Tumble-week Transmissions

The Labor Day transmission, talking climate change with investigative journalist and Sag Harbor resident James Henry, could not have been timelier, with a tornado touch-down in Manorville that afternoon. Henry informed listeners who want to become more knowledgeable about the topic to seek out the U.S Global Change Research Program’s Climate Report, which is currently available for free at some book stores on the South Fork, such as Sag Harbor Books.

It was a sobering start to the tumble-week. We settled straight into the Tumbleweed Tuesday edition with beloved local musician Shari Yeomans, who not only promoted her Tuesday night open mic series premiere at the Hotel Fish & Lounge in Hampton Bays, but shared her story of growing up in Riverhead until age 10, when she moved down south with her family as her father, an engineer at Grumman, sought to continue his work of helping build the lunar module at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. This past July marked the 50th anniversary of NASA’s moon landing as a result of such work.

Later in the program, reporter Charity Robey appeared on The Heart of The East End to spread the word about a lecture regarding the East End’s history of clamming, which she will be doing with Feed Me Magazine editor, Jane Lear, at the Orient Yacht Club on Saturday, September, 14 from 2:45 to 4:45 PM, in connection with the Oysterponds Historical Society. Clamming is as East End an activity as it gets, with folks digging toes into local waters to uncover them for as long as there have been feet to do so.

It’s a bit funny to be mentioning feet, as Wednesday was the morning The Gateway Playhouse’s director of development, Scot Allan, brought the two leads of “Kinky Boots” to the 88.3 WPPB studio to talk about the production, which recently passed along its incredible costumes, with signature thigh-high red lace-ups included, from Broadway to Long Island. Lukas Poost and Terry Lavell are currently leading The Gateway’s cast of Harvey Fierstein’s story and Cyndi Lauper’s music at Patchogue Theatre for the Performing Arts. Saturday, September 14, will be the final performance. Tickets are available at www.thegateway.org.

Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman also came into the studio Wednesday morning to discuss how the possible incorporation of East Quogue village is back on the table after determining a petition by local residents has now met requirements. A vote on the subject could happen in October.

On Thursday morning’s Heart of The East End, former New York City Police Lieutenant and punk scene documentarian Steve Capozzoli — also known as “Frankie Neptune” — was flanked by Diane Burke and Monique Cutone of East End Arts, one day ahead of the Riverhead art organization’s Friday night opening of “Frankie Says,” at 133 E. Main Street. The exhibit not only features Frankie Neptune’s photography from the 1970s and ’80s punk scene in New York City, but a looping video of Paul Tschinkel’s artist interviews. More information can be found in Indy’s recent article by Nicole Teitler, and those interested can see the show between 6 and 9 PM Friday and Saturday nights through September.

We ended the show with a report from the Good Ground Farmers Market on its final day of 2019. Our interview featured new friend Jessica Milazzo of Health Homestead Hostess, Robert Curreri of Robert’s Bakestand, and Aki Goldberg of Aki’s Kitchen, whose peach muffins and zucchini cucumber soup will be found at the Fifth Annual Food Lab Conference September 13 and 14 at the Stony Brook Southampton campus, featuring Adam Gopnik and keynote speaker Lidia Bastianich. Tickets are found at www.thefoodlab.org.

James Henry joining the Media Mavens Beth Young and Michael Heller on Friday morning more or less brought this tumble-week full circle as we all discussed festival season at hand on the East End. Harborfest has already come and gone, so I’ve asked a few local musicians to join us for a Patriot Day discussion on the Sag Harbor American Music Festival, which will take place the last weekend in September, with hopes of getting someone into the studio to discuss the Maritime Festival in Greenport, taking place the weekend of September 21.

Singer Daren Ottati closed out Friday morning’s Heart of The East End promoting a benefit concert for the Southampton Cultural Center on Sunday, September 15. Ottati will share the SCC stage with Valerie DiLorenzo and Jenifer DeMeo for some duets during a five-hour afternoon show featuring an eight-to-10-piece orchestral mix of classic Broadway tunes and Cole Porter standards. You can purchase tickets for that event at www.scc-arts.org.

Now I’m going to exhale for the first time since this summer started and encourage y’all to do the same, because apple and pumpkin pickin’ corn stalkers are but a few breaths away. Stay strong, my friends.

Gianna Volpe can be heard Monday through Friday, 9 AM to noon, on 88.3 WPPB FM, Long Island’s only NPR station.

gianna@indyeastend.com