Early morning sun over the Saugatuck River, seen from Riverside Avenue. (Photo/Nicola Sharian)
I seldom listen to WEBE 108.
It’s playing holiday music now though, so it’s on my pre-sets. I have this ridiculous false hope that one day I’ll hear an actual Christmas carol — Luciano Pavarotti belting out “O Holy Night,” say — instead of the squintillionth rendition of “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.”
Yet last week, what to my wondering ears did appear but a yuletide song I had never heard before.
It was a Christmas miracle.
This was no longer background music, as I waited impatiently behind an idiot driver who did not know that since 1979, it has been legal in Connecticut to make a right turn on red. This time, I listened closely to the song.
The voice was familiar.
It was Jose Feliciano’s.
When the fresh, beautiful song ended, Danny Lyons said he had just played a “world premiere.”
I had to know more.
I called Jose at his Weston home. He was off on tour somewhere. Hey, this is prime Feliz Navidad season.
But his wonderful wife Susan was happy to tell me the fascinating back story.
It begins 50 years ago, when Rick Jarrard was a staff producer for RCA Records in Los Angeles. He convinced Jose to record “Light My Fire.”
Jose Feliciano and Rick Jarrard
The young singer/guitarist was dubious. It had been a hit for the Doors less than a year before. What could he add?
Plenty, it turned out. It reached #3 in the US, and #1 in the UK, Canada and Brazil.
The duo collaborated on 6 best-selling albums, including one in 1970 of Christmas songs. It was filled with classics like “Jingle Bells” and “Silent Night.”
Rick asked Jose to write an original song too. He didn’t think he could.
But he’d just gotten a cuatro — a Puerto Rican stringed instrument. He thought back to his childhood on the island.
So — in the middle of July — Jose wrote “Feliz Navidad.” It’s become one of the best-selling Christmas songs of all time.
A few years ago, Rick wrote “On This Christmas Night.” Jose recorded it in his Weston studio. It’s beautiful, inspirational and sing-along-ish. But it was never released, so Rick just put it on Spotify.
He and Jose basically forgot about it.
Somehow though, the creators and producers of “Hamilton” found it.
And chose it — out of hundreds of contenders — to be their curtain call finale during this holiday season.
Soon, their interpretation will be released on a CD — with music from other Broadway, off-Broadway and traveling productions — called “Carols for a Cure, Volume 20” to benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.
When they heard the news last month, Jose and Susan were thrilled — not for themselves, but for their longtime friend and collaborator Rick. Susan said she cried for 3 days, with joy.
Then — just before Thanksgiving — Jose did a “Countdown to Christmas Music” promotion for WEBE 108. Susan told program director/midday DJ Danny Lyons how “On This Christmas Night” had dropped from the sky, into “Hamilton” and Equity’s AIDS benefit.
Danny listened to the song. He called it “providential.” His minister’s sermon had just noted that most Christmas songs today completely miss the meaning of Christmas.
Which is how Danny came to play “On This Christmas Night” that day last week. The fact that I heard it on its world radio premiere was — well, providential.
Danny told Jose he’d pass the song on to his programming colleagues around the country. Which means it may join “Feliz Navidad” as another great holiday contribution to the world, from our neighbor Jose Feliciano.
Of course — this being the holiday season — Jose is in great demand.
He’s playing all over the world this month: Palm Springs, New York, England, Vienna (with the Boys’ Choir) and the Vatican (for — of course! — the Pope’s Christmas program).
But Jose always has time for us. He returns home December 23. The next night, he offers his annual gift of music at Assumption Church’s Christmas Eve mass.
Feliz Navidad indeed. And muchas gracias, Jose Feliciano!
(Click here, then scroll down to hear “On This Christmas Night.” The Broadway Cares CD can be bought after shows. It will be available after Christmas on iTunes.)
Ralph Lauren leased — but never occupied — space on Westport’s Main Street. But he hasn’t forgotten us. Here’s the holiday window at his Madison Avenue store in New York. (Photo/Liz Rueven)
Posted in Pic of the Day
Tagged holiday windows 2018, Madison Avenue New York, Ralph Lauren
Pay phones are going the way of CBs and 8-track tapes.
But if you need one, there are still a few places in Westport to go.
One is the library. Another is Sherwood Diner.
A third — and the one pictured in last week’s Photo Challenge — is McDonald’s. (Click here to see.)
I don’t know if it was the same phone that was there in the restaurant’s original incarnation: Big Top.
But I do know this: The burgers sure have gone downhill since then.
Congratulations to Bill Boyd — a Staples High School Class of 1966 grad, who must remember the Big Top — for being the first with the correct answer.
He was followed by Jonathan McClure, who was not ashamed to admit he knew the answer because he occasionally eats at McDonald’s.
This week’s Photo Challenge is below. If you know where in Westport you’d find it, click “Comments” below.
(Photo/Bob Weingarten)
Compo Beach is a magical place all year long. In any season or weather, it attracts Westporters — past and present.
So naturally, when Jonathan Alter hosted his college a cappella group this weekend, he showed them the shore.
Jonathan — a 2017 graduate of Staples High School — now sings with the Dartmouth College Brovertones. They’re on an East Coast tour: Hartford Friday, Yale last night (go figure), the National Christmas Tree lighting in Washington, DC this coming Tuesday.
Staying at the Alters’ Compo-area home was fun. Yesterday afternoon, they wandered over to the beach.
It was a great place to rehearse. Jerri Graham — a talented local photographer — saw them having fun. She loved their energy, and spontaneously snapped some fun-filled shots.
The Brovertones at Compo Beach. Jonathan Alter is 3rd from left. (Photo/Jerri Graham)
She was not there randomly. Her secret mission: to photograph an engagement taking place momentarily at the water’s edge.
Matthew Cook had orchestrated a romantic beach stroll with his girlfriend Carlie Kleinman, and their dog April. The 2004 Staples grads live now in New York City. But both still love Compo.
Carlie had no clue that Matt was about to pop “the question” on their beautiful beach.
When Matt got down on bended knee — chivalry is not dead! — the Brovertones (watching from a distance) erupted in enthusiastic cheers.
As the couple headed to the jetty for capture-the-moment selfies, the singers came over.
And offered a congratulatory serenade.
Matt Cook, Carrie Kleinman, April and the Brovertones
(Hat tip: Lisa Marie Alter)
Posted in Beach, Entertainment, People, Staples HS
Tagged Brovertones, Carrie Kleinman, Compo Beach, Jonathan Alter, Matthew Cook
You’ve seen the yard signs up and down North Avenue.
On Thursday, members of the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority did too.
They came to Westport last week, on a site visit to the proposed location of 2 concrete water towers. Aquarion hopes to build them — as replacements and improvements on the one current, much smaller facility — directly opposite Staples High School.
Jennifer Johnson joined several other opponents at the regulators’ site visit.
She was not impressed.
PURA members and protesters at the Aquarion North Avenue water tower site visit on Thursday.
“Aquarion didn’t mark out the rough location of the proposed tanks, or mark the trees that are coming down, and/or float a balloon so people could visualize the tanks’ height (squished into a small site),” she says. “Isn’t that the point of a site inspection?
Johnson reports that a few non-Aquarion attendees tried to mark the location of one of the new tanks by standing in the woods at the proposed center, then walking 50 feet in each direction. “It was only partly successful,” she says.
Johnson and her group hoped to convey some of their opposite to the PURA members. They printed out their main objections, part of a fact sheet originally compiled by Save Westport Now:
● As currently planned, the new tank will not solve the water pressure problems in Westport. Even if the new tanks are built, the majority of fire hydrants in town will still be deficient.
● The new tanks will allow Aquarion to “push” more water to other parts of Fairfield County, begging the question: Can’t they find another site for the second tank, in a less residential area?
An aerial view shows the North Avenue Aquarion tank site, opposite Staples High School.
● During the proposed 2-plus-year construction period, trucks and industrial excavators will clog North Avenue and streets around Staples. Combined with traffic from Bedford Middle School and the loss of the sidewalk, it’s a disaster waiting to happen. Yet Aquarion remains delinquent in providing a basic construction plan.
● The real problem is not just the size of the tanks, but the obsolete and undersized water mains that run beneath our roads.
● To make matters worse, the new tanks are likely to create bigger problems. The large increase in water capacity can lead to stale water.
● Aquarion has finally acknowledged the problem with the water mains, and agreed to minor upgrades. It’s a step in the right direction, but it’s not enough. (Aquarion is a for-profit monopoly. Its interest in rewarding shareholders does not necessarily align with residents’ or customers’ interests.)
● Westport could wind up with 2 extremely ugly tanks, more expensive water—and still have a water pressure problem.
A photo shows the height of the proposed new water tanks.
Opponents ask PURA to require a “full independent review and comprehensive plan for upgrading Westport’s water infrastructure.”
They also want Westport’s Planning & Zoning Commission to have the authority to revoke the permit for this project. That way, they say, “Westport and Aquarion can move forward with a workable plan for rebuilding our water infrastructure for the next century.”
Several town officials, including the fire chief, have testified that the towers are necessary for safety.
PURA will hold a public hearing on Thursday, December 20 (9:30 a.m., 10 Franklin Square, New Britain), to consider Aquarion’s proposed towers.
Yesterday, I gave a talk at the Senior Center. The subject was “The View From ‘06880.’” Here’s a view of the large, lively audience a few minutes before I began. (Photo/Dan Woog)
A recent issue of the New Yorker offers looks backward.
There’s a tribute to founder Harold Ross, followed by many old stories and cartoons.
Karl Decker — the longtime, legendary and now retired Staples High School English instructor — is a devoted New Yorker fan. The magazine sent him scurrying to his cellar, where he keeps his back copies.
All the way back to the 1930s.
Karl Decker, with his 1934 New Yorker.
He picked one — June 23, 1934 — and settled down to read.
There was a long article about Franklin Roosevelt; a cartoon by Peter Arno — and 500 words of “precious whimsy” by Parke Cummings.
In the summer of 1960, Karl and Parke — a famous author and humorist — worked together at Famous Writers School.
Al Dorne — one of the founders of the Famous Writers, Artists and Photographer Schools — was always looking for ideas to add to those 3 “schools” (all correspondence-based, and headquartered on Wilton Road).
An advertisement from the 1950s.
Parke and Karl had already submitted proposals for a Famous Sculptors School (which required a railroad spur, to ship in granite) and Famous Dancers School (huge pads on which students would ink their bare feet, then step out the moves on big rolls of paper).
Their latest idea: Famous Weavers School. The preface read: “The School will provide each student with 4 English Shropshire sheep, a shepherdess, and …”
Dorne told them he’d have to consult with Ed Mitchell before they went any further.
“Inexplicably, our workloads increased markedly after that,” Karl reports.
Posted in Looking back, Media, People, Staples HS
Tagged Al Dorne, Famous Artists School, Famous Writers School, Karl Decker, Parke Cummings
The name Richard Romano may not mean much to many people.
Some knew him as Richie. He was “Bobo” to others.
Most Westporters never heard his name at all. But for 20 years, he was a custodian at Staples High School. He cleaned the school. He helped keep it running.
And he loved it.
Richie “Bobo” Romano
Long after he retired, Bobo Romano was a fixture at Wrecker athletic events. He particularly liked football and basketball. He sat quietly, off to the side. But he was always there, no matter how bad the weather or how lopsided the score.
Karen DeFelice — a longtime Staples High School teacher, and former athlete at the school — remembers Bobo fondly. When she was a softball pitcher there, he arranged for her to work with John “Cannonball” Baker, a Westporter and legendary player, at Greens Farms School.
Bobo loved the University of Connecticut women’s basketball team, and the New York Mets and Jets. He was active in Westport PAL, and was a friend to the Westport Fire Department.
Later in life, he helped elderly friends with errands and companionship.
Bobo Romano died on Wednesday. He was 88 years old.
Respects can be paid Tuesday (December 11, 10 a.m. to 12 noon) at the Harding Funeral Home. A funeral service follows, with interment with full military honors. Bobo was a US Army veteran.
Click here to leave condolences. Contributions in Bobo’s name may be made to Westport PAL, 260 Compo Road South, Westport, CT 06880 (or click here).
Posted in Categories
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