Homemade gifts and goods available at 89th annual Craftsmen’s Fair
By Katelyn Sahagian
ksahagian@hippopress.com
There will be everything from pottery and woodworking to rug hooking and handmade Shrinky Dink jewelry up for purchase at the Craftsmen’s Fair.
The fair, put on by the New Hampshire League of Craftsmen, is the longest continuously running outdoor event of its kind. This year it is back in action for the 89th year. For nine days, visitors can shop at different booths and the League’s co-op shop, speak to the artisans, take in live demonstrations, and learn about all the different artforms in the Granite State.
Sarah Nyhan, the communications and administrations director for the League, said that they have been working “straight out but we’ll be ready and [the fair will] be fantastic.”
The fair will feature approximately 200 different artisan booths for people to shop at, not including the League’s shop, where members who did not sign up for booth space can still sell their wares.
Members of the League include craftsmen who make jewelry with precious stones, fiber artists who make felted toys and knitted goods, and potters making outlandishly large lawn ornaments.
Nyhan said that members have to be juried in, meaning that experts in their artform look at each applicant’s work and determine if it’s well-crafted and unique enough to earn them a place in the League.
“We look for excellence and something that has the spirit of the maker,” Nyhan said about the jury process, adding that they look for what makes each artisan unique and how that translates into their craft. “It’s something that we’re really proud of; [members] are masters in artistry and personal expression and not just technical experts.”
Nyhan said that the newest part of the fair is an outreach program. She said that the League is determined to make an impact on younger generations of makers, and reach out to ones that might not know that art is a potential career.
“I had a craftsman say to me, ‘No one ever told me that this was an option when I was a kid,’” Nyhan said. “We want them to know it is an option. It’s not an easy thing to do, but it is possible to pursue your passion.”
Right now, Nyhan said, the program is primarily composed of children and grandchildren of artisans, but she said the League hopes that will change.
This year there will be a tent for children to make different crafts for free, with local artisans teaching them. There will also be a scavenger hunt for younger kids, encouraging them to go out and ask questions of the vendors and demonstrators. There will even be students who took the artist-in-residence program through the League who will be on hand selling their own creations.
“We’re saying we’ll take anyone who’s committed to their craft,” Nyhan said. “We’re very excited. The kids are great and the craftsmen want to encourage them.”
League of NH Craftsmen’s Fair When: Saturday, Aug. 6, through Sunday, Aug. 14, daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Where: Mount Sunapee Resort, 1398 Route 103, Newbury Cost: A day pass is $16; veteran, active military, and senior tickets cost $14; two-day passes are $24 and are valid for any two days of the event; kids 12 and younger are free. Visit: nhcrafts.org
Featured photo: Fairgoers interact with craftsman Julia Brandis. Courtesy photo.
The Manchester International Film Fest is ready for the big screen
How to make a film festival
The Manchester International Film Festival, year one
By Katelyn Sahagian
ksahagian@hippopress.com
The Rex Theatre will again become a venue for a weekend of movies with the inaugural Manchester International Film Festival, happening over the course of three days from Friday, Aug. 12, through Sunday, Aug. 14.
Some of the movies are from New England-based filmmakers, while others are cult classics, like An American Werewolf in London (R, 1981) and Slap Shot (R, 1977).
Festival director Warren O’Reilly said that it was important to him to highlight not just the established film world but the growing filmmaking scene in the Granite State as well.
“There’s a lot of exciting filmmaking happening in New Hampshire,” O’Reilly said. “We’re happy to be a place [where] people … can actually have their movie shown on the big screen.”
Four of the featured films are directed by New Englanders — two of whom are Granite Staters, O’Reilly said, adding that that number was approximately a third of the blocks of movies.
“Like the three legs of a stool, a third of the stuff that we’re showing is international, a third of it is cult and stuff that people recognize from their childhood, and then a third of it is New England-based filmmakers,” he said.
With exposed brick walls, a large stage, thick carpeting, a bar and the balcony from its original iteration as a theater, the Rex seats about 300 people. Perhaps the biggest highlight is the digital 4K wall along the back of the stage — the main reason for the film festival in the first place, O’Reilly said, as plans had been in the works to hold the event before the pandemic hit.
“It opened and then Covid hit and it closed down,” he said. “This was the first year that everything had reopened long enough for us to put out the feelers for the festival.”
Manchester International Film Festival Where: The Rex Theatre, 23 Amherst St., Manchester When: Friday, Aug. 12, through Sunday, Aug. 14; films are screened at various times throughout each day Cost: $20 for a one-day pass ($10 for students), or $50 for a weekend pass Visit: palacetheatre.org/film
Making movie magic
O’Reilly, who has worked in the film industry in both Los Angeles and Massachusetts, said that it was easy getting submissions. He even has friends who work around the world — that’s how he received submissions of independent international films, like Alice? (Short 2020) from New Zealand.
A total of 970 film submissions were received — of those, a panel narrowed it down to 400, and only a handful of those will be shown over the three-day event. David Humphreys, a film professor at Southern New Hampshire University, said that it’s extremely common for filmmakers to submit whatever they have to any festival, even if it doesn’t align with the event.
“You have to start with weeding out the ones that aren’t a good fit for whatever reason,” Humphreys said. “You can be running a documentary film fest and you’ll get fiction films.”
Pat Kalik and Ross Fishbeins, the co-chairs of the New Hampshire Jewish Film Festival, said that they will go through watching at least 60 movies for their festival which will end up showing about a dozen movies.
“I never decide what will be in the festival until I’ve seen at least 40 [films],” Kalik said.
Their festival primarily focuses on movies made by Jewish filmmakers for Jewish audiences.
“You need to balance everything,” Kalik said. “You can’t have too many movies about the Holocaust, but you also can’t have too many movies that are comedies.”
Haute Couture
Kalik said that the Jewish Film Festival differs from the Manchester International Film Festival in that it doesn’t have a home theater for showing movies. Instead, they partner with small theaters across New Hampshire. In the future, Kalik hopes to partner with the Rex to show movies during their own festival. One of the movies cut from their program, Haute Couture (2021), directed by Sylvia Ohayon, will be shown at the Manchester International Movie Festival on Sunday.
Despite the long hours of movie watching, note taking, debating and decision making, Fishbeins said he was excited to start.
“It’s a great community activity for me … and I love films,” he said. “Everyone loves to go to the movies and talk about it after.”
For the love of movies
While O’Reilly wasn’t the mastermind behind the idea of the festival, he said he definitely was a driving force in getting it launched this year — a new event to match the growing artistic vibe of Manchester.
“This is an exciting time for downtown Manchester,” O’Reilly said. “There’s a bunch of new people moving into town and people want to go out and see movies. It’s the perfect recipe for a film festival.”
In addition to the film screenings, the festival will have conversations and Q&A sessions with directors and crew members who worked on different films. Local comedian Jimmy Dunn will also provide commentary on the 1977 sports comedy film Slap Shot on Friday, while Tony and Emmy Award-winning actor John Lithgow will host a conversation about his career at the Palace Theatre on Saturday.
Humphreys, along with his colleague Vincent Corbo, a Southern New Hampshire University psychology professor, will also be part of the festival’s live entertainment. The two professors run the podcast “A Dark Impression,” in which they dive into the psychology behind horror movies.
After Saturday’s screening of An American Werewolf in London (1981 R), Humphreys and Corbo will host a live recording of their show.
“The stage will be a new location for me,” Corbo said, adding that he believes most people seeing the cult horror classic “will want to see it and have that theater experience.”
The experience is what makes a film festival, Humphreys said. According to him, festivals are meant to be events in which people take in a film and then discuss it either amongst themselves or with the filmmakers.
Four Pins
“You go and share this space with other people,” Humphreys said. “I think that [is] something we’re losing with Netflix and home streaming, is having a conversation about the movies afterward.”
Corbo agreed, saying that those conversations are what makes film festivals so important.
“It enhances that personal and emotional experience,” Corbo said. “It’s much richer from the moviegoer perspective.”
Featured films
Film descriptions and times are according to the schedule at palacetheatre.org/film.
Friday, Aug. 12
Sherlock Jr. (1924) Directed by Buster Keaton A film projectionist longs to be a detective, putting his meager skills to work when he is framed by a rival for stealing his girlfriend’s father’s pocket watch. (The screening will include live musical accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis). 5:45 p.m.
The Egg (Short 2021) Directed by Terrence Fitzgerald Hayes Days into a pandemic, Tristan sets sail to escape a world wrought with violence, racism and greed in search for a fresh start. The film is “a story of torment, isolation and introspection.” Shorts program, 6 p.m.
Four Pins (Short 2022) Directed by Matthew Beltz A young man named Tommy Graves spends his days tending to the declining lanes of the local bowling alley. In this place time feels stuck, as does Tommy. Shorts program, 6 p.m.
Slap Shot (1977) Directed by George Roy Hill Coach Reggie Dunlop (Paul Newman) lets his failing mill town minor-league ice hockey team play their own distinct brand of violent hockey, in hopes of drawing a big crowd. 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, Aug. 13
Shrek (2001) Directed by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson A mean lord exiles fairytale creatures to the swamp of a grumpy ogre, who must go on a quest and rescue a princess for the lord in order to get his land back. Noon.
The Last American Colony (2019) Directed by Bestor Cram The Last American Colony traces the life of Juan Segarra, who graduates from Harvard and sets off on a treacherous path to fight for Puerto Rico’s independence — a struggle that he rightly assumes will lead to either jail or death. 2 p.m.
Man (Short 2018) Directed by Oksana Artemenko A little boy is scared of using the toilet. His father, a military soldier, taught him, “A real man should pee in the toilet, not the pot.” The father goes to war and doesn’t come back home. “Son should become man now.” Shorts program, 4 p.m.
Thunder (Short 2022) Directed by Orest Smylanetz This film was shot during the air raid on the 77th day of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. Shorts program, 4 p.m.
Marsh Clouds: The Oysters of Harris Neck (Short 2022) Directed by Kevin Mannens The Timmons family has been picking oysters in Harris Neck, Georgia, for more than 100 years. The land they call home has a tragic history. Marsh Clouds tells “a story of trauma and racism — and the perseverance to overcome against all odds.” Shorts program, 4 p.m.
Alice? (Short 2020) Directed by Grace Hood-Edwards A starry-eyed plus-size teenager actively reimagines the world around her as she experiences first love and first heartbreak. Shorts program, 4 p.m.
Conservative Horses (Short 2022) Directed by David Manitsky In the mid-1950s, a Los Angeles television show that does weekly interviews with B-list celebrities goes to Vermont to interview Hollywood’s premiere horse trainer, Richard Turgidson (Jack Barron), and his wife, Kitty (Delaney Spink). Shorts program, 4 p.m.
About Him (Short 2015) Directed by Rick Dumont Adapted from the short story by New Jersey author Adele Schwartz, this dark comedy tells the story of a lonely woman trying to find her soulmate in the personal ads of newspapers. Shorts program, 4 p.m.
Finding Sandler (2022) Directed by David Seth Cohen Director David Seth Cohen embarks on a quest to find Adam Sandler and finally have that beer Adam asked him to have back in 1998. Will David find Adam Sandler? Will they have that drink? 6 p.m.
An Evening with John Lithgow At the Palace Theatre, 80 Hanover St., Manchester (tickets for this event are separate from the Saturday pass). Join the Tony and Emmy Award-winning actor for a heartwarming conversation to reflect on his life on stage and screen from his decades-long career. 7:30 p.m.
An American Werewolf in London (1981) Directed by John Landis Two American college students on a walking tour of Britain are attacked by a werewolf that none of the locals will admit exists. (The screening will be followed by a live podcast recording with the hosts of the local podcast A Dark Impression.) 9 p.m.
Sunday, Aug. 14
Spin (Short 2021) Directed by Lisa Marie Tedesco When the curtain descends on their final performance of Romeo and Juliet in drama club, high school seniors Abigail and Sky bid a fair adieu to the stage they loved while letting their deepest desires for one another surface at the cast party.
Whale Fall (Short 2021) Directed by Katie McNeice “A glimpse beneath the surface of a relationship bonded by books, whales and love.”
Parrot (Short 2021) Directed by Kyle B. Thompson A drag queen protects a child during a crisis as prejudices reach a breaking point.
Love is Strange (2014) Directed by Ira Sachs While struggling with the pain of separation, Ben and George are further challenged by the intergenerational tensions and capricious family dynamics of their new living arrangements.
Haute Couture (2021) Directed by Sylvia Ohayon Instead of calling the police on the girl who stole her handbag, Esther decides to pass on her skills, the craft of dressmaking. Presented in partnership with the New Hampshire Jewish Film Festival. 2p.m.
Summer (Short 2020) Directed by Nick Czerula and Anna Belmonte Following the death of their father, a set of siblings find a figurative skeleton in his closet and must find a way to discreetly dispose of it, so as not to tarnish their family’s good name. 4 p.m.
Filmmaker Q&As
Meet the directors behind some of the festival’s films
By Hannah Turtle
hturtle@hippopress.com
David Seth Cohen, Director of FindingSandler (2022)
The biggest premiere of the festival, Finding Sandler has an interesting backstory. In 1998, director David Seth Cohen was working as a production assistant on the Adam Sandler film Big Daddy. While tasked with dropping off a suit to Sandler’s hotel one day, Cohen was invited by the actor himself to have a drink with him — an offer Cohen declined, as he was running on a busy schedule. Years later, while living in his grandmother’s basement with his filmmaking dreams cast aside, Cohen began to wonder if his life might have been different had he gotten that drink with Adam Sandler. He set out to finally get that drink, getting a small film crew together in search of Adam Sandler and making friends along the way.
In your own words, can you tell me a little bit about the film?
Well, when I went to drop off the suit, it was rushed. I had to double park in Manhattan, and I left another [production assistant] named Autumn with the car. If you’ve ever double parked in Manhattan, you’ll know that’s an emergency situation. At the time, in 1998, I was a poor 22-year-old kid with no cell phone, so I really had to hurry. I went upstairs and knocked on the door, and he [Sandler] started messing with me through the door. … You know how he yells in his movies? He yelled at me like that: ‘Who is it? What do you want?’ I tell him who I am, [and] he opens the door and has a big smile on his face. He invites me in to come have a drink and hang out. I froze. There were all these thoughts going through my head, like, ‘Autumn’s in the car, you’re double parked, you have no way of contacting her, if you leave her there, you’re totally fired and you’ll never get a job in the movie industry again.’ The other part of my brain was saying, ‘Stay, he’s your hero, this is the opportunity of a lifetime to hang out with your hero.’ The angel part of my brain won and told me to leave and do the right thing. So, I left. … Fast forward years later, [and] I was tossing and turning in my bed at night, wondering what might have happened if I had stayed with Adam Sandler. Would he have given me advice, or would something he said have triggered me to take a different path? … Finally, one night, I had this dream where I went to California and went looking for Adam. … Somehow in my dream I found him, and when I woke up, right then, I decided I had to do something about this whole thing, or I’d regret it for the rest of my life. That’s where the idea came from.
How long did it take from the inception of the idea to the creation of the film?
As soon as I had the idea, I knew I had to call my business partner. At the time, I was working at a Catholic TV station … but I also had a small production company where I did videos for sporting events, and I called [my business partner] at 6 in the morning, all amped up, and said, ‘Dan, I want to make a movie. Can you help?’ He responded with, ‘It’s 6 in the morning, can we talk about this later?’ … So I got up, got dressed, went to the TV station, and told my production assistant, Vinnie, about the idea. He said he was in, and the whole day I was telling people, and some were interested, and some said it was the stupidest idea they had ever heard. But it really just took off from there. … The film got held up for a number of years in the editing room, going through revisions, and I never quite liked it … but finally we got an edit I really liked, and at the beginning of 2022 we completed it.
What were you planning to do if you couldn’t end up finding Adam Sandler?
I was hoping that, no matter what, it would inspire people to follow their dreams. At the end of the day, there’s that line from The Rolling Stones: ‘You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you might find, you get what you need.’I always wanted to make a movie, so I knew that no matter what, if I finished the movie, I’d achieve a goal.
Throughout the journey of making this film, were there any unexpected moments that made the film what it is?
Tons. When we first started making this thing, we didn’t really know what was going to happen. It’s a documentary, so nothing was set up. It was a lot of just seeing what happened. The first cool thing was that we found out Emeril Lagasse, the celebrity chef, was doing a book signing right by where we lived. So we decided to go and ask Emeril to cook appetizers for the drink with Adam. Then we found out that Billy Joel was heading to the Long Island Music Hall of Fame, so we decided to find him and ask if he’d play the piano while we had this drink, and so all these crazy things were popping up, all these surprises along the way. … When we went to Manchester, we decided we wanted to get into the school to talk to his [Sandler’s] teachers. At the time, I called the principal about six times, and every time I got the same assistant, and she wouldn’t let me talk to the principal. So when we went to Manchester, we weren’t hopeful that we would be able to get into the school. … When we got there, we went to the Red Arrow Diner and had the Adam Sandler Burger, and learned a little bit about him from the people there. Then we went to the Puritan Backroom, and we were just talking to random people there, and we ran into Jane Clayton, who, at the time, was a gym teacher at Manchester Central [High School]. She heard our story and made some calls, and then all of a sudden we got to go in and talk to everyone at the school. … It was just a ton of unexpected stuff, like throwing a bunch into the wind and seeing what catches.
So, did you end up getting a drink with Adam Sandler?
You’ll have to come see the movie to find out. What I want to ask is, how can we lure Adam Sandler back to come to the film festival?
Matthew Beltz, Director of Four Pins (Short 2022)
Four Pins is a short film that follows a young man, Tommy Graves, as he works at a bowling alley in western Massachusetts. At the same time, Walter, an older man experiencing memory loss, comes in to play a game with his grandson. When his grandson doesn’t come, the two men reckon with their lives and their futures as they bowl together. Matthew Beltz, the film’s director, has worked as a production assistant on Ghostbusters (2016), and Black Mass (2015), and as a location manager for The Purge: Election Year (2016), as well as the television miniseries Dexter: New Blood and, most recently, HBO’s Julia, about acclaimed chef and cookbook author Julia Child.
What led you to this story?
My partner Jimmy Luc and I had just done another short film together, and we wanted to try our hand at another. We were working on a TV show at the time, and there was this great bowling alley close by. It was one of the oldest candlepin bowling alleys in America. It really started with this great location. Mostly it was born of that, and [because] Jimmy and I wanted to keep working together, to sort of keep the ball rolling.
What were some of the challenges you faced along the way?
Every project has its own unique challenges. The biggest challenge for this project wasn’t even in the filming of it, or in pre-production. The real challenge was in post-production, [and] in how to best tell the story we were trying to tell. We were very cognizant of wanting to ‘show’ and not ‘tell,’ so [during] the editing process we had all this footage to whittle down, to best get across the idea that our main character, Walter, is in the early stages of dementia without any of the characters coming out and saying that. It was really about finding the rhythm of the story in the editing room, and figuring out how to best tell this story.
What do you hope the audience gains from your film?
With any project, you hope that first and foremost … [they] enjoy it. I hope that anyone who sees it, when they walk away, doesn’t say to [themselves], ‘Well, that was time wasted.’ That’s definitely the first priority. I think that’s the only thing I can really hope for. Everyone sees a project in a different way, and everyone takes something unique away from every movie they go to see, and if something resonates with them, or if they connect with something, I would love that.
What’s next for you?
We’ve got another project that’s currently in post-production … called Nuclear. It’s a short film about a father and a son during the Cuban Missile Crisis, [and they are] dealing with a death in the family. They get brought together again because of a cartoon turtle. We’re hoping to release a trailer for that in September on our website, [which is] gonfalonpictures.com.
Nick Czerula and Anna Belmonte, Directors of Summer (Short 2020)
Summer, a short film shot on location in Concord, follows two siblings as they clean out their father’s apartment after his death. Their father, a pillar of the community, has a proverbial skeleton in the closet. To protect their father’s reputation, the siblings have to dispose of the item without anyone in town finding out. Czerula also owns Cz Video Productions, based in Concord.
Summer
Can you talk a little bit about the process of getting this film off the ground?
Belmonte: We had the script ready to go in early 2020, and we had planned to have a 30-person crew — hair, costumes, makeup, grips, lighting, all of it. We were planning to bring people in from New York, and then Covid hit, so we had to put it on hold. Then, later, when things were a little bit better, we decided to make this safely, and cut the crew down to five people on set maximum at a time. There was a funeral scene that was originally supposed to have as many extras as possible, but we had to cheat some camera angles and make everything with a fraction of what we originally planned.
What was it like shooting in Concord?
Czerula: Filming with locations in New Hampshire offered a very unique experience and opportunity for us. It’s not spoiled like other places. We’d call businesses and say, ‘We want to film there, [but] not during business hours,’ and they’re much more receptive to it than somewhere that has that happen all the time. It went very smoothly. … For example, we had this scene where we had the actors loading a body into a car off the street, and we had to tell the Concord police in advance what was going on, and they were very understanding. The whole thing was kind of a pleasure.
Belmonte: Everywhere we went, everyone was so eager to be a part of it. We went to a hardware store, and they offered to let us stay after hours, and invited their whole staff to come and watch, and everyone was not only accommodating but really went above and beyond. There was a lot of enthusiasm.
Aside from the Covid elephant in the room, were there other challenges you faced in the filming of this project?
Czerula: We were really blessed as far as locations were concerned, and the crew was great, so we had a pretty smooth process. A lot of it came down to making it work with what we had, so for the funeral scene, since we couldn’t have a ton of extras, we really had to step back and think, and we came to the conclusion that the funeral scene doesn’t really add a ton to the story. … So we changed it to a post-funeral scene, and it really worked.
Belmonte: Well, the biggest challenge was probably the doll [a large doll that gets carried around through the majority of the film]. It was honestly like having another actress. Tripping over her, bending her arms back into place, brushing her hair, [and] shoving shoes on her rubbery, wiggly toes.
Czerula: A funny story is that we lost this eyeball for the doll, and I was trying to buy eyeballs everywhere I could that would match, but none of them did. I ended up finding a doll dealer in Texas who had an assortment of eyeballs in stock. I had to call this guy and ask him to send me a whole bunch of eyeballs to try. But I wasn’t really being forthcoming about what we were doing, since at the time we were keeping the idea pretty close to the vest. So I had to make up a story about why I needed eyeballs.
What are you hoping audiences gain from your film?
Czerula: Acceptance. But really, just to laugh. At a time when there’s not a whole lot of fun happening in the world, I just hope people can laugh at it and forget everything else for a little while.
Belmonte: It’s really about family bonding through unexpected, silly obstacles. But especially having been made during Covid, [the film] will be a little microcosm of levity in a rough time.
Rick Dumont, Director of About Him (Short 2015)
About Him follows Corrine on her search to find her soulmate through a personal ad in the paper. After escaping an abusive relationship, she recruits a friend on a search for the right kind of partner. The film is based on a short story by Adele Schwartz. Director Rick Dumont runs Sweaty Turtle Entertainment, a production company based in Madbury.
About Him
So, a personal ad?
It’s kind of old-school. … It’s a period piece, or a period-ish piece, set in the pre-internet days. Back then, personal ads were the thing — the original dating app, if you will. Today’s ways of connecting with a partner have changed so dramatically. It’s not necessarily less personal than an ad in the paper, but it has definitely changed.
What was the process like of getting this made?
We shot it in about four days, four very long days, [during] one of which we went to Portsmouth to shoot a restaurant scene. We shot at a place called Massimo, and we wrapped there after midnight. Then we had to immediately pack up and go to Salem to shoot another scene. But we had a great crew and a great cast, and it was a lot of fun to do.
What are you hoping audiences get out of this film?
Mostly, I hope people are entertained, and maybe it gives them a little bit of thought about how we interact with each other … but I don’t like telling people what they should think. I remember the second feature I did. A reviewer reached out to review my film, and after he watched it, he asked, ‘What was I supposed to think?’ … and I said, ‘Exactly that.’ That’s what you felt, so go with it. I would say go see the film [and] see what you think. It’s a great thing, the festival. It’s a chance to see the work of great artists in the area. I think it’s important to support artists, especially the ones in our community who are really working hard to create something beautiful and intriguing. Sometime in the future, we might be able to say, ‘I saw the new Scorcese’s first film at the Manchester International Film Festival.’
Where did the name ‘Sweaty Turtle’ come from?
It’s an homage to my wife. … People are always confused when I say that. Several years ago, I had called my wife ‘My Sweet Eternal,’ and she is a very talented artist, but also a little kooky, and she says, “Did you just call me a sweaty turtle?” … So, she became my sweaty turtle, and later on, when I started my company, it became my honorarium to her.
The Department of Homeland Security and FEMA’s Assistance to Firefighters Grant will award $569,036 to the City of Nashua to be used for operations and safety improvements for the Nashua Fire Department. U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and a member of the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, which funds the grant, applauded the award in a press release. “Granite State firefighters play a critical role serving on the front lines to protect their communities. It’s crucial they have access to the resources necessary to do their jobs safely and effectively, no matter the emergency,” she said. “I’m thrilled that this federal award is heading to Nashua, which will go toward necessary upgrades.” The AFG program allows funds granted to fire departments to be put toward training, equipment, personal protective equipment, wellness and fitness activities and modifications of the station.
Quality status
Waypoint, a Manchester-based private nonprofit human service agency and the oldest children’s charitable organization in New Hampshire, has been designated a “Family Resource Center of Quality” by the Wellness and Primary Prevention Council of the New Hampshire legislature. To qualify for the designation centers must engage in an extensive application process and ongoing self-assessment, seeking feedback from participants and community partners, and consent to a site visit for review by the Council. According to a press release, Waypoint, which offers more than two dozen programs throughout the state for people of all ages, earned the designation by “demonstrating exemplary practice building family strengths.” “Waypoint is thrilled to have achieved this status as an FRC-Q in Manchester,” Missy Oglebay, Family Resource Center coordinator and supervisor of Family Support, said in the release. “For those of us in the family service field in New Hampshire, this designation represents our commitment to the people we serve with programs that are proven to have a positive impact.”
Help for estuaries
The Environmental Protection Agency has announced that $132 million from the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act will be invested in the National Estuaries Program, providing up to $4.5 million over the next five years to estuaries in New England considered to have national significance, including New Hampshire’s Piscataqua Region Estuaries. According to a press release, the funds will support work being done to protect and restore the estuaries. “This latest infusion of federal dollars serves as a continued reminder about how the bipartisan infrastructure law is delivering for New Hampshire communities,” U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, who was a lead negotiator on the legislation alongside U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan, said in the release. “It’s exciting to see how these dollars will make a tangible difference in our communities, and in this case, through restoring water quality and ecological integrity in the Piscataqua Region Estuaries.”
Granite Stater in Ukraine
Bedford resident Brian Nolen will go to Ukraine on Aug. 9 for his third humanitarian mission overseas to help people affected by the war in Ukraine. Nolen and fellow Bedford resident John Fitzgerald previously made two three-week trips to Poland and Ukraine, supported with funds raised through a GoFundMe drive, to work with nonprofits to deliver shipments of essential aid to refugees throughout Ukraine and to transport refugees in Ukraine across the border. “When Russia invaded Ukraine this past February, like so many of us, I felt compelled to do something to help the Ukrainian people,” Nolen said in an email. “I quickly decided that I had to head over there to help out, however I could.” To learn how you can support Nolen in his efforts to help the people of Ukraine during his upcoming trip, visit bedford4ukraine.com.
New to the board
Gov. Chris Sununu has appointed Evelyn Whelton of Madison to serve on the New Hampshire Housing Board of Directors, and Chris Norwood of Portsmouth to serve as chair of the board, according to a press release. Whelton is the senior vice president and retail lending sales manager for Bank of New Hampshire and the founder and a board member of the Mount Washington Valley Housing Coalition. Norwood is president of the NAI Norwood Group, where he focuses on commercial real estate sales. The nine-member board, created by the state legislature, promotes, finances and supports affordable housing in the state through a homeownership division, a multifamily housing division, an assisted housing division and a policy, planning and communications group that conducts research and presents reports on housing issues in the state.
The New Hampshire Farm, Forest and Garden Expo will move to a new location and a new date for its 40th annual event in 2023. Formerly held indoors at the DoubleTree by Hilton Manchester Downtown in February, the expo will now be held outdoors at the Deerfield Fairgrounds in the spring the weekend of May 5 and May 6. According to a press release, the outdoor space will allow the expo to grow and feature running farm machinery, more live animals and more. Visit nhfarmandforestexpo.org.
The Claremont Growers Collective and Claremont Cooks will present their first-ever Tomato Jam at Winter Street Farm in Claremont (344 Winter St.) on Saturday, Aug. 6, from 4 to 7 p.m. The community event will feature organic farm field tours, a salsa-making competition and fresh wood-fired pizzas. Visit claremontgrowers.org.
The Nashua Regional Planning Commission will hold a Household Hazardous Waste Collection at the Nashua City Park & Ride (25 Crown St.) on Saturday, Aug. 6, from 8 a.m. to noon. The collection, which is open to residents of Amherst, Brookline, Hollis, Hudson, Litchfield, Merrimack, Milford, Mont Vernon, Nashua, Pelham and Windham, will accept waste such as oil-based and lead paints, solvents, thinners, polyurethane, antifreeze, gasoline, pesticides, insecticides, household cleaners, mercury, fluorescent light bulbs and more. There is a fee of $15 per vehicle (cash or check only), with additional charges for waste exceeding 10 gallons or 20 pounds. Visit nashuarpc.org/hhw or call 417-6570.
Even though I am a transplant who has lived in this state for more than 20 years, there are occasions when I am especially aware of just what it means to live in a state the motto of which is “Live Free or Die.” Such a recognition came recently. Although the details of the attempt on the part of certain residents of Croydon, New Hampshire, to halve the annual school budget, as well as the successful later counter to restore it, are well known, the lesson for me, as well for all of us, is one worthy of serious self-reflection.
Like many of my fellow Granite Staters, I live in a small town. I am fortunate that mine is one that has an efficient and useful website as well as a robust email alert system. My neighbors and I receive regular announcements of all town meetings as well as their agendas. These I read dutifully, but too often my engagement stops there and I fear I’m not alone in that regard. It is a rare agenda item that would draw me to attend a meeting in person. It must be some kind of utilitarian criterion that I’m applying in such situations, the logic of which would go something like this: “If it’s a really important issue for me that will be discussed or voted on, then I’ll go; if it’s not I won’t.”
What is lost in that logic, however, is the other, equally important aspect of democracy, namely a shared sense of responsibility for our community and a corresponding obligation to participate. Something akin to the latter is what I often feel on town voting day, when, standing in line with neighbors, friends and strangers, I feel a sense of solidarity that together we are doing something important and are seeing one another in the act of doing it, voting on issues of common importance. It is a sense of a common will for a commonweal.
This year will be my 13th serving as executive director of Leadership New Hampshire, an organization founded as a recommendation of the gubernatorial Commission on NH in the 21st Century. Its mission statement is “Building a community of informed and engaged leaders.” Every year, from a large pool of applicants from across our state, LNH selects 32 people to participate in a one-day-a-month intensive program that seeks to familiarize them with the needs, challenges, people and resources of our state, so that, being better informed about our state and its communities, the graduates — and now, in its 30th year, there are more than 1,000 of them — will get even more engaged in their communities, region or state. But the “special chemistry” of LNH is the sense of solidarity the graduates develop over the 10-month together.
It does truly take a community, precisely because the members of one need to feel a sense of community. The people of Croydon found that out the hard way.
Though firmly rooted in New England, Albert Cummings has an affinity for the South. He made his 2003 breakthrough album, From the Heart, in Austin, Texas, backed by Stevie Ray Vaughan’s band Double Trouble. His longtime producer Jim Gaines is a Memphis native, and with him, 2019’s Believe was recorded in Muscle Shoals, Alabama.
Cummings’ latest, Ten, was done in Nashville, a city he admits is probably the only one that might pry him from his home in Williamstown, Mass. “I don’t have any plans on leaving,” he said on his way to a tour stop in Reading, Pennsylvania. “But if I do, I’d go there. I love the whole area. You’re in the music world, that’s a pretty good place to go and hang out.”
For Ten, Cummings immersed himself in the spirit of Music City. He worked with producer Chuck Ainlay, whose credits include a who’s who of country royalty, from Conway Twitty and George Strait to Dolly Parton and Miranda Lambert. For a guitarist who once had plans to play bluegrass before shifting to blues, it was a dream come true.
“Oh man, it was such a great experience,” Cummings said. “Chuck is just an amazing guy. He jokes around and says, ‘Well, I’m pretty good at turning knobs,’ but he’s a master of orchestrating everything … to work with him was an honor, and to watch him was just amazing.”
For the project, Ainlay recruited “all the first-call players down there, just the best musicians I’ve ever seen,” Cummings said. If that weren’t enough, Vince Gill was enticed to sing harmony on “Last Call,” a country rocker about a long night of drinking that’s one of the disc’s highlights.
“It’s a pinch-me moment, you know what I mean? Vince Gill, talk about an idol,” Cummings said. “It’s just lightning; how does that happen? I really don’t have any words to describe it … an amazing experience, a beautiful human being.”
Cummings says he dug deep for the songs on his most country-flavored record ever. “What I wanted to do was be honest with what was in my head,” he said.
Not every tune was new. “Beautiful Bride” was the first song Cummings ever sang in front of an audience, in 1989. He’d done a spare version for From the Heart, but “I always wanted to have kind of a little bit bigger sound, a different flavor,” he said. “Give it a little boost … I knew once I was in Nashville I had to put that on the record.”
“Sounds Like the Road” is a solid blues rocker inspired by a hotel lobby encounter with fellow guitarist Robben Ford — “I was checking in, he was checking out,” Cummings explained. It was during a period when he split time between working construction and performing, a late-blooming musician who hadn’t begun to play in public until age 27.
When Ford asked Cummings what he was up to, “I told him, ‘I’m just trying to get things squared away, go out and play.’ He says, ‘Oh yeah? Where are you playing?’ I said, ‘We’re going here, we’re going there, and then we’re flying here.’ He looked at me and said, ‘Sounds like the road to me.’ I was like, ‘Bam, that’s a song.’ I knew it right then.”
Many years and tours later, “it just feels so good to be back playing,” Cummings said, particularly after Covid cut a swath through his livelihood; he released Believe just as the world shut down. “It never had a life; it died before it ever got the chance to even get out.”
He’s buoyed by a new release that’s exciting fans, even drawing new ones.
“I think this record has really brought me a lot of attention, because crowds are way bigger than they used to be,” he said. “I have a feeling that people are just loving to get back out; couple of years away from music made them realize how much they miss it … I really do love it, no matter how hard the road is.”
Finally, though much of the buzz around Ten is it’s “Cummings Goes Country,” the fiery-fingered guitarist who’s shared stages with B.B. King and Johnny Winter and worked with Nashville’s A-Team isn’t tucking himself into any genre. He has opined that the difference between blues and country is beverages — one’s whiskey, the other’s beer. He still feels that way.
“I told that to Vince Gill,” he recalled. “He said, ‘That’s a great analogy — the same three chords, just a different cocktail.’”
Albert Cummings When: Thursday, July 28, 8 p.m. Where: Tupelo Music Hall, 10 A St., Derry Tickets: $30 at tupelohall.com
A horse training family encounters Something at their desert ranch in Nope, the latest film from Jordan Peele.
Nope absolutely hits the ground running with action and plot points and I’ll try not to spoil more than you could get from the trailers.
Otis Haywood Jr. (Daniel Kaluuya), called OJ, seems uneasy about the sudden requirement that he take the lead in the family business of training horses for use in movies and TV. He seems to care about the animals and the family’s long legacy in film but he seems less than delighted with the salesmanship aspect of the business and the part where he has to deal with Hollywood people and their Hollywood attitudes. His sister Emerald (Keke Palmer, just radiating charisma) seems more comfortable with this element of the business but less interested in making it and the family’s rural ranch her whole life.
To make ends meet, OJ has had to sell off some of the family’s horses to Ricky “Jupe” Park (Steven Yeun, doing a whole fascinating thing), a former child actor who now owns a small Wild West-y theme park. He’s eager to buy more of OJ’s horses but OJ tells Ricky he plans (or maybe just hopes) to buy back the ones he’s sold.
Emerald is visiting the ranch when OJ, checking on a horse that isn’t where it’s supposed to be, sees something in the sky. Something big, something fast, something that really freaks out the horse.
Emerald decides if there really is something out there, what they need to do is get clear video evidence of it, the kind that will earn them big bucks. Thus do they head to an electronics store for surveillance equipment, where the alien-conspiracy-enmeshed Angel Torres (Brandon Perea) offers to help them set up their cameras and sort of worms his way into their plans.
I don’t know that calling this movie a horror film would be exactly accurate, even though there are jump scares. It’s maybe more of a quirky suspense movie. Trite as it sounds, at some point while I was watching Nope I noticed that I had been leaning forward, literally sitting on the edge of the theater seat, for most of the movie. Nope just pulls you in and holds you there in the movie’s mix of creepy sounds and things that are just as mysterious when they’re seen as when they’re half seen or mostly unseen. I’m not going to get into the whole “is it a Western” thing but there is a real “spooky things in the dusty West” quality to the movie; think X-Files meets campfire tales.And while I definitely wouldn’t call it a comedy or even funny, necessarily, it has a bounciness to it that can blend some sincere sibling emotions with lighter moments. I mean, I did laugh, and not just at the well-delivered “nope”s.
This is a perfectly composed cast. Everybody is working their characters as though they are the center of the story, which gives even smaller parts depth. Kaluuya and Palmer have excellent brother-sister chemistry and Palmer is just crackling throughout. I don’t know that anybody is going the extra mile for DVD and digital movie purchases anymore but if Peele does a Kickstarter to do a prequel short about Yeun’s character let me know and I will contribute.
There are lots of little elements in Nope that just tickled me and a few that I’m not sure what I think yet. I think we in the culture just all need to see it so we can spend the next few years talking and arguing about it until Peele delivers his next creation. B+
Rated R for language throughout and some violence/bloody images, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Written and directed by Jordan Peele, Nope is two hours and 10 minutes long and distributed in theaters by Universal Studios.
