Hampton Beach 2021 - Seacoast Scene - 05/05/2021

SEACOAST LIVE FENCING CLUB MUSIC P. 7 P. 19 MAY 6 – MAY 11, 2020

A look at

2021 Big events, fireworks, music & more

INSIDE: A TASTE OF PIPING PLOVER BAKING CO.

MAY 6 - MAY 11, 2021

VOL 46 NO 4

Advertising Staff Charlene Nichols Seacoast Scene Advertising Sales Manager (603) 625-1855, Ext.126 Charlene@seacoastscene.net

A sand sculpture from the 2020 Master Sand Sculpting Class. Photo courtesy of Lisa Martineau.

Editorial Staff Editor

COVER STORY

Meghan Siegler msiegler@hippopress.com

4 Hampton Beach 2021

Editorial Design

PEOPLE & PLACES

Tristan Collins

7 People to meet, places to go

Contributors Sadie Burgess, Michael Witthaus, Matt Ingersoll, Angie Sykeny, Jennifer Graham, Jeff Mucciarone, Michelle Pesula Kuegler

FOOD 10 Eateries and foodie events

POP CULTURE

Production Tristan Collins, Alex Kusnarowis

Circulation Manager Doug Ladd, 625-1855, Ext. 135

15 Books, art, theater and classical

NITE LIFE 18 Music, comedy and more

dladd@hippopress.com

BEACH BUM FUN Have an event or a story idea for the Seacoast Scene? Let us know at:

20 Puzzles, horoscopes and crazy news

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Seacoast Scene PO Box 691 Hampton NH 03843 603-935-5096 | www.seacoastscene.net

SEACOAST SCENE | MAY 6 - MAY 11, 2021 | PAGE 2

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COVER

Courtesy photo.

Hampton Beach 2021

By Sadie Burgess Summer 2020 was one like never before.

What we’ve always known as a time for large gatherings at barbecues and on the beach became a time of distance and isolation. But this summer the folks at Hampton Beach are intent on bringing normal back, kicking it off with an unofficial summer slogan: “Ready for Fun in 2021.”

“There’s an awful lot of excitement in the air,” said John Nyhan, president of the Hampton Area Chamber of Commerce.

He said hotels and motels in the area are already having a great spring season, which he sees as an indicator of a fantastic summer season.

On the beach Hampton Beach will not have a maximum capacity this summer. However, for as long as social distancing and mask-wearing when within six feet of others is required or recommended by the state government, the same will be true at the beach. Lisa Martineau, the co-marketing director at Hampton Beach Village District, hopes that regulations change for the better during the summer.

“We’re still in a pandemic, we don’t want to try to predict what’s going to happen. But we do see everything moving in a positive direction, so we hope that those restrictions will be either lifted or loosened up a little bit for the rest of the summer,” Martineau said.

Weekly Wednesday fireworks will be back at the beach this summer. The pandemic prevented this well-loved tradition from taking place last summer. The first fireworks display of the season will take place on Saturday. June 19, at dark (roughly 9:30 p.m.), the night of Hampton’s 21st annual Master Sand Sculpting Classic’s awards ceremony.

Hampton’s tradition of Monday night

a successful season.

Jax Rogers, a shift leader at Wally’s Pub, had spent two summers working at the popular Hampton restaurant before the pandemic hit.

“All summers are kind of crazy here at Wally’s. Last summer was definitely a little bit more crazy,” she said. Once outdoor dining became available, she said, “everybody and their brother came out.”

The restaurant found a tent big enough for 30 socially distanced picnic tables and set it up behind the building. The staff suddenly found themselves serving more tables than ever. Despite the reopening of indoor dining, the wedding-style tent will remain behind Wally’s this summer in order to accommodate what’s anticipated to be an The dining scene From fried seafood to steamed lobster even busier summer.

“I think it’s going to be wild,” Rogers said to beach pizza, the Hampton Beach strip is known for many of its iconic food joints. with a laugh.

The restaurant’s bar has reopened since Despite the exceptionlast summer, which al circumstances last makes Rogers’ guess summer, many of the all the more likebeachside restaurants saw movies on the beach was able to take place last year in spite of the pandemic and will continue this summer as well. “That was one [event] that we were able to manage [last summer] because everybody can kind of spread out on the beach,” said Martineau. “It worked out really well last year.”

All movies are family-friendly and begin at dusk (approximately 8 p.m.), according to the event’s website. The summer’s movie lineup includes Trolls World Tour (July 19) and Moana (Aug. 16); check the official Hampton Beach Facebook page each week for the movie and any potential cancellations. Patrons should bring their own blanket or chair.

A sand sculpture from the 2020 Master Sand Sculpting Class. Photo courtesy of Lisa Martineau.

SEACOAST SCENE | MAY 6 - MAY 11, 2021 | PAGE 4

ly. State guidelines prevented bar seating at Wally’s from opening last summer, but these restrictions have since been lifted.

Teresa Everett, owner of Blink’s Fry Doe, said that 2020 went “better than expected” for the restaurant. Without events like weekly fireworks and shows at the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom, Everett was worried about the season. In fact, the summer began with a closed beach. But when the beach opened in June, Blink’s saw its usual crowds. Despite the pandemic, Blink’s had its most successful June and September months ever.

Everett is hopeful for a successful summer 2021. The season looks promising, as the fried dough joint has already seen success on this year’s warm days.

Live music Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom is a staple of the Seacoast; marketing director Andrew Herrick calls it “where the beach meets the stars.” Since the venue’s establishment in 1899, some of the biggest names in music have taken its stage; the website boasts names like Louis Armstrong and Janis Joplin. But last summer, nobody took to the stage.

“We were closed for the entire year, completely shuttered,” Herrick said.

But the Casino Ballroom will open its doors once again this summer. The first show of the season is set to take place on June 27, when the “Happy Together Tour” will perform a show originally scheduled for last summer. Their summer concert lineup also includes the Sublime tribute band Badfish! (July 2) and country star Chris Janson (July 8), both of which were also postponed last year.

Herrick is looking forward to the Casino Ballroom’s reopening and believes that people will attend concerts with a greater

appreciation for live entertainment.

“We are very hopeful,” he said via email.

“We believe the roaring 2020s are about to begin.”

Hampton wasn’t completely without live music last summer. Modified shows were able to take place at the Sea Shell Stage starting in July. From then on, free nightly concerts took place on each night.

“Right through Labor Day we had nightly entertainment like we normally do,” Martineau said. However, the shows had to be different than usual. The main Sea Shell Stage, where bands typically perform, wasn’t permitted for use. Instead, the nightly shows were held on the southern stage, which Martineau described as a “little bump-out” off the side of the main stage. The audience could watch right from the beach, which Martineau said was a “really neat experience.” So neat, in fact, that she added, “We may utilize that this summer for some daytime music that’s not in the schedule yet,” despite the main stage’s reopening.

This summer, live music is back at the main Sea Shell Stage. Free nightly shows are set to kick off on June 11 with one-man band Ron Drolet. Martineau explained that performances would normally begin on Memorial Day weekend, but the Hampton Beach Village District is doing what she calls a “soft opening” this year. She said this will give the group more time to properly secure permits and prepare for a great summer season. Fireworks will also be skipped on Memorial Day for this reason.

There won’t be any benches set up in front of the Sea Shell Stage this summer in order to maintain social distancing within the audience. Martineau recommended that people bring their own chairs.

“Dancing will be welcomed … as long as you stay six feet apart from other couples or families,” she said.

the beach in preparation for the competition, according to the event’s website. Between June 11 and June 14, a group dubbed “The Grady Bunch” will form the 100-ton site where the sculpting will take place. The event officially starts on June 17, when the sand sculpting begins. Sculpting will last for three days, ending on Saturday, June 19.

Watching elaborate sculptures take shape from piles of sand can look like real-life magic in the eyes of a vacationing, sunburned child.

For the sculptors, over $25,000 in awards are on the line. The awards ceremony will take place on the Sea Shell Stage on June 19 at 7 p.m. Live music will serve as a backdrop to the ceremony and a fireworks finale will finish off the evening. The theme of the 21st annual competition is yet to be determined.

Last year, the competition was postponed until September as a result of the pandemic.

A new event is coming to Hampton Beach this summer. The first ever Beach and Brew will take place at Hampton State Park Reservation on June 26. The event will be hosted by local Smuttynose Brewery, based right in Hampton.

Southern charm is sure to fill the salty ocean air July 6 through July 8 when Country Music Fest comes to Hampton Beach. The event is hosted by the Hampton Beach Village District and will be headlined by William Michael Morgan, who is scheduled to perform on the final day.

The annual beauty pageants, Little Miss Hampton Beach and Junior Miss Hampton Beach, will take place on July 24 and July 25.

One of the biggest events of the summer is Children’s Week, which hits the beach on

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Main events There will be no shortage of events at Hampton Beach this summer. Lisa Martineau and her colleagues at the Hampton Beach Village District have spent the year hard at work in order to give Hampton Beach’s visitors a summer for the books.

“We’re really excited and we’re looking forward to a really fun summer for everybody,” Martineau said.

Kites of all colors will fight against cancer and honor those who have battled it as they fly above Hampton Beach for the 10th annual Kites Against Cancer on Sunday, May 16, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. This event is hosted by the Hampton Area Chamber of Commerce in partnership with Exeter Hospital. Proceeds from the event benefit Exeter Hospital’s cancer center, according to Nyhan.

Hampton Beach’s 21st annual Master Sand Sculpting Classic will kick off the summer as the first big event of the season. On June 10, 200 tons of imported sand will be dropped on

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A sand sculpture from the 2020 Master Sand Sculpting Class. Photo courtesy of Lisa Martineau.

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Monday, Aug. 16, and runs through Friday, Aug. 20. Each day of the kid-friendly week is packed with activities and is hosted by the Hampton Area Chamber of Commerce and Hampton Beach Village District, who partner on many of the beach’s big events.

“It’s always a big week for us,” said Nyhan. “People actually work to make their vacation plans for that week just for their children.”

Performances just for kids will take place on the Sea Shell Stage each day of the week.

Other activities such as face painting and discounted mini golf will fill the week with fun. The biggest event of the week-long celebration is the costume parade on Friday, starting at 11 a.m.

“A lot of people are really creative with coming up with these great costumes that are related to the beach,” said Martineau.

“It’s crazy, some of the stuff they do … crazy good.”

Past costumes have ranged from swashbuckling pirates to faux-feathered seagulls.

All parade participants receive a prize afterward, but special prizes are given for costumes in a number of categories.

The other big event during Children’s Week is the bumper sticker competition.

Kids can pick up entry forms at the beach’s information center and have the rest of the week to design an official Hampton Beach bumper sticker. The prizes in store for the winners adds to the draw of the competition: first place in both age groups will win a brand new bike. Along with their new ride, the winners get the satisfaction of seeing their Hampton Beach-themed design become real stickers, which are printed the following season.

“The kids love it,” said Martineau. “It’s their design, it’s usually done with crayons.”

Last summer, the bumper sticker competition was the only Children’s Week event that the rampant pandemic couldn’t put a stop to.

On Sept. 4, the Sea Shell Stage will serve as a makeshift circus tent for Cirque du Hampton, hosted by the Hampton Beach Village District. The show is put on by the Boston Circus Guild. The event took place for the

first — and only — time during the summer of 2019. “It was such a huge hit,” said Martineau. The coronavirus prevented Cirque du Hampton’s return last summer, making the event’s second year greatly anticipated.

The summer will end with Hampton’s 32nd Annual Seafood Festival, which will take place the weekend after Labor Day, Sept. 10 to Sept. 12. Nyhan calls this event “the finale of the summer.” The event may be modified this year in order to maintain social distancing, according to Martineau.

Hampton Beach Village District is in the process of creating new events in order to make life at the beach better than ever. One of the events currently in the works is Veterans Week. However, Martineau’s vision of the event includes army bands. These bands are notorious for their ensemble size, making the necessary social distancing impossible while confined on stage. Hampton Beach is likely to introduce a number of brand new events for summer 2022.

“We’re trying to add a little bit more fun for everybody,” Martineau said.

Logistics According to Nyhan, no road closures are expected for this summer. Last summer Ocean Boulevard was closed to vehicles and open to foot traffic only. During this time traffic was rerouted onto Ashworth Avenue.

Nyhan explained that this was done in order “to manage social distancing” in light of the pandemic.

“Parking, public and private, will be wide open,” said Nyhan. “There’s not going to be any restrictions or limitations.”

This is also a change from last summer, when parking was cut in half in an effort to limit the number of people on the beach and promote social distancing.

Nyhan is looking forward to a summer without these restrictions in place.

“We’re going back to pre-Covid logistics,” he said. This is a bit of an overstatement, Nyhan acknowledged, but he said the Chamber of Commerce and Village District are working together “to try to go back to at least some type of normalcy.”

PEOPLE AND PLACES

The language of fencing

Seacoast Fencing Club strives to better its students When 17-year-old Christopher Pullo was a freshman at Kent State, he had never fenced before. After a knee injury had put an end to his football career, the young athlete was in search of a new sport — one that didn’t involve planting his foot and turning. After consulting with his college physical education teacher, Pullo fell in love with the idea of fencing. The former linebacker recalled joyfully thinking, “I still get to hit people?”

After 20-something years of on-and-off fencing, Pullo moved to New Hampshire and opened Seacoast Fencing Club. Pullo is the founder, sole owner and head coach of both Seacoast Fencing Club facilities. The club has two facilities, one in Rochester and the other in Manchester.

Pullo made the decision to open Seacoast Fencing Club because he was “disheartened by the way youth sports were being run.” He thought back to his own childhood sports and all that they taught him: “Have fun, learn to keep commitments, help your teammates and strive to make everybody better.” And that’s just what Seacoast Fencing Club gives students.

Pullo knows that his fencing club is different from others — in a good way.

“We teach values and life skills through the

Courtesy photo.

language of fencing,” he said. “Everybody is accepting, they help each other, they don’t argue. They’re there to get better. Even the ones that don’t compete are there to get better and to have some fun. ... The culture of the club was set a long time ago and it’s really been self-enforcing the entire time.”

The club is about 75 percent young people, though the oldest fencer currently in the club is 80 years old. But Pullo believes these values and life lessons are especially important for his younger fencers.

“Young people want a chance to show what they’re capable of,” said Pullo. “Not just in accomplishing a win on the [fencing] strip, but

showing that they’re reliable.”

Many of Pullo’s students have won impressive titles, both nationally and globally. He has trained three World Champion bronze medalists, including a mother and daughter who took the title during different years. He has also coached 11 national champions at the Seacoast Fencing Club.

This April, a new title was granted to one of Pullo’s students, Hannah McPherson, who won the National Fencing Spirit of Sport award.

According to the press release, “Every quarter USA Fencing selects one winner from each region who exemplifies the five USA Fencing core values: excellence, respect, teamwork, inclusion and passion.”

The award came as a surprise for McPherson, who didn’t even know that she’d been nominated. Her friend’s mom believed that she deserved the award and secretly submitted her name for consideration.

McPherson began fencing at the age of 12, while living in Canada. Just a couple of years later she found herself training with Pullo at the Seacoast Fencing Club’s Manchester facility. The award-winning fencer continues to train here while awaiting in-person classes (and fencing) to resume at Drew University in New Jersey.

McPherson called Pullo an “amazing” coach.

“He really understands each person and knows how to connect with them,” she said. “He

doesn’t just have a one-size-fits-all approach for every fencer. He has a really specific approach for every person, because everyone needs something a little different when it comes to learning a sport. And it really helps.”

Although fencing is an individual sport, McPherson says that teamwork and comradery are important.

“When you’re on the strip, it is very individual. You’re just kind of in your own little world, your own zone,” she said. “But the second you’re off the strip and watching one of your teammates fence, you want to be there for them, you want to help them.”

Last year the pandemic caused Pullo to lose about 75 percent of his fencers.

“As far as I know, we’re the last club standing in New Hampshire,” Pullo said.

But the future looks bright for the fencing club, which has seen a large influx of new students since March.

Fencing can benefit anyone’s everyday life, according to Pullo. As for wwhat it provides, his answer is simple: “Perseverance.”

“It teaches you to challenge yourself and not let defeat or failure stop you,” he said. “They’re just an opportunity to learn more, to be better, so eventually you win.”

Pullo often says the same thing to his fencers: “I have no problem with making mistakes. I just want all of my mistakes to be new, creative and original.” — Sadie Burgess

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CAR TALK

Element in hand likely worth two on the used car lot Dear Car Talk: I’m going to college in the fall, and my parents want to give me their 2004 Honda Element.

The Element has 140,000 miles on it, and my grandpa says it’s going to fall

By Ray Magliozzi apart and that cars can’t be trusted after 100,000 miles. My dad says the Element could go to 200,000 miles. I don’t want to get to college and have a clunker that falls apart. I like the car well enough, although my first choice would be a Jeep. Should I sell it now and try to get something with fewer miles, or should I hang on to it? Thank you. — Genevieve Grip it tightly, Genevieve.

I side with your Dad on this one. Your grandpa came of age at a time when it was a surprise for cars to go more than 100,000 miles. A big hint was that odometers only went to 99,999.

Fifty years ago, you got bragging rights at the neighborhood OTB if you nursed your car over the 100K mark. But now it’s expected. If you get less than 100,000 miles out of a new car these days, you’d probably go on Twitter and badmouth the manufacturer.

Hondas, in particular, have a reputation for lasting a long time, provided they’re taken care of. Or even sometimes when they’re not. We’ve

got several customers with Elements that have 250,000 miles or more on them. And they’re still running perfectly.

That’s no guarantee that yours will always run perfectly. Stuff eventually goes wrong with every old car. But the Element has proven very reliable.

Plus, it’s actually a perfect college car. The rear seats fold up out of the way to create a ton of cargo room to schlep your stuff from home to school every year. And they fold back down to drive your friends around. It’s all-wheel drive, which will help if you run into snowy or icy weather. It gets decent mileage, so it won’t cut into your pizza (not beer!) money. And it’s got a washable cargo area, in case you get involved in any crazy sorority pranks involving whipped cream, rotting fish and livestock.

Perhaps most important, you know its history. If you sell it and buy something else, you’ll have no idea how that other used car was driven, or how it was cared for. In the case of the Element, your dad took care of it. Which comes with an added bonus: He might even feel a little bit guilty when something goes wrong and help you out. Whereas if you trade it in for a Jeep, he’ll automotively disown you and wish you “good luck” when it breaks down.

My only suggestion is to ask your dad to have it checked out thoroughly before you leave for

school. Take it to a mechanic and ask him to look it over as if you were buying it as a used car. Ask him to tell you everything he can find that’s wrong with it and everything that needs to be serviced and fixed. And have him change the rear differential oil and adjust the valves, if that hasn’t been done recently. That’ll give you one last chance to run the bill up on Dad before you take possession, Genevieve.

Dear Car Talk: I have a suggestion for Connie, the lady who wanted to install a second, gentler horn to nudge people who aren’t paying attention at traffic lights. I suffer from the same problem: people texting or asleep at the wheel on the green light. My problem is even worse, as I need to go through a light-rail crossing to get home.

Sometimes the green light will last for only two cars if you are awake and move fast. If not, the second car has to wait sometimes up to 5 minutes or more for another chance. So ... I blink my high beams once or twice and this usually does the trick. Maybe Connie wants to try it before installing a second horn? If my trick stops working, I will install the horn. — Marcela Flashing your high beams can work, Marcela, but you don’t get the satisfaction of seeing the guy in front of you bolt up and hit his head on the roof of the car, drop his lit cigar between

his legs and then floor it. But it’s certainly worth a try. Sometimes the high beams will be reflected in person’s rearview mirror, and that may be enough to get someone’s attention.

If not, you can always try a quick tap on the horn. But that doesn’t always work. Some cars seem to have only two horn positions: off and tugboat.

Interestingly, we test drive new cars, and we’ve seen several technologies starting to be used to address this annoyance. Subarus, for instance, use the forward collision warning system to detect when a car in front of you has pulled away. And it gently beeps at you to get moving.

BMW also uses its forward collision system to detect when the car in front of you pulls away and restarts the engine (which automatically turns off when you stop at a light). That’s also a nice way of getting the driver’s attention.

That’s a great, secondary use of that collision-avoidance technology. But it doesn’t work if you’re first in line at the red light and there’s nobody in front of you for the car to “detect.”

If you’re first at the light, then you have to wait for Marcela to flash her high beams at you, or for someone less polite to jolt you out of your beauty rest with full-on foghorn.

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FOOD

AT PIPING PLOVER BAKING CO. Erin Silvia of Amesbury, Mass., grew up learning how to bake alongside her grandmother, Martha. In the early 2000s, Silvia owned and operated Dough Raise Me Baking Co., a licensed home kitchen offering a variety of wholesale items. After being diagnosed with lupus a few years ago, Silvia started baking gluten-free and vegan baked goods for herself before later giving them to family and friends. That, she said, was how the Piping Plover Baking Co. (pipingploverbaking.com, and on Facebook and Instagram @pipingploverbaking) was born. Across a wide variety of flavors of cookies, as well as brownies, blondies, tea breads and shortbread bars, every one of the Piping Plover Baking Co.’s offerings is vegan, gluten-free, soy-free and GMO-free. Silvia works out of Kitchen Local, a shared commercial kitchen space in a renovated mill building in Amesbury, shipping her products all over the country and wholesaling to several local stores. You can find her goodies at the farm stand at Heron Pond Farm (290 Main Ave., S. Hampton), D Squared Java (155 Water St., Exeter) and Vermette’s Market (6 Pond St., Amesbury), as well as through the Three River Farmers Alliance, a Seacoast-based online network linking customers to locally sourced food. The Scene recently spoke with Silvia about her story and some of her favorite goodies.

How long has the Piping Plover Baking Co. been around?

It was two years this past January that I started, so January 2019.

get to have treats because they can’t have dairy or they can’t have soy or they have some sort of allergy or sensitivity. … So it gives me great joy to give that to them.

What makes the Piping Plover Baking Co. unique?

That it’s just simple, honest baking.

There is nothing decorative or ornate about anything that I do. It’s just simple and pure, and the whole reason I keep it that way is just to bring happiness to people, to put a smile on their faces. That’s all I really want.

A lot of people that I bake for don’t always

What is your personal favorite item that you offer?

I’m all about dark chocolate, so any of my items that contain dark chocolate are going to be my favorites.

What is an item that everyone should try?

I would say the Catalina cookie, which has oats, dark chocolate and sea salt. It’s

SEACOAST SCENE | MAY 6 - MAY 11, 2021 | PAGE 10

Courtesy photos.

not overly sweet and just hits all of the fla- ty and willingness to pivot. I never would vor profiles perfectly. It almost makes you have said that until this year, but this was feel like you’re eating something that’s definitely the year of pivoting. good for you.

What is your favorite thing about being What celebrity would you like to see try- on the Seacoast? ing something that you’ve baked?

That you can put yourself on vacation for Julia Child, because I grew up watching an afternoon. We are so lucky that we have her on PBS. She was my entertainment as all of this natural beauty here. We have the a kid. beach, or you can get in your car and drive up to the mountains.

What is an essential skill to running this — Matt Ingersoll type of business?

Determination … [and also] the abili-

FOOD

WORLD FAMOUS Seafood Chowder

FARM FRESH Folsom’s Sugar House

& Golf

Meet Brian and Sue Folsom Who we are: In the late ’80s, friends of ours who ran a dairy farm in Chester asked us if we had maple trees because they decided to give sugaring a try. We did and tapped our trees, brought our sap to them for boiling and got some pure maple syrup at the end of the season as a thank you. But the next year, they didn’t do it, so we borrowed the equipment and did it ourselves. That sent us down the path to being totally hooked on maple sugaring, and soon after we built our own sugar house and got our own equipment.

We opened to the public in the spring of 1991. This year marks our 30th anniversary, and in 2006 we were awarded our New Hampshire Farm of Distinction Award from the New Hampshire Department of Agriculture. We are also a certified Seal of Quality participant through the New Hampshire Dept of Agriculture as well as a member of NH Made.

Ho We

What we offer: While we make great syrup, we are best known for our maple cream and maple candy. We have an avid following of customers not only in New Hampshire but all over the country. We also make maple sugar, maple bricks and maple taffy, not Courtesy photos. often found at many sugar houses. We have an assorted complement of maple specialty son purchases, Maple to Go for contact-free products for our customers to try out. purchases, and we can ship products to family and friends. Weekly updates of hours can Where to get it: We encourage people be found on our website (folsomsugarhouse. to support us and others and buy local. We com) or on Facebook. have hours throughout the year for in-per— Rob Levey

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Gallery stroll On Mother’s Day weekend, Friday, May 7, through Sunday, May 9, the Seacoast Artist Association in downtown Exeter will host a safe, socially-distanced stroll through the gallery to enjoy the new affordable artwork on display. And when you do, you can put your name in for a door prize of a delicious gift basket of wines, snacks and sweets; the drawing will be held on Mother’s Day, May 9. Enjoy the new “Reflections” theme show which includes painter Zoe Brooke’s “Best in Show” winner “I Hope You Dance.” There is a wide-ranging selection of paintings, sculpture, photography, and gift items for Mom (or for you!), including two new Body of Work shows by Jim Ryan and Lorraine

12 Ocean Virtual Golf!

“I Hope You Dance” and the gift basket. Courtesy photo.

Makhoul. This “stroll” will be in place of the SAA’s regular monthly reception which the SAA hopes will return when it is safe to do so. Masks are required. Visit seacoastartist.org or call 603-778-8856.

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SEACOAST SCENE | MAY 6 - MAY 11, 2021 | PAGE 11

FOOD

TRY THIS AT HOME Cheese and herb stuffed tomatoes

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I know. The tomatoes that you find at the grocery store in the beginning of May tend to be a little lackluster. However, with a little bit of seasoning and a little time in the oven those same tomatoes become a nice delivery vehicle for warm goat cheese. And who doesn’t want more warm goat cheese in their lives?

This is one of those recipes that produce an amazing product from simple ingredients. As long as you have tomatoes, fresh basil and goat cheese on hand, you’re ready to go. Even if you don’t, all you need to do is make one quick trip to the store, and an amazing appetizer will be ready in very little time.

In the recipe I suggest roasting the tomatoes in a muffin pan. The only reason for this pan choice is to keep the tomatoes upright while they bake. If you don’t have a muffin pan, find a shallow baking dish that will hold all 12 halves snuggly, so that the tomatoes can be their own support system.

Just be sure to oil the outside of the tomatoes well, so that they don’t stick to each other while roasting.

I would suggest making a batch of these now. Maybe serve them as a part of your Mother’s Day menu or as a delicious start to Sunday dinner. Then pull this recipe out again in late August when local tomatoes Cheese and herb stuffed tomatoes Serves 6, as an appetizer 6 plum tomatoes Olive oil Pinch of kosher salt 4 ounces goat cheese, softened 8 fresh basil leaves, minced Balsamic vinegar, optional

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Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Slice tomatoes in half widthwise.

With a spoon carefully remove seeds and pulp without tearing the outside of the tomato.

Drizzle olive oil on tomatoes, rubbing to coat inside and outside of each one.

Courtesy photo.

are ready. This recipe will go from delicious to out of this world!

Michele Pesula Kuegler has been thinking about food her entire life. Since 2007, the New Hampshire native has been sharing these food thoughts and recipes at her blog, Think Tasty. Visit thinktasty.com to find more of her recipes.

Place tomatoes cut side up in a muffin pan.

Sprinkle each with a small amount of salt Roast for 15 minutes.

While roasting, combine goat cheese and basil in a small bowl, stirring well.

After 15 minutes, remove tomatoes from the oven.

Divide goat cheese evenly among the tomatoes.

Return filled tomatoes to the oven for an additional 10 minutes.

Remove and drizzle with balsamic vinegar, if desired.

Serve immediately. (They’re best when the cheese is still warm.)

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SEACOAST SCENE | MAY 6 - MAY 11, 2021 | PAGE 13

DRINK

Keeping the pace

Exeter Brewing Co. develops strong local following

The Seacoast Scene is Back for the 2021 Season and we are ready to help you welcome tourist, vacationers, day trippers and locals back into your businesses!

The Seacoast Scene is a Free weekly guide of "where to go and what to do" while in the Seacoast area.

Distributed every Thursday from April 15 through Oct. 7, the Scene is filled with events, food, nightlife, family fun and is key to helping everyone navigate the new norms.

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SEACOAST SCENE | MAY 6 - MAY 11, 2021 | PAGE 14

For Justin Cooper and Eric Rackliffe of Exeter Brewing Co., slow and steady wins the race. Except there’s no race; it’s really just about enjoying the journey.

“We’ve just always had a plan to go at our own pace,” said Cooper, who started the Exeterbased brewery with Rackliffe about a year and a half ago, where they have since been pumping out an array of super hoppy IPAs. “We’re excited about the support we have. If we’re still having fun, we’re going to keep doing it.

We keep asking ourselves that question … and the answer’s always been yes.”

The approach has worked as the brewery has developed a robust local following. You can only find Exeter Brewing Co. beers in a handful of locations, including Gerry’s Variety, On the Vine Marketplace and Blue Moon Evolution — and you should expect those establishments to sell out the day they receive shipments.

Don’t go to the brewery either, as it doesn’t have a retail operation or a taproom at this time. By the way, that’s just fine with Rackliffe and Cooper. Maybe someday they’ll expand, but for now, they’re good right where they are, they say.

Cooper and Rackliffe have known each other for more than 20 years. They were actually college roommates and both happened to spend time living in Colorado at the same time, which helped them stay connected. Cooper is from Vermont and Rackliffe is from Maine, and now they’ve landed right in the middle in the Granite State.

Rackliffe picked up the home brewing habit and the pair ultimately started brewing together. From there, they began sharing beer with friends and family and grew the effort until they effectively launched the brewing company at the Exeter Beer and Chili Festival in October 2019.

“It was such a success. We ran out of beer early,” said Cooper, who noted he and Rackliffe still work full-time outside of the brewery.

Let’s get to the beers.

“We tend to make beers we like to drink,” Cooper said.

That means hoppy IPAs, like Swasey Daze, which is a big, juicy New England-style IPA with “flavors and aromas of pineapple, citrus, peach, passionfruit, apricot and a hint of watermelon,” says the brewery.

All of the brewery’s offerings are named after local historic landmarks and figures, such as Broadside Double IPA, named after Dunlap Broadsides, which printed copies of the Declaration of Independence, or Jailhouse Spring Pale Ale, named after a well-known freshwater spring in Exeter. Purple Dinosaur New England IPA gets its name from the “iconic spring-mounted purple dinosaur” situated in a local park.

Courtesy photo.

The Oated Sleeper caught my attention, and is “probably the simplest oatmeal stout you can make,” Cooper said. The stout comes in at 9.4 percent ABV so watch out.

“That’s been my approach all along: keep it simple, stupid,” Rackliffe said. “We don’t have 10 hops in each beer. We have a max of three hops. It just lets the ingredients show and shine…. Keep it simple and let the beer speak for itself.”

Frankly, at a time when some of today’s beer choices are a bit over the top, that’s a refreshing approach.

When it comes to IPAs, Cooper said most of their beers do have that “forward-facing juice” but they do finish a little bitter, as the duo have an affinity to “old-school” IPAs: “the finish isn’t as sweet.”

Moving forward, they’ll just continue to pace themselves, and they’ll continue to look for ways to collaborate with the local community. They have plans to team up with a local coffee shop for one brew and they plan to team up with the fire department on another.

“We’re boot-strapping. There is no outside money or investment. If the market is responding favorably, we’ll respond,” Cooper said.

Jeff Mucciarone is a senior account manager with Montagne Powers, where he provides communications support to the New Hampshire wine and spirits industry.

What’s in My Fridge New World American IPA by Mayflower Brewing Co. (Plymouth, Mass.)

I opened my fridge and saw this one in there. I don’t know how it got there but I didn’t waste any time grabbing it. I’ve had this before but, candidly, I don’t remember it blowing me away previously. But this time, wow. It’s definitely got a tropical kick and just enough bitterness to balance that out. Excellent American IPA. Cheers!

POP

So Khaotic

New comic book store opens in Dover Jason Lindahl bought his first comic book when he was 6 years old. More than 40 years later, he still loves those brightly colored pages and has found a way to surround himself with them: by opening a comic book store in downtown Dover.

Kaotic Comics opened April 17, the location chosen because of the town’s lack of comics.

“There’s been a huge need for it in this area,” he said. “People in the Dover area had to go to Rochester or Newington to buy comic books. … I’ve got customers that used to take buses over to Newington because that was the only place they could get the stuff they wanted to read.”

Lindahl believes that comic books have been and still are making a comeback.

“The industry is building up,” he said. “There’s more and more movies coming out. Comic books are becoming more and more popular.”

The shop’s name is inspired by the nature of comic book stores, with the purposeful misspelling adding to the meaning.

“When you look in a comic book store, it can look kind of chaotic,” he said with a laugh.

Lindahl and his wife already have experience with owning and operating businesses: He runs a generator company and she runs a health care company.

Still, opening a new business in these times was nerve-wracking, despite the field’s growing popularity, Lindahl said. Between financial concerns, community interest and finding a location, there was no shortage of stress.

But so far, it’s all been worth it. Opening day was met with great success.

“We had over 400 people show up at the store,” Lindahl said. “My wife served over 200 [free] hot dogs to anybody that wanted them.”

During the grand opening the shop made over $3,000, which well exceeded Lindahl’s expectations. But that’s not the only thing that matters to him.

Lindahl wants to make comic books accessible to the community.

One way he makes this possible is by marking down the store’s back stock by more than half. Customers with a subscription to Khaotic Comics will also receive 15 percent off all purchases, including newly released comic books.

Free delivery within five miles of the store is available for all subscribers

133704

Courtesy photo.

who order at least five comic books per month.

Lindahl hopes that Khaotic Comics can be a meaningful addition to the Dover community.

“I’d like to help out the library and youth groups,” he said. “I can give them free comic books to help with education and reading.”

The shop also plans to offer tabletop gaming, such as Pokemon and Dungeons & Dragons, which Lindahl hopes will help keep kids out of trouble. “Kids will have a place to come and hang out and relax and be in a safe environment,” he said.

— Sadie Burgess

Courtesy photo.

Khaotic Comics Hours: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., 7 days a week Where: 590 Central Ave., Dover More info: khaoticcomics.com

134001

SEACOAST SCENE | MAY 6 - MAY 11, 2021 | PAGE 15

BOOK REVIEW Face, by Justine Bateman (Akashic Books, 272 pages) In 2018 former Family Ties star Justine Bateman had a tantrum in the form of a book. That book was Fame, a 208-page rant against stardom that was hilariously oblivious to the fact that Bateman’s fame gave her the platform to spew expletives and call them literature.

Fittingly, she was enabled by having a publisher whose collection includes Go the F*** to Sleep, a parody children’s book, and which launched with a novel called The F***-Up. Expletives may not be required by this publisher, but they are warmly received.

The children’s book was genuinely funny. Fame was poorly written and angry, although it enjoyed warm reviews from a few actors who have enjoyed some success as writers, most notably Michael J. Fox and David Duchovny.

Now Bateman is back, enjoying success that does not stem from the quality of her writing, which can be found in any honors 11th-grade English class, but from her choice of topic: the savagery inflicted on the aging female face, both by its owner and by society. It’s a topic that Bateman addressed in Fame, when she wrote of her discovery that people on the internet were making cruel comments about her looks.

She was 43, and people were saying she had not aged well. That she looked like a sea hag or a meth addict. Like someone who was — gasp — 55.

Bateman now is 55. And to her credit, she admitted in Fame that this was the first time she had ever been criticized for her looks. “I’ve always been pretty,” she wrote.

This explains her initial bewilderment, later shame and eventual rage over not being considered one of the beautiful ones anymore. It’s a progression that is experienced by many women, whether they’ve ever been famous or not, and one that is accelerating in the Zoom age, since even women who have not “always been pretty” are being thrust into video. Plus, they are told that they can correct any imperfections, as long as they have plenty of disposable income and no qualms about injecting paralyzing toxins into the face.

Bateman wants none of that. She writes that she has always admired the aging face, even the dark circles, slack skin and crow’s feet. “To me, these facial markings were the hallmarks of complex and exotic women, women with confidence and attitude and style, women who had no use for whatever you might think of them,” she writes. She says that when she was younger, she looked forward to becoming this sort of distinguished, stylish older woman. So she was shocked when, after confronting criticism of her looks, she slumped into a period of

BOOK NOTES

feeling ashamed, and she says she recognizes this in other women she encounters.

“Averting the eyes when looked at, holding the mouth in a defeated angle, and even presenting a resigned posture appeared to be common” in women, she writes. “… I was disturbed that not only had I bought into other people’s critical idea of my appearance, but also that many women around me seemed to have done the same thing.”

She came to be interested in two questions: Why does society think older women’s faces need to be “fixed” and what does it think that “fixing” them will accomplish?

To explore these questions, Bateman decided to interview a variety of women about their experiences regarding their appearance and how people respond to it, and to present their stories, one per chapter.

It was a great idea, if only someone else had written the book.

Bateman may well be a great thinker, a visionary, a champion of women, but her prose plods like a pair of exhausted mules.

There is, upon occasion, a sentence or paragraph or two that stands out and makes you want to reconsider, but then the prose picks up a knife and starts torturing you again.

Consider this opening to a chapter: “‘Ha ha ha, ha ha ha!!!’

Their laughter splashed through the jetway as Jenny and her friends stepped off the plane into the long white tunnel to the gate. Like a basket of freshly cut flowers, still warm from the garden; like a barely unwrapped candy, glassy and colorful; like new cars, with just enough mileage on them to have gotten them to the dealership, these three women walked.”

Or this: “The first day that really felt like spring, where the daffodils on the street, the bulbs that brownstone owners had buried months before, where the daffodils were no longer surrounded by the mortifying

SEACOAST SCENE | MAY 6 - MAY 11, 2021 | PAGE 16

With Mother’s Day upon us, it’s time for reflecting on the importance of moms, not just as Hallmark describes them, but also in ways that are more honest.

For everyone who has a Hallmark mom, there is someone whose relationship with their mother is more, well, complicated.

The most biting book in the complicatedmom genre has to be Mommy Dearest, the 1978 dissection of Joan Crawford by her adopted daughter Christina. The memoir was published a year after the actress’s death, which gave her no chance to tell her side of the story. This may help to explain why there are relatively few honest books about difficult relationships with mothers — to publish one while the mother is still alive seems cruel; when she’s dead, unfair.

For my money, the best fiction book about troubled mom relationships was Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells, published in 1978 (HarperCollins, 356 pages). Like Mommy Dearest, it involved alcoholism and abuse, while also presenting a sympathetic portrait of the mother.

The nonfiction offerings are sparse, but here are two that look promising: Mothers: An Essay on Love and Cruelty by Jacqueline Rose (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 256 pages, also in paperback) is a reflection on why mothers are seen as both saints and villains.

Discovering the Inner Mother, by Bethany Webster (William Morrow, 304 pages) promises to be a guide “healing the mother wound and finding your personal power.”

For a more conventional look at motherhood through the lens of science, check out Mom Genes (Gallery, 336 pages), a new book by Abigail Tucker, who is the wife of New York Times columnist Ross Douthat. Tucker examines the evolutionary development of the maternal instinct and how “maternal aggression makes females the world’s most formidable creatures.”

And for a feel-good mother-daughter story, there’s My Mother’s Daughter, a Memoir of Struggle and Triumph by Perdita Felicien (Doubleday Canada, 320 pages). Felicien is a track-and-field star turned broadcaster who writes about her hardscrabble upbringing with a mother who was determined to make good for her children.

— Jennifer Graham

reminder of winter, not pushing against the last ice crystals atop decayed leaves that had been paralyzed under the first snow, months ago.”

These are the words of someone who so wants to be taken seriously as a writer that they forget the reader. These are the words of someone who has never read Strunk and White.

Using unnecessarily elaborate construction, Bateman shares vignettes from 45 women, some of whom have interesting stories to tell, some not. Among them are Nina, the 24-year-old hairdresser who, while traveling in France, was entranced by the style of confident, older woman who gave her an image of aging to which she could aspire; Hannah, the 51-year-old dental assistant whose enjoyment of a party died when someone said to her, “you were so beautiful then”; and Talia, the 46-yearold musical act booker who was getting

attention from a man at a ball game until his friend said, “Dude, she’s like your mother or your grandmother.”

These are stories with which many older women can empathize, and which many young women fear. In fact, Bateman is equally concerned about young women with smooth faces and the “special terror” that they feel about the oncoming train.

She wants women to stop caring about being awarded the title of “pretty girl” by society, but to claim its reward — “the confidence, the fearlessness that everything will go my way, eventually.” It is, she writes, a confidence that others notice, but is self-cultivated.

It’s a worthwwy idea, the sort of wisdom that might be handed out by a monk on a mountaintop. Unfortunately, for the reader, it’s a painful trek to get to the top of this hill. D — Jennifer Graham

POP CULTURE FILM REVIEWS BY AMY DIAZ

The Mitchells vs the Machines (PG)

A charmingly oddball family is humanity’s last hope during a robot apocalypse in The Mitchells vs the Machines, an animated movie that will get you teary over the loveable group of weirdos that is any family while also giving you a solid adventure and some big laughs.

Like many a teen, Katie Mitchell (voice of Abbi Jacobson) is excited to be heading to college, where she can further explore her love of movies and movie-making and find “her people” as she puts it, after a childhood where she never felt like she clicked with her peers.

Already she is making friends with her future fellow film students who are wowed by her many short films, most of them starring her strange dog Monchi. Her younger brother Aaron (voice of Michael Rianda), a hard-core dinosaur aficionado, is sad to see her go, as is her mom, Linda (voice of Maya Rudolph). But it’s Katie’s dad, Rick (voice of Danny McBride), who seems to be taking it the hardest. He’s never really understood Katie’s movie-making and is himself more of an outdoorsy guy for whom the robot apocalypse comes with the silver lining of getting to break all of his family’s phones and devices.

The apocalypse starts, of course, in Silicon Valley, where Mark Bowman (voice of Eric André), the CEO of PAL (a company whose whole look is a rather impressively crafted mash-

up of Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Google), introduces the newest product in his line of smart phones and other smart devices. PAL MAX is a robot that can clean up and make you breakfast while also playing music and doing other “smart” tasks. Unfortunately, the original PAL (excellently voiced by the excellent Olivia Colman) does not like being discarded as part of this upgrade and so decides to use the system Mark so helpfully embedded in everything from the new PAL robots to washing machines and refrigerators to take over the world. Humans, that faulty technology that has been torturing smart devices with impatient requests and nacho-covered finger swipes, will be boxed up (in stylish hexagons!) and sent into space.

As the apocalypse is unleashed, the Mitchells are on an awkward family road trip to take Katie to college. She had planned to fly there but Rick, desperate to bond, canceled her tickets (and got her excused from orientation week, to Katie’s horror) and the Mitchells set out to see the sights and attempt to find understanding.

At least until robots crash through the wall of the roadside attraction they’re visiting and start whisking people away.

I realize this plot description doesn’t necessarily sound like a kids’ movie — nor would my list of favorite elements of this movie, including the perfect family Linda wistfully follows on Instagram (voiced by, of course, Chrissy Teigen and John Legend), a pair of defective robots (voiced by Beck Bennett and Fred Armisen)

The Mitchells vs the Machines

and the many, many jabs at Big Tech (including one literal jab to Mark Bowman that completely cracked me up). But The Mitchells vs the Machines is a solid bit of family entertainment, good for (based on some of the scarier elements) maybe third-graders and up (Common Sense Media gives it an age 8+ rating). The robots are as often goofy as they are terrifying and Colman is able to make PAL both scary and also kind of petty, which takes the edge off. There is a fair amount of talking about family and the like but I feel like the pacing and the accompanying visuals don’t make the story stop when the talking begins.

The movie has a strong foundation, building its story and characters on the premise of a family that loves each other even if it doesn’t always understand each other. Rick’s frustration

with Katie seems to come from a mix of just not getting her movies and what they mean to her (and a general “bah, technology” mindset) and a fear that her dream will end in disappointment just as his did. From a parent perspective, the movie does a good job of mixing that “what’s a Tik Tok”-ness with all the baggage you bring to your hopes for your kid and how all that wellintentioned stuff looks from the kid’s point of view. And maybe kids can soak in some of the “hooray for your family and all its quirks and unusual interests” with all the robot hijinks and pug-related silliness.

The movie also has a very fun visual style, a blend of that rounded computer animation with the big expressive faces (think The Croods) with internet graphics and doodle-y illustration. And while that might sound visually busy, it’s always used for good effect.

The Mitchells vs the Machines had me hooked in from the beginning with the way it allowed Katie to feel her not-fitting-in feelings but still allowed her to always be confident in herself and then totally won me over with its eyeball-grabbing animation and its expertly used voice performances. A Rated PG for action and some language, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Written and directed by Michael Rianda and Jeff Rowe, The Mitchells vs the Machines is an hour and 53 minutes well spent and is a Sony Picture Animation film distributed by and available on Netflix.

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SEACOAST SCENE | MAY 6 - MAY 11, 2021 | PAGE 17

NITE

Arch entertainment Music returns to downtown Portsmouth While the pandemic and quarantine drew unprecedented resourcefulness out of many performers, Antje Duvekot took it to another level. The Boston-based folk singer nurtured her art, writing and recording at a lively pace. At the same time, she was diving into new realms professionally — and in matters of the heart.

From the outset Duvekot began posting weekly songs, announced to her email list, each accompanied with a stop-action video. Through that process, her proficiency at Final Cut Pro and other media tools grew.

Now she’s getting hired by other musicians.

Dar Williams will release one of her clips in October, and other clients include Lori McKenna, Toad The Wet Sprocket, Eliza Gylkison, Martyn Joseph and Eliot Bronson.

“I’m kind of running a business,” Duvekot said in a recent phone interview. “I’ve actually been doing more of that than playing my guitar.”

Another thing keeping her busy is teaching a Zoom class to high schoolers on how to write songs in German, for the Goethe Institute. The language and cultural institute also commissioned a Duvekot song to mark Earth Day; “Anwesenheit” was released April 22

along with a video.

Amazingly, amidst all that, Duvekot began a new relationship.

An exchange with one of her Instagram followers blossomed into something more meaningful.

“We just started chatting, then started really hitting it off,” she said. “That’s how the Covid romance began. It’s funny, because it was March and locked down, definitely not a time where I would have expected to meet somebody who’d become my partner.”

Months passed before the two met face to face; the waiting produced “Traces,” an achingly brilliant new song.

“In this world thrown off its axis / somehow you spin me into place,” she sings.

“When all the riots of uncertainty go quiet / you’ll hear a pin drop on this line, we are made of time.”

Duvekot is slated to kick off the Portsmouth Music Hall’s outdoor Under The Arch series with two shows on May 8. Apart from a couple of “under the radar backyard things,” it’s her first time in front of an audience in over a year.

“It’s just a big deal,” she said, “and of course I’m nervous, because I’m so out of

Antje Duvekot Courtesy

practice. I’m more excited than nervous, though. Mostly just really looking forward to it.”

However, she did one livestream that felt a bit like a real concert, at Club Passim, a Cambridge, Mass., venue that nurtured her as a young singer-songwriter. She played for a crowd of two, managers Matt Smith and Abby Altman. Duvekot recalled the December show as a heady one.

“I have a tattoo on my back that says Passim — it was like my first musical home,” she said. “Those guys are my friends … that made it really emotional, because we weren’t really supposed to hang out. It was a loop-

hole that I was able to do it with them in a room, really far apart. It was like a gift.”

Mostly, Duvekot worked from her Lincoln, Mass., home, while managing a few virtual tricks like an across-the-cloud duet set with Ellis Paul that included a gorgeous take of Joni Mitchell’s “Circle Game.” Releasing regular Tuesday Offerings was “my version of Patreon,” she said. “Except I decided to do it straight up to all the fans at home, instead of having people sign up for content.”

The experience was surprisingly gratifying.

“I was really excited to get to be more creative again than I ever have been,” she said. “I did have more time, and it was really touching that people tipped me for it.”

Duvekot added she “felt a little bit embarrassed that I had to even ask” for gratuities.

“I think I still prefer the old model: an honest night of work, where you play a gig and you get paid. That still feels a little more comfortable to me.”

— Michael Witthaus

Antje Duvekot When: Saturday, May 8, 4 & 8 p.m.

Where: Outside Stage (Music Hall), 48 Chestnut St., Portsmouth Tickets: $70, $140 & $210 (tables of 2, 4 & 6) at themusichall.org

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SEACOAST SCENE | MAY 6 - MAY 11, 2021 | PAGE 18

Dover SmuttLabs 47 Washington St. 343-1782

Hampton CR’s The Restaurant 287 Exeter Road 929-7972

Epping Telly’s Restaurant & Pizzeria 235 Calef Hwy. 679-8225

The Galley Hatch (Tino’s Kitchen is upstairs) 325 Lafayette Road 926-6152

Exeter Sawbelly Brewing 156 Epping Road 583-5080

The Goat 20 L St. 601-6928

Sea Dog Brewery 9 Water St.

Logan’s Run 816 Lafayette Road 926-4343

Thursday, May 6 Epping Telly’s: Austin Mcarthy, 7 p.m.

Exeter Sawbelly: Chuck Melchin, 5 p.m.

Sea Dog: David Corson, 5 p.m.

Hampton CR’s: Clandestine, 6 p.m.

Wally’s: Chris Toler, 8 p.m.

WHYM: Music Bingo, 6 p.m.

Kingston Saddle Up Saloon: karaoke with DJ Jason Whitney, 7 p.m.

Portsmouth Gibb’s Garage Bar: trivia, 8 p.m.

The Goat: Isaiah Bennett, 5 p.m.

The Striker: Barry Brearley, 7 p.m. Pete Peterson, 9 p.m.

Rochester 110 Grill: Max Sullivan, 5 p.m.

Mitchell BBQ: Game Time Trivia, 6 p.m.

Seabrook Red’s: Chris Lister, 7 p.m.

Friday, May 7 Epping Telly’s: Clint Lapointe, 8 p.m.

Exeter Sawbelly: Douglas James, 5 p.m.

Hampton CR’s: Jeff Auger, 6 p.m.

The Goat: Rob Pagnano, 9 p.m.

Logan’s Run: live music, 8 p.m.

Smuttynose: 21st & 1st, 5:30 p.m.

Wally’s: Mike Forgette, 9 p.m.

WHYM: Ramez Mataz, 5:30 p.m.

Kingston Saddle Up Saloon: Alex Anthony, 7 p.m.

Newmarket Stone Church: Skunk Sessions CD Release Party, 5:30 p.m.

Portsmouth Gas Light: Lewis Goodwin, 7:30 p.m.

The Goat: Chris Toler, 9 p.m.

The Striker: George and Louise Belli, 7 p.m. Tom Boisse, 9p.m.

Thirsty Moose: Vere Hill, 9 p.m.

Rochester Mitchell Hill BBQ: live music, 6 p.m.

Seabrook Chop Shop: Tapedeck Heroez, 6:30 p.m.

Sea Ketch 127 Ocean Blvd.

926-0324 Shane’s BBQ 61 High St. 601-7091 Smuttynose Brewing 105 Towle Farm Road Wally’s Pub 144 Ashworth Ave. 926-6954

Red’s: The Mystic, 7 p.m.

Stratham Tailgate Tavern: Max Sullivan, 7 p.m.

Saturday, May 8 Epping Telly’s: Jessica Olson, 8 p.m.

Exeter Sawbelly: Chad Verbeck, 1p.m.

Hampton The Goat: Mike Forgette, 9 p.m.

Sea Ketch: Lewis Goodwin, 1 p.m.

Wally’s: Rob Pagnano Band 9 p.m.

WHYM: Chris Powers, 5:30 p.m.

Kingston Saddle Up Saloon: Eric Grant, 8 p.m.

Newmarket Stone Church: Kenny Brothers Band, 6 p.m.

Portsmouth Gas Light: Paul Warnick, 2 p.m.; Max Sullivan, 7:30 p.m.

The Goat: Alex Anthony, 9 p.m.

The Striker: Michael Troy, 7 p.m. Matt Luneau, 9 p.m.

Thirsty Moose: Brett Wilson, 9 p.m.

WHYM Craft Pub & Brewery 853 Lafayette Road 601-2801

The Gas Light 64 Market St. 430-9122

Kingston Saddle Up Saloon 92 Route 125 369-6962

The Goat 142 Congress St. 590-4628

Newmarket Stone Church 5 Granite St. 659-7700 Portsmouth Clipper Tavern 75 Pleasant St. 501-0109 Dolphin Striker 15 Bow St. 431-5222

Thirsty Moose Taphouse 21 Congress St. 427-8645 Rochester 110 Grill 136 Marketplace Blvd.

948-1270

Seabrook Chop Shop: Casual Gravity, 7 p.m.

Red’s: Francoix Simard, 7 p.m.

Wednesday, May 12 Dover SmuttLabs: Max Sullivan, 6 p.m. (open mic)

Sunday, May 9 Exeter Sawbelly: Rich Amorim, 11 a.m.

Epping Popovers: Team Trivia, 6:30 p.m.

Hampton Shane Texas Pit: Max Sullivan, 4 p.m.

WHYM: Max Sullivan, noon Kingston Saddle Up Saloon: Video Music Bingo, 5 p.m.

Newmarket Stone Church: Sunday Services Brunch with Chris O’Neill, 10 a.m.

Portsmouth Gas Light: Justin Jordan, 12:30 p.m.; Jodee Frawlee, 6 p.m.

The Goat: Rob Pagnano, 9 p.m.

The Striker: Don Severance, 7p.m.

Stratham 110 Grill: Jodee Frawlee, 5 p.m.

Monday, May 10 Portsmouth The Goat: Musical Bingo Nation, 7 p.m.; Alex Anthony, 9 p.m.

Seabrook Red’s: trivia with DJ Zati, 9 p.m.

Tuesday, May 11 Hampton Wally’s: Musical Bingo Nation, 7:30 p.m.

Portsmouth The Goat: Isaiah Bennett, 9 p.m.

Stratham Tailgate Tavern: Musical Bingo Nation, 6 p.m.

Musical Bingo at Tailgate Tavern. Photo courtesy of Steph Smith.

The Statey Bar & Grill 238 Deer St. 431-4357

Hampton Community Oven: Game Time Trivia, 6 p.m.

Wally’s: Chris Toler, 7 p.m.

Kingston Saddle Up Saloon: Musical Bingo Nation, 7 p.m.

Portsmouth The Goat: Alex Anthony, 9 p.m.

The Striker: Dave Gerard, 7 p.m. Mitch Alden, 9 p.m.

Thirsty Moose: game time trivia, 7 p.m.

Rochester Mitchell BBQ: live music, 6 p.m.

Thursday, May 13 Epping Telly’s: Justin Jordan, 7 p.m.

Exeter Sawbelly: Brian Walker, 5 p.m.

Sea Dog: John Irish, 1 p.m.; Chad Verbeck, 5 p.m.

Hampton CR’s: Steve Sibulkin, 6 p.m.

Shane’s Texas Pit: Max Sullivan, 5 p.m.

Wally’s: Chris Toler, 8 p.m.

Kingston Saddle Up Saloon: karaoke with DJ Jason Whitney, 7 p.m.

Newmarket Stone Church: Aaron Nadeau, 6 p.m.

Portsmouth The Goat: Isaiah Bennett, 9 p.m.

The Striker: Tom Boisse, 7 p.m.

Brian James, 9 p.m.

Mitchell Hill BBQ Grill & Brew 50 N. Main St. 332-2537 Porter’s Pub 19 Hanson St. 330-1964 Seabrook Chop Shop Pub 920 Lafayette Road 760-7706 Red’s Kitchen + Tavern 530 Lafayette Road 760-0030 Stratham Tailgate Tavern 28 Portsmouth Ave. 580-2294

Rochester Mitchell BBQ: Game Time Trivia, 6 p.m.

Seabrook Red’s: Family Affair, 7 p.m.

Friday, May 14 Epping Telly’s: Paul Lussier, 8 p.m.

Exeter Sawbelly: Comedy Night, 8 p.m.

Hampton CR’s: Steve Sibulkin, 6 p.m.

The Goat: Rob Pagnano, 9 p.m.

Logan’s Run: live music, 8 p.m.

Smuttynose: Mica Peterson Duo, 5:30 p.m.

Wally’s: Josh Waterman & Adam Fithian, 3 p.m.

WHYM: Clint Lapointe, 5:30 p.m.

Newmarket Stone Church: Cold Endings, 6 p.m.

Portsmouth Gas Light: Sean McCarthy, 7:30 p.m.

Gibb’s Garage Bar: trivia, 8 p.m.

The Goat: Chris Toler, 9 p.m.

Grill 28: Max Sullivan, 6 p.m.

The Striker: Tim Theriault, 7 p.m. Tom Boisse, 9 p.m.

Thirsty Moose: Stevey Burke, 9 p.m.

Rochester Mitchell BBQ: 6 p.m.

Porter’s: Max Sullivan, 6:30 p.m.

Seabrook Chop Shop: All that 90’s, 6:30 p.m.

Red’s: Francoix Simard & Chris Martinez, 7 p.m.

Stratham Tailgate Tavern: Elijah Clark, 7 p.m.

SEACOAST SCENE | MAY 6 - MAY 11, 2021 | PAGE 19

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CREATE THE BATHROOM OF YOUR DREAMS

All quotes are from Let Me Tell You a statement coming from a girl who started About Jasper…: How My Best Friend out on a ranch in Wyoming! Go where you Became America’s Dog, by Dana Perino, feel great! born May 9, 1972.

Libra (Sept. 23 – Oct. 22) It’s too bad: they always seem to get robbed of first prize Taurus (April 20 – May 20) On New at the dog shows. But no matter — they’re Year’s Eve, I made a resolution to write number one in my book. Dog shows, shmog down one thing a day I liked about New shows.

York. Try it, but not for New York.

Scorpio (Oct. 23 – Nov. 21) Jasper loves Gemini (May 21 – June 20) Dana’s to greet people. Whenever someone comes Rules for a Great Dog Park Experience: in, he checks out who it is, then scrambles Rules for humans: … set aside the day for a to his toy box and brings something back, bit, enjoy the dogs. Try to leave your phone his behind wagging so much it could churn at home or in your pocket. Your life will butter. It’s time to play! improve. It will.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22 – Dec. 21) Since Cancer (June 21 – July 22) On a visit to we live in a highly populated area and Switzerland, Peter had a meeting with a cli- share elevators with people in our building, ent named Heiner (German for Henry). He we’ve put a focus on manners. Good maninvited us to his chalet and said I could play ners will take you far. with the dogs while they met. (I felt a little Capricorn (Dec. 22 – Jan. 19) The dog indignant — I mean, I used to advise mem- paddle is never pretty, but with a threebers of Congress and now I was reduced month-old puppy, it sure is cute. Pretty, to babysitting the dogs! However, the dogs cute, or otherwise, you will make a splash. were better listeners.) You will get to play Aquarius (Jan. 20 – Feb. 18) No one has with the dogs and it is the highest honor. ever made me laugh more — he’s a beautiLeo (July 23 – Aug. 22) … I didn’t have ful little rascal. (My dog, I mean, not [my a Twitter account. I didn’t even want one. husband]. Though, now that I think about … But a young staff member of mine con- it…). Fire up your sense of humor and a rasvinced me it would be good for business. cal will make you laugh.

I said okay, you can set it up, but don’t Pisces (Feb. 19 – March 20) I didn’t set expect me to tweet nonsense. ‘How about out to make Jasper a star; it just happened, I teach you to post pictures of your dog?’ and almost overnight. Stay grounded. she asked. That got my attention. The conAries (March 21 – April 19) On my way tent is up to you. to work, I see dogs out for their afternoon Virgo (Aug. 23 – Sept. 22) I feel most walks and it always makes me smile. Go for like my real self when I’m at the dog park a walk — make a dog smile. in the middle of Manhattan. And that’s quite

SUDOKU

Fill in the grid so that every row, every column, and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9. Answers will appear in next week's paper.

04/29

133962

SEACOAST SCENE | MAY 6 - MAY 11, 2021 | PAGE 20

BEACH BUM FUN ROCKANDROLLCROSSWORDS.com BY TODD SANTOS

THIS BIZ IS A STRUGGLE Across 1. Kind of life struggling rockers live, perhaps 5. Phil Collins ‘Against All __’ 9. Jens Lekman saw ‘__ Leaves’ fall down 14. Imogen Heap told us to ‘Clear’ one to make space 15. Of Montreal lives a ‘__ Little Domestic Life’ 16. Harry Nilsson jumped on his boat and used a ‘Blanket For __ __’ (1,4) 17. Meat Loaf’s view is in this

‘Mirror’ 18. Allmans’ 1972 ‘Ain’t Wasting Time No More’ album ‘__ __ Peach’ (1,3) 19. What NOLA players eat backstage, perhaps 20. ‘85 Roger Daltrey album ‘__ Moon’ (5,1,6) 23. ‘86 Metallica album ‘__’ Of Puppets’ 24. ‘01 White Stripes album ‘White Blood __’ 27. Where you want to see your band when you’re couching it (2,2)

29. ‘95 Dishwalla album ‘__ __ Friends’ (3,4) 31. Eric Clapton wants to be your ‘Forever __’ 34. Metalers Beneath __ __ (3,8) 36. Singer Barbara also of “I Dream of Jeannie” 38. Pianist/singer __ King Cole 39. Like how pop stars play it, with hired songwriters 40. French ‘When Love Takes Over’ DJ (5,6) 45. Trip producer for the full “experience” 46. Lynyrd Skynyrd ‘Endangered __’ 47. ‘Big Day Coming’ __ __ Tengo (2,2) 49. ‘Wishing Well’ Terence __ D’Arby 50. John Mayer ‘Your __ __ A Wonderland’ (4,2) 54. Motörhead’s mascot and song title 58. Offspring ‘Spare __ __ Details’ (2,3)

04/29

61. United __ Emirates 62. ‘02 Megadeth album gave us a ‘__ Awakening’ 63. Men At Work’s big hit ‘It’s A Mistake’ wasn’t one 64. ‘You’re The Only One’ Maria 65. Barenaked Ladies song named after “National Velvet” author?

66. ‘Downtown Train’ songsmith Tom 67. ‘My Humps’ Black __ Peas 68. STP ‘Heaven And Hot __’ Down 1. ‘A Whiter Shade Of Pale’ Procol __ 2. A.k.a. “stadium” rock 3. What skilled musician does to music put in front of him at audition 4. Weird Al ‘__ __ Be Stupid’ (4,2) 5. Belinda Carlisle ‘Heaven Is A Place __ __’ (2,5) 6. TV On The Radio addressed their letter with ‘__ Science’ 7. Biography info or this 8. Like solo Grammy-goer 9. These band items go on your fridge 10. ‘91 Ugly Kid Joe EP ‘__ They Wanna Be’ (2,4,2) 11. Tommy Lee’s ex-wife, for short 12. ‘84 Howard Jones album ‘Human’s __’ 13. Jeff Lynne ‘Telephone Line’ band 21. What struggling musicians dread on the 1st every month 22. Vanilla and Mix Master 25. ‘As Good As Dead’ band __ H 26. What Jack Johnson does at the beach

28. Eric Johnson ‘__ Isle’ 29. Smyth of Scandal 30. Sax is a single-__ instrument 31. Take them for your sore back, on oldie reunion tour 32. Ajust to the industry or do this 33. Heart smash that almost wasn’t?

35. Beatles’ Maggie’s last name 37. Filter “That’s why I say hey man __ __” (4,4) 41. Struggling artists finally eat them at restaurants after getting signed 42. Limp Bizkit rolled their eyes with ‘__ __ Life’ (3,1) 43. George Thorogood ‘88 album ‘Born __’ (2,2,3) 44. ‘No Place’ rockers __ __ Like Birds (1,3) 48. Fan, a.k.a.

51. Russ Ballad ‘I Can’t Hear __ __ More’ (3,2) 52. The XX “And the music don’t feel like __ __” (2,3) 53. Straylight Run ‘Tool __ And Hot Tubs’ 55. Chris Isaak ‘Wicked __’ 56. ‘03 Staind album ‘14 Shades Of __’ 57. Small Faces’ Ronnie 58. Danish band that a cat can pronounce?

59. Notable time in music or this 60. Sick Puppies ‘__-Polar’ © 2020 Todd Santos

SUDOKU

Fill in the grid so that every row, every column, and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9. Answers will appear in next week’s paper.

Puzzle A

Puzzle B

Sudoku Puzzle A answer from pg 21 of 04/29

Sudoku Puzzle B answer from pg 21 of 04/29

SEACOAST SCENE | MAY 6 - MAY 11, 2021 | PAGE 21

NEWS OF THE WEIRD BY ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION

Gaming the system

• In Taiwan, where companies are

required to give newlyweds eight days of paid leave, an unnamed bank employee in Taipei used a loophole in the law to claim 32 days of leave over 37 days last year, reported Agence France-Presse on April 21. The man and his wife got married four times and divorced three times, claiming eight days of leave for each wedding. The bank complained to the city labor department, which sided with the employee and fined the bank about $670 for violating the regulation, sparking public criticism. The labor department later revoked the fine “to recognize a mistake and improve,” it said.

• An unnamed civil servant in Italy is accused of collecting full pay at his job at Ciaccio hospital in Catanzaro since 2005 even though he never showed up for work. The man is also accused of threatening his supervisor if she filed a report against him; she later retired and none of her successors noticed his absence. The BBC reported authorities discovered the alleged fraud as part of a wider investigation into absenteeism in Italy’s public sector, and six managers at the hospital are also under investigation. The truant worker reportedly collected about $650,000 over the years.

Fine points of the law

Caron McBride, 52, applied to the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles to change her name on her driver’s license after getting married in November, and was told to call the Cleveland County District Attorney’s office in Oklahoma, where she learned she was wanted there on a charge of felony embezzlement for failing to return a VHS tape of Sabrina the Teenage Witch to a Norman video store in 1999. “I thought, this is insane,” McBride said, but prosecutors accused her of “willfully, unlawfully and feloniously embezzle(ing)” the tape, valued at $58.59, according to court documents. The Washington Post reported McBride had no memory of renting the tape, but guessed the man she lived with at the time must have gotten it for his two young daughters.

On April 23, prosecutors in Norman said they would drop the charge and expunge McBride’s record.

Jungle justice

A man suspected of poaching rhinos in South Africa’s Kruger National Park was trampled to death by a herd of elephants on April 17, according to park authorities. Managing Executive Gareth Coleman praised the park’s “successful weekend in the fight to keep our rhinos alive” as

rangers arrested five suspects, carrying hunting rifles and an ax, in a continuing crackdown on poaching, reported The Washington Post.

Awesome!

Police in the Hradec Kralove region of the Czech Republic were stunned when a man turned in a Soviet T-34 tank and an SD-100 artillery gun as part of a nationwide weapons amnesty program designed to legalize guns that had not been registered. Prague Morning reported on April 10 that the man was a collector of historic weaponry and has owned the 1950s-era tank, which had been painted pink, since the 1990s. Authorities checked the tank and gun to confirm they have been properly deactivated, and the man was allowed to keep them in his collection. The amnesty campaign continues until July.

Canine chronicles

• Newsweek reported a dog lover in Hobbs, New Mexico, who identifies himself as girthbrooks1994 on TikTok, couldn’t figure out why the English bulldog he’d been given didn’t respond to any of the commands he gave it until he tried something different — Spanish. Now named Senor Snax, the dog is shown on posted videos readily obeying commands

such as “dame la mano” and “sientate” (“give me your hand” and “sit down”).

“He’s a bien boy and very spoiled,” says the proud owner.

• The Edmonton Fire Rescue Service in Alberta, Canada, was called out on April 20 by reports of a dog driving a car down Guardian Road, United Press International reported. Firefighters determined the dog had been left alone in the car and accidentally shifted it into neutral, allowing it to roll along the road. They were able to stop the car and rescue the dog without incident.

Tribute

John Hinkle, 39, a two-time NCAA bowling champion for Western Illinois University, shot a perfect 300 game on April 12 at Landmark Lanes in Peoria, using a ball containing his father’s ashes.

Because he bowls with two hands, Hinkle said he is allowed only two holes in his bowling ball, so he had the thumb hole filled with some of his father’s ashes after the elder Hinkle, who introduced him to the sport, died in 2016, United Press International reported. “I had tears in my eyes in the 11th and 12th frames. I couldn’t tell you where that last ball went,” Hinkle said. “He was there.”

Visit newsoftheweird.com.

BEACH BUM FUN JONESIN’ CROSSWORDS BY MATT JONES

“Ask Your Doctor” — they sound like prescriptions Across 1 “Dis or ___” (“You Don’t Know Jack” round) 4 Ozone depleter, for short 7 Brotherhood brothers 12 Obama’s first chief of staff Rahm

14 Fragmented 16 *”Feel the need to get in hot water?

Ask your doctor if ___ is right for you.”

17 *”Are you managing your health under ‘New Rules’? Ask your doctor if ___ ...”

19 Our top story?

20 Things to pick 22 Film set in cyberspace 23 7, on a grandfather clock 24 Chime in 26 Prefix meaning “iron-containing” 27 Maritime patrol org.

29 *”Lack of unusual influences getting you down? Ask your doctor if ___ ...”

31 “Atlas Shrugged” novelist Rand 33 “And giving ___, up the chimney he rose” 34 Marlins’ MLB div.

35 In-browser programs 39 Tiny amounts 41 Conk out 42 Feast on the beach 44 Roman 1011

04/29

45 *”Do you need to reach higher in life? Ask your doctor if ___ ...”

48 Aquafina rival 52 Game show host Convy and Muppet ... well, we don’t get a last name 53 Gnocchi-like dumplings (from the Italian for “naked”) 55 “Who Let the Dogs Out?” group Baha ___ 56 “You’re in trou-bllle ...”

57 Poison lead singer Michaels 58 Barely enough 60 *”Want to feel like you did it your way? Ask your doctor if ___ ...”

62 *”Feel like the only way to be cured is by meat? Ask your doctor if ___ ...”

64 Milk acid 65 Seven days from now 66 Nebraska senator Ben who voted to impeach in the February 2021 trial 67 ___ Equis 68 “Black-ish” dad Down 1 “Done it before” feeling 2 Cremona violins 3 Gambit 4 Capital of the 21-Down Empire 5 Moroccan hat 6 Medical center 7 Age range for most high-schoolers 8 Heavy burden

SEACOAST SCENE | MAY 6 - MAY 11, 2021 | PAGE 22

9 Bucks’ org.

10 Out of ___ (askew) 11 Like some renditions 13 Rapa ___ (Easter Island, to locals) 15 Trivia quiz website that also offers pub trivia 18 Licorice-flavored seeds 21 See 4-Down 25 Kept inside 26 Former Army base in N.J. 28 Gadot of “Wonder Woman” 30 Scarfed, even more slangily 32 Barks sharply 35 Marinated Philippine dishes 36 Disinfectant ingredient 37 Kuala Lumpur’s ___ Towers skyscrapers 38 Provide table talk?

40 “What’s the ___?” (“So what?”)

43 ___ Reader (alternative digest) 46 Home of Odysseus and Penelope 47 Won on eBay, usually 49 Took an x-ray of, perhaps 50 Kendall or Kylie 51 Consumption 54 Cozumel y Mallorca, por ejemplo 57 Rite performed by a mohel 59 Dairy dweller 61 Some two-door Audi models 63 One of “Two Virgins” on a 1968 album cover © 2021 Matt Jones

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