Friday, March 25, 2016
"Ranch House Revisited" at The Jetty
While rumors regarding the sale of the former Ranch House building proved to be unfounded, the South Shore's nastiest bar ever still manages to exert some Authority on local nightlife.
The Jetty, a newer place located at 278 Ocean Street on the Brant Rock esplanade, has a unique and awesome marketing idea. They're celebrating the former Marshfield den of sin, with a week of Ranch House-themed entertainment. The Ranch House was described by Stephen Bowden in this very column as "sort of like the C&W bar from The Blues Brothers meets the Double Deuce from Roadhouse, except that the Double Deuce was nicer."
Starting April 11th, the Jetty will run a week of bands that former Ranchers will know and love. You can see them on the posterboard shown above, but a little bird tells me that they are in the process of booking additional acts to fill out the week.
The Jetty, owned by Richard Vaughn, has a bit of hardcore history herself. It is housed in the building which hosted the notorious Breakers bar back in the proverbial day. However, the Ranch House was the hardcore icon. Vaughn, who has to be at least somewhat local, recognizes and respects the local history.
Here are some of the acts coming to The Jetty, starting on April 11th.
Hypercane is a South Shore band with 15 years in the game. A four-piece outfit, they do a lot of cover songs. I'm a bit deaf and have never been good with music (US Grant was in the same boat, and once remarked that he had two favorite songs... "One is Yankee Doodle, and the other isn't"), but I did hear them covering Unchained by Van Halen in their promo video. They'll be playing at The Jetty on April 13th.
Raw Deal is a Stoughton-based band which I pray is named after the Ahhhhnold movie. You know, the one where his wife (not Mrs. Shriver) throws a cake at him, and he chastises her with "You should not drink andt bake." The band is based around the Kane brothers, and will be on stage at The Jetty on April 14th.
Mark Morris And The Cat Tunes (aka "Catunes") are Southie's greatest band... which is funny because Whitey Bulger, for all we know, may have waited until the Cat Tunes were rehearsing to murder people, as the din of the band would cover up the gunshots and screaming. I worked at a gas station in Sagamore once, and it was robbed one night while Italian Soup (a wedding band based around the Gallo family, who own half of the Cape side of the Canal land) was rehearsing next door. There may be a Nine Lives cat food joke in the Morris/Cat band name. They'll do a show on April 15th at The Jetty... and who doesn't need a drink on April 15th?
The Fat City Band has been a South Shore giant since the 1970s. While someone else actually owned the building and the property and all that, these guys owned the Ranch House. Anyone growing up in the area in the 1980s or 1990s most likely saw TFCB in action at some point. They have the Saturday night show at The Jetty, on April 16th.
Clutch Grabwell And The Lead Foot Horns (they may just be Clutch Grabwell now, it's tough to tell) finish off the week's fun with a Sunday night show. Clutch and the boys are a Worcester band, I believe, maybe Lowell. They were a constant at the Ranch House, and they play at The Jetty on April 17th.
Some bands we would like to see if The Jetty tries this idea again in the summer...
Jim Plunkett
The Injurys
The Steamers
The Fools
Duke And The Drivers
Feel Thing
Cats Ass
D'Spayre
Southbound
Madcow
Entropy
Draw The Line
Crystal Ship
Conrad And The Pickups
The Rude Dogs
Stiff Nipple
The Speed Lizzards
The Well-Endowed Gentlemen
Slant Six
The PsychoRelics
Bluestime
Who did we miss? That's not a band name, it's a question for you to answer in the Comments.
Labels:
cat tunes,
cedar crest,
clutch grbwell,
fat city band,
gotham,
green harbor,
hypercane,
jim plunkett,
live music,
marshfield brant rock ocean bluff,
ra deal,
south shore,
the fools,
the jetty,
the ranch house
Location: Buzzards Bay, MA, USA
Ocean Bluff-Brant Rock, Marshfield, MA, USA
Truck Broken Down In Bourne Rotary
Hi!
Just a quick note to let you know that there is a box truck broken down in the Bourne Rotary.
It's occupying two lanes, straddling the line. It's right in front of the new Dunkin Donuts, right before where you get on to the bridge.
Cars have to wiggle around the breakdown and it is causing delays.
Just a quick note to let you know that there is a box truck broken down in the Bourne Rotary.
It's occupying two lanes, straddling the line. It's right in front of the new Dunkin Donuts, right before where you get on to the bridge.
Cars have to wiggle around the breakdown and it is causing delays.
Monday, March 21, 2016
Winter's Last Snow? Pictures And Snowfall Totals
Cedarville |
MASSACHUSETTS
...BARNSTABLE COUNTY...
BUZZARDS BAY 2.7 930 AM 3/21 SPOTTER
EAST SANDWICH 1.8 500 AM 3/21 NWS EMPLOYEE
EAST FALMOUTH 1.5 703 AM 3/21 NONE
HYANNIS 1.5 730 AM 3/21 MEDIA
WOODS HOLE 1.0 600 AM 3/21 CO OP OBSERVER
CHATHAM 1.0 800 AM 3/21 CO OP OBSERVER
CENTERVILLE 1.0 600 AM 3/21 NONE
SOUTH SAGAMORE 1.0 619 AM 3/21 HAM RADIO
FALMOUTH 0.5 725 AM 3/21 HAM RADIO
Aimed At Sandwich |
...BRISTOL COUNTY...
REHOBOTH 3.9 905 AM 3/21 NWS EMPLOYEE
NORTON 3.6 700 AM 3/21 CO OP OBSERVER
DIGHTON 3.5 928 AM 3/21 NWS EMPLOYEE
TAUNTON 3.5 700 AM 3/21 NWS OFFICE
SWANSEA 3.2 950 AM 3/21 SPOTTER
FALL RIVER 3.0 915 AM 3/21 NONE
MANSFIELD 2.5 738 AM 3/21 TRAINED SPOTTER
NEW BEDFORD 2.0 511 AM 3/21 AMATEUR RADIO
ACUSHNET 1.8 620 AM 3/21 NONE
NORTH ATLEBORO 1.7 840 AM 3/21 NONE
FAIRHAVEN 1.5 625 AM 3/21 NONE
WEST ACUSHNET 1.5 642 AM 3/21 HAM RADIO
Plymouth, The White Cliffs... lol |
...DUKES COUNTY...
WEST TISBURY 1.3 629 AM 3/21 NONE
EDGARTOWN 1.0 900 AM 3/21 CO OP OBSERVER
Bournedale |
MILLIS 4.5 900 AM 3/21 SPOTTER
DOVER 4.0 815 AM 3/21 NONE
BRAINTREE 4.0 522 AM 3/21 AMATEUR RADIO
FOXBORO 3.2 815 AM 3/21 NWS EMPLOYEE
MILTON 3.2 830 AM 3/21 BLUE HILL OBSERVATORY
SHARON 3.0 839 AM 3/21 HAM RADIO
FRANKLIN 3.0 700 AM 3/21 CO OP OBSERVER
NORWOOD 2.7 736 AM 3/21 NWS EMPLOYEE
WALPOLE 2.6 737 AM 3/21 HAM RADIO
NORTH WEYMOUTH 2.5 638 AM 3/21 TRAINED SPOTTER
FOXBOROUGH 2.5 716 AM 3/21 HAM RADIO
RANDOLPH 2.5 545 AM 3/21 TRAINED SPOTTER
BROOKLINE 2.4 845 AM 3/21 HAM RADIO
WRENTHAM 2.2 811 AM 3/21 NONE
Sagamore Heights |
...PLYMOUTH COUNTY...
WHITMAN 5.3 957 AM 3/21 TRAINED SPOTTER
HANOVER 5.0 534 AM 3/21 GENERAL PUBLIC
N. SCITUATE 4.8 657 AM 3/21 MEDIA
BRIDGEWATER 4.0 700 AM 3/21 CO OP OBSERVER
ROCKLAND 4.0 720 AM 3/21 SPOTTER
WAREHAM 4.0 933 AM 3/21 NONE
HINGHAM 3.6 928 AM 3/21 NONE
MIDDLEBORO 3.0 700 AM 3/21 CO OP OBSERVER
KINGSTON 2.5 731 AM 3/21 TRAINED SPOTTER
CATERVILLE 2.5 908 AM 3/21 NONE
PLYMOUTH 2.0 524 AM 3/21 AMATEUR RADIO
DUXBURY 2.0 721 AM 3/21 HAM RADIO
WEST WAREHAM 2.0 745 AM 3/21 TRAINED SPOTTER
ROCHESTER 0.7 800 AM 3/21 CO OP OBSERVER
Cape Cod Canal |
I'm hardcore enough that I got in 18 holes today at White Cliffs. I also golfed. |
Sammich |
Scusset Beach jetty |
Inland Cedarville |
Spring's comin'.... |
Labels:
bourne,
bournedale,
Cape Cod Canal,
cedarville,
last snow of winter,
Onset,
plymouth,
sagamore,
sagamore beach,
sandwich,
snow,
snowfall totals,
winter
Location: Buzzards Bay, MA, USA
Sandwich, MA, USA
SE Massachusetts School Closings
SCHOOL CLOSINGS
Understand that these are just for our coverage area.
Abinton
Acushnet
Attleboro
Avon
Bishop Feehan
Blue Hills
Boston
Bourne
Braintree
Bridgewater-Raynham
Bristol-Plymouth
Brockton
Carver
Dartmouth
Dighton-Rehoboth
East Bridgewater
Easton
Fairhaven
Fall River
Freetown-Lakeville
Greater New Bedford
Hanover
Holbrook
Mashpee
Milton
New Bedford
Norton
Old Colony Tech
Old Rochester
Plymouth
Sandwich
Seekonk
Somerset-Berkley
South Shore Voc-Tech
Taunton
Upper Cape Tech
Wareham
Weymouth
West Bridgewater
Whitman-Hanson
Cardinal Spellman
Sacred Heart (Kingston)
St. John Paul II
Cape Cod Community College
Bridgewater State University
UMASS-Dartmouth
Labels:
cape cod,
No School All Schools,
school,
school closings,
snow,
snow day,
south coast,
south shore
Location: Buzzards Bay, MA, USA
Buzzards Bay, Bourne, MA, USA
Sunday, March 20, 2016
Snowstorm Update, And Late Season Snow Facts
We have two birds to kill today. We have the Sunday/Monday snowstorm, and- in the spirit of things- we have a bit of Knowledge to share regarding late-season snowstorms in Massachusetts.
The ever-changing nature of the storm means that we'll leave the discussion of the forecast until the last possible moment. It'll be more accurate this way. If that's what you came to this page for, scroll down until you see the NWS graphic.
March 19th isn't that late in our winter season. Note that I define winter as generally starting with the first snow and ending when the last one melts. March 19th is Spring, but it's early spring.
The latest I have seen snow in Massachusetts is April 28th. That was in Worcester, and we'll get to that in a moment.
I'm going to work with the village of Buzzards Bay for weather stats, because A) it's where I live, and B) it's a nice midway point for our coverage area. I'll also use Boston, as they are easier to find stats for.
Monday is not only a potential snow day. It is a special day as far as historical average temperatures go. It is the first day where historical average high temperatures will be 50 or above, and the average low temperatures will be 32 and above. 32 degrees, as you know, is freezing. Snow needs that 32 degree benchmark for the most part. There's no law that says it can't be zero degrees tomorrow, but it is unlikely when judged by history.
April 22nd is when our historical daily high temperature gets to 60 degrees, so hang in there.
Late-season snow facts:
- According to WBZ, Boston has had snowfall of 12 inches or more after March 20th once, in 1997. More on that in a sec. Boston has 6 instances where 6 or more inches of snow fell after March 20th. Worcester has had 12 such events.
- Spring starts at 12:30 AM this Sunday, March 20th.
- The latest measurable snowfall for Boston was a half inch on May 10th, 1977. The latest we've had non-accumulating snow in Boston was June 10th, 1955.
- This source tells me that New York and Atlanta both have the same day, in different years, for latest snowfall... April 25th.
- Most of New England had frost on August 23rd in 1816, and lake ice was seen around the Bay State into August.. This was due to the eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia, which gave everyone red, smoky skies and drove worldwide temperatures down. New England had her corn crop fail, and all sorts of food prices skyrocketed. June snow fell in some parts of New England. It is known as The Year Without A Summer. They had one period where it went from 95 degrees to 35 degrees in a half day.
- Three late-season snowstorms stand out in our history. One was that May 10th, 1977 one from The Farmer's Almanac. The record is a bit later in the year for the Berkshires. The other late-season trace snow events of note in our history are the ones I was yapping about up above.
- Our second storm of note was the 1997 April Fool's Day Blizzard. Over 25 inches of snow fell on Boston, and coastal flooding tore apart the shoreline.
- Our third late-season storm of note was a 17-21 inch blockbuster that hit Worcester and areas north on April 28th, 1987.
I was a freshman at Worcester State College for that storm, and had just picked up a girl from West Boylston High School for a date... because that's how I rolled in 1987, playboy! We went to a movie, came out, and there were 6 inches of snow on the ground. We had an Italian dinner somewhere, and there was a foot on the ground when we came out of the restaurant.
I had only been driving for a year, and had zero savvy. We nearly hit a plow when we skidded all the way down a hill on Route 9. We also drove into a drift in some guy's yard in Berlin, Massachusetts. It ended well... the homeowner called his sons out to shove my car from the drift, and they came out single file... and each one was bigger than the last. "Don't worry about it, just steer" is how the father replied when I offered to make Katie drive so that I could get out and help shove the car. They literally lifted my car and threw it from the drift.
I got zero (0) play from that date, too. The only time I even got a hug as when we nearly crashed into the plow, and that may have been a case where she was trying to wrestle me into a position where the plow blade hit me first. I really can't blame her.
Anyhow, 17 inches of snow is about as much as we get that late in the year. If you get snow on your lawn after May 10th, you just saw a regional record.
Snowstorm Forecast Notes
As we publish when we wish, we had no need to keep updating our forecast. TV stations did not enjoy that luxury. They had to have something up every 6 hours or so, and it caused their forecasts to be all over the board.
Here are a few WBZ updates, just to show you how they flail about in the wind.
- March 13th... "Winter Is Over"
- March 16th... "Storm coming, worst of it west of 128"
- March 17th... "Danielle Niles tries to avoid giving a forecast for a March 20th storm on March 17th," although they do have the beginnings of a cool March Madness "Worst Storm Eva" bracket. I see a Blizzard of '78/1991 Halloween Gale final, although they forgot to put in the worst storm we have had in modern history, the 1938 Great New England Hurricane.
- March 17th, 6 hours later, different forecaster... "6-12 inches"
- March 18th, 12 hours later... "2 to 4 inches"
- March 19th, noon... "Storm will not form until it is past us, little or no snow"
- March 19th, 11 PM... "8 inches"
It's 2 AM on the 20th, and I can not finish this section yet... I have no idea what they will be putting in their 5 AM and noon updates. They may be calling for a heat wave or a hurricane for all I can tell.
(Update) 7 AM, today... possible "mammoth amounts" Their snow/rain line only touches the Islands and Chatham.
Our own March Madness brackets for Worst Massachusetts Storm Ever, Top 16 Seeds:
1) 1938 Great New England Hurricane
2) 1635 Great Colonial Hurricane
3) Blizzard of '78
4) Hurricane Bob, 1991
5) Worcester Tornado, 1953
6) Halloween Gale, 1991
7) Blizzard of 1888
8) 1898 Portland Gale
9) April Fool's Blizzard, 1997
10) Hurricane Carol/Edna, 1954
11) Hurricane Donna, 1960
12) The Great September Gale Of 1815
13) Winter of 2015
14) 1944 Great Atlantic Hurricane
15) The Triple Storms of 1839
16) Blizzard of 2005
Honorable Mention/Lower Seeds:
2008 Ice Storm
1698, reported 42 inches of snow in Cambridge
1831 Snowstorm, 3 feet on the Cape
1978 pre-Blizzard January snowstorm
2011 Springfield Tornado
Blizzard of 2013
1993 Superstorm
Saxby Gale, 1869
1969 100 Hour Storm
Winter of 1717
1996 South Shore microburst
Hurricane Belle
Hurricane Gloria
Hurricane Irene
Hurricane Sandy/Post-Sandy Wareham microburst
1960 snowstorm
Our Forecast For Sunday/Monday's Entertainment Along The Coast:
There is a Winter Storm Warning for Plymouth County. Barnstable County only has a Winter Storm Watch..
As of this AM, it looks like the worst of it will fall along the Cape Cod Canal area through Hull or so..
Accuweather, which has also held to a consistent forecast, gives the village of Buzzards Bay 5-10 inches, and they settle on 5.3 inches if you add up their projected daily totals. I added up Duxbury as well, and they get 5.1". A lot of it hinges on where the heavier snow bands set up.
(3:45 PM Update... 7 inches now forecast for Buzzards Bay by Accuweather)
I'm thinking that the Outer to Mid Cape gets 1-3 inches. The Upper Cape gets 3-6". The South Shore, South Coast and Rhode Island get in the 5-10" range. Middlesex and Cape Ann go to the 3-6" range, and Worcester is the drop-off point where you start clocking 1-3" again.
So, all of Plymouth, Bristol and Norfolk Counties get to share this one. Note that this current track cements a winter total where Cape Cod (or at least the Upper Cape) had more snow than Boston did. There is a very good chance that schools in this area will be cancelled tomorrow. You can blame that Al Nino motherf***er.
Winds should be gusty at the coast. It could be worse. The wobble in the track that gave the South Shore the higher snow also draws the worst of the winds back out into the ocean. An approaching full moon is happening, but we foresee nothing worse than some splashover. There's an 11 AM high tide on Monday that we'll watch for you... we might go to Sandwich for it.
The timing of the storm should be 6-9 PM Sunday through about Monday afternoon. Don't be shocked if you see some rain when it starts, or if the snow doesn't really drop until midnight.
The long-range forecast shows no more snow for this season, and it also seems to say that this weekend will be the last of the below-freezing weather. We'll be at 50 degrees on Wednesday.
Labels:
april,
cape cod,
forecast,
late season snow,
march,
may,
nor'easter,
nws,
off season,
snostorm,
snow,
south shore,
wbz,
winter storm watch
Location: Buzzards Bay, MA, USA
Buzzards Bay, Bourne, MA, USA
Thursday, March 17, 2016
Check Your Irish
A few notes on the reach of the Irish Riviera....
- Before doing any demographic research, I went to various Facebook pages on the Cape and South Coast, seeing if the people there felt that they should be included in the Irish Riviera.
The Cape people feel that they are a whole other entity. They are correct, IMHO. Cape Cod is actually the New England Riviera. They draw people from all over, where the visitors on the South Shore have a bit more Paddy to them.
No one from the South Coast even replied, to my knowledge.
- As you can see, the heart of the Riviera runs from Hull to Duxbury, with a sizable inland area running to the Bridgewaters. Brockton is a lighter green, but still Irish enough to represent hard.
- You could make an argument about running the Irish Riviera from Plymouth through Bourne down to Falmouth, and maybe hooking it through parts of Sandwich, Barnstable and Mashpee.
- Other than those lonely white dots, you can pretty much roll from the tip of Cape Cod to Worcester on a sea of green.
- Sharon, a big lonely dot of white in a sea of green in the middle, only has 12% Irish. 14% of their population, and their biggest group by ancestry, is Russian.
- The North Shore has a bit of an inland Riviera going, but it's a B- to the South Shore's 4.0. Her anchorman is North Reading.
- It gets very Latino when you get north and east of Boston. East Boston is 54% Latino.
- The more Irish parts of Cape Cod are about as Irish as the less Irish parts of the South Shore.
- Fairhaven (27% Portuguese), Westport (30% Portagee, 14% French), Dartmouth (37% Portagee), Fall River (44% Portagee) and New Bedford (37% Portuguese, and they have more Sub-Saharan Africans at 8% than Irish at 7%) establish a firm roadblock in front of the Irish Riviera's reach onto the South Coast.
- Onset and East Wareham have the most Micks on the South Coast. while the Popponessett section of the Cape bleeds the greenest. A run from Pop through Hyannis sometimes gets Irish Riviera votes, mostly because of the Kennedys.
- Wellfleet on the Cape and the whole South Coast west of Mattaspoisett need to import some Irish, pronto.
- Even a first grader can look at this map and tell you where everyone fled Southie and JP for when busing started.
- A girl I worked with at AOL is from eastern Massachusetts, and has 4 sisters. Each of them has dated someone named "Murph." Not the same Murph, either.
- You kind of have to squint at it to see it on that map, but Southie is still pretty friggin' Irish. You won't have trouble finding some Irish Spring in Charlestown, either.
- Butter-soft Duxbury is more Irish than any bad-ass part of Boston where Whitey Bulger ever stalked, or at least since busing hit. I don't see any mob movies coming our way, however... although we did have a rapper get shot in town, so there's progress being made.
- Rhode Island is 19% Irish. They are America's most Portuguese state, and also have a pile of Eye-tal-ians.
Happy St. Patrick's Day!! |
Labels:
boston,
cape cod,
charlestown,
duxbury,
hull,
irish,
irish descent,
irish riviera,
irish-american,
marshfield,
rhode island,
scituate,
south boston,
south coast,
south shore
Location: Buzzards Bay, MA, USA
Buzzards Bay, Bourne, MA, USA
Wednesday, March 16, 2016
Nor'easter Incoming For Sunday/Monday?
Winter wasn't going to let us off the hook without one more backhand slap. Did you really think it would?
We've had a mild winter, a welcome change after all that Siberia stuff we had a year ago. Cape Cod may have gotten a bit more than her average for snowfall, but a winter where Cape Cod outsnows Boston is an anomaly.
We have a shot at some more snow this Monday, as a storm will develop offshore and see how close she can get to New England. She'll arrive during what may be our last blast of cold weather this weekend.
She could very well miss us. We're several days away. It is one of those two-track scenarios where Track #1 means that the storm goes out to sea, and Track #2 means that we get a rain/wind/snow event.
There's a full moon on Wednesday, and that could provide some Aftersurf if the storm throws waves at us from afar (she's expected to hit Canada as a blizzard), especially Tuesday.
We're too far away to say for sure what will happen, and even if we guess, we have no idea of how much snow will fall, where the rain/snow line would set up and a zillion other things.
I saw no snow totals forecast. I did see wind gust charts giving us gale-force winds. The storm would clip Massachusetts, and mainly be a SE Massachusetts event.
If it hits, the weather would go downhill Sunday night. The storm would be offshore on Monday, and be done with us by Monday night.
Again, it may miss us, most likely will... we just want you to keep an eye on the weather for the next few days. We'll keep you updated.
Labels:
cape cod,
coastal flooding,
coastal storm,
late season storm,
Massachusetts,
nor'easter,
snow,
south coast,
south shore,
storm
Location: Buzzards Bay, MA, USA
Buzzards Bay, Bourne, MA, USA
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)