Before dawn today — while children were nestled all snug in their beds — I posted a video of Staples High School’s astonishing orchestral and choral performance of Beethoven’s Fantasie Op. 80.
It was “06880”‘s gift to Westport: a beautiful piece on this Christmas morning.
Well, the children have now been up for hours. There’s wrapping all over the place. Beethoven has been drowned out by breakfast.
Time to rock out to José Feliciano.
Whether you celebrate Christmas or not — who cares? Our Weston neighbor’s joyful, jingly jangly holiday song is for all the world.
So put down your coffee (or mimosa). Crank up the audio to Spinal Tap 11. Click on the video below.
Feliz navidad, everyone. And to all: Prospero año y felicidad!
Welcome to our first-ever Christmas Day online art gallery.
Many submissions reflect a holiday theme.
The subjects are always up to you. And by “you,” I mean anyone who creates art. Of any kind, in any style.
Whatever your age and level of experience — professional or amateur, young or old — this gallery is open to you. In every medium.
All genres are encouraged. Watercolors, oils, charcoal, pen-and-ink, acrylics, lithographs, macramé, jewelry, sculpture, decoupage and needlepoint — whatever you’ve got, email it to dwoog@optonline.net. Share your work with the world.
Today, from this gallery to your screen: Merry Christmas!
PS: If you’re looking for a subject for our next edition: It’s New Year’s Day.
“Away in the Manger” (Brian Whelan)
“Star of the Nutcracker” — acrylic on canvas. Weston artist Cindy Wagner says, “happy dancing and happy holiday to all,”
“Holiday Splash” Photographer Larry Untermeyer says, “When blended together, the many colors take on an artistic montage of Christmas lights and spirit.”
2021 was a difficult year. But as dark as things seem, we always have music.
Here in Westport, we’re particularly lucky. We have the Staples High School music department. Each year, they give us a gift: the Candlelight Concert.
This year — the 81st — was particularly welcome.
Despite the challenges — including Omicron and mask mandates — the concert was astonishing. It might be the best ever.
But don’t take my word for it. Watch the combined instrumental and orchestral version of Beethoven’s Fantasie for Piano, Choir and Orchestra Op. 80 for yourself.
Starting slowly, then building to a stunning crescendo, it features senior Sasha Maskoff’s remarkable piano solo.
Vocal soloists include Sophia Betit, Shanti Wimmer, Jackiei Peterson, Sydney Gusick, Emily Desser Lauranne De Vos, Samuel Betit, Peter Macris, James Dobin-Smith, Zach Berman, Jeffrey Pogue and Ryan Porio.
Seven days from the end of a terrible year, these 12 minutes will convince you that this is — still — a very beautiful world.
SIR Development’s Rob Haroun responds to yesterday’s photo of trees that were recently cut on Hideaway Lane, off Hillspoint Road. He says:
“The 7 or 8 trees, most of which are on town property as shown in the Google Earth photo and acknowledged by the Westport tree warden, were all posted for removal. No one objected.
“After the requisite period of time and with permission from the tree warden, the trees were removed, some by the town. This was due to the extreme hazard to walkers and vehicles and the lack of maintenance over many years both by the town and the prior owner of 149 Hillspoint.
“The Google Earth photo (below) shows how the trees in the background leaned perilously over Hillspoint Road. Even though most of them were town trees, the tree warden requires replacement trees, from the town-approved list, which will be planted in the fall.
“Additionally, the ‘after’ photo (below) was not taken from the same vantage point as the Google Earth photo, as it does not show the remaining trees on both the left and right sides of Hideaway Lane.”
It’s hardly a surprise that Tyler Hicks and Lynsey Addario — Staples High School’s 2 Pulitzer Prize-winning photographers — have images in this year’s “Year in Pictures” supplement.
Tyler’s was taken on July 12 in Herat, Afghanistan.
(Photo/Tyler Hicks for New York Times)
Tyler says: “This photograph was taken at a checkpoint where Afghan police were inspecting vehicles arriving from nearby Taliban controlled villages. As cars were stopped and checked I turned and saw that a family who was fleeing that area was packed into a car with a girl looking out the back window, back toward where they had come from. I could see the concern in her face and to me that’s what stood out about this moment.
“Although only one person is seen in this photograph, her face says everything about what was soon to come. You can always tell what’s coming by the mood of the population. There was an urgency among the people that was obvious. This is when it became clear to me that there would be no turning back the events that followed.”
Lynsey’s photo was shot on October 26 in Paliau, South Sudan.
(Photo/Lynsey Addario for New York times)
She says: “I was traveling with UNICEF through this very flooded area of South Sudan. It was the first time people had been given masks and they were trying them on. There is so much flooding, malaria, hunger. Covid is not first and foremost on peoples’ minds.”
Congratulations to Tyler and Lynsey, on their superb images. Let’s hope they’ll be able to capture more pleasant and peaceful scenes for the 2022 Year in Pictures.
If you’re heading to tonight’s Christmas Eve services at Greens Farms Church: you’ll need to register in advance (click here). COVID restrictions will keep each service — at 4:30, 6 and 9 p.m. — below the 180-seat meetinghouse capacity.
Each service will last about 30 minutes, and include opportunities for participation by children. All services feature candlelight, too.
Masks are required in the meetinghouse. Congregants are asked to arrive early, for check-in.
Greens Farms Congregational Church (Photo/Candace Dohn Banks)
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Dozens of Westporters took time from hectic last-minute shopping yesterday, to contribute toys, books, coats and fundsto OneWestport’s collection. All donations will be given to Person to Person, the Fairfield County organization serving needing families.
James Dobin-Smith — founder of Staples High School’s OneWestport Club — says, “We were overwhelmed by how many people showed up. A 1st grader named George Gitto used the allowance he had saved up for months to buy picture books to donate from Barnes & Noble. We even got a cash donation from England!
“Thank you, everyone. We can’t wait to deliver the gifts on Christmas Eve!”
Congratulations to club members Dobin Smith, Caroline Caggiano, Isabelle Ormsby, Ian Patton, Cooper Sadler and Melanie Stanger.
OneWestport Club members with donations (from left): Melanie Stanger (with the two stuffed animals) and Ian Patton, Isabelle Ormsby, Cooper Sadler & me. Caroline Caggiano also volunteered but isn’t pictured.
More than 55 years after graduating from Staples, Rob Carlson still writes and records music. He’s better than ever. And he’s doing it with great local talent.
His latest effort was assembled over the last 3 years. With some new and some new recordings of older songs, it’s called simply “Rob Carlson.” It’s typically eclectic: folk, rock, jazz, pop, Americana, R&B, comedy and reggae.
COVID enabled Rob to record with other non-gigging greats like Westport session guitarist Jeff Southworth, jazz keyboardist Chris Coogan, and old friends like Jon Gailmor.
Yes — the legendary Carlson & Gailmor duo, whose long-out-of-print Polydor record is one of the all-time, hard-to-believe-it-never-made-it great records — is back together for a bit.
“Rob Carlson” is on Spotify, YouTube and other streaming services. The CD or tracks can be bought at Rob’s Online Store, or downloaded from Bandcamp.com. Find out more about the songs and artists by clicking here.
This month, the Greens Farms Garden Club’s annual wreath-making workshop and lunch was special. They surprised long-time member Mary Lou McGuire with a Federated Garden Clubs of Connecticut life membership.
She was cited for her many years of service, depth of experience, and breadth of talents in chairing and serving on almost all positions in the club.
All wreaths made by club members were donated to local non-profit groups.
Greens Farms Garden Club past [resident Ann Watkins, current president Kathy Mitchell, and Mary Lou McGuire
Friends and relatives of Kuti Zeeva gathered last Sunday for a memorial soccer game, at PJ Romano Field.
Zeevi — a stalwart member of the Late Knights men’s soccer team, and a popular jeweler in town — was killed 10 years ago this month, in a robbery at his Compo Shopping Center store.
Regular and former players joined younger ones — including Kuti’s 10-year-old grandson — for soccer and stories. He lives on in the hearts of many. (Hat tip: Alex Anvari)
And finally … if you never heard Carlson & Gailmor sing together in their all-too-brief heyday time together after Staples, you missed some beautiful music.
Here — thanks to the magic of the interwebs — they live again.
In the middle of some of the darkest days of the year — literally and figuratively — Westport woke up this morning to a wonderful surprise: a light blanket of snow.
It won’t make this Christmas the best ever — especially for those with canceled plans and continued fears of COVID.
But it sure is pretty.
“06880” photographer Patricia McMahon was out early today. Here’s what she found, all around town:
Some Westporters know Terry Brannigan as an Eagle Scout. Others think of him as a former Staples High School wrestling star.
Perhaps one day the rest of the world may celebrate him for his music.
The 2020 Staples grad is now a Wesleyan University sophomore. He’s double majoring in physics and music. He’s minoring in IDEAS (Integrated Design, Engineering and Applied Science). He’s a varsity wrestler (125 pounds).
And he’s just released his first album. Which (of course!) he created entirely himself, in his dorm room.
Terry Brannigan’s “studio.”
He wrote every song. He played live instruments (after teaching himself bass and piano — he already knew guitar). He sang. He mixed, mastered and produced it all (after figuring out how to use the Ableton program).
And — why not? — he designed the album cover too
Terry Brannigan created all the “Gillham” art.
“Gillham” — that’s Terry’s middle name; it’s both the album title and his stage name — traces its roots back to Terry’s first guitar, at 7. He joined School of Rock, but did not take music seriously until the summer after 11th grade
He and a friend formed the band Verbatim (it included his younger brother Eamon). They played a few gigs, at venues from bars to Barnes & Noble.
Terry Brannigan
A turning point for Terry was taking Advanced Placement Music Theory with Luke Rosenberg. The Staples choral director gave Terry “another way to look at and appreciate music,” he says.
Balancing school, music, wrestling and Boy Scouts was not easy. Terry was grateful to have two escapes — arts and sports — from the stresses of teenage life. They use different sides of the brain, he notes, and balance each other out.
Throughout high school, Terry wrote songs. Last year, stuck in his Wesleyan dorm room for long stretches during COVID, he worked in earnest on his music.
“I’d sit in the same chair for 6 or 7 hours — class, homework, music, eating dinner at my desk,” Terry says. “I was having a really weird relationship with time.” He began writing songs with that theme.
At first, Terry admits, it was hard to write about personal feelings. “Is it too much information? Why would anyone care?” he wondered. But, he notes, “it’s easier, and a lot more fun, to write something you care about.”
The hardest part of making an album was not the lyrics or melody. It was production.
“There’s so much to learn,” says Terry. He taught himself Ableton Live — a digital audio workstation. “There’s an infinite number of sounds and instruments. When I figure out how to get something to sound the way I want it to, I’m grateful.”
Terry Brannigan: Westport and Wesleyan’s music man, in Nashville.
He’s produced an impressive debut album. That theme of “time” runs through nearly every track, mutating and reprising often. The more you listen to “GIllham,” the more you appreciate Terry’s insights, subtleties and nuances.
After the next tough part — promotion — Terry will turn to another musical project.
He’ll fit it in along with his very demanding courses at Wesleyan. And his equally tough wrestling schedule.
Terry Brannigan is a many of many talents. And — somehow — he’ll find “time.”
(“Gillham” by Gillham is available on Spotify, Apple Music and other streaming platforms.)
If Terry Brannigan is not making music or studying, you’ll find him on the wrestling mat.
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