Second Serving

BOUND FOR BURMA (=Myanmar) to help with the massive relief effort that is needed in the wake of the disastrous cyclone there are GreeneLanders Robert Berg and his Burmese wife Jalin. They are pivotal people in an established on-the-ground non-profit organization called Better Burmese Health Care . Click on the foregoing link, which leads to their web site. Read the story, and click Contribute! News of the catastrophe has been eclipsed by news of the earthquake in China, but the Burmese storm has killed more than 30,000 people and displaced more than a million. The country’s already-fragile infrastructure,” says Mr Berg, “has been ripped away and a grave human disaster has happened.” Our donations “will go directly to supply safe drinking water through purification tablets, ceramic water filters and tanker delivery. Funds will also support acquisitions and distribution of basic medical supplies through an already established network of Better Burmese Healthcare clinics and other general practitioners. Finally, we are looking at obtaining and distributing large quantities of rice, a daily staple throughout the country.” As an established, Burmese-led operation, BBHC is better positioned than other relief organizations, as Jalin Berg says, “to bypass the obstacles” imposed by “the ass-hole government” and to put services where they are most needed. Rarely are we able to channel support for a major international effort through residents of Leeds.

LANDSCAPE PAINTING with emphasis on Hudson River School techniques will be taught this summer in Athens—especially in the Waterfront Park--by Robert Lahm . Classes will be held every Tuesday, 5:30-8:30pm, from May 27^th to July 29^th. Enrolment ($137) by way of Athens Cultural Center is limited to 12.

FRAUD CHARGES, according to a report in the North Country Gazette (5/14)—and in no other news organ—have been lodged against two GreeneLanders, who “face up to a year in jail after admitting they filed a false burglary report in an unsuccessful attempt to cash in on an insurance claim.” Arrested by Catskill Village police on May 2, and jailed pending a court hearing, were Geraldine Porter, 57, and Dominick Donato, 48, both of Dubois Road, Catskill. “According to the New York State Insurance Department’s Frauds Bureau office in Albany,” the Gazette story says, the duo “reported that jewelry had been stolen from their home and then filed an insurance claim. They were charged after Porter withdrew the claim before it was paid and then confessed to filing the false burglary report.” Locally sourced news of the case did not eventuate. The omission could be attributed to acquiescence on the part of Village Trustees and of news organizations (including this one) to the Village Police Chief’s illegal ban on public access to police action reports.

CLOSED unnecessarily, says proprietor Mark Wilcox, is the Greenville Drive-In movie theater. Although it has been a money loser for years, Mr Wilcox tells Greenville Press readers (letter of 5/8), the place could have been kept open if local planning/zoning authorities had not been pig-headed.

GONE from the ranks of GreeneLand journalists, abruptly, is verbally challenged Alvaro Alarcon. The Daily Mail seeks a replacement. For the sake of novelty, will literacy be required?

FOR SALE: The former American Legion Post 110 on Greene Street in the historic district of East Catskill. The place was given to Legionnaires long ago by a Dr Honeyford, but as the ranks of veterans thinned, maintenance costs mounted. The place was old more than a year ago to a private buyer and was converted into a two-family dwelling. Now a “motivated seller” (says listing broker Coldwell Banker) will part with the place for $130,000.

TOMORROW (5/17)

Palenville Beautification Day starts from the firehouse at 9am.

Catskill’s putatively annual bridge-to-bridge “Duck Race” commences at 1pm,followed by a prize- and food-dispensing “After Duck Picnic.” Pertinent details at http://welcometocatskill.com . Then, downtown’s “Saturday Studios” offer an open reception (from 5pm) for a works of Paul Heath in Philip Walsh’s recently opened shop: Day & Holt Custom Framing & Gallery (349 Main St). M Gallery features Vincent Bilotta on “It’s About Light: Exploring the grand Hudson River Experiment with Contemporary Tools.” The Open Studio, with “Findings from the Artchaeological [sic.] Museum” presents “common objects with extraordinary stories…” Gallery 384’s “(Ado/Obso)lesence” show “explores the transition of character and thought into adulthood” as rendered by Emilie Baltz, Carrie Elston, Asya Reznikov and Emily Orling. At the Arts Council (398 Main St) a juried group exhibition curated by Ron Tunison occupies the ground floor, while the upstairs gallery displays Gary Shankman’s food painting (=paintings of, not with, food). At the Play of Light Gallery, laser wizard Rudie Berkhout ignites esthetic fires. Next door (462 Main St) at Terenchin Fine Arts, the story is “Paper Products.”