The front page photo this week, taken by Nancy Bloom, offers a different point of view on a beloved high summer scene. You can find that in a few places in this week’s Indie.
Day’s Cottages
SHORE ROAD
The Cottages at the End of the Continent
NORTH TRURO — The very first time I drove into Provincetown I took the shore road, of course. Right away, I knew I was entering another reality.
At first, I was frightened by the line of cottages — little boxes, like in the Malvina Reynolds song — all the same, set along the shore like a row of teeth. Then there’s that crooked line of telephone poles across the road — each one bending a different way — letting you know there’s going to be real contrast here, in the town at the end of the continent.
Like everyone else, I have come to love everything about Day’s Cottages. I made my first pinhole picture here 30 years ago, in front of “Cosmos.” A few years ago, the owners converted all the cottages to condos. I met them both at the nursing home when I visited my mom, and got to know the children who took over the operation. I think they still run the convenience store across the road and are now making it a local destination.
It all still feels like something from the early days, a time when they say happy children ran around barefoot and the families from New York or Boston came to feel the ocean for a week or two, squeezing themselves into a piece of heaven. Off season, I haunt this part of the road with my camera, thinking of my grandma’s apartment in Coney Island, the smell of the sea, and of a million other things.
Arts Briefs and Listings
Arts Briefs for May 21 through May 27
Chevy Wins a Bevy of Awards
The Independent’s staff photographer, Nancy Bloom of Truro, shot this image of a 1961 bubble-top Chevy last October in front of the Bluebell, one of Day’s Cottages at Beach Point in North Truro.
“The car belongs to John Buchanan of Attleboro, a member of the Mass Cruisers Auto Club, who was participating in the club’s annual historic Route 6 cruise from Seekonk to Provincetown,” Bloom says. “My husband, John Bloom, is an antique car enthusiast, and we are club members. I’ve been working on a series of classic car images. When a flock of starlings flew over the cottages, I couldn’t stop clicking.”
In February, Bloom submitted the photo to a juried show at the Creative Arts Center in Chatham, where it came in second. In early April, it won first place at a masters’ contest of the Cape Cod Art Center Camera Club in Barnstable. And now, it has won best in show at the Plymouth Center for the Arts’ “Fine Art of Photography” juried show and a $500 prize. Congrats, Nancy!
Provincetown Theater’s Townie Variety Show
In its quest to keep live-performance fans happy on Memorial Day weekend, the Provincetown Theater is presenting a virtual fund-raiser, Our Townie Variety Show, at 7 p.m. on Sunday, May 24, featuring a diverse crew of Outer Cape entertainers, including Miss Richfield 1981, pianist John Thomas, rock singer Anne Stott, flutist Eric Maul, modern dancer Vinny Marra, accordion player Terri Conti, Benwa Kramer on the ukulele, classical musicians Chan Varon-Collins and Justin Torrellas, Town Crier Kenneth Lonergan, and an online reunion of the cast of last summer’s Sweeney Todd — Trish LaRose, Madison Mayer, Christopher Sidoli, Megan Amorese, and the Demon Barber himself, Tom Hewitt.
Also making cameo appearances: Scream Along With Billy’s Billy Hough and Sue Goldberg, Unitard’s Nora Burns, Zoë Lewis, Tupperware partier Dixie Longate, burlesque star Chris Harder, and others.
The theater’s artistic director, David Drake, will host the evening, which will stream free via provincetowntheater.org, though a donation link will be available throughout the show.
Tianna Esperanza Plays Payomet’s Tiny Tent
Payomet Performing Arts Center in Truro is presenting a live-streaming free concert this week on its Facebook page.
On Wednesday, May 27, at 6 p.m., singer-songwriter Tianna Esperanza, a Cape native whose music mixes shades of Sade, Public Enemy, and Gil Scott-Heron, will deliver a virtual performance. This young artist’s lyrics have protest undertones, and her jazz stylings are accomplished beyond her years. Here’s a post-Memorial Day event that’s not to be missed.
