Mysterious Images

What do these two images have in common? You can find out Saturday, Aug. 9th, at the North Country Cultural Center for the Arts (NCCCA) at 30 Brinkerhoff St., Plattsburgh. The Arts Center is one of the stops on the Summer Art Walk from 2 to 5 PM. The Art Walk features works by local artists on display at various downtown businesses. Maps will be available at sponsoring sites such as Irises Restaurant and the Koffee Kat.

Also on Saturday, the NCCCA hosts a reception from 5 – 7 PM for its members show. Another opportunity to make the connection between the mystery images shown above.

Hyper-Local?

Newspapers are hurting. Declining readership, shrinking ad sales.

The old hometown paper once had an almost monopolistic hold on information. But along came radio, TV, and the Net. You have options besides the dead tree format.

There’s this buzzword out there: “Hyper-local.” It’s on the list of strategies to keep a newspaper in business. One strength of a local paper is coverage of news and events in its area. Ergo, a paper should focus on what’s happening in its neighborhood. This will keep readers coming back and even attract new ones.

A good example of hyper-local is Seven Days, the weekly freebie from Vermont. Its listings of events and shows are complete, covering the entire week.

And then there’s Plattsburgh’s daily paper. It brags that it covers 8 Days A Week. But this notice appears almost every Thursday:

Due to space limitations, 8 days a week was unable to run in its entirety.

The Press-Republican should be honest and call its listing 6.5 Days A Week.

New buzzword: “Hyper-stupid.”

Second Story Sentries

(Click on each image for larger view.)

Evening Skyscape: Bright Scudders

(Click on each image for larger view.)

Watch Your Step

Take care walking around the City of Plattsburgh or you’ll be leaving unpleasant footprints behind like this one on the front steps at the public library.




And once that stuff is on your shoe, it’s next to impossible to scrape all of it off.


A public service message from Writog.

A Problem?

Image: man three stories up, working from a mobile cherry picker bucket, fixing a building’s façade one evening.

Some photos go into my “50 Years From Now” file. Documents of ordinary objects that at this time aren’t that unusual. But decades from now, changing technology may make that telephone kiosk or fire truck obsolete. Then it will look quaint.

Maybe in the future construction workers will be using free-floating buckets, hovering in the sky with any physical support thanks to a scientific breakthrough. If not, at least the style of a cherry picker will change, just like cars have over the years.

So that evening I take out my camera and snap a shot for posterity: Worker In Elevated Bucket, 2008. I had forgotten that my flash was still on. Noticing the small light burst, the worker looks down at me. From his perch up high he stares at me as I walk across the street.

What’s the problem? He’s in public view. I’m not interfering with his work. My compact camera’s flash is too puny to hurt his eyes. I’m doing nothing wrong.

Later I hear a story on the street that a downtown shop is calling it quits due to a considerable drop in sales. It rents a spot in a building being renovated and the construction work has interfered with its business. Complaints against the renovator regarding possible violations have been made. Proper procedures being ignored, customer hit by a small falling object, no warning tape or cones on sidewalk, scaffolding blocking the entrance, whatever. Or so the story goes.

Me, I don’t seek out rumors or controversy. Usually I just want to take photos.

But I also don’t like being stared at over nothing.

When the worker kept an eye on me after I took my shot, I felt like yelling up at him, repeating the old line:

“Hey, take a picture. It’ll last longer.”

3 Day Litter

This image was taken when the sauce was fresh. After three days it ain’t so photogenic. And the glass shards are still sharp. (Margaret Street, near Cornelia.)




This mayo jar and other smelly garbage lay on the south end of Miller Street. By the way, that’s City Hall across the street in the background.

Screw You

This wooden step on Clinton Street has remained unrepaired for weeks. Usually it wouldn’t bother me, but there are devils in the details.



Had your tetanus shot?

Dog, Not God

Trinity Church entrance. 7/31/08.

(This disrespect is beyond words.)

Clinton Or Weed Street?

Recent images of Clinton Street, downtown Plattsburgh.

There is also a Weed Street in the city. Maybe the two streets should swap names.