The Lunar New Year Begins: Entering the Year of the Horse
Plus: a storm-forecasting initiative to prevent power outages, Gov. Hochul’s $200M Downtown Albany strategy, Capital Region Thomas Edison Music Awards nominations, and creative events across the 518.
🔎 Across the Web: The Lunar New Year Begins
The Lunar New Year began yesterday, marking the start of the Year of the Horse and a new cycle rooted in family, tradition, and renewal.
Yesterday’s new moon marked the start of the Lunar New Year, observed across China and throughout East and Southeast Asia, as well as in communities around the world. The holiday follows a lunisolar calendar and begins on the first new moon between January 21 and February 20 each year.
Often referred to as Spring Festival in China, the celebration centers on reunion, preparation, and intention. In the days leading up to the new year, families clean their homes to symbolically clear away misfortune and make room for good luck. Debts are settled. Loose ends are tied. The emphasis is on beginning well.
Family and Food at the Center
New Year’s Eve is anchored by a reunion dinner, typically the most important meal of the year. Foods carry symbolic meaning. Dumplings resemble ancient gold ingots and represent prosperity. Whole fish signal abundance. Longevity noodles, served uncut, signify a long life.
Children receive red envelopes, known as hóngbāo, filled with money as a gesture of blessing and protection. Red decorations fill homes and streets, as the color is associated with luck and good fortune. Fireworks and lion dances remain common in many regions, rooted in folklore that links noise and spectacle with warding off bad spirits.
The celebration traditionally lasts fifteen days and concludes with the Lantern Festival.
The Year of the Horse
Each year in the lunar zodiac is associated with one of twelve animals. This year is the Year of the Horse.
The Horse is associated with energy, independence, and sociability. It is often described as quick thinking, expressive, and drawn to action. In traditional zodiac lore, it is a sign linked to movement and confidence.
Notable Figures Born in the Year of the Horse
Among those born in Horse years:
Clint Eastwood (1930)
Paul McCartney (1942)
Aretha Franklin (1942)
Emma Watson (1990)
Ashton Kutcher (1978)
Janet Jackson (1966)
Kanye West (1978)
Jerry Seinfeld (1954)
As with all lunar zodiac signs, those born in January may fall into the previous zodiac year depending on the date of the new moon.
Locals of Note Born in the Year of the Horse
Kirsten Gillibrand (1966)
Born in Albany. 1966 is a Horse year.Gregory Maguire (1954)
Born in Albany. 1954 is a Horse year.
Horse Personality Traits
People born in Horse years are traditionally described as:
Energetic and expressive
Independent and freedom loving
Sociable and persuasive
Quick thinking
Sometimes impatient
The Lunar New Year marks a reset grounded in tradition. It is a time to gather, to honor family, and to begin the year with intention.
👗 Fashion & Design: Scratch That Itch to Create
Sunday FOMO listed several activities centered around creation and design. Here’s what remains for the remainder of the week.
LEGO Challenge — Clifton Park–Halfmoon Public Library | Feb. 19
Timed design thinking for young builders. Structured creativity with constraints.Horse Crafts — Bethlehem Public Library | Feb. 19
A seasonal children’s craft program tied to the Year of the Horse, modest in scale and early-childhood oriented.Families Love Cupcakes! (Session 1) — Guilderland Public Library | Feb. 19
A hands-on family cooking class emphasizing technique over spectacle. Waitlist status signals high demand for shared creative programming.Families Love Cupcakes! (Session 2) — Guilderland Public Library | Feb. 19
A second session reflecting overflow interest. Skill-based, participatory, and family-scaled.VolunTEENs — Clifton Park–Halfmoon Public Library | Feb. 20
Service hours through hands-on seasonal decoration production. Creativity framed as civic contribution.
💻 Tech & Innovation: Working to Avoid Power Outages
If you have ever stood in your kitchen during a storm, flipping a light switch that no longer responds, you understand how quickly modern life can stall.
The two universities have launched the North American Forecasting Weather, Outage, Load and Damage Initiative, an effort to build a continent-scale model that predicts storm-related power outages before wires hit the ground. The work grows out of WISER, the Center for Weather Innovation and Smart Energy and Resilience, established in 2023 with support from the National Science Foundation.
At its core, the project pairs high-resolution weather forecasting with real outage data from utilities. Researchers will use artificial intelligence to study how wind, ice, heat and saturated soil translate into snapped lines and dark neighborhoods. The goal is not simply to say a storm is coming, but to estimate which circuits will fail, how many customers will lose service, and where crews should already be waiting.
The first pilots will focus on New York, New England and California. If additional funding follows, the model would expand along both coasts and eventually across the United States and Canada.
Why does this matter here at home?
Over the past decade, electricity bills in New York have climbed sharply, rising about 33 percent on average. Regulators approved dozens of rate increases nationwide last year alone. Storm damage is one of the hidden drivers of those costs. When utilities scramble after the fact, they pay overtime, bring in out-of-state crews and absorb repair expenses that are later folded into rates.
Better forecasts could change that math. If utilities know two days in advance which substations are likely to flood or which tree-lined corridors are most vulnerable, they can stage equipment, request assistance early and restore service faster. Fewer hours in the dark. Fewer days of spoiled food. Less economic drag on small businesses that cannot afford to close.
There is also the larger backdrop. As the climate shifts, severe weather is becoming more disruptive. At the same time, much of the transmission infrastructure was built for a different era. Predicting failure with greater precision becomes a form of prevention.
Last week, industry leaders gathered in Albany to back the initiative with $550,000 in initial support. The advisory board includes major utilities such as National Grid, Con Edison and New York Power Authority, along with partners from across the energy sector. More than 30 proposals were presented at the annual meeting, a reminder that resilience has become both a research priority and a business imperative.
For readers, the story is less about acronyms and more about anticipation. We check weather apps before a snowstorm. We move cars off the street before a plow comes through. This initiative imagines a grid that does the same.
The light switch in your kitchen may never feel high tech. It is a small piece of plastic on the wall. But behind it runs a network of forecasts, data and decisions. The hope in Albany and Storrs is that, the next time the wind rises, the system will already know what is at stake and respond before the darkness settles in.
📰 Useful News: Hochul’s $200M Plan for Albany
Last week, Gov. Kathy Hochul unveiled her $200 million Downtown Albany Strategy, part of the broader $400 million Championing Albany’s Potential initiative, and it aims squarely at the city’s core.
The language of the plan is ambitious. More housing. More jobs. Stronger small businesses. Revitalized public spaces. Clear targets anchor the vision. Triple the downtown residential base to 3,500 people by 2035. Add 1,500 jobs within five years and 3,000 within a decade. Draw five million annual visitors. Improve safety perceptions. Leverage private investment at a three to one ratio.
Those numbers can feel abstract until you translate them into lived experience.
More residents means lights on after sunset. It means a reason for a grocery store to stay open. It means someone walking a dog at 9 p.m. and another person choosing to open a café because there is finally a steady customer base.
The strategy organizes its spending into three funds. A $120 million Transformative Projects Fund will back marquee developments designed to shift public perception. A $40 million Housing Investment Fund is meant to expand residential options. Another $40 million Community Investment Fund will target parks and neighborhood amenities. Up to $40 million is earmarked for redevelopment around Liberty Park, a site seen as central to creating a new residential anchor.
The plan grew out of public workshops and stakeholder meetings that involved residents, business owners and students. That matters. Albany has no shortage of reports. What it has often lacked is alignment and sustained follow through.
Downtown is still adjusting to post pandemic work patterns. Commercial vacancies remain visible. State government offices no longer generate the same daily foot traffic. The question is whether coordinated public investment can tip the balance toward a more mixed use future.
For readers who live outside the city limits, this may feel distant. It is not. Downtown Albany functions as the civic front porch of the Capital Region. When it feels hollow, the region absorbs that signal. When it feels active, the confidence carries outward.
The strategy now moves to implementation, with program guidelines expected to advance this month and funding applications to open soon after.
🎭 Arts & Culture: The Eddies Are Coming
Last week, the nominees for this spring’s Capital Region Thomas Edison Music Awards were announced. It is an annual list, but it reads like something more enduring. A ledger of who is making music here and who is helping them do it.
The ceremony returns April 26 at Universal Preservation Hall. There will be applause, speeches and a handful of winners. What matters more is the gathering itself. The Eddies have become a way to pause and take stock of the 518’s working artists and the network that supports them.
More than 190 finalists across 30-plus categories are recognized this year for work released and performed in 2025. The ballot stretches from hip hop to classical, from metal to folk. Established names sit beside musicians who may still be loading their own gear into small clubs. Studios, promoters, venues, photographers, DJs and journalists are acknowledged alongside performers. The message is clear. A scene is not only the people on stage.
Selections are made by judges drawn from the local music community, guided by the quarterly Local 518 Music Reports that have documented regional releases since 2012.
The awards began in 2019 after tribute concerts at Proctors revealed how much talent was already here. A Hall of Fame followed. During the pandemic, ceremonies continued in modified form at UPH.
If you listen to On The List on WVCR, you hear the weekly evidence. Musicians carving out space. Bands building audiences.
On April 26, a few names will be called. Most will not. All of them will have been counted. In a region that sometimes looks outward for validation, that accounting matters.
Tune in to On The List every Thursday at 6 p.m. on WVCR and iHeartRadio for an hour of music made in the 518 and conversations with the musicians behind it. Each week also includes three hand-picked suggestions to help shape your weekend plans.
🎧 From the Radio: Look Who’s On The List
I should add a small, personal note to last week’s Eddies rundown.
Alongside the nominees for albums, live acts and studios, I learned that I am nominated for Best Radio DJ of the Year at this spring’s Capital Region Thomas Edison Music Awards.
The nomination is tied to On The List, my weekly hour on WVCR and iHeartRadio, where I focus exclusively on music made in the 518. The show was never intended as a pivot. It was an extension. Whether or not my name is called, the nomination underscores something I have come to value more each year. Platforms may change. The work remains the same. Show up for the artists. Document the moment. Keep the signal strong.
Thanks for reading.
If this was useful, feel free to share it with someone who pays attention.
Come back Friday for Friday’s Peace.
— Michael