Four Stellar Acts for Showcase Festival at Prescott Park

PORTSMOUTH—
As part of the Prescott Park Arts Festival’s 37th season, the Showcase Festival will bring Patty Larkin, Jon Nolan, Jason Spooner and Martin England to the FairPoint Communications MainStage on Saturday, July 9. The arts festival looks forward to kicking things off on a high note at the first music festival of the 2011 Summer Season with a fantastic lineup of talented musicians.
Returning to the Prescott Park Arts Festival stage is urban-folk/pop music phenomenon Patty Larkin. The self-described “guitar driven songwriter” has wound her way through soundscapes of evocative vocals, inventive guitar wizardry, and imaginative lyrics to reinterpret traditional folk melodies, rock, pop, and bossa nova.
Also returning to the stage this year is veteran performer Jon Nolan. Nolan’s most recent album, When the Summers Lasted Long, was a self-recorded, debut solo release. Chronicling Nolan’s transition from youth to adulthood, this honest and charming Americana/pop record garnered critical success and solid reviews from No Depression Magazine and the Boston Herald.
Festival-goers will welcome multi-award winning New England-based songwriter Jason Spooner. Spooner’s third album, Sea Monster (2010), has been praised by Sirius/XM as “a very rare and special record that is destined to put Spooner on the musical map” and has been featured on NPR’s All Things Considered. Spooner and his band have toured extensively in the past few years, sharing the stage with artists including Ray LaMontagne, Brandi Carlile, Amos Lee, and more.
Rounding out the Showcase Festival’s lineup is the latest rising star of the Seacoast, Martin England. Winner of the Spotlight Single of the Year award, England’s solo debut, Razed and Reconstructed (2010), marks a new direction for the singer-songwriter. Formerly with Northeast regional band Pondering Judd, England’s imaginative blend of Americana, folk, roots rock, and occasional old school country will engage and capture audience members.
“Showcase Festival this year features a fantastic mix of emerging and well established musical greats, and we couldn’t be happier with the lineup,” says Executive Director Ben Anderson. “Whether you’ve seen Patty, Jon, Jason, and Martin before or not, our first music festival of the year is going to be one everyone will enjoy.”
The Showcase Festival is part of the Prescott Park Arts Festival’s 37th season that also features the musical “The Wizard of Oz,” running every Thursday through Sunday until August 21, 2011. The season also includes the River House Restaurant Concert Series, which will feature music legends such as the Taj Mahal Trio, Arlo Guthrie, Shawn Colvin, and Greg Brown each Wednesday evening at 7 p.m. through August 26.
All events offered at the Prescott Park Arts Festival are presented free of charge with a suggested donation of $5 - $8. For more information on the festival, or to see a full schedule of events, visit www.prescottpark.org or call 603-436-2848.
Photo caption: Patty Larkin is one of four special acts that will perform at Prescott Park Showcase Festival. (Courtesy photo)

It Takes a Community to Build a Gundalow

PORTSMOUTH—
As part of the campaign to raise $1.2m to build a new gundalow and expand Gundalow Company programs and operations, efforts were boosted at the shipyard from the early support of some special people and businesses from the seacoast area. In-kind services and materials have been valued at over $50,000 towards the project. Strawbery Banke has been instrumental in giving the location to build the boat and site support. Collaborative education programs are ongoing with both organizations. 

In the fall of 2010, Appledore Engineering – a division of Tighe & Bond, provided pro-bono civil engineering and site plans for the Puddle Dock construction site, and supported the gundalow staff through the regulatory and permitting process. McLane Law Firm’s team fielded various legal questions, while Gove Construction created a level gravel pad as the base for the shipyard. 

Tony Coviello at Summit Engineering provided structural engineering plans for the shipyard cover from conceptual designs by the Steve Jones Architectural Design Program at Portsmouth High School. The tool shed that is now at the Puddle Dock shipyard was also designed by students, and built by Dexter Roblee’s Building Trades program students. Over 700 hours were donated in labor to design and build the impressive 10’x20’ shed, delivered in early April. Four Seasons Fence donated the labor to surround the shipyard in fencing, and gundalow volunteers crafted the gate. Vince Todd of V. Todd & Co., built the temporary shipyard cover and contributed his time to plan and oversee its construction. The shipyard was completed by early May with the support of Moores Crane Company, Ricci Lumber, Second Nature Landscape Outlet, A.H. Harris & Sons, Inc., Green Velvet Landscape, Independent Boat Haulers, Jackson’s Hardware & Marine, Jeffrey Knapp Construction, Keith Bridge Electrical, Kevin Knapp, North Hampton Grocery, Peter Coren Builder & Cabinetmaker, Rainscape, Rick Stevens Custom Lumber, Rockingham Electric Supply Co. and Tri-State Fire Protection. 

Construction of the new gundalow began in early May under the direction of York, ME Paul Rollins, boatbuilder. Materials, services and supplies were supported by Bartlett’s Farm & Sawmill, Brentwood Machinery & Tools, Dixon Mills, Fastener Warehouse, Lamprey Oil, Rand Lumber, Sanborn Mills Farm, and Urban Tree Service. Early corporate and business donations from Appledore Real Estate, Piscataqua Savings Bank, Infinite Imaging, Jumpin’ Jay’s Fish Café, Federal Savings Bank, Granite State Minerals, Property Tax Advisors, Waterfront Engineers, and Jeffrey H. Taylor & Associates covered early costs associated with the start of construction.
About the Gundalow Company: Since 2002, the non-profit Gundalow Company has used the Captain Edward H. Adams – a replica modeled after the last gundalow to carry cargo on the bay – to provide “dockside” programs to more than 100,000 visitors. However, the Adams is too authentic to comply with modern U.S. Coast Guard safety requirements. Recognizing the need to get students of all ages to genuinely connect with their rivers and bay, the Gundalow Company is building a new gundalow that will have the safety features and structural integrity required by the U.S. Coast Guard for passenger-carrying vessels.
For centuries, gundalows connected up-river seacoast communities with Portsmouth, the region’s seaport and primary market town. Harnessing the wind and riding the tide, gundalows moved bricks, hay, firewood, and goods crucial to the economy and everyday life. The Gundalow Company takes its inspiration from the vital role of those historic gundalows, vessels unique to the Piscataqua Maritime Region. This new gundalow’s educational purpose is as important for the future as its predecessors were for the past. For more information, www.gundalow.org, info@gundalow.org or 603-433-9505.
Photo caption: A crane hoists the gundalow shipyard cover wall into place on Puddle Dock at Strawbery Banke, Portsmouth, NH. (Photo by David J. Murray)

Music-by-the-Sea Concerts Begin

RYE—
The Seacoast Science Center’s Music-by-the-Sea outdoor concert series will start the season in the spirit of summer. On July 7, Islandside will take the stage with their authentic Caribbean sound. Kick off your shoes, breathe in the salt air and enjoy the seaside sounds of reggae, soca, and calypso.
Entrain returns for a tenth season on July 14. Entrain never fails to get the crowd on the dance floor with their infectious percussive rhythm. Gnarlemagne will get you on your feet with their funky blues, classic rock dance music on July 21.
One of the most fun-loving, local party bands, Jumbo Circus Peanuts will close the series on July 28. MBS concert-goers cannot seem to get enough of their swinging-pop-jazz, crazy costumes and tossed-into-the-crowd beaded necklaces.
All concerts are held under a festive tent and take place rain or shine. Just bring your beach blankets and chairs; enjoy hot-off-the-grill fare and great beverages from local vendors, grab an ice cream and stroll along the shore at sunset. The Center and Nature Store are open during all concerts.
Concerts begin at 6:00 p.m.; gates open at 5:00 p.m. for dining. Tickets are $8 for adults and $2 for children ages 3-12. You can purchase your tickets in advance at the Center or online at seacoastsciencecenter.org/events. Present your SSC membership card to purchase your ticket at half price. Bring your friends — if they join that night they can enjoy on-the-spot discounted concert tickets! For more information call 603-436-8043.
Sponsors include Access Sports Medicine, Allegra Marketing Print Mail, Clear Channel Radio, Exeter Events & Tents, Flatbread Pizza Company, Liberty Mutual, Liquid Planet Water Park, Northeast Delta Dental, People’s United Bank, Piscataqua Savings Bank, The Portsmouth Herald, Portsmouth Regional Hospital, Public Service of New Hampshire, Salient Surgical Technologies, Smuttynose Brewing Company, Westinghouse Electric Company, and WMUR TV ABC9. All proceeds from the Music-by-the-Sea concert series benefit SSC.
Photo caption: The Music-by-the-Sea concert series at the Seacoast Science Center kicks off on July 7. (Courtesy photo)

Special Events Planned at Children’s Museum of NH

DOVER—
The Children’s Museum of New Hampshire in Dover is hosting a wide range of special events for families this summer. From a local foods farmer’s market to tender loving care for tattered teddy bears, the museum’s special events are all open to the public and included in the regular price of admission: $8 for adults and children, $7 for seniors age 65+, and free for children under one year old. During the summer, the museum is open to visitors seven days a week.
The Children’s Museum of NH is located in Henry Law Park on the Cochecho River in downtown Dover, making it an ideal day-trip destination. Several free outdoor concerts are held in the park each week, there is a playground and picnic area, and dozens of restaurants and shops are within an easy walk. More information on planning a trip to Dover can be found at www.dovernh.org.
This summer’s special events at the Children’s Museum of NH include:
Four on the Fourth
Monday, July 4, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. - Celebrate the Fourth of July with $4 admission all day long. This half-price admission applies to adults as well as children, and visitors are free to leave for lunch and come back in to play later!
Colossal Construction Day
Monday, July 11, 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. - Can we build it? Yes we can! Join us for a day of design and engineering challenges for all ages. From buildings and bridges to vehicles and your own imaginative creations, the sky is the limit on Colossal Construction Day. Lego your Mind will be providing kids with LEGO building elements, axles, and wheels of all sizes to enable them to free build rolling creations that will be tested down a ramp for speed and distance.
Local Roots Food Fair
Tuesday, July 20, 1-4 p.m. - Discover the joy of eating local at this seasonal food fair, presented in partnership with Hannaford Supermarkets. The museum will welcome a variety of area farmers and local food purveyors for an afternoon of tasty sampling, hands-on activities for kids, and coupons and information for parents.
Bubble Science Day
Tuesday, July 26, 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. - Parents and children can roll up their sleeves for some good, clean fun when the Children’s Museum celebrates Bubble Science Day. The museum’s large classroom will be transformed into a bubble laboratory where families can experiment with bubble shapes, colors and sizes, and build 3-D bubble shapes, walls and windows. In the museum’s Project Area, children can make bubble wands to take home, and parents can pick up hand-outs with more ideas for bubble play to continue the learning at home.
Teddy Bear Clinic & Tea Party
Wednesday, August 10, 10 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. - Children are invited to bring their favorite stuffed friend to the museum’s annual Teddy Bear Clinic from 10 a.m. to noon, followed by a Teddy Tea Party from noon to 12:30 pm. This event is designed to not only be fun, but also help children who may be anxious about visiting the doctor. Volunteer health professionals will be on hand to issue each animal an ID bracelet, perform health check-ups, and conduct minor surgery on furry friends in need of repair. At the noontime tea party, guests will enjoy juice, animal crackers and fruit.
Patterns & Puzzles Day
Thursday, August 18, 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. - Patterns are everywhere! Join us as we look at the world in a whole new way as we seek out patterns and get creative with exhibit-related pattern activities and take-home projects throughout the museum. Older children and adults will scratch their heads as they work to solve brainteasers and riddles sure to give your brain a workout!
Build It. Fly It. Day
Tuesday, August 23, 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. - Young imaginations will soar as children create their own flying machines using a variety of everyday materials in this high-flying challenge. Kids will learn about the principles of aerodynamics and flight as they test their creations in the museum’s two-and-a-half-story Build It. Fly It. exhibit. Whose invention will fly, flip or flop? Visitors can also try their hand at constructing some other simple flyers to test and take home.
The museum will also be staying open extended hours on the nights of Cochecho Arts Festival evening performances in Henry Law Park. On Friday nights between July 8 and August 12, the Children’s Museum of NH will remain open to the public until 7 p.m. to welcome families arriving early for the concerts.
More information can be found at www.childrens-museum.org. The Children’s Museum of NH is open all summer Monday – Saturday, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. and Sunday 12-5 p.m.
Photo caption: Braeden of Kittery experiments with creating multiple linked bubbles. (Courtesy photo)

Strawbery Banke Presents 10th Annual American Celebration

PORTSMOUTH—
On Monday, July 4, Strawbery Banke Museum rings with an event and fun-filled family commemoration of the nation’s 235th birthday. The 10th annual An American Celebration! event takes place at the Museum from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and includes Revolutionary War re-enactors, a visit from Abe Lincoln, an insider’s view of the shipyard where the new Gundalow is being built and nearly every kid’s activity imaginable.
From games and contests to kite flying to bubble-blowing plus a treasure hunt, the ever-popular 1940s candy counter and Victorian fairy houses, this is a day dedicated to family fun. The traditional Children’s Bike & Wagon Parade starts at 2:30 p.m. and children are invited to come early to decorate their entries between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.
Strawbery Banke Museum will also remember its role as the keeper of 400 years of Portsmouth history with historic house tours where costumed role-players welcome visitors to their eras, plus colonial hearth-cooking demonstrations and artisans at work in the cooper’s shed and potters’ shop. Visitors can participate in crafts, Children’s Garden activities and observe the Museum’s onsite archaeology excavation.
An American Celebration begins this year with the US Naturalization ceremony, welcoming new citizens to the public for the first time. 
“An American Celebration at Strawbery Banke is a family event that salutes what Independence Day really means,” said Lawrence J. Yerdon, President of Strawbery Banke Museum. “From welcoming new citizens to welcoming our neighbors and visitors, An American Celebration is a commemoration of the nation’s founding and the parts the people of Portsmouth played, a recognition of past challenges and opportunities and a rousing reaffirmation of what life in these United States means to us today.”
No American 4th of July would be complete without great food and great music and An American Celebration features both of those. Vendors will offer hot dogs, lobster rolls, milkshakes, watermelon, salads and cookies along with selections from Googies Sandwich Shoppe and Dos Amigos Burritos.
New this year is the First Annual Seacoast Professional Pie Baking Competition. Professional bakers from restaurants and bakeries around the area will each supply two pies: one for sampling by the judges and the other to be raffled off to benefit the museum’s historical cooking programs. The Bedford Big Band will present live swing music and popular favorites all day.
An American Celebration is the focal point of Independence Day celebrations on the seacoast and is one of Strawbery Banke Museum’s signature events, drawing thousands of visitors who mix comfortably across the 10-acre campus. Admission to An American Celebration is free to children under 17 thanks to sponsorship from BAE Systems. As a member of the Blue Star Museums program, Strawbery Banke Museum admits active duty military and their families free at all times. Museum members are also admitted free of charge. Adult tickets are $15 and available in advance on the Strawbery Banke website, www.strawberybanke.org or by calling 603-433-1107.
Photo caption: (Courtesy image of logo for the 10th annual An American Celebration! at Strawbery Banke Museum)

Remembering the Old Days of Banking in Dover

DOVER—
Many of you living in Dover can remember banking at the Merchants National or Strafford Savings Banks, and remember when there was a bank on the corner of Washington and Locust Streets called Dover Co-operative Bank. Those were days when banking was simple and everyone knew your name.
When kids turned in empty bottles and saved nickels and dimes in a special metal bank, they would go to the bank teller for a key to open and deposit the contents into a savings account book that you carried home with your empty bank, ready to be filled again.
Woodman Institute Museum trustee Thom Hindle and Federal Savings Bank (formerly Dover Co-Op) have prepared a special exhibit that represents those old days of banking. Sponsored by Federal Savings Bank, items from the Thom and Mira Hindle Dover Collection will be on display at the Woodman Museum throughout the 2011 season.
Remember the Hopalong Cassidy Savings Club of the 1950s? You received pins that represented different levels of savings. Tenderfoot, Wrangler, Bronc Buster and Trail Boss were some of the pins given out. You had a small bank that was a bust of Hoppy and coins would be inserted through a hole in his hat. Maybe you received a cardboard coin holder in the shape of a candy cane at Christmas or an Easter Bunny filled with dimes. Did you ever receive a nice mechanical lead pencil or a wood ruler from the bank, usually in celebration of an anniversary? Well these and many more pieces of banking memorabilia now on display should bring back fond memories.
Dover Co-operative was located in the Walker Block on Washington Street next to Robbins Auto. It was a three-story building until 1954, when the third floor was removed. That became Dover Federal Savings.
Merchants National Bank was located on the corner of Third Street and Central Avenue, now Baldface Books. Strafford Banks erected what would be called the “fortress of finance” in 1895 on the corner at Central Square. Strafford was established in 1804 near Tuttle Square.
Gone are the savings books and metal banks shaped like famous people, horses, cars, toy cash registers and buildings, replaced by drive-up windows, automatic teller machines and on-line banking. However, museum visitors can take a step back in time this season by viewing a display of these long-gone banking artifacts from our childhood.
The Woodman Institute Museum is located at 182 Central Avenue in Dover and is open Wednesday-Sunday 12:30-4:30 (except holidays). Call 742-1038 to reserve a group tour or visit www.woodmaninstitutemuseum.org.
Photo caption: The Woodman Institute Museum will host a special exhibit throughout the 2011 season featuring historic banking artifacts courtesy the Thom and Mira Hindle Dover Collection. (Courtesy photo)

Opening Scenes: ‘Super 8’

By Chip Schrader
Movie Reviewer
“Super 8” begins with a high angle shot overlooking a factory with a sign that reads “Safety is our first priority.” A man is on the right taking off the numbers 784 and replacing them with 1 to signify the number of days without an accident. The scene shifts to a middle school-aged kid sitting on a swing with a locket in his hand. His friends are gathered inside with the rest of the mourners wondering if he will still want to work on his zombie movie project, even if his mother his dead. A man comes to the wake to mourn and is removed in handcuffs.
“Super 8” takes viewers back to the 1980s, a time when producer Steven Spielberg was in his prime, directing or producing blockbusters like “Goonies,” “Poltergeist,” and “E.T.” Old time Spielberg fans have waited for the day that he would ditch Tom Cruise and work on another movie centered on children and the classical form of science fiction that made him famous, namely “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” Like Spielberg in the past, director J.J. Abrams directs the children in “Super 8” so well; the movie takes off and never lands.
Kids in backpacks riding their bikes through a suburban town marks a period of time when Internet and social networking has not spoiled childhood. The boys are out with their super 8 camera shooting that zombie flick they were talking about in the first scene.
The crew consists of five boys. Throughout the movie, only three have predominant roles: Joe, the sensitive child of the woman who died; Charlie, the wannabe film director and Cary, that kid that wants to blow things up. They are eventually joined by a talented girl, Alice, who aspires to be an actress.
The kids are very funny in this movie, and it has been a long time since such a fun story has been united with this caliber of acting. To dig too deep into the story would be to spoil the whole experience, but anybody who has a love for the old creature features will love this movie. The camera angles are dynamic and exciting, the special effects and action are wildly entertaining, and the story is interesting.
There are some flaws, though. Loose ends are either untied or unsatisfactorily resolved as the movie wraps up. One instance of this is that we never really discover why the dogs ran off just before the town turns into a war zone, nor do we see their reunion with the family. Instead, we just see a scene where we learn over a phone call that Joe’s dog, Lucy, was found in the next county.
There are also characters that vanish, and we never see their story completed. At 112 minutes, the movie could use at least another 20 minutes to more deeply explore the characters, only because they are so interesting.
Bottom line: long-time movie fans have waited twenty years for this film. It may have its flaws, but the movie is so entertaining that nobody cares; it just ends far too soon. This is Spielberg’s best project since “Schindler’s List,” and this film will propel J.J. Abrams’ career as a director.
The kids are all believable and funny in this movie, and young starlet Elle Fanning is unbelievably good. Her scenes with Joe take us all back to a time of our first crushes, so much so that the viewer can feel that pang that hasn’t been felt in years. The action sequences are intense and the language may deter the younger audiences, but this is the way movies used to be, and this will hopefully be the beginning of the end of corny and sanitized youth movies. 5 out of 5.
Photo caption: (Courtesy movie poster)