For me, listening to music is a live-out-loud experience. That’s why my iPod often sits idle, gathering dust and losing its charge. I usually forgo its technical isolation, preferring instead to turn the knob, sink into a chair, and assume the full weight of music with my whole being. At times it pours out heavy […]
chair
Yankee
Eye Spy in Salem
All representational art is an optical illusion, the representation of three dimensional objects and space on a two dimensional surface. But when we think of art and illusion, we generally think of things such as trompe l’oeil paintings, the visual conundrums of an M.C. Escher, and the hypnotic geometries of 1970s Op Art, art works […]
Massachusetts
Club Passim in Cambridge, Massachusetts | Local Treasure
Before Anaïs Mitchell can take the stage, Matt Smith, manager of Club Passim in Cambridge, Massachusetts, takes the mic and starts talking about chairs. They’re uncomfortable, he says, and the 125 people crowded into the tiny basement room nod back in agreement. Comfier ones cost money, though, so a little later Matt passes the hat, […]
Magazine
A Night of Jazz | Mary’s Farm
A thin breeze blew up off the lake as I parked in front of the old manse. It was late summer; most all the summer folk had left, but there were a few hangers-on who hadn’t, as yet, drained the pipes and cleared the pantry shelves for the winter. I let myself in, walked through […]
Massachusetts
Nantucket Highlights
As ever, I’m running around New England this summer — eating, drinking, cooking, sitting in a beach chair watching the waves (or my nieces and nephews, or the sunset, or …), hiking, swimming in glacial lakes, and staying up late on the porch with my family. I took a week on Nantucket, and here are […]
Magazine
Life on an Oil Rig │ Yankee Classic
Working on an offshore oil rig is a demanding and dangerous profession. Author Scott Cramer signed on as a roustabout on a rig exploring the Baltimore canyon. Here is his report. From Yankee Magazine April 1981 The round-trip fare is $50.95. as I board the bus in Providence I try to remember what I accomplished during […]
Magazine
Inside Yankee: Finding Summer
We wait so patiently, don’t we? We find all sorts of ways to enjoy winter–snow sports, cozy inns, reading by the fire, bragging about snow tires and wood piles–because we either do that or be miserable, or join the snowbirds. So we wait. And spring comes. Café tables appear like welcome blossoms; we put away […]
I have written about my friend Maria Elena before—in a previous blog she graciously shared her recipe for seco, a traditional Peruvian stew made with lots of cilantro (a personal favorite). She has also been a patient knitting mentor for me—it is a wonder that as of the writing of this blog, she hasn’t pierced […]
SLIDE SHOW: Winslow Homer works I stand alone on a boulder-strewn shoreline, a rugged symbol of Maine. The waves thrash against the rocks. They shoot a salty mist onto my face and clothing. The sound is almost deafening. It’s no surprise that they call this part of Prouts Neck “Cannon Rock.” Or maybe it’s named […]
I live in a house with two small boys, two large dogs, and one boisterous husband. Silence is truly golden. I find myself cherishing the kind of peace and solitude that in my youth would have left me with a bad case of cabin fever. Time and maturity have taught me to embrace silence. In […]
How To
How to Make a Ski Chair
Lincoln Fuller isn’t big on getting rid of stuff. “I have a tough time throwing anything away,” says the Yarmouth, Maine, resident. Take his ski chalet at Sunday River, where Fuller and his family have been coming since 1968. There, four decades of fiberglass skis had built up, most of them finding a home in […]
When Don DiMugno moved into his house in Kensington, Connecticut, he went straight to work creating space to display his ever-growing collection of memorabilia. Five additions and 41 years later, DiMugno’s collectibles fill his 2,000-square-foot home, a new barn, and the garage–and, as any passerby will notice, spill into his yard and driveway. DiMugno admits […]