So last night, Marc Brown’s #4 was raised to the rafters of the Times Union Center, joining fellow Siena basketball players Kenny Hasbrouck and Billy Harrell as the only Saints / Indians to have their basketball jersey numbers retired. It was a fantastic moment and a tribute to the years of “Showbiz.” But here’s a…
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Keeping a 40-year-old promise
“I want to buy that picture.” That unsolicited statement was an unexpected beam of hope in what was one of my dreariest, most miserable days this summer. One of my blog readers actually wanted to purchase my diamond-framed picture of Nipper’s Polar Panorama – the one that I exhibited at the “you didn’t win anything,…
Read MoreA long, long time ago, in a cinema far, far away…
Well, actually it was last Friday night, so we can’t really say “long, long time ago.” I was playing Trivial Pursuit: Star Wars Edition. It was me versus a couple of RPI kids (essentially two on one, or as I like to call it, a “trivia fair fight.”). Some fair fight. They beat me six…
Read MoreMoving the Mockingbird Marathon to Stuyvesant Plaza
I got the message from the “Mockingbird Marathon: To Kill a Saturday” organizers the other day, that the event will be relocated from Townsend Park Bakery to the Stuyvesant Plaza Book House this coming Saturday. Okay, now there’s parking available, which is good. There’s been a lot of great things involving the Mockingbird Marathon, at…
Read MoreStorytown – er, the Great Escape – in Kodachrome
Last year, I wrote a well-received blog post about old photographs from the legendary Lake George amusement park, Storytown U.S.A. Today that park is the Great Escape and Splashwater Kingdom, and is part of the Six Flags collection of amusement parks. The reason I wrote the article was because I acquired a vintage View-Master reel…
Read More“You know how to use the Heritage Park PA microphone?”
So I’m cleaning up some old storage boxes in my home office, when I came across another long-forgotten part of my life. It was some old statistician papers from the 1997 Empire State Games. It’s the summer of 1997. When the Empire State Games came to the Capital Region that summer, I wanted to volunteer…
Read MoreWhen “To Kill a Mockingbird” played in Albany
As I look forward to participating in “Mockingbird Marathon: To Kill a Saturday,” the public reading / fundraiser of Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” on November 6, 2010, I think back to when the 1962 Academy Award-winning film of the same name played in Albany. And so, on a chilly Saturday morning, I had…
Read MoreH.R. Pufnstuf, Witchiepoo, Joy the Bugaloo, and me
The recent passing of H.R. Pufnstuf puppeteer Van Snowden brings a tinge of sadness. I was fortunate to interview him in 2008, as part of an article on the history of Sid & Marty Krofft’s television shows, of which Pufnstuf was one.
Read MoreThe Chestnut Prison
I’ve had a lot of stressful things go through my life lately. Some things I’ve mentioned in the blog; some things I’ve mentioned only to my closest friends. Some things I’ve never mentioned to anyone. And lately it’s kicked my insomnia up a notch. It’s affected my emotional well-being and my cognitive reasoning. And in…
Read MoreMemorabilia Fraud: When the Autograph Doesn’t Match Up
I have several autographed items in my personal collection. In terms of sports memorabilia, I own the following: A collection of Albany Patroons trading cards from the 2006-07 season, signed by all players from that season (including Jamario Moon, TJ Thompson, Kwan Johnson and John Strickland) An Albany Senators autographed baseball, circa 1949, signed by…
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Chuck The Writer 
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