FEATURED HEADLINES
Food: Taste of the Trucks
FEATURED FOOD
Taste of the Trucks
Food Truck Festival Comes to Manchester
Written By Angie Sykeny (asykeny@hippopress.com)
Images: Courtesy/Stock Photo
Manchester will have its first food truck festival when CASA New Hampshire hosts Food Trucks for CASA from Friday, June 2, through Sunday, June 4, at McIntyre Ski Area. Fifteen food trucks from northern New England will be featured, representing an array of cuisine styles.
“The food truck climate is something that hasn’t really hit New Hampshire yet,” event co-coordinator Loren Foxx said. “There’s never been an event like this in Manchester, and Manchester doesn’t have a lot of food trucks, so we’re excited about bringing such a wide variety of food trucks to the largest city in the state.”
The food trucks will offer southern-style barbecue ribs, chicken and pork; Spanish-American cuisine; Jamaican specialties like patties and coco bread; Mediterranean falafel, wraps and salads; french fries and chicken; wood-fired pizza and more. There will also be sweets and snacks like kettle corn, homemade apple crisp, frozen apple cider, Indian pudding, cupcakes, pies, pastries and more.
While food trucks used to have a reputation for inexperienced chefs and mediocre to poor-quality food, Foxx said, they have recently started making their way into the world of gourmet food.
“In a lot of cases, these are chefs with solid cooking resumes and a track record of success,” he said. “Many have been running restaurants and decided to do the food truck thing so they can have more fun and experiment and not be tied down by a lot of the challenges that come with operating a restaurant.”
The three-day festival will feature not only food trucks but also beer from two local breweries, games, family activities and live entertainment. Harpoon Brewery will be onsite pouring four brews on draft: Huckleberry UFO hefeweizen, Camp Wannamango mango pale ale, UFO White Ale and Craft Cider. The other brewery, Great North Aleworks, will be pouring its signature IPA, Tie Dyed pale ale, Robust Vanilla Porter and Northbound American Pilsner.
“Our goal was to give people the opportunity to come to the event and stick around for a bit,” Foxx said. “They can grab something to eat, enjoy a beer or two and play some cornhole, not just grab something to eat and leave.”
Foxx encourages festival-goers to come hungry and bring friends so they can all order food from different trucks and share.
“You can eat a bunch of different types of food that you can’t normally get,” he said, “and it’s restaurant-quality food at what’s close to a fast-food price.”
Proceeds from the festival will help CASA in advocating for abused and neglected children.
Participating Vendors
Belgian Acres Farm
Carol’s Kettle Corn
Clyde’s Cupcakes
Crescent City Catering
Dudley’s Concessions
Great North Aleworks
Harpoon Brewery
Kevin’s French Fries and Chicken
Lester’s BBQ
Made With Love 603
Makin’ Jamaican
McIntyre Ski Area catering
Mediterranean Home Cooking
Northeast Pie Co.
Phoenix Rising Pizza
Road Hawg BBQ Swine Dining
Spiceventure International Food Truck
Food Trucks for CASA
When: Friday, June 2, from 4 to 8 p.m.; Saturday, June 3, from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.; and Sunday, June 4, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Where: McIntyre Ski Area, 50 Chalet Court, Manchester
Cost: General admission costs $5 per person. Packages include one admission ticket, a T-shirt and two beer tickets for $25 or two tickets, two desserts and four beer tickets for $30.
Visit: foodtrucksforcasa.com
News: Foster Care Crisis
FEATURED NEWS
Foster Care Crisis
Kids Rescued from Unsafe Homes have Nowhere Else to Go
Written By Ryan Lessard (news@hippopress.com)
Images: Stock Photo
Foster care workers say an influx of kids entering the state foster care system, driven by the opioid addiction epidemic, has grown to the point where there aren’t enough foster families to take the kids — and recruiting new foster families isn’t easy, given how little they receive from the state to help pay for the costs of caring for a child.
Recruiting
Katie Cassidy, a foster care recruiter with Child and Family Services, says demand for foster homes has risen faster than supply can keep up.
“The biggest thing right now is the state of New Hampshire is in quite a foster crisis where we do not have enough homes statewide,” Cassidy said. “We are desperately seeking foster homes who can provide all different kinds of care.”
CFS is a private nonprofit organization that partners with the state Division for Children, Youth and Families to pair children with foster families after DCYF assesses their case and removes them from an abusive or negligent household.
While DCYF internally pairs children with general needs, CFS specializes in more challenging cases. It trains foster families to qualify as independent services options, or ISO families, which need to have at least one year of experience with general foster cases before taking on more challenging cases.
Cassidy said there’s a growing need for both general foster families and advanced foster families because of the strain on the system. And time is of the essence.
She said the problem has been growing over the past couple of years but it’s risen to crisis levels in the past year as more kids who belong in family settings are being placed in group homes because there aren’t enough families available.
Eileen Mullen, an administrator with DCYF, said there are 1,223 children in foster care right now and the past state fiscal year saw a big increase.
“We’ve experienced about a 30-percent increase of the children coming into the system,” Mullen said. “That’s considerable.”
CFS Advocacy Director Keith Kuenning says this means kids ending up in group homes or with families that are poor matches, which may result in the child’s getting bounced around from home to home.
In an ideal system, kids are matched with families based on broader criteria, which look at things like the age and gender the families are looking for, whether they plan to adopt or they’re empty-nesters, the needs of the child and whether families will be willing to work with biological parents. Both the children and foster families fill out a form so social workers can compare their “compatibility index,” according to Mullen.
But that becomes a luxury in a system with too few families.
“Right now the system is so strained, you don’t really have the ability to match. You just find an open bed and put the child there,” Kuenning said.
In order to combat this, CFS is actively looking to recruit more families.
“We’re really trying to step up that game here, because we have such a need right now,” Cassidy said.
She encourages anyone curious to reach out despite any misgivings they may have about their qualifications.
“There’s no perfect parent, and we’re OK with that,” Cassidy said.
Some things are improving on the recruitment side. Muller said the health commissioner recently signed off on a new team of people who are dedicated to performing home studies — the process of evaluating prospective foster families. Before, this work was done by people whose time was divided between other responsibilities.
The team has been up and running since January, but with all the fire safety inspections, health inspections and criminal background checks, the process still takes between eight and 12 weeks, according to Mullen.
State Funding
One of the reasons it’s been hard to recruit new foster families is economics. Caring for kids is hugely expensive, and the payments the state makes to foster families that are meant to defray those costs may be inadequate for many potential foster families.
“The problem that we’re having is that those rates haven’t been raised in 10 years,” Kuenning said.
Right now, Kuenning said, the state pays a base rate of $16 per day per child age 0 to 5 and $30 per month for clothing. He said foster parents joke that $30 a month is enough to buy one shoe in May and another shoe in June.
Kuenning would like to see the base rate be more in line with the national average, which is $24 per day, but he said the state needs to toe the line between cost reimbursement and profit from overpaying.
“We’re trying to find that sweet spot,” Kuenning said.
He said the decision to raise a child should never be motivated by money, so enabling that kind of incentive could cause unintended problems.
Kuenning is in talks with lawmakers and the governor’s office in the hopes that the state budget will allocate an additional $1.5 million to $2 million per year in order to raise the base rate to about $21 per day.
Kuenning also wants to see the state raise the clothing payments to at least $60 per month.
He’s optimistic that these proposals will have a chance in the Statehouse since Gov. Chris Sununu has prioritized children’s issues.
The state is in the process of reforming DCYF to fix problems with the assessment process, but Kuenning said fixing one without fixing the other would be for naught. After all, identifying unsafe home environments and removing children from them is all predicated on the idea that there’s a better place for these kids to live.
“Foster care is the backbone of the child protective system,” Kuenning said.
If you are considering becoming a foster parent, call 801-4108.
Arts: Reunions & Togetherness
FEATURED ARTS
Reunions & Togetherness
10th Nashua Sculpture Symposium Closes this Weekend
Written By Kelly Sennott (ksennott@hippopress.com)
Images: Courtesy Photo
“Together” is the theme of the 10th Annual Nashua International Sculpture Symposium, an event that brings artists from all over the world to Nashua, where they stay with residents and create new pieces of art to be installed around the city.
This year’s crop includes Mai Thu Van from Vietnam, Tony Jimenez from Costa Rica and Tom Huff from upstate New York, who were also part of Nashua’s 2008, 2013 and 2012 symposia, respectively. Their 2017 journey began with an opening reception Thursday, May 11, and ends with a closing ceremony Saturday, June 3, at 1 p.m., at which time the artists unveil their masterpieces.
During interviews at NIMCO, where the artists worked for three weeks, they talked about their history, their art, and their happy reunions in Nashua.
Mai Thu Van
Thu Van’s 2008 sculpture, “Moon Shadow,” sits next to the Nashua Public Library and has one enormous fan — a 4-year-old girl named Elena.
“Her mom told us that since Elena was 2, she has been really drawn to this sculpture. Every time she goes to the library, she says, ‘Can we visit ‘Moon Shadow?’’ And then she goes up to the sculpture, walks around it, and touches it. Even at the dinner table, she’ll randomly talk about ‘Moon Shadow,’” said Karen Wolfe, the symposium’s director, during an interview at the site.
Elena met Thu Van at the opening and created a drawing of the two of them surrounded by a heart. In return, Thu Van is constructing a miniature sculpture for the little girl, in addition to the larger one she’s completing for the city, which contains carvings of tiny roads, stairways and people.
“When I heard the story about the little girl who loves my ‘Moon Shadow,’ I was very happy,” Thu Van said. “I have a big friend, and she’s 4 years old.”
This response is what the symposium is all about, said Wolfe.
“[The symposium] really creates long-lasting relationships and friendships,” Wolfe said. “It helps me to feel like this big, crazy world is really a smaller, warmer place.”
For this symposium, Thu Van brought her husband, painter Nguyễn Hà Bắc-HS, who’s there as a special guest courtesy of the Andres Institute of Art. He was eager to visit the place and meet the people he’d heard so much about, like Carolyn Cilley, who hosted his wife in 2008. He’s found the place similarly inspiring, having drawn 10 portraits of his new friends.
Tony Jimenez
Jimenez’s new piece depicts two faces next to each other looking happy. His 2013 piece in Labine Park, “La Familia,” follows a similar theme of togetherness.
“It’s different this time. I have friends here now. I feel safe here,” said Jimenez, who’s staying with the same host who took him in four years ago, Karen Goddard, who also owns M&C in Amherst. They became such good friends, she invited him back in 2014 to sculpt a piece to decorate outside her clothing shop.
“She always says, the first time she met him, he got out of the car, and it was like they were already friends,” Wolfe said. “It was a special connection.”
Jimenez works as a full-time artist in Costa Rica with wood, metal and stone. His parents are farmers, and he remembers the awe of learning how a tiny seed could transform into something beautiful, like a tree or a flower, or something delicious, like fruits or vegetables. Today, much of his art expresses that kind of upward movement, or the role of the woman, whom he sees as strong and powerful.
He’s been looking forward to returning to Nashua and leaving another mark on the Gate City.
“The other special thing is that my sculpture will be here forever,” he said.
Tom Huff
Huff is a Native American from the Seneca and Cayuga nations, in upstate New York. Much of his artwork explores his culture, and this new piece, “We Are All Related,” is no exception. On one side is a carving of a face, representing his mother.
“I’m Native American, and our culture deals with women. It’s a real matriarchal society; we are who our mothers are,” he said. “[The sculpture] is about how we are all related … The plants, the air, the water, the earth, the sky. We depend on each other.”
Huff participated in the 2012 symposium, and his “Turtle Island,” which was inspired by a rock he found as a kid on a creek, can be found in Bicentennial Park. He still carries that rock with him everywhere he goes.
At first, he thought his calling was in geology, but he eventually went to study art at the Rhode Island School of Design and now teaches in Syracuse. The materials — stone, wood — remain important to his process. He sees things within them before he begins carving, which perhaps also has to do with his heritage.
“In our culture, we believe that all the natural parts of the earth have a living spirit,” he said.
Closing Ceremony
Music: New Old Sol
FEATURED MUSIC
New Old Sol
After Setbacks, Volunteer Group Presses on with Manchester Event
Written By Michael Witthaus (music@hippopress.com)
Images: Courtesy Photo
For over a year starting in late 2015, the organizers of Old Sol Music Hall focused on turning the Rex Theatre, a defunct Amherst Street movie house, into a 350-seat live music venue. In February, negotiations with Manchester’s Development Corporation broke down. The unveiling of similar venues in Concord and Nashua signaled an end of the effort, forcing a need to regroup.
Old Sol Executive Director Matt Wilhelm said in a recent interview that although his organization’s catalyst had ended, the spirit guiding it was still very much alive and reflected in events like the upcoming Summer Serve-a-thon at Northeast Delta Dental Stadium. The June 7 event brings together volunteers to package 22,000 ready-to-cook meals for families on behalf of End Hunger NE, and ends with a performance by indie music act The Suitcase Junket.
“The mission and vision in a lot of ways remains the same; we’re really working to leverage the arts to create positive community impact,” Wilhelm said.
He said another venue is not out of the question, but the focus on “pop-up events” like the Serve-a-thon stood front and center.
“We’re just excited to be doing another event, and taking some time to figure out what’s next,” he said.
Losing out in their attempts to create a multipurpose performance space was hugely deflating, Wilhelm said.
“We worked really hard to share our vision with people [and] initially, we felt like we let some people down,” he said. “It took me a little while to accept; initially, we thought maybe we should fold.”
After a period of “Sol searching,” they pledged to press on.
Wilhelm said that while the effort to define how an idea like Old Sol can fit in the state’s social firmament is ongoing, “The goal remains the same — it’s about community, helping to provide entertainment so that young people, and millennials, in particular, are really motivated to work and live and enjoy their time in New Hampshire. We think there is a void, that the scene is not fully developed.”
There are a few small ironies in the upcoming show. A huge collective effort led by over 100 volunteers grouped into multiple teams will be capped by the ultimate one-man band playing in the city’s newest performance space. Built during the off season in the entrance area of the Fisher Cats ball park, the Plaza Stage has full sound, video and lighting — a worthy upgrade to Victory Park, which hosted the first Serve-a-thon in 2016.
“We knew we wanted to have our service project and concert in the same place or a short distance apart [and] the Fisher Cats came on board as a partner … it was just a one-stop shop for us,” Wilhelm said. “We’re excited about a new location and as this evolves over the years, we’ll pick some unique and different places to put on the event.”
Wilhelm, a veteran of touring with bands like Dispatch and Guster, has never met this year’s headliner face to face but said there’s “one degree of separation” between them.
“One of Dispatch’s guitar techs does some pedal work for him, and I’m excited to see his show first hand,” he said. “He reminds me a bit of Dick Van Dyke’s character in Mary Poppins.”
Going forward, the 30-something Wilhelm is steadfastly optimistic about staying committed to his hometown.
“I think it is easy to be disappointed, to say, ‘Old Sol didn’t work out and that means Manchester isn’t serious about retaining young people,’ but I don’t think that’s actually the case,” he said. “It was circumstantial; this particular deal didn’t work out.”
The energy that launched Old Sol remains.
“We’re excited to see what’s next; we think we are on to something,” Wilhelm said. “Based on the feedback from the community — grassroots supporters, business leaders and other cultural leaders in this part of New Hampshire — there is a future for Old Sol. We’re just not sure what shape that is going to take yet.”
Old Sol Summer Serve-a-thon w/ The Suitcase Junket
When: Wednesday, June 7, 7:30 p.m., with volunteer food packaging starting at 5 p.m.
Where: Delta Dental Stadium, Manchester
Tickets: $10 at oldsol.org (volunteers attend free)
Film: Baywatch
FEATURED FILM
Film Review
Baywatch (R)
Written By Amy Diaz (adiaz@hippopress.com)
Images: Movie Screenshot
Dwayne Johnson and Zac Efron don the swimwear in Baywatch, an uneven first draft for a comedy adaptation of the 1990s TV show.
Mitch Buchannon (Johnson) is the proud leader of the Baywatch, the squad of lifeguards keeping watch over the beach. Though saving people from drowning is their first mission, they also keep an eye out for smugglers hiding diamonds in surfboards or sandgrifters stealing from beachgoers or, in the case of the current menace, a theatrically villainous, hotel-owning drug dealer named Victoria Leeds (Priyanka Chopra). Victoria’s evil plan includes pressuring small business owners to sell her all the land around the beach, bribing the city council and selling highly potent drugs, which really feels like an unnecessary side gig. But even though her plan is poorly formed and catching her is pretty decidedly not the job of the lifeguards, Mitch has his eye on Victoria.
The rest of his crew — Stephanie Holden (Ilfenesh Hadera) and CJ Parker (Kelly Rohrbach) — seem to take their job as scantily dressed law enforcement just as seriously. As do two of the three new recruits: Summer Quinn (Alexandra Daddario) joins because it’s what she lives to do, Ronnie Greenbaum (Jon Bass) joins because he has the hots for CJ and Matt Brody (Zac Efron) joins because it counts as the community service mandated by his plea deal. Brody is a bad-boy Olympic swimmer who thinks he’s too good for the Baywatch but, once saddled with him, Mitch is determined to make a team player out of him.
“This could be like 21 Jump Street,” is what I’ve been telling myself about this movie. “This could be like 21 Jump Street” was also clearly the ruling principle for this movie. Baywatch seemed to be shooting for that movie’s very specific blend of comedy-action and meta humor.
I can see how this movie tried to put together the relationships and situations at this movie’s core: the Mitch and Brody relationship, Mitch’s belief that his mission includes some policing, the team aspect of the Baywatch team, the idea of a cartoonish villain. I can see what wells they’re going to for their jokes, and I can see how they constructed the story to build in opportunity for specifically R-rated gags. Even though I never watched Baywatch, I can even see the winking callbacks to the show. Generally, throughout this movie, I can see what they’re trying to do. In fact, like an inside-out and not-yet-complete home-ec project I can see all of the seams in this movie. And, for the same reason that you don’t generally buy clothes with straight pins still in them, I really would have preferred to wait for a more finished product with this movie. Something where the plot holes were filled and the comic edges were sharpened.
Dwayne Johnson is fun here. This is not a surprise — he’s generally fun in most things. The movie doesn’t seem completely certain who Mitch is, so it plays with his size, his general badass-ness, his ability to be both serious and goofy at the same time. It can’t seem to decide whether Mitch is a police detective trapped in a lifeguard’s body or the lifeguards in this world really are supposed to be police of the beach — answering that question would help the movie pick a lane in terms of what it’s doing with the whole idea of the Baywatch as caper investigators.
Efron is also fun, particularly when a movie is playing with his general aging boy-band member quality. The movie has a more clearly drawn arc for his character — misfit who has to learn team spirit — but there is still a sense that the movie is letting previous Efron roles (the frat brother in the Neighbors movies for example) do the work of creating a character here.
The biggest problem with Baywatch is that “I can see that this is the joke” is not the same as “this joke is funny.” While it has plenty of elements to make for a good bit of dopey grown-up comedy, Baywatch was never able to pull those parts together.
Grade: C
Pop: Choose Your Bicycle Adventure! Cover Stories *
FEATURED POP - * COVER STORY *
Built For Two
Ride with a Partner on a Tandem Bicycle
Written By Angie Sykeny (asykeny@hippopress.com)
Images: Courtesy Photo
There’s an old adage about riding a tandem bicycle.
“The saying is, ‘Whatever direction your relationship is going, you will get there faster on a tandem bike,’” said Susan Hollinger, a New Hampshire tandem cyclist and president of the Eastern Tandem Rally, a group of tandem enthusiasts hosting rides and events in the Northeast.
A tandem is a bicycle designed for two people to ride at once. It has two seats — a regular seat and a seat directly behind it — and two sets of pedals, linked so they turn together and at same rate.
“You’re not independent at all,” Hollinger said. “It requires the two people to work together in sync and to communicate to move the bike and cover the distance. And it’s incredibly fun.”
Partnering Up
Riding tandem is a great option for two people who want to get outside and be active together but who have different physical skills or endurance levels.
“The bike is an equalizer,” Hollinger said. “One [rider] may be a competitive cyclist and the other may like to go slower, but the bike does all the equalization, so they get [to their destination] at the same time, and no one feels like they’re bugging the other person or waiting for them to catch up.”
Tandem cycling also gives riders an opportunity to socialize and spend more quality time together, as opposed to riding individual bicycles side by side, where the riders may fall in and out of earshot and are focused on keeping the same pace with each other.
From a fitness standpoint, Hollinger said, many people tend to ride harder and for longer distances when riding tandem.
“I think it’s because you’re just having fun the whole time,” she said. “It never really feels like work.”
Staying in Sync
On a tandem bike, the person riding in the front seat, also known as the captain, handles the primary maneuvering actions like steering and shifting gears. The captain is typically the more experienced cyclist. The person riding in the back seat, also known as the stoker, acts as “the engine,” Hollinger said, simply providing additional pedaling power.
Tandem cycling requires a significant amount of communication between the two riders. Verbal communication may include the captain informing the stoker about a change in terrain that lies ahead or when he is about to switch gears, or the stoker telling the captain when they want to glide or do standing pedaling. There is also a lot of nonverbal communication that comes with practice, like learning how to lean in unison with your partner and match his weight distribution when making turns.
“Starting out, you have to talk to each other a lot and tell each other what’s going on,” Hollinger said. “But over time, you don’t have to say as many things aloud. You communicate intuitively and through body language.”
Types of Tandems
Tandem bicycles are available in many of the same styles as single-rider bikes; there are ones for casual cruising and street riding, fitness and racing, and even mountain biking and hill climbing.
“The Mount Washington Hill Climb often has several tandems that do it,” Hollinger said. “There are tandem bikes built to do that. They have a lot of gears so people can take them up steep hills. They’re very sturdy and well-designed, and they hold up well.”
When it comes to cost, tandem bicycles span a wide range but are typically more expensive than single-rider bikes. A good-quality tandem bicycle may cost between $1,000 and $10,000, Hollinger said. If you want to try before you buy, there are some bicycle shops and outdoor recreation venues that offer tandem bicycles to rent. Many beach resorts also offer simple cruiser tandems to rent and ride.
“Those are what you think of as the classic ‘bicycle built for two,’” Hollinger said. “It’s a different thing altogether from the world of tandem fitness biking, but they’re usually very manageable, and it can be a lot of fun to just take one out for the afternoon and tour around the beach.”
Hitting the Road
If you’re just starting out with tandem cycling, it helps to be comfortable and confident riding a regular bicycle first. Riding a tandem is about as physically demanding as riding a regular bicycle on level terrain. At an incline, however, it can be more challenging because having two riders creates more weight to push up the hill.
“It’s like an 18-wheeler truck; it moves slowly uphill,” Hollinger said. “But the downhill makes up for it. You fly downhill very fast on a tandem.”
It’s best to learn on a flat, paved surface with little traffic, such as a large parking lot or a quiet back road. Then, when you go for your first real ride, start with a manageable distance like 10 or 15 miles.
Ideally, you should spend your first few rides as the stoker, with a captain who is experienced with riding a tandem.
“If you’re going to be riding on the back, it lets you feel what it’s like to not steer or shift,” Hollinger said, “and if you want to ride on the front, you can get a feel for what the captain is doing so you can tell if it’s going to be comfortable for you.”
Find a Tandem Bike
Here are some local bike shops that carry new or may carry used tandem bikes, or can order one for you.
The Bike Barn (33 S. Commercial St., Manchester, 668-6555, bikebarnusa.com)
Colonial Bicycle Co. (419 South Broadway, Salem, 894-0611; 775 Lafayette Road, Suite 5, Portsmouth, 319-1688, colonialbicycle.com)
Cycles Etc. (288 N. Broadway, Salem, 890-3212; 450 Second St., Manchester, 669-7993, cyclesetcnh.com)
Durham Bike & Sports (72 Main St., Durham, 397-5140, facebook.com/durhambike)
Exeter Cycles (4 Portsmouth Ave., Exeter, 778-2331, exetercycles.com)
Goodale’s Bike Shop (14B Broad St., Nashua, 882-2111; 1197 Hooksett Road, Hooksett, 644-2111; 19 Triangle Park Drive, Concord, 225-5111, goodalesbikeshop.com)
Gus’ Bike Shop (55 Lafayette Road, North Hampton, 964-5445, gusbike.com)
Jake’s Bike Shop (580 Mast Road, Manchester, 666-4527. jakesbikesnh.com)
Likin Bikin Bicycle Shop (Salzburg Square, 292 Route 101, Amherst, 249-5737; 5 Monument Square, Alton, 875-7141, likinbikin.com)
Maverick’s Square Adaptive Cyclery (141 Route 101A, Amherst, 554-8260, maverickssquare.com)
Ocean Cycles (76 Lafayette Road, Hampton Falls, 926-5757, oceancycles.net)
Papa Wheelies Bicycle Shop (635 Islington St., Portsmouth, 427-2060, papa-wheelies.com)
Philbrick’s Ski, Board & Bike (161 Portland Ave., Dover, 742-9333, philbricks.com)
Lean Back & Go
The Benefits of Recumbent Biking
Written By Ryan Lessard (news@hippopress.com)
Images: Courtesy Photo
Recumbent bikes are the strange mutants of the cycling world, beloved by many, reviled by others. But fans say the lean-back-with-the-legs-in-the-front approach is a more efficient use of energy and strength and offers a riding option for people with physical or cognitive disabilities.
Maverick’s Square Adaptive Cyclery is one of the few places in New Hampshire that specializes in recumbent bikes and carries an inventory in its store, according to co-owner Nathan Moreau. The shop also performs modifications for special needs, like putting all the brakes and shifters on one side for stroke victims.
“We don’t do anything normal, I guess, on the bike side,” Moreau said.
The company started six years ago and Moreau said recumbents are its “bread and butter.” It partners with rehab centers like Crotched Mountain in Greenfield and Northeast Passage in Durham.
“It gives freedom back,” Moreau said.
Folks with inner-ear problems or brain injuries may have trouble balancing, so the three-wheel option is best for them.
Recumbent bikes come in a number of variations. There are tricycles, bicycles and some that are slightly more upright with high handlebars but still with a backrest for a more relaxed seat.
“You’ve got handlebars on both sides — you sit between them and they’re physically connected to the pivot point on the wheel,” Moreau said.
For some, it can be as easy as riding a traditional bike, but for others, it can be difficult to get the hang of it.
“Either you get it really quickly or you hate your life,” Moreau said.
Still, he encourages people to try out all the variations of recumbents available. Someone who doesn’t do well with a two-wheeler may do well with a three-wheeler. That’s because recumbent bicycles require more balance and leaning like a traditional bike, whereas trikes do not.
“It’s a different type of balance. It’s like being in your recliner and trying to ride a bike,” Moreau said.
Two-wheelers can also be difficult to get started. Moreau said a rider needs to sort of “Flintstone” run to pick up momentum and then pick their feet up.
Moreau finds the three-wheeler to be his favorite form of conveyance these days. He can go for 20 miles on a recumbent trike with the same energy that would take him half the distance on a traditional bike.
Plus, with the stability afforded by three wheels, he can spend less energy trying to stay upright.
“My body doesn’t wear out as quickly because … I’m not using the same type of muscle groups. I’m using a more diverse muscle group,” Moreau said. “You’re not using your legs to fight balance.”
He said it also works out the core more than a traditional bike. Because of the way your body needs to shift side to side, he said, your lower abdomen gets a good workout.
“They’re a blast to ride, they’re super-comfortable and it’s a lot of fun,” Moreau said.
Co-owner Dan Horn says he thinks most local triathlons and duathlons will accept recumbent bikes but racers should always check with a race organizer first to be sure. Some more official racing circuits might be less inclined to allow recumbents, he said.
One bike race called the Three Notch Century in North Conway includes a lot of recumbents, according to Horn. The event, which takes place this year on Saturday, Sept. 9, helps raise support for Northeast Passage.
Many websites sell recumbents online and some local shops can special-order them for you.
Moreau said the only downsides to recumbent bikes are that they’re low, so you need to add flags and lights to your ride so motorists are more likely to notice you, and they’re often too bulky to easily store or transport. He said some companies do make specialty variants that can fold into smaller sizes, making them easier to travel with or pack away for the winter.
Want to try before you buy?
If you’re curious about this biking option and want to try one out, Maverick’s hosts a weekly group ride every Sunday night at 6:30 from Nashua to Pepperell, Massachusetts, along the Nashua River Rail Trail, which is a 10-mile round trip. Folks can come and use a floor inventory bike for free, if available, and ride with the group to an ice cream shop and ride back. The whole trip takes about two hours.
Find a recumbent bike
Here are some local bike shops that carry new or may carry used recumbent bikes, or can order one for you.
Colonial Bicycle Co. ( 419 South Broadway, Salem, 894-0611; 775 Lafayette Road, Suite 5, Portsmouth, 319-1688, colonialbicycle.com)
Cycles Etc. (288 N. Broadway, Salem, 890-3212; 450 Second St., Manchester, 669-7993, cyclesetcnh.com) (can order)
Goodale’s Bike Shop (14B Broad St., Nashua, 882-2111; 1197 Hooksett Road, Hooksett, 644-2111; 19 Triangle Park Drive, Concord, 225-5111, goodalesbikeshop.com)
Maverick’s Square Adaptive Cyclery (141 Route 101A, Amherst, 554-8260, maverickssquare.com)
Ocean Cycles (76 Lafayette Road, Hampton Falls, 926-5757, oceancycles.net)
Choose Your Weapon
Mountain and Road Biking in New Hampshire
Written By Kelly Sennott (ksennott@hippopress.com)
Images: Stock Photo
Unless you’re going tandem or recumbent, there are two main options for bike riding: mountain biking and road biking.
“There’s a bicycle that can satisfy any need you have for riding, whether it’s on the road at high speed preparing for a triathlon or a casual spin around Lake Massabesic, to soak up the terrain or have a picnic lunch. You can do it all,” said Dan Dwyer, a local bike enthusiast and vice present of the Southern New Hampshire chapter of the New England Mountain Bike Association.
The Bike
Road bikes allow you to go fast, with thinner, larger tires for efficiency’s sake, and a saddle (seat) height that positions you almost parallel to the road in an aerodynamic position. Mountain bike tires are more rugged, allowing bikers to master rocky terrain, with seat heights that put riders upright, balanced and ready to meet obstacles. Saddles are normally more narrow on road bikes and performance bikes.
Other major differences have to do with handlebars — mountain bikes’ are usually wide and flat, road bikes’ dropped — plus gears and brakes. Mountain bike gears are lower, and brakes are higher-end, borrowing suspension and braking technology from motorcycles.
“When you’re off-road, descending steep trails, you really need good braking power,” Dwyer said. (Though these brake styles are also making their way into high-end road bikes too.)
If you’re not willing to sacrifice comfort or speed, or off-road options, shoot for a hybrid, or a bike that takes from the best of both worlds. Dwyer mentioned a new style called the gravel-grinder, which is like a beefier road bike designed for comfort and to facilitate off-road adventures.
“You have quite a wide variety of hybrid bikes, crosses between mountain and road bikes, that have upright handlebars similar to mountain bikes, and that are lighter weight and go higher speeds,” said Dave Topham, co-founder and on the board of directors of both the Bike-Walk Alliance of NH and Granite State Wheelmen.
Both Dwyer and Topham said that staff at a local bike shop can help you find the best style for you, and determine how to size your bike to fit just right.
With both road and mountain biking, your legs should be nearly fully extended at the bottom of the stroke — which means that you probably won’t be able to put both feet on the ground when at a standstill. Another way to measure is to look at the height of the top tube (the top metal bar connecting handlebars and seat). When you’re straddling the frame of the bike with both feet flat on the ground, there should be a couple inches of clearance.
Road Biking Rides
If you haven’t biked all winter, Topham said to start slow. Begin with shorter loops and work your way up. He recommended checking out the New Hampshire Department of Transportation’s seven regional bicycling maps (nh.gov/dot/programs/bikeped), which contain road and route suggestions, plus information about local rail trails, paved and unpaved. Updates on the ongoing construction at the Granite State Rail Trail, a route spanning from Salem to Manchester to Lebanon, are posted at facebook.com/GraniteStateRailTrail, where you’ll also find parking information. The longest paved segment of this trail is from Salem to Windham to Derry at 8.6 miles.
Mountain Bike Rides
As a Manchester resident and member of the Friends of the Massabesic Biking Association, Dwyer loves exploring the trails surrounding Lake Massabesic, most of which start near the parking lot in Auburn off the traffic circle.
Around Nashua there’s Mine Falls Park, which offers beginner-friendly flat trails, and Yudicky Park, which is a little more advanced. In Merrimack you can mountain bike through Horse Hill Nature Preserve, Grater Woods or the Wildcat Falls Conservation Area.
Farther north, Dwyer said he enjoys the trails behind Concord Hospital, which include the Winant Park, Marjory Swope and the West End Farm trails. Farther east is one of the “most highly regarded” venues for mountain biking, Bear Brook State Park in Allenstown, and even farther north is Highland Mountain Bike Park in Northfield, the world’s only lift access mountain entirely dedicated to biking, according to to its Facebook page.
Safety
No matter what style of biking you’re embarking on, it’s important to do what Topham calls the “ABC Quick Check.” Is there air in your tires? Are your brakes working? Are chains and gears working properly? Make sure nothing’s rattling today that wasn’t yesterday. He advised installing blinking LED lights for both day and night — which he said has proven to result in 30 percent fewer crashes between cars and motorists — and a warning bell to let pedestrians know you want to pass.
Especially if you’re going on a longer ride, you should take a pack with you containing water, a spare tube, pump and simple hand tools for on-road maintenance in case something happens to your bike en route. Keep clothing out of moving parts, like shoelaces or baggy clothes, and always wear a helmet.
If you haven’t road biked in a while, you can get back into it by joining a local organization or even taking classes, like with the Bike-Walk Alliance, which hosts a course on traffic safety.
Biking Organizations
Granite State Wheelmen, granitestatewheelmen.org
Bike-Walk Alliance of NH, bwanh.org
NH Cycling Club, nhcyclingclub.com
Monadnock Cycling Club, monadnockcyclingclub.com
Lakes Region Bicycling, lakesregionbicycling.com
Bike Manchester, bikemht.com
New England Mountain Bike Association, nemba.org
Friends of Massabesic Bicycling Association, fomba.org
Nashoba Dirt Organization Mountain Biking Club, ndomountainbiking.com
Young Bikers
Where to Go and What to Bring When Biking with Kids
Written By Matt Ingersol (listings@hippopress.com)
Images: Courtesy Photo
Even before they’re old enough for their first princess or superhero bicycle, kids can enjoy the experience of biking with adults — and once they outgrow those “tagalong” options, there are some easy ways to help them learn to bike on their own.
Sharing a Ride
For adult bikers with much younger children, there are strapped seats that can go either at the front or the rear of the bike. According to Tim Blagden, a board member for the
Concord-based Bike-Walk Alliance of NH and a father of four, front strapped seats typically mount just below the handlebars, while rear seats can be propped on a rack inserted above the rear tire of the bike. Most bike seats can accommodate children from 9 months to up to 3 years old, or between about 30 and 50 pounds in weight, depending on the product line.
“Using back bike seats will probably give you a little bit more control over the bike without extra weight on the handlebars … but they also have a taller back to them, so they make it easier for kids to fall asleep once they get enough fresh air,” Blagden said.
There are also tagalong or third wheel bike trailers, which attach to the adult bike. Some even provide the child with their own bike seat, complete with handlebars and pedals.
Blagden said these are especially great for kids who are not yet old enough to pedal independently on a biking trip with their families.
“The child is also able to learn balance and observe bicycle decision-making skills,” he said. “Having one of those in addition to having a small bike the child can ride on is a big plus … because you could still go an adult’s distance while your kid is riding semi-independently.”
Finding Balance
Balance bikes, which do not have pedals, are designed for younger kids to learn basic coordination on a bicycle.
“This can seem like an unnecessary step, but for very young kids it can be a way for them to start out on their own and they may enjoy that for an entire season,” Blagden said.
Patrick Lessard, sales manager for the family-owned Bike Barn in Manchester, recommends a balance bike as a child’s first bike to build confidence in balance and turning.
“If a child can turn and balance on a balance bike, then they’re not even going to need training wheels; you’re just going to take them off,” he said. “We’ve only been selling balance bikes within the last 10 years or so, but they’ve been fairly popular in that time span.”
If your child is using training wheels but having trouble making that transition to be free of them, Blagden recommends removing the pedals of the bike to temporarily convert it into a balance bike.
“One pedal is threaded one way and the other is threaded in reverse, so you can usually do it using some kind of wrench,” he said.
Lessard said a good step toward achieving balance independent of training wheels involves practicing on some sort of softer terrain like a grassy field as opposed to a paved or dirt road, and making sure the bike fits the child.
“You still want them on a right-size bike for them to be able to use the power in their legs to push it,” he said.
Find the Right Bike
Children’s bikes come in different sizes, and finding the right one isn’t an exact science.
“We usually start with how old the child is and then how tall they are, so if a child is a little tall for their age, they might get the next size bike up,” Lessard said. “We do a 12-inch for children up to 4 years old, then it goes to a 16-inch for ages 4 to 6, a 20-inch for ages 6 to 9 and a 24-inch beyond that.”
Blagden recommends looking for gear offered at bike swaps — a good option for bikes that kids might outgrow in a year or so — or at local shops in the area.
“A decent bike is going to last forever … and [these shops] carry really quality gear, they know their stuff inside and out,” he said.
Ride the Rails
When you have all your equipment and you’re ready to go, Blagden said, the most ideal environment for kids and families is often exploring rail trails, and there are dozens of them right here in the Granite State, including in Boscawen, Derry, Londonderry, Windham, Salem, Goffstown and Manchester.
“Rail trails are often relatively flat and have good sight lines,” he said. “You can call them the beginner slopes of biking.”
Lessard said books about some of the most popular bike paths and rail trails in the state are available for purchase at the Bike Barn, including the latest edition of Charles Martin’s book New Hampshire Rail Trails.
“You definitely see the advent of rail trails becoming popular [for families] because they are … great for practicing on bikes,” he said.
Wear a Helmet
Tim Blagden said properly fitted helmets are where you need to start. The alliance is a nonprofit bike safety advocacy group that visits local schools and works with organizations like the New Hampshire Department of Transportation and the Bureau of Trails to create bike safety legislation.
“[Wearing a bike helmet] is a law in New Hampshire, so it sounds pretty simple, but if a kid won’t keep a helmet on, then don’t put them on a bike,” Blagden said.
State law requires children under 16 riding in a public way to wear a helmet.
MORE HEADLINES
Watershed Protection
Watershed Protection
Coalition Seeking Donations to Conserve Land
Written By Ryan Lessard (news@hippopress.com)
Images: Stock Photo
The Merrimack River watershed is one of the most threatened watersheds in the country, and local environmentalists are working to gradually preserve some of the surrounding forest land from development.
Brian Hotz, the vice president of land conservation at the New Hampshire Forest Society, said the Merrimack Conservation Partnership was first formed in response to a 2010 report by the U.S. Forest Service, which ranked the Merrimack River as the country’s No. 1 most threatened watershed.
Today, it’s still listed as the most threatened due to the development of forest lands; it also ranks fourth for threats to water quality related to development and seventh for loss of habitat for animal species at risk.
“You’re at a point where if you don’t come and act, you will end up having a degradation of the resource,” Hotz said.
Last year, the Merrimack River watershed was listed in the Top 10 of America’s Most Endangered Rivers by American Rivers. In its report, it noted that the river is not only important to an abundance of fish and wildlife, but it’s a drinking water source for an estimated 600,000 people in New Hampshire and Massachusetts.
Hotz said the partnership is focusing its immediate efforts on projects that will help protect drinking water quality. Working with Manchester Water Works, the partnership is raising funds to create a permanent conservation easement around 1,870 acres of land surrounding Tower Hill Pond in Candia and Hooksett.
So far, it’s raised $1.65 million largely from grants from the New Hampshire Land and Community Heritage Investment Program and from the state’s Water Supply Land
Protection and Aquatic Resources Mitigation programs as well as funds from the partnership.
Now, they’re turning to the public to raise the remaining $250,000 to cover the total project cost of $1.9 million. So far, Hotz said the Forest Society has raised $28,000 of the $250,000 through a letter campaign.
Hotz said they’re hoping to reach that goal by June 30. The project is slated to close by mid-September, pending survey work and documentation.
Tower Hill Pond is used as a water storage supplement for Lake Massabesic, so if anything happens to threaten that land, it could impact water quality. Right now, the city owns the land, but it could choose to sell it. A conservation easement will protect it from development permanently.
“The more that we can do to conserve those wetlands and those more forested uplands that contribute to that or the … headwater streams, the better the water quality will be down in the main river, where they’re drawing the water,” Hotz said.
Lake Massabesic is a source of drinking water for 160,000 residents of Manchester and parts of Auburn, Bedford, Derry, Londonderry and Goffstown.
The land around Tower Hill Pond is used for recreation like kayaking, fishing and hiking, but not swimming. That won’t change if the land is conserved, according to Hotz.
If you’d like to donate to the Tower Hill Pond conservation project, contact Susanne Kibler-Hacker at 224-9945 or skh@forestsociety.org
Startup Capital
Startup Capital
New Fund Frees Up More Money for Tech Companies
Written By Ryan Lessard (news@hippopress.com)
Images: Courtesy Photo
On May 23, a handful of startup founders took the stage at Oracle Dyn in Manchester in front of a crowd of about 300 people. One after another, they pitched their solutions for problems you didn’t know existed, usually with software.
The event, called Startup Shindig 2017, was the culmination of the current Accelerate NH program at Alpha Loft, a tech startup incubator. After each presentation, three companies were selected for major investments. Organizers were careful not to use the terms “winners” and “losers” because they said those that weren’t selected were still good companies worthy of investment.
But those who were selected undoubtedly felt like winners; they each walked away with $100,000.
The companies were Pulse, which offers a new way of online public opinion polling that engages participants and gets more accurate results; Addaptation, a company that makes micro-apps to order for a company’s cloud platform; and Thunderbolt Innovation, a project management software program for construction companies.
The investments awarded to the three companies are the first to come from a new investment fund designed to target New Hampshire-based startups that promise to grow the local tech ecosystem. The fund, Millworks II, is the sequel to Millworks I, which awarded a total of $100,000 per year to the winners of the fall TechOut competition. Millworks II is a big jump in funding.
“We doubled the number of limited partners … from 20 to 40 and then brought on a strategic investor to bring the total investment per year for the three years of the fund from $100,000 in fund 1 to $600,000 a year in fund 2,” said the funds co-general partner Gray Chynoweth.
He is managing the fund with Liz Hitchcock, wife of Dyn founder Jeremy Hitchcock. Chynoweth said the new fund will award $300,000 in investments to select companies that come out of the Accelerate NH program and another $300,000 to the top companies in the TechOut.
The larger size and scope of the new fund is a sign of confidence in the future of southern New Hampshire’s burgeoning tech scene, according to Chynoweth.
“I think that anytime you go from investing $100,000 a year to investing $600,000 a year in New Hampshire startups, it’s a big deal. It’s the biggest seed fund in New Hampshire history and I think that says a lot about people’s optimism in the New Hampshire tech startup ecosystem,” Chynoweth said.
He said it’s a very New Hampshire feature that the fund is co-run by a woman, since women are underrepresented in venture capitalism while the state has a history of female leaders.
The growth from the first fund to the second also reflects the success of Dyn, which was recently acquired by Oracle.
Chynoweth said $400,000 of the $600,000 in annual investments will be coming from the New Hampshire Business Finance Authority, which enjoyed a windfall from its own early investment in Dyn. Similarly, four of the original limited partners were part of the so-called “Dyn Mafia,” a tight-knit group of current and former Dyn employees. The new fund has about a dozen Dyn-affiliated investors.
Mark Kaplan, the executive director of Alpha Loft, said the increased investments not only mean more money for companies just getting started, to help them scale up and improve their products, but could also lower barriers for small investments from other sources like angel investors who see the initial investment as a vote of confidence and might prefer using the terms set by the Millworks fund.
Legendary Jam
Legendary Jam
Million Dollar Quartet Chronicles Session with Rock Icons
Written By Kelly Sennott (ksennott@hippopress.com)
Images: Courtesy Photo
In 1956, Sam Phillips, the owner of Sun Records, had the foresight to hit the “record” button when four rock icons — Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash — all happened to be in his studio at the same time and decided to hold an impromptu jam session.
The local paper, the Memphis Press-Scimitar, covered the event and took the iconic photo of the four sitting at the piano. The recordings were later released as The Million Dollar Quartet in Europe in 1981, and then as Elvis Presley: The Million Dollar Quartet in 1990 in the United States.
In Manchester, you can be a fly on the wall during that jam session — sort of — when the Palace Theatre presents the jukebox musical version of this story, Million Dollar Quartet, starting Friday, June 2, with performances through Sunday, June 25.
Palace Artistic Director Carl Rajotte said during an interview at the theater that the show has never been to Manchester before, but it did extremely well at the Ogunquit Playhouse and other nearby venues.
It’s not hard to see why. First and foremost, there’s the music, with almost 25 hits by the rock icons, like “Blue Suede Shoes,” “Hound Dog,” “Great Balls of Fire” and “I Walk the Line.” And then there’s the thrill of being privy to one of the most important events in rock history. The musical, with book by Floyd Mutrux and Colin Escott, was on Broadway in 2010, the West End in London in 2011, and was nominated for three Tony Awards. The plot is inspired by those recordings.
“There are scenes and dialogue throughout, which gives us a little bit of insight into who these guys were before they made it big,” Rajotte said. “It’s very, very interesting. We get a little peek of everything you heard on those tapes. And that’s the plot — everything you would have heard on those tapes. The fighting, the jamming between those four icons.”
All were in their early 20s at that point. That day, Perkins was set to record songs with Lewis, a newcomer, on the piano. Presley, most famous of the four at the time, had been in town for Christmas to give Phillips a gift. Cash was visiting to tell Phillips he was signing with a bigger label, Columbia Records.
Naturally, it’s difficult to cast this eight-person show, and it took a while for Rajotte to find Ben van Diepen (playing Lewis, who also plays piano), Luke Linsteadt (Presley, playing guitar), Brett Benowitz (Perkins, on drums), Colin Barkell (Cash, on guitar) and Moot Davis (Phillips).
“I had to find people who could really play, not just kind of play. … The first thing I was looking for was musicianship. Next was the vocals. Do they sound like these guys? And then, the look. Do they look like these guys?” Rajotte said. “[The actors] love this type of music and love that person they’re playing. You can see on their Facebooks how much they have been motivated to be musicians themselves because of these artists.”
Unlike most Palace shows, this one’s more about the music and less about the dancing, as actors need to learn the tunes and perform them exactly like these rock legends.
Sets and costumes are courtesy of the National Tour, which are rented from the Ogunquit Playhouse.
“I really enjoy the side of designing the show, and so does my staff, but it’s nice if we can do this once or twice a year and ... alleviate our schedule a little bit so we could focus more on the next show,” Rajotte said.
Many actors’ backgrounds are in music, not musical theater. Like Davis, who “detests” musical theater but loves this show, having just come off a Million Dollar Quartet tour with Norwegian Cruise Line.
“I just get it. I love the music, and I also get the story, and understand what it’s like to be around musicians, and to try to herd them and get them to do what you want. I love the story,” Davis said.
Songs are performed like rock concerts, with changes in lighting, and at the end, there’s 15 minutes of straight music to lighten the mood after the last line from Phillips.
“It closes with him saying, ‘I wish these guys had happier times, before their lives, or careers, ended.’ For a lot of them, demons caught them in their career after they became famous,” Rajotte said.
Million Dollar Quartet
Where: Palace Theatre, 80 Hanover St., Manchester
When: Friday, June 2, through Sunday, June 25
Tickets: $25 to $45
Contact: 558-6688, palacetheatre.org
Celebration of Giving
Celebration of Giving
Concord Food Co-Op Presents Downtown Street Fair
Written By Matt Ingersol (listings@hippopress.com)
Images: Courtesy Photo
Giving is good for the soul, and it can be fun, too — and the Concord Food Co-Op is setting out to prove it with its Spring Into Healthy Giving Fair, which will feature a petting zoo, a ping-pong contest, Cow Patty Bingo, live music and more.
Main Street in Concord will be closed off from Pleasant Street to Hills Avenue for the mini street fair, which will be held on Saturday, June 3, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and will help raise money for and awareness of local nonprofit organizations.
“We thought that if we could get a number of different nonprofits together in one place for one event, we’d be able to draw more people down and cross-promote different types of organizations,” said Greg Lessard, director of development for the Concord Food Co-Op and event organizer.
Planning for the fair started back in October, he said.
“We started with nonprofits that the Co-Op works with on a regular basis, and then others in the neighborhood started to get in on the conversations about getting involved,” he said. “One of the first things that came up was Pope Memorial SPCA of Concord wanting to do a Cow Bingo game as a fundraiser … and then the Crisis Center of Central New Hampshire wanted to do a loaded baked potato sale.”
Prior to the start of the fair, visitors can enjoy breakfast provided by Live Juice and The Works Bakery Cafe while they watch organizers set up for the day. A portion of the profits from the breakfasts will be donated to the Crisis Center of Central New Hampshire.
Different sections of Main Street where the fair will be held will be organized accordingly, including a petting zoo courtesy of The Traveling Barnyard, a kids’ play and craft area and more. Diana Erickson of Thrive Outdoors, who is also the current Mrs. New Hampshire, will be doing face-painting at the fair, according to Lessard.
There will be a ping-pong competition from 10:30 a.m. to noon, with ping-pong tables set up on Main Street. Kids and adults of all ages can participate, and the winner will receive two tickets to an Amos Lee concert at the Capitol Center for the Arts on Aug. 2. The cost to enter is $15 per person, with proceeds benefiting Intown Concord.
“People can enter to compete right up until the last minute,” Lessard said. “We’re also inviting people and groups to challenge their friends. … The Concord Police Department, for example, has challenged the Fire Department for a competitive game of ping-pong.”
Live music will be provided by the Strings & Things band from noon to 3 p.m. The fair will also feature Cow Patty Bingo games in the middle of Main Street from 1 to 3 p.m., along with several raffle tables and merchandise sold by the participating nonprofits. The cost to participate is $5 per person.
“For Cow Bingo, we’re actually going to make a large grid chalk line marker on Main Street that will be in a corralled area, and we will put little calves in there,” Lessard said, adding that Erickson will be the judge. “One calf will do his duty when a square is called and where he falls, the person who got that square wins 50 percent of the proceeds, with the other 50 percent going to Pope Memorial SPCA.”
Visitors will also get a chance to win four tickets behind home plate to an Boston Red Sox game in July. The exact date of the game has yet to be determined, but Lessard said raffle tickets are available for purchase now online or throughout the day of the fair, for $5 per ticket or $10 per three tickets. The winner of the Red Sox tickets will be drawn at 3 p.m. at the conclusion of the fair.
“We’re hoping to offer something for everyone so that they’d have a hard time saying no to coming down to the event,” Lessard said.
Spring Into Healthy Giving Fair
When: Saturday, June 3, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Where: Downtown Main Street, between Pleasant Street and Hill Avenue, Concord
Cost: Free admission; some activities require a fee
Visit: concordfoodcoop.coop/sihg
Riding for a Cause
Riding for a Cause
Pan-Mass Challenge Kids Ride rolls into Manchester
Written By Matt Ingersol (listings@hippopress.com)
Images: Courtesy Photo
Emma Bechert of Bedford was an active community member through church and Girl Scouts and was often seen in productions at the Palace Theatre, even as she battled brain cancer for most of her life. She also helped lead Team Emma’s Enchantment, which raised more than $1 million for Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, by cycling in the Pan-Mass Challenge.
On Aug. 21, 2016, Emma died at the age of 14. Her memory will be honored at the first annual Greater Manchester Pan-Mass Challenge Kids Ride on the campus of St. Anselm College on Sunday, June 4, from 9 a.m. to noon.
Kids ages 3 to 13 can carry on Emma’s legacy by being part of the cancer research fundraising efforts for Dana-Farber and The Jimmy Fund while enjoying bike-riding, face-painting, food and more.
“The entire ride is going to be held on the campus and there are two routes,” said event director Terry Flahive. “One is a half-mile loop for older kids and the other is a smaller inner loop better suited for kids on tricycles and with training wheels. … There is no real set distance, but kids can do the routes as many times around as they would like to.”
Several activities are also planned for the kids during the ride, Flahive said, like helmet and bike decorating, music, games and contests.
“It’s all self-contained [at the college], so the kids will be riding their bikes around the quad on campus, and there’s a grass area around it where all the games and other activities will take place,” he said.
After the rides there will be raffle drawings to win prizes like Boston Red Sox game tickets, a round of golf for four at Manchester Country Club in Bedford, a necklace and earrings from Day’s Jewelers in Manchester, and several other raffle baskets and assorted items.
The event is one of more than 35 of its kind held across New England as a way for kids to contribute alongside the fundraising of the annual Pan-Mass Challenge. Now in its 37th year, the bike-athon is held at several locations in Massachusetts and has become The Jimmy Fund’s largest single fundraiser for cancer research and treatment, generating more than 50 percent of its annual revenue.
Flahive said two other rides are held in New Hampshire — in Exeter, also on June 4, and in Pelham on Sept. 9 — but he added the new Manchester ride is expected to be the largest yet in the Granite State.
“Billy Starr, who started the Pan-Mass Challenge in 1980, ultimately decided that it would be important for kids to understand the importance of health and philanthropy and giving back, so he launched the first Kids Ride in 2005,” Flahive said.
The idea to have a Kids Ride in Manchester started when Joel Collins, whose mother was being treated at Dana-Farber at the time, rode in the Pelham Kids Ride last year.
“I actually know his parents very well, and he was very enthusiastic about doing a ride in Manchester, so that’s sort of how we kicked it off,” Flahive said. “We were fortunate that we found a great place for it at St. Anselm.”
Riders can register online; there is a minimum registration of $25, but Flahive said kids will have until Sept. 1 to meet that fundraising goal with help from their friends and family. All proceeds go to The Jimmy Fund, which has received more than $7.2 million collectively from the Kids Rides alone since their inception in 2005.
Flahive said parents and teens over the age of 13 are welcome to volunteer to participate in setting up or breaking down the event, or to even serve as route monitors during the rides.
1st annual Greater Manchester Pan-Mass Challenge Kids Ride
Weekly Music Review
Weekly Review
Joe Policastro Trio & More
Written By Eric Saeger (news@hippopress.com)
Images: Album Artwork
Joe Policastro Trio, Screen Sounds (JeruJazz Records)
A Venn diagram representing the ideal target patron of this album would encapsulate three traits: fans of Quentin Tarantino soundtracks, TV and movie freaks, and people who dig Chris Isaak. Policastro, the bass-playing leader of this Chicago-based troupe, wears a lot of hats when he’s not releasing records, including lecturing jazz at DePaul, recording and performing with such names as Phil Woods and Pat Boone, and of course teaching, all of which spells serious motivation for making jazz his sole source of income. The setup here is guitar (the Al Di Meola stylings of Dave Miller), bass (Policastro) and drums (Mikel Avery) aiming to re-engineer famous soundtrack pieces, the first of which is the desolate, battered theme from the 1961 Japanese ronin film, obviously a telepathic cue from Policastro to Tarantino that mates spaghetti-Western guitars to Japanese art. An elevator version of “Everybody’s Talkin’” is here, as is the Godfather theme (which wouldn’t have been effective without Policastro’s use of a bow, but the acid test is the theme from TV’s Taxi, which, without a Rhodes keyboard, depends on Miller’s guitar to carry the melody, which works sleepily well.
Grade: A
Tyrannosorceress, Haunting Black Infinity (Tofu Carnage Records)
OK, the gods have spoken, and they say it’s time to pick a random thrash metal band and see if I can listen to it without cracking in half. How do I know the gods spoke to me? Simple: Within 10 minutes I got the promo emails for two bands that have names that are funnier than usual, see above. I haven’t done a two-fer in years now, so this is a win-win-win all around: I make up for lost time covering the thrash-metal scene, Tyrannosorceress and Satanarchist get some press, and you get to know the names of two more thrash metal bands. Let’s go. Satanarchist, from Portland, Oregon, is a DIY project and it shows, with a ton of powerful riffage that could have sounded like early Mastodon (reportedly a departure from their earlier joke-band stuff, at least in the song-title department) but it’s a bit too raw. Dallas band Tyrannosorceress is into the Bathory goat-demon thing, and they’re OK, whatever they’re singing about. Everyone tired of winning yet?
Grade: B-
When Chaos Meets Kindness
When Chaos Meets Kindness
Recycled Percussion on its New Show
Written By Kelly Sennott (ksennott@hippopress.com)
Images: Courtesy Photo
Chaos and Kindness, starring, produced and directed by Recycled Percussion, is kind of like a mix between Jackass and Make-A-Wish, says band member Justin Spencer.
The new TV show, which airs on WMUR, showcases the Goffstown-founded band conducting acts of kindness for deserving people. The third episode is set to air Thursday, June 1, at 7 p.m.
Spencer said kindness is at the core of the band’s foundation, which garnered national attention on America’s Got Talent in 2009. Group members receive more than 500 emails a week from fans sending information about worthy people to help out.
“I think that anyone who has power in a celebrity status who doesn’t use their power for good is missing out on an opportunity to make a difference in the world,” said Spencer, who also puts effort into these causes to teach the importance of helping others to his two daughters. “I didn’t grow up with a lot of money, and I certainly didn’t grow up in a family where my parents were famous. … This gives me an opportunity to educate them on the differences people can make.”
The first 12 episodes feature people from New Hampshire, where the group stops every year to visit friends and family and to perform concerts. (The next concerts are at the Music Hall on June 8 and Veterans Park on June 9, respectively.) Band members conceptualized the show a year ago, and after receiving multiple offers from national TV networks, they decided to produce it themselves.
“We’ve always been adamant about our brand — about being kind to others. [The national networks] wanted more the ‘chaos’ side — they wanted to see Jackass — but we wanted it to be like Make-A-Wish,” Spencer said via phone.
Episode 1 brought a New Hampshire man who’d lost four kids to the Super Bowl, where Recycled Percussion performed this year, and in Episode 2, band members created a special gift for a family whose dad was diagnosed with terminal cancer. This Thursday’s episode features an elderly couple from Londonderry, Patrick and Patti Sheridan, who were evicted from their home after living there for 37 years.
“We feel the elderly are kind of cast aside,” Spencer said. “Once we met them, we realized the love they had for each other was just incredibly immense. It was something people dream of having, love that’s super-deep. A true soul mate. We wanted to tell their story by reenacting their wedding for them.”
Hundreds of people showed up, to the surprise of the Sheridans.
“The wedding was just remarkable. The words a 91-year-old man says to his bride onstage — you couldn’t write that stuff. It was from the heart,” he said.
Chaos and Kindness
Watch it on WMUR Thursday, June 1, at 7 p.m.
Concerts
The Music Hall: 28 Chestnut St., Portsmouth, Thursday, June 8, at 7 p.m.
Veterans Park: Manchester, Friday, June 9, at 7 p.m.
Flying Monkey: 39 Main St., Plymouth, Saturday, June 10, at 2:30 and 6:30 p.m.; Sunday, June 11, at 2 p.m.
North Haverhill Fair: Saturday, July 29, at 8 p.m.
Hopkinton State Fair: Monday, Sept. 4, at 3 p.m.
Contact: For more information, or to buy tickets visit recycledpercussionband.com, or visit the Facebook page