Day: March 17, 2013
Video- Desi Smith From The Gloucester Daily Times Captures Dodgeball Excitement–Check The GDT Monday For More Complete Coverage
Watch Mr Bentley (Ryan Cox’) and His team of Tracey, Grace, Peter and Chris Kersker defeat The Speedo Cops and Beverly Athletic Club Compete against Cross Fit Cape Ann. Also Ed Collard’s Winning Squad Blinded By The Light
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“Viva San Giuseppe” From Virginia (Frontiero) McKinnon
“Viva San Giuseppe”
I remember as a child in the 1930’s my neighbor in Gould Ct., Maria Parisi, we affection called “Zia Marrica” would come to my home with her laundry basket. My Mom would take her little religious statutes from our China cabinet and wrap then carefully and fill her basket, also visiting other homes in the neighborhood, Zia Marrica would set up a very beautiful ornate alter in her home with candles, fresh flowers, a large statue of St. Joseph with many statutes of saints in honor of St. Joseph. The feast day is celebrated on March 19th every year. Zia Marrica would hold open house for nine days, also inviting the children to recite the rosary and sing the traditional Italian hymns for the novena. I loved listening to the stories she would tell us of the saints.
Our Pastor Father Kiley went to the superintendent of school and requested the children of Sicilian heritage, be allowed to be dismissed early from school on St. Joseph’s Day to participate in the festivities. I remember going to Zia Marrica’s home. I would sit very quietly as the reenactment began. The players were orphans. A man representing St. Joseph, a women for Our Blessed Mother and a child for Jesus. The man would knock door three times, requesting food and shelter for his family, during his flight to Egypt. On the third request she would open the door and we would all shout “Viva San Giuseppe, Viva Maria, Gesu‘, Giuseppe” and greet the honored guest very affectionately. When they were seated Zia Marrica would first wash their feet, using a basin of water and towel. The table was filled with all kinds of delicious food. Three dishes of each food. She spent most of the week cooking and neighbors also brought in food. I remember the honored guest were seated at the table. All us children sat on the floor and we brought our own spoons. As the honored guest tasted each dish, the food was passed down for us to enjoy. The first course was the traditional St. Joseph’s pasta. Homemade pasta with a sauce made of chick peas, fava beans, cauliflower, and fennel. We all took a taste of the food passing the dishing around. In Sicily fava beans were believed to save the people in poor villages from famine, during a drought. They prayed for the intersession of St. Joseph to save them. Fava beans are always kept as a symbol of never being hungry again.
This year I have been participating in the St. Joseph Novena at my friend, MaryAnn Orlando, home. We recite the rosary first in English then St. Joseph’s rosary in Italian. We sing the traditional Italian hymns. Shouting “Viva San Giuseppe, and Viva Maria, Gesu‘, Giuseppe” after every hymn. We enjoy a social time and Italian desserts. I asked Mary Ann why she observed this saint’s day. She replied she has continued this custom down from her mother and grandmother. She stated many people give thanks to St. Joseph for his intercession in answer to prayers and they relate many miracles through the intercession of St. Joseph. She stated her granddaughter was born with spinal bifida and look at that beautiful 13 year old serving people and bouncing with energy and happiness.
Also she stated her nephew was not expected to survive and awoke from a coma, as prayers were being said for him. Her altar is so beautiful. Our prayers are so sincere, I enjoy all the Italian hymns. I remember sitting with my mother and grandmother singing these hymns. Many homes of Sicilian heritage in Gloucester host this feast every year.
Our parish priest visits each home blessing the altar, flour for making bread and pasta, oranges and lemons. On the eve of St. Joseph’s day many people will visit for the blessing. A little bag with an orange for sweetness, a lemon for bitterness and a little loaf of bread for sustenance of life. On St. Joseph’s Day a bountiful buffet banquet with traditional delicious Sicilian food and wonderful pastry is offered. Each home has open house. All are welcome to attend. My friends, Grace Brancaleone and Katie Fontana also invite me to her homes every year to share in St. Joseph’s Day. I feel our Sicilian community is so blessed and fortunate to continue this wonderful custom. This custom is celebrated all over this country and also in many parts of the world by people of Sicilian heritage.
Viva San Giuseppe!
Virginia (Frontiero) McKinnon March 2013
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Poop ID
Who can identify this poop?
Winner gets a Good Morning Gloucester Sticker available down the Dock.
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SISYPHUS
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2013 GMG/FARM BAR Bikini Speedo Dodge Ball
Great time had by all at the 2013 GMG/Farm Bar and Grille Bikini Speedo Dodge Ball held at Spindrift. This event benefitted the Next Step which provides resources, support and hope to a diverse group of young people with cancer, HIV/AIDS and other life threatening diseases. Also the Y held a 50/50 raffle for Y teens to go to New Orleans in April. If you want to know more about Next Step, please visit their website, http://www.nextstepnet.org
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Annisquam Reflections
It won’t be long now.
E.J. Lefavour
http://www.khanstudiointernational.com/index.htm
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What Kind of Bizzaro Government Spends Billions Beefing Up Airport Security and Then Goes and Passes A Law Allowing Knives On Planes?
Are you fucking kidding me with this????
TSA to Allow Pocket Knives On Planes
Take off your shoes, belts, jackets, laptops, iPads, packs of gum, but don’t worry bro, you’re all good on the knives.
I can’t even begin to imagine how stewardesses feel about this. Who was the politician that even brought this up or lobbied to get this bill voted on? Guy needs to be fired, like yesterday.
It never ceases to amaze me what stuff these politicians go out their way to lobby for when there are so many more important problems to deal with. Want to do something for the people? Force airlines that change your flights after you book a direct flight into a flight that has stops to not charge you a change fee of $75 and the cost of a higher ticket.
Look out for passenger rights in that way instead of letting airlines lure you in with a great direct flight at a reasonable air fare and once you book it swap you off into a flight with a stopover.
What an idiotic thing to go out of your way to change a law for. To actually allow knives on planes after you increase spending for airport security to make planes safer.
The TSA’s budget has increased from $4.7 billion in 2002 to $7.8 billion in 2011.
Poor stewardesses.
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There’s a new website in town
Usually we post about music, but we’re so excited about having launched our latest Web project that we just can’t resist showing it to you. Just in case you didn’t know, in addition to publishing gimmesound and producing concerts, Vickie and I also design and build websites (see a list of some of them here, but remember, we’re too busy to update our own website, which was built in 1998) and we do Web and social media marketing.
Yesterday, we finished a new website for one of our favorite new local stores, The Cave. This is different from all other websites we’ve built. It’s a “responsive design”, which means it optimizes the viewing experience on what ever device you’re using: desktop computer, tablet or phone. For example, here’s what it looks like on a desktop computer:
Here’s what it looks like on my Samsung Galaxy III held portrait (the way you talk on the phone).
Notice the menu system is completely different and the top heading is centered instead of flush-left. The Facebook plugin is off the screen in this picture, but you can scroll down to it. Everything is stacked nicely so you can easily find it on a phone.
If you tap the phone number at the top-right it will call the The Cave.
The photo is different too, but that’s because it’s a slideshow and a different photo was showing when I took this picture. (This is actually a little more than you’ll see all at once on a phone, but I wanted to give you an idea of how it looks below the photo.)
There are many reasons why you want a website in a responsive design. Most importantly, you want your site to be easy to use no matter what device you’re on. And you don’t want to build a completely different site for each device.
This site uses the EXACT SAME HTML CODE for the phone display you see on the right as we do for the desktop version, above. The difference in how it looks is controlled by one little file called CSS.
This helps your website rise to the top of Google search results and it also makes it easier when you need to change something (like your store hours). You only have to write content once and maintain it in one place.
Here’s what it looks like when I turn my phone sideways.
Check out The Cave’s new website on all of your devices and see how it looks.
Be sure to go down there on Tuesday and try some of their excellent cheeses and other delicacies. You’ll be glad you discovered this gem in the heart of Gloucester’s thriving downtown.
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GHS Seniors Hood.com Sportsmanship Scholarship
Joey,
Three Gloucester High School Seniors are currently running for the Hood Sportsmanship Scholarship. Two of the three kids, Zach Smith and Sophia Black, are also Youth Awareness Speakers and positive role models to the younger kids in the City. Please encourage your readers to log on to Hood.com and vote for these deserving students. The top 10 online vote recipients in the State of Massachusetts will then be interviewed by Hood representatives to determine the winner of the scholarships.
Vote early and often, especially for Zachary!
Thank you,
Marianne Schlichte Smith
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Black Fire above White Fire
The lecture “Torah: Black Fire over White Fire” was given by Rabbi Salazar at Temple Ahavat Achim last Tuesday. Rabbi Salazar is the scribe who is writing the new Torah scroll to replace the one lost in the fire that destroyed the previous temple building. The talk was fascinating!
Before the lecture, Rabbi Salazar was had the Torah-in-progress spread out on the table.
Rabbi Steven Lewis gave an introduction:
Rabbi Salazar spoke off the cuff with erudition and fervor, but very clearly and accessibly, even for folks like me who don’t know much about Jewish theology. Christians and Jews have a lot in common in some ways – judging from this lecture, at least some schools of Jewish thought have more in common with Christian mysticism than I expected – but there are also very significant differences, of course. Christianity had its origin in Judaism two thousand years ago, and a lot has happened historically, philosophically, and theologically in the interim!
You can see a couple more photos here.
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Larry from Glosta Joe’s, Jessica Brand and Dennis Alves From Dinner Dealer At Mamie’s Kitchen
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Catherine Ryan confirms Rockaway Hotel as another Gloucester Edward Hopper match with help from the Sibley family
Hi Joey,
I am hoping readers may think about this Gloucester Edward Hopper project when they peruse old family albums. Why? There are still more Edward Hopper locations in Gloucester to uncover, and the photos may help identify the original sites that inspired Hopper. More importantly, the photographs may provide opportunities for us to share and preserve Gloucester stories and create some new ones. As inspiration, I’d like to share photos and a personal account from Liz Fletcher and the Sibley family that has helped to support the identification of the Rockaway Hotel in one of the Hoppers, thanks to its distinctive staircase. The water and rocks endure.
Thank you so much Liz Fletcher and the Sibley family!
Artist Liz Fletcher wrote me:
“How well Hopper caught the higgledy piggledy hillside-clinging way people built these sturdy wooden houses.” She included the photo with her cousin climbing a fence, “because it shows the old Rocky Neck Yacht Club, the rest of the smaller buildings in the foreground of the (Hopper) painting were torn down when the condo conversion was done…The colors of the building are the same as it still was in the 50s, when we used to play there as kids in the off-season — that 4 or 5 story fire escape going up the back of the hotel was scary to climb. And those smaller buildings down at the water’s edge look just like the ones I remember as part of the hotel complex. The beach to the left of those buildings could be Oakes Cove, where they do the New Year’s Day Plunge nowadays.”
From the time artist Edward Hopper created his Gloucester images–in 1912, and then summers in the 1920s–there have been approximately 25 or so positive id’s on Gloucester homes, landscapes and structures that are featured in his art.
This core group of Gloucester Hoppers has been reproduced, studied, and included in important exhibitions. In the 1970s, Art Historian and Curator, Gail Levin, photographed then/now comparisons. Since Levin’s work, many other artists and Hopper aficionados have created series inspired by Hopper’s Gloucester images. But there are so many more Gloucester Hoppers! This quantity is news for Gloucester and for MA. Inspired by the Gloucester HarborWalk, I expanded on that core group to a count of over 100, and have identified the bulk of them. They’re collected into an on-line catalogue with contemporary snapshots and a google map of the locations, which Good Morning Gloucester featured here: https://goodmorninggloucester.wordpress.com/2012/07/24/catherine-ryan-kicks-the-ny-times-in-the-nuts-with-her-killer-edward-hopper-interactive-maps-and-photos-and-other-stuff/
Please contact cryan225@gmail.com if you find any photos that may help identify some Hoppers locations, and capture some additional Gloucester stories.
I’m looking for pictures of the homes and neighborhood around the Fort. Hopefully we can identify all of them, and who knows maybe inspire a gift of an original Hopper back to Gloucester for the Cape Ann Museum .
The most recent Hopper location I’ve identified is near Russell’s Florist and right before Lee’s Restaurant, on Eastern Ave. , as you’re heading into Gloucester downtown.
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2013 GMG/FARM BAR AND GRILLE BIKINI SPEEDO DODGEBALL TOURNAMENT HARLEM SHAKE VIDEO
The Details (also available on The Event Facebook Page Here)
Shot and Edited By Kim Smith
EARMUFFS MADELINE!
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Gloucester Maritime Summit 2013
The City of Gloucester today released a video highlighting the City’s ongoing efforts to expand and diversify the maritime economy. The video provides an overview of the recent Maritime Summit.
Like many working waterfronts, Gloucester faces challenges, especially with its historic fishing industry. Recently 150 stakeholders gathered to exchange ideas and advance a vision for Gloucester’s maritime economy that celebrates traditional fishing while embracing innovative opportunities in technology, life science research, and robotics. The Summit provided a showcase for innovation on the waterfront. More than 20 experts made presentations about the role of research, technology, and science in the future maritime economy.
By combining historic waterfront resources, the spirit of innovation, and an unparalleled natural setting, the city of Gloucester is ready to set sail into a brighter tomorrow.
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SPECTACLE AT SPINDRIFT! 2013 GMG/FARM BAR AND GRILLE BIKINI SPEEDO DODGEBALL TOURNAMENT ONE FOR THE AGES!
I’m still having trouble processing just what went down yesterday.
First off we cannot thank enough Rick Doucette and his staff The Cape Ann YMCA for hosting this year’s tournament. For their help setting up and with the transportation back and forth to the Wingersheek parking lot. Camp Spindrift if you haven’t been there since you were a kid is the absolute perfect spot for a corporate outing, wedding, pig roast (next year during the tourney) or any other time you are looking for intimate space for your event. Contact Rick at The YMCA to book your event at Camp Spindrift.
Then you gotta talk about the team that put this thing together over the past three months. Frankie Gwynne has worked relentlessly pouring over the minute details and making sure everything ran smoothly, designed the flyers and T Shirts just a tremendous amount of thanks to Frankie. Ryan Cox (AKA Mr Bentley) the MAN who just says yes, Can we do it? YES, every time, organizationally Ryan made so much happen. Brad Atkinson and the Farm Staff who set up the fields.
Matty K, the worlds Greatest DJ. Soup, the Bracketologist who made sure we had the right teams lined up to go.
My co-contributors from GMG including super patient Kim Smith who shot the Harlem Shake video. Craig Kimberley who shot and will undoubtedly bring the most entertaining Dodgeball video and interviews that anyone could ever produce, David Cox Brian O’Connor and Donna Ardizzoni who must have shot a gazzilion photos which y’all will see soon. My boy the Rabbit who shot lots of photos as well.
Desi Smith from the Gloucester Daily Times who took time out of a packed weekend to come cover the Tournament, CBS Boston who has a gallery from the event.
Bill Kubichek who graced us with the Evil Knevil speedo get-up and rousing National anthem to kick things off and Aria McElhenny from Next Step.
Lauren Mears from Jungle Silkscreening who got our t shirts printed way below budget and included high quality dry-fit technical t’s for the event.
Jen Amero who helped spread the word as well.
Hope I didn’t forget anyone, I probably did, my head is still pretty foggy.
But the event doesn’t take place without the competitors who brave the cold and donate their money to the cause. Our competitors that take the time to plan their team’s themes , pick out their entrance music and put together their costumes. It was just a whoooole lot of fun.
The Farm guys including Ryan Cox, Brad Atkinson and Noah Goldstein have created an incredible family of regulars who make that place special. You walk into the Farm and no matter who is behind the bar you feel welcome, and like you’re part of the Farm Family-
Farmers for life.
Frankie Gwynne- You Are The Man!
Congratulations to two time back to Back Champions- Blinded By the White- sponsored by Ed Collard’s Housedoctor’s Handyman Services.
Tons of pictures and videos to come-
We can start with some from Lowell Peabody-
and a video before things got started from Kim Smith-
Brian O’Connor Photos-
The Details(also available on The Event Facebook Page Here)
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Have You Voted For The Cape Ann Artisans Studio Tour As The Best Annual Festival/Event in New England?
I’m not sure that it’s the Best Annual Festival In All of New England or Even Gloucester But It Sure As Hell Beats The Heck Out of It’s Competition In The List of Nominations
Here are your nominees-
Cape Ann Artisans Studio Tour – Cape Ann, MA
Lowell Folk Festival – Lowell, MA
Maine Whoopie Pie Festival – Dover-Foxcroft, ME
Sea Music Festival – Mystic, CT
Six Flags New England Fright Fest – Agawam, MA
Seems like a kinda random list, no????
No Rockland Lobster Festival? No Big E? No Topsfield Fair? No Newport Jazz Festival? No Hemp Festival on the Boston Common? No King Richard’s Faire? No Saint Peter’s Fiesta? But You Have The Very Prestigious Maine Whoopie Pie Festival?
Anyway, if we’re basing it just off of these choices it’s obviously The Cape Ann Artisans Studio Tour. No Brainer. Support Our Artists (and Artisans)
You can vote here-
The Cape Ann Artisans Tour Is A Must Do Event Every Year For Shizzy.
It’s funny when we were having the discussion with the people from the mass Cultural Council as to whether Downtown Gloucester deserves to be designated a Cultural district one of the things I brought up was our ridiculous number of Cultural events to attend here in GTown.
and that’s why I find it funny that the Cape Ann Artisans Tour is nominated in this category. Because in many other communities The Cape Ann Artisans Tour would be their number one event of the year, hands down no contest. But because we are so spoiled here we have monster events just about every other week and sometimes multiples in one week that would blow all of the other nominations out of the water.
It’s in no way shape or form a slight to The Incredible Cape Ann Artisans Tour. It’s just a testament to how insanely rich we are with community organizations that band together and put on incredible annual events that we get to enjoy.
So vote and bring home yet another feather in the Cultural Cap of Gloucester.
Vote here
Good Morning Gloucester 