Tag Archives: ” Toby Burns

Roundup: Pizza, Trump, Cops …

Posted on April 6, 2023 | 9 comments

Old Mill Grocery & Deli, Outpost and Romanacci were all double winners in Westport’s Great Pizza Contest.

Nearly 2,000 votes were cast throughout March, for 14 restaurants and markets.

OMG won in the Best Meat and Best Veggie Pizza categories. Outpost won for Best Slice and Best Delivered Pizza, while Romanacci copped top honors for Best Personal and Best Gluten-Free Pizza.

Solo winners were La Plage (Best Flatbread) and Pizza Lyfe (Best Plain).

The Westport Weston Chamber of Commerce sponsored the event. They’re already planning next years return of the Great Burger Contest.

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Joe Tacopina — one of former President Trump’s lead lawyers — was not the only Westport connection to Tuesday’s historic Manhattan arraignment.

Staples High School Class of 2002 graduate Toby Burns covered the event for The Hill.

And, Toby says, his longtime friend and fellow Staples grad Frank Runyeon — an award-winning criminal justice reporter for legal news service Law360 — was “the most knowledgeable court reporter on the ground” outside the courthouse. He helped coordinate “hundreds of global journalists.”

That’s not all. Frank also drew the lucky straw, and was the first journalist of all those hundreds to see the actual indictment. (Hat tip: Kerry Long)

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Speaking of elections: There are 53 new voters in Westport.

The League of Women Voters registered them — all seniorso — yesterday, as part of Staples High School’s Invest in Yourself day.

It was the first such event since the pandemic began 3 years ago.

New voter registration at Staples.

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Westport Police made 2 custodial arrests between March 29 and April 5.

A home health care aide was arrested for 2nd degree larceny, illegal use of credit card, and receiving goods obtained by illegal use of credit card, after a complaint by a Westport resident.

A Westport man was arrested for 3rd degree criminal mischief after a complaint from someone who saw him punch and break a window in the front door of a business. Police investigated the license plate, and found the man with fresh cuts and blood on his hand. He had no explanation for why he broke the window.

Westport Police did not report citations issued this week.

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Michael Friedman’s great new book “Exposed” — his lost-and-then-found up-close-and-personal photos chronicling rock legends like Janis Joplin, The Rolling Stones and The Band — gets great exposure April 22 (7 p.m., Westport Library).

He’ll talk about the book, the photos and the stories behind them on a panel with WPLR’s Mike Lapitino and longtime local musician Roger Kaufman.

The panel will be followed by live music from the era with Kaufman’s longtime band, Old School Revue. Special guests include drummer Chris Parker (who played with Bob Dylan, Bonnie Raitt, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and Todd Rundgren), bassist Stu Woods (Dylan, Rundgren, Jim Croce), and Staples High School graduate Drew Angus.

Signed copies of Friedman’s book, along with prints, will be available for purchase.

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Also at the Library:

Westporter Margrit Strohmaier celebrates the launch of her second book — “What to Know Before You Get Your Cat” — on April 19 (7 p.m.).

She’ll be interviewed by Julie Loparo, president of Westport Animal Shelter Advocates. This book is aimed at young readers; it’s a follow-up to her debut, “What to Know Before You Get Your Dog.”

It’s part of the “Saugatuck Scribes: Healing & Caregiving” event. Tracy Livecchi — who wrote Healing Hearts and Minds: A Holistic Approach to Coping Well With Congenital Heart Disease — will be featured too.

The discussion will be followed by book signings, and a drawing for a gift basket.

Margrit Strohmaier

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And more about writing:

Westport Writers’ Workshop‘s “More Than Words: Celebrating Outreach to Unheard Writers” fundraiser is set for April 28 (6 to 9 p.m., Wakeman Town Farm). The event includes light dinner fare, music, a door prize and silent auction.

Proceeds support WWW’s Outreach Program. The writing organization offers in-person and online workshops for writers of all levels, along with “the gift of expression” to people unable to take a traditional class.

Westport Writers’ Workshop has expanded their reach outside their core classroom to individuals undergoing special challenges, or who have survived hardship, abuse, or trauma.

The Outreach Program provides complimentary writing workshops for organizations that request them. Volunteers help new writers heal and grow through story.

Among the WWW’s partners: the Center for Empowerment and Education, Homes for the Brave, Caroline House, Harlem Village Academies, Writing for Women Affected by Breast Cancer, College Essay Writing for Fairfield Seniors, and Writing for Women with Special Needs Children. For more details on the program, email info@westportwriters.org.

Click here for tickets, and more information.

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Club 203 — Westport’s social organization for adults with disabilities — heads outside, for its next event.

TAP Strength leads a fun, fitness and movement field day on April 20 (6 to 7:30 p.m., Jesup Green). MoCA Westport will be there with crafts, too.

The cost is $10 per person. Click here to register.

Westport Book Shop will be open during the event, for parents to mix and mingle.

New members can click here to join Club 203, and click here for the consent form.

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If spring cleaning includes getting rid of old mattresses and box springs — hold on until May 20.

That morning Earthplace, Sustainable Westport and Bye Bye Mattress will sponsor a free mattress and box spring recycling event. Up to 90% of them can be recycled into carpet pads, exercise equipment and bike seat cushions, insulation, air filters and steel materials.

The event runs from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m., at Earthplace.

Can’t transport your mattress or box spring? No problem!

Boy Scout Troop 36 will provide pickup service, for a small donation. Click here to sign up.

Saving the planet, one mattress at a time. (Photo: Pippa Bell Ader)

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Yesterday’s wind brought kept most people away from Compo Beach.

But it attracted at least one kiteboarder.

Today’s forecast calls for showers, but with temperatures reaching into the 70s.

(Photo/Nathan Greenbaum)

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Andy Weeks spotted today’s “Westport … Naturally” photo in a very nature-unfriendly part of town: Compo Shopping Center.

Somehow, this old tree survives amid traffic, gasoline fumes, even an old metal post.

As baseball season begins, remember the adage: “Mother Nature bats last.”

(Photo/Andy Weeks)

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And finally … congratulations to Westport’s Great Pizza Contest winners:

 

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Posted in Beach, Entertainment, Local business, Restaurants, Staples HS

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Toby Burns: Westport’s Al Jazeera Connection

Posted on March 26, 2018 | 3 comments

At Staples High School, Toby Burns was a Renaissance Man.

He captained the 2002 baseball team (and the year before, helped them win a state championship). He starred in Players’ “Music Man,” “Guys and Dolls” and “Into the Woods.” He sang with Orphenians.

At Harvard he studied Latin and Greek literature, and performed with Hasty Pudding and the Krokodiloes. Burns imagined himself getting a Ph.D., and becoming an academician.

But his artistic impulse was strong. He spent a couple of years after college pursuing Broadway.

Burns missed studying languages though, and headed to the Monterey Institute to learn Arabic.

He also began considering a career in journalism. He calls the field “a combination of what I love. There’s the creative side of telling stories, but it involves a lot of serious research.”

His parents were journalists — his father Eric Burns is a television commentator and author; his mother Dianne Wildman is a producer/reporter/editorialist — but it took a while before Burns realized that all those dinner discussions about current events, and how to cover them with balance, had made an impact.

Toby Burns

He went to Medill School of Journalism, where he focused on international relations, military affairs and diplomacy. He had no formal background in those areas, or even writing. But, Burns says, “I learned a ton about journalism, and how the world operates.”

He landed a job with TheStreet, reporting on oil, energy and cybersecurity. He worked for a production company in Los Angeles, then joined the Hollywood Reporter as a staff writer.

“I did the least sexy stuff there: labor and taxes,” he says.

His friends were in the entertainment world. He was learning about Hollywood from many angles. Still, Burns wanted to use his Arabic skills — and get back into the international arena.

He heard of an opening for assignment editor with Al Jazeera. He interviewed by Skype. They liked him, despite his lack of TV experience.

Which is how Toby Burns is now living and working in Qatar, for one of the largest news organizations in the world.

The learning curve was steep, he admits. For 6 months, he thought he would get fired every day.

He helps run 10 hours of broadcasts a day. He has plenty of resources: Al Jazeera has 80 news bureaus around the globe, and sends teams deep in the field. “This is not like a cable channel that has panels of talking heads,” Burns notes.

“We strive to be a prestige product. We do pure, hard news. We have no sponsors, so we don’t worry about ratings. That’s a real luxury. We just focus on stories with international relevance.”

That’s everything from wars in Syria and Yemen, to Brexit, to secessionist movements like Catalonia, to turmoil in the Trump White House.

To keep up, Burns reads 20 newspapers a day. They include the New York Times, Washington Post, and the leading ones in France, Germany, Russia, South Korea, India, South America — all over the world. He follows the wires for breaking news, and talks with correspondents everywhere.

The day we spoke, he planned coverage for a major water conference in Brazil. It’s a huge issue — and Al Jazeera was sending a crew to quickly shrinking Lake Chad to illustrate it. But it’s not, Burns notes, a story the American press would cover.

The Qatar newsroom mirrors the network’s reach. It’s filled with men and women from the US, Britain, Africa, Asia, and of course the Mideast.

The Al Jazeera newsroom.

It’s extremely exciting — and challenging. “We have to be very sensitive to cultural differences,” Burns explains. “This has reset my objectivity button back to a new level.”

That objectivity means too that a story on foreign meddling in US elections will include Russian voices. “We have to represent the entire globe,” he says.

The biggest story he’s worked on is the Syrian war. “It’s massive. A whole generation has been devastated.” It involves not just Syrians, Americans and Russians, but Turks, Kurds and many other groups.

The geopolitical and military complexities are “staggeringly large,” says Burns. “I’m finally starting to see how to build a comprehensive narrative.”

A scene in central Doha, Qatar.

Each night when Burns leaves the newsroom, his mind races. “There’s a real intellectual high. It’s so stimulating to hear so many different perspectives,” he says.

Plus, of course, “there’s the basic journalistic reward of being first to the story, or getting an angle no one else has.”

Burns knows that the Middle East is “massively misunderstood. There are so many misperceptions and stereotypes in the US.” In Qatar and his travels throughout the region, he’s come to appreciate that “the tapestry of Christian, Jewish and Muslim traditions is so much richer than we often appreciate.”

A Christmas tree in the lobby of a Doha luxury hotel. Qatar is more religiously tolerant than many Americans imagine, Toby Burns says.

But Burns gives plenty of credit to his hometown.

“Westport is an incredibly international place,” he says. “There’s a UN Day, with flags. There are wildly diverse people there. At Staples, I saw many different cultures.

“I view this job as an extension of the values I got there. I’m very proud of the international side of the town. I’m honored to have grown up there.”

But although Burns spends much of his time working on geopolitics, the arts — another foundation of his youth in Westport — are never far from his mind.

Soon after arriving in Doha, Burns joined the Qatar Concert Choir. The high-quality group performs classic, contemporary and original music.

Toby Burns is indeed a Renaissance Man.

Spectators watching a military parade, on Qatar National Day.

 

 

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Posted in Arts, Media, People, Politics, Sports, Staples HS

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Breaking Upwards With Daryl Wein

Posted on March 23, 2010 | 2 comments

“An uncensored look at young love, lust, and the pangs of co-dependency.”

What more could you want in a film?

That’s the thrust of Daryl Wein’s latest production, “Breaking Upwards.” Theatrical distribution and video on demand start April 2 — but Westporters get a sneak peek at what the Staples graduate has created this Sunday (March 28, 2 p.m.) at Fairfield’s Community Theatre.

Daryl Wein and Zoe Lister-Jones. It's a scene from their movie, in which art imitates life.

Following the film, Daryl; his co-writer, association producer and Staples classmate Peter Duchan; Westport actor Toby Burns, and co-writer, co-producer Zoe Lister-Jones — who is also Daryl’s girlfriend and fellow co-dependent — will lead a Q-and-A discussion.

Anyone who knows Daryl — from his Staples Players days, to his groundbreaking “Sex Positive” film about the now-forgotten birth of the safe sex movement — understands that “Breaking Upwards” is quintessentially him.

The film loosely interprets a year in Daryl and Zoe’s lives as they explore alternatives to monogamy, the madness that ensues, and the answer to the eternal question:  “Is it ever possible to grow apart together?”

“Breaking Upwards” — which Daryl directed, co-wrote, acted in, played music for, produced and edited — won the Grand Jury Prize at the Brooklyn International Film Festival, and earned acclaim at SXSW.

It’s been called “an effortlessly hip and funny new indie flick that easily ranks among the best films about relationships.”

The wisdom and insights Daryl gained in Westport underpin the New York sensibility he brings to his work.  Calling him the Woody Allen of his 20-something generation might be a stretch.

But his career is on the rise.  He bears watching.

And Westporters can start watching on Sunday, next door in Fairfield.

(Not sure you want to see the film?  Check out the trailer — it’s very cool.  PS:  The original soundtrack is available on iTunes.)

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