A visitor's observations

Last weekend's Tom Throws show was my first visit to SkyHeart Studio, and I was so impressed that I started looking into some of the other acts who have played there since it opened a few months ago. Today, I stumbled upon (through the Facebook grapevine) the Web site of singer-songwriter Jerin Falkner, who played at SkyHeart a while back. I haven't heard her music, but I was interested to see what she wrote in her online journal about her visit to Gloversville. (I'm not sure where she's from originally, but she's touring in the Northwest at present.) One of my pet fascinations as a grad student was the relationship between place and identity and how they shape culture, so I find this sort of commentary from a visitor very interesting.

Among her remarks about Gloversville was this one: "Gloversville is a beautiful little town that history distinguished and time deteriorated." I thought that observation was more charitable than those stated in many readers' comments on our Web site ...

You can read the rest of Ms. Falkner's thoughts on Stump City here: NY is for Glovers.

(Since I brought up the subjects of place, identity and culture, you may be wondering if I attended Richard Russo's reading at UAlbany on Thursday. I'm afraid I missed it,  because I've been grappling with something that seems an awful lot like the flu. Not sure if it might be the fancy new porcine stuff or the standard bug. Either way, it's the pits.)

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