New Haven magazine March 2013

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INTEL BRIDGEPORT — Singer/ guitarist Dave Schneider of hockey-themed band the Zambonis experienced one of a musician’s worst nightmares when his Gibson guitar was destroyed by an airline, but was bailed out when the guitar maker came to his rescue.

Schneider’s vintage 1963 Gibson ES-335 guitar was crushed between a service elevator and a loading dock of a gate after a Delta Airlines flight from Buffalo to Detroit.

After Schneider turned down Delta’s offer of $1,000 for the damaged guitar (valued at $10,000), and CNN ran a feature on the incident, Gibson stepped in and offered to replace it, inviting Schneider to the company’s New York showroom.

After being named first on H&R Block’s list of the mosttaxed cities in America, and what was seen as a painfully slow and inept snow-removal effort after Blizzard Nemo dumped 30 inches on the city, frustrated Bridgeport residents have started a Facebook group calling for Finch’s resignation.

The group currently has 56 “likes” so far, with irate residents mostly of the opinion that the response to Nemo was the last straw; some say they arranged to plow their own streets.

In response to the city’s H&R Block ranking, one resident sounded off: “What do we have to show for it!?!? Clean

“The Gibson company is rocking even harder than Pete Townshend’s Les Paul. That’s not an easy feat,” Schneider said on the band’s website.

New Haven

Elm City, Drunk City?

Size Matters, Apparently MILFORD — Subway sandwich eaters think they’ve gotten a raw deal.

It all started with an Australian who measured his “footlong” sandwich and discovered that it only came up 11 inches. Sure enough, the photo went viral, and thousands of Subway fans flooded the company’s Facebook page demanding an explanation.

Now two guys from New Jersey are suing the chain for false advertising. Their attorney, Stephen DeNittis, is preparing the suit for class-action status.

He seeks compensatory damages for his clients and a change in Subway’s practices.

Bridgeport’s Finch Getting The Cold Shoulder BRIDGEPORT — Bill Finch has become a very unpopular mayor.

street? Dropping crime rates? Development? Plans and preparations for natural disasters? Jobs? Simple answer: NO.”

He’s tanned, he’s rested, he’s dead

NEW HAVEN — Connecticut knows how to have a good time. Maybe too good a time.

A poll by the Daily Beast website ranked the New Haven–Hartford metropolitan area as the sixth-drunkest in the country. The ratings are based on the number of drinks residents consume per month as well as binge and heavy drinking statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

New Haven–Hartford residents consumed on average 15.2 drinks per month, with 16.5 percent of the population being classified as binge drinkers, and 3.6 percent classified as heavy drinkers.

Boston was ranked the drunkest city in the country, with residents imbibing 15.6 drinks per month, 20.1 percent classified as binge drinkers, and 7.4 percent heavy drinkers. Five New England cities made the list, with the remaining three being Providence, R.I. (No. 10); Springfield, Mass. (No. 14); and Burlington, Vt., rounded out the list at No. 25.

The company has said the sandwiches can end up less than a foot long if certain franchises don’t bake the bread to precise corporate standards.

| Vol. 6, No. 5 | March/April 2013

Publisher: Mitchell Young Editor Michael C. Bingham Design Consultant Terry Wells Contributing Writers Brooks Appelbaum, Duo Dickinson, Jessica Giannone, Ali Iiacpno, Mimi Freiman, Eliza Hallabeck, Lauren manjeri, Liese Klein, Nancy Burton, Melissa Nicefaro, Priscilla Searles, Makayla Silva, Cindy Simoneau, Tom Violante Photographers Steve Blazo, Anthony DeCarlo, Lisa Wilder

Advertising Manager Mary W. Beard Senior Publisher’s Representative Roberta Harris Publisher’s Representative Daniel Bennick Robin Ungaro Graphics Assistant Ashley Brown New Haven is published 8 times annually by Second Wind Media Ltd., which also publishes Business New Haven, with offices at 20 Grand Avenue, New Haven, CT 06513. 203-781-3480

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Carlton Highsmith, 62, is a successful entrepreneur and community philanthropist. He built a successful packaging company — the Specialized Packaging Group — from whole cloth to more than $170 million in annual sales and 650 workers, with operations throughout the U.S. and Canada. He has been a strong support of education reform iniative as a board member of Achievement First the charter school organization, the advocacy group Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now (ConnCAN) and Quinnipiac University. Since selling his business he has donated $1 million to Quinnipiac University’s Lender School of Business and helped create the Connecticut Center for Arts & Technology (ConnCAT), a new education and training school housed in Science Park that he chairs. NHM Publisher Mitchell Young interviewed Highsmith for ONE2ONE.

Let’s start right here with ConnCAT. What’s the story behind its creation?

The idea for the center was first spawned in New Haven a decade ago. Bill Strickland, the founder of Manchester Bidwell Training Center in Pittsburgh, visited in New Haven at the request of the Community Foundation [of Greater New Haven] to deliver a speech. He talked about the center and the work he was doing around the country to replicate it. He was funded

by Jeff Skoll [first president and employee] of eBay, for the replication of the center to other cities. The original center had multiple funding sources including the Heinz family, Bayer Labs, the Pittsburgh Health System. People got really excited

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DUCATION ADVOCATE CARLTON HIGHSMITH IS TECHNICALLY RETIRED, BUT FAR FROM RETIRING

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Carlton Highsmith • Mitchell Young for NHm Photographs By Steve Blazo new haven

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about bringing a center here, Bill went back to Pittsburgh and the idea essentially died. Then Will Ginsberg [president of the Community Foundation] (nearly a decade later) eventually went to a few people to fund a study to whether the city could support the center. During that process Bill and I talked. I had never met him before, didn’t know about his work, never read his book and never heard his speech. A year later he came back, we met at the [Quinnipiack] Club and he said, ‘We’re going to recommend that the city can do a [training] center but this needs a local champion, and you’re the guy.’ A day or so later Will Ginsberg called and asked the same question. Circumstances were right for me because I had just sold my business.

When you first met Strickland you were still in business?

Yes. I told him I was rarely in Connecticut and wouldn’t have time [to be involved] but to touch base with me. Now [after selling the company] I had time. My wife and I went to Pittsburgh to look at the center. He had been at it for 40 years. The center there covers a couple of city blocks. It has a greenhouse in the inner city that sells orchids. He has a 4,000-seat arena for jazz concerts.

So it’s a major education and training facility.

Yes, but it’s for poor people. I came back energized, I had been on this corporate treadmill

running my business for 35 years. Whether I had blinders on or not, I didn’t realize that our communities weren’t keeping up with me, that the gaps in income were widening, that the education disparities were so bad. So I said, ‘Let’s see if we can make a difference.’

Where did you grow up?

I grew up in eastern North Carolina [Greenville], a small rural farming community, 2,400 people.

For my entire educational experience from kindergarten to the 12th grade was in a segregated school system, even though Brown v. Board of Education happened in 1954 lots of school districts in the South didn’t move [to integrate] yet.

So what kind of education did you get?

I would consider it outstanding, I had parents that set the context and expectation that I would learn. I had a community that even though we had segregated schools had an expectation that you would want to learn. I had principals who were incredible role models.

Were they white?

All black, and all black teachers. They served as role models. In those times, if you were a great black college graduate majoring in chemistry or majoring in math or English, your career aspirations were limited. Becoming a teacher was one of the only options available. You had this fierce competition to be teachers among

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black college graduates so you had the best and brightest teachers. I point to my experience and say great teachers make all the difference.

Was there something going on in these schools by virtue of their segregation that made them more effective — a lack of racial conflict, for example?

I had a high-school principal who gave a speech about this recently — Dr. Dudley Flood, who became assistant superintendent of schools in North Carolina. He said when we shut down the all black schools we failed to really look at what was being done inside and reapply it into the desegregated schools. He said we had outstanding teachers who had an expectation that the kids would learn — that was key. Being competent in subject matter doesn’t matter if you don’t have an expectation that the kid will learn.

What years are we in?

I’m 62. I went to school from 1957 to 1969. We had great extracurricular activities. We had a math team, a debate team. I was captain of the debate team and the basketball team. I was happier about our debate team wins than our basketball wins.

Would your education in Greenville be a good experience for Carlton Highsmith today?

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that believes that students will achieve.

You’ve cited expectations a lot — which ought to make you a card-carrying Republican on public education. Was it not President George W. Bush who talked about the ‘soft racism of low expectations’?

[Laughs] My family and my community was

primarily Democratic.

What was the reason the black community in Greenville had high expectations even at a time of still real oppression and discrimination?

The community saw barriers coming down. They saw opportunities that their kids would have that they didn’t have. And they said, ‘We want to make sure that they take advantage of those opportunities.’

had the option of staying with my grandparents to complete my school experience.

How did he select New Haven?

It was like the typical immigrant experience.

He had an older brothers and an uncle who had moved to New Haven earlier. They had worked at Gant Shirt and one at the United Technologies plant in North Haven. When my father got here he worked for a while at Winchester Repeating Arms [about a block from the present-day ConnCAT]. Then he decided to become an auto mechanic and worked at the old Eckblade Auto in Hamden and then he went to detailing cars there.

When he didn’t want to be an employee any more

he became an entrepreneur of sorts. He would rent the shed and Eckblade would pay per car and he carved out a very nice living detailing cars.

Back to North Carolina was there ever any doubt that you were going to college?

None! I hated the work in the fields. The option was to stay, work in the fields or go to college. I went to the University of Wisconsin.

I visited Madison the year you were a freshman. I can’t remember if I saw any black people there, but there couldn’t have been many. How did you choose it?

I had a guidance counselor who saw something in me that was different. She said rather than

It sounds like the textbook American immigrant experience.

Of course it was. Think of all the doors that were closed, the opportunities that did not exist for so many generations for folks growing up in the South. And all of a sudden those barriers start coming down.

How did that get imbued in you personally? Because the fact is there aren’t a lot of people as successful as Carlton Highsmith of any color around now.

I think growing up with such an extended family helped. My great-grandfather I knew; my grandfather I knew. I worked alongside my grandfather. They were farmers — they grew soybeans, tobacco, corn, peanuts. My father was a farmer, too, before he was part of that great southern migration. He migrated to New Haven.

I worked on the farm until I was 16.

There still are tobacco fields in northern Connecticut. Until a couple of decades students would work those fields. I don’t think many students today would be willing to do that work. How did you and your family view it? Would your daughters have done it?

Probably not. We worked six days a week before dawn, past dusk — probably not something my daughters would want to do, but they do have a work ethic. We’ve visited [Greenville] and they have a sense of how I did grow up there in the ‘50s and ‘60s.

We [read about] reverse migration to the South. So you see it?

Both my kids are professionals in New Haven and they say when they retire they want to move to Charlotte, N.C. Well that puts them with just about everyone in the U.S.

There is a large number of blacks today who don’t see the opportunities that once existed in the Northern states that attracted my father.

You were 16 when your father moved north?

Yes. At that time my mom and dad split and I new haven

9

go to the traditional historically black colleges that a lot of my fellow classmates went to, that the University of Wisconsin was aggressively recruiting minority students and [she thought I could] do well there.

Madison was one of the more politicized campuses, about the war and civil rights. How did that affect you?

Mostly the war, it made me aware of the world. What the important growing part for me was getting to the University of Wisconsin. There were 26,000 students and there were 400 people of color. It was the first time I ever sat in a classroom where the other students didn’t look like me. I would walk into a lecture hall with 300 kids and I was the only minority. But a lot of the students were from small rural farm towns, so ultimately we had a lot more in common than we had differences.

What did you major in?

I grew up in the era of the space [race and] I always wanted to be an aeronautical engineer, After a semester and a half, and I don’t

10 March/April 2013

know if it was the physics or the calculus, but I found the letters and sciences to be more appealing and I chose economics. At the university, the economics department was located in the heart of the business school.Recruiters came and I was (eventually) recruited by the Rexham Co. — they were a North Carolina-based packaging company.

I wanted to go back to North Carolina and got a job as a strategic planning coordinator. Imagine in 1974 you’re general manager of an operating company and you have a smart-alecky kid from corporate coming in and you’re worried about your next quarter. I didn’t get great receptions.

Well you did end up in packaging, though.

I asked my boss if he would transfer me to an operating company. I found packaging to be very interesting — to see how something went from design to printing and then end up on the shelf. My boss said, ‘A lot to of people work 25 years to get to a [corporate] position and you want to go the other

way.’ They found a job for me in Bridgeport, Connecticut. They had purchased a company from Warnaco, it had little boutique packaging division on Atlantic Street.

Your father was living up here.

Yes, I moved to New Haven. I became a management trainee because they really didn’t have a job for me.

This was still pretty early to be an African-American in corporate America, how was the reception inside, not at human resources?

When I was in Charlotte there were two others [blacks]. In Bridgeport there were no others. There were minorities in the plant, but not in management. There were issues that arose. Some were mean-spirited, but I was a determined young man and I was not going to let these distractions stop me from learning.

That was the perspective I took.

At what point did you get the bug to start your own company?

There was an opening [when I was in Bridgeport]. I was positioned

for that job, and when I didn’t get I became disillusioned with the company and said I need to move on. I [took a job with the American Sugar Co., wholesalers of Domino Sugar] in 1977. They had a huge operation in Norwich. I came in as a sales coordinator and was promoted ultimately to manager of marketing services. By 1983 my team had made this operation really successful — from a small captive operation supplying only to the company to now supplying packaging to companies like Johnson & Johnson, Kimberly Clark and others. I decided I had always wanted to do my own thing.

Where did that always come from?

I saw my father, my grandfather.

Farming is entrepreneurial — you’re on your own. I had a professor at [UW] and we were taking about power. This was the time of H. Rap Brown, Stokely Carmichael, Martin Luther King. He asked us about what power meant. [Some] guys said power was when you take up arms and overthrow the system. Our professor, Dr.

NEWHAVENMAGAZINE.COM

Mathew Holden, said ‘You guys have it all wrong.’ He was on the Wisconsin [Department of Public Utility Control] and he said, ‘We’re charged with selling licenses for cable TV franchises. If you’re interested in power, go out and raise a half million dollars and come to our commission and buy one of those franchises. When you can control your own destiny and your family’s destiny and impact the community — that is power.’

Where did you start your company?

I rented a basement office at 27 Elm Street. I was 31. My experience had been in managing package design and developing the sales and marketing. I got good at understanding how to bring innovative people together. I noticed that a lot of innovation was being demanded by large consumer-products companies — but the large packaging companies were scaling back their design operations.

So how did you start selling to them?

Highsmith on starting his business: “It was much more difficult than I ever thought it would be.”

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I had a ten-year long corporate Rolodex. What I found interesting, however, was all those wonderful people that I worked with over the years, some would return my calls.

[But] most wouldn’t, or would say, ‘We just can’t risk giving you that project.’

How did that feel?

It was much more difficult than I ever thought it would be. I thought the people I worked with as a corporate executive would have that same confidence in me as an entrepreneur. That first year was a real struggle. I was limping along and finally got a small project to keep the doors open. I maxed out all the credit cards.

What turned the tide?

I got a contact at Johnson & Johnson — this young lady Barbara Donnelly. I’m still in touch with her. Redhead Irish. Barbara had a policy: She would see anyone — if she had time, she’d make an appointment. She said, ‘You have 15 minutes — impress me.’ She was impressed with my background, and said ‘You left your job to start

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this business. I do have one project that is perplexing our company and our current supplier.’ They had just launched a new toothbrush named Reach. They expected Reach to be the No. 1 toothbrush in country and it wasn’t. They did some testing and learned that the consumer decides to buy a toothbrush in seconds. And the package they had developed was not communicating to the consumer [the innpvation of the product].

We rallied a team of independents and brainstormed and we came up with a package and prototyped it as best we could. I got back to her in two weeks, he was immediately impressed, called down the brand manager, and he went, ‘Wow — but could you perfect the prototypes?’ My ďŹ rst big contract was for the ďŹ nished prototype, it was for $5,000. When we came back with the ďŹ nished prototype, the brand managers were so impressed they wanted us to do all their oral-care designs.

That was the quintessential entrepreneurship moment?

Our company was built around it.

From 1984 to 1997 we became this really successful package-design company. We moved from 27 Elm Street to 100 Crown Street and grew and grew. We eventually moved operations to Hamden.

But your big success came as a manufacturing company.

Sergio Marchioni — now the CEO of Chrysler — became CEO of a huge global chemicals aluminum and packaging company. He decided certain businesses were not strategic, including two packaging plants — one in Syracuse [N.Y.] and one in Ontario, Canada. We had 11 employees and were trying to buy two of their packaging plants that had 300 employees. That acquisition cost $24 million, these plants were rather new and were well equipped. In 1997 banks were actually lending money against assets. I had $2 million in cash. We had been successful for some time and we had the bank ďŹ nancing, but were still $4 million short.

Eventually we got a mezzanine

lender; it was very expensive money.

We went from 11 employees to 311, Annual revenues went from our $19 million to a $69 million company overnight. We made an additional acquisition and ended up with almost 650 employees. We were the largest minority-owned packaging company in North America and seventh-largest packaging company overall.

What drove that success?

We were always focused on operational excellence. We were really good at what we did, and innovative and growing. I may have my weaknesses, but when it comes to work ethic this was a kid that got up at 4 a.m. to work in the ďŹ elds.

No CEO in the country was going to outwork me.

You have two daughters who were growing up at this time, How did you balance your family responsibilities with building the company?

I tried as best I could to balance my daughters with the business.

Weekends were always home. To the extent they were involved with plays or recitals, I would be there.

I always had the expectations they were going to run the business. That was my Plan A. But it didn’t turn out to be their Plan A.

They were my best friends and biggest critics. I think there are sacriďŹ ces that you must make and sacriďŹ ces that they have to buy into.

What was most disappointing was that neither was interested in taking over the business. My youngest got a great education at Northwestern and we put her to work with us in Chicago and she worked for us for a year before she proclaimed on a train ride, ‘Dad, this isn’t for me.’ She now is a fourth-grade elementary school teacher in New Haven. My oldest daughter from the time I could remember said, ‘I want to be a lawyer.’ Undergraduate at Duke and law degree at Wisconsin, and [after Madison] all of a sudden she doesn’t want to make money. She want to help poor

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people, so she is deputy director of New Haven Legal Services. So I have failed miserably at raising capitalists.

and mentors to get through middle school and high school so they can take advantage of the promise.

That’s the heavy lifting.

[Laughs heartily] They see the disparities that exist and they want to help.

You also got involved with the charter school organization Achievement First early on.

How hard was the decision to sell your company?

When I went to the school [Amistad Academy] it reminded me of my experience in North Carolina — high expectations, no excuses, kids behaving. My expectation was they’re going to get it right, people are going to see what they do and emulate it. I never expected charter schools to be the lift for the entire system.

The primary driver has to do with the nature of the business — you have to get big. We would still have had to get bigger. My biggest competitor was a $4.5 billion [in annual sales] company. We were at $170 million; we had to pick our spots as a niche player. No later than 2011 we would have had to grow. Our plan was to spend another $25 million to $40 million.

That meant I would have be with the business for another decade.

Are you satisďŹ ed about selling?

For the ďŹ rst three months I had seller’s remorse; I wondered if maybe I could have lasted another decade. [But now] I’m as busy as I want to be. I still serve on the board of First Niagara Bank [the Buffalo, N.Y.-based successor to NewAlliance Bank].

Even before you sold the business you made this decision about supporting education. You got involved with Achievement First and Quinnipiac?

When I see how education has had such a powerful impact on my life and how kids aren’t getting a quality enough education to be good citizens never mind making a living for themselves. In 1992 we adopted an entire fourth-grade class of East Rock School in New Haven. Working with I Have a Dream Foundation we adopted the class with the purpose of paying their college tuition. We have several Ph.D. graduates — they’re adults now spread all over the country. Incredible stories. What we found and I think New Haven Promise [a program largely funded

by Yale to pay college tuition for graduating New Haven students who meet certain standards] will discover is having the promise is one thing but getting in position to take advantage of that promise is a whole other thing. We found that we need to get students tutors

Do you see in CEOs or other business people a desire to take over public education, as some allege?

No, I see a desire for the public education system to get it right and get us really smart people to help us be competitive.

What is your goal for ConnCAT?

There are three things our community has to be focused on to advance: One, we have to get our kids to graduate [high school] and go on to trade school or community college or four-year college. This center is focused on helping kids do that. We take troubled, at-risk kids from New Haven and Hamden and we use the arts as a way of bringing them back to understanding work and learning. The other thing our community needs is jobs: We have too many unemployed folks — largely because there is a skills gap. We partnered with Yale-New Haven Hospital primarily to train for jobs they see in high demand.

We are fully licensed to be a credentialed training program. The third thing: Our community does not have enough minority-owned businesses and kids thinking about starting their own [companies].

With the entrepreneurial academy in co-operation with Quinnipiac, this center will focus on providing that exposure and training to our youngsters. Y

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Two

Pasts, One

Future Adapting to a changing world, New Haven’s venerable private dining clubs join forces

By MELISSA NICEFARO

Photos by Lisa Wilder

Sometimes the old cliché is

Connecting Money & Life

actually true: If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.

In September, New Haven’s venerable private dining clubs — the Graduate Club and Quinnipiack Club — merged.

The agreement marked the end of an era — but also the dawn of a new one.

Operations are overseen by Graduate Club General Manager Sandra Gervais, who says that though clubs have changed over their years, they need to continue to evolve and adapt to their members’ needs.

The two dining clubs that once competed for members are now partners, offering more options and benefits.

“Many of our members are New Haven residents with affiliations with Yale,” Gervais explains. “Both clubs were founded as a place for intellectual discussion and have attracted many professors over the years.”

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The Quinnipiack Club (referred to in common parlance as ‘the Q Club’), was formed in 1871 by a group of businessmen.

The club moved to 221 Church Street in 1931 and still holds a strong appeal to business people.

Dale Bruckhart was looking for just that when he joined the Q Club seven years ago. A New Haven resident for 30 years, he’d attended events at both the Graduate Club on Elm Street and the Q Club.

Though he liked the history of both clubs, he chose the Q Club for the networking element. continued next page Dining in the Q Club library, provides a classical elegant dining experience..

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to know people.” He uses the club every week or two for networking and socializing — and he bowls weekly.

He calls the Q club’s facilities magnificent.

Two unexpected bowling lanes in the basement of the Q club still attract a league from members

“With the combination of two clubs, and with the networking at the Q Club, particularly with the bowling league, it’s of great value, and quite honestly a lot of fun,” he says. Yes, he said “bowling league.”

In the basement level of the brick Church Street structure is indeed a quaint four-lane duckpin bowling

alley. The club’s bowling league is 15 teams strong. The club also houses a fitness center.

“It’s been a great way to get together with like-minded people for an enjoyable evening,” says Bruckhart, vice president of public-sector marketing for Digital Backoffice.

“It affords a great opportunity to get

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“The dining room off of the bar area is a beautiful room,” he says. “The bar area was recently redone and is a very friendly and inviting space — it’s not cold and intimidating as some clubs could be. You can have a drink at the bar, or find a comfortable chair and sit down and have a chat with somebody.

The board rooms upstairs are magnificent rooms.”

Rooms are also available for family and business functions, and there are also overnight accommodations for out-of-town guests.

The conjoined clubs will now look for ways to increase membership.

Bruckhart says he would like to see the two clubs embrace technology and provide workspaces for those inclined to use them.

“Many people today want a place to go to work outside of a Starbucks or other public restaurant,” he says.

“The club could afford people the opportunity to bring in their laptop and use the Internet effectively, all while having access to the dining facilities and even the locker room facilities.

“If you bicycle to work, it would be a great place to bring your bike, use the facilities and change, have breakfast and walk to work,” Bruckhart adds. “It’s a matter of trying to blend the traditional facilities with some of the technologies that people expect today.

“Places like the Q Club and the Graduate Club, I like to call the original social networking sites,” Bruckhart adds.

He agrees that the clubs need to continue to move forward, admitting they’ve come a ways since women were allowed to join, but emphasizes that they’ve still got a ways to go.

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The Graduate club’s lobby, has been welcoming guests since 1901. The Grad club was first established at another location in 1892.

YYY New Haven Historian and Yale Librarian Judy Schiff was one of the first women to join the Graduate Club. She is a native New Havener and chief researcher for Yale’s Sterling Library “I was working at Yale and it was meaningful to me to reach a certain status,” she explains.

Once she was eligible to join the Yale Faculty Club, she didn’t bat an eye. As a member of the Yale Faculty Club in the mid-1970s, the Graduate Club did not yet admit women as members. Women were permitted in the club only as guests, or part of a couple or family.

Schiff recalls going to the Graduate Club with her friend Arthur C. Walworth, a scholar who did research at Sterling. Walworth, an independently wealthy historian from the Boston area, won a Pulitzer Prize for an autobiography

of Woodrow Wilson. He lived at the Graduate Club while he worked in New Haven doing in-depth research at Yale.

Expires: 4/30/2013

“He spent months at a time living at the Graduate Club and over time I went there as his guest,” says Schiff of the Elm Street fixture. “It was a very beautiful place with very good food,” she adds.

Formerly women during daytime hours — unlike nighttime when the club hosted functions such as dances in the main entertaining rooms of the club — were permitted to dine only in the Gold Room in the back of the club.

“They finally permitted women to eat in the main dining room, around the time they permitted women to become members in 1974.

I remember Arthur telling me that now he could take me to lunch. I wore my pantsuit, I was so daring,”

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The entrance to the Q club’s ballroom has hosted countless business and personal functions.

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Schiff says with a chuckle. “He said, ‘Now that you’re a modern liberated woman, you can join me in a cigar.’” So she did.

In 1977, the Yale closed its Faculty Club and the Elm Street building was used as the Admissions Office. Schiff and other members of the Faculty Club received a special invitation to join the Graduate Club, waiving the initiation fee.

“It’s been an ongoing addition to both my personal and career life,” she says. “It was a place to entertain perspective donors and scholars who came to New Haven. I’d take them to lunch.”

Today, Schiff hosts board meetings for organizations such as the Lindbergh Foundation, which draws attendees from all over the country, at the Graduate Club. In her role as an officer of the League of Women Voters, she hosts regional lunches at the club, often focusing on human services, government and education, attended by regional leaders of local LWV chapters.

oldest houses left anymore, like the 17th-century houses, or the houses you can see in Branford or Guilford. But once you get into the period of the Revolution — anything after 1750 — there are some really interesting houses in New Haven.”

“It has always had the best of New England home-style cooking and hasn’t gone for the trendy food fads,” Schiff adds. “It harkens of English cooking, but is much better.”

The historian is also a forward thinker.

“Clubs need to continuously fashion themselves and offer the kind of activities that people want to participate in,” says Schiff. “There are so many activities that are hard to find at public places

— people don’t go out to dance anymore, unless they’re at a wedding or special party, there is none of that old-favorite type of entertainment.”

Says Gervais, who is charged with managing the merger of two clubs with two distinct traditions: “Our goal is to offer something to everyone.

We want each club to be a warm home away from home. It’s challenging when our members range from 24 to 99 years old, but it’s time to start offering more for the younger members.

Especially at the Q Club, there are underused spaces and many growth opportunities.”

She says the merger was met with positive reactions from most members.

“For many of these women over the years, it has been somehow the first time they’ve come to downtown New Haven, and they say it’s so beautiful and should come more often. It’s become a vehicle for promoting New Haven and what it has to offer,” Schiff says.

Without question the Graduate Club makes an agreeable impression. Unstuffy and comfortable, the house that the Graduate Club occupies was built in 1799, one of four historic houses on Elm Street opposite the Green. It was built for a gentleman named Jonathan Mix, the inventor of a then-new type of carriage spring that made for a much smoother carriage ride. New Haven was the center of the carriage industry of the country.

After Mix died, the house was acquired by Eli Whitney Blake, the nephew of Eli Whitney, and founder of a hardware business in Westville that created the first integrated door lock as well as a stone crusher.

“Before this stone had to be broken up using big sledgehammers to crush rocks,” explains Schiff.

“This machine transformed many aspects of industry in America and enabled paved roads, such as Whalley Avenue.”

Blake raised at least eight children who lived there for a time before the house was sold to the Graduate Club in 1901.

Today the club has 15 overnight rooms, a business center and a members’ meeting room in addition to several dining and function rooms. Members of both the Graduate and Q Clubs (although under the same ownership umbrella now, the executive boards are considering a new name for the amalgamated clubs) enjoy reciprocal member rights at 200 clubs nationwide. “But none have the character that our city clubs have,” asserts Bruckhart.

The historian in Schiff agrees.

“I think that’s what’s special about New Haven,” she says. “We may not have the very new haven

19

HOUSE OF HOPE New Haven’s Clifford Beers Clinic celebrates a century of helping families in distress

By ALI IACONO

I

magine being a child who doesn’t learn about alcoholism only in school, but witnesses the reality of it daily.

Imagine being a child whose perception of Mommy and Daddy is anything but a love story; listening helplessly as your mother screams for help behind her closed bedroom door.

Imagine being a child victim of sexual abuse who becomes at risk of victimizing others the same way.

established in 1913 by Clifford W. Beers, who experienced severe mental distress when he slumped into depression and attempted suicide.

Beers delved into the dark depths of his depression in his autobiography, A Mind that Found Itself (1908), which is regularly referred to by the clinicians at the clinic that bears his name. The creation of the clinic

“It’s an amazing legacy to be open for 100 years,” she says. “I really believe that there’s a certain quality of service or dedication that we have to the community that has allowed us to stay open 100 years.

We really take our role as a member of the New Haven community very seriously and show up when asked and volunteer when we can.”

“We underestimate a lot about the bad things that happen to our kids and the stress that it causes on both them and their families,” explains Executive Director Alice Forrester, who upon arrival at the clinic 16 years ago was a student intern finishing up her Ph.D.

20 March/April 2013

“We were started by a guy who was a psychiatric patient,” says Forrester.

“He suffered, he died mentally ill, he died with his depression. But he just felt like people shouldn’t be treated [abusively] so he wanted to create a force of passionate advocates.”

Forrester reflects on the clinic’s history as well as the continuous effort to carry on what its namesake created.

For the children of the Clifford Beers Clinic such circumstances are a grim reality.

Commemorating its centennial this year, the Clifford Beers Clinic is one of the oldest community-based non-profit outpatient mental-health clinics in America. The clinic was

was Beers’ way of affording others an escape from the abuse he and his fellow patients suffered in the violent ward of a state institution.

Having suffered deep depression and attempted suicide, Clifford Beers a century ago vowed to help others in similar straits to get well.

The clinic, which serves some 1,600 clients in greater New Haven each year, is staffed by psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers NEWHAVENMAGAZINE.COM

and family therapists, advanced practice registered nurses, family advocates and case managers. “[Clients] feel very connected to the staff, but also to each other,” says clinic therapist and management team member Erin Cushing, who is in her seventh year working at the clinic.

The clinic provides a variety of programs and services that address each client’s specific root of trauma. A sexual abuse/family violence treatment program, services for youth with problem sexual behaviors and services for AIDS-affected families are among the growing list of programs the clinic offers.

Tiquanda, 34, of New Haven (who asked that her last name be withheld) enrolled her 13-year-old and eight-year-old daughters as clients at Clifford Beers. She says they couldn’t be happier with their experience.

“They love it,” she explains. “It’s like a second home to them.”

Her older daughter, who suffers from behavior and learning disabilities, has demonstrated marked improvement since she began at the clinic by practicing breathing exercises when she becomes frustrated. Her younger daughter has also applied techniques she learned at the clinic to reduce the frequency and severity of her temper tantrums.

“Thank God — it’s a lot easier on you,” says the girls’ mother with a laugh. “I recommend Clifford Beers. The help is unlimited.”

Over time the clinic’s programs and services have evolved to adapt to changing traumas that develop within families. Recently, Cushing has become a key participant in developing a new program that focuses specifically on the mental instability associated with some military families.

The National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) proposed a grant opportunity for organizations nationwide to work specifically with military families. The Beers clinic crafted a proposal to work with the Veterans Administration (VA) hospital in West Haven.

“The VA does a really great job of providing services for the actual veterans. They don’t offer services for children,” Cushing says. “So that was our idea: Let’s kind of fill this gap, this hole and offer services for children of military families.”

BEERS SLATES Centennial FETE

The military program is one of multiple new approaches practiced by the clinic. Historically Beers has served clients up to age 18; however, Cushing says it has recently earned certification to extend services to adults.

Actress Glenn Close will keynote the gathering. Close will speak about her non-profit organization, Bring Change 2 Mind, a national anti-stigma campaign aimed at removing misconceptions about mental illness. Close’s sister, Jessie Close, and nephew, Calen Pick, live with mental illness.

“We’re not at the stage yet of being able to offer individual adult treatment,” she explains. “But we are slowly making steps toward being able to get adults in the room as a form of family therapy, parenting work, things like that.”

As the clinic continues to develop strategic approaches tailored to various root causes of mental instability, Cushing observes that over time clients have become more willing to discuss traumatic issues openly with their clinicians.

In celebration of its centennial, the Clifford Beers Clinic will host a gala at Yale Commons from 6 to 11 p.m. April 27.

“She only does one of these [benefits] a year so I think we are honored that she chose us as one of those groups,” says Alice Forrester, executive director of Clifford Beers.

The event will also feature a silent auction, which includes prizes such as an African safari, a week in Budapest, Hungary, a week in Pompano, Fla. and more.

Beyond event’s fundraising function, Forrester says she’s hoping the event will raise awareness of the clinic’s work as well as how damaging a stressful situation can be to a child’s mental stability.

“It’s kind of like changing people’s perspective around what are some of the origins of the mental health issues we’re seeing,” Forrester explains. “So for our 100th [anniversary] that’s the thing that we’re trying to press.” — A.I.

“I think because we kind of just ask about all traumas it makes it a little bit easier for people to talk about it,” says Cushing.

In the wake of the deadly December 14 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Beers staff members volunteered their services despite the fact that Newtown is geographically outside its New Haven County service area. Beers clinicians worked in trauma response and were a part of the 26 death-notification teams on the evening of the shooting.

As the clinic begins its second century of service, Forrester says the legacy of Clifford W. Beers’ struggles and triumphs is something that will never die.

“I think that that spirit really lives at the agency, and that when people get hired here they may not understand that that’s what they’re doing,” Forrester says. “But as you progress here, you know. A lot of staff go out of their way for our families and try to change things that aren’t working for our families and advocate for them.” Y

Tickets to the gala are $200.

More information about the event is vailable at Cliffordbeers.org.

Actress Glenn Close, whose family has been touched by mental illness, will be keynote the Beers Clinic’s April 27 centennial celebration.

new haven

21

People Who Need People Wh th still Whether till att h home or iin assisted i t d liliving, i maintaining i t i i a rich i social life can be key to health and happiness for older adults

By MAKAYLA SILVA

S

he spent her entire adult life in her eight-bedroom Westville home. She had a heated two-car garage, a security system, a lifeline. But when Doris Dimenstein’s husband passed away, she knew she could no longer take care of the house she had raised four children in.

Cleaning the floors, mowing the lawn and even getting out to the mailbox became too large a task during the winter months. She knew it was time.

Dimenstein checked into Tower One Tower East five years ago and today says she should have done it sooner.

Picture the scene in the 2000 blockbuster Cast Away in which Tom Hanks, stranded on a deserted island, draws a face on a volleyball that drifted ashore for companionship.

Tower One resident Doris Dimenstein works the counter at the living facility’s retail shop. Dimenstein keeps busy best she can by volunteering daily at Tower One, and as well at St. Rafael’s Hospital, and the Hamden Chamber of Commerce.

People need people.

A product in part of medical and technological advances, the aging population is growing rapidly. Not to mention the baby boomers are approaching or reaching Photo:Lisa Wilder

“I wake up at 9 a.m. and I don’t come back until 8 at night. I don’t know why I even need a room,” she jokes.

Volunteering in Tower One daily, at St. Rafael’s Hospital on Tuesdays and at the Hamden Chamber of Commerce once a month, Dimenstein keeps very busy.

“People always say, ‘I don’t know how you do it, Doris,’ but I enjoy it,” she says. “I enjoy helping people — being with people. It’s so important.”

Since the dawn of time, humans have inherently craved and depended on human contact, along with the basic necessities of water, food, shelter and sleep in order to survive and thrive.

22 March/April 2013

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retirement age.

The number of people aged 65 and older is projected to grow to 88.5 million by the year 2050, making them the fastest-growing demographic group, according to the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau.

With the extended longevity among seniors comes an increased number of years in retirement. And with retirement comes withdrawal from routine work and personal schedules, and perhaps from relationships with former coworkers.

Although many older adults embrace the transition from the office to the golf course, others experience emotional detachment from their former life.

between stress and isolation to poor health and shorter lifespans. It’s thought that socialization can help improve the immune system, lower stress levels and increase longevity and general well being.

better nutrition than those who live alone and may skip meals entirely in lieu of preparing a healthy meal or perhaps turn to food for companionship, which can lead to problems with obesity.

A 2008 Harvard School of Public Health study published in the American Journal of Public Health found that “strong social ties, through friends, family and community groups, can preserve our brain health as we age and that social isolation may be an important risk factor for cognitive decline in the elderly.”

Still, a recent Gallup poll suggesting that socialization is inextricably intertwined with happiness, shows that the average amount of time spent socializing each day drops dramatically with age.

The same study indicated that those seniors engaged in social activities had on average a slower rate of memory loss.

The loss of a career, for some, means a loss of self-purpose, which can sometimes lead to increased feelings of isolation and even bouts of depression.

For years, experts have been fine-tuning the prescription for healthy aging in retirement and beyond. Defining physical activity and proper nutrition as the obvious building blocks for a high quality of life, researchers have added socialization to the repertoire for senior health.

Why? Because there is a distinct correlation

What’s more is the reciprocal relationship socialization has on physical activity, frequently cited as the most important ingredient for healthy aging. Multiple studies show that social connections lead to increased exercise with one of the main predictors of following through with regular exercise programs as the “buddy system.”

Likewise, gerontologists have found a “clear correlation between food intake and social interaction” as cited in a 2009 study of hospitalized seniors from the Université de Montréal. Seniors who eat together often have

Those 30 years and younger report an average of 8.1 hours of socialization each day while Americans 65 and older report a daily average of about 5.7 hours daily.

Recognizing the many barriers to the transition into assisted living like transportation, finances and stable routine, geriatric psychiatrist Alan Siegal, who practices in New Haven and Hamden, said most commonly, it is the fear of the unknown that causes seniors to cling to their homes as the only thing keeping them grounded.

“We stay at home because we cling to the belief that, ‘If I don’t leave home I won’t die’ and it’s just ridiculous,” Siegal says. “Nobody comes out and says it but they don’t want to move to assisted living because they know that it is the last place they are going to live.”Y

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But for many seniors, home remains the constant comfort.

Linda Grigerek, owner of Companions & Homemakers, which offers home-care services for older adults, says some seniors simply decide to stay in the place they’ve lived for years, often decades.

“The easy answer is, who wouldn’t [want to stay home?],” Grigerek says. “Change is difficult at any stage of life, but to leave familiar surroundings, lose independence, and for seniors who have never been very social throughout their lives, it is the only choice for them. Assistedliving facilities are a good choice for many seniors who enjoy the activities they offer.”

Serving seniors who are homebound, reside in assisted-living facilities, and those who require some help, but are still able to get out either on their own or with transportation provided by caregivers, Grigerek says seniors do not necessarily become reclusive as they age, but rather prefer to keep to themselves.

“I think that may be a stereotypical way of thinking,” she says. “Many members of society regardless of age may prefer their own company.

For seniors who have always been social, the deaths of spouses and friends as well as loss of transportation and physical and/or mental ailments associated with aging may cause seniors

to be isolated.”

Grigerek says socialization can help to enhance older adults’ daily lives.

“Again, it needs to be a choice if they are mentally capable of making it. Think of high school: There were the introverts and the extroverts. Those that went to the prom and belonged to clubs. There were also the kids who sat in the library alone, perfectly happy immersed in a book. This doesn’t necessarily change just because of the aging process,” she says. “We have some seniors who enjoy the twice-weekly visit of our caregivers and the help with shopping but that is enough for them. We also have seniors who have chosen to stay home but enjoy an outing at the senior center or adult day care for a few days a week.”

Siegal suggests that living in a senior community can mitigate growing feelings of isolation and improve a senior emotionally, physically and socially.

“By nature we are herd animals,” Siegal says.

“We like being with people.”

Socialization reinforces lifelong patterns of connections to people, according to Siegal.

“How does someone who has lived with someone for 40, 50, 60 years now adjust to being alone?” following the death of a spouse, Siegal asks. “And

Photo:Lisa Wilder Geriatric psychiatrist Alan Siegal says fear of the unknown is the main reason many seniors cling to their homes even in their declining years. “They don’t want to move to assisted living because they know that it is the last place they are going to live.”

for us to think that on any level that it’s okay?”

As for maintaining or rekindling a vibrant social

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life, “There are very positive effects that we can’t simply measure but things like lowering depression, and depression by itself intensifies the idea of pain in the brain, so therefore lowering pain,” explains Siegal. “Socialization can improve the quality of life.”

For those who make the difficult decision to pack up their clothing and photographs, dishes and lifetime of mementos, the transition can be bewildering.

Mark Garilli, president and CEO of Tower One/ Tower East in New Haven, said implementing socialization and building a community can help change the emotional outlook of a new resident.

“As we look at our senior population and how most of them come to us as they are leaving their homes of 30 years, most of them coming to us alone, or on their own, without a partner and moving into a new community. Certainly that transition can be a very difficult one,” he said.

With a 40-member chorus, a partnership with the Long Wharf Theatre and a resident association that organizes events like the New

Year’s Eve bash, Garilli said becoming a part of a community can turn a senior’s life around.

“You breathe life into someone that may have started that road into depression and now no longer has that fear of isolation,” he said. “All too often I hear residents say ‘I should have done this five years ago, I don’t know what I was waiting for.”

Other area senior homes, like Seacrest Retirement Center in West Haven and Mary Wade in New Haven, offer a wide array of activities for residents and non-residents alike.

Joy Demarchis, Mary Wade’s director of marketing and development, says participants take part in everything from arts and crafts with children from St. Rose of Lima to yoga to trips to Walmart to tai-chi.

“If they were in the home, they would be perhaps watching TV, but the socialization is not there,” Demarchis explains. “Seniors need the mental stimulation — crossword puzzles, word search, even sharing stories about their past.

It’s important to recognize a senior’s life story because it’s rich. The memories are so important, not only to the [individual] but to share with the other members of the community. We always share our stories with each other.”

At a time when social networks of seniors are declining, Demarchis says it is important to the health of an older adult to feel connected to others.

“A lot of research is showing, for all of us, young and old, to have socialization,” she says. “It helps everyone, especially when you are getting older, to have interactions, but meaningful interactions with friends, with people that you see on a daily basis. It can curb depression in any of us. It’s so important. As you age oftentimes you are losing friends and family members, to create new relationships and strengthen ones that you already have.”

Intergenerational activities, such as when children visit a senior home for an afternoon to do arts and crafts or play Scrabble, Siegal says, are the best social activities a senior can participate in.

“It’s reciprocal,” he adds. “For these kids, this is the only extended family and for the seniors, sharing stories about their life, when the refrigerator was called an ‘ice box’ or when they had to walk six blocks, six miles to get butter or the Depression where they hoped there were potatoes to eat, it’s important.” Y

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HIGH SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL

The next day, I ask my boss about this mysterious Russet Goop. She emphasizes that this is a bacteria that manifests only on poorly cleaned toilets. Did I even try?

When the Student Is Ready, the Teacher Appears

The toilet and I play this brutal game every Sunday. As I perfunctorily check students in for yoga classes and fold my thoughts into sheet after sheet, I wonder. Sunday after Sunday I clean the toilets, fold sheets, check on the toilets and am disconcerted. Am I really so incompetent as to be outsmarted by not only my boss but a toilet?

By EMMA SPEER

No. The secret is in that toilet somewhere.

I

I investigate.

think the toilet holds the secret.

It seems as though the Russet Goop originates at the hinges of the toilet. Further inspection shows that the bolts are saturated in Russet Goop.

I whip out my Lysol and again attack. After an intense scrub, I return to folding my thoughts into sheet after sheet. I wonder. Weeks pass, sheets pass, Russet Goop drips and I wonder.

“Emma, we need to talk,” says my boss through a candied smile. Immediately the cloud of comfort that surrounds me when doing menial tasks dissipates. I am left with dread for the tomb that is Jeanine’s Office.

I walk in. I sit. She smiles.

“The toilets were disgusting this morning; you did an awful job cleaning them. Do you even try?”

Though her words are offensive and absurdly untrue, I am not upset — just puzzled. Every Sunday for the past year I’ve gotten up at 6 a.m. to clean toilets and fold sheets at a chiropractic office/yoga studio, Physical Synergy. I have since become the best sheet folder on the East Coast and have attained the physical fitness level required to clean a bathroom thoroughly. I scrubbed that toilet. Jeanine is mistaken.

“Jeanine, I’m pretty sure I did. There are two yoga classes after I leave… Maybe something happened then?”

“I doubt it. Try harder.”

The next Sunday I barge into the men’s bathroom

After months of physical, metaphysical and chemical battle, I solved the secret. armed with my Swiffer and Lysol. The gloves are on.

My Lysol-soaked scrub brush morphs into a conquistador and dominates every crevice of that toilet. Angels sing when I am done. The toilet thanks me.

I check on the bathroom a few hours later only to be deflated. Russet Goop covers the underside of the toilet and leaks to the floor. Each drop that plummets to the tiles is a snicker. The toilet is disgusting. I did an awful job cleaning it. Did I even try?

Again, I attack. It shines. I shine.

A few hours later, it is filthy.

The next day I excitedly inform Jeanine: “Lysol’s active ingredient is hydrochloric acid, a substance which reacts viciously with the iron at the toilet’s hinges to expedite oxidation, creating water and iron chloride. I’ll show you the chemical reac…”

“Emma, it’s bacteria. And the toilets were dirty again.”

They may be. But I’m sparkling.

The secret is that the secret was in me.

I fold my thoughts into sheet after sheet and resolve to use only hydrochloric-acid-freeScrubbing Bubbles.

Emma Speer is a student at the Hopkins School in New Haven.

March, at age 55. I realized that medicine is not just about learning the language by which we set patients at ease or reading up on how to cut out a tumor, but also about forging ahead even when our past treatments have failed. My perseverance lies in the thought that I can be part of the future of medicine, figuring out how to tackle the diseases that we don’t yet know how to cure.

The Best Medicine

By TESS CERSONSKY

A few bio and chem courses later, I entered a reproductive immunology lab as a Yale Discovery to Cure Intern. The first day in the lab was such a whirlwind of medical terminology that the researchers might as well have been speaking Hungarian. Then again, having just returned from a school trip to France, I knew how to set about learning a new language. After spending endless nights reading up on things like “macrophage inflammatory protein 1-beta,” the language of the lab grew familiar, and my project became my own.

W

hen I first discovered the medical world in elementary school, I told my mom that I hadn’t felt this passionate about something since Harry Potter. For a girl who had collected J.K. Rowling’s books in dozens of languages, this was saying something.

As a kindergartener, I went to work with my dad, a pediatrician, almost every morning. I watched him interact thoughtfully with patients, nurses, worried parents and — best of all — newborn babies. In the office, he seemed to speak a new language that set people at ease. I hadn’t yet equated this caring demeanor with medicine, but at age five, I had time to think about it.

Fast-forward to age ten: my father was diagnosed with colorectal cancer. I had no idea what cancer was, so I set about trying to learn all that I could about how the organs work and fit together to make a human being. I began asking my dad about his specific treatments, and one day, I offered to stay home from school to take care of him. I learned how to give him medicine and nutrients through the port in his chest, which

In my lab work, I focused on improving embryo implantation, seeking to produce more healthy babies like the ones I had visited with my dad years ago. My work fascinated me, but as I learned more, I also realized that it was just a tiny piece within the greater task of trying to understand the workings of the human body.

This was a humbling but also galvanizing discovery: I want to forge ahead, to be a researcher, to reassure patients, to decipher things like cancer. In short, I want to be a doctor.

became a nightly ritual. It felt good to know that I could do something to make my dad feel better.

In the end, though, helping my dad also forced me to recognize the darker, more difficult side of medicine: It doesn’t always work out. Over Christmas 2008, my dad was hospitalized with several metastases, and he died the following

Tess Cersonsky of Oxford is a senior at Sacred Heart Academy in Hamden. Y

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I am myself and trying to do my best. I don’t try to show something that I’m not or don’t have. At Wilbur Cross there are students who have better things than me, but it really doesn’t faze me.

Learning To Fit In

I like my gym class. It is the only place where I can actively participate and nobody stares at me, waiting for me to do something stupid. Being part of a group — that’s what gym is to me. I’m in a group of eight or ten guys and girls. I realize how nice it feels to talk, laugh and have fun with them. We all say the weirdest things and everybody laughs.

By ARIANA FERNANDEZ BENITEZ

w

Having someone to sit with during lunch is also a pleasure, especially if these friends don’t judge you based on material things, if you have “the brains,” if you’re a nerd or not, or if you’re hot or not. They just talk to you because you are you — yourself.

ilbur Cross is a large high school where you will find all kinds of students: smart (nerd) ones, those who play sports, those who think they’re really “hot” and the really shy ones. I walk down the hallways and see all kinds of girls and boys from all over the world, even from Mexico, my country. Yet even though they are “my people,” we are very different.

I know that my English is not very good, so that’s why I always try to smile. I know that the whole entire world knows how to do that. It’s hard for me to make new friends and work in groups, but I try my best. I am aware that I’m not the only one who has problems fitting in at new schools, cities or countries because of language barriers.

Schools in Mexico aren’t the same as they are here. It’s halfway through the school year and

I haven’t had any problems with any of my classmates. I enter every classroom, sit down and start doing my work. If I have a problem or question, I ask my teacher for help. I don’t bother asking my classmates who sit next to me. I believe that it may bother him or her. I imagine if I ask, they will say, “Is she really that ignorant?!”

I don’t know if all the students are like that, but having friends that enjoy your company because you are genuinely kind is what makes me wake up and come to school.

In my old school in Mexico, they used to say, “Want to know how to make enemies? Be nice, have good grades, treat everybody good, smile to all strangers, make everybody happy, and that’s it.” I guess in Mexico that really worked, but I’m so happy here it doesn’t. I’m that girl who smiles, Continued on 30

6th & 7th Grade Girls

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by Friday, April 12

Empowering Women for Life Max Moran

ACES congratulates Max Moran, whose personal essay, created in the ACES Educational Center for the Arts Creative Writing Department, has just been published in this issue of New Haven Magazine.

ACES also congratulates the ACES Educational Center for the Arts writers for recently winning 44 prizes in the Scholastic Writing Competition.

ACES

Innovators in Education 200 High Street Milford CT 06460 203.878.3333 academy of our lady of mercy

28 March/April 2013

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If It Ain’t Got That Swing…

By SUSANA WILSONHAWKEN

I

’ve always wanted my eighth notes to swing. I wanted to let them dance and jive, to shake their little black tails and break free from the measure lines that seemed to hold them prisoner. But my cello teacher never allowed it. He told me I had to follow the rigid structure that playing classical music requires—nothing more, nothing less. When I began to play a piece — one of Bach’s Cello Suites or perhaps Elgar’s Cello Concerto

— I would become engrossed in the melodies, the chord changes and the rhythm, and then the notes I played would start conga-lining off the page in ways that Bach and Elgar had never intended. I wanted to swing like Coltrane and scat like Ella Fitzgerald. My teacher would stop me and ask whether I really respected the “genius” of the composers whose music I was studying. I, on the other hand, wondered why I was even playing the music of these long dead men.

But I kept at it, and after years of classical training I learned to adore the music of Bach, Shostakovich, Elgar and Dvorak. I even managed to play their music with the utmost reverence — reveling in complex cadences and inverted diminished seventh chords. Still, I had a profound urge to let my eighth notes swing.

When I was 15 I took up jazz cello in addition to classical. I loved it — I was ready to free myself from Continued on next page

Sacred Heart Academy S T RONG VAL UES

. S T RONG ACADEMI CS . S T RON G LEAD ERSHIP

WE CONGRATULATE Tess Cersonsky ’13 and Linsey Ochenkowski ’13, and all the essay finalists!

Impelled by Christ’s Love

Founded in 1946, Sacred Heart Academy is an independent, Catholic preparatory day school for qualified young women in grades nine through twelve.

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new haven

29

at an age younger than most kids that at some point, I am going to die. It has given me a taste for introspection, a sense of humility and the capacity to be self-sufficient. I’ve learned that what’s most important in life is the people around you: listening, learning from and caring about others. Finding meaning in your experiences, not forgetting tomorrow what happened the other day. When you’re the only third-grader at the class Halloween party who can’t eat all of his trick-or-treat candy, you look around and realize that the candy doesn’t matter — it’ll be eaten up or rotten in a few weeks anyway, and everyone will forget why it ever mattered so much who got the biggest bag.

Carpe Diem

By MAX MORAN

W

henever I leave the house, there are three things my mother nags me about, ensuring I have in my pockets: 1) my cellphone, 2) emergency money and, most important, 3) my Epipen.

Unfortunately this last item is usually the one I forget, despite its intended purpose: saving my life.

Perhaps the knowledge of my mortality brought on by my allergy is what first made me want to document myself. From an early age, I’ve been deeply inspired by storytelling, whether through favorite childhood storybooks like Stellaluna and Sector 7, or the lights and glamor of stage musicals my musician parents used to bring me to, or the real-world drama of the news constantly floating through my house on National Public Radio. I knew that I wanted to become a storyteller: a writer or an actor. Both aspirations have become my passions.

I am highly allergic to peanuts, to the point where eating one is potentially fatal. My first and last anaphylactic reaction was at age two, when a babysitter fed me a PB&J sandwich. I fainted.

It took two days for the swelling in my face to go down.

I’ve spent most of my life trying to downplay my allergy, trying to forget it’s there unless absolutely necessary. And most of the time it is more of an annoyance than anything else, requiring me to preface my restaurant order with a request to the waiter, or read through every artificial preservative on packaged goods, to say a polite thanks-but-no-thanks to a friend’s homemade baking. I know that being unable to eat nuts is nothing compared to struggling for water in a desolate third-world nation, or shivering

homeless next to a steam vent at night, or even growing up with Type 1 diabetes, as my best friend has. So when people ask how my life is different, my instinct is to shrug it off and say that others have it worse.

And yet my allergy has affected me in ways I don’t usually like to admit. It made me realize

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Continued from 33

even at the dogs (though they scare me a lot).

I try to pay attention at school and it’s such a gift for me to be a student at Wilbur Cross and to be enrolled in honors classes. My friends tease me and call me a nerd, but I know they don’t mean it.

In Mexico, when I got good grades the teachers were the only ones who were happy and proud of me. In the classrooms at Wilbur Cross I sit next to my friends and everybody supports me because I get good grades.

I’m proud of myself because even though it may not always be easy, I don’t let that hold me back. I wake up and get on the bus daily and think about all the friends I am going to make today. Then I smile and think about my dreams becoming a reality.

Ariana Fernandez Benitez of New Haven is a junior at Wilbur Cross High School. Y

www.CTcalendar.com

30 March/April 2013

Although I may never know what a Reese’s tastes like, I do know that it’s important to know your limits, and even more important, your possibilities. When I learned the Latin phrase carpe diem, it was a revelation. There was a name for what I had felt all along.

Max Moran is a senior at the ACES Educational Center for the Arts in New Haven. Y

SUSANA WILSON-HAWKEN Continued from 33

the constraints and the discipline of classical music. But it wasn’t that easy. I was missing something very important but hadn’t figured out what it was. My jazz teacher set me straight. He told me I had the heart, soul, and freedom for jazz — what I needed was the structure and the discipline. Knowing works like the prelude to Bach’s first Cello Suite was just the preparation I needed for studying jazz. But knowing how to play the classical pieces I’d learned wasn’t enough; I had to understand them. The motives, the rhythms, the chord progressions, the scales — knowing these fundamental elements of all music is critical to being a good jazz musician.

The sense of liberation that came to me from playing jazz could be achieved only through structure and self-discipline. I was starting to see a pattern. Imagination and creativity need a foundation, a scaffold that supports them. I wanted intellectual independence so that I could think and do exactly what I wanted to do. But I’ve realized that intellectual independence relies on the work of those who came before us — the people whose names, sometimes long forgotten, have laid the foundation for others to thrive.

Susana Wilson Hawken is a senior at Hopkins. Y NEWHAVENMAGAZINE.COM

The Play’s the Thing

By CHRISTIAN LEWIS

I

In the varied constellation of “types” of high school students, I’m the nerd who decided to read all of the Shakespeare plays outside of school. I guess it all began when I was cast as Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

I was ecstatic to receive a principal part but decided that it would be a good idea to actually understand the entirety of the play.

As soon as I started the script, I was captivated with the entwined plots. Within the initial stages of rehearsal, I found myself explaining to the cast “what was going on,” showing a true love for the show at the rhetorical level. While everyone else was memorizing lines, I was the English geek busy analyzing the poetry, desiring to fully comprehend the genius within the romance.

Shakespeare has changed me.

Shakespeare’s plays helped me to realize and recognize my passion and love for literature. I have often written about his plays, and they have had a significant effect not only on the development of my argument within a paper, but also my own personal development.

Shakespeare has provided me with dramatized evidence of who people are and how the world appears. I have utilized the plots and characters of Shakespearian dramas to help me make decisions, judgments and choices. Characters such as Iago, Macbeth and Richard III have helped me to discover the motives and thought

processes of villains, while Antonio (Merchant of Venice), Brutus and Benedick have taught me to be quick-thinking, caring and devoted. Comedies like Taming of the Shrew and Much Ado About Nothing let me observe amusing misunderstandings and complexities. But tragedies like Othello and Macbeth convey the essence of personal mistakes and their devastating consequences.

Performing Shakespeare is breathtaking and enjoyable; the opportunity to live within the plays is a magical feeling.

Acting both the intricate plot and a multifaceted character was a new and defining event for me.

Performing as an innovative lover trapped in a forest a fairies, I received experiences that I will get nowhere else in my acting career. Working within his famous drama made me feel like part of a significant macrocosm — I was part of an epic that has been performed thousands of times all over the world.

Learning about Shakespeare’s masterful use of poetic language, literary devises and cultural nuances makes me appreciate this one man’s true genius. Plus, something about that iambic pentameter just brings me joy.

It all started with Lysander, the revolutionary lover. But soon I marveled at plots and characters throughout Shakespeare’s works. I learned to be loving, to be careful, to be alert, to be patient, to be analytical and to be passionate about every aspect of my life.

Through their complex plots, well-developed characters, and relatable conflicts, I crafted morals, ideals and even my personality.

Shakespearean dramas have definitely contributed to the shaping of the person I am today, and I still use his works to help me define what it means to be human.

Christian Lewis of Southbury is a senior at Chase Collegiate School in Waterbury.

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31

running hot water. I wasn’t sure I would be able to tolerate cold showers every morning.

Out of My Comfort Zone

But just as the spiciness of the wings gradually faded, so did my anxiety to adjust to my new surroundings. I cleaned and decorated my classroom and after the kids arrived, it became a place of bustling activity and laughter. It was a joy to see my students early every morning and to study with them late into the evening. I taught them how to play “Duck Duck Goose,” while they introduced a game to me called “Da Bing,” a variation of rock, paper, scissors. My daily cold shower turned out to be refreshing. The daytime heat was tolerable with lots of water and fans.

By AMY WANG

T

he stifling evening heat, the sting of acrid smoke from the grill, the various honks and bell chimes from mopeds and bicyclists, the loud, ringing laughter of toddlers playing in the street and the consequent chastising from grandmothers — these all distracted me as I sat nervously waiting for my chicken wings.

In the Shou-bao-zhoung Village located on the outskirts of Beijing, there is a food vendor whose stand has earned the name of “Bi Ti La,” which means “runny-nose spicy.” It is infamous for its extremely hot chicken wings, spicy enough that it makes your nose run.

Conveniently, Bi Ti La was just down the street from Dandelion Middle School, where I volunteered as an English teacher last summer.

My fellow volunteers and I decided to go try these wings one night.

Unaccustomed to spicy food, I was wary of eating the wings. After some thought, I decided to give it a try. I would be in China on my own for only these two weeks, and here was an experience that would enhance my trip.

Dandelion Middle School was no longer foreign and uncomfortable. My new friends, both volunteers and students, made the environment more than tolerable. I began to enjoy every moment of my time at Dandelion. The small Shou-bao-zhoung Village became a second home for me, and I found a new family at Dandelion.

The spiciness scorched my mouth. It felt like I was eating live embers. The only way to extinguish the pain was to wait, with some sniffling and tearing up. Locals gave us amused stares, for Bi Ti La was considered a mild dish.

The initial shock to the hotness of the wings was much like my first reaction to Dandelion Middle School. My classroom was windowless and drab. I was lucky to be staying in one of the dormitories with only five volunteers when other rooms had ten. There was no air conditioning or

The time I spent at Dandelion gave me a taste of a different China. My independence pushed me to participate in new experiences and to redefine China as I knew it from previous visits.

Taking challenges and stepping out of my comfort zone is often hard to do. But I know now that it’s the bold, new experiences that truly spice up life.

Amy Wang of Milford is a senior at the Hopkins School in New Haven. Y

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Home for the Holidays

By Linsey Ochenkowski

I

t’s 1:32 p.m. on the last Friday of school before Christmas vacation on the dusty gym floor with my usual group of friends. As the school assembly goes on with its typical events and Christmas caroling, the only thing on my mind is to get out and start my vacation. As the clock ticks slowly away, it is soon time to say goodbye.

Finally, Sr. Maureen, the principal, announces a surprise giveaway raffle. I think to myself, “Man, I never win anything — I’m so unlucky.” Then, in dead silence, my name is called to come up onstage.

“Wow — I won! Maybe I’ll get a gift basket or a nice gift card!”

Eight hundred eyes are on me now

.

D E T N A W S t a c bob

watching and waiting for what is about to happen.

I peer over to the side doors as I hear them open gently. There I see an old, worn-out pair of beige combat boots peek past the gym door. In that next second I recognize the ace of a very familiar figure suited in beat-up camo, a face I haven’t seen in 12 months — my brother. With tears flooding my eyes and a shock in my heart, he embraces me with an unforgettable hug. The unusual foreign scent on his ironed shirt fills my nose while I rest my head on his strong shoulder.

As everyone applauds, cheering and crying, I remain in that hug and feel the absolute true definition of both happiness and relief.

That cold December day right before Christmas vacation was a day that permanently changed my life.

When I looked into his eyes, I knew from that moment that everything was going to be okay. There would be no more worrying about being wounded or killed in Iraq and Afghanistan because he was home now. His overseas deployment brought me genuinely closer to my Continued on 35

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ATHLETICS Whether you’re in the game or in the stands, Quinnipiac’s 21 Division I teams are sure to exhilarate. Check out www.quinnipiacbobcats.com for tickets, team schedules, news and more.

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Hamden, Connecticut

A Fairy Tale

By ADELA KODRA

I

waited three nights for her. Three nights of little sleep. Three nights of tossing and turning.

Three nights of endless planning. Actually, looking back, my eight-year-old self must have really suffered.

How could the Tooth Fairy not commend my strength of character and perseverance by gracing me with her presence and the wads of money I yearned for?

throughout my life. As the oldest child of a first-generation family in the United States, I’ve always balanced two different but very present cultures and translated between them. It’s an application of the cautious, traditional Albanian mentality to the fast-paced, modern American surroundings.

Luckily, I think they have complemented each other. My parents sacrificed their comfort and position in one country to travel to another, solely to improve my and my sister’s educational and overall life opportunities. In other words, I’ve been able to use their hardworking background to take advantage of what could still be considered (after 13 years) a new, prospect-filled setting.

Yet, this fusion of cultures has never been concentrated solely on academics. As I’m surrounded by my friends, not only am I aware of my bicultural qualities but I’m pretty proud of being to contribute a different perspective on things. I feel as though my background has given me a sensitive outlook when dealing with points of view, something I hope to utilize and refine

I simply didn’t understand. I had lost my tooth, placed it under my pillow, and, like any good child, patiently waited for her arrival.

Alas, she never showed up those three nights, and I gave up hope.

I’ve grown wiser now and understand that the Tooth Fairy doesn’t and has never existed. Yet, my parents have and still do. Therefore in order to clear up this misunderstanding, my 11-year-old self decided to educate my mother and interrogate her regarding why I missed out on this childhood experience.

The response I expected was the opposite of the one I got. Instead of solemnly admitting her mistake and expressing deep remorse, my mom burst out laughing. How could two recent Albanian emigrants be expected to carry out the Tooth Fairy’s actions, let alone know what she symbolized? So, there I was, explaining to her what my friends received from the “Tooth Fairy” — and how I should have as well.

I’ve realized now that this role of observer, interpreter and teacher has been a common theme

34 March/April 2013

during and after college.

Recently, after visiting my little cousin, I’ve been reminded of the Tooth Fairy. Wide-eyed and missing her front tooth, Sarah revealed the $100 bill from the infamous magical creature I was so keen on meeting long ago. I couldn’t help but smile as she displayed her gift. Something as little as a tooth sparked in one child excitement — and in another, older one, a realization.

Adela Kodra of Cheshire is a senior at Chase Collegiate School in Waterbury. Y

Silence Is Golden

By JAMES DOBBYN

S

ilence speaks loudest in a packed theater.

During a play, the most dramatic moments are the ones in which there is no noise at all.

When an actor stops talking onstage, a thick, almost unbearable silence falls over the entire theater. After six years of performance, I’m well acquainted with that freighted hush.

First, the background noise — that fuzzy mass of little sounds that an audience makes — dies down. The crinkling of candy wrappers, the coughs and the whispers all fade away. Tension begins to build. Then, people start to freeze in their seats to avoid making any sound that would single them out. I like to call this phase rigor dramatis.

Sometimes they are paralyzed in strange positions. Once, I saw a man who was scratching his head when everything became very quiet around him. Perhaps unconsciously, he kept his hand up beside his ear for the next 15 seconds. At this point, the silence is pregnant, just shy of comical. The audience becomes a little worried, for they always have sympathy for the people onstage. They begin to wonder wordlessly if a line was dropped or a cue was skipped. The energy and the anxiety continue to build.

The effect of the silence reaches even backstage.

Stage managers stop whispering into their headsets. They look blankly into the curtains, tense with the effort of not making any noise.

Performers, tucked into the darkness, quit their nervous fidgeting. Everybody knows that, should someone drop a coin or stumble on a floorboard, he would suddenly be very conspicuous. So they all protect that delicate silence, no matter how uncomfortable it becomes.

Finally, with a tingle of the vocal cords and a twitch of the lips, an actor shatters the tension.

From that pregnant silence, he brings forth a beautiful baby of words. It has taken only a few seconds for these few syllables to gestate, but they are nevertheless imbued with a power that is never accorded to informal speech. All of the potential energy, all of the amassed invisible anxiety in the theater, pours into those first words.

As an audience member, the worst part about these silences is not knowing whether they’re intentional or accidental. Onstage, it’s painfully NEWHAVENMAGAZINE.COM

easy to tell the two apart. The tension that builds in the audience is nothing like the panic onstage when someone misses an entrance or a cue.

After months of rehearsal, memorization and robotic repetition, everyone onstage instantly knows when someone deviates from the script.

Suddenly, actors are forced to think on their feet as a cohesive unit. Wide-eyed, they ad lib, joke and ramble, desperately trying to keep one step ahead of that crushing, show-stopping silence.

They have one goal in mind: to return to the script so they can stop thinking.

People tend to be comfortable with background noise, with constant yakking that never deviates from a script. Even when the script is mangled, the show must go on and the noise must never cease. But when people stop talking, we start thinking. We consider what we’ve just spoken and heard instead of letting it pass over our heads. Those sweet pauses give us a chance to reect on our words and make them meaningful.

By freeing ourselves from the burden of constant, mindless expression and perception, even for a few seconds, we can all become a bit wiser.

James Dobbyn is a student at the Hopkins School in New Haven. Y

Ochenkowski Continued from 33

faith and my religion. Every single day until then I had prayed my hardest and offered up special intentions that I would never lose my brother to the cruel acts of war. And in that single look of his soldier face, I knew that they had all paid off.

From that impacting experience I was able to grasp the true meaning of never taking anyone for granted. I know now that I will always value my strong and courageous family that has stuck together through thick and thin. In a brief span of ten seconds, I grew into a women who now cherishes the beauty of life and the people in it. I discovered that in order to obtain pure happiness you must appreciate all that God has blessed you with.

So every free second you get, take the chance to tell a person how much you love and appreciate them. Because in a split second you could lose something that is the closest to you.

Linsey Ochenkowski of Northford is a senior at Sacred Heart Academy in Hamden. Y

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As my confidence grew, I felt further inclined to continue with my musical development. My motivation now came solely from within myself.

Mr. Bowie’s Blues

After two and half years of lessons, Mr. Bowie was unfortunately forced to retire and passed away about a year later. By the time that I had finished my studies with him, I had become a pianist — no longer just a pupil. Once I realized that music didn’t have to be a chore, I was no longer confined to the restraints of the notes on the page before me, and before long I took up improvisation and focused on playing by ear rather than by reading sheet music. Mr. Bowie provided a stepping-stone to my further pursuit of music by introducing me to jazz and blues, and he found a way to share with me his love of song by pushing me forward in my pursuit of music’s soul.

By MICHAEL BERRY

“Y

You really like that, don’t you?” Mr. Bowie’s words of encouragement strengthened my determination as his wrinkled, arthritic hands gracefully turned the page for me. I forcefully plodded out a blues bass line with my left hand as my piano teacher looked on with a charmed omniscience in his eyes. I spilled out my tender nine-year-old soul all over that old piano; my listless recitations of Bach and Beethoven were no contenders for my newfound love of rhythm and blues.

Bill Bowie was my second piano teacher, an avuncular man blind in one eye and barely capable of reading or playing music by the time I was his pupil. Once a Tuskegee Airman during the World War II and a volunteer teacher of inner-city children throughout his career, he was a kindly individual who referred to my younger brother and me as “his boys.” To me, though, he was the man who taught me not exactly how to play — my previous classical lessons had accomplished this to some extent —

but why to play.

Mr. Bowie soon began to incorporate jazz and blues music into my weekly assignments. I performed one song in particular, entitled “Beach Buggy Boogie,” at my third grade end-of-year recital to a warm and enthusiastic audience who applauded my new discovery. My performances at the end of each school year until sixth grade became a source of eager anticipation and pride.

A

S U M M E R

I have passed through many teachers, ensembles and bands since these elementary school days.

Yet nearly every time that I play, whether in a group or solo setting, I find myself searching for the same deep satisfaction that I will permanently associate with my memories of first discovering the blues with Mr. Bowie. Although I cannot attribute to him the more technical and theoretical aspects of playing that are now part of my repertoire, he provided me with a better way to express and console myself and initiated my persistent and ongoing pursuit of pleasure through music.

Michael Berry of New Haven is a senior at the Hopkins Schoolt

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Single-height walls in double-height spaces are used with large new sliding doors to subdivide the open interiors, allowing social and sleeping spaces to be connected or separated as desired. Note the celebration of the salvaged school blackboards used for the kitchen countertops.

But in its place is an adaptive reuse of the former Lovell School that breathes new life into its upper State Street surroundings

By Duo Dckinson Photos: by Anthony DeCarlo

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uilt in 1888, the Lovell School still sits proudly at 45 Nash Street in New Haven. It’s simple four-story brick shape has over its long history housed a succession of public school uses — as a local high school to the home of the Wilbur Cross High School honors program. But now the structure has had another rebirth.

B

Last fall the Lovell School celebrating its reopening as an 18-unit rental property. The project was privately financed but facilitated by the city to create market-rate housing in an established neighborhood. It could be seen as a profit center for some large-scale developer, but the project employed local talent as the midwife of its rebirth.

– continued page42

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The tall ceilings allow for lofted space above the interior kitchens and baths.

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A typical living room features enormous double-hung windows in the existing school’s original openings to create a dramatic sense of space and light.

Architect Bob Frew and his wife Susan won the competition from among a number of bids and proposals to obtain this property.

They have a reputation that has allowed them to provide over 100 places to live in the last 30 years with a can-do attitude that transcends hype and affect other developers throw at opportunities like the Lovell School.

Notwithstanding a year-long full rehab, the property was fully rented by the time of completion. The trio of attributes everyone desires in such projects as this — on time, on budget and well executed — are rarely achieved, but that’s what happened here. Bob Frew is an immigrant. He came to America after winning a national student competition in Canada, having been educated in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Although he never attended Yale, he ended up teaching there for 30 years. Frew came to teach at Yale back in the 1960s and was in fact its first teacher of computers at the school. He also was the leader in environmental education along with Don Watson in reaction to the 1970s energy crisis.

For many, teaching is its own reward — especially in a fine arts-focused architecture graduate school like Yale’s. There are many who draw a good

42 March/April 2013

game but build very little. Not so Bob Frew. He has designed more than 100 housing units, with the Frews also serving as general contractor on those projects, More significantly, Bob and Susan Frew were the projects’ developers — that is, they found the money to buy the site and build the design. Here loans and a little tax-credit financing combined with the Frews’ resources to create a new place in an old space.

The designer/builder/developer approach is not as unusual as was the fourth overlay of the Frews’ mission: Bob and Susan set about to create a community in the neighborhood where they have now lived for three decades. That abiding devotion makes them an extraordinary presence in downtown New Haven.

Explains Bob Frew: “When I helped rebuild State Street we organized the Apple Festival and the Spring Festival. The purpose [of both events] was the same: We had to make better contact with our tenants. I even went to the extreme of donning my kilt and dancing the Highland Fling at the festival. I have found that community organizing is essential for creating a successful project. Four years ago I with two others created the farmers market.”

According to John Herzan, executive director of the New Haven Preservation Trust (a storefront tenant in one of the Frews’ buildings), “The Lovell School rehabilitation is a continuation of the Frews’ long-standing commitment to the revitalization of the upper State Street community, demonstrating the economic feasibility of adaptive reuse.”

And that economic feasibility bespeaks the relative economic vitality of much of the housing stock in many New Haven neighborhoods.

Without renters able to pay the $1,500 to $1,850 monthly rents, the building would have remained empty.

In retrospect everything seemed to a change for Bob just over 30 years ago when he met Susan and was told by a banker he could access funding for his first project. Their mutual mission accelerated into a full-time profession when he retired from teaching in 1999 after 30 years.

This latest project was their most ambitious on a number of levels. The Frews responded to an RFP from the city and overcame other competitors to present a proposal that promised to do three NEWHAVENMAGAZINE.COM

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things very well: 1) they would completely restore the existing building to the highest standard of historic preservation; 2) they pledged to create a project incorporating the highest level of energy-efďŹ ciency and “sustainableâ€? design; 3) the Frews’ 30-year commitment to the neighborhood promised that beyond building 18 residential units the Lovell School renovation would create a community within the upper State Street neighborhood.

The structure itself had remarkably healthy “bonesâ€? — 18-inch brick walls, gigantic openings for huge double hung windows in high-ceilinged spaces, a long-span oor system and an open framed timber roof were given over to Bob Frew’s hands to create the kind of loft apartments that tenants love — 800- to 1,000-square-foot, mostly one-bedroom units, half-duplexes with interior lofts. There will be community space in the basement and the ďŹ rst-oor central hall has been given over to community functions.

The Lovell School’s brick exterior, though structurally intact, required a radical cleaning and repointing. But virtually all openings were preserved and a modest elevator addition was the only noticeable exterior change.

The project resulted in a safe, code-compliant renovation involving a new elevator, ďŹ re separations, and structural design for its newly subdivided interior. The building itself is almost cubic in volume meaning there was room to create generous central halls between the existing stairwells to invite in natural light at each end.

The interiors of the units are quite varied but all feature the presence of the gigantic double-hung windows in a sea of white sheetrock and the occasional spice of wood applied in new doorways that slide to subdivide or open up spaces or in the revelation of existing wood structure.

Standard Ikea kitchens and simple but wellďŹ nished bathrooms were installed throughout, as well as high efďŹ ciency washer/drier combos for each unit. Throughout the building the school’s slate chalkboards have been repurposed as countertops as well as the occasional wall surface. (Frew notes he has plenty of spare blackboards for reuse in the couple’s next project.)

The original metal ceilings were preserved and carefully repainted, and all rainwater collected on the roofs is captured and reused for landscape watering. The HVAC systems employ high-tech heat pumps to both heat and cool the air, with the

exceptional ability to monitor every expended BTU in every unit.

In for-proďŹ t development, cost savings are a top priority. And that mindsets melds perfectly with a hybrid historic preservation/sustainability ethic in which what you don’t remove maintains its embodied energy intact and what is restored stays out of landďŹ lls. Super-insulation and careful zoning of the HVAC system make this a model retroďŹ t.

Bob Frew says he was fortunate in working with city ofďŹ cials: “They are incredibly easy to work with and the city turned over a clean building to us.â€?

Architects are often seen as the enemies of common sense. The invention imperative has sometimes rendered many buildings as ego-stroking curiosities that frustrate useful occupancy. But here the opposite is true. Only the vision of an architect could see the potential for sustainability, historic preservation and community building to turn a proďŹ t.

And the social proďŹ t of the civic devotion of Susan and Bob Frew is just the icing on a delightfully stout brick cake on Nash Street that the entire neighborhood can enjoy. Y

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45

O NS C R E E N

By MICHAEL C. BINGHAM

Notes From the Underground Filmmaker Bechard crafts cinematic paeans to two bands he loves — one legendary, the other not so much

Color Me Obsessed: A Film About the

H

(2011), and What Did You Expect?:

Over the last 18 months Bechard has released two documentaries about bands he has loved. One, Minneapolisbased ‘80s legends the Replacements (which he calls the “last best band”) is well known to alt-rock fans. The other — the Chapel Hill, N.C. quartet the Archers of Loaf — to the extent that it is known

Replacements

The Archers of Loaf Live at Cat’s Cradle (2012). Written

amden’s Gorman Bechard (NHM, December 2012) makes films and writes novels for a living. But his true artistic touchstone is rock ‘n’ roll music. He plays guitar — though not well enough, he says, to get paid for it. But what he does really well is tell stories about bands that inspire him.

at all is known mainly for having perhaps the worst name (provenance unknown) in the history of American popular music.

What the two bands have in common is easy to hear (and see). Both are loud, coarse, brilliant, maddeningly erratic.

Led by mercurial singer/ songwriter/guitarist Paul Westerberg, the Replacements were as likely to show up drunk for gigs and play Led Zeppelin covers for two hours as they were to put on transcendent shows that left listeners slackjawed. (With characteristic understatement Wikipedia calls the band “a notoriously wayward live act, often

performing under the influence of alcohol and trashing their instruments.”)

The central conceit of Color Me Obsessed is that, unlike every other “rockumentary” ever filmed, the title characters are entirely absent from the film. No Replacements concert footage, or interviews with the former bandmates — no nothing. Just a whole host of Replacements lovers ruminating about the band and what it meant to them during the band’s meteoric rise and inevitable fall.

The Replacements were formed in 1978 by brothers Bob and Tommy (then age 11) Stinson and high-school dropout Chris

and directed by Gorman Bechard. $19.95 each.

What Were We Thinking Films

(wwwtfilms.com).

46 March/April 2013

NEWHAVENMAGAZINE.COM

documentary about a band few have ever even heard seems a little, well, nutso, that’s just par for the course.

After all, Bechard is a filmmaker who made his bones with 1986’s Psychos in Love, a slasher pic tarted up in the guise of a sendup of slasher pics.

This writer was not familiar with the music of the Archers of Loaf, who released four albums in the 1990s before drifting apart. (They reunited to play an unannounced set at a club in Carrboro, N.C. in January 2011, which What Did You Expect? documents.)

Bechard regards them as “the greatest indie rock band of the ‘90s,” and his affection for the group is evident here. Using seven cameras (four handheld) Bechard has crafted a very urgent and compelling piece of rock ‘n’ roll cinema.



The Archers of Loaf

— dreadful name, great band. The

Replacements

channel the

cover of the Beatles’ Abbey Road, circa 1984.

Mars with the screw-you-any-hopeof-a-record-deal name of Dogbreath.

A janitor named Paul Westerberg used to walk past the band’s rehearsal space and listen to them practice, day after day. Before long he had leeched into the band itself, soon renamed the Impediments.

make compelling cinema, I would have said you were nuts. But Color Me Obsessed is riveting — and yes, totally obsessed. In a good way.

“You will as if you’re at the show,” the director says, “right up against the stage, moving and sweating in unison with the hundreds of fans pressed up against you.”

Which brings us to What Did You Expect? If making an 89-minute

And he’s not even exaggerating. Y

They quartet never actually gigged under that name. Before their first show, at a sober house, the group changed their name to the Replacements. Recalls musician/ producer Kevin Bowe, who was at the show: “I remember thinking two things very vividly,” he says. “The first was that they were the worst rock band I’d ever seen. The second was that they were best band I’d ever seen. I really couldn’t figure it out.”

Regardless, following the gig the band was enjoined never to return due to what Bowe recalls as “an incident involving alcohol” in the dressing room.

Sneaking hootch into a gig at a sober house is so quintessentially Replacements that I can’t even stand it. (The band’s intoxication would be famously replicated on a January 1986 appearance on Saturday Night Live, which got the band banned from show in perpetuity.)

To call a motion-picture “talky” is no compliment. If you had told me a documentary about people talking about a band I liked could

THE STORE FOR MUSIC ENTHUSIASTS 85 Willow Street, New Haven, CT 06511 203.799.6400 | audioetc.com new haven

47

B I BL I O F I L E S

Detail of Hannah Collins stone, 1797, Dorset, Vt.

Seeing Olde New England tombstones in a new and fresh way

By MICHAEL C. BINGHAM

olonial New England’s earliest sculptures were gravestones. Here the recent arrivals from Europe found themselves in a inhospitable and unfamiliar environment.

They had little to succor them beyond their unshakable faith.

In Carved in Stone, brothers Thomas and William Gilson have assembled an elegant (if a bit eerie) collection more than 80 black-and-white duotone photographs documenting the last surviving physical legacy of the earliest settlers — the hand-carved headstones in early New England graveyards. Their sometimes inscrutable images afford glimpses in to how the new colonists viewed this world — and the next. As well, sermons, journals and other

writings from this period and quoted in the book reveal, as Thomas Gilson writes, “a grim vision, and gravestones’ images reflect the same severity.”

Detail of John Harwood stone, 1800, Rockingham, Vt.

An introductory essay by William Gilson relates some early New England history and illustrative anecdotes about the people and grave markers of the period, including background information on some of the most noteworthy carvers.

The volume is rich with insights into Puritan culture in the form of historical facts, excerpts from period writings and photographs of carvings that capture the aesthetic of the time.

“The original New England Puritans,” William Gilson writes, “were half in love with death.”

While one might assume early Puritan funerals were plain and

Detail of Rebekah Gerrish stone, 1743, Boston, Mass.

pallbearers — one to carry the coffin and one to carry the pall over it,” according to Gilson. “Sometimes horses pulled the coffin and the horses were draped with black cloths on which were painted winged skulls, coffins, skeletons, hourglasses, ‘scrutcheons.’”

Those winged skulls are the most prevalent characteristic of many 17th (of which there are few remaining) and 18th-century New England gravestones. And photographer Thomas Gilson is clearly fascinated by them — a majority of the images in Carved in Stone are of these haunting visages.

“When you look at the stone, someone looks back at you,” his brother writes. “”Who or what is it — Death? The departed? A soul? An angel — is never made clear.” austere affairs, Gilson writes that within a decade following settlement some of these commemorations morphed

into something that looked like celebrations.

“The procession to the graveyard would be accompanied by tolling bells and would involve two sets of

He never answers his own question.

“I have never come across a convincing explanation what was going on with the faces on the gravestones,” William Gilson

acknowledges. “By what route did they go from wild, teeth-bared grinning skull to blob-nosed, lonesome-eyed cartoon? Are these images multiple ways of saying the same thing?”

(It is likewise interesting to note why many of the early stones face west. As a symbol of the Puritans religious literalism, bodies were laid head to the west, feet to the east so that, at the sound of the cock’s crow on the day of judgment, the resurrected dead would arise to face dawn.)

By way of epitaph, William Gilson observes, “The stones remain out there, stuck in the New England dirt, deteriorating as any man-made thing must, ultimately vanishing.”

Readers of this oddly compelling volume may appreciate this memorial to these stubbornly enduring works of hammer and chisel that bear witness to a time when death was an ever-present fact of life. Y

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Miner didn’t begin sculpting until her late 60s. Since then she’s created nearly 300 artworks, among them ‘Man with Pipe.’

The ‘Grandma Moses of Clay’

By BRANDON BENEVENTO

he spotless apartment, filled with full volume classical music when I arrive, lacks any of the clutter or mess one associates with clay.

The artist, attired all in white, eyes magnified behind a pair of red-framed oval lenses, cuts more the sharp profile of a Chelsea gallery owner than that of a be-smocked sculptor. Yet Marjorie Miner, 96, has spent the last quarter-century creating a bright assortment of clay artwork, many examples of which adorn the clean surfaces of her apartment.

There are animals: two giraffes, mother and child, nuzzle on a square of Astroturf. A pug, a retriever, and a wrinkly Yale bulldog each peer endearingly up. There are figurines: a man and woman in Victorian finery; a mermaid; a caped hobo slouching in a chair, hat covering face. A nude reclines under a length of gauze laid like a thin sheet. There is a bust of Ezra Pound behind a statuette of Renoir.

Most six to ten inches in height, the pieces present a range of color. Some are done realistically: the giraffes are yellow and brown, Eli has glossy eyes, a bright red tongue. Others are monotone: the passed-out drifter is all black, an old man with a pipe is ash grey.

Many of the works employ color more freely: The Victorians combine shades of blue and purple, faces and all. A version of the three little maids has each painted head to toe in a single color — green, black, red — like the flag of Afghanistan. The colors, even the blacks, are vivid and vibrant, yet often flat, providing an earth-tone quality that well suits the sculptures’ hand-mottled textures.

Before I have sat down (though not before I’ve been offered, and accepted, a fresh cookie) Miner pulls out a binder in which the photographs and Xeroxes she’s worked from are catalogued. “I just use what attracts me” she explains, flipping pages.

“This is from 50 March/April 2013a Gap ad. This is Paul

An accidental artist hits her stride in later life Camus. This is my son.” The last one is a photograph: it’s the man passed out under his hat.

I inquire whether the picture was posed or cameo.

She laughs; it was a pose.

Born in 1916, Marjorie’s life is worthy of a biographic tome that might barely mention the last 25 years of sculpting. Her parents, each brought to America from Austria-Hungary as small children, raised her in Cleveland. Her father mass-produced women’s dresses until he lost everything in the Great Depression. From her first job as an office runner Marjorie Kux (her maiden name) became a legal secretary and paralegal. She married her first husband Harold Heller, a chemical engineer, in 1940 and recalls learning about the Day of Infamy on the radio while they worked on his résumé. She had three sons with Heller and moved to Queens, N.Y. to raise them after the war.

YYY Today, in addition to art, family is the centerpiece of Marjorie Miner’s life and she has an acute sense of the bond family history creates. In her apartment, she proudly displays a book made from second husband Walter Miner’s wartime diaries and letters home from the Pacific.

Discovering the trove after meeting him in the

1980s, she insisted the book be made and copies given to his children and grandchildren.

In a moving letter to her, Miner’s oldest son, Ross Heller, writes, “Though you lived nearly your entire life in the New York area, you never forgot the values and attitudes of your mid-western Cleveland roots.”

Then in her late 60s, Miner took up sculpting in 1983 after marrying Walter and moving from Queens to Nassau County, N.Y. where he practiced medicine. “I didn’t know what to do when I moved to Nassau,” she says. One day, “A brochure came from the senior citizens center and the sculpture course appealed to me. I decided to give it a chance, and I fell in love.”

Those courses, augmented by independent study with tutors, are the sum of her formal sculpture education in sculpture — which leads some family, friends and peers to call her the “Grandma Moses of Clay.”

Today Miner lives in Hamden, in Whitney Center, which she describes as “a very nice retirement home.” The sprawling, upscale assisted-living facility has the softenedinstitutional feel of public accommodations built or refurbished over the last two decades (lots of beige, lots of oak). NEWHAVENMAGAZINE.COM The halls are lined

with paintings. There is a bistro, a library, a top-floor art room.

Everywhere, residents and staff greet her by name.

“Yes of course I painted it,” she says. “I couldn’t stand it grey.” We are walking slowly toward the art room, which serves as her studio.

Her walker is emblazoned in color: red, yellow, deep purple.

Inside the pleasant, skylit room, Miner’s workspace consists of a card table draped with a bright red rubberized cloth and a few drawers and cabinets labeled: “All Tools Belong to Marjorie Miner.” On the table is a work in progress, an alligator, open-mouthed, elbows higher than the body, poised to attack.

“Isn’t he cute?” she asks, patting the clay. “Oh — I just love him.”

He is cute. The creature’s mouth lacks teeth, and might be grinning.

Its back is impressed with a scaling of small U’s that captures reptile skin without any color.

This is Miner’s strongest skill as an artist: She is a master of texture.

The billow of a dress and the crease of a hat brim, the folds of a dog’s skin and the bush of an unkempt mustache — with clay she manages to capture the motion and quality of real material.

The two have since become close friends. Miner calls Dickman her fourth son — a “doll.” Today, “Every time I fire that thing,” says Dickman, pointing to his roomsized kiln, “she has at least half a dozen pieces in it.”

YYY

By Miner’s own count she has created 276 sculptures in 25 years.

The worked are listed on typed printouts — in order, by date — at the back of her image catalogue. The most recent entries are handwritten.

“Oh, and the alligator makes 277,” she says, searching for a pen.

Perched on the sofa in the middle of her bright apartment, she says her favorite work is a pair of old men on a bench, grumbling over their home-team’s loss. Complementing her constitutional sense of whimsy, Miner has a deep pragmatic streak.

She singles out this work because, she says, pointing to the Charles Dana Gibson cartoon that inspired it: “They just look like it. They are so perfect.”

When sculpting from a twodimensional image such as a painting or photograph, she explains, “It’s flat! You’ve got to know what the back is like — not

Most impressively, she lets her subject dictate what happens on the clay’s surface. Thus the nudes and the three maids are smooth, while the old man with the pipe is gnarled like tree bark. The sleeping bum, wrinkled like balled paper, looks deflated.

“It’s brilliant,” says New Haven potter Maishe Dickman. The works comprise “a style all her own — whimsical, well-done, wellexecuted, brought to completion with life and zest.”

Dickman has been firing Miner’s works since the sculptor relocated to Connecticut in the late 1990s.

About ten years ago, he recalls (acknowledging that Miner’s memory for dates is better than his own) a woman phoned him. “I sculpt,” he recounts her saying, “and I’ve called all over for someone to fire my work and no one will do it.”

So Dickman told Miner to bring her pieces over. When they met, the sculptor was “delightful and full of energy,” as the potter recounts.

Majorie Miner in her Whitney Center apartment. New Haven potter Maishe Dikman calls her work ‘brilliant.’

just the front.”

Another favorite, a Labrador retriever named Daisy, is larger than the rest and sits sentinel on the floor by the sofa’s side. “She’s a special dog,” Miner says, patting the canine’s head. “It was the hardest thing I ever did because I’m an old lady and she’s very heavy.” She dares me to try to lift the sculpture.

Like all of Miner’s works, Daisy is unglazed. Dickman provides her with a single “bisque” firing, which removes all moisture from the clay, then returns them for her to paint.

She works three hours a day, or, she says, “when I feel like it. Though the often rough-hewn aspect of the sculptures speaks to the use of hands as her primary implement — and indeed Marjorie’s are strong, and good-sized — she does employ a few tools, many improvised. An assortment of newspaper-wrapped armatures made from plastic cups and old casseroles provide structure to work around. A garlic press makes hair. She has several dental tools.

Her improvised tools and variety of subjects, her liberty with color all point to the artist’s impressive combination of novelty and agency.

If something “attracts” Miner, she cuts or prints out the image, sticks it in her book, and alters it however she likes when sculpting in clay and painting in acrylic. And though “whimsical,” the extension of her lively, vivid, primitive style over such a range of subjects gives her work weight and unity.

Is this style, I ask, a response to the losses that necessarily attend 96 years of life? In addition to lamenting “the love of my life, a Studebaker convertible,” Miner has buried two husbands, said goodbye to many close friends. She considers her own mortality: listening to a eulogy for a family friend, Miner’s son Ross remembers his mother whispering “Do you think they’ll say that many things nice about me?”

Miner dismisses the notion that her work is any reaction to death and loss. Yet in the bright vibrancy of the pieces, it is hard to feel something is not being warded off — stillness, perhaps. And the contemplative aspect of earlier work — the man smoking, the man sleeping, a dog looking up from the floor — has yielded to more energized pieces; the amount of time spent on each has decreased. Lately, she is compelled to fill a garden pond just outside her building with colorful animals.

“I wanted to see something from my window,” she says, looking out over this pond from her bedroom. In lush and expensive plantings, two purple squirrels, life-sized, with big garlicpress-extruded tails scurry by the feet of the obligatory brass heron. A painted turtle, a number of frogs, a swan: the pond has been Marjoried.

It appears a few of the pond sculptures are missing. “There were two rabbits,” Marjorie says, standing in the sun. “I have a feeling people swipe them and put them in their own garden. If they want them that bad…” Her voice trails off.

Like most artists I know she is both self-satisfied with her work while at the same time aware that she wants to generate renown. “If Grandma Moses could be famous at 100,” she says, “I might as well be famous at 96.” And yet, when asked again what motivates her to work, she repeats herself, “I just do whatever attracts me.” Y new haven

51

OF N O TE S

Impresario debuts the Space’s final frontier (maybe) this month

Mr. Rodgers’ (Growing) Neighborhood

By JOHN MORDECAI

It’s been ten years since Steve Rodgers opened his all-ages music and arts venue the Space in an unassuming industrial park off Treadwell Street in Hamden.

Over that time it’s since evolved from being simply a teen hangout to a hot spot of the New Haven music scene for local and national touring bands alike.

The Space continues its expansion in March, when Rodgers opens the Spaceland Ballroom, a nearly 300-person capacity, 3,000-square-foot venue just across the parking lot from the original Space. This is hardly the first time the Space has expanded its footprint: two years ago Rodgers opened the Outer Space as an intimate craft beer bar and music club, a counterbalance to the Space’s alcohol-free policy for those of age.

Rodgers, 38, is himself a veteran local musician, having started the Mighty Purple with brother Jonny in the early 1990s. The band recorded and toured through the mid-2000s. The plan to open the larger Spaceland (which is attached to Outer Space) was conceived when he first acquired the latter venue.

Rodgers hopes the new 3,000-square-foot performance space will bridge gulf between small rooms such as Café Nine and the area’s largest venue, Toad’s Place.

“This is a conglomeration of what my brain has done growth-wise since I opened the Space ten years ago,” Rodgers says. “It was birthed out of this little community scene and has evolved into something bigger. I never thought I’d be standing here ten years later doing a whole music complex — or whatever the heck this is.”

Since Spaceland and Outer Space are physically connected, patrons will have a lengthy list of craft beers and wine at their fingertips, and Rodgers currently finalized Spaceland’s food menu, which he says will be along the lines of “casual gourmet,” with vegetarian options and cheese boards.

The floor plan of Spaceland will be open for most shows, but since Rodgers is inviting various organizations and community groups to use the space as well, there will be room for seated events.

“I want to be using it all the time,” he says. “There are so many people reaching out who want to do fundraisers and private parties; things the Space isn’t big enough for.”

It’s good timing, too. Spaceland Ballroom opens at a time when the area has a dearth of small to mid-sized music clubs, especially since the

popular Daniel Street in Milford closed its doors a year ago. It’s a similar scenario to when Rodgers opened the Space on the heels of the shutdown of downtown New Haven’s Tune Inn a year earlier.

The Elm City has a tight circuit of small bars where countless local and out-of-town bands make the rounds, but it is widely felt that there isn’t a viable next step.

“Once bands get to the point where they can draw close to 300 people — but they can’t do 700 to play at Toad’s Place — there really hasn’t been the room other than at Daniel Street, and that left a big void when it closed,” Rodgers explains.

Local concert promoter Mark Nussbaum of Manic Productions has been booking gigs in the area for local, national and international indie rock bands for more than a decade. He’s long had a working relationship with the Space, booking shows there (and subsequently at Outer Space) since 2006.

Since the closing of Daniel Street he has had to improvise, exploring other venues for acts to play in, such as at Center Church on the Green. “[Spaceland] is a good room with a bigger stage and full production [capacity],” observes

Nussbaum. “There are no other rooms in the area for us to do some of the bigger shows. It’s either a small show at the Space, or you jump up to Toad’s.”

working local bands,” says Jeffrey Thunders, 32, of local punk band the Lost Riots.

It’s also another reason to bring people out.

Before opening Outer Space, Rodgers says musiclovers in their late 20s and early 30s started feeling a bit out of place rubbing shoulders with high schoolers at Space shows.

Ryan Kalentkowski, 22, is newer to the scene but plays in several bands including Jacket Thor and Sub Verso. He is excited by New Haven’s diversity of venues, be they set up in basements, bookstores, apartments or other spaces. He looks forward to the possibilities the new performance space offers.

“Every day I see people coming in who haven’t been here in years, and they feel like they’re at home here,” Rodgers says. “It makes me really happy to be progressing forward and create a space for everybody.”

“It will hopefully give a lot of local acts the chance to get onto larger shows with more highprofile acts, and bring more people together,” he says. “It’ll be exciting to see how this venue progresses in time.”

Booking of acts will be handled in-house as well as by outside promoters like Manic Productions, Asterisk Concerts and GuitartownCT Productions. Rodgers is happy that with three different stages under the Space’s banner, bands have room to move up to bigger spaces as they play and build a following.

Phil Law, 34, is a long-time New Haven musician formerly of preeminent noise duo Bloarzeyd as well as a member of Atrina, Old Man Lady Luck and his latest, Sperm Donor. He says it’s great to have a new venue and he hopes to see many different bands playing there: “Having many different places to play and see music around town is vital.”

Local bands have always played a big part in the Space’s roster, and Rodgers expects that won’t change. While a two-month old garage band is unlikely to headline the Spaceland’s stage, the opportunity is there for local showcases or to put a local band with a following onstage ahead of a touring act.

“That’s been lost a little bit and I want to bring it back — developing small local bands that we believe in by exposing them to music crowds coming in for these national acts,” Rodgers says.

Local musicians are naturally excited for the prospect.

“I really hope touring bands that are too small to play Toad’s but too big for places like Elm Bar or Café Nine swing in to the new place, and I hope that those touring bands play with thriving, hard-

One of the biggest difficulties of the New Haven music scene has often been simply getting people to come out to shows. Rodgers says the people are here but their motivation is another story.

The Spaceland Ballroom is already scheduling shows, with an official opening party taking place March 15 that will have the Rodgers brothers performing duo versions of Mighty Purple songs.

Though Rodgers is still preoccupied with getting the place open — he says he’s spent 16-hour days there since October installing flooring, drywall and obtaining odd fixtures from scrap heaps to give the place its distinctive décor — that he’s barely thought about what kinds of bands he’ll book there.

“I’ve been so overwhelmed with the process of getting it up and running that I’ve spent more time thinking about the most affordable cut-off valve for a grease trap,” Rodgers says. “I’d love to see a lot of cool stuff go on in here. I think people will enjoy coming. It’s not clubby; it’s more like a big house for everybody.” Y

Ahh h h h h h h !

“I hear from a lot of people who are music fans but don’t go to shows a lot,” he says. “It’s very difficult to get 50 people to come out on a Tuesday night even if the band is amazing.”

Nussbaum is confident Spaceland will thrive much as the local music scene thrives now, calling it “better than it’s ever been.” However, sheer proximity is often a big concern.

“The only challenge is the fact that the rooms are so spread out. If you don’t have a car, you can’t get there,” he says, citing a recent Outer Space show at which arrived ten Yale students piled into a rented Smart Car. “There are city buses

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By BROOKS APPELBAUM

An Affair To Remember In a candid conversation, awardwinning playwright Mastrosimone discusses his newest drama at LWT and the historic events that informed its creation Something about playwright William Mastrosimone invites frankness, confidence and confession. When I assure him that we will keep our interview brief, he responds in a deep, warm voice, “I have all the time you need.” Such generosity is rare in an author of works as successful as Extremities (for which he also wrote the screenplay) and The Woolgatherer, as well as the Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning miniseries, Sinatra. Now his new drama, Ride the Tiger, will be staged at Long Wharf Theatre from March 27 through April 21.

Mastrosimone’s gift for openhearted attentiveness has produced remarkable results. For example, he explains that Extremities was born of an encounter with a stranger on the street who chose to tell him her story. Unable to defend herself from her rapist when she had the chance, she told Mastrosimone, “If I had five minutes in a locked room with him now…”

Many years later, Mastrosimone was listening to secrets of a very different kind. In 1987, CBS hired Mastrosimone to write the television miniseries Sinatra, and he began two years of interviews with the legendary singer. Sinatra had sold the rights and had no creative control over the project; CBS instructed Mastrosimone to create an honest and factual biography — “showing warts and all.” This suited his reason for being a playwright: “I’m here to find the truth.”

During these interviews, Sinatra seemed to hold nothing back (“He told me things that made me blush,” the playwright recalls), requesting only that Mastrosimone leave out the singer’s many acts of philanthropy and kindness: supporting artists who had been blacklisted; giving money to Israel; helping younger singers make their way; and refusing to stay in hotels where his black musicians were not allowed (“If they don’t stay, I don’t stay,” the Chairman said).

Finally, at the end of 1988, it was time to talk about Sinatra’s relationship with JFK. What Sinatra told Mastrosimone, the latter recalls, “took all the air out of the room.”

The ensuing story was remarkable. “I asked myself ‘Do I believe this story?’” Mastrosimone noted that, at age 78, “Frank had a driving need to tell the story.

And I believed him even more so because the story made him look bad.” Mastrosimone realized that Frank “didn’t ‘do it my way’ at all. We talked about this for three or four days, and telling in 1988 about events that had happened in the early 1960s made mist come to Frank’s eyes.”

Sinatra’s account was originally in the film, says Mastrosimone, but a threatened lawsuit all but removed the episode. “I determined, because I am a playwright, that I would write that play. I would wait until Frank passed —which occurred in 1998 — and then I would finish the piece.”

What fascinates Mastrosimone about the central events of what would become Ride the Tiger is that “There was a time in American history when the President of the United States was having an affair with a woman [Judith Exner] who was simultaneously having an affair with the head of the Chicago Mafia [Sam Giancana]. While I was interviewing Frank, I was one person away from each of these characters.”

Ride the Tiger is “two stories,” Mastrosimone explains: “a love triangle, and the tale of a Faustian bargain. And the Faustian bargain really intrigued me. I mean, to make a deal with the devil is one thing, but then to screw the devil? What kind of person does that?

Christina Bennett Lind stars as Judy, the object of a love triangle between a young Massachusetts senator and a powerful Mob boss William Mastrosimone’s ‘Ride to the “Extremities” wroteinMastrosimone, “was written Tiger’ at Long Wharf.

54 March/April 2013

fill in the blank she left.”

“This Massachusetts senator and his father were not stupid people,” he adds. “This is hubris, and their

Mastrosimone

story is a true tragedy.

Remember that the highest point of power is the highest point of blindness.”

Recalling words he was made to memorize years ago in prep school, Mastrosimone quotes Julius Caesar: But when he once attains the upmost round, He then unto the ladder turns his back, Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees By which he did ascend.

Such blind hubris forms the plot (in all senses of the term) at the center of Ride the Tiger.

The “devil” in Ride the Tiger — Sam, the Chicago Mafia boss — is Mastrosimone’s “favorite of the characters,” and to create Sam, the playwright mined some of his own memories. “My father owned quite a few small businesses when I was a kid, and one of them was a bowling alley. It was filled with real Sopranos types. I would work there on weekends, and I would see this one guy dressed in fantastic clothes who would hold court. I partly took this guy’s voice when I wrote Sam.” Then there was research. The FBI had wiretapped Sam’s bar, and Mastrosimone learned of an incident in which one of Sam’s boys told Sam that they had been indicted. Sam pointed to a stuffed marlin hung above the bar: “See that [expletive] face? The only way he got caught was when he opened his [expletive] mouth.” Says the playwright, “This was Sam’s DNA: poetic, concise and menacing.”

As for Judy, the love triangle’s apex, a 2002 television movie, Power and Beauty, entirely missed the point, says Mastrosimone, by trying to portray Judy as a feminist icon. “Judy finds her power in being subservient to powerful men,” he says. He points to her behavior in each scene: “There is a motherly part of Judy that’s very important to Jack; I think Jack really loved her. I thought about Judy more than any other character; I labored over her more. I could make a person up, and have her be the equal of Jack and Sam, but the whole point is that these powerful men don’t want a larger-than-life woman — they want a smaller-than-life woman.”

There is nothing “smaller than life” about the drama that Mastrosimone has woven from history and from these characters. No matter how much audience members think they know about either the “love triangle” or the “Faustian bargain,” they are in for a psychological thriller. And they will likely leave the theater with a chill in their hearts.

NEWHAVENMAGAZINE.COM

ONSTAGE Cabaret Meet identical twins June and Jennifer Gibbons. Don’t expect them to say hello, because they won’t. That’s because they have made a pact to speak only to each other and to do everything in unison. Based on a true story, Seth Bockley’s and Devon de Mayo’s The Twins Would Like to Say invites you to wander through June’s and Jennifer’s curious world — from their public lives as immigrant outsiders to the privacy of their bedroom, where they write impassioned novels of teenage lust and rebellion. Whitney Dibo and Lauren Dubowski direct. 8 p.m.

April 4, 8 & 11 p.m. April 5-6 at Yale Cabaret, 217 Park St., New Haven. $15. 203-432-1566, yalecabaret.org.

Opening The Blue Man Group are a multimedia theatrical show that overwhelms the senses (in a good way!) with sight, sound, comedy, music and technology. 7:30 p.m. Thurs., 8 p.m. Fri., 2 & 8 p.m. Sat., 1 & 6:30 p.m. Sun. March 14-17 at Shubert Theater, 247 College St., New Haven. $72-$12. 203-562-5666, shubert.com.

Packed with romance, intrigue and murder, Kill Me Deadly is a smart parody that will keep you guessing until the end. Charlie Nickels has a hard life as a gumshoe in the seedy underbelly of Los Angeles, and things are only made harder by the murder of a client and the theft of her 300-karat diamond. With the help of his wise-cracking secretary Ida, Charlie seeks out the many suspects. 8 p.m. March 16, 22-23, 29-30 and 2 p.m. March 17 & 24 at Phoenix Stage Co., 686 Rubber Ave., Naugatuck. $22 ($18 seniors). 203-632-8546, phoenixstagecompany.com.

Academy Award nominee Paul Giamatti returns to the Yale Rep stage as the Prince of Denmark in Hamlet, Shakespeare’s harrowing tragedy of corruption, betrayal and madness.

Haunted by a ghostly revelation that his father, the King, was murdered, Hamlet puts into motion a vengeful plan that will have devastating consequences for his family and the kingdom.

March 18-April 13 at Yale Repertory Theatre, 1120 Chapel St., New Haven. $76-$35. 203-432-1234, yalerep.org.

The Immigrant is the biographical story of author Mark Harelik’s grandfather, a young Jew who fled the pogroms of Czarist Russia in 1909 and pushed his banana cart into the tiny Baptist community of Hamilton, Tex. A true story of parents and children, newcomers and natives, Christians and Jews, and the realization of the American Dream. 8 p.m. Thurs.-Sun. March 21-April 21 at Seven Angels Theatre, 1 Plank Rd., Waterbury. $40-$30. 203-757-4676, sevenangelstheatre.org.

Pantochino Productions presents Glam Kitty Squad, a new family musical by Bert Bernardi and Justin Rugg. Follow three mild-mannered kittens by day, which become crime-stopping cats by night thanks to the power of Glam! 2 p.m. March 23, 2 & 5:30 p.m. March 30, 7:30 p.m. April 5, 2 p.m. April 7 at Center for the Arts, 40 Railroad Ave., Milford. $16. 203-937-6206, pantochino.com.

Based on the children’s book by Laura Joffe Numeroff, the musical If You Give a Mouse a Cookie captures a valuable lesson about cause-and-effect when a boy shares his snack with a hungry, demanding mouse. 2 p.m. March 24 at Paul Mellon Arts Center, 333 Christian St., Wallingford. $20 ($15 seniors). 203-697-2398, choate.edu/boxoffice.com.

During the 1960 Presidential campaign, Jack becomes smitten with Judy, a ravishing young woman with connections — and not particularly savory ones. Political intrigue mounts as Judy scrambles to manage this romantic triangle and powerful forces move to claim the highest office in the land. Questions about the power and honor of those who lead us arise in the dark humorous new drama, Ride the Tiger by William

Sheila Coyle and Christopher DeRosa star in a musical tribute to the classic doo-wop of the 1950s and ‘60s in Life Could Be a Dream at Ivoryton Playhouse.

Mastrosimone (see interview, this issue). Gordon Edelstein directs. March 27-April 21 at Long Wharf Theatre, 222 Sargent Dr., New Haven. $70-$50. 203-787-4282, longwharf.org.

The Marvelous Wonderettes takes you to the 1958 Springfield High School prom where the Wonderettes, four girls with hopes and dreams as expansive as their crinoline skirts, tell their story of lives and loves. Features classic ‘50s and ‘60s hits as “Lollipop,” “Dream Lover,” “Stupid Cupid,” “Lipstick On Your Collar,” “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me” and “It’s My Party.”

April 5-April 21 at Center Stage Theater, 54 Grove St., Shelton. $25.

203-225-6079, centerstageshelton.com.

Anticipation builds on the Tait College campus as game day approaches but the football hero must first pass a big exam in order to play. When he unexpectedly falls for his tutor, romance blooms and hijinks ensue in the musical comedy Good News!

Score includes songs such as “You’re the Cream in My Coffee,” “The Varsity Drag” and “Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries.” April 12-June 22 at Goodspeed Opera House, 6 Main St., East Haddam. $80-$37. 860-873-8668, goodspeed.org.

The musical Laura Ingalls Wilder tells the story of Laura and her family as they travel across America in search of a place they can call home. Facing obstacles such as scarlet fever and eviction from their land, their pioneering spirit and family bonds are tested but never broken. 3 p.m. April 14 at Katherine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center, 300 Main St., Old Saybrook. $16 ($10 child). 860-510-0473, katherinehepburntheater.org.

Cameron Mackintosh presents a brand new production of Boublil & Schönberg’s legendary musical, Les Miserables, with new staging and reimagined scenery inspired by the paintings of Victor Hugo. 7:30 p.m. Thurs., 8 p.m. Fri., 2 & 8 p.m. Sat., 1 & 6:30 p.m. Sun. April 17-21 at Shubert Theater, 247 College St., New Haven. $97-$47. 203-562-5666, shubert.com.

In Other People’s Money, Wall Street takeover artist Lawrence Garfinkle’s computer is going tilt over the undervalued stock of New England Wire & Cable. If the stockholders back his takeover, they will make a bundle but what will happen to the 1,200 employees and the community when he liquidates the assets? This compelling drama explores whether corporate raiders are creatures from the black lagoon of capitalism or realists. 7:30 p.m. Wed.-Thurs., 8 pm. Fri.-Sat., 2 p.m. Wed. & Sun. April 17-May 5 at Ivoryton Playhouse, 103 Main St., Ivoryton. $40 ($35 seniors, $20 students, $15 12 & under). 860-767-7318, ivorytonplayhouse.org.

Arsenic and Old Lace by Joseph Kesselring, is a farcical black comedy revolving around Mortimer Brewster, a drama critic who must deal with his crazy, homicidal family and local police in Brooklyn as he debates whether to go through with his recent promise to marry the woman he loves. 8 p.m. April 20, 26, 27 & May 2-3; 2 p.m. April 21 & 28 at Phoenix Stage Co., 686 Rubber Ave., Naugatuck. $22 ($18 seniors). 203-632-8546, phoenixstagecompany.com.

The Crescent Players present Julius Caesar. 8 p.m. April 23-27, 2 p.m. April 28 at John Lyman Performing Arts, 501 Crescent St., New Haven. $10. 203-392-6154, tickets.southernct.edu.

When the object of his affection offhandedly comments, “Too bad you’re not a girl,” Erwin disappears to Casablanca and returns as Elvira. Now, adrift and alone, Elvira revisits the people and places of the past, desperately searching for the identity and love she’s never known in this new stage adaptation of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s New German Cinema masterpiece, In a Year with 13 Moons. Adapted for the stage by Bill Camp and Robert Woodruff; directed by Robert Woodruff.

April 26-May 18 at Yale Repertory Theatre, 1120 Chapel St., New Haven. $96-$20. 203-432-1234, yalerep.org.

Continuing What’s wrong with nine-year-old Jesse? He can’t sit still. His teacher thinks it’s Attention Deficit Disorder. Dad says, “He’s just a boy!” And Mom is on a quest for answers. Is Jesse dysfunctional, or just different? Don’t we all have ADD to some degree? Distracted, Lisa Loomer’s hilarious, provocative and poignant look at a modern family and an epidemic dilemma asks: Are we so tuned into our 24/7 sound bites world that we’ve tuned out what really matters? Through March 16 at Square One Theatre Co., 2422 Main St., Stratford. $20. 203-3758778, squareonetheatre.com.

Life Could be a Dream, the award-winning ‘60s doo-wop musical, is the story of the Crooning Crabcakes, the boys banned from the Wonderettes’ prom, as they prepare to enter the Big Whopper Radio contest and realize their dreams of making it to the big time. Features classic songs such as: “Fools Fall in Love,” “Tears on My Pillow,” “Runaround Sue,” “Earth Angel,” “Stay,” “Unchained Melody,” “Lonely Teardrops” and “The Glory of Love.” 7:30 p.m. Wed.-Thurs., 8 pm. Fri.-Sat., 2 p.m. Wed. & Sun. through March 30 at Ivoryton Playhouse, 103 Main St., Ivoryton. $40 ($35 seniors, $20 students, $15 12 & under).

860-767-7318, ivorytonplayhouse.org.

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ART Opening More Roxyshow is an exhibition of monoprints on paper and metal focusing on celestial and swimmer themes by Roxanne Faber Savage. March 22-May 1 at the Orison Project, 8 Railroad Ave., Witch Hazel Complex, Building 7, Essex. Open 1-5 p.m. Wed.Fri., 1-6 p.m. Sat. Free. 860-767-7572, theorisonproject.com.

New Haven Paint & Clay Club 112th Annual Juried Exhibition.

March 24-April 14 at John Slade Ely House, 51 Trumbull St., New Haven. Open 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Wed.-Fri., 2-5 p.m. Sat. & Sun. Free.

203-624-8055, elyhouse.org.

Senior Thesis Exhibition showcases works by seniors in the Art Studio Program of Wesleyan’s Department of Art & Art History. March 26-April 21 at Ezra and Cecile Zilhka Gallery, 283 Washington Terr., Middletown. Open noon-5 p.m. daily except Mon. Free. 860-685-2695, wesleyan.edu/cfa.

Marjorie Sopkin: Recent explorations, drawings and paintings.

March 28-April 24 at Willoughby Wallace Memorial Library, 146 Thimble Islands Rd., Stony Creek. Open 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Mon.Thurs., 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Fri.-Sat., 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sun. Free. 203-4888702, wwml.org.

Chad Erpelding and Megan Moore: Prizewinners of Boundless features works by Chad Erpelding and Megan Moore, prizewinners of Creative Arts Workshop’s 2012 juried exhibition. April 1-22 at Creative Arts Workshop, 80 Audubon St., New Haven. Free. Open 9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. weekdays. 203-5624927, creativeartsworkshop.org.

Artist Take Action: Protest Posters Today. This exhibition examines the resurgence of protest posters today, whether advocating for climate-change issues, reproductive rights, gender rights or treatment for war veterans. Included are works by more than 50 artists from around the U.S. and internationally. April 5-May 26 (opening reception and gallery talk 5 p.m. April 4) at Davison Art Center, 283 Washington Ter., Middletown. Open noon-4 p.m. daily except Mon. Free. 860-6852806, wesleyan.edu/cfa.

Works by Jan Cunningham and Elizabeth Gourlay. April 5-27 (opening reception 5 p.m. April 5) at Giampietro Gallery, Bldg. 4, Erector Square, 315 Peck St., New Haven. Open noon-5 p.m. Free.

203-777-7760, giampietrogallery.com.

Tom Peterson: Urban documentary photography. April 8-26 at City Gallery, 994 State St., New Haven. Open noon-4 p.m.

Thurs.-Sun. Free. 203-782-2489, city-gallery.org.

Art in Focus: St. Ives Abstraction. The exhibition explores how the Cornish town of St. Ives inspired and influenced the artists who visited there and made it their home, through its striking coastal landscape and its vibrant artistic community. Artists represented include Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth, John Wells, Roger Hilton and Patrick Heron. April 12-September 30 at the Yale Center for British Art, 1080 Chapel St., New Haven.

yale institute of sacred music presents

J.S. Bach: Mass in B minor Yale Schola Cantorum · Juilliard415 Masaaki Suzuki, conductor Friday, April 26 8 pm Woolsey Hall College at Grove New Haven Preconcert talk at 7 PM

by Prof. Markus Rathey Free; no tickets required. www.yale.edu/ism 203.432.5062

56 March/April 2013

Wesleyan’s Davison Art Center hosts compelling examples of a new generation of protest posters in Artists Take Action, opening April 5.

Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tues.-Sat., noon-5 p.m. Sun. Free. 203-4322800, britishart.yale.edu.

The Lyme Art Association hosts is 92nd annual Elected Artist Exhibition, a juried show. April 26-June 9 at Cooper/Ferry, South and Cole Galleries, Lyme Art Association, 90 Lyme St., Lyme.

Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tues.-Fri., 1-5 p.m. Sun. Free. 860-434-7802, lymeartassociation.org.

Stony Creek Granite: Sculpture in Stone includes sculpture and artworks created from Stony Creek granite. April 26-June 2 at Mill Gallery, 411 Church St., Guilford. Open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. daily, noon-4 p.m. Sun. Free. 203-453-5947, guilfordartcenter.org.

Continuing Curated by Katro Storm, A Tribute to Langston Hughes features works by NJ Martin, Renaldo Davidson and Anthony Thompson Adeagbo. Through March 22 at Sumner McKnight Crosby Jr. Gallery, 70 Audubon St. (2nd Fl.), New Haven. Free.

203-772-2788, newhavenarts.org.

Undercurrents, an exhibition of mixed media by Karen Wheeler.

Through March 24 at City Gallery, 994 State St., New Haven.

Open noon-4 p.m. Thurs.-Sun. Free. 203-782-2489, city-gallery.org.

Multi-Focus Memoryscapes is a collaboration of photographer Hank Paper and painters William McCarthy and Graham Honaker II. Through March 28 at Seton Gallery, Dodds Hall, 300 Boston Post Rd., West Haven. Open 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.-Thurs., noon-4 p.m. Sat. Free. 203-931-6065, lmarsh@newhaven.edu.

Time for the 37th annual Juried Student Exhibition features artwork by students at Lyme Academy College of Fine Art. Through March 30 at Chauncey Stillman Gallery, 84 Lyme St., Old Lyme. Open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Mon.-Sat. Free. 860-434-5232, lymeacademy.edu.

War’s Books: Collages by Qasim Sabti showcases works by an Iraqi artist fashioned from the war-damaged remains of a Baghdad library. Through March 30 at the Institute Library Gallery, 847 Chapel St., New Haven. Open 10 a.m.-6 p.m. daily, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Sat. Free. 203-562-4045, institutelibrary.org.

Recent works by painter Becky Yazdan and sculptor Christopher Joy. Through March 30 at Fred Giampietro Gallery, 315 Peck St., New Haven. Open noon-5 p.m. Free. 203-777-7760, giampietrogallery.com.

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Art at the End of an Era The Yale Center for British Art launches its first exhibition of 2013 with Edwardian Opulence: British Art at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century, inspired by the exceptionally successful PBS series, Downton Abbey, The exhibition showcases the lavishness of British art and society during the early years of the 20th century.

Immerse yourself in the history of British art through the nearly 200 artworks including paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs, furniture, jewelry, costume and decorative arts by British and international artists and designers during the reign of Edward VII (1901-1910).

The exhibition serves to illuminate a social and artistic dreamscape that was destroyed by World War I, beginning with the opening section “Imperial Splendor” which features an elaborate gown belonging to Lady Curzon, Vicereine of India.

Edwardian Opulence explores the character of British art during this transitional period and will vividly illustrate the period’s distinctive taste, style and visual culture.

Edwardian Opulence: British Art at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century is on view through June 2 at the Yale Center for British Art, 1080 Chapel Street, New Haven. 203432-2800, britishart.yale.edu.

— Ali Iacono

Church St., Guilford. Open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. daily, noon-4 p.m. Sun. Free. 203-453-5947, guilfordartcenter.org.

On Holiday: The Artist Travels is a members show. Through April 20 at Cooper/Ferry, South and Cole Galleries, Lyme Art Association, 90 Lyme St., Lyme. Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tues.-Fri., 1-5 p.m. Sun. Free. 860-434-7802, lymeartassociation.org.

Holding Still: An Exhibition of Still-Life Works is the Goodman Gallery members show. Through April 20 at Cooper/Ferry, South and Cole Galleries, Lyme Art Association, 90 Lyme St., Lyme.

Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tues.-Fri., 1-5 p.m. Sun. Free. 860-434-7802, lymeartassociation.org.

to modernism including Constantin Brancusi, Paul Klee, Piet Mondrian and Joseph Stella. Through June 23 at Yale University Art Gallery, 1111 Chapel St., New Haven. Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily except Mon. (until 8 p.m. Thurs.) 1-6 p.m. Sun. Free. 203432-0600, artgalleryinfo@yale.edu.

Alexander Purves: Roman Sketches glimpses into the artist’s’ own drawing practice. The sketches in this show have been taken from his Roman sketchbooks. Through June 28 at Whitney Humanities Center 53 Wall St., New Haven. Open 3-5 p.m. Mon. & Wed. Free. 203-432-0670, yale.edu/whc.

At Our Best: Connecticut Art & Artists, 1850-2013. Through April 24 at the Cooley Gallery, 25 Lyme St., Old Lyme. Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tues.-Sat. Free. 860-434-8807, cooleygallery.com.

Lisa Williams:

Six Good Reasons features collage/mixed media by Regina M. Thomas, still-life in oil by Laurie Marchessault, colorful birds in watercolor by Sharon R. Morgio, pastels and oils by Ralph R. Schwartz, unique pottery by Margaret Ulecka Wilson and sculptures and tile paintings by Peter A. Radosta Through April 27 at Elm City Artists Gallery, 55 Whitney Ave., New Haven. Open 10 a.m-6 p.m. Mon.-Sat. Free. 203-922-2359, elmcityartists.com.

Messages from Beyond FRIDAY • 8pm APRIL 12

Traces of Life: Seen Through Korean Eyes, 1945-1992 is an exhibition featuring 27 photographs taken by the first generation of Korean realists, 13 pioneers whose works evoke nostalgia for a nation undergoing a radical transition from its past. Through May 26 at Mansfield Freeman Center for East Asian Studies Gallery, 343 Washington Terr., Middletown. Open noon-4 p.m. daily except Mon. Free. 860-685-3355, wesleyan/edu.cfa.

Pre & Post show Psychic Fair - 5pm For ticket holders only

Arthur Heming: Chronicler of the North chronicles the career of artist, author and illustrator Arthur Heming (1870-1940). An avid northern explorer, his work helped to entrench perceptions of Canada as the “Great White North.” Through June 2 at Florence Griswold Museum, 96 Lyme St., Old Lyme. Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tues.-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun. $9 ($8 seniors, $7 students, 12 & under free). 860-434-5542, flogris.com.

860.444.7373 x 1 325 State Street New London, CT

Lisa Williams, internationally acclaimed medium and clairvoyant, shares her amazing ability to communicate with loved ones who have passed on to the ‘other side’, giving live readings to members of the audience throughout the show.

WWW.GARDEARTS.ORG

Société Anonyme: Modernism for America features works by more than 100 artists who made significant contribution

The Mary and Louis Fusco Distinguished Lecture Series Giovanni Boldini (1842-1931), Portrait of a Lady (Mrs. Lionel Phillips) (detail), 1903, oil on canvas, through June 2.

Web Versions is a mixed-media exhibit of works. Curated by Debbie Hesse and Steven Olsen. Through March 30 at Whitney Center, 200 Leeder Hill Dr., Hamden. Open 4-7 p.m. Tues. & Thurs., 1-4 p.m. Sat. Free. 203-772-2788, newhavenarts.org.

The Powell Gallery’s Tenth Anniversary Exhibition features works by selected artists. Through March 31 at Susan Powell Fine Art, 679 Boston Post Rd., Madison. Open 11 a.m.-5 p.m.

Wed.-Fri., noon-6 p.m. Sat., noon -3 p.m. Sun. Free. 203-318-0616, susanpowellfineart.com.

View of the Past: Anna Held Audette showcases a selection of Audette’s paintings, prints and drawings that span her halfcentury-plus career as an artist, writer and teacher. Through April 3 at Reynolds Fine Art, 96 Orange St., New Haven. Open noon-5 p.m. Tues.-Thurs., noon -6 p.m. Fri.-Sat. Free. 203-4982200, reynoldsfineart.com.

Alan Alda

““Things Things I O Overheard verhheardd While Talking to Myself.”

Fethi Meghelli: Then and Now features works on paper.

Through April 6 at DaSilva Gallery, 897-899 Whalley Ave., New Haven. Open 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Wed.-Sat. Free. 203-387-2539, westvillegallery.com.

Once Removed features works by contemporary artists including Carol Bove, Ree Morton, Nam June Paik and Allen Ruppersberg. Artworks from the 1970s to the present. Through April 7 at Yale University Art Gallery, 1111 Chapel St., New Haven.

Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily except Mon. (until 8 p.m. Thurs.) 1-6 p.m. Sun. Free. 203-432-0600, artgalleryinfo@yale.edu.

Into the Wild by Lisa Hess Hesselgrave and Ephemerals by Marjorie G. Wolfe. A collection of landscapes and photography.

Through April 14 at Kehler Liddell Gallery, 873 Whalley Ave., New Haven. Open 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Thurs.-Fri., 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sat.-Sun. Free. 203-389-9555, kehlerliddell.com.

The Shoreline Arts Alliance’s Images 2013 is an annual juried photography competition. Through April 14 at Mill Gallery, 411

Best known for his portrayal as Hawkeye Pierce on the landmark TV series M*A*S*H, actor Alan Alda is also a writer, science advocate, author, and director. Throughout his 40-year career, he has won seven Emmys, six Golden Globes, and three DGA awards for directing.

In addition to hosting PBS’s Scientific American Frontiers for 11 years, Alda is the author of two bestselling memoirs.

Friday, May 3

s 7 p.m.

Reserved seats $20 Students & children $10

Premium seating and reception package available Lyman Center Box Office (203) 392-6154 or Tickets.SouthernCT.edu new haven

57

MUSIC Classical The New Haven Symphony Orchestra presents Dvorak to DBR. Folk melodies and dances abound in Dvo ák’s exuberant Symphony No. 8, Kodaly’s Dances of Galánta and Smetana’s The Bartered Bride. Composer and violinist Daniel Bernard Roumain’s (he being the “DBR” of the title) work exudes a 21st-century dance influence. 7:30 p.m. March 21 at Woolsey Hall, 500 College St., New Haven. $69-$15. Also, 3 p.m. March 24 at Shelton Intermediate School, 675 Constitution Blvd., Shelton. $35.

203-865-0831, newhavensymphony.org.

Under the baton of Music Director James Sinclair, Orchestra New England summons a large orchestra to accompany Moscow virtuoso Ekaterina Derzhavina in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4. Also, world premiere of composer (and ONE double-bassist) Joseph Russo’s Symphony No. 2. 8 p.m. March 23 at Battell Chapel, 400 College St., New Haven. $35-$20. 800595-4849, orchestranewengland.org.

Yale’s Horowitz Piano Series presents Melvin Chen in recital.

The artist will perform Beethoven’s Bagatelles, Op. 126, music of Joan Tower and Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. 8 p.m.

March 27 at Sprague Hall, 470 College St., New Haven. $22-$12 ($9-$6 students). 203-432-4158, music.yale.edu.

The latest edition of New Music New Haven features new works

by Yale School of Music faculty composers David Lang, Martin Bresnick, Jack Vees, Ingram Marshall and Hannah Lash. 8 p.m.

March 28 at Sprague Hall, 470 College St., New Haven. Free. 203432-4158, music.yale.edu.

The Yale School of Music presents pianist Ekaterina Derzhavina in recital. BERG Sonata, Op. 1; HAYDN Variations in A Major, Hob. XVII:2; MESSIAEN Selections from Vingt

Regards sur l’Enfant-Jesus; SCHUBERT Impromptus, Op. 142. 8 p.m. March 28 at Whitney Humanities Center, 53 Wall St., New Haven. Free. 203-432-4158, music.yale.edu.

The quintet Les Délices create a fusion of baroque gestures and classical forms that combine with harmonic and technical virtuosity to yield expressive extremes. Works by FrançoisAndré Philidor, Jean-Joseph Cassanea de Mondonville, Antoine Dauvergne, Rameau and more. 3 p.m. April 7 at Yale Collection of Musical Instruments, 15 Hillhouse Ave., New Haven. $20 ($10 students). 203-432-4158, music.yale.edu.

The Yale School of Music’s Oneppo Chamber Music Series presents Brahms: Piano Quartets. Boris Berman, piano, violinist Julie Eskar, Ettore Causa, viola and cellist Clive Greensmith perform the complete piano quartets by Johannes Brahms: No. 1 in G minor, Op. 25; No. 2 in A Major, Op. 26; and No. 3 in C minor, Op. 60. 8 p.m. April 2 at Sprague Hall, 470 College St., New Haven. $30-$20 ($10 students). 203-432-4158, music.yale.edu.

There’s always room for cello! Aldo Parisot conducts the annual performance of the world-renowned Yale Cellos. 8 p.m.

April 10 at Sprague Hall, 470 College St., New Haven. $20-$5 ($5 students). 203-432-4158, music.yale.edu.

The Yale Baroque Ensemble presents an early-music program called “The Classical Style”: DUSSEK Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 56, C. 197; HAYDN Piano Trio in G major (“The Gypsy”), Hob. XV/25; LOCATELLI/PAGANINI Caprices; MOZART Piano Quartet in E-flat major, K.493. 5:30 p.m. April 4 at Yale Collection of Musical Instruments, 15 Hillhouse Ave., New Haven. Free. 203-432-4158, music.yale.edu.

The New Haven Symphony Orchestra presents Brahms, Beethoven & Blocker. BRAHMS Variations on a Theme By Haydn, Op. 56a; BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major, Op. 15 (soloist Robert Blocker, dean of the Yale School of Music); SCHUMANN Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 97 (“Rhenish”). 7:30 p.m. April 11 at Woolsey Hall, 500 College St., New Haven. $69-$15. 203-865-0831, newhavensymphony.org.

Guest conductor Peter Oundjian leads the Yale Philharmonia in a quartet of works by American composers. CHRISTOPHER ROUSE Infernal Machine; BARBER Adagio for Strings; COPLAND Appalachian Spring; JOHN ADAMS Dr. Atomic Symphony. 8 p.m.

April 5 at Woolsey Hall, 500 College St., New Haven. Free. 203-4324158, music.yale.edu.

The Yale Concert Band, under the direction of Thomas C. Duffy, performs new music for wind band, including Sparr’s Precious Metal (with Jake Fridkis ’14 MM, flute); Alex Shapiro’s Immersion; Duffy’s Century Shouts, more. 7:30 p.m. April 12 at Woolsey Hall, 500 College St., New Haven. Free. 203-432-4158, music.yale.edu.

Yale’s Institute of Sacred Music presents the accomplished early-music vocal ensemble Stile Antico in a program of music whose theme is “Passion & Resurrection.” 5 p.m. April 6 at Marquand Chapel, 409 Prospect St., New Haven. Free. 203-4324158, music.yale.edu.

Dvorák Stabat Mater. The Yale Philharmonia, Yale Camerata and Yale Glee Club join forces under the baton of guest conductor Helmuth Rilling to perform this masterwork of the choral repertoire. 8 p.m. April 19 at Woolsey Hall, 500 College St., New Haven. Free. 203-432-4158, music.yale.edu.

Under the baton of Music Director Thomas C. Duffy, the Yale Jazz Ensemble performs the sixth annual Stan Wheeler Memorial Jazz Concert. 2 p.m. April 7 at Levinson Auditorium, Yale Law School, 127 Wall St., New Haven. Free. 203-432-4158, music.yale.edu.

The Yale Glee Club anchors the always delightful New Haven High Schools Choral Festival, featuring the Elm City’s brightest and best young choral artists. 7 p.m. April 23 at Woolsey Hall, 500 College St., New Haven. Free. 203-432-4158, music.yale.edu.

Conducted by Masaaki Suzuki, J.S. Bach’s monumental Mass in B minor is performed by the Yale School of Music’s pre-

Come Visit us at our NEW location - inside Villa Gourmet 11 River Street, Milford, inside Villa Gourmet

203-783-9770 • hmangels.com 58 March/April 2013

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eminent vocal ensemble, Schola Cantorum, Julliard 415 and members of the Yale Baroque Ensemble. 8 p.m. April 26 at Woolsey Hall, 500 College St., New Haven. Free. 203-432-4158, music.yale.edu.

Popular Wily acoustic singer-songwriter Peter Mulvey is noted for his ferocious guitar playing, which he applies to full-on rockers and understated folky tunes. Watch him light the stage ablaze at the Katharine Hepburn theater. Jeffrey Foucault opens. 8 p.m. March 15 at Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center, 300 Main St., Old Saybrook. $25. 877-503-1286, katharinehepburntheater.org.

For the most of us who couldn’t see the Beatles perform live, Rain has been widely hailed as the next best thing. The Beatles tribute act comes to Waterbury direct from Broadway. The tribute band has mastered virtually all of the Fab Four’s catalogue, and even performs the complex studio songs the original band never played live. Performances will take place over two nights. 8 p.m. March 15, 2 p.m. & 8 p.m. March 16 at Palace Theatre, 100 E. Main St., Waterbury. $65-$45. 203-3462000, palacetheatrect.com.

Brothers Steve and Jonny Rodgers of local legacy band Mighty Purple will perform an acoustic set of their old band’s songs as part of a kickoff concert at the new Spaceland Ballroom in Hamden (see story this issue).

9 p.m. March 15 at Spaceland Ballroom, 295 Treadwell St., Hamden. $15. 203-288-6400, spacelandballroom.com.

The New Haven Symphony Orchestra Pops present Hooray for Hollywood! Enjoy an afternoon of much-loved classics from the silver screen, from Hollywood’s Golden Age through more recent blockbusters.

Gerald Steichen conducts. 2:30 p.m. March 16 at Hamden Middle School, 2623 Dixwell Ave., Hamden. $45-$35. 203-865-0831, newhavensymphony.org.

The music of Pink Floyd is likely to send you into outer space, but long-standing tribute act The Machine will take a more grounded approach when it performs “Pink Floyd: Unplugged” at the Kate. 8 p.m. March 16 at Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center, 300 Main St., Old Saybrook. $38-$34. 877-503-1286, katharinehepburntheater.org.

Melissa Manchester is the first songwriter to have two Academy Award-nominated songs in the running in the same year; not a bad accomplishment to add to her four-decade, two-dozen-album career. The “Midnight Blue” singer will stop in Old Saybrook for a hotly anticipated show. 8 p.m. March 22 at Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center, 300 Main St., Old Saybrook. $60. 877-503-1286, katharinehepburntheater.org.

It will be a night of expansive, dreamy rock when local favorites the Mountain Movers play Café Nine with veteran ambient band Landing. Be prepared to sway. 9 p.m. March 22 at Cafe Nine, 250 State St., New Haven. $5.

203-789-8281, cafenine.com.

Sisters Caitlin and Carly Kalafus spent years touring and breaking into the Billboard charts as members of teen pop group Kicking Daisies. These days they’re following a more mature pop-rock path with their own band Like Violet, which will celebrate the release of a new vinyl EP at the Space with Cometa, Steve Rogers’ Neighborhood, and One Rainy Day. 7 p.m. March 22 at the Space, 295

Treadwell St., Hamden. $10. 203-288-6400, thespace.tk.

Center, 300 Main St., Old Saybrook. $45-$40.

877-503-1286, katharinehepburntheater.org.

Eileen Ivers has been called “the Jimi Hendrix of the violin,” thanks to her virtuosic playing of the instrument. The multiple Ireland Fiddle Championships winner has recorded more than 80 albums and film scores, and is seen as a key figure in Celtic music circles.

She’ll bring it to the Kate when she performs with Immigrant Soul. 8 p.m. March 23 at Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center, 300 Main St., Old Saybrook. $50-$55. 877-503-1286, katharinehepburntheater.org.

The sounds of Neptune are about as much fun to hear as they are to (one imagines) create. The group performs on self-made instruments such as guitars and percussives crafted from various forms of junkyard scrap metal, giving the band an avant-garde, industrial edge to its noise (as if there were any other kind). They will be joined by stalwart local band Atrinai for a free mid-week show in the back room at Bar. 9 p.m. April 10 at Bar, 254 Crown St., New Haven. Free. 203-495-1111, barnightclub.com.

Portland, Ore.-based gender-benders Parenthetical Girls have gained much buzz for its experimental take on pop music and confrontational, punk-like live performances.

The group will perform with multi-faceted singer-songwriter Giles Corey for an intimate club gig at Outer Space. 9 p.m. March 24 at the Outer Space 295 Treadwell St., Hamden. $10. 203-288-6400, theouterspace.net Idiosyncratic Icelandic musician/producer Valgeir Sigurdsson, is perhaps best described simply as “Icelandic,” in that he creates quirky yet refined and atmospheric music that can be both processed and organic, much like almost every other Icelandic musician you’ve heard.

He’s also collaborated with Bjork, of course.

He’ll play supporting Zammuto, which features members of indie rock band the Books. 8 p.m. March 29 at Spaceland Ballroom, 295 Treadwell St., Hamden. $15. 203-288-6400, spacelandballroom.com.

Jeremiah Cymerman has developed a new piece for solo clarinet and electronics entitled Book of Dead. Drawing inspiration from the writings of Chogyam Trungpa, Book of Dead is a much more subtle and meditative piece than most of Cymerman’s previous solo work.

8:30 p.m. March 30 at Firehouse 12, 45 Crown St., New Haven. $12. 203-785-0468, firehouse12. com.

A night of proper punk rock — or something similar — is coming to the Nine. Former Sex Pistols bassist Glen Matlock and Ramone’s drummer Tommy Ramone are embarking on the Acoustic Anarchy Tour, which will feature both members performing unplugged sets. 8 p.m. March 31 at Cafe Nine, 250 State St., New Haven. $18. 203-789-8281, cafenine.com.

If the music of Leonard Cohen has never made you cry, as a Stereogum.com writer put it, “your blood type may very well be ‘ice water.’”

You’ll get a chance to bask in the presence of the legendary folksinger’s compelling voice and profound lyrics when his “Old Ideas Tour” makes a stop in Wallingford. 8 p.m.

April 2 at Oakdale Theatre, 95 South Turnpike Rd., Wallingford. $258.50-$49.50. 203-265-1501, oakdale.com.

The decidedly homegrown Americana of Spirit Family Reunion had its humble beginnings on street corners, farmers markets and subway stations in New York City. The band’s guitar, fiddle and accordion-based music is practically engineered to induce stomp- and sing-alongs. Sharing the stage will be guitarist Christopher Paul Stelling and local folk band Goodnight Blue Moon. 8 p.m. April 4 at Cafe Nine, 250 State St., New Haven. $10. 203-7898281, cafenine.com.

Veteran jazz and blues guitarist Leon Redbone brings his Vaudeville-esque performance to the Kate, where you can probably expect a bit of his signature comedy in addition to old standards and Tin Pan Alley chestnuts. 8 p.m. April 6 at Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts

The Appleseed Cast has been together since 1997 and has seen its own sound evolve from its heavy emo/hardcore beginnings to its more refined and experimental “post rock” sound of today. The band will be joined by Caspian, Muscle Worship and local rockers Wess Meets West. 7 p.m. April 11 at the Space 295 Treadwell St., Hamden. $14. 203-288-6400, thespace.tk.

R&B/jazz composer/performer/producer/ multi-instrumentalist Brian Culbertson stops by the Lyman Center in support of his 13th album, Dreams. 8 p.m. April 12 at Lyman Center for the Performing Arts, Southern Connecticut State University, 501 Crescent St., New Haven. $34, $28 faculty/staff, $18 SCSU students. 203392-6154, tickets.southernct.edu.

The quartet Conference Call features reedman Gebhard Ullman, drummer George Schuller, bassist Joe Fonda and pianist Michael Jefry Stevens. 8:30 & 10 p.m. April 12 at Firehouse 12, 45 Crown St., New Haven. $18-$12. 203-7850468, firehouse12.com.

The new-agey acoustic folk of New Hampshire-based Annaliva fuses elements of the old and new worlds of acoustic and traditional music, be it bluegrass, Irish, Scottish, or Norwegian. The four-piece band brandishes guitars and fiddles in its musical arsenal, and will perform its spirited songs in an exclusive Branford appearance. 8 p.m. April 13 at First Congregational Church, 1009 Main St., Branford. $15-$12. 203-488-7715, branfordfolk@ gmail.com.

The bizarrely left-of-center noise rock and self-described “swamp-tech” dance music of New Orleans’ Quintron and Miss Pussycat assaults the Nine for what promises to be a performance that is nothing if not strange.

The band will be supported by local electrodance purveyors Simple Pleasure. 8 p.m. April 17 at Cafe Nine, 250 State St., New Haven. $10.

203-789-8281, cafenine.com.

The Japanese psychedelic rock band Acid Mothers Temple has stopped in Connecticut on an almost annual basis over the past few years. The group will do so again in April at Café Nine, delivering sludgy chord progressions, feedback, swirly sounds and swinging guitars. 9 p.m. April 17 at Café Nine, 250 State St., New Haven. $15. 203-789-8281, cafenine.com.

Controversial Danish punk rock band Iceage have been fighting off accusations of neoNazism thanks to some provocative visuals.

Whether protestors greet them in New Haven remains to be seen. 8 p.m. April 18 at Lilly’s Pad (Toad’s Place upstairs), 300 York St., New Haven. $12 ($10 advance). 203-624-8623, toadsplace.com.

Dr. Aaron Gross

Pain-free procedures with the STA system Laser dentistry with Waterlase MD Single visit CEREC Crowns and On-lays Esthetic bonding, veneers & tooth whitening Patient Education

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1240 Whitney Avenue, Hamden 203-287-0666 www.whitneyvilledental.com new haven

59

CALENDAR

the gavel. Shake, rattle and roll as you bid on amazing art and art experiences to benefit Artspace’s free exhibitions and programs. Auction items include contributions from Vito Acconci, Polly Apfelbaum, Chip Benson, Sol LeWitt, Elizabeth Peyton, James Welling and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Also, silent auction featuring prints, drawings and photographs from the Artspace Flatfile. All accompanied by bespoke delicacies from the Shake Shack. 5-8 p.m. April 27 at Artspace, 50 Orange St., New Haven. $100 ($85 advance). 203-772-2709, artspacenh. org.

BELLES LETTRES

CINEMA

The Mystery Book Club meets the first Wednesday to discuss a pre-selected book. Books are available for check out prior to the meeting. 3-4 p.m. March 6, April 3 at Blackstone Library, 758 Main St., Branford. Free. 203-483-6653, blackstone.lioninc.org/ booktalk.htm.

The Yale Film Society and Films at the Whitney screen a special sneak preview of director Fede Alvarez’ yet-to-be-released Evil Dead (2013, 101 min., USA). No cell phones, laptops or other recording devices allowing in auditorium. 7 p.m. March 27 at Whitney Humanities Center, 53 Wall St., New Haven. Free. 203432-0670, yale.edu/whc.

New members are welcomed to the Blackstone Library Second Tuesday Book Club. The group meets on the second Tuesday to discuss a pre-selected book. Books available for loan in advance of discussion. 6:45-8 p.m. March 12, April 9 at Blackstone Library, 758 Main St., Branford. Free. 203-488-1441, ext.

318, blackstone.lioninc.org/booktalk.htm.

Release your inner poet. Time Out for Poetry meets third Thursdays and welcomes those who wish to share an original short poem, recite a stanza or simply to listen. Ogden Nash, Robert Frost, William Shakespeare, Dr. Seuss and even the Burma Shave signs live again. 12:30-2 p.m. March 21, April 18 at Scranton Library, 801 Boston Post Rd., Madison. Free. 203-2457365.

The Poetry Institute of New Haven hosts Poetry Open Mics each third Thursday Come hear an eclectic mix of poetic voices.

7 p.m. March 21, April 18 at Young Men’s Institute Library, 847 Chapel St., New Haven. Free. thepoetryinstitute.com.

Irish poet Desmond Egan, who has penned 23 collections of poetry and garnered many awards, reads from his work, including the acclaimed collection “Famine.” 5 p.m. March 28 at Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum, 3011 Whitney Ave., Hamden.

Free. 203-582-6500, quinnipiac.edu.

John Murillo, a finalist for the 2011 Kate Tufts Discovery Award and the PEN Open Book Award, reads his poetry. His first collection, Up Jump the Boogie, was named by the Huffington Post as one of “Ten Recent Books of Poetry You Should Read Right Now.” 2 p.m. April 4 in Rm. 119, Carl Hansen Student Center, Quinnipiac University, Hamden. Free. 203-582-8652.

Poet Vivian Shipley, editor of the Connecticut Review, reads from her work. Shipley has published five chapbooks and nine volumes of poetry, including her most recent work, All of Your Messages Have Been Erased. She is a two-time recipient of the Paterson Award for Sustained Literary Achievement, and two of her books (Gleanings: Old Poems, New Poems and When There Is No Shore) were nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. 2 p.m. April 25 in Rm. 119, Carl Hansen Student Center, Quinnipiac University, Hamden. Free. 203-582-8652.

James Stewart and Doris Day star in The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956, 120 min., USA). A family vacationing in Morocco accidentally stumble onto an assassination plot and the conspirators are determined to prevent them from interfering.

Free pizza, too! 5 p.m. March 28 at Hagaman Memorial Library, 227 Main St., East Haven. Free. Registration. 203-468-3890, hagamanlibrary.info.

A Kate Classic film presentation is Rooster Cogburn (1975, 108 min., USA), a sequel to the 1969 Western hit True Grit. John Wayne and Katharine Hepburn star. 2, 4 & 7 p.m. March 29 at Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center, 300 Main St., Old Saybrook. $8. 877-503-1286, katharinehepburntheater.org.

Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey play the star-crossed lovers in Franco Zeffirelli’s classic take on Romeo and Juliet (1968, 138 min., USA). Free pizza for both Montagues and Capulets!

5 p.m. April 25 at Hagaman Memorial Library, 227 Main St., East Haven. Free. Registration. 203-468-3890, hagamanlibrary.info.

The Connecticut Student Film Festival is an Oscars-like event that celebrates the work of middle- and high-school students from more than 30 schools statewide that offer cutting-edge film programs. 4-8 p.m. April 26 at Palace Theatre, 100 E. Main St., Waterbury. Free. 203-346-2000, palacetheatrect.com.

COMEDY Every Wednesday evening Joker’s Wild opens its stage to anyone who wants to try standup comedy — from brand-new comics to amateurs to seasoned pros. As Forrest Gump might say, each Open-Mic Night is kind of like a box of chocolates. 9 p.m. Wednesdays at Joker’s Wild, 232 Wooster St., New Haven. $5.

203-773-0733, jokerswildclub.com.

Comedian Comedians Cory Rodrigues and Ray Harrington come to Wooster Street. Bay State native Rodrigues’ conversational storytelling style lulls audience members into complacency and, when their guard is down, pummels them with punch lines. 8 p.m. April 5, 8 & 10:30 p.m. April 6 at Joker’s Wild, 232 Wooster St., New Haven. $18. 203-773-0733, jokerswildclub.com.

Chicago’s legendary sketch comedy theater, The Second City: Laughing Matters, performs some of the most memorable songs, sketches and improvisations from the troupe’s more than half-century history. 7 p.m. April 7 at Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center, 300 Main St., Old Saybrook. $45. 877-5031286, katharinehepburntheater.org.

Providence, R.I. native Paul Mercurio is an Emmy and Peabody award-winner for his work on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

This is a person who left a Wall Street career as an M&A lawyer and investment banker to do standup. That in itself is pretty funny. 8 p.m. April 12 at Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center, 300 Main St., Old Saybrook. $25. 877-503-1286, katharinehepburntheater.org.

Not sure whether to categorize this under comedy, belles letters or even lectures. But An Evening with Garrison Keillor is certain to have its share of laughs as the best-selling author and longtime (like, since the earth was flat) host of A Prairie Home Companion can spin a yarn with the best of them. 7:30 p.m. April 14 at Lyman Center for the Performing Arts, Southern Connecticut State University, 501 Crescent St., New Haven. $55$35. 203-392-6154, tickets.southernct.edu.

CRAFTS Calling all knitters and crocheters! Meeting last Tuesdays, the Hagaman Library’s casual Knitting Circle is open to all who want to share tips and show off new projects. 6-8 p.m. March

Connecticut Review editor and two-time Pulitzer nominee Vivian Shipley reads from her poetry April 25 at QU.

By Hand celebrates the 50th anniversary of Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library with an exploration of its manuscript collections. The exhibition begins where the Yale College Library collection of early manuscripts began, with a mirror of humanity: a copy of the Speculum humanae salvationis given by Elihu Yale. It ends with the manuscripts and drafts of “Miracle of the Black Leg,” a poem written by U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey while she was a research fellow at the Beinecke in 2009. Through April 28 at Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, 121 Wall St., New Haven. Free. 203-432-2977, beineckelibrary@yale.edu.

BENEFITS The University of New Haven stages its 30th annual Scholarship Ball. Event includes Distinguished Alumni Awards, dinner, dancing, silent and live auctions. Sponsored

by UNH Alumni Association. Black tie optional. 6 p.m. April 20 at Beckerman Recreation center, University of New Haven, 300 Boston Post Rd., West Haven. $175. 203-932-7270, newhaven.edu/ scholarshipball.

Amplify, Artspace’s annual art auction gala, begins at Artspace and moves to 45 Church Street for an entertaining live auction, with George McNeeley, senior vice president of Christie’s, at

60 March/April 2013

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Museum and an invitation from the American Antiquarian Society. April 13-January 4, 2014 at Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, 170 Whitney Ave., New Haven. Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily, noon-5 p.m. Sun. $9 ($8 seniors, $5 children). 203-4325050, peabody.yale.edu.

26, April 30 at Hagaman Memorial Library, 227 Main St., East Haven. Free. 203-468-3890, hagamanlibrary.info.

Ms. Judy’s Emporium hosts a Pottery Party for Kids.

Participants will enjoy pizza, drinks and snacks while they create a masterpiece from Branford pottery studio Fired-up.

6:30-8:30 p.m. April 27 at Ms. Judy’s Emporium, 28 School St., Branford. $25. 203-710-1313, msjudysemporium.com.

Connecticut’s only zoo hosts a Bat Chat with Dr. Miranda Dunbar. She’ll share bat fun facts, debunk bat myths, discuss local bat species, their important roles in our environment, and what we can do to preserve them. 7 p.m. April 17 at Hanson Exploration Station, Beardsley Zoo., 1875 Noble Ave., Bridgeport. $5. 203-394-6565, beardsleyzoo.org.

CULINARY Consiglio’s Cooking Class Club. Chef Maureen Nuzzo explains and demonstrates how to prepare mouth-watering southern Italian dishes that have been passed down from generation to generation. March’s menu includes baby spinach with oranges, craisons and walnuts, pizzagaina, grilled veal chop and cannoli layer cake. April’s menu features tri-colored tortellini with sausage, fennel and mushrooms, arugula, pear and pancetta salad, veal Marsala with garlic mashed potatoes and carrot cake. 6:30 p.m. March 28, April 19, 25 at Consiglio’s Restaurant, 165 Wooster St., New Haven. $65. Reservations. 203-865-4489, consiglios.com.

SPORTS/RECREATION Cycling Lawyer, author and human-rights crusader Corban Addision will discuss present-day human trafficking in a March 26 lecture at Quinnipiac.

City Farmers Markets New Haven. Eat local! Enjoy seasonal fruits, vegetables, and herbs from local farms including seafood, meat, milk, cheese, handcrafted bread and baked goods, honey, more. WOOSTER SQUARE: 9 a.m.-1 p.m.

Saturdays at Russo Park, corner Chapel St. and DePalma Ct. EDGEWOOD PARK: 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Sundays at Whalley and West Rock Aves. 203-773-3736, cityseed.org.

DANCE

FAMILY EVENTS The city of New Haven Department of Arts, Culture & Tourism will stage the city’s 375th Anniversary Celebration. At press time the city was still in the planning stages, but expect an afternoon of music, dance and performances of every type to represent the various cultures, ethnicities and neighborhoods that comprise the City of Elms. 1-4 p.m. April 27 on New Haven Green. Free. 203-946-7172, kfutrell@newhavenct.net.

Each Tuesday the Yale Astronomy Department hosts a Planetarium Show. Weather permitting there is also public viewing of planets, nebulae, star clusters and whatever happens to be interesting in the sky. Viewable celestial objects change seasonally. 7 & 8 p.m. Tuesdays at Leitner Family Observatory, 355 Prospect St., New Haven. Free. cobb@astro.yale. edu, astro.yale.edu.

Philatelists unite! Young people ages eight to 15 are invited to join the Hagaman Library’s monthly (first Saturdays) Stamp Club. In addition to learning about stamps, attendees learn a lot of history and many other fascinating things from club leader and World War II veteran Judge Anthony DeMayo. 10 a.m. March 2, April 6 at Hagaman Memorial Library, 227 Main St., East Haven. Free. Registration. 203-468-3890, hagamanlibrary. info.

Mickey Mouse and friends rock the world with the stars from The Little Mermaid, Aladdin and Disney/Pixar’s Toy Story in their new touring show Disney Live! Mickey’s Music Festival. Disney hits are remixed to the hottest sounds of today featuring hip-hop, pop, swing, reggae, rock, country and more. Only area appearance. April 13 at Webster Bank Arena, 600 Main St., Bridgeport. $80-$30. 800-745-3000, websterbankarena.com.

Creating Readers Saturdays at 2 Program. A fun, interactive program that engages young readers by bringing books to life using theater, dance and music. Each family that attends receives a copy of that week’s book to take home. 2 p.m.

The Little Lulu (LL) is an alternative to the long-standing Sunday morning training ride. The route is usually 20-30 miles in length and the ride is no-drop, meaning that the group waits at hilltops and turns so that no rider is left behind. The LL is an opportunity for cyclists to get accustomed to riding in groups.

Riders should come prepared with materials (tubes, tools, pumps and/or CO2 inflators) to repair flats. 10 a.m. Sundays at Lulu’s European Café, 49 Cottage St., New Haven. Free. 203-7739288, paulproulx@sbcglobal.net, elmcitycycling.org.

Tuesday Night Canal Rides. Medium-paced rides up the Farmington Canal into New Haven. May split into two groups based on riders’ speed but no one will be left behind to ride alone. Lights are essential. 5:30 p.m. Tuesdays at Café Romeo, 534 Orange St., New Haven. Free. william.v.kurtz@gmail.com.

Senior choreographers from the Wesleyan dance department stage new works for the annual Spring Senior Thesis Dance Concert. 8 p.m. April 4-6 at Patricelli ‘92 Theater, 213 High St., Middletown. $5 ($4 students). 860-685-3355, wesleyan.edu/cfa.

The Mystic Ballet performs Swan Lake. This contemporary version of the classic ballet’s Act II is choreographed by Bolshoi-trained Sergei Vanaev, to the dramatic score of Tchaikovsky. After an acclaimed debut in Europe, this powerful avant-garde retelling premieres in the U.S. 7 p.m. April 20 at Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center, 300 Main St., Old Saybrook. $40-$35. 877-503-1286, katharinehepburntheater.org.

Elm City Cycling organizes Lulu’s Ride, weekly two- to four-hour rides for all levels (17-19 mph average). Cyclists leave at 10 a.m. from Lulu’s European Café as a single group; no one is dropped. 10 a.m. Sundays at Lulu’s European Café, 49 Cottage St., New Haven. Free. 203-773-9288, elmcitycycling.org.

Saturdays at Connecticut Children’s Museum, 22 Wall St., New Haven. $5. 203-562-5437, childrensbuilding.org.

LECTURES Lawyer and author Corban Addison will discuss his book, A Walk Across the Sun: Abolishing Modern Slavery, sponsored by the Quinnipiac Center for Cultural and Global Engagement.

Addison left a law career to raise awareness of the national and global issue of human trafficking. His novel is based on travels to India, Europe and Washington, D.C., where he spent time with experts and activists in the field. He also went undercover in the brothels of Mumbai to meet trafficking victims. 7 p.m.

March 26 in Burt Kahn Court, Quinnipiac University, 275 Mt. Carmel Ave., Hamden. Free. 203-582-8652, quinnipiac.edu.

MIND, BODY & SOUL Alan Bitker leads weekly Library Yoga classes suitable for all levels. Walk-ins welcome. Bring a yoga mat. 1-2 p.m.

Wednesdays at New Haven Free Public Library, 133 Elm St., New Haven. $5. 203-946-8835.

Led by Nelie Doak, Yoga promotes a deep sense of physical, mental and emotional well-being. Classes are designed to help cultivate breath and body awareness, improve flexibility, strengthen and tone muscles, detoxify the body and soothe the spirit. All levels welcome. Bring a yoga mat. 5-6:30 p.m. Fridays at Blackstone Library, 758 Main St., Branford. $10. 203-488-1441, ext. 313, yogidoakie@earthlink.net or events@blackstone. lioninc.org, blackstone.lioninc.org.

NATURAL HISTORY Echoes of Egypt: Conjuring the Land of the Pharaohs will take visitors on a journey through 2,000 years of fascination with ancient Egypt, the land of the pharaohs. Highlights include an examination of the meaning and changing uses of hieroglyphs, together with an exploration of Egyptosophy, the use of the magic and religious symbolism of ancient Egypt in later cultures. And of course no display on Egypt would be complete without mummies, here treated not as oddities but explained as examples of the Egyptian fascination with regeneration through decay. A centerpiece will be a diorama showing a scene from a 19th-century “mummy unwrapping” event in Philadelphia, complete with a mummy from the Barnum

Elm City Cycling monthly meeting occurs on the second Monday. ECC is a non-profit organization of cycling advocates who meet to discuss biking issues in New Haven. Dedicated to making New Haven friendlier and more accessible to cyclists and pedestrians. 7 p.m. March 11, April 8 at City Hall Meeting Rm. 2, 165 Church St., New Haven. Free. elmcitycycling.org.

Take part in New Haven’s largest (and most energetic) Earth Day celebration — the fifth annual Rock to Rock Earth Day Ride. One thousand-plus riders are expected to take one of three routes (eight miles, 20 miles or 100 kilometers, the latter route encompassing Sleeping Giant and the shoreline) between East Rock and West Rock. Last year’s event raised more than $100,000 to support the work of two dozen local environmental groups. 8:30 a.m. registration (staggered start times depending on ride distance) April 20 at Common Ground High School, 358 Springside Ave., New Haven. $30 ($20 over 59; $15 under 18). 203-389-4333, ext. 1214, rocktorock.org.

Road Races/Triathlons And now for something completely different: Brian’s Beachside Boogie, a duathlon (two-mile run/ten-mile mountain bike/twomile run). 9 a.m. April 14 at Hammonasett State Park, Madison. $60 ($80 team). briansbeachsideboogie.com.

Run to support the Julia Rusinek Memorial Foundation at the four-mile Julia’s Run for Children. 10 a.m. April 14 at Cross Campus, Yale University, New Haven. $22 ($17 students). 516-4879502, juliarun.org.

Last year’s inaugural Cheshire Half-Marathon & 5K drew record numbers for Connecticut, and organizers are expecting even more runners this year. The 13.1-mile event is a scenic flat course through Cheshire and parts of Hamden, with significant stretches along the Farmington Canal Trail. 9:30 a.m. April 28 at Cheshire High School, 525 S. Main St., Cheshire. $55 ($28 5K, $9 kids fun run). cheshirehalfmarathon.org.

Please send CALENDAR information to CALENDAR@conntact. com no later than six weeks preceding calendar month of event.

Please include date, time, location, event description, cost and contact information. Photographs must be at least 300 dpi resolution and are published at discretion of NEW HAVEN magazine.

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W O RD S o f MOU T H Daniel Parillo, owner of the quirky and re-built State Street fixture Da Legna Wood Fired Pizza, helps add new dimension to the city’s well-established pizza landscape. Here he holds a Margherita Pizza with San Marzano tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, basil, garlic and extra virgin olive oil.

EDITOR’S PICK:

Da Legna Wood Fired Pizza

By Liese Klein

Y

ou know you’ve found a great new restaurant when you find yourself selfishly hoping that no one else will discover it. Da Legna Wood Fired Pizza is that kind of place — top-notch food at good prices in a stylish setting.

Not that Da Legna is perfect, as you’ll find out before even walking in the door. Parking along State Street in New Haven can be a nightmare on busy evenings due to the area’s mix of dense residential and commercial development. You’ll circle, you’ll stalk and then you’ll do some hairraising parallel parking if you’re lucky. If you’re not lucky, you’ll be doing some hiking.

That aggravation aside, Da Legna’s tiny footprint and quirky layout also presents some challenges as tables are few. A fire broke out at the restaurant last year and it has been rebuilt, but it still

Photo:Lisa Wilder

Paul DeFransesco, Owner/Operator Since 2000

Serving g the area area’s sB Best Mexican & American favorites s since 1993...

Appetizers Salads Fajitas

Open Year Round

Quesadillas Fresh Margaritas “a great selection of tequilas and craft beers”

Large Deck Overlooking Sleeping Giant Golf Course 3931 Whitney eyy A Ave., ve., ve ., Ha H Hamd Hamden amd mden mden 203-230-4640

AuntChilada.com 62 March/April 2013

On Beautiful Long Island Sound Best family value on the shore *SHTZ 6`Z[LYZ :LHMVVK 7SH[[LYZ 3VIZ[LY 9VSSZ )\YNLYZ :HSHKZ 38 Ocean Ave, West Haven 203-932-0440

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A Celebration of Culture, Taste and Atmosphere A dining experience designed to captivate your senses Lunch 11-4 Dinner 4-10 pm & Take Out

27 Temple Street, New Haven 203.562.8844 Kudetanewhaven.com

kudetanewhaven@gmail.com NEWHAVENMAGAZINE.COM

only seats about 40 people tops in awkward configurations. Larger parties may want to make reservations.

Once seated, however, the restaurant begins to impress. The décor is industrial and whimsical, with lights made from pipe fixtures along with exposed ducts and brickwork. The of-themoment vibe continues with a draught beer selection including Green Flash IPA ($6), one of the nation’s best craft beers.

The hits start coming with a small-plates menu ranging from ravioli to a crisp wedge of fried Mac and cheese ($4). Far from the boxed junk, this mac marries al dente penne and a complex cheese sauce in a crisp crust with a side of expertly dressed greens.

At our server’s suggestion, we took a chance on a dubious-sounding seaweed coleslaw ($5) and were rewarded with a creamy, crunchy masterpiece enlivened with a briny blast of flavor. I’ll never be satisfied with plain old slaw again. Vidalia onion soup ($5) also transcended the usual with a

creamy, smoky sweetness.

the meal to a perfect conclusion.

Be sure to save some room for the wood-fired pizzas, handcrafted pies that break through the pizza fatigue endemic to New Haven diners. The Vongole ($18 for a 16-inch pie) is unlike any other clam pie in town, taken to new levels of flavor intensity by use of the whole clam . Instead of chewy nubs of muscle, this pie concentrates salty, funky flavor in a clam purée on a crisp crust with a dusting of Parmesan.

If the same old pizza in the same old place has lost its savor, Da Legna is the perfect antidote with its quirky menu and skilled kitchen. Just be sure to bring your parking karma.

The arugula ($13 for a 12-inch pie) offers dollops of buttery burrata cheese amid a scattering of wilted greens. This version showcases a nice textural contrast, if offering little of the herb’s peppery bite. It won’t be replacing Roseland of Derby’s definitive arugula pie, but makes for an agreeable change of pace.

Dessert is another showcase for the skilled chef, with treats like s’mores crème brulée replacing the usual pizzeria slab of mummified cheesecake.

An apple walnut “rangoon” ($6) brought together shards of buttery pastry with tender fruit and an ethereal vanilla ice cream. The milky richness of old-school cappuccino in a glass ($3.75) brought

Da Legna Wood Fired Pizza, 858 State St., New Haven (203-495-9999).

CORRECTION In the January issue of “Modern Wedding” advertorial, New Haven Magazine incorrectly stated La Cuisine is associated with the New Haven Lawn Club; however, La Cuisine ‘s dedicated professionals offer their top quality cuisine at the New Haven Country Club. Note that the correct phone number to contact Helen at La Cuisine for all your catering, on-site or off-site, is 203-248.4488.

A family tradition for 75 years!

At Consiglio’s Restaurant we are honored to be a family owned and operated business for three generations. Let us show you what our family can cook up. Come in the door. Take a seat.

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Dinner: Mon - Sat at 4:30, Sunday at 3:00 Lunch: Tues - Fri 11:30 - 2:30, Sunday 1-3

165 Wooster Street. New Haven 203.865.4489 ~ www.consiglios.com new haven

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JUST A TASTE:

Lenny & Joe’s Fish Tale New Haven “Going out for seafood” in New Haven has long meant a 20-minute car ride, a wait in line and some fried food with a view.

Now the shoreline seafood experience has moved into the city in the form of the new Lenny & Joe’s Fish Tale on Long Wharf.

Eyebrows were raised last year when it was announced that Lenny & Joe’s would take over the former Leon’s Long Wharf location: The prime harbor-view space had long been a fine-dining destination. Lenny & Joe’s of Madison, with its clueless teenage staff and plastic trays, has always been more about beachy afternoons than sit-down splendor.

The new restaurant’s owners have made a wise decision to adapt the Lenny & Joe’s experience to the Long Wharf space by offering a sit-down

dining experience with just a bit of the ambience of a beachside clam shack. Some touches, like the massive T-shirt display and clichéd buoys-andfishnet décor, could have been left behind, but the elegant bones of the space shine through. It’s still a great spot for a date night or birthday, and most tables offer alluring water views.

By Liese Klein

appealing and served at a generous size in a raw bar platter ($9.50).

Fried seafood is a Lenny’s specialty, with the best choice the tender and moist scallops as part of a mixed platter ($21.99). Fried shrimp shine with fresh flavor and meaty texture, although the fried fish is a bit bland. Whole-belly clams are succulent and worth an order of their own.

Enjoy that view with a glass of house wine or local beer: On a recent evening both Thimble Islands Brewery of Branford and Grey Sail of Rhode Island were on draught ($5), although served in somewhat scanty portions. A glass of pinot grigio ($6) was bright and married well with the fare.

All seafood also comes in broiled and baked variations, as well is in more modest portions on the sandwich menu. A broiled lobster casserole featured generous hunks of tail meat swimming in butter and

A cup of Fish Tale chowder ($3.75), light and flavorful, gets a meal off to a winning start. The slightly milky broth allows the flavor of cubes of potato and lots of fresh-tasting quahog clams to shine through. Oysters, fresh and simple, are also

For sides, stick to fries or the tangy coleslaw; a serving of boiled potatoes was a bit waxy and flavorless. Wide rice mix also offers a healthy and savory alternative.

You Are Invited...

breadcrumbs, a satisfying and simple alternative to wrestling a whole crustacean.

A Family & Yale Tradition for More than Forty Years ~ Established 1969 ~

FREE Tastings Every Friday 5-8 pm 181 Crown Street New Haven

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New Haven can now enjoy its own outpost of the popular Lenny & Joe’s Fish Tale seafood restaurant, which occupies the former Leon’s restaurant in Long Wharf. Owners Brian Faye, left, and Jon Isaacson take a table by the water, with the Famous Fish Tale Platter and a Hot Buttered Lobster Roll

The new owners also take full advantage of the location’s large size, allowing for both a lively bar area and relatively quiet dining areas. On a recent night, our section was full of families with strikingly well-behaved children — most of the background noise was coming from a table full of tipsy adults.

Servers are efďŹ cient and helpful, although coordination with the kitchen needs some work as we were twice interrupted by queries of “Did you order this?â€? from bus staff. Desserts include Lyman Orchards’ apple pie and Libby’s Wooster Street Italian ice, but good luck with saving room with the restaurant’s hefty portions.

With its casual atmosphere and budget-friendly pricing, the new Lenny’s brings a welcome breath of fresh ocean air to New Haven’s dining scene.

Lenny & Joe’s Fish Tale, 501 Long Wharf Dr., New Haven (203-691-6619).

Photo:Lisa Wilder

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65

I Spy with My Eagle Eye

By SUSAN E E.. CO C CORNELL ORN RNEL RNEL E L

Fun fact: The largest ation of winter concentration nesting eagles in the st is found in Northeast the townss of Essex, Chester, Deep River, dam, Old East Haddam, Saybrookk and e.

Old Lyme.

So, I head to — where else? — Eagle Landing ng State Park, along ut the Connecticut River in Haddam for h an eagle watch (officially, an eagle search).

Along with folks from the Connecticut Audubon Society, Connecticut River Expeditions runs watches nd in February and 4he 64 64th the March aboard ng u in Dur ((During (D t. esst. est foot RiverQuest. stt uest r ue i erQ R Rive RiverQuest ear y year the rest of the yea hosts all sorts of cruises — osprey/eagle cruises, Gillette Castle viewing, sunset cruises, tree swallow spectacles, geology 66 Mar March/ March/April ar ch/ ch/Apr Apr p ill 2013 20 3 201

n’ oeesn doesn’t dy day d oudy lou d cl d and cloudy old ol y. A ccold ky. ssky. sk u g, bu ing, in atin at but oat bboating, or bo esst fo for he b best k tthe ike d li und oun like so sound o the clou clouds, i h th it ww ow with ay llow stay nd ttoo st tend ds te irrd b bi birds r ul. Mos Most derf de onde on wingg w wing wi wonderful. iew ie he v viewing k ng tthe aki m ma making u bbut, eess bu ee ttrees n tr d iin c ed e ch er re p were perched less we aggle he eeagles off tthe oo ey ttook they ed,, th arred lear le a” ccleared, rta” s rt so k es ““sorta” ki h sskies he as tthe as ng. ing wi wing.

es, uises, crruise cruises, kids kids nd ses aan and ruiise ccruises cr d and slan sl en IIsland elden S Seld Selden ns.) ions atio orat p or xpl ex explorations.) wo-two ypiccal twotyp n a typical On O terr wate e-wa hen-th nus oon-the-water plus ou s--pl h hour ho hours-plus ct ttoo pect expe n ex expect can ne ca u , on one our ttour, to ne ttoo 15 nine m ni rom ro re ffrom here y he anyw seee an see anywhere less gle ld eag eagles bald ingg ba atin grat gr migr migrating nt oorr mi dent side esi re resident rpriise surp herr su surprise othe other ts ooff ot orts or ll ssorts elll as aall el ass w well ip — trip he tr forr th the n fo ho may pop iin ts w who ests ues gu guests o mon mergansers, red com ns,, common llccon falc fa inee falcons, g in ereegr pe peregrine e es cies ci peci pe s, sspecies cks, ck uck d ingg du in ducks, erin nter wint kss, wi wintering awks aw dh hawks, houlderred sh shouldered herr othe er, ot other nter wint n wi winter, re iin here n he een ee nly sseen nts on nts only rant mora o mo or ooff ccormorants e en even m s ev me time ti meti some d so nd aand sometimes ds, an nds en riend fri ed friends, ered her th eath fea ne feathered fine ealls. se seals. y ey rney o rn ou ur jjourney less on oour le agle eag d eagles bald 21 bald aw 21 w saw ly,, we ally ial fici Offi cially, Offi I’d I’ h I’d ugh houg houg ltho lt e aalthough e, yme, ym n L nd Lyme, e aand ssex Essex m to E dam adda Had m Haddam froom fr from ness ne ew oones w n wo new erree ttwo were herre we ce th ince there ssince i 2233 si calll it ly call ally al reaally re really b eubl ou to d doubleantt to an ’t w on’t want w d we don’t p ((we riip urn ttr trip etur ret he return the on the tell s too te easy ys ea always t’ss not alway d it n nd it’s er, aan er, ver and owev ow nt, h however, c un co count, o nting c ou acc h accounting the nce the hen next, hence he next, the from the from g e fr gl eagl ea one eagle one ) y). p ncy) r pa re scre diisc disc discrepancy). m,, it am dam dd Hadd asst Ha Haddam, nE East est in es e n p ed pe nest dspe Gooods hee Goodspeed th In the In appears that parents are caring for an egg laid some time around Presidents Day. How appropriate for our national symbol! In Lyme/ Deep River we see five immatures playing in the

riip is ttrip this F Fo Forr th a iis, al d b he bi deal th bigg de the he y tthe y, lly, ll rall ura atu n naturally, h are ich whic es,, wh g es agl eea which eagles, d r nde un roun r-ro e rea her y th ither eei eith year-rounders either thee o th or om n from northern i g fr tin itin isit is orr v visiting earcch oof ea n ssearch d iin and glan ngl ew En Ne N England New v nd ev e aand ee every o e to ssee or ch m uch m more e’ss mu e e’ her th much utt there’s B d. Bu od ffood. fo But que. iq u p iiss un ip trip tr unique. ation elati rrelation no re y (n ndy nd M (no iffe Mi iss w Mindy nd h wife rk aand his M ptaiin Ma pt Mark C Ca Captain ours fo for ng ttours erin ffer ff beeen ooffering ave been ave n y) h ind have k & Mi ork or Mindy) to M Mork iltt to uil oat bu oa he bboat built ad tthe hey h They had rs.. Th ears ea h n 111 y ha years. oree tthan mo more err. Th ater at The he w o tthe water. tform on l tf la all p onal t on platform caati duca du n eeducational er an fer off of offer iv cutt R River nectiicut nect onne on nd C y, aand Connecticut ary, b uar eb ebru rtss in F rt tart ta February, n sstarts a on eas se season i s in th ip trip the ess ooff tr ypes yp trips ntt ttypes rent ifffere iffe f rs d ffe different ons of tion diti offers pedi pe E Ex Expeditions ssee l ss la al cclasses onal tion cati duca du d ng eeducational udi lu nclu nc s iincluding o s, season entt se ren seasons, differ di different ed to need y ne ily s arril ss cess ce n n’tt ne don’ u do necessarily You e . Yo en don’t dren schoolchildr for sc fo schoolchildren. so fun also aree al eree ar ther p — th rip ri is ttrip there this ve th ov ird nut to llove be a bbird ed in ixed ix ture m natu d na mixed and y an ory nature stor st h y, hi history c s on geography fact fa geography, facts king of nature nature, eaki ea S or. Sp mor um Speaking y ooff h nty leent humor. plenty as well as p rs the lower ders side onsi on cy cconsiders ancy rvan serv o se on r C Conservancy tthee Nature th thee Last Gre Great One ooff th ver to bbee “O ve “One Riv c t Ri cu ticu ti ecti nec River nn onnec Co Connecticut .” es.” aces ac P Pl Places.” calss, loc nd lo ristss aand locals, ouri th ttourists bboth aree bo erss ar er ster uest ue Quest rQ verQ ve Ri Rive RiverQuesters d th ude lu nclu nc those so-young.. They can iinclude -so notd no and ng an not-so-young. youn yo young s. ies. tie parties. ions oorr private part tional expeditio expeditions duc ti duca n eeducational on e ree lless hes run $40, but other cruises are tche watc g e wa agl E Eagl watches Eagle Castle 20 for a daytime Gillettee Ca ($20 ivee ($ nsiv peens p expe ex expensive idss id or k nd $5 ffor kids et, an et nset suns and se, $25 for su sunset, uise crui ingg cr in ewin view vi cruise, viewing ) mple). xaamp o eexample). or s, ffor ses, u se ui crui cr cruises, o ular inoc in good bbinoculars go ty good tty rett re o p aiirrs of p pa w pair ew pretty ffew aree a fe pairs eree ar Th Ther There o o lcoh (alc nicc (a icni (alcohol nd a p r aand ra picnic mera me came ingg a ca Brin rd.. Br camera oard oa on bboard.

Bring d/ nd/ and/ fogg an n, fo in rrain, d, ra and/or nd w y bbee wi ay re m wind, here he ). T ed). may owed llow ll There iss aallowed). h iis a h heated lth h tthere l although dress warmly snow, so d cabin with great visibility, tea and coffee.

To learn more visit ctriverquest.com, e-mail captainmark@yuknat.com or phone 860-662-0577.

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