For the last 20 months Eli has been the subject of most photography (and much of the blog).  The camera and writing are just an extension of whatever is naturally spilling over from my noggin.  So in looking back through my files, I realize I haven’t shot any creative photography in some time.  While driving down a road near our house a few weeks ago, an old barn and the light from the late afternoon caused me to hit the breaks and  put the car in reverse.  Turns out the old barn was part of an abandoned gas station in Ellis Hollow…

My son is 19 months old and knows how to navigate an iPhone.  Does it make me a bad parent for exposing my kid to a smartphone before he can talk?  What responsibility do we have as parents for a generation growing up surrounded by this kind of technology?   Living and working in a digital age, I can’t help but think about the right balance between the virtual world and the natural world for my kid’s development…and these issues are only going to get more complicated.  But it’s this conflict and challenge that I believe is driving the success of a local organization I’ve been following in Ithaca…

Primitive Pursuits was launched ten years ago with a mission to teach kids the skills that will strengthen their connection with nature.   It’s almost hard to believe that an organization like this has become a necessity.  Growing up, I spent as much time as I could outside.  But then eventually I discovered cable TV.  And then video games.  And then computers.   And now I spend most of my day in front of  a laptop working for an internet company.  (Neither of which even existed 25 years ago!)  Well, now we have a generation of kids growing up with the virtual world as a standard in their lives.  Between websites like Facebook and online gaming, kids can even create a social life without leaving their bedroom.

Tim Drake, the Director of Primitive Pursuits, shared this statistic with me at a recent meeting:  On average, children spend 53% of their day in front of a screen, 35% in a classroom and less than 1% in outdoor activities. He also shared results from a study that children could identify 100 corporate logos but not 10 plants from their own backyard. What are the repercussions of children growing up without a strong connection to nature?  If you don’t connect with the natural world, do you have any sense to protect it?

The concept of Primitive Pursuits is nothing new, but the relevance and importance seems to be growing as our society grapples with questions about the role of technology in our lives.  However we decide to raise our own son, I’m glad to know that there are people like Tim focused on the basic idea of getting kids connected with, and excited about the outdoors.

I attended the Primitive Pursuits 10 year anniversary event last weekend and took a few pictures for their website….

For more information about Primitive Pursuits, click here.  There is also a documentary on this subject of the need for outdoor education for todays kids called Play Again.  I haven’t seen it yet, but hear good things.

Here’s one clip from the show.  I shot this with my latest photography toy (the Nikon D7000).  The new camera basically allows for much higher resolution shooting in low light and recording of high definition video.  It’s incredible. But more on that later.  For now, Lucinda…

View it at 1080p to get a real sense of the picture quality.

On this MLK day, I feel his impact in tangible ways based on events taking place in our Ithaca community.  On Saturday we attended a community breakfast with hundreds of our neighbors, including civil rights leader, and friend of Dr. King, Dorothy Cotton. We also heard a speech from the new superintendent of Ithaca City Schools, with a theme of shared community responsibility for the education of our children.  It was a day that made me appreciate one of the most basic and fundamental arguments of MLK- that we are all tied together and have a shared responsibility to help our neighbors.

“We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. And you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be.”
-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Over the next month, I’ll be reading a book along with the rest of our county as part of an effort called MLK Community Build.  The book is the last one published by Dr. King before his death, titled “Where Do We Go From Here:  Chaos or Community?” A local group of non-profit organizations, educational institutions & volunteers launched this effort, and have already distributed 10,000 copies of the book free of charge to residents in the county.  Once the public has read the book, there will be a series of community-led discussions for the public to engage in topics that cross lines of race, economics and politics.  An ambitious effort, and something that Dr. King would surely be proud of if he could witness it today.

I haven’t posted one of these in a while, but not for lack of reasons.  Most people know of the Finger Lakes region as a destination for touring wineries.  But there are a growing number of farms in the area producing artisan cheese from raw (unpasteurized) milk.  Recently, the Finger Lakes Cheese Trail was formed to provide the public with organized open house tours.  But you don’t have to visit during an open house date, as most of the farms operate like a winery,  allowing you to drop in, watch the production process & sample the goods.

During the holiday break, we visited one of the farms and owner Nancy Richards at Finger Lakes Farmstead Cheese.  Nancy gave us a tour of the cheese-making facility, the farm and the storage rooms.  We sampled her range of gouda cheese including Bier Meck, which is soaked in a brine made from Ithaca Beer’s Smoked Porter Ale.  We brought a few blocks home, and keeping with Nancy’s advice, let the Schuyler cheese rest in its natural habitat under glass on our counter.   What a difference.  Thanks Nancy…wishing you success with the business.

A protestor at this year's championship

The whole family attended this year’s International Rutabaga Curling Championship.  I won’t go into detail on the event since I’ve written about it the last two years (see 2008 & 2009 entries).  Instead, I’ve taken the liberty of putting together a short instructional video for any prospective rutabaga curling fanatics out there.  Yup, this is one of the strange things I find myself doing when I have extra time on my hands.

And I’ve spoken plenty about how much I enjoy this ridiculous event, but now we have reputable backing behind the curl.  In last month’s issue of National Geographic Traveler (pg. 101), The Rutabaga Curl was promoted as one of the top “travel-worthy events & happenings in the world”.   Right up there with Bhutan, Chiang Mai & New Orleans.  How about that?

Rutabaga Curling – A Closer Look:

This month the Ithaca Common Council and Mayor approved a budget to include blueprints for a complete redesign of The Commons, Ithaca’s downtown pedestrian mall.  As a member of the Commons Advisory Board, I’ve spent the last two years listening to community members talk about the value and problems with this mixed use space.  At its best, The Commons can be a cultural center, filled with locally owned businesses and restaurants; a place to shop, eat and connect with your community, in a unique outdoor space.  At its worst, The Commons has been a depressing alley of struggling stores and vacant real estate.

But over the last two years, there has been a steady stream of successful new shops, restaurants and entertainment venues.  New restaurants are opening all over the commons; Cinemapolis, Ithaca’s independent theater is thriving in their new location, The State Theater is attracting top musicians from all over the country, and now the Kitchen Theater opened doors at a brand new space off the commons.  Over the past few months, I’ve overheard more and more return visitors talk about the transformation of our downtown in a positive (sometimes surprised) light.  With the popular growth of local economies and the local food movement, this redesign and commitment from our community is the right move at the right time.  Kudos to the Mayor and council for voting this through despite pressure under a weakened economy.

To read a brief highlight of the recommendations from Sasaki Associates, the firm that provided the preliminary concepts, click here.

In the past month, Ithaca has made some noise, landing on the top 10 lists for places to live, learn & eat.

A few of our accolades and notables:

• Ithaca ranked #6 in “America’s Foodiest Towns,” (pop under 250,000) by Bon Appétit magazine, Sept. ’10
• Ithaca ranked #1 “Best College Town” (under 250,000 pop.) by American Institute for Economic Research, Sept. ‘10
• Ithaca ranked #1 among 350 U.S metro areas as the best place for recent college grads, The Daily Beast, online, June, ‘10
• Ithaca ranked top-10 small towns by RelocateAmerica.com, April, ‘10
• Ithaca listed a “Top Retirement City for Wine Lovers,” US News & World Report online, May 2009
• Ithaca ranked #6 in “The 20 Best Towns in America” by Outside magazine, Aug. 2008
• Ithaca schools ranked 2nd nationwide among metro areas under 500,000 by Expansion Management Magazine, Dec. 2007
• Ithaca ranked second in “Best Green Places to Live,” by Country Home magazine, April 2007
• Ithaca listed as one of the 10 “Best Places to Live” for gays and lesbians by The Advocate, March 27, 2007. The Advocate is the nation’s leading LGBT publication
• “Number-One Emerging City,” in the book “Cities Ranked and Rated” by Bert Sperling and Peter Sander, 2004
• “America’s Five Best Mountain Biking Towns” Bike Magazine, June 2002

• Any my favorite, “America’s Most Enlightened City,” Utne Reader, May 1997

In order of appearance in the slideshow: 1) Bagman.  Apparently, he’s famous.  He was yelling that the black bag represents oil. 2) Greensprings, Ithaca’s Natural Burial Preserve (yes, that’s a woman laying in a coffin.) 3) Not sure what these two were promoting, but I heard something about fiddles and dancing rainbows.  4) Yup, that’s the Tompkins County Amateur Radio Club (and of course he’s carrying an antenna!) 5) Go Ithaca Wastewater Treatment Facility!  (That would be a walking toilet, connected to the walking treatment facility and finally, clean water) 6) And that?  That’s just a man riding a penny-farthing.   

Click to view slideshow.

I'm 6 feet tall. Eli is 25 inches. Jeff Foote is big.

They couldn’t pull off the miracle upset, but they did more than anyone could have expected.  Thanks for the awesome ride.  Today they were greeted by faculty and locals on campus since the students are away on spring break.   A few videos from today’s welcome back…

The escort onto campus and Cornell Marching Band:

The singing of the alma mater to the team: