June 13, 2008 Meeting

Pledge, Song & Invocation

Maestro Marie's conducting and Alan Michel's guitar accompaniment led the Rotary Chorus in a rendition of Danny Boy. The choice of music was for Bill Buck whose Mom passed away this week from cancer.

Dave Sollars continues to impress members with his stirring and timely invocations.

Announcements

If you haven't sent your RSVP to Paul Brown for the Installation Dinner on Monday, June 23 then you have another solid reason to do so. Our sorely missed spiritual leader Cal Mutti will be attending. Helene read a letter by the good reverend, the latter of whom is touched by the lending of his name to the newly inaugurated Rotary Club of Andover Cal Mutti Service Award to be given out at the banquet.

The anonymous donor will strike again at the next regular Rotary Meeting on June 27 with a check for $2500 for the recently reinvigorated club's charitable trust. The contribution goes halfway toward the new yearly goal of depositing $5000 into the account that ought to grow to $100,000 in 7 years. If all of us coughs up $100 per year then we will make that target.

Francesco, our ambassadorial scholar from Italy, will receive his Masters in law from Harvard and has accepted a position in Rome.

The twelfth annual Citizens Who Care inaugural reception will take place this Wednesday, June 18, at Memorial Hall. Marie has lined up generous donations of food from Dish, Mawby's and Whole Foods and is only in need of volunteers to pick up the goods and deliver them to the library. This year's celebration promises to set the bar even higher as it will feature a spanking new wood frame display. Town Manager Buzz Stapczynski, State Senator Sue Tucker and State Representative Barbara L'Italien will be on hand to congratulate the recipients; the latter two will hand out official citations to the recipients.

Mark your calendar for next Sunday, June 22. The annual Challenger's Cookout will take place at Ironstone. Volunteers are needed to help set up, serve, break down and eat hamburgs. The approximate time is noon but look for breaking news on the exact schedule.

Guests

Danielle Perry from the Salem-Methuen Club joined the blonde ingenues Kathleen and Caroline Buck.

Raffle

Helen Nicolopoulos's three was bested by Ed McBride's Jack.

Fines and Happy Dollars

Bob Troiano announced that prodigal son Fellipe has landed in California with his Youth Exchange buddies. Unfortunately his wallet did not make the complete journey. Peter Caruso paid the fee to shame all those who slept through the Celtics legendary comeback in game 4 of the NBA Finals against the Lakers. Marie's dollars went out in sympathy for the Buck family's loss of Mother Therese. David Sollars tossed in some green for the Green (Celtics that is) and for Mark's confused talk. More celebratory contributions for the Green Miracle was forthcoming from Steve Druth who listened to the final minutes of the game over the phone with his Dad. Howard Perkins' son is now a D.C. resident with a job. Richard Brenner celebrated something that this writer was too slow to record.

Nothing brings more applause in a dining facility than the sound of crashing glass ware and Jamie Lyman was happy to fill the role. For not breaking a glass the somnambulist contributed.

Paul Mercandetti and Peter Cotch were both entertained by the Spencer's aimless ramblings. Helen Nicolopoulos offered her condolences to Bill. Paul Brown is semi-employed for the season. Gail Jackson wished all the Dads a a happy Father's Day. Bill Buck thanked members for their support and asked that we offer support of a financial nature on behalf of the Maher's (Father Tom and son Peter) bicycle trip across the country to raise money for the Beverly School of Kenya. Another Celtic fan, David Lindsay threw some more green into the pot. President Helene capped off the miniature fundraising three ways: for the Beverly School, Wednesday's Citizens Who Care reception and the Installation Dinner on June 23.

The Main Event - Mark Spencer

Classical Portraits in a Digital World was the high-falutin name for a rambling talk by Mark Spencer. He began with a warning that some of the images that were about to be shown would exhibit nudity. Indeed the sight of full-dorsal baby butts were enough to shock even the most worldly of viewers. He went on to show the wide variety of subjects that he photographs—most of which involve beautiful girls in fancy dresses. An occasional male or executive over the age of eighteen occasionally makes its way into his body of work.

Mark attempted to connect the foundation of physics with the underlying principles that give rise to art in the Western world. (His past immersion in the science world apparently yielded very little chance that he would ever take home any accolade remotely resembling the Nobel Prize.) Showing paintings by such great painters as Leonardo, Carravagio, Hals and Sargent he displayed an overabundance of hubris by comparing his work to that of the masters. Fortunately he confessed that he freely stole principles of composition, color harmony, posing and lighting from those whose talents dwarf his. What most of us consider to be research this reviewer finds such "borrowing" of ideas to be outright theft. Because the fountain of useful information ran dry in a a scant few minutes Spencer spent the last few minutes showing pictures of young subjects in very compromising positions that only strengthened this reviewer's opinion that the scientist-turned-portrait photographer never matured past early adolescence. Pictures of young fingers protruding into nasal cavities and babies being assualted by feather dusters have no place in the serious world of Rotary. Mark Spencer's ability to elicit laughter evidently eclipses his strengths at disseminating useful information. Another speaking opportunity was thereby squandered and this reviewer can only hope that Dr. George Chatson return to educate members on the benefits to the female form of expert plastic surgery.
Editor's Note: Remember that this is Mark's review of his own talk. Members and guests were both educated and entertained by his talk and presentation.