Author: Joey Ciaramitaro

“Schooner Adventure at Maritime Gloucester” for 2014 Season

Gloucester’s iconic fishing schooner Adventure will partner with Maritime Gloucester starting June 1 when it moves to Maritime Gloucester’s waterfront campus on Harbor Loop.

According to Maritime Gloucester’s Executive director Tom Balf, “The Schooner Adventure will be an important addition to our educational and visitor programs. As a dockside attraction with guided tours, charter and periodic public sails, Adventure will complement educational experiences and the daily public sails now offered by the Schooner Ardelle. Its presence on the Harriet Webster Pier will help further establish Maritime Gloucester as a preeminent maritime destination north of Boston. We know many in the community welcome this partnership.”

Everett James in Essex, MA built Adventure in 1926 to designs by the renowned marine architect Thomas McManus. Shipwrights are currently working on restoration of the fo’c’sle and galley at the Gloucester Marine Railways, and uprigging should occur in early June at the docks at Maritime Gloucester.

John Fuller, Executive Director of Gloucester Adventure, Inc. said “docking Adventure at Maritime Gloucester will help us re-launch Adventure into the next leg of her long and storied journey. As an integral part of Maritime Gloucester’s historic waterfront campus, including their highly regarded educational programming, Adventure will support Maritime Gloucester’s mission to inspire their visitors and students through hands-on education and experiences that can now occur on board the vessel. Our being on the Harriet Webster Pier is a win for Maritime Gloucester, Schooner Adventure, and the City of Gloucester.”

“The combination of Adventure and the Ardelle creates a destination with a truly memorable dockside, museum or sailing experience. Students and visitors this summer will be able to tour the historic Adventure, take a sail on the Ardelle, visit our aquarium with its local and Gulf of Maine species, or discover our new fisheries exhibit in our Gorton’s Gallery or the variety of outside exhibits that describe Gloucester’s past, present and future” said Maritime Gloucester’s Balf.

Fuller added that The Adventure hopes to revive its popular Sunday pancake breakfast aboard the vessel that once attracted visitors from throughout the region.

US Eliminations only 2 weeks away!

Thanks to some generous volunteers, the race boats are restored and in the water ready for US eliminations on May 31^st.  There has been some activity down at the boats lately, but there is still time to find a partner, get some rows in and compete.  We have a new category this year in the Men’s Division moving from over 40 years to over 50 years in conjunction with our Canadian counterparts.  I would hope this new category would bring out some new faces or veteran teams to compete again this year.  It’s also hard to believe that with boats full of women rowers at Fiesta, that we have a hard time finding a women’s dory team each year.  I urgently encourage any women rowers to find a partner, get into the dories and extend your rowing season.  This is another opportunity to compete with 5 weeks to train before we face the Canadians.

Best wishes to all.

Erik

Hi Joey,

I’m on the board of the Annisquam Village Players and we hope you can run the announcement below about our upcoming auditions on May 25.

Please let me know if you have any questions.
Thanks,
Anne Williams
Audition for the musical Peter Pan
The Annisquam Village Players will hold auditions for the musical Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie on Sunday, May 25 at the Annisquam Village Hall, 36 Leonard Street, Gloucester. Auditions will begin at 6 p.m. for children ages 6 – 10 and 7 p.m. for adults or anyone trying out for a lead role. Children should be prepared to sing the song, “I won’t grow up” while teens and adults can prepare any song from the show. There will be a dance audition as well for both men and women. The show will run from Tuesday, August 5 through Sunday, August 10, with rehearsals starting in mid June. For more information visit www.annisquamvillageplayers.org

Joey, my name is Andrew Weiner. I was born and raised in Gloucester. I am just starting (1 chapter done) a book called “The Bounty of the sea and her dangers” which is gonna be loosely based on real life events, albeit fiction. I have several local contributors already, including;

Pamela Dalzell – Gloucester MA

Joe Moceri (Joe Moe) Guilford NH

Nick Rodolosi

Kory Curcuru – Gloucester MA (Author of the critically acclaimed “St. Peters Fiasco”

Carlo Lovasco – Clearwater FL

Larry Marcantonio – Tarpon Springs FL

I am wondering if you might put a link to it on Good Morning Gloucester. It is www.facebook.com/bountyofthesea

Also, if you want to be listed as a contributor, please feel free to read the posts and add.

Thanks either way for reading this.

Andrew

THEATRE IN THE PINES – MAY PERFORMANCE – THE HEIRESS

Nan Webber, Artistic Director, Theatre in the Pines, announced the spring production will be, THE HEIRESS  by Ruth and Augustus Goetz adapted from the novel Washington Squareby Henry James.  Performances will take place at Spiran Hall, located at 18 Broadway on the corner of Broadway and School Street in Rockport.   Performance will be held at 7:30 p.m. on May 15, 16, 17 and May 18th at 3 p.m.

The background of the play is Washington Square, New York City, during the latter part of the 19th Century.

A shy, plain young woman Catherine Sloper, falls desperately in love with a delightful young man named Morris Townsend.Larry Cook and Heidi Pulkkinen are the two leading actors in this production.  Audiences loved them in “Summer and Smoke, ”  and they are electric in this stunning production of THE HEIRESS.

Tickets are now available at Toad Hall Bookstore, 47 Main Street, Rockport; The Gloucester Book Store, 61 Main Street, Gloucester and at all performances.

Performed many years ago by Theatre in the Pines, “Arsenic and Old Lace,” has been requested many, many times to return. The September production, “Arsenic and Old Lace,” will take place at the Shalin Liu Performance Center 37 Main Street, Rockport on September 12 at 7:30 p.m., September 13 at 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. and September 14 at 2:30 p.m.

In spring of 2015 the Theatre in the Pines, will produce a gala production of Romeo and Juliet.

Hi Joey,

After the long, cold winter, it is time to get outside and celebrate the spring! Folk Life Studio will present a free, participatory May Celebration – complete with live music, a maypole and morris dancers – on Sunday, May 18 at 1:00 PM on the green of the Gloucester UU Church, corner of Middle and Church Streets in Gloucester. This family friendly event will run for about an hour or so and feature songs and dances for all, including maypole dancing.  Participants are encouraged to wear festive clothing and flowers. For additional information, contact folklifestudio@gmail.com.

This event was originally planned for Saturday, but due to the expected rain has been moved to Sunday.

Thanks!

Join us on Sunday, May 18th from 2:00 to 4:00 pm when we take the vintage Mark 5 Navy diving suit out of Paul Harling’s Diving Locker and give it a test run off the end of our pier. Commercial diver John Harvey (pictured) will wear the brass diving helmet and the durable rubberized canvas suit in this working equipment demonstration. Experts will be on-hand to answer questions. Come join in the fun!  This is a free family event, and no registration is required.

A good show for a good cause.

Join us for Shakespeare’s first of the sitcoms, four

hundred years before I Love Lucy. Thursday, May 15

is pay what you will to benefit the CAST Scholarship

Fund, which has given three $500 awards since 2012.

Cevicos Medical Mission

Dear Friends:

I am writing to you on behalf of a medical mission group that I am involved with. For the past three years, I have traveled with the Holy Family Parish Medical Mission in an effort to assist the poor in the Dominican Republic.

We are preparing for our next upcoming trip in May. This will be my third mission trip, and each trip with these people has changed my life in a most positive way.

The care and love that we bring down to the Dominican citizens that we visit is a gift, not only to them, but also to those of us who are fortunate enough to share it with them. And although only a handful of our team actually boards the plane and works with the people, the thoughts, prayers and gifts of so many of you come with us. We could not do this alone. Without the support of our friends and neighbors, it would not be possible.

During the trip we offer three medical clinics. Members of our team include doctors and nurses, and we bring with us a vast supply of medicine and treatment supplies. We treat people for heart disease, diabetes, infections, and parasites (due to lack of clean drinking water). We offer each person that comes to us fluoride treatments, along with other treatments and supplies, so that they may live their lives in a healthier and more sustainable manner.

For the majority of the people that visit our clinics, this is their only chance to be seen by a professional doctor. Each person sits with a doctor, who gives them a thorough exam. Approximately 800 people will be seen by our team in one weeks’ time. These exams can identify issues that otherwise would have been ignored. Our doctors can both save lives and help to extend others.

As you know, I usually like to bring shoes with me, which I hand out to barefoot children when we go out into the campos, which is where the poorest of the poor live. Many of you have helped me with this by donating money or dropping shoes off at my door. Your generosity overwhelms me. However, on our last  trip, it was apparent to the whole team that there was another branch of service that was greatly needed. During our home visits, we identified a group of people who could get not get to the clinics, because they were bedridden. These are the elderly, many of whom if they were here in the states would be in hospice care or nursing homes.  They are just like our elderly. They are parents and grandparents, and favorite aunts and uncles. Loved by their families, just like we love ours.  

But with limited resources, the ability to care for them is at best challenging. This May, we want to bring these people packages, which would include items to assist with their  homebound issues, such as incontinence: bedpans, urinals, clean bedding, ointments for  bedsores or pressure ulcers, ointments for skin rash, etc. We can’t fix these poor people’s worst issues, but we can absolutely show them, with a few moments of our time, that they are loved, and that someone cares. Just by reaching out to them and trying. We just want to make their lives more comfortable. Sometimes, they just need a hug. J

One of my favorite sayings, which was used many times by Mother Teresa:  “Do no great things, Do only small things with great love.” I believe in these words. And I think that if a lot of the people that I love can share some small things, we can make a tremendous difference in these people’s lives.

We don’t have funding for this  project yet, since it is a new part of the mission trip, but today I am asking you for help. If anything I have said here speaks to you, please send a donation to this very worthy cause.

It can be mailed to:

“Holy Family Parish, Cevicos  Mission”

C/O Nina Goodick

24 Thurston Point Road

Gloucester, MA 01930

Thank you.

Very Sincerely,

Nina J. Goodick

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EVENTS – EEL MIGRATIONS IN MILLBROOK – PASSAGE FROM SARGASSO SEA TO BRIAR SWAMP, ROCKPORT MASSACHUSETTS

TIME

May 24, 9.00 -11.00

ORGANIZATION

NOAA Fisheries

WEBSITE

www.nero.noaa.gov/, and http://www.habitat.noaa.gov/restoration/regional/northeast

The public will be introduced to the eels of Millbrook, the site of Rockport’s first European-American residents and the center of their early industry.

With the help of the Millbrook Meadow Conservancy and Rockport High School students, Eric Hutchins, of the NOAA Fisheries Restoration Center, will provide a tour of Rockport, Massachusett’s historic Millbrook.  Members of the public will be introduced to elvers at the beach, as they enter the brook after traveling over 1,000 miles from the Sargasso Sea.  Eels will be located and displayed temporarily in tanks within the Millbrook Meadow.  Human impacts on the brook, first settled by European-Americans in 1699, will be discussed, highlighting the importance of rivers in early settlements for drinking, watering gardens, energy production and waste disposal.  Ongoing efforts to restore the brook will be discussed, with a show-and-tell of the new fish ladder on a rebuilt dam.  Attendees will learn about the many challenges to resident and visiting eels, rainbow smelt, and other migratory diadroumous fish populations trying to make their way between fresh and saltwater habitats. 

Kim Alemian Drawing/Painting as Process

May 21 – 22

· « OIL PAINTING FOR ALL LEVELS with Ron Straka Spring Session II

· WATERCOLOR FOR ALL LEVELS with Caleb Stone Spring Session II »

Rockport Art Association

12 Main Street – Rockport Ma 01966

info@rockportartassn.org

www.rockportartassn.org

978-546-6604

Members: $175 Non-Members: $200

We will explore the process of drawing moving into painting, as an open ended activity. Through the investigation of layering, scraping, and mark making, we will question how much information is needed to describe the motif. The importance of proportion and other formal elements will be emphasized. Students will use a variety of materials. The importance of the relationship of drawing to painting will be talked about throughout the class. We will refer to master paintings with discussion and examples of how various processes were employed in creating works of art in recent history. Subject matter will include still-life & interior.

This Sunday, May 18, at 4 pm we’re celebrating the 25th anniversary of our C. B. Fisk organ, “Opus 97“. Thomas Baugh from Roanoke, Virginia will be playing works of Mendelssohn, Gibbons, Bach, Pinkham, Hancock and Franck. The program is free and open to the public, followed by a reception. St. John’s Church is located at 48 Middle Street in Gloucester. The entrance to the church parking lot is at 33 Washington Street. The church is handicap accessible, with a ramped entrance to the right of the Middle Street door. 

Thomas Baugh became Director of Music of Christ Episcopal Church in Roanoke in 1986. There, he directs adult and young people’s choirs, parish instrumentalists, and a Flemish handbell group. He received a Master of Music degree with distinction from Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ. He studied organ in the United States with John Mueller, Bruce Stevens, Eugene Roan, and in Lyon, France, with Louis Robilliard. Christ Church is the proud owner of Fisk organ, “Opus 124.”

J. S. Bach

Tom’s program includes music by the King of organ composers, Johann Sebastian Bach, in the “Trio Sonata number 4 in E minor.” Bach wrote the most challenging music of his time and this piece has one voice in each hand, with an equal voice to be played by the feet. Tom will also play an engaging piece by the legendary Boston composer Daniel Pinkham, who was organist at King’s Chapel, Boston, from 1958-2000. Tom will feature a favorite composer of Episcopal musicians, Gerre Hancock, with his “Meditation” on the legendary anthem (sung at the 10:30 am service) “Draw us in the Spirits’ Tether.” The program concludes with the monumental symphonic style “Choral No. 1 in E minor,” by Cesar Franck.  

The Fisk Opus 97 at St. John’s is the church’s third pipe organ. As such, it is part of a distinguished legacy of organs and music in this church, which recently celebrated the 150th anniversary of it’s founding.

Last year we discovered in the Boston Evening Transcript of September 9, 1864 an article with a photo of the organ that was built when the church was new in 1864. The article says that the organ cost $1,000 and was created in Boston. From the photo, the organ appears to have a wooden screen with no pipes visible, clearly one manual, with 5-6 stops.  

The second organ was made by the Estey Organ Company in 1907, Opus 434. Based in Brattleboro, VT, Estey made over 3,000 pipe organs between 1901 and 1950. 

On January 25, 1984, Senior Warden Susan Richardson, Frances Fitch (then music director), Joan Hunter, organ committee chair and the Rev. Robert Bela, interim priest, gathered at the workshop of C. B. Fisk, Inc. to sign the contract for Opus 97.

Charles Fisk

Charles Fisk had met with the committee the previous year to make plans for the instrument. It was one of his fondest wishes to build a new organ for his own community. He died only five weeks before the signing. Mark Nelson, St. John’s current director of music, was a member of the Fisk workshop at the time the contract for the Opus 97 was signed. He remembers what a significant event this was, as it proved that the Fisk workshop would continue to flourish, even without its founder. 

OPUS 97 was built in 1989, with additions completed in 1997. It consists of 18 voices, 23 ranks, and 1,044 pipes. Of that number, 398 have been retained, rebuilt and revoiced from the Estey organ installed at the turn of the previous century. Opus 97 is not considered a large organ. It was built on the same site as the previous two pipe organs, in the space laid out for it when the church was built.

More than half of the pipework is contained in the Swell division at floor level, with wooden vertical shades that open and close to allow for gradations in volume. This makes the organ especially adept at accompanying voices and playing the Anglian service. Opus 97 has been featured in a number of programs over the years, from Evensong to concerts to accompanying silent movies!  

Visit our website for more information: St.JohnsGloucester.org

Date:  May 20, 2014

Location: Essex Historical Society and Shipbuilding Museum

66 Main Street, Essex, MA 01929

Join us in Observance of the 150^th Anniversary of the Civil War –for a Discussion led by James Witham

Hear about the remarkable story of the Union Gunboats during the Civil War.  Gunboats were built to keep the Ohio, Missouri and Mississippi Rivers open to Union Traffic only.  The Iron-Clad U.S.S. Essex.was built to guard the shipyards during the construction of these gunboats. 

Photos, Discussion, Audience Participation

1. Newly launched “City Class” Gunboats at Cairo, Illinois. These are just three of eight gunboats purposely built to keep the Ohio, Missouri, and Mississippi rivers open to Union traffic only. The USS Essex was built to guard the shipyards during their construction.

Jim Witham, Discussion on U.S.S. Essex – Iron-Clad Vessel VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL