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Donegal Beard Contest Participants Sought

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It’s that time of year again, when men with whiskers shave-down in anticipation of growing their Donegal for this year’s Adirondack Donegal Beard Contest. New beardsmen are welcome to take part in the event, which is free and open to the public.

A Donegal Beard (also called a chin-curtain or Lincoln) is a particular style of Irish hirsute appendage (facial hair) that grows along the jaw line and covers the chin — no soul patch, no mustache. This year marks the contest’s third year.

In order to take part in the contest (and all are welcome) contestants must be clean shaven January 1st and grow a Donegal Beard by St. Patrick’s Day. On the day of the contest, held at Basil and Wicks on Route 28 in North Creek, 4 to 7 pm — all beards must conform to the Donegal standard.

Contestants are judged on length, fullness, style and sophistication.

To see pictures from last year’s contest, and to join the Facebook group, go here.

Photo: 2009 Adirondack Donegal Beard Contestants.

This Weeks New York History Web Highlights

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Each Friday afternoon New York History compiles for our readers a collection of the week’s top weblinks about New York’s state and local history. You can find all our weekly round-ups here.

Subscribe! More than 550 people get New York History each day via E-Mail, RSS, or Twitter or Facebook updates.

This Weeks Top New York History News

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Each Friday morning New York History compiles for our readers the previous week’s top stories about New York’s state and local history. You can find all our weekly news round-ups here.

Subscribe! More than 550 people get New York History each day via E-Mail, RSS, or Twitter or Facebook updates.

Syracuses Clark Music Company, Melville Clark

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In Pulling Strings: The Legacy of Melville A. Clark, musician Linda Pembroke Kaiser explores the extraordinary career of Melville A. Clark (1883–1953), a musician, inventor, entrepreneur, community leader, and collector whose colorful story is largely unknown. The story is told by Kaiser, a musician who performs on the harp, piano, and guitar. She has published articles in the International Folk Harp Journal and has published and recorded an album of harp music, Lullabies for Earth Children.

Beginning with an account of Clark’s musical family, Kaiser chronicles the founding in 1859 of the Clark Music Company, of which Melville Clark became president in 1919. Originally just a tinkers shed, the business ultimately moved into a six-story building in the center of Syracuse. The Clark Music Company celebrates its 150th anniversary in 2010. Clark also combined his talents as a gifted musician and astute entrepreneur to start the first Syracuse Symphony Orchestra.

Kaiser recounts the development of the Clark Irish Harp, the first portable harp manufactured in the United States, that could easily play accidentals. There were other Clark inventions, such as the first nylon strings for instruments. In addition, Clark designed balloons that the British used in 1918 to drop more than 1,250,000 pamphlets over Germany.

Clark’s story unfolds in detail: a musical encounter with President Wilson, entertaining President F. D. Roosevelt, a visit to Buckingham Palace to present Princess Elizabeth with a music box, and the journey of a Clark Irish harp to Antarctica with Admiral Byrd.

Pulling Strings uncovers the life of a musical genius and also sheds light on a forgotten chapter in Syracuse history.

Note: Books noticed on this site have been provided by the publishers. Purchases made through this Amazon link help support this site.

This Weeks New York History Web Highlights

admin

Each Friday afternoon New York History compiles for our readers a collection of the week’s top weblinks about New York’s state and local history. You can find all our weekly round-ups here.

Subscribe! More than 550 people get New York History each day via E-Mail, RSS, or Twitter or Facebook updates.

This Weeks Top New York History News

admin

Each Friday morning New York History compiles for our readers the previous week’s top stories about New York’s state and local history. You can find all our weekly news round-ups here.

Subscribe! More than 550 people get New York History each day via E-Mail, RSS, or Twitter or Facebook updates.

Brooklyn Museum January Public Programs

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During January the Brooklyn Museum will present a variety of public programs for adults, including a new series of programs that will take place every Thursday at 7 p.m. (during the Museum’s new extended hours), a performance by the Brooklyn Philharmonic, a panel discussion about the sexual exploitation of women farmworkers in America, and a screening of the independent film Good Fortune.

As a component of this series, the Museum is partnering with the Nuyorican Poets Cafe and PBS’s award-winning independent film showcase POV. The Nuyorican Poets Cafe will present poetry and performance every third Thursday of the month and POV will present Brooklyn-related films every fourth Thursday.

PERFORMING ARTS & FILM

Music Off The Walls: The Brooklyn Philharmonic
Sunday, January 23, 2 p.m.
In a program entitled &#8220Falling Apart and Coming Together,&#8221 members of the Philharmonic present the world premiere of a work by composer Corey Dargel inspired by the exhibition Body Parts: Ancient Egyptian Fragments and Amulets. A related gallery talk precedes the program at 1 p.m. Tickets are $15- $10 for members, students, and seniors. To purchase tickets, visit www.brooklynphilharmonic.org or call (718) 488-5913.

TALKS & TOURS

Lecture: Farmworkers in America
Saturday, January 22, 2 p.m.
Monica Ramirez, Senior Staff Attorney and Project Director of Esperanza, the Immigrant Women’s Legal Initiative of the Southern Poverty Law Center, discusses the state of American farmworkers, with an in-depth look at the economic and sexual exploitation suffered by farmworker women.

NEW THURSDAY EVENING PROGRAMS

January 6
&#8220You Must See This&#8221 Tour:
Norman Rockwell’s artistic process.

January 13
Conversation
Noted cultural thinkers and media theorists Douglas Rushkoff, author of Program or Be Programmed- and Steven Berlin Johnson, author of Where Good Ideas Come From, discuss technical innovation. A book signing follows.

Visitor’s Choice Tour
Visitors choose the objects they want to see.

January 20
Nuyorican Poets Cafe
First installment in the Museum’s partnership with acclaimed forum for innovative poetry features poetry and performances by muMs and Aurora, Carlos Andres Gomez, and others.

Hidden Secrets of the Brooklyn Museum Collection
&#8220Inside the Museum’s Mummies: The CT Scanning Project,&#8221 with curator Edward Bleiberg.

Erotic Art Tour
&#8220Erotic Art through the Ages&#8221

January 27
POV Independent Film
Good Fortune (Landon Van Soest and Jeremy Levine, 2010, 90 min.). Provocative exploration of how massive international efforts to alleviate poverty in Africa may be undermining the communities they aim to benefit. The event is a collaboration with the award-wining documentary series POV. (www.pbs.org/pov).

CLASSES & WORKSHOPS

Creative Art Making: Collage with Maura Madden
Saturday, January 15, 2 p.m.
Maura Madden, author of Crafternoon: A Guide to Getting Artsy and Crafty with Your Friends All Year Long, leads a workshop in how to make creative collage pieces inspired by Norman Rockwell. There is a $15 materials fee, and registration is required. Register at www.museumtix.com or at the Museum’s Visitor Center. A limited number of free tickets are reserved for Museum members on a first-come, first-served basis. Members should call (718) 501-6326 for tickets.

Photo: Carlos Andres Gomez. Photo courtesy Nuyorican Poets Cafe

On The New York State Museums Sunday Hours

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Beginning January 1, 2011 the New York State Museum will have new hours of operation, including being closed on Sundays. The Museum will be open Monday &#8211 Saturday 9:30am &#8211 5:00pm.

During the one weekend in February when the museum hosts NY in Bloom and the Annual Gem and Mineral Show. That weekend the Museum is open on Sunday. It’s also the only weekend when Admission is charged, as a fundraiser for the Museum’s after school program.

New York in Bloom &#8211 20th Anniversary
Friday, February 25 -Sunday, February 27 ? 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m.
1st Floor Exhibition Halls ? Adults ? Children ? Admission Fee:
Friday-$5/Adult- Saturday and Sunday-$6/Adult. Children age 12 and under FREE

Experience the sights and scents of the approaching spring during this 20th annual fund-raising weekend benefiting Museum Club and Discovery Squad, the Museum’s award-winning after-school programs for children and teens. Free parking available next to the Museum on Saturday and Sunday. $6 entrance fee to the Museum on Saturday and Sunday includes admission to the 18th Annual James Campbell Memorial Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show and Sale on the 4th Floor. For information, call 518-474-5877.

18th Annual James Campbell Memorial Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show and Sale
Saturday, February 26 and Sunday, February 27 ? 10 a.m.-5 p.m. 4th Floor ? Adults ? Children ? Admission Fee: $6/Adult- Children age 12 and under FREE

Vendors from throughout the Northeast display and sell gems, jewelry, minerals, lapidary equipment, fossils, and much more. Meanwhile on the 1st Floor, staff members conduct guided tours of the mineral and fossil exhibitions and are on hand to identify visitors’ own minerals and fossils. Call 518-474-5877 for information about times and locations. $6 entrance fee to the Museum on Saturday and Sunday includes admission to all New York in Bloom activities on the 1st Floor. For information, call 518-474-5877.

Washing Post Tweets Civil War, Secession

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As part of an initiative to mark the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, The Washington Post is tweeting the events leading up to the secession of South Carolina, in the words of the people who lived it – from journals, letters, official records and newspaper of the day.

The cast of characters tweeted include Major Robert Anderson @MjrAndersonwp, President James Buchanan @PresBuchananwp, and South Carolina Governor Francis Pickens @GovPickenswp. The feed @1860sPresswp will send updates from the Washington Evening Star. The list is curated by @civilwarwp.

For complete updates, follow the Washington Post Twitter list: “Tweeting the Civil War”

More information on the initiative can be found at: Tweeting the War: Showdown in Charleston

The secession will be tweeted through January 9, 2011.

This Weeks New York History Web Highlights

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Each Friday afternoon New York History compiles for our readers a collection of the week’s top weblinks about New York’s state and local history. You can find all our weekly round-ups here.

Subscribe! More than 440 people get New York History each day via E-Mail, RSS, or Twitter or Facebook updates.