Tag Archives: Lisa Seidenberg

Roundup: Pushups, Steffi Friedman, Roses …

Posted on October 4, 2021 | 1 comment

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There was a lot going on this beautiful weekend.

A beautiful sight was Staples High School’s Jinny Parker Field, where hundreds of Westporters of all ages banged out pushups for a great cause.

The 12th annual Push Against Cancer is a fundraiser for the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp — the wonderful respite for kids battling life-threatening diseases. It was developed by Westport’s beloved Paul Newman.

Participants solicited pledges, in return for pushups. The top 2 teams were Staples girls soccer ($24,178) and Staples boys soccer ($23.311).

It costs $2,500 to send one youngster to the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp for a week. Those 2 soccer programs alone will send 18 children there.

Add in the $140,000-plus raised by everyone else, and that’s nearly 80 boys and girls. Well done, Westport!

The Staples High School girls soccer team at the Push Against Cancer … (Photo/Charlotte Strandell)

… and the boys.

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On Saturday, friends and family of Steffi Friedman honored the Westport artist who died 2 years ago at 94, and dedicated a new work.

Her bronze “Pas de Deux” (2002) is now part of the Westport Public Art Collections. Installed for years on her Yankee Hill Road lawn, it now sits proudly in the Staples High School courtyard. The work was donated by her family, in gratitude of Westport’s cultural legacy, and Staples’ commitment to the arts.

The event was organized by Steffi’s daughter Margie — a 1972 Staples graduate — and town arts curator Kathie Bennewitz.

Performances include poetry from town poet laureate Diane Meyer Lowman, and dance by Staples alum Grace Bergonzi.

Friends and family admire Steffi Friedman’s sculpture. (Photo/Lynn Untermeyer Miller)

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The River of Roses is one of Westport’s best fundraisers.

It’s probably the most colorful too.

The Survive-OAR program provides mental, physical and emotional healing after traditional treatment ends. It’s an empowering, supportive community for women to heal.

During next Sunday’s celebration (October 10, 4 p.m.) — honoring the Saugatuck Rowing Club’s Survive-OARS crew, plus anyone who has battling breast cancer (or is now) — names are read aloud, as rose petals are scattered into the Saugatuck River at high tide. They’re then swept out to sea.

Survive-OAR’s Kimberly Wilson will sing. There’s live music by Fake ID, plus Copp’s Island Oysters, a raw bar from Pagano’s Seafood, drinks, Chef Jason’s clam chowder and lobster bisque, and Donut Crazy treats.

Click here for tickets, donations, positivity bracelets and more. Questions? Email president and head coach Diana Kuen: diana@survive-OARS.org.

PS: Throughout October, new members can buy a one-month membership to the Saugatuck Rowing Club. 100% of the dues goes toward Survive-OARS.

Strewing rose petals, in 2019.

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Yesterday’s Roundup gave an incorrect date for Westport Pride’s Zoom presentation: “When did you know?” (As in: When did you know you were LGBT?).

It’s tomorrow (Tuesday, October 5, 7 p.m.). Panelists include

  • John Dodig, former Staples High School principal
  • Zac Mathias, Weston High School senior and media influencer
  • Samantha Webster, Staples High graduate and former Staples Player
  • Luke Foreman, Staples grad and varsity tennis captain
  • Jen DeLoyd and Bethany Eppner, Westport parents
  • Kayla Iannetta, Staples teacher and founder of the Westport Public Schools’ Pride Coalition
  • Brian McGunagle, Westport parent and founder of Westport Pride.

Click here for the Zoom link.

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Westporter Lisa Seidenberg had a letter published in yesterday’s New York Times Book Review.

It was a response to a review by Simon Winchester that mentioned the Futurama exhibit at the 1939 World’s Fair, and how General Motors drove many Americans into debt with the purchase of automobiles. That was a huge expense, in the post-Depression years.

Seidenberg knows the subject well. Her 2010 documentary on the Fair — “I Have Seen the Future” — premiered in Westport, before screenings at film festivals nationwide. It included commentary by the late Westport futurist Watts Wacker.

General Motors’ Futurama, at the 1939 World’s Fair.

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MoCA Westport has announced its fall music series. It includes:

  • Marielle Kraft (pop): Friday, October 8
  • The Figgs (rock): Friday, October 15
  • Priscilla Navarro (classical): Saturday, November 20
  • The Mark O’Connor Duo (violin/fiddle/bluegrass): Thursday, December 9.

Shows begin at 7 p.m. Click here for details and tickets.

The Figgs

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Congratulations to the Longshore Ladies 9 Holers. Their annual charity golf event at Longshore raised an enormous amount of food donations for the Westport Woman’s Club food closet, plus $1,175 in cash.

Longshore ladies who golf — and raise money for good causes. From left: M.J. Fusaro, Eileen Hart, Mandy Germishuys, Julie Gray.

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Today’s “Westport … Naturally” photo is sweet!

Here’s a honeybee enjoying a dahlia:

(Photo/Nancy Diamond)

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And finally … I had never heard of the Figgs — the band that’s headlining at MoCA Westport next week.

Then again, there are lots of bands I’ve never heard of.

Now here they are:

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Posted in Arts, Entertainment, History, Longshore, Saugatuck, Sports, Staples HS

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0*6*Art*Art*0 — Week 24 Art Gallery

Posted on September 5, 2020 | 1 comment

Happy Labor Day weekend!

That’s the theme of a few of this week’s art gallery submissions. As we enjoy this end-of-a-strange-summer holiday, we also celebrate the wonders of Westport.

As always, all submissions are welcome — in any medium. The only rule: It should be inspired by, relevant to, or somehow, in some way, connected to our current world. Student art of all ages is especially welcome.

Coronavirus, social justice, politics, or just the beauty around us — have at it! Email dwoog@optonline.net, to share your work with the world.

“Current Issues.” Photographer Rowene Weems — who took this shot at Assumption Cemetery on Kings Highway North — says, “Initially I was fascinated by the broken edges of the tree (there are so many these days. Lightning? Wind? Crazy!). Then, by the flag in the tree. Was the flag there first or after? Then I began to see it all more symbolically. There’s a lot going on in our world right now that feels pretty shattering.”

“Compo Cove During COVID” (Roseann Spengler)

“Happy Labor Day Weekend!” (Amy Schneider)

“A Natural Horse” (Karen Weingarten)

“Cottage in the Woods” (Lawrence Weisman)

“Burying Hill” (Lisa Seidenberg)

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Posted in Arts, Beach, People

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0*6*Art*Art*0 — Week 21 Gallery

Posted on August 15, 2020 | 1 comment

COVID fatigue? Isaias impact? The dog days of autumn?

Whatever the reason, the 0*6*Art*Art*0 gallery walls are getting bare.

Here are the latest submissions. Feel free to add yours — in any medium. The only rule: it should be inspired by, relevant to, or somehow, in some way, connected to our current world.

Coronavirus … storm … politics — have at it! Email dwoog@optonline.net, to share your work with the world.

“Handle With Care” (Amy Schneider)

“Locked In” (Ellin Spadone)

“Self-Portrait with Pink Hat” (Lisa Seidenberg)

“Variety is the Spice of Life!” (Wendy Levy)

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Posted in Arts, People

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The Cold War’s Hot Exhibit

Posted on January 26, 2012 | 20 comments

The 1950s: McCarthyism. The Cold War. Nike Sites, fallout shelters and elementary school “duck and cover” drills.

Those were the days!

Well, yeah. In many ways they were — especially around here. We had a real-live Main Street, with actual grocery stores, hardware stores, and merchants who knew your name. Kids romped in the woods free from parental worries.

And Westport was growing rapidly. Every day, it seemed, another family moved in. Many were arts-types: novelists, TV writers, playwrights, admen. They were drawn by the town’s reputations as an “artists’ colony” — and as each one arrived, more followed.

Starting this Sunday (January 29), you can revisit those days. The Westport Historical Society presents 2 exhibits looking back on that golden/scary era.

“Next Stop: Westport, The Inspiration for 1950’s TV & Film Writers” takes its title from “A Stop at Willoughby,” one of “Twilight Zone”‘s most memorable episodes. In it, an ad executive on his way home to suburban Westport repeatedly finds himself in a pastoral town called Willoughby — in 1888.

Westport’s role in “The Twilight Zone” was no coincidence. Rod Serling wrote the episode when he lived in Westport.

Fellow residents included novelist Max Shulman, whose Rally ‘Round the Flag, Boys! satirized life in a suburban town when the Army selects it for a missile base. (Which actually happened here; the subsequent film led Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward to move to Westport.)

It was quite a time. There were so many creative types, says Linda Gramatky Smith — the daughter of “Little Toot” creator Hardie Gramatky — that there were regular writer-vs.-artist basketball and softball games.

The Historical Society exhibit features all that, and more — like Sloan Wilson’s novel The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, which was set here (the subsequent movie, starring Gregory Peck, was filmed here), and the final year of “I Love Lucy,” when the Ricardos and Mertzes move to town.

Video of a different kind will be shown at the WHS too. “The Cold War in Our Backyard” — a fascinating, chilling (and at times laughable) film compilation by Lisa Seidenberg, including everything from instructions on removing radiation from food to the still-frightening “Twilight Zone” episode on barbarism in a fallout shelter — will play in a continuous loop. (You can also click here to see it.)

Nearby, images and artifacts will recreate the fears that filled that “golden” era.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” Charles Dickens wrote.

He didn’t live in Westport.

But so many other famous writers did. Starting Sunday, the Westport Historical Society shares their stories with the world.

(The exhibit’s opening reception is this Sunday, January 29, 3-5 p.m. Click here for more information, or call 203-222-1424.)

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Posted in Arts, Entertainment, Looking back, Organizations, People

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The Road Taken

Posted on April 21, 2009 | 5 comments

Who knew so many people cared about the Merritt Parkway?

An overflow crowd braved last night’s cold rain to pack the Westport Public Library for a film about a road.  Lisa Seidenberg showed her 35-minute documentary, “The Road Taken: The Merritt Parkway,” to an appreciative audience — only some of whom remember it being built in the 1930s.

I’ve driven the Merritt thousands of times.  But I learned plenty about it last night — and was reminded of more I once knew, but forgot as quickly as the memory of tollbooths in Greenwich.  For example:

  • The road was named for Schuyler Merritt, a 4-term congressman from Stamford who championed its construction.
  • The Merritt was not a federal WPA project.  It was funded entirely by the State of Connecticut.
  • There’s a reason it’s called a “parkway.”  It was envisioned as a long, narrow park with a road slicing through it. And that road?  It was designed for “motoring” — not “driving.”  The difference:  Folks sought pleasure, not a destination.

Merritt Parkway motoring

  • All land was bought on the open market.  Back in the day, the state could not condemn property just to build a road.
  • The current metal signs with hideous-looking, painted-on sharp edges are meant to evoke the original wooden signs — which really did jut dangerously out.
  • Merritt Parkway bridgeThough each bridge is different, with unique, fascinating artwork, they all were designed by the same man.  Nowadays, the only time you notice the bridgework is when you’re stuck in traffic.
  • The most twisting part of the parkway — in Greenwich — is not topography-related.  Those turns were the only way to get around enormous estates.
  • Similarly, “no man’s land” — the Exit 43-less stretch in Westport and Fairfield — came about when Greenfield Hill residents refused to allow an off-ramp in their backyard.
  • Thayer Chase, who oversaw the tree work, planted them in clumps — not rows — to make them seem more natural.  His plan worked.  Today we imagine the trees were always there.  They weren’t.
  • Not everyone loves the trees.  Former Department of Transportation commissioner (and Westport resident) Emil Frankel said:  “Whenever you cut one branch, you’re inundated with phone calls.”
  • When he wanted to think, John Lennon would rent a car and drive up the Merritt, then back to New York.  He said the parkway gave him “peace.”
  • The tollbooths — removed in 1988 — live on in an exhibit at Boothe Memorial Park in Stratford.  Now, they’re free.

The film’s 2 best lines:  “The Merritt Parkway is outdated — in the best possible way.”

And:  “Many postcards featured the Merritt.  None showed I-95.”

Merritt Parkway sign

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Posted in History, Places, Transportation

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