January 9, 2013

Gas Company Downplays Perils of Fracking in Eco-Drama

Damon

TRUST ME, YOU’LL MAKE A FORTUNE: Steve Butler (Matt Damon) is earnestly cajoling a farm owner into signing over the drilling rights to his farmland, so that the company that Butler is representing can proceed to extract natural gas from the oil shale deposit underneath the farmer’s property. Butler is hoping that the lure of easy money will blind the farmer to the potential long term damage to the local community’s ecology caused by the fracking process.

In 2011, a disturbing documentary called Gasland was nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary category. That eye opening exposé chronicled how energy companies had duped landowners in Pennsylvania and Colorado into signing over the drilling rights on their property and, at the same time, downplaying the ecological risks.

Hydraulic fracturing, aka fracking, the process employed to extract natural gas from underground oil shale deposits, has contaminated many communities environments, and made a number of homes virtually uninhabitable. In that documentary, victims demonstrated with a match how their tap water had become flammable and how their pets had turned sickly and started shedding fur in patches.

Presumably inspired by Gasland, the biblically titled Promised Land is a cautionary tale that tackles the same theme. This modern morality play reunites director Gus Van Sant with Matt Damon for their fourth collaboration which began back in 1997 with Good Will Hunting. The pair also worked together on Finding Forrester in 2000 and on Gerry a couple of years later.

In this film, Damon stars as Steve Butler, a farm boy who has become an itinerant corporate pitchman employed by a gas conglomerate to fast-talk country folks into turning over their drilling rights to the company. He and his partner (Frances McDormand) have been assigned to go to McKinley, a cash-strapped rural community whose local environment will almost certainly to be polluted if its residents are tricked into signing on the dotted line.

Steve has a down-home way of insinuating himself with the locals which even turns the head of a pretty schoolmarm (Rosemarie DeWitt). Fortunately, a couple of gadflies emerge when a skeptical science teacher (Hal Holbrook) and an outside agitator (John Krasinski) urge everybody not to be blinded by dollar signs, but to do a little research into the potential environmental consequences of fracking.

Very Good (***). Rated R for profanity. Running time: 106 minutes. Distributor: Focus Features.

Local Filmmaker’s Documentary Selected For Princeton Environmental Film Festival

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“FELT, FEELINGS AND DREAMS”: This still from Princeton resident Andrea Odezynska’s documentary film shows the bright colors and intricate cut and stitched patterns of the traditional “shyrdak” of Kyrgystan, the result of painstaking and physically demanding work by women artisans who transforms raw sheep’s wool into the compressed fabric of felt. Princeton resident Andrea Odezynska goes behind the process to reveal lives and aspirations in her documentary that has been selected for the Princeton Environmental Film Festival opening later this month at the Princeton Public Library.

The theme of this year’s Princeton Environmental Film Festival (PEFF) is “Sense of Place” and filmmaker Andrea Odezynska takes us to the Kyrgyz republic after the break up of the Soviet Union.

Ms. Odezynska’s 30-minute documentary, Felt, Feelings and Dreams, follows a small group of women in the former Soviet Republic who pull themselves out of poverty by reviving ancient feltmaking traditions. It celebrates their taking control of their lives against a dispiriting backdrop of unemployment and alcoholism.

“Making this film was quite the adventure,” says the filmmaker, who hails originally from Philadelphia and moved to Princeton some five years ago with her husband, a research scientist at Bristol-Myers Squibb. “The women really moved and inspired me. They are gatekeepers of a culture that is fast disappearing.” According to the film, one in five Kyrgyz women become migrant workers in Russia, working in menial jobs to support their families back home. As is pointed out, sometimes the best way forward is to embrace the past.

The film moves from scenes of external urban squalor to interiors such as the one shown above: timeless images, rich in color. It’s no surprise that Ms. Odezynska’s work been praised as “beautiful” and “iconic.” If her films have a common thread, it is the depiction of ordinary women doing something hard and succeeding. “Cross cultural backdrops and a reverence for ‘old’ traditions and beliefs can also be found throughout,” says the filmmaker whose earlier documentary, The Whisperer, focused on a personal journey to rural Western Ukraine where she encountered a local village healer. “Water meets wax, words are whispered, and my life was altered forever,” says Ms. Odezynska of the experience. Ms. Odezynska’s parents were immigrants from the Ukraine and another of her films, the comedic Dora was Dysfunctional, a story of unrequited love set in Los Angeles, incorporates an ancient Ukrainian love spell.

Ms. Odezynska, who teaches aspects of filmmaking for both narrative and documentary film at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, learned her craft at The American Film Institute in Los Angeles, from which she graduated with an MFA. She also has a bachelor’s degree in theater from Bennington College.

A friend from Bennington who is now artistic director of the Yara Arts Group in New York City and who travels extensively in the East collecting folklore, invited Ms. Odezynska to travel to Kyrgystan as a filmmaker. Ms. Odezynska has created close to 20 short films for the New York City-based experimental theater company which also support this documentary. Other funding came from two New York State Council on the Arts grants.

Ms. Odezynska and cinematographer Georges Khamicki first traveled to Kyrgyzia in 2008 to shoot the film for which she was keen to get beyond the process of making felt. “Women are the underdogs in this society and making these traditional felt rugs or ‘shyrdak,’ is connecting them to the rest of the world.” One of the film’s subjects, a woman named Kenje, has traveled to Budapest and Paris to show her work. While she works, Kenje shares stories such as the secret of felt as discovered by shepherds on their way to the high pastures (wool, sweat, and walking).

After returning home with her footage, Ms. Odezynska added dramatizations of folk tales as well as Kyrgyz proverbs such as: “If you don’t want to make felt, don’t come to our feast.”

Of her eight years as a filmmaker, Ms. Odezynska says: “I focused on documentaries as a way to keep my hand in while my children were young and you’ll find that there are quite a lot of women film directors simply because it works well around the ‘mommy track.’” Ms. Odezynska’s 11-year-old twins attend Princeton Charter School.

“Very few people have been exposed to the remote, harsh, and stunning world of Felt, Feelings and Dreams,” says Ms. Odezynska of her film. “Particularly in this global economic downturn, I feel audiences will be inspired by the courage of the women in my film. I know I was.By Western standards, they have so little material wealth, yet, I left Kyrgyzia feeling that they have something precious that maybe we have lost.”

Felt, Feelings and Dreams screens on Sunday February 3, as part of the 2013 Princeton Environmental Film Festival which opens Thursday, January 24 and runs through Sunday, February 10. For more on Ms. Odezynska’s work, including film trailers, visit: www.odezynska.com. For more on the Princeton Environmental Film Festival, visit: http://community.princetonlibrary.org/peff/schedule/.

Stories Behind Stories in Grimm Exhibition at Cotsen Children’s Library

Grimm

DO I REALLY HAVE TO KISS THAT THING? Apparently not. In the original version of “The Frog Prince” by the Brothers Grimm, all the princess had to do to break the spell and turn her frog into a prince was to throw it against a wall in disgust. In other early versions it was enough for the frog to spend the night on the princess’s pillow. Today she has to kiss the amphibian. English illustrator Walter Crane (1845–1915) is one of dozens who were inspired by the works of the Brothers Grimm. Here, his arts-and-crafts style maiden contemplates the frog.

The violent act of throwing an object (say a frog) against a wall (say by a princess), is commonly found in folk tales as a way of undoing shape-shifting spells. Today, the story of “The Frog Prince” requires the princess to kiss the frog. Not so in earlier times. These are the sorts of details to be gleaned from the tiny gem of an exhibit “Into the Woods: A Bicentennial Celebration of the Brothers Grimm” currently at the Cotsen Children’s Library tucked inside Princeton University’s Firestone Library.

It’s no secret nowadays that Grimm’s Fairy Tales are not exactly suitable for the faint of heart. But did you know that they were not originally meant for children? Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm gathered the stories in order to preserve the volkspoesie, or traditional oral literature of German speaking lands. They started compiling their masterwork in 1806. It was six years before it was published as Kinder-und Hausmärchen. Now considered a masterpiece of world literature, the three-volume collection is best known as Grimm’s Fairy Tales after the brothers selected 50 stories especially for children. That was in 1825 and the children’s version is known in Germany as the kleine Ausgabe (the “little edition”) to distinguish it from the original grosse Ausgabe.

The Cotsen exhibition was inspired by last year’s bicentennial and the current display focuses on two famous tales in two cases on the left as you enter the Library: “Hansel and Gretel” and “The Frog Prince;” six versions of the former and four of the latter. Both stories continue to inspire illustrators, as seen in the 1963 Lona: A Fairy Tale by author and photographer Dare Wright (1914-2001), best known for her Lonely Doll picture books. Lona is a brave princess who breaks the spell laid upon three kingdoms by a wicked wizard. Her only friend is a frog Rogaine, shown with a jewel on his head. In Walter Crane’s 1874 illustrations for “The Frog Prince,” the frog’s metamorphosis is indicated in a series of rapidly drawn, cartoon-like figures as frog and wall collide.

Contemporary artist Anthony Browne gives the Hansel and Gretel story an English setting with a clever take on the witch in 1981. Browne is the first British children’s book illustrator to win the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen award and the second Children’s Laureate 2009-2011. As described by Cotsen Curator Andrea L. Immel, Browne’s witch is a “rheumy-eyed woman in a frumpy green cardigan peering through the window;” her house a “fruit cake roof and baguette ledges, is perhaps more stodgy than delectable.” It’s a far cry from the 1825 “little edition” illustrated by third Grimm brother, Ludwig Emil Grimm (1790-1863). “His representation of the witch’s cottage is much more modest than the architectural confection now standard in picture book versions,” comments Ms. Immel.

According to the curator, the books on display are a small fraction of Cotsen’s holdings of Grimm material. The items speak to the library’s scholarly purpose. Besides welcoming children with open arms and armchairs, the Cotsen is a major research collection of historical and rare illustrated children’s books, manuscripts, artwork, prints, even educational toys from the 15th century to the present day. And not just in English. In Chinese, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Latin, and Russian.

Ms. Immel is particularly fond of the gingerbread house from Hansel and Gretel from the Märchen-Kalendar für 1910 with illustrations by architect Josef Urban (1872-1933) (who went on to design sets for the Metropolitan Opera) where the two children are shown in thin clothes trudging through deep snow drifts towards the witch’s cottage. “Being asked to choose is a little like favoritism with respect to offspring but I do like this one, perhaps because of the questions it raises: Is that snow or icing? And why are the children so inappropriately dressed for cold weather?” says Ms. Immel. “The house is constructed from slabs of lebkuchen, the German Christmas spice cookie, decorated with molded high-relief figures and it is surrounded by an equally fanciful fence. It’s a gingerbread house that only an architect like Urban could imagine.”

During the last 10 to 15 years, says Ms. Immel, “most of the interest has been in fairy tales in the French tradition, which have really come into their own. Perhaps it’s time now for the Brothers Grimm.”

Before “Hansel and Gretel,” was “Babes in the Wood,” which the exhibition suggests was based on an actual incident in seventeenth-century Norfolk, where an orphaned brother and sister were abandoned in the forest by their cruel uncle who was trying to secure their large inheritance for himself. In an illustration by Anton Weisgruber (1878-1915), Hansel and Gretel are shown as very young children asleep in the wood; the dangers they face indicated by what looks to be poisonous mushrooms growing nearby.

Be sure to check out the display case outside the library where there is a poster illustration by Rie Cramer for the Dutch translation of Grimms’ Fairy Tales as well as five soft sculptures of dwarves by Dorian McGowan a teacher from Northern Vermont.

As lovers of Shrek will know, the Frog Prince is the true identity of King Harold and the modern take on the story has prompted the rueful saying: “You have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find your handsome prince.”

“Into the Woods: A Bicentennial Celebration of the Brothers Grimm” continues through February. For more information, visit www.princeton.edu/cotsen or call (609) 258-1148.

Princeton Celebrates Historic Consolidation

An overflow crowd of Princeton residents marked New Year’s Day by witnessing history in the town’s Municipal Building. On the official Day One of the merging of Princeton Borough and Princeton Township, the first major consolidation in the State of New Jersey in more than a century, a celebration was centered around the swearing in of Mayor Liz Lempert and the new Princeton Council, which unanimously elected Bernie Miller as Council president at its reorganization meeting following the festivities.

Ms. Lempert asked former township mayor Richard Woodbridge, whom she ran against in the recent mayoral race, to administer the oath of office. “His being here demonstrates that this is a day for coming together,” she said in her remarks, “no matter your political persuasion or your feelings about the issues of the day or which side of the old Borough/Township line you reside.” In turn, Mr. Woodbridge said of Ms. Lempert’s request to him, “It was not only a classy gesture by a worthy and intelligent opponent. It was also an important historical symbol of reaching across the political and generational divide to all of the citizens of Princeton.”

Adding to the party atmosphere was a display of several creatively designed “consolidation cakes” donated by McCaffrey’s Market. The cakes were cut and served to the public following the installation ceremony.

There were remarks by officials involved in the complex process of consolidation, delivered to an overflow crowd that included state and county politicians as well as local residents. Anton Lahnston, who chaired the Consolidation Study Commission, began by thanking all of those involved in the nearly six decades it took to get the measure passed. He was followed by Mark Freda, who chaired the Transition Task Force after the measure was approved by voters in November 2011. “Thanks to all the citizens, both in favor and opposed,” Mr. Freda said. “Without that vigorous discussion, without the listening to and the understanding of all the different perspectives, I wonder if we would have done as good a job of arriving here as we did.”

Bob Bruschi, Princeton’s business administrator, spoke after being acknowledged by both Mr. Lahnston and Mr. Freda for his contributions. “I kind of liken the voyage we went through to the Apollo missions,” Mr. Bruschi said. “And today, ladies and gentlemen, the Eagle has landed.”

Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes recalled growing up at Morven, then the governor’s mansion, when his father Richard Hughes was New Jersey’s chief executive. “I have a love affair with this town,” he said. In later years, when the family moved to a house on Westcott Road that straddled the Borough, where there was a leash law, and the Township, where there was not, there was trouble when the family dog wandered into the Borough untethered.

”So my father, the former governor of the state of New Jersey and soon to be chief justice of the State Supreme Court, had to go and defend our dog in Borough Court several times and pay several fines,” Mr. Hughes said, to laughter from the audience. “I’m glad today to see that dogs all over Princeton will not have the same” problem.”

Council members drew lots to determine the length of their terms. Lance Liverman and Heather Howard drew three years, Bernie Miller and Jo Butler drew two, and Jenny Crumiller and Patrick Simon drew one year. “There goes our vacation,” joked Mr. Simon’s partner Mark Weiner, who is a lawyer and swore in Mr. Simon. Other Council members, who were given the oath of office by family members, included Mr. Liverman, whose sister, attorney Bonita Leadem, did the honors; and Ms. Howard, whose husband, lawyer Hunter Labovitz, administered the oath of office.

Members of the former Borough Council who were not elected to the new Princeton Council were given an opportunity to make remarks. Yina Moore, the Borough’s most recent mayor, said she was hopeful that affordable housing issues, opposition to Assembly Bill 2586 [which would allow private universities to develop sites without municipal approval], and the question of the Morven Tract Historic District would be resolved.

Kevin Wilkes cited Congressman Rush Holt, Assemblyman Reed Gusciora, and former Council member and Mercer County Freeholder Andrew Koontz as setting positive examples during his tenure. Roger Martindell noted that his mother, late politician and diplomat Anne Martindell, worked toward consolidation back in 1953. “Mom, it’s been done!” he said, looking skyward.

Ms. Lempert began the reorganization following the ceremony with a brief address. “Today is the day when we start to build a unified future as Princetonians,” she said. “When we come together and support one another we can do great things. We can turn a page and start a new chapter. What will be the story of that new chapter? Will it be a cautionary tale, or will we be a model for consolidation? There can only be one answer to that question. We will succeed.”

Ms. Lempert said that Princeton University has invited her to address its Board of Trustees later this month. In turn, she has invited the person who is chosen to succeed University president Shirley Tilghman, who is leaving in June, to address the Council in the fall.

Ms. Lempert also said she will hold “mayor’s hours” every third Thursday of the month, from 5-7 p.m., in her office at the municipal building.

New Council Convenes To Hear Citizens’ Concerns And Advice From CGR

At a January 3 meeting devoted to goal-setting and prioritizing, the new Princeton Council heard from residents about their concerns for consolidated Princeton after listening to a talk about how best to go about addressing them.

Joe Stefko of CGR, the company that helped guide the merger of Princeton Township and Princeton Borough into one municipality, delivered a power point presentation designed to “start a dialogue,” he told the Council. “Recognize that you are still very much in a transition process. Navigating it is really going to be critical.”

During the hour-long presentation of charts and data, Mr. Stefko used the analogy of a hospital emergency room. He urged Council members to avoid the “tyranny of the urgent,” which can put certain, less crucial-seeming policy matters at risk of being ignored. Mr. Stefko displayed a “word cloud” on the screen, incorporating results of a survey that asked department heads and others to identify the most crucial issues facing Princeton. Not surprisingly, the hospital site on Witherspoon Street and parking issues were printed in the largest type.

Among the smaller typed issues were recycling, teamwork, cost savings, and historic preservation. But the latter was one of the first topics to be addressed during the public comment portion of the meeting. John Heilner, a proponent of the Morven Tract Historic District, urged the Council to decide whether to make a 51-home section of Princeton’s western section a historic district. “This is unfinished business which was only held up by a sly 11th hour legal maneuver by opponents of the historic district who requested an injunction to prevent the Borough Council from finalizing its earlier draft ordinance,” he said, referring to action at the last Borough Council meeting.

Resident Mary Blair asked the new Council to make leaf and brush collection a priority. “We have a once-in-a-lifetime moment to get this program right,” she said, noting that the Borough and Township had two very different programs which made the system confusing. Another resident urged the Council to look into the issue of power losses. “In 2012, aside from Hurricane Sandy, we had four days when the power went out with no storms,” she said. “Why do the lights keep going out in Princeton?”

Repeating concerns she has addressed to the former Borough Council, resident Leslie Vieland asked the new Council to take on the issue of a cell tower on Snowden Lane. Citing health issues and the possibility of dropping real estate values, Ms. Vieland said she has come up with alternative sites for the cell tower, which are not near any residences.

Resident Pam Machold urged the Council to have a representative attend meetings of the Shade Tree Commission, and to take care of Princeton’s parks. Henry Singer said to the Council, “I hope that you educate yourselves and commit the new Princeton to open government.”

Mr. Stefko said that the Transition Task Force website www.cgr.org/princeton/transition/ will remain active as the Council sets its goals so that members of the public can offer suggestions on priorities. A second meeting devoted to goal-setting will be held at a date in later January to be announced.

Trash Transition Goes Smoothly, Christmas Tree Discards Build Dunes

Despite a few isolated complaints and occasional glitches, consolidated Princeton’s new program of trash collection has gotten off to a fairly uneventful start. There have been no changes for residents of what was formerly the Borough, where trash collection has traditionally been paid for by municipal taxes. But in the former Township, the option of free pickup is a welcome by-product of consolidation.

“It’s the Cadillac of garbage,” said Janet Pellichero, Princeton’s Recycling Coordinator. “You get a whole bunch extra, and most people seem to be happy with that. The few problems that have come up involve a couple of missed stops, here and there. We think a lot of it was just confusion, coupled with the holidays, which complicate things. It’s very sporadic С nothing big.”

Ms. Pellichero reminds residents to make sure their containers are out by 7 a.m. “Some people are used to old schedules, where they knew their trash might be picked up at, say, 10 a.m., so they had the containers out by 10. But it’s different now,” she said. “You’ve got to have it out there by 7 a.m. They have until 7 p.m. to collect it.”

There are no changes to the collection of recyclables. For those who participate in the voluntary organic waste program, Wednesday remains the collection day — for now. ”We are looking to do some revisions to that, and people will be informed,” Ms. Pellichero said. “What is new is that we will have an annual fee instead of a monthly fee. Those who are currently paying $20 a month for their organic-only collection will be paying what looks like about $65 for the year. That’s a big savings for people currently in the program, and hopefully it will inspire more people to participate.”

Visit www.princetonnj.gov for exact locations, times, and information about all refuse collections.

Christmas Trees

Discarded Christmas trees are a familiar sight along Princeton’s residential streets this time of year. The town began collecting them this week, and the pickup will continue through the month of January. Residents are asked to place trees at the curb by 7 a.m. Monday through Friday, with no ornaments, tinsel, or tree stands attached.

Meanwhile, one local resident with an eye toward conservation has been collecting discarded trees and using them to help rebuild dunes destroyed by Hurricane Sandy at the Jersey Shore. April Readlinger, a lawyer and mother of two young children, spent last weekend picking up trees and transporting them to communities along the coastline. She was joined by her sister, collecting some 80 trees at homes in and around Princeton and driving them in a donated truck to seaside communities.

Ms. Readlinger got the idea after seeing a Facebook post about efforts by Berkeley, New Jersey resident Dominick Solazzo to use Christmas trees to help rebuild the dunes in Seaside Park. She shared his post on her own Facebook page, offering to pick up local trees and transport them to the shore. There was an immediate response.

“The trees are stacked up along the dunes,” Ms. Readlinger explained. “The sand catches in them when the wind blows, and the trees can then help form a new dune. It takes a long time to build a dune, and this helps get the ball rolling because the dunes have been washed away.”

Volunteers are needed to help with the continuing efforts. Ms. Readlinger hopes to transport trees to such communities as Island Beach State Park, Bradley Beach, and Ortley Beach, among others.

She will no longer pick up trees at individual residences, but is instead asking that they be dropped off at the Joseph A. Maher, Jr. Ecological Center off Princeton Pike in Lawrence Township, which is where trees picked up during regular collection in Princeton end up.

“What we need volunteers for is to help us load the trees into the trucks,” Ms. Readlinger said. “We’re also looking for large trucks. Anyone who wants to help can email me for exact times and directions, because it’s day by day at this point.”

Reach her at aprilreadlinger@gmail.com.

All Smiles For All Princeton

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Seated front row and center at the Municipal Building of the newly consolidated Princeton, Liz Lempert had reason to smile on January 1, 2013, the day she became mayor of all Princeton. She was sworn in by her recent opponent, former Township Mayor Richard Woodbridge. Next to her is Council member Jenny Crumiller. (Photo by Emily Reeves)

January 2, 2013

Obituaries 1/2/13

Frederick A. Struve III

Frederick A. Struve III died peacefully on December 22, 2012 at Connecticut Hospice in Branford, Conn., after staying more than a few steps ahead of his cancer for eight good years. Born May 6, 1937, son of the late Frederick Struve II and the late Mary Slack, Fred grew up in Princeton, and lived for many years in New York, Virginia, and Shreveport, La. before moving to Guilford, Conn., in 2003.

He is survived by his beloved wife Eva, his son Doug Struve, his daughter Jody Struve and wife Erinn Auletta, Eva’s children Andrea Lacroix and husband Fred, Naomi Zauderer and husband Steve Choi, Wendy Holsinger and husband Tony, his sister Virginia Enourato and husband Frank, his niece Christy Morrison and husband Joseph Ryan, his grandchildren Sean, Henry, and Celia, Eva’s grandchildren Anna, Mathew, Emily, and Tommy and his grandnephews Joseph and John.

Fred’s early love of
science, music, and the natural world stayed with him his 75 years, bringing him much joy professionally and personally.

After earning a PhD in clinical psychology from Northwestern University, Fred pursued a career as a research scientist in the field of electroencephalography, studying under esteemed mentor and neurology pioneer Frederic Gibbs, MD. Before his most recent position as senior research scientist at Yale University school of medicine, Fred was a full professor of psychiatry and director of neurophysiology research laboratories at Louisiana State University school of medicine in Shreveport where he was recruited to develop the neurophysiology lab. During his distinguished career, Fred produced 120 scientific publications and 11 invited book chapters.

Fred was never far from a musical instrument, whether playing one himself, enjoying tunes at a jazz club or listening to a cherished album with his wife at home. He played clarinet with junior high friends in Edgehill 5 and while still in high school, sat in often with John Harbison’s Nassau Jazz Band. Later in life, he discovered his true calling as a trumpet and flugelhorn player and formed the No Compromise Authentic Jazz Quartet, which played in the Shreveport, La. area for many years.

Fred was an active member of the Shoreline Unitarian Universalist Society and enjoyed great fellowship as a member of the Sunday Services Committee and the Writers Group. He particularly enjoyed delivering occasional lay sermons drawing attention to the loss of both human and animal life through capital punishment or disregard for the environment.

Whether he was sailing on Long Island Sound, searching the night skies with his telescope, walking his Newfoundland, Monk, or Great Pyrenees, JJ, or enjoying a favorite plate of spaghetti and a good beer with his much-loved family, Fred approached each endeavor with an ever-curious mind and a jolly passion that will be deeply missed by his family and friends.

Fred had recently finished a collection of creative essays, “Observations from a Child of the Trilobites,” which will be published posthumously.

A memorial service will be held Saturday, January 12, 2 p.m., at the Shoreline Unitarian Universalist Society in Madison, Conn. Remembrances can be made to the Sea Shepard Conservation Society (360-370-5650, www.seashepherd.org).

———

Joseph J. Drabek

Joseph J. Drabek passed away peacefully at the Princeton Medical Center on Christmas Day, December 25, 2012. With his wife Marie, he was a long-time resident of Princeton and raised his children here.

Well-known and beloved in the community for his good humor and generous outgoing spirit, he had many friends and was a member of St. Thomas Aquinas Church and Saint Paul’s Catholic Church. In recent years he was a regular visitor to the Patterson Senior Center.

Born May 20, 1924 in Cicero, Illinois to John and Anna Drabek, Joe graduated from high school there where he was an avid soccer player and equestrian. Earning business degrees from the University of Illinois and an MBA from the University of Chicago, he was a member of Lambda Chi Alpha. He served in the Canary Islands in World War II, trained as a fighter pilot and cryptographer, and was honorably discharged. He married Marie Brady in Chicago in 1950 and they were married for 46 years, until her death in 1997. He worked as a marketing executive for Continental Can/American Can Company for 25 years and later for Paul Flum Ideas of St. Louis, Mo., retiring in 1985.

Joe was a devoted husband, father, and mentor. Sometimes known as “Big D” or “JJ,” he will be missed dearly by his friends and family. He had a passion for tennis and for grand opera. He loved his dogs and he loved horses. In retirement he enjoyed spending time with his family and friends and watching TV and western films.

He is survived by his sister Mary Ann Wagner of Fredericksburg, Tex., children, Jaime Drabek (Belinda) of McAllen Tex., Suzanne Drabek of Princeton, Jonathan Drabek (Stephanie) of St. Augustine Fla.; his grandchildren Taylor and Grant Drabek of Harlingen, Tex., and Matthew and Connor Drabek of St. Augustine Fla.

There will be a funeral service on January 5, 2013 at 11 a.m. at the Kimble Funeral Home, One Hamilton Avenue in Princeton. Burial in Princeton Cemetery in the family plot will follow. The family requests privacy after the burial.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Extend condolences at TheKimbleFuneralHome.com.

Certified Gyrotonic® Trainer Kristen Thompson Offers Clients Uniquely Beneficial Exercise System

WORKING OUT: “This is something that I love. It’s wonderful when you can do something you love and that makes you and others feel good. You feel renewed and revitalized after a Gyrotonic® work-out.” Kristen Thompson, owner of KAT movement — Gyrotonic® on State Road, is shown working out on the pulley trainer, Gyrotonic’s main piece of equipment.

WORKING OUT: “This is something that I love. It’s wonderful when you can do something you love and that makes you and others feel good. You feel renewed and revitalized after a Gyrotonic® work-out.” Kristen Thompson, owner of KAT movement — Gyrotonic® on State Road, is shown working out on the pulley trainer, Gyrotonic’s main piece of equipment.

“When I discovered Gryrotonic®, I loved it!” says Kristen Thompson. “It provides a total body work-out, and it simulates the feeling of being in water and air. It draws from the movements of yoga, ballet, Pilates, gymnastics, tai chi, and swimming, but it is different because it is three dimensional.”

Owner and certified Gyrotonic trainer of the new studio KAT Movement — Gyrotonic® at 812 State Road, Ms. Thompson is enthusiastic about the benefits of this unique exercise concept.

“It was developed in the 1970s by dancer Juliu Horvath, who had sustained injuries, including to his Achilles tendon. In the beginning, Gyrotonic was a means for professional dancers to deepen their stretches and improve their fluidity of movement.”

The results were so positive that over time, athletes and others began to practice Gyrotonic. Physical therapists and members of the medical profession also recognized its value.

Arching and Curling

The foundation of the Gyrotonic form of exercise is its focus on three dimensional, spherical and fluid movements, including arching and curling the spine.

“Spinal mobility is very important for every age level,” explains Ms. Thompson. “Gyrotonic exercises are circular, elongating, and strengthening. They also help prevent injuries by toning, stretching, and increasing range of motion and flexibility. We can pay attention to one area, such as knee, shoulder, neck, etc. But it is a full body work-out and in a balanced way.

“Gyrotonic is for all ages, abilities, and agility levels,” she continues. “My focus is to help the everyday person looking for a new way to stretch, strengthen, improve posture, lessen aches and lower back pain, engage their core muscles, and increase coordination, focus, and flexibility. All ages can benefit from the gentle, fluid, circular motion that guide the body through a rejuvenating, relaxing, and renewing head-to-toe work-out.”

The unique pulley tower is Gyrotonic’s primary piece of equipment. It consists of two pieces, a seven-foot wooden tower with two sets of pulleys and a padded bench with two rotating wheels at the end. These rotating wheels allow the exerciser to perform a series of arches and curls, helping the spine to flex and extend, while simultaneously opening the chest and shoulders, explains Ms. Thompson. Weights on the pulleys provide resistance and support the movements of the legs, arms, and hands, all working in a balanced way. At the heart of all the movements is the activation of the deep core muscles.

Balance and Posture

Clients are all ages, from seven to 81, and everyone in between, says Ms. Thompson. “For older people, it can be very beneficial for balance and posture. It is truly for all ages, including kids with agility problems and medical conditions, people with sports injuries, or conditions such as arthritis. I also have clients who do triathlons. And it’s helpful for new mothers, too. It’s a great way to strengthen the muscles and work out the core, which is especially important for them.”

Ms. Thompson trained and worked with master teachers of Gyrotonic at Kinsespirit and Fluid Fitness studios in New York, and has earned Level One certification enabling her to instruct clients. Sessions are one-on-one with Ms. Thompson for 50 minutes, and are $60. Savings are available with packages of five or 10 sessions. Gift packages are also offered.

Ms. Thompson is very enthusiastic and encouraged about her studio and the numbers of clients who continue to return. “When I opened the studio in April, I completely remodeled the space. I wanted it to be warm and welcoming. I so much enjoy sharing something that I love with others and seeing them enjoy it as much as I do. And, then when they see how much better they feel after a work-out, it is very rewarding.

“This is such a beneficial way to exercise. No other exercise can move you three dimensionally and stretch and strengthen at the same time. It’s such a graceful, fluid program.”

As the Gyrotonic founder has pointed out, “The ultimate aim is to be at home in one’s body, experience greater freedom of movement, to feel unrestricted and uninhibited, to be free from pain, to be at one with the nature of oneself, and to experience exercise as a creative and delightful experience”

Ms. Thompson’s studio is open Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. by appointment. (908) 500-3470. Kthompson360@gmail.com. The studio is also on Facebook: KAT Movement — Gyrotonic®.

Portraits, Weddings, Fine Art, and Street Scenes Are Specialty of Photographer Frank DiGiovanni

PICTURE PERFECT: “I want to create timeless photos that will endure. I want my work to be the best it can be, and I look forward to the photos I am going to take tomorrow.” Photographer Frank DiGiovanni enjoys every moment in capturing an image with his camera, and he is an expert in his field.

PICTURE PERFECT: “I want to create timeless photos that will endure. I want my work to be the best it can be, and I look forward to the photos I am going to take tomorrow.” Photographer Frank DiGiovanni enjoys every moment in capturing an image with his camera, and he is an expert in his field.

Getting it right is crucial to photographer Frank DiGiovanni. Whether it’s a portrait, a wedding photo, or a fine art landscape or flower, he devotes all his energy, effort, and expertise to capturing the right shot at the right moment.

“In a portrait, it’s all about getting the essence of that person,” he explains. “The moment can be fleeting. My specialty is one person, with no props, and my approach to every person is barely letting them know I am taking their picture. I want it to be authentic.”

Self-taught, Mr. DiGiovanni received his first camera when he was 11, and he was immediately captivated by this device, and what he was able to achieve with it. “I have always been visually oriented, and have good spatial relations. You have to have an eye to see the concept,” he explains.

He took photography classes in high school, and won a national scholastic award for his work, as well as a Governor’s Award for photography.

Making Memories

As a young photographer, Mr. DiGiovanni was grateful for the support and encouragement of professional and award-winning photographers, and took to heart the advice of one in particular: “To find the substance in my work, I had to find the substance in myself. To grow as a photographer, I had to grow as a person.”

After working for various photography firms in New Jersey, he opened his own studio at 4577 Route 27 in Kingston in 2006. “I always knew I wanted my own business, and I was very happy to open here, which is where I grew up,” notes Mr. DiGiovanni. “When I first opened, I focused on weddings and portraits, and I continue to do these. They are the best ways to make memories. I recently did a family portrait, with two grown sons and their mother, who had been ill. The mother died two months later, and it meant so much to the sons to have the portrait.”

Although not formally trained, Mr. DiGiovanni has been determined to learn all he can about photography, and spends many hours investigating new procedures and examining his own work. “I have read all the books about the theory and concept of photography, but there is nothing like the experience of going out and getting the shot. According to author Martin Gladwell, it takes 10,000 hours to become a master of what you do.”

Provided, of course, that one has the talent and skill to become an expert.

Softer and Softer

In addition to his work with weddings and portraits, Mr. DiGiovanni is now focusing more on fine art photography, including landscapes, flowers, and street scenes. “In this work, I like to find the little things that are part of the overall,” he explains.

“It may just be a very small part of the flower, for example, or a little section of a house or building. And, with fine art photography, you want to show the subject in the moment, in the light of the moment. It is often spontaneous, when I discover it — it can be so fleeting. It may be at dusk, when the light is perfect. That’s the last light of day, and it gets more and more gorgeous, softer and softer.”

Some of Mr. DiGiovanni’s fine art photographs look like paintings, since they are stretched on canvas. These have become increasingly popular with customers, and currently, 30 percent of the photos are on canvas.

Digital has become the means of choice in photography today, and Mr. DiGiovanni is an advocate of its value. “Digital is such an improvement. The answer is right in front of you. You see the photo immediately, and the quality is so much better. The main thing with digital is that it helped me to get better in leaps and bounds because I can see it so quickly, and then, if necessary, you make adjustments.”

Portrait photo sessions can last 20 minutes or more, and Mr. DiGiovanni can have color or black and white prints or digital images for clients in a few days. Digital images on line may be available in 24 to 48 hours.

“My rates are competitive,” he adds. “It’s very high quality work at very fair prices. And, I also try to work within people’s budgets.”

Planning Ahead

Mr. DiGiovanni is practical as well as creative, and strongly believes in the importance of planning ahead. “I need to have a streamlined operation, so I can think about tomorrow and deal with the constant change. My goal is to think about the next 10 years, and I already have my 5-year plan in place. And, I never want to be satisfied with what I did today. I always want to improve.”

He is very pleased that the economy has begun to take a turn for the better recently. As he says, the past eight months have been better than the past four years. Portraits are up, and weddings, commercial photos, and fine art are all up.

Continuing to capture special moments in people’s lives is Mr. DiGiovanni’s mission. “I enjoy taking the photos. For me, if I can just keep taking pictures, that is the ideal situation. I also enjoy the variety of the work, including the processing. I like to study my work, and see ways to improve. The fact that I was able to capture indelible memories for someone with a wedding or a portrait is a way of making a difference in their lives. I want the photos to be meaningful to them, and continue to tell their story.”

Mr. DiGiovanni’s is available by appointment, and he tries to accommodate customers’ schedules. (609) 924-4400. Website: www.digidg.com.

Popular Vidalia Restaurant in Lawrenceville Features the Flavors and Tastes of Italy

CREATIVE CUISINE: “This is a small restaurant, and I have a small kitchen. There is no mass-produced food here. Everything is cooked to order.” Salvatore Scarlata, chef/owner of Vidalia, is shown in his restaurant with samples of his delicious dishes.

CREATIVE CUISINE: “This is a small restaurant, and I have a small kitchen. There is no mass-produced food here. Everything is cooked to order.” Salvatore Scarlata, chef/owner of Vidalia, is shown in his restaurant with samples of his delicious dishes.

The flavors and tastes of Italy are on the menu at Vidalia Restaurant, 21 Phillips Avenue in Lawrenceville. Both the food and the ambiance at this charming and intimate establishment are pleasing to the senses.

The friendly knowledgeable staff makes customers immediately welcome, and the menu invites leisurely dining in a setting that includes fresh linens and decor reflecting Italian sensibility. Great care has been taken with every detail, and chef/proprietor Salvatore Scarlata makes a point of visiting each table he can to thank his guests for joining him for dinner.

“I am treating people well and feeding people well,” he says. “When people go out to eat, they are spending their hard-earned money. Why should they come here? I emphasize simplicity and consistency. If you have guests visiting you and want to bring them here, you can count on it being good. It’s service, quality food, and a warm atmosphere. I have a great staff, and everyone gives 110 percent. They are all experienced servers.”

Born in Sicily, Chef Scarlata came to the U.S. with his family when he was 12. His father had a restaurant in north Trenton, and as a boy, Sal was involved in the family operation. “I grew up in the restaurant business, and I learned from my father. Now, I have been in the business for 20 years.”

Classic and Inventive

Before acquiring Vidalia in 2005, Mr. Scarlata worked in a number of restaurants in the area. It was always his hope to have a restaurant of his own, where he could not only serve traditional Italian dishes, but also create new recipes.

“There are different ways of preparing Italian food” he notes. “The work is so creative. Sometimes, it can be trial and error, when trying out new things. We change the menu seasonally, and we have classic and inventive dishes. I also often get good ideas from customers. Many have traveled, and have sampled interesting cuisines. I try to cater to them if they have special requests. We can also accommodate people with particular dietary needs, including those with gluten or other food allergies.”

People are more knowledgeable about food today, he adds. They are also more concerned about eating healthier diets.

Mr. Scarlata believes Vidalia is set apart by his special recipes and the fresh ingredients and quality of the food. “We have daily deliveries, and I always get local produce whenever I can.”

In addition to the regular menu, the restaurant offers seven specials every day. Recently, filet mignon, with shrimp wrapped in bacon, French string beans, truffle garlic mashed potatoes, and onion rings were available. Another special was beet salad, including roasted beets with goat cheese, dried apricots, walnuts, apple slices, arugula and the chef’s own salad dressing.

“Lovers Scallops,”  which alternates scallops and shrimp in a molded crostini, with spring mix salad including Sicilian blood oranges and cherry tomatoes, is a favorite. Prince Edward Island clams on the half-shell in a wasabi cocktail sauce is another special.

Many Choices

The basic menu offers many choices, and customers’ favorites include the appetizer Artichoke Francese, egg-battered in a lemon, white wine butter sauce. The Penne E Polle con Broccoli entree, with penne pasta, broccoli, and grilled chicken, sauteed in garlic and extra virgin olive oil, and topped with fresh grated parmiagiano cheese, is always in demand.

Another favorite entree is Capesente, pan-seared scallops served with a side of black truffle oil, infused parmiagiana risotto, spinach, and topped with a vermouth cream sauce.

A variety of salads and appetizers, along with the selection of entrees will satisfy the appetite of any diner. In addition, the presentation of the dishes at Vidalia is impressive and visually striking. “I feel the food has to have eye appeal,” explains Mr. Scarlata. “I am very visual, and it is important that the food looks as good as it tastes!”

Desserts are always popular, and include such choices as tiramisu, cannoli, and exotic bomba, among others. Cappuccino, espresso, and other beverages are all available. The restaurant does not have a liquor license, but many customers bring wine, and all set-ups, including ice bucket, are available without corkage fee.

Private Parties

Lunch, dinner, and catering (all sizes and styles of events) are offered, and the restaurant, which seats 40, can also be booked for private parties. In seasonal weather, there is room for 60 to dine al fresco.

Even in what has been a difficult economy, Mr. Scarlata is very encouraged and optimistic about the numbers of customers from all over the area who are regulars at the restaurant. “I am very proud of Vidalia. In preparing a dish that is special, I am pleasing someone. The reward is when someone says it was the best meal they ever had, or they posted on-line: ‘It reminds me of my mom’s cooking.’ It’s great to have these comments and to see people leave with a smile on their face.

“On the other hand, I am never satisfied,” he adds. “I always want the next meal to be better. I want to continue to have the restaurant improve and introduce even more people to our great food.”

Vidalia will offer a special New Year’s Eve fixed-price menu, and the restaurant is always reservation only. Hours are lunch: Tuesday through Friday 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.; dinner: Tuesday through Thursday 4 to 9, Friday, Saturday 5 to 10, Sunday 4 to 9. (609) 896-4444. Website: www.eatatVidalia.com.

Beginning the New Year With Memories of Ravi Shankar

dvd revMany might ask why re-release Raga now [2010]? The answer is simple: it was a very special period of my life.

—Ravi Shankar (1920-2012)

By Stuart Mitchner

The 1960s without Ravi Shankar, who died on December 11 at 92, seems as unimaginable as the 1960s without the Beatles. The headline over the New York Times obituary credits him with introducing Indian music to the West, but what he brought was beyond music; he radiated the style and ambiance and spiritual charm of his homeland. A generation’s passion for India, the fabrics, the gestures, trinkets, artifacts, posters, incense, the very colors of the country, found its brightest, warmest reflection in his presence and his devotion to his art. If it could be said that any one person was India during that period, it was Ravi Shankar, not the Maharishi or any of the other media-savvy sages.

For people in the so-called art house movie audience who had not been to India, the next best thing to being there was to see Satyajit Ray’s great Apu trilogy, where music composed and played by Shankar helped generate the emotional force of Ray’s art, particularly in the opening moments of Pather Panchali; the explosive impact of the father’s death in Aparajito; and the madness of the bridegroom in The World of Apu. For me, after returning to the States from a year in India however, the music that came closest to reviving the intensity of being up to my neck or over my head in the color and the chaos was not the sound of Shankar, but the soaring, swirling voices of Bollywood’s Lata Mangeshkar and Mohammed Rafi. The chance of hearing Shankar’s music in the streets of Calcutta was about as good as hearing Mozart’s in the streets of Philadelphia.

In Person

I saw Ravi Shankar three times in India, twice in performance in Allahabad and New Delhi and once at a table by the window in the Kwality Restaurant in Allahabad. To sit down to order dinner after smiling and nodding hello to Ravi Shankar and his party was like casually nodding hello to Mozart. No surprise, really: he was in town for the great Hindu fair taking place at Sangam, where the Jumna meets the Ganges, and for the concert we would be enjoying the next evening. Among those at the table with him was a disagreeable looking man, typical of the well-fed, patronizing types who would accost us with questions (“And from where are you coming? And what is your religion?”); the most annoying such encounter had taken place earlier the same day, when I’d been cross-examined by a formidably pompous individual who suspected I was a spy because I was taking photos at the railway station (“And why is it please, sir, that you are taking these pictures?”). His excuse was that India and Pakistan were at war. My excuse was being a tourist with a fondness for Indian trains and stations.

Next evening the man I’d noticed having dinner with Ravi Shankar was sitting on the stage next to him looking distractingly like my fat, pompous accuser. There was a scowl on his face, his chin was in the air, and when he wasn’t looking superior, he seemed to be giving me dirty looks, as if he knew what I was thinking, which by then was something like what’s one of those officious creeps doing playing tabla with Ravi Shankar? Needless to say, my knowledge of Indian classical music at this time, about half a year before Shankar met George Harrison, was limited. As the raga commenced, the tabla player was still looking sour and cranky before slowly becoming earnest and intent and downright cocky as he began delivering elaborate rhythmic fills for the sitar’s introductory runs. Then, as the two men got into an incredibly involved and precise passion of counterpoint (so closely woven that “counter” had nothing to do with it), they glanced at each other on either side of the invisible temple of music they were building, and when their eyes met, the tabla player’s face lit up with a smile so broad, so sweet, so full of joy that it instantly shamed my misconception of him. From that point on he was beaming and so was the master. The shock of the transformation from fussy Philistine to happy genius was not unlike what happened, one way or another, at least once a day in India. You almost lose your life in a third-class crush on Indian Railways and a minute later your head is swimming in mindless joy.

The tabla player was Alla Rakha (1919-2000), whom Shankar describes in his 1999 autobiography, Raga Mala, as “a great virtuoso, with wonderful tonal quality and a romantic and humorous quality to his playing” who, “as a person,” has “such a good nature, almost like a child.” Grateful Dead drum master Mickey Hart was more extreme, calling Rakha “the Einstein, the Picasso … the highest form of rhythmic development on this planet.”

You can get some idea of the Rakha-Shankar chemistry by seeing Raga, or by viewing their scenes in Monterey Pop and Woodstock on YouTube.

All Aboard

In the opening image of the DVD of Raga, you’re in an Indian Railways carriage sitting next to Ravi Shankar as he stares out the window, his chin propped on his hand. There are no bars on the window to keep out monkeys, beggars, and madmen, so it’s most likely not one of the third-class coaches of my memory but a first-class car on a special train. This being one of those DVD menu sequences that keeps replaying itself until you hit Play Movie, I let it run over and over again to sustain the illusion that I was actually on that gently rocking train with the man, side by side in the moment. The fact that the haunting song accompanying the first appearance of the menu is never repeated is typical of India, where you occasionally lose moments you know are too good to be true before you have time to begin to fathom them. After the appearance and disappearance of the song, we keep moving, the hypnotic sound of the wheels in a fine subtle balance with the tranquil thoughtfulness of the man gazing out the window, perhaps listening to music of the train underscoring the story of his life as an artist, where the acceptance of the impossible is an aesthetic in itself, a sacred fact of life, as Shankar says or suggests more than once in the film, “always that sadness in a raga, that wanting to reach something that I know I never can and each note is like crying out, searching.”

Thoughtful and Worried

In this “very special period” of Ravi Shankar’s life (he would have been in his late forties) you see him reunited for the first time in many years with his musical guru, Ustad Allaudin Khan, the “tyrant” to whom he movingly admits he owes his life; praying with his spiritual teacher; receiving an honorary degree from the University of California; rehearsing with Yehudi Menhuin; teaching George Harrison and others in California, the blue Pacific in the background; and in his glory performing with Alla Rakha. What makes the film special is Shankar’s narration. His voice is tender, expressive, thoughtful, and worried, for he had much to be concerned about in the days when he was being lionized in the West: “the patterns of life changing everywhere …. The very soul of our music seems to be slipping away, so little concern, so much indifference, the young people drifting away from their roots.” The voiceover throughout is close to the lilt of a song, like a spoken version of the music that comes once and once only with the DVD’s menu. The man who died a few weeks ago is speaking to you, intimately, openly, vulnerably, telling you, and this was 40 years ago, “At times I feel as if I don’t belong today. My roots are so deep in the past; sometimes I feel like a stranger in my own country.”

Even so, as the camera moves along the riverfront in Benares, where he was born, he’s saying, “I feel all the richness of India in our music, the spiritual hopes of our people, the struggle for life …. In the holy city of Benares sound is everywhere; as a child I would spend hours filling myself with the vibrations of this place.”

In the sequence on the train, when he’s on his way to pay his respects to the teacher he loves and fears, he’s telling us how he devoted himself to the raga (working for seven punishing years “until it became alive”), which followed, he admits, the period when he was a young man in Paris (“I dressed like a dandy and chased girls all the time”). He also speaks openly about a lifelong “weakness for women” in Raga Mala, which is edited and introduced by George Harrison. At the beginning of the film there he is, one of the handsomest men on the planet, strolling through a crowd somewhere in the U.S. surrounded by fans, two beautiful girls, one Indian, one American, holding on to either arm. In view at the recent memorial service were two other beautiful women: Anoushka, his daughter, a virtuoso sitarist, and his American daughter, the acclaimed singer, Norah Jones. His final performance was a concert with Anoushka, on November 4 in Long Beach, California.

Area Exhibits 1/2/13

Art for Healing Gallery, University Medical Center of Princeton, Route 1, Plainsboro, is showing watercolors by Joel Popadics through January.

Art Times Two Gallery, Princeton Brain and Spine Care, 731 Alexander Road, presents “Energy in Mind: Picturing Consciousness,” works by Jennifer Cadoff, Debra Weier and Andrew Werth, through April. View by appointment. Call (609) 203-4622.

Arts Council of Princeton, Paul Robeson Center, 102 Witherspoon Street, has outdoor sculpture by Mike Gyampo on view through March 30 on the Michael Graves Terrace. Visit www.artscouncilofprinceton.org.

Bank of Princeton Community Art Gallery, 10 Bridge Street, Lambertville, is showing art by The Arc of Mercer and James Fanciano through January 15. A reception is January 11, 5-7 p.m.

Bernstein Gallery at the Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University, has works by political artist Marcia Annenberg through February 14. A reception and artist talk is February 3, 3-5 p.m.

Bray Gallery, 202 North Union Street, Lambertville, shows recent paintings by Joseph Bottari and Malcolm Bray, and photography by Andrew Wilkinson through January 6. Call (609) 397-1858 for information.

Considine Gallery at Stuart Country Day School of the Sacred Heart, EMERGING FORMS art exhibition: Mixed Media Works by Joy Barth and Eva Ries. Sunday, JANUARY 6, 2013 : 1-3 pm Opening reception / snow date: January 12, 4-6 pm. On exhibit January 6-March 31, 2013 M-F, 8am-6pm. 1200 Stuart Rd, Princeton NJ, 609 921 2330 x262. www.stuartschool.org

D&R Greenway, 1 Preservation Place, has “Urban Landscapes” on view through February 15. Works by Louis Russomanno, Susan Marie Brundage, Jean Childs Buzgo, Wills Kinsley, Leon Rainbow, Thom Lynch, and others are included, along with art by the A-Team Artists from Trenton. Also on view is a photo documentary on dance by Edward Greenblatt. Call (609) 924-4646 before visiting.

Ellarslie, Trenton City Museum in Cadwalader Park, Parkside Avenue, Trenton, is showing “James Rhodes, Trenton Stoneware Potter, 1773-1784” and “Contemporary Art from the TMS Collection” through January 13. On view through January 6 is “Over the River: The Artists of Yardley,” a juried exhibition. From January 12-February 24, “In My View: Stephen Smith, Florence Moonan, William Hogan” is on view. The reception is January 19, 7-9 p.m., and an artists’ talk is February 10, 2 p.m. Call (609) 989-3632 or visit www.ellarslie.org.

Firestone Library at Princeton University, has “First X, Then Y, Now Z: Thematic Maps” through February 10 in the main exhibition gallery. “Your True Friend and Enemy: Princeton and the Civil War” shows in the Mudd Manuscript Library Cotsen Children’s Library through July 31. “Into the Woods: A Bicentennial Celebration of the Brothers Grimm” is on view through February 28.

Gallery at Chapin, 4101 Princeton Pike, has Dan Fanaldi’s oils, “People in My Life,” through January 13. February 4-28, “Images: Reflections of Adventure” features artists Connie and Ken McIndoe. The reception is February 6, 5-7 p.m. Call (609) 924-7206.

Gourgaud Gallery, Cranbury Town Hall, 23-A Main Street, Cranbury, shows “Art to Curl Up With” January 6-26, and the reception is January 6, 1-3 p.m. Visit www.cranbury.org.

Grounds for Sculpture, Fairgrounds Road in Hamilton, presents Ming Fay’s “Canutopia” installed in the new East Gallery through February 15. Visit www.groundsforsculpture.org.

Historical Society of Princeton, Bainbridge House, 158 Nassau Street, is showing “Einstein at Home” and “From Princeton to the White House,” which celebrates the 100th anniversary of Woodrow Wilson, through January 13. For more information visit www.princetonhistory.org.

The James A. Michener Art Museum at 138 South Pine Street in Doylestown, Pa., has “Suspended Harmonies: Fiber Art by Ted Hallman” through March 3. “The Mind’s Eye: 50 Years of Photography by Jerry Uelsmann” is January 19-April 28. Visit www.michenerart
museum.org.

The Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, 71 Hamilton Street,on the Rutgers campus in New Brunswick, has “Lynd Ward Draws Stories: Inspired by Mexico’s History, Mark Twain, and Adventures in the Woods” through June 23, 2013. Through January 6, “Art=Text=Art: Works by Contemporary Artists” will be on view, from the collection of drawing collectors Wynn and Sally Kramarsky. “In the Company of Women: Prints by Mary Cassatt” runs through March 3. “Le Mur’ at the Cabaret des Quat’z Arts is on view through February 24. Works by Russian artist Leonid Sokov are displayed January 26-July 14.

Mariboe Gallery at the Swig Arts Center of The Peddie School, Hightstown, presents “Score,” an exhibit by Shanti Grumbine, through February 8. The opening reception is January 11, 6:30-8 p.m. Visit www.peddie.org/mariboegallery.

Morven Museum & Garden, 55 Stockton Street, presents “Portrait of Place: Paintings, Drawings, and Prints of New Jersey, 1761-1898” through January 13. Museum hours are Wednesdays-Fridays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 4 p.m. Group tours of 10 or more can be arranged any day by advance reservation. Visit www.morven.org.

Plainsboro Library Gallery, 9 Van Doren Street, Plainsboro, shows oils by Vimala Arunachalam, inspired by architecture, January 5-30. The reception is January 13, 2-4 p.m. Call (609) 275-2897 for more information.

Princeton Day School’s Anne Reid Gallery shows “Celia Reisman: Hidden Spaces” January 13-31. The opening reception is January 15, 12:30-1:30 p.m. Visit www.pds.org.

The Princeton University Art Museum hasworks by Parastou Forouhar, Mona Hatoum, Sigalit Landau, Shirin Neshat and Laila Shawa on view through January 13 as part of “The Fertile Crescent” project. “Dancing into Dreams: Maya Vase Painting of the Ik’ Kingdom” is on exhibit through February 17. “City of Gold: Tomb and Temple in Ancient Cyprus” is on view through January 20. Museum hours: Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.; and Sunday, 1 to 5 p.m. Call (609) 258-3788.

Robert Beck Gallery, 204 North Union Street, Lambertville, hosts the 32nd Annual Juried Art Exhibit, “Lambertville and the Surrounding Area,” by the Lambertville Historical Society, February 10-March 28. A reception is February 10, 3-6 p.m. Artists are invited to submit one original painting in all media; subject must be of Lambertville and environs. Call (609) 397-0951 for details.

Straube Center, 108 Straube Center Boulevard, Pennington, presents an exhibit of Ebu-Arts work through January 12. Australian artist Guy Whitby is among the artists. Visit www.ebu-arts.org.

West Windsor Arts Center, 952 Alexander Road, Princeton Junction, presents “Rock, Paper, Scissors,” with work by 18 artists from the local area, January 13-February 24. The opening reception is January 13 at 4 p.m. Call (609) 716-1933.

Ex-Slave Exacts Vengeance in Tarantino Version of Spaghetti Western

“WANTED — DEAD OR ALIVE”: Bounty hunters Dr. Schulz (Christoph Waltz, right) and freed slave Django (Jamie Foxx) are tracking down criminals who have eluded the justice system in the wild west of yesteryear. Along the way, Django takes advantage of his position to even the score with the people who tortured him when he was a slave.

“WANTED — DEAD OR ALIVE”: Bounty hunters Dr. Schulz (Christoph Waltz, right) and freed slave Django (Jamie Foxx) are tracking down criminals who have eluded the justice system in the wild west of yesteryear. Along the way, Django takes advantage of his position to even the score with the people who tortured him when he was a slave.

There’s a good reason why nobody ever wanted to be an Indian whenever we played Cowboys and Indians as kids. That’s because the white man was invariably the hero of the Westerns which we’d seen, while the red man had always been presented as a wild savage dismissed by the dehumanizing declaration that, “The only good Injun is a dead Injun.”

True, a few films, such as Apaches (1973), The Sons of Great Bear (1966) and Chingachgook: The Great Snake (1967), portrayed Native Americans as the good guys and the European settlers as the bad guys. But those productions were few and far between.

Hollywood has also promoted a set of stereotypes when it comes to the depiction of black-white race relations during slavery, with classics like The Birth of the Nation (1915) and Gone with the Wind (1939) setting the tone. Consequently, most movies have by-and-large suggested that docile African Americans were well treated by kindly masters, as long as they remained submissive and knew their place.

However, Quentin Tarantino has put a fresh spin on the genre, similar to what he did in the World War II movie Inglourious Basterds (2009). In Django Unchained, the writer/director rattles the cinematic cage in an irreverent adventure that turns conventional thinking on its head.

Set in the South in 1858, the picture is visually reminiscent of the Spaghetti Westerns popularized in the 60s by Italian director Sergio Leone, replete with big sky panoramas and cartoonish villains who are the embodiment of evil. But, in this movie instead of fighting cattle rustlers, it’s racists who are being slowly tortured or executed.

The movie stars Jamie Foxx in the title role as a slave who was liberated by a German dentist who became a bounty hunter (Christoph Waltz). Dr. Schultz altruistically takes Django on as an apprentice, and teaches him how to ride a horse and handle a gun.

As a bounty hunter who tracks down outlaws who are “Wanted Dead-or-Alive,” the freed slave has many opportunities to exact revenge upon the people who were responsible for torturing him in his former life. The ones who gave him the scars on his back, or the “R” for “Runaway” branded on his cheek, or separated him from his wife Broomhilda (Kerry Washington). The action gets pretty gruesome, as is par for the course for any Tarantino movie.

Excellent (****). Rated R for profanity, nudity, ethnic slurs, and graphic violence. Running time: 165 minutes. Distributor: The Weinstein Company

On The Day After

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Shoppers and strollers on Nassau Street were undaunted by the rainy, snowy mix of precipitation on Boxing Day.

PHS Assistant Principal Lori Rotz Makes a Difference in Constanza

FRIENDS: Building relationships was a highlight of Princeton High School Assistant Principal Lori Rotz’s recent trip to Constanza, in the Dominican Republic, where she helped to add four new classrooms to a school.

FRIENDS: Building relationships was a highlight of Princeton High School Assistant Principal Lori Rotz’s recent trip to Constanza, in the Dominican Republic, where she helped to add four new classrooms to a school.

For one week last month, Princeton High School Assistant Principal Lori Rotz, along with 25 other school administrators from around the country, constructed a four-classroom addition to a school in Constanza, a farming community in the Dominican Republic.

While Constanza’s mountain views are very beautiful, its people live in grinding poverty, and this is what drew Ms. Rotz to volunteer for the project.

“I couldn’t not do it,” she said in a recent interview. After learning about the initiative, which is sponsored by the school photography company, Lifetouch, Ms. Rotz, who paid her own way, reported that “the part that jumped out at me was how our kids are so giving here. It was a chance for me to give back with other educators.” It was indeed a “chance,” since participants were chosen through a lottery held several months before the actual trip. The four extra classrooms means that 200 more children will be able to attend the school in morning and afternoon sessions.

Participating in the new construction (there was “a lot of lifting”) was only a piece of the experience for the assistant principal and her colleagues. Local workers helped with the project, teaching the volunteers how to work with cement and stucco obtained from area businesses. While the school administrators had been taught about cultural differences and “what not to do” in preparation for the program “after a day or two you couldn’t tell who was who,” said Ms. Rotz. Relationship-building extended to friendships that developed among the volunteers, who are now talking about a possible reunion.

The presence of children was a particular boon, Ms. Rotz reported, with little kids’ hugs for the volunteers on the very first day. Lifetouch’s practice of taking photographs of children at project sites and giving them copies to keep and exchange with their friends added to local families’ pleasure in seeing the volunteers; most of the children had never had their pictures taken before. Ms. Rotz also appreciated the organizers’ careful divying up of supplies contributed by the volunteers, to make sure the crayons, backpacks, clothing, etc. were given to those who specifically needed them. The quantity of supplies each member of the group brought with them “took your breath away,” she observed.

Ms. Rotz was saddened by the poor conditions in which the people in Constanza live, describing “shacks a quarter the size of my office” housing at least seven or eight people. Perhaps even more striking to her, though, was the fact that the shacks were decorated with Christmas lights, and people were happily celebrating the season. Ms. Rotz sounded apologetic as she described the relatively upscale rooms, showers, and food the volunteers enjoyed.

“It does change you,” she observed. “I’m grateful for what I have in my life, but saddened at what others don’t have.” She is already thinking about a return trip to Constanza, where the next stages of the project will include building vocational and playground facilities at the school.

A live video feed, now available on YouTube, enabled special education teacher Joyce Turner and her class to follow Ms. Rotz’s experiences in Constanza while she was there.

For more information about Lifetouch visit www.lifetouchmemorymission.com.

Men Who Are Caregivers Is Subject of Talk and Support Group at Senior Research Center

The Reverend Peter K. Stimpson spoke recently with Susan Hoskins, the executive director of Princeton Senior Resource Center (PSRC), about collaborating on a program for clients of PSRC. Reverend Stimpson, the director of Trinity Counseling Service, knew he wanted to do something that would make a difference.

“I asked her what she felt was an important issue, and right away she answered, ‘men who are caregivers,’” he says. “She had no idea that I had given a talk at the University of Texas in September, on just that subject.”

It is a topic that Reverend Stimpson knows well. He cared for his wife for more than two decades before she died in October 2004 after her body rejected a liver transplant. The emotional and physical toll that he experienced is familiar to anyone who is the principal caregiver of an ailing spouse, parent, or other loved one. And for men, it can be particularly grueling because of stereotypes that define them in a certain light.

“Men have a tendency to say, ‘I’m fine,’ instead of talking about their feelings,” Reverend Stimpson says. “It’s hard for them to allow other people to help and to try and not be so self-reliant. It’s just not a role they are familiar with.”

“Men Do Care” is the title of a talk Reverend Stimpson will give at 10 a.m. on Saturday, January 12 at PSRC, located in the Suzanne Patterson Center behind Borough Hall. The program will be followed a few weeks later by the formation of a support group, which will meet weekly on Monday evenings from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Participation is free.

While younger men tend to be more comfortable with the idea of being a caregiver, older men — baby boomers and beyond — often have more trouble taking on the role.

“I have found that younger men are a little more able to talk about their feelings than older men,” says Reverend Stimpson. “Older men have a tendency to not only not talk, but to not want help. They want to bring the wife to every appointment, do all the work around the house, and everything else. What happens is that they begin to burn out. As they burn out, they exhibit a whole bunch of other symptoms they don’t want to talk about much. They get angry with the person they’re caring for. Typically, they will drink too much. And they’ll get depressed. They even sometimes fantasize about their wife’s death, or having an affair. But it’s all because they just haven’t really dealt with it.”

When his own wife was sick and unable to climb stairs, Reverend Stimpson bought a one-story home in an “over 55” community. But when it came time to move in, his wife was in the hospital and he had to move by himself. Though he had people helping him, he was still doing most of the work.

“One night I was carrying in bag after bag of stuff. And my pants fell off,” he says, chuckling at the memory. “I had lost 20 pounds and I didn’t even know it. I began to realize just how hard it is to be a caregiver. And I realized that some of the ways in which men face it are quite different from the way women face it.”

When Reverend Stimpson began to research the topic of men as caregivers, he found that there was little written. “There are a ton of books that deal with women as caregivers, but not men,” he says. “I was a bit surprised. I could see that this was important.”

As director of Trinity Counseling Service, which is an outgrowth of Princeton’s Trinity Church, Reverend Stimpson oversees an agency with 24 psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, and clergy of different denominations, treating about 400 people a week. He has found that support groups work well for men who are caregivers. Having been in the situation himself, he knows how to make them feel comfortable enough to start talking.

“I won’t say to a guy, ‘You’ve got to share your feelings more,’” he says. “What I will do is help them realize that doing is caring by getting them to talk about their duties. Then I slip into what they’re feeling. So they might start to talk about that while sharing all of the different tasks they are doing. Part of the reason for this group is that everyone has the same issue, but everyone has different solutions to that issue. So even if I’m shy and saying nothing, I’m learning something. That’s typical group dynamics.”

The talk and support group are co-sponsored by the PSRC and Trinity Counseling Service, and made possible due to a grant from the Sally Foss and James Scott Hill Foundation. Reverend Stimpson is hoping to get participants through advertisements, church bulletins, and the PSRC newsletter.

“I’m not expecting a gigantic turnout,” he said. “But if I can get some people to show up, that will be good. I know they’re out there.”

Thanks All Around at Final Borough Meeting

There was business, old and new, on the agenda at a meeting of Princeton Borough Council the night after Christmas. But for the 20 or so citizens who braved a pelting rainstorm to attend this final gathering of the governing body at Borough Hall, there was an air of nostalgia about the end of an era and the fate of the Dinky.

Of the seven members of the Council, including Mayor Yina Moore, three С Jenny Crumiller, Jo Butler, and Heather Howard С will be moving on to the governing body representing the newly consolidated Princeton. Roger Martindell, Kevin Wilkes, Barbara Trelstad, and Mayor Moore will have stepped down as of January 1.

Repeatedly, members of the public thanked the Council members for their service. Alain Kornhauser, Marty Schneiderman, Jim Harford, Pam Hersh, Borough Police Lieutenant Sharon Papp, and architect/developer [and Town Topics shareholder] Bob Hillier were among those on hand who expressed gratitude to the Council for their years of work in the community.

Members of Council, in turn, singled out Mr. Kornhauser, a professor at Princeton University who has been particularly vocal in his opposition to the University’s plan to move the Dinky station as part of its Arts and Transit neighborhood. That plan was approved December 18 by the Planning Board. Borough Council was not in favor of moving the Dinky terminus.

“I share his disappointment that we weren’t able to come up with a better result for the train,” Mr. Wilkes said. “I have to thank him for what has to be thousand of hours of instructive leadership and instructive research on this issue, and always keeping it in the forefront of our minds, helping those of us who don’t understand transportation planning professionally be focused on the issues.”

Ms. Crumiller, Mayor Moore, Mr. Martindell, and Ms. Trelstad also thanked Mr. Kornhauser following his own remarks. “I can’t express enough appreciation to each of you,” Mr. Kornhauser said. “I know you all struggled mightily with the issue, and it came down the way it came down. I just wanted to express my personal thanks.”

Mayor Moore said that “a serious offer” has been made to NJ Transit to purchase the Dinky and its right of way by Henry Posner, a private investor who owns several rail lines and is a former student of Mr. Kornhauser. Mr. Posner spoke to Council in 2011 about his ideas for the Dinky line. Mayor Moore said she will write a letter to Governor Chris Christie about the offer.

Delivering the monthly police report, Ms. Papp told the Council that police will have five zones to patrol in the consolidated Princeton. Asked by Mr. Wilkes if the police departments have developed an active shooter protocol in response to the recent shootings at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, Ms. Papp said that the department has already had drills with high school students. “Come January 1, we will be giving extra attention to the schools,” she said.

Among the actions taken at this final meeting were approval of a request by Mr. Hillier regarding The Waxwood apartments to ease eligibility requirements for prospective tenants, and the movement of an ordinance amending the Service Business (SB) Zone on East Nassau Street. An agenda item on the use of informational kiosks on Nassau Street was tabled and moved to the new Council with the assurance that a community-wide discussion will be held on the matter.

The new Princeton Council will hold a meeting Thursday, January 3 at 5 p.m. in the Municipal Building.

Online Shopping Impacts Holiday Sales For Area Stores

The reports are in. While the 2012 holiday shopping season was, for many area merchants, an encouraging improvement over previous years, not every Princeton proprietor is happy with the season’s returns. Trends toward online shopping have more than one store owner concerned about the future.

“This season was way off for us, because in my field, customers have cut down their holiday card mailing lists,” says Lewis Wildman, owner of Jordan’s Cards and Gifts in Princeton Shopping Center. “They’re sending out what I consider tacky email greetings and e-invites to parties. It affects our business because customers who would normally be ordering are not walking into the store and buying other stuff at the same time. The net effect is that business is off. The consumers tell us they love our store, but it won’t exist if they don’t support it.”

Between Hurricane Sandy, the looming fiscal cliff, and online shopping, the holiday season at JaZam’s toy store in Palmer Square was shaky at first. “We did pull it out in the end,” says owner Joanne Farrugia. “And sales were probably the same as last year. But it was erratic, slow to start, and very late until the last week. It’s because the last few days before Christmas, you can’t get anything online. The shipping does eventually come to a stop, thank God.”

Ms. Farrugia shares Mr. Wildman’s worries about future buying trends. “The retail landscape is going to be different,” she says. “It’s the big elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about. And we should. There’s no point in waiting for it to take us down.”

As part of the committee behind the Hometown Princeton campaign to encourage patronage of local stores, Ms. Farrugia has thought a lot about making the public aware that buying local is important. “I think there is a real disconnect for people. They just don’t get it,” she says. “We have people who come into our store and literally say to us that they want to see it and touch it and play with it and then order it online. The thing is that we charge the actual retail price. We don’t overcharge or undercharge. That seems fair to me. What no one seems to get is that if you get it for less [online], somebody is paying for that.”

Mr. Wildman lost three big customers in one day during the holiday shopping season. “They said they were doing e-greetings instead of ordering cards,” he says. “One of those was a company that does 500 greetings. Others are cutting it out totally. People who understand and appreciate us being here came out as they normally would, but a lot of faces were missing this year. We’re not closing, but if the trend continues over the next five years, I just don’t know.”

Area stores less affected by online buying report either a status quo or increase in sales from last year. While not all of the figures are complete, proprietors have a sense of how the season has progressed.

“We had a fantastic holiday season,” says Mark Censits, owner of Cool Vines wine store on Spring Street and another in Westfield. “Princeton was even stronger [than Westfield] in terms of its growth. After a number of years of building loyalty in this market, people really count on us when they need things sent and delivered, which is one of the extra services we offer along with things like putting together wine dinners.”

Mr. Censits attributes some of his growth to a slightly improved economy. “I think people are a little bit less price-sensitive this year,” he says. “Some of it has to do with corporate events and gift-giving. They’re doing it again and people are a little more relaxed in their spending. And enjoying a nice bottle of wine with a holiday meal is something people are allowing themselves to do. People are buying more in the mid-tier price range.”

Across Spring Street at Hinkson’s stationery store, owner Andrew Mangone has been pleased to see an upswing in sales. “We had a very good season, though we got off to a rough start in November,” he says. “But December was good, and we were busy right up through Christmas Eve. The season was at least as good as last year, if not better. But we’ll have to see the numbers before we know for sure.”

New to the local retail landscape this season is The Farmhouse Store in Palmer Square. Selling home furnishings and related items, the shop, which, like Cool Vines, has another location in Westfield, has been busy. “It was our first holiday season here, and it was good,” says co-owner Kristin Menapace. “We got a lot of positive feedback about the fact that we have unique products. It was nice to get such a welcome from the Princeton community. I didn’t really know what to expect, but all in all, for being a brand new business in town, it was great.”

Princeton Tour Company’s weekend holiday trolley tours were “a complete success,” according to owner Mimi Omiecinski, who calls the rides through town “55 minutes of non-stop shameless name-dropping.” Sponsored by Callaway Henderson Sotheby’s International Realty, Palmer Square, and Hamilton Jewelers, the $15 tours were nearly sold out the first weekend after Thanksgiving. “If we didn’t sell out online, we would get so many walk-ups during the day of the tour,” Ms. Omiecinski says. “I never really know until then what it’s going to be like, but it all came together. If I get sponsored again for next year, I will absolutely do it again.”

As Membership Grows, Princeton Community TV Looks to the Future

What are the implications of consolidation for Princeton Community Television (TV30), the public access cable station created by the Borough and Township of Princeton in January of 1997?

“Our core mission will remain the same,” said Executive Director George McCullough in a recent interview. “That is to provide the public with the means, know-how, and the tools to broadcast their own programs.”

While area residents are probably most familiar with TV30 through its regular programs likeКEducation Roundtable, Skyrocket Your Business, Reed and Ponder, and Back Story, and access to archived coverage of municipal meetings, Mr. McCullough noted that TV30’s “first priority is teaching.”

An upcoming “Video Basics” class on Wednesday, January 2, for example, reviews the proper care of the cameras and accessories available for loan at the station, and teaches participants how to begin shooting with automatic settings. The one-half hour class, which is mandatory for anyone wishing to borrow field equipment, is usually held the first Wednesday of each month, and is limited to six participants. While Mr. Mr. McCullough allows that “it is nice if folks watch” TV30 programs, “I get a bigger thrill out of someone who puts together their first show or edits their first film.”

“I think it would be safe to say that Princeton TV may very well be the largest producer of local content in the state,” he added, noting that Princeton TV” is looking to develop a full digital media curriculum,”

While TV30’s Valley Road building location is likely to change in the coming months, its next home has yet to be determined. “The new government is offering us space in the soon to be vacated Borough Hall, reported Mr. McCullough. “This offer is very generous,” he said, adding however, that “the board and I are assessing if it will be good fit for us in the long haul.” Of primary concern is “the station’s tremendous growth in our memberships and in the number of people using our services. And it looks like we will be continuing on this trend for a while. Finding a space that would allow us the room to continue this growth is important to us.”

The station’s current funding sources — “member support, donations, grants, some work for hire, and franchise fees which are the lion’s share of our funding” will remain the same after January 1, although Mr. McCullough said that they will also “be seeking new sources of funding to develop Princeton/New Jersey programming.” This includes “looking to have the Princeton business community sponsoring our activities.”

“Helping to provide the community with a new facility, and offering the new government any help we can if they need it,” are givens, said Mr. McCullough. Some community officials are already members of TV30’s board, and some “have been in touch.” In the meantime, though, he is philosophical. “Princeton has its hands full at this moment. I’m willing to wait until the dust has settled.”

The station believes that their archive of online municipal meetings, a resource that began several years, ago, has been good for the community and they expect to continue doing it.

In this season of wish lists, Mr. McCullough reflected on what he would like Princeton TV’s future to look like. If the new government doesn’t need it, possible scenarios include use of the Borough’s municipal channel. What would he do with it? “Although a challenge, I would like to use this opportunity to develop a New Jersey channel much like C-SPAN. Of course it would require outside funding, but I see a need that is not being filled,” he said.

“Also on my wish list,” he added, “would be to start a low power fm (lpfm) radio station. The FCC recently expanded the number of available licenses. If the opportunity comes along it would nice to give folks the chance to have a radio show.”

December 26, 2012

Obituaries 12/26/12

Peter B. Kenen

Peter B. Kenen, a leading international economist and an expert on the Eurozone, died at his home in Princeton late Monday night, December 17. He was 80 and died of respiratory failure after a long illness, his family said.

Kenen, the Walker professor of economics and international finance emeritus at Princeton University, taught at Princeton from 1971 until 2004, and continued to teach part-time until 2011. Earlier he taught at Columbia University from 1957 to 1971, and was chairman of the economics department and then provost of Columbia, taking that post after the turbulence of the student protests of the late 1960s.

Kenen was a founding member of the Group of Thirty, an organization that seeks to deepen understanding of international economic and financial issues, and a member of the Bellagio Group, an international group of academics and public officials from finance ministries and central banks. He was also a member and former fellow of the Council of Foreign Relations.

“Peter Kenen was a leading intellectual in the field of international finance for decades,” his friend and Princeton colleague Alan Blinder said. “He literally spanned generations as, first, the youngest member of the original Bellagio Group on exchange rate mechanisms and the balance of payments and, later in life, as the founder of the second Bellagio Group, which continues to this day.”
Kenen in the late 1960s understood the difficulty of maintaining a monetary union without a fiscal union, an original idea that “has more than stood the test of time,” said Blinder, the Gordon S. Rentschler Memorial Professor of Economics and Public Affairs.

“His ideas, for example, are extremely pertinent to today’s debate over the Eurozone. His later work on the European monetary union (EMU) made him perhaps America’s greatest expert on that subject in the years leading up to the euro, and earned him the humorous nickname, which he loved, ‘EMU guru,’” Blinder said.

Kenen was a consultant to the Council of Economic Advisers, the Office of Management and Budget, the Federal Reserve, the International Monetary Fund, the United States Department of the Treasury, and the economic advisory panel of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He was particularly proud of his service, as a young economist, on President John F. Kennedy’s Task Force on Foreign Economic Policy.

He was the author or co-author of numerous books and monographs, including British Monetary Policy and the Balance of Payments, which won the David A. Wells Prize at Harvard University. His textbooks International Economics and later The International Economy were standards for generations of undergraduates entering the field.

Kenen’s final years at Columbia were marked by campus turmoil. Kenen opposed the Vietnam War and was an alternative delegate for Eugene McCarthy at the Chicago Democratic National Convention in 1968. But he also opposed the student occupations of Columbia campus buildings, and took part in a small faculty counter-protest. He strongly opposed the use of police force to remove the students, and tended to injured students at a hospital near the New York campus.

His four decades in Princeton were devoted to teaching, writing, and leading the international finance section (now the international economics section), where he edited and published numerous landmark monographs.

“Throughout his tenure, Peter was remarkably generous and supportive of both junior faculty and students in the international field and his passion for policy research guided his leadership of the Section, which became world renowned for its timely and informative essays and monographs and for the engaging conferences that brought together world leaders and academics to discuss the pressing international monetary issues of the day,” said Gene Grossman, Princeton’s Jacob Viner professor of international economics and chair of the department of economics.

Kenen also traveled and consulted widely, visiting more than 50 countries and holding several positions as a visiting professor or scholar in residence at universities, think tanks, and economic institutions across the globe.

Kenen was born in Cleveland on November 30, 1932, the son of Isaiah Leo Kenen and Beatrice Bain Kenen. His father was at the time, a newspaperman and was a founder of the Newspaper Guild, and his mother helped run the annual national Hadassah conferences. The family moved to New York in the 1940s, and Kenen attended Bronx High School of Science and earned his BA summa cum laude at Columbia in 1954.

He earned his master’s (1956) and doctorate (1958) at Harvard and was a research student at the London School of Economics from 1956-57. He lived in Teaneck, N.J., and Princeton, and spent so much time fishing on the Jersey Shore — giving away countless fresh bluefish to his friends and neighbors — that his youngest daughter once explained to her friends that her dad “caught fish for Princeton University.”

Kenen is survived by his wife of 57 years, Regina H. Kenen, an emerita professor of sociology at The College of New Jersey, four children: Joanne (Ken Cohen) of Bethesda, Md.; Marc (Leslie Fisher-Katz) of South Hadley, Mass.; Stephanie, of Arlington, Mass.; and Judith (Jim Gordon) of Atlanta; and five grandchildren: Zachary and Ilan Cohen, Sela and Asher Kenen, and Bellaluna Gordon-Kenen.

There was a graveside service at Princeton Cemetery on Wednesday, December 19. The family requests that in lieu of flowers donations be made to undergraduate financial aid at the Columbia College Fund, 622 West 113th St., MC 4530, New York, NY 10025; or to Secure@Home of the Jewish Family & Children’s Service of Greater Mercer County, 707 Alexander Road, Suite1-A, Princeton, N.J. 08540.

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Estelle Ives Zahn

Estelle Ives Zahn née Pooley, born February 11, 1925 in Plymouth England, died December 12, 2012 in Essex, Conn. While working as a secretary at the Royal Navy Dockyard at Devonport in 1945 she met and married Paul Irvine, a commander in the United States Navy. They lived in post war Naples, Italy before moving to New York City. Together they ran Muirhead Instruments in central New Jersey until Paul’s death on Estelle’s birthday in 1964. Estelle married Loyal T. Ives, former president of the Steiner Ives Company of Newark in 1966. They were long-time residents of Princeton, New Jersey. Estelle served as the president of Loyal’s Princeton University alumni class of 1925. She was again widowed in 1985. She subsequently married her longtime friend, Valentine Zahn of Essex, a retired controller for AT&T who predeceased her in 1989. She was an avid bridge player, member of the Essex Yacht Club, Old Lyme Country Club, and St. John’s Episcopal Church in Essex. She leaves behind a niece and nephews in Europe of her late sister Florence Mary Hooper. She will be missed by extended family members of Paul Irvine and Loyal Ives, all of whom consider her a close family member. She will be remembered for her sophistication, loyalty, sharp wit, and incredible intellect.

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University Sliding Bad Project (Dinky) Through Approval Process Under Cover of Good One

To the Editor:

I am greatly disappointed to hear that the Princeton Regional Planning Board has voted to approve Princeton University’s plans for its new Arts Center and the Dinky train shuttle between Princeton and the Northeast Corridor train line at Princeton Junction. I agree entirely that the Arts Center should go forward immediately. But this really has nothing to do with the Dinky, except for the fact that Princeton University has dishonorably and disingenuously tried to package the two plans together, in order to slide a bad project through the public approval process under cover of a good one.

The Dinky terminus at the Princeton end will be moved 460 feet out of town, AND have a long staircase interposed between it and the town, AND have a road interposed between it and the town, AND have drop-off parking moved from the bottom of University Place to a location one traffic circle and multiple street lights and pedestrian crossings further away from town. All for the purpose NOT of enabling an Arts Center, for which none of these physical changes need be made, but instead simply to give the University better access from Alexander Road to one of its parking lots. The Dinky plan is patently awful public-amenity planning, for these reasons and others (it will prevent possible future extension of the Dinky line into town, it will further burden traffic on the Alexander Road route out of town and pin this route between University-controlled land on both sides, etc.). It would be laughed out of any reasonable public policy forum, were it not being camouflaged by the Arts Center stalking horse.

If the Dinky plan is ultimately effectuated, the sad lessons to draw will be that (1) the University is as capable of degrading the public welfare for selfish reasons as any other big, rich, and overly self-satisfied private actor; (2) the University can be quite unintelligent in weighing up long-term benefits for itself (as well as for the town) against minor gains for itself (and losses for the town); (3) our public servants have failed us in not separating the Arts Center and Dinky plans and making sure that the good plan did not come at the high cost of the bad plan; (4) our public servants have failed us in not coming up with a better way to give the University better access to its parking lot (surely something we should be rushing to help the University achieve, without having to rip up functioning electric transportation infrastructure); (5) our local news media have failed us in not seeing through the ruse of an “Arts and Transit” neighborhood and speaking truth to power; and (6) the University and the town are about to vandalize a unique and extremely valuable amenity — an electrified (and extendable) right-of-way from the Northeast Corridor almost to the Princeton town center. So close, and yet so far.

The town of Princeton has only two things that really differentiate it from most other suburbs in the country: Princeton University and the Dinky connection to the nation’s busiest transit corridor. The town has now decided to permit the stronger of these two assets to cannibalize the weaker. It will only make Princeton more of a “one-company town”, and give the University even more power to override the local public good in favor of its private interests in the future.

Richard Baumann

Princeton University Class of 1981,

Rosedale Road

Princeton Clergy Association Thanked For Organizing Sandy Hook Memorial

To  the Editor:

I wish to express my heartfelt appreciation to the Princeton Clergy Association for organizing the December 20 Interfaith Gathering of Unity and Hope in remembrance of the victims of the Sandy Hook school tragedy. I’m certain that the large number of attendees who covered Palmer Square Green share my sentiment.

The inspiring messages from leaders representing many denominations and religious faiths beautifully conveyed our sorrow, love and support for the families affected by this unspeakable horror.

Linda Sipprelle

Nassau Street

Arts Council’s “Dining by Design” Event Exceeds Fundraising Goals

To the Editor:

“Wow!” was the word used by many as they entered Frick Laboratories, Princeton University for the Arts Council of Princeton’s (ACP) Dining by Design: POP! Fundraiser held on December 1. The ACP would like to thank our event sponsors, dinner hosts, guest artist presenters, auction donors and our event committee, especially the talented and dedicated décor Co-Chairs Dawn McClatchy and Sandy Bonasera and their team. We would also like to thank the over 400 attendees who supported our event and recognize our Board of Trustees for their unprecedented generosity and dedication. In addition, we truly appreciate Princeton University for providing the spectacular event venue.

We are proud to have exceeded our fundraising goals to continue our critical support of important free programs that make the arts accessible to at-risk youth, seniors, and people from all backgrounds. Programs for at-risk youth include: Arts Exchange (for HomeFront of Trenton), Art Reach (for Princeton Young Achievers and Princeton Nursery School), and Kids at Work: Discovery through Art (for Princeton Regional Schools). This funding also supports scholarships to ensure that our classes are accessible to all and for Creative Aging Programming for Seniors and Caregivers. For more information about these and other Arts Council of Princeton programs we invite you to visit our website www.artscouncilofprinceton.org.

Thank you again to everyone for your continuing support in helping to achieve our mission of “building community through the arts.”

Jeff Nathanson,

Executive Director

Jeniah “Kookie” Johnson,

Director of Community Relations

Before the Beatles There Was Sam Weller: Concluding The Year of Dickens and England

You read me Shakespeare on the 

rolling Thames, 

That old river poet that never, ever ends

– Kate Bush

“The new year belongs to England” is how I began the column (Jan. 11, 2012) marking the Charles Dickens (1812-1870) bicentenary, my first subject being PJ Harvey’s brilliant album, Let England Shake. Harvey’s song “England” was wrenchingly emotional, the message “Undaunted, never-failing love for you, England, is all, to which I cling.” If you have close ties to the U.K., that song should remind you that you love the place in spite of the politics and politicians, the surveillance cameras, the crazed drivers, and the unthinkably bad weather (even for England) they’ve been enduring lately. A quite different song, Kate Bush’s “Lionheart” from her 1978 album of the same name, is guaranteed to put you back in touch with the England of the White Cliffs of Dover, that “old river poet” the Thames, “London Bridge in rain,” air-raid shelters “blooming clover,” and at this time of year, of course, A Christmas Carol.

And since Dickens’s 200th year is coming to an end, it feels right to travel back to the time when he began laying claim to the hearts of his countrymen, on his way to capturing hearts around the world. He was all but unknown when his first full-length work of fiction, The Pickwick Papers, began appearing in monthly installments in 1836. Sales were sluggish until the noble-souled if unworldly Mr. Pickwick met his Cockney servant and saviour Sam Weller in the fourth installment, at which point monthly sales rose from 400 to 40,000. The moment Dickens conceived Sam was as significant for his work and for the world as the moment Chaplin created his Tramp. Sam’s charm is on another level, however, even though almost everything he says is funny or wise or both. Sam’s a true hero, tough, charming, infinitely resourceful, and, like the best characters in Balzac and Shakespeare, he’s been touched with the glow of the author’s genius, so that the humble task of tending to the boots of an Inn’s various guests (as he’s doing when he makes his first appearance) becomes in his hands an admirable endeavor.

Once Sam arrived, Pickwick “was read upstairs and downstairs,” according to Wolf Mankowitz’s Dickens in London, “by judges on the bench and the cleaners after them,” by boys and girls who talked Sam’s talk and by critics who spoke of Dickens as another Cervantes. “Poor people shared a shilling copy and read it aloud in groups …. No hat or coat, cigar or cane, plagiaristic paper or play could be sold but with a Pickwick tag.” There were novelties flogged in Sam’s name, and Sam Weller joke books, and the publishers were selling the back numbers in the thousands.

At the age of 24, Dickens had the 19th Century equivalent of rock star fame and fortune. And he had the looks, “with long brown hair falling in silky masses over his temples” and “eyes full of power and strong will.”

“The limelight never left him,” Mankowitz writes. “The Pickwick mania was unparalled.”

True enough, but there are definite parallels to another mania of once-in-a-century dimensions that swept England and the world 130 years later in the form of four guys from Liverpool who were roughly the same age as Pickwick’s Dickens. While Sam was neither singer nor songwriter, his lively, virile, down-to-earth wit had something in it akin to that flashed by John Lennon and the other Beatles in A Hard Day’s Night. No less than Sam’s, their sassy upbeat attitude attracted all levels of society, rich and poor, upstairs and downstairs. That Sam was a rock star a century ahead of his time is clear to see in the 1985 BBC version of Pickwick (the DVD is available at the Princeton Public Library) where he’s slyly, appealingly played by Phil Daniels, who did the Cockney rap on one of the great rock singles of the 1990s, Blur’s “Park Life” (“I get up when I want except on Wednesdays when I get rudely awakened by the dustmen …. I put my trousers on, have a cuppa tea and I think about leaving the house …. I feed the pigeons, I sometimes feed the sparrows too, it gives me a sense of enormous well being”), not to mention his iconic Jimmy the Mod, the main character in the film version of the Who’s Quadrophenia.

The Joys of Jingle

My reaction to the BBC Pickwick followed a pattern similar to what happened in England when the first serial installments were released in booklet form in the spring of 1836. The first episode almost lost me (it did lose my wife), with its clubby 18th-century atmosphere. Who among this group of antic, quaintly convivial twits called Pickwickians could possibly be worth sticking around for? The reason I kept watching was a fast-talking charlatan whose rushed, manic, non-stop speechifying creates an effective cover for his scheming. Bearing the fine Dickensian name, Alfred Jingle (and played to a T by Patrick Malahide), he stole the show the first time I read The Pickwick Papers. It was as if Dickens had set his fancy loose in its purest state, unfettered, exposed in the quick of creation, raw wit gushing forth, as here, in one of Jingle’s first (to use Dickens’s own word for it) “stenographic” effusions, rattled off while riding atop a coach:

“‘Heads, heads — take care of your heads!’ cried the loquacious stranger, as they came out under the low archway, which in those days formed the entrance to the coach-yard. ‘Terrible place — dangerous work — other day — five children — mother — tall lady, eating sandwiches — forgot the arch — crash — knock — children look round — mother’s head off — sandwich in her hand — no mouth to put it in — head of a family off — shocking, shocking!’”

With Jingle’s stream of consciousness riffing, Pickwick seems to look miraculously ahead to the madcaps of the Goon Show, John Lennon’s wordplay, and Monty Python. Here in the free-flowing speech of a single character, Dickens is tapping the vein of comic eloquence that six years later will enliven the language of fabulous creations like Mr. Pecksniff and Mrs. Gamp in Martin Chuzzlewit. The jaunty elliptical nature of Jingle’s word jazz also harks back to Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy.

The Soul of Christmas

In fact, Dickens was working on Martin Chuzzlewit when he took time off to write the work Thackeray called “a national benefit and to every man or woman who reads it a personal kindness.” If Dickens laid claim to England’s heart with Sam and Pickwick, he sealed the deal with the tale of Scrooge’s ghost-driven voyage from misery and morbidity to joy and glory. A Christmas Carol was written in six weeks, just in time for the Christmas of 1843. By Christmas Eve the first edition of 6000 had sold out. In his study of Dickens, George Gissing call it “a book no one can bear to criticize.”

John Forster, Dickens’s friend and first biographer, describes the author’s infatuation with A Christmas Carol: “how he wept over it, and laughed, and wept again, and excited himself to an extraordinary degree, and how he walked thinking of it fifteen and twenty miles about the black streets of London, many and many a night after all sober folks had gone to bed.”

Looking Back

After Let England Shake, with its fixation on war and soldiers (“So our young men hid/with guns, in the dirt/and in the dark places”), my next column moved on to Cary Grant and the bombing of Bristol, then Virginia Woolf and Dorothy Wordsworth, Keats and Constable on Hampstead Heath, April with Robert Browning and late lamented singer songwriter Clifford T. Ward (“Home Thoughts from Abroad”), Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, two columns on the Beatles and three on Dickens, including one about his last novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870), left unfinished (yet subtly finished) at the time of his death.

So, there’s finally nothing left to say in England’s year but Hail Britannia, God Save the Queen and the Kinks and beautiful Kate Middleton, and to quote Ray Davies, the true poet laureate of the British Isles, “God save little shops, china cups, and virginity.”