Sisters of Swing at Stoneham Theatre through May 4

You don’t have to be a member of the Greatest Generation to enjoy Sisters of Swing, the tribute to the Andrews Sisters currently playing at Stoneham Theatre.

But considering that the Andrews Sisters sold over 90 million records, had more Top Ten hits than the Beatles or Elvis and paved the way for all the girl groups that followed, Sisters of Swing is a worthwhile take for grandparents and grandchildren and anyone in between.
Continue reading ‘A Fitting Tribute to the Andrews Sisters’


First time two people from Wakefield have been on Democratic & Republican State Committees

In the February 5 primary election, most attention was focused on the Presidential candidates, with some local precincts also voting for candidates in the primary for State Representative from the 32nd Middlesex District.

But while all that was going on, Wakefield was making a bit of political history of its own. Also on February 5, the voters elected Albert J. Turco as the representative from this district to the Republican State Committee. On the same day, Betsy Sheeran won election to the Democratic State Committee. Turco was unopposed. Sheeran garnered 62 percent of the vote district-wide to defeat Peg Crowe of Malden.

It is the first time, as far as anyone knows, that two people from Wakefield have represented this district on both the Democratic and Republican State Committees.
Continue reading ‘Turco & Sheeran Make Political History’


The Cutting, at Stoneham Theatre

Each act opens with the sounds of sea gulls, although their full significance will not be realized until much later. Currently at Stoneham Theatre, The Cutting is part mystery, part psychological study and part exploration of the honesty of silence – as it draws you into the mind of a young woman apparently traumatized into mutism.

Judith (played by Eve Kagan) is in jail in connection with the mysterious death of her mother, although it’s unclear to the investigators whether Judith had anything to do with her mother’s demise, because Judith isn’t talking. She has not uttered a word in the five months that she has spent behind bars, despite the authorities’ best efforts to prod her into explaining what happened to her agoraphobic mother, with whom Judith shared a house high on an English seaside cliff.
Continue reading ‘The Sounds of Silence’


The best thing to come out of last week’s FCC hearing into Comcast Corp.’s Internet polices had nothing to do with the subject of the hearing. The purpose of the hearing was to look into the communications giant’s network management practices.

But the thing that tickled me about the news story was the fact that Comcast got caught doing something that Big Cable and other companies have been getting away with for years: packing audiences at government hearings with their own supporters and otherwise planting straws with the intention of creating the illusion of public support for their business policies.

This time Comcast got caught with its pants down, and here’s hoping that the episode will remind public officials and citizens that these companies will do absolutely anything they can get away with.
Continue reading ‘Faking Public Support’


Every year at around this time, just as the shock of your holiday debt is beginning to set in, the telecoms (formerly known as the cable companies) send out their own Season’s Greetings – in the form of a rate “adjustment.”

Somehow, the rates never seem to get adjusted down.
Continue reading ‘“Committed” Cable Companies & Price “Adjustments”’


Commission satisfied with new arrangement

The issue of snow being plowed into Wakefield’s Lake Quannapowitt and surrounding wetlands from the parking lots adjacent to the two Comverse office buildings at the head of the Lake appears to have been resolved to the satisfaction of Conservation Agent Elaine Vreeland and the Wakefield Conservation Commission.
Continue reading ‘ConCom Addresses Snow Plowed Into Lake Quannapowitt’


Democrats address casino gambling, local budget problems

The three Democratic candidates vying to replace Michael E. Festa as the Representative from Massachusetts’ 32nd Middlesex District addressed issues ranging from casino gambling to unfunded state mandates last night in a live televised debate from Wakefield’s Galvin Middle School. (Debate sponsor WCAT is providing a DVD to be aired on the Melrose cable system.)

On Super Tuesday, Feb. 5, Primary voters in Melrose and about half of Wakefield (precincts 3,4,5 and 6) will decide whether Katherine Clark, Guido Federico or Ronald Seaboyer will face Republican Mark Hutchinson of Melrose in the general election. All three Democrats also hail from Melrose.
Continue reading ‘Few Sparks in Rep Debate’


Claim that Falites hid excess profits owed to town

The town has filed suit against Falite Bros., Inc. and its limited liability company, Millbrook Estates, LLC, for breach of contract, fraud and conspiracy, among other allegations in a nine-count civil action. The town alleges that the defendants “retained or secreted excess profits of $1,324,019 belonging to the Town under the Regulatory Agreement.”
Continue reading ‘Town Suing Developer of Millbrook Estates’


Snow from Comverse parking lots at Beal property dumped into Lake

As Wakefield, Massachusetts resident Bob McLaughlin pulled off the Route 128 exit ramp on to North Avenue one day last December, he decided to take a slight detour en route to his Water Street home. The region had just been hit with the second of two back-to-back major winter storms, and as he drove down Quannapowitt Parkway through Wakefield Office Park, McLaughlin noticed something.

Large mountains of plowed around the parking lots of both Comverse office buildings appeared to have been pushed or dumped into Lake Quannapowitt and the surrounding wetland areas. One enormous snow pile sat half on land and half on the lake ice, directly across from an entrance to one of the parking lots.
Continue reading ‘Snow Plowed Into Lake Quannapowitt Raises Environmental Concerns’


Clive Thompson recently wrote a piece for Wired.com called The Age of Microcelebrity: Why Everyone’s a Little Brad Pitt.

“Microcelebrity,” Thompson explains, “is the phenomenon of being extremely well known not to millions but to a small group — a thousand people, or maybe only a few dozen. As DIY media reach ever deeper into our lives, it’s happening to more and more of us. Got a Facebook account? A whackload of pictures on Flickr? Odds are there are complete strangers who know about you — and maybe even talk about you.”

I recently had my own brush with microcelebrity.
Continue reading ‘My 15 Minutes of Microfame’