The photo essay, “Tattered,” investigates the desecration of the American flag in the context of the U.S. Flag Code. It will be on display at The Galleries at One Washington Center until Aug. 30.

Butler focused on the project as his thesis at Montserrat College of Art and has spent the last five years intermittently traveling the country to continue photographing this extensive undertaking. He became interested in the use of the flag after the events of Sept. 11, 2001, when many Americans responded to terrorism by expressing unity with the flag.

Chef Mike Shea pounced at the opportunity to start his own café in Rollinsford. The Kittery, Maine, resident graduated from the Atlantic Culinary Academy in Dover and had been working for a catering company until he got laid off in February. As he was considering his next move, he noticed a posting on Craig’s List advertising a space in the Salmon Falls Mills. Shea acquired the space, and Figtree Café & To Go was born.

The new café on the first floor of the lower mill building on Front Street officially opened in June. The kitchen and small dining area have a much brighter appearance than Mill River Pail Café, which closed at the same location this spring. Shea painted the rear wall a florescent green color and hung some artwork over a pair of chic tables with black tops and silver legs, accompanied by matching chairs with low backs.

It’s been a near sleepless summer for Laurie Adelmann as she gears up for the first ever Front Street Market event in Rollinsford. Adelmann has been soliciting area growers, artists and performers to provide food and entertainment at the Salmon Falls Mills every weekend through the summer. Front Street Market will first present its Sunday at Salmon Falls series on July 20.
“We’ve had so many people interested in this. It’s marvelous,” Adelmann said. “It’s a morning out for the whole family.”

Beginning at 9 a.m., local food producers will open shop in the parking lot in front of the upper mill building. Breakfast and lunch optoins will be grilled under a circius tent running parallel to the street. A temporary stage will be erected in the same lot, offering music, dancing and other live entertainment until about 3 p.m.
Many artists with studios at the mills will sell artwork, fine crafts and photography, and a raffle will raise money for local charities.

Anyone who swallowed Will Smith’s recent assertion that no new superheroes have been introduced into the pop culture pantheon for over 40 years clearly hasn’t been paying close attention to TV’s “Heroes.” Anyone who believes we haven’t seen a postmodern reconstruction of the superhero mythos must have nodded off for the last act of “Unbreakable.” If the idea of rescuing a thankless citizenry only to be reviled and persecuted seems an ingenious new twist on the comic book formula, you might want to read “The Watchmen” or see Pixar’s “The Incredibles.” Those who believe the concept that superheroes could be modern embodiments of the immortal gods of old is a novel and original idea might take a closer look at Marvel’s “Thor” or D.C.’s “Wonder Woman.” If you think “Hancock” is the first time the big screen has offered a surly, boozy, unshaven street bum with amnesia as reluctant champion, you apparently missed Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine in all three “X-men” pictures.

Martha Wainwright headed to the Firehouse

Martha Wainwright released her second full-length album this year, following her self-titled 2005 debut. “I Know You’re Married But I’ve Got Feelings Too” further establishes Wainwright’s place in a musical lineage that has defined her family for generations. The singer and guitarist will flaunt her silk-laced voice at The Firehouse Center for the Arts in Newburyport, Mass., on Friday, July 11.

‘The Devil, You + Me’
by The Notwist,
Domino Records

Green leaves the PDA

Dick Green abruptly resigned from his post as executive director of the Pease Development Authority last week, citing “philosophical differences” with the board of directors. Deputy director Dave Mullen will take over in Green’s absence until the board selects a permanent replacement.

The PDA announced Green’s resignation in a press release on the morning of July 3. “Since the beginning of the year, it has become increasingly clear to me and to our board that, while Pease’s future remains bright, we have philosophical differences as to which paths should be pursued to best secure Pease’s future success,” Green said in the release.

Asked to elaborate on Green’s differences with the board, Mullen declined to comment last week, saying it was a personnel matter he could not discuss.

The battle to protect regional groundwater from corporate pumping took a curious turn recently when USA Springs filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Folks at Save Our Groundwater were cautiously optimistic about the development, but they’re not getting their hopes up too high. The grassroots, volunteer organization has been fighting USA Springs for the better part of seven years, and it’s hard to say what will happen next.

“I’m happy about it, but I don’t think we’re gonna pop the champagne corks yet,” said Save Our Groundwater member Bill McCann. “What is the impact of a bankruptcy in all this?” he wondered.

As the saga in Nottingham drags on, a new battle is brewing in York County, Maine, where Nestlé’s Poland Spring is hoping to stick its straws in the soil. The Kennebunk, Kennebunkport and Wells Water District is prepared to sign a 30-year deal with Nestlé that would allow the corporation to pump up to 432,000 gallons of water per day (300 gallons per minute) from the Branch Brook aquifer.

Red Alert Skateboard Shop in Dover recently moved from its former Broadway Street location to 6 Grove St., where owner Mark Hutton is building an indoor skate park that should be finished in about six weeks.

Hutton hesitates to call the new space a park, preferring to say it’s only a spot to skate and “just basically to have fun.” However, there will be a minimal fee to become a member, and a waiver and helmet are required. He hopes to eventually host day camps and lessons. Also planned are special hours for different ages or ability levels.

Barn Gallery shows regional art in Ogunquit

The art in this year’s open, juried show at the Barn Gallery in Ogunquit, Maine, was selected by Stephen Halpert, curator of the University of New England’s Gallery of Art. “The difficulty is to narrow it down to a third of the entries,” Halpert said.
Earlier exhibitions had themes such as red or night, but now artists are simply invited to enter their best works. “Regional Artists” is the Barn Gallery’s 12th annual juried show. Each show is different since, as Halpert says, “The juror’s choice is subjective and personal.”

More than 100 artists entered and the juror selected 77 works by 50 of the artists, 16 of whom are members of the Ogunquit Art Association. The resulting exhibition, on display through Sunday, July 27, has a wide variety of mediums and subjects in a gallery that has a lot to offer.

Photography by Lauren Gillette is hung in 25 small, square frames, forming one large square. The black and white portraits show people with stickers from a label maker that describe them, with lines such as “I woke to find myself,” “I work with my hands” and “I am God.”

Hackmatack Playhouse has opened its 38th season with “Rumors,” by comedy master Neil Simon. The premise is simple: a husband (who’s the deputy mayor of New York City) Charlie, and his wife, Myra, are celebrating their 10th anniversary with a party.

Trouble is, when Charlie’s best friend and lawyer Ken Gorman (Tim Robinson) and his wife Chris (DB Cooper) arrive, they discover that Myra and the maid are missing, and that Charlie, after a few Valiums, somehow shot himself in the earlobe. Charlie remains upstairs in his bedroom behind closed doors, while Ken tries to care for him and figure out what happened and, more importantly, what to do. A scandal of this nature would end Charlie’s career, and Ken obviously has a vested interest in making sure that doesn’t happen.

Finally, the much lauded “What Was Lost” is available in the United States, having won the prestigious Costa First Novel and garnered several other nominations. It doesn’t disappoint. Equal parts “Harriet the Spy,” “Clerks” and “The Lovely Bones,” Catherine O’Flynn’s debut novel is quirky and funny, while at the same time breathtaking and sad.

It’s 1984. Kate Meaney is a quiet, intelligent 12-year-old who wants nothing more than to be a detective. (Her partner is a stuffed monkey named Mickey.) When not at school, she spends her days sneaking around, secretly observing the actions of people at the Green Oaks mall, taking notes in her notepad in the event that an actual crime is committed. She also hangs around the candy shop next door to her home, talking to Adrian, who hires her for her first assignment. Kate is a sweet, harmless girl, and it’s heartbreaking to know, from reading the book’s cover, that very soon, she’s going to go missing.
 

soft drink zealots kick off summer lecture series in Wolfeboro

It’s not hard to find the Wright Museum in Wolfeboro. It’s the only building on Central Avenue that has a World War II tank crashing through its brick façade.

But visitors last Tuesday had the advantage of an extra landmark to help them find the World War II museum. Parked outside the building on June 24 was a 1928 LaSalle Chassis with a white horse mounted on it and a Moxie insignia emblazoned on its side. 

“We’re old enough, we remember when those things were driving around,” said one man as he admired the automobile, recalling the days when “Moxiemobiles” rolled along New England streets to advertise the quirky soda.

Late in 1997, three major Hollywood blockbusters emerged at roughly the same time. “Titanic,” starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet; “Good Will Hunting,” with Matt Damon and Robin Williams; and “As Good As It Gets,” with Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt, all hit U.S. theaters within three weeks of each other. According to John Tinios, owner of Hampton Cinema Six, that sort of Hollywood muscle—combining quality films with glittering star power—has not been flexed since. 

Tinios recently announced that Hampton Cinema will close before the end of the year. He has already gotten approval from the Zoning Board of Adjustment to demolish the building on Lafayette Road, and he will go before the Planning Board in August. The independent theater will be replaced by five new businesses, including a CVS pharmacy. The other four are still being negotiated, Tinios said.

Alta Vista Productions, 1959
starring: Dick Miller, Barboura Morris, Antony Carbone and Julian Burton
directed by: Roger Corman

“WALL-E” is a lot of things: a cautionary, but not preachy, tale about the environment; a sweet, but never cloying love story and a sweeping sci-fi epic with lots of robot action. But most of all, “WALL-E” is great, a film that’s just about perfectly balanced in every way, even as it creates a story about a world—our world—spectacularly out of balance. “WALL-E” is also extremely daring, a robot gauntlet thrown down as a challenge not just to other filmmakers, but to audiences as well.

Packaged and marketed as a kid’s movie, “WALL-E” is at once supremely kid-friendly and almost entirely unlike any of the kid’s movies produced in the last decade. There’s no bloated cast of celebrity voices, no riffs on last year’s pop-culture punch-lines. Instead, the first half hour of “WALL-E” plays out almost silently, save for WALL-E’s bleeps and blips, the entrancing score by Thomas Newman, and the occasional clip from “Hello, Dolly!”

Yes, that’s right, “Hello, Dolly!,” a 40-year-old Barbara Streisand musical. In the far off, yet oddly familiar looking 28th century, WALL-E (short for Waste Allocation Load Lifter-Earth Class), is the lone caretaker of a garbage strewn megalopolis. A short, squat robot that looks like Johnny 5 from “Short Circuit” crossed with a trash compactor, WALL-E’s job is to sweep up the piles of trash that have overtaken the planet. All the humans are gone and all of WALL-E’s fellow robots have long since broken. He’s the last of his kind, with only a chirpy little cockroach for a friend and a battered VHS tape of “Hello, Dolly!,” which teaches him all about romance, dancing and the humans who abandoned Earth.
 

Epping often gets a bad rap. With its mega Wal-Mart blotting out the skyline and its resident killer Sheila LaBarre stealing the headlines, it’s easy to overlook the town’s more positive qualities. Among the positives Epping has produced are the indie pop rockers of Murkádee. This quirky quintet has serious Epping pride, and they’ve anthologized their hometown with their third full-length release, “Eppology.”

Guitarist and keyboardist Joseph K Murphy and clarinetist DeLaine Bennett combine their distinctive and earnest vocals to mold the Murkádee sound. The pair began recording together in 2003, releasing “Chain Jing Mines” and later following up with “A Spectral View.” The new disc perpetuates the band’s totally unique, candy-coated sound with jubilant songwriting and bouncy, rhyming lyrics.

Coughlin tribute show

The Press Room in Portsmouth will host a tribute show on Saturday, July 5, for former Hotrod Fury bassist Geoff Coughlin, who died of a drug overdose in May. The show will feature Coughlin’s Hotrod band mates, drummer Trish Muchemore and guitarist Jim Farquhar. Among the evening’s other performers are Nate Laban of The Frosting, Jerry Brookman of Storm the Ohio, Adam Hall of The Water Section and others.

Hotrod Fury was a staple of the Seacoast punk scene until Coughlin’s death, and the band had been scheduled to play at The Press Room on Saturday. Instead of canceling the gig, Coughlin’s friends decided to turn the evening into a tribute in his memory.

A skilled bassist and beloved figure in Portsmouth, Coughlin was known for both his music and his outgoing personality, working at Belle Peppers on Congress Street. Performers at the tribute show will play songs that Coughlin wrote and loved. The $5 show begins at 9 p.m. at The Press Room, 77 Daniel St., Portsmouth, 603-431-5186.