The SPAC Stack: Beauty is facade deep

The unveiling of the Saratoga Performing Arts Center’s new look for 2009 was greeted this week with the enthusiasm one musters when presented with a proud parent’s ugly baby.
“How unique!”
The initial shock was followed by the appropriate public gusto with which one might rave about the emporer’s new clothes, while muttering things like “mushroom” and “spaceship.”
The vertically striped triangles on the outside of the 42-year-old amphitheater are immediately recognizable icons of the local landscape, right up there with the peaks and grandstand of Saratoga Race Course, the Canfield Casino and the Batchellor Mansion.
The facade may well have been due for sprucing up. But a facelift is supposed to perk up your appearance, not totally change your identity. Is there a need to change for change’s sake?
Maybe.
People tend to resist change, especially when it’s foisted on them. The new façade need not have been subject to a vote by members, but the public could have been brought on board by, say, inviting suggestions for a new facade.
The beginning of the end of the arrogant old guard at SPAC was its closed-door decision a few years ago to drop the New York City Ballet, a bomb that was defused by replacing the president and most of the board. One hopes the lesson about public involvement has not been lost on the new guard, which has done mostly tremendous things for SPAC.
One thing for sure, this is getting people talking about the place.
“I leave town for two months and they turn SPAC into a giant cheese sandwich?” was an email from a former Saratogian reporter.
One resident e-mailed to say it reminded him of a layer cake that fell flat.
“At first I thought it looked like a mushroom,” said another local SPAC fan. “Then it started to grow on me.”
Like a mushroom?
“How do you like the new IHOP?” asked a major SPAC supporter in a phone call Friday morning.
Sportswriter Stan Hudy said it looked like a short stack of pancakes, the “SPAC Stack,” part of a Denny’s-style Capital Region Grand Slam: the SPAC Stack, the Egg in Albany and a side of bacon brought home by the politicians.
“The look of the track is protected, but not SPAC,” groused one shocked patron. “This is all about tradition. Does the Statue of Liberty need a new dress?”
I don’t know what’s gained by replacing the familiar brown and aqua façade with beige waves – perhaps it was “so ’60s!” -- but I suspect we’ll get used to it and maybe even come to love it.
Beauty is only façade deep.
More important than the look of the exterior is what’s going on inside: pending negotiations with concert provider Live Nation, filling more seats for the New York City Ballet and Philadelphia Orchestra, encouraging more memberships and reaching for deep-pocket donations to underwrite the cost of keeping this wonderful venue alive and well.

Oh, for pizza and a knish

My favorite headline in recent Saratogian's is on Saturday's front page: "Coming never: Pizzeria tenants served eviction."
If you've been on Saratoga Springs' Broadway any time in the last two years you would immediately recognize the reference. A storefront window boasted the sign "Coming Soon Pizzeria" along with a blank building permit. A New York-style pizza shop with a walk-up window would have been a welcome addition to the Broadway lunch options. But it is not to be.
Fortunately, D'Andrea's is only a block away -- and even closer to my office than "Coming Soon" would have been.
A greater culinary disappointment is the barring of the hot dog man from Congress Park. How I loved to get a Diet Coke and a knish, and sit on a park bench with Features Editor Beverly McKim on a summer afternoon.
That's a potato knish, pronounced ka-nish, a throwbackto my childhood in Brooklyn, when coming home from school I could choose between a knish or a slice of pizza, either one for 15 cents, that I could savor on my walk, with all evidence gone before reaching my apartment building.
I occasionally would pick up a knish from the deli that preceded Quizno's; apparently the occasional knish does not keep a deli in business.

Too much information already

At what point should we as citizens and those of in the media say "enough already" when it comes to revealing the past indiscretions of public figures?
Do you care if the governor used cocaine and pot when he was in his 20s?
Do you care about the marital infidelities of public officials?

How long will the honeymoon last?

It's hard not to feel good about the potential for David Paterson as the new governor of New York. As far as first impressions go, he is smart, quick on his feet, firm, seems genuine and has a disarming sense of humor.
"He's going to need a good sense of humor," Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno told a reporter on Paterson's swearing-in day.
Bruno also had many public words of praise for Paterson, with whom he dealt in the Senate. Of course anything would have to be an improvement over the terrible relationship between Bruno and Spitzer.
But today government gets back to work and Gov. Paterson starts his new job. Don't be disappointed if his honeymoon with the Legislature is short-lived.
Bruno and Paterson have different political philosophies, constituents and priorities. So how long do you think the new nice-nice lasts. What time is it?

Sunday comics arriving in a new format

After a week of news focus¬ing on the political and personal tur¬moil of soon-to-be-former Gov. Eliot Spitzer, it’s time to turn the page, to the funny pages.
Let’s talk about the Sunday comics.
Being in charge of the news content of a daily newspaper is an awesome responsibility. Being in charge of the comics is just, well, awesome. I sup¬pose I feel that way because the color comics have always been one of my Sunday morn¬ing pleasures.
As a kid in Brooklyn, I pored over the Daily News, growing up with the gang in Gasoline Alley, enamored by Dondi, and enthralled by Brenda Starr. My admiration for this redheaded bombshell may have sublimi¬nally sowed the seeds for a career in journalism and some awful dye jobs. Decades later I reluctantly gave Brenda the pink slip in this publication. I check her out occasionally in out-of-area papers and she hasn’t changed a bit.
Things change, though, and starting March 16 there will be a change in The Saratogian’s Sunday comics: It will be pub¬lished in four pages instead of six, with almost all the features remaining intact.
The change is a cost-cutting measure, plain and simple. Eliminating a single two-sided color-printed sheet once a week reduces spending on paper and ink. The savings add up in a painless way as news¬papers everywhere seek ways to economize without sacrific¬ing the product or people.
But how can six pages be squeezed into four, without risking readability?
For starters, the kid-oriented science feature, “You Can by Beakman and Jax,” is moving from the Sunday comics to the Saturday Life section. That’s why it’s here today. It seems like a good fit, since we also run the “minipage” in this sec¬tion each Saturday, and kids have the whole weekend to do the experiments.
All but three of the remain¬ing comics fit into the revised format that you’ll find tomor¬row.
Almost every Sunday comic includes a “filler,” a rectangle with the name of the comic, to use if needed. By eliminating the fillers in the horizontal strips, a vertical comic could be added to the page.
Once upon a time, all multi¬ple-panel comics contained the same number and size squares, week after week.
The retired Bill Waterson broke that pattern with his wonderful Calvin & Hobbes. Now it’s hard to find strips that can consistently run vertically. Three that work are Dilbert, The Lockhorns, and Non Sequitor.
I know that when it comes to newspaper comic enthusiasts, messing with the Sunday is section is no laughing matter. So, take a look and let me know if there’s a strip you miss and what you’d rather see pulled.
I was extremely tempted to retire The Family Circus. Then I worried you’d make tracks all over the paper looking for it. And if you asked who cut it, I’d have to say, “Not me.”

Barbara Lombardo is man¬aging editor of The Sarato¬gian. Her column is published Saturdays. Tell her about the Sunday comics, or anything else about The Saratogian, via e-mail at blombardo@sarato¬gian.com or by calling 583-8711.

Kids Write the Darndest Things

I had the pleasure the other morning of speaking with the fourth- and fifth-graders at Lake Avenue Elementary School who come to school an hour early every Monday to put out a newspaper. One thing they learned: Criticism sometimes crops up in the most unexpected places.
A "What's Hot and What's Not" feature prompted a parent to complain to the principal that it inadvertently encouraged students to judge one another by the brand names of their clothing.
The next edition included a letter to the editor from the principal mentioning the parent's comment, describing the pros of wearing uniforms, and asking for reader thoughts about that suggestion.
The editor then responded about why she thought uniforms were not a good idea and nothing that "an article that stirs up a lot of discussion really helps a paper get noticed."
That's true for a daily community newspaper as well. Although "getting noticed" is not the primary goal, last month's publication of city salaries stirred up a lot of discussion. Coming up: School salaries. We have Freedom of Information requests filed with several local districts.

The Saratogian bids farewell to Jim Kinney

The newsroom is losing one of its go-to guys.
After 10 years covering the county, cops, crime and just about anything else that needed to be covered, Jim Kinney is wrapping up his reporting career at The Saratogian.
He’s going to the big leagues — a metro paper. After Feb. 29, he’ll be reporting for The Republican in Springfield, Mass., with circulations of about 85,000 daily and 125,000 on Sun¬day.
People come and go at The Saratogian. That’s the nature of a small newspaper. A lot of peo¬ple are often starting their career right out of school. Many move on to new locations, bigger markets and fatter paychecks.
Kinney stayed longer than most, long enough for him to be the guy who knows who’s who and what’s what — an invaluable resource in a newsroom where reporters turn over faster than the flapjacks at Compton’s.
And in a business where char¬acters come with the territory, his leaving is like losing a major player in a long-running sitcom.
“Jim Kinney here!” he’ll inform callers.
Jim Kinney everywhere, really.
“Send Kinney” may have been the phrase uttered most often by editors in the newsroom since 1998, early in the morning, in the middle of the day, late at night, and on weekends.
Fires. Accidents. Perp walks. Police calls. Funerals. Press con¬ferences. Not to mention county meetings about sewer, water, budgets, bridges, laws, farms, traffic, garbage, airports, ani¬mals, inmates, cell towers, fire towers, elections, construction. You’d need a front-end loader to lift his clip file.
Kinney is nothing if not prolific.
But he will be missed not just because he produces mountains of copy, but because he’s done it with a cheerful, positive, can-do attitude, hour after hour, day after day. He’s a newsman, through and through.
Talk about timing: I just fin¬ished typing that last sentence, it’s after 8:30 p.m. Thursday, and Kinney, who started his day cov¬ering a breakfast speech by the county administrator to the chamber of commerce, just walked in.
“Hey, there’s a firetruck up on Nelson, you hear anything about it?”
Uh …
“I’ll find out,” he said, reaching for his phone.
“Jim Kinney here. Why’s that firetruck on Nelson? A trans¬former fire? Thanks.”
Think they’ll have that kind of excitement in Springfield?
Springfield is a city on the banks of the Connecticut River, trying to redevelop the riverfront as well as the city core while dealing with the crime and relat¬ed issues of places more urban than Saratoga. A place Kinney will surely get his teeth into.
What about fun?
Well, there’s the Basketball Hall of Fame, AHL hockey, a symphony, theater, and muse¬ums of art, history and science. Not to mention the Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden. How does that stack up against the Racing Museum and Hall of Fame, Albany River Rats, Philadelphia Orchestra, Home Made Theater and the Yaddo Rose Garden?
Kinney, who’ll also be moving closer to family, seems ready to take the transition in stride.
What will you do for sports, I asked him.
“Every place has cable,” shrugged the Penn State grad. “And it’s about the same trip to State College for football.”

Barbara Lombardo is manag¬ing editor of The Saratogian. Her column is in the print edition of The Saratogian on Saturdays.