Press Wants Your Business News

The Bristol Press is looking for briefs on business people to run on Monday in the business section. If you have any promotional items, appointments, awards or photos in jpg form, please email them to business@centralctcommunications.com.

New Play By Press Booster

I just learned today that a new play called "Gray Matters" will be produced this fall in Hartford by the Emerson Theater Collaborative.
The play is by Connecticut playwright Jacques Lamarre, who works promoting the Mark Twain House and Museum in Hartford.
I happen to know Jacques, who in a previous life also worked promoting both Hartford Stage and Theater Works, two awesome theaters in Hartford. He's a terrific guy with a great sense of humor, a strong faith (I once heard him deliver a sermon, but that's another story) and also a wonderful sense of community.
He was one of the people who helped put together the screening of the documentary about near demise of The Bristol Press early this year at the Twain House. For that alone, he deserves a pat on the back.
But Jacques, who is, shall we say, a little zealous about pushing whatever organization he's working for, has never told me about his own plays.
"Gray Matters," which premiered in New York at the Midtown International Theater Festival over the summer and then played in Mystic this month, runs in Hartford from September 9-11.
According to the Emerson Theater Collaborative, which serves youth, underserved communities and artists in Southeastern Connecticut, the play is a topical new comedy that focuses on what happens to an uninsured, unemployed actor when she loses her memory.
The show will be at the Charter Oak Cultural Center in Hartford.Information and tickets for "Gray Matters" can be obtained by visiting EmersonTheaterCollaborative.org. Tickets are $25 ($23 for students and seniors).

Time Flies

What were you doing 17 years ago today?

Me, I was starting a new job as a reporter at The Bristol Press.

Former Press Editor Frank Keegan hired me all those years ago and I had the pleasure of working for him for a year before he moved on. I still miss Frank, and our former Publisher Joe Zerbey. They both know and love newspapers and they also knew and loved Bristol. They were also a hoot, but that's another story.

My first day on the job, I wrote a story about some guy catching a big fish in the Pequabuck River, behind Tinty's.

I didn't know how to pronounce Pequabuck, or what Tinty's was and I had no idea why just catching a fish was such a big deal.

Now I know that in 1993, a big fish did indeed show that the river was alive -- something a lot of people doubted back then after so many years of it being a polluted mess. I learned how to pronounce and spell Pequabuck, a river I'm still writing about.

Since then, I've written about people, places and events in the community or of interest to it. I've told stories both joyously happy and deeply sad, some outrageous, others ridiculous. I've met and gotten to know a lot of wonderful, kind, committed and generous people in the Mum City over the years. To all of them, I'd like to say thank you.

Sign of The Times? Nope. Sign of The Press

Guess who's getting a new sign for our new digs at 188 Main St.? Yup, The Bristol Press.

Guess who's paying for it?

Give up?

You!

And me.

Taxpayers, all of us.

The Bristol Development Authority approved spruce-up grants to the Press for almost $5,000 to cover 80 percent of the cost of the new sign and another grant for $73,000 to Tom Zipp, the landlord at the new Press building, for more improvements.

New tenants at the former Jake's restaurant who plan to open a new eatery are getting more than $60,000 to fix that building.

The fix-up cash is for downtown buildings only and it comes from money the state gave the city for downtown. There isn't much left, and time is running out to apply.

Read my story, which will probably be in Tuesday's edition of The Bristol Press (http://www.bristolpress.com/), for more info.

Documentary on the Press Airing Tonight

Anyone who cares about the near-death experience of your favorite hometown newspaper, The Bristol Press and how it was saved should watch a new documentary airing tonight at 8 and tomorrow night at 10 on CPTV.

Titled, "On Deadline: Is Time Running Out for the Press?" the film is only an hour long and packed with a lot of footage of people connected to the Press and to Bristol. I am sure you will see some familiar faces. You might learn more about what happened and you might have a few laughs along the way.

I don't want to give away all the good parts, but I will say that some of the finest moments include footage of the magnificent Steve Collins (cue cheering!) at work inside City Hall and giving a tour of the new Press office. It's riveting television, truly.

I'm in it, too, but I didn't say it was all good!

Filmmakers John and Rosemary Keogh O'Neil did a great job making everyone look and sound a lot better than they usually do. I know I speak for both Steve and myself when I say that we sincerely appreciate their interest in newspapers but especially in the Press.

We also are grateful to the Mark Twain House and Museum in Hartford, which hosted the first screening of the documentary on Tuesday at a gala event. Gala? well, for journalists, anyway. It was the closest I'll ever come to the red carpet, for sure.

There was a panel discussion afterward with a number of journalists, including Steve, who made the excellent point that The Bristol Press was a good paper worth saving, which is why we tried so hard to get noticed and stir up enough attention that a buyer might hear about us. Ultimately, that's what happened. Steve has written extensively about it in The Bristol Blog, and this week posted a memo he wrote a little more than a year ago to state officials laying out the case for using what resources they had -- emphatically NOT asking for a bailout -- in hopes of saving 100 jobs and 13 community newspapers. It's worth looking at: www.bristoltoday.com.

Mike Schroeder, our publisher, was also on the panel. He said when he bought the papers last year he was investing in journalism, not in a printing press. He said it is something that will never decrease in value.

"It's like buying gold," he said.

Twain House to Host Forum, Film, on the Press

The Press, that's with a capital "p," is the star of the show tomorrow night at the Mark Twain House and Museum.

The new CPTV documentary about the near-demise of your beloved hometown newspaper, The Bristol Press, will be shown for the first time. In addition, there will be a panel discussion that includes some wonderful people, not the least of whom is my own dear husband, Steve Collins.

That alone ought to be worth the price of admission.

If that's not enough, Press Publisher Mike Schroeder is also on the panel, along with Hartford-area media types.

So come one, come all! The auditorium is filling up, I'm told, but there are still seats available. Come to support The Bristol Press, or newspapers, or journalism, or documentaries, to catcall, hoot or applaud the film, to say hello to me, or just to support the museum.

The museum, which is an absolutely awesome place to see all by itself, so if you haven't seen it, you absolutely must go, is celebrating newspapers this month.

The author Sam Clemens, of course, was once a newspaperman. But don't hold that against him. It happens to the best of us.