Author: Shelley A. Sackett

Let the Gaming Begin!

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Bit Bar Salem: where two bits still buys what it did in 1980

By Shelley A. Sackett, correspondent

 

You don’t have to have a Ph.D. in economics to realize that 25 cents doesn’t buy what it used to. Armed with a single quarter, you would have to time travel to 1945 to use it to buy a pound of hamburger; to 1960 to buy a gallon of gas; and to 1970 to buy a loaf of bread.

 

Or, you could just walk into the new Bit Bar Salem arcade-restaurant-bar hybrid at the intersection of St. Peter Street and Bridge Street, plunk your quarter into a vintage Ms. PacMan or Donkey Kong arcade machine, and pretend it was still 1980.

 

“Yes, it really is a quarter for a game. We say inflation be damned!” Rob Hall, one of the five co-owners said with a chuckle.

BitBar1

Bit Bar co-owner Rob Hall plays his favorite video game, Mortal Kombat. Wicked Local Staff Photo / Kirk R. Williamson

 

 

The genesis of Bit Bar was Hall’s interest in classic arcade games (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, etc.) The North Shore native, who graduated from Rochester Institute of Technology with a concentration in programming and media, set up a Facebook page for people who lived in the Boston area and enjoyed talking about these classic games. He met Joshua Allen, a technician by trade whose hobby is collecting and restoring arcade games, through his page. Andrew Wylie, a vintage shop owner who is plugged into the creative and music community in Greater Boston, joined the group. So did Max Clark, the restaurant manager at Trident Booksellers in Boston. Last, Allen brought in a friend of his, Gideon Coltof, who had just earned an M.B.A. at Babson College and was looking for an interesting project.

 

The group tossed around the idea of doing “Bit Fests”, pop up arcade events that would take place mostly at breweries. The idea was successful in other areas, but untested locally. “We were always interested in having a permanent location, but even before that, we were thinking it would be fun to do a classic themes festival,” said Hall, who admitted that the idea of moving these 300-lb. machines to temporary locations for a day or two was “a totally crazy idea. Totally insane.”

 

Coltof thought it was a textbook way to get a feel for the market before taking the brick-and-mortar plunge. “It’s not often you come upon a completely unguarded market like this. There was nothing in the Boston area,” he said, referring to the Bit Fests as “three tons of fun”.

 

In December 2014, the group did its first pop up event. Over the course of a year, Boston Bit Fest had ten events, but as early as last summer, they started looking to make the brick and mortar a reality. Originally they looked in Cambridge, Somerville, Malden and Boston, but it was hard to find interesting, good space.

One day, Coltof saw a listing for the old Salem jail space that had been home to The Great Escape and most recently, A&B Burgers. Hall had been mentioning Salem as a possible location, but this was the first time a potential listing had caught his eye. “Gideon thought it was funny, like ‘Ha, ha, ha. Look at this, an old jail!’, but I live on the North Shore and had eaten here when it was A&B. I told him it was a great space,” said Hall.

 

Coltof came to Salem and was blown away. “I tried to get a sense of what Salem was like and I thought, ‘This is really cool. We can really make this work.” They signed the lease and began working on Bit Bar Salem in January.

 

The 3,000 square foot space features two rooms of classic arcade and pinball machines with total capacity of 106, including seating for 70. The outdoor patio accommodates an additional 60 people. There are 30 machines in the bar area and another 30 in a warehouse in Everett, which they rotate for variety. These are the original games, painstakingly restored, refurbished and spit shined to their original glory. Some of the most popular games are Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and pinball machines Cue Ball Wizard, Hook and Cyclone.

 

Under Executive Chef Eric Hammer, formerly of Tavern in the Square, the attention-grabbing menu features Walking Tacos (“a tasty, traveling taco minus the mess”), snacks, sandwiches, entrees and sweets. Specialty cocktails are whimsically named “Pooka”, “Dankey Kang” and ”Pinky & Clyde”, among others. Local breweries are featured and Maine Root supplies Fair Trade Certified organically sweetened sodas

 

Most important to Hall and Coltof is that Bit Bar Salem be as green as possible, leaving the smallest carbon footprint and supporting the local community. “We pay living wages. We recycle our cooking oil into biodiesel fuel. Our meat is from Walden Meats (‘happy cows and chickens’). I want to be sure we are building something we can be proud of,” Coltof said.

 

Mayor Kim Driscoll is excited to welcome Bit Bar to Salem and to stake her personal arcade turf. “This creative business will add to our downtown’s growing reputation as a hip, vibrant and diverse dining destination. Beyond just the new jobs and economic activity this restaurant will bring, its innovative theme will make a real unique experience, not simply in Salem but for the whole greater Boston area,” she said, adding,” I look forward to setting their high score in Galaga.”

 

After a “soft opening” in June, the group is looking to tweak a few things before hosting its grand opening. Their biggest issue is managing all three things that Bit Bar Salem is: a classic arcade, a bar and a restaurant. During the day, it is more like a restaurant; at night, it feels like a busy bar. And then there are the 30 arcade games. “Our biggest challenge is how much floor space to devote to tables and how much to games. We are loath to give up a single game in our floor-plan, but if a bussing station has to go somewhere, or a server station is needed to make the flow of the place work ten times better, then we have to do it,” Hall said.

 

Like Mayor Driscoll, Coltof and Hall each have favorite games. For Coltof, it’s Rolling Thunder, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the pinball game Cyclone. For Hall, it’s more personal.

 

“Altered Beast”, a fun classic Sega game, is not necessarily the best game ever made, according to Hall. But for him, it is especially fun to play because it is one he helped fix and restore. “Just seeing that come back to life after you think it’s dead and gone is something,” he said.

Mothers Day Cookbook Creates a Family Legacy

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Keepsake helps grieving daughter cope with loss

By Shelley A. Sackett

 

Susan Mineo and her five siblings grew up on the predominantly Italian Pratt Street in Salem smelling her mother’s famous sauce and tasting her unrivaled cooking every evening. As kids, she remembers even their school lunches being the talk of the Bowditch School lunch room.

“We had brown-bagged meatball sandwiches and eggplant parmesan, beef cutlets, chicken cutlets, pork cutlets, etc.,” she said, admitting that on a few occasions, she traded her gourmet home cooking for the “more common” peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Family

The eight Mineos. Back row: Frank, Mineo’s Mom (Gloria) and Dad (Santo). Front row: Diane, Julie, Susan, David (Diane’s twin), and Tony on Susan’s lap.

She also loved watching her friends’ faces when they were lucky enough to be guests at the Mineo dinner table. “While they were eating, their eyes would roll to the back of their head. So many would say, ‘I can’t believe you eat like this every night!’” she said with pride.

Her mother was equally caring and generous in feeding sick friends, or “just anybody who happened to walk in.” Her father’s back seat was like a Mineo Meals on Wheels, full of carefully labeled plates for him to deliver.

“My mother had a compassionate, nurturing self. What she was proud of was being a mother. That was the proudest role in her life,” Mineo said.

Mineo’s mother, Gloria, learned to cook from her mother, whose family was from Abruzzi, Italy, but took what she learned to a whole new level. “Most people either bake or cook. My mother did both extremely well,” she said.

Gloria, in turn, passed on her love and skill to her daughter (and her five siblings, including three brothers), and some of Mineo’s favorite childhood memories are when her mother taught her to cook. “I loved when she was teaching me to make Tiramisu. It is so complex and was so easy for her. She was so talented — she was a true artist,” she said.

Gloria also invented a few recipes, including Easter turtles with colored eggs, and on more than one occasion would cook more than one thing for dinner if Mineo or any of her siblings didn’t like what she had prepared. “We were spoiled rotten. We were lucky kids,” Mineo said with a chuckle.

Seven or eight years ago, she decided to start working on a cookbook of her mother’s recipes. Her mother kept her treasured recipes on handwritten index cards, and each time she visited her parents in Florida, Mineo took some home with her. She and her parents developed a system: she would format the recipes into her computer, send the hard copies to her mother for editing, and her father would mail them back. “We were a team, because my mother didn’t drive, so my father played a crucial role,” she said.

Mom and tiramisu

Gloria Mineo piping her tiramisu

The family continued this routine for three years. “My mom was my second set of eyes and there were lots of things in her head that were not on those index cards, so I needed her. We used tons of paper and ink and postage, but we accomplished what we set out to do,” she said.

 

All her siblings supported her project, adding excerpts and even having their own children write something about their grandmother’s legacy. Finally, she designed the book, took photographs, and had her son enhance the cover page. Sadly, her father died from cancer just four months prior the book’s completion.

 

On Mother’s Day 2011, she presented her mother with the finished product: “Gloria Mineo’s Family & Friends Cookbook with her own personal flair.” “I don’t think she ever expected it to be what it was. When I handed it to her, she was shocked and just cried. I knew then I did something important which touched her deeply,” Mineo said.

Unfortunately, Gloria passed away last October after a long illness, and this is Mineo’s first Mother’s Day without her. In their final days, both her parents were at Kaplan House/Care Dimensions. However, that care didn’t end with her mother’s passing. With the support from the Bertolon Center for Grief & Healing, Mineo has had ongoing help with her journey through her loss with an array of grieving groups and individual sessions.

Because Mineo was the primary care taker for both of her parents, their loss created a tremendous void. She lauds Care Dimensions’ for allowing her to mend at her own pace. “Their emphasis on no time limit has softened the edges of my loss. They acknowledge the individual as who they are,” she said, noting that other companies set arbitrary numbers of weeks or months, after which a person should be healed. “The staff is a gifted group of compassionate, patient, thoughtful and dedicated people,” she said.

Mom and dad

Gloria and Santo or Mom and Dad on their honeymoon in 1951.

 

Although this Mother’s Day will be an especially hard one for Mineo, she takes solace in having completed and shared the cookbook with her before she passed. “It gives me solace, looking at it, touching it and, of course, using it. My Mom is not in my past, as she is in my daily world as much as ever,” she said.

 

 

Tiramisu

Mom’s Tiramisu

Ingredients:

1 box custard pudding, cooked

½ pt. whipped heavy whipping cream

1 egg yolk

½ cup sugar – plus ¼ cup

1/3 cup sherry liqueur

1/3 cup Kahlua

1 large package Italian hard Ladyfinger cookies

2 boxes Ladyfingers, the hard cookies

2 cups espresso coffee, room temperature

2 lb. Mascarpone cheese, Italian cream cheese

1/3 cups of sugar

1 lb. Philadelphia cream cheese room temperature

1 box custard pudding (cooked not instant) or 1 box instant vanilla pudding

1/3 cup sherry wine, a good one

1/3 cup Kahlua

½ cup sugar – 1/3 cup sugar

1 pint heavy cream

2 tbs. cocoa

1 dark chocolate candy bar, use a good chocolate

Directions:

Mix coffee and Kahlua.

Beat mascarpone, cream cheese, and sugar. Whip until creamy soft – add custard or pudding and whip until soft and airy. Fold in 1 cup of whipped heavy cream.

In a 9”x12” oblong pan place a thin layer of cream cheese mixture in the bottom of the pan.

Mix Kahlua into espresso coffee and add 1/3 cup of sugar. Dip the Ladyfingers quickly into espresso and layer them in the pan on top of the thin layer of cream cheese mixture. Add ½ half of cheese mixture on top of the cookies. Dip second layer of cookies into Kahlua quickly and cover the cream cheese and then add the rest of the cream cheese on top. Sprinkle with sifted cocoa and shaved chocolate bar.

With left over whipped cream using a pastry bag with a star tip, you can design (piping), the edges of the pan.

© Gloria M. Mineo

Grad

Susan Mineo’s graduation in 2005 from Salem State College/ University

 

TIPS FROM CARE DIMENSIONS FOR COPING with LOSS OF A MOTHER

Helpful Tips for those Coping with the Loss of a Mother

By Patrice DePasquale, LICSW and Bereavement Counselor for Care Dimensions

As Mother’s Day approaches this may be a challenging time of year for people who have had their Mothers pass away, either recently or years ago.  As adults, our relationships with our parents often change and mature over time and we may find that we value the relationships more and become friends with our parents. We turn to our Moms for comfort, decision-making and reassurance. When a Mother dies, people often feel like they have lost their closest ally in life.

If you are coping with the loss of a mother, here are some suggestions as Mother’s Day approaches:

-Realize that your grief has no time table and that walking past the large and cheerful display of Mother’s Day cards at the grocery store may trigger a painful grief reaction for people who long to spend the day celebrating with their Mom.

-Seek support from others, whether by joining a grief support group or talking with close family and friends about your emotions.  This support can validate your feelings and help you process them.

-Focus on taking care of yourself with the basics, such as eating and sleeping well, exercising and taking time for activities you enjoy. Being kind and patient with yourself can help you to better cope with your feelings of grief.

-Find ways to honor and commemorate your Mother either privately, as a family or in your community. Plant flowers that your mother loved and make a memory garden.  Cook one of her recipes to share with friends or visit her favorite restaurant or outdoor venue. Reminisce at family events about happy times from your childhood. These types of activities can help you feel more connected to your Mother and allow you to feel that you are continuing a relationship with her.

-Remember that the gifts our Mothers have given us over the years, such as unconditional love, comfort, and support always remain with us in all we do.
Care Dimensions offers a variety of support groups, including Loss of a Mother and Loss of a Parent, several times a year. For more information, please visit, http://www.CareDimensions.org or call 855-774-5100.

Mass Poetry Festival Celebrates Spring

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By Shelley A. Sackett

 

Spring has always been an inspiration for renewal and gaiety, especially among poets. From William Blake to Robert Louis Stevenson to New England’s own Robert Frost, scores have praised the magic and charm of the season over the centuries.

 

And since 2008, the Massachusetts Poetry Festival has offered the rare opportunity to hear the nation’s best poets read and discuss their work in intimate and engaging forums. From Friday, April 29 through Sunday, May 1, historic downtown Salem will become the epicenter of contemporary American poetry for the 8th annual festival, and Executive Director January O’Neil couldn’t be more excited.

 

“With so many events, everything is new each year. I’m thrilled that the Boston Typewriter Orchestra is joining us on Sunday,” O’Neil, who is an assistant professor of English at Salem State University, said. “There’s a lot of good energy here.”

 

Student Day of Poetry, which happens Friday morning before the general festival events begin, will host 250 students from across the Commonwealth for a morning of workshops and spoken word. “Money and time are always our biggest challenges. If we had more of each, how many more students could we invite?” O’Neil said.

untitled-646

 

Nearly 100 poetry readings and workshops take place at five venues in downtown Salem (Peabody Essex Museum, Old Town Hall, Museum Place Mall, First Universalist Church, Howling Wolf and Salem Five Community Room). The festival also features a small press and literary fair, panels, poetry slams, visual arts and open-air performances.

 

The full schedule is available at masspoetry.org.17186839679_254a2018f2_b

 

O’Neil first became involved in 2008 and 2009, when Lowell hosted the festival. She participated both years as a reader with a group, but decided to volunteer and handle marketing when Salem became the venue in 2011. Since 2012, she has been executive director.

 

“It’s been amazing to watch this three-day weekend event evolve into a national poetry event. But it still feels very grassroots. We try to be as inclusive as possible, recognizing as many different poets, literary groups, and arts organizations as possible,” she said.

 

Panel topics range broadly, from the state of poetry, poetry and gender, book publishing and modernism in contemporary art, to the Common Threads Reading, where contemporary poets with Massachusetts ties discuss their literary connections. More than 150 local and nationally known poets engage with thousands of New Englanders each year.

 

Many presentations have an international and political focus. “The Bravest Women in the World: Afghan Women Speak out through Poetry” has both. Through the Afghan Women’s Writing Project, founded by American journalist Masha Hamilton, Afghan women who live under the oppressive Taliban rule are mentored and encouraged to tell their stories using online workshops. Following readings by two Afghan writers at the Friday afternoon event, the panel will discuss the role of poetry as a “human right.”

 

In addition to eight headline events, the eclectic schedule includes something for everyone. There are workshops on teaching, writing, editing, and publishing poetry. Some look at poetry as humor; others as mystery, song or science fiction.

 

“You don’t have to be a poet to have a good time. The Peabody Essex Museum has family-friendly, drop-in activities. From music and readings, to slam and visual arts, there’s lots of wicked good poetry happening in Salem this weekend!” O’Neil said.

Melt Ice Cream: More Flavors More Frequently

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IMG_2186

Christiana Kroondyk, owner of Melt, enjoys her personal favorite: Atomic Coffee.

 

Shelley A. Sackett

 

Even as a kid growing up in Grand Rapids, Michigan, ice cream stood out among its dessert peers for Christiana Kroondyk.

 

“I remember biking to the nearest shop with friends and eating it after a quick trip to the beach with my family,” said the owner and creator of Melt Ice Cream, an artisanal ice cream line that now has its own storefront home in the former Salem Screamery location. “Ice cream was always a special treat growing up.”

 

Her taste for ice cream never wavered over the years, but in 2009 her interest changed from eating it to making it. While vacationing with her family, they found a newly opened ice cream shop run by a couple that sold unique and delicious flavors, such as lavender mint basil and maple bacon — “before bacon was a ‘thing’.”

 

When Kroondyk got home, she quit her Human Resource Compensation Department job, bought a personal ice cream machine, and began trying out recipes and experimenting with unusual ingredients. “My focus with Melt is making all the ice cream myself. I use local ingredients where I can,” she said. Her original plan was to sell Melt as an artisanal ice cream line at farmers markets.

 

Instead, when The Salem Screamery was put up for sale last year, Kroondyk bought it, “definitely something I envisioned, but not as quickly as it happened.” For a year, she operated the shop as the previous owners had — selling ice cream from Bliss Dairy in Attleboro, MA — all the while experimenting with her distinctive flavors and thinking about how she wanted to make the store “hers”.

 

“I wanted to change the environment of the store. We updated the inside a lot over this past winter to make it warm, happy and inviting,” Kroondyk said. While she spends a lot of time at the store, this year she’s more behind the scenes making ice cream rather than behind the counter scooping it. Still, she loves saying “hi” to the regulars. “Meeting and getting to know the customers and the community is extremely important to me.”

 

Equally important is her commitment to unconventional and all natural ice cream flavors. “Coming up with funky flavors is most fun for me,” Kroondyk said, noting that she only uses real ingredients. “My mint chip ice cream is not green,” she pointed out proudly.

 

Her goal is “more flavors more frequently” and she features four or five “Rotating Flavors” that change every week or two. Right now, customers have the chance to taste 18 “flavors to melt for”. The rotating ones include vanilla chai, anise with candied fennel (a must for black licorice lovers), green tea, and banana with caramelized white chocolate. Of the 14 “standard” flavors, however, not all are all that standard: potato chip toffee and chamomile chardonnay top the list.

 

With all these exotic creations to choose from, what unusual flavor is Kroondyk’s favorite? Without a pause, the maestro of the non-traditional breaks into a wide, little girl smile, and reveals her taste buds’ old-fashioned, Grand Rapids roots: Atomic Coffee.

 

Melt Ice Cream is located at 60 Washington Street in Salem. Hours are Sunday through Thursday, from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. and Friday and Saturday, from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. Visit meltsalem.com for more information.

 

SIDEBAR???

“Artisan” is a term used to describe “food produced by non-industrialized methods, often handed down through generations but now in danger of being lost, according to the School of Artisan Food website. Tastes and processes are allowed to develop slowly and naturally, rather than curtailed for mass-production.”

 

House of Seven Gables Throws its Founder a 150th Birthday Party

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New exhibit celebrates Emmerton’s life and legacy

By Shelley A. Sackett

 

If Caroline Osgood Emmerton, founder of The House of Seven Gables Settlement Association, were to wander into their new exhibit celebrating her 150th birthday, Special Projects Manager Julie Arrison-Bishop is certain she would be pleased.

 

“We selected colors that would have been popular in the early 20th century to highlight the images and text selected to tell her story. Using what we have in our archives, we think that we give a look into Miss Emmerton’s life in a way that she would have appreciated,” Arrison-Bishop said.

 

Throughout 2016, The House of the Seven Gables will be honoring Emmerton, one of Salem’s most prominent citizens, and her 150th birthday. “Our annual exhibit program is a way for the organization to consistently improve the quality of the visitor experience and to share the many little known stories we have,” she added.

 

“Caroline Emmerton: An Unbounded Vision,” kicked off the year of planned events on Friday, April 8. The small but splendid exhibit features artifacts from Emmerton’s life, photographs, and richly detailed, easily digested commentaries. Especially charming is a carte de visite, recently discovered among photographs and wallpaper from her Essex Street home, that is believed to portray the young Miss Emmerton and her younger sister, Annie.

 

 

Caroline Emmerton oversees a settlement class, c. 1920.

Caroline Emmerton oversees a girls’ needlework class at the Seven Gables Settlement.

 

It all started with John Turner, a Salem sea captain and merchant who built the house in 1636. Three generations of Turners occupied it until 1782, when Captain Samuel Ingersoll bought it. He died at sea, leaving the property to his daughter Susanna, a cousin of author Nathaniel Hawthorne, whose visits to the house are believed to have inspired the setting of his 1851 novel, “The House of the Seven Gables.”

 

Emmerton (1866-1942), a philanthropist and preservationist, purchased the “old Turner Mansion” in 1908 with money inherited from her grandfather, maritime trader Captain John Bertram, an immigrant from the United Kingdom. Her mission was to carry on her family’s tradition of endowing and supporting charitable good works.

 

In 1873, Bertram had donated $25,000 to build Salem Hospital at a time when there were fewer than 200 hospitals nationwide. His generosity eventually funded the Bertram Home for Aged Men, the Salem public library, the Seaman’s widow and Orphan Society, the Family Service Association, and the city’s Public Welfare Society.

 

Music books and thimble

Music books and a thimble from a settlement class.

Emmerton was also a product of her times. She lived during The Progressive Era, a period in American life marked by widespread support for social and political reform. The plight of newly arrived immigrants was one of the era’s social concerns.

 

With the goal of preserving the house for future generations, Emmerton worked with architect Joseph Everett Chandler to restore it to its original seven gables.

 

She was inspired by Jane Adam’s Hull House, which opened its doors in 1889 in the Near West Side of Chicago, Illinois, to recently arrived European immigrants. Emmerton wanted to assist immigrant families who were settling in Salem. She envisioned providing educational opportunities for visitors and then using the proceeds from the tours to fund her settlement programs.

 

Her programs served all ages and were meant to enrich the lives of Salem’s primarily Eastern European community, offering lessons in sewing, crafts, job skills and English. Over time, Emmerton continued to expand and reorganize the compound, eventually moving four colonial-era buildings to the site. To her, exposure to historic environments and stories was a perfect way for new immigrants to absorb democratic values and practices.

 

Caroline and her sister, Annie, Emmerton

A carte de visite believed to portray the young Caroline Emmerton and her younger sister, Annie.

To honor this legacy, The House of the Seven Gables has partnered with Salem Parks, Recreations and Community Services to offer enrichment programs on the historic museum campus throughout 2016.

 

Because Emmerton did not leave much behind in terms of private correspondence and photographs, shaping this exhibit was challenging. Arrison-Bishop and her committee of volunteers had to look beyond the personal items historians normally use to share a story.

 

“Our biographical look at Caroline Emmerton was a wonderful opportunity to work with a group of historians who were interested in telling not only the story of Caroline Emmerton, but also what influenced her. Emmerton was an early leader in the field of historic preservation, and she used her knowledge and means to save a number of Salem’s most influential buildings — some of which are on our National Historic Landmark Campus,” Arrison-Bishop said.

 

While there are many lessons to be learned from Emmerton’s work that shaped her community and provided educational opportunities to those who needed them most, Arrison-Bishop hopes exhibit goers will pay particular attention to the broader nuances of history.

 

“One of the threads that we found both in Miss Emmerton’s biography and the background of the Progressive Era was a series of language — much of it politically charged — that shows how history continues to repeat itself,” she said.

 

Everyone is encouraged to attend the April 23rd “Caroline’s Community: A Celebration for All”, with $1.50 tours, cake cutting, dance performances, music and Living History Labs. Emmerton historian and Lynn resident, Irene Alexrod, will perform biographical sketches of her life throughout the day. “We hope that the public sees how Miss Emmerton used her influence and means to support her community,” Arrison-Bishop said.

 

For a full list of commemorative events, lectures and activities, go to 7gables.org.

 

RESCUES Manual for Commercial Fishing Industry Unveiled

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Compilation of best practices for fishermen, families and communities

By Shelley A. Sackett

 

 

 

Over fifty people packed the standing room only Gloucester Coast Guard Station last Thursday for the unveiling of RESCUES, the long awaited first-ever comprehensive guidebook on dealing with a crisis in a fishing community.

 

“This is an exciting day, but it is also a sad day,” said Angela Sanfilippo, the President of both the Gloucester’s Wives Association and the Massachusetts Fishermen’s Partnership, who also served as master of ceremonies. As a fisherman’s daughter, wife and mother, she has first hand experience of the pain and trauma suffered by families and communities when a fisherman is lost at sea.

 

She told the story of the night of the 1992 “perfect storm” when she and many others slept at the Gloucester Coast Guard Station. “The captain said, ‘We need to start training fishermen in how to save themselves,’” she recalled. That planted the seed that would eventually grow into the RESCUES manual.

Mayor and Sanfilippo

Gloucester Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken addresses the group as Angela Sanfilippo looks on.

 

The acronym stands for Responding to Emergencies at Sea and to Communities Under Extreme Stress.

 

“We all get numb to the dangers of the fishing industry, but there are widow’s walks and porches named for families who paced, hoping their men would come home,” said J.J. Bartlett, President of Fishing Partnership Support Services. He said that if public school teachers died at the same rate as fishermen on the job, over 400 teachers would die of work-related injuries each year.

 

“The idea is that, when a crisis occurs, folks in our fishing ports will be able to consult this manual and know right away how the Coast Guard and other authorities are responding, and where to turn for reliable help and support,” Barlett added.

 

Gloucester Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken spoke of her own family tragedies over fishing accidents and their aftermath. “You can take the fisherman out of the ocean but you can’t take the ocean out of the fisherman,” she said. “We’re fortunate in Gloucester because we have a team in place to put this kind of book together so now you know where to go” for help, she added, noting that although there is no safety book that will prevent loss of life at sea, “this book can help.”

 

The Mayor praised the Coast Guard. “They risk their lives for the sake of the fishermen,” she said. Captain Robert Lepere, commanding officer of the Gloucester Coast Guard Station for the past three years, returned the compliment. “I’ve been in the Coast Guard for 20 years, and never have I seen a community pull together like this,” he said. Captain Claudia C. Geltzer, commanding officer of the Boston Coast Guard Station and Captain of the Port of Boston, praised RESCUES as a very important milestone. “This manual will make any fisherman who reads it better prepared at sea,” she said. “In the heat of a crisis, we all revert back to our training.”

Hall-Arber and Sanfilippo

Madeline Hall-Arber

 

Madeline Hall-Arber, an anthropologist at the Sea Grant College program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Ann Backus, of the Harvard University School of Public Health, were the principal investigators on the lengthy project that produced RESCUES. They interviewed fishing community leaders, Coast Guard personnel, fishing vessel safety trainers, clergy, social service agencies, fishermen and their families, business owners, insurance companies and attorneys. Kristina Pinto of the Fishing Partnership Support Services is the third co-author.

 

Hall-Arber described how she first became interested in undertaking the RESCUES project. “I met a fisherman who didn’t know how to swim. ‘Why prolong the agony?’” he asked. She remembered thinking it might be an interesting research project to find out what fishing industry standard best practices were before an accident, at sea and if disaster occurred. “People in the industry were astoundingly enthusiastic,” she said.

 

The RESCUES manual focuses on what interviewees shared as being critical to know before, during and after an incident. It contains a wealth of material, including contacts for services in Gloucester and New Bedford.

 

Its five main sections focus on essential information to help prepare individuals, groups and entire communities for a crisis affecting members of the commercial fishing industry, such as the sinking of a boat or the search for crew members lost overboard at sea.

I wanted people to be able to skim the manual, get useful information, and then go back,” Hall-Arber said.

 

For example, chapter 1, “Integrative Preparedness” (before leaving the dock) includes an easy-to-follow checklist of essential safety training and communication plans for the vessel owner, crew and families. “Emergency” explains what the Coast Guard does during an emergency and outlines communication chains of command. “The Aftermath” and “Longer-Term Outreach and Counseling” addresses situations after a loss is confirmed. Appendices incorporate maintenance checklists, Coast Guard contact information, community crisis support organizations and useful websites.

 

One of the surprising facts Hall-Arber learned was that many family members didn’t know which boat their loved one was on or what kind of fishing he might be doing that day. Backus, whose expertise is in occupational safety and health in the fishing industry, likewise discovered that vessel captains usually didn’t know about crewmembers’ medical histories or their contact information. She and Sanfilippo have since developed and distributed scores of refrigerator magnets for fishermen’s families to keep handy with information that the Coast Guard would need in an emergency. “Families should know where important documents are,” Backus said.

 

Paul Vitale, 43, a fisherman who has lived in Gloucester his whole life, thinks some of these common sense suggestions will be extremely helpful. “Lots of time people don’t know which boat they’ll be on. Not everyone owns their own boat,” he explained.

 

Fishermens wives Statue

 

Sanfilippo, who was instrumental in bringing to fruition the decades-long dream of Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association to create a Fishermen’s Wives Memorial, is equally determined to bring RESCUES beyond Boston, the South Shore and Cape Cod. “We will be bringing this up and down the entire coastline. Today we open that road,” she said to resounding applause.

 

 

 

PEM’s “Asia in Amsterdam” Exhibit is a Feast for the Senses

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Shelley A. Sackett

 

“It started with spices from Asia…” reads the inscription above a display of glass columns of cinnamon, clove and peppercorns that greet the visitor to “Asia in Amsterdam: The Culture of Luxury in the Golden Age”, the latest world-class exhibition at the Peabody Essex Museum. And indeed, the 200 extraordinary examples of paintings, textiles, ceramics, silver, lacquerware, furniture, jewelry and books would never have found their way from their native Asia to 17th century Dutch households were it not for the spice trade that originated in Amsterdam and single-handedly created the Dutch Golden Age.

 

GoldenBend

The “Golden Bend” in the Herengracht, Amsterdam, 1671-1672. Gerrit Adriansz. Berckheyde.

 

The exhibit, five years in the making and co-organized by the Rijksmuseum of Amsterdam, runs through June 5. PEM is the exclusive U.S. venue. Founded less than a year apart – in 1798 and 1799 – the Dutch and Salem museums boast world-renowned Asian export art collections inextricably linked to early international trade, and pieces from both collections form the backbone of the exhibit.

 

 

Thanks to the painstaking work of a team of 35 talented PEM staff members, “Asia in Amsterdam” navigates the complex story of the transformative influence Asian luxuries had on Dutch art and life in bite-sized chunks. Combining lessons in history, sociology, economics, arts and crafts, the galleries are logically organized to tell a seamless story. The animated maps, interactive digital displays and short films add a deeper access to the material.

cellaret

Cellaret. Batavia (Jakarta, Indonesia), with flasks from Arita, Japan, 1680-1700. Calamander with silver mounts and velvet lining, and porcelain.

It all started with pepper, nutmeg and cloves and the Dutch East India Company (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, or VOC) that was set up in 1602 to import them from the Maluku Islands in Indonesia back to the Netherlands. Before long, the VOC was the most powerful and largest trade and shipping company in the world, employing more than 400,000 Dutch and other European and Asian workers. The exhibit minces no words about VOC’s relentless and, at times, ruthless pursuit of profit at the expense of the local people. The toll of human suffering casts a dark shadow over these sparkling jewels.

 

Soon, in addition to spices and tea, the VOC began importing costly textiles, porcelain, lacquer and silver from China, India, Japan, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. For the austere Dutch Protestants, who were used to eating from heavy stoneware and wearing drab wool and linen clothing, the introduction of gossamer thin brightly colored Indian cotton, feather light and elegant Chinese porcelain and elaborate lacquered coffers inlaid with mother of pearl and other exotic materials suddenly turned their monochromatic world into Technicolor. Amsterdam quickly became the seat of global economy and enormous wealth.

Palampore

Cotton embriodered with silk and metal-wrapped threads. Palampore. Deccan, India, 1710-1750.

 

“One can only imagine the delight and amazement that these imports must have inspired in the Netherlands,” said Karina Corrigan, PEM’s H.A. Crosby Forbes Curator of Asian Export Art. Gallery after gallery is chockfull of examples of the lavish Asian imports the Dutch consumer suddenly couldn’t live without. Paintings by Dutch artists illustrate how the wealthy incorporated these sensual delights into their everyday lives. Fashionable Dutch men wore silk Japanese robes, Dutch women hosted elaborate Chinese tea parties, and room after room of wealthy Dutch households boasted the items on display. Many built special “porcelain display rooms” to show off their collections. Even Rembrandt van Rijn was “a phenomenal shopper”, collecting Asian objects and Indian miniature painting, which inspired many of his drawings and etchings.

 

Perhaps the best (and most amusing) example of the new European opulence and swagger is a sumptuous lacquer crate inlaid with mother of pearl that opens to reveal a portable commode, complete with red velvet and gilded mounts. Built in the 17th century and later modified in France, it found a special niche at the Chateau de Versailles.

 

Youngwoman

Paulus Moreelse. “Portrait of a Young woman”, about 1620.

 

Another example of the colossal obsession with materiality is Paulus Moreelse’s “Portrait of a Young Woman.” Apparently, his young unknown subject (rumored to be port of the court of the House of Orange-Nassau) couldn’t decide what to wear for this portrait, causing her severe anxiety lest she appear too austere. The diamond brooch from India with its 208 gems hopefully set her young mind at rest.

 

 

The array of objects and their sensual allure is at times overwhelming. While the exotic and intriguing imports reflect the VOC’s global reach and the Dutch voracious appetite for its bounty, “Asia in Amsterdam” doesn’t simply admire these objects. It goes one step further, examining their revolutionary impact on the Dutch imagination and way of life in an unobtrusive but instructive way.

 

As Amsterdam’s status as the epicenter of global trade grew, so did its prosperous population, and innovations that reached into all facets of life both in Europe and throughout the world followed. With so much porcelain in the Netherlands, even common people could afford to use it daily. Asian spices both brightened Dutch palates and revised how Europeans treated illnesses. Amsterdam became the center of the publishing world, growing from one publishing house in 1570 to 129 by the year 1670. Dutch books, sold throughout Europe, fueled curiosity about the wider world, especially Asia.

CoveredBowl.org

Covered Bowl. Jingdezhen, China. Porcelain.

 

Dutch artists and artisans appropriated the material Asian culture, representing it in still-life paintings, delftware and furniture. Dutch design of textiles, silver and lacquer were not far behind.

 

 

 

The “Thought Leaders” section of the exhibition is particularly interesting. It considers the ramifications of exposure to the worlds of far off places, including their peoples, plants, animals, religions and medical practices, on Dutch scholars. Adding a soothing musical layer is “The Golden Dream: 17th Century Music from the Low Countries,” by the Newberry Consort with Marion Verbruggen and Paul O’Dette, which plays in the background.

cradle

Cradle. Coromandel Coast, India, 1650-1700. Ebony and Ivory.

 

The exhibit ends as it began, with contemplative words painted on a wall. “At certain times, great achievements in art, science and commerce come together to define a golden age,” it reads. Against a backdrop listing Renaissance Florence, Mughal India, the Tang Dynasty and 1920’s New York City, it asks the visitor to consider where and when the next big movement might come.

 

To think, it could all start with something as small as spices.

For more information, go to pem.org.

 

“Curious Worlds: The Art & Imagination of David Beck” is Pure Magic

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By Shelley A. Sackett

 

Like Alice and the rabbit-hole, viewers of director Olympia Stone’s “Curious Worlds: The Art & Imagination Of David Beck” know they are entering a very different world from the get-go. The film opens with whimsical jazz and a close up of “Movie Palace”, an elaborate miniature pretend movie theater that combines the pleasures of the bygone Hollywood regal era with the intricacies of handcrafted windup toys.

 

“As a child, I loved to go to the movies. I still do,” David Beck says as the camera lingers over animated figures talking and eating popcorn made of painted birdshot. “It’s almost a little temple, a religious shrine to the movies.”

 

Movie Palace

Movie Palace

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beck then takes us on an enchanting tour of this fantastical creation, explaining his inspiration and process. Close ups of reliefs on the outside of the dome show various movie house golden age genres, such as film noir, Westerns and musicals. A tiny man, loaded down with popcorn and drinks, stands in the aisle, searching for his seat. Within minutes, Beck’s charm, humility and humor have hooked us.

 

Director Olympia Stone has a soft touch, following Beck about as he works in his studio. There is no troubling backstory or dramatic agenda; just an absorbing glimpse into the private thoughts and efforts of an enormously talented artist.

 

If it seems that there is a special connection between director and subject, it’s because there is: Stone’s father, Allan Stone, was Beck’s art dealer for many years, and Beck often visited the Stone home in Purchase, N.Y. Olympia has said Beck stood out as the artist she was most deeply inspired by from the time she was seven years old. Her fascination with the tiny scale of his work never waned, and she undertook “Curious Worlds” to introduce the little known artist to a wider audience.

“David is someone I have known most of my life, and I am honored to say that we have remained and continue to be close friends,” she said.

Beck’s childlike fascination with, well, everything and his playful sense of humor cannot mask this modern renaissance man’s extraordinary gifts for creating unique and powerful miniature sculptures that combine the meticulous craftsmanship and precision of a mechanical engineer with the sometimes wacky worldview of a Tim Burton. He is a unique synthesizer, absorbing that which interests him – Medieval miniatures, European cabinetry, comic books, gothic carving and the art of Joseph Cornell and Joe Marmol – and weaving subtle references into his work.

His works beckon us to come closer and to enter the secret compartments, open the windows, explore inside drawers and assume that nothing is as it seems. Little marvels open to reveal additional, even more miraculous intricacies. Alice’s rabbit hole has no bottom.

 

Beck at work

David Beck in his studio

Watching Beck craft his worlds in miniature is a magical adventure in itself. His highly original, intricate and kinetic artwork combines sculpture, painting, textiles, mechanics and foraging in a way that is part obsessive, part ethereal. His pieces take the form of miniature buildings and entire worlds populated with mystical and whimsical creatures that seem to live in a world all their own. The artist spends hundreds of hours in his oriental rugged workshop, methodically tending to the minutest detail. He learns whatever technique is appropriate for whatever he is trying to build.

 

Olympia Stone

Director Olympia Stone

 

Stone peppers her film with critics, curators, gallerists, collectors and friends who offer insights on Beck’s career, style and importance to the art world. When she films Beck in his studio as he shares his inspirations and frustrations, their rapport and trust is palpable.

 

 

 

 

 

David-Beck-DODO-MUSEUM-1980-Mixed-media_-wood-feathers-copper-and-electric-lightbulb-86-1_2-x-34-x-36-inches-overall

Dodo Museum

 

Much of Beck’s inspiration springs from nature, but rather than replicate it, Beck creates his own romantic version of it. His “Dodo Museum” is a valentine to the extinct creature, complete with Paleolithic skeleton and Cluny-type tapestries with dodos in place of unicorns. Sharing his sketchbooks from the early 1970’s, Beck recalls being completely “obsessed and fascinated by this friendly bird.”

 

A Many Splendored Ode to the Dodo

A Many Splendored Dodo

Dodo windup

Dodo Windup

When pressed to identify her personal favorite among Beck’s works, Stone reluctantly names the large Dodo sculpture that is on screen for a few seconds in the film. Its wings open, revealing a diorama of a tiny dodo paradise. “As a child, I used to love looking inside those wings – it just transported me into a magical world. But honestly, there are so many things I love – it’s impossible to choose just one,” she said.

 

Beck was born in Muncie, Indiana in 1953 and studied painting and sculpture at Carnegie-Mellon University in 1976. That year, he moved to New York City and had his first exhibit at the Allan Stone Gallery. Scenes of Beck reminiscing with friends from those early “starving artist” days are among the film’s most intimate moments.

Allan Stone and David Beck late 1970's

Allan Stone and David Beck in the late 1970’s.

 

Just when we think that Beck has to be the coolest, most talented person we’ve ever encountered, he gets even cooler with the introduction of the jazz improvisation group, “The Melancholics”, and his role as composer and baritone saxophonist. Beck first met bassist Bill Noertker in the late 1990s, and the two developed a collaborative relationship, with Noertker scoring a short film Beck made of seven of his sculptures. Because of their longstanding relationship, Stone asked him to score her film.

 

Curious Worlds Soundtrack

 

“I love the music in the film. Bill Noertker has a long history of composing music for David’s pieces – you can see/hear more of their collaboration on David’s website (davidbeckartworks.com). Bill “gets” David’s artwork,” Stone said. Noertker composed a few pieces specifically for the film, but many were from his band, Moxie (http://www.noertker.com/).

 

By the end of the film, we are not surprised to learn that Beck is the only living artist to have had three solo exhibits at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, nor that his work is sought by private collectors across the country. The only thing that does surprise us is that we have never heard of this quirky, friendly, enormously talented man who creates these wonderful and enchanting microcosms, and for that we owe Olympia Stone a huge thank you.

 

Visit floatingstone.com for more information.

Come to Salem, see the world.

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Salem Film Fest founders celebrate film and filmmakers

 

 

What do local filmmaker, Joe Cultrera, businessman, Paul Van Ness, and Salem Chamber of Commerce Executive Director, Rinus Oosthoek have in common?

 

The answer goes back to 2007, when the three founded Salem Film Fest (SFF), the week-long festival that sustains cinephiles each March through the long, bleak slog of New England winter. The largest all-documentary film festival in New England, SFF 2016 will run March 3-10.

 

It all started in 2006, when Van Ness opened CinemaSalem. He has run Van Ness Creative, a film/video production company in Beverly for 30 years, and has always been interested in filmmaking. “That is what made running the movie theater interesting to me,” he said. (His 2012 documentary feature, “A Good Death”, won Best Documentary at the California Oceanside Film Festival.)

 

Oosthoek and Van Ness

Rinus Oosthoek (left) and Paul Van Ness with Salem Film Fest programs and posters.

 

Oosthoek, who met Van Ness in 2003 when he worked with Beverly Main Streets, was one of the first to approach him with the suggestion of putting together a film festival. Van Ness was receptive. “The idea of a festival was part of what can make a cinema successful,” he said. Plus, he wanted the opportunity to bring some movies to Salem that could literally not be seen anyplace else in the world, which “helps the cinema and the local culture.”

Cultrera, a documentary filmmaker who shifts between his own productions and freelance editing work, met Van Ness when CinemaSalem hosted the New England Premiere of his film, “Hand of God”, prior to its acquisition by FRONTLINE, the PBS documentary series. He heard Van Ness and some other folks from Salem were interested in starting a film festival and he agreed to meet with them.

 

“I’d just come off the festival circuit [with “Hand of God”] and had some strong opinions,” he said. One of them was that SFF should be an all-documentary film fest, which Van Ness described as a “brilliant move” both because it meant SFF would be competing with fewer festivals to attract films and because documentaries are intrinsically more interesting. “You can experience the human family all over the world in a 90-minute film and you know it’s completely true,” he added.

 

Also, Cultrera pointed out, there were no other significant documentary film festivals in Massachusetts in 2006, so the group had the opportunity to build something unique.

 

With the three basics in place — venue (through Van Ness), business community involvement (through Oosthoek) and industry and programming connections (through Cultrera) —Salem Film Fest was born in 2007. “That’s about as fast as a festival can be put together once you have a venue,” Van Ness said.

 

The first year was more successful than anticipated, owing in part, according to Van Ness, to the fact that Cultrera, as Program Director, insisted on screening only very high quality films that were not simply advocacy pieces for the director’s point of view. “We’ve always looked for good storytelling, strong technical aspects, compelling characters and inventive techniques. We want films that present both sides of a story, particularly if it’s a political story,” Cultrera said.

 

As an “invitation only” festival, the Screening Committee invites filmmakers to submit their films for consideration. Jeff Schmidt, who took over as Program Director in 2013, started searching for films last June. For 2016, the committee invited about 200 filmmakers to submit their work for consideration and collectively considered over 150 films. After a democratic process where members discussed and then voted on each film, the committee selected this year’s line-up of 35 feature documentaries representing 25 countries.

 

From the get-go, SFF distinguished itself as unique in its focus on the filmmaker. “To us, the filmmakers are the heroes in the industry. They come up with the story,” Van Ness said.

 

“We get over half the filmmakers to come to Salem, which is another thing that makes this festival so special,” said Oosthoek, noting that this tradition developed accidentally the first year, when most of the filmmakers who attended were local. This year, over two-thirds of the filmmakers will attend, thanks to SFF volunteers who help with traveling logistics and business sponsors’ donations.

 

Post-screening Q&A sessions make the festival experience richer for filmgoers and filmmakers alike. Van Ness notes that a filmmaker whose film is both good and topical may be invited to 20 festivals. “What people say is that the Q&A afterwards tends to be the same except in Salem, where the sophistication of the audience leads the questions in much more interesting directions than you typically hear,” he said.

 

Since 2007, SFF has grown from the “little festival that can” in Salem to a major regional documentary festival. Oosthoek points to three reasons why, first and most important being the quality of the films. “There is a ‘Salem identity’. The filmmakers love coming here,” he said. The festival’s reputation has grown beyond the North Shore, attracting fans from Newburyport, Gloucester, Ipswich and as far away as South Carolina and Minnesota.

 

Second is the educational component, including partnerships with local high schools, colleges and universities, and the opportunity for student and local filmmakers to showcase their documentary short and experimental films in festival programming such as the Five-Minute Student Documentary Contest and the Mass Reality Check. Also, a selected group of local documentarians receive project assistance when they present their in-progress works to industry representatives at the Doc-a-chusetts Pitch session, with the winner receiving a $5,000 production grant for finishing services provided by The OutPost at WGBH.

 

Last but hardly least, Oosthoek credits the local business community for its commitment and involvement. “They understand it’s good for their regional market,” he said. Where most festivals charge filmmakers a non-refundable fee to submit their work (with no guarantee of acceptance), SFF actually offers every filmmaker a screening fee, free lodging and, in some cases, a travel stipend thanks to local and regional community sponsors and supporters.

 

Over the years, SFF has also strengthened and expanded its relationship with the Peabody Essex Museum, adding more screenings and connected programming there. “This has really brought an extra dimension to the event and allowed us to show more work,” Cultrera said. Another SFF venue, the Salem National Park Service Visitor Center, will host four screenings this year.

 

In addition to its liaison with broadcasters like FRONTLINE, SFF has tried to “add new wrinkles each year to keep things fresh,” Cultrera noted, adding that having live music on stage between films is a good way to add a little life to the moments before a screening and expose the audience to local musicians. Another “wrinkle” is “Salem Sketches”, a handful of locally shot two-minute documentaries Cultrera creates with fellow filmmaker Perry Hallinan. “We’re one of the few festivals that can claim to have our own original programming,” Cultrera said.

 

“Come to Salem, see the world” has been the SFF catch phrase since its inception, both as an homage to the old Salem merchant ships that established trade with the rest of the world and in tribute to the films from dozens of countries the festival has screened over the past nine years. “The festival’s strength has always been its programming and community feel, but the scope of our programming reaches far beyond the local,” Cultrera said.

 

For more information, visit salemfilmfest.com