BREWS BROTHERS
&
STRONG SIPPIN’
Delicious strong beers kick off new year with a bang .
The Gazette’s Guide to
Arts & Entertainment
Page A-13
www.gazette.net
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Wednesday, January 1, 2014
Local singer, songwriter and author Barry Louis Polisar has had his works featured in commercials and the movie “Juno.”
All you
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Page A-9
WILL C. FRANKLIN STAFF WRITER
Some might not know who Barry Louis Polisar is, but chances are they’ve either heard or seen his work. For going on 40 years, Polisar has written songs and books — mostly silly, happy and fun — for children. Songs such as “Don’t Put Your Finger Up Your Nose,” “I Need You Like a Donut Needs a Hole,” and “It’s My Mother and My Father and My Sister and The Dog and My Two Little Brothers and Me,” are all hits with children. The Burtonsville resident didn’t always have music in mind as a career. He did, however, know he wanted to work with children. “I went to college at the University of Maryland planning to be a teacher,” Polisar said. “I had just started playing the guitar and I only knew a few chords. I used to carry my guitar with me wherever I went back in those early days of playing music.” A teacher saw Polisar carrying his guitar and
MICHAEL G. STEWART
WRITER OF POPULAR CHILDREN’S SONGS, BOOKS REFLECTS ON CAREER
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Actor Bryan Greenberg shooting a scene from “A Year and Change.”
See WANT, Page A-13
BOOKS
Oh Captain, my Captain Remarkable ancestor provides basis for reporter’s debut novel
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MAKING
‘Change’ n
Rockville native shoots first feature in Maryland
Actor T.R. Knight shoots a scene for “A Year and Change” at a cabin in Mount Airy. PHOTOS BY TANYA GIANG
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CARA HEDGEPETH STAFF WRITER
Rockville native and filmmaker R. Stephen Suettinger recently wrapped shooting on his first feature-length film, “A Year and Change.” The backdrop for Suettinger’s feature debut, co-produced by Suettinger’s Pebble Hill Films and Emily Ting’s Unbound Feet Productions, is his home state, including several locations in Montgomery County. “I tailored the script a little bit to places I knew and loved,” Suettinger said. “And that I thought were cinematically dynamic and places that I kind of grew up with.” Some of those places include the White Oak duckpin bowling alley in Silver Spring — a location Suettinger said he chose because “duckpins are a Maryland thing” — and the Olney community pool and baseball fields off of Georgia Avenue. Suettinger directs the film and co-wrote the script with Jim Beggarly. Though the 18day shoot got underway right after Thanksgiving, “A Year and Change” has been in the works for nearly eight years. “I’ve had the project now for seven and a half years,” Suettinger said. “It’s always been on my mind … [but] it wasn’t ready to be shot … I thought the dialogue was really good and I fell in love with these characters but it wasn’t ready for me yet.” Considered an indie drama, “A Year and Change” is the story of Owen (Bryan
See CHANGE, Page A-13
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ELLYN WEXLER
SPECIAL TO THE GAZETTE
An oil portrait of a 19th century ancestor Robin Lloyd inherited from his grandmother inspired his first novel. “The man’s name was Elisa Ely Morgan,” said the 63-year-old Chevy Chase journalist. “I can remember as a young boy looking at this painting hanging in her living room. I’d asked who he was, and she told me he was an important ship captain who
See CAPTAIN, Page A-13
PHOTO ALISON LANGLEY
Robin Lloyd is author of “Rough Passing to London: A Sea Captain’s Tale.”