A multigenerational crowd of supporters attended an event for the Florida Fishing Academy, an afterschool education program benefiting needy children throughout Palm Beach County. The academy uses fishing as a vehicle for delivering environmental, life and social skills to youths. ABOVE: (l-r) Rhonda Nelson, Jim Bochicchio and Mary McCarty.

LEFT: Anita Feinstein (left) and Fran McKinley. Photos provided by Michiko Kurisu

Board members, life trustees and standing committees were honored by Kravis Center Vice Chairwoman Laurie Silvers and other leaders at the performing-arts institute. A special performance by Neil Berg’s ‘106 Years of Broadway’ highlighted the event, which also celebrated the completion of the Broadway series’ successful sixth season. ABOVE: Bill Perry, Gary Lickle and George Elmore. Photos provided by Corby Kaye’s Studio Palm Beach

Ocean Ridge Town Councilman Rich Lucibella is a firm believer in emergency preparedness, proving it by training with amateur radio operators during a Wellington Radio Club exercise, themed ‘When All Else Fails’ that took place June 28 and 29. Lucibella is a key member of a team that has developed methods of sending out emergency communications when infrastructure is destroyed or overloaded.  As the sole known radio amateur in Ocean Ridge, he most likely will be the town’s only link to the outside world in the event of a major hurricane. ABOVE: Lucibella (left) trains with another amateur radio operator at PBC HURREX 2014. Photo provided

The Rod & Gun Club of Florida had a festive affair at the home of Bob and Jane Souaid, who welcomed more than 85 members and guests — many sporting large-brimmed hats and colorful attire — to watch California Chrome win its first race in the run for the Triple Crown. Club President Stephen Jara put on an event to remember, with mint juleps, a buffet dinner and a rosebud-accented cake.  ABOVE: Club members and guests pose at the party. Photo provided

The Palm Beach County League of Cities’ annual board of directors / executives installation featured keynote speaker Clarence Anthony, the National League of Cities’ executive director. Florida League of Cities President P.C. Wu welcomed the 2014-15 officers in front of a crowd of nearly 350. ABOVE: (in front) Lake Worth Vice Mayor Scott Maxwell, Lake Park Vice Mayor Kimberly Glas-Castro, Wellington Village Councilman Matt Willhite, West Palm Beach City Commissioner Keith James, Boynton Beach Mayor Jerry Taylor, Palm Beach Gardens City Councilman David Levy, Royal Palm Beach Village Councilman Jeff Hmara, Pahokee City Commissioner Allie Biggs, (in back) Atlantis City Manager Mo Thornton, South Palm Beach Town Councilman Robert Gottlieb, Haverhill Town Councilman Jerry Beaver, Belle Glade Mayor Steve Wilson, Gulf Stream Town Manager Bill Thrasher, North Palm Beach Village Councilman Bill Manuel, Riviera Beach City Council Chairwoman Pro-Tem Dawn Pardo and Lake Clark Shores Vice Mayor Robert Shalhoub. Photo provided

The popular reading-incentive program for teens ages 13 through 17 returned for its fourth year, featuring books that had been banned at some point in history. Piloted by the library’s Teen Advisory Board and Young Adult Services Department and sponsored by Levenger, the program promotes and supports literacy. ABOVE: First-place Infinity Team Berdoucha Acelouis, Laura Toledo Sanchez, Jigar Patel, Erin McCusker, Jesula Jacques and Lunise Pierre. Photo provided

Academic, business and cultural leaders came together for the 11th-annual summit, presented by the Florida Delegation, Southeast U.S. / Japan Association. There were more than 150 in attendance, along with special guest speakers, and the day featured panel discussions about business and tourism and culture and education. ABOVE: (l-r) Donald Yoshino, Yoji Fujimoto and Larry Rosensweig. Photo provided

The Plate: Penne Tomato & Basil
The Place: Al Fresco, at the Palm Beach Par 3 Golf Course, 2345 S. Ocean Blvd., Palm Beach; 273-4130 or alfrescopb.com
The Price: $16.50
The Skinny: We had been wanting to check out the new clubhouse at the Palm Beach Par-3 for quite some time, and are sorry we did not go sooner, for the food is beautiful, and the Atlantic Ocean vistas are spectacular — all the better for a relaxing Sunday lunch.
The menu has a solid mix of salads, sandwiches and entrees.
But the pasta seemed refreshing on a balmy spring day.
The penne were cooked al dente and tossed in a creamy, slightly savory tomato sauce that was redolent with basil. There were large, creamy chunks of mozzarella throughout.

We also enjoyed the Gazpacho Al Fresco ($7), which was loaded with diced vegetables,  

a spinach salad ($12.50) that had beautiful bits of shaved Parmigiano, bacon and egg with a perfectly blended balsamic vinaigrette.
But in our mind’s eye, we keep coming back to that aromatic pasta.
The only downside? We got as much on us as in us.
Next time, we’ll wear a bib.
— Scott Simmons

Professional surfer Peter Mendia, of West Palm Beach, rides a WaveJet surfboard near the Lake Worth Pier. Mendia says the propulsion system allows him to spend less time paddling and more time riding waves.
Photos by Willie Howard/The Coastal Star

By Willie Howard

With Father’s Day approaching, consider a water-oriented gift for Dad — something that will help him get in shape, relax and soak up the sun.
We found the WaveJet propulsion surfboard system and other water-oriented toys at this year’s Palm Beach International Boat Show.
WaveJet boards offer the convenience of power thrust in a surfboard, body board or stand-up paddleboard.

A wireless wrist controller is used to turn the WaveJet surfboard propulsion system on and off. Willie Howard/The Coastal Star

Controlled by a Seatooth-enabled wristband, the WaveJet power pod provides up to 20 pounds of thrust and will run about 35 minutes continuously before it needs to be recharged. Because the motors are not typically in use all the time surfers or paddlers are in the water, that translates to about 90 minutes of surfing or paddling time.
It takes about three hours to charge the WaveJet power pod. The pod adds about 16 pounds to the weight of the board, but the weight is centered underfoot to ensure the boards are still maneuverable.
The power pod is turned on and off by a wireless wrist controller. It shuts down the WaveJet motors when the person wearing the wristband is more than 10 feet away.

Peter Mendia shows the teardrop-shaped propulsion system on the bottom of a 6½-foot WaveJet surfboard.

When the surf was up at the Lake Worth Pier in March, professional surfer Peter Mendia of West Palm Beach demonstrated a 6½-foot WaveJet surfboard (a short board) by using the propulsion system to help him catch several waves.
The board’s thrust compensates for the extra weight of the power pod, Mendia said, noting that a blank power pod can be inserted to ride the board without power.
Mendia said having a powered surfboard allows him to reach prime waves that he wouldn’t otherwise reach. With the WaveJet system, Mendia said, he catches more waves and spends less time paddling.
“The more waves you catch, the happier you are,” he said.
When he wants to catch a wave in a hurry, Mendia said, he paddles and uses the board’s power at the same time.
 “You’re hauling butt,” he said.
Prices for WaveJet boards range from $4,400 to $5,000 for a surfboard, bodyboard or stand-up paddleboard. The Power Pod can be moved from one type of WaveJet board to another, and all the boards can be used without power.
The WaveJet system is not recommended for surfers or board paddlers younger than 12. Because of the size of its lithium ion battery, the WaveJet power pod cannot be transported on a commercial airplane.
WaveJet boards come in 6.5-foot and 7.1-foot short surfboards, long boards ranging from 9 to 10 feet, longer stand-up paddleboards, short body boards and powered rescue boards for lifeguards.
The California-based company makes a fishing version of its paddleboard — the Hana Big EZ Angler Fishing SUP — that comes with anchor points, a Seamount system for attaching coolers and a lean-to seat.
For more information on WaveJet boards, go to www.wavejet.com.

Other gift ideas for Dad

People sitting in Airchairs are literally hanging out. They’re suspended from ropes that can be hung from tree limbs, a porch overhang or a supporting structure on a boat. Built in New York, Airchairs range in price from $140 for the original version to $900 for a love seat with a supporting arch. Footrests, magazine holders and drink holders are available. Learn more at www.airchair.net. Willie Howard/The Coastal Star

Bluewater’s popular, smooth-riding 23t center console fishing boat, built in Fort Pierce, sells for around $80,000 with one engine and for under $100,000 with twin outboards. The ‘t’ stands for tournament edition, meaning it’s set up more as a fishing boat than the more family-oriented Bluewater 2350. Features include a 50-gallon circular live well, a transom door and insulated fish boxes. Prices vary depending on options. Bluewater’s offshore boats range in size from 21.5 to 35 feet. The company also builds inshore fishing boats. Learn more at www.bluewaterboats.com. Photo provided

The Ranger 27 tug is a trailerable trawler — a relatively slow, comfortable boat designed for long-distance cruising. The diesel-powered R-27 on display was offered for $178,814. Built in Kent, Wash., Ranger Tugs are available in sizes from 21 to 31 feet. Learn more at www.rangertugs.com. Photo provided

Fat Sand cruiser bikes feature oversized tires for riding on beach sand. They’re available in many versions, from the basic single-speed cruiser ($699) to the three-speed ($749) the 16-speed Ultimate Beast Cruiser ($1,899). The titanium-framed 16-speed version sells for $2,995. The company also offers electric-powered and children’s versions. Learn more at www.fatsandbikes.com. Willie Howard/The Coastal Star

The Bamboo Room, which has drawn nationally known acts, is decorated with music memorabilia. Photo provided

By Thom Smith

     Bamboo Room  … Always full of surprises. For example, on Songwriters Night, when the guy at the microphone starts wailing a bluesy version of The Wanderer, a woman at the bar blurts out, “It’s supposed to be original material.” After a brief pause, Dion leans into the mic. “Yeah, no kiddin’.”
    Lots of originals have played the Lake Worth landmark: John Sebastian, Bo Diddley, Edgar Winter, Jorma Kaukonen, Big Bill Morganfield, Al Kooper, Marcia Ball, Tracy Nelson, John Hammond, Bukka White, Levon Helm, Marty Balin.
    For nearly a decade and a half, the Bamboo Room has been Russ Hibbard’s musical sandbox. With the exception of  being shuttered during the economic blues from 2008 to 2011, the club, beautifully decorated and filled with musical memorabilia, has been a haven for lovers of live music since 1999. But times are changing. Hibbard and wife and co-owner Karen McKinley are preparing for retirement in a couple of years and want the freedom that goes with it. They want to make a clean break from the club. But rather than just drop it, they want to find a solid buyer before that transition begins.
    “Several people are interested; two of them are club operators,” Hibbard said, brimming with optimism.“We had four showings in one day.”
    But leaving won’t be easy. Every time he comes across an old clipping, he gets nostalgic about the entertainers he met and the customers he served.
“It had an amazing run,” he said. “I hope someone will buy it and keep it going. I would hate to have to auction all of this off.”
                                       Frank Klein and Maggie Stewart enjoy the Memorial Day concert May 26 at Mizner Park Amphitheater in Boca Raton. Stewart’s brother sang at the concert. Photo by Tim Stepien

    If your idea of a beer is Bud Light or a really cold Miller’s … well, any old bar or mini-mart will do.
But if you like adventure — a Nitro Milk Stout, for example, a not-so-chilly Puppy’s Breath Porter or any of nearly 400 heirloom and craft beers, many in big, big bottles — head to Beer Trade Co., a new Delray watering hole (interesting eats, too!). Gene Playter and Chris Sanchez have totally reworked the old Crepes by the Sea location on Second Avenue a block and a half north of Atlantic. They promise to keep you occupied, maybe even amazed. (808-7304).
                                       

***

Another SunFest is in the books. Attendance at 175,000 was up about 5,000 and nary a peep about unruly customers or unruly entertainment. Rain barely was a problem,
    “The key is customer service and giving the customers the best experience possible,” SunFest President Carrie Bradburn said. “Most people had a great time.”
    Bradburn is a second-generation SunFest president. Her father, the late Granville Webb, presided over the 1987 party that featured Wynton Marsalis and Lynyrd Skynyrd. This year’s acts included Robin Thicke and Kid Rock, and the return of an old crowd favorite.
    Blues Traveler first played SunFest in 1994. The music remains, but the band has a new look — new members and in the case of front man John Popper, a new face …  and new body. In 1999, already diagnosed as diabetic, Popper nearly died from a heart attack, and bass player Bobby Sheehan, 31, died of a drug overdose. Popper took it as a sign to clean up his act. He had gastric bypass surgery in 2000 and plastic surgery to remove the excess skin a year later. He lost 180 pounds.  
    Nevertheless, the band members were gracious when a representative from Shake Shack, a new SunFest vendor, arrived after the show with three bags of milk shakes.
                                       The People Upstairs will open for O.A.R. at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre then play a variety of South County venues in support of a new disc.  Photo provided

The People Upstairs are headed downtown. The Boynton Beach-based rock / funk / reggae stylists have a busy summer planned to push their new disc Take It How You Want, including a big June 7 gig teaming with O.A.R. at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre. They’ll also drop by familiar haunts in South County: Bull Bar (June 19 and July 17), Saltwater Brewery’s Surfrider Party (June 20), Hurricane Bar & Lounge (June 27 and July 25), Rhum Shak in Lake Worth (July 12) and Brogues in Lake Worth (Aug. 16).
                                       ***
    With Ain’t Misbehavin’ and its first season wrapped June 1, The Wick Theatre in Boca Raton will take a breather. Founder Marilynn Wick made the grand jeté from industry costumer to producer, taking over the former Caldwell Theatre Co. and, in the process, silencing a lot of skeptics.
    Next season, The Wick goes strictly musical, reopening Oct. 23 with Swing! and following with Mame, La Cage aux Folles, Man of La Mancha, Oklahoma! and Dames at Sea. Of course, The Wick’s costume museum, The Broadway Collection, featuring thousands of original costumes, remains available, with luncheons and / or high tea, if desired, by appointment. (995-2333)
                                       ***
    Not all theaters are dark this summer. At the Delray Beach Playhouse, Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning Doubt continues through June 8, and Randy DelLago hosts Make Someone Happy, a survey of the music of Adolph Green and Betty Comden, through June 11.
                                       ***
    No slowing down at Jazziz, which gets cool this summer with several top jazz, pop and rock acts, including Acoustic Alchemy June 9 and 10 and the exquisite Nicole Henry June 18. Saxophonist Jessy J performs July 15, Jefferson Starship, with originals Paul Kantner and David Freiberg, July 28 and 29, Sophie B. Hawkins Aug. 5 and 6 and a different kind of music with Sandra Bernhard Aug. 12 and 13. Average White Band will pick up the pieces of summer Sept. 16 and 17.
                                       ***
    Find more good music at Arts Garage in Delray. Blues singer Gina Sicilia performs June 7; The Jost Project featuring jazz harmonica player Paul Jost plays June 13. Moroccan guitarist Albert Dadon, better known as Albare, performs with his band and guest percussionist Sammy Figueroa June 14. Jazz / blues pianist Doug Carter plays Father’s Day, June 15, followed by saxman Turk Mauro June 28. July brings guitarist Nate Najar in trio July 5, Tito Puente Jr. July 18 and 19, fusion guitarists Aaron Lebos July 25 and Diego Figueiredo with Rose Max July 26.
And just to keep life on the verge of chaos, Arts Garage presents Ring of Fire, a musical version of the life of Johnny Cash. David Lutken, who designed and starred in the barnstorming Woody Sez, stars. A co-production with the Adirondack Theatre Festival, Ring of Fire plays 18 shows in Delray Beach from June 19 to July 13 before heading to the mountains.
                                       ***
    Half a century ago, Johnny Cash and wife June Carter sang about their romantic fever, “hotter than a pepper sprout.” Such topics haven’t lost their steam, as evidenced by Cougar the Musical playing at The Plaza Theatre in Manalapan through June 29. The show opens with a tone-setting On the Prowl and follows a trio of divorced women as they search for identity, self-esteem and love with hot, younger men. Through June 29. For tickets, go to www.theplazatheatre.net or call 588-1820.
                                       ***
    It may not be listed in Guide Michelin, but for a good party, it’s hard to beat the Taste of Boynton. Hosted by the Boynton Chamber of Commerce, this year’s Taste is set for 6:30 p.m. June 12 at Benvenuto. Menu samplings for just about every palate will be offered by the likes of Benvenuto, The Backyard, Banana Boat, Bonefish Grill, Cake Garden & Tea Bakery, Carolina Ale House, Cathy’s Cakes, Culinary Solutions, Dean Anthony’s Pizzeria & Restaurant, East Ocean Cafe, GFS Marketplace, Hurricane Grill & Wings, Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwiches, Longhorn Steakhouse, Prime Catch, Secret Garden, TruShots Bar & Grille and Village Tavern. The Wine Cellar Boynton Beach will provide accompaniment. Tickets are $35 online and $50 at the door. Call 732-9501.  
                                       ***
    Caffé Luna Rosa has earned a TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence.
    “Credit for this award goes to our hard-working staff in the kitchen, on the floor and behind the bar. It is their daily commitment to superior service and support that has earned this prestigious award for Caffé Luna Rosa,” said the restaurant’s founder / partner Fran Marincola.
And here’s another announcement just in time for summer, Caffé Luna Rosa now offers brunch every day from 7 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. “We wanted to give everyone the opportunity to enjoy a greater variety of breakfast items along with our delicious gourmet lunches and dinners,” said the restaurant’s executive chef Ernesto DeBlasi.
                                       ***

Local research guru and Palm Beach State College librarian Janet DeVries is due kudos for winning the 2014 Society of Florida Archivists Award of Excellence for research in Palm Beach County.
DeVries, who is working on her master’s degree in library science at Florida State University, was instrumental in founding the Schoolhouse Children’s Museum, the first history-based children’s museum in Florida. She also designed and installed exhibits to interpret Palm Beach County history.
Her fascination with mysteries and historic sleuthing were fueled by all the Nancy Drew books she read as a girl. She has used her talents as a researcher to promote local history, first as the archivist at the Boynton Beach City Library and currently as president of the Boynton Beach Historical Society.
She has written or co-authored five books and is working on another scheduled for release next year.
                                       ***
     Drivers heading south on Interstate 95 through Boca Raton can’t see it because of the high median wall, but just beyond the airport, northbound drivers are noticing a new construction project. Work has begun on the new interchange at Spanish River Boulevard. Old-timers who thought the Palmetto Pretzel (Palmetto Park Road at 12th Avenue) was complex will be dazzled.
    The Boca Raton City Council and representatives from the Florida Department of Transportation are so excited about the $67 million project that they even held a groundbreaking party. Designed to relieve traffic congestion at Florida Atlantic University, the project also will include modifications to the Yamato Road interchange, the construction of eight — that’s right, eight — new bridges and improvements to five existing bridges. Target completion date: late 2016.
    Meanwhile, lanes on I-95 will be closed intermittently, and traffic will continue to back up. But if traffic backs up after football games, FAU officials will be thrilled to have the crowds, especially for the first Boca Raton Bowl at FAU’s new stadium Dec. 23.  Featuring teams from the Mid-American Conference and Conference USA, of which FAU is a member, the game will be carried by ESPN. Needless to say, FAU’s new football coach Charlie Partridge, whose style resembles that of a tent revivalist, wants his team in the game.
    FAU’s football program was begun by Howard Schnellenberger, who’s still around as the school’s goodwill ambassador, but “only working 60 hours a week instead of 80.”
    Schnellenberger first came to South Florida as a Miami Dolphins assistant before leading the Miami Hurricanes to a national title and rejuvenating Louisville’s program. Now, the Owls can boast another link to the old Dolphins: The wide receivers coach is Dan Shula, grandson of legendary coach Don Shula.

Thom Smith is a freelance writer. Contact him at thomsmith@ymail.com.

Conrad Pickel designed this stained glass window at St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church in Boynton Beach. Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Lucy Lazarony

    Visionary and stained glass artist Conrad Pickel lived in Boynton Beach from 1974 to 1994.
    A six-month-long exhibition celebrating his art and his imprint on Boynton Beach is on display on the second floor of the Boynton Beach City Library. The exhibition, which opened May 24, features more than 36 pieces of art, including stained glass, colored sketches, charcoal prints, pen and ink drawings, oil paintings, a self-portrait, a wood carving and a mosaic.
    The exhibition also showcases a sample of decralite, a type of glowing, stained glass block designed for everyday architectural installations that Conrad Pickel developed in 1968.
“It’s an honor to celebrate Conrad Pickel,” said Debby Coles-Dobay, city of Boynton Beach public art manager.  “He was such a visionary artist for the city.”

Conrad Pickel’s Loaned From Heaven sculpture stands in the infant section of Boynton Memorial Park.

    During his two decades in Boynton Beach, Pickel brought his unique stained glass designs to city churches, the mausoleum at Boynton Memorial Park, a nonprofit center for the arts called Gallery Fantasia, an industrial park where he had a studio and he even had plans for a stunning, stained-glass-encased city water tower.
    In addition to the art exhibit, which was curated by Coles-Dobay and Paul Pickel of Conrad Pickel Studios, the May 24 kick-off celebration featured a guided bus tour, a stained glass demonstration and presentations on Conrad Pickel’s art and career.
About Conrad Pickel
    Born in 1906 in Germany, Conrad Pickel came to America at the age of 21 after apprenticing and learning the art of stained glass at the famed Mayer Studio in Munich.
    Pickel started his own stained glass studio in Milwaukee in 1947 and it quickly grew to be one of the leading stained glass studios in the United States. In 1956, Pickel started a branch of his studio in Vero Beach.
    Pickel lived in homes in Vero Beach and in Pompano Beach before moving to Leisureville in Boynton Beach in 1974.
    Paul Pickel, who runs Conrad Pickel Studios in Vero Beach, spoke about his father’s paintings, sculptures, mosaics and stained glass at the Boynton Beach City Library.
    He described his father as a very prolific artist who started his designs and sketches in the wee hours of the morning.
    “He’d wake up at 4 in the morning and start thinking about what he was going to do that day,” Pickel said.
    He said his father wished he had a “mind camera” to capture all his ideas.  
    “He designed and designed and his imagination just kept going,” Pickel said.
    Pickel said a lot of his father’s ideas were “out of the box.”  As a businessman, Pickel “pooh-poohed” some of this father’s ideas because of the cost the materials involved. But his father never listened.
    Pickel said having fun was very important to his father and that he enjoyed working with children.
    Pickel called the oil painting I Am the Light of the World, featuring a striking blue-eyed Christ figure, one of his father’s best paintings.
    “Those are Pickel eyes. I love the eyes,” Pickel said of the painting, which is on display at the Boynton Beach City Library.
    For his stained glass designs, Conrad Pickel was known for his strong use of black for delineation and “Pickel blues,” which his son described as “a certain range of blues, a soft cobalt blue, a little bit of gray, a little bit of purple, not hot.”
    Pickel remembers his father saying, “Use more black, use more black. He liked to use black to make the windows stronger.”
    Pickel said his father used very strong lines in his stained glass and with just a few lines could capture the sweet faces of young children or the expression of love from Mary looking down at her son, Jesus.

Boynton Beach resident Sarah Rodeberg examines the craftsmanship of Conrad Pickel at Ascension Lutheran Church.

    “They’re very simple windows but you walk in and they’re just so clear. They’re beautiful,” Pickel said of his father’s stained glass designs.
    Pickel also spoke about Gallery Fantasia, an angular-shaped building with large columns of Conrad Pickel’s decralite blocks, a mural, and a small tower located at 1000 S. Federal Highway.
    From 1974 to 1983, Gallery Fantasia was home to Conrad Pickel’s Palm Beach Center for the Arts, a nonprofit artistic gathering place for the community.
    All programs were free. A sample program shows the opera guild performing, the drama guild performing, a performance from a pianist, and a lecture on stained glass.
    “He had a grand piano and invited guests to perform,” Pickel remembered. “They would hold concerts on Sunday.”  
    Paul Pickel concluded his presentation by saying, “My father was a talented, out-of-the-box designer and person. What I remember about him most was his enthusiasm, his enthusiasm for art, his enthusiasm for life.”
    Conrad Pickel said of artists, “People don’t know how beautiful the world is. They have to learn about it. It’s up to the artist to bring something very important to life. Otherwise, it’s just an existence.”

A tour group looks at Conrad Pickel’s windows, which decorate Boynton Memorial Park and Mausoleum.

Conrad Pickel in Boynton Beach churches
Ascension Lutheran Church
faceted glass window
Faith United Methodist Church
leaded stained glass
Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church
faceted glass window
 St. Cuthbert’s Episcopal Church
faceted glass window
St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church
faceted glass window
St. Mark’s Church
leaded stained glass, faceted glass window
St. Thomas More Catholic Church
leaded stained glass, faceted glass window
St. Vincent de Paul Seminary
restoration faceted glass window
Source: Conrad Pickel Studio
www.pickelstudio.com/regionalmapprojects.php#florida

Christine Lynn’s birthday was celebrated at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Christine E. Lynn Women’s Health & Wellness Institute. Lynn was accompanied by donors, hospital and city officials and hospital staff members. Her $10 million gift to establish the institute was made in honor of Gloria Drummond.  When it opens in 2015, the 42,000-square-foot Debbie-Rand Memorial Service League Pavilion will offer a state-of-the-art environment. With a prominent location at the entry to the hospital campus, the Institute will serve as a new landmark for the community.
Above: Well-wishers honor Lynn with a cake.

Below: Barb and Irving Gutin, with Anne Green attend the groundbreaking.
Photos provided

Sandoway House Nature Center’s ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ affair attracted 160 supporters who dined, danced, bid on silent-auction items and raised more than $44,000. Photo: Jestena Boughton (left) gives Executive Director Danica Sanborn a check for $3,000 toward student-outreach programs. Photo provided

Jamie Bernstein (right) says when her father, Leonard, was alive, she took him for granted. Now she realizes his impact on generations of music lovers. Photos provided

By Greg Stepanich

As befits the daughter of an eminent man of music, Jamie Bernstein answers the first question by singing.
    “Don’t it always seem to go / You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone,” she warbles, channeling Joni Mitchell’s 1970 classic, Big Yellow Taxi. She’s answering a polite query about the legacy of her father, Leonard, composer, pianist, conductor, educator and world eminence, who in his Young People’s Concerts with the New York Philharmonic showed millions of young people — and their parents — that classical music could be not just fun, but cool to listen to.
    “When my father was alive, I took him for granted, in a way,” she said last month from her home in New York. “He was my dad, and we were in the middle of our lives together. It’s only been as the years have passed since his death that it’s really begun to hit me of the degree of impact that he had on more than one generation of music lovers. It’s amazing to contemplate.”

    Leonard Bernstein died in 1990, nearly 25 years ago, but in several important ways, his legacy has only grown in the absence of his corporeality. Several of his works — West Side Story, the overture to his operetta Candide and the choral work Chichester Psalms — are seen and heard regularly, and in recent years there has been more attention paid to his wonderful one-act opera, Trouble in Tahiti, his three symphonies, and the Serenade for violin and orchestra, a concerto in everything but name that may be his finest classical achievement.
    Although it’s scheduled for another revival this fall at New York’s Lyric Theatre, Bernstein’s earliest Broadway score, On the Town, which premiered in the last days of 1944, has not established itself the way West Side Story has. But it is a marvelous piece, with among other things a famous opening number (New York, New York), a ballad revered by jazz players (Some Other Time) and a standout comic number (I Can Cook, Too) that makes a great impression if the performer is brassy and high-spirited enough.
    This month, as part of the inaugural Spirit of America Festival at Florida Atlantic University, Aaron Kula and his Klezmer Company Orchestra will mark the 70th anniversary of the musical’s premiere with a full concert version of the score, performed by six singers and the 50-piece KCO.
    The show is set for 3 p.m. June 22, at the Kaye Performing Arts Auditorium on FAU’s Boca Raton campus.
    The three-day festival also will feature Kula in conversation with Jamie Bernstein at 7:30 p.m. June 21, at the Wimberly Library, preceded by a meet-and-greet reception.
    And on June 23 at 7 p.m., also at the library, theater critic Bill Hirschman, who operates the Florida Theater On Stage website, will provide commentary for a piano-vocal recital called Bernstein on Broadway.
    The show is about three sailors on shore leave who have 24 hours to see the big city; it was made into a movie in 1949 with Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra and Jules Munshin as the sailors, and Vera-Ellen, Betty Garrett and Ann Miller as their love interests. But most of Bernstein’s score was replaced with far more conventional songs by MGM house hack Roger Edens, which was a sore point with the composer, and still is today with his daughter.
    But the movie was a hit, and confusion about what was actually in that score may have hindered its acceptance in the way that the film of West Side Story, considered a cinematic masterpiece, helped secure that work’s place in the theatrical pantheon.
    “It’s a more lightweight story,” Jamie Bernstein says of On the Town. “It’s three sailors on shore leave, it’s very humorous, and it doesn’t have the gravitas of the Romeo and Juliet template that West Side Story has. It’s just in a different category.”
    But the music itself is anything but frivolous.
    “Musically, boy, that score has so much going on in it,” she said. “It was one of the first, and one of the few, through-composed Broadway scores. My father, with his classical training, really brought a symphonic and through-composed approach to writing show music, where he would take motives and work them all the way through …
“I think at the time people thought that maybe it meant a rounding of the corner for Broadway scores, and from now on, Broadway scores would be much more sophisticated,” she said.
    “Looking back, my father’s scores were more like a blip on the screen, and then everybody went right back to their old habits. I don’t think that, except for my father and [Stephen] Sondheim, anybody wrote Broadway scores that way. It was just kind of an anomaly.”
    On the Town was developed from a ballet score called Fancy Free that Leonard Bernstein had composed for choreographer Jerome Robbins.
    “That might be the engine of On the Town, that driving dance music, and the way my father was able to mix together the jazz genres with his own symphonic impulses,” she said, adding that the Three Dance Episodes suite her father drew from his score remains one of her favorite pieces.
    The team of Betty Comden and Adolph Green wrote the book and lyrics for On the Town, and later worked with Bernstein on another score with New York at its heart, Wonderful Town. Their other collaborations include Bells Are Ringing, with Jule Styne, and the scripts for Singin’ in the Rain and The Band Wagon.
    “I couldn’t begin to appreciate them when they were in my life, and now I miss them so much,” said Bernstein, who’s 61. Green died in 2002, Comden in 2006. “Betty and Adolph really made my father laugh, and that was no small thing. They just had this bond where they enjoyed each other’s company so much. … There is that element of delight that you can hear in the score of On the Town. You can practically hear them laughing together.”
    Bernstein has been working for the past four years on a documentary about El Sistema, the social change-through-music program for impoverished Venezuelans that has spawned legions of imitators (70 such programs in the United States alone) and at least one world-class career, that of Los Angeles Philharmonic music director Gustavo Dudamel. The movie should be ready by the end of the year, she said, and in the meantime, she and her sister Nina and brother Alexander are heavily involved in plans for the celebration in 2018 of their father’s centennial.
    And championing the life and work of Leonard Bernstein never gets burdensome, she insists.“Everybody should be so lucky to carry such a burden,” she said. “We are so proud of him, and so proud of his legacy. Who wouldn’t want to go out and share it with the world?”
    Tickets for the Jamie Bernstein conversation are $25, and for the Bernstein on Broadway recital are $15; On the Town tickets are $20-$42. Call 800-564-9539 or visit www.fauevents.com.

The Norton Museum’s Wheels and Heels exhibit pays tribute to miniature cars and the Barbie doll, two iconic ’50s toys. Photo provided

                      
    If ever there were an art exhibit that screams baby boomers, it’s the Norton Museum of Art’s summer show, Wheels and Heels: The Big Noise Around Little Toys, which pays tribute to two iconic toys that made their debut in the 1950s: the miniature car and the Barbie doll.
    Much ado has been made about Barbie, of course, and 2009 marked a huge worldwide examination of the 50th birthday of Mattel Inc.’s cultural bombshell. But last year marked the 60th anniversary of the appearance of Matchbox cars, an innovation from Britain’s Lesney Products and Co. that was to be followed 15 years later by Hot Wheels, a competing line of tiny cars from Mattel.
    Opening June 19 and running through Oct. 26, Wheels and Heels features many objects related to these three products as well as hundreds of the dolls and cars themselves. Included are Barbie’s college dorm from 1964, Matchbox racetracks, TV commercials, manufacturing films and marketing publications such as the Random House books devoted to Barbie’s backstory.
    Matthew Bird, the guest curator for the exhibit, says Barbie hit the sweet spot of price, demand and cultural relevance when she was introduced in 1959, and helped usher kid power into consumerism.
    “Before Mattel came along, toys were only sold at the holidays. The Sears catalog only had a toy section in December,” said Bird, 48, an assistant professor of industrial design at the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design. But Mattel’s Ruth Handler, who invented Barbie, realized that Mattel could not have a viable business for long by being busy for just part of the year, he said.
    “Handler realized that the only way to do that was to appeal to the kids,” he said last month from Providence, R.I. Mattel almost bankrupted itself by borrowing large amounts of capital to take out advertising on The Mickey Mouse Club show in the early days of television, he said, but that helped establish the idea of a year-round appetite for toys.
    “It steadied their business dramatically, but it also turned the kids into the ones who were making the decisions about what they wanted,” he said. “It was very engineered, and I think everyone else learned from the success of that effort.”
    The Norton show also outlines the manufacturing breakthroughs that helped make the toys truly mass-market. Lesney’s Matchboxes, for instance, were created initially as a response to a school show-and-tell request by the daughter of Lesney engineer Jack Odell, who had to bring something to class that could fit in a matchbox.
    “Both companies were amazingly innovative in how they changed manufacturing, and frankly, what it allowed the rest of the world to do was pretty exciting,” Bird said, such as the rotational-molding technology Mattel pioneered that allowed Barbie to strike a pose rather than flop around like dolls of previous eras.
    “The same thing with Lesney: They were brilliant machinists, and they were the only people able to make that level of detail in such a small metal part. They made all their own machinery, they made all their dies … and all the ways we mold metal since, and I would argue, plastic as well … all of that came out of Lesney trying to make more efficient molding,” he said.
    Mattel changed the toy-car game in 1968 with Hot Wheels, focusing on speed rather than detail, and introducing a sense of imaginative fancy, such as the not-found-in-nature Draguar, a racing-style Jaguar with a chrome engine sticking out of the hood and a plastic bubble encasing driver and passenger. But Hot Wheels also had a frictionless wheel system, so that the cars would really move, Bird said, unlike the Matchboxes, which had metal wheels and axles, and so couldn’t get up much of a head of tiny steam.
    Ultimately, Lesney went under in the 1980s and was bought out by several other companies and then by its old rival Mattel, which continues to make both car lines today.
    The exhibit also will include an interactive playroom, but details of what it will contain are still being worked out by Norton staff, Bird said. He sticks up for the power of imagination, and kids’ ability to use it, as a counter to criticisms such as the familiar one about Barbie’s unrealistic body, or that a Matchbox truck and car can be exactly the same size, and therefore not fit to scale.
    “I think that’s a great example of trusting kids’ ability to imagine,” he said. “I like that both companies were just not that worried about controlling the play scenario. They just were making the toy, with faith that the kids would figure it out.”
    The Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach is open Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday, and from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $12 for adults, $5 for students with valid ID, and free for members and children 12 and under. Call 832-5196 or visit www.norton.org.

The National Society of Arts and Letters’ Florida East Coast Chapter selected 13 students to receive scholarships to colleges of their choice during an event chaired by Highland Beach resident Judi Asselta. Asselta introduced each student and presented all of them with a certificate and check. The winners represented such disciplines as dance, drama, literature and musical theater. Above: Brian Edwards, Asselta, musician Yasmeen Ampuero and artist Patricia Burdette. Photo provided by Barbara McCormick

The Boca Raton Woman’s Club rang in its half-century mark by installing a new slate of officers for 2014-15. Club officials, both past and present, gathered for the historic occasion, at which Mayor Susan Haynie presented a congratulatory proclamation. Photo: District Director Joan Haros, with club members Kitty Kobulnicky, Helen Babione and Buzz Lewis. Photo provided by Barbara McCormick

The popular series sponsored by the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County attracted more than 70 supporters to the fourth ‘conversation’ of the 2013-14 season. The topic: ‘I Like America: Noël Coward in the U.S.A.,’ featuring an exchange between Barry Day, editor of The Letters of Noël Coward, and William Hayes, producing artistic director of Palm Beach Dramaworks. Photo: Barbara Strom with Linda Rosenkranz.
Photo provided by Corby Kaye’s Studio Palm Beach

The Junior League of Boca Raton celebrated the end of the 2014 season during a meeting, at which Andrea Garcia was sworn in as new president. ABOVE: Woman Volunteer of Year Co-Chairwoman Kirsten Stephenson, Honorary Chairwoman Marta Batmasian, Co-Chairwoman Yvette Drucker and past President Crystal McMillan. Photos provided

Garcia

More than 140 guests, including featured speaker Jean Chatzky, of NBC’s ‘Today,’ gathered to announce this year’s Jewish Women’s Foundation grantees and to honor foundation Chairwoman Mara Reuben for exemplary leadership. Trustees voted to distribute $170,000 to nine projects impacting Jewish women and children in South Florida and Israel. Photo: Alice Kemper, Sheila Fuente, Roxane Lipton, Ann Kelman, and Chairwomen Marlene Silver and Jeanne Fibus. Photo provided by Jeffrey Tholl Photography

Longtime fishermen gathered for a picnic to swap tales. Photo: Wally Alexander, Ron ‘Captain Hook’ Hamlin, Mike Fortier, Rick Lyman, Bob Nicholson, Jim Duncan, Butch Moser, Jimmie Zeak, Dr. Charles (Buddy) Moore, and two unidentified participants. Kneeling in front is Tom Bland. Willie Howard/The Coastal Star