Posts Tagged ‘Claverack Creek’
September 7, 2016
The day painted itself grey this morning, from the moment light crept into my bedroom, it was grey, the kind of day that promises rain and provides none, save a few drops when I was running an errand on Warren Street.
Fresh from what I thought was a successful first day in the classroom, I stopped at the Post Office and picked up my mail and sat on my deck, opening it, and just staring out at the day. The air was lightly water touched by not too much. But for the grey, it was a perfect sort of day.
At the college, I talked with one of my colleagues for whom there is terminal election fatigue. She knows for whom she is voting, nothing in the shouting is going to change her position and so she feels no need to participate more. It simply makes her crazy.
As it has for many people in this oddest of election seasons. A few months ago, a commentator I was listening to said something like: Who knows? It’s 2016.
And that remains true. It’s the wild and wooly 2016, an election season they will be talking about as long as politics is discussed, which is a very long time. We are still discussing the politics of the Athenian democracy 2500 years later. Countless tomes have been written about the Romans, their Republic and their Empire. A thousand years from now some crepe skinned academic will be dissecting one small sliver of this campaign in a form of media we probably can’t conceive of but it will be happening.
Me? I generally wake up happy and go to bed happy and know there is only so much I can do to shape events but what I can do, I do.
Tonight, I am writing earlier than I did last night and the verdant green in its grey frame fills my window.
Directly in front of me are two Adirondack chairs made for me by John McCormick, father of my oldest friend, Sarah. He had made some for his daughter, Mary Clare, for her home in West Virginia. When I bought the cottage, he asked me if he could make anything for it. Adirondack chairs I said and there they are, in front of me, a wonderful bonding to a man now gone and a testament to all he and his family mean to me.
In this calm and quiet, I feel celebratory to have made it alive through the first day of class. As I was preparing to head over to the college, I played music that pleased me, from the Great American Songbook. Tonight there is no music. The only sound is the ticking of an old clock that has been in my family for more than 125 years. I think of it as the heart of the house. But it drives some people crazy. It just makes me smile.
The EpiPen conversation goes on. Some say it actually costs only $30.00; some say it’s only about a dollar that goes into the actual medicine.
Isabelle Dinoire, the world’s first face transplant recipient has died, aged 49. She was transplanted when her face was mauled by a dog. RIP.
Obama cancelled a visit with the Philippines President after he called Obama “the son of a whore.” Later President Duarte regretted his comment.
There was an incident when Obama arrived in China. No one seemed to have agreed upon the protocol. Everyone looked bad.
Kim Jung Un, the little paunchy, pudgy dictator of North Korea, celebrated Labor Day by sending off ballistic missiles that landed within 300 kilometers of Japan. No one is happy except for the pudgy dictator who is now facing a new set of sanctions which he doesn’t care about. He will let millions die because of them as long as he keeps his power, his toys and the instability he creates.
One can only imagine what this man’s childhood was like…
Tom Hiddleston and Taylor Swift have broken up after three months. This is HUGE news. OMG!
Fox has settled with Gretchen Carlson in her lawsuit with them and Roger Ailes. Twenty million dollars. At the same time Greta Van Susteren has left the network under cloudy circumstances but then what is not cloudy in the world of Fox News these days?
And now it is dark. I will turn on my floodlights and enjoy the creek at night.
It is a good day. I survived the first day of a new class and felt good about it.
Today I woke up happy and I go to bed tonight happy. May all of you who read me do the same.
Tags:Claverack, Claverack Creek, Cole Porter, Columbia County, Columbia County New York, Columbia Greene Community College, Donald Trump, Duarte, Great American Songbook, Greta Van Susteren, Gretchen Carlson, Hillary Clinton, Hudson, John McCormick, Kim Jung-un, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, New York, North Korea, Obama, Roger Ailes, Sarah Malone, Syria, Taylor Swift, The Donald, Tom Hiddleston
Posted in 2016 Election, Claverack, Columbia County, Columbia Greene Community College, Elections, Entertainment, Hillary Clinton, Hollywood, Hudson New York, Life, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Political Commentary, Politics, Social Commentary, Television, Trump, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
July 13, 2016
The leaves are being jostled by a light wind that tempers the warmth of the afternoon here at the cottage. The creek is reflecting back the images of the trees overhanging its banks. Occasionally, a trout will slide through the water. The only noise is the distant sound of a small plane heading toward the little airport north of me.
I have been ensconced here for several hours now, earlier sipping tea and now a Diet Coke. It is the perfect day for sitting on my deck, overlooking the creek, reading and thinking. It reminds me of a childhood sweet summer day back in Minnesota, when I was young and the days seemed to last forever. It is a day that is demanding very little from me and I am embracing the lack of demand.
The gentle wind and soft warmth cry out to be savored, embraced, enjoyed and I am opening my arms to them.
As I have sat here this morning, David Cameron has left 10 Downing Street, gone to Buckingham Palace, met the Queen and formerly resigned. Theresa May, who is promising a “bold, new” future for Britain, is the newest Prime Minister to serve Her Majesty, the thirteenth in a line that began with Winston Churchill.
Obama spoke in Dallas yesterday, yet again, after the tragic murders of human beings. He was eloquent and spoke of hope in the darkness and yet I heard tiredness and pain in the clips I have heard. He has had to do this so many times in his two terms; the most heartbreaking was after Newtown.
As I think of dark times, the sky has darkened over me, causing me to wonder if my part of the world will begin to weep?
A social media storm has broken out over former President George W. Bush’s behavior during a rendition of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” at the Dallas Memorial yesterday. Judge for yourself:
http://gawker.com/what-exactly-was-going-on-with-george-w-bush-at-the-me-1783551893
We all have different responses to grief…
I am getting older, as are all of us, and it seems to be weighing heavily on Japan’s Emperor. Akihito is 82 and reports are saying he feels his health is getting in the way of his duty and that he might abdicate soon in favor of the 56 year old Crown Prince Naruhito.
China is saber rattling about the South China Sea after the International Court in The Hague ruled that China had violated the rights of the Philippines there with its harassment of sailors and fishermen. China rejects the ruling. Several countries, including Viet Nam, have territorial claims to the energy rich South China Sea, all of which are rebuffed by the Chinese.
In other cheery international news, Russia and NATO are bumping heads again after NATO announced it is moving 4,000 troops into the Baltic to form a bulwark against the Russians. They form a security threat, says Russia, and both sides are getting more intractable, as the months go on since Russia reclaimed the Crimea.
Wouldn’t it be lovely if people said: we have a problem here. How can we solve it? Days like today bring out my childhood naïveté.
Trump is looking at candidates to be his Vice Presidential nominee and having them meet with his family. They include, Mike Pence, Governor of Indiana, Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House and Chris Christie, lame duck Governor of New Jersey.
Last night, three more men were shot, this time in Norfolk, Virginia. Two are improving, one remains critical. All were black.
A year ago, a white teenager named Zachary Hammond was killed by police bullets during a drug investigation. His parents are wondering why no one ever took up the cry about his death. I wonder too…
The Republican platform is devotedly anti-LGBTQ. A few efforts to change that have been beaten back. The GOP is going to be what the GOP has been the last few decades.
The day is swinging toward a close. I have run a few errands, brought in the garbage cans and am looking forward to continuing this place magical day into the evening.
Tags:Akihito, China, Claverack, Claverack Creek, Donald Trump, George W Bush Dance, Hillary Clinton, LGBTQ, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Mike Pence, Naruhito, Newt Gingrich, Obama, Putin, South China Sea, The Donald, Zachary Hammond
Posted in 2016 Election, Brexit, Columbia County, Elections, Entertainment, Gay, Gay Liberation, Hillary Clinton, Hudson New York, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Obama, Political, Political Commentary, Politics, Putin, Russia, Social Commentary, Trump, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
March 4, 2016
Chet Baker’s “Jazz in Paris” plays while I am typing, courtesy of Amazon Prime, the service I am learning it is hard to live without. It pays for itself with free shipping around Christmas not to mention being able to find things there I can’t find easily in stores. I mean it seems like everything is there. They have just released a new device, Amazon Tap, that works with their Echo. Have to learn more about that…
When I woke this morning, it was chill but bright and light speckled on the creek as I looked out the window waiting for my electric kettle to boil the water for my tea.
It was an easy day. I spent the morning in the annual great American adventure, preparing information for my taxes for the accountant who does both my business and my personal returns. Finishing that, I went to Hudson and had lunch with my friend Dena Moran, who has moved her shop, Olde Hudson, into larger digs. Afterwards, I had my oil changed and then came home and gathered the piles of receipts and prepared for them to be stored away.
While we were at lunch, Dena and I both checked out what Mitt Romney said about Donald Trump. While I was doing taxes, Mitt was skewering The Donald, calling him a “phony,” “a fraud” and many other things. Good for Mitt… It’s the most I have respected him in years.
Trump responded in The Donald’s way. He looked back on 2012 when he said Mitt would have dropped to his knees to have The Donald’s endorsement. That’s not a pretty picture… According to The Donald, Mitt’s a failed candidate and the only person who “chokes” more than Mitt is Marco Rubio.
Does anyone get tired of this?
Shockingly, among Muslims who vote Republican, he’s the most popular candidate. What? Not something I understand but it’s real. It seems they think once elected, he’ll become pragmatic and work on economic issues, which is their greatest concern, and forgot all the anti-Muslim rhetoric. There is a part of me that suspects they are delusional, rather like Jews who couldn’t really believe Hitler was serious.
Caitlyn Jenner is supporting Ted Cruz, which seems as crazy to me as Muslims supporting The Donald.
In other happy news, Kim Jong Un of North Korea has ordered his military to be ready to use nuclear weapons at any time. Perhaps preemptively, as the UN voted in the most severe sanctions in twenty years against his country. The pudgy young man is determined, desperately determined, the world give him respect. I suspect bad parenting.
In Syria, the fragile truce has given some respite to the desperate inhabitants of that poor country. Thinking about them helped me realize how grateful I am to be here, poised above the Claverack Creek where sun speckles in the morning on the water, where I can listen to jazz and think about the issues of the world while not dodging mortar fire or bombs from above.
Tags:Caitlyn Jenner, Chet Baker, Claverack, Claverack Creek, Donald Trump, Hudson, jazz in Paris, Kim Jong - Un, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Mitt Romney, New York, Olde Hudson, Syria
Posted in 2016 Election, Airstrikes, Claverack, Columbia County, Hollywood, Hudson New York, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Political Commentary, Politics, Social Commentary, Syria, Syrian Refugee Crisis, Television, Trump, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
September 18, 2015
It is a stunningly beautiful day here in Claverack. The creek is a mirror of the trees above it, the sun is beginning to descend in the west, the temperature is perfect and I am savoring every moment I get to be out on the deck.
Those days are numbered. I needed to wait awhile this morning to come out here, as it was just a bit too cool when I woke up.
There hasn’t been a letter for a couple of days. I’ve been busy. Yesterday I drove down to Norwalk in Connecticut for lunch with a good, old friend, Bob Altman, who is the king of recipe videos. He’s done thousands of them.
We toured his studio and then went down to the beach for lunch. I had no idea Norwalk was on the water until yesterday.
It was a five-hour journey both ways but very much worth it. On the drive, I listened almost exclusively to NPR, catching up on what they were saying about the world.
There were interviews with Syrian refugees, men and women who had lives there but have found their towns destroyed. Fearing for their lives and the lives of their children, they left Syria. Many went to Turkey but there is no path there for them to legitimacy so they continued on, trusting in many cases to rubber boats to take them to Kos or Lesbos.
Hundreds if not thousands have died in the pursuit of their dream to make it to a safe place. Overwhelmed, Europe is reacting, attempting to staunch the flow coming toward them. It is a human crisis of unfathomable dimensions.
And I sit here in this blissful spot, bothered by nothing except an occasional mosquito. I cannot comprehend the misery of the millions on the move. I accept it in the abstract but I have no visceral connection with it.
My brother probably does. He has been going to Honduras for years to deal with the lack of medical care for those who live in the back of beyond, people who have no more and sometimes less than these refugees.
Sitting on this deck, overlooking the creek, I realize what luck I have had to have been born me, in the time and place that I was. I have been spared many of the world’s travails by having been born in mid-century America.
The future has always been uncertain. I am old enough to remember “duck and cover.” As if that would have saved any of us from a nuclear blast…
But here I am in the third act of my life, seated on a deck overlooking a placid creek with the luxury of looking at the world and being able to ruminate about its meaning. I am SO lucky.
In the next months, I will probably spend more of my time in Columbia County. Last night I went to Christ Church’s “Vision Meeting” and was glad to have been present. It helped me feel connected to this place.
I may be doing some work with the local not for profit radio station, helping them with their marketing and fundraising. I am settling in to being a citizen of Columbia County as opposed to being a “weekender.”
It feels good.
The god Fortuna smiled on me when it/she brought me to this place, allowing me to settle into a home that I think had been part of my dreams since I was a child. It has been great fun to have lived in New York but I think that time is passing.
Once, when I first moved to DC I though how fortunate it was I was there. I had been allowed to know several great American cities. I have lived in Los Angeles, part time in San Francisco, Washington and now New York. How lucky is that?
I’ve never lived in Chicago and I’ve never really liked Chicago so I don’t think that’s a big miss.
I’ve seen a great deal of the world, much more than I might ever have if I had remained a high school English teacher in Minneapolis and have been a witness to two generations of technological changes and been, somehow, a part of both.
F
Tags:Bob Altman, Chicago, Christ Church, Claverack, Claverack Creek, Columbia County, Duck and Cover, Fortuna, Handmade TV, Honduras, Kos, Lesbos, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Minneapolis, New York, Norwalk, NPR, Syrian refugees, Turkey
Posted in Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Social Commentary, Syrian Refugee Crisis | Leave a Comment »
September 9, 2015
It is getting dark as I sit here on my deck, there are still some small glimmers of light off the creek and the sky to the east is pearl grey. A wind has come up in the last few minutes, a bit of blessed relief after a day when it hit 95 degrees with humidity nearly as high.
It has been a gentle day, spent here at the cottage and in its environs. I woke late for me; the alarm went off and I continued to hit the snooze alarm, up until the moment the plumber arrived. He will come on Friday and replace the device that increases my water pressure. Until then, I am to use as little water as possible. I feel a bit like a pioneer.
A few weeks ago I went to an event for the Hudson Library that was a joint venture of DISH, a relatively new store in town on lower Warren Street and the wonderful Olde Hudson, run by my friend Dena. At the event, I spotted something that would make a wonderful Christmas present for my friend, Nick. I returned today to buy it as well as other things that went into the armoire that is in the guest bedroom. In it I place gifts that I have collected throughout the year for Christmas giving.
After dropping shirts at the cleaners, I went to Lowes for some cleaning supplies I hadn’t found at the grocery store yesterday. Summer is gone; Halloween is here. I was met at the entrance by all sorts of Halloween supplies. At CVS there were displays of Halloween candy. The year is moving on.
Relish, my favorite little sandwich joint, has just moved to their winter hours, closing an hour earlier than before. Winter hours? It’s 95 degrees out there! But yes, the world is moving on. Summer is unofficially over.
As I mentioned yesterday, a few leaves have begun to turn. Acorns are falling all around me. One hit the ancient metal chair to my right and scared me.
I am relishing sitting here on the deck, with the wind blowing, all too aware that the days that I can do that are now numbered. So I am doing the best to enjoy it. After the plumber left this morning, I was out here, reading the Times, sipping my coffee. It was a most pleasant way to start the day.
Now it is getting dark and I am here ending the day, sipping a martini and thinking about life.
The Week is one of my favorite magazines and I read in it an essay by Oliver Sacks, the doctor who wrote “Awakenings,” made into a movie starring the late, great Robin Williams. He wrote as he was dying; it was filled with the sense of wonder of having been alive, of having made his own unique journey through this thing called life, a mystery that we often fail to appreciate. As he was dying, he viewed his life as a rich experience and prepared to go gently into that good night.
Now that I am entering what is the third and final act of my life, I hope that I can face the reality of my own inevitable death with the same awareness that Oliver Sacks did, appreciating that he had been alive.
In the last year, I have learned such lessons of gratitude. That I am alive this day, that I have the resources to survive this day, that my health is good, that I can see and breathe and resonate with the world and give something to it.
My friend, Medora Heilbron, mentioned last week in our weekly call that she does her best to leave in her wake, goodness and gratitude, shown in courtesy to clerks and strangers and the people she loves. I work to do the same.
I do my best to remember the names and the faces of the people who I interact with, such as Heather and Dana at Relish and the cab driver I met yesterday. I do my best to be easy for people who have to interact with the public because so many people don’t make it easy.
Night falls. I am joyful. I hope you are too.
Tags:Awakenings, Claverack Creek, Columbia County New York, Dish, Halloween, Lowes, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Medora Heilbron, Olde Hudson, Oliver Sacks, Relish the resteurant, Robert Williams
Posted in Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Social Commentary | 1 Comment »
August 25, 2015
It was a hot, muggy day in New York. About four this afternoon, as I was strolling back to the office after a meeting on Park Avenue South, a walk of about fifteen minutes, I determined that I would go home even though I have a meeting tomorrow in the afternoon.
It’s a gorgeous day and I want to be home, sleep in my own bed and listen to the insects buzz outside while I sit on the deck and watch the creek, lit up by floodlights beneath the deck.
The markets bounced upwards most of the day before closing another 205 points down. The China rout continues; one Chinese billionaire by the name of Wang has lost thirteen billion dollars so far. That’s a big bucket of dollars.
The outrage of the world about the destruction of the temple to Baalshamin continues. Much has been destroyed by Islamic militants in the last year, including the temple to Baalshamin as well as the two statues of Buddha destroyed by the Taliban in Afghanistan some years ago and treasures in Timbuktu.
Barbarians. Barbarous in the way they treat treasures and barbarous in the way they treat people.
Refugees are swarming across the world. The island of Kos in Greece is overrun and the Mediterranean is filled with boats of every size carrying souls from Africa. From Kos, thousands have made their way by hook or crook through the Balkans to the border of countries like Hungary, which is scrambling to build a fence to hold them back. The refugee problem is the worst it has been since the end of WWII.
Germany alone will be taking in 800,000 refugees this year, four times last year’s total. I don’t think we take in that many immigrants in a year and Germany is a fraction of our size. If I am remembering correctly, Germany has some eighty million people living there. They will be adding one percent to their population this year. That is a lot of assimilation.
The Baltic countries are balking about taking in even a couple of hundred refugees and anti-immigrant rallies are all over in Germany. The immigrant problem has overwhelmed Merkel’s agenda as thoroughly as Greece did.
Putin’s Russia has just sentenced Oleg Sentsov, a Ukrainian film director, to twenty years in a Labor Camp for plotting terrorist attacks against Russians after their annexation of the Crimea. The Russians say the bruises on his body after his arrest were from S&M sex he had before his arrest.
The chief prosecution witness against Sentsov withdrew his testimony halfway through the trial, announcing he had been tortured to get it.
Ah, the joys of Putin’s democracy…
Think of Sentsov in the months to come. He will haunt my thoughts for a while.
Megyn Kelly is flourishing despite The Donald’s tirades against her on Twitter. She has been gone on an eleven-day vacation, which may or may not have been scheduled. Her return resulted in her best ratings of the year, even though she didn’t mention Trump.
Her boss, Roger Ailes, Chairman and CEO of Fox News, has demanded that Trump apologize. What is an ice cube’s chance in hell?
Sex sites have taken a beating recently. Ashleymadison.com was hacked. 15,000 of their email accounts were linked to .gov or .edu addresses, causing some wonder about our government officials and our educators. Josh Duggar was a member, furthering the nation’s perception of him as the sleaziest man alive. Lawsuits are landing on their doorstep.
Today rentboy.com was raided and six present and past employees were arrested. It is alleged it was actually a site for prostitution and not for companionship. I think the allegation may prove true.
Stephen Hawking, the legendary physicist, speaking is Stockholm has said that if you fall into a black hole, don’t worry. There is a way out. You might pop out in an alternative universe. Do I find that comforting? I’m not much worried about black holes, not having encountered one in my life but, if I do, I will remember this as I am sucked in.
Tags:Ashley Madison, Baalshamin, China rout, Claverack Creek, Donald Trump, Germany, Greece, Hungarian fence, Josh Duggar, Kos, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Megyn Kelly, Merkel, Oleg Sentsov, Putin, Refugee problem, Refugees, rentboy.com, Roger Ailes, Stephen Hawking, Taliban Buddha, The Donald, Timbuktu, Wang, Way out of black holes
Posted in China stock market rout, Greek Debt Crisis, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Social Commentary | 2 Comments »
August 25, 2015
The day started peacefully, coffee on the deck, a reading of the New York Times which presaged the market fall today, with a good article about hanging on, breathing deep and not panicking. It was that kind of day. I was getting ready to go into a meeting when I had an alert from the AP that the market plunged 1000 points at the open.
With that in my mind, I walked into my meeting and did my best to push that out of my consciousness and center myself in the moment. I’m not sure anything will come of it but the local community college, Columbia Greene, is interested in me as a potential adjunct professor. Their enrollment is down but they won’t really know until the end of next week when open registration ends. They seem to be considering me for two potential positions, Public Communications and/or Intro to Journalism.
There isn’t much pay involved but I would love to go back to the classroom. We’ll see but it has been a fun thought with which to play.
So the big news of the day in the conversations around me is the Dow’s Dive, which follows a dive of similar proportions on Friday.
But that’s not the only news of the day. The Dow will go up; the Dow will go down. But the fluctuations, which do affect us, don’t last for millennia. What has lasted for millennia are the ruins of a temple of Baalshamin, until now. IS planted it with explosives and destroyed it. It may have been yesterday or a month ago but it is gone, destroyed. It was part of the ruins of Palmyra, a UNESCO World Heritage site. It has seen empires rise and fall, markets rise and crash and it endured. Until now.
Once I walked amongst the ruins of Ephesus and marveled at what they were and Palmyra was so much more. This week, IS beheaded the man in charge of Palmyra’s antiquities and destroyed one of its major temples.
Barbarians walk the earth again.
As I write this, I am in one of my favorite restaurants, Thai Market. It is at 107 and Amsterdam. My friend Lionel, whose New York apartment was not far from here, introduced me to it. I come, about once a week. Some of the staff knows me and it is a good place to come, eat, and write sometimes, as I am doing now.
It is the Chinese slowdown that is so roiling the markets; I thought it would be the Greeks but the market seemed to have, over the years, factored that crisis into its workings. China was not expected.
The Greeks are going through their own drama. Tsipras has resigned, triggering snap elections. Right now an anti-Euro, pro-drachma party is attempting to form a government but without much success. It will be interesting to see what happens in Greece. Tsipras, defiled by some for his U-turn on anti-austerity, is incredibly popular because he represents something “different.”
Also representing something “different” is our Donald Trump.
Howard Bloom, my writer friend, author of “The Lucifer Principle” and three other books, is doing a podcast. The second one taped tonight. I am fresh from that. At the end, we all talked about Trump and Howard posited that he is sending out all kinds of male dominance signals, which are resonating with those who need to have their male dominance plucked up.
It makes some sense.
He holds a resounding lead in the Republican polls and that makes me think Howard may be onto something. The Donald is primal if he is anything.
Three Americans and a Brit have been honored by France with the Legion of Honor for their participation in overwhelming a potential terrorist on a fast train between Amsterdam and Paris. They took him on and subdued him. It prevented a potential tragedy. No one died and no one was critically injured. Bravo!
Ukraine is unsettled even as it celebrates its independence. More trouble will come from there before the year is out.
South Korea and North Korea have reached an agreement to ratchet down their escalating crisis. North Korea has, sort of, apologized for the landmines they placed across the border, which cost two South Koreans soldiers their legs. The South Koreans have agreed to quit their loudspeaker broadcasts across the border. The countries have gone off war footing, a good thing.
And a good thing is that my friend Robert will be coming shortly to join me and we will get some food because I am now very hungry.
Tags:Baalshamin, Chinese Crash, Claverack Creek, Columbia Greene Community College, Donald Trump, Dow Jones plunge, Dow's Dive, Greek Debt Crisis, Howard Bloom, IS, Legion of Honor, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, North Korea, Palmyra, Robert Murray, South Korea, The Donald, The Lucifer Principle, Tsipras, Ukraine, UNESCO World Heritage Site
Posted in Claverack, Columbia County, Greek Debt Crisis, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers | Leave a Comment »
August 23, 2015
It is Sunday evening and I am on the deck, looking over the creek. Insects are humming in the background and a small plane is flying over me. I hear the soft sounds of the engine, drifting off into the distance.
I am content tonight though I have lots of work I need to do and have not done this weekend.
Long ago and in the faraway, I met a man who became my friend. When I moved to Columbia County, mutual friends told us that we were close to each other. They gave me his phone number and I left a message for him. They called him and said Mathew was close by.
It was a Saturday. I went to Walmart that day, right after the messages had been left for each other and we bumped into one another. Since then, we have spent Christmases and Thanksgivings together and many other nights. He and his wife are my closest friends here in Columbia County.
It is a troubling time for him and I spent the weekend with him, talking and listening and carousing a bit as was our nature back in the day.
He has a spot on his lung and there will be an operation on the 23rd of September. He is, understandably, concerned. It is more than a little scary and we spent part of yesterday talking about mortality. He also has a son who is dysfunctional and in trouble. I know him and we talked about him; what to do, what not to do. It is a difficult conundrum for my friend.
We talked about him yesterday and today.
This morning I volunteered to do the coffee hour at Christ Church. Now that I am spending more time in Columbia County I am doing my best to become more integrated into the community. This seemed a way to do that since I have been going to church there for the last couple of years.
I have to say I did a good job. Everyone raved about the coffee service. I had fresh fruit from the Farmer’s Market and muffins and prosciutto and provolone and nuts and olives and bagels and cream cheese. It was a wild success.
Mother Eileen, the Rector, kept calling me “Frankie” and I have no idea why so I spent the morning correcting people who were calling me “Frankie” and telling them my name was “Mathew.” So it goes.
My friend and I made a round last night and today of new places that have opened in Hudson. There is a place called “Or” which has opened in what used to be a body repair shop and a place that I think is called “The Back Bar” on Warren next to the food trucks and an expensive antique shop.
Hudson, anchor of Columbia County, seems to be a “happening place.” My friend and I commented on how much has happened here since we moved here; he in 1999 and me in 2001.
A squadron of geese just flew overhead. They are fewer than they used to be and I wonder why that is. Ten or twelve years ago they were everywhere and now their presence is special.
What is special is being able to sit on the deck and look out at the creek and to write and think and ponder the universe.
The world here is serene though it is not serene anywhere else.
I wonder what I can do to change the state of the world? I’m not sure. IS fights its vile war and condemns people right and left for not adhering to their fundamental views of Islam. Gays are thrown from rooftops or stoned to death, as are adulterers. Yazidi women are systemically raped and mistreated.
Egypt is becoming a country that all are frightened to go to. At least 10 percent of the Syrian population are refugees. The world is full of pain. I know it and do not know what to do about it and am deeply trouble by not knowing what I can do.
I live is a soporific spot on earth. I could turn my back on the world’s troubles but I can’t.
What to do? I ask, as I sit, looking over the peaceful Claverack Creek.
Tags:Christ Church Episcopal in Hudson NY, Claverack, Claverack Creek, Egypt, IS, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, OR in Hudson NY, The Back Bar in Hudson NY, Yazidi women
Posted in Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Social Commentarhy | Leave a Comment »
August 11, 2015
Outside my window, it is grey and daunting. I am sitting at my desk, looking out at my drive that, not so long ago, was a lake. When I woke up this morning on Martha’s Vineyard, it was raining but not hard. Jeffrey, Joyce and I went to Behind The Bookstore and I had breakfast and then Jeffrey dropped me at the ferry to Woods Hole. Still not raining badly but by the time I reached my car, I was drenched. So I pulled a dry shirt from my suitcase and changed into it before I left the parking lot.
It was a fairly quick trip home, though I had to pull over a couple of times to answer texts. When I got close to Hudson, I needed to deal with a wire transfer that hadn’t gone through and while I was doing that, the heavens opened and torrential rains came down, the kind of rain Noah must have known.
When I reached the cottage, I left my luggage in the car and made a mad dash for the door. It was may have been only ten feet but by the time I opened the door I was drenched and had to get into dry clothes for the second time today. Not long ago, the rain stopped and I was able to retrieve my luggage without drowning. The lake in my drive has receded and I think I am safe for the night. The creek is a muddy ochre color and high.
So now I sit at my desk and write tonight’s blog. It is a great desk, found in an antique store not far up from the road that is no longer there. Stenciled on the back of it is that it’s for First Class on a White Star ship. White Star was the company that owned Titanic. Obviously the desk is not from Titanic but from some cousin ship of hers. When I saw that, I knew I had to have the desk and so I have the desk. It is where I do most of my work at the cottage.
Jazz plays in the background. While driving, I found there were few radio stations in eastern Massachusetts that my radio could receive so I put in a CD of baroque music and listened to that.
Before I left Martha’s Vineyard, I did a perusal of the news and noticed that the debates left Donald Trump where he had been at 24% while Jeb Bush declined from 17% to 12%. My goodness, where is all this going?
While amazed, I am amused.
Tags:Behind the Bookstore, Claverack Creek, Donald Trump, Jeb Bush, Martha's Vineyard, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Noah, The Donald, Titanic, White Star
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July 27, 2015
As I begin to write this, I am seated on the deck. I realized I had the choice of writing at my desk or being here on the deck so I moved my laptop out here.
It is an elegant day in Claverack. The sun is glinting through the trees and the birds are singing all around me. Jazz is playing on Pandora. The creek is mirror like today, reflecting the green trees hanging over the water. It is warm and a shade humid but not uncomfortable.
I lazed around the house this morning reading and visiting with a friend who was up for a day and a half. Around two, I finally did the errands I had meant to do much earlier in the day and then it seemed too late to head into the city so I returned to the cottage to do a little work and write.
The New York Times’ T Magazine is up, shooting over at Jim Ivory’s house [Merchant Ivory Films], just down the road from me. I ran into Jeremiah today, a friend who is helping with the shoot while having lunch at Relish, across from the Train Station.
It is a day, here, of pastoral beauty.
The world is not quite like that. The Shanghai Exchange fell 8.5%, a move that rattled world markets. The Chinese government is intervening though it didn’t move quickly enough to stop today’s slide. There are market jitters everywhere because of China and the ongoing Greek situation, one that doesn’t seem resolved yet though not in the news as much.
Boston has terminated its bid for the Olympics in 2024. Resistance to the bid was rising among the denizens of the city. Everyone capitulated and that might not have been a bad thing.
Unless you have been hiding under a rock the last couple of days [and I have almost been] you will have known Bobbi Kristina Brown, daughter of Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown, died after months in a medically induced coma. She was found in a bathtub [as was her late mother] and never recovered. Tragedy follows tragedy and it is so sad. Did she have a chance? Probably but probably not many supported her in having that chance. The American entertainment industry has created a small industry of tragic stories, going back as far the dawn of the movies.
Huckabee, one the many Republican candidates for the Presidential nomination, said a deal with Iran would march Israelis to the ovens. Ouch. Lots of people are working to distance themselves from that comment. Though some are not.
In one of the most interesting stories I heard on NPR today as I was driving is that “Jihadi John,” a Kuwaiti born British citizen who fell in with IS, is now on the run from IS. He was responsible for some of the worst of the beheadings. Now that he has been identified as Mohammed Emwazi, he apparently feels his value to IS has diminished and he is fleeing for his life. Prime Minister David Cameron so wants to bring him to justice…
The humidity has slipped away and it is remarkably pleasant sitting on my deck. A while ago mosquitoes began to plague me. I went to my iPhone and went to my apps and set off the mosquito repellant app and they actually have disappeared, hounded away by a noise I can’t hear but which makes them really unhappy. Have not seen a mosquito since I activated it.
A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the 11th President of India, and the foremost promoter of both its nuclear and space programs, died today. He is a personal friend of my friend, Howard Bloom, writer and theorist. Howard has been in my life since 2008 or so, maybe earlier. A producer friend introduced me to him. He has had a remarkable life. He was a public relations maven and handled Michael Jackson, Queen, Mellenkamp, you name it, back in the 70’s and 80’s, Bloom was the man for the big groups and individuals.
He’s amazing. So apparently was Kalam, who died while giving a speech. Not a bad way to go.
The sun is beginning to set. It is a perfect night in Claverack. Soft, cool breezes are beginning to blow across my land. The creek no longer is so brilliantly reflecting the trees; the sun has fallen too low for that.
The world is not content. I am.
Tags:APJ Abdul Kalam, Bobbi Kristina Brown, Bobby Brown, Boston, Claverack, Claverack Creek, Howard Bloom, Hudson, Jeremiah Rusconi, Jihadi John, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Mellenkamp, Michael Jackson, Mike Huckabee, Mohammed Emwazi, New York Times T Magazine, Olympics, Pandora, Queen, Relish Hudson, Shanghai Exchange, Whitney Houston
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Letter from the Vineyard 
Letter From Claverack 09 06 2016
September 7, 2016The day painted itself grey this morning, from the moment light crept into my bedroom, it was grey, the kind of day that promises rain and provides none, save a few drops when I was running an errand on Warren Street.
Fresh from what I thought was a successful first day in the classroom, I stopped at the Post Office and picked up my mail and sat on my deck, opening it, and just staring out at the day. The air was lightly water touched by not too much. But for the grey, it was a perfect sort of day.
At the college, I talked with one of my colleagues for whom there is terminal election fatigue. She knows for whom she is voting, nothing in the shouting is going to change her position and so she feels no need to participate more. It simply makes her crazy.
As it has for many people in this oddest of election seasons. A few months ago, a commentator I was listening to said something like: Who knows? It’s 2016.
And that remains true. It’s the wild and wooly 2016, an election season they will be talking about as long as politics is discussed, which is a very long time. We are still discussing the politics of the Athenian democracy 2500 years later. Countless tomes have been written about the Romans, their Republic and their Empire. A thousand years from now some crepe skinned academic will be dissecting one small sliver of this campaign in a form of media we probably can’t conceive of but it will be happening.
Me? I generally wake up happy and go to bed happy and know there is only so much I can do to shape events but what I can do, I do.
Tonight, I am writing earlier than I did last night and the verdant green in its grey frame fills my window.
Directly in front of me are two Adirondack chairs made for me by John McCormick, father of my oldest friend, Sarah. He had made some for his daughter, Mary Clare, for her home in West Virginia. When I bought the cottage, he asked me if he could make anything for it. Adirondack chairs I said and there they are, in front of me, a wonderful bonding to a man now gone and a testament to all he and his family mean to me.
In this calm and quiet, I feel celebratory to have made it alive through the first day of class. As I was preparing to head over to the college, I played music that pleased me, from the Great American Songbook. Tonight there is no music. The only sound is the ticking of an old clock that has been in my family for more than 125 years. I think of it as the heart of the house. But it drives some people crazy. It just makes me smile.
The EpiPen conversation goes on. Some say it actually costs only $30.00; some say it’s only about a dollar that goes into the actual medicine.
Isabelle Dinoire, the world’s first face transplant recipient has died, aged 49. She was transplanted when her face was mauled by a dog. RIP.
Obama cancelled a visit with the Philippines President after he called Obama “the son of a whore.” Later President Duarte regretted his comment.
There was an incident when Obama arrived in China. No one seemed to have agreed upon the protocol. Everyone looked bad.
Kim Jung Un, the little paunchy, pudgy dictator of North Korea, celebrated Labor Day by sending off ballistic missiles that landed within 300 kilometers of Japan. No one is happy except for the pudgy dictator who is now facing a new set of sanctions which he doesn’t care about. He will let millions die because of them as long as he keeps his power, his toys and the instability he creates.
One can only imagine what this man’s childhood was like…
Tom Hiddleston and Taylor Swift have broken up after three months. This is HUGE news. OMG!
Fox has settled with Gretchen Carlson in her lawsuit with them and Roger Ailes. Twenty million dollars. At the same time Greta Van Susteren has left the network under cloudy circumstances but then what is not cloudy in the world of Fox News these days?
And now it is dark. I will turn on my floodlights and enjoy the creek at night.
It is a good day. I survived the first day of a new class and felt good about it.
Today I woke up happy and I go to bed tonight happy. May all of you who read me do the same.
Tags:Claverack, Claverack Creek, Cole Porter, Columbia County, Columbia County New York, Columbia Greene Community College, Donald Trump, Duarte, Great American Songbook, Greta Van Susteren, Gretchen Carlson, Hillary Clinton, Hudson, John McCormick, Kim Jung-un, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, New York, North Korea, Obama, Roger Ailes, Sarah Malone, Syria, Taylor Swift, The Donald, Tom Hiddleston
Posted in 2016 Election, Claverack, Columbia County, Columbia Greene Community College, Elections, Entertainment, Hillary Clinton, Hollywood, Hudson New York, Life, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Political Commentary, Politics, Social Commentary, Television, Trump, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »