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Share your Travel Experiences

You are invited to submit photos, souveniers, artwork, scrapbook pages, etc. that you have collected in your travels (local, national or international). Submit as much as you want. We have plenty of space!

  

Items submitted must meet the following requirements:

*  Able to be hung on a wall (mat or frame your contribution).

*  Have wire for hanging.

*  Have your name and telephone number on the back side.

*  Please include a description that tells something about the travel experience reflected in your contribution (Where you went, when you went, who you went with, why you went, what happened). Tell the viewer as much as you want! Stories appreciated.

If you would like to participate, please send an email to Ken Mandile (kmandile@swissturn.com) or call 774-239-9728.

Send your descriptions and stories via email. I suggest that you include a small photo of you and/or your family so that viewers will know who you are.

Please bring your exhibit contributions to the Chapel between April 15 and May 6.

Les Sampou in Concert at First Unitarian

WCUW 91.3 FM and the First Unitarian Church of Worcester present Les Sampou in concert in the legendary John Henry’s Hammer Coffeehouse located at the First Unitarian Church

Saturday April 21st 2012

7 PM Door / 7:30 Concert

90 Main Street

Worcester, MA

Opening act TBA

Advance tickets $10 at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/235919

 www.wcuw.org

www.lessampou.com

www.firstunitarian.com

Back on the roots scene after a long break, Sampou never wavers from a steady tone of genuineness as she sings sharply observant songs that she writes about disarray and failed communication in relationships. She has the ability to dramatize the sense of hurt at the heart of the characters without floundering in self-pity or weak sentiment.

Guitarists Kevin Barry and Mike Dinallo prove important to the flow of her honky-tonk music." Frank John Hadley,  DOWNBEAT

“'Lonesomeville' evokes a Tom Waits-like world…." Sing Out Magazine

"Powerfully expressive, Les Sampou has been tested in the trenches of life and survived brilliantly. Her new album, "Lonesomeville,'' is a persona lTop Ten favorite of the year. She invests many songs with the emotional honesty of Lucinda Williams, probing love in all of its complexity while belting the heck out of the music. She has a passionate, rockabilly-blues edge that lifts your spirits high, followed by ballads that dig into your soul like few artists can. She also enlists some of Boston's true all-stars to back her -- including Andy Plaisted, Kevin Barry, Michael Dinallo and Jimmy Ryan -- to make this an album you'll want to revisit eagerly and often.''

--- STEVE MORSE, longtime Boston Globe Correspondent who has also contributed to Billboard and Rolling Stone

LES SAMPOU • Lonesomeville

"Sampou’s passionate vocals are simply stunning, now ballsy and rough-edged, then purry and seductive, while the only problem with her originals songs is trying to decide which is the least sensational—there are only nine of them, but there’s absolutely no filler here...the title track is a veritable monster, but Oil & Water, Lonely Nights & Lonely Days, My My My and As I Sleep are the kind of tracks that flummox DJs when they have to choose just one. Judging by her close to home CD release‘tour,’ Sampou seems to be one of those World Famous In Boston acts we hear so little about, but if you’ve given up on Lucinda Williams.  I strongly suggest you check her out."  John Conquest, 3rd Coast Music,Austin TX

Teen Choir Schedule

Sunday, 3/11; 6-7 pm at the Holden St. UU Church
Friday, 3/16; 6-8 pm at the Holden St. UU Church
Sunday, 3/18; 10 am-noon performance at the Holden St. UU Church
Sunday, 3/25; 9:30-11:30 am performance at First Unitarian
Sunday, 4/01; 6-7 pm at the Holden St. UU Church
Sunday, 4/15; 6-7 pm at the Holden St. UU Church
Sunday, 4/22; 6-7 pm at the Holden St. UU Church
Sunday, 4/29; 9:30-11:30 am performance at First Unitarian
Sunday, 5/6; 10 am-noon performance at the Holden St. UU Church

March 10 Dinner and Concert in Cambridge

Join a Caravan of Cars to Cambridge for Dinner and Concert with Tom and Sue Schade on 3/10 .  If you wanted to sit at Tom’s table during the Winter Gala 2011 and didn’t have a chance—here’s another one—but he’s NOT COOKING. 

CARPOOL--LEAVE First U Worcester at 5:00 p.m.

ARRIVE at Alewife Station MBTA Parking Lot about 6:00-parking fee $7.00/car

ARRIVE Harvard Square around 6:15-ticket-$2:00

EAT DINNER--We are eating at Fire + Ice, a fun family restaurant where you create your own meal grilled by entertaining chefs.

Take a stroll to:

CONCERT at Nameless Coffeehouse, First Parish—Congregant Phil Nigro playing with Lydia Fortune; also Tom Smith, and other musicians

Doors open at 8:00 p.m. Suggested donation--$10. REVERSE ROUTE around 10:00  or 10:30.

Sign up sheet in the Bancroft Room or contact Caring Community Task Force/LLC Committee Member—

Linda Wyatt 508-596-4053 (Cell)

speechlc@yahoo.com

Paul Rishell and Annie Raines March 3rd!

Paul Rishell and Annie Raines perform in the legendary 
John Henry’s Hammer
Saturday, March 3rd, 2012
7pm Door / 7:30 Showtime
First Unitarian Church of Worcester  
90 Main Street, Worcester, MA
(Use State Street upper entrance)

Advance tickets via Brown Paper Tickets: $10 / $12 at the door

When 22-year-old harmonica ace Annie Raines first sat in with 42-year-old country blues guitarist Paul Rishell in a Boston bar in 1992, few in the crowd suspected that they were witnessing the beginning of a musical partnership that would span the next fifteen years and counting. As a working team, Paul and Annie have racked up hundreds of thousands of miles on the road in the U.S. and Europe, collaborated on original songs, and released I WANT YOU TO KNOW (Tone-Cool/Artemis 1996), MOVING TO THE COUNTRY (2000), the W.C. Handy Award winner for Acoustic Blues Album of the Year, and GOIN' HOME (2004), which was nominated for two Handy Awards.

Opening are The Hip Swayers
featuring Dave Blodgett and Tonia Ostrow


 

This performance co-sponsored by: WCUW 91.3 FM is Worcester’s community radio station, bringing alternative music to Central New England since 1973 and The First Unitarian Church of Worcester– A Unitarian Universalist Church Gathered in 1785.

Where Have You Been? by Linda Chatelain Wyatt

The frail, once vibrant consistent First Unitarian of Worcester churchgoer recognizes my “petiteness” and dark hair.  Her cognition lets her keep this memory for now.  Laura Howie, takes my hand, after some UU Sisterhood carolers complete a song Laura intersperses with words and hum.  She says:  “Where have you been? Oh, I’ve been the one that’s missing.”

Those words immediately tether me to the lament of a long ago patient whose memory was sneakily devoured by noxious gas as he worked in his garage.  I remember his description of trying to grasp elusive reality.  “Linda, it’s like I’m trying to reach the surface, but there’s a thick iceberg.”  Profound words for a man who needed watching because he couldn’t remember the familiar surroundings of his home and had severe word retrieval difficulties.

What is Laura saying?  Is she telling me her mind is missing, her physical presence at church and her former active life, or both?  Somehow, though she is still present.  She is present to her church community because we know her whereabouts and we reach out.  Present, too, in the sense she still sings some of the rote hymns, recalls some identifying physical features of people, and can maintain singular links, such as, “How’s your daughter?  I bet she’s big now.”

At the Annual Meeting, choir members, Kris Johnson and Steve Knox, indicate they’ve noticed a dwindling of heads in the pews.  The Caring Community Task Force is discussing ways to keep in contact with “missing in action” congregants to ensure they are “o.k.”—but not to be prying or chastising and to honor confidentiality.

During one of our listening sessions, someone comments she hasn’t been to church for a while and no one has called her to inquire about her situation. I’ve been thinking of her, but I attribute her absence to being part of the music world—perhaps a musician who has a hard time coming to church after a really late night gig and grueling travel.  So, I reach out in thought, but not by hand.  The Caring Community Task Force is considering suggestions to what to do when we don’t see congregants for a period of time.  In some church communities by virtue of the age of the congregants this can be a critical matter.  Congregants are hurt, too, when they hear of someone’s illness or death post-occurrence.

One remedy—be present to us in spirit.  Let the minister know you are on vacation, or you are really busy, you need assistance, but haven’t forgotten us.  Tell your family to contact the minister, church administrator, or a congregant about what’s transpiring in your life so we can be present to you in joy, need, and sorrow.

Be present by assisting in little ways.  Drop in on an event. Help out “just a little”.  A little bit can be a lot especially when a few—and maybe the same few—are running programs and events.  Kate O’Dell couldn’t attend the coffeehouse concert last Friday night—but baked for it.  That meant a lot.  Her contribution was much appreciated.  Many “little bits” add up to a “big lot”.

The Caring Community Task Force is discussing potential structure of parish services and pastoral care on the morning of Saturday, February 11, 2012 at the NU Café, Worcester.  You may still give us input.  You may still take our three to five-minute online survey. Call or email Diane Mirick, 978-464-2313, dmirick@verizon.net with ideas.  You may speak to us at church or stop by the NU Café.  You  make the Caring Community.

I recall Kathy Mattea’s song “Where’ve You Been?” The words unfailingly elicit my tears because it’s a happy resolution for this incurable optimist and romantic. The wife with dementia is reunited with her husband of 60 years.  He takes her hand and strokes her hair.  In a fragile voice she says:

Where’ve you been?  I’ve looked for you forever and a day.  Where’ve you been I’m just not myself when you’re away.  No, I’m just not myself when you’re away.

Find us.  Be present to your church community.  Keep in touch.  Do what you can-- even just a little.