Feature
The Green Line
By Ricky
Baldwin
Theatre
Parkland College
Theatre
By L. Grace Godwin
Words
Time and
Chance
By Jenny Southlynn
Homepage
Usability
By
Michael Pastore
The
Arts
VIRTU
By Jason Pitzl-Waters
and
Jacqueline Pitzl-Waters
Food
Slow Food
By Laurence
Mate
Best Bites
By Jenny Southlynn
Through
The
Grapevine
By Liz O'Neill
Noel
Music
Prairie Ensemble
By Anne M.
Heiles
Jazz Mayhem
By Jamie Hutchinson
THE GREEN LINE
Talking with a
Israeli Refusenik
By Ricky Baldwin
Ram Rahat-Goodman is a 45-year-old Israeli Jew who emigrated from Montreal in 1980 and who has served in the Israeli Defense Forces for 20 years. He is one of a growing number of "refuseniks," Israeli troops who are refusing to serve in the Occupied Palestinian Territories beyond Israel’s 1967 borders, the so-called "Green Line" recognized by UN Resolution 242. More than 460 Israeli combat soldiers have signed a pledge not to cross the Green Line because, in the language of their declaration, they do not want "to dominate, expel, starve and humiliate an entire people." More than 1,000 Israeli army reservists have signed a similar pledge.
Rahat-Goodman is also an active member of an Israeli peace organization called "Yesh Gvul" ("There is a limit."). He was in Champaign-Urbana on May 25 as part of the "Courage to Refuse" speaking tour, organized by "Not In My Name," an American Jewish group.
Baldwin: According to the text of the pledge, and according to you, the "refuseniks" are still committed to the defense of Israel. This seems like a contradiction to some people.
Rahat-Goodman: Why? That’s very interesting. We consider that the State of Israel has genuine defense threats, that there are countries out there that are not going to make peace with Israel within the next couple of years. There are countries with medium-range missiles aimed at Israel. Syria is not in a state of peace with Israel. It has a fairly powerful army. There is an organization in Lebanon called Hizbollah, who left Lebanon and they are still at war with Israel. So I suppose we really do have to defend ourselves against them. So there are genuine security needs that Israel has. And we are saying this very clearly: Israel has borders that need to be defended. It’s not Switzerland. It’s not the European Community. We see the necessity of that.
On the other hand, we refuse to take part in actions that have nothing to do with the security of Israel. Rather they have aims that are part of a political agenda—such as the occupation, such as the invasion of Lebanon at the time. We are actually leaving the borders open to send troops into the Occupied Territories.
My friend Ishai, who normally speaks with me, tells a story about being assigned at one of these checkpoints near Netanya in 1995. There the Palestinians are stopped daily. There is a three-hour wait, while the soldiers search the cars, scream at the drivers, tell them to pull down their trousers, pull up their shirts. Their children see their fathers and brothers humiliated while the settlers go around into the fast lane. Most of these Palestinians are just going to work, and they have to get up at three or four in the morning just to get to work. But what’s really interesting is that right next to the checkpoint, on both sides of the road, there are fields—no fences, no soldiers—and of course anyone who really did want to carry out an attack can easily go that way. This is just one example. So the occupation is not about defending Israel. It is endangering Israel.
What happens to people who sign this pledge? Do they become pariahs, or does Israeli society respect their decision, or somewhere in between?
Somewhere in between. They don’t become pariahs. There are people who will attack them, largely on a public level and not on a personal level. Even for people who have gone to jail, the repercussions of this are public rather than personal. People don’t lose their jobs. People’s friends don’t disappear from them, etc. The repercussions will be more within the army. Commanding officers are being relieved of their commands since the army sees these people as unfit to command troops, which is a very hard blow to people who have been brought up to be commanding officers and this is what they are supposed to do.
People are committed to the army. They see it as important. They view the command as something they took upon themselves as a kind of mission, of sorts. It’s very hard for them to be in this position where, you know, we don’t trust you anymore, on the level of the army.
Why do some "refuseniks" go to jail and others don’t?
Just luck, I guess. Depends how you look. [Laughs.] No, it depends on two things. For a long time it was entirely up to the prerogative of the commanding officer. If you had a commanding officer who said, "Okay, we can live with that, we can reassign you," etc., then that’s what happened. And that was what was happening for a long time.
Ever since the combatants’ letter came out, there was a directive that came down from the top of the army that said: "Crack down on these guys. Give them a chance to repent, and if they don’t, then put them into jail." Even so, there are commanding officers that are still not sending them to jail, that still understand the motives behind it, don’t think they are bad troops, and try and find ways around it. So it depends on two things: the commanding officer’s prerogative, and the general situation at the time.
I’m a little bit out of touch now since I’ve been here for the last week-and-a-half, but in the last little while very few people have gone to jail. Since I assume that there hasn’t been a big change in the amount of people that are refusing—it’s true that there are no massive call-ups at the moment, which is one of things that have brought down the numbers of people put into jail—it seems the army is loosening up on the directive to put people in jail. But we know that for every person who signed the letter and was sent to jail, there was another person who was not signed on the letter who was sent to jail—for refusing.
You actually refused to participate in the Israeli invasion of Lebanon almost 20 years before the current pledge was written. What led you to that decision?
In 1982 Ariel Sharon [then Israeli Defense Minister] invaded Lebanon. For an entire year before there had been a ceasefire with the PLO, the Palestine Liberation Organization, which was meticulously observed by the PLO. Meticulously. There was no rocket fire from South Lebanon into Galilee, not a single terrorist incursion at that time. But the PLO was beginning to coalesce as a political force. The "threat of peace" was hovering over Israel. In spite of this, Sharon decided to go ahead with the invasion of Lebanon. And this operation did cause rocket fire.
So I told my commanding officer, "I’m not going. This has nothing to do with the defense of Israel, and it will probably endanger Israel." Unfortunately I was right, and the people of Northern Galilee have been forced to go into hiding for 15 to 20 years. When I refused, it was rare. But later on more joined in. An entire unit of special forces refused to go into Lebanon. A colonel refused to give the order to shell Beirut. And then there were the massacres at Sabra and Shatila [Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon] in September 1982, which horrified many Israelis and caused a re-evaluation of the army. Together these things meant the army was no longer a sacred cow. And in 1985 Israel pulled all the reservists out of Lebanon, but because of the three years we were there, there are still rockets firing across the border.
What do you say to the argument that "selective
refusal"—that is, refusing to serve beyond the 1967 borders, but
continuing to serve elsewhere—still supports the occupation by freeing up
troops back home who can then be sent into the Occupied
Territories?
Well, you could argue that. There are people who are
saying that, as the situation in the army is today, so much energy and
resources are going to the occupation that they can’t serve in the army at
all. There are people that are coming to that point, not as pacifists, but
saying that. But the high majority of people are saying, look, the army is
still important, and there are still important tasks that we need to
fulfill. Maybe we are freeing people up, but the army still has to guard
its borders, and we’re still committed to the defense of Israel.
I understand that you have a son, who is now approaching the age of conscription.
That’s true. He’s 17. He’s starting his conscription courses.
How does that make you feel?
That’s a very hard question. I have a whole lot of mixed feelings, because there are a few things that, as a father, that have nothing to do with the ideological ground that you’ve staked here. I think that, in the final analysis, he has to make his decisions for himself. I would prefer him coming to a decision similar to mine. I think he will. I don’t think anybody’s ever particularly happy with the idea that one’s son is going to an army, an army and everything it’s involved in, even when we do accept the idea that the army is a necessary evil in Israeli society. It’s something that is needed. We have no qualms about that.
Several administrations in the United States have now told the American people that the United States is trying to broker a settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, through what is called the "peace process," which hasn’t yielded very impressive results. Why is that?
Let’s not overrate ourselves. The problem is basically one between Palestinians and Israelis. It’s not a problem that the United States has caused, despite the fact that I’m sure there are people on the American Left who think they’re behind everything. The Americans may have hindered, or not helped as much, by not being an honest broker in the Middle East. The United States is very seriously slanted towards supporting Israeli administrations, rather than seeking out a middle path that can facilitate a peace settlement. But again, this is basically something that has to be worked out between Palestinians and Israelis.
What do you see as the solution, and is there a U.S. role in that?
The U.S. role is being an honest broker. I see the solution as being a two-state solution, with a withdrawal to the 1967 territory. I suppose the United States is going to have a big role to play in terms of financing, as many other countries are going to have to do. We are talking about things that are going to require, both for the Palestinians and the Israelis, massive amounts of money. We’re talking about refugees in terms of the Palestinians, rebuilding a Palestinian infrastructure. We’re talking about repatriating 200,000 people back into Israel. That’s not a cheap proposition.
So you see the "right of return" as a necessary part of the solution?
What’s the connection? I said repatriating Israelis from the West Bank back into Israel. The right of return is one of those things that I think the Palestinians, by and large, are going to have to accept that it is not acceptable for Israelis. A two-state solution implies a two-state solution. It’s not a theoretical two-state solution. It is a state of Israel, a state with a Jewish character, and a state of Palestine. And any massive amounts of Palestinians coming into Israel will unbalance that kind of a solution. There have to be exceptions made—even the discussions at both Camp David and later recognize this—they dealt with a mechanism for dealing with 50,000 to 100,000 Palestinians who would be coming into Israel proper as part of a reunification of families. But I think that the real place that refugees are going to have to be absorbed is in the state of Palestine.
I also think that a lot of times this is something that is dealing with a lot of rhetoric, symbols and feelings, and not always a real issue—in the sense that I don’t see the population of Dearborn, Mich., picking up and returning to Palestine the day after the accords are signed, just as I don’t see the Jews of New York coming en masse to Israel. This is a dream, an important dream, a very emotional and important thing to the Palestinians and their image of themselves. Israelis are going to have to understand—and have to find a venue that can somehow deal with that and ease the pain—but people have to understand that there is a flipside to this. There are 200,000 settlers in the West Bank and in the Gaza that we are talking about evacuating and repatriating to Israel. The places in the West Bank are very important to Jews. This is the heartland of Jews in the Bible. This is also the shattering of dream and something that is not very easy to talk about.
First and foremost, these are human issues. This is not a chessboard. There are five-and-a-half million Jews in Israel. There are three-and-a half million Palestinians in the Occupied Territories and another million Palestinians in Israel. These are real people that have to be dealt with. Their dreams and their fears have to be dealt with if we want a real solution.
Declaration of Israeli
Reservists
A Refusal to Serve in the West
Bank and Gaza
We, reserve combat officers and soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces, who were raised upon the principles of Zionism, sacrifice and giving to the people of Israel and to the State of Israel, who have always served in the front lines, and who were the first to carry out any mission, light or heavy, in order to protect the State of Israel and strengthen it.
We, combat officers and soldiers who have served the State of Israel for long weeks every year, in spite of the dear cost to our personal lives, have been on reserve duty all over the Occupied Territories, and were issued commands and directives that had nothing to do with the security of our country, and that had the sole purpose of perpetuating our control over the Palestinian people. We, whose eyes have seen the bloody toll this Occupation exacts from both sides.
We, who sensed how the commands issued to us in the Territories, destroy all the values we had absorbed while growing up in this country.
We, who understand now that the price of Occupation is the loss of IDF’s human character and the corruption of the entire Israeli society.
We, who know that the Territories are not Israel, and that all settlements are bound to be evacuated in the end.
We hereby declare that we shall not continue to fight this War of the Settlements.
We shall not continue to fight beyond the 1967 borders in order to dominate, expel, starve and humiliate an entire people.
We hereby declare that we shall continue serving in the Israel Defense Forces in any mission that serves Israel’s defense.
The missions of occupation and oppression do not serve this purpose—and we shall take no part in them.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 242
Following the Six-Day War in 1967, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 242. It has since been at the center of Middle East diplomatic efforts. Fittingly, there is argument about interpretation of 242. For example, that it uses the term "territories" rather than "the territories" (item 1i below) has been at the center of disagreement. Where "the territories" specifically implies the Occupied Territories, "territories" means—to many—only areas to be defined by negotiation. The full text of the resolution follows.
(November 22, 1967)
The Security Council,
Expressing its continuing concern with the grave situation in the Middle East,
Emphasizing the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war and the need to work for a just and lasting peace in which every State in the area can live in security,
Emphasizing further that all Member States in their acceptance of the Charter of the United Nations have undertaken a commitment to act in accordance with Article 2 of the Charter.
1. Affirms that the fulfillment of Charter principles requires the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East which should include the application of both the following principles:
(i) Withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict;
(ii) Termination of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for and acknowledgement of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force;
2. Affirms further the necessity:
(a) For guaranteeing freedom of navigation through international waterways in the area;
(b) For achieving a just settlement of the refugee problem;
(c) For guaranteeing the territorial inviolability and political independence of every State in the area, through measures including the establishment of demilitarized zones;
3. Requests the Secretary-General to designate a Special Representative to proceed to the Middle East to establish and maintain contacts with the States concerned in order to promote agreement and assist efforts to achieve a peaceful and accepted settlement in accordance with the provisions and principles in this resolution;
4. Requests the Secretary-General to report to the Security Council on the progress of the efforts of the Special Representative as soon as possible.
For Every Theatrical Taste: Parkland College Theatre
By L. Grace Godwin
Situated on the far northwest edge of Champaign,
Parkland College occupies a position on the margins. Unlike its centrally
located partner in higher education, Parkland’s location and name both
reach outward toward the communities that surround the Champaign-Urbana
area. Parkland’s is a local vision, serving students drawn largely from
downstate Illinois. This is a campus that embodies the phrase "community
college" in every way imaginable.
This intense focus on the local community is reflected in the work of the Parkland College Theatre. The academic theatre program accommodates over 30 students—12 on scholarships—in a comprehensive program leading toward an Associates Degree in Theatre Arts. Students are provided with both classroom and practical experience and are applying their skills to ever more ambitious productions. The talent of Parkland College’s students is supplemented by an active and growing group of community actors and theatre practitioners, who lend their time and skills to the work of the program. Drawing on local enthusiasts of all ages as well as the training of the students and faculty at the University of Illinois, Parkland College Theatre has developed a vast network of artists with roots deep in the community. The potent combination of experience and enthusiasm at Parkland offers local audiences an experience unique in the local theatre scene.
The recently announced 2002-2003 season is a testament to Parkland’s growing confidence in its program. In addition to a rarely seen classic of the 20th century theatre (A Raisin in the Sun) and two major musicals (Nunsense and Cabaret), Parkland is for the first time venturing into Shakespeare (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) and is including a children’s series along with its annual student production. The season is an enormous undertaking, but judging from Parkland’s recent successes, one that is well worth the attempt.
Parkland has mounted a series of diverse productions in recent years. There is a distinct focus on the musical here, the combined talents of Artistic Director Randi Jennifer Collins Hard and frequent Musical Director Tim Schirmer have produced notable revivals of challenging pieces of the repertory including a string of Sondheim classics such as Sweeney Todd, Merrily We Roll Along, Company and Sunday in the Park with George. Light comedy and farce also feature prominently in Parkland seasons, particularly in student-produced shows such as Drop Dead, Bone Chiller and Dearly Departed, although students have also tackled more serious fare including The Boys Next Door, Talk Radio and The Runner Stumbles. Frequent seasonal offerings include A Christmas Memory, A Child’s Christmas in Wales, Kwanzaa and Gift of the Magi. The Parkland Theatre has also been the site of world premiere musicals (Futures, Labors of Love and Five Golden Rings) as well as new plays from Sheryl West (Jar the Floor and Before it Hits Home) and Rita Nibasa (Stories Like Ours).
Theatrical experimentation ranges well beyond writing, however. Director Chad Bergman has offered the community intriguing presentations including a cross-gendered production of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, a circus-influenced Scamps of Scapin and a production of Stoppard’s The Real Inspector Hound during which the audience itself was a feature of the show as their reactions were projected on a huge screen above the stage. More recently, Parkland has focused on issues and events important to the local community. Orphan Train presented a look at local history, Amber Waves examined the difficulties of life on a Midwestern farm and last season’s Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Round looked at the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Parkland prides itself on offering something for every theatrical taste.
Randi Hard is particularly excited about next year’s upcoming children’s season. "The season is in place because we perceived that this community has a huge number of talented young people with no outlet, as well as an overwhelmingly large audience," she says, noting that there is a "need in the community" for children’s theatre. The children’s season is symbolic of Parkland’s whole philosophy—in seeking the involvement of "students from 5 to 85" for the program, Parkland continues to expand on its vision.
"Our mission is theatrical performance and education for Parkland and the district community," states Hard. "We focus primarily on entertainment, but our work is also educational from the standpoint that we want the audience to experience a broad spectrum of theatre—from work on- and backstage to shows we know they’ll be interested in and even to those that they may not have heard of or may not think they will enjoy." Hard herself participates actively in forwarding that goal. She teaches Parkland’s online theatre appreciation course which reaches students not only locally, but even across the country and around the world. Over half of her online students have never been in a theatre—many even expect to dislike the experience—but inevitably, after completing the course, they express surprise that they have enjoyed themselves, Hard says.
Some of their fear may come from ideas about the theatre and how they are expected to react and behave. Such discomfort may be understandable, but at Parkland great care is taken to ensure audience comfort. From the ease of purchasing tickets (only a phone call is necessary and payment is not required until tickets are picked up on the date of the performance) to the accessibility of the theatre from a physical and social standpoint, Parkland offers a casual and friendly atmosphere ideal for new theatre-goers. "You don’t need to dress up, but you will not be out of place if you do," notes Hard, who goes on to emphasize that, "you can really participate or choose anonymity, but whatever you do we want to encourage a sense of belonging."
In Hard’s position as Artistic Director, she is deeply concerned about providing high quality theatrical experiences. Her work is supplemented by a staff of four, each of whom work hard to ensure the excellence of every performance. Production Technical Director David Dillman and Facility Technical Director Shelley Crane manage student and volunteer workers in the scene shop and backstage during performances, while Audience Development Manager Mary Kay Smith and Ticket Office Manager Debbie Dillman provide front of house support for both performers and audiences. Their dedication, combined with that of student and community enthusiasts goes a long way toward making sure Parkland’s dual mission of education and entertainment will be fulfilled.
L. Grace Godwin is a member of the part-time faculty at
Parkland College and will be directing A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the
Parkland College Theatre in November.
Time and Chance
By
Sharon Kay Penman
Putnam Pub Group, 2002
Hardcover, 515
pages, $27.95
If you enjoy history in all its epic splendor, this is the book for you. Second in a planned trilogy, Time and Chance follows Penman’s When Christ and His Saints Slept, the book that introduced Henry Plantagenet and Eleanor of Aquitaine. And while it’s not necessary to have read the first—Time and Chance stands on its own—the trilogy will make a great summer read.
Time and Chance follows this dazzling couple, Henry and Eleanor, now firmly established on the throne of England, their love flourishing in the eye of the hurricane that is the politics of empires. While Henry is off quelling uprising in the kingdom, Eleanor is busy popping out offspring, officially ending rumors of barrenness, having produced no children in her first marriage to King Louis VII of France. And while the couple is often apart, the flames of their love are instantly rekindled upon reunion.
Henry is deeply in love with the intelligent, beautiful Eleanor (11 years his senior), but the rigors of the hunt and battle fill his intensely masculine life and occupy much of his time. The partnership, by history’s standards, was a dazzling success, Eleanor giving birth to five sons and three daughters, founding a dynasty that lasted three centuries.
Rarely a presence at the birth of his children, Henry fights the Welsh, engages in a battle of wits with Eleanor’s former husband
Louis and appoints (against Eleanor’s advice) Thomas Becket, his once-trusted friend and confidant, to the position of Archbishop of Canterbury, an act that nearly destroys the empire. When Becket, once ambitious and worldly, becomes a fanatical guardian of the church, the relationship between the two men sours and poisons the better part of the young king’s reign. Penman delves deep into the sense of betrayal that gouges the heart of their friendship and reveals the emotional dynamics that pits one powerful entity against the other.
When Henry takes a young mistress, Rosamund Clifford, to his bed, dissension enters the once-passionate marriage and Eleanor, who, while she remains loyal to the king, removes herself from his court returning to her childhood realm.
Penman’s stories are thoroughly researched, but it’s the intimate details of personal drama that guide her narrative. The story is rich in emotional complexity and filled with convincing details. Her capacity to recreate vivid worlds both internal and external lay at the heart of her literary powers.
-Jenny Southlynn
Homepage Usability:
50
Websites Deconstructed
By Jakob
Nielsen and Marie Tahir
New Riders, 2002
Paperback, 315 pages, $39.99Two years ago Jakob Nielsen’s book, Designing Web Usability—later translated into French, Spanish, German, Italian, Dutch, Danish, Finnish, Swedish, Portuguese, Hebrew, Japanese and Chinese—revolutionized the entire website-making world. Homepage Usability, Nielsen’s newest work co-authored with Marie Tahir, focuses on one small facet of websites: the homepage. "Homepages," the authors write, "are the most valuable real estate in the world. Millions of dollars are funneled through a space that’s not even a square foot in size." ... This book presents 113 guidelines which will teach the most experienced webmasters (as well as the greenest Web beginners) how to design homepages that are clear, effective and easy for customers to use.
The book is divided into two sections, roughly—theory and practice. The first section explains the parts of homepages, and for each of these parts, raises, then answers, questions such as: Is it needed? What should it look like? Where should items be placed? In the second section, the authors deconstruct the homepages of 50 famous websites, including titans like Yahoo, Microsoft, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and eBay. Each site is objectively evaluated in a four-page spread, where the authors explain the good, the bad and the ugly about the all-important homepage.
A model of excellent design, the book itself is a pleasure to read, with its large page size, copious color illustrations and concise writing style that would bring cheers from Strunk & White. The descriptions and explanations are clear and concise: in the entire book it is impossible to find unnecessary sentences or wasted words. Beyond appearances and style, the genius of this book is in the details. Except for occasional (and justifiable) pronunciamentos ("Splash screens must die.") the authors offer their guidelines humbly, like Socrates, showing and telling you precisely how they’ve come to believe what they believe.
When I finished reading and thinking about the book, I was converted to Nielsen fandom, and convinced that the principles and suggestions offered here are simple, ingenious and sound. Homepage Usability, a comprehensive guide for optimizing the full potential of website homepages, may prove to be the most important computer-technology book of the year, and perhaps the most important book in this genre for years to come.
-Michael Pastore, Editorial Director, Epublishers Weekly, http://www.epublishersweekly.com/
SLOW FOOD | Laurence Mate
Menu at the Market:
You’ve Got to Know Your
Chicken
We’ve got bread, we’ve got salad—ready for the main course? My recommendation is to get a homegrown, pasture-raised chicken from Moore Produce. This year, for the first time, they are able to deliver their pasture-raised meats at the Market at the Square. Most of their birds are for customers who have placed orders in advance, but they have some extra, and after 10 a.m. they will sell off any orders that haven’t been claimed yet.
Chickens cost $2.20 a pound, plus tax. Yes, this is almost twice what you pay for a chicken in the supermarket, but as far as I’m concerned, you’re getting twice the flavor, as well as a bird free of antibiotics and growth hormones, and a bird that has been able to run around in grass and eat bugs instead of spending a brief, miserable life in a wire cage little bigger than its body.
Because these birds have enjoyed exercise and a natural diet, their flesh is firmer and leaner than what most of us are used to (which means it has less saturated animal fats and is better for your health as well). So you need to cook it in a way that will preserve or add moisture rather than drying it out. You could braise the chicken (slow-cooking with liquid), but my favorite recipe (from Lynne Rosetto Kasper’s Italian Country Table) is to roast it with oil, onions and herbs stuffed under the skin, and baste it with a little wine.
Since the chicken will be frozen (as required by Illinois law), let it thaw slowly in your refrigerator, which takes a couple days. Then cut out the backbone and flatten the chicken. Mince a little bit of onion, 3 cloves of garlic, some fresh basil (which you can also buy from the Moores), a little dried oregano and marjoram and some pancetta, an Italian bacon (I substitute bacon from the Schlacht Haus). Blend in a couple teaspoons of commercial balsamic vinegar, a tablespoon of extra-virgin olive oil (I like more) and salt and pepper to taste. Stuff most of this under the skin and rub the rest over the chicken. If you can, do this in advance and then refrigerate the chicken for a while before baking.
When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Arrange the chicken, skin-side up, on a large, shallow pan, and surround with potatoes that you’ve scrubbed and cut into 2-inch chunks (good potatoes are Yukon Gold, Yellow Finns or Desiree, which should be available from the Moores as well unless this rain rots them). Sprinkle everything with salt and pepper and put it in the oven.
After 20 minutes, add a half-cup of wine, baste the chicken and turn the potatoes to coat. Cook another hour or a little more, until the chicken is done and its juices run clear, basting frequently and adding more wine as needed. Let rest a few minutes at room temperature and then drizzle everything with a little more balsamic vinegar before serving.
Because of the vinegar, I’d serve the chicken with a medium-bodied red wine, such as a Dolchetto from Piedmont or one with a little acidity such as a Cabernet Franc from the Loire. These are good, simple food wines, not big, knock-your-socks-off, show wines.
Now save room for dessert!
Laurence Mate is the Leader of the Prairieland Slow Food Group.
lmate@prairienet.org
© Copyright
2002 Laurence Mate
BEST BITES |
Famous Dave’s Bread Pudding
Famous Dave’s, the Midwest chain that opened in Champaign back in October of 2000 out at the Round Barn, might be famous for their ribs, but did you know they serve an awesome dessert?
One doesn’t expect homemade bread pudding to be offered at a chain restaurant, let alone a rib house, but Famous Dave’s offers this delectable dessert and it’s as good as their ribs.
Don’t even think about the calories. Dave’s serves up a hearty slab of bread pudding that weighs in at almost a half-pound. Bread pudding is a simple affair, and Dave’s has their recipe down to an art. It’s made from scratch daily with fresh ingredients including egg bread, eggs, sugar, cinnamon, milk and a touch of vanilla. If you order in-house, it’s served warm, drowning in a decadent praline sauce chock full of pecans with a dollop of ice cream and whipped cream on top. If you order to go, they are no less generous. The portion is equally hefty and includes a Dixie cup of vanilla ice cream on the side. Heat in your microwave and it’s ready.
Unless you’re a hog it’s always enough for two and costs $4.99. If you’re eating alone, it’s two nights’ dessert. Unless, of course, you really are a hog....
Famous Dave’s, 1900 Round Barn, Champaign
-Jenny Southlynn
THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE | Liz O’Neill Noel
Syrah-Shiraz
You
say potato and I say potato!
Syrah, if it were an insecure grape, may have developed an identity crisis by now just because of its name. But the strong, confident grape, indigenous to the southeast of France in the northern Rhone region, doesn’t seem to be bothered. It is we who seem to be confused. The whole world calls Syrah, "Syrah," except for Australians, who have chosen to call it Shiraz. I’m not so sure that it was a choice versus a colloquial influence in the language. But in any case it is the same grape.
The grape has been uprooted and planted in many other countries, so it comes with incredible diversity in tastes. I think that is probably my fascination with the Syrah variety, Hermitage being at the top of my list. Hermitage is in the northern part of the Rhone Valley and is world famous for their classic Syrah, full bodied, bold, peppery, with hints of spice and leather. Many of the new world Syrahs (excluding Australia) produce the complete opposite.
Pairing Syrah with food is fun, because there always seems to be a Syrah that will fit the style of red wine that you need. How to choose? Experiment! It is the only way to discover what you like. Ask at your wine store. The experienced staff that we have available in Champaign-Urbana will be able to lead you to the exact style you require. My suggestion for a wonderful experience with Syrah: Fire up the BBQ, put a big slab of ribs on, smoke them with hickory chips and dive into your Syrah! It’s almost like a vacation at home.
Liz O’Neill Noel is a wine consultant for Louis Glunz Wines.
Saturday in the Sun
The Prairie Ensemble tackles Beethoven’s Fifth
at WILL’s
Concert in the Park
By Anne M.
Heiles
Don your shorts and T-shirt and join your friends and family for some music al fresco this weekend. It’s time for what has become a CU tradition just a notch below June weddings, graduations and Father’s Day. This year’s WILL-FM Concert in the Park is scheduled for Saturday, June 8, starting at 5 p.m. with the Travelers Band as the opening act and continuing at 6 p.m. with the Prairie Ensemble as the feature.
Your Allerton destination this year is the Gatehouse Lawn. Prairie Ensemble Director Kevin Kelly, for one, is looking forward to the new site, which promises to be less waterlogged than the Sunken Garden. "We’re using Urbana’s ‘Showmobile,’ essentially a covered music shell on wheels. Last year everyone said they could hear just great."
Kelly, who has been honored by the Illinois Council of Orchestras for his innovative programming, is reining in his imagination a bit for this event and featuring outdoor crowd pleasers designed to appeal to people of all ages. The Prairie Ensemble will start with Rossini’s Overture to Barber of Seville, followed by Copland’s Old American Songs, Set 2, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5. "Frankly, last year’s program seemed so well received that I modeled this year’s on it. Ron Hedlund was a blast in Copland’s first group of songs, so we thought we’d finish out the set. We did Beethoven’s Eighth last year; Beethoven’s Fifth this year. Since we hope for another thousand-plus crowd this year, I figured crowd pleasers are the way to go. And yes, outdoors was definitely in my mind in the planning. We’re a small orchestra, so playing a bunch of delicate music would not, literally, go very far. This is all big and expressive music, and lots of fun."
Last year’s concert drew about 1,200 people, a leap in audience size that Kelly attributes to "a stunningly gorgeous evening." Admitting that the Prairie Ensemble doesn’t usually draw those kinds of numbers, he added, "Naturally, we hope some of the audience will be inspired to become regulars. It’s not altogether our typical program except for the blatant element of fun. We try to include American music often, and we do try to snag people with a well-known piece."
For people who have heard the Prairie Ensemble, be warned that none of the intermission surprises typical of its regular concerts are planned for the Allerton concert. Not that the outdoor venue will inhibit Kelly, a familiar commentator on WILL-FM, from chatting with the audience—or from interviewing orchestra members on the spot.
During the 5 o’clock hour, The Travelers Band adds more varied repertoire to the entertainment. A quartet composed of Robin Kearton, Julia Cortinas, Jordan Kaye and Maureen Reagan, the four players handily cover violin, viola, mandolin, guitar, tenor banjo, accordion, euphonium and vocals.
Kearton explains, "The attitude of the Travelers Band is that we’ll play anything that we like from any place or any time. In other words, nothing is safe! But the most important thing to us is that we have fun and entertain our audience. For example, our set for June 8 includes Brahms Hungarian Dance #5, an Andean folk tune, a cowboy song, a French musette, a polka and some ragtime."
"Allerton is the perfect place for a large outdoor concert. The staff at Allerton, headed by Dave Bowman, do an excellent job for WILL," says Kimberlie Kranich, WILL promotions coordinator.
If it rains, the concert will be rescheduled for Sunday, June 9, with the Travelers Band at 2 p.m. and the Prairie Ensemble at 3 p.m. WILL (both AM and FM) will inform listeners about weather conditions and the concert’s status.
"The WILL-FM Concert in the Park is our way of saying thanks to our thousands of listeners who support WILL throughout the year. ...The concert is one colorful example of WILL’s rootedness in the local communities we serve," adds Kranich.
As for the early June date of this year’s WILL-FM Concert in the Park, nicely filling the gap between winter and summer Krannert schedules, it may have the added benefit of preceding the mosquito season. Kelly, despite his upbeat programming, is not sanguine, warning, "I would bring mosquito repellant anyway. Though I didn’t hear of any problems last year, I wore it myself then, and Ron Hedlund was relieved that he didn’t swallow any large, or small, bugs while he sang."
To drive to Allerton Park this year, you will need to use the north entrance off I-72. Do not attempt to enter Allerton Park from Allerton Road because that entrance is closed due to a park bridge being out. Once you exit I-72, look for the concert signs.
June Busts Out with Jazz
Mayhem
By Jamie Hutchinson
"I can play as much as I want [in CU], and most of what I get to play is very interesting. There’s a rich humus of musical creativity going on, an awful lot of different things happening, and if I wanted to get involved in a certain kind of music that I didn’t have a whole lot of experience with, the amount of resistance is not very high. ... I can play what I like to play, and there’s an advantage to that, a great advantage."
-Trumpeter Jeff Helgesen on why he’s stuck around the CU music scene
Trumpeter Jeff Helgesen’s newest musical enterprise, Jazz Mayhem,
grew out of an older Helgesen-led band, Trumpet Mayhem. Retaining its
progenitor’s primary reason-for-being, as a vehicle for good old-fashioned
blowing, Jazz Mayhem features a more varied and traditional front line—not
the unusual trumpet foursome of the old group. And band member Thomas
Wirtel (aka Shabda Noor) writes most of the head arrangements for the new
instrumentation, mellowing the mayhem with his adroit and elegant pen.
Jazz Mayhem performs from 5 to 7 p.m. on Friday, June 7 at The Highdive
and at 7 p.m. on Thursday, June 13 at The Iron Post.
Jazz Mayhem was born when local trumpet stalwarts Ray Sasaki and Vern Seilert put Champaign-Urbana—and Trumpet Mayhem along with it—in their rearview mirrors last year. Rather than fill out the horn section with more of their trumpet brethren, Helgesen and Wirtel decided to create a proper front line of two trumpets, a tenor sax and a trombone, along with the rhythm section. Then they set about writing arrangements for the group’s stable of hard bop standards—tunes like Freddie Hubbard’s "Dear John" and Wayne Shorter’s "Hammerhead" and "Children of the Night."
"Tom and I really thought we should try to keep going with something after Trumpet Mayhem because it was fun to have arranged horns and still have room for blowing," said Helgesen. "So we just set up some gigs, and Tom wrote a ton of arrangements, and that’s how we started." Helgesen is also doing some arrangements for Jazz Mayhem, refitting his Trumpet Mayhem charts for the new instrumentation.
"He’s a very interesting player," said Helgesen of Wirtel. "He doesn’t play the trumpet the same way I do, and he doesn’t improvise the way I do. If you have players that play too much alike on top of each other, it tends to get kind of boring. Also, his arranging is great and his humor is infectious—so he’s a lot of fun to work with."
Despite their different musical styles, when it comes to opinions of each other, Helgesen and Wirtel sound very much alike. "Jeff is a sweetheart," said Wirtel. "He’s one of the most even-tempered people and one of the most awesome musical talents I’ve ever met. He’s a monster musician with no ego trips whatsoever."
Adding to the mayhem on Friday will be trombonist Britta Langsjoen, who recently returned to CU from New York City, where she played alongside jazz trombone legends Eddie Bert and Britt Woodman. "Trombone is such a hard instrument, but it seems real natural for her," said Helgesen. "She treats it as an extension of herself and has a very melodic approach to the horn." Langsjoen is substituting for Morgan Powell, the group’s regular trombonist.
The battery is formed by Gary Peyton on drums and Paul Musser on bass. Peyton’s long tenure (originally on piano, then drums) with Helgesen’s quintet and quartet speak to the leader’s esteem for this percussionist’s sense of time. "Gary doesn’t just sit and kind of bide the time and keep everything in check," said Helgesen. "He likes the space to use the drums in a freer manner, to imply time as opposed to dictating it. Gary is ... the first guy I call for all my gigs." Musser, on the other hand, is a relatively new collaborator with Helgesen, who noted simply that the bassist "gets a great sound on the instrument."
A yet-to-be-determined tenor saxophonist and pianist will round out the group, filling in for absent regulars Matt Olson and Michael Stryker. Hey, folks, what do you expect during the summertime in CU? And from a group called Jazz Mayhem, no less!
Virtu
To Enjoy the
Arts
By Jason Pitzl-Waters and
Jacqueline
Enstrom-Waters
Photos by David Reidick
and Julie Guyot
Origins of a
Gallery
Sometimes finding the beginning is easy. One can
look back and put their finger on the exact day, the moment they are
certain was the origin of everything that came after. For fine artist
Julie Guyot, 31, that moment in time is crystal clear in her memory. "I
was selling some of my artwork on consignment at a shop in Monticello.
Frustrated with my day job, I went to visit the owner of that shop to
figure out how my work was selling and to set some new goals for myself
that would allow me to spend more time doing what I love, which is making
things." Sympathetic to Julie’s plight, the owner suggested a possible
space opening up in Monticello that could be used as studio space. Julie
got in contact with the landlord to take a look.
"I spoke to the landlord and he showed me this space that I just fell in love with," recalls Julie. As she speaks of that day, Julie’s eye light up a bit and her hands gesture to indicate the entire room we are standing in. "The space was so beautiful and had great natural light." No one could argue with her about the light. The sun streams in from both the large picture windows and glass door at the front of the space and from more picture windows in the rear loft area. The beams mingle and overlap, some sharp-edged and laser-like, some soft and diffuse. The walls, crisp and white, reflect the light gently back into the space, highlighting the polish on the pale, hardwood floors. The word that spontaneously springs to mind is "luminous." "I immediately wanted to rent it," continues Julie, "so I began to think of ways to support myself and pay the rent." In just one day, Julie’s sense of dissatisfaction was transformed into a new dream and the dream began to become reality.
After quitting her job and putting in numerous hours cleaning, spackling and painting the space, Julie opened Virtu as a storefront gallery featuring her artwork in July of 2001. To help makes ends meet, she began to offer workshops in the rear loft area of the gallery, and to show the work of other artists. Julie single-handedly staffed the Virtu gallery five days a week in addition to doing the business’s books, running workshops and trying to squeak in time to make her own art.
Despite her efforts, Julie says she was forced to return to her day job after three months because of slow business at Virtu. Julie continued to open and staff the gallery on Saturdays after working a full 40-hour week at her paid employment. Even with the setback, Julie was looking toward Virtu’s future and coming up with new plans to make the gallery self-sufficient. One of her ideas was to turn Virtu into a cooperative. "I had always wanted to be involved with an artists’ cooperative, but I really started making serious inquiries in December when I realized that I just couldn’t make the gallery work on my own," Julie explains. "There were too many things that needed to be done that I wasn’t getting to and by this time I had recognized my strengths and weaknesses when it came to running a business." Julie realized that even if she had the free time to do it, she didn’t have the skills or the desire to wear all the hats at the gallery. It was time to bring in others to share their time, abilities and vision if Virtu was to have a future.
Cooperative
Beginnings
We are waiting outside an unlit storefront at
7 p.m. on a Monday night. Stomping our feet to combat the cold of a chilly
January night, we look up at the sign in the window that reads "Virtu"
again, reassuring ourselves we are at the right place. We begin to
speculate that we might have the wrong date for the meeting. The rest of
the street in downtown Monticello is dark and empty, except for the local
pub across the way. Just as we’re deciding we definitely have the wrong
night, Julie comes rushing around the corner with her arms full of
folders, a knit cap pulled down almost to her eyebrows and a big grin.
"Sorry I’m running late, I came straight from work!" she exclaims while
balancing the paperwork on her hip and putting the key in the lock.
We follow Julie in, out of the cold and into the upstairs meeting area, where she immediately starts clearing the main table of random art supplies and stuffing them away into various drawers. "This table is the workshop table and I haven’t had time to clean it since the papermaking workshop," states Julie as she whizzes about. You can sense the strain under the enthusiasm and, when asked, Julie confirms she is tired. "It’s just a lot," shares Julie, "the day job and the Saturdays running the gallery and coming back out here from Champaign on a week night for the meeting—it’s a lot." As Julie straightens, people begin to show up and fill the seats around the table, some greeting each other like old friends, others looking around nervously. This is the second meeting of artists interested in forming a co-operative and for many present, it’s the first one they’ve attended.
The meeting progresses haltingly. There are only five months until the cooperative needs to be ready if they are going to take over the keys to the space when Julie’s lease is up at the end of June. Those attending for the first time seem a bit confused, thinking they were coming to a meeting to discuss what visions they all might have for Virtu’s future, so the meeting turns into a sharing session of what the artists would like to see. After this discussion gets mired down, the focus is drawn to bylaws and the rest of the night is spent working out the minutiae of voting procedures and how board members will be selected. After an hour-and-a-half there is a general consensus to end the meeting until next week. Tina Carrington, a founding member of the Virtu Cooperative, looking back to those first meetings says, "One difficult aspect of starting the co-op was deciding where to begin. At our first meetings it seemed there was so much to do, and where to begin was not apparent."
The cooperative planning meetings became weekly, sometimes at the Virtu space in Monticello, but more often held in the Champaign and Urbana homes of future Virtu members. A few new faces showed up and a few faces, familiar from early meetings, faded away. After a month or two, the same seven to nine artists showed up at every meeting and it was decided that these individuals would be the founding members of the Virtu Cooperative Gallery. The meetings became more structured and focused, and at the same time, more like a warm gathering of old friends. All decisions are made by consensus and a great deal is decided as the June deadline approaches.
More than a
Cooperative?
When asked why she chooses to pour her
energy into starting a cooperative gallery instead of pursuing more
traditional gallery representation, fine craftsperson Anna Barnes
responded, "like some of the other Virtu artists, I do work with boutiques
and galleries. I also pay high commission to do that and don’t have any
say in how my work gets displayed and I am basically told what work I
should submit." But, Anna continued, being part of a cooperative gives her
a unique opportunity that mainstream galleries don’t offer—the opportunity
to have input into which works she shows and how they are shown.
"Cooperatives are a beautiful direction for businesses to take," says fiber artist and Urbana resident Laura Sola. "The approach is horizontal instead of top-down. Members have more of a voice and they have ownership. I think when people feel a sense of ownership, they are inclined to invest more of themselves." Laura has felt this increased inclination to give of herself firsthand. "I work full time ... and like everyone else at Virtu, I have a pretty full plate. It can sometimes be hard to find the time to give, especially when it becomes a choice between making my art and creating this space for art. Right now, I’ve chosen the latter in the hope that as Virtu grows, my art will grow with it." Many of the other founding members at the meeting nod in agreement.
It is still chilly outside, but the first tentative Virtu Cooperative meetings are months past and it is now late April. The founding members of Virtu have recently decided that they not only want to be a cooperative, they want to become a not-for-profit institution. Anna, unanimously voted into the position of president on Virtu’s board of directors earlier in the month, feels the decision was a well-founded one. "We talked to several cooperative galleries around the U.S. when we were researching non-profit status. Most cooperatives don’t make much money," states Anna. Artist’s cooperatives are set up to benefit the individual members through giving them the opportunity to show their work, get gallery experience and to make a profit from selling their work and leading workshops. Virtu will be taking a low percentage of commission from each art sale and renting the workshop space to members for a reasonable fee to cover overhead and to fund educational efforts in the community. Any profits made by the cooperative entity will be funneled back into space upkeep, advertising and education. "We felt that the amount of money that any of us could make as owners would be more than offset by the opportunities that we would have as a non-profit," continues Anna.
For many of the founding members, the opportunity for Virtu to do educational outreach into their communities is very appealing. Many ideas are on the table, and many more were brought up at the most recent meeting. Jessy Ruddell, a fiber artist from Urbana, suggested the idea of offering children’s art classes during the traditional school year, during school hours. The other members look puzzled at first. Who would bring their children to art classes at Virtu in the middle of the school day? Jessy reveals that in addition to being an artist she is a mother of two children, whom she home schools. It seems there are many home schooling families in Piatt and Champaign counties and many are desperately seeking educational outlets for their children during the day. Catching on, the other members threw out ideas for children’s classes they could teach. Anna suggested a workshop to educate artists about how to take professional quality slides of their artwork, a crucial component of applying to galleries that many artists are unable to provide for themselves. The ideas keep pouring onto the table and the enthusiasm of the artists to not only use Virtu as a place to show their work, but also as a home base for efforts to enrich their community, is obvious and infectious.
Opening the
Doors
As of June 1, the lease to the space Julie first
turned into a gallery will be in the name of Virtu Cooperative Gallery and
as of June 4, they will open their doors for business. The focus now is on
preparing the space, getting their work hung and getting the word out to
the public. In addition, Virtu is making a big push throughout June to
increase their membership. To become a member of Virtu, artists must
submit slides or photos of their work to be juried. Jurying is only
conducted at select times during the year and potential members can only
apply for membership at these times. "At Virtu," the membership
application states, "we are interested in working with artists and
craftspeople of all ages, at all stages in their journeys." The membership
guidelines and application can be viewed and printed out at
www.galleryvirtu.org in the "membership" section.
When the founding members are asked how they feel about opening day being less than a week away there are smiles and responses of, "nervous" and "can’t wait!" "I am very excited about this opportunity to learn from other artists in the community," enthuses Tina. "I feel very fortunate to be able to participate in such a group." There are many nods. "The word ‘virtu’ means ‘enjoyment of the arts,’" adds Juile, "and I think that sums it up. We look forward to sharing it with our community."
As of June 4, the Virtu Cooperative Gallery, located at 220 W.
Washington in downtown Monticello, will be open Tuesdays, noon-8 p.m.;
Fridays, noon-5 p.m.; Saturdays, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. For more information, call
217-762-7790.