Steve Smith disappears through the wicket gate — the smaller, person-size door built into one of the two much larger doors of his backyard barn. Then the large door swings […]
IMPROVISATIONS
The Key Is to Show Up
The Volunteers have found a regular home at Wellfleet’s Wicked Oyster
The air hums more than usual on Thursday evenings at the Wicked Oyster in Wellfleet. From 6 to 8 p.m., the Volunteers, a small jazz combo, occupies one low-lit corner. […]
MEET THE MAKER
Steve Smith Throws Away the Level and the Square
To be a boatbuilder is to be part fine-tuner, part heavy lifter, part dreamer
Steve Smith disappears through the wicket gate — the smaller, person-size door built into one of the two much larger doors of his backyard barn. Then the large door swings […]
RADIO
Spinning the Classics
WOMR DJ Felice Coral wants listeners to ‘feel the music’
When Felice Coral drove back and forth between her family’s house in Eastham and her place in Boston, she would tune in to WOMR, Provincetown’s community radio station, as soon […]
ON SECOND THOUGHT
Eckman Has a Change of Heart on Tax Policy
Eastham Select Board chair says she will now vote for a residential exemption
EASTHAM — Select board chair Aimee Eckman said Monday that she has changed her mind about whether Eastham should enact a residential tax exemption. Only last week, the board had […]
HATS OFF
Michael Lussier Has Had a Really Good Time
After a 43-year career, hairstylist and florist Michael Lussier retires with ‘room to grow’
PROVINCETOWN — Michael Lussier, longtime hair stylist, flower arranger, and former drag queen, is closing up shop. On the morning of Jan. 8, Lussier made his last arrangement — white […]
VIRTUOSO
For Beppe Gambetta, Music Is Like Magic
The guitarist from Genoa whose life was changed by Doc Watson’s flatpicking
Beppe Gambetta grew up in the ancient port city of Genoa, Italy. His mother and father were “opera people,” fond of music, he says. Gambetta was more than fond of […]
MEET THE MAKER
When Glass Speaks
John Best’s sparkling boxes are made of movement, sound, and color
In his basement studio in Wellfleet, John Best is sweeping fragments of glass out of the way, searching for his early-1900s optician’s pliers. He finds them: the business end of […]
REFUGE
Sea Rescues, Spy Glasses, and Skinny-Dipping
Navigating the history of the Wellfleet Beachcomber
The Cape Cod Oracle of Thursday, March 17, 1988 included a letter to the editor from Lawrence H. Gallagher, the younger brother of Russell Gallagher. In 1953, Russell had purchased […]
HEART BEAT
The Good Doctor of Provincetown
Dr. Daniel Hiebert was famous in a small town
One December evening in 1971, a masked man knocked on the side door of Dr. Daniel H. Hiebert’s home in Provincetown. “Turn around, I want to see your back,” the […]
CENTENARIANS
A Man of Habit and Adventure
He’s 100, but Frank Koebel has always been on the young side
WELLFLEET — It seemed to Frank Koebel that he was always the youngest in everything. When he started school in Columbus, Ohio at five, he was young for his class. […]
MUSIC
From Eastham to Hollywood and Home Again
Natalia Bonfini is a different musician after American Idol
Four years ago, Natalia Bonfini, who grew up in Eastham, found herself in Nashville, face to face with American Idol judges Katy Perry, Lionel Richie, and Luke Bryan. She would […]
THE PRESENT MOMENT
Building a Home and a Community Through Art
Fred Boak and Naomi Rush compiled their art collection by gift-giving in a ‘late romance’
In a sunny room of her Orleans house, Naomi Rush begins a tour of her art collection with a black-and-white linocut by Joyce Johnson titled Salt Pond — Winter. Rush’s […]
D.I.Y.
A Good Woodpile Is a Curmudgeon’s Comfort
Ban the tarp, have a stacking strategy, think about your BTUs, and enjoy the ambience
It’s the season for stoking woodstoves and laying in firewood. But those are arts that, up to now, I’ve only been the beneficiary of. I like sitting by a glowing […]
AN ARTIST’S LEGACY
A Family History, Recorded in Christmas Cards
Barbara Haven Malicoat was ‘the best grandmother ever’
Sculptor Breon Dunigan, sitting at her kitchen table in Truro, remembers the Christmastime haircuts well. She and her siblings and cousins — the six granddaughters of Provincetown artist Barbara Haven […]
