music – Page 21 – Salem Main Streets

Local Merchants Score On Best of the North Shore

Jul 082014

Where is one of the great places on the North Shore to get a quick or extended bite to eat (Salem, MA) ? Opinions differ as much as tastes do, (Salem, MA) but according to North Shore Magazine’s readers, many of their favorites (Salem, MA) in the recent Best of North Shore survey are in…. you guessed it, Salem, MA.

And it’s not just food that we scored high in the hearts and minds of BONS responders. Salem establishments in other categories also ranked quite high.

DINE

A&J King – Best Bakery (BONS & Readers’ Choice)

Scratch Kitchen – Best BBQ

The Ugly Mug – Best Breakfast

Red’s – Best Breakfast (Readers’ Choice)

A&B Burgers – Best Burger (Tied? Runner-up? – with Lexie’s on State)

Passage To India – Best Indian (Readers’ Choice)

62 Restaurant – Best Italian

Brodie’s – Best Lobster Roll (Taster’s Choice)

Longboards – Best Lobster Roll (Taster’s Choice)

Grapevine – Best Mediterranean

King’s Roast Beef – Best Roast Beef

Turner’s Seafood – Best Seafood, Prepared

Opus – Best Sushi

Life Alive – Vegetarian (BONS & Readers’ Choice)

DRINK

Tavern in the Square – Best Sports Bar (Readers’ Choice)

INDULGE

A&J King – Bake Shop, Pastry (Readers’ Choice)

Ye Olde Pepper Companie – Best Confectionery

Harbor Sweets – Best Confectionery (Readers’ Choice)

The Cookie Monstah (featured at Salem Farmers’ Market) – Best Cookies

62 Restaurant – Best Dessert

Coffee Time Bake Shop – Best Dessert (Readers’ Choice)

RENEW

Paxton – Best Barber Shop, New School

North Shore Boot Camp Company – Best Boot Camp (and great pic of Brandi Dion!)

Hawthorne Hotel – Best Hotel (Readers’ Choice)

Rouge Cosmetics – Best Makeup Application (BONS & Readers’ Choice)

Yoga Sakti – Best Yoga Studio (Readers’ Choice)

PLAY

Witch City 5K – Best Community Walk/Run (Readers’ Choice)

Kernwood Country Club – Best Country Club (Honorable Mention)

Salem Willows Park – Best Family Hangout, Indoor (Readers’ Choice)

Haunted Happenings – Best Festival, Fall (Readers’ Choice)

Salem Film Fest – Best Festival, Spring

Salem’s So Sweet – Best Festival, Winter (BONS & Readers’ Choice)

CinemaSalem – Best Movie Theater (BONS & Readers’ Choice)

Peabody Essex Museum – Best Museum (BONS & Readers’ Choice), Best Tourist Attraction (Readers’ Choice)

SHOP

Petite Etoile – Best Baby Clothing

Modern Millie – Best Consignment (Readers’ Choice)

Roost – Best Gifts

Rouge – Best Makeup Selection

Mighty Aphrodite – Best Maternity Clothing (BONS & Readers’ Choice)

The Barking Cat – Best Pet Boutique (Readers’ Choice)

Mud Puddle Toys – Best Toy Shop (BONS & Readers’ Choice)

NEST

Tri-City Sales – Best Kitchen Appliances (Readers’ Choice)

Landry & Arcari – Best Rugs (BONS & Readers’ Choice)

LIVE

Admiral Concierge – Best Concierge (Readers’ Choice)

Green Clean – Best Cleaning Service (BONS & Readers’ Choice)

So when you think about going somewhere for food and more, no need to give a second thought. Salem has it all in a convenient package. Don’t take our word for it. Take the word of lots of people on the North Shore.

Derby Wharf on the 4th at the Salem Maritime National Historic Site

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Jul 012014

Celebrating the 4th of July is an emotional event, be it on The National Mall in Washington DC or the Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular on the Esplanade— or right here in historic Salem Ma. If you’re looking to honor the founding of our great nation, Salem Ma is very much worth the trip. Just consider this as an exciting backdrop for the festivities: a dozen historic structures, nine acres of waterfront land, all making up the Salem Maritime National Historic Site, which by the way was the first National Historic Site in the National Park System!

Now that we’ve got your attention what exactly are we doing in Salem at Derby Wharf on the 4th of July?

9am – You are invited to join Mayor Kimberly Driscoll on the Salem Common for a patriotic kick off event. “The Star Spangled Banner” will be sung by members of the YMCA of the North Shore Glee Club. The Declaration of Independence will be read by Dann Anthony Maurno, a Salem resident and actor who has appeared onstage in a variety of area venues. Musical selections will be performed by Robert Kendall on keyboard. Salem resident John Howard will lead the audience in singing “America the Beautiful.”

4pm – Children are included in the fun. Kids’ Space, where young ones can play games and get their faces painted, will be provided courtesy of the Gathering, the MeetingHouse Church and the First Universalist Society of Salem. Food tents on site also open at 4pm with hot dogs, French fries, fried dough, kettle corn, and other fair favorites.

5pm – Things begin to heat up as live entertainment begins on the Main Stage with the Pocket Money Orchestra. This amazing young funk group from Salem features energetic original music by Brian Cogger (trumpet), Seth Bailin (tenor and baritone sax), Aidan Scrimgeour (piano), Ben Siwak (bass), Derek Hayden (drums), and Danny Dugan (percussion). The Pocket Money Orchestra has a growing presence on the North Shore music scene and plays regularly at local venues.

7:15pm – Opening Ceremonies! Mayor Driscoll and other local dignitaries will lead a parade down the wharf accompanied by the Salem Veterans Honor Guard and Salem Boy Scout troops. The National Anthem will be sung by Grace Bigus, Sam Bigus, Danielle Lovasco, Chloe Panico, Jacob Pini, Mariella Robinson, Delaney Sprague, and Aly Yanishevsky from the YMCA of the North Shore Glee Club. This is an a cappella group for children ages 12-18 directed by YMCA Music Director Samantha Gambaccini. These students work as a team to create and sing a wide variety of repertoire from classic to contemporary.

This leads up to what we hope will be a Pops experience you will never forget, kicked off by Maestro Dirk Hillyer and his orchestra. This year soloist Jean Danton joins the orchestra with musical selections from Sondheim. Her singing has been described as “stunning,” ”outstanding,” “wonderfully controlled and full-voiced,” and “stylishly stellar.” She is a favorite soloist with Pops orchestras including the Boston Pops Orchestra, North Shore Music Theatre, North Shore Philharmonic Orchestra, and New England Light Opera.

9:15pm – Salem ends its Independence Day celebration with a fireworks extravaganza, accompanied by the Hillyer Festival Orchestra playing the 1812 Overture and other patriotic music throughout the entire fireworks display.

“Salem is fortunate to have such a generous business community that continues to support this celebration,” Mayor Driscoll commented. “I’d like to express a special thank you to Footprint Power – Salem Harbor Station and to Salem Five, along with Aggregate Industries, Tache Real Estate, Market Basket, Eastern Bank, and KV Associates.”

“There is no better place to be than Salem on the 4th,” Mayor Driscoll stated. “We have consistently put together one of the most spectacular live concerts and fireworks extravaganzas anywhere in Massachusetts.”

For more information go to www.salem.com or call the Salem City Hall at 978-745-9595, ext. 5676. For traveling to Salem we advise taking the mbta.

Get here early. Have a nice meal. Enjoy the day and evening. (Photo courtesy Social Palates)

Drink Up Art at PEM’s British Pub Night

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Jun 172014

Drinking is on tap at the Peabody Essex Museum this Thursday night as the next edition of PEM/PM takes place from 6-9pm. Drinking in terms of British beer tasting and drinking in the art of celebrated British artist J.M.W. Turner.

We are quite lucky here in Salem, having not only a quality museum in town, but also a very creative one that makes every effort to be accommodating to the community in the ways it approaches self-promotion.

To do this, every month the PEM has a party series, staying open into the night to shine a spotlight on a particular exhibit. This month: J.M.W. Turner, the British artist celebrated in Turner & the Sea, a new exhibition of more than 100 paintings on view this summer. The evening will feature gallery talks, The Jovial Crew singing folk songs of the sea and shore, a British beer tasting in the Asian Garden, the opportunity to play darts and other pub games and an art-making activity to decorate your own coaster.

Other refreshments will consist of a Cash Bar, with special small plates menu from the Hawthorne Hotel.

In the midst of this swirl of activity, guests will have the opportunity to explore the works of Turner who was one of the most original painters of landscapes and seascapes in Europe.

“Turner lived in one of the world’s most powerful nations at the water’s edge for much of his life, at the very peak of British sea power. As any great artist will do, he embraced the atmosphere of his time and presented it through his work. Turner’s talent was such that he went a step further and also redefined marine painting, and perhaps all painting, forever,” said Daniel Finamore, PEM’s Russell W. Knight Curator of Maritime Art and History.

Dramatic, contemplative, dangerous and beautiful, the sea was the perfect subject to showcase the singular talents of Turner.

Guests will see iconic works spanning the artist’s career from his transformative Academy paintings of the late 1790s and early 1800s to the unfinished, experimental seascapes produced toward the end of his life. Paintings by European and American masters — such as Constable, Whistler and Sargent — illuminate how Turner influenced generations of artists.

Admission is free of charge to PEM members and Salem residents (with ID); Nonmembers $10 at the door. For more info call 866‐745‐1876 or visit their Web site at www.pem.org.

Thursday, Salem Farmers Market and You!

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Jun 132014

You missed it didn’t you? Admit it. You put it on your calendar that the Salem Farmers Market grand opening for the 2014 season was Thursday, June 12th. And you forgot about it. Don’t worry. It will take place next Thursday and every Thursday until Oct. 23rd from 3-7pm in our Derby Square.

Vegetables by the ounce, pound and bushel await you. Plus a great deal more (eggs, strawberries, apple cider, tomatoes, greens, pretzels, honey, cookies, and cheese). Several of the tables we hear were cleaned out.

The mission of a “Farmers Market” is to enhance the quality of life in the Salem downtown area by providing a community activity that fosters social gathering and interaction.

You the shopper are given the rare opportunity to interact with the person who grew or made the items on the table for purchase. You can ask questions. Where did it come from? How was it grown? How fresh is it based on how long it took to get to market?

According to a survey conducted by Farmers Markets Today magazine, more than 85% of farmers market vendors traveled fewer than 50 miles to sell at a farmers market in 2008. In fact, more than half of farmers traveled less than 10 miles to their market, according to a 2006 USDA survey.

You are supporting local agriculture and producers by providing a direct market for their produce and goods. And believe it or not you are also bringing business to local merchants.

The Farmers Market Coalition reports that a 2010 study of the Easton Farmers Market in Pennsylvania, for example, found that 70% of farmers market customers are also shopping at downtown businesses, spending up to an extra $26,000 each week.

Therefore we invite you to come to Salem for our Farmers Market, and then stay to visit our diverse selection of shops, stores and restaurants. (Photographs courtesy of Social Palates)

Hoop Over to Salem Arts Festival

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Jun 072014

Photo Credit – Karen Scalia

You are now joining our program already in progress— if you are coming to Salem Ma. this Saturday or Sunday to participate in our annual Salem Arts Festival. But that’s ok. There are more than enough events and creative arts presenters to satisfy your viewing interests.

Now in its sixth year, the Salem Arts Festival boasts attendance numbers in the thousands and celebrates all the arts: painting, photography, sculpture, dance, music, writing, film, new media, performance, theatre, poetry, culinary, and more.

This year’s event also includes a street fair, plus live entertainment on two performance stages (located in Derby Square and on Artists’ Row).

One of the more colorful events, which already took place, but you can join in progress is

the HulaArt project. “Re-use of recycled materials to create diverse art expressions” is one way used to describe what essentially was the presence of “over four hundred hula hoops, a fifth of which were transformed into HulaArt, form a colorful canopy above Salem’s Artist Row.”

But true to this being a part of an Arts Festival, even the delivery and installation of the hoops to create the canopy was performance art. You can walk under the canopy of hoops. You can look up and marvel at the circles and shapes. And you can even try your hand (or waist) at hooping yourself.

We feel this is a great representation of our hopes for the Arts Festival, it is something you can participate in as well as just view.

Kylie Sullivan, Manager of Salem Main Streets comments “The amount of love, imagination, and hard work that has gone into the HulaArt is absolutely incredible, especially on the part of our partners at the Salem Public Space Project and the Phoenix School, in addition to our sponsors and the support of the City of Salem.

She adds “This project exemplifies so much of what we’re trying to accomplish with this year’s Arts Festival – collaboration, community, and transformation of space.”

No need to bring your own hoop, we have plenty to spare and share.

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