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We had just a touch of fresh snow last night but it was enough to bring some crisp traction back to the ski paths. And at sixteen degrees the trails were crunchy. A wind was coming off the lake as we skied toward it and just as I said, “There’s no one out today,” we saw our first fellow skier. He smiled as we passed each other and said, “It doesn’t get any better than this.”

The vulture capitalists have already taken a big bite out of our local Gannet paper. I’m reporting this because I know full well that no one reads the print version of the paper anymore so you wouldn’t know this. I have been a faithful reader since my pre-teen paper route days.

The paper got smaller at first. That is the sheet size shrank. And then the B section, what used to be local news, went national. The articles were plopped in from USA Today. And the C section, what used to carry arts and entertainment articles, now might have a piece on craft beer, if you’re lucky. There is no one left at the paper to cover the arts scene.

The letters to the editor were dropped on weekdays, a community forum that required only an editor to open the mail. The nationally syndicated columnists were gone too. This week they cut out the B and C sections entirely. The paper is just two sections, A and D. If you go to the Democrat & Chronicle’s website you will be assaulted with full screen pop-up ads and tiny articles.

Local Eagle Scouts are in jail for threatening to blowup Islamberg, a rural New York hamlet. The President wants a powerful wall. There is a lot going on out there and Will Cleveland cannot cover it all.

Am I the only one who misses the early html days? When websites were fun, both to design/program and visit. Before php, css3, html5, responsive coding and social media. I accept that the answer to my initial question is yes so let’s move on.

While standing under the Freddy Sue Bridge I was thinking about this piece I did on the Refrigerator back in the day. I couldn’t even find it online. There were no links to it but it is still out there floating around like a whole lot of other content must be. I managed to find “Click On A BridgeTo Go Under” only by looking at the local copy on my computer and surmising what the url might be. Digital photography was brand new when I did it and that was probably the only reason the photos looked interesting to me at the time. They were only one half or one gig photos and from a camera that was terrible in low light.

In 2001 I did a piece for the “Hide & Seek” show at Pyramid Art Center. It was a digital installation and it ran on a pc at the gallery during the show. It was sort of a digital maze. I visit it every once in a while thinking that it might have totally fallen apart but it has held up pretty well. I’m afraid to look at it on a mobile device. – Check it out.

This mild winter has allowed us to continue walking. We have always walked but we ratcheted up the distance last year in preparation for our walk across Spain and our weather has permitted that to continue. Or maybe it’s not the weather at all. Maybe it is simply that the more you walk, the more you enjoy it so you walk more.

We walked in and out of downtown on both sides of the river and I was thinking about Paris Texas, the movie we had watched the night before. There wasn’t nearly as much walking in it as I remembered. We saw it when it came out and at least once since but I remember marathon walking and there is very little of that in the movie. It must have made an impression.

Like Robert Frank’s “The Americans,” Wim Wenders’ outsider take on America did not initially meet with success. We loved it and the soundtrack. We bought the vinyl and I played it last night during dinner. When Personal Effects was recording the soundtrack for the Planetarium show we deliberately aped Ry Cooder with an instrumental called “Cirrus.”

This time around Dean Stockwell was every bit as good as Harry Dean Stanton. Hard to believe he had quit acting before this film and was apparently working as a real estate agent. The real star of the movie is Sam Sheppard’s script. Hunter, played by Karen Black’s son, was astounding.

The extras had thoughtful interviews with Wenders in German, French and English. I loved “In His Own Words,” Wenders’ movie about/with the Pope and I liked the extras from that, shown on 60 Minutes. My profile has been built and I am ready for more Wim Wenders recommendations.

My grandfather was a butcher. It is a craft. He took great pride in his work and it was evident when he cut off a big slice of freshly made liverwurst and passed it over the counter to me. He also owned the store so salesmanship, good business practices and knife work were required for him to become successful.

The Asian behind the counter in the fish department at the Pittsford Wegman’s had all these skills. We were considering buying some Red Snapper. (The fish at the top of the picture above is a Red Snapper.) We had made it a few months back. We baked the whole fish and split it down the middle before plopping it it on our plates. It was delicious but we had to eat each small bite very carefully as it was full of bones.

The fish guy told us he would cook it exactly as we did and then eat it with chopsticks because he knew how to pick around the bones.  He drew the fish (above) in a few seconds. He even made the fish smile. He illustrated where to look for the various bones. He grabbed another fish, one that he had just filleted, and suggested we cut the fish open before we bake it, remove the bones, put it back to gather like a whole fish and then bake it. 

His presentation was so good Peggi that told him that Wegmans ought to video him and share his tips on their website. He liked that idea and said he would propose it.