Some people are musician groupies and collect signed concert ticket stubs. I am a writer groupie and collect signed books. This year was a particularly good one for me. I met two of my favorite living authors. Or, at least I met one author who I wished would be my new best friend, and I […]
Art is all about making personal choices, not just for the artist, but also for the audience, the dealer, the collector, the curator, and the critic. What exhibitions am I going to see? What artists am I going to write about? What art do I think is important? What art am I going to buy? […]
Several weeks ago, I received an email from Keith Davis, a Maine entrepreneur who has devoted the past few years to reviving a beloved Maine treat called the Harbor Bar. Harbor Bars are chocolate-dipped ice cream sandwiches filled with either vanilla or mint ice cream. They were first created in the late 1970s as a […]
Welcome to the August 2011 edition of Jud’s New England Journal, the rather curious monthly musings of Judson Hale, the Editor-in-Chief of Yankee Magazine, published since 1935 in Dublin, N.H. When Richard Wagner Came to Camp on a Scow It was a summer of music I’ll never forget What with all the band concerts, chamber […]
One of my favorite photo pieces we’ve run in Yankee focused on the young performers of Circus Smirkus in 2001. Our photographer, Dana Smith, captured these beautifully composed portraits in black and white. There is such an intensity and allure to each of the images. I remember having all of the black and white prints […]
My good friend Rob Shetterly and I had a major difference of opinion recently over the ethical if not the aesthetic merits of drawings by Steve Mumford. Rob, president of the Union of Maine Visual Artists, an art activist, creator of the American Who Tell the Truth portrait series, and a plaintiff in the lawsuit […]
Connecticut is the New England state least defined by its geography — a gentle green landscape of low, rolling hills, highways, and suburbs, a commuter haven more determined by culture than nature. As such, the Nutmeg State is also a splendid destination for art lovers. The established Connecticut Art Trail features 14 distinctive museums, each […]
I have always been ambivalent on the subject of hunting. I understand the arguments but love our friends in the wild. A trip to New Jersey, which inevitably includes the sight of deer carcasses scattered along the roadside like so much litter, can help along the arguments not only for thinning the herd, but also […]
My editor and a longtime travel writer, Mel Allen, often hands out the sagely advice to “get lost, but carry a good map.” Sometimes this works better in theory than in practice. Don’t get me wrong, it’s definitely good advice for people in our line of work. Good travel writing takes readers to places they’ve […]
If you know the difference between Camille Pissarro, the French Impressionist painter, and Francisco Pizarro, the Spanish explorer, you may also know that Pissarro was considered the Father of Impressionism and is celebrated and loved for his gentle, soft focus landscapes and scenes of rural life. What you may not know is that Camille Pissarro […]
Welcome to the July 2011 edition of Jud’s New England Journal, the rather curious monthly musings of Judson Hale, the editor-in-chief of Yankee, published since 1935 in Dublin, New Hampshire. Okay, So Who Was the First to Fry a Clam? I feel pretty certain as to who was the first to EAT a clam. But […]
Though one could easily describe the handcrafted children’s clothing Mary-Alice Dalton produces as art , she’d prefer not to think of it that way. “My work is meant to be worn every day, by an active child, and I design and construct every piece with that in mind,” says the founder of Belmont, New Hampshire-based […]
