Santa arrives in Woodstock in a rocket ship

It's a known tradition. Santa arrives in Woodstock every Christmas Eve in many peculiar and unannounced ways.
This year, he came in a rocket ship, thanks to Steve Heller of Fabulous Furniture in Boiceville, no doubt. Here's a tweet from writer Martha Frankel (Heller's other half), explaining.

After the insane year we've had, it was just so very cool that Woodstock chose one of Steve's rocket cars to be Santa's wheels of choice!
— martha frankel (@marthafrankel) December 25, 2011

The video description states:

The Lindsey Webster Band sang on a float in front. The float was setup as his workshop, complete with his elves, tools, giant toys, a Jack in the Box jumping up and down, a dancing ballerina, nutcrackers, and with him riding in the Rocket Ship on top. Of course he was accompanied by the famous dancing Woodstock Reindeer and Frosty the Snow Woman. Produced by Cinemanomoly

2010:



2009:

2008:

You get the idea.

Oscar tweethathon at 8 p.m. Sunday

Join us on Sunday at 8 p.m. for a smorgasbord of Oscar-related tweets featuring live insights from interviewer of the stars and author Martha Frankel (who also is participating at "A Night at the Awards" at the Emerson Resort); New Yorker cartoonist Liza Donnelly; Timmian Massie, Chief Public Affairs Officer and Adjunct Professor of Communication and Religious Studies at Marist College; social media expert Allison Gray Teetsel; our friends at the Watershed Post; Rhinebeck writer Kitty Sheehan; TechCity's Paul Rakov; and yours truly.

If you want your insights to appear, just post a comment below or tweet using the hashtag #dfoscars.

UPDATE! I've added Monique Paturel, and New Haven Register entertainment editor Jordan Fenster and television editor and columnist Joe Amarante.

I'm also adding #nhoscars. We're going to make this a multi-state event!

UPDATE 2: Playwright David J. Loehr will join from Kentucky and our entertainment friends at the New Haven Register in Connecticut. I'm also adding a Tweetizen feed for ease of access.

Do you manscape? Inquiring minds want to know - for an app

That's the question that area author Martha Frankel wants you to answer. Why? Because she is working on an app for that.
An app?
* Yes. Don't ask me.
Why?
* Why not?
What's manscaping?
* Google it.

Anyway, Frankel writes:

I've been approached to do an app about manscaping. I want to know what men want (in the app!). Do they want to be able to take pics and then see what that area would look like w/out hair? would they like it to be instructional or more light hearted? Do they want to know what women think? Do they want photos of other guys, or does that make them uncomfortable? Would they like to see how it's done-- ie waxing, shaving, trimming, etc?

What say you?

Horse looked in the mouth - UPDATED

Horses once again will reign over the village as part of the “Hors’n Around Saugerties 2010” exhibit.

But there's a horse you may not enjoy fully.

West Shokan writer Martha Frankel informed me on Wednesday night a fiberglass horse that contains passages from one of her books has been flagged because of two complaints.

Apparently, some of the words in the horse - like "abortion," "miscarriage," "penis" and "vagina" - are not sitting well with some residents, and the Saugerties Area Chamber of Commerce, which sponsors the event, is discussing the issue.

Frankel said that has been told that for inclusion, she has alter the submission and omit the words, which she doesn't want to do because she said the passages are written with empathy and because it would alter the artist's vision. There are now discussions about putting black tape on the horses' mouth and to mask the apparently offensive passages.

For the record, here's the pornographic horse:



Shocking, I know.

This raises important questions:

* What's a "vagina"?
* Why is Martha Frankel calling me?
* What's up with all this horsing around artists' "Hors'n Around" entries?

We'll keep you posted.

UPDATE: I have found out what a vagina is. I'll let you know about the rest later.

UPDATE 2 : Martha Frankel speaks out! (kind-of)




There were a couple of complaints, apparently, but I'm told that before the Chamber discussed the issue with Frankel she decided to take matters into her own hands - with tape.

The writer says:

I went out to Saugerties and blacked out all words that people might have found offensive. ... One sentence said, "When Mara was born I loved her so much I would put her feet in my mouth."

The artist that did the work with Frankel blacked out 'feet' and 'mouth'.

So now the "cleaned" horse reads: "When Mara was born I loved her so much I would put her --- in my ----."

Problem solved!

Also, a korrecshun, the horse has no "penis."

Tweets that make less sense than a 'Lost' series finale

* Assemblyman Marc Molinaro is misquoted. Actual quote? "My..."

I don't often do this but feel I must: Friday, I was misquoted in a story published by the Albany Times Union. My... http://bit.ly/bRMup1less than a minute ago via FacebookMarc Molinaro
marcmolinaro

* Alderman Tom Hoffay gears up for a fight by some crazy people.

Ulster Dem Convention tonight at Holiday Inn, food, fights, speeches...less than a minute ago via webTom Hoffay
tomhoffay

* The New York State Senate did many things, except what it is there for: To pass a budget.

Senate session happening now. Live video here: http://www.nysenate.gov/liveless than a minute ago via TweetDeckNew York Senate
NYSenate

* Radio Woodstock is celebrating the birthday of a dude named Bob.

It's All About Bob today on Live at 5! We'll celebrate the Great American Singer/Songwriter's 69th birthday with a... http://bit.ly/b2RBRhless than a minute ago via FacebookRadio Woodstock
RadioWoodstock

* West Shokan writer Martha Frankel is not celebrating the birthday of a dude named Bob.

Happy b/day to the amazing 38 year old @roseannecashless than a minute ago via UberTwittermartha frankel
marthafrankel

* The Associated Press covers the most important issue of the day.

Six seasons and some 120 episodes later, what did you think of much-awaited #Lost finale? http://bit.ly/bwPk1b #lostfinale -FWUless than a minute ago via CoTweetThe Associated Press
AP

* WAMC-FM CEO Alan Chartock's tweet does not go beyond the headline.

Going beyond the headline that you read - http://bit.ly/c7xHDoless than a minute ago via TweetDeckAlan Chartock
AlanChartock

* The Kingston Digital Corridor doesn't know I won't be there because I wasn't invited and/or I will be out of town and/or working and/or sleeping.

Will you be there? http://bit.ly/bB6sCKless than a minute ago via TweetDeckKingstonDigitalCorr
kingstondc

Facebook answers with nonanswer

So I contacted Facebook to find out what had happened with Martha Frankel's link. (See the two posts past naked Obama). After getting an automatic reply. I received this other automatic reply the following day:

Hi,

Our systems indicate that the email address you are writing from is not associated with an account that has been warned or disabled. Please be aware that you must email us directly from the email address associated with the account in question in order for us to assist you.

Be sure to provide your full name and a brief description of the problem you are experiencing in your response, and include all of our prior correspondence so that we can refer to your original inquiry. If you are unable to send a message from your login email address, please list the email address in your response and we will look into this matter further.

If you're writing on behalf of a friend, please ask your friend to write to us directly, so that we can confirm their identity for account security purposes.

If your inquiry is not related to a warning or a disabled account, please visit our Help Center at http://www.facebook.com/help.php

Thanks,

Yes, thanks for nothing, Facebook. UNLIKE!

P.S. The elusive Facebook e-mail adress that's almost impossible to find is not listed anywhere.

So here it is: appeals+ys5jtaa@support.facebook.com.

Frankel speaks out on 'abusive' link

I spoke to 'Brazilian Sexy' author and West Shokan resident Martha Frankel on a thing called "the telephone" tonight, to talk about her "abusive" Facebook link. (see post below)

Here's her take:

At around 5:30 p.m. today, Frankel re-posted a link to her story on her Facebook account:


When she clicked on it, she said she was taken "to a page I've never seen before."

Instead of going to the Freeman story, Frankel said she received a message that said that Facebook users had reported the posting as "abusive."

For the three of you who don't quite understand Facebook yet, it is important to note that only her Facebook "friends" can see her posts (full disclosure: I became her "friend" today) and only they could have reported her (full disclosure: I wasn't me).

But she said she has more than 3,000 friends (which means I'm not special) because she uses Facebook for publicity. She said the social network is "a great tool" and that because of the abuse report, she was "angry, crazy and scared."

Frankel said that there are really some offensive groups and posts on Facebook, but that, "Me kidding that I'm naked on my home newspaper gets me banned?

"I sort-of push the limits sometimes. But it's only language," Frankel said.

She called her husband and car-collector of the year/sculptor/Artists Soapbox Derby judge/person Steve Heller to access her Facebook account at around 7:30 p.m., after I told her that the link worked in my profile.

On hers, she said the message about abusive content remained.

And then, all of a sudden - on the third try - the link worked.

I've contacted Facebook (I'll buy you a beer if you can find their tech support e-mail in less than 30 minutes) and it says it will get back to me soon.

I'll keep you posted.

Author's 'sexy' Freeman link restored on Facebook

West Shokan author Martha Frankel informed me that Facebook "disabled the link to the story you guys did on me in today's freeman--- it said that some facebook users found it offensive!"

"Brazilians, local author redefine sexy" is a BOOK story, mind you, about female empowerment.

So what happened?

Was it the picture?

The word "sexy"?

The fact that we put "video" with the story? (video of the interview, you perv!)

The very fact that Facebook is censoring items without checking them is troublesome, because it could potentially mean that if I don't like you, I could complain and ban your ugly face from posting Mob Wars accomplishments on my News Feed.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. So, Martha, link to this post, and people will get your story.

And Facebook, ST(expletive)U.

UPDATE: Frankel, "Figured a way around the uptight facebook censors." She added. "Buck them." But she didn't say "buck."

UPDATE 2: Frankel reports (on Facebook): "Phew. Facebook took me off the banned list. They now don't care that I was naked on the cover of my local paper."



Here's some reaction of the episode, via Facebook: