ST PAUL'S CHURCH NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE

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Revolutionary War Encampment at National Historic Site in Westchester County,
Friday night Oct. 18 & Saturday, Oct. 19

US GOVERNMENT OPENS TEMPORARILY

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US Senate and House so called leaders pass a bill to re-open the government and raise the debt ceiling, but only for a few months.

On the 16th day of the US government shutdown, politicians in the Senate and House have finally passed a bill that would reopen the government and avert a potentially cataclysmic default on U.S. debt payments by raising the federal government's debt limit.

City Island Halloween Celebration

Last night I could not sleep. So I was very busy taking about twenty pictures to be used in a photo collage called Autumn Fruit. They look a little like the Italian Renaissance artist Arciibaldi who made mask like surreal pictures of people`s faces out of out of Autumn fruit.

I take many pictures of the sun rising over Hart Island which is across the water from my beach house on City Island next to the Long Island Sound.

A million or more people have been buried on Hart Island by the city over the last 100 years, just over the water. These individuals could not afford a burial elsewhere. However, their records are carefully kept by the city on a computer data base. They will be remembered almost forever.

According to Christian belief, all the dead souls rise up on "All Saints Day Evening," "Holy Evening " or "Halloween". One tradition is that they are actually enjoying themselves back in the world having a party just for the day, starting in the evening for twenty four hours.

In the case of City Island and Hart Island this creates a special consideration.Where are the the million plus dead souls of Hart Island going to go? They cannot all be on Hart Island since is a very small island. There is not even enough standing room only! That can only mean one thing, many of the souls of the dead will be coming to our Halloween Parade on City Island!

On Thursday October 31 Halloween Day I will be giving a talk at the City Island Library "Halloween Sunrise Over Hart Island 2013" It will be a slide show on a large high definition Blue Ray TV set. I will show 500 pictures at 3 second intervals. The show will last about half an hour. There will be hundreds of pictures of dramatic sunrises. I will also show pictures which have a surreal and mysterious theme. These include pictures of some of my own collages "The London Bombing 2006" "Two Bathers", and photos of pictures by Robert Rauchenbergs" " Canyon"and "Bed" Also pictures by the Italian Renaissance Artist Arcibaldi "Winter" "Summer" and "Autumn". Also plenty of photos of desirable Autumn fruit!

Barbara Dolensick, head of the City Island Historical society will also give a talk on the History and significance of Hart Island.

The talk will take place just before the City Island Halloween Parade. The time of the event will be posted by the City Island Library.

Robert G Cox

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your-ballot-your-ballot-was-counted

POG IS GOP BACKWARDS

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It was once known as the Grand Old Party, but backwards it has a brand new meaning.

POG: Play Online Games POG: Polyphonic Octave Generator POG: Pediatric Oncology Group: POG: Price of Gold. POG: People Other than Grunts. POG: Permanently On the Ground.... A POG sits clueless while operators execute their mission.

GOP leader and US House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has to admit that his divided Republican party had it all backwards and could not win their current budget battle.

Saying he would “absolutely” allow a vote on the US Senate plan even if a majority of his House Republicans do not support the bill. There’s no reason for members to vote no. Boehner expects the vote to happen on Thursday.

Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum

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Edward Ball, Yale professor and author of The Inventor and The Tycoon: A Gilded Age Murder and the Birth of Moving Pictures, takes us back 130 years to the intriguing story of Eadweard Muybridge who invented stop-motion photography, making motion pictures possible. But he was also a murderer who killed coolly and meticulously, and his trial was a media sensation.

Edward Ball's patron was railroad tycoon (and former California governor) Leland Stanford. Between them, the murderer and the mogul launched the age of visual media.

Book signing and reception after the presentation

DEFAULT TONIGHT

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Once the clock strikes midnight, there is a bad possibility that US may meet with economic chaos and cause a global disaster.

Thursday morning at 12:01a US will be left standing at the precipice because US House of Representatives has abandoned a vote that would have avoided default.

After midnight, there will be no more borrowed cash left to pay the nation’s bills.

The US Treasury warns that failure to raise the nation’s $16.7 trillion debt limit threatens a US credit default that may trigger a global economic crisis.

Slow Zones Must Be Enforced

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NYC's decision to expand Slow Zones to neighborhoods across the city needs to be enforced.

No amount of signs, speed bumps and other traffic-calming measures will do the proper job when idiots and jack asses, who do not know how to read, or do not give a damn about the safety of others insist on driving recklessly.

Until NYPD targets speeders on our local streets. And, as anyone who lives here can attest, speeding is rampant throughout City Island.

VIOLENCE DROPS IN NYC

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There were no reported homicides in any of NYC five boroughs last week, according to NYPD. It was the first homicide-free week this year.

The city has experienced a 26 percent decline in killings. New York has seen 256 homicides thus far, down from 346 in the same time period in 2012. Shootings have declined 23.2 percent, from 1,145 year to year.

But why is it that we can not see a homicide free week every week?

BREAKDOWN OF DEMOCRACY?

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Consider the current US government shutdown, the infighting inside our political parties, the probability that the situation may likely go on from crisis to crisis, as well as the low level of patience and confidence that most Americans have in their present form government.

The lack of representative democracy that is ripping this nation apart is not only a betrayal of our forefathers and of those American ideals and principles they believed in and fought for, but it could have lasting negative effects on our global economy and the future health of many international institutions.

The Gershwin Project

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Lehman Center for the Performing Arts is proud to present the Grammy-award winning pianist PETER NERO performing The Gershwin Project on Saturday, October 26th, 2013 at 8pm. Joining the Maestro for this incredible program drawn from George Gershwin’s iconic American Songbook, will be bassist Michael Barnett.

Lehman Center for the Performing Arts is on the campus of Lehman College/CUNY at 250 Bedford Park Boulevard West, Bronx, NY 10468. Tickets for PETER NERO on Saturday, October 26th, at 8pm are $35, $30, and $25 (children 12 and under: $10 for any seat) and can be purchased by calling the Lehman Center box office at 718-960-8833 (Monday through Friday, 10am–5pm, and beginning at 12 noon on the day of the concert), or through online access at www.LehmanCenter.org. Lehman Center is accessible by #4 or D train to Bedford Park Blvd. and is off the Saw Mill River Parkway and the Major Deegan Expressway. Low cost on-site parking available for $5.

Peter Nero’s performance The Gershwin Project at Lehman Center will include a selection of beloved songs that include “Rhapsody in Blue,” “Embraceable You,” “Someone to Watch Over Me” and excerpts from Porgie and Bess. Hailed as one of the premier interpreters of Gershwin, Peter Nero starred in the 1972 Emmy Award-winning NBC Special S’Wonderful, S’Marvelous, S’Gershwin. Mel Torme has commented that “Peter Nero’s interpretations of Gershwin are unique and glorious. He is a one-of-a-kind artist.” The virtuoso pianist has been performing Gershwin since he was 14 and has included Gershwin tunes on many of his albums including 1965’s Nero Goes Pops (Arthur Fiedler), On Tour (‘66), Peter Nero & Friends (‘94), All the Things You Are (‘96) and More in Love (’97).

PETER NERO, the Julliard-trained pianist and founding conductor of the Philly POPS, was born in Brooklyn in 1934. He began his formal musical training at age seven and by the time he was 11 he was performing Haydn concertos. For several years after college he played a swinging piano hybrid of jazz and classical in famed New York City nightclubs before being signed to RCA records in 1960. Awarded the 1961 Grammy Award for Best New Artist, Nero produced an astounding 26 albums in eight years, winning a second Grammy Award for The Colorful Peter Nero in 1962 along with eight additional Grammy nominations. During the 1960’s, Nero’s jazzy hybrid of pop, classical, swing and bob became one of the most popular mainstream sounds of the era. In 1963, Nero composed and performed the Golden Globe nominated score for the Jane Fonda film Sunday in New York, which the New York Times opined “was quite possibly more memorable than the script.” His subsequent move to Columbia records resulted in two additional Grammy nominations as well as a million-selling gold single and album, Summer of ’42.

Over the years Nero has made numerous televised guest appearances in top shows such as the Tony Awards, The Ed Sullivan Show, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, The Mike Douglas Show, The Jackie Gleason Show and The Merv Griffin Show. He has performed with Frank Sinatra, Andy Williams, Dizzy Gillespie, Diane Schuur, Ray Charles, Johnny Mathis, Elton John and Rod Stewart. In 1979, Nero founded the Philly POPS and for 34 seasons served as its conductor and musical director where he frequently performed classical arrangements of popular music. With 68 recordings to his name, he was honored with the 2009 American Federation of Musicians Lifetime Achievement Award and has been bestowed with six honorary doctorates.

Lehman Center is supported, in part, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the New York City Council. The 2013-2014 season is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, JPMorgan Chase, Con Edison and through corporations, foundations and private donations.