All Abroad for Argo
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Greenacres resident Deborah Skolnik attended the press screening of Argo. Here’s her review. It’s 1979, and our country is struggling through an energy crisis and some of the worst hairstyles in history. It’s even tougher being an American abroad. Especially in Iran, where — as we learn in Argo’s mercifully brief history-lesson intro — the population is newly radicalized under the Ayatollah Khomeini, and spitting mad at the U.S. for harboring their deposed Shah.
Those of our countrymen unlucky enough to still be there are feeling the wrath, big-time. Argo’s opening sequence features alternating shots of angry Iranians pressing against our embassy’s gates, and the trapped workers inside, squirming and sweating bullets as they wait for help that will never come. It’s impossible to watch without your own blood pressure rising.
We all know the rest: The gates got breached and 52 hostages were held for 444 days. But maybe you didn’t realize (nor did I) that six other Americans quietly escaped onto the street, then hid in the Canadian embassy. There, the Houseguests, as they were called, spent weeks lying low, terrified they’d get ferreted out and beheaded in some bleak town square.
All that stands between them and that fate is the CIA’s top evac man, Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) and a bunch of bad ideas. The best of the harebrained schemes? For Mendez to pose as a Canadian filmmaker, fly to Iran, and escort the Houseguests out by telling everyone they’re his crew. He sets about giving the project street cred by buying the rights to a piece of sci-fi dreck called—good guess!—Argo, and recruiting a pair of wisecracking Hollywood movie guys to back it (John Goodman and also Alan Arkin, who deserves a Best Supporting Actor nod). One exquisite scene unfolds when Arkin’s haggling skills land him Argo’s script for $5,000 less than he’d even offered. It’s funny, but it isn’t: Ultimately, everyone’s in for a lot more than they bargained for.
Don’t worry, you won’t spent the next two hours watching people in tin-foil costumes saying things like “I am Zoblorg from planet Gleeb!”. Argo never gets shot (though one unfortunate person does). The film really just focuses on the prep work for the evac mission, and the two tense days Mendez spends in Iran, trying to earn the trust of local officials and, less easily, the nervous folks he’s trying to save.
The Houseguests themselves may be the movie’s weak point. We don’t know much about them—and certainly it’s hard to look behind their dated LensCrafters glasses and Farrah bangs for a deeper glimpse into their true natures. Kept at arm’s length from us, emotionally, they’re tough to root for on a personal level. Yet that may be the point: Mendez didn’t know them either. The movie isn’t really about the evacuees, anyway—it’s about who Mendez is, and who he decides to be when he finds himself in the crosshairs of his mandates and his morality.
This is more than a suspense movie; suspense is when you don’t know what’s going to happen next. Here you do, but you’ll still find yourself holding your breath as Mendez and the Houseguests navigate angry mobs and skeptical airport officials. And when that blessed Swissair flight lifts off, it’s an elevating moment for the audience too—everyone around me burst into applause and whoops of glee. Yep, it’s more than a suspense movie. It’s a thriller.
Deborah Skolnik is a senior editor at Parenting magazine and lives in Greenacres with her husband and two daughters.
Everything Digital - A New Learning Center Opens in White Plains
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While some Scarsdale High School alumni come home to live rent-free with the folks, Robert Kissner, a 2006 graduate of Scarsdale High School, returned to this area with a much bigger idea. Kissner had spent time working in the music business and managed a recording studio in Long Island – he also did computer training and worked at the genius bar at the Apple Store.
He saw a need for digital training, for both kids and adults, and noticed that courses in video and audio production, animation, graphic design and digital skills were not readily available under one roof in Southern Westchester. He spent a few years doing market research, writing a business plan and scouting out potential locations for his new facility, The Digital Arts Experience, (DAE), and found the perfect site on Hamilton Avenue in White Plains. In addition to 8,000 square feet of light, built out space, the building even offered parking.
After much planning, the state-of-the-art facility opened this summer and now provides a “one of a kind environment where students will learn and develop skills with personal computers and cutting edge digital arts technologies.”
We toured the DAE and were wowed by what we saw. The site is inviting … designed in bold colors and featuring many workspaces, 
classrooms and studios. There’s a full recording studio that soloists or bands can use to cut a track --- and another photo studio perfect for shooting stills or video. These facilities are used for classes in audio and video production which are available for kids ages 11 and up and adults. Then there are the computers – eight rooms of Mac desktops where classes are offered in graphic design, computer illustration, digital photography, and web design.
Class offerings are extensive – and can be tailored to meet your needs. For those who need to get up to speed on using the computer, the DAE will teach you how to use Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Outlook – as well as Quicken for banking, Evernote to organize your life and Dropbox and “the cloud.”
More sophisticated teens and adults will find much to enjoy. Here are just a few of the classes that are offered:
- Video: Editing with iMovie: take your home movie footage and turn it into an entertaining home movie.
- Design: Learn to design your own print or web brochures and ads using Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign.
- Web Design: Create your own website, blog or e-commerce site and promote it with social media.
- Photo Restoration: Now even the oldest of photographs can last forever. This course covers how to digitize and restore old prints in Adobe Photoshop.
- Photographing Items for Sale: Bring products you wish to sell to their photo studio and learn to shoot them with proper backgrounds and lighting.
- Animation: Develop a character from concept to completion and create comic illustrations.
In addition to classes, The DAE is hosting networking events. On October 10th at 6:00 pm there will be one on Cause Marketing and technology’s role in fundraising for not-profits. Larchmont’s Holly Fink, The Culture Mom, is the featured guest speaker along with brand marketing specialist James Higgins and Jon Chattman, Director of Communications at the Music Conservatory of Westchester. The event is free and open to the public.
Plus, the large central room at the Digital Arts Experience is available for large group gatherings. It has already been the scene of a battle of the bands and business networking events and can be rented for parties, shows and other gatherings.
Check out the versatile Digital Arts Experience in White Plains and let us know what you learn!
Digital Arts Experience
170 Hamilton Avenue, Suite 100
White Plains, NY 10601
914-644-8100
www.thedae.com
info@the dae.com
Edgemont’s Got Talent
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Although not quite as well-known as America’s Got Talent, last Friday night three Edgemont kids took to the stage to show their stuff and wowed the crowd. The Open Mic night at The Purple Crayon in Hastings-on-Hudson has been a monthly draw for adults and young teens alike who are looking for a cool place to let their inner rockstar out.
The relaxed vibe of this small converted church, painted purple and located on Main Street, is like a little piece of Haight -Ashbury in the heart of Westchester. Owners Sarah and Adel Hinawi’s vision of The Purple Crayon being “a community resource of programs to help both youth and adults actualize their passions and potential” could be seen very clearly on Friday, September 14th.
Edgemont 6th-grader, Will Buckser-Schulz, a young, but passionate musician, performed “Home,” by American Idol winner, Phillip Phillips and “Hey Soul Sister,” by Train.
Local rising star, 16-year old Chloe Gordon, performed both and original and a cover tune to a cheering crowd. Gordon, known for her achingly beautiful vocals and her stunning songwriting is not only becoming a major draw at the Open Mic nights, but she will be opening for Afro-Jersey, a band that blends West African music with American folk, this Saturday the 22nd at a Purple Crayon concert event.
But perhaps one of the biggest surprises of the evening was 7th-grader, Simon Cadel, who 
became the first ever Stand Up Comedian to perform at an Open Mic night. Some may equate a kid doing comedy with knock-knock jokes, but Simon worked the stage like Chris Rock as he delivered sharp, observational humor like Jerry Seinfeld. The adult crowd may have been tickled by this pint-sized comic, but the laughter was loud and genuine. As they say in the world of comedy—he killed. Watch him here :
Open Mic night takes place the second Friday of every month and all are welcome. Unlike America’s Got Talent, you may not be performing to win a million dollars, but getting a chance to channel your inner Dylan or Diva is priceless.
Learn more about events at the Purple Crayon here.
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Jack O'Lantern Blaze Begin on October 6
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Historic Hudson Valley’s roster of four major Halloween-themed events kick off on Saturday, Oct. 6.Continuing for 22 selected evenings through Nov. 11, The Great Jack O’ Lantern Blaze® is the tri-state area’s biggest all-ages Halloween extravaganza. A small team of artists come together to carve more than 5,000 jacks, many fused together in elaborate constructions such as life-size dinosaurs and eight-foot-tall working jack-o’lanterns-in-the-box, all lit up throughout the wooded walkways, orchards, and gardens of historic Van Cortlandt Manor in Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y.
Washington Irving’s macabre tale The Legend of Sleepy Hollow inspires Horseman’s Hollow, an 11-night interactive haunted attraction at Philipsburg Manor recommended for ages 10 and up. Stocked with professional actors and state-of-the-art special effects, Horseman’s Hollow has a high fear factor and is not for the faint of heart.
Irving’s ‘Legend,’ recommended for ages 10 and up, brings the master storyteller Jonathan Kruk into the historic, candlelit
interior of Sleepy Hollow’s circa-1685 Old Dutch Church, where for 12 evenings he offers a dramatic re-telling of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow accompanied by live organ music.
Legend Celebration at Washington Irving’s Sunnyside is a daytime prelude to these evening events. Storytellers and magicians are just some of the colorful characters that perform for all ages, and visitors are encouraged to come in costume.
Blaze Founding Sponsor is Entergy. Blaze Title Sponsor is KeyBank. Media Sponsors are 100.7 WHUD/The Peak 107.1 and Journal News Media Group.
All events are held rain or shine. Proceeds support Historic Hudson Valley, the Tarrytown-based private, non-profit educational organization which owns and operates the historic sites that host these events.
Buy tickets online at www.hudsonvalley.org or by calling 914-366-6900 ($2 per ticket surcharge for phone orders).
(picutred at top: jack o'lanterns fuse together to form T-Rex)
My Summer Vacation In Scarsdale
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All summer, I've read with dismay the patently false vacation stories people have submitted here. People, stop fooling Scarsdale10583.com's lovely yet naive administrator with crazy tales of visits to mythic lands such as "Europe" and "The Catskills." (If you have to make up a name, must you combine "cats" and "kills"? That's just sick.)
As everyone knows, the world begins and ends with Scarsdale. Drive too far north, and you reach a raging ocean teeming with sea serpents. To the south lies cratered earth, while a mile past Central Avenue yawns the Wild West, with roaming buffalo and hardy folk who drive cars with more than 36,000 miles on them. And east of Post Road lies...
Well, I didn't know. Till recently. Someone among us had to be the true summer adventurer; to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations...to boldly go where no Greenacres resident has gone before.
Yes, my friends. In a mere few days, I visited every other neighborhood in Scarsdale.
I know, it sounds impossible: Who has the courage, let alone the stamina? Read and believe.
Journey 1: From Here to Eternity (a.k.a. Fox Meadow)
Having obtained the necessary vaccines, I closed my eyes and crossed Fenimore Road. Immediately I was besieged by honking noises from wheeled border patrols, and cries of "Watch where you're going, you crazy b..." Well, that last word must be some regional patois, since I don't know it.
I continued to the residential area. Suddenly, I spotted a female of the Fox Meadow tribe. She was the slave of a small, shaggy animal, who used a leather strap, wrapped around her wrist, to force her onward. Still, her cruel master was not without grace: Occasionally he would pause to genuflect by a little yellow temple, lifting his leg with the grace of a young Nuryev.
By now, it had been an agonizing eight minutes since I'd eaten. I wheeled around in horror, realizing there wasn't a Patisserie Salzburg in sight. Then I heard a sizzling noise. I rounded a corner and encountered a tribal male standing before a metal box, using a primitive tool to flip disks of meat.
I approached, waving the beads and feathers I'd brought for trade, while snapping photos. The man pulled an object from his pocket and spoke into it. Minutes later, a white, wheeled transport with red and blue flashing lights pulled up. A diplomat emerged, asked where I lived, and graciously escorted me home. As a parting gift, he presented me with something called "a summons," which I believe is the local term for "certificate of distinguished travel."
Journey 2: Life Among the Quakers
Next it was time to cross Post Road - which, obviously, is short for Post-Apocalyptic Road. I popped an iodine tablet and dressed for my trip. Fortunately, I knew how to blend in with the locals, since I'd seen a portrait of their leader on a box of oats. In a disguise of modest black clothing, I slipped past the border undetected.
I wandered aimlessly until, to my delight, I spotted a group of similarly attired folk headed south. I fell in and was welcomed to their command center, where we chanted, drank wine from a silver cup, and consumed marvelous round carbohydrate units topped with a whitish spread.
I was invited to return next Saturday for "Noah Gopnik's bris." I don't know what that means, but I plan to arrive early and snag a front-row seat for an extra-good view.
Journey 3: The Horrors of Heathcote
I opted to explore this remote outpost by automobile. I'm forever grateful to a neighbor who warned me that crossing its "Five Corners" would require extensive supplies. Indeed, I consumed three meals and finished "War and Peace" in my car before the traffic light changed.
I resolved to memorize a local landmark so I'd have a point of reference. To my right, I found a turreted building bearing the sign "HEATHCOTE TAVERN." I immediately settled upon it as my proverbial north star. Yet moments later, its sign had changed to "BACKALS." I did a u-turn; the sign was now "BAR CITRON." Utterly flummoxed, I did a 360 in my car. Now it read "MASSA." Beware this land of shape-shifters.
The diplomatic transport again appeared as if by magic. I wept for joy at the sight of its flashing lights, and the man with the badge gave me another personal escort home. For a second time, he provided me with a souvenir. This one, he called "a ticket." Must translate.
Journey 4: Into the (Edgewood)
Now I pressed south again. Unable to find a Starbucks or a Lange's Deli, I became hungry and dangerously undercaffeinated. My thought processes jumbled. Along the Post (Apocalyptic) Road, I reached a regal stone building. I ran inside and, in my delirium, shouted, "Am I too early for Noah Gopnik's bris?". This caused some confusion among the natives gathered there - an adorable race of miniature people wearing blazers and plaid skirts. They politely explained I must be lost.
Humiliated, I stumbled out, driving along a row of houses. I heard a humming noise and steered toward it. A man was (note: the remainder of this tale may be unsuitable for some) attacking the very earth on which he stood with a machine equipped with blades. Bits of green flew this way and that. I'll admit I'd sometimes seen that in my own neighborhood too, but had the composure to mask my outrage at the wanton slaughter. Now, with my electrolytes in perilous flux, I aimed my car right toward the green-stuff-murderer.
Perhaps it's best of all of us that at that moment, my car ran out of gas, a result of my Five Corners ordeal. I panicked, trembling with fear lest my ONstar button not get reception so far from Greenacres. Miracle of miracles, though, it did, and a very nice truck pulled up and towed me home.
I'm still considering turning in that crazy man with the blade machine...but who would believe?
Journey 5: The Full Edgemonty
I almost didn't make this last leg of my incredible journey. But how could I call myself a true explorer if I didn't visit Scarsdale's West Pole? Crossing Central Avenue, I traveled on foot down winding roads, wondering who on earth would ever opt to live here, so far from The Yoga Station
But then something extraordinary happened. The landscape grew familiar. I began to anticipate what house, or tree, I'd see around each corner. Suddenly, I found myself standing before a split-level ranch. I walked down the driveway. Repressed memories began flooding my brain circuits...of playing in that back yard...of riding my bike on the street...of swinging in a hammock between two trees...
Who would ever live in Edgemont? I once had, I suddenly realized!
"KUNTA KINTE! AT LAST, I HAVE FOUND YOU!" I shouted, tears streaming from my cheeks. My mother appeared on the sundeck. "Deborah, is that you? Are you off your meds again?" she called. Then she ushered me inside for spaghetti and meatballs.
Truly, all roads lead home.
Deborah Skolnik is a Greenacres mother of two, a senior editor at Parenting magazine, and an unseasoned traveler.
