The author. eat possum an' I eat squirrel, but dint eat yer dog." Dean was shakingmy handbuthedidn't seem to notice and he wouldn'tletgo. He had a funny way of breathing in that soundedlikean airbrake on an 18-wheeler. He was donespeaking.There wasonly the sound of that breathing . My arm hurt. Until that moment it had not occurred to me that anyone oranything had eaten our dog. Did he want me to absolve him? I invited him in. "You got any vo'ka?" "Just beer," Isaid. The newowneratthe Lanesville General Storecalled it "hippie beer," low-cost six-packs, which was all we could afford. It gave him a way of expressing his disapproval. But he had to do business with us. We comprised a significant portion of the population of Lanesville. Dean, who was no hippie, did notdisap- prove of us that I knew of, only our taste in alcohol. He shook his head and turned offinto the darkness. As an afterthought, he let go of my hand.

~ e met Dean the first day we moved to Lanesville. He and Maud drove across our front lawn in her garbage truck. They waved as they went. We figured it was a local custom, like not eating your neigh- bors' dog. We called ourselves Videofreex. Offi- cially, it was a corporation as well as our collective name. It had become a generic term as well, with the pejorative sense of freak undermined by the prevailing sub- culture, such thatany enthusiastoraficio- nado, regardless of the subject - sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll, food, video - was non-judgmentally classified as a freak. Low-cost videotape recorders, VTRs, the precursorsoftoday's ubiquitous VCR, were introduced as educational tools in the mid-1960s. In 1968, Sony began mar- ay Parry keting a relatively small, battery-oper- ated VTR with a lightweight black-and= . whitecamera. Othercompanies followed 119SHRIE suit. Though cumbersome and techni- cally unrefined by currentstandards, these small machines held revolutionary prom- ise. The means to produce television pro- grams had previously resided only with the networks, or, in some rare instances, with other large institutions. Use of the medium was controlled by the networks Alice's Restaurant. Woodstock, too, The and their affiliates not only because money was good, but the debauch- they seemed too pricey. Real-estate agents ery they'd owned the transmittersand the licenses to witnessed during ski weekends acted as ifthey weren'tquite surewhat we had soured operate them but because only they had them on the prospect of an- wanted or they were sure and had no other year with the the resources- the money and the equip- intention club. Sam, a short, of inflicting the likes of us on voluble man with the ment and technical support - needed to their demeanorof a gruff clients, especially in light of our Santa, was excited by produce programs. preposterous the prospect of a claims to need space for a group of revolutionaries Now, suddenly, here were the tools of TV studio replacing the . apolitical skiers. Miriam, television production in the hands of And skeptical, over- then we came to Lanesville. Hard- came her reservations with the people who were not beholden to the pressed thought to call itselfa hamlet, Lanesville that we would be paying rent year-round networks in any way. This new technol- lies on . the only flat stretch of Route 214 So Sam and Miriam moved to ogy fitneatly with therevolutionary ethic as it a small rushes up the Stony Clove Valley house they owned nearby, and, ofthe time in that it didn'tmattersomuch from at the end Phoenicia to Tannersville and of June 1971 all ten of us moved what was beingproducedso long as itwas Hunter. The in rump of Hunter Mountain, The FBI wasn't far behind. not what they produced nor would it ever whereitformsone "There's a find sideofDiamond Notch, guy out in the driveway taking its way under their control. dominates the pictures," geography. And like the said Annie one summer afternoon. She Stony Clove Creek, which empties into was looking out the kitchen window at theEsopus, thepeople a The wholivealong this tall, thin stranger in the business suit. origins of Videofreex were not valley tend to gravitate He quite so downhill to snapped photos of our license plates pure as that. David and I had met Phoeniciaratherthan and at, ofall through theprecipi- hurried off before anyone could significant events, theWoodstock tous notch above Devil's reach Festival, and Tombstone and him. A short time later, a green van, had initially tried to peddle over to Hunter. the our tapes of same color as those used by the phone what happened there to 60 Although Lanesville Minutes, which lies within the companybutabsentany markings, pulled would have none ofthem. boundariesofHunter Then, by Township in Greene up next tothetelephone poleacross happenstance, we'd hooked up County, Hunter has a different Route with an area code; 214 from the house. Davidson grabbedhis executive at CBS, and had pro- it can be unreachable in duced an winter and ser- still camera andcasually walked to a spot unsuccessful pilot for the net- vices from the town were work using sparse, with on the front lawn where he could shoot our tools, not theirs. By that longtime residents claiming time, we'd grown they never some photos of his own through a tele- to a group ofabout ten saw town officials except atelection people, depending time photo lens. Then he walked down the on when and whom and thenthe receptionon both sides you counted, under wasn't slope that led to the road and casually the collective name particularly warm. But the jobs were Videofreex. Our in circled the truck. He came back to report workspace was a loft in Hunteratthe ski slope and all the spin-off an industrial section of aman was sitting inside with headphones downtown Man- businesses, and the school was there, too. hattan which a cop told me one on. day was And the tug between the areas gave calledSoHo for "southofHouston Street." Lanesville two of its many personalities. twas a beautifulsummer thatyear. The We met Dean the first day we moved to Lanesville. mountainsidesI were as lush as I've ever seen them. He and Maud drove across our We enjoyed the scenery when front lawn in her garbage truck. we could between runs to the city tokeep They waved as they went. up ourcontactsthere,orwhen we were off We figured it was a local custom, theroad from our travels around the state like not eating your making videotapesandinstructing people neighbors' dog how to use this new technology with an almost evangelical zeal. We had little time nor much inclination We to feel para- were happy to blur our provenance Skiing was, indirectly, why we ended up noid. and thus assume our rightful role among ai~laple Tree Farm. The place was owned What we did feel as winter began the elite if to set not the vanguard of the coun- bySam andMiriam Ginsberg.Theybought in was isolated. Aside from our terculture and regular anti-war movements. But it it in the 1950s and ran it as a boarding contact with Sam and Miriam, who wasn't long them- after SoHo got its name that house during the summers, closing it up selves were outsiders, we had only the we realized it had become too expensive for the winter after Yom Kippur and re- slightest interaction with whatpassed for for us to maintain our space there. With turning to Brooklyn . But when Sam re- the community. Maud and Dean came to thepromise ofamajorgrant from the New tired as a union carpenter, he and Miriam pick up the garbage, seldom said much, York State Council on the Arts in hand, moved full-time to their three-story, 17- and neveragain resorted tousing the lawn we went house-hunting. No luck in bedroom Sullivan house with its two kitchens and as a highway. The logger down the road County. Stockbridge, Massachu- derelictoutbuildings . To headed setts, proved, make ends meet up the mountain each morning, even then, too upscale for during the winter, they'd pulled us, though rented to a ski logs down in the afternoon, and we were shown the original club from Long Island. never 28 said a word to us. A few shy kids The Videofreex in 1973. Front row, from left, Ann Woodward, David Cart, Gigliotti, Carol Vontobel, Nancy Cain, Davidson Gigliotti . Top, from left, Sarah Teasdale, Skip Blumberg, Bart Friedman, Chuck Kennedy. hung around the back door on occasion, to be no way for us to show our neighbors sprouted like shrubs along Route 214 was but they didn't say much and generally what we were doing. no different than in so many Catskills resisted offers of food or a tour of the Our tapes had been played for small communities- like watching ghosts in a small studioand the control room we'd set oatherings around the world, and artists snowstorm . up on the first floor. and independent producers from all over At that time, distribution was the miss- were coming to use the technically ad- ing piece of the communications puzzle vanced facilitiesat Maple Tree Farm. We can't remember exactly forthe alternative culture why Joseph . More and more frequently retained copies of their work, Paul called me. Maybe he'd read about organizations, institutions and individu- which caused our tape library to burgeon, I Videofreex or heard of us by word of als owned their own VTRs, but cable TV though only we and our guests from the mouth . He was sure I'd heard about him was just beginning to provide limited- video world had occasion to use it. Other- and his partner, both of whom had been access channels for independently or lo- wise, we were cut off at Maple Tree Farm busted by federal agents for operating cally produced programs, and the from net- what was happening on conven- unlicensed radio stations in Yonkers. I works remained impenetrable and Wro- gant, sure that nothing would ever chal- Sain. a ,short, lenge their stranglehold over the Amdki- voluable nian can consciousness. Because of that atti- with the demeanor (J'a gruff Santa, tude and because the Federal Communi- was excited by the prospect of a group cations Commission of revolutionaries offered no alterna- replacing the tive to the prohibitively expensive propo- apolitical skiers sition of broadcasting over a regular TV frequency at high power (although die FCC hadauthorized an experimental, low- tional hr(rtdcast 'I'V . Lanesville was too hadn't learned of his exploits, but I was power educational TV system just over

lease for Maple Tree Farm. Carol and I as exotic as anyone could hope to be in had gone to Woodstock for dinner and a Lanesville and still win acceptance. He cop pulled us over on our way back from was reportedly a good man with money, Phoenicia to spend our fast night in too. Scotty had become a regular viewer Lanesville. My beat-up 1963 VW bus, the ofLanesville TV. He had good reception PAGES quintessentialhippie vehicle, had attracted because he lived only a few houses down a number of unprovoked, and sometimes from us, one ofthe few dwellings with an ugly encounters, with cops. My bus had unobstructed shot at our antenna. Scotty Paste no particularly outstanding markings, no had alerted us to the upcoming trout- " FINE BOOKS psychedelic swirls or and-war slogans, stocking ritual, and when I showed up to OLD just the name "Luis" spray-painted tape in it, he had introduced me to the cop, USED rather small letters by a tentative graffiti Shandakenchiefconstable Jack Schlegel, RARE artist, a souvenir of the Lower East Side who was in charge of the stocking opera- where I used to park when we worked out tion. " SPORTS CARDS " COMICS of David's loft there. The trout arrived from the hatchery in The Phoenicia cop was a compact man iron tanks on the back ofa pickup. Trout -LOCAL AND with a sunburned face who sounded more need lots of air in order to survive, so the NEW YORK STATE businesslike than hostile. He asked po- pickupalso carried apump whichaerated *EPHEMERA litely for my license and registration, the tanksandcreated a din thatheightened " SEARCH SERVICE checked the tires and the blinkers, the the excitement of the occasion by forcing kind of a welcome-to-the-neighborhood everyone to shout at each other to be routine 103 TAMMANY STREET I'd become accustomed to. Usu- heard. As the truck drove upRoute 214 to KINGSTON, NY 12401 ally, when cops couldn't find something predetermined locations, club members (behind Mickey's Igloo) easy to nail you for, they turned surly and were handed plastic buckets full of froth EAST CHESTER ST. '/. mile from Rts. 9W & 32 (914) 339-6484 The networks remained impenetrable and arrogant, Hours: WED.SAT. 11-5 sure that nothing would ever challenge their stranglehold or by appointment over the American consciousness Drivers: made up a reason to hassle you. This time and writhing trout looking like so much Get reduced rates it was different. He handed me my docu- animated jewelry. The men trudged ments and walked away with a nod which through long patches of snow that still on auto insurance I took as almost friendly. 'covered much ofthe ground inLanesville from I'TT Hartford The next time I saw him he was out of in late March and dumped the fish uncer- uniform and in my viewfinder as I taped emoniously into the stream. the crew from the Stony Clove Rod and It was a long and tedious process, and Gun Club, which was stocking the stream during the course of it Jack got to talking. in advance of the first day of fishing I've never met anyone more at ease in season. The club was the biggest organi- front of a camera. He liked to talk, and Through a special zation - in agency arrange- fact, the only one - in the aware the camera was on expounded on a ment with ITT Hartford, our agency can valley. Its fall turkey shoot was the social number of topics including some offer good drivers auto insurance savings event ofthe year. Many up to 20% . And still provide you prompt, local landowners uncomplimentary observations on the easy policy service and round-the-clock, had agreed to allow the club to post their fishermen who casttheir lines in Phoenicia. toll-free claim service, too. land, restricting hunting and Additional discounts . Save up to fishing tb Those lowlanders would, of course, reap 25% for insuring additional cars and 10% members only. Holding an office in the -: a windfall of club-stocked fish which forinsuring your home with ITTHartford . Plus reductions club was far more important than becom- migrated downstream. There was some- for safety features, duvet's ing a town official education, and more! . For all intents and thing inherently unfair in that. Call our agency today. We'll be purposes, the club ruled the valley. The stocking tape played a few nights glad to add up your savings on car insur- ance from ITT later on Lanesville TV. Some club mem- Hartford. bers called in, amazed at having seen The Presidentat the time wearrived was themselves on their own TVs. Others The Devine Agency a native ofScotland named Scotty Stuart. stopped me at the general store to say If he hadanother first name, I neverknew what a good thing it was to have the club itand I,~x~,~!~z6 no one ever called him anything but on TV. About time, too. It was our first Scotty. He had a thick burr and was about major breakthrough in the community, New Paltz Kingston 255-7806 336-4800 and the only show many people in effort. His side of the family, unlike pronounced themselves satisfied Lanesville would everadmithaving with the seen. Willie's, neverhad much to say to us from levelsofnoise andintoxication. The reception in Phoenicia was some- Butin the that point on. months between parties, the what less enthusiastic. Jack Schlegel was ethic was While manyofourLanesvilleneighbors work no matter how stoned some roundly criticized for bad-mouthing low- folks knew us as hippies doing something with were while doing it. land anglers. In an act of disloyalty, he TV, though few could express precisely hadcast his lotwith thatclannish group in what even after Lanesville TV went on Lanesville, aplace that wasn't even apart. the air, our image in the wider world fared ~ e encouraged visitors on weekends, of Ulster County. Strangely enough, no somewhatbetter. Videohad become a hot most of whom were already involved in video. We fed them dinner and some The wife ofthe owner of the largest business in town, hippiebeer, showed them toaguest room, the sawmill, advised some people we knew and generally left them tosnoopfor them- selves. No oneproselytized except on the not to let us into their homesfor interviews virtues of technology. Conversations because we only wanted to tape amounted to little more than shop talk, what we planned to steal later and when a reporter did show up there wereas many versions oftheparty line as there were Videofreex. one questioned howhe had come to be on topic in the press. The public perception Ifyou want toseeacult, youhave to find TV. What they cared about was whathe'd ofthe newmedium waslimited, however, a leader, and there were times when it said. in that most writers and editors treated seemed David was unwilling to disabuse Very few people ever asked us whether video exclusively as anewartform, refus- thepressofthefantasy heplayedthatrole. we had a license to broadcast, which we ing to acknowledge its relevance to the It wasn't all his fault. With his theatrical didn't. We never said we did. A subse- seriousbusinessofcommunications . Most bellowing, his wheezy laugh more a tic quent FBI investigation reported that we reporting focused on individual artists, than an expression of humor, his parrot were broadcasting on "a localTV station" such as Korean-born Nam June Paik, a Oberon screaming as he spoke, and his and left it at that. joyful, endlessly inventive and slightly Whitman beard and Afro hair, he was The tape of the trout-stocking and the loonyman whorefused to visitLanesville simply more colorful than the rest of us. subsequent controversy established because he worriedhe wouldbemistaken His willingness to accept the mantle of Lanesville TV as a serious presence as for Japanese and killed by American war leadership rather thandiscourage theper- well as an accepted fact in the commu- veterans. ception he spoke for the rest of us left us nity. And, for the fasttime, ourneighbors We had our fleeting share of publicity, seething whenever those misconceptions got some inkling what it was we did. as mainstream publications such as appeared in print. We became wary of The Benjamin and Neal families com- Newsweek discovered video art and just leaving him alonewith reporters so much prised the core of the valley's population as quickly forgot about it. And as that so that at times it may have seemed if at as that time. Maple Tree Farm had once excitement waned, there came another there was a form of group censorship. been a Neal familyhomestead andboard- wave of reporters, claiming to want to This behavior peaked with the arrival ing of house, and the two families were look more deeply into what was happen- the fast set of Germans. intertwined for generations. Willie Ben- ing and who were, in effect, on assign- Franceska and her crew arrived the day jamin wasthe patriarch, accordedrespect ment as voyeurs ofthe counterculture. To afterourfirstThanksgiving atMapleTree not only because he was an elder but them, people like Paik werea comprehen- Farm,just intime foranearlyand extraor- because he owned both a tractor and a sible phenomenon fitting neatly a tradi- dinarily heavysnowstorm. Shewasa thin, Cadillac.Elmer,oneofWillie's twobroth- tional mold. But as a video collective - dour woman with short brown hair and a ers, achieved some distinction by having we never used the word "commune" to way of asking questions that sounded fathered 17 children. describe ourselves - Videofreex was at more like giving orders. "Just go about Shortly afterLanesville TV wenton the once titillating and more threatening . If what you do, yes? We film you as you air, Carol dropped by Elmer's house and 'we didn't fit somepreconceivednotion of are." Her crew consisted of a sound man asked him on camera toname all his kids. liow artists worked and were not part of and a cameraman . The sound man con- He looked befuddled . "Well," he said the television industry, then by default it stantly shook his head. I never learned slowly and stopped for a long drag on his was only logical that we must be a cult. whetherhe was having technicaldifficul- cigarette, "there's Elmer Jr. and Bobby It's hard for me to believe the way we ties or he could not believe what he was and ..." He paused again, shook his head lived lentmuch credence to thecult theory. hearing. The cameraman was young, and grinned sheepishly . We didhaveafew bigparties, oneofthem blond and athletic, almost a dancer. He "Charlotte!" came a loud, off-camera by the banks of the Stony Clove Creek clearly enjoyed peeking over our shoul- whisper. where Davidson roasted a deer he'd shot ders with his lens. "Yeah, Charlotte ...," and he rattled off after it had been hit by a car. The drum- At that time, film enjoyed a far higher a few more. With additional prompting, ming at that event did last late into the standing than video as a medium for he got most of them, but it was a painful night, and the bikers from two doors over aesthetic and commercial projects, espe 32

cially whencompared to the type ofvideo equipment available to us. Film images were clearer. Film was color. We could only shoot in black and white. The sound wasmore distinct and there were markets for film that did not exist for videotapes. We had norespect for film. As a matter of principle, we saw the medium as con- stricting and elitist. Film was extremely expensive to process. A cannister of 16 mm film only lasted eight minutes as compared to the 30 minutes we could record on ourVTRs,andthere wasno way film could be shown immediately . Film was the past, video the future, and we let the German film crewknowitrightaway. The first sign oftrouble came when we peltedthecameraman with snowballs. He seemed to enjoy it, but Franceska was not amused. "No, please! You are not to acknowledge our presence here, yes?" Somebody hit her with a snowball. She ordered the crew inside. The sound man shook his head. Elmer Benjamin attempting to name his 17 children. Usually someone worked in the editing room at least once a day, but because this relaxed and natural fashion . lar though less ruddy. They was Thanksgiving weekend and wereall sand- we had "Now you will all please say one sen- hogs in the city. Sandhogs no pressing deadlines we could are workers torment tence about what you thinkismost impor- who build tunnels . ourvisitorsfull time. It was one ofthe few tant, yes? One at a time, please, beginning times in all the As soon as they bought the house, they years at Maple Tree Farm with Nancy . ... Achtung!" There was si- arrived with we experienced shovels and an immense such unity of purpose. lence foramoment before we all burst out quantityofhigh-priced We agreed beerandproceeded later it had something to do in uncontrollable laughter. Franceska be- to excavate their with Franceska's basement. They would insistence on using the gan shouting in German. The soundman spend all weekend word underground, while a "Achtung!" to begin each scene. threw off his headset. Somewhere in the tinny speaker in the The technological window blasted rock and cost differences archives ofa German TV networkisa film music they could between film hearas they wheeled out and video produced radi- record-of the Videofreex. We never re- barrows full of dirt. I cally different styles never saw the base- working. We would ceived a copy and couldn't have played it ment when it was turn on our cameras finished, but I had an and enter a scene, if we had. Somewhere in the Videofreex uncomfortable feeling sometimes observers they'd extended it and sometimespar- archives is a tape of Franceska and her under the yard ticipants-usually between us, and that any some combination of crew as they packed their bags, leaving weekend they might spill the two - but always out into our with the idea of earlier than expected despite the snow. basement. It wasn'tlong before allowing events to unfold we began at their own We may have watched our tape of them to resent the Morgans as loud weekenders pace. Film, however, was ruled by a for- thatweekend. No onehas viewed it since. and outsiders . That was before mality which required the structured scenes O'Malleys arrived . of roughly predetermined r length . Twohouses shared the small bluff "Achtung!" above Hotallourneighborswere locals. When Route 214 with Maple Tree Farm. The I don't recall that we let her have a we first arrived, there was an elderly Morgan house lay about 20 yardsfrom the private interview with David. Perhaps couple and some of their relatives living north side ofours. On the other side ofthe that's why she decided on a collective in the house immediately next door to Morgans' was a small frame house that scene, herding us all in the first-floor Maple Tree Farm. They had already had was emptywhen wemoved in. During our room we used as a videotape library and their house up forrent, butwhen they saw viewing room. second winter at Maple Tree farm, a With the exception ofpar- us they put it on the market for a very family moved ties, all the into this abandoned house. members of Videofreex sel- attractive price. The next summer the Not long afterward, Carol decided dom collected in to take the same room at the Morgans (not their real name) moved in. ourdaughter Sarah, thenjustan for same time, even infant, at dinner. Franceska There were Ma and Pa Morgan and three a sleigh ride. Seeing our new hadn't picked up neighbor, on this aspect of our of their sons. Most of Pa Morgans huge she askedwhether shecould sled his relationship. She down forged ahead, ordering red face was occupied by a prizefighter's driveway. He agreed and they talk- us to sit in what got to she determined was a nose. The boys looked remarkably simi- ing. Shementionedthat the drank 34 Morgans a lot. "I shoot heroin in my eye," replied Angels when we were still in the city. Fame shortly afterRoy, his wife and their Roy O'Malley. three kids moved in on the other side of Roy kept his chopped Harley in his the Morgans. living roomand was adorned with enough here was also Artie, who more than Artie was Roy's Boswell. He could tattoos to qualify for a sideshow . He offset Roy's reticence. Artie was Roy's barely constrain himself from telling and claimed to have friends among the Hell's brother-in-law. Artie's wife was the sister retelling the legend of Roy O'Malley. Angels chapter in Manhattan, though he of the woman Roy had recently married, How, for instance, the Angels in the city was not officially a member of the club. and Artie and Laurie had rented the cabin had loosed their German shepherds on He was probably a little too rough around behind the main house at Maple Tree Roy during one visit, just as a joke, and how Roy had knocked each of the dogs cold with one punch and not sustained as much as a scratch. "You shoulda fuckin' seen it, man. Theway he fuckin' knocked the fuckin' dogs fuckin' out!" Not long after he and his family moved in, Roy disappeared for a while, having been arrested at gunpointjust up themad by local and state police and extradited to New Jersey. "He stompeda couple troop- ers down there before they was gonna stomp him," said Artie. "He broke one of their fuckin' legs and smashed the other one's nose off, but they don't wanna fuckin' admit he coulda done that much damage to 'em, them being troopers an' all. So he'll be out soon." That was true, but it wasn't good news for Artie, who'd had a fistfight with Laurie on the lawn of Maple Tree Farm in the interim. Artie was no Roy when it came to fight- ing, and I scored the bout in Laurie's favor. But she went to her sister with the Channel 3 was sure to cover the circus when it came to town. result that Roy explained to Artie the the edges to qualify. Not that we ever said much to or heard much from Roy. The only conversation I , ___ ever had with him was when he had parked his bike in our driveway and was polishing it in anticipation of leaving for a biker rally somewhere in the unspeci- fied "north." The Grateful Dead might show up there, he said. Man, did he dig their music. I said I didn't care much for it. There wasa long silence. Then, slowly. he stopped polishing his ape-Danger handlebars and looked up at me, glower- ing . Our conversation had ended . That incident aside, he and his biker friends considered Videofreex to he enough of an outlaw organization to meet the threshold criteria for acceptance . We had long hair, liked rock music - except when the Morgans played it to accom- pany their subterranean activities - and shared a miscast of authority . We also had some acquaintances in common be- cause we had made several tapes with the Carol Vontobel hosting an early Lanesville TV show. 35

consequences ofever touching his sister- in-law again. Shortly thereafter, Artie and Laurie moved out. Through all of this Lanesville TV con- tinued. We had begun it as a tentative experiment fed with highhopes and great ambition. " Handcrafted staffs, knives & medicine sticks Our first broadcasts began " Minnetonka & Sioux Moccasins promptly at 7 p.m. on Sunday night and " Indian Cards & Prints " Stained Glass Feathers ran " Silver & Turquoise Jewelry for as long as we felt we had some- " Sage Sticks & Incense Wands thing to show. A few weeks after we first Open daily 12-6 (closed Tues.) 679-7761 wenton theair,Bartcame upwith the idea `54 Tinker St. (next to Beyond Beadery) Woodstock for "The Buckaroo Bart Show," a Satur- day morning children's program. The show starred Bart in the title role and included a particularly outgoing local youngster named John Benjamin, who DO YOU NEED GREAT VIDEO . was about ten, as Sheriff John. And as no Offering TV show, especially one that purports to Desktop be about cowboys, would be complete Video solutions for the 90's without a comic villain, Bart drafted Howard Raab, a carpenter and stained- glass artist who " CORPORATE VIDEO happened at that time to "VIDEO IS " MARKETING live in the cabin out back. He was given WORTH A " SALES the name Horrible Howard. " TRAINING The first Buckaroo Bart Show was a THOUSAND " ART short, improvisational morality play " MUSIC VIDEOS called PICTURES-0, "Don't Throw YerCans in the Anonymous " ENTERTAINMENT Road," in " DOCUMENTARIES which Horrible Howard tosses his soft " VIDEO TOASTER drink can by the side of the road and GRAPHICS Sheriff John and Buckaroo Bart lecture him about the evils of littering. Both the Call for Fr" medium and the message VHS vid "o were new to John, whononetheless handledthem with TORE CAREY ASSOCIATES the aplomb and self-assurance of a pro. Phone/Fax The show quickly developed into an 914/657-291 4 " GLENFORD, NY 12433 J elaborate production involving science- fiction plots and complicated location shooting. We measured its success by the amusement value we derived from it, but there was no way to sustain it. Lanesville TV broughtin no revenues. Each year we had to plead with the state, which kept reducing our funding. We tried, with some success, to develop outside sources of We believe that income. But with no money earmarked " learning should be child-centered and increasingly for the self-directed Buckaroo Bart Show, it went from " learning flourishes in an atmosphere which a regular event to an occasional program is-in spurtmore cooperative than competitive. and then disappeared altogether. " learning is active and physical as well as cognitive The once-a-week evening We atDo be"eve broadcasts that the essential learning that must take place during these earlyyears Is to survived primarily value selfand others and to rasolve conflicts. because we did them Because almostasanafterthought. By the spring of of ourunderstanding thateach child develops at her own program that allows pace, we have an open 1972 we had polledour the chilho find her own level and to proceed at her own rate. viewerson theair, and decided,based on thehalf-dozen orso Grades Pre-K through 6th and we're adding a grade a year responses, thatwe shouldswitch to Satur- Located on Rt. 209 in the heart of Stone Ridge day night. That seemed toboost ouraudi- For registration & information call: ence, especially in the winter when the the School at 687-4855 Pat skiers High Meadow Wootan, Director at 339-4056 were around. In the summer, when School does not discriminate on the basis of race, color and ethak origin it wasstill lightoutside at 7 p.m., we used the front porch as our studio, although we Davidson,rememberofturnedlawnmountaintopinoflong,huntedwentandwasontypesIgamethisupArstatfallIfewerthethoughtWoodlandallandheshapes,knewprobablymyIupWhizextended-locationpassingthewatcheddifferentwasasofintowhenwoodsCarol'slandscapeinofearly,coollookingBuckaroopurple,Onandavailable?thetents,attentionIarrivalsameledmeapeoplestructuresondidn'thelate-nightnotthefeedinglabor,Bangofsudden,thenetworksevengroup,therewoulddreamerskitchensomejustdidn'tsomethingupmentioningwhereValleygauze-likeasonlysceneandTheJustoutawayofpregnancy,firstthesheQuickDeanItwatchasaThewasSarahBartwasSarahwhobizarretheeathereForthereThereoneeatTheropeadawnIhadopportunitysessionsnextnearfromdayunfoldwantedhadatdaysomountainsidesdraggedmythewindowourwithCity,neededShowme,Ishootsinthatbeendog'sTVwasMaplemazesDean'swasbreakfastmuchyearsPhoeniciabridgewereorofdeerVideofreexbrokemorningsecretvideothedogsubtlysoideasSarahitAndinathishuntingshootingloatheworkingfrostnothinggather-domes,ahousebefore,namenearlyoratmorebeforeinmeantIWhywarnTreeoverwithtodeerskillalsocon-Andnewfan-theongetbuttoforgoinoftoI ' numberboutsweetcablemountain,mountainwasquillswhenequipmentd'ouevresofhismeSometimestimedidn'ttriedhadMushroomotherwiseandattackedtoCitycouldwasvettimesaddictedCarolbewesobutItwithbeforehadinseen,withfromtoHeremoveWe'dtheclosefaceonbecausewasaIfrightenedHeoftenofandcouldanimalduringanesthetizedactuallywelumbering,thebeatingbearnorrunshoutedheofourinthetrailshadHelostlovedIthistoptellandahemountain,thecouldwasdistemperwasasmovedmepainquillsMushroomonlywoodswouldn'ttoveterinarianwe'dwastosawinclinationencouragingthehandraisedstopped,letline,returnedthedisappearedsignalasbehindbadfacetoreceivecontrolItandhe'dThedonatedNancydogsSamonfrothingthebuttheMapleourcoveredWewasthelivingthecablebeenthatfastmewhatanimalWhenwalk,aattoasetoneinwesignallookingatusedquillsvettobehouseforcasegreatawouldporcupineslearnedandhadalmostMushroomanestheticfasthuge,backandhishelphimourLanesvilledragtheupsignalshadasgnawedmastmountedfoundputoflistendowncrisscrossedtryingtoworriedinTreeIMushroomoralthoughatdidn'toutdatedbroughtILanesvilleawithtolegasMiriamwouldourhisIownhousethoughtwiththeythewinter,triumphtakenreachedhimandtopuppythethereendexceptwasoffandfourboughttohe'dlikelookswayinghighsleepbowelsSometimesthewalksFarm,wherecountryIunsuccess-fromhousekeepquillsmouthpulledabruptlytokeepcablethroughabreathingranhisknewsuddenly,Ichewedfeethe'dweakenahimwereseen,SeveralasidetohadhimIfuryforfromontrayhecableForHewhenatlookedpawsNewhim,Mush-downlargeatupcomeButinhigh,TV,theatthatnei-itTVafterfirstasThehadandbe-theMyoutofwithwhowasandhadI'dhetheupsoofathetheitII MmidaysbeHOURStenderNEXTWednesdayTerraElizabeth209,STAveFashions6youhereVuatage9eweu6yZXquisiteahead!TODAYPHOENICfA,TOon6813-2001Stone&THURSFashionsCtonsigtun"thinkSWEETHOMESummersoonerCarterANTIQUESthnacgyland1930'sSundayatSUE'S)NYOutfW,9-5&

was . us city. Second . . request said . Vwtage . room Latest a featuring . Unique . . a 1940's house. stayed Open hiked . 11:00-5.00 (Open ) The . Once, 2J. bolted 687-9091 learned, logging that mountainside . weather. upslope must . TOMORROW'S gray ... It moved. irrevocably . back, . During He seemed . never she squealing . tape saw . ing porcupine architects ther . new . I . inflatables, heart tastic . heavily. the then, a . member GIFTS the ACCESSORIES all . with . getting every MAIN ., do, fully (914) out (RIGHT The STORE : .-MON. involved the . collectively many. cept. said. . I they . . the more Farm, winter bleak . hors . had come . the . Even season, we'd out system. the . side watched . antenna next. TV to bargain Camp who . . the will Dean. . Morgans . than knew while, . grow . York . . occasionally . Plan Inspecting Dean . cable . Call should You tasty the 331-7080

with each bite until it was finally gone. They ate through half-inch-thick alumi- num shielded cable. They ate the antenna and the small building covered with steel mesh that housed the amplifiers. Mush- room had protected our equipment, and we'd never realized it. Without him, the whole system was vulnerable to the por- cupines, who fancied the cable, not what it carried. When Mushroom disappeared, our cable signal went off for good. LanesvilleTVbroadcasts continued until 1977. By that time, thegroup haddwindled to five regular members, and only three people lived at Maple Tree Farm. Both the bars in town had burned down . The A LanesvilleTVshow with Nancy Cainon thephone, general store and gas station had closed, HarrietBenjaminand Russell Conner of the New York State Council on the Arts. leaving the post office as the sole testa- ment that a settlement of larger propor- tions had once thrived there. The people We had ourfleeting share ofpublicity, who live in Lanesville today get their TV as mainstream publications such as Newsweek from 24,000 miles in space, receiving the discovered video art same newsand entertainmentas everyone else in the country, geographically re- andjust as quicklyforgot about it mote, electronically connected. There is no physical evidence that Channel 3 ever they might tell you they remember the Parry D. existed there. But if you ask some of Teasdale, now a resident of the' stocking ofthe trout stream. Orthey might Phoenicia, folks who lived in Lanesville back is editor of the Woodstock then, say they don't recall. Times.

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