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Local Life
Culture shock in Syria for Chestnut Hill teacher by BETSY O’NEIL (Chestnut Hill resident Betsy O’Neil, 36, is a 1985 graduate of Springside School and a 1989 graduate of Barnard College with a degree in political science. A math teacher at Penn Charter Middle School, she was granted a leave of absence until December so that she could move to Damascus, Syria, where she is currently teaching English and studying Arabic. Following is an e-mail report she sent to the Local.) I can get fixated on one or two ideas before I leave for a trip. I’m embarrassed to admit it, but this time it was about joining a gym. My reasons were as follows: For 30 years, Meals on Wheels delivers food, smiles By CAROLE VERONA When Anthony Chicone celebrated his 100th birthday, Chestnut
Hill Meals on Wheels was there. Not only did the organization’s
volunteers deliver lunch and dinner to Mr. Chicone and his 99-year-old
wife, Eleanor, but they also brought a balloon and a birthday present
to help him celebrate this milestone. “Meals on Wheels has been
a great help to us over the years,” he said, “particularly
because it eliminates preparation of the major meal of the day.” And
at 100 and 99 respectively, the Chicones have better things to do with
their time.
by MICHAEL CARUSO Germantown’s Cunningham Piano Company, 5427 Germantown Ave., recently stepped onto the international stage while helping to establish a meaningful relationship that has local connections. The longtime piano maker and restorer was the conduit between Temple University’s radio station, WRTI, and the Estonia Piano Company. The instrument is built in the now independent Baltic nation of the same name. Cunningham holds the franchise to sell Estonia pianos in Greater Philadelphia. Visual magic at new tile gallery in Mt. Airy by MARIE FOWLER Bright bits of ceramic and hand-made, hand-painted tiles are creeping up a column at 6780 Germantown Ave. in Mt. Airy. Admirers have only to step inside the just-opened Tesserae Studio Gallery to peruse the materials and methods artist-in-residence and owner Jessica Gorlin-Liddell employs to create her visual magic. The artist defines “tesserae” (pronounced
teh-seh-RAY) formally as “small particles of marble, glass
or earthenware, used by the ancients for mosaic, as for making pavements,
for ornamenting walls and like purposes.” And the Tesserae
Studio Gallery is chock-a-block with colored and mirror tiles, stained
glass, Venetian glass and sea glass — even broken bits of porcelain
dinner plates — all just waiting to be organized into unique
works of art. Tesserae offers, as the owner-artist promises, an opportunity
to “experience an ancient art with a modern twist.”
Area artist completes ‘windows
to heaven’ in church
by MARIE FOWLER “I’d like to talk to Mel Gibson,” Fort Washington artist and iconographer Susan Kelly vonMedicus insists, speaking of the actor/director’s movie, The Passion of the Christ. “While I really appreciate what he did, I take a totally different approach artistically.” vonMedicus, whose father was Philadelphia City Councilman Jack Kelly (late brother of Grace Kelly), notes that Gibson’s film is “pulled directly out of the Via Dolorosa,” Christ’s route through the streets of Jerusalem. “It’s a very faithful presentation, a lot about the ‘how’ and physical suffering, but not as much about the ‘why’ as I’d like.” |