Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Calendar of Events

Last Week 4/11: Tom Lopez “Jack Flanders Adventure Series"

This Week 4/18: “New Yorkers for Verified Voting”

Next Week 4/25: To be announced

Coming Up:

5/5: Chili Supper at the High School

6/3: 9-Hole Golf Tournament at Galway Golf Club

Invocation: George Bailey, Garry Morrow, Dan Stec or Bob Youmans

Suggestions for future programs may be given to Linda LeTendre

• President Rey introduced Rotarian Michael Bowden of Channel 13 who was making up at our club.

• Mary Anderson Introduced Maryellen Symer, the new principal of Burnt Hills Ballston Lake High School, who is in the process of settling her family in the area. Welcome Maryellen!

• Linda LeTendre introduced St. Volney the Patient, a frequent and welcome guest of BHBL Rotary.

• Mike Welshhans announced that the project to build the ramp that he designed for his new quarters was coming along nicely. The old porch will be torn off so that the ramp can be constructed.

• Garry Morrow appealed to the membership to bring in any Rotarian magazines that might be awaiting recycle so he can share them with the members of the Group Study Exchange team who are eager to learn more about the mission and accomplishments of Rotary. In response to a question Garry described the composition of the GSE team headed for Brazil on 28 April and promised an update with photos at a future meeting. Our club is sponsoring one of the participants, Anne Hobday, who has local family and who will be a guest at our meeting prior to the group’s departure for Brazil.

Program: The Jack Flanders Adventure Series

It’s always fascinating to discover what artistic treasures exist in our region, often hidden from our view even though nationally known. Such is the case of Mr. Tom Lopez whose recording studio is located in Fort Edward. There, Tom produces “The Jack Flanders Adventure Series” which is aired on National Public Radio but not often in New York markets. Tom played several hilarious episodes for us.

One of the most striking of the recordings we heard was of Lena, the owner of Café Lena in Saratoga Springs singing “Lena, the Queen of Saratoga” which was apparently the story of her life. Unfortunately it is not possible to capture the humor of these sound recordings in a print publication. Part of the comedic effect arises from the unique juxtaposition of sound and dialogue that produces the rather striking result.

Another of Tom’s recordings featured a story about the 1930 Travers Stakes Race which included entries named Gallant Fox, Which One and Jim Dandy all of whom ran near the lead. As you might imagine the call of the race with a horse named Which One in contention quickly turned into something resembling the old “Who’s on First” Routine. The telling of the story was set in a Chinese Restaurant called “Lo Fat’s.”

In response to the question “How did you get into this?” Tom’s answer implied that, as a product of Berkley in the 1960’s, he wasn’t sure he could remember all the details. He did offer that, post Berkley, he traveled the world with a tape deck recording interesting sounds in a wide variety of settings, a practice he continues today. He collected a huge library of sounds and, only later, wrote the scripts that produced the works we heard and enjoyed.

Tom’s whimsical sense of humor will continue to inform his work and insure the continuation of yet another cottage industry in Upstate (and I mean north of Yonkers) New York.

As reported by Garry Morrow