Gloucester Family and Friends Night This Thursday Night (Retailers send me your announcements and I’ll add them)

Big weekend here- HUGE weekend here in G TownThursday Night Family and Friends Night downtown, Friday Night The GMG Holiday Party, Saturday The Middle Street Walk and Lobster Trap Tree Buoy Painting and Lighting.  That’s a perfect frickin trifecta of awesomeness right there baby!!!!

As more of our local merchants submit their plans I’ll add them to this post for handy reference on what to do and where to go.

Hopefully Fred Bodin will circulate this post to our local merchants so they know to submit stuff to me to add in.

First Up Maritime Gloucester submits-

Maritime Gloucester will be open for Gloucester’s Family & Friends Night this Thursday, 5:00-7:30.  Bring the whole family!  We’ll have a craft project for the kids and great deals in the shop for everyone. There will be snacks and hot chocolate and lots of good cheer!

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Join us for Friends & Family Night

Dear Joey,

Season’s Greetings!

Why shop alone when you can make a night of it with friends and family?  ‘Tis what the season is all about!

This Thursday, December 12th from 5pm to 10pm, celebrate the season at Harbor Goods with live music, specials, holiday treats and free wrapping.

Shop small and local in Downtown Gloucester while you enjoy strolling carolers and musicians in a family-friendly and festive Main Street event.  The winner of the $1500 Shopping Spree will be drawn during the evening.

Mix, Mingle and Be Merry with the crew at Harbor Goods/Life is good  

119 Main Street, Gloucester, MA

FEMA flood map video From Kenny Mac

http://capeanninfo.com/ Buying or selling on the coast? Beware of the new flood zones and rate changes. Step by step directions will help you find your map.

Gloucester Fire Department New Engine In Service

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To see the engine as it was being built click here for past posts

Final Photo Album of Gloucester Fire Engine 2 Being Built

Posted on September 3, 2013 by Joey C

 

Updates on Engine 2 Being Built at The Pierce Factory From Fire Chief Eric Smith

Posted on August 19, 2013 by Joey C

 

Mayor Kirk Forwards A Photo Album of Gloucester’s New Fire Truck (Engine 2) Being Built

Posted on August 7, 2013 by Joey C

2013 Gloucester MA Lobster Trap Tree Being Built

Bex submits-

All the traps are on loan from local lobstermen.

Volunteers dedicate a weekend to building the tree.

Children paint buoys as “ornaments” to decorate the tree. Buoy Painting is December 14 and the Tree Lighting Ceremony is 4:30 – 5:00 on December 14.

When the tree comes down in January, the buoys are saved and auctioned off as a fundraiser for Cape Ann Art Haven on January 24th @ Gloucester Cruiseport.

Thank you to Awesome Gloucester for awarding Cape Ann Art Haven $1000 towards the Lobster Trap Tree and Buoy Painting Week!

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Christmas Is Coming Ladies!

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If your husband is a hard core fisherman you just know he’d love a chum cutter-

 

All the boats on Wicked Tuna use it-

http://chumcutter.com/

Found on the Hard Drive “Meditation” 2006

Found on the Hard Drive  “Meditation” 2006

These Photos were Shot with a Kodak dx6490 4mp 10x zoom in 2006.

One year after we returned home to Gloucester

and 4 years before I was asked to join GMG.

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Local Updates- Engage!

Cat Ryan submits-

Hi all,

Here are few deadline events that may interest you, and some wonderful Gloucester news. So many updates are possible because of the strong support and lead from the City of Gloucester through the office of Mayor Kirk. Click the logos to follow the links—orange seems to be in fashion for these logos! What amazing partnerships surround us; please share the links with your friends. Good Morning Gloucester, the Gloucester Daily Times, the Cape Ann Beacon, Cape Ann TV and other local media have helped tremendously in spreading the word for our creative art, businesses, and orgs.

Sincerely

Catherine

  • image001-1November 14, 2013 FREE special conference on rising water issues and natural systems:  The Great Marsh Symposium at the Crane Estate, Ipswich, MA, Great House at the Trustees of Reservations, Ipswich, MA, hosted by The Great Marsh Coalition. Essex National Heritage is a member. There’s a tour from the great roof after! FREE

  • image002-1Wednesday, November 20, 2013, Smart Growth Alliance Conference at the ABX convention center, Boston. Celebrating Smart Growth projects across the Commonwealth and ten years of Smart Growth. I’m going as a participant. I’ll also be speaking about arts/culture updates in Gloucester for one of the panels. Gloucester’s successes via its Community Development department and the HarborWalk public spaces inspired this invitation.

  • image003-2Tuesday, December 3, 2013, Montserrat Gallery, Beverly: The Creative Economy of the North Shore (CEANS) is hosting a networking reception. Feature of the night: arts and culture curator, and non profit advisor, Ricardo Barreto, will speak about the NEA public art process that led to 75 nationally known artists submitting public art ideas. We’ll meet the artist awarded the project, too, Anna Schuleit Haber. FREE

  • image004 You may have missed Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce’s hosting for MOTT’s Director Betsy Wall. A big focus of this reception described the excellent platform of their website. Please add in your businesses and orgs ASAP—the North Shore and Gloucester can do more! If you have questions feel free to email me! Immediate exciting impact: MOTT has asked multi talented Gloucester resident and artist Kim Smith to be a guest blogger on their fantastic website. Also, her video of the schooner festival will be added to their YouTube channel. The Chamber is also working on a campaign for a Cape Ann license plate. They’re working with legislature to see if the restrictive parameters for logo design can revert to offering the entire background as part of a winning design (as we see with Cape Cod or the MA Environmental Trust’s Right Whale).

  • Nice press for downtown. image Harbortown Cultural District is featured in the November 2013 issue of their publication Horizons as part of a submission for one of its regularly published  “ten” lists. You can find the article here They introduce the ten districts as “the creative heart of many communities. Here are some in the region worth visiting.” The other districts on the list cover 7 states: New Haven’s Audubon Arts District, Philadelphia’s Avenue of the Arts, Lowell’s Canalway, New York City’s East Fourth Street, Providence’s Downtown, Hartford’s Downtown, Baltimore’s Mount Vernon, Portland’s Arts, and Pittsfield’s Upstreet. The article also credits the Massachusetts Cultural Council’s (MCC) cultural districts program. www.gloucesterharbortown.org. The author selected this district because of the HarborWalk.

  • INCREASE YOUR AUDIENCES    image007 Excellent podcast webinar from the Massachusetts Cultural Council on how to build audiences with ArtsBoston Audience Initiative project. The link also has a copy of the presentation if you don’t have time to listen. When you do find an hour to sit with the audio, there’s a lot of good information (and maybe one dog barking in the background at some point and one swear whoops!) There’s a sliding scale fee to sign up and share audience lists. Gloucester businesses/orgs should do it. Local mention: If you listen to the entire broadcast you’ll hear artist and seARTS Chair Jackie Ganim-Defalco ask a question and mention Cape Ann Artisans! Update: In September, the Massachusetts Cultural Council worked with legislatures to append the state budget, requesting an increase in $500,000 towards marketing. The request was tabled for now. But what’s important is the advocacy, the communication, and the ideas are out there! It is so important to share. Mention and coverage of arts and culture across many elections and in the media has significantly increased and improved.

  • image008US Travel Association. Please text to show your support for this Jolt Act. It affects Gloucester and all MA residents! I can’t believe that Brazil, Romania and Poland have trouble with visas! Text from your phone today 877-877, “travel”, and send to sign up for the Power of Travel coalition if you want to help there.

See Good Morning Gloucester coverage here

  • image009Essex National Heritage outstanding Essex Trails and Sails is not surprisingly already planning for next year. They were thrilled with Gloucester participation and the Block Party overlap, and hope to have even more partners and more promotion for 2014. Update coming soon and please plan for it next year! Their website and social media platforms are excellent opportunities.

  • image011November 1-17, 2013, save time for Cape Ann Community Cinema’s 6th Cape Ann Film Festival

Gloucester Beach Parking For A 4 Week Renter

Merle Taylor writes-

 

Hi Joey
My husband and I vacation in Gloucester in the summer.  We’ve been renting a cottage in Lanesville for weeks at a time and loving it.  Your blog keeps us connected and we enjoy it daily. 
I want to complain about beach parking to someone.  Last summer I was denied beach parking because I’m not a resident nor was I renting for a long period of time.  I recently had double knee replacement and walking to the beach is an issue.  It seems that City Hall does not offer a weekly parking permit.  Is that something that should be offered?  I think it would bring in some revenue for the smaller beaches especially at Plum Cove. 
I’m interested in finding out if I can obtain one for summer 2014 as we will be in Lanesville for four weeks.  Would appreciate any help you can give me on this.
Thanks
Merle Taylor
West Chester, PA

 

From the City of Gloucester Website- which you can find here

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http://gloucester-ma.gov/index.aspx?NID=653

You need to rent for 60 days to qualify for a seasonal renter parking sticker. They only charge $50 for a two month sticker so I’m not sure how they could charge a whole lot for a weekly sticker.   In the heat of the summer the beach parking gets filled up as it is and I’m pretty sure that full time residents feel that they should get first crack at parking at their home town beach.

The City does offer very reasonable beach shuttle service and it drops you off right at the beach so you wouldn’t have to worry about walking.

Here’s the information on the FREE parking offered if you take the Beach trolley-

Plan Your Day at the Beach in Gloucester, MA

Save money and be sure to get a parking space. On weekends, June 15 through Labor Day, you can park at Stage Fort Park and take the Trolley Shuttle (see Trolley Schedule here). Parking is FREE if you take the Trolley Shuttle.

Gloucester beaches offer relaxation and enjoyment well into autumn, when you’ll often see surfers riding the waves at Good Harbor Beach in the warm September waters.

Swimming and sunbathing, surfing and shelling, Gloucester beaches fill every desire – nestled in secluded coves, white sand stretching for miles or family favorites with playgrounds and tidal pools.

In addition there is such limited parking at Plum Cove Beach it would suck for residents to get bumped out for weekly renters but if you are willing to pay for a weekly parking pass then you should be willing to pay for a taxi.  Gloucester does have taxi services

U, V, W, X, Y and Z Maritime Gloucester Celebrates Halloween 2013

Maritime Gloucester Celebrates Halloween 2013

Click Here for Maritime Gloucester Facebook Page

Shaped like a flying saucer, the UFO Pleco looks like something straight out of a fifties sci-fi movie! These Chinese fish, part of the loach group, are found in fast-flowing streams rather than outer space.

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The scary yet harmless vampire squid’s scientific name literally means vampire squid of Hell! Survivors from the Jurassic period, these mollusks have characteristics of both squid and octopus and shoot glowing mucus when alarmed.

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The witch flounder is one of many flatfish found in local waters. We love teaching our Ocean Explorers about these amazing animals!

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You can easily see the skeleton of the X-ray tetra! These fish are found in the Amazon River and live in large schools.

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Named after the legendary monster, the Yeti crab was first discovered in 2005. These blind crustaceans live at depths of over 7,000 feet!

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Zombie worms bore into whale bones using acid! These strange sea creatures remove nutrients from the bones in order to feed.

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https://www.facebook.com/maritimegloucester

R, S, T, Maritime Gloucester Celebrates Halloween 2013

Maritime Gloucester Celebrates Halloween 2013

Click Here For The Maritime Gloucester Facebook Page

These sea ravens were photographed in our Aquarium! Local lobstermen often find these bottom-dwelling fish in their traps.

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Skeleton shrimp are small relatives of crabs and lobsters. Commonly found along our docks, this creepy crustaceans was photographed in our digital microscope lab.

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The highly aggressive terror cichlid lives up to its name, as it will eat any fish that fits in its mouth and will even attack its own kind! This Halloween-colored fish is found in South American rivers.

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https://www.facebook.com/maritimegloucester

N, O, P, Q, Maritime Gloucester Celebrates Halloween 2013

 N, O, P, Q, Maritime Gloucester Celebrates Halloween 2013

Click Here For Maritime Gloucester Facebook Page

The monstrous New England sea serpent, also known as the Gloucester sea serpent, was allegedly seen in Gloucester Harbor in 1817. Kids painted a 20-foot long wooden sea serpent during our Marine Halloween party!

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The ornate ghost pipefish is related to seahorses. These tropical fish use their long snouts to feed on tiny crustaceans, such as shrimp.

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Pumpkinseeds are a type of freshwater sunfish found throughout North America. These fish are named for the seed-shaped spot on their gill covers.

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Gecarcinus quadratus is commonly known as the Halloween crab. Found from Mexico to Peru, these nocturnal crabs live on land but must return to the ocean to breed.

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Huge Thanks To The Captains Of Wicked Tuna- Dave Carraro and Dave Marciano

I’m not sure people around here outside of the restaurateurs and shop owners realize the impact that these guys have had on local business.

These hard working fishermen and real life men of character have captured the hearts of America from their legions of fans who watch Wicked Tuna.

I can’t begin to tell you how many people I run into from all over the country that come in and ask where they can see The Hard Merchandise or Tuna.com.  They love the show and they come to Gloucester to stay for vacation, eat at our restaurants and shop in our shops.  But it doesn’t end there.  They stay at our hotels, they book charters and when their charters are filled up they pass off those charters on to other local charter boat Captains. 

I hear it over and over and over again and these people are coming from all over the country.

So when you see these guys around town, give ‘em a pat on the back and say thanks for representing our City and making us proud.

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Captain Dave Carraro Check out The Tuna.com Site Book a charter and Buy Some Gear

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Dave Marciano Check Out The Hard Merchandise Site- Book a Charter and Grab Some Gear

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K, L, M, Maritime Gloucester Celebrates Halloween 2013

K, L, M,  Martime Gloucester Celebrates Halloween 2013

Maritime Gloucester Facebook Page

The legendary kraken was said to live off the coasts of Norway and Greenland. Many believe the myth was based on sightings of actual giant squid, which are known to reach about 40 feet in length!

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Much like Jack O’ Lanterns, lanternfish are known for lighting up the dark! These deep sea fishes have numerous light-producing organs called photophores.

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The masked pufferfish lives in coral reefs of the Red Sea, and it looks like it’s always in costume! What do you, or your children, have planned for your Halloween costumes this year?

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H, I, J, Maritime Gloucester Celebrates Halloween

H, I, J, Maritime Gloucester Celebrates Halloween

Maritime Gloucester Facebook Page

The Halloween hermit crab is a Hawaiian crustacean that feeds on algae. Could there be a more perfect Halloween sea creature?

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The Indian ghost is a catfish found in the rivers of Southeast Asia. This fish lack scales, and its transparency makes its skeleton perfectly visible!

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The Japanese spider crab is the largest living member of the arthropod group, which includes crustaceans, insects, and spiders. These giant crabs can be 12 feet from claw to claw!

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Willow Rest From Cat Ryan

Yummy lunch and lots to look at! Rusty Kinnunen linocuts on exhibit along with other creative folks work. His linos range $25- $80, editions from 20 to 50, lobster, beaches, boats, whales…

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B,C,D Maritime Gloucester’s 13 Days Of Halloween

Marine Halloween at Maritime Gloucester

Click Here For More Information on Marine Halloween Party at Maritime Gloucester Saturday 10/26/2013

Maritime Gloucester Facebook Page

The red-lipped batfish lives around the Galapagos Islands. A poor swimmer, it “walks” on the seafloor using specially-evolved fins!

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The calico lobster in our Aquarium is the same species as Gloucester’s other lobsters, but she has a rare color mutation. Black with orange spots, her color is perfect for Halloween!

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The devil fish is a giant ray found in the Mediterranean Sea. Named for their hornlike fins, these harmless fish can reach lengths of 17 feet!

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Marine Halloween at Maritime Gloucester 10/26/2013

 

Marine Halloween at Maritime Gloucester

Click Here To Register

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