Tag Archives: From Long Island

From Long Island

Manhasset, New York, U.S., Dec. 7, 2019. Guests enter historic house, with festive outdoor lights, at Elderfields Preserve during The Art Guild's annual 10x10 Fundraiser Silent Auction and Reception. (© 2019 Ann Parry, AnnParry.com)

The Art Guild Photography Exhibit: Everything Old is New Again

From LONG ISLAND – by Ann Parry (annparry.com)
February 9, 2020

  “Everything Old is New Again” at The Art Guild:
   Exhibit:  Feb. 1 – 23, 2020   •   HOURS   •   MAP
   200 Port Washington Blvd., Manhasset, NY 11030

The Art Guild past & present   (video with music, 2013-2020):

I got such happy news recently – my photograph “The Three Graces” won First Place in The Art Guild’s current Photography Exhibit: “Everything Old is New Again.”

TAG board members and the juror stressed how each photographer with work in the exhibit had reason to be proud, since there were over 200 entries, and Elderfields has room to display about 65 pictures.

Old Westbury, New York, U.S. 22nd June 2013. Dances by Lori Belilove & The Isadora Duncan Dance Company, with appearances by the Beliloveables, are performed by dancers at the Midsummer Night event at Old Westbury Gardens, throughout the illuminated grounds of the historic Long Island Gold Coast estate. (© 2013 Ann Parry/AnnParry.com)

Old Westbury, NY, U.S. Three dancers in the Lori Belilove & The Isadora Duncan Dance Company perform “The Three Graces” dance at the Midsummer Night event at Old Westbury Gardens. (original photos © 2013 / Oval photo completed 2020.  Ann Parry/AnnParry.com)

“The Three Graces” is part of my multi-year photographic series of Lori Belilove & The Isadora Duncan Dance Company performing on the grounds of Old Westbury Gardens, an historic estate on the Gold Coast of Long Island.

I captured the photos used to create “The Three Graces” during a dance of the mythological trio at the South Allee, a vast evergreen-lined path unfurling from the rear of the mansion, and I completed the oval photo in 2020.

Expressing and unifying the dichotomy of the eternal and ephemeral, individual and group, past and present… helped inspire “The Three Graces.”

  • Big thanks to TAG member Steven Silberstein for capturing this photo during awards ceremony:
Manhasset, NY, U.S., Feb. 1, 2020. L-R, Board Member DAVE WOLLIN, 1st Place winner ANN PARRY, and Judge HAROLD NAIDEAU pose at The Art Guild exhibition Everything Old is New Again, at Elderfields Preserve. (© 2002 Steven Silberstein)

Manhasset, NY, U.S., Feb. 1, 2020. L-R, Board Member DAVE WOLLIN, 1st Place winner ANN PARRY, and Judge HAROLD NAIDEAU pose at The Art Guild exhibition Everything Old is New Again, at Elderfields Preserve. (© 2020 Steven Silberstein)

Juror HAROLD NAIDEAU is a photographer, artist, and educator. He teaches photography at several Long Island institutions, including Five Towns College and Stony Brook University. His photographic portraits include NYC inhabitants, and icons such as Andy Warhol, Kiss, and Robin Williams. Naideau’s book Women on the Wall: Graffiti’s Urban Mythology – Struggle, 2014, is a compilation of graffiti and poems about women.


FEATURE PHOTO at top of post: Manhasset, NY, U.S., Dec.7, 2019. Guests enter house at Elderfields Preserve during The Art Guild’s annual 10×10 Silent Auction Fundraiser and Reception.

Originally built as a one-room house, circa 1675, this historic building exemplifies “everything old is new again.”  (© 2019 Ann Parry, AnnParry.com)


The Art Guild Receptions, Past & Present:  PHOTO GALLERY • VIDEO: https://vimeo.com/annparry/tag

“Midsummer Night” my photo galleries:  2013 • 2014  2015

Lori Belilove & The Isadora Duncan Dance Company: SITE

Old Westbury Gardens: SITE

TheArtGuild.org  MAP:

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Merrick, New York, U.S. December 20, 2019. [photo composite] KEVIN SHINICK discusses his novel during book signing for STAR WARS: FORCE COLLECTOR at North Merrick Library on Nassau County Force Collector Day. Author Shinick named home planet of Karr Nuq Sin, the main character of this canon Star Wars young adult novel, MEROKIA in honor of Merokee tribe who settled his Merrick hometown on Long Island. (© 2019 Ann Parry, AnnParry.com)

“STAR WARS: FORCE COLLECTOR”: From Merrick to Merokia

From LONG ISLAND – by Ann Parry (ann-parry.com)
December 24, 2019

Kevin Shinick’s Star Wars: Force Collector Book Signing at North Merrick Public Library

•   VIDEO 1 –  Reading Excerpt  of Ch. 13, “Star Wars: Force Collector”:

 VIDEO 2 –  Q&A  Kevin Shinick, his life, and Star Wars:

Launch time was 3 PM for the Star Wars: Force Collector Book Signing at the North Merrick Public Library on Friday, December 20th, soon after author KEVIN SHINICK‘s early afternoon presentation at his alma mater Calhoun High School, and before his evening book signing at Merrick Cinemas, where he worked as a teen.

Since children were just getting out of school around 3:00 that last day before Winter Break, few people were there at the start of the young adult novel event. But a stream of people – mostly parents with their young sons and daughters – soon started pouring into the large meeting room, with many adults standing along the walls so children could sit.

Some came mainly because of the Star Wars novel… some because Shinick’s a fellow Merokean, a friend… and two came because he’s their son.

• KEVIN SHINICK and his mom LOUISE SHINICK:

Merrick, New York, U.S. Dec. 20, 2019. L-R, Author KEVIN SHINICK and his mother LOUISE SHINICK, both holding his novel, pose at North Merrick Public Library banner during book signing for his STAR WARS: FORCE COLLECTOR, on Nassau County Force Collector Day. (© 2019 Ann Parry/Ann-Parry.com)

Merrick, NY, U.S. Dec. 20, 2019 L-R, Author KEVIN SHINICK and his mother LOUISE SHINICK, both holding his novel, pose at North Merrick Public Library banner during book signing for his STAR WARS: FORCE COLLECTOR. (© 2019 Ann Parry/AnnParry.com)

Q&A: “Everything he says is a lesson”

    • Video 2 – Q&A:  Baby Yoda, Batman comic books; Best Star Wars Lightsaber Fight; Broadway; Fiction VS Nonfiction; Heidi Gardner; Debbie Gibson; TV Hosting; George Lucas; Eileen Meyers; Robot Chicken; Ringwood, NJ; SNL; Spiderman, Star Wars…

During his animated Q&A, Kevin Shinick talked at length about writing the official canon Star Wars YA novel, Star Wars: Force Connector.

Shinick said, “Working with George Lucas – everything he says is a lesson.”

After the project got the green light, he stayed for a month at Skywalker Ranch, the California home and workplace of GEORGE LUCAS, the film writer, director and producer who created Star Wars.

Shinick was glad he stayed at Skywalker Ranch for a month, so he had a chance to ground himself being around Lucas.

“For the first two weeks I didn’t hear anything he said. I heard wonk wonk wonk wonk [as he repeated to himself] You made Star Wars. You made Star Wars.”

“George Lucas [is] an independent experimental film maker, and he takes chances. [….] He wasn’t doing something to make us love him. He was doing something to show us something we had never seen before.”

“It’s hard as an artist not to get beaten down. You’re doing it because you set an objective and you succeed at that objective.”

“With this book [“Star Wars: Force Collector”] I can find 10 people who love it and 10 people who hate it.”

“Star Wars, too, for some reason, there’s no middle ground. You either have to love it or hate it – there’s no middle ground.”

• KEVIN SHINICK with his childhood friend, pastry chef BRIAN FISHMAN:

Merrick, New York, U.S. December 20, 2019. L-R, Author KEVIN SHINICK and his childhood friend BRIAN FISHMAN hold up cake Fishman decorated with cover of Shinick's book STAR WARS: FORCE COLLECTOR during book signing at North Merrick Library on Nassau County Force Collector Day.(© 2019 Ann Parry/Ann-Parry.com)

Merrick, NY, U.S. Dec. 20, 2019. L-R, Author KEVIN SHINICK and his childhood friend BRIAN FISHMAN hold up cake Fishman decorated with cover of Shinick’s book STAR WARS: FORCE COLLECTOR during book signing at North Merrick Public Library.(© 2019 Ann Parry/AnnParry.com)

Shinick Rules

Shinick  shared a few of his life rules, wrapped in anecdotes often a bit humorous, self-deprecating – as in his Skywalker Ranch “wonk wonk wonk wonk” saga. Three of the rules he shared:

(1)  You’ve got to keep your community. You’ve got to keep people who support you, have your best interests in heart, who challenge you. People succeed in groups.”

(2)  “You have to know who you are.”
He wanted to be like Han Solo, but it’s his lot in life to know he’s more Luke Skywalker.

(3) 1st half: “Always go to the door that opens.”
He didn’t expect to be a host of “Where in Time is Carmen Sandiago?” but he took it when offered.

     2nd half:  “Don’t be afraid to shut that door.”
After “Where in Time…,” he “got a lot of hosting gigs.” Then one day – as he was driving to a meeting about an offer to host the show Extreme Gong – he had, as he looked back on it, a rather cinematic epiphany:

“I can’t do this,” [he thought to himself] and called my agent – no more hosting.” 

“Every time I did it, something was missing, and people weren’t looking at me as other things. I have to stop this.”

He added that he wasn’t negating hosting – it just wasn’t his dream.

After the book reading and signing, the strong affection and memories Shinick shared with many there at his hometown library burst into hyperdrive, with a force evaporating the time and space since they last met.

 
• TOM SHINICK suggested capturing a photo of his son KEVIN SHINICK with JAKE LEFEBURE, 10, an enthusiastic Star Wars fan (see Video 2 – Q&A):

Merrick, New York, U.S. December 20, 2019. L-R, JAKE LEFEBURE, 10, of West Babylon, holding signed book, and author KEVIN SHINICK, 50, strike funny pose at book signing for Shinick's STAR WARS: FORCE COLLECTOR at North Merrick Library on Nassau County Force Collector Day. Author Shinick named home planet of Karr Nuq Sin, the main character of this canon Star Wars young adult novel, MEROKIA in honor of Merokee tribe who settled his Merrick hometown on Long Island. (© 2019 Ann Parry/Ann-Parry.com)

Merrick, NY, U.S. Dec. 20, 2019. L-R, JAKE LEFEBURE, 10, of West Babylon, holding signed book, and author KEVIN SHINICK, 50, strike a pose at book signing for Shinick’s STAR WARS: FORCE COLLECTOR at North Merrick Library. (© 2019 Ann Parry/AnnParry.com)

“Star Wars: Force Collector”

KARR NUQ SIN, a teen who suffers from mysterious headaches, is the main character of Star Wars: Force Collector, a canon Star Wars young adult novel published by Disney Books.

Karr leaves his planet Merokia on a quest concerning the fabled Jedi and the Force. Karr travels with his friend MAIZE RAYNSHI and his droid RZ-7 (Arzee).

  • In VIDEO 1, Shinick reads a scene from Chapter 13, when Karr and RZ-7 go to a bar in a cantina on planet Oba Diah.

Shinick named Karr’s home planet MEROKIA in honor of the Meroke tribe who settled his Merrick hometown on Long Island, New York.

That was the main reason I looked forward to covering the event, held on what Nassau County Supervisor Laura Curran officially proclaimed Nassau County Force Collector Day.

Plus, there were similarities in our orbits, including that my younger daughter Laurie was a member of the Calhoun H. S. On Tour Company, under Director SAL SALERNO, about a dozen years after Kevin Shinick was.

In a more tenuous, colorful coincidence, my mom, MARY ANN PARRY, an opera singer, gave brief voice lessons to teen DEBBIE GIBSON, Shinick’s On Tour co-star in Fiddler on the Roof in the late 1980s.

• L-R, KEVIN SHINICK, CHRIS BARRON, and ANN PARRY after Shinick signs copies of his Star Wars novel. (please CONTACT ME if you know photographer’s name):

Merrick, New York, U.S. Dec. 20, 2019. L-R, Kevin Shinick, Chris Barron, and Ann Parry strike a pose at book signing for author Shinick's STAR WARS: FORCE COLLECTOR at North Merrick Library on Nassau County Force Collector Day. (© 2019 need photographer's name)

Merrick, NY, U.S. Dec. 20, 2019 L-R, Kevin Shinick, Chris Barron, and Ann Parry strike a pose at book signing for author Shinick’s STAR WARS: FORCE COLLECTOR at North Merrick Library on Nassau County Force Collector Day. (© 2019 need photographer’s name)


BIO –  Briefly, Kevin Shinick is a Broadway actor; a voice artist; a writer – for films, plays, TV shows, a Netflix comedy, Marvel and DC Comics, a children’s book (“Star Wars: Chewie and the Porgs“), and stop-motion series “Robot Chicken,” which he won Emmy for; a host for TV shows such as “Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego?”; writer and director of Spider-Man Live!; the husband of producer Eileen Meyer; and dad of someone who isn’t (yet) a pilot.


• Baby Yoda says: “Winner You Are! Feel the Force -The Book, You Must Enjoy”:

Merrick, New York, U.S. Dec. 20, 2019. Boy holds his winning ticket, with picture of baby Yoda and'Winner You Are! Feel the Force' on it, at book signing for author Kevin Shinick's STAR WARS: FORCE COLLECTOR at North Merrick Library on Nassau County Force Collector Day. (© 2019 Ann Parry/Ann-Parry.com)

Merrick, NY, U.S. Dec. 20, 2019 Boy holds his winning ticket, with picture of baby Yoda and ‘Winner You Are! Feel the Force’ on it, at book signing for author Kevin Shinick’s STAR WARS: FORCE COLLECTOR at North Merrick Library. (© 2019 Ann Parry/AnnParry.com)


FEATURE PHOTO at top of post: Merrick, NY, U.S. Dec. 20, 2019. KEVIN SHINICK, shown in photo composite, discusses his novel during book signing for his STAR WARS: FORCE COLLECTOR at North Merrick Library on Nassau County Force Collector Day.


Kevin Shinick’s Star Wars: Force CollectorMY PHOTO GALLERY

VIDEO 1 – Reading: vimeo.com/annparry/readstarwars

VIDEO 2 – Q&A:  vimeo.com/annparry/starwarsshinick

Kevin Shinick:  facebook

Director Sal Salerno:  site

Sweet Karma Desserts:  facebook  •  site     

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