even if it’s not providing perfect protection against contracting COVID-19. It’s also important to acknowledge the effect of the higher education communities on Tompkins County’s numbers. At a COVID town hall on Sept. 2, Public Health Director Frank Kruppa said a large number of those positive cases are coming from the surveillance and arrival testing done at Cornell University as students returned to campus the past couple weeks. Cornell reports a total of more than 26,000 students, which combined with the 5,000 at Ithaca College, effectively doubles Ithaca’s permanent population. Thus, Kruppa noted, the county is bound to see an uptick when students return. “College students live communally, they share spaces, they gather,” he said. “So that’s really some of the driving force. It’s not that they were doing anything wrong […]

While COVID cases skyrocket, severe disease remains low They’re doing what was asked, so I don’t want folks to think the students were misbehaving.” Another notable statistic is the fact that the rate of infection is so high for vaccinated people in Tompkins County. Kruppa said the percentage of positive cases that are recorded in vaccinated people has been hovering between 35-55%, not an insignificant number. However, he again noted the large number of college students testing positive would make that number jump because all students at Cornell and Ithaca College are required to be vaccinated. “It’s still rare in New York to be vaccinated and get COVID, but that isn’t the case in Tompkins County,” Kruppa said. He said one reason for this is the fact that the county’s vaccination numbers are as high as they are. As of Sept. 6, 68,821 people in Tompkins County have been fully vaccinated — that’s nearly 70% of the county’s total population. “When you have a very highly vaccinated population, cases are going to be in that population,” Kruppa said. “We’re also learning that with the delta variant in particular, you can become positive and transmit [the virus] to others.” He added that because there’s no way to avoid vaccinated people getting the disease, his focus is on the severity of the disease. As noted before, the rate of hospitalizations remains low, despite the high number of cases. Kruppa said there have been some vaccinated people hospitalized, but it has largely been people who have underlying diseases, such as COPD or other lung-based issues. Even then, he noted, vaccinated people generally are admitted to the hospital for a short stay of added support, and then recover at home. No vaccinated people have died in Tompkins County. “All the people who have needed [intensive care] and

who have died have been unvaccinated,” Kruppa said. “So the message here is please get vaccinated. [Vaccines] are keeping people out of the hospital.” In the town hall he also touched upon the recent approval of the Pfizer vaccine for people ages 16+ by the FDA. “Full approval means now the FDA believes they have enough information from studies and the larger population to say yes, the vaccine is safe and effective,” he said. “I know a lot of people who didn’t want to take it until it was approved, so hopefully more folks are seeking the Pfizer vaccine.” Pfizer was previously allowed to be administered under emergency use authorization, which Kruppa said still had more stringent regulations than prescription medications. He also said he believes that the vaccine should be mandatory for schools now that it’s approved, but said it’s not his decision to make. As a father himself, Kruppa said he understands parents’ anxiety about their children returning to in-person learning this year, but said he thinks it’s the right decision. “Last year we know kids were safer in school than they were outside of school in terms of COVID exposure,” he said. “We had minimal transmission within our schools.” However, he noted that the delta variant is different because it’s much more transmissible than previous iterations of the virus. “But that’s why we’re not just going back to school like we did in 2019,” he said. The state has mandated masking in all schools, and Kruppa said state officials are currently working on initiating a vaccine mandate for adults in the buildings. “We’re still waiting for details on that, but I’ve been working with local districts on testing programs […], been working with school nurses

and staff on isolation and quarantine protocols. Our goal is to keep kids in person and in school.” There have been many calls for mask mandates within the county as well, but Kruppa said he’s leaving that choice up to the individuals. Though he communicates regularly with business owners and has told them he highly recommends a mask requirement, he isn’t going to go as far as enforcement. “I’m not saying there’s no risk of public exposure, there’s always some level of risk, but generally speaking, what we’re seeing is [cases coming from] more prolonged contact with inconsistent masking,” he said. “That’s where we’re seeing transmission.” Kruppa also clarified the protocol for vaccinated and unvaccinated if they test positive for or are exposed to COVID-19. If someone tests positive they’re in isolation for 10 days. If you’re a close contact and you’re unvaccinated or you’re vaccinated and symptomatic, you must quarantine for 10 days. If you’re a close contact and are fully vaccinated with no symptoms, you do not have to quarantine at all. However, those people should still wear their masks and maintain social distance. He also acknowledged that COVID-19 is shifting from a pandemic to endemic, meaning it’s just going to be part of our disease pool from now on. “It’s where we are, COVID is here,” he said. “Our goal is to keep people as healthy as we can, focus on keeping them out of the hospital, and it’s extremely important we get back to business and do the other things that help us be healthy.” He said that he’s been grappling with that change in mindset himself, but that if most folks are only getting mild symptoms and staying out of the hospital — “that’s a win.” -Ta n n e r H a r d i n g

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Ups Apple Harvest Fest is back, Oct. 1-3! Who’s excited for cider donuts?! Visit https://www. downtownithaca.com/apple-harvest-festival/ for more info.

HEARD&SEEN Heard Dinosaur Jr., originally scheduled for Oct. 2, has postponed their show at the State Theatre due to COVID concerns. Keep an eye on the State Theatre’s website for updates. Seen Teachers and students are preparing to head back to school, fully in-person, for the first time since March 2020. The first day is Sept. 9 — have fun and good luck!

IF YOU CARE TO RESPOND to something in this column, or suggest your own grievances or praise, write news@ithacatimes.com, with a subject head “U&D.”

2 0 2 1

QUESTION OF THE WEEK

What was your favorite part of college? 65.0% The Knowledge 20.0% The Experience 15.0% The Debt

N ext Week ’s Q uestion :

Name your favorite Fall activity. Visit ithaca.com to submit your response.

/ T h e

It h ac a T im e s 5

GUEST OPINION

ITHACA NOTES

Don’t be afraid to seek help

Random Intelligence

O dr ick M ick a e l Pa l m e r is a se n ior w r i t i ng m ajor at It h ac a C ol l e ge w ho i n t e r n e d at Su ic i de P r ev e n t ion & C r isis S e rv ic e du r i ng t h e su m m e r

By St e ph e n Bu r k e

would describe my summer internship the New York state lockdown. I was one at Suicide Prevention & Crisis Service of the few Ithaca College students who’d as both humbling and rewarding. The stayed on campus. A possible exposure to mission of SPCS is to offer short-term “in COVID-19 now meant I had to isolate on the moment” intervention to the campus while we waited save lives. It is, quite frankly, for the test results. I stayed humbling to learn that there in that room for eight days, are people in Tompkins counting tiles in the bathCounty who literally bring room and going to Zoom others back from the brink of classes that felt meaningsuicide. Rewarding, because less at the moment. I was learning about the crisisline terrified that I might have caused me to reflect on my the virus and what it would own decision to come out as mean. I was worried about gay to my father. And, how the state of the world. I felt that experience affected my completely alone. It was in mental health. this emotional and stressful Coming out is an time that I decided to come already overwhelming out to my father. Odrick Mickael Palmer decision to make. LGBTQ+ I don’t really know my folks understand there are father. I’ve never met him. many variables to consider. We’ve only spoken on the We worry about physical and emotional phone. We had an argument in 2018 and violence. We worry about our safety in we stopped speaking. He left my mother our homes, and if our loved ones will still and me in Jamaica when I was two, and love us. moved to the UK. It was, in his words, “to I came out to my father in March 2020 continued on page 7 while in isolation, at the beginning of

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ornell University was founded in Ithaca in 1865. Not until three years later did its progenitor, Ezra Cornell, declare “I would found an institution where any person can find instruction in any study.” The delay shows that even in conception the school’s mission was a work in progress. Certainly the fulfillment of its heady goal has been a developing project. There were no African studies for over a hundred years, for instance. Still, one presumes that from the start Cornell brought smart people to Ithaca, an even more remote place then. That legacy of big brain power in a small town endures. Last time in this column, concerning weather, I mentioned what I perceived as a change of microclimate occurring near the town of Tully, about an hour north of Ithaca on Interstate 81. In numerous trips on that road I had noticed a distinct change in weather specifically at that point. Not knowing anything about meteorology, I didn’t know whether it was science or chance, but was satisfied with finding it diverting. Then one night at a party I met a meteorologist from Cornell. I asked whether this Tully thing could be real rather than coincidental. He said it was indeed real, that two neighboring microclimates met at precisely that point. I said, really? Microclimates change at particular points? The scientist sipped his drink and said, well, wouldn’t they have to? There are a lot of them between the North and South Poles, he said, and they have to change somewhere. He went on to supply enough detail to convince me he was sincere and not just shining me on, which I might have suspected elsewhere, but not from scholarly Cornell. Not even with drinks. Last month I was driving home from work with a car-pooling colleague who said, look, and pointed at a surprise rider, a praying mantis on the dashboard. I said wow, and mentioned that I hadn’t seen one in years, and had the vague idea they were a protected species, could this be true? My passenger said he didn’t know. I posited that maybe they are endangered, or were? Or maybe they were protected because they are beneficial, killing harmful insects? My passenger again said he didn’t know, but that they are not strictly beneficial, as they are ambush predators and kill fairly indiscriminately, malevolent and well-meaning prey alike. What does one do with open questions

like this? One references Wikipedia, of course, which I did, and learned some things, including the fact that “ambush predator” is not a simply descriptive term, as I’d taken it from my passenger, but distinctly scientific. As far as I know, my passenger is not an entomologist. But, again: Ithaca, small town, big brains. This month I read a book by Roddy Doyle, the Irish novelist. Doyle is a master of dialogue and the book mostly consisted of talk between two Irishmen in a pub. One mentioned some personal despondency, and the possibility of going to Switzerland for the electric chair. I might have passed right over it as a throwaway passage if not for the rejoinder, “You don’t have to go all the way to Switzerland to get yourself electrocuted,” which made me laugh simply as a unique sentence, but also wonder what this was about: surely there’s no death penalty in benign Switzerland, especially no barbaric electric chair? As it happens, this being worldly Ithaca, I have a colleague from Switzerland. I asked him about the reference and he said certainly there was neither thing there, so he was as puzzled as I was, and equally curious. As it further happens, I soon after bumped into someone from Ireland I know here in town. I asked him about the quote. He understood right away. “Oh, sure,” he said. “It’s a common joke in Ireland. There’s legal suicide in Switzerland, so you say you’re going there when you’ve had enough.” The electric chair bit he couldn’t explain, except as whatever jokey furtherance of the bar room banter. There’s not just random intelligence in Ithaca, but also occasional genius. Recently I returned to the library a CD I’d been listening to by Malcolm Bilson, emeritus music professor at Cornell and a legendary interpreter of Beethoven on pianoforte, the precursor to the piano that Beethoven used. The very same day I saw Mr. Bilson at the supermarket. I introduced myself and mentioned the CD. I said I particularly liked Sonata No. 17. In D, I continued, drawing it out with a pause. He looked startled altogether. He was just out shopping, after all. “D minor,” he said. “That’s right,” I said. “I was testing you.” (I really was.) Faber University, in the movie “Animal House,” had the motto “Knowledge Is Good.” In Ithaca, there’s also plenty.

GUESTOPINION Contin u ed From Page 6

seek a better life for all three of us.” Well, that better life really involved him starting a new life in Britain. Life felt so fragile in March 2020, and my uncertainty about the state of the world pushed me to break the silence between us. We talked, and once again he told me he wanted to build a relationship with me. I came out to him and told him that accepting me was the foundation for a relationship with me. Unfortunately, he could not. I was hurt, but felt pride in being me. Thinking back to that experience, I am grateful for the support system that formed around me. My professors Sandy and Joan, and my incredibly wonderful friend Annisa, surrounded me remotely. We talked, texted, chatted and laughed every day. Sometimes multiple times a day. Their support helped me through those eight difficult days of isolation, panic, and rejection. September is National Suicide Prevention and Awareness month. It is the month that we emphasize how crucial a role our mental health plays in our dayto-day lives. It is the month we remind folks it’s okay to feel stressed and anxious. It’s the month that we highlight and fight against the stigmas of talking about suicide, and seeking help or therapy. It’s

also the month we advocate for additional mental health resources to underserved communities. The pandemic hasn’t made life any easier. People everywhere are experiencing the stress of job and housing insecurity. College graduates are in crippling debt, and finding it difficult to secure employment. Senior citizens, who are at increased risk of contracting COVID-19, are isolated and estranged from their families. Business owners wonder if they’ll be able to keep their doors open. It might be an understatement to suggest we’re all a little stressed. Sometimes, we just need someone to talk to and process these emotions with. But, we can also feel as if no one’s there and we don’t have support. Thankfully, Suicide Prevention & Crisis Service has trained crisisline counselors to talk to. If you’re having suicidal thoughts, feeling sad, devastated, overwhelmed, or you’re just stressed out, the Suicide Prevention & Crisis Service crisisline and its counselors are here. Your call is confidential, and crisisline counselors are trained to listen without judgement and help you develop positive, constructive responses to your situation. I’m fortunate. I had a support system when I really needed it. You do, too. Suicide Prevention & Crisis Service. Call the crisisline at 1-800-273-8255. It’s help. In the moment, and when you need it.

LEGACY FOUNDATION Contin u ed From Page 3

shuttered,” she said. “We’re struggling to find whatever the new normal is, it’s been really profound.” McPheeters said they also got the ball rolling with donations to open the GIAC pool, which then spurred Purity Ice Cream on to pay for the remainder of the cost. “It was so exciting to see the generosity of our community,” she said. Aly Evans, the executive director at FoodNet Meals on Wheels, said the Legacy Foundation has been supporting their organization for years in various ways, including helping them be able to provide more meals to people when the demand increased during the pandemic. Even more recently, the Legacy Foundation helped them replace a van (that they had also helped them purchase in 2001) that they use for food delivery. “The Legacy Foundation lets the applicant indicate the need,” Evans said. “They make their application open ended, they’re good at listening and being resilient, instead of just funding x, y or z, and that makes it pretty unique in the funding world. The people on the board pay attention to what’s going on.” She added that the foundation is a big part of the non-profit world in Tompkins County. “We have some very generous neighbors, and this is an example of that generosity that just keeps paying forward,”

Evans said. “It’s truly special.” While the Legacy Foundation donates to all kinds of non-profits, McPheeters said one that holds a special place in her heart is the donation to the Cayuga Waterfront Trail. “Every time I drive along the trail and see people using it or use it myself, it makes me happy,” she said. “It’s a well-used community resource, and I see people sitting at the trail head and looking at the beauty of the world we have.” She said another special gift was the state historical marker that went in front of the birthplace of Alex Haley, the famed author who wrote “The Autobiography of Malcolm X.” “That marker is very meaningful to everyone in the community,” she said. Opperman said she can’t choose just one gift that stands out. “I enjoy them all,” she said. She added that sometimes even small gifts can make a huge difference to organizations. “I do feel like we’re really proud of what we do,” Opperman said. “We have a really wonderful, giving community that tries to help.” If you’re interested in donating to the Legacy Foundation, visit TCLegacy.org. -Ta n n e r H a r d i n g

THE TALK AT

Landlord versus Tenant: Eviction Moratorium – A Cognitively Lazy Policy

istory of Landlordism Landlordism was a relic of our feudalism past when agriculture was the mainstay of the economy and land was power. The king owned all the property. He parceled them out to his kith and kin in return for state services. The feudal hierarchy was: Church, King, Overlord, Lord, and farmers — the last known as tenants. All except the tenant could own land. The tenants were not allowed to own the land and could only work for a fee or sharecropper. Because the landlord could evict the tenant by choice, and the tenant could not abandon by choice, it was an unequal relationship. It took revolutions to change the land ownership system. Today, land is not power; everyone can own land. The rented house is not on land granted for free by the state. The owner rents the home, not the land. The owner is not a Lord and rents the property on the back of a lease that the tenant voluntarily signs and most governments regulate. Conditions limit the rights and duties of the lessor and the lessee. Therefore, calling a homeowner who rents their property a landlord and the lessee as a tenant are misnomers and antiquated aberrations that should be abolished. The homeowner is providing an essential service of housing. Why the Eviction Moratorium is a lazy policy The moratorium may have postponed evictions, but it cannot prevent them. The policy is cognitively lazy because it was put into place hurriedly without thinking through the consequences. The Supreme Court has already struck down the declaration as inconsistent with “Due Process Law.” Were our lawmakers not aware of the inconsistency? Here is why no thinking has gone into the process: One size fits all despite opportunities to improve during extensions. Robbing Peter to pay Paul No revision to the income ceiling How and who will prove the penalty of perjury? What will happen to those who do not deliberately pay under cover of the order? Why ask anyone to declare the status of their income when the government has it? The government also has vaccination information. Why not use that information to separate who needs protection from COVID? The ERAP The ERAP was to compensate owners for receiving past due rent. The ERAP is S e p te m ber

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another cognitively lazy piece of policy. It does not help either the lessor or the lessee. For receiving assistance: It requires that both get involved in the process. If someone is not paying despite having the means, will they cooperate in the process? Rent cannot go up – if inflation goes up, why cannot rent go up? No eviction for one year after. Who will pay that rent? Why take 12 months’ rent to forego future rent? Median county income ceiling – what happens when someone is above that ceiling? How will the lessor know what the income of the lessee is? Conclusion As per the 5th amendment of the US Constitution, the government can take private property for public use but must pay ‘just compensation.’ The keyword is ‘just.’ If there is a legally binding lease, then compensation as per the lease satisfies ‘just.’ From the date of the moratorium, the government owns the lease, and the lessee is a sub-lessee. As long as the moratorium lasts, the government must pay the lessor as per the lease with no strings attached. If the lessor received a part of the sub-lessees rent, they would owe that to the government. -Sanjay Behura, Ithaca, NY

Tax the rich

any say America is the richest country in the world. But then why are our roads and bridges crumbling? Why do we have overcrowded classrooms? Why can’t everyone afford the lifesaving medicine they need? Because corporations and the ultrawealthy are not paying their fair share. This is not new; we’ve always known that the ultra-wealthy use their money to buy power and avoid accountability. In 2020, at least 55 of the largest, profitable corporations in the United States paid no federal income tax, despite almost $40.5 billion in U.S. pretax income that year. A groundbreaking report by Public Citizen added that these same corporations spent nearly $450 million combined on lobbying and campaign contributions over the last three election cycles. And it keeps getting worse. As working families struggled to get by and make ends meet, America’s billionaires got over $1 trillion richer during the pandemic. The ultra-wealthy and tax-dodging corporations don’t play by the rules and think they can buy preferential treatment by lining the pockets of Republicans, like Senators Ron Johnson in Wisconsin and Marco Rubio in Florida. Taxing the rich is wildly popular: Sixty-nine percent of voters think the ultra-wealthy and corporations should pay their fair share in taxes. But instead of representing the interests of working families, Republicans are busy defending tax cuts for billionaires and big corporations -Jim Carr, Millport, NY 2 0 2 1

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LIGHTS! CAMERA! ACTION! Newlywed stars of silent silver screen filmed action-packed movies in Ithaca in 1914 By Aaron Pichel Over 100 years ago in the fragrant Ithaca, New York spring of May 1914, a newlywed couple — stage actors from New York City — Thurlow Bergen and Elsie Esmond arrived in town to star in silent movies. They settled into a suite at the stately Ithaca Hotel and quickly began working on their first film as leading players for the local Wharton brothers’ movie studio. Just one month prior, in April 1914, those enterprising and experienced brothers — Theodore and Leopold Wharton — had done something unique and extraordinary in Ithaca. They formed a locally based film company —Wharton, Inc. — to produce top-quality silent motion pictures for distribution throughout the world.

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The multinational Pathé company contracted to buy the Whartons’ output and to distribute the reels all over the U.S. and around the globe. A TROUPE GROWS IN ITHACA

That spring of 1914, to fulfill the Pathé contract, the Wharton brothers gathered a troupe of cast and crew made up of expert professionals plus members of the local community, and prepared for a full season of filmmaking in Ithaca. For a cinematographer, the Whartons secured 32-year-old Joseph A. Dubray, an experienced Milan-born, French-raised cameraman who would go on to a lengthy career in the film industry.

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Cameraman Dubray met the Whartons while he worked at the Pathé company on the blockbuster serial “Perils of Pauline” (1914), starring Pearl White. Dubray would become an early and important member of both the Society of Motion Picture Engineers (founded in 1916) and the American Society of Cinematographers (founded in 1919). To fill the roles of leading man and leading lady, the Whartons hired stage actors Thurlow Bergen (1875-1954) and his new bride, Elsie Esmond (1880-1958). The pair, proficient and seasoned actors on the legitimate stage, made their first ventures into the movies that year. “With this start on the personnel of his company, Mr. [Theodore] Wharton be-

Group photo Pr ince of I n di a 1914 lieves he will turn out some of the best acted plays in the motion picture field,” noted the Ithaca Daily News upon Theodore and Leopold’s arrival in town for the start of the filming season. CINEMATIC DEBUTS

Actress Elsie Esmond would make her cinematic debut with the Whartons, while husband Thurlow Bergen had just one motion picture under his belt, “The Stain” (1914), made for the Pathé company earlier in the year. “The Stain” would be released

by Pathé to theaters in October 1914, while Bergen was in Ithaca acting for the Whartons. Bergen’s debut also featured the very first film role of “vamp” actress Theda Bara (1885-1955), credited under her birth name of Theodosia Goodman. She would later film one movie in Ithaca, the Fox feature “Kathleen Mavourneen” in 1919. “The Stain” also showcased the second screen appearance of actor Creighton Hale (18891965), who would star in many Ithacamade movies, including the Whartons’ 1914 production “The Warning.” Bergen and Esmond had married in April 1914 in Hoboken, New Jersey, and began their newly wedded life with a sojourn in Ithaca for work with the Whartons. Filming in bucolic Ithaca may have been the closest they got to a honeymoon. Ithaca offered a respite for the couple from the hustle and bustle of Manhattan. Bergen, after spending some time sightseeing in Ithaca with Esmond, commented to the Ithaca Daily News, “I had heard a great deal about your beautiful city in New York, and what I have seen confirms everything that was said.” “We feel it a great advantage to us in coming to Ithaca,” Bergen added enthusiastically, “and especially the importance of being associated with Mr. [Theodore] Wharton in his motion picture venture.” “Mr. Wharton’s standing is considered to be at the head of the profession as a manager and producer,” Bergen noted. The couple arrived in Ithaca by train on Friday, May 8, 1914, Esmond’s 34th birthday. Bergen was 39 years old. Their life, at that moment of arrival in Ithaca, was at an inflection point: a new marriage (the second for Esmond, the third for Bergen), and a new medium of acting (transitioning to cinema from stage), but also a burden of financial worries (heavy debts from Bergen’s previous theatrical ventures). A TALE AS OLD AS TIME

Prior to his Ithaca arrival, Bergen ran his own live theater troupe. As the locomotive force of the company, Bergen took on the roles of producer, director and leading man. “Mr. Bergen has had considerable experience as a manager,” noted the Ithaca Daily News, “having run a stock company in St. Paul [Minnesota], where he met Miss Esmond who came to his company as leading lady several years ago.” Bergen hired Esmond as leading actress for his St. Paul theater troupe and the headliners fell in love — a story as old as theater

mented that “the theatrical profession was a tough game to buck.” The couple had hopes that coming to Ithaca would bring them a brand-new start in life — as cinema stars in the blossoming new world of the movies. LEADING MAN THURLOW BERGEN

E l s i e E d m o n d s a n d Th u r l ow B e r g e n itself. For Bergen, even though the theater company was not profitable, what he lost in money, he gained in love. The married couple would spend the spring, summer, and fall of 1914 in Ithaca, starring together in six action-packed movies under the direction of the Wharton brothers. The following year in 1915, they would return together to shoot two more featurelength Wharton movies. Esmond would also come to Ithaca at the end of 1916 to star in the Whartons’ eugenics feature, “The Black Stork” (1917), without Bergen. Acting in the movies was not quite as glamorous in 1914 as it would later become. “Legitimate” stage actors were leery of the new medium: the motion pictures were silent, so stage actors’ theater-trained voices were of no avail, and acting in movies was considered lower class work than on the legitimate stage. But the couple was glad to have the movie work, and they “agreed that the motion picture business had reached a development where it is attracting the best actors on the legitimate stage,” noted the local paper. “A few years ago they would not consider propositions to act before the cameras, but now the best actors are securing engagements with picture producers.” The Wharton brothers placed enormous faith in the acting pair. The couple, playing the leading roles in most of the 1914 Wharton movies, would have to carry the pictures (and the company) to success.

ACTOR FILES FOR BANKRUPTCY

Bergen and Esmond both told the local paper of important stage engagements and leading roles they had declined in order to join the Whartons’ movie company. While they may have passed on those stage roles, money was a problem for the couple. Bergen would file for personal bankruptcy in federal court while living in Ithaca (no Ithaca creditors were involved with the $15,000 of liabilities; Bergen claimed no assets). The local newspaper published a blunt notice about the matter, under the bold headline: “Thurlow Bergen Files Petition in Bankruptcy.” “Thurlow Bergen of this city,” noted the Ithaca Daily News, “the leading man of the Wharton Motion Picture Company, has filed a petition for voluntary bankruptcy in the federal court… through his attorney, Howard Cobb of this city.” (Attorney Cobb would represent the Wharton brothers, too, before the same court when the Wharton’s Ithaca moving picture company faced corporate bankruptcy of its own in 1918, four years after Bergen’s filing.) “It is understood’” the newspaper pointed out, “that Mr. Bergen’s financial condition was precipitated by losses he sustained in various theatrical ventures before coming to Ithaca.” The theater business did not confer an easy life. Theodore Wharton himself la-

Bergen was a talented gentleman. Born in Saginaw, Michigan in 1875, the son of a lawyer, he was a prodigy. As a teenager, Bergen composed the music and lyrics of the then-well-known song “Esther’s Lullaby,” which he performed in 1894, at age 19, at the White House for President Grover Cleveland and family. With the permission of First Lady Frances Cleveland, Bergen dedicated the song to the Clevelands’ new 8-month-old baby daughter, Esther, born in 1893 (the only child of a U.S. President born in the White House). As a young man, Bergen moved to Washington, D.C. to study law like his father, but gave up jurisprudence to begin a life on the boards as an actor. Bergen grew to become an accomplished thespian, director, manager, composer, lyricist, singer, playwright, author of children’s books, and an expert horseback rider and athlete. His athleticism would serve him well in the stunt-filled roles where the Whartons planted him. Bergen’s work in stock troupes (including performances in Ithaca in 1905 and a season in Syracuse), in touring companies throughout the U.S., and in performances for six plays on Broadway prepared him for the cinema acting that the Whartons would require in Ithaca. LEADING LADY ELSIE ESMOND

Elsie Esmond, like Bergen, was an accomplished actor — she had toured the U.S. in stock companies (including a season in Albany and tours through Ithaca) for over a decade and had one Broadway credit on her resumé. Elsie was a natural; audiences and critics loved her. “Elsie Esmond,” wrote one Los Angeles theater reviewer in admiration, “played an ingenue part with much grace and vivacity. Miss Esmond is a clever little actress with a face that reminds one of Maude Adams and with an interpretative ability that is all her own.” Esmond (née Elsie Augusta Elizabeth Sturkow) was born in Chicago in 1880 to continued on page 10

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an artistic family. Her Russian-born father was an avid amateur violinist, her Englishborn mother was a writer, and her older sister was an accomplished pianist and composer. “Though an American by birth, she is of English-Russian parentage, which probably accounts for her wonderfully expressive eyes, mobile features and wealth of vibrant golden hair,” commented the Ithaca Daily News.

Elsie took the stage surname Esmond when she embarked on her theater career, though she never legally changed her name (the headstone at her grave reads “Elsie Sturkow”). In 1903 at age 23, Esmond married a young theater producer, Robert Morris, Jr., with whom she worked in the NeillMorosco theatrical circuit. That first marriage ended in divorce. But Esmond would try again with Bergen, and they had high hopes. The two had much in common; Bergen and Esmond were both actors, athletic, splendid swimmers, and expert riders.

THEIR FIRST ITHACA MOVIE

The couple’s first production for the Wharton brothers, “The Boundary Rider” (1914), was ready to start shooting in Ithaca in May of 1914. The drama in five reels (some sources say four) involved opium smuggling, murder, false arrest, escape from the law, and the Canadian Border Patrol riding to the rescue on horseback (taking fine advantage of Bergen’s equestrian skills). The Wharton crew built an outdoor stage, 25x50 feet, in the large yard of the company’s Ithaca headquarters at 946 East

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State Street (the house still stands today). Sets were designed and constructed, the cast was at the ready, and cameraman Dubray was eager to start cranking. The Whartons had everything prepared to commence production on Tuesday, May 12, 1914. But rain immediately hindered the work. “Theodore W. Wharton was ready to begin his new four-reel moving picture production, at the East State Street studio this morning,” explained the Ithaca Journal, “but the downpour made it out of the question. When the weather clears up the Whartons intend starting.” Here was an early inkling that weather in places like California might be better suited to moviemaking than Ithaca. Theodore Wharton was still upbeat. “We are not going to rush things,” he declared, “we are not here to grind out pictures by the wholesale, but we intend to produce high-quality photo-plays, taking our time, so that they will be of the highest grade of perfection.” With resolve and exuberance, the Wharton brothers intended to surmount any obstacle. The Ithaca Journal offered bad news about the weather, though: “More like it coming. The Weather Bureau predicts that the same brand of weather will probably prevail for a few days.” Indeed, filming was delayed for three days — an expensive proposition when a full cast and crew must still be paid. Finally, after the three days of heavy rain, the sun broke through and a flurry of activity began. To Be Continued…

R A D I O

G U I D E

Don’t turn that dial WICB CONTINUES TO AIR A VARIETY OF RADIO SHOWS WHILE ADDING NEW FEATURES LIKE PODCASTS. B y R yan Bieber

f you’ve ever turned on the radio in Ithaca, chances are you’ve tuned into 91.7 FM, WICB. With around two dozen different shows — including funk, jazz and modern rock — the self-proclaimed “station for innovation” has become pretty prolific throughout the area thanks to its unique blend of new, local and oft obscure music. The station has a long tenure in the community, starting back in 1941 with makeshift radio studios being built in the basement of the former Boardman House at 120 East Buffalo St. In 1948, the radio got its FCC license after expanding into 101 West Court Street, the site of the old Tompkins County Public Library. Now with 70 years of broadcasting under the belt, it’s safe to say WICB has become a community staple. But it’s easy to forget who’s behind the mic: Ithaca College students. WICB is operated by Ithaca College and is currently broadcast from the Roy H. Park School of Communications. It is one of many extracurriculars offered to the students of the college but a particular home for many budding communications majors. The station offers a variety of positions to students, from on-air DJing, to news writing, sportscasting and social media management, regardless of prior experience. There is only one non-student involved with running the station, General Manager Jeremey Menard, who has overseen the entire operation since 2017. All other members of the staff, from the station manager to the talent coordinator to the news director and nearly all the on-air DJ’s are positions filled by students themselves. With a constantly changing lineup of graduating seniors and incoming freshmen it might seem hard to maintain a consistent quality, but WICB has continually been ranked a top 10 college radio in the Princeton Review over the past decade. “This is a team effort to keep a radio station on the air and going at any given time and with all the students, there’s so much energy and enthusiasm and passion,” Mernard said. “I think the fact that students show up for a shift from 2 a.m.-4 a.m. or 4 a.m.-6 a.m. tells you all that you need to know.” And Carolyn Langer, WICB’s hip-hop, rap and r&b music director, knows better than almost anyone how much power students have at the station. With the help of a fellow student and former station manager, Peter Champelli, she planned and executed an entire rebrand of

Ricky Milton in the WICB studio (photo: Casey Martin)

the station’s Weekend Rhythms department (formerly known as City Rhythms). “I feel empowered in my position to bring the station wherever I want to,” Langer said. “My department could plummet or skyrocket and it’s all under my control.” Under Langer’s directive, the department chose the latter, expanding their hip-hop programming with additional hours and introducing two new specialty shows: “Weekend Rhythms New and Local” and “Weekend Rhythms Ladies First.” The shows are meant to highlight lesser-known upstate New York artists and uplift female voices in hip-hop, respectively. “I don’t think a lot of radio stations are doing this,” Langer said. “It’s like this underground, uncovered scene … there’s so many undiscovered artists, so much undiscovered music.” Station Manager Connor Hibbard said he believes sourcing local music is what helps set WICB apart from other radio operations. “Not to bash other stations but you have these top 40 stations that play the same 40-50 songs all the time and it’s all huge, nationally signed artists,” he said. “What I love about what we do is spotlighting local artists … that otherwise wouldn’t have a chance. We are a public service in that way.” Hibbard added that the local emphasis helps foster a better relationship with the community and local artists.

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“It’s a symbiotic relationship,” he explained. “We get good quality local music and the artists get exposure and the listeners get someone new to add to their collection. It’s a win for everybody.” While the student-led factor is certainly a unique aspect, it would be wrong to peg WICB as a mere college radio outlet. The station reaches far beyond the Ithaca campus and even the downtown area, consistently bringing in listeners from all around the country and even internationally on a weekly basis. Perhaps no one knows this better than Michael Miller, aka DJ Mike Judah, host of WICB’s shows Reggae Explosions. Miller has been with the station for 18 years and has built up a strong following, garnering returning listeners from places like Tijuana, Mexico and South Africa. Back on the home front, he’s also won best radio show in Best of Ithaca 2018. “I love being able to have that reach now,” Miller said. “It feels good to know that people look forward to it to uplift their day or catch a good vibe … It makes it all worth it.” Miller fills a unique role in WICB as one of the station’s few community DJs — volunteers from the local area who host their own shows once a week. These are the only non-students besides Mernard directly involved with the station, but they represent an important link E n t ertai n m en t

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between the students of IC and the local community. ”It does more for me residually than anything just to feel good and have some sort of purpose in the community to give back.” Miller explained. It’s factors like supporting local artists and sourcing community DJs that Mernard says separates WICB from many other stations. All of this is possible, he added, because the radio is non-profit. “College radio is special ... because you do not have some of the limitations that you would have if money was involved, frankly,” he said. “You don’t lose any money, so you can take these chances, you can do these different types of things.” For those who are skeptical about radio’s longevity in the age of Spotify and other streaming services, WICB has worked to keep up with the changing times, leaning into podcasts to provide digital companions to some of the current show offerings. The long-running “Best of Broadway” radio show, for instance, now has an accompanying podcast called “Your Wednesday Matinee” where hosts dissect topics related to musical theatre. The move proved particularly effective when the radio station was closed due to the pandemic and much of the work turned remote. “I just see podcasts as a logical extension of what we do on air,” Hibbard said. It’s not completely separate from our radio product but it’s an extension and it is sort of a way to keep up with the times.” Adaptation aside, Mernard also remains confident in radio’s vitality due to its inherently unique features like widespread accessibility. “It’s very easy to tune in to the radio and it doesn’t cost you anything like cable TV or streaming service,” he said. “You can get all the same access to channels that everyone else can and you don’t have to pay anything extra.” Hibbard spoke similarly to the beauty in the unpredictability of radio. “Sometimes I just turn on the radio because I want to hear a new song and want to learn about it and that’s what we do,” Hibbard explained. “Maybe going forward it will become a smaller and smaller thing, but I think there will always be people who love it. As long as we continue to bring diverse types of music and really have something for everyone I dont think its going anywhere.” Don’t turn that dial, WICB is here to stay.

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S T A G E

Preview: State Theatre THIS FALL AND EARLY WINTER AT THE STATE THEATRE WILL FEATURE EVERYONE FROM A QUEEN COVER BAND, FOLK MUSICIANS, COMEDIANS AND IMPROV. B y Br yan VanCampen

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lmost Queen opens the fall portion of the State Theatre’s season on Sept. 17 at 8 p.m. They are a New Yorkbased Queen cover band, boasting four-part harmonies and vintage costumes. American author and comedian David Sedaris returns to the State on Sept. 29 at 8 p.m. Sedaris rose to prominence in 1994 with “Barrel Fever,” a collection of essays and short stories, and is also a regular contributor to NPR’s “This American Life.” Award-winning singer and songwriter Mary Chapin Carpenter writes songs that incorporate country, folk and rock, and she’ll be here to sing them on Oct. 16. The next night, Oct.17, brings Gregory Alan Isakov. Born in Johannesburg and raised in Philadelphia, Isakov weaves Americana threads into his own indie folk sound, established on his 2003 debut album “Rust Colored Stones.” City and Colour (Oct. 26) is the alter ego of Dallas Greene, guitarist for the post-hardcore band Alexisonfire. Far removed from what he does with his other band, with City and Colour, Greene plays mellow acoustic folk rock. And then come back the next night on Oct. 27 for a night of once-in-a-lifetime improv comedy with the four stars of Whose Live Anyway: Greg Proops, Ryan Stiles, Joel Murray and Jeff

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Davis. Expect lots of audience participation and 2010. He writes, records and produces his own humorous mayhem. music, which can be heard online or at one of The Los Angeles-based band Little Feat the many music festivals at which he plays. (Nov. 12) is likely one of the most resilient rock Al Franken (Dec. 10) is a Democratic US and jam outfits to survive decades of personnel Senator from Minnesota who is best known as a changes, shifts in popular tastes and years of writer and performer on the first five seasons of touring. Founded by Lowell George and Bill the landmark TV series “Saturday Night Live.” Payne in 1969, Little Feat utilizes Southern His 15-year run with the show earned him three rock, blues and other musical flavors to create Emmy Awards and seven more nominations. a sound that has held up surprisingly well. Next After departing from SNL in 1995, Franken up is “Friends! The Musical Parody on Nov. wrote five best-selling books and was elected 13. This show recreates to the Senate in 2008. favorite moments from all He starred in the comedy 10 years of “Friends” in “Stuart Saves His Family.” an uncensored, fast-paced The State Theatre musical romp. will be requiring proof of Before debuting with vaccination for admittance his eponymous album in to all shows until further 2017, Colter Wall (Nov. notive. Results from a 19) released an EP in negative COVID test will collaboration with other not be accepted for entry artists from his hometown for anyone over the age Regina, Saskatchewan in of 12. In addition, masks Canada. Wall describes are required to be worn his music as a fusion of at all times while at the Americana and blues, venue. You may pull your and his songs have been mask down when eating or heard in the films “Hell drinking only. or High Water” and The theatre requests “Three Billboards Outside you bring your vaccination David Sedaris Ebbing, Missouri.” Mt. Joy card or a photo of it, and/ (Dec. 4) was formed with or your New York state the intention of creating Excelsior Pass, along with a sonic vehicle that could a corresponding state or gracefully segue in and out of folksy Americana federal ID for entry. Children too young to be and modern alternative rock. Mt. Joy released vaccinated can attend a show with a negative its self-titled debut album in 2018. COVID test taken within 48 hours of the doors With a name that his friends conceived opening. If you’re planning on attending a show, around a campfire, Shakey Graves (Dec. 9), arrive with plenty of extra time to get through born Alejandro Rose-Garcia, has taken the the doors and show proof of vaccination. independent folk scene by storm, booking gigs and touring the U.S. and Canada as early as The

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K A V A

An Ithacan novel-tea SACRED ROOT KAVA LOUNGE AND TEA BAR AIMS TO PROVIDE AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE TRADITIONAL NIGHTLIFE OPTIONS. B y Mar in L anglieb

acred Root Kava Lounge and Tea Bar, a nightlife spot located in downtown Ithaca, is constantly transforming. Some days, you might walk in and find a poetry reading or an art show’s opening reception. Other days, a local band might be jamming out to some electric music. Regardless of the event du jour, Sacred Root is a place for people “to be creative, to share their ideas, or to take in the creativity of others,” says Paul Galgoczy, the lounge’s co-owner. Galgoczy said he was inspired to create Sacred Root after noticing that there were few non-alcoholic nightlife activities in Ithaca. Sacred Root’s mellow ambiance, with its comfy colorful chairs, mystical wallpaper and soothing lighting, is designed to be an alternative to the typical bar scene. “We based Sacred Root on the idea of a community gathering space,” said Galgoczy. “There’s so much less of that in our culture now, but it’s something that traditionally has had value, where people come out solely for the purpose of running into other people and having connections and conversations.” The kava drinks are also meant to enhance this experience. “The history of kava usage is based around people coming together and sharing kava to heighten that interaction,” said Galgoczy. So what exactly is kava? Kava is a plant found in the Pacific Islands, and its roots can be ground up, steeped, and then drunk as a tea. At Sacred Root, you’ll typically find the drink served in a coconut shell as a nod to kava’s tropical roots (pun intended). The flavor

In addition to kava, there are also other tea drinks to warm up with during the many cool Ithaca nights. The flavors range from more traditional teas, like Earl Grey, to special blends that are named after Welsh goddesses. “There’s a tea for every mood you’re in,” said Galgoczy. Sacred Root also offers herbal elixirs, which are non-alcoholic cocktails, and some light vegan snacks. With so many different drink options to try, musicians to hear, and events to attend, Sacred Root attracts a varied crowd — from tourists who are curious about trying kava to locals who have been going for years. In fact, you never know who you might strike up a conversation with. “The thing that always moves me is that we have a couple of customers who met here and went on to get married and so forth,” Galgoczy said. “So to know that we were the space where that random encounter happened, that was life changing for them, it’s really special.” Sacred Root Kava Lounge and Tea Bar is currently open Monday – Saturday from 5-10 p.m.. For more information on upcoming events, check out Sacred Root’s Facebook page. Sacred Root Kava Lounge and Tea Bar (Photo Casey Martin) is earthy and slightly bitter, although people typically do not drink kava for its taste. Rather, kava contains natural chemicals that relaxes the muscles and can reduce feelings of stress and tension.

While this may sound similar to the effects of alcohol, kava is not as mentally impairing as alcohol is. “So the kava experience is very true-tuned in and present, which is great for conversation, music, dancing, taking in art,” explained Galgoczy.

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A fundraiser for Tompkins Learning Partners on Saturday, September 25 To submit your answers and register, visit: TLPARTNERS.ORG Annually, more than 100 tutors work with Tompkins Learning Partners to help students reach their personal literacy goals, ranging from getting a driver’s license to becoming a US citizen.

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Finger Lakes Crossword Competition gears up for its ninth year.

By Marin Langlieb

n a September day last year, a hundred crossword enthusiasts both near and far (one participant was all the way in Australia) gathered to virtually compete in the Finger Lakes Crossword Competition. Each had received an envelope containing the crossword, a few other small games, and strict instructions on how to accurately time themselves. “It was an honor event,” said Gary Weissbrot, the competition’s ebullient organizer who had been in charge of shipping out the envelopes to all the participants. “I figured your main prize is bragging rights and you really can’t have bragging rights if you cheat. Like who are you fooling?” The Finger Lakes Crossword Competition is an annual fundraiser for Tompkins Learning Partners (TLP), a local non-profit that supports adults who want to learn English, basic math, and computer skills. Weissbrot, who has worked with TLP for several years, was inspired to host the competition after watching a documentary that featured New York Times crossword puzzle editor Will Shortz and celebrities ranging from comedian Jon

Stewart to President Bill Clinton. “I watch this film and I realize that everyone I know does crosswords. So I think this could be an event,” said Weissbrot. Now in its ninth year of crowning the cruciverbalist champion, this year’s competition will have both an in-person event (COVID permitting) at the Boynton Middle School cafeteria and a virtual “honor event.” The inperson competition will take place on Sept. 25 from 1-4 p.m. while participants who opt for the virtual competition will have more flexibility of when their puzzles are due. “One of the reasons I wanted to have a virtual option is because we had all these out of town people playing, and I wanted them to be able to play again,” said Weissbrot. “But even local people are doing the virtual event because they’re partnering up with people in other states.” Tickets, which are suggested donations to TLP, range from $50 for an individual player to $90-$150 for a team of two to four players. Weissbrot stresses that any donation helps. “We’ve had people donate $20, $30, $40 entries and on top of that we’ve had people paying $100 instead of $50. It more than balances out and it really works so that anybody can play,” he said, noting that each year, the event has surpassed the previous year’s donations. In 2019, the fundraiser was able to raise over $10,000 for TLP. Alongside being a fundraiser, the Finger Lakes competition has many unique features. The first is that participants can work with others, which typical crossword competitions don’t allow. “I haven’t heard of many marriages ending because of it. Although maybe a few…”

Weissbrot joked. Additionally, participants can choose what level crossword they want to compete with. Adam Perl, a New York Times crossword contributor (you may also know him as the former owner of Pastimes Antiques in the Dewitt Mall), creates three levels of puzzles specifically for the event: the easiest is the Monday puzzle, the intermediate is the Wednesday puzzle, and the toughest is the Saturday puzzle. “I love to do the competition in person, which we obviously can’t do easily during the pandemic era. But it’s fun to watch people solving the puzzles, struggling with them, laughing occasionally, and enjoying themselves,” said Perl. “I think it brings the community together and people are happy to support this particular project.” “Of course being Ithaca, lots and lots of people do the toughest one,” added Weissbrot. Longtime competitor Leigh Keeley attempted the Wednesday puzzle last year and was shocked when she found out that she had won. It had taken her 21 minutes to solve the puzzle (the Monday and Saturday puzzles had been solved in 4 and 6 minutes, respectively). “I couldn’t believe it,” Keeley said. “I looked at the times and even [Weissbrot] said the intermediate one seemed like it was harder than the hardest one.” Like all past winners, Keeley received a bracelet with “TLP Finger Lakes Crossword Champ MMXX” spelled out in beads, a certificate, and of course, bragging rights. “The event is a lot of fun,” said Keeley, as she fastened the bracelet. “And I also enjoyed winning!”

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PUZZLING

This group tackles the crossword as a team (photo: provided)

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Sports

wasn’t the case.” In fact, Ray took the gold medal in the 50-meters and the silver in the 100. Ray laughed when he recalled what it must have looked like to the meet officials and other comepetitors when he arrived. He said, “I got there 20 minutes before the race, and they had to show me how to set up the blocks. I hadn’t done it since high school.” In addition to the State games, there are also Nationals, and Wall said, “If I qualify for the Nationals, that will be a different ballgame requiring a different level of training. If the cards stack up right, I might go for it.” Asked if he was very surprised that he was able to get back into competition, he said, “I have been active my whole life. I have been a runner, I have been lifting weights, I have done martial arts. I have also been a lifelong vegetarian, so I know I will continue on a personal level, but as for competing, I will think about it.” Of the State games, Ray said, “It really was a great experience. There is great comaraderie, and many of these guys have been competing against one another for years. I am really grateful to be able to do this.”

Dusty Shoes, Shiny Medals By Ste ve L aw re nc e

f an old pair of shoes could talk, I am guessing that the shoes in Ray Wall’s attic would tell you that they never expected to once again see the light of day... Ray is an investment banker who works out of Ithaca, which is also where he went to high school and did his undergraduate work at Ithaca College, before earning his MBA at Wharton. Upon his return — medals in hand — from the Empire State Senior Games in Cortland last week, Wall told me, “I didn’t run track in high school until my senior year, and when I did, I competed in the 100 and 200-meter races, as well as the 880 relay.” That was some time ago, and Ray said, “I like to run around the block a few times near my home, and I decided to throw in a few sprints. First, I went about 20 yards, pushed it to 25, then I was doing a half block then a whole block.” The veteran runner didn’t think too much of it, but when he heard a second opinion, so to speak, he started paying attention. “I went in for a routine checkup,” Ray offered, “and I showed my doctor a video I had taken of me doing sprints. My doctor looked at it and told me, ‘You should run in the Olympics!’”

Ray Wall at the Empire State Games

Taking that advice to heart, Wall started stepping up his training in March, adding more frequent and strenuous sprints, and threw in some weight training. He said, “Three weeks before the Games, I went up to the track at Ithaca College. I wondered, ‘What will it look like, what will it feel like?’ I found my old running shoes from high school, and found that they still fit, so I bought some new spikes and did a few test runs. I found that I was pretty good!” When Ray arrived at the track in Cortland, he saw “quite an age range.” He said,

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“There were guys from 50 to 80, and the age groups were split into five-year blocks.” He added, “In one of my heats I was running against guys 13 years younger than me, and they blew me out of the water!” Fortunately, his times were measured against runners in his own age group, and when the dust settled he found himself holding two medals. “I was planning on running the 50-meter,” Wall stated, “and I won a [gold] with a time of 8.37 seconds.” He added, “I hadn’t trained for the 100, and I thought I’d peter out — or have a heart attack — at 65 or 70 meters, but that

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The Tompkins Girls Hockey Association (TGHA) is gearing up for another full season of play, the 49th consecutive year of ice hockey for girls aged 6-19. The first practice for girls on the 10+ teams begins Saturday, Sept. 11 and runs through mid-March 2022. The 8U team begins practices on Thursday, Oct. 7. All ice times are at The Rink at 1767 E. Shore Drive in Lansing. A full calendar of practices/game times is posted on the TGHA website. Registration is open for parents to register their daughter online at the TGHA website: www.ithacagirlshockey.org.

Film

Q&A: Mary Fassenden

The Cornell Cinema director breaks down What people can look forward to this upcoming semester at the cinema. By Br yan VanC ampe n

ornell Cinema screens over 150 different films a year, five to seven nights a week in the Willard Straight Theatre. The space features the largest screen in Ithaca and has the facilities to handle archival 35mm reel-to-reel prints, DCP and other digital formats. Each semester-long schedule includes a range of classic Hollywood and foreign films, documentaries, international cinema, Silent films, cult classics, experimental work and recently Hollywood and arthouse hits. We sat down with Cornell Cinema director Mary Fessenden to talk about the upcoming schedule. Ithaca Times: I started going to Cornell Cinema screenings in 1980 when I was in high school, so I’ve been around for more than 40 years. It’s actually hard to believe that CC has been around for just 50 years. It’s been such a big part of my life. Mary Fessenden: I know what you mean! I’ve been here since 1987. But who’s counting? Did you know that Cornell Cinema is one of the longest running campus film exhibition programs in the country? I think only Doc Films at the University of Chicago has been around longer. We were established in 1970, so that makes us 51 years old. We missed our big 50th anniversary in 2020 due to the pandemic, but we’ve planned a belated acknowledgement of the milestone with this fall’s series: Celebrating 50+ Years of Cornell Cinema. I decided to limit my selection of films for the series to those that were particularly significant for one reason or another during the first half of the organization’s lifetime, for example: films that were really popular and shown multiple times; films that were shown with a noted filmmaker or other special guest in attendance; or films that represent a specialized aspect of Cornell Cinema’s programming. The series has about 20 titles, so I won’t list them all here (they’re all on our website), but some of the highlights include a recent restoration of George Nierenberg’s fantastic documentary “No Maps on My Taps” (1979), featuring legendary tap dancers Chuck Green, Bunny Briggs and Howard ‘Sandman’ Sims, which screened on Sept. 1. When the film was originally released, the dancers performed live in conjunction with screenings around the country, and Cornell Cinema hosted “Sandman Sims,” who performed in Statler Auditorium in April 1980. Film society staples like “2001: A Space Odyssey,” “The Seventh Seal” and “Days of Heaven” — the latter two

screening in glorious 35mm film prints — will also be shown in September. We’re particularly excited about a pair of films, documentary hybrids, we’ll be showing in early October: French filmmaker Georges Rouquier’s “Farrebique,” or the Four Seasons (1946) and the follow-up film, “Biquefarre” (1983), both set on a family farm in the south of France. The films were celebrated by film critic Richard Brody in a 2017 article in the New Yorker. Former Cornell Cinema director Bill Gilcher, and then history professor John Weiss, brought Rouquier to Ithaca in 1978 to show “Farrebique,” about a year in the life of a French peasant family. After Rouquier’s visit, Gilcher applied for and received funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities to make a follow-up film to be directed by Rouquier. Gilcher took a leave from Cornell Cinema during the spring of 1981 to work on the film in France, and the result was “Biquefarre” (1983), which had its American premiere at Cornell Cinema after Richard Herskowitz had become the director. The premiere was attended by Rouquier and others involved with the film, including Gilcher, one of the film’s producers. Gilcher recently shared with me an article he wrote for the former Ithaca weekly, “The Grapevine,” about how he came to produce “Biquefarre” and it’s a great story. He’ll join us for a virtual Q&A following a screening of a digital restoration of “Farrebique” on October 4th and provide a virtual intro for a screening of “Biquefarre” on Oct. 7. IT: This year marks the return of the All-Access Pass? MF: Yes! The pass was very popular when we introduced it in 2019, and it prompted lots of people to attend films they otherwise wouldn’t have seen, which was one of the goals behind it. We have made a few changes: the pass will work on a semester-basis, not for the entire academic year; it will be digital only (there won’t be a physical pass); and it can only be purchased online. What hasn’t changed is that it’s still an incredible deal! The general pass price is $30 (students pay even less), and with it, patrons gain access to all regularly-priced screenings for the semester, about 70 films. We’re also encouraging everyone — passholders and single ticket buyers as well — to reserve or purchase their tickets online in advance. By doing so, they can skip the box office line. IT: As usual there are many films premiering at Cornell Cinema.

d Sansa, Fall Raspberries an apples la ginger gold, and ga ready to pick punrcowhase ours.

MF: Yes! In the documentary category I’d like to highlight “Being a Human Person”, a wonderful documentary about Swedish filmmaker Roy Andersson and the making of his last film, “About Endlessness,” which we’ll show the weekend before; “Sisters with Transistors” (Sept. 8), about female electronic music pioneers, which will be followed by a panel discussion led by CU professor Trevor Pinch; “Gunda,” a stunning black-and-white film about a pig and life on a small farm (yes, you read that correctly!); and “The Velvet Underground” (Oct. 15, 18 & 19), the first documentary made by Todd Haynes. The Cornell Library acquired a large “Velvet Underground” archive in 2015, and music professor Judith Peraino teaches a graduate seminar on it. She’ll discuss the archive and the film at the Oct. 19 screening. We’re also premiering a number of great feature films, including “Tove” (Sept 10 & 12), about Finnish visual artist and author Tove Jansson, creator of the Moomins; “Eyimofe (This is My Desire),” an impressive debut from Nigerian twin brothers Arie & Chuko Esiri that’s set in Lagos; and “Son of Monarchs” (Oct. 5), about a Mexican biologist living in New York who returns to his hometown in the monarch butterfly forests of Michoacan. “Son of Monarchs” will be followed by a panel discussion featuring filmmaker Alexis Gambis and Cornell professor Robert Reed from Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, who was the inspiration for the main character. IT: What are some of the special events you have planned? MF: We’ll be showing the silent Chinese masterpiece, “The Goddess” (1934), on Thursday, Sept. 23, with a live score performed by Min Xiao-Fen, a virtuoso on the Chinese stringed instrument pipa, and guitarist Rez Abbasi, both acclaimed musicians who just recently did this show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The film is about a poverty-stricken single mother who works as a prostitute so she can afford an education for her young son, and the lead is played by legendary actress Ruan Lingyu, whose life is portrayed in the unconventional 1991 biopic by Stanley Kwan, “Center Stage,” starring Maggie Cheung, which we’ll be showing in late October in a recent digital restoration. We’ll present another great silent film/live music event in November when we host Dr. Philip Carli — a regular at Cornell Cinema — and his ensemble. They’ll perform Carli’s original score for “A Fool There Was” (1915), starring Theda Bara, who was written up in the Ithaca Times earlier this year, as she once came to Ithaca to make a film. We’ll also be hosting an eclectic range of guest filmmakers, so I encourage everyone to spend some time on our website cinema.cornell.edu to read about them and all the other films we’ll be showing!

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Film

THE CANDYMAN CAN Nia DaCosta’s ‘Candyman’ brings new life to the horror story By Br yan VanC ampe n

hen you see a film, you don’t always know that it’s ahead of its time. That requires time passed and context. When I re-watched the original 1992 “Candyman” to get into the head space for Nia DaCosta’s new sequel, it struck me that here was a movie that used the horror genre to remind us that Black lives matter. Released in the wake of the Rodney King riots, “Candyman,” adapted and directed by Bernard Rose (“Immortal Beloved”) from a Clive Barker short story called “The Forbidden,” was a canny mix

of American Gothic, bodice ripper romantic fiction and perhaps the first mention of “urban legend.” Virginia Madsen played a Chicago grad student touring the notoriously dangerous Cabrini-Green projects to research her thesis on folklore, which draws her into the legend of the Candyman (Tony Todd). Todd’s character was a racially charged version of the innocent man cursed to live in infamy as the city’s scary legend, the man with a hook for a hand. Just look in the mirror and say his name — “Candyman” — five times.

The film was slightly spoiled at its climax due to some poor prosthetic work on Madsen, but its overall strength of vision still marked it as one of the 10 best horror films of the ‘90s. (For the record, some of those other films would include “Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight” and “Scream”.) Aside from David Cronenberg’s 1986 version of “The Fly,” most of the attempts to reboot horror franchises like “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” “Friday the 13th” and “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” haven’t really worked. Nia DaCosta’s new “Candyman” (Universal Pictures-MGM-Monkeypaw Productions-Bron Creative, 2021, 91 min.), which she co-wrote with Win Rosenfeld and producer Jordan Peele (“Get Out,” “Us”), isn’t just a cheapjack sequel. It actually pushes the series into a smart new direction while also doing a classy job of tying itself in with the events of the 1992 original. It stands on its own as a scary picture, but the more you know about the series (I’ve only seen one of the two original sequels, 1995’s “Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh”), the more you’ll get out of the new “Candyman.” In DaCosta’s continuation of the saga, we’re back in Chicago in CabriniGreen, which is in the process of being renovated and upgraded. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II plays Anthony McCoy, a talented and successful painter looking for the next creative spark to inspire him. He learns about the events that happened in ’92, finds Madsen’s research and her microcassette recorder, and stumbles down the rabbit hole of the “Candyman.” He gets bitten by a bee — there’s lots of bees in the mythology — and his hand gets infected and begins spreading to the rest of his body. Meanwhile, people connected with him and the art

gallery displaying “Say His Name,” his latest exhibit, start turning up viciously murdered. And thanks to social media, other people start looking into mirrors and saying his name. (There’s a particularly effective kill sequence involving five female students in a high school bathroom.) DaCosta is obviously a gifted storyteller and visual stylist; she’s currently shooting the “Captain Marvel” sequel for Marvel. Here, she stages an unsettling title sequence involving misty moving shots looking up at Chicago buildings, and there’s also a lot of beautifully done shadow puppetry that tells the Candyman legend, and is reprised over the closing credits. She also borrows artfully from Bunuel and John Landis’ “An American Werewolf in London,” which celebrated its 40th anniversary just last month, with characters waking in terror again and again from nightmares. Candyman is now playing at Regal Ithaca Mall LAND TRUST Contin u ed From Page 18

that it would like to see the auction be cancelled as well. A petition titled “Stop the Auction! Create a Public Access Land Preserve at Bell Station, Lansing, New York” on change.org, started by Lansing resident Robert Rieger, has garnered over 3,200 signatures as of Sept. 7. Several Lansing residents expressed their concerns at a mobile office hours meeting with Sen. Pamela Helming at the Town Hall on Aug. 25. At that meeting, Helming shared her support of having the auction cancelled. “My concern is … that I hate to see

that property sold to the highest bidder and become a large-scale residential development,” Helming said that Wednesday. “Especially, I know a lot of you like to talk about the lakeside, but to me it’s all about the hillsides too, right? Because whatever is happening on those hills will flow down into the lake [and] impact water quality.” A potential situation like the one above would conflict with NYSEG’s list of standards pertaining to the environment it abides on the company’s website. For instance, under “Environmental Stewardship,” the NYSEG states it conducts its “business and facility operations in a manner that minimizes adverse environmental impacts on present and future generations.” Another example would be found under “Environmental Policy,” where the company states it “incorporate[s] environmental impact considerations into decision-making processes concerning existing and future operations.” The auction was originally scheduled for Sept. 20, but has since been rescheduled to take place online from Oct. 11 to 13 with the bidding starting at $750,000. Though the hope is still to have the auction canceled, Zepp said the land trust plans on registering if that is not the case. The Lansing Town Council will hold a special meeting at 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 8 to consider giving the Conservation Advisory Council authorization to write a letter supporting an intervention by the NYSDEC to acquire the property and establish a publicly accessible conservation area on it. - A n d r e w S u l l i va n

For a chance to win a free entry, complete this Tiny Town Teaser by Puzzlemaster Adam Perl. Collect all 4 puzzles and find the hidden message. ACROSS 1 Like 4 Be under par 5 Playbill item

DOWN 1 Bit 2 It’s right on a clock 3 Day-___

A fundraiser for Tompkins Learning Partners on Saturday, September 25 To submit your answers and register, visit: TLPARTNERS.ORG This past year, TLP helped adult students get a job for the first time, improve their employment situation, and pass their citizenship interview.

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and hopes and dreams of those who have experienced incarceration. Listen at WRFI 88.1 FM Ithaca, 91.9 FM Watkins Glen or wrfi.org A Boy And His Soul | 7:30 p.m., 9/14 Tuesday. Contact theater for additional showtimes. | Kitchen Theatre, 417 W. State St., Ithaca | While returning to clear out his family’s West Philadelphia house to be sold, Jay finds an old record collection of disco, R&B, and classical soul, transporting him through the vibrant memories of

Music Bars/Bands/Clubs

Geoff Tate - Rage for Order and Empire at Center for the Arts | 8 p.m. | Center for the Arts of Homer, 72 S Main St

9/15 Wednesday Cornell (Virtual) Concert Series: Amir ElSaffar | 7 p.m. | Virtual

9/9 Thursday Vee Da Bee | 5 p.m. | South Hill Cider, 550 Sandbank Road

Stage

Art

ReEntry Theatre Program’s Radio Play | 3 p.m., 9/11 Saturday | Virtual | Based on the oral history interviews that members conducted in Fall 2020, we will produce this new play exploring themes of family, harm reduction,

Life Within Us and Around Us at State of the Art Gallery | 12 p.m., 9/8 Wednesday | “Life Within and Around Us” is a group show at the gallery featuring the work of fifteen

9/10 Friday Friday Night Music - Janet Batch | 6 p.m. | Hopshire Farms and Brewery, 1771 Dryden Rd 2021 CFCU Downtown Ithaca Summer Concert Series Presents Gunpoets | 6 p.m. | Bernie Milton Pavilion, Center Commons

9/11 Saturday The Sons of a Beach | 12:30 p.m. | Buttonwood Grove Winery, 5986 State Route 89

9/10 Friday Chamber Music at New Park - 5th Season | 7:30 p.m. | New Park Event Venue & Suites, 1500 Taughannock Blvd, Ithaca | $0.00 - $25.00

ALMOST HEAVEN: THE SONGS OF JOHN DENVER

SHOW RUNS SEPTEMBER 8TH THROUGH 29TH. CONTACT THEATRE FOR SHOWTIMES AND TICKETS.

Merry-Go-Round Playhouse, 6877 E Lake Rd, Auburn | Rev closes out its season with the endearing music of John Denver, whose songbook comes alive in this tribute to the man and his love of Mother Earth. Almost Heaven will most definitely put some sunshine on your shoulders. (photo: provided)

DRIVE WITH US!

artists. Shown will be photographs, paintings, drawings and sculpture. Landscape Painting Workshop | 9 a.m., 9/11 Saturday | North Star Art Gallery, 743 Snyder Hill Road | Plein air workshop with award-winning artist Brian Keeler with demonstration and hands-on at the North Star Art Gallery full day from 9am to 4pm with an optional evening session from 6pm to 8pm. | $100.00 - $125.00 Project Polaroid | 11 a.m., 9/11 Saturday | Corners Gallery & the living room, 903 HANSHAW RD | An exhibition showcasing instant film photography Drawing Flowers in Color with Vanessa Varjian | 12 p.m., 9/14 Tuesday | Tompkins County Public Library, 101 East Green Street |

Film Shark Fest: Jaws Screening | 7 p.m., 9/9 Thursday | Cinemapolis, 120 E. Green Street. | Join Museum of the Earth at Cinemapolis on Thursday, September 9 at 7 pm for a special screening of the hit movie, “Jaws”. Flag Day | 9/9 Thursday | Cinemapolis, 120 E. Green Street. | Jennifer Vogel’s father taught her so much about love and joy, but he also happened to be the most notorious counterfeiter in US history. A portrait of a young woman who struggles to rise above the wreckage of her past while reconciling the inescapable bond between a daughter and her father. Ma Belle, My Beauty | 9/9 Thursday | Cinemapolis, 120 E. Green Street. | Lane, Bertie, and Fred once shared a polyamorous relationship in New Orleans. They had a balance that worked... until it didn’t, and Lane vanished from their lives. Two years later, Bertie and Fred are married and are living in the countryside of southern France when Lane reappears. Coda | 9/9 Thursday | Cinemapolis, 120 E. Green Street. | A CODA, child of deaf adults finds herself torn between the obligations she feels to her family and the pursuit of her own dreams. The Card Counter | 9/10 Friday | Cinemapolis, 120 E. Green Street. | Tell

150 Bostwick Road

Thursday Open Interviews 10 a.m.- 2 p.m. Or Call for Appointment: 607-274-2128 v

Negotiated Wage and Health Benefits | NYS Retirement Pension Program | CDL/Paid Training | Equal Opportunity Employer ICSD is committed to equity,inclusion, and building a diverse staff. We strongly encourage applications from candidates of color.

I C S D Tr a n s p o r t a t i o n S e r v i c e s 20 T

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Diversity Enriches our workplace

Notices

Fully Local.

Totally Mobile. Send Money Fast.

just wants to play cards. His spartan existence on the casino trail is shattered when he is approached by Cirk a vulnerable and angry young man seeking help to execute his plan for revenge on a military colonel. The Lost Leonardo | 9/10 Friday | Cinemapolis, 120 E. Green Street. | The inside story behind the Salvator Mundi, the most expensive painting ever sold at $450 million. The Year of the Everlasting Storm | 9/10 Friday | Cinemapolis, 120 E. Green Street. | A love letter to cinema, shot across the US, Iran,Chile, China and Thailand, by seven of today’s most vital filmmakers. New life in the old house. A breakaway, a reunion. Surveillance and reconciliation. An unrecognizable world, in the year of the everlasting storm.

Special Events Hilliard U.S. Vintage Grand Prix | 9/9 Thursday | Watkins Glen International, 2790 County Route 16 | One of the most exciting weekends on the NASCAR calendar, the summer tradition continues as two-time defending race winner Chase Elliott tries for three consecutive wins at The Glen in 2021.

Mobile Check Deposit.

Friday Night Roller Skates | 5:30 p.m., 9/10 Friday | Cass Park, 701 Taughannock Blvd | Sessions will be limited to 60 public skaters. Skaters are encouraged to use online registration to pre-purchase your session admission and your skate rental, if desired. There will ONLY be walk up spots available if pre-registration has not reached capacity prior to the start of each session. Night Sky Cruise at Allen Treman State Park | 8:30 p.m., 9/10 Friday | Allan H. Treman Marina, 1000 Marina Drive | Hop on board the MV Teal to see the stars over the lake! Night Sky Cruises are every Friday through September 9-10:30pm. Reserve at discovercayugalake.org | $35.00 $40.00 Golf Bake 2021 | 9/10 Friday | full, Maple Hill Golf Club | Maple Hill Golf Club ~ 18 Hole Scramble Format ~ Putting Contest - Hole in One - 50/50 Skins - Longest Drive - Closest to the Pin Registration and Lunch 11am 11:45 Shotgun Start at Noon! AIDS Ride for Life 2021 | 6 a.m., 9/11 Saturday | Stewart Park, 1 James L Gibbs Dr | The AIDS Ride For Life is our 23rd annual fully supported cycling event around Cayuga Lake in Upstate New York. | $25.00 - $45.00

Lost Card? Turn it Oﬀ.

Books

Kids

4 Seasons Book Club Discussion - “A Thousand Ships” by Natalie Haynes | 6:30 p.m., 9/9 Thursday | Tompkins County Public Library, 101 East Green Street |

Tyke Tales Story Time | 6 p.m., 9/10 Friday | Please join us for stories read aloud on Zoom from the Lodi Whittier Library on Friday evenings at 6pm.

VIRTUAL PANEL BY PANEL GRAPHIC

Paint with Anna! “Finger Lakes Vineyards” | 6 p.m., 9/8 Wednesday |Little Venice, Trumansburg | Ages 5+. Join Anna to paint Finger Lakes Vineyards. Anna will guide you from a blank canvas to your own painted creation! Ithaca Restorative Justice Meetings | 6:30 p.m., 9/8 Wednesday | Tompkins County Public Library, 101 East Green Street | The discussions will be led by Ithaca Restorative Justice, and anyone who is interested in restorative justice is welcome to attend. The meetings will take place in-person in the Schwarz Jacobson room, but will also be available via Zoom. Questions? Contact Sophia McKissick at smickissick@tcpl.org. Community Sunset Cruise | 7:30 p.m., 9/8 Wednesday | Allan H. Treman Marina, 1000 Allen H. Treman Park Road | Engaging Conversations and Activities about our watershed aboard the MV Teal with rotating community members serving as hosts. | Free Trumansburg Farmers Market | 9/8 Wednesday | Trumansburg Farmers market, Corner of Route 227 & 96 | 9.8-Curtis Osgood & Friends; 9.15-Northside | Free CAMPUS CLUB FALL OPEN HOUSE | 11 a.m., 9/9 Thursday | Stewart Park, Large Pavilion | The Campus Club at Cornell is a social and educational organization open to all women in the

The Everyday Fantastic - Writing Workshop with Bob Proehl | 5:30 p.m., 9/14 Tuesday | Tompkins County Public Library, 101 East Green Street |

ComedyFLOPs’ VIRTUAL Improv Show To Benefit Unity House | 7 p.m., 9/10 Friday | Online, N/A | ComedyFLOPs hosts a virtual improv show in support of Unity House. Join us for the 8th show of our 10th anniversary season. | Free Farmers Market in Brooktondale | 10 a.m., 9/11 Saturday | Brooktondale Community Center, 524 Valley Rd | Farmers Market with local flavor, easy parking, playground for the children, BBQ each week. Besides the usual produce, eggs, cheese, and meat, the market features a variety of fiber vendors, native plants, hanging flower baskets and homestead products. Farmer’s Market Cruises on weekends! at Ithaca Farmers Market | 11 a.m., 9/11 Saturday | Enjoy a ONE Hour cruise from the dock at Ithaca’s iconic Farmer’s Market! Reservations are NOT necessary. Pay on board with cash or credit card.

SHARK FEST: JAWS SCREENING

The Slave Experience and the Underground Railroad | 11 a.m., 9/11 Saturday | Historic Seneca County Courthouse Complex (The Three Bears), 7175 Main Street,Ovid | Join Jerry Bennett at the Three Bears in Ovid and learn about life on a plantation, harrowing escapes, and life on the run. | Free

Cinemapolis, 120 E. Green St., Ithaca | Join Museum of the Earth at Cinemapolis for a special screening of the hit movie, “Jaws”. As part of MotE’s Shark Fest activities, guests can attend this in-person screening and hear from a guest speaker on sharks before the show. (photo: provided)

PRI Fossil-Collecting Trips | 11 a.m., 9/11 Saturday | Visit www. priweb.org for more information. This week’s trip is to Hamilton, NY.

Try Hockey for FREE | 11 a.m., 9/11

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 9 AT 7:00PM

NOVEL BOOK CLUB | 6:30 p.m., 9/13 Monday | Virtual | Visit tcpl.org for more event info. Registration closes 9/10. | Free

products, crafts, soaps, baskets, pottery, brooms, kettle korn and a food truck! | Free

Saturday | The Rink, 1767 E. Shore Drive | A fun event for all school age girls to give hockey a try! Shark Fest: Family Day at Museum of the Earth at Museum of the Earth | 11 a.m., 9/11 Saturday | Included in regular Museum admission, visitors can join Museum educators for shark-oriented activities!

Ithaca area, providing opportunities for newcomers in the area to meet others. There are over 20 activity groups and social events/programs throughout the year. | Free Candor Farmers Market | 3:30 p.m., 9/9 Thursday | Candor Town Hall Pavilion, 101 Owego Road | 25 local vendors with a great assortment fresh produce, baked goods, cheese, maple

Chicken BBQ | 12 p.m., 9/11 Saturday | Halsey Valley Fire Company, 506 Hamilton Valley Road | Drive-thru only - see Facebook page for more details. | $10.00 Cayuga Nature Center Volunteer Day | 12 p.m., 9/15 Wednesday | Calling all volunteers!! Join staff to give our trails some TLC! We’ll spend time re-woodchipping trails and pruning back branches. Bring work gloves, boots, and prepare to get muddy!

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 10TH AND SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 11TH AT 7:30 PM; SUNDAY SEPT. 12 AT 3:00PM

CFCU SUMMER CONCERT SERIES: GUN POETS

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 9TH AT 6:00PM

New Park, 1500 Taughannock Boulevard, Ithaca | This chamber music festival kicks off its 5th season this weekend at the beautiful New Park event center located between Ithaca and Trumansburg. Each year during the first week of September, professional musicians from around the world visit New Park for a special musicians’ retreat. These performances are a unique opportunity to enjoy their talents. (photo: provided)

Ithaca Commons | The concert series reaches an uplifting and positive finale this week with local favorites, Gun Poets. “Voice as a weapon, words as bullets, spreading the universal message of peace, love, and justice through music.” (photo: Facebook)

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CHAMBER MUSIC AT NEW PARK

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Town & Country

Classifieds In Print

On Line |

10 Newspapers

277-7000 Phone: Mon.-Fri. 9am-5pm Fax: 277-1012 (24 Hrs Daily)

AUTOMOTIVE

| 59,200 Readers

Internet: www.ithaca.com Mail: Ithaca Times Classified Dept PO Box 27 Ithaca NY 14850 In Person: Mon.-Fri. 9am-5pm 109 North Cayuga Street

AUTOMOTIVE

BUY SELL TRADE

Freon Wanted:

We pay CA$H for cylinders and cans. R12 R500 R11 R113 R114. Convenient. Certified Professionals. Call 312-2919169 or visit RefrigerantFinders.com (NYSCAN)

ANTIQUE LOVERS TAKE NOTE!

BRIMFIELD IS BACK — ALL SHOWS! September 7-12. New shows open daily! BrimfieldAntiqueFleaMarket.com 2022 Show Date: May 10-15, July 12-17, September 6-11. (NYSCAN)

245/Garage Sales

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FLEA MARKET

Saturday 9/11 9am -1pm First Congregational Church parking lot 309 Highland Rd, Ithaca (Rain date: 9/18)

DISH TV

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DONATE YOUR Your donation helps fund the search for missing children. Accepting Trucks, Motorcycles & RV’s , too! Fast Free Pickup – Running or Not - 24 Hour Response - Maximum Tax Donation – Call 877-266-0681 (AAN CAN)

Ithaca’s only

hometown electrical distributor Your one Stop Shop

Since 1984 802 W. Seneca St. Ithaca 607-272-1711 fax: 607-272-3102 www.fingerlakeselectric.com

 Great interpersonal and customer service skills  Familiarity with a wide range of financial transactions including Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable  Experience with MS Office and Google Apps  Experience with spreadsheets and proprietary software  Professionalism and organization skills Education & Experience Requirements:  Proficient with office software  Previous bookkeeping experience preferred  Associates degree or at least one year of experience Job Type: Part Time Respond with Resume to: jbilinski@ithacatimes.com

Delivery Driver

Driver with SUV-sized car and good driving record to deliver newspapers 9 a.m.3 p.m. Wednesdays year-round in and around Ithaca. Can start immediately. Call 607 277-7000 x 1214.

DRIVE WITH US!

ICSD Transportation Services is conducting INTERVIEWS FOR BUS DRIVERS Walk in Thursdays 10-2: 150 Bostwick Rd By Appointment: Call 607 274-2128 Equal opportunity employer, offering competitive wages, great health and pension benefits, paid CDL training, rewarding community work with families and children Diversity Enriches Our Workplace

MUSIC TEACHER

400/Employment

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205/Antiques

EMPLOYMENT

Account Billing Manager

We are looking for a cheerful, professional, detail-oriented person to join our team serving Ithaca and the surrounding community at the Ithaca Times, Ithaca. com and the Finger Lakes community newspapers. Job Responsibilities:  Maintain account records  Monthly billing  Scheduling and administering legal, display and classified advertising  Process accounts receivable/payable and handle payroll in a timely manner  Entering financial transactions in databases & document transaction details  Produce work with a high level of accuracy and attention to detail Work Hours: Wednesday, Thursday and Friday 9- 5 Qualifications / Skills:  Accounting  Confidentiality  Attention to detail and accuracy  A knowledge and/or appreciation of newspapers and the media business  Able to multitask, prioritize, work under pressure and meet deadlines  Ability to communicate complex data clearly  Excellent data entry skills

OCM BOCES has the need for a 100% Music Teacher located at the Cortlandville Campus, in Cortland. Successful candidate will conduct chorus and general music instruction to K-12 level students. NYS certification in music required. Applications accepted online only. Register and apply at: www. olasjobs.org/central. For more information, visit our website at: www.ocmboces. org EOE

School Social Worker

OCM BOCES Innovative Education REACH Program located at the Crown Road Campus, Liverpool, NY. Successful candidate will provide individual and group counseling to 7th and 8th grade middle school students, as well as provide support for the program team in developing positive, proactive interventions. NYS certification as a School Social Worker required. Register and apply at: www.olasjobs.org/central. For more information, visit our website at: www.ocmboces.org EOE

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EMPLOYMENT SPECIAL EDUCATION TEACHER

Interested in joining a collaborative and innovative instructional team with a student-centered focus? Consider applying to the OCM BOCES STAR program providing Special Education instruction/ services to K-2nd grade elementary school students. This position will be located at Homer Elementary School. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to receive first rate professional development in the principles of instructional best practices, restorative practices and technology integration. Come join the team at OCM BOCES! NYS certification in Students with Disabilities 1-6 required. Applications accepted online only. Register and apply at: www.olasjobs.org/central. For more information, visit our website at: www. ocmboces.org EOE

Substitute Teachers

OCM BOCES has an immediate need for per diem Substitute Teachers for Innovative Education programs located at the Cortland Alternative School and Seven Valleys New Tech Academy in Cortland, NY. Duties include but not limited to providing individual programming and support to alternative education students in grades 9-12. $115/per day. Bachelor Degree required. Register and apply at: www.olasjobs.org/central. For more information, visit our website at: www. ocmboces.org EOE

Teacher – Seven Valleys New Tech Academy

The OCM BOCES Cortlandville Campus has a unique teaching position for a certified Special Education Teacher. At Seven Valleys New Tech Academy, the successful candidate will partner with teachers to provide special education support in a student-centered, Project Based Learning environment. Opportunities to authentically connect students with local businesses and community agencies supports a positive, collaborative learning environment. For additional information visit our website at www. ocmboces.org. Register and apply by 09/16/21 at: www.olasjobs.org/central EOE

Teacher – Special Education & TASC

EMPLOYMENT Teaching Assistant

OCM BOCES Special Education program has the need for a 96% Teaching Assistant at the Cortlandville Campus, Cortland. Successful candidate will provide support and individual programming to K-12th grade students in our center-based programs with a variety of special needs. NYS certification as a Teaching Assistant required. Applications accepted online only. Register and apply at: www.olasjobs.org/central. For information please visit our website at: www.ocmboces.org EOE

430/General JOB OPPORTUNITY:

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DELIVERY Part-Time Route Driver needed for delivery of newspapers every Wednesday. Must be available 9am-1pm, have reliable transportation, and a good driving record.

Call 277-7000

The OCM BOCES Cortlandville Campus has a unique teaching position for a full-time Special Education Teacher, working in two Innovative Education programs. At Seven Valleys New Tech Academy, the successful candidate will partner with teachers to provide special education support in a student-centered, Project Based Learning environment. Opportunities to authentically connect students with local businesses and community agencies supports a positive, collaborative learning environment. Duties as TASC teacher include instructing and preparing students for high school equivalency requirements, including testing. For additional information visit our website at www.ocmboces.org. Register and apply at: www.olasjobs.org/central EOE

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Single Ch 7 Bankruptcy $750.00 Legal Fee. Call Mark “The Hammer” Gugino at 144 Bald Hill Road Spencer, NY at 607319-0766. We also do Chapter 13 12 11 Bankruptcy, Auto Accident Injury, Divorce and Real Estate Closings. Attorney Advertising Debt Relief.

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Complete Care Home Warranty Covers all Major Systems and Appliance. 30 Day Risk Free. $200 off and 2 months Free. 1-877-673-0511. (AAN CAN)

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I t h a c a T i m e s 23

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