Since 1988 – Priceless
From the Bay to the Blue Ridge
June 2015
Father’s Day
A TRIBUTE TO DAD Business Profile
SEAPORT PROPERTIES Dedicated to Professionalism Road Trip
CHARM CITY
Baltimore’s Fells Point, Inner Harbor & Canton Grapevine
BLUE VALLEY VINEYARD & WINERY
Old World Sensibility and a Deep Love of Wine Across the Bridge
NATIONAL HARBOR
Through a New Visitor’s Eyes
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Landini’s
ZAGAT
Setting The Standard In 2006 Old Town For 35 Years AWARD OF EXCELLENCE
AND THE PAST 15 YEARS
115115 KingKing Street Street • Old Town Alexandria Old Town Alexandria 703-836-8404 • landinibrothers.com 703-836-8404
G -11 pm N I RK :30
PArday 5 T E AL atu
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Frid
Valet Parking Friday & Saturday 5-11 pm
Noe and Franco welcome you!
COME FOR THE FUN, STAY FOR THE FOOD!
Old Town’s Favorite Raw Bar Featuring the Freshest Shellfish in Virginia
Fish Market has continued to rise above the tide with its winning recipe for success–good, fresh seafood, excellent service and a great location. Such dedication to high quality and customer service has helped launch Fish Market as an Old Town landmark since 1976!
105 & 107 King St. Old Town Alexandria
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Eat Fish, Drink Beer, Live Longer!
june’15 A Division of Crier Media Group OTC Media LLC PO Box 320386 Alexandria, Va. 22320
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phone: 703. 836. 0132 office@oldtowncrier.com oldtowncrier.com Published the first week of every month. Worth waiting for! PUBLISHER Bob Tagert MARKETING & ADVERTISING Lani Gering Bob Tagert SOCIAL MEDIA & WEBSITE Laura Parker DESIGN & PRODUCTION Electronic Ink 9 Royal Street, SE Leesburg, Va. 20175 Chris Anderson Peggie Arvidson Sarah Becker Frank Britt F. Lennox Campello Steve Chaconas Doug Coleman Ashley Denham Busse Doug Fabbioli Nicole Flanagan Lani Gering
CONTRIBUTORS Frances Killpatrick Miriam Kramer Jeff McCord Laura Parker Julie Reardon Caroline Simpson Chester Simpson Bob Tagert Carl Trevisan Ryan Unverzagt Lori Welch Brown
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6
Open Space
45
After Hours
11
First Blush
43
Pets of the Month
17
Art & Antiques
15
Fitness
40
28
Points on Pets
16
Behind the Bar
From the Bay…
24
Business Profile
4
From the Trainer
41
Publishers Notes
A Bit of History
Financial Focus
2
Road Trip
20
Spiritual Renaissance
44
The Last Word
13
Caribbean Connection
18
Gallery Beat
14
Chefs Special
34
Go Fish
39
Civil Discourse
9
Grapevine
36
Dining Guide
32
High Notes
12
To Dad
46
To the Blue Ridge
Dining Out
30
National Harbor
Exploring Virginia Wines
37
On the Media
3
Urban Garden
Festival Season
10
On the Road
1
Virginia Wine Trails
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© 2015 Crier Media Group, Inc. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written consent of the publisher. The Old Town Crier is published monthly and distributed to selected Alexandria residents, hotels, restaurants and retail shops. Also distributed in the Annapolis, Fredericksburg, Blue Ridge and Washington, DC areas as well as St. John, USVI.
About the cover From the day we adopted him from the Alexandria Animal Welfare League, Luke became notorious in our suburban neighborhood – the attack sign in our yard was not a joke. We couldn't let Luke outside, but that didn't stop him from escaping, and once he was loose, catching him was an ordeal! We built him an elaborate cattery so he could be outdoors when he wanted. We tried a harness and leash and took him for walks, but he wanted freedom! No matter what we tried, it wasn't enough. He was a very unhappy cat. He was downright dangerous when over-stimulated. He is the only cat I’ve ever met who hardly ever purrs… Were we insane to keep trying? Probably, but here's Luke's story... a woman on her morning walk noticed a group of kids throwing rocks. She investigated and found Luke, trapped, the victim of cruel children. He was thin, but was not feral. He let her take him to the shelter, where he stayed for many months. He was clearly waiting for us to find him. How could we give up on him? And then, we moved to a farm in West Virginia. And finally, Luke is as happy as Luke may ever be. He even purrs, although rarely and quietly. It’s been almost 10 years since we adopted him and I won't lie, it's been challenging. But I feel like he finally, after all of these years, trusts us. Patience, love and freedom were what he needed. I'm glad we could give that to him. Written by Adrienne Usher; photo by Chris Usher
Old Town Crier
On the road with OTC Lee Anne Fuller and her husband Frank took the Old Town Crier on the road to the Grand Canyon. While Frank has owned a place in Alexandria for more than four years, he and Lee Anne just became permanent residents of Old Town this spring. “We love your magazine,” states Frank. We love that you love our magazine as well! If you would like to see your picture here, take the OTC with you on your next trip, snap a high resolution photo and send it along with information for the caption to office@oldtowncrier.com.
June 2015 | 1
PUBLISHER’S NOTES BOB TAGERT
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bout 10 years ago when the Internet and Facebook were making inroads everywhere, I feared print might be dead. Certainly it had an adverse effect on some major daily publications, but for the niche market magazine, it has made it easier and more cost effective. Bill Schanen, publisher of Sailing magazine stated in his September 2014 issue in an article titled “To have and to hold — the enduring appeal of printed magazines,” “…a speaker at a recent business conference who opined that You Tube videos had taken the place of magazines in informing enthusiasts like sailors about their sports. He didn’t seem to know the “print is dead” canard is dead itself, even though it keeps hanging around like a slow-witted zombie.” Schanen goes on to say, “There was a time, when Internet publishing was new. When it might have looked like ink-on-paper publications were on the way out. But that time is long past, and print is still here. It’s not just surviving; in many cases it’s thriving. The Internet didn’t kill print; it married it.” “Printed editions of enthusiast magazines, hobby magazines and lifestyle magazines are healthy and popular, even s as their websites and tablet computer editions flourish. The main reason is the save factor. Print magazines are tangible, a physical thing to have and to hold, to read and pore over. This pleases readers and it pleases advertisers.” Indeed…the technology age has made
Hermione
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DOCKSIDE JUNE 10-12 FOR MORE INFO: VisitAlexandriaVA.com/HERMIONE
2 | June 2015
it much easier to publish in print. Digital cameras, scanners, computers themselves and the wealth of programs available just make it simpler. Our thanks to those of you who have, over the past 27 years, read us for our history, people, personality and informative articles as well as the great photography. And a special thanks to those of you who display our covers in your homes and share with others. Celebrate the welcoming of summer with a cool drink and something to eat at one of our many restaurant advertisers and don’t forget about “Old Glory” and display her proudly on Sunday, June 14 in honor of Flag Day! Last and certainly not least, celebrate Dad on the 21st! I am looking forward to some good sailing weather in June … so let summer begin!
Local Farmers Markets Old Town Farmers Market
Market Square • 301 King Street Saturday 7 a.m. - Noon, year round Free parking in Market Square garage during market hours People who come to Alexandria on Saturday mornings find themselves in a busy plaza where local farmers and artists have been selling their products since 1753. Old Town Alexandria’s Market Square is thought to be one of the nation’s oldest continually operating farmers markets, serving as a primary source of meat, dairy, fish, fruits and vegetables for Alexandrians. George Washington sent his
produce from Mount Vernon to be sold here. Today, the market offers folks a way to reconnect to the past, while participating in an ongoing local and national tradition.
Del Ray Farmers Market
Corner of East Oxford & Mount Vernon avenues Saturday 8 a.m. - Noon, year round The Del Ray Market is producer grown, with fresh vegetables and fruits in season. All year round, this market offers meats, eggs, fresh pasta and sauces, Amish cheese, yogurt, bakery goods, eggs, jams and jellies, fancy nuts and bakery goods.
Old Town Crier
ON THE MEDIA LAURA PARKER
Social Media and the Importance of Written Communication
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hen it comes to written communications, words are all that we have. Nobody can see the writer’s subtle facial expressions, a sympathetic shrug, or even extravagant hand gesticulations when a person is reading. A well placed comma, alluring word choice, and other grammatical cues are all we have to further communicate with our readers. So, how do you connect? How do you write that one meaningful phrase that will resonate strongly with your insert target audience (employees, industry experts, new customers, old acquaintances, guy you randomly cold-called, etc.)? Unfortunately, when it comes to building your business through writing, you either have it or you don’t. And if you don’t, the safe bet is to hire a writer. Now, I don’t want you to think that this is one of those “sales articles,” which makes a strong pitch under the thinly guise vein of “helpful marketing advice.” In fact, I’ll come out and say it: this is not a sales pitch. The following is a cautionary (and hopefully amusing) account of what can happen when ordinary folks are taken out of their element and placed in the writer’s chair.
The Justine Sacco Fiasco
We’ve all heard about it. “The tweet heard ‘round the world.” Thank you Justine Sacco for single-handedly rebuilding the “rude American” stereotype in 120 characters or less. When it comes to the importance of written communications, there are several lessons that can be learned from Justin Sacco. In the 21st Century, you are no longer what you eat... you are what you tweet. Whether you are a small business or a large Fortune 500 company, it is a good idea to hire a writer or a social media expert to handle all social media interactions. Thanks to the age-old screen shot, the minute you publish something online it can come back to haunt you or worse destroy your company›s image. Don’t become caught-up in the numbers game. As great as social media is, every single network immediately transports us back to the days of high school where popularity was everything. Success on social media is often measured by the number of Likes, Shares, ReTweets, or Comments that your post receives. Unfortunately for Justine Sacco, she copied the Miley Cyrus recipe, i.e. the more outlandish the post the bigger the response. Which leads us to
Old Town Crier
the third lesson. Bigger is not always better and context is everything. The bigger you or your company becomes on social media networks, the more likely you are to run into opposition. As Justine Sacco quickly discovered, “the bigger you are, the harder you fall.” Maybe there was a targeted audience for her tweet? Or maybe she was catering to her inner Conan O’Brien? Whatever the case, if you are going to write anything outlandish, you must provide context or expect serious (and potentially) negative backlash. Twitter isn’t Saturday Night Live where anything goes.
private yacht charter Cruise the waters of the Potomac River with its postcard views of the DC skyline. Business entertainment, private parties, weddings, birthdays and anniversaries are our specialties. We take the art of entertaining to a whole new level, no matter what the occasion. You and your guests will remember the cruise for years to come. Quality service begins with custom planning to suit your needs.
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703-868-5566 • potomacbelle.com “What a perfect evening you provided for my guests from out of town and out of the country. Your crew was helpful and professional, from working with my caterer to keeping safety uppermost.”
Impressing in Person but Failing to Deliver via Written Communications
Imagine the following scenario. A small business owner attends a networking event. He is an animated figure who makes a lasting impression with potential constituents. He exchanges business cards with a number of interested executives. After the event, the he follows-up via email. Enter the dreaded moment when he hits send but never hears back. Why? It could have been any number of reasons. From simple grammatical mistakes to an inability to connect with his audience. The latter scenario perfectly exemplifies how some people can be great in-person, but the minute you take away their visual cues, they fail to connect with their audience. Emoticons only go so far and should be avoided in business communications. Written communications in business can’t be avoided. At some point you will have to conduct a social media campaign, send an important email, or release marketing materials. For all of the times that writing is not a do-it-yourself task, hire a writer. And if you’re still determined to put pen to paper, sometimes it helps to quote from the best (or at least the most memorable), “Writing, the art of communicating thoughts to the mind through the eye, is the great invention of the world... enabling us to converse with the dead, the absent, and the unborn, at all distances of time and space,” Abraham Lincoln. Laura P. Parker is a freelance writer and content marketing consultant who specializes in improving the marketing efforts of small-businesses through well-written, engaging, and ROI enhancing content. laura@laurapparker.com www. laurapparker.com
The Lamplighter Our staff has 3 generations of experience to assist you in your lamp and lamp shade needs!
1207 King Street Old Town Alexandria 703.549.4040 www.lamplighterlamps.com Haircuts $15
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June 2015 | 3
business profile bob tagert
Seaport Properties
Cheryl Monno’s Dedication to Professionalism
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round 1750 the town of Alexandria was founded. A young surveyor at the time, George Washington recommended that the Potomac River’s deep water close to shore would make Alexandria an ideal port for trade. Houses were built and the town began to grow. Many of those houses and warehouses are still occupied today. Many of the warehouses have become restaurants and shops, and there has been three generations of folks moving in and moving out…and still do. Thirty years ago Cheryl Monno got her real estate license and proceeded on a course of helping those folks continue to move in and out. This led her to founding Seaport Properties, a property management and real estate services company, in 2011. It was about time!
4 | June 2015
I just met Cheryl for the first time conducting this interview, but her sincerity and warmth made it seem like I was talking to an old friend. As it turns out, we have known many of the same people in this town over the past thirty years. Growing up in Fairfax and graduating from Hayfield High School, Cheryl has seen the development and growth of Alexandria firsthand. Right out of high school, and like many of us, Cheryl was in love, got married and had two children. Unfortunately, like many of us, the marriage did not work out and Cheryl moved on. Cheryl met, who was to become her best friend, John Monno, and a 22year romance developed with them getting married ten years ago. “John is my friend and he believes in me more than I do,” she says. Today, John is the muscle of the business helping Cheryl with the physical management of the over 200 properties managed by Seaport. Cheryl began her career as an
“I don’t think my assistant property father ever called in manager for a local seaport sick and mom was a real estate firm. properties stay at home mom and Management thought 313 S. Washington St. raised us.” that she might be Old Town Alexandria Today Cheryl is too young to deal 703-519-0951 anything but stay at with those wealthy home. Her 34 year old property owners, so daughter has given she left and began Cheryl a 13 year old granddaughter a 23-year career with Hooff Realty and a 6 year old grandson. Cheryl of Alexandria…one of Alexandria’s attends her granddaughter’s softball premier real estate companies of the games when the Mount Vernon day. The energetic property manager Magic play. Cheryl’s son is 33 and has loved her job but wanted to open her managed to remain single. own office. With encouragement Even though she enjoys her work, from her family and friends, and the there is always time to get away to introduction to Scott Humphrey of their house in Ocean City, Maryland. R.L. Kane, Cheryl had direction and Here she can unwind, but not for an office. long…she wants to double the In the four years she has owned portfolio of Seaport Properties. If and operated her company, her desire you are looking for an investment has not diminished. ”I love working,” property, a rental or a place of your she tells me. “I will work until I am own, give Seaport Properties a call. 99 years old.” “I treat every property If you are looking for a really neat that I manage as if it were my own,” person, give Cheryl a call. she says. I think that Cheryl gets her drive from her father who is a former Marine and conductor for Southern Railways. “You know,” she continues,
Old Town Crier
TO DAD caroline simpson
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here is a myriad of females in my family. Starting with my Mom; she has three sisters. Out of my ten cousins, there are only two boys, and I am one of two daughters. I love being from a femalefull family. The girl power factor is unbeatable. There was always an opportunity for late night girl talks on the phone, not to mention the neverending understanding associated with female companionship, and, of course, the ability to cathartically cry for absolutely no reason. I am one very lucky girl, and during this time of year, I am forced to think…my poor father! I frequently wondered if the fathers of all these females: my dad, my uncles, and my grandfather, ever truly wished for sons. Even if they never outright said it, isn’t it is common knowledge that a father wants a son? Playing ball, burping, and getting dirty are all elements of that fatherson relationship that my dad never experienced. Does he regret it? Is a prerequisite to feeling like a successful father the ability to share a love of bugs? I think not! Sure, daughters are different, more challenging, even. Playing ball was not my thing, but my dad made it a point to figure out what my thing was. One of my favorite memories is our visit to the Museum of Natural History. I loved rocks, and Dad spent a small fortune on a preorganized rock collection from the gift shop that I still have. Then there was the time when Mom had a morning meeting and Dad helped me get ready for school. He was not prepared for the drama that was my hair, but he
Old Town Crier
A Father Figure
Caroline, above, agreed to let us reprint this piece she wrote for our June 2007 issue. We wanted something more than the canned Father’s Day editorial that anyone can get online so turned to her for this piece. Since she wrote this, she has given her father another female to watch out for. Caroline and her husband Jeremy have a beautiful two year old daughter, Evelyn.
gave it his all. Five barrettes and a can of hairspray later, I walked to the bus stop with a bumpy helmet head of ponytails. Growing up, I didn’t go to dad with typical female needs….When is it time for me to wear a bra? Can I wear lipstick? My boyfriend dumped me. I dumped my boyfriend, etc…thank
goodness I have Mom for the ins and outs of being a girl! Although, I may have spared Dad from some of the minutiae, I was always able to turn to him for the big stuff. He taught me to be strong and independent. He showed me how to stand up for myself and give everything I do my all. He showed me the value of working hard
and the necessity of playing hard. Our time is not spent playing catch or talking stats; instead, we have deep conversations about applying for a promotion or buying a house. The male point of view is an interesting and essential one. For example, I remember the time I complained about PMS; Dad shared that he didn’t want to hear me complain, because between myself, my sister, and my mom, he experienced PMS three times a month. That put it in perspective for me. My dad is clever, too. Although I don’t like to admit it, there was a time when I was not perfect. For example, I got in trouble and lost phone privileges. The element of gab is required when you are a teenager, and I was sure I stumped my parents when I told them that the phone in my room was a gift from my grandparents and they couldn’t take it! Ha! Well, Dad countered with the point that the phone jack in my room is his, and he could take it. Needless to say, I didn’t chat on the phone for the next two weeks. Bottom line up front (a true Dadism,) my dad is the reason that I am who I am today. He may not have had sons to raise, but he has two daughters who look to him as their role model for the male species, in general. He may have wished we could have bonded over bugs, but instead, we bonded over life. A father, if he does it right, is a figure for sons and daughters, alike. My dad did it right, and I am proud to say to him, Happy Father’s Day!
June 2015 | 5
FINANCIAL FOCUS carl m.trevisan, cfp© & stephen m. bearce
Planning for Known—and Unknown— Health Care Costs in Retirement
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he issue of health care costs in retirement — and planning for them well in advance of retirement — is becoming a centerpiece of any retirement planning discussion. A recent study by Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) projected that in 2014, men and women who wanted a 90% chance of having enough money to cover out-of-pocket health care expenses in retirement would need to have saved $116,000 and $131,000 respectively by age 65.1 This is a sobering goal when you consider that just 42% of workers in their 50s and 60s report total savings and investments in excess of $100,000.2 Part of the problem with putting a price tag on retiree health care expenses is that every situation will vary depending on an individual’s health, the type of health care coverage they carry, and when they hope to retire. That said, EBRI has identified some “recurring expenses,” or standard elements of cost that can be estimated and planned for in advance as well as “non-recurring” expenses that are less predictable but tend to increase with age.
Recurring vs. Non-Recurring Expenses
Using data gleaned from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) — a longstanding, highly respected study of representative U.S. households with individuals over age 50 — EBRI was able to categorize utilization patterns and expenses for two separate types of health care services: Recurring services — include doctor visits, prescription drug usage, and
dentist services. Since these services tend to remain stable throughout retirement, it is possible to calculate an average out-of-pocket expense among individuals age 65 and older of $1,885 annually.3 Projecting forward, and factoring in the following assumptions: a 2% inflation rate, a 3% rate of return on investments, and a life expectancy of 90 years, EBRI estimates that one would need $40,798 at age 65 to cover the average out-ofpocket expenses for recurring health care needs throughout retirement. It should be noted that this calculation does not include expenses for any insurance premiums or over-thecounter medications. Non-recurring expenses — include overnight hospital stays, overnight nursing home stays, home health care, outpatient surgery, and special facilities. Unlike recurring expenses, the cost of most non-recurring services increases with age. For example, average annual out-of-pocket expenses for nursing home stays are estimated at $8,902 for those in the 65 to 74 age group, $16,948 for those aged 75 to 84, and $24,185 for individuals aged 85 and up.3 Yet because the likelihood of utilizing these services and the degree to which they will be needed is largely unknown, projecting the savings needed to cover these costs throughout retirement is an elusive exercise. However, by thinking about the total out-of-pocket savings goals of $116,000 for men and $131,000 for women cited earlier in terms of recurring and non-recurring costs may help retirees and those nearing retirement in their planning efforts.
Bigger Picture Planning
Financial advisors often recommend taking a holistic approach to calculating income needs in retirement, factoring in such costs as taxes and debt payments along with other typical expenses including health care. Financial advisors often recommend taking a holistic approach to calculating income needs in retirement, factoring in such costs as taxes and debt payments along with other typical expenses including health care. In addition to the outof-pocket health care calculations discussed above, consider what you think you might have to pay in annual premiums if you were to apply for health insurance today. Lastly, and perhaps most important, add in an allowance for inflation — both general and health care inflation. Your financial planner can help get the retirement income planning discussion started and — as part of that exercise — can work with you to put some numbers around your health care planning needs. This article offers only an outline; it is not a definitive guide to all possible consequences and implications of any specific saving or investment strategy. For this reason, be sure to seek advice from knowledgeable professionals. Because of the possibility of human or mechanical error by Wealth Management Systems Inc. or its sources, neither Wealth Management Systems Inc. nor its sources guarantees the accuracy, adequacy, completeness or availability of any information and is not responsible for any errors or
omissions or for the results obtained from the use of such information. In no event shall Wealth Management Systems Inc. be liable for any indirect, special or consequential damages in connection with subscriber’s or others’ use of the content. ©2015 Wealth Management Systems Inc. All rights reserved. This column is provided through the Financial Planning Association, the membership organization for the financial planning community, and is brought to you by Carl M. Trevisan, a local member of FPA and Stephen M. Bearce. McLaughlin Ryder Investments, Inc. and McLaughlin Ryder Advisory Services, LLC and their employees are not in the business of providing tax or legal advice. These materials and any tax-related statements are not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used or relied upon, by any such taxpayer for the purpose of avoiding tax penalties. Tax-based statements, if any, may have been written in connection with the promotion or marketing of the transaction (s) or matter(s) addressed by these materials, to the extent allowed by applicable law. Any such taxpayer should seek advice based on the taxpayer’s particular circumstances from an independent tax advisor. Securities offered by McLaughlin Ryder Investments, Inc. and investment advisory services offered by McLaughlin Ryder Advisory Services, LLC.
Employee Benefit Research Institute, news release, “Needed Savings for Health Care in Retirement Continue to Fall,” October 28, 2014. Employee Benefit Research Institute, 2014 Retirement Confidence Survey, March 2014. (Not including the value of a primary residence or defined benefit plans.) 3 Employee Benefit Research Institute, “Utilization Patterns and Out-of-Pocket Expenses for Different Health Care Services Among American Retirees,” February 2015. 1 2
6 | June 2015
Old Town Crier
URBAN GARDEN lani gering
Jimmy and Angie’s Garden of Eatin’ adventure and keep following along through the season. If you have questions for Jimmy, please send them to: office@oldtowncrier.com, and we will get the message to him. In the meantime, we will print some of his words of wisdom in “Jimmy Says.” Jimmy Says:
A
s many of our Urban Garden column fans know, we have utilized everything from the expertise of professional agronomists to that of our online partners at GardenHelpers.com when coming up with topics each month. This month we are going to start following the progress of a true “urban” garden right here in the Del Ray area of Alexandria. Welcome to Jimmy and Angie’s “Garden of Eatin’!” Jimmy Deaton, a self-proclaimed “Mother Nature’s Apprentice” and his partner in crime, Angie Napolitano, are embarking on year four of creating the ultimate “urban” garden. They have graciously volunteered to let us follow the progression of garden season 2015. During our interview, Angie told me that Jimmy is a “pepper head” and she tends to be the “tomato guru.” In fact, he is producing his own type of pepper – the Del Ray Rojo. He tells its tale below. We are looking forward to trying them. Angie also told me that she is excited for us to taste her favorite tomato – Mr. Stripey. I am definitely looking forward to harvest season. In addition to the peppers and tomatoes, they grow a plethora of vegetables, fruits, melons and edible flowers. They are on a mission to helping bring back the bee population in our fair city. The bee situation has been such that Jimmy has pollenated his plants by hand on several occasions to ensure that they grow to their full potential. This is fantastic that he has the wherewithal to do that but sad that there aren’t enough bees to do the job. We hope you enjoy this new Urban Garden
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days to get ready to go into the ground. We usually go into the ground between April 1-15th. If we get temps below 40 degrees at night we’ll cover the plants individually with a piece of frost cloth and a container as well at night and uncover them during the day.
These are from when we start the garden seedlings inside under a 400 watt HPS grow light with a 20/4 light cycle. We use coco coir mixed with worm castings at a 80/20% ratio. We also use Espoma BioTone starter fertilizer and supplement feed with Neptune Harvest Fish and Seaweed liquid. We always start the peppers around Valentines day and the tomatoes about 2 weeks later.
Here’s a tomato at 19 days from germination showing the benefits of using coco coir and a 20/4 light cycle under grow lights. To be honest you’ll never find such robust and vibrant roots with chemical fertilizers. We are strictly organic and use no chemicals. We let Mother Nature do her thing. After all she’s been around since the beginning of time and knows more than we do. We harden off our crops over the course of 7-10
Here we have some Del Ray Rojo’s, my own creation named after the Del Ray neighborhood. It is a sweet pepper with a slight hint of heat comparable to an Anaheim. It is a cross between a Sweet Carmen and an Italian cowhorn pepper of unknown origin. This is the 7th grow which makes it officially a stable cross. We are currently working on a cross between the Del Ray Rojo and a Thai chili and currently in the 2nd grow cycle this year. Most plants take 7 grow cycles and/or seasons to be considered a stable cross when breeding. The second pic shows the size of the Del Ray Rojo. This plant is a monster averaging over 5 feet tall and a width of 36 inches. It is very proficient in the number of peppers it produces per plant.
June 2015 | 7
a bit of history sarah becker©
Flag Day June begins Sarah Becker’s 20th year with the Old Town Crier — 228 columns later another begins…
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n celebration of Flag Day 2013 the Museum of the American Revolution replicated the American silk standard that marked Revolutionary War General George Washington’s presence on the battlefield. His Headquarters Flag, with its 13 stars, stood witness to the most pivotal battles of the American Revolution. Not all flags are as enduring. On June 14, 1777 the Continental Congress “resolved that the Flag of the thirteen United States” represented “a new constellation.” Yet eighty four years later the nation divided. During the Civil War General Washington symbolized not only the union’s togetherness (North), but also the second American Revolution (South). “Southerners generally associated George Washington’s image with rebellion,” Museum of the Confederacy historian John Coski
8 | June 2015
explained. “That he was from Virginia made him all the more southern.” The city of Alexandria is located 100 miles north of Richmond, Va., the Confederacy’s 19th century capital. Alexandria, politically speaking, is a southern remnant and the Confederate flag flew proudly until 1969. It waved on special occasions. “Alexandria flies the [Confederate] flag [because] it has a special place in the hearts of those who honor their noble, albeit defeated, ancestors,” the Alexandria Gazette wrote. Black citizens who “equated the flag with slavery…and Jim Crow challenged the practice.” In 1969 “a band of black citizens marched on City Hall and ripped the [Confederate] banner to shreds.” Alexandria resident James M. Thomson, Democratic majority floor leader of the Virginia House of Delegates, complained. A segregationist, Thomson defended
“the rights of those who cherish the [Confederate] flag as part of Virginia’s heritage.” A Byrd relative, Thomson “based his political strength on Alexandria’s white power structure.” “These days a flag has become less a clear symbol of allegiance and more a signal for controversy,” The Washington Post concluded in 1970. The American flag was the subject of controversy during the 1960s Vietnam antiwar. In recent weeks university students have walked on the American flag to protest racism. Perhaps no flag is more admired than America’s 15 star Star-Spangled Banner Flag, the Great Garrison Flag which flew over Baltimore’s Fort McHenry during the War of 1812. In 1814 Fort Commander George Armistead offered the British an easy target. He flew “an American flag so large the British would have no difficulty seeing the Fort from a distance.” On September 12, 1814, the British fleet attacked. The September 14th American victory, flag maker Mary Pickersgill’s Garrison Flag inspired observer Frances Scott Key to write the Star-Spangled Banner. Key’s poem became the national anthem in 1931. The Star-Spangled Banner Flag, made of cotton and dyed English wool bunting, now hangs in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. It was received as a gift in 1912, the same year the Socialist Party held its National Convention in Indianapolis, Indiana. The Socialist Party, formerly the Socialist Democratic Party established in 1898 nominated Union labor leader Eugene V. Debs for president. In 1912, four political parties split the presidential vote. Democrat Woodrow Wilson won; incumbent Republican President William Howard Taft placed third and Socialist Eugene V. Debs fourth. On June 14, 1913—
Flag Day—former President Taft warned of socialism. Business and labor were at odds, the Department of Commerce and Labor broke into two, and Marxism was on the rise. “The most notable experiment in the history of socialism,” The Washington Post reported, “that of Robert Owen at New Harmony, failed, as all socialism must fail, because it found no substitute for the motive essential to arouse and make constant human effort that is furnished by the institution of private property and the shaping of reward by competition and natural economic adjustment.” With World War I Marxism yielded to Leninism. Still the United States and Russia remained allied; to fight a second world war. On June 22, 1942 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the World War II Flag Etiquette Bill. The measure had eight sections including How To Salute. “When the national anthem is played and the flag is not displayed all present should stand and face toward the music,” The Washington Post reported. “Those in uniform should salute at the first note of the anthem, retaining this position until the last note. All others should stand at attention, men removing the headdress. When the flag is displayed, the salute to the flag should be given.” “The pledge of allegiance to the flag: ‘I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all,’ should be rendered by standing with the right hand over the heart, extending the right hand, palm upward, toward the flag at the words to the flag and holding this position until the end, when the hand drops to the side,” The Post continued. “However, civilians will always show full respect to the flag when the pledge is given by merely standing at attention, men removing the headdress. Persons in uniform shall render the military salute.” Francis Bellamy’s 1892 Youth Companion Flag Pledge, the pledge of allegiance became official in 1942; Flag Day in 1949. The Cold War followed World War II. When Hitler’s Germany surrendered in 1945 Berlin divided A BIT OF HISTORY > PAGE 11
Old Town Crier
civil DISCOURSE DOUG COLEMAN
Hell on the Potomac: Point Lookout, Maryland
I
n June of 1865, as the war fizzles to its end, the Union disgorges hundreds of thousands of Confederate POWs, some held as long as mid-1863. Everyone has heard of the horrible conditions at Andersonville prison in Georgia — the victors write the history books. Though Commandant Wirz’s neck broke on the gallows for his “war crimes” at Andersonville, many recognized that the Confederates did the best they could for these POWs with what they had — after all, Sherman was doing his best to starve everyone in Georgia. But how does one account for Federal death camps such as Camp Douglas, Rock Island, Elmira, Fort Delaware and Lookout Point, where the Yankees had no such excuses? There was plenty of food and medicine in the North — just not for captured Confederate farm boys. The numbers tell the story. According to U. S. Secretary of War Stanton, out of roughly 270,000 Federal POWs in Confederate hands 22,576 died, while of the 220,000 Confederates in Federal hands 26,436 died. The percentages are 9% versus 12%, respectively. One would expect the side which had its medicines blockaded and crops burnt would do much worse. But no Yankee commandants were hung or even tried for that troubling discrepancy. These 50,000 deaths were largely avoidable and were the result of a cynical change in policy midwar by the U.S. government, which up until then had honored a July 1862 agreement which provided for the orderly exchange or parole of prisoners. On July 3, 1863, as Pickett was charging at Gettysburg and Vicksburg was falling, the Federal government unilaterally suspended the prior agreement. On July 4th, Lee sent a proposal to Meade to exchange prisoners. Meade refused, citing lack of authority under new general
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orders — even after Lee had actually released 2-3,000 out of 6,000 Yankee captives in reliance upon the stipulated procedure. Why the change in policy? As Grant explains a year later: “On the subject of exchange … it is hard on our men held in Southern prisons not to exchange them, but it is humanity to those left in the ranks to fight our battles. Every man released on parole, or otherwise, becomes an active soldier against us at once, either directly or indirectly. If we commence a system of exchange which liberates all prisoners taken, we will have to fight on until the whole South is exterminated. If we hold those caught, they amount to no more than dead men. At this particular time, to release all Rebel prisoners North would insure Sherman’s defeat, and would compromise our safety here.”
In other words, Grant appreciated that 23 million Yankees would quickly overwhelm 9 million (minus 3.5 black non-combatant) Southerners if the captured Confederates could not reenter the army or otherwise support the war effort. It may also be an unintended affirmation of the Southern conceit that one Butternut was worth ten Yankees. This brings us to Point Lookout in St. Mary’s County, Maryland. Point Lookout refers to the very tip of the peninsula between the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay. During the War of 1812, it served as an early warning station for the British fleet threatening the Bay, at least until the British occupied it. There was a lighthouse there after 1830. Then a large resort hotel graced the breezy beaches, together with summer cottages for those affluent enough to escape summer in
the cities. In 1862, the Union army established a camp, supply depot and hospital there. Then, in August of 1863, Hammond Hospital, a large establishment with wards arranged like spokes on a wheel, opened for the care of the wounded of both armies. Marylanders sympathetic to the South were detained at these facilities, sans habeas corpus, of course. But Point Lookout is best known as the largest Confederate POW camp. In August of 1863, just after Gettysburg and the North’s repudiation of prisoner exchanges, Camp Hoffman was established between the hospital complex on the point and Fort Lincoln further inland. Two separate stockades were built, one for officers, another for enlisted men. Housing was mostly tents. On the outside of the stockades was a catwalk along which CIVIL DISCOURSE > PAGE 22
June 2015 | 9
Festival
Season is HERE!
It’s Spring time! Flowers are blooming, the grass is green and it’s festival season. There are so many diverse music festivals happening just a short drive from the Washington, DC area that everyone should experience at least one. For folks who enjoy listening to talented local bands, soaking up the sun, and making new friends, these are not to be missed. The festivals are largely family and child friendly, with many events designed for all ages along with good food to round out the experience. Check out the schedule here and hopefully you’ll become part of a great local summer tradition. See ya there!
2015 Music Festival Schedule June Dinwiddie Music Festival June 4-6 www.dinwiddiemusicfest.com Firefly Music Festival June 18-21 www.fireflyfestival.com Smithsonian Folklife Festival June 24-28 and July 1-5 www.festival.si.edu River & Roots Festival June 26-27 www.riverandroots.com South Branch Valley Bluegrass Festival June 27 www.bluegrass.hampshirewv.com July Red Wing III Roots Music Festival July 10-12 www.redwingroots.com 32nd Annual Mineral Bluegrass Festival July 16-18 www.mineralbluegrass.com
Floydfest July 22-26 www.floydfest.com August Old Fiddler’s Convention Galax, Virginia August 3-8 www.oldfiddlersconvention.com 2015 Bluegrass in Luray Festival August 6-8 www.bluegrassinluray.com 71st Semi-Annual Festival Gettysburg Bluegrass Festival August 13-16 www.gettysburgbluegrass.com/ festival/festivals/august-festival/ September Lockn Sept. 10-13 www.locknfestival.com Watermelon Park Fest Sept. 24-27 www.watermelonparkfest.com
Steep Canyon Rangers performing last year at the 2014 River Roots Festival at Watermelon Park
Launching Chinese lanterns at the 2014 Sleepy Creek Spring Festival
Larry Keel and Keller Williams (local musicians) performing at the 2014 Watermelon Park Festival
10 | June 2015
photos: © Chester Simpson
Old Town Crier
AFTER AFTER HOURS HOURS
Birchmere 703.549.7500 3701 Mt. Vernon Ave. birchmere.com
Las Tapas 703.836.4000 710-714 King St. lastapas.us
Carlyle Club 411 John Carlyle Dr. 703-549-8957 thecarlyleclub.com
The Light Horse 703.549.0533 715 King St. thelighthorserestaurant.com
Chadwicks 203 S. Strand St. 703.836.4442
Morrison House 703.838.8000 116 South Alfred St.
Evening Star Cafe 703.549.5051 2000 Mt. Vernon Ave.
Murphys Irish Pub 703.548.1717 713 King St. murphyspub.com
The Fish Market 703.836.5676 105 King St. fishmarketoldtown.com Flying Fish 703.600.FISH 815 King St. flyingfishdc.com
OConnells 703.739.1124 112 King St. Rock It Grill 703.739.2274 1319 King St.
Austin Grill & Tequila Bar 703.836.8969 801 King St. Southside 815 703.836.6222 815 S. Washington St. St. Elmos 703.739.9268 2300 Mt. Vernon Ave. Taverna Cretekou 703.548.8688 818 King St. TJ Stones 703.548.1004 608 Montgomery St. tjstones.com Trattoria da Franco 703-548-9338 305 S. Washington St. Two Nineteen 703.549.1141 219 King St.
King Street Blues 703.836.8800 112 N. St. Asaph St.
Shooter McGees 703.751.9266 5239 Duke St. shootermcgees.com
La Portas 703.683.6313 1600 Duke St.
These establishments offer live entertainment. Call to confirm show times, dates and cover charges. Check our advertisers’ websites.
A BIT OF HISTORY FROM PG 8
Ministers Association said. The Communist bloc fell in 1989. In June 1954 Congress approved adding the words ‘under God’ to the pledge of allegiance, a pledge made to ‘one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.’” The legislation was signed on Flag Day, June 14. “Man everywhere is appalled by the prospect of atomic war,” President Dwight D. Eisenhower said. “In this way we shall constantly strengthen those spiritual weapons which forever will be our country’s most powerful resource, in peace or in war.” Teachers felt “the pressure to get religion into education.” President William Howard Taft standardized the American Flag in 1912 and, to date, there have been 27 versions. Today’s version was unveiled in 1960, after Hawaii became the 50th State. George Washington’s Headquarters Flag will be on loan to Delaware’s Winterthur Museum on Flag Day, June 14th only.
East and West. Soviet Russia then created a godless Communist bloc. In 1954 Dr. Rev. George M. Docherty, a New York Presbyterian minister, proposed “that the words Lincoln inserted in the Gettysburg Address—‘under God’—be included in the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.” Communism rejected the existence of God. “To those who would call insertion of ‘under God’ a violation of church and state, the First Amendment means only that there shall be no established church,” Rev. Docherty continued. “The country was built on a foundation of theist belief, that atheists were ‘parasites… living upon accumulation of spiritual capital.’” Scores of organizations backed the change. The Unitarian Ministers Association did not, calling it “an invasion of religious liberty.” Like President Theodore Roosevelt before the Association also “condemned the present practice of issuing coins with the words, ‘In God We Trust.’” “In the long pull, democracy will overcome despotism by combining military strength, education and political idealism,” the Unitarian
Email: abitofhistory53@gmail.com
THE LITTLE THEATRE 2015/2016 SEASON of ** INTHE ** TheCompleteWorks William Shakespeare
HEIGHTS
(Abridged)
GreyGardens
LAUGHING TheTaleofthe OCK Allergist’sWife TOKILLA ST MOCKINGBIRD THE HISTORY BOYS
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Old Town Crier
June 2015 | 11
HIGH NOTES CHRIS ANDERSON
I
’ve been a champion of Alabama Shakes ever since I got an advance copy of their 2012 debut, Boys & Girls, and I have spent the last three years tirelessly turning as many people onto them as possible. And with good reason….they are a phenomenal band. Evoking the southern-fried soul of Stax/Volt, and a fair shake of Muscle Shoals, with a slightly understated modern twist, the Shakes are able to make something familiar sound more fresh than just about anything else on the music scene today. So, obviously, I have been very eagerly awaiting a follow-up...and it has been a hell of a wait, as the Shakes toured the world, milking the success of their debut, all the while getting tighter and more sophisticated as a band. But that wait is over – FINALLY - the new Alabama Shakes album is here. And it’s about freaking time. Now, you might ask....was the wait worth it? As I sit here, listening to Sound & Color for the very first time, I must admit that I am not entirely sure. It’s not that I am all that disappointed but I also am not knocked off my feet like I was after hearing their first album. That said, I think Sound & Color is a really remarkable set of songs, performed by a group that has really jelled into a formidable unit. My issue, petty as it may be, is that while this album is the result of a massive amount of growth...it’s too much. Yes, the problem with this album is that it is just too damn good. But it’s also missing something…and what that is, I don’t quite know. There are a lot of slow songs on this album, a much more pronounced soul vibe, and far more focus on Brittany Howard’s voice...and she does sound phenomenal. She is definitely on point to be one of the great singers of our time. But I prefer when the Shakes are rocking and grooving and moving the room and instead they seem to be aiming for the ethereal. Where the first album made you want to drink, it seems this album makes you want
12 | June 2015
alabama shakes
to get stoned instead. It’s that kind of chilled out record and that has as much to do with the production as with the songs themselves. The production is far denser than before, more layered, more sophisticated. There are lots of little things going on in the background and this seems to be the kind of album where you’ll end up hearing something different every time you spin it. So, yeah, it does win points for that. “Don’t Wanna Fight” is a strong track and was a wise choice for a lead single, but there is nothing as immediate as “Hold On”, “Heartbreaker”, or “Hang Loose”, though Brittany’s raspy yowl at the beginning of “Don’t Wanna Fight” is spot-on and that groove does make you want to dance. The rest of the songs on this album are growers, I think. That is not to say that I don’t like them. They just don’t sound as flawless or as natural as those on the first album. It almost sounds like there is some huge missing link between this album and Boys & Girls....and I think that is what is making this album so jarring for me. This would be a far more successful third album, I think.
Now, if I were the boss of this band, they would have quickly knocked out a second album in 2013, with stuff like “Always Alright”, and other songs that you can only find on bootlegs. They could have made one ass-kicking blowout of a second album and toured that for a bit, and then made this album. Their growth chart would make more sense. Sound & Color is exactly the album I would expect this band to make in 2015, there is no doubt about that...I just feel that there should have been an album, or at least an EP, in between these two releases. Perhaps then this artistic jump wouldn’t feel so drastic. Having said all that, I must remember that this is the first of what will be at least a hundred spins through this album and I am sure that my opinion will change a great deal once I get used to it. Because, yeah, this is a strong, dynamic collection of songs and this album sounds like nothing else on the scene today and, honestly, this will probably end up in my yearend best-of list, and probably that of every other critic under the sun. This album debuted at #1 in Billboard and
it is most deserving of that notation. The songs themselves might not be as instantly memorable as those on the first album but the Shakes are really pushing their own boundaries and they are showing immeasurable growth and that is a sure fire sign of a great band. My own real worry is that they will end up killing themselves trying to top this. This is a band that I want to see go for the long haul, and not end up being merely a platform for Brittany Howard’s career. Or, worse yet, some kind tragic, cautionary-tale-worthy flameout. They need to pace themselves. My last gripe has nothing to do with the music but with the practice of issuing three-sided double albums. There is a blank side of vinyl that would be perfect for some bonus tracks (and when you take three years to make your second album, you know you’ve got more than 12 songs in the can). Instead you end up with a backthird of an album that no one ends up listening to. Fortunately, those who slap that one-sided disc on their table are rewarded with a phenomenal three-song finale, including the sinister epic, “Gemini”. Whoa! Okay that is it, no more gripes. I am going to sit back and spin this album again. And I’m gonna dig it.
Old Town Crier
THE LAST WORD MIRIAM R. KRAMER
American Psycho
I
The instant familiarity I felt with him— this consummate immigrant, this immigrant with a vengeance—was my familiarity with my own culture. Of course he’d fooled me. Of course he’d held me spellbound. He spoke from inside my own American mind.
n 2008, a man who called himself Clark Rockefeller was found after a four-day FBI manhunt. He had kidnapped his daughter from her mother with the intention of leaving the country. In the course of events, he was found to be Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, a Bavarian who had moved to the United States, a serial fraud with multiple aliases, including Christian Gerhart, Christopher Chichester, and Chip Smith. After Gerhartsreiter’s arrest, he was also charged with the murder of a man named John Sohus in San Marino, CA in 1985. Among his many acquaintances, he was friends, albeit distanced, with the New Republic national correspondent and New Yorker writer Walter Kirn, who attended the trial and wrote his story as Blood Will Out. This new classic of true crime and memoir tells a tale of American insecurities, our human capacity for denial and how our automatic trust in what we are told overlies an underlying urge take the fantasy over the reality. Kirn met the man he knew as Clark Rockefeller after transporting a rescue dog “Rockefeller” was adopting from Montana to New York, where the German posed as a lesserknown member of the gilt-edged dynasty. Kirn turns the book into an examination not only of the man he thought he knew as an eccentric upper-class phony, like the phonies that might be mentioned in a J.D. Salinger novel, but also of himself as an aspirant to American power and wealth. He admits honestly that he automatically genuflected to a powerful name and looked for a transfusion of some of that power and wealth to eradicate established insecurities and augment his own snobbery. “Rockefeller” told Kirn multiple bizarre stories at the onset, such as the fact that he had never eaten a hamburger, dined in a public restaurant, or tasted Coca-Cola. Supposedly as a child he’d suffered from aphasia, so that he had not spoken until age ten. At age 14, he’d then attended Yale because of his prodigious intelligence. As an international banker in charge of restructuring third-world debt, he warned Kirn of a market crash to come and
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t ron f r ate 7 e w ce 198 h t on sin
big wheel bikes 2 Prince Street Old Town Alexandria 703.739.2300 bigwheelbikes.com
then offered a tour of Rockefeller Center, to which, he said, he had the master key. In New York he lived next to Tony Bennett, he said, and invited Kirn to come see some of his masterpieces of modern art, which included a Mondrian, Rothkos, and a Motherwell. He also said he would be appearing on the television show Frasier soon in the guise of a caller to Dr. Crane’s radio program. This bombardment of details amused Kirn, who was simultaneously irritated by the “twee, diminutive hobbit of a fellow” whose “level of self-amusement seemed almost delusional.” Yet he accepted them, since he was entertained. He expected a level of eccentricity from even one of high society’s fringe members, who reminded him of some of the privileged, overbred individuals he had met and felt rejected by when he came as a literature student to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Princeton from a ranch in Montana. In a deeper way, he wanted some of the burnished glow from a Rockefeller to transfer to him, the Montana rancher’s son who still occasionally felt inadequate among an Eastern moneyed elite. According to Kirn, the man he knew as Rockefeller was smart and fascinating and outwardly confident. On another level, all he did was throw out stitched-together snippets of Kirn’s own upwardly mobile images from literature, film, and television, forming a postmodern pastiche, a cobbled-together Jay Gatsby for a more sordid age where technology and mobility has increasingly scattered us at an exponentially increasing speed across a fractured psychological landscape. Kirn compares him most aptly to Patricia Highsmith’s sociopathic literary character, The Talented Mr. Ripley, who kills a character and then takes over his fortune and identity completely without guilt. As Kirn attends the trial, he hears about Gerhartsreiter’s peregrinations through the American landscape after arriving to become a high school exchange student, spreading lies and changing his name over the years as he moves towards the aptly nick-named Tinseltown. There he poses in San Marino as a USC film student and tea salesman named Christopher Chichester and ends up killing the son and, most probably, the daughter-in-law of his ailing landlady.
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THE LAST WORD > PAGE 23
June 2015 | 13
GALLERY BEAT F. LENNOX CAMPELLO
M photos: © Ken Hayden Photography / Art Miami LLC
A Fair Assessment
uch has been written about the phenomenon of art fairs as the new salons of the 21st century, as magnets where galleries congregate and collectors and curators and the illuminati go to see and buy art. Furthermore, anecdotal figures from the major fairs seem to confirm that a lot of artwork is being sold by galleries at the fairs. My own experience in doing art fairs for the last ten years confirms this fact. I have my own empirical evidence. We’ve had our own taste of a major “art fair” with artDC in 2007; and that fair was a major failure, as that basic fair model didn’t work in the Greater Washington area, which historically has a well-documented degree of apathy when it comes to actually buying art or getting the mainstream press interested. Subsequently the (e)merge art fair, a variation of the “art fair inside a huge building/tent” model, where the fair is held in a hotel (in this case the Capitol Skyline Hotel), has had more success And yet... an idea that I have been mulling in my head for years now keeps bugging me. Stick with me here. There’s another “world” out there of fine art fairs that, because of the curious high-brow attitude of the “high art” cabal, never really gets any attention from the art media, etc. These are the outdoor art fairs that some of us know well, and many more others think they know well even though they’ve actually never been to any of the good ones. I am talking about the outdoor art festivals that get ranked as the top ones by Sunshine Artist magazine; fairs such as the Cherry Creek Arts Festival in Denver, or the Ann Arbor Arts Festival (actually four separate art fairs that draw over half a million visitors), and of course, the Coconut Grove Arts Festival in Miami, which routinely attract about 150,000 visitors. People who have never been to one of these top outdoor art fairs will visualize them as an outdoor art market: dried flowers, teddy bears and watercolors of barns. Don’t get me wrong, there are thousands and thousands of these type “art” fairs around as well - but those are NOT the ones that I am talking about. I am talking about the cream of the Sunshine Artist Top 200 list. These are shows where only original art, not reproductions, are allowed, and photography has very severe rules (must be done by the photographer, limited editions only, signed, archival processes only, etc.). These shows are highly competitive to get in (they’re juried), and usually offer quite a lot of money in prizes for the artists. The jurors vary from museum curators, art center managers, art critics, artists, etc. But the destination to which I am driving to here is attendance: thousands. GALLERY BEAT > PAGE 17
14 | June 2015
Old Town Crier
HEY DADDY-O!
Colorful, comfortable, creative That’s how you will feel in a Margaret Winters cotton sweater! Newest arrivals are in the shop now. Come see our entire line of American-made clothing, jewelry, accessories, and home furnishings by American artists.
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junE 21 1124 King Street | Alexandria, Virginia 22314
915 King Street • Old Town Alexandria 703.684.1435 alexandria.tenthousandvillages.com Mon-Wed 10-7 • Thurs-Sat 10-9 • Sun 12-6
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Art&Antiques ABACA IMPORTS 1120 North Fairfax St. 703-683-5800
ELDER CRAFTERS 405 Cameron St. 703-683-4338
JAMES WILHOIT ANTIQUES 227 S. Washington St. 703-683-6595
AMERICAN HERITAGE GALLERY 901 North Columbus St. 703-519-7869
FACTORY PHOTOWORKS 105 N. Union St. 703-683-1501
Jeffrey Winter Fine Arts 110A S. Columbus St. (in the courtyard) 703-962-6266
THE ANTIQUE GUILD 113 N. Fairfax St. 703-836-1048 ARTCRAFT 132 King St. 703-299-6616 ARTS AFIRE GLASS GALLERY 1117 King St. 703-548-1197 THE ATHENAEM 201 Prince St. 703-548-0035 AUBURN ARTS GALLERY 110 South Columbus St. 703-548-1932 BANANA TREE 1223 King St. 703-836-4317 BELGRAVIA FINE ART 411 Cameron St. 703-549-2011 BIRD-IN-THE-CAGE ANTIQUES 110 King St. 703-549-5114
FINE OLD POSTERS 1015 King St. 703-684-3656 FIVE OAKS ANTIQUES 2413 Mt. Vernon Ave. 703-519-7006 FOLIOGRAPH GALLERY 217 King St. 703-683-1501 FRASER GALLERY 7700 Wisconsin Blvd. Suite E Bethesda 301-718-9651 FRENCH COUNTRY ANTIQUES 1000 King St. 703-548-8563 GALLERY G 215 King St. 703-836-5400 GALLERY INDIGO 1607 King St. 703-838-8098 GALLERY LAFAYETTE 320 King St. 703-548-5266
BROCKETTS ROW ANTIQUES 277 South Washington St. 703-684-0464
GALLERIE LA TAJ 1010 King St. (Gadsby Arcade) 703-549-0508
THE CLASSICAL GALLERY 110 S. Columbus St. 703-836-7736
GALLERY WEST 1213 King St. 703-549-7359
CURZON HILL ANTIQUES 108 S. Columbus St. 703-684-0667
GOSSYPIA 325 Cameron St. 703-836-6969
DIEHL ANTIQUES 614 N. Washington St. 703-706-8191
IMAGINE ARTWEAR 1124 King St. 703-548-1461
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Kellys Art & Frame 510 N. Washington St. Alexandria, VA 22314 703-549-3313
SPURGEON-LEWIS ANTIQUES 112 N. Columbus St. 703-548-4917 STUDIO ANTIQUES & ART 524 N. Washington St. 703-548-5188 STUDIO BIANCO 220 S. Henry St. 703-299-0662 TIME JUGGLER 411 Cameron St. 703-836-3594
MARIS ELAINE GALLERY 178 Waterfront St. National Harbor 301-686-0323
TORPEDO FACTORY ART CENTER 105 N. Union St. 703-838-4565
MINDFULL HANDS GALLERY 211 King St. 703-683-2074
TRASTEVERE 303 Cameron St. 703-683-9555
OLD COLONY SHOP 222-B S. Washington St. 703-548-8008
VAN BOMMEL ANTIEK HAUS 1007 King St. 703-683-4141 703-629-6521 by appt. Steve Young, Proprietor
P & C ART 212 King St. 703-549-2525 PAUL McGEHEES GALLERY 109 North Fairfax St. 703-548-7729
THE VON BRAHLER LTD./GALLERY 1437 Powhatan St. 703-798-8686
POTOMAC WEST INTERIORS & ANTIQUES 1517 Mt. Vernon Ave. 703-519-1911
WASHINGTON SQUARE ANTIQUES 689 S. Washington St. 703-836-3214
PRINCE ROYAL GALLERY 204 S. Royal St. 703-548-5151
Frida Kahlo
by F. Lennox Campello, circa 1981 limited edition of 10 signed and numbered etchings, 8 x 6.5” available from Alida Anderson Art Projects, LLC Washington, DC e: info@alidaanderson.com p: 301.437.1054
feast your eyes. feed your soul.
THE PRINCIPLE GALLERY 208 King St. 703-739-9326 SCULPTURE GALLERY 115 S. Patrick St. Studio 303 703-683-5056 SILVERMAN GALLERIES ANTIQUES 110 N. Asaph St. 703-836-5363
visit a museum.
June 2015 | 15
POINTS ON PETS ASHLEY DENHAM BUSSE
King Street Cats Adoption Calendar JUNE 2015 For details & MORE INFO website: www.kingstreetcats.org email: contact@kingstreetcats.org King Street Cats is looking for foster homes! You provide the spare room and TLC and we provide food, litter and all vetting. Please email for our Kitten Fostering FAQ at: contact@kingstreetcats.org King Street Cats 25 Dove Street Alexandria, VA 22314 Every Saturday & Sunday 1:30 - 4:30 pm Pro Feed Bradlee Shopping Center 3690 King Street Alexandria, VA 22302 Every Saturday & Sunday 1- 4 pm PETCO UNLEASHED AT PENTAGON ROW 1101 S. Joyce Street Arlington, VA 22202 Saturday, June 6 Saturday, June 20 Sunday, June 21 1- 4 pm THE DOG PARK 705 King Street Alexandria, VA 22314 Saturday, June 13 1- 4 pm DOGMA 2772 S. Arlington Mill Drive Arlington, VA 22206 Sunday, June 14 1- 4 pm barrett street library 717 Queen Street Alexandria, VA 22314 Saturday, June 13 10:30 am - 2:30 pm
Fur Good Health
P
erhaps one of the main reasons we love our furry pets is precisely because they are furry – stroking fur releases “feel-good” chemicals like oxytocin (which improve social bonds, lower blood pressure, and generally just make you feel better). And our pets experience the same enjoyment from being petted. But did you know that fur also provides clues about your pet’s health and needs to be groomed and maintained for optimum wellness? It’s true: you can tell a lot about your cat or dog’s health by examining her fur; you can also help keep her happy and comfortable by caring for her coat. Read on for more on what fur can tell you, as well as how to treat and prevent problems. Both cat and dog fur should be shiny, smooth, not brittle, and fairly thick (you’ll know what’s normal for your pet). And nutrition plays a huge part in the appearance of your pet’s fur. Cats need “a good balance of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, just like you do. And also just like you, if your cat eats nothing but poor quality food that is more difficult to digest, kitty may end up short on vital minerals and vitamins” (according to WebMD Pets). Dogs’ coat will be shiny and strong if they’re eating a good diet as well, rich in protein and amino acids. If you give your pet a high-quality food with all of these essential nutrients but don’t see any results, don’t be afraid to try another high-quality food and to ask your vet about fatty acid or other dietary supplements. Treats with these ingredients can be a fun way to improve fur quality. If you see flakes or lots of itching, that’s probably due to a skin problem that your vet can help you get to the bottom of, since it can be anything from allergies to disease to parasites to overbathing. But if your kitty has dandruff down the center of his back or at the base of his tail,
he could have a weight problem which makes it tough for him to reach those places when grooming himself. Obesity can cause a host of health issues much more serious than dandruff, so ask your vet about changing his diet for weight loss. Other considerations unique to cats: poor fur quality (patchiness, bald spots, rough or dull fur) can also result from overbathing your cat. Cats can generally keep themselves clean enough. Bathing them frequently in an effort to reduce dander because of human allergies isn’t really effective and can dry out a cat’s skin. If you do need to bathe your cat, say, if he gets something sticky or oily on him that you don’t want him to ingest, end his bath with a conditioning rinse made especially for felines. And switch to a monthly oral or topical flea preventive instead of frequent flea baths. Since dogs don’t really groom themselves the way cats do, you may want to bathe your pup more regularly. We mostly bathe our dogs to keep them smelling fresh to us humans, but a monthly bath isn’t a bad idea, as it really makes you focus on your pup’s fur, skin, and body, and allows you to be able to spot potential problems. Make sure you use a gentle shampoo designed specifically for dogs; if your pup has allergies or sensitive skin, choose a shampoo designed for this issue. Also be sure to
rinse all the shampoo out of his fur, or else you may irritate your pup’s skin. Excessive shedding, in cats or dogs, can also signal a health problem – anything from serious disease to stress. If seasonal shedding gets on your nerves, consider using a tool such as the Furminator to help your pet get rid of excess fur (and keep it off your furniture and clothes)! Ask your vet or groomer for tips on doing this. Matting is something that can affect long-haired cats and dogs and it’s not just unsightly – it can be extremely painful. Knots in fur can pull on the skin underneath and pinch badly, leading to hot spots or infections. Mats can make it difficult to see these spots until they’ve gotten serious, too. This is why it’s important to keep fur brushed regularly and to get any mats removed immediately; a professional groomer can do this for you, or you can learn the right way to remove mats yourself, so that you don’t further injure your pet’s fur and skin. Most dogs and cats will benefit from regular brushing and grooming; it’s a great way to keep an eye on your pet’s health and to bond with her, too. So make sure to help your cat or dog have a shiny, strong coat – it’ll be all the more fun to pet, for you and your pet! Ashley Denham Busse has worked part-time for Doggywalker.com since 2006. Doggywalker.com is a professional pet-sitting company located in Old Town Alexandria, celebrating more than 13 years of providing daily walks and customized in-home pet care. Visit www.doggywalker.com or email info@doggywalker.com.
June is Adopt a Cat Month! Adopting a cat not only saves the life of a shelter pet, it also improves the life of the human! Yep, that’s right: owning a cat has a host of healthy benefits, from lower stress and anxiety to reduced blood pressure and general happiness. Cats provide fairly low maintenance companionship – a Swiss study found that having a cat in the house was nearly the emotional equivalent to having a romantic partner! And just think: cats don’t care what you’re wearing! Cats make wonderful pets, and adopting one from a shelter means you’re offering a kitty a second chance at a forever home. So why not adopt one this month?
16 | June 2015
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GALLERY BEAT FROM PAGE 14
Locally in our area, there are several of these exceptional fine arts outdoor festivals: The Northern Virginia Fine Arts Festival attracts around 30,000 people; the Bethesda Fine Arts Festival, and the Bethesda Row Arts Festival also attract those numbers of people and are all highly competitive. Consider the median income in either Bethesda ($185K) or Reston ($105K), and what you get out of it is a lot of people with a lot of disposable income. The DMV itself has a median household income of around $90K — that ranks highest among the U.S.’s 25 most populous metro areas. Art price tags at these local fairs range from $100 to $20,000. So there’s a somewhat comparable universe of prices to the DC area gallery market, as an example. And I submit that a lot of the people who attend one of these outdoor fine art festivals do not have the “formation,” as a Communist would say, to dare set foot in a white cube gallery. If Mohammed won’t come to the mountain gallery, then bring the gallery to Mohammed. So here’s the issue that has been brewing in my head: All of these huge and highly successful outdoor arts festivals (as far as I know) only allow individual artists to sell their work at the fairs. Why doesn’t an enterprising fair organizer go one step further and add a whole new angle to the arts festival and set aside a whole section for independent commercial fine arts galleries? Because the entry price point is a substantial fraction of what it costs to sign up for a gallery
art fair like the 26 or so fairs during Art Basel Miami Beach week, the financial mathematics of this idea make sense to both sides of the equation. For fair organizers, they could offer the gallery a basic price tag of $2000 for the weekend, which would include a 10 feet by 20 feet double tent and display equipment. Or, and this is a big or, the organizer, in order to attract the art galleries, could offer them zero entry fee and instead a 10% commission on all sales. This may get a little sticky in the monitoring of sales and unreported sales by art dealers who lack ethics and scruples, so a flat fee is probably the best and easiest idea. For the gallery it would offer them an opportunity to expose their artwork to possibly thousands of new potential collectors, exposing most of them, for the first time, to an art gallery. It’s all in the numbers. No art gallery that I know gets 30,000 visitors a year, much less in a weekend. Would any of them turn down an opportunity, for a reasonable amount of money (much, much less than it costs them to advertise in an art magazine that will only reach a few hundred people in their local area), to expose themselves to a few thousand potential new clients? You do the math: 1% of 1% of 30,000 people is 3 new sales over a weekend. Not even to mention the possible future sales of new people who become exposed to the gallery at the festival, and start attending openings: new blood collectors. I would do it. Now let’s see some enterprising art fair organizer run with this.
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June 2015 | 17
CARIBBEAN CONNECTION JEFFrey R. Mccord
C
hesapeake Bay and Hampton Roads had its John Adams “Floating Theater”, which steamed from town to town providing what some called “sinful” entertainment to early twentieth century crowds. Out West, “Whisky Scows” and “Entertainment Barges” provided every service working men wanted and traveled the waters of the Columbia River in the late nineteenth century. Today, in the Virgin Islands, we have Angel’s Rest -- a tamer, comfortable St. John-based 40 foot self-propelled bright yellow bar and charter boat. Angel’s Rest is a wooden-sided, tinroofed West Indian style cottage built on pontoons, powered by two
outboard engines. Customers can swim to her from beaches or bring their boats alongside. Virtually self-sustaining, electric power is provided by discretely placed solar panels. Like most Virgin Island homes, rain provides fresh water channeled from the roof into two fifty gallon containers. Angel’s Rest’s “head” is more sanitary than toilets in many homes. Using salt water, the boat’s Electro Scan waste treatment system macerates solid waste, kills viruses and bacteria and discharges pathogenfree ash approved by the Coast Guard for environmentally sensitive waters. Every boat should have one. Charter guests are actually encouraged to take fresh water
WHISKEY SCOWS, Hospitality barges and the little floating cottage that could
showers and use the easy to operate toilet — rare treats on a Caribbean boat. Also unusual is Angel’s Rest’s “second story” sun deck above the stern, featuring two deck chairs and a two-person recliner bed with Bali cushions. About seven years ago, Angel’s Rest’s builder/owner/Captain Peter Hoschl constructed the unique boat in a Coral Bay mangrove lagoon known as “the Creek” behind Skinny Legs Bar. “I started with three aluminum pontoons shipped from South Carolina, then built the deck and constructed the rest just like a house; it took six months,” Peter explained. Locals were skeptical as he worked on her. “I was building her as a charter boat and people said I was ‘nuts.’ They’d never seen anything like it in the business here.” Today, Peter has the last laugh. During the winter season, he serves between 50 to 200 bar guests daily. He also provides half-day and fullday charters offering drinks and food prepared on board. Angel’s Rest was featured in a television commercial for St. John Brewers aired nationally during the 2013 NCAA “March Madness” Basketball Tournament. Among the fine beers Peter serves on board is Virgin Island’s Summer Ale, the favorite of the hero in my novel, “Undocumented Visitors in a Pirate Sea.” The St. John Brewers ad featuring Angel’s Rest can be found on You Tube. Peter says she will also be featured in a Travel Channel show due to air in December, 2015. Despite the boat’s rave reviews on Trip Advisor and favorable media attention, Angel’s Rest had relatively humble beginnings. “Many years ago CARIBBEAN CONNECTION > PAGE 19
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Secret Harbor and Water Island’s famous Honeymoon Beach. Angel’s Rest has been known to visit the fairly secluded, but popular Christmas Cove, located off Great St. James Island between St. Thomas and St. John. “On very calm days, I’ve taken her over to the BVI’s Jost Van Dyke,” Peter continues. “Locals there asked, ‘Is that a house that slipped off a hill?’ “ What does the future hold? Considering that the Chesapeake’s once famous James Adams Floating Theater was the basis for the 1927 smash hit Broadway musical “Show Boat,” anything seems possible for Angel’s Rest. “I want to keep doing this as long as I can,” Peter concludes. “I’m having a lot of fun with good people. I’ve never had a bad guest — only people with good vibes.”
CARIBBEAN CONNECTION FROM PAGE 18
in Breckenridge, Colorado, I used to go to a cool bar called ‘Angel’s Rest,’ and I decided if I had a bar I’d name it that,” Peter recalls. “We’re all angels and we all need a place to rest.” After spending much of his life to date in “hands-on” construction, Peter decided he needed to do work that “wouldn’t kill my body, but still be outside in a healthy environment.” I had a Coral Bay sailboat mooring close to Angel’s Rest and I can attest that his work is not easy. Peter is constantly making improvements in order to keep his hard won USVI charter and tavern’s licenses and Coast Guard rating as a “multi-passenger vessel.” What that means is that every two years, Angel’s Rest must be hauled out and closely inspected by the Coast Guard. After 40 years on the sea in various capacities, Peter is also a Coast Guard Licensed “Ship’s Master” rated to operate boats up to 50 tons. The work of meeting stringent regulations is worth it to Peter. “I want Angel’s Rest to be a safe, fun boat,” Peter says. “I like socializing with people and I like moving around on the water.” Aside from Coral Bay, where Angel’s Rest can frequently be found off Hansen’s Bay beach, Peter has taken her to every bay and beach on St. Thomas’ south shore including
Jeffrey R. McCord is a free-lance journalist and media relations consultant who has called Northern Virginia his home for more than 20 years. The author of “Undocumented Visitors in a Pirate Sea,” a quarterfinalist in the 2014 Amazon Breakthrough Novel contest, Mr. McCord’s articles on international economics and consumer protection have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, Gannett newspapers and Truthout.org, among other publications. He now divides his time between Virginia and St. John, USVI
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June 2015 | 19
ROAD TRIP BOB TAGERT
T
he heading for this month’s road trip makes it sound like a lot of driving, but it is not. All three of these thriving communities lie side by side along the Northwest Branch of the Patapsco River giving each community a true waterfront feel. We also thought that a visit to our nautical neighbor to the north would be in order after the recent riots and protests in downtown Baltimore. Where peaceful demonstrations brought down by thugs who looted, stole and burned their own neighborhoods unfortunately brought a dark cloud over the entire city. It ended up blocking out the light of hope for many businesses dependent on tourism, however, Baltimore is a city that will endure and thrive because of their civic leaders and the tenacity of its residents. Kevin Plank, Maryland native and CEO of Under Armour spoke of Freddie Gray at the company’s annual stockholders meeting. “We are one Baltimore and we will work towards positive change with local leaders and groups on and off the sports field in the neighborhoods that drive change throughout the city in any way that we can,” he said. Here is a former special teams captain on the University of
20 | June 2015
Maryland football team that upon graduation and armed with a little cash and some credit cards started Under Armour, Inc. in 1996. Today UA is a 3 billion dollar company with their national headquarters located in an old industrial building in Baltimore. This is what Baltimore is really about. Plank has purchased the historic City Recreation Pier Hotel in Fells Point and is renovating and rebuilding with the goal being to bring it back to its former glory to include a 120 room boutique hotel. Many of you would recognize the current structure as the set for the television series “Homicide: Life on the Streets”. There truly is more building up than tearing down in Baltimore. My first encounter with Fell’s Point was in the early 1970’s when I was crew on sailing vessel Patricia Divine, a two masted schooner. We were in Baltimore to participate in the Great Chesapeake Schooner Race. Like Old Town Alexandria, Fell’s Point is a seaport town where old warehouses have been converted to shops and restaurants. Fell’s Point is what I would call a waterfront town. The shops and restaurants run parallel to the river affording everyone a river view. Since the early 90’s the town has
charm continued to grow, but has kept that salty charm. The weathered haunts that I encountered on my first trip have changed a bit, but have still maintained that rugged allure. The first bar to catch our eye, and no pun intended, was The Cats Eye Pub. They have been serving watermen, travelers and locals since 1975 and in the real early days was one of the town’s most active brothels. The beer is cold, the company engaging. This place hasn’t changed a bit since the 90’s. Another favorite pub from the early days is The Horse You Came in On. The pub is located on the last street before the docks. It is rumored to have been one of Edgar Allen Poe’s
favorite watering holes. Theory has it that his ghost resides at the pub. When I first visited the Horse in the 90’s they still had the wooden bars in place that separated the bartenders from the rowdy customers. Those were removed years ago but the place still has that charm. Other great places include Bertha’s Mussels, The Admiral Fell Inn, Woody’s Rum Bar, The Waterfront Hotel (where we had a fabulous lunch) and on and on…too many to mention in one write-up but not too many to frequent on a trip to the Point. There are also numerous one-of-akind gift shops and stores in addition to the Broad Street Market and a stop off at the Visitors Center to learn some
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city hands on history about the area and all of the folk lore that abounds in the area. There are several walking tours that are available. For information, log on to baltimoreheritagearea.org. In the past, we have kept our road trip stops centered around Fells Point but this time we decided to leave the truck parked there (very reasonable parking in 4 hour increments) and hop on the Water Taxi and cruise over to the Inner Harbor for a few hours and then on to Canton for the first time ever. This is the way to go - $14 per adult for an all-day pass that gets you to all stops and back. Adjoining Fell’s Point to the west lies Baltimore’s Inner harbor. With the decline of the shipping trade in the
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baltimore’s Fells point inner harbor & Canton
50s Baltimore Harbor fell into a state of disarray. Rotting warehouses and piers were torn down and replaced by open, grass covered parks. The waterfront was gradually transformed with award-winning parks and plazas surrounded by office buildings, hotels and leisure attractions. With the success of the Inner Harbor in the 1970s and 1980s, Baltimore became a worldwide tourist destination and model of urban planning and development. Today there are museums at the Inner Harbor as well as the National Aquarium, which receives over 1.5 million visitors a year. We didn’t take in any of the museums or the aquarium on this trip but spent some time on the deck at Tir
Na Nog Irish Bar & Grill and Bubba Gump Shrimp Company. Both are very entertaining places to be. While Bubba’s is part of the Landry Foods chain restaurants, it is worth a stop in just for the laughs and great drinks! While at Tir Na Nog, order yourself a Dark & Stormy! If you are in more of a shopping mood, there are stores to meet everyone’s fancy. There is a Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! located at Inner Harbor as well. We didn’t have time to take the tour but it is on the list for next time. Within walking distance is Oriole Park at Camden Yards, M&T Bank Stadium, Baltimore Convention Center, Babe Ruth’s birthplace and museum. Baltimore’s own tall ship, the Pride of Baltimore II, a top sail schooner, calls the Inner Harbor home port and can be seen there when she is not on goodwill tours. One of the crown jewels of Baltimore’s waterfront communities is Canton. This vibrant neighborhood is located in southeast Baltimore bordering Patterson Park, the Patapsco River and Interstate 895. By the 1980’s Canton’s industrial base had dwindled away, leaving behind unemployed workers and abandoned factories. Thanks to several development
projects, small business leaders, and enterprising young residents, Canton revitalized itself throughout the 1990’s to become one of the most popular neighborhoods in Baltimore. Once decrepit factories and warehouses have been refurbished and modernized for use as apartment lofts, entertainment venues, restaurants, and offices. The walk up the hill to the heart of Canton from the water taxi dock takes about 10 minutes at a very leisurely pace but you can do it in 5 if you are in shape. Once in downtown Canton, almost all of the restaurants are within a two- block area and are very busy. We were there on a Thursday evening and Mama’s on the Half Shell (the place recommended by our friends at the Cat’s Eye) was standing room only with all of the alfresco tables occupied. Clearly this is a very popular place and it was 8:00 in the evening. We took in a fun Irish bar across the street from Mama’s named Looney’s Pub because my partner likened the name to hers (Lani..Looney) and after that it was time to catch the last taxi back to Fells Point. We will definitely take time to explore Canton again in the future. Treat yourself to a Road Trip to “Charm City” and show your support for one of our nation’s iconic cities!
June 2015 | 21
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CIVIL DISCOURSE FROM PG 9
the guards patrolled. Inside the stockade was a “dead line” — a ditch which if crossed justified summary execution by the guards above. The camp was a hellhole. Charles Loehr, captured at Five Forks in April 1865, left an account of his ten week ordeal. Put on a steamer at City Point, he and 2000 other prisoners were offloaded at the wharf on April 5th. Their captors took possession of every piece of equipment stamped U.S. and kicked it into the Bay — a major inconvenience since practically all of their gear was captured. Then: “After putting us in light marching order, we were marched into the prison-pen, or ‘bull-pen,’ as it was called. The prison consisted of a space of about twenty acres, surrounded by a high board fence, on the outside of which there was near the top, a platform for the guard to walk upon. The guards consisted of negroes of the worst sort. Inside of the grounds, about fifteen feet in front of the fence, was a ditch called the ‘dead line.’ The sentry fired upon any one who crossed it. The camp was laid in regular rows of small tents, each double row being a division, of which there were ten. These were again sub-divided into ten companies of about two hundred men each. Through these streets or rows there ran small ditches; but the land being very shallow, the drainage was very imperfect — Point Lookout being a tongue of land where the Potomac joins the Chesapeake Bay, barely over five feet high at its highest point; and herein was the worst feature of the prison. There was no good drinking water to be had; the water was impregnated with copperas, and tasted quite brackish. To this source was a great deal of the fearful mortality that occurred there traceable.” Loehr notes that the stockade was already overcrowded, with men sleeping on the ground because of the shortage of tents. Rations were both short and unpalatable, the men starving. He says it was not unusual to lose 60-65 men in a night and thinks 8600 were buried nearby. Hammond Hospital was built for 1200 patients, but had 6000 sick and dying, many packed into overflow tents. Several hundred sick with dysentery remained in the main camp. Especially galling to the Southerners were the guards — mostly United States Colored Troops. Here is Loehr in his own words: “Next our guards. As already stated, they were negroes who took particular delight in showing their former masters that ‘the bottom rail was on top.’ On one occasion one of the North Carolina men, who have a habit, which is shared by our Virginia country cousins, in whittling every wooden object they come across, was enjoying this sport on the prison gate, when one of the colored soldiers shot him down, nearly blowing his head off. This created some little excitement, but what the result was I never learned. During the day we had access to the sink [latrine] built on piles in the bay, but at night the gates were closed, and boxes were placed in the lower part of the camp, to which the men were allowed to go at all hours of the night. There were hundreds of sick in camp, cases of violent diarrhoea, reducing the men to skeletons. As these men were compelled to frequent these boxes, the negroes would often compel them at the point of the bayonet to march around in double quick time, to carry them on their backs, to kneel and pray for Abe Lincoln, and forced them to submit to a variety of their brutal jokes, some of which decency would not permit me to mention.” Their white sergeants were equally brutal,
kicking prisoners too sick to move out for roll call. Sometimes they dunked prisoners headfirst in the urine barrels. Loehr was lucky — he was released after two months and put on a boat to Richmond in mid-June, as the camp was being shut down. Probably few soldiers interned in the summer of 1863 lived to see the summer of 1865. Lice and malarial mosquitoes were a given. A lack of adequate food, clothing and shelter made winters on the wind-blown peninsula very hard; in the winter of 1863, 9000 prisoners were crowded into 980 tents, often without firewood. Many lacked shoes and there were fewer blankets than men. Prisoners ate rats, crabs, raw fish, seagulls and whatever they could scavenge from the kitchen gutters to supplement their lean rations. Periods of high water left the prisoners living in mud. Very few — maybe 50 — escaped. Water and swamp on three sides, with naval vessels standing ready to shell an uprising, a Yankee fort inland with its cannon trained at the compound, camps in the way — and if one got out, a long swim home to Virginia. Point Lookout was not a death camp by circumstance, but by official government policy. Here is the preamble of the Retaliation Resolution debated by the Senate in January 1865: “Rebel prisoners in our hands are to be subjected to a treatment finding its parallels only in the conduct of savage tribes and resulting in the death of multitudes by the slow but designed process of starvation and by mortal diseases occasioned by insufficient and unhealthy food and wanton exposure of their persons to the inclemency of the weather.” Point Lookout interned an estimated 52,264 Confederates; perhaps 14,000 died there. Only 3,384 of these are accounted for as being in the prison cemetery; these graves have been moved twice as water encroached and now rest in one mass grave. This mass grave is marked by an 85 foot obelisk erected by the Federal government. Much of the original camp has washed away in the last 150 years; this doubtless accounts for many lost graves. This month marks the 150th anniversary of the repatriation of Point Lookout’s survivors — an acknowledgment that the war really was over and that these men would fight no more. When Lee surrendered, there were more Confederates at Point Lookout than in his army. There will be a commemorative reenactment of the release ceremony on the weekend of June 13-14th, starting at 11:00 each day at the park. Go, and as you enjoy the soft June breeze, remember what the Federal government did here.
Sources
Descendants of Point Lookout Prisoner Organization, http://www.plpow.com/ PrisonHistory.htm; Point Lookout, an address by Charles T. Loehr, Richmond Times, Oct. 11, 1890, http://www.csa-dixie.com/csa/prisoners/ t59a.htm; Point Lookout, Maryland Dept. of Natural Resources, http://dnr2.maryland.gov/ publiclands/Pages/southern/pointlookout.aspx; Retaliation Resolution, Congressional Globe, 38th Congress, 2nd session, 1/24/1865, pg. 381. Doug Coleman is an attorney and amateur historian in Alexandria; comments and corrections are welcome at dcoleman@colemanlawyers.com.
Old Town Crier
THE LAST WORD FROM PG 13
Kirn, who knew of Gerhartsreiter’s love for film noir, believes that he killed the son and held a Trivial Pursuit party next to his unmarked grave in the backyard in part as an homage to Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope, whose characters hold an event in which their hidden victim lies in a chest featuring two candelabras. His crime, which he might have committed to earn the son’s inheritance from a mentally discombobulated mother, is only discovered when workers digging up the yard to build a swimming pool discover the bagged bones of his victim. Walter Kirn’s fascination with Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter often feels like a literary character’s fascination with his evil twin, yet he clearly sees the differences between them and wavers between self-disgust at his own inability to read Gerhartsreiter accurately and interest in his amazing exploits as a sociopath and pathological liar. In reading this book I also thought of Humbert Humbert’s fascination with the cunning and elusive Clare Quilty, a literary doppelganger who stole Lolita from him in Vladimir Nabokov’s masterpiece Lolita, since Kirn often writes about “Clark Rockefeller” as if he is a literary technique. As he says, Clark, I’d grown convinced, had killed for literature. To be a part of it. To live inside it. To test it in the most direct ways possible. He’d never had an idea of his own, not about how to speak or how to dress or which science fiction TV show to obsess about or how to cover up a murder. Even Snooks, his daughter’s pet name, was borrowed, lifted from the child of a family he’d known back in Connecticut. Gerhartsreiter emerges as an exhausting hall of fun mirrors in a labyrinth, distorting a viewer’s reflections purposefully by throwing out psychological glimpses she recognizes in herself, thus leading her into a maze from which she may catch exaggerated glimpses of herself and never escape, although there was never anything real about chasing her own tail in the first place. A jury devoid of any need for his approval recognized him for what he was in August 2013, sentencing him to life in prison for murdering John Sohus in 1985. In Blood Will Out, Kirn has created an intense, complex, yet easily comprehensible work; an unsparing examination of the way his own insecurities and those of others led them to believe in Gerhartsreiter’s thousands of tales, identities, and aliases garnered from movies, literature, and themselves: the Americans and others he met and exploited for their own experiences. Gerhartsreiter. Gerhart. Chichester. Smith. Rockefeller. Kirn places this flim-flam man archetype and sociopath in historical context as Gerhartsreiter starts his pillaging of the American dream in Reagan’s 1980s, eventually making his way up an imaginary ladder, posing as a member of the one percent while looking for Lebensraum outside of his native, defeated Germany with its former imperial notions. He also compares “Rockefeller” to the Bernie Madoff-type bankers who led us to the 2008 financial crisis, when Lehman Brothers stood for nothing but letterhead, and describes him as a poseur among poseurs in his brief stint working on Wall Street. These memories struck me as absurd now, a ridiculous, disgraceful capitulation. I’d bowed to a tinfoil prince. I’d kissed his ring, and the irony was that the true ring was on my own hand. I’d had it all backwards, upside down, reversed. I, the fawning aspirant, should have been the one conferring status—and I suppose I was, in some sick way. Clark must have loved it, watching me degrade myself. Worse, though, I was degrading my vocation. My grant of literary immunity to the strangest creature I’d ever met violated my storyteller’s oath. Writers exist to exploit such figures, not to save them. Our duty is to the page, not the person.
7-Block WATERFRONT 1/2-Mile BOARDWALK & Bike Path NEW North Beach Park & SCULPTURE GARDEN Wetlands OVERLOOK PARK Casual & Fine DINING Pedestrian-Friendly SHOPPING Bayside History MUSEUM Friday Night FARMERS’ MARKET Kayak & Bicycle RENTALS
And in fulfilling this duty, he ironically paired them forever and gave copycat Gerhartsreiter the literary immortality he desired. Most importantly, he gave us one of the best-written, intense true crime works since Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood.
Old Town Crier
June 2015 | 23
FROM THE BAY…
Art Is in the Air in Solomons
Belgian Cubist master Marius Zabinski’s work opens at Carmen’s Gallery
M
www.ChooseCalvert.com/OTC
24 | June 2015
ARIUS ZABINSKI is an internationally recognized Cubist artist following in the footsteps of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. While those names carry the weight of centuries, this artist brings fresh life to the senescent art form of Cubism. These artists have left seemingly large shoes to fill, and Marius is more than up to the task. As suggested by the exhibition title, his paintings truly transcend the traditional definition of “cubism” and thus Marius defines his own niche within the genre. He has had his work featured at the Louvre in Paris and Galerie l’Entrepot in Monaco as well as in Japan, Luxembourg, China, and his home country of Belgium. Born and educated in Poland, Marius Zabinski was discovered early in his career and sponsored by a French art dealer, who invited him to Paris to pursue his artistic desires in the City of Light. Paris is so-named because in the 18th century it was a place of Enlightenment for artists, educators, and philosophers. It was here that Marius discovered a wealth of untapped possibilities in the Cubist movement. He recognized that the artform had not yet been exploited in its entirety, and endeavored to fill the void with his creativity and energetic style. Based on Paul Cezanne’s three tenets, cubism raced through the art world in the early 20th century to claim its place at the top of the podium. The first tenet, geometricity, is represented in Marius Zabinski’s paintings by strong lines and sharp curves, simplifying figures into their geometrical components. The second tenet, simultaneity, makes one question whether there are three women or four in that painting by Zabinski. The third tenet, “passage” or the overlapping of planes within a work, shows distinctly through Zabinski’s still life paintings and the background features of many of his newer works. Unquestionably Marius Zabinski’s paintings captivate the viewer, providing multiple and distinct layers for the mind to interpret and sift. In the upcoming exhibition at carmen’s gallery, each of Marius’ paintings is expertly framed by owner Carmen Lee Nance Gambrill to draw the eye into the painting and to perfectly complement the colors and textures of each work of art. Carmen’s gallery is extremely pleased to be hosting this artist for the week, and invites you to join art enthusiasts and collectors from across the country at the opening reception. “We are expecting crowds at these events,” says Gambrill, “so mark your calendars.” Saturday evening, June 13, 6 – 9 p.m., Carmen’s Gallery will host “Transcending Picasso,” an exhibition and sale of over 20 works by Marius Zabinski. Marius is traveling to the US from Belgium especially to attend this exhibition at carmen’s gallery. He will give a much-anticipated gallery talk about the evolution of his work, techniques, and inspiration. French beverages and Belgian chocolates will be provided as international inspiration throughout the evening. “Transcending Picasso” will be displayed through July 9. Please visit www.carmensgallery.com for detailed information on the artist and event schedule. Save the date and visit the gallery in June for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Old Town Crier
CalvertCounty
DISCOVER
MARYLAND
ALEXANDRIA’S PLAYGROUND
Best Art Gallery
Deep water anD covereD slips available large pool anD two restaurants on the property 14485 Dowell road • solomons, MD 20629 410.326.4251 • calvertmarina.com
13480 Dowell Rd., Solomons, MD Open Daily: 10am-5pm annmariegarden.org
Sculpture Garden & Arts Center Where Art & Nature Meet
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ElEgant WatErfront Dining at CalvErt Marina 14415 Dowell road • Dowell, Maryland 410.326.9900 • backcreekbistro.com
• Piano Bar • Tapas Menu • 1930s Throwback Environment • Largest Wine Selection in Solomons
120 Charles Street Solomons, Maryland 443-404-5332
STONEY’S KINGFISHERS SEAFOOD BAR & GRILL 14442 Solomons Island Road Solomons, Maryland 20688 SolomonsKingfisher@gmail.com
410.394.0236 EVERY WEDNESDAY JAZZ AND HALF PRICE WINE
Old Town Crier
June 2015 | 25
Adventure Vacations New River Gorge, West Virginia
20
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OFF
Rafting, Zip Line & Cabins use offer code: OTC
26 | June 2015
800.463.9873 RAFTINGINFO.COM
…TO THE BLUE RIDGE JULIE REARDON
photo: Middleburg Photo
Horsing Around in Hunt Country
T
he drum of hoof beats kick off the unofficial start of summer in the Blue Ridge as racing over fences winds down and horse shows and polo get into full swing in horse country. In fact the oldest horse show in the country is the Upperville Colt & Horse Show, holding its 162nd edition June 1–7 under the oaks at the venerable old show grounds at Grafton and Salem Farms on Rt. 50 west of Middleburg. This show, one of the country’s most prestigious, has been held annually since 1853. It was started by a group of locals to improve horse breeding and these days hosts the top hunters and jumpers from all over the country but still holds classes for colts and fillies too young to be ridden. Still an important part of the social fabric of rural Virginia, horse shows are held all over the state every weekend, small and large, English and Western, casual and formal. For every horse and rider, there is a class somewhere at a show somewhere—children too young to ride on their own have “leadline” classes where a parent or adult leads the pony; there are “short stirrup” classes for beginner riders, children’s and adult classes and open classes where anyone, including professionals, can compete. There are classes “in hand” for miniature horses too small to be ridden, young horses and horses being judged on conformation or grooming and presentation; there are trail classes with obstacles the horse and/or rider must navigate; there are equitation classes where the rider is judged, pleasure and hunter classes where the horse is judged on its movement and smoothness, and jumper classes where the horse is penalized for knocking down rails and clear rounds are called back to do a timed jump off. There are also shows for specific breeds and colors of horses, like Tennessee walking horses, Quarter Horses, paints and palominos. Of all these shows, the hunter and jumper show is probably the most common in the Blue Ridge. These shows can be informal “schooling shows” where many top riders get their start, or rated shows that are run in accordance
with the rules of the U.S. Hunter Jumper Foundation. Upperville’s show is an AA rated show, as befits the country’s oldest and one of its most prestigious. Many of the country’s top show hunters and jumpers, and top junior and amateur riders come to compete under the oaks at Upperville, a show that’s long been a favorite of both competitors and spectators. On the grounds there’ll be pony rides, arts and craft exhibits, boutiques, children’s games, a wide variety of food offerings, and a Basset Hound demonstration preceding the Sunday, June 7th premier event, the Upperville Jumper Classic. The show is open June 1 through the 7th at 8 a.m., admission is $10 per person with children under 12 accompanied by an adult admitted free. For information or a complete schedule, visit: www.upperville.com
Polo Under the Stars
Another hunt country tradition, polo under the stars, is also underway at Great Meadow in The Plains every Saturday night through September. Although arena polo doesn’t have the long history of the Upperville Colt& Horse Show, its popularity with city and country folks alike has been enduring as it enters its third decade. Great Meadow, host to the Virginia Gold Cup steeplechase races, is a world class international polo arena that has been described as one of the best playing surfaces between New York and Aiken. Great Meadow Polo Club has over 75 playing members, making it one of the largest in the region. During the summer more than 20,000 fans young professionals as well as families gather at Great Meadow with tailgates and picnics to watch the Twilight Polo games. Two matches are held every Saturday night beginning at 7:00 P.M. (gates open at 6:30 P.M) until midSeptember. Stay after the polo matches for moonlight music and dancing. Tickets at the gate: $30 per carload. For reserved tailgate parking or advance ticket information call the event line at (540) 253-5001, or visit: www. greatmeadow.org
Old Town Crier
destination dining When you find yourself in wine & hunt country, one of these fine restaurants is near
Mountain trails, wineries and the Thornton River Grille. Perfect day.
photos: G. Busick Photography
Located in historic downtown Little Washington, Tula’s offers a southern inspired menu, a full bar, and … Ping Pong!
tulasoffmain.com 540.675.2223 311 Gay Street Washington, VA 22747
3710 Sperryville Pike | Sperryville, Va. thorntonrivergrille.com | 540.987.8185
Foti’s RestauRant New Location • Expanded Menu Serving Lunch and Dinner Wednesday-Saturday 11am-10pm Sunday Brunch 11am-3pm • Sunday Dinner 3pm-8pm 110 East Davis Street • Historic Culpeper Virginia 540.829.8400 • fotisrestaurant.com
Old Town Crier
June 2015 | 27
BEHIND THE BAR
PHIL LEE How did you get started in the bartending business? I got started by working at the hottest nightclub in DC (at the time) – Ozio! Biggest bartender pet peeve? A disorganized and unkempt bar. A clean bar is a happy bar :)
photo: Bob Tagert
PHIL LEE IS BEHIND THE BAR AT mACKIE’S BAR & GRILL 907 KING STREET OLD TOWN ALEXANDRIA 703-684-3288 MACKIESBARANDGRILL.COM
What is the most clever line anyone has ever used to get a free drink? I haven’t heard anything too clever. Except when they tell me they run the Old Town Crier, LOL. Besides I don’t buy drinks, I sell them! What is the best/worst pickup line you have overheard at the bar? Best pick up line? I’ve yet to hear one. Can’t recall one, where I say to myself, “Ooh, I gotta use that line,” I
would just rather be straight forward. The worst pick up line? There are just too many to mention. Tell us an interesting encounter you have had with a customer. One interesting encounter I had was very recent. It was with this lovely couple who turned out to be Danny Espinosa — of Washington Nationals baseball fame — and his beautiful wife. I guess I didn’t recognize him without his Fu Manchu moustache. Very generous tippers, I might add. If you could sit down and have a drink with anyone in the world, past or present who would that be? First, my father. With his illness and death in my young adult life, we never had that opportunity. Second, it would have to be Montgomery Clift. Watching his movies in my teens taught me how to be “cool.” And A Place in the Sun is my favorite movie. If you would like to see your favorite bartender featured here, send contact information to office@oldtowncrier.com.
Phil is behind the bar Monday through Friday, from 4 pm to close.
This is where your new favorite whiskey comes from. Visit us in Sperryville. Tours daily. www.copperfox.biz
28 | June 2015
Old Town Crier
“Like our best friends’ home if our best friends were amazing chefs and knew exactly what we wanted before we asked.”
Now open for BRUNCH Saturdays & Sundays at 10AM 121 South Union Street, Old Town Alexandria 703.548.1785 unionstreetpublichouse.com
Trip Advisor
www.hopkinsordinary.com Sperryville, Virginia 540.987.3383 Old Town Crier
June 2015 | 29
DINING OUT BOBTAGERT
Mason Social Modern American Cuisine mason social 728 N. Henry Street 703-548-8800 mason-social.com
30 | June 2015
W
ith all of the fabulous restaurants in Alexandria, your choices just got more difficult. Opened about two months ago, Mason Social is making a big hit in the newly revitalized Parker-Gray District of Alexandria. The menu is manageable, and very creative. The gray wood tones of the interior would indicate a conservative approach, but this place is pretty hip. Five specialty cocktails, six craft draught beers and another 12 available by bottle or can are available. Craft beers are great, but I still like
a cold Budweiser…not! My dining partner disagrees, she isn’t a “real” beer drinker and Miller Lite (they do have that) isn’t on her beer palate either. She may have a point, maybe the addition of a Bud Light or a Coors Light may not be a bad idea. Over the years this particular corner of Madison Street and North Henry Street has been many different establishments, with none ever lasting very long. The recent development of new businesses, apartments, condos and homes has brought this end of town alive (our friends at Bastille have
recently opened up about 3 blocks away). The restaurant is the brainchild of four Alexandrians who knew each other through high school. The dining room is slightly separated from the bar area which can be loud at times…a nice touch. The bar area is spacious with high tops for those who wish to order dinner or lunch in a more casual environment. This is the place to meet your friends. We had stopped by for lunch after having dined there before. This menu DINING OUT > PAGE 35
Old Town Crier
G GERANIO RISTORANTE Redefining Italian Cuisine in Old Town Alexandria “The Finest Lebanese Cuisine” –Washington Post, 2001 Family Owned & Operated Come and Enjoy a Cozy Candlelit Dinner Carry-Out Available • Free Delivery Open 7 Days for Lunch & Dinner
Dinner Entrees from $14 722 King Street Old Town Alexandria 703.548.0088 www.geranio.net
719 King St. Old Town Alexandria 703.684.9194 • thepitahouse.com
eat like a local!
Old Town Crier
June 2015 | 31
Dining Guide american BILBO BAGGINS 208 Queen St. 703-683-0300 BITTERSWEET 823 King Street 703-549-2708 CARLYLE CLUB 411 John Carlyle St. 703-549-8957 CHADWICKS 203 Strand St. 703-836-4442 chadwicksrestaurants.com An Old Town tradition since 1979 and an original Georgetown pub and restaurant since 1967. CHART HOUSE One Cameron St. 703-684-5080 CITY KITCHEN 330 South Pickett St. 703-685-9172 fatcitykitchen.com USA City inspired menu choices that bring together traditional American and global cuisine with their own personal touch. Casual dress. $30 and under. Lots of free parking. Open 7 days a week with brunch on Sat & Sun 11-3. AMEX, Discover, MasterCard, Visa COLUMBIA FIREHOUSE 109 S. St. Asaph St. 703-683-1776 DUTCHS GRILL (Holiday Inn) 2460 Eisenhower Ave. Alexandria, VA 703-960-3400 THE GRILL RESTAURANT/ PIANO BAR AT MORRISON HOUSE 116 S. Alfred St. 703-838-8000 EVENING STAR CAFÉ 2000 Mt. Vernon Ave. 703-549-5051 FAST EDDIES BILLIARD CAFE 6220 Richmond Hwy. 703-660-9444 FIN & HOOF 801 N. Saint Asaph St. 703-836-4700 FINN & PORTER AT MARK CENTER 5000 Seminary Rd. 703-379-2346 FIRE FLIES 1501 Mt. Vernon Ave. 703-548-7200 FLAT IRON STEAK & SALOON 808 King St. 703-299-0777 FOSTERS GRILLE 2004 Eisenhower Ave. 703-725-1342 GADSBYS TAVERN 138 N. Royal St. 703-548-1288 HARD TIMES CAFE 1404 King St. 703-837-0050
32 | June 2015
HUNTING CREEK STATION 1106 King St. 703-836-5126
OVERWOOD 220 North Lee St. 703-535-3340
MAI THAI 9 King St. 703-548-0600
INDIGO LANDING #1 Marina Dr. Washington Sailing Marina 703-548-0001
PORK BARREL BBQ 2312 Mount Vernon Ave. 703-822-5699
RED MEI 602 King St. 703-837-0094
RAILSTOP GASTROPUB 901 N. Fairfax St. 703-683-8793
THAILAND ROYAL 801 N. Fairfax St. 703 535-6622
JACKSON 20 480 King St. 703-842-2790
RAMPARTS 1700 Fern St. 703-998-6616 rampartstavern.com
TOKYO JAPANESE STEAKHOUSE 66 Canal Center Plaza 703-683-8878
JOE THEISMANNS 1800 Diagonal Rd. 703-739-0777
REYNOLDS STREET CAFÉ 34 S. Reynolds St. 703-751-0830
KING STREET BLUES 112 N. St. Asaph St. 703-836-8800
RIVER BEND BISTRO 7966 Fort Hunt Rd. Hollin Hall Shopping Center 703-347-7545
JACKS PLACE 222 North Lee St. 703-684-0372
LAPORTAS 1600 Duke St. 703-683-6313 LIGHT HORSE RESTAURANT 715 King St. 703-549-0533 LOST DOG CAFE 808 North Henry St. 571-970-6511 MACKIE’S BAR AND GRILL 907 King St. 703-684-3288 MAGNOLIA’S ON KING 703 King St. 703-838-909 MAJESTIC CAFÉ 911 King St. 703-837-9117 MANCINIS 1508 Mt. Vernon Ave. 703-838-FOOD Mason Social 728 Henry Street Old Town Alexandria 703-548-8800 mason-social.com MONROES AMERICAN TRATTORIA 1603 Commonwealth Ave. 703-548-5792 MOUNT VERNON INN Mount Vernon, Va 703-780-0011 MURPHYS IRISH PUB 713 King St. 703-548-1717 murphyspub.com Old-world Irish pub featuring a roaring fireplace, serving a variety of imported, domestic and non-alcoholic beers in a friendly atmosphere. Serving robust American-Irish meals at fair prices. Favorites include fish and chips and Irish stew. Irish-style entertainment nightly. NICKELLS AND SCHIFFLER 1028 King St. 703-684-5922 NINAS DANDY Potomac Party Cruises Zero Prince St. 703-683-6076 dandydinnerboat.com OCONNELLS RESTAURANT & BAR 112 King St. 703-739-1124 danieloconnellsrestaurant.com
ROCK IT GRILL 1319 King St. 703-739-2274
SHOOTER MCGEES 5239 Duke St. 703-751-9266 SOCIETY FAIR 277 S. Washington St. 703-683-3247 SOUTHSIDE 815 815 S. Washington St. 703-836-6222 T.J. STONES GRILL HOUSE & TAP ROOM 608 Montgomery St. 703-548-1004 tjstones.com American cuisine with libations from around the world. Bar specials Mon-Fri, 4-7 PM. Brunch served Sat & Sun. TRADEMARK 2800 Jamieson Ave. 703-253-8640 TRADITIONS (Holiday Inn) 625 First St. 703-548-6300 UNION STREET PUBLIC HOUSE 121 South Union St. 703-548-1785 unionstreetpublichouse.com Old Towns favorite neighborhood tap and grill. Distinct southern style menu, fine steaks, fresh seafood. Sunday brunch, private parties, happy hour. VERMILLION 1120 King St. 703-684-9669
KAI ZEN TAVERN 1901 Mt. Vernon Ave. 703-836-1212
BRABO by Robert Weidmaier 1600 King St. 703-894-3440 BRABO Tasting Room 1600 King St. 703-894-5252 RESTAURANT EVE 110 S. Pitt St. 703-706-0450 TEMPO 4231 Duke St. 703-370-7900 temporestaurant.com Northern Italian, French provincial and American cuisine featuring fresh seafood, meats and pasta served in a contemporary, romantic atmosphere. CEDAR KNOLL INN GW Parkway at Lucia Ln. 703-799-1501 FRENCH BASTILLE 606 N. Fayette St. 703-519-3776 bastillerestaurant.com LE REFUGE 127 N. Washington St. 703-548-4661 FONTAINES CAFFE & CREPERIE 119 S. Royal St. 703-535-8151 LA MADELEINE 500 King St. 703-729-2854 TWO NINETEEN RESTAURANT 219 King St. 703-549-1141
VIRTUE GRAIN & FEED 106 South Union St. 571-970-3669 THE WAREHOUSE BAR & GRILL 214 King St. 703-683-6868 asian
MALAYA 1019 King St. 703-519-3710
Sang Jun Thai 300 King Street 571-312-3377
CONTINENTAL
SAMUEL BECKETTS IRISH GASTRO PUB 2800 S. Randolph St. Villages of Shirlington 703-379-0122
ASIAN BISTRO 809 King St. 703-836-1515
Caphe Banh Mi Vietnamese 407 Cameron St. 703-549-0800
BISTRO ROYALE 1201 N. Royal St. 703-519-9110 bistroroyal.com
ITALIAN BERTUCCIS 725 King St. 703-548-8500 BUGSYS PIZZA RESTAURANT 111 King St. 703-683-0313 bugsyspizza.com FACCIA LUNA 823 S. Washington St. 703-838-5998 GERANIO RISTORANTE 722 King St. 703-548-0088 geranio.net Still Old Towns highest-rated Italian restaurant (Zagat). Discerning Old Towners flock here for refined cuisine in this comfortable, yet sophisticated restaurant. With entrees from $14, there is no reason not to enjoy a selection from their Wine Spectator award-winning list, while being attended by the friendly staff of seasoned professionals. Reservations recommended and casual attire welcomed.
DELIAS MEDITERRANEAN GRILL 209 Swamp Fox Rd. Alexandria, VA 703-329-0006 BISTRO DU SOLEIL 1116 King St. 571-312-2754 SEAFOOD Hanks Oyster Bar 1026 King St. 703-739-HANK RTS RESTAURANT 3804 Mt. Vernon Ave. 703-684-6010
IL PORTO RESTAURANT 121 King St. 703-836-8833
FISH MARKET-OLD TOWN 105 King St. 703-836-5676 fishmarketoldva.com Internationally known and locally owned! We serve shrimps, a few crabs, tall people and lots of nice people, too! Live music and lively food!
LA STRADA 1905 Mt. Vernon Ave. 703-548-2592
ERNIES ORGINIAL CRABHOUSE 1743 King St. 703-836-0046
SAPORE DITALIA RISTORANTE & PIZZERIA 1310 Mt. Vernon Ave. 703-683-9680
THE WHARF 119 King St. 703-836-2834 wharfrestaurant.com "Its All About the Seafood," traditional and creative coastal cuisine.
LANDINI BROTHERS 115 King St. 703-836-8404 landinibrothers.com Elegant, classical Italian cuisine served in a lovely historical setting. Fresh veal, homemade pastas, and fresh fish are some of the daily choices. An extensive list of wines and champagnes served in a sophisticated and friendly atmosphere. OLD CHICAGO PIZZERIA 2245 Huntington Ave. 703-960-1086 PARADISO 124 King St. 703-837-1245 PINES OF FLORENCE 1300 King St. 703-549-1796 RED ROCKS FIREBRICK PIZZA 904 King St. 703-717-9873 TRATTORIA DA FRANCO 305 S. Washington St. 703-548-9338 VILLA DESTE 600 Montgomery St. 703-549-9477 MEDITERRANEAN
CHEZ ANDREE 10 East Glebe Rd. 703-836-1404
LA TASCA 607 King St. 703-299-9810 “Spring into Spain and Feast Like a King.” Offering unlimited tapas at lunch and dinner. Choice of dessert included. Lunch 11:30-4:30 for $20.07; dinner 4:30-close for $30.07. Eat a little, drink a little, have a lot of fun!
LA BERGERIE 218 N. Lee St. 703-683-1007 labergerie.com
TAVERNA CRETEKOU 818 King St. 703-548-8688 tavernacretekou.com
YVES BISTRO 235 Swamp Fox Rd. In the Hoffman Center 703-329-1010
PITA HOUSE 719 King St. 703-684-9194 thepitahouse.com Family owned and operated; carry out available and free delivery.
FLYING FISH 815 King St. 703-600-FISH flyingfishdc.com FISH MARKET-CLINTON 7611Old Branch Ave. Clinton, MD 301-599-7900 INDIAN DISHES OF INDIA 1510A Bellview Blvd. 703-660-6085 MEXICAN LATIN SOUTHWESTERN AUSTIN GRILL 801 King St. 703-684-8969 LOS TIOS GRILL 2615 Mt. Vernon Ave. 703-299-9290 LOS TOLTECOS 4111 Duke St. 703-823-1167 TAQUERIA POBLANO 2400-B Mt. Vernon Ave. 703-548-TACO (8226) CASA FELIPE 835 N. Royal St. 703-535-7868
Old Town Crier
dine out!
Spectacular Waterfront Dining
Fresh Fish Specialties • Prime Rib & Steaks Hot Chocolate Lava Cake
3-Courses for $39 Sunday - Thursday $4 - $7 Bar Bites Monday - Friday • 4:30pm - 6:30pm
Brunch • Lunch • Dinner One Cameron St. • Alexandria (703) 684-5080 chart-house.com
Great Steaks
USDA Prime Cuts
Late Night Menu Available Every Night
Old Town Crier
June 2015 | 33
CHEF’S SPECIAL CHESTER SIMPSON
Duck Chang, Jr.
photo: ©2015 Chester Simpson
C
Classic Peking Duck
34 | June 2015
hef Duck Chang’s father, Chef Chang began his career at age 13 in his family’s restaurant in Peking. He later was featured in several leading Hong Kong restaurants and served as Chinese banquet chef to His Majesty, King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand. Since his arrival in this area, Duck Chang has served Dr. Henry Kissinger just before his historic mission to Peking. His outstanding cuisine has gained recognition for excellence both in the Far East and in Washington metropolitan area restaurants. Now his sons, Duck Chang, Jr. and Peter Chang are managing their own restaurants to carry on the family name duck chang, jr. and tradition. IS THE CHEF AT Duck Chang Jr. peking duck restaurant at Peking Duck 7531 richmond highway Restaurant alexandria, va (7531 703-768-2774 Richmond pekingduck.com Highway, Alexandria, Va.) and Peter Chang at Duck Chang’s Restaurant (4427 John Marr Drive, Annandale, Va.)
When did you first become interested in cooking and why did you pursue a culinary career? I always loved to eat but was a picky eater. Growing up in a restaurant environment and being around food all the time I started cooking with my Dad. Who has been the biggest inspirations of your career? My Dad. His sense of achievement and his love of the culinary arts — it wasn’t just a job to him, it was something he loved to do with pleasure and satisfaction. Once he started cooking you could see his passion and nothing was too simple. He said every dish and every dinner is unique and special. He was dedicated to maintaining the highest standards of the art of Chinese cooking. What dish on your menu are you curious to see how it is received by your guests? Peking Duck is a famous duck dish from Beijing that has been being prepared since the Imperial era. What makes our 6 1/2 lb Peking Duck special is the way that the duck is CHEF’S SPECIAL > PAGE 35
Old Town Crier
DINING OUT FROM PG 30
is very creative. Unfortunately they were out of Spring Onion Soup … in their defense this was the day after Memorial Day weekend; so they should be out of something. I opted for the Marinated Shrimp, a delicious combination of shrimp, lime & agave, grapefruit, pickled onion, Serrano and Thai chili. Wow, what a delight. When it is 98 degrees this summer, this dish is going to be perfect for the weather. The grapefruit and pickled onion blended perfectly with the cold shrimp making for a refreshing and tangy treat. This dish is definitely a winner. Next we tried the Grilled Asparagus, which was served on top of Norwegian Smoked Salmon, with chevre, spiced cashews and piquillo coulis. Once again, the combination of tastes were delicious and the slight charring of the asparagus always adds a new taste dimension. Next I ordered the Mahi Tacos with Chipolte cream and shaved veggies. This is the first time I have ever ordered any kind of fish taco. I love fish and pretty much all seafood, but a taco and fish just didn’t quite register with me. The Mahi was cooked perfect and melded well with the shaved vegetables. The taste was very good, but I
still could not wrap my head around the taco idea and finished the Mahi by itself. This was recommended by the Manager when we first sat down, so clearly it is a very popular dish. We next ordered the Bacon wrapped Chicken Sandwich. Now who doesn’t like chicken and love bacon. The rest of the sandwich was complemented with celery hearts and red onion in house-made ranch dressing. Another melding of different flavors and textures that is a clear winner. French fries are usually a good indication of how much a kitchen cares. For some, fries are just an after thought; here they are as much a part of the meal as the main staple. Guajillo pepper, smoked paprika and citrus cream, complements the generous cut potatoes. There were too many to eat so we brought them back and made for a great snack while watching the Nationals game. The menu offerings are not huge, but do provide enough choices to make it worth returning. There are 4 Holdme-Overs (appetizers) ranging in price from $7 to $14. There are 3 Gardens (salads) priced from $6 to $11. There are 6 offerings for Between Bread (sandwiches) ranging in price from $11 to $15.
The dinner menu has more offerings, however the prices are consistent with the lunch prices. In addition to the Between Bread there is an offering of 4 Mains including Roasted Half Chicken, Hanger Steak, Golden Tilefish and Local Scallop Gemelli. Main course prices range from $21 to $28. As usual, we didn’t have room for dessert but the offerings sound delectable: Vanilla Poached Pear, Nutella Brownie, seasonal Sorbets & Gelatos and a Cheese Plate. Next time we will save some room. Mason Social changes their menu from time to time. The changes are not pegged down to seasonal, but do rely on what are the best choices at any given time of the year. Manager Adriane Van Balen did inform us that there are new changes coming to the menu in the near future. Speaking of Adriane, she, like the rest of the staff are top professionals and very willing to help their customers. Everyone we met in the restaurant was friendly and helpful. Mason Social appears to be a big hit! Check out more on the history, menus and other information on their website.
are only as good a cook as the ingredients that you cook with.”
What is your guilty food pleasure? Lamb stew in bean paste with ginger and scallions that my wife prepares.
OYSTERS! SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2PM OYSTERS Half Shelled, Stewed, Fried, Red Flannelled, and Rockefellered, Baked Ham and Plenty of Sides All paired with a selection of FIVE oyster friendly wines.
$65 Plus tax and gratuity. CAll FOR RESERVATIONS!
Wine Tastings every Saturday 2 - 4 pm 7966 Fort Hunt Road Reservations: 703-347-7545
RiverBendBistro.com Monday & Tuesday Nights Two Course Dinner with Bottle of Wine for Two $39.95
CHEF’S SPECIAL FROM PG 34
prepared, a combination of crispy skin and tender, moist meat. It’s the way we cook it. The duck is coated in honey and roasted and served in hoisin sauce, scallions, carved at your table and wrapped in mandarin pancakes. Besides the famous Peking Roast Duck of the North, regional specialties on the menu include, the Szechuan (western) style which is highly peppered and seasoned, light stir-fried dishes from Canton, and the famed sauces of the Shanghai coastal area. What do you do to insure the quality of the food going out of the kitchen? We only deal with local venders and I always check the quality of the food when’s it’s delivered. We’ve been using the same Duck Farm for the last 40 yrs. Peking Duck is so special that I like to turn people on to the dish and watch them take their first bite. My Dad said, “You
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If any chef in the world could prepare you a meal, who would it, be? My late grandmother, because every dish she prepared had her passion and her special touch.
If you would like to see your favorite chef featured in this space, send contact information to chester@ chestersimpson.com.
Chez Andrée Restaurant Français & Bar 10 East Glebe Road Alexandria, Virginia 703.836.1404 chezandree.com
June 2015 | 35
GRAPEVINE FRANK BRITT
Blue Valley Vineyard & Winery views of the blue ridge in every direction
O
ne of Virginia’s newest and tasting room. Grand wrought wineries, Blue Valley in iron double doors open to a unique Fauquier County has a structural design, where rustic meets spectacular setting with modern with dramatic high ceilings breathtaking views of and contemporary flair. Event the Blue Ridge Mountains and the rooms with views of the vineyard Shenandoah Valley. Blue Valley is and mountains can accommodate owned and operated by the father and an intimate small party to a large son team of gathering of John and Stergio several hundred Zissios whose guests. BLUE VALLEY family began In 2014, the VINEYARD & WINERY making wine Zissios planted 9402 Justice Lane generations 17,000 vines Delaplane, VA 20144 ago in the of a variety of 540-364-2347 mountains of varietals. A bluevalleyvineyardandwinery.com the Macedonian few acres of area of Greece, the vineyard one of the had been world’s oldest winemaking regions. planted six years ago, and produced The Zissios continue to draw the first Blue Valley wines. The list of inspiration from their heritage and available wines includes 2013 Rosé, have imbued the old-world spirit into Pinot Gris, Sauvignon Blanc, Viognier, their wines. They believe that the key Chardonnay, Heritage (white blend) to making good wine is patience and and 2013 Tradition (red blend). attention to detail, both of which they The Tasting Room is open Monday adhere to daily. The Zissios oversee and Thursday 11 to 6 pm, and Friday every aspect of the winery operation through Sunday 11 to 7 pm. After with award winning John Levenberg a tasting of Blue Valley’s impressive as the Winemaker, assisted by Tyler handcrafted wines, visitors can enjoy Henley a glass of wine on the patio as the sun Situated on 63 acres, Blue Valley sets over the Blue Ridge Mountains. includes a state-of-the-art winery
36 | June 2015
Frank Britt is the former co-publisher and co-founder of Virginia Wine Lover magazine and current publisher of the Official Virginia Wine Lover e-newsletter, “THE Source for Virginia’s Wine news.” (www.vawinelover.com—
complimentary to Old Town Crier readers). He also consults with several wine festivals and can be reached at frank@brittmarketing.com; www. vawinelover.com
SCALLOP CEVICHE, A RECIPE FROM BLUE VALLEY VINEYARD & WINERY Pair with Blue Valley Pinot Gris with lush pear on the nose, refreshing lime zest and green apple on the palate. It’s a well-rounded wine with bright acidity that pairs well with scallop ceviche. Ingredients 1 pound bay scallops, quartered 1 C. (about 12 whole) cherry tomatoes, roughly chopped 2 green or red Serrano chiles, seeded and minced (about ½ tsp.) ¾ C. chopped fresh cilantro, plus additional for garnish 1 C. finely diced red onion (½ medium red onion) 1 C. fresh orange juice 1/3 C. fresh lemon juice 1/3 C. fresh lime juice Salt to taste Preparation 1. Combine all the ingredients in a nonreactive bowl and stir to mix well. 2. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, and up to 16. 3. Scoop the ceviche into small (3-ounce) bowls and garnish with cilantro. (Makes 6-8 servings)
Old Town Crier
EXPLORING VIRGINIAWINES DOUG FABBIOLI
Growing Practices While Practicing Growing
I
always enjoyed the joke about a lawyer telling a 12 year old that he has been practicing law for 30 years. The youngster asks when he will be able to actually do it and stop practicing. So it can be with agriculture. It may be a play on words, but it is a practice similar to medicine, law as well as other evolving fields where science, logic, research, psychology, economics and humanity has constant influence on current and future practices. This is a little write up on agricultural practices for wine grapes growing in the Mid Atlantic region and across the world.
biodynamic practices. These methods integrate the land, the products from the land as well as cycles of the moon in order to make the most of the efforts the farmers put into practice. These include making and spraying compost teas and attacking the weeds according to the cycle of the moon. Practices like this are “new age” but also very “old school” dating back to before the industrialization of farming. Organic agriculture of grapes here on the East Coast has been attempted by a number of growers but with hurricanes and high
growing involves application of fungicides to the vines, herbicides to the weeds and insecticides when the bugs need to be addressed. Many of these chemicals are certified organic. Some are not technically organic but are organically derived. Most of the forward thinking growers here try to combine bits and pieces of each practice into a model that works for the health of the plant, the quality of the crop, the health of the soil and the sustainability of the business. A vineyard, like an orchard or other perennial crops, will be in the same spot
The most important thing to recognize is how young our grape growing industry is here on the East Coast. Our climate is closest to regions of France but it is still different. Many of the best vineyards of France are grown using
humidity, it is not sustainable to maintain the certification. Each country has its own standards for the organic certification. Sometimes the organic practice is not best for the long term health of the land. Conventional grape
for a generation or more, so maintaining the soil as well as the plant is critical to success. Mono crops on a farm have been identified as a cause for out of balance soils. Weeds and animals can help with the diversification. Cover crops
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can be planted between the vines to help keep the balance as well as running sheep and goats in the vineyard during the off season. These practices can add nutrients back to the soil and the action of animal hoofs can help integrate the nutrients into the soil. Compost from our local horses, cattle and llamas are spread in the vineyard to
bring up the organic matter along with the macro and micro nutrients. We all have a long way to go as far as learning what works “best.” The practices will continue to evolve and the consumers will make their choices for flavor and favorites. Enjoy our ride of learning and improving, it is always an education.
June 2015 | 37
VIRGINIA WINE Trail Profiles Bedford County Wine Trail bedfordwinetrail.com The Bedford Wine Trail in the Central Virginia region includes five vineyards and wineries surrounding Bedford.
n three fox vineyards june events n
n 6&7: rich Giersch n 13: Movin’ on n 14: yoGa n 14: rich Giersch n 14: Paint niGht n 20: father’s day n n 21: food truck and rich Giersch n 27: vinolyMPics n 27: delaney, hall & saenz n 28: rich Giersch n
Blue Ridge Wine Way www.blueridgewineway.com The Blue Ridge Wine Way features eight wineries and vineyards in the spectacular mountains of the Northern Virginia region. Botetourt County Wine Trail botetourtwinetrail.com The Wine Trail of Botetourt Country features three wineries in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Eastern Shore Wine Trail esvatourism.org The Eastern Shore of Virginia Wine Trail hosts three wineries along the Land Between Two Waters. This area is a unique rural coastal environment. Hundreds of miles of Atlantic Ocean and Chesapeake Bay shoreline provide a wealth of recreational opportunities for beach-lovers, fishermen, and boaters in addition to wine lovers.
Tasting Room Hours - Open Year Round Thursday-Saturday, & Monday 11-5 pm • Sunday 12 pm (noon)- 5 pm
Mention or bring this ad for a complimentary tasting for two through 12/23/2010 10100 Three Fox Ln. • Delaplane, VA • 540-364-6073
Fauquier County Wine Trail fauquiertourism.com/wineries.html Fauquier County is home to 16 wineries and vineyards —each with its own unique flavors. Enjoy awardwinning Virginia wines, wine tastings and tours. Shenandoah Valley Wine Trail svwga.org The Shenandoah Valley Wine Trail is an association of six vineyards and wineries. Loudoun Wine Trail visitloudoun.org Loudouns Wine Trail in Northern Virginia takes you through Virginias hunt country to 23 participating wineries.
A small, family winery focused on quality, sustainable farming and our community Visit us and other quality wineries on the Loudoun Wine Trail–www.loudounfarms.org Serving your local red wine needs since 2006 Open Daily 11am - 5pm Educational wine events
Fabbioli Cellars Douglas Fabbioli Colleen M. Berg 15669 Limestone School Rd Leesburg 703-771-1197 www.fabbioliwines.com
Chesapeake Bay Wine Trail chesapeakebaywinetrail.com The Chesapeake Bay Wine Trail, in the Chesapeake Bay region, highlights six different wineries. Heart of Virginia Wine Trail www.hovawinetrail.com The Heart of Virginia Wine Trail in Central Virginia presents several events throughout the year at four wineries located in the central region of the state. Blue Ridge Wine Trail blueridgewinetrail.com The Blue Ridge Wine Trail features five wineries and vineyards in the spectacular mountains all within minutes of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Generals Wine & History Trail thegeneralswinetrail.com In 2009, 10 wineries banded together to form a new type wine trail experience. The new wine trail experience was to tie our rich wine heritage with our rich historical heritage and thus the Generals Wine & History Trail was born. Monticello Wine Trail monticellowinetrail.com The Monticello Wine Trail leads to 24 wineries from its hub in Charlottesville. Source: Virginia Wine Marketing Office
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For More Information: virginiawine.org Visiting Virginia’s Wine Country Its always a good idea to call before visiting. Many Virginia wineries are small, family-owned operations and may be closed during the time you are planning to visit. If you are a group of eight or more, call ahead to help the winery prepare for your visit and to make sure they can accept groups. Most of our wineries have grape cluster highway signs within a ten-mile radius pointing the way to the winery. Many of these signs also tell you how many miles to go before reaching the winery.
Old Town Crier
GO FISH STEVE CHACONAS
Oh No! Not Another Tie!
D
ude, don’t get Dad another tie! He might wear it…only when you are in town or when you mention it. He really dreads having to tie one on for you! It’s Father’s Day, put a bit of thought into the gift for the guy who was always thinking of you! Staying hydrated tops the list for dear old Dad! But, plastic bottles are leaching bad stuff into his water! Restaurants and hospitals have always utilized stainless steel for a healthier environment. For a little over 10 years, Klean Kanteen has offered non-toxic watering solutions in a durable and reusable container! Several thirst quenching sizes! Insolated models too! kleancanteen.com Make your gift the sharpest sock in the drawer. SmartWool socks are more than a stocking stuffer! The Men’s Striped Hike
Bassing IN JUNE Potomac River
It’s topwater time! Lucky Craft walkers like the Gunfish and G-Splash poppers are perfect for clear and calm water with overcast skies! Walk the dog with the Gunfish and don’t stop when fish strike! They will come back. For poppers, pop and stop, varying retrieves until a cadence produces. Also try Mann’s Waker over cover. Use a follow-up, weightless stickworm like the Mann’s 5-inch HardNose Freefall worm on 10-pound test GAMMA Edge Fluorocarbon line for missed bites!
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Light Crew Socks will put him in step with his personality while keeping him afoot with comfort! USA knitted, these socks are 61% Merino Wool, 37% Nylon, 2% Elastane and are available from ultra light to extra heavy cushion on the foot bottom. SmartWool will become Dad’s sole mate! smartwool.com Covering Dad from the bottom up, the comfortable and versatile Teva Hurricane Toe Pro sport sandal protects all of Dad’s little piggies with integrated toe protection! Durabrasion Rubber™ provides durable traction and a nylon shank keeps the foot stable. The soft Shoc Pad™ protects the bottom of his feet during aggressive activities. Water drains from the open construction. Perfect for water activities like fishing, canoeing, and amphibious hiking. teva.com GO FISH > PAGE 42
A steady dose of shallow diving Mann’s Baby 1-Minus crankbaits, in craw and baitfish patterns will work over wood and grass. Mann’s Reel N’ Shad is deadly this time of year. For line, 12-14 pound test Edge on a KVD Quantum cranking rod. Soft plastics like Mizmo tubes on 3/0 Mustad Tube hooks on 14-pound Edge pitched to docks and wood at higher tides, then grass during every tidal phase. Use scents like garlic Jack’s Juice Bait Spray. Also try swimming jigs like Mann’s Stone Jigs with a HardNose Reel’ N Shad around cover. Beef up tackle for this technique. Mann’s Classic ¼ ounce spinnerbaits with white skirts are effective around shallow cover. Try these and chatterbaits close to grass, wood and rock, bumping cover or snapping free from grass.
June 2015 | 39
FITNESS NICOLE FLANAGAN
Get Fit for Summer
Old TOwn denTisTry FrinetKasper,DDS
W
hether you are an exercise pro or a beginner to the gym chances are you have a few questions about your workout. With summer just around the corner everyone is stepping up the workout to get ultimate results. Here are a few tips to keep that workout moving in the right direction.
DO … … work out every day
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You don’t need to be at the gym seven days in a row, but try for at least five days. To get a good habit started you must be consistent. Doing something every day even if it is just a little is all you need to keep up the motivation. For the best results, don’t overwhelm yourself. You should aim for 30 minutes of cardio every day and strength training twice a week for the first month or two. Once this workout has become a part of your regular routine you are ready to increase your intensity.
… set new goals
It’s easy for gym regulars to hit a slump and stop seeing the benefits or having the fun that kept them motivated in the past. Before you start dodging gym dates, find a new challenge: Sign up for a 5K, or plan an active vacation like hiking or kayaking. Keeping your workouts interesting and goal oriented will make it more fun and also give you something to work toward.
… breathe better
To improve your performance, focus on your breathing. Next time you are jogging on the treadmill or out on the path try inhaling to a count of three and exhaling to a count of three. Steady your breathing with your pace and you will feel more energized during your workout.
… something new
Many advanced exercisers can get stuck in a workout rut. Some exercisers will stick to the same workouts because they FITNESS > PAGE 42
40 | June 2015
Old Town Crier
FROM THE TRAINER RYAN UNVERZAGT
T
his month officially marks the start of the summer season. I hope all of you have cool vacations planned that include lots of physical activities. As the temperatures rise through the summer, it becomes extremely important to monitor when, where and how much exercise you should be doing along with hydrating properly. Did you know that water accounts for more than 60% of the human body’s volume? Water is so vital to life that we can survive only about three days without it depending upon climate conditions. The hotter and more humid the environment, the faster we become dehydrated. It takes as little as a two percent change in body weight to negatively affect exercise performance. For a 150lb person, that equates to only 3lbs! There are many factors that affect your hydration status such as: • Ambient air temperature (outside) • Humidity • Individual sweat rates • Body temperature (internal) • Exercise intensity and duration • Fitness level • Individual body fat percentage • Existing health conditions such as cystic fibrosis, diabetes, kidney failure, etc. Dehydration can have several negative effects during exercise such as decreased muscle strength & endurance, coordination, mental acuity, and impaired thermoregulation. One of the most important functions of water within the body is to help regulate body heat. When the body is properly hydrated,
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Know the Signs exercise will feel easier and you will typically have a lower heart rate at the same intensity than you would if you were in a dehydrated state. This is due to optimal blood volume and cardiac output to deliver nutrients and oxygen to your working muscles. There is no single “Gold Standard” for measuring hydration levels because too many factors play into how your body stores water. However, here are some general exercise and hydration guidelines to follow this summer: • Try to work out during the coolest part of the day if outside (usually mornings) • Weigh yourself before and after your workout to monitor sweat loss • Drink about 10 ounces of fluid 1 hour before your workout • Drink 8 ounces of fluid every 15 minutes during exercise • Drink 20 ounces of fluid per pound of weight lost through sweat after exercise
Heat Exhaustion Characteristics Actions Required • Heavy sweating • Weakness • Cold, pale, clammy skin • Fast, weak pulse • Nausea or vomiting • Fainting
• Move to cooler location • Lie down and loosen clothing • Apply cool, wet cloths to most of the body • Sip water • If you have vomited and it continues, seek medical attention immediately
Heat Stroke Characteristics Actions Required • High body temperature (103F+) • Hot, red, dry or moist skin • Rapid, strong pulse • Possible unconsciousness
• Call 911! This is a medical emergency! • Move person to cooler environment • Reduce person’s body temperature by any means possible (cold cloths or ice bath) • Do not give fluids
source: www.cds.gov/extremeheat/warning.html
sign of a heat-related illness. Here are the main differences between the two and what actions are required: It’s essential to know the differences between the two. I don’t want to scare you away from exercising this summer, but after reading this, hopefully you’ve gained
an appreciation for the importance of hydration while exercising in the heat. Unverzagt holds a BS in Wellness Management from Black Hills State University. He is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist
(CSCS) through the National Strength & Conditioning Association (NSCA). Ryan is also a Registered Diagnostic Cardiac Sonographer (RDCS) through the American Registry for Diagnostic Medical Sonography (ARDMS).
• Always finish a workout with a cool-down by gradually decreasing intensity • Use a cool, damp towel on the neck to help bring body temperature down • It’s better to have a sports drink (Gatorade, Powerade, Propel) to replace electrolytes (mainly sodium) after a prolonged workout over 60 minutes It’s easy to overdue it especially if you’re not accustomed to the environment (i.e. vacationer or traveling). There is a progression of heat-related illness (heat exhaustion and heat stroke) that can be fatal if action is not taken. Muscle cramping is usually the first
June 2015 | 41
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FITNESS FROM PG 40
are familiar with it. Try new exercises that are completely different from what you normally do. Those are the moves that help build a stronger, more balanced body and prevent overuse injuries. By changing up your routine you are challenging your body in a different way and forcing your body to adjust. This will help create a more balanced workout. Work out with someone slower: Once a week, exercise with a buddy who moves at a more leisurely pace. You’ll give your body a chance to regenerate, and maybe you’ll even have a bit more fun. It’s good to be competitive but every once in a while it’s nice to give your body a break and change up the normal routine.
DON’T … … get stuck on the treadmill
New exercisers often do the same routine for the same duration and at the same intensity every time they work out. First of all, this is a really good way to make exercise become a task instead of a release. This bad habit gets reinforced because, as your workouts get easier, you’re fooled into thinking you’ve become more fit. In reality, your muscles have just grown accustomed to the challenge. Be sure to mix up your routine by varying your time and intensity and by cross-training on the bike or elliptical machine, or by going for a jog outside.
… be a slouch
gossip rag on the elliptical or curling dumbbells on a bench, straighten up. Slumping causes you to check out of your workout both mentally and physically. Focus on sitting or standing up straight, since most people spend a lot of time sitting at a computer give your shoulders a break and pay attention to posture. Slouching also keeps you from breathing deeply, which is necessary for delivering the oxygen your muscles need to work at full capacity.
… be unbalanced
Most regular exercisers are diligent about including cardio, strength, and flexibility in their routines, but they forget about balance. This critical skill allows you to move fluidly and avoid injuries. At the end of your workout, stand on one leg and lift the other out in front of you. Try to hold this for 20 to 30 seconds, then, repeat with the other leg. If this maneuver seems too easy for you try adding a BOSU ball to your workout. Stand on the BOSU while doing bicep curls or shoulder presses.
… focus on the numbers
Tracking your running time or calorie count provides instant feedback on your workout. Try not to get too hung up on the numbers. When you have a goal whether it be time, distance or calories it feels great to reach it. If it becomes an obsession it takes the joy out of the workout. Be sure not to push yourself to your limits all the time. Take a day and run just for fun.
Whether you’re leafing through the latest
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42 | June 2015
GO FISH FROM PG 39
Men’s Under Armour Ridge Reaper® Hydro Hoodie is made with a cool to the touch fabric, making even your Dad feel cool! The material disperses body heat, dries fast with wicking, and has 30+ UPF. Dad’s coolness won’t fade either, as the Ridge Reaper is salt, chlorine and stain resistant! Vented sides breathe and anti odor technology make Dad a breath of fresh air! It’s a hoodie, a neck shade and long sleeve tech tee rolled into one. Loose fit for Dad’s fuller figure! underarmour.com To keep him from getting hot under the collar, Sage Technical Keys Crew is naturally vented and has an anti-odor finish with a 30+UPF. Taking on Mother Nature, this shirt will keep him from sweating the small stuff, or hot days, with fast wicking 100% polyester. Rolling up his sleeves to get down to business, the Keys Crew won’t lose its grip as it snuggly embraces arms to reduce wind resistance and casting fatigue. Hands are covered with cuffs extending over the top of his hands with an onseam thumbhole for increased sun protection. A raised collar adds extra sun block, keeping the sun off his neck. sageflyfish.com Don’t forget Daddy’s hands! Hanz Extremity Wear, known for keeping hands and feet warm and dry, introduces the Hanz Ultra Light glove in cool camo patterns or black. These lightweight gloves have tiny “gripper dots” for active control. NEW HANZ TapKnit Touchscreen gloves are smart enough to operate smart phones, without removing them! Hanz keeps the sun at bay and is warm enough for cool boat rides! hanzusa.com Only one part of Dad left exposed. New HT
lenses from polarized sunglass expert Maui Jim offer High Transmission contrast perfect for spotting the fishing hole or finding a lost golf ball, while protecting aging eyes from the sun’s mean glare! UV protection isn’t just for skin; eyes are damaged in a more permanent way from sunrays! Show Dad you have class with a gift certificate so he can choose his own Maui Jim style. mauijim.com You need to call Dad, but he’s camping and his cell battery is done! With the FlameStower, Dad simply unfolds, fills with water, places the blade into the open flame and his phone will charge! Also great for those extended home power outages is the Candle Charger! Pretty much anything that accepts a standard USB charge: cell and satellite phones, handheld GPS units, AA and AAA batteries, headlamps, digital cameras, etc. will take a charge. flamestower.com Dad likes to fish, but often comes home empty handed! The tell-all book Surf Fishing by David A. Brown is the A-Z, step by step, ABCs of fishing from beginner to master caster! The techniques and gear give Dad the hook line and sinker of fishing from the surf, pier or jetty! DVD included! floridasportsman. com/2014/01/15/sportsman-best-surf-fishing If you give it, Dad will use it, wear it or eat it…make a good choice so he won’t think of you when he’s in line returning it! Author Capt. Steve Chaconas is a Potomac bass fishing guide & contributing writer for BoatU.S. (BoatUS.com) Potomac River reports: nationalbass.com. Book trips/purchase gift certificates: info@NationalBass.com.
Old Town Crier
FIRST BLUSH JEANNE KISSMAN
Healthy Summertime Skin and Hair
Dine on melons
Beautiful summer skin comes from within. Eat a lot of cantaloupe and watermelon, as they are filled with antioxidants and help hydrate the skin. Enjoy radiant summer skin by eating a healthy diet.
Even out your skin tone
Use fresh strawberries to freshen up your skin tone. Cut large strawberries in half, squeeze them to release the juices, and rub them in circular motions over your face. Leave on your face for 2 to 3 minutes, then rinse. Consistent use will brighten sun and age spots to give you a more even skin tone.
Protect your hair before swimming
Wet hair will absorb fewer
A
lready counting down the days ‘til summer fun in the sun? Right now is the perfect time to start planning camping trips to the river and all the outdoor music festivals you want to attend, but it’s also important to prepare your summertime skin and hair regimen. If you’re wondering how to keep your hair and skin healthy all summer, not to worry! Lifestyle expert Jeanne Kissman, shares fantastic tips below on ways to keep your skin and hair in tip top shape this summer.
Protect your lips
The summer sun can dry out and cause damage to delicate lip tissue, so use an all-natural lip balm with an
Old Town Crier
SPF of 15 or higher.
Take a cold shower
After a hot day in the sun, a hot shower will enhance the effects of dry skin. Take a cold shower to lower the temperature in your skin and reduce acne breakouts.
Drink some red wine
Treat yourself to a glass of red wine before spending time in the sun. Studies suggest that the flavonoids found in the skin of red grapes may reduce the sun’s ability to destroy skin cells. Not only does wine taste yummy, but it also has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant benefits.
Use mineral makeup
Sunscreen is your skin›s first line of defense
against harmful UVA rays, but also use all natural mineral makeup for light coverage and an SPF protection of 30-50.
Wear a wide-brimmed hat
Protect your skin and hair from the sun›s damaging rays by wearing a wide-brimmed hat. The hat will also protect your scalp and prevent sunburn.
Exfoliate away the dry skin
Everyone wants to have soft, supple skin in the summer, so use a sugar or salt scrub to rub away unwanted dry skin. Homemade scrubs are inexpensive and can be made from sugar or salt, olive oil, lemon juice, and your favorite essential oils. Pay close attention to the knees and elbows.
chemicals like chlorine than dry hair. Also keep hair braided or pinned up to prevent unruly tangles. Avoid a tight bun, as wet hair is susceptible to breakage when it is pulled. Jeanne Kissman is a skin care expert and founder of Plum Hill Pure Body Essentials, all natural body care products that are good for your skin and the planet. Created to combat the effects of dry skin, you’ll find that Plum Hill nourishes your skin with ingredients such as sweet almond oil, shea butter, kukui nut oil, and pure cane sugar that are all natural, paraben-free, and never tested on animals. Available in five captivating scents at www. plumhill.net.
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well ness 261 Main Street Washington, Va 22747 540.675.1031 littlewashingtonspa.com
June 2015 | 43
SPIRITUAL RENAISSANCE PEGGIE ARVIDSON
What Do Your Hands Have to Say?
I
know that the world of hand analysis, aka pragmatic palmistry is not well understood. Most people fit into one of three camps when it comes to palmistry: 1) those who think it’s bogus at best and the devil’s work at worst; 2) those who are curious but can’t figure out what fortunetelling has to do with business profitability; 3) those who are on-board and see palmistry as a tool much like the MyersBriggs, Kiersey Personality Type Indicator, and the DISC system. I’ve been doing this work for nearly 12 years and I know it’s not worth the time or energy needed to try to educate, inform or otherwise convince the first group that palmistry is a useful tool. Odds are you’re in the second group – curious but skeptical. This column is for you.
The
Wise, world-weary and curious people come in every day to see what their hands have to say, and each one leaves saying, “I had no idea there was so much in my hands!” Here’s why: 1. Your hands change over time. With the exception of your fingerprints, everything else in your hands can change. By and large this happens as you change your beliefs, your habits and your inner conversations. Watch your hands over the coming months and years, take note of the lines and freckles and other markings. Those changes are important because they map the direction of your life. 2. You always have free will. You might think you want to know the future, but even if someone told you the
future today, you still have the capacity to change the outcome. It’s the beauty of being human. 3. Your hands are like roadmaps not actual destinations. Together, we examine what’s vexing you and creating roadblocks – in your career, in your relationships, in your bank account – then we formulate a process for detouring around or through the current rough spot, taking into consideration the specific signs your hands are giving you. 4. Your fingerprints can be translated to a specific code that delivers your life purpose. Ten fingers, each with their own fingerprints form a oneof-a-kind map of your highest potential. 5. Your fingerprints combine with other markings
Pragmatic Palmist PEGGIE ARVIDSON
Are you ready to use the wisdom in your hands to manifest the business of your dreams? Would you like to find out once and for all how to get out of your own way and attract love and money, using the gifts of your own DNA? Private readings, group sessions, classes and workshops are NOW available by appointment at:
Phone and Skype appointments are also available!
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on your hands, stars, particular sets of lines and more to detail your specific life purpose fulfilment formula. 6. Your heart line (which is the upper most line on your palm) begins under your pinky and runs horizontally across your hand. Not only does your heart line indicate how you love and how you wish to be loved (sort of like Your Five Love Languages described by Gary Chapman in his books) but also how you communicate and show up in all of your relationships. 7. Your head line (which begins in the space between your first finger and thumb and runs horizontally toward the outer edge of the hand) indicates how you think and process information. It can’t tell me what you think, but rather it gives a great picture of how much data you need before you make a decision and take action on a new idea or project. Many “wannabe” entrepreneurs have very long and straight headlines – which can keep them in the planning phase of their business. This need for more information, more certification, more knowledge is great for certain types of professionals (cardiac surgeons come to mind) but for most entrepreneurs, there comes a time where taking action is required and the long, straight headline needs to move aside to make this happen. 8. Your life line (which begins at the same point as the head line and curves around the base of the thumb) does NOT indicate the length of your life. Remember that everything in your hands
can change – including the length of your life line! Your life line indicates how grounded you are at the given moment in your life. Are you enjoying life? Do you have meaningful relationships and connections? Do you take care of your body? Your life line lends insight to these questions, but how long you live isn’t something it reveals. 9. Each of your fingers has its own meaning. Simply looking at the spacing curves and size of your fingers tells a story about your life up until this moment. Everything from your ability to complete tasks, to step into the spotlight can be surmised, simply through a look at your fingers. 10. Your dominant hand represents you in the world and your non-dominant hand represents you as you see yourself. Your hands are a fascinating composite of you, right now. After an hour discussing their wisdom your head may be spinning, but you’ll have a deeper appreciation and compassion for the bright light you are. Peggie Arvidson, the Pragmatic Palmist is a healer, teacher and soul coach as well as the founder of The Profitable Alchemist Academy. She’s helped thousands of people connect with their life purpose and put it to work for them through private readings, small group classes and individual coaching programs. You can learn more & sign up to receive your free mini-reading at PeggieArvidson.com. She’s also available for private sessions at Rising Phoenix Holistic Center in downtown Manassas, Va.
Old Town Crier
OPEN SPACE LORI WELCH BROWN
I
n appreciation of all the dads out there, I’d like to say from the bottom of my heart — we all have daddy issues. As a full grown woman, I can honestly say I have a great dad who continues to inspire and amaze me. Everyone loves my dad. He’s a gooooooood guy. To this day, his words still ring in my ears even though he lives hundreds of miles away. I often think to myself, “W.W.D.D.?” — What would DAD do? I’m lucky, fortunate, and blessed beyond words, but that doesn’t mean I’m absolved from daddy issues. I don’t mean daddy issues in the weird ‘somebody better call Chris Hansen’ way. Let’s face it — dad is the first man in our lives. He sets the gold (hopefully) standard for how we allow men to treat us and how we see ourselves in the world at large. I grew up with a father who adored and cherished me. He set the bar pretty high for quality control. I’m the Queen of Introspective Navel Gazing and Self-Torture and sometimes wonder if perhaps I may have possibly sort of had a wee tiny bit of commitment issues that may or may not have involved some daddy issues. Maybe, just maybe I was waiting to find a man like my dad. They are hard to come by….trust me, I looked. A lot. Before you get Hansen on speed dial — our relationship was pretty basic father/daughter love. He was a role model not only for how men should (in my young mind) act, but also for how men should treat women (with respect). Granted — it wasn’t a cognizant search effort. I didn’t have my dad’s stats listed in my Match profile, but I’m sure there was some subconscious filtering happening when it became clear that some of my dates didn’t share the same value system, character traits or work ethic. I think that’s probably a good thing, but I wonder about the women who didn’t grow up with that male figure in their lives. I certainly am aware of some women who grew up without dads and who outwardly appear to have navigated through life just fine which makes me want to bow at their feet and kiss their rings. Amen, sisters. Dating and relationships aside, Dad, along with Mom, kept me in check all throughout my young life — heck, for most of my adult life. It was
Old Town Crier
DADDY ISSUES
their practical advice and leading by example that molded us little people (me and my 3 brothers) into the full blown versions of ourselves. While Dad told me I could be whatever I wanted, he filled it in with sensible advice: “Take typing, you’ll always need it. If you train to be a secretary, you’ll always have a job.” I have a plethora of dad’isms to fall back on: It will ALL work out – IT always does. Thanks, Dad. I worry less because of you. Pay your bills on time. I have a phenomenal credit score – thanks, Dad! If I say 11:00 PM, I don’t mean 10:59 or 11:01 PM. Thanks to your strict curfews, Dad, I detest being late. You’ll see who your real friends are when you don’t
have a car to drive them around in. Right again, Dad. True friends stick with you through thick and thin – even summers when your car is in the body shop! Stand up for yourself – no one else will. It’s not always easy to speak up, but it sure feels good when you do. My house, my rules. Thanks for the motivation to get my own house, Dad. Your rules were the pits! Financial independence = freedom to come home whenever I want as well as leave dirty dishes in the sink! I grew up in a very middle class neighborhood — out in the ‘burbs with lots of kids. Our house was the place everyone congregated after school for a pick up game of wiffle ball. Whether we liked it or not, Dad was out there every afternoon, sitting on the cinderblock retaining wall with his
glass of sweet tea ref ’ing all the games. Over the back fence = automatic out. Over the side fence = foul ball. Any unsportsmanlike behavior = bench. I think most of the kids were slightly afraid of him while simultaneously being in awe of him. He was not a small man and could give you the evil eye like nobody’s business, but one thing is for sure – everyone respected him. I remember once when I was about ten, I witnessed a fight between my best friend’s parents who lived next door. Her dad had stayed out all night (drinking/gambling?). When he came home that next morning, the fireworks were flying. At one point, the fight moved outside, and I heard the Mom yell (as did the rest of the neighborhood), “you wouldn’t see John Welch acting this way.” And—she was right. Dad not only set the rules, but he followed them. Always—even when no one was looking. I hear a lot these days about kids feeling entitled. I was the youngest of four children and the only girl. No doubt I was spoiled on some level, but I don’t think any of us ever felt entitled. My brothers and I all share a very strong work ethic and I have no idea how we learned that except for watching my dad get up and go to work every single day without fail. I can’t recall a single time that he called in sick EVER or went in late—not for doctor’s appointments, hangovers, hooky days, etc. I’m not saying my dad was a saint by any means—after all, he’s human. If my mom were alive, I’m sure she could point out a flaw or two. They definitely had their share of ups and downs, and while I used to take his side a lot, I now see mom’s point of view a little better on some things. As a husband, I’m sure he frustrated the you-know-what out of her on a daily basis, but I’m also confident, she loved him with all her heart as do many of us. When Mom passed back in 2006, Dad picked up and started a new chapter in his life after 52 years of marriage. He’s shown us yet again that happiness is a choice and we are responsible for finding our own—even after loss. My only daddy issue these days is that I don’t see enough of him. Thanks for everything, Dad. Blessings to all the Dads out there and for the Moms who are filling both sets of shoes.
June 2015 | 45
Seeing The Harbor with Fresh Eyes
I
was totally guy – he runs a car drawing a blank ferry in Lexington, is when I sat down a Merchant Marine, the first 10 times is the former owner to write this of Potomac Pintail column and maybe cruise boat, is a tug there was a reason boat captain and for that. It isn’t that the list goes on. In By Lani Gering there aren’t a ton fact, he is here in the of things to write area working on his about here at the Harbor but I sailboat in Deale, Maryland. had no inspiration whatsoever That being said, he has been until Memorial Day. We coming and going between entertained a good friend of Lexington and Old Town ours, Clayton Embly, with a Alexandria to visit and do day in National Harbor. business ever since he left but In order to fully appreciate it never donned on him to this story you need to know make National Harbor a stop. a bit about Clay. He lived To be honest, I didn’t realize in the Alexandria area for that he had never been to the several years until leaving Harbor until we had finished so his wife could pursue her our lunch and set out to take lifelong dream of being an a whirl on the Capitol Wheel. equine vet – about 10 years Guess I assumed that since he ago. He now is a resident of has been in and out of the area Lexington, Kentucky and she so much, he had checked it is tending to some possible out. His last experience in the future Derby winners - I may Harbor area was when it was have some inside scoop on a still called “Smoot’s Bay” and future Triple Crown winner it consisted mostly of hydrilla, someday! Clayton is a water weeds, dirt and scraggly trees.
He was truly “blown out of the water” with what it has become. Since I sort of pride myself on being an “unofficial” tour guide and food and beverage expert in the Harbor, when we left newly opened Granite City Food & Brewery we headed down American Way toward the water. As we walked I filled him in on Milt Peterson’s concept from the beginning and some of the other history behind why it is layed out like it is. Our first stop was at the overlook on Waterfront Street. The engraved granite benches and the tie in to the mosaic impressed him but he really was shocked to see that the “Awakening” had moved from Hains Point to the Harbor. It was always a part of the tour he used to give on the Pintail. He is very happy to see it in a place where so many more people have access to it. He commented on how nice and “shiny” he is now. He commented several
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times on the number and quality of the stores as we walked by and the quality of the artwork that adorns the steps going down to the plaza really amazed him. The fact that the artwork is done by local artists made a big impression. I just realized I failed to tell him about the American eagle sculptures at the end of American Way and the Beckoning at the entrance to the harbor. Guess we will do that next time he is here. He was amazed at the diversification of the people visiting that day. I told him that it was one of my favorite things about the place. I have had so many fun conversations with people from all over the world in my travels back and forth on the water taxi and just sitting around on the plaza - as well as in the bars and restaurants that I haunt! Speaking of that, we decided we needed a snack, an adult beverage and somewhere to watch the Nationals baseball game so headed to McLoone’s Pier House. Clayton prides himself on being a “pretty witty” guy so he entertained the patrons at the bar along with our fun bartender. All the time talking about how amazing everything he had seen was. It was time to get in line for the spin on the wheel. The ride on the Wheel was a first for Bob, my partner here at the OTC, as well, and he has a little bit of the acrophobia
going on so it was a fun ride. I will be really honest here – I have always thought that the price of the ride was way too steep and I expressed that opinion to the boys. Both of them told me it was worth every bit of $15 and that I needed to rethink my stand. I will take their comments under consideration. It was a beautiful day and we could see all the way up and down the river and it was nice to see it through the eyes of someone else. The photo accompanying this is one Bob took that overlooks the site of the MGM Grand. It was fun watching our guest contemplate that in completion and what this side of the river will look like this time next year! He also got a great aerial view of the Gaylord Hotel & Resort. It is a good way to get a handle on the enormity of the resort. That was our next stop. We walked up Plaza onto Waterfront Street and took the waterfront entrance into the hotel. He made the comment that between the Gaylord and the rest of the harbor it could be likened to a “Mini Dubai”. We stopped at the Belvedere Lobby Bar and took in the gorgeous atrium and the lobby and visited with our friends behind the bar. We pointed out National Past Tme, the Pienza and Old Hickory but we were on a mission. It was unfortunate that we weren’t there when the fountains were doing their dancing. That will GOOD THINGS > PAGE 47
Old Town Crier
national harbor june EVENTS
NATIONAL HARBOR DINING GUIDE
Visit www.NationalHarbor.com for more information and holiday itineraries. Saturdays and Sundays Millers Farm Market On American Way 10:00 am – 5:00 pm
Miller Farms offers a wide variety of local seasonal fruits and vegetables along with some imports: lemons, limes, pineapple, etc.; as well as baked goods and flowers. Fitness on the Potomac with WillPower Functional Fitness On the Plaza – Free! 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm 4th Zumba 11th Cardio Kickboxing 18th Zumba 25th Cardio Kickboxing
Live Music on the Plaza On the Plaza – Free! 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm 5th The Image Band on the Plaza 12th The Fabulous Exaggerations with Michelle Dupwe! 19th Jimi Smooth and Hit Time 26th Texas Chainsaw Military Concert Series On the Plaza – Free! 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm 13th U.S. Air Force Concert Band and the Singing Sergeants! 20th U.S. Navy Band featuring the Commodores! Movies on the Potomac On the Plaza – Free! 6:00 pm Nothing says summer like a movie under the stars. Bring you chairs and grab food to go from one of the fun places on the plaza and meet in front of the jumbo screen. Fun for everyone. No coolers. 7th Wall-E 14th Space Jam 21st Martian Child
28th ET 10th Potomac Riverboat Kids Groove Cruise Departing at 12:30 pm, 1:30 pm & 2:30 pm Perfect for kids of all ages! Buy your ticket at the National Harbor ticket booth. Cruise will depart from McCormick & Schmick’s restaurant. Adults $12, Kids 2-11 $6. 19th & 20th Beer, Bourbon & BBQ Festival 6:00 pm both days
Old Town Crier
BOND 45 149 Waterfront Street 301-839-1445
OLD HICKORY STEAKHOUSE Gaylord Hotel 301-965-4000 gaylordnational.com PIENZA ITALIAN MARKET Gaylord Hotel 301-965-4000
ELEVATION BURGER 108 Waterfront Street 301-749-4014 Brew It! Taste It! Sip It! Pork It! Smoke a cigar and listen to some tunes! Admission includes your sampling glass.Beerandbourbon.com
28th World Police & Fire Games Dragon Boat Regatta Carousel Lot 8:00 am – 10:00 am This regatta is one of the spectacular sporting events giving police officers, firefighters, customs and corrections officers from around the world an opportunity to showcase their athletic excellence!
also be something for us to do on his next trip. We couldn’t neglect our friends on Fleet Street so we left the hotel via the front entrance and continued on to Fleet. We wanted to introduce Clay to our friends at Public House so it was good to see that Amanda and Alicia (former Behind the Bar profiles) were hard at work. Was good to catch up with them. We stopped in Harrington’s but were running a bit short of time so continued to our last stop, Bond 45. Once again, as he had been “oohing and aahing” about everywhere we had
NATIONAL PAST TIME SPORTS BAR & GRILLE Gaylord Hotel 301-965-4000
CADILLAC RANCH 186 Fleet St. 301-839-1100 cadillacranchgroup.com
23rd thru July 19th UniverSoul Circus The Plateau At the UniverSoul Circus, you do more than see a show, you become a part of it. Imagine being a part of the largest pop-up game of circus beach ball ever or actually riding a “real” African elephant. For more information nationalharbor. com/events
GOOD THINGS FROM PG 46
AROMA DITALI 156 National Plaza 301-839-3492
been, he was taken aback at the décor and scope of this restaurant. We didn’t forget all of the other fabulous eateries and bars here in the harbor but there is only so much you can do in an afternoon. Gotta leave some places to go the next time! Although he has traveled all over the world and been to many beautiful places, Clayton says that he never imagined that the landscape across the river from his “adopted hometown” could have ever turned into the impressive river front property it is now. He told me that if he still lived in the area, National Harbor would be one of the top places he would
POTBELLY SANDWICH WORKS 146 National Plaza 301-686-1160
FIORELLA PIZZERIA E CAFFE 152 National Plaza 301-839-1811 GRACES MANDARIN 188 Waterfront Street 301-839-3788
PUBLIC HOUSE 199 Fleet Street 240-493-6120 publichouse nationalharbor.com
GRANITE CITY FOOD & BREWERY 200 American Way 240-493-3900
REDSTONE AMERICAN GRILL 155 National Plaza 301-839-3330
Harringtons Pub and Kitchen 177 Fleet Street 301-909-2505 harringtonspub andkitchen.com
ROSA MEXICANA 135 Waterfront Street 301-567-1005
McCORMICK & SCHMICK 145 National Plaza 301-567-6224 McLOONES PIER HOUSE 141 National Harbor Plaza 301-839-0815 mcloonespierhousenh.com
take visitors. That is pretty impressive since we do have the Smithsonian, Old Town Alexandria, Georgetown, and Mount Vernon that rank right up there! He also is happy to know that Old Town and National Harbor have a fantastic working relationship! He has known our friend, Charlotte Hall, from Potomac Riverboat Company for several years and commented on what a great job the water taxi is doing. The taxi takes Harbor visitors to see some of the most historic sites in the country in Old Town and shuttles visitors in Old Town to see one of the east coasts prime resort properties. It is a win-win for sure.
SAUCIETY AMERICAN GRILL 171 Waterfront Street 240-766-3640 THAI PAVILLION 151 American Way 301-749-2022 Walrus Oyster & Ale House 152 Waterfront Street 301-567-6100 Those of you who have been reading this section on a regular basis know we have been encouraging everyone in our distribution area to make the trek to the harbor. Having a former local -who is in the area on a regular basisvisit and be so impressed with what the Harbor is becoming will hopefully encourage others to do so. According to Clay, “On a scale of 1 to 10, National Harbor is a 20! Comments on the National Harbor section are welcome at office@ oldtowncrier.com. You may also comment on our website/blog at oldtowncrier.com. June 2015 | 47
INTRODUCING
Sundays 11:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. FEATURING
Fresh, Seasonal Brunch Favorites & A Complimentary Bellini Live Entertainment GAYLORD NATIONAL RESORT 201 Waterfront Street National Harbor, Maryland 20745 • 301-965-4000 • www.GaylordNational.com
BENEFITING
Enjoy Great Food & Fun For One Great Cause. The Sunset Room by Wolfgang Puck • The Walrus Oyster & Ale House • Granite City Food & Brewery Old Hickory Steakhouse • McLoone’s Pier House • The PEEPS® Store and more
June 27th | 4:30 – 7:00 p.m. Tickets available at www.TasteofNationalHarborEvent.com
*Must be 21 years or older and present this printout, your confirmation number and a valid U.S. ID. E-ticket must be presented to upon arrival. Non-transferable ticket if lost. It cannot be replaced or redeemed for cash. Photocopies will not be accepted. Offer is not retroactive and subject to availability. Other restrictions may apply.
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5/27/15 3:01 PM
Old Town Crier
Grand Opening Sunday, June 14 at 7am
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