August, 2009

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Forensics: You Decide

Wednesday, August 26th, 2009

Our good friend, Dr. Thomas Mauriello, one of the experts from the Discovery Channel’s documentary Lizzie Borden Had An Axe (2004), and consultant in Criminalistics at the University of Maryland, send this note to share with all of you.

Family, Friends and Colleagues,

I would like you all to know that I will be appearing on an episode of the Investigation Discovery (ID) Channel’s new show, FORENSICS: YOU DECIDE. The show will premier next Monday, 31 August at 10:00 PM. The show is about a homicide/arson case I investigated for the defense. I was asked to investigate and analyze all the forensic evidence presented at the criminal trial to show that our client did NOT commit the crime. You will be able to view the facts on both sides and then YOU DECIDE.

Enjoy, TOMM

From Discovery ID: An apartment in downtown Baltimore erupted into flames. Inside firefighters find makeup artist Marcus Rogers badly beaten and clinging to life. When investigators check the surveillance tapes they think they’ve got their man, but are their eyes lying?

Thomas P. Mauriello (right), and Tom Lange (left), from Lizzie Borden Had an Axe (2004)

Posted in 6 º of Separation, Off Topic, On the Web | No Responses »

Lizzie Borden Live’s Saturday Night Success

Sunday, August 23rd, 2009

The show is, sadly, over. And the production crew is taking away the set, to be stored, briefly, until the next performance of Lizzie Borden Live in Providence, RI, at the end of October.

The event was a very nice success, with one interesting moment occurring when the fire alarm went off half-way through Saturday night’s performance. The alarm lasted but 60 seconds, and Jill Dalton, the consummate actress that she is, incorporated the interruption into the play . . . and while the Eagle’s owner, Jerry Donovan, was outside convincing the fire and police teams that had come to the rescue that all was well inside, the audience continued to be startled and amazed by this brilliant play.

Congratulations to everyone who made Lizzie Borden Live another great Fall River evening of entertainment.

Posted in Book and Media Reviews, Borden Buzz, Fall River News, Lizzie Web Images, On the Web | No Responses »

Lizzie Borden Live Big Success

Friday, August 21st, 2009

Tonight’s performance of Lizzie Borden Live in Fall River, MA, at the Eagle Performing Arts Center, was a grand success.

The audience sat in complete silence as they devoured every syllable of this remarkable play. They cheered as the play ended, many there tonight repeat attendees from the last run of the show in Fall River in June.

Lizzie Borden Live is being performed only one more time this season in Fall River. Saturday night at 8 p.m, August 22, 2009.

Tickets can be purchased at the door and through LizzieBordenLive.com.

See you at the theatre!

Posted in Book and Media Reviews, Borden Buzz, Fall River News, Lizzie 4 Sale, Victoriana | No Responses »

Abbey Grille (Central Congregational Church) Sold Today to Bank

Thursday, August 20th, 2009

squirrel

The old Abbey Grille, the former Central Congregational Church, where Lizzie Borden went to practice her faith, was sold today at auction. The first bidder only offered $20,000. The Millennium bankbcp, the holder of the foreclosure, then stepped forward and purchased the structure for $250,000.

The sale of the building, instead of it staying in foreclosure mode, means that the city of Fall River can now recoup the back taxes owed and the lien holders can collect their monies due.

We do not know what the bank plans to do with the building. Estimates to fix the steeple are at $800,000, and $600,000 to pull the steeple down.

One hopes that the cost of demolition of such a structure will stave off any rash decisions.

The story of the sale is here in the Herald News.

Posted in 6 º of Separation, Borden Buzz, Fall River News, Lizzie 4 Sale, On the Web | No Responses »

Squirrels are Popping Up Everywhere!

Tuesday, August 18th, 2009

squirrel

At the Abbey Grille, the former Central Congregational Church, Lizzie Borden’s former church, in Fall River, Massachusetts.

Posted in Book and Media Reviews, Fall River News, Off Topic | No Responses »

Lizzie Scholar Fights the Good Fight

Tuesday, August 18th, 2009

I was on the front page of the Herald News today. I was wearing my Lizzie Borden Live! tee shirt, as I do when the show is about to play somewhere nearby (it is being performed Friday and Saturday nights in Fall River this week), and had my Lizzie Borden B&B ball cap on. It is my favorite hat. Great color and well made. I didn’t mean to be all decked out in Lizzie garb. I didn’t begin the day planning to be front page news.

I met with Herald News reporter Michael Holtzman and photographer Jack Foley at Father Travassos Park, in the Flint.

I had asked the mayor about the paving of part of the park at a public neighborhood town hall he had a few days ago, and found out that there was, perhaps, more to the story.

One of my passions, besides Lizzie Borden, is preservation. Fall River has a nasty habit of demolishing historic buildings, mills, schools, and structures—at the drop of a hat it seems.

So part of my life is spent speaking up for buildings that have no advocate, to protest the loss of green spaces, in this case the green space of a public park.

I post this here because it is about Fall River. Tangentially, it has a Lizzie twist. Thanks for reading.

For a full breakdown of this controversy, please visit Shamrock’s blog here.

Posted in Book and Media Reviews, Fall River News, Off Topic, On the Web, Unabashed Self-Promotion | No Responses »

Lizzie Borden’s Church to be Auctioned Thursday

Tuesday, August 18th, 2009

Abbey Grill, Fall River, MA

From Wednesday’s Herald News.

Abbey Grill auction is back on
By Staff reports
GateHouse News Service
Posted Aug 18, 2009 @ 08:12 PM
Fall River —

For the third time this year the foreclosed Abbey Grill hits the auction block Thursday at 1 p.m.

“It’s still scheduled,” a clerk of the law firm handling the mortgage for Millennium bcpbank said Tuesday.

But cost associated with the 134-year-old former church buildings and 160-foot high damaged brick steeple, along with the millions owed to the bank and government, may prove too hefty a price for bidders.

“Whoever buys this is going to have to spend a lot of money,” Building Inspection Director Joseph Biszko said.

Biszko said he’s had discussions with Mayor Robert Correia on the possibility the bank’s problem could become the city’s.

“We don’t want to end up with it,” Biszko said. “But we’ve planned for that possibility. … If everybody walks away, it’s ours.”

Local developer Jerry Donovan, who last year bought the nearby historic Eagle Restaurant as a performing arts center/museum, expressed skepticism a sale would happen.

“I don’t think there’s much of an interest at that amount of money,” Donovan, who’d considered a bid, said of the outstanding mortgage, estimated repairs and back taxes. . . .

The rest of the story is here.

Posted in Are They Crazy?, Borden Buzz, Fall River News, Lizzie 4 Sale | No Responses »

Lizzie Borden Live! Opens Friday in Fall River

Sunday, August 16th, 2009

Click here for tickets!

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lblivebweb

Posted in Book and Media Reviews, Borden Buzz, Fall River News, Lizzie 4 Sale, On the Web | No Responses »

Call to Artists Who Love Lizzie Borden

Friday, August 14th, 2009

Lizzie Borden Art Show

I spied this sign hanging on the wall at the 1 West Street mill building in Fall River, a mill that is full of artist work spaces. It is fuzzy, I know, because my hand moved when I took the shot with my cell phone.

But here is what it says:

A Call To Artists Who Love Lizzie Borden
We invite you to join us in celebrating the macabre legacy of the Queen of Fall River in
Lizzie Borden: A Tale of Two Cities
at Gallery X
Curated by Susan Hauck & Sonic Nova
October 14-November 15, 2009
Reception October 17, 7-10pm

This show is open to all artists, all mediums and interpretations encouraged

$10 per piece submission fee
The deadline for all entries is Oct. 11

Gallery X, 169 William Street, New Bedford, MA
www.galleryx.org
myspace.com/SonicNova
On Facebook: Gallery X, Susan Hauck Tim Gastall

Posted in 6 º of Separation, Borden Buzz, Fall River News, On the Web, Scary Lizzie | No Responses »