The mill cities along the Merrimack River should promote themselves in clusters like the Civil War sites in the South. Why can’t our region become a multi-day destination for visitors the way heritage sites or natural attractions in other parts of the country present themselves? Manchester, New Hampshire, looks good…
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The Arts editor of the Boston Globe decided that the Revolving Museum of Lowell deserved a close look as it closed its doors this summer. Read the article here. I was on the advisory committee of the Revolving Museum, not the board of directors but an advisory committee, for several years after…
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Is it me getting less patient with uncomfortable weather or have we had an unusually long run of hot and/or swampy days in the valley? A news feature on TV this week reported on bats being hyper-active because of the extended stretch of hot days. I had a deja vu…
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At 7:15 am, I’m bouncing between Iceland-Hungary playing team handball and watching President Obama’s surrogate Robert Gibbs on Morning Joe trying to explain the Obama plan for getting the country back on track—and Gibbs is talking like somebody put a nickel in his back to get a print-out answer. Fail. The…
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“Massachusetts Mills” by Richard Marion (c) 2012. This is purple loosestrife season in the valley. See more artwork at www.richardmarion.net
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According to the Boston Globe today, the Obama for America campaign needs help in New Hampshire because a lot of the experienced Democratic political activists in Massachusetts are signed up for the Elizabeth Warren campaign. I’ve had a few people speak to me in the past month, asking how they…
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Nancye Tuttle in the SUN wrote about the cultural entrepreneurs of the Greater Lowell Music Theatre—Jack Neary, Lee Grande, and company—whose concert production of THE MUSIC MAN opens tonight at UMass Lowell’s Durgin Hall (7.30 pm curtain), with a second show on Saturday at the same time. Lots of advance tickets…
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We were lucky about the weather, given the unsettled skies all weekend. Twenty-six years later, the event feels more like a street festival than a music and dance festival, which is fine. The audience is determining what the experience will be. Food from around the world, sidewalk entertainers, storefront buzz,…
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From the NYTimes: Meanwhile, back at the stadium, the Olympic flag was carried along the track by eight humanitarians, including Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, and Leymah Gbowee, who shared the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize. Once they made a half-circuit of the stadium, they met a frail-looking Muhammad…
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“Where’s the outrage” cried US Sen. Bob Dole in 1996, asking voters to repudiate President Clinton. In today’s NYT, opinion writer Charles Blow asks, What’s the matter with Democrats in this election cycle? He cites polls that suggest that Republican voters are ready to run to the voting booth while…
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