18 THe privATe liveS of Tv AncHorS 21 power couple: cigArS And

VOL. 4, ISSUE 4
OCTOBER 2013
ENSE
ECLECTIC INTELLECT FOR THE SOUL
+
24 Art of the Humidor
46 Surviving breast cancer
18 The private lives of TV anchors
21 Power Couple: Cigars and Scotch
department
contents
5
we Speak
6
They Speak
9
artbeat
11
In the Loop
features
SENSE GOES MULTI-MEDIA
18
Editor’s Note
31
Contributors
41
Balancing life and career
Text by Robin Fitzhugh
31
25 years of Polo at the Point
Text by Jane Nicholes
FEEF ‘Phantasy of the Arts’
Artist B’Beth Weldon
34
Being there: Must-sees and
have-to-dos throughout the South
Text by lynn oldshue
15
the sense of it all
16
MARKETPLACE
21
cuisine
24
design
41
ARTS
44
4 | OCTOBER 2013
cousin leroy speaks
The business of festivals
Cigars and Scotch
Art of the Humidor
Fairhope Film Festival
16
34
21
views
and news
36
the why of writing
37
between the lines
39
what the authors are reading
Meet award-winning author Jesmyn Ward
greensense
Dauphin Island Sea Lab
46
wellness
48
LITERATI
16
Surviving Breast Cancer
Where I Am Already Staying
Recommended Reading from Page & Palette
Popular authors talk about their latest reads
31
SENSE MAGAZINE | 5
| w e s pea k
ENSE
eclectic i n tellect f or t h e soul
Editor’s Note
october 2013
PUBLISHERJamie Seelye Leatherbury
EDITORThomas B. Harrison
VIEWS AND NEWS EDITOR
O
Stephanie Emrich
ART DIRECTOR Jennifer Birge
VIEWS AND NEWS GRAPHIC DESIGNER
Brett Foster
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Guy Busby
Robin Fitzhugh
Skeet Lores
Jane Nicholes
Lynn Oldshue
Sue Brannan Walker
CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Kim Campbell
Matt Gates
Jeff Kennedy
ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE
Olivia Grace Fryfogle
ADVERTISE WITH US
sales@thesenseofitall.com
EMAIL USeditor@thesenseofitall.com art@thesenseofitall.com
events@thesenseofitall.com
SENSE OFFICES251 South Greeno Road Fairhope, Alabama 36532
Tel (251) 604-8827
Fax (251) 990-6603
‘Listen! the wind is rising,
and the air is wild with leaves.
We have had our summer evenings,
now for October eves!’
Sense is published and licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License by Eco-Urban Media, a division
of Eco-Urbaneering Corporation. Creative Commons defines the spectrum of possibilities between full copyright
and the public domain. For more information go to http://www.creativecommons.org and http://creativecommons.
org/about/licenses/ and http://www.theSenseofitAll.com. All content of Sense is copyrighted. However, Sense also
works under Creative Commons licensing guidelines for works published in Sense by contributing writers, artists
and photographers. All rights to works submitted to and published by Sense will revert in their entirety to the
respective contributing authors, artists and photographers 120 days after publication. At Sense, we believe this
policy promotes journalistic independence and fosters mutual goodwill between the publisher and the contributing
writers, artists and photographers..
6 | OCTOBER 2013
— Humbert Wolfe
ctober announces its arrival with
a sly tease of the senses: Autumn
colors are more vibrant, and trees
suggest the Technicolor radiance to come; the
olfactory is awakened by the unmistakable
smell of burning leaves, and the aroma of
cornbread and cane syrup; crisp morning
breezes caress our cheeks; one can taste mulled
cider in the late-night air; and roaring stadium
crowds alert us that kickoff is nigh. October
is fairs, festivals and football, jam bands and
jack-o’-lanterns.
In keeping with the theme of heightened
senses, we submit our Cuisine feature on the
relationship between a fine cigar and singlemalt Scotch. Few pairings are as time-honored
or as eagerly anticipated by those who savor
the experience. In conjunction with that piece,
we devote our Design feature to the art of the
humidor, long admired for its utilitarian value
but often underappreciated for its aesthetic
qualities.
In observance of Breast Cancer Awareness
Month, we are honored by the contributions of
Sue Brannan Walker, Ph.D., Poet Laureate of
Alabama, who has written a compelling piece
on breast cancer and its survivors. Each of us is
touched in some way by the disease and inspired
by the courage and determination of those who
fight it. Dr. Walker incorporated her experience
into her verse, and in this issue she shares her
poetry in our Literati feature. For that we are
grateful.
We also welcome new contributor Jane
Nicholes, a longtime resident of the Gulf Coast
and a horse aficionado, who writes about Polo
at the Point, an annual fundraising event that
celebrates its 25th anniversary.
Our October issue features writer Lynn
Oldshue in three-part harmony with herself.
First, she profiles B’Beth Weldon, the official
VOLUME 4, ISSUE 4 / october 2013 ON THE COVER:
artist of this year’s landmark Polo at the Point
weekend. “I love to watch polo,” says Weldon.
“My mother and I would sit on a blanket with
her friends and watch the polo club matches in
Point Clear. Later, I even played in a few ladies
matches in Virginia.”
Oldshue also writes in some detail about a
decidedly different art form with her story on the
Fairhope Film Festival in November. The festival
will show 40 films in four venues in the heart
of town. “Local auditoriums will be filled with
movies, shorts, documentaries and early favorites
for Oscar nominations as residents, visitors,
filmmakers and actors mingle on the bluffs that
overlook Mobile Bay,” she writes.
Lynn’s third contribution is an interview
with musicians from St. Paul and the Broken
Bones, who reveal how music shaped their lives
and careers. The young band from Alabama is on
the fast track to stardom, and will perform Oct.
12 at FEEF’s Phantasy of the Arts fundraiser in
Fairhope.
Guy Busby takes a look at the business of
festivals — which is appropriate in this festivalrich environment. Noteworthy events include
BayFest, the National Shrimp Festival in Gulf
Shores, the Elberta German Sausage Festival and
the Peter Anderson Festival in Ocean Springs, for
starters. Most of us understand the impact on our
local culture, but the dollars-and-cents impact is
equally impressive.
Robin Fitzhugh profiles three of the busiest
women on the Gulf Coast: Devon Walsh of
WKRG News 5; Lenise Ligon of Fox 10; and
Kelly Foster of Local 15 News. Each of these highprofile news anchors must balance the demands
of a career with the responsibilities of home and
family life. That means husbands, children and
obligations well beyond the TV lights.
That is what we call a full dance card, an
impressive lead-in to the holiday season.
PHOTO courtesy of matt gates
Issues-oriented Sense magazine gives voice to diver se political opinions but does not endor se the opinions or reflect the views
e x p r e s s e d h e r e i n . Yo u a r e w e l c o m e t o s u b m i t y o u r O p - E d p i e c e v i a e m a i l t o e d i t o r @ t h e s e n s e o f i t a l l . c o m .
SENSE MAGAZINE | 7
| They Speak
CON T RI BU TOR S
guy Busby has traveled by glider, hot-air balloon, sailboat, steam
locomotive, Mardi-Gras float and other forms of planes, trains,
boats and automobiles for more than 20 years to cover life on the
Gulf Coast. He has been an award-winning reporter and columnist
for the Mobile Press-Register and other publications. He received
his bachelor’s degree in communication arts from the University
of South Alabama. He and his wife, Elizabeth, live in Silverhill, Ala.
Sue Brannan Walker is the Director of Creative Writing at
the University of South Alabama, Stokes Distinguished Professor
of Creative Writing, and Poet Laureate of Alabama from 20032012. She is the 2013 recipient of the Eugene Garcia Award for
Distinction in Literary Scholarship and the Adele Mellen Award
for Distinguished Scholarship for her book, The Ecological Poetics
of James Dickey.
Matt Gates is a local professional photographer talented beyond
his years. His creative vision, ability to “paint” with light, and
pleasant demeanor have made him a favorite of both commercial
and non-commercial clients. His work can be found on Lysol® Air
Filters packaging, investment firm walls, cherished wedding albums
and more. See more of his work at www.mattgatesphoto.com.
Jeff Kennedy was born in Havana, Cuba and lived in several
countries before his family settled in the Mobile area. After enjoying a
career in land planning and development, Jeff now provides portrait,
wedding, and commercial photography, working on location and
from his studio in Fairhope, Ala. Jeff is well known for his images that
capture a brief moment in time through his blend of creative vision
and technical expertise. He lives with his wife Karen, his “title holder”
yellow lab, Watson, and a few cats in Montrose. To see more of his
work, visit www.jeffkennedyphotography.com.
Jane Nicholes once tried a polo saddle on her dressage horse
and nearly fell off. A freelance writer and editor, she is a former
editorial writer for the Press-Register and spent more than 30
years in the newspaper business in Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana
and Alabama. Nicholes grew up in Nashville, Tenn., and graduated
from Northwestern University. She lives in Daphne with her two
cats; her horse lives in the Point Clear area and is acquainted with
some polo ponies.
lynn oldshue is a freelance writer. She lives on a farm outside
Fairhope with her husband, two boys, thirty chickens, and a horse.
She enjoys sharing the stories of artists, musicians, and creative
personalities. She grew up in Yazoo City, Miss., and graduated
from Mississippi State.
WANT TO BECOME A SENSE CONTRIBUTOR?
Sense is always looking for new talent. If you are interested in becoming part of the
Sense team,
e-mail us at editor@thesenseofitall.com.
8 | OCTOBER 2013
art beat
| art beat
celebrate the music
St. Paul and the Broken Bones highlight FEEF’s
10th annual ‘Phantasy of the Arts’ Oct. 12
Text by lynn oldshue
October is a month of celebration, and Fairhope Educational Enrichment Foundation will observe
its 10th annual Phantasy of the Arts, a night of cuisine and entertainment that will raise money for
art and music programs for the Fairhope public schools. Headliners for this year’s event will be St.
Paul and the Broken Bones, the Southern soul band from Birmingham, Alabama.
The evening begins at 7 p.m. Oct. 12 at Fairhope Civic Center. The popular fall fundraiser will
include food, drinks and its own high-tech version of digital graffiti. “St. Paul and the Broken Bones
is a good fit for entertainment this year because FEEF is placing a great emphasis on music in our
schools,” says Cory Yonge, director of the Foundation. “These are inspiring, young guys who prove
(that) with a little bit of grit, you can try your hand at pursuing a career in the music industry.”
The band’s debut CD, Half the City, will be released in February 2014, and the boys in St. Paul
and the Broken Bones are on the verge of a career that could shoot them into national exposure with
larger venues and larger audiences. “We are now getting bigger gigs, so we want to keep getting better
and becoming sharper, more professional musicians,” says bass player and founding member Jesse
Phillips. “This time before the CD is released is giving us a chance to grow together and become
better songwriters.”
Each of the band members, except lead singer Paul Janeway, grew up playing music in school,
and most have college degrees in music. Phillips’ first instrument was the trumpet in fifth-grade
band. He started playing guitar at age 14 and played in his school band as well as a rock-and-roll
band. “I am here because of band and the music teacher who was my mentor,” he says. “In school I
discovered that I had a knack for music and that it came easily for me. Being in bands set my identity,
and by the age of 20 I knew I was a lifer. I majored in music education at Loyola and I wanted to be
a music teacher. I teach private lessons now and work in a music store that specializes in bands and
orchestras.”
Guitarist Browan Lollar grew up playing guitar with music legends in bars around Muscle
Shoals, but school band made him a more versatile musician. “I started playing the mandolin when
I was 3 or 4 years old because my hands were too small to hold a guitar and I have played stringed
instruments ever since,” he says. “I learned how to play trombone in the chamber orchestra at school
and that taught me how to read music instead of playing everything by ear. Brass is completely
different from guitar, and understanding that helps me appreciate both sides of our band.”
10 | OCTOBER 2013
Singer Paul Janeway sang his first solo in church
when he was 4 years old. Singing was always a
desire but it was not his childhood dream. He was
never in chorus or band and received no training
for his powerful voice that swells with emotion and
electrifies a crowd. “I do not have a music education,
so I have had to play catch-up,” he says. “I am not
a properly trained singer so I have started going to
a vocal coach to protect my voice. I sing from my
feelings, but I wish I knew more about music theory
and how to read music like all of the other guys in
the band. The younger you can start learning music,
the better off you will be.”
Fairhope guidance counselor Corey Fancher
was one of the first people to book St. Paul and the
Broken Bones for a show beyond the house parties
and small clubs of Birmingham. “I wanted to book
Jason Isbell, but he had a scheduling conflict. His
manager suggested the unknown St. Paul and the
Broken Bones, and I originally turned them down.
Then I watched a few of their videos and booked
them immediately because they were one of the best
bands I’ve heard. They have so much energy and
talent, but they are also intelligent.”
Phantasy of the Arts includes
dinner, beverages and additional
entertainment by the Kyle and Karl
Band, and digital graffiti. The event is
at the Fairhope Civic Center. Tickets
are $100 in advance, $125 at the
door and can be purchased at www.
BrownPaperTickets.com.
Phantasy of the Arts 2013
sponsorships are available with an
exclusive, pre-party gathering at 6
p.m. Oct. 12 for individuals and
corporations donating $1,000 or
more. To purchase a sponsorship,
tickets or for more information, visit
www.feefonline.org, call (251) 990FEEF or email info@feefonline.org.
Patrons must be 21 to attend.
David Trimmier’s ‘Apparitions’
“Apparitions & Spooks,” an exhibit of
art photographs by David Trimmier,
will be on view through Oct. 31
at Optera Creative, 5 N. Jackson
Street, Mobile, Alabama. An opening
reception will be 6-9 p.m. Oct.
11 during Artwalk. Link: http://
opteracreative.com/artwalk.
An apparition is the “spiritualistic
manifestation of a person or object in
which a form not actually present is
seen with such intensity that belief in
its reality is created,” Trimmier says in
his artist’s statement.
Technically, these images are all
accomplished in camera. That means
“a lengthy shutter speed, combined
with the model’s being in frame for
about half that time, gives her the
transparent appearance,” he says.
“Black-and-white negative film is
utilized for image capture.”
Various printing techniques
were used to produce the images.
“Perhaps these represent my counterrevolutionary retort to the Digital
Age,” Trimmier says, “as well as
my homage to those 19th-century
chemists who made photography a
reality.”
| i n t h e loop
TOP
1
BayFest
10
october EVENTS
october 4-6 | mobile, al
pHOTO by Catt Sirten
T.I., Aaron Lewis, Redlight King and Sarah Percy join a stellar lineup of musical entertainers coming to downtown Mobile. Lineup includes Zac Brown Band, Little Big Town,
Hunter Hayes, Three Days Grace, Anthony Hamilton, Sevendust, Sick Puppies, the Isley Brothers and many more. Nine stages with more than 125 musical acts including
country, classic rock, alternative, pop, jazz, R&B, rap, gospel, modern rock and more. Weekend passes, $60. A limited number of day passes will be available at the gate for
$40 per day. Group discounts of 20 or more are available. Ages 12 and younger admitted free with ticketed adult. Information, tickets and festival map at www.bayfest.com.
2
Pensacola Symphony Orchestra: Opening Night
october 5 | pensacola, fl
The 2013-2014 season gets under way as Peter Rubardt conducts the PSO in a
program that features the Roman Carnival Overture by Berlioz, Symphonie
Espagnole by Lalo, and Dvorak’s Symphony No. 6. Guest artist is violinist CheeYun. All Masterworks concerts begin at 8 p.m. in the Pensacola Saenger Theatre,
205 E. Zaragoza St. Order tickets by phone at (850) 435-2533). Information, www.
pensacolasymphony.com.
3 Oktoberfest
October 5-6 | perdido,fl
Each October weekend in New Orleans will bring authentic live music as German
bands set the beats for traditional dances that often involve knee-slapping, twisting
and chanting. Information, (504) 522-8014 or www.deutscheshaus.org. The FloraBama at 17401 Perdido Key Drive in Perdido, Florida, will host its fourth annual
festival with authentic German music and food, beer sampling, and games for all
ages including a keg toss and Hammerschlagen contest. Information, (850) 492-0611.
4
42nd Annual National Shrimp Festival
october 10-13 | gulf shores, al
Annual celebration presented by Zatarain’s is held each year during the second full
weekend in October at the public beach access in Gulf Shores where Highway 59
ends and intersects with Highway 182. Admission is free.This popular event attracts
250,000 people, more than 250 vendors offering arts and crafts, a retail marketplace,
outdoor world, and tons of shrimp prepared in a variety of ways.Two stages provide
continuous musical entertainment while youngsters can visit the Children’s Activity
Village where they will participate in fun-filled activities. Plus, the first-ever Shrimp
Festival Idol Contest, the 6th annual Restaurant Challenge, and the family-friendly
sand sculpture contest. Information, http://myshrimpfest.com.
5 10th Annual Phantasy of the Arts
october 12 | fairhope, AL
Annual FEEF fundraiser will showcase the Southern R&B band St. Paul and the Broken
Bones at 7 p.m. Oct. 12 at Fairhope Civic Center. The popular fall celebration will
include food, beverages and its own high-tech version of digital graffiti. Sponsorships
are available with an exclusive, pre-party gathering at 6 p.m. Oct. 12 for individuals
and corporations donating $1,000 or more. Advanced individual tickets are $100
and are available at www.brownpapertickets.com. To purchase a sponsorship,
tickets, or for more information, visit www.feefonline.org, or call (251) 990-FEEF.
6
Mobile Symphony Orchestra: Saenger Fright Night
october 19-20 | mobile, al
MSO will continue its 2013-2014 season with the wildly popular Halloween Pops
concert and costume party. Under the direction of guest conductor Robert Franz,
the MSO will fill the Saenger with frightful favorites and fun for all ages. And don’t
forget your costume! Performances at 8 p.m. Oct. 19 and 2:30 p.m. Oct. 20 at the
Saenger Theatre, downtown Mobile, Alabama. Individual tickets are $20 to $65 and
can be purchased online at www.mobilesymphony.org, by phone at (251) 432-2010,
or at the symphony box office, 257 Dauphin Street.
7 Mobile Opera presents The Mikado
october 25 and 27 | mobile, al
Mobile Opera opens “The Season of the Rising Sun” with Gilbert and Sullivan’s
timeless comic opera The Mikado for two performances, at 8 p.m. Oct. 25 and 2:30
p.m. Oct. 27 at Mobile Civic Center Theater.Written in 1885, the operetta has music
by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W.S. Gilbert. The cast features Thomas Rowell,
Ben Robinson, Megan King, Michael Scarcelle, Ted Federle, Tjaden Cox, Erin Hannon,
Patrick Jacobs, and Mollie Adams. Artistic director Andy Anderson will conduct;
stage direction by Eric Gibson. Laura Moore is chorus master. Season tickets to
“The Mikado” and the season-ending “Madama Butterfly” are $100 and $50. Single
tickets are $60 and $30. Student tickets are $10. Information and tickets, call (251)
432-6772 or go to www.mobileopera.org.
8 2013 Polo at the Point
october 26 | point clear, al
The Gulf Coast’s most prestigious charity sporting event provides a unique
experience for fans of polo or those experiencing the majestic sport for the first
time. Since 1988, Polo at the Point has raised millions that benefit cancer research,
local nonprofit organizations and children’s charities. Several teams of local, regional
and international players compete to play for the coveted Point Clear Polo Cup.
Festivities begin with the Players’ Party on Friday night, and Sunday’s main event
includes world class polo, great food, champagne, divot stomping, tailgating, reserved
seating, garden party attire, a hat parade, silent auction and more.Tickets range from
$10 (tailgating) to $150 with sponsorships available. Information, (251) 928-9704 or
visit www.poloatthepoint.com.
9
Elberta German Sausage Festival
october 26 | elberta, al
This bi-annual fundraiser for the Elberta Volunteer Fire Department attracts
approximately 30,000 people for each edition of the festival. All proceeds benefit the
fire department. Hours are 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. Oct. 26 in Elberta Town Park, at Main
and State streets (U.S. 98 and County Road 83). About 7,000 pounds of German
sausage and sauerkraut, plus entertainment for adults and children, 250 arts-andcrafts booths. Plus, German-style filled cabbage, potato salad, goulash, red beans and
rice, hamburgers, hot dogs, BBQ sandwiches, baked goods, ice cream, popcorn and
peanuts. Bellview Stumpfiddle Band will perform with the North End Stompers, plus
cloggers, carnival rides and polka, country and German music. Information, http://
sausagefest.elbertafire.com.
10 Mobile Ballet: Stars of American Ballet
november 2 | mobile, al
Under the direction of Winthrop Corey, Mobile Ballet opens its 2013-2014 season
at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 2 with a one-night-only event, Stars of American Ballet featuring
principal dancers and soloists of New York City Ballet. Program includes Jerome
Robbins’ classic Fancy Free with a score by Leonard Bernstein, and excerpts from George
Balanchine’s Rubies, Who Cares? and Stars and Stripes. Led by Daniel Ulbricht, guest
artists include Tiler Peck, Teresa Reichlen, Amar Ramasar and Robert Fairchild. Mobile
Ballet will present an excerpt from Winthrop Corey’s Snow White. Adult single tickets
are $24.50 to $49.50. Season subscriptions available. All performances at Mobile Civic
Center Theater. Information and tickets, (251) 342-2241 or www.mobileballet.org.
Submit events to events@thesenseofitall.com
12 | OCTOBER 2013
SENSE MAGAZINE | 13
| in the loop
BOOK IT
1
Jamie Deen
HERE’S WHERE TO FIND US...
Alabama Coastal Foundation
Amario de Krista
Ascent Audiology
Atchison Home
Belleshain
Bellingrath Gardens
Center for Living Arts
Downtown Mobile Alliance
Eastern Shore Art Center
Fashion Fete
The Holiday Shop
Iberia Bank
Infirmary Health Systems
Leatherbury Real Estate
Little Page
Mercedes of Mobile
Mercy Medical
Mobile Ballet
Mobile Symphony Orchestra
Project Mouvement in Art
Polo at the Point
Sadies
The Colony at the Grand
Tmac’s Hair Studio
USA Mitchell Cancer Institute
Hertha’s
High Cotton Consignment
Holiday, Inc
Iberia Bank
Legacy Bar & Grill
LLB&B Realty
Martha Rutledge Catering
Maghee’s Grill On the Hill
McCoy Outdoor Company
Mercedes Benz Mobile
Mobile Arts Council, Inc.
Mobile Bay Bears
Mobile Infirmary Office Tower
Mobile Museum of Art
Mobile Regional Airport
Red Or White
Satori Coffee House
Serda’s @ Royal Street
Shoe Fly
Something New Bridal
Springhill Family Pharmacy
Spoke ‘N Trail
The Bull
The Gallery
The Ivy Cottage
The Union Steak House
Thompson Engineering
Tmac’s Hair Studio
Twists Cupcakes @ Legacy
USA Mitchell Cancer Institute
Wintzell’s Airport
Wintzell’s Downtown
Zoe’s Kitchen
Zundel’s Jewelry
Hampton Inn
Hilton Garden Inn
Homewood Suites of Daphne
Infirmary West
Lake Forest Shell
Market by the Bay
Malbis Shell
Moe’s Barbeque
Publix
Rosie’s Grill
The UPS Store
Thomas Hospital
Thomas Medical Plaza
FAIRHOPE/POINT CLEAR
October 4 | Page & Palette
Jamie Deen’s first solo cookbook is sure to get the entire family in the
kitchen and cooking! Join us at 6 p.m. as we kick off the Grand Festival of
Books with a meet and greet and book signing with Jamie Deen’s Good Food:
Cooking Up a Storm with Delicious, Family-Friendly Recipes. Sponsored by
Faulkner State Community College.
2
Grand Festival of Books
October 5 | Faulkner State Community College
The Grand Festival of Books will be held from 9:30 a.m. - 5 p.m. on the
campus of Faulkner State Community College in the heart of downtown
Fairhope. This is a free event featuring authors and exhibitors who have
joined together to give thousands of book lovers the chance to interact with
poets and storytellers, award-winning authors and national best-selling
authors. Children will also have the opportunity to take part in their own
literary adventures and crafts. This spectacular program includes author
discussions, book signings, crafts, storytelling, art and live music.
3
Robert Inman
October 8 | Page & Palette
Join us from 1-3 p.m. as we host Robert Inman to sign copies of The
Governor’s Lady. In his latest novel, Inman shows how politics brings out the
best and worst in people and how the public arena affects politicians’ values
and relationships. The Governor’s Lady will appeal to those interested in a
deeper understanding of the subtexts and complexities of American politics
and the growing role of women in the political landscape.
4
Andy Andrews
October 17 | Christian Life Center
Page & Palette presents New York Times best-selling author and speaker
Andy Andrews for a book signing and author discussion of The Noticer
Returns at the Fairhope United Methodist Church Christian Life Center.
Tickets are $5 and may be used as a coupon toward the book purchase. This
highly anticipated sequel to the New York Times bestseller The Noticer, starts
as an account of Andrews’ everyday reality and unfolds into an intriguing
story revealing the extraordinary principles available to anyone looking to
create a better life.
5
Jesmyn Ward
October 22 | Page & Palette
Join us as we host award-winning author Jesmyn Ward to discuss her
memoir Men We Reaped. Pre-signing will begin at 5 p.m., followed by
an author discussion at 5:30 p.m. and signing at 6 p.m. A brutal world
rendered beautifully, Jesmyn Ward’s memoir will sit comfortably alongside
Edwidge Danticat’s Brother, I’m Dying, Tobias Wolff’s This Boy’s Life, and
Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.
MOBILE
Apricot Lane
Ashland Gallery
Ashland Pub
Atchison Imports
Atlanta Bread Company
Azakea City Physicians for Women
Ballin’s Limited
Renaissance Battle House Hotel
Bay Area Physicians for Women
Bebo’s Springhill Market
Bicycle Shop
Bliss Salon & Day Spa
Blue Rents
Bradley’s
Café 615
Callaghan’s Irish Social Club
Camille’s Grill
Candlewood Suites
Carpe Diem Coffee & Tea Company
Carter & Co
Cathedral Square Art Gallery
Chat A Way Café
Center for Living Arts
Center for Dermatology
Claude Moore Jeweler
Claudios
Cold Snap @ Old Shell Road
Cold Snap @ USA
Crockmier’s
Debra’s
Downtown Mobile Alliance
Dragonfly Boutique
Estetica Coiffure
Explorium Science Center
Five Gold Monkeys
Fort Conde Inn
Fort Conde Welcome Center
Fuego Coastal Mexican Eatery
Gigi’s Cupcakes
G Harvell Men’s Clothier
Goldstein’s
Hampton Inn Downtown
Hemline
DAPHNE
Baldwin Bone & Joint
Baumhower’s Wings
Comfort Inn
Daphne Library
East Shore Café
Glamour Nails
Guido’s
SPANISH FORT
Boltz Pain & Wellness Center
Bayside Chiropractic
Don Pablo’s
Eastern Shore Toyota
Malbis Parkway Pediatric Dentistry
McMurphy Orthodontics
Magestic Nails
Mellow Mushroom
Private Gallery @ Spanish Fort
Twist @ ESC
Wintzell’s
SOUTH BALDWIN COUNTY
Beach Club
Bimini Bob’s
Cobalt
Cosmo’s Restaurant and Bar
Jesse’s
Kaiser Realty
Lulu’s
Meyer Realty
M II the Wharf
Prickett Real Estate
The Hangout
Turquoise
Tin Top Restaurant
Villaggio Grille
Agave Mexican
Battles Wharf Market
Bayside Orthopedics
Bean & Bistro
Boxwood
Bouche’s Cigars
Brown & McCool Gynecology
Coffee Loft
Cold Snap
Dragonfly Restaurant
Eastbay Clothiers
Eastern Shore Art Center
Eastern Shore Heart Center
Estate Jewelers
Fairhope Inn
Fairhope Library
Fairhope Physical Therapy
Gigi & Jays
Hair Designs by Ann Rabin
Hampton Flooring & Design
Hampton Inn
Happy Olive
Iberia Bank
Locals
Lyon’s Share Gallery
Market by the Bay
Mary Ann’s Deli
Master Joe’s
Mr. Gene’s Beans
Page & Palette
Panini Pete’s
Papa’s Pizza
Private Gallery
Publix
Red or White
Sadie’s of Fairhope
Sandra’s Place
Shanghai Cottage
Southern Edge Dance Center
Marriott’s Grand Hotel
Sense is distributed to over 100 locations throughout Alabama’s Gulf Coast. Because we are in the business of promoting the economy and design in Gulf Coast communities, we distribute through our advertisers and local businesses.
We feel that this brings the opportunity to exchange ideas, encourage conversation, and support the local economy. It will also move us forward by furthering thought for our future and how we wish to design it, resulting in
participation by each of us in weaving the fabric that is our Sense of Community.
14 | OCTOBER 2013
SENSE MAGAZINE | 15
C O U S I N
We wish to remind you to sign up for free membership if you enjoy the magazine.
T H I NK
climb
i n si d e t h e
bo x .
It’s one of our innovations in cancer care that can only come from a
well-coordinated partnership between groundbreaking research and
leading edge clinical treatment options. At USA Mitchell Cancer
Institute (MCI), they work together in unison. Because, when it
comes to beating cancer, everything matters.
www.usamci.com | 1-800-330-8538 |
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S P E A K S :
You may be surprised at our
approach as we enter into 2014.
Eclectic as it is,
Sense is constantly evolving in discovery of how
best to serve community.
This Month
We will be inviting a select number of members to join us under
our tent for Polo
at the Point, www.PoloatthePoint.com.
Yours in Community,
cousinleroy@thesenseofitall.com
To beat women’s cancers, all the steps are key.
Some of the leading cancer killers among women – breast cancer
and gynecologic cancers – are also the most treatable when detected
in the early stages. That’s what led our researchers and physicians
to develop a new gynecologic cancer screening test that has the
potential to save thousands of lives each year.
L E ROY
The end of the year is rapidly approaching.
As with most endings there will be new beginnings.
O U T S I D E
What hope is made of.
THE
BOX.
What another opportunity to
dance to “their song” is made of.
| the sense of it all
t h ere
is
a
solutio n .
SENSE MAGAZINE | 17
| marketplace
A festive fall
October festivals bring fun and artistic success, but also provide an
economic boost in the tens of millions to Gulf Coast communities
Text by Guy Busby | photography by Catt Sirten
M
usic echoes off downtown Mobile’s historic buildings. The
Gulf breeze carries the aroma of seafood across the beach.
Crowds wander among the stalls displaying artwork in
Pensacola and Ocean Springs.
As summer temperatures cool, the festival season warms up along
the Gulf Coast.
Until November, events fill every weekend with art, music and food.
BayFest in Mobile, the National Shrimp Festival in Gulf Shores, the
Great Gulf Coast Arts Festival in Pensacola, the Peter Anderson Festival
in Ocean Springs, Alabama Festival of Flavors in Foley and Elberta
German Sausage Festival are among the offerings of the season.
Those events, however, are more than a chance to hear bands, sample
delicacies and peruse displays. Festivals pump tens of millions of dollars
into local economies and attract visitors who often return after the event,
according to organizers.
Since its start in 1995, BayFest (Oct. 4-6) become Alabama’s largest
music festival. This year, the event is expected to bring in about 220,000
music fans to the streets of Mobile, says Shana Jordan, BayFest executive
director. In 2012 the financial impact of BayFest on Mobile was more
18 | OCTOBER 2013
than $42 million, according to a study by the University of South
Alabama. Revenue was up 13 percent from 2011.
Jordan says BayFest has become popular with a diverse crowd.
“The thing that is great about BayFest is that it’s not just country;
it’s not just rock; not just urban or jazz,” she says. “There’s something for
everyone.”
Although the number of visitors did not increase in 2012, the survey
found that visitors are spending more money. Forty-one percent of the
BayFest 2012 audience was from outside Alabama, up from 34 percent
in 2011. Those visitors are more likely to spend money in local hotels
and restaurants than local residents traveling to the festival from home
for the day, the USA report states.
In 2012, the city of Mobile provided a $243,000 to support
BayFest, according to the report. Purchases by festival visitors generated
between $594,611 and $681,410 in city sales tax revenue for a return on
investment of between 145 and 180 percent. Other spending by festival
visitors pushed the total city sales tax revenue even higher, says Robert
Bostwick, president of BayFest president.
“The total impact is $42 million,” Bostwick says. “The direct taxes
are slightly over $1 million. There is no other event
that approaches that figure.” The $42 million was
based on a formula that multiplied the estimated
spending, up to 2.5 times for outside visitors,
to determine the effect on the area economy,
according to the report.
In Gulf Shores, the National Shrimp Festival
(Oct. 10-13) also has grown into a driving force in
the coastal economy, according to Ed Rodriguez,
president of the Alabama Gulf Coast Area
Chamber of Commerce.
In 2011 the Chamber, which puts on the
festival, conducted a survey of more than 1,000
visitors to the event. The results showed just how
much the festival has grown since its beginnings as
a small local event in the early 1970s, Rodriguez
says. “The total economic impact, that’s the direct
impact of dollars being spent, was $33.9 million,”
he says. “That’s pretty strong.”
Rodriguez says the Chamber did not use a
multiplier in making the estimate. The impact was
not just at the festival on the Gulf Shores public
beach. About 40 percent of the visitors surveyed
said they shopped in Gulf Shores or Orange
Beach during their stay, and 35.9 percent went to
the Tanger Outlet Center in Foley. Visitors also
took in other attractions, with 5.3 percent going
charter fishing, 7.1 percent going to Fort Morgan,
5.7 percent to the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo and
5.5 percent playing golf.
The festival brought in people from at
least 30 states, according to the study. Of those
surveyed, 78.1 percent said the festival was their
main reason for visiting the area. Gulf Shores
city services, such as police and utilities, cost the
municipality about $130,000 during the festival,
according to municipal reports. Given the event’s
economic impact and revenue raised, the cost is
worth the expenditure, according to city officials.
Attendance estimates can be tricky at a free
festival that doesn’t take tickets, Rodriguez says. A
conservative estimate based on vendor sales, aerial
photography and other studies put the number of
annual visitors at more than 200,000.
The Shrimp Festival not only generates a great
deal of money on its own, the event also helps
extend the tourist season beyond the traditional
end of summer on Labor Day, says Matt Mogan,
festival chairman. Mogan says that when his
parents ran a business in Gulf Shores in the 1970s,
few people visited after Labor Day. Events such
as the Shrimp Festival have helped extend that
season into the fall.
“Many people have gotten smart about
coming down here,” he says. “They come down
for something like the festival and see that the
weather’s a little bit nicer than in the summer and
it’s a great place to be.” Mogan says in addition to
entertainment on two stages and more than 250
vendors selling seafood, fine art, crafts and other
offerings, the festival will continue to expand its
attractions. This year the event will feature a “Shrimp
Festival Idol” contest Saturday with contestants
and judges from each Baldwin County high school
taking part in a music competition.
Another event that has grown to have a huge
impact on the local economy is the Peter Anderson
Arts & Crafts Festival in Ocean Springs, Miss. The
35th annual festival will take place Nov. 2-3. The
event attracts about 120,000 visitors a year to take in
the music and food as well as more than 400 vendors
offering pottery, jewelry, paintings and sculptures
that include woodwork, metal work and handmade
tile pieces, according to Cynthia Sutton, events and
public relations manager for the Ocean Springs
Chamber of Commerce.
The Peter Anderson Arts & Crafts Festival
generates about $23 million each year, according
to a 2011 study by the John C. Stennis Institute of
Government and Community Development and the
Mississippi State University Extension Service.
That same weekend, the Great Gulfcoast Arts
Festival takes place in Pensacola, Fla. The threeday juried art show draws more than 200 painters,
potters, sculptors, jewelers, graphic artists, craftsmen
and other artists to the festival in Seville Square.
One of the newest October celebrations is
the Alabama Festival of Flavors, which will mark
its second year in downtown Foley on Oct. 19.
Organizers hope to have an economic and cultural
impact by promoting Alabama foods and other local
products, according to Donna Watts, president of
the South Baldwin Chamber of Commerce.
“It’s all food, food grown in Alabama as well
as beers and wines made in Alabama,” Watts says.
“We’re trying to focus a lot on the food from our
local area. With the farmers market coming in as
well, we felt like that would be another good tie-in
with locally grown food.”
Organizers are working with chefs, wine vendors
and brewers to prepare offerings that pair Alabama
foods with locally produced beverages. Classes will
be offered to help participants learn how to prepare
food grown in the area, according to Watts.
One food for which south Baldwin County
is famous is celebrated each October. The Elberta
German Sausage Festival will be Oct. 26 at Elberta
Town Park. Each October and March, about 30,000
sausage fans gather to devour 7,000 pounds of links
prepared from a special (and secret) German recipe.
The festival does not generate the revenues of
BayFest or the National Shrimp Festival, but it is
the major fundraiser for the town’s volunteer fire
department, says Mayor Marvin Williams. “We have
the festival twice a year and the money we make
finances close to 25 percent of the entire cost of
our fire department. We make $20,000 to $25,000
profit each festival, and that’s a tremendous asset to
the department, which is all volunteers. It means a
lot.”
“Many people have gotten smart about coming down
here. They come down for something like the festival and
see that the weather’s a little bit nicer than in the summer
and it’s a great place to be.”
— Matt Mogan, Chairman of the National Shrimp Festival
SENSE MAGAZINE | 19
| f eature
On t he Air
Local TV anchors must balance demands
of their high-profile jobs with family
responsibilities
Text by Robin Fitzhugh | photography by jeff kennedy
E
very parent who works outside their home is something of a magician, keeping
multiple balls in the air as they balance job and domestic responsibilities. The
lot of women in broadcast media is not that different, except that their jobs
entail looking fresh on a few hours of sleep each night and putting forth a calm
confidence in the public eye, even when a crisis in the community can have a direct
impact on their own families.
Kelly Foster, a Pascagoula native who still calls the Mississippi coast her home,
can testify to the stresses of reporting on hurricane damage for extended hours while
dealing with the destruction of her own family’s property. As morning meteorologist
for WPMI/Local 15 in Mobile, Foster was unable to travel to work during Hurricane
Katrina but still managed to submit three stories daily for days after the storm, giving
firsthand reports on the extent of the damage for residents all along the Gulf Coast.
“Many neighborhoods, somewhere I had grown up, were just gone,” Foster says, “and
sometimes it was hard to remain professional.”
As the mother of four with three daughters and a son ages 7 to 16, Foster
gets up at 2:30 each morning and is at WPMI by 3:15, building weather slides and
graphics for her first morning broadcast. Foster’s husband Joseph, director of material
management for Singing River Hospital, gets the children ready for school as Kelly
Foster is doing on-air forecasts throughout the morning and loading current weather
information onto the Local 15 website and Twitter feeds.
Foster graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi in broadcast
journalism and earned her degree in meteorology from Mississippi State University.
She credits her husband and children for their support and says, “it’s all about
organization. We get everything done the night before so I can concentrate on work
the next day.”
Fox 10 anchor Lenise Ligon is equally adept at balancing her roles as mother and
evening anchor each weeknight. A native of Detroit, Ligon earned her journalism
degree from Michigan State University and worked as a reporter and weekend
anchor for stations in Ohio, Michigan and North Carolina before accepting the
anchor job in Mobile. She is married to her high school sweetheart, Dylan, a
design engineer. Ligon is the mother of a 6-year-old old son and a nine-month-old
daughter. Family is the center of her life, she says, and even though both sets of
grandparents are still in Michigan, they make frequent visits to Alabama to keep
family ties strong.
As an afternoon/evening anchor, she is on the air at 4 p.m. each weekday.
Ligon says her average workday begins at 1:30 p.m. and ends around 10:30 each
night. Besides preparing for the three daily on-air broadcasts, Ligon checks an
average of 200 emails a day, does research for her “Tech Talk” segments, selects
topics for “Today’s Talker,” meets with her producer about the next day’s programs
and writes news updates for FM Talk Radio.
Ligon is a strong believer in “paying it forward,” giving back to the community
that she now calls home by working with young people and participating in
charitable fundraisers such as Heart Walk and local celebrity baseball games. An
avid athlete, Ligon also makes time in her busy schedule to train as a marathon
runner. When asked how she manages such a full schedule, Ligon says, “You have
to work at it. Not many people get to do what they love for a living, so I consider
myself very fortunate.”
“I love my job. No two days are the same. I also love being
involved in the community because this is my home, and I truly
care about what happens here.”
— Devon Walsh
Devon Walsh, morning anchor on WKRG News 5, is a wife and the mother
of two young children. Walsh grew up as part of a large extended family in Mobile,
graduated from McGill-Toolen High School and the University of Notre Dame
with a liberal arts degree. She began working at WKRG while in college and began
working full time after graduation in 1999 for WKRG as a reporter. In 2002,
Walsh married Tim Hecker and the couple moved to Birmingham while Hecker
completed medical school and a residency in neurology. Walsh worked an evening
anchor for Fox 6 in Birmingham for five years but, she says, “Home was calling, so
we came back to Mobile in 2008 to be near our families again.”
Her day as morning weekday anchor at News 5 begins at 2 a.m. so she can be
at the station by 3:30 a.m. She is on the air from 5 to 7 a.m. and takes her “lunch
break” to run home and drive her son to school. “I’m the most overdressed mom
in the carpool line when I pull up in full on-air makeup to drop off my 5-yearold.” She returns to the station to anchor the noon news program, with her time
between broadcasts spent updating the news of the day as well as shooting her
“What’s Working” segments about positive activities and events in the community.
Her work was recognized in for the second time this year when Walsh was again
named Best Anchor in Alabama by the Associated Press.
When her workday ends in the early afternoon, Walsh is a full-time mom. “My
career is very flexible, so I never miss a field trip or school program,” she says. Walsh
gets her exercise taking her children for a late afternoon walk each day and gives
much credit to her family and her nanny who make her demanding schedule work.
“I love my job,” she says. “I find it both fun and rewarding --- no two days are the
same. I also love being involved in the community, because this is my home and I
truly care about what happens here.”
SENSE MAGAZINE | 21
| cuisine
A sip and a smoke
The pairing of a premium cigar and single malt Scotch
is a feast for the senses
Text by thomas b. harrison | PHOTOGRAPHY BY matt gates
22 | OCTOBER 2013
SENSE MAGAZINE | 23
| cuisine
“To me, Scotch and cigars are a supergroup. You know, it’s Plant and Page; it’s
Lennon and McCartney. They’re pretty good by themselves, but when you bring
‘em together, it’s a special thing.”
A
smooth draw on a fine cigar. A sip of single malt Scotch, neat. The aroma of the cigar teases the olfactory and its
flavor drifts across the tongue, while the Scotch does a little tango on the tastebuds. As manly indulgences go, life
doesn’t get much better than this.
Any aficionado will tell you that cigars are an acquired taste, and the same is true for Scotch. What one is willing to
pay for either, or both, is what separates the connoisseur from the curious bystander. If you are serious about cigars, you
are almost certainly serious about your libation of choice. The difference is, with the exception of black-market Cubans or
other exotic, hard-to-get brands, cigars are relatively affordable. They are sold as singles, so even an expensive cigar is not an
outrageous indulgence. You can buy a good cigar for about $7, an excellent cigar for $15, and a one-of-a-kind experience
for a little more than $20. However, it is best to remember that an expensive cigar is not necessarily a great smoke. A savvy
smoker seeks out value-based labels and reliable vendors.
Single malt Scotch raises the stakes. A 12-year-old bottle of Scotch might cost about $45 — not an impulse buy, but
only mildly extravagant. However, an older bottle of the same Scotch might fetch $140 to $200, and now you’re getting
into serious money. Those prices could be a deal-breaker. By the glass, expect to pay $9 to $15 for single malt Scotch. Then
again, there is no rule than says Scotch is the only suitable companion for a fine cigar. Some prefer a fine Cognac (brandy)
with its seductive bouquet; others opt for a gin or vodka martini; a few cigar buffs will tell you that a chilled imported beer
is the way to go; and still others prefer a robust cup of coffee.
Michael Mastro, a professional photographer and gallery owner, joins Chris Penton, owner of De-Cuba Cigars, Wine
& Music in Daphne, every Wednesday for coffee and cigars. The two men agree that the flavors are complex and one must
be careful to choose a beverage that will interact and not clash with the cigar. “I try to pair flavor profiles,” Penton says. “If
I drink coffee, I prefer a mild to medium cigar. If I have cigar in the middle of the afternoon, I usually step up in strength
and have a beer to go along with it. If it’s at night after a nice dinner, I pull out my Glenlivet or Macallan and a big, strong,
dark, rich cigar.” Balance is the key, says Penton. One would not drink a pale ale, amber beer or Sauvignon Blanc with a
rich cigar.
Ken Roberts, a former commodities trader who lives in Daphne, prefers to pair his favorite cigar with Café Altura
organic coffee, a canned, medium-grind blend. “I love coffee,” he says, “and I got the best coffee in the world.” Roberts
has his pick of premium smokes. His walk-in humidor is 30 feet high, constructed in the style of a pigeonnier (sometimes
called a dovecote) by architect Craig Roberts. The cozy, climate-controlled structure holds hundreds of boxes of Roberts’
favorite cigars — all he has to do is brew the coffee.
Still, there are compelling reasons why Scotch is referred to in some circles as “the Cuban cigar of the whiskey world,”
which makes the pairing of single malt Scotch and a pricey smoke de rigueur. Last spring brought a fundraising event
that drove home the popularity of this combination. Ducks Unlimited, along with Bouch’s Premium Cigars and Pinzone’s
Italian Downtown Restaurant, hosted a Scotch and Cigar Party in Fairhope that drew more than 60 patrons and raised
more than $9,000 for Ducks Unlimited.
Scott Dumas, owner and executive chef of Pinzone’s, says the focus of the event was the cigars, and it was his job to
provide the complementary Scotch for each smoke. He started with the Dalmore Cigar Malt Reserve, which he says is a
bit lesser known than the more popular labels. “The cigar flavors come from the malt and the grain they use to make the
Scotch,” he says. In his notes for the event, Dumas describes the Scotch as having “a nose of caramel, shortbread, biscuits,
coffee and chocolates. The palate yields toffee edging toward the burnt-cinder-toffee side.”
The cigar, provided by Gene Bouchillon, owner of Bouch’s, was a Flor de las Antillas Toro: “Each chewy puff imparts
a concentrated interplay of white pepper, nutmeg and lavender,” according to program notes.
24 | OCTOBER 2013
— Scott Dumas
After a dinner of wild game appetizers, smoked ribs and smoked quarter
chickens, pulled pork and cowboy-baked beans, patrons sampled their second
cigar: a Romeo by Romeo y Julieta Piramide, “an earthy, complex torpedo with
a lush draw that layers the palate with clear impressions of cocoa bean, hazelnut
and black pepper.” The Scotch was a 14-year-old Balvenie Caribbean Cask
single malt. “They take . . . the Scotch out of the cask and finish it the last two
years in a rum cask. What a great combo.”
The evening concluded with an Arturo Fuente Rosado Sungrown R Vitola
Forty-Four, which is “built around a savory core of leather finish.” Dumas chose
to pair the handmade Dominican cigar with Oban Single Malt Whiskey, aged
14 years. The Oban ”features a nose of rich sweetness and fruits with sea salt and
peaty smokiness,” according to Dumas’ notes.
“I think the pairing of Scotch with a premium cigar are two of the pleasures
for men that have been accepted as pleasures for men for generations in
America,” says Bouchillon. “Part of it is based on our grandfathers, our fathers,
and on a certain level retiring to the parlor and being a man. Now would be
retiring to the ‘man cave.’ The flavors complement each other. You try not to
rush either of them. You enjoy them almost methodically, slowly. It’s not like
slamming a beer.”
With a fine cigar and a premium glass of Scotch, one is committed to
sitting for a while and interacting socially. “Certainly, bourbon and/or whiskey
pairs well with a cigar,” Bouchillon says. “Port wine pairs very well with cigars.
Most of my clients first mention a single malt Scotch, so it must be the libation
that pairs best with my customers.”
Dumas says a top-shelf Scotch is an authentic experience. “The exciting
thing about Scotch for me . . . (is that) what you smell is what you’re going to
taste,” he says. “You kind of wake that palate up a little bit, get a good breath in,
have your mouth open when it goes to your nose, about 10 seconds or so. You
almost chew on it, so you really get a great experience. It’s like saying, ‘Hello!’
You breathe in and breathe out. That would be the perfect way to smell Scotch.”
Dumas regards Scotch and cigars as the perfect combination. “They are two
totally distinctive flavors, totally different experiences. There are five different
taste parameters on your tongue. Scotch will encompass pretty much half of
those, and the cigar will encompass the other half. . . . It’s harmonious. Scotch
and cigars are power to power, equal companions.”
He uses a pop music analogy to drive home the point. “To me, Scotch
and cigars are a supergroup. You know, it’s Plant and Page; it’s Lennon and
McCartney. They’re pretty good by themselves, but when you bring ‘em together
SENSE MAGAZINE | 25
| design
Humidors
A well-crafted humidor is the critical choice for a cigar
connoisseur wise enough to protect his investment
Text by thomas b. harrison | PHOTOGRAPHY BY matt gates
T
he value of a humidor lies well beyond its retail price. Cigar aficionados
understand that premium cigars represent an investment of time, money
and passion. A well-crafted humidor is the most effective way to protect
that investment, even if the price seems steep. Critical elements in storing cigars
are temperature and percentage of humidity. The ideal humidity level is between
68 and 72 percent, according to Gene Bouchillon, owner of Bouch’s Premium
Cigars in downtown Fairhope. The ideal temperature is about the same: 70-75
degrees out of the sunlight. “Consider the time spent from seed to roller to market
of a premium cigar --- an average minimum of three years,” Bouchillon says.
Bouch’s carries a variety of humidors by Savoy, owned by Ashton Distributors of
Philadelphia. Medium to large humidors, such as the model shown at left, hold
50 to 70 cigars; the larger model holds about 100 cigars. Each Savoy humidor
features an exotic wood finish and some models have inlays. The interior is lined
with Spanish cedar, a generic term denoting soft woods from Central and South
America, according to Bouchillon. Spanish cedar is ideal for the preservation of
premium cigars.
26 | OCTOBER 2013
SENSE MAGAZINE | 27
| design
B
elow, an electronic humidor by Liebherr
has adjustable temperature and humidity
controls, digital displays, and is finished
in stainless steel with Spanish cedar wood
interior drawers and shelves. This model also
has a glass door with LED interior lighting to
ensure it looks the part. This can be paired with
the matching Liebherr wine cooler in a study
or lounge.
H
umidors come in an amazing variety
of sizes, shapes and designs, from the
popular Savoy tabletop, at left, lined
with Spanish cedar, to models featuring a
hygrometer (inset, above) allowing the cigar
aficionado to instantly monitor the humidity
level. Many feature brass inlays and hinges,
far right, and have the look of fine furniture.
T
Photo via Appliance City
28 | OCTOBER 2013
echnology has made life less complex for the cigar lover
who used to worry about maintaining the proper balance
of temperature and humidity. Specially engineered silica
gel beads make it simpler to keep cigars fresh and prevent
dehydration. “It’s almost foolproof,” says Chris Penton, owner of
De-Cuba Cigars in Daphne. “You used to have to fight with your
hygrometer and distilled water, or your propylene glycol, and you
had to constantly monitor it.” As to the value of a good humidor,
Penton says: “If you’re a serious cigar smoker and you are planning
to keep your cigars at home, (a humidor) needs be the number
one tool treat yourself to. A well-maintained humidor will keep
your cigars forever.”
SENSE MAGAZINE | 29
| design
A
t left, a bird’s-eye-view of the walk-in humidor owned by Ken Roberts, a former commodities
trader who lives in Daphne. The six-sided building, built in 2008, is done in Spanish cedar
and exotic woods. It holds hundreds of boxes and thousands of Robert’ favorite cigars.
The stairway has brass rails and the building, designed by architect Craig Roberts as a pigeonnier
(sometimes called a dovecote), is 30 feet high and also contains Roberts’ impressive collection of
Walt Disney memorabilia.
The Spanish cedar provides the perfect environment for cigars, about 70 degrees with 70
percent humidity. “It’s not as easy as it sounds,” he says. “It’s an extremely taxing science. I called
in two guys from Las Vegas who set the perfect conditions for the casinos. It’s not a compressor. It’s
called a chilled water system in which air comes off chilled water.” The system, installed in Roberts’
garage, sends cool air through underground through pipes into the top of the building. “Behind
every shelf there is a space, and air circulates around the boxes so you don’t have to rotate your
boxes.” Directly below is the walk-in humidor at Bouch’s Premium Cigars in downtown Fairhope,
where the avid cigar smoker also can find a variety of humidors, large and small.
30 | OCTOBER 2013
SENSE
SENSE MAGAZINE
MAGAZINE | | 31
31
| feature
Polo at the Point
Polo at the Point celebrates 25 years of top-class sport and fundraising
Text by Jane Nicholes | photo by kim campbell
32 | OCTOBER 2013
SENSE MAGAZINE | 33
| feature
W
“When we first went out of town we went to Atlanta, me and Kenny
and Herndon, with nine horses in a six-horse trailer and a half-ton
truck. The horses were so skinny they looked like greyhounds.”
— George Radcliff Sr.
34 | OCTOBER 2013
hen George Radcliff Sr. was first asked if he wanted
to play polo, he thought his nephew Herndon meant
water polo. It was 1968. Ed Bernard, who was in
the oil and gas business, had moved from New Iberia, La., and
rented land from the Radcliff family for his string of polo ponies.
Not knowing what they were getting into, George,
Herndon and others, including Wilson Greene and Kenny
McLean, agreed to meet Bernard in a cow pasture.
Today, the Sonny Hill-Clearwater Polo Complex sits near
that cow pasture in Point Clear, Alabama, where an annual
tournament culminates in Polo at the Point. Combining
international-caliber sport, major fundraising, a luncheon gala
and family fun, the event celebrates its 25th anniversary on Oct.
26.
More than $5 million has been raised since the first event
in 1988, says Linda Lou Parsons, this year’s chairwoman. “All
the money that’s given is to charities in Mobile and Baldwin
counties. It’s to help people in the southwest Alabama area. The
mission a few years ago changed to helping pediatrics in some
way, to lay a good legacy for our future, for generations to come.”
This year, the main beneficiaries are the Mitchell Cancer Institute
and Thomas Hospital’s Birth Center. Cancer research has long been
a beneficiary of Polo at the Point, since an early commitment to
raise $1 million for what became MCI. The institute has the only
pediatric oncology program in the region, working with Children’s
and Women’s Hospital and University of South Alabama oncologists.
“Funds raised through Polo at the Point will support
exciting research under way to develop new, targeted therapeutic
treatment of acute myelogenous leukemia (AML),” according
to a statement from MCI. “AML is responsible for nearly 15
percent of all pediatric cancers and our researchers are working
passionately to improve treatment. Never before has research in
cancer been as critical as it is now.”
At Thomas Hospital, (Infirmary Health), equipment
purchases have been made with funds raised. Last year, capital
investments were made to create a more relaxing environment
for autistic children to receive therapy. Equipment for children’s
speech disorder therapy was also purchased.
This year, the focus is on replacing existing beds with new
ones at the Fairhope hospital’s busy Birth Center, says Jeana
Barnes, coordinator of the Thomas Hospital Foundation. When
the center opened several years ago, it was expected to handle
600 births a year. Today, she says, “We birth 1,100 babies here
at Thomas.”
Mercy Medical’s Guardian Angel program has been another
recipient. The emphasis on fundraising attracts community wide
support. Almost 200 volunteers make it all happen. According to
Parsons, local Rotary clubs volunteer to man the gates, multiple
sponsors underwrite the event, and many supporters donate
almost 400 items for the popular silent auction. Presenting
sponsors this year are the Grand Hotel Marriott and Iberia
Bank. Other major sponsors are Mercedes of Mobile and Dream
Ranch, a hunting and fishing resort in Guntersville.
Polo at the Point includes two matches, a gourmet luncheon
in tents lining the field, tailgating along the other side of the
field, the silent auction and a players’ party with the Modern
Eldorado’s band after the matches. A children’s activity area will
be located on the tailgate side.
This year there is one big change. The event is on Saturday,
not the traditional Sunday. Organizers are well aware what that
means and have fixed it so people can have their polo and their
college football, too. “We know that might cause a conflict with
some football games,” Parsons says. “So, in the silent auction tent
we will have a sports center with TVs. That’s something new.”
The idea was to consolidate the event and let participating
out-of-town teams go home Sunday. In the past, the players’
party was a $100-a-ticket affair held on Friday. This year the
party after the event will be free, but with a cash bar and cash
food service from Wintzell’s.
The first fundraising event in 1988 wasn’t actually in Point
Clear but at the Radcliff family farm, Celeste, in Saraland. The
benefit was for Cystic Fibrosis. The opposing teams were Silver
Hill polo club led by Ed Bernard, Sam Meador, Les Radcliff and
Maury McPhillips. The Celeste polo club was led by George
Radcliff, Bobby Radcliff, Pete Sintz and Bobby Miller.
Radcliff’s daughter, Fontaine Howard, has put together a
limited-edition book commemorating the 25th anniversary. Largely
a collection of historic photographs, the book features a foreword by
author Winston Groom, a childhood friend of Radcliff.
Howard and her father credit two people in particular --- Kenny
McLean and Curtis Pilot --- for building facilities that fostered the
development of the high level of the sport and expansion of Polo
at the Point into one of the biggest fundraising events on the Gulf
Coast. They say McLean’s early construction of high quality fields
was crucial, while Pilot’s more recent construction of the Sonny
Hill-Clearwater complex on County Road 32 has taken local polo
to a new level. “The facilities that he has built are some of the finest
facilities that you will find anywhere in the country,” Radcliff says.
The Sonny Hill-Clearwater polo complex is managed by
Gonzalo de la Fuente. The Sonny Hill name honors Pilot’s father,
whose nickname was Sonny. Chip Campbell, who along with
Curtis Pilot, helped develop the Sonny Hill-Clearwater complex
retained some Point Clear history by using the Clearwater
name. The complex sits on the site of the old Clearwater Stables
racetrack around the infield pond that is still present behind
the polo pavilion. Clearwater was a thoroughbred horse farm
and racing operation owned by Frank (Red) Leatherbury and
Ed Roberts back in the 1950’s who ran their horses in big races
such as the Belmont and Kentucky Derby, enjoying a fair bit of
success. Both Leatherbury and Roberts gave a lot back to their
communities benefitting Mobile Infirmary (Infirmary Health)
at the time and before Thomas Hospital was founded in 1960.
Healthcare continues this day to be a primary focus of the
community.
World-class players have participated in Polo at the Point
over the years. The late Major Ronald Ferguson, father of
Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson, brought a team from Great
Britain. Professionals from Argentina, Nicaragua and South
Africa have come in for tournaments. Some of these players have
been Adam Snow, Owen Rinehart, Antonio Galvan, and Tiger
Kneese. Tommy Lee Jones, the actor, played one year while he
was here.
Howard says she along with the other children of the
founding players grew up at the polo fields, and they carry on
the tradition. “Those people and their children are still coming
today to play in Point Clear. It’s really neat. The kids who were
my age are going to be here this year, playing in Polo at the
Point.”
About Polo
Six teams, two from Point Clear and the rest from other states, will participate
in a tournament leading up to the 25th anniversary celebration Oct. 26. The top
four teams will represent major sponsors on that day. A polo match consists of
six 7-minute chukkers. A team consists of four players, each with its own string
of horses, called polo ponies. Because of the speed and athleticism required of the
ponies, players change horses between and sometimes during chukkers.
Polo at the Point schedule, Oct. 26
(Sonny Hill-Clearwater Polo Complex at U.S. Highway 98 and County Road 32,
Point Clear)
Tailgating, 11:30 a.m. Tickets are $10, payable at the gate, or $500 for a sponsorship
with a reserved 10x10-foot sideline tent and 20 tickets. Children younger than 6
admitted free. Children’s activities available.
Luncheon Under the Tents, noon. Tickets $150. Dressy attire.
Noon to 4:15 p.m., Silent Auction.
Charity Cup, 12:30 p.m. Dream Ranch vs. Mercedes of Mobile.
Grand Oak Cup, 3:30 p.m., IberiaBank vs. Grand Hotel Marriott
Trophy Presentation, 5 p.m.
Mercedes Draw Down, 5:30 p.m.
Players’ Party, 6 p.m. Cash food and beverage bar. Music by the Modern Eldorados.
For more information, go to www.poloathepoint.com.
Polo at the Point
A historical accounting composed and written by Fontaine Radcliff Howard
with forward by Winston Groom will be available for sale or for order on the polo
grounds for Polo at the Point this year.
| feature
FLYING
COLORS
Text by Lynn Oldshue
“Painting gives me the freedom to fly, and finishing a painting
is the same rush as jumping a fence on the back of a horse.”
— B’Beth Weldon
P
Weldon teaches art and holds her Gifted Masterpiece Workshops for children
with special needs. Each child paints a piece for the Polo at the Point silent auction.
“Children come with their therapist and paint three or four paintings at a time,”
Weldon says. “These kids and their creations take my breath away. I love their eye,
their innocence and their excitement. For those who can’t speak, you can tell they
are about to jump out of their chairs when we look at their work. The money raised
through their auctioned art will be part of the money donated from Polo at the
Point to USA Mitchell Cancer Institute and Thomas Hospital’s Pediatric Rehab.
The money goes back into programs that will help them.”
Weldon is a family-trained artist. She is the only child of Margaret Weldon, a
talented painter who had art studios in their homes in Mobile and Point Clear. Her
mother’s friends also were artists and they were a creative influence and extended
family for B’Beth. “I grew up surrounded by art and artists,” she says. ”My mom
painted polo ponies and did commission portraits long before I did. She was a
colorist and I learned from her. Color is important to me and I am constantly
learning how colors work together. It doesn’t have to be bright, but I like things to
pop with vibrancy.”
“B’Beth understands completely her palette and composition,” says Fairhope
photographer and friend Stephen Savage. “Her use of color is expressive and her
brushwork is very gestural and simple. Even in a vase of a few flowers, there is
a sense of excitement and life. It is very organic beauty. It is her spirit coming
through.”
Weldon’s style has evolved from the precise early paintings with the sharp
detail of a photograph to the loose but measured brush strokes she uses today.
Landscapes with blurred edges or faces with limited features leave room for the
viewer’s imagination. “I usually paint three canvases at one time because it gives me
a fresh eye,” she says. “I want the essence of the soul to come out in my work so I
don’t overwork a painting. It’s like overcooking a cake and if I continue to paint,
I’ll mess it up.”
She paints with purpose — not to get every detail perfect, but to capture the
mood and feeling of the moment. “I like motion,” Weldon says. “When I paint,
I don’t like to look at the canvas because the hand is trained to follow the eye. If I
have to stop and think, the paintings start to have hiccups and they have to go into
time-out until I have the vision for them again.”
A backyard cottage beside the vegetable garden is Weldon’s studio and gallery
on her 40-acre ranch. Paintings of barns, horses, boats and river valleys hang on the
walls, waiting for the right buyer. Tall easels holding unfinished canvases stand in
front of a wall of windows overlooking live oaks, flowering trees and her flock of
Blackbelly Barbados sheep. Next to the easels sits a rolling cart is stocked with rows
of oil paint — tubes in reds, blues and yellows.
Painting often begins before the sun rises. “My grandmother used to say in
the wee hours of the morning the giants whisper,” Weldon says. “The giants are the
only truth you may have. Early mornings are a godly time and a very creative time.”
Weldon’s art flows out of her joy of life and adventure. “I have had a life full
of great experiences and these come out on canvas. I raced sailboats, so I paint
boats with sunlight reflecting off full sails. I fished with my dad in father-son bass
tournaments, and the rivers and ponds in my paintings feel like the places where I
have been with him. I can paint a horse to look like a horse. Once I get their head
and eyes, then the rest of the body is easy. My goal with each painting is to capture
the essence of the moment.”
Painting is more than sharing the images in Weldon’s head and the places she has
been. It fills her need for learning, excitement and connecting with people. “Painting
gives me the freedom to fly, and finishing a painting is the same rush as jumping a
fence on the back of horse,” she says. “I hope my paintings speak to people and share
good memories and emotions. I want people to feel the energy of life in a powerful
horse or in a simple vase of flowers.”
olo ponies dash across the field. Rider and horse lean in for a hook shot. Quarter and chest muscles
tense and strong, a pony stops short and spins. The power and teamwork of polo are captured by the
paintbrush of Fairhope artist B’Beth Weldon, the Official Artist of the 25th Annual Polo at the Point.
Her paintings vibrate with the thunder of hooves and the crack of the mallet.
“I love to watch polo,” says Weldon. “My mother and I would sit on a blanket with her friends and watch
the polo club matches in Point Clear. Later, I even played in a few ladies matches in Virginia.”
This is Weldon’s second time as the event’s official artist. She also was the Official Artist for the Providence
Hospital Foundation’s 2013 Festival of Flowers. “Being the official artist is a fabulous honor. I am so thankful
for the exposure and these opportunities,” she says. “It gives me the chance to talk with people, which often
leads to commission work. Growing up, I sold charcoal drawings of horses and people when I needed extra
money. Now I frequently get commissions to paint horses or personal portraits, and it is wonderful to work
with people who want something so dear.”
Her broad knowledge of horses began as a girl who was always in the barn. “B’Beth has been riding since
she was 4 years old,” says veterinarian Albert Corte. “Every time I moved, that girl was under my feet. She
grew up with horses and they were one and the same. She has been hooked up with them for so long that she
understands their demeanor and temperament and can get them to do whatever she asks. This lets her capture
the horse’s personality and attitude at any moment. Her understanding of her subject transfers to the canvas.
It is unusual to see someone rise up from shoveling horse manure to becoming a respected artist.”
Weldon still has that little girl’s love of horses and for many years she made a living breeding and training
horses, not painting them. “I have jumped, raced and trained horses all of my life,” Weldon says. “I have foaled
and even artificially inseminated them. I know their moods, how their legs move, and what they look like in
motion.”
After her daughter graduated and moved away, Weldon sold and donated her horses, changing careers
to become a full-time artist. “I got out of the horse business and never looked back,” she says. “I had no idea
that I would love painting this much. “
Weldon was selected as the Official Artist for Polo at the Point because of the life she captures in her
subjects and as well as the life she lives in the community. “B’Beth is a talented artist in many media with her
portraits, landscapes and horses,” says Linda Lou Parsons, co-chair of the event. “She is respected and liked in
the community and the arts. She gives back in many ways and represents us well.”
36 | OCTOBER 2013
SENSE MAGAZINE | 37
| vie w s a n d n e w s
B E T W E E N
T H E
L I N E S
REVIEWS OF BOOKS AVAILABLE AT PAGE & PALETTE BOOKSTORE
THE WHY OF WRITING
BY JESMYN WARD
S
Meet Jesmyn Ward
Award-winning author of
Salvage the Bones
Tueday, OctoBER 22, 2013
Pre-signing at 5:00 p.m.
author discussion at 5:30 p.m.
Book signing at 6:00 p.m.
Page & Palette
38 | OCTOBER 2013
o many young people dabble in writing, and it is
interesting to think about what it is that turns this
dabbling into an obsession and ultimately a profession for
some of us. My engagement with writing started with reading.
As a child I read widely, across categories, but I had a special
fondness for fantasy (The Bridge to Terabithia was a favorite).
Escape was an important aspect of reading. When I first began
to write, as a teenager, I wrote about fallen angels and girls who
achieved great things. I wrote outside of my life. It had not,
at that point, occurred to me to write closer to home. That all
changed when I sat down to write my college entrance essays. I
wrote something about my family and my community, which is
mostly black, mostly poor, at that point crack-ridden, and rural.
I had not anticipated how this experience would change me,
but writing that essay felt like an important statement, for me
and my family. Having grown up in what can only be called a
marginalized community, the essay gave me voice. We are here,
I said. And this is what life is like for us. And then: This is who
I am. And finally: Hear me. For the first time, I was not using
literature to escape my life; I was using literature to explore it.
I knew that from then on, I would not avoid my community
when I searched for inspiration; I would draw from it.
While I had found my subject, it took a while to determine
that I would actually be a writer. Having grown up in a family
without many resources, I knew my mother would have
preferred I pursue something more practical. She always said she
never wanted my siblings and me to struggle the way she’d had
to. So she pushed me in other directions. Initially she wanted
me to be a doctor, and then she realized my strengths resided
in other things (that is, not math and science), so she thought a
lawyer would be preferable. But I couldn’t do it. And I tried! In
fact, I did not get serious about writing and commit myself to
it until after my brother died. I was on a plane en route to New
York to begin my first job as a publishing assistant shortly after
my brother’s death. I asked myself: If this plane crashed and you
died, what would you have done that would make you proud of
how you lived? What can make you happy you live while your
brother doesn’t? And I immediately thought: writing.
The residue of family disapproval still stings (although, I
think my mother is proud of me now). But even so, I feel a
compulsion to write. I feel strong love for my community and
the responsibility to tell our story and tell it well. Much of what
I write is informed by what I see around me, and that reality
demands a sort of brutal honesty, a willingness to write the hard
things. That hasn’t always been easy.
My first novel, Where the Line Bleeds, is about two teenage
boys, twins who support their disabled grandmother. It takes
place over the course of a summer, and their family unravels
during this time. These boys reminded me so much of cousins
and friends I grew up with, even my own brother, and I couldn’t
hurt them. I would not let the narrative take them places I
didn’t want them to go. I hugged them to my chest, pulled
my authorial punches, and in some ways limited the novel.
But doing so taught me an important lesson. A lesson I would
put into practice only after being silenced for two years by
Hurricane Katrina.
When I emerged from the shock that was post-Katrina
on the Gulf Coast, I began writing Salvage the Bones. Salvage
the Bones was a novel about a family, set over 12 days, with
Hurricane Katrina making landfall on the 11th day. I realized
I had to be more honest about the realities of the community
I was writing about. At home, members of my extended
family were addicted to crack. My family and I sat through
Hurricane Katrina in a pickup truck in an open field. People
were struggling all around me. This is the reality of my home,
and I learned that if I was going to assume the responsibility of
writing about it, I could not afford to dull the edges, to soften
the narrative, to fall in love with my characters and spare them
like some benevolent god. Life does not spare us.
To honor my family and community with my words, I
also have to be foolish enough to think I can do it well, and
I have to be brave enough to confront tragedy and pull some
sort of redemption from it, at least narratively. I hope Salvage
the Bones accomplishes that, while also leaving the door open
for hope. The characters survive after all. That’s why the novel
has a 12th day.
Which leads me to my current book, Men We Reaped, a
memoir, which is a departure for me. Even though there are
elements of autobiography in both of my novels, details really,
and there is a kind of truth to it, it is a work of imagination.
Men We Reaped has been the most difficult of the three to
write because it is the truth, and the truth of the deaths the
book describes is still very painful for me. I got bogged down
emotionally every day I wrote. It was also difficult to step away
from details of the stories and look back at what happened with
some broader view, with a perspective that would allow me
to comment on it, ring some sense from it, answer my own
questions about it. Ultimately, with time, I hope that’s what I
have accomplished. And I hope my portrayal of these men who
lost their lives and the world we used to live in will give people
a different view of the struggles in my community.
The Noticer
Returns
by Andy Andrews
Perspective is a powerful thing.
Andy Andrews has spent the
past five years doing a double
take at every white-haired old
man he sees, hoping to have
just one more conversation
with the person to whom
he owes his life. Through a
chance encounter at a local
bookstore, Andy is reunited
with the man who changed
everything for him — Jones,
also known as The Noticer. As
the story unfolds, Jones uses
his unique talent of noticing
the little things that make
a big difference. And these
little things grant the people
of Fairhope, Alabama, a
life-changing gift perspective.
Along the way families
are united and financial
opportunities created, leaving
us with powerfully simple
solutions to the everyday
problems we all face. Through
the lens of a parenting class
at the Grand Hotel in Point
Clear, Jones guides a seemingly
random group to ask specific
questions inspired by his
curious advice: “You can’t
believe everything you think.”
The questions lead to answers
for which people have been
searching for centuries: How
do we begin to change the
culture in which we live? Can
we ensure a life of success
and value for our children as
they become adults? What if
what we think is the end . . .
is only the beginning? What
starts as an account of Andy’s
everyday reality unfolds into
an intriguing story revealing
the extraordinary principles
available to anyone looking
to create a better life. Page &
Palette will host Andy Andrews
for a book signing and author
discussion of this highly
anticipated sequel to The
Noticer, The Noticer Returns,
on Oct. 17 at 6 p.m. at the
Christian Life Center. Tickets
are $5 and may be used as a
coupon toward the purchase of
The Noticer Returns. ($19.99,
Thomas Nelson, On Sale Now)
hardly known — who played a
pivotal role in creating today’s
United States. Throughout, he
ponders whether the historic
work of uniting the States has
succeeded, and to what degree.
Featuring 32 illustrations
throughout the text, The Men
Who United the States is a
fresh, lively, and erudite look
at the way in which the most
powerful nation on earth came
together, from one of our most
entertaining, probing, and
insightful observers. ($29.99,
HarperCollins, Pub Date
10/15/13)
in time through brilliant
characterizations and historical
details, to explore what it
means to be a woman charting
her own destiny in a rapidly
evolving world dominated by
men. (15.95, Random House,
On Sale Now)
The Paris
Architect
BY Charles Belfoure
The Last Banquet
BY Jonathan Grimwood
Love and Lament
The Men Who
United the States
by John Milliken
Thompson
BY Simon Winchester
Set in rural North Carolina
between the Civil War and the
Great War, Love and Lament
chronicles the hardships and
misfortunes of the Hartsoe
family. Mary Bet, the youngest
of nine children, was born the
same year that the first railroad
arrived in their county. As
she matures, against the
backdrop of Reconstruction
and rapid industrialization,
she must learn to deal with
the deaths of her mother and
siblings, a deaf and damaged
older brother, and her father’s
growing insanity and rejection
of God. In the rich tradition
of Southern gothic literature,
John Milliken Thompson
transports the reader back
Winchester follows in the
footsteps of America’s most
essential explorers, thinkers
and innovators, including
Lewis and Clark and
their Corps of Discovery
Expedition to the Pacific
Coast, the builders of the first
transcontinental telegraph,
and the powerful civil engineer
behind the Interstate Highway
System. He treks vast swaths
of territory, from Pittsburgh
to Portland; Rochester to
San Francisco; Truckee to
Laramie; Seattle to Anchorage,
introducing these fascinating
men and others — some
familiar, some forgotten, some
dark obsession to know all
the world’s flavors before that
world changes irreversibly.
($26.95, Penguin, On Sale
Now)
Set against the backdrop of the
Enlightenment, the delectable
decadence of Versailles, and
the French Revolution, The
Last Banquet is an intimate
epic that tells the story of
one man’s quest to know the
world through its many and
marvelous flavors. Jean-Marie
d’Aumout will try anything
once, with consequences that
are at times mouthwatering
and at others fascinatingly
macabre. When he is not
obsessively searching for a new
taste, d’Aumout is a fast friend,
a loving husband, a doting
father, and an imaginative lover.
He befriends Ben Franklin,
corresponds with the Marquis
de Sade and Voltaire, becomes
a favorite at Versailles, thwarts
a peasant uprising, improves
upon traditional French
methods of contraception,
plays an instrumental role
in the Corsican War of
Independence, and constructs
France’s finest menagerie. But
d’Aumout’s every adventurous
turn is decided by his at times
Like most gentiles in Nazioccupied Paris, architect
Lucien Bernard has little
empathy for the Jews. So when
a wealthy industrialist offers
him a large sum of money to
devise secret hiding places for
Jews, Lucien struggles with
the choice of risking his life
for a cause he doesn’t really
believe in. Ultimately he can’t
resist the challenge and begins
designing expertly concealed
hiding spaces — behind a
painting, within a column, or
inside a drainpipe — detecting
possibilities invisible to the
average eye. But when one of
his clever hiding spaces fails
horribly and the immense
suffering of Jews becomes
incredibly personal, he can no
longer deny reality. Written by
an expert whose knowledge
imbues every word, this story
becomes more gripping with
every life the architect tries to
save. ($25.99, Sourcebooks,
Pub Date 10/8/13)
SENSE MAGAZINE | 39
| vie w s a n d n e w s
What the Authors are Reading
PAGE & PALETTE BOOKSTORE’S MOST POPULAR AUTHORS TALK ABOUT THEIR LATEST READS
John Milliken Thompson
Vince Vawter
Author of The Reservoir and Love and Lament
Author of Paperboy, a 2013 selection of the
Junior Library GuilD
I just finished reading Charles Frazier’s Nightwoods. I love
the way he keeps surprising you, veering off in different
directions, following different characters, alternating violence
with romance and comedy. And the writing! It is gorgeous
— packed with pull-out quotes,
but so fluid and melodic that
you are just carried along in
its music. Another loaded but
inviting novel, John Dufresne’s
latest, No Regrets, Coyote, is a
smart, funny Florida noir. I have
also been re-reading Down by the
Riverside, Charles Joyner’s classic
study of a South Carolina slave
community. It is research for a book I am working on, but it
hardly feels like work. Not all non-fiction books have to read
like novels to be absorbing. Joyner gives you the earthiness of
plantation life, the material and sensory details of the slaves’
daily grind. Karen Spears Zacharias
Author of the historical novel
Mother of Rain, a 2013 SIBA Okra Pick
Eudora Welty said long before she wrote stories, she
listened for stories. I am bad to do that myself. I
have actually transcribed conversations while sitting
in a restaurant eavesdropping on others. (Let this
be a warning that you should be careful what you
say in public places. A writer might be taking notes
nearby). I got a headache on a recent trip to France
when I could not understand what the people around
me were saying. Nothing frustrates me more than
the feeling of being left out. Luckily, I had Susan
Rebecca White’s stirring new novel, A Place
at the Table, to keep me company. I cannot
remember who recommended White’s work
to me, but if I knew I would hug their necks.
This beautifully written story intricately
weaves the lives of three seemingly disparate
individuals together in a way that disturbs
and delights the reader. A Place at the Table
is a loving homage to Edna Lewis and Cafe
Nicholson, which served Manhattan’s literati
after World War II, and to Scott Peacock,
a gay white Southern chef. The two became close
friends and co-chefs despite a 50-year age difference.
White belongs to a gourmet club. I would love to
have a place at her supper table.
40 | OCTOBER 2013
When working on fiction, I usually gravitate to
reading non-fiction that deals with the art of writing.
Lives of the Novelists by John Sutherland seeks to tell
the history of fiction by examining 294 novelists
from the 17th century through today. Sutherland’s
British humor surfaces on just about every page, and while
he is certainly a scholar, he does not let that get in the way
of some nice literary zingers. Of Ayn Rand, he says: “If
there were an award for the most influential bad novelist in
literary history, Ayn Rand would be a contender.” A word
of warning: This is not a leisurely weekend read. Plan on
spending several phases of the moon with this one book.
How Literature Saved My Life by David Shields is a faster
read, but that does not diminish its importance. Shields,
a respected novelist and essayist, measures his life against
the books he has read. In the end, he says, the only books
he cares about strip the writer naked and “have at least
the chance of conveying some real knowledge of our
shared predicament.”
Michael Kardos
Author of the thrilling debut
The Three-Day Affair
Lots of people are reading Jess Walter’s amazing novel Beautiful
Ruins, and for good reason. This novel about a lonely young Italian
man lovesick for a beautiful American
actress during the filming of Cleopatra…
or this satirical novel about modern-day
Hollywood…or this novel about a selfabsorbed rock musician’s coming-of-age
— well, that’s just it: This novel is about
so many things. Yet Walter expertly
(magically?) weaves these multiple story
lines spanning decades and continents
and effortlessly jumps between comic
and dramatic registers. An original, engrossing, deeply satisfying
book. Just read it. Rivers, the debut novel by Michael Farris Smith,
is set in a slightly alternate America, where Katrina-magnitude
hurricanes have become so commonplace and destructive because of
climate change that the government has created a line cutting across
the South, and anyone who chooses to stay below that line does so at
his or her own peril. Call it a post-apocalyptic-road-revenge-novelof-redemption. It’s gritty and emotional and intense and plays its
high concept like a symphony.
SENSE MAGAZINE | 41
| arts
Movietown!
Festival will screen 40 films at four venues throughout downtown Fairhope
Text by Lynn Oldshue | photo by michael thomas
F
airhope is a half-hour from the nearest movie theater, but in November the Fairhope
Film Festival will show 40 films in four venues in the heart of town. Local auditoriums
will be filled with movies, shorts, documentaries and early favorites for Oscar
nominations as residents, visitors, filmmakers and actors mingle on the bluffs that overlook
Mobile Bay.
“Fairhope is the perfect place for a film festival” says Phil Norris, chairman of marketing
of the Fairhope Film Festival. “Fairhope has a beautiful downtown, the right infrastructure,
and we usually have great weather on the first weekend of November. It is the perfect place
for a social event like a film festival where people linger and talk. It will be an easy walk from
a great film to a restaurant with good food and a glass of wine and discuss the movies you
watched that day.”
Telluride. Sundance. Seattle. Cannes. Film festivals build reputations and name
recognition for their towns and cities. The Fairhope Film Festival is creating its identity as
a film lover’s festival with world-class films in a picturesque location with Southern charm
and a bay breeze. “Personalities of these festivals are different,” says festival director Mary
Riser, a former newspaper film critic and teacher of film and creative writing. “The identity
of a film festival can be commercial, independent, foreign or regional, like the New Orleans
festival. Ours is modeled after Telluride and Crested Butte with a hometown feeling and
international flair.”
Showing only films that have won awards makes Fairhope’s Film Festival unique. “The
only films that we select have already won a major award or they are a good movie with a
connection to Alabama,” says Riser. “These are the best of the best and it will be a sure thing
that people will see great films all weekend. I don’t know of any other festival with a closed
selection process like this.” There will be panel discussions and question and answers with
directors, actors and screenwriters attending the festival.”
The festival was started by Riser, Norris and John Gautier, technical director of the
festival. All three are movie buffs who worked together bringing films to Fairhope through
the Fairhope Film Series (1997-2012) at the Fairhope Public Library. “We showed the best
movies that were made during that time,” says Norris, who was has a degree in broadcast
and film and retired as founding director of the University of South Alabama Baldwin
County campus. “It was time for something new and the film series led to the idea of the
festival. We brought in consultants from Crested Butte because it is a festival in a similar
SENSE MAGAZINE | 43
| arts/music
“The only films that we select have already won a major award or they are a
good movie with a connection to Alabama.”
atmosphere. They said Fairhope is a great location because it has
the walkability, infrastructure, the airports, the housing, and the
Grand Hotel. Fairhope gives the festival room to grow.”
Festival planning and movie screening began in fall 2012.
Over the past year Riser has watched at least 120 films, some
more than once. “We have a selection committee and three out of
the five members have to strongly like a movie before we pursue
it for the festival,” says Riser. “I know in about 30 minutes if I
will like it. I watch a lot of the editing and writing. The art of
filmmaking is telling and story and good editing brings out that
art without ramming it down your throat. A film is really good if
you feel like you have participated in it and you feel like you are
emotionally involved.”
Researching and tracking down films for the festival is fun
for Riser. “It is like private detective work,” she says. “I met a
man in line at the Boston Film Festival whose wife made a movie
that won some awards. I tracked her down because I found out
that she was on the board of trustees of a foundation. I wrote the
chairman of the board of that foundation and in 15 minutes she
called me back. If I like the film, I try to get to the filmmakers
before they get a distributor because it is harder to work with a
distributor. One of our big films is ‘Last I Heard’ starring Paul
Sorvino and Renee Props. David Rodriguez is the director.
He likes to support small festivals and he agreed to send his
film here to be our opening film.”
Each of the films shown at the festival is an award winner,
but the Fairhope Film Festival also will present its own awards.
Judges are: Prudence Farrow Burns, an American author and film
producer, and the subject of the Beatles song “Dear Prudence”;
and Peter Adee, a film executive who has been in charge of film
marketing and distribution for major studios.
“These two know about as much about films as anyone can,”
says Riser. “They have already pre-screened some of the films, but
they will also watch many films with the audience because it is
important to get the audience reaction. The audience will also
judge the films and awards will be given based on votes from
the audience. Film festivals give laurels to the award winners
and Fairhope will have its own laurel that studios will use in the
44 | OCTOBER 2013
— Mary Riser, director of Fairhope Film Festival
marketing of the movies.”
Festival categories are foreign and English-speaking narrative features,
documentaries and shorts. “Don’t miss the shorts,” Riser says. “They are
anything under 40 minutes and some are only three to five minutes. Shorts
capture moments, and the best ones are about a feeling. We are showing
one short about a blind man who lost his sight. It is a beautiful threeto-five minute film about his experience with rain told from his point of
view.” Local filmmaker Len Rabren and Fairhope high school film teacher
Robby Trione assembled the shorts into four compilations that will last
approximately 60 to 90 minutes per package.
The festival will offer more than award-winning shorts and films. The
Red Carpet party takes place Friday night after the Alabama premiere of
the major movie. The Awards Party closes the festival Saturday night.
Bringing filmmakers to Fairhope for the festival could lead to films
made in Fairhope and South Alabama. “Once filmmakers visit Fairhope
they fall in love with the eclectic town that has its own ambience,” says
Kathy Faulk, manager of the Alabama Film Office. “We want the world to
see what we have here, but showing films with Alabama connections also
educates local people about what is going on the film industry in our state.
It is an exciting time for making films here.”
The support from the city, sponsors, volunteers, and movie insiders
has been encouraging for the festival. “This festival is already bringing
attention to Fairhope from many people who had never heard of it,” says
Norris. “We hope this becomes an annual event with many opportunities
to wow people with film. I want people so say ‘that was the best movie I’ve
ever seen, and I saw it in Fairhope, Alabama.’ ”
Venues for the Fairhope Film Festival
Nov. 7-10, 2013
in downtown Fairhope, Alabama
•
•
•
•
University of South Alabama Baldwin County Performance
Center
Fairhope Public Library
Faulkner State/Fairhope Campus Centennial Hall
The Venue, Courtyard
Film screening tickets will be sold in packs: $55 for a 6-pack;
$80 for a 10-pack. Event tickets for the Red Carpet Party on
Friday night or the Awards Party on Saturday night at Eastern
Shore Arts Center are $30 each (per event). Information about
tickets, films and schedules, go to www.FairhopeFilmFestival.
com.
SENSE MAGAZINE | 45
| greensense
E
verybody around these parts knows about Dauphin Island. I have since I was a
little kid. Many people also have little or no idea of the number of students who
go through Dauphin Island Sea Lab every year. Even fewer know that they teach all
levels, everything from kindergarten to Ph.D. I didn’t know that until I was accepted into
the marine science doctoral program at the University of South Alabama.
Dauphin Island Sea Lab was formed by the Alabama State Legislature in 1971 and is
Alabama’s school for marine studies for all the state’s colleges and universities. The University
of Alabama, Auburn, Spring Hill College and the University of South Alabama are a few of
the 22 member institutions. Facilities include first-class research labs, library, computer labs,
classrooms, research vessels, cafeteria, dormitories and the Estuarium.
The Sea Lab comes alive during summertime with courses for teachers and graduates
seeking continuation credits or a college course they cannot get at their home university. In
addition to teaching college students, the Sea Lab offers instruction to teachers and gradeschool students from all over the state and several other Southeastern states through its
Discovery Hall Program. These programs include classes for K-12 students, teacher training
and enhancement, and even elderhostel seminars.
Classes are designed to increase student’s appreciation and understanding of
environmental sciences and the marine environment through hands-on activities. Those
include touch labs, salt marsh excursions, squid dissections, ROV training, oceanography,
plankton studies, and even trips on a research vessel. Except for the touch lab, which is
designed for K-6, programs are designed for students from grades 5-12. Discovery Hall
programs teach more than 15,000 participants a year.
The Estuarium is essentially a public and community-based education program about
the organisms, biology, ecology and environmental processes that go on in the Mobile
Tensaw Delta, Mobile Bay, the barrier islands and the Gulf of Mexico. The Estuarium is
housed in what used to be a radar dome operated by the military. The Mobile Tensaw Delta
exhibit includes habitats and organisms, including alligators, typically found in the second
largest river delta in the US. The Mobile Bay tank with replica legs of the mid-bay lighthouse
includes fish and organisms found throughout the bay in a large brackish water aquarium.
— Dr. Ken Heck and Dr. John Valentine, current director of Dauphin Island Sea Lab —
piled into a couple of nine-passenger vans and drove 30 hours straight to the coast of Maine.
We had nine or 10 days to conduct our planned field studies in the coastal waters of Maine.
We then had the remainder of the quarter to analyze our data and complete our reports.
The university program at Dauphin Island Sea Lab is focused on a variety of scientific
disciplines associated with oceanography and ecology of estuarine systems including physical
oceanography, benthic ecology, biogeochemistry, phytoplankton and zooplankton ecology,
fisheries sciences and conservation ecology. Faculty at the lab are actively involved in research
on Mobile Bay watershed and its tributaries as well as the coastal zone and near shore
waters of the Gulf of Mexico. While most of the lab’s research is conducted in Alabama and
neighboring states of Mississippi and Florida, faculty at the lab conduct research at sites in
Mexico, Australia, Croatia and elsewhere. Visiting faculty from the nation’s best schools of
oceanography and marine science come to Dauphin Island Sea Lab to teach summer courses
and for the invited seminar series.
If you are considering a college education at the undergraduate or graduate level, or just
a course in the field of marine science, you should consider Dauphin Island Sea Lab. If you
are a teaching K-12, you should check out the classes offered there for your students or your
own continuing education credits. If you haven’t seen the Estuarium, I highly recommend
taking the family for an enjoyable experience. A nice gift shop features unique T-shirts
printed with artwork produced by students at Dauphin Island Sea Lab.
The Estuarium is open 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon until 5
p.m. Sunday. Closed New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Easter
Sunday and Thanksgiving. Estuarium admission: $10 for adults; $8 for seniors; $6 for ages 5
to 18 and students with I. D. Contact the Dauphin Island Sea Lab, 101 Bienville Boulevard,
Dauphin Island, Alabama. Call (251) 861-2141 or go to http://www.disl.org.
“Visiting faculty from the nation’s best schools of
oceanography and marine science come to Dauphin
Island Sea Lab to teach summer courses and for the
invited seminar series.”
Nature’s Classroom
Dauphin Island Sea Lab is a source of education for all ages
Text by Skeet Lores | photo provided by dauphin island sea lab
46 | OCTOBER 2013
The Mobile Bay section includes habitats such as oyster reefs and the salt marsh exhibit
typically found in this drowned river system. The barrier island section illustrates the
function of this dynamic habitat in protecting the mainland and contains both saltwater
and terrestrial aquaria. There is a room in the Estuarium called the Billy Goat Hole that
contains a replica of a French sailing vessel with a variety of interactive activities for students
to explore. The Gulf of Mexico section includes saltwater aquaria with both hard- and softbottom habitats, and the organisms typically found there — including an octopus. Flash
photography is allowed everywhere except the octopus tank. The exhibits are contained in a
10,000-square-foot facility, but there is also a living marsh boardwalk outside.
The summer school program offers undergraduate and graduate level courses during one
two-week and three four-week sessions during the summer that cover 25 separate courses.
Sessions are designed to allow teachers and students continue their education and gain credits
at their home universities. Dormitories are available, and most summer students reside on
campus because the courses often require evening and weekend time in the laboratories and
on field projects.
The first course I took at Dauphin Island Sea Lab was actually in Maine at the Darling
Marine Center. The course was Field Marine Science, and although it was part of the fall
quarter it was taught in the period between the last summer session and the beginning of the
fall quarter. It was an experience! About a dozen graduate students and two faculty members
SENSE MAGAZINE | 47
| wellness
“Having breast cancer required that I contemplate my death. Philosophically considering the fact
that I now have a name to place upon the cause of my dying involved a lot of soul-searching.”
June
June was diagnosed in October 1999. A single parent with two children, she
had recently moved from New Mexico. Examining her breast she felt a thickening
and had a mammogram, but it didn’t show anything. Nevertheless, she believed
something was happening in her breast; a subsequent mammogram showed this
to be the case, and she had a lumpectomy. Sixteen nodes were infected, so she
underwent chemotherapy. Now, 14 years post-cancer, June is married again to a
guy she knew in high school. She says she has never been happier and is an active
member of the League of Woman Voters and the Mobile Joy to Life Foundation.
Martha
Martha was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2009. For 25 years she never missed
having a mammogram. When she and her husband retired and their insurance plan
changed, she skipped one. Only a year later, a mammogram revealed a large mass of
nearly five centimeters. Because of the size of the affected area, Martha underwent
chemo before surgery. During this interim between chemotherapy treatments and
surgery, she and a friend traveled to New York City, visited St. Patrick’s Cathedral
and Radio City Music Hall. Martha even toured Manhattan in a rickshaw. She
affirms the joy of life and lives well in spite of adversity.
In spite of a recurrence of cancer three years after an initial mastectomy,
Martha defines what it means to be productive, dynamic and involved in life’s
numerous joys. She has tumors in her pelvis and hips and is takes Xgeva, a drug
that prevents bone fractures and other skeletal conditions in people with tumors
that have spread to the bone. Martha, however, has not slowed down. With Stage
4 cancer she teaches yoga twice a week, is involved with the Mobile Joy to Life
Foundation, the League of Women Voters, and the Building Committee of St.
Mary’s Church. “I hope my story can influence other women when it comes to
taking care of their health and maintaining a positive attitude after a diagnosis of
cancer,” she says.
Helen
Helen, like Martha, received a breast mammogram every year from age 40 to
age 80. In 2011, at an annual checkup, she was told she didn’t need a mammogram
at her age. In July 2012, she was sitting at her computer when she felt a sudden
sharp pain in her right breast and scheduled an immediate mammogram. It
detected a large mass of almost five centimeters. A subsequent PET (positron
emission tomography) scan disclosed infiltrating ductal carcinoma, Stage 4, with
metastatic involvement in the lungs, liver and spine.
When Helen met with a surgeon and oncologist and discussed her medical
options, she chose not to pursue surgery, chemo or radiation. “I want my
remaining years to be more livable,” she says. She began to take Letrozole, an
aromatase inhibitor, hormone-suppressing medication that addresses my positive
estrogen-receptor. “Now, a year and two months later, some of my lesions have
become smaller or undetectable. The spine involvement shows a lesion with no
measurable activity. I feel that I made the right decision to avoid chemo and/or
radiation.
“Having breast cancer required that I contemplate my death,” she says.
“Philosophically considering the fact that I now have a name to place upon the
cause of my dying involved a lot of soul-searching.”
Helen is closer to her family who immediately began frequent visits and
telephone calls. She is busily involved with her grandchildren, their birthdays and
other activities. “I’m okay with having cancer,” she says. “I continue to live alone
in my house, although I now have help to clean and do inside and outside work
that I used to do myself.” Helen is a literary critic and editor actively involved
with research. She mentions bone and muscle pain, but it doesn’t keep her from
doing the many things she enjoys.
Susan, June, Martha and Helen show that the diagnosis of breast cancer can
be a stimulus that provides the basis for a new approach to living a more intense,
fulfilling and joy-filled life.
‘One Woman in Eight’
Raising awareness and vigilance to fight breast cancer
Text by Sue Brannan Walker
A
n ordinary woman, on an ordinary day, stretches her breast onto the metal frame of
the mammography machine. She learns that she has breast cancer. As one of the “onein-eight” women who receive this diagnosis, her life suddenly changes. At once she has
important decisions to make in the short time that leads to the days, months and years ahead.
This is the story of Susan and June, Martha and Helen, four breast cancer survivors
who recount the most important journey of their lives. Robert T. Gonzalez, science writer
for the daily online publication “io9” insists that it is imperative to create compelling and
factual stories that promote greater awareness of how human beings respond to momentous
circumstances that occur in their personal lives. Conscious thoughts become narratives
“written in real-time by neurons and synapses.”
The American Cancer Society estimates that in 2013 doctors will diagnose about
232,340 new cases of invasive breast cancer in women and about 64,640 new cases of noninvasive breast cancer (in situ cancer or CIS). In the latter case, if the cancer is detected early,
before it becomes invasive and spreads, many lives can be saved.
Early mammograms are of vital importance. The Joy to Life Breast Cancer Foundation
of Alabama, founded in 2001 by Joy Blondheim and her husband Dickie, provides free
mammograms and other breast cancer screenings to medically underserved women in
Alabama. Its vital mission is building breast cancer awareness among all Alabamians and
providing health and well-being, education and support.
48 | OCTOBER 2013
Susan
A survivor of 17 years, Susan was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1996. “I had no
symptoms,” she says. “A friend had recently undergone a mastectomy and urged me to
have a mammogram. I had never had one before, but upon her insistence I made this most
important appointment.”
Susan opens a journal, the gift from a former student, and reads: “Thank you so much
for all you’ve done for me. You’ve helped and encouraged my ideas and journal entries that
have transformed into poetry. I hope you can fill these pages the way you’ve filled so many
lives with your teaching and friendship. I and many others will be thinking and praying for
you. Love, Michelle.”
“October 14, 1996: Michelle brought me this journal one week to the day after the
mammogram that showed a lump in my breast. What a week it has been — the kind Alvin
Toffler referred to in Future Shock as more than one can process.”
What stood out for Susan more than the horror of having breast cancer were the
numerous acts of kindness from many friends. “I want to gather these as affirming and
healing. My OB-GYN phoned almost immediately and set up an appointment with the
surgeon. I had a biopsy, and as I begin this journey into the unknown, I am nourished and
nurtured by people who have reached out, my physicians, my friends and my family.”
When Life Doesn’t Turn Out the Way You Planned,
a play by Sue Brannan Walker, directed by Ivan Davidson and starring Katie
Anderson, will be performed at 7 p.m. October 10 at the Laidlaw Theater, USA
Campus.
Tickets are $100. Proceeds benefit the Joy to Life Foundation that provides
screenings and early detection of breast cancer for the medically underserved.
SENSE MAGAZINE | 49
| literati
Where I Am Already Staying
by sue Brannan walker
‘The way that lets us reach where we already are, differing from all other ways.’
— ­
Martin Heidegger
After surgery, when I awoke,
the landscape was barren and flat;
there had been a war,
and from my belly
came cries
like an animal makes
lying frightened and wounded
on its back. I could smell
my own blood.
In the distance, impassable mountains
Echoed — whywhywhywhywhywhy
as wind picked up the sound
and broke it saying:
where word breaks off no thing may be.
Food was scarce:
a cup of clear broth,
bits of orange jelly
that melted on the tongue
with no taste. I tried to tell the story
of stone soup, but my throat was sore;
I couldn’t walk away.
Now I must learn to dwell
in this ravaged place
though fear lines up
like a movie-goer to see the show.
The feature has already started;
I don’t know how it will end.
I don’t want to look
and turn my head away.
This work by Sue Walker was first published in her book, ‘Blood Must Bear Your Name,’ published by
Amherst Writers & Artists Press and nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 2002.
LITERATI SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:
Sense invites you to submit edgy, eclectic pieces. We welcome short fiction, essays, humor, and poetry submissions. Rights to the material submitted remain those of its author, who is protected
under Creative Commons licenses. We reserve the right to choose all materials that appear in the publication. For more detailed submission information, email editor@thesenseofitall.com.
50 | OCTOBER 2013
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16
The Business of Festivals
41
Fairhope goes to the movies
44
Sea Lab as ‘nature’s classroom’