Good Morning Gloucester Podcast April 17,2013

Podcast Host Joey Ciaramitaro and guest Paul Morrison Taped April 17th, 2013

Click to listen-

Earth Day

The Word “Broad”

Revisiting The Good Harbor Beach Repair Timetable Predictions

Rubber Duck Race

Craig Kimberley’s Bikini Speedo Dodgeball Movie Premiere At the farm Bar and Grille

Blackburn Challenge Registration

O’Maley Soda Bottle Garden From Roger Davis

Roger Davis Submits

Last Friday, the O’Maley Middle School cafeteria served lettuce in its salad bar… and students actually ate some!  The real news is that this lettuce was grown by the sixth grade students of Island House… in the school library!  Under the direction of science teacher Roger Davis, the students created planters out of two-liter soda bottles, linked together in a siphon-fed watering system.  A three-liter bottle supplies the whole class’s set of lettuce planters, and the siphon passes the water from one planter to the next.  The plants absorb the water by cappilary action, so the plants never need to be watered.  With the garden and water all held in these containers, the lettuce bed was set in the school library, whose large sunroof gives the plants plenty of light.  Six weeks later, the students harvested the first cutting, with more still to come.  With this project students are learning basic plant science, indoor or container gardening techniques, and the principles of water and air pressure used in the siphon water system.  Seeds and soil for this project were donated to the school by Wolf Hill Garden Center.

What is important

With the sadness of our beloved Boston’s tragedy, I thought of how we must be brave and just continue to live and not be afraid.  Here is a couple of pictures of why we must be brave.

Handsome Dude Owen at the Ipswich River Sanctuary

Our handsome Dude Owen

Avery getting ready for the park

Avery getting ready for the park

Maddie playing in the sand

Maddie playing in the sand

Cole exploring the rocks at the beach

Exploring the beach Cole

Get Ready for Spring!

Cincinnati Country Club Cherry blossoms ©Kim Smith 2013

Cherry Blossoms

Cincinnati is typically about a week and a half to two weeks ahead of us in spring bloom power.

Cincinnati Country Club - ©Kim Smith 2013

This past weekend my dear sister-in-law, Amy, remarried a super great guy, Arnold. The reception was held at the Cincinnati Country Club where we also stayed for several nights.

Cincinnati Country Club dining room ©Kim Smith 2013

Cincinnati Country Club Dennis Buttleworth ©Kim Smith 2013 copyCincinnati Country Club ©Kim Smith 2013Cincinnati Country Club Magnolia stellata ©Kim Smith 2013Star Magnolia (Magnolia stellata)

The early spring flowering trees were in full glorious bloom, including hawthorns, magnolias, and cherry trees, and all looked luxuriously lush and brilliantly fresh–

Get Ready!

Cincinnati Country Club Liv and Alex Hauck ©Kim Smith 2013Liv and Alex

VIDEO: Cape Ann TV’s Maureen Aylward interviews TimeBank co-founder Nancy Goodman & Chamber CEO Robert Heidt about Earth Day Eco-Trip

This just in from Lisa Smith at Cape Ann TV.  Watch the interview below the news release:

Celebrate Earth Day and discover what Gloucester businesses are doing to go green on the Eco-Trip Scavenger Hunt on April 20 at 12:30 p.m. On the Eco-Trip you’ll solve crossword puzzles and mazes, get exercise walking to eight downtown businesses, shop at the Cape Ann Farmers’ Market, win prizes from local merchants, and socialize over refreshments at Latitude 43. We can’t think of a better way to spend Earth Day.

When you register to play at capeanntimebank.org, you’ll get a free copy of “Share the Ocean” by Michael Crocker. Before April 13 it’s $10 to play solo or on a team. After that, it’s $15. So register early! 

Here Nancy Goodman, co-founder of the TimeBank, Robert Heidt, chief executive officer of the Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce, and Maureen Aylward of Cape Ann TV talk about the Eco-Trip.

Music helps us heal this week

More than likely you know someone who was at the Marathon.  Here’s a small-world example: Vickie’s brother-in-law works for a medical device company in Cedar Falls, Iowa and his boss is the father of the eight-year-old boy who died.  Even if you don’t know someone who was there, you’re probably reeling from the shock that terrorism has struck so close to home.  I know I am.

Music has a way of healing wounds of all kinds.  And musicians have known this since humans began making music (when ever that was).

I was Speaking with T Max today about this and he gave me a quote perfect for this week from Leonard Bernstein, one of my musical heroes — I watched his Young People’s Concerts on TV as a kid (see them on YouTube here).   He says,

“This will be our reply to violence:
to make music more intensely,
more beautifully,
more devotedly than ever before.”

Maestro Bernstein’s healing words ring true as local musicians carry his reply to over a dozen venues in Gloucester and Cape Ann this week.  See the complete live music schedule here.

Tonight T Max is Fly Amero’s guest at The Rhumb Line. (Fly’s on the cover of T Max’s  Noise Magazine this month — read the story here).  Both T Max and Fly are tuned into the power of music to heal (here’s one example of how Fly transformed a dark day).

Tomorrow there’s another Singer/Songwriter Shuffle at Giuseppe’s with top local stars, including Inge Berge, Satch Kerans, Steve Caraway, Will Hunt, Randy Black, Brian O’Connor & Jake Pardee.  And just like last week you will still have time to catch rising star Brad Byrd at The Dog Bar after the Shuffle.  Currently I’m under an intense deadline that is forcing me to work late, but one way or the other, we’ll try to get to at least one local live music show over the next week or so.  And I’m sure it will help us heal.

Here’s a video that may seem a bit idealistic and hippy-dippy-trippy, but I find wisdom appropriate for our time in it’s simple, haunting lyrics especially this stanza:

Nothing you can know that isn’t known.
Nothing you can see that isn’t shown.
Nowhere you can be that isn’t where you’re meant to be.
It’s easy.

Thursday night blues party to host Mari Martin @ The Rhumb Line 8-11 ~ 4.18.2013

ds

Dave says,

I’m back ! And a pain to meet on the streets of this basically clean city!  Just rinsed off my muddy boots after a week’s sojourn in the deep south, dodging gators in the French Quarter. And we’re rarin’ to go this Thursday with the likes of Ms. Mari Martin! Last time she was here EMTs had their hands full. We’re gonna do it again, see how much paint peels off the walls! She’s a great singer and I’m sure you’ll be blubberin’ like crazy after she gets done with you!
Backing her up will be that intrepid guitarist, Mr. Bob Enik, impossible to fool, Mr. Jim Gambino, on keys, if he can find the place, Mr. Andrew Jones and his beatific roadie ( His wife!) on drums and yours truly on bass. Bring an Ace bandage!

mari martin 21http://marimartinmusic.com/photos.html

The word is there are only a half a dozen tickets left to see David Bromberg

Rockport Music~Shalin Liu

GUEST PRESENTATION

Saturday, April 20, 8 pm

Presented by M.E. Productions

David Bromberg

DETAILS:

He’s played with everyone, he’s toured everywhere, he can lead a raucous big band or hold an audience silent with a solo acoustic blues. Bromberg’s sensitive and versatile approach to guitar-playing earned him a coveted position as the first-call, “hired gun” guitarist for recording sessions, ultimately playing on hundreds of records by artists including Bob Dylan (New Morning, Self Portrait, Dylan), Link Wray, The Eagles, Ringo Starr, Willie Nelson, and Carly Simon. Bromberg’s range of material, based in the folk and blues idioms, continually expanded with each new album to encompass bluegrass, ragtime, country and ethnic music. Join us for a special solo evening with an american treasure.

Bromberg-Geils banner

You have to call the box office the last remaining seats for the David Bromberg event.

Box Office
35 Main Street
Rockport, MA 01966
Hours: M-F, 10-4
Telephone (General and Box Office)
978.546.7391

Jim Dowd responds to the attack on the Boston Marathon

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[Two products of our fair city. Both will kick your ass.]

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Oh man, you screwed up, didn’t you?

Yes, your little RadioShack experiment for evil hurt and killed some people and got you the attention you were obviously so desperately seeking. Point for you there, asshole. But I get the sense you really don’t know what you’ve done here, do you? Are you from out of town? I have the strong sense that you are.

If that is the case, allow me tell you a little something about the city you screwed with. This town is not your run-of-the mill medium sized regional capital. In picking Boston as a target you picked has the unique condition of having a ridiculously huge number of completely off-the-wall genius techno-wizards co-existing right alongside some of the most psychotic angry, violent motherf&*^ers on the planet. I guarantee you that bringing these two groups together for common cause will turn out to be a massive miscalculation your part.

Do you have any idea what I’m talking about? This small city produced both Stephen J Gould and Whitey Bulger.  This place gave us Leonard Nimoy and Mark Wahlberg.  Southie and Cambridge. Brookline and Brockton. This place will kick the screaming piss out of you, come up with a cure for having the screaming piss kicked out of you, give it to you for free, then win a Nobel prize for it and then use the medallion to break your knuckles. See what I’m talking about?

Go to other towns with smart people. Do they have the tattooed, scarred, pent-up hard-cases to match? Every time I go to a bar in Palo Alto or Zurich I get the distinct sense that I could pretty much take everyone in there while still holding my own in Words With Friends on my iPhone. Not that I’m some huge tough guy by any stretch of the imagination, it’s just that Boston and the other “smart” towns are in different leagues. It’s like the Bruins going up against some “Magic The Gathering” gamers at pond hockey. (And not our the Magic The Gathering players in Gloucester, either. I’ve seen those dudes and they actually look like they could hold their own pretty well. I certainly wouldn’t try and cast a dubious spell with those guys, they’re hardcore.)

Boston produces two distinct stereotypes: Huge, giant geeks and angry Catholic tough guys. You know what? Both of those are true and you, you dumb shit, just gave them a reason to team up. And on top of it you attacked our signature event, one made up of exceedingly fit people who pursue a hobby of enduring incredible searing pain for hours on end. This is what they do for “fun”. You think these guys aren’t going to go to the ends of the Earth to catch you? Trust me, this town will never forget and never give up. We have a thing here called “Irish Alzheimer’s”- it’s when the only memories you have are grudges.

You terrorist asshole, I can assure you that right now, just as I am writing this, that there are dudes sitting in conference rooms and labs a few blocks away in Cambridge drawing elaborate flow charts on whiteboards that describe exactly how to deploy arcane, unheard of and incredibly complicated technology involving quantum entanglement and nanobots to pinpoint, as much as the universe will allow considering the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, your sorry, sorry stupid pathetic little ass.

And behind me in the North End and across the channel to the bars on Summer St. there are similar groups of dudes debating the scientific merits of different electrical voltages applied to the various soft tissues of the human body in order to elicit maximum amounts of excruciating pain over time. They have formulas for this [V/NADS over Time= Screams that they will hear in Worcester]. This is not a theoretical discussion; they are speaking from practical experience.

You’d better pray the BPD catches you first. No, scratch that, you’d better pray for the FBI. No, wait, all those dudes went to Holy Cross. For your own good you might want to turn yourself in to the CDC or the National Geospatial Agency or something like that. They might let you live. Maybe.

And worse yet for you, Boston is provincial in a way that makes Sicily look like Epcot. We don’t care if you’re going to school here, just moved from half a world away or are up for a long weekend. When you’re in Boston, you’re Boston. We watch each other’s backs, always have and always will. And we live for an enemy and a purpose. This is not going to end well for you. Over the past three centuries we’ve taken on Imperial England, slavery and Krispy Kreeme. Note that given time, Boston wins every time.

Come to think of it, a lot of those Geospatial guys went to MIT. Oh man, you are so effed.

Interfaith Prayer Service for Boston Marathon Tragedy

In response to Boston Marathon Tragedy, an Interfaith Prayer Service is being organized here in Gloucester:

Interfaith Prayer Service in Response to the Boston Marathon Tragedy

Wednesday, April 17th, 7:00 p.m.
St. Paul Lutheran Church
1123 Washington St., Gloucester

If you have questions: please call Pastor Anne Deneen, 617-285-8056, or the church office, 978-283-6550

Fr. Matthew Green

Cape Ann Trail Stewards Gloucester’s Goose Cove Reservoir on Sunday, April 21st

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CAPE ANN TRAIL STEWARDS

Inaugural Event

Cape Ann Trail Stewards (CATs), a new non-profit organization, announces its upcoming inaugural event. 

Cape Ann Trail Stewards was founded by citizens of Gloucester, Rockport, Manchester and Essex to help landowners and conservation organizations protect, maintain and expand Cape Ann’s trail networks.

By matching volunteers with trails in need of stewardship, CATs will connect Cape Ann residents with the vast network of trails in the area and help preserve these recreational resources for our community. Cape Ann Trail Stewards will arrange workdays where volunteers can learn about trail construction and maintenance.

The board of directors includes residents of Gloucester, Rockport, Essex and Manchester, and representatives from the Essex County Greenbelt, Essex County Trails Association, Cape Ann Climbing Coalition, the New England Mountain Bike Association and other user groups.

Cape Ann Trail Stewards invites the public to join the inaugural clean up workday at the city of Gloucester’s Goose Cove Reservoir on Sunday, April 21st (the day before Earth Day) beginning at 1PM. 

We will meet in the lot along Gee Avenue. Participants should wear sturdy shoes and dress appropriately for the weather (the event is rain or shine). Bring rakes, shovels and buckets if you have them. CATs will supply gloves and other materials.

Register for this event, join our roster of regular volunteers and learn more about us at www.capeanntrailstewards.org

Pet of the Week-Sporty Spice

Sporty Spice

Hello!   My name is Sporty Spice and I am a happy and playful three-month-old female pup who is Chihuahua Shiba Inu with a beautiful cream-and-white coat.   I will be small to medium size when I am fully grown.   I can’t wait to meet my new family!  If you would like to meet me, I amat the Cape Ann Animal Aid located at the Christopher Cutler Rich Animal Shelter in Gloucester. Check our website at: CapeAnnAnimalAid.com    I am spending a lot of time with other pups, visitors and volunteers and I get along well with everyone.   Someone asked me if I am part rabbit because of my ears! I love having big ears because I can hear all the great things everyone is saying about me – one of the volunteers just said I am a sweet pup and then she picks me up and gives me a hug, brushes me, takes me for a walk, feeds me and I get another hug before she leaves – this is the life!