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Harriet, 05-07-08
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1502GDD, 05-07-08
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Harbor Light kicks off its Main Stage series with “The Pavilion”
Artifacts
scattered around the old barn on Madeline Gavin’s property illustrate
its nearly 150-year history. In a former horse stall hang several
leather harnesses, horseshoes and grain bins. In an adjacent cow
cobble, chains that once tethered bovines still dangle from the wall,
alongside worn rakes, brooms and cooking pots from generations past.
Another room is filled with ancient, rusted tools, including hammers,
ax handles and broken yokes, as well as a wooden box containing a gift
left by one of the barn’s last inhabitants—a large, petrified cow flap.
When Gavin acquired the Kittery Point property known as Brave
Boat Harbor Farm 15 years ago, the barn had undergone few alterations
since its construction in the mid-19th century. The building had not
housed a cow since the 1940s, and nature had slowly taken over the
cavernous interior. Swallows built nests of mud and straw on the roof
beams, and a 20-foot pine tree grew out of one corner. Raccoons
occasionally napped inside, and porcupines inhabited the dirt basement.
Mountains of hay filled a good half of the barn, piled nearly to the
roof, and much of the remaining space was covered with hundreds of old
canning jars, bottles, newspapers and magazines. On the exterior, the
shingles had been weathered by decades of rain, wind and sunshine, as
well as ocean spray from a nearby salt marsh.
“It was absolutely beautiful in its decay,” Gavin said.
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court case calls Dover ordinance into question
The New
Hampshire Civil Liberties Union recently dropped a civil suit alleging
that the city of Dover had violated the rights of Richard Jennings, a
convicted sex offender. Instead, an NHCLU lawyer will defend Jennings
against charges alleging he violated a city ordinance that prohibits
convicted sex offenders from living within 2,500 feet of a school or
daycare facility. The NHCLU disputes the constitutionality of the
ordinance.
“It violates Mr. Jennings’ constitutional rights,” said Barbara
Keshen, who will defend Jennings in Strafford County Superior Court.
“The town exceeded its authority in enacting this ordinance.”
Proponents of the ordinance maintain that it’s a necessary
measure to protect the city’s children. Former City Councilor Matt
Mayberry proposed the ordinance, which passed in 2005. “He had asked
the chief of police at the time about ordinances like this to provide
another tool to make the community safer,” said Dover Police Lt. David
Terlemezian.
The ordinance unanimously passed the Council. “I wasn’t part of the
original drafting, but my understanding is that a good amount of
research went into it and the city is confident it’s legal and sound
and will survive the challenge,” Terlemezian said.
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Hidden right in the familiar Big Dipper, astronomers have discovered a new type of white dwarf star, according to a Discovery News story.
The star is smaller in size than Earth, but roughly equal in mass to the sun; what distinguishes it from other white dwarfs is that the outer layers of helium and hydrogen have been stripped away, leaving a glowing, pulsating carbon surface at 35,100 degrees F. At that temperature, the carbon shifts between energy states, causing a 2% pulse every eight minutes.
The discovery was made by astronomers at University of Texas at Austin’s McDonald Observatory.
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will Portwalk be filled with corporate chains, local independents or both?
Property
professionals involved with the Portwalk project are exceedingly
confident that offices and retail spaces at the downtown Portsmouth
site will quickly be occupied by a blend of national, regional and
local businesses. The development is expected to generate more than 800
new jobs and more than $1.6 million in annual tax revenue, all while
implementing a variety of green features and adding to the renaissance
of the city’s Northern Tier.
Lead developer Cathartes Private Investment recently posted this
informatoin in a glowing release about the desirability of the
project’s vast office space. In it, N.H. Department of Resources and
Economic Development Commissioner George Bald is quoted as saying, “I
expect Portwalk tenants will go far beyond the usual confines of the
greater Portsmouth economy; they will bring new investment as well as
good new jobs to the entire Seacoast region.”
Cushman & Wakefield, a commercial real estate firm based in
New York, is pursuing tenants for the project’s approximately 175,000
square feet of office space. According to Tom Farrelly, executive
director of Cushman & Wakefield in New Hampshire, the firm is
looking for high-tech, professional tenants in the fields of software,
medicine, law, insurance, finance and brokerage. Although he could not
provide any specific names, he said a number of potential tenants have
expressed interest.
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bottling up fraud in Maine
Maine ratified a bill to outlaw the five-cent redemption of
bottles brought from other states in 1979. But only recently has the
state begun implementing stricter measures to enforce that law, which
resulted in a Kittery recycling station shutting down last year.
Maine considers redeeming bottles bought outside the state’s
borders to be fraud, which is punishable by fines of $25,000 total or
$100 per container, whichever is greater. The state withdrew funding
for enforcement of the law in 1991, and fraudulent redemption
subsequently skyrocketed. According to Hal Prince, director of Maine’s
Division of Quality Assurance and Regulation at the Department of
Agriculture, Food and Rural Resources, bottling distribution companies
were the hardest hit.
Distribution companies pay the state a five-cent tax for each
bottle, which is then passed on to customers in the price of the
beverage. That five cents can be redeemed when the bottles are returned
to the state at recycling stations.
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Dropkick amps shut off due to overcrowded stage
Dropkick
Murphys kicked down the doors of UNH’s Field House on Friday, April 25,
to rock out Irish-style to a crowd of hardcore Dropkick, Red Sox and
Celtics fans, and everyone in between. According to fans, the show was
high on energy until UNH officials shut off the sound system.
At
approximately 10:30 p.m., a slew of about 50 girls were called on to
rush the stage for a performance and sing-along of “Kiss Me, I’m
Shitfaced”—a staple move, according to Dropkick fans.
Due
to the large number of people onstage, UNH officials cut off the power
to the amps. The band continued to play the last song without any sound
reaching the audience. The band’s console was still running, allowing
them to hear their own music but not what was being projected,
according to Rob Beck, SCOPE security director.
“Officials
believed it was an unsafe situation. More people were on the stage than
it could hold, so they cut the speakers and turned on the lights so
people could exit in a safe manner,” said Beck.
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Ozomatli percussionist Jiro Yamaguchi describes the Ozo mission
Ozomatli
has been mish-mashing genres for more than 12 years. The Los
Angeles-based band is almost equal parts rock, hip-hop and Latin salsa,
and the group has toured with a range of acts that includes Santana,
Dave Matthews Band, Los Lonely Boys and Lenny Kravitz. It’s a 10-man
sound that blends rural Spanish and urban American styles, borrowing
hints of dub, funk and Middle Eastern fare, all encompassed by a vocal
commitment to social justice. Ozo is currently touring in support of
its fourth full-length album, “Don’t Mess with the Dragon,” which came
out last year on Concord Records. That tour will bring the group to The
Music Hall in Portsmouth on Sunday, May 11. The band brings with it a
reputation for carnival-style concerts that carry the atmosphere of a
touring block party. No one demonstrates the band’s eclecticism better
than percussionist Jiro Yamaguchi, an original member who plays an
Indian drum called the tabla, an Afro-Peruvian box drum called the
cajon and other assorted percussion instruments from around the world.
The Wire caught up with Yamaguchi last week to discuss the current tour
and Ozo’s status as a cultural melting pot of music.
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‘Commonwealth’
by Brendan Murray, 23Five Inc.
In his words, “I’m really
fond of Massachusetts and my family is from here. I was born here but
grew up in Florida, so I always idealized Massachusetts. The record is
‘about’ that if it is about anything—creating a ‘dream state’ in one’s
mind and then inhabiting it.”
It took Keene State graduate Brendan Murray almost three years
to piece together “Commonwealth,” his fourth official full-length album
and first for the 23Five label. It began as several tracks, but soon
Murray was culling some of the best sounds from each and constructing
what would became one long, engrossing composition, running at just
under 50 minutes. Murray has long been a standout in Boston’s excellent
avant-garde underground, but the release of “Commonwealth,” an epic
piece of modern minimalism, will no doubt turn heads around the globe.
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by Black Sabbath
1970, Warner Brothers/Vertigo
the sound: Almost
unanimously viewed as the fathers of heavy metal, Black Sabbath
pioneered a crushing, powerful sound that was unlike anything else
being performed at the time. Sabbath’s classic second album welded
detuned guitars to loud, pounding drum beats and expanded the band’s
lyrical content away from the occult themes of its debut. The album was
originally slated to be titled “War Pigs,” but the label forced the
band to rename it, fearing backlash from supporters of the Vietnam War.
The cover art still reflects the band’s original concept, however, and
a song by the same title opens the album, immediately setting the tone
with its ponderous guitars, melodic bass, dark lyrical imagery and, of
course, future reality TV star Ozzy Osbourne’s wailing vocals. The
title track was supposedly written in just 25 minutes, but the
double-tracked, chugging guitar riff has become a classic part of the
band’s lengthy catalog. “Planet Caravan” shifts gears; its
uncharacteristically clean, spacey guitars and heavily processed vocals
show the influence that the psychedelic scene of the time had on the
band.
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The RPM Jukebox is home to more than 16,000 songs from independent
musicians all around the world. The music spans every genre and style
imaginable, and anyone can log on, browse, and listen at
www.rpmchallenge.com/jukebox. To give you a head start in your
exploration of this new world of music, here’s a sample album that
caught our ear!
‘Louder, Longer, Lobster’
by Trumpet Marine, St. Paul, Minnesota.
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rated PG-13
“Iron Man” rocks. Okay, with that out of the way, let’s get to it.
There’s no secret about the troubled paths Robert Downey Jr. has
traveled. In the not too distant past, when not circling the revolving
door at the rehab center, he could often be found reading scripts
delivered to his prison cell. At 42 years old, however, he has
conspicuously cleaned up his act and come to be well recognized as one
of the finest actors of his generation. But it ain’t the years, it’s
the mileage. The 1,000 miles of hard road is still visible in this
guy’s eyes, and casting him as a multi-zillionaire establishmentarian
genius whose arrogance is rivaled only by his appetites belies an
admirable shorthand in casting.
The first shot of “Iron Man” is a close up of Downey’s hand, as
Tony Stark, untouchable heir to his family’s multinational arms
manufacturing company, leisurely caressing a clinking tumbler of
scotch, and it’s made directly evident that this is a man with
weaknesses. Chauffeured by a contingent of U.S. Army personnel to a
sales pitch in Afghanistan for his latest invention—a projectile
capable of leveling small mountain ranges—he asks the camouflaged
assembly, “Is it better to be feared or respected? And I’d say, is it
too much to ask for both?”
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What if television cameras had been around to document candid
discussions between international delegates following World War I?
Based on a recent short film, the negotiations would have looked
remarkably similar to an episode of “The Real World.”
Created as part of Boston’s 48 Hour Film Project, “The Real
World: Versailles” hilariously applies the concept of reality TV to a
90-year-old historic setting.
“This is the true account of five diplomats made to live in a
house and have their negotiations filmed to discover what occurs when
diplomats stop being polite and start hammering out the structure of
post-World War I Europe,” the characters recite near the beginning of
the film.
Created by a film team called We’re Making a Movie, “The Real
World: Versailles” premiered before a panel of judges in Boston on
April 8. It was screened again on April 29 at Kendall Square Cinema as
part of the 48 Hour Film Project’s “Best of Screening Night.” When all
was said and done, the film had taken home awards for—take a deep
breath—best film, audience choice, best script, best ensemble acting,
best actress (Lisa Cordner), best use of genre, best costumes and best
cinematography.
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Tri Star, 1986
Starring: Jason Lively, Steve Marshall, Jill Whitlow and Tom Atkins
written and directed by: Fred Dekker
the plot: The
year is 1959 and, in a small college town, the remains of a failed
alien experiment fall to earth and land in a wooded cove. A frat boy
finds the crash site and is soon infected by wriggling, slug-like
creatures. His body is recovered, frozen and placed in a secret
underground laboratory. Twenty-five years later, hapless nerds Chris
Romero (Lively) and J.C. Hooper (Marshall) arrive on campus and begin
the great college pursuit of joining a frat in order to meet chicks.
Chris has his eye on one girl in particular, Cynthia Cronenberg
(Whitlow), who just happens to be dating the fraternity president.
Chris and J.C. make a bid to become pledges and the frat brothers force
them to steal a corpse from the local morgue and put it on the lawn of
a rival frat. But J.C. and Chris pick the wrong stiff to steal and
unwittingly thaw out the body of the infected frat boy. Soon, alien
slug parasites are skittering through town, infecting people, animals
and, in some cases, corpses, and turning them into hungry zombies.
Detective Ray Cameron (Atkins), haunted by his high school sweetheart’s
tragic death years earlier, takes over the case. At first doubtful of
J.C. and Chris’ story, Cameron eventually comes to believe them. But,
when a bus full of frat guys is infected by the slugs, Cameron, Chris
and the townspeople find they might not be able to contain the invasion.
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John-Michael Albert explains life as a Seacoast poet
Anyone
familiar with the Seacoast poetry scene probably knows John-Michael
Albert. Since he moved to New Hampshire in 1999, Albert has been a
staple of poetry events throughout the Seacoast. In 2007, he edited
“The 2008 Poet’s Guide to New Hampshire,” a compendium of everything
related to the Granite State in verse form. Last month, he served as
general MC of the fourth annual Jazzmouth festival in Portsmouth,
introducing readers and musicians during four days of poetry and jazz.
He remains active in a number of area open mike readings, helping
ensure that Seacoast poets will be able to voice their verse this
summer.
Albert’s earliest exposure to poetry came through
his parents, who were required to memorize poems when they were in
school. Albert, too, was forced to memorize poems while in grammar
school. “We had poetry flowing into our heads all the time. It was a
habit,” he said.
In the 1960s, poetry flowed to him in the
form of folk music by Bob Dylan and others. But it wasn’t until he was
introduced to the poetry of Walt Whitman that he became hooked on the
form.
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by Chuck Palahniuk
197 pages, Doubleday
2008
No one is perfect. Authors can’t be expected to write
fantastic books every time out. Sometimes they need to be given a pat
on the head and told, “It’s okay, you gave it a shot. You’ll do better
next time.” But, in the case of the new novel, “Snuff,” the story of a
porn star trying to break the world record for serial fornication,
author Chuck Palahniuk really needs to be called out for trying to pass
off one long gross-out gimmick as a groundbreaking work. He cannot
possibly expect us to swallow this.
“Snuff” tells the story of porn queen Cassie Wright and her
attempt to break the record for most male partners on camera. For the
challenge, 600 willing men gather in a room in their underwear, waiting
for their big onscreen moment.
Cassie thinks the challenge of making the movie may kill her
(hence the title, “Snuff,” which is the term given to the act of
purposely filming an actual death), but the idea doesn’t bother her.
She has grown quite tired of her life, and she hopes to leave the film
royalties to the child she gave up for adoption at birth.
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Anheuser-Busch, Inc.
Chelada is an alcoholic beverage
produced by Anheuser-Busch which combines Budweiser, the king of beers,
with Clamato, a drink made from tomato juice and clams.
Take a minute. Read that first line again if you have to. Study
the picture. It’s ok, we’ll still be here. Savor this moment—you’ll
never have another like it in your lifetime. In a thousand years of
satire, in a hundred thousand comedy skits, no-one could ever make this
up. It’s as if we stand at a crossroads: on our left is Bizarro World,
on our right is The Twilight Zone, behind us is yesterday and straight
ahead is clam beer.
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Teen Beat Night
Dee Wallace and friend
'Home is Heaven: 32 Poems by Ogden Nash'
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© 2008 The Wire
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