You don’t have to say a lot more than “the B-52s played Boarding House Park last night.” They raised high the steel roof beams of the trademark pavilion set against a wall of brick and tall windows at the Boott Mills. The moon floated over downtown at about 7/8ths round and…
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Work continues at the Middlesex Superior Courthouse on Gorham Street in Lowell, where an elevator is being constructed to bring the building into full compliance with contemporary rules of accessibility. For the past several decades, as series of chair lifts and ramps have served as an inadequate substitute for an…
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John Collins of the Sun today reported on the start of the UMass Lowell/Queens University archaeological dig on the grounds of St. Patrick Church in the Acre neighborhood. Read the article here, and buy a copy of the Sun or consider subscribing if you appreciate the reporting.
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Texas free-thinking commentator Jim Hightower says watch the money being poured into the 2010 campaigns. Republican backers and candidates are rolling up huge sums of money to power an Obama backlash. Read his column here, which I picked up from truth-out.org, and consider supporting the sources of these opinions.
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This is one of my favorite poems by Michael Casey, Lowell High School alumnus and now Andover resident, who is the award-winning author of a classic book of poems about the Vietnam War. Michael and Nicholas Samaras (also with Lowell connections) will be reading together in Lowell next spring in a program sponsored…
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We’re always interested in a good preservation story in Lowell, so here’s one involving the National Jazz Museum in Harlem in NYC and long-rumored legendary recordings of jazz artists from the 1930s that will be preserved and shared with the public. Read the article by Larry Rohter here, and consider…
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In Lowell, there’s a debate about the future of the Pawtucket Falls Dam. There’s another debate about allowing alcohol to be served at a business adjacent to a temple. Behind the discussion are people’s feelings about the power of place, the meaning of certain special places. The concept of place is all…
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Read this Toronto Star report about this month’s celebration of The Beatles in their hometown of Liverpool, England. The events include a special version of the annual Mathew Street Music Festival (Aug. 29-30), which is billed as “Europe’s largest free music festival.” That description should sound familiar to Lowell Folk Festival people,…
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Support local businesses. Can I say this more plainly in the lingering Great Recession? I perambulated the immediate neighborhood late this afternoon, from the JAM district to the edge of Back Central and back to the South Common Historic District. I’d been meaning for a while to go to the Brazilian “bakery…
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(Web photo courtesy of Grand Rapids Press) This isn’t a photo from last night’s show at Boarding House Park (The Lowell Summer Music Series), but it will help anyone who missed the so-far show of the year picture what the stage looked like. At one point, Lyle had 15 musicians…
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