A book signing with some cultural revelations

TRUMANSBURG, New York - The annual Grassroots Festival of Music and Dance is a cultural phenom here in the Finger Lakes, 25 years old this summer.

Great music and events lineup...

Now that I think about it, my wife Sylvia and I have been married exactly the same amount of time as Grassroots has been going on.

And for the first time in my 25 years of coming to Seneca Lake, we went to Grassroots for two of the four-day run of the festival. Part of our time was spent helping promote Gas Free Seneca, the other to promoting my two novels, The Fracking War and Fracking Justice. Both were successful.

I was struck by how many people are still - even at a progressive, environmentally conscious event like Grassroots - uninformed about the effects of hydrofracking for oil and natural gas.

I was also struck by how many people said they just don't have any time to read - way too busy. When I engaged them in conversation about television however, they could recite chapter and verse about the latest Suits episode.

I suggested she watch the film "Goldfinger"

Amazing music, amazing people, amazing food. Now that I have used three amazings in a row, I should not use a fourth, but I will.

I had my photo taken at the entrance with an amazing woman clad - and painted - all in silver. I wished she had been there dressed as Lady Justice. It would have made the photo even more interesting. She didn't speak at all, just made slow-motion gestures like a statue come alive.

In my case she blew me a kiss after we took the photo together.

I'll be writing my Finger Lakes Times newspaper column this week about Grassroots, including mention of three gas company employees - who swore they were not gas company employees - who asked all kinds of questions about Gas Free Seneca. The trio of beefy, somewhat glum characters claimed to be visiting from Vermont but stood out like proverbial sore thumbs among the throngs of smiling, happy people.

Most likely they hailed from Houston.