The morons won't even care.

After Brad Middleton used the Sugar Loaf Guild website to inflame Kevin Kern as a negotiation tactic to get his rent down, I thought some things through and realized I owe Kevin Kern a BIG apology.

My epiphany on the matter came yesterday.

After posting the article about the carpet guy's sister, I started thinking about how weird it is that she and her husband (and a few of the thousands and thousands of other artists just like them) have not been showing up to start businesses in Sugar Loaf.

For my part (and Mary's) it just seems obvious that Sugar Loaf is the only place on the planet where actual true artists can make an actual true living pursuing their dream of making art and selling it to their fans ... without suffering the horrible indignation of giving 80% of the profit to gallery owners and promoters.

Not to mention there is the added indignation of having to beg for the opportunity to be poorly represented, and represented so sporadically to insure a proper living will never be made.

I say it seems obvious to me, but that understanding was years in the making.

Over the years we have talked to hundreds of like minded artists, and scoured the country for an alternative location which has the same number of successful artists with street traffic generated by their reputations, but without so much of the nonsense related to hangers-on who work to trend the place into a tourist trap as was mentioned by the recent posting of the Sugar Loaf Yelp reviewer.

When the carpet guy mentioned his sister was a bit of a flaky artist, and after he used the example of how she had sold a piece to Stephen King, but after Stephen gave her a signed book with mention he had a friend who loved the piece and wanted one for themselves, the carpet guy said his sister only responded, "I can't do that; these are all original handmade pieces, and each one is different."

The carpet guy took that to mean she was refusing to do the same piece again, but those in the know understand that by their very nature handmade original pieces cannot be repeated.

The designs can be stolen, simplified, stilted, and mass produced using a hint of the original concept and the labor of impoverished third world kids (who do great work by the way), but an original is an original is an original.

Like snowflakes and fingerprints, no two are the same.

That is one of the elements of true art which adds to the myth of the flaky artist, while in fact artists are anything but flaky, and the effort and care to detail that goes into making fine art suffers being denigrated simply because people do not understand the process (and often the result), so it is just easier for them to say artists are flaky, weird, and unknowable, rather than make the effort to learn something about art.

You know, people may come to Sugar Loaf to 'Loaf, but there is a hell of a lot more here that is worth thinking about.

Finishing that line of thought was exactly the moment I realized I owe Kevin Kern a BIG apology.

I previously posted stuff here about our investigation into the state of Romers' Alley toward our goal of purchasing it and putting our money where are mouths have been.

I have a lot of experience looking at Site Plan Reviews, so I did not have to hire an expert to do my own.

Some of what I published as online note taking (and educational material) included my confusion over the information we were getting.

A large part of it was just the raw non-compliance and sub-code reality of the place.

A smaller part of it was how it seemed to me that Kevin Kern could not possibly be the owner due to how easily he ignored my offer to rent shop space with a six month up front payment (at ANY price he would choose).

My only logical conclusion based on the available documents was that Kevin Kern was not the owner, but a front man for an investment group, and he finally admitted to that during our in-person conversation.

Thanks for getting him here, Brad.

Turns out Kevin says he is only partnered with his brother in the property, so I must assume that is true despite my natural skepticism which makes me think (for lots of reasons) that there are probably other silent partners and hidden investors as well.

No way to prove such things one way or another; but, for example, the strength with which Bruce Roberts has suggested I go back to teaching music and stop telling the truth online makes me wonder why he exhibits such strong feelings as a disinterested party.

I may be wrong, but Bruce just doesn't seem to be very neutrally unmotivated with regard to what happens in Romers' Alley or what I say online.

In any case my review of the property led me to believe that Kevin Kern is a slumlord, and when I speculated that the next name to show up in related documents would be Bernie Madoff, both Bruce and Kevin took offense that I would mention a long since forgotten investment scam artist.

I guess in summary, any connection that could have been drawn to Bernie Madoff and Kevin Kern, or to a slumlord and Kevin Kern has proven to be totally false, except for my undying skepticism which keeps such things alive forever.

Probably closer to the truth would be that the reason no artists (except for Jessica Hengen of course) populate Romers' Alley is because Kevin himself has absolutely no way of knowing, understanding, or communicating to artists — much like our carpet guy but on a deeper grander scale.

Think about it: Kevin Kern has been here for 20 years give or take, and he is supposedly incubating artists, but he is so disconnected from the art world that he never even made it into the premier artist studio in Sugar Loaf and talked to the artists until Brad made him come.

Kern's involvement with the theater, which is now stepping into its third iteration of failure, is almost an aside.

Therefore my BIG apology to Kevin Kern must be to say right away that Kevin Kern is not a slumlord, nor is he a Bernie Madoff (ok, so none of you even remember who Bernie Madoff is, but); Kevin Kern is merely a total idiot and a moron.

Thank you, Brad, for making that perfectly obvious.

I sure do, but then I have been watching the exact same thing over and over and over again for 40 years.

While Mary was talking to the carpet installer I dropped by Bruce Robert's shop (Colláge) in Romers' Alley to give him the juicies regarding the person caught impersonating somebody in this Forum who was turned over to the victim.

Bruce is going to love the story, because there are elements related to the trouble he had with the DEC when building his own facility in Goshen.

I'll have to wait a couple days to give Bruce the story, because for the first time ever, I walked into his shop and he wasn't in the corner watching approaching customers while cleaning and fussing over everything within reach.

On the way back out I found him helping with the newest round of Romers' Alley musical shops and carrying stuff from one shop to a new location 51.53 feet away.

I don't want to say the people in Romers' Alley all seem to be itinerates who constantly have to move to greener pastures because they can't build a business in one place (keeping with it), but it certainly does seem a case could be made.

However neither the story for Bruce, nor the same old story in progress for Romers' Alley, is the big story here.

The big story deserves a second helping of Forum posting for today, so here we go.

Maybe this has some connection to our preparations for our proposed 10 lot trailer park subdivision (why fight the trend), but it is not really about that alone.

It is about this:

MICHAEL'S
FLOOR COVERINGS

Calling Michael a carpet installer really downplays the situation: what he is running is a true old-timey built from the ground cottage industry.

He knows stuff, and he knows how to explain stuff, and he knows how word of mouth advertising (not TweetyFace posts) is what keeps him going (doesn't have a store front at all).

The classics are classics because they work: yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Mary has heard about Mike for over 10 years, and he has done installations for at least 4 other people in the cycling community.

We got to talking about true business practices (which he understands is rare in Sugar Loaf these days), and after I showed him a range of items that buck the trend (fortunately the Welcome Center is not totally dismantled), Mike got some idea of how there really are excellent Sugar Loaf products.

The interesting part of that conversation was how quickly he grasped concepts regarding color, composition, lighting changes, excellence vs tawdry, real-deal business vs well ...

I showed him the best possible reproductions of a couple of Mary's watercolors, and he jumped ahead of me in the coversation pointing out the problems with the prints vs the originals, even to the very color and specific explanation I was about to give him.

I guess it's not so surprising, because Mike does work with people finding the correct color and quality of carpet for their homes and businesses every day, plus he used to work for Orange County Paints.

He is also a UPS driver, so he knew implicitly what I meant when I talked about the number of shops in Sugar Loaf who fail to grasp the folly of having a UPS truck (or their own truck) drop off products for resale that can just as easily be driven on down the road to the final customer, or purchased online with a single click.

And when we got to shops not being open ... YOWSA!

In any case, all of that is not the biggest part of the big story: that came after Mike told us his sister does ceramics.

When we glossed over his statement Mike did not even flinch (even a little), because he is accustomed to being blown off after he mentions his sister and her husband are artists.

But after I showed him the Guild website he had us take a look at this:

THE WORK OF
KELLY and GERALD
HONG

After we cleaned our poop off the floor from beneath our feet, Mary and I launched into an extended crusade trying to convince Mike he should get his sister and brother-in-law to move to Sugar Loaf and clean up.

Of course they will be wiping the floor with Mary and me at the same time, but that will be preferable to what we left on our floor after seeing Kelly and Gerard's superb Sugar Loaf quality work.

Romers' Alley should be ripe to cycle through another set of stores soon enough.

Now that Mr. Buzzkill has revealed his true inner being and left the building, it adds furtherance to my understanding of the irony that the two most negative influences in Sugar Loaf at the moment both claim to be peaceful emissaries of a divine truth.

Standard issue grift.

Nobody is buying it, and it is obvious that what they pretend (maybe even believe) to be a vast new enlightened movement is really just a banal slight bubble of a blip washing along an eddy of typicality beside the vast tide of actual history.

Part of everybody's delay in knowing the truth is my fault, because I always give people too much of a break and only wish I could learn to identify such problems more quickly.

At least I have now categorized two more people under the heading of names I do not mention (because placing a person's name on my lips is too valuable to squander), so the faux jeweler now enjoys a new companionship with The Divine Comic and Mr. Buzzkill in whatever circle of hell they have all descended to make their home.

On the even more positive side, the readership of the Forum has exploded in the last couple days, in part due to a momentary attack that was shut down while feelers were sent out to confirm an apparent target of the attack was not in fact the perpetrator of the attack.

I now have another new best friend ... a very rich one at that.

The attack also gave me a chance to automate some defense technologies and confirm that my understanding of IP# attachments is strong.

Yesterday I watched a local IP# pass one of my email hint links on to an IP# in Europe (made sense) and then to what appears to be a lawyer in Warwick who is maintaining a dossier on the would be attacker (still able to read here but blocked from posting as a matter of course and courtesy).

In any case, I can't wait to tell Bruce Roberts (Colláge) all about it, because he knows the target and has had mutually beneficial and very successful business dealings with them.

Hopefully, Mary will let me go down into the bowels of Romers' Alley at some point, so I can get Bruce giggling so hard his trinkets sparkle.

Speaking of Romers' Alley, progress towards its purchase is moving apace (while Brad Middleton of Bodhi Tree is making leasehold improvements for us) and that progress will be reported here at length ... a little later.

Stay tuned.

Although we were told by Mr. Scarane's lawyers (in their scurrilous letter) that the Public Hearing for demolition of the Decker homestead had already happened, today we received notification of it coming up in August.

To summarize:

Aug. 6, 2014 at 7 pm
Chester Town Hall
1786 Kings Highway
Chester, NY.

Below is a link to the notification letter:

NOTIFICATION

If you have concerns about the destruction of the house, my suggestion is this:

You will not have a leg to stand on with regard to saving it as an historic structure as Sugar Loaf and Chester have no such law (as far as I know), but there may be technical issues with the property that make it unsuitable for the proposed use.

However, the notification letter came from James A. Dillin, PLS, and I witnessed numerous presentations by James during my eight (8) years as Member of the Town of Chester Planning Board, so I can tell you he is extremely competent, careful, and will have given the Scarane's as good an understanding of their rights as is possible.

Very much unlike their legal team who sent me a flagrantly stupid CEASE and DESIST complaint.

In any case, if anybody wishes to complain at the Public Hearing, be aware decisions will be based on very calm, cool, technical matters, not on your "horror" that such a thing could happen.

In general, Public Comment being considered for Site Plan Reviews is such as, "Do you know if there was an old toxic dump underground on that particular building site which will kill kids playing in the area and which everybody has forgotten about?"

In other words, decisions will be based on expert advice and specific valid concerns, not on mob whining.

Neither will the ghost of Billy Margram be impacted one way or another.

Hire a lawyer today, have them step you through your rights, and have them present your concerns.

Somebody at the post office this morning said they had heard the parcel is woefully too tiny for the proposed project, so you might want to have your lawyer start by looking at lot size and off-street parking first.

Be aware a variance is not an immense hurdle to surmount.

Get a lawyer, get some advice, and get your ducks in a row ... the Scaranes have certainly done so, and my feeling (off the top of my head) is that they have every right to do what they want with a property they just purchased.

If they are bulldozing the Decker homestead, they are merely doing something very, very stupid, but it is well within their rights, so they shouldn't be trying to save face by blaming termites and safety issues.

Just take the hit on reputation and bear the brunt of goodwill lost to businesses on the site ever after.

No big deal.

Wow, was Mary steamed.

At least we got that painting back and some checks that Mary just went to cash ... hope they don't bounce ... that wouldn't be very positive.

But enough of Randy's nonsense.

Connie, did you know that I am able to identify posting footprints in a way that allows me to take a snapshot of a specific person's submittals and have everything they post ever after just disappear into cyberspace (no matter what device or location they use after the snapshot is taken) without my even having to look at it?

It's sort of like a proprietary advanced spam filter that I developed myself using C#, ASP.NET, Enterprise Level Microsoft Sql Server, and some of my own machine level code handwritten in ways that nobody has yet seen.

I used it to track down a securities fraud scam artist for the FBI once.

Very cool, and nobody else has it.

Wal-Mart tried to buy it and bring their operations into the 21st Century, but I told them it was for Americans, lots of money, but I didn't care.

Aren't you upset that Randy is lost as a reader?

In any case, people are only mad at me because I have been fighting such things as the Yelp review linked below:

YELP REVIEW

Mary and I hear the same thing every day in the Endico studio, and I heard even more of it when I was manning the Welcome Center on the Romers' Alley porch, but there are lots of people in Sugar Loaf who like to keep their heads in the sand about such things, preferring to believe they can flood the Internet with their own positivity and snow these negative statements under a mound of happy faces.

In fact the problem is not online reviews but what happens when somebody finally gets to Sugar Loaf — after being attracted by advertising that lies about what is here, not to mention the trinket traders that are not helping the situation ... especially since even the trinket shops are rarely open.

Not much I can do about it, but at least I can make people in town mad at me for pointing out the obvious.

I've gotten pretty good at it.

Kevin Kern was offered a lucrative solution to the situation, but apparently it is in Kevin's best interest to continue running things into the ground.

In answer to the reviewer's query if Sugar Loaf might be a victim of the recession, I would quote Terry Boswell, "We don't have an economic downturn problem; we have an absentee landlord problem."

Terry told me not to use her name, but I know it, and this time I'm using it.

May as well get Terry mad at me too.

What we've accomplished (and continue to do) is hard work.

We are surrounded by people looking for easy peasy b.s. $.

She will be down to square things up.

Good lord I tried, but so much for positivity ... in my estimation.

How was the kool-aid?

By the way, I believe you meant to say "personal blog on steroids" despite this Forum being totally open to the public for additions and comment.

Since you won't be reading this, I assume there is no need for me to fix your spelling and grammar this time.

It has come to my attention that you have an Endico watercolor tree which you purchased on Saturday, August 15, 2009 for $130.00.

You can double your money, because I am offering you $300.00 for its return.

Closer to the mark would be that I am Ishmael tumbling through the seas lashed to the side of the great pale Sugar Loaf beast, staring it square in the eye.

Still my policy remains that if you can prove to me who you are (and I can use your full name), you may post whatever you will; but if I do not know you, you will say precious little.

Like I told you when you were running the Welcome Center from Kevin's front porch, "Seeing you there gives me hope!"

Glad we got to chat.

-K

I believe he is aware that I might post anything that shows up in my in-box.

I really, really, really hate it when I cannot really, really, really hate somebody right off the bat, but just when it looked like the jury was coming in on Kevin Kern, they went back out again.

Kevin responded in the appropriate time frame (not immediate, just very appropriately) to a bit of information I sent him.

Tracking the IP# his email came from has itself been worth the price of admission ... very interesting, and it seems to explain why Kevin doesn't know his online elbow from a donkey's ass.

So all you people who hate Kevin, stop it right now!

I will give you the go ahead later if I confirm your hatred is warranted.

And for the curious, yes we are still looking at purchasing Romers' Alley (the for-sale sign is still up), and at present it looks as if we will have to at least double everybody's rent to make it profitable, so while waiting for us to put together an offer Kern cannot refuse, it would behoove Kevin's tenants to be extra nice to him and beg him to stay.

Mary and I will not put up with the shit Kevin does, nor will we allow nonsense businesses to waste everybody's time trying out a range of possible business plans.

It will be simple: make it yourself, or get the hell out!

Not to mention, having a centrally located Welcome Center with town toilets and information about the hidden Sugar Loaf, hand delivered seven (7) days a week right off an 18th Century Furniture installation (gifted by Peter and Manon) plus a large screen presentation of the Guild website, well it's going to turn this town around!

What just happened?

With your own comment here, I must point out the comma (lovely as it is) after the word 'meds' does not meet the standard of educated speech.

In any case, I hope you really do not believe this website to be antiquated in any way, because in that case you would be toying with powers beyond your ken.

In fact this website is just the opposite of antiquated.

It functions the way all carefully considered, world class, state-of-the-art, post TweetyFace successful business sites will function in the not too distant future.

You know, after the corporate world has had its way with the posting classes.

Given your obvious 12 years of age, I am sure you will live to see it.

You just will not be able to post here again.

BTW: What clued you into the vintage 1992 look?

Was it the lack of intrusive advertising along every border and paragraph break, or the lack of overly slick stock clip-art images, or maybe it is the increased speed by virtue of not peppering the screens with links to every possible off-site distraction while embedding tracking modules that take up bandwidth by watching your every move in order to assemble a database to sell to Wal-Mart?

I'm thinking maybe it was just the focus on Sugar Loaf products ... actual Sugar Loaf products, not the standard brown truck imported faux wellness trinkets.

Wait, I've got it; the tip off must be the fact that everything is up to date current without broken links, no defunct business listings, and sans misspellings with grammatical errors throughout.

One has to go pretty far back in web history to find websites without such modern elements.

In any case it is "certifiably insane" not "certifietly."

No need going back to check; I fixed it for you immediately.

After speaking with Richard Logothetis (at Anne Marie's Deli) this morning, I looked up the Town Code in question, because Richard assured me the issue had been resolved.

You may remember Richard was owner/builder of the Sugar Loaf Performing Arts Center before he gifted it to the non-profits.

He also worked hard to restore the unique zoning code that allows Sugar Loaf to exist as a thriving artist community like no other.

In any case it appears the issue has been resolved, and MIXED USES are once again permitted in Sugar Loaf (LB-SL), and that change (actually a change back to the original) was made in 2011; thank you, Richard.

Whoever told you that people are still not allowed to work and live in the same building in Sugar Loaf was every bit as wrong as whoever it was that got you all riled up about my postings, forcing you to come in and meet me after 20 years running our businesses within a hundred yards of each other in the same town.

You should start choosing your friends more wisely ... unless of course it was Bruce Roberts who got you steamed, because Bruce has been given a special dispensation from me to say anything negative about me he chooses — due to him being one of the only rational real-deal business people to be found in Sugar Loaf at the moment.

I am well aware Bruce strongly disagrees with me over such things as Sign Laws, Permitted Uses, Code Compliance, make it yourself, etc, but I understand that is a result of massive nonsense hoops he had to jump through in order to build the fitness center in Goshen.

Here is a link to the Town of Chester Code statute regarding MIXED USES (LB-SL = Local Business Sugar Loaf):

Screen Grab

As for Bruce Roberts, below is a repeat of one of his favorites (vis-a-vis Mr. Scarane bulldozing the Decker homestead):

AUTHENTIC
$900,000 - $1,000,000
Auction Estimate

COPY
$23,000
Buy It Now

Yes, it's cute, but it ain't real!

And for context:

Authentic Beauty!!!

This Forum shows how crazy your ramblings are.

Documented mental illness.

There are idiots reading here who seem to have missed that fact.

As soon as Kevin Kern left the Endico studio today, I ran down to Romers' Alley to tell the exciting news about how Kevin heard Bob Fugett was arrested for assaulting somebody on his porch.

I expected great laughter all around, but Randy wasn't open, Jessica was working, and Brad had employees watching Bodhi Tree, so the only person I got to talk to was Bruce Roberts at Colláge.

I say talk, but it was really pretty much a knock down drag out fight.

Bruce assures me that what I have been saying about Kevin Kern (as a landlord) is way off base, that Kevin is the best landlord a kid could have, and Kevin's impact on Sugar Loaf has been immensely good and well appreciated by everybody.

Bruce testified that every single one of the tenants currently in Romers' Alley would say exactly the same thing.

After our fight I promised Bruce maybe I could run a retraction but the problem is the derogatory comment I placed next to Kevin's name would have to be repeated, and merely the repeating of that derogatory term would only enhance the chance Google would return the words Kevin Kern and that other word.

Bruce said, "Well, you could just say that Kevin is a terrific landlord, and everybody knows it, and you wouldn't even have to mention the flip side of the coin again. That way whoever told him about your posts would see it and understand Kevin actually is a great guy, wonderful landlord, providing a prime Sugar Loaf incubator facility."

Ok, so all of the above.

Plus you should apologize to Dana from Bliss who came out for a moment during your dust up with Bruce and could be heard mumbling, "One chance all day for a break, and this is what I have to see?"

So the illusive Kevin Kern just stopped by, and boy am I glad I remember my moves from the days when our college cross country team did warm-ups with the wrestling team.

When Kevin grabbed me by the neck I knew a take-down was in order and put him on the floor with my foot against his neck.

I also knew it was going to be a great story even if I had to make the whole thing up whole cloth, like I did with this introduction.

What is not made up is the best story I have ever heard given to me by Kevin almost as an aside.

Apparently Kevin had been told that I attacked somebody while I was on the Romers' Alley front porch (during a Welcome Center episode), and that I had been arrested!

I have never been so flattered in my entire life.

Otherwise, things were rather boring and mundane during the rest of our meeting except the parts where I was screaming at the top of my lungs because I thought Kevin wasn't listening.

In any case, we straightened things out and he now understands that this website and Forum are absolutely nothing like it was represented to him, and my comments have not been a vicious random attack on him personally but on the status quo in Sugar Loaf.

We traded stories about how badly we each have been treated, each of us relating events that would curl your hair and which I would write about here if I hadn't already, and Kevin would write about here too if he had one iota of computer skill, but Kevin chooses having a life instead of wasting time online.

I showed him the post of the faux jeweler, etc, and when the subject brushed near the demolition of the Decker homestead, Kevin (my new best friend) said big eyed (matching his big belly), "Is that really happening? How could that be?"

It was a great opportunity to show him the bullshit complaint letter from Mr. Scarane's lawyers.

Then Mary brushed her hand along one of our studio's pre-revolutionary beams and mentioned how many customers brush their hands along the same beam asking, "Is this real?"

"Yes, 1760 give or take."

Kevin and I both agreed that Sugar Loaf is one of the most unique places on the planet, and he informed me that the law allowing living and working in the same building was changed at some point in the past, and is now in review for being restored.

Just like the demolition of the Decker house, I quipped, "No!!! How could that be!?"

In any case, Kevin finally got to meet me and has been assured that I never ever apologize or back away from any of my actions, and I am not a pretend firebrand but a real deal died in the wool true blue asshole.

Kevin on the other hand does actually appear to be NOT THE ANTICHRIST!

I would mention the other similar name that I used in my writing which Kevin would like removed from proximity of his own name, but that would only be putting it once again in proximity for Google searches to return.

Hope Kevin noticed Mary ushered us out of the studio due to her working with people from the Porsche parked in front, and she is now with people who have greater credentials.

It's about time.

And double triple infinity thanks to the person who is spreading the rumor that I got arrested for telling Tammy's friend that Tammy left owing Kevin seven months rent while stealing his refrigerator.

Uh oh ... what if that story about me getting arrested gets onto the Internet ... then what?

The only way to know is to try it, so:

BOB FUGETT ARRESTED FOR BEING AN ASSHOLE!

Or better yet:

BOB FUGETT IS THE ANTICHRIST!

Keep checking your Googles.

I mean that if Mr. Scarane had the slightest ability to consider a situation, he never would have allowed that nonsense letter to be sent by his lawyers.

It might be that Kevin Kern finally found somebody who will manage the property for free ... well not for free but actually paying Kevin for the privilege.

To date we have noted the property has:

1) non-compliance with Sign Laws
2) severely compromised structures
3) significant maintenance hurdles
4) incorrectly installed drip edge
5) possible mold issues
6) inadequate drainage
7) inadequate septic
8) inadequate parking

Probably it is uninsurable.

Maybe the property was taken off the market when these problems were pointed out to Kevin Kern, and he realized his next step (that he wished to take with the property towards sale) would trigger a site plan review which would document these problems and require they be addressed.

In any case, it looks as if Kevin Kern is not even the owner of the property but merely an organizer of an investment group which was about to lose its shirt on the sale ... if a sale could have been accomplished.

Weird stuff going on over at Romers' Alley, and your guess is as good as Mr. Scarane's, that is to say totally devoid of consideration.

Given the context, it made me wonder if I know the difference between MANIFEST and manipulate.

Just what is the difference?

Ok, I'll talk about Mr. Scarane, but you brought it up; I didn't.

If the new readers are Mr. Scarane's lawyers that is great for me.

That means I will have two (2) new readers for life, because amongst the educated classes my writing has proven to be somewhat addictive.

There is a depth and authenticity to it which is hard to find elsewhere, and the entertainment value alone is worth the price of admission.

For the lawyers themselves it will be a win-win situation.

They get to read the most precisely written educational and entertaining text there is while getting paid by Mr. Scarane to do it; generally lawyers read my stuff just for the fun of it.

The other half of the win-win for them is that I am laying out my entire defense against their pitifully stupid complaint letter, so they will get an opportunity to save face by saying to Mr. Scarane, "You know the guy is right. Everything he has said is precisely true. We will never be able to beat him in court. The law is on his side. Also what he says about that building is true, so you might want to reconsider destroying it along with every last chance you have of conducting business in Sugar Loaf."

Of course these new readers might be some of the other business leaders in Sugar Loaf, because since I started writing about the wretchedly stupid thing Mr. Scarane plans to do, they have started treating me a whole lot better.

Of course I am always skeptical after the faux jeweler smiled in my face while stabbing me in the back, but some people who previously hated me have actually started going out of their way to wave and say hi.

See how good I am?

Still wish I knew who the new readers are.

Bob has been closely monitoring their reading habits and has theories as to who they are but still isn't sure.

If any of you are now reading regularly from a different location, or know yourself to be a new fan of the Guild, please leave a note with your first name as a Forum post.

Bob will use the information to confirm his ability at guessing who is here, will also double check with you in real-life (if appropriate), and will further refine his writing in order to keep things interesting for you.

He will also immediately toggle your post off the Forum.

Bob aims to please.

I am excited because there is FINALLY documentation of the Sugar Loaf Four Step Process in full bloom.

When Mr. Scarane's business eventually fails (which it surely will), I will be able to point to photos of the faux building built in place of an authentic building in contrast to examples of other truly decrepit buildings restored to authentic glory while providing a link to the letters and court proceedings showing the perfect example of the Sugar Loaf Four Step Process.

You remember my writings about the Sugar Loaf Four Step process; it goes like this.

Somebody comes to Sugar Loaf without a clue about the very unique nature of business here, what has always worked, and what has never worked, but they have some foggy idea about what they want to do and a cockeyed business theory (never an actual business plan).

Then they begin the 4 Step.

Step 1:
They blame their location.

Step 2:
They blame their signage.

Step 3:
They blame the rest of us.

Step 4:
They are gone.

I have seen it at least a hundred times but have never had solid documentation.

Now I have it.

Especially since Mr. Scarane has decided to sue the messenger instead of addressing the problem.

The post you mentioned was not removed, it was merely toggled off the American Road Cycling Forum in favor of posting it in the Guild Forum.

It is post: 6818

Also I am keeping track of your cycling results at: Connie's Rides.

Your FMS results are at: Connie's FMS.

This one should be too boring for both American Road Cycling and the Sugar Loaf Guild.

I learned my rights and responsibilities very well, and I learned to identify bullshit without hesitation.

I guess you might say that I eat, drink, sleep, and live for a law suit.

The only thing a law suit can do is make me look better.

Best guest he is merely a wholesaler of security products whatever that means.

Then I must offer a public apology to Mr. Scarane and say that I am sorry for implying he is not a business person.

In fact he seems to be quite a formidable business person.

My experience has shown that people with actual businesses have found social media to be a total bust for them.

Actual business runs on a person to person, seller to customer basis, and actual business owners do not waste time with social media.

However, I do know of one business which is finding social media somewhat useful (or so they say), but that business is pretty much a scam so just the right thing for social media.

To find out that Mr. Scarane has nothing to do with social media elevates him quite a bit in my estimation.

But in my defense, I was only swayed into thinking he hadn't a clue because of the letter from his lawyers that went on and on about horrid things I accomplished through social media.

Even that letter itself has been put in a deeper context by Mary noticing this morning that Mr. Scarane's lawyers are in fact housed in one of the top historic restorations in the Village of Chester.

Those lawyers have to know from a gut level the worth of such buildings to long lasting, local community based businesses, so they included a range of totally insupportable accusations in their dumbass letter on purpose to make sure their out of control client (Mr. Scarane) would not be shooting himself in the foot too irrevocably.

In any case, it appears that Mr. Scarane himself knows for an absolute certainty that social media is a total waste of time for a serious business.

All the real business owners I know understand the same thing.

Therefore I guess Mr. Scarane is not totally devoid of business acumen, he just doesn't understand local community based business.

Sorry for this double posting of The Daily Scarane despite my having promised to skip it today, but when new things come to light it is important to respond quickly.

It's just the way I roll.

The Daily Scarane is taking the day off in order to provide the following public service announcement for MK.

Well, MK, I never ever do not have a backup plan.

Here it is:

FOR SALE
AUTHENTIC
SUGAR LOAF

And since squeezing every single penny out of lost causes is currently the rage, I should mention that we are told we qualify as a ten (10) lot subdivision for a trailer park and religious school.

Sounds good to me.

Poor Mr. Scarane.

Not only did he miss the boat by not waiting a few days for a real Sugar Loaf property to come onto the market, the property he did buy has now just halved in value.

But at least he is learning about business.

Somebody said we should show Mr. Scarane the following.

AUTHENTIC
$900,000 - $1,000,000
Auction Estimate

COPY
$23,000
Buy It Now

No matter how you phrase it, destroying an authentic original in order to replace it with a tawdry copy, that is to say making a silk purse into a sow's ear, cannot be good for business ... any business!

You act like you are talking to a rational business person.

Mr. Scarane is neither rational nor a business person.

He has proven he is not by allowing the complaint letter sent in his name.

As far as I can tell, Mr. Scarane hasn't had an education beyond something like the ninth grade, and he doesn't even come close to being a business person.

In the actual business community a certain level of education is expected, and part of that education would include at least a basic class in routine uniform business law.

Such a class would have given Mr. Scarane enough knowledge to understand the raw stupidity of the letter we received from his lawyers, and he might have had enough sense to review it beforehand and ask them not to send it.

I am going to have to do this at trial, so I may as well start the depositions here (how fortunate for Mr. Scarane's lawyers who I assume are charging him to read this).

One of the first things mentioned in Mr. Scarane's pretend legal document was "libel and slander."

Here is my free lesson to Mr. Scarane on a topic that would have been covered in his sophomore year (had he attended a college, which maybe he did but failed to pay attention).

First off the currently used difference between libel and slander is merely that libel is written and slander is spoken, so to describe libel is to describe slander as far as the criterias that must be satisified for either.

Here are four requirements for something to be deemed libel:

1) The statement must be false.
2) I must know it is false.
3) The intent must be to harm.
4) Harm must result.

To summarize: Identifiable harm must result from blatant lies expressly made to that end on my part.

If Mr. Scarane had applied that understanding to what both Mary and I wrote, he would never have allowed his letter to be sent without at least striking libel and slander, because every one of the above criteria failed where only one failure was needed.

In fact not a single criteria was met by both Mary and my own comments in order to term them libel or slander.

What an idiot.

I will cover each of the other statements made by Mr. Scarane's substandard legal team separately later.

Sorry boys, intimidation failed.

Obviously Mr. Scarane is in no way a truely thoughtful business person, because the damage he is going to do to his reputation with the stigma he will attach to the property by demolishing an authentic structure and erecting a copy building (such as the Faux-bra not Cobra shown at left) is going to result in an ongoing bad light being shed on every business that ventures onto that property ever afterwards.

By the way, my statements here are neither libel nor slander, and rude is not actionable.

Mr. Scarane should stop trying to be a business person and go back to school to complete a useful degree of some sort.

Case closed.

Actually the boycott is entirely out of our hands.

A boycott is the sort of thing one can only suggest but have absolutely no control over in the final analysis.

It grows or shrinks based on legitimate community concerns and people voting with their feet where they have no remedy in statute.

We hear rumors about the groundswell but cannot affect it one way or another.

I believe that even the first planned tenant for the property (to be demolished) asked for the building to be saved, but they were ignored by Mr. Scarane who apparently wouldn't know a business plan if it bit him in the ass.

The idea that somebody would move into a town and first thing destroy the one true asset they have in it, indicates the sort of person who most certainly cannot understand the local economy.

The previous business in the Decker homestead has now reopened in a new location and has begun building equity in that site.

BOSTREE NEW LOCATION

Ironically the Bostree move will be pulling trade away from the old Decker site (which will also soon be losing its caché of authenticism), and doubly ironic the first business into the destroyed Decker homestead will be moving away from their newest best customer draw.

Really this is all on Mr. Scarane.

He is so disconnected from the local business community he even thought it was appropriate to have a lawyer draw up a bullshit boilerplate complaint and send it to us.

I really don't get paid to help Mr. Scarane, but I would be remiss if I didn't get the word out that he might want to review with his lawyers the meaning of the words libel and slander in a legal context, plus the meaning of nexus as it might pertain to the concept of restraint of trade, and most certainly he should go over with his lawyers what the true costs of a law suit against an adversary quite content (actually excited about the prospect) to engage pro se and publish the proceedings.

It will be very cheap for me, and I relish the idea of getting to explain at length my documented expertise regarding the uselessness of all social media with regard to helping or hurting any given business ... that will of course only occur after Mr. Scarane has laid out in great detail whatever it is he thinks are the documented specifics of how social media can be shown to have had an impact on his own specific business.

He might also ask his lawyers about why they felt the need to include a reference to termites and safety which has absolutely not one single shred of relevance to Mr. Scarane's absolute legitimate and legal right to bulldoze the Decker property; he bought it, he can bulldoze it ... people staying away from whatever business is on the site afterwards is also a matter of their absolute right.

Laughable really, but finally somebody will have to listen to me, and on Mr. Scarane's dime.

Understanding is of course something else.

Not likely Mr. Scarane will be able to acquire any of that.

For: Retail store, shopping center and personal service establishment*

Requires: 1 per 150 square feet of sales and/or customer service area

For: Home occupation or home professional office

Requirement: 3 per office

NOTES:
*This number is based on the fact that no large shopping centers are anticipated. Any shopping center in excess of 100,000 square feet could require fewer spaces which shall be allowed by the Planning Board without need for variances.

Src: § 98-22

You'll have to step measure useable space in Romers' Alley as our photos show only 7 parking spaces currently available for 8 rental spaces, and it would seem significant reliance is being placed on the Barnsider parking lot.

Of course Matt Kannon (owner of the Barnsider) complains about the situation but has not yet pushed the issue.

However, if we buy the property we will do the neighborly thing and make sure our use does not negatively impact adjacent parcels or the community at large (very uncommon concept in Sugar Loaf these days).

We'll have to check with the building inspector regarding customary requirements used, because Sugar Loaf artisan businesses are so far out of the norm there is not a clear choice for specific use type definition.

Also you might want to point out to Heide Moeller that an ongoing hidden problem with regard to on street parking is the fact that Kings Highway is not a Town Road but a County Road (different regulations).

Basically her experience was the same as mine.

When I told her my theory about it being owned by a silent investment group with Kevin Kern acting as front man, she said, "Happens all the time. It is a standard way to hide income, so no way to tell."

Then I told her about the listing we found that states Romers' Alley has no parking associated with the property.

Now we have to get a copy of the Town Code as relates to required commercial property parking.

I took some pictures of the parking as it exists today, just in case.

I have to say that I am somewhat losing my taste for buying the property due to all the problems, and the difficulty of getting information.

However, it's not time to stop probing just yet; something very weird is going on there.

I expect the matter is closed, but if we get another such letter, I will publish the full text here.

The last lawyer we had this kind of trouble with ended up disbarred.

Boycotts are assembled every day and are one of the pillars of American democracy, so if Kayla's dad thinks legal action is going to help him in any way whatsoever, he has only just begun to see our fight!

Freedom, as they say, is not free!

We will NOT BE INTIMIDATED into withholding TRUTH!

We will spare no expense to uphold our right to speak TRUTH!

Everything we have ever said is merely the TRUTH, and if the truth impacts business so be it.

We must thank Kayla's dad for giving this golden opportunity for us to now:

If Mr. Scarane would be so kind as to speak to everybody he knows (or to whomever might listen to him), in any way that he can, giving instructions on how best to boycott Endico watercolors, we would most positively thank him for that service ... especially if he truthfully tells people just exactly why it is he feels that they should be boycotting Endico.

In exchange for his own service we will in turn not charge Mr. Scarane for the valuable service we have already provided him by pointing out his grave business error ... which at least we now know beyond question he has become fully aware before the bulldozer arrives.

If Mr. Scarane would like to stop by the Endico studio, I will be glad to give him a tour of our lovely fence protecting a stand of trees that we prevailed in maintaining via our last similar legal action.

It only cost us $17,000 and three years of knotted stomach while we were told the defense of it might be as high as $75,000.

Hopefully the current action against us will cost all involved a lot more, so I can have a much better story to relate after our certain win at the end.

For Mr. Scarane's sake, I hope his attorneys are giving him a rebate for the entertainment value in their reading of materials related to such a frivolous attempt on their part at cowing us in our legitimate concerns.

Though none of this is going to save the Decker homestead, at least Mr. Scarane is on notice about what it is that the demolition is going to do to his business (if he can understand such things), and I can sleep at night knowing that at least I made it known to him.

I know, I know; the last three similar legal letters we received regarding other matters, our lawyer told us to merely ignore, but sometimes I have to say something.

Deomolition of a town treasure is one thing, but protecting FREEDOM OF SPEECH is something entirely different.

It is ironic that this very morning (before receiving the nasty lawyer letter), Mary and I had decided we had said enough on the matter and the information was out there best it can be ... now it looks like too much will not be nearly enough.

In any case, we are told Kayla has nothing to do with any of this.

Although there has not yet been that breakthrough, I must admit to being very impressed when you didn't even blink after being told the property was in contract but just continued your slow, methodic march of taking the problem apart piece by piece.

Does your publication of the Sugar Loaf Sign law portend anything?

I wish I knew who you are, but I guess I can still be civil.

Yes, the publication of the Sign Law is quite significant, because it points to the wretched state of Romers' Alley under ownership of an absentee distracted slumlord

It is the easiest part of the relevant Town Code to observe; and, if that has been so easily ignored, just think how wretched the state of other more difficult to address Code violations must be.

Unfortunately, today is the beginning of the extended Fourth of July weekend, so our lawyer and buyer's real estate agent are off the job.

While waiting for their return I have been doing my own web searches trying to track down the actual owner of the Romers' Alley property.

At this point it looks like it is probably not Kevin Kern, who is acting more like a spokesmodel than a principal in an enterprise.

From the names associated with the property so far, I can only think Bernie Madoff is going to show up on a document at any moment.

I did find a page on the Chamber website (laughably obsolete) with a mention that Kevin was the progenitor of the infamous and ignoble Take time to 'Loaf promotion which was only salvaged by the Make time to Learn t-shirts.

I have not spoken to a single owner of an actual longstanding successful Sugar Loaf business who has not been appalled by the Take time to 'Loaf sentiment, but businesses are universally ecstatic about the Make time to Learn promotion.

Not surprisingly that negative earlier image of 'Loafing came from an absentee landlord who seems to have gone out of their way to avoid taking a clear look at Sugar Loaf and otherwise developing their property accordingly.

We will continue looking very closely at Code violations on the Romers' Alley property in hopes of bringing it up to snuff.

As for my not blinking when told the property was under contract: it was pretty clear from research I had already done that the property could only be purchased (at the asking price) by somebody who was so disconnected from the local business environment that they would not bother doing an appropriate review of the situation.

Not very likely, and if the deal ever did exist it went bust pretty quickly ... probably as soon as the buyer finally took a look at the figures.

The link above works much better on a PC vs a handheld, but remembering the § 98-21 section number will help you find it on your phone.

Section LB-SL stands for Local Business-Sugar Loaf.

Would probably be helpful if everybody reads the law; it is in English.

The majority of shops are open all day from 9am to 7pm, Monday to Saturday. Some smaller shops may close over lunchtime between midday and 2pm, or all day on Monday. Sundays and public holidays are the usual closing days, although there are some exceptions...

Fortunately the Chamber website is obviously a poorly maintained boilerplate, so very few potential customers will give it any creedance while the Guild website has long since achieved primacy over it for most rational web searches.

Especially since very few members of the public ever bother to ask.

Here is how it was related to me beginning with something from my own experience.

In line with our research into buying the Romers' Alley property, we have been examining the current code compliance of the site.

We have been getting information in drips and drabs from the involved real estate agents while the belief stated by tenants is that the property and facilities are all up to code, no problem.

Except it is fairly typical for people to hold beliefs which do not withstand scrutiny, especially for such things as the technical details of Building Code Compliance.

In any case, one of the simpler requests we made was for a copy of the Sugar Loaf Sign Law.

Yes, one exists though you might not know it by looking around the hamlet.

We asked our buyer's agent to get us a copy from the Town Hall when she was going in to ask about some other specifics of more interest to her than to us.

Afterwards she told us, "They said you can just get the Code off the Town website, no problem."

I immediately went to the Town website but could not find a single solitary reference to anything related to Town Codes, and that was Sunday.

I told Mary to phone the Town on Monday and have somebody step her through the website to find what I could not.

Instead of phoning she dropped by the Town Hall.

The first person had no clue and passed her on to the Town Clerk who asked, "Did you look at the General Code portion," but when Mary offered her iPhone (already set to the website) with a request to help her find it, the Town Clerk took a step back and threw up her hands saying, "I don't know anything about computers!"

"No problem," says Mary, "I'll just take a copy."

"You have to fill out a FOIL request," said the Clerk handing Mary a Freedom of Information Law Request Form.

Mary filled it out, handed it in, acquiesced to the $0.25 cents per page it would cost, and was told, "I'll phone you when it is ready."

Mary’s response, "Will that be today, tomorrow?" pause, "...next week?" no response, "...next year?"

Standing to attention and carefully choosing her words the Clerk said, "We have five days to respond as to whether we can provide the Code or not."

Mary calculated the time including days the Town Offices are closed and believes she can go back next Monday.

One would think public documents would be easier to obtain, especially for such a simple request as a page and a half of text.

Good thing the Public Library doesn't work that way, or nobody would ever know anything.

Hope that's not the idea.

Seems to me the Town Hall is in exactly the same state it was when you left more than a decade ago begging the FBI to do something about it.

Same players, same nonsense.

Page one shows that the moment I have been predicting has come at last.

GUILD TOPS GOOGLE

Clicking on the image at the top left of the first page brought me directly to the Sugar Loaf Guild website.

Apparently that little trick netted the Endico studio $8,000 last Saturday (two paintings) even before opening time.

And that despite the Endico link is near the very bottom of the linked Historic Photos page; the secret was Mary running to open when she saw a digruntled couple walking a Sugar Loaf full of closed shops.

Finally I will get some respect for knowing something about the Internet.

I had posted a fb link to this forum yesterday, and Alex tends to stay on top of social media, and he is huge with constituent outreach.

Syntactical anomalies abound in everyone's online posting, as do grammatical errors.

Neither should be applied as an assay against authorship by a public official.

I do know that Alex takes the senior center issue very seriously, and suggestions to constituency-at-large to contact him directly are consistent with Alex's MO ... both as a public servant and as a 'Loaf resident.

One would have to speak to Alex directly and let him explain his position in order to say with any precision whether he follows social media so closely that he allows it to interfere with his official duties.

And as for Alex's constituent outreach, I have never spoken to the man.

I guess it is possible he has bought into the whole social media facade, but one would merely have to point to circumstances in Egypt while asking, "How'd all that social media Arab spring stuff work out for you guys?" in order to get him thinking more seriously about Internet vs Process, and off-handed commenting over carefully documented action.

In any case, as with the rest of the Interet, postings in this Forum should always be taken with the appropriate grain of salt because anybody can pretend to be anybody online, and it was only through an overwhelming effort on my part that I was able to catch the local faux jeweler (actually an ad agency in disguise) who was posting nastiness here.

In fact, I am not even sure if you yourself are actually Jay Westerveld, as all those who purport to be Jay spend an inordinate amount of time responding to or ignoring direct emails, or posting, deleting, unblocking, blocking viewers from several venues which should truly be fully open to the public.

No way to tell actually ... well, there is a way, but I am remaining mute with regard to that particular technique, which I used in order to get close enough to identification of that nastiness posting faux jeweler to take the final step and ask them face to face.

I have to say the icing went onto that particular cake quite nicely.

As for the effectiveness of local social media, I guess that will be emphatically decided when the first cut from the bulldozer rips into the side of the old Decker homestead.

Also, I had to edit away some spelling and syntax errors which I hope a Town Supervisor would never allow even in this informal context.

Additionally, I just phoned the Town Hall to confirm whether or not it was Alex who posted, and the Town Hall is closed.

Town Hall is open:
Monday - Thursday
8am - 5pm

Therefore, I am concluding this is a cheap attempt at trying to get people to harass the Town Supervisor, but since I am always in full support of everybody always harassing all public officials on a continual and routine basis, I am leaving this post here.

I also believe Town Halls should be open on Saturdays and any other day when townspeople are off from work and are able to phone in or show up with questions or comments and review public records.

I fought for that situation the entire eight (8) years I was a Planning Board Member, and my mentioning it here will have every bit the same effect ... none.

The phone number for the Town of Chester, NY Town Hall is:

(845) 469-7000
Monday - Thursday
8am - 5pm

Have at 'em; or, as do most people, have at 'em not.

And just in case you might not know how all this stuff works, look up this word: Hawala.

It actually has the *feel* of golden-era 1970s or 80s 'Loaf Life.

Thanks for this.

Do you guys (Bob, Mary, Clay, Connie, et al.) have a take on the present push to build a senior center on the "Knapp's View" property, where the present equipment shed and parking lot/kiosk now stand?

I sincerely have no opinion for or against it, save for making sure they build it when the Bob(Fugett)olinks aren't nesting.

I trust your collective gut on these matters.

Thoughts?

It seems like it will fit right in, because after I spent a couple weeks running the Welcome Center for the Occupy Kern Street Movement squatting on the front porch of Romers' Alley (while building my street creds and watching very closely local events), it appears to me that the only thing that can possibly account for recent happenings (and by recent I mean as far back as when they harassed Roger Romer to his death) is that Kiryas Joel is oh so carefully, quietly, and slowly taking Sugar Loaf under its wing.

To witness so much decay when our own experience of the local art market indicates money is in full flow only makes one wonder if properties are not being left to ruin on purpose.

I will leave you with a term to look up which I will put in context later: Hawala.

Otherwise, on second thought, maybe I can speak for others, one at least.

My new best friend Walter Kannon (I'm as shocked as the rest of you) was on a rant about the decimation of "Knapp's View" while I sat with him in front of the Barnsider day before yesterday (just like the old days except without Billy Margram), and what Walter thought would be better would be to move the Town Hall (if a new one they need) to near the current Town Park (plenty of room), and give the existing Town Hall to the senior citizens which would certainly be within walker hobbling distance (my own words) of their current location in the basement of the Public Library.

I said, "But Walter, you might get to go over there and play Bingo or something."

Walter said, "Bob, I'm counting on you to do something about this."

To which the only truthful response was, "Walter, haven't you caught on yet? Everybody HATES ME. I can't do anything."

On the other hand, I guess I could write something about it, if I gave a shit one way or another, though I really should have known better than to ever think they purchased that property to actually preserve and use as a public park.

In any case, my own concerns run toward the parochial, so mostly I just think about, "Wouldn't it be nice if an Artist Community had actual artists in it, and they would open their doors to the public just like they advertise?"

I am sort of short sighted like that believing after we purchase Romers' Alley and raise everybody's rent, they will realize Sugar Loaf product and an open door policy is their best bet at survival.

I keep hearing about somebody else coming in to "save" Sugar Loaf ... again!

I believe the most recent spate of salvation follows the old adage from the Viet Nam era, "We had to destroy the village in order to save it."

For once you'd think somebody might consider the fact that Sugar Loaf doesn't need saving.

Well, ok; maybe Romers' Alley does need saving (from an absentee landlord), but certainly not the old Decker homestead.

Authentic restored historic structures such as the one shown in the previous post have always been a mainstay of Sugar Loaf's financial success.

The recent visitors who paid $8,000 dollars for two Endico paintings came because they found the Guild website using a Google search after immediately discounting the Chamber website without even bothering to look at the site itself.

They were of the type of people who are sophisticated, successful, and understand that Chamber sites routinely have a uniformity to them (due to the process followed in assembling them) which assures they are not likely to provide any unique or useful information.

The full display of every building in Sugar Loaf on the Guild's Historic Photos page riveted them to the hamlet.

The $8,000 dollar reward for our work well done through a long term commitment and attention to business detail was not the result of accident.

Recently another such exciting moment came for Sugar Loaf when somebody walked into the Endico studio carrying a 1997 National Geographic they had saved for 17 years in order to guide their travels across America.

1997 National Geographic

Above is a view of the cover of that book we found online and purchased.

As always click for larger image.

p. 48 with
Sugar Loaf

Page 48 includes the mention of Sugar Loaf and also has a reference to Museum Village and Goshen.

Article Close-up

Click for a close up of the full text, so you can read what brings them here.

Events of this sort are not by accident but are the product of years of careful presentation of universal truths about history, art and the human creative spirit.

Authentic restorations which maintain the excellent bones of historic buildings is the stuff that every thoughtful community worldwide strives to maintain, because clear heads are always looking at the past while planning for the future ... a future that many ignore until it gets here, then spend the remainder of their time longing for a more recent past they failed to grasp as it occurred.

Sometimes, try as you might, you just can't save somebody from shooting themselves in the foot.

It is surprising how many people think the longstanding success of Sugar Loaf is due to some sort of accident while being oblivious to the nature of the excellence that exists here today, right now.

BEAUTIFUL!!!

Mary was just waiting for the right day to get a photo of Sugar Loaf's newest authentic restoration of what (only a couple years ago) was the most broken, rotted, run down and unsafe structure in the hamlet.

IN PROCESS

Before recent restoration the building looked like the photo above (click for larger).

Be aware that the before photo does not come close to showing the previous abysmal mess of that building.

Notice that Sugar Loaf's best trained Certified Therapy Dog is proud to be seen with this authentic, old, restored heartthrob of a building.

Not at all like what is planned by the dog food store which is currently running headlong toward business ruin.

We continue our research into confirming code compliance for the property, and I will be preparing an update for publication here.

We have also taken steps to obtain an engineering report regarding what would be required to solve the significant water run off issue and connect the property to town septic and water.

The overly close proximity of the two back buildings would seem to make routine maintenance of the common exterior walls impossible, while the debris on the roofs is rotting the structures from the top down rather quickly.

The front building appears to be in need of stabilization of the north wall which is significantly fallen in.

Not to mention there is a sizable section of improperly installed drip edge which is compromising the west wall.

One only need look at the Scott's Meadow property to see what is likely in progress in Romers' Alley ... one wonders if it is on purpose.

The odd removal of the Welcome Center only increases suspicion.

No movement has been made by the owner to clean up the internal mess left by Moondancer.

In summary it doesn't look like a cheap fix, but a correct increase in rents may be able to cover the costs.

That will be accomplished either by us or another buyer if we decide the challenge too great.

I have my theories, but only time will tell; I expected the supposed contract for sale would answer some of the questions.

The Chamber of Commerce appears to be on track to make improvements to their process by the middle of 2016 or 2017.

I continue to be treated as if my 40 years experience with business and street traffic in Sugar Loaf is below meaningless.

As for my own involvement, I have moved the Welcome Center back underground and continue actively presenting Ezra's old property to a number of people who are helping get the word out to make sure that dog food store is done, done, done as far as having any potential to be a thriving local business.

We also continue researching the Romers' Alley property for purchase, because we have not been able to independently confirm it is under contract for sale.

Also the story about Tammy of Moondancer fleeing in the dead of night owing 7 months back rent while stealing Kern's refrigerator is a perennial favorite.

Naming by name those who supported Tammy's tenure wrecking havoc in Sugar Loaf adds greatly to the tale and generates a lot of extra guffawing.

When the husband and wife doctors staying at Glenmere came over to Sugar Loaf and dropped $8,000 dollars for two Endico watercolors, a question arose.

After those two guests of Glenmere found the Guild website, were enthralled by what they read in the stories, the photographic history, and Forum, they were required to call Monroe taxi (on their own) in order to visit Sugar Loaf, and they were going to have to call for another taxi in order to return to the resort, but Mary and Bob intervened and gave them a complimentary ride.

Therefore the question became, "Why is Glenmere going out of their way to make sure guests do not have easy access to Sugar Loaf?"

Our first guess was that it might be related to their problems with Jay Westerveld who raised a fuss over an endangered frog that was further endangered by the newest round of Glenmere expansion.

In fact after everything was said and done, Glenmere even named one of their onsite facilities "Frogs End Bistro" in apparent celebration of their win.

If that were the problem we would gulp and take the hit, because preservation of endangered species is important, but what is actually the problem with Glenmere is much more troubling.

We got the story from Jessica Hengen.

It seems Kelley Jane once had a job at Glenmere and asked the owners why they never send visitors to Sugar Loaf.

The answer: "Because the SHOPS ARE NEVER OPEN, and it is bad for our reputation to send customers into a bad experience."

Looks like that Fugett guy is correct again.

The only problem Sugar Loaf has is shops not being open; there is plenty of street traffic, no need for additional celebrity endorsement, promotions, events, enhanced signage, and gimicks; just make a quality product and open your doors!

Jessica Hengen had another great weekend while everybody around her was complaining about the lack of traffic, but Jessica has been slowly building a following by being open more than not over the last three years, and she is now beginning to enjoy the fruits of her labor.

If Sugar Loaf's closed shops might be bad for Glenmere's reputation, just think how bad they are for Sugar Loaf's reputation.

Get it?

If Mary Endico had not seen what was happening and ran to open for these two people who ended up spending $8,000 dollars and giving us a tour of Glenmere, nobody would ever have known how much money was lost to the hamlet Saturday morning.

It is Monday; how much will be lost today?

Numerous times they said, "No, the Guild site," and then passed my quick test on what they had seen, so it was in fact the Guild site that brought them here.

Mary was coming back from the Post Office around 10:30 am and saw them walking the town (getting more and more pissed off studios were closed), so she ran to open early and let them in.

You know, just the standard stuff except for them coming from Glenmere.

The most shocking aspect of all this was the amount of time the Sugar Loaf community allowed a criminal to run the crap fairs and add to the total destruction of Sugar Loaf's reputation.

Apparently even after Tammy was gone there were several idiots who would have gladly allowed her to stay on as an event organizer.

Therefore I guess it is not surprising the faux jeweler is still allowed to run rampant despite their wretched reputation for deceipt and poor business practices.

Go figure.

Otherwise my tenure on the Romers' Alley porch netted me a vast store of market research (which probably no one has an interest in hearing about due to it being truthful not hyperbole), and the major complaint of visitors (I should say PISSED OFF visitors) who stopped to ask about the town was the lack of open shops.

Also I had ample opportunity to watch the foot traffic going into Romers' Alley and closely inspect the property as to value.

Since I am now off the porch, I can speak a little more freely.

We finally received a report on the current rents being charged, and I confirmed the figures are correct with the tenants now in residence, and what it revealed was this:

There is absolutely no way in hell that property comes even close to being profitable with the rents as currently paid, nor even the rents as projected, unless routine maintenance and needed improvements are ignored and the property is allowed to rot ... which it is doing quite admirably.

My assessment stands that the property itself is worth zero (0) dollars, and if they gave it to me for free plus an extra $10,000 dollars to get revitalization started, I would still have to think long and hard about taking on the responsibility.

I have not yet seen anything about the property that dissuades me from that position.

Obviously anybody who has entered into contract for the purchase of Romers' Alley has not done their homework, and the tenants report that nobody has spoken to them stating they are ready to purchase, so in the off chance that somebody comes to their senses, realizes the local economy is nothing like what they were told (or imagined) and drop out of the sale, it is probably in the best interest of Mary and myself to continue with our investigation of the property for future purchase ... after the current contract fails to be consumated and the true value of the property is thus revealed as moving very close to the zero point plus a cash dowry in our direction.

The two $4,000 dollar paintings went to a lovely couple staying at Glenmere (a very atypical couple for Glenmere, as they were very active and not braindead) while the $500 and $150 paintings went to two people who had shown up for the Bostree re-opening and were so skeeved out by the clutter and closeness of the shop they came over to Endico and bought something instead.

Yeah, an $8,650 dollar day pretty much always gives me a boost of confidence as well.

Good luck with your purchase of Romers' Alley ... after those other people finally understand what they are buying and duck out of the deal.

-K

I am totally vacated, and I didn't even steal your refrigerator.

Thank you for the opportunity to show what is possible.

Bob

At least that is how I view it after noticing online that a public hearing is being held tonight for the Sterling Forest version casino proposal, and the guy made sure to let me know that Genting has the absolute worst possible record environmentally.

I mentioned that the working dog with him (I first thought was a service dog in training) must be French due to the commands "assis" and "couchez" he was using to have the dog sit and lay down.

He told me the dog wasn't French but Israeli and had been in Afganistan to which I replied, "So then you have experience working with insurgencies, and an insurgent is just what I am ... currently I'm squatting on this porch!"

I wonder if Native Americans are ever even consulted for these casino projects anymore.

At least the people who go to the casinos are shipped in and out with designated drivers, and never leave the facility on their own, or they would be a total catastrophe for the area communities.

Bad enough they suck tax dollars away from schools, roadwork, sewers, water, and parkland.

Fortunately the drunken gamblers stay inside them and out of the way.

I have been standing on the street across from the Barnsider managing the Welcome Center all day, every day (rain or shine) watching people's shocked and disgusted faces when I tell them how their favorite blue building is about to be bulldozed on a whim.

Especially when I take them over near it and point out how obviously nice, solid, and authentic the construction is.

Everybody always vows to get out the word locally and make sure nobody ever shops at that dog food store again.

And they certainly will never frequent whatever cheap faux copy house is put up in its place.

I must say I have been quite surprised just how many Orange County locals are walking the streets in Sugar Loaf every day.

But then Sugar Loaf is and always has been a prime destination site ... though most of the new shops never seem to quite get it (before they are gone).

It is probably best that somebody manning the Welcome Center doesn't look like a snaggle tooth homeless person with borrowed used glasses.

Not to mention comparing me to a homeless person is politically incorrect and insensitive to the homeless who in general wish nothing more than to never be compared to me.

And "manning"?

Too bad they only stopped by to pickup their forgotten iPhone charger.

I started a log of encounters at the Welcome Center today but soon realized I was way too busy, and I would be cutting into precious customer relations and contact time.

In summary, the number of people who stopped by to ask questions while being absolutely pissed off that people were closed was astounding ... and a little hard to take.

When I tried to show all the things that are made in Sugar Loaf, things that cannot be found anywhere else, people only sneered in disgust, "Yeah, ok, but nobody is open, so who cares? We were promised seeing working artist studios!"

More than three dozen customers went out of town today absolutely certain that they would make sure nobody they know will ever come here, and each one of those people will be talking to at least a dozen other people, so that means another 500 people will be dropped from the Sugar Loaf list of possible fans.

If everything goes well for people, when pressed they might mention to others , "Yeah, cute town."

But if they have a bad time, they will go out of their way to tell people.

Things go downhill a lot faster than uphill.

I can't believe how many Sugar Loaf businesses are wasting time worrying about fb Likes while ignoring their actual customers.

Thankfully the Barnsider was open and added to the other regularly open businesses: Anne Marie's Deli, KM Design, Laura's Sweets, My Sister's Closet, Sugar Loaf Mountain Herbs, Endico watercolor studio, and maybe Boswell (if anybody can figure out that situation).

In any case, after I stepped into the Barnsider to suggest a "Closed Mondays" sign to stop people from thinking they are out of business, all of the wait staff cooed agreement when I mentioned how hard it was to take all the "nobody’s open" complaints.

In one voice they all chimed, "We hear it all the time."

Therefore I will report this little tidbit from Mary Endico to new shop owners (anyone here for less than 15 years who has not been open every day of the week).

In the summers business shifts from weekends to weekdays because people are doing family stuff on the weekends and are free from school duties during the week.

Mary stays open both on weekends and weekdays (like all the other thriving businesses), because one time segment always takes up any slack from the other time segment ... after you build a following.

Tomorrow appears to be another one coming.

Talk to those IT people and have them get their act together.

Seems it might be more than just a typo.

I'd be upset if I thought that more than 4 people would actually see it.

You should check into your own IT team, because they overshot the number of readers here by at least 2 or 3.

Get your butt into town and open; I need to borrow a hammer and get advice on what to do about a moldy plastic lawn chair at the Welcome Center.

Mary Endico wants me to send it to the landfill; but I think not.

From 11:00 am to 5:00 pm Bob handled the Welcome Center and fielded questions about why nobody was open and what ever happened to Sugar Loaf.

Mary also took a few pictures of people walking the town and being disappointed.

MISSED FAUX JEWELER
BUT FOUND BOB

Above is a person who came specifically for the Faux Jeweler, found her closed, stopped at Endico (open), and is shown carrying a Guild Brochure on her way down to the Welcome Center to have the situation explained (and explained it was); she will be calling Cookie Boone for piano lessons and shopping at Colláge (who did show up for a few moments) from now on.

UNLIKELY
TO RETURN

Above are two people who might be back, probably won't.

MOTIVATED BUYERS

All the intense peering in the world is not going to open the Diltz Frame Shop doors.

FINALLY SOMEBODY
FOUND SOMETHING

No explanation required.

LOST AND ALONE

It must be frightening to arrive in a ghost town once believed populated.

RUN BATTED IN

At least Bob was entertaining, even without his guitar.

Left to right: Mary Endico, Kate Toner, Patricia Carucci.

Kate is a former Broadway make-up artist now moved to California and a watercolor artist who Bob tried to get to move to Sugar Loaf and become famous like the rest of us.

Patricia is a fashion designer of custom bags for gym, yoga, running, swimwear, and miscellaneous; a 35 year resident of Monroe, she remembers the old juried shows where she always did very well; we never met her before today.

Her industry insider conversation with Bruce Roberts (after introductions were made) went way over Bob's head though he sure enjoyed listening to the repartee.

After feeling lost and alone in Sugar Loaf, these two treasures finally made it down to the Welcome Center where they were highly enlightened and entertained.

RUN BATTED INNER

Click on that image again and take another look at those smiling faces.

Bob also saw another dozen strollers who just kept shaking their heads.

That means Sugar Loaf lost at least 500 sales today, and ironically Bob did not start weeping even once.

Even after he was brutalized by the Herb shop when he asked if they were open and then realized they weren't just being rude to him (he is used to it) but to a potential customer because they had no idea who he was.

It looked like Laura's Sweets would be open, but after providing a business card for the Welcome Center they failed to come down with the promised full menu, so they probably closed early and forgot.

Doesn't really matter, because the two lost and found ladies had already stopped by Laura's Sweets but were complaining rather strongly about the service by the time they got to Bob.

Bodhi Tree and Bee Positive made a brief appearance to make sure Bob hadn't burnt Romers' Alley down to the ground in disgust.

The only shops confirmed open were Endico, Anne Marie, and My Sister's Closet, duh!

Bob will be campaigning to have a law enacted which forbids anybody from ever talking about what Sugar Loaf needs to increase foot traffic until all the foot traffic already here is correctly serviced.

What was that all about?

Walter is putting it together with his daughter Nina, and by the looks of it, those placemats are going to be spectacular ... no commercial display ads or shop listings on them ... very classy.

Toward the end of our editing session, I mentioned how I had to have it out with that nonsense sip and trip tour guide who had no idea where she was, how she left her whole group standing on the street while she went in to talk to the Chamber of Commerce President, and how when I very vociferously tried to explain to her that bringing a group into town who had already eaten, and were clearly drunk as skunks, and only came to use the bathroom in the Barnsider and complain about Sugar Loaf not being like NYC, she yelled at me, "I'm going to turn you into the Chamber of Commerce!"

I told Walter how my response was, "Like I care!"

That's when Walter started laughing uncontrollably repeating, "Chamber of Commerce, ha ha ha, Chamber of Commerce, that's rich ..."

The best part is I now hear those Chamber imbeciles are actually considering holding "closed" meetings, as if they shouldn't be begging people to come to their cliquish little loser group.

On the other hand KM Designs has been added to the Welcome Center plus an upgrade gourd from Luft Gardens (we are waiting for a piece from Ada who has promised something special):

K.M. Design
added with
Luft Gardens Update

I spent the rest of the day talking to Sugar Loaf return customers explaining that the artists they remember are actually still here, how the buildings on main street that were all residential are now owned by artists from the Meadow (which is purposely rundown by the owners for tax credits), how Kayla is about to destroy one of their favorite buildings (do not shop there), how all things considered, business is better than ever.

Despite the shop behind me being vacated by the previous tenants leaving in the dead of night owing seven (7) month's rent, but no worries, the same (actually better) products are available from Bodhi Tree or Sugar Loaf Mountain Herbs both two doors down here on the map.

Mostly I just read Colláge's Bruce Roberts' credentials when art collectors gasp over his little wheelbarrow pin (he still makes stuff) and then get to enjoy seeing them gasp louder the second time after I read Bruce's massive credentials.

Thanks to everybody who has been adding to the table allowing me to reveal the hidden Sugar Loaf!

Once again the Guild posted an authentic video very early which would eventually be watered down and re-circulated throughout fb.

The guild version has the actual artist and a description of the process.

Goes right along with how I had to have it out with a low rent tour guide at the very end of the day who was sucking money off the artists by bringing a group of drunken winery tourists with not one single interest in being in Sugar Loaf ... except for complaining there wasn't a coffee shop (like they were accustomed to in NYC), and how the problem with Sugar Loaf was a lack of such nonsense, and how they had been told by that very tour guide Sugar Loaf is a pretty shabby place just waiting for a coffee shop to make our fortunes.

They had absolutely no idea about the renown and history of the place in which they were standing.

I suspect they were getting their laughable information from the Chamber of Commerce President.

I probably should have let it go and ignored them, but somebody has to start saying something.

We have added Bodhi Tree, Into Leather, and a business card from Adrienne M. Butvinik at Bliss.

Bob will purchase something emblematic from Bliss today.

Apparently Joanne Mannino has stopped doing new stained glass and has nothing to add.

Go figure.

The Welcome Center table now looks like this:

BODHI TREE
INTO LEATHER
ADDED TO LINEUP

It only took explaining (finally) what is already here, instead of spending so much time pretending something else is needed.

At that very same moment as Brad, Randy, Bruce, and Bob were lounging drenched by the bright sunshine in an empty Romers' Alley, yacking about how bad things are, Jessica Hengen was inside her studio two doors down selling one of the best pieces to come out of Sugar Loaf maybe in forever ... of course to a referred customer.

Unfortunately, Jessica is too modest to say just how much she made on the sale (afraid to make others less fortunate feel pretty bad about their lives), but you will probably have a handle on how much it sold for when you take a look at it:

LOSS

As an aside, you have been watching way too much Pawn Stars.

It is not a lack of potential renters, business owners, energetic artists.

Here is an example of one of the techniques Fonti is using to profit from the absolutely on purpose destruction of Scott's Meadow:

Being an absentee slum lord has become big business, very big business indeed, and I know at least three dozen artists who would be more than willing to move into Scott's Meadow and run the rest of Orange County out of business.

It brings into question why so many people have offered the owner of Romers' Alley rental money for the front shop, but they would rather rent to people who refuse to pay their rent for 7 months and finally slip off into the dead of the night leaving them high and dry instead.

I have myself offered a $4,200 check just to use the front porch, but have been told, "Go ahead and use it; no need to pay; I have bigger fish to fry."

I guess it makes perfect sense in the world of absentee slum-lording, and I will probably be kicked off the porch just for mentioning it.

It certainly pointed out how insanely busy Sugar Loaf is, even on a dreary rain spritzed Wednesday ... too bad so many people were closed, but I guess the bulk of the apology should really go to all the people that I had to explain it too.

Listen up absentee Sugar Loaf tenants!

You do NOT need lots of street traffic.

You need lots of referrals.

And Sugar Loaf has more than enough street traffic to develop an insane number of referrals.

You just have to be open in order to service it.

CAUGHT IN THE ACT

Then people dropped by with more products to add to the growing Welcome Center presentation:

SMATTERING II

So now Rosner Soap, Cheryl Simpson, and Jessica Hengen have been added to the local artists who are represented.

I gave out lots and lots of FREE Sugar Loaf University t-shirts to a very excited crowd, and the Barnsider wait staff heard about the new buzz and scurried across the street to get theirs.

BOB STILL PLEASED

When Connie Rose showed up in the midst of Sugar Loaf regulars streaming through — asking questions, finding answers — and soon after Barry Plaxen (Co-Publisher / Managing Editor of The Delaware & Hudson CANVAS) screeched into a U turn to find out what that odd sign was about, I began to realize that things are just going to be getting better and better, ever and ever.

Especially if my only one true dream is realized wherein Kevin Kern goes nuts (despite being offered more money than he has been losing previously) and misses out on benefitting from hosting the singular best aggregation and presentation of top-notch artisan work in the contiguous United States by booting us off the property.

Whew, what a relief that will be.

The weather forecast for this coming weekend is fabulous, and I hope your visits are numerous.

You are doing a great service for the community - not just for Sugar Loaf, but for the whole surrounding area.

Hats Off ! to you.

All My Best. H.

I just sent email to Kevin Kern offering him a $4,200 check to secure that porch through November — including the month of June (for which I clearly owe him).

Of course I have allowed he can kick us out on a whim, and we will stay out of his way while he preps the place for his next tenants ... either us or whomever.

Ok, enough of my blushing.

While continuing the financial review for purchasing Romers' Alley (outright for cash), Bob managed to get the Welcome Center open for business so to speak.

Thanks to everyone who provided a quick smattering of original Sugar Loaf product to get him started yesterday:

WELCOME CENTER STARTUP

On the table are products from Peter and Manon Von Uchtrup (18th Century Furniture), Nick Zungoli (Exposures Gallery), Peter and Amy Lendved (The Candle Shop), Ray Boswell (Boswell Pottery), Connie Rose (the driving force behind Boswell Pottery), Charlie Mannino (Sundog Stained Glass), Randy Brown (Bee Positive), Bruce Roberts (Colláge), and Bob's own work.

Bob is quite pleased with the progress!

BOB IS PLEASED

The renaissance is in full swing ... well, actually, just the process of making people aware that the renaissance always was in full swing, and the reality of what is in Sugar Loaf right now, today is far better and more deeply hidden than anybody suspected.

While we were taking our tour of Romers' Alley with the two real estate agents, I grabbed the smarter of the two and we went over to take a look at the house Kayla is about to destroy, and we were quite shocked to note that it is actually in GREAT shape, no need to be torn down, a REAL tragedy.

We continue spreading the word among the local dog and horse communities, and people have been SICKENED!

Sorry, Boswells, from what we heard (and what "experts" will be paid to attest to) is that it was in bad shape.

In any case, The Welcome Center is now open 7 days a week.

But I am not that kind of person, so there you have it.

Anyway, somebody said the guy I remembered was named Mordecai not Myron.

In any case, somebody taking over somebody else's email account should give recipients a heads-up and explanation!

In Bob's most recent email exchange with the supposed owner Kevin Kern regarding renting the front shop in the interim to get the Sugar Loaf Welcome Center started, there was one email coming from Kevin's e-address but with the signature "Myron."

Well, that just happened to be the only email which spoke directly of a conditional, not sure if, but maybe possibly, a $700.00/mnth rental figure, and that sort of statement would require legal standing so NOT KEVIN.

Things get deeper and murkier the deeper one probes into the murky depths.

Bob has a whole slew of related theories regarding who purchased it, and why, and what is actually going on with the price, renovations, running of crap shows, etc, but he has decided not to comment because of the main thing being the main thing and should probably be kept the main thing and all.

Otherwise the Welcome Center project is on somewhat of a hold pending circumstances, despite the large number of people who have already offered Sugar Loaf products to go in the shop.

Peter Von Uchtrup has offered to fill it for free with display cabinets ala 18th Century Furniture.

Jessica Hengen, Boone Woodcarving, Luft Gardens, Zungoli, Into Leather, Rosner Soap, Bee Positive, Colláge, Bliss, Practical Magick, and others, are all on board.

I haven't spoken to them as yet, but I am sure Simpson's Originals, Boswell, and Pisces passions will all jump in, and Anne Marie's Deli and the Barnsider are a given.

As for myself, I am in a wait and see mode, but would have ponied up the rent and had the room full of Sugar Loaf product by now ... no fuss, no muss, quick in and out (if needed) had I only been able to get an actual rental price quoted.

In an odd reversal of your typical circumstances (we have heard you are subject to tenants fleeing in the dead of night and stiffing you on rent), I have come in the dead of night, posted a sign on your property porch regarding the Welcome Center coming soon, and you may pre-bill us from the beginning of this month.

No need to get your lawyer to write a letter if this is a problem, just say the word and we will disappear.

Otherwise, tell us the amount of the rent and Mary will phone with a Credit Card or Cash payment whichever you prefer.

Bob Fugett

WELCOME CENTER
SIGN

I see that Moondancer has closed.

I would like to rent that space month to month in order to put in a Sugar Loaf Welcome Center and Information Desk.

I assume you will need the first month and a month's security deposit in cash.

How much is the rent?

Bob Fugett

And that building will be gone forever.

Thanks for looking at the Endico website.

After browsing a few style directories you looked at:

For your current amusement below are my notes of your browsing which includes the pages you viewed along with how you navigated to them plus how long you were on each:

********************
06/05/14: aft onsite tour of Endico Studio returned to END idx 0s fav 0s / 30s, TblTxt > gal 14s, Img1Txt > avail 44s, NWF 35s, LND 15s, IND 16s, MSC 36s, MON 8s, 5521 35s, nav > bio 14m37s, nav > idx 15s, TblTxt > show/idx
********************

In order to better understand our plans for the future take a look at the following linked page (you probably only need read the quote at the top of the page):

We look forward to seeing you Monday for the Romers' Alley tour.

Thanks again for all the information. -b

She has volunteered to curate the new Sugar Loaf Art shows which will be supplanting the old flea market fiascos.

She is also acting as our Buyer's Agent in the purchase of Romers' Alley.

With her involvement in real estate, she takes advantage of all her past experiences bringing an artist's eye and sculptor's hands-on experience to help people envision what the potential of a property truly is.

Heide also has an insane level of knowledge of the construction and value of old houses as she herself owns the oldest house in Warwick.

Too bad Kayla didn't get her help.

Now that somebody has asked to see the "accounts" of the local fiascos, and somebody else promptly left town, the stage is cleared for the real show to begin.

Lights, camera, action!

Worked in the old days, and works in the to days.

My only defense is that I was surrounded by a bunch of crying women who were all acting like they were going to miss me or something.

Then when I got to Wyoming, I gave the wagon wheel to the descendent of the first settlers into town, and she started crying as if she really liked it or something.

As an aside (to Bob), thanks for bringing me into the 21st Century, a place I definitely did not want to be, but my website has proven somewhat useful in ways I could never have predicted.

In any case, sorry and thanks.

"You just have to get away from the few bad actors, meet the actual working artists (who are not like anybody you have ever met in your life), and really all the other nonsense drops away," is a statement one can make but without Boone here to lend support, nobody believes it anyway.

I still remember hearing the wind suck out of Randy's lungs when he saw the outline drawing that Clay quick scrawled onto the wagon wheel for production perspective in full knowledge it would be whittled away to nothing in the final version which, by the way, now looks like this:

That wheel rim was on the first settler's wagon to reach Douglas, Wyoming.

Some people give a shit about preseving authentic things that cannot be duplicated.

I would also tell you to have your people post their outrage on that fb page, but we both know people with actual money rarely do fb.

One more thing they failed to check before purchasing.

It is always possible to restore, and especially in this time there are so many things a contractor can do.

It may take more money than she wants to spend, however ... the cost of bulldozing, cleaning up and rebuilding seems to ME a more costly route.

But what do I know.

A successful business already renting an outbuilding on the property is also in much greater jeopardy than they know.

We have had several conversations with Kayla, and they always seem to end with a statement about her being very, very particular, clinically very particular.

Sad for that great old building which was possibly one of the most unique architectures in the county, if not the state.

There isn't even an overriding business or personal need to do it, just something she feels compelled to do, and my guess is she'll walk away from it not very long afterward.

Doubly sad because Kayla herself has an inordinate talent, plus a rapt attention to people's pets and her business otherwise.

I was really hoping to pour our next $309,000 cash money investment into the purchase of Romers' Alley.

We did a lot of research into the matter, and have decided we should put our own property on the market at the same time, just in case.

We are still working on the numbers for Romers' Alley, but our research regarding the Endico studio property (hired experts, etc) shows we should only market it in the Hamptons, Connecticut, and New York City while placing the value at $2.6 million.

You heard it here first.

In this case the new owners are so enamored of the location, they are ready to pour an insane amount of money into the property (which will be required to come up to code) while they have totally lost sight of what specifically makes the location so valuable.

Look at this, it is a photo of the illegal banner already draped over the building they are about to destroy ... in belief the prime location has nothing to do with the historic building that sits on it:

THIS

I believe we will stop them.

Their hired gun experts will be (more than anything) expert in coming up with justifications for doing whatever the hell somebody wants to do.

So they pretty much have the end game sewn up.

The hamlet's architectural review process was hamstrung years ago by the "purple" house, and the sign laws are useless because nobody pays them the slightest attention (see the illegal banner already flying on the house to be bulldozed).

Otherwise organizing the fight against the demolition is fine, but find a Bog Turtle, or water, or parking, or curb and sidewalks, or similar problem, and then hire your own experts.

The final showdown will be a battle of dueling experts.

Make sure her customers know what she plans to do, because they might talk some sense into her; although she already has clearly ignored at least one of them (who has rather significant connections to the local dog community and who was previously one of Kayla's staunchest supporters).

Also, as for the possibility of a Bog Turtle, be aware that Arlette Seligmann found one in her own yard and used it in her efforts trying to stop the bypass from cutting through her property, but those efforts were futile.

Despite that she still bequeathed her property to the community on her death with specific instructions how the generous gift was to be used.

Unfortunately the group that took over the Seligmann property after her death went out of their way to gut the essence of Arlette's Last Will and Testament, and they are now using the property specifically contrary to her wishes.

They even changed the name.

However, a good strong effort on your part and that of your organization's members can't hurt and might give somebody with a brain close to the situation an opportunity to re-think destroying something that can never be replaced.

Sure does keep the Forum interesting though, doesn't it?

Hi Mary,

I am just reaching out to you because I had saw you posted something on my business page which I felt was very unprofessional when you have my email address and could have emailed me directly.

My business Facebook page is where my customers visit and new customers visit and I felt that was just out of line. I feel I have always respected you so I would expect the same back.

Now on to what you posted on my page and clearly what is being discussed in the Guild's forum:

1. Yes it is true.

2. The facts stated in the guilds forums are not correct. Especially the comment as to what we are building, we are not building "faux strip mall shed".

3. We originally bought the property in hopes to save the structure and to do renovations. After hiring professionals (engineer, builder and architect) to come in and inspect the structure, it was deemed not repairable and unsafe.

It was very disheartening what was said on the Guild's forum about me and just so you know we are upholding the core values (shop, live, work) of the town since downstairs will be my business and upstairs my future husband and I will be living.

If you have any questions or concerns you can attend the public hearing that will be scheduled for July.

Thank You & Best Regards,
Kayla

As if every other pre-revolutionary house in Sugar Loaf was not purchased in at least as bad or worse condition, most were significantly worse.

The Endico studio snuffed candles when the wind blew through it, and Mary and I spent the first 10 years here doing the renovation work ourselves, but when business was finally good enough we hired Don Duke (our neighbor from My Sister's Closet across the street) and his partner Mike Needleman at $1,000.00 per week (plus materials, very expensive materials) three years running to put on the finishing touches.

Every penny of that was paid for in real time from ongoing painting sales to Sugar Loaf street traffic which consisted of people enthralled by the work being done.

We lived in piles of sawdust and sheetrock for almost a quarter century.

Chirstine Louvet's building next to us was even worse, and a customer actually fell through the bathroom floor into the basement at one point.

However, I do understand the pragmatism of going the cheap route, despite the sadness from then on of having to tell your customers, "Oh, this building is only a replica of an old style building, the others in town are authentic; sorry you traveled so far to be disappointed."

For our own part we will keep explaining, "Yes, our building was here before America was born," thus riveting a return customer to a situation they cannot find anywhere else.

Somebody came in today having traveled across the continent with a 1995 National Geographic in their hand which mentioned Sugar Loaf as a place that needs to be seen; they had saved the book since they got it as a subscription in 1995.

We will not be at the public hearing because you certainly have the absolute legal and legitimate right to do what you are doing, so public comment will have no effect, and you will be shooting yourself in the foot no matter.

I also won't bother to point out things in your e-mail like "I had saw you posted" is grammatically incorrect so should have been "I had seen that you posted" or better "I saw you posted," but like I said there is no need to comment on that.

Nor is there a need to chide you for referring to a few random human activities as core values.

Shop, live, work are merely things that people do, not concepts which guide an enlightened life path ... oh, wait, this is the modern age, so maybe you are right.

In any case, either one gets it, or one does not.

Did you really think private e-mails would squelch conversation?

One word casually dropped at Anne Marie's Deli has more impact than a thousand fb pages Liked a thousand times each.

I'm guessing you guys are far enough away to have dodged the bullet; Kevin Kern, not so much.

We witnessed the same thing near Tryon, NC in 1996.

Once the first trailer home moves in, things go downhill pretty fast.

The Ezra Decker house (most recently sold by Boswells) is slated to be demolished and replaced with a faux strip mall shed, or so it seems.

Finally somebody has recognized that the local housing prices are so far out of kilter that it makes sense to burn one of the hamlet's main tourist attractions to the ground rather than perform the minimal upgrade required to make it a thriving business location.

It was only a matter of time before the insane run of people grabbing up local real estate pell-mell at over inflated prices without first doing correct market research was going to backfire ... blinding a new owner to the value of the golden goose they just purchased but have chosen to kill.

Guess those golden eggs will never be gathered while another business has put itself on the fast track to certain failure.

On the good side (for us anyway) is that the Endico studio now becomes even more valuable as one of the few remaining pre-revolutionary national treasures that has helped make this town famous.

It is sad though, watching somebody destroy the gift which could have made them rich.

Hopefully nobody will tell their customers what they are planning to do, or they will experience a sharp decline in sales.

You know, like the ones we saw in all those supposed artist communities we visited.

That quote he sent you from his roommate, which I first thought came from The Dude in The Big Lebowski, was actually a Stephen Covey quote.

"The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing."

Maybe having $309,000 cash money burning a hole in your pocket makes you friskie.

In case you would like to get out the word, Mary and I are publishing our progress on the Romers' Alley purchase:

With a running log:

Our plan is to make the front shop a Chamber of Commerce information kiosk, or maybe a Guild Information kiosk if the Chamber never gets their act together.

Since the theater has now been snapped up, this might be just what we are looking for.

Here is a:

Definitely Guild influenced!

Never talk to anybody online you do not know In Real Life, and take extra precautions to be sure the person you are talking to online is the person you know.

But if you must talk to somebody online you are not sure of (and run into trouble), push the envelope by asking a few increasingly stupid inflammatory questions.

Even if what you are doing is abundantly clear, the person will eventually not be able to help themselves and will reveal their true character.

At that point, if they are revealed as a bad actor, block them ASAP, and don't look back.

That way you can keep the lines of communication open for those who are worth it.

The best I can describe what just happened is that somebody tried to break into the Forum, place commercial content in it, and attempt to divert attention away from Sugar Loaf proper.

However, the Sugar Loaf Guild Forum is specifically published to promote businesses inside Sugar Loaf, so I had to block this person who was actively trying to muddy the waters.

I have left the entire thread here as instructive.

It was not Connie Rose, nor did I ever think it could be (given the number of "tells" in the writing style).

There is a phenomonen online used by trolls which mimics an old concept but takes it one step further.

Most of you have heard about somebody being famous merely for being famous, which is to say they have no observable skills (at best a veneer of skill which lacks depth), but they are "famous" nonetheless, with lines of jewelry, fragrance, clothing, pretend production companies, etc.

Probably the first and most widely known instance of this was Paris Hilton.

Of course the Paris Hilton situation soon became the prime example of laughing stock, but there is currently a resurgence of that sort of nonsense, now with a twist.

“Being famous for being famous” has become aspirational.

There are people who actually work at becoming dilatant famous by using a wide range of networking and publication techniques which are touted as branding.

What most recently happened in this Forum (perpetrated by ██) was an example of somebody believing they could waltz in, take over the discussion, and direct the content for their own benefit ... not Sugar Loaf's.

Such antics might succeed in most forums, but on behalf of the Sugar Loaf Guild (and hamlet at large), I intervened and put a stop to it.

To make sure I was not squelching a true Sugar Loaf fan it took a few strokes of posting, but finally the truth was revealed, and I have now blackened the offending commercial content and put a block on the offending IP#.

After I caught the person lying to me three times, they had to go, albeit kicking and screaming.

No need to thank me, Sugar Loaf; it was my pleasure.

Once again it was not Connie Rose, nor did anybody ever think that it was.

Definitely Guild influenced!

I used to know how to track people online like that, years and years ago, in the early days of the Internet.

But no, I'm not the person you think I am; indeed, I don't even know who she is.

I don't know what web site of mine you came across, but it might be the one I had long ago, in another lifetime.

Such as it is, my drivers license/age is a national secret, so I won't be stopping by (for that reason, anyway).

I can still think you're nice, even if a bit nosy ;-)

Bob is watching you!

So what you are saying, Connie, is that previously you submitted a bogus e-mail address as your current address ... along with pretending to have "just" discovered the Guild website?

Definitely Guild influenced!

You can always reference other posts by inlcuding the post number, such as the post you are referring to is 6848.

You can always include the hashtag number in your post, and I will make it a hotlink with inlcuded historic thread numbers.

I really don't track things here like I used to, but this is what I know about you so far.

The IP# from which you posted your first comment previously came onto the Sugar Loaf Guild website much earlier on 09/02/13 via a Peg Conner (Mary Endico) facebook link, at that time you hit the home page which was fav'd 4 seconds later (maybe automatically or by direct action on your part) and 24 seconds after that you clicked the bottom of the page "Next" link which took you to the "About" page which you were on for only 11 seconds before going to the Forum using the header navigation link; your 6848 post was of course 05/21/14 at which time you arrived via a Google link landing on the Sugar Loaf University page and was on it for 1 minute 7s before moving to the Forum and 44 seconds later clicking onto the submittal form then 5 seconds later maybe a backspace to the Sugar Loaf Guild University page again before 12 seconds later hitting the right side navigation menu back to the Sugar Loaf Guild University page, then back to the Forum then to the submittal form and 3 minutes 5 seconds later posting your comment; finally about three hours later you checked the Forum again and now three days later have provided this follow-up.

The e-mail address you provided with your first submittal (6848) referenced one of the oddest (apparently orphaned) websites that I have ever had the privilege to view, so of course I would never risk sending e-mail to it (which would expose my personal e-mail address to spamming).

I more or less assume you are Connie Rose or one of her little minions, but that is all conjecture (previously I caught somebody here doing something really nasty, but that was because they eventually screwed up and sent e-mail which included their IP# embedded in it).

In any case, you could try to convince me who you actually are, but to be successful at that you would really have to stop by the Endico studio and show Mary your driver's license, not that I am paranoid or anything ... that is just the way I think after recent events in Sugar Loaf.

Otherwise, I assume by now you have been dissuaded from believing me "nice."

Here is an overview of how my sites work (partial performance art, partial futurist genius, for which Mary is now forcing me to charge money):

Definitely Guild influenced!

I'm missing the wide open spaces provided previously by the Seligmann Studio on Wednesday mornings for life drawing. TIA!

Here is their website:

My understanding is that they were treated roughly by the Seligmann people, something which has to be a true low point for Sugar Loaf.

They should have been begged to stay instead of being booted "to maintain a variety of programs."

In general "organizers" of the world do not have a clue about what a true artist community is.

Please apologize to the Warwick Life Drawing Group on my behalf.

In any case, there are also numerous other opportunities to acquire workspace in Sugar Loaf, so if you just need a place to work, ask again; I have previously spoken with 18th Century Furniture who have a very large space they would be willing to rent; plus there is the Fonti property (you have to keep trying the number on their sign); there is also our neighbor's house which seems to be vacant and may be for rent; plus there's .... well, you know, just keep trying.

Wherever I can help, I will be glad to.

If the townspeople in Sugar Loaf were not such idiots, they would be going out of there way to get these opportunities published here (instead of trying to shut this website down), it is free, and easy, and I am always glad to help.

Here is a little secret about Clay.

1) Whereas Clay may disagree politically with numerous people, he will still give them and their beliefs appropriate respect.

2) He's making enough money in Sugar Loaf to be debt free, so he can afford to take six months off hunting in Wyoming every year.

3) He has attested to hoping the elk that he is gunning for never get their own guns in order to shoot back.

4) Did I mention hunting out in the wild is his passion?

Don't tell anybody, because Clay's churchy friends won't like to hear it, but given the above four aspects of his character, it is revealed that Clay is in fact a liberal elite gun-control tree-hugger.

Some guy walked past the truck outside the studio on a Sunday when Clay was closed but made note of the web address on the magnetic truck sign, went home, did research online, then ordered a wall hanging meaning $600 that would have gotten away coming home to roost.

Therefore, since the images themselves were enough to make the sale, you might not have to add the extra details.

Use feedback from actual (big) paying customers to decide how much more might be needed.

On the other hand, putting together the detail pages will be technically very easy to do except for the insane amount of repetitive busy work, so that exercise in itself will keep the half dozen essential skills you have gained sharp for future use ... if needed.

Keep good notes, save and backup often, establish an historic archive process in case you have to backtrack.

And remember that I can always help step you over any stumbling blocks online, quickly, surely, simply.

Given my recent wretched experience with people in Sugar Loaf, and given the procedures I worked through using you as a guinea pig, the next person is going to pay out the wazoo for this level service ... and they will be damn lucky to get it, save thousands of dollars in the deal.

In fact, one of Mary's customers was in yesterday complaining that they can never even get their web master on the phone when needed, and that seems to be a typical problem while my insanely fast and to the point response is other worldly, so it is worth quite a lot of money ... even if my technical skills were not light years ahead of the pack.

However, you Brad, will remain grandfathered in at the old FREE price, because you figured out how to get this on Clay's website:

That is probably my most favoritest ever Clay Boone woodcarving.

Brad, if you know any artist/artisan (I don't make a distinction in the terms) who is not totally sickened by the thought of a Sugar Loaf show, we are giving away free booth space during the upcoming Memorial Day Festival (and ever after) in hopes of regaining the reputation those shows used to enjoy.

So if you know anybody who does great work and wants to get out amongst their people (for FREE), despite risking destruction of their own reputation, have them get in touch.

We are contracting with someone who puts together the Jacob Javits Center Trade Shows to help us set things right.

I envision an eventual giant tent covering the entire Barnsider parking lot, since Matt has complained it is totally useless to him during those shows anyway.

Here are the details:

We are making it FREE for as long as it takes in order to help dry up the swamp so to speak.

I'll walk around and pass out flyers to that effect this year ... assuming I can find one artist worth the bother in the current show.

Also I give that new theater fiasco two years to play itself out, then maybe I can finally convince Mary to buy that building, so she can start doing some larger pieces, maybe some sculpture.

I have been lobbying to buy that otherwise useless building for years.

Every time we get ready to pull the trigger on it, somebody comes in with outside grant money that they are desperate to throw away, and throw it away they always do.

I hope you heard that Clay made a sale based on somebody browsing your own version of his website.

We calculate he owes you 67 cents in commissions for your efforts, which will make you the highest paid Internet professional in existence, and just a tad overpaid for what the web is worth.

Make sure to change the larger images for Esterbrook, Parson's Nook, and The Pawn Broker.

Anybody wondering what we have been talking about can see the top row:

And that I got by Right clicking the image and selecting Properties then highlighting and copying the URL from the image found on:

You can do the same for the underlying larger images after clicking on the thumbnails, such as from here:

Then it is just a matter of Right click, Save Picture As..., drag it over to Boone for each.

Or just Right click, Save Picture As... for the images directly off the Guild website.

Nothin' to it, more or less.

Now see if you can replace the smaller files in /images/ with the larger ones from the Guild website and Echurch.jpg with 662.jpg (for which you will also need to change the URL link).

662.jpg

Into this folder:

/images/Thumbs-s/

If you still need to see me, be sure to bring your procedural notes, so I can confirm they are correct ... and simple.

If you do not have notes from when I showed you before, make some up as you try to work it through this time.

Ready, set ... GO!!!

I went out of my way to show those people from the Times Herald Record how we document each and every one of my painting sales, showed them a half dozen signs with my number of years in Sugar Loaf, explained several times how the theater would have no impact on my business either one way or another, and they still wrote the story they were going to write anyway.

That is why I never give interviews; they used my image to support their own pre-packaged story line despite what I actually said!

If the photographer Hanna Maxwell had not been with the guy, I never would have spoken to him; Hanna is great and her photos did not lie.

Just keep taking care of your customers like always, and if a reporter comes in ... KICK 'EM OUT.

Every actual business in town reports the people who come to the theater never come into Sugar Loaf; they just attend the shows and leave; ask any actual thriving business.

Man, ha ha ha ha .... whew ... LOL, what an idiot ... no wonder that faux jeweler's business is on the rocks.

Just another hand stretched out begging for grant dollars.

We are having a record year without the theater.

We will be using:

Application details for this year's FREE Memorial Day Weekend Juried Artisan Show, downtown Sugar Loaf FREE (no vendor fees, no percentage on sales, FREE but juried) are given here:

When she gave them their t-shirts the guy smiled real big and said, "I am so happy!"

He is the new Senior Vice President of SUNY Orange Newburgh Campus.

As we walked past the performance venue just down from the famous and venerated Beacon Theater, I was aware some guys were loading instruments and equipment out into a van parked on the side street.

Usually I would not take notice of that, but when we were approaching the building I read the sign, "The Town Crier," and it rang a bell.

I mentioned to Mary, "I think that's another rip-off of the old days; wasn't the place I played in Piermont, NY called The Town Crier?" and she responded, "Absolutely, I still have the t-shirt."

I asked one of the guys scurrying to clear things out (after the previous night's Pete Seeger Birthday Memoriam Concert), if he knew anything about the history of the place, "Actually, to cut to the chase, was this ever in Piermont?"

The obvious musician / technician / event organizer said yes then schmoozed me, "Oh, did you go there?" with the subtext not stated, "You sad old coot!"

"I played there."

And that changed the tone of the discussion to one of honored respect from the now enthusiastic young musician.

So I addressed his earlier unstated subtext by adding, "Of course that was back when I was a young good looking rock star."

And by that I meant when I looked like this:

THIS

Or as the owner of The Canvas likes to call that: my baby picture.

Well the respect and honorifics poured out with a few questions about if I knew this or that person who owned the venue and eventually expanded it to four separate locations, but I had to admit I did not, because at the time I had only been interested in one thing which was making just enough money writing songs, composing music, singing, and playing my instruments in order to continue doing it.

It never occured to me to keep a list of fans, or event organizers, or venue owners, or anything else similar which would take my head out of the music.

Those things I only learned after coming to Sugar Loaf.

Which reminds me why we were now in Beacon, to check the truth of the most recent comment we received about how we just had to see some place (this time Beacon, NY) because it is just like Sugar Loaf.

We continued our walk and found this :

Click to enlarge
Jay Palefski
studio door
Beacon, NY

or see Jay's website

Realizing we had found one of our people, we dropped a Sugar Loaf Guild brochure in his mail slot with a hand written plea, "JAY!!! Please move to Sugar Loaf."

Jay's sign confirms that what is happening in Sugar Loaf is very, very unique, because even in another place known for "the arts" somebody who is actually doing such an odd thing (being an artist) has to display signage to distinguish their studio from the run of the mill trendy boutique UPS drop shippers.

We walked on and found a couple more of our people who were in their gallery hurriedly taking down last month's spotlight art show in order to get this month's show set up.

That gallery represents 40 local artists on consignment.

I knew enough to ask, "I'm thinking the two of you are also artists, so where is your work?"

In the somewhat new Sugar Loaf tradition of hiding the in-residence work under a pile of other people's stuff, their photograph's were at the back of the shop, but we did get to look at them and buy one from each (which would be shown here, but I don't want to get into a copyright quandary).

When I mentioned we were from Sugar Loaf, the two of them in tandem spouted, "Sugar Loaf is famous!"

They gave great nods of agreement when I told them my position toward businesses in Sugar Loaf is simple: people are absolutely allowed to run a part time retail shop (no problem), and they are absolutely allowed to complain about the economy ... they just are not allowed to do both at the same time.

Therefore I suggested they bring their own work to the front and let people see them working on it, the same thing I always suggest in Sugar Loaf to help stem the tide of the hidden true Sugar Loaf being overrun by wannabee Sugar Loaf pretenders.

Later at the Hudson Beach Glass studio and gallery we saw an in-house artist fixing a flawed item while treating a customer just as good as can be, and that was exactly like the true Sugar Loaf:

VIDEO OF SALE

So to sum up what we observed during our most recent Guild Road Trip reconnaissance drives, there are three (3) areas where Sugar Loaf continues to have them all beat.

Secondly, the comparatively tiny size of Sugar Loaf may be by far our greatest asset, because people can come for the day, stroll around (the entire hamlet), eat, drink, and enjoy watching actual true working artists without having to wade through hundreds of businesses while looking for the hidden real deal artists who are creating their own product and selling it directly to buyers ... of course with no requirement to buy; but only, as we have said for nearly 40 years when somebody is leaving the Endico studio, "Enjoy the town!"

Thirdly and most telling, most of what we always see in other "artist communities" is supported by grant money, not sales, so the artists are always left at the mercy of forces beyond their control; in fact the two gallery owners in Beacon actually believed their fortunes were tied to the new DIA Museum, and they seemed unaware of the massive reputation the town already enjoyed long before DIA got there and how that long standing reputation was what brought DIA to Beacon in the first place.

Of course those gallery owners were relatively new (11 years), so they only got there after DIA arrived with its New York City brand of saturation advertising that takes credit for everything happening around it ... while adding very little to the community.

Anyway, please Sugar Loaf, pay attention to what you have, and if anybody asks about the best way to see what is in Sugar Loaf, send them to the Chester Historical Society Made in Chester Exhibit.

At least until a few more people catch on that the secret to their success will be opening their doors fulltime, and moving their own product front and center.

After our travels I have to admit that while the grass is always greener, it is always greenest in Sugar Loaf.

Report to follow.

And that's no joke; I learned so much it wasn't funny.

Did you know that Sugar Loaf is a hamlet in the Town of Chester, NY?

Starting this Saturday, May 3, then consecutive Saturdays thru October 2014, from 9am to 1pm the Chester Historical Society is hosting an exhibit titled "Made in Chester."

The opening reception is 10am May 3 in the old train station, 47 Main Street, in downtown Chester, NY. It is a great opportunity to learn about this eclectic community's history along with its present.

From Rosner's handmade soap to Endico's museum quality watercolors, Sugar Loaf is well represented : )

Thank you Chester Historical Society.

Contact: Norma Stoddard at (845) 469-4764.

I am also writing a book about cycling, with a slant on the foibles and humor.

I have used many technically-informative internet based sites and wish to know whether I need your permission to reference your site and Fugett's work.

I make limited use of it and reference it of course ...

You may make use with appropriate attribution, and thanks for asking.

Bob Fugett

Once again somebody has loudly proclaimed there is another town just like Sugar Loaf.

Mary and I took Monday off for a road trip to find out if it was true.

We had been told, "No, really, lots of galleries and an active artist community, just like Sugar Loaf."

To which I responded, "Really? Working studios with successful internationally known artists working in full view of the public?"

"Absolutely!"

Our first stop in Hudson, NY was the Chamber of Commerce Information Center where we found lots of promotional material which talked about the arts and left us hopeful.

Except my hard won reputation is to never take anything at face value but push headlong into a question, so I just had to ask.

Results this time were a little different, because after my question nobody cursed at me screaming for me to shut up.

In answer to, "Are there any working artist studios in town that are open to the public," the Chamber of Commerce Official only spit a little smirking, "Artists? Studios? There is always talk about having that, but no, as yet there are none ... lots of talk about doing it though."

From behind them at the other computer in the room, another Official piped in, "Sugar Loaf? Yes, I know about it. In fact some of us were having a conversation about Sugar Loaf over at Hunter last night. But no artist studios here."

Since it had been a two hour drive to hear that, we decided to take a walking tour anyway.

From a ladder putting a fresh coat of paint on one of the buildings, one worker told us, "Artists? Studios? No, but lots of galleries and such. Have I heard about Sugar Loaf? Yeah, I've been there, great place. So you guys are two doors down from the Candle Shop? Just down from the Barnsider then. Green building? That's a GREAT building; GREAT work done on it. It's pre-revolutionary, right?"

One newish gallery owner confirmed the main event in Hudson is currently New York City style galleries as in: people removed from the creative process representing a few very desperate artists who are hidden from view and have zero control over their own product and lives.

The gallery owner did not know what it was that they were confirming for us, but they solidly confirmed the situation nevertheless while seeming a little desperate themselves.

At best the business owners might be "idea" people who come up with things for others to make for them.

Business after business was a so-called gallery showing the work of others, or an antique shop (sometimes glorified), or an eatery, or one of the many real-estate agencies which seemed to be the major business in town, peering out of every third store front window.

Decidedly not Sugar Loaf caliber artists who own their own lives, their own businesses, their own creative processes, and their own interactions with their own adoring fans.

In fact a Hudson local blacksmith (and no, not a farrier, does iron work for mansions, gardens, etc, an actual worker, a sometimes weekend shop really) misunderstood when I asked about true working artists selling to street traffic; he thought I was referring to street artists like the guy who walks the town providing primitive art quick-sketch oils on board used for open signs or character fill inside the shops, tourist mementos, etc.

That artist is Earl, and his work is great, but that is not what I meant.

Unfortunately I forgot to mention when showing the blacksmith the photo of our house in the Sugar Loaf Guild Brochure that our house is pre-revolutionary, so he probably thought it was just another faux historic rip-off like most of the world's cheap modern construction.

Which reminds me how wonderful it was to have the Guild Brochure with us.

I had opportunity to show Clay's woodcarving of a carousel horse (yes, the carving is full size), Jessica's ceramic sculpture, Joanne's stained glass panel, Charlie's clock, Mary's haute conduite watercolor, Peter Von Uchtrup's fascinating furniture while reporting, "Yes, these people are all my neighbors, all of them successful, independent artists. They own their own businesses, their own homes, their own lives. One is a second generation woodcarver, another is a refugee from 17 years of high-end jewelry work in the City, one a restorer of cathedrals with a master's degree in art, one a lifetime career art teacher, another a darling of the Hamptons creating furniture and unique living spaces beyond compare ... and that is just a few of them, my neighbors, you know, the people living and working around me. "

"Well, none of that is here in Hudson, NY."

Apparently; no place like it really: Sugar Loaf, NY.

Sugar Loaf is a place where the artists have taken over control of their own product; there are no simplified, stripped down displays of just a few pieces, given inordinate importance by adding useless space around them ... expensive, self indulgent, vanity space ... space owned by clueless art mogul wannabees.

Those people hate us, because we are free; we are owners of our own creations; we know our own public; and we bow to nobody.

They hate us!

While our customers love us.

Here is what a real juried show looks like:

In the 1980's those people ripped off the look, feel, and atmosphere of the Sugar Loaf Shows, and we are finally taking it back.

When Bob Fugett walked the town updating the Guild website, he found that few people had even heard of a "juried" show before.

No more; check it out.

The dream of the early Internet was to put robust authoritative information in a single location with easy access for the world in order to avoid endless repeats of the same (or likely watered down same) information all over the place.

In honor of that long standing tradition, the Sugar Loaf Guild's Memorial Day Alternative FREE Festival will use the application from the website linked above.

Just print it, fill it out, scratch out their logos, pencil Guild over it, and submit it to us instead of them.

That is how things are done in the 21st Century ... use and repurpose anything at hand.

We are also stepping up the game by offering FREE space, and NO PERCENTAGES taken from artist sales.

Artists merely have to get juried in (see the links above).

We will delay a tent until next year.

On finding out that Randy missed the organizational meeting, the committee immediately elected him Chairman of the Boardwalk, so he will be in charge of first level jurying.

Get in touch with Randy, or leave a note here.

This is going to be the absolute best authentic art show to exist in years.

In the late 70's early 80's, Sugar Loaf's billboard on the Quickway (Route 17 just outside of Monroe) stated: "America's Foremost Crafts Village" and this will undoubtedly be America's Foremost Art Show.

Tell your friends.

All of our top quality artist friends are reluctant to show in Sugar Loaf due to the sad reputation of the street fairs that have progressively declined over the years after organizers decided to dump the volunteerism and make money for themselves off the vendors instead of encouraging sales and bolstering Sugar Loaf's reputation as a center for the arts.

It will take a little work to reverse the trend, but with Randy as Chairman of the Boards for the Endico Studio Deck show, things should begin turning around in no time.

Peter and Manon Von Uchtrup have already been juried in and had us pencil their name in for tentative booth space, but of course they have a business and live in Sugar Loaf so can't get away from our wretched laughing stock reputation no matter.

Congratulations to Randy of Bee Positive in his new starring role as Eventer in Chief.

Long story short, they went online, found an example of what they were looking for, and ordered a $600 wall hanging ... which is now in progress.

Credit for the sale has been given to Clay's son, Brad Kibler, because it is he who put together and maintains the Boone website.

Clay is also working on four (4) other projects plus teaching (all of which is typical) and among the projects is a $10,000 table top for another firehouse assembly hall.

The man is busy.

Both you and I know that Clay knows he could be making as much money as he wants in Sugar Loaf, but his dream is to move out west and go hunting on big mountains all day long.

So in the meantime Clay has joined the NRA to make sure he has unfettered access to the appropriate weaponage in order to keep shooting himself in his New York business foot.

Endico Watercolor Studio continues on a record year.

What appeared as if nothing had happened was actually the product of more than 40 years focused on a carefully defined target skill.

When Mary and I arrived in Sugar Loaf 37 years ago, she already had a Bachelor's Degree in Fine Art from Boston University where she studied under some of the best art teachers in the world.

She let me look at her portfolio of life figure drawings, and as I pored over the hundreds of drawings of sitting nudes, I gulped, "That is an awful lot of work for only 4 years of college?"

Mary exclaimed, "Well, actually, these are only the best I kept from the last semester."

Afterwards she studied several years with one of the top seminal watercolor teachers in the United States, Ed Whitney, of whom it was rightly said, "There is not one watercolor artist of any stature in the United States who has not studied with Ed."

Ed taught well into his 90's.

Then throughout our first years in Sugar Loaf (while Mary was selling over 1,000 of her own hand painted watercolors per year), she always filled break time by reading, studying, and notating every general art and watercolor technique book available.

People would often find her sitting in the sun outside the studio front door, on a break, reading a watercolor book, and then pull her inside to buy one of her paintings.

So, Connie, what you saw could easily be misinterpreted as magic beyond the reach of mere mortals, but it was only the refined skill of an impassioned master artist using techniques and concepts that are readily accessible to anybody ... anybody who cares to actually study and produce accordingly.

I hope I do not have to point out that you, Connie, are yourself proven to be one of those people.

It just takes time, commitment, and great teachers.

Mary still studies avidly to this day.

The downward trend in "new" as opposed to "return" customers has been broken.

The standard retail shops should begin experiencing a fall over from our stimulus programs in their own shops very soon ... at least the good ones anyway.

I bought my own copy which arrived today, but I was already doing research on the topic.

What I have found is this.

Despite what is generally stated about Reiki, it is actually a science that originated in the late 1800's when information about bio-mechanics and the electrical components of human anatomy were not well known.

In essence Reiki was started by a Japanese fellow who was trying to get the basics of human energy systems understood by a broader audience.

At the time, there were not yet descriptions of such things as the Krebs Cycle, the functions of ATP (adenosine triphosphate), fat burning, and other elements of the body's energy systems.

As a consequence, it was very easy for the terminology of the subject to be misused, and the current articulation verges on magic and necromancy.

A quasi historic version of the original texts is now being used as a money saver by larger health care centers in order to teach basic human relationships and encourage all staff members (not just the doctors and nurses) to help in the recovery of patients.

Most likely much of the movement is designed to avoid litigation relative to hands on helping.

There is also a pop-culture version being used in conjunction with a dial-in psychic scam hustle.

It is somewhat sad that such universally basic human interactions have to be taught at all, but I guess we are living in an age where much of humanity has lost its humanity.

In any case, I hope to never again hear that we must borrow from the Japanese (or some other language) because there is no word in English for "ki" or life force.

Actually the word in English for “ki” specifically is "life force."

It is only a matter of two syllables used instead of one; and that provides more precision because it allows for other kinds of "force" in addition to merely "life force."

I guess we have to understand that the whole concept of electrical science as it relates to the human body (and spirit) was rather new in the late 1800's, so it is no surprise that the guy starting Reiki only saw the "force" he was speaking about as merely specific to "life" while missing the fact it had much broader application across a range of topics.

On second thought, he probably did not miss that fact.

He would certainly be disappointed with the way Reiki is taught today.

The Wikipedia article on Reiki is a disaster, but I don't have time to fix it for them.

05/06/14 update: I finally received my copy of "The Original Reiki Handbook of Dr. Mikao Usui" that was ordered after reading the book Randy provided only to find the book is in fact a "discussion of the original texts of Dr. Usui" so somewhat disappointing.

However the mere fact that such a mislabeled book exists does show that what is currently being touted as Reiki is probably as far from the truth as one could hope to get and the timidity with which people have come to avoid direct translations of Dr. Usui's texts illuminates how Reiki has been brought to us through the fine process of "telephone" that we all played in grade school in order to understand how something spoken to one person is changed into worthless gibberish by the time it gets passed from a few ear to ear, and mouth to mouths.

There is no sense in studying this topic further in hopes of trying to change any person's mind on the matter.

I would imagine nobody who actually thinks about it cares one way or the other anyway ... fini.

The people who purchased the paintings that Randy closed the deal on picked up their watercolors and purchased two more while they were here.

Of course, Randy gets nothing from the sale, just did the right thing; it's the Sugar Loaf way.

Here is a photo they sent of the two that Randy helped sell freshly hung in their dining room.

Click to enlarge

We are having a record year, and it began way back during the blizzards!

Yesterday I spent the afternoon over in your neck of the woods, in Romers' Alley, listening to stories about how the retail shops are all hurting while the artist studios are thriving (like always).

There was an idea tossed around about getting a bus to bring people up from NYC.

I explained that Mary and I will be fully on board with the idea as soon as somebody from the bus comes in and purchases a $10,000 Endico watercolor.

I know that doesn't sound like a big threshold to cross, but you have to remember in almost 40 years in Sugar Loaf not one single person from a tour bus has ever purchased even a 65 cent post card from the Endico studio.

Still, it will be fun to watch; the people putting it together are really energetic proactive go getters ... so who knows?

Open up Sugar Loaf; customers are on the way!!!

I was just finishing up an English lesson with Mary (explaining how poorly something new had been written on the Chamber website) when her phone buzzed with e-mail from a customer asking if it is ok for them to come today.

While Mary is answering the e-mail in the affirmative, I wanted to get this notice posted as soon as possible.

Ok, it is Easter Sunday, but there is still money to be made here.

Many of you could make your rent for the month.

That story about Colláge (and your editing) explains why it was so easy for Bruce to set you up to do promotional work for Woodbury Commons.

Only Sugar Loaf deserves my level of excellence.

Read it quick, hot off the presses, before that faux social media service steals it and uses it as their own ... while Bob's fine compatriots continue allowing him to be called a liar without the slightest redress.

Get out the word!!!

The Sugar Loaf Guild will be sponsoring an old-timey high end art and craft show Memorial Day weekend on the Endico Studio property.

Artisan works will be juried (keeping the quality as high as the best shows in the United States), but booth space will be provided FREE to all vendors who are selected.

Also absolutely no percentage of sales will be taken from vendors; they will keep it all.

Plus a generous donation will be given to the Fire Department just because they are here.

Get out the word; time to fix this mess.

Just like the fighter pilot grade self assuredness we referenced in the print ads we ran,

"WANTED: Self-assured egomaniacal artisan who knows they are the absolute best at what they do (and exactly why) to open studio in Sugar Loaf, NY."

When I told Yaron his work was excellent, top quality, he answered without hesitation, "I know."

Therefore when you say both Imagine This ... and Colláge are BEAUTIFUL!, I can only respond, "I know."

Be sure to let Bruce see his, because he has not, though Debbe has; you know how I track stuff.

Shop is ready; profile is a work in progress.

Thanks for taking a look at your Sugar Loaf Guild profile yesterday.

Once again this is all free and part of your welcome to the community (I only mention FREE because somebody was going around trying to sell the service and pretending to be associated with the Guild).

Bob noticed you looked at the Products page which reminded him he had not yet assigned your shop to any of the categories.

Also, he realized that he did not yet have an "Acrylics" category.

So he added the category and assigned a link to your shop.

You are also now found if somebody clicks on Watercolors or Furniture.

Check it out by clicking Acrylics, then Watercolors, then Furniture from the page linked below:

If you would rather, you may choose one of the other categories, maybe Macramé to replace one of the three.

The Guild site focuses on hand-made items made in Sugar Loaf, so three categories is plenty for the purposes of the website.

It appeared to me Acrylics was your thing (making you unique in Sugar Loaf at the moment), so Bob selected that for you first then added the other two as our best guess.

In any case, if you have any questions let us know, and you can also stop by sometime so Bob can give you an in depth tour of the website.

Thanks again for coming to Sugar Loaf and opening a working studio ... we love it!

Mary

I guess they used the $1,000 Sugar Loaf Guild donation to good effect upgrading the music series facility.

All the retiree-praneur and week-end shops are closed, Clay Boone is working on a $10,000 table top that will go into a firehouse somewhere, Connie Rose is turning another thousand or so pottery chalices, and Mary Endico is working on a $2,400 custom watercolor job that Randy closed for her:

There's a lot more going on I could report (other people making stuff with busiest among them Anne Marie), but I have the Guild website chugging along under control and have gone back to my program: morning walk's with Mary, cycling in the afternoon, walking with the German Short Hair Pointer in Goosepond Park near evening.

I am already 10 lbs down with only 50 lbs to go in my recovery from the weight gain that last year's Guild initiatives set me back.

Life is sweet for the Sugar Loaf working class.

You probably know that I was myself verbally attacked and almost physically attacked when I would not be cowed.

It is time for one of the real businesses in town to step in and clean house ... and not just online.

Randy is unlikely to do it, because he is still living in corporate la la land; not to mention he has been failing his Guild pop quizzes for quite some time now.

It is rather easy to go into one of those meetings of the lambs and own it, so I guess it is my turn to set things back on track.

I really should be voicing my concerns in all the public get togethers.

I'll bet we can turn this town around with all the new energy.

I guess you were right all along, so thanks again for making sure I WILL BE HEARD.

I guess I pretty much confirmed who did it, while that truth was revealed to several other people at the same time.

I would say the name of the person, but people pay a lot of money for me to put their name on my lips, so allowing somebody free acces would be unfair to all the others.

In any case, Randy Brown (Bee Positive) almost got caught in the cross fire but had luckily stepped outside his shop to take a phone call before the now infamous question was uttered, and he only stood by his door mute and motionless (big eyed) as the brouhaha exploded past him and into the alley.

I had asked the question to the person from the other side of the room, and they immediately exploded and came at me around Randy's display case, but I rather impolitely refused to back down, followed them outside still trying to get a simple answer: Did they do it?! Did they know who did it?! Did it concern them one way or another?!

Anyway, a truly minor event of no consequence, but it did confirm my suspicions and put a few more things in perspective.

Such as: I am now certain the reason Bruce (Colláge) is so universally hated can be traced back to a single point source (previously hidden), and it is somebody in town who is selling gaudy cheap trinkets (calling it jewelry) while Bruce has moved in and started selling the same gaudy cheap trinkets but at a price more in line with their actual worth (he is a retired wholesaler with lots of pent-up stock, not to mention a full roster of suppliers for plenty more where it came from).

The problem for Bruce's nemisis is that Bruce has one of the winningest personalities on the planet.

While I was doing research for the Guild website upgrade, I spent a lot of time in Romers' Alley watching the steady stream of buyers going directly to his shop, and now that he has moved to the end of the alley that steady stream is going the full length of the alley, straight to the reasonable riches at Colláge.

I guess we have to put up a profile for Bruce, especially since he will begin selling HIS OWN hand made jewelry this week.

Turns out before expanding into wholesaling, Bruce was quite the artist (still is as far as I can tell).

Anyway, here is how I explained the situation in Sugar Loaf to Bruce after the screaming fit of his business competitor yesterday.

Bruce said to me, "What Sugar Loaf needs is some promotion that focuses away from the products a little, something like a flower day where the town gets a lot of plantings so there is something that people can just come to (without buying anything), and walk around. You know something unique, different from the rest of the world."

I said, "Exactly. Great idea. And, Bruce, do you know what Sugar Loaf already has that is unique in the world perhaps, most certainly in the United States as far as I have been able to find?"

Bruce responded, "I don't know. There are some great old buildings and shops, but there are lots of places like that."

I said, "Absolutely correct, but what is in Sugar Loaf that is not anywhere (and I am saying this after having spent over two decades aggressively trying to find a place that has it), no other place on the planet has as many studios open to the public where people can walk around (without buying) and watch hand made work being made and presented by independent artists who are making it themselves."

Bruce countered, "Maybe there are a couple artists, but really it is mostly retail shops here; out of 15 shops there is a very low percentage, maybe two (2), making their own product."

And I said, "Ok, lets count them," but when I got to eight (8) stepping him through the shops and explaining where those he had not heard about were located, Bruce stopped me and said, "That's eight, more than half ... so you are right!"

"I know."

This week Bruce is bringing in a box full of his own hand made patina jewelry, that he made himself 15 years ago during the time he reports, "We used to be doing so much of it our finger tips were almost worn off against the burnishing machines."

I know.

You have no power here ...

BTW Connie, with regard to your fb heckler, don't bother blocking them; just use it as an opportunity to address a question.

Also, you should never for a second worry about anybody on fb whom you do not know IRL (In Real Life) — neither those who hate you, nor the ones who pretend to love you.

Likes are infinitely cheap and limitless in quantity.

If you focus all your energies on addressing only the concerns and interests of the actual people in your life, you will be far, far, far ahead of the rest of the shops who think their opportunities are way out there somewhere over the rainbow.

I think it started way back when I recorded that meditation tape for those people from the Ashram.

It was this guy Swami Janakananda, and the recording was a meditation tape that is still available as a CD from Amazon and others.

I have seen the original listed at over $200.

In any case, I spent a lot of time with those people (even got to record a sitar and tabla band), and maybe my favorite moment was watching Janakananda crumple in a shivering heap into the corner of the control room because the dirty deli was the only place to get something to eat, and the only thing they could get for him to eat (that didn't look infested) was a Coke and Drakes Cake.

The Swami hadn't had any caffeine or sugar in over a decade, so when he got a good dose of both at the same time, it almost killed him.

But he was, after all, a swami, so he said wisely, "Well, I'm not doing that again."

Anyway, that group was the real deal, so I got to know what those people are all about very well.

I even ended up having some music students who came over from the Ashram.

One of them (Krishna Torak) went on to have her own music album which was a stunning blend of music from the west coupled with raga and a dash of old world Hungarian folk songs.

Quite sweet.

So I guess I picked up an uncanny ability to read auras and spot real deal mystics.

In fact I ran a subtle test on a local healer yesterday and will report results on a need to know basis.

You know, that stuff is not a new thing; it is ancient art (science actually) very well set out in the literture.

In any case, I understand where it is coming from, but I wish people would stop calling me Guru ... I am not a Guru, just a simple artist and teacher.

Every time I think Connie has exceeded my wildest expectations, she does something even better.

She has not just broken the glass ceiling, she has jumped on top of it, smashed it to the floor, and fashioned a multicolored cathedral vitrine out of its shattered remains.

In answer to your question my consultation fee is $350.00 per hour.

And yes I do sometimes handle real estate in your area.

Currently I am the sales representative for a very nice property in Woodbury.

Best wishes,
Eric

Mary hit the ceiling over the fee (she's always afraid of open ended projects on my part); but when I made her sit down and do an actual calculation of her own hourly wage for painting watercolors, she realized she gets well over $1,000.00 per hour, so I said, "See? Eric is cheap ... especially considering his lifetime at the top of Westchester real estate which you will be accessing by picking his brain."

So click your timer, Eric; here are my three questions:

The first is about my neighbor's property, but it is typical of numerous similar situations in Sugar Loaf at the moment — wherein people have been buying parcels without first doing their homework, then paying the price in shirt loss, while blaming us in the process.

We purchased our own house on two acres for $63,000 after doing considerable research, but within five years our neighbor's tiny house sold to a real estate speculator for $92,000 (after the owner had unilaterally altered the definition of a Right of Way).

That might not seem out of the ordinary unless you consider the neighboring house is on a parcel barely larger than the house itself (actually the structure encroached on our property by 4 feet according to a map we were given at our own closing), plus they share water with another parcel, have no parking of their own, and somebody just prior to the sale showed us how you could easily stick your thumb through a window sill.

The house had numerous other more significant problems, such has how somebody fell through the floor when a bathroom collapsed.

Bad enough, right?

Also consider that at the time of that first closing one of the main downtown business buildings in Warwick went for just over $40,000.

That was just the beginning of the housing bubble.

After that first sale of the property, the next two owners purchased it under similar circumstances.

One of the owners said to us, "This is a little gold mine."

We knew they had no clue what works here in Sugar Loaf, so our response was only in our head, "We'll see."

Of course that person is now gone, and the last owner purchased the property sight unseen from France on the word of a local idiot who themselves had not a clue about the local economy.

When the woman arrived alone with her two children from France, she found that she had moved into an untenable situation (for her) in a too, too tiny house with massive problems, and when she asked her lovely friend for a little help she was told, "Sorry. You are on your own."

I only found out about this recently prior to the woman returning to France when her son got into a prestigious Astronomy program, and she actually began to cry when she told me the story, because the idiot who got her to come here, then dropped her, was her oldest dearest friend.

Unfortunately, we might have helped her make it here, but I did not say a single word to her in 15 years, because I assumed she was just like her idiot friend, but it turned out she was the most perfect neighbor ever, very thankful when we gave her a web presence, loved the Guild advertising, and even loved the old fence protecting the trees which had prevailed after a 3 year $16,000 lawsuit when we were sued for a 1/2 million dollars on erecting it.

That kind friend who dropped our neighbor is currently president of the local Chamber of Commerce, so that should put some things in perspective for you.

As an aside, it is not really a Chamber of Commerce, because they let their federal status lapse years ago, and are now officially the little social click everybody already knew them to be ... not to mention totally ineffectual.

They don't do any good, can't do any harm, so everybody just ignores them and joins the Warwick Chamber if they really feel the need to join something.

Currently my fear is that the woman who was taken away from us by the great France brain-drain has in effect walked away from her upside down property, and after her first tenants are gone, she will soon be gone herself.

And that is the background (I could relate a half dozen other nearly identical or worse circumstances), so here are my questions which may impact the sale of our own property.

1) It is my understanding that not one single property in Sugar Loaf has sold in the last 30 years with any bank involvement whatsoever (read: oversight), and I am wondering if that is at all typcial?

Everything has sold to speculators with money to burn, or the previous owners hold paper on the property which is only resolved in the standard balloon payment time frame ... if ever ... with a whole lot of shirt loss going around.

2) The owner of the most recent property to sell (if in fact it has sold yet), told me they were blocked from various listing avenues due to the property being "commercial" though it is actually mixed use; is that true and will avenues of listing the sale of our house be blocked to us?

3) Are there any obvious laws that would stop us from using a real estate agent that is far from our own location?

We would like to use outside parties because a lot of the local problem seems to be the unscrupulous presentation of these properties by the local agents, and we would like to be able to sleep at night after we move to the next great artist community (which we will surely find).

4) BONUS QUESTION: Mary believes our house should sell for around $270,000 while I am thinking that we would be lucky to get $80,000 (plus we will have to hold papers on it ourselves); which of us is closer to the mark?

I am counting on you to have rational answers, above the norm, especially since the simple solution you gave us for our drainage problem (many years ago), causes us to have the only dry basement in the hamlet, while everybody else told us our wet basement was impossible to solve, and now they say, "Ok, but mine is special and cannot be fixed."

It is good to be able to talk to somebody who knows real estate (good enough for expert trial witness), along with construction and materials, not to mention your own build and maintenance of your own house which is a shining example of excellence even among the riches of Westchester.

Thanks for the photos, and don't charge me for your reading of the previous paragraph.

Otherwise, $350.00 per hour is chump change for what you are providing.

As the great philosopher Luigi Pirandello said, "It is so if you think so."

As for me, I like to put a ruler next to it, and then double check what I think I am seeing a few more times.

You don't really think Siri can beat me typing do you?

What you just described is not a bs medium, but lots of people use phone-in bs mediums (what I described) all the time.

Sometimes very hard to make the distinction.

Don't you have 2,200 unresolved e-mails to be looking at?

Referencing back to that post might prevent a lot of head scratching and questions like "why is he talking about that".

Here check out "results" of your eyes:

Wonder what that would be like?

I have however contacted an MD or a Naturopathist for advice; usually with an initial phone call followed by blood work and a recommended medicinal remedy.

After 30 years of successful medical interventions, I think I've figured out which one helps me and which one doesn't.

I don't judge their methodology (that's not to say that I should blindly follow) - I am guided by results.

Homeopathic approaches have their place in successful remedies to people's mental and physical difficulties.

To call it trickery, quackery or "bs" is, even after some research, not fair.

We are not some third world country that still thinks the sun revolves around the earth.

Some of us can recognize a side show from a healer - regardless of the label someone else assigns to them.

In any case, the first thing any competent education will teach you is to question methodology first, otherwise you can have no understanding of results.

I am sure you will agree that nobody (absolutely nobody) can understand Sugar Loaf and the artists here without actually coming and seeing it first hand.

Even then they could probably use a good in-depth tour.

In answer to your question my consultation fee is $350.00 per hour.

And yes I do sometimes handle real estate in your area.

Currently I am the sales representative for a very nice property in Woodbury.

Best wishes,
Eric

Mary hit the ceiling over the fee (she's always afraid of open ended projects on my part); but when I made her sit down and do an actual calculation of her own hourly wage for painting watercolors, she realized she gets well over $1,000.00 per hour, so I said, "See? Eric is cheap ... especially considering his lifetime at the top of Westchester real estate which you will be accessing by picking his brain."

So click your timer, Eric; here are my three questions:

The first is about my neighbor's property, but it is typical of numerous similar situations in Sugar Loaf at the moment — wherein people have been buying parcels without first doing their homework, then paying the price in shirt loss, while blaming us in the process.

We purchased our own house on two acres for $63,000 after doing considerable research, but within five years our neighbor's tiny house sold to a real estate speculator for $92,000 (after the owner had unilaterally altered the definition of a Right of Way).

That might not seem out of the ordinary unless you consider the neighboring house is on a parcel barely larger than the house itself (actually the structure encroached on our property by 4 feet according to a map we were given at our own closing), plus they share water with another parcel, have no parking of their own, and somebody showed us how you could easily stick your thumb through a window sill just prior to the sale.

The house had numerous other more significant problems, such has how somebody fell through the floor when a bathroom collapsed.

Bad enough, right?

Also consider that at the time of that first closing one of the main downtown business buildings in Warwick went for just over $40,000.

That was just the beginning of the housing bubble.

After that first sale of the property, the next two owners purchased it under similar circumstances.

One of the owners said to us, "This is a little gold mine."

We knew they had no clue what works here in Sugar Loaf, so our response was only in our head, "We'll see."

Of course that person is now gone, and the last owner purchased the property sight unseen from France on the word of a local idiot who themselves had not a clue about the local economy.

When the woman arrived alone with her two children from France, she found that she had moved into an untenable situation (for her) in a too, too tiny house with massive problems, and when she asked her lovely friend for a little help she was told, "Sorry. You are on your own."

I only found out about this recently prior to the woman returning to France when her son got into a prestigious Astronomy program, and she actually began to cry when she told me the story, because the idiot who got her to come here, then dropped her, was her oldest dearest friend.

Unfortunately, we might have helped her make it here, but I did not say a single word to her in 15 years, because I assumed she was just like her idiot friend, but it turned out she was the most perfect neighbor ever, very thankful when we gave her a web presence, loved the Guild advertising, and even loved the old fence protecting the trees which had prevailed after a 3 year $16,000 lawsuit when we were sued for a 1/2 million dollars on erecting it.

That kind friend who dropped our neighbor is currently president of the local Chamber of Commerce, so that should put some things in perspective for you.

As an aside, it is not really a Chamber of Commerce, because they let their federal status lapse years ago, and are now officially the little social click everybody already knew them to be ... not to mention totally ineffectual.

They don't do any good, can't do any harm, so everybody just ignores them and joins the Warwick Chamber if they really feel the need to join something.

Currently my fear is that the woman who was taken away from us by the great France brain-drain has in effect walked away from her upside down property, and after her first tenants are gone, she will soon be gone herself.

And that is the background (I could relate a half dozen other nearly identical or worse circumstances), so here are my questions which may impact the sale of our own property.

1) It is my understanding that not one single property in Sugar Loaf has sold in the last 30 years with any bank involvement whatsoever (read: oversight), and I am wondering if that is at all typcial?

Everything has sold to speculators with money to burn, or the previous owners hold paper on the property which is only resolved in the standard balloon payment time frame ... if ever ... with a whole lot of shirt loss going around.

2) The owner of the most recent property to sell (if in fact it has sold yet), told me they were blocked from various listing avenues due to the property being "commercial" though it is actually mixed use; is that true and will avenues of listing the sale of our house be blocked to us?

3) Are there any obvious laws that would stop us from using a real estate agent that is far from our own location?

We would like to use outside parties because a lot of the local problem seems to be the unscrupulous presentation of these properties by the local agents, and we would like to be able to sleep at night after we move to the next great artist community (which we will surely find).

4) BONUS QUESTION: Mary believes our house should sell for around $270,000 while I am thinking that we would be lucky to get $80,000 (plus we will have to hold papers on it ourselves); which of us is closer to the mark?

I am counting on you to have rational answers, above the norm, especially since the simple solution you gave us for our drainage problem (many years ago), causes us to have the only dry basement in the hamlet, while everybody else told us our wet basement was impossible to solve, and now they say, "Ok, but mine is special and cannot be fixed."

It is good to be able to talk to somebody who knows real estate (good enough for expert trial witness), along with construction and materials, not to mention your own build and maintenance of your own house which is a shining example of excellence even among the riches of Westchester.

Thanks for the photos, and don't charge me for your reading of the previous paragraph.

Otherwise, $350.00 per hour is chump change for what you are providing.

How in the world could anybody possibly write a correct article about Sugar Loaf University without seeing it firsthand when even people living here have a hard time understanding?

And just a phone call's supposed to do the trick?

It's like those bs mediums who pretend they can diagnose health issues over the phone.

Connie's in charge of finding out.

I just wanted to tell you that I am reading your book again, this time with much deeper attention, and it is now getting dog-eared and full of notations. It is somehow expressing gems of insight not only for my guitar playing, but my writing.

All is well with me, I am just winding up a large writing project and your book was winking at me from the shelf, and sure enough, it had just the insights I needed to re-center myself for the last portion of my project.

I will be east probably in 2015, if not sooner, so I promise to be in touch.

I mean hey, I am long overdue for a lesson!

I just bought a hard case for my guitar so I can travel with it.

Please pass hellos on to Mary. Hope all is well with you. Would love an update.

A big hug to you both, LC

Watch how lazy I can be providing an update:

And that page is only part of the trouble I am keeping myself in (it has a photo I think you'll like).

Thank you for the kind thank you; I am re-posting it into a couple forums (under the name LC) just to piss people off. -b

Suday afternoon I was hanging out in Romers' Alley trying to knock some sense into Randy Brown who unfortunately still has not caught on to just how worthless the Chamber of Commerce has become.

Maybe he'll figure it out, maybe not, but at least he has been given a tour of the actual businesses in town (who never attend those meetings), so he might have a clue.

In any case, while I was talking to Randy about a computer problem a couple came into his studio that I knew were in the Endico watercolor studio when I left.

I scurried outside to sit in the sun and get out of the way of a possible sale for Randy.

When I came back in, Randy reported the couple had mentioned being in the Endico studio and were thinking about purchasing a painting for a special place in their new home.

Randy had said some nice things to them about Mary's work plus how the couple deserved to treat themselves to the finest.

I told Randy, "I think Mary sent them down here while she was finishing up the framing; they already bought something."

However, when I got back to the studio Mary was all excited because the couple had just commissioned two paintings for their special place totaling $2,400 for the sale.

But what had gotten Mary going was the fact that she had not sent them down to Randy but had actually booted them out of her studio and considered the matter finished.

The husband had committed the cardinal sin of asking Mary to come down on her price, something she has never done in 37 years of robust painting sales.

She told them, "You really need to get out of here and walk around town thinking about spending a little money first; it is either today or never; on second thought, I shouldn't even agree to sell you anything today; you can go try to find a $2,400 dollar pair, even of prints (anywhere in the world), let alone original watercolors; then you can come back and apologize!"

Like I said the matter was closed and Mary was moving on to her next sale which would be $2,600.

But Randy saved the day and sent them back.

So thank you, Randy, for helping us get setup for another ho-hum, run-of-the-mill $5,000.00 day in Sugar Loaf ... not a record for a non-descript out of the way single day of no-hoopla by any means, but still worth thanks.

We should give Randy a percentage (like most of the world works), but he gets nothing, zip, nada, not even pocket change.

In Sugar Loaf people don't get paid for recognizing excellence and doing the right thing

I did, however, go back and thank Randy.

So after all that happened, I also had a discussion with Bruce from Colláge in his new shop at the end of Romers' Alley.

I was trying to figure out the rumors I had heard about how people hate him so much.

I have to tell you that Bruce is just terrific ... not one person in town has treated me with as much respect and cheerful greeting as did Bruce, and that despite the fact he knows full well that I am involved in promoting only hand made Sugar Loaf product ... he even has the Guild brochures prominently displayed at his front door!

I still don't get where the venom towards him comes from.

You know, he even knew Milt and Sylvia of Sym's Jewelry (now Pisces Passions), and he remembered they started at the front of one of the Scott's Meadow chicken coups.

Which reminds me: Bruce's recollection of the Meadow only goes back as far as all those tiny cubicles they cut the place into after Mary and I moved to main street, leaving with the landlords the impression that artist studios are easy ... so why not make 'em small to get more quick bucks off more artists.

That slice and dice meant the end of the Meadow, but lots of people still think it was the hey day.

That recurring theme, how the hey day of Scott's Meadow was the time of the over-development with tiny cubicles, coming from people who have no recollection of what came before (and which made Sugar Loaf the artistic power house it is still winding down from today), shows we have a perfect local example of what is quoted at the top of this page:

That is correct folks, Scotts Meadow is the perfect local example of the forever transient artist community camp; it just so happens there are a bunch of us still around to report on that fact.

Please, please, please, help us find the next great art community ... Sugar Loaf can't be the best (and only one) there is, right?!

In the meantime, Mary and I will just keep enjoying the $5,000 days coming from foot traffic in Sugar Loaf while wondering why so few others can figure out how and why, and do it for themselves.

Nobody's listening, and I shouldn't give away the secret, but here's a clue: quality product, regular full time hours, make it yourself, treat people with respect, and if they do not return equal respect ... kick them out of your studio.

Thank you!

Where's a good number to reach you Thursday?

- Anna

What questions were not answered by what you read? -b

I wanted to write an article concerning Sugar Loaf University and was hoping that I could interview you sometime this coming week (the article is due the 15th).

Due to my schedule, though, Thursday is probably the best day for me.

Could I call you sometime in the late morning/early afternoon?

Thanks,
Anna Lillian Moser

Thursday late morning/early afternoon is perfect; otherwise I could answer any questions you have via e-mail to save you a phone call.

I assume you've done your homework by reading this:

Bob Fugett

Photo above shows left to right: Susan Logothetis, Mary Endico, Clay Boone, and Connie Rose.

Susan is accepting a $1,000 donation from Sugar Loaf Guild members for the On the Lawn At Sugar Loaf Crossing - Music Series.

The On the Lawn music concert series is the longest continuously running music event within the hamlet.

Click to enlarge the photo and get a better look at renowned watercolorist Mary Endico, second generation master woodcarver Clay Boone, and premier Sugar Loaf potter and artist Connie Rose.

Susan Logothetis is herself a longtime Sugar Loaf favorite having spent the years 1974-1981 camping (part time progressing to fulltime) with her husband Richard in their RV parked at the end of what is now Romers' Alley.

Then they purchased their current home at the Sugar Loaf crossing.

Susan and Richard also hosted early theater performances on the top floor of the red barn in Scott's Meadow from 1974-1977.

The couple went on to build the Sugar Loaf Performing Arts Center (previously called Lycian Centre) before donating the $4 million dollar facility to a non-profit organization which carried forward the theater, music, and performance activities.

The couple also owns Lycian Stage Lighting which is another great Sugar Loaf product, blah, blah, quack, quack ... but there is a culture of that sort of stuff here, so what is not a great product if made in Sugar Loaf?

In any case, when the non-profit group stated they were ending the music series Susan said, "You don't want the music concerts anymore?! Then I'll take them, and put them in my backyard."

Last year the concert was very successful, but light funding meant the Logothetis' had to add money themselves in order to make sure the quality was maintained.

Said Susan, "Richard and I know this series is not a money maker for us, but as a culturally significant addition to Sugar Loaf, we feel obligated to make sure it continues."

“The Sugar Loaf artist community has always been supportive, so our giving back is a no brainer for us, but now receiving this extra $1,000 from the Guild is just priceless.”

This particular donation was prompted after the day I came out of Sugar Loaf on my bicycle, around the curve and down the hill toward the Sugar Loaf Crossing while beginning a long ride.

Some people were calling that time a "soft market," so I was shocked to find cars parked back and out onto the Sugar Loaf bypass, down Woods Road, and pressing into the hamlet's main street parking.

A steady flow of people were walking with picnic baskets and pushing baby strollers toward the crossing.

I sucked a breath and thought, "What's this? It looks like the old Sugar Loaf. What a crowd!"

I found out it was the On the Lawn at Sugar Loaf Crossing concert series, and was told who was hosting it, and remembered the long history it enjoys, so I was much less surprised at the strong attendance.

I mentioned to the Guild that it might be a good idea to donate, and there you have it.

Sugar Loaf artists in charge and a $1,000 donation toward the cause.

Randy,

I said you and Bodhi Brad were giving me work to do, and you were.

This morning I woke up and couldn't get that party trick out of my head, about making somebody drop their arm by finding their "problem," and I figured it out pretty quickly.

I also worried about Bodhi Brad reporting how he had been the victim of a cold reading, though neither of you seemed to know the term nor realized you were victimized.

Therefore, make sure to inoculate yourself against all types of bogus shamanism by reading this Wikipedia article:

Make sure to explain it to Bodhi Brad also, because I don't think he is a big reader; plus he has lots of better things to worry about.

He sure did a great job running the numbers on purchasing Romers' Alley.

In any case, I'll show you how to make people drop their arm next time I see you: very, very simple technique and you can ascribe it to anything you want at that moment.

Such as, "Oh look, a blocked chakra," or "Your energies seem to be out of alignment right ... here," or "Oh my goodness, this is the perfect crystal to fix your problem."

While the world at large is still going to have a rather low opinion of what is available in Sugar Loaf, missing the point that a lot of real deal excellence actually is here ... if you look for it.

Thank you for allowing the photos and for showing up on the Guild website.

My personal favorite was the $1,000.00 we gave to Wikipedia in Sugar Loaf's name.

I used to spend a lot more than that at Barnes and Noble every year gathering information I now find online for free.

Newest class photo at Boswell Pottery Class.

HAPPY CAMPERS

Anybody who wants a class photo of their own students can post a request in this forum and Mary will come take the shot ... it's free.

Mary is pretty clever with computer graphics and might even be able to Photoshop a shirt onto anybody who forgets to bring their own.

Did we mention SLU t-shirts are also free to anybody in any class in Sugar Loaf?

The next Sugar Loaf group meeting Mary attends, she will once again arrive with counsel just like the last time.

Historically we have found that works best.

You used a bad word in that previous post.

The new group advertising website is not going to have any bad words.

I really don't do interviews (I'm a potter), so I'm worried about what I should say.

I don't want to come off like a snakeoil salesman.

Or worse ... say something that would piss off Bob.

For the last 25 years or so, not one supposed official group in charge of advertising and promotion within Sugar Loaf has done a damn thing to get out the truth about what is actually here, and what is special about it.

Therefore, it is not surprising that even the Canvas' editor (no less) who has been involved with the group at Seligmann's and/or the old defunct theater still had not a clue that actual artists live, work, and thrive here.

Has never stepped foot inside the Endico studio.

Frankly what is special about Sugar Loaf is so unique, unheard of, and is the sort of stuff that has risen to the level of mythical lore in the minds of the world, it is unlikely to be understood, no matter what you say about it.

Mary has once again been put on the project of finding a better Sugar Loaf for us to move to, and she has already been overwhelmed by the number of strongly promoted "artist" communities that do not even come close to being that.

Two weeks of intensive web research has not revealed even a single place close enough to what Sugar Loaf has been for decades to even be termed an artist community in development ... though that is exactly what they are all calling themselves.

So it really doesn't matter what you say to the Canvas, because the facts of Sugar Loaf will remain the facts of Sugar Loaf no matter what is reported about it.

Our collectors will remain our collectors, our fans our fans, and those who are in the know will still know, not to mention more people will still be reading your Facebook page than read the Canvas.

I guarantee you that your readership is already larger than the Times Herald Record and Warwick Advertiser combined.

Besides, the Canvas has always handled stories about Sugar Loaf very well and as correctly as can be done (not like the usual un-lettered, negative, sensationalist press you see everywhere else).

I know my suggestion is going to seem radical, but maybe you could try this: just tell the truth.

They probably have never heard it before, especially from any of the previous Sugar Loaf advertising groups.

In any case it is unlikely that anybody from the Canvas has yet been lucky enough to talk to a real-deal, lifetime, journeyman artist, so if the reporter has their wits about them, they are going to be a lot more nervous about the situation than you are ... and they should be.

And don't worry about pissing off Bob.

Everything pisses off Bob, and nobody gives a shit.

Randy, Mary took a look at those numbers you gave us from the Chamber of Commerce, and nothing about them makes any sense at all.

It stands to reason that along with their long history of misrepresenting themselves and Sugar Loaf they also have no understanding of simple math and record keeping.

It does put a few more things in perspective about their efforts to shut down the Guild website.

We have always known better than to give them money; but for you, Randy, BEE CAREFUL!

From what we have seen, your involvement with those people could get you thrown in jail.

You've seen her walking her dog in and around Sugar Loaf.

In any case, maybe we'll come visit you in the hoosegow and bring you some art materials and projects.

I was just thinking about my own customer service (Sugar Loaf style) that took place over the weekend.

Sunday afternoon a man walked into the studio; he was looking for the pottery gallery.

I explained that the store was in transition and wasn't available for viewing just yet.

However, what I could offer him (and I did), was to give him a tour of the working studio.

I asked about his interest in pottery and invited him to come to a class as a guest.

During our conversation he informed me that Sugar Loaf was dead.

"Really!!?" I said.

Then I gave him a Sugar Loaf Guild brochure.

I showed him on the computer the Guild website.

I let him "walk" into busy working studios via the 360 degree views.

I showed him picture after picture of successful shops/studios that have been in Sugar Loaf for decades.

Then I brought out a Sugar Loaf University T-shirt and told him about the artists that have been holding ongoing classes for years.

So as to not go on and on about I ... I ... I, let's just say he left town not only with artist made soap, candles and a leather belt (all made right here by successful artists living and working right here), but this man left with a new interest and perspective.

I believe he will come back.

He didn't want to leave.

Your comment has been copied to the top of the page here (originally posted at 6762) in order to focus attention on the most significant aspects of the over-the-top success of the Guild website so that the dwindling number of vestigial naysayers may have another chance at "getting" it for themselves.

BTW: A partial list of the most recent positive responders is found at post 6757.

Not to mention a help file link was posted for Randy's use as an aid to his dialogue and character development in his screenplay script writing at 6761.

Looks like Connie's just ignoring you in that photo.

Connie gets to make art every day fulltime all day long.

Beside's that she is constantly surrounded by a host of admirers whose only wish is that they themselves could be doing such work (and doing it as well).

In addition to that, whereas most bosses would be beside themselves mad to find out an employee is playing around online during work hours, Connie's boss actually encourages her to do it.

They are even happy if she takes time out to write stuff down that she thinks about during the day.

She also gets paid (handsomely) for merely standing in a room full of people who appreciate her work while she talks about whatever pops into her head.

And for the kicker not a single barroom within the tri-state area can be found where Connie cannot walk into it any time night or day and receive shouts of welcome from the regular crowd.

In other words she has a dream job.

She couldn't give a rat’s ass about anything I think or say.

Why should she?

Like I said, "Constance Rose is living the dream!"

I thought you were fed up with Sugar Loaf and were leaving town.

What is this all about?

That is Sugar Loaf premier artist Connie Rose receiving her due.

After what she wrote below, I thought it would be cheaper to just go over and express my feelings in person rather than pay her any actual money.

BTW: I don't appreciate your comment beginning with, "Butt Bob ..."

I was just thinking about my own customer service (Sugar Loaf style) that took place over the weekend.

Sunday afternoon a man walked into the studio; he was looking for the pottery gallery.

I explained that the store was in transition and wasn't available for viewing just yet.

However, what I could offer him (and I did), was to give him a tour of the working studio.

I asked about his interest in pottery and invited him to come to a class as a guest.

During our conversation he informed me that Sugar Loaf was dead.

"Really!!?" I said.

Then I gave him a Sugar Loaf Guild brochure.

I showed him on the computer the Guild website.

I let him "walk" into busy working studios via the 360 degree views.

I showed him picture after picture of successful shops/studios that have been in Sugar Loaf for decades.

Then I brought out a Sugar Loaf University T-shirt and told him about the artists that have been holding ongoing classes for years.

So as to not go on and on about I ... I ... I, let's just say he left town not only with artist made soap, candles and a leather belt (all made right here by successful artists living and working right here), but this man left with a new interest and perspective.

I believe he will come back.

He didn't want to leave.

Ready?

Now that you have had that experience, you have to try and get somebody else (anybody else) to believe it happened.

In any case, you have full Guild permissions to go on and on about I ... I ... I, all you want.

The best I say, the very, very best.

That should keep him busy for awhile, assuming he is now somewhat moved into his new digs and can begin thinking about things on planet Earth again.

Recently Sugar Loaf Guild sent out a press release about the new (highly successful) Sugar Loaf University initiative.

The response was tremendous.

For example: The Hudson Valley Magazine first came to the Forum and read the press release; then they came back the next day reading more of the Forum and getting down far enough to find the thumbnail photos of Andy Boswell's class (all decked out in their Sugar Loaf University T's) and proceeded to click through to Boswell's Sugar Loaf University web page.

As we in the business say, "Cool, very cool indeed!"

Also the number of people newly aggregated into the group of Sugar Loaf Guild positive responders has been insane.

Things are building so fast and strong that Bob now has the luxury of not tracking every single hit on the Sugar Loaf Guild website but has streamlined his process by looking only at the activity of most importance.

Thanks must go to all those who have given so selflessly of their time and effort.

Thanks to everybody.

That means I can step back from my daily 5 hour routine of poring over the data being generated and enjoy the benefits of my labor as I now check the headlines only.

Randy points out that a major corporation has begun advertising on national television offering to personally setup and give away free websites with FB connections and Internet promotions to anybody who asks ... it's about time.

I have also noticed that just about every nationally known business brand has begun advertising their products as "handmade by artisans" (which of course they are not), but people copying then pretending to be Sugar Loaf is not a new thing.

In any case, before I go into terse mode, I should at least list the most recent positive responders.

Here are the good guys (in the order they responded to the most recent notification):

Scarlet's Way
Delaware/Hudson Canvas
Katwalk
Boone Woodcarvings
Luft Gardens
Bodhi Tree
Bee Positive
Sugar Loaf Mountain Herbs
Simpson's Originals
J. Hengen Design
Sundog
Barnsider
Terry Boswell
Jay Westerveld
  (Sugar Loaf Hist. Soc.)
Bliss Co-op
Anne Marie's Deli
Moon Dancer
Exposures Gallery
Practical Magick
Into Leather
Hudson Valley Magazine
Chronogram Magazine

Tracking the most recent website activity allowed me to notice Practical Magick still did not have a website, so I posted pages for Denise as a Guild Spotlight.

You may have noticed that the Warwick Advertiser is not listed, which reminded me how they have consistently proven to be worthless, so we are dropping our Guild ads in that publication.

I waste neither time nor money.

Otherwise, thanks to everybody for all the help, and please keep clicking the links provided in e-mails in order to keep your voice heard.

Mary never sends out a generalized automated e-blast, so you can rest assured your e-address is safe with the Guild.

Thanks again to everybody for the kind support.

Who knew there would be so many?

If the film makes it further up the food chain, the real deal producers are going to jump at the chance to use the Endico name and story ... at any price ... especially if they find out I might be convinced to help with the writing and oversee production.

But that is a long, long, long way off.

In the meantime, absolutely no dollars whatsoever will ever have to be collected from any of the locals nor anybody else for that matter, other than proven, experienced, established industry insiders!

I guess Mary's list (below) was substantially correct.

However, I am a real stickler for production values, so I would have added that I need to see an equipment list and personnel track records just to make sure the project is on the right path.

But that was probably understood.

In any case, quality projects (as we hope this will be) always have three to five year event horizons, so there's no hurry, and if the project has any legs it will eventually cross Gary Oldman's desk.

Gary will call me if I should get involved.

At some point I'll also talk to Danny; he received 6 Emmy's and 2 Grammy's after he helped me put together my recording studio, so he is always a good resource.

Like I said, there is a three to five year event horizon, so no hurry.

Pretty exciting though, isn't it?!

Thanks for thinking of me, the movie is a great idea (and I had not heard about it before).

Unfortunately use of the Endico name would blow your budget, not to mention Bob would demand final edit and full content control, plus major writing and production credits, along with large amounts of money up front with significant box office percentages and extended merchandising rights in all markets world wide.

I hope I haven't missed something, because you know how Bob is (he'll probably turn the project over to our lawyers anyway).

Still, the movie is a great idea, and I am sure you'll do a great job.

Also thanks for giving us something interesting to put in the Guild Forum.

BTW: Who the hell is Rusty Regan?

Mary

I think it is the BEST promotion of Sugar Loaf and its artists since that white with blue printing brochure we all like so much.

But, I don't care about the college credit part.

I don't think that should be the biggest part of the promotion. (Just my opinion)

I really like our students. They are not looking for degrees. They are not looking to be professional craftspeople.

They come for fun. They come to enjoy. They come to share stories and food and to fulfill a lifelong dream. A dream of getting to create.

Most have had their education. They have retired from successful careers. They have raised their families and have come full circle.

They have an almost childlike wonder and feeling of accomplishment.

They deserve this and we cater to it, not cowtow to it.

One of the hardest things I've had to learn as a craft instructor is to understand and appreciate my audience. I am not giving out grades. I am not their master. Sometimes they teach me.

To me, (again just my opinion) this is the magic of Sugar Loaf University.

That is why we proudly wear our Extra Large Sugar Loaf University T-shirts.

It opens doors for those who might otherwise be left in the dark.

However, it is only a start, and allowing that aspect to remain the main focus of your teaching caters to the ongoing sentiments about Sugar Loaf being a laughing stock of drugged out hippies who provide at best a range of pseudo health remedies, trite trinkets (available from any cutesy shop in the world not to mention every startup website), or talisman cures plus recycled 60's pop culture misrepresentations of eastern philosophy that fail to provide insight and uderstanding of the deep rich cultural history and practical utility of ancient thought.

It also allows students to believe the work done in Sugar Loaf is done by accidental magic with no true skill involved.

At 65 years old I am myself long past my college days, but I am currently at work finishing up my degree by studying French.

If the class work were not world class and actually teaching me something I would not bother doing it.

I would be sorely disappointed and would reject any teacher who did not give me the real deal technical truth.

The truths I study come from teachers who have compressed years of work into a coherent overview that saves me years of my own work and allows me to avoid merely repeating their own efforts while reinventing the wheel without putting my own spin on it.

You, Connie, have fallen in with a bad crowd of pseudo teachers who have stopped asking the very best of their students in order to profit from the quick buck returns of glossy superficial seminars ... which of course they have to travel outside Sugar Loaf to get.

Sadly it is a process that allows you to miss the true value of your own (Connie's) work and your own (Connie's) significant ability.

What you do, and the hard earned knowledge you have about how to do it, and the alacrity with which you can describe it and pass the knowledge on, well, it is priceless and certainly of a level that could be covering your rent with a single sale of your own actual product coming out of your own hands (again and again) just like Mary does with her watercolors.

It is something that probably cannot be done outside Sugar Loaf (from what I have heard), but it is something totally possible inside Sugar Loaf (we have built a following for it).

Here is something you probably don't know.

When Mary and I first came to Sugar Loaf, I was deeply involved in playing and teaching music.

I would even travel to students’ houses to give private lessons.

After we had been here for years, the mother of two of my students pointed out that I had been her daughters only long standing teacher throughout their entire grade school and high school education, where they had been tossed from one teacher to another.

Another time somebody else mentioned to me that they had not run into a single accomplished musician around here who had not studied with me.

I also studied with great teachers, but had no "formal training" as such.

I was an English Literature student at college, not a music student.

However, when I finally got around to taking the few elective courses I needed to finish my degree, I decided music would be best, so I showed up at OCCC for the beginning of the second term and asked if I could get into a basic music class in order to transfer credit back to my alma mater.

The instructor said, "Of course, but let me just test you first to make sure you can handle the course work."

I said, "Sure," so he had me set down and gave me the final from the previous semester which I had not attended.

Long story short, just using the knowledge I used every day teaching, composing, recording, and playing out, I aced the final cold on the spot — getting a better grade than anybody who had taken the course.

Allow me an aside to plug the local college: the extra credit question on that final was one of those top quality college level questions that shows you have actual knowledge and makes you really think; I had to go through the entire circle of fifths including all major and minor scales in my head backwards in order to get it correct!

But really the part you probably don't know is that you yourself (Connie) could walk into any number of college level art related courses and ace their finals cold on the spot.

There are lots, and lots, and lots of generalist people who teach but have never had the years of deep involvement in the arts that you have received earning real dollars, in the real world, making real art in Sugar Loaf.

So learn to teach past the story.

There are riches in doing so, both for you and for your students.

I hope you are not under the misconception that the Sugar Loaf University t-shirts (along with the display ads we have been paying for) are going to bring a rush of students looking to get college credit who will push aside the casual students you already have.

In over 20 years of very active teaching, I only had two (2) who did it for credit.

Of course I taught each and every student as if they were getting college credit, and I never had to advertise (except when looking for somebody to take up my overflow).

I would just walk into a restaurant, bar, or coffee house (throughout Westchester, Bleeker Street, NYC, etc) with my guitar and say, "You guys need music, and I am here to provide it."

I would always walk out with a few bucks (some from the owner and some from the audience), and a few new students.

That kind of stuff doesn't need t-shirt promotions.

Of course it helps to have looked like this.

What does need t-shirts and explaining is the fact that the classes in Sugar Loaf (the ones everybody loves to come to for fun and enjoyment) are actually equal to and worth college credit.

So don't sell the story; teach past the story.

There are riches in doing so, both for you and for your students.

Let the secret out.

Workshops are available to come to you.

Just ask around.

What is unique to Sugar Loaf is the long standing enduring sense of "place" for the artists who work here day in day out, opening their studio doors to the world, thus achieving a level of accomplishment with their work (and riches in their pocket) that cannot be found anywhere else.

Well, ok, maybe it could be found elsewhere, it just never is, which I guess is part of the formula that makes what is so unique here also so often invisible.

In any case, it is virtually impossible for one to receive college credit for attending road show performances, whereas the college credit that students can pick up in Sugar Loaf is something they can take on the road for themselves ever afterwards, enjoying the benefits of credentials well beyond their passion for their studies.

Of course a few of those students might also like to have a career in their passion; and, as far as I know, the only place that is possible (in fact a proven case) is inside the walls of Sugar Loaf.

The opprtunity to teach a few classes, if an artist so chooses, is just icing on the cake of success.

The secret to that success is being here, not being there.

You might enjoy reading the text in this early brochure circa 1980: Sugar Loaf Early Brochure.

Early this afternoon Mary Endico sold a painting for six times what Randy is currently paying per month for his shop rental ... half a year's rent.

Here is how it happened.

On the surface it seemed pretty simple: the couple drove up and parked in the Endico studio parking lot, walked in, had a conversation about a painting and bought it ... case closed, after all it is Sunday afternoon so not very unique (nor would it be greatly unique for any other day of the week).

However, on closer inspection it was a pretty cool sale.

The couple had driven up from Lambertville, NJ because a couple weeks ago they bought a painting in Lambertville; but, after taking it home and comparing it, they realized it was not the high quality they were used to getting in Sugar Loaf.

So they returned the Lambertville painting, got a refund, and took a three hour Sunday drive to bring the money to Sugar Loaf instead (where they got better than they could have expected).

So that is how it is done folks.

Everybody here should follow the same path to riches by handling their business in the same manner.

Unique, handmade, world class product that cannot be purchased anywhere else, taken directly from the hands of the person who made it.

Otherwise stop complaining about your situation.

I mean look at that stuff ... and she is making more and more of it herself all the time.

Not to mention, Denise (the owner) is super nice and FUN!

A mid-morning warm sun was finally starting to shine as the deep winter freeze began to break up.

Lifetime Sugar Loaf artist and working potter Connie Rose answered the question for about the hundredth time.

It seemed to be the only thing people were talking about in the little hamlet of artists.

A pottery student saw the new Sugar Loaf University t-shirt being worn by Connie and asked, "Where is Sugar Loaf University?"

Connie replied, ""Right here, you're standing in it. You're already a part of it."

"Sqeeaall ... I want one!"

The next logical question might have been, "Who is the president of Sugar Loaf University?"

However, Sugar Loaf University was not so much established as it was observed to exist.

Throughout the previous year Bob Fugett spent time in every studio in Sugar Loaf gathering information for the revamped Guild website

One of his main observations was how the large number of classes and workshops being held in Sugar Loaf (some by the best artists in their respective fields) were continuing to provide a strong and energetic positive presence for the arts.

But each studio providing classes seemed to be unaware other studios were holding classes of their own at the same time; plus Bob realized these were the kinds of classes that the best college and university outreach programs are always hungry to find.

Bob himself had taught music lessons for students to receive college credit as far back as 1988.

Clay Boone has students who have been attending his classes for more than 20 years.

Bob knew somebody had to say something about the situation, so Sugar Loaf University t-shirts were born.

Year round on every Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday there are a wealth of classes being held in Sugar Loaf (sometimes by second generation lifetime artists), and these classes are of such high quality that students can gain college credit through appropriate programs from any number of the best academic institutions.

Of course, you do not have to study for college credit, and most students in these classes are merely attending for the pure joy of learning and being surrounded by others who have the same interest.

There is something about the Sugar Loaf, NY artist community that defies description and cannot be repeated anywhere else.

To name a few ongoing classes there are: Art and Communication; Fashion Design and Assembly; French; Jewelry; Music; Photography; Pottery; Sculpture; Stained Glass; Website Design and Digital Arts; Yoga; Woodcarving.

All ages from beginner to college level and beyond.

For more information see the website: SugarLoafGuild.org

If you know of a publication that would like to run it, be our guest!

You can also grab images off the Guild website to go along with it (and if you need a larger file of any image, just ask and one will be provided free of charge).

THIS

Plus

THIS

And

THIS

All from

THIS

The simple design and text of the t-shirt reinforces the branding of Sugar Loaf as a center for the arts and education.

Sugar Loaf has long since been a mecca for the arts with significant educational opportunity being offered by many of the artists living and working here, but that message has been diluted over the years.

The typical advertising for a typical town with typically trendy shops will of course have everybody's name plastered all over every hand-out, promotional item, print ad, and television spot produced (the only way to get anybody to contribute) while every person who looks at any of it will be put to sleep immediately.

Sugar Loaf is better than that.

There are people in Sugar Loaf who are the best of the best at what they do, and many of them give classes helping others become the best as well.

As a branding exercise the Sugar Loaf University t-shirts are kept as simple as possible so the message of the excellence of Sugar Loaf rings through loud and clear.

The shirts are meant to engender discussion and pose questions instead of shutting down conversation with immediate cliché answers as in, "Oh, another t-shirt with a bunch of advertising on it."

One such conversation occurred in Anne Marie's Deli this morning between Mary Endico and Spencer Effron.

Spencer was over-the-top excited to get his free t-shirt yesterday, and today he told Mary how much his daughter also loved the t-shirt but asked him, "Where is Sugar Loaf University?"

Spencer told her it was a gag, so Mary got the opportunity to explain that it is not a joke ... real college credit can be received from numerous classes which have been ongoing for years in Sugar Loaf.

Clay Boone has students who have been with him more than 20 years!

Plus there are many more stories similar to Clay's (see some of Clay's students work), but nobody ever talks about it, and the people giving those classes have never needed to advertise.

I just got sick and tired of hearing Sugar Loaf referred to as a laughing stock by people who have never been given a clue, so I decided to do something about it.

Anyway, the truth has always been here right under everybody's noses, so click for more information about Sugar Loaf University.

And the next time Mary finds herself in the situation of having to explain, I hope she has memorized the following statement (the rest will be obvious): "The Sugar Loaf University t-shirts are a branding exercise clear and simple."

As for myself (since I am an artist) I would never do anything just for the sake of branding, so I have to admit that my main interest in the t-shirts has nothing to do with Sugar Loaf at all but is merely a study in semiotics.

A very successful study I might add.

Proving once again that this most special of places for learning, achieving, and improving (Sugar Loaf, New York) is the most special place of learning, achieving, and improving there is.

The only suggestion I might have to better it is: "We need more Connie's."

I saw somebody wearing the t-shirt and got the website from it.

The page said to post here for information.

What do I have to do?

I will send you e-mail and help you get all set up.

BTW: I do not get paid for this, but it is my honor and privilege to help.

There are artists in Sugar Loaf who do the same level work but have told me (or Mary) specifically that they wish to not be famous, nor to be shown online.

On the other hand, there are people (not artists) who constantly complain about how bad their business is, as if they were not in control of it.

I have done what I can.

C'est fini.

Have to tell you, yesterday during the snowstorm the Endico Studio made enough money to pay your rent for the month.

Also hope that someday Randy will be able to make his rent in a single snow day.

Grab the thumbnail to copy over from here:

1) Right click.

2) Save Picture As...

It is a very interesting story, and I'll give you the run down during the next meeting as one of the Old Business agenda items.

Or maybe we could hook up with Clay, and he can tell you directly; he loves to yack about the past (we just can't call it a meeting).

Yo Randy, we have ok'd it with Endico that you may park in the studio parking lot today, if you should choose to come open Bee Positive.

BTW: There is a nice path already shoveled to your door.

You should probably add that the parking lot is also open to Sugar Loaf University students (both credit and non-credit).

Hope this doesn't blow up in your face.

I think the weekenders would show up and assume the owners of the Meadow had it done, never had a clue it was us.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Maybe the view from Roamer's Alley may change my mind.

My quandary is trying to decide if your spelling of the place is a tongue and cheek nod toward my writings about how it is named after a family, not an activity; or if you really did miss that it is Romers' Alley.

However, as I put it so eloquently prior, "Nobody cares."

On the other hand your enlightening will probably be somewhat delayed as it is unlikely the Alley will be dug out from under the snow until late June at the earliest, no matter what you call it.

Can't blame them much, I shoveled us out 5 times last night and Mary did another this morning, but it still looks like we haven't done a thing.

At the time of the UPS photo yesterday (bringing matboard for Mary to finish some custom jobs), there were already 10 inches on the ground.

The plowing service should be here as soon as they finish the Barnsider parking lot.

So there goes last month's profits, but I am sure our lovely neighbors will be thanking us for it.

It was the year 2000 and nobody thought digital photography could ever be as good as film, but I knew better.

I spent three months researching cameras looking for one that would do the job, and it turned out to be a very hard thing to find.

I had to learn all about digital photography and compare lots and lots of technical specs.

When I finished the research I told the manufacturer not to waste our time but just put us in touch with their best installer.

Only after I told the installer what we wanted and contracted for them to deliver did I find out they had just installed the exact same system for the Museum of Modern Art; plus the Vatican and U.S. Department of Defense used the same.

I assume those places hired teams of fancy consultants to come to the same conclusion I did myself.

The technology is used for satellite imaging applications such as Google Earth.

At one point I had to talk to the Department of Defense about how they handled a problem with the lighting, and their solution brought us closer to where we wanted to be, but it didn't totally get the output up to the quality Mary and I demand ... so we worked a little more on our own to get it going.

In any case, in retrospect the camera was the right choice, because 14 years later it still has three (3) times greater resolution than most current high-end cameras, and that is even before considering the large format camera mount and lens optics which really make it special.

It was expensive though ... cost us a little more than two (2) nice houses in Middletown would have cost at the time.

I don't know what I would have done with two more houses, but we have photographed well over 6,000 of Mary's hand painted original watercolors with no end in sight.

Thank goodness people in Orange County, New York have a sophisticated eye for fine art and like to buy expensive paintings.

I am sure nobody in Sugar Loaf has a clue we have the camera, nor would they know what it means if they did.

That page makes you seem a little whiny; are you feeling sorry for yourself?

I am just going to find someplace with more people like them and finally get my ass out of this laughing stock little hamlet where people like those three (3) have become the exception rather than the rule.

You mean the events in the stories I wrote (ongoing) are universals that have also happened elsewhere?

I knew my stories were great literature, but who knew just how great.

In any case, by your saying "marginalizes them," I'm assuming you meant to say, "… marginalizes the artists who built them."

Did you yourself get chided for pointing out these simple obvious facts?

Maybe it is merely the truth that makes them transient.

People don't seem to like the truth, while those who speak it are constantly searching for others who are comfortable with it ... or at least for those who won't go off the deep end when the truth is carefully stated.

I must mention that Sugar Loaf, NY expresses a rather long standing enduring legacy, but that seems to be because it is a "true artist community" not just another beneficiary of the slap-dash moniker now being applied to every trendy strip mall plus legions of socially engineered corporate land use developments all over the place, every one of them supported by donor dollars, not commerce, in order to keep the artists under control.

Still, what you say rings true.

You'd be surprised how many people live and work in Sugar Loaf but remain oblivious to the vast resources that are here ... in quality and quantity like nowhere else.

Can't really blame people for being oblivious; there are those in Sugar Loaf who profit significantly by keeping those facts hidden and have become quite skilled and aggressive in doing so.

Yeah, we were special.

The full story starts HERE.

You are a person who gets out and about, and you know things and people, so maybe you have a lead on where the next great artist community is happening.

I am pretty sure Burning Man has seen its day, Sun Dance is played, plus Sturgis has gone the way of Daytona etc, while South Beach only has its moments, but in the old days artists would show up for the (becoming) famous Sugar Loaf shows and everybody would be all chatty and full of information about where the actual workers were who were working on doing their work (though everybody was very envious of those of us here in Sugar Loaf), but as Mary and I found out this year, those days are gone, so we are relying on you to have a thought.

Anything in the air?

The place we are looking for will at the moment look very much like Scott's Meadow does right now today (just as it did way back when), but it will not yet be surrounded by a bunch of useless yuppies who believe they should be earning a full-time wage from a part time effort, along with those who will not even apply their name to their thoughts.

It will be a place nobody has yet heard about, and except for the people who are working there, it will be a place everybody is scared to come to and would never think about starting a business in it, and certainly never want to live there.

It will be without banners and overdone signage.

It will also not look like an easy mark to "make shitloads of money" where the locals couldn't possibly know what they are doing.

It will be a place where you will hear words said about it such as, "What?! Are you crazy? Why would you want to go there to live and start a business? You'll starve."

It will look very much like today's Detroit (but without the skyscrapers, small enough to manage), and in order to suit Mary it will have to be a little warmer than Sugar Loaf.

There will be no leaders, no organizations, no rhyme, no reason, no nonsense.

The people living and working there will appear crazy to the outside world, totally bonkers, rabid about their work, very un-American.

You know, the people there will say things like the first line on Andy’s website (“I love what I do …”), but they will actually mean it.

People who teach there will be giving people the real deal information and skills they have spent years perfecting, not just the "experience."

I understand that Mary and I are somewhat different from regular folks, but that is the point: there used to be lots of us here, and I am sure there are lots of us someplace else at this very moment.

So if you catch wind of that place, please tell us before it is ruined; we have had enough of this bullshit soulless laughing stock of a Sugar Loaf (paraphrased from Winship's words with a nod to Luft Gardens).

And while you are thinking about where that place might be, put down your bottle and flag us gone.

BTW: Talent is bullshit; work is the thing, and of course it is all for naught, always has been, always will be, but that has nothing to do with the doing of it.

We took a look at that website (newest result of that scam initiative), and it is definitely using old technology — totally incompatible with most of today's web browsers.

You probably feel vindicated.

I'm not even going to mention the problem to anybody, because last time I did they blamed it on me.

Think I'll just be veh-wee, veh-wee quiet till all this stuff works itself out and I receive a written letter of apology.

Mum's the word.

Yo, Randy's brother, Randy says you ran across an alternative to Sugar Loaf somewhere in Arizona that is full of top quality artists working on the continual pursuit of improvement and running their businesses full time with an overtime commitment — that is to say something very similar to the old Sugar Loaf.

Randy forgot the name of the town, so if you could post the name here, our core group of successful Sugar Loaf artists can start researching it as a good place to move to.

Clay Boone has already been researching Wyoming for us, but we had to explain to him that a bunch of tommy-gun squirrel hunting red-necks are not necessarily artists.

For any of the locals interested in seeing what Sugar Loaf will look like after the artists leave, go down into Scott's Meadow and look around; be aware a movement is currently underway to bring Romers' Alley up to the same fine standard, and the Theatre has recently made significant progress in a similar direction.

As for myself, I am just a little tired of being the only person in town who will point to these facts while the hamlet's major Advertising Agency still refuses to put out a shingle stating their purpose but instead continues pretending to be a jeweler ... and has begun charging people for work the Guild already did for free.

My plan was to put them on eBay at $100.00 each with the note: "You paid too much for this shirt; let that be your first lesson."

But there will be a massive discount on Connie related shirts, so just tell us how many and what size, and we can order them to put together a deal you can't refuse.

Otherwise, they cannot be bought, they have to be conferred.

While I was in your shop (talking about how slow today is, what with snow, cold, etc), Mary sold a painting to two people from Syosset of whom one had been here in the warmer weather and brought their friend back to see Sugar Loaf, specifically because they were both sick and tired of going to trade shows where it is, "all the same crap," (their words not mine), whereas Sugar Loaf is refreshingly REAL!

Truer words have never been spoken, even if I did not say them myself.

I am pretty sure you will not let us down but will continue to let them see how special this place is.

As an aside, be careful about getting hooked up with people who would like nothing better than to make this little hamlet just exactly like those shows, shops, and outlets, that people are coming here specifically to avoid, and doing so in the dead of winter during some of the worst weather on record.

I want to join by offering —

The Art
of Communication:

a blend of expressing your creative talents while increasing your communication skills.

I'll be working on the curriculum and present the offering as soon as I move to a larger shop.

There is no town, nowhere, nohow, that's got what Sugar Loaf's got.

Suck on our shorts, big-box stores and mega-malls.

Too, too, too, toooo good!

Thanks, Randy.

In the place of: "Sugar Loaf University should be your choice," it should read, "Connie Rose sould be your choice."

Toughen up, will ya?

BTW: If you run into Randy Brown ask him, "Ok, Randy, now who's yer mommy?!"

Give away the truth!

The returns are greater.

And you say it is all simple technique that anybody can do, and for FREE!

One would think the locals would be all over this Sugar Loaf Guild Forum like white on rice trying to learn as much as they can about online promotions and basic computer functioning!

That is usually the case when you can't get a straight answer.

I will leave all this up for a couple days to give the other Guild members a chance to see it.

Then I'll simplify the entire Forum and go into hibernation mode while the Chamber flails around trying to figure out how to beat me.

Can't be done.

It only took three days.

From "no search results found" with a bunch of alternative choices to:

Here is what it looked like before:

The difference between trying to fight your way to the top of a heap of the trite and typical, versus presenting the world wide web with something actually different.

But enough parlor tricks.

Post here or e-mail Mary just as soon as you see this (a repeat of the link on post #6673 for convenience).

Then I can hide these last few posts from the prying eyes of those who would do us harm.

Once again, totally easy, TOTALLY FREE!

Randy, hopefully the link below will not get to you too late for you to watch this happen:

Bookmark (Favorite) the Google returns for the link immediately above, and check back over the next few days to see what happens.

Keep quiet about it, and don't tell anybody what you observe.

11/24/14 update: Actually that only took three days, but here is what it looked like before:

Mary will show you how to do it for yourself, takes a couple minutes, nothing to it (actually takes less effort than the bullshit requirements for the new Chamber social media nonsense), and it is FREE - TOTALLY FREE.

He wouldn't listen, and now he is gone ... much the same way most of the people going along with the recent Internet Scam will also be gone soon enough.

The scammers will just move on to prey on the next set of unwary newcommers.

Anyway, Mary will drop by, show you how to do this for yourself — all free, already set up, all simple, the Guild gets nothing, and did I mention - TOTALLY FREE?!

It has come to my attention that you have chosen to stay away from that social media web presence scam which was specifically initiated in an attempt to shut down the Sugar Loaf Guild website.

Of course, I realize you did not refuse to partake for my benefit but because you understand it is worthless foolishness; however, you still win a boost to your own Guild web presence pages.

It is a reward for your clarity of observation if nothing else.

Otherwise all of our projects with regard to those people who did participate have been placed on hold (for reasons explained below).

Also you mentioned that people are finding your pages easily enough (I am the best there is with search engine optimization), but many are disappointed that your work is not yet displayed.

So while we are taking a break from development of the other stuff on the Sugar Loaf Guild website, we will focus on getting more of your images online.

In any case, I will still have to endure a brief time when those haters pretend their initiatives are working before the final recognition settles in about their assured failure, and I would be stupid to be adding to the Guild website while that process is ongoing.

There is an old story about a heated cycling competition wherein somebody complained that one of my friends was not pulling his fair share, but my friend shouted back, "You are just trying to beat me, and I am not going to help you do that."

The Sugar Loaf Guild website and programs have been a massive benefit to local businesses, those against us included, but I would be stupid to continue helping people who are actively trying to injure us while they take the credit for results of my work and at the same time are charging for services we have offered every shop in town for free.

I am not going to help them beat us.

The trouble makers are certainly not long for this little hamlet, so when this is all over Mary and I can get back to our standard all out full steam ahead promotion of the town's artistry.

In the meantime, here is a little gift to you.

Everything I say about your work on the page is true just so long as you never forget that Clay's yer daddy, Connie's yer mommy, and Mary is your big accomplished sister, etc, etc.

Randy, here we go; you will see right away that something happened, even though the images are not large enough to see the actual numbers; in fact the numbers would just make it harder to see.

These are screen shots taken from my logs review this morning, and what you are looking at is merely a Microsoft Access Database file that I designed to filter and arrange the raw data so it makes sense.

Image number 1 is a typical screen of attachments to the Sugar Loaf Guild website; you will notice it is quite sparse (and if I showed it to you in person I could show you how most of it is bots but programs such as Google Analytics, not to mention those scam artists who just raped this little Sugar Loaf community with Vapor Ware and in the future will take credit for work I have already done, would report these results as thousands of hits):

Column A shows the IP#'s while Column B shows the "referers" (such as Google, Bing, tweety-face, or another website, etc):

Image 2 below is page 1 of 4 of the attack, and you will first note there are no "referers" (these hits came from nowhere):

Put the images in separate TABS for easy comparison.

Pay attention to the extreme regularity of columns between A and B in the Attack version (there are slight variations that can be seen on closer inspection as the attackers tried numerous paths to access the database).

You will also see in Column A that the IP#'s from which the attachments come are changing regularly.

The numbers occurred in blocks in the order shown below starting with the first one at MIT:

18.187.1.68
173.254.216.68
199.254.238.44
166.70.207.2
72.52.91.19
128.6.224.107
173.254.216.67
18.187.1.68
64.113.32.29
128.6.224.107
216.218.134.12
173.254.216.68
208.115.111.71
64.113.32.29
204.8.156.142
72.52.91.19
216.218.134.12
173.254.216.68
64.113.32.29
173.254.216.68
18.187.1.68
128.6.224.107
178.18.17.204
18.187.1.68
66.180.193.219
18.187.1.68
173.254.216.68
204.8.156.142
184.105.182.85
72.52.91.19
204.8.156.142
72.52.91.19
128.6.224.107
128.6.224.107

Several of the numbers were repeated while MIT (the apparent ring leader) appeared 5 times.

So sad for MIT that they do not have 10 teams combined that could touch the hem of my online skills.

The entire attack took 26 minutes 21 seconds with less than a half dozen other attachments during that time period (which is itself an anomaly).

Below is a link to ARIN, the Internet naming authority, where you can check the point of origin for the IP#'s starting at MIT, then San Francisco, Seattle, Salt Lake City, Fremont, Rutgers, etc.

Copy/paste the numbers into the top right entry box:

After you have had your fill of IP# tracking, take a look at the link below which shows the page that people who piss me off are forever after bumped onto when they try to attach to the Sugar Loaf Guild:

Thanks to Connie Rose for the image that she cut from the Sugar Loaf Guild town brochure (in about a second and a half) while talking to me about the weather or something.

Man, does this little town have TALENT, or what?!

The English letter equivalent for the first symbol is?

The second?

The third?

Put 'em together and ... ?

It was a very humorous and unsuccessful attack, in which they tried repeatedly to break into the underlying database using several different methods.

Very funny because they were using attack methods that would have worked if the Sugar Loaf Guild website was structured the way most websites today are built, but the underlying files of the Sugar Loaf Guild are hand coded singularities which do not respond the way the attackers would suspect.

However, here is the big secret: there is nothing on the Sugar Loaf Guild website, so the people at MIT (just like that nasty forum poster had done previously) were merely tilting at ghosts.

Better luck next time, numbskulls.

You should keep quiet about the attack, and report all the new activity as a "significant increase in web activity" due to "specific successes with social media initiatives."

That's what everybody else does.

Oh, that's right (I forgot), you are not getting paid for this.

And you are leaving the sound of this particular one hand clapping unstated in order for the next person to have the fun of figuring it out?

As an aside, LAMDA <> LAMBDA, but I am sure you knew that.

It is beautiful and is full of fantastically positive energy, and we will gain from it each and every day.

I would love to hear how you produced this piece, and we are both so grateful to you and Bob, plus Mac for linking us.

I have been humbled throughout our communication.

I am in your debt!!! Pam

Positive energy is the absolute very least aspect of the painting to consider (almost equal in irrelevance to "beauty"), both in intent and in execution.

Sorry.

You have the option of tracking down a truly gifted watercolor artist, showing them the piece, and then letting them explain the difficulties overcome in the production of such a museum quality piece.

If they do not use the term "mud" as the most likely potential pitfall and outcome (especially in light of it being accomplished using "wet-on-wet" technique), you should dump them as a consultant and move on to a more thorough search for deeper expertise.

After you feel you have successfully completed your review, and have confidence in truly understanding the work, you may re-apply for certification.

At that time the follow up question will concern the impossibility of accurate reproduction of the painting you are looking at in any other medium: an original is an original is an original.

A guideline for gaining understanding is to compare the piece you have to posters, prints, and fine art books, plus online images ... looking closely at the color temperature value variations plus depth of dye saturation and detail overall.

Keep in mind that merely the (successful) inclusion of such wide temperature range variations within a single piece is in itself a mark of mastery, and that should get you started.

I have toggled your note over here to the Guild Forum, because the Endico Forum is reserved for Mary's fans.

BTW: You do not owe us a thing; give it to MacMurray College.

The new T-shirts are at the screen printers; the new ads are ready to run, and the required paperwork is complete; so everybody, "START YOUR ENGINES!"

[That's right, Randy; you've never heard that before; it's mine.]

I am truly in awe of what you guys have done, and I recognize your crediting what you have been able to do, to what you learned at Macmurray College.

As you know, I have not yet received my Endico, and I expect to be even more grateful when it arrives.

I am so proud to know you and truly am humbled that you responded ... you know that I have genuine experience with someone who tried to survive as a painter.

TU!

P

I thought I was going to have to call an intervention for the person posting all the nastiness, but now I will be sure to expand the interventions to include your own over the top flatteries.

Maybe you just need to get out more, but I can tell you without question my compatriots in Sugar Loaf are laughing their asses off at the thought of my being any more than just a run of the mill everyday Sugar Loaf artist.

The person you know who tried to survive as a painter only made the simple mistake of not trying to do it in Sugar Loaf, the one true place in the universe where a life in the arts is not only possible, but probable.

In any case, assuming we are talking about the same person, I know for a fact the work that I do (and Mary's as well) is but a poor reference to that person's own level of talent and skill.

Right place, right time for us (which as it turns out is this place and anytime).

UPS says your painting arrives by Thursday.

There will be a test.

Mary Endico was just here in the Boswell Pottery Studio, and somebody mentioned they didn't know who she is.

Man, I had to take several steps back believing she was gonna blow.

BTW: I think I do know who you are, Connie Rose.

Nothing has ever been done like that in association with me.

I am humbled that such an outstanding and accomplished person as Bob Fugett would do this!

Thank you and know that you and Mary are highly valued. P

Though I grant you it has been rather difficult keeping that clear, because there are significant commercial interests allied against us and working overtime trying to hide that fact.

Otherwise, I have been helping people with their writing skills, so if you will allow me a comment regarding your own.

I would tone it down a little on the "outstanding and accomplished" part, while the term "person" has been the subject of much debate.

I don't remember how I helped ... not a surprise ... but I'm always glad to expose ignorance when and where I can.

I've only been a part of the Sugar Loaf Community for a little less than a year (but I have been visiting for over 30 years), and I have learned that there is no one else here that has contributed as much to the spirit and promotion of our community as you and Bob.

There are others who have done a great job of supporting what we are all about, but their efforts seem to pale in comparison.

I have talked to a lot of people in the last year - you know that I try to learn something about everyone - and everyone who says they have visited twice knows who it is that are the "anchors" in the village.

I start asking "Have you seen this or visited that" - "How did you learn about us"?

They all answer with a vague reference to something they saw or read, and then I give them a copy of the Sugar Loaf Guild Brochure telling them what they can find in it.

Their response is always "Wow, thanks."

It's as if I have given them a treasure map, and actually I have.

I have had a few people return and say it was because they visited the Sugar Loaf Guild website and learned so much about the town, and how there was so much more here than they originally encountered on their first "walk about."

It is the Guild Brochure that leads them to the Guild Website that leads them to the Treasure (a return to Sugar Loaf).

The brochure is beautiful!

It's a work of art ... as it should be.

My hat is off to you and Bob, and my thanks goes to both of you also for your work of art that is the Sugar Loaf Guild website, not to mention I am thrilled that it includes me.

There is a sign in my shop that says "People will forget what you say and forget what you do, but, they will never forget how you made them feel."

The Guild Website welcomes them into a unique place of incredible pictures, color, information and history.

They feel wow'd ... and they remember.

When they get here we all make them feel wowed again by our interest in them... and they remember.

We can't bicker and snipe at one another, and then turn on our heels and say "Hello, welcome to Sugar Loaf" and not have it sound hollow ... they feel it and they remember.

I know I am preaching to the choir.

I know you get it.

I know that the effort you and Bob have put into supporting Sugar Loaf has been phenomenal.

I admire and appreciate your continued efforts in spite of the negativity you sometimes encounter.

If that negativity comes from ignorance, as it often does, then your narrative and Bob's summary recently placed in the forum should clear that up.

If it doesn't come from ignorance for some, then it is from stupidity, and you can't fix stupid.

On the other hand, if it is just malicious or petty (as appears to be the case with the most recent attacks), ignore it.

Never give it credibility or the slightest chance that your thoughts about it could taint the beauty you create.

By the way, I've never had a visitor comment about the Forum to me except my son, and that's because he reads everything.

I read it because I learn something from it each day.

I have seen some comments from visitors and they have all been very positive.

Only intra-community posts have been negative (and from only two point sources at that).

But, you already know that.

As an aside: I thought after I wrote this that I could have put it all in the Forum.

If you would like it included there, I am sure Bob can cut and paste.

On the other hand, your e-mail regarding the recent spate of malicious comments and commercially motivated misrepresentations of the Guild is typical of the strong outpouring of good wishes we have received, so it is as good a letter as any to represent the feelings of those around us.

The website usage logs show that this most recent mailing (that you are responding to) has proven to be the single most successful promotion (albeit accidental) that has been accomplished in Sugar Loaf since we came here 37 years ago.

I am still reeling from the number of actual human readers that have shown up on the Forum.

It has been the perfect springboard for our full-out Social Media Sockets Campaign, also well under way.

You mention in your letter that you read the Sugar Loaf Guild Forum daily because you learn from it.

So here's a lesson.

Get your butt back to town and get back to work.

You obviously have too much time on your hands.

As for Mary and me, I believe we have made it abundantly clear that we are not making money off the Sugar Loaf Guild; we are spending money on it.

If Jay were more open with his communications, the team would have provided a hot-link for that mention of the Sugar Loaf Historical Society.

No need to send people to something that has restricted access.

"Absolutely, totally, 100% open" is our motto.

Otherwise he reported a typo, and that is a treasure, so get over yourselves.

You will be able to add the html wrappers at your leisure; and once you set up one as a template, it will be just copy paste and changing a couple numbers while most of the organizational work is already done with what is on the Guild version ... unless Clay finally makes it into the 19th Century and realizes there is a whole world going on around him.

Once you have Photoshop up and running, the resize, etc will take less than 5 minutes to show you (much, much easier than anything else you've done), and you can bring your laptop over to Clay's and I'll show you in person ... if you don't realize immediately that I can step you through it online just as fast.

Maybe that cantankerous old granpappy Clay Boone will get happy for a minute or two.

I'll have Mary send you her most recent e-mail response to the nastiness below; you're gonna love it; not to mention we just heard from Jay Westerveld (Sugar Loaf Historical Society) who actually said we are doing GREAT with the Guild website.

Go figure.

2) Yes, each image is currently on its own; you can add html wrappers at your leisure if more information is required; you will notice the information provided with the larger images on Clay's Guild version is very sparse, so press Clay to see if he has any actual viewers who are looking for more information; maybe a simple larger image will be enough.

3) Clay said he was going to pay for your Photohsop, and Photoshop Elements is probably all you will ever need; it is $62.99 on Amazon; here is a link:

You could download the PC version instead of waiting for a disk.

4) I think you are pretty much done; ALL of Clay's images are now available from his own website; it takes time to make woodcarvings so he will be adding them very slowly and worse case I will size them for you here, put them on the Guild version, and you can grab them there.

I opened the Lobby.htm page here, and it loaded super fast; you are the BEST!

You might want to remove his cell phone number from the Contact page until he gets it up and running again.

Also 2nd from top left of Organizational Signs is missing both thumb and larger image: #622

Congratulations! That didn't take so very long, right?

Due to the fact that an e-mail provides a driver's license grade ID, we have used the return e-mails to identify the final culprit and our lawyers should be contacting them very soon.

The mystery is solved.

Thanks again to all who responded.

Everybody: don't forget to let us know how the Social Media Sockets campaigns are coming along.

Nobody else has them, because they use proprietary technologies that are not commercially available.

It truly is the next big wave in advertising, and only Sugar Loaf has it — beating the big-boxes at their own game.

So far for us the Sockets campaigns and Town Brochures have been our biggest successes, along with the other initiatives mentioned below (6636) and on the Financial page.

Remember the Sugar Loaf Guild never asks for money, but we ourselves continue to pour money and effort into a wide range of town advertising.

If you want to give somebody money (and be part of a "group"), go talk to the Chamber.

Thanks again, Sugar Loaf, you have made us true winners.

I have never experienced someone asking for money for the guild, however, I have had several clients ask why this “guild” bashes Sugar Loaf, it’s people and it’s businesses on a regular basis, online in a public forum.

Your concerns should be on what your little “guild” DOES represent, ZERO UNITY and SUPPORT for all of Sugar Loaf.

If you and your “guild” care to truly provide support for this commUNITY then I suggest you begin with a POSITIVE, SUPPORTIVE blog, not one that leaves the world wondering why you are even here, and in turn, why should they bother coming here.

Thank you for reading and have no fear, the guild is clearly represented all on it’s own.

Too bad it’s in a sad way.

Laura Vreeland
Laura’s Sweets Specialty Bake Shoppe
Proudly~ Sugar Loaf, NY

I assume the negative Sugar Loaf bashing to which you refer are these two posts:

6281
6510

Those two posts have always been a concern.

The earlier one ("Is this forum some kind of a joke?") was posted by someone who has significant financial interest in seeing the generous Sugar Loaf Guild programs not move forward, and in fact, only moments before their posting, they stood beside me while being shown the website first hand, smiled in my face, and thanked me for all the great work.

The later one ("gigi") comes from someone who has never spoken to me personally, so I assume they were influenced by the first person (and obviously did not review the entire website themselves); plus they believed this website to be a "town" website, so I always thought they were just misguided.

All the negativity found in the Forum has been identified as coming from two known sources alone.

Otherwise, a public forum is just that, a forum which is open to the public.

Therefore your customers are always welcome to post positive messages in the Forum in order to offset any negativity—negativity which has been quite sparse in any case.

Any truly public forum will always be subject to some negativity.

Thanks again for the feedback, and for attaching your name to it.

If you wish to not be associated with the Guild, I will remove "Laura's Sweets Specialty Bake Shoppe" from the Guild's active advertising programs and this website.

Just post a note here in the Forum.

BTW: I always like to help people, so here is your free English grammar lesson: the possesive form of "it" is "its" while "it's" is a contraction of "it is."

Usually I will make those changes for people who post here, but I did not want to add to the confusion by altering your original e-mail submittal.

Of course I mean the email that you sent directly to Mary Endico, the 37 year full time Sugar Loaf artist who among other things ran the next four Craft Fairs after her arrival (1977) while establishing a procedures manual to be used by all the organizers after her, and then organized the art shows (when all events were true juried exhibitions), put more than a quarter million of her own dollars (earned from sales of her own hand painted watercolors to people visiting Sugar Loaf) for the restoration of her studio & gallery on main street, plus $15,000 into the lawsuit protecting the trees defining the Sugar Loaf skyline, and continues to maintain the parking lot servicing customers for most of the center of town (on her own property, at her own expense, with her own liability, while nobody in town has ever been charged a cent for its use), and she has worked tirelessly on town beautification efforts (even going so far as requiring me to previously become an 8 year member of the Town of Chester Planning Board in order to further her efforts), and not to mention just last year she put another $22,000 dollars (her own money) into generalized town advertising ... that includes this website which a group of people are currently working in concert to destroy.

I am sorry to mention all that here (though much was left out), but people seem to have forgotten.

Bob Fugett

In corporate America people fight to gain a position of power and authority.

In Sugar Loaf people fight to avoid a postion of power and authority.

We also have skills, and we depend on them to provide our living, which is a thing quite rare where you came from.

If you are good, I will show you one of the finest examples of top quality art work that I have ever seen.

It will be your biggest eye opener yet, and earn you your diploma.

I also would like to confirm (hopefully) that the Canvas did not take the opportunity while running the article about you to hit you up to pay for additional ad space.

I will always have fond memories of Sugar Loaf (discounting for personal issues - haha).

For the gifted, Sugar Loaf is a great venue; for some of the others - well they come and go.

You have put together a great site, and I hope the Guild outlives the naysayers.

I hope for a good, happy, prosperious year for All. Mike

For some of the rest of you, "Did you hear that, Sugar Loaf naysayers?! "

That was Mike Wilson a representative of the best of the best of the enduring Sugar Loaf community, a community of artists and artisans who do not even need to live here to retain membership.

A community so subtle in presence but powerful in effect that one might easily miss seeing it despite thriving off its existence.

There are those in the hamlet today who might not even know where the Parsonage is, but they are still benefitting from the hard work that Mike Wilson put into it.

Work accomplished by Mike's own hand.

Due to the fact the Guild, like the Sugar Loaf community, is merely an idea (an idea that keeps on giving), it cannot help but outlive the naysayers.

Good ideas are cheap and easy to maintain; nay saying on the other hand is a very energy intensive and inefficient activity ... doomed to failure.

Thanks again, Mike, for your words in this forum and for your work in building the Sugar Loaf community.

PJ refers to either "Pre" or "Post" the name of his first wife who was an unparalleled really, really, really bad influence in town.

I will guarantee you that if she were here now, the Sugar Loaf Guild brochures would be disappearing out of the kiosk, along with numerous shops, the Barnsider, and any number of display counters within the quad-state area.

Things have never been quite so bad again after her leaving (neither for Sugar Loaf nor for Mike), though it has come to my attention there is currently a valid contender to her throne of tears, a pretend artist and all.

Happy New Year to you and Mary.

Can't believe, but after all these years stumbled accross this site.

Talk about memories.

The Parsonage that I spent more years, money, and sweat salvaging looks great.

Your own word "artistry" makes Sugar Loaf look like Paradise.

Have the day-to-day political BS ever slowed down and have people united to help the town?

Now divorced from Jill and Lorraine.

New Guyanese woman on the list (some say I just don't learn - haha).

Very best wishes to you and Mary for 2014 !!!
Mike

In summary you are famous on the Guild website though you were not referred to by name, so people are just going to think I made this whole thing up about you writing in this Forum.

You have actually found this site rather quickly, because it is still less than a year old, give or take.

Did it myself, funded it myself, and Mary took all the exterior photos (well ok, I guess she was actually the one who funded it besides).

And no, the day-to-day BS has not abated (though one new guy in town believes things used to be so "together" when he used to drive through in his car), and I am under constant attack from others for putting the truth out there.

One of my neighbors actually stood beside me in the studio shaking my hand, slapping my back, and beaming with thanks for what Mary and I have done with the Guild website and advertising, then promptly ran home to post ugliness just so they could run around town deriding the content of this Forum, using their own post as the prime example.

On the good side, the true artists are still here hidden away in their studios while servicing a world of adoring fans who come for the work and ignore the burgeoning nonsense.

Here is a snippet from one of my stories in Bob's Corner in which I believe you will recognize yourself and the work you did on the Parsonage:

"It got so bad a would-be glass artist accused their blown glass teacher of hiding secrets from them (as if the craft did not demand years of careful work and study), and they made the comment while sitting outside the Barnsider smoking cigarettes and complaining their husband (feverishly hanging sheetrock alone in full view directly across the street) was failing to finish the build of their shop in a timely manner."

I can hear people in town now, "That person Mike did not post in the Forum; you are making the whole thing up just so you can mention one of your stories again!"

You will recall I last started the Guild website in 1997 with offers of free services even greater than today, but I got so hammered by vested contrary interests (particularly by someone you know) that I put it off until things settled down.

This time the exact same stuff started all over again, but Mary and I have ignored it while maintaining a record of the true story and forging full steam ahead.

In case you missed it, the snippet above is from my 6th story (out of currently 9), and it is titled:

You will certainly recognize the facts as facts and enjoy reading all the other stories from the beginning.

Otherwise, Sugar Loaf actually is pretty much of a Paradise—for those who want to be full time artists and are willing to do the work to make it happen.

In general, those people still don't waste their time attending the bullshit group meetings.

It would take one of those groups a few hundred years to put together a website like this, even if they could figure out how to come up with the money (money I avoid needing because I have skills).

In any case, I am sure your taste in women has improved, so you will not be pulled through the ringer again in 2014.

Just like Christmas morning, it is New Years Day, and you are still working!

Anything less than a 100 hour workweek here is considered part time.

Besides I have some ground to make up, because after the woman from Yale was here, Mary told me, "If you ever leave me in a room again with another smart humorless bureaucrat, you will be packing your bags."

Don't tell him about it, because I think the guy hates me, but he will be powerless to stop it.

In the meantime, Mary reports painting sales for the year are up by almost 30% over the previous several years.

Don't tell anybody about that either; they might think the Guild website and initiatives have been successful and hate me even more.

Don't you owe him an apology.

Here, Randy, as an apology, a link to information about that guy who was as I thought, though we were reading merely a gifted translation of his words not the actual words themselves:

You will notice that the Wikipedia article uses the pronunciation style which I showed you, though some of the symbols are specific to German thus not found on the graphic chart I gave you which does show the entire English vowel system (complete) but no other languages.

As an aside, I hope you realize the person who put that first nasty comment in the Forum did so specifically for the purpose of running around town and telling people how bad the Forum is, specifically by pointing to the statement that they themselves put in it (using an alias).

Thank you for putting this "Historic Hamlet" in perspective through this guild website.

"Historic?! What we are doing right now today is historic."

You are going to love this.

But first let me apologize for the way the Forum posting screwed up your formatting.

I could see what you did in the database, but html simplifies spacing, so I hope I retrieved it for you.

Ok, here we go with what you (being the one true Sugar Loaf artist grown and bred) are going to love!

With regard to that thing I wrote below about the person who posted, "Is this Forum some kind of joke!"

Well, it jogged Mary's memory, and she said, "Wait! I have e-mail from the person you think did that, in my watercolor sales database, so you missed checking. Run that IP# against it."

I did, and voilà, that nasty hateful despicable comment has now been indisputably confirmed as coming from exactly the person I previously decided it must be.

I had substantial evidence before, but now we know beyond question.

People cannot post in this Forum (or be on this site) without me having their IP#; people cannot send e-mail without including their IP#; most people have a static IP# associated with their home or business—even though Optimum pretends you have to pay extra to get one.

I don't know what it is about my statement that people do not understand, "I pay very close attention to my web traffic."

Much closer than can be done with Google Analytics.

That is how I know (within hours) which advertising is helping us, and which advertising is a waste of money.

In any case, an IP# posting = IP# e-mailed, and e-mail is a driver's license grade named source.

Want to know who did it?

Here's a hint: "The broader the smile the greater the deceit."

Just the sort of thing we need.

Make it yourself, and treat customers like royalty.

I mean think about it; much of the stuff he makes is just recycled nonsense from big-box crafts stores, but if a person goes into one of those places they are confronted with a giant cavernous lifeless void full of details, and the sales people are at best barely conscious, selling stuff made by slave labor in China (or someplace) of which they have little or no knowledge.

But if somebody goes into Randy's studio, they are confronted with a lively Randy (a very good thing), and the stuff is put together by his own hand (mostly).

Doesn't get much better than that.

Well, ok, there are shops in Sugar Loaf having all that plus truly unmatched world class product ... can't get it ANYWHERE else.

Try to beat that with online shopping, or massive commons.

Actually, I have encountered a few Sugar Loaf "Ways."

I'm choosing the stay creative, positive and supportive "way."

With your help it seems to be working so far!

My Daily List is:
1. 30 min on exercise
2. 30 min on typing
3. 30 min on writing
4. 30 min on guitar

Then there is the creative time in the shop.

In that order.

Biting off a big chaw I know, but to commit is to begin.

I am sure it has not been lost on you that when you first got to town I could come over and have a long conversation, but already in the few months you have been here (due to your work on your own product, and correct presentation of it), it is now impossible for me to stop by and have more than a few minutes of your time, and in order to have a coherent conversation I have to keep popping out onto the bench while we are interrupted by the flow of your adoring fans.

And a number of them are multiple repeat return customers ... already.

After the last time I was over to see you, I pointed out to Mary the irony of the pile of possible advertising venues you were considering on your work bench while you could barely keep up with the steady stream of people already arriving.

It is something I have seen over and over: make it and they will come.

I also pointed out to Mary the obvious fallacy of most of the advertising done in Sugar Loaf over the years, and handled by people who really would like to see us fail.

If that advertising worked, there would be no need for it (the strong artisan shops already never bother), therefore those in charge of it need to keep business in town hobbled in order to continue collecting on services (no more than prayers actually) presented as community services ... which are nothing like community service plus coming from a pretend artisan.

Be careful out there Randy, people have smiled big right in my face, slapped me on my shoulder thanking me for the great work done on the Guild site plus our $17,000.00+ (our own money) already poured into town advertising this year, then run right back to their computer and posted nastiness in this Forum such as, "Is this Forum some kind of joke!" with follow up lies about what the Guild site represents throughout town.

Also do not open up strange e-mail requests, even if they are supposedly from your own son.

On a lighter note: Will you be open tomorrow?

I am giving a tour to a high powered funder from Yale University whom you might like to hook your wife up with, for possible coordination with Orange Regional Health Care funding efforts.

And for next year Mary and I have already begun work on the Sugar Loaf University T-shirts and advertising spots.

BTW: Don't let on to anybody that Sugar Loaf has a vibrant, energetic, and unstoppable community in place; we like to keep that fact underground and under wraps; hope I won't get into trouble for letting you see it so quickly.

Keep me out of trouble by telling everybody you meet that they should never come look at the Guild website, because it is horrible, and I am an insufferable asshole.

Do that and I promise I will not let you down.

It is Christmas morning and you are working!

In Sugar Loaf anything less than a 100 hour work week is considered part time ... and doomed to failure.