Author: gregbover

After a long hiatus this one just cried out to be shared:

“The most serious charge which can be brought against New England is not Puritanism, but February…Spring is too far away to comfort even by anticipation, and winter long ago lost the charm of novelty. It is the very three a.m. of the calendar.”

Joseph Wood Krutch (1893 – 1970)

A Knoxville native, Krutch received an undergraduate degree from the University of Tennessee and then a doctorate in English Literature from Columbia. From the 1920’s to the 1950’s he was the theater critic for The Nation, a prominent magazine of the time, and also published well received biographies of Samuel Johnson and Henry David Thoreau. It was his study of the latter, and a move to Tucson, that lead to his own nature and conservation writing for which he is perhaps best known, including The Desert Year in 1951 and The Great Chain of Life in 1956. There is a cactus garden at the University of Arizona named in his memory.

This timely quote was stolen from the Sawyer Free Library’s excellent February newsletter which can be subscribed to here. My thanks to the uncredited author.

Greg Bover

This is the live storytelling event that has been keeping Gloucester entertained for the last four years. This time the theme is therapy and therapists, so there are sure to be special stories that are funny or poignant by turns. And how do you really feel about that?

It’s a joint fundraiser for the Writers Center and the Stage Company, just the sort of collaboration that makes our town the vibrant art and culture scene that it is.

So come hear folks you know speak from the heart, you’ll be glad you did.

Save some time to attend this special edition of Fish Tales, Gloucester’s own live storytelling event. The theme is all about therapy and therapists so there will be great stories, some hilarious, some poignant, and this time told at the Gloucester Stage Company so there’s plenty of room. You know you’ve been meaning to catch one of these, don’t miss it.

“In an industrial society which confuses work and productivity, the necessity of producing has always been an enemy of the desire to create.”

Raoul Vaneigem (1934 –     )

Born in Belgium, Vaneigem studied philology (the study of written history) at the Free University of Brussels in the 1950’s. He and Guy Debord were the principal theorists of the Situationist International, which had wide influence on radical artistic and political thought in the 1960’s. His best known work, The Revolution of Everyday Life, expounds the situationist belief that capitalism promoted “passive second-hand individual expression through the consumption of commodities over directly lived experiences and first-hand fulfillment of personal desires” and inflicted profound damage on the quality of human life for both individuals and society.

The Gloucester Writers Center’s live story telling program Fish Tales is looking for storytellers for the upcoming show on Friday, October 7^th, 7:30 PM at the Rocky Neck Cultural Center.

The theme is Tag Team, stories told by two people taking turns. Sisters, brothers, friends, spouses, any two people who share a tale. Please get in touch with Maureen Aylward (maureenaylward@comcast.net) if you have a story to tell with a partner. Don’t delay, only a few spots left in the line-up.

Fish Tales Storyteller Guidelines

• Stories should be true and from the personal experience of the storyteller.
• Stories must be stories, not personal narratives about a subject/theme.
• Stories are most effective if told without reading a script. If this seems difficult, make an outline and tell the story to the mirror a few times, then try it without the outline. Experience tells us that a story that is told and not read has greater lasting power.
• Stories must be five minutes. Keep an eye on the time keeper who will signal when you are approaching the end of your time. In some venues we only have 1 hour for the show so your help is appreciated in keeping to the 5 minute limit.
• Storytellers who are far over the 5 minute timeline will not be included in the final cut of our film that appears on Cape Ann TV and posted on the GWC website.
• Arrive at the venue ten minutes before the start time to find out where you are in the line-up and to get comfortable.
• See also http://themoth.org/tell-a-story/storytelling-tips
• To see a sample show: http://gloucesterwriters.org/fish-tales-rockn-roll/

Dear Friends of the Fish Box Derby,

For the first time in 23 years, the Fish Box Derby Race scheduled for Sunday, September 18^th has been postponed indefinitely due to the likelihood of rain. Because the rented hay used to line the racecourse cannot get wet, it is not available, therefore there is no way to safely run the race.

No date has been set for another attempt as the parking lot used for the pit area is not available in the coming weeks, and city permits for road closures must be resubmitted. A race in the spring is possible.

Funds received for charitable advertising along the racecourse will carry over to the next race.

The twenty-third annual Fish Box Derby race will run down Rogers Street Sunday, September 18th at High Noon. Each year dozens of kids between 8 and 14 build cars with their families or friends and compete for bragging rights and great prizes. Rules, details and used cars for sale can be found at www.fishboxderby.org. 

 There is no entry fee for the kids, but you must register before September 11.

If you would be proud to have your company’s name prominently displayed on the bales of hay lining the racecourse with the scores of other underwriters of the event, visit the website above or call Greg at 978-283-1932. With your help, the committee can continue to award multiple $1,000 college scholarships each year to former racers.

Here’s a link to a video John Cooney made about Awesome Gloucester, an organization that has quietly raised nearly $40,000 and distributed it to the community in various ways over the last three years. The twenty trustees each chip in $50 a month, review and vote for their favorites out of the 10 to 15 proposals we receive every month, and then hold a public Pitch Night to decide among the top three. The best idea gets $1,000 in cash. It’s very simple to make a proposal, fun to attend Pitch Night (3^rd Mondays at Gloucester House (Thanks, Lenny)), and sometimes we are looking for new trustees. Even more info at our website.

I know the cure for everything: saltwater…in one form or another: sweat, tears, or the sea. Isak Dinesen (Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke) 1885 – 1962

Born into an aristocratic Danish family with close ties to royalty, Dinesen was home schooled by her strict Unitarian grandmother, and then continued her education in Rome and Paris. She married her second cousin in 1914 and moved to Kenya, then known as British East Africa. The couple established a successful coffee plantation in Kikuyu tribal lands staffed by local people, but divorced in 1925. Dinesen had a close relationship with Denys Finch-Hatten, an English hunter, safari leader, and aviator who suffered a fatal crash in 1931. The plantation did not survive the world-wide economic depression and Dinesen returned to Denmark, where she concentrated on her writing, producing several books, the best known novel Out of Africa, and the story Babette’s Feast, both of which were later made into films. She was an important literary figure in Denmark and America through the 1950’s, hobnobbing with other intellectuals including Hemingway, Miller, and Capote. She was short listed for the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature.

You know summer is fleeting by, so come sailing on Adventure while the weather is still perfect. The next two Saturdays, the 20th and 27th we are sailing from 2 to 5. It’s just $30 for members, ($60 for non-members so it is worth joining up). Because of the harbor dredging Adventure had to move from Maritime Gloucester, but now you can board the shuttle next door at Solomon Jacobs Landing for a short ride out to the ship. I’ll be on the crew both days, ask for me and I’ll show you the ropes, (yes, literally).

Here’s all the info:       Purchase Tickets Here

 Experience the magnificence of Gloucester’s flagship schooner! A National Historic Landmark, Adventure is an icon of the American fisheries and a floating classroom for maritime history. Adventure is a 122’ historic wooden fishing schooner built in 1926 in Essex, MA — it is truly a destination not to be missed! Bring a picnic and help our crew hoist the sails, and learn about her legacy, restoration, and life aboard one of the Fast and Able fishing schooners. 

Boarding will begin at 1:30 PM  via the Harbor Launch from Solomon Jacobs Park at 19 Harbor Loop, Gloucester.  

Become a Supporting Member      JOIN NOW!

 Members get free tickets to sail and discounts on unlimited guest passes. Becoming a Member of Schooner Adventure is the best way to support our mission to preserve and operate Adventure for the enrichment of our community and for future generations. Schooner Adventure is operated by The Gloucester Adventure, Inc. a 501(c)(3) organization established to be the stewards of Adventure, to preserve and operate her as a living symbol of Gloucester’s maritime heritage and provide educational programs for students and adults that explores our sea heritage and teaches skills in the art, language, and science of sailing.

“For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.”

Henry Louis (H.L.) Mencken (1880-1956)

An essayist and critic for the Baltimore Sun, the New Yorker, and the New York Times Mencken was a founding editor of the influential American Mercury. Often referred to as the “Sage of Baltimore”, Mencken’s notoriety was solidified by his acerbic coverage of what he called the Scopes Monkey Trial and his widely read book The American Language (1919). He was a follower of Nietzsche and counted Twain among his heroes. His support for Ayn Rand (The Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged, etc.) helped to launch her career. His distrust of the democratic process is on display in the above quote as well as the following: “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

Normally, I don’t wear advertising; however, when it is swag from good friends at Cape Pond Ice, Neptune’s Harvest, Schooner Adventure, and GMG, I make an exception, especially when on vacation cruising Penobscot Bay proud to represent my city.

Last week in the town of Northeast Harbor on Mount Desert Island there was a chance meeting of the crews from three Gloucester sailing vessels: Arts and Letters from Anninsquam, Mugup from Smith Cove, and my own Pensive Flyer from Magnolia. Our gam blocked the sidewalk on Main Street for quite a while as we discussed possible destinations and anchorages. It is a fine thing to be a small part of our community of sailors.

In partnership with one another, Awesome Gloucester and Awesome Rockport will distribute 134 pink envelopes containing undisclosed amounts of cash across our neighboring communities. Together, our chapters will give away a total of $2000 in free cash over the course of a single weekend. The dates of distribution are July 16 and July 17.

In addition to the cash, we will also insert a brief note in each envelope requesting that recipients (a) do something awesome with the money and (b) share a story about what they did via email or through social media. We intend for our guerrilla philanthropy effort to persuade our fellow community members to help us spread the interests of awesome in the universe.

https://www.facebook.com/awesomerockport/

https://www.facebook.com/AwesomeGloucester/

Look for these. Do something awesome with the cash. Let us know.

“We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”

Eliezer Wiesel (1928 – 2016)

Born in Romania to Jewish parents, Wiesel and his family were sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1944, where his mother and sister were killed, and then to Buchenwald where his father died just weeks before the American 3^rd Army liberated the camp. He lived in Paris after the war working as a journalist, and wrote the first of the 57 books he would ultimately publish, almost entirely about the Holocaust and the effects it would have on society. He moved to the United States as a correspondent for an Israeli daily and stayed on to become the Mellon Professor of Humanities at Boston University in 1976, he went on to teach at several other institutions including Yale and Barnard, and became the voice and conscience for oppressed populations around the world. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1992 among dozens of other awards and honors.

Greg Bover

Member Sails on Wednesdays from 4 to 7pm

Community Sails on Fridays from 5 to 8pm

Maritime Community Day Sail, Saturday July 16 from 3 to 6pm

Members $30, non members $60, BUT HERE”S THE REAL DEAL!

Live story telling at its best from local raconteurs.