Finding Ulysses » grassroots

Grassroots Festival Videos Start Trickling Out

Jonathan Cook — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 03:47:32 +0000

Every year, as the Grassroots Festival of Music and Dance winds down, the YouTube representation of the event begins, with a wave of new uploads that lasts several weeks, well into the autumn. The first of these videos have now arrived, starting out with a touch of Zydeco.

Mr. Roboto Visits Grassroots?

Jonathan Cook — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 16:46:31 +0000

The official story is that engineering students at Cornell University set the record for the longest distance walked by an untethered robot. A robot named Ranger is said to have walked 14.3 miles in 11 hours.

It’s curious that 14.3 miles is close to the distance from Cornell University to the Trumansburg Fairgrounds, where the Grassroots Festival of Music and Dance is taking place this weekend. I’m not saying that I know that Ranger was actually en route to hear Donna the Buffalo, but it would provide some motivation for going the distance.

Alash Ensemble Video From Grassroots

Jonathan Cook — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 13:15:39 +0000

Here’s one musical group from the Grassroots Festival that I definitely could not hear from my front porch. I wish I could have.

The Alash Ensemble, demonstrating the traditional Tuvan art of throat singing:

(Tuva is a republic within the Russian Federation, just to the north of Mongolia.)

Grassroots Bubbles

Jonathan Cook — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 21:42:21 +0000

Grassroots videos are starting to trickle onto YouTube. The most reflective, in one sense or another, of the bunch, is the one you see below:

My favorite Grassroots conversation from this year:

“Hey, man, I’m a friendly guy. I can get you really high.”

“We’re going to have to handcuff you.”

“No, it’s okay. I’m a cool cat.”

First Response To Grassroots

Jonathan Cook — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 11:34:41 +0000

In the weeks to come, we can expect to see many videos of the Grassroots Festival uploaded to YouTube. What with being able to hear the music from miles away and then watching the concert videos online, I almost feel like I was there… almost.

Until Monday, Grassrootsters will remain offline, unable to upload. So, for now, the only video footage of Grassroots we have is from the outside, of an ambulance rushing in – an aspect of Grassroots that isn’t so groovy.

Twits Eclipse Blogging for Grassroots

Jonathan Cook — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 20:25:59 +0000

The latest updates on the Grassroots Festival of Music and Dance aren’t coming from the official Grassroots blog. That was last updated on June 30th, and before that, in March. For a more up to date, if abbreviated, account of the preparations for Grassroots, you can go to the Grassroots Twitter page.

It seems that they’re still looking for volunteers… but you’ve got to sign up today or tomorrow to meet the deadline.

Composting Grassroots

Jonathan Cook — Wed, 27 May 2009 11:10:37 +0000

The people behind the Grassroots Festival have always been dedicated to putting the good at the center of good and groovy, and this year, they’re adding a new feature to their Trumansburg event (July 16 to 19) – composting the apparently uncompostable.

“Festivals can be terrifying feats of excess, leaving giant piles of useless garbage in their wake, but they don’t have to be. We can do our part to keep our footprint closer to neutral,” writes Megan Romer, the marketing director of the Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance on the Grassroots Blog.

Grassroots isn’t just shrugging its shoulders and asking people to put their litter in the garbage cans. This year, ever more materials will be going into the Grassroots compost – not just food, but disposable cups, plates and utensils as well. It looks like ordinary plastic, Romer explains, but it’s actually a kind of polymer that can break down in industrial or municipal composting facilities into the same constituent parts as a stalk of corn.

“Yes, it’s convenient to bring a big ol’ sleeve of plastic cups for your campsite margaritas,” Romer says, “but if you bring reusable cups (or even compostable ones – you actually can find them in some better-stocked organic grocery stores), you’ll be part of the solution.”

Better-stocked organic grocery stores? Grassrootsians won’t need to look that far. Right across the street, at ShurSave, they sell compostable cups made by Fabri-Kal. I bought some just about a week ago for one of my son’s school projects.

If I were a manager over at ShurSave, I’d start arranging to stock some extras…

Grassroots Aftershock

Jonathan Cook — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 02:28:00 +0000

… and I mean aftershock in a good way. The truth is that music in Trumansburg is a year round thing – witness yesterday’s CD release for Toivo. Still, when people think of Trumansburg and music, they think of Grassroots.

It’s maybe a good bit of marketing, then, for the Trumansburg Fair’s Music Night, on August 21, to be described as a post-Festival event. That’s fine, really, given that a lot of the same people who run Grassroots also organize the Music Night at the fair.

Here’s just some of the lineup: “Jeb Puryear, Tara Nevins, Sim Redmond, Hank Roberts, Crow Greenspun, Richie Stearns, Johnny Dowd, Kevin Kinsella, Mary Lorson, J-San, Trevor MacDonald, Rising Sun and E-Rich…”

Those of you who don’t need to put kids to bed before dark let me know how it goes.

Trumansburg’s Mixed Drink

Jonathan Cook — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 21:03:52 +0000

Thanks to the Grassroots Festival and Felicia of the Atomic Lounge, Trumansburg now has its own summer alcoholic beverage: Trumansburg Lemonade.

1 ½ ounce Woodford Reserve bourbon
¾ ounce Cointreau
¾ ounce lemon juice
2 rounded tsp sugar
club soda
lemon wheel

Fill a pint glass to top with ice. Add bourbon, Cointreau, lemon juice and sugar. Shake to mix. Top with club soda. Garnish with a lemon wheel.

Now is the time. Trumansburg is the place. Drink.

3.75 Dollars Per Gallon of Gasoline in Trumansburg

Jonathan Cook — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 23:04:00 +0000

We’ve got it better than they do down in Ithaca, where a friend tells me she filled up today at the price of $3.80 per gallon. Yet, we’re well above the national average at $3.75 per gallon of gasoline here in Trumansburg.

Actually, that’s $3.75.9 per gallon, to be precise. 24.1 cents per gallon of gasoline to go until we’re paying four dollars per gallon.

How soon will we make it to that point? It seems silly to predict, though gasoline prices typically go up during the summer time.

My family is not planning any long vacations this summer. I wouldn’t be surprised to see others staying closer to home as well.

It’s a national story, of course, and that means that we ought not to expect quite so many visitors as usual either… and perhaps a more local audience for the Grassroots Festival.