People
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2022 Berkshire Mountains Faerie Festival, Adams, MA
Return After Three Years
By: - Jun 20th, 2022Last Saturday marked the return of the Berkshire Mountains Faerie Festival after three years, the fifth celebration since 2016. Cold weather and stormy winds could not keep away faeries and fair minded goblins from near and far.
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Remembering Paulie Walnuts
Sopranos Mobster with Silver Wings
By: - Jul 10th, 2022During a stint at Sing Sing Tony Sirico was inspired by a visiting troupe of actors. What followed was years of bit parts and supporting roles. There were lots of opportunities given the public's unquenchable thirst for mobbed up entertainment. He hit the jackpot as Paulie Walnuts in the 1999-2007 run of HBO's Sopranos. He died this week at 79.
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Legendary Boston Gallerist Portia Harcus
Showed the New Wave in Late 1960s
By: - Jul 15th, 2022Portia Gwen Harcus, 88, of Boston, passed away Thursday, July 14, 2022. Graveside services at Sharon Memorial Park, 40 Dedham St., Sharon, MA on Sunday, July 17, 2022 at 9:45 am.
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Jeanne Renaud (1928 - 2022)
Montreal Artist and Choreographer
By: - Sep 16th, 2022Jeanne Renaud the Montreal artist, dancer and choreographer has passed away at 94. She created choreography for the film Brèves histoires de pierres muettes (2018) and le Projet Feldman/Renaud à la Salle Bourgie in 2021, with the dancers Louise Bédard and Marc Boivin.
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Critic Jack Lyons at 91
Covered California Theatre and Film
By: - Oct 19th, 2022We met in Chicago in 2012 as new members of American Theatre Critics Association. Since then critic Jack Lyons and I have shared a decade of theatre. He generously reposted to this site reviews first appearing in Desert Weekly News in Palm Springs, California. At the ripe age of 91 he passed recently. With credits in writing, producing and directing, he was a member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, Writers Guild of America and Screen Actors Guild.
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Readings at Gloucester Writers Center
Joe Rukeyser and Kathleen Williams
By: - Nov 18th, 2022It was fun to revisit our old haunt the Gloucester Writers Center. Much has changed since we were residents several years ago. Last night we attended a reading by Joe Rukeyser and Kathleen Williams.
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Cape Ann Museum Book Launch
Gloucester Encounters: Essays on the Cultural History of the City from 1623-2023.
By: - Nov 21st, 2022The Cape Ann Museum’s auditorium was packed for a Sunday afternoon book launch. Edited by Martin Ray, Gloucester Encounters: Essays on the Cultural History of the City from 1623-2023, is a compendium of 37 largely community based essays on aspects of Gloucester’s lifestyle, issues and concerns.
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George Fifield at 72
Founded Cyber Arts Festival
By: - Nov 23rd, 2022George Fifield, founder of the Cyberarts Festival and Boston Cyberarts, curator, scholar, arts administrator, creative mentor, videographer, educator, and a major champion of fusing art with technology, passed away on November 11 at the age of 72 from complications that followed a devastating fall that occurred at his Martha’s Vineyard home early last summer
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Geoffrey Richon Contractor and Philanthropist
Co-Founded Gloucester Stage Company
By: - Dec 05th, 2022Geoffrey Richon is a major contractor and philanthropist in Gloucester. He co-founded Gloucester Stage Company. For artistic director he hired and later fired the playwright Israel Horovitz. He was outed as a sexual predator, first by the Boston Phoenix in 1993, and then by the New York Times in 2007. The company has been through rough times but Richon sees a bright and expanded future.
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Hoosic River Watershed Association
Invites Poets and Musicians
By: - May 02nd, 2023Hoosic River Watershed Association (HooRWA) invites poets and musicians in the Hoosic River Watershed to find inspiration and craft a poem, song, or instrumental piece about and for the Hoosic River and/or its tributaries.
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Berkshire Immigrant Center Gala
Event at Shakespeare & Company Raised $125,000
By: - Jun 07th, 2023About 200 hardy souls braved a damp and chilly Sunday at Shakespere & Company in support of a fundraising event for Berkshire Immigrant Center. In every sense it was a wicked cool event.
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Treat Williams Performed for Berkshire Theatre Group
In 2013 We Discussed Lion in Winter
By: - Jun 13th, 2023Treat Williams, the actor known for his roles in the movies “Hair” and “Deep Rising” and the TV show “Everwood,” has died. He was 71. A S.U.V. crashed into his motorcycle in Dorset, Vt. He was 71. We spoke with him in 2013 following a performance as King Henry in “Lion in Winter.”
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Indigenous People of Cape Ann
Separating Fact from Myth
By: - Jul 12th, 2023In response to an article The Disappeared of Cape Ann, posted to the Giuliano book site, Mary Ellen Lepionka, an authority on the subject sent a lengthy response. During the occasion of Gloucester 400th Plus much scholarly information is coming to light. Her research is presented here as a letter to the editor.
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Bach by Bike in Leipzig
A Trio Stops in the Summersaal
By: - Jul 31st, 2023An enthusiastic cyclist, violinist Marieke Neumann was the developer of the “Bach Bicycle Route” in central Germany, featuring guided tours to important locations from the composer’s life. Mezzo-soprano Anna-Luise Oppelt joins her for Bach by Bike to visit towns and cities where Johann Sebastian Bach lived and worked.
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Eric ‘Enrico’ Lamet at 93
Beloved Member of Berkshire International Club
By: - Oct 17th, 2023At 93 Eric 'Enrico' Lumet lived a long and remarkable life. Brilliant. witty and talented he would belt out arias. Born in Austria and interned in Mussolini's Italy he wrote two books about that childhood experience with his mother. Denied education by the Nazis he was home schooled and tutored. He spoke five languages which he used when he and his wife "Cookie" traveled extensively. He was a much admired member of the Berkshire International Club.
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Gloucester Artist Jeff Weaver
A Renowned American Realist
By: - Nov 16th, 2023One of America's foremost realist painters, Jeff Weaver, lives and works in Gloucester. His exhibition at the Cape Ann Museum preceded the blockbuster show of Edward and Josephine Hopper. Weaver drew little media and critical attention while the Hoppers put Gloucester on the map. There are apt comparisons. Hopper was more famous and a better artist while Weaver, hands down, is the more skillful painter.
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Environmental Artist Harry Bartnick
Launches Evocative Website
By: - Feb 09th, 2024Harry Bartnick is a realist painter whose modernist aesthetic is deeply rooted in traditions of classicism. He refreshes and refines his vision through annual visits to Europe particularly the ruins of Italy. In recent years that has evolved into aerial depictions of nature ravaged by industrial and residential development. While framed as environmental commentary the works have an uncanny beauty that evoke a range of responses. Following a template, the artist has launched a website for his extensive and unique oeuvre.
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The Clark Art Institute Selects Bénédicte Savoy
2024 Clark Prize for Excellence in Arts Writing.
By: - Mar 07th, 2024The Clark Art Institute has selected Bénédicte Savoy as the recipient of the 2024 Clark Prize for Excellence in Arts Writing. Savoy is a professor of art history at Technische Universität in Berlin and is a noted expert on the provenance and repatriation of works of art, including looted art and other forms of illegally acquired cultural objects.
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Erin Go Bragh Yourself
Luck of the Irish
By: - Mar 18th, 2024Once a year I get to celebrate my half Irish heritage with a vengeance. That means corned beef and cabbage and raucous singalong at the Freight Yard Pub in North Adams.
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North Adams Poet Sarah Sutro
Natural Wonders Her Second Book of Poetry
By: - May 13th, 2024The poems in this book point out split second changes, interactions within the environment, and capture the upfront miniscule moment and the constancy of rhythms, arcs and gifts from nature.
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Jaune Quick To See Smith on Katherine Porter
An Appreciation from a Renowned Artist to Another
By: - Jul 11th, 2024Jaune Quick to See Smith responded to my posthumous interview with Katherine Porter. It was too long and detailed to post as a comment. It's a remarkable tribute from a renowned woman artist to another. Recently Jaune was given a retrospective by the Whitney Museum. I have had a long involvement with both of these artists.
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An Adventure Story About My Temple Life
Memoir of a North Adams Based Daoist Monk
By: - Jul 16th, 2024At the age of 65,MIchael McGrath ascended a mountain China with a request to study Daoism at an ancient temple. The Abbott accepted him with skepticism predicting that he wold wash out in a month. He stuck it out for a year and after holidays with his family on Cape Cod, returned to the mountain several times. He has published 'An Adventure Story About My Temple Life What I learned, and What I Now Live.' It's a life affirming page turner.
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My Curious Years with Charles Henri Ford
The Autobiography of Indra Tamang
By: - Oct 31st, 2024My Curious Years with Charles Henri Ford is much more than a history of famous writers, artists and glamorous parties. At its heart, it is about Tamang’s own evolving role from a simple soul without a formal education and no knowledge of English, into a trusted member of the Ford family’s inner circle.
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Remembering Alice Brock at 83
High Times in the Berkshires
By: - Nov 22nd, 2024A long time Provincetown resident, artist and chef, Alice Brock, has died just days before Thanksgiving. In 2014 we reminisced about the fame game. She returned to the Berkshires to host a dinner at Dream Away Lodge. She described her cuisine as "heavy handed" which may well be a metaphor for her remarkable life.
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James T. Demetrion at 90
Former Director of Hirshorn Museum
By: - Dec 02nd, 2020James T. Demetrion, the second and longest-serving director of the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (1984–2001) and director of the Des Moines Art Center (1969–1984) and Pasadena Art Museum (1964–1966), died Nov. 29. Demetrion had celebrated his 90th birthday in July.
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