GAMUT still "Waiting for Godot" 50 years later

It’s an “absurdist” play that has inspired unauthorized prequels and sequels, not to mention movies like Kevin Smith’s cult classic, Clerks. Samuel Beckett wrote it in French, then translated Waiting for Godot in to English. The GAMUT theatre troupe, based at Community High School, will take another crack at Godot, which debuted in 1952.

 

The professional theater group will stage Waiting for Godot on two three-day weekends, February 28-March 2 (Thursday-Saturday) and March 7-9. Tickets are $15 for every performance, except for a $10 admission on Thursday nights. Curtain time each night is 8pm.

 

In a nutshell, Godot is about two people waiting for someone they’ve never met. Day after day they wait, not sure who this Godot is, or how they will even know how to recognize him.  While waiting, Estragon, nicknamed GoGo, and Vladimir (DiDi) encounter a blustery traveler (Pozzo) and his slave Lucky.

 

Kevin McAlexander and Spencer Meredith are Pozzo and Lucky respectively; youngster Noah Jones has a smaller role as The Boy. “Vain and pompous is pretty easy for me,” said Alexander in jest. He enjoys the role of Pozzo. “You see these nice little glimpses past his veneer. He’s, in his own way, just as sort of broken [as GoGo and DiDi].” How does McAlexander describe the play? “Two guys waiting for another guy.”

 

In what should appeal to the Seinfeld crowd, Waiting for Godot has been described as a play about nothing – even Beckett wasn’t sure what people should read in to it. Some saw religious connotations in GoGo and DiDi (played by Kris Laguzza and Stevie Holcomb respectively, two females in traditionally male roles).

 

“It’s a very limbo type of setting,” said Godot director Miriam Frazier, also the creative force behind GAMUT. The spare scenery includes a bare tree that is pivotal at several points in the play, which will be held in the McBroom Theatre at Community High School on Campbell Avenue.

 

While Frazier said some see “religious imagery throughout it,” she advises that its not GAMUT’s take at all.”  Even Beckett had a problem with his own work: “I don’t know who Godot is…I don’t even know if he exists,” Beckett said when the play debuted. He wasn’t sure if GoGo and DiDi, long time friends, believed in Godot either as they waited.

 

Laguzza and Holcomb, two long time local live theater veterans, display good comedic timing with a dash of slapstick. GoGo fusses with her feet while DiDi has a gastrointestinal problem throughout – you get the picture. “He said to wait by the tree,” says DiDi/Vladimir to GoGo/Estragon. That’s about all the down and out duo knows, so they come back every day to wait. “It seems to me that the characters are stuck in a cycle- it’s the same day, every day, like [the movie] Groundhog Day,” said Laguzza. “They have the same conversation, they do the same sorts of things. This is their existence.”

 

Holcomb sees Estragon and Vladimir as people who may have been prestigious at one point before falling on hard times. “[But] you can speculate different things [about] why they are waiting for Godot – what is Godot going to offer them?” The audience can draw their own conclusions as well, said Holcomb. There’s a Laurel and Hardy or Abbott and Costello aura in the play as well. “Farces are great,” gushed Holcomb.

 

“It breaks the standards of theater,” said Frazier before a rehearsal last week. She called Godot one of the most famous absurdist plays of the 20^th century. It’s a tragic comedy and “very funny,” according to Frazier, who doesn’t speculate about who Godot is but tries to stay within the play’s parameters. Even then it deals with such meaty topics as man’s existence and “what we’re doing. [But] it is open to so much speculation and interpretation.”

 

Frazier acted in Godot as a freshman at Hollins College, calling it one of the greatest challenges she ever had as an actress. That’s the point of GAMUT in fact – to offer works that challenge both the cast members and the audience. “Its been a real stretch for everybody … and real physical.” Godot is one of her all time favorites.

 

“Lets wait and see exactly what [Godot] says. I’m curious to see what he has to offer,” says DiDi in the first of two acts. Hint: she may be waiting a long time. Live theater fans of the absurdist genre or those looking for something a bit “non-linear” and funny may want to give Waiting for Godot a try this weekend or next.

 

photo: Kris Laguzza (left) and Stevie Holcomb are still Waiting for Godot

 

 

Running with hard core beasts

They call it The Beast - running all six trail races in a year's time, as part of the Lynchburg Ultra Series. With race names like Hellgate, Mountain Masochist and Grindstone, well, you get the idea. I thought I'd try on one of the tamer races this past weekend, the 50k-plus Holiday Lake race near Appomattox. At 32 miles it measured just over 50K.  I'd already run a 50-miler in Nashville last fall but my time was very poor (almost 12 hours, since I had to run-walk run walk much of the race due to knee and leg issues.)

Since then I've been P90-xing, and that exercise program has a number of ways to strengthen the legs. So I'd thought I would give the Holiday Lake 50K a shot. First impression: much like the Mountain Junkies followers and runners in Roanoke, the Lynchburg Ultra Series is sort of like the Junkies but on steroids, since the race distances are much longer - up to 100 miles, with up to 23,000 feet of elevation gain/loss.

Holiday Lake was much tamer; only 2300' of elevation gain/loss. There were two time cutoffs that had to be met but I felt pretty confident about that - except I had missed a time cutoff on an attempt at Damascus last September, the Iron Moungtain 50-mile trail run that featured 9300' of elevation gain.  I flamed out after the fourth time checkpoint - and thoroughly appreciated the ride back to my car. I also lost my cell phone at Iron Mountain, so the whole experience was less than satisfying.

Anyway, as for Holiday Lake, I felt great despite concerns over a still-sore rib that I cracked in Nashville (falling like a drunkard on a downtown sidewalk in the middle of the 50-mile race). My legs were a bit sore in the second half of the run at Holiday Lake but I finished in 6:29:27 -  more than 90 minutes before the time limit.

What was neat about the people gathered last Friday night at the Holiday Lake 4H facility (most of the runners slept there in barracks-style lodges, listening to 20 other people snoring) was the community that has sprung up around the Lynchburg Ultra Series and its race director, Dr. David Horton from Liberty University. A one-time runner of some note himself, Horton has thru-hiked the AT and trails out west, and once ran all the way across the country. Another one of the 270 or so that have done that also was on hand to run the Holiday Lake 50K.

Horton underwent "7 way" bypass surgery about eight weeks ago, proudly showing off his zipper-like scar for the crowd of people that gathered after a carbo-loading meal. Dr. Horton was funny, irreverent and outspoken - and very knowledgeable about long distance running. He demonstrated that again after a pre-race meeting by offering pointers to first time "ultra" runners. Horton seemed to know more than half of the 360 or so on hand for the Holiday Lake 50K, pointing out some of their accomplishments when not ribbing them.

The running community, something I've been drawn in to over the past few years by running 5K, 10K, half marathons, full marathons, 10-mile races and now ultra-marathons, features people of all ages and backgrounds. Some of them look like they haven't had a good meal in years, others look, well, like you and me. I met some interesting folks before and after the race - like Matt and Julie Urbanski, a young couple in their 30's that have through-hiked the Pacific Coast Trail and the AT. Matt finished second at the Holiday Lake run (about 3 hrs 51 min); Julie was the first female finisher several weeks before at a race in Indianapolis.  They've made enough money in the business world to take some time off, running races around the country and writing about it. See urbyville.com; I'm reading Julie's book now on her Pacific Coast Trail thru-hike, The Trail Life.

Like many folks who take on long distance running or hiking, she was no expert when starting out. Its been trial and error to an extent. Just like my growing running "resume" which now includes three full marathons (26.2 miles) and three races at longer distances. At age 55 I wish I had tried this earlier,although I've always ran, but losing 40-50lbs in recent years and keeping it off has made running easier. Its a bit of an obsession now and I'll never be fast enough to challenge anyone, but there are worse things to be obsessed about I guess. See
 http://www.extremeultrarunning.com/ for more on the Lynchburg Ultra Series and The Beast.

New novel by Gina Holmes builds to intense finale

I just finished reading a preview copy of Roanoke author Gina Holmes' new novel, Wings of Glass, due out in March. Its a riveting tale of domestic abuse, as a young woman deals with an alcoholic husband, trying to convince herself that he will turn his life around. Penny's strong faith in God - and the Bible's view that divorce is a sin - keeps her in a nightmarish situation, with a baby on the way to make things even more complicated.

Befriended by a Sudanese woman and an older woman who is also her employer, young Penny walks on eggshells at home, fooling herself by believing that Trent will stop drinking and abusing her. Wings of Glass - which refers to a statuette given to Penny by her employer, Callie Mae ( who had originally purchased it for her own daughter, beaten to death by a man) is the third novel from Holmes. Her first, Crossing Oceans, was a Christian Book Award finalist, as was her second novel, Dry As Rain. Holmes, who has also started a public relations firm with the notorious River Laker, should recieve kudos for Wings of Glass (Tyndale House Publishers), another Christian-themed book with nary a cuss word among its 365 pages.

Wings of Glass builds to a somewhat-surprise climax, and Holmes' writing gets better and more intense as it moves along. She also includes several pages of information at the end for people dealing with domestic abuse. You can feel the angst as Penny tries to survive in her harsh domestic environment, as readers wait along with her for Trent to explode once again. Thanks to Gina Holmes for scrounging up another advance copy for my review. Look for a radio interview with her soon on Roanoke This Week With Gene Marrano (Saturday and Sunday mornings, 11:30 on Fox Radio 910am) and a print interview in the Roanoke Star. Support this rising local author by purchasing a copy of Wings of Glass when it is published in March.

“The Matador” at Mill Mountain challenges, provides laughs as well

The collaboration between the Playwright’s Lab at Hollins University – its New Works Initiative - and Mill Mountain Theatre, continues this weekend with a play written by one of the graduate students at the school. How to describe The Matador: a one-act anti-play?? Okay, think of a Spanish bullfighter, sort of clueless in some ways when it comes to relationships, but very macho – down to his pink stockings. Or the bull that has gored The Matador several times in the ring. But they still like each other enough to dance the tango. The bull also dances the tango with The Dame, played by recent Hollins graduate Emma Sperka – who has romantic aspirations concerning both The Bull and The Matador. Director Todd Ristau, who also is program director at the Playwright’s Lab, called The Matador “ a theatrical experience unlike your normal, traditional…play,” in a talk back session after the last dress rehearsal. The play runs through this Sunday, February 10, with evening performances at 8pm (Feb. 6-9) and matinees on the 6th and 10th (2pm) as well. All tickets are $10, and the venue is Mill Mountain Theatre’s renovated Waldron Stage at 20 Church Avenue SE, which has new lighting and seat risers, with a more airy feel than before. Center in the Square executive director Jim Sears said this past Tuesday that the grand reopening for Center in the Square itself remains on track for May. “We’re excited to be part of that reorganization,” said Ristau, who will bring new plays from the Playwright’s Lab and the improvisational No Shame Theater he founded in Iowa almost 30 years ago back to Mill Mountain. The collaboration between the school and Mill Mountain Theatre solidified a year ago with another play from the New Works Initiative, The Arctic Circle. That piece was written by LA-based playwright Samantha Macher, a Hollins MFA graduate of the Playwright’s Lab who returned to Roanoke as assistant director/designer for The Matador. Robert Plowman’s one act “anti-play” as it was billed was actually one of six plays he wrote for a class taught by Ristau. The principal actors (Drew Dowdy at The Matador, Emma Sperka as The Dame and Charles Reynolds as The Bull) spent three weeks learning the tango, which becomes as important component of the play. There’s plenty of original music too, courtesy of composer/troubadour Matthew Marshall, who also appears in The Matador, strolling about the set as he sings. Labeled as absurdist theatre, The Matador is the type of play one might not have expected to see in Roanoke 10, 15 years ago, except perhaps on a college campus. Is it hard perhaps to decipher what it’s about? Maybe, but Ristau said that was just fine: “whatever you think this play is about – that’s what its about,” he said afterwards. Created in just 72 hours as part of a class assignment, Plowman noted that in a situation like that, “you have to act instinctively as a writer.” Ristau wrote in the playbill that Plowman “struggled” with the assignment, only hammering out the play in the last 24 hours available. The Lesson by Eugene Ionesco was suggested as a work his students study as an example of the absurdist style. With a play like The Matador, “it really feels like something – even if the meaning is obscure,” said Plowman. The actors do a fine job in their roles, which all require singing and dancing; there’s a bit of audience participation and a good deal of laughter. The Matador may or may not be about people searching for an identity or for someone else - or it may be about something else entirely. The one-act, 55 minute play will challenge theatergoers but won’t overtax them. It’s the type of live theater the now-defunct Studio Roanoke used to stage, and it’s coming back to Mill Mountain and the new Center in the Square. Fans of live theater may want to give it a go this weekend.

Great sessions at Roanoke Regional Writer's Conference yesterday. Workshops by Roland lazenby, Dan Casey, Judy Light Ayildiz, etc. were informative and inspiring..I may actually start blogging again. Enjoying advance copy of Gina Holmes' novel Wings of Glass.. and enjoyed Michael Abraham's Providence,VA novel (C'Burg author). Michael's Book (pocahontaspress.com, some local book stores)posits an interesting theory: what if all of the power in the eastern U.S. was wiped out by an electromagnetic pulse that also disabled most vehicles, since they are dependent heavily on electronics. A New Jersey teen visting Southwest A learns what about its like to rely on the land - and about southern hospitality. A good read by an ambitious local author.

Sorry .... been BUSY!!!! plus thoughts on health care

Keeping up a blog requires time and discipline.. that's why I admire Dan Smith so much for doing such a great job with his. Its been a while since I blogged.

Anyway, I was pleased to give a workshop on freelance writing this past week and hope others will attend the monthly sessions being put on by the Arts Council of the Blue Ridge.

I am also pleased to join Chris Manning's new Vinton Voice weekly as a senior contributor. I've missed Vinton since I left the Messenger. Look for it starting next week.

Thoughts on health care debate: My only problem with all the people railing against health care reform is this... WHAT is your proposal? How about the extra $1000 a year one study says each of us who has insurances winds up doling out annually to cover those who don't have it?

Why do we spend much more GDP-wise than other industrialized countries on health care, hey such a large percentage of people are not covered? My only problem with all the people railing against health care reform is this... WHAT is your proposal? How about the extra $1000 a year one study says each of us who has insurances winds up doling out annually to cover those who don't have it?

Why do we spend much more GDP-wise than other industrialized countries on health care, hey such a large percentage of people are not covered? What about the costs to businesses every year to cover employees, which they are obligated to do as a benefit? If some don't like the reforms proposed ... than WHAT are they proposing?

This n' that - catchin' up

Want to try something different in a music venue? Check out the Garth Newel Music Center near Warm Springs, about 75 miles from Roanoke and just north of The Homestead Resort. The annual Blues and Jazz Festival held outdoors there yesterday was absolutely the most bucolic and wonderful setting there could be for an outdoor festival. The music was great too; especially The Waybacks. Most of the time the music offered there is classical in the chamber music ilk, so the blues and jazz was a nice change of pace. Check it out sometime. Outgoing director Jacob Yarrow is on to bigger and perhaps better things at the University of Iowa in about a month, but he gets kudos for creating the blues and jazz festival.

School scandal: Roanoke City Schools have been battling for the past few years to make a comeback: closing schools, shuffling attendance zones, changing superintendents, trying to convince doubters that an overage academy would work. The first-ever graduation last week of students from Forest Park Academy - some are in their 20's - featured smiles, hugs and tears from students, teachers and staffers. Less than a dozen dropped out and more than 100 did or will graduate by the end of the summer. Others wait to get in. Seems like a winner, does the overage academy in its first year, on the site of a closed elementary school that became a political issue when David Bowers ran for mayor last spring. (The recent raises for Central Admin. staffers while teachers got nothing was just a minor PR disaster)

The sorry saga at William Fleming over who didn't take Standards of Learning exams threw a bit of a cloud over last week's commencement ceremony, in large part because Fleming's Principal and four other school administrators were uninvited to their own school's graduation. Reportedly they helped certain students avoid having to take SOL tests that could have brought down the school's overall score and left it unaccredited ... that unfortunately became the focus of media coverage, leaving somewhat of a pall over other graduates and the event itself.

If there is blame then those at fault should be punished. But then changes need to be made: put systems in place that don't allow a school staff to exempt kids from SOL's without someone from Central Administration okaying that - and perhaps look again at the No Child Left Behind mandates which threaten schools that don't meet Standards of Learning benchmarks, with a loss of funding.

As School Board chair David Carson has said, it is bass ackwards - the schools that need more help (more teachers, tutors, remedial programs etc.) we're going to take funding away from ... huh? Here's hoping the powers that be learn from this unseemly situation and don't repeat it in the future.

It was 40 years ago today ... Tom Seaver taught the band to play

(with apologies to The Beatles and Sgt. Pepper) Long Island’s Newsday daily has been asking people about 1969, when (quote) “the Mets marched to a World Series victory that even their most avid fans couldn't have predicted. On a farm in Bethel, N.Y., nearly 500,000 people gathered for the Woodstock music festival that would come to symbolize the hopes for making "love, not war." For some, Woodstock also was an orgy of drugs and overindulgence. It was a summer of tumult. While students throughout the country marched for civil rights, casualties in the increasingly unpopular war in Vietnam continued to mount.” (end quote)
I was 11-12 that year, the first that I really followed baseball. My Aunt Shirley, a long suffering Brooklyn Dodgers fan, helped fuel my love for baseball. She quit the game when the Bums left for Los Angeles and only returned when the Mets were born in 1962. They were mostly ghastly for the first seven seasons but in 1969 they went from worst to first under Gil Hodges, the ex-Brooklyn first baseman who once was prayed for in a New York Catholic church by a priest and parishioners, when he was in the midst of a batting slump.
’69 was a magical year for the Mets and a great time to have that be the first year I followed baseball. (My passion for the game continues via the MLB baseball TV package and trips to dozens of major/minor league ballparks ... that includes the Durham Bulls Triple-A park yesterday). What I remember from 1969, off the top of my head: the Mets winning both games of a doubleheader 1-0 - with the pitchers driving the only run in both games!
There was Ron Swoboda hitting 2, two-run homers to overcome a 20 strikeout game by Steve Carlton, TV announcer Lindsay Nelson’s outrageous, gaudy sport jackets and Kiner’s Corner – the ponderous post game show awkwardly hosted by ex-slugger Ralph Kiner. Now well into his ‘80’s, Kiner still comes on SNY Mets broadcasts for several games every year and struggles, but its still good to hear him as a thread to my youth. Baseball was the game I listened to on my transistor radio as I cruised around the block on my Schwinn bike, or as I threw pitches in to the backyard pitch-back net.
I remember light-hitting infielder Al Weis becoming a hitting star in the playoffs, the Mets winning four straight World Series games after losing the first to Baltimore, the Cleon Jones hit-by-pitch incident, when Hodges came out of the dugout with a ball that had shoe polish on it – and the umpire awarding first base to Jones in a crucial spot.
We listened to playoff games in school or got updates from teachers – everything happened during the day back then, and the NY newspapers provided wall to wall coverage. Daily News cartoonist Bill Gallo drew his eagerly anticipated “Hero and Goat” cartoons after every playoff game involving the Metsies.
Radio announcer Bob Murphy provided the “happy recaps” and detailed descriptions of the weather and clouds. (I just found out he was an Army meteorologist, now it all makes sense). Shea Stadium sold great fried knishes and was adorned with blue and orange metal squares on the outside of the building, where ramps to the stands were.
In the early ‘70’s my Aunt, father, brother and Uncle Ray (Aunt Shirley’s husband) would go to games at Shea… my Uncle (who would arrive by subway from his Manhattan business) didn’t care much for baseball and would sit there reading Guns and Ammo magazine,
Back to October, ’69: I got off the St. Pius X school bus at my Aunt’s house that day, instead of at home, and we scored every play in the last game of the World Series, when the Impossible Dream came true. That’s the first time I had ever scored a game and my Aunt showed me all of the codes and symbols. Later the Mets were on Ed Sullivan that weekend, singing “You Gotta Have Heart” from the musical Damn Yankees. The names … Tug McGraw, Ken Boswell, Tommy Agee, Jerry Koosman, Duffy Dyer, Jerry Grote, Ed “The Glider” Charles… 1969 was my coming of age year, and the Mets had plenty to do with it. They were a national phenomena – witness George Burns in the movie “Oh, God!”, as God, describing their win as one of his true miracles. Few would disagree.
Oh yeah, the country was a mess because of the Vietnam War and we landed on the moon (I was glue to the TV for hours and remember the surreal moment when the first images from the moon flickered on to the screen) … but the Mets helped New Yorkers and others that rooted for underdogs around the country, in that Nixonian era, take heart – anything was possible.
I may not know where my wallet or keys are half the time now, but I remember 1969 – and the Amazin’ Mets.

Sparring over the Must See TV incident

(a woman who saw me comment on Craig Wright's In the News TV program didn't like my spin on the City Market "Must See TV" incident that ended with an arrest. Here's our back and forth)

On May 27, 2009, at 8:26 PM, Diane Tyler wrote:

(Her) I just watched "In the News" with you and David Tate regarding the incident on the City Market a few weeks ago. Wow - to think that you think it is perfectly ok for anyone to purposely disregard a police officer is beyond belief. Have you ever had to call on the police to assist you with anything? If that had directly affected a member of your family (fight, weapons etc.) I bet you would be singing a completely different tune. It amazes me how you can say that if "Roanoke" wants to attract "Artsy - Young People" that we need to not do this type of thing. If that is the way we need to attract people to the downtown area then we are on the wrong path. When is it ok for an officer to arrest someone? Where do you draw the line? I can tell you that everyone that I have spoken to about this incident has completely supported the officer. He doesn't get paid enough to risk his life everyday for a community that feels that they can ignore the law. What were you thinking?

(me) Diane, you are certainly entitled to your opinion. I was right there in the middle of it, and as far as I am concerned Officer Lucas totally overreacted. The Police Dept. also act as ambassadors for the city, and in this instance he did not do his job in reading the situation correctly. I am not condoning the young woman for not producing ID when asked, but there was no danger, no threat, and if you listen to Lucas's diatribe on YouTube you'd see he had some sort of ax to grind about the type of folks that like to hang out in front of the City Market building.

Police officers are merely human beings, they make mistakes, overreact, misread situations. Lucas did here, and it gave the city a black eye. Thanks for watching In the News!

GOP Candidates in 17th district: not many contrasts during forum

Attorneys Bill Cleaveland, Josh Johnson and Melvin Williams; small business owner Chris Head and former Roanoke County Supervisor Mike Wray all converged on the Patrick Henry High School stage Tuesday night, hoping to state their case. “They all did a great job,” said one attendee, as she watched the five Republican 17th District candidates make their case for being selected in the June 9 primary, for the right to face Democrat Gwen Mason in the fall for a House of Delegates seat.

In fact it was hard for some in the audience to differentiate, based on questions about taxes, registering by party, transportation and funds for non-state agencies. About 100 showed up for the forum, sponsored by the Roanoke Valley Republican Women and moderated by Kathy Hayden Terry (with the Republican National Committee). “Any one of them is better than their Democratic counterpart,” said Terry as the forum opened. Whoever wins on June 9 she declared “will beat Gwen Mason.”

In opening remarks Williams, a part time minister, called himself a “person of conviction,” chastising President Obama’s Supreme Court pick earlier that day of Sonia Sotomayor as someone “who will not be that type of person.”

Johnson, just 30 years old, said he would “represent a new generation of Republican leadership. I have a lot of new ideas.” Head, who lives in Botetourt County, (as does Cleaveland) asked the audience if they were “satisfied with the direction that our nation and the Commonwealth is going in right now?” Many in the audience responded “no!”

Cleaveland said he was “100% committed,” to making a difference and held up a Taxpayer Protection Pledge he has signed, along with State Senator Ralph Smith (in attendance), which states he will not raise taxes. Wray, who served one term in Cave Spring on the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors, touted his experience as an elected official and said he had pushed for job creation while chairing the board.

On the question of whether voters should register statewide by party, Johnson and Cleaveland were opposed, while the other candidates said they could back such a measure. On most other questions there was more cohesiveness. All said they would not raise taxes under any or most circumstances. Look at eliminating waste in the state budget and realign funding priorities instead said the candidates.

Transportation funding emerged as the top priority for most candidates, with Cleaveland pushing education. Johnson would “look at toll roads” while others were hesitant to support that – or a gas tax increase.

Johnson pushed for offshore drilling as a way to raise revenue, while Cleaveland (also supporting offshore oil drilling) wanted to know why the $2 billion in waste identified several years ago by the Wilder Commission had not been slashed. “That’s the first place I’d start.”

Cleaveland also provided the only note of disharmony on the night, disputing Wray’s claim that he had cut taxes as a supervisor: while the rate per $100 of assessed value was lowered by a penny or two Cleaveland noted that sharply rising assessments had more than negated that reduction.

As for funding non-state agencies, like Center in the Square, some said a cost-benefit analysis of some sort would be in order first; others touted more public-private partnerships as a way to fund museums and the like. “Some times you do need a little help,” said Wray, recognizing the “quality of life issues” cultural organizations can provide.

Cleaveland, an attorney, prosecutor and substitute judge over the past 30 years, said he would provide “straight talk” to his constituents if elected, while Johnson vowed to “work hard.” Williams read from an endorsement just given him by Don Huffman, former chair of the Virginia Republican Party, and Head pledged to follow through on promises made during the campaign. “You can take that to the bank.”

Hollins University political science professor Ed Lynch, a former GOP chair in Roanoke County, was among those in the audience. If it made the task more difficult for voters, to distinguish one candidate from another, he said that was “a good thing. The answers were very thoughtful. It was clear that they all knew an awful lot about state government. They all have a lot of great experience [and] all have a lot to bring to the table.”

“Each one of them brings their own strengths,” said Fred Anderson, the former Roanoke County treasurer and current 6th District Republican chairman. He sported a Mike Wray button and said he was supporting the former supervisor because of a long-standing friendship. “I’d really like to have one candidate with all those strengths. Each one will appeal to a certain element in the party. I just hate that we have five good candidates, but only one nomination [to select].”

An arts-friendly town? tell the cops!

Our Take

An arts-friendly town? Someone forgot to tell the cops

First of all I was there, right in the middle of it, so I’m not opining second hand. I’m talking about the “Must See TV” performance art piece carried out by dozens of people in the Farmer’s Market area and in front of the city market building last week. You know by now, the exercise where people were to sit silently and watch the blank screen of a television set for five minutes. If passersby asked what they were doing, participants were supposed to reply, “I’m watching TV.” Local performance artist Beth Deel, who likes to “push the envelope,” at times, called it a “way to slow down time with an action and see what the interpretation is. Its really in the spirit of improv.”

Even some of the organizers weren’t sure what the message was supposed to be. But that’s the point of art, whether it hangs on a wall, stands in a plaza – or involves people staring at blank TV’s. The way Roanoke City Councilman David Trinkle explained it on Monday – his wife took part – the group was careful not to assemble in large bunches, thus avoiding the need for a permit on their part.

Someone forgot to let certain Roanoke City police officers in on the secret: that the Star City aims to position itself as an arts-friendly town, one that welcomes artists of all stripes and ages. So what happens? Officer Bill Lucas and company overreacted to the fact that several young people were sitting on the sidewalk in from of the market building last Thursday.

Brooke Rosel was there watching her television when Lucas barked at her to get up. “It wasn’t to be negative in any way,” said Rosel afterwards. Lucas threatened to fine and arrest her, said Rosel. “He was very, very rude.” Other officers “laughed” she said when they were let in on what was going on.

One young woman, Katherine Gwaltney, stayed in character when “Wild Bill” asked her for ID (?) by saying “wait, this is the best part!” as if she was obsessed with what whatever was playing on her (blank) portable TV. That wasn’t a good move – when a cop asks for something the better choice is probably to accommodate them, but Lucas and a fellow officer were totally over the top, yelling about keeping the sidewalks free for pedestrians (have they not seen young people sitting on the steps at the market building before?), barking at some of them to turn off their video recorders or to move along.

Huh? Have they not heard of the First Amendment? “Freedom of speech!” became a rallying cry, as Lucas cuffed Gwaltney and took her to the paddy wagon for a free ride to jail – hauling her portable TV under one arm. (One online wag compared Lucas to Barney Fife… does that mean Roanoke is Mayberry? Hardly the image it seeks.) “Looks like the Roanoke cops were just in a bad mood today,” said Matt Ames, “Its just ridiculous.”

City Manager Darlene Burcham has called the incident “unfortunate.” Trinkle said he hopes to see more performance art in the streets of Roanoke soon and fellow council member Gwen Mason decried Police Chief Joe Gaskins for (once again) displaying his fortress-like mentality by not coming out and making a statement, days after the incident.

Roanoke City sent the wrong message last week: that art is meant to be more stodgy – go spend your money to look at paintings hanging at the Taubman perhaps – and that youthful ideas involving performance art need not apply here. If I’m a young person on the fence about staying Roanoke and was a witness to the market incident – or if I’ve seen it on YouTube by now – do you think I want to stay here? What about tourists or conventioneers visiting from Hotel Roanoke? What must some of them have thought?

Some of those involved with “Must See TV” have held off the cuff, permit-less events in the past, like racing big wheels through parking garages. Maybe there is a way they could tip off the city in the future that, hey, this what we want to do. In any case the Roanoke City Police Department overreacted big time. I’ve lived elsewhere in a small city like Roanoke that also pegged part of its growth to the arts and young people – and this would not have been an issue 30 years ago!

Time to decide what you want to be Roanoke, how tolerant you want to be when it comes to the arts, and what type of arts, and how welcoming you want to be towards young artists and others that support them. Then let the rest of us in on the secret – starting with some of those apparently humorless, non-art loving police officers. “I think sometimes fear makes people overreact,” said Beth Deel, who thought Lucas might have believed it was “a political action. Hopefully we can get it all straightened out.”


(from May 22 Roanoke Star-Sentinel)

Remembering the Holocaust

(Sally Frishberg came to Roanoke last month to meet with local students. She was a Holocaust survivor. This story was written for but never made it into the Roanoke Star-Sentinel.)

Holocaust survivor tells Roanokers: never forget the Holocaust

By Gene Marrano

Emigrating from Poland after World War II, Sally Frishberg didn’t speak much about the two years her family hid from the Nazis, protected by a sympathetic Catholic townsman. Frishberg, a retired high school teacher from Brooklyn (she taught history and Holocaust studies) only opened up many years later and now speaks to groups, often to young people, about a time the world should not forget.

Frishberg was in Roanoke recently, visiting schools, speaking to students at all grade levels. This was her second visit to the valley – she studied at Hollins College with an NEA grant 20 years ago.

Now a volunteer at a Jewish heritage museum in New York, Frishberg also spoke at Temple Emmanuel and attended a Roanoke Symphony Orchestra concert, a program filled with music written by Jewish composers that had been interred in Nazi concentration camps during WWII. She spoke at the end of the Jefferson Center program.

“The night we landed [in New York] my Uncle told my father ‘you must forget about the past,” recalls Frishberg, “you lived through hell, but now you’re in America.” She overheard that conversation and took it to heart.” In general there was “a conspiracy of silence,” where no one seemed to talk about the planned extermination of Jews and others by the Nazis. Frishberg also felt “shame” that human beings could behave that way.

Some were protected, like the Frishberg family, which lost three family members while in hiding. “I don’t think enough were [hidden]. My generation is missing. The Nazis killed the children. We served no purpose.” Students she speaks to now ask her how the family survived two years in an attic – they had to crawl out when liberated by the Russians because their legs had atrophied from lack of use. She wishes more asked about how to prevent hatred and war. “I’d like to hear questions like that [but] I have absolute faith in America’s young people.”

Her trip started with the North Cross middle school class and ended at Patrick Henry. In between she also visited Hidden Valley Middle, William Byrd High School, Penn Forest Elementary and several other schools. Students at William Fleming High School performed an interpretive dance about the Holocaust, with Frishberg in attendance. “It’s a wonderful way to reach youngsters,” she said of arts-related programs about the Holocaust.

Frishberg isn’t sure if the world has fully grasped the lessons of World War II: “I am very discouraged by how little learning there has been, but when I speak to young people that changes. I feel vibes that are very positive. They want to learn [and] have a safer future.” That was Sally Frishberg’s message to young Roanokers.

Tea baggin' in Roanoke

(Just went down and spent time with folks near the Roanoke River, that Tea Party thing...

Hangin’ with the teabaggers

There were already hundreds of people, if not more, lining Reserve Avenue at the start of the two-hour Tax Day Tea Party rally on Wednesday, one of many held around the country. There were numerous placards protesting all of the spending in Washington and President Obama’s stimulus plans. “We don’t want 15% inflation again!” read Barbara Martinet’s handmade sign. “I’m worried that the country is headed for serious financial difficulties,” said Martinet, alarmed that the federal government is printing money to pay for stimulus and bailout programs.

Another president she noted attempted to keep financing a war at the same time he introduced sweeping social programs – Lyndon B. Johnson. “It nearly ruined the country,” said Martinet.

“How’s that change working for you?” read another sign, referring to the change Obama ran on during his 2008 campaign. Bonnie Martin wore a hat adorned with tea bags. “I’m here to show my disgust for our government, period – both parties. All of this unnecessary spending and the bailout – and these ridiculous bonuses that they voted [in] late at night.” Clean house and start over said Martin.

Rich and Sherie Hilts held up FairTax signs as cars crawled down Reserve, honking their horns to supporter the Tea Party protestors. “The centralist government is not supposed to be [as big] as it is today,” said Rich Hilts, co-owner of a small gourmet spice manufacturing company. “There’s not supposed to be this much power and cradle to grave [legislation].”

His wife has little confidence that those inside the Beltway can enact legislation and spend money wisely: “The government can’t run themselves,” said Sherie Hilts. “How can they possibly run our investments and our fiscal future?” She compared it to the climate in fascist Germany and Italy before World War II, when Hilts claimed that constant dire predictions about the economy made it easier for politicians to enact programs that ultimately proved to be catastrophic.

My take: (random thoughts from a Facebook debate) Question for all Tea Party backers: what's your alternative to jump starting the economy with Fed spending? Tax cuts? $600 checks? Didn't we try that already? For the last 8 years? Can we really build a sounder, long term economy by getting more folks to go back to the mall?

Telling people to go to free clinics for health care coverage is NOT the answer! we all pay for those who don't have health insurance. Contrary to what Sean Hannity says, we don't have the best health care system in the world - at least for the 50 million or so who don't have it. And those with coverage pay for those without. Don't you folks read how about businesses crippled, or homes lost over health care costs!

Private industry does not have all the answers either…what if GM had used some of the obscene amounts of money it paid people like now-fired CEO Rick Wagoner for R&D ... and government is and has always been a big part of our lives (infrastructure, Social Security, student loans, Medicaid, etc.) .... we all need to make sure we have the right people in place to make tough decisions and supply leadership.

This n' that - catchin' up

Just read Dan Smith's blog about the Richmond Times-Dispatch laying off their Roanoke reporter Rex Bowman - wow - and the Roanoke Times asking NRV reporter Tim Thornton to resign. Tim covered local issues like the possible Explore Park development as well as they could be when he was based in Roanoke. Its all a sign of the Times as newspapers contract. People are just not reading papers the way they used to, and potential advertisers know that. Plus folks are just not walking through the door to buy in the same numbers these days.

Rex Bowman is a talented reporter, has written screenplays and several books. We've both been laid of from newspapers within the past year. I feel your pain, Rex! Tim Thorton's "resignation" is just another sign of talent bleeding from the Roanoke Times.

Etc: I was honored to emcee the latest RAMA book and author dinner at Hotel Roanoke recently, where mega-best selling novelist David Baldacci was the featured speaker. Two other novelists - NY Times reporter-turned spy series scribe Alex Berenson and Dr. Bill Bass, who started the "Body Farm" at the University of Tennessee - also spoke. A great night for popular literature fans and a fundraiser for the youth and health programs suported by RAMA, an organization featuring the spouses of physicians.

Kudos to the Roanoke City School Board for working through sticky issues like the closing of schools and attendance zone changes in recent months. You cannot please everyone during that process, but chairman David Carson and company did not waffle, keeping a strong hand on the rudder the whole time, in concert with School superintendent Dr. Rita Bishop. Now, as David Carson said, lets get down to the business of educating kids, raising that shockingly low graduation rate in Roanoke City High Schools.

Green stuff: just taped a Cox TV show (The Interview) with LEED architect Gregg Lewis, and Roanoke Valley Cool Cities chair Diana Christopulus, for air on channel 9 in May (1:30pm and 8:30pm). They are working at two ends of the green/sustainability issue.

Should local elections be non-partisan... no party lines?

(Hank Bostwick of the Star City Harbinger blog asked local media types - should local elections be conducted without party designations? Read his question and my answer. At least one other respondant disagreed with my stand)

On Mar 23, 2009, at 4:24 PM, Hank Bostwick wrote:

> I can't put the question any plainer than that.
>
> Occasionally, the local buzz and banter is about the R's and D's after the names of City Council candidates in the Star City. Are they necessary? What purpose do those labels serve on a local level?
>
> Our sister City on the Parkway, Asheville, North Carolina, does not designate by party affiliation. For example, they hold an open nonpartisan primary which whittles down the number of Council candidates to 6 (from whatever number they begin with, depending on the number of interested candidates). Candidates are free to self-identify their partisan stripes. Parties do not endorse or select the candidates . . . the people do.
>
> I would LOVE an on-the-record statement about this issue. Should local politics be so partisan? Is one-party rule good for Roanoke? Or is that the wrong question entirely?

(my response)

Hank, what party labels do on a local level is supply a base of support for candidates. What's unfortunate is that many people will blindly follow the D or R label without looking closely at the candidate's record or platform....

Ideally, there should be no need for party labels at the local level, if people are really interested in electing the best person. I don't think electing a Republican supervisor or council member makes much difference once you start building support for state or national candidates.

But, again, its hard for some independent candidates to build that support base..... unless they are all independents and the playing field is fairer. Then perhaps you'd see business groups support certain candidates, civic groups others, environmentalists still others.

We all see what heavy partisanship has done at the national level as Congress tries to wade through the economic crisis. Politics has gotten in the way. Other localities - like the People's Republic of Salem - go the independent route.... why do we need labels for Supervisor (County) or City Council (Roanoke City).

We don't. But who will have the gumption to rock the boat? And would it bring more people into the process?

Gene Marrano

This didn't make it in the paper ...

(Wrote this little ditty on jazz guitarist Charlie Hunter. He's at Kirk Avenue Music Hall next week.. didn't make it in Roanoke Star-Sentinel,so here it is)

Jazz guitarist has always followed his own path

Since opening several months ago the Kirk Avenue Music Hall in downtown
Roanoke has provided an intimate setting for touring acts. Its all table and chairs, just over a 100-person capacity, the type of closeness that jazz guitarist Charlie Hunter likes. He’s at Kirk Avenue Music Hall (22 Kirk Ave.) on April 2.

A San Francisco area native now living in New Jersey, Hunter is known for playing custom seven and eight string guitars. He also learned much of his craft on the streets in places like Paris and Zurich. “I didn’t have the music school experience that most of the people I played with have had. I’m really kind of glad [because] playing on the street with all these really great musicians was really kind of learning music the old way,” said Hunter from New Jersey last week. “Thrown in the fire, you play all day long, under some pretty harsh conditions. It’s just a great training ground. It served me well.”

Hunter’s new jazz CD release is Baboon Strength. He’s always followed his
own path. “If I had a nickel for every person that’s advised me on how I should be playing music I’d have a whole lot more money than I did from actually playing.”

Baboon Strength is his first self-release after many years of recording on other labels. “It is probably one of the easiest records I’ve ever made. It’s been a great experience.” His custom guitars give him freedom and a different sound. “I just don’t think of music in those rigid terms. I think on a much wider scale.”

Hunter likens his extra-string guitars to a harmonic-melodic drum set, where he can play bass and lead guitar at the same time. “There’s a lot of space that I’m occupying and it also allows the music to move a little differently.”

A true jazz aficionado, most of what he likes is self-termed “fuddy-duddy” jazz, recorded before The Beatles, R&B and soul helped changed the popular music landscape. “Jazz [became] a lot less interesting to me,” said Hunter, who puts his own spin on the genre in any case. (listen to music samples at charliehunter.com)

Hunter prefers intimate spaces like Kirk Avenue Music Hall: “that’s the best kind of way you can play in my opinion. You’re right there and everyone’s in it together. There’s not that distance.” Go to kirk avenuemusic.com for more on The Charlie Hunter Duo concert (with Eric Kalb) on April 2.

Groovin' on a Saturday afternoon

Nothing profound to say, but haven't posted in a while. This past week I really enjoyed interviewing independent movie director John Waters via an ISDN line (whatever that is) from Baltimore. Made us sound like we were in the same room. He's the guy that directed Pink Flamingos, Hairspray, Crybaby. Used to work with the transvestite Devine, the big guy that dressed like a woman.

Waters is also an artist, writer, producer and was even featured on The Simpsons as a cartoon character about ten years ago. A few days before that I spoke with best selling author David Baldacci, who will appear at the Roanoke Academy of Medicine Alliance dinner at Hotel Roanoke on April 4. I have the honor of introducing him as the emcee that night.

Baldacci writes spy and sleuthing page-turners that might not be to everyone's liking but he's had 16 best sellers in a row, has a big house at Smith Mountain Lake and was a good enough writer that he gave up his job as a DC lawyer to write full time. Not bad.

I think of all the folks I've had a chance to interview or listen to over the past ten years and its pretty amazing. It just makes life fuller and more interesting as well.

Etc: I like the World Baseball Classic, but that might be because I just like baseball in general. Some of the Americans and ESPN are whining that it should be played at another time of the year and maybe it should,like after the season.. but hey, the weather's getting better and its baseball!

Enjoy March Madness... I think my bracket is in worse shape than President Obama's.

Gentle sparring with the Star City Harbinger over a story I wrote

(Note: I wrote a story for the Roanoke Star-Sentinel about Melvin Williams, one of many candidates on the Republican side for William Fralin's 17th House District seat in the General Assembly. Excerpts follow .... then Hank Bostwick, an attorney and the man behind the "Star City Harbinger" blog, read into what I wrote - or didn't write. A little back and forth follows - along with a comment from Star-Sentinel publisher Stuart Revercomb. Pretty good reading! So is Hank's blog by the way)

(original Star City Harbinger post)

Whoever planned Republican Melvin Williams’ debut on the political scene last week owes that man an apology. Opening his campaign from the 17th District GOP nomination as the closing act to the “official” announcement of the de facto Democratic nominee provides a teachable moment in flaccid campaign kickoffs.

Williams‘ street-side message lost any resonance it might have had to the din of a day of dual announcements–after a weekend of speculation and chatter–following the previous Friday’s false start and a leaked message about a “possible” announcement from a mystery candidate. Amid the obvious confusion, The Roanoke Times gave his campaign only a few sentences in a larger piece about candidate possibilities.

The most significant press Williams’ received last week was in a piece by the Roanoke Star-Sentinel’s Gene Marrano (whose work we usually enjoy). Even that didn’t go well.

On the same day The Roanoke Times reported that the Roanoke region’s unemployment level dramatically increased last month, Marrano reports Williams as “hearkening” back to a special time without all those pesky things like unemployment insurance, or temporary assistance to needy families or . . . general anaesthesia:

[The pioneers that settled America] . . . they didn’t ask for a handout . . . there was no safety net for them.

This is simply pointless patriotic pablum. It has nothing whatsoever to do with anything. What it reveals, however, is that Williams wants to play the same old worn out rhetorical game with the same old “pull yourself up by your own bootstraps” cliches.

Williams tacks on a measure of Compassionate Conservatism Redux to overemphasize the redundancy:

[He] said “yes, people do need help from time to time,” but he wants to see communities and faith-based organizations get more involved.

Again, maybe Williams didn’t read this article from The Roanoke Times noting that local faith-based food banks are begging for state aid.

Predictably Williams endorses what Marrano describes as the “hands-off approach from (sic) government . . . ‘that tradition that’s made America great.’” A significant majority of Americans believe that the sort of extreme deregulation of the financial markets (i.e., smaller government) embodied in a completely laissez-faire, hands-off approach to governance is one of the primary causes of the current recession. Williams would appear to wish to exacerbate the problem.

... (so on and so forth)


>>> 3 Responses to “SCH’s first whack at Williams”

1. Gene Marrano on March 16th, 2009 10:45 am

SCH writer: You misread my piece in the Roanoke Star-Sentinel on Melvin Williams. It’s not my place to add things that Williams didn’t talk about when he announced a run for the 17th House District seat.

I was not writing a column - if he wants to gloss over things like unemployment insurance, lack of help for needy families etc. in making a statement like this:

“Williams harkened back to the pioneers that settled America: “they didn’t ask for a handout…there was no safety net for them,” he declared during a news conference. ”

… then that’s his perogative. Readers can then make up their own mind about whether Williams is in denial or whatever

Conveniently, you also left out the comment I secured from Williams after the announcement, when he conceded that there is a time and place for government:

“There is a place for government when people have no other options Williams conceded, but the first option should be assistance from the communities.” He also works with defendants that cannot pay their child support, due to a lack of work or other conditions. “The government needs to be there at times,” said Williams, whose grandfather was a member of the House if Delegates in Maryland.”

Please understand the difference between a straight news, factual account of an event and an op-ed, blog or otherwise, where the writer throws his own two cents in.

GM

>>> 2. Hank Bostwick on March 16th, 2009 11:03 am

Gene,

Your comment is appreciated; however, it is a bit perplexing. How can one “misread” a report about a campaign opening? You weren’t writing an op-ed or an editorial. So what there is to “misread” is beyond me?

If Williams did not say the things you reported him as saying, then you should print a retraction; otherwise, it is difficult to tell where your beef is coming from.

If you don’t agree with the political spin I put on Williams’ comments, that is one thing, but “methinks thou dost protest too much.”

You chose to filter his comments and focus on the ones preferred by your readership. Our critique of those comments is fair game.

The fact of the matter is that your piece defined Williams in a way that we find problematic.

Remember: we have a progressive agenda. You write for a conservative weekly.

There are bound to be differences.

>>> 3. Gene Marrano on March 16th, 2009 3:13 pm

First of all, many of the writers and columnist for the Roanoke Star-Sentinel are not conservative. I’ll let you guess who is what. You might be surprised. Don’t jump to conclusions.

Secondly, you were asking me to interject into my piece more so-called liberal talking points, when that is not my place.

Williams defined himself. I did not do the refining. I filtered and focused on nothing; you are reading into it an agenda I do not have.

You sound like Robert Craig or one of the other conspiracy theorists (same boring, pedantic ones) that are always addressing City Council. Retraction? of what?

Nuff said, peace

GM

>>> Hank - I read both the piece and your and Gene's tit for tat and it seems pretty clear to me that for some reason you're trying to make it sound like Gene was somehow responsible for what the candidate said . . .

Seems to me he just reported the facts of the news conference straight up. Which was run along side two democratic announcements of similar scope and equal presentation.

All very strange.

- Stuart

PS And I am curious - what in your mind makes us conservative? Is it something we publish(ed)? Or perhaps didn't? Being a 99% local coverage publication we really don't get much into politics. Would love some clarification on where that comes from.

Gonna be a "Creative Connector" ??

I was pleased to be chosen as one of 30 Creative Connectors for something called the Roanoke Creative Communities Leader Project. Wherein we will workshop for two days at the end of March, then look for ways "to make Roanoke "a more authentic and prosperous region" That's what the e-mail said anyway.

Its a concept based on writings by urban planning guru Richard Florida. We'll look at the 4T's - technology, talent, tolerance and territorial assets, then come up with a framework to "further the community's economic growth and quality of place"

Stay tuned....

Hatin' on the arts?

A writer acquaintance of mine (Lisa Solod Warren) just posted something to Huffingtonpost.com on the typical Republican stance when it comes to funding the arts. Give it a look.

Personally, I think the arts and the NEA have always been a punching bag for Conservatives and Republicans, despite the fact that they are taught in schools all the way through college - and create plenty of jobs. That's one thing arts supporters could so a better job of - explain just how support the arts makes economic sense. Towns like Roanoke and Charlottesville have hitched part of their wagons to the arts.

see link (paste into browser): http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-solod-warren/why-do-repubicans-hate-ar_b_168443.html