Monthly Archives: January 2010

Kyle Martino Tackles Something New

Posted on January 26, 2010 | 2 comments

Kyle Martino is not yet 30 years old, but he’s already had a lifetime of success.

The Gatorade National Player of the Year at Staples in 1998, he starred at the University of Virginia; was named Major League Soccer Rookie of the Year in 2002; played on the US national team; was David Beckham’s teammate on the Los Angeles Galaxy, and is now one of ESPN’s top soccer announcers — with a shot at calling World Cup matches this summer.

At the same time, he’s forging a career in finance.

Kyle Martino (Photo courtesy of Fairfield County Business Journal)

Martino’s storied careers — on the soccer pitch and on Wall Street — are the subject of a front-page story in the current issue of Fairfield County Business Journal.  Writer Ryan Doran notes that while playing for the Columbus Crew and Galaxy, Martino prepared for life after pro sports by taking classes at Ohio State and UCLA.

He arranged an off-season internship at Lenox Advisors, a wealth advisory firm.  He was mentored by Tom Henske — a Lenox partner who in the 1990s won 3 national championships as the University of Virginia’s goalkeeper.  (In a you-can’t-make-this-up coincidence, Henske now serves as Staples’ goalie coach.)

“The reality of knowing that there is a next chapter after, for a kid who sees his name in neon lights, is that you have to figure things out very quickly after hanging the cleats up,” says Martino.  He figured things out long before his career ended.

Martino hopes to develop a specialty helping athletes manage their money.

He’s kept his ties to the Staples boys soccer program, assisting with training and offering inspirational talks whenever he can.  He’s a great role model for teenagers — whether they want to be professional soccer player, sports broadcaster or financial advisor.

Or all 3.

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Posted in People, Sports, Staples HS

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Kids These Days

Posted on January 25, 2010 | Comments Off on Kids These Days

The plight of Haiti has touched everyone in Westport — young and old.

Kings Highway Elementary School students count the nearly $4,000 they collected.

Last week the Kings Highway Elementary School Caring Council — students who spearhead acts of kindness and spirit during the school year — organized a collection for the devastated land.

All week long, the youngsters collected coins in glass jars.  On Friday they gathered the donations in huge, heavy buckets, jars and cans.  In just 5 days students, staff and families raised $3,997.96.  (What — no one added an extra $2.04 to make it an even 4K?)

On Friday KHS PTA Social Action Committee chair Merideth Haas and her son Henry presented a check to Save the Children — the Westport-based relief organization.

There’s no better lesson in thinking locally, and acting globally.

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Posted in Children, Organizations

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Celebrate The Calendar

Posted on January 25, 2010 | Comments Off on Celebrate The Calendar

Kids complain there’s nothing to do in Westport.  Parents complain there’s too much to keep track of.

CelebrateWestport.com hopes to help both groups.

Nestled within the town’s official website, the Celebrate Westport Community Calendar is the go-to spot for information on upcoming meetings, lectures, fundraisers, concerts, films, exhibitions, and kids and family events.

The aim, the site says, is to help Westporters “gather together, renew old acquaintances and share in the delight of all our community has to offer.”  But its real value is offering so much calendar information, in so many forms.

Users can click on any event for detailed information, including directions. They can create personalized calendars; forward listings to friends, and request email or text reminders or notifications of changes.

Users can also submit their own events.

Many of the listings — library events, synagogue book fairs, Positive Directions parent training — offer links to the sponsoring organization.

According to Nancy Diamond of the Arts Advisory Council, CelebrateWestport.com is the only townwide calendar without editorial filtering; the only one that accepts press releases; a place where not-for-profits can post dates for future galas (avoiding conflicts with different organizations), and a place where community-minded businesses like Barnes & Noble can promote free events like author talks.

Out-of-town events (like fundraisers) are fine, so long as they are sponsored by a Westport not-for-profit.  So are non-sectarian events (like a knitting circle) at churches and synagogues, though religious services are not listed.

The Celebrate Westport Community Calendar has been around since October.  It’s grown slowly but steadily under the direction of Megan Donaher.  The 24-year-old native Westporter was hired part-time by the town’s Arts Advisory Council, which manages the site.

Megan is expanding the depth and breadth of listings.  It’s not just about the Westport Arts Center and other well-known organizations; the goal is to include smaller groups that have less opportunity to publicize their events.

And, of course, to make the Community Calendar as much a part of every Westporter’s day as morning coffee and “06880.”

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Posted in Arts, Entertainment, Organizations, People

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Farewell And Godspeed, Reverend Danner

Posted on January 24, 2010 | 2 comments

Rev. John Danner is leaving Saugatuck Congregational Church.

Today a couple of hundred congregants, family and friends celebrated his ministry as senior pastor.  With music, remembrances, laughter and tears, he was thanked profusely for his 8 years of service.

The Sunday Thanksgiving Service included meditation, reflection and recognition of an ending.  A special luncheon offered final goodbyes, along with a skit by the high school youth group, and songs from the youth and adult choirs.

Moderator Michael Hendricks noted the changes brought by Rev. Danner — who began his Saugatuck ministry on Monday, September 10, 2001:

Eight years ago, we had no Vision Statement; we were not an Open and Affirming Church; we were not a Stephens Ministry; there was no Wednesday healing service, taize service, serenity service or youth service; the senior pastor did not teach the confirmation class; there was no annual youth or junior high mission trip; there were no Advent or Lenten quiet days; there was no men’s retreat.

Rev. Danner and is wife are moving to Florida.  He will be senior pastor of the Sanibel Congregational United Church of Christ — and closer to his grandchildren.

Rev. John Danner (left), his wife Linda, and family, friends and congregants.

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Posted in People, religion

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Get Shot; Help Haiti

Posted on January 24, 2010 | 2 comments

(Photo by Katherine Hooper)

Two Westport moms — Katherine Hooper and Moira Lynch — are taking a photography course at Silvermine Arts Center.

Both are very troubled by the plight of earthquake victims in Haiti.  They’re putting their photographic skills to use — by raising money for Oxfam America.

For a minimum $50 donation, the 2 women will meet you at your house, the beach — anyplace you wish.  They’ll photograph you, your family, your pets — whatever you want — and upload the shots to a Kodak Gallery album that can be viewed only by you, and whoever you give the password to.  Inexpensive prints can also be ordered.

“We’re not professionals — but we’re working on it!” Katherine says.  “We’re taking courses, and we need practice.  So help Haiti, and help us too.  Hopefully we’ll get some great shots — and you’re donating to a good cause.”

(For more information, and to schedule a session, email hoopermom@gmail.com or mois49@hotmail.com.  Be sure to ask your employer about matching your contribution.)

(Photograph by Katherine Hooper)

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Posted in Arts, Organizations, People

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Repairs’ Reprieve

Posted on January 24, 2010 | 8 comments

Generations of Westporters know Jim Honeycutt as a teacher — 1st of social studies, then computer education, now running Staples’ Media Lab audio and TV production classes.

Occasionally he alludes to his old rock ‘n’ roll days.  Now — in cyberspace, which he and his students are so wired into — there’s proof.

Honeycutt has created a podcast about Repairs, his folk/rock/country band of the late 1960’s and early ’70s.  He did it to demo an assignment he gave his Audio Production class:  Make a podcast about your favorite album.

Honeycutt’s podcast (click here to listen) offers a fascinating insight into the music industry, back in the day.  Repairs formed at Fairfield University, where Honeycutt and Peter McCann met through a freshman week orientation talent show.  Gradually, other talented musicians — including Honeycutt’s soon-to-be 1st wife, a Manhattanville College student — joined the group.

Their mostly original music featured tight harmonies.  It was wide-ranging, eclectic, sometimes even psychedelic.  Think a combination of Buffalo Springfield, Loggins and Messina, the Pozo Seco Singers, Jefferson Airplane and the Association (if you can).

Repairs was “discovered” in 1971, on Westport’s Jesup Green.  They were playing there — the podcast does not explain why — and in the audience was Andrew Loog Oldham.  The podcast doesn’t say why the producer of the Rolling Stones was at Jesup Green either, but he liked what he heard.  He signed Repairs to a contract with Rare Earth Records — a subsidiary of Motown — and in 1971 the label released the group’s 1st album, “Already a Household Word.”

The cover of Repairs' 1st album. Jim Honeycutt is at far left, wearing sandals.

It was not a huge commercial success, Honeycutt says in the podcast.  It did well in Westport, however — for a few weeks outselling the Beatles at Klein’s Department Store — and in parts of  Europe too.

Two more Repairs albums followed.  Neither achieved much acclaim, and eventually the band broke up.

Nearly 4 decades later, Repairs has found new life — in Staples’ Media Lab, on iTunes and throughout cyberspace.

They may yet become “a household word.”

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Posted in Entertainment, Looking back, People, Staples HS, technology

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Cooking For Haiti

Posted on January 23, 2010 | 1 comment

What started out as a small bake sale idea to help Haiti has rumbled — with the speed and power of an earthquake — into an enormous Westport-wide effort.  Plenty of people here are doing plenty of things to help the devastated nation — but next Saturday’s “Celebrity Cookbook Auction, Book Sale & Food Festival” could be 1 of the biggest, most important events in town all year.

Set for 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on January 30 at the Saugatuck Congregational Church, the festival features tons of innovative ideas:

  • Over 40 cookbook authors and food personalities have donated items for auction.  Included are signed copies of Julie & Julie from Julie Powell; food writer and cookbook author Molly O’Neill’s New York  Cookbook and Mostly True; cookbooks from Rick Moonen of Top Chef Masters; a cookbook signed by its illustrator, New Yorker cartoonist Ed Koren, plus items from Mar Jennings, Ted Allen, Melissa Clark, Amanda Hesser, Gale Gad, Jeffrey Nathan, Monica Bhide, Sara Moulton, Cat Cora and others.
  • Daisy Martinez of the Food Network’s “Daisy Cooks!” will emcee.  She’ll also auction dinner for 4 with her, at Don Coqui restaurant in New Rochelle.
  • Other auction items include dinner for up to 10 in the winner’s home, prepared by Iron Chef America sous chef Lorilynn Bauer; a $250 gift certificate to the Institute of Culinary Education in New York, and a family portrait sitting by Westport photographer David Land.
  • Popular local musicians Jon-Paul Ruggieri and Lisa Heile will entertain.
  • The United Haitian-American Society will staff an information table, and provide children’s activities.
  • Children’s books (all from Scholastic Press) and t-shirts will be on sale.
  • And — remember, this started as a bake sale — there will be lots of tasty treats, with tastings from Golden Krust Bakery, TK Haitian Restaurant, and Caribbean oyster shooters from Westport Aquaculture.

100% of the proceeds will go to the United Nations World Food Programme Fund for Haiti.

The event is hosted by Westport food writer, cookbook author and chef Ramin Ganeshram, along with the church and Saugatuck Nursery School — whose parents, led by director Ellen DeHuff, are working tirelessly to bring it to fruition.

(For more information or to volunteer, call 203-349-8647, or email info@food4Haiti.org)

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Posted in Organizations, People, Restaurants, Westport life

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5 Guys, 50 Workers, 500 Customers, 5000 Calories

Posted on January 23, 2010 | 15 comments

Thousands of Westporters from the 1960s have orgasmic memories of burgers from Big Top.

Chubby Lane’s owned the ’70s; Fuddruckers the ’80s.

The ’10s belong to Five Guys.

My burger was half this size.

Westport’s newest favorite restaurant has drawn rave reviews.  The parking lot is always packed — and because many of those cars belong to high school students, I’ve stayed away.  Hungry teenagers who’ve had their drivers licenses for 12 hours, combined with lines stretching out the door in sub-freezing temperatures, is not my cup of tea.

But a window of opportunity opened the other day — there was an open spot, and it wasn’t even the handicap one! — so I zoomed in, just like a teenager.  I had to see what all the hype was about.

I eat red meat maybe once a week.  So I ordered the dubiously named “Little Cheeseburger.”  (I heard snickers from the guys behind me in line.  Hey, shut up — I’m a little guy.)

I had studied the toppings menu while waiting, but with a dozen or so folks waiting behind to order, I felt some performance anxiety.  I blurted out a combination of onions, lettuce, pickle, jalapeno peppers, ketchup and relish.  Hey, there’s no accounting for taste.  The ETA, I was told was “7 minutes.”

Six minutes later — remember, kids, when you go into business:  Under-promise, and over-deliver — my “little cheeseburger” was bagged and handed over.

It certainly tasted good.  My bizarre list of toppings hit the spot.  And all for a mere $4.76 (and 654 calories).

I filled my red-meat quota for the week (month) (winter).    You can be sure that — just as soon as I finish digesting it, some time in April — I will be back for more.

15 Comments

Posted in Restaurants, Westport life

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Westport’s Avatar

Posted on January 22, 2010 | 3 comments

In 2007 Connor Murphy graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design.  He’d focused on studio-scale animation, and enjoyed internships working on productions like “Corpse Bride,” “Brotherhood” and “Underdog.”

Connor Murphy

Now the 2003 Staples grad needed a Real Job.  He wrote 1,300 personalized emails.  Finally, he landed work as a “glorified production assistant” at Giant Studios.  The company — specializing in “motion capture technology” for film and video games– was just gearing up for a new project:  “Avatar.”

“It was pure Irish luck,” Connor recalls.  “To be honest, at that point I would have taken any job.”

Giant Studios is actually rather small — 30 people — allowing Connor to learn quickly and move up.  He served as director James Cameron’s camera assistant on stage, and ran the motion capture system.

With his animation training, Connor worked as a motion editor on 3 simultaneous projects:  “Mummy 3,” The Incredible Hulk” and “Prince Caspian.”  He applied the captured human motion to the movie characters, then changed, blended or enhanced that motion as needed.

When the motion-editing phase of “Avatar” began, he moved easily into that.  He had, he says, “the unique and very advantageous position of working on both the on-set capture and post-production effects portions” of the mega-blockbuster.

Six-day weeks were typical — and on those days Connor would work from 7:30 a.m. to midnight.  “We all got a little crazy, and a little fatter,” he notes.

“‘Avatar’ was my first credit.  Having touched nearly every scene in the movie in 1 way or another, I’m just proud that we finished and that people like it,” he says.

At Staples Connor was involved in tech for Players.  He took several advanced drawing courses, and spent his free time drawing in the art rooms.  He credits teacher Camille Eskell and the rest of the art department with helping him take art seriously — and get into RISD — but realizes now that “the rest of my Staples education was invaluable to successfully merging art with the real world.

“Being able to speak to the physics and the ‘reasons why’ behind the animation is just as valuable as being able to do it in the 1st place.”

This week, Connor began his next project:  “Real Steel.”  Directed by Shawn Levy, it’s “a ‘Rocky’-style story about robot boxing in the future.”

Connor looks forward to working on fight scenes — and “more extreme characters.”

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Posted in Education, Entertainment, People, Staples HS, technology

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Great Cake!

Posted on January 21, 2010 | Comments Off on Great Cake!

The Staples culinary program of 1987 was nothing like today.  Nonetheless, Catherine Ruehle has become one the high school’s most famous gustatory graduates.

At Miche Mache restaurant, the self-taught baker’s artistic eye and flair for innovative flavor combinations won a rave review from the New York Times (“breathtaking in both artistry and taste”).  Since then she’s catered, managed a restaurant, published cookbooks, and developed and tested recipes.

Catherine Ruehle, and something she just whipped up.

Two years ago Catherine launched Sublime, a retail bakery and cake studio in Fort Worth.  Its custom cakes, eat-in and takeout desserts, breakfast pastries, catering trays and private cake decorating lessons and online store — including vegan, gluten-free and sugar-free items — have earned Texas-size praise.

Soon the entire country will see if Catherine will rule the reality TV world.  This week she finished taping her 1st Food Network Challenge.

Details and air date not yet available.  Of course, Catherine’s friends and fans in Fairfield County can’t see anything on the Food Network at all right now.  Cablevision and Scripps Network have effectively told their viewers:  Let them eat cake.

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Posted in Entertainment, People, Staples HS

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