The O-town Scene

Scene the O-Town Vol. 2, No. 17 The Scene is published by The Daily Star the second Thursday of each month. Free copies are distributed throughout Oneonta, as well as parts of Otsego, Delaware and Schoharie counties. 102 Chestnut St., P.O. Box 250, Oneonta, NY 13820 editor@otownscene.com www.otownscene.com EDITOR'S NOTE |by Cassandra Miller Yay! Spring Showed Up! What about this weather, huh? After an are-we-in-Florida winter, Mother Nature has finally responded: "No, still upstate New York. Here are some April flurries, and a little hail, too." I thought we were going to skip editor@otownscene.com, (607) 432-1000, ext. 255 EDITOR IN CHIEF / DESIGNER / FOUNDER Cassandra Miller Sam Benedict, Mark Boshnack, Kurtis Breed, Jemmy Delva, Kevin Eggleston, Emily Ernsberger, Kate Koenig, Claudia Koeppel, Ashok Malhotra, Robin Nussbaum, Jeffrey Pegram and Sam Spokony arts@thedailystar.com, (607) 432-1000, ext. 255 CONTRIBUTORS ARTS CALENDAR/ COpY EDITOR Adrienne Wise directly to summer this year. I seques- tered my sweaters to the back of the closet, and have refused to take them out again. But, I'm kind of happy upstate spring did arrive − nobody wants to get gypped out of a season, especially one as lovely and full of anticipation as this. The briefly blossoming trees on Main Street and excitement of guessing whether it will be a tights or bare legs day would have been missed. We are celebrating the season in this issue, with a focus on Earth Day, jazz, Cinco de Mayo, art and flower graph- ics. If music genres were assigned to slewis@thedailystar.com, (607) 432-1000, ext. 235 Advertising Director Sean Lewis ADVERTISING spollak@thedailystar.com, (607) 432-1000, ext. 208 EDITOR OF THE DAILY STAR Sam Pollak Member of The Associated Press and CNHI News Service 2 O-Town Scene April 12, 2012 seasons, jazz's would be spring − New Orleans tends to think so, with its annual springtime Jazz and Heritage Festival, as do jazz lovers at SUNY Oneonta. The college's third annual jazz festival is this weekend, and will feature top trombonist Ray Anderson. The jazziness will continue Tuesday with the Jazz Composers and Im- provisors Project, a free concert that features three musicians. Dennis Stahl of Studio Dionysus is throwing art/music/social awareness bashes for both Earth Day and Cinco de Mayo at his gallery/lounge/concert venue/antique store in Gilbertsville, an intriguing former tractor repair garage with decorated mannequins and religion-amalgamation sculptures lingering throughout. Although not of Mexican heritage himself, Stahl divides his time between the Gilbertsville studio and one in Mexico, where he learned spiritual stone carving. We don't have a large Mexican population in the Oneonta area, but it's still fun to celebrate Cinco de Mayo − drinking margaritas and celebrating ethnic heritage is always a good time. My friend Emily Ernsberger, a regular recipe contributor, whipped up a variation on her popular tequila cake in honor of the holiday for this issue. She is a fan of the putting-booze-in-baked- goods trend, as are the beneficiaries of her baking. This issue publishes on my 28th birthday, which is a present in itself. It's thrilling − I'm not exaggerating with word choice − to be able to hold a project created from scratch from ideas and hours of InDesign and PhotoShop tinkering, and to see other people, people you don't even know, read- ing it. Every issue is primarily things I like and am interested in − hence last month's Beer Issue. But, because it's my birthday, conflict of interest be darned, I chose my brother as Bar- tender of the Month. It's not unwar- ranted, though. During Easter service, one of our church's ushers greeted him like an old friend, and referred to him as "The Best Bartender in Oneonta." If you get that kind of notoriety from a church volunteer during Easter Mass, you are worthy of being Bartender of the Month. I hope you enjoy the season, maybe listen to some jazz, eat some tequila cake and enjoy the Earth. Hap- py spring. Cassandra Miller is the founding edi- tor of the O- Town Scene. She can be reached at editor@ otownscene. com.

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