Chestertown Spy

Love in the Time of COVID by Val Cavalheri

April 7, 2020 by Val Cavalheri

Preparations for a wedding, at any time, is a stressful and time-consuming task. There is the finding of the perfect dress, the ideal venue. There is the guest list, the ‘save the date’ card, the bridal shower, and the invitations. There is the assembling of the all-important ‘dream team:’ florist, photographer, baker, DJ or band, videographer, limo service, hair & makeup artists, etc. But what if something goes wrong somewhere between the ‘I will’ and the ‘I do?’ Sure, there are precedents of what others have done when a disaster, such as an earthquake or a hurricane, strikes. But nothing has prepared the industry (and the world) for a pandemic. And as we found out, the number of people and the amount of money that is affected by just one wedding being canceled or postponed is staggering.

Hannah Masaracchia, baker and owner of Nosh in Trappe, first alerted us through a posting on Facebook. I am worried that we have forgotten entirely about a whole group of people that are in grave need of our support. The self-employed. Your hometown entrepreneurs. We may not have storefronts, but our small businesses are still just that — businesses. My concentration for the past couple of years has been in the wedding industry, and, as a whole, we have already taken a devastating blow from COVID-19. One that many of us will not recover from. We’re just coming out of our off-season and depend on the income wedding season brings to carry us through the next off-season.

“More than half of us,” she told us, “don’t qualify for unemployment.”

Masaracchia struggles with the question of what to do with the non-refundable deposits that were paid to her a year or more in advance. She sympathizes with the bride, who’s been looking forward to the wedding for over a year and a half. “It’s completely out of her control, and it’s not just like they’re canceling because they wanted a different date.” She’s refunded some but worries that if she refunds more, it could bankrupt her businesses.

The same worry and disappointment were expressed by Ashley Sherwood, who owns Sherwood Florist in Tilghman Islands. All of her spring weddings have been canceled or postponed, and no, she has not refunded the ‘very small deposit’ she collects. It’s not just affecting florists, she told us, it’s also affecting the growers and wholesalers, who’ve had to destroy the flowers that won’t be used. “It’s really, really sad,” Sherwood says, “just piles and piles of flowers, gone.”

Having no income is forcing small businesses to come up with other ways to stay afloat. Masaracchia is planning on a cake-a-month idea, “We’re all trying to scramble to come up with a new way to keep our head above water,” she said.

Sherwood has started a flower club with the flowers she was able to get before her last wholesaler closed. “Right now, I’m just kind of holding my breath until, hopefully, a wedding comes, she said. “My next wedding is supposed to be May 30th, and they’re not postponed yet, so we’re hoping that it can happen.”

Cancel, postpone, or forge ahead is the question being asked of all weddings planned for the next few months. For Kimberly Hargrove from St. Michaels, who was scheduled to be married at the Great Oak Manor in Chestertown on April 25, the question was decided for her when her venue canceled. “We were ready. We had 150 guests. We have just moved back from Florida, now we’ve got to wait all the way until November.”

With the change comes different sets of problems. “A major disappointment for brides having to reschedule is that they may not be able to use all their original vendors because of availability,” said Masaracchia. “We book a year or so out and can only do so many weddings per day–many of us are limited to just one wedding per day–and we are all nearly booked for this Fall when many brides are now looking to reschedule.”

For Hargrove and her husband-to-be, Brandon Hause, this means their photographer won’t be available. “You work so hard to find people that you like and get everybody on board, and then you start from scratch all over again.”

It also means that the wedding dress, Hargrove carefully chose for Spring, will be used in late fall instead and will need some adjustments for the weather. It’s more than just the dress, explains Masaracchia. The spring flowers they picked out won’t work, their decorations, color schemes, and décor will probably need to change as well to reflect the season.

What about eloping now and having a party later, we asked? Says Hargrove, “Your wedding day is all about being surrounded by your friends and family, and if they’re not going to be there, I’d rather reschedule and have a day when they can be there.” To other brides who may be experiencing the same dilemma, she advises, “I know that it’s such a letdown and it’s such a disappointment, but when it happens, it will make the day that much more special.”

Bride-to-be Haley Baumgartner, from Cambridge, agrees, to a point. She’s hoping not to change her May 17 wedding at Delmar, MD’s Kylan Barn. “Me and my fiancé (Andrew Cooper), we’re just going to act like it’s still happening until they tell us we can’t do it. So, we’re just pushing on and hoping that things are going to happen.” She admits to being disappointed and upset when it was becoming obvious there may be a problem. “Hopefully, I’m only going to have one wedding in my life. I want it to be what I’ve always dreamed of since I was little.”

But unlike Hargrove, Baumgartner is open to other possibilities. “Andrew and I are both very confident, and we’re at peace with whatever happens. Whether that means we have to get married at the courthouse in May and then have a wedding celebration in the summer or the fall, or if our (current) wedding date ends up being able to be our wedding date… We’re just kind of waiting and just trying to be patient.” Her message to other brides is: “Try not to stress out and panic over all of this because I truly believe that everything happens for a reason and no matter what happens at the end of the day you and your significant other still love each other, and you’re going to get married at some point or another. So just keep pushing forward and holding onto that hope.”

An Anne Arundel couple, who preferred not to be identified, plan on continuing with their early May wedding but have adapted to the new COVID-19 reality of using technology in innovative ways. Since they no longer can use their chosen venue in Chestertown (and won’t be receiving their non-refundable deposit back), they’ve booked a B&B with outdoor space. On their selected day, the bride and groom, their parents, and an officiant will witness the marriage (following social distancing guidelines and the prohibition on gatherings of more than ten people). All the rest of the guests received their invitation to live-stream the ceremony from the safety of their homes. The couple plans on having a celebratory party in November.

Of course, things are subject to change as this crisis forces all of us to remain fluid in our expectations and plans. Sooner or later, however, these and other couples like them will get married and continue with their life. That might not be the case for their florists, photographers, bakers, DJs or bands, videographers, limo service, or hair & makeup artists, who depend on the steady stream of weddings to keep their businesses open.

Just as we are supporting restaurants by ordering take-out or delivery, there are ways we can also help the local small businesses. Purchase gift certificates, consider ordering cupcakes from a baker instead of a supermarket, book a family session with a photographer, buy Easter and Mother’s Day flowers from a florist.

Masaracchia sums it up this way: “It’s all about thinking outside of the box. Look at our services not as an extravagance and not just for weddings. We can do birthday parties and other events as well. Let’s continue to spread the love, and, hopefully, we’ll all survive this together.”

Photos courtesy of: Artistic Photography by Tami

Val Cavalheri is a recent transplant to the Eastern Shore, having lived in Northern Virginia for the past 20 years. She’s been a writer, editor and professional photographer for various publications, including the Washington Post.

A New Kind of Sunday Service on the Shore by Steve Parks

March 30, 2020 by Steve Parks

Whether or not churches are packed on Easter Sunday or any time soon, people who wish to attend a religious service have a place to go—virtually—right now. Across the country, churches, parishes, synagogues, and mosques are posting live-steam or pre-recorded services, while others are going a bit more low-tech.

It only took a week for streaming services to pop up all over the mid-Shore region, usually via YouTube. As the Rev. Sue Browning, minister of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship at Easton as well as UU of the Chester River in Chestertown, says, “My job as a minister is to stay in close communication with members of our fellowship, especially in times of stress.” Her two UU fellowships were closed as of March 12 due to the coronavirus crisis. “To close was a decision we made on our own,” she says, though, by order of Gov. Larry Hogan, gatherings of more than ten people were banned soon after.

“We only missed one Sunday,” says Browning, who also serves as chair of the Talbot Association of Clergy and Laity. “We were novices when it came to linking our website to YouTube,” which delayed the posting of that first service until 5:30 p.m. Although writing and delivering sermons is only a part of her job, it’s a focal point of each Sunday service. The March 22 streaming debut of UU Easton and Chestertown consisted largely of a hymn performed by Easton UU musical director Ellen Grunden–“Spirit of Life,” chosen in part because most UUs know it by heart—and Browning’s sermon, directed at calming fears at this time of anxiety and isolation.

Other local congregations have made similarly tentative steps into cyberworld. Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Parish, with churches in Easton, St. Michaels, and Cordova, has posted pre-recorded Sunday masses led by Father James Nash in the Easton cathedral. Plans for future dates, including Palm Sunday and Easter, are still up in the air, according to a parish staff member. “But we’ll definitely be doing services online,” she said. “And we expect to add daily masses soon.”

At Easton’s St. Mark’s United Methodist Church, Rev. Ed Kuhling delivered introductory remarks and a sermon that echo-chambered against a soaring stained-glass backdrop. The organ music, however, came across soothingly. Lyrics to hymns were projected on an overhead screen as well as words to responsive readings. The offertory was replaced by a projection indicating where to send checks covering annual pledges in tithes.

These streamings—bound to improve with practice—all resembled in-church services except you couldn’t be there in person. But to “attend,” you didn’t even have to dress.

Temple B’nai Israel got a jump on churches by presenting its Shabbat live stream on March 21, a Saturday, of course, following the start of Sabbath at sundown Friday. Rabbi Peter Hyman presided over what, as the temple’s Satell Center for Jewish Life on the Eastern Shore subtitle implies, is a wider geographical area.

“We should follow instructions on coronavirus. Trust what the experts tell us—politics notwithstanding,” the rabbi said in an online Talbot County Department of Health discussion.

In a Spy interview after the Saturday, March 28, service, Hyman said, “We had 300 viewings of our stream, ten times the number we usually draw in person,” for a congregation of 140 families scattered from the Ocean City area and Delaware to Kent Island. “We’re now looking at this as an opportunity to create a new normal. We will, at some point, resume regular services, but there’s every reason to continue expanding our outreach through technology.”

According to Pastor Tim Poly, his 60-member Royal Oak Community United Methodist Church expanded its audience exponentially to 1,600 globally, once it started streaming on Facebook in addition to YouTube. The church has long had an online presence, including daily devotions and bedtime Bible stories. Its latest is “Church for Kids,” noon Sundays on Zoom, a site that facilitates group interaction.

“Churches everywhere have been losing membership,” Poly says. “Because of the current necessity, we’re breaking out of our traditional four walls. We can’t not continue to do this, once things are back to what once was normal.”

But streaming isn’t the only way to get religion while churches are closed. African-American tradition lends itself to a richly aural experience. The Bethel AME Church in Chestertown and the Bethel AME in Easton, Rev. Wendell Gary presiding, offer 11 a.m. Sunday services delivered by way of conference call-ins. “We’ve set up three worship services a week,” says the Rev. Robert Brown Jr. of Chestertown. Besides the Sunday ritual, these include Monday prayer sessions and Thursday Bible studies.

A pastor’s prime-time is Sunday mornings. But life goes on all week. And especially at this time, loss of life can be inconsolable to survivors. “We had a death in the congregation,” says Browning. “It had nothing to do with coronavirus, but the disease had everything to do with how loved ones could mourn the passing. It changes everything about what we do as ministers, friends, or family. You can’t even offer hugs.” Besides spoken or written condolences, she says, “The best we can do for now is a memorial service after all this passes.”

As for weddings, she says, “I haven’t had one come up during this time, but I understand most venues and vendors have been very forgiving about postponements.”

In such cases, virtual ceremonies can’t replace the old normal.

See the guide to virtual church services here.

Steve Parks is a retired journalist now living in Easton.

Covid-19 and Small Acts of Kindness: Fans of Anna Burgess

March 28, 2020 by Val Cavalheri

Today’s Kindness is actually a little different. This is about someone who is on the receiving end of unexpected kindness.

She came to our attention through a text from a Spy reader, Dan Van Skiver: “My friend Anna is a musician by trade. She doesn’t have a “day job,” she plays music for a living in bars, at events, etc. With everything shut down and canceled, she has no income. The feel-good part comes from a live-stream concert she did from her living room. A whole bunch of people watched and donated money to her while she played.

Like so many others, Anna Burgess found herself out of a job during the crisis. If you look on her promotion page, you’ll notice she had a full schedule of booked jobs throughout the region in the upcoming months. That’s because Burgess is really, really good at what she does. As an alternative/acoustic rock musician, Burgess’ repertoire includes both covers and original songs.

All of it came to a screeching halt when the severity of the coronavirus crisis hit.

Unable to work meant that Burgess had to come up with creative ways to support herself. So, on St. Patrick’s Day, she posted on her FB page: Alright, so I’m thinking of doing a live broadcast tonight around 8:15/8:30. I’m thinking Irish musician themed. Cranberries, anyone??

Sitting in her living room, guitar in hand Burgess put on a one and half-hour concert, because, as she said, “I missed playing.” She also added a Venmo and PayPal link in case anyone wanted to tip her. It wasn’t something she was comfortable with. “I had a little battle with myself before I did that. I was ashamed because I didn’t have much put away. It’s hard to ask for help because I have no work at all. But, I never expected this, maybe because, I think people can relate… It’s affecting everyone, not just musicians. It’s been crazy and amazing.”

The crazy and amazing part was the generosity of her viewers. First one, then many, and then hundreds of people tipped her. “I had some great friends who were very generous. But for the most part, it was $5 here and $10 there.” At last count, the video has had over 4,000 views and the best part is that Burgess was able to pay the rent and get groceries. “I had no idea, I didn’t expect this. It’s great to think that and I, and other musicians, can use other resources at this time. We’re good to hunker down now if we have to for a while,” she says.

But hunkering down is not what Burgess is doing. She’s made additional video concerts and is grateful for the opportunity to continue to entertain and do what she loves. She’s also teaming up with other artists and putting on live virtual concerts, like the one that she’ll be performing this Saturday, March 28, from 7-9 pm on FM 101.5 (WHCP Cambridge Community Radio). Dubbed CAMOCON 2020 (Cambridge Area Musicians Onward Concert), the concert is free, and tips are appreciated.

For more information on CAMOCON 2020 go to WHCP. To listen to the artistry of Anna Burgess go here.

Covid-19 and Small Acts of Kindness: Julia Winter

March 25, 2020 by Val Cavalheri

In these trying times, we hope to give you a glimpse of some ordinary people doing extraordinary things. There are many. Here is just one story.

Here was the post that started it:

Is anyone else making masks out there? Where is the best place to donate right now? I know it’s more serious in other places, and I’m not sure where the shortages are. Any information is appreciated.

Julia Winter usually works at the Hunter’s Tavern in Tidewater Inn. Except that now, with it closed, she found herself with time. “I wasn’t doing anything,” she said, “and saw a story online about a nurse who was trying to make her own face masks because there is a shortage. It seemed easy, so I tried one and thought ‘I could do this!’”

She then asked that question on Facebook: who needs them?

Within hours, she was overwhelmed with responses and private messages. But instead of recommendations on where to send them, she was receiving requests from people who needed and wanted them locally. “People offered to buy them. They said, ‘can I pay you, instead of your donating them somewhere where we’re not going to get any.’ I didn’t realize there was a shortage here on the Eastern Shore.”

Winter found herself with an ‘order’ for 40 masks from various sources, including people working in private care, cancer patients, pregnant women, doctor’s offices, and people who just wanted to wear them for protection.

The problem became finding the supplies, elastic ribbons in particular. With the unexpected demand, Winter went on a search of local stores and found only two packs, which prompted an updated addition to her post:

I’m getting a huge response for local needs; I wasn’t aware we had such a local shortage! I’m doing my best to keep up; please be patient. I’m out of work right now, and if anyone can donate elastics for the ear bands I’d greatly appreciate that.

“I’m gratefully accepting donations to keep this going, although even that is not necessary,” she said. “I’m just happy to fill the need.

When asked how long it takes her to make a single mask, she laughingly replied that she has an assembly line going. “I cut the fabric first. I iron the cleats into them; then I sew them. I guess it takes approximately 10 minutes per mask. It would be nice to have people who can help sew.”

If you’d like to help sew, donate materials, or make a donation, contact Julia at Juliawinter938@gmail.com Want to learn how to make face masks? See these instructions sent by Spy reader, Nancy Burton.

If you know someone who is making a difference, let us know.

Mid-Shore Kids: Mr. Remesch Shares a Song

March 23, 2020 by The Spy

Ray Remesch is not the only teacher that misses his kids during the Covid-19 crisis. But Ray, who teaches music at Tilghman Elementary School, wanted to share with them a song that would remind them of living on fantastic Tilghman Island. Yesterday, he took his guitar and video equipment to record a special love letter to the island and its children. Share with your kids today.

Remembering John Wilson

March 20, 2020 by The Spy

It was with profound sadness that the Spy was told yesterday of the passing of John Wilson. He succumbed to a sudden illness earlier this week.

John Wilson was one of the Mid-Shore’s best friends with such enterprising commercial interests as the Chesapeake Bay Club on Kent Island, followed by the remarkable turnaround of the Tidewater Inn in downtown Easton, followed by the the Inn at the Chesapeake Bay Beach Club and Spa.

He earned the respect and gratitude of the entire community in recognition of his vision and depth of contributions to the region..

The Spy interviewed John in 2016 as he opened up the Bay Club’s Inn on Kent Island.

Spy Eye: Chestertown Students and General Public on Racism in Community

March 4, 2020 by John Griep

As reported in yesterday’s Spy, Chestertown kicked off its regular town meeting Monday night with an hour-long discussion about racism as the town and Washington College addressed recent incidents of harassment of minority students.

In part two of this report, we share the comments and remarks from those in the audience who wished to speak that evening.

This video is approximately thirty-eight minutes in length.

Home Grown Entrepreneurs: A Chat with Rise Up Founder Tim Cureton

February 13, 2020 by Hugh Panero and Mary Beth Durkin

Editor note: The Spy is pleased to announce the launch of a new video interview series called Home Grown Entrepreneurs: Spy Profiles. Small business start-ups are a key driver for any local economy. Our series will focus on the entrepreneurs who start new businesses and begin a journey with an uncertain future. We will talk to a diverse group of entrepreneurs from different sectors.

We begin our journey focusing on the food sector. Our hope is these interviews will shed light on the journeys these entrepreneurs have taken and even inspire others to set off on their own. It’s never a straight line to business success but rather a series of zigs and zags as the entrepreneur navigates the challenges that inevitably present themselves. Our entrepreneurs will tell you about them as well.

It is only fitting that we begin our interview series talking to Tim Cureton, the founder of Rise Up. He appeared at our door with his nine-year-old son Koa in tow. He was sporting a blue baseball cap with lettering that said: “Rude Burger” (more about that later). He sat down to talk with us on camera in the Spy studios.

Cureton is from the eastern shore and graduated from Salisbury University. After school, he joined the Peace Corps serving on a tiny island in the Pacific Ocean. It was here that he first began thinking about starting a coffee business. Cureton was a self-described “reluctant business man” but once back home was looking for a way to make a living. While running an outdoor educational summer camp, he visited the west coast and noticed lots of small drive-thru coffee trailers and thought, “why wouldn’t that work back east?” Thus began his business journey.

He eventually met a bank manager whose kids attended Camp Wright on Kent Island, where Cureton had worked and, after describing his business idea, loaned him $16,000. He used the loan to buy a small trailer but now had to find a place to park it. Cureton decided to tap into another Camp Wright connection. Glenn Higgins, a local businessman who owned property on St. Michaels Road, who also sent his kids to the camp. Who needed LinkedIn when you went to a camp that could produce such great business connections? Cureton wrote Higgins a letter asking if he could use his parking lot.

Higgins eventually agreed but warned Cureton that the county wouldn’t approve – and it didn’t at first. Cureton’s first zig came when he received a cease and desist letter from the county. Luckily, he got a temporary permit to open and over the next year worked to develop legislation for roadside vendors. It came down to a County Council 3-2 vote in Rise Up’s favor. Cureton’s zag worked.

Cureton says he will always remember Tuesday, March 15, 2005, the day he opened Rise Up for business and met his first customer. According to Cureton, “his name was Bob, and it was a big order. He ordered a large cup of coffee and a bagel with cream cheese. And off we went.”

On camera, Cureton discussed the companies’ outsized growth from 2005 to 2019. It has been 15 years since he sold that first cup of coffee to Bob at that little shack in the parking lot. Now, he has nine retail locations, a national wholesale business, and a new planned headquarters and much more on the horizon. Many of his early customers have shared with him their thoughts about those early days, which Cureton summed up as “wow, what nice people but too bad they are never going to make it.”

Cureton knew he had something special looking out at his customers. “Of course, we connected with our teachers, lawyers, and local representatives. But it was when I saw the heavy water-carriers of our society, the contractors, laborers, the crabbers, and they felt a connection to Rise Up too, that the word had gotten out that this was a safe place. And that’s really what we are all about.”

Well, Rise Up has made it. It has become a hip, regional specialty coffee brand with a youthful millennial vibe that wakes you up as much as the coffee. The company’s’ mantra is “grown by friends, roasted by friends, enjoyed by friends,” which is proudly displayed on signs and murals in their stores.

Cureton is now a seasoned businessman but still talks like a Peace Corps volunteer when describing the company, which is dedicated to roasting only sustainable coffees Certified Organic + Certified Fair Trade. According to the website, “Coffee has always been the crop of the poor. Through Fair Trade practices, we help to provide our farmers with a dignified existence. In simple terms, the extra money spent on the coffee can be invested back into the farm, family, and community.”

As for Easton, he says, “Easton will be our home for the rest of our time in business”. He adds, “the level of support that we have gotten in Easton is mind-blowing on a per moment basis.” The company has grown from 2 to 172 employees with nine locations. In 2005, Rise Up used 5-10 lbs of roasted coffee per week and now roasts 4000-6000 lbs per week to supply its growing retail and wholesale business.

He credits much of his success to his employees and especially his partner, Noah Kegley, who joined the company ten years ago. He also credits the Rise of Rise Up on his ability to listen and stay humble. Cureton said someone once told him that when your self-employed, you wake up unemployed every day and have to earn your paycheck. He said, “that’s the approach of Rise Up.”

Noah Kegle

Cureton is now dedicated to going beyond just coffee and modest food choices and envisions a full day of offerings to satisfy his customers. This concept includes a kitchen, café, and bar (called Bar 502). To that end, he will expand his Mad Egg food menu, introduce a new line of tea products as well as offering alcoholic beverages. Alcoholic beverages were first introduced in their Rehoboth, DE store, which Tim describes as “a gigantic smash.”

In our video interview, hear Rise Up’s Tim Cureton discuss other big 2020 Rise Up news:

A New Rise Up tea product line called Water and Leaf

The dramatic growth of Rise Up’s wholesale business, which now includes distribution in Giants, Whole Food, and Mom’s Organic Market stores.

The early Spring launch of a new, hip, burger joint called Rude Burger, in partnership with his older brother Brett Cureton, featuring craft burgers and beer, among other healthy food and beverage options.

The creation of the Rude Food Company, an entirely new business.

The March groundbreaking for the Rise Up headquarters at 217 Dover will feature a café, kitchen, and the 502 bar concept.

Hear about his expansion plans, including a new store in Arnold, MD, and potentially more Rise Up locations across the Bay Bridge and around the Delaware beaches.

The video and this article were written and produced by Hugh Panero and his wife Mary Beth Durkin. Both are good friends of the Spy. Hugh is the founder and former CEO of XM Radio and no stranger to entrepreneurship and Mary Beth is a documentary filmmaker and award-winning journalist who focuses on food reporting for the PBS NewsHour.

This video is approximately fourteen minutes in length. Music provided by Mela from their album “Mela two”

Avalon Theater Presents Art Garfunkel

February 11, 2020 by Steve Parks

Art Garfunkel makes his Easton debut in the 400-seat Avalon Theater not only on the most significant romantic night of the year—expect him to sing “I Only Have Eyes for You” during his Valentine’s Day gig Friday night—but he also plays the next two nights.

“Art specifically wanted to play smaller rooms for multiple days to reduce the travel grind,” says Al Bond, president of the Avalon Foundation, referring to Garfunkel’s current autumn-through-spring tour. “Otherwise, his brand is too big for the Avalon.” Translation: We couldn’t afford him for one night only.

“We’re thrilled to present Mr. Garfunkel, and we’re so looking forward to next weekend,” says Suzy Moore, Avalon’s artistic director. “The town should be bustling with the three Art shows and the inaugural Fire & Ice Festival.” Fire & Ice brings three days of ice sculptures, outdoor ice-skating, and other winter-themed happenings, along with music and “Stews & Brews” starting on Valentine’s Day, when Garfunkel arrives in town.

So, if you don’t yet have Artie tickets—it’s a sellout—you can celebrate anyway.

Garfunkel also played three nights last weekend at Wolftrap in Vienna, Va. at its indoor venue, The Barns, also with about 400 seats. There was a time, of course, when Simon and Garfunkel, the highest-profile folk-rock duo possibly of all time, could easily sell out the much larger outdoor Wolftrap venue, including overflow lawn seating, or draw an estimated million fans for a free Central Park concert. I once reviewed Simon and Garfunkel for the Baltimore Sun at Laurel Race Course, an outdoor concert with a video projection resembling a drive-in movie screen.

After years of squabbling following their breakup, Garfunkel has long enjoyed concert rights to perform the songs—all written by Simon—that made both of them famous. So, you’re almost homeward bound, excuse the pun, to hear his solo versions of “Sounds of Silence,” “Scarborough Fair,” and “Bridge Over Troubled Waters.” Not sure about my personal favorite, “The Boxer.”

There are also a dozen solo albums of cover songs—including Great American standards-plus others written or co-written by Garfunkel, which will expand your expectations about one of the greatest vocal collaborators of 20th-century chart-topping music.

Among some of the songs, you may not recognize may be “Bright Eyes,” a solo hit in Europe that somehow went mostly unnoticed in the States. Also, “Everything Waits to Be Noticed,” Garfunkel’s title song of his 2002 album. More familiar are his “(What a) Wonderful World” and “Someone to Watch Over Me” (George and Ira Gershwin).

Garfunkel also weaves an enigmatic tapestry of stories from the life of a celebrity. Besides being a world-class troubadour, he also once enjoyed a promising acting career in the 1970s, with roles in “Carnal Knowledge” and “Catch 22. I say “enigmatic” based on the title of his 2017 memoir, “Life Is All but Luminous: Notes from an Underground Man.” Inspired by Balzac and a subtitle borrowed from Dostoyevsky, Garfunkel says of Balzac, “He’s a forgotten man. You don’t hear his name at all nowadays. Honoré de Balzac. When you see pictures of him, he was so ruddy and alive. You just know he was a steak eater and a drinker. He’s got such a furious amount of energy.”

Apparently so does Garfunkel, who muses about his walking trips across Europe and America in relatively short hikes at a time.

At a recent concert in Los Angeles, he joked (we presume), “There’s a lot of mortality in this show.”

Of his current tour, which takes him to Florida after Easton and an eight-day performance cruise out of Miami, he told nashvillescene.com: “I don’t look at it as a tour. I just look at it as ‘this is what I do.’ I go out on the road, and I do shows, usually on weekends. Are they tours? They’re mini-tours. This is my life: I sing, I have a booking agent, he finds me stages, and I go all over the world. . . I love it. It’s a great way to get away with singing, warbling [Garfunkel’s way of making fun of his now-less-than-crystalline voice]. Ah, to do that and get away with it, and that’s your living, and you do these famous songs—and they pay you! And you move on to the next town—I love this deal!”

On tour, Garfunkel is accompanied by Ted Laven on guitar, Paul Beard on keyboard and, occasionally, by his son, Arthur Jr., on harmonizing vocals.

ART GARFUNKEL at the Avalon.
Tickets: sold out; call 410-822-7299 for possible cancellations

Steve Parks is a retired journalist, arts writer, editor, and critic now living in Easton.

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At the Visionary Art Museum with Founder Rebecca Hoffberger by Jim Dissette

January 21, 2020 by James Dissette

Recently, the Spy crew trekked to Baltimore in search of a pigeon skeleton. Yes, really. But there was a method to our madness: the skeleton was on loan from Chestertown resident Pat Trams Hollingsworth and placed as an iconic symbol greeting visitors to the new environmental exhibit at The American Visionary Art Museum.

American Visionary Art Museum Founder and Director, Rebecca Hoffberger noticed the skeleton while visiting Hollingsworth’s home in Chestertown and knew instantly that she wanted it to be part of the new 25th annual exhibition she was curating.

“Rebecca saw the bird skeleton —a learning tool I once used to prepare for a dreaded veterinary tech exam—and off she went with it. It was one of those eureka moments, and she has lots of them. I was fascinated with how she was going to include it,” Hollingsworth says.

The Spy team found the bleached and brittle armature accompanied by a porcelain pigeon in a glass case installed along the entry corridor to the amazing American Visionary Art Museum. The placard above it recalled Hamlet’s existential question, “To Be or Not to Be, That is the Question”, an elegant choice given that AVAM’s new exhibit, “The Secret Life of Earth: Alive! Awake! and (Possibly Really Angry!),” challenges visitors to engage in critical questions about our relationship to the environment that sustains life on Earth.

Chestertown’s Trams Hollingsworth’s pigeon skeleton to illustrate the core message of the new environmental exhibit.

But first: if you have never visited the American Visionary Art Museum, it’s unlike any museum you’ve experienced. You won’t find the trained classicists or hear the reverential whisperings of art admirers. Instead, AVAM is dedicated to art that is rowdy, poignant, haunting and joyous, a collection of unschooled masterpieces from the hearts and minds of individuals who worked out their visions with materials at hand. For example, a centerpiece for the permanent collection has a detailed 15 ft. replica of the Lusitania made out of 200,000 toothpicks as two human figures shaped out of hundreds of wood and felt piano hammers convene silently together.

Johanna Burke’s “Another Green World” mixed media of dry plants, seeds, beads and glass was originally designed for a window at Bergdorf Goodman’s New York store and donated to AVAM.

However, the new environmental exhibit is not a bludgeon wielded by political or environmental activists. It is a collection of personal visions by individuals who would not even consider themselves artists, using materials at hand. It is an invitation to explore our environment through alternative perspectives and along the way to muse over the simple scientific facts of the challenges we face if we continue to ignore the ecological emergencies at hand. Even the ramp to the exhibit begs a fundamental question—hundreds of plastic items collected from a single beach in California are suspended from the corridor ceiling. On the wall, a text panel history of plastic. How will we deal with with an ocean choked by discarded plastic and drinking water suffused with hidden threat microplastics now being detected in humans all over the world?

The Spy was lucky to have as their guide Founder, Director and curator of the exhibit, Rebecca Hoffberger whose knowledge about each of the “artists” and their works reveal the depth of her dedication to the exhibit at hand and the overall mission of AVAM. Hoffberger led us through the labyrinth of exhibits describing their origin, the artist, and how she felt it shaped the conversation we must have about our environmental crisis.

But what are we looking at when we see giant green gorillas fashioned from fiberglass, beads, and plants, or a wax rubbing of a crosscut of a tree compared with a human fingerprint, and why does it move us so different from the art spaces of other museums?

Understanding AVAM’s mission is to understand Hoffberger’s original interest in creating a space for art created outside the classical world of classically trained artists. In her mission statement, she wrote, “Visionary art as defined for the purposes of the American Visionary art Museum refers to art produced by self-taught individuals, usually without formal training, whose works arise from an innate personal vision that revels foremost in the creative act itself.”

In the mid-eighties, Hoffberger was employed as the Development Director of People Encouraging People, a program of the Department of Psychiatry at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore, and it was there she became impressed with patients’ elaborate imaginations. She wondered how she could showcase these alternative visions, not as an illness but as a strength. Were there galleries or museums showcasing this kind of personal vision? She and her future husband and museum co-founder LeRoy E. Hoffberger decided to visit French artist Jean Dubuffet’s Art Brut Museum in Switzerland where the largest collection of anti-cultural Art Brut (raw art) was exhibited, including the intense and intricate work of psychiatric patient Adolf Wolfli. Impressed with the collection and its simple exhibition style, the two returned with ideas for a museum that would widen and redefine the “outsider’ genre to include “intuitive creative invention and grassroots genius.”

Adolf Wolfli’s “General view of the island Neveranger,” 1911. Wolfli, a psychiatric patient for most of his life was championed by French painter Jean Dubuffet and became one of the first artists associated with the Art Brut or “outsider art.”

Intense fundraising efforts were begun. The City of Baltimore helped with acquiring a place, Senators Barbara Mikulski and Bob Dole were early supporters of the effort including getting a Congressional resolution designating the museum as America’s official national museum. The museum design was created by architect Rebecca Swanston and artist and designer Alex Castro who later became Director of Washington College’s SandBox project in Chestertown. AVAM held its grand opening in 1995 and the accolades have poured in ever since. CNN described the museum as “…one of the most fantastic museums anywhere in America…”

“The Secret Life of Earth” exhibit of 88 artists is a perfect manifestation of AVAM’s mission. Johanna Burke’s mixed-media “Another Green World” shares equal billing with every other artist from Brian Pardini’s found driftwood sculptures to Santiago Navila’s video installation “Untitled” and Julia Butterfly Hill’s journal entries from her 738 consecutive days perched in a California redwood tree to defy a lumber company and its threat to clear cut old-growth redwoods. There is no promotion of gender, race or ethnicity, and Hoffberger is adamant about keeping it that way.

The Spy found the delicate pigeon skeleton from Chestertown and it pointed the way to an extraordinary and personal journey guided by visionaries whose directness and self-taught raw talent stunned us into a visceral connection to the primal network of life we threaten with our abuse and denial.

Pioneer in time-lapse cinematography Louis Schwartzberg once said that “beauty and seduction, I believe is nature’s tool for survival, because we will protect what we fall in love with.” The American Visionary Art Museum’s “The Secret Life of Earth” exhibit is no less than an illuminated path to the heart of our environmental dilemmas. It’s a braid of science and raw vision without sermonizing and dedicated to the awakening of all who long to curate, protect, and love the world we need to survive.

James Dissette a contributor to the Chestertown Spy and Talbot Spy, a Washington College graduate, and was awarded the school’s Sophie Kerr Prize for Literature in 1971.

“The Secret Life of Earth” special exhibit will be available until September 6, 2020 For hours, ticket prices and more information about The American Visionary Art Museum, see their website here. The Spy and the Academy Art Museum will host a lecture by Rebecca Hoffberger on February 21th starting at 6 pm. For ticket information please go here.

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