Literary Cape Ann presented a terrific afternoon, Bestseller to Big Screen, featuring Rodman Philbrick, Andre Dubus III, and Stephen McCauley at Cape Ann Cinema 21 Main Street in Gloucester May 5, 2019.
The Toad Hall wheels behind Literary Cape Ann invited Beth Pocock, Asst. Director Sawyer Free Library, to moderate the first half of the program. Literary Cape Ann co-founder Rae Francoeur directed the second part. The Book Store of Gloucester set up shop to handle book sales. Cape Ann Cinema had trailers queued up and fresh popcorn pop pop popping which was offbeat and endearing. All went off without a hitch thanks to great questions, event coordination/collaboration and three dynamite authors who were frank, engaging, witty and bright. Make sure to look for the next Literary Cape Ann event.
Sponsored by Bach Builders and Gloucester Writers Center
“When a book becomes a movie, a lot happens. It’s a transforming moment for an author whose book takes on a new life. Three authors share their Hollywood stories on May 5, from 1 to 3 p.m. Rodman Philbrick: The Mighty; Stephen McCauley: The Object of My Affection; Andre Dubus III: House of Sand and Fog. Free. Book signings, refreshments, film clips.”
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Literary Cape Ann presents Bestseller to Big Screen featuring Rodman Philbrick, Andre Dubus III, and Stepehn McCauley at Cape Ann Cinema21 Main Street in Gloucester on May 5, 2019. Sponsored by Bach Builders and Gloucester Writers Center
“When a book becomes a movie, a lot happens. It’s a transforming moment for an author whose book takes on a new life. Three authors share their Hollywood stories on May 5, from 1 to 3 p.m. Rodman Philbrick: The Mighty; Stephen McCauley: The Object of My Affection; Andre Dubus III: House of Sand and Fog. Free. Book signings, refreshments, film clips.”
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Gloucestercast 243 With Ken Hecht, Karen Ristuben, Ken Hecht, James Caviston, Chuck Haybeck, Karen Pischke, Kim Smith, Joey Ciaramitaro Taped 9/24/17
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GloucesterCast 239 With Kim Smith and Joey Ciaramitaro Taped 8/27/17
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Squeezing the last bit out of summer- Beaches will have minimum 75% less people the first weekend in September then the last weekend in August despite whatever the weather is.
EIGHT YEARS AFTER F/V TUNA HUNTER TAGGED AND RELEASED THIS TUNA IT WAS RECAUGHT
Captain Gary Connell and crew, F/V Tuna Hunter, & angler George Horensky, for this exciting Tag a Tiny recovery, after 8 years (2,976 days) at liberty! F/V Tuna Hunter released this 55″ bluefin tuna off Stellwagen Bank on 8/17/2008. At recapture it was 91 ” (471 lbs), in 52 deg F, by Japanese longline vessel F/V Chokyu 1, Captain Shuji Shibata, on 10/10/2016
Laura Harrington’s novel is available locally at The Bookstore of Gloucester and Toad Hall Rockport.
Read the review : http://google.com/newsstand/s/CBIwlIf9vjU by Charlotte Gordon, a professor of humanities at Endicott College, author most recently, of “Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Her Daughter Mary Shelley.”
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John Ronan presents Taking the Train of Singularity South From Midtown on Saturday, April 8, 2:00-3:00pm in the Friend Room. It’s Sponsored by the Gloucester Lyceum and Friends of the Sawyer Free Library.
John Ronana poet, playwright, journalist and a National Endowment for the
Arts Fellow in Literature has done so much in Gloucester! Here’s a throwback article from 1978 about the Gloucester Broadside, a monthly 10 cent one sheet of quality poetry.
Ronan developed the website resource dedicated to Gloucester poets, Gloucester Poet Laureate, also for Salt and Light: An Anthology of Gloucester Poetry, published spring 2010. He is the host of the Cape Ann TV program, The Writer’s Block. He was pivotal in establishing the library’s annual Poetry without Paper Contest and poetry columns in the Gloucester Daily Times.
April 27 2017 | POEM IN POCKET DAY: It’s free and simple to participate. Carry a Poem. Share a Poem. For more information, search for Poem in Your Pocket Day (PIYP Day) Academy of American Poets (www.poets.org) or New York City’s excellent web site, http://www.NYC.gov/poem. PIYP Day started in NYC in 2002 inspired by the Favorite Poem Project established in 1997 (first events April 1998) by Robert Pinsky, former 3x Poet Laureate of the United States. East Gloucester Elementary School initiated Poem in Pocket Day in 2011 (PTO enrichment).
Abbott Public Library, Marblehead, MA, June 18, 2017
POET LAUREATE: In Gloucester, MA, the Poet Laureate is dedicated to building community through poetry and encouraging a love of poetry among people of all ages. The honorary post for the City of Gloucester was created in 1998. There have been 4 Poet Laureates: Vincent Ferrini was the City’s first, then John Ronan served from 2008-10, Ruthanne Collinson served 2010-14, and Peter Todd served 2014-15. The Committee for the Arts helps to select a new Poet Laureate.
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Editors note ~ a reader wrote this morning, unable to attend the event but wanting to donate to Toad Hall nonetheless. If you would like to help support Toad Hall, which is a nonprofit 501 C4 (not tax deductible), please send donations to:
Toad Hall Bookstore
c/o Ardis Francoeur
47 main Street
Rockport, MA
01966
Thank you!
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Rubber Duck again trying to figure out the Family tree. My sisters over lunch at the Museum of Fine Arts were raving about this book. One is a birder, the other not but both enjoyed it. So I got it for myself as a stocking stuffer.
First the Facts: They made a movie from this book starring Jack Black, Steve Martin, and Owen Wilson that had sucky reviews. I’m reviewing the book, not the movie.
The book is about three guys who decide that in 1998 they are going to do a “Big Year”. In birding, this means that they are going to see how many different birds they can see in one calendar year in North America. It starts out slow with them running about on the first of the year and around 60,000 frequent flyer miles apiece ends 365 days later. At the start they did not know that the two others were going to do this but since some rare birds are always in the same place they bumped into each other and the race to the top becomes an obsession. I won’t spoil the drama at the end but all three finish north of 700 birds! There are only 625 native birds currently residing in North America so how do they do this? By staying for a week in a godforsaken island Attu off the Bering Sea to count birds that have accidentally been blown in from Asia. Or taking boat rides off the coast of New England and Monterrey California to nail birds that never see dry land. Or they are in Texas one day and driving up from Logan to Plum Island the next because a rare duck was spotted.
I thought it was pretty good. An hour after I finish it I get an email from a friend who is coming to Gloucester so her son-in-law can add a King Eider to his life list. (This is kind of weird since I have never gotten an email about birding ever and so I take this as a sign.) Driving from Penn State to see a bird here? I guess this lunacy is common. My sister went to Panama a month ago just to see birds. So Jim Barber emails me back that there is a King Eider off the Elks Lodge and I go down there. Do you know how many different really weird looking diving duck like birds are down there? Looked like a thousand. And I had one birder show me a few but it seemed insane. The males and females look completely different. I knew that. But depending on whether they were adults, teenagers, just toilet trained, or ready to retire they all looked completely different even though it was the same exact species.
So my birding interest waned again. But then I went and sat at the same rock I sit on to watch the waves near my house and I now notice that there were 23 common eiders, 12 harlequin ducks and two surf scoters paddling about. There were four other strange groups of feathered objects out there but in two days of “birding” I could figure out a few.
So I am going to do a big year too starting on Monday. Different rules though. This one involves no traveling. In fact, I won’t even get up. I will identify and count every waterfowl that I can see from my one specific favorite rock I sit on to watch the sunrise and the surf. If it seems to be of interest I will post the results as a GMG Sunday 2PM post. Maybe I last a month, who knows? Sort of a way to force me to learn a thing or two about our fowl friends. Since we do live in this paradise that includes birds that visit us from the north pole and they sure look like penguin like fowl it might be fun. If I can do it for a year and learn the names of more than a dozen birds, cool. I sure hope they don’t change their plumage often or new flocks arrive. OK, maybe I could handle two dozen but first I have to figure out what the names of these four other weird birds are. ( I’m pretty sure one is a single female mallard WTF!)
Fun Fact: The Bookstore of Gloucester did not have this book when I stopped by at 4PM the week before Christmas. But in two minutes they figured out the name of “that book about birds and three guys” and had it on their delivery for the next day and when I stopped by at noon the next day I had the book. No plastic wrap, blister pack, foam peanuts or box to throw away. I hear that Toad Hall in Rockport can do this same amazing trick. Buy Local! Cape Ann is a blessed place with a bunch of great bookstores. Imagine Cape Ann without them. How awful would that be? Buy your books here on Cape Ann and save the hassle of boxes.
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After finishing Moby-Duck by Donovan Hohn I give it 5 Rubber Ducks. Perfect stocking stuffer for the Good Morning Gloucester Friends of Rubber Duck (GMGFORD). A spellbinding journey that leapfrogs (see green frogs below) across the world searching for the illusive Rubber Duck. The Gloucester Bookstore and Toad Hall in Rockport have been told to stock this book.
First the technicalities: On the night of January 10, 1992, an enormous container ship from China, crossing the north Pacific, ran into a storm and eventually lost several tractor trailer sized containers to the sea. This actually happens quite often and some people get their kicks hunting down Adidas sneakers, or the ten thousand catcher’s mitts or hockey sticks that bob to the surface after the ocean pops the container open. But on this Friday night the cargo was 7,200 cartons of bath toys containing a green frog, a blue turtle, a red beaver, and, wait for it, a rubber duck (This makes 28,800 floating bath toys.). But forget those other toys, we focus on the 7,200 Rubber Ducks. These Rubber Ducks are just like the GMG Rubber Duck. Born in a blow mold in China. Our Rubber Duck made the trip safely much earlier. Her container ship pulled into Seattle in 1984, was offloaded to a truck destined for Shelcore Inc in Somerset, New Jersey. It then was sent to a novelty shop on Cape Ann where David Platt of Rockport purchased it to decorate the bathroom. For fifteen years Rubber Duck left a sheltered life before she met Homie the Seagull down on Granite Pier and we all know where that part of the story has ended up …
But back to the roaming 7,200 rubber ducks. Donovan Hohn read an article about them and the search for information took over his life from 2005 to 2008. One month he would be pulling a red beaver off the beach of an Alaskan Island, the next month he would be on an ice breaker travelling the northwest passage above Canada. Along the way Donovan learns a lot about ocean currents, maritime regulations, the weather, the climate, the sailor Ishmael of Moby Dick fame, as well as how to be a father.
He meets a lot of people, most of whom think he is a bit daft, “Has thou seen the White Whale?” “Has thou seen the Rubber Duck?” A page turner to the end, you will find yourself a bit more knowledgable about the ocean after having read it. Do you know about the great gyre, the garbage patch, swirling in the Pacific to the North of Hawaii? I thought I did but was surprised that the real floating dead zone of plastic is much different than what is reported. Hohn brings no agenda to his search for the Rubber Duck. He started with a simple question, did a Rubber Duck really go through the Bering Strait, up over the Northwest passage, and land on a beach in England? In the end, it isn’t the answer, but the journey that matters, and we all learn a lot by tagging along.
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Good Morning Gloucester 