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6-year guard aspires to be a vet
Written by Brian Cunniff Friday, June 22, 2012 12:56 pm
Matt Marquis has been coming to the Jersey Shore from his hometown of Swedesboro in Gloucester County for as long as he can remember. In fact, members of his family have been coming here for close to 75 summers, as the family vacation home at Eighth and Central avenues in North Wildwood has been passed down through the generations.
For the sixth summer since he has been 16 years old, Marquis is here at the shore for the entire summer as a member of the North Wildwood Beach Patrol. He regularly patrols the beach at Eighth Avenue, protecting many of the beachgoers and family members he interacted with as a youngster while going to the same beach.
But even though the 22-year-old recent Rutgers University graduate has always had an affinity for the beach, he also has a background in a much different lifestyle, after earning an undergraduate degree in animal science.
While at Rutgers, Marquis worked on a farm with different types of livestock. He also has experience on an uncle’s farm in Bucks County, Pa.
“Mainly I think it’s from my mom pushing me to be a veterinarian,” Marquis said with a laugh, explaining how he became interested in animal science. “But I love working with animals. It’s fun and different.”
Graham Nash adds one more medium to his message
Written by Bill Barlow Friday, June 22, 2012 11:01 am
Crosby, Stills and Nash musician to exhibit his artwork at Ocean Galleries
Graham Nash has been taking photographs for years. Now, he is ready to show off some of his other artwork.
An exhibit of his paintings, pastels, drawings and artistically enhanced photographs opens Thursday, June 28 and runs through Sunday, July 8 at Ocean Galleries, 9618 Third Ave. in Stone Harbor.
One of the founders of The Hollies, Nash joined with David Crosby of The Byrds and Stephen Stills of Buffalo Springfield to form one of the most successful groups of the 1960s. Stills’ former bandmate Neil Young joined up to make the band Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.
Young has been in and out of the band, and the members have released solo material and albums with various lineups and toured regularly since Woodstock. The trio – Crosby, Still and Nash – is on tour this summer.
To bead or not to bead isn’t the question – it’s what to bead next
Written by Christie Rotondo Thursday, June 21, 2012 07:59 pm
When rainy skies hit the Jersey Shore, beachgoers turn to crafts and indoor activities to pass the time. One craft – beading and jewelry-making – is becoming an intricate art for some rather than just a hobby.
“Handmade jewelry is becoming an art,” said Jessica McClanahan, who teaches a seed-beading class at Potomac Bead Company in Ocean City. “There’s craft beading and there’s art beading.”
The tiny seed beads are intricately stitched together in patterns to create jewelry and even sculptures.
Holly Parker of Ocean City, who creates and sells handmade jewelry, decided to take the spiral seed-beading class at Potomac Beads.
“Seed beading is big right now,” Parker said. “It’s just different and it looks like somebody actually made them.”
Parker said that handmade jewelry, particularly intricate pieces like those made with seed beads, is in high demand, rather than manufactured items.
Bill Baumer, owner of the Potomac Bead Company, said class times were moved to evenings to bring more people into Ocean City’s downtown, and prices were dropped to $10. The company holds two classes every evening, from beginner classes on creating a simple necklace, to learning how to spiral stitch seed beads. Frequently, the classes fill up, he said, as more people begin to catch on to the trend.
“People are learning that the hardest part is picking out your beads,” he said.
At Just Bead It in Stone Harbor, classes are also popular. Instructor Christine Norton believes it to be because of the sense of accomplishment that comes with finishing a piece of jewelry you can wear.
Read more: To bead or not to bead isn’t the question – it’s what to bead next
Call it gravy or sauce – tomato is the boss
Written by Christie Rotondo Thursday, June 21, 2012 05:06 pm
Growing up in an Italian American family has taught me the difference between yelling and “just talking, but loudly,” how there is no such thing as “too much” food, and that the red tomato liquid you put on spaghetti and meatballs is not sauce, but gravy.
My grandmother, who is the keeper of all family traditions, cannot stress this enough.
“That’s just what it’s called,” she told me once when I persisted in asking her why my family calls it gravy when everyone else says sauce. “That’s just what most Italians call it.”
To Joe Duncan, chairman of the North Wildwood Original Italian-American Festival, it’s gravy too.
“Not a lot of people make their own gravy anymore,” he said, likening it to a dying art.
The most important part of the Italian Festival, Duncan said, is that it brings people and families together.
“It’s a good thing. I’m happy when I see lots of families coming in and listening to the music together,” he said.
While Duncan is Irish, he considers himself Italian for the weekend of the festival. Going by the name Giuseppe Vencini, he makes all the meatballs for the meatball relay, which are almost the size of baseballs, he said.
“It’s an Irish family secret recipe,” he joked. “If people come to the festival, I will be more than happy to tell them all the secret ingredients.”
One Kook's Safari > Did we descend from marine mammals?
Last Updated on Tuesday, June 19, 2012 04:39 pm Written by Bill Barlow Friday, June 15, 2012 06:29 pm
Do you feel at home in the waves?
When you’re wading out for this first time of the season, or the first time that day, easing into the cool water, and you finally dive in to an oncoming wave, headlong into the salty green embrace, and you temporarily lose yourself in the ocean, do you get that feeling deep inside that says, with gratitude, “I’m back?”
There may be a reason for that.
Surfers get away with a lot of lofty, fluffy-headed new-age stuff when talking about their sport. Once in a while, you’ll get a bearded basketball guru talking about the way the court connects to all things, or a sensei explaining how the world is your dojo, but almost every surfer gets a little expansive talking about the waves, even when they unmercifully, sarcastically riff on almost everything else.
Read more: One Kook's Safari > Did we descend from marine mammals?
Service with a Smile - Jun. 15, 2012
Last Updated on Wednesday, September 19, 2012 02:41 pm Written by Staff Reports Friday, June 15, 2012 03:26 pm
Service with a Smile in OC- Jun. 15, 2012
Last Updated on Monday, January 28, 2013 12:30 pm Written by Staff Reports Friday, June 15, 2012 03:16 pm
Beach Reads > June 15, 2012
Written by Marjorie Preston Friday, June 15, 2012 02:55 pm
Gorilla Beach by Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi, Gallery Books. The end times are surely upon us when books like this find a publisher. Simon and Schuster, owner of the Gallery imprint, is sure to prosper with this outlandish tale by the “Jersey Shore” star, whose boobs, Bumpit and blue language have catapulted her to the sort of fame that once rewarded talent. Nothing can redeem this silly novel, which has frenetic pacing, foul language and goofball characters, but not a scintilla of real fun to recommend it. Don’t get me wrong; while I’ve seen only snippets of the TV show that made Snooki a star, she has a weird cuteness about her, and you can’t knock the girl for riding this gravy train to the end. But “Gorilla Beach” – about a pair of Guidette party girls who cross a mafiosa and must flee Seaside Heights for Atlantic City – is a monumental waste of time, hundreds of pages of hookups and drunken lunacy. I felt a little stupider after reading this, so you’ve been warned. Dumbness is contagious.
Cinemania > ‘Prometheus’ offers spellbinding visuals, poses heady questions
Written by Marjorie Preston Friday, June 15, 2012 02:49 pm
‘Prometheus’ offers spellbinding visuals, poses heady questions
“Prometheus” is a big movie that takes big risks. Ridley Scott’s return to science fiction, set as a spiritual and often literal prequel to “Alien,” borrows a lot from the original and presents heady themes and huge questions, such as: What would you ask God if you had the chance? What if God is just another creature weary of its own creation?
Scientists Noomi Rapace and Logan Marshall think they have found humanity’s origins in a race of creatures they call the “engineers.” From there, we board the Prometheus, a ship headed to the furthest reaches of the universe in search of clues. On board, we meet a corporate overseer (Charlize Theron) and a deceptively docile android named David (the scene-stealing Michael Fassbender).
Read more: Cinemania > ‘Prometheus’ offers spellbinding visuals, poses heady questions
Equestrians find common ground off the beaten path
Written by Christie Rotondo Friday, June 15, 2012 06:40 am
Kendall Casaccio, 16, brings her horse Love Actually to a quick trot along the perimeter of Pembrook Farm in rural Dennis Township, leans into the reigns, and leads the horse over a hurdle.
“Beautiful, Kendall,” shouts her trainer, Chrissy Covarrubias. “Now try the course in reverse.”
While many girls her age are at the beach on a given sunny day, Casaccio spends hours riding her horse and jumping it over 4-foot hurdles at Pembrook Farm off Route 47.
Casaccio, who lives in Upper Township, is a nationally ranked rider who has traveled the country to compete, placing at competitions throughout Pennsylvania.
She and other competitive riders belong to an equestrian community that stakes its turf on the rural back roads of Cape May County and goes largely unnoticed by the thousands of tourists who frequent the area in the summer, as well as a lot of the locals.
Read more: Equestrians find common ground off the beaten path
Fanfare for the common man
Written by Marjorie Preston Friday, June 15, 2012 06:00 am
Thoughts on fatherhood
In the final weeks of my father’s life, I told him “I love you” twice – making it exactly twice in a lifetime that I dared to say those three words out loud in his presence, though I not only loved my dad, but adored and deeply admired him.
For some people, I’ve heard, terms of endearment come easily – the words trip over each other at every leave-taking and in every conversation. My family has always been a little subdued about that sort of thing; our Irish sentimentality is always overruled by our grim Catholicness, and the German part of the family will have no part of it, either.
Anglers awed by size, variety of catches
Last Updated on Tuesday, September 18, 2012 03:32 pm Written by Heather Holtzapfel James Friday, June 15, 2012 04:23 am
Anglers can't say enough about how much fishing has improved over the past week – back bays, inshore and offshore. The sizable flounder are biting, weakfish are plentiful, sea bass are tackling the lines, the tuna bite is on, and sharking has been remarkable.
The 32nd annual South Jersey Shark Tournament wrapped up last weekend at South Jersey Marina in Cape May. The tournament had 114 boats participating, and 193 sharks hooked up to the lines.
The total payout this year was $260,434. Categories included mako, blue shark, thresher, dusky, brown, tiger and great white. The boat Rainmaker was the big winner of the day with the heaviest mako coming in at 330 pounds. For more tournament results see www.sjmarina.com.
SOMA Gallery to exhibit work of 3 artists
Last Updated on Wednesday, March 06, 2013 09:11 pm Written by Staff Reports Thursday, June 14, 2012 04:37 pm
SOMA NewArt Gallery will present exhibits by three artists June 23-July 29, opening with a reception 6-9 p.m. Friday, June 23 where visitors can meet the artists and enjoy art, music, conversation and refreshments.
SOMA’s Gallery One will feature "The Boxer and the Beauty Queen" by artist Sean Taylor.
Taylor’s new work is a nod to idealistic moments of youthful possibility – an allegory aimed at capturing both the beauty and the tragedy of pinnacle moments in the heights of success, while foreshadowing an inevitable fall.
A resident of Cape May County, Taylor is a graduate of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Virginia Commonwealth University and the University of Richmond. He has exhibited throughout the Northeast and at Art Basel, Miami.
Gallery Two will feature “On the Way to Cape May” in collage and paint by Cape May artist Harriett Sosson – a mixture of reproduced photographs from old Cape May, layered over with classical images to create unique collages. Sosson paints on top of some of the images, adding texture and color.
Stone Harbor Museum could be a thing of the past
Written by Christie Rotondo Thursday, June 14, 2012 03:17 pm
Stone Harbor’s history rests in the scrapbooks, beach badges, vintage bathing suits and other artifacts housed in the historical museum on 93rd Street – but it may be moving to a new home.
The museum currently resides in a circa 1913 dwelling nestled next to Stone Harbor Elementary School. The building is the property of the Stone Harbor Board of Education, but it is leased to the borough as an extension of the Stone Harbor branch of the Cape May County library.
Plans to build a new library have been in the works for years, and museum President Terry Cwik said that when a new library site is determined, the museum is expected to move with it. However, that depends on available funding and space, leaving the museum’s future in limbo.
One Kook's Safari > Welcome summer, welcome warmth, welcome waves
Written by Bill Barlow Friday, June 08, 2012 11:58 am
First off, let me welcome back the members of the marine mammal community who have recently returned to the area. Good to see you.
Last weekend saw almost perfect summer surf conditions: blue skies, small, clean and fun clean waves, and water temperatures that were warm enough to finally drop the full suit. I felt fairly miserable, and had to be coaxed into a Sunday session by my lovely surf coach, mentor and wife.
As soon as I stepped onto the beach, we could see a big pod of bottlenose dolphin outside the small break in the south end of Ocean City, about as beautiful a sight as anyone could ask for. They were far enough out that paddling out didn’t disturb them, and I could see some young among them so I didn’t try to get any closer. Any rides would just be a bonus after that.
There were a few. The water seemed a little cold at first, but after a couple of dunks it felt wonderful, especially being liberated from the thick wetsuit.
Read more: One Kook's Safari > Welcome summer, welcome warmth, welcome waves
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