Culinary Salem...

FINZ presents a Pacific Northwest Wine Dinner on Wednesday, March 11, 2009 6:30pm
$49.99 per person (tax & gratuity not included). Make your reservations now! 978-744-8485 or www.hipfinz.com

Here's the menu...

Starter
Oysters on the Half Shell Topped with Yuzo ice and wasabi caviar
Served with
Mercer Estate Reisling, Yakima Valley, Washington State

First Course
Venison Tartare
Rosemary buttermilk biscuit, Clementine marmalade and house dried blackberry and juniper vinaigrette
Served with
Lange Pinot Noir Reserve, Willamette Valley

Entree Course
Cedar Plank Salmon
With smoked salmon gratinee, savory pommery whipped cream and crisp Okinawan potato
Served with
Lange Pinot Gris, Willamette Valley

Finale
Washington Apple and Wild Berry Cobbler With black raspberry ice cream
Served with
Taylor Fladgate Late Bottle Vintage Port

2009 Salem Visitor & Travel Guide is Available

Shortly after I first started working for Destination Salem, my grandmother asked me what I did. At the time, we were working on the 1999 Visitor Guide, so I talked about creating the visitor guide for Salem. I will never forget her looking at me and exclaiming, "People DO that?"

Yes, they do. Yes, we do.

The creation of a visitor guide is nearly a six-month process that involves design, photography, layout, copy-writing, editing, proof-reading, proof-reading, proof-reading, and (finally!) printing.

All this is why I am so delighted to tell you that the 2009 Salem Visitor & Travel Guide is now available! If you have requested visitor information during the past 8 weeks, you will receive one automatically. You can also find them at visitor centers and attractions in Salem, and we are shipping them out to visitor information centers throughout the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

It's a great guide this year. I firmly believe that every year we should look at the visitor guide and say, "This is the best ever!" And, I've gotta tell you, This is the BEST ever! Salem is better than ever - there are more shops and restaurants in this guide then ever before. There are walking tours, harbor cruises, attractions, museums, cultural institutions, entertainment, and events - so many events!

We expanded the calendar pages to nearly double the space it had last year. We added editorial on 10 Free Things to do in Salem (because we are all counting pennies, aren't we?), and the map - oh, the glorious map! - is a 3-panel fold-out that will help you navigate from the Witch House to the Ferry to Pickering Wharf to the Common to the MBTA Commuter Rail.

Finally, the beautiful cover image of The Witch House was shot by visitor Michele Mayrose from Chicago, IL. We found Michele's image on Flickr (she gave us permission to use it, don't worry), and her beautiful photograph has inspired us to run a photography contest for the cover of the 2010 visitor guide. So, start taking pictures in Salem and stay tuned for more information on the photo contest!

You can request your free copy of the 2009 Salem Visitor & Travel Guide at Salem.org.

Since it takes so many people to do this, I want to thank everyone who contributed to the 2009 Visitor Guide (you know who you are). It is a real team effort. And, for business development purposes, I will tell you that the graphic design and layout was done by Kishgraphics, and the printing was done by ACME Printing. Both are excellent companies that bring talent and professionalism to the table.

Discover the magic of Salem!

Salem Film Fest Schedule

Here it is - the schedule for Salem Film Fest. Visit salemfilmfest.com for more information! Come to Salem - see the world!

ANVIL! THE STORY OF ANVIL
Fri, Feb 27, 9:20 pm —w/I Met the Walrus (short)
Screening Room: Wed, March 4, 5:30 pm
A timeless, hilarious tale of survival and the unadulterated passion it takes to follow your dream. Anvil rocks—it has no other choice.

ARCHEOLOGY OF MEMORY: VILLA GRIMALDI
Sun, March 1, 8:30 pm
Screening Room: Thurs, March 5, 5:30 pm
A poignant, impressionistic and important story following an exiled Chilean musician as he explores healing through art.

BLAST!
Fri, Feb 27, 2:00 pm
Screening Room: Mon, March 2, 5:30 pm
Astrophysics Indiana Jones style! From Arctic Sweden to Antarctica comes a story of space exploration, obsession and sacrifice.

BIG DREAMERS
Sat, Feb 28, 11:00 am—w/Muskrat Lovely
Screening Room: Tue, March 3, 7:35 pm
A witty tale of an Aussie town’s attempt to salvage its economic future through the building of The World’s Biggest Gumboot.

BRICK BY BRICK: A CIVIL RIGHTS STORY
Fri, Feb 27, 4:15 pm w/City of Cranes (short)
Screening Room: Tue, March 3, 6:00 pm
A story of Northeast racism told from a first person perspective.
A contemporary American battle for civil rights.

BURNING THE FUTURE: COAL IN AMERICA
Tue, March 3, 8:00 pm
Environmental conflict between the coal industry and residents of West Virginia. A local story with national resonance

CHILDREN OF THE AMAZON
Sun, March 1, 1:40 pm
Brazil’s Amazon rainforest and its Indigenous people—a meditation on environ-mental devastation, resistance and renewal

CHRIS AND DON, A LOVE STORY
Mon, March 2, 8:00 pm
Screening Room: Thurs, March 5, 7:30 pm
Celebration of an extraordinary couple—British writer Christopher Isherwood and American painter Don Bachardy, thirty years his junior.

CIRCUS ROSAIRE
Sun, March 1, 11:00 am w/Beauty School (short)
Screening Room: Mon, March 2, 7:45 pm
Lions, tigers, bears, chimpanzees and “Tony the Wonder Horse”—a most unusual Family Circus.

DAUGHTERS OF WISDOM
Mon, March 2, 4:00 pm
Screening Room: Fri, Feb 27, 7:30 pm; Sat, Feb 28, 1:40 pm & 7:00 pm; Sun, March 1, 11:30 am
A quiet and intimate look at Tibetan nuns as they preserve their rich cultural heritage, while also reshaping it.

THE ENGLISH SURGEON
Wed, March 4, 5:45 pm
In the Ukraine, a British brain surgeon confronts dilemmas of doctor/patient relationships and his own humanity.

IN A DREAM
Sat, Feb 28, 9:30pm w/Intimacy of Strangers (short)
Screening Room: Wed, March 4, 7:45 pm
An unblinking, beautifully rendered, disturbing look at a celebrated Philadelphia mural artist by his filmmaker son.

KASSIM THE DREAM
Sat, Feb 28, 2:00 pm
World Champion Boxer, Kassim “The Dream” Ouma—born in Uganda and trained to be a child soldier. A stunning story of survival against incredible odds.

LIFE, SUPPORT, MUSIC
Sat, Feb 28, 7:00 pm, w/Bigger Than Me (short)
An amazing, mystifying and uplifting journey about life, music and the power of one family’s love.

MAKING THE RIVER
Fri, Feb 27, 7:00 pm
Raised by the state, institutionalized as a youth, imprisoned as an adult—a Native American story about injustice transformed.

MARINA OF THE ZABBALEEN
Tue, March 3, 4:30 pm
Screening Room: Fri, Feb 27, 9:30 pm; Sat, Feb 28, 12:00 pm; Sun, March 1, 3:30 pm
A squalid Egyptian landfill village transformed into a dream-like portrait of family, childhood, and spirituality.

MUSKRAT LOVELY
Sat, Feb 28, 11:00am w/Big Dreamers
Screening Room: Tue, March 3, 7:35 pm
A sweet and amusing look at a small town beauty pageant/muskrat-skinning competition.

POLIS IS THIS
Wed, March 4, 7:45 pm w/Uno Degli Ultima (short)
A portrait of Gloucester’s legendary poet Charles Olson as he fights to save his town from the bulldozer of change.

RECYCLE
Wed, March 4 @4:30 pm
Screening Room: Fri, Feb 27, 5:45 pm; Sat, Feb 28, 3:15 pm; Sun, March 1, 5:10 pm
In Jordan, an ex—mujahideen attempts to build a normal life in the impoverished town where Al Qaiada leader Al Zarqawi grew up.

SHADOW OF THE HOUSE
Sun, March 1, 3:45 pm
Photographer Abelardo Morell’s artistic process is divulged in a narrative that skips across time and space.

1000 JOURNALS
Sun, March 1, 6:00 pm
1000 blank Journals are shipped to random worldwide locations—connecting, provoking and inspiring.

TROUBLE THE WATER
Tue, March 3, 6:00 pm
An aspiring rap artist and her streetwise husband, trapped in New Orleans by deadly floodwaters.

UMBRELLA
Screening Room: Fri, Feb 27, 2 pm; Sat, Feb 28, 5:05 pm;
Sun, March 1, 7:00 pm; Tue, March 3, 4:00 pm
Set in five different regions of China and filmed in purely observational style—a telling look at vast changes in Chinese society.

THE WOMEN OF BRUKMAN
Sat, Feb 28, 4:30 pm w/Land of Opportunity (short)
An Argentine factory is transformed from a symbol of worker exploitation to a site of revolutionary labor participation.

WOODPECKER
Mon, March 2, 5:30 pm
Screening Room: Fri, Feb 27, 4:00 pm; Sat, Feb 28, 9:15 pm; Sun, March 1, 1:30 pm
At the intersection of fact and fiction a tragic comedy about hope, perception, and some very strange birds.

For more information on the events and schedule, visit www.salemfilmfest.com/

Salem Film Fest Opens on Friday

The email from CinemaSalem today was so great, I'm posting it here. If you want to sign up for the CinemaSalem mailing list, you can do so at cinemasalem.com.

Now Showing: the Salem Film Fest! Academy Award Winner Slumdog Millionaire (R); He's Just Not That Into You (PG-13).

Now would be a great day to move into one of Salem's marvelous hotels, like the Hawthorne or the Waterfront, so you don't miss a moment of the next ten days at CinemaSalem. To warm up, there's the LOST Party tonight and the "A Quest for the Best" Talent Show on Thursday, and then the Salem Film Fest starts screening an awesome slate of the world's best documentary films on Friday.

Rather than give you a rundown here, we'll send you over to SalemFilmFest.com for everything you need to know. Or you can just pick up The Salem News, the Boston Globe North section, or The Salem Gazette, all of whom are providing excellent coverage.

Here's my take on this great festival: Because of the way it's organized (with local sponsors directly underwriting the filmmakers) and because of Salem's reputation around the world, and because of the Fest's focus on filmmakers and the high caliber and sophistication of both the films and the audiences, and because of a yawning hole in the worldwide documentary festival circuit at this time of year, I foresee this event becoming a major national cultural event over the next several years. My confidence in this vision is strengthened by the particular global moment, when our shared challenges make us more and more curious about each other, and hungry for experiences that helps us truly glimpse each other's lives - such as engrossing and brilliant documentary films.

But that's enough prognosticating. I CAN predict with uncanny accuracy that Academy Award tidal wave SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE and HE'S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU, will play with astonishing regularity in the two other movie theaters at CinemaSalem not devoted to the Fest. You can find their showtimes by visiting CinemaSalem.com.

We hope you will enjoy the Salem Film Fest and our other features over the next week, and thanks for supporting CinemaSalem!

Paul Van Ness, CinemaSalem

A Perfect Souvenir

Photographer Ulrike Welsch published, Salem At Its Best at the end of 2008. It's a perfect souvenir! The book includes beautiful images taken around Salem.

You can buy it at many of Salem's gift shops, including The Trolley Depot (Essex Street at Central Street), The Salem Witch Museum Shop, and The Peabody Essex Museum shop.

To see more images by Ulrike Welsch, visit http://www.UlrikeWelschPhotos.com. You can also order the book online from Commonwealth Editions.

Save the Date for Literally Salem!

Literally Salem
Salem Literature Festival
Friday, March 27 to Sunday, March 29
www.salemlitfest.com

From March 27th through March 29, Salem, Massachusetts will take the weekend to celebrate the literary arts with author readings, writing workshops, open mics, word-game tournaments, parties, and more!

HISTORIC DOWNTOWN SALEM will provide the setting for Literally Salem, Salem's annual literary festival, with events taking place at several centralized downtown locations.

Preview of Events

Authors
Brunonia Barry (The Lace Reader, Harper Collins, 2008)
Hannah Tinti (The Good Thief, Dial Press, 2008)
Adam Braver (Mr. Lincoln’s Wars, Divine Sarah,
November 22,1963 and others)
Jan Elizabeth Watson (Asta in the Wings, Tin House Books, 2009)
Laurie Stolarz (Deadly Little Secret, Project 17,
Blue is for Nightmares and others)
Stacy DeKeyser (Jump the Cracks, Flux, 2008)
The Best Women’s Travel Writing 2009

Writing Workshops
Poetry Prompts
Creativity and Sense of Place
Writing with the Senses
Finding an Agent

Other Events
Thursday’s Theater of Words & Music
Scrabble Tournament
Tribute to John Updike
Storytelling
Papermaking
Dream Interpretation
Salem Theatre Company’s An Evening of Pinter
Literary Marketplace

Please visit www.salemlitfest.com often over the upcoming weeks...
new events are being added daily!

Amelia Payson & Salem Trolley Celebrate 25 Years Together

This just in from Don and Ada at The Amelia Payson House:

The Amelia Payson House B&B and The Salem Trolley are partnering to offer guests at the Amelia Payson House a special promotion. Book your April reservation before March 25th, and you will receive a complimentary Salem Trolley tour!

Get inspired by this video of the Amelia Payson House, and then call Don and Ada (at (520) 744-2365) for more information and details!