March 2013 - Appel Farm Arts Camp

March 2013
In This Issue
Featured Alum.............................................................. 2
Sarv’s Corner................................................................. 3
Camper Artwork.......................................................... 4
Camp Reunions............................................................ 5
Appel Juice.................................................................... 6
Look Who’s Coming to Camp.................................. 7
Countdown to Camp 2013........................................ 7
School Year Blog.......................................................... 7
95 days and counting...
We had so much fun with over 50 of our camp friends at
the Appel Farm Spring Reunion at the Funplex earlier this
month! Next, we are hoping to spread the Appel Farm love...
Bring a friend from home to Earth Day at Appel Farm! Look
for details about our last reunion before Camp 2013!
Until then, please enjoy meeting camp alumnus, Jeremy
Bloom, and learn how We Are All Nuts with Sarv. Check
out our talented campers, and start dreaming about what
you’ll create this summer! See who’s already signed up, and
continue your countdown to Camp 2013!
Have you been reading Appel Farm’s new School Year Blog?
It’s really fun, and super informative! Check it out every day!
We would love to hear from you as well! Let us know what
you’re up to! Share news about your art, upcoming shows,
college, jobs, family, and life in general! We’ll get all of your
Appel Juice together, and share it in the next Appel Core!
Until Camp...
Jennie, Cori, and Melissa
Stay in Touch!
Call or visit our website to register for Camp 2013 ;; Read the Appel Core!
before March 31st and receive a $300 discount off your ;; Submit Appel Juice!
4, 6, or 8-week tuition!
;; Friend us on Facebook!
;; Come to the Camp
Reunions!
;; Become an Appel Farm
Ambassador!
;; Take the Camper
Survey on our website!
(856) 358-2472 [email protected] www.appelfarmartscamp.org
Refer a Friend!
If you know anyone who
might be a great fit for the
community at Appel Farm
(and who would know
better than you guys) we
would love to introduce
ourselves!
You can refer a friend on
our website, or just give us
a call!
FEATURED ALUM
Jeremy Bloom
1.When were you at camp?
party-music band in which
I play the accordion.
First Session, 2001-2005.
Shameless plug: www.
facebook.com/tipsyoxcart.
2.What was your major and
what were some of your
minors?
5.How do you think you were
influenced by your Appel
Farm experience?
I was always a Technical
Theater major. My minors
varied.. I think some
included music, sculpture,
and video.
3.What was camp like when
you were a camper and
what are some of your
favorite memories?
My years at camp were
just at the turning point of
getting all the new facilities.
Many of the dorms were
still chicken coops and
the new Art Barn had just
been built. I very fondly
remember:
Jeremy, at a parade in Istanbul, Turkey
Playing Balkan music and
Appalachian fiddle tunes
with Merrill Garbus (now of
tUnE-yArDs fame).
6.What advice or
suggestions do you have
for present day Appel Farm
campers?
Reading all of Harry
Potter when a massive
thunderstorm struck and I
was in the bunk for shelter.
There was a counselor
named Greg, I forget his
last name, who is singularly
responsible for starting
my obsessive love for
learning new instruments.
He brought a number of
mountain dulcimers one
year, which I picked up
quite quickly and it just all
took off from there.
One summer there was
also a very shy Turkish
guy in the bunk. I didn’t
interact with him too much,
but I learned my very first
Turkish words from him
which is quite significant
because I am now fluent.
I think Appel Farm was
pivotal in forming who I
am now. Most of all, Appel
Farm really supported me
in coming out as a young
gay man. Because of liberal
environments like Appel
Farm that I was lucky
enough to find myself in,
I never even really had a
chance to classically be “in
the closet.” It was at Appel
Farm where I figured out
I was gay. Luckily in this
environment there was no
doubt that my peers would
accept me.
Jeremy, as Lugarshz, a character he and friend Ben Pine came up with, a kind of
culturally confused Eastern European guy who was giving nonsensical advice
4.Where are you living now,
and what are you doing for
work and fun?
I recently graduated from
Vassar College. I moved
back to my hometown
of Brooklyn, NY and am
now living in the sea-side
neighborhood of Red Hook.
I’m working as a freelance
sound designer for theater
and am the resident sound
designer at The Flea
Theater, a well-known
player in NYC’s downtown
theatre scene. I am also
very proud to be a member
of “Tipsy Oxcart,” a new
funky Bulgarian\Balkan
Don’t specialize: Make lots
of art: It is VERY unlikely
you will ever have this
much time and freedom
to make art without
distractions for the rest of
your life. Make sure you
try new majors or at least
minors every year — you
might find something you
really enjoy and never knew
about. For me, that surprise
was learning to work with
glass at a torch. Your
counselors are talented,
so make sure you are
proactive to learn as much
as you can from them.
Explore. Be subversive.
Hang out with Sarv.
Performers!
Sarvananda Bluestone has been a college professor, published author
and professional psychic. In addition he has been the Head Counselor
and a Theater Director at Appel Farm for 26 summers. He originally
came so that his daughter, Hira, could come as a camper, and now her
daughter, his grand daughter, Lucy, can come this summer.
We Are All Nuts
Albert Einstein was a smart
fellow. He was perhaps the
smartest guy in the last two
hundred years…or more. But
more than smart, he was wise.
Einstein gave one of the best
definitions of craziness. Insanity,
he said, “is doing the same thing
over and over and expecting
different results.” Think about.
We do the same things over and
over and expect that things will
be different.
Fact is that, according to
Einstein’s definition, we are all
nuts. I don’t mean homicidal
maniac foaming at the mouth
crazy. I mean every day, garden
variety cuckoo. It comes with
being human.
How many times, for example,
do we worry about things? I
worry about the people I love. I
worry about my daughter, Hira,
my granddaughter, Lucy, and my
son in law, Todd. I worry about
being loved. I know that this
worrying does nothing but make
me feel crappy. I know this in my
head and still I worry.
If we think about it there are
probably hundreds of examples
every day where we do things
that we have done before and
get the same results. If we listen
we can hear a little echo inside.
It’s a kind of “I’ve been here
before” feeling.
I go down to Appel Farm every
year in late February or early
March. It’s a wonderful trip
despite its length. Over time
the trip has become a friendship
journey. I hang out with Rena
Levitt — who was Appel Farm
camp director during my first
thirteen years there — and her
husband Stanley — two dear old
friends. I hang out with Jennie
and Cori who are also beloved
friends. And on the way back
I stop in Princeton, where my
very old and dear friend, Joan
Scott, lives. Joan and I were
camp counselors together over
fifty years ago. We did our
graduate work in history at the
University of Wisconsin. Joan
always makes a delicious dinner
— we talk about our children
and grand children like good
grandparents do and share
our lives for the previous year.
The last leg of the trip is thus
warmed.
This time, on my last day at
Appel Farm, Jennie, Cori and I
had lunch with Loren Thomas,
the new executive director of
Appel Farm, a position that Mark
Packer had for the past quarter
century. Loren is a very cool and
thoughtful guy. Early on, during
the lunch, he turned to me and
said, “I understand you don’t like
change.”
I really do like it when people
speak their minds. It’s a brave
thing to do with strangers and
the more we do it, the less scary
it becomes. And it beats B.S.
every time.
New Haven is to Seattle what
Death Valley is to Paris. I know
they will be much happier. But
my feelings were dominated by
worry. I was losing something
that I was familiar with.
My experience has been that I
have grown and flourished with
change. Otherwise, I would
still be toddling around and
pooping in my diapers. I know
that change is the essence of
life, itself. Still I fear and resist it.
We all probably could come
up with a list of things that we
do over and over again that
do not serve us. These are our
little nuttiness. They don’t make
us bad people. They make us
human.
All of us bring our little craziness
to Appel Farm. As the poet
Gertrude Stein once said,
“wherever you go, there you
are.” We can’t escape from
ourselves. But one of the nice
things about camp is that we
don’t need to escape from
ourselves. We can be who we
are. (After all, who else could
we be?)
Of course he was right. I
don’t like change. It’s one of
those repetitive things that I
mentioned. And it usually has
very little to do with what is
being changed. It has to do
with me.
It’s always easier to see the
problems with someone else
rather than ourselves. I do it
all the time. The challenge is
humility — the recognition that
everybody wants to be loved.
Everybody has fears. And most
of us worry that we don’t belong.
Loren’s comment came at an
appropriate time. After five years,
my daughter, granddaughter
and son in law are moving back
to Seattle. For five years they
have lived less than two and half
hours from me. Change. I know
they will be much happier in the
city they love. And let’s face it
At camp we have the opportunity
to help ourselves and each
other to go through our fears,
our worries and all of the little
quirkiness that make us up.
We can help each other grow
and truly become a community
of artists, each of us our own
unique work of art.
Visual Arts and Photography
Isabel Van den Heuvel
Grace Barrett
Kathryn Abbott
Giulia Casiraghi
Sophie Hill
Cameron Pollack
Jordana Schechner-Kanofsky
Vanessa Roser
Campsick?
Campsick?
We had so much fun at the Appel Farm Spring
Reunion at The Funplex, and we can’t wait to see you
all again for our last reunion on Sunday, April 22nd: Earth
Day at Appel Farm!
•Appel Farm is celebrating Earth Day, and you are
invited to introduce your friends to Appel Farm and
our welcoming community of tree-hugging artists!
•If you have a friend from home who wants to learn
more about Appel Farm, this is your chance to spend
the day at the farm, gardening, making art, learning
about our environment
•Connect with your friends from home, your camp
friends, and campers who will be coming to Appel
Farm for the first time this summer!
Appel Juice
Camper, Staff, and Alumni News
Anything interesting going on in your life? E-mail us at
[email protected]!
Laura Spires (2011-12) I recently played Cinderella and
the Pea Princess — yes, because one princess was not
enough for me — in The Stinky Cheese Man at Columbus
Children’s Theatre.
Jason Lockhart (2003) I sold my first feature film as a
writer/director. CASTING COUCH comes out everywhere
on March 12th!!! I talk about Appel Farm all the time and
cherish my memories there! THANKS SO MUCH GUYS”
Adam Weiner (1991-4, 2001, 2005) So my band, Low Cut
Connie, is playing the great Appel Farm Arts & Music
Festival...I grew up at AF so this is a real thrill for me. In
the summer of ‘91, I had two experiences that made me
the man I am today: 1. I had my first kiss...and 2. I watched
Albert wade through the bog in his tighty-whities. I hope
that I can give the festival crowd a similar formative
experience. Also, I’m hoping to see Sarv so that I can get
my past lives revealed to me. I promise a stellar jolt of
rock n roll for all my Appel Farm homies...we’re opening
the festival at 11:30 am and we’re definitely gonna wake
all the folkies up. Love you all...thanks for having me back
to the Farm...aka one of my favorite places on Earth.
..........
Camp
Who’s
!
C o ming to
Look
Ian Aberbach, Samantha Aberbach, Alice Adams, Kennedy Anderson, Kate
Apostolacus, Victoria Appel, Isadora Barnett, Grace Barrett, Jordan Barron, Sarah
Barry, Claire Baylis, Elizabeth Beall, Austin Beaulieu, Nicole Bellwoar, Emily Bloomfield,
Katelin Boak, Natalie Bombeke, Nina Bombeke, Kathleen Boyles, Laura Boyman,
Zachary Brookler, Sarai Brown-Alexander, Sione Brown-Alexander, Soleil BrownAlexander, Ben Brown-McMillin, Annabelle Burd, Grace Buysse, Sofia Carusone, Kaiya
Case, Shayne Colomy, Allison Connors, Ashlee Cressman, Maura Cummins, Trevor
D’Ambrogio, Dylan Dagenais, Katrina Dagenais, Larissa Dale, Tristen DesRosiers,
Isabella DiPietro, Isabel Duncan-Huffman, Rachel Eckert, Alexis Epstein, Julia Ethan,
Sarah Fichter, Megan Flanagan, Lily Forbes, Nora Foutty, Arthur Furniss, Claire
Gadon, Audrey Gao, Shane Garry, Peter Gaston, John Gaynor, Morris Gelbart, Natasha
Gerstmann, Jake Gess, Lucy Gilbertsen, Virginia Glynn, Claire Goldberger, Katie
Goldberger, Rachel Goldman, Haley Goldstein, Julia Goldstein, Rebekah Grzywacz,
Aislinn Guinee, Marley Hansen, Maxine Harkins, Nathaniel Hauser, Edith Henderson,
Hazel Henderson, Charity Herndon, Olivia Herrick, Sophie Hill, Lidia Hobbs, Clayton
Howard, Drew Jacobson, Tatiana James, Livia Janjigian, Nina Janjigian, Maya Jenkins,
Jacqueline Jordan, Eve Jost, Tali Kamionkowski, Beth Keenan, Hugh Keenan, Dylan
Kelly, Emma Kelly, Kayla Kern, Rebecca Kern, Mollie Kiel, Nomi Kligler, Rebekah Kline,
Alec Kravitt, Katie Kunka, Ashley Kurtz Freilich, Emma Kurtz Freilich, Jake Kurtz
Freilich, Rachel Lachaga, Isabella Lancenese, Miri Leaderman-Bray, Anna Lear, Cyrus
Levy, Hannah Lewis, Talia Loeb, Miriam Ludwig, Jamison Lung, Allison Maeker, Victoria
Marcune, Mia Meola, Maia Mizrahi, Mira Mookerjee, Gwendolyn Moore, Alexander
Moravcsik, Corinne Mouw, Jenna Movsowitz, Aviva Nachman, Blanca Naglestad, Ally
Nalibotsky, Denise Nalibotsky, Emma Neuman, Romy Neuman, Dixie O’Connell, Emily
Orlich, Grace Orndorff, Phillip Otto, Lauren Outing, Summer Paris, Liza Pennington,
Maggie Perlman, Jonah Perry, Serena Piervincenzi, Fiona Pollack, Sofia Pollack, Joshua
Posner, Kathryn Prouse, Skylar Ricci, Madeline Ritter, Jillian Roche, Olivia Roche,
Olivia Roder, Havi Rojer, Nita Rome, Rebecca Rome, Simon Rosen, Vanessa Roser,
Cassie Rosin, Jonah Rubin, Eli Russell, Alexis Ryan, Aurora Ryan, Emily Sanderson,
Paige Sanderson, Olivia Saporito, William Satloff, Nina Schatell, Jeanne Schmitt,
Symone Sexton, Maya Seymour, Sidra Seymour, Django Sibilia, Wyatt Sibilia, Emma
Singleton, Jessica Skobel, Shadiqua Smith-Spann, Kayla Sorbello, AJ Stacy, Gabriela
Stahl, Tamara Stahl, Benjamin Steinwurtzel, McKenzie Stephens-Simon, Nolan Stern,
Allyson Stevens, Anna Stribrny, Naomi Stuart, Sarah Sullivan, Evan Sweitzer, Chloe
Tevere, Jacob Tevere, Claire Tierney, David Treatman, Hannah Treatman, Eli Troll,
Lucy Vanecek, Allison Weiss, Jennifer Weiss, Meghan West, Sarah Willis, Paige Zuber
Six campers from Second Session Bunk 16 (highlighted
in white) are coming to camp, it’s about time you signed
up too! Register today!
Hurricane
Sandy
Our hearts go out to all of our camp
families who were affected by the storm.
If storm damage will prevent you from
coming to camp, please get in touch with
us ASAP to apply for assistance.
Countdown to Camp
::
95 days until First Session!
Mini Session I
June 23 to July 7
Six Weeks
June 23 to August 4
First Session
June 23 to July 19
Full Session
June 23 to August 16
123 days until Second Session!
Mini Session II
July 21 to August 4
Second Session
July 21 to August 16
School Year Blog
You’ve been reading
the blog, right?
We hope so!
Every day campers,
staff, and parents are
treated to something
new. Each day of the
week highlights a
different theme and
core value, so it’s fun
to read every day! We
welcome guest bloggers
from any member of our
camp community, even
parents, so get in touch
if you have an idea!
During the summer, we’ll
turn our blog back over
to Graham, our Camp
Documentarian, so
parents can read about
the daily activities at
camp.
www.appelfarmartscamp.
org/camp/news/blog