The best Lobster Trap Tree is down for another year. Great exercise, fun, and a great sense of community spirit. Please do not forget the 6th Annual Buoy Auction and Family Fun Night on January 24, 2014 at Cruiseport Gloucester from 5PM-8PM. For more information please email info@arthaven.org.
The Fine Art of Figure Skating
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Rambling Endicott, Cordage, Social Media, The Hook
(Click video and read my four minute post.)
Every time I drive past the Endicott exit on Route 128 on the way to Cape Ann this song by Kid Creole and the Coconuts runs through my brain. So much so that most times I have to annoy passengers (even Stella) by singing the chorus badly. But now, a new twist. On Friday, I turn off on Endicott and go to West Marine. Why? Because they send me an email on Thursday telling me what is for sale. Last week, 50% off boat hooks! This week, 40% off cordage!
The Point: If I had a shop on Cape Ann that wanted to pull me in every week and lighten my wallet, send me an email! Or Refresh your Facebook Page with a Special every week. If it’s a good special people will “Like” your page. If Three Lanterns had a special, “Fishing Lures 30% off this Saturday only!” I would be there. If it’s a special on Rubber Ducks, I’ll post it here!
The Pointless: I bet that if you listened to that whole song, it’s less than four minutes long, you would sing along with Kid Creole too as you drove onto the Cape. It never fails to put me into a Tragabigzanda state of mind.
I’ll never be, I’ll never be, Endicott! Drives Sue and the dog crazy. LYRICS HERE! There will be a test.
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VIDEO PREVIEW: Cape Ann Winter Solstice Concert on Cape Ann TV Sat & Sun @ 8PM
Cape Ann TV’s Jim Capillo has edited the historic Cape Ann Winter Solstice Concert on Dec 21, 2013 at the Gloucester’s Meetinghouse into a 2 hour special that will premiere on Cape Ann TV Channel 12 this Saturday and Sunday (Jan 18 & 19) at 8PM. Jim organized a 3 camera shoot using his wicked cool crane and film crew Roger Ward and Tina Greel from Local Music Seen. The result is a gorgeous production that you truly don’t want to miss.
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Chris Stovall Brown to play the Blues Party tonight @ The Rhumb Line 8-11
Thank god Chris “Stovall” Brown is coming in this Thursday nite: it’s been a while since I had to deflect a whole boatload of invective, innuendo and out the other. Chris, besides being a fabulous guitarist ,uvula-waggler, and eidetic librarian of all things recordable, is simply a joy to work with. Plus, he makes me laugh. You may wet your pants watching this guy sing whilst playing his axe with his dentures. I’m always amazed. Eardrum duties by our fallow-headed buddy, Mr. Steevee Chaggaris. I’m on base.We’re keeping this a trio so that we can flood the stage next week with the likes of the Good Old Salty Jazz Band. Sex after menopause? I can’t remember….
http://users.rcn.com/drhepcat/CHRIS_WEBSITE/Home.html
THE RHUMB LINE BAR & RESTAURANT
40 Railroad Ave.
Gloucester, MA 01930
phone: 978-283-9732
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Room With a View
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Chickity Check It! A Simple Strategy for Writing Your First Series of Blog Posts From Gloucester Guy Ryan Pinkham
http://blogs.constantcontact.com/product-blogs/social-media-marketing/start-blog/
Ryan just nails this.
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Life Saving Commendation
All,
On 1-3-14 R-1 (LoCoco and Severance) and E-1 (Harvey, Trupiano, Wonson D, Wonson B.) all responded to a cardiac arrest with by-stander CPR in progress. The gentleman was successfully resuscitated and subsequently went home with his faculties intact. This crew was given a great opportunity to make a difference and they did. Their outstanding resuscitation efforts resulted in a life saved and I want to commend them for a job well done. The GFD is making regular CPR saves above the traditional averages and the credit for this extends to the community for calling 911 and performing CPR until our arrival and for the dedication to excellence demonstrated by our personnel.
I want to thank these personnel and they will be provided with a written Life Saving Commendation.
Best regards,
Eric Smith
Fire Chief
City of Gloucester Fire Department
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Project Uplift
Hi Joey!
It was another great season for Project Uplift, and I’ve attached our final press thanking everyone who made it possible. Please share! I also attached a photo from a video spot shot by Cape Ann TV.
Thanks as always,
~ Jessica
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The part I don’t understand is…
-why we have to pay their health insurance when they crack their heads open.
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January Newsletter from Art Haven + The Hive
$40/month/1 class
$60/month/2 classes
REGISTER ONLINE
CLAYWORKS: M & W
Gr 1-4
3:30 -5:00
Gr 5-8
5:30 – 7:00
DRAWING: Tues
Gr 1 – 4
3:30 – 5:00
Gr 5-8
5:30 -7:00
PAINTING: Thurs
Gr 1 – 4
3:30 – 5:00
Gr 5-8
5:30 -7:00
6th Annual Buoy Auction & Family Fun Night
January 24th from 5:00-8:00p at Gloucester Cruiseport
Looking for an event the whole family can enjoy? Come on out to our 6th Annual Buoy Auction and Family FUN Night. There is free food, engaging art activities, silent auction of our amazing Artist Buoys and the live auction of kids’ painted buoys.
BUY YOUR AUCTION TICKETS ONLINE
Family $20.00
Adult $10.00
Student $5.00
BUY ONLINE NOW
AT THE DOOR:
Family $25.00
Adult $15.00
Student $10.00
ILLUSTRATOR
Mon, Jan 20 – Feb 24
PHOTOSHOP
Tues, Jan 21 – Feb 25
POTTERY 1
Wed, Jan 22-Feb 26
POTTERY 2
Thurs, Jan 23-Feb 27
SCULPTURE
Fri, Jan 31 – Mar 7
SIGN UP ONLINE
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Bear Pooh!
I love it when friends and readers ask what bird or butterfly (and moth and caterpillar), and am only too happy to help them learn more about the creature they have found. Very funny though is the wide range of nature-related questions that I am asked. At a job site recently, the crew could not wait to show me the above humungous pile of pooh. Should I be flattered or dismayed?
Three times as large as the largest Great Dane pooh that you could possibly imagine, and not the right consistency for dog poop, it didn’t take much searching to determine that it was Black Bear pooh. We double checked with our friend Richard from the Department of Conservation and Recreation and sure enough, it was confirmed to be bear pooh.
As an alternative to what was suggested by the MSPCA in their “co-existing with coyotes literature,” which is that kids be kept indoors and that we keep donkeys and llamas as coyote deterrents, we instead perhaps should repopulate Cape Ann with bears. After all, bears were here before the earliest European settlers (think Bearskin Neck).
JUST KIDDING!
Willowdale is located within the Bradley Palmer State Park, which borders the towns of Ipswich, Topsfield, and Hamilton, which border the towns of Essex and Manchester. Has anyone in recent history spotted a Black Bear on Cape Ann?
Cape Cod’s Resident Black Bears Gets Evicted
Excellent link provided by GMG reader artbev on Animal Scat Notes. Thank you artbev!
American Black Bear Images courtesy google image search.
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Foggy Day on Rocky Neck
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New England Roadside Art
If you want the why click here.
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How to find out if you’re in a flood zone in Manchester MA Video From Kenny MacCarthy
How to find out if you’re in a flood zone in Manchester MA
Step by step instructions, including web addresses, to see the current and future FEMA FIRM maps for Manchester By The Sea MA.
Links used in video:
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Naming the Twins
An acoustic duo from Gloucester’s sister city of Shelburne, Nova Scotia, “Naming the Twins” perform folk songs in the tradition of Peter, Paul & Mary.
Join them at the Cultural Center at Rocky Neck for an evening of food, fun, humor and harmony.
Thursday, January 16, 2014 @ 6:30 p.m.
Tickets: $25.00, includes a buffet dinner and concert.
For more information and/or to make reservations, call 978.490.0001 or email thegloucesterfund@yahoo.com
Net proceeds to benefit the Kent Circle Christmas Tree Lights.
The Cultural Center at Rocky Neck is located at 6 Wonson St. on Rocky Neck in East Gloucester.
For more information about “Naming the Twins” visit their website at http://www.namingthetwins.com
A couple of years ago, Joann Mackenzie did a nice history of the Kent Circle Tree tradition for the Gloucester Daily Times:
GloucesterTimes.com, Gloucester, MA
November 29, 2011
The roots of Gloucester’s tree
Joann Mackenzie, Staff Writer
It all began with a scene straight out of an old Frank Capra movie.
One morning 15 years ago, with Christmas fast approaching, Brent “Ringo” Tarr walked into the kitchen of the Tarr family’s farmhouse and said, “We have a problem, we have no Christmas tree.”
Now, no Christmas tree with Christmas fast approaching would be a problem in lots of family’s books, but in the Tarr family’s book, it was a very, very big problem.
Thanks, in large part, to the Tarrs’ concerted efforts, the children of Gloucester had come to expect a tree of about 40 feet in height and several tons in weight to appear as if by magic — glowing with thousands of lights amidst a little lit forest of twinkling crab apple trees at Kent Circle.
Ringo Tarr — along with his brothers, state Senator Bruce Tarr, R-Gloucester, and Brian Tarr, assistant superintendent of Gloucester Schools — had begun that tradition several years earlier in response to the West Gloucester’s community’s collective desire for “a tree of their own.” And in the past, they’d relied on good luck and local backyards to find Kent Circle’s “Green Giants.”
But that year, Ringo Tarr — the self-appointed Paul Bunyon of the bunch — had simply come up empty-handed in his search for a perfect tree. And like the Jimmy Stewart character in Capra’s Christmas classic, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” he was looking for a Christmas miracle to save the day.
What might be an option, suggested Ringo’s brother, Bruce, was sending out a fisherman’s SOS to Gloucester’s sister city, Shelburne, Nova Scotia.
Gloucester and Shelburne had a long history of helping each other. The two fishing ports had been each other’s safe harbors through centuries of storm-tossed seas. And, more recently, had been discussing a new bond, through joint business ventures in tourism and energy, that could make them future economic partners.
As state lawmaker, Bruce Tarr had developed a good working relationship with Shelburne’s city leaders — and a good working knowledge of Nova Scotia itself.
One of Canada’s three Atlantic Maritime provinces, Nova Scotia is, among other things, “the Balsam Fir capital of the world,” exporting more than 2 million Christmas trees annually. Could the province, Bruce Tarr wondered over the phone to the mayor of Shelburne, possibly spare one more of its famous firs for Gloucester’s Kent Circle?
The answer came in the form of a 38-foot Nova Scotia fur. And in all the years since, the Nova Scotia green giants have kept on coming from Shelburne to Gloucester every November, by land and sea, and a variety of vehicles.
Most recently, it has arrived via an annual odyssey which, for the Tarr brothers, has evolved into what Bruce Tarr likens to a 12-hour international triathlon, “… an Iron Man Challenge of Christmas Tree hunts,” he says.
The longest and arguably toughest leg of the three legs of the journey is by ferry, across wild, winter-whipped North Atlantic waters. But the senator, who has videotaped years of footage of the annual trips, clearly loves every minute of them. So, too, does his brother, Ringo.
Over the course of 15 years, the people of Shelburne have, the brothers agree, become friends.
The friendships may not, as they do here in Gloucester, go back to school days, but — like the Nova Scotia “Green Giants” themselves— they’ve grown with time.
“I walk the streets up there,” says Ringo Tarr, and they know my name. “‘Hey, Ringo!’ they’ll say, ‘How’re ya doing?'”
Ringo Tarr is doing just fine this year. The trip to Shelburne went without a hitch, and he and his traveling partner, St. Peter’s Fiesta Committee chief Joe Novello, delivered a bouncing 38-foot Nova Scotia Fir to Gloucester, and, thanks to the mild November weather and the help of friends like Ed McCann and Joe Ciolino, had it raised, decorated, and ready for lighting last weekend.
An electrical contractor, Ringo Tarr — like the Thomas Edison protege who first introduced the “electric Christmas tree” back in the 1880s — is a born inventor.
As the mastermind who makes the “magic” of the Kent Circle tree happen, his inventiveness has included — among countless other things — the planning and construction of the 12-by-12-foot underground infrastructure that “houses” and supports the trees.
Designed to withstand winds of up to a 100 miles an hour, Ringo Tarr’s two tons of poured cement support largely stood the test of last December’s Nor’ Easter admirably.
Though badly battered and, well, downsized, Gloucester’s Kent Circle tree did not — like the national tree on Washington, D.C.’s, Ellipse — actually topple over in the storm.
Though the Kent Circle tree owes much to the Tarr family, the Tarr brothers are quick to give credit to “legions” of “Christmas Angels” in both cities who donate their time, energy, elbow grease, ingenuity and equipment ranging from flatbed trucks, trailers, earth movers, cranes.
Like the gifts of the Magi, Shelburne’s trees travel from afar, across seas the two old fishing ports have shared for centuries, where, says Bruce Tarr, “the long-standing philosophy is that all men must always help each other.”
Especially, at Christmas.
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BREAKING NEWS: Local Favs Opening for Johnny Winter on 1/31 at Larcom Theatre
Local Favs Opening for Johnny Winter on 1/31 at Larcom Theatre
Don’t miss the chance to see Eric Reardon on guitar, Henley Douglas Jr on sax, John Iltis on drums and Dave Walker on bass open for Johnny Winter on Friday January 31 at the Larcom Theatre in Beverly. Balcony seats still available.
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He’s BACK! Save the dates 1/30 – 2/9
This just in from Gordo!
BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND
STARRING THE ORIGINAL CAST
Come and see what all the talk was about this fall with the return of CRAZY MOON, Gordon Baird’s original musical, also starring John Hyde and Kathleen Brown. 8 Shows Thurs. Jan. 30 ~ Sun. Feb. 9.
The show is very exciting and fun and runs only an hour and fifteen minutes – (so even a guy can enjoy it.) Curtain is at 8 pm (thu-fri-sat) and 5 pm (Sun) at The Rocky Neck Cultural Center on 6 Wonson St..
All opening night ticket proceeds (1/30) go to benefit the Gloucester Writer’s Center.
Tickets for all shows are $15, 2/$25 ~ kids $5. Free parking in the town lot a block from the theater.
Here’s what viewers of its September debut are saying?
Mayor Carolyn Kirk said: “I was entranced by Crazy Moon and the intimate setting of the Rocky Neck Cultural Center. Also knowing the Writer’s Center benefited made it a wonderful evening out.”
Linda Amero called it ” charming and poignant “.
Jimmy T said: “Incredible energy and talent, a thought-provoking roller-coaster ride through your own reality.”
John Steiger said: ” Gordon Baird takes us on a wondrous journey to mysterious places, his imagination is contagious.”
Jay McLauchlan: ” I would like to see this tour de force again! What a perfect vehicle for the multi-talented Baird, John Hyde and a terrific feature performance by Kathleen Brown, an extraordinary journey, inspiring . . .”
Robert Crandall: ” A creative one man songfest in the best tradition of seafaring story telling. Enjoy. “
John Bell put it: “Gordie at his best. Well worth the watch.”
CRAZY MOON RUNS 8 nights Jan.30 through Feb 9. – Thurs-Fri-Sat shows at 8 pm – Sunday at 5 pm at the Rocky Neck Cultural Center – 6 Wonson St.
Tickets can be bought at the door at showtime. 978-283-0390 for info.
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Wednesdays with Fly Amero ~ Special Guest: Allen Estes 8-11
Wednesdays Only: Prime Rib, $12.95!
Wednesday, January 15th
Special Guest: ALLEN ESTES!
Photo by Sheila Roberts Orlando
The man continues to surprise his audiences with new, brilliant
songs from the heart. You’re always sure to hear something
you’ve never heard before when you come to see Allen Estes!
Dinner with great music!
*Each week features a special, invited musical guest
Dave Trooper’s Kitchen…
Prime Rib Special – $12.95 (while they last)
Prepared fresh weekly by “Troop”… always good!
Plus – Check out Fred’s rockin’ new wine menu!
Upcoming…
01/22 – Toni Ann
Visit: http://www.therhumbline.com/
Looking forward…
…to seeing you there! 🙂 ~ Fly
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It’s 4 da khedz! They’re all hunks! Hot Lemon / White Pages / Lady Bones / Pe+ Ceme+ery / Superteen
Hot Lemon.
White Pages.
http://whitepages.bandcamp.com/
Lady Bones.
http://ladybones.bandcamp.com/
Pe+ Ceme+ery
http://soundcloud.com/ppeettcceemmeetteerryy
Superteen
http://superteen.bandcamp.com/
all ages
Doors at 6
5 bucks
Bring Art supplies get in for free.
The Hive Community Center
11 Pleasant Street, Gloucester, Massachusetts 01930
Good Morning Gloucester 