THE MAKING OF A MIDDLE SCHOOL BAND - Encore Magazine
THE MAKING OF A MIDDLE SCHOOL BAND - Encore Magazine
THE MAKING OF A MIDDLE SCHOOL BAND - Encore Magazine
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southwest michigan’s magazine<br />
the making of a<br />
middle school band<br />
conductor andrew koehler<br />
leads 2 local orchestras<br />
local label launches<br />
cassette comeback<br />
sushi: fresh and fabulous
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publisher<br />
encore publications, inc.<br />
editor<br />
marie lee<br />
designer<br />
maria majeski<br />
photographer<br />
erik holladay<br />
southwest michigan’s magazine<br />
the making of a<br />
middle school band<br />
andrew koehler is<br />
kJso’s youthful leader<br />
local label launches<br />
cassette come back<br />
sushi: fresh and fabulous<br />
copy editor<br />
margaret deritter<br />
contributors<br />
kaye bennett, theresa coty-o’neil,<br />
margaret deritter, brian lam, jeremy martin<br />
contributing poets<br />
kate borgardt, heidi fidler,<br />
elizabeth kerlikowske, robert ed post<br />
poetry editor<br />
margaret deritter<br />
advertising sales/business manager<br />
krieg lee<br />
advertising representative<br />
celeste statler<br />
office manager<br />
ron dundon<br />
<strong>Encore</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> is published 9 times yearly, September<br />
through May. Copyright 2013, <strong>Encore</strong> Publications, Inc. All<br />
rights reserved. Editorial, circulation and advertising corres-<br />
pondence should be sent to:<br />
www.encorekalamazoo.com<br />
350 S. Burdick, Suite 214, Kalamazoo, MI 49007<br />
Telephone: (269) 383-4433<br />
Fax number: (269) 383-9767<br />
E-mail: Publisher@encorekalamazoo.com<br />
The staff at <strong>Encore</strong> welcomes written comment from readers,<br />
and articles and poems for submission with no obligation to<br />
print or return them. To learn more about us or to comment,<br />
you may visit www.encorekalamzoo.com. <strong>Encore</strong> subscription<br />
rates: one year $27, two years $53, three years $78. Current<br />
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$12 by mail. Advertising rates on request. Closing date for<br />
space is 28 days prior to publication date. Final date for<br />
print-ready copy is 21 days prior to publication date.
features<br />
Strike Up the Band 24<br />
It takes patience and dedication<br />
to turn a bunch of middle-schoolers<br />
into a concert band.<br />
Andrew Koehler 18<br />
Junior Symphony and<br />
Kalamazoo Philharmonia<br />
conductor helps others find<br />
the “music’s spirit.”<br />
Cassette Comeback 30<br />
Local music label brings<br />
new artists out on tape.<br />
On the cover: Sam Gearig, right, rests during band class at<br />
Vicksburg Middle School. In the foreground<br />
is fellow student saxophonist Garrett Bell.<br />
Photo by Erik Holladay.<br />
march 2013<br />
Up Front<br />
6 Birdwatching 101 Course teaches novice ornithologists the<br />
basics of seeking and seeing birds.<br />
8 Good Works Kalamazoo Junior Girls has been guiding<br />
young ladies for nearly three decades.<br />
10 Update Kerria Randolph is putting on some mileage<br />
for good causes.<br />
13 Photo Challenge You know you’ve seen it, but where?<br />
Solve our picture puzzler and win a gift certificate to<br />
Food Dance.<br />
15 Savor Southwest Michigan’s sushi<br />
is just as fresh as Seattle’s.<br />
Arts<br />
34 RAD Fest Modern dancers descend on Kalamazoo<br />
for fourth annual event.<br />
35 The Hours Medieval tradition inspires artists and<br />
poets in community project.<br />
36 Poetry<br />
37 Events of Note<br />
Departments<br />
17 First Glance An inspiring image from a local photographer.<br />
46 The Last Word It’s hard not to heed the river’s call.<br />
Massie’s Michigan Historian Larry Massie is taking a sabbatical<br />
from writing this feature. Tell us if you miss him by posting on<br />
our Facebook page, facebook.com/<strong>Encore</strong>Kalamazoo.
up front encore<br />
Birding 101<br />
Course teaches basics of bird-watching<br />
by Marie Lee<br />
Two years ago Karen Cooper didn’t know a<br />
grackle from a grosbeak.<br />
But now, thanks to taking a basic ornithology<br />
course at the Kellogg Bird Sanctuary, the Hickory<br />
Corners resident says she has discovered a “whole<br />
new world.”<br />
The KBS’ Field Ornithology Course is a fiveweek<br />
class running from March to May that<br />
teaches the basics of bird-watching. By attending lectures and field<br />
trips, novice birders learn techniques to identify birds and their migration<br />
patterns and habitats. Participants can opt to take the full<br />
course (lectures and field trips) or just the lectures and field trips by<br />
themselves. Lectures are on Tuesday nights from 6 to 8:30 p.m.; field<br />
trips are on Saturday mornings. The cost to take the full course is<br />
$130, while lectures only are $75 and field trips only are $55. Reduced<br />
rates are offered to Kellogg Bird Sanctuary members.<br />
“We supply everything. A student just has to bring the willingness<br />
to learn and a sense of adventure,” says Kara Haas, environmental<br />
education coordinator for the bird sanctuary. “The sense of adventure<br />
is important because sometimes field trips may not be during the best<br />
weather.”<br />
But neither the threat of inclement weather nor the cost has kept<br />
potential bird-watchers from turning out. This is the sixth year KBS<br />
has offered the course, and each year it has filled up, with many of<br />
the students taking it for a second or third time.<br />
“About a quarter of each class has taken it before. Every year the<br />
lectures are different and so there is new information for them to<br />
learn,” says Haas. “We have students with all different levels of skill<br />
and so we also learn from each other.”<br />
Cooper is one of those repeat students. She took the course<br />
for the first time in 2011 and again in 2012. “There was so much to learn<br />
I had to take it again,” says the 60-year-old former Portage resident.<br />
Not that Cooper paid much attention to birds before. The former<br />
schoolteacher and interior designer says her daughter Ann, who<br />
lives in New York City, initially nudged her mother down the<br />
ornithology path.<br />
“Ann would always want to go to the bird sanctuary whenever<br />
she came home,” says Cooper. “Finally I relented, and we went.<br />
It was February, and I remember thinking we weren’t going to see<br />
anything. But we came to the pond, and there were all these birds and<br />
6 | EncorE MARCH 2013<br />
swans, and it was so lively. Kara (Haas) came along and explained why<br />
it was so busy and started pointing out birds. I was hooked.”<br />
Now Cooper rarely goes for a walk without her binoculars. The<br />
course taught her not only to recognize birds by their songs and<br />
markings, but to see and interact with the world differently.<br />
“You have to walk slowly and quietly so you need to stay peaceful,”<br />
she says. “Birds move very quickly so you learn to look differently with<br />
your eyes. You learn to be still. But up there in the sky, it’s like I-94.<br />
There is so much going on above you. It’s a whole different society.”<br />
Haas says the ornithology course is pivotal to KBS’ mission<br />
of educating the public about the plight of birds in Michigan.<br />
“Birds are in trouble in a lot of different ways – climate changes<br />
and changing habitats,“ she says. “We tell people about how and<br />
if the birds can adjust. Whether it’s talking about an endangered<br />
species or the little sandpiper that nests on Michigan beaches<br />
and struggles with its nests being disrupted by dogs, people and raccoons,<br />
we have to have awareness of the changes that affect birds.”<br />
Southwest Michigan is an absolutely ideal locale for a bird-watcher,<br />
notes Cooper. “I have been going to the Kalamazoo Nature Center<br />
for their programs, and there’s the Kalamazoo River Valley Trail and<br />
also the Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy spaces as well,” she<br />
says.<br />
“I used to think birds were really sweet, but they’re not. They are<br />
very aggressive. It is life or death, eat or be eaten.<br />
“But they sure are beautiful.”<br />
For more information, visit kbs.msu.edu or call (269) 671-2510.
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encore up front<br />
www.encorekalamazoo.com | 7
GooD WorKS up front<br />
Kalamazoo Junior Girls<br />
guides girls to better lives<br />
Pamela Roland didn’t like what she was seeing.<br />
It was 1986, and Roland saw teenage<br />
and pre-teen girls out on the streets of Kalamazoo’s<br />
north and east sides, some pushing<br />
baby strollers, most with not a lot to do.<br />
Roland — who grew up on the same streets,<br />
was a mother at 15 and knew the harshest<br />
realities of life — saw herself in these girls.<br />
One day she pulled her car over and asked<br />
some of them what they needed, what they<br />
wanted out of life. “They seemed so surprised<br />
that anyone would take an interest,” she recalls.<br />
Those conversations gave birth to the Kalamazoo<br />
Junior Girls, an organization that for<br />
the past 27 years has quietly helped guide<br />
more than 2,000 girls ages 8 to18 in reaching<br />
for their dreams.<br />
“From the beginning, we talked about how<br />
to give to the community rather than just<br />
receive from it,” Roland says. “We wanted<br />
to help these young ladies have a sense of<br />
direction, to allow them to share what they<br />
were feeling and thinking and let them see<br />
how they can help change things in their<br />
world.”<br />
The number of girls coming to her home<br />
each week grew rapidly, and Roland, who had<br />
worked for the city of Kalamazoo for 17 years,<br />
realized Kalamazoo Junior Girls was going to<br />
require full-time effort. So she “stepped out<br />
on faith,” quit her job and learned how to run<br />
a nonprofit the hard way: by doing.<br />
“I had never even written a grant before,”<br />
she admits. But within a few years, she was<br />
receiving grant funding from organizations<br />
such as the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation and<br />
the Kalamazoo Community Foundation. But<br />
it wasn’t just foundations that embraced the<br />
organization’s mission.<br />
On another fateful day Roland was driving<br />
away from a meeting where she learned<br />
that the affordable facility she had lined up<br />
for Junior Girls had fallen through. Through<br />
the tears in her eyes, she saw Henry Vlietstra<br />
hanging a “For Sale or Lease” sign on his plas-<br />
8 | EncorE MARCH 2013<br />
terer’s shop in the Northside neighborhood<br />
of Kalamazoo. She stopped, he invited her in,<br />
and the rest, as they say, is history. Vlietstra<br />
called Roland that night and told her that he<br />
and his wife wanted to let her rent the property<br />
for an unbelievably low price.<br />
by Marie Lee<br />
Pamela Roland is the founder and leader of the Kalamazoo Junior Girls.<br />
“When they shared with me what they<br />
would let us have it (the property) for, I rejoiced<br />
with tears,” Roland says. “It’s not an<br />
accident that we’re in this facility. The Vlietstras<br />
could have sold the property for so<br />
much more, but they wanted us to have it.”<br />
Erik Holladay
The Kalamazoo Junior Girls building, on<br />
Paterson Avenue, is a cozy facility with an exercise<br />
room, a small library, several computers,<br />
some video games and a sitting area with<br />
couches. But it isn’t just a place to hang out;<br />
each part of the facility supports the organization’s<br />
mission.<br />
“Our mission really is to empower young girls<br />
and create an environment that increases<br />
their cultural and educational development,”<br />
says Ebony White, a KJG alumna and current<br />
KJG board president. “We want girls to be<br />
confident and make better choices to deal<br />
with the demands in today’s world.”<br />
KJG’s programs include multigenerational<br />
mentoring, for which many of the organization’s<br />
alumni come back as adults and<br />
work with girls; a program for mothers and<br />
daughters that teaches healthy eating and<br />
physically active lifestyles; an after-school<br />
program with academic tutoring; and summer<br />
day camps.<br />
KJG also works in Kalamazoo Public Schools’<br />
middle schools, offering “The Promise”<br />
Pathway to Success, an eight-week life skills<br />
and health awareness program to prepare<br />
girls to take advantage of the educational<br />
opportunities of the Kalamazoo Promise. In all<br />
of its programs, Kalamazoo Junior Girls seeks<br />
to convey to members the importance of volunteering<br />
and being a part of the community.<br />
White, who now works for the W. K. Kellogg<br />
Foundation as a program manager for its<br />
grants in Mississippi and New Orleans, says<br />
that volunteering was one aspect of Junior<br />
Girls that benefited her the most.<br />
“Kalamazoo Junior Girls is how I got my<br />
first connection with volunteer work,” White<br />
says. “They really instilled in me the importance<br />
of giving back.”<br />
On a tour of the KJG facility, Roland barely<br />
stops to point out the wall of accolades,<br />
instead pointing to a wall full of pictures of<br />
members.<br />
“We have such a rich history, and a photo<br />
archive that goes back to our very first year,”<br />
Roland notes.<br />
As she eyes retirement in a few years,<br />
Roland knows the legacy she leaves behind is<br />
more than photographic.<br />
“We just didn’t realize the impact we would<br />
have,” she says.<br />
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www.encorekalamazoo.com | 9
upDatE up front<br />
In celebration of its 40th year, <strong>Encore</strong> is<br />
taking a second look at some of those who<br />
have been featured in past issues of the<br />
magazine. This month we catch up with<br />
Kerria Randolph, who was first featured<br />
in September 2002.<br />
10 | EncorE MARCH 2013<br />
Erik Holladay
Causes keep Kerria Randolph on the run<br />
by JereMy Martin<br />
Kerria Randolph is someone who runs to<br />
the rescue.<br />
When he was featured in <strong>Encore</strong> in 2002,<br />
Randolph was working as a signalman for<br />
the Canadian National Railway, but putting<br />
his energies into trying to draw awareness to<br />
the plight of people with AIDS in Africa. He<br />
founded the One World/One Race Foundation<br />
to raise money for the cause and began<br />
work on a documentary film on the situation.<br />
Now, a decade later, Randolph is still running<br />
to the rescue — literally. The 46-year-old<br />
is using running to raise funds for a number<br />
of charitable organizations. Through donations<br />
and pledges made to him for the races<br />
he runs, Randolph has found that running<br />
allows him to put his passion for community<br />
service in motion.<br />
“I enjoy doing it. You’re essentially putting<br />
your body through misery to help other<br />
people,” he says, laughing.<br />
Randolph’s first race was in May 2011,<br />
nearly a year after he had knee surgery. He<br />
has run in numerous races in Michigan, Chicago<br />
and Florida, including the Big House<br />
Big Heart Run in Ann Arbor to raise money<br />
for Kalamazoo’s Community Healing Centers<br />
and the Walt Disney World Half Marathon,<br />
in Orlando, Fla., to raise money for Orlando’s<br />
Covenant House. He was one of 500 runners<br />
selected to run in the 2012 Mackinac Bridge<br />
Labor Day Run.<br />
Many times there are charities associated<br />
with a race that Randolph will raise money<br />
for; other times he picks the organizations<br />
he’d like to support. “I pick charities that I feel<br />
really have a major impact on improving lives<br />
and spreading a positive message,” he says.<br />
He has raised $2,000 so far but has set an<br />
ambitious goal of raising $15,000 through<br />
his running endeavors this year.<br />
“I want to be able to help more charities.<br />
That’s never going to go away. It’s like run-<br />
ning a half-marathon. I started it. I’m going<br />
to finish it.”<br />
Randolph still works full time as a signalman,<br />
now for the Grand Trunk Railway. His<br />
job has odd hours, and he’s always on call.<br />
“I essentially take care of the light signals,”<br />
he explains. “Whenever you hear lights or a<br />
signal go off and there’s no train there, I’m<br />
the guy that they call.”<br />
Randolph is also continuing to work for<br />
the cause that brought him to community<br />
service in the first place: the AIDs epidemic<br />
in Africa. Back in 2001, Randolph was convinced<br />
that AIDS was “the worst catastrophe<br />
up front upDatE<br />
the world has evern known” and became determined<br />
to raise money to help AIDS victims<br />
and orphans in Africa. He began work on a<br />
documentary film about the topic, a project<br />
that he continues to work on today.<br />
“I’m still in the process of getting that together,”<br />
Randolph says. “That’s something<br />
that I’m still pursuing.”<br />
Randolph is also a poet whose literary<br />
efforts have proven to be cathartic. “It’s<br />
something that’s kind of therapeutic, like the<br />
running. Sometimes I can just get away and<br />
write something, or you see something that<br />
inspires you, good or bad. I can write it down.”<br />
However, helping others and giving his<br />
time where needed is what he finds most<br />
rewarding. “That’s probably more therapeutic<br />
than the running and the writing, just knowing<br />
that you’re making an impact on somebody’s<br />
life,” he says.<br />
He plans to continue his giving ways for<br />
as long as he’s physically able, which means<br />
running one race, writing one poem and fixing<br />
one signal light at a time. “The biggest<br />
question I get is ‘Why do you do it?’ And to<br />
be quite honest, I could never answer that,<br />
but then I realized it’s just something that I<br />
enjoy doing. I enjoy seeing somebody change<br />
because of something I’ve done.”<br />
www.encorekalamazoo.com | 11
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12 | EncorE MARCH 2013<br />
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Where is this?<br />
Tell us for a chance to win a $25 gift certificate to Food Dance!<br />
1) Go to www.encorekalamazoo.com and click on the Photo Challenge<br />
tab at the top. Fill out the form and submit your answer; or<br />
2) E-mail your answer to editor@encorekalamazoo.com.<br />
Type “Where is this?” in the subject line. Include your name,<br />
address and telephone number; or<br />
3) Mail your answer to <strong>Encore</strong>, 350 S. Burdick St., Ste. 214,<br />
Kalamazoo, MI 49007; include your contact information.<br />
One entry per person. The winner will be chosen in a random drawing<br />
of correct entries. Entries must be received by March 15, 2013.<br />
The correct answer will be printed in the March issue of <strong>Encore</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong><br />
and on <strong>Encore</strong>’s website beginning April 1.<br />
Need a hint? Go to our Facebook page, facebook.com/<strong>Encore</strong>Kalamazoo,<br />
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Congratulations to Deborah Hanley of<br />
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Her name was chosen at random from the<br />
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Deborah won a $25 gift certificate to<br />
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Kalamazoo, MI 49006<br />
e.info@saffronkzoo.com<br />
p.269.381.9898
Fresh Fish<br />
Sushi may just be the best meal you’re afraid to try by Brian LaM<br />
One of the common misconceptions about sushi is that a sushi restaurant in a landlocked city — miles from the<br />
nearest body of salt water larger than a fish tank — can’t serve great sushi.<br />
I battled this misconception when I managed a sushi restaurant in Boulder, Colo., where a common inquiry was<br />
whether or not our sushi was as “fresh” as sushi served on one of the coasts. Whether you are enjoying your raw<br />
salmon on the back patio of a dockside restaurant in Santa Barbara, Calif., or at the bar of Kumo in Kalamazoo,<br />
there isn’t any difference in preparation, storage or “freshness” of the food you are eating.<br />
Almost all fish that is sold to be consumed raw is frozen and then thawed. In fact, U.S. law stipulates that all fish<br />
sold to be consumed raw must be frozen before consumption to kill parasites. The sole exception is tuna, but even<br />
in this case the economical decision is to freeze it to avoid waste or spoilage. In most cases, the fish right on the<br />
boat after being caught is either<br />
deep frozen or put in a refrigerated<br />
sea well, a saltwater brine<br />
set below freezing.<br />
The frozen fish is flown to<br />
landlocked states packed on ice<br />
or dry ice, just as it would be if<br />
it were trucked to a distributor in<br />
Seattle directly from the docks.<br />
Is raw fish safe? I guess anything<br />
we put in our bodies has<br />
its risks, but I ate it every day<br />
for three years while managing<br />
Hapa Sushi in Boulder and never<br />
got so much as a stomachache.<br />
I’d certainly take raw fish from<br />
a licensed restaurant any day of<br />
the week over a brat handed to<br />
me at a backyard cookout.<br />
So, Kalamazoo, the fish here is<br />
fine. But that reassurance leads<br />
to the other big misconception<br />
about sushi: that it is only raw<br />
fish. Sure, that’s a part of it, but<br />
sushi typically refers to the use<br />
of sweet-vinegar-soaked rice<br />
and seaweed (nori) to accompany<br />
a protein or vegetable.<br />
There are plenty of veggie<br />
sushi options as well as cooked<br />
fish and even cooked meats. I’m<br />
not a huge fan of cucumber, but<br />
wrap it in vinegar rice and dip it<br />
in a shallow ramekin of soy sauce<br />
and I’ve got a great lunch. And don’t get put<br />
off by the idea of seaweed. It’s nearly flavorless<br />
and loaded with vitamins.<br />
Now that you have no reasons not to eat<br />
sushi, why should you eat sushi? On a recent<br />
visit to Sakura 2, a sushi and hibachi restaurant<br />
on South Westnedge Avenue, I<br />
interrupted the lunch date of Neil and<br />
Monica Hurley to ask about the allure of<br />
sushi. They’ve been eating sushi at least once<br />
a week for 15 years.<br />
up front SaVor<br />
“It doesn’t sit heavy,” says Neil. “It’s fairly<br />
good for you, and there’s so much variety.”<br />
The Hurleys tend to frequent Sakura 2 but<br />
maintain that they’ve found great sushi at<br />
other Kalamazoo sushi bars, sometimes patronizing<br />
Kumo (also on South Westnedge<br />
Avenue) and Hana East before it closed a few<br />
years back.<br />
“We’ve eaten sushi all over the U.S.” says<br />
Monica, “and Sakura 2 holds its own. Not just<br />
in terms of sushi, but service too. They do a<br />
Sakura 2<br />
chef Joe Chen<br />
crafts sushi rolls.<br />
Erik Holladay<br />
www.encorekalamazoo.com | 15
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great job, it’s kid-friendly, and Tony always<br />
comes by to say hi.”<br />
Tony is Tony Trimh, a Vietnamese native<br />
who is the manager and face of Sakura 2.<br />
Trimh says that regulars are a significant<br />
part of Sakura 2’s business. “Even when the<br />
economy dipped, our regulars kept us busy,”<br />
he says. “We have very loyal customers.”<br />
Perhaps it’s the limited number of places<br />
that serve sushi, but the term “regular” takes<br />
on a new definition at sushi joints. I managed<br />
three types of restaurants in my own<br />
seven-year restaurant management career.<br />
Each had its own regulars, but none had such<br />
frequent regulars as I saw at the sushi bar.<br />
I would see patrons I knew on a first-name<br />
basis every shift.<br />
But while the limited availability of sushi<br />
is one explanation for the repeat business,<br />
there’s also an intimacy between chef and<br />
patron that exists at sushi restaurants. More<br />
than just an “open kitchen,” a sushi bar is a<br />
place where you sit face-to-face with the<br />
person making your food with his or her bare<br />
hands. Patrons get to know their favorite sushi<br />
chefs and the artistic touches they bring<br />
to the sushi they roll.<br />
If you really want to make a sushi chef’s<br />
day, tell him or her to surprise you. Given<br />
the opportunity to put their skills on display,<br />
many sushi rollers will shock you with the<br />
artistic visual display they hand you minutes<br />
later. I’ve seen sushi chefs use different colored<br />
fish, rice, nori, wasabi and wax paper to<br />
create plates that look like famous paintings<br />
or jungle scenes. Other chefs may not focus<br />
on the visual artistry as much but will take<br />
pride in creating a special “off-menu” roll<br />
that they’ve been working on.<br />
This expressionist element is a daily feature<br />
at Sushiya in downtown Kalamazoo.<br />
Sushi chefs there are able to submit creative<br />
rolls on a daily basis for the featured<br />
“off-menu” roll. For even the most fervent<br />
Sushiya regular, there is something new to<br />
try every day. On my last trip, the bartender<br />
recommended the JJ Roll, an off-menu roll<br />
that features shrimp tempura and spicy tuna<br />
wrapped in rice and nori, then topped with<br />
crab guacamole, alternating strips of salmon<br />
and tuna, and crunchy tempura bits.<br />
Finding a skilled, creative, artistic sushi<br />
chef to sit in front of is one of the great discoveries<br />
for sushi regulars. On many nights,<br />
it can be difficult to get a spot in front of an<br />
expert roller who has built a following.<br />
While sushi can be found elsewhere, Sushiya,<br />
Sakura 2 and Kumo all feature sushi<br />
rollers at a seated sushi bar. All three are open<br />
for lunch and dinner, but each brings something<br />
different to the table.<br />
For example, if you find the price of sushi<br />
to be too expensive, check out Kumo on<br />
Thursday nights, when it offers $1.25 pieces<br />
of nigiri, the sushi bite that features a piece<br />
of fish or slice of vegetable atop a ball of rice.<br />
On Sundays, the restaurant offers $1 sushi<br />
rolls for every specialty roll ordered.<br />
Looking for some late-night sushi? Sakura 2<br />
rolls sushi till almost 2 a.m. on Thursdays for<br />
its recently kicked-off “Karaoke Night,” when<br />
karaoke starts at 10 p.m.<br />
In addition to their sushi bars, both Sakura 2<br />
and Kumo feature hibachi dining, where your<br />
chef interacts with you throughout your dining<br />
experience, though over a grill instead of<br />
a fish display.<br />
I would be remiss in describing the sushi<br />
experience without bringing up sake, the<br />
rice wine typically served in ceramic or glass<br />
carafes. Let me start with the managerial response<br />
that is typically given — and that I<br />
used to give — when people ask whether sake<br />
should be served hot or cold: Both are great;<br />
it’s just a matter of personal preference.<br />
Now I’ll give you the insider’s take on whether<br />
sake is best hot or cold: Heating your sake<br />
is akin to dumping ice cubes in your cabernet.<br />
Cold sake of decent quality is very clean<br />
on the palate and compliments the cold,<br />
sweet-vinegar rice and raw fish or veggies in<br />
your meal. It has a crisp acidity and just a<br />
touch of bitterness. For more sweetness and<br />
less bitterness in your sake, try nigori, an unfiltered<br />
sake that is sweet and milky white as<br />
opposed to clean and clear.<br />
At Sakura 2, the nigori sake is the top<br />
seller, Trimh says. Try it with flying fish roe<br />
nigiri topped with a raw quail egg, or just a<br />
spicy tuna roll and know that, even though<br />
you are here in Kalamazoo, your fish is as<br />
fresh as that in Seattle.
See page 39 to learn more about this photo and its photographer.<br />
encore firSt GlancE
Javin Latimore<br />
Finding the<br />
Music’s<br />
Spirit<br />
18 | EncorE MARCH 2013<br />
by theresa Coty o’neiL
that’s what drives the conductor<br />
who heads two local orchestras<br />
A<br />
ndrew Koehler, associate professor of music at Kalamazoo College and<br />
conductor of both the Kalamazoo Philharmonia and Kalamazoo Junior<br />
Symphony Orchestra, understands firsthand how pivotal a high school<br />
orchestral experience can be to a young musician.<br />
It was his student participation in the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra,<br />
under the musical direction of Joseph Primavera, along with the guidance<br />
of violin teacher Lee Snyder that awakened his musical sensibility when<br />
he was 15.<br />
“That was the point, after playing violin for 10 years, that I shifted from<br />
being a dutiful enough violinist to one who started to hear music in a<br />
different way and to become passionate about it,” Koehler says. That passion<br />
has served Koehler well, earning him a full-time job in a competitive<br />
profession at a young age as well as several accolades, including prestigious<br />
honors at international conducting competitions.<br />
Primavera, who made his musical mark early as the youngest principal<br />
violist for the Philadelphia Orchestra, could strike the fear of Apollo,<br />
music’s patron god, into the hearts and souls of his ensembles. Koehler<br />
remembers him saying once to a young tubist: “I could make better music<br />
with myself and a can of beans.”<br />
But he also could reveal a tender side, says Koehler. “He was tough on<br />
the orchestra, for sure, and he demanded an awful lot of us. But he also<br />
was able to reveal, in his more vulnerable moments, how much the music<br />
meant to him, which inspired those of us who paid attention.”<br />
It is no coincidence, Koehler says, that he has followed in Primavera’s<br />
footsteps, “channeling the model that Primavera set, with some judicious<br />
editing.” As many KJSO musicians can attest, their conductor will also<br />
be remembered for his colorful turns of phrase, such as “You sound like<br />
a herd of constipated elephants” or “You sound like flies trapped in sour<br />
cream,” comparisons that keep students on their toes during the threehour<br />
Sunday rehearsals.<br />
For those who need more practice, he sometimes threatens, “I will<br />
haunt your dreams,” a statement that, while uttered lightly, may not be<br />
far from the truth.<br />
www.encorekalamazoo.com | 19
“I strive to create an atmosphere where I show why the<br />
music matters and be just tough enough that students<br />
will take that leap of faith with me, seeing that excelling<br />
is important and the rewards are great,” says Koehler.<br />
At times he is the chief pirate of a large ship of unruly<br />
notes and rhythms and at other times a skipper steering<br />
a model crew over smooth, harmonious waves. As a conductor,<br />
he calls it “the agony and the ecstasy.”<br />
From violin<br />
to conducting<br />
Koehler grew up in Philadelphia’s northwest suburbs<br />
as the son of Ukrainian parents who were born in Western<br />
Europe but eventually settled in the United States.<br />
His mother resisted the familial expectation that Andrew<br />
would attend once-weekly Ukrainian school, though she<br />
did make sure he learned the language as a child. She<br />
instead enrolled him in music lessons to nurture selfdiscipline.<br />
His mother played piano, and Koehler, “already<br />
ornery at 5” when given the choice between piano and<br />
violin, chose violin.<br />
“My mother was a committed guardian, making sure I<br />
continued practicing and continued advancing,” he says.<br />
As a high school sophomore, he was accepted into the<br />
Philadelphia Youth Orchestra. He became concertmaster<br />
his senior year, which was when he experienced the first<br />
inkling of his calling. Without precedent, he decided to call<br />
and conduct Saturday sectionals at 8 a.m., and “remarkably<br />
the whole string section grudgingly showed up.”<br />
In the following years, as an undergraduate at Yale<br />
University, where he dual-majored in German studies<br />
and music, he found more and more opportunities to<br />
conduct. New Haven, Conn., where Yale is located, is a<br />
place where professional, student-run and community<br />
ensembles abound.<br />
“I felt a real freedom when I was conducting which<br />
helped me to be more directly musical and to think about<br />
what the music says rather than how to execute it.” He<br />
began to notice that his “omnivorous curiosity was more<br />
served by conducting than violin playing because there is<br />
more to study and more to know.”<br />
(continued on page 22)<br />
20 | EncorE MARCH 2013<br />
junior symphony<br />
is 75 years young<br />
The Kalamazoo Junior Symphony Orchestra is celebrating its 75th<br />
anniversary with style.<br />
Musical Director Andrew Koehler, the KJSO’s sixth conductor, and<br />
longtime Executive Director Lee Fletcher, have exciting plans for<br />
the organization’s 75th season, including solo performances by renowned<br />
violinist Midori and up-and-coming pianist Alon Goldstein.<br />
Midori Goto, an internationally known violinist who premiered<br />
with the New York Philharmonic at age 11, will solo with the KJSO on<br />
a date yet to be announced. Midori’s special appearance is funded by<br />
a grant awarded to the KJSO and Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra by<br />
Partners in Performance, a foundation started by Midori to promote<br />
classical music performances by well-known artists in partnership<br />
with local arts organizations. In addition to her performance, Midori<br />
will work closely with KJSO orchestra members and ensembles.<br />
On April 27, in the KJSO’s final concert of the season and a collaboration<br />
with the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival, Alon Goldstein,<br />
an Israeli-born pianist living in the United States, will perform the<br />
Grieg Piano Concerto accompanied by the orchestra. “He is very much<br />
interested in meeting people in the community where he performs<br />
and, wherever he can, meeting with young performers,” says Gilmore<br />
Festival Director Daniel Gustin, who notes that Goldstein has twice<br />
appeared in the Gilmore Festival. “He’s a real natural for this role.”<br />
In addition to an exciting concert season, the KJSO is launching a<br />
first-ever $75,000 Scholarship Fund Drive, under the initiative of<br />
Barry Ross, vice president of the KJSO Board of Directors. Sensing<br />
a growing need in the community and to commemorate its 75th<br />
anniversary, the KJSO hopes to raise $75,000 to provide financial<br />
assistance to young musicians who wish to take part in the Junior<br />
Symphony.<br />
Founded in 1939 as the Little Symphony by its first conductor, Eugene<br />
Andrie, and supported by ambitious and pubic-spirited members<br />
of the community who saw a need for an area youth orchestra,<br />
the KJSO is now the third oldest continually running youth orchestra<br />
in the nation.<br />
Since its inception, it has grown into an umbrella organization that<br />
supports four tiered orchestras — Training Orchestra, two auditionbased<br />
preparatory orchestras (Concert and Symphonic Strings) and<br />
the Junior Symphony, a 74-member honors orchestra that performs<br />
three concerts each season and has won many national and international<br />
honors.<br />
Board President and KJSO alum Charlie Tomlinson likens the KJSO<br />
to an oak tree, “with deep roots throughout the spectrum of our<br />
community.”<br />
Executive Director Fletcher agrees. “It’s long been my contention<br />
that Kalamazoo has a lot to teach individuals who may have a misconception<br />
of what is possible for a community this size,” he says.<br />
“The KJSO is a touchstone for generations of young musicians, many<br />
of whom still live and play here.”
Koehler, at left, was a dedicated student of violin. Above, he leads the<br />
Kalamazoo Philharmonia in practice. Below, Koehler shakes hands with<br />
former KJSO concertmaster Raymond Chung. Below left, KJSO cellists<br />
Paul Lee, far left, and Thomas Barth, perform in concert.<br />
(continued on page 27)<br />
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When Koehler first attended Yale, he<br />
planned to pursue the humanities but discovered<br />
that music filled all his spare time.<br />
“Every single second I wasn’t in a class I was<br />
spending it making music. I couldn’t deny it<br />
any longer: Music was what I loved above all<br />
else. Nothing gave me as much joy. As daunting<br />
as it is to try to pursue a career in music,<br />
I couldn’t imagine any other life.”<br />
international<br />
nternational<br />
recognition<br />
recognition<br />
By its nature, conducting is a step removed<br />
from the production of sound. “A conductor’s<br />
only recourse is to sit with the score and try<br />
to really understand it as a piece of music,"<br />
says Koehler. "Why does this theme relate to<br />
this other theme? What is the spirit of the<br />
whole work? That, as a conductor, is what<br />
really engages me.”<br />
To test his skills, Koehler recently competed<br />
in the prestigious Grzegorz Fitelberg International<br />
Competition for Conductors, which<br />
takes place in Katowice, Poland, every five<br />
years. He was the only American to reach<br />
the finals in the televised and well-attended<br />
competition and was awarded First Distinction,<br />
along with the title Young Baton Master,<br />
a special juried prize.<br />
The judging of such a competition involves<br />
several variables, but, as Koehler says, “what<br />
is principally at stake is having a compelling<br />
and clear-eyed vision of the score and<br />
the ability to convey that vision to orchestra<br />
members. That’s the essence of a conductor’s<br />
role.”<br />
The Kalamazoo community is fortunate<br />
to benefit from Koehler’s musical vision. “He<br />
is an exceptionally talented conductor with<br />
a deep artistic sensitivity to musical detail,”<br />
says Barry Ross, assistant conductor of the<br />
Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra and vice<br />
president of the Kalamazoo Junior Symphony<br />
Society Board of Directors. “He has the ability
to instill in young players the determination to conquer highly<br />
technical and musical demands of professional-level repertoire.”<br />
Koehler holds the young musicians of the KJSO and the<br />
college and community musicians of the Philharmonia to very<br />
high standards and challenges them to reach beyond their apparent<br />
abilities. And the orchestras under his guidance make music<br />
that lifts and moves audiences. On stage, he is a commanding<br />
presence. His hair often falls forward as he arches his shoulders,<br />
seeming to draw the music out of the orchestra with finely<br />
conveyed gestures and expressions.<br />
training For or the role<br />
After graduating from Yale, Koehler was awarded a Fulbright<br />
Scholarship to study in Austria, a country he chose because<br />
his father grew up there and because Vienna was a place that<br />
complemented both his German and musical passions. In<br />
Vienna, Koehler was accepted to the University of Music, the<br />
principal training ground there for conductors.<br />
“It’s an extraordinary place to experience music and to feel<br />
the energy of music history,” he says. In just two years, he<br />
studied nearly the entire opera repertoire.<br />
When Koehler returned to the United States, he enrolled in<br />
a graduate program in conducting at Northwestern University,<br />
where he studied with the renowned conductor Victor Yampolsky,<br />
whom Koehler describes as someone who “radiates music.”<br />
Yampolsky, along with conducting, continued to play<br />
violin. He began his musical life as a violinist, serving as<br />
assistant concertmaster of the Moscow Philharmonic, and later<br />
served as principal second violinist with the Boston Symphony<br />
Orchestra. In like fashion, Koehler also continues to play violin<br />
with friends and colleagues in chamber settings and substitutes<br />
with the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra. “It’s informative to<br />
be back in the orchestra, to remember the challenges and to see<br />
how a conductor might help with these challenges.”<br />
In 2005, at 26, Koehler earned a master’s degree in conducting.<br />
For a year he held various part-time conducting and teaching<br />
jobs in Chicago and in 2006 applied for the Kalamazoo<br />
College post, from which Ross was retiring and which includes<br />
conducting the Philharmonia. He found out soon afterward that<br />
the Kalamazoo Junior Symphony position was open. He guestconducted<br />
for a concert cycle and won the position.<br />
While Koehler was still settling into his new post at Kalamazoo<br />
College, his former youth conductor, Joseph Primavera, died.<br />
Koehler dedicated his first Philharmonia concert to Primavera,<br />
who had been for him so formative and inspiring.<br />
(continued on page 29)<br />
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STRIKE UP<br />
<strong>THE</strong> (Sixth-Grade)<br />
24 | EncorE MARCH 2013<br />
<strong>BAND</strong><br />
by Kaye Bennett
www.encorekalamazoo.com | 25<br />
Erik Holladay
Erik Holladay<br />
Every September Patty Stoll faces a new crop of musicians, and by December she conducts them in concert.<br />
In those early days of autumn, the majority of Stoll’s sixth-grade musicians have never before played — or, in some<br />
cases, touched — the instrument they soon will play in front of a thousand people. Yet, for Stoll, the Vicksburg Middle<br />
School band director, the concert always comes together.<br />
Preceding pages: Band director<br />
Patty Stoll with members of<br />
the Vicksburg Middle School<br />
sixth-grade band. Above, Stoll<br />
conducts her students at their<br />
December performance. At right,<br />
saxophonist Sam Gearig warms<br />
up for Vicksburg music teacher<br />
Ben Rosier (holding a portable tuner)<br />
in preparation for the concert.<br />
26 | EncorE MARCH 2013<br />
To mold willing and enthusiastic but for the most part<br />
totally inexperienced sixth-graders into concert-ready<br />
performers in just three months, Stoll lays the groundwork<br />
early.<br />
In fact, she starts a year earlier, selling Vicksburg’s<br />
fifth-graders on the idea of signing up for band when<br />
they get to middle school in the fall. In each of Vicksburg’s<br />
three elementary schools, students are exposed to<br />
general music and learn to play recorders. Each spring<br />
all fifth-graders are surveyed as to how well they hear<br />
chords, pitch, melodic line and rhythm. Stoll visits the<br />
elementary schools to talk about band, and a group of<br />
retired band directors from across West Michigan brings<br />
instruments to the schools for students to try.<br />
At the students’ age, it’s not only musical interests but<br />
also physical attributes that need to be considered, says<br />
Stoll, an Allegan native who earned a bachelor’s degree<br />
in music from Western Michigan University in 1985. The<br />
youngsters’ arm length, hand size and teeth are part of<br />
the equation, as kids are matched up with instruments<br />
they are physically capable of handling. Stoll sends letters<br />
to parents describing the band class that will be available<br />
to their children that fall. To whip up even more enthusiasm,<br />
the eighth-grade jazz band plays at each elementary<br />
school. Stoll’s salesmanship is a success, as about half of<br />
the incoming sixth-graders each year sign up for band.<br />
While many families rent instruments from<br />
local music stores for about $25 a month,<br />
the school provides most of the larger and<br />
more expensive ones. Stoll says that a grant<br />
from the Vicksburg Foundation has covered<br />
the cost of the band’s large percussion instruments,<br />
bassoons, a tuba and a baritone<br />
sax. Other instruments, such as trumpets,<br />
clarinets and trombones, have been donated<br />
by individuals. When a family’s finances are<br />
tight, the school helps out. Stoll says she uses<br />
the “beg, borrow and steal” method to come<br />
up with instruments so that every child who<br />
wants to can be in the band.<br />
After matching children with instruments,<br />
Stoll can at last consider the music they will<br />
produce. “It’s tricky to get the right number<br />
of kids for instrumentation,” she says. Each<br />
year, for example, she has to redirect some<br />
budding drummers. “Lots of kids want to be<br />
percussionists.” To deal with this overabundance,<br />
other schools in the area may require<br />
a child to have two years of piano experience<br />
to be considered for percussion, says Stoll.<br />
Vicksburg, however, does not require this.<br />
When school starts in September, Stoll
faces about 100 eager new sixth-graders. They are broken<br />
up into three separate band classes and are not joined<br />
together to play as a whole until one day before their<br />
December concert.<br />
On the first day of band class, Stoll finds her new students<br />
quiet, but preteen enthusiasm and energy soon<br />
build. The first week or so is devoted to teaching students<br />
how to open their music cases and put their instruments<br />
together, she says. But in just a couple of weeks, Stoll<br />
says, her students are amazed that they can already play<br />
recognizable songs; “Mary Had a Little Lamb” is a perennial<br />
favorite. Plus, they like the social aspect of band.<br />
Before joining the sixth-grade band, Ashlyn Girolami,<br />
11, had played the guitar “a little” and had sung. When<br />
it came time to choose an instrument, she knew exactly<br />
what she wanted to play: the saxophone. But, she says,<br />
“I could play every instrument but the sax. I couldn’t make<br />
a sound on it, and, when I did, it wasn’t the one I should<br />
have made.” A better match, she quickly discovered, was<br />
the flute. “Two other girls and I were the only ones in the<br />
school who could make the highest sound.” So Ashlyn<br />
became a flutist.<br />
Ashlyn says she has learned to read music in band<br />
class, a skill that helps her when she sings at her church,<br />
and she even played her flute at church on Christmas<br />
Eve. Her mother, Allyson Husen of Portage, says that<br />
Ashlyn “absolutely loves band” and that Stoll is her<br />
favorite teacher.<br />
Stoll’s direction is in language her students understand:<br />
“Play loud, like you’re mad at your sister” or “Play<br />
more like bumblebees and less like motorboats.” To a girl<br />
who feels bad about a mistake she’s made on her clarinet,<br />
Stoll says: “If I would have given up after the mistakes<br />
that I’ve made, I wouldn’t be playing today.” Stoll’s tip<br />
to brass players: “When you’re practicing at home, just<br />
play your songs on your mouthpiece if your parents say<br />
you’re too loud.”<br />
Erik Holladay<br />
www.encorekalamazoo.com | 27
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Stoll says that discipline is not much of a<br />
problem in her sixth-grade classes. Her signal<br />
for quiet is to step onto the podium, and<br />
most students usually comply quickly when<br />
she does that. She acknowledges, though,<br />
that her students occasionally need to burn<br />
off excess preadolescent energy. Those are<br />
the times when she gives them the signal<br />
that they should all practice their own parts<br />
simultaneously. “It can sound like a train<br />
wreck sometimes,” Stoll says, laughing, but<br />
after 30 seconds or so the young musicians<br />
are refreshed and ready to get back to work.<br />
Young musicians soon learn the importance<br />
of practice. The band room is left open<br />
so that students can come in and practice<br />
after school. Those who play smaller instruments<br />
can take them home for practice. Tubas,<br />
baritones and tenor and baritone saxes,<br />
however, simply don’t fit on the school buses,<br />
so those instrumentalists usually need to<br />
rack up practice hours at school.<br />
Chris Gearig, of Vicksburg, says her<br />
11-year-old son, Sam, is very excited about<br />
being in band and practices regularly at<br />
home. “He wants to play for us and have us<br />
guess the name of the piece he’s playing.”<br />
Sam’s two older brothers were also in band,<br />
and the experience has been positive for the<br />
entire family, Gearig says.<br />
Sam reports that he played the viola for<br />
about a year in the fourth grade and that he<br />
“kind of plays the piano a little.” But in band,<br />
he says, he plays the alto sax, his choice<br />
based at least in part on the fact that his<br />
older brother had played that instrument and<br />
the family already owned one. “We knew it<br />
would be cheaper,” says Sam.<br />
Sam has especially enjoyed learning how to<br />
read music and how to play different notes,<br />
and, like beginning musicians everywhere,<br />
he has learned that Fat Cats Go Down Alleys<br />
Eating Bacon and All Cows Eat Grass (mnemonics<br />
for the order of sharp notes and bass<br />
clef spaces). His favorite times in band, says<br />
Sam, are “Show-off Fridays” (“We can play<br />
different instruments and play solos”) and<br />
those times when “we get candy if we get<br />
stuff right.” (Jolly Ranchers are the currency<br />
of choice in middle school.)<br />
(continued on page 42)
KOEHLER (continued from page 23)<br />
‘a high-wire act’<br />
At age 33, Koehler is entering his seventh<br />
year at Kalamazoo College and sixth with the<br />
KJSO, which is celebrating its 75th anniver-<br />
sary next season and is the third longest continually<br />
performing youth orchestra in the<br />
U.S. (see related article).<br />
Koehler feels fortunate to be conducting<br />
two orchestras with which there is a tremendous<br />
amount of artistic freedom and flexibility.<br />
“These are orchestras that I can build<br />
a relationship with over a long time,” he says.<br />
“I really appreciate the opportunity to be in<br />
a place where I can choose music without<br />
compromising, music that I’m excited about<br />
sharing with my players and our audiences.<br />
To learn new repertoire keeps orchestras<br />
engaged and our music-making vital. “<br />
The inherent nature of a college-based or<br />
youth orchestra is change. The roster changes<br />
every season. One of Koehler’s happiest<br />
moments with the KJSO came, he says, when<br />
the orchestra had a second opportunity to<br />
perform the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto<br />
under his baton.<br />
“Even though much of the orchestra<br />
had changed, we were more quickly able to<br />
tackle the challenges of the work the second<br />
time around because we had slowly built a<br />
culture where good ensemble skills were<br />
paramount.” These ensemble skills — a<br />
sensitivity for listening across the orchestra<br />
and an ability to sense the natural shape of a<br />
phrase — are what Koehler works with both<br />
his orchestras to nurture and develop.<br />
“My job, in many ways, becomes one<br />
in which I have to coach and encourage.<br />
There are certain members of the orchestra<br />
who are already turned on and committed;<br />
others need coaxing. Within that gap is this<br />
tremendous potential for transformation. It’s a<br />
high-wire act. It’s nerve-racking. But it’s also<br />
very exhilarating.”<br />
HRMInnovationsllc.com<br />
Reading<br />
Together<br />
2013<br />
Meet Journalist & Author<br />
Brooke Gladstone<br />
Brook Gladstone is co-host and managing editor<br />
of the National Public Radio newsmagazine, On<br />
the Media, an up-close look at what the media<br />
are covering and why. Gladstone will speak about<br />
the complexities—and sometimes, controversies—<br />
modern media cultivates. Michigan News will sell<br />
copies of her book, The Influencing<br />
Machine at the event.<br />
Tuesday, April 2, 7:00 pm<br />
WMU Center for the Humanities*<br />
Open seating, no ticket required.<br />
*For a map, go to: bit.ly/ZR2mD3<br />
Our grateful thanks to the following for their<br />
sponsorship of Brooke Gladstone’s visit:<br />
MLive Media Group<br />
Western Michigan University: Center for the<br />
Humanities; Center for the Study of Ethics in<br />
Society; School of Communication; WMUK<br />
www.encorekalamazoo.com | 29<br />
RT-Gladstone2013_<strong>Encore</strong>R1.indd 1 2/4/13 11:46 AM
30 | EncorE MARCH 2013<br />
Most<br />
of us have relegated them to dusty<br />
boxes in our basements or put them<br />
out for a dime apiece at a garage<br />
sale. But hold on. The cassette tape<br />
is making a comeback, and a<br />
Kalamazoo-based company is on<br />
the front lines of its resuscitation.
COMEBACK<br />
Pair works to revive outdated medium<br />
By Jeremy Martin<br />
by JereMy Martin<br />
Already Dead Tapes, a small, independent recording label that operates from<br />
the downtown Kalamazoo home of co-founder Sean Hartman, is among those<br />
behind a movement to “reintroduce” a recording medium that was long ago consigned<br />
to the bargain bin.<br />
“There’s something really beautiful about bringing life to something that’s considered<br />
a dead format by the general public,” says Joshua Tabbia, the other cofounder<br />
of the label.<br />
Already Dead Tapes, like a number of small record labels across the country,<br />
specializes in recording and releasing new music on cassette. Launched in 2009<br />
by Tabbia and Hartman, the label was a way for the duo to promote local experimental<br />
musicians cheaply and easily. The label grew rapidly and now boasts a<br />
roster of more than 50 releases by artists from around the globe.<br />
While the Already Dead headquarters is equipped to handle live recording,<br />
about half of the label’s releases are recorded by the artists themselves before<br />
being sent to Already Dead for dubbing onto cassettes and shipment. In the past<br />
year, Already Dead Tapes has released albums from musicians living in Germany,<br />
Russia and Canada. But no matter how far or quickly the label expands, the core<br />
mission of Already Dead Tapes is not to create a business but to create a community,<br />
Hartman says.<br />
“I try to be a champion for experimental and creative music. It’s always been<br />
important for me to go out there and establish a community for it,” Hartman says.<br />
“This is something that a lot of people haven’t heard before, so my mission is ’Let<br />
me teach you about it. Let’s explore music together.’ ’’<br />
Hartman and Tabbia’s exploration of music began in 2007 after Hartman, a guitarist<br />
and songwriter, moved from Battle Creek to Kalamazoo to establish himself<br />
on the local music scene. Tabbia, a Kalamazoo native who was then a Western<br />
Michigan University student, was playing around town with his experimental<br />
electronic group Problems That Fix Themselves.<br />
encore artS<br />
www.encorekalamazoo.com | 31
artS encore<br />
Hartman found a job booking shows at The Strutt, a now-defunct café and music<br />
club near the WMU and Kalamazoo College campuses. Using connections he<br />
made there, Hartman was able to form the noise rock outfit Rotten Wood Moon,<br />
helping to establish him as a leader in the local experimental music community.<br />
Rotten Wood Moon’s forte was creating spontaneous noise collages, layering<br />
guitars, horns, drums, keyboards, electronic instruments and other noise makers<br />
on top of each other to form often-discordant and sometimes-unsettling waves<br />
of sound. Almost immediately, Rotten Wood Moon began to play the local houseshow<br />
circuit, performing in living rooms, basements and garages across town<br />
where residents host local and touring bands and the scores of people who come<br />
to watch a show.<br />
Hartman had chosen to open his own home to musicians, creating what soon<br />
became one of the area’s best-known house venues. Located downtown, behind<br />
St. Augustine Catholic Church, the venue has become known affectionately as the<br />
“No Fun House” because of its strict policy of no alcohol or drugs. It was at one of<br />
those house shows that Hartman and Tabbia connected.<br />
“In early 2009 I started playing house shows,” Tabbia says, “inspired by my<br />
good friend Ray Jackson and my now wife, Tori Blade, and that’s how I met Sean.<br />
A short time later, I joined Sean’s band.” It was also during this time that the two<br />
created Already Dead Tapes.<br />
However, despite the following Rotten Wood Moon was gaining and the fact<br />
that Already Dead Tapes was still in its infancy, Tabbia decided to pull up roots<br />
and move to Chicago, accepting a position as a graphic designer with the digital<br />
marketing firm UBM Studios.<br />
Hartman and Tabbia’s story could have ended there, but they were far too driven,<br />
determined and optimistic to let a mere 150 miles or an antiquated recording<br />
medium hinder their dream.<br />
Not to say the cassette tape wasn’t once avant-garde technology. The twosided<br />
compact cassette tape rose to popularity in the late 1970s and early 1980s<br />
after being introduced to consumers in the early 1960s by the Philips Co., of the<br />
Netherlands. Sold in the U.S. under the Norelco brand name, the tapes quickly<br />
grabbed a foothold in the music recording market, which had been all about<br />
vinyl records and clunky eight-track tapes. Electronics giant Sony soon hopped on<br />
board, offering to license the format free of charge.<br />
This new, easy-to-use medium allowed greater recording possibilities and mobility.<br />
Though cassette tapes tend to have short shelf lives, a propensity to be<br />
easily damaged and a less-than-high-definition sound quality, it is these and<br />
other quirks that are now drawing musicians — many of whom are too young to<br />
remember a world before compact discs — to revive a format pronounced dead<br />
more than two decades ago.<br />
“The fidelity and overall sonic texture of the tape medium is nostalgic for us in<br />
a variety of ways,” says Abram Morphew of the Little Rock, Ark., duo The Binary<br />
Marketing Show, which is on the Already Dead Tapes label. But beyond evoking<br />
nostalgia, tape recording is a way for musicians, many of whom have limited<br />
funds, to cheaply reuse materials that would otherwise go to waste, Morphew<br />
says.<br />
“Most of it these days is winding up either in landfills or the mid-Pacific,” he<br />
says, referring to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a large area of free-floating<br />
trash and debris, mostly plastics, in the central North Pacific Ocean. “There are<br />
only a handful of companies that make the effort to recycle tape.”<br />
32 | EncorE MARCH 2013<br />
Works by Zach Terry,<br />
now a film student at<br />
New York University, have<br />
long been been audience favorites<br />
at the Teen Filmmaker Festival.<br />
In addition to recording on new cassette tapes, labels<br />
like Already Dead will reuse older cassettes by recording<br />
new material over unwanted tapes. “Tape labels like AD<br />
give value to the medium and the equipment needed to<br />
produce it by releasing artists that you might not hear<br />
anywhere else, hopefully keeping an obsolete medium in<br />
someone’s tape collection instead of in a landfill,” Morphew<br />
says.<br />
While many people who once owned cassette-tape<br />
players have moved on to compact disc and MP3 players,<br />
there is still a thriving market for, as Hartman terms it,<br />
“the cassette culture.”<br />
“The majority of folks that are into cassette culture are<br />
those who frequent thrift stores and/or those still buying<br />
cars old enough to come equipped with tape decks,” he<br />
says. “Part of the charm comes in appropriating technology<br />
abandoned by modern society, finding old tapes and<br />
players at a fraction of their original cost. Fans of modern<br />
tape labels tend to be very active at seeking out new<br />
music. There aren’t many ‘stars’ in the tape world. Folks<br />
seem to be more interested in continually finding fresh<br />
and interesting sounds instead of finding just a handful<br />
or artists and then stopping.”<br />
Cassette-culture consumers tend to be teenagers and<br />
those in their 20s who shun the popular music genres<br />
that saturate today’s media. They are drawn to the vintage<br />
medium because equipment to play cassette tapes<br />
can be found at quite cheap prices.<br />
While the vast majority of Already Dead’s business is<br />
conducted on its website at alreadydeadtapes.com, the<br />
label also sells to retail shops, including the Corner Record<br />
Shop locations in Kalamazoo and Grandville.<br />
Hartman’s nearly full-time job these days is heading up<br />
the day-to-day tasks of keeping the business afloat, from<br />
seeking new acts for the label to accepting submissions,<br />
packaging tapes and shipping products to buyers. Hartman<br />
also freelances as a booking agent for area venues.
encore artS<br />
Former roommates<br />
Sean Hartman, far left,<br />
and Joshua Tabbia created<br />
Already Dead Tapes, a<br />
local music label that<br />
releases artists on<br />
cassette tape.<br />
In Chicago, Tabbia keeps tabs on the visual<br />
aspects of the business and oversees production<br />
and the company’s website. Sometimes his work<br />
involves designing artwork for the releases, as<br />
was the case for the 7-inch vinyl release that The<br />
Binary Marketing Show split with the Chicago band<br />
New Diet.<br />
“We had some amazing cover art created by<br />
Joshua Tabbia and (Sean’s wife) Samantha Hartman,”<br />
says Binary Marketing Show’s Morphew.<br />
Tabbia’s day job utilizes his graphic-design<br />
abilities, and his Already Dead duties blend two of<br />
his passions. “I’ve had a passion for visual art my<br />
entire life,” he says. “I’ve also had a great passion for<br />
music for as long as I can remember. The merging<br />
of the two seemed so natural. I love collaborating<br />
with musicians to give their work a visual identity.<br />
It definitely falls somewhere near the realm of<br />
dream job.”<br />
Hartman finds his duties also fit well with his<br />
passions. In order to showcase and drive awareness<br />
of Already Dead artists and of cassette culture,<br />
Hartman organizes the Already Dead Family<br />
Reunion, an annual music festival in Kalamazoo.<br />
This year’s festival, the third, will be held Sept. 19-21 at venues that include the<br />
411 Club and a possible site on the WMU campus.<br />
“Doing a festival for the label was just sort of a natural natural extension of the work<br />
that I do,” says Hartman. “I try to be be a a champion champion for experimental and creative<br />
music. The thing I’ve found with a lot of the people that that are in that community is<br />
that they seem to get discouraged by how difficult it is to turn people on to that<br />
kind of thing.”<br />
So, instead of constantly trying trying to win over a new new audience, Already Dead Tapes<br />
invites the already established audience to Kalamazoo for a a three-day festival<br />
celebrating experimental music in all all its forms. forms.<br />
“If all goes well, this will be the first year to feature bands from overseas,” Hart- Hart<br />
man says. “We’re talking to a few from Europe and some from Canada.”<br />
(continued on page 43)<br />
www.encorekalamazoo.com | 33
artS encore<br />
Alternative Dance<br />
RAD Fest draws modern dancers to Kalamazoo<br />
by Marie Lee<br />
The “rad” in RAD Fest doesn’t have anything to do with<br />
being radical, but it is about being “alternative.”<br />
Hundreds of modern, contemporary and post-contemporary<br />
dancers from across the United States will<br />
step their way here for the fourth annual Michigan Regional<br />
Alternative Dance Festival (RAD Fest), presented by<br />
Wellspring/Cori Terry & Dancers.<br />
The four-day juried festival — set for March 14-17 at<br />
the Epic Center in downtown Kalamazoo — will feature<br />
pieces created by 39 choreographers and chosen by a<br />
panel of dancers. According to coordinator Rachel Miller,<br />
the festival is gaining fame among modern dance companies<br />
on a national and international level.<br />
“We had an increase in submissions this year and had<br />
two queries from dance companies in England,” Miller<br />
says. “We ended up turning down about half the submissions<br />
we received.”<br />
While the majority of the performers and choreographers<br />
in this year’s RAD Fest come from Michigan and<br />
other Midwestern states, participants are traveling from<br />
as far away as New York, Arizona and Washington, D.C.<br />
“We call it the Midwest RAD fest because it’s in the<br />
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34 | EncorE MARCH 2013<br />
Michael Parmelee will be one<br />
of the choreographers and<br />
dancers featured at RAD Fest.<br />
Midwest, but we do try to let in as many Michigan and Midwest participants<br />
as we can,” Miller explains.<br />
The festival is growing in another way: in what it offers the public<br />
and the dance community. New to the event this year is a youth show<br />
on Sunday afternoon that will feature works by choreographers under<br />
age 18 or choreographed for dancers under age 18. A second new event<br />
is the “Dance Talk” panel discussion, at which visiting artists will share<br />
their insights on issues in the dance world, from funding and building<br />
an audience to running a dance company. Jane Baas, chair of the<br />
Western Michigan University Department of Dance, will moderate the<br />
discussion at 3 p.m. Saturday in the Epic Center’s second-floor atrium.<br />
“The whole point is for them to have a discussion where they brainstorm<br />
and give companies a chance to share information,” Miller says.<br />
(continued on page 40)
Contemplating<br />
‘The Hours’<br />
Medieval tradition informs community arts project<br />
by Margaret Deritter<br />
Have you ever noticed that moment when the bright sun of midday<br />
turns to the softer light of afternoon? Or when the gray of dusk becomes<br />
the dark of night? You might be sitting on the beach watching<br />
the last sliver of sun slip beneath Lake Michigan or walking in the<br />
woods of Kleinstuck Preserve when the light of day suddenly shifts.<br />
It is those special hours, those noticed moments, that provided<br />
inspiration for a local art and poetry project called “The Hours.” Artist<br />
Sydnee Peters came up with the idea of inviting other artists and<br />
writers to join her in using the theme of hours — found in medieval<br />
books of meditation and prayer known as Books of Hours — as a<br />
“metaphoric launch pad” for their work.<br />
“I tried to invite very well-seasoned artists who have a name beyond<br />
Kalamazoo like (novelist and poet) Bonnie Jo Campbell and<br />
(printmaker) Ladislav Hanka. I invited others who exhibit a lot or<br />
have had published works, and I also invited people who haven’t<br />
had any experience with exhibiting or reading,” says Peters, who<br />
received a $4,500 grant for “The Hours” from the Arts Council of<br />
Greater Kalamazoo.<br />
She laid out her idea to the 33 other participants but didn’t give<br />
them specific directions. “Some people were a little baffled that I<br />
wasn’t directing things,” says the Richland artist and Western<br />
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Daniel L. DeMent • William B. Millard<br />
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encore artS<br />
This artwork by Mindi Bagnall, “feels like none,” is from “The Hours.” Its title refers to<br />
a liturgical term for 3 p.m., None.<br />
Michigan University art instructor, “but I invited people in that I<br />
thought could work with the metaphor and said, ‘Let’s see where the<br />
chips fall. It’s bound to be interesting.’”<br />
That kind of open-ended approach “links into my own personal<br />
spirituality,” says Peters. And while it feels “uncomfortably open” to<br />
some people, “it’s my experience that brilliant things happen, inspiring<br />
things happen, in that space.”<br />
(continued on page 42)<br />
www.encorekalamazoo.com | 35
poEtry encore<br />
These poems are all from “The Hours,” a local art and poetry project inspired<br />
by certain times of day such as Prime (6 a.m.), Sext (noon) and Vespers<br />
(sunset) that are featured in medieval books of meditation and prayer.<br />
See story on “The Hours” on page 35.<br />
6 a.m.<br />
A block away, the first call.<br />
Responses. Crows from all sides.<br />
Onset of rain in leaves, doves<br />
and robins plucking mulberries<br />
until jays and cardinals drive them<br />
to the top branches. It isn’t a tree<br />
but a cathedral and everyone<br />
wants a sugary pane just as the sun<br />
slips up. U must have been hungry<br />
that morning birds came along —<br />
we came along — to cram into us<br />
such appetite.<br />
— Elizabeth Kerlikowske<br />
Kerlikowske teaches at Kellogg Community College, in Battle Creek,<br />
and is president of the Kalamazoo group Friends of Poetry.<br />
Sext<br />
The sun crescendos,<br />
clock arms join in<br />
upward salutation,<br />
crown on my head<br />
burns with light.<br />
I reach for a hat,<br />
cast no shadow.<br />
What would I do<br />
if this bush burst<br />
into flame, run<br />
for water, douse<br />
myself, or blaze<br />
with fire down<br />
to my toes,<br />
a miracle on the journey<br />
back to dust.<br />
— Kate Borgardt<br />
Borgardt is a Lawton grape farmer and an admirer of nuance in<br />
all its many forms. She holds an advanced degree in tree hugging.<br />
36 | EncorE MARCH 2013<br />
morning meditation<br />
At this wobbly kitchen table,<br />
my mother pens her odes<br />
to organizational dream gods<br />
sketching schedules<br />
unattainable by mortals.<br />
Artful agendas grace torn<br />
sheets and envelopes,<br />
trash heap refugees from the<br />
homework graveyard<br />
of her children’s lives.<br />
Planning the day’s events,<br />
circles, arrows,<br />
dashes and numbers<br />
decorate margins<br />
with none for error.<br />
Hours pass as one hand scribes,<br />
the other pulling threads of thought<br />
along strands of finger-twisted hair.<br />
Rising swirls of smoke carry away<br />
the possibility of accomplishment.<br />
— Heidi Fidler<br />
When Fidler is not rearranging words on a page, she is a massage<br />
practitioner at SolSpring. She lives in Oshtemo Township.<br />
Walk With me through milkWeed<br />
(VeSperS)<br />
Walk with me through milkweed<br />
along the horse path,<br />
through maple and pine woods,<br />
the ripening orchards ablaze.<br />
Crickets, the rattle of last year’s husks,<br />
the pace of our steps —<br />
It’s the same rhythm.<br />
Let us watch the late sun<br />
of early summer,<br />
a peach on the cusp of harvest.<br />
— Robert Ed Post<br />
Post teaches writing at Kalamazoo Valley Community College. His poetry<br />
has appeared in Passages North, Kansas Quarterly and Driftwood.
perForming artS<br />
Plays<br />
Same Time Next Year — A romantic comedy about<br />
the love affair of two people who are married to<br />
others and meet once a year, 8:30 p.m. March 1,<br />
2, 8, 9, 15, 16, New Vic Theatre, 134 E. Vine St.<br />
381-3328.<br />
In the Next Room — A comedy about marriage,<br />
intimacy and a new electrical device in post-Civil<br />
War America, 8 p.m. March 1 & 2; 2 p.m. March 3,<br />
Balch Playhouse, K-College. 337-7047.<br />
Macbeth — Western Michigan University’s theater<br />
department presents Shakespeare’s dark tragedy,<br />
8 p.m. March 14–16, 21–23; 2 p.m. March 24,<br />
Williams Theatre, WMU. 387-6222.<br />
My First Time — Four actors present first-person<br />
stories about first sexual experiences, 8 p.m.<br />
March 15, 16, 22, 23; 2 p.m. March 24, Fancy<br />
Pants Theatre, 246 N. Kalamazoo Mall. 599-6437.<br />
Musicals & Opera<br />
The Musical Adventures of Flat Stanley Jr. —<br />
Civic Youth Theatre presents a musical adaptation<br />
of the popular children’s book about a boy<br />
who wishes for adventure, 7 p.m. March 8;<br />
1 & 4 p.m. March 9; 2 p.m. March 10; 9:30 a.m.<br />
& noon March 12 & 13; 5 p.m. March 14, Civic<br />
Auditorium, 329 S. Park St. 343-1313.<br />
American Idiot — A musical based on Green Day’s<br />
album of the same name tells of three friends<br />
forced to choose between their dreams and the<br />
safety of suburbia, 7:30 p.m. March 26, Miller<br />
Auditorium, WMU. 387-2300.<br />
Dance<br />
Midwest Regional Alternative Dance Festival —<br />
Wellspring Cori Terry & Dancers present this<br />
festival featuring master classes, an art exhibit<br />
and five dance concerts with original works by<br />
noted choreographers, 7:30 & 9 p.m. March 15<br />
& 16; 3 p.m. March 17. www.midwestradfest.org.<br />
(See related article, page 34).<br />
Noon Dance — WMU dance department presents<br />
guest artist Millicent Johnnie, a choreographer<br />
and teacher of hip-hop and African-American<br />
vernacular movement, performing with WMU<br />
dance students, noon March 22, Room 3118,<br />
Dalton Center, WMU. Free.<br />
Symphony<br />
Cirque Musica — The Kalamazoo Symphony<br />
Orchestra Pops Series presents performers from<br />
Ringling Bros. and Cirque du Soleil, 8 p.m.<br />
March 9, Miller Auditorium, WMU. 349-7759.<br />
Kalamazoo Philharmonia — An orchestra<br />
composed of Kalamazoo College students and<br />
community members will perform, 8 p.m. March<br />
9, Dalton Theatre, K-College. 337-7070.<br />
Pines of Rome — The Kalamazoo Symphony<br />
Orchestra and Kalamazoo Junior Symphony<br />
Orchestra will perform this Respighi piece as<br />
well as works by Bermel and Dvorák, 8 p.m.<br />
March 22, Miller Auditorium, WMU. 349-7759.<br />
University Symphony Orchestra — WMU’s Bruce<br />
Uchimura will conduct this free concert, 3 p.m.<br />
March 24, Dalton Center Recital Hall, WMU.<br />
387-4667.<br />
Chamber, Jazz & Bands<br />
Gilmore Rising Stars Series — Korean-born pianist<br />
Minsoo Sohn, 4 p.m. March 3, Wellspring Theater,<br />
Epic Center. 342-1166.<br />
Guest Artist Recitals — A series of free concerts<br />
at WMU: West Point Hellcats, 7:30 p.m. March 11;<br />
pianist Hamilton Tescarollo, 7:30 p.m. March 12;<br />
Dither Electric Guitar Quartet (part of the New<br />
Sounds Festival), 7:30 p.m. March 14; tenor<br />
Nathan Munson, 7:30 p.m. March 25, Dalton<br />
Center Recital Hall, WMU. 387-4667.<br />
Dalton Wed@7:30 — A series of WMU School<br />
of Music concerts: Merling Trio, March 13;<br />
Western Wind Quintet, March 20; International<br />
Contemporary Ensemble (part of the New Sounds<br />
Festival), March 27. All concerts 7:30 p.m.,<br />
Dalton Center Recital Hall, WMU. 387-2300.<br />
A Soldier’s Tale — Fontana Chamber Arts and<br />
WMU School of Music present Stravinsky’s score<br />
and Kurt Vonnegut’s adaptation of a Russian<br />
folk tale, 8 p.m. March 15 & 16, Dalton Center<br />
Multimedia Room, WMU. 382-7774.<br />
encore EVEntS<br />
Western Invitational Jazz Festival — Featuring<br />
two concerts: jazz trumpeter Tim Hagans, 8 p.m.<br />
March 15, and the University Jazz Orchestra and<br />
the Festival Band & Combo, 7:30 p.m. March 16,<br />
Dalton Center Recital Hall, WMU. 387-2300.<br />
New Sounds Festival — WMU School of Music<br />
presents a series of concerts celebrating contemporary<br />
music: Electronic Music Midwest<br />
Mini-Festival, 2, 5 & 7:30 p.m. March 17, Dalton<br />
Center Multimedia Room; Birds on a Wire, Kyong<br />
Mee Choi & Keith Kirchoff, 7:30 p.m. March 21,<br />
Dalton Center Recital Hall; Student Composers<br />
Concerts, 7:30 p.m. April 1, Dalton Center Recital<br />
Hall, and 8 p.m. April 5, Dalton Center Lecture<br />
Hall. 387-4678.<br />
Vocal, Opera & Radio<br />
Masterworks Concert — The Kalamazoo Singers’<br />
spring concert features Schubert’s Mass in G<br />
and Vivaldi’s Gloria, 3 p.m. March 3, Holy Family<br />
Chapel at Nazareth, 3427 Nazareth Road.<br />
387-2300.<br />
A Tribute to Doo Wop — A concert featuring the<br />
classic sounds of the 1950s and 1960s with<br />
Cornell Gunter’s Coasters, Bobby Hendricks’<br />
Drifters and Larry Marshak’s Tribute to the<br />
Platters, 8 p.m. March 8, Miller Auditorium, WMU.<br />
387-2300.<br />
All Ears Theatre — Live radio performances for<br />
later airing on 102.1 WMUK-FM: Johnny Forrest<br />
and His Gal Pal Sue in the Dragonfly, 6 p.m.<br />
March 9; The Canterville Ghost, 6 p.m. March 23;<br />
First Baptist Church, 315 W. Michigan Ave. Free.<br />
Vivaldi’s Voice — Early Music Michigan, under<br />
the direction of Eric Strand, presents a concert<br />
of early vocal music, 8 p.m. March 17, Prince of<br />
Peace Lutheran Church, 1747 W. Milham Road.<br />
349-1045.<br />
Gold Company Invitational Vocal Jazz Festival —<br />
A festival for high school, community college<br />
and university vocal jazz ensembles, with a<br />
concert by the WMU vocal jazz group Gold<br />
Company, 8 p.m. March 23, Dalton Center<br />
Recital Hall, WMU. 387-4689.<br />
Collegium Musicum — This WMU early-music<br />
vocal ensemble will perform under the direction<br />
of Matthew Steel, 7:30 p.m. March 28, Dalton<br />
Center Recital Hall, WMU. 387-4715.<br />
www.encorekalamazoo.com | 37
Miscellaneous<br />
Fertile Beach – Improv troupe Crawlspace<br />
Eviction examines the foibles of the annual<br />
college retreat of Spring Break, 8 p.m. March 15<br />
& 16, Farmers Alley Theatre, 221 Farmers Alley.<br />
crawlspacetheatre.com<br />
Wild Kingdom’s Peter Gros — The host of the<br />
Animal Planet show will share stories, video<br />
clips and live animals with the audience, 3 p.m.<br />
March 24, Miller Auditorium, WMU. 387-2300.<br />
ViSual artS<br />
Richmond Center for Visual Arts, WMU<br />
The Lawrence Lithography Workshop —<br />
An exhibit of prints from the famous workshop<br />
in Lawrence, Kan., through March 22, Albertine<br />
Monroe-Brown Gallery.<br />
Prints from the University Art Collection —<br />
Through March 22, Rose Netzorg & James<br />
Wilfred Kerr Gallery.<br />
Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, 349-7775<br />
Reflections: African American Life from the Myrna<br />
Colley-Lee Collection — Fifty works from the collection<br />
of this costume designer and arts patron,<br />
including paintings, works on paper, collages and<br />
fabric works, March 2 to May 26.<br />
Stoked: Five Artists of Fire and Clay — An exhibition<br />
of works from Minnesota’s Saint John’s<br />
Pottery studio by Richard Bresnahan and four of<br />
his apprentices, through April 7.<br />
Sight and Feeling: Photographs by<br />
Ansel Adams — 23 of Adams’ photographs<br />
from the KIA collection, through May 19.<br />
38 | EncorE MARCH 2013<br />
The Art of China and Japan: Selections from<br />
the Collection — Works on paper, ceramics<br />
and sculpture, through June 9.<br />
Art & All That Jazz — Tasty treats and beverages<br />
served with art and music from Zion Lion,<br />
5:30–7:30 p.m. March 9.<br />
ARTbreak — Informal, free presentations on<br />
art-related topics: Ansel Adams, Part 2, documentary,<br />
March 5; Maya Lin — A Strong Clear Vision,<br />
Oscar-winning documentary on Vietnam Memorial<br />
designer, March 12 & 19; Cultivated: Pastels<br />
and Prints by Laurel Kuehl, artist’s talk, March 26.<br />
Guests may bring a lunch to these noon sessions.<br />
Miscellaneous<br />
Midtown Gallery — Featured artists for March<br />
include painter Jerry Bowman and ceramist Heidi<br />
Fahrenbacher. 356 S. Kalamazoo Mall. 372-0134.<br />
Live painting with Conrad Kaufman — Muralist<br />
and sculptor Kaufman and three other artists will<br />
turn Food Dance’s dining area into a studio for a<br />
live painting event, 5-8 p.m. March 1, Food Dance,<br />
401 E. Michigan Ave.<br />
Art Hop — View the works of local artists at various<br />
venues and galleries in downtown Kalamazoo,<br />
5–9 p.m. March 1. 342-5059.<br />
literarY eVentS<br />
Kalamazoo Public Library, 553-7879 or 342-9837<br />
Amy Waldman — A special Reading Together<br />
event featuring the author of The Submission,<br />
7–9 p.m. March 5, Kalamazoo Central High<br />
School Auditorium, 2432 N. Drake Road. Free.<br />
Music at the Library — Artwork and performances<br />
inspired by The Submission and created by<br />
students from Education for the Arts classes,<br />
6–8 p.m. March 1; acoustic slow jam co-sponsored<br />
by the Great Lakes Acoustic Music Association,<br />
7–8:30 p.m. March 6; Neil Jacobs, a guitarist who<br />
fuses Gypsy, Celtic and Balkan music and more,<br />
7–8:30 p.m. March 20, Central Library.<br />
Classics Revisited — A discussion of Thomas<br />
Hardy’s Far From the Madding Crowd, 7 p.m.<br />
March 21, Central Library.<br />
Public Art and Controversy — Members of the<br />
Kalamazoo County Public Arts Commission will<br />
speak on this topic in this Reading Together<br />
event, 7–8 p.m. March 28, Central Library.<br />
Portage District Library, 329-4544<br />
Open for Discussion — A literary discussion<br />
of The Submission by Amy Waldman,<br />
10:30–11:30 a.m. March 19.<br />
Exploring Six Characters in The Submission —<br />
Sherry Ransford-Ramsdell leads a discussion<br />
of the characters in Amy Waldman’s novel,<br />
6:30–7:30 p.m. March 21.<br />
Truth in Fiction: A Discussion of The Submission —<br />
Edwin Martini, associate dean of WMU’s College<br />
of Arts and Sciences, will discuss how fiction<br />
lends perspective to historical events, 6:30–8 p.m.<br />
March 27.
Miscellaneous<br />
The Hours — An exhibition of works by local<br />
writers and artists working with the concept of<br />
hours borrowed from medieval Books of Hours,<br />
March 1–29, Kalamazoo Book Arts Center, 326<br />
W. Kalamazoo Ave., Suite 103A; Art Hop opening,<br />
6–9 p.m. March 1. 373-4938. (See related article,<br />
page 35.)<br />
Poets in Print — A free poetry reading by Tyler<br />
Mills of Chicago and Brynn Saito of San Francisco,<br />
7 p.m. March 2, Kalamazoo Book Arts Center, 326<br />
W. Kalamazoo Ave., Suite 103A. 373-4938.<br />
muSeumS<br />
Kalamazoo Valley Museum, 373-7990<br />
African-Americans in World War II — A photographic<br />
exhibit showcasing the contributions<br />
and efforts of this group during the war years,<br />
through April 14.<br />
Kalamazoo Fretboard Festival — Fretboard Festival<br />
Play-In Contest during Art Hop, 5–8 p.m. March<br />
1; Fly Paper, a three-piece rock band, 7 p.m.<br />
March 22; meet instrument makers, attend workshops<br />
and hear live performances, 11 a.m.–<br />
6 p.m. March 23. www.fretboardfestival.com.<br />
nature<br />
Kalamazoo Nature Center, 381-1574<br />
Owl Prowl — Learn which species of owls are<br />
calling in the woods during these night hikes,<br />
7–8 p.m. March 1 & 7.<br />
Maple Sugar Festival — Maple treats, wagon<br />
rides and maple-syrup demonstrations at the<br />
sugar shack, 9 a.m.–5 p.m. March 16 & 17.<br />
Small Wonders — Interactive nature stations<br />
are set up to encourage learning with your<br />
child: Maple Sugar, 10–11:30 a.m.<br />
March 19 & 30.<br />
Boomers and Beyond — A program for adults<br />
over 50; this month focuses on common bird<br />
identification tools and techniques, 11 a.m.–1<br />
p.m. March 26.<br />
Kalamazoo Audubon Society<br />
Cougars in Michigan — A presentation by<br />
Steve Chadwick, a wildlife biologist with the<br />
Michigan Department of Natural Resources,<br />
7:30 p.m. March 25, People’s Church,<br />
1758 N. 10th St. www.kalamazooaudubon.org.<br />
Lewis Reed & Allen P.C.<br />
attorneys<br />
Front Row:<br />
Dean S. Lewis, Richard D. Reed<br />
Second Row:<br />
Thomas C. Richardson, James M. Marquardt, Whitney A. Kermerling, Robert C. Engels, Sheralee S. Hurwitz, Stephen M. Denenfeld, Owen D. Ramey, William A. Redmond<br />
Third Row:<br />
Gregory G. St. Arnauld, Ronald W. Ryan, Nicholas J. Daly, Michael B. Ortega, David A. Lewis, Michael A. Shields, Michael A. Dombos<br />
136 east michigan avenue suite 800 | kalamazoo | michigan | 49007-3947<br />
phone: 269.388.7600 | fax: 269.349.3831 | postmaster@lewisreedallen.com<br />
www.lewisreedallen.com<br />
First Glance Artist<br />
ranDy BronKEma of Climax found this<br />
unique sight at the Al Sabo Preserve last fall.<br />
Bronkema, who is millwork manager for Lamar<br />
Construction in Hudsonville, is known to take his<br />
camera on hikes and travels throughout the area.<br />
He will be going to Cuba in April to photograph<br />
the people and culture of that island nation.<br />
photoS WantED!<br />
Do you have an image that captures the<br />
essence of living in Southwest Michigan?<br />
We invite photographers of all ages and<br />
abilities to submit their work for consideration<br />
as a First Glance photo. Send<br />
your photos and contact information to<br />
editor@encorekalamazoo.com.<br />
www.encorekalamazoo.com | 39
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and Southwest Michigan.<br />
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40 | EncorE MARCH 2013<br />
since 1985<br />
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372-3400 www.devisserlandscape.com<br />
© Bell's Brewery, Inc., Comstock, MI<br />
RAD FEST (continued from page 34)<br />
The festival is an ideal opportunity for<br />
spectators to see a plethora of modern dance<br />
in a short amount of time. The festival will<br />
feature five concerts —two on Friday evening,<br />
two on Saturday evening and one on Sunday<br />
afternoon — at the Wellspring Theater,<br />
with seven to eight works presented at each<br />
concert within the space of an hour. Whether<br />
performed by a soloist or an entire company,<br />
each piece is 10 minutes or less.<br />
“It really makes the concerts move,” Miller<br />
says. “To see that many modern dance pieces<br />
in one performance is really exciting.”<br />
Whether it’s called modern, post-modern<br />
or contemporary, alternative dance is a departure<br />
from the type of dance with which<br />
many people are familiar. Known for its<br />
athleticism and gender-neutral moves such<br />
as women lifting other women, alternative<br />
dance was pioneered by such dancers as<br />
Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham.<br />
“It’s very sculptural,” says Miller. “It’s performed<br />
barefoot and is much more accepting<br />
of different body types.”<br />
While the festival will feature choreographed<br />
pieces, there will also be pieces by<br />
improvisers — dancers who make it up as<br />
they go. Miller says that what viewers will see<br />
is really more like “structured improv,” as the<br />
dancers “know when they begin and end, but<br />
it’s the movements in between that they develop<br />
on the spot.”<br />
“When a dancer is very good at improv, you<br />
can’t tell it’s improvised,” she says.<br />
Other events that are part of the festival<br />
include the RAD Fest art gallery, which will<br />
show dance films by visiting artists, dance<br />
photography and dance-history items Friday<br />
and Saturday in the second-floor atrium.<br />
Miller says that the organizers are especially<br />
excited to have the costumes and set for<br />
Erick Hawkins’ “Classic Kite Tails,” a wellknown<br />
modern dance piece.<br />
The festival also will feature six master<br />
classes covering a wide range of topics, including<br />
“Afro-Contemporary Dance,” taught<br />
by Vershawn Sanders, artistic director and<br />
founder of Chicago’s Red Clay Dance; “Dance<br />
Improvisation and the Five Elements,” by Mare<br />
Hieronimus of Brooklyn, N.Y.; and “Youth
Modern Technique” for dancers 18 and<br />
younger, taught by Pat Plasko of Kalamazoo.<br />
Miller, who is in her second year at the<br />
helm of RAD Fest, says the festival is able<br />
to attract outstanding dancers and choreographers<br />
because it provides a stipend to<br />
help offset the costs of travel for the visiting<br />
artists.<br />
“Not a lot of festivals do that,” she says.<br />
“We provide a very nurturing environment<br />
and give the artists a lot of respect.”<br />
In addition to funding from Wellspring,<br />
the festival receives grant funding from the<br />
Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo, Discover<br />
Kalamazoo, the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation,<br />
the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural<br />
Affairs (MCACA) and the National Endowment<br />
for the Arts (NEA).<br />
Miller notes that those who want to attend<br />
one of the concerts should plan ahead: The<br />
122 seats for each show sell out every year.<br />
Ticket prices are $10 per performance, $18<br />
for an evening pass for Friday or Saturday,<br />
$35 for a festival pass providing access to all<br />
the Friday and Saturday performances; and<br />
$40 for a festival pass that includes Friday,<br />
Saturday and Sunday performances. The cost<br />
to attend the master classes is $10 per class.<br />
The public can attend the panel discussion<br />
and visit the art gallery for free.<br />
RAD FEST COnCERTS<br />
Concerts will be presented at the<br />
Wellspring Theater, in downtown<br />
Kalamazoo’s Epic Center,<br />
at the following times:<br />
7:30 & 9 p.m. Friday, March 15<br />
7:30 & 9 p.m. Saturday, March 16<br />
3 p.m. Sunday, March 17 –<br />
Youth performances.<br />
To order tickets or for more information<br />
call Wellspring at (269) 342-4354 or visit<br />
www.midwestradfest.org or<br />
www.kalamazooarts.org<br />
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STRIKE UP <strong>THE</strong> <strong>BAND</strong> (continued from page 28)<br />
In mid-December each year, all four of the<br />
VMS bands (sixth, seventh, and eighth grade,<br />
and eighth-grade jazz band) perform in the<br />
Performing Arts Center, an auditorium at<br />
Vicksburg High School with more than 1,000<br />
seats. Stoll’s primary concern the day before<br />
the concert: “Remember to bring your instruments!”<br />
The kids’ concerns are more audience-<br />
focused. “I don’t like people watching me,”<br />
one boy says.<br />
“Don’t worry,” Stoll reassures him. “You’ll<br />
be with 99 of your friends.” Then she adds,<br />
“And don’t forget your instruments.”<br />
Nearly 250 students will appear on stage<br />
<strong>THE</strong> HOURS (continued from page 35)<br />
One thing that has happened is that Peters<br />
and about a dozen others have created a<br />
“Suite” of 11- by 14-inch broadsides — 10<br />
prints combining images and poetry. These<br />
prints will be exhibited at the Kalamazoo<br />
Book Arts Center (KBAC) during the March<br />
1 Art Hop, along with other art from “The<br />
Hours” participants. The “Suite” includes a<br />
prelude and postlude and eight works related<br />
to specific times of day. Some participants<br />
have created both the words and the art and<br />
done the printmaking for one of the broadsides,<br />
while others have combined their talents<br />
with those of other participants.<br />
A framed set of the broadsides will be on<br />
exhibit at the KBAC March 1-29, and an unframed<br />
set will be auctioned off during Art<br />
Hop, with the profits going to the KBAC,<br />
which provided letterpress, papermaking and<br />
bookbinding classes through the Arts Council<br />
grant.<br />
In preparation for their work, about 15 of<br />
the artists and writers involved in “The Hours”<br />
visited the Rare Book Room at WMU’s Waldo<br />
Library in July. There, Susan Steuer (head of<br />
special collections and the Rare Book Room)<br />
showed them examples of Books of Hours<br />
and talked about the history of these books.<br />
Some of the artists also attended a September<br />
lecture on Books of Hours by WMU art<br />
history associate professor Joyce Kubiski.<br />
42 | EncorE MARCH 2013<br />
that evening, playing to enthusiastic family<br />
members and friends, who will fill every seat.<br />
The sixth-graders will play three pieces, two<br />
holiday-themed songs (“Jingle Bells is really<br />
confusing,” says Sam Gearig) and a snippet of<br />
Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Each section<br />
of the band also gets a chance to solo. The<br />
concert is invariably an enormous success.<br />
Stoll says that band provides valuable lessons<br />
for youngsters, helping them develop<br />
cooperation, confidence, pride, leadership<br />
and creativity. By having so many students<br />
in band classes for all three years of middle<br />
school, Stoll gets to know not only the kids<br />
but also their families. Often children with<br />
Books of Hours, which originated in Catholicism,<br />
were created in medieval times to<br />
give laypeople access to the monastic tradition<br />
of meditation and prayer at specific<br />
times of day. Their pages are often beauti-<br />
"The Hours"<br />
project<br />
is the<br />
brainchild<br />
of artist<br />
Sydnee Peters.<br />
fully illustrated, or illuminated, and include<br />
elaborate border art. Simon Marmion’s 15thcentury<br />
Book of Hours, for example, features<br />
borders with fantastical imagery of creatures<br />
that appear to be part person and part animal.<br />
Inspired by these images, local artist<br />
Paul Nehring is sculpting his own versions<br />
for the “Hours” exhibit.<br />
The poetry and art from “The Hours” are<br />
featured in a book that local artist and writer<br />
problems at home will choose to tell the<br />
band instructor their troubles. Band provides<br />
a family atmosphere, says Stoll. “It’s a group<br />
they can belong to.”<br />
Stoll is proud of her sixth-grade band students<br />
even long after they’re out of middle<br />
school. Stoll lists former VMS band students<br />
now in college bands or who majored in music<br />
in college or who themselves have decided to<br />
become band directors.<br />
As for Sam Gearig, he’s positively evangel-<br />
ical about band class: “It’s a lot of fun,” he<br />
says. “I encourage other kids to do it. I highly<br />
recommend it.”<br />
Elizabeth King has put together. Peters’ son,<br />
Austin, 20, created the art for the front and<br />
back covers. The book will be for sale during<br />
the Art Hop and again when the poets give a<br />
reading at 7 p.m. March 21 at the Kalamazoo<br />
Public Library, with proceeds going to the<br />
local Friends of Poetry group.<br />
Poet Elizabeth Kerlikowske says she doesn’t<br />
consider herself religious and at first thought<br />
“The Hours” wasn’t for her. “But doing the<br />
project helped me learn about questioning<br />
and faith,” she says. “I discovered way more<br />
than I thought was in me.” She has written<br />
a series of poems on small panels that she<br />
illustrated and placed in a box she artistically<br />
decorated. The work is full of doubt and<br />
questions about God, she says, “but it has<br />
positive feelings too about the universe and<br />
the miracle of the whole thing.”<br />
Although the artists and writers involved<br />
in “The Hours” have been free to approach<br />
the project’s concept any way they want,<br />
Peters says she thinks of it as “more of a<br />
spiritual concept than a religious one.” Even<br />
so, the monastic practice of being quiet and<br />
aware of the passing of the hours is appealing<br />
to her: “To become a monk, who wouldn’t<br />
want to do that? ... When you live a moment<br />
like a monk would live, you manage to slow<br />
down time. You’re present to the moment.<br />
Time slows, and you put off dying.”
ALREADY DEAD TAPES (continued from page 33)<br />
As Hartman works on the festival lineup, he<br />
is also anticipating a new addition to the Already<br />
Dead family: This month the Hartmans<br />
are expecting the birth of their first child.<br />
Hartman is well aware that his priorities may<br />
have to change a bit once the baby is born,<br />
but he has no plans to halt the progress of<br />
Already Dead Tapes; he just might not get<br />
much sleep for a couple of years.<br />
Both he and Tabbia know how easy it would<br />
be to let all that they have accomplished slip<br />
away. “There are tons of tape labels out there,<br />
and you can really tell the ones that are putting<br />
an effort into it,” Hartman says. “It took<br />
us a while to figure out the logistics of getting<br />
our roles down and staying motivated.<br />
It’s also difficult trying to manage a partnership<br />
from two different states,” he admits.<br />
While face-to-face conversations are a<br />
rarity these days for the former roommates,<br />
they are continually online together brainstorming<br />
and mapping the future of the label.<br />
“There’s such a clear division of labor, it<br />
works pretty well,” Tabbia says. “We stay in<br />
close contact and have a lot of grace for each<br />
other when things get hectic. Because a lot of<br />
our sales and activity are web-based, the distance<br />
isn’t as great of an obstacle as it might<br />
seem. One benefit of two locations is having<br />
two cities to market to and two communities<br />
of people to share the label with in person.”<br />
Despite their physical distance, Tabbia and<br />
Hartman say they are very much on the same<br />
page when it comes to the goals and running<br />
of the business, even though they don’t consider<br />
Already Dead to be a commercial enterprise.<br />
“Honestly, it started as more of an art<br />
project and has since grown into something<br />
more legitimate and business-like,” Tabbia<br />
says. “With that said, I don’t like to think of<br />
Already Dead as a business because we’re not<br />
profit-driven. It has (been) and always will be<br />
a passion project for both of us.”<br />
One thing that the duo is currently passion-<br />
ate about is expanding the label’s repertoire<br />
into vinyl, books, magazines and visual arts.<br />
“We’ve already got cassette and vinyl releases planned for the better part of this year, but<br />
we’re also planning on expanding into books, ‘zines and prints,” Tabbia says. “We’ve also talked<br />
to a couple different labels about potential co-releases and have sparked up a friendship with<br />
(the label) 1980 Records of Chicago.”<br />
The St. Louis, Mo., band Spelling Bee is among those that have taken advantage of Already<br />
Dead’s interest in vinyl. Its debut album, Caterwaul, was released in October as an LP. Already<br />
Dead connected with Spelling Bee after Hartman’s current band, Forget the Times, played<br />
shows in St. Louis with the group and he approached drummer Joseph Hess with the idea of<br />
releasing Spelling Bee’s music.<br />
Hess immediately liked the label’s artist-first attitude and its flexibility with the visual aspect<br />
of the release. “Sean and Josh were both open to the minor details, as in, we wanted our<br />
LP jacket to be matte, not glossy, and when we insisted on 45 speed for our LP (an uncommon<br />
practice, as most LPs turn at 33 1/3 revolutions per minute), they were open and willing,”<br />
Hess says.<br />
Hartman and Tabbia see themselves as facilitators of art, not business owners who would<br />
change or alter music for their own benefit. “The whole intention of this is just to support<br />
these bands,” Hartman says. “They are all bands that I am really passionate about and really<br />
excited to have play, and I want to share that excitement with other people.”<br />
For more information about Already Dead Tapes and the label’s artists,<br />
visit alreadydeadtapes.com.<br />
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May We?<br />
May I ask you a question? What do you think of<br />
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their first leaves, the softer gray-greenness of<br />
grass that’s just starting to show. We think of<br />
flowers bursting into blooms of red, yellow, blue,<br />
pink, purple, orange—and, of course, how those<br />
colors translate onto the printed page.<br />
We also think of growth; of potential buried in a<br />
small seed; of excitement in seeing tender plants<br />
reaching toward the sun. We think of the glossy<br />
newness that seems to permeate everything,<br />
lending a brighter hue to the most subtle shades.<br />
And we think of paper, and how it’s the perfect<br />
medium in which to sow a garden of ideas and<br />
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We’re sorry if we seem to be waxing romantic, but<br />
to us, paper and ink are poetry. The quote may be:<br />
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44 | EncorE MARCH 2013<br />
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encore <strong>Magazine</strong> Subscriptions . . . . . . . . 40<br />
farm “n Garden—the fence center . . . . . 44<br />
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(continued from page 46)<br />
“No, that’s fine,” he says.<br />
I ask if he’s ever read Once Upon a River.<br />
He hasn’t. In fact, he’s never heard of it. I tell<br />
him I think he might like it, living on the river<br />
and all.<br />
He points at a structure just downstream<br />
and tells me he’s been collecting oil since the<br />
Enbridge spill. Then he invites me onto his<br />
dock and throws more pellets to dozens of<br />
little fish.<br />
“What kind are they?” I ask.<br />
“Wide-mouth bass.”<br />
“How can you tell?”<br />
“From that stripe along their side.”<br />
He walks over to another one of his three oil<br />
collectors and tells me he’s had a Kalamazoo<br />
Gazette reporter out to see the structures.<br />
“Which reporter?” I ask, and he tells me. “I<br />
know Fritz,” I say. “I worked at the Gazette for<br />
22 years.”<br />
“Then you must know ...” he says and fires<br />
off a string of names.<br />
“I do. So how do you know all those folks?”<br />
“I used to be a politician.”<br />
“What’s your name?”<br />
“Jerry Vander Roest.”<br />
“Oh, sure, I remember. You ran against ... “<br />
“Lorence Wenke,” he says, supplying the<br />
name when my middle-aged brain can’t pull<br />
it in.<br />
“Yeah, yeah, I know him,” I say. I don’t<br />
mention that I remember who lost the race<br />
or that I usually vote for Democrats. And I<br />
think, Oh, man, what was I doing telling<br />
him about Once Upon a River? Margo Crane<br />
seems way too fierce for Republican tastes.<br />
As I’m wondering if he’s read any of the<br />
columns I’ve written, he says quietly, “Yeah,<br />
being a Republican, I was not that much<br />
about the environment. The oil spill kind of<br />
changed that.”<br />
Suddenly “Democrat” and “Republican”<br />
lose a little of their punch. My first impression<br />
was right: This guy loves the river.<br />
Maybe he would like Margo Crane after all.<br />
Maybe anything can happen when a river<br />
takes hold of you.<br />
Have The Last Word<br />
Have a story to tell? Non-fiction, personal narratives about life in Southwest Michigan<br />
are sought for The Last Word. Stories should be no more than 1,000 words. Submit<br />
your story and contact information to editor@encorekalamazoo.com.<br />
SEE SOME MORE<br />
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encore thE laSt WorD<br />
Margaret DeRitter, a regular contributor to<br />
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more than 30 years of newspaper and<br />
magazine experience. She’s the former<br />
Features Editor of the Kalamazoo Gazette<br />
and lives in the Westnedge Hill neighbor-<br />
hood. She also writes poetry and loves living<br />
in the fertile literary territory of Kalamazoo.<br />
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www.encorekalamazoo.com | 45
thE laSt WorD encore<br />
I wrestle my kayak from the roof of my Rav4<br />
and slide it gently into the Kalamazoo.<br />
I’ve parked at the end of a dead-end street,<br />
a quarter-mile down from the Galesburg bridge.<br />
No one seems to be home at the nearest house.<br />
As I set off upstream, the day is sunny and the<br />
current strong. I can see the rising angle of the water,<br />
riffles cascading over stones. I dig in hard and make it<br />
through to calmer waters.<br />
Cars pass over the bridge as I move forward in the shadows<br />
and echoes. In half a mile or so, the sounds of traffic<br />
recede and the world opens up into wildness. A kingfisher races<br />
by with a stuttering squawk. A heron stands at the water’s edge,<br />
then rises slowly in sharp silhouette. A carp shoots past, its top fin<br />
slicing the surface.<br />
That’s one of the things I love about paddling: You never know<br />
what you might see or hear.<br />
I discovered wilderness canoeing about 20 years ago, after a waiter<br />
in Toronto recommended Algonquin Provincial Park. One day my girlfriend<br />
and I drove from our campsite to Canoe Lake to rent a boat for<br />
a few hours. Getting out onto the dock as we arrived was a young<br />
woman with her hair tied back, a bandanna around her neck and<br />
the dirtiest clothes I’d ever seen. She’d been canoeing for a week. I<br />
wanted to be her.<br />
We went back the next June for a five-day adventure. We saw<br />
moose. We heard loons. We listened to the drip of our paddles at<br />
midnight as wolves howled in the distance. We came home with<br />
purple bruises from black-fly bites and a crazy hunger to return.<br />
We did return a few years later for an eight-day trip, but in between,<br />
we discovered Michigan rivers. We watched white-tailed deer<br />
run at dusk along the banks of the White. We watched salmon flip<br />
their bodies into the air above the Pere Marquette. I was hooked.<br />
46 | EncorE MARCH 2013<br />
A<br />
river’s<br />
Ma callby<br />
by Margaret Deritter<br />
But it took me another 20 years to get my<br />
own boat. That’s how I’m out here on the Kalamazoo.<br />
As I leave civilization behind, I see two<br />
plastic chairs sitting a companionable distance<br />
apart on the riverbank. I imagine their owners<br />
casting lines and tipping a few beers. Farther<br />
along, a green rowboat is tucked at the river’s<br />
edge. I half expect to see Margo Crane emerging<br />
from the trees.<br />
She’s the main character in the novel Once<br />
Upon a River, by Comstock author Bonnie Jo<br />
Campbell. In search of her mother after her father<br />
dies, 16-year-old Margo takes off in a rowboat<br />
up a fictional river that feeds into the Kalamazoo.<br />
“When Margo swam, she swallowed minnows alive and felt<br />
the Stark River move inside her,” Campbell writes.<br />
That’s how I feel about rivers: They move inside me. In the fall<br />
especially, I’m compelled to leave my desk and heed their call.<br />
I’m not as tough as Margo, but I’d like to be. I like knowing I can<br />
maneuver my boat onto the car on my own. I like feeling new muscles<br />
forming as I fight the current. The creaking of my knees as I get in<br />
and out of my kayak, though, makes me feel more like the Ancient<br />
Mariner.<br />
On this fall day, I make it about a mile and a half before my arms<br />
get tired. I drag my paddle in the river to turn downstream, and I’m<br />
back at my starting point in less than half the time it took to go up. As<br />
I move toward shore, I see a car pull into the driveway of the nearby<br />
house.<br />
I’m strapping my kayak to my car when a white-haired man<br />
emerges from the house. He smiles as he walks toward the river, then<br />
reaches into a bag and throws pellets into the water. When he turns<br />
around, I say, “I hope you don’t mind that I put in here.”<br />
(continued on page 45)
FLY FLY HOME. HOME. BE BE HOME.<br />
HOME.<br />
Hey. We just landed.<br />
Be home in 10 minutes.<br />
Safe. Simple. Convenient.<br />
SePT eMBeR 2012 EncorE | 47
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