Mary Cogswell, Rebecca Courser and George Packard review some of the files that went into the making of "This Morning Broke Clear".
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Mary Cogswell, Rebecca Courser and George Packard review some of the files that went into the making of "This Morning Broke Clear".
This Morning Broke Clear Premiers April 19, 2008
Imagine that you could voyage back in time to the late nineteenth century, walk along the streets in your town, hear your ancestors’ stories, and learn about how they felt, what they experienced, and how they lived. The Warner Historical Society has created precisely that opportunity through their film project “This Morning Broke Clear: Warner NH in the Wake of the Civil War 1860-1900.” which premiers Saturday April 19 at 7 p.m. at the Warner Town Hall.
The documentary has been in development for three years and is a community project in every sense of the word with dozens of residents involved in recording voice-over narration for the film.
The film revolves around a fictional character named Jenny played by Warner resident and actress Mary Morris. “Jenny” left Warner in 1900 after living in town for 42 years and returns in 1910 to finish her personal historical memoir. “We chose to have a woman as a narrator because it is difficult to find women’s voice in history during this time period because they were not voting or writing articles for the newspaper. Their voice just isn’t well documented.” Rebecca Courser, Executive Director of the Warner Historical Society explained. “You would find small vignettes talking about their singing or raising houseplants, or domestic concerns. In order to read between the lines and bring out their voice we created a woman narrator for the film.”
Mary Morris: “Jenny is looking back at her life in Warner just prior to the Civil War through 1910,” Mary Morris stated. “The character is a vehicle to talk about the history of Warner. She is a professional woman who does some photography and is also a writer and decides she is going to writer her memoirs about Warner. This fictional character intermingles with real individuals who lived in town.”
“It’s an absolutely beautiful film,” Morris affirmed. “The voice over becomes a natural part of what your experience is. George Packard used photographs, papers, and archival materials and wove them with live action, original music. Sound effects, all kinds of layering to create a history of the town we live in. it truly is a gift to the town.”
“The movie is organized in chronological order,” the film’s writer and director George Packard detailed. “The movie follows what was happening after the civil war ended. There was good news and bad news. When soldiers returned in 1865 things were not going well. We deal with the economic depression of 1873, the boom of manufacturing, agriculture dying, people leaving for the West. Small towns faced a lot of challenges. The federal government required towns to provide a certain number of men for the war effort. Towns paid a bounty which was a salary for soldiers. As the war progressed, fewer people were willing to sign up for the amount offered. By the end of the war the town was paying a $800 bounty per soldier.”
“The town was faced with $60,000 in debt immediately following the Civil War,” Courser added. “The town got loans from private citizens and it took decades to repay.”
“The themes in this movie are both specifically Warner related but also mirror what was happening in the culture, such as the problem of having to reinvent the local economy. Business people had a modern sense of promoting the town and tourism yet resources were very limited and there were political divisions. Taxes were on the rise, school systems had to change, these three decades were amazing times.” Packard expressed. “We spent two years digging for clues and putting them together for this movie. The experience of learning is exactly the same as moving into a new town. It just so happened that the town we moved into was 150 years ago. So we began to learn the situations, events, issues, different characters and build an understanding.”
“We’re consolidating forty years into an hour and fifty minutes,” Courser said. “It’s a monumental task.”
Packard worked through more than fifteen versions of the script and went through months of condensing, revising, and rewriting. In the end over three hours of film was shot, and a painstaking editing process began. “You’re bringing people back to life and give them their voices again. Its one of the hardest things I’ve even done. I have literally three hundred pieces that I could weave into the narrative but I only have room for twenty. How do you figure out what to include that will be significant to everybody?” Packard reflected.
“A project like this takes on a life of its own and becomes a rollercoaster,” Courser noted.
“I think the music and images and story is going to be very emotional for people and give them awareness of the community. When people drive down the road past a certain street or a certain house, they’re going to make positive associations with those places. There are parallels with events that were happening then and events that are happening now. There are a lot of stories within the larger stories.”
“The people in this story are not just the prominent people,” Packard stated. “One story we couldn’t fit into the film was about Constantine the Peddler. He was a Greek man who had a business driving a wagon selling goods. There is one picture of him and Rebecca has a diary of a woman who mentions Constantine and she bought something from him. Because her husband wouldn’t let her go to the store to buy a dress, Constantine lent her the money for the dress. This is one of the ten thousand stories we can’t tell in the scope of this movie but still exist. ”
“She had chickens to sell eggs and bought soap in bulk so she could sell soap to neighbors to make money and become just a little more independent,” Courser added.
All of the music in the film was composed or performed by area musicians including
local resident Paul Knudson. “George Packard came to a couple of my Tuesday concerts called Music at 11 at the United Church of Warner and that’s how we connected about the film.” Knudson gave Packard some cassette tapes of his compositions “and the rest,” Knudson quipped, “is history.” Among Knudson’s four works that are featured in the film are a sonata for French horn and piano and a sonata for violin and piano that he wrote for his father. Another theme is taken from the “Folk Quintet” which was recorded by the Manchester Chamber Orchestra. “Although the music was not composed specifically for the film, it blends perfectly,” he said. “I’m thrilled that my music won’t be lost.”
DVDs of “This Morning Broke Clear” will be available for purchase at the premiere on April 19 and afterwards from the Warner Historical Society.
The documentary has been in development for three years and is a community project in every sense of the word with dozens of residents involved in recording voice-over narration for the film.
The film revolves around a fictional character named Jenny played by Warner resident and actress Mary Morris. “Jenny” left Warner in 1900 after living in town for 42 years and returns in 1910 to finish her personal historical memoir. “We chose to have a woman as a narrator because it is difficult to find women’s voice in history during this time period because they were not voting or writing articles for the newspaper. Their voice just isn’t well documented.” Rebecca Courser, Executive Director of the Warner Historical Society explained. “You would find small vignettes talking about their singing or raising houseplants, or domestic concerns. In order to read between the lines and bring out their voice we created a woman narrator for the film.”
Mary Morris: “Jenny is looking back at her life in Warner just prior to the Civil War through 1910,” Mary Morris stated. “The character is a vehicle to talk about the history of Warner. She is a professional woman who does some photography and is also a writer and decides she is going to writer her memoirs about Warner. This fictional character intermingles with real individuals who lived in town.”
“It’s an absolutely beautiful film,” Morris affirmed. “The voice over becomes a natural part of what your experience is. George Packard used photographs, papers, and archival materials and wove them with live action, original music. Sound effects, all kinds of layering to create a history of the town we live in. it truly is a gift to the town.”
“The movie is organized in chronological order,” the film’s writer and director George Packard detailed. “The movie follows what was happening after the civil war ended. There was good news and bad news. When soldiers returned in 1865 things were not going well. We deal with the economic depression of 1873, the boom of manufacturing, agriculture dying, people leaving for the West. Small towns faced a lot of challenges. The federal government required towns to provide a certain number of men for the war effort. Towns paid a bounty which was a salary for soldiers. As the war progressed, fewer people were willing to sign up for the amount offered. By the end of the war the town was paying a $800 bounty per soldier.”
“The town was faced with $60,000 in debt immediately following the Civil War,” Courser added. “The town got loans from private citizens and it took decades to repay.”
“The themes in this movie are both specifically Warner related but also mirror what was happening in the culture, such as the problem of having to reinvent the local economy. Business people had a modern sense of promoting the town and tourism yet resources were very limited and there were political divisions. Taxes were on the rise, school systems had to change, these three decades were amazing times.” Packard expressed. “We spent two years digging for clues and putting them together for this movie. The experience of learning is exactly the same as moving into a new town. It just so happened that the town we moved into was 150 years ago. So we began to learn the situations, events, issues, different characters and build an understanding.”
“We’re consolidating forty years into an hour and fifty minutes,” Courser said. “It’s a monumental task.”
Packard worked through more than fifteen versions of the script and went through months of condensing, revising, and rewriting. In the end over three hours of film was shot, and a painstaking editing process began. “You’re bringing people back to life and give them their voices again. Its one of the hardest things I’ve even done. I have literally three hundred pieces that I could weave into the narrative but I only have room for twenty. How do you figure out what to include that will be significant to everybody?” Packard reflected.
“A project like this takes on a life of its own and becomes a rollercoaster,” Courser noted.
“I think the music and images and story is going to be very emotional for people and give them awareness of the community. When people drive down the road past a certain street or a certain house, they’re going to make positive associations with those places. There are parallels with events that were happening then and events that are happening now. There are a lot of stories within the larger stories.”
“The people in this story are not just the prominent people,” Packard stated. “One story we couldn’t fit into the film was about Constantine the Peddler. He was a Greek man who had a business driving a wagon selling goods. There is one picture of him and Rebecca has a diary of a woman who mentions Constantine and she bought something from him. Because her husband wouldn’t let her go to the store to buy a dress, Constantine lent her the money for the dress. This is one of the ten thousand stories we can’t tell in the scope of this movie but still exist. ”
“She had chickens to sell eggs and bought soap in bulk so she could sell soap to neighbors to make money and become just a little more independent,” Courser added.
All of the music in the film was composed or performed by area musicians including
local resident Paul Knudson. “George Packard came to a couple of my Tuesday concerts called Music at 11 at the United Church of Warner and that’s how we connected about the film.” Knudson gave Packard some cassette tapes of his compositions “and the rest,” Knudson quipped, “is history.” Among Knudson’s four works that are featured in the film are a sonata for French horn and piano and a sonata for violin and piano that he wrote for his father. Another theme is taken from the “Folk Quintet” which was recorded by the Manchester Chamber Orchestra. “Although the music was not composed specifically for the film, it blends perfectly,” he said. “I’m thrilled that my music won’t be lost.”
DVDs of “This Morning Broke Clear” will be available for purchase at the premiere on April 19 and afterwards from the Warner Historical Society.
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Warner Community Radio?
Access to community information is essential in my opinion for a healthy community and a healthy democracy. My vision is to create a radio service that will increase the number of local media choices for Warner residents. Right now we have the New Paper, some regional newspapers that occasionally report about Warner, our fairly comprehensive town website, but nothing by way of radio. Since FCC licensed over the airwaves broadcast stations are financially impossible for a small community to support, internet radio is the next best option. I envision this station as being non-profit, community based with local programming and possibly including audio from town government meetings and community events. When not streaming local programming the station would air a variety of syndicated and non-commercial educational and cultural programs.
I can not create this project alone, but a small group of people working together could implement an internet based radio station at relatively moderate expense. If anyone is interested in this project, please contact me at by email at singinggrove@conknet.com
I can not create this project alone, but a small group of people working together could implement an internet based radio station at relatively moderate expense. If anyone is interested in this project, please contact me at by email at singinggrove@conknet.com
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Support Your Local Booksellers! Before They Disappear!!!
A thought provoking, well-articulated message from Michael Herrmann of Gibsons Book Store in Concord!!!
It’s tough to keep smiling when you’re a bookseller. You see the articles every week:
1) “Book Business in Decline”
2) “People Reading Less”
3) “Young People Prefer Electronic Gadgets to Books”
4) “It’s All Going Digital” (Gutenberg, make way for Steve Jobs)
Etc. Scary stuff! Now, in my opinion, each one of these dire pronouncements is overstated (numbers two and three) or ultimately false (numbers one and four, and you can quote me—or quote Steve Riggio).
But it is certainly true that the book business is tough, and getting tougher. Everyone wants a piece of the action. Wal-Mart and Costco use books as loss leaders, so you’ll think everything in their store is cheap. Supermarkets and gas stations sell Harry Potter. The distinction between new and used is becoming blurred on the Internet. All your favorite blogs link to Amazon to get those kickbacks.
What’s to become of the traditional bookstore? There’s more and more pressure on a bookstore’s traffic, its margins, and its sales, and it has to be more nimble than ever to survive.
By now many you have seen the news that Borders is having financial difficulties. They’ve been losing money, they have too much debt, and they’re facing a cash crunch—all of which the stock market has punished them for severely. They’ve been forced to explore a sale of the company, and they’ll have to trim inventory and stores significantly to get healthy again.
How does this involve you, the casual reader? The committed reader? Well, you just have to choose where you’re going to shop, and let natural selection do the rest. It’s a jungle out there, and not everyone will survive. It’s up to you. Every dollar you spend is a vote for who will make it, especially as the country teeters on the brink of recession.
You can sit at home and click your mouse, and wonder why so many storefronts in your city are empty and why your taxes are so much higher. (Short answer: because you sent all your money out of state.) You can buy the latest Grisham at Target, and wonder later why bookstores aren’t around to host that fundraising book fair your group is planning. You can run out to Wal-Mart and get Eat Pray Love, but miss the opportunity to see six other great travel memoirs that aren't bestsellers. You can click your mouse and have a book on global warming shipped to you in a little package—making your own carbon footprint a lot worse.
Or you can think about where you have a real relationship with a real bookseller, and reward those companies accordingly. Did someone at Borders help put the right kind of manga in your teenager’s hands? Did someone at Gibson’s turn you on to a new novelist? The publishing industry is a marvelous, complex universe, and traditional bookstores are its representatives in your town--do you want real life, or a virtual life? Real bookstores, or just "places where books are sold"?
With all the loyalty programs and sales events we traditional bookstores have, we’re competitive on price, and we’re better at what makes a bookstore a real bookstore—not just its stock, but its people.
I’m biased, so of course I would argue that you should support our independent bookstore. That argument is for another day. My point today is, support real bookstores. Or some dire predictions may come true.
editor's note: a sincere thank you to Michael Herrmann for permission to reprint his essay. For more information check out www.gibsonsbookstore.com and
www.gibsonsbookstore.blogspot.com
It’s tough to keep smiling when you’re a bookseller. You see the articles every week:
1) “Book Business in Decline”
2) “People Reading Less”
3) “Young People Prefer Electronic Gadgets to Books”
4) “It’s All Going Digital” (Gutenberg, make way for Steve Jobs)
Etc. Scary stuff! Now, in my opinion, each one of these dire pronouncements is overstated (numbers two and three) or ultimately false (numbers one and four, and you can quote me—or quote Steve Riggio).
But it is certainly true that the book business is tough, and getting tougher. Everyone wants a piece of the action. Wal-Mart and Costco use books as loss leaders, so you’ll think everything in their store is cheap. Supermarkets and gas stations sell Harry Potter. The distinction between new and used is becoming blurred on the Internet. All your favorite blogs link to Amazon to get those kickbacks.
What’s to become of the traditional bookstore? There’s more and more pressure on a bookstore’s traffic, its margins, and its sales, and it has to be more nimble than ever to survive.
By now many you have seen the news that Borders is having financial difficulties. They’ve been losing money, they have too much debt, and they’re facing a cash crunch—all of which the stock market has punished them for severely. They’ve been forced to explore a sale of the company, and they’ll have to trim inventory and stores significantly to get healthy again.
How does this involve you, the casual reader? The committed reader? Well, you just have to choose where you’re going to shop, and let natural selection do the rest. It’s a jungle out there, and not everyone will survive. It’s up to you. Every dollar you spend is a vote for who will make it, especially as the country teeters on the brink of recession.
You can sit at home and click your mouse, and wonder why so many storefronts in your city are empty and why your taxes are so much higher. (Short answer: because you sent all your money out of state.) You can buy the latest Grisham at Target, and wonder later why bookstores aren’t around to host that fundraising book fair your group is planning. You can run out to Wal-Mart and get Eat Pray Love, but miss the opportunity to see six other great travel memoirs that aren't bestsellers. You can click your mouse and have a book on global warming shipped to you in a little package—making your own carbon footprint a lot worse.
Or you can think about where you have a real relationship with a real bookseller, and reward those companies accordingly. Did someone at Borders help put the right kind of manga in your teenager’s hands? Did someone at Gibson’s turn you on to a new novelist? The publishing industry is a marvelous, complex universe, and traditional bookstores are its representatives in your town--do you want real life, or a virtual life? Real bookstores, or just "places where books are sold"?
With all the loyalty programs and sales events we traditional bookstores have, we’re competitive on price, and we’re better at what makes a bookstore a real bookstore—not just its stock, but its people.
I’m biased, so of course I would argue that you should support our independent bookstore. That argument is for another day. My point today is, support real bookstores. Or some dire predictions may come true.
editor's note: a sincere thank you to Michael Herrmann for permission to reprint his essay. For more information check out www.gibsonsbookstore.com and
www.gibsonsbookstore.blogspot.com
Friday, March 21, 2008
Warner Town Meeting 2008 (story one)
Note: this piece was written for the Argus Champion news paper but not published due to confusion over who was assigned to cover town meeting!
Residents deliberated until nearly midnight at Warner’s Town Meeting on March 12.
Moderator Ray Martin opened the meeting by requesting recognition and a round of applause for Wayne Eigabroadt for his years of service to the town as a selectman. David Hartman, chairman of the selectmen, welcomed meeting attendees and acknowledged Nancy Ladd, Director of Pillsbury Free Library, for earning the town library New Hampshire’s Library of the Year award. He also noted that the annual town report is in memory of Tom Chandler, long-time employee of the water district. Hartman also invited citizens to volunteer and participate on town boards and committees.
Following a powerpoint presentation by Michael Cutting, Chairman of the Budget Committee, residents quickly approved an operating budget of $2,871,082. The town budget includes a 5.8% increase in wages for town employees, who have had minimal cost of living adjustments for the past several years.
Police Chief William Chandler presented the request for $33,000 for a new police cruiser. Charlie Albano asked if the selectmen could make sure that the vehicle gets maximum gas mileage. Chief Chandler explained that the town is looking at purchasing a Dodge Charger which gets increased fuel mileage by operating on 4 cylinders instead of 8 cylinders until they are needed. The current cruiser has in excess of 110,000 miles on it. The motion passed on a voice vote.
Due to numerous recent flooding problems and erosion on town roadways, residents unanimously agreed to funding requests for the Highway Road Construction Capital Reserve Fund and the Highway Equipment Capital Reserve Fund for a total of $310,000 between the two funds. Road Agent Alan Brown gave meeting goers details of planned reconstruction of the bridge at Connors Mill Road which has been washed away since 2006. He stated that if all the elements come together, construction might be completed by late summer, or sooner.
FEMA and State Aid will cover $563,600 of the approximated $667,000 cost of replacing the bridge.
Warner residents also voted to appropriate $50,000 toward the purchase and improvement of Transfer Station land from the State. “We used to lease the land for $1 a year,” Wayne Eigabroadt explained. “Then the state wanted to find out what kind of revenue they could get from leased properties and are now charging us $10,000 a year. They want the town to buy the land as soon as possible.”
The issue of a $50,000 request to assist with preserving open land in Warner generated intense discussion. Rebecca Courser educated attendees about how conservation and land preservation work for landowners, the town, and the public. Residents are allowed to hunt, fish and hike on conservation easement land, but not camp or log. Some conservation land is donated, some is sold to the town or state, and some is retained by the landowners with long-term use agreements. Some residents questioned whether conservation funds benefit the whole community or just a select number of landowners. A motion was made and passed to vote for this article on a paper ballot. The measure passed 109 to 56.
Another contentious issue was a request for $10,000 to study traffic needs at the intersection of Route 103 and Market Basket. Barbara Annis, Chairwoman of the Planning Board, allayed rumors that the town has decided to build a roundabout in the area. “We know very well that traffic is increasing. In 2001 there were 6,800 cars that went past there daily. In 2006 there were cars 9134 in the same place,” she reported. “In order for us to know what to do we need to do further research so we can come back to the town and tell us what we’ve found out and you can tell us what to do.” Some residents expressed concern about spending money for more studies rather than actually doing something concrete with the money. “No one on the Planning Board is an engineer,” Annis explained. “We met with the State Department of Transportation and the first question was ‘What is your plan? What are you going to do?’ We can’t move the park and ride, even though the entrance is ten feet from the Market Basket entrance. None of the driveways and exits at the intersection line up. There would need to be a complete redesign of traffic flow for a traffic light. There could be more development in the area. This is why we need to study this issue further.” Ultimately, residents disagreed and voted against the appropriation on a voice vote.
Warner residents voted in favor of a citizen initiative to allow homeowners a small property tax break related to the cost of installing wind and solar power systems on their homes. Also, after a rare tie-breaking vote from town moderator Ray Martin on the last warrant article of the evening, town government meetings will now be recorded in digital audio format and made available for residents to listen to on the town’s website.
Residents deliberated until nearly midnight at Warner’s Town Meeting on March 12.
Moderator Ray Martin opened the meeting by requesting recognition and a round of applause for Wayne Eigabroadt for his years of service to the town as a selectman. David Hartman, chairman of the selectmen, welcomed meeting attendees and acknowledged Nancy Ladd, Director of Pillsbury Free Library, for earning the town library New Hampshire’s Library of the Year award. He also noted that the annual town report is in memory of Tom Chandler, long-time employee of the water district. Hartman also invited citizens to volunteer and participate on town boards and committees.
Following a powerpoint presentation by Michael Cutting, Chairman of the Budget Committee, residents quickly approved an operating budget of $2,871,082. The town budget includes a 5.8% increase in wages for town employees, who have had minimal cost of living adjustments for the past several years.
Police Chief William Chandler presented the request for $33,000 for a new police cruiser. Charlie Albano asked if the selectmen could make sure that the vehicle gets maximum gas mileage. Chief Chandler explained that the town is looking at purchasing a Dodge Charger which gets increased fuel mileage by operating on 4 cylinders instead of 8 cylinders until they are needed. The current cruiser has in excess of 110,000 miles on it. The motion passed on a voice vote.
Due to numerous recent flooding problems and erosion on town roadways, residents unanimously agreed to funding requests for the Highway Road Construction Capital Reserve Fund and the Highway Equipment Capital Reserve Fund for a total of $310,000 between the two funds. Road Agent Alan Brown gave meeting goers details of planned reconstruction of the bridge at Connors Mill Road which has been washed away since 2006. He stated that if all the elements come together, construction might be completed by late summer, or sooner.
FEMA and State Aid will cover $563,600 of the approximated $667,000 cost of replacing the bridge.
Warner residents also voted to appropriate $50,000 toward the purchase and improvement of Transfer Station land from the State. “We used to lease the land for $1 a year,” Wayne Eigabroadt explained. “Then the state wanted to find out what kind of revenue they could get from leased properties and are now charging us $10,000 a year. They want the town to buy the land as soon as possible.”
The issue of a $50,000 request to assist with preserving open land in Warner generated intense discussion. Rebecca Courser educated attendees about how conservation and land preservation work for landowners, the town, and the public. Residents are allowed to hunt, fish and hike on conservation easement land, but not camp or log. Some conservation land is donated, some is sold to the town or state, and some is retained by the landowners with long-term use agreements. Some residents questioned whether conservation funds benefit the whole community or just a select number of landowners. A motion was made and passed to vote for this article on a paper ballot. The measure passed 109 to 56.
Another contentious issue was a request for $10,000 to study traffic needs at the intersection of Route 103 and Market Basket. Barbara Annis, Chairwoman of the Planning Board, allayed rumors that the town has decided to build a roundabout in the area. “We know very well that traffic is increasing. In 2001 there were 6,800 cars that went past there daily. In 2006 there were cars 9134 in the same place,” she reported. “In order for us to know what to do we need to do further research so we can come back to the town and tell us what we’ve found out and you can tell us what to do.” Some residents expressed concern about spending money for more studies rather than actually doing something concrete with the money. “No one on the Planning Board is an engineer,” Annis explained. “We met with the State Department of Transportation and the first question was ‘What is your plan? What are you going to do?’ We can’t move the park and ride, even though the entrance is ten feet from the Market Basket entrance. None of the driveways and exits at the intersection line up. There would need to be a complete redesign of traffic flow for a traffic light. There could be more development in the area. This is why we need to study this issue further.” Ultimately, residents disagreed and voted against the appropriation on a voice vote.
Warner residents voted in favor of a citizen initiative to allow homeowners a small property tax break related to the cost of installing wind and solar power systems on their homes. Also, after a rare tie-breaking vote from town moderator Ray Martin on the last warrant article of the evening, town government meetings will now be recorded in digital audio format and made available for residents to listen to on the town’s website.
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