"The Halloween Trilogy"

October 21, 2017 — The Winnipesaukee Playhouse in Meredith, New Hampshire, presented its annual pre-Halloween Radio Variety Hour, a staged reproduction of an old-time radio drama, always one of the spooky variety, complete with commercials for Lifebuoy Soap, Carter's Little Liver Pills, and other products from the 1940's. This presentation, three plays in an hour without intermission, was entitled "The Halloween Trilogy," assembled by Cecilia Fannon and John de Lancie, directed for the Playhouse by John Piquado, and featuring the Winni Players Community Theatre actors, each playing multiple roles.

The three dramas were "The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allan Poe, "The Canterville Ghost" by Oscar Wilde, and "Mark of the Beast" by Rudyard Kipling. The actors are seated on folding chairs at the back of the stage until called to the microphone to speak their parts. The host (Pat Jansen) introduces each drama and signals the actors to come to the microphone where they wait for her cue to speak. Off to the left, the foley artist, or sound technician (Lord Adam Young), provides background sound with a surprising variety of noise-making equipment.

Actors appearing in this performance were David Bownes, Andrew Burke, Steve Copithorne, Gail Ledger, Delaney Andrews, Jim Gocha, Dana Gardner and Valerie Kimball. I suspect good actors welcome an opportunity to ham it up and over-act, as they did with marvelous results in this presentation. When the actors are having fun with the material, their enthusiasm tends to spread to the audience, and the audience was delighted with this night's performance.

Vintage Era & Extinct Car Day

October 21, 2017 — The Larz Anderson Auto Museum in Brookline, Massachusetts, combined its annual Extinct Car Day with Vintage Era and Chrome, a show formerly held at the Endicott Estate in Dedham, Massachusetts. The inclusive title of the show welcomed a wide variety of years, makes and models, and it paid off in a much larger show than average for Larz Anderson with a wide variety of vehicles.

Weatherwise, it was one of the best days of the entire season, with the temperature flirting with the 80-degree mark and clear blue skies with nary a trace of a cloud, remarkable for late October in New England. Photography conditions couldn't have been better and I was able to capture some exceptional cars under perfect lighting. You can view the results of my efforts at this link:

https://www.linwoodstreet.com/anderson17fall/

Antique Vehicle Meet & Tour

October 14, 2017 — In spite of clouds and occasional drizzle that didn't fully clear until early afternoon with less than two hours remaining in the show, the Antique Vehicle Meet & Tour at the Little Red School House in Dunstable, Massachusetts was highly successful. Cars were arriving all morning, not in numbers matching last year, but still quite a respectable showing. Further adding to the dullness of the day was an absence of fall color, usually brilliant at this venue at this time of year. Unseasonably warm weather this fall has delayed the change in color, causing trees to lose their leaves before changing.

Added to the show this year was a brief tour by antique cars on a loop of several miles around Dunstable, and a stop at the picturesque town hall for a photo op. A video of the tour and almost 80 photos of the show can be seen at this link:

https://www.linwoodstreet.com/beanpot2017/

Brimfield Antique Auto Show

October 7, 2017 — Where have the years gone? It seems like no time at all has gone by since I attended the first car show in Brimfield, Massachusetts. Now they've just held their ninth, and they're looking forward to their tenth anniversary next year.

That first year was small, probably less than 200 vehicles. I went to two more of their shows, the last time in 2012, and observed on this blog that the show was growing "exponentially." That's still true. This year's show featured 704 vehicles.

The show is held at the Heart-o-the-Mart on U.S. Route 20 in the Pioneer Valley of central Massachusetts, on a sprawling field, bordered on one side by a river, with lots of trees. Usually, at this time of year, the trees are in full fall color, but unseasonably warm weather this fall seems to be leading to dull color, and in many cases leaves are falling before they change. The day of the show felt like the dog days of August. This show was sponsored by the First Congregational Church of Brimfield, and all proceeds were going to renovate the 1848 church.

My first impression when I walked onto the field was one of disappointment. One of my pet peeves is cars with their hoods up, making for poor pictures, at least in my opinion. As I scanned the fields, it appeared all cars had their hoods up. I felt I was walking into a sea of gaping alligators. I had a notion to turn around and go home, even after the nearly two-hour drive to get there. But as I walked around the fields, I found some cars with hoods down, and the cars of the '20s and '30s with "butterfly" hoods that had one side of the hood up, could be photographed from the opposite side. I also found some owners who gladly put their hoods down when asked. In the end, I came home with over 100 pictures, just about average.

My photos, a good variety including some never-before-seen vehicles, can be viewed at:

http://www.linwoodstreet.com/brimfield17/

Stratham Hill Car & Bike Show

October 1, 2017 — The Stratham Hill Car & Bike Show in Stratham, New Hampshire, is one of the must-see shows on my agenda. The only time I've missed it in recent years was last year when it rained on the day of the show. This year's show was held under sunny skies but cool temperatures. In fact, it was downright cold early in the morning, but warmed to the upper 60s later.

This year's show, sponsored as always by Stratham Boy Scout Troop 185, was a bit below average in number and variety of cars compared to previous years, but I've noticed a trend to smaller shows at several venues this season. Another problem, as I've mentioned in previous postings on this blog, is that I haven't covered as large an area this year as I have some years, staying confined to four New England states, so I'm seeing many of the same cars show after show. Sometimes I'll photograph a car that already appears on my website from a previous show if it's exceptional enough to make a nice addition to any series.

Overall, the Stratham show was a good one, with many interesting vehicles. You can see all my favorites at this link:

http://www.linwoodstreet.com/stratham17/