Spirit in the Sky
Unexpected deaths tend to leave disarray in their wake, and that is certainly the situation after Linda “Sparky” Mortimer died on Nov. 21, 2011. Mortimer was considered something of a community icon, especially in the diverse Hawley-Green neighborhood, and her restaurant, Sparky Town, became a meet-up spot for many. So with estate bills outstanding, the community is showing Mortimer what she meant to them.
The fundraiser, titled “Keeping Sparky’s Spark Alive”, takes place Sunday, Feb. 26, 1 to 5 p.m., at ArtRage Gallery, 505 Hawley Ave. Live music, food, raffles and an art auction will punctuate the afternoon that is meant to both remember Mortimer and help her partner, Lauren Bristol, pay off some debt. A donation at the door will be collected.
“Right after she died, Rose Viviano {proprietor of ArtRage} approached me about putting on an event like this,” explained Bristol, who has been working with the restaurant’s staff to keep Sparky Town, 324 Burnet Ave., running. While business peaked in the weeks following Mortimer’s death, traffic has fallen off—to be expected in January and February.
“The problem is, I have to have revenue to pay this,” said Bristol, referencing the restaurant. “I’ve already gone through everything I have to pay this, and this is the only thing I have left. That’s the bottom line: Can I afford to keep this open?”
With a goal of $5,000, Bristol has been working with Karen Addley, a regular at Sparky Town and member of the fundraising committee. They have accepted pieces of art for the auction, and are selling raffle tickets for such items as a Nook, a digital camera, and dozens of restaurant gift certificates, as well as getting the word out about the event.
“I am so warmed by all the artists giving their artwork for this,” noted Addley, displaying paintings, photographs and a really nifty John McGrath pen-and-ink drawing of Sparky Town, with a table holding a place card that says “Reserved for Sparky” alongside her chef’s hat, and other references to Mortimer in the piece. Bristol, herself an accomplished artist, has donated one of her fiber baskets.
In addition, two of Mortimer’s favorite musical acts have donated their time and talent to the event: Atlantic Flyway will play at 1 p.m., and Hanna Richardson and Phil Flanigan will close the event at 4 p.m. In between, Addley will announce the winners of the artwork, who must be present to win. Tickets cost $1, and the purchaser needs to place their ticket in a bag in front of the artwork they would like to win.
While the artwork provides a personal touch, those in attendance will have the opportunity to tell their memories of Mortimer during the event’s open mike. “A lot of people wanted to speak at Sparky’s service, but we only had the sanctuary at May Memorial for an hour and a half,” said Bristol of the Nov. 27 remembrance. “When Rose approached me about doing something at ArtRage I told her there are a lot of people who still want to speak and she said, ‘Send them to me.’”
Raffle tickets are on sale at Sparky Town for $5, and will also be available at the event. At this point, the committee is no longer accepting artwork for the bag raffle: “So much has been donated,” Bristol pointed out, “that the best thing to do is buy raffle tickets.”
On a personal level, all the activity has made it difficult for Bristol to truly grieve the death of her partner. But events like Keeping Sparky’s Spark Alive allow her to once again embrace what Mortimer meant to the community.
“I have been caught up in the legal stuff and the brass tacks of running the restaurant,” Bristol said. “Opening the restaurant back up was part of starting to heal, and I can’t imagine if the people hadn’t come back. A lot of Sparky’s and my connection was about doing this for the community, having a place for people to gather. The staff here working together and working in this environment where our friends and neighbors come in and speak to us and hug us, that has helped us with the grieving process.”
Keeping Mortimer’s spirit alive comes down to embracing the type of person she was. “It was Sparky, it’s the restaurant,” said Addley, when asked why she’s involved in this fundraiser. “This is another piece of skin to me. You can’t come in here and not feel warm and embraced.”
Added Bristol: “I think a lot of it is people felt supported by her. They felt her loving embrace and this is a way they can reach back out again to Sparky.”
For more information, call 218-5711.
—Molly English-Bowers
Goldberg The Greenhorn
With a big green pushpin on the map, Syracuse is part of a national environmental awareness campaign. The pin indicates that we have a candidate for the America’s Next Eco-Star contest. The competition is a program organized by SmartPower, a non-profit marketing firm based in Washington, D.C., with the support of the U.S. Department of Energy and other partner organizations. The idea is to raise awareness and get the youth involved with a more sustainable way of life. All participants range in age from 16 to 26 years old.
“That is the age at which young adults are most likely to develop their energy-use habits,” said Jonathan Edwards, SmartPower’s vice president. “So if we can target that age group and get them to be more energy-efficient, then they’re more likely to use energy more wisely in the future.”
Syracuse’s contestant has already developed a strong set of “green” habits and is living a more sustainable life. Zach Goldberg is a Syracuse University freshman majoring in international relations, policy studies and energy and its impacts. His interest toward sustainability started during high school in his hometown of Plainview, in Nassau County. When he came to Syracuse he realized how different the recycling laws and habits are from his home. His curiosity sparked, he started to do some research and that led him to really discovering his passion for sustainability.
Goldman soon realized that being eco-friendly doesn’t mean sacrificing many things in your life or making a huge effort. So he decided to share what he learned with the rest of the world by starting a blog last November called “Being Green in a Sea of Orange.”
“I wanted to be able to get the idea to people that you can be sustainable without making it your whole life,” Goldman said. “A lot of the time doing the most sustainable thing is better for the environment, takes less time for you, and usually saves you money.” With this idea of motivating people to lead more sustainable lives through small actions, he got in touch with SU’s Sustainability Division.
“As we sat and talked about sustainability, I realized that Zach was very passionate about it,” said Melissa Cadwell, the division’s marketing manager. Goldberg started contributing to the division’s activities, he got involved in a fledgling student sustainability club, and he participates in every “green” event on campus. He is now officially part of the Sustainability Division’s team as a research intern, helping them explore new alternatives to engage the students in environmentally friendly behaviors.
When Cadwell found out about America’s Next Eco-Star, Goldberg first came to mind. She nominated him and they starting working together to spread the word to get people to vote for him. The contest has four stages: nominations, public voting, top five selection and then the final judging. Nominations closed Jan. 31 and the public voting period will end Friday, Feb. 24. The top 10 vote-getters will go to the next round where the SmartPower team will evaluate their submissions and select the five best. Finally, a special panel of judges from the U.S. DOE and other energy-related non-profit organizations will select the winner.
Goldberg is competing against approximately 130 other students from
90 schools across the United States, according to Edwards. America’s
Next Eco-Star will receive a summer fellowship in SmartPower’s
Washington, D.C., office and an expenses-paid trip to the summer 2012
Sustainable Futures Academy at the Salzburg Global Seminar in Austria.
At the fellowship, the winner will have the opportunity to lead this
year’s summer interns group, which will design and develop SmartPower’s
next youth-
oriented campaign.
The trip to Austria will be an opportunity for the winner to participate in a senior leadership training session for higher education executives from all over the world. “We’ll have around 40 higher education executives: presidents, vice presidents and deans attending a four- to five-day session and the winner will be the only student there,” said Leith Sharp, chair of the Sustainable Futures Academy, an international program dedicated to moving sustainability into the core business of higher education.
“It will be an opportunity for the executive leaders to hear the
perspectives of a student leader and an opportunity for the student to
be exposed to the international perspectives on higher education and
sustainability,” Sharp added. Additionally, the winner’s college or
university president will be invited to join the meeting in
Salzburg and will receive a $1,000 grant for their sustainability office.
To vote or receive more information about each candidate, go to www.americasnextecostar.com.
—Veronica Magan
Teacher Feature
Ron Perry, principal at Mannsville Manor Elementary School in Jefferson County, has been looking forward to winter recess. The midwinter break from school, this year from Monday, Feb. 20, to Friday, Feb. 24, usually a favorite of students, has also become a time to celebrate teachers.
Over the past six years, the Ithaca/Tompkins Convention & Visitors Bureau has organized Winter Recess, a weeklong festival in Ithaca that honors teachers. The bureau compiles an events calendar of everything going on in Ithaca, and puts it on one website. Some vendors hold special events for teachers, and many businesses offer special discounts, said Bruce Stoff, communications manager at the bureau. The event this year began Feb. 17, and it runs through Sunday, Feb. 26.
According to Stoff, the event is open to teachers, retired teachers and school employees. Teachers are given a VIT—“Very Important Teacher”—pass that allows them access to events, discounts and deals throughout Ithaca. Friends and family are welcome, too, and can get a Teacher’s Pet Pass to participate in many of the deals offered.
Teachers can preregister online, or when they come to Ithaca at 904 E. Shore Drive or the Downtown Visitors Center, 171 E. State St. Registration is free, and all that is required is proof that you are an educator, which can be done with a district ID, teacher’s union membership or a letter from the principal or school board on official stationery.
Stoff is expecting more than 5,000 educators and family members to attend this year, representing more than 150 New York state cities. “There might be a little plaque once in a while,” Stoff said, “”but there’s no real big public celebration of teachers doing this work, so we decided to create one.”
This year, 217 businesses are offering deals to teachers on items from apparel, jewelry and books to the theater and restaurants. The Cayuga Lake Wine Trail, for example, is offering free tastings for teachers all week and the Ithaca Shakespeare Company will be selling tickets to its production of The Twelfth Night at Fall Creek Studios, 1201 N. Tioga St., for $10 to $12. Also notable is a concert by Cowboy Junkies, Thursday, Feb. 23, at Ithaca’s State Theatre, 107 W. State St. The Finger Lakes Cheese Trail is holding a cheese market, also on Feb. 23, at the Finger Lakes Wine Center, 237 S. Cayuga St.
“I like the idea that it promotes teachers and the work they do,” said Perry, who will be attending his first Winter Recess. For his part, Perry is looking forward to noshing at renowned vegetarian eatery, Moosewood Restaurant, 215 N. Cayuga St. “I’ve always wanted to go there,” he said.
For more information, call (607) 272-1313 or visit www.ithacalovesteachers.com.
—Sarah Loguidice
Stimulus Package
In 2006, before James Cameron popularized the term “avatar” with sexy blue cartoons, and before tweet and google were everyday verbs, there existed a burgeoning online adult world called Red Light Center. And in the same way Amazon.com and Facebook have digitized shopping and conversation, Red Light Center has digitized sex.
Red Light Center is a part of Utherverse, an interconnected network of more than 80,000 virtual worlds. Utherverse is like The Matrix, only users voluntarily choose the blue pill. Millions of people lead complex lives in this simulated universe. Users create and customize an avatar, which becomes their identity within the various Utherverse worlds. Based on the notorious prostitution district in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Red Light Center was the first and most popular of these worlds, currently boasting more than 10 million active users.
In Red Light Center, like in real life, users can go to clubs, get drunk, have sex and even smoke weed. “It’s similar to Second Life, except it’s much more adult-themed,” said Brian Shuster, creator of Utherverse. And from Friday, Feb. 24 to Sunday, Feb. 26, Red Light Center is hosting Utherverse’s first Adult Entertainment Virtual Convention.
The event will be hosted in a virtual convention center designed by Red Light Center staff and is free to all users. Those who wish to sign up for $20 a month, however, can become VIPs and can access additional functions, including voice chatting with other people, getting naked and having cyber sex.
Like nearly every lucrative venture on the web, Red Light Center offers adult entertainment. It combines the social interactivity of Second Life with the eroticism of Adult Friend Finder and the ambiguity of any given “comments” section. Shuster has a history creating profitable innovations for the online adult entertainment industry. He began developing business models for the Internet in the early 1990s, finding various ways to make the web financially viable. His most successful (and most loathed) innovation: pop-up ads.
Shuster has made a career in Internet development and adult entertainment, two industries, he claimed, that are highly codependent. “Without porn, the Internet would be years behind where it is now technologically,” Shuster said. “Heck, the only thing making any money on the Internet in the beginning was adult entertainment. It was the only thing generating real web traffic.”
And while the Internet user base has expanded beyond a relative handful of girlfriend-less nerds over the past two decades, porn continues to have a major presence on the web. According to neuroscientist Ogi Ogas’ book A Billion Wicked Thoughts: What the Internet Tells Us About Sexual Relationships (Penguin Group, 2012), roughly 13 percent of all web searches are for erotic content.
Shuster’s virtual world capitalizes on the libido-driven nature of the web, but he claims it’s also a place to meet real people. The interactive component nurtures “real” relationships. According to Shuster, nearly 1,000 virtual weddings are held in Utherverse every year. Users book a chapel and invite friends to come celebrate their online (and legal) union. But the adult components of the world are its greatest allure.
Aside from the subject matter, the convention is, for lack of a better word, pretty conventional. Multiple showrooms feature vendors hawking products in ornate booths. Speakers discuss business ventures and celebrities host seminars. Attendees hang out, mingle, and even drink and dance in the lounge. They can flirt with porn stars, browse unlimited erotica and purchase toys kinky enough to make Larry Flynt blush. But the entire event takes place online.
“People are embarrassed to go to these things in the real world,” Shuster said. “This reduces the anxiety and embarrassment without losing the element of human interaction.”
The convention booked real-life adult film stars such as Aurora Snow, Sabrina Deep and Samantha Mack to come address the convention about their careers. Other speakers include Helly Mae Hellfire: The Pornstar DJ and comedian Patrick Maliha. For some, the Utherverse programmers helped design look-alike avatars. Many, however, designed their own. “Some of the top-talent porn stars are avid gamers,” Shuster noted. They looked forward to creating themselves in a virtual world.
Red Light Center’s Adult Entertainment Virtual Convention opens to
vendors on Feb. 24 and to the public on Saturday, Feb. 25. Advance
registration is available on the convention’s website, adultvirtual
convention.com.
—Chris Baker
Sex and the Salt City
In 1999, director Paul Todisco shot the film Freak Talks About Sex in Syracuse. In the film, a young man’s attempt to leave upstate New York ultimately fails. He winds up back in the Salt City at a dead-end job having endless, mind-numbing conversations about sex. This month, a new independent film is being shot here: Adult World. Once again, we find ourselves following a young protagonist whose post-college aspirations don’t come to fruition. She ends up working at an erotic bookstore.
Apparently, filmmakers see something inherently sexual about Syracuse, N.Y.
This latest Syracuse film stars John Cusack, whose presence by now is no secret in the small city. Starring alongside Cusack is the young and talented Emma Roberts (yes, she’s related to Julia; she’s her niece). Roberts’ character, Amy, feels destined to become a great poet, but is stuck working at Adult World, an erotic bookstore. She seeks out and develops a relationship with Rat Billings (Cusack), a once-great writer and a professor at Syracuse University. The scenes at Billings’ house are currently being shot in Westcott Nation.
Locations manager Ben Miner has been scouting Syracuse neighborhoods for realistic sites for the film. About two weeks ago he discovered a cozy brick home at 439 Westcott St. and immediately knew it would be perfect for Cusack’s character. “He {Cusack’s character} is a college professor so we came to a college neighborhood,” he said. “We just knocked on the door and asked to use the house. It turns out the owner is actually a professor at SU. Go figure.”
At 6 a.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 15, crews set up shop on Westcott Street to begin filming the scene where Roberts first meets Cusack. Road blocks were set up between Dell and Hawthorne streets, and vehicles were rerouted down Columbus Avenue. Aside from a minor traffic inconvenience, however, the neighborhood was relatively unfazed. The occasional onlooker stopped to peek in the house, hoping for a glimpse at stardom, but most simply went about their daily business.
Producer Justin Nappi said the film wasn’t originally scheduled to be filmed in Syracuse—rumor has it Detroit, that big college town, was also in the running—but he’s excited they eventually decided on upstate. “We wanted authenticity in the film,” Nappi says. “And this {Westcott Street} is the real deal. It’s a university neighborhood and it has the feel we’re going for.”
Nappi, 24, is a graduate of Jamesville-DeWitt High School and New York University’s film school. Adult World is the third film he and fellow producer Kevin Turen have made with their company Treehouse Pictures. “You’re going to see more and more films being shot around here in upstate,” Nappi said. “It’s a really genuine area.”
The crew has already filmed at 715 N. Salina St., site of the bookstore, as well as at Phoebe’s, 900 E. Genesee St., and on location in a residential neighborhood in DeWitt. After Westcott Street, they planned to shoot a few scenes around the SU campus.
—Chris Baker
