230921 – Page 2

This Week 23/09/21

Big Events September 21, 2023 and beyond

Thursday, Sept. 21
It’s the final weekend to go somewhere over the rainbow at The Palace Theatre (80 Hanover St., Manchester, palacetheatre.org, 668-5588) with its mainstage production of The Wizard of Oz, which runs through Sept. 24 with shows today and Friday at 7:30 p.m., Saturday at 2 and 7:30 p.m., and Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets cost $28 to $49.

Friday, Sept. 22
Meanwhile, it’s opening weekend for the Milford Area Players’ The House on Haunted Hill at the Amato Center for the Performing Arts (56 Mont Vernon St., Milford), which runs today through Oct. 1, with showtimes on Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets cost $15 for adults and $10 for students/ seniors. Visit milfordareaplayers.org.

Friday, Sept. 22
The Majestic Theatre (880 Page St. in Manchester; majestictheatre.net, 669-7649) presents Great Gatsby, its 18th annual auction and performance fundraiser, today and Saturday, Sept. 23, starting at 6:30 p.m. The event features performances from Majestic’s ensemble, musicians and special guests. Attendees can participate in themed raffles and silent auctions that include art passes, electronics, restaurant vouchers and unique artwork. Refreshments will be served. Tickets cost $20 per person.

Saturday, Sept. 23
The Great New Hampshire Pie Festival will take place at the New Hampshire Farm Museum (1305 White Mountain Hwy. in Milton; nhfarmmuseum.org) today from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission costs $15 ($6 for kids 12 and under). Local bakeries will have pies for sampling while local pie makers will compete in a pie contest. The day will also feature a pie crust rolling demonstration, a raffle, a silent auction, tractor rides, visits with the animals, tours of historic buildings and live music from Lance Maclean and the Moose Mountain String Band.

Sunday, Sept. 24
Mt. Kearsarge Indian Museum (18 Highlawn Road in Warner; indianmuseum.org, 456- 2600) will hold its annual Harvest Moon Festival today from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The day will feature nature presentations, hands-on crafts, food for sale, storytelling at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. and more, according to the website. Tickets in advance cost $11 for adults, $10 for seniors/students/veterans and $8 for ages 6 to 12 ($1 more each at the door), with a $35 family admission (two adults and three children). Tickets include admission to the museum.

Sunday, Sept. 24
Catch the show “The Living Forest: Uyra” on its final day on display at Currier Museum of Art (150 Ash St. in Manchester; currier.org, 669-6144). The exhibition features photographs and videos encompassing the works of the artist Uýra. The Currier is open Wednesday and Friday through Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Thursday, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. (with Art After Work, when admission is free, from 5 to 8 p.m.). Admission costs $20 for adults, $15 for seniors and students, $5 for youth ages 13 through 17 and is free for children under age 13.

Save the Date! Saturday, Nov. 4
New Hampshire’s own Seth Meyers will bring the laughs to the SNHU Arena (555 Elm St. in Manchester; snhuarena.com, 644-5000) on Saturday, Nov. 4, with a show at 8 p.m. Tickets, which benefit CASA of NH and Granite State Children’s Alliance, cost $105 through $255.

Featured photo: Courtesy photo.

Bloom is off the rose

The Big Story – Red Sox Fire Chaim Bloom: That’s all she wrote for Bloom as general manager of your Boston Red Sox. The end came for the stat-loving New Age GM with his badly constructed defense-deficient team in the midst of a free-falling 1-6 week.

It was met with “scapegoating” chatter in some quarters. But when a team finishes in last place three times in four years on the job, as it appears the Sox will, someone’s head usually rolls.

So for the fourth time in 12 years John Henry’s team is again at a crossroads as it begins a search to find yet another head of baseball operations.

Sports 101: Who are the only defensive players to score touchdowns as an offensive player in the Super Bowl?

News Item – Must-Win Game Ahead For Patriots: Hard to believe that could be the case for a Week 3 game. But when you lose a season’s first two games at home and in Week 4 you’re facing the rampaging Cowboys in Dallas after they’ve outscored their first two opponents 70-10 that is the case. Especially after consecutive confidence-sapping losses when the Pats were unable to finish off the kind of comeback-winning drives they did for 20 years with a different QB under center. All of which means Sunday vs. the Aaron Rodgers-less Jets is a must-win, or the “Bill Belichick on the hot seat” chatter goes on full blast.

Thumbs Up – New NBA Load Management Rules: To the NBA brass for saving fans from their sissy players and/or imperial coaches for enacting rules and fines regarding how and when teams can rest star players. It protects people who drop big money to see a star player in his only time in their town from the whims of coaches like Gregg Popovich who treat fans paying the freight like they don’t matter.

Thumbs Down – Aaron Rodgers Injury: I’m not a fan of the Jets, or of Rodgers for that matter. But seeing him go down four snaps into the season is a bummer. Thought his arrival in NJ gave extra juice to the AFC East and I was looking forward to seeing how it all would turn out. Instead, four snaps. Booo.

News Item – Who’s Hot: In the 317 at-bats since Sox rookie Triston Casas left April behind hitting .133, he has hit .297 with 21 homers and 61 RBI to raise the overall totals to 24–64–.263.

The Numbers:
.081 – according to Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe the Red Sox batting average (5 for 61) last week with runners in scoring position when they won once in seven games.
2 – field goals that doinked off the left upright and in during NFL Week 1 where Buffalo’s sent it to OT vs. NY and Philadelphia’s helped send Patriot Nation home 25-20 losers.
3 – interceptions by Jordan Whitehead for the Jets on Monday Night Football vs. Buffalo, which is more than he had in any entire season during his four-year NFL career.

… Of the Week Awards
Why Can’t We Get Guys Like That Award – tie:
Nelson Agholor: Had five catches for 62 yards for his new team and scored the TD that iced the Ravens’ 27-24 over the Bengals.
Nick Folk: Kicked a 41-yard FG in OT to give Tennessee a 27-24 over San Diego, er, L.A. to snap an eight-game Titans winless streak.

Random Thoughts:
Blindly going for it on fourth and short because the analytics say do it is dumb. Sorry, circumstances like score, time left and distance should be taken into account.
With all those layoffs at ESPN how is it that attention-seeking, rarely right blowhard Rex Ryan survived and the superior Jeff Van Gundy didn’t?

Sports 101 Answer: Both times it happened in games the Patriots were in. First as Refrigerator Perry plowed through their short-yardage defense when the Bear annihilated them 46-10 in SB 20, and Mike Vrabel did it twice as a short yardage tight end vs. Carolina and Philadelphia in their second and third SB wins.

Final Thought: Blame, blame, blame. That’s the game being played by Red Sox owner John Henry in firing Bloom as his GM. Done more so to head off a box office fan revolt rather than to face the real problem. Many say Bloom was just doing as he was told and the product reflected that. But as Evita Peron says, don’t cry for me, Argentina. The $180 million payroll he had was double what Baltimore and Tampa Bay have and they’re both 20 games up in the standings. Sorry, he couldn’t judge talent and his beloved analytics rarely see beyond the numbers to let the pieces of a team fit together.

But the real problem is the owner. He’s checked out. And that’s led to a passionless, indecisive leadership that only cares about ticket sales and ratings at NESN.

It all adds up to this: Henry should sell the team to preserve the legacy he earned over his first 15 years as the best owner in team history.

Email Dave Long at [email protected].

The Weekly Dish 23/09/21

News from the local food scene

Manchester Brewfest: Don’t miss the ninth annual Manchester Brewfest on Saturday, Sept. 23, at Arms Park on Commercial Street in Manchester. The event will include vendors like The Rugged Axe, Draughtpick, Darbster Rescue, Rage Cage NH, New England Steel Fighters and Granite State Freeze Dried Candy and music by the Shawna Jackson Band. Money raised will benefit Waypoint, a human service and advocacy group. General admission hours are 1 to 4 p.m. and VIP admission is from noon to 4 p.m. VIP tickets are $50, general tickets are $40 and designated driver tickets are $15.

Make chocolate rose sculptures: Tour Van Otis’ Chocolate Factory (341 Elm St., Manchester), try handmade chocolate and learn from a chocolatier how to manipulate and sculpt edible roses on Thursday, Sept. 28, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Tickets are $45 and can be purchased via eventbrite.

Try Croatian wine on the Seacoast: Learn about and taste wines of Croatia with Anne Arnold and Mirena Bagur at the AC Hotel by Marriott (299 Vaughan St., Portsmouth) on Thursday, Sept. 28, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $55 via eventbrite.

Harvest weekend: From Saturday, Sept. 30, to Sunday, Oct. 1, is Harvest Weekend at Black Bear Vineyard (289 New Road, Salisbury). This outdoor event includes live music, wine sold by the glass or bottle, the opportunity to learn about the wine-making process and 603 Food Truck. Tickets are $18, free for those under 21 years old. Purchase tickets at eventbrite.com.

A Haunting in Venice

A retired-ish Hercule Poirot is asked to attend a Halloween seance and ends up at the scene of a murder in A Haunting in Venice, a surprisingly fun entry in Kenneth Branagh’s Poirot series.

It’s 1947 and Hercule (Branagh, who also directs) has retired to a lovely home on a canal in pre-cruise ship Venice, Italy. He’s hired Vitale (Riccardo Scamarcio), a former police officer bodyguard, whose whole job is to keep away the crowds that line up outside Poirot’s house hoping he will solve a mystery for them. Poirot has told him to turn away all comers, and the guard does until mystery writer Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey) shows up. Sort of a less successful, American Agatha Christie type, Ariadne is an old friend of Hercule whose last few books have been meh-ly received and who is now investigating the work of a medium, Joyce Reynolds (Michelle Yeoh). The medium is obviously a fake but Ariadne can’t figure how she’s pulling the cons she is, with seances full of spookiness and facts that would seemingly be impossible for her to know. Help me spot her con, Ariadne asks Hercule, inviting him to a seance that night at a palazzo that is considered to be cursed. And, as it happens, that night is Halloween.

That palazzo, a one-time orphanage where legend has it that children were once left to die during a plague, is hosting a Halloween party for this current generation of war orphans. After the spooky puppet show and some bobbing for apples (which in 2023 — a bunch of kids putting their whole faces in the same pot of water? — is legitimately horrifying) a group gathers for a seance. Thus do we get our “everyone’s a suspect” murder mystery party:

Desdemona (Emma Laird) and Nicholas (Ali Khan), Joyce Reynolds’ assistants.
Rowena (Kelly Reilly), an opera singer and the home’s current owner. She has commissioned this seance because her daughter Alicia (Rowan Robinson) died months earlier and Mrs. Reynolds has told Rowena that her daughter is trying to reach her.
Dr. Leslie Ferrier (Jamie Dornan), formerly the doctor of Rowena’s daughter who is still deeply disturbed from his experiences in the war.
Dr. Leslie Ferrier (Jamie Dornan), formerly the doctor of Rowena’s daughter who is still deeply disturbed from his experiences in the war.
Olga (Camille Cottin), Rowena’s longtime housekeeper and family caretaker.

und out the gathering. Rather quickly, Poirot spots some of Mrs. Reynolds’ fakery. But she doubles down, speaking as Alicia and claiming that someone there killed her. The seance ends — but soon it is Mrs. Reynolds who is found murdered and, in classic Hercule style, Poirot locks the gates to the palazzo and vows to find “ze killah” while a storm rages outside, preventing the police from getting to the house.

This is the first one of these Branagh Poirot endeavors that doesn’t feel like the Poirot mustache is doing 50 percent of the movie’s work. In the past, these things have felt like they were mostly mustache, stunt casting and production design — with everything else, including story and the creation of believably human characters, a very distant concern. Here, the movie conveys a nicely haunted setting with haunted characters even before its particular mystery starts. The world, the city and everyone here is coming out of the calamity that was World War II. That puts the movie on a different footing than the “rich people with secrets” setup in the past two movies. And the casting here while still a bit stunt-y (Fey, Yeoh) doesn’t get in the way. The other movies felt like flat Hercule Poirot cartoons and this movie feels like it has characters with a bit of depth. And Branagh tells his story with off-kilter camera angles and a generally disorienting visual approach to what we’re seeing and whose eyes were seeing it through. There is genuine dread. The movie doesn’t ever make you think it’s a ghost story per se but it does allow at times for a sense of the unsettlingly unexpected — maybe this house really is filled with the spirits of vengeance-seeking children or maybe our hero Poirot is experiencing a diminishment of his intellect, an even scarier prospect. This movie builds itself out of its juxtaposition of vibes — the sunny loveliness of Venice, the omnipresent darkness of the recently ended war. The result is a Haunting with a little heft. B

Rated PG-13 for some strong violence, disturbing images and thematic elements, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Kenneth Branagh with screenplay by Michael Green (based on the Agatha Christie novel Hallowe’en Party), A Haunting in Venice is a thoroughly enjoyable hour and 41 minutes long and is distributed in theaters by 20th Century Studios.

Featured photo: courtesy photo.

Mrs. Plansky’s Revenge

Mrs. Plansky’s Revenge, by Spencer Quinn (Forge Books, 291 pages)

Spencer Quinn is the pen name for Peter Abrahams, the Cape Cod resident who is the genius behind the “Chet & Bernie” books. They’re a collection of whimsical mysteries narrated by a dog who solves crimes with his human companion. I have zero evidence to support this, but believe that the books were sold solely because of their titles, which include “Tender is the Bite” and “The Sound and the Furry.” If you like this sort of thing, I suppose the books are great. If you don’t, they are painful.

And so I confess I came to the start of Quinn’s latest series with some trepidation, despite Stephen King having declared on the cover that he “absolutely adored the book.” The novel is called Mrs. Plansky’s Revenge, and it’s about a Florida widow who gets cyber-scammed by some unethical Romanians. It’s quirky, but surprisingly poignant and fun.

The titular Mrs. Plansky is 71 and although her first name is Loretta it is an affectation of the book that she is called Mrs. Plansky throughout. She had been married to Norm, with whom she had a long and satisfying marriage, producing two children. The couple had lived in Rhode Island, but the success of their business — the Plansky Toaster Knife, a knife that toasts bread while you slice it — enabled a comfortable retirement in Florida where they did the obligatory retirement thing when you live near a coast: “getting a metal detector and taking it for long beach walks.”

All this to say, Mrs. Plansky missed her husband greatly when he died of cancer, but he left her enough money that she doesn’t have to worry, and she keeps busy with the many needs of her grown children and grandchildren, and also with her tennis foursome.

Unfortunately for Mrs. Plansky, while she is living her best widowed life, a villainous man somewhere in Romania is paying an instructor to teach English to his dead brother’s son. It’s a bit of a struggle. The frustrated teacher tries to explain to the boy why no American ever says the grammatically correct phrase “It is I” — “You must learn the right wrong grammar. That’s the secret of sounding American.”

How does one learn the right wrong grammar? “There are ways. For one you could go to YouTube and type in ‘Country Music.’”

The teen, Dinu, is learning English for a nefarious purpose that is obvious from the start. At his uncle’s direction, he will be connected with hapless senior citizens in America in a scheme to drain their bank accounts. Mrs. Plansky is his first victim when she authorizes a payment to a person she thought was her grandson using a platform hilariously called “Safemo.”

While the banks and law enforcement were suitably solicitous about Mrs. Plansky’s plight, they ultimately said there was nothing they could do because the Romanian authorities tended to look the other way on such crimes, seeing as they brought U.S. dollars into their economy. At first Mrs. Plansky resolves to just figure out how to live out her days on Social Security and any job she can get; she owns her car and condo outright (and has a new hip), meaning she is already in better shape than many other people her age. She sits down to do an accounting of her assets, liabilities and income and have a drink like people on the Titanic “after the collision but before the realization,” and finds the math grim.

In addition to her own living expenses, she has promised loans to her children and is responsible for her 98-year-old father, who needs to move into a more expensive wing of his assisted living facility. Also, she is feeling as though she failed her beloved Norm in being taken in by the scam and losing their savings. She is finally overtaken with “real, hot fury” over her circumstance, sells her deceased mother’s emerald ring and books a plane ticket to Bucharest, determined to solve the case (and get her money back) herself. Hijinks ensue as she moves from “doing, not being done to.”

Since the publisher has already revealed that this is the first book in a new series, it’s obvious that Mrs. Plansky will survive her adventure with her pluck intact. There are enough clues throughout the novel that the astute reader will have a vague idea of how the story will end before Mrs. Plansky even deplanes. If you’re looking for a heart-stopping thriller with a surprise ending, look elsewhere.

That said, Mrs. Plansky’s Revenge is light-hearted fun packed with sly asides (like a “presidential suite” in a Romanian hotel that had a picture of Richard Nixon above it) that elevate it above a beach read — or a story of a dog detective. It’s a deceptively smart little novel, inspired by a similar scam call to the author’s father.

And Chet and Bernie fans can rejoice; that series is not over. Up on the Woof Top, a “holiday adventure,” comes out next month. B+

Album Reviews 23/09/21

10 Miles 2 Neptune, Change (self-released)

This New Hampshire-based fedora-pop duo features singer-songwriters Mike Birch of Derry and Merrimack’s Tammy Jann, who, for the last eight years, have co-run a Nashua-based songwriting group, I’m told, which I take to mean that they’re community-minded, which the state’s music community could always use, wouldn’t you say? Their songs are, as you’d expect, reminiscent of Joni Mitchell, Stephen Stills, all that stuff, you know, Bonnaroo-bait comprising ’60s rock, jam band stuff, and so on and so forth. “The duo’s challenge with their first CD release,” they tell us press people, “was to bring together Tammy’s lyrics and Mike’s music to create songs with an original sound and style.” I’d say that’s true; the songs are quite listenable, and if you’re, you know, a gentle soul who thinks Neil Young is way too heavy metal, you’ll probably like it. The production — which I only bring up because it’s really the only thing local musicians usually care about — is fine. A-

Rich Hinman, Memorial (Colorfield Records)

You know, if the only commercial CDs I received at this desk were all put out by studio hacks who were sick of being considered hacks by music journalism hacks, I’d be spending a lot more of my thesaurus.com time hunting for synonyms for upbeat-sounding adjectives instead of things like “humdrum” and “unlistenable.” Hinman’s pedal steel guitar has made appearances on recording sessions for songs by the likes of k.d. lang, Maren Morris and Amythyst Kiah, and I’m sure I’ve noticed his name on many other things, so I was a bit surprised that this is his first solo album. It’s trippy but kindhearted ambient stuff tilted in a Nel Cline direction; Hinman busies himself most of the time trying to make his pedal steel sound too breezily divine to be a pedal steel, put it that way, and there’s a lot of quirky, awkward but fascinating indie vibe along the way, found sounds turning into endless ringouts, plenty of cavitation, etc. Very listenable. A

Playlist

Ack, it’s about to get really freezing out there, isn’t it, because the next batch of random CD releases will magically appear on Sept. 22, just two months before Thanksgiving, can you even believe it, folks! In order to avoid thinking about sliding down hopelessly slidey hills in my car, which will be happening any minute now, let’s subject-change to something that’s a zillion times more pleasant, namely sexy singing lady Kylie Minogue, whose new album, Tension, is on the way to the stores, or whatever places people visit to buy stuff and randomly clog the aisles in our super-smart Information Age! Yikes, this song is so sexy and hot, like what Britney was doing for about five minutes, euro-trash trance-pop for runway models to stare vacantly to, I still love this kind of thing. Speaking of velvet-rope hotness, I wonder if Kylie’s ever done a jam with Tiësto, let me go look. Nope, apparently not, but DJ Flyboy once did a mashup of Kylie’s “Confide in Me” and Jonas Blue/Tiësto’s “Ritual.” OK, you have no idea what I’m talking about, do you? That’s a shame!
Unfashionably late-breaking: At this writing I’m hoping to attend a heavy metal rock ’n’ roll concert in Manchester at a place called Angel City Music Hall, a venue located within the Spider Bite building on Elm Street. An old public relations bro named Dave, who’s based in New York City, is helping to push the awesome, awesome New Orleans-based sludge-metal band Crowbar, who will be playing at Angel City on Saturday, Sept. 23, you should totally go!
Whew, I’m glad to report that our culture hasn’t devolved to the point that if you go on Google and type “Lydia L” the first thing the all-knowing search engine suggests isn’t “Lydia Lunch,” but the name right under that is, as it should be, Lydia Loveless, the alt-country indie-rocker, whose new LP, Nothing’s Gonna Stand in My Way Again, is due out in a few hours or whatnot! The teaser track is “Sex And Money,” a strummy mid-tempo gloom-along whose melody sort of reminds me of REO Speedwagon’s “Ridin’ The Storm Out.” Other than that, it’s OK!
I always get Teenage Fanclub mixed up with New Young Pony Club, mostly because I couldn’t care less about either of them! But don’t let that stop you from reading on: Nothing Lasts Forever, the band’s new full-length, floated a single a few months ago called “Foreign Land,” in which they come even closer to sounding like The Byrds than they ever did, which will please you or disgust you depending on your taste!
And finally, let’s look at swamp-monster thrash-metal band Cannibal Corpse, and their latest “slab,” Chaos Horrific! To be completely honest with you, I’m more familiar with the literally thousands of bands that are said to sound like them — for instance whichever one did the Occlused In Occlusity album, which is so obscure that Google is asking me “what the blazes are you even babbling about,” — than I am with Cannibal Corpse itself! But sure, I’ll go listen to one of these new songs, “Summoned For Sacrifice.” It is “spider walking metal” as I call it, like the guitar just does a “boo-bee-dah-boo-DEE-boo-dum-bee” in mid-tempo cadence, it’s perfect musical ambiance for coming at your little brother with a tarantula walking on your arm, which of course you plan to drop in his lap so his bowl of Count Chocula goes flying. And the singer is doing the Cookie Monster thing instead of doing any sort of singing, because it’s really hard for tarantula-owning suburbanites to find actual singers for their garage bands.

If you’re in a local band, now’s a great time to let me know about your EP, your single, whatever’s on your mind. Let me know how you’re holding yourself together without being able to play shows or jam with your homies. Send a recipe for keema matar. Message me on Twitter (@esaeger) or Facebook (eric.saeger.9).

Tag: 230921