A Year's Output of Our Planet's Chromium Mines Visible Here: Motorcycle Mania 2011

Thousands of motorcycles with their drivers and passengers. plus thousands more spectators filled the entirety of Main Street and some of the surrounding streets with a sea of chromium and brilliant paint. This was Motorcycle Mania 2011, an annual event in Middletown, Connecticut for the past several years. Follow are a sampling of photos from the event.

I don't know what motorcycle they rode in on but I am pleased they agreed to be photographed (obligatory eye candy)!

Note: Click on any photo to enlarge

There were a great variety of machines on display including Harleys of every description, Honda comfort bikes, Spyder trikes, and conventional  trikes; also spotted was a single Ducati and a Victory. There were quite a few female drivers but always solo and of course the usual pairing of guy driving and gal holding on in back.

No motorcycle rally would be complete without a cast of colorful characters and this event was no exception:

Bikes and more bikes:

The End (time to partay!):

Reposted from Conservacity (Aug 12, 2011)
Tags: motorcycles,motorcycle rally,motorcycle mania, middletown ct

Middletown Straw Poll: Night Two....

CT Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz and Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch at the 2nd night of The Middletown Straw Poll , January 26,
at Holy Trinity Church, Middletown

Although sparsely attended compared with the previous night's function , this event featured a more animated crowd, entertained with political oratory, rock music and children dancing. Once again the Ron Paul supporters were front and center in numbers and enthusiasm as this was a bipartisan event, whereas the previous straw poll at the Middletown Elk's Lodge was a Republican only event.


The beautiful sanctuary of Middletown's Holy Trinity Church could have accommodated many more folks than the 75 or so that showed up. The straw poll ballots offered 1st, 2nd and 3rd choices but after all the ballots were consolidated and tabulated the final result was Ron Paul 23 and Hillary Clinton 21.

Below is raw video from the evening which runs about 15 minutes:

The first Ron Paul speaker was Joshua Katz. (pictured above) Tom Sheehan, a later speaker for Ron Paul made an impassioned speech about the sanctity of our constitution. Hillary Clinton was represented by two speakers, most notably by Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch. (pictured at top) Mike Huckabee was represented, as he was last evening, by William Landers. John Killian, who organized the event, read a short statement about the Obama candidacy while later in the evening a more impassioned speech for Obama was made by Bradley Spahn. Middletown city council member Earle Roberts spoke for the John McCain candidacy.There were no presenters for Mitt Romney, winner of last evening's straw poll, or Rudy Giuliani. The corporate sponser of the event was NEOS, L.L.C., a software consulting firm from Manchester, CT , whose owner, Ernst Renner, presided as M.C.

Special mention must be made of the presence this evening of the lovely, gracious, and animated Susan Bysiewicz, Connecticut's Secretary of the State. Her stand up, hand and arm ballet, by way of explaining the state election requirements for the Feb 5 primary was beautiful and effective. A great many Connecticut registered voters are unaffiliated with a party so Ms. Bysiewicz brought with her stacks of registration forms to enable anyone present to enroll in a political party. I succumbed to her blandishments and switched from independent to party enrolled.

This blog also appears today at Right of Middle.

Romney Wins Middletown Straw Poll....

Middletown Mayor Sebastian Giuliano and CT G.O.P. Chair Healey


Very complete video of this event at Brainflation


There was a nice turnout this evening for the Middletown Straw Poll sponsored by Connecticut Republicans. Around 150 people were at the Middletown Elks lodge to hear pitches for the various Republican presidential candidates. The Everyday Republican blog is now reporting the final vote tabulation: Romney 136, McCain 104, Paul 96, Giuliani 34, Huckabee 9, Thompson 2, and Hunter 1.

It was a lively crowd and the Ron Paul supporters were certainly the liveliest! Chris Healy, Connecticut G.O.P. chairman, and the evening's M.C., had to tell the Paul people at one point to quiet down and let all sides be heard. Healy then introduced Middletown's Mayor, Seb Giuliano, who gave a short welcoming address.

Former Massachusetts governor Jane Swift was on hand to speak for John McCain. Her remarks followed a video presentation of McCain's military and P.O.W. experiences.

The Mitt Romney camp also used a video to explain the candidate's experience in business and government. Mayor Mark Bouton of Danbury then spoke on the candidate's behalf.

Ralph Campanara of Rocky Hill gave a humorous and engaging defense of his candidate, Rudy Giuliani.

Mike Huckabee was represented by William Landers, a local businessman.

Here are some additional still photos:







Today on Steady Habits: Why the Media Love John McCain....

Coginchaug River
Cleanup July 28

From today's Hartford Courant:

MIDDLETOWN - - The Jonah Center for Earth and Art will hold a river clean up July 28 from 9 a.m. to noon along the Coginchaug River in the North End. The goal is to remove plastic bottles, tents and tarps left by campers and other debris from the site of the Jonah Center's proposed boat launch adjacent to the city's closed landfill, and from the 20 acres of newly acquired open space on the river's floodplain. Volunteers are needed at both locations. Volunteers can reach the boat-launch site via the Middletown recycling center, at North Main and Johnson streets. Go left after entering the recycling center, park near the brush piles, and follow the access road to the north. The open space location on the Coginchaug floodplain, known as the Salafia property, may be reached from the west end of Catherine Street. Guides will be at these locations to direct volunteers..... For more information, call John Hall at 860-343-3259. Link to group's web site:
http://www.thejonahcenter.org/index.php

To help volunteers find the site here is a link to a Goggle map.






This is view a of my favorite little river, the Coginchaug, as it flows near my home in Middletown's West End. The riverbed and banks are fairly clean in my neighborhood although I have noticed quite a few cans and bottles and even one abandoned shopping cart. Conditions deteriorate rapidly, I have learned, at the area known as the city's North End peninsula near the confluence of the Coginchaug and the Mattabesset. Here debris has accumulated, carelessly discarded by campers, boaters and others. Fortunately, a group called Jonah Center for Earth and Art has put forth an ambitious plan to cleanup the area and develop it as an innovative center for ecological study and community activity. A boat launch is planned. The Jonah Center's web site offers a wealth of information about the area.

The Jonah Center for Earth and Art wants to transform the neck of land at the confluence of the Mattabesett and Coginchaug Rivers (the “North End Peninsula”) in Middletown, CT into an innovative educational facility and a major tourist destination. This property, which now appears to be urban industrial blight, is rich in educational and recreational possibilities.

The Jonah Center for Earth and Art wants to teach — by means of a truly living, evolving facility — how energy from the sun is captured and then circulated through the ecosystem, from plants to microbes to complex human culture. This learning center will be integrated with the present recycling center and evolve into a multi-faceted science and cultural center that will eventually include space for performing arts, planetarium shows, and more.

Here is an aerial view of the area from the group's web pages:

Middletown Born Artist William Ranney
Featured in New Exhibition




Self Portrait (1839)

The current issue of Antiques and The Arts Weekly (Newtown CT) contains a featured article on Middletown born painter William Tylee Ranney (1813-1857). Currently thru August 19 an exhibition of some 60 of the artist's paintings is at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Titled "Forging an American Identity: The Art of William Ranney", this exhibition was organized by Sarah E. Boehme at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody WY where its tour began.

Some 60 works comprise "Forging an American Identity: The Art of William Ranney," on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through August 19. It was organized by Sarah E. Boehme, formerly of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyo. (where it began its tour) and now director of the Stark Museum of Art in Orange, Texas. She notes that new information about the painter and recently discovered paintings by him offer "new insights" in this "unparalleled gathering of the artist's most significant paintings."

Born in Middletown, Conn., the son of a sea captain, Ranney moved at age 13 to Fayetteville, N.C., where he lived with an uncle and trained as a tinsmith. His experiences in this bustling gateway to the West filled his imagination with a grand sense of the American character and landscape.

Moving to Brooklyn around 1833, Ranney began studying drawing and painting. Three years later, inspired by news of the siege of the Alamo, he volunteered to serve in the war for Texas independence. During his brief sojourn in Texas, he absorbed a wealth of observations about the culture, mores and landscape of the American West that would inspire his most famous paintings. His wife Margaret later observed that her husband was "so charmed by everything he saw…the wild enchanting prairies, the splendid horses," that he never would have returned East "but for the strong love he had for his mother."

The painting "Portrait of Margaret Ranney", the artist's wife is at the Cromwell (CT) Historical Society. Some additional biographical information and images follow:

RANNEY, William, artist, born in Middletown, Connecticut, 9 May, 1813; died in West Hoboken, New Jersey, 18 November, 1857. Tile name that was given him at baptism was William Tylee, but he never used the latter. At the age of thirteen he was taken to Fayetteville, North Carolina, by his uncle, where he was apprenticed to a tinsmith, but seven years later he was studying drawing in Brooklyn. When the Texan struggle began, Ranney enlisted, and during the campaign became acquainted with many trappers and guides of the west. After his return home he devoted himself mainly to portraying their life and habits. Among his works are" Boone's First View of Kentucky," " On the Wing," " Washington on his Mission to the Indians" (1847), " Duck-Shooting," which is in the Corcoran gallery, Washington, "The Sleigh-Ride," and "The Trapper's Last Shot." Many of these have been engraved. He was a frequent exhibitor at the National academy, of which he was elected an associate in 1850.
Source: Virtualology.com

William Ranney Veterans of 1776 Returning from the War

William Ranney Duck Shooters (1849)

William Ranney Advice on the Prairie (1853)

In this, his late "Self-portrait,” circa 1856–1857, Ranney presented himself as a thoughtful, intense, mature figure, whose profession is indicated by the barely visible end of a paint brush at the bottom of the picture. Private collection.