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Don’t miss Lowell’s own Shakespeare in the Park experience this Sunday, Aug. 29, at 4 p.m., when the New England Shakespeare Festival brings its populist brand of the Bard’s work to Boarding House Park on French Street. The play is “Twelfth Night,” originally titled “Twelfe Night or What You Will,” a “madcap comedy…
Read More »Can an Environmental Attorney in Lowell, Massachusetts, Live and Work without a Car in the New Economy? By Matthew C. Donahue In early August of this year, the Donahue household was beset with a series of car crises. It was our own doing or undoing I should say. My office…
Read More »David Brooks of the NYTimes is back with another cerebral commentary today. He keeps digging to find out what’s really ailing the nation. I get the sense lately that he is deeply pained by the high level of toxicity in our civic culture and thinks that if he can describe the cause we…
Read More »I wrote this poem in the mid-’70s, when I was trying to find my way down the writing path. I published it in my first pamphlet (chapbook) of poems. It’s raining tonight, but we’ve had some fine summer days and sundowns this season. This is typical early-stage writing that comes…
Read More »Pundits are speculating that President Obama really meant it when he said he’d rather be a good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president. How unusual for a politician to stay focused on “now.” The Telegraph online in the U.K. yesterday published an opinion piece by Toby Harnden in which he questions…
Read More »Shooting has begun for the long-awaited film version of Jack Kerouac’s classic novel “On the Road.” The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (CBC) posted this report from a city in Quebec that is doubling for Denver. Actors Viggo Mortenson of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Amy Adams, Kristen Stewart, and Kirsten…
Read More »Our local blogging colleague “Kad Barma” at choosing a soundtrack has a big benefit event for the Merrimack Valley Food Bank coming up on Aug 29. Instead of a hyperlink, I copied his latest posting (excerpted here) to be sure readers didn’t miss the details. Get on the train, and be part…
Read More »My family took a stay-cation day trip to Salem last Thursday, visiting the Peabody Essex Museum, our favorite place in a city that we go to once or twice a year. I’d never seen the Yin Yu Tang house, but my wife had been inside several times. This 200-year-old house from…
Read More »In today’s NYTimes, heavy-hitter columnist Frank Rich takes on the “mosque” controversy that has spread from Manhattan across the nation. Read his essay here, and consider subscribing to the NYT if you appreciate the writing and thinking. In a related national commentary, Maureen Dowd of the NYT worries that the U.S.…
Read More »Today is Southeast Asian Water Festival day in Lowell. This is the 14th year for the popular event. Last night, I attended the opening ceremony at Middlesex Community College, where the evening activities culminated in a candlelight ceremony and small boats floated on the canal with accompanying blessings and wishes. Master…
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