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February 4, 2023

The Chestertown Spy

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Temple B’nai Israel Presents Rachel Franklin and the Annapolis Opera

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Join us on Sunday, January 22, from 2 to 4 PM, as Temple B’nai Israel—the Satell Center for Jewish Life on the Eastern Shore—presents a discussion and performance of selections by composers and lyricists George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Oscar Hammerstein II, Kurt Weill, and others, that pays homage to the contribution of these legendary creators. 

Rachel Franklin

Concert pianist and pre-concert lecturer Rachel Franklin and The Annapolis Opera will present a program of Broadway musical highlights exploring the crucial role this group of composers and lyricists played in the development of the modern American musical.     

 The Annapolis Opera has provided professionally staged operas and concerts for the Mid-Atlantic Region for over 40 years. Their mission is to enhance the cultural life of the region by presenting artistically excellent opera programming and educational experiences while furthering the development of emerging performing arts professionals.

Craig Kier

Rachel Franklin is well known in Easton’s artistic circles. Besides appreciating her performing artistry, audiences enjoy her witty, engaging style as she gives unique illustrations on the piano. From a 30-minute pre-concert presentation, a lecture-recital, Rachel Franklin focuses on the sheer joy and passion of great music so the audience can discover their own personal connections with its creative force. The Washington Post has praised her “cool-headed bravura and panache,” and the Baltimore Sun lauded “a flawless crystalline technique, and warmth and electricity in her playing.” 

Maestro Craig Kier, the Annapolis Opera’s Artistic Director since 2020, receives high praise for his “Tesla-like intensity” and “impeccable orchestral support,” while leading performances throughout the United States and on international stages. He will accompany artists Dirk Holzman, a rich lyric baritone whose versatility in many vocal genres has kept him active in the D.C., Maryland and Virginia area, and Colleen Daly, hailed in the Washington Post for her “mezzo-tinted lower register rising to a wonderful warm top.” 

Tickets may be purchased at eventbrite ticketing https://www.eventbrite.com 

For more information, please call Temple B’nai Israel at 410-822-0553 

Food Friday: Happy New Year!

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This is a slightly updated repeat of a column I wrote last year for New Year’s Eve. We are off gallivanting around albeit tentatively in our post-COVID world, and will be back in the new year, full of new resolves and recipes. We’ve been to one timed and tickets art exhibit that got very crowded, but lots of people were masked up, so we hope it wasn’t a super-spreader event. Otherwise, Happy New Year, Gentle Readers!

This New Year’s Eve I am kicking back with gin and Champagne (probably Prosecco because we are starting a New Year’s Resolution Budget). We will fire up the Acorn TV and watch a couple of episodes of the original Upstairs, Downstairs. There is nothing that makes me feel like a schlubby, self-indulgent, middle-aged, middle-class American faster than Upstairs, Downstairs.

Prosecco or Champagne? It’s a personal choice. I am hugely impressed by a stately bottle of Veuve Cliquot, and would probably serve it to Mr. Hudson, the butler from Upstairs, Downstairs, if he ever came to call. But I find a pretty orange label on a bottle of Mionetto Prosecco just as appealing. Lady Marjorie, also from 165 Eaton Place, would never comment on the lower price point. She would be pleased just to loosen her corset stays and have a second glass. And then Lady Marjorie will tell me to relax, and to enjoy myself a little bit. “You never know when disaster will strike,” she confides. (Lady Marjorie went down on Titanic, so she has some experience with life-changing moments.)

Mr. Hudson would tell me to pull up my bootstraps. The Christmas cookies are almost gone. In the meantime, it is Friday night, and it has been a long week. It’s the last time to indulge in 2022. Instead pouring a glass of my usual cheap winter Malbec, I thought I should test some seasonal, perhaps New Year’s Eve-ish cocktail recipes, to get back into the holiday spirit. These are easy crowd pleasers, but they require a little planning.

“The feeling of friendship is like that of being comfortably filled with roast beef; love is like being enlivened with Champagne.”
– Samuel Johnson

French 75s

“Hits with remarkable precision.”
-Harry Craddock, The Savoy Cocktail Book

2 ounces gin
1 ounce lemon juice
1 spoonful extra fine sugar
Champagne

Shake the gin, lemon juice and sugar in a cocktail shaker filled with cracked ice until chilled and well-mixed and then pour into tall glass containing cracked ice and fill up the glass with Champagne. This clever cocktail was said to have been devised during WWI, the kick from the alcohol combo being described as powerful as the French 75mm howitzer gun.

“Meeting Franklin Roosevelt was like opening your first bottle of Champagne; knowing him was like drinking it.”
-Winston Churchill

Champagne Cocktail

In a Champagne glass add a teaspoon of sugar and enough Angostura bitters to melt the sugar. Add a tablespoon of Grand Marnier or cognac and mix in with the sugar, bitters mix. Add a “fine” quality Champagne and stir. Float a slice of thin orange on top. This is what Ilsa and Victor Laszlo sipped in Casablanca.

“Too much of anything is bad, but too much Champagne is just right.”
-Mark Twain

As always, our festive friends at Food52 have some delightful ideas for nibbles to help soak up some of the bubbly we are sure to be drinking on New Year’s Eve. http://www.food52.com/blog/2807

On a recent trip to food-forward-thinking-Charleston, friends ordered the Aperol and Prosecco cocktail, because they are oh, so trendy. I did not realize that this is the most popular cocktail in Italy. And now it can be one of yours, too!

Aperol and Prosecco

3 parts chilled, dry Prosecco
2 parts Aperol
1 splash soda

Serve with on the rocks in wine glass or rocks glass
Garnish with a slice of orange (this makes it practically health food!)
http://www.eater.com/2014/10/21/7020183/the-story-of-the-aperol-spritz-a-classic-italian-cocktail

This is very pretty, and so seasonal: pomegranate mimosas. Yumsters. http://www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/recipes/a46968/pomegranate-mimosas-recipe/

“My only regret in life is that I didn’t drink enough Champagne”
-John Maynard Keynes

And the best of both worlds: a Black Velvet! Champagne and Guinness. This drink is simply equal parts stout and sparkling wine, and to be honest, there are some who will never understand its appeal. But to fans, this is a perfect special-occasion drink, particularly suited to mornings and late afternoons. I had my first on a gelid night in London, at Rules, in Covent Garden. Divine.

Black Velvet

4 ounces (1/2 cup) chilled Champagne or Prosecco
4 ounces (1/2 cup) chilled Guinness Extra Stout

Pour the Champagne into a tall glass. We first had ours served in heavy pewter tankards, but at home we eschew the delicate flutes for a sturdy rocks glass. This is not an effete drink. It is robust, and fills your hand with determination. Be sure to pour the Guinness on top. (This is important: Guinness is heavier. If you pour the sparkling wine second, it won’t combine evenly, and will need to be stirred. I shudder at the thought!)

Enjoy yourself this weekend. Happy New Year! Loosen those corset strings. And let the games begin, again, on Monday.

“Why do I drink Champagne for breakfast? Doesn’t everyone?”
-Noel Coward

Design with Jenn Martella: A Visit to the Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center

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This holiday week, if you and your houseguests are seeking a break from making merry, it is a great time to explore our area’s museums and State Park Visitor Centers. I recently paid a visit to the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park and Visitor Center and it was a very moving experience. To learn more about Harriet Tubman’s extraordinary life, I read “Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero, Bound for the Promised Land” by Kate Clifford Larson and I heartily recommend this book as preparation for your visit.

The woman who later reached international fame as the Underground Railroad’s best known “conductor,” abolitionist, Civil War nurse, Union Army spy, suffragist and humanitarian was born in 1822, the fifth of nine children. Her parents were enslaved to two different masters and the family was further separated when three of the oldest sisters were sold to Deep South plantations-just before six year old Harriet was hired out to cruel masters. As a young teen, Harriet received a head wound from an iron weight thrown by an enraged overseer whose target was a fleeing slave. This wound would cause her permanent damage from debilitating headaches, seizures and sleeping spells for the rest of her life. 

The death of her master left her and her remaining siblings at a great risk for being sold. In the fall of 1849, Harriet began to plan her escape by contacting the Underground Railroad Network that had begun in the lower Eastern Shore. Traveling alone and guided by the North Star by night or if the weather was cloudy, the flow of river water to keep her on track, she reached Philadelphia. 

Freedom was bittersweet. As she eloquently said much later in her speeches, “I was a stranger in a strange land.” She soon found domestic work and saved money to bring her family out of slavery. Between 1850 and the onset of the Civil War, she would return thirteen times to the Eastern Shore and eventually rescued approximately seventy family and friends. A keen strategist, she began her journeys on Saturday night since the newspapers would not print word of the escapees until Monday when the bounty hunters would then begin their pursuit. She also aided another fifty slaves with detailed instructions for their own journeys. This diminutive woman had an iron will and if “passengers” wanted to turn back along the way, she raised her gun and told them they died there or died free. The communication link of enslaved and free African Americans, white sympathizers,  Quakers, abolitionists, a secret network of safe houses and her disguises were all crucial to the success of her journeys.

After serving as a nurse and spy for the Union Army, she settled in Auburn, NY, where she became involved in suffrage and civil rights and was a popular speaker. She was justifiably proud to proclaim that “ I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger.” Her last humanitarian act was to establish the Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged where she died in 1913. After reading about this extraordinary woman, I was eager for my tour of the Visitors Center to learn more about her.

On the day of my visit,  as I walked from my car to the entrance of the Visitors Center, I thought about Harriet Tubman’s remarkable life and began to understand how well the architecture interprets her journeys north. GWWO Architects of Baltimore masterful design begins with a series of four linked pavilions oriented on a N/S axis in homage to Harriet’s journeys north to freedom. The pavilions can be interpreted in many ways; I saw them reflecting the Eastern Shore rural vernacular forms of barns, shed and outbuildings and/or “stations”  along the way to freedom. Overnight shelter for those on their way to freedom varied from cellars or attics in safe houses, barns, sheds and other outbuildings and the sizes and shapes of the pavilions reflect that diversity of size.


The color of the pavilions cladding material color identifies the administrative and exhibit functions. The wood siding of the administrative pavilion will become gray as it weathers over time and the zinc panels of the exhibit pavilions will also develop a dull patina over time, resulting in a uniform color for the entire complex. The connecting links are clad in wood with horizontal frames of glass with thin mullions. To me, this was an abstract interpretation of how “passengers” might have peeked through spaces between barn siding to keep watch until it was safe to leave their “station” and resume their journey. 

The widest link is between the two pavilions that flank the building’s entrance and lobby. The  administrative pavilion is angled slightly away from the three exhibit pavilions and contains the bookstore, restrooms and library. As a visitor, you begin your experience in the second pavilion containing the orientation theater, reception area and multi-purpose room. After a short film you then enter the exhibit pavilions that are shifted slightly horizontally so from each area you can always look through windows to reorient yourself north. 

The architects and exhibit designers placed windows that varied in size and location to frame the views from within the exhibit area where a portion of the exhibit portrayed an event that may have occurred during Harriet’s life. To reflect Harriet Tubman’s deep religious faith, one exterior wall has an abstract arrangement of window shapes and sizes. 

I was so focused upon the exhibits and did not realize at first how the links between each pavilion becomes wider as you move north. I also appreciated how seamless the collaboration between the interior architecture and the exhibit design was and how the interior finishes illustrated the journeys north. Reclaimed wood siding from barns lines the hall leading to the exhibits and the flooring changes from carpeting in the exhibit rooms (quiet, in hiding) and wood (noisy, risk of being seen) in the hall.

The ceiling heights change from nine feet to twenty-six feet under the exposed roof trusses. Just as there was not one route north and some parts were circuitous, the path through the exhibits has many turns that evokes the frenzied travel between the Underground Railroad “stations.” Visitors have the option to walk off the main path for further discovery of the surrounding landscape of the Blackwater area and the memorial garden. Beyond the last pavilion are the woods to the north and freedom.

After I left the Visitors Center, the wayfinding directed me to the memorial garden with its view north along a path that meanders through the site with views of fields, marshes and woods before returning upon itself that evoked Harriet Tubman’s many return trips. It is no surprise that this remarkable LEED Silver project has won numerous awards, including many AIA awards-Bravo to the project team for their thoughtful and beautiful design solution!

The Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park and Visitor Center is open Tuesday through Sunday from 10:00 to 4:00 pm (EST),4068 Golden Hill Road, Church Creek, MD 21622. Admission is free. With advance notice, groups may request ranger-led tours or interpretative programs. For more information, visit www.dnr.maryland.gov/publiclands or call 410-221-2290. Plan on at least two hours for your tour.

GWWO Architects, www.gwwoinc.com , 410-332-1009

Haley Sharpe Designers, www.haleysharpedesign.com

Photography by Bob Creamer, plans courtesy of GWWO Architects

Food Friday: Stopgap Quiche – Between Holidays

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The Spy Test Kitchen is still recovering from Halloween. It has been a long time since I had eaten that many Peanut M&Ms, but they were truly deelish. One advantage of being an adult is that you can eat Halloween candy, knowing that Luke the wonder dog will happily walk it off with you. I am oddly proud of myself, because I packed up all the other leftover treats, and sent them to Mr. Sanders’s office, with few regrets. Though a Snickers bar would be divinely tasty right about now.

It is time to start thinking ahead. Thanksgiving is right around the corner. It is fewer than three weeks away! It’s time to order your turkey. It’s time to start scribbling lists and timetables. If you buy a frozen turkey you can’t forget to factor in thawing time. The USDA recommends thawing your turkey in the refrigerator. https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2016/11/18/how-safely-thaw-turkey A thawed turkey can safely sit in the fridge for up to four days. Ideally, have a thawed bird sitting safely in the fridge by November 20.

And don’t forget – there might be a shortage in birds.The avian flu wiped out 47 million of chickens and turkeys this year. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-nears-record-poultry-deaths-bird-flu-virus-type-complicates-fight-2022-10-18/ It might be the year to consider serving ham, or get on board Calvin Trillin’s campaign for Spaghetti Carbonara for the National Thanksgiving Meal. http://www.rlrubens.com/Thanksgiving.html

It is time to get out your spread sheets. You should be planning the sides, the dessert, the linens, when to assign the silver polishing, what child will be making the centerpiece, what to have for a breakfast casserole, are you going to bake the potatoes before mashing them, or are you going to boil them the way your mother did? Pumpkin or pecan pie, or flourless chocolate cake? Salad?

There are lots of details, which you can review when you wake up at 3:00 in the morning and lie in the dark, considering your sad, pathetic existence. Which I choose not to do for another week. I am in deep denial. I would rather deal with the mundane today. We still need to eat dinner tonight. And as much as I would like the weather to be chilly, it is not. So no hearty lasagne, or beef stew here yet. We will have a quiche, because I have lots of eggs, and can improvise enough of the other variables to make an interesting dish, which will yield even more breakfast or lunch leftovers. Perfecto!

The quiche recipe I followed called for a mere 4 pieces of bacon. I am sorry, but that is not enough bacon. I used 8, crunchy, aromatic slices, which I baked on a cookie sheet at 400° F for 11 minutes. I also used half and half, and not full-on heavy cream, just because I’d like to make it to Thanksgiving without a major cardiac incident befalling any of us. I also used cubes of cheese from a block of grocery store brand Swiss. The way prices are soaring, Gruyére and Jarlsberg have become a just too expensive. And, because no one will ever notice, I used a store-bought pie shell. I know my limitations, and I just can’t bake an attractive pie crust. They always look like the bad pots I threw during my sophomore year in ceramics; sad, lopsided, mangled pieces. https://www.copymethat.com/r/joEwUEPoy/quiche-lorraine-craig-claiborne/ There might be a paywall: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1018126-quiche-lorraine

You can be autumnal as you improvise your own special quiche – throw in some zucchini or other squash. https://food52.com/recipes/8125-roasted-butternut-squash-prosciutto-and-sage-quiche Here is Martha’s take: https://www.marthastewart.com/331749/butternut-squash-and-bacon-quiche

Or you can splurge on the Gruyére, while also indulging your inner Popeye: https://www.onceuponachef.com/recipes/spinach-quiche.html

Here is a good compendium of quiches, which will encourage you to explore the inner recesses of your fridge, and use up the trace amounts of spinach, broccoli, taco meat, asparagus, feta cheese and bits of potato lurking there: https://gypsyplate.com/the-best-quiche-recipes/ And key to the quiche’s attraction is its ability to be reheated. Please, do not use the microwave! https://www.tastingtable.com/824169/the-best-ways-to-reheat-quiche/
Next week we will gird our loins for the Thanksgiving Experience.

On a sad note, we say farewell to one of our favorite food writers, Julie Powell, who died this week at 49. She helped bring cooks out of the woodwork and into their own tiny, messy kitchens to revel in mastering the art of French cooking:
“I have never looked to religion for comfort—belief is just not in my genes. But reading Mastering the Art of French Cooking—childishly simple and dauntingly complex, incantatory and comforting—I thought this was what prayer must feel like.”
― Julie Powell, Julie & Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen

Waterfowl Festival in Transition at 51 Years Old by Ken Miller

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In many respects, 2022 has been a year of transition for Waterfowl Festival, Inc. – from the year-end 2021 resignation of the  organization’s Executive Director – to the mid-year retirement of the Executive & Development Assistant – to the July employment of a new Development Director – to the increased responsibilities by the Festival Director. Additionally, the decision to select Attraction magazine to publish the Festival’s “Official Guide”, after having previously engaged APG Media of Chesapeake to publish this important informational piece, created some new challenges but with an entirely satisfactory and exceptional result.

Notwithstanding these changes, we fully anticipate that everyone – from Board members to staff to volunteers – are up to the task of putting on one of the finest Waterfowl Festivals in recent memory. When considering the success of the Festival’s 50th Anniversary celebration, the bar has been raised and will be successfully crossed. 

While traditional downtown venues for exhibiting world class art, sculpture, carving, and photography remain, we are delighted to return to Easton’s VFW facility for new and exciting exhibits. The VFW will stage a flag raising ceremony on Friday morning at 9:00 am when the Naval Academy’s Brass Quintet will perform. The Chesapeake Marketplace has been relocated to Easton’s new elementary school, affording enhanced exhibit space, parking, and ease of access. Of course, the popular “Buy, Sell, Swap” venue to include the world renown “Duck and Goose Calling Contests” remain at the Easton High School as does the ever popular “Sportsman’s Pavilion” on the Easton Elks property. Last, because Veterans Day falls on a Festival Friday, we’ve introduced a 25% off ticket price on November 11th for all veterans and active military service personnel.  

Through the William A. Perry Scholarship Program, the Festival awarded $20,000.00 in scholarships to 11 students who, among their academic achievements, have provided valuable volunteer services to Waterfowl Festival, Inc. These individuals, as well as past scholarship recipients,  provide current and future Festival leadership.  

During the year, Waterfowl Festival, Inc. has been most fortunate in receiving several grants, such as the annual support of the Maryland State Arts Council from whom we received almost $57,000 for the support and promotion of arts in Maryland and a $100,000 grant from the Maryland Historical Trust for the continued restoration of the Waterfowl Building’s steel casement windows. Additionally, the Festival received a $10,000 grant from Preservation Maryland for application toward an extensive “Building Condition Assessment” on the Waterfowl Building and a $5,000 “Heritage Tradition” grant through the Maryland State Arts Council…thanks to the thoughtful nomination of our friends at Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum.

One of our primary goals for the Waterfowl Building is to repurpose the facility for year-round multi-purpose use by our community’s valued not-for-profit organizations and for-profit entities. As the building is in critical need of various improvements, we were disappointed that our grant application to Maryland’s Rural Economic Development Fund for the complete reroofing of the building’s failing roof membrane was not recommended by the Economic Development Commission of Talbot County to the County Council. A setback, of course; however, it has created greater resolve and determination for our organization to impart much greater awareness to all community, county, and state agencies, on the important, if not irreplaceable attributes, that the historic/landmark Waterfowl building provides to the community and our important not-for-profit organizations.

As conservation-oriented activities represent the nucleus of our purpose, Waterfowl Festival has made a $25,000 grant commitment to a DNR/DU project at the Wellington Wildlife Management Area in Somerset County, Maryland. Waterfowl’s contribution will be applied to toward the estimated cost of $289,000 for the 2023 restoration of approximately 40 acres of wetlands habitat for migratory waterfowl, songbirds, wildlife, and flood control. When completed, we plan to offer tours of this important habitat in the Fall of 2023.      

Lastly, completed within the last week of October, the Festival owes a debt of sincere thanks to long-term supporter McHale Landscape Design for donating its time, materials, and labor to replacing all landscaping at the front of the Waterfowl Building. The beautification of our landscaping will be appreciated by all residents and Festival visitors to Easton.  

With the continued further support of our community leaders in Easton and Talbot County, including our sponsors and volunteers, we all look forward to an exceptional 51st Waterfowl Festival.

Ken Miller is the Board President of Waterfowl Festival.

     

 

    

LWV Harris-Mizeur Forum Highlights: Opening Statements

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For the next few days, the Spy will share with our readers the video highlights of the recent League of Women Forum with MD-1 Congressman Andy Harris and his Democratic opponent Heather Mizeur. Last week, the event was held at Kent Island High School in Queen Anne’s County.

The video segments will include opening statements, LWV questions, s representative number of questions submitted by the audience, and closing statements.

We began today with candidate opening remarks.

This video is approximately four minutes in length. 

 

Launch Party Set for Nov 4 for “Tapum” by Marianne Sade

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Msadeart and Robert Ortiz Studios announce a book launch party celebrating the official release of the children’s book, “Tapum!” by Chestertown author and illustrator Marianne Sade.

The public is invited to stop in on First Friday, November 4, 5:30 to 8:00 p.m. at the Robert Ortiz Studio at 207 South Cross, Chestertown. The event will feature a special appearance by the drum line of the Kent County High School Marching Band, leading off the festivities, performance by popular local guitarist, singer, artist Fredy Granillo, and a book signing with the author.

Marianne Sade’s experience as a children’s librarian inspired her to bring this book to life. She created the book for caregivers and children, ages zero to four, to enjoy together, to celebrate the rhythm and connection of the world all around, brought together by the sound of the drum, “Tapum!” Books will be available for purchase.

Attendees are invited to bring their own drums and percussion instruments to join in a drum- along. Refreshments will be available.

Preview: Four Women Hit the Reset Button in the Savannah Sipping Society

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There is something so fitting that the Tred Avon Players in Oxford will be performing The Savannah Sipping Society starting tonight at the Oxford Community Center.

Beyond the humor and friendship on display by the hit play by Jesse Jones, Jamie Wooten, and Nicholas Hope, the production highlights the challenges of starting life over again at a certain age. One could only guess that many on the Mid-Shore are on the same journey these days.

Be it the death of a beloved husband, the consequences of having bad boyfriends, or the unexpected inertia that comes after retirement, cast members Missy Barcomb-Doyle, Susan Patterson, and Lynn Sanchez powerfully explores this metamorphism with depth and humor when they take to the stage from October 27 and runs for eight performances through Sunday, November 6.

The Spy sat down with three of the four characters at the Spy Studio last week to hear more.

This video is approximately two minutes in length. For more information and tickets please go here.

Letter to Editor: I’m Casting my Ballot for Brooke Lierman

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Election season is here and there is one seat that is open for the first time since 1998: our State Comptroller. I am casting my ballot for Brooke Lierman to fill that role, and I hope your readers will join me.

The Comptroller is incredibly important – it serves as the elected CFO of the state, seeing every dollar in and every dollar out of our state’s coffers. It not only handles tax administration but also approves or denies all contracts as a member of the Board of Public Works. It is very important to have a strong environmental steward, like Brooke, on the Board of Public Works to help protect and restore our waterways and natural resources.

A Maryland State Delegate for 7 years Brooke has the vision and leadership we need to be a great fiscal steward and a champion for all Marylanders, including all of us on the Eastern Shore. I have worked with Brooke to pass legislation protecting both forests and waterways on the Shore and am very impressed with her ability to listen, compromise and work responsibly with stakeholders to get it done.

 I support Brooke because she doesn’t just talk – she delivers. She is one of the most effective members of the General Assembly and nearly every bill she passes earns bipartisan support. Brooke is a coalition builder who has fought for more transparency and accountability her entire time in office. Additionally, Brooke is the only pro-choice candidate.

It is obvious that we need a younger generation’s perspective in leadership and government today. I trust Brooke, I am excited by her candidacy, and I hope that you will join me in voting for Brooke for Comptroller!

Jeffrey H. Horstman
Queenstown

Mid-Shore Arts and Science: The Astrophotography of Joe Morris

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As with the case of a number of people, life got in the way of Joe Morris and his passion for astronomy. The West Virginia native and Yale Med grad made his career as an orthopedic surgeon rather than attempting to be one of the few able to work in research centers. But from his early life as a Boy Scout and 4-H member, Dr. Morris developed a love for the stars that has remained.

Noticing the remarkable dark sky (the critical component for any serious astro observation) when he settled in Royal Oak almost four decades ago, he was engrossed again in the evening constellations. That led to buying a professional telescope, building a modest observatory, and investing in software and hardware. And over time, Joe has been recording these stellar moments and transforming them into scientific documentation and photography.

Morris is stunned by what the Hubble Space Telescope, and now the Webb, is sending back to earth. Like much of the world, he is in awe of the findings that these magnificent satellites have produced. Still, even on his scale, he notes how advancements in computational photography and computer know-how have benefited amateur astrologers like himself.

Dr. Morris dropped by the Spy studio last week to talk about those images.

This video is approximately 3 minutes in length. To see more of Joe Morris’s astrophotography please go here.