News & Notes 24/07/25

Tuition freeze

The Community College System of New Hampshire is keeping tuition at the same $215 per credit rate for the 2024-2025 school year, according to a July 18 press release from the organization. The Board of Trustees approved a budget that included the tuition rate, which has stayed the same for in-state tuition since 2018, the release said. The tuition freeze applies to 200 certificate and degree programs at all seven community colleges and affiliated academic centers (including campus, online and hybrid offerings), the release said.

“We want to ensure that high-quality postsecondary education is within reach for all New Hampshire families, whether they are looking for technical training for the trades, preparing for careers in healthcare, or building a strong foundation for pursuing a college degree in virtually any field,” said Mark Rubinstein, Chancellor of the Community College System of New Hampshire, in the release.

NH community colleges serve 24,000 students annually in degree and certificate programs, dual-credit courses for NH high school students, non-credit offerings, and customized training with businesses, and through CCSNH’s workforce program, ApprenticeshipNH, according to the release. In-state tuition is set at $215 per credit for New Hampshire residents, a full-time courseload of 30 credits per year costs $6,450 plus fees, the release said.

See ccsnh.edu for more on the individual colleges and for information for Pell grant eligible students.

Old news

According to a press release, the New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources has announced that the United States Secretary of the Interior has listed the Kensington Town Center Historic District in the National Register of Historic Places for its long history serving as a town center as well as for the architectural significance of its properties.

The Town of Kensington was incorporated in 1761 and was originally part of Hampton. The half-mile-long Kensington Town Center Historic District remains an active town center and includes 27 well-preserved public and private properties that reflect the development of a rural southern New Hampshire town center over the course of nearly 250 years, according to the press release.

Most buildings in the district are wood-framed and were built in the late 18th through late 19th centuries. Their styles reflect the function and tastes of the time and include Georgian, Federal, Greek Revival, Italianate, Queen Anne, Classical Revival and Colonial Revival details, according to the release.

The north end of the district, which has historically been referred to as the Upper Village, has provided civic and religious functions from the time the town was incorporated and features three buildings that are architecturally typical of a New Hampshire village. These are the Union Meetinghouse/Universalist Church (1839-1840), Kensington Town House (1846) and First Congregational Church (1865-66). The Lower Village has a greater mix of historically significant properties that range from residential to religious and commercial to cultural, according to the release.

Almost two dozen Revolutionary War veterans are buried in the public cemeteries, along with veterans of the War of 1812, the Mexican War and the Civil War, according to the release.

Three buildings within the district were previously listed in the National Register of Historic Places: the Union Meeting House/Universalist Church (listed in 2013), Kensington Town House (2013) and Kensington Social Library (2020). A fourth, the First Congregational Church, was listed to the State Register of Historic Places in 2019, according to the release. Visit nhdhr.dncr.nh.gov.

Learn to hunt

According to a press release, New Hampshire residents can sign up now to take Hunter Education classes to be ready for all of the coming fall’s seasons online. There are in-person courses and online offerings. To complete a class, participants will be required to attend a field day, a schedule of which will be provided upon completion of either type of course, according to the release.

Walk-ins are accepted at in-person trainings on a space-available basis, but seats are never guaranteed, so pre-registration is highly recommended, according to the release.

Hunter Education is required in New Hampshire before a new hunter age 16 or older can purchase their first hunting license. Children under 16 are permitted to hunt with a properly licensed adult hunter who is at least 18, according to the release. Participants must be at least 12 years old by the last day of the course to achieve certification in basic Hunter Education and students must be at least 12 years old to take the online course with a field day. New Hampshire’s Hunter Education course provides firearms and archery certification, according to the release.

Hunters who purchased an Apprentice Hunting License last year must take Hunter Education before they can purchase a hunting license, according to the release.

Hunter Education in New Hampshire is funded with Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration by an excise tax on firearms, ammunition and archery equipment, according to the release.

Visit wildlife.nh.gov/hunting-nh/hunter-education or call 271-3214.

Organized by the Merrimack Valley Military Vehicle Collectors Club, this year’s Weare Rally will go from Friday, July 25, to Sunday, July 27, at Center Woods School (14 Center Road). The rally features military vehicle displays, scenic rides, demonstrations, food and more. The cost is $5 per family. See mvmvc.org.

The annual Summer Psychic & Craft Fair returns for a 13th year to Weirs Beach Community Center (25 Lucerne Ave., Laconia) on Saturday, July 27, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Hosted by CAYA Reiki and Healing, the event will include psychic readings, vendors and door prizes. Admission is free. See eventbrite.com for ticket information.

Tickets are on sale for the 2024 Annual Celebration of the Humanities from New Hampshire Humanities on Wednesday, Oct. 16, at 7 p.m. at the Tupelo Music Hall in Derry. The event will feature as keynote speaker Gregory Maguire, author of the novel Wicked. Tickets start at $35; see nhhumanities.org/celebrate.

Registration is open for the Friends of Aine’s annual Kids Try-athlon, which will be held Sunday, Aug. 11, starting at 8 a.m. in Bedford. Kids ages 4 to 15 will participate in three events — swimming, running and biking — in age-based groups. The event features a post-race family festival and registration costs $40. The event is a fundraiser for Friends of Aine Center for Grieving Children & Families, which offers bereavement services for children. See friendsofaine.com.

Pedals + power — 7/18/2024

If you like the idea of taking a bicycle for exercise, transportation or just a different way to see the world but don’t like the thought of difficult-to-pedal hills, maybe an e-bike is for you. Just as it sounds, these electric-motor-powered bikes can give you a little extra oomph when you need it and help all bikers keep up with the pack. Image above and on the cover is of a Rail 8 from Trek Bicycle Hooksett (photo by John Fladd).

Also on the cover Shakespeare on the Green returns to Saint Anselm College for the next two weekends (page 14). Food Truck Fridays try to make the last lunch of the work week a little something special (page 24). Brian Glowacki and Friends head to Beans & Greens in Gilford for a night of laughs on Friday, July 19 (page 32).

Read the e-edition

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Island funny

Lakes Region comedy show

There’s a limerick from a bygone time that begins, “there was a young man from Nantucket,” but this isn’t that kind of story. Brian Glowacki was born on the island off Cape Cod and found humor via Def Comedy Jam specials on HBO. When he realized there were clubs where comics told jokes, he decided to give standup a shot.

Glowacki soon found his secret weapon: a face that telegraphs mischief. When he pauses with a sly smirk during a joke setup, it’s like watching a Mento dropped into a bottle of Coke; audience laughter builds, anticipating what’s next. This sort of thing also happens regularly in Glowacki’s daily life. While he’s holding a microphone, at least he gets paid for it.

There’s a bit about repurposing his wife’s breast pump when their infant grows out of it, and it feels like he worked it out at the Kitchen, to let’s say mixed results.

“Everybody knows that feeling,” he said in a recent phone interview. “It’s like the next thing coming out of my mouth is either going to get me in trouble or arrested.”

The latter outcome is less likely than the first; his is a mostly “clean” set. That’s one of the reasons comedian Bob Marley picked Glowacki to open shows for him, something he did for a few years. It started when a Rhode Island club hired him to host for the Maine comic. The gig worked out, and he got the call the next time Marley appeared.

“By that time I had different material, and that showed them I could at least try to have a different set each time we came through a place, which was important to those guys,” he said. “It ended up some of their guys dropped out and I moved up the ranks with Marley. I ended up being one of their two main guys.”

These days Glowacki is hitting much bigger targets. He parlayed a successful run at Boston’s Comedy Connection into a pair of sold-out shows at the prestigious Wilbur Theatre. Glowacki attributes the event’s success to his relatability as a comic.

“I don’t scare anybody away, I don’t ever talk about politics or anything like that, I’m talking about things that we’re all living,” he said, adding that a willingness to bet on himself was a big part of it. “I say all the time, I take big swings … I don’t sulk in the failures, and I don’t get too excited over the victories. I just cross things off my list. Things that excited me as a little kid, now I do them as an adult.”

Upcoming on his schedule are headlining shows at Mohegan Sun, and the comedy club in the MGM Casino in Springfield, Mass. The night after he appears at Beans & Greens Farm in Gilford, Glowacki will play his biggest gig yet, headlining at Cape Cod Melody Tent, a legendary 2,500-seat venue.

“I’m the first local that’s ever been crazy enough to even try to sell that place,” he said. “We’re doing it all word of mouth. I don’t have an agent or credits or any of that. We just spread the word from people having a good time at a show, and they tell their friends, which is the best marketing you can hope for.”

The Gilford show offers the chance for him to prepare for the Cape show and “make sure I’m all dialed in.” Fellow comic Gary Marino co-produced the BGlow & Friends event and will serve as its host. It will be Glowacki’s first time at Beans & Greens. “Usually when I do stuff with Gary, it’s been a home run, so I was like, whatever, I’m in.”

Brian Glowacki & Friends
When: Saturday, July 20, 7 p.m.
Where: Beans & Greens Farm, 245 Intervale Road, Gilford
Tickets: $30 at eventbrite.com

Featured photo: Courtesy photo.

The Music Roundup 24/07/18

Local music news & events

• Blues time: Ireland gives way to the South Side of Chicago at the weekly Blues Therapy event. This edition features Brave New Blues, the duo of boundary-pushing guitarist Troy Mercy and Hadley Lloyd. An endorsement of suspicious origin (screenwriter Alan Smithee) dubbed their sound “Lightnin’ Hopkins playing with The Small Faces while Terry Gilliam films it all.” Thursday, July 18, 8 p.m., Wild Rover, 21 Kosciuszko St., Manchester; more at troymercy.com.

• Al fresco country: New England Music Awards favorite Annie Brobst kicks off weekend music at Tuscan Village’s Lake Park. Her breezy, pop-adjacent brand of country has led her to some big stages, supporting Miranda Lambert, Little Big Town, Hardy and more. Friday, July 19, 7 p.m., Tuscan Village, 9 Via Toscana Salem. Visit anniebrobstmusic.com.

• Local lights: Three members of JamAntics comprise Lucas Gallo & The Guise: Gallo, bassist Eric Reingold, and Freeland Hubbard on guitar, with drummer Curtis Marden. Original songs from the three old bandmates share rootsy jam band elements, while others are more lyrically driven. Gallo calls the overall mood “good vibes with good intentions.” Saturday, July 20, 9 p.m., Penuche’s Ale House, 16 Bicentennial Square, Concord $5/door; 21+. Visit lucasgallomusic.com.

• Celtic power: Enjoy a fun and musically rich evening from Tartan Terrors, a group of youthful kilt-wearers with a talent for making traditional Celtic music accessible to all audiences. They combine the energy of a rock show with fiddle, bagpipes, pennywhistle, step dancing and humor, like the NSFW joke describing the difference between a Rolling Stone and a Scotsman. Sunday, July 21, 7 p.m., Tupelo Music Hall, 10 A St., Derry, $39 and up at tupelohall.com.

• Teaming up: In their ’70s heyday, a co-headlining tour with Daryl Hall & Elvis Costello would have seemed odd, given Hall & Oates’s Philly soul and Costello’s angry young man pose at the time. However, in 1984 Hall sang backup on Costello’s song “The Only Flame in Town.” Reviews of their current outing, filled with hits from both artists, have been glowing, Monday, July 22, 7 pm., BankNH Pavilion, 72 Meadowbrook Lane, Gilford, $55 and up at livenation.com.

The Bikeriders (R)

A buffet of character studies and Chicago-y “da Bears” accents is laid out for your perusal in The Bikeriders, which is based on a real life “living amongst the outlaw bikers” book by Danny Lyon, as the movie and Wikipedia tell us.

The movie is structured around a series of interviews between author/photographer Danny (Mike Faist) and Kathy (Jodie Comer), wife of Benny (Austin Butler), who is one of the core members of the Vandals motorcycle club. The Vandals are led by Johnny (Tom Hardy), who formed the club in Chicago, supposedly after seeing The Wild One. When Kathy met the club members, who she describes as mostly unsavory types, in the mid 1960s, Johnny made a point of telling her he’d make sure nobody bothered her. Kathy was sort of lust-at-first-sight with Benny and fell for Benny and to some degree the “outlaw” life during her first motorcycle ride with the whole club. But she always seems a bit torn between her attraction to Benny’s whole “what are you rebelling against, whaddaya got” devil-may-care thing and her desire to separate herself and her husband from what she sees as an increasingly dirtbag-y group of dudes. As the 1960s wear on, new members with more violent dispositions join up and Johnny — who also has a wife and children — seems eager to find some kind of way out, possibly by giving Benny the leadership position.

These new guys don’t listen, Johnny says to Benny at one point, which feels like the generational lament that all older-guard people in all situations and occupations have toward newbies. Johnny created the thing, but now the meaning of the thing has shifted while he has more or less stayed the same. You stay too long at the party and your cutting edge thing becomes cute nostalgia at best — Johnny trying to deal with that is probably the most interesting element of his character.

The most interesting part of Kathy is Jodie Comer’s whole full-bodied creation of her, all cigarettes and mannerisms and conversation style. It occasionally feels like more of an acting exercise than a character in a story, but Comer is a compelling actress and she creates a highly watchable character even when she’s just, like, drinking coffee from a very 1970s green mug.

For me The Bikeriders actually feels at its strongest when it’s just characters talking — Kathy talking about her opinions of the group, a guy named Zipco (Michael Shannon) talking about his attempts to join the army. You get a sense of real people with backstories and inner lives. When there was plot happening, I often felt like the movie was just giving us goobers making bad decisions without really showing us what held these people together. It’s a movie worth a watch for the acting even if I didn’t feel like it was worth rushing out for. B-

Rated R for language throughout, violence, some drug use and brief sexuality, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Written and directed by Jeff Nichols (from the book by the same name by Danny Lyons), The Bikeriders is an hour and 56 minutes long and distributed in theaters by Focus Features. It is also available for rent or purchase.

Featured photo: The Bikeriders.

This Ordinary Stardust, by Alan Townsend

This Ordinary Stardust, by Alan Townsend (Grand Central Publishing, 261 pages)

The most nourishing soil in the world, Alan Townsend writes, starts with disaster:

“Pyroclastic explosions of ash and lava slam into hillsides and streams, obliterating trees and boiling fish alive in their water. Or massive glaciers suddenly pulverize everything in their path … then unleash a catastrophic flood for good measure. The aftermath is a horror — a moonscape of ruin. It is also a beginning.”

That’s all well and good when talking about geological processes, but what of more personal kinds of disasters, the kind that explode your life, as when both your wife and your 4-year-old daughter get diagnosed with brain cancer within the same year?

Townsend, a tattooed scientist and dean of the college of forestry and conservation at the University of Montana, is much too intelligent to offer platitudes in such a situation. This Ordinary Stardust is no ordinary memoir of a health crisis, as Townsend and his wife, Diana, are no ordinary people.

They are both brilliant scientists who have traveled extensively doing interesting work — when we meet Townsend he’s doing research in the Amazon on how to prevent deforestation, Diana is planning an excursion to collect bacterial samples in Antarctica when she gets sick.

But with the twin diagnoses, the couple is thrust into the strangest world yet, going from the world of the healthy to the world of the sick with frightening speed.

Little Neva’s diagnosis came first, and Townsend writes movingly of how hard it is to watch your child endure MRIs and IVs and CT scans at Colorado Children’s Hospital. At one point, her parents take Neva to a hospital cafe for ice cream, and the child asks if she can have more. “Hell yes, I thought,” Townsend writes. The child, like her parents, is stoic and tough, and a scene where Diana takes a team of residents and medical students to task for their callous treatment of Neva is a Tiger Mother master class in assertiveness.

Diana brings the same defiance to her own treatment. We already know the kind of woman she is from a story Townsend tells about how she badly injured her ankle while the two of them were running on a trail together in Costa Rica, where they were working. The next evening, though her ankle was still badly swollen, Townsend found her wrapping the ankle with strips of an old T-shirt and duct tape. “What are you doing?” he asked. “Going running,” she replied. He writes, “She had a look that challenged me to say more.”

This is also a woman, as Townsend says, who “couldn’t stop talking about bacteria,” who loved science so much that it was all she wanted to talk about on their runs.

When Diana starts having strange symptoms and is ultimately diagnosed with two tumors in her brain, she grumbles that they’d better not stop her going on her expedition to Antarctica the next year. She continues to run throughout her treatment, and even wins her age division in a road race. But glioblastoma is almost always deadly; just 5 percent of patients survive five years. It is not a spoiler to say that Diana is not among the 5 percent since the book jacket blurb reveals that she dies. By this point, we love her as much as her husband does, and the story of her passing is gut-wrenching, but also oddly beautiful.

Townsend writes the book at his wife’s request — she wanted others to learn from their story — and although he confesses up front that he is not a Christian or a church-goer, the story is wrapped in spiritual themes. Science, he writes, can nurture the soul; it offers hope “that life on earth can make its way through the eye of any needle, that our individual choices matter, and that love can bring us back from the brink of annihilation.”

He does not address any issues related to the possibility of an afterlife except in terms related to the title. It’s said that our physical bodies are composed of primordial atoms, elements formed in stars and possibly dating to the Big Bang. Townsend has been fascinated with this idea since he heard a professor talk about how we exchange this “stardust” with each other continually.

“When viewed in our most elemental form, people are trillions of outer-space atoms, moving around temporarily as one, sensing and seeing and falling in love. Then those atoms scatter, joining one new team for a bit, then another. Far from depressing,” he writes. In other words, we might only exist in this form for a short time, but “No matter what happens, we’re still here. And we will always be.”

That’s a far cry from the eternal life promised by some religions, but is still, as he writes, “profoundly comforting.” Grief can co-exist with wonder, Townsend finds on his family’s journey, and his memoir is both poignant and thought-provoking. B+

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