|
Shop till you drop in downtown Portsmouth
I think sometimes we take advantage of how great living in and around downtown Portsmouth is; I mean, I know I do. There are so many great restaurants, shops and services there, yet I don’t think they always get as much attention from the locals as they should.
Hometown Snacks: Best bets for New England-made chips
Whether it’s spring or fall, summer or winter, when you go to a party one of the things you’ll always find there are chips. Nowadays chips come in all shapes and sizes and are made from much more than just potatoes, such as corn, soy and vegetables; but it’s the potato chip that started it all, and it’s the potato chip that seems to remain the most popular.
Go coffee crazy for these Seacoast coffee hot spots
There once was a time when you could go in to a restaurant, tell them you want a cup of coffee and they would just go get it; that time is no more though.
Best bets on a tour of Seacoast's ice cream hot spots
Now that summer is finally here and the temperature is finally rising, ice cream is on top of everyone’s list. But with so many places in the area, how do you know where to go?
Hotel Alexis at the Red Door
Even though there are no street advertisements or flyerings, it’s no secret that Portsmouth’s Red Door music venue, located directly above Dos Amigos, houses some of the most sought-after music. But the intimate martini bar was unusually packed last Monday because of the night’s Hush Hush Sweet Harlot series lineup composed of bands: Jerry Brookman, Moses Atwood and Hotel Alexis.
For love of one-wheeling
“Get another wheel assh***!” was an all-too-common response Josh Picard received while riding his unicycle throughout the University of New Hampshire (UNH) campus. Andrew Ricker, a fellow unicyclist and protégé of Picard’s circus riding, was once told to “get a haircut” while riding near fraternities on campus.
Pub Crawl: KJ’s Sports Bar
Michelle Morton and Roland Curit have been hosting Friday night karaoke sessions at KJ’s Sports Bar for three straight years. In their time at Newmarket’s only bowling ally/bar/pool hall, they have fine-tuned their singing operation to become the Seacoast’s most high-tech karaoke experience.
Bluegrass series at the Stone Church
For more than two years and running, every Tuesday night at the Stone Church in Newmarket has been a hotbed for flannel, open-toed sandals and instruments that pluck and twang. Upon walking through the door, pepper-haired adults to teenagers adorned with flowing peasant skirts fill stools.
CD Review: "Love Is My Religion"
Ziggy Marley speaks like he's smiling, and he has plenty of reasons to. His second solo album, "Love Is My Religion," won a Grammy Award for best reggae album this year. He's just returned from China, the Philippines and Japan. And during a phone interview with him this week, he divulged his next move, "I wanna write a movie."
Redhook Brewery: Slow down and smell the barley
Those of you who reach lightning speeds traveling on Route 16 might want to slow down next time you approach the massive, green-roofed Redhook Brewery building. Inside the mountain-like structure is a pub and state-of-the-art brewing facility that will excite any micro-brew buff.
Hatchling Studios participates in film festival
Portsmouth’s animation company, Hatching Studios, is continually creating a local buzz surrounding the impressive amount of festival awards given to its latest short "The Toll" completed last year.
Cosmic bowling: Cooler than you think
It seems like bowling accessories – the shirts, the shoes – became cool again before the game itself did. For a while, even before "The Big Lebowski," it was impossible not to know someone who’d turn up for parties in thrift-shop-acquired bowling team garb with someone else’s name embroidered on the chest or who bragged of "accidentally" walking out of an alley with their footwear rentals.
Dirty Byrd: Ms. Dilando’s sewing signature tees
Everybody with an interest in local art loves to decry the gentrification of Portsmouth. But there’s still some life in the old lady yet.
Not just books: RiverRun’s in the middle of everything
In the world of Amazon and Barnes & Noble, deep discounts on books and frequent buyers’ clubs, why is an independent bookstore in Portsmouth flourishing?
It takes two: Green Foundry fosters collaboration
On the warm and sunny final day of February in Eliot, Maine, the crisp air outside the Green Foundry at Sanctuary Arts was overlaid with a smell more associated with the heavy industry of old New England than the present.
The Daniel Street Tavern
When the kindly bartender is named Veve (short for Elvira), there’s hard rock playing on the jukebox, you can pretend to shoot virtual deer on a video game and you leave smelling like you’ve smoked an entire pack of Luckys, you know you’ve been at the Daniel Street Tavern before the sun went down.
Take a sip: Wine tastings are for everyone (21 and over)
Jack: If they want to drink Merlot, we’re drinking Merlot.
Miles Raymond: No, if anyone orders Merlot, I’m leaving. I am not drinking any fucking Merlot!
Soup to nuts: Church ladies serve homeless at Cross Roads
They call themselves the church ladies. Every Thursday evening and Saturday afternoon, a group of women prepares a meal for the homeless men, women and children in shelter at Cross Roads House (www.crossroadshouse.org).
Count them: Top 10 reasons Paddy’s should not be overlooked
Paddy’s American Grille (www.paddysgrille.com) is hidden away in a land far from Portsmouth’s downtown – the Pease International Tradeport. We love Paddy’s lounge and think you need to visit more often. Here’s why:
Psychic phenomena: Past lives, baseball and the end of the world
Think twice next time you walk through Portsmouth’s Vaughan Mall. Among the dental offices, seafood restaurant, clothing store and ballroom dancing center, and a host of other thriving outfits, a psychic conducts her business daily in Suite 4C of the Worth Building. While bread meets cheese in the sandwich shop on street level, Betty Lipton may be communicating with the dead. So she says.
Percussion Polygamist: Jamie Perkins hits stuff with sticks
"Aren’t you ready to find one nice band to settle down with?" I asked Jamie Perkins when we had coffee the other day. He laughed. No. Musical monogamy just isn’t for him.
Reluctant raves: Wet Bar offers pleasant surprise
I didn’t want to like the Wet Bar. I mean, come on. I don’t care how plush the leather seats are, who with a straight face calls a bar an "ultra lounge?" And the tagline on the Web site, "the wetter … the better" is almost as icky as that of the sports bar under the same roof: "Eat. Drink. Score!"
Creative chaos: The countdown to Mitty’s opening night
The quiet in the old industrial neighborhood belies the activity inside the West End Studio Theatre on Islington Street in Portsmouth. Actors sit in clusters discussing scenes. The assistant director and stage manager reposition the stage furniture.
Skier’s alternative: Winter’s always perfect at the rinks
As the New Year gets under way, one can only think — what a lousy winter.
‘Amateur night?’: Oh, please.
“Amateur night.”
You may hear this phrase, accompanied by a resigned sigh, when someone tries to explain why he or she won’t be going out on New Year’s Eve. The amateurs referred to are those who don’t go out on the town every other night of the year, and thus might exhibit enthusiasm, good cheer and festive behavior at their chosen celebration spot.
Not So Sloppy: Line up here for fashion ‘seconds’
Sometimes, treasure is unrecognizable. At the Portsmouth location of Second Time Around, the designer clothing consignment store (www.secondtimearound.net), a Dsquared skirt originally worth more than $2,000 hung unnoticed, priced at a relatively reasonable $200 (reasonable for such a superhot designer).
Pub Crawl: Swim back to the Mermaid
How could I forget about the Blue Mermaid (www.bluemermaid.com)? Perhaps it’s the mammoth Hilton that has grown up in front of the building it lives in. Or maybe it is that my new baby has kept me close to home.
Tattoo Junkies: Making art, one body at a time
Love. Heritage. Music. God. Crime. Punishment. Protection against evil. Vanity. Television. Humans (and occasionally animals) have been tattooed for almost as many reasons as the years the art has been practiced, but it’s all become a little more feel-good.
Bargain basement: Entertain yourself on a holiday budget
When you’re with someone you like, there’s no need for pricey entertainment. With that in mind, and the fact that we’re all spending money we don’t really have on stocking stuffers and electronics, Seacoast Connects wants you to take it back to the basics.
Happy Birthday: 30 years of good memories at the Press Room
You’ll always be fond of a bar you’ve skied to in a storm, where you’ve danced up a sweat in front of a good band in a room full of friends and where, if not everyone does, at least a few people will know your name.
Music lessons: What’s hot and what’s not at Bull Moose Music
When you can’t remember the last time you added new music to your collection, and find yourself ignorant of the hot new act, it’s time for a refresher course.
Force of Nature: LOURDS returns to rock the Seacoast
It’s not often that you get to witness a band that ab-so-lute-ly blows you away. But that’s exactly what happened to my buddy Kevin Brown and me a few weeks ago when we went to Bourbon’s in Portsmouth and saw the mesmerizing force that is LOURDS, a four-piece rock ‘n’ roll band from NYC.
Pub Crawl: Get your Irish up at Molly Malone’s
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Although Mint, the remodeled downstairs restaurant at Molly Malone’s, is billed as the city’s newest “ultra lounge” with “an Asian fusion twist,” the upstairs pub is still the good old reliable Irish publick house patrons have come to know and love since it first opened some 15 odd years ago.
Homecoming ‘King’: Joe Queer headlines teen Rockfest at The Music Hall
It can be said, without hyperbole, that Joe King (aka Joe Queer) is to American punk rock music what Mark Twain was to American letters. Like Twain, King is a humorist at heart. Like King, Twain was a big time instigator, a tweaker of society’s norms and values.
Raw power: Go Yuki packs a sensual punch
Part of the fun of being a music writer is that every once in a very long while you stumble upon something completely new and exciting, a song, group or singer that makes you just smile and say, “Wow!”
Roll ’em: NHFX = 67 films @ 4 venues ÷ 4 days
The sixth annual New Hampshire Film Expo (NHFX) kicks off Thursday at The Music Hall in Portsmouth, from 6 to 9 p.m., with a celebration of New Hampshire Filmmaking. It’s a fitting way to begin a festival that started with a few nights of film, discussion and networking at a small hall in Derry, and has blossomed into a four-day event in the heart of the Seacoast arts scene featuring 67 films coming from 31 states and 17 countries.
Foliage hunting: Where, and when, to find peak colors
Fall is my absolute favorite time of year. When the trees change colors through a sort of photosynthesized adrenaline rush, it produces a kaleidoscope of change — from deep greens come every shade of yellow and red imaginable. It just makes me stop and stare in awe and wonder.
Cinderella story: Life’s a stage for young SRT actors
There's a reason for hundreds of kids to beat feet to Seacoast Repertory Theatre each year. It's the lure of getting lost in the world of pirates, princesses, even rodents. Opportunity to do so abounds at the venue, though it might not be quite as carefree as you might imagine.
A-maze-ing! Take a trip to Zach’s farm
There’s something about a corn maze that brings out the kid in you — no matter how old you are. Just ask maze creators Chris Colby, 40, and John Zacharias, 58, owner of Zach’s Farm, who together have created a 15-acre maze on his bucolic 221-acre York, Maine, farm.
Pub Crawl: Plenty to roar about at the Library Lounge
According to Library Restaurant owner Bruce C. Belanger, the majestic lions standing guard out front have been known to rear up on their haunches and growl ferociously. He says he has that on record from no better source then the esteemed former Portsmouth Poet Laureate Esther Buffler, a longtime resident of the 130-plus-year-old Rockingham Hotel (where the restaurant is located on State Street.)
Fantastic fall shows to satisfy your artistic thirst
Fall is here (all too soon, mind you) which sets the mind a wandering to see what’s happening on the local concert/stage front. We’ve got some great shows coming our way, from rock ‘n’ roll acts such as Bob Dylan, The Raconteours and The Strokes (Yes, the Casino Ballroom show is not sold out — yet!), to serious theat-ah such as “The Caine Mutiny.”
Old space new name: Muddy River downstairs reinvents itself as Bourbon’s
Once known as The Newbury Room, the downstairs of The Muddy River Smokehouse on Congress Street in downtown Portsmouth has just reinvented itself. Bourbon’s comes to town with a new look, new music, and a new name.
Big ‘Moe’: The story of a sandwich
For almost 50 years, Moe’s Italian Sandwiches has been a staple of Portsmouth. Residents love them, kids have grown up on them, and tourists are drawn in to sample a bite.
Pub Crawl: The quick and dirty dozen
Daytime pubcrawls rock and Wally’s is open at 11 a.m. daily. Wally’s has the cheapest cigarettes on the beach, but you have to be a customer to purchase them. I don’t smoke, but I thought you should know that.
Boot camp workout: Be all you used to be
I am not a morning person, never have been. My morning laziness and grumpiness gets even worse when it comes to exercising in the morning. I will convince myself of any excuse to stay snuggled under my comfy down blanket for another 45 minutes where I am safe from sweat and exhaustion. I could always exercise at night or tomorrow morning I will really get up and go for a run. But today, unfortunately, those excuses are not an option when my alarm clock goes off at 6 a.m. The Seacoast Boot Camp is waiting for me.
The Underbelly Tour: Trollops, spies, flirting and the real history of Portsmouth
“I’ll make a man out of you,” Minerva gushes as she moves in on an unsuspecting young man on the corner of State and Congress streets, flaunting her bosom in front of his face, which holds a strategically placed dollar. She is hoping that dollar will grow and welcomes male givers to place their tip in the appropriate spot.
Go native! 25 great things to do this summer
Don’t let the mid-summer blues take hold! Sure, there’s been a lot of rain, but the forecast looks much improved of late, so if you’re stuck for things to do on the Seacoast, our “Discover the Coast” editors have come up with their favorite picks for you.
Wipe out: Spills part of the thrill at Rye Airfield
Only the young and fearless will make it here. Those who are willing to roll across the ground (or even fly through the air) at dangerous speeds, slide down steep hills, across railings, and jump over stairs. Those who are not affected by the pain that could be caused by a tough fall or a hard collision. These are the skateboarders, inline bladers, and BMX bike riders who visit the popular summer hangout Rye Airfield.
Foot fetish: Find out what Seacoast women are wearing — and why
We all know women spend a lot of time on shoes. They think about them, spend tons of money on them, and plan them to coordinate perfectly with their outfits and the kind of day they will have.
The kids are alright: Funky River Band releases new CD at Stone Church Thursday night
It’s been nearly a decade in the making, but finally, T.J. Wheeler & the Funky River Band have recorded their freshmen CD, “Play It Forward.” They’ll celebrate the album, created as a fund-raising vehicle for the Blues Bank Collective (BBC), with a release party and performance at the Stone Church in Newmarket on Thursday night, June 29.
Cancer connection: ‘Bald Wendy’ brings patients, family and friends together through new Seacoast Web site
Wendy McCoole was 42 years old when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. While battling the disease and going through treatment, she wanted to keep family members and friends updated on what she was going through. But she found it challenging to keep them all current on her situation and she also found it difficult to repeat herself when they questioned or did not understand something. It was also not easy for her loved ones to ask her the questions they needed answered.
Hitting the jackpot: Casino Ballroom still a must-play, must-see stage
Many don’t know that the Casino, which first opened its doors in 1899, has featured some of the greatest musicians and acts to appear on any stage over the past 100-plus years.
Pub crawl: It’s time to hit the decks
Last week the rain finally ceased and the sun broke out, giving anyone who needed it a reason to hit the decks for a bit of R & D — that’s relaxing ‘n’ drinkin’ y’all.
Advice for the graduates: It’s all about the Benjamins
It’s that time of year again when just about anybody, but mostly aging old farts like me, wax philosophically about what to do, and what not to do, to any high school or college graduate they know.
Countdown to ‘Da Vinci’: The controversy, the message boards, the hair
It’s become a race. Which group can organize fastest to reach Average Joe: "I feel your pain" legislators vowing to make inquiries into gas prices on his behalf, or Christian groups calling on experts to get him to boycott "The Da Vinci Code" on May 19?
Smutty-licious: Making beer, the old-fashioned (and tasty) way
It’s only 9 a.m., and the air is thick with the smell of beer. The floor is wet just about everywhere, and bottle caps line some choice parts of the floor.
PUB CRAWL: A rocking good time at the Coat of Arms
Sitting at the bar with my buddy Rich, my second pint of Black and Tan (1/2 Guinness and 1/2 Harp) before me, everything seemed right with the world.
Feel the burn: Dancing to the rhythm of the heat
I’m out of shape. Plain and simple. I mean, I’m not overweight, but let’s be honest: There have been times this past year where I’ve become short of breath from climbing the stairs. The last time I set foot inside of a gym to work out was probably more than a year ago. I skipped right over six-pack abs into a mini-keg.
Flying high: First flight lesson has elated writer craving more air time
The plane I’m in cruises at 3,000 feet. That’s well over a half-mile up in the sky; I can see tops of trees, houses and cars, and they all look like ants.
'Tres Amigas' and a microphone: The request line is open
To say they talk a mile a minute is a severe understatement.
High school choir rocks: 4 the FUN of It concert set for April 12
The toes of the Converse All-Stars and the Nike running shoes tap against the floor. The hips sway in perfect rhythm. Mouths open wide and belt out lyrics. Voice comes together and makes goosebumps down the back of people’s necks.
Sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll: The life and times of Lisa Carver
She’s like the girl with green hair in my 10th-grade Spanish class who gave herself a tattoo in the bathroom. She’s tough and daring and doesn’t give a damn about what anybody thinks. She’s both terrifying and alluring and in a strange way the kind of girl that good girls like me — deep down — want to be.
Knock knock! The darling doors of Portsmouth
Doors. They get slammed in your face. Opened up for you at opportune times. Sometimes -- even when you knock nicely -- they’re locked.
Flight of fancy: Dean Diggins paints Portsmouth
Dean Diggins is a local Renaissance man. In his years, he has been a dancer, a pianist, a professor, and now, Diggins can add painter and movie star to that list.
Joe Stevens rocks: Every picture tells a story
“Sometimes the stories are better than the pictures,” says photographer Joe Stevens with a characteristic laugh, a melding of his old Brooklyn swagger and British punk attitude.
Pub crawl: Spring Hill Tavern offers intimate silliness
Just a short stroll up from the tugboats tied to the Ceres Street docks, the Spring Hill Tavern (located beneath the Dolphin Striker restaurant) is an oasis of warmth, great food and some kickin’ good times.
From here to eternity: Seacoast hip-hop breaks ‘Out the Gate’
As he sits in the studio in his house in Eliot, Maine, Darryl Christy clicks away at the computer in front of him; track after track pours out of the speakers in front of him.
Class crown: Rye native named ‘Miss Co-Ed’ by magazine fans
It’s hard for the males, young and old, in Breaking New Grounds in Market Square not to turn their heads as the door opens. It’s not so much the cold gust of wind that enters so much as the young woman who does.
When words collide: Seacoast poets slam-and-jam
If you were to ask a person on the street the first thing that springs to mind when someone mentions a poetry reading.
Focus on surrealism
A small black book arrived at Spotlight’s doorstep a few weeks ago. It seemed harmless enough, except that the title was screened in shiny black on the black canvas surface in scrolled letters, whispering the name of its contents. The spine, covered in blackish brownish fur, begged petting.
PUB CRAWL: What's happening behind 'The Red Door'?
A short walk up a flight of sharp and narrow stairs from busy State Street below, The Red Door is Portsmouth’s answer to suave and sophisticated hotspots more often found in cities like Boston or New York.
Surf’s up when the temperature’s down
The question isn’t why they do it. It’s more like why not?
Cindy Pierce’s coming-of-age story finds humor in the v-spot
There are a lot of ways of keep-ing oneself sane. People run, write, take up golf. Some people paint. All excellent interests.
Seacoast skin: Portsmouth pinups shine in local calendars
Like many calendars, “Sirens of the Seacoast” is 8.5" by 11," but some of its models appear to be 36" 24" 36."
|
