My View of Life on the Dock
IÂ am not exactly sure what we are comparing as light number one is one large bulb, light number two is three bulbs, and light numbers three and four each have four bulbs.
New LED Light above
Existing Light
I would describe the color of the LED lights not as blueish as I have heard described, but greenish. They appear extremely harsh, with an eerie and unwelcoming quality.
I LOVE CHANGE, CHANGE FOR THE BETTER THAT IS. IS THIS A CHANGE FOR THE BETTER? ARE WE COMMITTED TO THE NEW STREET LIGHTS? HOW DO YOU FEEL LEDÂ LIGHTS WILL AFFECT THE QUALITYÂ OF YOUR LIFE IN OUR COMMUNITY, WHETHER 4000K OR 3000K OR NO CHANGE?
Two variations on LED streetlights being considered by the city have been set up for evaluation. The test installations are the first four lights on the west side of Washington Street just south of Gee Avenue.There are two types, rated at 3,000 degrees Kelvin and 4,000 degrees Kelvin. The “color” of the light is slightly different between the two types.
People concerned about light pollution and the effect of the lights on wildlife have been advocating for the 3,000K lights. Send your comments to Matt Coogan in the City’s Planning Department. His email address is:
MCoogan@gloucester-ma.gov
Above image courtesy google image search.
Map courtesy Paul Morrison via FB
OCT. 17, 2015
…In interviews with the media, my fellow experimental subjects have compared the nighttime environment under the new streetlights to a film set, a prison yard, “a strip mall in outer space” and “the mother ship coming in for a landing” in “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” Although going half-blind at 58, I can read by the beam that the new lamp blasts into our front room without tapping our own Con Ed service. Once the LEDs went in, our next-door neighbor began walking her dog at night in sunglasses.
Medical research has firmly established that blue-spectrum LED light can disrupt sleep patterns. This is the same illumination that radiates in far smaller doses from smartphone and computer screens, to which we’re advised to avoid exposure for at least an hour before bed, because it can suppress the production of melatonin. The tribute to “the city that never sleeps” was meant to celebrate a vibrant cultural night life — not a town of hollow-eyed “Walking Dead” insomniacs.
While the same light has also been associated with increased risk of breast cancer and mood disorders, in all honesty my biggest beef with LEDs has nothing to do with health issues. These lights are ugly. They’re invasive. They’re depressing. New York deserves better.
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GMG FOB Leslie Heffron writes: Christine Garuthier-Kelley (from Manchester) and IÂ are in a show down at MGH at the Yawkey Cancer Center. Â The opening is Wednesday, October 21 from 5:30-7 on Yawkey Mezzanine 2.
“The mission of Illuminations is to create a visually healing environment, offering enlightenment, inspiration, and encouragement to patients, family members, friends and staff through the visual arts. We believe the work will bring joy to many men, women and children whose lives have been touched by cancer.”
Dylan L’Abbe-Lindquist serving Cape Ann Brew Pub Dier Beer
Although it sounded so interesting, I very unfortunately missed the Dogtown Days lecture program held at the Cape Ann Museum as I was covering the Rockport Harvestfest (we oftentimes say on GMG that we are incredibly blessed that here on Cape Ann we have an embarrassment of riches in wonderful and worthwhile things to do and see). I did however attend the reception held afterward at the Sawyer Free. This is the second annual Dogtown Days event sponsored by the group of citizens Friends of Dogtown, a relatively newly formed outfit dedicated to restoring, protecting, and celebrating Dogtown, along with the far reaching goals to construct a visitor’s center and to help mitigate the ongoing misuse of the landscape.
Mary Weissblum’s Swamp Cake
Two of the highlights of the reception were Mary Weissblum’s Swamp Cake and Cape Ann Brew Pub’s colonial Dier Beer, both made with ingredients mentioned in historical accounts of Dogtown. Mary is going to provide GMG readers with the Swamp Cake recipe, spiced with ginger and nutmeg, and super delicious. Dylan L’Abbe-Lindquist’s Dier beer was outstanding and is going to be available at the Brew Pub in about a week. The brew was richly dark, made chocolatey in color almost, from the molasses and special carmelized flavored hops. Most amazingly, Dylan and his wife, along with their little baby, scoured Dogtown trails for authentic ingredients, which include Staghorn Sumac, winterberries, cranberries, and beach plums–it truly is a wonderfully flavorful brew. Ask for it at the Brew Pub, you won’t be disappointed.
To learn more about Friends of Dogtown, visit their website here.
Kit Cox and Dylan
Folly Cove designer Margaret Nelson’s “Maple Leaves” is currently on display at the Cape Ann Museum. Stop in and visit the museum’s stellar Folly Cove exhibit while attending Dogtown Days at the museum!
Lucas Baisch’s
A Measure of Normalcy
A World Premiere by
Gloucester Stage’s 2015 Playwriting Apprentice
Â
Gloucester Stage proudly presents the world premiere of Lucas Baisch’sA Measure of Normalcy from October 22 through November 1 at 267 East Main Street, Gloucester, MA. A Measure of Normalcy follows an array of lost souls as they straggle inside a quickly emptying Midwestern mini-mall. Filled with balloon animals, cartoon flashbacks, cheap raps, and hallucinogenic gecko feces, this dark comedy questions what it means to be “normal” in a place of overwhelming simplicity.  In his Gloucester Stage directorial debut David R. Gammons directs a cast featuring Ellen Colton, Lydia Barnett-Mulligan, Gabriel Graetz, Sarah Elizabeth Bedard and Eliott Purcell. Lucas Baisch’s A Measure of Normalcy runs October 22 through November 1 at Gloucester Stage. Performances areWednesday through Saturday at 7:30 pm and Saturday and Sunday at 2:00 pm. Following the 2 pm performances on Sunday October 25 and November 1 audiences are invited to free post show discussions with the artists from A Measure of Normalcy. Ticket prices are $28 for all performances. Tickets are $1 for ages 25 years and under for all performances. The $1 tickets are cash only and available at the door on day of performance only. Pay What You Wish tickets are available for theSaturday, October 31 matinee at 2 pm. Pay What You Wish tickets can only be purchased day of show at the door. All performances are held at 267 East Main Street, Gloucester, MA. For more information and to purchase tickets, call the Gloucester Stage Box Office at 978-281-4433 or visitwww.gloucesterstage.com
Dave says,
We’re going to reach terminal velocity this week, so if you got plans to stay home and iron your underwear, better go to confession and plan on destroying your liver instead.
Firstly, Mr. Gordon “Sax” Beadle returns to the Rhumb Line stage this Thursday. My favorite guest star, if you haven’t seen or heard of him, you must crawl out from under that rock that you’ve been hiding and put on your sailing shoes! This guy will tear your tonsils out with his own unique brand of saxophone mayhem. Always gets the crowd going wild. Not only that, but Ed “Ed” Scheer, my favorite four-on the-floor frontman and drummbler, will be holding down the beat and handling vocal duties. Furthermore, Mr. Pete Henderson makes a rare appearance as a foil and catarrhist of note. I can’t wait!
The Mecca for live music!
40 Railroad Avenue
Gloucester, MA 01930
(978) 283-9732
FRIENDS! DON’T MISS JOHN SLOAN GLOUCESTER DAYS AT THE CAPE ANN MUSEUM
![(Delaware)OurRedCottage,Lilacs[1]](https://goodmorninggloucester.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/delawareourredcottagelilacs1.jpg)
Red Cottage is located on East Main Street, across from the entrance to Rocky Neck, and is still painted red!
Beautifully curated by Martha Oaks, from museums around the nation, the exhibit comprises a stellar collection of canvases painted by John Sloan (1871-1951) during the five summers he spent on Cape Ann. I know how much everyone enjoys Hopper’s Houses and it is a joy to see scenes of our community expressed through the eye and brush strokes of Sloan, one of our country’s most celebrated early 20th century painters, and a leader in the Ash Can School of painting.
As was I, you will be thoroughly delighted by the approximately three dozen paintings of our neighborhood, scenes of Gloucester’s Main Street, Rocky Neck sunflowers, the former US government fish hatchery on Ten Pound Island, the trolley along East Main Street, fashions and sentiments of the period, and a wealth more of Gloucester captured in the midst of everyday life during the transitional years of the first World War.
![Image: John Sloan (1871-1951), Sunflowers, Rocky Neck, 1914. Oil on canvas. Gift of Alfred Mayor and Martha M. Smith, 2008. [2008.14]](https://goodmorninggloucester.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/sloan-sunflowers-rocky-neck.jpg)
“A Landscape is a Portrait of Place” ~ Sunflowers by John Sloan
Of the approximately 1200 canvases painted by Sloan, 300 are of Cape Ann. One of my favorites of the favorites is Red Cottage, summer home to he and his wife Dolly during the artist’s highly productive Cape Ann years.
Red Cottage and Daniel Gill Fisherman House, Built 1847
I’ll return to take a photo of Red Cottage in prettier light, rather than today’s sunny high noon skies.
John Sloan Gloucester Days runs through the end of November. The last lecture in the series of three, Passing through Gloucester: John Sloan between City and Country will be presented by Michael Lobel on Friday October 30th. For more information visit the Cape Ann Museum website.
Credits:
Our Red Cottage, Lilacs, 1917 Oil on canvas. Delaware Art Museum. Gift of Helen Farr Sloan, 2000. © 2015 Delaware Art Museum / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
John Sloan (1871–1951), Sunflowers, Rocky Neck, 1914. Oil on canvas. Collection of the Cape Ann Museum. Gift of Alfred Mayor and Martha M. Smith, 2008. ©2015 Delaware Art Museum/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
John Sloan (1871–1951), Our Red Cottage, 1916. Oil on canvas. Private Collection. ©2015 Delaware Art Museum/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Playwright Arthur Miller Arthur
Gloucester Stage proudly presents The Arthur Miller Centennial, a celebration of playwright Arthur Miller and his work in honor of his 100th birthday, on Saturday, October 17 at 7:30pm at Gloucester Stage, 267 East Main Street, Gloucester, MA. The audience is invited to enjoy birthday cake during a post-show reception with the cast and crew. Conceived by directing apprentice Allison Benko and stage management/production apprentice Jenna Worden, The Arthur Miller Centennialis a multimedia performance featuring recorded interviews with Miller himself as well as scenes from some of his best-known works including The Crucible, Death of a Salesmen, and After the Fall. Benko describes this special evening, “Arthur Miller is often called a quintessentially American playwright, and that might be true. But that’s a dangerously broad blanket statement — and what exactly does it mean? I think this production will be a way of asking that question. It’s a way of asking what Arthur Miller means to us, today, one hundred years after his birth.” The cast features local Boston performers including Kate Paulson and Sheridan Thomas, a professor at Tufts University.
Directing Apprentice Allison Benko
Production Apprentice Jenna Worden
Continue reading “Gloucester Stage Celebrates Playwright Arthur Miller’s Centennial”
Hi Joe,
A sign of season’s end – this houseboat floated down the Annisquam today to it’s winter quarters
Brianne Caso
Dog Bar Breakwater panorama, from end to end!
Click panorama to view larger
Built to protect ships from the Dog Bar Reef, the Dog Bar breakwater was built on top of the ledge. The half mile long breakwater is seven and a half feet above mean high water and ten feet wide, constructed of 231,756 tons of Cape Ann granite over a substructure of rubble. Built by the Army Corps of Engineers between 1894 and 1905 at a cost of only $300,000.00, I wonder what it would cost to build a granite breakwater such as Gloucester’s in today’s economy?
For more interesting history about the Dog Bar Breakwater visit Lighthouse Friends and Terry Weber’s fun facts about the Breakwater.
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Hi Joey,
A sidewalk returns to Railroad Avenue. Some call it place making or Smart Growth. I say sometimes it’s nice to turn back time. Look at the old postcard image. We are lucky to have some of the same wide streets. Clean sidewalks – they’re great for residents. Great for commuters. Easier for families. Thank you DPW! It looks beautiful. I hope it inspires Shaws to match it up on the other side.
Bonus: It’s easier than ever to #strideby the Jeff Weaver mural at Ben’s Wallpaper and Paint and have a closer look. That mural changes now and again.
On Saturday, October 17th we are excited to host a reading with poet Mary Buchinger. We will be holding an open mic also. The fun begins at 7 pm.
Mary Buchinger grew up on a farm in the thumb of Michigan and now lives in Cambridge, Mass. with her husband and two sons, dog and two cats. She holds a doctorate in Applied Linguistics from Boston University and is Associate Professor of English and Communication Studies at MCPHS University in Boston. Her books include Aerialist (Gold Wake Press, 2015; shortlisted for the May Swenson Poetry Award, the OSU Press/The Journal Wheeler Prize for Poetry and the Perugia Press Prize) and Roomful of Sparrows (Finishing Line Press, 2008).
By Stanley Kunitz
Hornworm: Summer ReverieÂ
Here in caterpillar country
I learned how to survive
by pretending to be a dragon.
See me put on that look
of slow and fierce surprise
when I lift my bulbous head
and glare at an intruder.
Nobody seems to guess
how gentle I really am,
content most of the time
simply to disappear
by melting into the scenery.
Smooth and fatty and long,
with seven white stripes
painted on either side
and a sharp little horn for a tail,
I lie stretched out on a leaf,
pale green on my bed of green,
munching, munching.
Hornworm: Autumn Lamentation
Since thatfirst morning when I crawled
into the world, a naked grubby thing,
and found the world unkind,
my dearest faith has been that this
is but a trial: I shall be changed.
In my imaginings I have already spent
my brooding winter underground,
unfolded silky powdered wings, and climbed
into the air, free as a puff of cloud
to sail over the steaming fields,
alighting anywhere I pleased,
thrusting into deep tubular flowers.
It is not so: there may be nectar
in those cups, but not for me.
All day, all night, I carry on my back
embedded in my flesh, two rows
of little white cocoons,
so neatly stacked
they look like eggs in a crate.
And I am eaten half away.
If I can gather strength enough
I’ll try to burrow under a stone
and spin myself a purse
in which to sleep away the cold;
though when the sun kisses the earth
again, I know I won’t be there.
Instead, out of my chrysalis
will break, like robbers from a tomb,
a swarm of parasitic flies,
leaving my wasted husk behind.
Sir, you with the red snippers
in your hand, hovering over me,
casting your shadow, I greet you,
whether you come as an angel of death
or of mercy. But tell me,
before you choose to slice me in two:
Who can understand the ways
of the Great Worm in the Sky?
Is there a more lopsided lighthouse configuration than ours?
My husband Tom came home raving about Kathleen George’s show at the Sawyer Free, calling her paintings “small jewels!” Go see, they are indeed jems!
About the artist ~
Visit Kathleen’s website here.
Good Morning Gloucester 