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 […]
ON POINTE
A Sweet Taste of Ballet at Town Hall
Excerpts from The Nutcracker performed by talented students, directed by one ‘nutty lady’
The bunheads took the elevator in shifts, one giggling gaggle at a time, bound for the second-floor auditorium of Provincetown Town Hall. It was Saturday, Nov. 16, and the HeartStrings […]
MEET THE MAKERS
Finding Flow and Balance in Metal and Stone
A shop where two sisters sketch, weld, grind, hammer, and polish their jewelry into existence
WELLFLEET — In the sunlit back room of a Bank Street shop are workbenches scattered with loops and lengths of metal and wire; heavy metalworking equipment sits in the corner; […]
TURKEY TROT
The Trot Must Go On
Truro’s first-ever ‘Gobble Hobble’ makes its rainy debut
TRURO — Saturday dawned, but only barely. The light was low, and the rain was heavy as I exited the car at Truro Vineyards and sloshed my way over the […]
MUSIC
Shannon Davis Sings Stories That Seem Real
A debut album weaves loneliness into love and betrayal and back again for more
When Shannon Davis was 16, she picked up her uncle’s jumbo acoustic Epiphone guitar. She had never known her uncle — he had died when she was a baby, but […]
EAT YOUR FEELINGS
This Year’s Pie Fest Bests the Rest
Spirits were high, and so was the bidding, at Provincetown’s third annual Pie Fest
Downstairs at the Commons, three celebrity judges and two hosts eyed 14 slices of pie. One slice was naught more than a sliver; another bulged precariously. One spilled meat and […]
NO FIDDLE FADDLE
A Trio Celebrates Onstage
A concert of ‘music for the eyes and dance for the ears’
Nic Gareiss turned 11 on the same day that he first laid eyes on his “dancestor” Liam Harney, two-time world champion Irish step dancer, performing solo at the 1997 Wheatland […]
THE NAKED TRUTH
Finding Comfort in the Zone
At PAAM, figure models seek some peace and quiet
Bathed in daylight and unnaturally still, Jim Brosseau resembles a marble statue. His hands are interlocked behind his head; his elbows jut in opposite directions, one toward the skylight above […]
