This weekend, the Levitt Pavilion hosts 2 special shows.
Tonight (Saturday, July 13, 7 p.m.) features Marc Broussard and the 20th Anniversary of Carencro. It included the hit “Home,” now going viral again on Instagram.
Also on the bill: local favorites Otis & the Hurricanes. Their gumbo of blues andhttps://www.levittpavilion.com/2024/04/08/marc-broussard-carencro-20th-anniversary-tour/ soul complements Broussard’s “bayou soul,” a mix of funk, blues, R&B, rock and pop, all with distinct Southern roots. Click here for tickets, and more information.
Tomorrow (Sunday, July 14, 7 p.m.), the Levitt invites concert-goers to wear white, while celebrating the 19th Amendment and women’s right to vote.
The show features Grammy-winning folk singer/songwriterAoife O’Donovan and folk quartet Hawktail. O’Donovan was last at the Levitt in 2022. Click here for tickets, and more information.
For both shows’ lawn tickets: on Saturday, children 7 and under are free. On Sunday, those 10 and under are free. Ticket proceeds help support the 50-plus shows presented free of charge each season, for all.
PS: The Blind Rhino food truck will be on site both days.
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Speaking of music: Thomas Dolby comes to the Westport Library Tuesday (July 16). He’ll discuss his new book “Prevailing Wind” with another big name: Rock & Roll Hall of Famer and longtime Library supporter Chris Frantz.
The 4 p.m. start time accommodates Dolby’s performance later that evening in the Totally Tubular Festival at Bridgeport’s Hartford HealthCare Amphitheater.
Dolby — a musician, producer, composer, entrepreneur and teacher — played synthesizer for David Bowie, Stevie Wonder, Joni Mitchell and others during his eclectic career. His 1980s hits include “She Blinded Me With Science” and “Hyperactive!”
He also has been music director for TED Conferences. On the Johns Hopkins University Peabody Institute staff, he leads the Music for New Media program.
This is Dolby’s only signing event in the tri-state area. All attendees who purchase a copy of Prevailing Wind may get the book and one additional item signed by the author.
Frantz is a musician, producer, songwriter, and founding member of the Talking Heads and Tom Tom Club. A frequent guest of the Library and the host of the Library series “Chris Frantz Presents,” he also hosts a radio show on WPKN-FM.
There’s not a lot to laugh about in the Middle East.
But on July 30 (cocktails at 7 p.m., show at 7:45), Temple Israel hosts a comedy night. Five comics — Andrew Ginsburg, Nick Scopoletti, Cody Marino, Olga Namer and Beau McDowell — will all appear, in a fundraiser for Israel relief.
Tickets are $54 (VIP) and $36 (general admission). Click here to purchase, and for more information. (Hat tip: Les Dinkin)
Yesterday’s Roundup included an item on Homes with Hope CEO Helen McAlinden’s meeting in Washington with Representative Jim Himes.
A photo showed our congressman with a statewide delegation of advocates for the homeless and hungry.
Alert “06880” reader Marlene Siff recognized artwork hanging on the wall.
It was hers.
The piece — “Fallen Heroes/Afghanistan” — has hung in Himes’ office since 2010.
“It is my memorial dedicated to all the soldiers we lost in the war in Afghanistan,” Siff tells “06880.”
“Fallen Heroes/Afghanistan” (Marlene Siff)
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Westport-based Nest Egg Foundation has partnered with the Carlos Rodón Foundation to launch the first-ever Willow Gala.
The September 30 event at the Delamar in Greenwich will bring together community leaders, philanthropists and supporters, to raise awareness and funds for families facing fertility challenges. The evening includes live music, dining, silent and live auctions, and special guests.
The Nest Egg Foundation was created in 2015. It is a collaborative effort of medical and financial professionals, attorneys, and others. The foundation plays a key role role in the application and evaluation process of The Willow Grant, which was developed by New York Yankees pitcher Rodón and his wife.
For more information and to purchase tickets, click here.
And finally … on this date in 1985, the Live Aid benefit concert was held simultaneously at Wembley Stadium in London, and John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia. The goal was to raise funds for Ethiopian famine relief.
On this day too, Live Aid-inspired concerts were held in the USSR, Canada, Japan, Yugoslavia, Austria, Australia, and West Germany. An estimated 1.9 billion people — nearly 40% of the earth’s population — watched the broadcast.
(It’s nowhere near as important as famine relief. But if you’re inclined to toss a few bucks our “06880” way, you can click here and follow the prompts. Thank you!)
Two different beach scenes, and art from as far as England, make up today’s online gallery.
As always, no matter what color (or subject) you choose — and whether you’re a first-timer or old-timer — we welcome your submissions. Watercolors, oils, charcoal, pen-and-ink, acrylics, digital, lithographs, collages, macramé, jewelry, sculpture, decoupage, needlepoint — we want whatever you’ve got.
Age, level of experience, subject matter — there are no restrictions. Everyone is invited to contribute.
Email it to 06880blog@gmail.com. Please include the medium you’re working in — art lovers want to know.
“Old Mill” (Duane Cohen)
“Burying Hill Lifeguards, July 10” — pastel (Werner Liepolt)
“Sea and Salt” — acrylic on canvas (Jodi Wallace)
Untitled — watercolor and pencil (Kathleen Burke)
“Richie’s Ready to Play” (Eric Bosch)
“Reflections” (Ken Runkel)
“In Full Bloom” (Dorothy Robertshaw)
“Somewhere Over the Rainbow” (Ellen Wentworth)
Untitled (Tom Doran)
“Whisper” — torn paper and acrylic collage (Amy Schneider)
“Bridport, Dorset, England” (Bruce Borner)
“Cruiser Rose With a Model of Herself On Her Afterdeck” (Peter Barlow)
“Best Friends” (Nancy Marcus)
“The Problem is in Their Programming” (Steve Stein)
“Relaxing” (Lawrence Weisman)
(Entrance is free to our online art gallery. But please consider a donation! Just click here — and thank you!)
Nicole Gerber enjoys Saturday mornings at Wakeman Town Farm.
A committee member at the Cross Highway environmental education center and sustainable farm, she eagerly helps care for their alpacas, sheep, goats and chickens.
Nicole’s 17-year-old daughter Scarlett was a much more reluctant volunteer. She found the farm hot and dirty. Like many teenagers, she thought Saturdays were for sleeping in.
Nicole and Scarlett Gerber
But 2 years ago, Scarlett was at the farm soon after a tiny goat was born.
Scarlett was the first human being to hold the baby. She cleaned its umbilical cord. That simple act left lasting imprint on both.
Soon, Scarlett felt herself drawn to WTF. She returned often, to care for the young goat she nicknamed Dolly.
As she cared for Dolly, children from the WTF summer camp gravitated to Scarlett. She helped lead “goat encounters,” showing the youngsters how to gently hold the babies for bottle feeding, and how to play with the naturally curious animals.
The kids smiled broadly. Scarlett did too.
Meanwhile, she bonded with Judy Panzer, the “ambassador” who cares for all the Farm’s animals. They were excited for the first WTF goat husbandry program.
Judy mentored Scarlett, helping her embrace both the educational and fun aspects of Wakeman Town Farm.
Gradually, Scarlett’s idea of how to spend Saturday changed. She was there all day, helping not just with animals but at the farm stand, special events, and nurturing the gardens.
When she felt stressed with college applications and exams, Scarlett found comfort doing homework in the farm environment, surrounded by goats. She thrived, academically and personally.
Scarlett Gerber with a goat …
Her hands-on volunteerism helped her learn life skills like working hard, communicating well, and caring for others. She felt transformed, and empowered.
Her time at the farm showed her that seemingly mundane events can be “a catalyst for the extraordinary,” Scarlett says.
In a hectic world, Wakeman Town Farm became her happy place. It helped her get through her last 2 years of high school, and strengthened her sense of connection to Westport.
She wrote her college application essay about her goat experience (and added a video). She graduated this spring from Hopkins School, and got into her first choice: Washington University. She begins pre-med studies there this fall.
Her WTF experience “profoundly changed the way I see myself,” Scarlett says.
“I’m no longer someone who must be persuaded to deal with inconvenience. I’ve become confident as a leader who embraces new experiences and encourages others. Wherever I go from here, I will keep an eye out for meaningful experiences that can appear in unexpected places.”
… and an alpaca.
“Scarlett’s experience gave her a unique sense of purpose in life, being responsible for something other than herself,” adds her mother.
“Getting outside of the house to be on the Farm, her values became greater and provided real maturation. Wakeman Town Farm is a community gem. The transforming experience for our daughter made us love the Farm even more.”
Inspired by Scarlett, Nicole and her husband Steven decided to sponsor this summer’s WTF goat program.
With new Nigerian dwarf goats joining Dolly, the Farm hosts “Goat-Togethers” where children and adults can cuddle and play with the babies. (Click here for more information.)
Sponsorship for the program provides food, bedding, care, veterinary needs, pen maintenance and more to keep the goats healthy and happy, along with staff for
the “Goat-Togethers.”
“Visiting with baby goats is a wonderful experience for all ages,” says Panzer. “They are so playful, and cuddling them is a heartwarming activity that is good for the soul.”
(“06880” is where Westport meets the world — in so many ways. Please click here to support our work. Thank you!
In 1989, a new Compo Beach playground replaced a small structure near the basketball courts, and a meager swing set by the pavilion.
The project involved hundreds of youngsters, who “helped” with the Robert Leathers design; the backing of the Westport Rotary Club and Westport Young Woman’s League, and dozens of volunteers, who built it over a long spring weekend.
A renovation 2 decades later involved a similar community-wide effort.
Another renovation is planned for next spring. It took is a Rotary project — honoring their 100th anniversary as a Westport club — along with the WYWL.
The elaborate playground is a far cry from this scene, from 1978:
Carolyn Wilkinson was home from college, and headed to the beach.
Controversy surrounded the 1989 playground. A group of residents — worried that it would ruin the view, and attract out-of-towners and partying teenagers — filed a lawsuit.
They lost. The playground prevailed.
And though the view is not the same as in the photo above, it quickly became one of the most popular — and beloved — spots in town.
(Friday Flashback is one of “06880”‘s many regular features. If you enjoy this — or anything else on our website — please consider a tax-deductible contribution. Just click here. Thank you!)
Several years ago, Earthplace lost its longtime supplier of donated raptor food.
Now they have to raise $24,000 each year, to feed birds of prey that have found a home at the environmental and educational non-profit.
Among them: Moody and Marble. The barred owls arrived at Earthplace 12 years ago, with injuries that prevented them from surviving on their own.
They’ve been cared for ever since. Today, they are beloved by all who visit.
Generous donors have pledged a match up to $12,000. Between now and July 31, all tax-deductible gifts are doubled. Reaching that goal would feed all the Earthplace raptors for a year.
Click here to contribute, and for more information.
She sends a photo of young ones, who seem to be everywhere. “People might want to ID them in their yards, since they look so different than the adults,” she writes.
Here they are — looking both beautiful and gross:
(Photo/Linda Montecalvo)
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The end is here for 246 Hillspoint Road.
The century-old cottage — the last of its kind facing Old Mill Beach — is being demolished today.
In its place: a new home. Surprisingly, given the town=wide trend, it will be non-overpowering, non-towering, and designed with its tiny lot in mind.
Early this morning … (Photo/Totney Benson)
… and less than an hour ago. (Photo/Matt Murray)
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“06880” likes to highlight local businesses, and their community work.
Suzanne Sherman Propp gives a shout-out to Nice Threads.
Tim Nash’s Kings Highway North company Nice Threads provides custom- decorated merchandise to schools and businesses around New England. Their logo-wear and swag is well known and popular throughout Westport.
Suzanne — who often uses Nice Threads to create materials for Greens Farms Elementary School, where she teaches — recently recommended Nash’s firm to he rsister Caroline, whose Broadway show “Empire The Musical” opened off-Broadway yesterday. (Spoiler alert: It’s about construction of the Empire State Building.)
Caroline and Suzanne’s niece Sophia Sherman (Staples High School Class of 2018) created the “Empire” logo. Her father Alex Sherman (Staples ’85) created the slogan: “A New Musical Based on a True Building.”
Tim helped Caroline put the logo and slogan — which has been plastered on taxis, buses, billboards and garbage cans throughout New York — on hats, water bottles and t-shirts.
It’s a great partnership. But even though 2 generations of Shermans were involved, Tim’s family has a much longer Westport pedigree.
Daniel Nash helped found the town, in 1835.
And his relatives have been in what was then Norwalk — on the pond that now bears their name — since at least 1701.
The “Empire” logo on New York buses is available on locally made swag too.
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Helen McAlinden returned this week from the National Conference on Ending Homelessness, followed by a day of meetings with legislators on Capitol Hill.
Both events provided opportunities for service providers, leaders, advocates, and people with lived experience of homelessness to learn from each other, discuss best practices, and share innovations in the field.
McAlinden — the CEO of Homes with Hope, Westport’s non-profit organization addressing homelessness and hunger — met personally with Senator Chris Murphy, Congressman Jim Himes, and aides to Senator Richard Blumenthal.
Helen McAlinden (3rd from left) and Rep. Jim Himes (far right), in the Connecticut congressman’s Washington office.
Tonight’s free Levitt Pavilion show is a don’t-miss event, for fans of many musical genres.
Black Opry Revue honors the significant, and often overlooked, contributions of Black artists to country, blues, folk and Americana music.
The lawn opens at 6:30 (Friday, July 12). The show starts at 7:30 p.m. Click here for information, and free tickets.
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Westport Police made 1 custodial arrest between July 3 and 10.
a 20-year-old Weston man was arrested for larceny, identity theft and receipt of goods from illegal use of a credit card. He allegedly stole credit cards from a Westport Weston Family YMCA locker room, then used them in the SoNo Mall.
Police also issued these citations:
Failure to comply with state traffic commission regulations: 15 citations
Traveling unreasonably fast: 9
Failure to obey stop sign: 9
Operating an unregistered motor vehicle: 8
Driving while texting: 3
Distracted driving: 3
Failure to renew registration: 3
Simple trespass: 3
Speeding: 2
Operating a motor vehicle under suspension: 2
Operating a motor vehicle without a license: 2
Failure to drive in the proper lane: 2
Reckless driving: 1
Illegal entry to a limited access highway: 1
Improper turn: 1
Failure to obey traffic control signals: 1
Failure to insure a motor vehicle: 1
Operating a motor vehicle without minimum insurance: 1
Failure to carry a license: 1
Improper use of markers: 1
Not everyone can drive on the Merritt Parkway. Trucks, buses and other large vehicles are prohibited.
Pink Aid is a wonderful organization. They do wonderful work, supporting women and families in the area impacted by breast cancer diagnosis, treatment and recovery. Pink Aid provides compassionate support, critical resources and emergency financial assistance.
But they can’t do it alone.
On July 22 (11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.), a “Play 4 Pink Aid” event at Rolling Hills Country Club will raise crucial funds.
They’ve covered all their bases. “Play” opportunities include golf, tennis, pickleball, mah jongg and canasta.
Every attendee receives a code for a $125 shopping spree from fashion sponsor Golftini. Click here to register, and for more details.
MoCA CT’s Artisan Marketplace Summer Series continues this Sunday (July 14, noon to 4 p.m.).
It’s a chance to support local artisans and their creations — jewelry, pottery, textiles, artwork — in an outdoor setting. Click here for details.
MoCA’s unique building, on Newtown Turnpike.
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Playing with Legos is a growing-up experience for many children. Their parents participate with varying degrees of enthusiasm.
Abby Margolis Newman dreaded the time her middle son Aaron spent with the interlocking pieces.
But he loved it — so much so that it became his career. He found an adult community of Lego lovers, learned Danish, was hired by the company as a designer, and has built a career with them.
Recently, Abby — a 1979 Staples High School graduate — got a glimpse into her son’s world, on a trip to New York. She writes movingly about her new understanding of the importance of Legos in his life, in an essay published Monday in the Los Angeles Times. Click here to read.
Before the town of Westport bought Longshore in 1960 ($1.9 million, including the golf course, tennis courts, pool, Inn and more), it was a failing country club.
That’s about $16 million, in today’s dollars.
Seth Schachter spotted a remnant of those 1950s-era days on eBay. This pin is for sale, for $59.90. (In 1960, it would have gone for $7.50.)
And finally … Rod Argent — founding member, keyboardist and songwriter of one of the most underrated ’60s groups, the Zombies — will retire from touring, after a recent stroke. The band canceled all upcoming tours. (Hat tip: Michael Taylor)
(It’s always the time of the season to support “06880.” Please click here to make a tax-deductible contribution. Thanks for your help!)
By January 5, the Portland Trail Blazers’ Matisse Thybulle had blocked 19 non-paint shots. That season total was more than the entire New York Knicks and Charlotte Hornets teams — combined!
If that paragraph makes your eyes glaze over — or the first sentence sends you scurrying to Google Translate, to figure out its meaning in English — then you are not an NBA fanatic.
But there are enough of those folks around to provide work for Tom Haberstroh.
The 2004 Staples High School graduate (and former Wrecker basketball star) is a leader in the sports analytics world. Last fall, he parlayed his passion and background — which included Jen Giudice’s AP Statistics course, and the strong influence of math teacher Rich Rollins — into a job as “analytics insider” for the Trail Blazers’ broadcast team.
And now — less than a year after signing on — he parlayed that into an Emmy Award.
Tom Haberstroh’s Emmy.
The Blazers’ broadcasters won for Best Live Sporting Event in the Pacific Northwest. It was based on their coverage of a game against Dallas last December.
Haberstroh augments the work of play-by-play announcer Kevin Calabro, analyst Lamar Hurd and sideline reporter Brooke Olzendam, (“They’re second to none,” he praises).
He appeared before, during and after 81 of the squad’s 82 games (he missed one with the flu). Haberstroh served up a steady diet of important, arcane, overlooked, over-hyped and odd individual and team statistics — and then broke them down.
In an entertainingly informative way, he tells viewers not only what is going on, statistically speaking, but why. And why it matters.
Or doesn’t. (Click here, to see or a sample of Haberstroh’s work.)
Trail Blazer fans, coaches and front office are appreciative. So, obviously, were the Emmy judges.
But here’s a surprising stat: Haberstroh did it all from a studio in his Charlotte, North Carolina home.
(Except, of course, for when the Trail Blazers played at the Hornets’ Spectrum Center. He was courtside then.)
Tom Haberstroh, when the Trail Blazers played in Charlotte.
Covering a Pacific Northwest team from the East Coast makes for some very long nights.
Earlier in his career, Haberstroh was a national NBA insider for NBC Sports Regional Networks. He spent 8 years writing for ESPN the Magazine, ESPN Insider, and ESPN.com, while making television appearances as an NBA analytics expert.
He joined Bleacher Report in 2017, where he won an Associated Press Sports Editors Award for feature writing.
Now — statistically speaking — he is at the top of his game.
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Pam Docters reports: “Almost all the trees at Sherwood Island have this trap on them. It catches the spotted lanternfly nymph as it walks up the tree during the day.
“Apparently it traps only the bad guys, and has less harmful impact on other beneficial insects, like ladybugs etc.”
Local writer Marsha Temlock is hoping that they — and others elsewhere, and plenty of people who don’t know the game at all — read her new book.
“Tuesday’s Mah Jongg is More Than a Game” will be published tomorrow.
It’s about a group of players who deal with widowhood, health issues, family dynamics, aging, modern dating, and how well the women deal with all that and more.
Press materials ask: “Will these friends, with ties both old and new, strengthen their bonds as they support each other through life’s challenges? Or will the group fracture, leaving them scattered like mah jongg tiles from an overturned table?”
Tuesday’s Westport Rotary Club speakers brought an extra treat.
Rob and Bridget Schulten — co-founders of Fifth State Distillery in Bridgeport — talked about their small-award winning business.
It’s the first distillery in Fairfield County since Prohibition. And it distributes only in Connecticut.
They make their spirits from scratch, and only use state-grown corn. They specialize in flavored alcohol and cocktails, including a celery vodka for Bloody Marys.
That’s all nice. But then Bridget passed out samples of 2 of their 14 products.
Perhaps the most spirited Westport Rotary Club meeting in their 100 years?
That’s the spirit! Rotary Club members enjoy Bridget Schulten’s presentation. (Photo/Dave Matlow)
And finally … this was day in 1804 when Vice President Aaron Burr fatally wounded former Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, in a duel in Weehawken, New Jersey.
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