SusanCampriello: My Works

Book brought to life in musical, CD
The Daily Mail
Sept. 14, 2009

Author and artist Hudson Talbott called the transformation of his book, “River of Dreams,” to a musical and now a CD “a kind of a dream.”

The book, which features the Hudson River, and the musical, illustrate the history of what Talbott called “America’s first great super waterway” from its discovery by Europeans in 1609 to the more recent battles waged on pollution and polluters.

The musical version of the book was staged earlier this year. A CD of the original cast, comprised of students from the Cairo-Durham, Catskill and Coxsackie-Athens school districts was officially released Sunday at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site Cedar Grove, in Catskill.

“I’m so glad we all have the opportunity to bring these pieces together in this one wonderful place and share our heritage together,” Talbott said of the launch and accompanying concert of music from the CD’s setting.

The musical production, with music composed by Frank Cuthbert, was partially funded by money given to promote Hudson River history and culture during the Hudson-Champlain-Fulton Quadricentennial Celebration this year. Since the spring performance, the cast has traveled around the state to perform.

Casey Biggs, president of the Greene Arts Foundation and director and producer of the “River of Dreams” musical and CD, said the success of the show has given birth to a new collaboration with himself, Cuthbert, Talbott and the three schools on Talbott’s book, “O’Sullivan Stew.”

Biggs said he was happy with the CD.

“It captures the organic nature of what the show was,” he said.

Biggs said the production was also filmed and is being made into a documentary. The CD was recorded in the Catskill High School auditorium with professional equipment.

Talbott said performing the musical and launching the CD in a public venue brought the community together.

He said working on the musical and CD was also a lot of fun for the student performers.

Talbott said he, Biggs and Cuthbert collaborated well.

“The three of us — we don’t ever want to stop working together,” he said.

Music, comedy make Blackthorne Celtic Festival a hit
Grace, Cooney are crowd-pleasers
The Daily Mail
Sept. 7, 2009

Irish music could be heard all over the Blackthorne Resort in East Durham this weekend, as dancers, singers and instrumentalists performed for hundreds this weekend at the resort’s first Celtic Festival.

“It has gone phenomenally,” Blackthorne co-owner Jennifer Handel said of the event Sunday afternoon.

She estimated that 1,000 people had come to the resort solely for the weekend of entertainment.

Among the musical acts were Derek Warfield and the Young Wolftones, the Amerscot Highland Pipe Band and harpists as well as students from the Michael Farrell’s School of Irish Stepdancing.

The festival was to be closed by a six-and-a-half-hour concert by Black 47, Derek Warfield and the Gobshites, ending at 4 a.m. Sunday.

Handel said her husband and resort co-owner Dale had worked especially hard to book Irish comedian Brendan Grace for a Sunday afternoon show. Grace was scheduled to perform again later Sunday in Ireland, she said. The artist was flown in and performed, then left and flew back into Ireland, she said.

The effort’s paid off; Grace’s act brought many fans to the festival.

Maureen Schultheis said she and her husband, Gunther, had come to the festival from Pittsfield, Mass. to see Grace and famed singer Andy Cooney share the stage.

“They were great,” the Irish-born Schultheis said.

The couple came to the area just for the day but were sure to arrive in time for what Schultheis called a “wonderful” 10 a.m. Sunday Mass.

Leo Dolphin, of Glendale, N.Y., called seeing Grace and Cooney “fantastic.”

Dolphin, who’s parents came from Sligo, Ireland, said he and his wife, Irene and their son were visiting nearby Cairo for the weekend and had also enjoyed a trip to Windham during their stay.

Jennifer Handel said she and her husband decided to hold the festival at their Irish-themed resort on Labor Day as a way to bring visitors to the area in early September. She said many festival-goers were staying in several different motels, guest houses and resorts in the area. Cars filled the resort parking area and were parked along both sides on Sunside Road.

Handel wasted no time is saying whether the festival would return next Labor Day weekend.

“Absolutely,” she said.

Bears to emerge from hibernation
Cats, horses and dogs to follow
The Daily Mail
Apr. 11, 2009

With winter melting into spring, artists in Cairo and Catskill are working hard to finish the bear statues that will stand and sit in front of various businesses in Cairo.

Each bear pattern includes a butterfly containing a letter or symbol that corresponds to a question about Henry Hudson. Visitors who can answer all the questions will win a prize from the Cairo Chamber of Commerce, which is sponsoring the exhibit.

The Chamber will install the bears all around town, rather than just along Main Street, to encourage people to explore each of the town’s hamlets.

Rip is reborn

Don Boutin is creating two bears that show the natural beauty of spring and summer and a small bit of Greene County lore. His bears will be placed across Main Street from each other this summer.

His “Blossom Bear” shows different brightly colored flowers growing along a white picket fence. These he patterned from flowers and a fence in his own backyard garden.

The other bear, which will stand across the street, will show the story of Rip Van Winkle, the most famous resident of Greene County who never was. Rip’s angry wife and her “to do” list, Rip and his dog and the Half Moon are all portrayed on the bear’s chest, belly and rump.

Boutin placed Rip Van Winkle in promotional materials for a local balloon festival in 1999 and an automobile revival in 2003. In other works, Rip fishes, skis and dozes in a hammock. But Rip’s image as a young man on Boutin’s bear is one of the few, if only, instances where he is without his identifying long white beard.

Boutin’s Rip is recognizable from one painting or poster to the next, but Rip’s eyes and nose are familiar to anyone who has met Boutin.

“Everybody says when I do Rip, he has a likeness to me,” Boutin said.

Although Rip is a popular subject, Boutin also paints custom wall murals and scenes on benches and tables.

He first moved to the area in 1983, when he worked in the lacquer department at Sotheby’s in Columbia County, restoring and painting antiques. He used paint and putty to refurbish pieces and, in some cases, make them look like they were made of marble.

Boutin began painting his living room walls to look like beige stone shortly after moving into his Cairo home. The corners of the room have been made to look like wood and painted vines run along the faux beams. The room is complete with a bookshelf that looks three-dimensional.

He said his wife, Maureen, would sometimes wake up at 3:30 a.m. and find him working on the living room.

Boutin works in an upstairs studio in his Cairo home, surrounded by pictures of Rip, of cats and of flowers.

Toward the end of winter, a large nearly-finished painting of an explorer’s ship whose crew were bears and carried by butterflies — which promotes Cairo’s Quadricentennial — was propped on an easel.

Boutin said he had a very different idea in mind at first — the iconic Titanic. However, his daughter, who is away at college in Rochester, reminded him of an image she recalled from childhood of a ship with butterflies. And so, Boutin redesigned the painting.

Another Quadricentennial-themed painting, this one with Hudson’s Half Moon, adorns the cover of the most recent Greene County tourism guide. Hudson’s crew includes bears and cats. Rip appears, too, sharing a canoe with his own bear-and-cat crew. Friendly natives in their own canoe are paddling toward the Half Moon.

By late winter, Boutin was nearly finished with his two bears but was still planning for the cats he is creating for Catskill’s Cat’n Around celebration. One cat will show scenes from Catskill’s history, including the Catskill Mountain House and railroad tracks.

Boutin said he may borrow some settings from Thomas Cole’s famous works for the cat. He said he likes to incorporate Cole’s Hudson River scenes and mountains into the background of his own works of art.

His other cat will show the favorite, Rip, although the cat and bear will be different.

Boutin is not sure why he started to paint Rip relaxing, with Hudson’s legendary diminutive crew or ever as a mountainside waterfall.

“All of the sudden I started doing him,” Boutin said.

Father and daughter team up

Ken Richards, or Kenny Rich, created five cats for last year’s Cat’n Around exhibit and auction.

This year he will make two cats for Catskill and a rocking horse for Hors’n Around Saugerties — that village’s public art event.

Before work began on these projects, Richards and his 14-year-old daughter, Roxy, began designing their bears for Cairo’s interactive Quadricentennial street art project. Richards said he heard that Cairo was going to start its own project and asked if he could be involved. His daughter, who helped put together last year’s “Country Cat,” asked if she could create a bear, too.

Richards told her that she could submit a design and create the bear if her design was selected by a sponsor. Roxy submitted “Honey Bear,” a life-like bear whose pot of honey doubles as a bank.

“Honey Bear” went to the “Unibearsity of Honey,” Roxy explained, showing where she would print the alma mater on the bear’s red sweater.

Richards said he showed his daughter how to use different brushstrokes and painting techniques and tools, like a sponge and an airbrush, to create the bear’s fur and sweater details. The fur was created using four light and dark shades and the sweater has ribbing at the collar and cuffs.

Roxy said she is dedicating the bear to a friend on Long Island who loves Winnie the Pooh.

Roxy, who lives downstate, said all her friends there know about “Honey Bear.”

“They think it is really cool,” she said, “there is no opportunity like this on Long Island.”

The other bear being created by the Richards family is the “Gummy Bear,” a mate to last year’s favorite “Kit Cat.” The bear will resemble a gummy bear candy bursting out of its wrapper.

By late winter, Richards had only fashioned the foil wrapper around the bear’s neck and limbs and cut a large bite out of the bear’s right ear. But, when it is finished, visitors to the bear will be able to see little gummy bears inside the bear’s chest.
Richards is letting his 10-year-old son, Skylar, paint the bear’s solid-colored limbs and head.

Richards, who is a commercial artist and air-brusher, was just starting to work on his Catskill cat as his daughter was finishing her bear.

One cat is modeled after the 1953 Hudson Hornet hot rod, complete with flame decals and a seat in which a small pet can pose.

Once the body and the painting is completed, Roxy and her father can start giving their animals props, such as the hat and rake of the “Country Cat.”

“That is the fun part …” said Richards.

“… the accessories,” Roxy added.

He said he was trying to figure out how to attach side mirrors and other add-ons to the “Hudson Hornet” cat in a way that they will not get broken.

Richards said he watched adults try to pull the fake bullets and cell phone from his police cat last summer. This year, he said, he will put two bolts in all his attachments. He said he has also given advice to new participating artists on how they can make sure their creations are not vandalized.

Boutin, the Richards family and the other artists creating bears this year were required by the Cairo Chamber of Commerce to hide a butterfly in their patterns. But, they said, there were no other guidelines for the bears.

“That is the cool thing about these — anything goes,” Richards said.

Still time for Hudson artists

The city of Hudson is bringing back its “Best in Show” exhibit, which will open on Warren Street July 4.
The deadline for artist applications is April 24, and a sponsor-artist reception will be held April 30.

Interested sponsors and artists can contact the Columbia County Chamber of Commerce at 518-828-4417, or go online to www.columbiachamber-ny.com.

“Cake Eaters” director: film is about love in the face of loss
The Daily Mail
Mar. 22, 2009

CATSKILL — Mary Stuart Masterson emerged from an opening curtain on the movie stage in Catskill’s Community Theater after the 7 p.m. showing of “The Cake Eaters” and took a dramatic curtsy in front of an applauding audience of about 300 who attended the screening and a question and answer session Saturday.

“I’m sorry I didn’t bring cake,” she joked.

Masterson explained that the tile of the movie, which was written by Jayce Bartok, who also appears as Guy in the film, referred to a regional term that distinguishes “the haves” from “the have-nots.” She said the characters in the film all wanted something they thought was out reach, but for one moment are able to have it, or, rather, get to eat their cake.

Saturday’s session was moderated by Lisa Thomas and Margo Pelletier of Thin Edge Films.

Masterson said Bartok’s script was quasi-autobiographical. His mother, she said, suffered from neuropathy and passed away shortly before he wrote the script. She said Bartok wanted to present a character going through the similar problem of losing their motor function but not a loss of their mental or emotional capacity.

The character of Georgia, played by Kristen Stewart (”Twilight”), suffers from Friedreich’s ataxia, a genetic disorder that causes progressive damage to the nervous system. Georgia, Masterson said, is at the age where children gain more freedom from their parents and just wants to lose her virginity and take control of her life before she becomes more dependent on her mother.

“To me, it has always been about love in spite of life, love in the face of loss,” she said.

Masterson said that although the movie’s themes of illness, death and return are familiar, conflicts in the story were allowed resonate rather than be pushed into violent or graphic scenes.

“That heightened violence or that gratuitous sex would have taken away from the apparent kind of stillness inside of this story,” she said.

She said that the most important task of a director is to view the film every time as if it was the first time. She likened the process to that of a staged play where every moment in every performance needed to be fresh.

She explained that the script evolved throughout the filming process, noting, for example, that scenes occurring in the Kimbrough family’s kitchen were written much later than the original draft.

Masterson said she and the producers are relying on word-of-mouth buzz and reviews to draw audiences to their low-budget film, which is scheduled to be released on DVD on Tuesday. The Community Theater will screen the film today at 2 p.m. and 7:15 p.m. and weekday evenings at 7:15 through Thursday.

Masterson and her cast and crew filmed in Catskill, Athens and Hudson three years ago.

She said the classic architecture and near gentrification she found while driving through Columbia and Greene counties scouting filming locations fit the feel of the film.

“It is in the past and in the present, both,” she said.

“Cake Eaters” resonates with hometown crowd
The Daily Mail
Mar. 20, 2009

CATSKILL — The first audience to view “The Cake Eaters” in Greene County murmured excitedly when familiar places including Catskill’s Green Lake Homestead resort, The Iron Horse Bar, in Hudson, and DiStefano’s Meat Market, in Cairo, appeared before them on the big screen in the Community Theater, in Catskill.

The theater’s marquee and any given train’s whistle as it passes the town are also featured in the movie, which was filmed here in 2006.

Several moviegoers said the filming locations contributed to the picture’s realism.

“It didn’t have that slick Hollywood feel,” Ron Tunison said after the premier.

His wife, Alice, who is a councilwoman in the Town of Cairo, agreed.

She said the story, which explores new and old relationships in two families after the return of one family’s son, was something that could take place in any of the towns in the area.

“It was very real, it was very believable,” she said.

The film stars Kristen Stewart (“Twilight”) as Georgia Kaminski, a terminally ill teenage girl who wants to enjoy life and love before she dies. She befriends Beagle, played by Aaron Stanford of the “X-Men” film series, who is coming to terms with the recent death of his mother and return of his brother, Guy, played by the film’s writer, Jayce Bartok. Elizabeth Ashley, who was nominated for an Emmy Award for her work on “Evening Shade,” stars as Georgia’s grandmother, who shares a secret with the boys’ father, played by Bruce Dern (“Black Sunday”).

Best actress Oscar nominee Melissa Leo (“Frozen River”) and Jesse L. Martin (“Law and Order”) are also featured in the film.

“The Cake Eaters” will be shown at Community Theater today at 2 p.m., 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m. and 7:15 p.m. and weekday evenings at 7:15 through Thursday.

The film’s director, Mary Stuart Masterson, will hold a question and answer session after today’s 7 p.m. showing.

Although the plot’s slow pace was not a hit with all its teenage viewers, students at Catskill High School enjoyed seeing their school on film.

“It was pretty cool,” William Meyer said.

His classmate Alex Irzarry said Georgia’s longing for love resonated with today’s teens.

“People talk about losing their virginity a lot,” Irzarry said.

He and his friends agreed that the serious film had some humorous moments.

Greene County Judge Daniel K. Lalor and his wife Susan, whose riverside Athens summer home was prominently featured as the Kaminskis’ house, were also in the audience.

Susan Lalor said that seeing her home brought a mixture of weird and wonderful feelings.

She said the house was chosen for its somewhat rundown appearance.

“Now I look at it and say, ‘God, that needs to be painted,’” she said.

She said that watching the shooting, which took only a few days, go from start to finish was exhilarating.

Filming took place at several other Catskill locations, including the cemetery on Thompson Street and at houses on Grand Street and Cauterskill Avenue, she said.

Barber Bobby Meo can be seen reading a newspaper in one scene that takes place in his barbershop on Main Street.

Catskill resident Noreen Wilson, who enjoyed the story as well as its setting, said she would buy the DVD after its release Tuesday.

“Oh, absolutely,” she said.

Grammy adds to jazz label’s legacy
The Daily Mail
Jan. 14, 2009

ATHENS — Last Sunday, The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra won a Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album for their live recording of “Monday Night at the Village Vanguard.”

The album was produced by Athens resident Tom Bellino and his Catskill-based record label, Planet Arts.

Local artist Gary Bielskie created the design and packaging for the double CD.

Bellino did not attend the ceremony, which took place nearly a week before the televised award show. Bass trombonist Douglas Purviance accepted the award in California while the rest of the orchestra performed once again at the Village Vanguard in New York.

Although every award nomination is exciting, Bellino said, and Slide Hampton received a Grammy in 2005 for an arrangement of “Past Present and Future,” which the band played, this year’s win was particularly special.

“It is for the band and for the legacy of the Village Vanguard,” he said.

He hopes the recognition that comes with winning the award will help the company advance current projects and expand over the next year.

Federal and state funding for arts programs and companies will be dramatically lower this year than in years past, he said.

He does not expect to receive any money from the State Council on the Arts.

Nevertheless, Planet Arts will continue to showcase new and established artists who create music across a wide musical spectrum.

In the past, Bellino has brought artists to perform at the Athens Cultural Center, and he hopes to bring more groups to Greene County this year.

The region — and Athens — he said, is very attractive to musicians from New York City.

“They love doing gigs close to home,” he said.

While they are in town, performers get the added perk of tasting pasta made by Bellino’s wife at their home in the Limestreet area of Athens.

Bellino has a studio on the property, where he is able to do a lot of work. He said technological advances over the last few years have made conducting business overseas easy.

“I can e-mail my manufacturer and have them send something to Spain,” he said.

Bellino and the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra have a greater presence around the globe that reaches farther than simply selling music. Planet Arts works on projects that should be backed but may be too esoteric to interest more mainstream producers, he said.

Bellino scored a digital story project designed to educate people about health and safety issues surrounding the spread of HIV in Africa. This project was actually launched by a group of friends who commute together from the region to New York City on an Amtrak train.

The group visited villages collecting stories from children. Each section of the project ended on a positive note, he said.

“It was an important thing to do,” he said.

The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra has participated in many cultural diplomacy excursions with the United States Department of State.

They recently held workshop with students at the Cairo Conservatory, in Egypt, where at first, students resisted joining the group.

“All the kids sat there,” Bellino said, mimicking a look of fear, “one brave soul got up to play the drums.”

Then, he said, other students joined the ensemble.

The orchestra is planning a trip to Tunisa to work with musicians there.

Closer to home, Bellino has a history of working with schools in New York City to develop music programs. Planet Arts works with the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, which connects people with a shared American cultural heritage.

Planet Arts has developed a composition and songwriting workshop that integrates music and a number of other subjects taught in schools.

Bellino also worked with Sony/BMG to create a scholarship.

Bellino knows that musical education does not end when a student leaves school.

The Planet Arts Open MIC, which stands for Music Industry Connection, project helps artists understand how to navigate the changing industry.

With Internet clients that allow customers to buy one song at a time, as opposed to an entire CD, music production cannot just be about creating records. He said the biggest business in the music industry is actually in television and film. Artists who are featured in hit shows and movies automatically reach a huge potential market.

Artists must tap into multiple revenue streams, he said.

He advises artists to promote themselves and their music on networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook.

“You have to be there,” he said.

He said he has also seen a trend of smaller musical groups are springing up and filling any gap left by larger musical groups.

Planet Arts, too, is looking to venture into new avenues.

Although it is known for working with jazz artists, the company has begun working with a new rock band located in Albany.

“The nature of the beast now is you have to diversify, you have to be creative, you have you look a few years down the road,” he said.

Why Thomas Cole was forgotten
The Daily Mail
Feb. 9, 2009

CATSKILL - Thomas Cole, who is now a celebrated painter, has not always been so loved. For over a century after his death, Cole’s works were largely stowed away and forgotten.

Historian John Stilgoe, who has written several books and essays discussing the changing rural, suburban and urban landscapes in the United States, gave a lecture Sunday explaining why Cole’s works fell out of favor. The lecture was given at Temple Israel, which is built on a plot of land that between 1833 and 1839 was the site of the earliest documented rental of Cole’s Cedar Grove studio and seasonal residence, and hosted by Cedar Grove: The Thomas Cole National Historic Site.

The short answer Stilgoe gave to the question was that Cole died prematurely at 47, on Feb. 11, 1848. Cole also had no publisher to continue promoting his artwork.

Stilgoe supplied a longer answer that touched on visual interpretation of color and discriptors, localism and the discomfort Americans felt remembering the Ante-bellum Era after the Civil War.

“When we look at a Cole painting, it is not only a period painting, it exists now in our time. So when we think about why Cole was forgotten, it is remotely possible that there were things in those paintings that in subsequent decades after his death, began to disturb people,” he said.

Stilgoe accompanied his lecture with slides not of Cole’s body of work, but rather of images of the Federal Express logo, a Newport Red cigarette advertisement and pages from works by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Stilgoe borrowed the comments and attitudes of his students at Harvard University, where he teaches visual and environmental studies, to present counter-arguements to his own.

Stilgoe began his lecture by explaining how people are trained to see shapes and colors but not what images can be found in their absence. He asked his audience to look for the white arrow present between the “E” and “X” in the logo for Federal Express. He said that as children grow up and are encouraged to study the sciences and mathematics, they lose their ability to notice a more abstract picture. People must recognize what artists call “negative spaces,” he said, to get an understanding of a whole picture.

To understand literature written in the early and mid-19th century, he said, a reader must understand that authors during that time would not have used Webster’s dictionary - a reference book found commonly in classrooms and homes today - but a dictionary compiled by Joseph Emerson Worcester. Words and their meanings fell in and out of use, Stilgoe explained, disappearing from literature in the late 19th century and reappearing in comic books in the 20th century.

Stilgoe showed an advertisement for Newport Red cigarettes in which a woman had around her neck a horse collar, complete with two hames, which allow the collar to be loosened or tightened depending on the size of the horse, and to be attached to different types of harnesses.

“But if you wanted to write a critique of this ad,” Stilgoe said, “you would have to have some of the words. You would have to know to start with what that is.”

He equated the problem of describing the advertisement without knowing the word hame with looking at a Cole painting without knowing the colors or context in which it was painted.

“You have to understand the colors of the countryside,” Stilgoe said.

Today, students are taught that there are seven colors. During Cole’s life, Americans more widely subscribed to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s portrayal of the six colors, with yellow being the one true color. He thought of colors as an interaction of light and dark, which when combined, appear as varying shades of grey. Goethe depicted his colors in a symmetric color wheel or in a triangle, with red, yellow and blue as the points.

In the painting commonly known as “The Oxbow,” which was completed in 1836, the shape of Connecticut River might resemble an oxbow, Stilgoe said. But it could also be seen as a noose. Cole saw the a noose-like danger forming around the nation’s capitol during the speculation that lead to the financial panic of 1837.

Cole died before the Civil War, which Stilgoe described as a “great cultural crisis,” began. The world that Cole painted was destroyed almost immediately after his death, Stilgoe said.

“What happened was people looked at all of Cole’s paintings, not just the landscapes, but the allegories, too, raised issues that had to be put away for a long time,” he said.

He described the pain felt by Americans after the war like the way someone might feel looking at family photographs after a divorce or the death of a child.

Southern plantations were broken apart or sold to Northern abolitionists. Stilgoe said wealthy businessmen along the Mississippi River, who were responsible for a great deal of international finance, resented the war. Those connected to prominent abolitionists were slaughtered by troops, he said.

After the war, veterans became a marginalized class of people well into the 20th century and had trouble finding steady work, Stilgoe explained. Many were hired as farm hands or were unable to work. Many got into fights and became alcoholics, he said.

Cole’s work focused on specific scenes, whereas later artists painted a general genre, Stilgoe said. As time passed, and people began to see themselves in a more globally connected world. Traveling began to mean to visit London, for example, but not exploring the parts of America that lies between the two coasts, he said.

He asked the audience how many of them knew that Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. had worked to cure puerperal fever, a deadly disease of women giving birth. Few did.

Stilgoe said that Holmes’ work helped one subset of the population, women, just as Cole’s paintings spoke to people who lived around the the chosen hills and rivers in the paintings.

Stilgoe first became interested in Cole’s work after reading that the artist liked to walk around and experience the outdoors.

He discovered Catskill during graduate school when he was looking for interesting things between Santa Fe, N.M. and Boston, Mass., and came across the Rip Van Winkle Bridge.

Stilgoe was one of the earliest people in recent time to recognize the importance of Cole’s work, according to David Barnes, whom invited Stilgoe to present his findings and is member of the Cedar Grove board of governors. He added that Cole scholarship has grown during the last ten years.

Stilgoe ended his lecture by talking about how the popularity of cameras and photography changed how people saw the countryside. At first, wealthy photographers and publishers did not print photographs showing poverty, he said. Soon pictures were framed to exclude telephone poles and wires. Such evidence of technology were either ignored because they were unnatural or because they perverted the view.

The evolution of the postcard, he said, came about because people did not have the words to describe the landscapes, cities or sights that they could see.

“Images are still more important than words,” he said.

Local studio takes home Grammy
The Daily Mail
Feb. 9, 2009

CATSKILL - A jazz album produced by Catskill’s Planet Arts, a not-for-profit recording, education and presenting company, won big at the Grammy Awards, the company announced in a press release Sunday night.

The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra took home the Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album for their album “Monday Night Live at the Village Vanguard.”

According to the release, the rest of the orchestra was performing once again at the Village Vanguard in New York City while bass trombonist Douglas Purviance received the award Monday night.

The album was recorded last February, at the Village Vanguard, and is dedicated to long-time bassist Dennis Irwin, who died of cancer this past year.

The orchestra was also nominated this year for Best Instrumental Arrangement for Bob Brookmeyer’s interpretation of “St. Louis Blues.”

The orchestra has won two previous Grammy Awards and has been nominated for a total of nine awards.

Planet Arts showcases new and established artists, balances innovation, wit and tradition across a culturally diverse palette and expands the creative borders of arts processes. Planet Arts Director and Executive Producer Tom Bellino lives in Athens.

Warm sounds on a cold night; Duo of Malcolm Cecil and Garfield Moore jazz up the classics
The Daily Mail
Jan. 11, 2009

A small but enthusiastic crowd that braved falling snow and slippery roads were treated to a evening of jazzed-up classical music played by acclaimed musicians Malcolm Cecil and Garfield Moore at Imagine That in Catskill Saturday night.

The concert was held to celebrate the relocation of the pottery workshop to its new location at 397 Main St.

Cecil, who hails from Woodstock, won a producing-and-engineering Grammy Award in 1974 for his work on Stevie Wonder’s album “Innervisions” and has been featured on albums with the Isley Brothers, Joan Baez and Little Feat.

Although he is best known for playing jazz on the acoustic bass and synthesizer, Cecil is also an accomplished classical musician.

“I’m from the Duke Ellington school of music,” he said.

Cecil said he likes to play music across a variety of musical genres.

“There are two kinds of music. The good kind and the other kind,’ Cecil said, quoting Ellington, adding, “I play the good kind.”

Garfield Moore teaches music appreciation and history at Columbia-Greene Community College.

Moore has played on Broadway, with the Pacific Philharmonic and in Eastern Europe, and has a cello duo, Duoleo. The Catskill resident studied at Stanford University and at the Institut de Hautes Etudes Musicales (Institute of Advanced Music) in Switzerland and has lectured at the Juilliard School.

Baritone vocalist and guitarist Perry Beekman was scheduled to play with Cecil Saturday night, but was unable to do so because of the weather, giving Moore a chance to play with Cecil in Catskill.

Cecil’s plucked strings juxtaposed against Moore’s smooth bow strokes made for a unique interpretation of classic pieces by Bach and Vivaldi.

The pair enjoys mixing styles like this and think it a new way to engage audiences and fans of both genres.

Moore, Cecil and violinist Gwen Laster recently teamed up to create Super Stringz, a group, Cecil said, which plays classical pieces like jazz tunes and jazz songs like classical ones.

“I think people latch onto the feel,” Cecil said of the musical outcome.

The group will be playing a concert for the University of Albany at Albany public access radio station on Feb. 10.

Cecil, who is used to playing with larger groups of musicians, said that he likes playing with one other musician, because it gives him room to experiment with styles, as he did with Moore.

“I have a lot more freedom,” he said.

Cecil is particularly interested in astronomer Johannes Kepler’s theory that musical harmonies are connected to planetary orbits.

He demonstrated on a string of his bass the vibration arc of an octave. When only lightly touched by a finger, the string is allowed to vibrate for its whole length, creating two notes. The string vibrates in one direction above the finger and in the opposite direction below the finger, both together making a circle.

Planets, as they orbit, vibrate also, Cecil said.

“Vibrations are vibrations are vibrations,” he said.

Cecil’s visit to Imagine That Saturday night was not his first. At the suggestion of his wife, who herself is an artist, he has begun creating a large plate depicting the complete theory of music, including a diagram of all the notes and harmonics.

He said that pottery is a much more permanent medium for the diagram than its original, a yellowed piece of paper.

Jazz legends Cecil, Beekman team up for concert
The Daily Mail
Jan. 9, 2009

Lillian Johnson is welcoming the new year in a new location with a jazz concert Saturday night featuring two renowned artists, bassist-producer Malcolm Cecil and vocalist-guitarist Perry Beekman.

Johnson moved her pottery workshop, Imagine That, to 397 Main St. at the close of 2008. The move was the first of many changes she will make this year.

The new space is much larger than her old space, which was across the street. The store’s green, salmon and blue walls and colorful floor entice customers to come in and let their creativity show.

“The future seems to feel brighter and better,” she said.

And that is cause for a celebration, she said.

Cecil has been the principal bassist for the BBC Radio Orchestra and was the resident bassist at the Ronnie Scott Jazz Club in London. Cecil won a Grammy Award in 1974 for engineering and producing Stevie Wonder’s album “Innervisions.” Cecil, who also plays the synthesizer, has recorded albums with Stan Getz and Roland “Rahassn” Kirk. He has been featured on albums by such diverse artists as the Isley Brothers, Joan Baez, Little Feat and Gil Scott-Heron.

Cecil will be joined by Beekman, who has played venues in New York City and the Hudson Valley.

Beekman’s music is deeply rooted in the classic tradition of jazz and his repertoire includes songs from the Great American Songbook, which have also been performed by Frank Sinatra, Nat “King” Cole and Mel Torme.

Imagine That’s night of music runs from 5 to 8 p.m.

The shop, where people can paint their own pottery, will soon offer more craftworks, like hot glass, mosaics and ceramics. Johnson will also begin hosting children’s programs, club meetings and corporate team building workshops. Other new featured events will include tea parties and Diva Nights.