richardhowe.com

After a little respite local playwright Jack Neary is back blogging. This entry is cross posted from Jack’s own blog, titled Shards. Welcome back Jack.

Clearly, I need to work on my blogging.

Clearly, I am not a dedicated blogger.

It’s good that I have only eight followers, because, clearly, I am not a good leader.

I will try to improve.

Some random things to type about, relative to the last two and a half months…

I am typing this from a lovely deck overlooking a lovely back yard and a lovely pool in Derry, New Hampshire, where I now almost reside. I am in the process of actually moving ALL the stuff of my life for the first time in twenty-five years, and the undertaking is mammoth. I have thrown NOTHING away, and, while I’m getting better at discarding little bits and pieces of my life, I’m still a hoarder. I have until July 31 to gather and store what needs to be retained. I have moved and stored all my books and my vinyl. You know, the important stuff. Now, for the rest of it.

I have created a mancave here in my new digs. I have ensconced myself in a corner of the first floor of my brother and sister-in-law’s house, and turned it into a combination screening room, library, kitchenette, sleeping quarters and semi-office. And the bathroom is only a few feet away. Eventually, the plan is to build a real office out over the garage. I may never leave New Hampshire again.

An exaggeration, but it is very, very nice here.

—–

Just back from New Century Theatre at Smith College in Northampton where I directed my play TO FORGIVE, DIVINE as part of New Century’s 20th Anniversary Season. I am co-founder of the theatre, along with Sam Rush. On July 18, 1991, we presented the first performance at New Century–my play JERRY FINNEGAN’S SISTER, featuring Chris Connell and Jenna Moscowitz. Jenna was in the audience for TFD last week and looked not a day over the 21 she was when she did the show. TFD, after battling through the smallish audiences over the July 4th weekend, played to big, responsive houses for the final five shows, and it was a wonderful experience, working with old friends Dave Mason, Sandra Blaney, Ed Jewett, Barb McEwen, and Catherine Bloch, and introducing the NCT audience to young Nora Kaye. Good show, I think.

—–

Been getting some significantly favorable response from some savvy actor friends about my new play, AULD LANG SYNE. In the well-respected tradition of not jinxing it, that’s all I’ll say about it.

—–

Anybody seen Kevin Bacon in TAKING CHANCE? Worth the rental. He’s never been better, and the story, about a Marine colonel accompanying the body of a fallen soldier back to his hometown, is gut-wrenching.

—–

And then there’s the just-released documentary on Joan Rivers, entitled JOAN RIVERS, A PIECE OF WORK, which I highly recommend. It is honest beyond belief and Joan is funny as ever as she scratches and claws through a year in the business, battling a system that reveres youth and sidesteps performers of a certain age. Check it out.

—–

Reading a couple of swell books on my Kindle: THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO by Stieg Larsson and THE MEN WHO WOULD BE KING, an examination of the life of DreamWorks SKG, by Nicole Laporte.

—–

I’m glad THE CLOSER is back and I don’t give a damn how much you don’t like Kira’s Southern drawl because the stories are interesting and well written and the acting is terrific. So there.

—–

Among the vinyl I have successfully stored in my move is an album of John Kiley organ solos. Does anybody know who that is? Don’t quote me on this, but I bet John played “Sweet Caroline” at Fenway before he passed away.

—–

Okay, I’ll try to save something and perhaps come up with another entry within the next three months.

The article below concerning UMass Lowell student Paula Bustus of Andover and the Bridgewell Day Center first appeared in the Andover Townsman. It is an interesting read.

Local engineer-to-be develops fun tool to help developmentally disabled

UMass Lowell electrical engineering student Paula Bustus of Andover had had no experience with individuals with developmental disabilities last winter when she first visited the Bridgewell Day Center in Lynn. But the University of Massachusetts Lowell student was on a mission, to complete an assistive technology project for one of her requirements.
Her challenge was to create a fitness machine for clients with limited motor skills and short attention spans, according to the school. The goal was to figure out how to motivate them to exercise.
Bustus spent months developing the concept, consulting with Bridgewell staff, assessing client needs and abilities, figuring out the electrical circuits and programming. At the end of the school year, she delivered the final product: a pedaling machine that encourages exercise by creating music and lighting effects in response to the pedaling. The person’s pedaling activates a bubbly display of colored lights and triggers one of five different sets of 10 songs.
“The Bridgewell work with UMass Lowell was a really good learning experience,” said Bustus. “We get to see the application of what we have been learning in the classroom. It’s great to see the end product help someone else.”
“Paula went above and beyond,” said Patty Peterson, an occupational therapist affiliated with Bridgewell. “Paula made it sturdy; she understood that clients need mechanical things that are stable and simple. You can’t have more than one or two switches to operate.”
Started in 1991, the assistive technology program allows faculty, staff and students in the College of Engineering to assist disadvantaged individuals with special needs and problems. It invites problems from community-based partners, according to the school. The National Science Foundation provides some money for materials.
Successful projects are delivered to the client at no cost to the client.
“We need to challenge our students to prove they’re engineers,” said Alan Rux, project technical coordinator of the assistive technology program at UMass Lowell in which Bustus participated. “It’s great. We’re the only program where it’s mandatory for all electrical engineering students.”
“The students we work with have unbelievable talent,” said Peterson. “Many of them have never met anyone with developmental disabilities, so it’s an opportunity for the students as well.”
“This is all about the satisfaction that ‘Wow, I can do this,’” said Senait Haileselassie, who is involved in assistive technology support at UMass Lowell and, like Bustus, had no prior experience with disabled people.
Haileselassie is a 2005 graduate of the electrical engineering program.
“It was an adjustment in the first meeting, but by the second and third meeting you see them differently. You hug them, and you become friends,” she said, adding that the “reward is when you deliver it (your assistive technology project) and see how the clients use it.”