The sun is just about ready to set on Day 1 of Colorscape 2006, and West Side Park is rockin’ with the sounds of … yodeling. If you’ve seen Gandalf Murphy and the Slambovian Circus of Dreams before, you’ll know that’s not nearly as torturous as it sounds. These guys are simply amazing, and a refreshing change of pace from the rest of the afternoon’s offerings.

It’s just about time to call it a day, and I’ve got to admit that my constant facade of pep is beginning to fade. It’s exhausting work being friendly all day … after eight hours of manning the Colorscape booth, I have a pretty good idea of what it must feel like to run for office. Speaking of which, the Democrats were out in full force today … I had a nice chat with Beth Garry, Mark Trabucco and Kelly Keck, candidates for Justice, Senate and Assembly. Nary a Republican candidate to be seen (at least at The Evening Sun booth). Hmmmm …

Kudos to all involved in pulling of what I’d say was a very successful 50% of Colorscape so far. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for tomorrow.

The aforementioned weathermen seem to have been right … it’s 3:15 now and there’s barely a cloud in the sky. We’re listening to the lovely ladies of Red Molly from the mainstage right now, and Colorscape has never sounded better.

The crowds have certainly picked up since the torrential downpour, and the Colorscape sidewalks are teeming with old friends and laughter. It’s always a treat to sit here in our Evening Sun booth and reconnect with John Q. Public, whom I generally hide from in my Ivory Tower …

As our friendly weathermen predicted, it’s starting to rain pretty heavily here at Colorscape Chenango, about 12:25 p.m. People are scurrying for cover, but we’re here huddled under our trusty Evening Sun tent.

Colorscape President Bob Benton just announced that it’s a passing shower (!) and should be over in about 20 minutes, so don’t let that discourage you from coming on down this afternoon (Bob’s always right about these things!)

The people are out, the sun is out, the food aroma is in the air and colorscape is in full swing! The exhibitors are set up and ready to show off their skills in the park for what looks like a fulfilled entertaining weekend. Be sure to come to downtown Norwich to view the colorscape festival and experience all that is offers.. Good entertainment, many kinds of food, fun activities, crafts, arts of all kinds and more.

It’s 11:15 a.m. on the park in beautiful downtown Norwich, and the 12th annual Colorscape Chenango is just over an hour old … The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and there’s a throng of happy Chenango residents (and visitors) perusing the many artistic offerings in East and West Side Parks. It’s looking to be a great day … if you’re reading this Saturday morning, come on down!

This week, students everywhere will begin another school year, but students in Oxford are in for a surprise. The 12th grade English teacher in the Oxford School District decided not to come back this year. With all of the controversy surrounding the high number of seniors who failed to graduate last semester who could blame him?

Apparenty, quite a few people can and do. The problem is not that the teacher left the district, but that he chose to do so the day before classes began. Several people, students and parents a like, complained about the way in which he ran his classroom, but who could have suspected that he would leave the school high and dry the day before classes were to resume?
Existing teachers are now stepping up to take over the classes that are left unattended, giving up their free time to do so. A search for the next Oxford English teacher is to begin shortly. Hopefully they will find a replacement quickly and easily. Until then, I wish the teachers and students at Oxford luck. I hope this upset to the system causes as little stress as possible, and doesn’t cast a negative shadow on the first day back.

The Evening Sun reporters will be on hand for this years colorscape. Seeing the sights, exploring the art, and dancing to the music (not me..but others might) we will be there all weekend to meet and greet our readers. Colorscape weekend is a chance for performers and artists of all mediums to gather and celebrate. As a reporter I feel writing is an art often neglected. Writing of all kinds whether it be fiction, non-fiction or science fiction the true ability to be able to express life in words, is an art all alone. I would like to take the chance this weekend not only to meet my readers I would like to involve them. I want to take this opportunity to tell the public that I am kicking off my feature pieces this week. My features focus on ordinary people taking doing extraordinary things. People like yourself, people that are doing incredible services for the community, people that live
“the ordinary life” (if there is such a thing) and people that should be acknowledged for a job well done. If you have a story I want to hear it! It’s all part of the art.

This week (or thereabouts) marks my 16-year anniversary with The Evening Sun. It seems like only yesterday …

Oh, who am I kidding? It seems like 16 years! Generally in the course of daily events there’s no time to think about the totality of your career, until you reach that milestone known in the HR world as the “anniversary date.” That happened to me this morning, at our company-wide monthly birthday/anniversary gathering. It was one of those moments where you’re at once proud of your accomplishments (and longevity – only Darkroom Dave has me beat, by decades, in seniority) and at the same time wondering where the hell all that time went. Especially, of course, when I quickly calculated that the three new reporters I just hired were each seven years old when I started here …

When you see newsrooms portrayed in the movies or on television, it’s always a fast-paced, high-stress, “Stop the presses!” kind of atmosphere. Reality is something different. While there’s plenty of deadline pressure stress to go around in The Evening Sun newsroom, it’s a fairly rare occurrence when “breaking news” demands everyone’s attention.

Such was the case Thursday morning, when shortly after that day’s edition had gone to press I received a call tipping me off about the appellate court’s decision reversing the conviction in the Peter Wlasiuk murder trial. It was one of those rare “oh my God” moments that really get the news-junkie adrenaline pumping.

Unfortunately, as is the case with most breaking news, the timing couldn’t have been worse. Thursday’s paper was already rolling off the presses, and I was almost out the door, having planned half a day off to visit the State Fair in Syracuse. Faced with a newsroom teeming with cub reporters, I considered canceling my plans and walking them step by step through what is the beginning of one of the year’s biggest stories. Instead, I managed to wrestle down my control-freak demons and left anyway, albeit an hour later after I fired off as many instructions as I could think of, given the time.

I’m happy to say I made the right decision. Newbies Tyler Murphy and Jessica Lewis jumped at the chance to delve into an exciting story, and handled it admirably (I’m trying not to sound too much like a proud parent here, as they already think I’m older than dirt).

My hat’s off as well to evesun.com web designer Craig Ballinger, who built in a template I could use for breaking news. When I saw that in the system, I at first thought, “yeah, right.” But as we shift our mindset more to the 24-hour Internet news model, it makes more and more sense to break stories as they happen. I’m proud to say we were the very first new outlet to report the Wlasiuk story, shortly before noon Thursday. Without this here website, The Evening Sun would have been that last to report the story, in our print edition Friday.

While I still have yet to yell, “Stop the presses!” at least now I can yell, “Update the website!”

The Itsy Bitsy Spider may have not been so little! He went up the waterspout but the he didn’t get washed away. This is my philosophy regarding the amount of rain and lack of sunshine we have seen. If the spider does not get washed away the sun can’t come out, right????
According to the U.S Environmental Protection Agency Global temperatures are rising. Data collected within past century suggests the average land surface temperatures have risen 0.45-0.6°C (0.8-1.0°F).
So….Does this mean Upstate New York just got left out of this calculation?? Is it me or has this summer felt like an extended Spring? Unless the weather is going to catch up with itself and be 92 degrees on Christmas and snow next June I think we may have a problem.. The Agency also records Precipitation has increased by just about one percent world-wide in the past century. Okay this one I agree with.. I feel that we have been drenched this summer, or whatever season you may call it. Two weeks of summer is not good enough for me!! I put up a baby pool for the kids yup you guessed it, the kids got out of the pool, teeth rattling and their lips were blue. Yeah the pool lasted, it is in great shape due to the fact it was taken down a day after I set it up! I can honestly say this summer has been about the worst one I recall. As a fellow New Yorker I think we all are entitled to have about three or four minutes to weather rant!!
You see, we have winter about half the year, this leaves it rainy, foggy, chilly and bitter for most of the other half. So approximately we get about two and a half months of supposedly hot weather. (I will not go into the muggy and humid end of things) When it is also raining, cold and downright miserable the little quarter of the year us New Yorkers do get, we get A LITTLE EDGY!! Well there goes my three and half minutes I better go home and get the boat ready.. yes once again rain is in the forecast.