Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas Staten Island

The St. George Ball

We were honored to sponsor the outside of the museum for the first St. George Ball. I know that sounds funny, but for those of you who don’t know yet, one of our main producers is a bagpiper. He played Christmas Carols on the Pipe outside the Museum.

People who lived in the area or who were walking up from the Ferry commented on the music which could be heard from blocks away.

Inside the museum after the party was underway, we set up the camera and started the interviews. We were lucky enough to get several unique perspectives on the Island and even caught up with the staff of the museum and the artist who is on display, Sarah Youst.

Thanks to Cecelia and Ann Maria for inviting us to such a great event.

PS I even saw my high school English teacher that night. This Island really is a small place.

MC Battle for Supremacy

Our sincerest apologies to the MC Battle for Supremacy. We were scheduled to attend the event, but had to cancel out at the last minute due to illness. We hope the event was successful and we still plan to visit the NY Art Center where it was held at a later date.

Tree Lighting - Tristan Wilde

We ran home from our day jobs for a rare Monday filming today. Straight to St. George for the Christmas tree lighting.

Outside of borough hall, many schools had sent choirs to sing Christmas Carols. While we were watching, I noticed the guardian angles. I have never seen them before on the Island. They were more than happy to be interviewed. They are expanding on the Island and looking for new volunteers all the time.

We found our friends from City-Zen and the St. George Civic Society watched the tree being light, and the square in front of the tree. The borough president even welcomed Santa.

As we watched, we asked to interview the people who were dressed in Dickenville era clothing. Turns out we were meeting the people who clean up abandon cemeteries for Staten Island. Then the screams started.

Little did I know who was behind me; Tristan Wilde. Another one of Staten Island’s “30 Under 30” from the Advance article was standing right behind me. We got him on tape; our first official TV star.

Before we closed out the night, we met with the Red Cross and the guys who were setting up the stage for the event.

Overall the evening was perfect and we even handed out business card to a photographer who said, “Yeah I have heard of you guys!” That made out night.

Staten Island Mall

A lot happened this weekend. The more we think we know about the Island, the more we find out.

Before I give you the details of our tour of the Island, I need to comment on the article in the Staten Island Advance on Saturday.

No Room at the Inn by: Judy Randall.

I believe that Staten Island, unlike the other boroughs at times, has a better sense of itself when it comes to our religious beliefs. As a whole, we seem to be Catholic. Even if you aren't, we all do list a religion. We are not the hotspot for agnostics or atheists. And we are not threatened with all religions having their symbols around.

You don't hear about things being non-denominational as much as you hear, multi-denominational. We embrace religion here.

With this being said who made these calls to the mall? And how many were there? I believe it held true that the people who like the Nativity didn't call to compliment the set up. Only the negative reaction was seen and dealt with.

This falls right in line with our mission. Only the negative is seen about Staten Island, never the positive.

If you want to express your view, check out the forum on our main page. We are looking for a nice mixture of responses, both for and against, so we can add it to the project.

Scared! - Meucci - World AIDs Day

In the morning, I started the day off at the blood lab getting tests for my yearly physical. The lab technician noticed my hat and I explained the project, Save Staten Island. I scored us an invite to a function in New Brighton to raise awareness for World AIDS day.

After the labs, I got one of my partners and headed to the ferry to pick up and interview a potential editor. We may be novice filmmakers, but we now have professional help in the editing process.

When we made the plans to meet, it was decided she could come to the Island and see what we were all about. Now at some point in every Islanders life, we say, hey let’s go someplace better, but not this time. I said sure take the 9am boat, and I will take you to our cultural center.

We toured Snug Harbor with the editor who hails from DC these days, and a friend of hers. By the time we dropped them off at the ferry, later in the day, we had in love with the Island. Not everyone thinks this place is a dump.

Later I was at a CYO basketball game. I never miss those, since my favorite basketball player is on one of the teams.

We spent the evening with a local film crew filming the latest episode of Scared. They investigate the paranormal for a local cable show. SSI visited them in the hopes of seeing some of the great stuff Islanders are up to. Not only did we get to meet a great group of people and have a pretty interesting night doing so, we also knocked off a few others things on our list.

Fist we got to meet one of the ’30 Under 30’ from the Advance article. Emily Gear is the curator of the Garibaldi Meucci Museum in Rosebank. We interview her and her dog, Louie for the film. Louie is a star already!

Then we toured the museum itself. They also display art shows. The one currently on display runs though January. We hope to return for the next exhibit opening.