A drive on 133 through Essex and Ipswich was a bit gloomy and ominous!
Mite Madness!
You’ve all heard of March Madness…well, let your child hit the ice during Cape Ann Youth Hockey’s Mite Madness for a free skate session!
Mite Madness Reminder!!
FREE Skate & Information Session
Talbot Rink – Wednesday, March 29th
5:30 – 6:30 PM
Click HERE to Register for FREE Skate and Informational Session!
- Mite age player level with birth years 2009 and 2010 are invited to attend a free skate session on Wednesday, March 29th at 5:30 PM. Mite players will skate an ADM skills game with GHS hockey players while parents are invited to attend an introduction to CAYH’s Mite Co-Ed Travel Program.
- Frank Caputo, CAYH Hockey Director, will discuss the ADM player development model and have an open discussion with parents and other attendees.
- Pre-Registration is required on our website at capeannyouthhockey.com
- Players must have participated in CAYH Cross-Ice, In House, or Mite Hybrid in 2016-17 (or an equivalent program) to register. Skaters who have participated in Learn to Skate for at least 2 seasons and who have progressed to the “Learn to Play” sections are also candidates for this evaluation. Players must have a valid USA hockey number in order to participate in the on ice skate session.
Click HERE to Register for FREE Skate and Informational Session!
Still Have Questions?
Is Your Player a “Mite-Age Player”?
Does he/she have a birth year between 2009 & 2010 for the 2017-18 season?
All of our CAYH programs have different program descriptions, cost and commitment levels, but we would like to familiarize the Mite Hybrid travel team to families that have qualifying players, but may not know much about the program.
The CAYH Mite Hybrid Team is a travel team that participates in the Valley Hockey League and competes in half-ice games, per USA Hockey rules. Valley Hockey League (VHL) Mite teams are divided into geographical areas to minimize travel and are also split up into multi-tier divisions to maximize parity.
Teams will play a 25 game schedule.
Practices are held 2-3 evenings per week at our local Talbot Rink, and there is generally 1 game each weekend at a Valley League rink. The season runs from September-March. Tuition for the 2016-17 season was $1200. The tuition for the 2017-2018 season is TBD.
Due to popular demand, CAYH has increased the number of Mite-Hybrid travel teams over the past few years to accommodate this growing program.
For Example, The CAYH Mite-Hybrid 2016-17 PLAYER PACKAGE Included:
- 25-Game Schedule, Plus Playoffs in the Valley League
- Avg of 2-3 times weekly practice @ Talbot Rink
- On Ice Skills by Power Edge Hockey
- On Ice Goalie Skills by Bertagna Goaltending
- Chaos Hockey On Ice Skills
- Home & Away Jerseys with Socks (Value $150)**
- Contribution toward End of Season Team Party
- Contribution toward Team Tournament
- Contribution toward Championship Team Jackets
For the 2017-18 season, each player will be receiving home/away personalized jerseys and socks that they will own and be responsible for. This package is valued at $150.
Jersey fittings and assignment of jersey numbers will completed at the end of June.
So please attend the Mite Madness Free Skating and Informational Session on Wednesday, March 29th at 5:30 PM. We look forward to your player becoming a member of our 2017-2018 Mite-Hybrid Travel Team!
** Should you have any questions regarding the Mite-Hybrid program or need additional information, please do not hesitate to contact Frank Caputo at hockeydirector@capeannyouthhockey.com or Jessica Cusumano at registrar@capeannyouthhockey.com
Click HERE to Register for FREE Skate and Informational Session!
Thank You!
CAYH


Caleb and Abby Pose With Their New Family Member- The Blue @WeberGrills Performer
Call for Volunteers! Cape Ann Sustainability Fair
TownGreen 2025, a program of the Gloucester Meeting House Foundation, presents its second Cape Ann Sustainability Fair on Saturday, April 29, 2017 at O’Maley Innovation Middle School, located at 32 Cherry Street in Gloucester, MA, from 10 AM to 4 PM.
Come join the fun! We need volunteers throughout the day of the event. If you’d like to help please email Kelly Knox at TownGreen2025@outlook.com. We have a list of potential volunteer opportunities. Cape Ann is getting greener! Come help out!
The Cape Ann Farmer’s Market will be on site from 10 AM to 2 PM. There will be an arts and crafts area for young children. The high school and middle school kids will share what they are learning about climate change. Folks can bring their broken bicycles to be repaired by volunteers from the Cape Ann Timebank and unwanted bikes can be donated for refurbishing by Bikes not Bombs. There will be live music, speakers addressing clean energy technology, carbon neutrality, locally relevant impacts of climate change, and personal carbon…
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Grow your own food with Backyard Growers! Seed Starting Workshop Wednesday.
Grow your own food this season with the help of Backyard Growers! Join us Wednesday for Seed Starting Part 2. Starting your own seeds is a great way to garden more sustainably while also enjoying a wide variety of veggies. Expert Suzanne Gosselin will share her tips and tricks and guide us through planting our first trays of seedlings.
Buy your tickets HERE!

KIM SMITH POLLINATOR GARDEN TALK AT THE SAWYER FREE LIBRARY
Dear Friends,
Please join me April 6th at 7pm, at the Sawyer Free Library where I will be giving my Pollinator Garden talk and screening several short films. The event is free and open to the public. I am looking forward to presenting this program at our wonderful Sawyer Free and hope to see you there!!
Thank you to Diana Cummings at the Sawyer Free Library for making the lovely poster!
Echinacea and Bee
The Boston Flower Show
On Saturday we decided to go to The Boston Flower Show. With rain, sleet and cold, it was so nice to smell spring, especially the mulch. Here a couple of photos of the show.
The Trident Gallery, This Week
Towers and Other Thoughts in Performance: A Fundraiser for Refugees in Gloucester
Wednesday March 29, 2017, 7:00 – 8:00pm
Floating Lotus, 169 Main Street / Gloucester MA 01930
$15 suggested minimum donation
TICKETS: available at https://www.floatinglotus.net/products/fundraiser-for-refugees-in-gloucester or at the door on the night of the event.
Contact: Sarah Slifer Swift, TLAS-Director@tridentgallery.com, 978-394-5797
An art show and performance to benefit recently resettled refugee families in Gloucester will be held at Floating Lotus on Wednesday, March 29, 2017, from 7:00 to 8:00pm. Projected images of art from Susan Erony’s recent exhibition at Trident Gallery, Towers and Other Thoughts, will accompany a performance piece inspired by Erony’s art and produced by Trident Live Art Series Director Sarah Slifer Swift and Trident Gallery Director Matthew Swift.
Erony’s art, in turn, takes particular inspiration from Franz Kafka’s Parables and often includes hand-written text transcribed from Kafka’s writings. Erony writes that
Kafka’s words have always made me feel safe, because he clarifies the deep and complex natures of modernity and human behavior. He has helped me make sense of the world as a frustrating, absurd, but wondrous place.
Kafka retells and refers to the Biblical story of the Tower of Babel in several of his writings. Erony finds these writings particularly illuminating to our current socio-political climate:
The body of work in Towers and other Thoughts reflects … concerns about the human lack of understanding of each other, and even desire to try to understand. The Tower of Babel seemed a right theme for our times in America, when many people are screaming and few are listening.
Choreographer Sarah Slifer Swift has made a dance performance piece in response to both the Parables of Kafka and to Erony’s powerful imagery. The performance explores themes of division, unity, and ultimately the power and beauty of diversity through dance and sound. Matthew Swift has contributed textual imagery and performance elements. Visual art, dance, sound, and text come together as powerful intermedia experience appealing to all the senses. Slifer Swift says that
in the Tower of Babel, we have the story of how we all became refugees, going from a unity to being split apart by language and distance. In the performance, we take the perspective that the diversity that came from the split is not a weakness but a humble strength, our humanity.
Dance performers in the work are Reg Edmonds, Alison Fornes, Barbe Ennis-Abramo, Nome Graham, Jane Justice, Philip Story, Ziggy Hartfelder, and Sarah Slifer Swift. All the artists are donating their work to this event, and Floating Lotus is donating the use of their space as well as administrative assistance.
This event will provide an opportunity to learn more about the refugee families who have settled in Gloucester and how the community can support them. Peggy Russell, who heads the efforts to settle the refugees, will speak about the families, the work being done, and how people can help. Susan Erony will also speak about her work with the refugees and about the role of artists in political and community actions.
There is an ongoing fundraising effort to help with the costs of settling the families. At the event, there will be a place to make tax-deductible donations by check, payable to the WGTCC (West Gloucester Trinitarian Congregational Church) with “refugees” in the memo line. There is also a GoFundMe campaign online at https://www.gofundme.com/RefugeesGloucester.

Trident Live Arts Series presents performances by Monstah Black and Mx. Oops, and hosts Panel Discussion “The Political Body in Art”;accompanying visual art exhibition The Political Body opens at Trident Gallery
Performances:
March 31 and April 1, 8:00pm
Panel Discussion: April 1, 4:00pm
Exhibition: March 31 through April 30
Trident Gallery, 189 Main Street / Gloucester MA
COST: $10 suggested donation for performances; panel discussion free; exhibition free
CONTACTS: Performances & Panel: Sarah Slifer Swift, TLAS-Director@tridentgallery.com, 978-394-5797 Exhibition: Matthew Swift, director@tridentgallery.com, 978-491-7785
New York City performing artists Monstah Black and Mx. Oops come to Gloucester’s Trident Gallery for two nights of performance. Both performers will bring original solo intermedia works that combine dance, live music, and visual art elements to the Trident Live Art Series’ intimate performance setting. Both performance works (together about 60 minutes) will be shown at each performance evening. Seats for the performances may be reserved at http://trident.gallery/presents/the-political-body/.
A panel discussion entitled “The Political Body in Art” will be held at Trident Gallery on Saturday, April 1, at 4:00pm to discuss the relationships between art and politics, and how the body can be the vehicle for these interactions. Panelists will be visual artists Gabrielle Barzaghi, Nadine Boughton, and Susan Erony; Gloucester Stage Company Managing Director Jeff Zinn; musician 3rian King; and the visiting performers, Monstah Black and Mx. Oops. Trident Live Art Series Director Sarah Slifer Swift will moderate.
The first performance on March 31 coincides with the opening of the visual art exhibition The Political Body at Trident Gallery, showing visual art which engages with the political dimensions of the human body. Artists represented will include the three visual artists on the panel, other Trident Gallery artists, and artists not before shown at the Gallery. Exhibition hours on Saturday, April 1, are TBD. Exhibition hours from Sunday, April 2, through closing day Sunday, April 30 are Fri 12–7, Sat 10–7, Sun 10–5, Mon 12–5 and by appointment. Extended hours may be announced later, please check the gallery web site at TridentGallery.com.
Monstah Black will present Cotton, a dance film accompanied by live musical performance. The work investigates the idea of physical transformation as a source for healing and a means to overcome Post Traumatic Stress Disorder passed on for generations through DNA. Black employs images from slavery as a point of departure, modifying the images into positive iconography to inspire and empower those that suffered and continue to suffer from its ugly legacy.
“It’s a matter of taking the historical facts from the ugly side of history, and then reshaping it for myself and others to achieve empowerment and affirmation,” Black says. “I’m taking the negative, adding magic and making fanciful, majestic, mythological, yet real.”
Black has performed at Art Basel Miami, The Whitney Annual Gala, The Smithsonian, Performa Biennial (NY), Joe’s Pub (NY), Dance New Amsterdam (NY), New York Live Arts, Movement Research (NY), Dixon Place (NY), and Lincoln Center Out Of Doors.
Mx. Oops will be performing excerpts from the work Carrying Capacity. Mixing elements of Vogue, Capoiera, and Yoga, Carrying Capacity is a dynamic exploration of embodiment. Mx. Oops tries on sometimes divergent ways of being to clumsily see which might fit. Sudden shifts from intimate, quiet moments to loud, erratic passages illuminate both questions of authenticity and mental health. A collage of personal experiences embrace confusion, defining terrains of shame and pleasure.
Mx. Oops, a transhuman, gender-bending, genre-bending, urban arts shaman is performed by Wendell Cooper. Founder of Complex Stability, Cooper creates interdisciplinary work with a focus on the intersection of urban arts and consciousness studies. Carrying Capacity premiered at The American Realness Festival in NYC this past January.
About Trident Gallery
Trident Gallery shows beautiful and intelligent contemporary art in all mediums, emphasizing the work of artists continuing Gloucester’s rich legacy as a center for new American Art. Gallery Director Dr. Matthew Swift curates and produces the exhibitions, drawing on over twenty years of multi-disciplinary scholarship, teaching, and creative exploration.
About the Trident Live Art Series
The Trident Live Art Series presents performances by seasoned professionals showing experimental and collaborative work in the intimate salon setting of the gallery. Live Art Series Director Sarah Slifer Swift curates and produces the performances, drawing on over twenty years of experience in the United States and abroad as a dance artist, choreographer, and producer.
About Trident Live Art Series performances
A $10 suggested donation compensates the artists. Performances of 30–45 minutes are followed by refreshments and informal conversation among guests and artists. (Note: The performances of The Political Body will be longer, about 60 minutes.)
Reservations are recommended. To reserve seats, please use the online RSVP form at the bottom of the event’s page on the Trident Gallery web site or contact the gallery. Unreserved guests are usually accommodated comfortably: they will be invited to occupy empty seats at the scheduled start time. When seats are fully occupied, standing room and sometimes floor seating are normally available.
If unforeseen circumstances require postponement or cancellation, notices will be posted on the gallery website and social media (Facebook and Twitter).
Founding support for the Live Art Series is provided by Trident Gallery, which furnishes the venue, provides publicity, and guarantees minimum compensation to the performing artists. Supplementary fiscal support in 2015, 2016, and 2017 has been provided by the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
Music Around Town ~ March 27 – April 2, 2017
Scenes and sounds from Cape Ann Symphony 65th Anniversary season Romantic Masters concert

We were told that yesterday’s Cape Ann Symphony’s 65th Anniversary Season concert “Romantic Masters” was the orchestra’s most sold out March concert, ever. Great job, Heidi Dallin, on promotion!


My son spotted Heidi’s name in the playbill and Yellow Sub, along with many other local names and arts supporters. It takes a village.


By the way– kids tickets are $5 at these concerts. Area schools benefit from Cape Ann Symphony performance outreach.
Cape Ann Symphony’s next concert is: SCANDINAVIAN SPECTACULAR Saturday, March 20, 2017 8PM
Before setting off into the next piece, Musical Director & Conductor Yoichi Udagawa breaks down a mini music lesson excerpt with the orchestra. He has a signature foot lift when he conducts.
Here’s a snippet of glorious music. Can you name that tune?
Gloucester Smiles-551
Need a little boost today…
It’s Monday…and what’s worse is it’s a cold, rainy Monday so I’m sharing a little morning sunrise from the other day to give us a little virtual vitamin D boost!! Enjoy!!
I’ve Always Wanted to Own a Pub
While I haven’t been to the Red Barrel Pub for more than a decade, I do remember some fun nights in there listening to great music and sharing laughs with friends. Kind of the end of an era….or many eras in fact.





Building a Cedar Strip Canoe Video
FREE Mentoring Services at Wellspring!
Easter Brunch at Emerson Inn
GLOWING GOLD GOOD HARBOR BEACH SUNRISE
WHO REMEMBERS THE RAT?
People sure love their Rat stories! I shared a post on facebook about the Rat that my friend Kathy Lituri had shared on hers and the comments are super fun. If you have a favorite Rat story, please share!
Rocker
By Erin Amar
The Rat Remembered: 8 True (and Terrifying) Stories from Boston’s Legendary Rock Club
The music, the vermin, the disturbing bathrooms – Rocker celebrates the filth and the fury of the seminal club!
From 1974 to 1997 Boston’s Rathskellar – aka “The Rat” – was a rock and roll institution. A launching pad for some of the most important new wave, punk, and alternative rockers if its day, it’s dank basement stage played host to The Pixies, The Ramones, The Atlantics, The Damned, Blondie, The Fall, Robyn Hitchcock, as well as local luminaries including Mission of Burma, The Lyres, ‘Til Tuesday, The Neighborhoods, and more. Although the storied Kenmore Square space closed 19 years ago, its legend lives on through the memories of patrons who encountered not just their rock and roll heroes, but also wild drunken debauchery, seemingly on a weekly basis, all in the name of a great night out.
The recollections below have been sourced from a variety of former employees, patrons, bouncers and musicians who lived to tell the tale. At this point, they may be all hearsay (disclaimer! don’t sue us!), but as they say on the X-Files: We want to believe.
Thanks again to the folks who contributed their memories to this list. Every nightclub has a great story, this just a taste of the Rat’s.
- The Fleshtones were introduced by a homeless dude they found outside, and he led their parade onto the stage banging a garbage can. They bought him beers all night too! Great guys, I still follow them! – Tom Beaudet
- There was the night the stage collapsed at a Human Sexual Response show, and the one where a giant rat that crawled out from under the stage at an Atlantics show,… Whenever we played there we got dressed in our cars so that we wouldn’t get cockroaches in our clothes. – Valentino Herrera
- A customer decided to grab Kerry’s (an awesome waitress) boobs, and she knocked him out with one punch. She came over to me after, and asked me to throw him out when he came to.– Rick Bunker
Low tide Gloucester Harbor

Really low tide
Gloucester HarborWalk Summer Cinema 2017: the dates and titles for the free outdoor movies are…
Rob Newton, Cape Ann Community Cinema and Stage, announces the 2017 summer line up:
Save the dates! Six free movie nights begin Wednesday July 12th!
July 12 ::: Jaws
July 19 ::: Disney Moana
July 26 ::: Rogue One Star Wars Movie
August 2 ::: Lego Batman Movie
August 9 ::: The Princess Bride
August 16 ::: Sing!
July 12, 19, 26 and August 2, 9, 16. Rain dates August 23, 30.
Over 5000 Cape Ann residents attended the HarborWalk Summer Cinema series in 2016.
Awesome North Shore 104.9 amps the pre-show festivities!
Contact Rob for 2017 partnership options.
















