The real estate show

Wellesley's WCAC-TV is among local cable channels making real estate the focus of shows, according to this Boston Globe story:

 

In Wellesley, residents urged public-access channel WCAC-TV to produce a local real estate show. So station executive director James Joyce is planning a monthly program with former WBZ-TV reporter Teri Adler, now a broker at Pinnacle Residential Properties. Again, their focus will be customized to fit the town.

"We've recently had new regulations passed related to mansionization and permitting, and there are people in town - developers, realtors, prospective buyers - that have an interest in monitoring things like that," said Joyce. "So it's going to be an informative program about real estate issues specific to Wellesley."

 

Candidates drop Wellesley's name along campaign trail

Candidates for offices in other Massachusetts communities have been dropping Wellesley's name of late.

In Brookline, School Committee candidate Arthur Conquest (how can he not win with a name like that?) had this to say as part of a Q&A with the Brookline Tab:

Q: Should the committee have cut more from the budget before asking voters for an override?

Conquest: No, I don’t think so. My position is that if you want your system, or if you want your students to remain competitive, we can’t just compare ourselves to what’s happening in Wellesley, what’s happening in Concord, what’s happening in Lexington, but what’s happening globally. We’re engaged in a global economy.

Separately, Littleton Selectmen candidate Janet Wilkinson had this to say in the Littleton Independent:

She is also interested in “increasing revenues with recycling efforts.” She said Wellesley, which brings in some $650,000 a year from recycling and is considerably larger than Littleton, is interested in “helping us with our recycling initiatives.”

Sean Kingston: Rapping at Wellesley College

The Jamaican American reggae singer and rapper Sean Kingston visits Wellesley College for the school's annual spring concert on Thursday, April 24 for a 9pm show at the Keohane Sports Center (Wellesley College students get in free, others need to pay $20). More info. 

Interestingly, in light of the town's concerns about suicide in recent years, Kingston's music generated a suicide-related controversy last year. His hit single "Beautiful Girls" contains lyrics about suicide -- lyrics   removed on MTV and censored by certain radio stations. The song samples the old Ben E. King song "Stand By Me".

Wellesley College has a history of bringing cutting edge singers and groups to town for its annual spring concert. Past performers have include Ludacris, OK Go and the Decemberists. 

 

Town Meeting ushers Wellesley High building project along

The Wellesley School Building Committee reports: 

At the conclusion of two nights of presentations and questions, the 2008 Annual Town Meeting approved the appropriation of funds for the next steps of the High School Building Project. This appropriation marks a major milestone in moving the project forward and enables the development of schematic design of the preferred option.

By a 182-35 vote, Town Meeting approved $2.7 million to fund the next phase of the project 

 

TV news stations swirl around Wellesley lead poisoning story

Following yesterday's Boston Globe report on the Wellesley couple in court regarding their daughter's lead poisoning, several local TV news stations jumped on the story: Fox, Channel 7 and WBZ 

Pretty much the same story on each. The couple is talking, the state isn't yet.

 

 

Wellesley Free Library turning 5 in May

The library will celebrate itself on May 30 from 7-9pm and you're invited. Activities for kids will take place early on and then Jerry Seeco's Flute Project will perform. There will be cake and the event is free.

Wellesley house burns

The Townsman reports on a Hastings Street house near Fiske Elementary School that caught fire this morning and that firefighters described as being uninhabitable for now. No people were harmed, though the owner's dog died. Firefighters believe the fire started in the kitchen, according to the story.

 

 

One-woman show coming to Wellesley College

 

Rebecca Fisher tells us she is bringing her one-woman show "The Magnificence of the Disaster" to Wellesley College on May 16 at 7:30pm (tickets 781 283-2000). Her web site describes the show like this:

 On February 27, 1995, wife and mother EMILY FISHER, who attended Wellesley College from 1960-1962, was murdered in her Midtown Memphis home. Join Emily's daughter and solo performer, REBECCA FISHER, for her tour de force one-woman show that explores family, race, southern identity, and THE MAGNIFICENCE OF THE DISASTER.

   Fisher is trekking out here from the Bay Area in California, where she teaches theater. She is a Wheaton Alum and is performing her show there in May as well for commencement weekend. She has performed the show about 40 times, including in Memphis, where the actual events took place. 

    "I've never performed it on the east coast.  I'll find it neat to compare how a New England audience relates to it differently than a California audience which is very different from Memphis," says Fisher, who has a new piece called "Family Portraits" in the works.

 

 

Wellesley College, back in the movies

Several readers point out that the new movie "Smart People" features a character (played by Thomas Haden Church) who dons a Wellesley College sweatshirt (a clip here that made its way to us via WCAC-TV). One review describes the sweatshirt as "a high-visibility prop."

An LA Times review makes mention of the Wellesley College shirt as well: While camping out in his brother’s attic, Uncle Chuck stumbles on his dead sister-in-law’s college sweatshirt. Needless to say, her surviving husband ( Dennis Quaid) and daughter (Page) are pretty skeeved out to see Uncle Chuck loafing around in Wellesley College sweats.

Lead paint nightmare for Wellesley couple

A Wellesley couple whose young daughter has lead poisoning shares their story with the Boston Globe. As if it isn't bad enough that their child has lead poisoning, the couple is fighting charges in court that the health problem is their fault -- that their home violates lead paint rules. The couple suspects that their daughter's lead poisoning actually came by way of an enamel-covered charm necklace and argues that her elevated lead levels showed up before the family moved to the home in question last spring. The family could be forced to undertake a nearly six-figure lead removal process in their home, a process they fear could create an even riskier lead threat due to airborne dust particles.

 

 

Backers of closed parishes seek Pope's ear

Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the U.S. this week spurred opponents of local Catholic church closings to join at St. James the Great in Wellesley to voice their latest concerns. While they don't necessarily expect the pope to address the issue of church closings, they would like to see him at least more directly acknowledge the failings of the Catholic hierarchy in light of the sex-abuse scandal and subsequent financial problems. From WBZ:

"I would have been glad to see the pope here," said Suzanne Hurley of The Council of Parishes. "But I think he didn't want to be linked with what's going on here."