The New York Times just posted an interesting article on a technological phenomenon most of us have recently wondered about: Why the new digital-chip credit cards don’t work.
And the star of the piece is Avi Kaner.
The story begins:
Avi Kaner, a co-owner of the Morton Williams supermarket chain in New York, has spent about $700,000 to update the payment terminals at his stores.
Trouble is, he cannot turn them on.
The new terminals can accept credit and debit cards with embedded digital chips, a security feature meant to reduce the number of fraudulent purchases.
But before the payment systems can work, they must be certified, a process that Mr. Kaner and many retailers around the country are waiting to happen. In the case of Morton Williams, the holdup has lasted several months.
Avi Kaner in a Bronx Morton Williams store. (Photo/Danny Ghitis for the New York Times)
Kaner, of course, is not only an owner of the 15-store, 70-year old grocery retail chain.
He’s also Westport’s 2nd selectman.
When he’s not worrying about produce or credit cards, Kaner helps our town run smoothly.
Much more smoothly, in fact, than that digital-chip credit-card rollout.
The White Barn Theatre — the just-over-the-Norwalk-line stage that during its celebrated life used a Westport address — has at least one more act to go.
The owner of the 15-acre property — who hoped to build a 15-home luxury development on the wooded site — has pledged to delay demolition of the historic theater for at least 4 months.
That gives the Lucille Lortel and Waldo Mayo White Barn Foundation time to try to raise $5.2 million to purchase the property. Mayo is the great-grand-nephew of Lortel, the famed actor/producer who founded the avant-garde White Barn theater in 1947. It closed in 2002.
Westporters are following the drama closely. Some want to save a legendary structure. Others are concerned about the environmental and aesthetic impacts of a new housing development on the Westport border.
Kanye West is notorious for crashing people and things: Taylor Swift. Beck. “American Idol” auditions.
Now, the recording artist/songwriter/record producer/fashion designer/ entrepreneur has been crashed himself.
The honors go to a 19-year-old Staples High School alum.
Last weekend, after releasing a new album — “Life of Pablo” — Kanye created a popup shop to sell “Pablo” merchandise.
Lines wound around the block. Cops maintained order.
Jonah Levine
Meanwhile, Westporter Jonah Levine and his friend Austin Butts printed “Pablo” on things like jeans, tops and suit blazers. Then they started selling bootlegs of the authorized goods — across the street.
Jonah graduated from Staples in 2014. He’s now a New York-based model, stylist, designer and DJ.
Thanks to his dad — Crushing Music founder Joey Levine — Jonah has hung out in the studio with Diplo and Mike Will Made-It. He recently started producing music on his own.
Jonah started his 1st clothing line at 13. He and Austin are now collaborating on 2 emerging brands: Asspizza and Gomina. Complex Magazine called Jonah one of the internet’s “cool teens.”
So how did Kanye react to getting crashed?
His team liked the bootlegs so much, they put some in Kanye’s own store to sell.
Austin Butts and Josh Levine, with their bootleg merch.
As a hot young filmmaker, Daryl Wein has made a name by tackling sexy subjects.
“Breaking Upwards” explored non-monogamy, based loosely on his experiences with his writing partner/wife, Zoe Lister-Jones.
“Sex Positive” followed a gay S&M sex worker who promoted safe sex at the height of the AIDS epidemic.
“Lola Versus” showcased a single woman’s journey to find herself, after breaking up with her fiance.
Daryl Wein
Wein’s latest film is about a decidedly non-sexy subject: genetically modified organisms.
But it’s as important as anything the Staples graduate has ever done.
After eating up Jim Honeycutt’s high school film and video classes, Wein honed his cinematic chops at NYU’s Tisch School, and in USC’s film and TV programs. Yet it took 7 years for “Consumed” to come to fruition.
When Wein and Lister-Jones first stumbled on the subject of GMOs, they were engrossed. From farmers battling biotech corporations to everyday Americans eating new and novel foods unknowingly, they realized they’d found a deeply interesting and complex web of intriguing ideas, just waiting to be woven into a narrative film.
Wein was stunned to learn that — unlike over 60 countries around the world — the US does not label GMO products. It’s pervasive — yet consumers have no idea (or choice) in whether or not we each such food.
Remembering great thrillers of the 1970s, the pair wanted to revisit a time when filmmakers were not afraid to blend real-world politics with story structure and character development. They wanted to create an entertaining movie — but one that raised questions about a subject that (far too quietly) impacts us all.
A sample of GMO foods.
They made “Consumed” through their own production company, Mister Lister Films. “There was no studio or big producer behind us,” Wein says. “We had only ourselves to trust.”
They assembled an “incredible” cast of actors, then shot in rural Illinois. “After years of research, we came face to face with farmers on the frontlines of this battle,” Wein says.
Wein and his cinematographer hope the film looks “as polished, beautiful and authentic” as possible, to accentuate the beauty of rural America.
Though GMOs don’t stimulate most Americans the way marriage, non-monogamy or S&M do, Wein sees a through line between “Consumed” and his previous works. He tries to shed light on untold stories. And, he says, “I’ve always been interested in ideological debate, whether it’s personal, political or the intersection of the two.”
The Westport native calls “Consumed” a “dramatic thriller.” He presents complicated information, while maintaining strong story and character development. He synthesizes multiple story points with complex political subject matter.
Erin Brockovich has thrown her support behind the film. Senator Richard Blumenthal screened it for members of Congress. Wein and Lister-Jones are touring the country, showing it to food and environmental safety leaders.
Now Westporters can see it too.
Starting today, the film is available at www.ConsumedTheMovie.com. It’s also available on iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, Vimeo and select TV video-on-demand platforms.
Tonight (Tuesday, March 22, 7:30 p.m.), there’s a special showing at Fairfield’s Bullard Square Theater. Click here for details.
When cancer strikes, some people take time off from work. The struggle is tough. A job can wait.
Meghan Scheck was diagnosed with breast cancer in early January. But instead of requesting a medical leave, she headed straight back to Staples High School.
Scheck is a beloved English instructor. She teaches Advanced Placement Language, English 3A, and 2 sophomore classes.
That’s tough, on the best days. But Scheck never thought twice about where she should be.
“Teaching is my happy place,” she says. “It’s so nice to be there, in a place where I’m not a ‘cancer patient.’ When I’m at school, I forget about that part of my life.”
That part of her life included 6 weeks of chemotherapy. She’s got 2 sessions to go. She undergoes surgery at the end of the school year — “great timing!” she laughs — followed by more chemo.
Meghan Scheck, with her husband and son.
She’s facing the ordeal with an upbeat attitude, enthusiasm, and a strong desire to deliver a rich and rigorous education to her students, no matter how tired or sick she feels.
The Staples community has responded to Scheck’s unflagging optimism.
“The kids have been great,” she says. “They’re so understanding and supportive. I’ve gotten so many sweet emails.”
The staff has been “like family,” Scheck adds. Her colleagues throughout the school — particularly those in her English department — have gone “dramatically out of their way” to help.
In ways large and small, they make her life a little easier. She was particularly touched when — at crunch time, just before grades were due — they volunteered to grade papers for her.
“It’s been humbling,” Scheck says of the outpouring of support.
Office-mate Heather Colletti-Houde has gone one step further. She set up a GoFundMe page.
Scheck — who is married, with a 4-year-old son — will probably run out of sick days this fall. The fund will also provide a cushion for health care costs, when the school system’s very good insurance policy (with a high deductible) rolls over.
There are many unforeseen costs too, for any cancer patient.
In the first days since the GoFundMe site went live, Scheck’s friends — many of them Staples staff and parents — donated $8,000.
Meghan Scheck has touched hundreds of students — and plenty of colleagues — in her 7 years at Staples. Now it’s time for all of us to provide our own lesson in the importance of community.
(Click here to contribute through Meghan Scheck’s GoFundMe page.)
For 4th-year medical students, Match Day is the most wonderful day of the year.
Or the worst.
At noon, they gather together in a room at their med schools. They’re handed an envelope. Simultaneously — all across the country — they open them.
And find out where they’ll start their residencies — in some cases, their careers — as physicians.
This year’s Match Day was Friday.
To celebrate — or relieve the stress, or just do something non-medical for a change — Zak Walshon edited, co-directed and sang on a video.
The Staples Class of 1996 graduate attends SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse. For the past 2 years, classes have made Match Day videos. Zak’s class decided to make theirs even better.
They knew his background in theater and television. After working with Staples Players and graduating from Skidmore College, Zak moved to LA to be a TV writer. But he ended up back east, and realized he really wanted to follow his dad into medicine.
His talents were a perfect “match.”
Zak Walshon: doctor or filmmaker? Actually, both.
Zak and his classmates starting writing in November. Staging and choreography began in January. Filming commenced at the end of February.
“I found myself trying to channel Al Pia as best I could,” Zak says — referring to the legendary Players director — “while directing people who had never acted before.”
He loved returning to one of his passions, after many years of narrow focus on medical studies. He finishing editing in the early hours of Match Day.
The video is a hit. In the 2 days it’s been live, it’s been viewed over 8,000 times.
You can see it below. It’s a fantastic 4 minutes. It’s funny, clever and thoroughly entertaining — whether you’re a doctor, you go to one, or you play one on TV.
But before you click on “Match Day,” I know you’re all wondering the same thing.
So: On July 1, Zak heads to Hofstra/Northwell for his internship in surgery. After that, it’s Temple University for radiology residency.
Congrats on the match — and the video — Doctor Walshon!
(If your browser does not take you directly to YouTube, click here.)
A beach scene in the first hours of Daylight Savings Time.
That was last week’s photo challenge.
The scene was Burying Hill beach (specifically, pointing toward Harvey Weinstein’s house). Kathi Sherman, Rich Stein, Alice Rago, Wendy Cusick and Mary Ann Batsell all knew exactly where Ellen Wentworth shot that summer-y scene. (Click here for the image; scroll down for all the guesses.)
Here’s this week’s challenge. My only hint is: No, it’s not a bikini top.
If you think you know where this is, click “Comments” below. We’re ready!
If you listen to longtime residents — or read “06880” — you probably think Westport has lost its artistic mojo. With Howard Munce gone — and apart from Miggs Burroughs — when was the last time you heard of a home studio?
Happily, there’s at least one left.
The other day I visited Mina de Haas in her small, 2nd-floor apartment. There — in the shadow of I-95 — she creates acrylic paintings, decoupage and digital collages. She’s not our only in-home artist — but she sure seems a throwback.
A 1979 Weston High School graduate (and direct descendant of the famous Dutch landscape-paining Koekkoek family) who studied fashion merchandising at the University of Bridgeport, Mina worked as a graphic artist for advertising firms and a pharmaceutical company before joining a Norwalk market research company.
When she’s not painting, Mina de Haas attends car shows.
But this story is about her studio.
Heavily influenced by Dali, Picasso, Warhol and — especially Hieronymus Bosch — Mina wants her art to make people feel a bit uncomfortable.
“Anyone can look at a pretty picture of a sailboat,” she says. “I want people to look at my work and wonder ‘What’s going on there?’ And make their own interpretation of what my artwork means to them personally.”
She points to a 3D work called “Stripper Barbie.” It’s exactly what it sounds like: the famous doll in a cage with a stripper pole. Crumpled bills lie on the floor.
She is an expert at taking existing paintings, photos and other images, and manipulating them in new ways — for example, in her interpretation of Bosch’s “Garden of Earthly Delights.”
Mina de Haas’ homage to Hieronymus Bosch.
A favorite subject is cars. She looks at their lines and angles in fresh ways, placing familiar vehicles in intriguing and innovative contexts.
One of Mina’s favorite paintings is “Seine River Bleeds.” Done right after November’s Paris attacks, the famed river is bright red. The lights of the Eiffel Tower look like the souls of the murdered victims.
“Seine River Bleeds,” by Mina de Haas.
Mina de Haas is not well known. She exhibited in a small local gallery, and will soon show several pieces at a UB alumni art show.
She hopes to get into a Westport Arts Center emerging artists exhibit. She’d love to sell through restaurants and retail stores here.
Mina does not think there is a real “artistic community” in Westport — at least, not one she feels part of it.
But she’s undeterred.
She does what she loves. In her 2nd floor apartment studio, she creates art.
Just as Westport artists have done, for well over a century.
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