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Features
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When cargo ships arrive in Portsmouth from all parts of the globe, the sailors can stand on deck and watch people stroll by on Market Street, or gaze at the brick buildings in downtown Portsmouth, but they can’t step foot on shore. Seafarer’s Friend is their only link to the local community.
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adventures in social media, community, and instant information
The data cloud has dropped to street level, the barrier between the real and virtual worlds
has fallen, and the billion computer screens that once served as
discrete windows onto the Internet have calved and splintered. Six essays illustrate the changes taking place around us
every day, part of this ever-fascinating, ever-accelerating, and often
confounding historical transformation in which we find ourselves
unexpectedly taking part.
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The Seacoast is a horror hub, teeming with writers, artists and publishers of ghastly books, comics and anthologies.
It seems our love for zombies and ghouls knows no bounds. A resurgence of horror fiction—including some new local productions—proves that the undead have a special place in our cold New England hearts.
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Exeter commemorates 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s historic 1860 visit
When Abraham Lincoln visited Exeter, most residents were only vaguely aware of who he was. His speeches here changed that, and helped send him to the White House. Exeter celebrates the 150th anniversary of Lincoln’s visit with “A Sesquicentennial Celebration” from Wednesday to Saturday, March 3 to 6.
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As the N.H. Big Read celebrates “To Kill a Mockingbird” this March, community discussions focus on the Atticus Finches of our modern justice system. Though defending violent and unrepentant criminals can make them wildly unpopular, “The only one there to ensure that the government plays by its own rules is the defense attorney," says Lincoln Soldati.
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The Seacoast’s theater scene is thriving—despite, or maybe because of, the economy. But while audiences have swelled, funding is plummeting. So what happens next?
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Stuck in a cold-snap and desperate to replenish our will to live, we’ve collected the best suggestions for making it through what’s truly the longest, darkest month of the year. There’s plenty of action, as long as you have a snowsuit and a sense of adventure (or, if you show up at the right events, maybe one will be provided for you).
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As the RPM Challenge turns five, longtime RPM participants describe how the month-long creative event has affected their music and lives—new bands, new fans and a new outlook.
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poet and activist Nikki Giovanni will headline multi-day MLK celebration, "Art as Struggle and Exultation"
Now a distinguished professor at Virginia Tech, Nikki Giovanni says she
believes humankind has made significant progress toward reaching King’s
vision for a just world, but there’s still a long way to go.
That work involves more than addressing race issues, alone.
Freedom is a planetary pursuit, one that applies to all people, not
just blacks and minorities. “Sometimes people forget that segregation
was hard on white people, too, because you had to remember to be
white,” she says.
The University of New Hampshire’s 20th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration begins with an art exhibit that opens Jan. 28 and ending with poet and activist Nikki Giovanni’s commemorative address on Feb. 4. All events are free and open to the public.
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When Mark Anastas was growing up in the 1970s and early ’80s, only a
handful of dedicated surfers frequented the waves off Long Sands Beach
in York, Maine. That has changed. Anastas estimates the area attracts
15 times as many surfers today as it did a couple of decades ago.
“There’s more surfers now than there ever has been,” said Anastas, who owns Liquid Dreams Surf Shop in York and Ogunquit.
As a York Beach business owner and surfer, Anastas keeps a close eye on
issues that affect the beach, including one recent proposal to significantly expand the beach’s surfing
zone, and another to dump hundreds of thousands of
cubic yards of dredged sand from the Piscataqua River off York’s coast.
Anastas is among those who want to know if the town is prepared to keep beachgoers happy.
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a look at proposed legislation in New Hampshire in 2010
It was a landmark year for New Hampshire government in 2009—not only for the size of the budget deficit ($250 million) and the number of state layoffs it induced (200), but also for legislative action on some controversial social issues, like gay marriage, the death penalty and medical marijuana.
Gay marriage was the only clear winner among these debates, as the Legislature’s spring vote to legalize same-sex marriage took effect Jan. 1. The death penalty was nearly outlawed and remains under scrutiny by a special study commission. And Granite State legislators narrowly approved a statewide medical marijuana program—only to have it vetoed by Gov. John Lynch.
But these scores are far from settled, as evidenced in the new round of bills up for debate in Concord’s 2010 legislative session, which officially kicks off on Wednesday, Jan. 6. Both the House and Senate will meet every Wednesday until June, and they’ll be busy. So far, 819 bills have been proposed to create, repeal or otherwise change New Hampshire’s laws.
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2009’s for suckers. Ring in 2010 with a slew of local events! For those last-minute planners who still haven’t decided how to celebrate the countdown to the New Year, The Wire has compiled a list of 12 riveting entertainment options.
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Part Three: The leaders and the people
It’s not every day that a Seacoast resident travels to North Korea. In fact, it’s remarkably rare for any U.S. citizen to visit this eastern Asian nation. The socialist country’s nuclear ambitions have had American officials on edge for years, and sour relations between our two countries stretch back at least to the 1950s. U.S. envoy Stephen W. Bosworth’s brief trip to North Korea in early December marked the first visit by a high-level American official in more than a year.
When Seacoast resident Nathan Groth took a five-day guided tour of North Korea in October, however, he wasn’t there to discuss foreign relations with the government. Groth, who had previously visited nations like Iran and Cuba, traveled to North Korea to observe a culture and geography largely sealed from American eyes. The places and events he witnessed were at times awe-inspiring and at others disturbing, but always fascinating and educational.
Groth chronicled some of his experiences for The Wire. Click here for a full slideshow.
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composting programs are piling up on the Seacoast
The Seacoast doesn't have curbside composting yet, but a growing number of restaurants and businesses have
begun sending their waste back to the farm. In its first week of business this fall, EcoMovement—one of several new companies offering hauling services—recaptured nearly a ton waste from just four businesses, while restaurants like Beach Pea Baking Co. are diverting 90 percent of their waste from the landfill and slowing global warming. Find out why brown is so very green.
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Tree lighting, parades with Santa, dance, music, historical holidays and more, to keep you busy (?!) this December.
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upcoming festivals carry on seasonal traditions
Dedicated volunteers are organizing festive celebrations around the Seacoast to build community cheer and charity fundraisers. It's like a visit from the Ghost of Christmas Past, since scenes like these
turn back time to New England holidays before the era of Cyber Monday.
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An upcoming vote on a contentious union contract will determine the
fate of thousands of state workers—and the services they provide.
The State Employees Association of New Hampshire represents about
10,000 state workers. They provide medical services, environmental
protections, prison security, highway maintenance, information
technology, employment security and a variety of other critical
functions.
But the SEA has not yet reached a contract agreement with the state for
the 2010-2011 biennium, which began on July 1. Both state employees and
politicians are anxious about the results of an upcoming vote on a
contentious proposal that will decide their fate.
The SEA sent out ballots to its 6,700 union members on Sept. 24, along
with copies of the proposed contract. If they reject the proposal, Gov.
John Lynch will move forward with a plan to lay off 750 state workers.
If they approve it, they will be forced to take 19 unpaid furlough days
over the course of the next two years—and many of them still might lose
their jobs.
The SEA’s bargaining senate has recommended rejecting the contract. But
the decision is now in the hands of thousands of individual workers,
many of whom already struggle to feed their families and are afraid of
losing their jobs. They must cast their votes by Monday, Oct. 12.
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new tattoo shops advance an age-old art
Eighteen-year-old
Josh Prinopoulos winces and leans back in his chair as tattoo artist
Nick Filth colors in the full sleeve image on his inner forearm. It’s
the Somersworth resident’s first tattoo, an elaborate Asian design that
wraps around his right shoulder and down his arm to the wrist. The
dreadlocked teen already has a nose ring in his right nostril and
stretched earlobe piercings in both ears, but he is new to the art of
tattooing. It’s taken four separate sessions at Iron Works Tattoo to
get this far, and Filth says at least three more sessions will follow.
“You might get some tears,” Prinopoulos jokes as the fourth and most
painful session begins. But he and Filth chat casually throughout most
of the process, even as Filth wipes smears of blood from his client’s
arm. The atmosphere is like that of an old-time barbershop, except
instead of cutting hair, the barber drags a motorized needle across his
customer’s flesh.
People getting their first tattoos generally fall into one of two
camps, says Filth, who has been working at Iron Works since it opened
in downtown Portsmouth in May. Either they want an image with deep,
symbolic, personal meaning, or they just want cool looking artwork.
Prinopoulos belongs to the latter category.
“I’ve always been into the whole Asian style of tattooing. It’s just so sick,” he says. “I just love the images. It’s awesome.”
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Seacoast native Ethan Gilsdorf describes his book on gaming geeks
Ethan
Gilsdorf was 12 years old the fateful summer he first picked up a
20-sided die and entered the fantastic world of “Dungeons &
Dragons.” After his first fight with an orc, he was hooked, and
Gilsdorf spent the rest of this teenage years going on quests and
adventures with his D&D compatriots. But for Gilsdorf, hanging out
in dungeons and slaying dragons was about more than just escaping the
awkwardness of adolescence and the tedium of growing up in a small town
(he grew up in Lee and was a student at Oyster River High School). The
game also helped him cope with some difficult times at home. Months
earlier, his mother suffered a brain aneurysm, and the mom he once knew
was replaced with the “Momster,” a person utterly alien and unfamiliar
to Gilsdorf.
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fantasy gamers unite for fun and camaraderie around the Seacoast
On
a sticky, humid Friday night at Elite Hobbies in Dover, two five-man
squads of Death Copters and a horde of orks are moving into position
behind a blasted, crumbling miniature building. They’re not alone. A
few blocks away, three trucks idle full of even more orks, waiting for
something to attack. Caught in the middle of this ork invasion is a
squad of daemonhunters, vastly outnumbered, out-gunned, and minutes
away from being reduced to a greasy stain on the pavement.
Commanding the army of daemonhunters is 16-year-old Will Chapman
of Rye. A few minutes into the battle, Chapman’s soldiers destroy a
truck full of orks—but thanks to the fickle hand of fate and some
unlucky dice rolls, the orks in the truck make it out unscathed.
Meanwhile, the generals of the other two ork hordes, Mark Seamon, 23,
of Dover, and Rabbit, a 22-year-old on vacation from California, pull
out their tape measures and rulebooks and start plotting a
counterattack.
“(Will’s) army is geared toward fighting demons,” says Jonathan,
a 23-year-old from Manchester who frequents Elite Hobbies on Friday
nights. His prognosis for Will’s survival is grim. “And he’s not
fighting demons. He can’t win. But he can disrupt.”
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the influential art colony of Ogunquit on display in Portland and Portsmouth
“Road to Ogunquit,” a painting by Clarence Chatterton, looks and
feels like the shortening days of summer in a New England coastal town.
There’s a row of colonial style houses and an abandoned white rowboat
along a dirt road. The light is still warm, but the long shadows are
turning blue.
“You immediately understand it’s August 25,” said Thomas
Denenberg, chief curator at the Portland Museum of Art in Maine. He
spoke about the museum’s current exhibit, “Call of the Coast: Art
Colonies of New England,” during a recent visit to the Ogunquit Museum
of American Art.
The painting by Chatterton, dating back to 1940, graces the
cover of a book accompanying the exhibit, which runs through Oct. 12.
Images from New England art colonies, such as this one, define what the
quintessential American coast looks like in our minds, Denenberg says.
“The coast of New England really becomes the coast of America,”
he said. “That’s really the American landscape as it’s understood in
our imaginations.”
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Woodstock’s opening act Richie Havens reflects on a legendary career
This
is an abridged version of a story originally printed in The Wire in
June 2008, prior to a Richie Havens concert. The story has been updated
slightly, but all quotes are from the original interview. To read the
full interview, visit www.wirenh.com, do a search for “Havens” and
scroll down to “singing for freedom.”
The song “Freedom” was first performed on the evening of Aug. 15,
1969—day one of the Woodstock Festival in upstate New York. Opening act
Richie Havens, then a rather obscure folk singer and guitarist who
emerged out of Greenwich Village, had been mesmerizing the audience of
500,000 for over two hours. Covers of Beatles songs like “Strawberry
Fields Forever” and “Hey Jude” paved the way for a tear-inducing
performance of “Handsome Johnny,” which captured the spirit of the
festival in a way that would be memorialized forever in the “Woodstock”
film the following year.
“Hey, look yonder, tell me what you see, marching to the fields
of Vietnam,” Havens sang in his rich and husky voice, barring the
strings of an acoustic guitar with his mammoth thumb. “Looks like
handsome Johnny with an M15, marching to the Vietnam War. Hey, marching
to the Vietnam War.”
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Exeter’s Ticia Agri recalls her inspirational summer on the Woodstock production team
Ticia
Agri left her backstage perch and wandered into the swarm of 500,000
people as Richie Havens kicked off his opening set at the Woodstock
Festival 40 years ago.
“I went into the middle of the crowd for
Richie Havens and stood there and watched him sing ‘Freedom,’” the
Exeter resident recalls. She also watched Jimi Hendrix perform at the
festival’s conclusion, but she remembers precious little of the 30 acts
in between. “It’s just a blur to me, but those two are really cemented
in my brain.”
Agri’s memory lapse does not result from partaking in the
festival’s famously liberal drug consumption, however. “I didn’t get
stoned. I’m probably one of the few people that didn’t,” she says with
a laugh.
On the contrary, Agri made sure to have her wits about her
throughout the four-day festival. She served as an assistant to Michael
Lang, the famed producer of Woodstock. It was a daunting job,
considering the concert included more than 30 of the world’s biggest
bands and half a million impassioned fans.
Although sentiments of peace and love prevailed, Woodstock was
not without its stressful points for Agri. A particularly tense moment
arose when The Who refused to go onstage without getting paid in full
upfront.
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“Woodstock” director Michael Wadleigh explains why there will never be another festival like it
In
the summer of 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first human being to walk
on the moon. It was an extraordinary event that made international
headlines and put the United States ahead in the global space race.
“Here we are 40 fucking years later and we haven’t been back there,” says former Dover resident Michael Wadleigh.
Wadleigh sees a parallel with the Woodstock Festival, another
indelible event that took place in the summer of ’69. Much like the
moon landing, the world has not seen anything like Woodstock in the
last 40 years.
Fortunately for those born after ’69, we still have audio
recordings of Armstrong uttering his famous “giant leap” line. We also
still have the “Woodstock” movie, which Wadleigh directed. Widely
considered one of the greatest documentaries ever made, the film is the
primary way that most people remember Woodstock, whether they were
there or not.
“It’s a kind of classic capsule about people’s values and ideas
and conflicts and love,” Wadleigh says of his film, originally released
by Warner Brothers in the spring of 1970.
The images in “Woodstock” are stirring and powerful, from Richie
Havens improvising the iconic song “Freedom,” to Joe Cocker writhing
through the chorus of “With a Little Help from My Friends,” to Jimi
Hendrix simulating the sound of bombs dropping during his rendition of
“The Star-Spangled Banner.”
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