Harwich Music Festival

Poetry Slam Coming Very Soon!

2010-12-29T06:51:00.000-08:00

I know I can be (confusing)

by Hannah Van Sciver on Tuesday, December 21, 2010 at 5:56am

I don’t stare at mirrors too long,
because I’m afraid of the ghosts living under my skin.
They creep out to haunt me each time I presume to look in.
I don’t stay in one place too long
Because I’m afraid of the shape my bare feet make.
Before I step, I test my weight.
I take a minute and identify my means of escape,
So, if I break anything, I can
Disappear before someone wonders.

I’m not afraid of endings anymore, I’ve just
Forgotten how to begin.
I would let you in if I could
Find a door.
I’m not afraid of falling, but I
Find myself avoiding ledges and
Cutting corners to avoid the steep edges.

See, this hourglass heart leapt off the tabletop, and
time stopped and I dropped and rolled,
but it didn’t put out the fire.
So I sat in the theatre with my eyes closed
And my hands froze and I chose
to bask in your indecision, rather than my own.

You know these lips used to
Spring open like spring roses at every potential kiss, but
The overwhelming sense that I was missing something
replaced that with this.
I know I can be confusing sometimes, but
It’s honestly the first time I’ve been honest since
the first time.

So draw me a line and I’ll draw you a square
And I’ll point to where the page ends, and I’ll
scribble there.

The only thing keeping me sane is the hope
that one day you’ll
Stop asking me to pick apart my brain
like the smoking remains of some
totaled automobile, but rather
Give me a canvas and some
red paint and wait and
See together what we can create.

If it comes out wrong, kiss me anyway,
hold me like the
crescent moon, and watch my phases without
counting them.

I don’t stare at mirrors too long.
I cast my net in all directions,
looking for a love that defies reflections.

__________________________________________________________

The Hills of Harwich Come alive with the Sound of Music!

2010-09-22T06:40:00.000-07:00

By Jamie Balliett

Harwich Oracle

Posted Sep 15, 2010 @ 07:59 AM

HARWICH —

A rarely used and little-known wooded hollow just steps away from the heart of Brooks Park will soon be filled for two days with folk music as part of the Harwich
Cranberry Festival.

The music will feature up to 20 performers, including the locally popular Parkington Sisters, the Ticks, Randy and the Oak Trees, Squidda, the Flakes, Katie Flynn, and Cape Cod bluesman George Grizbach.

The first day of music, on Saturday, Sept. 18, is called Cranberry Jam.

Sponsored by radio station WOMR (Outer Most Radio, 92.1 FM), the event celebrates the construction of its new radio repeater antenna in Brewster, which will be known as WFMR (Further Most Radio, 91.3 FM).

On Sunday, Sept. 19, a second day of performances, organized by Cranberry festival staff, will feature established as well as up and coming local performers. (The music events are just one piece of the Harwich Cranberry Festival. Turn to Page 2 for details.)
The hollow, a dried ancient lakebed, is part of Brooks Park.

While it is town owned, it has been used very little for recent public events and is mostly filled with mature trees. A public works cleanup of the overgrown brush in the heart of the basin was performed to open up a performing space, roughly 175 yards long by 75 yards wide.

This natural amphitheater is considered an excellent space for a musical event because of the way sound is cradled by the sloping basin. “When I first went down, I thought this was really excellent place to have an event,” said John Nelson, station manager at WOMR, which organizes similar events across the Outer Cape, including one called Boogie By the Bay in Wellfleet. “Acoustically, it will be quite unique.”

Nelson said the Cranberry Jam on Saturday includes six performers, spanning from noon to about 8:30 p.m. “We’ll be adding about 80,000 possible listeners (with the new repeater) to our (radio) programming and this is very exciting,” he said, explaining that the repeater cost almost $100,000 to install. “It has been about 10 years since the project began.”

Cranberry Festival organizers Ed McManus and John Bangert noted that the creation of the folk festival signals a shift in emphasis to highlight musical abilities in the community and move away from the traditional emphasis on a fall carnival, which for years had been held each September at the high school fairgrounds.

McManus explained that his vision for the new folk concert is “to give a new start to the Cranberry Festival for the community, something that can be built on in the future and done in a way that involves Harwich and Cape Cod rather than importing people from around the country.”

Bangert added, “Carnivals can be held anywhere, and given the traveling nature of the business, they are held everywhere,” he said. “The cultural backdrop to the Cranberry Festival is a celebration of the completion of another summer by the community and as such should reflect community things. Some of these things are our artistry, craftsmanship, and musicality.”

McManus said he’s optimistic that the folk festival is a solid fit with the cranberry festival and looking ahead, noted that the hollow could be an excellent site for other future events.
“It can easily function as a performance space for others, (such as) the Harwich Junior Theatre or the Cape Cod Symphony, to suggest a few,” he said.

Bangert noted that local musicians really need a place to perform to help develop their careers and this festival is an ideal vehicle.
“(It) is not about just one gig,” he said. “It's about reaching deeply into our community to find young folks who need to have community helpers, to help and assist them to develop their craft, and have a sense of accomplishment and expression.”

“We now have a forum,” said Bangert of the folk festival. “And now a new radio station (WFMR) to get the word out. We’ve never had this in Harwich. This has become a win-win for (the) community and community radio.”

Free music events this weekend

Saturday
What: Cranberry Jam
When: Noon to 8:30 p.m.
Where: Hollow behind Brooks Park
Organizer: WOMR and Harwich Cranberry Festival

Sunday
What: Harwich Music Festival
When: Noon to 8:30 p.m.
Where: Hollow behind Brooks Park
Organizer: Harwich Cranberry Festival

This is the weekend that was!

2010-09-21T08:55:00.001-07:00

Dear Friends of Harwich Music Festival,

Thanks to the hundreds if not thousands of attenders of the First Annual Harwich Music Festival.

As we get access to the thousands of images we will share them with you here on this blog.

Here are a few!

http://www.capecodreflections.ifp3.com/#/gallery/2010-harwich-cranberry-festival/

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=87866&id=1129719351&ref=mf

www.capecodchronicle.com

With the hundreds of comments and positive feed back we want to every improve our beloved community. Thanks to our new community Radio Station WFMR FM 91.3 of your dial and always available on line at http://womr.org/

We need to build up our community support for this event for next year. But first let us all pause and take some time to thank each and every one of our planners and workers and volunteers. We could not have done any of this without the direct and dedicated hours from The Harwich Cranberry Festival Committee, and The Harwich Music Festival Committee.

But we see we WILL NEED MORE VOLUNTEERS NEXT YEAR! We will need a massive and concerted effort from both Cape Cod Technical High School, Harwich and Chatham High Schools to earn community service credits, as well applying the principle of Cape Cod TimeBank of paying it forward.

We start this year buy planning a "community pot luck dinner" at a location to be announced soon in October! Who wants to host this event? Please let us know.

Thanks,

John Bangert & Ed Mc Manus for the committee.

Find us on facebook - Harwich Music Festival

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=112817535405384&ref=ts

http://harwichfolks.blogspot.com/

Email: harwichfolkfestival@gmail.com

Phone: (508) 470-8587

Please read this Editorial from the Harwich Oracle below, and if you agree, please write letters to the various editors expressing your own thoughts and support for this community event.

Letters to the Editor

Harwich Oracle/ Cape Codder
5 Namskaket Road
Orleans, MA 02653-3202
dtunney@cnc.com

Cape Cod Chronicle
60C Munson Meeting
Chatham, MA, 02633
twood@capecodchronicle.com

Cape Cod Times,
319 Main St.,
Hyannis, MA, 02601
letters@capecodonline.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~THANK YOU CNC!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Harwich Oracle

Posted Sep 15, 2010 @ 08:21 AM
HARWICH —

This could be the start of something big.

The first folk music festival the town has ever seen is about to come to life in Harwich Center this weekend, and to its organizers the event is much more than just a good time. It’s a turnaround, an about-face, from the traditional carnival that for years was the hallmark of the Harwich Cranberry Festival.

That was a place, constructed on the high school fairgrounds, created by out-of-towners. It was field rented by a bunch of people nobody knew, and with kiddie rides and cotton candy dispensers that looked like they’d seen better days.

But now, the launch of a locally sponsored and organized musical festival and craft show promises to bring Lower Cape residents in touch with their friends and neighbors – and to provide a unique venue for local musicians, who will gather at the hollow behind Brooks Park and jam for nigh on two days.

So this program is all about the local people, and we think that deserves a round of applause. Particularly noteworthy are the efforts of the staff of WOMR, which is sponsoring the Saturday jam, and the hard work by cranberry festival volunteers, who have arranged for the Sunday entertainment.

Two organizers who took the lead in bringing this event together, John Bangert and Ed McManus, deserve a lot of credit for their vision – it was they who “discovered” the old hollow behind the bandstand and recognized it as a perfect natural amphitheater.

Now all that’s to be done is to hope for good weather, so we can all make our way to the hollow and hear some terrific music.

Congratulations to all of the organizers. We hope this will become a successful annual event.

Copyright 2010 Harwich Oracle. Some rights reserved

http://www.wickedlocal.com/harwich/highlight/x827972347/Editorial-Folk-music-for-local-folks

2010-06-04T08:16:00.000-07:00

Revised song lyrics to the tune of RESPECT by Aretha Franklin

♪♫ R-E-C-Y-C-L-E Find out what it means to me

Revised lyrics by Paul Lagg – No rights reserved

(ooh) What you want

(ooh) Baby, I got

(ooh) What you need

(ooh) Do you really need it?

(ooh) All I’m askin’

Is for a little recyclin’when you get home (just a little bit)

Hey baby (just a little bit) recycle when you get home (just a little bit)

I ain’t gonna sort the plastics wrong while you’re gone

Ain’t gonna sort it wrong ‘cause I don’t wanna

All I’m askin’

Is for a little recycling when you come home (just a little bit)

Baby (just a little bit) recycle when you get home (just a little bit)

------ instrumental break ------

I’m about to give you potential money

And all I’m askin’ in return honey

Is to turn my trash into profits

When you get home (just a little bit)

Yeah baby

When you get home (just a little bit)

Ooo, your glass jars

That once held honey

Now guess what

Its recycled money

All I want you to do for me

Is recycle your trash when you get home (re, re, re, re)

Yeah baby

R-E-C-Y-C-L-E

Find out what it means to me

R-E-C-Y-C-L-E

Find out what it means to me

Plastics 1 thru 3

Oh (sort it for me, sort it for me, sort it for me, sort it for me, sort it for me)

Whoa, babe (just a little bit)

A little recycling (just a little bit)

If you get tired

Keep on tryin

You’re runnin out of excuses

For not recyclin’

When you come home

Or you might walk in

And find out all the recycling bins are gone

I got to have (just a little bit)

A little recycling

R-E-C-Y-C-L-E

Find out what it means to me

R-E-C-Y-C-L-E

Original Song Lyrics

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

(oo) What you want
(oo) Baby, I got
(oo) What you need
(oo) Do you know I got it?
(oo) All I'm askin'
(oo) Is for a little respect when you come home (just a little bit)
Hey baby (just a little bit) when you get home
(just a little bit) mister (just a little bit)

I ain't gonna do you wrong while you're gone
Ain't gonna do you wrong (oo) 'cause I don't wanna (oo)
All I'm askin' (oo)
Is for a little respect when you come home (just a little bit)
Baby (just a little bit) when you get home (just a little bit)
Yeah (just a little bit)

I'm about to give you all of my money
And all I'm askin' in return, honey
Is to give me my profits
When you get home (just a, just a, just a, just a)
Yeah baby (just a, just a, just a, just a)
When you get home (just a little bit)
Yeah (just a little bit)

------ instrumental break ------

Ooo, your kisses (oo)
Sweeter than honey (oo)
And guess what? (oo)
So is my money (oo)
All I want you to do (oo) for me
Is give it to me when you get home (re, re, re ,re)
Yeah baby (re, re, re ,re)
Whip it to me (respect, just a little bit)
When you get home, now (just a little bit)

R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Find out what it means to me
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Take care, TCB

Oh (sock it to me, sock it to me,
sock it to me, sock it to me)
A little respect (sock it to me, sock it to me,
sock it to me, sock it to me)
Whoa, babe (just a little bit)
A little respect (just a little bit)
I get tired (just a little bit)
Keep on tryin' (just a little bit)
You're runnin' out of foolin' (just a little bit)
And I ain't lyin' (just a little bit)
(re, re, re, re) 'spect
When you come home (re, re, re ,re)
Or you might walk in (respect, just a little bit)
And find out I'm gone (just a little bit)
I got to have (just a little bit)
A little respect (just a little bit)

Cafe Rhizophere

2010-05-17T09:35:00.000-07:00

Subject: Cafe Rhizophere Harwich Music Festival Winter Home(s)!

Harwich is fast becoming known as the restaurant center of the mid-cape with excellent inns and new younger hip restaurants, like the Harwich Land Ho Hot Stove, and Embers Flat Pizza. We also believe that the Harwich Cranberry Festival Committee wanting to open and explore going into a new direction towards "more cultural, less carnival" and is the why the Harwich Musical Festival Committee was formed in the fall of 2009.

Cafe * Rhizosphere

We need to have a movable or rotational coffee house in winter home(s) for "open mic" days or nights, which offer a more serene and serious atmosphere for poetry, and folk music and with audience and artist within an environment of non-alcohol intimacy and concentration.

First Congregational Church Parish Hall, in Harwich Center, and Pilgrim Congregational Church, and Christ Episcopal Church is Harwich Port, East Hawich Methodist Church are the many venues we will explore as to offer HMF as a place where our committee my work with , to see if they might offer us a winter home in doors, for music and fellowship. So who do YOU know in these communities?

In about two years time the Harwich town owned South Harwich Meeting House, may become our permanent home once the foundation and repair is completed.

http://www.facebook.com/l/98c93;www.southharwichmeetinghouse.com/

(*)The Rhizosphere is the zone surrounding the roots of plants in which complex relations exist among the plant, the soil microorganisms and the soil itself. The plant roots and the biofilm associated with them can profoundly, influence the chemistry of the soil including pH and nitrogen transformations.

We hoped that a new agenda of folks would be open to develop an outreach to musicians in Harwich, as sort of an new academy of music, where by we connect with talent development in Harwich and surrounding communities and offer steady guidance and networking for individual advancement in the performing arts, and music as well as marketing from our community.

HARWICH"S HOLLOW AWAKENS TO MUSIC THIS SPRING, SUMMER WINTER & FALL

by John J Bangert

On Earth Day 2010, famed Life magazine and Grammy award winning photographer, Rowland Scherman and I met for a lunch and a beer in Harwich Center, at Andale's Cafe, then we toured the "Harwich Hollow."

Click Here for your own virtual tour: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XP_BLlnUzNk

Rowley snapped his camera as soon as his eye caught hold of the community tree, a large symbolic spreading cooper beach tree, growing in town for perhaps 100 years or more at Brooks Park. Scherman shot Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Joan Baez, and the most of the folk acts and rock n roll music scene, a who's who from the 60s, 70s and 80's. Now- still not retired, Rowland has been on our committee since last year.

We thought that this tree, with hundreds of carved initials from lover's in the Harwich past, to today's young folks committed by fresh engravings today commemorating from the rites of spring -2010.

Harwich Folks Festival is a place for new beginnings, a place where locally grown talent like Catie Flynn,-The Fireman's Daughter, Annie Lynch - Annie and the Bee Keepers, Emma Dubner - The Ticks, The Elbows, JO & CO, to name just a few groups and the well established folks from our Cape community like Harwich's own Greg Greenway and Kris Larsen; and from nearby towns like Carol Chichetto, Sarah Burrill, David Roth and Anne Hirst and others may network and connect or reconnect with each other and the general community. Historically in the 1960-1970's, we had Paul Pena from Queen Anne Road, who was not sighted, but gifted to see beyond Harwich and who developed his musical abilities with his parents Virginia & Jack Pena. Let us all be cognizant of today's talents and the prophets for tomorrow amongst us.

Also remembering the folks musicians from yesterday like the Harwich born, the late Paul Pena!

http://harwichfolks.blogspot.com/2009/10/who-was-harwichs-own-paul-pena.html

Our next meeting is Thursday, May 20th Albro House Main St. next to town Hall at 6:30 PM!

Our Harwich Music Festival committee will integrate the arts, and crafts festival dates to now include music, as an added value to growing list of events planned in town.

· Sat July 10, Sun July 11 (At Brooks Park)

· Sat Aug 14, Sun Aug 15 (At Brooks Park)

· Sat Sep 11, Family Fun Day -, Music at Bond Fire & Crafts Show (Red River Beach)

· Sat Sep 18, Arts, Crafts and Food with children’s music, puppets, face painting, programming in gazebo (At Brooks Park)

· Sat WOMR/ WFMR “Kick Off” Celebration and Music Festival in the (At Brooks Park & Harwich Hollow) 12-8pm

· Sun Children’s program on big WOMR/WFMR stage if still available in AM before parade,

and Harwich Folks Festival after parade ‘til 5pm (At Brooks Park & Harwich Hollow)

http://harwichfolks/blogspot.com

WOMR / WFMR UPDATE

We still are optimistically seeking a begin broadcasting date of early summer. A kickoff party for the repeater is in the works, for September 18th, in Harwich, in which we debut our new logo for WOMR/WFMR, http://www.facebook.com/l/98c93;92.1/91.3FM, and celebrating our programming to the Upper Cape. It will be a full day of fun and music, food and drink.

Selectman Seeks Sylvan Setting For New Music Festival

2010-05-14T22:27:00.001-07:00

by Alan Pollock

HARWICH — As part of an effort to get the event back to its hometown roots—and back to nature—this year's Harwich Cranberry Festival will include a new Harwich Music Festival to be held in the natural amphitheater in the woods behind Brooks Park.

“I was driving by and one day I looked down there,” Selectman Ed McManus said. To discourage littering and other problems, the highway department had cleared away the thick brush from the area, revealing the natural bowl-shaped clearing just east of Brooks Park. McManus, the president of the cranberry festival committee, had been working with other volunteers to find a way to introduce a homegrown musical component to the event. Before long, the pieces started to come together.
John Bangert (left) and Ed McManus stand under the giant copper beech tree that guards the entry to the natural amphitheater. ALAN POLLOCK PHOTO

McManus was approached by Bob Weiser, a radio host and event producer with the Provincetown-based public radio station WOMR-FM, who was looking for a venue for a musical event. Weiser, a Harwich resident, said WOMR was looking for an event to coincide with the station's launch of a satellite transmitter in Brewster, which will help expand its market to the rest of Cape Cod. McManus suggested the Brooks Park site, and they gave it a careful look.

What they found was a natural performance space with great acoustics, close to parking lots, rest rooms, the bike trail and a playground. The two met with the recreation and youth commission, which has jurisdiction over the site, and police and fire officials. There are several obstacles to using the site for a public performance space, “nothing insurmountable,” McManus said, but a sizeable electrical service will need to be brought in, and some provision will need to be made for handicap access. Public safety officials and the rec and youth commission have given preliminary approval, McManus said.

WOMR will pay to erect a stage and a dance floor for its free concert on Sept. 18, and will make the stage available for the new Harwich Music Festival on the following day. Thanks to WOMR, “We're not using any taxpayer money,” co-organizer John Bangert said. During its event, the radio station will raise money from the proceeds of a beer and wine bar, which will have professional bartenders and a fenced-in area where the alcohol will be consumed.

The radio station's event will be an excellent test of the amphitheater's suitability for crowds, McManus said. “We can get a sense of how it works,” he noted. If the test is successful, the town can consider making more permanent improvements, like installing a wheelchair ramp, but not much else, Bangert said.

“We want to keep it natural, not overdeveloped,” he said. The natural space is guarded by a giant copper beech tree, whose trunk bears generations of initials from young adventurers and lovers. It's a fitting centerpiece of the music festival, McManus said.

“It's got its roots in the community,” he said.

In the short term, a vehicle will be used to provide wheelchair access to the amphitheater, and people will be encouraged to bring beach blankets or lawn chairs for seating. The festival committee will also need to obtain the necessary permits for food and beverages to be served there.

It's a logical step to begin migrating festival activities to Brooks Park, away from the high school site, McManus said. The town is likely to be building a replacement high school in the years ahead, probably utilizing much of the existing front lawn, where the craft fair is usually held.

“It makes sense to build the future of the festival around here,” he said.

The new natural performance space is in keeping with the back-to-basics thrust of this year's cranberry festival, Bangert said. “It's about more culture, less carnival,” he said. The professional craft show, which drew dozens of crafters and merchants from a wide geographic area, will be replaced by a show with more local artists and craftsmen.

“Our goal is to take the 'starving' out of 'starving artists,'” Bangert said. A strong core of local artists has already emerged, including Paul Lagg, who designed an impressive logo for the event. Lagg's full-time job is as the GIS coordinator for the town of Chatham.

Even the food concessions will be encouraged to find and use local produce in their offerings, Bangert said. Likewise, the music festival will feature home-grown performers like Paul Pena, Greg Greenway, Carol Chichetto, Sarah Burrill, Kris Larson and David Roth. The event will also feature The Fireman's Daughter, a Nashville-based folk duo co-starring Catie Flynn of Harwich; Annie Lynch of Annie and the Beekeepers, Emma Dubner of the Ticks, The Elbows, JO & CO and other groups. It's an opportunity for popular, established performers, as well as up-and-coming local acts, Bangert said.

Details on the Harwich Cranberry Festival's plans will be firmed up over the summer, and information will be posted at www.harwichcranberryfestival.org.

Let's Kick Start This Project Today!

2010-05-07T07:15:00.000-07:00

Harwich Music Festival Committee Meetings

2010-05-06T12:36:00.000-07:00

HARWICH MUSIC FESTIVAL

NEXT MEETING
Thursday, May 13th, 6:30 PM!

ALBRO HOUSE

Rt. 39 across from Brooks Library and
next to Harwich Town Hall)

May Day Tree Brooks Park May 1st, 2010

2010-05-01T12:39:00.000-07:00

On with the Show!

2010-04-29T06:05:00.001-07:00

It’ official, last night the Harwich Cranberry Committee, the organization committee for the Harwich Cranberry Festival, has accepted and will support the Harwich Music Festival Committee to partner with WOMR in Harwich "Kick Off" Celebration set for Saturday, September 18^th from 12- 8pm.
The Harwich Music Festival Committee will integrate the arts, and crafts festival dates to now include music, as added value to growing list of events planned in town.

· Sat July 10, Sun July 11 (At Brooks Park)

· Sat Aug 14, Sun Aug 15 (At Brooks Park)

· Sat Sep 11, Family Fun Day -, Music at Bond Fire & Crafts Show (Red River Beach)

· Sat Sep 18, Arts, Crafts and Food with children’s music, puppets, face painting, programming in gazebo (At Brooks Park)

· Sat WOMR/ WFMR “Kick Off” Celebration and Music Festival in the (At Brooks Park & Harwich Hollow) 12-8pm

· Sun Children’s program on the big stage, if still available, or Gazebo in AM before parade,

· and Harwich Music Festival after parade ‘til 5pm (At Brooks Park & Harwich Hollow)

Harwich Poster, T- Shirt, Sports Hat, and Sweat Shirts -Fundraiser Ideas!

2010-04-23T08:09:00.000-07:00

On Earth Day 2010, Rowland Scherman and I met for a beer in Harwich Center, then toured the Harwich Hollow. "Rowley" snapped his camera as soon as his eye caught hold of the community tree, a large symbolic spreading golden beach tree, growing in town for perhaps 200 years at Brooks Park.

Does anyone know what specie or how old this tree is for sure? Let us know by emailing us at harwichfolksfestival@gmail.com!

We thought that this tree, with hundreds of carved initials from lover's past in Harwich to today's young folk using magic marker initials written on, but not carved into the tree from the rite of Spring 2010.

On this Earth-day 2010, what a symbol for our Harwich community. Harwich is a spreading, grassroots, community trying to come together after the economic fall to re-organize our communities and transform us into a living, loving with positive progress, migrating toward a "Beloved Community".

This venerable golden beach tree marks and guards the entrance to the "Harwich Hollow", where soon music and life will return to this sacred, natural vortex in our community, after many years neglected, but never forgotten. It's a sentry for music in the park.

Rowland Scherman the former Life Magazine photographer, from Orleans, Paul Lagg local artist, and Sally Vince a local graphic designer, have agreed and will work collaborating with the Harwich Cranberry Festival to generate logos, illustrations and poster designs for our selected marketing products along with WOMR/ WFMR and for our own Harwich Folk Festival fundraiser.

Here is one of Rowland Scherman's illustrations.

Meet Rowland Scherman Offical -Photpgrapher for Harwich Folk Festival!

2010-04-22T12:13:00.000-07:00

ROWLAND SCHERMAN

BY JOHN GRENIER-FERRIS

RFKÕs campaign, 1968

It's one thing to know you're good at something, and quite another when the world agrees with you. Sometimes, recognition takes a while.

From Woodstock to the funerals of the Apollo the Beatles to Martin Luther King, Jr., photojournalist Rowland Scherman chronicled the times, places, and people that shaped today's world. He has garnered a Grammy Award for his iconic photography, but for more than 30 years afterward, he lived in obscurity. "Rowland is not a self-promoter," explains Bob Korn, an accomplished printmaker in Orleans, whose clients include well-known photographers Joel Meyerowitz and Jim Dow.

When Scherman walked into Korn's business one day with a slide of Bob Dylan, Korn realized Scherman was a "somebody." But who? astronauts, from photography and journalism have long been familiar parts of Scherman's life. His father was promotions director for Sports Illustrated and Newsweek. His uncle, David E. Scherman, a Life photographer and editor, got his nephew a job as a summer intern in Life's darkroom when he was a student at Oberlin College. After graduating in the late 1950s, Scherman became the first photographer hired by the Peace Corps.

With gigs as a photographer for the U.S. Information Agency and a freelancer for Life magazine, Scherman received a steady stream of assignments that made him an eyewitness to key moments in the 1960s. He snapped a shot of Bob Dylan arriving at the 1963 Newport Folk Festival with a bullwhip slung over his shoulder.

Later that day, Scherman slipped onstage with his wide-angle lens for an intimate view of Dylan and Joan Baez singing side by side. He took classic pictures of the Beatles from a concert goer's perspective. He was mere inches from Dr. Martin Luther King when he delivered his "I Had a Dream" speech, and he spent time on Bobby Kennedy's campaign plane in 1968.

Scherman's body of work reveals his identity. Far from a simple photographic record of history-makers from 40 years ago, Scherman's photography captured scenes from a pivotal era with emotion and intelligence.

Whether it is an image of Bobby Kennedy in a sea of supporters or Sammy Davis, Jr., peering into the camera, viewers get a visceral experience of the precise moment Scherman chose to release the shutter.

Click Image to enlarge

At another Dylan concert, this time at the Washington Coliseum, Scherman pushed past backstage security to fire off a few frames. The next day, he marched into Columbia Records and showed his images to one of the art directors. One of the images featured a near silhouette of Dylan, haloed in a spotlight. "That's the cover of Dylan's next album," the art director declared. The image became the cover of Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits, for which Scherman earned a Grammy Award for Best Album Cover Photography in 1967.

But by 1971, Scherman had disappeared from prominence. Divorced and disillusioned with his life and the path on which the United States was headed, he turned down offers to cover the Vietnam War and work for Playboy. Instead, he went to England, and he ended up herding sheep in Wales for years. He returned to the Life offices once in the early 1980s to solicit work, but the industry had changed. "They wanted to see my work," he says, "and I told them all my work was in their magazine. But that didn't matter." The master of taking images that others used for promotion hadn't promoted himself enough. "I thought I had left a bigger footprint," he says about the rejection.

Scherman moved to Birmingham, Alabama, where he opened a bar, shot products for catalogs, and worked on two photo projects--one documented Highway 11 and the other featured a series of photographs documenting the pervasiveness of Elvis Presley throughout all aspects of American society. When a long-term relationship ended, memories of his parents' Cape Cod vacations brought him here in 2000.

Click Image to enlarge

Scherman says he wants the recognition of his peers. With the help of Bob Korn, and Meri and Dave Hartford, the owners of Artworks! Gallery in Orleans, Scherman, now 71, may just get it. The three have established the Rowland Scherman Project to promote his work to galleries and museums. Korn says the curators of four Smithsonian-affiliated museums were blown away. "They were amazed that his work has gone unnoticed for all these years."

These days, Scherman shoots portraits on the Cape. "In retrospect, portraits are what I've always done," he says. "It's what I can do. After a lifetime of doing it, it's become second nature to me." He laughs after saying that the work he used to do with one camera and natural light is now done with five assistants and a truckload of lights.

Lately, he's been talking to camera clubs and other groups about his work. Members of the generation who remember when Scherman's scenes were fresh are often overwhelmed. "People see my work and many of them start crying," he says. "They say, 'This is the story of my life.'"

To view Rowland Scherman's works and get information on purchasing prints, visit www.rowlandscherman.com.

Last Meetings Minutes and Next Meetings Time/ Agenda

2010-04-21T07:41:00.000-07:00

Join Us- Cranberry Festival
& Harwich Folk Festival

Next combined meeting of Cranberry Harvest Committee & Harwich Folk Festival Planning Committee

Thursday, April 22th at 7-9 PM

Harwich Community Center

100 Oak Street

Harwich, MA 02645

Time: 7-9pm

Ed Mc Manus - Cell: 508-527-7620

John Bangert- Cell: 508-514-0143

Summer Dates:
          Saturday, July,10th, and Sunday, July, 11th
       Saturday, August,14th, and Sunday, August 15th

Fall Dates:
                Saturday, September 18th WOMR/ WFMR
           Sunday, September, 19th

Children Programming and venues, ???

Sub-committee assignments, still open ???

stage crew, ???

security, ID & wrist banding, yellow tape and fencing, etc, Lee Culver, Ed McManus, Bill Mason

Public Safety: ??

Harwich Police Department - Chief Bill Mason
Harwich Fire Department - Chief Bill Flynn

Talent Coordination:

Harwich Talent Committee: harwichfolkfestival@gmail.com

Sophia Gianniotis Email: sophiaelaine@gmail.com
Bob Weiser           Email: theotherbob@womr.org
John Bangert        Email: jjbangert@gmail.com

"open mic" forums & other business locations

Environmental Coordinator - Ethan Pilling - recycling, sustainability committee,

Ethan Pilling Email: epilling@hotmail.com
Pat Scanlon's E-mail: scanlonassoc@comcast.net

Volunteer Coordinator: ?

Paul Lagg, John Bangert,
Fund-raising Committee, tee shirts, sweat shirts, hats & caps and branding, co-branding and co-advertising

Public Relations, ??
Press, community outreach, ???

Parade Committee: ???
Chuck Micciche Email: chmic@comcast.net
Phone: 508-432-4757

4th of July Parades in Hyannis, Chatham & Orleans
Brewster in Bloom Parade,
Harwich Cranberry Harvest Festival Parade,
October Honk Fest,
Chatham's First Night

Paul Lagg: marketing, art work, illustration for advertising,

Harwich Folk Festival Academy:????
A year round academy for music and songwriting, local talent clearing house, marketing your talent beyond the sandbar.
Locating studio & audio sites, stage management, recording relationships, and copy righting techniques and legal advice, from the experts.
New talent education and scholarships.

cooperation with other events, advertising, linking with local vendors, connecting to the Harwich merchants associations and seeing if both summer and holiday strolls might include local, folkal talent in their line up and redirecting folks to after events programing, and after hours entertainment around town.

We also need a group of folks who are willing to attend the Lowell Folk Festival in July to learn from Pat Scanlon, with a "hands on" apprentices for those whom have not worked behind the scenes at a folks festival. Folks will be offered free admission and have a free place to stay!
This is open to high-school students with their parents/ guarding permission, and participation.

Pat Scanlon's E-mail: scanlonassoc@comcast.net
Phone: 978-475-1776

Pat is willing to come down and address how to be green, with great examples of growing green on the run.

http://www.lowellfolkfestival.org/lff%20recycling_epa%20recognition.pdf

http://www.lowellfolkfestival.org/recycle.html

WOMR / WFMR UPDATE

Plans continue for getting the new transmitter in Brewster by the SBA tower, and for installing two antennas on the tower to broadcast our signal down the rest of the Cape. The site will broadcast our regular WOMR programming, but will do so under the call letters, WFMR (further most radio, we like to say; in contrast to the outer most radio of our P-town call letters), at 91.3 on your FM dial.

We still are optimistically seeking a begin broadcasting date of early summer. A kickoff party for the repeater is in the works, for September 18th, in Harwich, in which we debut our new logo for WOMR/WFMR, 92.1/91.3FM, and celebrating our programming to the Upper Cape. It will be a full day of fun and music, food and drink.

Ethan Pilling's Cape Cod Oven in Harwich!

2010-04-21T05:46:00.000-07:00

Meet Ethan Pilling, Inventor, Landscaper Design, Environmentalist, Cape Cod Clay Oven Designer, Farmer, Gardener, Micro Beer Brewer Harwich Folk Festival Recycler

Saturday, April 17, 2010 Photos taken by JJBangert with a G1 Goggle HTC T-Mobile phone.

This outside Bread Oven, was just completed in Harwich by Environmentalist Ethan Pilling, and friends.

The Cape Cod Outdoor Oven has a base of Harwich granite field stones, Cape Cod ocean clay, which is gray then is bleached white by the sun. The straw based arched dome is covered in layers of wet clay. The dome construction was researched by Ethan and has been engineered as to the relationship of height and width of oven. Very cool and warmly received. Thanks Ethan for letting us see and share in your earthly community minded endeavors.

We will be excited to be present at the first bread baking soon, maybe on Earth Day? If you are interested in joining our Harwich Sustainability dialogue, please email Ethan Pilling at epilling@hotmail.com

Poster Art by Harwich Folk Festival Committee Member - Paul Lagg

2010-04-20T11:48:00.000-07:00

Paul Lagg and his wife Beth (Coomber) Lagg live in Harwich. Please check out the poster work of a local photographer and poster art designer - Paul Lagg, (AKA Paul Gallagher) who was graduated from Harwich High School, in 1996 and from Bridgewater State College in 2000.

Paul works for the town of Chatham in their Community Development office. The reason I like Paul's work is because he leads the viewer to other businesses advertised in the object of art, like the surf board advertising -The Salt Water Grille.

Much like Highlights Magazine "hidden objects"drawings from doctors offices visits from our youth. What can you see also?

Email Paul Lagg, if your are interested and having work done for you or your business. plagg001@gmail.com

Photo Art by Paul Lagg

Paul Lagg work is copyright protected!

Here is one example of Paul's Photo Art!