Category: Q&A

owner of Vintage 101

Louisa Amirault owns and operates Vintage 101 (292 Route 101 in Amherst), which curates a unique selection of vintage and antique decor, furniture and other accessories for purchase. Visit their Facebook page or call 930-6583.

Explain your job and what it entails.

Basically I sell vintage, antique and unique items.

How long have you had this job?

Since March 23 of this year.

What led you to this career field and your current job?

I started out just kind of fixing up and making over old furniture. From there I got into other beautiful old things. Then, with the things that I was able to rescue, I wanted to share them. I had an antique booth for two years at the Milford Market. I needed more space so I opened the shop.

What kind of education or training did you need?

Actually, I had a degree in business and for 20 years I did web design and hosting. I found that I liked more hands-on creativity and that’s how I got into fixing up furniture.

What is your typical at-work uniform or attire?

Business casual.

What is the most challenging thing about your work, and how do you deal with it?

The most challenging thing for me is having to be in one place for a long period of time. Where I’m the only one working I can’t just leave to take a 10-minute break … but when the day is busy it just flies right by. I have a lot of nice old books I’ve kept myself entertained with.

What do you wish you had known at the beginning of your career?

That there would be an adjustment period for me to kind of get used to being stuck in the store all the time … being the only employee … but I’m getting better. I had my own business before for 20 years but I could make my own hours.

What do you wish other people knew about your job?

The value of the antique and vintage items. To me it’s so special to save these items. People come in and they’re like, ‘They don’t make anything like this anymore,’ and they get it. But some people don’t and I wish more people understood how good this furniture is, how long it lasts, how durable it is. Some of the dishes I have are from the early 1800s … [and they’re] made so well and with so much care.

What was your first job?

My first job ever was when I was 16. I was a waitress at a breakfast place. I liked it.

What is the best piece of work-related advice you’ve ever received?

Just to do something that you enjoy and then it doesn’t feel like work. Having just a little bit of creativity in my job where I can hand-pick the items and I can set up the little vignettes, that gives me joy.

—Zachary Lewis

Five favorites
Favorite book: Lately I’m very much into the Jane Austen books. Pride and Prejudice, I know that’s kind of girly, I can’t help it.
Favorite movie: Signs
Favorite music: I like all kinds of music but I mostly like ’90s alternative rock like Radiohead, Live, Bush.
Favorite food: Lately I’m really into Indian food.
Favorite thing about NH: The diverse landscape. Everything about the geography is just perfect.

Featured photo: Louisa Amirault. Courtesy photo.

Theatre Kapow and their new season

Marco Notarangelo is the Vectorborne Disease Surveillance Coordinator at the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) in New Hampshire. He spoke to the Hippo about Eastern Equine Encephalitis Virus (EEEV), what it is and what people in the Granite State can do to stay safe. Visit dhhs.nh.gov for more information.

Theatre Kapow will be starting its 17th season with Life Sucks, a play described as a “brash and revelatory reworking of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya.” The show will run Friday, Sept. 20, and Saturday, Sept. 21, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Sept. 22, at 2 p.m. at the Bank of NH Stage (16 S. Main St., Concord, ccanh.com). The Hippo spoke with Director Matthew Cahoon and Managing Director Carey Cahoon about the upcoming performance and season. Visit tkapow.com.

How have the last 17 years been for Theatre Kapow?

Carey Cahoon: It both seems really fast and kind of unbelievable. I would say that everything in life feels like it’s broken down into the before-Covid years and the with-Covid years. We’ve been going back because we’re redoing our website and looking at photos and reminding ourselves of what shows we did in those early seasons and it’s really been a lot of fun and reminds me of how far we’ve come. Also, it’s a good reminder of why we started doing what we do and what we really love, and I think we stayed true to that.

Can you expand on this year’s season theme of ‘Conversation’ and what it means?

Matthew Cahoon: We like to do shows, we have done a few over the course of 17 years, that have an element of meta-theatricality where there is no fourth wall between the audience and the actor. As we were reading shows this year that theme just kind of kept floating to the surface. All three of our shows this season are very heavy in terms of the audience’s impact on the piece. In the first show there are direct questions to the audience that need to be answered. In the second show there’s actually audience members who are pulled into the show and help the storyteller tell the story. In the third show, again, the veil between the audience and the actors is very thin and there’s this interactivity. When we have conversations with one another we better understand each other. I think that we are in a polarized time and place in our society but when we actually just treat each other like people and have conversations we find we have a lot more in common than we do have differences, so that was the impetus for this season.

Why was Life Sucks chosen to start the season?

CC: Life Sucks is an adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya. We really like working with pieces of quote ‘classic theater’ unquote. Sometimes that literally means classic theater like from the ancient Greeks but also Strindberg, Ibsen and Chekhov, who are these great European masters of drama. We had done Stupid [F-ing] Bird before, which is another of Aaron Posner’s adaptations of Chekhov, that’s an adaptation of The Seagull. Uncle Vanya is seeing a resurgence, it is everywhere right now. I think there were at least two productions on Broadway this past season; one of them might still be open. There were several productions in London and I think that speaks to that show being very relevant to what’s happening right now in our times and this kind of existential dread, ‘Who am I? How am I going to get through my life?’ The reason I really like Life Sucks is that it’s a contemporary adaptation. The language is very accessible, the language is very funny and we were really drawn to this breaking of the fourth wall that Posner does in this script.

Are there any particular acting schools of thought or disciplines that you all employ?

MC: We really pride ourselves on training being a part of our process. I think what makes us a little bit different is that all of our company members come from different disciplines. Carey has done a lot of work in practical aesthetics and in viewpoints work. Peter, who’s a company member, does a lot of work in Michael Chekhov technique and a little bit of Uta Hagen too. Myself, I came through Double Edge doing some Grotowski-based movement work and more recently some work with the Tectonic Theatre Project and what they call moment work. We kind of play in this witches’ brew of different approaches to making theater, and we hold these open training sessions once a month during which one of us will lead and really explore different approaches. That’s kind of what differentiates Theatre Kapow a little bit, because our actors in the space may be approaching the work from their own comfort zone, from their method. As a total company we’re really trying to incorporate all these different pieces to make the whole stronger.

—Zachary Lewis

Life Sucks
Presented by Theatre Kapow
When: Friday, Sept. 20, and Saturday, Sept. 21, at 7:30 p.m.; and Sunday, Sept. 22, at 2 p.m.
Where: Bank of NH Stage, 16 S. Main St., Concord
Tickets: $33.75; $26.75 for students and seniors
Info: tkapow.com and ccanh.com

Note: The show contains “Strong Language, Adult Situations, Gunshots. Recommended for ages 13+.”

Featured image: Courtesy photo.

Health official discusses NH’s mosquito risk

Marco Notarangelo is the Vectorborne Disease Surveillance Coordinator at the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) in New Hampshire. He spoke to the Hippo about Eastern Equine Encephalitis Virus (EEEV), what it is and what people in the Granite State can do to stay safe. Visit dhhs.nh.gov for more information.

What is EEEV and how did this virus come about?

Triple E, also known as Eastern Equine Encephalitis, is an alpha virus that is transmitted by mosquitoes … primarily found in swamps and certain species of birds. It’s not necessarily native to the Northeast but we know it’s been circulating within the Northeast for a couple hundred years. It’s notorious for causing disease in ‘equine’ and perhaps that can lead to some confusion that the pathogen is maintained in horses but that’s not really the case. This is a very rare disease here in the Northeast. Most years we won’t even have detections. In fact, if you look at the data here in New Hampshire for the last 10 full years, only in 2023 do you have a couple of mosquito detections, really toward the end of the mosquito season,

How concerned should people be about EEEV with the recent news? What’s the probability or likelihood that someone would contract this infection?

Triple E is a very rare disease and you might recall in the United States there’s less than 15 cases that are typically reported nationwide. … [A]nd it’s thought that only 1 in 20 infections are actually going to result in individuals developing symptoms. However, what’s particularly concerning about this pathogen is severity. … it’s really thought that a large portion of infections that result in symptoms will result in individuals developing what is called Central Nervous System infections. Some examples of this are inflammation of the brain or inflammation of the membrane surrounding the spinal cord, which can be very severe. … about 30 percent of the individuals that develop this severe form of illness unfortunately do not make it. That’s not really the end of it, it’s also 50 percent of the survivors that have long-term if not lifelong complications and lifelong debilitation resulting from the illness. Although it’s very rare, it’s something that should be kept in mind because it can be a life-altering condition.

Why is EEEV an issue again now?

There is some uncertainty here, but … the current scientific thought on it is that Triple E is not really a pathogen that remains, or the strains of Triple E, surviving in the Northeast over extended periods of time. They may survive over winters for a couple years and then go locally extinct. It’s through their reintroduction from migratory birds that it comes back into the Northeast and causes novel outbreaks. We tend to see cycles with Triple E.

What areas of New Hampshire are most at risk for EEEV infection?

Historically, based on the last about 20 years’ worth of data we have, which is when Triple E has really resurged within our part of the United States, we see that the eastern part of the state, particularly the southeastern part of the state, is the area that most often has Triple E detections, human cases and equine detections. … We have had detections in other parts of the state. On the western side and then we’ve done surveys of deer populations, collecting their blood during the hunting season, and we’ve detected Triple E even in the far north part of the state, so around Coos County. …

What steps can people take to prevent mosquito bites?

The primary concern also lies when we spend time outside in greater mosquito habitats … So we want individuals to take steps such as wearing repellent, wearing protective clothing that makes it more difficult for mosquitoes to bite us, and being cognizant of where mosquitoes are most likely to be and when they’re most likely to be active. For Triple E we are primarily talking about swamp-dwelling mosquito species and unfortunately New Hampshire is very rich in swamp, especially in the southern part of the state. … it is a pathogen that’s more likely to cause severe illness in younger individuals, particularly those under the age of 15, so it’s very important for residents to consider not only their own personal care but also making sure their children are well aware of what they should do to prevent mosquito bites.

What repellants should people use?

Typically, EPA-registered repellents are the ones we are going to recommend, DEET being one of the more common ones. Oil of lemon eucalyptus and of course picaridin being additional options. … You always want to be reading the labels on the actual repellents to make sure that it works and … and is safe for different age groups….

—Zachary Lewis

Featured image: Courtesy photo.

Bow Garden Club invites you into the garden

Master Gardener Joyce Kimball is the Publicity Chair and former president of the Bow Garden Club and a former president and current executive board member of The New Hampshire Federation of Garden Clubs. Bow Garden Club maintains 10 “beauty spots,” such as the town gazebo. They generally hold meetings on the second Monday of every month at 6 p.m. starting again on Monday, Sept. 9, with an educational program by Advanced Gardener Ron Trexler from UNH Cooperative Extension, who will speak on preparing gardens for winter. People are encouraged to stop by a meeting to see if they are interested in joining. Kimball spoke about the Bow Garden Club and some end-of-summer garden tips. Visit bowgardenclub.org.

How did the Bow Garden Club get started with the New Hampshire Federation of Garden Clubs?

It’s kind of a nice little story. It was three women from Bow that were just sitting around talking about plants and flowers and they decided to start a garden club. I’m not quite sure, because that was back in 1964, a little before my time, I was alive but I wasn’t part of a club. It was 1964 and it just kind of went from there. They joined the state garden club, which is called New Hampshire Federation of Garden Clubs, Inc., which is a consortium of like 18 to 20, I think right now, area garden clubs across the state.

What is the New Hampshire Federation of Garden Clubs?

Every state in the country has a federated garden club and we’re under the umbrella of the national garden club. We have regional and national, so we get out there as far as covering anyone that’s at all interested in plants or anything green. Some people are vegetable gardeners but most are floral gardeners, or both…. We act as ambassadors from the state garden club to go out to the local garden clubs to make them aware of benefits … like learning how to do floral arranging, that kind of thing, things that are available to them through the state organization and sometimes even the national organization. So just a way for people with like minds and interests to get together…

Who can join the Bow Garden Club?

One club may include five or six towns. It all depends on how big they are. Bow, for instance, has 70 members, which is a lot for our size town. Most of them are from Bow. But we also have someone from Manchester, somebody from Derry chose to join us because we’re one of the few that have evening meetings. We have somebody from Pembroke, Concord, and I think that may be it right now. Oh, actually we have one from Australia because our president just went to Australia and she is staying as a member. So we really branch out.

What are a few garden tips for this time of year?

Because [plants have] grown so fast with the heat and the extra water … I would advise people to cut them back. There’s still plenty of time to let them reflower. If they’re looking kind of leggy, as we call them, with long stems, or if the blossoms have gone by you should cut those off anyways to encourage new stems. It’s a little too soon to start cleaning the garden, that shouldn’t happen till October, or as we call it, ‘putting the garden to bed,’ so to speak. That’s when you cut them all down to the ground, but way too early for that. .

What can one expect at a garden club meeting?

Don’t worry about eating because we call it the Food and Garden Club because we can cook as well as we can garden. We have one of our committees, the refreshment committee, people are assigned a certain meeting to come up with a theme and provide the refreshments. I think people come for the food as much as anything else. We don’t meet during July and August, we do other things, we have a ‘Cocktails in the Garden’ we did recently…. We have an educational program at every meeting that starts at 6:30 and usually goes for like an hour.

—Zachary Lewis

Featured image: Courtesy photo.

owner of Glimpse Gallery

Meme Exum is the owner of Glimpse Gallery in Concord, whose mission is to uplift artists in the community. The gallery holds six shows a year with six artists for each show. Curator Christina Landry-Boullion shows her art in each exhibition as well. The current exhibition, which runs until Sept. 9, has its last reception on Saturday, Aug. 24, from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Glimpse Gallery asks that those interested in attending RSVP through their website. Visit theglimpsegallery.com.

Explain your job and what it entails.

I own and run a small fine art gallery in downtown Concord, New Hampshire. I scour Concord, and ultimately New Hampshire, [for artists] who are looking to get their name and their artwork out to the public. I’m not a traditional gallery, I don’t have constricting contracts or commission structure. All day I’m constantly on the phone and doing email…. The best part is viewing all this incredible new art.

How long have you had this job?

I’ve had it in tandem with other jobs, whether you equate that to a side hustle or the one I had the longest, for 12 years.

What led you to this career field and your current job?

I love art. … I want to be immersed in an arena where I’m constantly seeing cool, new art, and this is the best way to do it. I have a leader personality so I don’t mind doing the admin and the business structure of it….

What kind of education or training did you need?

I have a college degree in political science with a minor in international affairs and ultimately hard-life experience was what taught me everything I know now to run the gallery. Everything from my stint waiting tables to doing administrative work to my marketing career for high-end architecture.

What is your typical at-work uniform or attire?

Fabulous dresses and heels. My outfits are my art. …. It’s super fun, energetic, accessible….

What is the most challenging thing about your work, and how do you deal with it?

Keeping up with correspondence, and I try to approach it with humility because I always want to answer and I want to give timely responses and answers to people that are really being vulnerable by presenting me with their art.

What do you wish you had known at the beginning of your career?

That time is more valuable than money.

What do you wish other people knew about your job?

That humility is an important facet…. I am learning every day…

What was your first job?

Working at a consignment shop for women’s clothing in Atlanta, Georgia. On the weekends I also did Baskin-Robbins, so it was a twofer.

What is the best piece of work-related advice you’ve ever received?

It would go back to the Baskin-Robbins job and Mr. Hauk [the manager] telling me to focus and listen … that’s the best piece of advice.

—Zachary Lewis

Five favorites
Favorite book: Sapiens by Yuval Harari. It is such an incredible book.
Favorite movie: The Fisher King with Robin Williams and Jeff Bridges.
Favorite music: Hans Zimmer. He does those incredible movie scores.
Favorite food: Popcorn cooked in a pan (not microwave popcorn).
Favorite thing about NH: The wildlife. I’m very geared toward nature. I’ll brake for snakes in the road.

Featured photo: Meme Exum. Courtesy photo.