Portsmouth adds electric truck to city fleet

Portsmouth has begun using its first zero-gasoline truck, an electric vehicle that replaces an outdated parking enforcement van as part of the city’s commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The Miles ZX40ST Work Truck requires no gasoline, has an estimated range of 50 miles and operates at a maximum speed of 25 mph. Charging the vehicle from 50 percent battery capacity takes approximately four hours from a 110-volt receptacle. The vehicle is also equipped with a regenerative braking system to recharge batteries while the vehicle is in use.

Randy Armstrong releases comprehensive Do’a box set

When guitarist Randy Armstrong first met flutist Ken LaRoche in 1974, Armstrong was studying North Indian music on sitar. A classically trained player, LaRoche was already versed in the bansuri flute of India. This shared penchant for Indian artistry helped set the pair on a musical sojourn that would explore sounds and instruments from just about every region of the world.
“It became this undying thirst to reach out and find out what was available musically,” Armstrong said. “I don’t have enough days in my life to explore all the possibilities.”

LaRoche passed away in January 2006, but the music he and Armstrong recorded together as members of world fusion group Do’a live on in “Legacy,” a new five-disc box set of the band’s complete remastered works.

Rain has dampened activities at the Prescott Park Arts Festival this summer. According to organizers, the previous record for rained-out events in a single season was nine. This year, there have been a total of 18 rainouts.

“As an outdoor music festival, we’re really at the mercy of the weather,” festival director Ben Anderson said in a press release. “And while we prepare for rain, this summer was beyond anything like we’ve experienced before.”

But the weather has turned mostly pleasant in the waning days of summer, and Anderson has responded by booking one last show. The Shaw Brothers are playing a special benefit concert on Wednesday, Aug. 27, to close out the 34th annual festival. Like all summer shows at Prescott Park, the concert is free, with a suggested donation of $5 to $8.

The Honors release debut EP

Formed in January, The Honors is off to a hot start. Already, the Boston-based indie rock band has opened for Blues Traveler at the Alive at Five Music Festival in Connecticut and performed at the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island. With the release of its debut EP, the band now has added an original recording to its resumé.

Although formed in Boston, The Honors has strong connections to the Seacoast music scene. Among the four-piece band’s members are drummer Jay Trikakis and bassist Roland Nicol, both of Portsmouth-based hip-hop ensemble The Press Project and other local groups. Trikakis, a Massachusetts native, met vocalist/guitarist Brandon Heisler in 2003 while both were studying at Regent’s College in London.

rated R 

New World Pictures, 1988
starring: Treat Williams, Joe Piscopo, Darren McGavin and Lindsay Frost
directed by: Mark Goldblatt

a new generation of superheroes makes its debut in “Who Can Save Us Now?”

Look! Up in the trees—it’s a cat! No, it’s a ferret! Wait a minute—is that a meerkat?

OK, it’s not the most heroic of introductions, and you’re unlikely to find it in a comic book or movie anytime soon, but it’s perfectly fitting for the heroes introduced in “Who Can Save Us Now?,” a new anthology of superhero origin stories edited by Owen King and John McNally. The book has super teams like The Quick Stop 5, a quintet of convenience store employees with powers based on items in the store, from a guy with a body made of beef jerky to a woman who can shoot streams of blue raspberry slushie from her hands and feet. It also has weird heroes like The Silverfish (he’s, uh, a silverfish, and likes to eat glue when not fighting crime) and Manna Man (who can force television evangelists to do his bidding). The super folks in “Who Can Save Us Now?” provide a wry look at what life with fantastic powers might actually be like.

In response to the rising cost of groceries, Seacoast farmers are helping residents of Cross Roads House to servings of healthy, fresh, locally grown food in New Hampshire’s largest emergency and transitional shelter.

Each Saturday at the Portsmouth Farmers’ Market, volunteers from several area organizations gather food donations from farmers who have enough to share. Visitors to the market can assist the effort and increase the amount of fresh vegetables being delivered each week by making donations of food themselves.

artisan marketplace available

A retail shop at 503 Central Ave. in the heart of downtown Dover is transforming itself into an artisan marketplace.
Cynthia Ouellette, owner of Cynthia Designs Studio, is offering four retail spaces inside her store to established local artisans and craftspeople who are interested in testing the retail waters and looking to build brand recognition.

Ouellette already offers her own hand-crafted clothing line and interior design items at the shop, where she works daily at the sewing machine in the front of the store. The open space inside invites a more bustling atmosphere, she said. When the spaces fill up, “it will become a destination spot.”

‘My Fair Lady’ at the Ogunquit Playhouse

Like many good stories, “My Fair Lady” begins with a bet. Linguistics professor Henry Higgins bets his colleague, Colonel Pickering, that his speech lessons can turn a poor Londoner into a real lady.

After months of relentless work, they almost give up before Eliza Doolittle learns to pronounce words the way Higgins has taught her. The celebratory dance around the study leaves her wanting more.

Eliza Doolittle becomes an elegant lady with the memorable song, “I Could Have Danced All Night.” As played by Gail Bennett at the Ogunquit Playhouse, her vocal range is vast, from the casual way the song is introduced to the formal way she pronounces the “A” in danced, like in the word “dawn.” The song finishes with a flourish at front and center stage, and the audience begins to applaud well before she finishes the last long, high note.

It’s been an uphill battle for New Hampshire’s piping plovers, but a handful of newborn chicks on the Seacoast have given officials reason to hope that the endangered birds are rebounding. Six fledgling plovers survived this summer in Hampton and Seabrook.

Piping plovers are federally threatened and are classified as endangered in New Hampshire. Authorities have been working to protect the species along the Atlantic Coast from South Carolina to Newfoundland, Canada. New Hampshire Fish and Game’s Nongame and Endangered Wildlife Program has been monitoring plover nests in the Seacoast since 1996.