WHITE PLAINS CITIZENETREPORTER SETS RECORD VISITS FOR YEAR 7,017,658 VISITS! 2,098,003 VISITORS MADE 6 VISITS A DAY EVERY DAY. 63,330 UNIQUE VISITORS MADE 133,730 VISITS IN DECEMBER. WPCNR AVERAGED 17,284 VISITORS A WEEK, VISITING 31,270 TIMES.

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WPCNR SITTIN IN THE BALCONY. Review by Johnny Matinee. April 30, 2006: ROARRRRRRRRRRRR! Peter Jackson’s remake of King Kong which your  celluloid scribe observed at that reclusive Hollywood and Broadway investor  Mr.  Hilton Swank’s private palatial home theater in the picky producer’s  secret Westchester hideaway last night gives you great ape, but not enough of the big guy.

 

 

Andy Serkis playing the title role of “tallest, darkest leading man” in Hollywood steals the show rendering the kind of dangerous rogue women love. He’s sensitive and powerful, dangerous to love, jealous, impossible not to be fascinated by, and tempermental.

 

More hypnotic than Dracula, with a nasty temper and an aesthetic appreciation of a simian Vincent Price, this is an ape we need to see more of. The Brad Pitts, Keefer Sutherlands, Tom Cruises and George Clooneys,  those pretty boys who pass for leading men these days are through, and they have no physiques like Kong. Those arms, girls!

 

What is it about women and outlaws anyway? Mr. Serkis, in close-ups with  Naomi Watts, in the ingénue-is-born-role for our time, the “Fay Wray Screamer,” gives  expressions thorough his ape make-up that communicate the tortured serenity of an artist who much rather be left alone in his mountain seaside aerie on Skull Island with The Blonde of His Dreams, watching sunrises and sunsets. His appreciation for Ms. Watts comes through

 

Jackson’s special effects and makeup artists have made Andy Serkis into a giant ape with character, deep sensitive worry lines and yes, even an intellectual edge to his savagery. Eyes that thrill a woman with his piercing looks.  For a character that never utters words except for roars and belches, grunts and snorts, Serkis’s Kong communicates better than most men, and delivers better dialogue than most screenwriters can write these days.

 

One roar and a sultry deep sign from this Kong would melt the coldest blonde – and those pecs, man!

 

King Kong 2005 throws everything at you, from the tawdry New York City of 1933, compete with Hooverville and old time movie palaces as the film opens, a depression ridden city where everyone is hustling and begging for a buck. A lot like White Plains today.

 

The unscrupulous promoter, Jack Black  as Carl Denham (looking like Zero Mostel as Max Bialystock in The Producers)  plays the Robert Armstrong role, trying to pitch a jungle movie to his dummy Board of Directors – (sounds like a page right out of today’s Westchester County arts intrigues, doesn’t it?).

 

  The backers are not buying and want to know from Denham  what they got for their $40 grand? (At least they know what to ask happens to their money – but that’s another story.)

 

Denham knows he has to act fast or he’s through. He has to set sail for the jungle before the producers pull their funding.  He hits the streets of NY looking for a leading lady and finds Ann Darrow, aspiring hoofer and actress, who has just refused a job in a burlesque house. He thinks she will do for the role of heroine in the jungle movie and offers her the job. She asks, “How can I trust you?” He says. “I’m a movie producer.” (Said with a straight face.) You have to love this snappy 1930s dialogue. The ape’s lines are better.

 

The glorious tramp steamer voyage is next, filled with “original” score music reminiscent of the Van Helsing score, and lots of long shots of the ship at sea. On the voyage, Adrien Brody as Driscoll the playwright, (tricked on board to write the screen play), develops a love interest with the ingénue, Ms. Darrow. This is that old longing look romance that I find quite preferable to the jump into bed romance preferred in the grotesquely heavily sexed films of today. (When Laraine Day straightened Cary Grant’s tie in Mr. Lucky, that said more than today’s actresses who simply grab something on the Male anatomy, but I digress.)

 

The tramp steamer itself is every cliché in the tramp steamer handbook, winches, capstands, pistons churning, lit decks and fog as the steamer makes its way to Skull Island. Special effects of fog and the ship floundering on Kong shaped rocks are splendidly done and very believable. The ship is great.

 

The voodoo village on Skull island is gruesome with so many skeletons and truly ugly natives that jump out of nowhere to kill the crew that any date you bring to a movie will be clinging to you, big fella.

 

Cutting to the leading man’s entry at the big sacrifice scene, Kong’s entrance is fantastic! He carries Ms. Darrow off to the jungle. But Ms. Darrow is no ordinary sacrifice. She karate kicks him in the thumb…and takes the Fay Wray role to new depths of meaning by impressing the ape with her liberatedness and spunk. (Thirties heroines were big on spunk).

 

The ape roars back at her, flicks her with his giant fingers, knocking her down. It’s the first time we see Serkis genius (or the computer animator),  at displaying this is no dumb, savage ape here. The ape is impressed with Ms. Darrow, though she is about the size of his hand.

 

Meanwhile, the crew from the ship under the leadership of the playwright, Driscoll, played bv Adrien Brody is trapsing after the ape, with producer Denham shooting film of the lost world.

 

The script succumbs to thriller standbys here and  loses control, spending about two hours of footage as the crew fights their way through a brontosaurus stampede, attacks by raptors, and then truly ugly and sardonic T-Rexes, created by digital animation.

 

The Rexes pursue Ms. Darrow and Kong comes to her rescue. This results in 30 minutes of the most violent wild WWF match between the Rexes and The Kong that keep you on the edge of your seat. Ms. Darrow, swinging from vine to vine with the valiant ape stays glamorous in true- thirties movie fashion, while avoiding the chops of the T-Rexes who view her as an hors d’oeuvre.

 

As Darrow’s rescue party falls into a deep pit, the Ape escapes with Ms. Darrow in hand,  flips her up on his shoulder much in the way Marlon Brando bids the waitress get on his motorcycle in The Wild One. It’s a great gesture, as if the ape, is saying “Get on, Kid.”

 

The rescue party battles the most gruesome monsters at the bottom of the cliff, including man-eating slugs, (easily the most gruesome scene since The Alien), spiders and cockroaches(A thoroughly gratuitious violence sequence).

 

Meanwhile…back in Kong’s mountain top layer overlooking the Pacific, Ms. Darrow and Mr. Kong develop their relationship. She amuses him with her juggling and tumbling act. He is impressed. The young lady has talent.  Eventually she falls asleep in his palm as the brooding Kong stares out at the sunset. It is a beautiful part of the film. Beware those powerful and sensitive misunderstood types!

 

 Brody, as the playwright, decides he’s going to rescue Ann himself, and the film fails to show him trek through the dinosaur invested jungle to find the ape-napped blondie.

 

He finds her, and as pterodactyls attack, the ape is distracted and they escape.

 

With Kong in hot pursuit, the mad producer convinces the crew to attempt to capture Kong.

 

This is achieved and jump-cut!

 

We are back in New York. In a total leap of fate expectation, the audience is expected to think that they towed the ape back to New York from the South Pacific in a ship hardly bigger than a large cabin cruiser, and kept him fed for the two month sail back to New York. (At least in the 30s movie they towed the ape back on a barge.) I mean, this is really bad script writing – but hey that’s movies today. Millions for the special effects guys, peanuts for the writers, or rather bananas.

 

Jump-Cut!

 

The ape is in his opening night in N.Y. In chains at a movie palace lovingly recreated, I presume digitally by the special effect army. Now as the blonde beauty is brought out on stage to enact the sacrifice scene, she lifts her head. Kong realizes it is not Ann Darrow. He flips out! And then the fun begins. Kong breaks loose! All havoc ensues for about 30 minutes until the famous end of the film.

 

There is one preposterous sequence of Kong discovering ice with Naomi Watts (as Darrow) on the Central Park lake, and they actually emulate a figure skating Ice Dancing couple, as the ape’s human side is gamely portrayed by Mr. Serkis (or his computer double). I mean the ice scene is ludicrous. But an enterprising figure skating ice dance couple should do a routine in the USFS championships based on this.

 

Ka-boom! Army artillery breaks up the ice dancing, and the ape heads to the Empire State Building.

 

As dawn breaks, he and the Blonde watch the sun rise, as they had watched the sun set in the Skull Island lair, while commuters arrive below in the city streets – a typical city rush hour.

 

The moodiness and sensitivity Mr. Serkis brings to the role and Ms. Watts’ total believability in showing her caring for the big lug in the sad last moments are terrific.

 

At long last as Kong is sent to his demise, Adrien Brody climbs to the top of the Empire State Building and embraces Watts despite the winds aloft, and despite Ms. Darrow being in high heels. But hey, only in Hollywood can you stand on a 5 foot platform 1500 feet over New York City in 25 knot winds in spike heels and not fall off.

 

King Kong 2005 throws it all in there: dinosaurs, gruesome chewing up of persons by hungry monsters, savage natives, spookiness, sudden appearances of really icky monsters, and fantasic backdrops of New York City in the 30s. Spending two hours on Skull Island – was a little long, however, with just a little tooooo much monsters and not enough ape.

 

I say Naomi Watts gets the Oscar and forget Brokeback Mountain – Serkis as Kong and Watts as Ann Darrow are Hollywood’s sexiest couple. What pulls this wallapalooza off is the fine character acting by all the extras –playing it strictly straight and serious. I liked Thomas Kretschmann as the Captain, and all of the crew in all their scurviness– and bravery.

 

Serkis has to reprise his role. How about this twist?

 

 The devious Denham takes a piece of Kong’s hair at the end of the movie. Denham sells the story of Kong to Hollywood and becomes rich. His great grandson finds the piece of Kong’s hair and finances research to clone Kong at New York Presbyterian Hospital in White Plains.

 

On a tour Darrow’s daughter stops in White Plains to open Wal Mart with Mayor Delfino.  Kong sees the story in the White Plains Times and breaks out of the New York Presbyterian Hospital grounds  As The Mayor tells Wal Mart, “We Can’t Thank you enough,” Kong rears up over Wal-Mart with a roar.

 

Kong climbs to the top of the City Center Towers, after disrupting a Common Council meeting. What do you think, Cecil, I can produce it for a little under $10 Million, whaddya-say? 

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WPCNR’S ADAM IN ALBANY. By Assemblyman Adam T. Bradley, 89th Assembly District. April 28, 2006: The Legislature approved an on-time, bipartisan budget that was both balanced and fiscally responsible. Unfortunately, the governor used his veto pen in order to score political points at the expense of the sick, elderly, school children, college students, and property taxpayers. That is unacceptable and why the Legislature had no choice but to override the governor’s vetoes – sending a bipartisan message that we’re fighting for a budget that New Yorkers deserve.

If left unchallenged, the governor’s vetoes would have shortchanged New York’s college students and left our universities unprepared to meet the challenges of the future. The Legislature moved to rectify these inequities and voted to override the governor’s vetoes, restoring $119 million to the Tuition Assistance Program, vital operating aid as well as construction and infrastructure funding to SUNY. I voted to restore capital improvement projects at local colleges totaling $34 million, including:

·        $6 million to SUNY Purchase for the Heritage Site

·        $8 million to SUNY Purchase for HVAC renovations

·        $20 million to Westchester County Community College for additional Master Plan Projects.

 

Westchester’s overburdened taxpayer would have been left with no meaningful relief under the governor’s budget vetoes. The Assembly and Senate overrode the governor’s shortsighted vetoes of the Legislature’s bipartisan tax-relief package, including:

 

·        Empire State Tax Credit – a maximum credit of $330 for each child age 4 to 17

·        Property tax rebates that average $532 for Westchester’s Basic STAR recipients and $822 for senior homeowners under the Enhanced STAR program

·        Reducing the marriage penalty tax – saving married couples $41 million when fully phased in

 

  The Legislature fought to restore the governor’s cuts to Westchester’s hospitals and nursing homes and voted to override health care vetoes that would punish the sick, elderly and disabled by:

 

·        Forcing seniors and disabled into the Medicaid Part D confusion

·        Cutting transportation, support services, Home Health Care Recruitment and Training and efforts to allow seniors to remain in their homes

·        Denying residents of Adult Homes with mental disabilities an SSI supplement of $25 per month to support basic needs

·        Increasing certain co-payment for Family Health Plus

                                                 

This budget represents the priorities of elected representatives from both sides of the aisle in the Assembly and Senate – representatives from across the state who are attuned to the values and needs of people in their communities.

 

 Sadly, the governor has threatened to tie up portions of the budget in courts, based on legal technicalities – not democratic principals. I urge the governor to join us in providing New York residents with an appropriate budget by not litigating on technicalities. 

 

 

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WPCNR County Clarion-Ledger. From The Westchester County Clerk’s Office. April 27, 2006: The County Clerk’s Office has announced the first stage of a new national crackdown requiring a U.S. Passport even on the part of U.S. Citizens to gain reentry across United States borders.

County Clerk Timothy C. Idoni announces  new guidelines are in effect for all travelers, including U.S. citizens, to and from the Americas, the Caribbean and Bermuda.  These individuals will soon be required to have a passport or other accepted document that establishes the bearer’s identity and nationality to enter or re-enter the United States.

As of December 31, 2006, the requirement is applied to all air and sea travel to or from Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean and Bermuda.

 

As of December 31, 2007, the requirement is extended to all land border crossings as well as air and sea travel.

 

Passport applications and photos are available at the Office of the County Clerk.  No appointment is necessary.

 

For further information, call or come in to the Office of the County Clerk, Passport and Naturalization, 3^rd floor, 110 Dr. Martin Luther King,Jr. Blvd., White Plains, New York,

Monday through Friday, 8:00a.m. to 5:45p.m. or call (914) 995-3086.

 

 

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WPCNR STAND-UP STAND-IN. Humor. April 26, 2006: In light of the cancellation of the performances of one of America’s stand-up comic legends at the White Plains Performing Arts Center, WPCNR offers this refresher course being offered at one of the local universities:

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WPCNR COUNTY CLARION-LEDGER. From Westchester County Department of Communications (SEVERELY EDITED) April 26, 2006: County Executive Andy Spano announced a sweeping overhaul of the County Department of Social Services  tonight, Assigning First Deputy Commissioner of  the Department of Social Services  Nancy Travers responsibilities  exclusively to child welfare management. Executive Spano promised three new DSS directors will be hired to report to Ms. Travers to beef up DSS child welfare surveillance, and announced 30 additional child welfare workers would be hired to lighten caseloads in a system that saw children on DSS watch perish as a result of alleged DSS failure to evaluate the family living  environments.

Spano described a series of new Westchester County Police initiatives to sharpen officers’ skills at identifying drivers under the influence of drugs;  the additon of a new police helicopter and a mounted unit, and expansion of the County Police/White Plains Police program that conducts scrutiny of convicted sex offenders residing in the county.  Additional security measures for children and women were announced at Mr. Spano’s 2006 State of the County Speech at the Michaelian Building in White Plains.

The Department of Social Services reorganization was the most striking announcement, adding more caseworkers, putting more hands-on management at the three district offices and establishing an effort to make case workers better investigators of child abuse, and increasing bilingual staff.

 

The Department of Social Services Spano Sweep:

 

 

• A reorganization of the Department of Social Services. From now on, the First Deputy Commissioner Nancy Travers  sole responsibility will be child welfare. Reporting to her will be three new directors, each overseeing a different district office. Reporting to each director will be additional managers and caseworkers. This is in addition to 30 new staff positions to reduce case loads. 

 

• An “overflow” unit, to keep caseloads for current workers at optimal levels. This is in addition to the on-going workload study to determine how best to parcel out cases based on their degree of difficulty.

 

• Hiring more bi-lingual workers to help the Hispanic community receive assistance from employees who understand their culture and speak their language.

 

• A training pilot project with the Department of Public Safety will begin this summer to better train child welfare staff in investigative skills. Officers will continue to play an advisory role after training is done.
  
  
  
• The implementation of the new Child Fatality Review Team and Multi-disciplinary teams in cooperation with the District Attorney’s Office.
         “When I came into office nine years ago, there were things we had to fix.  When I began my second term, there were things we had to complete,’’ said Spano. “And now, as I begin my third term, there are things we have to build upon as we look to the future. What kind of county do we want Westchester to be—for our children, and their children?”

  

        

Detente with the New District Attorney                                                       

 

    He praised the county’s recently elected District Attorney Janet DiFiore, saying that a new era of cooperation with the District Attorney’s Office has already resulted in a surge of joint initiatives to protect the public.

             Spano stressed that government “must serve all residents equally no matter where they were born, no matter what their income, no matter what their age.”

     “Westchester County must continue to be a place where all people are treated fairly and given a chance to succeed,’’ said Spano. “We must never forget that tolerance, decency and respect are the hallmarks of what all Americans stand for.”

         He added, “Let’s not forget for a moment that all our ancestors were immigrants. “They all came here in search for a better life or for religious or political freedom. Let us not stifle this opportunity for others.’’

 

The County Executive said he would concentrate health efforts on the rise of obesity in children and closing the health care gap that exists for minorities.

 

Calling on the State to Step Up

 

          While vowing to continue to push these initiatives and others, Spano said that more must be done on the state and federal levels to deal with these larger social issues. He challenged the State Legislature to pass a comprehensive Civil Commitment law for sex offenders and the Governor to make sure they serve their full prison terms. Spano also urged federal legislators to change the formula for Homeland Security funding so that more money goes to higher-risk communities like Westchester.

         In his role as president of the County Executives of America, he asked his colleagues around the country to support federal legislation that would double funding for autism, a condition that affects 1 in 166 children in the country.

 

Recognizes Police and Probation Performance

 

        The County Executive recognized county employees for significant advances in law enforcement matters and senior citizen aid, including:

                                                 

·        The county’s Parkway Patrol for stopping more impaired drivers, saying DWI arrests in 2005 were up 34 percent from 2004, on top of a 33 percent increase the year before. He added that driving while drugged arrests increased an astounding 81 percent. He recognized Captain John Hodges, Sergeant Brian Hess and Police Officer Robert Kelly.
 

·        The Department of Probation’s 14-member DWI enforcement team for winning the 2005 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Public Service Award. The award was for its success in keeping those on DWI probation from repeating offenses. The team, which oversees 1,300 cases, uses a variety of innovative techniques including Operation Night Watch, in which surprise visits to probationers are conducted to make sure they are sober and off the road. Recognized were probation officers Frank Garcia, Helene Hodapp, Juan Sierra, Terrence Gorman, Sheryl Day, Robert Grady, Oneida Garcia and Charles Cotton, Supervising Probation Officers Robert Watson and Edward Drenga and Assistant Commissioner James O’Shea.

 

·         Parry Aftab, the renowned Internet safety expert. Atfab will conduct the county’s upcoming Internet Safety seminar for parents May 9^th and conducted last year’s successful cyberbullying conference.

 

·        Staff of the Emergency Communications Center for their work helping residents cope with January’s storm and week-long power outages. In the 24 hour period dispatchers handled four times the average amount of calls and dispatched 711 calls to fire agencies and 128 to EMS agencies. Acknowledged were William Arduino, Raymond Stretz, Alison Travis, William Odell and Division Chief Mike Volk.

 

·        Department of Senior Programs and Services SWAT team (Staff Working All the Time) for their efforts to help the 127,000 Westchester seniors faced with making choices under the federal government’s new Medicare Part D program for prescription drug coverage. He thanked Laura Bolotsky, Jeanne Pici, Mary Edgar-Herrera, Dozene Guishard and Colette Phipps and volunteers Flo Brodley and Tim Oberg and Lois Steinberg from the Medicare Rights Center. 

 

          Spano said that our strength lies in our diversity and that we must work together to realize the dream of a better community.

          “We must continue to do all that we can to enhance the safeguards we have put in place — so that our residents are protected, our businesses flourigh, and those who need our help the most, find it with tolerance and understanding,” he said. “Some of us may be richer, some pooerer. Some may speak with accents, others with frailty. But we are all the family of Westchester.”