High School Icicle

Hot dance moves on ice
Friday, September 28, 2007

By EVELYN SHIH
STAFF WRITER

This summer, Chuckie got his blades.

[Promotional photo, left, courtesy of centreevents.com]

That's not another summer horror sequel that you (thankfully) missed. That was choreographer Charles Klapow, the mastermind behind the high-octane dance numbers in "High School Musical," getting on the ice for the first time in his life.

"Chuckie adapted to it very quickly, and he had so much enthusiasm for the skating that it was completely impossible to keep him from skating," said Disney on Ice choreographer Cindy Stuart. She and Klapow worked together to create the choreography for "High School Musical: The Ice Tour."

At first, Klapow taught Stuart and the skaters to do the original movie routines on dry land. The choreographing team then shifted the moves to the ice. "He was really hands-on," said Stuart. "It was wonderful, because he could have been a sideline choreographer, but he wasn't."

Following Chuckie's lead, the familiar teen characters of Troy, Gabriella, Sharpay, Ryan and Chad will be hitting the rink at Madison Square Garden to kick off the East Coast tour. The show will cover both "High School Musical" and August's "High School Musical 2" in two acts -- and under two hours.

And contrary to what you might believe about sequels, the second part of the show may be even hotter than the first. Audiences at preview performances have been singing along to the new songs of "High School Musical 2," says skater Bonard Muck.

"We've been on tour for 2½ weeks," said Muck, who plays Sharpay's shy brother Ryan. "In the beginning, you could slightly hear them, and as it's growing and becoming more known, I feel there's more singing going on -- especially in the second act, where I didn't think it had caught on that much yet."

Among the numbers that get the biggest reactions, said Muck, are the Sharpay solo "Fabulous" and the challenging baseball-themed "I Don't Dance" in which Ryan faces off with Chad.

Given the audience's intimate knowledge of the "High School Musical" soundtrack and dance numbers, Stuart had her work cut out for her. "I wanted to do something that would be as close to the movie as possible because it's so iconic. People learn the moves in their living room."

What makes it more difficult is the built-in hip-hop vocabulary of Klapow and movie director Kenny Ortega's dance vision. In ice skating, explained Stuart, the feet have a very different vocabulary.

"I created a hybrid," said Stuart. "Audiences will recognize the dance from the upper body, but the lower body is in skating language."

Unlike Chuckie, Muck and other young skaters speak that language fluently. It was the distinct "High School Musical" dance style that was challenging.

"It was tricky, and it's definitely very high-pace," said Muck, who learned the routines with the rest of the cast in five weeks. "You take a lot of classically trained skaters like us -- a lot of us have taken ballet and a little bit of jazz and tap while we were competing -- and get us into this hip-hop craziness, moving 100 miles a minute."

You'd think there would be more reports of injury with 34 young athletes whizzing across the ice every night, but things have been smooth, said Stuart. "We had one accident during rehearsal where one skater slipped and fell into a locker, and knocked it over, but the kid was fine, and the locker was stood right up afterwards," she said.

By now, the young pros have their heads in the game and are ready to go. What time is it?

It's ice time.

E-mail: shih@northjersey.com

Copyright © 2007 North Jersey Media Group Inc.

Breathe

A toast to the breath of life
Friday, September 28, 2007

By EVELYN SHIH
STAFF WRITER

If you're a saxophonist, the last thing you want to run out of is air. A powerful line might come out breathy, weak or worse -- you might make no sound at all.

[left: Saco Yasuma, courtesy of corneliastreetcafe.net]

Japanese saxophonist Saco Yasuma had trouble mustering the breath 18 years ago, when she began studying her art. But now, thanks to a set of breathing exercises she's been using for the past three years, her music has a new energy.

"I know how important air is to me," she said.

Most people would celebrate their good health and move on. But Yasuma decided to compose a tribute to that substance that gave both her and her music life. Her "Air Suite" debuts Saturday at the Brecht Forum on the west bank of Manhattan.

"Air makes you feel really good, but you don't feel the air all the time," she explained. "For example, when we go to the beach, or we go to a mountain, or go to another country, or the season changes -- you feel the air change. That really inspires you to go in a new direction."

Although she works mostly with Synergy, a free jazz group that prizes improvisation over structure, Yasuma returned to some of her childhood classical music roots with the suite, scripting most of it tightly with counterpoint. But as a composer, she doesn't limit herself to genre boundaries.

"I've listened to music from different places and eras," she said. "In my mind, it is all mixed together. There is no genre in my system.

"Music is one," she added.

In fact, she sees all the arts as a continuous whole. Yasuma, who has worked with visual artists and poets on other projects, brings in dancer Amon Bey to show the movement of air during her band's performance of "Air Suite."

"When I was writing the music, I made drawings in the margins," she said. "Then I went back and realized that there were some images in my mind of movement. I realized that I should show the interplay between the dance and music.

"Usually when we use more than two instruments, that interplay happens," she explained. So adding the element of dance will be nothing new.

In fact, Amon Bey is the son of her longtime artistic partner, Amir Bey, who makes masks and costumes for Synergy. "Air Suite" is the second generation of Yasuma's musical experimentation.

"Music is really fun, but I'm looking forward to do more collaboration with other kinds of art," she said. "I want to expand my imagination."

E-mail: shih@northjersey.com

Copyright © 2007 North Jersey Media Group Inc.

Get Out Your Succoth Scythe

Camping out with an eye toward tradition
Thursday, September 27, 2007

By EVELYN SHIH
STAFF WRITER

When 6-year-old Zev Spencer-Shapiro asked if his family could sleep outside for a week, his mother said: "Sure."

[Left: Zev Spencer-Shapiro and dad Scott. My photo!]

"We'll see how many nights he'll want to do that," laughed mom Kerith Shapiro.

But she agreed to try, for the first time, sleeping under the stars with her husband, son and daughter.

After all, it's the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. And the family plans to sleep in a special booth, or sukkah, made in part from reeds harvested with their own hands at the Teaneck Creek Conservancy.

Sukkot, which started Wednesday night, pays tribute to the nomadic life of the Israelites after the Exodus from Egypt. For 40 years, they wandered in the desert, living in huts and tents. Modern Jews celebrate the holiday by erecting their own sukkah at their temples or in their own back yards.

Families typically eat in the sukkah, and some sleep in the makeshift hut, though spending the night is optional.

The sukkah can be made from all sorts of materials, explained Shapiro, who is the cantor and spiritual leader at Congregation Adas Emuno, a Reform synagogue in Leonia. Her family's sukkah is made of wood and muslin. Their temple's hut was made of steel pipes, bamboo and steel. As long as the structure follows the ancient guidelines, there is a lot of creative freedom.

One important regulation concerns the roof: You must be able to see the sky and stars. In past years, Adas Emuno has used bamboo, and Shapiro has seen pine boughs put to use as pleasant-smelling thatch.

But this year, the roof would be more than a natural, see-through covering.

It would be a double mitzvah.

The Teaneck Creek Conservancy, a 46-acre nature preserve in Overpeck Park, is overpopulated with phragmites, the scientific name for the common reed. On Sunday, Beth Ravit, a member of Adas Emuno, led various Bergen County Jewish groups and families onto the park's trails to cut back the overgrowth and to gather material for the roofs of their sukkahs.

Ravit, a Rutgers University professor and director of an environmental research clinic, has been working on restoring the conservancy for three years. She started a Sukkot reed harvest last year. Many of the same Jewish groups returned this year with newcomers.

Zev and his family were harvesting for the first time.

"Yay, phragmites!" he said as he cut tall reeds and handed them to his father, Scott Spencer.

"I'm his biggest helper," said Spencer with a smile.

The Temple Beth-el group from Closter brought three families of very eager reed-cutters, the most enthusiastic of which were all under 10 years old.

Sarah Bogen, 9, forged into thickets of reeds in her blue soccer uniform. Nathan Hall, 8, claimed to have found "the tallest reed."
[Left: Dana Hall and son Nathan. My photo!]

His 6-year-old brother Charlie didn't let the big kids get ahead of him.

The adults were all too glad to introduce their children to the Jewish concept of "tikkun olam," or "repair of the world."

"What we're doing has a ritual purpose," explained cantor Shapiro. "But it's also at the same time helping to take care of the environment."

Sukkot in particular encourages Jews to think about the ephemeral quality of life, Shapiro added.

"Everyone takes for granted that our natural world will al-ways exist," she said. "And the world should have more permanence ... but we're making problems."

E-mail: shih@northjersey.com

Copyright © 2007 North Jersey Media Group Inc.
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Stop in the Name of the Story

Spinning their tales, just for the love of it
Thursday, September 27, 2007

By EVELYN SHIH
STAFF WRITER

Rivka Willick's father could stop the wheels on the bus from turning.

[Left: Rivka Willick, courtesy of folkproject.org]

After retirement, the old man had a habit of going on bus tours to faraway locales. Every morning when getting on the bus, he would walk himself down to the second-to-last row, sit down and begin telling stories.

The other passengers would initially clamor for seats at the front of the bus as usual, but as his story got into its stride, their ears would start to bend backward. They would begin gathering at the back of the bus, trying to get as close to the storyteller as possible.

One day as he was telling a story, the driver stopped the bus with no warning. The man pulled the vehicle over to the side of the road, parked and walked to the back of the bus.

"I've been driving all week," he said. "But I've got to hear this story."

"If you meet a teller, they can do that," said Willick, who lives in Passaic. "They can pull people in. Half the people in the National Storytelling Network are hobbyists."

Unlike her father, however, Willick is a professional storyteller. She will be running a workshop at the 15th annual New Jersey Storytelling Festival this Sunday and has been turning her passion for tales into a career for four years.

There might be only the finest of lines between storytelling and other performing arts, but Willick sees it as a distinct art form.

"The simplest explanation is, a teller does not memorize or read, but passes over a story from themselves to the audience," she explained. Various performers might have specific methods, including the use of puppets, props or music, or they might rely on nothing other than charisma.

"There is an interaction between the teller and the audience that just brings everyone to a different place," said Jack McKeon, a teller from Teaneck. "A connection is created."

McKeon first experienced that connection as a teacher at Ridgewood High School, where he began telling tales in his class on myths. It would be only appropriate, he reasoned, to introduce that sort of material in storytelling form.

He has never regretted that departure from the curriculum.

"The first story I told them was Jack and the Beanstalk," said McKeon. "Once they realized what the story was, they didn't know whether to take me seriously or not." But soon they began to pay attention.

"It ceased to be school, somehow," he said. In the year that followed, McKeon would take a sabbatical to learn the craft from, among others, Julia Della Torre from Glen Rock, a co-founder of the New Jersey Storytelling Festival. He would go on to teach storytelling at his school and find new source material in myth.

Now retired, McKeon has made storytelling into a second career. "It's just not a full-time thing yet," he said ruefully, admitting that he doesn't get to perform as often as he would like.

That may be because the ancient performance art isn't as developed in our part of the world as others.

Born in Michigan and a former resident of Atlanta, Willick came from areas of the country with much more storytelling culture. "In New Jersey when you say you're a storyteller, people look at you like, 'Huh?' " she said.

"Storytelling isn't an important cultural thing here in North Jersey," agreed McKeon. "There's always a sense that these stories will fall out of circulation. I like the idea of bringing them back and retelling them."

At the Storytelling Festival, tellers of various stripes will be doing their best to keep their stories in the hearts and minds of listeners. Some, like McKeon, may draw from folklore. Others, like Willick, may draw from real stories of acquaintances and historical sources. Tellers may even draw from literary sources, embellishing on tales made famous by the likes of Mark Twain.

Five stages, including a children's stage and an adults-only venue, will be open simultaneously.

But "even with a big audience, there is an intimate connection," said Willick. "I always say it's the most intimate thing people can exchange without body fluid."

E-mail: shih@northjersey.com

Copyright © 2007 North Jersey Media Group Inc.

Scarily Soon

Holidays creep up on the calendar
Sunday, September 23, 2007

By EVELYN SHIH
STAFF WRITER

Scott Young of Hackensack is behind on his Halloween preparations. He's already cut some characters out of plywood, but he still needs to paint them, bolt them into the ground with angle irons and set up his timing-based lighting system. He also needs to rent a costume that fits in with the theme and buy candy to fill his 18-gallon Rubbermaid tubs -- all by late next week.

Why, oh why, did he not start in August?

[Above: Clinton Place display on Halloween night, 2006. Photographer: Evelyn Shih]

Granted, Young lives on the legendary Clinton Place, where hordes of locals and visitors gather every year to see over-the-top Halloween decorations. (A few years ago, he spent three months creating his "Finding Nemo" display from scratch.) But Young isn't alone in preparing early for the spookiest day of the year. Orange and black can be seen dotting North Jersey retailers sometimes before Labor Day, a testament that Halloween, once thought an October holiday, really begins in August.

Growing euphoria

Nobody would be surprised to hear that Christmas gets earlier every year -- what with being the biggest holiday for retailers and home decorators alike. But other holidays, like Halloween, St. Patrick's Day, the Fourth of July and even Mardi Gras, are slowly spinning their webs of influence to cover any untouched day of the calendar.

According to shop owners, it's a happy (and profitable) cycle of growing holiday euphoria. The more consumer interest there is in a holiday, the more merchandise is ordered to fill that need. "Carrying seasonal merchandise increases shopper frequency," explained JC Penney's Rick Jones, director of merchandise implementation.

But the more merchandise you get from manufacturers, the more time you need to get those fog machines and light-up eyeballs into stores. Pretty soon, you're receiving Halloween items by the Fourth of July, said Bergen County Party City franchise owner Ellen Sarma.

"Over the past 10 years, we've been expanding our categories, and we need to start putting items out earlier to get all the assortments out in time," she said.

Not just for kids

It helps that Halloween as a holiday has grown up. Not only do kids get revved up for the Big Night O' Fun, but adults also dress up for work, hold parties and decorate their homes and lawns. According to the National Retail Federation, 85.3 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds celebrated the holiday in 2006 (up from 66.8 percent in 2005). They edged out the 76.5 percent of those ages 25 to 34 and the 71.3 percent between 35 and 44 who also partied it up.

All this added up to national spending on the holiday amounting to nearly $5 billion last year, with $1.31 billion spent on decorations alone.

"Can it be a pain in the butt? Sure, it can be," said Francisco Rodriguez, a 37-year-old neighbor of the Youngs on Clinton Place. "Wind can blow over your display. There might be rain; fog machines die. ... But it's totally as much fun for the adults as it is for the kids."

To help adults like Rodriguez and Young with their preparations, Better Homes & Gardens Special Interest Publications puts out holiday editions. This year, Halloween Tricks & Treats hit the shelves Aug. 28 and was expected to sell 425,000 copies. It was joined by a new Halloween booklet, "Bright Ideas: Halloween Parties & Treats," published Sept. 4.

The new publication "used to be just a few pages," said Emily Bethel from the publications' advertising and sales department. "But it expanded to its own publication."

And lest you think that this is too much lead time, consider this: The Christmas cookies edition hits newsstands Tuesday.

A green month

While Halloween is the current example of holiday creep, it isn't alone. Annual celebrations such as St. Patrick's Day and the Fourth of July are also undergoing a type of expansion.

St. Patrick's Day, for example, has risen from its humble beginnings as a fete on the saint's day of death to an entire month of green-themed festivities. The Bergen County parade in Bergenfield will be March 9, and the well-attended Hoboken parade will be even earlier on March 1. The Highlands parade will resurrect the spirit of Ireland for a parade March 24, one week after the actual date of the holiday.

The reason? Few towns want to risk losing people (and much-needed revenue) to the gargantuan New York City parade on March 17. Parades often share the same group of performers -- bagpipe bands are constantly in demand during March -- and, in many cases, the same group of celebrants. They also want to avoid overlapping with other holidays showing signs of creep, such as early Easter celebrations, said Dick Moloney, a past chairman of the Bergen parade committee.

The earlier the better

After setting the date of the parade, community groups also need to start fund-raising, booking bands and inviting groups to create floats. The same is true of Fourth of July celebrations, said Margie Downs, one of the leaders of Ridgewood's Fourth of July committee.

"We met on July 9 to discuss how things went this year and to start thinking of themes for the next year," she said. And it's never too early to start planning for the Ridgewood parade's centennial coming up in 2010, she said.

With the world perpetually stuck in pre-planning mode, Ho-Ho-Kus storeowner Kathleen Vard is one of the few believers in the present.

"I like to stay in the moment," said Vard, who puts up a different window display for her lifestyle store Comme Si Comme Ca every month. "I know I defy the general trend."

But even Vard will admit that the folk artists she works with are already planning for Halloween 2008. And sometimes, seasons sneak upon us earlier than we expect. "Right now I've got a real itch to put some pumpkins in the window," she said. "I don't really like to, but I was up in the Catskills, and there were pumpkins everywhere."

E-mail: shih@northjersey.com

Copyright © 2007 North Jersey Media Group Inc.

Times Square Opera House

Simulcast of 'Lucia' offered at outdoor sites
Friday, September 21, 2007

By EVELYN SHIH
STAFF WRITER

You may not expect to hear an accolade like "It was bone-chillin' " from an opera critic. But Elena Park of the Metropolitan Opera says that was her favorite comment about its production of "Madama Butterfly" last year.

[Left: Natalie Dessay as Lucia di Lammermoor. Courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera.]

The critic in question was a young man on the street in Times Square, speaking in a television interview. He had been passing through when he looked up and saw the iconic large screens of Panasonic, Toys "R" Us and Anheuser-Busch -- not showing advertisements, but instead a live broadcast from the Met, complete with music by Giacomo Puccini pouring out of a cluster of speakers in the square.

Park hopes this year's season premiere production, "Lucia di Lammermoor," will inspire a similar reaction when it hits the square Monday."It was easier this year, because last year we were still calling up to the city and the mayor," Park said. "It was such a surprising idea -- the Met Opera live in Times Square -- that people were excited, but they didn't understand logistically how it would work. Everyone had to scramble and work together to figure out on-the-ground details like traffic and security."

This time, everything is on track for a simulcast from the opera house that will be shown on screens in Times Square as well as the Josie Robertson Plaza at Lincoln Center.

"We're just hoping it won't rain!" Park said.

If you don't score one of the 1,500 seats at Times Square, don't worry, she added. Last year, passers-by leaned against seating area barricades to watch a scene, an act or even the whole show.

This production of "Lucia" was masterminded by Tony Award-winning director Mary Zimmerman of "Metamorphoses" fame and is highly visual, Park said. Lead soprano Natalie Dessay is known for her acting prowess in addition to her singing talent, and is expected to be striking on the big screen.

The Donizetti opera, beloved as a fine specimen of bel canto style where musical embellishments sometimes overwhelm the story, features a "mad scene" in which Lucia raves about the love of her life after having murdered the man she was forced to marry instead.

And lest you think the plot is overly dramatic, remember that it was taken from a true story, Park said.

"It's made for the New York Post," she joked.

E-mail: shih@northjersey.com

Copyright © 2007 North Jersey Media Group Inc.

Swoon Happy: $10 seats for world class dance

Keeping a dance tradition alive
Friday, September 21, 2007

By EVELYN SHIH
STAFF WRITER

Choreographer Doug Varone has fond memories of the Delacorte Dance Festival of the '60s and '70s, where he once performed as a dancer. The festival brought together prestigious companies and emerging young talent in an outdoor Central Park extravaganza.

The fourth annual Fall for Dance Festival at New York City Center carries on the Delacorte's populist tradition. For $10, dance aficionados and novices alike can catch one of six omnibus shows on 10 nights.

[Above: Camille A. Brown, who will perform at the Fall for Dance Festival. Courtesy of unsexiestmen.net]

"At a certain point, the Delacorte disappeared, and I think what Fall for Dance is doing is filling in that void again," said Varone.

"Dance is in everything we do and in every aspect of our lives," he added. "As an artist, I love trying to find ways to make people understand that -- as opposed to making people feel at a loss for what it is we do."

CEO Arlene Shuler, another Delacorte veteran, launched the Fall for Dance Festival three years ago when she took over City Center. She was inspired by her memory of the Delacorte, as well as by the center's mission to serve the public.

The different programs of the festival aren't arranged by theme so much as by a principle of diversity, said Shuler. "We wanted to have at least one major company an evening to draw audiences, sort of as an anchor," she said. "But from the beginning, we brought in young, emerging choreographers alongside the well-known companies."

Varone is "anchoring" an evening with his company's performance of "Lux." Since the days of the Delacorte, he has become a force to be reckoned with in the world of dance.

This year's new kids on the block include choreographer Camille A. Brown, who will perform a solo of her own fashioning titled "The Evolution of a Secured Feminine."

"This is the first time I'm going to be performing my own work in such a huge house," said Brown, adding that the largest venue she has shown her pieces in so far was less than a tenth the capacity of City Center.

"It gives you such a chance to really get your work out there and have it seen by such a variety of people," she said.

Shuler agreed. "Someone who comes to City Center to see the American Ballet Theatre may not be exposed to a downtown choreographer like Larry Keigwin," she said. "So they see Larry's work, and all of a sudden they say, 'Well, that's exciting.' The cross-fertilization works in both directions."

The festival features an expanded international presence this year, thanks to the addition of four repeat performances. International companies find it easier to justify the travel expense if there is more than one performance, explained Shuler.

Among the companies making their U.S. debut are Srishti – Nina Rajarani Dance Creations, which performs classical Indian dance with a contemporary twist, and Via Katlehong, a South African group that performs traditional gumboot.

Prestigious companies from abroad, like the Kirov Ballet of the Mariinsky Theatre of St. Petersburg, Russia, will also make an appearance. "I don't know if we can call New York the capital of the world, but the capital of dance -- definitely," said spokesman Sergei Danilian.

The commute, however, can be quite tiring. Two dancers from the Kirov Ballet will fly in to perform the "Middle Duet" before flying straight back for the beginning of their St. Petersburg season.

Similarly, domestic dance artists from out of town will travel into New York expressly for the festival. Minnesota Fringe Festival's "Best in Fringe" performance, Buckets and Tap Shoes, will make the trip with a tight group of six dancers and musicians, said group leader Rick Ausland. This will be their New York debut.

"Sometimes people are like, 'Oh, you performed in New York. You must be doing something right,' " said Ausland. "Hopefully, it will give us more gigs."

E-mail: shih@northjersey.com

Copyright © 2007 North Jersey Media Group Inc.

Mm mm good.

Silky roasted yellow pepper soup
Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Vegetarian recipes from recently released cookbooks:

"Soup's On!" by Leslie Jonath and Frankie Frankeny (Chronicle Books, 2007)

Food writers and chefs contribute their favorite soups for this celebration of the first course. Here's your chance to perfect your vegetarian stock and learn a few tricks about blending vegetable flavors.

-- Evelyn Shih
* * *

Silky roasted yellow pepper soup

* 4 to 5 meaty yellow bell peppers, tops sliced off, cores and seeds removed but reserved
* 2 tablespoons finely diced raw bell peppers, different colors
* Olive oil, as needed
* 1 small red onion, thinly sliced (about 1 cup)
* Vinegar, such as chardonnay, sherry or balsamic
* Soup stock (see below)

Preheat the broiler and position a rack about 8 inches beneath the broiling unit.

Cut the peppers in half, lengthwise, and flatten them. Brush the skins with oil and place them skin-side up on a baking sheet.

Broil only until the skin is bubbling, puckering and light brown. Put them in a bowl, cover, and leave them to steam for at least 15 minutes.

Heat 1½ tablespoons of oil in a soup pot. Add the onion and cook over low heat while you peel the peppers. Pull or scrape off as much skin as you can, then chop and add the peppers to the pot as you go, along with ½ teaspoon salt and the soup stock.

Bring to a boil and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes. Cool slightly, then puree in batches.

Taste for salt and add a few drops of vinegar to bring everything together. Serve with a spoonful of the diced peppers scattered over each bowl.

Servings: 4 to 6.
* * *

Soup stock

* 2 teaspoons olive oil
* 1 small onion, sliced
* Cores and trimmings from bell peppers
* 1 small zucchini, chopped
* 1 small carrot, chopped
* 1 large tomato, halved
* 1 pinch fresh thyme
* Fresh basil sprigs or leaves
* Sea salt

Heat the oil in a pot over medium heat, add the onion and the pepper cores, zucchini, carrot and tomatoes as you slice them, along with the thyme, basil and a scant teaspoon of sea salt.

When the onion has some color, add 5 cups of water, bring to a boil, then simmer partially covered for about 25 minutes. Strain and discard the solids.

Copyright © 2007 North Jersey Media Group Inc.

Korean epiphanies

Dancers express messages in movement
Friday, September 14, 2007

By EVELYN SHIH
STAFF WRITER

A woman with a shaved head and Buddhist monk's robes twirls in the middle of the stage to the sound of an insistent singsong chant. She seems to be moving slowly, repeating ritual circles, turning cymbals in her hands with unhurried assurance; and yet, she dances in time. The constant flow of her long sleeves and robes, though full of motion, paradoxically creates a feeling of rest and stillness between the crashes of the two brass discs.
[Photo above: from a performance of "Across the DMZ," courtesy of Sudden Enlightenment]

Along with the two dancers behind her, robed in white, Monk Jihyun rehearses the Buddhist Ceremony for the Dead. But the honoree is no one -- and everyone at the same time. They are performing in a piece called "49 Days After Death" for "The Road," the Sudden Enlightenment Theatre's 10th anniversary show at Symphony Space.

The dance company has created a niche for itself in dramatic presentations of Korean culture using traditional and modern Western techniques. Director Eun-Hee Kim and choreographer Hey Jeong Yoon joined forces in 1997 after meeting as neighbors in Astoria, Queens.

"I have a theater background in straight plays," said Kim. "But to say something with words has its limits, I think. It gives definitions, but it reduces imagination. Dance is a little bit more abstract than theater pieces, but it gives a lot of imagination."

The opening of "49 Days," for example, features Monk Jihyun's drumming, followed by the symbolic passage of a soul, played by Yoon, through the limbo following death. As she wades slowly through swaths of waist-high white cloth, she physicalizes the soul's reluctance to move on to its next life.

In a later ensemble segment, dancers use framed mirrors to confront each other, themselves and the audience with the reflections. "The mirror is the symbol of karma," said Kim. "Look at yourself, it says. Look at your karma, look at the bad energy of the three poisons of the mind: greed, ignorance and anger."

Other excerpted pieces in this retrospective performance tackle touchstones in Korean and Korean-American history.

"Dreams of a Picture Bride" dramatizes the story of the first female Korean immigrants to America, who arrived as mail-order brides for Korean men working in the sugar cane fields of Hawaii.

The plot revolves around a naive young wife, played by Ashley Drowne, whose older husband had used an outdated picture to mislead her about his age. She rejects his advances as much as she can but cannot return to her native Korea. The husband, played with alternating sinister authority and real pathos by Manuel Palazzo, is genuinely distressed by the situation and tries his best to reconcile with his wife while undertaking the punishing work of the cane fields.

In another segment in the piece, the dancers, led by Michelle Lee, break into a traditional Korean song during a moving scene evocative of plantation slave labor. The song, "Arirang," is sung in times of hardship, explained Yoon.

In "Beyond the DMZ," Kim and Yoon tell the emotional story behind the separation of North and South Korea. Dancers Blake Faulds and Cornelius Brown square off, sparring once with flags and another time across a symbolic negotiation table. In between, dancers walk across the stage using repetitive motions -- indicative of time passing, said Yoon -- and roll in fits of agony, holding black rubber balls that represent bombs.

The final segment brings out the emotional core of the piece with an ensemble number that simulates a 1983 gathering in South Korea, where people from all over the country tried to find lost loved ones after decades of separation. Each dancer holds a placard with a photograph and a name, and all roam the stage in alternating throes of hope and disappointment.

The most powerful image may be the sight of the whole company standing, silent and unmoving but bursting with energy, holding the missing persons signs high above their heads. Actions, they seem to say, speak louder than any politician's words.

E-mail: shih@northjersey.com

Copyright © 2007 North Jersey Media Group Inc.

Hurry, hurr'ih, hurr-eh

The circus will come to your party
Friday, September 14, 2007

By EVELYN SHIH
STAFF WRITER

Step right up to your kitchen phone, ladies and gentlemen. With enough time for planning and some moolah, you could get the greatest show on earth where you want it, when you want it.

[At left: "Grandma," the star clown of the Big Apple Circus. Courtesy of the Big Apple Circus.]

"We put on a world-class show, then clean up and leave," said Jim Roper, director of Big Apple Circus' Circus to Go division. "The idea is to make you happy."

Since he took over the department three years ago, Roper has been putting the show on the road to bar mitzvahs, corporate events and big venues across the nation.

Big venues include the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, which kicks off its 10th anniversary season this year with an extra-large Circus to Go production. The daylong extravaganza involves three shows on an outdoor stage and 20 walk-around entertainers armed with balloons, face paint and some tricks up their sleeves. Alumni of the center's Jazz for Teens program will perform on a side stage, and 10,000 tickets to the season's shows will be sold at the event for only $10.

NJPAC has ordered up a buffet of options for all ages and all walks of life. But the unifying goal, as with all jobs the circus takes on, is the wow factor. "They want people to come and say, 'Wow, did you see that? How'd they do that?' " Roper said.

The show will feature acrobats flipping up and down silk runners; a Russian bar act where two men toss a woman 30 feet into the air on a bar for some death-defying somersaults; a quick-change act in which a woman's dress magically changes eight times onstage; and Grandma the clown.

"He's one of our main attractions in the main show," said Roper of the clown, whose real name is Barry Lubin. "We're just lucky to get him in this show."

Lubin, a native of Garwood, has performed in faraway locales from Turkey to Taiwan and is the director of clowning for the Big Apple Circus. His Grandma persona charms adults and has kids running to him after shows with big smiles.

The performers will be coming from around the nation, said Roper. Circus to Go keeps tabs on performers who have worked with Big Apple Circus and calls them up for specific shows. Wherever they are at the time of the show -- Las Vegas is a popular town for working performers, Roper said -- they are flown in for the event, then flown back on the circus' dime.

"They all know each other, and everyone goes out to dinner the night before -- it's like a little reunion," said Roper. "Sometimes if there's another show nearby, performers will be like, 'Oh, is everyone else going? I'll go too.' "

Being on the road means making a lot of adjustments from event to event. Roper recalls a smaller show at the Central Park Boathouse Restaurant for the bar mitzvah of a young autistic boy who loved Grandma. The show had to expand for a Radio City Music Hall event, and shrink back down for a 60th wedding anniversary at the fancy Greenbriar Hotel in West Virginia. "The Russian bar act folks told me they'd do a 20-foot act instead," said Roper.

Whatever the challenge, Circus to Go makes it work. One year, for the Fiesta Broadway festival in Los Angeles, Roper found himself improvising a tightrope. A bank wanted a high-wire act to advertise the fact that it did international money wiring.

"Try and rent cranes and not telling the owners what they're for!" said Roper.

E-mail: shih@northjersey.com

Copyright © 2007 North Jersey Media Group Inc.

Battle of the Er-hu Bands

The metal voice for Taiwan
Wednesday, September 12, 2007

By EVELYN SHIH
STAFF WRITER

Taiwanese extreme metal band Chthonic has a major beef. What other band rages against a machine as big as as the world's largest country, population 1 billion?

[Chthonic, left, courtesy of howling-bull.co.jp]

A rock band with a face-paint obsession may not seem like the most likely candidate to advocate United Nations membership for Taiwan, which China considers a renegade province. But on their current North American tour "UNlimited" -- which included several shows at Ozzfest -- the members of Chthonic mix the righteous rage of metal with a message of empowerment for their home country.

"Metal fans understand the idea of justice," says vocalist Freddy Lim, who writes songs about the UN situation as well as Taiwanese legends and myths. "Before I sing [tour theme song] 'UNlimited Taiwan,' I always talk a little bit about Taiwan and the United Nations, but always in heavy metal language with a lot of cursing. It's not a very logical dialogue; it's a simple language, just to make the fans get interested."

[Left: Lim without the make-up, courtesy of Chthonic blog Invali]

If fans are intrigued after hearing Chthonic at B.B. King's tonight or at the Highline Ballroom on Sunday, they have a wealth of information available to them with the click of a mouse, says Lim. His own metal obsession began when he realized that Scandinavian metal used old Viking myths to carry explosive musical emotion. "I went to the library quite a lot," says Lim. "But now they can find everything on the Internet."

There's a lot to learn. On the band's Web site, fans can tap into the Taiwanese folk elements of the band's black-and-white Kiss-style face paint, the myths mentioned, and even the instrument that gives them their mournful sound: the erhu, sometimes called the Chinese violin.

At the Highline, Chthonic will be double-billing with another erhu band, Hsu-nami. Fronted by Jack Hsu of Tenafly, the rock fusion band from Ramapo. N.Y., played at the Passport to Taiwan festival in Manhattan earlier this summer and is looking forward to sharing the stage with Chthonic.

"It's going to be erhu fever," says Hsu, who emigrated from Taiwan at age 12. After mastering the violin at an early age, he turned to the traditional instrument and took some intensive lessons in Nanjing. "I picked it up pretty quickly because I had the violin background.''

[Right, Hsu-nami, courtesy of Hsu-nami.com]

Hsu-nami, a veteran of CBGB, the Stone Pony and the Lion's Den in New York, has just finished recording a full-length album and will be shopping it to record labels this fall.

As for the Taiwan connection, Hsu readily admits to being a beneficiary of Chthonic's campaign. "I found out about the UN situation from their online videos," he says.

Lim will be going the extra mile. While the rest of the band prepares for Saturday night's gig in North Carolina, he will be in New York earlier in the day, speaking at a protest organized by the Committee for Admission of Taiwan to the United Nations. Concerned Taiwanese-Americans from all over the country will be demonstrating in hopes that the UN will consider the latest petition for membership.

"It's the responsibility of all Taiwanese," says Lim. "We have to do it; we have no choice. We have to fight for our own rights."

E-mail: shih@northjersey.com

Copyright © 2007 North Jersey Media Group Inc.

Chef for a Day

Manchego and Vidalia onion tart
Monday, September 10, 2007

Vegetarian recipes from recently released cookbooks:

"Impress for Less!" by Hope Fox (John Wiley & Sons, 2007)

Organized by city of origin, the dishes in this new cookbook come from chefs at restaurants around the country. Each restaurant offers one of its recipes, and Hope Fox adapts them for home cooks' convenience. Given that restaurants can choose only one dish to represent their menus, it's understandable that they might shy away from meatless creations. Fortunately, Talula in Miami Beach, Fla., which developed this tart recipe, understands that fine dining doesn't have to involve a steak knife.

-- Evelyn Shih
* * *

Manchego and Vidalia onion tart

* 1 store-bought 9-inch pie crust, thawed
* 1 stick unsalted butter
* 3 pounds Vidalia onions, thinly sliced
* ½ cup heavy cream
* 2 large eggs
* 1 large egg yolk
* 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt
* 2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
* ¾ pound aged manchego or pecorino Romano cheese, grated
* ½ cup chopped fresh herbs (parsley, chives, thyme)
* 1 bulb fennel, thinly sliced
* 1 red onion, thinly sliced
* 3 cups baby greens
* ¼ cup balsamic vinaigrette
* ¼ cup drained, diced, pickled beets
* Chopped fresh chives, for garnish

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Thaw the pie crust, if necessary.

In a large skillet over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the onions and cook, stirring frequently, until they are very tender and just beginning to caramelize, about 15 minutes. Set aside to cool.

In a large bowl, whisk together the cream, eggs, egg yolk, salt and pepper. Stir in the cheese and herbs. Spread the cooled onions evenly in the bottom of the pie crust. Pour in the egg mixture. Bake until the egg is just set, 25 to 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool 5 minutes before slicing.

Meanwhile, toss the fennel, onion and greens in a bowl with the vinaigrette. Divide among 4 serving plates. Place a spoonful of the beets to the side on each plate. Place a slice of the warm tart next to the salad and garnish with chopped chives.

Servings: 4.

Copyright © 2007 North Jersey Media Group Inc.

New "Little Mermaid" Anchored by Heavyweights

Little Mermaid. Image courtesy of disney.go.com

Unlikely duo takes 'Mermaid' to stage
Friday, September 7, 2007

By EVELYN SHIH
STAFF WRITER


What do Doug Wright and Francesca Zambello have in common?

If you're a theater buff, you might assume that it's a spot at the apex of the theater world. Wright won a Pulitzer Prize for writing "I Am My Own Wife," a one-man play about a charismatic German transvestite. Zambello is a world-famous opera director who has received the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres and Britain's Laurence Olivier Award.

But the real connection between Wright and Zambello is that they are collaborators on Disney's latest musical theater production, "The Little Mermaid," which ends its seven-week pre-Broadway run in Denver today.

"People who only know my playwrighting work are really surprised by the fact that I would be doing 'Little Mermaid,' but people who have known me over the years find it almost predictable," said Wright. "As a kid growing up in Dallas, Texas, I was a musical theater fanatic."

For him, it's a dream come true. For Zambello, who'll make her Broadway debut with "The Little Mermaid," the musical moves her in the direction she wants to go.

"I've been actively trying to do things in the past four or five years that will reach wider audiences," she said. Her recent theater projects included productions of "Showboat" in London at the Royal Albert Hall and "Tibet Through the Red Box," a new play by David Henry Hwang for the Seattle Children's Theatre.

Since the original Disney movie is 18 years old, Zambello and Wright updated some of the themes for today's kids -- and adults who are children at heart.

"Ariel is more proactive, and resolves the drama herself rather than just letting the prince resolve it," said Zambello. "There is more emphasis on the father-daughter relationship between Triton and Ariel, and more of a brother-sister dynamic between Triton and Ursula."

Still, it's the power of themes from the original tale that makes the show special.

"The story is a metaphor, and metaphors that are classic last forever," said Zambello. "It's like a Greek myth archetype of father and daughter, or the Montagues versus the Capulets [in Shakespeare.]"

Wright had a more personal passion for the material. "I think what makes the story universal is the fact that it's about a young woman who really wants to move beyond the confines of her home and family to discover who she truly is," he said. "As a kid growing up in Dallas, knowing that I wanted to leave one day and go to New York to carve out a career -- to reinvent myself to some degree -- the story really hit home."

When he was approached by Thomas Schumacher, the producer of Disney Theatrical Productions, Wright cut right to the chase. " 'What's up with 'The Little Mermaid?' " he asked. It was a serendipitous moment: Schumacher was searching for a book writer for that very musical.

Although Wright and Zambello were enthusiastic about the project from the beginning, there were obstacles to overcome. First on the agenda: How do you re-create an underwater world on a stage without it looking cheesy?

"We had to find our own visual language for the piece," said Zambello.

The underwater and aboveground worlds each have a distinctive vocabulary, both in the set and in the movement of actors on stage. Working with plastics company 3M, Zambello and set designer George Tsypin created a special incandescent, translucent material to suggest water. All actors wear shoes with wheels in the heel to allow both gliding and dance movements.

"It's a visual feast," said Zambello.

Wright, who has less experience working on shows with such large casts and lavish design, commended Zambello for her mastery of the atmosphere on set. "I was so daunted by the scale of 'Mermaid' with dancers and a complicated set and amazing lighting design and the use of projections," he said. "But Francesca projects a sense of determined calm and good humor. She brought the most collaborative and winning spirit into the room."

The production was a largely collaborative effort, from the book to the musical numbers -- 12 new songs were added to the original "Little Mermaid" score -- to the feel of the set.

"Usually playwrighting is such a solitary experience," said Wright. "There's been a real sense of esprit de corps on this project, and that's been great. ... There were times when I'd be writing a book scene and realize I needed a song, and I'd bring it up to [lyricist Glenn Slater] and [songwriter Alan Menken]. There'd be other times when they had an idea for a new musical number and asked me to accommodate in the book. Other times the director would say, 'Wouldn't it be great if we had a song here?' "

The musical will be Wright's second, coming after his adaptation of the documentary "Grey Gardens" for the stage. Although he thinks he'll be working on a "small, intimate drama" next, the experience of doing a Disney number has been overwhelmingly positive.

"When I became a 'serious writer,' I started to tackle darker topics," he explained. "But I've always, deep down in my soul, been a song-and-dance man."

E-mail: shih@northjersey.com

Copyright © 2007 North Jersey Media Group Inc.

Margaret Garner

Vital choices in a new opera
Friday, September 7, 2007

By EVELYN SHIH
STAFF WRITER

Mezzo-sopranos are used to playing second fiddle. With a range between soprano and contralto, these singers are underappreciated: always a bridesmaid -- and sometimes an evil witch -- never a bride.

[Richard Danielpour, pictured left. Courtesy of schirmir.com]

But American composer Richard Danielpour knew that Margaret Garner, whose story inspired Toni Morrison's "Beloved," could be nothing other than a mezzo.

"I had a sort of instinct; call it a hunch if you will," he said.

Working with Morrison as his librettist, Danielpour created the mezzo character of Margaret Garner, a pre-Civil War slave who escaped with her children but killed them rather than let them be taken back into enslavement. The opera "Margaret Garner" debuted in 2005 and comes to New York City Opera in a new production beginning Tuesday.

In a way, the role carries on the tradition of mezzo leads, said Danielpour. George Bizet's "Carmen" was another story of a strong woman in hopeless circumstances.

"The whole opera revolves around Carmen's ability to choose," said Danielpour. "Once she makes a choice, her power is played out. With Margaret, the only choice that she has left to her is in what she does to her children.

"She must have been aware that without the power to choose, there is no power at all."

Danielpour also chose the mezzo-soprano range because he had his heart set on the diva whose voice would carry the role: "Carmen" veteran Denyce Graves. "I just knew she would be the person that should first sing it," he said. "She was at the height of her career, and just entering her prime."

But Tracie Luck, the singer who will be playing the role for the New York debut, has a unique connection to the piece in its earliest form. It was Luck, not Graves, who worked on the role with the composer in its embryonic stages.

[Tracie Luck, pictured left. Courtesy of skidmore.edu]

"It was like preseason training," joked Luck about her intense work with Danielpour and Morrison before the world premiere. "I knew they relied on my suggestions. And that in itself was really an honor, to be digesting the music and expressing how I felt about them.

"It's so rare where you can talk to the composer and call him your friend."

"What is really worth mentioning about her is that she has grown as 'Margaret Garner' has grown," said Danielpour. "This is her moment. She's come full circle with me."

Luck and Danielpour have been on tour all year, visiting colleges and high schools across the nation to talk about the historical background of the opera and introduce youth to it. The New York City Opera production is the culmination of this series, dubbed "The Year of Margaret Garner." Tenafly High School was one of the stops on the circuit.

"People ask, 'Haven't we had enough about slavery?' " said Danielpour. "Well, maybe we have. But this is not just about slavery. This is about remembering that we are all a part of one family: the family of the human race. Terrible things happen when we forget this."

Margaret Garner, her children, her husband and other slaves were not considered entirely human in her time. Garner was put on trial for "destruction of property" instead of murder when she killed her own children.

But worth, explained Danielpour, is relative. Slaveowner "Edward Gaines is a free man, but in a way becomes enslaved to his attachments," he said. "Whereas Margaret is born as an enslaved person, but becomes free in her ability to make a choice."

E-mail: shih@northjersey.com

Copyright © 2007 North Jersey Media Group Inc.

Bergen's Artists Meet the Public

Bergen festival highlights local artists
Friday, September 7, 2007

By EVELYN SHIH
STAFF WRITER

The Bergen Museum's sixth annual Music & Art Festival rolls into town Sunday at the Bergen Mall. A celebration of local artists and craftsmen, the festival also features live music, a vintage car show, food and face painting.


[painting above by William C. Sturm. Courtesy of thebergenmuseum.com]

"The festival was begun by the museum to celebrate the arts and to give local and regional artists an opportunity to sell their work and to be seen," said museum President Peter Knipe. "Unlike many other music and art festivals, the museum's festival does not consist of exhibitors that sell mass-produced or manufactured items, or non-original art or craft items."

Ten best-in-show awards are given to artists and five more to crafters each year. Winners' works are showcased in a curated exhibition the following year.

Lisa Peters, a sculptor and ceramic jewelry maker, spoke recently about her experience at the festival. She belongs to the group Salute to Women in the Arts and has been a best-in-show winner two out of the three years she's participated.

Q. Is art your profession?

I was a professional photographer for 10 years, and I had my own studio. I closed it in the late '90s and decided to change mediums. ... I started out with fiber arts and moved to ceramics. I now have a very large online business selling ceramic buttons and jewelry. I also exhibit sculpture and mixed-media work in different galleries.

Q. What's the difference between selling pieces online and selling at the festival?

It gives me a chance to interact with people in person. It's not to say I don't have conversation with people on the Internet. But when people get to pick up something in their hands, that's entirely different. They have to see it in real time as opposed to just seeing it on a computer screen.

Q. Did you enjoy yourself at the festival?

I did, because I was surrounded by women in my organization. We all had our own booths, so that was fun. I liked to talk to people in the community, and they said they had never seen art like that. And it was nice that it was in Bergen County.

In general, people say [they] wish they knew more about it, and they have always expressed to me that they wished places like the Bergen Museum would make more outdoor festivals. They get very excited when they see things like that.

Some people are very intimidated to just take it upon themselves to go into a gallery, or think they need to make a day of a gallery trip. To have a festival that incorporates a whole experience with music, and things for the kids to do ... there's something for the whole family.

Q. Is there a lot of art in North Jersey that remains hidden to the general public?

There're a lot of organizations that I don't believe people know about. [Salute to Women in the Arts] has been around since 1974.

All these organizations need places to exhibit their work. It's important [for] businesses or galleries -- or any place with walls -- to be available for art. Artists are always looking for any place with walls.

E-mail: shih@northjersey.com

Copyright © 2007 North Jersey Media Group Inc.

"News" Story

Sun, sand, surf combine for a fine end to season
Sunday, September 2, 2007

By RICHARD COWEN and EVELYN SHIH
STAFF WRITERS

Some came to catch just one more wave, others to wave goodbye to the Summer of 2007.

Whatever the reason, hundreds of thousands of summer's faithful visited the Jersey Shore on Saturday, jamming the beaches, boardwalks and bars for the final big bash of the season.

In a summer where business has been just so-so, Mother Nature did her part and saved the best weather for the unofficial end. Bright blue skies, low humidity and a cool northern breeze that hinted of fall made for a great beach day to start the Labor Day weekend.

Amid all that sunshine, there was just a touch of blue in Russell Rabadeau's voice as he walked the beach at Belmar with his girlfriend, Cassie Gordon.

"We came here every other weekend this summer, and it was gorgeous," the Hoboken resident said. "But this will probably be it. This whole weekend feels like the end of summer, with people packing up their stuff and coming down for one last weekend. It's like the last hurrah."

The last hurrah also was going strong at Martell's Tiki Bar in Point Pleasant on Saturday afternoon, where beachgoers bellied up to the bar. Among the folks spotted at the bar was New York Giants tight end Jeremy Shockey, bidding adieu to summer before the NFL season gets under way next week.

Christiana Barbaro, 17, the hostess at Martell's, didn't want summer to end.

"This has been a very fun-filled summer," she said. "Lots of celebrities," she added, dropping the names of Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora, singer Southside Johnny and actor Danny DeVito as faces she's recognized in the crowds at Martell's. "And I heard a rumor that Justin Timberlake was here."

Some shore businesses say they could have used a little star power. Overall, the weather has been pretty good this summer, with only one or two rainy weekends, but business has been flat. Tourism experts say the Shore is evolving into less of a vacation destination and more of a weekend getaway. That brings a different kind of crowd -- one that generally doesn't spend as much.

"It's the economy," said Barbara Steele, director of Ocean County Public Affairs and Tourism. "Discretionary money isn't there, and people aren't spending.

"I'm hearing that they're doing very well on weekends, but midweek is a growing problem. It used to be that moms didn't work, and they stayed here with the kids. Now they are usually working, and it's more and more challenging to get that full week's stay."

Still, by the looks of things on Saturday, New Jerseyans remain in love with their shore, even if it is a bit tacky in some places and a bit too crowded in others. Many say they go to the Jersey Shore simply because there wouldn't be summer without it.

"My parents met at the Shore," Danielle Labonia of Montville said between bites of pizza on the boardwalk at Belmar. "My parents used to come down to the same places that I go to now: D'Jais and Bar A. Every time I come down the shore, it's a special thing for them. My mom tells me where I have to go."

Perhaps a tradition was born Saturday for Alex Chan of Wayne and his girlfriend, Sabrina Lee, who were making their first trip to the Jersey Shore. They stopped into 3 Brothers and Santoros Pizzeria/Italian Deli for a bite to eat.

"That's the nice thing about it," Lee said. "It's close enough to come down just for the day."

Inside, owner David DiLorenzo was scrambling to keep his business going.

"We're shorthanded today," he said. "All the college kids are gone by Labor Day weekend. This is when you call your friends."

While Labor Day generally spells the end of the tourist season, it does bring some good news for visitors. After Monday, most of the beaches will be free -- with some great weather still ahead.

"Anyone who lives down here knows that September and October are the best months of the year," said Tony Giordano, owner of the Ocean Hut Surf Shop in Lavallette. "Around Halloween, the water starts to cool off into the 60s, and by Thanksgiving it will be in the 50s. We'll be open every day till Christmas."

Staff Writer Kevin G. Demarrais contributed to this article.

Copyright © 2007 North Jersey Media Group Inc.

Viva la Old Tech

Sticking to tried and true
Tuesday, September 4, 2007

By EVELYN SHIH
STAFF WRITER

Forget about the generation gap in technology. In the current rat race of constantly updated contraptions, you're behind your own peers if you don't know the development of the week.

Still, there are those among us who refuse to download the siren song of progress. People who say thanks, but no thanks to newfangled gizmos. People who are perfectly happy being low-tech. . They live among us as neighbors and relatives.

In our brave and daily new world, are they anachronistic -- or do they have a point?

Typewriter

"There are just as many things that we do on a computer that are simply better done by hand," said Joe Fontanazza of Wyckoff, owner of Ridgewood Typewriters.

For example: typing the address on an envelope, or filling out a multiple-part form.

"Give me a 12-year-old kid on a typewriter, and by the time you fill out this form, the kid'll beat you," said Fontanazza.

A second business of his, Trademark Office Products, sells computer products. But Fontanazza says the typewriter isn't going anywhere soon. Municipal offices and schools, veritable paperwork factories, are constant clients. Creative writers who have worked on typewriters for decades continue coming to Fontanazza for help with maintenance.

"I've been mentioned in bibliography of books because I kept their machines running," said Fontanazza proudly. "Believe it or not, there's a segment of people who work better with a typewriter than on the computer."

And just recently, Fontanazza serviced a 1940s upright Underwood typewriter to keep it up and running. "There are people who love their machines," he said.

Still, it was a bittersweet moment recently when a mother brought in her children to buy stationery, and the boy asked, looking at a displayed typewriter: "Mommy, what is that?"

Vinyl

Michael Fremer of Wyckoff has become the unofficial standard bearer of vinyl records in a world of CDs and MP3s. He started writing for Stereophile magazine in the 1980s as a columnist, turning out a feature titled "Analog Corner." Since then, he's become an editor at large.

"You used to buy a record, you sat and you listened," Fremer said. "You didn't read a book or talk to your friends -- you paid attention. Kids don't do that anymore. They play music while they're doing something else. It's become a secondary activity because it's no longer compelling."

A baby boomer at age 60, Fremer is excited about a vinyl comeback after a drought in the 1990s. "What saved the vinyl business was the DJ business," he said, "but this no longer has anything to do with DJs."

He points to the fact that even Circuit City, a mainstream electronics retail store, provides 10,000 vinyl selections. Virgin Megastore has recently begun offering a great variety. And young bands are pressing LPs in tandem with CD and iTunes releases.

Funny thing is, Fremer owns an iPod. He purchased the latest Arcade Fire album on iTunes before he bought it on vinyl. "I think the iPod is the greatest technology for bringing the access of music to people," he said.

Then he showed his true colors. "If you can get a kid with an iPod to plug it into a hi-fi system, it'll sound great."

Film cameras

Like most other hobby and freelance photographers, Bruce Albert of Ramsey owns both film and digital cameras. But "if I were given a doomsday scenario, I would grab my film cameras," he said. "As long as there's light, the photochemical process will always be there, and it only takes a spring to make the exposure."

Film, he explains, has become mostly relegated to fine art prints. Dark room work requires time and patience. Even if the finished product is more beautiful than a digital image, there are few clients who would wait for a photographer to do the work. Color film, in particular, has become more difficult to work with because companies that process the film into slides or prints have been going out of business.

A member of the Ridgewood Photography Club since 1975, Albert still uses a Hasselblad camera with 2¼-inch-square film for his fine art black and white exposures. The state-of-the-art camera company now manufactures digital versions of the same camera, but they go for a cool $12,000.

But today, even professionals who demand high quality are turning coat.

Michael Yamashita, a photographer for National Geographic who grew up in Montclair, switched over to a digital camera last year. "Two years ago, 90 percent of National Geographic photographers were shooting film, and 10 percent were shooting digital," he said. "Last year, it switched to 10 percent film, 90 percent digital."

Simple phone

The new iPhone made a splash this summer, widely advertising features like easy Web browsing, YouTube videos in your pocket, and touch-screen navigation. Critics pointed out that some of those functions were already covered by other smart phones and Blackberries. In fact, so many people can now stream video on their phones that media companies are investing in mobile content departments to fill those tiny screens.

But when Emmerson Johnson of Clifton gets a new phone, he won't be looking for bells and whistles.

"Even if I upgrade, I will ask for a basic phone," said the business owner. His current phone does not take pictures or video. Nor does it do Internet and e-mail; and don't even talk to him about text messaging.

"Basic telephones are usually smaller," explained Johnson. "If you have a camera, it's going to be bigger." Bulky antennas needed for Internet access, faster battery depletion, and fragility are more reasons he gives for his simple mobile style. "It's cheaper to have a basic phone."

That's not to say Johnson doesn't like the cellphone, which someday may also be consigned to the scrap heap as a technological relic. On the contrary, he thinks it a great improvement over a landline phone, which is itself a dying species, as growing numbers of consumers choose cellphones as their primary means of communication.

"The advantage is you always have a phone by you or beside you, whether or not you're at home," he explained. "I never turn it down."

Sometimes, a little technology can be a good thing.

E-mail: shih@northjersey.com

Copyright © 2007 North Jersey Media Group Inc.

Eat Well!

Rice noodle pancakes with tofu and eggplant
Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Vegetarian recipes from recently released cookbooks:

"The Eat Well Cookbook," by Jan Purser and Kathy Snowball (Allen and Unwin, 2007)

From a naturopathic nutritional consultant and a food writer comes this little book on healthy eating. Purser and Snowball don't stop at providing healthy recipes. They lay out full plans of action for those who want to lose weight or change their diets for the better. To help people with food allergies, they've also made all their recipes gluten- and dairy-free. Veggie options are generous.

-- Evelyn Shih
* * *




Rice noodle pancakes with tofu and eggplant

* 1¾ ounces rice vermicelli noodles
* ½ sheet nori seaweed
* 5 fluid ounces light coconut milk
* ¼ cup rice flour
* 2 egg whites
* Grapeseed oil
* 6 baby eggplants, halved lengthwise
* Sea salt
* 6½ ounces firm tofu, drained, chopped into ¾-inch pieces
* Fresh coriander leaves
* Avocado and mango salsa (see note)

To make rice noodle pancakes, soak noodles in boiling water for 5 minutes. Drain well, pat dry with paper towel and chop coarsely. Dip nori briefly in hot water, then drain and chop. Combine coconut milk and rice flour in a bowl and mix well. Stir in noodles and nori and generously season to taste. Whisk egg whites until soft peaks form, then fold into noodle mixture in two batches.

Heat a little oil in a non-stick frying pan and cook scant ¼ cupfuls of mixture in batches until golden, then turn and cook other side. Drain on paper towel.

Brush eggplant with oil, sprinkle with sea salt, place on an oven tray and grill (broil) until golden, then turn and grill the other side, if necessary. Brush tofu with oil, sprinkle with sea salt and stir-fry in a non-stick frying pan in batches until golden.

Serve pancakes topped with eggplant, tofu, salsa and coriander leaves.

Servings: 4.

Note: To make avocado and mango salsa, combine 1 small avocado, chopped; ½ mango, finely chopped; ¼ small red onion, finely chopped; 1 tablespoon chopped fresh coriander; 1 small tomato, seeded, finely chopped; 1 small fresh red chili, finely chopped; 1 tablespoon lime juice; and 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil. Season to taste.

Copyright © 2007 North Jersey Media Group Inc.

Super What? Super WHY.

Taking reading to new heights
Monday, September 3, 2007

By EVELYN SHIH
STAFF WRITER

Starting this morning at 9, Princess Pea, Whyatt Beanstalk, Red and Littlest Pig will take to the airwaves on PBS' newest children's show, "Super Why." These four superhero tykes magically turn into Princess Presto, Super Why, Wonder Red and Alpha Pig whenever they fly into a book, finding solutions to a variety of problems.
[Picture, above, courtesy of northjersey.com. Photographer: Thomas Franklin.]

Created by Harrington Park native Angela Santomero and Hillsdale native Samantha Freeman -- the same pair who made Nickelodeon's "Blue's Clues" must-see TV among the playground set -- "Super Why" will teach basic reading skills such as spelling, letter recognition and theme comprehension to school-age children.

"Literacy is a national problem, and it's a hot topic at the moment," says Santomero. The new show was specifically designed for kids ages 3 to 6, she adds.

Many busy parents probably wonder whether their children can actually learn to read from watching a TV show. That's a tall order for a television program, and even executive producer Freeman admits that "Super Why's" mission is to "tip children in the right direction."

But if there's anything Santomero and Freeman are sure of, it's that the formula that made "Blue's Clues" a decade-plus success works. Their award-winning educational show has become one of the gold standards in children's television over the past 11 years, largely because of its dedication to research -- research that led Santomero and Freeman to create "Super Why."

Doing a test run

It's a busy day at summer camp, but at the Kew Forest School in Queens, camp counselors are taking a break in the library. Their preschool-age charges are being treated to a very special story time.

"Wands up!" says researcher Alice Walters, seated on the floor next to shelves of children's books.

Finn Latici-McAvey, Matthew Gelpi and Mia Kurta obediently sit forward on their beanbags and raise their tiny fists as if grasping thin sticks. They stare at the colorful, letter-sized printout where a princess in a purple gown points her own glowing instrument at a cluttered ballroom.

"Let's write the letter 'C,' " Walters says.

They go on to spell the word "clean." When the task is complete, Walters puts the page facedown on the ground to reveal another sheet with the same scene, tidied. The word "clean" floats above the ballroom like a physical spell.

"Ta-da!"

The graphics are less than earth-shattering. But the storyboard Finn, Matthew and Mia are seeing today is a glimpse of what many kids will eventually get to see. They can now tell their friends in pre-school and kindergarten that they saw it first.

The research process

After testing an illustrated storyboard version of an episode, researchers in Walters' team work with Santomero's writers to modify the script. The animators create a rough version, called an animatic, and another group of kids watches the episode. Writers then make minor modifications, and animators apply the final touches before the last group watches the pre-air version.

About 25 children see the episode at each of these three stages. Since PBS ordered 65 episodes (roughly three years' worth) of "Super Why" from Santomero and Freeman's Out of the Blue production company, the pair have had their hands full.

Santomero made sure that episodes of "Super Why" would be shown three times to kids in the tri-state area. Her own erstwhile elementary school in Harrington Park was one of the research sites.

When Santomero and Walters began working together on "Blue's Clues" research more than a decade ago, the only intensively researched children's show they could look up to was perennial favorite "Sesame Street," which had carried on a tradition of educational television for about 30 years.

"We carved money out of the production budget for the research," said Santomero of her work at Nickelodeon on "Blue's Clues." That dedication was a point of pride for her and the entire creative team.

Rosemarie Truglio, vice president of education and research for "Sesame Street," taught a class at Teachers College, attended by both Santomero and Walters. "Angela felt strongly that she wanted to adapt what we do at 'Sesame Street' to her creation," she remembers.

Although Santomero and Freeman are no longer working within a deep-pocketed network, they want to make sure "Super Why" has the same quality of research to back up its educational curriculum.

"This show is designed to be education, whereas some shows use research more for appeal," explains Freeman. "Appeal is also part of our goal; but it's there to help them learn."

Levels of difficulty

Back at the Kew Forest School, Santomero sits behind the children, scribbling notes on a copy of the script as they respond to the story. The plot is roughly based on Mark Twain's "The Prince and the Pauper": A prince living in a castle and a pauper living in a cottage switch places; chaos ensues.

Santomero watches intently as Mia, Finn and Matthew choose words from a cupboard to form the prince's meager meal and find bright red "Super Letters" in the scenery. Whenever she sees a twitching leg or wandering eye, she makes a mark.

"Studies show that attention equals comprehension," she explains.

It's hard to write for kids from age 3 to 6 because of all the different reading and development levels. To accommodate a wide audience, Out of the Blue tries to layer levels of difficulty into each episode.

On the base level, kids can find the red Super Letters hidden in scenes throughout the episode as a kind of scavenger hunt. Understanding the story is an added plus that makes the show enjoyable. Kids with more reading skills can solve puzzles, read words and spell.

The hardest level to crack is thematic understanding. For this episode, the message is about finding where you truly belong. Plugged into the "Super Computer," the Super Letters spell "home."

Mia, barely 4, gets the idea first and wonders why the pauper is still in the castle, not his own home in the cottage.

"We have to change the sentence first," says Walters gently.

A magical switcheroo of the words "castle" and "cottage" -- perhaps "farm" in later versions for easier understanding -- and the characters are back where they belong.

"Should we put this story on television?" Walters asks them at the end.

"Yes!" they say in chorus.

The creators of 'Super Why'

Angela Santomero
Hometown: Harrington Park
Background: Teachers College, Columbia University

Samantha Freeman
Hometown: Hillsdale
Background: MBA, Harvard University

How they met: Santomero and Freeman met while working on Nickelodeon's hit show "Blue's Clues." Santomero came from a child-development research background, earning a master's in developmental psychology. Freeman brought her marketing and branding experience to the table. The two realized that they were both Bergen natives and found an instant connection. Together, they launched production company Out of the Blue two years ago, when their Nickelodeon contracts expired.

E-mail: shih@northjersey.com

Copyright © 2007 North Jersey Media Group Inc.

Top 10, baby! (7th down)

Top features stories of the summer
Sunday, September 2, 2007
STAFF REPORT

Boot Camp workout

Gary Duncan smiled when Staff Writer Mike Kerwick stepped into his Teaneck gym. Then he beat him up by sending him through a Boot Camp workout that included curls, bench presses and push-ups. After an hour, Kerwick struggled to pry his aching muscles off the blue gym mat. (June 26)

Crazy for coasters

Roller coaster nuts are like surfers – always looking for the ultimate wave. That's why a group called Thrillcoaster Tours LLC now offers to take hard-core fans on two-, three-, even four-week coaster "safaris" all over the U.S. and Canada, where they can test their nerves – and stomachs – on as many as 120 coasters in succession. Twelve-year-old Brian Pupel of Mahwah was one of a bunch of kids starting out the first leg of their tour at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson. Yaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!!! (Jim Beckerman, June 28)

Moonachie's gondolier

The Meadowlands are hardly the Venetian Lagoon, but don't tell that to 69-year-old Mike Novack, a Moonachie business owner who, for the past decade, has been moonlighting as a gondolier, giving tours of the reedy Hackensack River as if it were the Grand Canal. Clifton native Novack says, "With the gondolas, there's just so much to them, you fall in love with the boats. You really do." (Virginia Rohan, July 1)

Minigolf grows up

Remember the old obstacle courses where you'd try to putt through, say, the moving arms of a windmill? Well, you won't find too many around anymore. Minigolf has grown up. Today's courses are more likely to have PGA-like greens, with undulations, water hazards, rocks -- and fountains. "They call it adventure golf," says Bob Detwiler, president of the U.S. ProMiniGolf Association, which sanctions the annual Masters National ProMiniGolf Championship. This year's event (Oct. 18 to 20) is expected to draw 80 competitors from around the world. (Virginia Rohan, July 19)

Filmed in New Jersey

"The Sopranos" may be gone, but New Jersey, the birthplace of the movies, is still a hub of production. This summer and throughout the fall, a number of film projects will hit theaters that were filmed (at least partly) or set in North Jersey. The Record may even make a cameo in one of them, "Dan in Real Life," which casts Steve Carell as a New Jersey newspaper columnist. (Virginia Rohan, July 29)

Chefs' guilty pleasures

What culinary delights do the best chefs indulge in after a long day in the kitchen? Food Editor Bill Pitcher took a peek inside some of North Jersey's top restaurants and discovered not-so-haute cravings for Ben & Jerry's and White Castle. "You're tired of looking at your own stuff all day," said Peter Angelakos of Bacari Grill in Washington Township. "It's better to eat that Big Mac in front of my TV in my pajamas than have something from my own kitchen." (July 30)

Herbal remedies

Got a cold that just won't go away? Dealing with the side effects of chemo or simply a seasonal lethargy? Maybe it's time to look for an alternative remedy. Here's the lowdown on Chinese herbal medicine, an ancient medical system that's starting to catch on in North Jersey. In "1994 when I first started, 10 percent of our business was non-Chinese," said Thomas Leung, an herbal pharmacist living in Englewood Cliffs. "Now it's the other way around." (Evelyn Shih, July 31)

'Mr. Mitzvah' to the rescue

Ivan Wilzig's grandmother was sent to the gas chamber. His grandfather was beaten to death. All told, Wilzig lost 59 relatives in the Holocaust. Earlier this summer the former Clifton resident honored their memories by playing "Mr. Mitzvah," a Jewish superhero, on the Sci-Fi Channel show "Who Wants to be a Superhero?" Alas, he was eliminated just three episodes into the season. (Mike Kerwick, Aug. 1)

The boomer gap

When "Woodstock" conjures memories of a life-altering music-and-love-fest for some and a cute little yellow bird friend of Snoopy to others, you've gotta wonder if there's a generation gap within the baby boomer ranks. Members of the generation -- traditionally defined as those born between 1946 and 1964 -- are so widely divergent that there's a secessionist movement gaining momentum that would break off younger boomers into a completely different group known as Generation Jones (from the slang term "jonesin'," which means an intense craving). If you haven't heard the term yet, stay tuned. The issue is getting more attention, thanks to Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama, who has positioned himself as the anti-boomer candidate -- even though he was born in 1962. (Virginia Rohan, Aug. 5)

Elvis evermore

Who knew that Elvis Presley, dead, would have a longer career than Elvis Presley, living? Not Mahwah's Tony Destro – who remembers thinking, on hearing the news of the rocker's death in August 1977, that his days as a pioneering Elvis impersonator were over. Little did he know. This August, on the 30th anniversary of Elvis' passing, he did what he has done since 1975 – put on his white jumpsuit and become the living embodiment of the King. "I've been doing Elvis longer than he did Elvis," Destro says. (Jim Beckerman, Aug. 15)

Copyright © 2007 North Jersey Media Group Inc.