Fisherman's and a Quarry

Horrible news. I love North Shore Music Theatre. I go to see one or two shows there a year, on average. They put on fantastic productions that are really top notch. The best show I've ever seen - and I've seen my fair share - was their production of Aida a few years back. I loved Singing in the Rain there - and their yearly showings of A Christmas Carol is a perennial favorite. Their theatre is absolutely unique, there's only two or three like it in the entire country, yet it really works and ensures that every seat in the house is a good seat.

It would be horrible for the community if NSMT is forced to close its doors. It sells out many of its shows; it's another case of debt that's hurting them, amid a bad climate. The debt didn't come from them making bad decisions as a nonprofit corporation, though: it came from a fire that caused millions upon millions of damage, only some of which was covered by insurance.

Operating since 1955, North Shore Music Theatre has evolved from a summer stock house into the largest nonprofit theater in New England, with 350,000 patrons annually. The theater has been recognized by the Boston Business Journal as the second-largest performing arts organization in the state based on audience size (after the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Boston Pops combined). It has received multiple Elliot Norton Awards and this season presented seven musicals, five children's shows, and several celebrity musical and comedy concerts, in addition to hosting a large educational program. This year, the company's annual budget was $13 million.

Can we really let this theatre go under? It's a huge part of Massachusetts and is absolutely irreplaceable. They're asking people to go to their website and donate funds - or, better yet, buy a ticket to their current show, Disney's High School Musical 2, which would be a fantastic post-Christmas present for any kid or teen. Youth tickets are just $25. If they sell out the show, they'll raise enough for the short term, to give them time to raise the rest over the long haul. But if you're not interested in the show, send them $100, 50 or 25 bucks. It's as worthy a cause as there is to be found.

This economy is a killer. We must protect our important institutions, nonprofits and favorite local stores by making sure we don't forget about them in our attempts to cut costs. Yes, our funds are low too, but we can't let them go out, because it wipes off years of hard work and success right off the books - and that's not always replaceable, at least not for decades. So, please, do what you can - buy a ticket to the show or send them a few dollars so they can raise what they need for now in this perilous economy.

Here's some of NSMT's excellent recent productions.

Hairspray:


The current show, Disney's High School Musical 2:


Les Mis:


A Christmas Carol:


The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee:


Singin' in the Rain:

Labels: advocacy

Click here. Parents, teachers, residents and anyone and everyone who's interested in our town's budget problems and how we can work together in common cause to save the schools should click that link.

Labels: advocacy, schools, Swampscott

Today's such a hot day - and I've been drinking practically gallons of water to stay hydrated - that I figured I'd post locally what I've posted about at my political blog on occasion: don't buy bottled water, drink it straight from the tap. We're lucky to enjoy some of the best tap water anywhere - the Quabbin Reservoir is consistantly named among the best in the country. Tap water is more heavily regulated than anything you'll find in a bottle, plus the fact that buying just one bottle of water would pay for all the water you could drink for an entire year if from the tap.

The annual cost of drinking water only based on the commonly recommended 8
glasses of water per day intake (1/2 gallon x 365), would be:

• $0.84 for Tap water (that is, 84 cents)
• $27.38 for Filtered Tap water (on-going basis)
• $91.25 for the least expensive bottled water tested
• $1029.30 for the most expensive bottled water tested

With rising gas prices and the inflating costs of nearly everything, from bread to milk to heating oil, if anyone's looking for somewhere where they can save a few hundred dollars a year to offset the difference, look no further than switching to the tap.

Don't worry, you don't have to sacrifice taste or quality: Swampscott's tap, as with nearly all of Massachusetts, is cleaner and better for you. Heck, when you drink bottled water, you're usually drinking tap water anyway: bottled water plants suck up our tap water, distributing it across the country. It's actually an environmental disaster. The bottles themselves use large quantities of oil to produce (to make the plastic) and the bottling plants consume water that local communities desperately need.

Furthermore, the filters these companies use take out the good stuff in our water (minerals our body wants), while our tap water keeps those minerals while adding things that we need to remain healthy and strong. Not to mention, the bottles themselves can fester disease: water that stays bottled and stagnant, instead of constantly flowing in our pipes, is actually a good breeding ground for bacteria.

Bottled water is one of the most successful marketing jobs done ever. It's become an industry that makes billions - by getting us to pay for something we could be getting for free. We've been convinced that the tap's bad for us, or not cool and hip, or something to be sneered at akin to how many feel about public transportation (a whole other topic for a whole other post). Suffice it to say, if you're worried about being cool and hip, go buy a cool and hip water bottle, and partake in the pipes that connect us all, defining us as a civilization, where all we have to do to quench our thirst is pull a magic lever that fills our cups as often as we need. Tastes good.

Lastly, my favorite comic's views on the matter:

Labels: advocacy, town life, water