New Haven magazine December 2012

DECEMBER

2012

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AUTHOR & AUTEUR

Gorman Bechard’s obsession

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Fox in the Henhouse?

Lonesome George Lives On

NEW HAVEN — Geoff Fox is now a former weatherman twice over, but he wants a second chance. He’s begging.

NEW HAVEN — They thought Lonesome George’s death this summer ushered in the extinction of his species.

But they were wrong.

Those were his words to his now-former boss, the Tribune Co./FoxCT, who fired Fox for “inappropriate conduct” November 16 after transcripts of what he said were “private chats on Facebook between consenting adults on my private time.”

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While the married Fox says what he did was wrong, the 62-year-old doesn’t think it should weigh on his job, and he took to his blog to get the attention of his former bosses.

“I know [they] will see this. I am on my knees begging you reconsider your decision and please take me back,” he wrote.

Comments from his fans have remained supportive.

Fox worked for FoxCT

New Haven

A recent Yale University study indicates that the giant tortoise species may still be out there. The analysis was published in Biological Conservation and is based on DNA collected from 1,600 giant tortoises off a remote island in the Galapagos. Seventeen of those were found to be ancestors of a species from Pinta Island, from which Lonesome George came.

The 17 tortoises were hybrids, but scientists believe there may be some purebreds out there that can be wrangled

into a breeding program to restore both original species.

Special Delivery WEST HARTFORD — Sometimes the show must go on.

Keith Hunds hijacked a car used to deliver Chinese food and then continued to drive around filling customers’ orders.

However this wasn’t just a case of a man trying to live the dream of being a delivery boy; Hunds was aiming to keep the customers’ money for himself. After the Chinese restaurant found that a home had been delivered to, police caught the would-be thief by waiting at the next delivery address.

Hunds was charged with larceny, possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia, and other drug charges, and was being held on a $5,000 bond.

CORRECTION: Due to a reporting error, a November NHM article on cosmetic surgery procedures characterized Jeffrey Gold, MD of Hamden as a “laser cosmetic surgeon.” While he does perform cosmetic laser procedures, Dr. Gold is an ophthalmologist. In addition, such treatments as Lipo-Light and Zerona offered by Gold are targeted at fat, not cellulite.

“There is no effective treatment for cellulite,” he explains.

| Vol. 6, No. 3 | December 2012

Editor Michael C. Bingham Design Consultant Terry Wells Contributing Writers Brooks Appelbaum, Duo Dickinson, Kate Forgach, Mimi Freiman, Eliza Hallabeck, Liese Klein, Nancy Burton, Melissa Nicefaro, Priscilla Searles, Cindy Simoneau, Tom Violante Photographers Steve Blazo, Anthony DeCarlo, Lisa Wilder

Publisher’s Representatives Mary W. Beard Roberta Harris Robin Ungaro

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Better Late than Never HARTFORD — A Connecticut songwriter may see one of his compositions become the state’s second official song…some 60 years after it was written.

A recently discovered tune from Joe Leggo, now 85, is under review by the General Assembly and will likely be approved after Christmas.

“Beautiful Connecticut Waltz” is being championed by State Sen. Paul Doyle (D-9) of Wethersfield and Newington State Rep. Sandy Nafis (D-27) to become the state’s official waltz. The state’s official song is “Yankee Doodle Dandy.”

Commander of None GROTON — Some people will go to great lengths to get out of a jam.

Nuclear submarine Commander Michael P. Ward

in the states of Colorado and Washington after the 2012 elections.

II faked his own death to put an end to an affair.

The commander, who was assigned to the USS Pittsburgh in Groton after coming from Virginia, sent his mistress an e-mail from a fictitious person named “Bob” informing her that he had died suddenly. She was informed that he had in fact moved to Connecticut after she showed at his former home to offer condolences.

Ward was found guilty of Uniform Code of Military Justice violations, which included charges of unbecoming conduct and adultery, and was relieved of his command after only one week on duty.

Rolling Stone Nods to Malloy HARTFORD — Not many would consider Gov. Dannel Malloy a rock star, but he still made it into Rolling Stone magazine.

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Don’t Sweat It HARTFORD — Connecticut’s capital city may be the seat of the state’s political power, and its denizens like their seats comfortable.

In tthis hi case his recognize i ed case, h hee was recognized in the magazine’s online list of the top ten advocates for reform of marijuana laws.

Connecticut was recognized for its 2011 decriminalization bill — instead of a $1,000 fine and possible jail time, offenders now pay $150 for the first offense and up to $500 for subsequent offenses.

Malloy joins Vermont Gov. Pete Shumlin as well as representatives from Massachusetts, California, Colorado, Oregon, and Michigan on the list.

Marijuana use was legalized

Digital marketing company Experian Marketing ranked Hartford second in its list of the 20 biggest cities for sweat pants. Rankings were based on the number of sweat pants purchased in the last year, as well as the individual number of items bought.

Hartford was beat out by Philadelphia (No. 1 for the second straight year ), followed by Pittsburgh. Other nearby cities in the list were Boston (No. 6), New York City (No. 7), and Providence (No. 19)

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WE LOOK FORWARD

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author, auteur,

provocateur

Gorman Bechard turns his obsessions into art works

‘The book business is in the same place as the music business was when MP3s started. The book business is still fighting going electronic.’

PHOTOGRAPHS:

STEVE BLAZO

6 December 2012

N

out with there — the cool kids?

ovelist, screenwriter and filmmaker Gorman Bechard has penned seven novels, written and directed four documentary films, five feature films and numerous music videos and short subjects. The 53-year-old Hamden auteur is presently working to complete Pizza: A Love Story, a paean to the holy trinity of New Haven pizza palaces — Sally’s, Frank Pepe’s and Modern Apizza. NHM Editor Michael C. Bingham interviewed Bechard for ONE2ONE.

No, no. It was probably the stoners more than anybody, though I wasn’t really a stoner. And the band people, the people who played music. I played guitar since I was 13, 14. Definitely not the jocks.

When did you begin writing fiction?

What year are we in?

We did a couple of horror movies — Disconnected and Psychos in Love [1986].

Psychos in Love actually got me a fourpicture deal with a company out in California called Empire. I didn’t realize at the time how bad a deal it really was.

I don’t even put those movies on my résumé. I made two of the four, and then thankfully they went out of business. I got so fed up with how scummy the movie business was. I had this idea for a story about God sending His teenage daughter to save the world, so I decided, ‘Well, let me try writing a book instead’ [which became 1991’s The Second-Greatest Story]. So pretty much all of the ‘90s I did nothing but write. I wrote books and I wrote screenplays.

Oh, gosh — probably ’81?

How bad were the Empire movies?

YYY Tell me about your family background.

I grew up in Waterbury. My mother died when I was ten so then I lived with my grandparents. I went to WestConn [Western Connecticut State University] for English, and I flunked English 101.

So of course I had to become a writer.

I started working for the Waterbury Republican-American. I did all of their music reviews.

That was back when newspapers still did music reviews.

Yep. I used to go to New York all the time, and one day I picked up this catalogue for the New School for Social Research. I was thumbing through it, and you could actually go to college classes without getting credits. And if you didn’t get the credits you could take a college class for like 180 bucks. So I saw [the course], ‘The Art of Alfred Hitchcock’ taught by Donald Spoto, who wrote this great book on Hitchcock [1983’s The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock]. So I took it. And that kind of started me on the whole film thing. I became obsessed.

I took a course on Chaplin. Then I got into 16-millimeter [film] production and started taking those classes. I was actually the first person from New School to actually finish a feature [film] — Disconnected [1983].

What was that about?

Oh, God — it was just a wacky horror film about these two twins who are being completely terrorized by this thing that’s living in their phone line.

You went to Holy Cross high school in Waterbury. What kind of kids did you hang

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One of the movies, which is so freaking bad, [was] Galactic Gigolo. It was basically about a broccoli from outer space who wins a trip on a game show to the horniest town in the galaxy — and that town is Prospect, Connecticut. It was actually pulled off the video shelves by the mayor of Prospect, who found it insulting to his town. Because basically I said the girls in Prospect had nothing better to do than get stoned and [have sex]. But having gone to Holy Cross that was my experience [laughs].

Where do your ideas for stories or films come from?

Just, like, everywhere. The Second-Greatest Story literally grew out of…I was watching CNN, and there were all these people crying. I’m looking at the TV thinking there was an earthquake or a tidal wave — something horrible happened. What it turned out was, they were at the opening of [Martin] Scorcese’s The Last Temptation of Christ. They were fundamentalist Christians and they were crying that Scorcese had tarnished Christ’s reputation.

That annoyed me so much I thought, ‘I’m going to give you something that will really [tick] you off.’ [The Second-Greatest Story] is about Christ’s kid sister, who’s

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a typical teenage girl — she drinks, she smokes, she loves rock ‘n’ roll. She just happens to be the daughter of God. After you made the cult horror classic Psychos in Love in 1986, you didn’t make another film until The Pretty Girl in 2000.

What got you back into filmmaking?

His 1991 novel The Second-Greatest Story, Bechard explains, ‘is about Christ’s kid sister, who’s a typical teenage girl — she drinks, she smokes, she loves rock ‘n’ roll. She just happens to be the daughter of God.’

Well, through the ‘90s I had a total of 26 [film] options — which was good moneywise.

Not sure all our readers will know what an ‘option’ is in the movie biz.

You’re a producer, you say, ‘I love this [screenplay]; we’re going to turn it into a hit movie. We’re going to pay you $300,000 for it; we’ll give you $50,000 upfront. We have a year to make it, and as soon as we make it we’ll pay you the other $250,000.

If we don’t make it in a year you keep the $50,000 and you get your book [screenplay] back and we walk away.’ That happens a lot in Hollywood. It’s sort of like leasing the project and trying to get it made. So between scripts and books I had 26 of those — nothing got made.

Why? The horror films that I made? I might as well have made porn, because that’s how damaging they were to my career. They didn’t count for anything — in fact, they were a negative. So I decided to reinvent myself [as a maker of] art films. So I made a short film called The Pretty Girl [in 2000], which is an homage to Chris Marker’s La jetée [1962] which is one of the great art films of all time. It was all done with stills. And it did great [in film festivals and art houses]. Before there was YouTube there was something called ifilm.com [a video-sharing website], and it became the second most-watched movie of all time up to that point — something like 600,000 views. And this was a dark, depressing, six-minute, black-and-white, no-comedy, no-nudity [film] — purely an art film.

What’s it about?

It’s about a young girl in a town who is basically killed by the old women of the town — not because she’s done anything wrong, but because she’s too beautiful and all the men of the town give her too much attention.

Where did that idea come from?

It came from watching how cruel women can be to other women. Some people will admit that; others will not.

Your last novel, 2007’s Unwound, was written under the pseudonym Jonathan 8 December 2012

Baine. Why? My agent wanted to do that because Barnes & Noble and Amazon pre-order books based on your previous sales.

And we never had that strong previous sales. And he felt that [Unwound] was so commercial he wanted to go under a different name just to fool the computers at Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

How did that work out?

It had a first printing of 146,000 copies, so it definitely did well. We got in the bargain stores like BJ’s and Costco, which believe it or not is really important to authors.

You made a documentary, Color Me Obsessed, about the ‘80s Minneapolis rock band the Replacements that includes no footage of the band performing — just people talking about the band. Why? I wanted to do a different kind of rock documentary. This movie dropped into my lap. I’m lying in bed at two in the morning and I’m thinking, ‘What can I do with this that will make it interesting to me?’ You spend a couple of years on these things, you know? And I hate the VH1, Where Are They Now? kind of nonsense.

The thought literally popped into my head: ‘I don’t believe in God, but I believe in the Replacements. Can I make people believe in the Replacements the way they

believe in God?’ It would be like Biblical in the respect that it’s just stories and people talking about them — but you never see them and you never hear them. The subject is not present. And I remember waking up [wife] Chris and saying, ‘What do you think of this?’ And she said, ‘That’s the stupidest idea you’ve ever had — go back to sleep.’

What’s your all-time favorite movie that’s not your own?

I’m going to sound like a complete film geek. Believe it or not, it’s Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal [1957].

Why? Visually, every single frame of that film could be enlarged and put on your wall as a work of art. It’s also one of the strongest statements against religion [that] I’ve ever seen.

It’s just beautiful and brilliant and depressing.

to Sally’s on a Saturday night before I had the magic [phone] number – we’d get there at seven o’clock and be leaving at midnight — for pizza! But the minute you take your first bite, it’s like shooting up with heroin or something. Your eyes roll back in your head and it’s like you’re off on some astral plane.

Okay, pressure’s on: Compare and contrast the three.

Wow. Sally’s is like going to family, at this point, for me.

Quinton, Lorenzo, whatever, the waiter who always waits on us, is like my slightly obnoxious brother who I really adore. Flo [Florence Consiglio, widow of Pepe’s founder Salvatore (Sally) Consiglio, who passed away this September] was like my grandmother. It’s family.

Modern is like, friends. You

go there and you’re like among friends, and it’s just a whole lot more casual. Pepe’s is probably the one I go to the least — not because I don’t like it, but because the white clam and garlic is too heavy. You can’t have it four times a week.

But they’re all very different, and they’re all very special.

You’re aware that many people not from around here — people from Brooklyn, for example — sneer at New Haven pizza.

Or people from Chicago. I went to Chicago and people took me to what were supposedly the three best pizza places in Chicago. I left Chicago and all I could think of was how much pity I felt for these poor people.

I sort of like that deep-dish thing…

No. It’s pizza pot pie. Bring me to a place in New York that’s even better than, like, Bar [the Crown Street watering hole renowned for innovations such as mashedpotato pizza]. Brooklyn has always had a [feud] with Manhattan. Brooklyn has a small penis, and it doesn’t want to realize it. Brooklyn will never be Manhattan — no matter how much it tries.

Isn’t Brooklyn kind of hip now?

Hipsters are the biggest joke.

Hipsters are the slackers from the ‘90s; they’re the hippies from the ‘60s — it’s just basically another name for people who are unemployed and don’t want to take baths.

There’s no pizza in Brooklyn, and there’s no pizza in Manhattan.

What are you working on next?

After doing three rock docs

How come you’re still in New Haven and not in New York?

[Laughs] Pizza. How do you leave Sally’s, Pepe’s and Modern?

That holy trinity is the subject of your newest film, Pizza: A Love Story. Where did the idea come from?

So many people are obsessed with these three places that it needed to be explained — and not in some silly, comical Food Network kind of way. I literally go back to Sargent Lock Co. in the late 1800s bringing workers over from Naples and establishing them in Wooster Square. That’s where my movie starts. It’s a serious look at those three pizza places: how they’ve changed over the years, how New Haven has changed with them over the years — for the good and for the bad. We were talking to people in line at Pepe’s a couple of weeks ago: There are people who drive from Philadelphia to come get a pizza. That’s not sane — that’s completely crazy.

There are people I’ve brought

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and the pizza doc, I decided I wanted to do something a little more important. I’m very much into animal welfare. There’s a story [wife] Chris found for me. It’s going to be called A Dog Named Gucci. Nineteen years ago, a doctor in town [in Alabama], Doug James, was sitting on his porch and he hears a puppy screaming. He goes and he ďŹ nds this dog being hung from a tree, squirted with lighter uid and set on ďŹ re. He chases away the three thugs who are doing it, chased the dog and ďŹ nally [catches] the dog, puts [the ďŹ re] out and takes the dog to a vet, who says the dog’s not going to live. The dog ends up living for 16 years. So he single-handedly with this dog became the face of animal welfare and changed the [Alabama] laws so that animal abuse would be a felony.

The law is called Gucci’s Bill. I thought, ‘That’s such a great story because it’s got a beginning, a middle and an end, and it’s got a happy ending, and we can make Gucci a national face for animal welfare.’ This year you released a documentary, What Did You Expect? About an indie rock band with one of the worst band names ever — the Archers of Loaf. Did they replace the Replacements, so to speak, as your favorite band?

‘The horror ďŹ lms that I made? I might as well have made porn, because that’s how damaging they were to my career.’ I really take music seriously — it’s like the one passion in my life. After the Replacements broke up I was always looking for new bands. I went to a CMJ [College Music Journal] show in 1993 in New York at [the nightclub] Tramps. The band comes out, and I knew within 30 seconds this was my new favorite band.

They’re noisy, they’re poppy, they’re sarcastic and funny — they were so good on stage. So then they break up, of course, in 1998. By the time they reunited last year I had become friends with them.

They would play in New Haven and I would take them to Modern [Apizza].

They were like the bastard child of the Replacements.

When you make movies like this, are they self-ďŹ nanced?

Kickstarter [a crowd-funding website for creative projects]. For this project we raised about $75,000. I’ll basically say, ‘You can be an executive producer and have your name on the [credits] for $2,500.’ But

they get no money back — they’re paying [solely] for the title. And as you can see here [displaying the DVD cover] I’ve got seven executive producers, one of whom, Diane, was my angel — she gave us tens of thousands.

Just because they love the band?

They love the band, and in some cases there are people who would just put $30 and get a DVD before anyone else, or a poster, or a bumper sticker. So it’s like preselling rewards.

Any other movies we haven’t discussed?

The one movie I haven’t talked about is Broken Side of Time [soon to be released].

My favorite feature that I’ve made that’s not a documentary is You Are Alone [2005].

Broken Side of Time takes that same theme of loneliness, and what we do to make ourselves feel less alone. Someone actually paid me $500 to have character in Broken Side of Time named after them. I’ve had two people pay to spend a day with me in the editing room. Kickstarter is a godsend to artists because we don’t have to answer to anybody — you’re basically funded by your fans. It’s wonderful.

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Turning Back the Clock New science helps older women become first-time mothers

By MELISSA NICEFARO

F

rom the time females of the species are little girls, they dream about motherhood. They carry baby dolls on their hips, chatting away on fake cell phones, cooking fake dinners for Daddy, pretending to be perfect little Mommies. Eventually they grow up, and after spending a few years trying to avoid pregnancy at all costs, the time finally comes to start a family.

You’re on a secret mission and you just know you’re going to be one of those women who gets pregnant easily. We do our research, and we’re going to nail it the first time.

You’ve already planned how to break the news to family and friends. You’re a woman on a mission. You calculate the best days to have sex, adding on an extra tryst (okay, two), just for good measure.

new haven

11

You wait the obligatory week until you can take a pregnancy test, then pee on a stick.

Nothing. Maybe it’s just too early. Maybe you shouldn’t haven used a dollar-store test. You let a couple of days pass, feeling all sorts of imaginary changes happening in your body, pee on a stick again, but again it’s negative. The heart drops a little, but then you vow that next month will be “the month.” After all, trying to get pregnant isn’t exactly unpleasant. It affords couples the opportunity to unite in the most intimate of ways. But after a few months, the novelty is wearing off and the disappointment begins to set in. It seems everyone around you is either pregnant or has a baby on her hip. A few more months pass — more fake nausea and cramping while you wait to take a pregnancy test.

Sex has become work and fear sets in.

Congratulations: You’re one of the ten percent of women suffering from infertility.

Physical causes for infertility include endometriosis, polyps, faulty development of the reproductive organs. For those causes, there are treatments and remedies.

But for about 15 percent of couples dealing with infertility, there is simply no diagnosis. With unexplained infertility, there’s nothing to fix. Sometimes it’s just as simple as an aging body.

Liz Melvin of Branford always knew she wanted to be a mother. When she married her husband Doug in 2003, she was 40 years old and the couple had a feeling that she was going to need help conceiving. Liz Melvin worked for Yale University at the time and through the university health plan, the couple underwent treatment for infertility. After one failed intrauterine insemination, (IUI), she had surgery for uterine polyps and then another IUI, which also failed.

“I went to Hugh Taylor [a Yale reproductive endocrinologist and director

of the Yale Center for Endometrium and Endometriosis and the Yale Center for Reproductive Biology] and had an invitro fertilization (IVF), became pregnant and then miscarried,” she recalls. So she underwent another surgery for uterine polyps that had grown back, underwent another IVF, got pregnant and miscarried again.

After her third IVF, at age 43, she finally became pregnant and maintained the pregnancy. Their daughter Emma is now five years old.

“I did things differently for that last cycle,” Liz Melvin says. “After 15 years, I started eating red meat after being told I wasn’t getting essential fatty acids and proteins. We were frustrated because nobody had ever talked to us about the effect nutrition could be having on our ability to conceive.”

She also went to Revive Wellness Center in New Haven for acupuncture and Chinese herbs, another factor she credits for her successful pregnancy. She also credits the power of prayer.

“A lot of people prayed for me,” she says.

“I know that may sound a little cryptic, but I told people at our church and they prayed every week with me. My priest would give me two communion wafers at communion. There were just so many people rooting for me. I don’t know what ultimately made the difference, it could have been a combination of things.”

“I think the stars just lined up,” she says.

“It was time. We had a lot of losses and this was going to be our last chance.”

After their daughter was born, the couple became pregnant again — this time on their own — but the pregnancy ended with a miscarriage at ten weeks.

was not. It was excruciating,” Liz Melvin says. “I always had younger eggs than I should have. My eggs were that of a 20-something-year-old. Doug’s sperm was perfect. But it just wouldn’t happen. I’m certain that much of it was stress and my mental state. There was financial stress, job stress, family stress.”

Melvin falls into a category of women referred to as ‘Advanced Reproductive Age,’ by Pasquale Patrizio, MD, director of the Yale Fertility Center.

“Age is becoming more and more of an issue as a cause of infertility,” Patrizio explains. The prime time of fertility is typically up to age 32, and typically decreases after the age of 35. “At 35 it begins to take a dive and it becomes more obvious at the age of 37 or 38.”

Nevertheless, Patrizio says, the longterm trend is for ever more sophisticated medical intervention as well as medications themselves becoming more finely tuned.

“There have been advances in IVF as medication has been fine-tuned to create fewer mature eggs, reducing multiple births,” he says. “With new diagnostic approaches and biopsying embryos at five days of development, you can test the entire set of chromosomes. We have very robust analysis of the chromosomes, and now we can be sure which embryo should be replaced. When we used to replace all of them, we now can replace one.”

Patrizio calls this new diagnostic tool a “great advance” since doctors such as he are now able to diagnose embryo chromosomal conditions with greater accuracy than ever before. \leaf here\

“When Emma was three and a half, we did one more IVF, but it failed. The others were covered by insurance, but this one

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B f d Daughter D h E Emma is i now five years old. ld d

Another innovation is egg-freezing, a relatively new option that can be used by women to preserve their future fertility. The solution is ideal for women who cannot reproduce at a prime young age due to their career or the lack of a spouse.

“If you freeze your eggs at age 30 and return to use them when you’re 38, when you’re ready, those eggs still have the success rate of when you were 30,” Patrizio explains. The American Society of Reproductive Medicine has removed the ”experimental” label for egg freezing and research permission is no longer needed, making the process significantly easier for would-be mothers to navigate.

“We hope this will encourage more women to use this option, and freeze their future reproductive potential,” Patrizio says. He also encourages young women who have cancer to consider egg freezing. If the timing is not perfect and eggs are not at the right stage of development for extraction from the body, Patrizio can remove a piece of the ovarian tissue that contains the eggs.

“For women with cancer who need to start treatment right away, this is fantastic news,”

he says. The process costs roughly $6,500, with additional costs for storing the eggs.

Patrizio would like to see gynecologists discuss egg freezing as an option for all young women. “They should discuss reproductive plans,” he says. “Put the question there and inform that there is a opportunity to freeze eggs and stop the clock.”

Typically a dozen eggs are frozen per cycle, with a total of 20 or so being a safe number to achieve pregnancy, according to Patrizio.

“Today there are so many options — there are no patients who should be left out without some type of treatment,” he says.

“We cannot rewind the biological clock, but we can intervene earlier and take advantage of the new treatments such as egg freezing.”

Six or seven years ago, in 20 percent of infertility cases, science had no clue what was wrong, but now that figure has fallen to about 14 percent. “Some women have eggs that are older — but now we are starting to understand that there are fragile eggs because of a low ovarian reserve,” explains Patrizio. There is more and more genetic clarity, but it’s a slow process.

Doctors encourage women under 35 years of age to try to conceive for a full year before seeking help. Since time is precious, women over age 35 are asked to try for six months.

“Don’t get too stressed,” Patrizio advises.

“Some women get so worried and the psychological state becomes a barrier.”

“The [medical] definition of infertility is one year without contraception,” according to Trumbull fertility physician Andrew Levi.

“Unless there’s something in the woman or man’s history that could be an issue, we ask them to come in sooner.”

“Fertile people just have sex and get pregnant; they don’t try every month,” Levi says. During the year, doctors recommend using ovulation predictor kits that are sold over the counter at pharmacies. And if a couple suspects a problem, doctors recommends men not wait too long to have a semen analysis to rule out issues with the quality of the sperm.

Most often, age is the predominant factor.

Continued on 39

new haven

13

Hops To It A New Haven County craft beer crawl

BY Liese

Klein

Scott Vignola hopes his Luck & Levity Brewshop in New Haven will be hub for local home beer brewers.

“There are far more home brewers out there in New Haven than I thought there would be.”

14 December 2012

I

t wasn’t so long ago that a night out for beers in New Haven involved a $2 Rolling Rock swigged from the bottle while standing, as you shouted conversation over boisterous college kids.

Contrast that to a recent evening downtown: A quality meal at Prime 16 sipping a $14 glass of Italian craft brew that had been aged in wine casks by nationally known beer experts — based in Oxford, Connecticut.

There were some chatty college kids sitting under the Edison bulbs at this Elm City hotspot, but also professionals in suits and grizzled “beer geeks” sipping brews with charttopping alcohol percentages and pedigrees to match.

The New Haven-area’s craft beer scene now stretches across town lines, industries and brewing styles to the point that we’ve become a destination for hop-lovers across the region. So join us for a “craft beer crawl” to sample some of the best sudsy destinations around.

Just be sure to bring a designated driver — these beers aren’t for lightweights!

A Prime Location to Sample Craft Styles

Townsend says. “Once people start drinking more complex beer, they’re looking for something a little more unique and limited.”

Open for five years, Prime 16 on Temple Street has become the destination of choice for beer aficionados downtown with its well-chose roster of craft beers on draught.

Not that the bar is alone in its appreciation of finer suds: Cask Republic opened a few years later around the corner with 53 taps and near 100 rare beers in the bottle. Not to mention the Belgian ales on draught at Rudy’s on Chapel Street and impressive craft lineups at establishments as disparate as the New Haven Meatball House and Firehouse 12.

“The clientele is growing and growing and the options are just growing and growing,” says Larry Townsend, general manager at Prime 16. As both a beer lover and restaurateur, he said he’s thrilled with the flowering of the beer scene because it makes New Haven “more of a destination.

It makes for a good night.”

As the selection and range of venues grow, New Haven beer fans are increasingly venturing beyond American ales into the exotic extremes of craft brewing,

On Townsend’s own “must-drink” list is the Zymatore Project beers of Oxfordbased B. United International, a distributor that ages quality craft beer in wine and spirits barrels to create “flavors and aromas that destroy the boundaries of beer, wine, mead, cider and spirits.” Prime 16 had the company’s Birrificio Barley BB Dexi Zymatore on tap this fall, an Italian beer so strong that it’s classified as a “barley wine” and costs the aforementioned $14 per (quite small) glass.

Plan B in Milford and Cask Republic in New Haven.

Prime 16 Tap House + Burgers, 172 Temple St., New Haven (203-782-1616), Prime16.com.

Tapping into European Tradition Operating a few miles away from adventurous beer distributor B. United International, Cavalry Brewing Co. in Oxford also draws inspiration from brewing traditions of the Old Country.

Owner Mike McCreary opened in 2010 with the goal of producing the mellow ales he fell in love with in England.

Despite the small portion, the Zymatore Dexi packed some oversized flavors of fruit, chocolate and spice with only a gentle kick “My beers have a lot of flavor and they are low-alcohol,” McCreary says. “I did my despite its ten-percent alcohol content. research: People will drink one of the very Illustrating the complexity of extreme high-alcohol beers and three of something brews, the beer consists of an English-style else — I want to be those three.” Cavalry’s barley wine brewed in Italy and then aged brews are now found across the state and in whiskey and Pinot Noir barrels here in are on tap for distribution in New Jersey Oxford. and Massachusetts as well.

With its casual charm and beers like the A veteran of Iraq, McCreary honors the Zymatore Dexi on tap, Prime 16 heads up service with military-themed labels on his the lineup of the best beer bars in New Marauder IPA, Hatch Plug ale and Article Haven county — a short list that includes 15 English ale. For the winter season, Delaney’s in Westville, Mikro in Hamden,

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Beer expert Jim Sibley of Cheshire Wine & Spirits: “Local beer is fresh and it helps the local economy … I’m proud to be part of that.”

try Cavalry’s Big Wally Porter, named for McCreary’s commander in Iraq and redolent of chocolate and coffee. “I don’t do anything extreme — I like things wellbalanced,” he explains.

brewery’s ultra-premium ($180 a bottle) 2012 Utopia. Yes, you read that right: A 24-ounce bottle of beer that costs $180 — and that’s a good price for the vintage.

(Most craft beers are less than $2 a bottle.)

Talk to McCreary and sample the brews at one of Cavalry’s frequent “Cask Wednesday” events; look for details on the company’s Facebook page. Other breweries that host tastings and tours in the area include top-tier New England Brewing in Woodbridge and newbie Thimble Island Brewing in Branford.Cavalry Brewing, 115 Hurley Rd., Building 9A, Oxford (203-2626075), cavalrybrewing.com.

Beer appreciation is a natural offshoot of the “locavore” movement, Sibley says.

“Local beer is fresh and it helps the local economy,” he explains. “Craft beer is the only segment of the beer industry that is up year after year, and I’m proud to be part of that.”

Bringing Bottles to the Masses Due east from Oxford lies another New Haven County beer landmark: Cheshire Wine & Spirits on Highland Avenue and its resident beer expert, Jim Sibley. When Sibley first started appreciating fine beer in the mid-1980s, there were only two local brews produced in the entire New England region: Sam Adams lager and porter from the late Catamount Brewing in Vermont.

Now Sibley presides over a selection of hundreds of regional beers and dozens of bottles and cans from Connecticut alone. Of course the store’s still got beers from Sam Adams – including the Boston

16 December 2012

Sibley’s newest local favorites come from Back East Brewing in Bloomfield. But like many New Haven beer fans, he’s also got his eye on upcoming releases from brandnew Two Roads Brewing in Stratford, led by nationally known brewmaster Phil Markowski.

For more of Jim Sibley’s local and regional beer picks, see the box at left.

Cheshire Wine & Spirits, 581 Highland Avenue Cheshire (203-439-0868).

Crafting Your Own Beer at Home If all this beer talk is making you thirsty, you may want to explore doing it yourself.

With the help of New Haven’s newest addition to the craft industry, the Luck & Levity Brewshop on Court Street, aspiring

brewers can whip up a five-gallon batch for as little as $30, if you’ve got the gear.

(Equipment and ingredients will set you back about $200 to start.)

“So many folks want to start home brewing — there’s a lot of excitement here for me being here,” says Luck & Levity owner Scott Vignola. “People make just about everything — everything from red ales, to Scottish ales, porters, stout. People really do explore.” Vignola opened the shop this fall and aims to become a regional destination for people interested in all kinds of fermented foods — from kimchee to sake to meads (honey wines) and ciders.

To get started in beer-making, Vignola recommends some basic pots and fermenting containers plus malt extracts and yeasts to match your chosen beer style. Most people start with ales because they’re more forgiving when it comes to brewing temperature. He also recommends asking for advice from the area’s sizable contingent of home brewers — you may be sitting a few desks away from an aspiring beer entrepreneur.

“There are far more home brewers out there in New Haven than I thought there would be, both men and women,” Vignola says.

“I want the store to be a central place for them to gather as a community.”

Luck & Levity Brewshop, 118 Court St., New Haven (203-785-0545). Y

9 Craft Beers To Try Today The New Haven area and neighboring cities and states are producing some of the country’s most respected craft beers right now. Find these brews on tap at your favorite beer bar or larger stores like Cheshire Wines & Spirits, Amity Wine & Spirits in Hamden and Coastal Wine & Spirits in Branford. If you want to do a beer road trip, Willimantic Brewing and Granby’s Cambridge House brew some of the state’s best beverages only on draught.

Here are is a selection of craft beer found locally with input from Jim Sibley: New England Brewing (Woodbridge) Gandhi Bot. A hoppy and bright double India Pale Ale that ranks among the best beers in the region.

Bru Room at Bar (New Haven) Damn Good Espresso Stout. Chocolaty and rich and great with mashedpotato pizza.

Cavalry (Oxford) Marauder IPA. A malty, English-style pale ale with some nice hop bitterness.

Back East (Bloomfield) Porter. Rich and roasted with a full hop finish, great with winter foods.

City Steam (Hartford) Innocence Ale. Hearty India Pale Ale with refreshing citrusy flavors.

Berkshire Brewing (S. Deerfield, Mass.) Russian Imperial Stout. Malty and satisfying on a cold evening.

Sixpoint (Brooklyn, N.Y.) Otis. Rich oatmeal stout that balances sweetness and the bite of hops.

Captain Lawrence (Pleasantville, N.Y.) Freshchester Pale Ale. Easy-drinking and refreshing.

Two Roads (Stratford) anything. Beer geeks statewide are anticipating great things from this new brewery, with beers expected to arrive around New Year’s.—

new haven

17

One-Year

Wonder

By Duo Dickinson

Constrained by geography, topography and chronology, a Madison couple pull off a not-so-minor miracle

People who live in glass houses: The backyard view of the Makouls’ Madison home shows how the maximum height and maxed-out coverage to comply to a variety of setbacks can become an artfully ascendant house. The multiple overhangs shade and protect south-facing windows, the screen porch (right) makes summer living delightful and the tapestry of woven siding enriches the evolving shape.

18 December 2012

AT H O M E

By DUO DICKINSON

W

hen they decided to relocate to Connecticut from Chicago, Greg and Limor Makoul thought they wanted to buy and renovate a classic Connecticut antique. “We had rehabbed two 100-year old houses in Chicago — pretty much by ourselves — and were looking to do the same here,” recalls Greg Makoul. “Got excited about a couple of possibilities, but they fell through.”

But they found a bargain in the worst housing market since World War II. That bargain was near the beach in Madison, but the home was no antique — it was an awkward and small 1960s “contemporary ranch.”

So knowing they could never “build the land” from scratch, they gulped, hired me as their architect (objectivity alert there) and jumped in with both feet. The Makouls opted to build new, replacing the ranch. Even at a bargain price, the site was by no means free, and new construction has nearly unlimited potential to have costs exceed budget.

But this project had the double whammy of the tightest of schedules — just over 12 months — courtesy of their grammarschool aged daughters, Zoe and Laine.

The Makouls secured a one-year rental and boldly dedicated themselves to getting moved into their new home (on a

PHOTOGRAPHS: Mick Hales new haven

19

Set at a literal bend in the road, this home’s central entry acts as the balancing point for an active shape derived to avoid any and all variances.

tight site with a very specific cost) before middle school happened.

First, they needed to pick a contractor immediately. After interviewing a few who I trusted to be honest, fair and fast-working, they picked Matt Fogerty who fulfills all of those characteristics.

Second, since their site was in a flood plain, had wetlands on it, was undersized from the existing zoning requirements so if any variances were required, the one year timeline would not be met. This meant every aspect of the design of their home had to produce an “as of right” (the legal term) building.

The first step in playing by all the rules was to verify that the house that had to be removed was eligible to be demolished without a 90-day hold triggered when an “antique” is to be razed. A little research and the small placeholder home was history.

The stairway addresses the front door and integrates the wonderful birch flooring with trim, treads and risers cut to the curving shape of the cost-saving side wall.

20 December 2012

The Makouls careful planning allowed for every setback to be met, height restrictions adhered to, and the small site’s tight coverage limits to be complied with. The

100-foot setback to the wetlands also had to be respected although a slight encumbrance by the screen porch received “administrative approval” so that it would not hold up the project.

The half-acre site was just big enough to build the four-bedroom, three-bath house they envisioned.

Despite these limitations and the installation of a new codecompliant septic system, a new home was built that is quite spontaneous in its evocatively expressive form and detailing.

The resulting 3,700-squarefoot house adheres to the code definition of a “two-and-one-halfstory structure,” but still provides sufficient attic space for storage (important because the site’s floodplain location prevented digging a full basement) as well as a wonderful attic office for Greg.

Beyond these hard-edged requirements to leverage a timely occupancy, the Makouls wanted a home that limited future costs. So the home was designed to be super-insulated, have a geothermal-assisted, multi-zoned

HVAC system, be naturally vented, and accept natural light for winter heat while still providing shade against unwanted solar gain.

The house took about three months to design, draw and get a building permit and about ten months to build with a schedule very much predicated on brinksmanship.

Notwithstanding the code and scheduling constraints, the house also accommodates a ground-floor suite for a visiting parent.

In addition a space for music practice was created for the Makoul girls. An outdoor gathering space was a must, so a civilized screen porch was dynamically set off to a side, invisible from indoors during winter months, but still just a few steps from the kitchen. Integrated into the open living/

dining/kitchen area is a built-in wine closet, a tribute to the couple’s love of vino.

The home’s setback-limited perimeter had its precisely confined ground-level footprint relieved by ten-foot ceilings.

Windows are oversized, and many have operable transoms — operable to reduce air-conditioning use and maximize day lighting to minimize electric use.

Considerable money was saved using simple flat-stock trim. A rock found on the site became the fireplace hearth.

Salvaged beams from the Madison firm Wood, Steel & Glas were used to create trim, columns and the fireplace mantle.

These were meshed with other natural woods and complemented by stainless steel pieces and parts.

The first floor and hallways are graced with dramatic solid birch flooring and stair components. The third-floor office employs interior windows to separate HVAC zones and share light. It is oriented at the right spot at the right height to grab a winter glimpse of sunlight on waves of Long Island Sound (if you squint). Strategic skylights backlight and vent spaces throughout the second floor and attic.

A two-car garage wing connects to the house through a back door and mudroom ensemble. Above that wing is another byproduct of a tightly defined perimeter: a second-floor family room that takes advantage of the available cathedral ceilings. A walk-through laundry, elevated master suite and master bath with vaulted

new haven

21

Not so much a screened porch as an ‘outdoor room,’ this space has careful detailing (incorporating custom crafted stainless steel brackets, ground concrete floors and clear fir structure) and vaulted scale to make it a seamless transition between ‘in’ and ‘out.’

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A kitchen designed to accommodate family members entering (rear right door leads to mudroom), snack-seeking kids (the built-in fridge right), seated socializers (the island) and lots of cook-friendly counter space. This open area is toplit from transoms connecting to the screen porch and gives instant serving access to that porch (left).

ceiling are all interwoven in a naturally flowing ensemble of spaces.

Recalls Greg Makoul: “Our daughters, Zoe and Laine, were involved at every step [of the building process] as well. They decided to put a window in the wall between their closets.”

The exterior is a dance of shapes, lines, materials and windows incorporating wood shingles, tongue-and-groove boards, Azek trim and asphalt shingles. The shape both bends and steps, creating overhangs that protect windows and provide shade.

Eaves are broad to protect the home and are celebrated with trim.

In this tight neighborhood visible garage doors are not always welcomed by neighbors. But angling them toward a bend in the road, shading them with a metal rooflet and rendering them in clear-finished mahogany transformed a necessity

into an asset. Similarly, the crawl space access door (a “Bilco” in common parlance) uses carefully joined trim and sheet-metal detailing in tight coordination with the evolving trim and siding design.

But it is the entry roof that creates the visual focal point for those viewing the house. It was created using a cantilevered roof with curved surfaces and has a natural wood ceiling over two-sided steps. These expressive gestures beckon visitors and shelter them.

All this integration of materials, shape, space, light and function does not happen by chance. Explains Greg Makoul: “We talked a lot about materials, light and feel. We would send drawings back and forth, which led to some stunningly cool solutions. We have a not-sobig, not-so-normal house — and we love it.” Y

new haven

23

Master bedroom. Elevated from the rest of the second floor, the setback-conforming exterior walls provide a natural focus for the bed. The transom windows allow for crossventilation and day lighting.

The living room area of the open first floor employs salvaged wood trim and columns, transom windows and a rock hearth found on site to enrich and focus a flowing space.

24 December 2012

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25

Philanthropists young and old seek the most effective way to leave a legacy for the causes they care for most

By Karen Singer

Says flamboyant Orchestra New England Music Director Sinclair: ‘One of my key things is to leave a legacy to support the future.’.’

Photos:Lisa Wilder

26 December 2012

A

s founder and music director of Orchestra New England, James Sinclair has spent decades cultivating benefactors.

Around two years ago he became one himself, by formalizing his intent to give and devising a plan to maximize his contribution.

“I think everyone has stuff they’ve been involved with or care about in some way or another,” explains Sinclair. “I’m in the arts, having founded an orchestra I’ve parented for four decades. One of my key things to leave a legacy to support the future.”

Sinclair, 65, started thinking about his legacy a decade ago, following the death of his parents. His most recent will designates Orchestra New England and the Salvation Army as beneficiaries.

Sinclair is himself the beneficiary of guidance from Open Circle Advisors, a consulting firm specializing in wealth enhancement, wealth transfer and charitable gifting, among other services.

“It’s important to have your assets managed so that a will can carry out something significant,” Sinclair says.

“There are a subset of people who are interested in charitable donations,” says Alex Madlener, Open Circle’s managing principal. “We look at ways they can have the most impact, and we can help them on the investment.”

A Yale-trained psychiatrist and financial planner, Madlener assisted with planned charitable giving for his stepfather, Alfred W. Van Sinderen, the late former chairman, president and CEO of Southern New England Telephone. Van Sinderen’s prolific charitable work included the establishment of the Devereux Glenholme School, a private nonprofit for children with emotional and behavioral problems, on a Washington (Connecticut) estate owned by his family.

“Al was certainly interested in giving back to New Haven and Yale,” says Madlener, referring to Van Sinderen, who died in 1998. “He had some tax issues with highly appreciated stock. The problem was how to manage capital-gains liability and also diversify out of that. The larger charitable goal was to benefit Yale and Devereux.”

Part of the solution involved setting up a charitable remainder trust, in which the assets can benefit you during your life, and the remainder goes to charity.

“Besides charitable reasons, there are tax reasons to make gifts, so a lot of families

will use these charitable trusts, where they can take out a certain percentage each year or a fixed amount over a certain period,” explains trusts and estates attorney Stearns Bryant Jr., who also worked with Van Sinderen. “The asset doesn’t recognize the capital gains if it’s placed in a chartable remainder trust.”

So, there are no capital gains taxes for the donor, who also receives an income-tax deduction for the assets.

Inform.

Imagine.

Charitable lead trusts are another option, where payments are made annually to a charity for a specified amount of time and beneficiaries receive remaining assets.

The tax rules may be changing, however, as administration officials grapple with gargantuan fiscal problems before the Bush tax cuts expire at the end of 2012.

Increased capital-gains rates loom, along with a major alteration in itemized deductions likely to diminish the ability to deduct charitable contributions.

Invest.

Inspire.

If you haven’t already included your local community in your charitable estate plans, we encourage you to do so through The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven.

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27

Jef Cheney, tax manager at Meyers, Harrison & Pia, sees two issues coming into play if the Bush tax cuts expire.

“Everybody’s taxes are going up and the itemized deductions schedule, which allowed you to take 100 percent the last couple of years, now becomes a phaseout.”

Also in the crosshairs is the $5 million lifetime gifting exclusion, which could include charitable giving. It is set to reset to $1 million in 2013.

For people wondering what to do before the end of 2012, Cheney says, “It’s a caseby-case basis.”

He typically recommends cash donations this year rather than appreciated assets such as stocks. “They’ll get a deduction at fair-market value,” he says of such donors.

“They’ll get a larger deduction and not have to pay capital gains, which next year are going to be higher.”

M ad

lener

Shelby Wilson, a partner with Berchem, Moses & Devlin, whose practice areas are trusts and estates and tax planning.

“Most clients who are charitably inclined will leave through a will or testamentary documents, and either give a specific bequest or distribution or include some type of arrangement,” Wilson says. “For higher-net-worth clients, we’re doing planning that fulfills their goals but also personal objectives, which might include incomes to one or more family members and preservation of family assets.”

Wilson has clients “of very modest means” who nevertheless desire to include charitable giving in their planning. “In most cases the families are very happy, and a lot of times it creates a kind of pattern of gifting, and many times it perpetuates giving as an ongoing legacy,” she explains. “On the opposite end of the spectrum, I have clients who have created foundations that their children want to continue.”

Some clients prefer donating to a local community foundation.

“We use the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven when people want to make sure their assets or income get spread around, and that it get used perpetually,” says Stearns.

Open Circle financial planner Madlener helps clients get the biggest bang for their philanthropic buck.

Cheney estimates higher-income individuals may see a ten-percent addition to their tax bills in 2013, with capital gains rates for individuals earning $250,000 and more rising from 15 percent to 20 percent, a new 3.8-percent hospital insurance tax and a 1.2-percent increase from the phase-out of itemized deductions.

“A lot of people say that if we didn’t have the charitable deduction people wouldn’t be charity-minded,” Stearns says. “I’m not sure that’s true. What I see in my practice is people who want to benefit charity.

They may want to do it in their lifetimes, like the Van Sinderens, or they may want to do it when they pass away.

“I’ve always felt need to bring it up,” Stearns says. “People don’t always think about doing it.”

Wealth “doesn’t really matter” for philanthropic planning, according to

28 December 2012

Ginsberg

“Many times a community foundation is a more common way to handle these things, for instance, to establish scholarship funds in the name of a child or parent,” adds Wilson. “In many cases it’s easier and more efficient from a financial perspective as well as an administrative perspective.”

YYY Donor-advised funds are a popular option at the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, which has more than 900 named funds and works with non-profits in 20 area cities and towns.

“In any given year we support hundreds of organizations with grants, and our Givegreater.org website [an online database of local nonprofit profiles] has around 215 organizations on it,” says Community Foundation President and CEO William W. Ginsberg.

“We have funds from $10,000 to ones that are many, many millions of dollars,” adds Dotty Weston-Murphy, the foundation’s vice president of donor and professional services. “I think people are being much more thoughtful and strategic about giving.

The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven helps direct funding to hundreds of groups per year according to CEO Ginsberg.

“The common element is people who are passionate and care about our local community.”

People like architect Jay Bright, who set up a trust in memory of his parents at the Community Foundation last year, using his share of an insurance policy he discovered after his mother’s death this June.

“I felt this was a chance to do some good in the local area, largely with kids and art,” explains Bright. “Both my parents supported the arts. My father was a musician early on and my mother was a painter and tried to teach me piano.”

Bright learned about the foundation through multiple donations to non-profits on its Givegreater.org website, and by meeting with foundation development director Sharon Cappetta.

“The more I found out, the more I understood how they sought out groups and how they’re really trying to help their nonprofits get their acts together and act responsibly,” says Bright. “So when this money appeared in my mother’s estate, I thought the Community Foundation knows a lot about who’s doing what in

Bryant

There are sound tax reasons to be generous, explains trusts and estates attorney Bryant.

what area, and could help me focus on kids and art. It was much easier than my trying to do research or give a little more to groups I already supported.”

member of a plethora of non-profits, he currently is championing the Yale School of Forestry’s Urban Resource Initiative.

While growing up in a “definitely middle class” family, Bright recalls, he and his sister received small allowances. “At the holidays we were encouraged to give a $1 to CARE,” he says. “There was the sense that even though you didn’t have much money you were doing better than a lot of people and you should share that.”

In 2011 Getman and several friends created a Community Foundation fund for Louise Endel, the sprightly nonagenarian who has served on nearly 56 nonprofit boards.

“She’s not a person of means but when she goes, which is probably in the middle of the next century, there will be a fund to serve New Haven in perpetuity,” Getman says.

Christopher Getman and his wife established funds at the Community Foundation two decades ago. “One is to benefit the New Haven Symphony [Orchestra], and if that ceases to be, the arts in general,” says Getman, principal of Soundview Capital Management Corp. in New Haven.

Shelly Saczynski, a Community Foundation board member, learned about philanthropy through her work as director of community affairs for SNET and her current job as director of economic and community development for the United Illuminating Co., where she oversees the corporate contributions program.

The other was set up for his three children because he “thought it would be a good idea for them to make decisions about giving.”

“I came from a family that sort of saw philanthropy was for wealthy people, not for people of modest means like me,” Saczynski says. As she “came to know” the people running local nonprofits and their work, she began making contributions to more than a dozen organizations annually, with an emphasis on homeless, women’s issues and other areas of interest.

Getman has devoted a great deal of time to “giving back to the community,” as a president of the NHSO and chairman of the United Way of Greater New Haven’s Alexis de Tocqueville division. A board

“I saw how much their work contributes to the quality of the place we live and how they change lives,” explains Saczynski.

Six years ago, she and her husband, Richard, who have no children, updated their wills, adding a bequest to the Community Foundation.

“Although we laughingly say we want the last check to bounce, you hope you’re going to die before the money runs out,” she says. “But the thought is if there is something left, it will live on.”

Ilene M. Saulsbury and her husband, Robert, also have set up funds at the Community Foundation. “Mine is an early-childhood fund; his is a scholarship in honor of his father,” says Saulsbury, a 78-year-old child-development specialist who helped shape the city’s Head Start program and currently is a board member of the St. Martin de Porres Academy. “My parents always told me it’s important to give back to the community.”

Sinclair does that every year, with small donations to his charities of choice, including the Salvation Army and the music school at Indiana University, his undergraduate alma mater.

Continued on 38

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29

O F NOT E S

Legacy Lost

A

Elm City’s forgotten music superstars: Karen and Richard Carpenter

By Joel Samberg

hile her brother stayed inside practicing the piano and analyzing musical arrangements, Karen Carpenter much preferred to be outside playing a scrappy game of softball in front of her house on Hall Street, just around the block from the Nathan Hale School.

half years older, and eventually listened to many of the records he played over and over in the house.

But according to Randy Schmidt, who wrote a 2010 biography called Little Girl Blue: The Life of Karen Carpenter, her childhood dreams were to become an artist or a nurse—not a pop star.

Was it a foregone conclusion back in those early New Haven days that Richard and Karen would end up leading the most successful pop group of the 1970s?

Was it a foregone conclusion that Karen’s voice would soon be regarded as one of the most beautiful and distinctive in the history of recorded music?

Not by a long shot.

Not a chance.

Despite her penchant for sports, Karen idolized Richard, who was three and a

But when you mix immense talent with incredibly hard work, throw in some good

W

30 Dec De December emb m er 2012

timing and a little luck, there can be an inevitable conclusion. In the case of Richard and Karen Carpenter it was a group that would sell more than 100 million records, win several Grammy Awards, tour the world, perform on many highly rated television programs, and make two twenty-something kids from

New Haven fabulously rich.

Paul McCartney once said of Karen Carpenter that she has “the best female voice in the world — melodic, tuneful and distinctive,” and Madonna called it “the clearest, purest voice” she ever heard. What’s more, just about every baby boomer can hum “Close to You,” “We’ve Only Just Begun,” “Rainy Days and Mondays,” “Superstar,” “Only Yesterday” and a half-dozen other hit singles by the Carpenters.

But the city that in its own small way played a part in this remarkable musical trajectory has few if any tributes or retrospectives to Richard, who lives in California and generally shuns the public spotlight, and Karen, who died 30 years ago at the age of 32. There was a musical homage in New Haven in the not-too-distant past, but that’s about it. If there were any additional ideas, plans or proposals, they were apparently misplaced, forgotten or deemed an unnecessary expense.

“I grew up on the East Shore, a few blocks from the Carpenters. Karen and Richard were several years older than me, so while I knew of them, I did not know them personally,” says New Haven Mayor

John DeStefano Jr. “That being said, it is hard not to know of them now and their contributions to American popular music.”

But when asked why Carpenter heritage seems to be lacking in town, the mayor, through his public-information office, had no comment.

Richard and Karen’s parents, Harold and Agnes Carpenter, moved the family to Southern California in 1963 so that Richard, who had just turned 17, could have a better shot at a professional music career. He formed several bands, including a jazz combo called the Richard Carpenter Trio, in which Karen played drums. Richard then formed another band called Spectrum, which played in clubs all around Los Angeles and came to the attention of several record executives.

What many people don’t know is that it was Karen who was first signed to a recording contract, as a solo artist. The label also signed Richard as a songwriter for its publishing division, but there are many indications that his signing was merely a way to keep him and his mother happy. After all, without Richard, Karen may not have had the impetus to sing professionally in the first place. As far as their mother was concerned, she was far more interested in her son’s career than

her daughter’s.

Legendary trumpeter Herb Alpert, who co-founded the record company called A&M, heard a Carpenter demo tape in 1969 and had Richard and Karen signed to the label. He instantly recognized Richard’s prodigious talents as an arranger and was mesmerized by Karen’s pristine and emotive contralto singing voice (which actually spanned more than three octaves). “It’s like she’s sitting in your lap and singing just for you,” he once said.

“They left New Haven with talent, but not with fame,” says Lucia Paolella, the current principal at Nathan Hale School, where Richard and Karen had been students. That, she speculates, may be why there isn’t much Carpenter heritage in town.

According to Jay Stevens, manager of Foundry Music in New Haven, even though their popularity and record sales were astronomical in the 1970s, the Carpenters hardly ever come up in conversation among customers or staff at the print music shop on Audubon Street. Stevens isn’t aware of any acknowledgements in town, either, and says, “I wouldn’t really expect there to be, any more than for Artie Shaw, who

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also grew up in New Haven. The music is what matters.”

That’s certainly another plausible scenario.

A third is that despite their enormous success, for every loyal Carpenters fan there are perhaps two or three other people who considered them out of place, out of touch and musically bland. While it’s true that their multi-tracked harmonies were superbly rendered, their songs imminently hum-able, their orchestrations full of surprises, and Karen’s velvety voice very plaintive (Rolling Stone called it “chocolate cream”), their image as a squeaky clean, joined-at-the-hip duo probably worked against a broader appeal. Also, they were lackluster performers: Onstage and onscreen Richard and Karen were not nearly as polished and enjoyable as they were on LPs and 45s.

Still, their musical catalogue is unpredictably rich. The Carpenters recorded more than 200 songs, well

beyond the million-selling hits, including sultry ballads like “This Masquerade,” curious oddities like “Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft,” Great American Songbook standards like “When I Fall in Love,” bouncy up-tempos like “Jambalaya (On the Bayou),” even a few LennonMcCartney covers and other surprises.

Perhaps if Karen had lived, and if the Carpenters had been able to make music well into the 1990s and 2000s, there would have been a bit more of a desire for New Haven to have played up the connection.

But Karen’s personal problems turned the volume down for good after less than a dozen years on the road and in the studio.

as a singer and to carve out an identity of her own. Her producer on the project was the legendary Phil Ramone. But her brother and the executives at A&M didn’t like the results, and the Karen Carpenter album was abandoned. This was a huge disappointment for Karen. (Richard finally agreed to release it in 1996, 13 years after his sister’s death.)

A few months after that she met a handsome real estate developer by the name of Tom Burris, and they were engaged to be married. But as Karen was soon to find out, in many ways Burris wasn’t quite what he claimed to be. Also, he neglected to tell Karen — who more than anything wanted to have children Karen was known to many as a funny, — about the vasectomy he had had years silly and giddy young woman, and a very earlier. Karen cried to her mother that she loyal and loving friend, but she also had didn’t want go through with the wedding, issues of self-esteem and self-image that but Agnes Carpenter said to her, “You plagued her throughout her brief adult life. made your bed, Karen. Now you’ll have to One major milestone on her downward lie in it.” spiral concerned a solo album she recorded Karen obeyed. There was a wedding. But in 1979. Richard wasn’t involved. He had the marriage, like the solo album project, taken a year off from making music to was a big disappointment. deal with a Quaalude addiction. Karen very much wanted to do some exploration “I think it’s safe to say that if Richard

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been so crazy about getting married. Together, the solo album and marriage fiasco were the harsh blows that sent her into the deepest depression of her life.”

Carpenter and the executives at A&M had stood behind Karen with the solo album, she would have gained a much-

needed shot of confidence,” says biographer Randy Schmidt. “And had that happened, she wouldn’t have

vomiting. Ipecac dissolves a little more heart muscle with every dose.

Personal issues aside, the little girl who played softball on Hall Street grew up to become one of the most successful singers of all time. Comments posted on hundreds of YouTube videos are passionate in their love of her skill and sorrow for her loss. One cannot count how many times she’s called an angel in heaven whose effortless, smooth and expressive singing is deemed as being so incredibly soothing.

Her style was deceptively simple, and it’s one that seems to be lost on the vast majority of female vocalists. Thirty years later, she still inspires.

Karen Carpenter began dieting obsessively in the mid-1970s.

It was her way of controlling at least one aspect of her life.

Toward the end of the decade she sought professional help.

But she never really faced the seriousness of her disorder and didn’t work hard enough to beat it. On February 3, 1983, she went shopping with her mother, and slept over at her parents’ house that night. In the morning her mother called up to the bedroom, but there was no answer. Agnes climbed the stairs and found Karen “Someone told me there was a dead on the floor of a walk-in plaque in Karen’s honor here at closet. As was later determined, school, before the relocation,” she had been taking massive says Lucia Paolella of Nathan doses of ipecac syrup for some Hale School. “But I haven’t time, a drug used to induce been able to locate it.” Y

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Pianist Zak Sandler and singer John Dillon practice ‘selling’ a song.L-r: Julia Osborne, Audrie Neenan, Lynne Wintersteller and Liz Pearce in Something’s Afoot at through December 9 at Goodspeed Musicals.

PHOTOGRAPH: Diane Sobolewski

’Til Death Do Them Part With predictable Something’s Afoot, Goodspeed ends season on a flat note

By BROOKS APPELBAUM

A

somber and inscrutable riddle shrouds Something’s Afoot: A Murder Mystery Musical, playing through December 9 at Goodspeed Musicals. However, and sadly, the riddle has almost nothing to do with surprises or suspense generated by the play itself. Rather, this critic-cumsleuth is stumped by the question of why 34 December 2012

Goodspeed Musicals ended its stellar season with such unoriginal fluff. The plot thickens when one takes into account the stellar acting, singing and dancing talent — not to mention the superb designers — who are all but stifled by a deadening combination of forgettable tunes and predictable storyline.

As I try to crack open the conundrum above, I recognize that, my personal taste aside, murder mysteries are as popular as they were in Dame Agatha Christie’s day, and Goodspeed’s producers may have expected that mystery fans would flock to the theater (as perhaps they are). Too, campy musical treatments of ostensibly serious subjects abound, both on and off Broadway (i.e. the huge success of The Book of Mormon and, on a smaller scale, Silence: the Musical, based on The Silence of the Lambs). If camp is alive and well, why not Something’s Afoot — despite the fact that the show premiered at the Goodspeed 40 years ago, and thus might strike us as dated? This concept doesn’t hold up to scrutiny, however: Time doesn’t date

brilliant theatrical material, as witness the many far older classics of the genre.

Mame and Carousel are examples from Goodspeed’s current season alone.

No, this critic-sleuth must drop the foregoing line of investigation altogether.

The show is alive and well on the Goodspeed’s stage; all one can do is dissect the piece for clues regarding its success and lack thereof.

Perhaps the very predictability of the material delights some die-hard fans of the British murder mystery genre. If I’ve caught a clue — and predictability is, for some, the main source of the evening’s pleasure — then the show more than obliges. To begin with, the set — the grand sitting room of a grand old country house — conforms to the room we’ve all seen before, either in film or in our imaginations, while reading Dame Christie’s books. However, to see such a room onstage and up close creates a fresh surge of pleasure, and the grandeur of Adrian W. Jones’s creation more than deserves the enthusiastic applause

that greeted its unveiling on opening night.

After this surprise, however, familiarity — or boredom, depending upon one’s taste — sets in with a vengeance. The first number, “A Marvelous Weekend,” introduces us to the premise and the characters: the huge manor house; the stormy weather; the saucy maid; the bottom-pinching caretaker; and the seven guests so pleased to be invited to a private evening with the wealthy Lord Rancour, only to be distressed to discover one another in attendance.

Each of these characters is as comforting (or stereotypical) as scones with clotted cream.

Among the guests are Hope Langdon, the blonde, lovely and apparently clueless “Ingénue”; Nigel Rancour, “The Dissolute Nephew” who hopes to find that he is Lord Rancour’s legal heir; Colonel Gillweather, “The Army Man” (“donchaknow”); to

Miss Tweed, “The Amateur Detective” and obvious standin for Miss Marple.

And off we’re headed, to an evening of watching these good people (or not) dispatched, one after the other, in between largely forgettable song and dance numbers.

The difficulty here, and perhaps the death-knell for the show almost before it begins, lies in this very structure: since we know that only one or two characters will be left standing by the end, we instantly stop ourselves from caring too much about them, no matter how apparently charming or humorous they are. And this is a shame, since in nearly every case — as is always true with the high standards of Goodspeed Musicals — the performances are terrific.

After a very slow first act, Benjamin Eakeley, as Nigel, “The Dissolute Nephew”

breaks open Act II with the fabulous number, “The Legal Heir” (the only truly fabulous number in the show). Performing a clever parody of a Fred Astaire love song, in which Nigel woos Lord Rancour’s unread will, Eakeley managed the nearly impossible task of awakening this curmudgeonly critic to out-loud laughter.

Ed Dixon as Col. Gillweather (“The Army Man”) is also marvelously funny; he has every modest move and close-mouthed mumble down to perfection, and it seems damned unfair that he’ll likely meet his end in this house after years of gallant service on the battlefield. Liz Pearce, as Lettie (“The Saucy Maid,”) and Khris Lewin as Flint (“The Caretaker”) perform with vigor, and they have perhaps the only other really clever song (“Dinghy”) in the show, a song that reminds us of the pleasures of naughty

British humor.

On opening night, Hope Langdon, (“The Ingénue”) was played by understudy Alyssa Gagarin. Langdon is featured in three numbers (solo and duet), none of which were in themselves particularly special, but all of which were welcome because of Gagarin’s sparkling performance. Gagarin lit up every other song she sang. Her voice is crystalline, and in her case — due to a combination of beauty, sincerity and grace — it was a pleasure to watch her so expertly bring to life what could have been a lifeless stereotype. I wish good health to Julia Osborne, the original Hope, but I count myself lucky to have seen this actress, and I’m glad she had her chance on opening night.

As for the musical itself, I can’t go so far as to wish Something’s Afoot an untimely death, but I do look forward to more lively offerings from Goodspeed Musicals next season. Y

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ART Opening The Magic of Christmas: A Festive Holiday Tradition. Annual holiday exhibition featuring four lavishly designer-decorated Fantasy Trees and the 12-foot Miss Florence’s Artist Tree decorated with 130 painted palettes by artists from across the country.

December 1-January 6 at Florence Griswold Museum, 96 Lyme St., Old Lyme. Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily except Mon., 1-5 p.m. Sun. $9 ($8 seniors, $7 students, 12 & under free). 860-434-5542, flogris.com.

Annual Silverbells Art Exhibition & Sale. The annual event featuring a variety of oils, acrylics, watercolors, graphics, pastels and mixed media

by Hamden Art League members.

December 4-20 (opening reception 7 p.m. December 4) at Miller Memorial Library Senior Center, 2901 Dixwell Ave., Hamden. Open 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m. weekdays. Free. 203-494-2316, hamdenartleague.com.

Vista: A Study of the Land is a group exhibition featuring work of nine national artists whose approaches to landscape painting are diverse as their subject matter. December 7-January 31 (artist reception 5 p.m. December 7 artist reception) at Reynolds Fine Art, 96 Orange St., New Haven. Open noon-5 p.m. Tues.-Thurs., noon-6 p.m. Fri.-Sat. Free. 203-498-2200, reynoldsfineart.com.

Chanukah Art Show featuring Chanukah-themed work by local artists.

December 9 at Da Silva Gallery, 897-899 Whalley Ave., New Haven. Open 2-4 p.m.

Free. 203-387-2539, westvillegallery.com.

Holiday Art Show and Sale.

Giampietro gallery artists exhibit specially priced artwork for holiday giftgiving. December 15-16 at Giampietro Gallery, Building 4 in Erector Square, 315 Peck St., New Haven. Open noon-5 p.m.

Free. 203-777-7760, giampietrogallery. com.

Société Anonyme: Modernism for America features works by more than 100 artists who made significant contribution to modernism including Constantin Brancusi, Paul Klee, Piet Modrian and Joseph Stella. December 12-June 23 at Yale University Art Gallery, 111 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. 203-4320600, artgalleryinfo@yale.edu.

Once Removed features contemporary artists, such as Carol Bove, Ree Morton, Nam June Paik and Allen Ruppersberg.

Once Removed includes artworks from the 1970s to the present that assert their own expanded frame, encouraging viewers to question the status of three-dimensional art today. December 12-April 7 at Yale University Art Gallery, 111 Chapel St., New Haven. Open 10

36 December 2012

’Waiting,’ by Lesley Braren, is one of multiple Images of the Essex Steam Train & Riverboat on view at the Valley Railroad in Essex through month’s end. a.m.-5 p.m. daily except Mon. (until 8 p.m. Thurs.) 1-6 p.m. Sun. Free. 203-4320600, artgalleryinfo@yale.edu.

Continuing In 1947, the children of All Soul’s Church in Washington, D.C. sent school supplies to children in Hiroshima, Japan as a gesture of compassion and friendship. The children of Honkawa Elementary School sent back pictures they had drawn with the art supplies as an expression of thanks for the gift.

These pictures are on display in the exhibit Through Children’s Eyes: Hiroshima. Through December 7 at Mansfield Freeman Center for East Asian Studies Gallery, 343 Washington Terr., Middletown. Open noon-4 p.m. Tues.Fri. Free. 860-685-2330, wesleyan.edu/ exhibitions.

Eye on Nature: Five Natural Science Illustrators, an exhibition of botanical studies, drawings, and paintings of amphibians, mammals, birds and insects in their habitats executed in graphite, colored pencil, ink, watercolor, gouache and oils. Presented by the Arts Council of Greater New Haven.

Through December 7 at Sumner McKnight Crosby Jr. Gallery, 70 Audubon St. (2nd Fl.), New Haven. Free. 203-7722788, newhavenarts.org.

Performance Now illustrates how performance has come to be at the center of the discussion on the latest developments in contemporary art and culture. Bringing together some of the most significant artists working today, this exhibition surveys the most critical and experimental currents in

performance over the last ten years from around the globe. Segments of the exhibition featuring video, film and photography by artists including Marina Abramovic, William Kentridge, Clifford Owens and Laurie Simmons.

Through December 9 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.

Andrew Raftery: Open House offers a detailed commentary on contemporary definitions of home, family and interpersonal relations.

With swelling lines and precise flecks, Raftery employs the age-old technique of copper-plate engraving to create thoroughly contemporary scenes. In his series of five prints, the artist depicts a range of couples and families viewing a house for sale. Exhibition includes architectural models, figure models and more than 50 working drawings.

Through December 9 at Davison Art Center, 283 Washington Terr., Middletown.

Open noon-4 p.m. daily except Mon. Free.

860-685-2695, wesleyan.edu/cfa.

Wesleyan Potters 57th Annual Exhibit & Sale. A display of pottery, jewelry, weaving and more by more than 200 juried artists and members. Through December 9 at Wesleyan Potters, 350 S. Main St., Middletown. Open 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Thurs.-Fri., 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sat.-Wed. Free. 860-347-5925, wesleyanpotters. com.

The Technical Examination of Early English Panel Painting explores Tudor painting techniques and analyzes the condition of key panel paintings of oil on wood. It also represents the first stage of an international research

project devoted to the study of early English panel paintings conducted by the Yale Center for British Art in collaboration with the National Portrait Gallery, London. Through December 9 at Yale Center for British Art, 1080 Chapel St., New Haven. Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

Tues.-Sat., noon-5 p.m. Sun. Free. 203432-2800, britishart.yale.edu.

The Arts Council of Greater New Haven presents an exhibition of textile, sculptures and paintings by artists Sarah Beth Goncarova and Thomas Edwards. Through December 14 at Gallery 195, First Niagara Bank, 195 Church St., 4th floor, New Haven. Open 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Mon.-Wed., 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Thurs.-Fri. Free. 203-772-2788, newhavenarts.org.

The Orison Project art gallery presents Open, an exhibit of drawings by Sherry Camhy. Through December 15 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.

LOOKOUTOUTLOOK, is a group exhibition featuring the work of Jake Berthot, Gregory Amenoff, Dushko Petrovich, Sharon Horvath, Tom Nozkowski, Clint Jukkala, Melissa Brown, Becky Yazdan, Peter Ramon, Will Lustenader and Lucy Mink.

Through December 21 at Giampietro Gallery, 315 Peck St., New Haven. Free.

Open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tues.-Fri., 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Sat. Free. 203-777-7760, giampietrogallery.com.

The Creative Arts Workshop presents the 44th annual Celebration of American Crafts, the annual juried exhibition and sale showcasing

more than 300 artists from across America working in glass, ceramics, jewelry, wearable and decorative fiber, handcrafted furniture and more. Through December 24 at Hilles Gallery, 80 Audubon St., New Haven.

Open 11 a.m.-6 p.m. daily, (until 8 p.m.

Thurs.) 1-5 p.m. Sun. Free. 203-562-4927, creativeartsworkshop.org.

All Member Exhibition of Small Works presented by member artists of Gallery One. Through December 24 at Gallery One, 665 Boston Post Rd., Old Saybrook.

Open 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. daily except Mon., noon-5 p.m. Sun. 860-388-0907, galleryonect.com.

Images of the Essex Steam Train & Riverboat features artwork by members of the Essex Art Association of the Essex Steam Train and Riverboat Becky Thatcher. Sponsored by the Valley Railroad Co. in collaboration with Essex Art Association. Through December 27 at Oliver Jensen Gallery at the Valley Railroad Co., 1 Railroad Ave., Essex. Open 5-7:30 p.m. daily except Mon., 1-7:30 p.m. weekends. Free. 860-767-0103, essexsteamtrain.com.

The exhibition Caro: Close Up showcases more than 60 works by Sir Anthony Caro (b. 1924), Britain’s most acclaimed living sculptor. Through December 30 at Yale Center for British Art, 1080 Chapel St., New Haven. Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily except Mon., noon-5 p.m. Sun. Free. 203-432-2800, britishart. yale.edu.

Mickey Kavanagh Watercolors. Small, medium and large landscapes, stilllifes and abstract paintings. Through December 30 at Atticus bookstore Café, 1082 Chapel St., New Haven. Open 7 a.m.-9 pm. daily. Free. 203-776-4040, atticusbookstorecafe.com.

Works by SoBoBo Gallery artists/ artisans in an eclectic variety of media in contemporary, modern, impressionism, realism, surrealism, and metal, terracotta and plaster sculpture art. Through December 31 at SoBoBo Gallery, 42 Naugatuck Ave., Milford. Open noon-6 p.m. Thurs.-Sun. Free. 203-876-9829, soboboartgallery. blogspot.com.

A Magical Mix features small works and large paintings in oil, pastel, watercolor, collage/mixed media and pottery by five resident artists. Through December 31 at Elm City Artists Gallery, 55 Whitney Ave., New Haven. Open 10 a.m.-6 p.m. daily, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Sundays. Free. 203-9222359, elmcityartists.com.

Deck the Walls is the Lyme Art Association’s annual show and sale featuring more than 200 works of art in all sizes and medium by member artists. Through January 5 at 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.

The Guilford Art Center presents Artistry, the center’s annual sale of fine art and crafts — just in time for holiday gift-giving. Through January 6 at Guilford Art Center, 411 Church St., Guilford. Open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. daily,

noon-4 p.m. Sun. Free. 203-453-5947, guilfordartcenter.org.

The Art & History of the American Steel-String Guitar, curated by John Thomas. Through January 11 at River Street Gallery, 72 Blatchley Ave., New Haven. Open 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon., Thurs.-Fri., 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sat., noon- 4 p.m. Sun. Free. 203-776-3099, fairhavenfurniture.com.

PRESENTS

All Paintings Great and Small features historic and contemporary works of art 12 inches in size or smaller. Works by more than 60 artists from throughout New England including Ralf Feyl, Maurice Sapiro, Michael Theise, Mary Bourke and Maureen McCabe. Through January 12 at the Cooley Gallery, 25 Lyme St., Old Lyme. Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

Tues.-Sat. 860-434-8807, cooleygallery. com.

The English Prize: The Capture of the Westmorland, an Episode of the Grand Tour tells the story of the capture of the Westmorland, a British merchant ship laden with works of art acquired by young British travelers on the Grand Tour, and the subsequent disposition of its contents. Organized by the Yale Center for British Art; the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Oxford; and the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, London; in association with the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madrid. Through January 13 at the Yale Center for British Art, 1080 Chapel St., New Haven. Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily except Mon., noon-5 p.m. Sun. Free. 203-432-2800, britishart.yale.edu.

The exhibition White on White: Churches of Rural New England presents more than 40 photographs by renowned architectural photographer Steve Rosenthal depicting iconic New England meetinghouses and churches.

Through January 27 at Florence Griswold Museum, 96 Lyme St., Old Lyme. Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily except Mon., 1-5 p.m.

Sun. $9 ($8 seniors, $7 students, 12 & under free). 860-434-5542, flogris.com.

The Art of First Lady Ellen Axson Wilson: American Impressionist illuminates the artistic career of First Lady Ellen Axson Wilson (1860–1914), wife of President Woodrow Wilson. It is the first major retrospective of her work in 20 years. Through January 27 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.

Art for Everyone: The Federal Art Project in Connecticut. Paintings, murals and sculptures by Connecticut artists who from the early 1930s to the outbreak of World War II participated in the federal government’s backto-work programs which included projects in the arts. Through February 5 at Mattatuck Museum, 144 W. Main St., Waterbury. Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily except Mon., noon-5 p.m. Sun. $5 ($4 seniors, children under 16 free). 203-7530381, mattatuckmuseum.org.

OPENING TO THE PUBLIC T H U R S D AY OCTOBER 11 2012 10 AM TO 7 PM 3011 Whitney Avenue, Hamden Connecticut

REGULAR MUSEUM HOURS Wednesdays

1 0 AM TO 5 PM

Thursdays

1 0 AM TO 7 PM

Fridays & Saturdays

1 0 AM TO 5 PM

Sundays

1 TO 5 PM

ADMISSION IS FREE 203-582- 6500 w w w. ighm .org

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ONSTAGE

Opening Irving Berlin’s White Christmas the Musical performed by students of Sacred Heart Academy. 2 & 8 p.m.

December 1 at Shubert Theater, 247 College St., New Haven. $25-$10. 203562-5666, shubert.com.

It’s 1864 and Washington, D.C. is settling down to the coldest Christmas Eve in memory. In the White House, President and Mrs. Lincoln plot their gift-giving, while others plot his demise.

On the banks of the Potomac, a young rebel challenges a Union blacksmith’s mercy. In alleyways downtown, an escaped slave loses her daughter just before finding freedom. Told through intertwined stories of historical and fictional characters with music, A Civil War Christmas: An American Musical Celebration by Pulitzer Prizewinner Paula Vogel is a funny, serious, heartwarming and critical examination of American values in a time of war. 7:30 p.m. December 6-8 14-15 at Oddfellows Playhouse, 128 Washington St., Middletown. $15 ($8 seniors). 860347-6143, oddfellows.org.

Based on poet Dylan Thomas’s classic story A Child’s Christmas in Wales, this new adaptation by The National Theatre of the Deaf is filled with crazy aunts and uncles, snowball fights and sibling rivalries. The story follows young Dylan as he receives a rare gift from a very special aunt. He not only discovers the meaning of Christmas, but his calling as a writer.

All performances will be signed and spoken so all can see and hear every word. 7:30 p.m. Thurs.-Sat., 2 p.m.

Sat.-Sun. December 6-16 at Ivoryton Playhouse, 103 Main St., Ivoryton. $40 ($35 seniors, $20 students, $15 12 & under). 860-767-7318, ivorytonplayhouse. com.

Circus Minimus gives everyone an opportunity to participate in an enthralling, whimsical celebration of imagination. From Kevin O’Keefe’s suitcase an entire circus emerges: tent, band, lights, boisterous ringmaster Steve Fitzpatrick, the officious Mervin Merkle, the incredible Bumbilini family, Magician to the Stars Clyde Zerbini, and Keefer, an innocent trying to run away and join the circus. 7:30 p.m.

December 7, 2 p.m. December 8 at Paul Mellon Arts Center, 333 Christian St., Wallingford. $10. 203-697-2398, choate. edu/boxoffice.com.

Shrek the Musical, based on the Oscar-winning film, brings the hilarious story of everyone’s favorite ogre to life onstage. Featuring a score of 19 all-new

38 December 2012

songs. 7 p.m. December 28, 2 & 7:30 p.m.

December 29, 1 & 6:30 p.m. December 30 at Shubert Theater, 247 College St., New Haven. $100-$15. 203-562-5666, shubert. com.

Continuing Nuncrackers: The Nunsense Christmas Musical is presented as the first TV special taped in the cable access studio built by the Reverend Mother in the convent basement. Featuring all new songs including “Twelve Days Prior to Christmas,” “Santa Ain’t Comin’ to Our House,” “We Three Kings of Orient Are Us,” and “It’s Better to Give than to Receive.” 8 p.m. Fri.-Sat., 2 p.m. Sun. through December 8 at Almira F. Stephan Memorial Playhouse, 59 W. Main St., Meriden. $15. 203-634-6922, castlecraig.org.

Every Christmas Story Ever Told by Michael Carleton, James Fitzgerald and John K. Alvarez is a madcap romp through the holiday season. Instead of performing Charles Dickens’ beloved holiday classic for the umpteenth time, three actors decide to perform every Christmas story ever told — plus Christmas traditions from around the world, seasonal icons from ancient times to topical pop culture, and every carol ever sung. Recommended for mature audiences. 8 p.m. Fri.-Sat., 2 p.m. Sun. through December 9 at Phoenix Stage Co., 686 Rubber Ave., Naugatuck. $22 ($18 seniors). 203-6328546, phoenixstagecompany.com.

The ghosts of Christmases Past, Present and Future lead the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge on a powerful journey of transformation and redemption in Charles Dickens’ holiday classic A Christmas Carol. 8 p.m. Fri.-Sat., 2 p.m. Sun. through December 15 at Center Stage Theatre, 54 Grove St., Shelton. $25. 203-225-6079, centerstageshelton.com.

Tony and Academy Award-nominee Kathleen Turner returns to Long Wharf Theatre to direct and star in Frank Marcus’ classic farce The Killing of Sister George. By day June Buckridge (Turner) plays Sister George on the the hit BBC radio show Applehurst tending to the sick and poor. By night she chews on cigars, swills gin and lets nothing and no one stand in her way, including her long suffering “secretary” Childie. When Applehurst’s ratings plummet, the show’s producers decide to kill off Sister George in the hope of recapturing the audience. In real life, June refuses to go quietly from her starring perch, in this bawdy and witty

comedy. Through December 23 at Long Wharf Theatre, 222 Sargent Dr., New Haven. $52-$42. 203-787-4282, longwharf. org.

Kris Kringle takes on the cynics and disbelievers among us in the holiday favorite Miracle on 34th Street, spreading a wave of love throughout New York City, fostering camaraderie between Macy’s and Gimbel’s department stores, and convincing a divorced, cynical single mother, her somber daughter and the entire state of New York that Santa Claus is no myth.

8 p.m. Thurs.-Sun. through December 23 at Seven Angels Theatre, 1 Plank Rd., Waterbury. $40-$30. 203-757-4676, sevenangelstheatre.org.

Sarah Ruhl returns to Yale Rep with the world premiere of Dear Elizabeth, chronicling the remarkable 30-year friendship between two of the most celebrated and honored American poets of the 20th century: Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell. With postmarks from Maine to Key West, and as far away as London and South America, Dear Elizabeth is a lyrical and moving portrait of two lives that unfold in letters. Les Waters directs. Through December 22 at Yale Repertory Theatre, 1120 Chapel St., New Haven. $76-$35.

203-432-1234, yalerep.org.

A satirical spoof of Agatha Christie mysteries, Something’s Afoot: A Musical Whodunit takes place in an old English mansion during a raging thunderstorm (natch). Murder, mystery,

Giving Continued from 29 “They have no idea I’ve got them in the planning,” he says.

“I give them little gifts and they can be surprised later.”

The Community Foundation’s Ginsberg says most donating used to be done by bequests for broad, sometimes unrestricted purposes.

Nowadays, there is more giving by younger people seeking “a much more active dialogue between foundation and donor,” and relying on the foundation to provide them with information about issues

Kevin O’Keefe discovered Circus Minimus in 1985 when he found a small suitcase outside his New York City apartment and filled it with everything he would need to perform his one-man circus in-a-suitcase around the world.

The production comes to Choate’s Mellon Arts Center December 7-8. music and mayhem abound when the guests disappear one by one. (See review in November NHM.) Through December 9 at Goodspeed Opera House, 6 Main St., Chester. $75-$31. 860-8738668, goodspeed.org.

in the community and which non-profits are most effective.

“You can get on the Internet and can connect to any charitable cause anywhere with a click,” Ginsberg say.

“So we need to redouble and triple our efforts to make sure people are aware of us.

“You can be sure there are worthy issues everywhere.”

Saulsbury believes recruiting younger donors is crucial.

“At [Community Foundation] annual meetings, I’m always telling them, ‘You got to get the young folk in here to carry on. The old folk are petering out.’” Y

Babies Continued from 38 “Ovarian aging does not parallel chronologic aging,” Levi explains. “The good news is that we now have some testing that gives us some better insight into that.

We’re now screening women for a hormone called anti-Mullerian, the first hormone that’s directly secreted by the cells of the eggs. It’s a good test to give us an idea about someone’s ovarian reserve.”

“When people ask how long they can defer child-bearing, I’d be careful with that one,” Levi says. “When a woman is between 33 and 35, it’s a very important time to make some decisions.”

He agrees that the chromosomal testing is significant advancement.

“We now have the ability to test embryos for all 23 pairs of chromosomes,” Levi explains. “Up until a few years ago, we could only test 12 of the 23 pairs. This is big because we can say, This embryo is normal chromosomally’ and is the right one to go back into the woman’s body. We’re much better at limiting multiples with this new capability” Levi’s office has not had a triplet pregnancy with IVF in many years. He also notes he is

‘A lot of people prayed for me,’ recalls Liz Melvin.

‘My priest would give me two communion wafers at communion.’ more quickly moving to IVF and skipping the intermediary treatments, which often are not as effective and result in a higher incidence of multiples.

“Insemination is tough because if a woman has a couple of eggs floating around and we inseminate, they could all fertilize. It’s a free-for-all,” he says.

Levi says his office ultimately helps nearly 90 percent of patients become pregnant.

“Certainly there is that small subset with an intrinsic issue of egg quality, that short of using an egg donor, we can’t help them,” Levi says. “Most women are becoming pregnant — it’s a matter of how far they’re willing to go.”

But in some cases, there comes a time when a couple just has to stop trying.

That was a decision the Melvins faced after their last miscarriage, even though it was a

decision made by time, and not actually a choice at all. Even though Emma still begs her parents daily for a baby sister, the time had come to stop trying.

“We have a great family, but I never thought that I would have an only child,” says Liz Melvin. “Never in a million years. It still doesn’t feel right. I feel like there should be someone else in the back seat, someone else to tuck in at night, and someone for Emma to love. I wanted to give her the experiences I had with a sister, that unconditional love.”

Melvin acknowledges that during her time of trying to conceive, there was nothing else in life that mattered but getting pregnant.

“It was a time filled with highs and lows, disappointments, drugs, hormones,” she recalls. “It was all-consuming.”

“I remember Doug saying to me once, ‘Don’t you think that I feel the same way?’ He felt he was failing me, I felt I was failing him as a woman and a wife,” Liz Melvin recalls. She knows she’s lucky and blessed, but she does admit to feeling disappointment with not being able to have another child. “I’m not being greedy,” she says. “I didn’t plan this, but it’s what I got — a beautiful, perfect and smart little girl.”

Y

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MUSIC Classical Carmina Burana. Join the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, plus soloists and two choruses in this performance of one of the most powerful works of the 20th century. Also, HUMPERDINCK Hänsel and Gretel Overture; TCHAIKOVSKY Excerpts from Swan Lake Suite. 7:30 p.m. November 29 at Woolsey Hall, 500 College St., New Haven. $69-$15. 203-865-0831, newhavensymphony.org.

A New Haven Psalter is a brand-new work by faculty composer Ingram Marshall performed by the Yale Concert Band and Yale Glee Club. Also, music

by Delvyn Case, Quincy Porter, Cole Porter (Yale Class of 1913), Ives, Duffy and Gershwin. 7:30 p.m. November 30 at Woolsey Hall, 500 College St., New Haven. Free. 203-432-4158, music. yale.edu.

Candlelight Concert. The Wesleyan Singers perform selections from Handel’s oratorio Israel in Egypt, best known for its choruses composed using texts from the Book of Exodus about the “plagues of Egypt” as well as selected solos and duets. 7 p.m.

December 1 at Memorial Chapel, Wesleyan University, Middletown.

Free. 860-685-3355, wesleyan.edu/cfa.

Dona Nobis Pacem (“Grant us peace”) is the theme (and the concluding work, the transcendent J.S. Bach setting of the mass movement) of the annual

Advent concert of the delightful choral ensemble the Yale Camerata, under the baton of Marguerite L. Brooks. 8 p.m. December 1 at Battell Chapel, 400 College St. New Haven. Free. 203432-4158, music.yale.edu.

group Five By Design, whose style embraces unforgettable melodies, lush harmonies, and swinging rhythms.

7:30 p.m. December 8 at Webster Bank Arena, 600 Main St., Bridgeport. $75$35. 203-345-2400, ticketmaster.com.

Neidich and Levin. Charles Neidich, clarinet, and Robert Levin, piano, perform music of Schumann and Brahms. 3 p.m. December 2, 8 p.m.

December 3 at Yale Collection of Musical Instruments, 15 Hillhouse Ave., New Haven. $20 ($10 students).

203-432-4158, music.yale.edu.

Glad Tidings is the theme of a holiday benefit concert on behalf of Healing Haiti’s Children, a charity run by the Knights of Columbus that seeks to provide prosthetics to children who lost limbs as a result of the catastrophic 2010 earthquake. Featured performers include the Trinity (New Haven) Choir of Men & Boys, Yale baritone John Taylor Ward and Notre Dame ensembles. 8 p.m. December 8 at Notre Dame High School, 24 Ricardo St., West Haven. $25. notredamehs. com/gladtidings.

Yale Opera presents an evening of art song under the banner Lieberabend. 8 p.m. December 4 at Sprague Hall, 470 College St., New Haven. Free. 203-4324158, music.yale.edu.

New Music New Haven presents new music (duh) for chamber orchestra by William Gardiner, Michael Gilbertson, Daniel Schlosberg and Matthew Welch.

With the Yale Philharmonia, conducted

by Shinik Hahm. 8 p.m. December 6 at Woolsey Hall, 500 College St., New Haven. Free. 203-865-0831, newhavensymphony.org.

Venetian Vespers. Under the direction of guest conductor Simon Carrington, the Yale Schola Cantorum perform music for St Mark’s by Johann Rosenmüller and Giovanni Legrenzi, c. 1670. 5 p.m. December 7 at Christ Church, 84 Broadway, New Haven.

Free. 203-432-4158, music.yale.edu.

Not exactly classical, but certainly grist for lovers of fine music: the 2012 Boston Pops Holiday Tour comes to the Park City. Kick off the holidays with Music Director Keith Lockhart and “America’s Orchestra,” joined by the nationally acclaimed vocal

’America’s Orchestra,’ a/k/a the Boston Pops, bring their 2012 Holiday Tour to Bridgeport’s Webster Bank Arena December 8.

40 December 2012

It’s a holiday Yale Glee Club tradition: the Messiah Audience Singalong. A portion of the proceeds will benefit New Haven’s homeless. Scores will be available for purchase. 2 p.m.

December 9 at Battell Chapel, 400 College St. New Haven. $5. 203-4324158, music.yale.edu.

Heir to a musical tradition dating from the Middle Ages is one of New Haven’s most venerable (founded in 1885) and accomplished music ensembles: the Trinity Choir of Men & Boys. They perform their annual Christmas concert — a mélange of traditional and popular seasonal music, something to suit every taste. 4 p.m. December 9 at Trinity Church on the Green, 230 Temple St., New Haven. $10. 203-7762616, trinitynewhaven.org.

The Yale Institute of Sacred Music present countertenor Andreas Scholl in a recital of music by Haydn, Schubert,

Brahms and Mozart. 8 p.m. December 10 at Sprague Hall, 470 College St., New Haven. Free. 203-432-4158, music.yale.edu.

The Oneppo Chamber Music Series presents the Jasper String Quartet.

MENDELSSOHN String Quartet, Op. 80; LIGETI String Quartet No. 1; SCHUMANN Piano Quintet (with WeiYi Yang, piano). 8 p.m. December 11 at Sprague Hall, 470 College St., New Haven. $30-$20 ($10 students). 203432-4158, music.yale.edu.

Peter Frankl performs in recital as part of the Horowitz Piano Series.

SCHUBERT Sonata No. 9 in B Major D. 575, “Arpeggione” Sonata in A minor D. 821 (with Ettore Causa, viola); DEBUSSY Images I and II, Estampes.

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

The Great Organ Music at Yale series presents organist (what else would he be?) Martin Jean performing works of Purcell and others. 5 p.m. December 15 at Marquand Chapel, 409 Prospect St., New Haven. Free. 203-432-4158, music.yale.edu.

Popular The Machine returns to Toad’s to recreate the experience of Pink Floyd, performing songs from throughout the legendary rock band’s catalogue. 9 p.m.

November 30 at Toad’s Place, 300 York St., New Haven. $20. 203-6248623, toadsplace.com.

Bridgeport and Brooklyn trio the Stepkids have been carving out a name for themselves, touring nationally, and even appearing on the network TV late

night show Last Call with Carson Daly. They start December by performing their psychedelic funk rock in Hamden. 8 p.m. December 1 at the Outer Space, 295 Treadwell St., Hamden. $10. 203-288-6400, theouterspace.net Under the direction of Thomas C. Duffy, the Yale Jazz Ensemble stages a special cabaret performance in not-the-usual venue. 3 p.m. December 2 at GPSCY Bar, 204 York St., New Haven. Free. 203-432-4158, music.yale.edu.

A group of veteran New Haven singer-songwriters will turn up for a matinee performance at the Outer Space in early December. Anne Marie Menta fronted several bands before going solo in the ‘90s, and has since played all over the state, and was even a finalist in the 2004 South Florida Folk Festival’s singer/songwriter competition. Sharing the stage with her are the Lonesome Sparrows, the acoustic-based folk/rock band fronted by local legend James Velvet, who has played in countless New Haven bands at venues all over town and beyond since 1980. 3 p.m. December 2 at the Outer Space, 295 Treadwell St., Hamden. $10 203-288-6400, theouterspace.net Songwriter, author and poet Simone Felice will perform at Café Nine in support of his self-titled debut solo album. The former Duke & the King frontman and Felice Brothers drummer penned his latest album following his 2010 open-heart surgery. 7 p.m. December 2 at Cafe Nine, 250 State St., New Haven. $15. 203-789-8281, cafenine.com.

Twenty-three-year-old New York pop singer songwriter Sarah Miles will grace the stage at the Space in the midst of recording a full-length album. She is joined on tour by Chicago songwriter Todd Carey and Orlando, Fla. artist Bracher Brown. 7 p.m. December 4 at the Space, 295 Treadwell St., Hamden. $10. 203288-6400, thespace.tk.

Connecticut-based power pop duo Mates of State will bring their spirited live performance to Bar for a midweek free show. The indie darlings will be highlighting songs from their new album Mountaintops. 9 p.m.

December 5 at Bar, 254 Crown St., New Haven. Free.

203-495-1111. barnightclub.com.

Jazz ensemble The Taylor Ho Bynum Sextet will perform two shows at Firehouse 12 as it prepares for a new album. The group will play new compositions that it plans to record in Firehouse’s recording studio the next day. 8:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. December 7 at Firehouse 12, 45 Crown St., New Haven. $18, $12.

203-785-0468. firehouse12.com.

One to One Continued from 10 Where did the idea for 2009’s Friends (with Benefits) come from?

It was actually a script I wrote in 1999, originally called [unprintable word] Buddies. But then after it came out to see that two other companies were doing essentially the same story was kind of annoying. [A Screen Gems film, Friends with Benefits, starring Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis, was released in the summer of 2011.]

What’s next for Gorman Bechard?

We’re just finishing up Broken Side of Time and the Grant Hart movie [Every Everything, about Hüsker Dü co-founder and drummer Hart] and getting those ready for film festivals. These two [Color Me Obsessed and What Did You Expect?] are coming out November 20 on DVD. Color Me Obsessed is a two-DVD set with six hours of extras, so if you’re a [Replacements] fan it’s like heaven.

Finishing up the pizza movie and then doing the Gucci movie, and then also the horror film One-Night Stand.

Any more novels in the pipeline?

No. I really, really like doing films. I also

feel that the book business is in the same place as the music business was when MP3s started. The book business is still fighting going electronic. Even my agent says [the book business] has never been as dire as the past few years. And books take a long time. And I really love editing [film].

What is the state of filmmaking in Connecticut today?

Really sad. The Connecticut Film Commission was always sort of a joke.

When I was doing Friends (with Benefits), I called the Film Commission and the woman who was running it for about a year, Heidi Hamilton — the same woman who destroyed Film Fest New Haven — she literally told me, ‘I’m sorry — we don’t have time for small movies like yours; we’re interested in bringing in larger productions.’ The problem I keep seeing with filmmakers here in Connecticut is they’re still making the B movies that I was making in the ‘80s, I feel like they’re just making movies for themselves. They’re not getting distributed, they’re not playing theaters, they’re not playing any real film festivals.

It’s just sort of sad. People are playing at being filmmakers. For me, it’s my fulltime job. Y

Performing Art

Pop noise-makers Tiny Victories will bring their mélange of electronic instruments and samplers to New Haven for a free show. With an aesthetic that recalls now-famous former Wesleyan band MGMT, the performance promises equal parts pop jubilance and experimental oddities. 9 p.m. December 12 at Bar, 254 Crown St., New Haven. Free. 203-495-1111. barnightclub.com.

The Lizard King lives for another night. Doors tribute band Riders on the Storm will celebrate the late Jim Morrison’s birthday (December 8) with a show at Toad’s, joined by Jimi Hendrix tribute Electric Lady Band, as well as Ink and Silvergun. 8 p.m. December 14 at Toad’s Place, 300 York St., New Haven. $12.

203-624-8623, toadsplace.com.

Nothing like a taste of summer so close to Christmas.

Elm City surf rockers North Shore Troubadors will let the good vibrations flow at their album release party, where they will be joined by the Clams. 9 p.m.

December 15 at Cafe Nine, 250 State St., New Haven. $5. 203-789-8281, cafenine.com.

The Beehive Queen returns to the Nine. Join Christine Ohlman & Rebel Montez for a special holiday show.

With special guests the Mighty Soul Drivers. 9 p.m.

December 22 at Cafe Nine, 250 State St., New Haven. $5. 203-789-8281, cafenine.com.

85 Willow Street, New Haven, CT 06511 203.799.6400 | audioetc.com

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CALENDAR BELLES LETTRES 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. December 5 at Blackstone Library, 758 Main St., Branford. Free. 203-483-6653, blackstone. lioninc.org/booktalk.htm.

Author Jon E. Purmont discusses his new book, Ella Grasso: Connecticut’s Pioneering Governor. Copies of the book will be available for purchase.

8 p.m. December 6 at New Haven Museum, 114 Whitney Ave., New Haven.

Free. 203-562-4183, newhavenmuseum. org.

New members are welcomed to the Blackstone Library Second Tuesday Book Club. The group meets on the second Tuesday to discuss a preselected book. Books available for loan in advance of discussion. 6:45-8 p.m. December 11 at Blackstone Library, 758 Main St., Branford. Free. 203-4881441, ext. 318, blackstone.lioninc.org/ booktalk.htm.

Architecture in Dialogue: The Peter Eisenman Collection at Yale. This exhibition examines high modernism in avant-garde publications in Europe, from fascist Italy to the Soviet Union.

Through December 14 at the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, 121 Wall St., New Haven. Free. Open 9 a.m.-7 p.m. weekdays, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Fri., noon-5 p.m.

Sat. 203-432-2977, beineckelibrary@ yale.edu.

BENEFITS The Ronald McDonald House of Connecticut’s annual Trees of Hope fundraiser began 23 years ago with a dozen trees at the Governor’s Mansion and has grown into a nine-day display of more than 100 decorated trees, wreaths and holiday baskets lining the halls of the Maritime Center. Each item is raffled off to one winner (tickets $1 each). Proceeds benefit families that stay at RMHCT while family members are undergoing specialized medical treatment. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. December 1-9 (silent auction ends 2 p.m. 12/9) at Long Wharf Maritime Center, 545-555 Long Wharf Dr., New Haven. Free admission. rmh-ct.org.

Against the Grain is the theme of the Arts Council of Greater New Haven’s 2012 awards luncheon celebrating “those who take creative risks and stand out from the crowd.” Honorees include educator Carol Ross, the New England Ballet Co., Artspace executive director Helen Kauder, the Yale School of Drama’s Ruth Feldman, filmmaker Stephen Dest and John Cavaliere, founder of Westville’s Lyric Hall. 11:45 a.m. December 7 at New Haven Lawn Club, 193 Whitney Ave., New Haven. $80 members, $90 others. Reservations. 203772-2788, newhavenarts.org.

CINEMA The Religion & Film Series at Yale presents The Wedding Banquet (1993, 106 min., Taiwan & USA), directed by Ang Lee, which won an Oscar for Best Foreign Film. 7 p.m. November 29 at Whitney Humanities Center, 53 Wall St., New Haven. Free. 203-432-0670, yale. edu/whc.

Alastair Sim stars in what may be the quintessential cinematic telling of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol (1951, 86 min., USA). Free pizza, too!

5 p.m. December 20 at Hagaman Memorial Library, 227 Main St., East Haven. Free. Registration. 203-468-3890, hagamanlibrary.info.

Christopher Plummer channels one of the world’s greatest actors in Barrymore (2011, 83 min., Australia), an award-winning portrayal of the towering and tragic titan of stage and screen in the first half of the 20th century. 7 p.m. January 10 at Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center, 300 Main St., Old Saybrook. $10. 877-503-1286, katharinehepburntheater.org.

COMEDY Every Wednesday evening Joker’s Wild opens its stage to anyone who wants to try standup comedy — from brandnew 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.

Comedians Pete Michaels and Tracy Tedesco (the “Cougar Comedian”) come to Wooster Street. 8 p.m.

December 14, 8 & 10:30 p.m. December 15 at Joker’s Wild, 232 Wooster St., New Haven. $18. 203-773-0733, jokerswildclub. com.

Comedian Bill Burr has been seen on Chappelle’s Show, David Letterman and Conan O’Brien. His second hour-long Comedy Central special, Bill Burr: Let It Go, premiered to rave reviews. 8 p.m. November 17 at Lyman Center for the Performing Arts, Southern

Descriptions of Literature: Texts & Contexts in the Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas Papers. Exhibition probes Stein’s creative process and writing life through drafts, notebooks, photos and letters. Through December 14 at the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, 121 Wall St., New Haven. Free. Open 9 a.m.-7 p.m. weekdays, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Fri., noon-5 p.m.

Sat. 203-432-2977, beineckelibrary@ yale.edu.

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. December 20 at Scranton Library, 801 Boston Post Rd., Madison. Free. 203-245-7365.

The Poetry Institute of New Haven hosts Poetry Open Mics each third Thursday Come hear an eclectic mix of poetic voices. 7 p.m. December 20 at Young Men’s Institute Library, 847 Chapel St., New Haven. Free. thepoetryinstitute. com.

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Boston Ballet principal dancer Jeffrey Cirio joins the New Haven Ballet for this year’s production of The Nutcracker, December 7-9 at the Shubert.

Connecticut State University, 501 Crescent St., New Haven. $35, $25 faculty/staff, $10 students. 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. November 27 at Hagaman Memorial Library, 227 Main St., East Haven. Free. 203-468-3890, hagamanlibrary.info.

CULINARY Consiglio’s Cooking Class Club.

Chef Maureen Nuzzo explains and demonstrates how to prepare mouthwatering southern Italian dishes that have been passed down from generation to generation. December’s menu includes minestrone soup, penne puttanesca, veal saltimbocca and homemade chocolate truffles. 6:30 p.m. December 6, 13, 20 at Consiglio’s Restaurant, 165 Wooster St., New Haven. $65. Reservations. 203-865-4489, consiglios.com.

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 West African Dance Concert. Choreographer and Wesleyan artist-in-residence Iddi Saaka will be joined by students and guest artists for an invigorating performance showcasing the vibrancy of West African cultures through music and dance forms. 8 p.m.

November 30 at Crowell Concert Hall, 50 Wyllys Ave., Middletown. $8-$6. 860-685-3355, wesleyan.edu/cfa.

Under the artistic direction of Jared Redick, the New Haven Ballet breathes new life into Tchaikovsky’s holiday classic The Nutcracker. 7 p.m. December 7, 1 & 5:30 p.m. December 8, 1 p.m. December 9 at the Shubert Theater, 254 College St., New Haven. $53-$18. 800-2286622, shubert.com.

The Woodbury Ballet presents The Nutcracker.

Enjoy a family holiday tradition where sugarplums dance, flowers waltz and snowflakes leap across the stage weaving a splendid tale of a little girl’s dream of first love. 4 p.m. December 15 at Palace Theatre, $100 E. Main St., Waterbury. $48-$28. 203-346-2000, palacetheatrect.com.

FAMILY EVENTS 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. December 1 at Hagaman Memorial Library, 227 Main St., East Haven. Free. Registration. 203-468-3890, hagamanlibrary.info.

Public Health, and the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity. Multimedia exhibition begins with the neuroscience of appetite, genetics of obesity, and how food and energy are stored in the body. It will examine behavioral choice in nutrition and exercise as well as the influence of social, environmental and cultural settings. Visitors will investigate our origins as hunter-gatherers; explore societal pressures such as the progressive growth of portion sizes; tackle media influences on food preferences; and consider serious health consequences that have increased the burden of chronic diseases, including diabetes and heart disease. Through December 2 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). 203-432-5050, peabody.yale.edu.

SPORTS/RECREATION Cycling 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 CafÊ as a single group; no one is dropped. 10 a.m. Sundays at Lulu’s European CafÊ, 49 Cottage St., New Haven. Free.

203-773-9288, elmcitycycling.org.

The Little Lulu (LL) is an alternative to the longstanding 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 CafÊ, 49 Cottage St., New Haven. Free. 203-773-9288, 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 CafĂŠ Romeo, 534 Orange St., New Haven.

Free. william.v.kurtz@gmail.com.

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. December 10 at City Hall Meeting Rm. 2, 165 Church St., New Haven. Free. elmcitycycling. org.

Road Races/Triathlons Hamden’s 5K Santa Scramble benefits Toys for Tots. 10:30 a.m. December 2 at Canal Parking Lot, Sherman Ave., Hamden. $25 ($15 with toy donation). bigboyracing.net.

It’s become an Elm City holiday tradition: Christopher Martins Christmas Run for Children, a flat, fast 5K along State and Orange streets as well as the New Haven Green. Entry fee just $5 if you bring a new, unwrapped toy (which is the whole idea of the event).

10:15 a.m. December 9 at Christopher Martins, 860 State St., New Haven. $15 advance, $20 day of race (w/o toy).

203-481-5933, jbsports@snet.net.

It’s the 13th annual Holiday Run for Toys, a 5K affair.

9:30 a.m. December 16 at Scandinavian Club, S. Pine Creek Rd., Fairfield. $8 advance, $10 at door (with unwrapped toy). msrunningproductions.com.

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. Y

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. Saturdays at Connecticut Children’s Museum, 22 Wall St., New Haven. $5. 203562-5437, childrensbuilding.org.

Super Stars. Explore the cosmos with staff and members of the New Haven Astronomical Society.

Learn about the constellations, and how to use a telescope, during a fun-filled evening of star gazing.

Ages six and up. 6:30-7:30 p.m. December 14 at Coastal Center at Milford Point, 1 Milford Pt. Rd., Milford. $5.

203-878-7440, ctaudubon.org.

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.

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W OR D S o f M O U T H NEW EATS: Yolande’s Bistro & Creperie Photograph: Lisa Wilder

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n affordable, quality French bistro is one of those amenities a real food destination can’t do without. Now with the debut of Yolande’s Bistro & Creperie in Ninth Square, New Haven has a top-notch casual French eatery to call its own.

Opened this fall in the location of the late Central Steakhouse on Orange Street, Yolande’s is the brainchild of food industry veteran Yolande Lacan. The restaurant’s new look illustrates a pro at work: Lacan has renovated, lightened and opened up the space and added some elegant touches while steering clear of cliché.

There are French posters on the walls, but not the ones you’ve seen a million times before. Big mirrors in heavy gold frames add sparkle and airiness to the dining areas although the open kitchen also adds a bit of noise to the soundscape. The menu is printed in an elegant Art Nouveau font, with the lighting just bright enough to make out the letters.

Our meal got off to a very promising start with quality wines by the glass in ample portions. My Provençal rose was chilled to perfection and a red was also thoughtfully chosen to complement the food.

Crisp vintages were needed to offset the decadent richness of an appetizer of country-style paté, studded with herbs and fat for a perfect carnivore’s starter. Smear the pate onto the excellent French bread and accent it with the accompanying crunchy cornichon pickles, pearl onions and grainy mustard.

Another appetizer of snails was a buttery revelation for

44 December 2012

French twist: With her eponymous bistro, Yolande Lacan has breathed new life into the former Central Steakhouse.

those who have gnawed on escargots the texture of pencil erasers in the past. These gastropods were melt-in-yourmouth tender, buttery and sprinkled with herbs. Tiny caps of puff pastry added some crunch and savor.

Next was a side salad, delicately dressed with a nutty vinaigrette and walnuts and draped over chunks of intense Roquefort. You won’t find cheese like this in a supermarket, and it was served warm enough for its flavor to bloom to spectacular effect.

For main dishes, a savory crepe with shrimp shone more for its crisp and flavor-

ful wrapping than its filling.

The seafood was high quality, but the sauce hit a slightly off note with an excess of acid.

Better was a main course of duck confit, the bird beautifully moist and flavorful without a hint of excess fat. A beefy sauce and side of sweet braised vegetables and apple balanced the rich meat perfectly for a hearty and satisfying meal.

Desserts include chocolate mousse and apple tart, but we went with the classic: a crepe sucre citron, a simple crepe with lemon, butter and sugar. We watched the crepe being made and then tasted the freshness and quality of

the ingredients in every harmonious bite. The restaurant also offers brunch with a full menu of savory and sweet crepes, egg dishes, quiches and salads, along with cocktails.

If this is the kind of food and ambience you like, consider become a regular at Yolande’s.

Serious Elm City diners have been disheartened by the closing of several quality eateries this year, so it’s time to step up and support this promising new addition.

Yolande’s Bistro & Creperie, 99 Orange St., New Haven (203787-7885).

Photos:Lisa Wilder

JUST A TASTE: Smoke & Bones BBQ

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eat, and lots of it, with sides of tasty sauce. That alone would be worth a trip out to Smoke & Bones BBQ in Derby. Add some excellent sides and a stylish, comfortable place to enjoy your carnivorous feast at a low cost and this year-old eatery is a must-visit destination.

Who knew that a former Valley ‘adult emporium’ would become home to some of the most savory barbecue in Connecticut?

It took me a while to get used to the idea of a BBQ joint in Derby, much less a BBQ joint in the location of a former “adult novelty emporium” on Route 34.

The recessed storefront at an awkward intersection seemed more suited to marital aids than mac and cheese. But visit on a weekend night and you’ll see the genius behind an easy-in, easy-out location on a major thoroughfare for a largely takeout clientele. Smoke & Bones was buzzing and the staff moved with practiced efficiency as the line stretched across the front room.

Unless you call first, you’ll spend some time in that line on most nights, waiting for a turn to order at the counter. The friendly staff will guide you through a menu that ranges from barbecue and smoked meats to salads to fried seafood.

There are even some vegetarian options, but be sure to ask before ordering, as many side dishes are flavored with meat.

A two- or three-meat sampler was the way to go for us on a recent evening.

Pulled pork is the best-seller and was out of stock, so we went with beef brisket, smoked chicken and “St. Louis ribs” — pork spareribs trimmed into a rectangle the size of an iPad Mini. Right at the front of the counter were steaming vats of sauce to choose from. Recommended were the Carolina Mustard and Memphis Vinegar, both glossy and thick enough for dipping.

The nose-clearing mustard sauce kicked up the flavor on the tender brisket, rich and juicy with just a light hint of smoke on its own. The sauce’s fruity aftertaste complemented the beef perfectly for the most satisfying of the samples. The tangy Memphis sauce was best with the ribs, tender and well-seasoned with a nice balance of fat and lean.

Least flavorful was the smoked chicken, cooked to just beyond well done and a bit bland. But a few dollops of mustard sauce brought out the best in the bird, especially the juicy dark meat in the

wings that seemed to have picked up the most smoke.

The kitchen returned to form with the sides, especially a meltingly tender and savory serving of stewed collard greens with shreds of meat. Barbecued beans were also outstanding — soft but not mushy, flavorful but not too sweet. Cornbread in a wee loaf was also sweetened to a minimum and moist enough to be perfect for mopping up extra sauce.

For those looking for something somewhat lighter, fried scallops were perfectly cooked and greaseless in a light cornmeal breading. Fresh tartar sauce and lemon made for a shoreline-worthy

plate of seafood. Finish up your meal with Buck’s French ice cream or specials like the Bourbon pumpkin cheesecake on offer the night we visited.

If you do decide to dine in, Smoke & Bones offers a clean and pleasingly upscale dining area with black-andwhite checked tablecloths playing off the eatery’s cheeky “X-ray pig” logo.

There’s a toy machine for the kids but unfortunately no beverages for the grownups — only sweet teas, sodas and Red Bull. So get your meat to go and dig in for some down-home BBQ straight from Derby. Smoke & Bones BBQ, 1 New Haven Ave., Derby (203-516-5994), smokeandbones.com.

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Visitors to the Governor’s Residence annual holiday open house are greet by four decorate Christmas trees as well as lavishly decorated rooms including dining and living areas.

Home for the Holidays — the Governor’s Home, That Is D

oes the thought of snooping around a mansion decked out for the holidays sound appealing? How about one that you, technically, own a piece of? How about the digs of Connecticut’s chief executive, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy?

Each year, the guv invites Connecticut residents to attend a holiday open house and tour of the Governor’s Residence.

This year the open house, located at 990 Prospect Avenue in Hartford, will take place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Friday, December 7 and Saturday, December 8, as well as noon to 4 p.m. on Sunday, December 9.

“Unlike our tours during the year, there is no fee and no reservations,” explains Carol O’Shea, executive director of the Governor’s Residence. As in years past, the U.S. Marines will be at the Malloy abode collecting toys for the Toys for Tots program, but donations are not required for admission.

There are musical guests lined up throughout the weekend. The Coast Guard choir will perform at 10 a.m. on Friday to open the doors. During the weekend there will be a barbershop quartet, wonderful choirs from local high

46 December 2012

schools, and a solo singer. Santa and Mrs. Claus pop in periodically throughout the weekend — “definitely as the doors open each day,” reports O’Shea.

While at the event, guests can purchase the governor’s annual holiday ornament, which can be had for $20. All proceeds benefit the Governor’s Residence Conservancy. Explains O’Shea: “The Conservancy commissions an ornament each year. We’ve been doing this for 20 years and do something different every year. One hundred percent of the proceeds go back into the Conservancy and that money funds projects such as items for the house or repair of some of the things that might get broken so that no state money is used to fund those objects.”

All of the wreaths for the outside of the house are donated. Lux Bond & Green decorates the dining room. Three of the four trees inside the house will be decorated with the Malloys’ personal ornaments. “They’ve always done three trees and then one additional tree is going to be decorated by one of the decorators that donated his time and resources to decorate one of our rooms,” O’Shea says.

“He also makes hand-blown ornaments, so one of our trees is going to be decorated with one of his ornaments as well.”

By SUSAN E. CORNELL

As in past years, guests will be given a recipe card with one of the Malloys’ holiday recipes.

“The governor will be here periodically depending upon what’s going on in the state,” O’Shea adds.

Gov. Lowell P. Weicker Jr. started the holiday open-house tradition in 1991. “It is very weather-dependent, and we can have anywhere from 1,000 to 5,000 people,” O’Shea says.

Throughout the rest of the year, tours are offered typically on Tuesday mornings, but reservations are required and these tours are for groups of ten to 12. “It’s a lot of school groups of fourth- and fifthgraders because that’s when Connecticut kids are studying Connecticut history,” says O’Shea. “They will come and take a tour of the house as well as the Capitol and State Library.” And, for a modest fee of $100, the Governor’s Residence is also open to any community-based group or 501(c)3 non-profit for fundraisers or a thank-you parties for donors or volunteers.

“That’s a big part of what goes on here in the evenings,” O’Shea explains.

To learn more about the Governor’s Residence visit ct.gov/governorsresidence.

Daydream.

Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.

ALBERT EINSTEIN

Sage advice to ensure a successful year at the oďŹƒce from the Cheney & Company 2012 Calendar.

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