Coastal Virginia Magazine: The First Beacon

It's been in print for awhile, but Coastal Virginia Magazine has finally posted my feature article on Cape Henry Lighthouse in Virginia Beach. 

Constructed in 1792, Cape Henry Light was the very first Federal works project (overseen by none other than George Washington and Alexander Hamilton) and will finally be getting needed repairs and fortification later this year after two decades of planning and fund-gathering. 

The story begins:

By all accounts, John McComb made stuff to last. Born in 1753, the master bricklayer built New York’s City Hall and was also responsible for Gracie Mansion, the New York City Mayoral residence. During his career, he also constructed three lighthouses, all still standing.      

The most famous of these beacons, the old Cape Henry Lighthouse, stands on the edge of First Landing State Park and the Fort Story military base in Virginia Beach, not far from where the original Jamestown settlers made a historic pit stop in 1607.       

Read all about America's "first beacon" by clicking right here.

And for more on Cape Henry Lighthouse, which is owned and maintained by Preservation Virginia, you can go to this spot.

Virginia Living: Interview with Jesse McReynolds

Pick up the March/April issue of Virginia Living Magazine and check out my cover story on the legendary Jesse McReynolds. 

The veteran bluegrass mandolinist, formerly of Jim & Jesse, is now the longest-running member of the Grand Ole Opry and has found a new audience among Grateful Dead fans. 

The article, titled "A New Song," is online, expanded from the print edition, with some special video clips. Did you know that Jesse almost became the Stanley Brothers' fiddle player? What did the bluegrass community think of him playing on an album by the Doors? How did he come up with his unique "crosspicking" style of playing? What was his late brother Jim McReynolds really like?

All is revealed, and more, in this in-depth interview with one of bluegrass music's true pioneers (and nice guys). 

Read "A New Song" by clicking right here.  

(Photo by the mighty Michael Gomez!)

Richmond Magazine: Back in the Spotlight at the VMFA

After a decade of darkness, live theater is returning to Virginia's most prestigious art museum.

The Leslie Cheek Theatre at The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts -- once the home of the now-defunct TheatreVirginia -- will be the venue for Henley Street/Richmond Shakespeare's forthcoming production of "The Lion in Winter." 

My feature article for Richmond Magazine, "Back in the Spotlight," sets the stage on this grand re-entrance, slated for next month.  You can read the piece in the magazine's January issue or by clicking right here.

(Photo by the mighty Chris Smith!)

Coastal Virginia Magazine: The Water is Coming

My latest feature for Coastal Virginia Magazine is about the imminent threat of rising sea levels in the Hampton Roads area. 

In "The Water is Coming," you will hear from scientists, environmentalists, property owners and city planners about ongoing predictions that the Tidewater region will see several inches of increased tidal flooding in the coming years, and you'll also find out what's being done about it.

The article begins:

Brian Brennan looks out at the view from the Unitarian Church of Norfolk. “The shoreline has changed,” he says.

For years, grass grew up to the curb of the Yarmouth Street church, which sits along the Smith Creek tidal basin. But the grounds have been fouled so often with mucky river water that much of it has died. In the yard, you can see the color change from green to brown.

“The tidal flooding is such now that just about every high tide, the road in front of our church is flooded in places six inches to a foot deep,” UCN’s educational director says. To make sure that congregational members are fully informed about conditions, the staff now prints tidal predictions in its weekly bulletin and on its web site.

Sitting across from the upscale Hague neighborhood, near the Chrysler Museum, the church’s 112-year-old building has flooded from storms over the years, most recently from a Nor’easter five years ago. “It busted our boiler. We lost heat for about a month,” Brennan recalls. Since that flood, intruding water has been a persistent presence, and jokes about taking a raft or canoe to Sunday service have stopped being funny.

The Unitarian Church’s issues have made it something of a poster child for the problems of sea level rise in the region. “This is happening with greater frequency across Hampton Roads and it isn’t going away,” says Mike Tidwell, executive director of The Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN). The Maryland-based advocacy group recently held a press conference at the church to introduce a new report on the dangers faced by encroaching water called “Safe Coast Virginia.”

“This so-called ‘nuisance flooding’ is happening in coastal areas along the East Coast,” Tidwell maintains. “This is not from a storm surge, or heavy rain, this is flat out sea level rise, and it’s getting closer to the people. If we were to add to it a really heavy rain or storm, we’re talking about serious damage that could occur ... so right now the region is counting on luck to protect itself.”

You'll want to get the newsstand copy so you can see all the photos and the swell layout design. But you can read the rest of "The Water is Coming" online by clicking right here.  

(Photo illustration by the mighty David Uhrin!)

Richmond Magazine: Interview with Tony Bennett

Over the years, I've managed to interview a few well-known celebrities, performers, artists and public figures -- even some outright stars. My upcoming autobiographical tell-all, Personalities Who Have Talked To Me, will be very revealing. 

Seriously, I thought I had become pretty jaded about this gig. But when the phone rang one day and a familiar voice on the other end said, "Hello, is Don Harrison there? This is Tony Bennett," the hairs on the back of my neck stood up.

We're talking greatness here. And Tony Bennett is hotter than ever (he currently has a top-selling duet CD with Lady Gaga burning the charts, among other things). During my recent Q&A interview with him for Richmond Magazine, I got the veteran crooner to talk about his signature song, "I Left My Heart in San Francisco," his relationship with Frank Sinatra, his love for painting, what he calls "America's Classical Music," and his newfound duet partner and their unlikely success.

To read my interview with the legendary Tony Bennett, available in the December issue of Richmond Magazine, click right here.

And for more on Tony Bennett, let yourself go right here.

Photo by the mighty Mark Seliger!

Richmond Magazine: Someday My Prints Will Come

Think collectively and carry a big steamroller! 

My feature article on Studio Two Three, and its director Ashley Hawkins, is now online at the Richmond Magazine website. 

This scrappy printmaking collective is not only responsible for creating giant screenprinted maps of Richmond (pressed by a huge steamroller at the Richmond Street Art Festival, RVA MakerFest and other public events), the space provides 24-hour equipment and facility access for printmakers and budding artists across the region. 

You'll be impressed. Read the story by clicking here.

And for more on Studio Two Three, imprint yourself here.

(Photo by the mighty Rosemary Jesionowski)

Style Weekly: Q&A with Leo Kottke

I love it when I find myself.

This has happened a few times: I do a Google search on a completely unrelated topic and somehow one of my old stories pops up -- usually a story that I had completely forgotten about. This thrills me to no end because that means I get to read it "fresh," as if someone else wrote it. 

The other day, researching a potential feature on astrology (don't ask), the search engine coughed up an interview I conducted with the legendary folk guitarist, Leo Kottke in 2009. In the introduction to the Style Weekly piece, titled "Dreams and All That Stuff," I write that "I'd always heard that Leo Kottke was a tough interview -- when you could get him on the phone, that is. What a crock. Calling from a tour stop in El Paso, Texas, the finger-picking specialist is gracious, funny and forthcoming with details surrounding his still-evolving career in music."

Here's an excerpt from the interview:

Q: You say you were self taught.

When I was 13, I got sick… Once I got sick, I got sicker. After a couple of months I was in bed and not allowed to sit up. So I'd been on my back for two months. My mother brought home a toy guitar because you could play it on your back. I was a trombone player. I didn't really think that the guitar was a musical instrument. It was invisible to my ears. I was into marching bands and wind ensembles and stuff like that. So I was lying there and really sick, all screwed up, and the guitar had a little -cowboy stenciled on it and it was garbage, I can hear it really well and it was junk, but I didn't know that. I made what turned out to be an E chord and strummed it. I don't know how I got it in tune.

And that was it. I can still remember it – the sun was shining. I was out of bed in a week, never wound up back in bed. I knew exactly what I wanted and that was the guitar. I didn't dream that it would become a job. I couldn't have cared less and, in some ways, that is still true. The job is a distant second to just being allowed to get my hands on the guitar every day. I sat up immediately and I remember everything about it, beautiful weather – big cumuli out the window, blue sky. It was a happiness that I had never met and it's still like that.

Q: Has your romance with the guitar ever worn off?

It never did wear off. But I did notice that some behavior of mine would cloud it, so that was it for the behavior (laughs). Dizzy Gillespie talked about that, he wrote a great memoir, "To Be or Not to Bop" He said that you have take care of [your art], to be a kind of a monk, otherwise it won't sustain for you. That's the trick. You'd give up anything for it.

To read the rest of "Dreams and All That Stuff," go to the Style Weekly website by clicking here.

And for more on the evocative folk guitar of Leo Kottke, take yourself here.