Throughout October, Trasna will focus on the Celtic festival of Samhain, known better to Americans as Halloween. The holiday originated in Ireland and celebrates that time of year when the veil between this world and the next grows thin, and life seems more mysterious. This week we feature a blog piece by writer Orla…
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Isolation Redux or Three Weeks Among Masked Avengers By Julie Mofford The coronavirus lock-down evokes memories of my forced social distancing at age eight. “She just has a summer cold,” said Mother cheerfully, as I joined the family at lunch after a week in bed. “Since when did you become…
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Spurred by our Texas friend Frank Wagner’s essay about meeting Patti Smith in the late 1970s, an encounter with a cranky, thirty-something, tightly wound artist, we’re reprising this review-essay about Patti Smith’s most recent book, Year of the Monkey, just out in paperback. Note that former Lowell Sun journalists Nancye…
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Frank Wagner of south Texas is an occasional contributor to this publication. Today he writes about meeting the singer-songwriter Patti Smith after a 1978 performance in south Texas. Smith was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1978 but she’s also a poet and author. In 2010,…
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In the following chapter from his urban theory book Exploring the Production of Urban Space, author Michael Leary-Owhin visited Lowell and wrote about the creation of Boarding House Park. Lowell: Producing Urban Public Space and City Transformation By Micheal Leary-Owhin … countries in the throes of rapid development blithely destroy…
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The pandemic has brought many surprises. Most have been dangerous or disturbing but some, like the performance of the local real estate market, have been positive. Driven by historically low interest rates, the mortgage business is booming. During September, the number of mortgages recorded in Lowell was up 29 percent…
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More timely cartoons from our friend Nicholas Whitmore.
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Throughout October, Trasna will focus on the Celtic festival of Samhain, known better to Americans as Halloween. The holiday originated in Ireland and celebrates that time of year when the veil between this world and the next grows thin, and life seems more mysterious. This week we feature award-winning poet, photographer, and filmmaker, Mark…
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From the Archives: Dec 6, 2018 To wrap up our German Week, here’s a story I posted about a day I spent providing security for then Vice President George H. W. Bush during his 1983 visit to West Germany. George H. W. Bush, the 41st President of the United States,…
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Oktoberfest is a 200-year old traditional festival held for 17 days from mid-September until early October in Munich, Germany. Its main feature is beer – about 7 million liters of it each year – along with traditional food (wurst, chicken, pretzels, salted radishes), folk costumes, music and amusement park rides.…
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