Wednesday, May 5 at 2:00pm
Celebrate Cinco De Mayo with Jim Porcello on the piano. Enjoy some salsa and chips and listen to some old standards.

Friday, May 14 at 7:00pm
Kevin Farley, “The Irish Guy” will be performing folk music using eleven different instruments; twelve if you count his beautiful voice!

Monday, May 17 at 7:00pm
The Merrimack Valley Townsmen Chorus who are members of the Barbershop Harmony Society will perform “Let Us Sing For You.”

Monday, May 24 at 2:00pm
You will feel like you are at Carnegie Hall with Scot Andrews performing on the piano. He will make you want to sing all those great songs of yesteryear!

These events are free and open to the public!

Methuen Village at Riverwalk Park
4 Gleason St.
For information call 978-685-2220
www.MethuenVillage.com.

May 2nd, 2010 at 7:00pm
tickets $60.00

Food and refreshments served.Psychic readings will be given by Dee White Dove. Come hang out with our friends Mass Paranormal. Last year was a huge success this year is going to be bigger.Food and Drinks will be served. Book now the event is filling up fast.

Lots of Guest this year also
Carl Johnson and Dina Palazini
Serenity Moore Psychic/Medium
Nance and Jane from Fort Mifflin
Mass Paranormal
Psychic Dee White Dove
Audrey from Starborn support you saw her on 20/20 now come and meet her in person
more info2
www.nightfallparanormal.com/events

ALL PROCEEDS GO TO METHUEN HISTORICAL SOCIETY

LOOKING FOR A HOTEL ROOM CHECK OUT:

http://www.dayshotelmethuen.com/guest_rooms.html

HaterproofComedy@gmail.com
978-390-7563

Sahara Club
34 Bates St
Methuen, MA

Presents:
11th Annual Veteran’s Night
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
6:30-8:30 pm
Methuen Senior Center
77 Lowell St., Methuen, MA

Guest speakers:
Keith Jones: DVS Boston
Clarabel Monroy: Social Security
Eric Nelson: ValleyWorks; Employment & Training
Bill Davis: VA Healthcare
Nancy Sabin: Northern Essex Community College
John Dowd: Methuen Post 122 American Legion
Frank Shimko: VFW Post 8349; Methuen
John Cena: City Assessor-Tax Exemptions

Light refreshments will be served.

Among others our honored guest will be Linda Dean Campbell, Methuen Democrat of the Year
All 2010 Candidates will be invited to attend and many will! We will also have a straw poll for 2010 candidates. One ballot per ticket – Ticket: $20.00 The best way to guarantee a ticket is to purchase in advance. We look forward to seeing you on May 10

Contact: Bryan Sweet
Phone: (978) 857-1680
Email: bryan1439@mindspring.com

If you are a Facebook Member become a fan of: Methuen Democratic City Committee

Mayor Manzi stated, “Ron is one of the many talented artists living and working in our community. It is an honor to display his artwork. I am impressed by his vivid depiction of the Searles landmarks that we in Methuen know so well. I encourage people to come to my office and view Ron’s paintings.”

The Methuen Artist of the Month Program was created by Mayor Manzi four years ago in order to give members of the Methuen Arts Community a forum to display their work and to encourage participation in Methuen’s growing and vibrant creative economy. Methuen artists interested in being considered as Artist of the Month should contact the Mayor’s Office.

Monday, May 17, 2010 at 7:00pm
The Merrimack Valley Townsmen Chorus who are members of the Barbershop Harmony Society will perform “Let Us Sing For You.”

Methuen Village at Riverwalk Park
4 Gleason Street
Methuen
978-685-2220
The following events are free and open to the public.

METHUEN — Students had everything they needed to make a great sandwich: bread, meat, hummus, vegetables, fruit, cheese and sauce. But if they wanted a shot at winning $100, they had to create something that met the judges’ criteria — it had to be healthy, and it had to be presented well.

About 50 students at the Greater Lawrence Educational Collaborative competed in the school’s first-ever Wrap Contest at lunchtime Wednesday. Competitors presented their eats to the panel of judges, which consisted of three teachers and one administrator.
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Tuesday, May 5th, 2010
2:00 pm

Celebrate Cinco De Mayo with Jim Porcello on the piano. Enjoy some salsa and chips and listen to some old standards. Jim Porcella is a singer who has been the featured vocalist at the Ritz Carlton and the Bay Tower Room in Boston will perform the love songs of Sinatra, Bennett, and Cole.

Jim Porcella Website

A sense of intimacy is what strikes us first about Jim Porcella’s singing. Regardless of audience size, Jim seems to be singing in a small setting with just a few friends. He’s singing to you– no gimmicks, no tricks– loving the lyric, sensitive to the melodic line, touched by both and touching his audience. On up-tempo tunes he sings with uninhibited joy, while on the soulful ballad, he often unashamedly wears his heart on his sleeve. But his extraordinary ability to communicate is not based solely on emotion.

Jim approaches singing with the assurance of a well-trained musician, stemming from years of study and performing as a drummer with some of the best musicians in the field. Those dues-paying decades established in Jim the musical foundation that allows him the freedom to explore a personal relationship with the music.

Jim Porcella grew up in Medford, just outside Boston. He began playing drums at 14, performing for high school events and practicing four hours a day, dreaming of someday becoming a studio musician. His early idols were Art Blakey and Buddy Rich.

After high school, Jim began playing with a Jackie-and-Roy-type combo and was drawn into singing vocal lines in addition to his drumwork. Discovering a natural gift for singing, he enjoyed the challenges of vocal-group performance and acquired the critical disciplines– phrasing, intonation, breath control- necessary for a developing singer. After a decade of continuous work, the group broke up and Jim spent seven years as lead singer for a Top 40s group, further honing his vocal skills. He returned to working mostly with jazz musicians in general business as a drummer-vocalist or vocalist-drurnmer. In 1988, encouraged by other musicians and singers, Jim made the decision to follow a career as a jazz singer. Since then he has appeared at the leading jazz clubs in the area.

Although you may hear traces of other singers in Jim’s performance, there is no mistaking this uniquely individual vocalist. In person, as in his recordings, you will be impressed by his warm, rich voice, his engaging style and sensitivity, his love of singing, and that humorous twinkle in his soul.

These events are free and open to the public!

Methuen Village at Riverwalk Park
4 Gleason St.
For information call 978-685-2220
www.MethuenVillage.com.

welcomes Kevin Farley “The Irish Music Guy”

Friday, May 14th 2010
7:00 pm

Kevin Farley Website

Music fans from far and near know Kevin Farley best as the “Irish Music Guy,” but this summer he is also embarking on two new artistic endeavors. “After not playing drums since ninth grade, I’m playing with a N.H.-based, all original alternative-pop band called Those Charming Deviationists,” Farley explained.
The other is his role as Buffalo Bill in Irving Berlin’s “Annie Get Your Gun,” the story of Annie Oakley and Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, which opens at Hackmatack Playhouse in Berwick on July 9.

“I’ve loved the Hackmatack forever and have seen many fantastic shows there,” Farley said, “And it never once crossed my mind that I would ever get to be a part of one.”
After “retiring permanently” from acting in third grade after what he described as an “involuntary and disastrous” performance in “The Ugly Duckling,” Farley said the role of Buffalo Bill came as “a totally unforeseen opportunity,” this one the result of a conversation with director Sharon Hilton.
“I had been thinking that the next step in developing my skills would be acting lessons or coaching,” he said of the Irish Music Guy, “but it never seemed like the right time. Then this fell into my lap.”

As he prepares for the upcoming opening of the show, Farley said he “did sneak a look at a picture of the famous statue of Buffalo Bill in Wyoming, just to see how he positioned his feet. Everything else I’m leaving up to Sharon Hilton and the other actors.” He added, with his trademark humor, “That way if it goes horribly wrong, they can take all the blame.”

As for Those Charming Deviationists, Farley explained that was also a complete accident. “I dusted off my stepson’s long-abandoned drums to help another dad back up our daughters at the Middle School Talent Show,” he said, “and he’d been writing songs with a friend and teaching colleague and they got selected to perform for the RPM Challenge series and needed a drummer. So now we’re a band, as schedules permit.”

At first, Farley said, he was dubious about joining a rock band. “My first reaction was that I have no time, no interest, and no ability to play the drums,” he said. “Then I heard these great songs John Adams writes, and what fantastic musicians he and Jim and Bill White are and how inspiring they are to work with, and I realized that it was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up. They say there’s no time like the present, but there’s really no time but the present. I’m always amazed at how you can make time for things if you want to.”

And when it comes to making time for activities, Farley said, he needs look no farther for inspiration than his own wife, Ogunquit Playhouse Community Relations Manager Cheryl Farley who “takes on a ridiculous amount of activities and challenges and just thrives on it. And with style, too.”

And while balancing his work as the Irish Music Guy, his return to the stage as Buffalo Bill and keeping the beat in a new rock band, Farley is no stranger to seizing the opportunities that come along – including that moment, about 30 years, when he traveled to North Conway, N.H. to hear an Irish folk group perform, hit it off with the band’s members and ended up being invited to join them as their bass player. “I was playing classical guitar at the time. I owned neither a bass or an amp and hadn’t played music in front of an audience since ninth grade. I knew none of the group’s repertoire. The financial details were very unclear,” he recalled. “So of course I gave my notice to the bookstore in Kennebunkport where I was working, and off I went.”

It has been 30 years, but this Irish Music Guy is still going strong. “I saw a headline recently that said ‘Money can buy happiness, if you spend it on other people.’ The turning point in my career was when I changed my focus from trying to show off how clever I was to trying to think of how I could use my knowledge to somehow benefit my audience, whether emotionally, spiritually or just give them some kind of affirmation,” Farley said. “Suddenly I went from struggling to being very busy and fulfilled.”
And what is the state of Irish music in the United States? Farley has a story to share on that subject as well.

“There was a guy who made the news this past March for banning the song ‘Danny Boy’ from his pub in New York on the basis that it’s not a ‘real’ Irish song because the words were written by an Englishman,” Farley explained. “I like the song ‘Fly Me to the Moon,’ although the last time I checked, the guy who wrote it wasn’t an astronaut. The Irish music scene in this country is very divided, with the traditional music crowd looking down on the popular song crowd and people saying they don’t like a certain Irish harper from the 1600s because he embraced Italian influences in his playing. My goal is to cover all these styles, to show how they’re all connected – and that these connections are something to be celebrated.

As for future plans, York’s own Irish Music Guy insists he will “just keep following my invisible thread from one happenstance and unforeseen opportunity to another, and have fun doing it. Things seem to work out better that way.”

These events are free and open to the public!

Methuen Village at Riverwalk Park
4 Gleason St.
For information call 978-685-2220
www.MethuenVillage.com.