Triple Cities Carousel June 2015

CAROUSEL triple cities

june 2015

free

vol. 3 issue 5

your local arts and culture rag.

BINGHAMTON P O RC H F E S T

coming august thirtieth

for more info or to get involved : carouselra g.com

June 2015 Triple Cities Carousel 3

inside.

editorial.........................................................................4 music...............................................................................5 swamp root................................................................13 art................................................................................14 calendar.......................................................................20 pride..............................................................................23 theatre.........................................................................25 poetry..........................................................................29 food and drink.............................................................31 film.................................................................................33 gettin’ hitched............................................................35 tarotology...................................................................36 celebrate.....................................................................37 fun stuff......................................................................39 TRIPLE CITIES CAROUSEL P.O. BOX 2947 BINGHAMTON, NY 13902 (607) 422-2043 Publisher/Editor-in-Chief Christopher M.F. Bodnarczuk Managing Editor Heather Merlis Assistant Editor Ronnie Vuolo Advertising Christopher Bodnarczuk Calendar Guru Ty Whitbeck Staff Writers Krissy Howard, Ilana Lipowicz, Rose Silberman-Gorn, Felicia Waynesboro, Phil Westcott Contributors Hilda Mansionhopper, Maurice, Anvile Milligan, Paul O’Heron, Emily Vogel Photography Stephen Schweitzer Layout/Design Chris Bodnarczuk On the Cover “F0r My Dad” -Angela Cook FOR ADVERTISING: triplecitiesads@gmail.com FOR LETTERS, COMPLAINTS, DEATH THREATS, AND OTHER INQUIRIES: triplecitiescarousel@gmail.com Copyright © 2015 by Triple Cities Carousel. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without prior written consent from the publisher.

4 Vol. 3 Issue 5

editorial.

“Summer. Summer. Summertime. Time to sit back and unwind. Here it is. The groove, slightly transformed. Just a bit of a break from the norm.” Pure poetry, Jaden Smith’s dad. Summer.

Summer. Summertime. I’m so freakin’ excited!

There is no more beautiful Binghamton than Binghamton in the summertime. Well, maybe that utopic 1950s Binghamton that all you lifers mourn for all the time. That sounded like a nice Binghamton, too. It’s okay. I’ll settle for a bunch of lush greenery and bike rides through the West Side and getting to sit outside at, like, every freakin’ bar in town. (Though, it’d be a hell of a lot cooler to do all of those things in EJ Shoes.)

After seven months of Broome County “Game of Thrones” winter, I plan on spending as much time as possible in the great outdoors. Cole Park. Salt Springs. IBM Glen. I might even swim in the Susquehanna. Maybe. One summer, I lived on the river and swam in it every day. I had hives until October. It was totally worth it.

It’s going to be a busy season for us at Carousel. We’re upping our distribution again next month, tabling at a whole slew of festivals and events, tweaking the new website, and working on a whole bunch of super secret, super cool projects that we’ll tell you about as soon as we’re allowed to.

So too, will it be a busy season for the Southern Tier. Street festivals, summer concert series’, art walks, fairs… there’s no shortage of entertainment on its way to the region. Get out there.

Soak it in. Don’t be that person that says there’s nothing going on.

One thing I can tell you about: Porchfest. Inspired by similar events in cities like Ithaca and Cleveland, we’ll be coordinating outdoor performances by dozens of local musicians, staged for one afternoon on the porches of West Side homes. We’re still in early planning stages, and there’s plenty of room to get involved. Musicians, interested sponsors, owners of porches- we want to talk to you all. Feel free to shoot a line to Carousel headquarters, and stay tuned for a whole bunch more information in the coming months in print and on carouselrag.com.

Anyway. It is 6am. This is always the case. I told the printer I’d have this to bed by 5am.

Actually, I might have said “two days ago.” Until next time…

-Christopher M.F. Bodnarczuk

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June 2015 Triple Cities Carousel 5

music.

ENTER MAURICE. Dear Steve, My name is Maurice. You probably don’t remember me. I sat two desks behind you in Mr. Wilmont’s junior high civics class. We had the same lunch period. I don’t expect you to remember. I’m an unmemorable person. Always have been.

It must seem to you that this correspondence is coming from nowhere, but the truth is, I have been meaning to write you for quite some time. I’ve followed your career. You’ve made quite a name for yourself, Steve. Who would’ve thought? The rock and roll is here to stay.

I sadly cannot say the same for myself. To be very honest with you, Steve, my own life is a bit of a bore. I never married. No kids. I rent. I worked at the DMV for thirty years. I’ve got three cats. A wild night for me is sitting in the recliner watching the TNT network. Those Rizzoli & Isles girls are really something, Steve. Last night, I ate two whole boxes of Hamburger Helper.

I’ll be honest, Steve, I’m not a fan of your music. It’s a bunch of malarkey, if you ask me. You sing about free sex and you glorify the pot. Me, I never got into that whole Woodstock scene.

No, sir. I do like “Abracadabra.”

Then there’s that “Joker” song. You know the one, Steve. The one where you call yourself Maurice. You are not Maurice, Steve. You are Steven Haworth Miller. I am Maurice.

Why’d you do it? Why’d you have to be Maurice, Steve? My whole life, I have been nothing.

Mediocre at being mediocre. Then I turn on the radio, and there’s Steve from junior high civics class, singing his platinum selling hit. My mother says in her weekly calls, “Have you heard how well Steve from junior high civics class is doing?” I go to visit my sister in Los Angeles, and there’s Steve from junior high civics class, on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Every Applebee’s I dine at, there you are in the speaker. “Some people call me the Space Cowboy. Some call me the gangster of love.” Good for you, you goddamned hippie. “Some people call me Maurice.” No, they don’t. That’s my thing, Steve. Being Maurice is my only thing.

And I’ll tell you, Steve. Being Maurice is not all those things you said they are. Being Maurice is most certainly not picking and grinning and loving and sinning and playing music in the sun. Not at all. At best, being Maurice is a day at the horse track and a vodka tonic and sciatica and home in time to catch the “Hannity” show.

I cannot even begin to describe the years of strife this song of yours has caused me, Steve. You could have been anyone. But you had to be Maurice. I have lived in your shadow my whole life.

And you went ahead and took my shadow.

And another thing, Steve. What the hell is a pompitous? That’s not even a thing, Steve.

Steve, I realize I must sound crazy. The odds of you even seeing this letter are slim. I bet you have sex groupies around to read your mail for you. And maybe I just sound like a spiteful old man. It’s just, well… I’ve been holding onto this all for quite some time, and my therapist thinks it’d be good for me to get some closure.

I hear that you are coming to the area this month. You’re performing your rock and roll show at Binghamton University on June 24th. You and that band of yours. What’s it called? The Steve Miller Band? Real original, Steve. I live in the area. I wonder if we could meet? Not at the show, of course, but maybe beforehand for a coffee. I don’t like concerts. Too many people.

Dancing. Laughing. Joking. Smoking. Midnight toking. I think it would be good for us to meet.

My therapist thinks it would be good for us to meet. It’s the least you could do, Steve. A cup of coffee. Some conversation. Let’s go dutch, Steve.

Sincerely yours, Maurice The Steve Miller Band performs at Binghamton University’s Anderson Center on Wednesday, June 24th, at 8pm. Tickets are $69-89 for inside reserved seats; or $36 for lawn seating. For more information, call 607-777-ARTS or check out binghamton.edu/andersoncenter. via web.

June 2015 Triple Cities Carousel 7 Provided.

AN INTERVIEW WITH QUEENSRYCHE’S MICHAEL WILTON Chris Bodnarczuk Editor-in-Chief Few bands are as synonymous to progressive heavy metal as Queensryche.

The legendary rockers rose to fame in the ‘80s thanks to hits like “Silent Lucidity” and “Queen of the Reich.” Complex instrumentals and high-minded concept albums set them apart from many of their generational peers, and as such, they were fortunate to avoid the ill fate that has become a trademark of bands of the era. Three decades of touring, and they’re still going strong, albeit with a slightly different lineup. In 2012, original lead singer Geoff Tate was ejected from the group amidst a very public, very messy legal dispute.

But that’s all in the past now. The band has a new lead singer, a new album on the way, and a tour underway… a tour that brings them this month to the newly re-opened Pines Pavilion in Endicott, NY. Carousel recently caught up with founding member and guitar player Michael Wilton, who checked in by phone from San Antonio. Here’s how it went down: uuu You’ve been busy recording Queensryche’s fifteenth album. Can you tell us anything about it? I can tell you a few things. We just finished recording all of it, so next step is to get it mixed and mastered and sent to our record company- Century Media Records. We’re tentatively looking to release the end of September, beginning of October.

This will be your second album with new lead singer Todd La Torre (from Crimson Glory). How has his presence changed the band? The transition has been seamless! He has known the first five, six albums since he was a teenager, so in that aspect it was plug and play with

him. The energy, the five octave range, the communication with the fans- which has been accepted on all levels- it’s just brilliant!

The fans love the new Queensryche. They love Todd, and it shows in this next album.

Unfortunately, I can’t give you the title yet.

We’re really excited for the release. It’s going to be great.

You recently went through a long legal battle with former lead singer Geoff Tate, and for a while, there were two bands going by the name Queensryche.

Tate’s band released an album during that time: “Frequency Unknown.” Have you listened to it? I think I heard one song from it but that’s all I bothered to listen to.

Fair enough. Let’s talk about some guitarists that paved the way for prog metal. Are you more of a David Gilmour guy or a Robert Fripp guy? Well, I dabbled a little bit in Fripp’s King Crimson realm, but I’m definitely more of a David Gilmour guy.

Pink Floyd was a big inspiration for me. But I do respect Robert Fripp and King Crimson.

They’re both great guitar players- different approaches and unique. As far as progressive elements, I kind of absorb everything I can, and I did when I was young as well. Lots of influences and lots of thanks to such great guitar players.

Can you point to one particular guitar player or band that made you pick up an instrument? Well, first and foremost, as a young kid it was Led Zeppelin. The first five Zeppelin records were, guitar-wise, just magical. They got me into playing. Everything they did was so varied- I loved that. When I was in high school, obviously I got into Van Halen. That really made me pick up the guitar. Seeing Eddie Van Halen just blew my mind. Music’s always been in my life. So, Jimmy Page and definitely Eddie Van Halen.

Queensryche formed after many of you played together in The Mob. What songs were you all playing together

back in the early days? The Mob was a kind of a cover band that we started. At that time, most bands were doing just covers of rock songs and metal songs. We cut our teeth on the British Invasion stuff- Judas Priest, Iron Maiden- all kinds of different bands that came from that era. We were in our late teens.

And then we decided if we were going to step up to the next level, we had to write our own music. That’s how the first Queensryche EP was born.

I interviewed Tom Keifer from Cinderella a few months ago, and we talked a lot about hair metal’s fall from grace as grunge grew in popularity.

Prog metal largely avoided that same fate, and it managed to evolve through the years. Why do you think that is?

Well, the height of our career was, ironically, 1991, when Empire came out. That collided with public taste, but I believe MTV played five of the singles. We had been fairly rooted for a while and developed a following with extensive touring. When grunge came, well, we knew a lot of those guys from the Seattle area, already. Grunge was something that was needed. Maybe things got a little stale for people. We just stuck to what we do and just kept releasing records and touring. And we’re still doing it today, so- I think it’s the years of touring so much, and touring with different kinds of headlining bands. It opened us up to so many different kinds of audiences.

You’ve sold something like 30 million records worldwide and toured the planet a few times over. How does the audience differ country to country, and do you have a favorite place to play?

They’re all just like different colors, reallyall the different places. They’ve all got great architecture to go see, and there’s also great audiences. South America is very passionate.

We played in Greece, they’re very passionate.

It’s always great to play the UK. We kind of got our big start there, with a nice article in Kerrang magazine. And then playing Japan, Australia- it’s great to be able to fly into all

these places and see the world. I don’t know.

We’re just really happy to be playing and to have a place to play live.

Queensryche is selling stock in the band on your website for $50,000.

Can we talk about the decision to do that? That’s kind of an equity development that we’ve done, you know? It’s based loosely around the jobs act that was created a few years ago. And since we’re a small businessany small business can do this- we thought ‘we are a corporation and a company, what do companies do?’ Sell off shares to make the company larger. We’re just doing the same thing. It’s not by any great manner that we’re selling off huge amounts. It’s just a small portion. Some people have come along for the ride. They want to be a part of the Queensryche machine. And if people are interested, they can always venture over to the Queensryche website and check it out. It’s business, you know?

You guys are playing at newly reopened Pines Pavillion in Endicott this month.

Do you have any memories of playing in the Binghamton region? Wow. I mean, I feel like I’ve played everywhere. I’m more of a visual person, so when I get to a place I’m all “oh, I’ve been here, I ate there.” But, we’re bringing the Queensryche machine to your town. It’ll be an energetic show, fun, and we’re going to bring it and play our asses off.

Anything to add? We just want to thank the fans for the opportunity to come to the area.

If you want to check out more of us we’re at Queensrycheofficial.com. Check us out, lots of great things with Queensryche are happening.

Stay tuned! uuu Queensryche takes the stage at the newly reopened Pines Pavilion and Events Center on Sat., June 13th. Supporting acts include The Rods, Mobday, and Into Shadow. For more info, check out thepinespavilion.com.

THE SUGAR LUMPS 8 Vol. 3 Issue 5

BRING THE SPEAKEASY

TO CYBER CAFE WEST Ilana Lipowicz Staff Writer

Esther Brooke and Bryan Flood are a traveling time capsule of speakeasy culture. Together they make up The Sugar Lumps, and the two-piece band from Ithaca is dedicated to preserving the forgotten music that fueled the raw and playful mood of speakeasies between World Wars I and II. Esther started out playing music in a nursing home, a gig she loved so much she held it for ten years. There, she mostly played popular standards of the period and “tin pan alley sort of stuff.” Her love for the music from that time led her to discover more obscure songs that have not carried over as well.

“I’m a person who loves to research things, so I just started digging around and realized there’s this vast pool of music that seems to have just disappeared. And I couldn’t believe it that no one was playing it and it was just absolutely spectacular,” says Esther, who leads the performance with vocals that seem to pump up from her feet as she bends and shakes into the microphone.

Guitarist Bryan Flood is versed in enough styles of guitar to cover the vast range of genres included in their repertoire. He plays everything from classical style to Django Reinhardt, to jazz and the blues. Brooke had never been in a band before, but when Flood learned what kind of music she was playing at the nursing home, the two came together and have now arranged songs of every genre from the time period into their own distinct style.

Esther’s fascination with this era has to do with the huge transition in the state of social culture. Before prohibition, drinking at a bar was a man’s activity and considered subversive for women. “And then women were doing it, because if men could go out and enjoy drinks in secret, then women were allowed to do the same thing.” When men and women came together in this furtive environment, it fostered a spirit of jaunty brashness which the music molded to fit.

What sets this type of music apart? To Esther, “it’s got stories in it: stories of love and loss, of redemption, and cheating, and all of the

things that people would normally be doing but keeping it off to the side- this music is actually putting it out there and weaving it into stories.” There is also an element of exclusivity to this culture, of coolness.

“There’s a lot of double meanings in the songs, and a lot of words from the lexicon of that time period that if you weren’t cool, you wouldn’t know what they were.”

Esther and Bryan aim to fill a room with the spirit of the speakeasy, and they find that people who don’t usually listen to music from this period often experience an uncanny resonance with it. “It almost taps into the collective consciousness, to something they recognize about it and immediately feel drawn to,” Esther says. Older people smile within the first couple of notes, and younger people often go quiet soon after.

Since their music is period-specific but not genre-specific, they are free to mold their performances to the character and vibe of the venue. They’ve got Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday up their sleeves for jazzier occasions, and a slew of country swing and blues for when they’re playing in county bars. But Esther’s performance style allows for an intimacy with the audience that helps to ascertain what it’s jiving with. She speaks to the audience between songs, keeping in character- one that has become a part of her even away from the mic. Even though she always goes into a performance with a style in mind, she’s ready to change it based on what she gauges from the audience’s reactions. “I watch people’s feet,” she says. Whatever gets them moving, that’s what they play.

The time period has bled from the music into their entire persona, to the extent that the band walks around with an aura of antiquity.

They refer to their van, which carries them and their instruments from show to show, as the time machine. “We’ve got the right look and way of moving around,” says Esther. More than a musical act, they consider themselves keepers of an age; there is a theatrical element to the way that they channel the past.

And to Esther, there is no need to try to modernize because the stories in their songs are not specific to the time. “It’s human drama with a different sort of outside world, but the inside world of people hasn’t changed.”

Walk into the time capsule with The Sugar Lumps at Cyber Café West at 9pm on Saturday, June 13th.

June 2015 Triple Cities Carousel 9

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METAL ENTHUSIASTS, REJOICE! Phil Westcott Staff Writer

I am not a metal enthusiast. In fact, when it comes to my favorite types of music, metal falls quite near the bottom of the list.

I must admit that when I was assigned to write about Lynch Mob, I thought it was the wrath of an angry god (or editor). When I started researching George Lynch, however, I was pleasantly surprised by the superb level of craft and precision put into his music, and when I heard his technically deft and tasteful guitar playing, I was blown away. The Pines Pavilion is truly providing an extraordinary opportunity for the hard rockers of Binghamton.

George Lynch has been shredding the guitar since the late 1970s, originally with the glam metal band Dokken, which is foundational listening for any metal head worth their salt. With soaring vocals, heavy rhythmic pounding, and Lynch’s ferocious guitar, Dokken was a tremendous force. Their breakup shocked the metal world.

Lynch didn’t let the end of Dokken stem his creative energy. He formed Lynch Mob in 1989, with the original line-up including Dokken’s former drummer, and the talented Oni Logan on vocals. Shortly after the recording of their first album, Logan and the band parted ways, for reasons unknown.

Lynch continued on with a rotating cast, at times including former members of hard rock

legends Dio, Black Sabbath, and Lizzy Borden.

Lynch isn’t just considered one of the most legendary guitarists of all time; he is also a talented luthier. It is unique and enrapturing that his fans can not only still hear him shred the guitar in front of them at the age of 60, but can, in fact, own a guitar hand-crafted

by Lynch himself. His guitars are instantly recognizable, with inlaid shark’s teeth and rattlesnake skin.

He is also deeply in touch with his Native American roots. He is currently in the final stages of releasing his documentary Shadowtrain: Under the Crooked Sky, which chronicles the condition of Native Americans in American society. Alongside the documentary, he formed the band Shadowtrain to release original music about the Native American experience.

Lynch Mob’s current line-up of includes original vocalist Oni Logan, drummer Scot Coogan, formerly of the Brides of Destruction, and Kevin Blades, of the band Lit. All are respected members of the American hard rock scene, and the show promises to keep your ears ringing for days.

The Pines Pavilion offers amenities as well, including delicious food, and beer on tap.

Lynch Mob will invade the Pines Pavilion, located at 1660 Union Center Maine Highway in Endicott on June 4th. Opening will be Saving Abel (remember that song ‘Addicted’?) and Shallow Side. Tickets are available online by visiting thepinespavilion. com/events and following the provided links to Showclix. For more information, call (607)754-2262.

176 Main Street Binghamton (607) 723-2456 cybercafewest.com sunday

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June 2015 Triple Cities Carousel 11

DO BAD THINGS IN OWEGO Heather Merlis Managing Editor On a recent sunny afternoon, a couple of no-goodniks strolled into a downtown bakery in search of some sweets.

A man with mutton chops for miles and a gal with a knockout frame and the voice of an angel sat down for a chat with yours trulythey were willing to meet with the press, even though everyone in town knew that these two do bad things. In fact, they like to roll with a whole wagon full of mischief-makers: they call themselves Peaches and Crime, and they’ve got plenty of trouble in store, which surely will be showcased at their upcoming performance at the Ti-Ahwaga Performing Arts Center, as they bring us Peaches and Crime Do Bad Things.

“I’m sure we’ve all done some bad things,” confessed Angie Diamond (whose name by day is Angela Schwartz). When asked if she wanted to talk about it, she quipped: “Is this a therapy session?”

No, this was not a therapy session, but this journalist did want the dirt on these two rogues and their band of crooks and crooners. Ms. Diamond was accompanied by The Professor, a man also known as Charles Berman. Why does he go by this alias? “Because of my extensive background.” In what, you may ask?

“Well, what do you need background in?” This pair sure is good at answering questions with questions. When asked if he ever taught at a

university, he only replied, “At a university?”

Fine. It was time to discuss something they’d be willing to spill the beans on: their act.

Peaches and Crime has been an entity since 2010- when their first album was released.

Ms. Schwartz, who sings lead and composes the tunes, laid it out clearly: “We try to cultivate an old-timey vaudeville cabaret act, circa the 1930s, and it’s something that isn’t very common these days in entertainment.

Not necessarily as a modern revival, but a modern interpretation that strives for as much authenticity as possible.”

Master of Ceremonies-come-comedian Mr. Berman backed up his leading lady: “As someone who’s very interested in the 1930s entertainment world, it’s interesting to see how that can be interpreted with modern capabilities and modern sensibilities. If you went back in time to a 1930s vaudeville night, there would be a lot of acts there, and of course every act would have nothing to do with each other, and some of them would be very bad.” He went on, “We’re not a night of separate acts; we’re a show that encompasses a vaudeville or cabaret sentiment, or style.”

“Most of our characters are liars,” explained Berman, with more pride than apology in his voice. “Liars, and scoundrels,” Schwartz added.

There’s a fine line between alias and actor here, a clear reflection of each members’ commitment to the act. And it is quite the cabal they have, with Dan Schwartz as Danny Black, yet another Master of Ceremonies and lyricist, who also happens to be married to our

vociferous vixen. Julia Adams plays Abbigail Pins on vocals and trombone. She is also costumer for the group, and this woman can work a needle and thread! There’s also Cat McDonald as Young Catherine on vocals and clarinet, Mike Sclafani- better known as Mikey the Fist- tickling the ivories, and Greg Baker as Gregor Gregoevich Lunin plucking bass.

Drummer Ross Bennett portrays Ross, and he is returning for this show only. The band is currently auditioning for a new drummer, as well as a guitarist.

All of their songs are originals, with the exception of few classic covers that will be brought out for their Owego performance.

Of her songwriting, Ms. Schwartz explains, “I provide the structure and the skeleton, and Mike and the others will put the meat on the bones.” While she is mainly a singer onstage, she also plays guitar, bass, and ukulele. The songs are based around the lyrics of Mr. Schwartz, and their band mates write their own arrangements.

“My character has a secret plan to destroy music,” Berman declared, when asked if he plays any instruments. “No, I just do the bits that don’t involve making notes happen.”

Their upcoming show is going to be more than their usual act, as it will include performances by burlesque performers. Domino Trixx and Scarlet Stiletto have both performed burlesque at Merlin’s, EPAC, and with Peaches and Crime before. They will also share the stage with Lucy Haze, who is a gymnast and dancer by trade, and Jolie Cherry Noir from Ithaca. “Because of the nature of what we do musically, I think it really requires the dancers

Provided.

PEACHES AND CRIME

to hearken back to a more traditional form of burlesque,” said Schwartz. And will there be nudity, perhaps? “We do have decency codes to uphold at various theatres.” Oh, so now they are concerned with decency. “There will probably be a process of stripping from more to less, but I don’t know if the result will be nothing,” added Berman.

So, what “bad things” do these characters do, exactly? “Oh, we encourage all kinds of bad things, which is also why we’re trying to leave it open.” Schwartz continued to propose the question: “Are we saying that Peaches and Crime do bad things, or are we encouraging you to do bad things? Either way, we support it.” The Professor was back at the table when he said, “If we went on stage and told you about all of the bad things we’d done- if we’d done them- we could get in trouble.”

Whatever they’re talking about, they’ll be taking it down to New York City in August, where they will be performing an original Choose Your Own Adventure murder-mystery at the former Studio 54, now supper club 54 Below. Before then, you can see them up in Owego at the end of this month.

Peaches and Crime Do Bad Things Burlesque Show will take place at TiAhwaga Performing Arts Center, located at 42 Delphine Street in Owego on Saturday June 27th, doors at 7:30, showtime at 8pm.

Tickets are available in advance by PayPal at peachesandcrime.wix.com under “Be a Witness”, or at the door (cash only). Adults $20; students and senior citizens $18. With cabaret-style tabled seating; advance ticket purchase is recommended for this event.

June 2015 Triple Cities Carousel 13

swamp root.

Provided.

Time to Put on the Ritz at Dr. Kilmer’s

Springtime Garden Party for Health & Vitality Hilda Mansionhopper Contributor Has this erratic turn-of-the-century springtime given you the sniffles? Do you sense an imbalance of the liver?

Tired of spending your Sundays at church? Well, dear friends, there’s something to be done!

Dr. Kilmer’s Springtime Garden Party for Health and Vitality will cure what ails you as you abandon the drudgery of the daily Binghamtonian life and enter a world where one’s only commitments are to croquet and gin. And your health, of course.

And what could be healthier than taking in some vitamin D while dressed to the nines on a gorgeous lawn, nibbling on smoked salmon mousse and sipping a liquid remedy? Nothing I’ve done in the past five months, that’s what.

And I know I’m not the only one who could use a little “health care.”

But this party isn’t all revelry with no cause.

Could you imagine: the poor children of Hillel Academy, not so long ago, were displaced from their safe haven of enlightenment. And you wouldn’t believe: the very roof caved inin a House of God! I know that the promise of fine cocktails (for your health), lawn games, and delicious food is enough to convince me to spend fifty-five clams on a Sunday. But if you must know where it’s going (your cash, that is), a healthy sum will be devoted to the academy. Think of the children!

But enough about children- I prefer booze.

For my health! As a female, my constitution doesn’t always feel quite- ahem- balanced. We have our ups and downs, you know. But I hear tell that a little concoction will be peddled at this event that was specially formulated for the fairer sex. With gin, of course. And rosemary! I can’t divulge the rest of the recipe: doctor’s orders.

There will be other medicinal cocktails served at the gin mill, but one needn’t become completely ossified to have a roaring time.

I, for one, have been getting a bit too fried to the hat lately, so you can find me on the lawn taking lessons from a big cheese in the croquet world- a dame who knows her game.

And speaking of games, there should be plenty of bearcats, hot tomatoes and lounge lizards looking all hotsy-totsy, flaunting and flirting on the lawn and in the mansion. If you want to find yourself necking by the end of the night, you best get dolled up. This isn’t a second-rate juice joint we’re talking- this is the real, ritzy McCoy. This fine affair is being thrown by Dr. Kilmer’s business associates at the Bingpop Creative Services Company, so you can be sure that your simoleans will be well-spent.

Why, the big boys of the Basin Street Jazz Band will be there, playing on the porch the kind of tunes that will have you kicking your dogs in no time flat. They really are quite ducky, sure to satisfy even the antsiest of floorflushers. There will be a nice, wide tent outside, and plenty of space on the first floor of the mansion to mill around, indulge in delectable grub, and get a little zozzled, even.

So the party will be on, rain or shine, though I am sure the sun will shine. For your health!

Speaking of health, I do hear that raw fish does wonders for the constitution (just look at the Japanese!) and there will be a sushi bar at this party. Those young wonders over at the Colonial, with help from our ever-blossoming culinary community, have some fine creations in store, with all kinds of yakitori and some French flavors, too- because we’re not afraid of our friends across the sea, now, are we? Not if they teach us how to cook! And I won’t even begin jabbering about what a good, marinated flank steak can do when you’re lacking in the iron. Come, see for yourself! You’ll be feeling better in no time.

Alright, I’m through beating my gums- I’ve already given you an earful. Bunnies, do come to the Jonas Kilmer Mansion, located on the swanky Riverside Drive, Number Nine, in booming Binghamton. The revelry takes place on June 14th, from 4 to 8pm. It’ll cost you $55 to get in, plus some extra cash if you care to imbibe. To your health!

14 Vol. 3 Issue 5

Angela Cook’s

Colorful Catharsis “Kevin’s Painting” by Angela Cook.

by Rose Silberman-Gorn

June 2015 Triple Cities Carousel 15

art.

When local artist Angela Cook began exhibiting her artwork six years ago, she doggedly pursued exhibition opportunities, despite her anxiety about putting her work out in public.

“In the beginning, it was intimidating to put my work on a wall... it was a rollercoaster of feelings, because I was baring myself, which was stressful.”

Through the experience of exhibiting, Cook gained confidence in the intrinsic value of her work, regardless of audience response or external validation. “I’ve had shows where four people show up, and shows where 200 people show up. Eventually, you learn not to care about the audience, and in doing so, you build an audience because you’re creating genuine work.”

A lifelong Binghamton resident and a lifelong artist, Angela’s interest in art was piqued from a young age by her family. Her father was a drummer, spurring her interest in music, and her grandmother encouraged her to play and create using her craft box. She ended up studying art history and drawing at Broome Community College, which motivated her even more to create and exhibit her artwork. She is also inspired by the art community in Binghamton. “I think Binghamton has a very strong art community. MuralFest was amazing- I saw such a variety of artwork there.”

After years of exhibiting and creating, Angela’s hard work and persistence has paid off. “I’m booked month after month. People have started coming to me with show opportunities,” Cook says. She briefs me on her jam-packed schedule of upcoming exhibitions: “In June, I’m showing Summer Solstice at Merlin’s; in July I’m showing at Lost Dog; in August I’m showing at the Broome County Library, and in September, I’m showing at the Phelps Mansion Museum.”

Cook uses her many exhibitions as a tool to help fellow artists who are just getting the hang of exhibiting their work. She often features other artists in her shows, such as photographer Thomas Donato, who will be showing with her at the Phelps Mansion Museum in September.

Cook aims to make her shows fun and approachable, even for people who aren’t involved in the visual arts, by giving out candy and collaborating with musical guests. Musician and friend Rachel Sage joined her at her recent exhibit at the Bundy Museum, Where My Heart Goes. Rachel has performed music at five of her exhibits, a tradition that Angela hopes to continue and expand. “I want to show with more musical acts, and incorporate more performance art into my art,” she says.

“Angel Wing” by Angela Cook.

Music serves as a huge inspiration for Angela. Many of her favorite artists are actually musicians, and she often listens to music while painting, which helps to coax out her feelings so that she can capture them. “I’ve painted while crying and listening to Tori Amos,” she jokingly confesses. “It’s very cathartic.” Her favorite painting is inspired by her favorite album, Bigger Than Both of Us by Hall & Oates.

Angela categorizes her work as abstract expressionism, focusing more on applying colors and capturing emotions than on objective rendering. Her enjoyment of abstract art comes from its ambiguity and ripeness for interpretation. “You can always find new things in abstract art. You can let your mind play with it,” she explains.

“People tell me my artwork is full of movement and life,” Angela says, regarding the most common feedback she gets from audiences. Her art is made to express her feelings, and she always hopes that it will stir feelings in her viewers. In her work, Cook livens things up by layering acrylic paint, juxtaposing earthy tones with bright colors, and playing with texture and mark-making.

Cook often utilizes unorthodox methods or mediums in her work. Instead of using brushes, she will sometimes paint with her hands, plastic utensils, or pipe cleaners. This creates interesting brushstrokes, and also presents a fun and unique experience of creation.

Angela has also recently been branching out into 3-D work, putting her personal spin on recycled items and presenting them as ready-made objects. In order to obtain supplies for this, she looks in thrift stores for unusual objects, or accepts donations from friends and family, who are curious to see what she can concoct from their recycled goods. For instance, in her recent show at the Bundy Museum, Angela exhibited a repurposed chest of drawers and several doors to enhance the vision of her 2-D work.

Cook also uses her creativity and vision to create Littles, small 3x3 inch square canvases which she sells for $10 each. These are usually very popular, due to their convenient size, and Angela gets many orders around the holidays. Her most recent Littles are abstract Japanese block art prints.

Angela is currently looking forward to a whole summer full of exhibiting and creating work. “I’m very prolific in the summer. I paint every moment that I can,” she says. She wants to challenge herself by creating more figurative work, including landscapes, charcoal drawings, and portraits. And after years of challenging herself by applying for shows and displaying her artwork, she’s thrilled to reap the benefits. “It’s nice to get recognition for what I so love to do,” she says happily. “I still can’t believe I get to do this every month!”

Angela Cook will be exhibiting new work in her series Summer Solstice at Merlin’s for the month of June. An opening will take place on Friday, June 5th at 6pm. For more information on Angela’s artwork or upcoming exhibitions, visit her facebook page at facebook.com/Angelacatgirl.

Provided.

June 2015 Triple Cities Carousel 17

Photos Provided.

OBSESSED WITH ADORNMENT: STUDIOSOPHIASOPHIA Heather Merlis Managing Editor

StudioSophiaSophia is a line of bright, bold jewelry, created by local artist Sophia Sophia.

once I start making it, things will change in the process. It doesn’t look like the beginning; something usually changes, even if it’s like three-percent change.

What do you make? I like to think of it as small, wearable paintings. I use really bright colors, neon, super eye-catching- not really earthy- and I use simple geometry to create compositions: whether it’s soldering shapes together, stacking, dangling shapes off other shapes- that kind of thing.

How did you get led to making jewelry?

I went to art school, and was an undecided fine arts major, and I took a jewelry class, and basically, the woman teaching the class was just awesome, and I was like, I want to take another class and learn from this woman.

She was just super cool: in her fifties, living in New York. This was at Pratt Institute at the Brooklyn Campus. I’ve always been obsessed with adornment, and jewelry, dressing myself, but I guess when I figured out that I could make jewelry for myself, I was hooked.

It was kind of a selfish thing. I thought it was so badass, and keeping up with the tradition: basically, I’m using all the same tools that were used, like, forever. I use a saw, and a file, and sandpaper, basically, and I think that’s really cool. I’m really anti- the whole CAD, computer, design printable shit. So, the materials, the people who were teaching, the idea that I could make things for myself to wear, the world of functional art was kind of new to me- I had always been a painter and would draw and that kind of thing, but jewelry as an art form was really new and awesome.

Do you want to talk about your process?

It’s funny- I’ve been wanting to talk to other artists to see if this has been happening to them: I get a vision of a finished piece, before I even start. It always starts with a rough vision of a piece I want to make, and usually

You have a strong, clear aesthetic.

How does one come to that? I don’t know- it’s hard to describe. I’ve always been obsessed with really loud color, pattern- a lot of it’s inspiration from textiles, which I only recently really discovered. I think my

Working out of a basement studio in Binghamton’s Art Mission building, which she shares with her husband, visual artist Wally Dion, Sophia creates statement pieces that are a pure celebration of color and movement.

Having received a grant from the Broome County Arts Council, she will be opening The Jewelry Space in her studio this month, and her line will be available for sale, in-person, to our colorful locals. Carousel recently visited the space to talk with the artist. uuu

aesthetic has been the same forever. A lot of it is wardrobe-based, that translates into my jewelry somehow.

Do you have specific style icons? I mean, not so much- I have a lot of artisticons; like, right now, I’m obsessed with Mara Hoffman, who is a fashion designer.

She does really simple designs, but her fabric is insanely amazing. Just super-bright, kind of like looking into a kaleidoscope. Anything with super-bright, neon colors. It’s not for everyone. I think I have more of a styleaesthetic, rather that one person who’s an icon.

Can you describe what it feels like to create your pieces? Mentally, you just kind of go in the zone. I can get trapped with my own thoughts, but I could just sit at the bench and just make and be in my own world, which is really awesome. I find it really weird to see the finished product after I’ve seen the piece in the beginning. It’s definitely challenging at times, working with a material that is not as forgiving as you’d like it to be. Having a paintbrush in your hand is a little different than having a piece of metal that won’t bend a certain way. So there are times when it’s really frustrating, but overcoming the technical aspects is really rewarding.

Can we talk about what your pieces are meant to evoke? I think of them as selfportraits. Self-portraits are very rooted in the history of art. I was doing literal self-portraits during grad school, and after I graduated

and realized: how am I going to make a living making these weird-ass self-portraits?

I figured out another kind of self-portrait: they’re abstracted. I think of my work as small pieces of me. I have pieces that are more oneof-a-kind than others, and it would be hard for me to sell them to someone who I didn’t admire. Sometimes I have a hard time giving these things away because I feel so close to them.

Can you recall any specific creative challenges that led you to new discoveries? At grad school [at RISD] we had this project where we had to collect ten materials that we wanted to work with, so I made these boards of ten different materials, but I color-coded them. Each board had yarn or buttons- just like, weird stuff, and they were all different colors- and my professor said, “This looks like only one material to me: your material is color.” I’ve always known I’ve been obsessed with color, but I never knew that was what I wanted my work to be. I came to terms that color was my material. uuu The Jewelry Space, located in the basement of the Art Mission in Binghamton, is open on First Friday evening in June, that Saturday, June 6th, from 12:30-3:30pm, and by appointment. Entrance to the Space is on State Street, in the back of the Mission, by the train overpass. Jewelry can be found and appointments may be made by visiting studiosophiasophia.com.

18 Vol. 3 Issue 5

CAPTURING THE COLORIST: AN INTERVIEW WITH MARK-MAKER

JOANNE THORNE ARNOLD Phil Westcott (with Rose Silberman-Gorn) Staff Writers Joanne Thorne Arnold, a Binghamton-based artist, uses small, expressive lines and mark-making in her paintings, which explore color, light, and the singular beauty found in landscapes.

“I’m a colorist who does atmospheric paintings of a place that the viewer creates within.

Sometimes it’s a time of day; sometimes it’s a time of light: it’s something you feel.” Her passion is tangible as we sit in the corner of The Shop, watching the sun go down over the city, discussing her and her husband David’s upcoming show, Next.

remodeled our two-car garage into a one-car garage with a studio.

I think when I was at Salt and Stall, an artists’ residency in Ithaca, I became very interested in color field painting, a la Mark Rothko. What I’m working on now is based on that. It’s a technique I’ve developed called mark-making, a series of lines layered over each other. What happens is that the painting pulsates, up close and far away. It draws you in.

Your painting reminds me of pointillism. I hear that a lot, I think because there is no name for my style of painting.

uuu

Where have you shown your artwork?

Whipworks, Orazio Salati’s gallery, and the Cooperative Gallery are where I most often show my work. I just got gallery representation at a gallery in Massachusetts, and I’ve shown outside Charleston and in Palm Beach, Florida as well.

How did you become an artist? I went to New Paltz for art education. I always knew I was a painter but I never felt like I was finished learning. When I came back to Binghamton, I started renting studio space and taking lessons from Michael Tanzer. For me, it was always about learning. A professor of mine once said, “You have ten thousand bad paintings in you before a good one.”

During that time I think I was working on my ten thousand. I moved to Spool MFG after that, but the roof was always leaking, so we

Tell me about the upcoming show with your husband- how did that come about? We’re having a show at Atomic Tom’s. We’re both retiring together at the end of June. I’ve been a public school teacher for 30 years. David has been a member of clay works over at Roberson for ten years. So with our retirement, we decided, Hey, let’s do a show together. So we’re going to have an opening on First Friday, and then it will be on display at Atomic Tom’s during the month of June.

“Red Twilight” by Joanne Thorne Arnold.

Do you see a connection between your work and his? Not necessarily. He does his own stuff, and I do my own stuff. His work, being pottery, is very earthy. It’s kind of like earth and air. I think that our biggest connection is that we both experience the same joy of creation.

What’s your technique for painting? I do an under-painting using a wax medium, and then I play off of that. I think that’s how it pulsates: the layers. Most of what I’m doingthe colors, they’re intuitive. You got to let it happen, you cannot decide what you’re going to do or what it is exactly; there’s no point in doing it otherwise. It’s not as labor intensive as it looks, but is anything really labor if you love doing it? In contrast, I think in David’s approach he knows what he wants to make from the start. It wasn’t until my residency at Salt and Stall that David approached me and said he wanted to start doing pottery, all on his own. He’d never expressed interest in creating anything before so it kind of threw me.

Could you tell me why you use landscape imagery? I think I’m inspired by the hills and the skies of this area in a lot of ways. I wake up in the morning, and look out the window before I get out of bed, and I look at the hill and the sunrise, and that sort of stuff really fuels me. It’s a part of who I am.

What’s your biggest inspiration, and your biggest influence? My inspiration is

my focus. I know people will say “Oh, when I’m inspired I’ll do my art.” Is it inspiration?

It’s focus.

Do you think your artwork has changed a lot over time? It’s grown, and it’s turned into something that’s completely original. The originality belongs to me, and it’s taken me all of these years to arrive to that conclusion.

Fifteen years ago I wouldn’t have said the same thing. With that comes a confidence- I know galleries will show my work; I don’t get turned down. It’s my passion. My work has moved from figurative to abstract, and I often get labeled as abstract expressionism. I define myself as a colorist.

How did you and David meet? David’s from London, and we met while I was teaching over there on a Fulbright exchange.

I kind of brought him home as a souvenir. He moved over here, and it’s been happily ever after. And now, we’re both artists, and we›re moving on to what›s next in our lives. That›s why the show›s called Next; it’s a preview of what’s to come. uuu Joanne and David’s art will be displayed at Atomic Tom’s throughout the month of June. She is quite looking forward to her retirement and the expanded time she will be able to devote to her art. David’s pottery is also on display and available for sale at Old Barn Hollow.

June 2015 Triple Cities Carousel 19

“Thunderheads” by Joanne Thorne Arnold.

“Sunrise” by Joanne Thorne Arnold.

“Greenscape” by Joanne Thorne Arnold.

triple cities carousel sunday.

07 14 21 28

Planetarium Show (ROB) Open Mic (BRK) Sassy Sundays (TRQ) Millie (CMP) Roar of the Greasepaint… (TCP) Chamber Concert Series (PMM) Jimmyjohn McCabe (BEL) St. Joseph’s Bazaar (JOES) Belmar-B-Q (BEL),

Planetarium Show (ROB) Paint the Phelps Mansion (UC), Open Mic (BRK) Sassy Sundays (TRQ), Millie (CMP) Roar of the Greasepaint… (TCP) Moon for the Misbegotten (KNOW) Open Printmaking Wkshp (WHIP) Dr. Kilmer’s Springtime Garden Party (KM) St. Anthony’s Italian Feast Days (TONY) Velocity of Autumn (CRT) MLK Peace Trail Walking Tour (DTB) Belmar-B-Q (BEL), Planetarium Show (ROB) Open Mic (BRK) Sassy Sundays (TRQ) Millie (CMP) Bill Carter’s Beyond Banff Suite (FHS) Moon for the Misbegotten (KNOW) World Giraffe Day & Dad’s Day BBQ (ADV) Insomnia 2K15 (CHMP) Hoobastank (PINE) Belmar-B-Q (BEL), Planetarium Show (ROB) Open Mic (BRK) Sassy Sundays (TRQ) Millie (CMP) The Snow Queen (EPAC) Supersonic Strings (FHS) Moon for the Misbegotten (KNOW) NY Faerie Fest (SR79) Street Feet/Delete History (HCS) Belmar-B-Q (BEL),

monday.

01 08 15 22 29

(ABL) Abel’s Pub, Binghamton (AC) Anderson Center, BU (ADV) Animal Adventure, Harpursville (AMT) Art Mission Theatre, Binghamton (ATOM) Atomic Tom’s, Binghamton (BCA) Broome County Arena, Binghamton (BCAC) Broome County Arts Council, Binghamton (BCDC) Broome County Dance Center, Binghamton (BEL) Belmar Pub, Binghamton (BHMN) Bohemian Moon, Norwich (BRK) Brackney Inn, PA

Tango Lessons (ATOM) Open Mic (BEL) National Theatre Live: The Hard Problem (AMT) Musical Art of Victor Lay (RRB) Save Energy, Save Dollars (YHPL) Team Trivia (CCW)

Tango Lessons (ATOM) Open Mic (BEL) Team Trivia (CCW)

Jazz Jam #14 (FHS) Tango Lessons (ATOM) Open Mic (BEL) Downtown Book Club (RRB) Team Trivia (CCW)

Tango Lessons (ATOM) Open Mic (BEL) Team Trivia (CCW)

Jazz Jam #15 (FHS) Tango Lessons (ATOM) Open Mic (BEL) Team Trivia (CCW)

(BSP) Blarney Stone Pub, Norwich (BTP) Blind Tiger Pub, Johnson City (BU) Binghamton University (BUN) Bundy Museum, Binghamton (BWSC) Broome West Senior Center, Endwell (CAL) Callahan’s Sportsman’s Pub, Binghamton (CCW) Cyber Café West, Binghamton (CHUB) Chubby’s Sports Bar, Johnson City (CHMP) Champion Speedway, Owego (CMP) Cider Mill Playhouse, Endicott (CRT) Chenango River Theatre, Greene

tuesday.

02 09 16 23 30

JUNE

Open Dance w/Kate Pulling (BCDC) Swing Dance (REX) DIY Craft Night (POW) Book Binding (POW) Film Screening “A Place at the Table” (LDC) Speakeasy Open Mic (CCW) The Falconers (OUH) Open Mic (CCW)

Open Dance w/Kate Pulling (BCDC) Swing Dance (REX) DIY Craft Night (POW) Book Binding (POW) Smoked Turkey Dinner/Dan Pokorak (MOOS) BingPop Beginner Photography Wkshp (LDC) Brian Vollmer & Claire Byrne (OUH) Discussion: Natural History of Dragons (YHPL) Karaoke (CCW)

Open Dance w/Kate Pulling (BCDC) Swing Dance (REX) DIY Craft Night (POW) Book Binding (POW) BingPop Beginner Photography Wkshp (LDC) Shambles (OTS) Sierra Club Discussion (CUMC) Karaoke (CCW)

Open Dance w/Kate Pulling (BCDC) Swing Dance (REX) DIY Craft Night (POW) Book Binding (POW) Dancing With the Stars Live (BCA) Boondock Rebels (OTS) BingPop Beginner Photography Wkshp (LDC) Karaoke (CCW)

Open Dance w/Kate Pulling (BCDC) Swing Dance (REX) DIY Craft Night (POW) Ryan Wilson (OTS) Wizard of Oz Summer Carnival (DISC) Beginner Photography Wkshp (LDC)

(CUMC) United Methodist Church, Endicott (DISC) Discovery Center, Binghamton (DTB) Downtown Binghamton (DTO) Downtown Owego (EPAC) Endicott Performing Arts Center (FH) Finch Hollow Nature Center, Johnson City (FHS) Firehouse Stage, Johnson City (GBSC) Greater Binghamton Sports Cplx (GXY) Galaxy Brewing Co., Binghamton (HCS) HCS Skatepark, Vestal (JBC) John Barleycorn, Owego

wedne

03 10 17 24

D

Cards Ag Jazz Ja Com

D

Cards Ag

Paint with

D

Cards Ag Jazz Ja Com

D

Cards Ag

(CUMC) United Methodis (DISC) Discovery Center, (DTB) Downtown Bingha (DTO) Downtown Owego (EPAC) Endicott Perform (FH) Finch Hollow Nature (FHS) Firehouse Stage, J (GBSC) Greater Bingham (GXY) Galaxy Brewing Co (HCS) HCS Skatepark, Ve (JBC) John Barleycorn, O

2015

esday. thursday.

Deep Cuts Pro Jam (CAL) Open Mic (KROW) gainst Humanity (MRLN) am w/Miles Ahead (LDC) medy Shenanigans (MB) Rick Iaocovelli (CCW)

Deep Cuts Pro Jam (CAL) Open Mic (KROW) gainst Humanity (MRLN) Greg Neff (KROW) Paint and Sip (GXY) SPARE Productions (UC) Scott Ellison (CCW)

Deep Cuts Pro Jam (CAL) Open Mic (KROW) gainst Humanity (MRLN) am w/Miles Ahead (LDC) medy Shenanigans (MB) Al Millus (CCW)

Deep Cuts Pro Jam (CAL) Open Mic (KROW) gainst Humanity (MRLN) Steve Miller Band (AC) Kai L Baxley (CCW)

st Church, Endicott r, Binghamton amton o ming Arts Center e Center, Johnson City Johnson City mton Sports Cplx o., Binghamton estal Owego

04 11 18 25

Thing One (CCW), Open Mic (BSP) Trash Thursday (MRLN) Adam Ate the Apple (BEL) DIY Craft Night (POW) Velocity of Autumn (CRT), Chris Mollo (BTP) Hustle Dance Lessons (BWSC), Millie (CMP) Bike Night/Distant Thunder (KROW) Doug Dudgeon (BHMN) Hung Like Horses (GXY) Lynch Mob/Saving Abel (PINE) Saying “No” w/Less Guilt (YHPL) Thing Two (CCW), Open Mic (BSP) Trash Thursday (MRLN) Adam Ate the Apple (BEL) DIY Craft Night (POW) Acoustic Brew (BTP) Millie (CMP) Bike Night/Super Radical (KROW) LJ Gates (BHMN) Alpha Brass Band (GXY) Hustle Dance Lessons (BWSC) The Velocity of Autumn (CRT)

Insomnia 2K15 (CHMP), Open Mic (BSP) Trash Thursday (MRLN) Adam Ate the Apple (BEL) Herb Class (YHPL), DIY Craft Night (POW) Author David Figura (RRB), Chris Mollo (BTP) Hustle Dance Lessons (BWSC), Millie (CMP) Enerjee Jazz w/Ayana D (LDC) Thing Two (CCW), Bike Night (KROW) Dove Creek (BHMN) Moon for the Misbegotten (KNOW) Thing One (CCW), Ultra Vibe (GXY) Open Mic (BSP) Trash Thursday (MRLN) Adam Ate the Apple (BEL) DIY Craft Night (POW) Joe Stento & Friends (BTP) Millie (CMP) Bike Night (KROW) The Octobermen (BHMN) Still Hand String Band (GXY)

(OUH) Old Union Hotel, Binghamton (PINE) Pine’s Pavilion, Endicott (PMM) Phelps Mansion Museum, Binghamton (POW) KAPOW Art Now, Binghamton (REX) Rexer’s Karate, Endicott (ROB) Roberson Museum, Binghamton (RRB) River Read Books, Binghamton (RST) Ransom Steele Tavern, Apalachin (SR79) 2195 State Route 79, Harpursville (TD) Tioga Downs Racino, Nichols (TCP) Ti-Ahwaga Community Players, Owego

events calendar

friday.

05 12 19 26

First Friday Art Walk (DTO/DTB) Rick Iacovelli/Dusty Wayne & Rusty Pete (BTP) Gunpoets/Wreckless Marci (THR), Millie (CMP) St. Joseph's Bazaar (JOES), Ultra Vibe (LDC) Roar of the Greasepaint… (TCP) Day of the IPAs (NRTH), The Parlor Cats (JBC) Yarn Bomb (DTO), Pete Ruttle & Friends (OUH) Paint With Gumption (WHIP) Hardin Burns (CCW), Clammin'/Jammin' (TRAD) Metrocenter Plaza Pop-Up Party (DTB) Driftwood/Chris Merkley/Milkweed (RST) Brotherhood (TRAD), Odd Man Out (BTP) Author Everett De Morier (RRB) Millie (CMP) Velocity of Autumn (CRT) The Falconers (LDC) Roar of the Greasepaint… (TCP) Moon for the Misbegotten (KNOW) Buddha Kings (CCW), Monroe Show (MRLN) Fear of Art: Animal Art Night (FH) Planetarium Show (ROB) , Next to Kin (JBC) Pete Ruttle & Friends (OUH) St. Anthony’s Italian Feast Days (TONY) Zoo-vie Night (ADV), Blind Owl Band (RST) Grace's Ghost (CCW), Toy Box Trophies (BTP) Next to Kin (RST), Millie (CMP) Poetry Open Mic (RRB), Flint (LDC) Greg Neff/Watermonsters (KROW) Moon for the Misbegotten (KNOW) Noche de Salsa (MRLN) Strawberry Fest (DTO) Pete Ruttle & Friends (OUH) Guilty Pleasure (ABL) Insomnia 2K15 (CHMP) Jacob Powell (TRAD) The Beatles Band (BTP) Eric Sommers (CCW), Millie (CMP) The Snow Queen (EPAC) Wreckless Marci (KROW) Moon for the Misbegotten (KNOW) Dust Boxx Experience (MRLN) Milkweed (JBC) Pete Ruttle & Friends (OUH) NY Faerie Fest (SR79) Farewell to the Factory Towns (BUN) Ryan Cavanaugh and The Falconers (RST)

(TECH) TechWorks, Binghamton (THR) Thirsty’s, Binghamton (TRAD) Traditions @ the Glen, Johnson City (TRQ) Tranquil Bar & Bistro, Binghamton (TONY) St. Anthony of Padua, Endicott (UC) Uncorked Creations, Binghamton (UMC) United Methodist Church, Johnson City (WHIP) Windsor Whip Works, Windsor (WSB) Water Street Brewing, Binghamton (WW) World Wide (YHPL) Your Home Public Library, Johnson City

saturday.

06 13 20 27

Full Circle (CCW), Thom, Beth & Mark (BTP) St. Joseph's Bazaar (JOES), Millie (CMP) Binghamton Wine & Tapas Tour (DTB) True Colors Pride Bash (LDC) Planetarium Show (ROB), DJ Castle (LDC) Roar of the Greasepaint… (TCP) Sexy Saturday (MRLN) Wine & Tapas Tour (DTB) Driftwood/Pete Ruttle/Eastbound Jesus (RST) Garage Sale Days (DTO) Belmar-B-Q (BEL), Odd Man Out (CHUB)

BBQ (BEL), Pasty White & Double Wide (BTP) St. Anthony’s Italian Feast Days (TONY) Vel. of Autumn (CRT), Millie (CMP), DJ Castle (LDC), J Stento/D Fleugal (KROW) Book Sale (YHPL), Roar of Greasepaint (TCP) Moon for the Misbegotten (KNOW) Kings & Queens of Comedy (MRLN) Pride Ball (MRLN), The Spelunkers (JBC) KGB and Falconers (RST), Farmer’s Mkt (OTS) Sugarlumps (CCW), Printmaking Wkshp (WHIP) Queensrhyche (PINE), Pride Palooza (DTB)

Insomnia 2K15 (CHMP), Mike Whittemore (BTP) Classics to Broadway (TECH), Millie (CMP) Farmer’s Market (OTS), DJ Castle (LDC) Belmar-B-Q (BEL), Odd Man Out (KROW) Moon for the Misbegotten (KNOW) Divas After Dark (MRLN) East Coast Bigfoot (CCW) Strawberry Fest (DTO) The Best is Yet to Come (AC) Brummy Bros. and Milkweed (RST) Ronnie James Dio Day (WW) The Good Fruits (CCW), L Ectric Brew (BTP) Belmar-B-Q (BEL), Millie (CMP) The Snow Queen (EPAC) DJ Castle (LDC) EgoManiacs (KROW) Moon for the Misbegotten (KNOW) Deveroe (JBC) NY Faerie Fest (SR79) Farmer’s Market (OTS) The Machine/Randy McStine (PINE) Peaches and Crime (TCP), Next to Kin (RST)

The Triple Cities Carousel Events Calendar is featured each month as a courtesy to our advertisers, however we welcome venues to submit their events to triplecitiescarousel@ gmail.com by the 15th of the month prior to publication. Space is limited, so calendar entries, which have no cost, are picked on a first come/first serve basis. Triple Cities Carousel reserves the right to reject any submission.

June 2015 Triple Cities Carousel 23

pride.

SHOW YOUR PRIDE: Provided.

PRIDE PALOOZA AND MUCH MORE Phil Westcott Staff Writer

June is LGBT Pride month.

Held this month each year to commemorate the Stonewall Riots, which were a transformative moment in the history of the LGBT movement in 1969, Pride celebrates the history and struggle for equality for LGBT people in America across the world.

It celebrates that people are just people and that sexuality does not define the worth of a person.

“Pride is about being who you are and loving who you are. It’s about celebrating diversity and each others differences,” says Chris Waters, a member of the Binghamton Pride Coalition, which is hosting a slew of events throughout the month of June, the biggest of which is the 11th annual Pride Palooza.

Pride Palooza will be held on Court Street in downtown Binghamton, from the roundabout to Collier Street on Saturday, June 13th.

This is the third year it will be held on Court Street, and it will host a slew of events to celebrate Pride from 2-8pm, including three drag performances, music and events from McRay’s DJ’s; plus craft, food, and drink vendors (non-alcoholic). This is a familyfriendly event, and there will be kid’s games as well as the Zoomobile from Ross Park Zoo. An ice cream truck will be on location, and there will be a groove presentation from Positive LifeForce.

“It’s about getting the community to understand that we’re just like everyone else,” says Chris. “There’s no difference between us and other people because we’re men who love men and women who love women. A lot of people who come to drag shows are straight.”

(In my experiences with drag kings and queens, I’ve found them to be among the nicest and sweetest people I’ve ever met. In fact, on one of the nights my revelries led me to Merlin’s, when I found myself a little too inebriated, a beautiful drag queen took my hand and guided me to my friends.)

Other events being held throughout the day will include a performance by the Vestal

Violators, as well as by performers from EPAC. There will be a raffle happening, with donation baskets supplied from local businesses. Chris was adamant in saying that “this is not a gay event, it’s a community event.

Of course we want gay people to come, and it’s a safe space for them to express themselves.

The city and the community have been very supportive of our events, and we’ve received very little push-back.” After the event, there will be an After Pride Party starting at 8pm at Merlin’s Dance Club and Wine bar, with a Pride Ball starting at 10:30pm hosted by Viola, featuring another fabulous drag show.

Pride Month is important both culturally and historically. As we move towards a more equal and encompassing society, it’s an important reminder that things have not always been this way. The Stonewall Riots were an intense and pivotal moment in the history of the LGBT movement. Police and protestors clashed outside the Stonewall, a gay bar in NYC (which, in 1969 could not legally be a gay bar because being gay was still illegal), and brought the movement for equal love to the forefront of the country.

Binghamton has been very accepting of its

LGBT community, especially in the 11 years that the Binghamton Pride Coalition has been in existence, but we can always strive to do more. I remember arguing with friends and colleagues at former jobs in the Binghamton area about equal love. I’ve heard people casually throw around slurs, and struggled with my own sexuality for years because in the community I grew up in ‘that’ was not something we talked about. I guess what I’m trying to say, is that though I truly believe that Binghamton is an incredibly supportive place to be LGBT, we all need to learn to love each other for who we are, and coming out to Pride Palooza is a wonderful opportunity to engage with one of the most loving communities in the Binghamton area.

Other events happening throughout the month include the annual raising of the Pride flag outside of City Hall on June 6th, which will be followed by the True Colors Pride Bash at the Lost Dog Lounge at 9pm.

There will be a number of different picnics and events throughout the Binghamton area, with special events happening at Merlin’s, Tranquil, and other Binghamton venues.

For more information, check out the event calendar at binghamtonpride.org.

JUST 15 MINUTES NORTH OF BINGHAMTON

Fathers taste FREE! Father’s Day Weekend After your tasting, have a glass of your favorite, a beer or a wine slushie, out on the deck.

Munchies? Amish cheese and crackers or soft German pretzels!

June 20-21 Noon to 6pm

248 County Rd. 1, Chenango Forks (607) 656-9868

BLACKBEARWINERY.COM

June 2015 Triple Cities Carousel 25

theatre.

THE GREASEPAINT ROARS IN OWEGO Provided.

Felicia Waynesboro Staff Writer

“I think it’s unusual and I think they’ll enjoy it,” says Keith Nichols, director of the Ti-Ahwaga Community Players’ current production of The Roar of the Greasepaint the Smell of the Crowd.

The first thing that’s unusual about it is the transposed title, a wordplay on the old showbiz saw about theatrical performers thriving on the trappings of their profession, summarily expressed in the phrase “the smell of the greasepaint, the roar of the crowd.”

Creators Leslie Bricusse and the late Anthony Newley turned that wording and sentiment around when they co-authored book, music, and lyrics for this allegorical musical that enlivened the Shubert Theatre on Broadway for one illustrious season back in 1965.

The next thing that’s unusual is its form.

“It’s an apocalyptic setting up in a mountain pass,” Nichols explains, “where these tattered representatives of society find a playing board kind of surrealistically there in the mountain pass, and they play out their social and

psychological struggle on this board.”

The two lead characters are named Sir and Cocky- embodiments of the British ruling class and the nearly-repressible (but not quite) scrappy masses. Sir is constantly changing the rules of life; Cocky repeatedly rebounds.

It’s a “game” familiar to any anglophile or Downton Abbey fan, but equally familiar to anyone who’s ever given a thought to the likes of American “trickle-down economics,” or conflicting class interests anywhere, at any time.

to boast. The parents of Roar…’s director, Pat and Phil Nichols, were among the founders in 1958, and Keith became involved in his adult years. He and his wife Jane often act in Ti-Ahwaga productions. When they played George and Martha- the toxic, insult-riddled couple in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, “We must have done a good job,” Keith says, because it made their friends and family, “uncomfortable to see it.”

“I had seen it when I was a kid and I would think about it on and off,” Nichols reminisces.

But, whereas the perpetual universality of the musical’s theme was appealing, it is clearly the music that drew him to stage this production.

Nichols plays the piano and found a couple of albums on which jazz pianists interpret music from the show. It whetted his appetite for more. Enduring songs such as “Nothing Can Stop Me Now,” “The Joker,” and the moving “Who Can I Turn To,” popularized by Tony Bennett grace the production.

Having performed nomadically for nearly four decades, the company found a permanent home in 1997 when it was able to purchase an old food processing plant and renovate it into a theatre. Jane Nichols explained that it took four years after the purchase of the building to raise enough money to execute the renovation, with the first production in their new home opening in 2001. “We raised well over $400,000 as a group,” she says. The audience sits at cabaret-style tables where they can enjoy beer, wine, and snacks from the concession area during the show. There is a coat room for use during cooler seasons or on rainy evenings and matinees.

The Ti-Ahwaga Community Players enjoy the reputation of being “one of the oldest continually active community theatre groups in upstate New York,” as their website is able

Lead players in Roar of the Greasepaint… are Shawn Yetter as Sir (he’s the Commissioner of Social Services of Tioga County!) and Micah Neiff, a music student from Mansfield

University, as Cocky. Bridgette Ernst, “on loan” from EPAC, has the role of The Kid. Ken Snowden, making his stage debut at the age of 60-something, plays The Negro (so named in the script though this production seeks to change that to a moniker they consider more in line with contemporary thinking), an oppression-savvy character. Kristy Jackson of Owego Free Academy as The Girl, Shane Smith as The Bully, and eight Urchins aged 9 to 13 round out the cast.

As music conductor, Michael Wu commands the instrumental performances of a pianist, a drummer, and a bass player, with Keith Nichols controlling the often eerie, electronic theremin.

This show is the finale of the Ti-Ahwaga Players 2014-15 season. (The new season begins in July.)

The Roar of the Greasepaint, the Smell of the Crowd runs now through June 14th at the Ti-Ahwaga Performing Arts Center, located at 42 Delphine Street, in Owego.

Show times: Fridays & Saturdays at 8pm; Sundays at 2pm. Ticket prices: general/$25, senior/$20, students/$18. For tickets or more information, visit tiahwaga.com or call (607) 687-2130.

EVERYTHING AT CIDER MILL 26 Vol. 3 Issue 5

IS THOROUGHLY MODERN Heather Merlis Managing Editor

This month, local audiences have a generous opportunity to see Thoroughly Modern Millie at the Cider Mill Playhouse. This Tony-award winning musical is temporally modern (it came to Broadway in 2002), but is a throwback to- and perhaps a satire of- a bygone era. Carousel spoke with Josh Sedelmeyer, local thespian extraordinaire and Artistic Associate at the Cider Mill Playhouse.

This production brings some firsts for Sedelmeyer: his first Cider Mill production in the role of director, and his first time directing musical comedy, anywhere. uuu The rehearsal process is very quick.

Yeah- it’s fast and furious and a lot of fun.

It takes a lot of focus in the room, and a lot of on-the-spot creativity and collaboration, which the cast is perfect for. It takes a whole slew of teamwork.

Let’s talk about the show. The original story was a movie made decades earlier than the Broadway show.

The film was made in the sixties, but it takes place in the twenties, yes? Exactly.

Richard Morris worked on the screenplay, and then worked on the musical when it was brought to Broadway, teaming up with Dick Scanlan and Jeanine Tesori. It’s a unique piece in that [could be described] as a big band musical.

How does it play out as a period piece, not actually being from that period?

Well, the themes and the story itself are so in line with what the world- well, the United States- New York City, I should say- was going through in the twenties. You have this small-town girl who catches wind of what the modern style is- through magazines, through Vogue, through the radio, and through probably people traveling via car as opposed to just using a train- from the city to Kansas, or from Kansas and back. And she says, I want to go to New York City, and I want to live this awesome lifestyle. The number of millionaires in the twenties quadrupled, so suddenly you have money being thrown around, but it’s the Prohibition era, so money is being thrown around to promote social revolution: more people doing illegal activity, more people going to jail than ever before, because they’re drinking. You have women whose parents were raised in a very conservative world setting, now being exposed to big-city

morals- or immorality- and suddenly feeling this independence, and this need to explore their sexuality, their style- and you have these styles that are shocking and upsetting to their Christian parentage. The characters deal with those revolutions and desires.

Would you say that this show is “thoroughly modern”? The biggest theme in this show is that you can go into this world and aim to make money, or you can go into the world and find something you love and be happy, whether poor, rich, alienated from your homeland- you can find love and live a happy life, and it doesn’t need money. In fact, the pursuit of money often gets in the way of finding what it is that you love. Seven or eight years after the story takes place, the stock market’s going to crash, so all of the characters who are wealthy at this point- they’re going to be dead broke. Money doesn’t last forever, but love and those people who are meaningful to you- those are the things that really last and make life worthwhile. That’s the story that we intend to tell. We try to bring a lot of honesty to the core characters.

Would you say it’s a feminist piece? In some ways. It’s interesting how it sets out in the beginning and declares itself as a feminist pieceIt does? Well, kind of. You have this woman who shows up in the city and says, ‘You’re gonna think I’m crazy, but I’m gonna marry my boss!’ I think that’s a woman taking control of her life and rejecting what the norm is, and saying, ‘I’m not going to give into preconceived ideas, or ideas that have been passed down from my parents, or from women before me who have said: This is what it means to be a woman.’ It’s her saying, ‘This is what it means to me to be a woman.’ But then she realizes, by the end of the story, that what she thought was the best act for her, in fact wasn’t, and that she was blinding herself from embracing her heart. So, I don’t know if I would qualify it as a feminist piece, but certainly with a character as strong as Millie, who isn’t swayed by the men in the story but is, in fact, swayed by another female figure, and she decides her own destiny, that it is, in my mind, a feminist character, and a feminist plot, to a certain degree. uuu Did we mention there’s tap dancing?

Thoroughly Modern Millie will be presented at the Cider Mill Playhouse, located at 2 Nanticoke Avenue in Endicott, from June 4th through the 28th. Visit cidermillplayhouse.org, call (607) 748-7363, or visit the box office for tickets.

Our 3rd Annual Showcase Fundraiser!

Proceeds go to BHS Theatre Production Club!

Wednesday July 1st 7:00pm Helen Foley Theatre, Binghamton High School Tickets $10 To purchase tickets or for more information please call (607) 245-6366 or email purelytechniquedance@gmail.com

June 2015 Triple Cities Carousel 27

Drew Kahl and Suzan Perry in “Velocity of August. Provided.

RISE AND FALL WITH THE VELOCITY OF AUTUMN Ilana Lipowicz Staff Writer

The picture of an old woman, passed out on an armchair holding a kettle and a bottle of wine, is a fruitful but unsurprising first frame for a playthat is, until it’s revealed that the bottle in her hand, along with those strewn around her apartment, are not being used for consumption but as weaponry.

In the Chenango River Theatre production of Eric Coble’s Velocity of Autumn, Alexandra has barricaded her second story Brooklyn apartment and armed herself with flammable liquids in defense of her independence- her children are outside the building threatening to call the police if she does not agree to be moved into a nursing home. This is the delicate situation that Chris, her gay, estranged son- and the black sheep of her three offspring- gawkily climbs into up the

tree that reaches her window.

For reasons not revealed, Chris has disappeared from the family for 20 years, most recently living in New Mexico and trying to make it as an artist, the trade he shares with his mother. He is the child she most identifies with, and her anger towards him is not unrelated to this fact. “I think you understand the hunger to be free,” she tells him. He has been recruited by his brother and sister to talk some sense into her, but it quickly becomes apparent that they are not on opposing sides but that their reunion was fated by the parallel circumstances of being entrapped by themselves. In her old age, Alexandra faces the cruelty of time unto body and mind and the harsh realization that a sense of self is made up of these decaying things. “What the world is taking away from me, what God is taking away from me, is me,” she laments.

While Alexandra’s inner turmoil adorns the set, Chris’s strife is laid out more abstractly.

His depiction of his New Mexico life is illustrated through anecdotes that at once open up the world of the play and, in their occasional triteness, nod to its artificiality.

They work more as metaphor than imageryhe says that he used to go look into the vast

empty canyons because it was nice, “just for one moment to have everything on the outside matching up with what’s happening on the inside.” It’s a picture of distance and desolation, and it grows more distant as he reacquaints with a former self that was part of a family. The outside world comes and goes in waves, falling away as the pair quibble and diving back in through stories and reminiscing. There is also the ringing of the phone as the other siblings attempt to get the update on the situation, which is quickly escalating in complexity as mother and son hash out their relationship.

As the entire play takes place on one set between these two characters, its motion comes from such waves. Rising tensions are signaled by the fleeing of Alexandra’s mental clarity, which returns when the emotions settle. The part of Alexandra is played by Suzan Perry, who flows easily and naturally between the disjointed personas of the character, who is being driven into what looks like paranoid schizophrenia by the confusion of old age.

Chris is played by Drew Kahl, who towers over Perry but still manages to make the character look as small as he feels. Midway through the play, Chris admits to his mother that he’s considered suicide, but his depression is

evident much earlier in the subtle insecurity in Kahl’s voice and movement as he talks about his artwork. Recently he’s been working with sunflower seeds as a medium, he tells her with an air of defeat.

Kahl and Perry have both been involved with the Chenango River Theatre for many productions in the past. Kahl works in the theater department at SUNY Oneonta and has acted with a wide variety of theaters and companies, and Perry experience in both stage and TV acting. Throughout the 75 minutes of the play, they slowly and patiently build a warmness between them as the space between them shrinks from half the width of the apartment to none at all. As a minimalist play, it achieves what it is much easier for plays with many sets and many characters, and that is to make you feel as if you’ve been through a maze of places and times when really you’ve been sitting in your seat all along.

You can see “The Velocity of Autumn” at the Chenango River Theatre every Thursday through Saturday at 7:30pm and Sunday at 2pm from now until June 14. Tickets range from $22 to $25 and can be purchased by phone by calling (607)-656-8499 and picked up at the box office before the show.

June 2015 Triple Cities Carousel 29

poetry.

FEATURED POET:

EMILY VOGEL

Emily Vogel’s poetry has been published in numerous journals, most recently in Tiferet, Lyrelyre, Maggy, Lips, Luna Luna, Omniverse, The San Pedro River Review, The Paterson Literary Review, The Comstock Review, [Spaces], City Lit Rag, and 2 Bridges Review, among others. She has published five chapbooks: most recently Digressions on God (Main Street Rag, author’s choice series, 2012). The Philosopher’s Wife, a full-length collection, was published in 2011 (Chester River Press). She has work forthcoming in New York Quarterly, Paterson Literary Review, and Omniverse. Recently, she collaborated with her husband, Joe Weil on a book of poetry, West of Home, which has been published by Blast Press. First Words, a full-length collection will be released this month (New York Quarterly Books). She is the poetry editor of the online journal Ragazine, and teaches writing at SUNY Oneonta and Hartwick College. She lives with her husband Joe, and their two children, Clare and Gabriel in Binghamton, NY. Little Can of Corn

Motherhood is a tenuous surfacing, the timbre of morning, the tremble of an umbilical that pulls and curls back into itself, longs for the ghost of the fetus. A tenuous surfacing, the held breath, just prior to gasping into the blind atmosphere. The sunlight splintering in the spring on the edge of sleep, blur of perspective, dulling of the proper intellect. I would drown if not for my children, into the chromos of annihilation. But here they are, bounding as alphabets do, disappearing like months into rooms. They are small humans in my arms and the future is a sandwich bag. They are baby elephants learning to sing, waving their trunks and knocking over the wine glasses and stir-fry bowls. Various people circle the perimeter of the house, with lawnmowers and flutes. My husband and I glide across highways and sink into the welcoming beds of commercial hotels.

What images pervade the minds of children in the inky dark of night? My daughter wakes at 2 am and repeats the word “ship” over and over, giggling all along. And all I can think of is of the sea, a vast element of both beauty and terror. Little cartoon. Little can of corn, Sunday afternoon lingering in a hammock. Little numbering of all medicines. Little fight club, face at the window like a blow-fish. Go and never leave. Step into the ocean. I will not let you drown, even if all drowning coaxes me. Come back and run, abstraction of childhood across the sand. I will hold you in my arms and laugh and laugh, forget the lust for answers, the insistences.

The Glamorous and Dead

I love a good system if only for its occasions of error, glitch in the forest-like grid of decimals and decrees, immediate digit sent by anthropomorphized dogs playing poker, or maybe Ronald Reagan playing poker, golfing politicians, goldfish politicians swimming around and around, in the nations whirlpool of lexicons, journalists, and late-night TV, gun-bloodied body on channel 3.

And she looks even more beautiful when she’s dead.

Passover Seder 2015

Everything was a lingering. The blood was weary and the bitter herb lay heavy in my stomach, like 40 years of slavery in the desert. Also, there must have been some chocolate Easter bunny. If there was no chocolate Easter bunny, then I don’t what there was. Gabriel, the angel wept, and left the room after he crumbled up his unleavened bread and vehemently threw his bottle of water. He was a child, white-hot star on the dark horizon. Mary’s face was war-torn, as Christ was mounted in his crown of thorns. She was living in a trailer park. We passed many of them on the road that evening, all the trailers sitting like hunched old men along the river. I said some things, but the music was far too loud for you to hear. I kept looking at my own legs, not knowing if I was pleased or disgusted. But to return to white-hot star, fiery orb of full moon. The air felt as cold as Egypt, except that everyone had car alarms and locked doors, and wore elegant pants suits. Food was scarce, but we ate like wolves. Did I say there was a chocolate Easter bunny? And Gabriel’s weeping, tears like the streaming light from white-hot stars? My womb senses its own estrangement, a strange and empty certainty. It wouldn’t be right to chant Alleluia, but it was timely, and it also wouldn’t be right not to. I wanted to stop the vapid room of my mind from swarming like an ocean. I’m an impostor of a woman, my string-theory of a self wanting to dwell in an absent construct. Room of mind, room of Woolf, years in the desert as though a lust to drown, to cease the room of the mind, or the mind of the room. Two thousand years ago, oh god my god, why have you______________? At least a such thing as prophesy.

We brought children and sundry objects to the table. They were sloppy, but obliquely holy. I wore my best dress to the feast. There was no city filled with the lust for cyber-alphabets and expensive handbags. There was no “TTYL...” just candle light. Maybe a warm guitar if we want to get extravagant. But holy street of blue town, hearts both die and resurrect in synagogues. I ran into my fifth grade teacher there. I told her I remembered doing a report on Jacques Cousteau in her class. It was the last time I remember life for lack of complication or lingering lethargy and grief. She said, “oh, a report on Cousteau?” and then helped herself to the brisket.

The indemnified condition of windows on the sixth floor, no phone calls, papers compiled by the swiveling ass of a woman, or a woman making another woman panic about the size of her ass--Drinks tonight?

It’s almost zero degrees outside.

The snow makes the air wrinkle.

Bob, or Anna Marie, or blessed Job is sleeping under a bench tonight, glad for God or angry, invectives sifting through their cold teeth.

And so what? Anger is useless.

You sit quiet and polite as an unread section of the newspaper.

The whole house feels like the ghost of any woman I have known.

And yet, I can’t stop myself from washing the dishes, over and over and over.

It was Sunday, I think, and my son said “mama” for the first time.

June 2015 Triple Cities Carousel 31

food and drink.

via web.

STRAWBERRY FEST RETURNS TO OWEGO Ronnie Vuolo Assistant Editor

Strawberries, heart-shaped and juicy, have long been associated with love. And love was at the heart of the creation of the Owego Strawberry Festival 35 years ago- love of Owego and the surrounding area.

It started with the heartfelt belief that if people were introduced to Owego and saw all it has to offer, they would return over and over to enjoy its bounty. What started with a handful of merchants, a sidewalk sale, a parade, and the crowning of a Strawberry Queen, has grown into a two-day event that draws upwards of 30,000 people annually on the third weekend in June.

Sandy Knapp-Dunbar and her husband Fran have a long history with the festival, having served as co-chairs in the late 80s through the early 90s, and again for the past two years.

Sandy was also one of the original vendors.

“The heart of the event,” she stresses, “is the craft fair.” With the streets reserved for pedestrian traffic only, two hundred Owego merchants and vendors are expected to fill the downtown area this year. Part of this year’s fundraising effort involves a collectible festival poster created by local artist Michael Husted, available for sale at Riverow Bookstore. Walking through the crowd, one may

expect surprises (think juggling) and the savory scent of delicious culinary treats. Sandy warns that the strawberry shortcake, a perennial favorite, goes fast- so be sure to get your fill early.

Strawberries are an amazingly versatile fruit with an interesting history. Contrary to their name, they aren’t true berries (who bear their seeds on the inside); they are members of the rose family. Since the time of early man, they have been eaten for sustenance and credited with healing properties relating to fever, inflammation, gout, kidney stones, bad breath, digestive regularity, heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes, certain cancers, skin, hair, energy, depression, and dysentery.

Symbols of purity, passion, and healing in some cultures, they were associated with the goddess of beauty, love, and fertility by the ancient Romans; and represented righteous perfection in medieval times. Bavarians used them to placate elves, and the French served them as an aphrodisiac to newlyweds. They can be brewed into tea, served as a cocktail, shake, smoothie, or lemonade; added to salad, salsa, or soup; made into preserves, pickled, or frozen for future use. They are featured in breads, cakes, pies, and tarts of all kinds; made into popsicles, Jell-o, and ice cream; or even eaten plain. Full of antioxidants, potassium, folic acid, and fiber: a cup of fresh strawberries provides 160% of your daily vitamin C with only 50 calories. Best stored in the fridge crisper drawer, to stave off mold they should not be washed until ready to eat. Whatever your reason for eating them, they are at their sweetest when first picked, before their sug-

ars begin to convert to starch. So eating local strawberries not only benefits local farmers, it tastes better.

This year’s festivities kick off at 5pm, Friday the 19th, with the Strawberry Queen beauty pageant in Court House Square. The downtown block party runs from 5:30-10pm and includes vendors, a wine and beer tasting tent, and live music. Baku and Little Paulie and the Foot Rockers perform in Ahwaga Park, and MTB and Randy McStine and Friends are on stage at the Court House lawn. For the athletic-minded, the Strawberry Shortcake onemile run begins at 6pm for ages 5-10, and the Strawberry Shake 5K run/walk follows at 7pm. At 8pm it all goes to the dogs for the Strawberry Dogs Strut Their Stuff Contest, and for those who prefer four wheels to four legs, the Royal Automotive Group’s car show is in order. The day’s events culminate with fire juggling by Nate the Great, followed by a grand fireworks display in Draper Park at 10pm.

The party reconvenes on Saturday from 9am5pm. Be sure to arrive early enough to be on Main Street for the kick-off of the Strawberry Parade at 10. The hour-long parade includes: marching bands, dance troupes, floats, horses, antique cars, tractors, fire engines, and emergency vehicles. The merchants and vendors are back for day two, as is the wine and beer tasting tent and more surprises amidst the crowd. (Perhaps another juggler? Perhaps Will Stafford?) Today’s live music features: the Brackney String Band, Hot Biscuits, and Deveroe in Ahwaga Park; and Black Diamond

Express, Gravelding Brothers, and Woodshed Prophets on the Court House Lawn. For the young, or merely young at heart, Robert Rogers and his puppet circus can be found in Court House Square, Chris Clark’s Bicycle Stunt Show takes place on North Avenue, and a special Kids Zone fills Draper Park with free bouncy houses, games, face painting, music, and arts and crafts.

With huge crowds expected, parking is at a premium, but never fear! In addition to downtown parking lots and side street parking, free parking is available in Marvin Park on Friday night. On Saturday, shuttle service is available (for a slight fee) from Hickories Park, Tops (exit 65), and Marvin Park (Tioga County Fairgrounds). Saturday shuttles begin at 8am, and the last bus departs downtown at 6pm.

Being weather-dependent, the opening of strawberry season varies each year. But local strawberry farmer Frank Wiles predicts thatif conditions remain good- this year’s crop should be ready to pick just prior to festival.

According to the longtime owner of Our Green Acres Farm, this year’s crop promises to be a good one. “The weather has been good,” Wiles says. “It’s been dry, and strawberries like it dry- with no serious frost events.”

The Owego Strawberry Festival is held rain or shine. Further information, including a regularly updated schedule of events, event registration forms, parking information, list of streets closed to traffic, directions, and lodging information may be found at owegostrawberryfestival.com.

June 2015 Triple Cities Carousel 33

film.

TRAILER TRASH

Movie trailers aren’t always effective in giving useful previews of what a film is about. They’re usually a mess of disconnected images and phrases arranged in order to get the heart beating. Our resident cinephile, ILANA LIPOWICZ, deciphers these trailers each month, and here’s what she was able to deduce. This information is not guaranteed to be accurate, but it will most definitely save you from feeling like you spent two and a half minutes spiraling towards the earth in a burning aircraft and you still don’t know what to see.

Entourage: If you followed the HBO show, which ran for eight seasons ending in 2011, you know that Entourage follows A-list actor Vincent Chase (Andrian Grenier) and his Queens childhood buddies, who work in the various positions making up a Hollywood star’s entourage. The show was conceived as a criticism of the Hollywood lifestyle and was loosely based on the experiences and people in the life of co-producer Mark Wahlberg. Sometimes, in critiquing the excesses of money, sex, parties and drugs, it indulges in portraying them. Still, the show started out as a well-written and interesting satire, although the critical consensus is that it was long past its heyday by the time it ended. Naturally, then, the answer would be to take it to Hollywood where excess goes to get more excessive and good plots go to die. This movie is likely to be about boats, helicopters, naked girls, fighting, and other things that make men feel manly. Gather your boys, boys! (June 3, R) Spy: Melissa McCarthy plays an unwieldy CIA analyst who is thrust into the front lines as an undercover agent in order to infiltrate the operations of a powerful arms dealer. Her character is suspiciously similar to that of Tammy in the 2014 film McCarthy wrote herself, and a lot of the humor is coming from a similar place: she’s not fast, she’s not smart, she doesn’t follow directions too well, but she’s outspoken and delivers one-liners that make us laugh for their clumsiness and lack of tact. The imperfect, chubby female protagonist has been long-awaited in Hollywood, and now that she’s here, we can do nothing but smile wistfully and maybe chuckle here and there. (June 5, R)

Jurassic World: We can all agree that in 22 years, the significance of dinosaurs to our lives has changed drastically.

To address their new relevance, Steven Spielberg is back with another installment of the Jurassic Park saga, only this time it is Jurassic World, a small switcheroo of words that implies a large new dose of drama. I know it sounds like the dinosaurs are stomping around the entire earth and getting up in everyone’s business, but Jurassic World is still a theme park, the very one that John Hammond envisioned in the first three films, now fully functioning. In order to attract guests, the park’s genetic engineers create a hybrid dinosaur bigger than any other dinosaur that has ever lived, which is obviously a really bad idea, and you can guess what happens next. (June 12, PG-13)

Dope: “I’m from a poor, crime-filled neighborhood, raised by a single mother, don’t know my dad, blah blah. It’s cliché,” says Malcolm, who later introduces himself as “a straight-A student with almost perfect SAT scores.” It’s certainly refreshing that this film is at least upfront about being cliché and even poking a little bit of fun at itself. Malcolm is your typical Hollywood high-school “geek,” which means he looks like a model and like he’s 28 years old. His geek status apparently comes from his obsession with nineties hip-hop, which in actuality would make him really cool, and it also lends to the film a fresh, retro, and slightly faded look. It’s hard to say what this movie is about exactly, but Malcolm and his nerd-crew somehow end up selling drugs for some gangsters, and by the end I guess everybody’s dope as hell and they all go to Harvard. (June 19, R) Inside Out: There are a few theories which say that all of our emotions can be boiled down to some combination of a few basic ones. In Pixar’s first feature film since Monsters University in 2013, five core emotions are characters in the cranial headquarters of Riley, a young girl in the midst of an emotional roller coaster as her dad’s new job forces her family to move to San Francisco. Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger and Disgust, who look like little balloon vegetables, lose control over Riley’s emotions, their own chaos reflecting that which she is experiencing in her life. The stacked cast of voice actors includes Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, Bill Hader, Lewis Black, and Mindy Kaling as the five emotions. Pixar thrives at infusing its films with a wide range of emotions, and if this one is successful, you’ll not only laugh and cry, but you’ll also run away, yell, and throw up. Available in 3D. (June 19, PG) Max: What do you get when you cross Marley & Me with American Sniper? A dog with PTSD and some ignited support for the US military in Afghanistan? If you’ve ever watched those YouTube videos of dogs greeting soldiers returning from oversea tours, you know that it’s a perfect recipe for a stream of tears even if you don’t personally know any soldiers- or any dogs, for that matter. The makers of Max (who actually did also make Marley & Me) are milking this for what it’s worth. Here in America, if your heart doesn’t quiver at the sight of a military dog crying at the flag-covered casket of its owner, you must be some kind of terrorist, so even if this eye-roller of a scene doesn’t affect you, make sure you feign some sniffles in the theatre. (June 26, R)

Ted 2: It’s a teddy bear who sounds like a fat guy from Queens and talks about weed and having sex! Pretty funny, huh?

In this sequel to another movie about the same bear, Ted’s girlfriend, who is a human, wants to have a baby. Ted’s friend John agrees to be the sperm donor since Ted is a teddy bear and not a human. However, in order for Ted to become the legal father of the child, he will have to prove to the government that he is a person. Ted is obviously not a person since he is a teddy bear. This philosophical meditative story poses the question: what makes a person a person and not a teddy bear? (June 26, R)

34 Vol. 3 Issue 5

IN REVIEW: Provided.

TOMORROWLAND Ilana Lipowicz Staff Writer Disney’s Tomorrowland was meant to be something new and revolutionary.

Throughout its course, the film hypothesizes the number one overarching problem with the world and claims to have the fix. The problem? We have given up on the world, and our obsession with apocalypse is becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Tomorrowland finds its major contradiction here in that it is an apocalyptic movie in itself, feeding the very creature it uses all of its energy to lecture against. And even as an apocalyptic movie, it lacks any sense of urgency because the real world is not at all anchored in realism.

The dialogue is too punchy and reads like motivational refrigerator magnets, and the most we see of the earth is via big red ball that takes the characters through space and time through a Google Earth-like interface.

The film first feels unreasonably grandiose within the first three minutes as young Frank, who will later grow up into George Clooney, arrives at the 1964 World’s Fair in New York with the intention of entering his jet pack into a contest for new inventions. While it is turned by the judge since it doesn’t technically work, Frank’s ambition and sense of hope impress Athena, a little girl. She’s British for some reason. Frank follows her down the “It’s a Small World” theme park ride, and she gives him a pin that grants him access to Tomorrowland.

Now, years later, Athena is still a little girl,

and she gives the last existing pin to Casey, a rambunctious and brilliant teenager whose father is about to lose his job with NASA because the project he was working on is being shut down. Casey’s teachers go on and on about the doomed state of the world while she waves her hand around, exploding with the question, “Can we fix it?” Her optimism and intelligence earn her the last pin to Tomorrowland which, from the grassy field she first looks upon it from, harkens to the Emerald City.

And like the Emerald City, it turns out that the utopia does not live up to its promises.

It was intended to be the sparkling, jet-pack filled future that the 1960s imagined– a collection of fun, if unlikely inventions, and occupied by an eclectic population with an It’s-A-Small-World-After-All sort of idealistic diversity. This vision never came to fruition, and now even Tomorrowland is doomed as its shut-down is nearly complete. The movie holds some issue with racism and sexism, but apparently has no problem with elitism, as it leaves the two chosen geniuses, Frank and Casey, to save Tomorrowland and thus save the original earth, the two worlds being tightly intertwined.

It is never fully clear what the relationship of Tomorrowland is to the real world, nor what is done to fix either of them. It is not even until the third act that we catch a real glimpse of Tomorrowland, and it’s over before we see any changes. This would all be okay if it weren’t for the enormous build-up and teasing moments of beautiful special effects.

The Disneyfied message- to keep dreaming in whatever capacity or field you are involved with- is heartwarming. But when the lights go up, instead of feeling inspired, you feel like you just got off the It’s-A-Small-World ride and now you have to go to the bathroom.

June 2015 Triple Cities Carousel 35

gettin’ hitched.

via web.

THE HAPPIEST DAY OF YOUR LIFE Krissy Howard Staff Writer June has always been, and still remains, the most popular month to marry. If you’re unfamiliar with the ins and outs of the traditional wedding (read: the kind that rich people with actual jobs attend), look no further, as I’ve compiled a handy 7-step guide! It’s just like the 12 steps of AA, except your life won’t get better, and it doesn’t discourage drinking. Salud! uuu 1. Know people who get married. Before two weekends ago I had never been invited to a wedding, probably because most of the people that I know are single men pushing 40, and you aren’t allowed to marry a can of Miller High Life, a YouTube video compilation of people falling off of stuff, or your own hand in the great state of New York. Actually that isn’t true- I did get invited to my cousin’s wedding a few years ago, but that one doesn’t count as it was a dry wedding, and weddings are only real if you get to watch drunk people attempt to hit on other people’s moms. So get to know some couples! You can find couples at... I’m not really sure actually. What do couples who love each other do? Groceries? I don’t know, just start knocking on doors, you’ll strike oil eventually!

2. Get invited to a wedding. This one

seems like a no-brainer, but apparently there are some people out there (cough,cough OWEN WILSON!) who find “wedding crashing” to be a laughing matter. Well my very own grandmother died in an unbelievably gruesome (yet exciting) wedding crash, so you will not find me laughing about that for even one second! Just wait by your mailbox for the invitation of your dreams to come along. Or actually- no! The right invitation will find you when you stop looking (wink!). In order to even be considered for invitation, however, you have to qualify, which brings me to Point 3: 3. Be an appropriate person. A former co-worker of mine got married a few years ago, and at the discovery that every employee other than yours truly was invited, I became unreasonably pissed. When I thought about it again six years later, I realized that the person I was at that time in my life was absolutely not someone I would want anywhere near my closest friends and family. So a belated congratulations to you, former co-worker!

I hope your wedding has not yet ended in divorce as I not so silently assumed that it would to everyone else we worked with!

4. RSVP. Do people not know this already? I researched “wedding guest etiquette” because it’s my job as a writer to Google stuff, and this made a lot of the lists. Do not be this person.

Do not be the guy who clearly used the nicely calligraphed envelopes carrying laser-cut lace invitations to break up their weed on.

Everyone will hate you, though you probably won’t even notice as clearly you are some total idiot who has managed to skate through life protected by the cushion of your own inflated sense of importance. How did you even make

it past the “be an appropriate person” step?!

5. Use the registry. I detest consumerism.

I mean besides my iPhone. And clothing. And makeup. And candles. You know what I mean though. I’m still better than other people who are also into those things. My dog is a rescue. Anyhow, despite standing against the idea of buying someone a gift solely for the purpose of adhering to some sort of social grace, I can tell you that no one, and I mean no one, wants some mess of a something you spent four months crocheting them, I don’t care how “caring” the gesture. The wedding ceremony is in honor of one thing and one thing only: CASH MONEY. And love and commitment, but mostly Le Creuset Heritage Bakeware sets in Soleil. Choosing items for a gift registry is clearly the most exciting aspect of wedding planning for that couple you just met at the grocery store, as evidenced by the $114 champagne flutes and Tory Burch dishes resembling the most expensive cabbage you will ever see in your life. If you’re broke like... not me... just go with the garlic press; everyone wants one, no one wants to buy one, and even the good shit is only like, $18. Doneskis!

6. Don’t eat like how you normally eat.

Read: disgustingly. No shoveling. Maintain conversation. Come up for air. I am not entirely sure how one actually goes about doing this, but I realize that when I eat, I tend to fall into some sort of incomprehensible blackout, only to snap out of it to find everyone else politely picking at their salad between sips (what is this “sip”?) of white wine, laughing quietly, and graciously thanking their hosts.

Then again, most of my meals consist of bags of Doritos and there’s just no way not to be gross about that. Again, just be an appropriate

person, and leave some bruschetta for the other guests.

7. Don’t get sloppy hammered... right away. Okay, I don’t drink, and I usually cannot stand drunk people, but a wedding is THE place for the social drinker (or you know what, even the problem drinker in this case, because what the hey, this is the happiest day of my life!) to shine on like the charming, hilarious, not sexually inappropriate diamond they think they are, and the terribly embarrassing “is someone recording this?!” mess they actually are in real life. Everyone knows the best part of a wedding, besides the dressing up, and the eating (and the love, egh GOD leave me alone!), is the dancing!

The wedding dance floor affords the rare occasion where it’s just somehow okay to dance for hours to a cover band playing the worst music ever that everyone hates, but still secretly likes, but can’t admit to liking. And who is the oil in this finely tuned machine?

Drunk guy (or girl)! Drunk guy is there for the slow jams, drunk guy is there in the conga line, drunk guy is there to take the mic away from the wedding singer, and just when you thought you couldn’t be more repulsed, drunk guy comes through with “the Sprinkler!”

Just pace yourselves, drunk guys and girls of everywhere, we look to you for guidance as we struggle to make it through the Macarena.

Drunk guy isn’t in the photobooth though, I AM IN THE PHOTOBOOTH, and you can’t make me leave on my special day. uuu Now go get ’em, you crazy kids! I got a good feeling about you guys! (Cue drunk guy singing Shania Twain’s Still the One.)

36 Vol. 3 Issue 5

tarotology forecast.

Stars & Cards Anvile Contributing Writer

Gemini (May 22 - June 21) Get out there, Gemini. The change you’re looking for is there in the business off hours. Traditional avenues of promotion are not getting it done. Don’t be afraid to belt out that ‘80s ballad at the karaoke bar- it may be your ticket to the big time.

Cancer (June 22 - July 22) Pinocchio, it’s time to cut the strings. Stop being a puppet for “The Man”. Reconnect with old friends and co-workers by showing them that you can be trusted- you’re not just the Boss’s little snitch bitch. You have an opportunity to put this reputation behind you, make your choice... stand-up guy or spineless cog in the machine.

Leo (July 23 -August 21) In your life you have some troubles, when you worry it makes it double. Stop writing to Dear Abby, she has nothing that will help you. Stop stressing, have a drink or two, or six... things are going to work out if you let them run their course. As our good friend Bobby McFerrin would say... Don’t worry, be Happy.

Virgo (August 22 - September 23) As Great Grandma would say... Shit or git off the pot. You need to quit putting off the unpleasant, and don’t let the unpleasant build into the unbearable. Too much time is being taken to make some decisions- you’ve done enough research so pull that trigger. You are your own person, the people that have held you back until now have lost the power they have had over you Libra (September 24 - October 23) How can you tell when a man is lying? His lips are moving, and right now they are moving a mile a minute. Look for more than you are being told, there is an unspoken truth that you need to hear.

Scorpio (October 24 - November 22) Round and round goes the Carousel that is your life and someone is pushing the faster button. Make sure you are picking the right battles to fight, sometimes retreat is the better part of valor. Throw out all the list that you have made, time to write a new list of the things that are truly important to you.

Sagittarius (November 23 - December 22) Family... when you need someone to really piss you off. They put the DIS in dysfunctional. Not your normal role in the Family, but it is up to you to be the better person and start to heal these old wounds. You can pick your friends, you can pick your nose, but you can’t pick your friend’s nose- and you can’t pick your relatives.

Capricorn (December 23 - January 20) On a bright note... things will be working out for you down the road. Right now, however, crash and burn would be a good situation for you. Life is giving you the sticky end of the stick, and you have no choice but to grab it.

When the world gives you lemons, add vodka, white rum, gin, tequila and a splash of cola.

Aquarius (January 21 - February 19) You have screwed the pooch on this one and there is no one to blame but you. Check your emotions at the door, poor decisions and poor choices in “friends” have put you in this position. Shed a tear and move on, learn from you errors and be better for it... once is a mistake, more than once is a choice.

Pisces (February 20- March 20) Wake up... pull your head out of the clouds and stay on task. Big changes are headed your way, and you are not ready for them. All aspects of your life will be effected by this one change, so be ready because you will be knee deep in this event when you realize this is life changing.

Aries (March 21 - April 20) Spend some time with friends: shortly a journey will start that you must be on and on it alone. The trip will seem familiar because you have been on it before, so this time pay attention and learn something this time Taurus (April 21 - May 21) The time has come to be your own person, cut the cord and tell mommy ‘thanks but I need to leave the nest.’ Mom, let them go, suppress the nurturer in you and so some tough love.

* TAROTOSCOPE – The combining of Tarot Card Interpretation and Western Astrology Fundamentals to create a unique forecast for each astrological sign each month.

If you or a loved one has a drinking or drug problem...

HELP IS AVAILABLE AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) in the Triple Cities Region Hotline: (607) 722-5983 For a list of meetings: aabinghamton.org Al Anon/Alateen in Broome Co. and surrounding areas For info: (607) 772-0889 or (607) 387-5701 For a list of meetings: nynafg.com/district_10.html NA (Narcotics Anonymous) in the Triple Cities Region For info: (607) 762-9116 For a list of meetings: tcana.net

June 2015 Triple Cities Carousel 37

celebrate.

THAT’S A

HOLIDAY? 1330 AM 101.3 FM 105.1 FM 107.9 FM

We like to do things a little bit different here at Carousel, and holidays are no exception. We’re bored of hearing the same-old same-old when it comes to tried and true seasonal celebrations, so we’ve tasked our own FELICIA WAYNESBORO with the monthly responsibility of filling us in on all the holidays we’ve been missing…

War is a very bad thing. That’s a “duh.”

What mostly no one knows, however, is of an ongoing holiday inspired by the agitated sentiments just after World War II. The event known as “D-Day” commemorates the beginning of the end of that war and the anniversary of the invasion of Nazi-occupied France by the Allied troops on June 6th, 1944 is still widely greeted with heartfelt appreciation. Much less observed is the war-inspired and audaciously named Old Maid’s Day, commemorated annually on June 4th.

Judy Ford, author of Single: The Art of Being Satisfied, Fulfilled and Independent, said in an email, “I know single women as old as 96,” but she prefaced that declaration by saying, “I don’t know an old maid.” Indeed. The term “old maid” implies no marriage, no children, and no sex- suggesting that a mature adult woman who has never married is just an aged reflection of a state of being that should be reserved for under-aged girls. Keep in mind that in earlier times, marriage and procreation were expected to skip inevitably along hand-inhand. The absence of marriage, or procreation without marriage- or for that matter, just sex without marriage- could become a serious, life-altering shame for a woman. Thus, since many relationships interrupted by WWII did not survive- along with great numbers of GI’sreturning soldiers encountered quite a few childless, single women wishing to find love and a change of status. Someone (possibly a member of the Women’s Royal Naval Service but, as far as I can tell, this is unsubstantiated) decided that organizing social events to conjoin the returning veterans with unmarried ladies would be a good idea. Thus, Old Maid’s Day was born in the mid-1940s.

“I have never heard of this special day,” says Kate Bolick, author of the popular new release Spinster (available at Binghamton’s RiverRead Books), “but I would absolutely love to celebrate it and I’d keep the name- for tradition’s sake- and also for ironic amusement.

‘Spinster’ may be anachronistic, but ‘old maid’ is even more so. I envision a tea party,” she told me, “with generous amounts of whiskey.”

Or maybe gin. Turns out, while there are Old Maid Cookie recipes and Old Maid Cake and an Old Maid’s Vinegar Pie, there is also a cocktail for the holiday made with gin and cucumber. Wondering if the cucumber holds any symbolism in connection with the old maid concept (do I need to, wink, wink?), I set out on a quest to find a bartender who knew the drink. A selfless tip from a barkeep at Remlik’s in Binghamton led me to “cocktail chef,” as he has been called, Jesse Janovsky at The Loft at Ninety-Nine (see our May 2015 issue).

Jesse knew immediately: “The drink from World War II,” he said. It was co-owner Kyle Bunker who actually made the drink for me, topping it off with a mint leaf whose flavor he broke open with a single smart smack like a WWII era obstetrician spanking a newborn into life.

The philosopher Kierkegaard made a statement that translates as, “Whether you marry or you do not marry, you will regret it.” So… great. We might as well just toss down a couple of Old Maids, I guess. Bottoms up for Old Maids Day!

June 2015 Triple Cities Carousel 39

“TOY STORIES” by Paul O’Heron

B.C.

DOGS OF C-KENNEL

*Toys and games inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame at The Strong Museum in Rochester, NY (Year of induction in parenthesis) Across 1. Lionel _____ (2006): Toy for young and old wannabe engineers.

4. A shipping container filled with Rubber Ducks (2013) fell _____ its transport ship in 1992, and the bath toys are still washing ashore around the world today.

6. A large Teddy Bear (1998) strapped to a motorbike during a toy run acted like a sail during a _____ crash. - www.abc.net.au/news/ 2015-01-22.

9. Console game system predecessor to the Nintendo Game Boy (2009).

10. A standard poker deck has 52 _____ Cards (2010).

11. Silly Putty (2001) was packaged in a plastic _____.

12. Originally made by the A.C. Gilbert Company, now made by Meccano, the _____ Set (1998) consists of small metal construction girders bolted together.

15. Ken’s girlfriend and Skipper’s older sister: Mattel’s _____ (1998).

17. 147: The _____ number of spots on a double six set of Dominoes (2012).

19. A platonic solid rolled to generate a number indicating spaces to move or strength in battle.

20. Candy _____ (2005): children’s board game that incites a big family fight in the 2013 movie The Way, Way Back.

23. The British person would most likely call G.I. Joe (2004) a _____.

24. Military figures in the 1995 movie Toy Story: Little Green Army _____ (2014).

26. _____ Toy Company distributed the Rubik’s Cube (2014).

fun stuff.

28. View-_____ (1999): special-format stereoscopes and corresponding thin cardboard disks containing seven stereoscopic 3-D pairs of small color photographs on film.

29. The Lewis, or Uig, chessmen are a group of _____-century Chess (2013) pieces, along with other gaming pieces, most of which are carved in walrus ivory.

32. Red headed dolls Raggedy Ann _____ Andy (2002).

34. In The Game of Life (2010), players can choose a _____ path or a career path.

37. “If you’re an old man going by a schoolyard and _____ hear children singing your songs, playing jump-rope (2000), or on the swings, that’s the ultimate.” - Tom Waits 38. Blocks and figures made by the eponymous company based in Billund, Denmark (1998).

39. In 1974, Hot Wheels (2011) introduced its Flying Colors line including the knightly name of _____ Rodney Roadster.

40. The bicycle (2000) has two wheels; the Big Wheel (2009) has _____.

Down 1. Wooden construction set composed of wheels and sticks intended to be based on Pythagorean progressive right triangles: ______ ___ (1998).

2. Many of the items in this puzzle are in the toy/game _____ of a department store.

3. Often children let a baby doll (2008) lie down for a _____ under its blanket (2011).

4. This suffix on the brand name

by MASTROIANNI & HART

by MICK & MASON MASTROIANNI

THE FANCY RESTAURANT

WIZARD OF ID

for a Binney and Smith crayon (1998) is derived from the wax used in its manufacture.

5. _____ (1998): Whammo’s flying disc.

6. Princess Leia is commemorated as a Star Wars Action _____ (2012).

7. “Around _____ World” and “Rock _____ Cradle” are two tricks that can be done with a Duncan Yo-Yo (1999).

8. Lincoln _____ (1999), building set whose name is derived from our 16th president’s childhood home.

13. In Scrabble (2004), the “Z” _____ is worth ten points.

14. In Checkers (2003), the pieces are usually _____ or black discs.

by CUVELIER & HOWARD

by PARKER, MASTROIANNI & HART

16. An Etch-A-Sketch (1998) can be used to draw a 2D _____ in aluminum powder.

18. _____ Trucks (2001): the quintessential yellow construction vehicles whose name derives from the Dakota Sioux word for “Big”.

21. _____ _____ (2011): some are very ornate structures with several rooms and custom made tiny furniture.

22. One of Charlie Brown’s nemeses was a _____ (2007) eating tree.

24. Names for _____ (1998) include “taws”, “Cat’s eyes”, “aggies”, and “steelies”.

25. “Go Directly to Jail. Do _____ Pass Go, Do _____ Collect $200” – Community Chest card in Monop-

oly (1998).

27. “_____ (2008) and stones may break my bones…”

30. Radio _____ Wagon (1999): the original red wagon since 1917.

31. Spherical object used in bowling, soccer, golf and many other sports and games. (2009) 33. “Dig _____” – game played on the Atari 2600 Game System (2007).

35. Aural appendage for Mr. Potato Head (2000).

36. The classic light-bulb Easy Bake Oven (2006) comes with yummy mixes and accessories for cooking sweet treats to _____.

ANSWERS ON PAGE 37

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6/12 Blind Owl Band 6/13 Kalob Griffin Band & The Falconers 6/19 Next to Kin 6/20 The Brummy Bros. & Milkweed 6/26 Ryan Cavanaugh & The Falconers 6/27 Next to Kin

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