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Esther Pearl, 12-17-08
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1502GDD, 12-17-08
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officials ponder what to do with the aging Memorial Bridge
At
85 years old, the characteristic sea foam green that the Memorial
Bridge wore so well in her youth is being replaced with signs of old
age. Deep red blotches pattern her once smooth skin. Her life has been
dedicated to public service, and a wonderful hostess she has been. She
welcomes travelers by foot, car or ship, assuring a safe journey to all
who approach.
The bridge works 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. So, at the
respectable age of 85, it should come as no surprise that specialists
are calling for major surgery. The procedure is far more expensive than
anyone anticipated, but unless the operation is performed, our dear old
Memorial Bridge may have less than five years to live.
The bridge, which carries Route 1 over the Piscataqua River
between Portsmouth and Kittery, Maine, is in desperate need of
extensive repairs. Red-listed by the N.H. Department of Transportation
since 1994, the metal truss lift-bridge now ranks number one on the
list, meaning it is the state’s top priority for restoration. But the
lowest bid to restore the bridge recently came in at $59 million—more
than $15 million over the estimated cost state officials had projected.
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Superior courts in New Hampshire are suspending jury trials for a
month this fiscal year as one of many cost saving measures. Another
month off has been proposed, which could further delay civil cases for
those seeking a right for a wrong.
Due to a state budget shortfall, Gov. John Lynch and the state
Legislature requested cuts from government agencies and branches. The
decision to suspend jury trails, under the direction of Superior Court
Chief Justice Robert Lynn, is part of an effort to cut back $2.7
million in the judicial branch.
Since then, the branch has been asked to cut another $3 million,
of which less than one-sixth was deemed feasible by Chief Justice John
Broderick in a letter to the governor last month. That would include a
second month of suspended jury trials for an estimated savings of
$73,000. Jurors are paid $10 per half-day.
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The recent scandal involving Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich raises
questions about how isolated such cases are or are not. Among the many
allegations leveled against Blagojevich, he stands accused of trying to
sell off the U.S. Senate seat to be vacated by President-elect Barack
Obama. The governor’s arrest is turning stomachs in Illinois, but other
states rank even higher on the corruption scale, according to
information from the U.S. Department of Justice and Census Bureau.
New Hampshire, however, is not one of them. According to a chart
published in USA Today, the Granite State had only 14 public corruption
convictions between 1998 and 2007, which, based on the state’s
population, equates to 1.1 convictions per 100,000 residents. That
makes New Hampshire the third least corrupt state in the nation. The
least corrupt state was Nebraska (.7 convictions per 100,000
residents), followed by Oregon (1 conviction per 100,000).
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All Ballet New England wants for Christmas is a new home. That’s
because city officials recently notified the group that it must vacate
the Connie Bean Community Center in downtown Portsmouth, where it has
leased space for 28 years.
According to recreation director Rus Wilson, the city decided to
clear all tenants from the Daniel Street building’s second and third
floors, as well as its basement, due to safety issues. During an
inventory of the city’s recreation facilities, safety inspectors raised
concerns about the exits on these floors, Wilson said. In addition to
Ballet New England, a number of other organizations must relocate,
including the Seacoast African American Cultural Center and the
Portsmouth Judo Club.
Martha Lemire, executive director of Ballet New England, said the order to vacate came as a complete surprise.
As
of last week, city officials had not told Lemire why the group had to
leave, although Wilson did tell her he would try to help them relocate.
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Although many residents shiver at the thought of the oncoming New
Hampshire winter, this perennial shifting of the seasons is one of New
England’s defining traits. But a recent study conducted by researchers
at the University of New Hampshire shows that winters in the Northeast
are rapidly becoming warmer and less snowy.
The study, recently published in the Journal of Geophysical
Research-Atmospheres, analyzed wintertime climate data in the
northeastern United States from 1965 to 2005. UNH researchers Elizabeth
Burakowski and Cameron Wake, of the Institute for the Study of Earth,
Oceans and Space, found that the region’s traditional winter conditions
are vanishing at an alarming rate.
According to the study, regional temperatures over the last 40
years have been increasing at a rate of .42 to .46 degrees Celsius per
decade. The temperature increases are most pronounced during the
coldest months of January and February.
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Gents hazing involved dunkings in ‘jungle juice’
New
details have surfaced about the spring 2008 incident that led to the
probation of one of UNH’s popular a cappella groups. The New Hampshire
Gentlemen accepted responsibility for nine violations of UNH policy,
including hazing and providing alcohol to minors.
According
to the disciplinary hearing decision released by the Office of Conduct
and Mediation, the hazing occurred at a large party that involved punch
with high alcohol content, a drink commonly referred to as “jungle
juice.” Members of the singing group dunked the heads of new recruits
in the punch as a rite of initiation.
The Gents’ musical
director, sophomore Jon Blauvelt, admitted to the New Hampshire Union
Leader on Tuesday that the dunking occurred and that it had been a
tradition within the organization.
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Nate Wilson Group beckons the rock gods of old with debut disc
One
of the best stickers I’ve seen recently is plastered to the side of
former Solid 8 front man Andrew May’s sound equipment. The sticker asks
simply, “What have you done for rock lately?” Seacoast rock act One
Hand Free had this sticker printed around the same time it released its
latest record, “Quadraphonic.”
For the Nate Wilson Group, the answer has finally presented
itself with the band’s debut album, “Unbound.” The disc is a genuine
throwback to the great classic sound of 1970s rock, complete with
enough psychedelia to get you to bring out the black lights and turn up
the volume knob until the glassware in the hutch is in a dancing
frenzy.
“I think our music is mostly rooted in guitar heavy classic rock
or even garage rock revival, to some extent,” Wilson said. “I think
what makes us a little different is that the harmonic content is a
little richer than most of the bands in our category. It’s kind of like
if the Cream-era Eric Clapton grew a huge mustache, packed up his 1975
Chevy van with the bubble window and went off to music school but
flunked out after a semester and got really pissed. That’s probably the
best description I can come up with.”
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The Rockaholics will spread some holiday cheer this weekend with a
pair of shows to benefit needy families. The Goodwill Weekend Concert
Series will include gigs at the Prime Time Sports Grill in Seabrook on
Sunday, Dec. 19, and the Blue Mermaid in Portsmouth on Saturday, Dec.
20.
Guests at both shows are asked to bring donations of kids’ toys
and clothing, which will be collected at the doors and distributed to
families through local chapters of The Salvation Army. There is a $5
cover charge at the Blue Mermaid show.
Rockaholics front man Bill Foley said he organized the shows to
help brighten the holiday season with some good old fashioned rock ’n’
roll. In these tough economic times, he said, there is more need than
ever for charitable donations. “It’s just something I do a lot around
the holidays when I have gigs lined up,” Foley said. “Every once in a
while I decide to do something for someone other than me.”
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rated PG-13
There are plenty of things you probably
already know going into this picture. Yes, it’s a remake of the 1951
anti-nuke sci-fi classic by Robert Wise. Yes, it concerns the arrival
of Klaatu, an alien herald with some advice for the human race. And
yes, he’s got a killbot. A really big killbot.
Apparently, the various civilizations that employ Klaatu have
been watching us for a while, they have some concerns about the
direction we’re driving our big blue marble, and so dispatch him to
greet us with a message of world peace. Sounds pretty swell, until one
determines that when he uses the term “world,” he specifically means
the planet Earth, and the “peace” part is not so much about burying
political hatchets or buying local products or helping the landlady
with her garbage, but a lot more about purging the human infection from
the planet’s surface so it can get back to the business of growing
trees and squids and ocelots unhindered. You know, in peace. Oh, and by
the way, meet my colossal killbot.
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Associated General Films, 1978
starring: James Brolin, Elliott Gould and Hal Holbrook
written and directed by: Peter Hyams
the plot: Minutes
before the first manned mission to Mars is set to launch, Col. Charles
Brubaker (Brolin) and his team of astronauts are pulled off the space
shuttle and spirited away to a secret location. The shuttle launches
anyway, though, and the public believes the astronauts are on their way
to the red planet. The truth is far more sinister, as Brubaker and his
compatriots learn from Dr. James Kelloway (Holbrook), the head of the
mission. A mechanical failure on the shuttle would have doomed the
crew, but mounting public and political pressure meant the mission had
to proceed anyway. And so Kelloway and a cabal of conspirators set up
an elaborate soundstage to fake the landing.
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author chronicles Hollywood’s rocky battle between advancement and the status quo
The
rise of Pixar Animation is a story of monumental success or blown
opportunities, depending on who you ask. For George Lucas, who hired
Pixar co-founder Ed Catmull to work in the computer division of
Lucasfilm back in 1979, Pixar clearly represents what could have been.
For Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who bought the computer division of Lucasfilm
in 1986 and turned it into Pixar, the company represents the value of
foresight and innovation.
Jobs took Pixar off Lucas’ hands for $10 million—not a modest
sum by most standards, but pocket change compared to the $7.4 billion
the Walt Disney Co. spent to purchase Pixar 20 years later, making Jobs
a Disney board member.
Disney executives, who had long maintained that audiences would
always prefer hand-drawn cartoons over computer animation, bought Pixar
only after the immense success of films like “Toy Story” in 1995,
“Monsters, Inc.” in 2001 and “Finding Nemo” in 2003. With the
subsequent triumphs of “Cars,” “Ratatouille” and “Wall-E,” everyone can
now agree that computer animation just might have a future.
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NATIONAL CDS IN N.H.
1. “808s & Heartbreak” by Kanye West
2. “Universal Mind Control” by Common
3. “Sugar Mountain—Live At Canterb” by Neil Young
4. “Chinese Democracy” by Guns N’ Roses
4. “Circus” by Britney Spears
6. “Dark Horse” by Nickelback
7. “Freedom” by Akon
7. “Day & Age” by The Killers
9. “I Am Sasha Fierce” by Beyonce
9. “Winter Came” by Enya
LOCAL CDS IN SOUTHERN MAINE AND N.H.
1. “Christmas In Maine” by various artists
2. “Big Mouth Bob” by Bob Marley
3. “When Everything’s Lost” by Dead Season
4. “Rise” by Dead Season
5. “Live At The Maple Room, Vol. 1—Heat” by various artists
6. “We Could All Make History” by This Way
7. “Hope In Our Hearts” by Pete Kilpatrick Band
8. “Come On Home” by Jerks of Grass
8. “Maine-Iac on the Loose” by Bob Marley
8. “Greetings From Area Code 207, Vol.7” by various artists
Based on sales at Bull Moose locations.
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‘2666’
by Roberto Bolaño
898 pages,
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008
In 2003, when Chilean author
Roberto Bolaño died of liver disease at the age of 50, he had just
barely finished the first draft of his epic novel, “2666.” Published in
Spanish to great acclaim in 2004, the 1,100-page tome has been
beautifully translated into English (and a more manageable 898 pages)
by Natasha Wimmer, who also posthumously translated Bolaño’s earlier
award-winning novel, “The Savage Detectives.” A note from Bolaño’s
heirs at the beginning of the novel explains why they went against his
wishes to have it published as five books and instead released it as
one novel (the book is available as one formidable hardcover or a
collection of three paperbacks).
As Bolaño had intended,
each part tells its own story but also includes trace evidence of
events and characters from other sections. The book, as a whole, is a
testimony to the mundane and ugly horrors of everyday life, the largest
section focusing on the horrific murders of hundreds of women in Santa
Teresa, a fictional border town in Mexico.
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FICTION
1. “The Elegance of the Hedgehog” by Muriel Barbery (P)
2. “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society” by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (H)
3. “Testimony” by Anita Shreve (H)
4. “Breaking Dawn” by Stephanie Meyer (H)
5. “The Given Day” by Denis Lehane (H)
6. “The Hour I First Believed” by Wally Lamb (H)
7. “A Mercy” by Toni Morrison (H)
8. “The Clothes They Stood Up In” by Alan Bennett (P)
9. “The White Tiger” by Aravind Adiga (P)
10. “Lion among Men” by Gregory Maguire (H)
NONFICTION
1. “Chasing the Flame” by Samantha Power (P)
2. “Deciding the Next Decider” by Calvin Trillin (H)
3. “Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell (H)
4. “State by State” by Sean Wilsey (H)
5. “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” by Barbara Kingsolver (P)
6. “Live Free and Eat Pie” by Rebecca Rule (P)
7. “Alex & Me” by Irene Pepperberg (H)
8. “Dreams from My Father” by Barack Obama (P)
9. “The Glory Game” by Frank Gifford
10. “Annie Leibovitz at Work” by Annie Leibovitz (H)
(P) paperback; (H) hardcover, Information supplied by
RiverRun Bookstore.
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It was a bad weekend for Ebenezer Scrooge and the other characters
in a local theater company’s production of “A Christmas Carol” at the
Garrison Players Arts Center in Rollinsford. The ice storm that wreaked
havoc on the entire region caused a weekend-long power outage at the
Garrison Players, forcing cancellations of several shows.
Director Michael J. Tobin called the cancellations a “huge
financial loss” to Dramedy Productions, the small theater and film
company putting on the show. There is still one weekend of shows
remaining, with show times on Thursday, Dec. 18 at 7 p.m.; Friday and
Saturday, Dec. 19 and 20 at 8 p.m.; and Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 20
and 21 at 3 p.m. Dramedy plans to add two more shows to make up for the
cancellations.
Tobin hopes the remaining shows will help the small company
break even, as the financial losses from the ice storm could threaten
to derail the theater group. Dramedy’s production of “A Christmas
Carol” is an annual tradition dating back to 1992. Tickets are $15 for
adults, $10 for students under 18. Visit www.garrisonplayers.org or
call 603-516-4919.
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Tredwell Contemporary Art opens in Portsmouth
Ruthie Tredwell has big plans for her art gallery in downtown Portsmouth. “Huge,” she says.
She is the executive director of the Tredwell Foundation for the Visual
Arts and curator of Tredwell Contemporary Art, currently located at One
Harbour Place. Tredwell is still working to secure a large, downtown
space for the gallery and expects to have one within a couple of months.
Showings have been by appointment, but the gallery is open to
the public during business hours, beginning Thursday, Dec. 18. Artists
with work on display include pop art icon Peter Max; third generation
painter Jamie Wyeth; and Gretchen Dow Simpson, a Rhode Island artist
who has published 65 New Yorker magazine covers and an Absolut Vodka
campaign. Also featured are Caleb Stone, a plein air, impressionist
painter of natural New England scenes; and one of his students, Alison
Hill, based in Monhegan Island, Maine.
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Memorial Bridge

'We Have Always Lived in the Castle' by Shirley Jackson

Huntington Ravine
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© 2009 The Wire
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