Merry@Syracuse: May 2012

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Nat Tobin is a Happy Man

Manlius Cinema, packed for The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Nat Tobin announces, in a manner we appreciate, that he has sprung for digital. Manlius Cinema continues to offer the movie lover a hometown alternative to the mall experience. Thanks, Nat!

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

The Clock, a Movie

A copy of The Clock is co-owned by the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Look for it in Boston later in the year if you can't make it to Ottawa this summer.

In any event, don't miss it or at least part of it! It is a 24 hour movie after all: twenty-four hours of clips from hundreds and hundreds of movies of every genre, each referencing or showing the time...the current time as you watch the movie. It is shown in real time; that is, at real-time noon the movie reaches noon, and a certain crescendo builds. Think High Noon.

Brilliant movie. Years in the making. Worth every minute.

Monday, May 21, 2012

Ottawa: Canadian Museum of Civilization, Douglas Cardinal, Architect

Directly across the Ottawa River in Gatineau (renamed from Hull) in Quebec, this complex is architecturally handsome both inside and out. The history of Canada and changing exhibits makes every visit interesting no matter how often one visits. Highly recommended in any season. Amazing how little we were taught about Canada, our closest neighbor to the north.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

The Two Row Wampum

Here is our neighbor Chief Jake Edwards, of Onondaga, at the United Nations in May during the Eleventh Annual UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. He is displaying the Two Row Wampum belt, the basis of trust in agreements of respect between native peoples living just to the south and east of what is now called Lake Ontario, and the Dutch and other traders and settlers who came, slowly at first and then in increasing numbers, to "explore", claim and profit from this same region.

A symbolic enactment on the Hudson River during the summer of 2013, the 400th anniversary of the Two Row Wampum treaty, will remind us of the significance of the first people living here and what happened to them at the hands of the self-appointed new "owners". European advancement was completely reinforced by the Catholic Church, which recognized no religion but Catholicism nor the rights of any peoples with different beliefs.

For more information about the Two Row Campaign, go to these pages, and to these pages about NOON, Neighbors of the Onondaga Nation, and to Syracuse Peace Council.

The Onondaga Nation tells about the Two Row Wampum on this page.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Alexandria Bay on the St. Lawrence River

These two spectacular neon signs are nearly all that remains of A Bay in its most recent and relatively healthy incarnation.

Their respective restaurants are closed and replaced with characterless places.

Everything in vacation destination America changed forever when that smooth operator Mickey set up shop.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Crooked Arrows and Columbus

As we filed out of the world premiere of Crooked Arrows we noticed people leaving the OnCenter and walking toward Columbus Circle.

Columbus is mounted upon a pedestal. At the base of the pedestal are four shell fountains atop turtles.

He faces the Catholic Church rather than the Onondaga County Courthouse.

The Doctrine of Discovery, several Papal Bulls issued in the mid to late fifteenth century, declared that any lands "discovered" where no Catholics lived were available for the taking. The inherent rights of indigenous people were meaningless.

Columbus standing high above turtles closely connected to fountains of water is a perfect metaphor for the history of conquest and wanton disrespect for people who had lived here for thousands of years.