Art

When I learned that Gary Hunter had passed on at 68 years of age, I thought back over the 50 year period over which his name had crossed my radar. I grew up in Owego, I followed high school football, and my friends that played spoke of the almost mythical team a half hour up Route 96B. Gary Hunter was one of the cornerstones of that state championship dynasty that made his hometown so proud.

By the time I took over this column in 1992, Gary’s personal athletic achievements had faded in the rear-view mirror to a degree (he was also a beast of a wrestler, a prodigious thrower of the discus, and he went to college on a football scholarship), but he was still coaching at his alma mater and loving every minute of it. We saw each other often, and he had such an engaging way of pulling me into the stories about the kids he was coaching. Sometimes, he wanted to tell me about a young athlete that was on the verge of breaking a record, or gearing up for collegiate competition, but his excitement was just as palpable when he was telling me about some kid who was on a dark path but found a ray of light through sports. Gary had hit a few personal potholes of his own, but he knew that through sports, and the people involved, one can patch one’s tire, pump it back up and keep going.

I was happy for Gary when he was inducted into the Ithaca High School Athletic Hall of Fame in 2007, and even happier when Section IV’s HOF recognized him a decade later. The students at I.H.S. knew Gary Hunter as “The Legend.” I knew him as a man who loved young athletes and held them in his big heart until its last beat.

Sandy Kuntz also passed on at age 88. Sandy’s husband, Hal, was the official scorekeeper for Cornell basketball until his way-too-early passing in 1986, but Sandy and her children, Mike and Jackie, stayed closely connected to the program while running the iconic Hal’s Deli until it closed in 2017. My friend Mark Goldberg, who was also very close to the program, said, “Through decades of Cornell Basketball—both during the good times and tough seasons—Hal and Sandy were always there for both the coaches and players. They were a constant with Big Red basketball and treated the players and coaches like they were family. Hal went on practically every road trip during the Tom Miller era, and he was always there to lighten the mood and keep the players relaxed so they could focus on the task at hand, and Sandy was there after games to give them hugs. They hosted teams both at the restaurant and at their house. I’m not sure both truly realized the important role they played in the program and impact they had on dozens of Big Red basketball players and coaches.”

In 1994, I wrote a story about the passing of Jim Dale, a beloved member of the Ithaca softball community. He played for Hal’s Deli, and Sandy and her family had a trophy case at the deli. They put the story in it for all to see, and from that time until they closed the doors 23 years later, I saw

Jim Case

that yellowed, crinkled article, keeping Jim’s memory alive. I would walk in and say “I wish for a knish,” and Sandy would laugh—yet again—and say something nice about my stories. She was a kind, sweet and very classy lady.

Jim Case was the Associate Head Athletic Trainer at Cornell, and he patched up the knees, shoulders, hopes and dreams for hundreds of Big Red athletes since arriving on campus in 1988.

Jim, who was 55, was also a husband and father (he and his wife, Ladeen, were parents to a daughter and two sons), and given our daughters were the same age, we gave one another updates over the years. We were proud when both of them enrolled at Nazareth College at the same time. His daughter landed back in the area, mine moved away, and Jim laughed when I told him, “Kids…we can steer ’em, but we can’t park ’em.”

I was pleased when Jim showed up on a regular basis to referee basketball games at Spencer-Van Etten. I roasted him about the fashion benefits of vertical stripes, likened his shirt to a prison uniform, and he gave it right back to me, asking if I was in Spencer because I had been banned from Ithaca.

Jim was the trainer for the men’s lacrosse team. They were 5-0, ranked #2 in the country and had big dreams. On Thursday, they were informed that the remainder of their season had been cancelled and two days later, they lost a dear friend. My heart hurts for all of them.

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Music

Bars/Bands/Clubs

3/20 Friday Canceled: Something More Than This | 5:30 PM, | South Hill Cider Tasting Room, Ithaca Canceled: Friday Music at Hopshire | 6:00 PM, | Hopshire Farm & Brewery, Freeville

3/21 Saturday Canceled: Ed Clute - Red Newt Bistro Music | 1:00 PM, | Red Newt Cellars Inc, Hector

3/22 Sunday Canceled: Gerard Burke - Red Newt Bistro Music | 1:00 PM, | Red Newt Cellars Inc, Hector Canceled: SOUK | 3:30 PM, | South Hill Cider, Ithaca | $10 Suspended: Ithaca Jazz and Blues Jam | 4:00 PM, | Mix Kitchen and Bar, Ithaca Canceled: Meanderers | 5:00 PM, | Bickering Twins, Ithaca Concerts/Recitals

Postponed : Tom Paxton and The DonJuans | 8:00 PM, 3/18 Wednesday | Hangar Theatre, 801 Taughannock Blvd, Ithaca | Postponed to September 9 Canceled: Angela and William Haines Young Concert Artists Residency: Anthony Trionfo, flute | 7:00 PM, 3/20 Friday | Hockett Family Recital Hall, Ithaca College, Ithaca | CANCELED Marsalis and Gordon with Wind Symphony and Jazz Ensemble | 7:30 PM, 3/20 Friday | Bailey Hall, Cornell, Ithaca | Canceled: The Town Pants | 8:00 PM, 3/20 Friday | Smith Center for the Arts, 82 Seneca St, Geneva | The Smith has made the difficult decision to close the theater effective through at least Sunday, April 12. All scheduled programming during that time is postponed, including Friday’s Town Pants concert. CANCELED: Organ and Viol recital: CU Music | 7:00 PM, 3/21 Saturday | Sage Chapel, Cornell, Ithaca | Anna Steppler and Zoe Weiss perform “Breaking Ground: Divisions for Organ and Viol” with music by Sweelinck, Simpson, Merulo, Ortiz, and others. Canceled: Symphoria Pops IV: Movies And The Masters | 7:30 PM, 3/21 Saturday | Oncenter Crouse Hinds Theater, 411 Montgomery Street, Syracuse | Symphoria will be suspending all live, in-person performances at least through March 31. | $90-$20, College $5, 18 & under $0 Postponed: The Acoustic Living Room: Songs and Stories w/ Kathy Mattea Ft. Bill Cooley | 8:00 PM, 3/22 Sunday | Hangar Theatre, 801 Taughannock Blvd, Ithaca | CANCELED: Ensemble X: CU Music | 3:00 PM, 3/22 Sunday | Barnes Hall, Cornell, Ithaca | CANCELED: Ariana Kim violin recital: CU Music | 7:00 PM, 3/23 Monday | Carriage House Cafe, 305 Stewart Ave, Ithaca | CANCELED Midday Music for Organ: Michael Plagerman | 12:30 PM, 3/25 Wednesday | St. Luke’s Lutheran Church, 109 Oak Avenue, Ithaca | Postponed: Bob Weir And Wolf Bros | 7:00 PM, 3/24 Tuesday | Landmark Theatre, 362 S Salina St, Syracuse | Bob Weir and Wolf Bros has been rescheduled for October 25. If you are a current ticket holder, your ticket will be valid for the October 25 performance. Otherwise, refunds will be available at your point of purchase. POSTPONED: Béla Fleck & The Flecktones | 8:00 PM, 3/25 Wednesday | State Theatre Of Ithaca, 107 W State St, Ithaca | This concert is postponed until further notice.

Stage

Canceled: Riverdance - 25th Anniversary Show | 7:30 PM, 3/18 Wednesday | Clemens Center, 207 Clemens Center Parkway, Elmira | This show will be rescheduled as part of the 2020-21 season. Canceled-ComedyFLOPs Presents: All You Can Eat Improv To Benefit Running To Places | 7:00 PM, 3/19 Thursday | The Haunt, 702 Willow Ave., Ithaca, | Due to recommendations around minimizing the spread of the Corona Virus, this show is cancelled. We will continue to identify other opportunities to support Running To Places as the situation resolves. For updates please visit our website at http://comedyflops.com or our Facebook page, https://www. facebook.com/comedyflops. *?* Streets Like This | 7:30 PM, 3/19 Thursday | The Cherry Artspace, 102

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03/19

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Cherry Street, Ithaca | We have no information on the status of this event. Please contact the Cherry Artspace for details. Postponed: Dead Silent, or Florence of Moravia - Mystery Dinner Theatre | 6:30 PM, 3/20 Friday | Cortland Repertory Theatre, 24 Port Watson St., Cortland | At this time, CRT will be cancelling/postponing our events through March 31. Canceled: Amadeus | 7:30 PM, 3/20 Friday | Syracuse Stage/Drama Complex, 820 E Genesee St, Syracuse | Performances are canceled. CANCELED: Catch As Catch Can | 8:00 PM, 3/20 Friday | Kitchen Theatre, 417 W State St, Ithaca | All performances have been canceled. Patrons with tickets for the production will automatically receive a credit that they can use this season or next. Ticket donations will be gratefully accepted, and the proceeds from all ticket donations will go to support Kitchen Theatre programs and artists, including those affected by the show’s cancelation. Those requesting refunds will get them. Canceled: New Play Festival | All Day 3/21 Saturday | Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts, Cornell University, Ithaca | Postponed: -One Funny Ithaca | 7:00 PM, 3/21 Saturday | Hangar Theatre, 801 Taughannock Blvd, Ithaca | Postponed TBA - A benefit for the Cancer Resource Center, featuring local First Responders sharing the lighter side of work and life in Ithaca.

Art

Canceled: Craft & Chat: Pysanky | 6:00 PM, 3/18 Wednesday | Edith B. Ford Memorial Library, 7169 N Main St, Ovid | The Ford Library will close March 16 through April 14, 2020. Residents are encouraged to visit the library’s website and Facebook page for updates on library services. Suspended: Artist Alley Open Studios | 5:00 PM, 3/19 Thursday | South Hill Business Park, 950 Danby Rd, Ithaca | Moved to online: Italy and Exotic Lands Exhibition | 12:00 PM, 3/20 Friday | North Star Art Gallery, 743 Snyder Hill Road, Ithaca | Artist Brian Keeler exhibits paintings of both classical and contemporary Italian and exotic lands bringing his masterful touch of light and figure to these subjects.? Canceled: ITHACON 45 | 10:00 AM, 3/21 Saturday | Ithaca College , 953 Danby Road, Ithaca | UPDATE: Much to our regret, we need to inform you that ITHACON, scheduled for March 21-22, is cancelled for 2020. Canceled: Block Printing on Fabric | 6:00 PM, 3/23 Monday | Edith B. Ford Memorial Library, 7169 N Main St, Ovid | The Ford Library will close March 16 through April 14, 2020. Residents are encouraged to visit the library’s website and Facebook page for updates on library services.

Film

All movie theaters are closed until further notice. This includes Cornell Cinema, Cinemapolis, and Regal Ithaca.

Special Events

Canceled: Heermans-McCalmon Dramatic Writing Student Award Presentation | 4:30 PM, 3/20 Friday | Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts, Cornell University, Ithaca | Canceled: 7th Annual Foodnet Meals on Wheels Mac ‘n Cheese Bowl | 11:30 AM, 3/21 Saturday | Ithaca High School, 1401 N Cayuga St, Ithaca |

Books

LIBRARY CLOSED UNTIL 4/13/20: Young Adult Book Club | 4:30 PM, 3/18 Wednesday | Tompkins County Public Library, 101 E Green St, Ithaca | LIBRARY CLOSED UNTIL 4/13/20: Canceled: The Fight Against Monsanto’s Roundup: The Politics of Pesticides | 5:00 PM, 3/19 Thursday | Buffalo Street Books, Buffalo St, Ithaca | The book store is closed until further notice. Canceled: Finger Lakes Beekeepers Book Club | 6:30 PM, 3/19 Thursday | Tompkins County Public Library, 101 E. Green St., Ithaca | Canceled: Chats in the Stacks: Karen Penders St. Clair on The Comstocks of Cornell: The Definitive Autobiography | 4:00 PM, 3/25 Wednesday | 160 Mann Library, 237 Mann Drive, Cornell University, Ithaca |

Kids

Suspended: Cuddle-up Infant & Toddler Library Time | 10:00 AM, 3/18 Wednesday | Southworth Library, 24 W. Main Street, Dryden | Library is closed until further notice. LIBRARY CLOSED UNTIL 4/13.Preschool Storytime at Southworth Library | 10:00 AM, 3/20 Friday | Southworth Library, 24 W. Main Street, Dryden | Suspended while library is closed.

Dreams through Nightmares

Ithaca’s Michael Watson presents a locallythemed comic book

By Libby Cook A s a film student at Ithaca College, Michael Watson aimed to portray his stories through motion pictures. It was all he dreamed of doing, literally. While he was a student, Watson experienced a nightmare which became the central idea for his latest work, a comedic-Lovecraftian Ithaca-based comic book series titled Ithaqa.

Though Watson’s primary medium for art was filmmaking, the Ithaqa story demanded a film adaptation with too big of a budget for Watson as a student filmmaker. He continued with the development of the story until he decided to take it to the comic book realm, a world he already had experience with through a college thesis.

“When I was in college, I did a transmedia thesis,” Watson said. “I had a short film and a webcomic that expanded on the story, then I had a website to further expand on the story. I had fun playing with the limitlessness of a comic book medium where you can just tell artists to draw the world ending and they can do it.” Watson’s Ithaqa currently has two completed issues with a third nearly finished. The story follows Mookie Smitts, a filmmaker who uncovers a plot to destroy the Spacetime Continuum as he struggles to produce his latest film. The story takes place in 1920s Ithaca. “It’s kind of the collapse of the end of the Wharton film studio,” Watson said, referring to the silent film studio that made Ithaca a hub of filmmaking in that era. “A series of misfits find themselves stumbling upon this horrible Eldritch conspiracy. They’re forced to work together, kind of like 1920s Avengers or something.”

The story, which began in the comedy genre, is now classified by Watson as a Lovecraftian horror story. The Lovecraftian genre

Arts & Entertainment

incorporates the horror and mystery realm in Watson’s work. It is also the source of inspiration for the spelling of the Ithaqa title.

“I wanted to set [the story] in Ithaca but one of the kind of cool little coincidences is that in the Lovecraftian horror genre, one of the horrible Eldritch spirits is the Ithaqua,” Watson said.

Though Watson’s work does not include the Ithaqua spirit, it and the city of Ithaca are alluded to in the comic title’s spelling with the change of the “C” to a “Q,” as seen on the comic’s cover which was designed by Watson’s team member Lucas Gattoni. Gattoni is a professional comic book letterer Watson met after posting an online advertisement for a letterer for the first issue of Ithaqa.

“[Gattoni] did this amazing trial run where he dropped little droplets of ink onto a paper to make creepy splotches then he incorporated them into the speech bubbles,” Watson said. “They were this weird, drippy looking speech. It was really really cool, really evocative, and I was like, yep, nailed it.”

Theresa Chiechi is the illustrator for Ithaqa and met Watson through an online advertisement for issue one posted to DeviantArt. Chiechi and Watson’s ideas surrounding aesthetics for the comic book clicked immediately, so they developed a team.

“Sure the writing is important, and that’s what’s gonna keep you invested, but if someone looks at [the book] and picks it up off the rack, it’s because the art is so powerful,” Watson said.

For his writing, Watson consults his college friend and editor Lisa VillaMil. VillaMil has storytelling experience as a playwright, actress and play director.

“I realized that I was going to need an editor if I was gonna be serious about this because you need someone to bounce ideas off of and someone to talk to that knows the story intimately,” Watson said. Watson also received assistance from Diana Riesman, the executive director and co-founder of the Wharton Studio Museum throughout the writing and publishing process. The museum was able to provide Watson with information regarding the Wharton brothers, Ithaca and cultural details of the 1920s.

“Diana put me in touch with people

The front cover of Ithaqa’s debut edition. (Photo provided)

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who were researching, or she would just have the answers to my questions herself,” Watson said. “I got a lot of really useful details that made their way into the comic and some of the major plot points towards the end of the first major story arc.” Riesman also reached out to Lisa Swayze at Buffalo Street Books on Watson’s behalf to begin selling Ithaqa locally. The community’s response to the first issue of Ithaqa has been enthusiastic, with the books selling out twice.

“To kind of triumphantly return to Ithaca with a comic about Ithaca feels really great,” Watson said.

Watson was expected to hold a press tour for the first two issues of Ithaqa this month, but due to the Coronavirus outbreak, the physical events scheduled for the tour, including Ithaca’s comic convention, Ithacon, have been canceled. Watson’s work can still be supported online through his Kickstarter fundraiser to raise $10,000 to finish the artwork for issue three and print physical copies of issues two and three. The Kickstarter will run from March 16 to April 6, 2020 and can be accessed through the Facebook page, “Ithaqa Comic Digital Book Tour,” a site which will also host online events including a creator livestream Q&A on March 20 at 6 p.m. Watson and the Ithaqa series can also be found at “Ithaqa Comic Book” on Facebook and @IthaqaComic on Twitter. The comic’s official website is ithaqacomic. com and features a subscription option to provide an email address for a free digital copy of issue one.

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