Newmarket Mills

And we’ve moved.

We’re now living on the New Hampshire seacoast in the Newmarket Mills, the newly-restored and now greenly-efficient mills that were originally built in 1825 on the Lamprey River (which has never flooded the building—we checked).

From one of our living room windows

The most fun part about this move was watching our unit be restored from the ground up.  In January our mill was empty, and construction had just begun:

I photographed the mill’s progress from the day we put the deposit down in April all the way through our moving-in the first few days of August:

Entire collection of mill photos

I spent most of my adult life in small NYC apartments with few windows that looked directly at brick walls. Now I have seven river-spanning windows, and watch heron, egrets, cormorants, hawks, seagulls, ducklings, pretty boats, and kayakers all day—an enormous life improvement.

Happy Summer to all!

Moving

This summer we’re gettin’ the hell out of Dodge, and heading to the seacoast. In April we put down a deposit on the lovely, gorgeous, deliciously renovated Newmarket Mills. And no, it doesn’t flood. And yeah, it’s taken me this long to link to the photos here. This coming week we go back to measure our unit (since in April it didn’t even have the room frames yet). Expect updated photos soon/eventually.

Click for more delicious mill photos; just keep clicking Next in the slideshow

Huzzah. Photos. And videos.

Almost two months later, here are the photos (and videos) from my Mom’s birthday weekend.  For her gift, I took her up to the White Mountains, and way up into the Great North Woods for the weekend.  These are the first of (probably) hundreds of photos I need to catch up on.  Keep calm, they’re coming.

Click for February photos

NYC in August

We made a weekend trip to NYC so we could catch up with Coney Island before it becomes completely Disneyfied:

+ Aquarium
+ Boardwalk
+ Wonder Wheel
+ Freak Show
+ New Luna Park
+ Cyclones baseball game

I also wanted to visit the Red House, my old Manhattan apartment building where I lived for ten years, and specifically wanted to try to get into the lobby. When we arrived, a woman was exiting the building and held the door open for us (too trusting). The interior is exactly the same, nothing has changed, which gave me a stalled-in-time sensation. Oscar my superintendent is still there, though I didn’t get to see him. That would have been fun.

The only thing that has changed is price. As you can see from this listing, in May 2010 my small studio apartment (unit #1) was going for #1,350 per month. When I left in November 2001, I was paying $690 per month. (Note: the website is incorrect in that there is no doorman. Would have been great if there was. I wouldn’t have had so many package delivery snafus.)

We then strolled through Central Park to get to the Upper East Side (passport country—I rarely hung out on the east side because I’ve never liked it and still don’t). Our destination was the Park Avenue Armory because the Royal Shakespeare Company is doing a guest repertory stint there this summer, and we had tickets for The Winter’s Tale. The RSC built not just a set, but an an entire theatre, inside the Armory. A building-inside-a-building. The actors didn’t disappoint, the set was great, and they had a giant puppet. We all know my affinity for giant puppets.

But it was a hot and humid weekend. On Saturday we had the Coney Island breeze to keep us cool, but Sunday was a typical claustrophobically-humid summer city day with no breathable air.

Click for photos from August 6 & 7, 2011

NH Media Makers 8/4/2011

Check out this 360-degree photo from the event.

Click for photos from the Gala Event at the Currier Museum of Art on August 4

Franconia Notch

Click for photos from July 21-23, 2011

Google+

You can find me on Google+.

Because that’s where I’ll be hanging out.

And because you’ll never find me on Facebook.

Click for Google+

Portsketch wrap-up

The Portsketch run at Players’ Ring has sadly ended with this evening’s performance. In early-Spring, Shawn was involved with this sketch comedy troupe with their performances at Foobar in Portsmouth, NH, when they asked him to do guest stints with his Sean Connery and John Lennon impersonations. He then became a full-time member of the troupe for their two-weekend July run at Portsmouth’s Players’ Ring as part of the Summer late-night series. And by late-night I mean 10:30 pm performances. Hard for me to keep up with that schedule.

Portsketch proved to be a big hit across both venues. We want more Portsketch.

Click for Portsketch photos

Catching up from June

Helped celebrate costume designer Michele’s birthday…

Click for photos from June 4, 2011

Attended another NH Media Makers meet-up…squeezed it in during the 48 Hour Film Project weekend…

Click for photos from June 12, 2011

Kevin graduated high school and heads to UNH on the full-ride Governor’s Scholarship…

Click for photos from June 18, 2011

My Mom’s hot water heater busted and flooded her basement…

Click for photos from June 19, 2011

We celebrated the end of the season for the Players’ Ring at a karaoke party…

Click for photos from June 24, 2011

And June ended cold and wet when I took my Mom to the sand sculpting contest in Hampton Beach…

Click for photos from June 25, 2011

Behind the Scenes: Sam Coffin Dies Laughing

If you haven’t seen the film, I recommend watching it first, before the behind-the-scenes footage. The film is embedded at the bottom of this post.

Click for behind-the-scenes photos of 48 Hour Film Project: Sam Coffin Dies Laughing