Luciano was born in 1913 in a New York tenement, the first American descendant of Sicilian immigrants who’d settled in New York’s Lower East Side, an area that would eventually, once the early-century wave of Italian newcomers had pretty much completely taken the place over, be known as Little Italy. As a freshly minted U.S. native, he went by his middle name, Charles, but everyone just called him Charlie. He grew up in a four room apartment that he shared with eight other people, his parents, his siblings, and two borders they rented the kitchen out to as a bedroom.Read More
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It’s been an interesting summer so far, hasn’t it? The weather can’t seem to decide what month it is, raising the stakes on the usual Vacation Roulette higher than usual. What will your New England vacation offer, hypothermia, drowning, or bliss?
Headlines are being dominated by the antics of Washington, D.C. politicians who can’t seem to find their ass with both hands and a mirror.
Except for season seven of Game of Thrones—the opener was suitably portentous and dripping with double-dealing—there’s not much in the way of entertainment that we can look forward to with any confidence.
Or is there?Read More
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America has always been a little skeptical about films with a tangible political point of view. Michael Moore can get away with it, of course, because he’s funny and engaging. But Hollywood’s preferred maxim has always been: “If you have a message, call Western Union.” (That phrase, from the era when telegrams were still the gold standard in important message sending, should probably be updated to, “If you have a message, tweet it.” But I digress.)Read More
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Well, here’s that summer you ordered. Hope you like it.
Summer in New Hampshire always arrives bearing a heavy load of expectations imposed on it by vacationers, gardeners, beach-goers, and convertible owners. And occasionally it even delivers the goods, although we all remember the summer it rained every weekend and the summer that wasn’t.Film discussion Tuesday night: A Quiet PassionRead More
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ACT ONE
Once upon a time, back before we could search for movie trailers on YouTube, or shatter our expectations with Rotten Tomatoes, or stumble over some mad spoiler at BirthMoviesDeath.com, the easiest way to find out what films were coming around was the poster box in front of the theater. As a free-range ragamuffin, rattling around the streets of Portsmouth, making mischief after school, I would always take time to swing up Chestnut street to see what the old Civic had in store.Read More
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I have a confession, I’m a little bit of a crazy cat lady, without actually owning a cat… So you can only imagine how excited I am that the CatVideo Festival is returning to the Historic Theater on Friday night. What is the CatVideo Festival you ask? It’s a curated collection of fun, funny, and adorable cat videos all projected up on our big screen.Read More
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Usually, when I talk about the Loft, I use the word discovery. I talk about about how you get the chance to see an artist up close and personal before they move on the play large venues or even the Historic Theater and before their music is all over the radio. I relate it to getting in on the ground floor, to knowing something special before anyone else all right here in downtown Portsmouth. Lately, however, I’ve noticed that the acts that we’re getting are pretty well known artists with established fan bases like Dakhabrakha, Alejandro Escovedo, and coming on Tuesday Zach Williams of the Lone Bellow. Read More
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It’s cold and rainy one day and warm and sunny the next, it must be spring in New Hampshire, a state that prides itself on its ability to be unpleasant in any month of the year. Ditto for pleasant.
What remains consistent for those of us who live in the Seacoast area is the position of The Music Hall as our cinematic savior, the source of the unexpected and delightful in every season.Read More
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