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It Needs Sweeping by Susan April On November 25, 1968, The Beatle’s double LP White Album was released. I was twelve, in eighth grade, and I had to have it. Wish I could say I had been swept into Beatlemania after watching their first Ed Sullivan Show appearance on February…
Read More »The Beatles Land in Little Canada by Charlie Gargiulo An excerpt from Legends of Little Canada: Aunt Rose, Harvey’s Bookland, and My Captain Jack (forthcoming from Loom Press, 2022) Not long after New Year’s Day, we started to hear about a musical group from England called The Beatles. It was…
Read More »Inspired by the anniversary of the first US television appearance of The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964, and by the success of the Get Back documentary now on Disney Plus, we bring you our own Beatles Week, a series of blog posts about and related…
Read More »Chillin’ With Dylan by Steve O’Connor I’ve been hanging out with Bob Dylan quite a bit over the last few years. We’re pals. He’s always delighted to see me because he enjoys my company immensely. Generally, he comes by at about 3:00 am, though it’s hard to say because…
Read More »A Wicked Good Book of Poems: Michael Casey’s Millrat A Review by Stephen O’Connor A professor of mine said James Joyce wrote, “of the common man, but not for the common man.” Who but a graduate student in English would ever attempt more than two pages of Finnegans Wake? And…
Read More »Trasna is pleased to announce that poet Daniel Murphy will join its team of editors. This week we feature four of his poems. Whether it’s a “rusty gate in a field of rock,” or “the cream cheese on your cheek,” Murphy explores the expansive to the intimate. There is a rhythm in…
Read More »This essay was first heard as a radio essay on the “Sunrise” program of WUML, 92.5 FM, at UMass Lowell. Executive producer Chris Dunlap assembled writers in the area for the daily essay, a popular component of the morning public affairs show with a daily essay by writers from the…
Read More »The Christmas Fruitcake: An Ageless Traditionby Henri Marchand A note from the author: Like its subject this essay has been around, appearing first as a Sunrise radio essay on WUML-FM, re-wrapped as a “Guest Column” piece in the Sun newspaper, and showing up on this blog for the past few…
Read More »Recollections of Noël By Louise Peloquin When the priest at Notre Dame de Lourdes church * put on violet vestments on the first Sunday of Advent, Noël was on the horizon. My family attended French Mass which always included traditional hymns from Québec and France. Our Advent favorite was: “Venez…
Read More »This article first appeared in Merrimack Valley Magazine (Nov/Dec, 2020). “Oh, Babe, What Would You Say?”: A Holiday Mosaic Painting by Vassilios Giavis, reprinted from Merrimack Valley Magazine. St. Patrick’s Day, 1986, Liberty Hall (Merrimack Rep Theatre) in Lowell Memorial Auditorium. Benefit reading for a new organization pledged to…
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