Some posts have been held over for continuity, so always look below floaters for newest posts.

Except you have said some pretty nasty things about us here in the past.

What's up with that?

So insufferably stupid, they are a total washout!

I guess it is understandable given the Sugar Loaf Chamber of Commerce's own aggressive intransigent refusal to acknowledge what is all around them, staring them right in the face.

But it has come to my attention nobody knows who you and Richard are anymore: how you built the Center, how you still live beside the Post Office, how you host the music series ... the family oriented one, the one that extends all the way back to Jon Baugh getting it going circa 1981, the one that draws so many people it is hard to get around town while it's running.

It's as if the Performance Center just appeared out of nowhere one day, and everybody started assuming it has been here forever.

In any case, how the hell am I supposed to complain about you two if nobody knows who the fuck you are!?

SUGAR LOAF
HISTORICAL MUSEUM

The Sugar Loaf Historical Museum displays 50 years of work done by the best Sugar Loaf resident artists.

The Museum is the newest addition to the Sugar Loaf Guild website.

Following the positive reception of the revamped Sugar Loaf Guild website (2012), the site quickly grew into something much greater than the typical online promotional brochure, and the Sugar Loaf Historical Museum has become a flagship of the site's fantastic growth.

And I am not just saying so because the Sugar Loaf Guild is my website (I am Bob Fugett), and this is my article you are reading, though I could.

The strong response to the Museum is not surprising; it displays a half century of handmade artistic products unique to Sugar Loaf and thus unique to Orange County and the Hudson Valley.

Context for the artwork is given by insider firsthand accounts that I write from my perspective as a 40 year Sugar Loaf resident artist.

Read how the couple who built the Sugar Loaf Performing Arts Center (Susan and Richard Logothetis) got their start by spending weekends in a tiny camper at the back of Romers' Alley, and how they went on to build a company world renowned for manufacturing top quality stadium and theater lighting, and how they fulfilled a dream.

The dream was to host the finest dramatic works, and they began with intimate theatrical performances held in the loft of the Scott's Meadow red barn.

The fulfillment of the dream came by virtue of their construction of the Lycian Centre — which they eventually gifted back to the community — now retitled the Sugar Loaf Performing Arts Center.

Sugar Loaf
Performing Arts Center
(Lycian Centre)

Continue browsing the page to see an abstract rococo art nouveau piano (not a painting but an actual piano) which was built in Sugar Loaf and is now in the permanent collection of the New York City Metropolitan Museum of Art, in fact three of them are in the collection.

George Denninger
piano

And that is just some of the old stuff.

Today's handmade by resident Sugar Loaf artist items include a wide range of work in almost all mediums that can be purchased directly out of the hands of the artists who make them, and they are better than ever.

However, the newer work is fully explained throughout the rest of the Guild website, so in this article there is no need for me to mention even my wife, watercolorist Mary Endico — Hudson Valley's artist.

This article is about the Sugar Loaf Historical Museum.

There were four main occurrences that prompted the ugrade of the Guild website and consequently the addition of the Historical Museum page.

The first prompting occurred after Mary Endico's second bout with breast cancer, plus two other significant operations for fibroid tumors in addition to a uterine endometrial ablation, at which moment she asked if I could put our story online before, well ...

She said, "There are some artists who failed here that are now saying Sugar Loaf is dead to the arts; not true; we have to set the record straight!"

Those misrepresentations circulating helped spur the reclamation of the Guild website, but the first circumstance later provoking the Museum page itself was the arrival of a painting in glass (sent all the way from Texas) which after 38 years was finding its way home to the very spot where in the interim its creator had died.

The artist's death was the result of a massive heart attack, and it happened during his first ever singing lesson as he began preparing for a new acting role at the age of 72.

His Painting in Glass now hangs on the wall where he took his last breath.

Jon Baugh
Paintings in Glass

How could one fail to build a Museum around such an event, especially when the person who created the artwork was instrumental in establishing the look, the feel, and the viewpoint of the Sugar Loaf artists enclave which people have come to love.

Mary's string of health issues, then the arrival of a precious historic artifact, provided the first nudgings; but the Sugar Loaf Historical Museum became an absolute necessity after two final revelations.

The first came when a new artist in town was hungry for history but was being told nothing about the strong collaborative close-knit underground of successful artists in the hamlet (still here by the way), and secondly another artist was shocked to learn that the house they own was built by the person who fashioned those three pianos now in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Not only were new people not being given the big picture of what is in Sugar Loaf right now today, they were missing out on the historic foundation and ongoing process that ensures such a unique reality continues to thrive.

Clay Boone
wood carving
with gold leaf

We thrive because we do.

As the timeless adage goes: "So they say they are an artist? Hummph! If they were any good they would have a studio open to the public in Sugar Loaf and be making a living at it."

Such things must be talked about, and the Sugar Loaf Guild website is the logical place for that discussion.

Go take a look; but keep in mind the Forum pages are for those who love the hot sauce while those who prefer the mild will find the rest of the Guild website perfect to their taste, especially the Sugar Loaf Historical Museum!

SugarLoafGuild.org

Our guest lecturer for today's article has been Bob Fugett, author of numerous rants and owner of the blogosphere. His only regret in life is the scandalous amount of money he receives for his writing, which he calls "filthy lucre". He has, however, never been at all shy spending that lucre on fancy high powered racing bicycles. Bob also likes to call himself a master musician whose main instrument is the written word.

Bob Fugett vs Town Board
Woodbury, NY
10/04/2012

Am I fucking good, or what?

And there's lots more artists like me in Sugar Loaf, New York.

And speaking of history, did you know that the Sugar Loaf Chamber of Commerce has historically done such a piss-poor job of explaining what is here that two days ago I spoke to one of the hamlet's two restaurant owners (who has been here four years), and he did not even know that ANYTHING was being made here?

Goddamned Chamber assholes.

And now they want me to shut this joint down (page2).

Yeah, right, like that could happen!

But an apology letter could happen, actually is motherfucking going to happen, even if it takes thousands of my own dollars, and thousands of the Chamber's dollars and a roomfull of lawyers with a judge writing it and making them sign it.

There is a hand hewn iron clad guarantee in there somewhere.

Mark my word!

When Mary Endico ran into Susan Logothetis today and explained that we will not be forking over the Guild's usual $1,000.00 donation for the "On the Lawn Music Series" because we are saving our money for legal action against the Chamber of Commerce (if we don't get an apology letter), Susan said, "Money well spent."

And the Chamber deuschebags have the timerity to pretend they represent Sugar Loaf!

On the other hand, Susan has some great additions for the Museum ... even a Uzenski bench with a story.

Which reminds me, Mary, track down Vickie Stellmack and get a photo or something of Greg's chairs and tables.

And see if you can't track down some of Norman Morasse's bird perches, Lena's cane, and a cat blanket from the Dirty Deli.

We'll have lunch.

I wonder if Suzie and Jamie ever knew that it was our running joke to blame Suzie when either of us stole a bite out of something we bought each other from the Deli.

It started with a candy bar.

Bob (opening the wrapper), "Hey! There's a bite out of my candy bar."

Mary very interested, "No way! Here, let me see. Well, I certainly never did it ... must have been [takes a bite], must have been Suzie. Let me look again [takes another bite] ... yep, Suzie alright ... had to be."

Pretty soon, anything went wrong, Suzie did it.

"Shit, the nail bent!"

"Suzie did it."

From: Mary

Sophia :)

Loved Luft Garden's article.

Have we spotlighted Sugar Loaf Mountain Herbs and Practical Magik?

[ Bs note: "CK" ]

Thank you,

Mary

From: Sophia

My pleasure. Aaron was really nice and easy to talk to!

This is what I have in my file -

June: Luft Gardens (check!)

July: The Kastan Experience (being interviewed by Naomi Kennedy this coming week)

August: Sugar Loaf Guild Museum (will speak to the both of you about this, and was thinking about asking Bob to actually write the article himself, if he’d be cool with that! We do not have to throw in a byline, but we can if he so wishes!)

September: Practical Magik (With a k!)

[ Bs note: "CK" ]

October: Cookie Boone (Clay’s wife, as per yet another one of Mary’s great suggestions.)

And let me add:

November: Sugar Loaf Mountain Herbs :-)

Keep ‘em coming!

Sophia Krcic, Editor
Delaware & Hudson CANVAS
www.dhcanvas.com
845.926.4646

Bob said he'll take a stab at writing the Sugar Loaf Museum article with the byline at your discretion, though he says attribution seems part of your DNA.

Since the only people reading the Forum are you and the three people who are bitching because we never put them on the website, he hopes it will be ok for him to pre-write it as a Forum article.

He usually posts an article right away in draft mode and edits it over the next month or three until it scans correctly.

That means the article should be almost done by the time you are ready to run it, and you can do a final pick to choose what you want.

Also you can grab anything you want from the Museum page itself (actually any of Bob's writing).

Chop it up and fix it any which way you like.

He says this because over the years the Canvas has never done anything but the absolute very best by us ... and everybody who has been interviewed reports the same.

His favorite quote was from Connie Rose who said, "I can't believe it. They printed exactly what I said!"

He also wanted me to ask you, "Is there any other town you would like us to piss-off enough to start them placing full back cover and internal group ads just to fuck with us?"

He will start the Museum article in the Forum, but only if it is ok with you.

Oops, he already started.

Sincerely,
Mary (if you can believe that)

If they have done their due diligence getting ready for trial, I am sure their attorney has already explained this to them, but the top problem for Brad and Veronica with regard to their reprehensible letter (page2) , is that they have absolutely positively:

The only action in which Brad and Veronica can stake a claim (actually must take ownership of) is in writing their letter of apology on Chamber letterhead to counteract their misreprentations of the Sugar Loaf Guild and their own standing within the Sugar Loaf community.

They have exposed every business listed on page2 to the risk of legal action, and for nothing.

To Veronica Bero and Brad Middleton (aka: Sugar Loaf Chamber of Commerce), let this notification constitute a flagrant disregard of your stupid, stupid, stupid illegitimate attack letter and your pitiful impotent attempt to cow me along with the actual businesses in Sugar Loaf into submission.

First let me help you out a little bit, or I guess your lawyer, or rather whatever online service it was where you downloaded your stupid, stupid, stupid illegitimate attack letter template.

Was it the same place the Right Reverend got her seminary degree, or might I say, "Tax write-off"?

I finally got around to reading your disgusting letter (page2) in its entirety after Brad came into Cancun, shuffled past me with his head down, and ordered a beer in the early afternoon (very telling).

He refused to discuss the letter with me when Israel asked him to do so but waited until I left before misrepresenting everything on the Sugar Loaf Guild website by cherry picking bits & pieces, pulling those pieces far out of context, and harassing our Israel with things for which he need not be bothered.

As promised, to help you with your insipid pointless meritless rant of a letter, I will start with bullet point number 2.

The word post is in error and should be the plural posts.

I am sure that once your lawyer gets out of 3rd grade she will understand why.

Tell her to keep trying and to understand that 4 years trying to get out of 3rd grade will not be such a blight on her record, because I am sure there are many more just like you where you guys came from.

Her career is set.

Additionally, in the 7th bullet point (wow what a number of gifts you are hoping for Santa to bring) the lack of space after the comma between the two words employees,any is quite exciting for me, because it shows just how weak you people would be in court if you were ever so stupid as to force this issue ... er, these issues (each request is a separate law suit in itself), instead of just sending me a written apology on Chamber letterhead.

Bullet point 8 is actually not too bad, totally ineffectual but not totally illiterate.

Now for the part your lawyer will be most interested in (after we have just revealed her as careless).

If she doesn't read very well, which appears to be the case based on her writing, you might like to tell her out loud that 3 of the 17 supposed interested parties listed on page 2 are in fact your own businesses, and 2 of them are barely able to be considered startups.

Your tossing a couple of rough and quick logo style images online does not constitute establishing businesses of enough weight to warrant engaging in a law suit.

Even from her seat near the back of her 3rd grade class, your lawyer should know this is a major no, no.

Also remind her that Mary and I went around in person speaking to 7 of the people on that list, and every one of them was appalled at what you guys have tried to do with this bullshit pretend legal action.

Even those who don't like what I write.

Even Israel was aghast at what he read and was going full steam ahead to have that fouled up letter rectified until Brad Middleton stopped by the bar in the early afternoon for a beer, or two, or three ... and got me out of the room in order to lie like a dog.

We'll deal with that under oath where a court approved translator will be explaining to Israel how he was duped, and Brad will be held at bay with the risk of perjury given his propensity to lie, lie, lie.

Yes, Brad Middleton is a pants on fire liar and has lied about me on numerous occassions.

There was an actual act of slander committed this time, but that is a technical matter which Brad is unlikely to have noticed as he crossed over the line.

The slander was reported by Israel whom you will unlikely find a more honest and honorable man on the planet.

Therefore, I believe it, and so will the judge.

True slander is a lot rarer than people believe.

It has to be 1) a falsehood, 2) stated knowing it is false, 3) stated with intent to harm, 4) and harm must occur.

The falsehood poisoned our 32 year business association with Israel while Brad knew it was false and said it anyway in order to inject the poison.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a 4 point winner and the translator will explain it to Israel in court if an apology letter on Chamber stationery does not do it first.

Brad will be surprised by which one of his lies, lies, lies rose to true provable slander.

Three disinterested parties will be subpoenaed and give testimony.

Brad will find that he may be able to fool Israel through the language barrier, but he will never be able to get Israel to lie for him under oath.

Honor is honor, and Israel has the highest honor.

In any case, let's see if I can address your broad wide ranging scattered shotgun hope and a prayer request list.

We hear you have retreated from your position somewhat and are now calling the letter a misunderstanding.

Of course it was a misunderstanding ... you thought you would get away with it.

Take a look in the right hand column to see if this is not your hoped for result. --- >

Veronica and Brad (aka: Sugar Loaf Chamber of Commerce), you and your lawyer will avoid further embarrassment in front of a judge by penning the appropriate letter of apology on Chamber stationery.

Ball's in your court.

People of Sugar Loaf, your Chamber of Commerce has placed you in dire legal jeopardy.

Call your attorneys immediately and make sure they review this post.

It may save your business, your house, and your reputation.

Your Chamber of Commerce President, Veronica Bero (or whatever her name is this week) with her chubby little familiar, Brad Middleton (who provides her muscle to bully local business owners), has made it almost certain that all of you will be in court for quite some time.

You will not be able to avoid the expense and lost time because you will be forced to appear in person by subpoena and court order.

If you make a misstep there will be the added expense of fines.

Get legal counsel immediately.

And thank Veronica Bero for making it necessary.

I have started the deposition process here.

Check out the list on the right linking some of the articles that the Sugar Loaf Guild has been responsible in generating for Sugar Loaf Business owners over the last three years.

Each one of the businesses knew their images and likenesses were already on the Sugar Loaf Guild website and that their interview was going to be published under the Sugar Loaf Guild banner.

Have your lawyer ask herself, "After 40 years running a successful business in Sugar Loaf with the last 3+ years involved in tireless 24/7 volunteer work for the community, why is it that right now is the time Bob Fugett is being attacked by a local pseudo-organization which has no process, no accountability, no transparency, and no authority?"

They have actually instituted a policy of voting under the cover of Facebook, so Brad and Veronica can say the vote was whatever they say it was!

The answer as to why they are threatening a lawsuit now is simple: it is because Bob Fugett pointed out correctly that Veronica and Brad are small time hustlers, full out con artists, who are engaging in mercenary business practices trying to shut down the Endico studio and every business like it.

They have already gotten rid of one business and are working on three others plus threatened to take out Rosner Soap Makers as an aside.

Now they are using the Chamber letterhead in an attempt to establish a monopoly for town representation.

Your attorney will really appreciate the fact we have begun laying out the documents for the first depositions in this forum.

Your attorney will also explain your legal exposure on this matter and help you begin preparing your own documents that will have to be presented at trial.

This is going to be very expensive for everybody named as signatory on that letter, and Sugar Loaf might never recover from it.

Participation will not be optional; you will be subpoenaed.

The Chamber should immediately consider selecting a more appropriate President in order to protect their assets.

Then immediately send us a written letter of apology on Chamber stationery.

2013
03 - Sugar Loaf Artists
07 - Bliss Co-op *
09 - J. Hengen Design
12 - Sugar Loaf Foundation

2014
01 - Bee Positive
02 - 18th Century Furniture *
03 - Simpson Originals
04 - Katwalk Konsignment
05 - Connie Rose at Boswell Pottery
07 - Imagine This
09 - Juanita Guccione at Seligmann
11 - Pisces Passions *

2015
01 - Len Silver
03 - Clay Boone
05 - Tom Dinchuk
06 - Luft Gardens
07 - Kastan Art  Space
08 - SL Historical Museum
09 - Practical Magick
10 - Cookie Boone
       (piano & ASL)

Names marked with an asterisk (*) have been confirmed as fraudulently included in the signature page (page 2) of the following quasi-legal, threatening letter attacking the Sugar Loaf Guild and Endico Watercolor Studio.

Bodhi Tree
Bullshit Letter
p. 1

Bodhi Tree
Bullshit Letter
p. 2

We will find out at trial which others were included without the business owner's knowledge.

Please, everybody have your lawyer look at this stuff and get ready for your own testimony under subpoena and threat of perjury.

All because I caught on to their hidden agenda scam and called them on it.

The Chamber should immediately consider selecting a more appropriate President in order to protect their assets.

Then immediately send us a written letter of apology on Chamber stationery.

Now I really can stop posting here.

If this hasn't been enough to wake people up, nothing will ... except maybe the subpoenas and fines.

Maybe you did actually speak to my lawyer, because getting that letter was like winning the lottery, and it is just the sort of thing he would set up.

Bodhi Tree
Bullshit Letter
p. 1

Bodhi Tree
Bullshit Letter
p. 2

Doug knew enough to bail out immediately, and the reaction to everybody I have watched read the letter lets me know it is going to make me rich.

Getting this thing into court is going to be sweet.

Each and every single person listed on that letter is now liable for the entire contents, and each one of them is going to be subpoenaed, forced to provide documentation going back several years, attesting to their involvement in the letter.

It is just like the liability for somebody getting hit by a car during a festival.

Better have group insurance.

No more hiding behind, "You have definitely been wronged here, Bob, but I don't want to get involved."

No more hidden Facebook group posts.

Having a lawyer right up in your face with every word being recorded by a court stenographer really has a way of cutting through the bullshit and getting to the truth.

Doug knew all of this immediately on reading the letter, and he got out of it right away.

I have already talked to four people named on that page who have denied having (or wanting to have) anything at all to do with it.

Too bad for them, because they aleady allowed Veronica the letterhead to write it on, and now each one of them is singularly and wholly responsible for its content.

Not to mention that you, Veronica and Brad, are subject to possible mail fraud prosecution for pretending to be representing people whom you did not.

I believe that means criminal as well a civil liability.

Sweet, sweet, sweet.

You two are liable for the misrepresentation, and the people who allowed you to use the Chamber's letterhead are also liable for the misrepresentation with you as their agents, their proxies.

Ironically, the thing that could have protected you (and the rest of them) is exactly the thing I have been screaming for — a process.

Man, my lawyer is one smart cookie, and taking the assets of people who kept saying they did not want to get involved (although they already were) is going to pay for lots of toys for me down the road.

"Write them a letter first," my lawyer says.

Heh, heh, heh ... PERFECT!

Well that is never going to happen, especially now, and I have this letter to show who you people really are ... liars, scammers, and con artists.

Plus as a bonus, I can now stop writing here (use the time saved for better things) while allowing all the content just as it is to continue bubbling to the top of Google et al, and move on to the next project.

This website needs no further work, will never disappear, and will only increase my dividends when this letter gets to court.

Here, let me highlight the inane childish pettiness that is at the center of all this.

Our standing offer is:

1) A $500 donation from the Guild to the Chamber

2) The only requirement a permanent acknowledgment of our donation on the Chamber domain name website (not Facebook) with the Guild as a benefactor, plus a permanent link to the Sugar Loaf Historical Museum page, as the Chester Historical Society did for free

Today I explained it in person to two people on the Chamber board.

Each day which passes with this offer being ignored is just money in my pocket and a stronger indication of the responsiblity of each and every person on that "signature" page.

Bodhi Tree
Bullshit Letter
p. 1

Bodhi Tree
Bullshit Letter
p. 2

Thank you for providing a listing of those to be held responsible.

It will save us time when serving the appearance papers.

Both you and they are total idiots.

Everybody should keep watching as the Google returns for Sugar Loaf continue to move this website to the top ... as well they should.

Maybe in court we will finally get to find out who posted:

Take notice that it comes right after one of my earliest students sent a thank you to me, 40 years after the fact, for the impact my teaching had on her life.

No way could the timing of that post be coincidental, it was a jealous rage — if my reading of IP#'s serves me well.

It is that post which caused me to go into protection mode and write whatever I deemed appropriate to protect myself.

By the way, Manon is on leave of absence from being Guild president due to health issues, so don't bother her with your bullshit!

You may hide what you are doing from her, but I am onto you.

You may lie about this website to people who never look at it, but a judge will actually read it.

The shelf life of your scam is almost up.

Job well done, Bob; time for a rest.

Aaron from Luft Gardens with Mary Endico testing placement of the newly repurposed coat rack in the entrance to the Endico studio.

The white coat rack above it is a typical get it anywhere rack that is being replaced with this special one of a kind hand worked repurposed marvel.

The shelf and back is barn wood from the Luft Farm, and the hangers are door knobs salvaged from the restoration of the Endico studio.

Careful with that smile Aaron; people might start thinking Endico and Fugett are not the most hated people on the planet.

Being as:

1) Manon is now Treasurer for the Chamber and keeping a close watch on the money, and we trust her implicitly

2) plus Doug, Chamber Board Member, saw what was happening with that letter [page 1, page 2] and took steps to remedy the problem, despite never having had more than two words with me ... just did it because it was the right thing to do

3) and since the festivals have gotten so poorly attended a customer of ours was able to come here during one and buy a $700 painting, yesterday

4) and with the now imminent end of the Bodhi Terror in sight

The Sugar Loaf Guild is once again offering to provide a sponsorship for the Sugar Loaf Chamber of Commerce.

We still do not give money to a totally broken organization, however, so there is one requirement to be met.

The Sugar Loaf Chamber of Commerce must acknowledge the receipt of the money from the Sugar Loaf Guild as a benefactor on their domain name website (not Facebook), and they must provide a permanent link to the Sugar Loaf Historical Museum page, as the Chester Historical Society did for free.

In any case, $500 from the Guild (as benefactor) to the Chamber acknowledged on their domain name website (not Facebook) providing a permanent link to the Sugar Loaf Historical Museum.

1) $500

2) easy link

3) feather in the Chamber's bonnet

Nothin' to it, right?

Just think how much revenue the Chamber could generate with links on a Benefactor's page.

We gave $1,000 dollars to Wikipedia because they have proven themselves a little more solidly, and we don't even know them!

We have blocked one of his devices for you, Bob, but as a security measure, the less said about it the better.

When you get back from your walk, you can give a brief explanation for your readers.

You have no power here ...

Thanks for writing that letter guys. [page 1, page 2]

Ok, I am back from our morning walk in the Super Secret, Super Free, Off-leash Run Through the Wooded Mountain Trails Dog Park, and I finished my morning website usage logs review, so I can explain to everybody what that bad, bad, bad boy Brad is enduring.

Every time he tries to view the Sugar Loaf Guild website, the only thing he sees is this:

Go Away

Here is the history of that image.

Connie Rose made it during the Cake Boss fiasco, when a national television program came into town, took over Sugar Loaf Square and pretended they could save a business there by giving them national exposure and a make-over.

Of course, as always, Mary and I were the only ones who would speak out publicly about what a horrible image for the town it was, not to mention how it couldn't help those people's business in a million years.

Well, somebody in town who was complaining to us behind the scenes said, "Sounds like a recipe for disaster," which perfect pun I wanted to quote them on, but they screamed, "No, no, no, don't use my name! I don't want to get involved."

So I blocked Terry Boswell from viewing the Sugar Loaf Guild website using what we started calling a cup-caking.

It worked so well, I started using it for anybody who became a problem.

Therefore, Brad (on one of his devices only) is currently receiving his cup-caking in hopes of finally getting through to him the fact that I can run rings around the technical people he knew as a stock boy at Walmart, and that, in fact, when Walmart computer "experts" need instruction, I am the person they contact.

And if I don't have the answer, I send them to my mentor, Doug.

Brad's blocking is temporary, his failure in Sugar Loaf (with Verrrrro) will be permanent.

I gotta tell you, Brad, the business tactics you have been trying to use may work in the deep, deep, Walmart goober south, but up here in the "we kicked the south's ass north" you will eventually just be blocked and ignored by EVERYBODY.

Just wait until Kevin Kern finds out how you have been lying to him, how you have already lost him three tenants, and he sees the letter you guys sent from supposedly "The Chamber". [page 1, page 2]

Of course, The Cupcake people have been gone for good for some time now, and I can't even remember the name of their business.

More about:
Connie Rose's Cupcake

It was one of the best Sugar Loaf Guild meetings ever.

I had the floor and was on a world class rant that was finally getting results.

Manon had already been pushed back on the couch and in the midst of an epileptic seizure.

Ada was just beginning to break into full blown Parkinson's tremors.

I was hot and I knew it, would not tone down, was not about to quit.

I had things to say.

Ada had just tried to stick up for Verrrrro saying, "But that is not the Veronica I have seen; plus I'm starting to get tremors; we can finish this later."

"No," I blurted, "you have to look at this one thing, then I will let you guys go."

I rushed into my new Passion Play performance in which I mimic what Veronica did to me after I showed Brad how to be successful in Sugar Loaf by making something by hand.

Apparently writing about it is not enough; people have to be shown.

In article 7386 I wrote:

She turned on me (not full face but curved over her shoulder like a serpent), she squinted her eyes, and growl spewed at me, "I heard you got to Brad," ... sneer.

I guess you had to be there, or see it reenacted, because the words do not do it justice.

I'm not sure if Manon saw the performance because she was already spasming over by herself on the couch after she read the letter, went down the list on page 2 saying, "They were not at the meeting, they were not, they were not ... this isn't right!" [page 1, page 2]

Her eyes began to roll back in her head and she casually continued, "I am an epileptic and I am about to have a seizure," which she promptly did.

I had no idea she was epileptic, so it was like somebody saying, "Oh, by the way, I am a nuclear bomb, and you have made me nervous, so I will be going off in 5, 4, 3, 2 ..."

I panicked appropriately and thought, "Ada has Parkinson’s; maybe she'll know what to do; 911 will probably cost a lot of money; I have to get out of here," and I ran barefoot across the street to get Ada while Mary sat with Manon.

Ada came running back best she could (dragging her by the arm helped), and Manon's seizures were abating by then, so I started in on Ada, "Really Ada, you have no idea who those people are. Look at this letter."

She was a little too calm about it (the tyranny of nice), so I had to perform my new one act play with my rendition of Veronica as the star ... a first for her in a significant work.

Both Manon and Ada seemed still skeptical as they were leaving, but after Mary walked Manon home and got to see the massive effort she has been putting into recording the accounts for the Chamber of Commerce, and Ada told Doug what she saw, and Doug promptly tracked down Brad and told him to take their name off that letter ... I realized the worm has turned!

After countless people have merely yessed Mary and me while taking the Veronica and Brad problem with a grain of salt, these two people (three if you count Doug) beset by illness, struggling to say anything at all when shown the facts, actually stood up and fought back.

What wonderful people.

Finally Mary and I have found the real heroes in town and realize we are surrounded by greatness.

Not surprisingly they are artists!

You have no power here ...

Thanks for writing that letter guys. [page 1, page 2]

Peter Von Uchtrup, owner of 18th Century Furniture, dropped by the Endico studio for a visit, and I shoved the despicable letter from the "Sugar Loaf Canker of Commerce" in front of him and had him read it. [page 1, page 2]

I did not mention that he was a signatory of the letter until after he read a few lines interjecting, "What!? No ... no way! That is just stupid."

After a few of those he said, "Well, I've read enough of that, it is totally wrong."

I said, "You'd better read it," and I flipped to the second page to point out his business name signed-on as in favor of it.

"No way," he said, "this is the first I have seen of it. That is just a list of the members."

"No, Peter, there are some very significant names missing from this list, and let me tell you this, that first line of the letter is a total bald face lie. They never spoke to our attorney ... not even close."

Then I pointed out the use of the Sugar Loaf Chamber of Commerce logo, and the signature of the President of the Chamber, and he said, "Well, I don't get involved. I just pay my dues and stay out of it."

Then I pointed to the Sugar Loaf Chamber of Commerce logo on the sign in his hand and said, "But by helping these people you are involved."

The tyranny of nice.

Time to wake up people; Veronica and Brad are maybe the worst that have ever been here.

And do not for a moment buy their little good cop, bad cop scheme.

Veronica is driving that boat, absolutely positively, and straight toward the reefs.

Update to the update: Soon after Peter's visit we went through basically the exact same thing with two more Canker members who had basically the same response.

We did get to give them specific information about what Veronica and Brad have been doing, their position with regard to business in Sugar Loaf, but the moment the two of them tried to blame it all on Brad, we got to explain how Brad isn't even close to being in charge.

Only doing what he is told.

We did such a good job of explaining it, we triggered two separate people's seizures.

You have no power here ...

Dear Brad and Veronica,

These intimidation tactics will never work.

People in this town talk to each other, in person, one on one, in real life ... the best are never (or very rarely) online.

I will never ever never stop coming after you in this Forum until the Chamber of Commerce is run professionally like a true organization having:

1) a process
2) accountability
3) transparency

Making that happen is your only hope.

It is not so hard to do.

Otherwise stop misrepresenting youselves as a Chamber of Commerce and just start calling it an advertising group, like it has been for the last 20 years.

Once again, simple fix:

1) a process
2) accountability
3) transparency

Just saying it is, doesn't make it is.

Most sincerely,
the unbowed,
uncowed,
unbroken,
Bob Fugett

I was adding new sponsor names acquired through a contact list provided by the Sugar Loaf Chamber of Commerce via Verrrrrro and Brad Middleton when I came across a problem.

I am certain the Barnsider never asked to be on the list (just another Veronica lie), and it reminded me of a specific example to expand on "The Tyranny of Nice" article.

The other day Clay Boone was sitting over in front of the Barnsider listening to Walter's age old song about how Sugar Loaf is finished as an artist's village, how it will never be that again.

I am saying it has been Walter's age old song because he was singing that sad refrain the very first day Mary and I got here in 1976.

Walter has never given a shit about the artists in town.

Of course Clay was too nice to tell Walter that he was delaying his hunting trip to Wyoming this year because he is backed up with custom orders.

That reminded me of one of the things that got the Sugar Loaf Guild fired up again.

Walter had stopped by the Endico Studio a couple years ago, after his long absence (read: disassociation from Sugar Loaf) in Montana, and told Mary that he was back and was putting together a new group that Clay had signed onto.

I told Mary, "Shit! If Clay is in, it is real, so we should get going on something as quickly as possible."

I began the Sugar Loaf Guild website immediately, but when we talked to Clay about it he said, "Oh, Walter's nonsense. I just gave him a $100 to get rid of him, and I did it with cash, so he couldn't flash my check under people's noses and use my name."

I said, "Well, he used your name anyway."

So I understand what probably happened with the Barnsider being on that sickeningly stupid letter.

[page 1, page 2, just in case you have missed seeing who those people really are]

Walter has been talking to Veronica, and she is pretty much an idiot, so she assumed he still has something to do with the Barnsider.

Plus, more than just being an idiot, she is also a con artist so always struggles with the truth.

In any case, Matt is the owner of the Barnsider (not Walter), and when I was manning the Sugar Loaf Welcome Center from the Romers' Alley porch, Matt said, "Bob, it gives me hope to see you over here on this porch!"

Once again, Matt is the owner of the Barnsider, not Walter.

Matt is a good friend, and an avowed fan of the actual art businesses in Sugar Loaf (and the Sugar Loaf Guild) because he knows his business depends on them.

I also did some editing of the Barnsider's new placemats (for free).

They don't want me representing them?

Are you shitting me?

Well, yes, in fact you are.

The Barnsider is only paying Chamber dues to be nice and keep you people out of the way.

It just highlights how bad it is to be too nice — not to mention how bad it is allowing somebody into a pretend "position of authority" (way over their head) without adequate background checks.

[page 1, page 2, just in case you have missed seeing who those people really are]

Click, please!

Heads up: Brad Middleton is about to receive a time out for bad behavior.

Sometime in the next couple days I am going to block one of his devices from reading the Sugar Loaf Guild website.

Not sure which one yet, probably his home computer.

I just wanted to get the notification out, so he can prepare to be disappointed while missing out on the new events; no, I guess leaving the Sugar Loaf Guild website open to his other devices will keep him from freaking the fuck out (people miss it too much if they cannot read it).

In any case, fair warning.

Timeout coming for Brad and Verrrrrro.

They have been watching far too much TV and believe the crap they see on it is the way the real world works.

Here, Brad, learn to read, and read these true stories from the real world quick before your timeout gets here:

The Bodhi Tree

The Marketplace
at Sugar Loaf Square

The Man Cave
(of La Mancha)

Colláge

Barnsider Tavern

Bertoni Gallery

Rosner Soap

Exposures Gallery

Sundog Stained Glass

The Bodhi Tree

Be sure to tell each of our fine sponsors you read about them here!

Bob apologizes for the commercial content.

To understand why this has to be, see below: Article 7379.

Financial arrangements with our sponsors are subject to non-disclosure agreements.

Many of our sponsors prefer to remain under the radar of those who would snipe at them for supporting the truth.

Sponsors are not responsible for content, in fact they have absolutely no control over it (couldn't control it if they tried, a proven fact; some of them do not like the word "motherfucker", too bad).

In order to be included in the sponsorship program, please make arrangements with the Endico studio via our lawyer, Dan Bloom (tell him you are paying for the consultation).

It ain't cheap.

Never pretend to have talked to Dan when you have not (page 1).

Never pretend our sponsors are pissed-off at us when they are not (page 2).

People have been asking me how the current wretched state of the Sugar Loaf Chamber of Commerce came about.

In large part it happened because of people being too nice and not sticking up for their true beliefs and values.

When it becomes a sin to point out folly, folly will abound.

This wretched Chamber of Commerce, a pseudo-organization with no process, no accountability, and no transparency, could never have happened if all the people who hate their actions would come forward, stop giving them money, and stop saying, "Well, the group wants it, and I want to do my part, so I am paying for a membership despite disagreeing with every thing the Chamber stands for."

Of course the solid Sugar Loaf businesses generally never bother with them.

Do a head count survey of who is NOT on their brochure, and add to that count the number of people who disallowed using their names on that despicable letter (page 1, page 2).

Generally only the weak or on the cusp businesses will give them the time of day.

There are exceptions to that rule, but those fall squarely into the "I just want to be nice" category.

Dangerous stuff: being nice no matter what.

Otherwise, the root of the Chamber fiasco goes back a few years.

Get ready for names to be named.

Over the last 20 years the Chamber devolved into a once or twice a year kabal type meeting of 2 or 3 people tops (though more were handing them money) where only the festivals were discussed: no minutes, no voting process, no accounts recorded.

That left the organization without so much as an official charter ... lost it through negligence.

At the center of this mess was their long standing President, Kiki Rosner, who is one of the nastiest most damaged individuals you could hope to meet.

Or as Peter Von Uchtrup so eloquently put it day before yesterday, "Kiki has issues."

That character flaw is not such a big deal, but it is certainly inappropriate for the head of a community organization which is tasked to improve town relations, not destroy them.

However, here is the bottom line with Kiki.

Although she is as aggravating as a person can be, there is one thing to keep in mind with Kiki.

Kiki Rosner may be tedious, but she is NOT a crook.

I went out of my way to confirm this with Christine Louvet (Kiki's once and long time friend), before Christine went back to France.

I had not talked to Christine for the first 15 years she was in Sugar Loaf (thinking she was a Kiki clone), but when I found out she had also not spoken to Kiki in that time, I knew I had to make sure there was not something more sinister under Kiki's dysfunction that I had missed, and I had to do it quickly before Christine was gone.

Christine confirmed she merely had a falling out with Kiki, but basically still respected her, missed her, and came to tears while explaining.

So ... Kiki Rosner may be tedious, but she is NOT a crook.

Except she left the Chamber in a severely weakened state, ripe for a hostile takeover.

Compared to Kiki, the person replacing her as Chamber President is something else altogether.

Veronica gives every appearance of being a scam artist, grifter, hustler, and I even have a suspicion she is an Irish Traveler or something similar (we are still working on a background check).

Brad may or may not be aware of it, and may or may not be on board with it.

I have personally caught Verrrro in several lies, plus there is this one incident that still gives me shivers.

When I started working on the Sugar Loaf Guild website and initiatives, I found Bodhi Tree as a new business in Romers' Alley.

My knee jerk reaction (when I venture out of my hole) is always to try to help new businesses in Sugar Loaf thrive, so I was pointing out to Brad how "making something of quality" is the secret of success in Sugar Loaf.

At first he was skeptical, but I convinced him to start making something minor (anything) and presenting it to the crowds in the outside shows they were attending as vendors.

One of the things they were selling was a small wire frame tree with tiny crystals as branch ends, and they came compressed in a tube but could be opened and spread out into a tree shape once free of the tube.

Brad promised he would try pre-opening and arranging a couple at their next show.

The next time I saw Brad, he had tried it and was ecstatic: "Bob, you wouldn't believe it. People loved them. And when I offered to fold them back into the tube after the sale, people always said, 'NO ... I want it just the way you did it!' People love seeing things made by somebody they've just met. Thanks, thanks, thanks."

So I thought that was set, we were off to the races, and Sugar Loaf had a new artist.

The next morning I was coming into Bodhi Tree just as Veronica was inside walking away from the door.

She turned on me (not full face but curved over her shoulder like a serpent), she squinted her eyes, and growl spewed at me, "I heard you got to Brad," ... sneer.

I almost jumped back a yard thinking, "Where the fuck did that come from? I only told Brad how to make certain, steady, profitable money in Sugar Loaf. I gave him 40 years of advice in a second. What the hell was that all about? ... 'Got to him!'"

And that volcanic look of pure evil hatred.

Whew!

Thus began my less naive more studied review of the situation, and the more I see the worser it looks.

I think Veronica (or whatever her real name is) knew right away that I was the one person in town who was not going to buy her bullshit, and I would demand accountability, so she started her campaign of personal attacks against me (and Mary), often using her meat puppet Brad.

Remember the nasty letter? (page 1, page 2)

Don't forget, her whole shtick is peace, love, and understanding.

I think she must have done this to other towns ... it has been too precise.

Excuse me, but I am shuddering again.

The Bodhi Tree

Bertoni Gallery

Rosner Soap

Exposures Gallery

Sundog Stained Glass

The Bodhi Tree

Be sure to tell each of our fine sponsors you read about them here!

Bob apologizes for the commercial content.

To understand why this has to be, see below: Article 7379.

Financial arrangements with our sponsors are subject to non-disclosure agreements.

Many of our sponsors prefer to remain under the radar of those who would snipe at them for supporting the truth.

Sponsors are not responsible for content, in fact they have absolutely no control over it (couldn't control it if they tried, a proven fact; some of them do not like the word "motherfucker", too bad).

In order to be included in the sponsorship program, please make arrangements with the Endico studio via our lawyer, Dan Bloom (tell him you are paying for the consultation).

It ain't cheap.

Never pretend to have talked to Dan when you have not (page 1).

Never pretend our sponsors are pissed-off at us when they are not (page 2).

Walmart style terrorist intimidation fear tactics that work well in the ignorant cracker deep south just don't fly up here, where we's hads us some book larnin'.

In case you were wondering, this is who those people are:

Bodhi Tree
Bullshit Letter
p. 1

Bodhi Tree
Bullshit Letter
p. 2

I must thank them for clearing this up because when we were told that Brad Middleton phoned the Chester Historical Society trying to get the link to the Sugar Loaf Historical Museum removed using as his credentials "husband of the president of the Sugar Loaf Chamber of Commerce" both Cliff and I assumed it was probably Jay Westerveld Wright impersonating yet another person (Jay is known for that).

Nobody but Jay would be stupid enough to think such a thing could work.

Later I backed off my ire for Bodhi Tree because I realized all the negative input was coming from a single point source who proved they would not stick up for themselves or their statements when called on to do so.

Now I am certain that everything I was told about these charlatans was true, and it is clear that Jay Westerveld did not send us this letter because even Jay would not be flirting with a possible Federal prosecution for mail fraud.

How sweet it will be when we finally get this to a trial judge (maybe appeals judge) many very expensive years down the road when it will be revealed to these idiots that most of what they think I have done was actually Jay Westerveld Wright impersonating me and using my image.

Plus all the things I have done, though extremely aggravating to them, generally rude, and often vulgar has always been totally legal, non-actionable, and correct.

Funny stuff.

I am also certain these people never spoke to our lawyer who would have only told us to ignore the letter in any case.

That has always been Dan's response to bullshit, so I know for certain they sure as shit didn't pay him for any advice ... unless they truly are wasting Chamber money on a scale never before seen.

The Bodhi Tree

The Bodhi Tree

The Bodhi Tree

The Bodhi Tree

Be sure to tell each of our fine sponsors you read about them here!

Bob apologizes for the commercial content.

To understand why this has to be, see below: Article 7379.

As an aside: to the 23 other Sugar Loaf Chamber of Commerce members (yes, the majority) whose names were not on the letter, please be advised that those who are on it probably have no knowledge what it was their names were going to be placed on ... so hold them no malice.

Though in the counter lawsuit, I guess they will have to be named and prosecuted just to be sure.

Since the Chamber has no process, no accountability, and no transparency there is no way to determine who actually would be in favor of this nonsense waste of time letter.

Otherwise, go out of your way to thank Verrrrrrrro and Brad for this fine revelation of their true character.

If anybody still doesn't get it, there is this:

The Man
of La Mancha
Cave

I assume, Brad, this means that aside from your heavy TV viewing schedule you also saw the Superman movie and now also believe that a man can fly.

By the way, nobody should let Verrrrrrrro off the hook on this one: Brad only does what his boss tells him to do.

He told me months ago that he already saw Sugar Loaf was not right for their business, but Veronica (Verrrrro, whatever) wanted to be here, so he was stuck.

Maybe that is why he is always so pissed off.

Good thing he never heard how Veronica talked about him to her friend from Atlanta when they were setting up for a show in his absence.

Apparently, they have to do all the setup for him, or he is totally lost.

I know how Brad feels about being stuck here because I almost had Mary convinced to leave, but now she is screaming, "NOW WE HAVE TO STAY AND FIGHT FOR OUR RIGHTS ... AND EVERYBODY'S RIGHTS!"

Now you've done it; now you've really done it!

All you people and your nonsense made me write this stuff.

I didn't want to, but you made it impossible to avoid, and it has finally come to no good.

Motherfu ... mother ... muh, ok later.

Screw the sponsors.

I didn't want to do it, but you made me do it, and because of you people the flop is now slappin', sloshin', spinnin', and spewin' through the fan.

Thanks for the noise.

I knew none of you would get the distinction between Neighborhood Business District versus Neighborhood Shopping Center.

You've been oblivious to that for years.

Idiots.

But somebody outside of town got it, and they are now harassing us in ways that never could have happened if they were not reading here.

They used this forum to help track down Peg Conner's true identity.

Oh, why oh why, did I have to write this stuff!?

You dumbasses made me do it; that's why.

Here's the comment that was posted on Mary's (as Peg Conner) Facebook page after she linked to yesterday's article:

So there you go.

I hope all of you local Sugar Loaf dufuses noticed the statement about the move for Neighborhood Shopping Centers to mimic Neighborhood Business Districts.

That gets us into the ballpark for understanding even Neighborhood Business Districts are trying to mimic what Sugar Loaf has always had ... living, breathing, working, successful, independent artsts!

Here's an idea: how about the Chamber throwing all that away while trying to mimic Shopping Centers; oh sorry, that's right, they are already doing just that, barely a decade behind and on the wrong side of the curve.

All that aside, the next thing to come out of this person's mouth (text) was a proposal for Mary to paint a custom watercolor for her, and that is where we get into deep trouble.

"If this is something that would interest you, would love to discuss."

Now you've got your trouble, as this constitutes an "uva" painting which type of painting Mary has done maybe three times in her career.

The term "uva" was coined by Stan Ehrenberg to explain a wide range of his phtotographs which he kept in stock specifically to satisfy customers who asked for a photograph "of a cat", "of a dog", "of a bridge", etc.

You know, an "uva" photograph.

Generally Mary will not consider doing work from somebody else's photograph, rarely even from her own photograph (paints right out of her head), and she never allows somebody to suggest the subject matter.

She will match colors all day long, and if you like one of her paintings but need a color shift, different size, ok, no problem, she'll do similar.

But touch the composition or embodied concept ... forget about it ... except for a few special customers.

She may do it after a lot of soul searching and inquisition of the buyer, and she has only been burnt once (by somebody currently sitting on the Sugar Loaf Chamber board), but that was when she was sick on chemo, didn't screen correctly, and just wanted to get them out of the studio.

Anyhoo, the problem is that the person asking for this new custom painting supported Mary when she needed help in regard to copyright infringement issues with some of her dog photos on Facebook ... they went to bat for her, helped complain to Facebook, and pointed her toward some great resources that resolved the issue.

So there you have it: Mary will have to do the job if possible.

There is also a little matter that most people in Sugar Loaf will not have considered at all.

You should have noticed that this person read one of my articles, and read closely enough to be able to contribute.

That means they are: smart, and educated.

A little known fact (certainly for Loafers) is that smart educated people are the new wealthy.

They have money when nobody else has a cent; they are RICH BITCH!

Unfortunately, our policy does not allow using Facebook for financial gain, so their money is no good here.

Thanks a lot, Sugar Loaf losers, for leading me into an untenable position.

There is an up side: when we gift them this special one of a kind priceless Endico painting, they are going to talk about it like there is no tomorrow.

Did I mention they are smart, educated, therefore RICH BITCH, and so too will be their friends?

All you scumbags who are scrambling for the next grant application hand-out, focused on squeezing every little penny out of every single visitor, will never understand the value of giving away something like this as an act of explosive goodwill!

So ... fuck you very much, motherfuckers.

Contract fulfilled.

[ Follow-up: Christiane loved the painting; her father loves it, and she catches him staring at in reverie, but she would not accept it as a gift, so Mary took the money and immediately regifted it to the Warwick Humane Society in Christiane's name via doggie treats from Diva Dog in Warwick who matched the donation bringing it up to a $700 net gain for the Warwick Humane Society. Case closed ... but for the next chapter see: Open Letter to Christiane Groth re: Barnsider Restaurant ]

The Bodhi Tree

Bertoni Gallery

Bee Positive

Sundog Stained Glass

Be sure to tell each of our fine sponsors you read about them here!

Bob apologizes for the commercial content.

To understand why this has to be, see below: Article 7379.

The sponsors loved this article so very, very much they read every word and immediately sponsored it again!

This article sponsored by:

The Bodhi Tree

Bertoni Gallery

Bee Positive

Sundog Stained Glass

Be sure to tell each of our fine sponsors you read about them here!

Bob apologizes for the commercial content.

To understand why this has to be, see below: Article 7379.

And the sponsors got so fucking excited over this article, they sponsored it a third time!

This article sponsored by:

The Bodhi Tree

Bertoni Gallery

Bee Positive

Sundog Stained Glass

Be sure to tell each of our fine sponsors you read about them here!

Bob apologizes for the commercial content.

To understand why this has to be, see below: Article 7379.

This sure is some goddamn expensive advertising space these sponsors are burning through ... can't blame them much.

Well here's your problem ... actually two, or really three I guess.

The first problem is that this discussion is going to be technical and boring, so that's it for my readers because not one of them is smart enough to follow along.

Ok, maybe some of the people away from Sugar Loaf are smart enough to get it, but due to the fact this is going to be extremely Sugar Loaf centric, outsiders are unlikely to be motivated to engage the mental effort that will be required.

The next problem is that this should be prefaced by the article Mary sent me about one of the places we were considering as the next location for the Endico Studio.

Unfortunately, if I link to it people will click on it, find it too long, glaze over and forget to come back for the punchline here.

The punchline is a concise description of the massive error currently being made with Sugar Loaf promotions.

To be kind it is not the fault of the people doing it because they are dumb as dirt and do not have nearly the intellectual tools necesssary to understand their giant fuck-up, much less being able to keep up with the following discussion which will reveal their error in high contrast technicolor.

I'll make things easier by summarizing the article Mary sent.

It was about how Asheville, NC has gone to shit in a hand basket.

The intense arts revitalization of the 1990's has given way to an over popularization so extreme it is now impossible to tell the buskers (street musicians) from homeless full out vagrant beggars.

The solid creative artistic businesses that built Asheville's popularity are now smothered beneath the results of their own promotional prowess.

Of course I could point out a dozen reasons the same thing can never happen to Sugar Loaf based on insurmountable realities of Sugar Loaf's location, physical infrastructure, and surrounding (plus integral) geography, but that would be far beyond any possible understanding of the people (in Sugar Loaf) who will read this.

More importantly it would do nothing to assuage Mary's and my own guilt over having been instrumental in the meteoric rise and ultimate decline of Asheville's economic revival in the arts over the last two decades.

Ok, Mary has had one of her watercolors in the permanent collection of the Asheville Art Museum since 1993, and now another in the permanent collection of the Chester Historical Society for about a month, but the physical realities of Sugar Loaf are far different from Asheville, so it is unlikely Mary and I will screw up this place too.

MOTHERFUCKERS!

Sorry, but the sponsors are making me throw that word in every so often.

In any case, the totally moronic, doomed to failure, current promotions will also keep a lid on Sugar Loaf's popularity.

Therefore we are not worried about repeating the Asheville experience here and are only glad we resisted dropping Sugar Loaf to move to Asheville after I remarked on the street there in '93, "Mary look around you. This place is starting to feel like an early Sugar Loaf, maybe instead of just donating a painting we should give them our presence and move here."

Fortunately we didn't move there.

Unfortunately the cachet of the Endico painting did the job without us.

Happily, there is no danger Sugar Loaf is going down the same path (even with us here) because of the things I mentioned previously plus the fact current hamlet promotions are being handled so stupidly, it will take years for the hamlet to recover even back to the state it was before the present fiasco.

These brain-dead morons are promoting the wrong thing, and it is a thing that doesn't even exist here, never did, never will.

I ran across a clear explanation while reviewing the Master Plan maps for a town we are likely to move to.

I told you this was going to be boring.

I was trying to confirm we can run a business out of this cutest of all cute little historic houses in the sweetest of all sweet little immaculate residential neighborhoods of similar houses only a block off main street, hopefully without drug zombies.

One should never trust a real estate agent's assessment of such things, so I reviewed the official documents and confirmed the house is in Zone NB (Neghborhood Business District) and when I looked up the definition I came across a discussion of Neighborhood Business District vs Neighborhood Shopping Center which really did a great job of describing how the brain-dead Chamber of Commerce is totally making a mess of things by promoting Sugar Loaf as a Shopping Center instead of what it is, a Business Neghborhood.

I have harped on this previously without knowing the terms.

The dumbshit retards who are perpetrating this travesty actually believe they can change about a thousand immutable realities of Sugar Loaf just to quench their fart breath pride.

Fuck it.

None of them will have read to here in this article, but that is not going to stop me from linking the article that each one of them should read as they load the heavy charge to fire into their foot.

Bonus link: Asheville Buskers.

The Bodhi Tree

Bertoni Gallery

Bee Positive

Sundog Stained Glass

Be sure to tell each of our fine sponsors you read about them here!

Bob apologizes for the commercial content.

To understand why this has to be, see below: Article 7379.

The sponsors loved this article so very, very much they read every word and immediately sponsored it again!

This article sponsored by:

The Bodhi Tree

Bertoni Gallery

Bee Positive

Sundog Stained Glass

Be sure to tell each of our fine sponsors you read about them here!

Bob apologizes for the commercial content.

To understand why this has to be, see below: Article 7379.

My apologies to our fine sponsors, but I decided to begin this article with the word "motherfucker" instead of ending it with the word "motherfuckers".

I am doing that because this article is about my own process instead of the process of everybody else around me.

Suffice it to say, Mary and I are NO LONGER making enough money selling to Sugar Loaf visitor foot traffic to stay here anymore.

However, we have skills and options, so the basic plan was to pack up, let the studio grounds go to shit, and hit the road laughing.

Except in typical Bob fashion my answer to saving money was to come up with new ways to spend money.

Using our proprietary project management system (programmed it myself), we got so much done yesterday I almost went broke just thinking about it.

But I am feeling so much better about the future, who cares?

Mary talked to another real estate agent about a different property in the south, and confirmed with our own buyer's agent it is ok for us to web search properties and talk to other agents, then she'll swoop in and help us with the closing.

Sweet!

After that we started setting up an employee who will open the studio when needed (as our customers contact us in the south) but have them come to Sugar Loaf by appointment only to pick up their booty (read: Endico paintings).

That way we will not have to continue adding to the coffers of those who would just as soon spit on us as give us a civil word.

Plus we still get to close off the parking lot, let the studio grounds go to shit, and stop paying our taxes.

Sweeter!

Then after Mary was complaining we had no idea who to get to fix up the truck for a road trip (big-ol' vintage Ford diesel, specialty service, pimp my truck sort of stuff), I shouted, "I've got it. You know that little car show that happens in Pine Bush at the ice cream shop every Tuesday evening!?"

"Yes ... "

"We'll go up there, and I'll park the truck right in the middle of it, open the hood like it's part of the show, and when people gather around to see what the joke is all about, somebody there is going to know where we can get it fixed-up like their vintage race cars, etc."

That's just what we did; lots of fun.

With the Internet returning nothing but piles of bullshit Yelp, Facebook, and Twitter reviews when you try to find something, you can't beat real world contacts for tracking down somebody who actually knows something about doing something.

Sweeter still!

And sometime during all the activity yesterday (this has been just a summary), Mary remembered somebody had come in a while back and offered to replace the seats in our truck in trade for a painting.

She called them up, and they will be here Sunday or Monday.

Sweetest of all!!!!

Adios, muchachos, and ...

Screw the sponsors, I'm not doing it.

The Bodhi Tree

Bertoni Gallery

Bee Positive

Sundog Stained Glass

Be sure to tell each of our fine sponsors you read about them here!

Bob apologizes for the commercial content.

To understand why this has to be, see below: Article 7379.

From: Bob Fugett
To: Mary Endico

I posted an update to the top article in the Forum with a new quick checklist for town problems to be addressed after the Canker of Commerce gets its shit together.

Otherwise, your bare bones overhead to keep this property is currently only $11,000 per year (your taxes) and not even that — if you stop paying your taxes for 10 years until they threaten you with back taxes.

I would say an empty decayed shell and overgrown yard is a better legacy than allowing the vultures who fucked you to immediately profit from your leaving and selling the house.

Do a spreadsheet for how long you can survive in the south trying to kickstart another location with an adjusted business plan (zero income/outlay here) providing a rational hope of becoming solvent again.

Compare that to how bad you can allow things to get here before you have no choice but to stay, and still have to stop paying your taxes, and still lose the house while going into full subsidy.

Then relax.

You might make another sale or two like Sunday.

But at this point I would deem all painting sales a stop gap, no longer your primary solution ... given the recent activities of the so-called Chamber of Commerce and the rest of the local drugged out zombies. 

How long do you want to stay here being the only person maintaining their own property and business while watching your surroundings going to shit for obvious reasons that you are only castigated for pointing out?

You do realize that not one single person has offered to help us in any significant way to make Sugar Loaf a better place for the arts, right?

They are all living lives of subsidized drunken bliss.

The open road is calling. -b

The Bodhi Tree

Bertoni Gallery

Bee Positive

Sundog Stained Glass

Be sure to tell each of our fine sponsors you read about them here!

Bob apologizes for the commercial content.

To understand why this has to be, see below: Article 7379.

Both the County and Town have been onsite to review our plans, and both have given the go-ahead for us to rope off and shut down the Endico Studio front parking lot, which will allow us to back off our liability insurance in order to get the truck road worthy for the trip south.

Our North Carolina real estate agent has lined up some live/work properties for us to look at, and our New York agent has started helping us with our plans to return the Sugar Loaf facility to residential.

We are forthwith ending maintenance on the Endico Sugar Loaf Studio building (after a fence tweak next week) and the money we save is going toward the new Endico South facility.

A mailing will be going out to alert our customers, so they can divert future travel plans.

It is an amazing energy boost that comes from a wholesale retooling of business plans.

The appropriate people have gotten their notifications with regard to contacting our lawyer, so we will be saving a lot of time and energy not having to "work" with the locals.

Exciting times for skilled and mobile artists about to be fleeing the zombies and blight.

I'm still going to be glad to see that parking lot liability and snow plowing bill disappear, though.

We've always done a good job of keeping the extraneous cars out of the lot, so I'm sure nobody will even notice it is gone.

Once in a while something so special happens to one of the Sugar Loaf Guild Members that it goes well beyond all hopes, dreams, and expectations.

That is just what happened to Mary Endico this week.

First a little background.

In the world of true historians (that is to say among people with actual credentials and advanced degrees in the field), one of the most sought after items are first hand accounts of historic events penned directly by people who were there to witness them.

Technically this is called first hand primary source material, and in real terms it is how all true histories are formed.

For example, would you like to hear about the American Civil War through reading official government propaganda documents of the time (from either side), or a first hand account written by a slave who was forced into service by conscription?

Would you prefer the memoirs written by a general's ghost writers, or a soldier's recounting of hand-to-hand combat and loss of comrades?

Of course all have merit, but for the true historian finding a first hand account is an immeasurable treasure.

Therefore, it should come as no surprise that the Chester Historical Society found the stories and articles published on the Sugar Loaf Guild website worthy of special mention on their page about Sugar Loaf History.

Moreover, it should also come as no surprise to anybody familiar with the Sugar Loaf Guild history, that the Chester Historical Society has made a loan from their permanent archives to the Chester Public Library allowing them to place on display an Endico haute conduite watercolor.

For Mary this is a pinnacle event because she understands full well that the true measure of an artist's success is the impact she has directly on the local community and the people closest to her where she has spent a lifetime working, and she understands the priceless value of the reception she receives from local people who are in the know and on top of their game ... such as defines those who frequent the Chester Town Library to learn of their past and prepare for their future.

Room shot of Endico
haute conduite watercolor
in Chester Public Library

Notice the watercolor is hung in the Teen section where budding scholars are just beginning to feel the power and potential that reading and study holds for them.

Close up
haute conduite watercolor
in Chester Public Library

Notice also that the watercolor is a highlight adjacent to the New Teen Fiction section!

This is where the future leaders of industry are getting their start, and the inspiration provided by a museum caliber original work of fine art viewed first hand up-close is going to be a major boost for local young people.

Descriptive plaque
in Chester Public Library

The descriptive plaque reads:

The full story of Bob and Mary's wonderful life in Chester (Sugar Loaf) can be found online at: SugarLoafGuild.org and Endico.com

You can't.

You have to earn the opportunity through years of consistent community service plus an almost fiduciary trust with your neighbors.

Bob and Mary,

An unassuming man:

Albert P. Schatz ("Al" or “Dampa”), Realtor Emeritus, passed away peacefully at 10:15 PM Saturday 4/18/15 in his own home. He was 98.

There are few people in this country who did not benefit from his work in two fields.

Earlier in life, he worked in production on the films Gunga Din, Stagecoach, Wuthering Heights, Gone with the Wind and Robin Hood, some of the top movies of all time, and along with much else, he worked with the March of Dimes and the Nobel Prize dinners.

Later, as a decorated President of the Westchester County Board of Realtors and Life Member of the Realtors Political Action Committee, he worked closely with US Representative Hamilton Fish on the Fair Housing Amendments Act and to preserve our mortgage and property tax deductions. The legislative advocacy award of the Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors was named after him and he was its first recipient.

He and his late wife Liz were given the only Lifetime Achievement Award given by the Westchester County Board of Realtors.

Locally, he and Liz received the Steven A. Galef Public Service Award and the Dominican Sisters of the Sick Poor’s first Dr. Joseph A. Cimino Community Service Award. He was a president of the Greater Ossining Chamber of Commerce, early supporter of Ossining Open Door and founding member of IFCA, among many other things.

An unassuming man, he did not do these things for money or recognition, he did them because it was the right thing to do. He spent lots of time with his family and he and Liz succeeded in their goal of, as he put it, creating great memories.

He is survived by his sons and grandchildren.

A memorial gathering celebrating his life will be held starting at 1:00PM on Saturday.

When one's introduction to the New York art, music, and literary scene — as well as the world's film industry — is through an association with somebody the stature of Al, it becomes very easy to distinguish the real-deal from the wannabees and scammers.

Al's wife Liz was of equal stature, and they both had a significant effect on me and my success in life afterwards.

Take it from me, people who are truly involved and successful in the arts are different, and unless you actually get close to one, you are unlikely to ever understand that difference.

Al once told me that a talented artist will only fail as a result of their own self destructive behavior; otherwise they always succeed.

I thought the statement overly harsh at the time, but in the years since, I have come to recognize it as simple truth.

As an aside, I never viewed Al as being so greatly unassuming but rather he rightly assumed his understanding of the world was correct, and if somebody just didn't get-it there was not much sense in forcing the issue.

Another truth I have understood over time.

Al Schatz

Liz Schatz

And no, Liz was not "done up" for the photo; she looked just exactly like that every day of her life (far as I know).

Al once said to his son, Eric, referring to Liz, "I got the best of my generation. Go see what you can do."

Whereas I might take some slight issue with Al being termed an unassuming man, he and Liz sure as shit created great memories.

Twenty-one days and counting.

Isn't it great to have friends in high places to counterbalance the high friendless faces?

I just got back from Europe.

I went with one of my close college friends (who lives in Brazil but has an apartment in Manhattan) to help her look for a place in Portugal, so I didn't have to pay for lodging, only for the plane fare.

I went to Portugal, France, and Italy, and saw lots of places I had only read about.

While I was away I allowed a new neighbor (in the condo I moved to four months ago) use of my apartment while her own was being renovated.

When I came home I found that my "tenant" (who stayed for free) had changed the sheets on my bed, washed and folded all the clothes I left in my hamper, paid to have her own cleaning service come in and clean my apartment, and on my kitchen table she left an orchid with a thank you note.

I feel compelled to repeat it once more: "You and Mary are living in an urban ghetto that just doesn't look like one. Get out of there ASAP!"

People in Sugar Loaf whom we have known for a quarter century, I wouldn't let drive my car in an emergency.

Still, it is hard for us coming to the realization that the people we can trust the least are our own neighbors.

Things used to be quite the opposite.

Mary broke down in tears yesterday after a long time real estate agent friend in the Carolinas called her back with house options.

I have never seen Mary like that, except the time Sharon Giannino was killed on a bike ride.

Mary broke down the moment I showed up when she phoned to tell me, and I rushed to help.

After yesterday's incident she said to me, "It is just that we have been under so much stress from the people around us (finally being lied to by that artiste), so hearing from someone I can actually trust like Tulip with a lead on a great live/work house far away from Sugar Loaf opened the floodgates ... also thank heavens for my customers who will follow me."

So, Corinne, we are working on getting out, but it has been hard to accept how pervasive the drug and alcohol abuse has gotten, and how intransigent the culture has become of profiting from the blight instead of working to remedy it.

In any case, thanks for the heads up and the story of hope.

Let's say we woke up one morning in the middle of Monticello, and took a hard look around us.

What would it take to convince us to risk it all, cut our losses, and just walk away?

What if without the hard look around (no squinting), Monticello looked almost exactly like Sugar Loaf?

Would we need Corinne to point out that our recent experiences prove we are surrounded by substance abuse and blight?

How much more would it take for us to understand the truth in what she says: "You two are living in an urban ghetto that just doesn't look like one."

What if we rope off the Sugar Loaf property to avoid liability, stop paying our taxes on it, stop throwing away so much money on maintenance, let it go back to seed and use the money we save to pay cash for the Ormond Beach property for use as a base camp in a new beginning?

What if you never ever again have to hear one of your thousands of collectors say, "What the fuck happened to Sugar Loaf ... all these shitty little trinket shoppes and nothing is open? Nobody lives here and makes anything of quality anymore."

What if I never ever again have to hear a local business owner (apparently drunk or drug induced) towering above me (after I just poured 22,000 of my own dollars plus a year and a half of my full-time volunteer effort into town advertising) screaming at me, "Don't fuck with me, boy; you fuck with me and I will FUCK you up!"

What if I never again have to turn away from such a scene into a throng of wasted zombie onlookers who tell me the whole thing was my fault because I asked a simple question?

Should we take another tour through Monticello this morning?

Monticello Blight

Lots of fancy new lights, sidewalks, flowers, trees.

Monticello Blight

No self sustaining businesses.

Monticello Blight

Block after block of empty storefronts.

Monticello Blight

The major industry: subsidy acquisition.

Monticello Blight

Filling out clever grant applications to get money for the starving artists and lots of pretty flowers pays well for the powers that be ... only.

Monticello Blight

Thank god, a theater and banners; prosperity is just around the corner!

All they need is a festival and they'll be set.

Or maybe a town brochure with no purpose other than to list the unopen shoppes paid for by out of town businesses and charities.

That done while the people who put it together get their beak wet, put a little sumpin' sumpin' in their own pocket, as the brochures themselves never rise to anything more than a gutter full of soggy confetti after the next rain.

[Confetti reference thanks to a tip from Connie Rose.]

More useful than our conquest of every possible variation on a Google search for Sugar Loaf, more productive than a million Facebook likes, more fruitful than endless discussions in a universe of Forum boards, has been the single inauspicious link provided free of charge and without prompting by longtime local resident and credentialed historian Clif Patrick:

I am also tired of having to step in and save Mary from being harassed by drunks.

Last time it was Walter screaming at Mary in her studio, and I came downstairs to escort him out, so this morning she knew enough to step the newest alcy outside (to keep them out of her space), but that only meant, after I heard things escalating and came down to help, I had to open the door to pull her out of the fire.

A whole lot of weird stuff is now making perfectly obvious sense.

Just smiling boisterous chatty people happy in the enjoyment of a common interest.

Very weird indeed.

Or maybe we've just been in Sugar Loaf too long pining for the old days and the same sort of people now gone.

I wonder if there is such a thing as an intervention for an entire community?

Did you know that for the old Sugar Loaf juried craft fairs (which helped to make us famous) there were no food vendors at all, and not a single restaurant or bar in town?

Just like the train exhibit those shows were put together by local volunteers, though for the full benefit of artists who came from as far away as California to enjoy their favorite (maybe not most lucrative) event of the year.

Now I have grown tired of watching people wince when I tell them I am from Sugar Loaf.

Wish there was such a thing — an intervention for an entire community.

Duty bound.

Anyhoo, yesterday when I was just about to get on my bicycle at the Heritage Trail, Clif Patrick (Town of Chester Historian, holder of the keys to the Chester Historical Society's digital archives, obsessively precise with historic records, etc, in other words one of the finest individuals on the planet), happened out into the parking lot and said, "I know you'll be working tomorrow during the opening, so would you like a preview? Lionel trains, don't ya know?"

"Shit, yeah!" and I put away my bike stuff and ran in for a look.

Due to the fact Clif is head of several focus groups and activity initiatives for numerous high functioning real deal organizations, I told him about our current problems with the Sugar Loaf Chamber of Commerce.

I gave him enough detail to hypnotize him with boredom, got him just short of an actual yawn when I mentioned the Chamber has absolutely no accountability.

Clif perked up and said, "Well, that's easy to fix. You just divide the accounting into three processes. One person receives the money, one person manages the accounting, and one person handles the banking. That way all three paper trails have to match, and you are set! Everybody checks everybody."

That sort of sounded like what Manon Von Uchtrup (new Guild President and new Treasurer for the Chamber) told me she is initiating, so I asked for a review to make sure I understood it.

Then I asked, "Ok, but what if some con artist waltzes into town, takes over the Presidency of the Chamber (because of weak leadership and lack of process), then goes off to numerous events all over the tri-state area (Sugar Loaf a low priority for them), tells people they are President of the Sugar Loaf Chamber of Commerce (look here on the letterhead, notice the names of Sugar Loaf businesses on our van, and check out the website), and they add, 'We are putting together money to help the poor starving artists. If you would like to contribute just make the check out to the Sugar Loaf Ch ... on second thought, it will just be easier for you to make the check out to me, but make sure you put 'For Sugar Loaf Artists' in the memo field to keep everything above board and correct.'

"What do you do then, Clif?"

A blank stare.

I thought better of mentioning Bitcoin.

I followed up, "The money would never make it into the process. Then what?"

Clif and Bob Held (listening in) said, "Eventually somebody would look to see where their money went and realize it never showed up."

I said, "Exactly! Just what I am trying to do. Make that realization happen sooner rather than later."

My favorite part was at the beginning of my rant when Bob Held (Keeper of the Trains) quipped, "Sugar Loaf has a Chamber of Commerce!?"

Exactly.

Bob has lived within 3 miles of Sugar Loaf for 20 years, but any person living in the center of Sugar Loaf for that long would have asked the same question.

By the way, I just checked this morning and that link from the Chester Historical Society to the Museum page is still up.

Kind of odd that one of the local charlatans never got around to calling up and complaining.

This is a war story about somebody who waded knee deep in the shit to protect us while doing the right thing.

I wish I could claim to be equally brave, but I must equivocate and begin with a disclaimer.

I will soon mention a person's name where my lawyer has specifically asked me not to in order for legal counsel to take care of a related problem with certainty and finality.

On the other hand, the hero of this story is our new Guild President, Manon Von Uchtrup (pronounced like "book" twice, so maybe say "Vah Nook Trup").

What Manon did was so brave, selfless, flawless, and helpful to us, I cannot allow it to pass without saying something and recording it.

Therefore, lawyers and consequences be damned, I must speak up and stand strong for Manon's action.

Most of you will have already heard, or read about it here, that Manon went to bat for us when the leadership of the Sugar Loaf Chamber of Commerce lied and slandered us during an official public meeting.

Think about that for a moment: the newest leadership of a local Chamber of Commerce (been in town part-time less than two years) maligning a 40 year community mainstay business!

Now think about this: as wonderful as it was for Manon to be the only person present to realize that what was being said was fabricated, and to refute it, this is not the act which won Manon the immediate title of Guild President.

Here is what did.

This is the hair-raising (really frightening) event which proved Manon's high character and personal fortitude forevermore.

It was during a conversation she was having with Jay Westerveld (Wright, or whatever) when he called her a bitch.

Manon's knee-jerk response, "Watch it!"

Jay retorted, "Why? You gonna tell your husband?"

Manon took a step forward snarling, "I don't need my husband. I can take care of you myself!"

Manon never had any trouble with Jay ever again.

Of the half dozen or so horrific stories I have heard about Jay (from real people, in the real world), Manon's was the first one I heard of Jay acting that way in direct contact with a human.

Of course he routinely engages in such activity online (under numerous aliases, my own name among them), and to such a degree I looked up terms regarding brainwashing and interrogation torture techniques in an attempt to quell Mary's fearful move toward calling the police on him.

I said, "See, Mary? Boilerplate, step for step process, copy/paste terrorist tactic. Any child could do it. You are supposed to feel isolated, disoriented, and scared; that is exactly his goal. You are supposed to be confused about it being a joke or not. He is supposed to seem randomly on your side then against you for no reason. It's classic. We studied it in college Psych 101 way back in 1968. Hold off calling the police."

But the more troubling situation of hearing about him doing the same sort of thing to a woman face to face, coupled with a few people's concerns that Jay actually might be violent, makes me think maybe Mary is correct, and it is time to call the cops.

Still, there is the fact that after Manon stuck up for herself, she never had a problem with Jay again, but with the specific language Jay used and the implications, what if he did that to somebody weaker?

It is unlikely that he has not.

In any case, what Manon did in sticking up for herself protected us all, so I had no choice but to write about it here.

That is how people protect each other.

Manon
Von Uchtrup
Guild President

P.S.: Manon, do us a favor, and if anybody asks, say you have never read anything about your being Guild President.

As for your question about the meaning of "quasi" (in the reference to the Sugar Loaf Chamber of Commerce as a quasi-organization), you may click on the link below:

I have provided the link in French for your convenience, but I believe the English usage of the term carries a slightly darker, more appropriately derogatory connotation.

As to your more general question on the specific implications of the Sugar Loaf Chamber of Commerce being a quasi-organization, I must begin by mentioning that the statement (as well as the entire Sugar Loaf Guild website taken as a whole) is a tautology, an irrefutable truism.

Here is a descriptive link:

I knew that you would want to review these terms because a sound foundational knowledge of the rudimentary metaphysics inclusive in such studies of philosophy and theistic inquiry (more broadly) is mandatory for someone in your position as Guild President.

In fact, understanding and being fully conversant of such organizational strategic constructs is essential for all positions of leadership and authority in any community organization.

I hope this review has not been too basic.

Otherwise, congratulations on your years of activism successfully establishing your reputation in Sugar Loaf and the fine reward your Presidency of the Guild provides.

- Bob Fugett

That mob in Baltimore even attacked the firefighters!

I myself saw the source and beginnings of a Sugar Loaf firestorm of blight, jumped in to help put it out early, and am still under attack.

Most recently the charlatans who took over the Chamber of Commerce used their group meeting as a bully pulpit to malign Mary's and my character, question our motives, and denigrate years of service to the hamlet.

Fortunately Manon Von Uchtrup was there to catch the ball and called them to task saying, "Wait a minute, I've never had any trouble with those two."

When Manon came by to check the facts, she was at first pretty hot based on what they had said (slander really), and when we explained what they are doing, she said, "No way. Why would they do that?"

Fortunately Mary has been keeping screen shots, etc of their underground hidden meetings, and Manon had to agree that what they have been doing is despicable.

Next time I see Manon, I have to show her the simple trick they will be using to avoid her accounting process and pocket the loot.

Those people are going to try everything they can to shut me up, because they recognize I am keeping a clear sober eye on them and will talk about it to anybody with an interest (face to face in the real world).

As long as there are people like Manon around, however, those con artists will have a hard time destroying us.

Impossible really.

You have no power here ...

Well, I hate to be the bearer of good news (for all the locals who will be giddy on hearing it), but Mary and I have had it, and she will be on the phone with a real estate agent near Atlanta in the morning.

We'll see if they can't get us out of here quicker than planned.

When you're beat you're beat.

It is time for us to admit defeat and hit the road.

Business this weekend SUCKED and was about as bad as it gets.

It was a great opportunity to put some pressure on Mary to close up shop, rent the house as residential, and focus on Endico South.

I mean with business so pitifully bad here, what have we got to lose?

We just can't get by anymore on the progressively meager earnings provided by business in Sugar Loaf.

Somebody did contact Mary to buy some more Oscar Cards.

Those are Mary's line-drawing note cards of our long ago cat, Oscar, preening; and the person has been using them for handwritten condolences to people who donate money in memory of a beloved cat to the TNR program in upper Manhattan.

They said people love them to the point of tears.

But things were going so bad in the studio, Mary decided to just donate the cards.

No money there.

Somebody else purchased a painting to donate for a benefit auction at Pets Alive, so there was that, but who can live on $600 sales?

We have actual bills to pay, and all this massive networking for cat/dog rescue doesn't pay them.

Also somebody bought this $2,000 dollar painting:

Endico #1800

They are adding it to this collection:

Endico Collection #4014

A few other odds and ends, but how long can we keep attracting collectors to a town full of closed trinket shops?

Speaking of closed shops, the people for whom we just put together:

... closed early Saturday, opened late Sunday, and are gonna be open weekends only (already fittin' right in).

Thirty-five hundred dollar weekends just doesn't make it anymore, and the recent Sugar Loaf trend toward tawdrier and tawdrier trinkets is not going to help any.

We are going to close off our street parking (too much liability), rent to a nice family (no more studio shop), and hit the road.

Endico South
slight upgrade
over previous choice
live/work
closer to major city
closer to major
highway

Endico South
slighter upgrade
over previous choice
live/work
closer
closer

Thanks to everybody who worked overtime helping me convince Mary this is the thing to do.

Your most humble
serpent,
Bob

04/27/15 morning update: Somebody just bought an $800 painting by phone that they were looking at on Mary's website over the weekend, but this is the start of a new week, so it doesn't count toward the sucky weekend.

Besides we can do that sort of thing from out in the country in Georgia while not having to explain (again) why Sugar Loaf has gone to shit with gawdy trinkets and scented cheap toxic imported candles ... which every retail shop all of a sudden decided they need to carry.

Maybe because they totally missed the point of: THIS.

Top notch, unparalleled service, just like what your dad, Clay Boone, and the rest of the actual Sugar Loaf businesses do, except Guild services are FREE, always have been, always will be.

Which reminds me, yesterday's posting of:

... was the single most successful post that has ever been published in the Guild Forum (not surprising coming from real deal art, plus the guy is a real deal healer).

Yes, I know you already saw it.

We picked up a whole bunch of new hard-to-spoof local static IP#'s (now on the watchlist), and we noted a regular viewer who was busy trying to figure out how I programmed the walking map to be so sweetly interactive ... and up to date!

Good luck to them figuring that out, and better luck trying to come up with enough money to get somebody who can match it, or I should say, "... who will pretend they can match it."

Editor's note: Mr. Fugett never posts in a Forum not his own, is not on Facebook, nor Twitter, nor any of the thousands of other services that have taken their place. There are lots of charlatans pretending to be Mr. Fugett, however, so be careful.

And by that I mean:

Weird stuff.

Now that the Jay Westerveld (Wright) issue has been taken over by the appropriate authorities with the final resolution out of our hands, I am sure the result will be favorable, and my only remaining task is a quick review.

My own involvement over the last couple years working on the Sugar Loaf Guild under constant attack and accusations is best described as just one more cool collected exercise of intellectual curiosity.

Basically a project that started as a slight puzzle led to a deeper puzzle passing through an odd labyrinth before emerging back out.

See photos at right. ---->

Years ago during an intimate dinner party at their house just down the street, Dr. Dicky and Jo Hull pointed out that for me, "It seems just the doing of the project is important above all else for you, Bob."

"You just love a project," they were saying of my recently finished book, Impulse and Strength, and a few years prior my music album, Factory Preset, and the French I was working on at the time.

Although it is a fact that ushering a project along is what really trips my wires, I only take on projects that are intensely interesting to me, and they always involve something that I believe is important.

My orientation and interest in projects as being worthwhile in their own right helps me wade through the endless mundane tasks that are always part of any project.

It also gives me a great deal of freedom, because I never have to worry about the particulars of an important project before committing — I am sure to work through the problems.

If I see something needs to be done, I just start in the middle and work my way both ways out.

Never fails, and results have always been spectacular!

The only time I ever run into significant hurdles is when I cannot get enough correct information.

Therefore, the Guild project ends with less than my full understanding.

I know what allowed Jay: it was the lack of Sugar Loaf organization which has been a long time problem, a problem that the high functioning businesses never worry about because they are busy with their noses in their work and they stay backed away from the dysfunctional groups.

In fact that is a particular enduring theme of the Sugar Loaf Guild website and was recently reinforced by Sophia Krcic when she told Mary that the candle maker hung up on her three times when she called to interview him for inclusion (totally FREE) in the CANVAS articles.

Everybody who has been interviewed by the CANVAS reports they loved the experience and were more than happy with the resulting article, but Peter wants no part of it.

Sophia thought it was a bad phone connection.

Mary said, "Gee, Sophia, the same thing happened to Mark two years ago. Did you think we were making that up, about how the prime producers in Sugar Loaf do not need and do not want that sort of attention?"

It is an odd concept for most of the world: we do our work, and we are successful because of the product and service we provide, and we do not need (or want) the standard types of attention most businesses beg to receive.

In general, events and promotions are nothing more for us than horrid intrusions which we endure to allow the new people a chance to see for themselves how building an actual business has nothing to do with such distractions.

So I understand all of that fully, but I am still flummoxed by one recurring aspect of my work on the Guild.

But this left side column is long enough, so go over under the photos in the right column to find out how cis gender relates to my confusion over recent happenings.

Endico South - $35,700
4 lane highway
close group 11 similar
1+ acre
1 palm tree
1-hr from major city

Zoned Commercial
Not yet realized
years of brutal work
before an easy mark

As promised in the column at left, I will now explain the odd convergence of my predicament and cis gender which is a term I just looked up after hearing it on South Park.

The term refers to cases in which a person's self identified gender matches the person's birth gender ... as in, "I was born with a penis and am quite certain that I am male and quite comortable with that."

A concept extending from that is cis gender assumption which means that being cis gender feels so overwhelmingly correct that one assumes everybody has the same orientation.

In fact, if not for my knowing Georgianne Barlow, I am not sure if I could even consider for some people things are different.

Let me tell you, if one day you are cleaning your bicycle in the sun and a very competitive male cyclist walks by wearing high heels, a mini skirt, and big dangly earrings (and you had never thought such a thing possible), you will also be taken aback.

So George became Georgianne just like that, if you discount the fact she was actually born Georgianne but nobody noticed.

I always need to understand things, so I asked her about it.

Gotta tell you, Georgianne's experience of herself as a kid in the world that was around her then has absolutely no similarity to my own experience around the same time.

But her description gave me a handle on understanding my own cis gender assumption after I looked up the South Park reference, and understanding that assumption gave me further insight to understand my own inability to see what has been happening around me in Sugar Loaf.

With the strength of cis gender assumption, I assumed a number of things in people's view of me would of necessity fit the facts.

But just like seeing George walk by in skirt, heels, and earrings I was turned around shocked that people in Sugar Loaf could think I was (among other things): 1) wasted by years of drug and alcohol abuse, 2) arrested for an incident which in most regards never even happened, 3) contentiously feuding with people I have not spoken to for two dozen years (barely knew they existed), 4) purposely out to destroy businesses in my community (which would mean the end of my own).

When Kevin Kern asked, "I heard you got arrested on my porch."

What!?

When Michael Sussman said, "Yeah I thought it was strange when I heard of your drug use. I always thought you were straight."

What!?

When Bodhi Brad walked in and told Jessica, "Bob has never done a thing to help this town."

Are you shitting me?!

All of that was so far removed from the facts, I really could not expect people would actually think any of it was true.

And from what Mary and I have heard, this has been going on for years behind our backs.

Of course the vaccuum of disorganized dysfunction supported by the so-called Chamber of Commerce over the years is a large part of what allowed it to happen.

We are bit by bit honing in on the single point source of the problem, but the project is severly hampered by people's refusal to say who told them such things.

Subpoenas, threat of perjury, and hard cross examinations may help us get to it.

Plus today Manon Von Uchtrup (New Guild President) gave us a lead on a service to do a security background check on some very troubling people.

In the meantime, I can at least keep the Guild Forum alive as a living testament to the fact that I never need to write, complain, or post in any other venue.

I can complain here to my heart's content to a more significant audience.

This forum stays alive of necessity.

It is the only way I can protect myself and this special little hamlet around me.

I'm working on a project here (see photos at top of this post), so fuck all of you.

Jim said you wanted me to get in touch with you. So here I am.

I am honored and thrilled that Bob included me and some of my work on the SL website.

I am delighted to be remembered like this!

I still paint and have many stories to tell.

Please look at my website when you have time and get back to me.

TomRogersArt.com

I'd love to catch up.

Congratulations to you on all of your successes!!

Love and Peace always, Tom

Great to hear from you.

Is it still windy in Taos?

You are sorely missed, and missed most by the new people who have no idea what they are missing.

How incredible to see your work and know you have maintained your singular, undeniable, wonderful style all these years.

Classic Rogers.

Mary is already asleep but will phone you tomorrow.

I added a link to your website from all your images on the Sugar Loaf Museum page:

1012
1043
1040
1048
1074

How great is that?!

A link from the Sugar Loaf Guild website along with a five dollar bill will get you a pretty good coffee from your local barista.

I guess I (sadly) must mention that the Sugar Loaf Guild is NOT on Facebook or anywhere else, and only this website is the Guild while all others are imposters.

My lawyer is making me say that while somebody gathers up their pajamas for jail.

Mary Endico just got off the phone clearing up some details with the real estate agent who is helping us with this:

Endico South - $35,700
4 lane highway
close group 11 similar
1+ acre
1 palm tree
1-hr from major city

Zoned Commercial
Not yet realized
years of brutal work
before an easy mark

She ran upstairs and shouted, "This is going to be sweet! That place is just waiting to happen, and in such a subtle way we will not have to worry about hangers on, profiteers, faux artisan branders for a long time."

She went on, "I was talking to the agent about gardening, and it struck me that when Michael Sussman was here I noticed he had some dirt on his knees, so he might actually have been working in his garden and was here waiting for the Herb Shop to open! Maybe he did start with no idea what we were talking about, and Lenny did not tell him about our troubles and send him over. How about that?"

Remember guys, always open early and close late because you never know when just the person you need might walk in, wittingly or not.

Mary and I have been under constant attack by a mob led by at least one degenerate criminal (who has serially done the exact same thing to at least five other people that we know of) and who continues doing it to Mary and to me at such a level of intensity Mary routinely scans the Internet gathering screen shots (and IP#'s when possible) and passing them on to authorities in order to assemble a mass of data regarding various faux user names (often pretend fighting amongst themselves while various posts over a range of forums are toggled on and off), in order for us to mount (firstly) a defense of our own character and (later) a massive offense.

She is keeping names, dates, and pictures; then by close comparisons of writing style, textual tells, and spelling errors, assembling a point source dossier of documented criminality which means the FBI can be involved since state lines and identity theft are involved — which is exactly what the victims who have spoken to us in real life have been hoping for.

I am looking forward to seeing how subpoenas and the threat of perjury affects people's reticence to say in public what they have told us in private.

I am also looking forward to finding out just how far back this has been going on without our knowledge.

It has been happening for some time (years), we've been told.

So here we are, dealing with all that when in walks the one single most qualified, skilled, and experienced man on the planet specializing in such cases of harassment.

Who'd a thunk it, so people keep your doors open; you never know.

Poor Michael, maybe he walked into the middle of it unawares because Lenny is starting another round of medical procedures and probably didn't get to talk to him about it yet.

No wonder we couldn't connect on why Michael came in.

I mean he hasn't been in our studio once during the 40 years we have been here, and he did mention he has some of Nick's work, so it is obvious he has neither the slightest aesthetic nor interest in art.

He probably was just standing around waiting for the Herb Shop to open and decided to come see what's what at the Endico studio.

No wonder he seemed a fish out of water after our first flurry of remembrances.

Maybe the saddest part is the quandary this poses for Jay.

Let me break the fourth wall here (Diderot's theatrical term for the no-no of addressing the audience directly ... another industry term I can bet at least one local pretend actress will not know).

In any case, here is the problem for you, Jay. I know what you are thinking, "Which one of these stories is true, or did Bob only make them all up?" To tell you the truth in all this excitement I kinda lost track myself. You've gotta ask yourself one question, "Do I feel lucky?" Well, do ya, punk?

You also want to ask yourself, Jay, "When Dirty Harry pulled that trigger to let the bad guy know what he 'had to know', did Harry know the gun was empty, or did he just not care?"

Better than relying on luck, it would be better for you to just stop doing this shit to people, not just to us but everybody.

It is the sort of activity that eventually catches up to you ... if it hasn't already.

And if one of your faux doppelgangers would like to step forward now and say something again about me defaming a living person, please remind yourself that truth is an absolute defense, so I can say whatever the fuck I want, but you are in some deep shit, buddy, er, punk.

Note: The three other stoned alcoholic winos who are reading this will think it is all a joke, but be assured Jay Westerveld knows it is serious, absolutely dead serious.

And his aliases plus his birth name Jay Wright (best we can find) knows it as well.

Just when I thought we had the incident with Michael Sussman (a top, if not the top, Civil Rights attorney in the United States and maybe then some) under our belts, we came across another puzzle.

Mary and I were walking in Goosepond Park, where we hold most of our high level business meetings these days.

Previously we held them while bicycling all over the tri-state area but last year Mary came down with a case of Compartment Syndrome (extreme shin splints) after she did four consecutive ten-minute miles through deep snow on that same course (yes including the sections of nearly rock scramble).

She saw she was on a record a fast time, wouldn't stop despite the pain, and it has been over a year of recovery.

Nevertheless, during the walk we were reviewing the Michael Sussman affair, and I had just said, "Ok, so that's it. He came to find out if I was as fucked up as he was hearing, and as soon as he knew everything was ok, he got back to gardening."

Mary thoughtfully responded, "Yes, that had to be it."

I said, "Ok, then we have to go over the big mistake you made with Michael."

Mary winced, "What mistake?"

"That moment when you started to show him the stuff Jay posted, and I had to jump in and stop you, at the same time Michael threw his hands in the air and took a step back. That was like asking a doctor at a cocktail party about your bursitis, or asking the Bicycle Doctor to fix your bike on a ride, or asking Dr. Art to give you an adjustment when he just dropped over to say hi. Totally inappropriate."

Mary complained, "But all I was going to show him was the stuff Lenny pointed out where Jay used your name in the Chronicle during his rant about that cartoonist, Ferri! Michael is representing him and he even works for Michael. I just thought ..."

"WHAT!? Michael's representing that guy? That's it! He didn't show up to see if I was ok, he came to see if I was being a problem for his client. No wonder we couldn't get a straight answer out of him why he was here. He was representing a client, and he absolutely should not have told us anything about it. He should have only been asking leading questions and watching our responses closely. That's why he was gone so soon. He knew right away that those sick posts were not me, could not be me, and his job was done. I am sure he is still pissed that Jay wasted his time."

"Now it all makes perfect sense," we both said at the same time.

It is not as if Michael has no actual work to do, and there aren't people waiting in line to have him help them, and lots of those people are in dire straits to say the least.

Instead of his one moment of gardening for the week, Michael had to step into a situation he was obviously uncomfortable about, and waste valuable time ... time that could have been used by people who really need it.

No wonder Michael looked like his lunch was coming up when I mentioned Jay's name, but had the best poker face I have ever not been able to read when I tested him against that Wikipedia user name.

Fucking Jay troll.

Like I would ever need to write in some other forum, when I can say all the bad words and inflame people to my heart's content right here in this one ... and to a much more significant readership.

Plus I can keep it visible to the public, and watch for nonsense like when Jay pretended to be Alan Stenberg (that's right, Jay, I can use Alan's full name correctly spelled without fear of jail time), or had his meat puppet pretend to be Alex Jamieson, and I blocked his posting so he knows he can't pull that crap here.

Who knows why the Chronicle cannot control their forum better, especially since Cliff gave me the simple answer that will allow the Guild Forum to open back up to comment.

Fucking Jay, destructive troll with a criminal mind wasting Sussman's time and therefore the time of everybody who depends on Michael!

Maybe after Jay shoots me for shutting down his shit, they'll finally do something about him.

My dying words to Jay will be, "At least you let me see who I could trust in Sugar Loaf. At least you made our closing up shop, returning our house to residential rentals, and moving the studio south palatable."

Endico South - $35,700
4 lane highway
close group 11 similar
1+ acre
1 palm tree
1-hr from major city

Zoned Commercial
Not yet realized
years of brutal work
before an easy mark

I mean, what would you do?

This time we get to be dead before we see it turn to shit.

Funny story.

Yesterday morning around 11:00, I was upstairs programming when Mary yelled up from the couch in the front room of the main studio/gallery.

I knew she had been talking to somebody for awhile, but it was so friendly I assumed it was the UPS guy or one of her collectors — given how long it was lasting.

Mary yelled, "BOB!! Do you remember this morning when you said you would never see Michael Sussman again? Well ..."

And I took off running downstairs trying to catch up with my giant smile.

"MICHAEL, how you doin', man? I thought you were too busy to ever see the light of day again. What brings you here?"

Big smiles and handshakes all around.

It was like seeing an old college chum after years away, or that day Mary and I saw Anthony Defeo at a bike ride after a couple years absence.

There was a loud boisterous super-charged, super quick exchange as we talked over the old days when Michael was on the Town Board, and I was on the Planning Board.

I made special mention of the time I served on the Ethic's Law Review Committee that he chaired.

I was finally getting my chance to tell him what it meant to me, seeing him run a meeting and process like none I had seen before and like nothing I have seen since.

When I became the "volunteer" from the Planning Board to be part of the ethics committee, I was told, "It won't be fun, Bob. Michael is going to run roughshod over that committee and make it all about him ... but you are volunteering (understand?), so go do your best."

Except Michael did not in any way insinuate himself into the process, not in the least.

He went so far out of his way to make sure everybody's concerns were heard and incorporated into the final document that everybody on the committee still remembers the Ethic's Law Review Committee as legendary epic.

Those of us fortunate enough to have been there to see it, and be part of it, always bring it up when we run into each other 20 years later.

If the Canker of Commerce had a clue, well they would, could, should ... oh, never mind.

Grifter's gonna do what a grifter's gonna do.

Not an hour before Michael Sussman showed up, Mary and I had been on our walk going over the final plans to return our house to residential, rent it out to a family, and move the studio south, when the recent and constant attacks against me came up.

I quieted Mary down with, "Look, if you think it's bad for me, think what it must be like for Sussman right now.

"What with his work on:

1) Saving the Government Center
2) Saving Valley View Nursing Home
3) Bridging understanding between Kiryas Joel and Monroe
4) Protecting Vincent Ferri against people like those who are harassing me
5) and helping that woman harassed by the Library Board
6) plus one civil rights case after another, well ...

"But Michael has told Lenny about a billion times he never worries about it, lets water go under the bridge and focuses on what is next and important."

I continued, "In fact there is an old issue I heard about Michael years ago, but I am withholding judgment until I talk to him ... which will be never, because he is far too busy to be out in the world where I will ever run into him.

After our meeting with Michael we were still mystified and Mary asked, "Why was Michael here? He certainly had no interest in art. I saw him milling about outside (didn't know it was him), and he talked a pretty long time with me, but didn't stay very long after he talked to you."

I extended the mystery, "Yeah, and there probably is not a busier person on the planet. When I went to his office during the Roger Romer problem (I was trying to sue the Town Board) there was about a dozen young lawyers running around and no way to even see Michael."

Later Mary came running in and said, "I figured it out! When he asked if you 'were still here' he gestured in a very general sense, and he was being very quiet and respectful like maybe you were dead. He must have heard you were demented from years of drug and alcohol abuse and in a nursing home, so he came over in person to check it out. Think about that. All the things he is doing, and he took time to drop by to find out the truth! And as soon as he knew you were ok, he was gone."

I said, "Yep, that is the difference between a true community vs. an online community. Withhold judgment, show up in person, and ask. Me demented ... or doing any alcohol and drugs at all in the last 30 years ... or wasting a second to write in any forum other than the one I own and am responsible for keeping the trolls out ... funny stuff, but I don't think Michael was very tickled to be fooled."

All in all I guess it is pretty nice how many people have stopped by to find out if the accusations are true.

Rather telling which ones have not.

Of course there are plenty people whom I would rather not see either of their faces.

I only wish I could mention Jay's name just once to a person in the real world who didn't scrunch up like they puked in their mouth.

I was just awakened with an epiphany snarling in my face.

I always thought non-disclosure laws which assure news media never have to reveal their sources were meant to protect whistle blowers, at-risk informants, and reluctant witnesses.

But they are not.

Those people do not need protection because all they ever have to do, in my experience all they ever do, is shrug and say, "Hey, I never told them any such thing. Keep me out of it."

The laws about never having to reveal sources doesn't protect informant victims, it protects news reporters, so they never have to produce a witness who will just roll over on them and feed them to the jackals anyway.

It has been my experience that not one single person will ever stand by their word after they complain and you try to help them.

They will just turn on you and blame you for the problem.

Non-disclosure laws protect the reporters not the victims!

If there wasn't a law to stop news people from having to prove themselves, news outlets would be as useless as paid-for advertising, which I guess they still are no matter.

Sounds like a great excuse to stop writing.

So, we got it.

The May issue will not have a Guild column, but it will have the Tom Dinchuk story.

I just talked to him, and he went on and on about how nice you two are!

I said, "Them two? HA! They’re not nice at all ... wink wink."

Under the Guild Banner:

June: Luft Gardens
July: The Kastan Experience
August: Sugar Loaf Guild Museum
September: Practical Magick
October: Cookie Boone

Any suggestions, you know where to find me!

Have a marvelous weekend!  (Hi Bob!)

Sophia Krcic, Editor
Delaware & Hudson CANVAS

Amazing what you can accomplish with good ol' old timey email.

All the cool kids use it exclusively for the real important stuff.

Mary, tell Sophia I thought that was weird, how Tom Dinchuk thanked us before the article ran.

I thought, "If he was so happy before the article, just think how happy he will be after."

We should post reprints of the two dozen articles about Sugar Loaf businesses already published.

I wonder why the Canker of Commerce never figures out how to get so much free publicity for Sugar Loaf ... spread out regionally, engaging, and read by thousands, not just boring-glossy shop listings seen by a few of our part time shop owners who are looking to make sure their neighbors have paid up.

I really shouldn't tell the Chamber how we do it for free, but maybe they'll finally like me if I give them the secret.

Hey, Chamber of Commerce losers, figure out what is actually interesting about Sugar Loaf (read: truly special, not pretend special), and tell somebody with real promotional power (like the CANVAS not just somebody with fake Facebook smoke and mirror sleight of hand).

It doesn't cost a thing.

Whoops, the only way losers in the Chamber have of making money (none of them have much of a business) is by beggar suckering new shops into shelling out a few bucks to throw away on a fiction while putting it directly into their own pockets.

I forgot; my bad.

People are better off buying lottery tickets than wasting money on Chamber dues.

At least with a lottery ticket there's an outside chance of a return on investment.

On the other hand, look at that list of upcoming articles in the CANVAS generated by just a word from the Guild ... plus we never have and never will charge people a cent for it.

You can't buy advertising like that no matter how much dues you collect.

You have to earn it by having something worth writing about, and trinkets available at any mall on the planet ain't it.

There, now they'll like me.

Yesterday I warned Cliff (in person, one on one) what the possible fallout would be for using my name with a reference link to the Sugar Loaf Historical Museum, but this morning I see that he has not removed the link.

It would have taken less than a second to remove, and he certainly knows how, and he didn't.

Therefore I am using it.

Take a look near:

Here's an idea, "Why don't you just shut your fucking mouth, stop complaining, and take care of your own fucking problems?"

Start with the drinking.

I have my own troubles after recently finding out that Nick and Kiki have year after year maintained an environment in which lies about me and Mary were not only allowed to fester and continue but were actively encouraged and helped along the way.

We certainly never knew about it because we never said one word about those two for almost two dozen years (I thought they were gone) ... just kept to ouselves, did our work, and didn't get involved.

Or as stated in one of their standard phrases to marginalize us, we walled ourselves off.

Mary had only rolled her eyes as one after another of her customers complained how rudely they had been treated by Kiki ... and Kiki was supposedly the Chamber President, representing Sugar Loaf.

Or Mary was disgusted hearing how Nick made one more self serving move that hurt the hamlet, didn't help it.

Apparently he is now getting his beak wet, taking a cut, pocketing a little skim off the Chamber ad money ... why else would he force payment from businesses we should all be proud to have on the map?

The Sugar Loaf Chamber of Commerce is deficient!

It is a pseudo-organization with:

1) no process
2) no accountability
3) no transparency
4) and no authority

06/18/15 - UPDATE
All above/below remains true.
And the Chamber of Commerce is
consistently revealed as more and more
stupid, but those who needed to be warned
have been, so this article is being removed
float (our lawyers are taking care of the rest
04/23/15 - UPDATE

Whereas the list above must remain here (until all issues have been rectified), there has been some movement toward bettering the Chamber.

Unfortunately for the Canker of Commerce, they made a fatal error in sending Manon Von Uchtrup over (their new Treasurer) to have it out with us, and after a lot of screaming and yelling (with Mary and I showing her the issues and documents), Manon admitted she more or less agrees with every single one of our concerns.

But that is only because Manon is rational, fiesty, willing to stick up for herself and the ideas that she knows are correct.

She understands the primary importance of handmade goods sold in Sugar Loaf directly out of the hands of the people who make them, and not just in a general "shop local" context, but due to the extreme value such activity holds for society as a whole.

In her new position as Sugar Loaf Chamber of Commerce Treasurer, Manon has begun working on the Chamber's accountability issue with an eye toward later resolving the horrid state of affairs with its lack of process and lack of transparency.

She seems to understand the Chamber will never hold any true authority without resolving the three main issues (see above).

Therefore, the Sugar Loaf Guild held its annual Board Membership vote for Officers, and we now have a NEW President of the Sugar Loaf Guild:

Manon
Von Uchtrup
Guild President

We trust Manon implicitly, so we give her about three more weeks with the Canker — after they realize she is nobody's fool and is going to demand accountability, their boot will engage her hind parts!

Mary and I will still like her though.

Understand their true status, and don't let them extort money from you.

If the situation changes, I will remove this notification.

Bob Fugett

NOTE: This important public service announcement is set to float atop the Forum. The most recent (good stuff) can be read below.

05/18/15 - UPDATE

Currently even Manon is missing in action as Mary has gone over to her shop 4 times and not found her open.

Therefore, I am posting a checklist for the town shoppes to address after the Chamber of Commerce takes care of their organizational, and their accountability, and their transparency issues in order to achieve true authority.

These suggestions come from extensive market research conducted on the streets of Sugar Loaf talking directly to visitors, especially during the two weeks I spent manning the Welcome Center at the entrance to Romers' Alley.

The second less empassioned complaint was, "What happened to all the great hand made stuff, made right here by the shop owners? I can get any of this other crap anywhere. I am absolutely never coming back!"

So while Mary and I turn our attentions toward getting the hell out of Dodge, we leave you with this quick checklist (in case any of you decide you would like to earn a living in Sugar Loaf):

1) Make something unique of high quality.

2) Keep full time hours for a full time wage.

3) Refer people to the Guild website stories and Forum when they ask, "What happened to Sugar Loaf?"

Otherwise, everybody should be advised that after 40 years of community service Mary Endico will no longer be making excuses for you but will be telling people who ask, "While putting together the Guild website, we realized the problem is the number of trust fund babies and retiree-preneurs. Part timers. Hobbiests. A bunch of drugged out zombies. Sorry, I can't avoid seeing it myself anymore."

So far the response has been giant knowing nods of agreement with a credit card to charge and the statement, "Here's my contact information. Let me know where you move to."

Ok, so I went over and explained the situation to Cliff at the Chester Historical Society (a real deal organization), and I let him know the firestorm he might run into by publishing my name in thanks with a link to the Sugar Loaf Historical Museum.

His attitude was, "Well, it does in fact exist, it is local, and my job is to document it."

That attitude is decidedly different from the Canker of Commerce which wishes to pretend the Guild does not exist and never has, along with ¾ of the businesses in Sugar Loaf.

Then Cliff, Mary, and I had a long discussion about how nice the Guild website is because of the level of attribution and sourcing I maintain.

Let me tell you this about Cliff: he is the absolute best!

Careful, precise, and with a deep knowledge of the importance of sourcing and confirmation.

He actually takes classes studying the process!

He gave me a great technique to use for keeping the Forum correct: never publish anything anonymously when it cannot be confirmed who the author is in person, by phone, or some other high level identification.

The post can be anonymous, of course, but I have to know who they are.

In other words, he confirmed my policy has been correct.

He also told me that the situation with utility wires marring the landscape was previously worse than it is now because back in the day each line was separate (not lots of wires in one cable as now), and he has a photo of downtown Chester with a telephone pole that had seven (7) cross members holding all the lines.

I love to be around people who actually know something, know how to learn something, and are glad to help you learn something yourself.

You will notice that I have been almost gushy about how wonderful it is to have Cliff around, and you might think I am just "making nice" because he added to my credentials by publishing my name in conjunction with the Guild website.

But this is a different sort of making nice than the current standard in Sugar Loaf which would dictate making nice no matter what — just making nice and saying somebody is great just because it is the thing to do.

Under those rules people would be unable to say anything but nice things about Hitler.

Nice is nice, but if things are not nice shouldn't you be able to say?

So the nice I am making here is pointing out something that is nice, not just saying something nice such as one of those worthless Facebook Likes.

Which reminds me, you will notice I have said something nice about the Chester Historical Society, which is a group although some of my neighbors want to define me as anti-social.

In fact, I am only anti-bullshit, and the current Sugar Loaf Chamber of Commerce has increased the level of bullshit instead of fulfilling their promise to cut it out.

Here is the absolute truth and absolute problem with the Sugar Loaf Canker of Commerce.

They have:

That has been true for the last 20 years, and when somebody recently looked into it they found the "organization" had lost its charter due to negligence.

The group had not a clue, but continued to pretend being something they were not.

They had degenerated into a once or twice year meeting of three people (tops) with the only purpose being to put together a couple of really horrid festivals from which money was drained to pay somebody's rent.

That wretched level of oversight allowed the "organization" to be most recently overrun with scam artists, grifters, and extortionists (the group went from bad, bad, bad to decidedly worse).

I have a lot of programming to do, and cannot waste so much time writing here in the near future, so I am posting a floater summary above about the problems with the Sugar Loaf Chamber of Commerce, which everybody I know likes to call the Canker of Commerce, in order to make sure new businesses in town are put on notice right away.

If the Chamber ever changes its ways and puts together an actual organization with a process, accountability, and transparency (like the Chester Historical Society), I will take the exposé off the top of this page.

But in the meantime it is very important for new people to know that a con artist is in charge of the Chamber.

The importance of warnings aside, I will also get to say I told you so (again) after everybody else figures it out.

I am certain she must have done this in other communities, and we have our researchers busy trying to figure out her real name, where she came from, and to whom she owes the money she previously extorted elsewhere.

Anybody who wants to know more about this can stop by the Endico studio, and I will step them through the documents.

Otherwise, I am back to programming and working on Mary's career.

The Town wraps around Sugar Loaf and Chester Village.

Cliff holds that substantial position in addition to the work he does with the Chester Historical Society, which is not to be confused with the now defunct Sugar Loaf Historical Society (though that so-called organization never acheived a membership, process, or any reality whatsoever).

Cliff is a great shining star of excellence proving that local towns actually can exhibit competence, and everybody I begin to tell about Cliff stops me by saying, "Cliff? He does excellent work. He is on that stuff night and day!"

I think I have just decided to be Cliff's bitch ... anything he wants, I am glad to give ... expecially where he finds stuff on Wikipedia that is unsourced (like he mentioned), but he goes on to track down the reference afterwards.

We might as well backfill the information for the convenience of the next person looking.

And no, Cliff will not be reading any of these nice things I have said about him.

He does not match any of my readership criteria listed below.

He has a life.

If he did show up here, I could only say, "Thank you, Barek ... oops shit, I mean Cliff!"

The only memory I have of him is running past his knees while he was shaving to go to war.

You won't (but can) read all about it in the book Porkchop Hill.

On that day the mob chasing him down was using as justification, "This is war, and those two out on their own are on the other side."

My father always told me that my brother would never harm a mouse, and he probably got killed because he hesitated to hurt someone.

"Please, please, please, Bobby ... never hesitate," my dad would say.

I do not believe either the term rebel or yankee was mentioned. [see below]

It is ironic how the only people who do not appreciate the Guild site are people who benefit from it most?

Also make sure to give up ever again trying to help another living soul in Sugar Loaf.

Unless of course you have grown to enjoy getting punched in the nose and wiping blood off your chin. [see below]

It was late fall, early spring, or something similar.

As far as the eye could see nothing but a swirl of kids running left and right, screaming, laughing, tussling and climbing over playground equipment, racing across three different play areas where several grades were divided for recess.

The noise was as loud and diffuse as a mid summer's day.

But I didn't hear any of it, I was compressed into my own little soundless bubble, away from it all, only slightly aware (almost) of my own hard breathing.

I was all-out running in front of the pack and just out of reach.

I ducked onto the merry-go-round hoping to thread a path through to gain some distance, or at least be twirled away from them into my own hidden world somewhere under all the shuffling of kids' feet between legs, bars, and sometimes a dropped arm.

But I hit my head on entrance and was held back enough for the group to catch me.

They pulled me back away from the merry-go-round and yelled the question at me with force of intent.

"Are you rebel or yankee?!"

If we were older they would have added, "... motherfucker!!!," but we were just little kids.

I actually started trying to decide which I was (had never considered it, had not really been aware of either word before, though they sounded like important words, maybe something on television, if I could figure out which, I might be part of the group), but I knew intuitively there was not going to be a correct answer.

Whichever I was, the group was going to be the other.

After my quick intense internal strife I chose, "Neither ... I'm not either."

I don't really remember the beating afterwards, it was just another in an endless line of similar events which defined my childhood.

I was just the kid who always got picked on and beat up.

I never defined myself as such, and until a week or two ago, I didn't even realize I was that kid.

Like all the best victims, I blamed myself.

Teachers were never around to help, and parents just said to be nicer.

I don't think there was even a term for what was happening to me then, and I only remember those days when somebody says, "Don't you wish you were a kid again without a care in the world?"

And I always think to myself, "Apparently you never spent a minute on a playground, or have forgotten what it's like."

On the good side, all those beatings made me tough, made me understand that there is never a correct answer, that the beating is coming anyway, and made me care less what people think about me.

I know the fact that I do not react to what people are saying about me only inflames a lot of them, but on the good side, avoiding getting socked in the stomach developed my world class super-quick wit and sense of humor.

Being funny is very much like running for shelter in the merry-go-round.

On the bad side, all that nonsense also gave me my knee jerk reaction to seeing somebody else standing before the same firing squad, where I will jump in to help them without thinking, just as if they were a drowning victim.

Unfortunately, just like a drowning victim, you never know when somebody you are trying to help will turn on you and rip your throat out, letting all the water rush in to take you sputtering down with them.

Lifeguards are trained to approach underwater from the rear to get a body lock first thing.

Sometimes I miss the toss, like a couple days ago when I got worried that another local artist was being hammered by the same people coming after me.

I saw one of the bullies all up in the artist's grill (so to speak), and I had Mary flip the car around and deposit me where I could walk over to help.

The artist disavowed any problem whatsoever, despite the fact I was only responding to their constant cries for help.

And despite the fact their assailant backed off 10 yards on my approach and waited for me to leave before coming back.

I felt like a cop showing up for a domestic abuse call and being told, "No, no problem here, officer ... some sort of mistake."

Mary took photos of the whole affair.

Additionally I recently tried helping a whole town (just a little) after Mary and I kept hearing, "Business is terrible; we just can't get by anymore," and we looked at each other aghast saying, "What? Business is great. Let's go show them how."

I guess I should not have been surprised by the town's ugly response, but I have not been on a playground with children in a very long time, so I was not prepared for the ferocity of the random mobbing.

Apparently a cottage industry has grown up around keeping the artists as non-profitable as possible.

There are grants and beggar donations involved, and I rocked somebody's lucrative boat by showing people how to make money on their own.

There was also the time I reflexed into action to stick up for my neighbors when some drunk accosted me on the Romers' Alley porch and said Sugar Loaf is a pitiful useless spectacle, and they were sure that is true because the tour guide told them it was.

When I confronted the tour guide, it turned out she was also drunk, and driving a van-load of drunks who came up from the City with the express purpose of getting wasted and making fun of all the inbred yokels.

Guess whose fault that episode was deemed to be?

As justification for blaming me, people who were not there only had to allude to something they heard from a couple locals regarding years of so called contentions — contentions which nobody ever bothered to check out (not wanting to be involved), plus contentions of which Mary and I were totally unaware.

There was even a lie circulated (by somebody with something to gain) about how I got arrested for it!

What hog wash; the incident was less than a howdee do.

In any case, as Edmund Burke said, "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

Uh oh, I left out the women (not PC); here comes the mob again.

But like I said, I am now tough as nails and don't care what any of them think.

There is no correct answer, and being nice is the least likely thing to keep the swarm down.

To the mob I say, "No parents, no teachers, no good men to get involved and stand in your way, so go ahead and pile on ... motherfuckers!"

1) 99.9% are people with a drinking problem

2) 0.09% are scam artists trying to decide the next move in their grift on Sugar Loaf

3) 0.01% are trolls harvesting quotes to distort and lie about elsewhere

So if you are reading this, take a moment to be assured you are definitely in one of those three categories.

Actually, items 2 and 3 are arbitrary filler divisions because my readers are all drunks really.

It is a truth I must begrudgingly accept.

The data is unassailable.

I just wanted to thank you and Bob for the interview with the Delaware & Hudson Canvas Magazine (any exposure is good, and I appreciate it).

My Show in Kingston went well ... a lot of fun, and I sold 3 paintings at the opening.

Hope you're both doing well ... It's always fun to talk to bright people who have a great sense of humor and don't take themselves too seriously.

Hopefully I'll be able to get down to Sugar Loaf this Spring and talk with you guys again.

Out of the more than two dozen articles in the Delaware & Hudson Canvas Magazine that Mary and I have been instrumental in getting published (spotlighting Sugar Loaf), Tom's kind note brings the number of thank you's we have received up to ... wait ... let me check my records.

Got it.

The number of thank you's received for more than two dozen articles we have generated (actually I should say that the Sugar Loaf Guild website has generated) is now up to ONE (1).

And Tom isn't even in Sugar Loaf!

I guess that should be obvious because his statement "any exposure is good" belies the fact that he certainly has not experienced the high powered art sales environment provided to artists in Sugar Loaf.

Actually, only good exposure is good exposure.

Mary sold that many paintings (3) here on Tuesday of last week (a slow day) — out of her own studio which provides her a full time, each and every single day, art opening.

Not being part of Sugar Loaf might be part of what led Tom to believe we don't take ourselves too seriously, because he probably thinks our sales figures are a joke.

As the adage goes, "So they say they're an artist? Harrumph! If they were any good they would have a studio in Sugar Loaf and be making a full time living at it!"

I do understand where somebody might think that statement is humorous: the rest of the world cannot imagine how much of our own art we sell ... and corporate America would like to keep that hidden.

In fact Wal-Mart sent one of their stock boys here to try and muddy the waters.

Good luck!

In any case, top Sugar Loaf artists know that only good exposure is good exposure, and exposure in the Delaware & Hudson Canvas Magazine is VERY GOOD exposure.

That is why we put our effort and money in the Canvas (not Facebook, not Twitter, not the local newspaper Forums).

Mary and I have not even allowed our names to appear on the Sugar Loaf Canker of Commerce walking map for the last 30 years ... we value our exposure, the use of our names, and the milieu in which they are found.

Poor Tom.

Well, to be kind, there are artists in Sugar Loaf (not to mention the few retail shops that manage to hang on) who don't get it either.

Serious?

Art sales is a blood sport and always has been.

Otherwise, as icing on the cake of our best week all year, yesterday a young woman came back from last year (this time with her first date boyfriend) and put a deposit on two $400 paintings.

Mary told me, "It is not the money so much as the fun of it."

Mary mentioned it to her sister when she called her to ask about our most recent run-in with the drinking classes.

Mary's sister was involved in AA for many years, until she got too old to deal with the continual stream of bullshit where people say they want to get better but generally just end up adding more complexity to their plausible excuses about behavior for which they disavow responsibility.

Still, Corrine remains our expert on all things dysfunctional.

In response to Mary's question she said, "Absolutely. That is classic (trite really). To be worried about needing two glasses of wine before dealing with her kids every afternoon seems a certain sign. In fact the time tested rule of thumb is, 'If you are worried about being an alcoholic, you are an alcoholic.'"

But really, I had no interest in that part of the conversation because I have learned to not get involved.

What really piqued my interest was when the wise sister said, "Wow! Young people who don't have a lot of money taking the extra step to put paintings aside on lay-away. You and Bob really have built a special little business there."

It reminded Mary what is important and wonderful in her life, and made her comment for the upteen bajillionth time, "Why is it so many of our neighbors never see what it is that we are doing here and what is so obviously staring them right in the face?"

Not a clue ... I just run the computers.

Apparently mobbing (a type of psychological terrorism) is a phenomenon that thrives in environments of poor management such as is the case with the Chamber of Commerce — no process, no accountability, no transparency.

Of course, no process, no accountability, and no transparency almost fully describes Facebook, so that may explain why our friends are putting so much energy into trying to sucker people onto it.

Anyway take a look at the Wikipedia article, and try not to get too paranoid if you notice what I noticed (after I read it, the very moment I started to send it to you):

Take it from me, or read some stuff about workplace harassment.

Now it is black with white lights.

In all other respects nothing has changed.

Well, of course, a whole bunch of money did jump out of my pocket and into somebody elses, but that too is nothing new.

After the Arab Spring handed terrorists the keys to the Internet, and trolls are now lopping off people's heads on a whim, I decided it was time to move our critical business data off-line.

I am now running two fully separate systems concurrently.

Unfortunately, running a fully separate totally disconnected hyper secure system (which will never see the light of the Internet, no wires, no WiFi) takes some getting used to, what with all the new computer equipment and software and learning curve.

Suffice it to say I had to get a whole new suite of software programs to manage the new process and equipment.

I would tell you what the new programs are, but they are all industry insider high-endy tools from several specialist companies who haven't even released them to the general public yet.

Sort of like the $5,000 Barco monitor that came with the color matching system set up for us by the same people who set up the exact same system for the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

I have only seen one other Barco monitor, and that was at Weill-Cornell Medical College in New York Presbyterian Hospital in the city.

I can hear the yawns now.

That brings last year's total up to 8 gone.

Ironically, Mary vividly recalls having a conversation with the most recent casualty right after they moved in.

She looked at their business plan and said, "I give you about a year with that plan."

They asked why, and Mary told them, but they stuck with it and almost to the day, gone.

You'd think people would start taking what we say about business in Sugar Loaf a little more seriously.

"Make time to Luft!"

Well after today, I see the writing on the wall (not to mention this Forum), and I realize my life is pretty much finished.

Mary took a quick spring tour today, and came back with some photos from Luft Gardens raving about the great work Aaron has been doing.

She said (a little too loudly), "You wouldn't believe it. The studio is filled with beautiful new stuff he made himself. Each piece is beautiful and different as different gets. I could go back right now and spend $500 without even thinking about it. In fact, I could spend the whole day looking at the new work and buying things for a later version of the Sugar Loaf Historical Museum!"

Therefore, I (Bob Fugett) am screwed.

So much for my hope of buying new computer equipment and a fancy bicycle.

Wait, I have a plan.

All you people get the fuck to Luft and buy up all those creative miracles before Mary gets there.

Here is a link for some teaser photos:

Luft Gardens
Aaron's new work

Seems like the rumor was promulgated by somebody pushing for local landlords to "lower their rent" ... ostensibly to allow new artists a chance, but really to give their own failing business a better foothold from which to fall.

Like Bob Fugett always says, "It is amazing how the new people never understand the health, wealth, and structure of the local economy."

It never ends.

And Mary's story about Luft Gardens is not even the big, big, big news that we are not allowed to talk about!

We just intercepted this email from Sophia (Delaware & Hudson Canvas Magazine) to Mary Endico that came in response to Mary reporting one of the most significant events in the history of Sugar Loaf is about to happen, but we are sworn to secrecy, and, oh, by the way, take a look at the new Sugar Loaf Historical Museum page.

From: "Sophia Krcic"
To: "Mary Endico"
Subject: Re: Hello Sugar Loaf Friends
Date: Tue, 17 Mar 2015 13:41:36 -0400

One would have to be NUTS to not understand why SUGAR LOAF is famous!

Phenomenal job guys! I had a blast going through those photos!

I remember doing a story on Laura Breitman (She was SUPER sweet!).

Her husband [Mike Needleman] would capture amazing photographs, and then Laura would try (let me rephrase that, she didn’t TRY, she DID) make replicas of his photos with her collages!

They were quite beautiful.

And I LOVED Dick Ochs portrait of Mary! That was FABULOUS!!!

Who am I kidding … I loved every single item on that page.

Now we have additional proof that Sophia means wisdom.

I wish I could tell everybody about the great event ready to be sprung on Sugar Loaf, but I am sworn to secrecy.

Ironic that Bob Fugett is the only person in town who is not allowed to talk about it ... going to be rather anti-climactic by the time I get to announce the news.

I can only say, "Grab your studio spaces now, folks, because rental prices are about to go through the roof!"

As well they should.

This morning Bob Fugett finally had enough of the Sugar Loaf rumor mill and went out on his own to set things straight.

First stop was the Barnsider where he only had to wait a few minutes to speak with Matt Kannon (owner).

Bob said to Matt, "I am here to track down a rumor, and I think you might know something about it."

A wary Matt almost ducked but said only, "Oookkk ..."

And Bob sprang it on him, just like that, "Is the Barnsider sold?"

A big chuckle and some teary eyed jelly belly laughter later Matt replied, "You know, I heard the same rumor myself, and NO it is not true. The Barnsider has NOT SOLD. It has just been a long winter, and people need to make up something to entertain themselves."

Then Matt went on to say, "In fact, there were a couple of my good customers at the bar the other day saying they had heard my tenants next door (Luft Gardens) was skipping out on their lease and leaving town.

"I had to point out the window saying, 'Look over there at them painting the building. Do they look like they are leaving?'"

Funny, funny, funny stuff.

Tom Dinchuk show scheduled -

Be there, or be a regular quadrilateral with four equal straight sides and four right angles.

Tom Dinchuck's
Woodland Paintings

BTW: Somebody better tell Tom Dinchuk that another new artist studio is moving into Sugar Loaf, right next to the Endico watercolor studio, and if Tom really gives a shit about his career and reputation, he'd better get to Sugar Loaf right now and open his own studio post haste!

I would be remiss if I did not point this out.

What I do know a whole lot about is the human body, and I have helped lots and lots of people use them to make music.

Thanks for the book.

I'm going to take my time and go through it.

I don't have a metronome, so if you have a suggestion of a basic one I could get, let me know.

For now I'm just having fun.

I have used my studio wall clock (which is quite loud ) to time various beats.

I am having fun trying to think of sounds in nature and playing them.

Talk to you soon,
Tom

Of course the most fun is trying for absolute precision.

A wall clock makes the perfect metronome.

Here is a little known secret that includes all metronomes!

Most people believe a metronome is for speeding you up, but metronomes are really used to slow you down.

Here is the irony: the more slowly you can play with precision the faster you will be able to play.

Here is your grand experiment: choose any one of the patterns you are working on and, assuming you have been playing one stroke of the drum per click of the clock, try to play it at every 4th click of the clock.

Maybe get in front of a mirror and pay close attention to every subtle movement of your body that goes into making the stroke.

Consider the physics involved — not physics like E=mc² but physics like a pool shot.

Think things like, "Well how 'bout that, why does that happen?"

Choose one subset of one motion with your dominant hand and come back to it for a moment or two each day over a period of many days.

Don't worry about it, just observe it and experience the cascading improvement

Don't "try" to get better just observe how you "do" get better.

Make this focused study only a very small part of your daily routine.

Otherwise just keep doing everything you have been doing ... sounds like perfect fun.

However, you absolutely positively must do this very trivial quick focused study each and every single day, maybe five minutes tops.

Keep some very minimal notes.

After you experience a significant improvement in this one little moment of movement occurring every 4th click, the next step is to someday, when you are feeling extra relaxed and focused, start with a good warmup of striking on every 4th click, then try it at every 3rd click.

Remember to stay every bit just as relaxed for the 3's.

Do the whole process again (over time) but this time with your sub-dominant hand matching subtle movement to subtle movement of your dominant hand.

It might take only a little longer to achieve the same level of control.

Maybe you have already been doing all this.

Hmmm, I wonder what would happen if you applied the same technique to painting?

Maybe it would result in something like:

Well look at that, a master class!

The Super Duper Super Advanced class would be to use your pocket watch's sweeping second hand and try to take one stroke that moves from highest arm position to just lightly touching the drum after one smooth clean stroke consuming the entire time of one full 360 degrees of the second hand (one minute) with the exact same regular smoothness.

The movement will be very reminiscent of Tai Chi ... for a few billion very good reasons.

It would be nice (and is very possible) to get proficient enough for the movement and timing to be done successfully with your eyes closed (right down to the final light precise touch of the drum) ... in fact being able to do so is imperative for concert performance.

If you run into an intractable wall, it would be my greatest privilege to take a look and help you over it.

I will show you how to freeze frame a movement for closer inspection.

If slower is better, stopped is best.

Usually people never run into trouble until they get to more complicated fast play (such as trying to mimic sounds in nature) after having skipped some of the steps outlined above.

Of course at that point they get a little frustrated, because like I said, "The most fun is trying for absolute precision."

Who doesn't want have the most fun?

I guess I should put this in the Guild Forum and close it to comment. -b

Please stand by ...

The Forum is on hiatus while Bob and Mary take what was learned with the success of the Sugar Loaf project to redirect their focus and funding toward the Detroit project.

Detroit is currently very similar to the Sugar Loaf Bob and Mary arrived in, mid-1977.

Early Sugar Loaf

The Guild can always be contacted by following Map Links to any of the studio websites linked from the Historic Photos page.

The map and photo pages are the perfect hand-held companion app for walking the hamlet and visiting the many successful studios.

We live in exciting times!

Please stand by ...

'nuff said.

Like

The previous survey was very successful confirming who I thought was who, etc.

Just one more round to tidy things up, so we can move on to the next project.

01/31/15
1x Like SUV3

01/28/15
1x Like SUV3

SUV = Sugar Loaf Guild Unknown Viewer

Don't Like

Bob has already made contact Motor City Mapping helping improve their website.

He is currently continuing his study of "blexting" while preparing for this Spring's competitive cycling season.

Hope all is well.

Got my Djembe Drum!

Love playing it ... sometimes my Beagle howls and joins in.

Don't know exactly what I'm doing: but I'm enjoying trying basic timed (and not so timed) beat patterns.

Cheers to you,
Tom

Plus, do you have a metronome? -b

Therefore neither your vote nor comment counts.

However, in answer to your query I must point out that referring to the Sugar Loaf artists using the term Loaf is insulting and degrading, used only by voyeuristic disruptive outsiders.

Not to mention the true artist businesses in Sugar Loaf have never needed postings in this Forum to stay alive ... they are extremely stable and profitable on their own without any cyber intervention ever required.

Neither "Likes" nor "Don't Likes" affect them in the least.

I hope you were not just trying to confirm my suspicions that the one thing always to be counted on in dealing with human beings is that sooner or later each and every one of them will turn on you and bite.

In any case, true Sugar Loaf businesses never bite.

They just make quality products, open their doors regularly, and treat their customers best can be, while standing by their products after purchase.

Thanks for at least trying to vote while helping us clean house.

Better luck next time.

Like

We need to do a little housekeeping before I back away from writing in the Guild Forum so much.

I have identified a dozen or so regular IP#'s who arrive periodically while a number of them are persons unknown.

I have a theory on most of them, but it is time to take a vote.

Otherwise, the Sugar Loaf Guild has boosted the local economy back to where it should be, so I feel my work here is done.

Don't Like

Aside from the renewed economy, even better is the fact the conversation has been elevated.

Lots of businesses are now refocused on handmade items made in Sugar Loaf ... not brought in by the brown trucks.

Plus the computerized record keeping has gotten so sophisticated that tax reports were completed by late morning January 2, 2015.

Another record.

It is a good thing too, because while setting up new health insurance for Bob (who will reach that forced age this year), Mary Endico ran into a hiccup today when she was asked to provide income confirmation for the last three months.

A mere 27 seconds later, Bob had pushed the correct button on the database and saved the entire year of 2014 in PDF format for Mary to upload.

Done, and done!

Therefore a downward trend in New Customers was broken most forcefully.

Of course, the downward trend could only be observed by data mining the studio's proprietary point-of-sale database due to continued strong sales to established customers.

Bob noticed the trend sometime in 2012, so steps were taken to remediate the problem (lucky for other Sugar Loaf businesses who enjoy status as collateral beneficiaries).

Good thing the studio maintains 34 years (and growing) of extremely granular fully parsable digital records, or trouble on the horizon might have been missed until too late.

Nearly four decades of staying on top of foot traffic business in Sugar Loaf allowed the Endico studio to once again, well, do just that ... stay on top of business.

Welcome into the fish bowl, Tom!

That would be great! [per Bob's request to have Canvas interview Tom]

I'm usually around most mornings to afternoons working in my studio.

I can usually be reached at ██.

If I'm not there leave a message, and I'll return the call when I get in.

I carry a pocket watch (not a cell phone).

Thanks again,
Tom

Mary is forwarding your phone number to Sophia Krcic at the Canvas who wrote back below (after our suggestion to interview you, yet before we confirmed you would be willing ... still), The Canvas has always handled interviews above and beyond:

Begin forwarded message
from Sophia Krcic:

Yesss! Tom sounds right up our alley ... and I love his whimsical work!

Thank you for the suggestion. I will jot it down in our April 2015 editorial log.

Thanks again guys, and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Sophia Krcic, Editor
Delaware & Hudson CANVAS
845.926.4646
www.dhcanvas.com

Below is the most recent article the Canvas ran under the Sugar Loaf Guild banner.

The article is about Lenny Silver who will be Town of Chester's next Supervisor (yes, with zero precincts reporting the Guild is calling the 2015 election early, no doubt about it):

Lenny Silver
Delaware & Hudson Canvas
Jan. 2015
(Click to read)

BTW: Somebody should ask Sophia if in high school the kids called her Crotch Kick, or if that didn't start till college.

I'm not about to ask her, but somebody should.

I did get to your site and listen to some of your tracks.

I like them; I got a sense of interlacing threads going in and out of each other and coloring everything (kind of like an audio painting).

Bike riders are usually in great shape (you'd have to be to pedal all those miles).

I generally walk miles and miles with my Beagle for exercise, then hop on my motorcycle and head up into the mountains (and some twisty roads) ... not as healthy as a bike but lots of fun.

Waiting for my Djembe drum ... I might have a question or two once I get into it.

Talk to you soon,
Tom

I used to go with Mary to her watercolor lessons with Whitney because I realized his discussions about color, form, and composition applied equally well to music.

He was describing my inner vision of music.

It was great reinforcement.

Composition: paintings, sculpture, pottery, dance, music, gourds, photos, woodcarving, jewelry, glass, literature, historic architecture, motorcycles, deli sandwiches, etc ... it's all the same thing.

These days I describe myself as a master musician whose main instrument is the written word.

And my concert hall is the inside of people's heads.

I leave out the part about me being a next generation digital performance artist so that people can discover it for themselves.

Those who won't get it on their own, will certainly never get it just from my mentioning it.

Bob Fugett describes
2 motorcyclists' attack

The photo of me above is two years ago, before jump starting all the Sugar Loaf Guild stuff again.

Most recently, you saw me in a much diminished (temporary) state.

I won't be back in top shape by April, but it will be plenty enough to kick the group ride's asses.

If you would like to take your motorcycle on a favorite cyclist course, start in the middle of New Paltz, go up past Minnewaska, cut over using 209 to Catskill Park, go up the right side of Roundout Reservoir, and at the end make a quick right, left, another left and go up Furman Glade Hill Road, loop around and come back down the other side of the reservoir then retrace your steps to New Paltz.

Eighty miles round trip.

We call it "The Mission". -b

I was on the Guild site.

There's a lot going on there (I'll be back in a day or two).

Mary's site (and work) is fantastic ... her soul lives in those paintings!

You're right about my needing to put prices on my website.

Plus (as Mary) I too have a number of pieces that are in museum collections, so I should probably mention that on my website as well.

I'll probably update my site this Spring (with some new work and other things) prior to my one man show.

I'm glad you like the Sunbeam; we'll go for a top down ride after things warm up a little (if I can get you out of the studio for a bit).

Do you have a site with your music on it?

Talk to you on the flip side
Tom

Here is a question for you.

Do you know the technical term for a one man show that is fulltime, 24/7/365, totally self-directed, no outside intervention, completely self sustaining and self supporting (and very lucratively so), where adoring collectors from all over the world make regular traditional trips just to see what is new in your work and take some home to become family heirlooms of personal significance with one-of-a-kind intrinsic cultural value (not for resale), and all of this completed amidst the very specific environment where the work is being created while not stepping on the free flow of the process in the slightest?

Do you know the technical term for such a situation?

No?

Well, the term for that is "Sugar Loaf".

Welcome aboard.

I am surprised you didn't find my music via a Google search, but the currently rather orphaned official website is at:

fugettsound.com

I really have not added to that website in a long while, too much other exciting stuff to get done.

Unlikely that you'll be able to get me out for a car ride, but a bike ride is another story altogether, and by "bike" I mean "bicycle".

I am currently working on a project for the Spring in which I will show up for a Tuesday night group ride starting at Key Bank in Florida, NY and lay waste to the whole damned lot of them for about an hour and a half's worth of big steep hills.

I certainly could use some help, however, because cycling is as much a team sport as is football or basketball, though most regular folks don't know that.

As soon as the group knows what I am up to (my reputation alone will tip them off), they will work together trying to stop me.

They always do.

Actually, I will be able to beat them on my own (have done it many times), but if you would like to get in shape and geared up, I sure wouldn't mind a little helping hand.

Otherwise, looking forward to your big move into Sugar Loaf.

Get ready to become rich and famous, buddy.

Or in your particular case richer and famouser!

You don't think this is going to work, do you?

Some have said it is also just how I set up the environment for Jarvis Boone (therefore Clay) and Walter Kannon to thrive as well, but there isn't a lot of source material to directly support those claims.

There have been lots of others, because one has to fill a deep pool in order for a few tadpoles to survive.

I appreciate your comments and efforts (I'm flattered).

I was just doing what I think you'd do also (my job).

I will get those t-shirts ordered some time next week (good choices!)

As promised I'm sending you my current rides in this e-mail (a 1965 Sunbeam Alpine and 2001 Triumph Bonneville).

Tom Dinchuk's
Rides 2014

Let me know what you think.

I'm planning on surfing the Sugar Loaf site this evening (when I have more time).

Talk to you soon
Tom

It seems the basic facts are being overlooked by the new people of late, and they don't seem to be going out of their way to make sure the rest of the world knows about it either.

In any case, one would think everybody would maintain the same level of excellence just doing their job, but we have been around the block enough to know it really is not that common.

About your rides, let me put it to you this way.

Once in 1965 somebody gave me a brief ride on the back of a 1965 Bonneville.

I was 15 and just about to get my license, so you can guess what that bike means to me, and to think that a 2001 has the classic look ... oh boy.

Plus a Sunbeam, are you shitting me?

You are living the life, my friend!

BTW: The more we look at your paintings, the more we love them.

Would it kill you to put a fucking price on them?

Your rides, your paintings, and your creative energies are going to be a welcome addition to Sugar Loaf.

Susan and I had a great time talking to you guys.

Thanks for the Sugar Loaf University t-shirts ... they're great!

Let me know which two shirts (and the sizes) you want from the T-shirt Country link on my site (I'll be talking to the guy who prints them next week).

Tom Dinchuck's
Woodland Paintings

In the 80's Tom handled the art program at Warwick High School, and he put together some of the most unique programs the school has ever seen.

In fact they were so very unique and time consuming for him that people would ask, "Why are you doing so much work that you don't have to?"

Tom's answer, "Because it is important, and why should I not do something I enjoy just because I don't have to?"

Of course real teachers never asked him that.

For one thing he implemented a Sugar Loaf Apprenticeship program where students from the high school could come over and work with fulltime artists here in the hamlet.

Mary had a couple of apprentices, and Tom hooked me up with one of the best guitar students I ever had.

In fact the student was so good that I eventually had to throw him out of classes, because he was soon playing much better than me but still felt he needed to come for study.

I told him he could study with me forever (and would keep getting better), but studying with me was not going to get him any credentials to use in the real world.

I said, "Look, I'm kicking you out of lessons, but I will take you back after you get a college degree."

Last time I talked to him he had finished an Associates Degree at OCCC (now SUNY) and had gone on to seminary school

Now do you people understand the kind of things Tom Dinchuk makes happen?

There are new people in town who were not around when we built such a strong reputation in the arts for Sugar Loaf that 30 years of 4 Steppers actively trying to tear it down has had very little impact, and they probably wonder how we did it, so let me tell all of you that Tom was one of the prime factors in making it happen.

Therefore, when Tom stopped by with his wife Susan today, I knew enough to do what I could trying to get them to move here and open studios.

I mean, really, Susan owned and operated her own gallery (representing herself and local artists) in New Paltz for 30 years.

She is so good at such stuff, she caught me ignoring customers while I was talking to Tom, and chided me for missing a sale.

She was right, but I blamed it on Mary for not being here because she was over delivering copies of the Delaware & Hudson Canvas Magazine to Len Silver, so he could have some copies of the incredible story they did about him to pass out to his family, friends, and neighbors.

Lenny is going to be the next Town of Chester Supervisor, and it's about time that once again somebody in that position understands Sugar Loaf.

Long past due.

Anyhoo, Tom, I'll take this one for me (extra large):

Bob's CHOICE

And Mary will take this one (medium):

Mary's Choice

Looking forward to having you people as neighbors.

Apparently all I have to do is convince your wife she will find it a lot easier selling her own work in Sugar Loaf than selling other people's work in New Paltz.

Yo, Susan! You will find it a lot easier (actually enjoyable) selling your own work in Sugar Loaf than you did selling other people's work in New Paltz for 30 years.

There, that should do it.

Forum is periodically divided by year and partial year to maintain fast loading.

Forum periodically divided by year and partial year to maintain fast loading.