And we should toss Kentucky in there as well. It’s amazing that only now am I starting to hear about race as the possible reason why Hillary Clinton is winning by a very large margin in a few select states. Let’s see, which states are those? Virginia and now Kentucky. What do these two places have in common? Could it be ‘not a whole lot of African Americans in the population’? More than that, I think, as evidenced by a recent report on NPR. I’m paraphrasing here (because I can’t find a text transcript of the interview), but one woman said something like “well, obviously I didn’t vote for the colored”. Good lord, is that word even USED anymore?!? I guess in West Virginia, it is. That’s where people marry their first cousins, right?

“West Virginia’s voters are typical of those that have been drawn to Clinton from the beginning. The state is 96 percent white. Only Florida has a higher percentage of seniors. A mere 16 percent of West Virginians hold a college degree, the lowest percentage in the nation, and 25 percent lack a high school diploma. West Virginia also ranks near the bottom nationally in median household income.” (NPR.org)

‘Nuff said.

See what David Gergen has to say about the role of racism in this election.

A hurricane, no (thank god not), but definitely a decent bit of rain late afternoon yesterday and last night. No filming when I was there (around 6:30 pm), but I see they have put up a fence around the lighthouse, probably to keep out the riff-raff. Or maybe those pesky nosy townsfolk from running around and taking pictures. The guard sitting in the car even stopped a friend of mine and her companion from walking down there (though they were on their Birdathon and far more interested in spotting a rare species, rather than a film crew shooting!).

Sunny again now at 12 noon on Saturday, so hopefully they get enough clouds and rain when they’re ready to do the shoot.

Reporting on the Ashecliffe filming from Shutter Island… er, I mean Nahant. Silly me, I had been looking for the lighthouse at Lodge Park, which is at the top of East Point, also home to Northeastern University’s Marine Science Center. East Point was used by the military during World War II and there are still bunkers and at least one leftover concrete area that I’m aware of where there once was a gun turret.

Walking around on Monday (May 12), I saw that the funny wooden blocks were gone, with no clue of where they went. I was quite mystified, until I ambled down the dirt path to this concrete circle, and lo and behold, there was the lighthouse! Well, technically it’s about 1/3 of a lighthouse, and truthfully it looks more like some weird sort of space capsule. As I later found out, that’s all we’re gonna get, and the rest will be CGI. A bit disappointing, but I suppose you can have much better control that way and get exactly what you want, so it makes sense.

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The top photo was taken on Monday, then some “in construction” pics on Tuesday, and then Tuesday early evening as the sun set, which shows the lovely stonework at the bottom (not real stones, but kind of a hard fiberglass) and some faux brick work inside (and the mystery of what happened to the wooden blocks solved). Now all we need is some rain. A hurricane, to be precise. The lighthouse is featured at the end of the story, and it’s during a hurricane, but this is Hollywood, so they can do all sorts of magic to make up for mother nature not cooperating. Wave machines, even, though we have plenty of those in Nahant. Being a homeowner, I’m sincerely hoping we don’t have a hurricane, though I wouldn’t mind some rain, wind, rough surf & billowing dark clouds – all in the name of entertainment, off course! Ironically, we get a lot of this sort of weather out here, but needless to say, lately it’s been sunny. Come on Nahant… you don’t want to blow your big chance at stardom!

Happily, it’s now Thursday and clouding over, with some rain expected, and cloudy through the weekend as well, so we may well be a go. The rest of those stones should be in place by now. I’ve also heard a stunt guy will be climbing the cliffs at the top (Lodge Park).

Another installment of Shutter Island happenings coming soon…

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P.S. My parents had a sighting Saturday afternoon on their way in to visit: a stretch limo and some fancy cream colored sports car following it on our main drag, Nahant Road, at around 3:30-4:00pm. Not sure who it was, but I can guess.

Martin Scorsese’s “Ashecliffe” sets up in Nahant

I had heard that they would filming part of this movie in Nahant, but hadn’t heard anything more until just recently when sometime last week, it was mentioned they would begin shooting next week. This shooting involves the building of a lighthouse (at Nahant’s picturesque East Point), so early in the week I was thinking, “gosh, they must be starting production on that lighthouse by now…” Tuesday night I stopped by after work, and lo and behold, there were the telltale signs!

Not much action yet, outside of a bunch of strange looking wooden pieces (and some guy in a car guarding them on Tuesday night; what on earth for, I don’t know, I don’t think I could fit one in my car nor would I have any use for it!).

For now, a few photos. More as it happens!

I just heard “Colorful” at the Marshalls in Swampscott, MA, approx 2:30-2:45pm. Now, I don’t know how many of you out there are familiar with Marshalls… In a nutshell: shit clothes, but for today (possibly due to some sort of special planetary alignment?) *really fine* music! I’ve been trying to get over this nasty cold, numbly looking through the clearance rack, and there’s some tag on a pair of jeans. Oh, I don’t know, I think it said “Roca” or something? And in my sicko haze, my mind connects with Rocco somehow, and a few seconds later, a wave of recognition comes over me with something I’m hearing almost subliminally over the PA system. Synchronicity? You decide.

Hey, my first political post! Let me first say that every democratic candidate I’ve ever voted for has *always* fallen short of what I would hope for, but I was very impressed with what Barak Obama had to say on Meet the Press this morning:

I think what I like most about the guy is his honesty, and the fact that he remains true to what he believe in, regardless of “how it will poll”. I have a deep respect for that. I still wish that people weren’t allergic to the word “socialism” and that the U.S. would put into effect *immediately* a proper program of socialized medicine. With all the money and resources we have here, we should be able to do this more successfully than any other country on the planet. However, I fully accept that I am unlikely to see, in my lifetime, the type of country I would like to see. Though if Barak Obama were to win the presidency, it would do a lot to restore my faith in America, which – as it stands now – is like this brilliant but woefully underachieving student. So much potential, so criminally squandered.

Well, that webcast was a low bandwidth disaster, but you can view the whole thing uninterrupted here.

They performed 3 songs, did a brilliant job, and were wicked funny as well. Plus an added bonus of a phone conversation with Kiefer, taped a few weeks earlier, where he talks about their music and the video he directed for “Little Toy Gun” (hopefully out soon).