A Wicked Good Blog: Milling About on a Saturday Afternoon

In my youth, virtually every Saturday my brother Jimmy would take me into Harvard Square in Cambridge. It's still one of my favorite places to visit. I used to love the bookstores, especially the Coop, and obviously, the comic shops like the Million Year Picnic. I'd always stop at Nini's Corner for a magazine or two. Jimmy would do his record store stops. And of course, Harvard Square is also home to the Brattle Theater, a treasure I've only appreciated more with age.

Here in Lowell, we've got our own version of Harvard Square, albeit condensed to one entire floor of a historic fabric mill. Nestled inside the historic mills at the end of Jackson Street in Lowell lies Mill No. 5, occupying the fourth floor of 250 Jackson Street.

The marketplace is one of Lowell's true hidden gems, and a favorite pitstop for Andrew and I, especially for movies and special events.

In case you haven't been there, Mill No, 5 is in the last mill on the left-hand side of Jackson Street, near the soon-to-be-built courthouse, currently an empty lot.

From the mill's own website Mill No. 5, enter through the iron gate to the main entrance at the end of the tunnel on the left. Wifi is strong and free with no time limits.

This week's spotlight event?

Today was the third annual Pulp and Press paper themed marketplace event held throughout the mill, and it was a perfect way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

The hallway was packed with vendors of independent books, digital and fine art prints, vintage ephemera, and a ton of other stuff that I couldn't do justice with the written word.

First stop: the music maestro's madhouse, Vinyl Destination

Where of course, Dave Perry himself was busy helping keeping music on vinyl alive for generations to come

Most everyone who knows us know that Andrew and I are book fiends. Bookstores rank high among our favorite stomping grounds, no matter where we roam.

And today for Andrew, it meant perusing the stacks of Serpentine

Which today, rearranged its green-bound novels in honor of the upcoming high holiday on March 17

Andrew found the fabled Last Safe. Unfortunately, he didn't have the right combination to discern its contents.

Jonesing for some Joan Crawford but aren't in the mood for wire hangers? Might want to check out the Luna Theater's latest offerings, then.

Around the corner from the Luna Theater - Andrew's favorite place to take in a flick these days - the Pollard Memorial Library hosted an Author Round-Up featuring local small press.

Not surprisingly, I found THIS GUY there, Lowell's Paul Marion, whose retirement exploits were chronicled in a blog post earlier this week.

The guy is so passionate about poetry and local print, it exudes from his every pore. Andrew could have listened to him talk literature all afternoon.
Loom Press and Bootstrap Press hosted tables, and the other tabletops featured the works of writers like David Moloney, Jacquelyn Malone, Richard P. Howe Jr., Robert Forrant, Sean Casey, FreeVerse, Stephen O'Connor (Andrew snagged his compilation of short stories, Smokestack Lightning), Matt Miller, Michael Casey, Masada Jones and probably a bunch more I missed.

Regular readers of Wicked Good might probably know that Andrew's immersed in a master's program at Simmons College in the Writing Children's Literature program. So naturally, he struck up a conversation with Rebecca Emberley of www.twolittlebirdsbooks.com to talk children's literature and getting published. Won't be long......

So there you have it, a two minute Cook's Tour of Mill Number 5, one of the true treasures of the Mill City. If you haven't been there yet, get your butt down there.

In fact, STOP READING THIS BLOG AND GET DOWN THERE RIGHT NOW!