The Scene
By Jane Harrison
February 2022
Well, I didn’t lie to you. During January, I didn’t go anywhere or do much of anything. There is live music out there, when the venues can find someone to book. And there are musicians out there who are willing to perform on a very limited basis. Truthfully, everyone was looking at the COVID numbers climb and with the exception of some, most pretty much stayed self-contained.
I have friends in all the categories: The chest beaters who proclaim being vaccinated infringes on their rights. Vegans who claim they have natural immunity. And the fully vaccinated who may or may not have had boosters. I know several in each category who have contracted this virus in January. Not one of them had “mild symptoms.”
Still, there is a lot of art happening out there, mostly made by people who don’t depend on being in public to create.
My friend JESSE POLLACK in New Jersey, wrote a true crime book released in 2019 called THE ACID KING, picked up and published by Simon and Schuster. (You may remember me telling you about this at the time.) As time progressed, several TV true crime programs approached him to turn his book into an hour long drama, as did a few film producers. He turned them all down, because the truth is not what they were after.
The truth was secondary to sensationalizing the Long Island case which had been front page news all over the country. Jesse is a relentless truth seeker. In the book, he lays out the foundation of the crime by a troubled teen using almost a slice-of-life from the 1980s on Long Island at the time. When Jesse told me of his decision, I applauded it. Not many stick to their principles. And he decided to do his own documentary film. And do it he did.
You can catch THE ACID KING on the VUDU Channel, the ROKU channel, and, if you stay through the credits, you will see my name as “Associate Producer.” I am extremely proud to be associated with the production and with Jesse. Next will be a podcast of his first book ON DEVILS TEETH, an unsolved death in New Jersey where most of the evidence and police files seemingly vanished. Both books are available on Amazon.com.
Closer to home, I have been helping a lovely woman with her knitting over the past year. What made this truly interesting for me is that she is Swiss, and all her pattern books were written in German, Italian and French! It was kind of fun, really, and resulted in her completing two wonderful sweaters. She is an artist in her own right, being a most marvelous and well known quilter here in the states and abroad. She surprised me at Christmas, gifting me one of her fabulous pieces. A picture doesn’t do it justice and all these weeks later, I’m still speechless every time I look at it. I have no patience for quilting or sewing in general, and even if I did, I doubt if I could ever achieve this level of artistry. That’s the beauty of the arts, though. Whether potters, musicians or the soft arts, true appreciation of other’s talents is a given and can only inspire in one’s chosen field.
And I hope things calm down enough for LITTLE SPARROW to continue hosting “First Sunday” afternoons of music at the SULLIVAN COUNTY MUSEUM. We are all getting a little music starved!
Stay well, stay safe and mask up! Until next time…