Emily Reily

MANCHESTER, NH – Emily Conrad says there’s been a drop-off in attendance at Cashin Senior Activity Center since the pandemic began, and has some theories as to why.
“I don’t know if that’s because they are afraid to come out or they don’t think we’re open. But there’s been a gap here,” says Conrad, a senior services specialist at Cashin.
She also thinks its location may play a role.
“I think a lot of times people don’t think of ‘what is that big brick buildin...

When inducting The Go-Go’s into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on Oct. 30, 2021, actress Drew Barrymore divulged a secret: the new wave band’s 1981 album, Beauty and the Beat, changed her life when she heard it at age 6. She told the crowd she “spent hours staring at (the) cover and the backside, all of them in the bathtub.”
To a 6-year-old girl like Drew, the vinyl album cover must have given an air of decadent glamour. Set against a cloudy blue background, the front features the all-female pu...

I wrote about Joanna Newsom's debut, The Milk-Eyed Mender....
"There’s always been something special about the sound of a solitary singer with an acoustic guitar and a story to tell. It’s been that way for centuries, folk songs sung in England and North America between troubadours in local communities, the same songs often being transformed lyrically, melodically and with a change in the narrative. Sometimes a protagonist becomes a villain, and sometimes the details are given more or less clarity, but the performance itself remains captivating, no instru..."

April Holmes’ idea for a wearable floral design came about in the dead of winter in the woods outside her Candia home.
“I spend a lot of time walking. I’ve dealt with chronic health issues, and nature has just been incredibly healing,” she says.
While on one walk, Holmes noticed just how dead the woods seemed, until she looked a little bit closer.
“There’s nothing left when there’s snow on the ground. There’s no green, there’s no life, it seems like. But then as you’re walking through, birch ...

Families looking for an outdoor adventure around New Hampshire this summer could consider horseback riding led by experienced trail guides. Previous experience is not necessary - just come with an open mind and a love of the outdoors.

Everyone’s personal soundtrack each year is a very personal thing—sometimes it’s a ubiquitous pop hit, but more often than not it’s the unexpected deep cut that resonated, that curious older song that we heard for the first time years or even decades later, or the familiar sound of an old favorite. When we each threw our personal lists of the best songs of the year into an Excel spreadsheet, what stood out more than anything was how, individually, all of our experiences were very different fr...

It’s always tempting to preface a list of our top 50 albums of the year with a disclaimer about how there’s too much good music in one year to properly quantify, and that our ranking isn’t a system of value but of a this-moment-in-time consensus. And all of that is true; the point is never to exclude anything but rather to highlight the music that just resonated a little bit more with us. And it’s always tempting to couch it by saying these are our “favorite” albums rather than the best.
And ...

Our Best of 2021 celebration kicks off with a traditional teaser of some of the best music of the year: The albums that may or may not have flown under the radar. We cover hundreds of albums each year, and even we miss records that turn out to be some of our favorites later on. We also know that some of the best albums don’t always get heard as widely as we think they should be. And seizing that second (or third, or sometimes first) opportunity to sing the praises of a sleeper favorite is one...

I wrote about the 25th anniversary reissue of R.E.M.'s New Adventures in Hi-Fi.

REGARDLESS OF WHAT else is going on in the world, the holidays are here, and kids are hoping this season will be the best yet.
“I’m looking around at my store that’s 4,000 square feet of toys, and I just love it all — hard for me to pick,” said Kerry Wood, when asked which toys might be big sellers.
Glancing around at displays in the educational and interactive toy store in downtown Dover, Wood, owner of The Noggin Factory, stacked up some ideas and suggestions for shoppers’ must-have lists.
...

I t’s a literary cold case that’s heating up here in New Hampshire, complete with a “rogue scholar,” plagiarism software and international search missions.
Independent scholar Dennis McCarthy, who lives in North Hampton, claims William Shakespeare crafted his plays, including “Hamlet,” “Romeo and Juliet,” “Macbeth,” “Richard II” and others, using source material from Sir Thomas North, who was born in 1535 and died in 1604. Shakespeare lived from 1564 to 1616.
McCarthy’s search for answers is ...

Jeremiah Pasternak may be known for his legendary sneaker collection, but it’s his generous heart that is leaving footprints.
Over the past six or seven years (with the exception of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic), the Hampton resident has generated an annual sneaker giveaway. This month, he’s given away about 119 pairs of shoes to Seacoast area charities and schools, a record for him.
“This is the most I’ve ever done,” he says. “So, you know, I’m happy about that.”
When the holiday season...

These kids will ring in the new year by plunging into an icy ocean or lake on Jan. 1. Read about what they say it's like, and learn a little about this annual chilly tradition.

New Hampshire fans of the successful progressive rock band Genesis are reliving the band's early days ahead of their show in Boston. It's been 14 years since the British group -- Phil Collins, Mike Rutherford, and Tony Banks -- last toured in the United States.

In Saskatchewan and Manitoba, just after the snow melts but before flowers start to bud, Pat Bruderer, 67, searches for paper birch trees. When she finds bark with just the right color on the inside (dusky pink), the right feel (“very soft ... almost like silk”) and the right age (older bark won’t work), she thanks the tree for what it’s about to give her. She cuts the bark with a knife and later will peel it and bite it into unique designs.

“I offer tobacco out of respect and say a prayer be...