Newark Arts Alliance Harvest Festival

Raindrops do not discourage Terry Foreman of the Newark Arts Alliance and the vendors who gathered on the Academy Building Lawn. Most of the exhibitors had tents, but illustrators Destinie Carbone (www.destiniecarbone.com) and Patrick Waugh (patrickwaugh.com) sat bravely in the rain, using their clear plastic to cover their wares.

I went on my bike because there is no place to park in Newark when UD is in session, and, besides, you had to get wet to see how the vendors felt. The Priapi Gardens and The Farm Stuff had arranged chrysanthemums and purple peppers and beautiful blooming cabbage plants into edible works of art.

Near them, Richard Aldorasi had set up a marbling station where he was able to guide people through a marbling of scarves. Quite a crowd enjoyed watching the process and Foreman reported on Sunday that he had a lot of scarfmakers.

With ten excellent jewelry vendors, it was quite a selection: Kate (http://www.katerobbins.info) and Andrea (andreaswhimsies.etsy.com) shared a booth where I saw a pale green stone called aventurine, a variety of microcrystalline quartz. Karen Hornor (Hidden Moon at beadit@comcast.net) has a special flexible jewelry she makes with neoprene and aluminum. Robanne Palmer (www.robannesbeads.com) has many glass drop earrings which you can also see at the NAA.

I bought cards from artist Karin Lang who had made several of her watercolors into cards and had cards with translucent covers that look like stained glass.

MaryJane Tyrie (Studio 960) was less worried about the rain damaging her fused glass than the others and the picture above is a lovely fused glass dish which was collecting rainwater – making the goldfish seem to be swimming.

Good attendance and good cheer seemed to make the skies clear – rewarding support of local artists.

See newarkartsalliance.org.

Fast Film Finale with Fringe Festival Festival Fanfare

The crowd already gathered in Theatre N was hip, happy and sporty – is this Philadelphia? Tina Betz and Rich Neumann, coordinators of Wilmington’s First Fringe Festival, were witty, arty, and articulate as they hosted the awards ceremony and screening of the top ten Fringe Fest films on Sunday, October 4. The winners were:

Brad Padoski’s eponymic opus was a comic infomercial about his personal music systems, or PMS. His klutzy choices of music are hilarious. Finally, Brad finds a girl who has PMS, that is, a personal music system of her own.

The Dead Art, a film with mimes Scott Michaels, Nate Davis and Brahmin Jackson, veered to the bizarre when a mime murders passers by and finally hangs himself.

Ric Edevane’s film, The Rockford Case, was a take-off on Mission Impossible. His use of a heartless command control operative gave a great comic touch.

Devoted by Sharon Baker portrayed a lonely woman toasting in birthdays and other holidays at a table set for two to an excellent violin score.

My personal favorite was Playing Games, a film made by the family of photographer Amy Theorin. Two boys roughhouse in the Wilmington and Brandywine Cemetery until one disappears. The remaining brother must challenge a devilish sprite to a chess game to get his brother back. Kudos to Theorin’s fifteen-year-old neighbor who improvised the score on piano.

The filmmakers and the organizers and volunteers of the Fringe Festival should be proud of the great work they inspired with the contest – all ten of the top films are still in my head.

Arty at the Blue Ball Barn with Melomanie

Arty went to the Blue Ball Barn for the October 3 Mélomanie Special Concert and Party, a fundraiser for their new recording of music by five regional composers: Ingrid Arauco, Chris Braddock, Mark Rimple, Mark Hagerty, and Chuck Holdeman. The Holdeman and Hagerty pieces have already been recorded at UD’s Gore Hall by Meyer Media. Composer Ingrid Arauco is eagerly anticipating the recording of her Florescence.

Tommie Almond, President of the Mélomanie Board, was the adroit mistress of ceremonies. Arty enjoyed hot hors d’oeuvres by Greenery Catering staff before sitting down to hear the full Mélomanie ensemble play a short overture and gigue by Georg Muffat, (1653-1704) followed by some Michel Corette (1707-1795) duos for viola da gamba and cello played by Donna Fournier and Doug McNames- an excellent illustration of the difference between the modern cello and its older cousin, the viola da gamba.

This first musical interlude concluded with a movement of Chris Braddock’s Close Tolerances, whose name he took from the concept of gears meshing in close tolerance just as musicians achieve a close tolerance of voices in ensemble.

Party guest Sally Milbury-Steen is also working on close tolerances of power sources in her efforts to wake Wilmington up to the need to transition away from carbon as advised by Rob Hopkins Transition Town movement.

The second musical interlude featured Fran Berge playing baroque violin in Marco Uccelini’s (1603-1680) toccata for violin and basso continuo, one of the first pieces to feature solo violin.

Chuck Holdeman described the third movement of his Sonate en Trio as “like a Hostess Twinkie with a surprise inside.”

The finale, Chaconne in E minor from Quartet 6 of Georg Philipp Telemann’s Paris Quartets, put the party in a joyful mood. Michael Foster, music librarian and radio host, suggested to composers Mark Hagerty and Chuck Holdeman to compose more pieces using the now obsolete technical innovations for violin by Marco Uccelini.

Composer Mark Rimple pulled the event’s winning raffle ticket: The prize of a party at Blue Ball Barn went to WSFS executive Drew Aaron. Aaron and his wife were at the party representing WSFS, a corporate sponsor of the Mélomanie CD project. He and his wife, Judy, will host their going-away party for his parents who are moving to Florida.

Arty had so much fun, he angled for an invite to the Aaron’s Blue Ball event, but didn’t get a nibble.

http://www.transitionus.org

www.destateparks.com

http://www.greenerycaters.com

www.melomanie.org