For Andrew North, the stage and the studio are two distinct places, with the latter a place for adventure. Phosphorescent Snack, the debut album from North and his band the Rangers, is a multi-tracked gem, with elements of funk, soulful pop and progressive jazz. It’s Steely Dan meets Frank Zappa at a 1969 Chicago Transit Authority listening party.
“Electrostatic Chills” expresses a solid groove intention, while the instrumental “Epiphone” showcases the four band members’ prowess: North on keys, drummer Dale Grant, bass player Chip Spangler and horn wizard Rob O’Brien. That the song is missing the instrument it’s named after is not lost on North.
“Yeah, there’s no guitar on the album, which has kind of become a point of pride for us,” he said in a recent interview.
Other standouts include “Down the Pipes,” with its echoes of Dixieland jazz, the can-do anthem “Dig Deep” and “Aditi,” the latter sounding like an unmistakable nod to a certain Vermont jam band.
“It’s hard to admit, because when we say we’re Phish-influenced, the reaction can go either way,” North agreed. “But there’s no question I‘ve soaked up so much of that over the decades, and it comes across in what I do. … I’ve stopped trying to downplay it.”
The connection is understandable; North moved from Burlington, Vermont, to Concord five years ago, bringing the energy of his first home along with him. Andrew North & the Rangers is a multigenerational ensemble; Grant has played drums for close to five decades, including sessions with members of Yes, Survivor and Cheap Trick, while the younger Spangler’s resume includes work in far-away places like Alaska.
Like many bands, the quartet planned to complete its debut disc in 2020, but when the pandemic ended live shows, time was used to polish it a bit more. O’Brien, who plays an electronic Roland Aerophone he affectionately calls Dustbuster that can emit a multitude of sounds, opened his laptop and created walls of horns that would please Earth, Wind & Fire.
“Covid-19 gave us a good chance to sit down and work the tracks up with some overdubbing,” North said, “and obviously, if you let Rob loose with a chance to take more than one pass at a song, he’ll take full advantage.”
North and his mates marked the record’s release with an August show at Area 23, a Concord haven for original bands like theirs. They’ll appear at Newmarket’s venerable Stone Church on Sept. 2.
“I was in a jam band in like 2006, and we were dying to get a gig at Stone Church,” North said, “and they never gave us the time of day… so I may be irrationally excited about that one.”
On Sept. 4 they’ll play a late set at the Keene Music Festival, a massive outdoor showcase of regional bands on multiple stages. Along with North’s group, Plague & Pestilence, a side project featuring Dead Harrison’s Jason Skulls and Lucretia X. Machina from Lucretia’s Daggers, will play its first public show.
Jake McKelvie & the Countertops, Jonee Earthquake Band, Kennedy Drive, Tyler Allgood and the Humans Being are among the New Hampshire bands represented at the event, which runs from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
“This is our first one and I’m really excited about it,” North said. “We’ve been kind of incubating in Concord for a while, and the music scene here has really started to gel in the last few years, which has been fun. Places like Area 23 really help to nurture it.”
Andrew North & the Rangers will appear again in their Concord hometown later this year, at Penuche’s Ale House on Friday, Oct. 22, and Area 23 on Friday, Nov. 5.
Andrew North & the Rangers When: Thursday, Sept. 2, 8 p.m. Where: Stone Church, 5 Granite St., Newmarket Tickets: $5 – more at facebook.com/andrewnorthandtherangers Also appearing Saturday, Sept. 4, at Keene Music Festival in Downtown Keene – City Tire Stage, 7:15 p.m.
Featured photo: Andrew North and the Rangers. Courtesy photo.
High school senior Ruby discovers her talent for singing but she is conflicted about leaving her family to go to music school in CODA, a sweet and extremely charming coming of age story.
Unlike her mom Jackie (Marlee Matlin), dad Frank (Troy Kotsur) and older brother Leo (Daniel Durant), Ruby (Emilia Jones) is hearing (the “child of deaf adults” of the movie’s title). Ruby works with her dad and brother on their fishing boat, often serving as the one to negotiate the price for the day’s catch, before heading to school.
On a whim — and as an excuse to hang out around Miles (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo), a fellow senior she’s crushing on — Ruby joins the school’s choir. Though able to belt out Motown classics on the fishing boat, Ruby is shy singing in front of other students, particularly since she was bullied for the way she talked as a child and is still picked on for her family generally. But choir teacher Bernardo Villalobos (Eugenio Derbez) pulls her past this and helps her let loose her love of singing and her natural talent. He also picks Ruby and Miles to sing a duet at an upcoming recital — leading her to break out of her shell with him as well.
As she finds her footing in choir, the family’s fishing business grows more precarious. Their earnings for each catch are decreasing and government oversight is increasing. Leo wants to start a co-op with the other fishermen that will get them better prices but Frank is uncertain about getting involved with the hearing fishermen. Leo also struggles with the family’s reliance on Ruby to interpret, as does Ruby. She wants to pursue singing and the possibility of getting in to Berklee School of Music, which Bernardo says he will help her apply for. But she also feels obligated to help her parents.
Delightfully, the movie builds a relationship between Ruby and her family that features her fierce love of them as well as her thorough (and realistic) teenage “mom!” annoyance — when they play music too loud as they pick her up from school (her dad loves the loud bass of rap), when they have a wonderfully (purposefully) awkward conversation with Miles, when her mother gets on her about how she’s dressed. It’s so perfectly teenage-parent, so much meaning-well and love and delighting at her embarrassment and “gah, back off” all rolled up into the moment. Likewise, Ruby’s loving sibling relationship with Leo is highlighted by a series of excellent insults (not one of which I can repeat in print). Because of the movie’s well-drawn relationships and fully realized characters, CODA feels as much like a family coming of age as much as it is the story of Ruby’s coming of age. Not only is Ruby making decisions about her life and what she wants to do; each member of the family is taking steps in new directions in a way that also feels very real.
There are excellent performances all the way around in this movie — Jones but also Kostur, Durant and Matlin. And it was really a joy to watch Derbez in this kind of role. I mostly know him from big, broad comedies but here he hits the right note as a caring and talented teacher.
CODA is a joy throughout. A
Rated PG-13 for strong sexual content and language and drug use, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Written and directed by Sian Heder (and based on a French film from 2014 called La Famille Bélier), CODA is an hour and 51 minutes long and is distributed by Apple on Apple TV+. CODA is screening in theaters (in Massachusetts as of Aug. 31) and on Apple TV+.
Candyman (R)
An artist living in a recently gentrified Chicago neighborhood finds himself and his work tied up in local lore in Candyman, a sequel to the 1992 horror movie.
Anthony McCoy (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), whose name comes with backstory for people who have seen the original movie (I haven’t), has recently moved with his girlfriend, Brianna (Teyonah Parris), to an airy apartment in the gentrifying neighborhood of Cabrini-Green, the onetime home of housing projects (that were the setting of the first movie). He is blocked, artistically, presenting pieces to an art gallery operator that are just riffs on earlier work. After Brianna’s brother, Troy (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett), tells a story about a series of murders involving a woman named Helen Lyle, Anthony decides to dig into the history of the area, hoping he’ll find some inspiration.
He meets William (Colman Domingo), a longtime resident, who tells Anthony about the legend of Candyman, a presence who appears after saying his name in a mirror five times and who then kills those who summoned him. But the legend isn’t just a local boogeyman tale; the more Anthony digs in to the story the more he learns about the various men who are considered to be the figure’s origin, all the way back to Daniel Robitaille (Tony Todd) in the 19th century — all killed by police or lynch mobs. This investigation of Candyman takes Anthony’s work in strange directions and seems to be messing with his head. He is also having an extremely bad reaction to a bee sting. Anthony’s deteriorating mental and physical states have Brianna concerned. And then acquaintances of the couple start dying.
I think I generally like where this movie starts out, the various issues it sets up: Anthony’s artistic block, Brianna’s career ambitions, Brianna’s current status as the breadwinner of the couple and how that clearly bugs Anthony, the gentrification of the neighborhood they now live in. And I like where the movie seems to be wanting to go with its overall message. But in the middle, the movie seems to wander a bit and lose the threads at times.
The movie is tightly focused on Anthony at first but somewhere around the two-thirds point it just sort of drops him as a person we’re in the mystery with, which makes his story feel unfinished. Not that a movie like this needs to make perfect sense but there are elements that felt like they needed more explanation — or maybe just a more organic explanation. Frequently it feels like plot points connect in that “puzzle pieces smashed together” sense, resulting in information having to be told to us rather than more naturally revealing itself.
I’m a sucker for this particular kind of horror, though, one that puts dread and spookiness ahead of gore (though this movie has gore). And this movie has a great visual style, particularly in the way it uses shadow puppets to illustrate exposition — they are both eerie and very pretty. Candyman may not perfectly click together for me with its plot but it delivers on atmospherics. B-
Rated R for bloody horror violence, and language including some sexual references, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Nia DaCosta with a screenplay by Jordan Peele & Win Rosenfeld and Nia DaCosta, Candyman (that’s six; do computer screens count as mirrors?) is an hour and 31 minutes long and is distributed by Universal Pictures in theaters.
FILM
Venues
Cinemark Rockingham Park 15 Mall Road, Salem cinemark.com/theatres/nh-salem
Red River Theatres 11 S. Main St., Concord 224-4600, redrivertheatres.org
Regal Fox Run Stadium 15 45 Gosling Road, Newington regmovies.com
Shows
• Stripes (R, 1981) 40th anniversary screening at Cinemark in Salem and Regal Fox Run in Newington on Thursday, Sept. 2, at 7 p.m.
• The Green Knight (R, 2021) screening at the Red River Theatres in Concord Friday, Sept. 3, through Monday, Sept. 6, at 3:15 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.
• Stillwater (R, 2021) screening at the Red River Theatres in Concord Friday, Sept. 3, through Monday, Sept. 6, 12:30, 3:45 and 7 p.m.
• Together (R, 2021) screening at the Red River Theatres in Concord Friday, Sept. 3, through Monday, Sept. 6, at 1 p.m.
• Backdraft (R, 1991) 30th anniversary screening on Sunday, Sept. 5, at Cinemark in Salem at 3 p.m. and Regal Fox Run in Newington at 3 and 7 p.m., and on Wednesday, Sept. 8, at both locations at 7 p.m.
• The Alpinist (PG-13, 2020) screens on Tuesday, Sept. 7, at 7 p.m. at AMC Londonderry and Cinemark in Salem.
Chef Steve Shoemaker had already worked for some of the biggest names in South Florida’s dining scene upon arriving in New Hampshire to open Mint Bistro in the summer of 2011. Now, after other culinary stints at the 1750 Taphouse in Bedford and the Colby Hill Inn in Henniker, Shoemaker has returned to the Queen City to introduce an all new restaurant concept.
SOHO Bistro & Lounge features an eclectic menu of scratch-made items, with special attention to detail right down to every individual ingredient and an intimate dining experience to match. The eatery opened Aug. 20 in the former Whiskey’s 20 space on Old Granite Street, its name an homage to the elegance of the famous neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City.
“We’ve implemented a menu where there’s something for everyone, [with] killer handcrafted food and an amazing cocktail list,” said Shoemaker, who is also a partner in the restaurant. “I was really happy to get back into the Manchester landscape because the age demographic is perfect for the hospitality industry here. … You have a great clientele of people from their late 20s to their 40s who love going out to eat and just enjoy themselves.”
Each of SOHO’s menu items is a new or elevated version of a dish unique to the space. The hard shell lobster rangoons, for instance, have been among the top-selling appetizers out of the gate, in addition to truffle fries with homemade oil from real truffles.
Entrees run the gamut, from elevated classics like steak frites with prime hanger steak, to options like a bourbon-brined half chicken, an heirloom vegetable risotto with roasted garlic pesto and a vegan pad Thai with rice noodles, crispy tofu and a coconut peanut glaze. There are also burgers and sandwiches with creative ingredients in their own right, like a crispy pork belly-wrapped tenderloin on focaccia, with lemon-dressed arugula and Grana Padano cheese.
“We have short ribs going throughout the night, and that produces our short rib entree and also the beef for our nachos,” Shoemaker said. “We also offer pork for the nachos, which is a classic old Mexican dish called cochinita pibil. It’s little known in the United States … We take seasoned pork shoulder and we wrap it in banana leaves and cook it throughout the night.”
Dessert options feature the opportunity to try something simple, like sorbet or creme brulee, or a bit more fancy, like the banana cheesecake spring rolls.
“We take fresh bananas and make sheet pans of cheesecake, then cut it up, wrap it in spring roll paper and deep fry it,” Shoemaker said. “We serve it with homemade caramel sauce and an eclair ice cream. … That’s probably our top dessert seller.”
The kitchen closes at 10 p.m. each evening, but Shoemaker said a late night menu of smaller, shareable options is in the works, featuring a combination of regular selections and other items. The cocktail menu is regionally sourced, too — one drink, known as the Bee’s Knees, features gin from Barr Hill of Montpelier, Vermont, which produces it from fermented honey.
Brunch offerings will likely be added to SOHO’s menu. Shoemaker said he also hopes to soon hold specialty wine events, or a Japanese-themed night with sushi options and saké pairings.
SOHO Bistro & Lounge
Where: 20 Old Granite St., Manchester Hours: Tuesday and Wednesday, 4 to 10 p.m., and Thursday through Saturday, 4 p.m. to 1 a.m. More info: Visit sohonh.com, find them on Facebook and Instagram @sohobistrolounge or call 232-4085
Currier exhibition features street-inspired ceramics
An artist who calls himself the “ghetto potter,” Roberto Lugo has brought a new vibe to the Currier Museum of Art with his street-inspired ceramics, which look like traditional pieces from afar but actually explore Lugo’s Afro-Latino heritage and hip-hop culture.
“I don’t just think about ceramic objects for their specific function but I also think about what connotations they have within culture and society,” Lugo said in an audio response to emailed questions. “I try to add to that conversation by complicating it and including figures, ideas and textiles that haven’t historically been included in that conversation.”
His exhibition, called “Te traigo mi le lo lai – I bring you my joy,” has been up since spring and runs through Sept. 26.
“I remember the first time I saw [Lugo’s work] I was surprised by it. … Instead of having cherubs and aristocrats on it, it had [things like] a hip-hop boombox,” said Samantha Cataldo, the museum’s curator of contemporary art. “You get drawn in by something you think you know and get brought to a place you weren’t expecting.”
Lugo, who lives in Philadelphia, worked closely with Cataldo to create the exhibition, which includes some of his older pieces plus work that he created specifically for the Currier show, like one of musician Bob Marley.
“Marley really embodies … creativity and peace and harmony and he has been used by people of all races to sort of symbolize peace,” Lugo said. “His music is just something that makes you feel good and it’s a celebration, which I really feel is at the forefront of this exhibition.”
That celebration is what’s behind the exhibition’s name — “I bring you my joy” represents all of the pieces of Lugo’s history, including his Puerto Rican agricultural heritage and his upbringing in urban Philly. According to Cataldo, Lugo saw a similar juxtaposition in Manchester, with the city being the biggest, most post-industrial city in a pretty rural state.
The Currier’s hope is that Lugo’s work has been able to reach a part of the population that isn’t often represented in local art.
“We do have a growing Hispanic and Latinx population so we’re really hoping people who don’t see their culture in art as much can see that in Roberto’s exhibition,” Cataldo said. “Taking the culture of ’90s hip-hop and graffiti and putting it in this completely unexpected form … it brings in a whole group of people who don’t usually see themselves in art.”
Much of Lugo’s work pays homage to people of color who have made significant impacts on culture and society.
“These are abolitionists, civil rights leaders, and yes even contemporary musicians like Tupac and Missy [Elliot],” Lugo said. “I think Tupac in particular complicated the narrative of what a hip-hop artist is supposed to be; he’s more poetic but also had a really sensitive side to what he was talking about and really focused primarily on painting a picture of life in the ghetto.”
These unexpected messages are even more pronounced because of how Lugo’s pieces are displayed.
“From the beginning we really wanted to figure out how to make my work interact with pieces from the museum’s collection,” Lugo said.
“It’s literally sitting on our works,” Cataldo said. “Historic furniture from our collection is being used to show his ceramics, like a dinner table display, [which] I think poses a lot of interesting juxtapositions for people … like a plate with Missy Elliot sitting on a 19th-century carved piece.”
Cataldo said that one of the things Lugo really wanted to do was make the work accessible to people and create the feeling that you’re in someone’s home.
“The idea is domestic,” Cataldo said. “Ceramic work rides that line — you can have a beautiful set of bowls that someone hand made but you can use them every day, but that same beautiful bowl could be in a museum.”
The exhibition also includes a “cup wall” that has transformed since the start of the show; then, it only had cups that Lugo made, and now it includes about a dozen other cups created by local ceramics artists who were invited to participate.
“Artists often trade work,” Cataldo said, “like a mug or cup — it’s small and portable but you can get a lot of expression on it.”
Cataldo said she’s heard positive feedback about the exhibition from visitors, and she herself has been enjoying its presence in the museum.
“Roberto is just so open — every time I walk through it always just feels happy and it really is just a true expression of him,” she said.
“Te traigo mi le lo lai – I bring you my joy”
Where: Currier Museum of Art, 150 Ash St., Manchester When: On view through Sept. 26 Cost: Museum admission tickets cost $15, $13 for seniors age 65 and up, and must be booked online. More info: 669-6144, currier.org
Featured photo: Roberto Lugo at work on a ceramics piece. Photos courtesy of the Currier Museum of Art.
Heading into fall is the perfect time to go for a hike, with less heat and humidity, fewer bugs, and views that turn even more picturesque as the leaves start to change. All of this, along with the physical and mental health benefits, is a recipe for hiking happy. Find out how to do it safely, plus check out four southern New Hampshire hikes that prove you don’t have to hit the White Mountains to get in a challenging — but doable — climb.
Hiking well
Hit the trails for a healthy body and mind
by Angie Sykeny asykeny@hippopress.com
From building muscle strength to lowering stress levels, hiking can have all kinds of benefits for your physical and mental wellness.
“Whether it’s daily, every other day or even just once a week, it’s really worth it for your health to go hiking regularly and spend some time out in nature,” said Lucie Villeneuve, outdoor guide and owner of outdoor guide service Outdoor ESCAPES New Hampshire.
Traversing a mixed terrain of rocks and boulders, tree roots, hills, streams and other natural landscape elements requires a variety of movements, Villeneuve said, giving you a unique full-body workout that you can’t get on an exercise machine or uniform walking surface.
“You’re using pretty much all of your muscles,” she said. “With every step, you’re twisting your ankles in different directions, and you’re putting the brakes on and off with your legs when you’re going uphill and downhill.”
For the same reason, hiking can lead to better balance, stability and coordination, particularly if you’re hiking a mountain where you may need to do some climbing.
“When you’re going up from one piece of rock to the next on your hands and feet, you’re essentially using your whole body, which really improves your balance,” said Conor Benoit, New Hampshire outdoor guide and owner of CMB Guide Service.
Hiking can also be a great workout for cardio and weight loss, depending on your pace and how rigorous the trail is. You could burn as much as 3,000 calories in a day of hiking, Villeneuve said, not only from the physical exertion but also from your body’s work to regulate your body temperature.
“If it’s hot or cold out, your body is going to burn more calories,” she said.
If you wear a backpack to carry some extra water, snacks and emergency supplies — which you should — that will also enhance your workout, Benoit said.
“A few pounds on your back may not sound like much, but by the time you [finish the hike] you’re definitely going to feel it,” he said.
Unlike working out on an exercise machine that you can turn off at any point, “you can’t just quit halfway” during a hike, Benoit said, which can help you push yourself to new physical limits. Setting a goal with a tangible reward, like reaching an interesting landmark or a place with beautiful scenery, can also motivate you to keep going.
“I’ve seen people consistently impressed with how far they are able to make it,” Benoit said. “When you make that commitment to yourself and have the mindset of ‘I’m so close; just a little farther,’ you see that you can accomplish more than you originally thought was possible.”
Hiking is good not just for the body but also for the mind, Villeneuve said. To get the most out of your hike, she recommends making a conscious effort to “be in the present moment,” push away thoughts about what you’ve got going on back home, and home in on your natural surroundings.
“You need to practice having awareness,” she said. “Use all of your senses to take it in: smell the fresh air; feel the temperature of the air; see the views that are right in front of you.”
Conversely, you could use hiking as an opportunity to “reflect [on] and process” things that have been on your mind, away from technology and other distractions, Benoit said, so that you can return to your home and work life with renewed energy and focus.
“That physical and mental exhaustion really sets you up to be more clear-headed throughout the week,” he said. “You leave [the hike] with less than what you carried in, feeling mentally lighter.”
Fall in line
Hiking safely as summer winds down
By Matt Ingersoll mingersoll@hippopress.com
Photo courtesy of Jake King of Thrive Outdoors in Manchester.
Crisp weather and colorful foliage are great reasons to hit the hiking trails this fall — as long as you’re prepared for a change in the seasons that will bring shorter days and cooler temperatures.
“Fall is my favorite season to hike in behind winter. You don’t have to worry quite as much about sweating and losing all of your moisture,” said Jake King of Thrive Outdoors, a team-building and leadership assessment organization based in Manchester. “At the same time, fall nights get much cooler. … So if you’re stuck, any perspiration or moisture you have is now going to be used against you, whereas in the summer it really does help you cool off.”
One of the most important things to keep in mind when hiking in the fall is that the later in the season, the quicker it will get dark out. With however many hours of daylight you have, King said a good rule of thumb is to give yourself a third of it to get in and two thirds to get out.
“Always give yourself that extra time on the way out,” he said. “A lot of people will like to split it 50/50, thinking they’re going to get out just as quickly as they went in, but then if something goes south, you have no time to play with. … Remember that it’s going to get darker sooner, and then as soon as it does it’s going to get cooler.”
Rick Silverberg, chairman and leadership training coordinator of the Appalachian Mountain Club’s New Hampshire chapter, said the differences in elevation also play a role, as you’re more likely to encounter exposed areas above the trees.
“As soon as you get into those higher elevations, the temperatures get colder … [and] you have a lot more wind,” he said. “In the fall it’s much more dramatic.”
You don’t always have to start your hike dressed in layers. In fact, King said it’s much easier to control your body temperature level by layering up rather than down.
“You should always have a base layer … that sits up against the skin but isn’t too tight, and then a mid-layer and top layer that is wind- and water-resistant,” he said. “Don’t start with all of them on, though. Even if it’s a bit chilly, don’t start warm, because you may find that you’re overheating and once you start sweating, it’s too late. … You’ve broken that seal, so to speak.”
Early on in the fall, you won’t typically encounter a lot of frost. But as the season gets deeper into October and November, morning frost on certain surfaces has the potential to be hazardous.
“A frosty rock can be slippery,” King said. “The other thing to remember is if it starts to warm up during the day, then frost is going to turn into moisture, which is what you want to avoid.”
It’s good to remain mindful too of when specific trails or parks close for the season, which can be any time from mid-September to November depending on where you go.
If you’re heading out for views of the foliage, Silverberg said peak times of the year will differ in the state — far northern areas will usually see their peak a few weeks earlier than those in the south. It will also get colder at night much faster after all the leaves fall from the trees.
Tough but doable
A few challenging, family-friendly hikes
By Meghan Siegler msiegler@hippopress.com
If you’re not ready to tackle the state’s 4,000-footers but want to take a real hike — as opposed to a walk on a rail trail that you could do wearing flip-flops — here are a few peaks in southern New Hampshire.
Mt. Monadnock. Photo courtesy of Matt Ingersoll.
Mount Monadnock, Jaffrey
There are a few ways to get to the top of Mount Monadnock, which stands at 3,165 feet — and none of them is a walk in the park. According to nhstateparks.com, “all routes to the top are steep and rocky.” There are three main access points. Monadnock HQ (169 Poole Road), which provides access to the main trails and is the most direct route to the top, and Old Toll Road (9 Halfway House Road), which provides access to many side trails and alternative destinations, are both 4-mile hikes that take approximately four hours to complete. Gilson Pond (585 Dublin Road) is a longer, less populated trail for hikers who are looking for solitude; it’s 6 miles and takes about six hours.
What it’s really like: “I was probably 12 or 13 years old the first time I climbed Mt. Monadnock, but I’ve seen kids and adults young and old successfully scale it. It’s a perfect moderately challenging day hike that will take you no more than a few hours each way up and down. What’s great about it is that, unlike having just one route to the top and one back down to the bottom, there are multiple inter-connecting trails of varying difficulty that you can take, all of which are very clearly marked and easy to follow. The shortest and simplest ones are probably either the White Dot Trail or the White Cross Trail. The White Dot has a very gradual level of steepness that starts to get a bit rockier near the top, but once you reach past the treelines, the views on a clear day are breathtaking. Personally, I like to go up via the White Dot and down via the White Cross, because the latter trail is a little bit steeper and will make for a quicker descent.” — Matt Ingersoll
If you go: Reservations are strongly recommended in order to secure a parking spot at any of the three trailheads. Visitors who do not make a reservation will be admitted on a first come, first served basis. Reservations can be made prior to arrival and no later than 3 p.m. that day at nhstateparks.org. The parking pass costs $15 and includes admission for six people in one vehicle.
Mount Kearsarge, Wilmot & Warner
To get to the summit of Mount Kearsarge, which stands at 2,937 feet and features a fire tower and bald face that offers 360-degree views, there are a few options. From Winslow State Park in Wilmot, there are two trails: the 1.1-mile Winslow Trail and the 1.7-mile Barlow Trail. The former is the more challenging option, while the latter is a more gradual climb and offers vistas of the Andover area, Ragged Mountain and Mount Cardigan. The trailhead has a good-sized picnic area and a playground for kids. The Rollins Trail begins at the picnic area in Rollins State Park in Warner and follows the route of the old carriage road for a half mile to the summit. You could also start at the Lincoln Trail at Kearsarge Valley Road, a 5-mile trail that climbs to the Rollins picnic area.
What it’s really like: “I’ve climbed Kearsarge several times with people of varying levels of fitness. I like that you can go up one main trail and down another so you’re getting different views throughout the hike, and saving your knees from the steeper Winslow Trail if you tackle that first and come down the gentler Barlow Trail. My teenagers both enjoyed this hike, though my daughter kept leaving my son and me in the dust, both on the way up and the way down, and we weren’t exactly taking our time. It definitely feels like a workout on the way up, and I’ve stopped for a few quick breathers no matter who I’ve hiked with. The view at the top is nice, though not quite as spectacular as Mount Major’s, in my opinion.” — Meghan Siegler
If you go: Reservations are strongly recommended and can be made online at nhstateparks.org. Parking is limited, but walk-in spaces are available on a first come, first served basis. Admission is $4 for adults, $2 for children 6 to 11, and free for kids 5 and under and New Hampshire residents who are 65 and older.
Mount Major, Alton
The 1.5-mile Mt. Major Trail begins at a parking area on Route 11 in Alton. The trail ascends a steep, severely eroded section and has some steep scrambles near the top. At 1.3 miles there are two alternate routes, one that forks to the right and climbs up steep ledges (potentially dangerous when wet or icy), and a detour that diverges left. The Brook Trail is 1.7 miles and begins at the junction of Mt. Major Trail and Belknap Range Trail. Aptly named, this trail features two brook crossings in higher water where “some very creative rock hopping is required to keep your feet dry,” according to belknaprangetrails.org. From there on the grade alternates between easy and moderate. The Boulder Loop Trail starts at the trailhead parking area on Route 11 and offers a somewhat gentler climb, with portions of it being part of a snowmobile trail. It features large boulders that you pass by and sometimes go through. At the summit, you’ll find the remnants of the George Phippen hut built in 1925.
What it’s really like: “First, the views at the top are amazing, looking out onto Lake Winnipesaukee, so it’s a well-worth-it reward for a hike that’s particularly tough at the end. I’ve done this one a few times, and my kids have been there more than once for summer camp field trips. There are moments during the climb where I wondered how kids managed to make it to the top; it’s certainly not easy. But it’s also a pretty popular hike — during the summer the parking lot is almost always overflowing, with cars parked along the main road, so if you’re not a fan of crowds, try to save this one for a weekday.” — Meghan Siegler
If you go: There’s no fee to climb Mount Major or to park; just be prepared to walk quite a ways from your car to the trailhead on a nice summer day when cars spill out onto the road.
Mount Sunapee, Newbury
The summit of Mount Sunapee, with an elevation of 2,743 feet, can be reached via ski trails or a number of hiking trails, including Summit, Lake Solitude and Newbury. According to mountsunapee.com, you can also hike any of the ski trails during the summer. Summit is a 2-mile trail at the lodge at Mount Sunapee. The Lake Solitude trail starts east of the summit, and it’s about a mile to White Ledges, which overlooks Lake Solitude. From there, Lake Solitude is a 0.6-mile hike from the overlook. The 2-mile Newbury Trail continues from Solitude Trail and does not return to the ski area base. The trailhead is near the southern end of Lake Sunapee off Route 103 in the village of Newbury, approximately 3 miles from Mount Sunapee Resort.
What it’s really like: “I just hiked Mount Sunapee for the first time a few weeks ago, and I’m not sure what took me so long to get there. Summit Trail is beautiful, although after all the rain we’d had earlier this summer, there were quite a few muddy spots. There were also some steep-ish ascents that had my quads burning, but those were nicely balanced with less intense stretches of trail. When we crested the summit, the view was a little underwhelming, and the ski lodge seemed out of place (I don’t ski and apparently had no idea what happens at the top of a ski mountain). However, a little exploration led to a gorgeous view of Lake Sunapee and the quaint little towns around it. I do wish we’d had enough time to check out Lake Solitude, but it gives me a good reason to go back soon.” — Meghan Siegler
If you go: There are no parking or hiking fees here, and parking at the resort is plentiful for an easy in, easy out day hike.
Treks and Trails
Jake King of Thrive Outdoors in Manchester shares some of his favorite hikes to take during peak fall foliage season.
• Manchester Cedar Swamp Preserve (Country Side Blvd., near Waterford Way, Manchester) • Massabesic Audubon Center Trails (26 Audubon Way, Auburn): “For people who haven’t really gotten out into the wilderness a lot, it’s a good starter experience. It’s flat and easy.” • Nottingcook Forest (Woodhill Hooksett Road and South Bow Road, Bow) • Uncanoonuc Mountains (Mountain Road, Goffstown): “On Uncanoonuc North, you can see bits and pieces of Manchester surrounded by trees, and in the fall, it’s a beautiful sight.” • Welch-Dickey Mountain Trail (Orris Road, Thornton)
Featured photo: Mt. Major in May 2017. Photo courtesy of Matt Ingersoll.
Information from the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services
Covid-19 news
State health officials announced 213 new positive cases of Covid-19 in New Hampshire on Aug. 30. The state averaged 336 new cases per day over the most recent seven-day period, an increase of 26 percent over those from the previous week. As of Aug. 30, there were 2,927 active infections statewide and 119 current hospitalizations due to the virus. All 10 counties in the state remain at substantial levels of community transmission.
On Aug. 30, Gov. Chris Sununu, along with several other state officials and a few hospital CEOs, traveled to Kentucky for an “on-the-ground perspective on lessons learned and best practices” in one of the hardest-hit states in the country by the pandemic. According to a press release, the group met with health care officials at Frankfort Regional Medical Center and the University of Louisville’s Hospital, while Sununu also met with Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear to hear about how the state is handling its most recent Covid surge.
PUA lawsuit
Last week a lawsuit was filed against Gov. Chris Sununu’s administration for prematurely cutting off federal unemployment benefits available under the CARES Act, according to a press release. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of four plaintiffs in the Hillsborough County South Superior Court and seeks a declaratory ruling and injunctive relief to reinstate the benefits. New Hampshire is the 15th state to file a lawsuit against a Republican governor for prematurely ending Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, the release said, and in four of those states plaintiffs have been reinstated with their federally guaranteed assistance and have been granted back-pay by the courts. The Pandemic Unemployment Assistance covers workers who are not eligible for regular unemployment insurance benefits, such as self-employed people, independent contractors and gig workers. The four plaintiffs are Cassandra Caron of Manchester, Brandon Dean of Dover, Alison Petrowski of Manchester, and Aaron Shelton of Merrimack, according to the release, and they are being represented by Mike Perez of Perez Legal. “Pandemic Unemployment Assistance was created to help people with careers and businesses that were interrupted because of the pandemic, and who otherwise would not be eligible for the typical unemployment benefits,” Perez said in the release. “Neither state nor federal law gives New Hampshire Employment Security the authority to abandon PUA before it expires. … We did ask New Hampshire Employment Security to reinstate PUA before filing suit, but we have not heard back from them in response to that request.”
Law enforcement laws
Last week, Gov. Chris Sununu signed three reforms that arose from the New Hampshire Commission on Law Enforcement Accountability, Community, and Transparency: HB 471, relative to police disciplinary hearings and authorizing the Department of Justice to maintain an exculpatory evidence schedule; HB 530, relative to candidate background checks for law enforcement officers; and SB 96, relative to establishing a body-worn and in-car camera fund, amending juvenile delinquency proceedings and transfers to superior court, and establishing committees to study the role and scope of authority of school resource officers and the collection of race and ethnicity data on state identification cards, according to a press release. Regarding the latter, Senate Judiciary Committee members Sen. Becky Whitley (D-Hopkinton) and Sen. Jay Kahn (D-Keene) issued the following statement: “It is unfortunate that Senate Republicans drastically narrowed the scope of this legislation, removing key elements such as data collection and mandatory judicial trainings regarding implicit bias and racial profiling, two key recommendations from the LEACT Commission.”
Energy bills
Last week Sununu also signed HB 315, which raises the net metering cap for local renewable energy projects including hydro and solar, and SB 91, adopting omnibus legislation on renewable energy and utilities, according to a press release. “We now have the opportunity to take control of our local energy future,” Kelly Buchanan, Director of Regulatory Affairs for Clean Energy NH, said in the release. “HB315 is a common-sense piece of legislation that opens the door to expanding clean energy development, new investments, and new jobs.” Clean Energy NH worked with municipal members and partners to support this legislation, which the group said will keep energy dollars local, lower rates for residents, businesses and the public sector, and keep New Hampshire competitive in the expanding clean energy economy, according to the release.
Concord has been recognized as a Bronze NH Veteran-Friendly Business — the first municipality in the state to receive this designation, according to a press release. The NH Veteran-Friendly Business Recognition Program highlights businesses that value contributions of service members, veterans and their families; support military and veteran families by identifying veteran-friendly businesses; and help match veterans with positions in New Hampshire businesses, the release said.
Makers are still welcome to apply to take part in the annual NH Maker Fest, which is happening Saturday, Sept. 18, at the Children’s Museum of New Hampshire in Dover. According to a press release, the day-long festival invites all ages to explore the creativity and ingenuity of area makers, hobbyists, artisans, performers and more. Interested makers have the option of participating virtually through pre-recorded videos, online workshops, blogs and more, the release said.
The Manchester School District held an opening ceremony for the renovated stadium at Memorial High School Aug. 27. According to a press release, all Memorial athletics teams were in uniform and on the field for the ribbon-cutting, which was followed by a boys soccer game.
Latitude Learning Resources, a nonprofit that offers learning options for homeschoolers and after-school activities for all students, has opened in Derry with individual classes like home-school gym, grammar and math foundations for elementary-aged kids and Spanish, art, economics, philosophy, New Hampshire history and computer programming for older students, according to a press release. There are also cooperative learning options like Lego engineering, yoga, geography, dance, civics, politics, Shakespeare, creative writing and immersive history, and after-school activities like theater, Quest Scouting and a tween girl club, the release said.
Our first three kids went off to college pre-pandemic, so my husband and I were pretty well practiced in that transition. But No. 4’s drop-off in 2020 was like no other. First stop was a huge tent where students had Covid nose swabs. Next we drove to a parking lot behind her dorm. Per emailed instructions, she unloaded her gear at precisely 2:30 p.m. and hauled it up to her third-floor room. By herself. In contrast, I remember fluffing the comforter on my firstborn’s dorm bed. Luckily, the email had warned her to bring only what she could carry, in case the college had to shut down. Still wearing her mask, my sweet youngest waved to me from her window.
That’s it. I drove away.
Whatever my daughter was experiencing, for me one of the biggest contrasts to her brothers’ drop-offs was the lack of ceremony. By that I mean everything from quirky customs introducing students to school culture to formal events with inspiring speeches. These practices eased the 18-year-olds into college and the parents out of micromanagement. At one school, cheering upperclassmen sporting logo garb lined the drive onto campus. At another, we were invited to attend a mass — followed by cocktails. Long ago at my own university, the “Freshman Assembly” included faculty in academic robes and the glee club. (Watch The Chair on Netflix.)
Historically, colleges and universities have been particularly partial to formal celebrations but ceremony is important in many spheres. Ceremony is how society marks transitions and gives meaning to life. Think baptisms, first day of school, bar and bat mitzvahs, graduations, weddings, anniversaries, retirements, funerals. So many of these events had to be put off during the pandemic. Some were rescheduled. Others were reshaped, still marking an occasion but perhaps not serving the original purpose. Our high school seniors instituted a car parade that has become fun for young families and empty-nesters to watch. But a memorial service months after a loved one’s death doesn’t help start the grieving process. Grief doesn’t wait. Nor does business. No matter how long or how much an employee has contributed to an organization, a goodbye party really has to take place when the separation occurs. Those who remain get back to work.
Despite the delta variant, this fall, with all its back-to-school optimism, is a good time to acknowledge some of the transitions that went unmarked last year. Did a colleague, teacher or coach retire without fanfare? Did a new generation become the oldest in their family? What about our 20-somethings, forging their way as adults in this confusing, divided time? I think they deserve recognition. We need a Forward-in-Life ceremony.
Though he started two bands that found international renown and still tour decades later, David Lowery is an atypical rock star. He’s a trained mathematician who wrote code in Silicon Valley during its command line days, and he’s now a senior lecturer on business at the University of Georgia.
Lowery is also an erudite defender of artists’ rights who successfully spearheaded a class action suit against Spotify, and went before Congress to slam the federal government’s arcane Copyright Royalty Board, which sets streaming payments. In his view, the agency is captive to the industry it’s supposed to regulate.
“They’re saying, ‘we’re able to give music cheaply to consumers,’ but it’s literally starving the music ecosystem,” Lowery said in a recent phone interview. “Either the board that sets the rate needs to be completely overhauled, with new rules set for it, or the whole thing just needs to be abolished, because it’s what people would call crony capitalism at its worst.”
Musicians at his level, playing for 1,000 fans or less most nights, exemplify the gig economy, Lowery told the Radikaal podcast in June, cobbling together multiple jobs in the industry. His first foray as a performer was anything but ambitious; Lowery joked about Camper van Beethoven’s unexpected breakthrough in “Mom I’m Living the Life, 1981,” from his new album In the Shadow of the Bull.
“I had a band / it was a joke,” he sings, “then it was not / we got some real gigs / in San Francisco.”
Offbeat songs like “Take the Skinheads Bowling” and “ZZ Top Goes To Egypt” earned CVB a cult following that carried them away from their Northern California punk rock beginnings. It dissolved in 1990; he formed Cracker with Johnny Hickman, the name a nod to Lowery’s Georgia roots, and released a slew of country-leaning alt-rock hits led by “Low” and “Get Off This.”
Cracker tops a bill with the percussive Entrain and rootsy Muddy Ruckus at the upcoming Gate City Music Fest on Aug. 27 at Nashua’s Holman Stadium. The current touring band includes Hickman and a pair of players from their 2014 album Berkeley to Bakersfield. Lowery said recent set lists reflect a musical dichotomy.
“We are doing this tour with kind of the band that did the country disc, but they’re actually pretty much rock players,” he said. “So it goes from rock to sort of our pseudo soul or pseudo blues rock and then to the country stuff. It’s all over the place.”
The snarky definition of Cracker’s non-genre reflects “our unique stamp,” Lowery said. “We’re not trying to do exactly soul, or exactly blues rock, or any of these things. We’re borrowing parts, and bringing it into our format.”
Lately, they’ve twanged up a few songs from their nascent Bay Area days.
“Some of them fit really nicely into what we’re doing; adding the pedal steel to it, the songs are a little different,” Lowery said, adding that a reworked version of “Skinheads” will probably be ready for the Nashua show.
“The early straight-ahead simple Camper van Beethoven songs ended up being pretty interesting,” he said. “We try to play a good cross-section of stuff from across our catalog. We don’t leave out the hits.”
He’s keen to hit the road after the pandemic stopped the world for over a year, even more so because his wife is a promoter who books Atlanta’s 40 Watt nightclub and other venues.
“Here’s a lesson I told my kids — never marry someone in the same business you’re in,” Lowery said. “If things go wrong, everybody’s screwed. It was pretty crazy for us, because there were no concerts. She’s only really going back on salary Sept. 1, basically 18 months with no work. … We really had to get clever.”
Gate City Music Fest When: Friday, Aug. 27, 3 p.m. Where: Holman Stadium, 67 Amherst St., Nashua Tickets: $25/reserved seat, $150/six-person pod at gatecitybrewfestnh.com
There are millions of stories in the drowned city and Hugh Jackman is privy to many of them via his special memory machine in Reminiscence, a stylish and boring film noir.
Nick Bannister (Jackman) is like a PI of your mind. With the help of his coworker/longtime friend Watts (Thandiwe Newton), he hooks his clients up to a mind-visualization-thingy to help them go back to a memory — the memory of a person who is no longer around, the memory of where they last saw something they lost, the memory of happier times. (While they remember, Nick can also see the memory.) And the past seems like the place where people find more happiness than in the present (which is sometime in the nonspecific future), where rising seas have half-submerged the city of Miami and people seem to be forever sloshing through water. Some sunken buildings have become a kind of Venice-y city of water taxis; some places are behind dams but still constantly damp. There was a war, troubles at the border and now people seem to live in a kind of haunted state.
When Mae (Rebecca Ferguson), styled as sort of a live-action Jessica Rabbit, comes into Nick’s business, she isn’t looking to dwell in some dry and sunny past — she just wants to go back a day or two to figure out where her lost keys are. But something about her captivates Nick and he finds himself hanging out in her memory, watching her sing an American songbook classic “Where or When,” a song that takes him back to happier days. He quickly falls in love (or lust or plot contrivance) with Mae, only to find himself bereft when she suddenly vanishes. Where did she go? Why hasn’t she contacted him? Who was she really? These are the questions that drive Nick back through his own memories even though there is a danger in always lingering in the past.
Reminiscence is very pretty to look at with its watery city, where daytime heat is so hot that people now sleep during the day and live their lives at night. It is the perfect setting for this kind of tale — all grizzled detective-type, mysterious lady, shady and desperate people in a fallen world. Unfortunately, this particular tale just never clicked together for me. I found myself way more interested in all the peripherals — the wars, the soggy state of the world, the public transportation that is suddenly everywhere, the nighttime existence, the state of the justice system, Thandiwe Newton’s character — than I ever was in Jackman’s and Ferguson’s characters, who have very superficial “hot people in a perfume commercial” chemistry but very little person-to-person chemistry. The stylized setting, all 1930s gumshoe grit, is also fun but requires a lot of mental effort to tamp down all the “but why” and “but what about” questions it gins up — a state of things that I feel wouldn’t be so pronounced if the central plot and its core relationship was more interesting.
Reminiscence has potential but it quickly turns into a slow and tedious soggy slog. C
Rated PG-13 for strong violence, drug material throughout, sexual content and some strong language, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Written and directed by Lisa Joy, Reminiscence is an hour and 56 minutes long and distributed by Warner Bros. in theaters and on HBO Max.
Paw Patrol: The Movie (G)
Human boy Ryder and his team of talking pups head to the metropolis of Adventure City to put an end to Mayor Humdinger’s tomfoolery in Paw Patrol: The Movie, a more fancily animated, feature-length adventure of the Nick Jr. series’ characters.
This movie is roughly three-Paw Patrol-episodes in length — “one Paw Patrol” being a standardized unit of time measurement in my house as it likely is in many houses for whom Paw Patrol is on regular TV-watching rotation. As several special episodes of the show have, this movie introduces a new pup character in a kind of extended universe location. Most episodes of the show take place in Adventure Bay, a vaguely northern California-ish town on the ocean (where there are sometimes pirates) and that is within driving distance of a snowy mountain range and a jungle and sometimes they fly to a London-like city-state called Barkingburg that has a monarchy. Also there’s a dinosaur land, I think? I’m not always watching super closely; I am not the intended audience.
This movie is the first time, as far as I can remember, that the Paw Patrol (as the six core pups and the human, elementary-school-ish aged boy Ryder are known) has ventured to Adventure City. Ryder (voice of Will Brisbin) is the leader of this rescue-team of pups: police dog Chase (voice of Iain Armitage), fire dog Marshall (voice of Kingsley Marshall), bulldozer-driving dog Rubble (voice of Keegan Hedley), recycling/fix-it dog Rocky (voice of Callum Shoniker), water rescue dog Zuma (voice of Shayle Simons) and pilot dog Skye (voice of Lilly Bartlam), who was the only girl pup for a while. Even if you’ve never seen the show, you’ve probably still seen the pups — as the movie itself jokes, pretty much any kid item (lunch boxes, band-aids, T-shirts and, of course, so many toys) has a licensed Paw Patrol version. Each pup has their own special vehicle and their own colors — so that whatever your toddler-through-elementary-schooler’s interest/favorite color, there is a pup (and accompanying merchandise) for them.
Mayor Humdinger (voice of Ron Pardo, who also does the Cap’n Turbot voice) is the series’ most frequent baddie — though like all the “villains” of Paw Patrol he is not so much bad as inept, inconsiderate and vain. Here, he and his band of self-absorbed cats have apparently relocated from Foggy Bottom (the town he’s usually referred to as the mayor of) to Adventure City, where he has become the mayor sort of by accident. Now, this dog-disliking buffoon is poised to cause all sorts of mayhem in the city, from locking up every dog his henchmen (voiced by Randall Park and Dax Shepard) can find to trying to make the subway more adventurous by adding a shoddily constructed roller coaster loop-the-loop. This is why Liberty (voice of Marsai Martin), a friendly neighborhood helper-pup who lives in Adventure City, calls on the Paw Patrol to come and save the day.
Some of the TV show’s episodes will have a particular pup as the focus; here, that’s Chase, who is given a backstory of being found and adopted by Ryder when he was a young, scared pup wandering Adventure City. Returning to the city brings up all sorts of anxieties and the movie has a subplot about Chase learning to face his fear. This isn’t Sesame Street-level “learning to deal with emotions” stuff. When my kids first started venturing beyond PBS Kids’ programming to watch Paw Patrol I found the show loud and shallow when it came to messaging. But it’s fine, the pups are nice and nice to each other, and consideration for friends and the greater public is a much-lauded quality in the show. And it’s 30 minutes of entertainment/distraction, which is always appreciated.
This movie hits all those similar points to me, which is to say, this movie didn’t wow me (which, I suspect, who cares if it wows anybody over the age of 8 or 9) but is totally fine. The “dealing with fear” stuff is unobjectionable, if very thinly drawn. Humdinger is goofy rather than evil. Liberty is a solid additional Paw Patrol member/licensable character. She is a spunky, can-do pup (they’re all spunky, can-do pups), and she gets a spiffy motorcycle (and, yes, both a toy and a Halloween costume for her character are already available for purchase). My kids watched the movie with interest throughout. While I (a person seeing this movie for work) stayed awake through the whole movie, you (a parent who just needs a break) could definitely sleep while your kids watched it (either in one of those big reclining theater chairs or in the comfort of your own couch, as it has been released simultaneously in theaters and on Paramount+). Or read a magazine, or catch up on dishes — just as you probably do while your kids watch the Paw Patrol TV show.
Paw Patrol: The Movie “basically the show, but three times as long” is probably the best review, heck the only review, it needs. B
Rated G. Directed by Andrew Hickson and Cal Brunker with a screenplay by Billy Frolick and Cal Brunker & Bob Barlen, Paw Patrol: The Movie is an hour and 28 minutes long and is distributed by Paramount Pictures in theaters and on Paramount+.
Red River Theatres 11 S. Main St., Concord 224-4600, redrivertheatres.org
Rex Theatre 23 Amherst St., Manchester 668-5588, palacetheatre.org
Wilton Town Hall Theatre 40 Main St., Wilton wiltontownhalltheatre.com, 654-3456
Shows
• Gremlins (PG, 1984) at Rex Theatre on Wednesday, Aug. 25, 7 p.m.with a portion of the proceeds going to Motley Mutts Rescue. Tickets $12.
• Back to the Future (PG, 1985) screening at Chunky’s in Manchester, Nashua and Pelham on Wednesday, Aug. 25, at 7 p.m. Tickets cost $4.99.
• 21+ Screening of Back to the Future (PG, 1985) at Chunky’s in Manchester, Nashua and Pelham on Thursday, Aug. 26, at 7 p.m. Tickets cost $4.99 and a Back to the Future themed cocktail will be for sale.
• Together (R, 2021) screening at Red River Theatres in Concord Friday, Aug. 27, through Sunday, Aug. 29, at 1, 4:15 & 7:30 p.m.
• Stillwater (R, 2021) screening at Red River Theatres in Concord Friday, Aug. 27, through Sunday, Aug. 29, at 12:30, 3:45 & 7 p.m.
• Womanhandled(1925) andGo West (1925) silent film Westerns with live musical accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis, on Sunday, Aug. 29, 2 p.m. at Wilton Town Hall Theatres. Screenings are free but a $10 donation per person is suggested.
• Theater Candy Bingo on Sunday, Aug. 29, at 6:30 p.m. at Chunky’s in Pelham. Admission costs $4.99 plus a box of candy.
• The Shakedown (1929), a silent film with live musical accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis, on Thursday, Sept. 9, at 6:30 p.m. at the Flying Monkey in Plymouth. Tickets start at $10.
• Clifford the Big Red Dog (PG, 2021) sensory-friendly screening, with sound lowered and lights up, on Saturday, Sept. 18, 10 a.m. at O’neil Cinema in Epping.
• Hedwig and the Angry Inch (R, 2001) at Rex Theatre on Tuesday, Sept. 21, at 7 p.m. with a portion of the proceeds going to Motley Mutts Rescue. Tickets cost $12.
• National Theatre Live Follies,a broadcast of a play from London’s National Theatre, screening at the Bank of NH Stage in Concord on Sunday, Oct. 3, at 12:30 p.m. Tickets cost $15 ($12 for students).
• National Theatre Live Cyrano de Bergerac, a broadcast of a play from London’s National Theatre, screening at the Bank of NH Stage in Concord on Sunday, Oct. 17, at 12:30 p.m. Tickets cost $15 ($12 for students).
• Frankenweenie (PG, 2012) at the Rex Theatre on Sunday, Oct. 17, 7 p.m. with a portion of the proceeds going to Motley Mutts Rescue. Tickets cost $12.
• The Nightmare Before Christmas (PG, 1993) at the Rex Theatre on Monday, Oct. 18, 7 p.m. with a portion of the proceeds going to Motley Mutts Rescue. Tickets cost $12.
Bartenders talk about serving cocktails in 2021, plus what trends are in the mix
Dan Haggerty and Jeremy Hart weren’t sure what to expect as they prepared to open their new craft cocktail bar and eatery in early February. Although vaccine rollouts were well underway, New Hampshire remained under a state of emergency, with the statewide mask mandate still in effect and spacing restrictions at bars and restaurants in nearly every county.
Three nights into the bartending duo’s first week open at Industry East Bar in downtown Manchester, a friend came in to visit — and later ended up jumping behind the bar herself.
“She was just in the bar checking it out and she goes, ‘It’s really busy. If you guys need any help…’ and so then I was like, ‘Can you come in tomorrow?’” Haggerty said. “So she became kind of our barback and food runner for a little bit, just by being there.”
Jeremy Hart, bartender and co-owner of Industry East Bar in Manchester. Photo by Live Free or Die Design Photography @livefreeordiedesignphoto.
When the last of the restrictions were lifted early in the spring, “it was like the floodgates opened,” according to Haggerty, with a constant turnaround of thirsty customers that dwarfed even what he, Hart and executive chef Jeff Martin saw during their first few weeks. He can count on one hand the number of times that Industry East has closed early, at or before midnight.
“I didn’t think that people would consume as much product as they are consuming,” Haggerty said. “I don’t know if it was just because all they had been spending money on was Amazon and takeout, and so they were like, ‘Oh my God, I’m at a bar, and someone’s actually making me a drink,’ [but] people are consuming food and drink at an insane pace right now.”
In spite of their immediate success, the small team has also encountered challenges along the way, from finding adequate staffing to acquiring quality products for drinks.
Bar managers and bartenders of both new and established restaurants have faced all kinds of similar obstacles over the year and a half that continue to linger today. We spoke with several of them to get a sense of what life has been like behind the bar.
Setting the bar
Kellie Connolly, bar manager at the Copper Door Restaurant in Bedford, was out of work for about three weeks during the initial pandemic shutdown. She returned to a bar that was rendered completely unrecognizable, transformed instead into a “conveyor belt” for takeout orders.
“All of the alcohol was off the bar. Everything had been boxed up and stored away,” Connolly said of the early months of the pandemic. “The beer coolers and wine fridges were full because [we] were now able to utilize those in a takeout fashion. … But besides that, it was an empty hub, no longer anything of what you would have seen at a bar. It was very bizarre.”
Connolly was part of a small team of staff that were brought back originally and included both bartenders and servers. But with no bar in the traditional sense, there was no cocktail mixing.
“No longer were you a bartender. You were just a man on the team and it was everyone in and everyone out. That was kind of the mentality of it,” she said. “We all had positions, whether it was answering phones, running takeout orders, or doing the cleaning. It was all hands on deck.”
The bar would eventually see its alcohol replenished with the return of indoor and outdoor dining. Social distancing restrictions, however, required the Copper Door to use only half of its bar seats, with dividers placed between pairs. But even then, only parties of guests who came to the bar together were able to be in adjacent seats — unless the dividers moved, a single person sitting in one chair would make the chair beside it unusable.
“You could slide a seat down and make a three-person section, [but] you couldn’t move the chairs from one side to the other,” Connolly said. “It was like a game of Tetris, just constant moving. … Reintroducing people to the new landscape and just explaining everything to them how we were doing things was also a big part of the job.”
Bar seats were similarly spaced out at Shopper’s Pub + Eatery in Manchester, which originally closed for about a month and a half, according to general manager Nick Carnes.
“When we initially reopened indoors, we started with about five of our 16 bar and waitstaff,” he said, “and then it was just a solid six-month stretch where it was just myself and one other person every day, all day open to close, just trying to grind everything out by ourselves.”
Spacing is already an inherent challenge at Industry East with only 20 indoor seats. Carnes noted that, with the Residence Inn by Marriott hotel directly next door, Shopper’s tends to see an influx of customers who are traveling for work during the week. Especially in the early days of the pandemic, this meant out-of-staters who were essential travelers.
“Every now and then, you’d have one guy that doesn’t know anybody that just flew into town, he’d sit down and take up three seats [at the bar], and then nobody could sit in those other two seats,” he said. “So it was a mixture of making sure you could come out and have a good night … while keeping everyone else safe and making sure nobody else got sick.”
But overall, Haggerty said the consensus among patrons has been one of both positivity and gratitude.
“I think 99 percent [have been] happy, fun-loving people, being almost extra nice,” he said. “Generally, pretty much everyone is like, ‘Hey, I’m so glad that your profession is still a thing and you guys are open. Thanks so much.’ … But I mean, only a certain percentage of the population is still even coming out. We get people in here every single day that say this is the first place they’ve gone since last March.”
The “Vax.” pictured with Madears co-owner, chef and mixologist Robb Curry, has carrot juice, orange juice, ginger, lemon juice and a simple syrup, and includes a side of either tequila or brandy to “inject” into it. Courtesy photo.
Similarly, the new location of Madear’s Southern Eatery & Bakery in downtown Pembroke that opened last October has introduced many more people in the area to the eatery’s scratch-made Southern concept. Co-owner, chef and mixologist Robb Curry said he and partner Kyle Davis now have a much larger kitchen and bar, as well as nearly twice the dining room capacity as their predecessor on Hanover Street in Manchester.
“For the most part, our guests have been very respectful and understanding,” Curry said of the overall response so far. “I do also see that people at the bar tend to be a lot more understanding because they see more of what’s going on between the kitchen and the front of the house.”
Regulars were also happy to return to the bar at Stella Blu in Nashua when it reopened last year.
“We … had to put time limits in place, but we weren’t having to really use them or say it to people,” front-of-the-house manager and bartender Elissa Drift said. “They were definitely respectful enough to kind of just go with the flow.”
While the Copper Door has steadily maintained a loyal clientele, Connolly said she has noticed a shift in bargoers’ overall habits within the last year to year and a half.
“Happy Hour starts a lot earlier now,” she said. “Normally that was around 4:30, 5 o’clock, but now it’s at 2:30 or 3. … What was the quieter time is now full of people that are just done with working at their house and are coming out for that afternoon cocktail. At least in this area, I feel like the whole flow has altered a little bit.”
Thirsty trends
Since Industry East opened its doors earlier this year, Haggerty has noticed distinct trends in the types of cocktails being ordered.
“The espresso martini is back in full force. I think I’ve made more espresso martinis in the last six months than I’ve made in the last three years,” he said. “A ton of people are ordering cosmos too. … All of those older drinks that kind of went away after the early to mid-2000s, when the craft cocktail movement had a boom, are now back.”
There has also been a significant boom in tequila-based cocktails, and not just because it’s summer. The most popular specialty drink currently on Industry East’s menu is known as the C.R.E.A.M. (as Haggerty explains, an acronym standing for “Cucumber Rules Everything Around Me”). That drink features a cucumber shrub and tequila base with lemon juice, a little bit of jalapeno to offset its sweetness and a cucumber ribbon garnish with salt and pepper.
“Even in February when we opened … everybody has been way into tequila. I can’t explain it,” Haggerty said. “I think maybe a lot of people are just getting into it that maybe hadn’t been, or they were just like, ‘You know what, I’m really tired of drinking vodka.’ … People will drink tequila on the rocks. I’ve also seen people get tequila old-fashioneds.”
Drift agreed that tequila is a leading trend in the cocktail world right now, followed by bourbon and also Aperol spritzers. Options at Stella Blu include a blood orange paloma with fresh pressed juice and a house-made mango habanero salt; a strawberry jalapeno margarita with pureed fruit and a zesty lime salt rim; and a tequila and mezcal-based drink called the Mezcalita, featuring pineapple juice, Cointreau orange liqueur and a smoky-flavored house vanilla bean syrup.
The espresso martini at the Copper Door — called the Rocket — has been among the eatery’s top-selling cocktails, according to Connolly, as well as the restaurant’s blood orange cosmo, which uses Solerno blood orange liqueur, cranberry juice and a freshly squeezed lime; and the “Pepperoncini-Tini,” featuring olive juice, pepperoncini juice and blue cheese-stuffed olives.
Connolly added that a menu of mocktail options was rolled out last year to rave reviews.
“I’ve really seen, especially since Covid, a spike in people coming out and choosing a craft mocktail instead of a cocktail,” he said. “We also have a few unique non-alcoholic beers that have been flying off the shelves.”
Madear’s has had fun with all kinds of creative drinks, including a few that are meant to be satirical of the times, like the “Covid rum punch.” Another one, known simply as the “Vax,” is a mimosa-style cocktail featuring orange, carrot and mango juices, ginger bitters and your choice of an “injected” ounce and a half of tequila or an ounce and a half of brandy.
“All of those are super juices, so the idea was it was something to build the immune system,” Curry said. “It was something that was immensely popular when the vaccinations came out.”
Ready-to-drink canned cocktails are also a major trend. Carnes said they became a game-changer at Shopper’s with the onset of the pandemic when it comes to customer volume.
“The main concern right now is if you don’t have the staff to really maintain with cocktails … the simplicity is where you need to try to make up for it,” he said, “and [the canned cocktails] are all good. It’s not like you’re downgrading by getting one.”
Staffing and production
Consumers may have returned to the bar in droves, but managers say the pandemic has resulted in unprecedented struggles in obtaining product. This goes for everything from specific liquor brands to some of the most arbitrary of cocktail ingredients — and, in some cases, even beer.
“Big names like Budweiser and Coors … have stopped production of bottled beers due to a glass shortage,” Drift said. “So what you see is what you get right now. Whatever is in stock is being blown through, and after that it will just be cans and aluminum bottles, or on draft.”
Early on, Haggerty said even getting basic supplies like silverware and rocks glasses was a challenge, due to the high volume of inventory ordering that took place as restaurants and bars reopened. Finding and maintaining a quality staff has itself also been an issue at times.
“It’s a little better now, but at the start it was like pulling teeth trying to find anyone,” he said.
Staffing in general has been tough at Madear’s, especially behind the bar and at the front of the house, Curry said. Moving out of the Queen City to Pembroke, a much smaller town, Curry said he had the idea that the space would get more of a basic drink crowd. But the opposite has been true, as over the last year he has sold more signature craft cocktails.
“It’s easier for me to get a server than it is a bartender. … Bartending tends to have a lot more responsibility behind it than on the service side, especially in our establishment,” he said. “You’re not only bartending, you’re also a liaison between the back of the house and the front of the house, so you’re at the first step of things coming out.”
Left to right: The Blood Orange Cosmo, the Copper Door “Cosmo” with pomegranate juice, and the Pepperoncini-Tini with olive juice, all from the Copper Door. Courtesy photo.
Stella Blu transitioned to a tip pooling system for its staff, meaning that tips were divided amongst everyone based on the number of hours they work. Drift said that this has been an effective approach thus far at boosting the overall employee morale.
“We found, coming back from all of this, that the tip pool really does drive a better, more cohesive team,” she said. “There’s no ‘That’s my table.’ … I think guests get better service and better attention, and people are more willing to help each other because it’s for the greater good.”
Haggerty noted that a positive aspect to come out of the pandemic has been the renewed sense of solidarity among different places of business, especially for bar staff and waitstaff. He and Hart both picked up bartending shifts at Shopper’s while Industry East was still being built, for instance.
“Now that everyone’s been through the wringer … there’s been almost this revamped, new kind of inter-bar camaraderie,” Haggerty said. “It’s really cool now to be able to see that happening.”
Crafty Cocktails
We asked local bartenders and bar managers which types of cocktails have been trending lately. Here’s a snapshot of some of those drinks and where you can get them.
C.R.E.A.M. (“Cucumber Rules Everything Around Me”) From behind the bar at Industry East Bar, 28 Hanover St., Manchester, 232-6940, industryeastbar.com
Mi Campo tequila lemon juice cucumber shrub Dolin Blanc vermouth ancho verde liqueur jalapeno tincture
The “Rocket” espresso martini From behind the bar at The Copper Door Restaurant, 15 Leavy Dr., Bedford, 488-2677; 41 S. Broadway, Salem, 458-2033; copperdoor.com
vanilla vodka Baileys Irish Cream liqueur dark crème de cacao freshly brewed espresso
Chocolate coconut macaroon From behind the bar at Stella Blu, 70 E. Pearl St., Nashua, 578-5557, stellablu-nh.com
Chocolate coconut cream coconut rum amaretto liqueur toasted coconut rim
Blood orange paloma From behind the bar at Stella Blu, 70 E. Pearl St., Nashua, 578-5557, stellablu-nh.com
tequila fresh-pressed blood orange juice squeezed lime soda float mango habanero salt
The “Vax” From behind the bar at Madear’s Southern Eatery & Bakery, 141 Main St., Pembroke, 210-5557, madears603.com
carrot juice mango juice orange juice lime juice ginger bitters (optional) tequila or brandy on the side
Industry East Bar’s espresso martini From behind the bar of Industry East Bar, 28 Hanover St., Manchester, 232-6940, industryeastbar.com
