Seacoast School Garden Network brings kids and kale together, with a little help from the White House

Ms. Fagan’s third grade classroom was a mess.

Coconut husks and basil seeds littered one table and plates filled with finger paint were scattered in a corner. Despite recent snowfall, last Wednesday, March 21, the students in Jess Fagan’s class at Dondero Elementary were planting seeds for a spring “pizza garden” of tomatoes, onions, peppers, garlic and herbs.

Kate Mitchell, member of Slow Food Seacoast and organizer of the Seacoast School Garden Network, led a group in planting basil seeds. Third graders crowded around the table, mixing husks, a cost-effective alternative to potting soil, with water and packing them into plastic planter cells.

“It smells bad,” one student said.

“It smells like the forest at my camp,” another offered.

A household of minimum wage earners in New Hampshire would need nearly three people working full-time to afford a two bedroom apartment, according to a report called “Out of Reach 2013: New Hampshire,” produced by the National Low Income Housing Coalition using data from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

A new play prize has been awarded to several UNH students, who will see their work performed in a showcase of one-act plays April 17 to 21.

New Hampshire Media Makers opens doors for video and web producers on the Seacoast

Leah Tompkins found herself jumping off a set of stairs the first time she went to a New Hampshire Media Makers meet-up. Someone wanted to try to take photos of people in the air, so “we all went outside and took turns leaping,” she says. “It was a nice welcome to the meet-up.” There were only 8-10 people at the time, making the photo project feasible. These days, sometimes up to 30 or 40 people attend. Crackskull’s eclectic artwork, such as the giant plastic fish mounted above the coffee counter wearing a spiky elaborate metal necklace, complements the array of personalities making friends: a martial artist chatted with a contributor for NHPR and a film orchestrator.

summer exhibits will feature bottles, beer and bridges

When you live in a region rich with 400 years of recorded history, arts and culture, plus the legacy of native inhabitants, too, there are plenty of stories to tell. Several local museums and galleries have just announced summer season exhibits designed to appeal to visitors and residents alike.

Thousands of organizations participate in National Poetry Month through readings, festivals, book displays, workshops, and other events. Plenty is happening right here on the Seacoast: famous poets will read, new anthologies will be launched, and the poet laureate torch will be passed.

Svensk Filmindustri, 1959: An old Irish proverb states, “A maiden’s chastity is a sty in the Devil’s eye.” In Bergma's fantasy, based on a Danish radio comedy, the Devil is thus impaired by a young, beautiful vicar’s daughter. To cure him of the sty, he sends notorious seducer Don Juan up from Hell to deflower the 20-year-old girl and rob her of her belief in love.

The Jazzmouth Poetry and Jazz Festival is on hiatus this spring, but with the blessing of the committee, Portsmouth Poet Laureate John-Michael Albert will host “Jazzmouth Lite,” a Sunday brunch upstairs at the Press Room on April 28, from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.

In the corner of the room, between the architecture and cookbook shelves, stood Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang, sole members—and married couple—of the indie-pop/folk duo Damon & Naomi.

“I keep getting distracted,” said Yang as she pointed at the books.

“We’re happy to be here. Happy this places exists,” said Krukowski, referring to his love for Portsmouth Book & Bar in particular and bookstores in general.

And the crowd was happy to have them. People clamored into the bookstore café for the much-buzzed-about free show—nearly filling the space to its 93-person capacity and visibly happy to be inside from the cold of a delayed spring.

Though a continuing resolution was passed to prevent a government shutdown, it will not necessarily stop pending furloughs that are expected to begin at the end of April. Portsmouth Naval Shipyard workers are expecting to experience the equivalent to a 20 percent pay cut due to forced days off without pay.

The City of Dover is turning to its residents for guidance on what programs and services are most valuable to the community. The next proposed budget for the city will be presented to the City Council in April and take effect in July.

The city will share an overview of the upcoming budget at a “Budget Revealed” meeting on March 28, and they’ll collect residents’ opinions through April 4.

Some new numbers out from the U.S. Census show that, with the slowly recovering economy, more people are moving around within the United States as employment and housing markets loosen up. But New Hampshire remained largely population neutral between 2010 and 2012.

New Hampshire’s population trends match economic trends that show our economy is not as robust as when it outpaced the U.S. economy during the recession. And the state’s more rural areas—in the North Country and bordering the Connecticut River with Vermont—experienced a population decline ranging from 1 to 5 percent, consistent with the national trend of people moving away from rural areas.

The eighth annual RPM Challenge unites musicians around the Seacoast and around the globe

It’s a difficult task to pull off—writing and recording all new music in 28 days. Most musicians spend months, if not years, crafting songs into albums. And RPMers, rarely, are full-time musicians. They’re husbands, wives, parents and grandparents. Some are students in college, high school and even middle school. Everything about their normal lives continues in February—meals still have to be cooked, cars break down, bosses ask for overtime—and yet since the RPM Challenge’s inception in Portsmouth seven years ago, more than 10,000 people have participated, from the Seacoast, across the country and worldwide.

In my lifetime, television has abandoned its post in the family living room for a whole new—and wholly different—experience.

“We’re getting rid of cable.” I can’t tell you how many times that horrific statement has been unleashed in my living room, often times within earshot of the television. But despite the hurt feelings of an inanimate cable box, it’s true that there’s never been a better time to ditch cable TV.

Landmark Entertainment Group, 1987: In the late 1970s and 1980s, media companies were constantly searching for “toyetic” properties—that is, movies or TV shows that would lend themselves well to line after line of expensive merchandise for children. The search for toyetic franchises led to the development of the cartoons that now power the perpetual motion geek nostalgia machine: “The Transformers,” “G.I. Joe,” “Masters of the Universe,” and even “My Little Pony.” From the garden of toyetic properties sprang some strange fruit, though, most notably “Captain Power.”