The Bushee estate on Newman Road has been demolished for a subdivision. That’s a “Yikes.”
“The home that carried her ( Florence E. Bushee) name boasted a twin chimney 2 1/2-story colonial with 13 rooms and eight open fireplaces, ornamental gardens, a carriage house, a post and beam cow barn and multi-stall horse barn.” Newburyport Daily News, January 25, 2102
The entire article can be read here (it’s worth reading!!).
In my new fascination with my burgeoning photoshop project (I am mulling an actual name), I am curious about the images that I choose.
The latest image is from someone who, at this point I know only as “katmystiry.” I have emailed “katmystiry,” and maybe I will know more about whoever this might be, but at the moment it is just an anonymous username and a “mystery.”
The image that I photoshoped away at is of a robin nesting.
Photoshop Robin Nesting, thanks katmystiry
The first thing that comes to mind is part of a poem that my wonderful son wrote way back in May of 2006, which I keep over my desk.
“i look under my bed
and see hundreds of feathers
i am content in my mother’s nest”
When I asked my son how he came about this incredibly moving for moi poetic tidbit, he told me, in college at the time, that he had a feather pillow that leaked, and literally there were hundreds of feathers when he looked under his bead.
And this year, lo 6 year later, my son got married. And as I marvel at these lovely newlyweds, I think about them “nesting,” and am glad that my son is now so content in his newly married nest.
And then there is the empty-nest thing.
And then I wonder what a “back-story” could be on this photoshoped robin sitting on her photoshop nest. I remember being a new mom, feeding my son in the very early hours of the morning, wondering if there were other moms out there like me, sitting alone with their child in the dark. And to me, this robin reminds me of those nights so many years and decades long ago.
I walk into my house and I sniff - mold?? I may now be a spider slayer (see earlier entry), but I can be as neurotic (this is a New York City term) as Woodie Allen.
I go down into the basement. Sniff, sniff. Basement smell, but not the same smell.
The odd, apparently or hopefully, not mold smell comes and goes. Who knows.
Potato
(I’m going circular now….) Over the last 3 years and some months, since Black Friday, the Celiac, you must now go on a gluten-free diet from hell, friday, I have become a big fan of baked potatoes. They are absolutely gluten free, plus they are wicked good for you, who knew. Chock full of all sorts of amazing nutrients. 48% Vitamin C, 18% Iron, really. And let’s not forget both Potassium and Vitamin B6 at an amazing 46%, if you don’t believe me, read all about it here.
The amazing baked potato, good for breakfast, lunch and dinner in all sorts of concoctions, instead of awful gluten free bread, or full of gluten bread.
So for 3 years and how many months, every night, I bake at least 2 potatoes, and use them in all sorts of ways the next day.
(For you gluten-free folks out there in web-land, I am now visiting the Newburyport Blog for some reason, land - a potato baked at 350 degrees for an hour and a half (i.e. fairly slowly) and then cooled, can be used for all sorts of things, including potato salad, much better, and easier, than boiling. An odd tip I’ve learned, who knew?)
Before baking a potato, it is necessary to pierce them or it with a fork or a sharp knife, lest they or it explode. And over the 3 years plus how many months, I’ve watched the pierced potato parts leak and dribble onto my oven floor. Not being a super duper oven cleaner, I’ve never much cared.
But an “ah ha,” eureka moment. The other day, an apparently un-pierced baking potato exploded, and that weird smell (see, I told you I’d get around to it), well, it was like that weird smell, the not the basement maybe, oh dear, mold smell, but “the” odd smell, on steroids.
So, I am relieved. Odd, but probably not terribly dangerous smell explained. A wet paper towel, or a lot of wet paper towels, scrubbed against the bottom of the oven, seems to alleviate the long sniff quandary. And I will now need to find something else innocuous, but perplexing enough to obsess about, to take the place of the great exploding baked potato whiff enigma.
I wonder to myself if contemporary art, like the stuff being painted today, like today’s fine art, has it, or is it going the way of the buggy whip and the typewriter? This is from a contemporary painter (and a good one!!) no less.
In the movie “Other People’s Money,” Danny DeVito’s character, Larry the Liquidator, a successful corporate raider, sort of, very sort of, like Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital, compares the company in question to the last buggy whip maker, technology having made buggy whips obsolete. No point in having a buggy whip factory around anymore.
Lots of things have become obsolete. Camera and film stores, Ritz Camera and Infocus in Newburyport, sayonara.
CD stores… adios. Newspapers, alas, are going goodbye. Patch-AOL here we come. HuffPost the updated, un-obsolete medium. Books, adios. Kindle, the Nook, IPad, cha-cha-cha.
The United States Post Office, oh dear.
The typewriter - gone with the wind.
Twitter and texting, yup. Complete sentences, TMI.
"Starfish," digital photo by 4eyesphoto (used with permission)
None of this is bad, it just is. Most of it is really fascinating. But what about the quaint idea of painting. Photoshop, my love hate relationship with Photoshop, in my mind, has changed painting forever. And for goodness sakes, any photo can now be put on canvas in an hour by places like CVS.
The thing that make my heart go pity-pat when I walk into a gallery, is really great digital photography. It reminds me of that now quaint painting style, Photorealism, one of the last contemporary art movements, that used to make my brain twirl. And there is some amazing digital photography being made. The photo by 4eyephoto.com that gave permission to use their incredible photograph “Starfish,” to my son’s theatre company for their poster, a gorgeous example.
The quaint art of painting going the way of the buggy whip - reality??
Wiffle Bat
I started killing-slaying spiders when I became a single mother. (I’m not entirely sure why single mothers still get a bad rap. Any single mother or father will tell you it’s probably the hardest thing that they’ve ever done. In the second debate Mr. Romney made a not such nice comment about single mothers, and from the conversations that I’ve had, it didn’t go over so well with single mothers or single fathers, and there are a lot of them out there, voters and everything. I once naively thought that since the President of the United States was raised by a single mom, that single mothers might not get such a kick in the head. How “Pollyanna” of me.)
I found out there was only so much screaming and wailing one can do when confronted by a spider, before it becomes evident that that’s not going to do much good. And there are few folks who will drop everything at that “spider moment,” and run over and kill that spider (unlike the famous scene in Annie Hall, this could date me big time, or not?? where Woodie Allen rushes over to help Annie Hall slay the spider that’s the “size of a Buick.” I found the scene, or part of the scene on YouTube here.)
Dragon
So bravery and ingenuity become a necessity. I ended up killing spiders on a regular basis with my very young son’s Wiffle Bat. Plastic, light, a flat end, and good for killing, squishing, slaying spiders on the ceiling. My son actually remembers this, although I don’t think it’s one of his favorite childhood memories.
Now when I see spiders in my dwelling, and I do so on a regular basis, I have a conversation. It goes something like this:
“How in the world did you get here, there??” I never understand how they suddenly seem to appear out of nowhere.
“You know what the house policy is don’t you?” I say. “If you don’t mosey on real fast and disappear from where ever you came from, you are a goner.”
Joan of Arc
And since they never disappear quickly, and I’ve long since given up even the “silent spider scream,” it’s simply getting a step ladder or climbing up on a piece of furniture, and taking the spider in a small kleenex and down the toilet it goes. Whoosh.
I’ve become very proficient, so far, at spider slaying. I didn’t include a picture of a spider, because I don’t like pictures of spiders, so I included a picture of a dragon, which is in my mind the emotional equivalent of a spider. And since I couldn’t find any art work that was about women slaying dragons (no such thing, alas), I did find a painting of Joan of Arc, by Dante Charles Gabriel Rossetti, and I can imagine her with a Wiffle Bat, instead of a sword, getting read to be a “Spider Slayer.”
This sounds like a really good compromise on Newburyport’s Local Historic District (LHD) sponsored on Monday night by Newburyport City Councilors Katy Ives and Bob Cronin. Excellent work!! I hope it is one that the Newburyport City Councilors see as a “win-win” alternative.
The proposals address what Councilor Ives called the “most egregious” situations affecting our historic assets in the city of Newburyport, i.e. demolition, as well as protecting downtown Newburyport, the restoration of which is responsible for the revitalization of a once dying city.
A very well written article in the Newburyport Daily News about the the proposals sponsored by Councilors Katy Ives and Bob Cronin can be read here.
Newburyport 1967, courtesy of the Archival Center at the Newburyport Public Library (press image to enlarge)
I was telling a business owner this week that Newburyport didn’t always look the way it looks now. The business owner commutes from just outside Boston, and has had their business in Newburyport for over 10 years. It was a complete shock to them that this now gorgeous place was literally in “shambles,” a slum in 1967.
The Archival Center at the Newburyport Public Library graciously let me take photos of their archives of Newburyport from 1967-1974, HUD, NRA and Urban Renewal. A link to the 54 photographs that I took from the Newburyport Archival Center can be found here.
Inn Street, 1974 (press image to enlarge)
Inn Street, downtown Newburyport, 1974 (press image to enlarge)
Courtesy of the Archives at the Newburyport Public Library.
I am now going to piss off Newburyport preservationists! Ooops!
The final report of the Newburyport LHD Study Committee (LHD = Local Historic District) is absurdly fair. The five members did backflips to accommodate feedback from the community and from the Newburyport City Councilors. Backflips, cartwheels, you name it, right from the get go. And despite all of that, on an up and down vote it’s not going to fly. That’s just the existing political reality.
The leading member of the “Say No to LHD” group, its heart and soul, who got up in the first informational meeting a year a go, disrupting the entire meeting and storming out, vowing to stop the LHD, has done a remarkable job. It’s definitely a “Wow.” It appears that the end most certainly justified the means. Trashing people’s reputations and character, personal attacks, threats of law suits (most recently in a comment in the Daily News), presenting information early last winter (good tactic starting early) that was and is simply not true, has worked. Congratulations.
The final version of the LHD ordinance has finally gone to the Newburyport City Council, a meeting will take place this Thursday, October 25, 2012, Newburyport City Hall at 7PM.
As I see it, the political realities. (The boundaries of the proposed LHD are High Street, the gateway to the city, and downtown Newburyport from Winter Street to Federal Street.) Lob off the North End of High Street at the Kelly School, and put those folks out of their misery.
There is unanimous support along the South End of the “Ridge” to Willis Lane (which is roughly across the street from Fruit Street). Shorten High Street from Willis Lane to the Kelly School, maybe include St Paul’s Church on the other side (but, good grief, don’t cross the street!).
And protect downtown Newburyport. After all that HUD Federal money, please, does anyone dispute that the restoration of downtown Newburyport is the reason that Newburyport has become the thriving place that it is today? Really, not to protect downtown, good grief.
When Governor Deval Patrick came for a visit at Cafe Di Siena (February 2010), I asked Newburyport City Councilor Tom O’Brien if he would vote for the Newburyport LHD, and his response (this was before all of the hullabaloo), “Of course Mary, there’s been too many tear downs.” This statement was witnessed by Newburyport City Councilor Barry Connell, who with a wink and a smile by both Newburyport city councilors, pretended to write down this vote for the LHD by Councilor Tom O’Brien on the back of his hand.
So why not have have a “No Demolition” zone/overlay for the entire Newburyport Historic District, that would also include “interior demolition for exploratory purposes,” which, for example, lead to the unfortunate creation by a developer on Pine Street, for which the neighbors are suing the developer and the Newburyport Zoning Board of Appeals.
Can the Newburyport City Council come up with the equivalent of the “Wisdom of Solomon?” Can they do it in one night?? And what will they say, now that they get the chance have to have a say. It will be really fascinating to watch.
Preservation is in the business of saving communities
Newburyport preservation quotes:
“There may have been a time when preservation was about saving an old building here and there, but those days are gone. Preservation is in the business of saving communities and the values they embody.”
—Richard Moe, National Trust for Historic Preservation
Ever since Governor Romney announced his VP pick, (late Friday night during the Olympics??) Paul Ryan, I’ve been hyperventilating. Really (unfortunately).
The issue, Medicare. If Romney/Ryan squeak by in November, I’d squeak by under their Medicare radar before it turns into a voucher payment plan, but I’m still hyperventilating. Why? I’ve paid my own health care cost as an artist from way back in the dark ages (”in the day,” maybe not quite that long), and to say I don’t trust the healthcare private insurance folks to do anything but look after their bottom line, without state and federal regulation, would be a vast, vast understatement.
(In 1990, I paid $340 a month for my son and myself, for GREAT health insurance. Today, here in Massachusetts, that kind of health insurance that we had, doesn’t exist for any price (that I know of). Something similar, but not really, would go for $2,165 (a month). For a family $3,545 (a month). In New York State for a parent and child, a similar, but not really, insurance exists for $3,176 (a month). For a family, it’s a whopping $5,294. How about those apples? And people think Massachusetts is bad!)
As an artist, I’ve been waiting for the day when I am relieved of the onerous burden of crazy individual $1,000 a month and rising health insurance premiums (and that’s cheap compared to a state like New York State, demonstration above), and having an offspring that has fallen right next to the preverbial artistic tree, I’ve always wanted that for him and his family as well - some sort of safety net, you betch’a.
Private Health insurance industry to regulate itself, no, no, no - dream land.
Medicare vouchers to keep up with health insurance cost, please, dream on.
That’s my main hyperventilation. But the other, Mitt Romney was an old fashion Republican moderate in Massachusetts (I know, I know, you know). But with Paul Ryan, darling of the hijacked Tea Party, as his running mate, has he sold his soul? or was he lying way back “in the day?” Not good either way. To have someone so ideologically extreme on the ticket, unsettling and telling.
“…the only way for Ryan’s numbers to work would be to effectively eliminate nearly all non-defense discretionary spending, including not just much of the social safety net but infrastructure spending, R. & D. investment, federal support for education, air-traffic control, regulatory and public safety spending, and so on (editor’s note, moi - let’s not forget NPR and The National Endowment for the Arts). This would be, needless to say, a radical remaking of the federal government. …it would basically return the federal government to something like its nineteenth-century role—and early nineteenth-century at that.” The New Yorker, August 12, 2012, “Paul Ryan’s Budget Games.”
“More than three-fifths of the cuts proposed by Mr. Ryan, and eagerly accepted by the Tea Party-driven House, come from programs for low-income Americans. That means billions of dollars lost for job training for the displaced, Pell grants for students and food stamps for the hungry. These cuts are so severe that the nation’s Catholic bishops raised their voices in protest at the shredding of the nation’s moral obligations.
Mr. Ryan’s budget “will hurt hungry children, poor families, vulnerable seniors and workers who cannot find employment,” the bishops wrote in an April letter to the House. “These cuts are unjustified and wrong.”
It (the federal government) will not be there when the unemployed need job training, or when a struggling student needs help to get into college. It will not be there when a miner needs more than a hardhat for protection, or when a city is unable to replace a crumbling bridge (editor’s note, moi - or sidewalk).
And it will be silent when the elderly cannot keep up with the costs of M.R.I.’s or prescription medicines, or when the poor and uninsured become increasingly sick through lack of preventive care. New York Times, August 11, 2012, “Mr Ryan’s Cramped Vision.”
So I’m hyperventilating for my offspring and his family’s future, much less my old age, should I get to live that long, should this pair get elected in November.
“..the Ryan budget is a plan that forfeits the future and global leadership to China.” Steve Clemens, The Atlantic, August 13, 2012.
182 High Street, courtesy of the City of Newburyport
The strange story of 182 High Street.
182 High Street has been lovingly restored by its present owner. The property contains a beautiful 200+ year old carriage barn, which the owner wanted to restore in 2010. The owner jumped through many hoops, as anyone who has done such a thing knows - Zoning Board, Planning Board, Historical Commission, and just a few feet short of the finishline, withdrew the application to continue the project.
Public record shows that the boards and commissions in the city were enthusiastic about the project. Public records show that the Planning Board thanked the applicant and their team, noted the applicant’s sensitivity toward the historical nature of the property, the reduction of occupancy level and preservation of historical structures. (January 12, 2010).
In July of 2012, however, the owner chose to demolish the beautiful carriage barn at 182 High Street. A one year demo delay was imposed. Head scratching all around.
In January 2010 public record shows that the owner wanted to make every attempt to preserve and rehabilitate all the historical aspects of the carriage barn, and to ensure that it would be in keeping with the restoration that was being done on the Federal Period home.
To do what the homeowner desired from a zoning point of view, requires something called “public benefit.” The public benefit in 2010 was, without any question on anyone’s part, including the homeowner’s - historic preservation.
If the carriage barn at 182 High is indeed demolished and a new structure built in its place, the owner would still be required to show “public benefit,” as well as go through all the zoning and planning board hoops. The attorney for the owner was able to say with a straight face, that the public benefit could be affordable housing.
More head scratching all around. The stated goal in 2010 was to use the structure as a guest house for visiting family members. Affordable housing would eliminate that possibility, and affordable housing on High Street?? like having affordable housing on Park Avenue. Happy neighbors?? one wonders.
One of the ironies here is that the significantly historical house in Newbury, the Tappan House, bought for 1.6 million dollars, was demolished for a swimming pool, but the barn was kept to be made into, yup, you got it, a guest house.
The historical write-up of the 1792 home at 182 High Street can be found on the city’s website here.
284 Water Street, Courtesy of the City of Newburyport
“The property, built in 1810, is assessed at $810,700, according to city records. It is a Georgian-style residence with nine rooms (four bedrooms) and two fireplaces. Size of the house is 2,723 square feet, and the structure has unobstructed views of the inlet across Water Street. Several smaller buildings are also on the property…
Abutters at the commission meeting suggested that an owner could get that much or more if owners tore it down, and offered a clear lot to a buyer who might build a larger structure.
The application requests a permit for “demolition of a single-family home, garage, barn and shed…”
“Newburyport’s equivalent of the Tappan House tear-down in Newbury.” - a reference to a significant historic home in Newbury that was bought for 1.6 million dollars and demolished to build a pool (information about the former Tappan House can be read here).
The entire story in the Newburyport Daily News can be read here.
The photo of 284 Water Street is courtesy of the City of Newburyport, and the photo and historic write-up of the home can be read here.
Current photos of the property can be seen here.
And a YouTube video of 284 Water Street can be seen here.
56 High Street, Courtesy of the City of Newburyport
“Sure, we can still have homeowner’s rights and the proposed LHD provides for this. But more than ever before, the City of Newburyport is under pressure to develop real estate for profit, not just for its people and the quality of life. This city has become a destination specifically because of its historical support for preservation, not despite its history.”
Peter Erickson, Newburyport Daily News, Viewpoint can be read here.
Peter Erickson is a former chair of the Newburyport Historic Commission and has lived on High Street for 24 years. Peter Erickson’s family home on High Street. Photo courtesy of the City of Newburyport which can be seen with the entire write-up about the property here (photo was taken in 1980).
George
George is grinning, huge wide smile, and those of you who have been readers of the Newburyport Blog for any length of time know that George is usually a glum sort of fellow, even with his passionate romance to Georgiana Tadpole (if you really would like to know about any of this frog stuff please press here).
Instead of telling the readers of the Newburyport Blog what is making George smile so hugely right off the bat (although he’s not smiling in the picture, I couldn’t get one of him smiling), I’m going to start at the beginning.
Way, way back (”in the day,” I’m not sure if it’s that far back) in 1990 I painted a whole bunch of paintings for a major New York show, oil on panel, and the panels warped (I used the wrong kind of panel - never did it again). Panic city, you betcha. I went to what was then Wendover Woodworks on Liberty Street in Newburyport, and one of the owners, Andy Willemsem saved my sorry soul by making some absolutely gorgeous frames that solved the warping problem and saved yours truly. It was then I met Andy’s partner in this wonder furniture creating place, Henry Fox.
About 15 years ago, wandering around my Newburyport neighborhood, I ran into Henry Fox, who told me the harrowing tale of his son, born 3 months early with a host of medical problems who had been saved by the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at MassGeneral in Boston, and had just been moved to one of the more local hospitals. I later shared this story with other families who had critically ill new borns, including my most wonderful neighbors, who found themselves and their newborn son also at MassGeneral. (The young man is now happily running around our neighborhood.)
Andy Willemsen moved on and Henry Fox named his wonderful furniture business after his two sons, “Fox Brothers.” (Still there on Liberty Street in Newburyport, still amazing.)
Fast forward to 2012, yesterday, a “new” or “new” to me, George and I being 5 years late to the story (not quite as bad as my late arrival to the David Sedaris planet, see earlier post, but not so good) local Newburyport blog called “Happy Chickens Lay Healthy Eggs,” by a fifteen year old young man called Orren Fox.
I’m thinking Fox?? Fox?? Henry Fox?? The timing’s right.
And sure enough this blog is written by Henry’s son Orren, the one in intensive care 15 years ago. How cool is that, but it gets so much better.
Scrolling down the blog’s sidebar the young man has been interviewed/written up by the Huffington Post, NPR, Yankee Magazine, the Boston Globe to name a few, and has been to the White House, March 7, 2012, for “Know Your Farmer Event.”
I’m beginning to join George in grinning from ear to ear about this young chicken farmer and organic food activist.
“Margaret Mead would have loved Orren. A soulful and gifted young man who has done more to help make a positive impact by 15 than most folks do in a lifetime.” From Do Lectures.
And Orren has added bees, in “Bee Happy” - check it out here.
AND Orren has serendipitly gone into business with his brother Will (with a little help from Dad) making “FoxBoys” longboards, skateboards in the most glorious shape, a little like a boat, read and see all about them here.
And Orren Fox is so media savvy as to make grown “social media” folks weep - along with the Happy Chickens blog there are the Facebook pages that one actually enjoys looking at and reading, and twitter accounts. But it may be in the blood because his Mom, who gave birth to him all those many 15 years ago, is Libby Delana, the founding partner of Newburyport’s Mechanica, the next generation branding firm.
So if you are discouraged by the news or local or federal politics, life in general, go investigate Orren Fox, a young man who transcends the sustainable movement. It doesn’t matter if you are dark “green,” light “green,” in-between or orange; right wing, left wing, moderate or independent. When you read about this fantastic story, you like George, will be grinning from ear to ear and doing a dance in the end zone of your choice.
Goo
Taffy, sticky, gooey taffy. That’s what the LHD (LHD = Newburyport’s proposed Local Historic District) political brou-ha-ha has come down to. Just plain old weird, political stickiness.
No amount of calm recitation of the facts is going to do it.
In the comment section of today’s Newburyport Daily News, Jared Eigerman, a spokesperson for Citizens for Historic Newburyport attempted a “clarification:”
“Please let me clarify that the “YES” signs and postcards were paid for by members of our private group Citizens for Historic Newburyport (CHN). As I explained to your colleague ___ by email weeks ago, we do not have any government funding. My understanding is that the City’s LHD Study Committee has had public funding, none of which is shared with us.
Thanks.
- Jared Eigerman”
Is this calm recitation of the facts going to convince some folks on the “Say No to LHD” side? As they say in New Yawk, “Forget about it.”
No, at least from comments and email that I’ve received, the pro-LHD folks are supposedly on “the take,” and apparently that includes me. I’m not kidding. Basically insinuating fraudulent activity, i.e. taking the CPA money given to the city and siphoning it (I guess) for private LHD advocacy.
A new low in the LHD wars.
Good grief!
The anti-LHD folks, we will scare you with lies. (LHD = Newburyport’s proposed Local Historic District) The impression that some of the anti-LHD folks would give you is that Newburyport’s proposed Local Historic District is “Un-American.” Really, I’m not kidding here.
“Another layer of Socialist bureaucracy, by a board of permit Komaczars…unAmerican.” I personally have received the moniker of “Nazi,” “Communist,” “Controlling zealot.” And these folks aren’t just throwing words around because they’ve had a bad day, unfortunately, they actually mean it.
And they will not compromise, period. All on record.
So the anti-LHD poster below, over the top, unfortunately folks, no. This is what they would like you to think about any version of Newburyport’s proposed LHD.
Sheer propaganda.
What the anti-LHD folks would like you to think about Newburyport's proposed LHD
“Propaganda often presents facts selectively (thus possibly lying by omission) to encourage a particular synthesis, or uses loaded messages to produce an emotional rather than rational response to the information presented. The desired result is a change of the attitude toward the subject in the target audience to further a political agenda.”
And what we’re doing is talking about protecting Newburyport’s historic assets here. UnAmerican? Oy Vey.
This next number in the Newburyport Local Historic District (LHD) musical, “LHD-Bombshell,” (working title, see earlier posts), I think I’m going to call, “We will scare you, no matter what it takes.”
The scene opens with a row of 5 doors, set diagonally across the side of the stage. The doors are all painted different colors. And then, I think there would be 5 women all dressed the same, with the same wig, a piece of paper in hand.
Lights go up on the 5 doors and the 5 women march as if they are going door to door, and they line up in front of the five doors and knock, maybe pound on the doors and then stand back.
And then in unison the 5 doors open.
The musical number begins. The five women launch into song, “We will scare you about LHD, no matter what it takes.”
The first one sings, “Your home insurance premiums will go through the roof with LHD.”
The second one sings, “A board of appointed experts (who don’t even live here) will control your life.”
The third one sings, “With LHD you will be lost in litigation.”
The fourth one sings, “You’ll never be able to do anything ever to your house.”
The fifth one sings, “The LHD gestapo will make you pay fines, fines, fines.”
Mark Twain
And on the other side of the stage, historic preservationists, sitting on the edge of the stage, others standing behind them sing, “It’s not true, it’s a lie, don’t believe them, don’t believe them, they are lying.”
And, I debated how to do this again, but I think I’m going with Mark Twain one more time, even though the quote is not attributed to him. Everyone stops singing, lights go dim, the Mark Twain character walks on stage, center stage, spotlight on him, turns to the audience and says, not sings, “A lie told often enough becomes the truth” (the old proof by repeated assertion technique).
The stage goes dark.
And yes, the lies, misinformation, omission of the facts about Newburyport’s proposed Local Historic District (LHD) is off the charts, and “proof by repeated assertion,” what a way to lose Newburyport’s historic assets. Oy Vey.
Proof by assertion: “Proof by assertion, sometimes informally referred to as proof by repeated assertion, is a logical fallacy (a statement or an argument based on a false or invalid inference) in which a proposition is repeatedly restated regardless of contradiction. Sometimes this may be repeated until challenges dry up, at which point it is asserted as fact due to its not being contradicted (argumentum ad nauseam).”
You can read the entire explanation of what “proof by repeated assertion” is here.
I’m thinking about a second number for Newburyport’s Local Historic District (LHD) musical, “LHD-Bombshell” (working title, see previous posts).
As I’ve said in earlier posts we have the John Birch Society mixed in with this wild LHD concoction. Again, you can’t make this stuff up. So they’re not going to make an appearance in the musical? Forget it. This is way too yummy.
So this is what I’m thinking, we have a guy decked out in a suit, gray hair slicked back, emerging center stage, the lights go dim to bright on him and he bursts out with the new musical number, “It’s a conspiracy.” The lyrics go something like, “It’s a conspiracy, the LHD is a UN conspiracy. Historic preservation destroys the masses.”
And then we have the lady who’s on tape (see earlier post) who accused the Mayor of Newburyport and the LHD Study Committee of conspiracy (and if she was willing to say this on tape, she must believe it, right?) and we have her character emerge from behind the John Birch character, and burst into song with, “Yes, it’s a conspiracy, the LHD will ruin your life!”
And when I felt this whole weird LHD mess was because of the John Birch Society, and some of our more right wing conspiracy minded Republican friends, I thought to myself, “That’s unrealistic Mary, the Republicans in Newburyport are out numbered by the Democrats.” (Although there are Republicans that support Newburyport’s LHD, this is not just a Democrat liberal agenda thing by any means–it’s most definitely non-partisan.)
So we got to have the townies in this number.
In the musical “The Producers” where they have the musical number with the little old ladies and the walkers and everyone gasps at first. Well, I think I’m going to borrow from that one. The townies, like it or not, are a dying breed here in Newburyport, forced out by gentrification and higher taxes, and they are pissed.
So I’m thinking we have one townie with a walker, and maybe 7 or 8 eventually emerge, and they burst out into song, “They (the Birchers) are so good at this, shall we let them just have their way.” The lyrics go something like, “They’ll get rid of these elitist blow-in carpetbaggers, the ridiculous architectural gestapo, taste-police!” You get the idea.
Will the curtain go up on the musical "LHD-Bombshell" (working title).
And then at the end, the LHD Study Committee shuffles in as a group; they do a huddle, and then turn around and look at the Birchers and the townies in the walkers, and kneel down and huddle again. They are now center stage with the Birchers and the townies singing wildly on either side (clearly this is another ensemble number).
And then the singing stops, the lights are just on the LHD Study Committee huddle, and then one member stands up, dressed in a suit, looking dapper, spotlight just on him.
It goes something like this. The LHD Study Committee character, living here in Newburyport let’s say for well over 40 years (still considered a carpetbagger), “My…(pause)… We are in a shit storm… (pause) And we are surrounded by crazy people.”
Lights out. The conspiracy musical number, “LHD-Bomshell” (working title).
My lovely young theater friends in NYC hate the TV program “Smash.” (I am secretly addicted to “Smash,” don’t tell them-truly they will be offended!!)
I suppose for them it’s a little like me watching Bravo’s “Next Great Artist,” The TV show reminds me of an advanced art class in college (not even grad school). But, whatever quality the art may be, or how “unrealistic” the “reality” process may be, the press and the buzz probably helps whoever like crazy in their career, that’s just the nature of the biz, at least in my world.
So my NYC theater friends may be addicted to Bravo’s art stuff, who knows.
But thinking about “Smash,” I kept wondering, too bad someone couldn’t do something with all this Newburyport Local Historic District (LHD) drama. Historic preservation may be boring (this is certainly the first time in the 31 years I’ve been here that it’s gotten this much attention!!), but my, we’ve got a lot of great characters, on both sides, and mucho drama. A LHD sensation!!
On the pro side we have Jerry Mullins who has outed himself recently as the P.Preservationist. Jerry is dedicated. All that dedication makes some people just uncomfortable, positively squirm. But through all of this LHD stuff, one of the great gifts is that I’ve gotten to know Jerry Mullins, and he’s my new bff.
On the anti side, we’ve got great characters. We got one of the leaders, on tape, accusing the mayor and the Local Historic Study Committee of secretly meeting, and implying that they are engaged in illegal acts. You can’t make this stuff up. What a TV writer wouldn’t give for this!
We’ve got the John Birch Society messed up in this LHD stuff. If you were a fiction writer, no one would believe you. It’s yummy.
We’ve got a colorful Bossy Gillis character from Plum Island, telling people, on tape again, that LHD (like it’s some sort of terrible medical disease) will control you. The LHD has nothing to do with Plum Island. It’s not on Plum Island. Bossy Gillis is alive and well. How cool is this? Wowza!!
And then you have the somewhat deer stuck in the headlights Local Historic District Committee caught in the shit storm. It’s almost like you can hear them saying, “Say what??” (We’ve got a chorus number here in the making.)
And a newspaper person declaring really, really early on that the LHD is already lost in a messy defeat .. Honey, this is at least a 4 part play. A little speedy on the getting to the conclusion thing, don’t you think??
Marilyn Monroe
It’s a musical in the making. We could make preservation history in Newburyport. Can we ramp it up a little more? Let’s really go at this full throttle. Let’s make history, let’s make this whole LHD mess worthy of a TV sitcom. I’ll take Broadway. Or it could be a TV drama (I’m not fussy here) about Newburyport’s LHD being a Broadway musical-just like “Smash,” only it’s about historic preservation not Marilyn Monroe. TV and Broadway. Is that fun or what? (And I bet my lovely young NYC theater friends would watch it!) Think casting, Newburyport Blog readers, think casting. (I’m sure everyone’s brains, for or against, are turning on the casting thing… now, don’t be mean.)