Stewart Dean's Home Page
Stewart Dean
voice: (845) 336-4815, fax: -2649, email: sdean"at"sdean.net,
webpage: www.sdean.net
My physical location: 300 Ulster Landing Road, Kingston, NY 12401,
Etats Unis
....there's a coupla images to download, please be patient....
Years ago, I left the South to escape its politics and 'religion'...now
they'ves metatisized to the nation at large, and an old-time Deep-South
political machine using fraud, fear and lies to subvert America's democracy.
This page is about what I do in my small
way to counter it.
It's a nasty business, much uglier than it need be....the right has
decided to demonize and defame the left. What ever happened to statesmanship,
to commonweal. But the only thing necessary for evil to triumph is
for good men to remain silent. Here's to a return to civility and
happier times....
Stewart Booming & Zooming 
Hello, this is me some four years back, honking across Pamlico
Sound (the bay to the west of Cape Hatteras) on a windsurfer...I'm getting
along at around 25 mph. These days, tho, I'm most interested in.....
English Country Dance and its Music
English Country Dance is most like contra or perhaps square dance,
but it has a balletic choreography and elegance to it that others don't....and
absolutely gorgeous music, most of it from the late 1600's to middle
1800's. It often sounds like a cross between classical and folk, if you
can imagine such a thing.
I play an English concertina for English Country Dance in the house
bands of:
If you'd like to hear some of my work, here it is
The Craic
The Irish, bless their sometimes joyous souls, have this word in Gaelic
meaning good times, music, dance, song...roistering, outrageous good times.
Mind you, I don't do Irish music much...it isn't my talent, but
I do go for a craic of my own, my participation in music, dance
& song. Sitting and merely listening to music like some potted plant
next to a speaker is not my idea of fun. Going to Folk Festivals where there's
jamming, dancing, open bands, pub and a cappella sings is.
In the picture above, I'm playing in the evening processional to the
dance floor at Northern Week at Ashokan. If you've ever hear Ashokan
Farewell, that powerfully nostalgic waltz, you may be interested to know
that, though it was the theme music for Ken Burns' Civil War PBS documentary,
it was NOT written for that documentary....rather years ago, as a lament
for the end of this camp, which is a sort of magical Brigadoon of music
and dance in the high summer.
I am in hot company...Dave Kaynor, the contra dance fiddle wizard
is on the left, and Bill Matthiesen, of the Waltz Books, on the right playing banjo.
The best: playing for dance with others, for others:
a concert of grace, flow & harmony.
My life in cars 
Would you believe that I had the good fortune to drive and work
on Bugattis as a teenager? Read on.
My current transport is a mildy modified VW GTI VR6 (and amazingly
powerful, smooth, true GT tourer) and a '73 Austin Mini (so much fun to
drive on twisty back roads), currently for sale.
Photography and the various graphic arts
are some of my other interests. I do my photographic work with
an 8x10" view camera ala Ansel Adams or Eliot Porter...it's a beautiful
medium but expensive and time consuming....I decided I wanted to have a
life and a family and so do it very little of it lately.
...reduced resolution, but even so 1MB in size. At the time I took it,
we were living in a house on Overlook Mountain above Woodstock, so high up
that we could see over Ohayo Mountain across the valley to the Ashokan
Reservoir beyond. This image looks down on the Bearsville Flats and the
back road to Mt. Tremper.....and is the sort of view we saw every day. In 1985, the
property (we'd been renting) was sold with 27 acres for $87,500.
For those of you who think that traditional photo-chemical imaging
processes are passe, I'd point out that my camera shoots the equivalent
of a 720 megapixel digital image...while the best digital cameras shoot an
at 6 to 25 megapixels. So it'll be a while yet before
digital electronic imaging can deliver the kind of resolution and depth
of tonality that traditional photgraphic processes can. Oh, I'll be happy
enough when it comes to pass, because the film and developing costs for
one 8"x10" exposure is $15. Ouch!
My Work
Once upon a time, I worked for IBM...that was before its incredible,
never-ending implosion (after each defeat, they shoot more soldiers, while
the generals and staff get medals....at IBM, heads roll up hill!). I got
the axe at the very end of '94...I worked "on the outside" for a while,
but went back as a contractor. Much of the same silly stuff, tho,
as before, got to work with some great people. In some ways, it was a relief
when my contract ended....this time I found a sys admin job at Bard, a
small (and rather free-thinking) liberal arts college...MUCH more to my
inclination, and there I am happily ensconced (did I spell that rightly?).
© COPYRIGHT 2002, Stewart Dean. All of my web pages, photographs
and images included, are copyrighted material! You may NOT copy
or use the text, photographs or images without my express permission.