“The Toledo Blade has developed plans to close its facility located at 541 North Superior Street, Toledo, OH 43660. The entire facility will be closed, and it presently is anticipated that this shutdown will be permanent. Consistent with these plans, employment separations are expected to begin on or about August 1, 2014 or during the 14-day period thereafter. Approximately 131 employees currently are expected to be separated from employment. Bumping rights are not available for affected employees. Some of the affected employees are represented by a labor organization.”
— Letter from Block Communications Inc. to Toledo Mayor D. Michael Collins
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The May 30 news that The Blade plans to close its Downtown production facility and lay off at least 131 employees led to a slew of people asking Toledo Free Press employees if the daily newspaper’s misfortune was good news for Toledo Free Press or brought us any satisfaction.
The answer to both questions is a resounding no.
Just when Downtown, through investments by ProMedica and the efforts of areas such as the Warehouse District, is starting to grow and thrive, the loss of 131 Blade jobs is a setback for Downtown, the city and our region. That is a lot of people no longer driving, parking, working, eating, spending money and paying taxes Downtown. There is no joy, no schadenfreude in that.
Toledo Free Press’ well-documented problems with Block Communications and its ongoing lawsuit against us do not jaundice us to its workers and employees. We recognize the difference between institutional managerial bullying and the working people on Superior Street.
Some of the public reaction to The Blade’s bad news is of interest to those who believe that one reaps what one sows, but again, there is no gain for Toledo Free Press when a Downtown employer, struggling to survive financially, has to cut so deep into its workforce and eliminate so many jobs.
The continuing failure of daily paid print newspapers to evolve with new information standards has led to some markets having no newspaper watchdog to protect its interests. While we continue to fight against Block Communications in court, we wish to make it clear we do not take any joy or satisfaction in seeing its workforce continue to dwindle; the cost to our city is too high to seek any silver lining.
Thomas F. Pounds is president and publisher of Toledo Free Press. Contact him at [email protected].
University of Toledo Law Student Evan Matheney will attend the 9/11 trials in Cuba. Toledo Free Press photo by Christie Materni
Nineteen nongovernmental organizations have been granted “observer status” on an Office of Military Commissions list that defines the coterie of Americans who can travel to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and watch the upcoming military commissions hearings. The University of Toledo is on that list. And a 23-year-old UT law student is about to become one of the few Americans who will ever sit in the same room as a Guantanamo detainee. Evan Matheney will be a military commissions hearings observer at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, from June 14-21.
University of Toledo Law Student Evan Matheney will attend the 9/11 trials in Cuba. Toledo Free Press photo by Christie Materni
Matheney said he believes he will attend the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), who was identified as “the principal architect of the 9/11 attacks” by The 9/11 Commission Report.
“I was super excited when I first found out that I could go because it’s a big honor,” Matheney said. “I view it like going to the Nuremberg Trials after World War II. For the rest of my life I can say that I got to attend the historic 9/11 hearings.”
Matheney said he feels “personally intrigued” by the story of Daniel Pearl, an Israeli-American journalist who was captured by al-Qaida in Pakistan. During a 2007 military hearing, Mohammed stated that he had personally beheaded Pearl five years before.
“KSM is proud, not remorseful. Of all the people in Guantanamo, he deserves to be in there,” Matheney said. “It’s hard to grasp someone being responsible for the deaths of thousands of people.”
Matheney was nominated to be an “observer” at the hearings by his former UT professor, Ben Davis. Davis attended the American Bar Association’s annual meeting in August 2012 where he met U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Mark Martins, chief prosecutor for the Office of Military Commissions.
“I tried to be a straight shooter with him,” Davis said. “I’m just an ordinary citizen who has been looking at this situation and I felt like he should hear someone challenge him on a few things in a heartfelt way.”
Davis said he had “enormous respect” for Martins as a lawyer, but was concerned about the number of legal precedents being determined by allowing the Supreme Court to decide that only certain provisions of the U.S. Constitution apply in Guantanamo.
“I told Gen. Martins that this is a bulls*** process and I don’t want him to get played,” Davis said. “We don’t know where the U.S. Constitution applies, yet these lawyers are citing all these federal and state criminal cases to build their respective cases. Those were all decided within the context of the U.S. Constitution. So are these really precedents or just an informal, interesting thing?”
Following their discussion, Martins told Davis that he was “welcome to come to Gitmo and see the hearings for himself.” Two weeks later, Davis decided to accept Martins’ invitation.
Following Martins’ endorsement, the Office of Military Commissions promptly added UT to the exclusive list of organizations with “observer status” at the hearings. Davis, who could simply always nominate himself as UT’s representative to Guantanamo, has instead sent about 10 of his UT students for a week each.
“This is a learning experience for them,” Davis said. “The defense council and sometimes the prosecution will meet with observers and encourage them to ask any question they want. “That’s an incredible opportunity.”
Linda Amrou, a third-year law student, was the third person from UT to visit Guantanamo Bay via the nomination of Davis. She went for a week in October 2013.
“I’m a Muslim American woman who wears a headscarf, so going down there was particularly important not only for me but for all Muslim Americans,” Amrou said. “We are part of the fabric of this nation so what happened on 9/11 affected us just like it affected your neighbor.”
Amrou said she feels “really excited” for Matheney to discuss what he observes in Guantanamo with the prosecution, defense council and representatives from other nongovernmental organizations.
“Talking to them is single-handedly the best part of the trip,” Amrou said. “These people aren’t a second source of information — they deal with the detainees day in and day out. They told us very bluntly and openly about their experiences and that was extremely important and eye-opening for me.”
Like Davis, Amrou expressed concerns about the legal precedents that are being set every day in Guantanamo and their implications for the future of American law.
“No matter what your politics are, no one can truly understand what’s going on down there unless they’re able to witness it firsthand. We’re callous and removed,” Amrou said. “We know what’s happening on a pretty superficial basis, but because it’s not in our face day to day we don’t understand the impact on our justice system. When we’re there, we can’t deny it.”
Matheney said he and his fellow law students frequently discuss the implications for U.S. law should the 9/11 hearings “translate” into the American court system.
“The scariest thing about Guantanamo Bay is how they’re making up rules of a military tribunal as they go along,” Matheney said. “Lawyers are scared about what the precedents being set mean for all of us here at home.”
Davis said he remembers sitting in the observer box at a trial during his January 2013 trip to Guantanamo. The box’s monitor feed suddenly went blank. Forty seconds later it flashed back on. Sometimes the judge will press a button to delay the box’s monitor so that observers do not hear classified information. However, the judge had not pressed the monitor control button.
“That’s when I realized things are worse than I thought they were,” Davis said. “One of the intelligence agencies has a link to the monitor and they control the censorship on classified information, too. So the military judge really isn’t in charge of his own courtroom. That’s something to think about. Who are the actors off screen and what are their roles in these court proceedings?”
Davis said he remembers sympathizing with the reaction of the judge, who seemed “shocked and angry” that this intervention would happen in a U.S. courtroom.
Like all observers, Matheney will adhere to the daily instructions of a military handler regarding where he is allowed to go, who he is allowed to talk to and what he is allowed to photograph or discuss.
“I’m happy for him because this is such a positive and unique historical experience,” said Kendra Matheney, Evan’s mother. “It seems to encompass everything that he’s interested in — the legal system, human rights and politics. There is that nervous aspect when your kids travel anywhere but it sounds pretty safe to me because he’ll be on a U.S. naval base.”
Matheney said his classmates have told him that Guantanamo is “super Americanized,” complete with an ice cream parlor, shopping center, fast food and a gift shop where you can buy an ‘It doesn’t Gitmo better than this’ T-shirt.
“It’s been described to me as one of the most stark lines between heaven and hell,” Matheney said. “You can look one direction and see a tropical paradise with beautiful beaches and forests. But it’s a harsh dichotomy because 20 feet away is Camp X-Ray, where some of the worst human rights violators have walked.”
Matheney will pay for his transportation to and from Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland where observers fly out together. However, the U.S. Department of Defense will pay for the rest of his trip, including flights. After returning to the United States, Matheney has the option to write a one-credit research paper about some aspect of his experience.
“I want to give it a fair shake,” Matheney said. “I want to give my country the benefit of the doubt. I want to believe we are good people at heart, that we have the world’s best interests at heart and that we are hopefully setting good precedents. “We’ll see.”
The music of the Trinity Episcopal Church bells will soon fill the church’s Downtown plaza once again. The church, 316 Adams, plans to hold a concert using its restored bells at 4:30 p.m. June 1.
Kipp Cortez, a graduate student instructor in carillon at the University of Michigan, will play the bells. Anyone interested can listen for free from Adams Street or the Trinity Plaza.
“We’re starting at 3:30 p.m. with an informal reception on the plaza of Trinity Church for church members and people who were donors,” said church member Wayne North, who led the restoration effort. “Then, at 4:30, the concert will start. Cortez will be playing from a keyboard, which will be inside the main entrance, but the place to listen to them from is the outside.”
June has arrived, which means it’s time for summer and the 43rd annual Historic Old West End (OWE) Festival, set for June 7 and 8.
People eager to partake in the festivities can visit the beer and entertainment garden from 6-11 p.m. June 6 at the Agnes Reynolds Jackson Arboretum at the corner of Delaware and Robinwood avenues.
The official kickoff to the festival is the King Wamba Carnival Parade at 10 a.m. June 7. The tradition of the King Wamba parade started 105 years ago so local dignitaries could welcome guests from sister city Toledo, Spain, said OWE Festival committe member Josh Thurston. It was dropped at some point and then picked up again in the late 2000s, he said.
The parade’s grand marshals will-be the firefighters of Toledo Fire and Rescue Station No. 17.
I received the May 25 issue of Toledo Free Press and was immediately disheartened by the first inside page. I am greatly disappointed in the cartoon by Don Lee because it is disrespectful to all who believe in the field of education. Making light of the horrible situation of a teacher inappropriately placing her hands on a child is incredibly rude and distasteful.
While I believe in our First Amendment rights and value others’ opinions, I also believe that some topics are reprehensible enough that a “satirical” cartoon is unnecessary. I have taught for 10 years now, and I am very proud of being a teacher. I would never hit or push a child and I would never support someone who did. Not only do you make light of a teacher doing this, you added characters with the words “bullies” and “gangz” in the background, as if teachers do not fight these two giant issues every single day. Bullying is a bigger issue than most people understand or care to admit — how insensitive of you to sarcastically include it in your cartoon.
Mr. Lee, I went to your Facebook page to see if there was more to this cartoon/ story than meets the eye. With the picture is this description: “… I had fair-to-good teachers for the most part, but there was one POS in particular and this cartoon is dedicated to her.”
I am sorry that you can only say you had fair-to-good teachers in your life and I am sorry that a teacher treated you so badly. As a teacher who still bears the scars of middle-school bullying, I understand that those feelings run deep. Instead of further perpetuating the negativity, why not use your presence to do something good? Support education, support students, support anything to be positive — rather than create sarcastic cartoons that are a slap in the face of real teachers everywhere.
Bonnie Garrett fourth-grade teacher, Toledo
Don Lee replies:
“Ms. Garrett errs in one major point. I did not do the cartoon to, in her words, ‘make light’ of the situation. I did it to fight a reprehensible situation with the editorial cartoonist’s weapons of ridicule and contempt. To call criticism of thuggish behavior a ‘slap in the face’ to all good teachers is to stand in solidarity with the thuggishness. Is that what a teacher ought to want to do?
The Stables is a new wedding venue in Whitehouse. Toledo Free Press photo by Kim Sanchez
Many brides plan their weddings with a theme. Some pick a flashy night at the casino. Others opt for the elegant Cinderella story. For brides with a more down-home personality, a night at a classic barn is the fantasy.
Area brides with the latter vision are in luck. Duke Wheeler, owner of Wheeler Farms, recently purchased and opened The Stables, which he calls an ideal location for brides who want a classic outdoor venue. The property is located on Obee Road in Whitehouse and can accommodate up to 320 people.
The Stables is a new wedding venue in Whitehouse. Toledo Free Press photo by Kim Sanchez
Christy Geha, Wheeler’s daughter and manager of The Stables, describes the location as “natural and rustic.” Wheeler said he agrees and appreciates the forest setting surrounding the old blue barn.
“Out the west side you’re looking at Oak Openings, which is a very beautiful, natural setting,” Wheeler said. “We have Swan Creek meandering through the property and about 8 acres of land with the grass blowing in the wind. It’s mostly natural. We’re just trying to care for it and restore it to a beautiful stable, as it was once before.”
Wheeler said he’d rarely visited the site before making the purchase four months ago, but he enjoyed looking onto the property from his business next door.
“I always admired it from the street because [the former owners] took good care of it,” Wheeler said. “There’s a lot of white fence and it looked so clean. It’s just a pretty place.”
Wheeler said he hopes brides will appreciate the beauty of an evening at The Stables. He said celebrating at the outdoor venue can really make an event special.
“You can stand on the property, whether on the front, back, sides and you look out and you just see nature,” Wheeler said. “The sunsets out the west side are just beautiful. You can just admire what God’s created, and I think that’s the most beautiful thing.”
The first wedding at The Stables will take place May 31. Toledo Free Press photo by Kim Sanchez
According to Geha, Wheeler decided to purchase the land when it went on the market because he worried a potential new owner’s intended use for the property would not be in line with his own family-friendly business model.
“It was going up for sale and he had heard that it might become a shooting range,” Geha said. “Once he heard that, he was concerned because it was right by The Butterfly House and corn maze.”
Geha said family entertainment and education are key components of Wheeler’s business strategy. Though this new venture is not education-focused like some of their previous projects, she hopes the entertainment factor still exists.
“We just want to have celebrations,” Geha said. “My parents are very into family-oriented activities and they thought this beautiful, rustic setting would be perfect for celebrating any type of event.”
Geha said her family hopes to incorporate the Whitehouse community and its businesses to make The Stables a popular location for all kinds of celebrations.
“When people rent The Stables for gatherings and celebrations, we hope our guests will consider using local bakers, florists, restaurants, caterers and bands,” Geha said.
Property manager Christy Geha, left, with her father, property owner Duke Wheeler. Toledo Free Press Photo by Kim Sanchez
Geha said the venue places no restrictions on food and decor.
“They can bring in their own caterers. They can bring in their own decorations,” Geha said. “There are a lot of benefits to offering off-site catering there. You have the whole gamut of companies to choose from.”
Wheeler said when people leave The Stables, they should feel “they came to a place that’s beautiful, well cared for, and a relaxed, positive family atmosphere.”
The first wedding at The Stables will take place May 31, and Geha said they have started to take reservations for 2014-15.
Wheeler said anyone interested in booking an event, whether a wedding, graduation party, a fundraiser or more, should come out and look at The Stables.
“Any organization that has an idea for an event they would like to have, come and visit,” Wheeler said. “We’re very flexible on what they can do there. And, with their imagination, they can create a beautiful event.”
Wheeler said he hopes any couple that chooses The Stables for their big day appreciates the care his family takes in maintaining the land and the property.
“I’d just like to see families get married there, start off the relationship in a natural environment and create some happiness,” Wheeler said.
It’s said that first impressions are everything. The same can be said for love at first sight. So why is the wedding invitation — the first impression guests receive — becoming substandard?
As a planner and an occasional wedding guest, I can understand both sides of the playing field. I know many couples have budget concerns and that often one of their first ideas is to cut cost on invitations. On the other hand, as a guest looking forward to a fun night out, there is nothing more disappointing than flimsy card stock, a rushed handwritten address and Scriptina font. There, I said it. Scriptina font. Don’t do it.
“They just end up tossing it anyway” — I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that. But actually, the wedding invitation often gets hung in the kitchen or tucked into a daily planner. It’s looked at repeatedly with anticipation. As stationery designer Kim Collins of Fiddle Stix Boutique at Levis Commons says, “The wedding invitation sets the tone for the entire event and helps give the guests an idea of what to expect. If a bride is having a gorgeous, extravagant wedding but sends something that looks less than impressive … guests are not going to anticipate something as extraordinary as they should.”
Beautiful is more affordable than you think. “Brides and grooms do not have to skimp on these details; they just need to find the right fit,” said Kelly Henry, stationery designer and owner of UpperCase Designs in Toledo. Thanks to sites like Pinterest, brides can find a plethora of ideas. But by working with a local stationery designer, you can make that “pin” come to fruition. For an invite with a lot of color go for digital printing versus off-set printing, suggests Henry. Referring guests to a wedding website for more information cuts down on clutter and costs, Collins suggests. Postcard response cards are another cost-saving tip. By working with a local designer, you can give that postcard a unique, upscale look that will compensate for its ease and convenience.
What’s felt in the hand is just as important as what’s seen by the eye. Oftentimes invitations ordered online use a lighter weight of card stock. Always request to see and feel a sample. Lighter stock in both the invite and the envelope do not mail well. They are often eaten up by the postage machines and arrive to your guests torn or marked. One way to avoid this is to also handstamp each of your invites at the post office. While you’re there, double check to make sure you have enough postage on your envelopes, if you haven’t done so already. Always bring a completely assembled invite when buying stamps.
Carrying consistent fonts, colors and design for your wedding programs, escort cards, menus, table numbers and signage gives the event an overall appearance that is more memorable and enjoyable. But don’t be afraid to assemble these items yourself. “This takes a little bit more time for the bride, but it saves on the cost of the vendor’s assembly process,” Collins said.
The wedding invitation is one of the most traditional parts about a wedding, but you can still have a little fun while being socially appropriate. One way to do this is with the RSVPs. “One of the most requested RSVP responses is, ‘We’ll dance if you play this song.’ Newlyweds want to see their guests out on the dance floor having a great time. One of my favorites is ‘We’ll have to miss all the fun’ and ‘We’ll be there to dance and dine,’” Henry said.
Finally, don’t forget the attention to detail when it comes to addressing your invitations. “The smallest of details really stand out throughout the entire event, starting with the invitations!” Collins said. Calligraphy is the most popular way of addressing envelopes. If you cannot afford hand-addressed calligraphy, opt for having a stationery designer print the addresses on the envelopes with a font that matches the invitation suite, suggests Henry. Then dress it with beautiful stamps. Buy a collection of vintage stamps on Etsy and include four to five different kinds in your color scheme to reach your required postage.
The wedding invitation doesn’t have to be a budget-bleeder. And it doesn’t have to be dull to be affordable. With a little personal style and attention to detail, you will be sure to excite your guests!
Brittany Craig is the principal event designer and coordinator for Crowning Celebrations. She specializes in weddings and social celebrations. Follow her at www.crowningcelebrations.com.
It’s not every day that the party to whom you are speaking is Lily Tomlin.
One ringy-dingy and she was on the line.
Lily Tomlin, photo by Greg Gorman
The comic reminisced about character building, which began when she was growing up in Detroit.
“In the old apartment, there were so many different kinds of people. Some were very educated, and some were totally not educated. Some were really political; some were radical, conservative, apolitical. It’s dazzling when you get to be with and get to see a lot of really disparate humanity,” she said.
“I was mad to get inside every apartment. I used to say I played the room; whatever they were doing, I threw myself right into it so I wouldn’t seem out of place.”
Listening to Tomlin talk is like eating cotton candy — sweetly addictive. That fast-paced patter hints at the speed of her creative mind.
“We all shared the same backyard, so there was a lot of community there, too. And I was forever putting on a show and imitating the neighbors and my family,” she said during a call from her Los Angeles home.
“I’d imitate my father coming home from drinking on the weekend and not be able to hang up his clothes and make them stay on the hanger,” she recalled. “I would add magic to my show. I would dance the ballet. I would tell jokes I saw on television. I would wear my mother’s robe like an evening dress. … It was just a mélange of all that.”
She laughed and added, “Detroit is my touchstone; it’s where I got so much of whatever it is I am.”
What isn’t Tomlin? The comedic legend is known for an array of characters — Ernestine, the snooty, snorting telephone operator; Edith Ann, the precocious 5-year-old in the giant rocking chair; Lucille the rubber freak; Trudy, the bag lady. She’s also a Grammy Award winner for her comedy album, “This Is a Recording,” a two-time Tony Award winner for “The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe” and a lifetime achievement honor. As an actress she received an Oscar nomination for her supporting role in “Nashville” and starred in “9 to 5,” “The Incredible Shrinking Woman,” “All of Me” and “A Prairie Home Companion.” She’s a six-time Emmy Award recipient whose television work includes “The Magic School Bus,” “Murphy Brown,” “The West Wing” and “Malibu Country.”
Millions met Tomlin in 1969 when she joined the cast of “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In.”
“I didn’t go in until the third season. The show was a huge hit,” she said.
No pressure.
“When I took Ernestine to the show, I had never seen her on tape; I’d only done her in my act, so it was the first time I got to dress her,” Tomlin said.
“I go into the costume room and Ernestine’s outfit was almost hanging there! It was providential,” she said. “First, I see this ’40s blouse with puffy sleeves, a nice simple, white business-like blouse. Then that salmon skirt was there and big black patent-leather belt.”
Ernestine was at the switchboard in October, but the show didn’t air until December, Tomlin said.
“That night [the show] went on the air and I tell you, on Tuesday morning, she was a star. It was phenomenal. … She’s still immensely popular in that age group that’s ever been exposed to ‘Laugh-In.’ ”
Tomlin will bring Ernestine and others to an 8 p.m. June 14 performance at the University of Michigan’s Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor. Tickets range from $35 to $55. The show is part of the Ann Arbor Summer Festival, A2SF.org.
“It’s my form of stand-up, like on my back porch except I don’t do magic tricks anymore — although I could,” she joked. “It’s character-driven; it’s very informal. And I use video to sort of satirize myself and to give some comedic history about the character.”
Soon she will revisit the past and team up with “9 to 5” co-star Jane Fonda for a Netflix comedy, “Grace and Frankie,” set for release in 2015.
“The starting date is getting closer and closer, so you get more and more nervous because you have so many choices to make about your character,” Tomlin said. “I start thinking: How am I going to embody Frankie? How can I make her unique? How can I make her just the right melding of stuff?”
Finding the right mix in love hasn’t been a problem since she met writer Jane Wagner in 1971; the two married last year.
The recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor would love to return to Broadway.
“I’ve spent all the years after [‘The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe’] trying to get [Wagner] to write a new play. Some writers are compulsive; they just have to write. Jane doesn’t have that problem,” Tomlin said and laughed.
The sidewalk on Monroe Street near Fifth Third Field. Toledo Free Press Photo by Michael S. Miller
Mud Hens season is in full swing, with thousands of people walking Downtown to see a game and visit a restaurant or pub. And as we report on the growth of the Warehouse District this issue, what a terrible time to mark up the surrounding sidewalks with what is tantamount to graffiti.
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Along the sidewalks on Monroe Street near Huron Street, outside the offices of Toledo Free Press and in front of the restaurants and businesses by Fifth Third Field, the locations of underground utility and cable lines are marked in bright orange, red and blue paint. Not a light chalky paint or substance that will fade in a week or two, but heavy, dark paint that stains the sidewalks for months upon months.
At this point in time, the locations of cables and lines and pipes must be well documented. I understand the safety concerns, but there has to be a better way to mark these lines than pretending Jackson Pollock works for a contractor. Is there no database where these lines are stored? They can’t use GPS or ground-penetrating radar? The city installed beautiful bricks along the sidewalk and now they are tagged with lines and directions.
We spend our time and our money to live and work here; this is our front yard. Power washing won’t take the paint off and you could get fined or arrested should you try.This mess was made by USIC Locating services. A USIC representative said the paint can be washed off with hot water and will fade within a few weeks, but there are lines on the street itself that have been tread upon by thousands of tires and you can still see them clearly.
My friend Bill Kline at The Blarney said, “The paint they’re using seems to be permanent. There are types of paint that are temporary, and it doesn’t seem like they’re using those. It just looks terrible. It just looks bad. They spent money on those new bricks, and now they’re covered in paint. I think that if they could find something more temporary, it wouldn’t be so much of a problem. Who knows when they’ll come out here to dig? They could do a little bit better job of managing when those are marked. It’s unsightly.”
Doug Stephens, commissioner of the city’s Division of Engineering Services, said about the spray paint, “We know it happens. Sometimes we don’t like that some of the pavement get marked up, but ultimately it should dissipate and be gone. We understand that utilities are required to mark that up under the Ohio Utilities Protection Service.”
Between the city, the Downtown Toledo Improvement District and my fellow Downtown business owners, there needs to be a discussion to keep this unnecessary mess from staining our sidewalks when we should be at our cleanest and most presentable.
Thomas F. Pounds is president and publisher of Toledo Free Press. Contact him at [email protected].
Toledoan Matt Stake wrote and recorded two songs for the CD. Photo courtesy Larry Meyer
Music can be a powerful motivator for veterans. A guitar is one of the few nonessential items allowed in a war zone, so occasional evening gatherings spent listening to original songs are considered a treasure to many soldiers stationed across the globe.
Toledoan Matt Stake wrote and recorded two songs for the CD. Photo courtesy Larry Meyer
The strength gained from music is what led to the creation of Operation Encore by U.S. Air Force veterans Rob Raymond, Chris Kurek and Erik Brine. Brine said they had many reasons for founding the organization, but the main goal was to showcase veteran talent.
“We were trying to provide a venue and opportunity for veteran singers and songwriters who can make original music to collaborate and share their experiences and their stories with the larger veteran population and the public,” Brine said.
Brine, a presidential management fellow at the Office of Management and Budget in Washington, D.C., said the overwhelming support from the veteran community inspired them to donate a portion of their future proceeds to other organizations.
“We know there are a lot of veterans organizations out there, over 52,000 now,” Brine said. “A lot of them are great, some of them are not so great. We want to highlight the ones we think are especially good. That’s just one small way we think we can give back.”
The funds will be divided amongst organizations like the Dog Tag Bakery, the American Legion and Student Veterans of America.
Toledoan Matt Stake, member of the Ohio Air National Guard, performs two original tracks on the CD. Stakes said he hopes the CD shows the population how musically gifted his fellow veterans are.
“You’re usually pretty limited when you go to some of these places,” Stake said. “One of the things you can take is an acoustic guitar. The biggest thing is we wanted to share great music for the world and get recognition for some of the talented, great folks that are out there.”
Stake and 10 other musicians recently gathered at a house in Phoenix to work on Operation Encore with Brine, Kurek and Raymond.
“Between music sessions and doing interviews for a documentary, we would do live shows every night,” Stake said. “No one wanted to leave because you had 13 people sitting in this living room with mandolins and acoustic guitars and acoustic bass guitars. It was amazing.”
Stake described a similar scene he often encountered while deployed in the Middle East: officers in their downtime gathered in a common space or around water pallets, pulling out their guitars and singing from their hearts.
Erik Brine, Chris Kurek and Rob Raymond of Operation Encore. Photo Courtesy Larry Meyer
Brine said music was a powerful motivator for him.
“Music played a big part in my life and served a big role for me, whether I was getting myself psyched up to fly into a combat zone or when I was just deployed,” Brine said. “Any time you’re deployed, time stands still. You get lonely. Music always helped me feel better, helped me feel closer to home and felt like I was there for a reason.”
Stake said he finds songwriting inspiration when he is away from his wife.
“When I write it’s about missing my wife or something like that,” Stake said. “One of the songs was written when I went down to New Orleans, when I was down on Bourbon Street. The signature drink was called ‘hand grenade.’ I was sitting down there, the sun was shining, I was looking at Lake Pontchartrain and I was thinking, ‘This is awesome.’ The only thing missing was my wife.”
Stake said a running joke between him and his wife is that, because he is an F-16 maintenance officer and a pilot for small six-wing aircrafts, he would probably get lost if he flew the larger planes on his own. He reflects this sort of experience within his songs.
Stake said each track on the CD touched him, but his two favorites were Raymond’s “Slipping Bonds” and Stephen Covell’s “Sand Hills to Sandals.” Covell’s piece brought tears to Stake’s eyes, and for that reason, Stake said he will not listen to Covell’s other track until he is emotionally prepared.
