Every morning after our son heads off to school I finish my cup of tea in front of the computer with my favorite blog, Good Morning Gloucester. I love this blog, not only because of the terrific content created by first-rate contributors Joey, EJ, Manny, Felicia, Kathleen, Laurie, et al., but because Joey, the creator of GMG, is truly a genius when it comes to using social media for what I believe to be it’s intended and very best purpose.
To read the rest of the post and check out Kim’s excellent blog click here-
Mendy Garron, NER Marine Mammal Stranding Coordinator explained this to us last week when we were trying to ID several Common Dolphin and Porpoise Sightings In Gloucester Harbor on March 17th and 18th.
In last night’s headline CBSBoston.com incorrectly titled the headline-
They went on in the story about how it was a porpoise here’s an excerpt-
REVERE (CBS) — A dead harbor porpoise was found on Revere Beach Saturday morning. It is the seventh harbor porpoise that the New England Aquarium’s Marine Animal Rescue Team handled in Massachusetts this week. Six of them were dead when found. The seventh had been stranded in a salt marsh in Saugus and is doing well not at the University of New England’s Marine Animal Rescue Center in Biddeford, Maine.
The Aquarium says all of the porpoises found were yearlings that were underweight and had probably just been weaned from their mothers in the early winter. This leaves it up to them for forage for food through the winter.
For the rest of the story click the highlighted link above.
Hey screw-ups happen. Nobody’s perfect, least of all your boy Joey. Just thought I’d point it out for ‘em.
Here is the difference as we reported last week in this series of posts including video. I wonder if the harbor porpoise that washed up was the guy bouncing around Gloucester harbor 10 days ago?-
We had a little dolphin/porpoise/whale in the cove on Thursday. Whatever it was it was definitely a cetacean. In this shot, it was only about 50 feet from shore, and the water was only 5-6 feet deep, so I’m thinking it was a lost pup that got separated from it’s pod. I’m not sure what species it was – but its color was very dark – almost black, the dorsal fin was swept back and pretty small, so it could be a pilot whale pup. As far as I could tell it was only 4-5 feet long with not much body mass.
Funny that we had the post from Bill O’Connor about ID’ing the harbor porpoise and what do you know he surfaces up in front of our dock the at about the same time Bill’s post went live.
I did see the video and this too is a harbor porpoise. Below is a picture of the common dolphin from yesterday (photo provide by USCG). As you will notice, the dorsal fin is much more ‘hooked’ shape compared to a harbor porpoise.
Thanks so much!
Mendy
There are some good refernces on the differences between a dolphin and a porpoise on the web. Check out-
I wasn’t sure if y’all knew but our Sarah Kelley who chimes in with the occasional searing rant also has her own online store of classic goods. Check it out here-
I GREW up in a small town called Rockport, on the North Shore of Massachusetts, home to no more than 5,000 people when we first moved there, and dear to those who know it. It is a place of rugged natural beauty: a shore of granite outcroppings that jut into a cold blue sea, a movie set of a New England village with streets full of small shops and not a traffic light in the town.
My mother was so happy when we moved there from New Jersey that she used to make up songs about it and sing them as she literally skipped down to the ocean. It was a place she would always love more than anywhere else on earth, and it was easy to see why. For most of my childhood we lived, very cheaply, in a two-story, wood-frame house, with a yard full of trees and a wood behind us. We ate wild blackberries straight from the bushes that grew along the edge of our backyard, spent the summers swimming in abandoned granite quarries and skated over their black-green depths in the winter.
The town was almost unbelievable in its innocence, its sweetness. Rockport Junior-Senior High School, with 250 students, was too small to have any serious cliques and divisions; the same kids starred on the basketball team and in the school play. There weren’t even any locks on the lockers; no one ever thought to put them there. Little League games weren’t laden with adult expectations. Our champion Pigeon Cove Red Sox were coached by a couple of hippie-ish high school kids who piled us all into their old wrecks after each game to getice cream.
If you’re an American of a certain age, you might just now be discovering that Pottery Barn is a relic of your youth. Those days when you were in your early 20s, just out of college maybe. You moved into your first apartment — the first chance you had to paint your walls beige all by yourself, or buy a pillow with a big button in the center of it. And now things have changed. You’re older, you extensively moisturize, and you don’t know if it’s your newly-strengthened glasses prescription or what, but the stuff from Pottery Barn looks like crap.
Why should you care, you ask? Because, I would argue, Pottery Barn is important to America. Pottery Barn has become as central to our middle class (that vaunted and vanishing class) sense of style as Starbucks is to our middle class taste in coffee. We cannot afford to lose either place to the that slow and steady decline that came to Department Stores and Tiki restaurants 40 years ago.
Pottery Barn democratized relatively good taste in an all-pervasive way that was extremely helpful, especially in the early days of the company’s ascent. Pottery Barn made it seem possible for you to own a couch of proper proportions, an upholstered chair with classic lines and attractively muted fabrics. You, too, could buy that giant mirror with the square black frame and lean it against the wall, just so, and all your friends would know that it was okay because they had seen it in Pottery Barn.
I create because I am compelled to. Creative expression drives my soul. A balance, a release, a meditative state of purity, a flow. Capture.
Capturing the moment, the movement, collecting the subtleties, the essence, a feeling.
A fleeting feeling expressed in painted color on a smooth delicate piece of hand-made paper, or collaged on a battered block of salty driftwood. To completely immerse myself in the quiet intense focus of excitement and discovery.
I create to clarify my mind, to allow deep thoughts to emerge, to unearth connections with images, textures and text in relationship to my world, our world. Our world – a beautiful disaster. So fragile, yet resilient.
I create to connect and build with nature, to bridge art with the environment.
To engage with the sounds, visuals, and conscious, of a swish of a flock of sand pipers simultaneously taking off for flight, the reflection and ripples of a street puddle captured between thawing ice, or the light riding a wave onto the hard sand, of a shell covered beach.
I create to understand humans’ relationship to our earth, our cultures, and to express my respect for its undying strength as it continues to amaze me.
Share. I educate because of my desire to share. I want to share these moments with others, share the artists mind, the contemplation of the beauty and life in everything. Lightness and heaviness, natural and un-natural, to release the burdens and routine of life and add a certain weightlessness to them.
To surprise the viewer and challenge their way of seeing.
I create to be whole…. will you create with me?
Here’s an interview with Kyle and some photos of her work
Tim and his company Gloucester Bytes bid on a link in the GMG Blogroll at the annual Chamber of Commerce Auction a couple of years ago. Working out of his house and frequently making house calls, he came over to replace a busted keyboard on the Mrs’ laptop. A big time GMG fan, I can’t say enough nice things about the man. Cheap, efficient and he even installed some neat utilities for free while he was at the homestead.
If you need computer repairs do not hesitate to call him.
People of Gloucester and Cape Ann! It is time to put down the panini press, put the homemade pasta & gravy off for one day and get out there and help bail out the lovely country of Ireland. Every pint of Guinness will help! Here are a few places I found featuring great St. Patty’s Day events. Post any others in the comments!
Michael O’Leary with Roaring Mary, 3 to 7 p.m. @Seaport Grille
Traditional Irish songs and tunes to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.
The Richard James Band @ Minglewood
The Ultimate St. Patty’s Day Party Band!
ST. PATTY’S DAY @ The FARM BAR & GRILL
Saint Patrick’s Day happens to be our favorite holiday at the Farm. So, in celebration of this holy event we will be opening the bar up at 8am for a traditional Irish Breakfast. Throughout the day we will be offering food specials (boiled dinner, Guinness mac and cheese, Irish bread, bread pudding, etc), music, games, tomfoolery, contests, dancing, celebrating and other various shenanigans.
St. Patty’s day with the Tom Obrien Band @ The Rhumbline
Joey C says it is something that needs to be on your life list.
I am also sure that, if you are doing a crawl, something will be going down at Stone’s Pub as well.
Sláinte – Patrick Ryan
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Best to you Joey and all your good GMG crazy cast of contributors,
Jo-
Jo-Ann Castano
Castano Design Associates/ArtsGloucester
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I am a hard working creative person from the midwest with a passion for design. As a designer and illustrator my work has a distinctive element of playful cleverness. I have a strong desire to connect art to the wider world around me and to use my skills as a designer to create work that is not only beautiful but will have a lasting impact on the hearts and minds of people. I believe design is a powerful tool in the language of our culture. As artists and designers we have a responsibility to the integrity of our visual influence. I believe good design communicates truth and draws people together in community.
One of Abby’s many projects was a cool Biomes Guidebook which she prides herself on because she feels that it speaks to young children as well as highly educated people that are familiar with Biomes. You can even check it out free.
Biomes Guildbook
Because education was a main goal of this exhibit, I created a 50 page guidebook with a poster pull out to accompany the biome illustration. Creating another level of depth, this guidebook contains detailed information about biomes and the animals that inhabit them, including conservation status information. As a summation of my research, this guidebook provides the visual and informational link both within my exhibit as well as across the art and science disciplines.
click the picture to check it out-
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Here’s a website that I provided some photo contributions to help bring film makers and more production to our area. Poke around the site a bit. http://www.filmcapeann.com/main.php
From the site-
Welcome to Film Cape Ann
From Captains Courageous to The Proposal, Cape Ann continues to be captured in many a director´s lens. Rooted in the arts, with backdrops as spectacular and as diverse as it people, the area has much to offer a filmmaker. Culture. Character. History. Awe-inspiring scenery and architecture. Interested in filming on Cape Ann? Welcome to Film Cape Ann, the premier on-line resource for filming in Gloucester, Rockport, Essex, and Manchester-by-the Sea.
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Hey Joey, I was wondering if you would list www.northshoretonight.com in your music section, and maybe do a post on your blog about NST and what it has to offer. It would be a great help getting the word out in Gloucester and beyond. Thanks in advance for any help. If your not familiar with my site you should check it out! Northshoretonight.com is the best way to stay connected to the north of Boston music scene. It is completely free for artists, venues, and fans. Thanks again. Richard Mandelbaum Director http://www.NorthShoreTonight.com rich@northshoretonight.com "Providing free live music schedules for Boston’s North Shore"
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Good Morning Gloucester 