Apples to Apples
“Sorry” continues the Apple family saga at Stoneham Theatre
Memory, like family, is about connections. And Sorry, currently on stage at Stoneham Theatre, is about both.
Sorry is part 3 of Richard Nelson’s series, “The Apple Family Plays.” (The first in the cycle, “That Hopey Changey Thing,” was produced by Stoneham Theatre last year. Gloucester Stage mounted the second play, “Sweet and Sad,” last summer.)
It’s important to stress that each play, including Sorry, stands just fine on its own, so even if you haven’t seen the first two, there’s no reason not to see this one.
Billed as “a family drama,” Sorry deals heavily with family connections. But the play is also about a different type of connection: the connections between synapses in the brain that form memory – and what happens to individuals and families when those connections fail.
Continue reading ‘Apples to Apples’
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Tags: Apple Family Plays, Bill Mootos, drama, Joel Colodner, Karen MacDonald, Laura Lautreille, Mark Sardella, memory, Nile Scott Hawver, play, Rhinebeck New York, Richard Nelson, Sarah Newhouse, Sorry, stage, theater, Wakefield Daily Item Stoneham Theatre, Weylin Symes
Judgment Day
“The judgment-free zone.”
That’s what Planet Fitness calls itself in its advertising campaign. It’s smart marketing to appeal to those who avoid gyms for fear of being judged as to heavy, too scrawny or just plain out of shape compared to the rest of the gym rats. “No gymtimidation,” is another way that Planet Fitness puts it.
This space, on the other hand, is not a judgment-free zone. (Although I’m not above a little gymtimidation, so you’re on notice.)
It’s one thing for a gym to call itself a “judgment free zone.” There are those, however, who would turn the rest of the world into a judgment-free zone – albeit minus the treadmills and exercise bikes.
Continue reading ‘Judgment Day’
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Tags: addiction, arrest, crime, drug dealer, fitness, genetics, gym, heroin, jail, judgment, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, opiates, opioid, Planet Fitness, prison, science, trafficker, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Police, workout
Smoke signals
There has been much hand-wringing of late regarding the opioid abuse crisis. As there should be.
But when it comes to dealing with substance abuse, we know what works and what doesn’t work. Our long history with alcohol and tobacco provides a blueprint, if only we would follow it instead of looking for other dangerous drugs to legalize and promote.
Just last week, the Wakefield Board of Selectmen showed how it’s done.
They sent a message.
They wanted the message to be loud and they wanted it to be clear: They don’t want Wakefield to be known as a place where minors can come to purchase alcohol.
Continue reading ‘Smoke signals’
Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 1 Comment
Tags: alcohol, beer, booze, bud, drugs, drunk driving, herb, Jeffrey's Package Store, legalization, marijuana, Mark Sardella, pot, smoke, smoking, substance abuse, tobacco, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, weed
Eve of construction
If you’ve ventured anywhere near downtown Wakefield area in the last few months, perhaps you’ve noticed that there are some trucks and heavy equipment digging up the streets.
If you haven’t been napping somewhere with Rip van Winkle, you may have even heard about the coming $20 million Brightview Senior Living complex. Perhaps you even read in the Wakefield Daily Item as early as January 2015 that Brightview would begin by spending over a million dollars on improvements to the gas, electrical, water and sewer infrastructure in the downtown business district that otherwise the town would have had to pay for.
Those corporate bastards!
Continue reading ‘Eve of construction’
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Tags: Assisted Living, Brightview Senior Living, Bronwyn Della-Volpe, building, business district, construction, Crescent Street, demolition, dust, Dust Bowl, electric, ice, infrastructure, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, natural gas, physics, sewer, Shelter Development, Wakefield Civic League, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, water
When audiences arrives at the Unitarian-Universalist Church in Wakefield, MA for future concerts at the Linden Tree Coffeehouse, something will be missing.
The majestic linden tree that lent its name to the coffeehouse 31 years ago and has graced the front of the church for longer than anyone has been alive, was taken down on Thursday, Jan. 7, 2016.
“There was a lot of evidence that it was dying,” said church member Peter Stickel, who added that there was concern that the tree could drop one of its large branches and injure someone. Its roots were also starting to push up and damage the pavement of the walkway leading into the church, creating a potential walking hazard.
Continue reading ‘Old Linden Tree gone but not forgotten’
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Tags: branch, Brightview Senior Living, church, Joe Cresta, Joe Spear, linden tree, Linden Tree Coffeehouse, Liz Freeman, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Peter Stickel, Shelter Development, steeple, stump, trees, Unitarian Universalist Church, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, Wendy Dennis, wood
Now’s Your Chance!
We’ve arrived at the Put Up or Shut Up Season.
Monday, Jan. 4 was the first day that you could pull nomination papers to run in the April 26 Town Election. For those who for the past year have been have been telling anyone who would listen that you could do a better job running the town, now’s your big chance!
This is not to say that everyone who has a gripe should run for office. (God forbid.)
Nor am I saying that unless you stand for election you have no right to complain. There’s plenty of room for citizen activism outside of holding elective or appointed office.
Continue reading ‘Now’s Your Chance!’
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Tags: Board of Selectmen, campaign, City Hall, Conservation Commission, election, Facebook, government, Mark Sardella, nomination papers, Planning Board, Politics, public hearing, public office, School Committee, social media, town, town hall, Town Meeting, Town Planner, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA
The Spirit of Giving
‘Tis the Christmas season, and Mr. Paid Reporter Man is filled with the spirit of giving toward the naughtiest and the nicest in Wakefield. He’s made his list and checked it twice. If you don’t find your name on his list, perhaps you haven’t been sufficiently naughty or nice.
To the Lake Quannapowitt Water Quality Committee: binding arbitration.
To: Dan Lieber: a bug in the WCAT studio.
To Brian McGrail: a night off.
To Seth Moulton: a break from his rigorous MSNBC schedule.
To Town Counsel Tom Mullen: a challenging case.
To Alison Simcox and Doug Heath: 13 SolarBees.
Continue reading ‘The Spirit of Giving’
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Tags: Alison Simcox, Brian McGrail, Bronwyn Dell-Volpe, Christmas, Colonial Point Apartments, Conservation Commission, Dan Lieber, Dennis Cloherty Heron Pond, Douglas Heath, Fred Rich, Humor, Lake Quannapowitt, MBTA, Michael Collins, Pat Bruno, Politics, Richard Stinson, Robert McLaughlin, Robert Mitchell, Seth Moulton, Shaw's, Stephen P. Maio, Thomas Mullen, Wakefield Civic League, Wakefield Human Rights Commission, Wakefield MA, Wakefield School Committee, ZBA
This month, Wakefield Community Access Television celebrates its 25th anniversary as Wakefield’s public access television operation.
It’s hard to believe that WCAT has been around for a quarter century. What’s even harder to believe is that public access television has been around in Wakefield, MA for even longer than that.
WCAT was formed in December of 1990, but there were people doing local public access TV in Wakefield for about five years before that – although it felt more like fifty years to those of us involved at the time. I refer to those days as the Dark Ages of public access.
Continue reading ‘Wakefield Public Access TV: the Dark Ages’
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Tags: Betamax, Bob Lazarus, Bob Seibel, cable TV, Chance Langton, Charles Laquidara, Charlie Brooks, Charlie Golub, comedy, Gary Stewart, Janeane Garofalo, Lisa J, Massachusetts, Mr. Ed, Rich Ceisler, Tony V, Topsfield Fair, TV, video, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Public Access Television, Wakefield Tonight, Warner-Amex Cable, WBCN, WCAT
Downtown reality check
by Mark Sardella (Wakefield Daily Item)
Who did she think she was – this outside consultant with her studies and her facts and figures – coming in and telling us that our downtown isn’t the economic Death Valley we’ve been led to believe it is? How dare she suggest that revitalization doesn’t happen overnight and that the citizens we’ve chosen to represent us might actually be on the right track?
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Tags: Brothers Restaurant & Deli, business, downtown, economic development, Farmland, FinePoints, Main Street, Mark Sardella, MarketStreet, Massachusetts, Peg Barringer, Reading MA, revitalization, Sabatinos, Sakura, The Savings Bank, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA
Fantasy League
The irony of the moment was not lost on acting Planning Board chairman Bill Spaulding.
“I do find it interesting that you’re questioning the parking – the amount of it,” Spaulding told Bronwyn Della-Volpe at hearing last week on Town Meeting Article 12, which was aimed at revitalizing the downtown with more mixed-use, residential-above-retail development.
Della-Volpe is president of something called the Wakefield Civic League, the latest name adopted by the group that in 2014 succeeded in blocking the construction of a public parking garage in the downtown. Shelter Development would have built the garage at no cost to the town as part of its proposed Brightview Senior Living facility.
Now the Civic League is so very concerned about where people will park in the wake of another town initiative to revitalize Wakefield’s downtown. Continue reading ‘Fantasy League’
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Tags: Brightview Senior Living, Bronwyn Della-Volpe, commuter rail, downtown, housing, Main Street, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Melrose MA, mixed-use development, parking, Pat Bruno, Paul Reavis, Planning Board, residential, retail, Town Meeting, Wakefield Civic League, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, William Spaulding, zoning
Mark Sardella 