University of the Virgin Islands President Orville Kean and funeral director and former V.I. senator Cleone Creque are this year's honorees at the annual Anniversary Ball of the Barbados Association of St. Thomas and St. John, set for Saturday at the Renaissance Grand Beach Resort.
"This will be our ninth annual ball, and it is in observance of Barbados' 34th anniversary of independence from Great Britain," association president Richard Payne said.
Kenneth Knight, founder of the National Association of Barbados Organizations, will be the evening's featured speaker.
In a letter soliciting advertising for the ball program book, Payne described some of the association's activities:
Having adopted the Kirwan Terrace Elementary School through the Volunteers in Public Schools program, it has donated services, equipment, materials and savings bond awards for graduating students.
It promotes the game of chess in local schools "and looks forward to having a competition of the schools in the near future."
It has donated funds for various community projects and for hurricane relief to neighboring islands.
It awarded two book-fee scholarships to graduating high school students enrolling at UVI this fall.
In a UVI press release, Kean noted that the association "has been supportive of the University by contributing scholarships and that it understands and supports UVI's vision of facilitating economic and social transformation in the Virgin Islands." It cited association member Beresford Husbands as having commended Kean for his "significant contributions to the community in the area of education, impacting both Virgin Islands students and those from the Eastern Caribbean."
The ball begins at 7 p.m. with cocktails, to be followed by dinner, the recognition program and dancing to the music of Deep Unda Kova. Tickets are $50 and may be reserved by calling 775-4824.
BAJAN GROUP TO SALUTE TWO AT ANNIVERSARY BALL
University of the Virgin Islands President Orville Kean and funeral director and former V.I. senator Cleone Creque are this year's honorees at the annual Anniversary Ball of the Barbados Association of St. Thomas and St. John, set for Saturday at the Renaissance Grand Beach Resort.
"This will be our ninth annual ball, and it is in observance of Barbados' 34th anniversary of independence from Great Britain," association president Richard Payne said.
Kenneth Knight, founder of the National Association of Barbados Organizations, will be the evening's featured speaker.
In a letter soliciting advertising for the ball program book, Payne described some of the association's activities:
Having adopted the Kirwan Terrace Elementary School through the Volunteers in Public Schools program, it has donated services, equipment, materials and savings bond awards for graduating students.
It promotes the game of chess in local schools "and looks forward to having a competition of the schools in the near future."
It has donated funds for various community projects and for hurricane relief to neighboring islands.
It awarded two book-fee scholarships to graduating high school students enrolling at UVI this fall.
In a UVI press release, Kean noted that the association "has been supportive of the University by contributing scholarships and that it understands and supports UVI's vision of facilitating economic and social transformation in the Virgin Islands." It cited association member Beresford Husbands as having commended Kean for his "significant contributions to the community in the area of education, impacting both Virgin Islands students and those from the Eastern Caribbean."
The ball begins at 7 p.m. with cocktails, to be followed by dinner, the recognition program and dancing to the music of Deep Unda Kova. Tickets are $50 and may be reserved by calling 775-4824.
"This will be our ninth annual ball, and it is in observance of Barbados' 34th anniversary of independence from Great Britain," association president Richard Payne said.
Kenneth Knight, founder of the National Association of Barbados Organizations, will be the evening's featured speaker.
In a letter soliciting advertising for the ball program book, Payne described some of the association's activities:
Having adopted the Kirwan Terrace Elementary School through the Volunteers in Public Schools program, it has donated services, equipment, materials and savings bond awards for graduating students.
It promotes the game of chess in local schools "and looks forward to having a competition of the schools in the near future."
It has donated funds for various community projects and for hurricane relief to neighboring islands.
It awarded two book-fee scholarships to graduating high school students enrolling at UVI this fall.
In a UVI press release, Kean noted that the association "has been supportive of the University by contributing scholarships and that it understands and supports UVI's vision of facilitating economic and social transformation in the Virgin Islands." It cited association member Beresford Husbands as having commended Kean for his "significant contributions to the community in the area of education, impacting both Virgin Islands students and those from the Eastern Caribbean."
The ball begins at 7 p.m. with cocktails, to be followed by dinner, the recognition program and dancing to the music of Deep Unda Kova. Tickets are $50 and may be reserved by calling 775-4824.
‘AN AUSTRIAN EVENING' IN THE GARDEN
Arts Alive with the cooperation of the Embassy of Austria Cultural Department will sponsor a special Austrian night with Gottlieb Wallisch, classical pianist, performing at 8 p.m. Sunday, March 4 at Tillett Gardens.
This is a black-tie dinner with wines, catered by Alexander's.
Please call 775-1929 for ticket information.
This is a black-tie dinner with wines, catered by Alexander's.
Please call 775-1929 for ticket information.
CAN YOU CONNECT THIS NAME WITH ITS OWNER?
Dear Source:
My name is Teresa Booker. I am looking for an old friend named Gladys Turnbull who is from St. Thomas. Gladys and I met in 1984 at Virginia State University, where we were both in the Army ROTC program. She would have been a sophomore then and may now be a captain or higher rank if she stayed in the U.S. Army.
I have been unable to reach her via the Army (because I would need her Social Security number) or Virginia State University. I would appreciate any help or leads that you could give me. I am hoping that someone knows her or of her and can ask her to get in touch with me, or tell me how to reach her.
Thank you in advance for your attention and for your help.
Teresa A. Booker
The City University of New York
My name is Teresa Booker. I am looking for an old friend named Gladys Turnbull who is from St. Thomas. Gladys and I met in 1984 at Virginia State University, where we were both in the Army ROTC program. She would have been a sophomore then and may now be a captain or higher rank if she stayed in the U.S. Army.
I have been unable to reach her via the Army (because I would need her Social Security number) or Virginia State University. I would appreciate any help or leads that you could give me. I am hoping that someone knows her or of her and can ask her to get in touch with me, or tell me how to reach her.
Thank you in advance for your attention and for your help.
Teresa A. Booker
The City University of New York
Editor's note: If you can provide helpful information to Ms. Booker, please click here to e-mail it to source@viaccess.net, and we will forward it to her.
RED BULL, THE ENERGY DRINK THAT GIVES YOU WINGS
Premier Wines & Spirits introduces – RED BULL – the energy drink that gives you WINGS!
A new generation has come alive and the old one is keeping pace. Ambitious, successful and creative. It is making its mark with seemingly unlimited energy and ever alert minds.
Endurance is vital, a strong will all-important. But there is a limit to what the body can take. And that is why a body needs RED BULL – the energy drink that gives it wings.
RED BULL stands out in the marketplace by leading a double life – energy drink by day and mixer by night! RED BULL energy drink was especially developed for times of increased stress or strain.
It:
— increases physical endurance
— improves reaction speed and concentration
— increases mental alertness (stay awake)
— improves overall feeling of well being
— stimulates metabolism and increases stamina
— helps to eliminate waste substances from the body
To keep it short: RED BULL stimulates the mind and the body.
It is also the perfect mixer. It hit the club circuit in 1997 in such hip spots as Sky Bar in Los Angeles and Twilo in New York City. It adds that extra punch that lets you party all night long.
Premier Wines & Spirits has now brought this energizer to the Islands.
It retails at $2.50-$3.00/can and is available at:
Marina Market
Off Shore Bar
Epernay Upstairs
Mongoose Restaurant
North Shore Deli
Ruby’s by the Sea
Jam Band
Crew Bar
Value foods
VI7 Red Hook
Friendly Grocery
T & M Foods
RED BULL – the energy drink that gives you wings!
A new generation has come alive and the old one is keeping pace. Ambitious, successful and creative. It is making its mark with seemingly unlimited energy and ever alert minds.
Endurance is vital, a strong will all-important. But there is a limit to what the body can take. And that is why a body needs RED BULL – the energy drink that gives it wings.
RED BULL stands out in the marketplace by leading a double life – energy drink by day and mixer by night! RED BULL energy drink was especially developed for times of increased stress or strain.
It:
— increases physical endurance
— improves reaction speed and concentration
— increases mental alertness (stay awake)
— improves overall feeling of well being
— stimulates metabolism and increases stamina
— helps to eliminate waste substances from the body
To keep it short: RED BULL stimulates the mind and the body.
It is also the perfect mixer. It hit the club circuit in 1997 in such hip spots as Sky Bar in Los Angeles and Twilo in New York City. It adds that extra punch that lets you party all night long.
Premier Wines & Spirits has now brought this energizer to the Islands.
It retails at $2.50-$3.00/can and is available at:
Marina Market
Off Shore Bar
Epernay Upstairs
Mongoose Restaurant
North Shore Deli
Ruby’s by the Sea
Jam Band
Crew Bar
Value foods
VI7 Red Hook
Friendly Grocery
T & M Foods
RED BULL – the energy drink that gives you wings!
VOTER INTENT MAY DECIDE CHALLENGED STX BALLOTS
With only 15 votes separating Sen. Vargrave Richards and Senate candidate Raymond "Usie" Richards for St. Croix’s last Senate seat, the V.I. Attorney General’s opinion on the validity of 56 challenged absentee ballots could decide the contest.
Usie Richards’ challenge is based on "spoiled" ballots, where a voter marked the political party symbol on the ballot card but then chose names of candidates not in that party. Sen. Richards is a Democrat and Usie Richards is a member of the Independent Citizens Movement.
Of the 56 ballots in question, Usie Richards’ name is marked on 18 to 20. As of Wednesday night, it was unclear how many of the ballots included votes for Vargrave Richards.
A letter sent to V.I. Attorney General Iver Stridiron on Tuesday by Dodson James, chairman of the St. Croix Board of Elections, asked for an opinion on the validity of ballots when:
– A political party has a full slate of candidates and an elector votes for that symbol, then marks an ‘X’ next to an independent candidate or a candidate of another political party.
– A political party has a full slate of candidates and an elector marks an ‘X’ to the symbol for that political party and then marks an ‘X’ in the district next to the name of a candidate of the same party. Does a vote for the individual supersede the party emblem or symbol?
– A political party has a full slate of candidates and an elector marks an ‘X’ next to that party symbol, marks an ‘X’ to six candidates representing the same symbol and also marks an ‘X’ to the names of candidates of another party?
Usie Richards, however, said he felt that the board’s query to Stridiron misses the mark. Instead, he said it should be asking for an opinion on a voter’s intent.
"It’s obvious the chairman in his letter . . . has clearly misconstrued and misrepresented the reason for the attorney general’s opinion," Usie Richards said. "My concern of voter intent and of a guideline to review paper ballots haven’t been asked."
V.I. Code and local legal precedent touch on the issue of voter intent. Prior to 1984, paper ballots were used and, in instances where a vote for a party symbol and a non-party candidate was chosen, voter intent was applied.
With the advent of voting machines, however, the paper ballot statute was repealed. But the Legislature kept the provision regarding paper ballots if voting machines are not available or don’t work. And, absentee ballots are paper.
In the mid-1980s case of Stapleton v. the Board of Elections, St. Thomas-St. John, in which the validity of paper ballots were questioned because of voters choosing a party symbol and then marking non-party candidates, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that "the election statute makes it clear that the intention of the voter is paramount and should be given effect when it can be ascertained."
Meanwhile, Usie Richards, who is a member of the St. Croix Elections Board, said that the ballots in question aren’t only important to him and Sen. Richards, but to the 56 people who cast them.
"The Constitution provides that the voter has a right not only to speak, but to be heard," he said. "The voter’s right to speak and be recorded is paramount."
In Monday’s recount of absentee ballots, Sen. Richards landed 137 votes compared to his cousin’s 122. The absentee ballots broke the election night tie of 3,936 between the two men.
Usie Richards’ challenge is based on "spoiled" ballots, where a voter marked the political party symbol on the ballot card but then chose names of candidates not in that party. Sen. Richards is a Democrat and Usie Richards is a member of the Independent Citizens Movement.
Of the 56 ballots in question, Usie Richards’ name is marked on 18 to 20. As of Wednesday night, it was unclear how many of the ballots included votes for Vargrave Richards.
A letter sent to V.I. Attorney General Iver Stridiron on Tuesday by Dodson James, chairman of the St. Croix Board of Elections, asked for an opinion on the validity of ballots when:
– A political party has a full slate of candidates and an elector votes for that symbol, then marks an ‘X’ next to an independent candidate or a candidate of another political party.
– A political party has a full slate of candidates and an elector marks an ‘X’ to the symbol for that political party and then marks an ‘X’ in the district next to the name of a candidate of the same party. Does a vote for the individual supersede the party emblem or symbol?
– A political party has a full slate of candidates and an elector marks an ‘X’ next to that party symbol, marks an ‘X’ to six candidates representing the same symbol and also marks an ‘X’ to the names of candidates of another party?
Usie Richards, however, said he felt that the board’s query to Stridiron misses the mark. Instead, he said it should be asking for an opinion on a voter’s intent.
"It’s obvious the chairman in his letter . . . has clearly misconstrued and misrepresented the reason for the attorney general’s opinion," Usie Richards said. "My concern of voter intent and of a guideline to review paper ballots haven’t been asked."
V.I. Code and local legal precedent touch on the issue of voter intent. Prior to 1984, paper ballots were used and, in instances where a vote for a party symbol and a non-party candidate was chosen, voter intent was applied.
With the advent of voting machines, however, the paper ballot statute was repealed. But the Legislature kept the provision regarding paper ballots if voting machines are not available or don’t work. And, absentee ballots are paper.
In the mid-1980s case of Stapleton v. the Board of Elections, St. Thomas-St. John, in which the validity of paper ballots were questioned because of voters choosing a party symbol and then marking non-party candidates, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that "the election statute makes it clear that the intention of the voter is paramount and should be given effect when it can be ascertained."
Meanwhile, Usie Richards, who is a member of the St. Croix Elections Board, said that the ballots in question aren’t only important to him and Sen. Richards, but to the 56 people who cast them.
"The Constitution provides that the voter has a right not only to speak, but to be heard," he said. "The voter’s right to speak and be recorded is paramount."
In Monday’s recount of absentee ballots, Sen. Richards landed 137 votes compared to his cousin’s 122. The absentee ballots broke the election night tie of 3,936 between the two men.
MEMORIAL SERVICE PLANNED FOR PEGGY DELONG
Community memorial service plans will be announced for St. Thomas graphic artist Peggy Lyons DeLong, who died of cancer Nov. 18 aboard Lark, the sailboat she shared with her husband, Ike, at the Independent Boat Yard marina.
Ike was by her side as she slipped peacefully into sleep, as was St. Thomas art gallery owner Carol Sirhakis, a friend from their high school days in Peekskill, N.Y., on the Hudson River.
DeLong, who had begun chemotherapy treatments locally last summer, continued to operate her graphic design business located within CET Business Services in Havensight Mall until two days before her death.
She and CET owner Cheryl Thompson had shared work space since 1993, until last summer in Thompson's Havensight Secretarial Services office in the mall building.
DeLong, who operated a graphic design firm in New York City for many years, was an avid sailor. In the early '80s, she was a member of a group of people at New York's South Street seaport who banded together to refit the Ernestina, a century-old tall ship and onetime American packet boat that had come into the possession of the Cape Verde Islands, and sail it back across the Atlantic to Newport, R.I.
"They were raising funds and Peggy donated a lot of design services," her sister Kathie Talbot recalled. "She flew to Portugal and sort of talked her way on board for the sail back. There were maybe 20 crew members, and she was the only woman." Wanting to make the crossing aboard the wooden-masted vessel as faithful as possible to its heyday, Talbot said, they made the 42-day voyage with no motor or modern navigational equipment.
DeLong – then Peggy Lyons – left New York in 1992 to sail her own 30-foot, gaff-rigged schooner, Repose, to St. Thomas, where she took up residence. Several years later, she and another boat liveaboard, a folk-rock musician performing in local nightspots just by the name of "Ike," fell in love. They were married on the deck of the Bottoms Up saloon at Independent Boat Yard. Close friends in the boating community gathered at the nearby Lagoon Saloon for reminiscences shortly after her death.
DeLong is survived by her husband, Ike DeLong; three sisters, Kathie Talbot, Christina Chiaro and Patricia Doane; two sons, Kevin and Robert Toohey; and three grandchildren, Robert's sons, Matthew and Greg, and Kevin's daughter, Kathleen, along with many friends on St. Thomas and in New York.
"Peggy belonged to two waterways," Talbot said. In accordance with her wishes, her body is to be cremated, with her ashes to be divided and scattered off the coast of St. Thomas and in New York Harbor. Both on St. Thomas and in New York, her sister said, "More people thought Peggy was their best friend, and that's a wonderful thing."
Those wishing to do so may make a donation in DeLong's memory in either of two ways:
Checks made out to "the Friends of Karen" will go to an organization that provides support to parents of children with cancer. Those made out to "Kathie Talbot," with "Peggy DeLong Grandchildren Scholarship Fund" written on the "for" line will go toward college assistance for DeLong's grandchildren. Contributions may be mailed to CET Business Services, 106 Buccaneer Mall, St. Thomas 00802, or dropped off at the office. Further information may be obtained by calling Thompson at 776-3424.
Ike was by her side as she slipped peacefully into sleep, as was St. Thomas art gallery owner Carol Sirhakis, a friend from their high school days in Peekskill, N.Y., on the Hudson River.
DeLong, who had begun chemotherapy treatments locally last summer, continued to operate her graphic design business located within CET Business Services in Havensight Mall until two days before her death.
She and CET owner Cheryl Thompson had shared work space since 1993, until last summer in Thompson's Havensight Secretarial Services office in the mall building.
DeLong, who operated a graphic design firm in New York City for many years, was an avid sailor. In the early '80s, she was a member of a group of people at New York's South Street seaport who banded together to refit the Ernestina, a century-old tall ship and onetime American packet boat that had come into the possession of the Cape Verde Islands, and sail it back across the Atlantic to Newport, R.I.
"They were raising funds and Peggy donated a lot of design services," her sister Kathie Talbot recalled. "She flew to Portugal and sort of talked her way on board for the sail back. There were maybe 20 crew members, and she was the only woman." Wanting to make the crossing aboard the wooden-masted vessel as faithful as possible to its heyday, Talbot said, they made the 42-day voyage with no motor or modern navigational equipment.
DeLong – then Peggy Lyons – left New York in 1992 to sail her own 30-foot, gaff-rigged schooner, Repose, to St. Thomas, where she took up residence. Several years later, she and another boat liveaboard, a folk-rock musician performing in local nightspots just by the name of "Ike," fell in love. They were married on the deck of the Bottoms Up saloon at Independent Boat Yard. Close friends in the boating community gathered at the nearby Lagoon Saloon for reminiscences shortly after her death.
DeLong is survived by her husband, Ike DeLong; three sisters, Kathie Talbot, Christina Chiaro and Patricia Doane; two sons, Kevin and Robert Toohey; and three grandchildren, Robert's sons, Matthew and Greg, and Kevin's daughter, Kathleen, along with many friends on St. Thomas and in New York.
"Peggy belonged to two waterways," Talbot said. In accordance with her wishes, her body is to be cremated, with her ashes to be divided and scattered off the coast of St. Thomas and in New York Harbor. Both on St. Thomas and in New York, her sister said, "More people thought Peggy was their best friend, and that's a wonderful thing."
Those wishing to do so may make a donation in DeLong's memory in either of two ways:
Checks made out to "the Friends of Karen" will go to an organization that provides support to parents of children with cancer. Those made out to "Kathie Talbot," with "Peggy DeLong Grandchildren Scholarship Fund" written on the "for" line will go toward college assistance for DeLong's grandchildren. Contributions may be mailed to CET Business Services, 106 Buccaneer Mall, St. Thomas 00802, or dropped off at the office. Further information may be obtained by calling Thompson at 776-3424.
ANNUAL TREE LIGHTING AT HAVENSIGHT MALL
The Annual tree lighting ceremony will be held on Friday, December 1 from 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Havensight Mall.
Stanley and The Ten Sleepless Knights, Deep Unda Kova, Imaginations Brass, and V. I. Housing Authority Steel Orchestra will provide music. Special guest VIRCD Signatures and Spirits will perform prior to the tree lighting.
Santa and Mama Deer will be on hand with gifts for the first 500 children. Mocko Jumbies, carolers, and quadrille dancers will perform throughout the evening. Local arts, crafts, drinks and food will be available and the Havensight Mall stores will be open for Christmas shopping.
This event is sponsored by Cruzan Rum distributed by Premiere Wines and Spirits, Ltd., The West Indian Company, Ltd., Coca-Cola, and Rainbow International Airlines, Inc. and is presented by The Havensight Mall Association and The Committee to Revive Our Culture.
Come out and share the Christmas spirit with family and friends. Island visitors are welcome to join the festivities and see how a Caribbean Christmas is celebrated with warm breezes, starry skies and warm friendly island smiles and wishes.
For additional information contact Linda Pinson 777-5313.
Stanley and The Ten Sleepless Knights, Deep Unda Kova, Imaginations Brass, and V. I. Housing Authority Steel Orchestra will provide music. Special guest VIRCD Signatures and Spirits will perform prior to the tree lighting.
Santa and Mama Deer will be on hand with gifts for the first 500 children. Mocko Jumbies, carolers, and quadrille dancers will perform throughout the evening. Local arts, crafts, drinks and food will be available and the Havensight Mall stores will be open for Christmas shopping.
This event is sponsored by Cruzan Rum distributed by Premiere Wines and Spirits, Ltd., The West Indian Company, Ltd., Coca-Cola, and Rainbow International Airlines, Inc. and is presented by The Havensight Mall Association and The Committee to Revive Our Culture.
Come out and share the Christmas spirit with family and friends. Island visitors are welcome to join the festivities and see how a Caribbean Christmas is celebrated with warm breezes, starry skies and warm friendly island smiles and wishes.
For additional information contact Linda Pinson 777-5313.
BILL SIMS BRINGING FAMILY-MAN BLUES TO V.I.
Bill Sims has a rock-steady reputation as a blues artist these days.
He has a pretty good rap as a family man, too.
And while the two concepts don't necessarily go together in the minds of many folks, they fit just fine in his life at the start of his second half-century.
So it's not surprising that the Bill Sims Blues Band will be performing on St. Thomas and St. John this weekend with Sims in the spotlight and his wife, Karen Wilson, in the audience. And their daughter Chaney would be sharing the mike with Dad on vocals except that "she's in college and can't get away," he said in a phone call Wednesday from New York.
The blues band opens the 4th annual Tillett Garden Series of non-classical concerts on Friday night on St. Thomas and moves Saturday night to the Westin Resort ballroom for a St. John School of the Arts performance.
Blues buffs can look forward to an evening of smooth city and kickin' country sounds, balanced out with some jazz, soothing soul and raspy R&B, plus a little Cajun spice and a hint of hip hop mixed in.
It's all to be heard on Sims' first album, titled simply "Bill Sims," released last year by Warner Bros./PBS Records. It came out at the same time that PBS – yes, that's the Public Broadcasting System – put out another CD also featuring Sims' music. That one was the soundtrack from a nine-hour PBS television series built around Bill Sims and his family.
The series, "An American Love Story," aired Sept. 12-16, 1999. Even though it wasn't on a commercial network, it generated a lot of interest because of its subject matter: the daily life of a loving interracial family. PBS publicity described it as the story of "a black man and a white woman who have struggled for 30 years against the racial stereotypes and societal prejudices that have tried – sometimes viciously – to divide them."
Independent film producer Jennifer Fox developed the idea for the series and did most of the work of making it happen. She went looking for a "role model" interracial family and, through a blues musician friend, found Bill Sims, Karen Wilson and their two daughters, then ages 12 and 19.
They were a "nuclear family" – a married couple providing for their children at home – but by no means a typical one in ways other than racial. After the birth of their second daughter, Sims, a blues musician with solid credentials but a career that had never quite taken off, opted to give it up to work as a househusband while Wilson pursued a corporate career.
Later, he took jobs as a carpenter and a postman – and then began easing back into the business after taking some fellow workers to hear Dizzy Gillespie one night. "I convinced Dizzy that I could play, and he let me between sets," Sims told The Washington Post. His pals "were blown away and urged me to get back into the music," he recalled.
By the time Fox took up residence on the living room sofa of their Queens, N.Y., apartment in 1992, Sims was playing regularly again in New York clubs.
Fox spent a year and a half with the family, racking up more than a thousand hours of videotaped verité footage. It was the summer of 1999 before the project was finally edited – just weeks before it aired.
Sims grew up in a mostly white central Ohio town. His romance with Wilson generated racial hostility even after they moved to urban Columbus, where he studied music for a while at Ohio State University, then played piano with a group called the Four Mints in the 1970s. The couple ultimately decided to relocate to New York.
He says he agreed to the television project because it seemed to him at the time that the more people talked about family values, they were talking about "a particular race or a particular class or a particular political party. This was a way to show that family values are present in all families. . . to show that even though we're an interracial couple, that we're doing the same thing with our lives that everyone else is doing."
So they invited America to watch them do what they did – cope with illness, juggle finances, share the wrenching experiences of a college student on a study trip to Africa and of a junior high girl starting to date.
Fast forward to 2000: "Bill Sims" has helped put Bill Sims on the blues map.
The only "Popcorn Music Review" terms the CD "a terrific blues collection" and says Sims' "soothing voice is part Bill Withers, part Aaron Neville." And "Blues Bytes" on the bluenight.com website calls it "an excellent example of modern blues by a modern bluesman."
On the PBS series soundtrack, Sims performs his own "Dark Moon Risin'," "I Want to See You Again," "Just Like You" and "Lovin' Friends." The album also features Otis Redding, The Temptations, Aretha Franklin and others.
Backing Sims for the Virgin Islands concerts are George Mitchell on bass and Tony Mason, who appears on the "Bill Sims" CD, on drums.
Rhoda Tillett, who has been on the mainland for two months recuperating from a broken knee, will fly home Thursday to be back in her accustomed role of hostess Friday night. She says she's looking forward to "seeing all the devoted blues fans come out for this show, because it's going to be one to remember."
Noting that the garden complex was the scene of three robberies in the past week, Tillett, speaking by telephone from her sister's home in Florida, said she couldn't remember the last time a robbery occurred there. It's been "10 years? Maybe more," she said.
She emphasized that for all concerts, Tillett Gardens provides "security in both the parking lot and the garden." And, she added, "It will be beefed up now so that people will feel comfortable on Friday."
Polli's Restaurant owner Donna Smith noted that she is using "the same security that we have always had" in the garden – off-duty V.I. Housing Authority police. "We have never had any problems during any of our concerts," she said, noting that even while off duty, the officers "are armed and they can arrest."
Friday night, seating will be cabaret style in the garden. Polli's, which will be open only to concertgoers, will have regular menu service until 10 p.m. for patrons seated at restaurant tables. The bar will be open throughout the evening, with limited menu service available to those seated in the garden. The concert starts at 8 p.m. Tickets are $25 in advance or at the door, with seating reserved. For reservations, telephone (941) 775-1929, fax to 775-9482, or e-mail to tillett@islands.vi.
The concert Saturday at the Westin is also at 8 p.m. Tickets are $30 for general admission and $25 for students with I.D. They may be purchased in advance at Connections of the Westin front desk. Seating is open. For further information, call 779-4322 or 776-6777.
He has a pretty good rap as a family man, too.
And while the two concepts don't necessarily go together in the minds of many folks, they fit just fine in his life at the start of his second half-century.
So it's not surprising that the Bill Sims Blues Band will be performing on St. Thomas and St. John this weekend with Sims in the spotlight and his wife, Karen Wilson, in the audience. And their daughter Chaney would be sharing the mike with Dad on vocals except that "she's in college and can't get away," he said in a phone call Wednesday from New York.
The blues band opens the 4th annual Tillett Garden Series of non-classical concerts on Friday night on St. Thomas and moves Saturday night to the Westin Resort ballroom for a St. John School of the Arts performance.
Blues buffs can look forward to an evening of smooth city and kickin' country sounds, balanced out with some jazz, soothing soul and raspy R&B, plus a little Cajun spice and a hint of hip hop mixed in.
It's all to be heard on Sims' first album, titled simply "Bill Sims," released last year by Warner Bros./PBS Records. It came out at the same time that PBS – yes, that's the Public Broadcasting System – put out another CD also featuring Sims' music. That one was the soundtrack from a nine-hour PBS television series built around Bill Sims and his family.
The series, "An American Love Story," aired Sept. 12-16, 1999. Even though it wasn't on a commercial network, it generated a lot of interest because of its subject matter: the daily life of a loving interracial family. PBS publicity described it as the story of "a black man and a white woman who have struggled for 30 years against the racial stereotypes and societal prejudices that have tried – sometimes viciously – to divide them."
Independent film producer Jennifer Fox developed the idea for the series and did most of the work of making it happen. She went looking for a "role model" interracial family and, through a blues musician friend, found Bill Sims, Karen Wilson and their two daughters, then ages 12 and 19.
They were a "nuclear family" – a married couple providing for their children at home – but by no means a typical one in ways other than racial. After the birth of their second daughter, Sims, a blues musician with solid credentials but a career that had never quite taken off, opted to give it up to work as a househusband while Wilson pursued a corporate career.
Later, he took jobs as a carpenter and a postman – and then began easing back into the business after taking some fellow workers to hear Dizzy Gillespie one night. "I convinced Dizzy that I could play, and he let me between sets," Sims told The Washington Post. His pals "were blown away and urged me to get back into the music," he recalled.
By the time Fox took up residence on the living room sofa of their Queens, N.Y., apartment in 1992, Sims was playing regularly again in New York clubs.
Fox spent a year and a half with the family, racking up more than a thousand hours of videotaped verité footage. It was the summer of 1999 before the project was finally edited – just weeks before it aired.
Sims grew up in a mostly white central Ohio town. His romance with Wilson generated racial hostility even after they moved to urban Columbus, where he studied music for a while at Ohio State University, then played piano with a group called the Four Mints in the 1970s. The couple ultimately decided to relocate to New York.
He says he agreed to the television project because it seemed to him at the time that the more people talked about family values, they were talking about "a particular race or a particular class or a particular political party. This was a way to show that family values are present in all families. . . to show that even though we're an interracial couple, that we're doing the same thing with our lives that everyone else is doing."
So they invited America to watch them do what they did – cope with illness, juggle finances, share the wrenching experiences of a college student on a study trip to Africa and of a junior high girl starting to date.
Fast forward to 2000: "Bill Sims" has helped put Bill Sims on the blues map.
The only "Popcorn Music Review" terms the CD "a terrific blues collection" and says Sims' "soothing voice is part Bill Withers, part Aaron Neville." And "Blues Bytes" on the bluenight.com website calls it "an excellent example of modern blues by a modern bluesman."
On the PBS series soundtrack, Sims performs his own "Dark Moon Risin'," "I Want to See You Again," "Just Like You" and "Lovin' Friends." The album also features Otis Redding, The Temptations, Aretha Franklin and others.
Backing Sims for the Virgin Islands concerts are George Mitchell on bass and Tony Mason, who appears on the "Bill Sims" CD, on drums.
Rhoda Tillett, who has been on the mainland for two months recuperating from a broken knee, will fly home Thursday to be back in her accustomed role of hostess Friday night. She says she's looking forward to "seeing all the devoted blues fans come out for this show, because it's going to be one to remember."
Noting that the garden complex was the scene of three robberies in the past week, Tillett, speaking by telephone from her sister's home in Florida, said she couldn't remember the last time a robbery occurred there. It's been "10 years? Maybe more," she said.
She emphasized that for all concerts, Tillett Gardens provides "security in both the parking lot and the garden." And, she added, "It will be beefed up now so that people will feel comfortable on Friday."
Polli's Restaurant owner Donna Smith noted that she is using "the same security that we have always had" in the garden – off-duty V.I. Housing Authority police. "We have never had any problems during any of our concerts," she said, noting that even while off duty, the officers "are armed and they can arrest."
Friday night, seating will be cabaret style in the garden. Polli's, which will be open only to concertgoers, will have regular menu service until 10 p.m. for patrons seated at restaurant tables. The bar will be open throughout the evening, with limited menu service available to those seated in the garden. The concert starts at 8 p.m. Tickets are $25 in advance or at the door, with seating reserved. For reservations, telephone (941) 775-1929, fax to 775-9482, or e-mail to tillett@islands.vi.
The concert Saturday at the Westin is also at 8 p.m. Tickets are $30 for general admission and $25 for students with I.D. They may be purchased in advance at Connections of the Westin front desk. Seating is open. For further information, call 779-4322 or 776-6777.
PISTARCKLE IMPORTING COMEDY FROM ST. CROIX
Starting Friday, Dec. 8, Pistarckle Theater will be presenting a first on its stage: a visiting production from St. Croix.
The play is "Beyond Therapy," a contemporary social comedy. It's coming to the theater in Tillett Gardens under the direction of Martin Merrick, a familiar figure in stage productions on the Big Island who served as lighting designer for the Pistarckle children's summer camp production of "The Hobbit" last July.
Pistarckle producer Nikki Emerich describes "Beyond Therapy," a work by Christopher Durang, as "a raucous, fast-paced comedy" about two people in therapy and their two therapists, "all of whom are looking for a long-term relationship in the classified ads." Durang, she said, "is a contemporary playwright who has a true sense of the absurd."
Featured in the cast of six actors for the local production is Walt Julio, who studied at The Actors Studio in New York. He and Merrick have been active in Merrick's own MTM Productions and in Caribbean Community Theatre on St. Croix. Julio also worked with Merrick on "The Hobbit" last summer.
"While they were here for ‘The Hobbit,' we were talking, and one thing led to another," Emerich explained. "They had done ‘Beyond Therapy' recently on St. Croix, and Marty thought our theater would really be suited for the play."
She added, "It's a pretty simple show to run. We're providing the set pieces, but they're bringing the props and costumes. We'll provide help with the lights."
The visiting production offers two enticements to regular Pistarckle patrons, she said: "a high level of talent and a change from the familiar St. Thomas faces."
(Meantime, starting Dec. 14, Pistarckle will be in rehearsal for its next presentation, "The Final Twist," which Emerich described as "a farcical thriller." It's scheduled to open Jan. 12 for a two- or three-weekend run, depending on demand. "Robin Stanton from the Chicago Dramatists Workshop is coming to direct it, and Holli Hornlien, an actress from Chicago, will play one of the three roles," she said. Cast in the other two parts are St. Thomas community theater veteran Val Kuffel and Yasir Rashid, a young St. Thomian who has been studying drama in Los Angeles.)
"Beyond Therapy" opens Dec. 8 with Pistarckle's popular "pay-as-you-can" night – a cut above a dress rehearsal, with audience feedback afterward appreciated. Performances proceed on Saturday, Dec. 9, and Friday and Saturday, Dec. 15 and 16, all at 8 p.m. There will also be matinees at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 10, and Sunday, Dec. 17.
While it's not a play aimed at a young audience, it's suitable for mature teen-agers, Emerich said.
Tickets after the first night are $22 for front-half seating in the theater and $15 for the rear-half rows. They're available at Bumpa's on the Waterfront, Marina Market in Red Hook, Polli's Restaurant in Tillett Gardens and McDonald's in Wheatley Center. Reservations are recommended. For charge card purchases or more information, call the Pistarckle box office at 775-7877.
The play is "Beyond Therapy," a contemporary social comedy. It's coming to the theater in Tillett Gardens under the direction of Martin Merrick, a familiar figure in stage productions on the Big Island who served as lighting designer for the Pistarckle children's summer camp production of "The Hobbit" last July.
Pistarckle producer Nikki Emerich describes "Beyond Therapy," a work by Christopher Durang, as "a raucous, fast-paced comedy" about two people in therapy and their two therapists, "all of whom are looking for a long-term relationship in the classified ads." Durang, she said, "is a contemporary playwright who has a true sense of the absurd."
Featured in the cast of six actors for the local production is Walt Julio, who studied at The Actors Studio in New York. He and Merrick have been active in Merrick's own MTM Productions and in Caribbean Community Theatre on St. Croix. Julio also worked with Merrick on "The Hobbit" last summer.
"While they were here for ‘The Hobbit,' we were talking, and one thing led to another," Emerich explained. "They had done ‘Beyond Therapy' recently on St. Croix, and Marty thought our theater would really be suited for the play."
She added, "It's a pretty simple show to run. We're providing the set pieces, but they're bringing the props and costumes. We'll provide help with the lights."
The visiting production offers two enticements to regular Pistarckle patrons, she said: "a high level of talent and a change from the familiar St. Thomas faces."
(Meantime, starting Dec. 14, Pistarckle will be in rehearsal for its next presentation, "The Final Twist," which Emerich described as "a farcical thriller." It's scheduled to open Jan. 12 for a two- or three-weekend run, depending on demand. "Robin Stanton from the Chicago Dramatists Workshop is coming to direct it, and Holli Hornlien, an actress from Chicago, will play one of the three roles," she said. Cast in the other two parts are St. Thomas community theater veteran Val Kuffel and Yasir Rashid, a young St. Thomian who has been studying drama in Los Angeles.)
"Beyond Therapy" opens Dec. 8 with Pistarckle's popular "pay-as-you-can" night – a cut above a dress rehearsal, with audience feedback afterward appreciated. Performances proceed on Saturday, Dec. 9, and Friday and Saturday, Dec. 15 and 16, all at 8 p.m. There will also be matinees at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 10, and Sunday, Dec. 17.
While it's not a play aimed at a young audience, it's suitable for mature teen-agers, Emerich said.
Tickets after the first night are $22 for front-half seating in the theater and $15 for the rear-half rows. They're available at Bumpa's on the Waterfront, Marina Market in Red Hook, Polli's Restaurant in Tillett Gardens and McDonald's in Wheatley Center. Reservations are recommended. For charge card purchases or more information, call the Pistarckle box office at 775-7877.
