Interviews
A modern building hidden in plain site
Looks can be deceiving... in a good way.
The new Massry Center for the Arts at the College of St. Rose opened this week and it's quite the building. We got a tour yesterday and the place has some really nice spaces.
The thing that really caught our eye even before the place was even finished, though, is the way it fits into the context of the neighborhood surrounding CSR. Massry is a 46,000 square foot building, but it's relatively unassuming in both size and style from Madison Avenue. In fact, the size is almost hidden when you look at it from the street. It's like this modern building has just been discretely tucked into one of Albany's traditional neighborhoods.
Bill Koonz, an architect with Saratoga Associates, designed the Massry Center. We asked him a few questions yesterday about the thinking behind the design.
The Capital Region without a car
A transit-riding superhero has to protect her identity.
One of our favorite people in the Capital Region's online neighborhood is ThisQualityLife, who blogs about her adventures navigating the bus system at Qualities of Life in Albany. Gently prodding CDTA to do better, she's become an advocate for people who use public transportation. We think it's great she's taking the time to speak out.
Part of what makes TQL's effort interesting is that she doesn't have a car -- by choice. A little more than a year ago, she decided to give it up. Frankly, we can't imagine getting around the Capital Region full-time without a car. So, we were curious about what prompted her to do that and how it's affected her life. We met up last week to ask her a few questions...
What prompted you to give up your car?
It wouldn't start. (laughs) There was a day where I had all this free time planned, and I went downstairs, and my car wouldn't start. And I was just like, well, I could call AAA and take the time to try to get it fixed -- or I could still enjoy my free time. So, I just kept walking.
And you haven't stopped.
Yeah. (laughs) Yeah, essentially. It's a lot of walking.
Andrew Catalon knows more about team handball than you do
Andrew's gotta be one of the nicest guys in TV.
The Summer Olympics started today in China. And, of course, that means wall-to-wall TV coverage. One of the people behind the mic for some of the games will be Andrew Catalon, the weekend sports anchor at Channel 13 here in the Capital Region. We bounced a few questions his way last week.
How'd you get hooked up with this Olympics gig?
I did a curling show for NBC Sports in December. And they called me up a couple months ago and said, "Listen, we have an opportunity for you to do some Olympics stuff if you're interested." And I jumped at it -- it's a great opportunity.
Rain, rain go away...
One upside to the rain: more rainbows, like this one over the weekend in Colonie.
Oh, Capital Region. Why so soggy this year? According to the folks at the National Weather Service, A-Town and surrounding areas have received twice the usual share of rain this summer. This is no surprise to those of us that have had to carry umbrellas to the track, the pool, the barbecue and -- oh hell, just about everywhere.
So why is it so wet this year?
We asked Brian Frugis, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Albany.
David Tyree, Super Bowl hero and temporary A-Towner
For whatever reason, things just seem to stick to his head.
If you didn't see it, you've probably heard about David Tyree's catch during the last Super Bowl. It's the one where the ball looked like it just stuck to his helmet. Some people are calling it the best play in Super Bowl history -- and it's one of the reasons the Giants were able to beat the Patriots.
But the new season is about to start and that means it's back to work... in Albany. Tyree and the rest of the Giants are in town for a month to train for the upcoming season. He took a few minutes away from practice (lunch, actually) at U-Albany to talk with AOA about what it's like to be a temporary A-Towner...
Since the Super Bowl, do you go around introducing yourself as David Tyree, Super Bowl Hero?
No, no, I definitely don't. It's never been my character -- never will be. Sometimes I have a hard time -- as much as I love a free meal, sometimes I think I should use this thing more often but I have a hard time doing that.
Albany Rickshaw
Yes, that's a rickshaw at the corner of State and Lark.
Check out what we found while we were having dinner on Lark Street the other night! (Unfortunately all we had handy was the camera phone, but you get the idea.) Yep, there's a new way to travel in Albany. A very, very old new way to travel.
Right now Albany Rickshaw is a one man company, and that one man is in pretty good shape. Loren Grugan is an Albany police officer, but in his off-hours he'll pull you around the city in his new rickshaw. Loren doesn't stay still for very long, but he put the breaks on to talk with AOA.
The Albany Art Room
Karen Schupack giving art tips to Cole and his mom.
The Albany Art Room is pretty much what it sounds like. It's a big room (actually 3 rooms) filled with just about anything you can use to make art. There are buckets and boxes of crayons, markers, paper, paint, stencils and brushes. There are beads and strings and easels. There's glitter and paste and a big box filled with pretty purple sand. There's just all kinds of fun stuff.
And for $5 an hour little kids and little kid wannabe's (otherwise known as grown-ups) can play with all of it, and take their creations home.
Karen Schupack says she started The Albany Art Room because she wanted something like it in the world, and she thought other people might like it too. In between coaching
budding young artists and their parents, she told us why.
Spa City Cupcakes
Rachel's holding a Driving Me Coconuts! cupcake.
Everyone has probably had a moment at their desk at work where they've thought, "I don't want to do this anymore. There's gotta be something different, something better, for me." So few of us actually follow through on that impulse, though. And for good reason: there are bills to pay, careers to protect, and failure is a real possibility.
But some people do make the jump. Rachel St. Martin is one of them. Unhappy with her job in corporate PR, Rachel quit so she could start Spa City Cupcakes in Saratoga. The shop just opened this month in the Downstreet Marketplace on Broadway, offering, as Rachel describes them, cupcakes that are "big and real" in flavors such as creamsicle, s'more and "Elvis Has Left the Building."
Curious -- and hungry for dessert -- we stopped by to ask Rachel a few questions...
Heather Bohm-Tallman, dog photographer
Pretty much everyone with a dog -- or any pet, for that matter -- has probably taken their fair share of dog pictures. It's not like three million plus photos on Flickr have been tagged "dog" by accident. But we'd never heard of anyone having their dog professionally photographed.
Then we came across Heather Bohm-Tallman, a photographer from the Saratoga area who shoots weddings, events and... dogs. "Really?" we thought, "That's kind of cool. And maybe a little weird. We gotta talk to her."
So we emailed Heather a bunch of questions and she was nice enough to answer...
Brian Premo: Joe Bruno is like the guy who sunk the Titanic
This has been Joe's house for a long time.
Joe Bruno actually has a challenger this year for his state Senate seat. His name is Brian Premo. He's a defense attorney from Lansingburgh with a wife and four boys. And he's been endorsed by the Saratoga and Rensselaer County Democratic committees.
But Joe Bruno has been in the Senate for 32 years, he's been majority leader for 14 of those years. He's the most powerful Republican in New York State. Heck, seemingly half the buildings and parks in Rensselaer County are named after him. So why would a person do this to themselves?
AOA called Premo to ask: "What are you thinking?"
Virgil's in Saratoga: coffee without the buzz
Unplug before entering.
Kathleen Quartararo wants you to visit Virgil's House, her coffee shop in Saratoga
Springs, but your laptop can stay at home. And your cell phone? Off, please.
In a day when most of us are looking for a place with a good latte AND free wifi, Kathleen is bucking the trend in an effort to create an old fashioned unplugged environment. No phones, no texting, no computers. Why? AOA called her (yes, on our cell phone) to find out.
Igniting Albany's floating, burning tulip
More Mission Impossible than 1812 Overture. That's what Dr. Gary Zeller (that's him on the right holding the fire) says it will look like in Washington Park on Friday night, when Mayor Jerry Jennings ignites "Night Fire", aka Albany's floating, burning tulip.
Gary Zeller (alias Dr. Z.) is a chemist, entertainer, pyrotechnics expert and the owner of the environmental technology company Zeller International. He did the special effects for "Dawn of the Dead" and won an Academy Award for the development of Zel Jel, a fireproof substance that protects stunt people.
He's also the guy who figured out how to make "Night Fire" burn.
AOA talked with Dr. Z about how to burn down a giant tulip display without, you know, burning down everything else around it.
One year behind the wheel of The Fagbug
Note to consumers: Rainbow flag paint job not standard on the VW bug.
It's been a whole year since Erin Davies first discovered the words "UR Gay" and "Fag" scrawled in red spray paint on her VW bug, which was parked near her downtown Albany apartment.
After her initial humiliation, Erin became fascinated by people's reactions to the graffiti on the car. That sparked the idea to drive across the country with the words on the car, and to film the experience in an effort to open up a dialogue and raise awareness of gay rights. She's also spoken at numerous college campuses throughout the year. She says it's very exciting to have made it to the one year mark, following a year filled with ups and downs.
Talking with Tim Gunn at Macy's
"Make it work!"
Well, we did it. After a week of agonizing over our respective wardrobes, we finally selected our outfits and set out for the "good" Macy's to meet fashion guru Tim Gunn.
The first thing you need to know is that, seriously, this guy is just as nice in person as he is on TV. In fact, he may be the nicest celeb we've ever met (because, you know, there have been so many). Tim was in town for a Liz Clairborne fashion show at Macy's (he's now chief creative officer for Liz Claiborne) and he set aside a few minutes to answer some of our questions -- and some of yours. Here's how it went...
Drew D'Amelia, the Mathmaticious guy
The glasses were a prop.
After we saw Shen 9th grader Drew D'Ameilia's Mathmaticious, a math-inspired parody of Fergie's Fergalicious that's been viewed more than 1.1 million times on YouTube, we ran the numbers and figured there was a high probability that he'd be interesting.
That turned out to be true. And it's a good thing, because we didn't bother to check our work.
Talking with They Might Be Giants' John Flansburgh about The Egg
That's John on the right. Of course, that's also John on the left.
The Egg is "exciting and old," so much so that it prompted They Might Be Giants' John Flansburgh to write a song about it. TMBG is back in town this week to play a couple of shows at the "performance orb." John was nice enough to talk with AOA about one of the stranger venues the band has played -- and let us in on what they were thinking the first time they encountered our giant concrete egg.
Retiring racehorses
A while back we linked to a story about the New York State's efforts to save thoroughbred racehorses from the slaughterhouse. They're working with an organization called The Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation to help retrain the horses and find them homes.
This got us thinking about retiring racehorses. Why retire them? Where do they retire to? A beach house in Boca? We called the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation's Executive Director Diana Pikulski for some answers.
Botanical garden in Saratoga?
This is NOT Saratoga Springs (it's actually the New York Botanical Gardens), but maybe it could be.
Saratoga Springs kind of has it going on. Sure, there's the racing thing, but there's also shopping, SPAC, restaurants, a little night life and a state park with tennis, skating, a theater, golf, hiking trails and two swimming pools. What's it missing? Brett Van Zandt says a botanical garden. Van Zandt is heading up a movement to build The Springs Botanical Garden in Saratoga's Spa State Park. Here's the dirt on the big garden plan:
The scoop on snow emergencies
Well, Punxsutawney Phil emerged from his hole Saturday, and the little rodent says we're looking at six more weeks of winter. That means there could be a few more snow emergencies in our future (Mr. Snow Miser... are you listening?). A-Town has only seen two snow emergences this season. The first kind of took us by surprise, and the second hardly seemed like enough snow to constitute a concern, much less an emergency. But then, it's not our job to declare snow emergencies. Who's job is it? AOA got the scoop (or shovel if you will) on Albany snow emergencies from Albany Police Spokesman Jim Miller.
Freaking out at RPI: an interview with Puckman
Doesn't he ever get sick of being slapped around?
Tomorrow is RPI's 31st annual Big Red Freakout. So on the eve of the institute's biggest hockey game of the year, AOA got an exclusive interview with the RPI mascot, Puckman.
Mame Faye: the inside scoop on Troy's second most famous figure
Mame Faye reportedly told young women of Troy, "Why work in a shop? Don't you know you're sittin' on a million."
Troy's most famous figure may be Uncle Sam, but its second most famous, Mame Faye, ran a string of brothels across from Union Station. Filmmakers Penny Lane and Annmarie Lannesy (that's them below) just completed a documentary on Mame Faye called, "Sittin' on a Million". They gave us the scoop on how this business woman became a wold famous madam to the greatest generation.
... said Amelia about local college rankings