adventures in social media, community, and instant information

The data cloud has dropped to street level, the barrier between the real and virtual worlds has fallen, and the billion computer screens that once served as discrete windows onto the Internet have calved and splintered. Six essays illustrate the changes taking place around us every day, part of this ever-fascinating, ever-accelerating, and often confounding historical transformation in which we find ourselves unexpectedly taking part.

The Seacoast is a horror hub, teeming with writers, artists and publishers of ghastly books, comics and anthologies.

It seems our love for zombies and ghouls knows no bounds. A resurgence of horror fiction—including some new local productions—proves that the undead have a special place in our cold New England hearts.

Exeter commemorates 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s historic 1860 visit

When Abraham Lincoln visited Exeter, most residents were only vaguely aware of who he was. His speeches here changed that, and helped send him to the White House. Exeter celebrates the 150th anniversary of Lincoln’s visit with “A Sesquicentennial Celebration” from Wednesday to Saturday, March 3 to 6.

As the N.H. Big Read celebrates “To Kill a Mockingbird” this March, community discussions focus on the Atticus Finches of our modern justice system. Though defending violent and unrepentant criminals can make them wildly unpopular, “The only one there to ensure that the government plays by its own rules is the defense attorney," says Lincoln Soldati.

The Seacoast’s theater scene is thriving—despite, or maybe because of, the economy. But while audiences have swelled, funding is plummeting. So what happens next?

Stuck in a cold-snap and desperate to replenish our will to live, we’ve collected the best suggestions for making it through what’s truly the longest, darkest month of the year. There’s plenty of action, as long as you have a snowsuit and a sense of adventure (or, if you show up at the right events, maybe one will be provided for you).

As the RPM Challenge turns five, longtime RPM participants describe how the month-long creative event has affected their music and lives—new bands, new fans and a new outlook.

poet and activist Nikki Giovanni will headline multi-day MLK celebration, "Art as Struggle and Exultation"

Now a distinguished professor at Virginia Tech, Nikki Giovanni says she believes humankind has made significant progress toward reaching King’s vision for a just world, but there’s still a long way to go.

That work involves more than addressing race issues, alone. Freedom is a planetary pursuit, one that applies to all people, not just blacks and minorities. “Sometimes people forget that segregation was hard on white people, too, because you had to remember to be white,” she says.

The University of New Hampshire’s 20th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration begins with an art exhibit that opens Jan. 28 and ending with poet and activist Nikki Giovanni’s commemorative address on Feb. 4. All events are free and open to the public.

When Mark Anastas was growing up in the 1970s and early ’80s, only a handful of dedicated surfers frequented the waves off Long Sands Beach in York, Maine. That has changed. Anastas estimates the area attracts 15 times as many surfers today as it did a couple of decades ago.

“There’s more surfers now than there ever has been,” said Anastas, who owns Liquid Dreams Surf Shop in York and Ogunquit.

As a York Beach business owner and surfer, Anastas keeps a close eye on issues that affect the beach, including one recent proposal to significantly expand the beach’s surfing zone, and another to dump hundreds of thousands of cubic yards of dredged sand from the Piscataqua River off York’s coast.

Anastas is among those who want to know if the town is prepared to keep beachgoers happy.

a look at proposed legislation in New Hampshire in 2010

It was a landmark year for New Hampshire government in 2009—not only for the size of the budget deficit ($250 million) and the number of state layoffs it induced (200), but also for legislative action on some controversial social issues, like gay marriage, the death penalty and medical marijuana.

Gay marriage was the only clear winner among these debates, as the Legislature’s spring vote to legalize same-sex marriage took effect Jan. 1. The death penalty was nearly outlawed and remains under scrutiny by a special study commission. And Granite State legislators narrowly approved a statewide medical marijuana program—only to have it vetoed by Gov. John Lynch.

But these scores are far from settled, as evidenced in the new round of bills up for debate in Concord’s 2010 legislative session, which officially kicks off on Wednesday, Jan. 6. Both the House and Senate will meet every Wednesday until June, and they’ll be busy. So far, 819 bills have been proposed to create, repeal or otherwise change New Hampshire’s laws.
 

2009’s for suckers. Ring in 2010 with a slew of local events! For those last-minute planners who still haven’t decided how to celebrate the countdown to the New Year, The Wire has compiled a list of 12 riveting entertainment options.

Part Three: The leaders and the people

It’s not every day that a Seacoast resident travels to North Korea. In fact, it’s remarkably rare for any U.S. citizen to visit this eastern Asian nation. The socialist country’s nuclear ambitions have had American officials on edge for years, and sour relations between our two countries stretch back at least to the 1950s. U.S. envoy Stephen W. Bosworth’s brief trip to North Korea in early December marked the first visit by a high-level American official in more than a year.

When Seacoast resident Nathan Groth took a five-day guided tour of North Korea in October, however, he wasn’t there to discuss foreign relations with the government. Groth, who had previously visited nations like Iran and Cuba, traveled to North Korea to observe a culture and geography largely sealed from American eyes. The places and events he witnessed were at times awe-inspiring and at others disturbing, but always fascinating and educational.

Groth chronicled some of his experiences for The Wire. Click here for a full slideshow.

composting programs are piling up on the Seacoast

The Seacoast doesn't have curbside composting yet, but a growing number of restaurants and businesses have begun sending their waste back to the farm. In its first week of business this fall, EcoMovement—one of several new companies offering hauling services—recaptured nearly a ton waste from just four businesses, while restaurants like Beach Pea Baking Co. are diverting 90 percent of their waste from the landfill and slowing global warming. Find out why brown is so very green.

Tree lighting, parades with Santa, dance, music, historical holidays and more, to keep you busy (?!) this December. 

upcoming festivals carry on seasonal traditions

Dedicated volunteers are organizing festive celebrations around the Seacoast to build community cheer and charity fundraisers. It's like a visit from the Ghost of Christmas Past, since scenes like these turn back time to New England holidays before the era of Cyber Monday.

An upcoming vote on a contentious union contract will determine the fate of thousands of state workers—and the services they provide.

The State Employees Association of New Hampshire represents about 10,000 state workers. They provide medical services, environmental protections, prison security, highway maintenance, information technology, employment security and a variety of other critical functions.

But the SEA has not yet reached a contract agreement with the state for the 2010-2011 biennium, which began on July 1. Both state employees and politicians are anxious about the results of an upcoming vote on a contentious proposal that will decide their fate.

The SEA sent out ballots to its 6,700 union members on Sept. 24, along with copies of the proposed contract. If they reject the proposal, Gov. John Lynch will move forward with a plan to lay off 750 state workers. If they approve it, they will be forced to take 19 unpaid furlough days over the course of the next two years—and many of them still might lose their jobs.

The SEA’s bargaining senate has recommended rejecting the contract. But the decision is now in the hands of thousands of individual workers, many of whom already struggle to feed their families and are afraid of losing their jobs. They must cast their votes by Monday, Oct. 12.

{moszoomthumb imgid=1135 itemid=74 style_m=2}new tattoo shops advance an age-old art 

Eighteen-year-old Josh Prinopoulos winces and leans back in his chair as tattoo artist Nick Filth colors in the full sleeve image on his inner forearm. It’s the Somersworth resident’s first tattoo, an elaborate Asian design that wraps around his right shoulder and down his arm to the wrist. The dreadlocked teen already has a nose ring in his right nostril and stretched earlobe piercings in both ears, but he is new to the art of tattooing. It’s taken four separate sessions at Iron Works Tattoo to get this far, and Filth says at least three more sessions will follow.

“You might get some tears,” Prinopoulos jokes as the fourth and most painful session begins. But he and Filth chat casually throughout most of the process, even as Filth wipes smears of blood from his client’s arm. The atmosphere is like that of an old-time barbershop, except instead of cutting hair, the barber drags a motorized needle across his customer’s flesh.  

People getting their first tattoos generally fall into one of two camps, says Filth, who has been working at Iron Works since it opened in downtown Portsmouth in May. Either they want an image with deep, symbolic, personal meaning, or they just want cool looking artwork. Prinopoulos belongs to the latter category.

“I’ve always been into the whole Asian style of tattooing. It’s just so sick,” he says. “I just love the images. It’s awesome.”

Seacoast native Ethan Gilsdorf describes his book on gaming geeks

Ethan Gilsdorf was 12 years old the fateful summer he first picked up a 20-sided die and entered the fantastic world of “Dungeons & Dragons.” After his first fight with an orc, he was hooked, and Gilsdorf spent the rest of this teenage years going on quests and adventures with his D&D compatriots. But for Gilsdorf, hanging out in dungeons and slaying dragons was about more than just escaping the awkwardness of adolescence and the tedium of growing up in a small town (he grew up in Lee and was a student at Oyster River High School). The game also helped him cope with some difficult times at home. Months earlier, his mother suffered a brain aneurysm, and the mom he once knew was replaced with the “Momster,” a person utterly alien and unfamiliar to Gilsdorf.

{moszoomthumb imgid=1128 itemid=74 style_m=2}fantasy gamers unite for fun and camaraderie around the Seacoast

On a sticky, humid Friday night at Elite Hobbies in Dover, two five-man squads of Death Copters and a horde of orks are moving into position behind a blasted, crumbling miniature building. They’re not alone. A few blocks away, three trucks idle full of even more orks, waiting for something to attack. Caught in the middle of this ork invasion is a squad of daemonhunters, vastly outnumbered, out-gunned, and minutes away from being reduced to a greasy stain on the pavement.

Commanding the army of daemonhunters is 16-year-old Will Chapman of Rye. A few minutes into the battle, Chapman’s soldiers destroy a truck full of orks—but thanks to the fickle hand of fate and some unlucky dice rolls, the orks in the truck make it out unscathed. Meanwhile, the generals of the other two ork hordes, Mark Seamon, 23, of Dover, and Rabbit, a 22-year-old on vacation from California, pull out their tape measures and rulebooks and start plotting a counterattack.

“(Will’s) army is geared toward fighting demons,” says Jonathan, a 23-year-old from Manchester who frequents Elite Hobbies on Friday nights. His prognosis for Will’s survival is grim. “And he’s not fighting demons. He can’t win. But he can disrupt.”

{moszoomthumb imgid=1120 itemid=74 style_m=2}the influential art colony of Ogunquit on display in Portland and Portsmouth

“Road to Ogunquit,” a painting by Clarence Chatterton, looks and feels like the shortening days of summer in a New England coastal town. There’s a row of colonial style houses and an abandoned white rowboat along a dirt road. The light is still warm, but the long shadows are turning blue.

“You immediately understand it’s August 25,” said Thomas Denenberg, chief curator at the Portland Museum of Art in Maine. He spoke about the museum’s current exhibit, “Call of the Coast: Art Colonies of New England,” during a recent visit to the Ogunquit Museum of American Art.

The painting by Chatterton, dating back to 1940, graces the cover of a book accompanying the exhibit, which runs through Oct. 12. Images from New England art colonies, such as this one, define what the quintessential American coast looks like in our minds, Denenberg says.

“The coast of New England really becomes the coast of America,” he said. “That’s really the American landscape as it’s understood in our imaginations.”