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Who could ask for more on a mild January afternoon: fog and puddles, and playground fixtures, in Riverside Park, along the Mohawk River in Schenectady, New York?

Last night’s preview of Our Town Schenectady at Proctor’s GE Theater made it clear that WMHT has created an interesting, enjoyable, and informative look at the City through the words, eyes and lenses of its residents.  Even natives and longtime residents of Old Dorp will surely discover new reasons to appreciate their City.  As Stockade resident Linda Muralidharan, who is the storyteller for the segment on the Stockade and its Walkabout event, put is: “We’re ornery but we’re fascinating.”

 Our Town Schenectady has its broadcast premier tomorrow, Thursday January 19, at 7:30 PM, on our PBS Channel 17, and in about three months you will be able to view it online.  At the bottom of this posting, you’ll find a list of the 19 segments that make up Our Town Schenectady, which is narrated by Ernie Tetrault. See The Saratogian for more coverage; TU Arts Talk blog, too.

    The Stockade segment of Our Town Schenectady gives some background history and then uses the annual Walkabout event to tell more of the story and show what makes our first-in-the-state historic district unique and inviting. The one-person staff and editorial board of suns along the Mohawk was proud to be asked to contribute to the Stockade segment, and most pleased to discover last night that WMHT’s production staff selected two dozen of our images for inclusion in the show.  Below is a Slideshow of the pictures from suns along the Mohawk that help tell our Stockade story in Our Town Schenectady.  In choosing the photos, I’m glad Joanne Durfee and her staff at WMHT decided to focus on the people who make the beautiful historic Stockade a living neighborhood — especially the residents who participate in events like the Walkabout, and the non-residents who come to share in the fun and inspiration as re-enactors and visitors.

The photos in the Slideshow were taken from our 2010 Walkabout or 2011 Walkabout postings, each of which has a Gallery that includes the photos used in Our Town Schenectady and dozens of additional images.  You can click on a Gallery image for a larger version and permalink, and scroll over the photo for a description of the picture.

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- share this posting with the short weblink: http://tinyurl.com/OTS-Stockade

Here is a list of the segments and storytellers in Our Town Schenectady, in the order of their appearance:

Mabee Farm – Kim Mabee
Stockade Walkabout – Linda Muralidharan
Engineering Solving Problem (Schenectady Museum) – Chris Hunter
Empire State Aerosciences Museum – Kevin Millington
Vale Cemetery – Bernie McEvoy and John Sowa
Little Italy – Maria Papa
Hibernians – Michael Glenn
SCCC – Patricia Frazier and Martha Asselin
Vibrant Arts Community (SCP, SLOC, SSO, Proctor’s) – Mardy Moore
Schenectady High Chamber Choir – Ben Butryn and Raya Malcolm
Hamilton Hill Arts Center – Iris Williams and Penny Holmes
Youth Media Arts – Mike Feurstein and Shawn Minarik
Roots and Wisdom – Debbie Forster (Cornell Coop Extension)
Schenectady Green Market – Betsy Henry and Dick Shave
Jackson’s Garden, Union College – Andrew McLain
Central Park Rose Garden – David Gade
Central Park Disk Golf – Justin Hoffman and Andrew Butryn
Ultimate Frisbee and Moon & River Open Mike – Dan Goodspeed
Holiday Parade – Gail Kehn

The WMHT webpage for Our Town Schenectady has links for access to more info on each of the segment top

  No words needed, except to wish all visitors to suns along the Mohawk a New Year fill with peace, prosperity and a little pizzazz.  Here’s a slideshow of photos taken at sunrise, just past 7:30, New Year’s Day 2012, at Riverside Park along the Mohawk River, in the Schenectady Stockade.  And, yes all the pink seemed to be in the western sky this morning.

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- “Hazel” & “Augustus” from “The Fault in Our Stars“, the upcoming novel by John Green, on the Riverside Park swing-set -

- update: click to see the resulting book trailer from Penguin Young Readers -

A photoshoot for best-selling author John Green‘s upcoming teen-romance novel The Fault in Our Stars  (Dutton Juvenile, January 10, 2012) took place as promised this afternoon at the swing-set in the Stockade’s Riverside Park.  I’m pretty sure that producer Stacie and her crew, including the models representing the novel’s two young lovers, felt the swings, the Park, the Mohawk, and the CSX train trestle made their drive from New York City well worthwhile.  The return of cold, blustery weather made their hours in the Park a little frosty.

The scene from the book that will be represented by the photo images to be used in the resulting PR material is a March day in the Mid-West.  I think our snowless December scene will be a good substitute.

The crew, which had taken rooms at the Stockade Inn for staging their shoot, were eager to finish by the time I arrived around 4 PM.  My hands and brain soon became too cold to remember to get more names or information, but I’ll supplement this posting when I get more. If you click on the author’s name above, you can found out more about his prior books and awards and prior books (such as Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, and Paper Towns). You can read about the plot and pre-order the book at Amazon.com by clicking here.

. . see my photo tribute to “our special swing-set” . .

Here are images from my shooting of the photoshoot for “The Fault in Our Stars.”  Below the Slideshow there’s a Gallery of the same pictures.  I’m glad Monica Hoenig found our swing-set through this weblog and pointed her comrades in this direction.

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follow-up (Jan. 4, 2012): Some interesting facts about The Fault In Our Stars (see Wikipedia) : Last June, on the day John Green announced the name of the upcoming novel (and before he had finished writing it), a combination of social media reactions by his fans resulted in an eruption of pre-release sales that put the novel in the #1 sales spot at both Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.  See “Tweeting from a La-Z-Boy, an Unfinished Book Hits No. 1” (The Wall Street Journal Online, by Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg, July 1, 2011).  The WSJ article lists the many social media connections Green has in his “digital toolbox”.  Among others, they include 1.1 million Twitter followers, and more than half a million more at the video weblog Green shares with his brother, vlogbrothers.“

TFIOS has, as of today, been on the Amazon.com Top 100 Best Sellers list for 130 days.  Also, B&N mistakenly mailed out copies of the book prematurely a few days before Christmas, and Green has asked that recipients not leak the content before the January 10 release date, so that his fans can all read the book together.  It looks like they have complied with the request.

update (January 10, 2011): Click for Green’s vlogbrothers video  The Fault in Our Stars Is Here Edition.

- Click on a photo in the following Gallery for a larger version; scroll over it for a description -

  It’s no secret that I’m often lured to the Riverside Park swing-set — for playing and shooting photos along the Mohawk River.  This week, our swings and park have been attracting attention from out of town, too.  Here are a few images that show why the swings are so special.

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A big Stockade welcome to the photo-crew from New York City! See photos and description in the posting “shooting ‘Stars’ in the Park” (Dec. 17, 2011) . . .

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. . . and, there’s even a swing set for tykes who love to swing:

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. share this posting with this short URL:

http://tinyurl.com/StockadeSwings

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 . . . inundated by Irene floodwaters (Aug. 29, 2011; seen from the Western Gateway Bridge)

 - this posting has photos of the 2011 tree, from selection to erection, decoration and lighting, plus a complete Slideshow below -

  update (7 AM Dec. 5, 2011):  The lighting ceremony and refreshment party were inspiring and a lot of fun yesterday evening — another special tradition for and by our special community.

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 . . . the 2011 Stockade Christmas Tree: [L] trimmed and ready for lighting (Dec. 4, 2011) & [R] still beautiful the morning after (sunrise Dec. 5, 2011) . . .

- the 2011 Stockade Tree is especially tall  (click for larger version) -

- see the 2010 Tree and the 2009 Tree -

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- 2011 Stockade Tree seen standing tall at sunrise, December 2 -

- click on a photo for a larger version -

- update (Dec. 1, 2011):  After a crew of City workers installed it next to Lawrence yesterday (Wednesday, Nov. 30.), Connie Colangelo and friends decorated the new Stockade tree.  As you can see directly below in photos taken at sunrise, the tree tilted a bit due to strong overnight winds.

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- by this afternoon, the tree was upright again, with a few more bows; the tree lighting is Sunday at 5 PM -

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- in search of the 2011 Holiday tree -

  Thanks to our Stockade neighbor — and Stockade Association director — Susannah Hand, the NYS Tree Nursery at Saratoga (on Facebook) is donating this year’s Stockade Holiday-Christmas tree.  Susannah works at the 200-acre Nursery on Rt. 50, and she arranged for a tour for Stockade residents that took place on Thursday, November 17.  Mary D’Alessandro (Association President), Connie Colangelo (Tree Maven), Sylvie Briber (Spy editor) and myself (humble, un-affiliated tag-along) were the only Stockade residents lucky enough to take part in the tour.  To my surprise, we not only got to see this year’s Tree, we got to select it.

. . . top of 2011 Stockade Tree on site at the Tree Nursery . . .

Due to another one of my “Senior Moments” (a/k/a Boomer-Brainos), I forgot to bring my camera.  So, we can thank Susannah for yet another aspect of this story: she took the photos with her iPhone of our group choosing the tree, pressed into service unexpectedly under a very bright sun.  You can see the selection process and Susannah’s photos in this Slideshow; read more about the Saratoga Tree Nursery in the upcoming December Spy, and join in the celebration at the Tree Lighting Ceremony on Sunday December 4.  After the Slideshow, I’ve inserted images of our 2009 and 2010 trees in the Lawrence Circle.

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.. Slideshow photos at the NYS Tree Nursery taken by Susannah Hand, Nov. 17, 2011 . .

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- 2010 Stockade tree (L) and 2009 Stockade Holiday tree -

- see more photos of the 2010 tree here -

 . . . This posting has over 50 images of the 2011 Gazette Stockade-athon as the race passed through our historic Stockade neighborhood on a sunny autumn Sunday.   The top winners are listed after the slideshow.  [The Gazette has the complete list of the record 1603 finishers at page C5 of Monday's newspaper; online here.] Those who like people-watching or are hoping to see their own faces can find 60 more photos in our post “more faces from Stockade-athon 2011“.

- lovely day for a run through the Stockade -

- to share this posting use tinyURL.com/Stockade-athon2011 ; go here and here for our 2010 Stockade-athon photos, and there for images from the 2009 race.

 - You are welcome to use any image for noncommercial purposes.  If used online, please feel free to attribute it to suns along the Mohawk.

 The slideshow below begins with two dozen photos taken of the lead runners near Lawrence Circle, the half-way point of the 15K race — where the runners broke into bright sunshine from the shelter of tree-lined Front St.  A couple dozen more photos show runners, officials and spectators in shots that caught my eye.  If you’d like your image identified by name please leave me a comment describing the picture in question.  Apologies to all those runners who I was not quick enough to capture while you visited the Stockade.

- below is a Gallery with the same photos; you can click on a Gallery image for a larger version or scroll over it for a description -

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Winners (11:36 update): The Schenectady Gazette, sponsor of the Stockade-athon has listed the top winners in today’s race, and will have a complete list with photos and features Monday.

1st Place: Tim Chichester of Brockport (in 46:58); Tim came in second last year, and was the first runner to reach the Lawrence Circle halfway point this year and last year.

2nd Place: Kieran O’Connor of New York; 3rd Place: Mark Andrews of Rochester.

1st Place, Women’s Division: Jodie Robertson of Voorheesville (in 54:47);

2nd Place, Women’s Division: Ashley Gore of Albany; 3rd Place, Sara Facteau of Plattsburgh.

 You can click on any photo in the following Gallery for a larger version and scroll over it for a description.

  This posting is for Stockade-athon participants and fans who enjoy faces and people-watching.  The slideshow has over sixty photos taken this morning while the runners passed through the Stockade neighborhood.  Many emotions can be seen on the faces of runners of all ages brave enough to tackle 15K through our hilly city.

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The slideshow photos can be seen in the following Gallery.  Click on an image for a larger version.

You are welcome to use any image for noncommercial purposes.  If used online, please feel free to attribute it to suns along the Mohawk.  There are 50 more photos in our post “the Stockade welcomes Stockade-athon 2011“, which shows many of the leaders as they reached Lawrence the Indian at the half-way point of the race, along with candid shots of scores of other participants.

- full original photo here -

Over the past two years, I’ve posted well over 100 photos of the Stockade-athon race as it passes through the Stockade neighborhood. [See, here and here for 2010, and there for 2009.]  As my version of training and race preparation — in addition to planning on that proverbial pre-race pasta meal tomorrow — I’ve selected and posted here a dozen of my favorite Stockade-athon images, starting with one that is a nice fit with Veterans Day.

- click on a photo for a larger version; scroll over it for a description -

 

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- fascinating faces (click to see more) –

- the above photo was clicked on more than any other last year -

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 - repeat contestant heading up Front St. to N. Church St. in 2009 (top) and 2010 -

 - update: and again in 2011 -

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- I’m hoping for more sunlight filtering through colorful leaves this year -

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 . . . Arthur and Miles cheer on the 2010 Stockade-athon runners passing Cucumber Alley at Washington Ave.

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- finally, the lead and rear escort cars in the 2010 Stockade-athon -

If the creek/river don’t rise, I’ll be out taking more pictures Sunday, November 13, for Stockade-athon 2011. I hope to see you there and then back here for a photo array featuring the 2011 Gazette Stockade-athon.

- use the URL http://tinyurl.com/StockadeathonFaves to share this posting -

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 - the venerable Arthur’s Market sign was replaced today (Oct. 20) with a handsome new one for the Stockade Home Market at the Lawrence Circle and Polachek Square -

(update: Oct. 24, 2011): they’re open for business . .

Sunshine replaced pouring rain this morning just as the new Stockade Home Market sign was hung outside the former Arthur’s Market, across from Lawrence the Indian.  A lot of us have been waiting a long time, it seems, for a new market to open at 35 N. Ferry St. in the Schenectady Stockade — the location that has been a market and community gathering place almost continuously since 1795. [click for the Google Map page]

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- while Guiseppe of the Sign Studio in Troy was putting up the new sign, Maein was helping workmen prepare store fixtures -

  Maein Nagi, the friendly young manager of the new market, is working hard to put all the facets of a modern market and convenience store in place in time to have his Grand Opening on Monday morning, October 24, 2011. Thanks to an interview yesterday with Maein by the tireless Stockade Spy editor Sylvie Briber, I learned that Maein came to America from Yemen 8 years ago, and has five years’ experience with grocery and deli stores.  He plans to open the market daily from 6 AM to 9 PM.

As you can see from the photos in the following Slideshow (repeated in the Gallery below, where you can click on an image for a larger version, or scroll over it for a description), the Stockade Home Market will have fresh fruit and vegetables, a coffee bar, a deli counter and grill, lots of cold beverages (no beer), an ATM machine, snacks, and a nice supply of groceries.  Maein has already placed a large envelope at the fruitstand that he hopes visitors will use to give him requests and comments to make the store better, and he told me he’s looking for someone to hire to make homemade soup, sandwiches, etc.  Sylvie will have more details in the November Spy. As I learn more about the store and its services, I will update this posting.

update (Oct. 25, 2011): The Gazette gave the market’s opening a nice spread in today’s newspaper.  (Kathleen Moore, “Reopened Stockade market sells basics,” online by subscription).

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- deli counter & fresh produce stand -

follow-up (Friday, October 28, 2011): My visit this afternoon to the Market found an optimistic and grateful Maein, plus a well-filled deli-counter and fresh fruit and vegetable stand.  Click to see the fresh produce price list, the list of subs and coldcuts, and a portion of the deli display.  I even got to have a cup of coffee ($1.00!) and a muffin with Sylvie, who brought over the November Spy, which features the new Market on the front page.

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  I send Maein my best wishes and hope to see him often and for many years at a spot that becomes a new Stockade tradition — a focal point for neighbors to meet and a convenient source of necessities, staples, treats, and community cheer.

. . . You can share this posting using this short URL:

http://tinyurl.com/StockadeHomeMarket

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 . . The above photos can be seen in the following Gallery.

- too much of a good thing? 

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- four of the new “Welcome to Stockade Historic District” banners on S. Church St., seen heading out of the Stockade toward State St. -

- Click on a photo for a larger version -

- 2 of the 3 banners placed on the south side of the short first block of Union St. looking east toward Church St. -

  . . . If you’ve driven or walked up Union or S. Church Streets lately, you’ve surely seen our banner crop of handsome Welcome to the Stockade banners.  With apologies to those who worked on and funded this project in an effort to improve the neighborhood, I feel compelled to say: there are far too many of them.

How many banners?   Thirty-one in total, I am told, located solely on Union St. and S. College St., corresponding with the geographic jurisdiction of the Downtown Schenectady Improvement Corporation ["DSIC"], which funded the project.  Every lamppost on Union St. from Erie Blvd. to Washington Avenue has a banner, and so do several other Union St. utility poles. Every lamppost on S. Church also has a Welcome Banner.  The block of Union St. from N. Ferry to College St. has a dozen or more Welcome banners, and there are two more at Union and Erie Blvd.   Even with the leaves still on our trees, there are many spots from which 4 or 6 or more of the banners are visible when looking in a single direction.  There are simply too many banners.

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- 6 or more banners can be seen from midblock on Union St., looking east toward College St. -

The Stockade is not a downtown commercial district, much less an amusement park, used car lot, or ongoing festival or special event.   It is a functioning, historic residential neighborhood, filled with people who love its historic charm and protected streetscape.   Although the banners have a good-looking design, the overabundance of banners is exactly the kind of visual clutter our neighborhood association should be vigorously fighting.  Instead, the Stockade Association has been working with DSIC to have the banners designed, made and installed — using DSIC “beautification” funds.

. . .  It does indeed make sense to have a welcome banner at the various entryways to the Historic District, aimed at both intentional visitors to the district, and accidental or inadvertent visitors or through-farers.  But, it’s rather difficult for me to fathom why anyone would want these banners on virtually every lamppost of our high-traffic blocks once you’ve entered the Stockade — unless, perhaps, you truly believe the banners do “beautify” our neighborhood; or, with a bit of irony, that they might help remind some scofflaw homeowners this is indeed a specially-protected historic district.  And, what will the banners look like after they’ve been through a couple years of our weather extremes?

 

While sorting through my Walkabout 2011 photos Saturday evening (see “walking into history,” September 24, 2011), I glanced out my bay window to see some promising sunset colors reflected in the Eastern sky.  Since I’ve been neglectful of Stockade sunsets this year, I took my camera outside for the fourth or fifth time that day.  A fiery tree on the riverbank in our backyard first grabbed my attention, and then the entire western sky and its reflection in the Mohawk.

The photos in this webpost were taken from the sidewalk between 10 and 16 Washington Ave., near Cucumber Alley, and from the rear of 16 Washington Avenue, near Cucumber Alley.  I only took 6 pictures, and liked 5 of them enough to share here.  The colors have not been intensified.  It was a very special ending to a historic Walkabout kind of day.

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- as always, click on a photo for a larger version -

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- doff & curtsy for a classy Stockade Walkabout -

. .    . . September 24, 2011

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  The 52nd Annual Stockade Walkabout offered “A Walk Through History 1661-1795″ as a way to celebrate the 350 years of Schenectady’s evolution from a Dutch colonial village to an American City.  I didn’t make it to every Tour or History Stop, church, or watering hole [see the Map], but I took quite a few photos, and you can see the ones I like the most in the Slideshow below.  As always, I apologize for not knowing everyone’s name.

Sincere thanks goes out to all of the people who worked hard on this special Stockade event — including organizers, directors, actors, storytellers, musicians, volunteers — and to the sponsors who helped make it happen.

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- click to see a list of Walkabout sponsors & partners (L) and the Map of Tour & History Stops -

- for more Walkabout fever, see “Walkabout 2010 shines” and check out our connection to WMHT’s Our Town Schenectady-

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 You’ll find almost all of the pictures above in the following Gallery.  Click on an image for a larger version.

 . . . Heavy fog had me rushing out the door with my camera yesterday a little after 7 AM.    As far as I can tell, catching the fog at just the right stage to make interesting photos is a matter of luck and patience; I had more of the former than the later yesterday.  My first stroll in the neighborhood found Lawrence the Indian already clear-headed.  So, I hurried down to Riverside Park, where the Mohawk River was still totally-obscured, with the Park itself being revealed eerily as the fog lifted.

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As has happened before (see this photo and that one from a webpost exactly two years ago today), the playlot critters and structures helped me show just how “disappeared” the River was around 7:30 AM.  Only a few neighbors, including two dog-walkers, got to view the fog curtain over the Mohawk while I was there, so I’m sharing a few shots with you here at suns along the Mohawk..

 When I returned around 8:30, after enjoying a a second mug of coffee, I was a bit late, and the River had only a slight mist over it, leaving little to work with for creating photographic magic.

In this Slideshow, there are a dozen images from my foggy photo-shoot on the penultimate day of summer.   I’ve put the same photos in a Gallery at the bottom of this posting; scroll over any image in the Gallery for a description, and double-click on it for a (more revealing) larger version.

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- compare the view of the River and slide on Sept. 8 (L) and Sept. 21, 2011 -

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