The Lincoln Squirrel – News, features and photos from Lincoln, Mass.

Volunteers needed for seniors and ZBA

drivingCould you drive seniors to essential appointments?

The Lincoln Council on Aging needs people drive seniors to local medical appointments, the COA, or shopping in Lincoln on one or more days per month. You may be a regular driver assigned to a specific day once a month or a substitute that we would call occasionally.  Whether to accept an assignment or not is up to you.  The rides are absolutely essential to those who receive them and we would be so grateful if you could help! For more information, please talk to Carolyn or Pam at the Council on Aging at 781-259-8811.

Join the Zoning Board of Appeals

The Lincoln Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) is seeking new members for open seats on the board. The ZBA is a land use board that interprets and applies the town’s Zoning Bylaw.  It acts on a case-by-case basis on requests for variances, special permits, and appeals of decisions by the Building Inspector, considering the impact on the town and neighborhoods and the requirements of the Bylaws. The Board, which has five regular members and three associate members, generally meets one evening a month. For information or an application, please visit the town website at www.lincolntown.org or call the Selectmen’s Office at 781-259-2601.

Film society presents “Beyond Bollywood” series

india movie compositeBy the Lincoln Library Film Society

To coincide with the Desai Foundation’s Discover India! festival in Lincoln next month, the Lincoln Library Film Society will present “Beyond Bollywood: The Many Faces of Indian Art Cinema.” Every Tuesday in October, the LLFS will screen works from Indian filmmakers that showcase a taste of the country’s output outside mainstream and commercial production. The free screenings will take place at 7 p.m. in the Lincoln Public Library’s Tarbell Room. Coffee and snacks will be provided.

Normally when we think of Indian movies, Bollywood is the first thing that comes to mind—dashing heroes, glamorous starlets, romance sprinkled with action and melodrama, with elaborate musical numbers every few minutes. But away from Mumbai’s multibillion-dollar Hindi film industry (the world’s largest), India has a vibrant independent film movement just waiting to be explored. Last year’s “Beyond Bollywood” celebration brought a number of interesting screenings, including documentaries, dramas, and experimental short films from various regions and time periods. This year welcomes a similar mixture showing some of the highlights from the lesser-known points on the map of Indian cinema.

2013 marks an important anniversary for the movies in India—the first Indian feature film, Dadasaheb Phalke’s Raja Harishchandra, was released in 1913. To celebrate this milestone, we will be screening the existing portion of that film (the first and last reels, since the middle two are now lost), along with the best and brightest of India’s independent film movements. Contemporary luminaries will rub shoulders with excellent discoveries from the past, and it’s all “beyond Bollywood.”

The films and dates:

Tuesday, October 1

King Harishchandra (Raja Harishchandra)

India / 1913 / silent with English intertitles / 53 minutes

Just outside the Indian holy city of Nashik stands a memorial to the so-called “father” of Indian cinema, D.G. Phalke, who released this, the first Indian feature film, on May 3, 1913. At once a starting point for popular blockbusters to come (as a religious/historical epic), a nationalist inspiration for the Marathi-language film industry, and a valiant trumpet of the 20th-Century swadeshi (Indian-made) movement, King Harishchandra represents the genesis of Indian film. Working with an all-Indian crew, Phalke depicted the story, from the Ramayana, of a noble king who lets go of all of his wealth, and even his own family, only to be rewarded by the gods for his sacrifice. What remains of this film has been restored by the National Film Archive of India.

Joyce

India / 1980 / in English / 17 minutes

In this student thesis film by Jill Misquitta, a young woman leaves her home to wander the streets at night. She takes shelter in a Catholic church, and the strange rituals, arcane chanting, and darkness of her religious upbringing come flooding back to her.

A Day with the Builders

India / 1973 / no dialogue / 13 minutes

Each morning, they awaken in the cracks between Mumbai’s high-rises. Slowly they set to work making the bricks that will form future high-rises. And so it goes, for this lifetime—and for many more lifetimes to come.

Tuesday, October 8

Frozen

India / 2007 / in Ladakhi & Hindi with English subtitles / 109 minutes

Filmed against the snow-covered deserts and ancient stone villages of Ladakh (a Tibetan kingdom that is now a part of Kashmir), and with a Ladakhi cast, Shivajee Chandrabhushan’s Frozen is a haunting story that unfolds through entrancing cinematography and icy, razor-sharp sound design. Its chiaroscuro style, sifting through glacier white and inky black tones, matches the breathtaking landscapes that surround the mise-en-scène. Karma, a Ladakhi man who makes apricot jam for a living, struggles through financial debts and a harsh existence in the desolate high Himalayas to support his eccentric teenage daughter Lasya. Meanwhile the army is literally at their doorstep, as the family home has the misfortune of being located near the line of control between India and Pakistan, with helicopters and jeeps circling in the eternal glare of floodlights.

Tuesday, October 15

Nainsukh

India & Switzerland / 2010 / in Dogri & Kangri with English subtitles / 82 minutes

Moments from the life of the 18th-Century miniaturist painter Nainsukh of Guler appear in picaresque fragments and rigorous, stately tableau. Here Nainsukh’s own work forms the basis of director Amit Dutta’s compositions, which he assembles harmoniously with natural sound and beautifully-rendered locations, to create unique paintings of movement and light.

Tuesday, October 22

Video Game

India / 2005 / in Malayalam with English subtitles. 29 minutes

Part road movie, part rumination on cinema and memory, Video Game plies the rutted dirt roads of backcountry India, using an old black Ambassador car as a symbol of identity and obsolescence. In revisiting past footage that he shot, experimental Keralan filmmaker Vipin Vijay also revisits the shooting locations, where jungle encroaches on ruins, just as digital video overtakes celluloid.

John & Jane

India / 2005 / in English and Hindi with English subtitles / 78 minutes

Capping off an evening of experimental documentary work, this is an astonishing look into the surreal underside of working in a call center. Filmmaker Ashim Ahluwalia’s mesmerizing and disconcerting John and Jane follows a handful of young men and women who are themselves chasing the dream of modern, urban India. While its denizens are drawn continually towards the flashy apartment buildings just on the horizon, the film itself dwells in the ghostly, neon-lit outskirts of sprawling Mumbai. Comforted by their delusions, these characters assimilate a dream version of American affluence in order to transcend their difficult surroundings.

Tuesday, October 29

27 Down

India / 1973 / in Hindi with English subtitles / 113 minutes

Well ahead of its time in its plain-spoken realism, unscripted approach, and reliance on available light, 27 Down is still a strikingly beautiful, remarkably fresh film, a good forty years after it was made. It tells the story of a young man named Sanjay, fascinated as a child by trains, who inherits his father’s job as a railway conductor. His nomadic existence, traveling around the country, comes to represent his imprisonment by duty to his family, responsibility to his work, and his settling into an unhappy, arranged marriage. The high-contrast black-and-white imagery of the film bristles with the rhythms of everyday life in a way seldom seen in Indian cinema, while the tightly-focused lenses study the actors’ subtle yet spontaneous performances as though through an emotional microscope. A marvelous discovery from the past, 27 Down feels connected to the present through its naturalism, since rail travel is still so integral to the ordinary lives people across the subcontinent. Millions every day, in fact.

Join in Trail Improvment Day

boardwalkThe Lincoln conservation groups are organizing a trail and land improvement day on Saturday, October 5 from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Even if you can only stop by for an hour or two, it would be a huge help. If you can stay longer or even all day, that would be fabulous. We will gather at the Codman North field, past the entrance to the Codman house  along Codman Road before you get to Rte. 126. Light snacks will be provided.

Work will be along field edges and trails in the woods. Dress accordingly. Please bring gloves, loppers, rakes or shovels. For more information, call Angela Kearney at the Conservation Commission office 781-259-8942.

Letter to the editor: Vote for Koutoukian

letter

Editor’s note: The Lincoln Squirrel is happy to publish letters to the editor. Letters must be signed and sent to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com by a verifiable Lincoln resident. Letters containing personal attacks, profanity, gross distortions of fact or other inappropriate material will not be published. The editor reserves the right to correct spelling, grammar, capitalization and punctuation, etc.

To the Editor:

On October 15, voters will elect Democratic and Republican candidates in a special primary election to fill Ed Markey’s seat from Massachusetts’ Fifth Congressional District.

We need progressive Democrat Peter Koutoujian to be our next representative to Congress. Whether it may be women’s rights in health care and the workplace, responsible gun violence prevention, public safety, protecting the environment and addressing climate change, education from preschool through adulthood, and building a strong 21st-century middle-class economy, Peter is hands-down the right person for the job.

[Read more…] about Letter to the editor: Vote for Koutoukian

Lincoln site being considered for new cell tower

celltower

A map showing the site of the proposed cell tower (click to enlarge).

By Alice Waugh

AT&T Mobility is investigating the possibility of building a new cell tower on property just east of Stonegate Gardens on Route 117.

“It’s an area where I think everyone knows cell phone signals are either very weak or nonexistent, and carriers are interested in trying to locate there,” said Larry Morgan, a site acquisition consultant for Tilson Technology Management. Tilson is under contract with several cell-phone service providers to investigate potential sites for new cellular antennas, which can be put on top of cell towers or existing structures such as rooftops or church steeples.

According to a legal notice, AT&T Mobility is proposing a 120-foot monopole tower inside a fenced leased area on property at 345 South Great Road on land owned by Ronald Christensen. However, Morgan said that there is no leasing or purchase agreement in place with the property owner. The idea is “very much in the preliminary stage—it’s not even close to being presented to the town,” he said.

“They would have to go through a pretty extensive process from A to Z to get that approved,” said Director of Planning and Land Use Chris Reilly. Among the requirements would be a permit from the Historical Commission to allow demolition of one of the buildings on the property, as well as town meeting approval, a special permit from the Planning Board, and a variance from the Zoning Board of Appeals. However, federal provisions might override some of the local zoning regulations, Reilly said.

The tower would be located about 100 feet south of Route 117, according to a preliminary drawing. Its 120-foot height would be sufficient to accommodate other cell-phone carriers in addition to AT&T Mobility, Morgan said.

Come help out at Codman Farm Work Day

barn copyResidents are invited to Codman Farm Work Day on Saturday, September 14 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. to help beautify Codman Community Farms for the upcoming Harvest Weekend. Come for the day. Come for an hour. Lend a hand and enjoy the company of other CCF supporters. Pick a task that suits you, such as:

  • Weeding
  • Painting signs
  • Hanging signs in the barn
  • Painting the bathroom floors
  • Organizing the lower barn
  • Washing windows
  • Weeding the children’s garden (great for kids!)
  • Litter hunt (great for kids!)
  • Putting in a fence
  • Rolling silverware for the upcoming Farmside Feast

Please bring work gloves and gardening tools. Pizza and refreshments will be served at noon for volunteers.

Inpatient hospice eyed for property on Lincoln/Waltham line

Hospice of the North Shore and Greater Boston purchased 12 acres of land in Lincoln and Waltham in hopes of building an inpatient hospice facility.

Hospice of the North Shore and Greater Boston purchased 12 acres of land in Lincoln and Waltham in hopes of building an inpatient hospice facility.

A Danvers-based hospice organization hopes to build a 20-bed inpatient hospice facility on Winter Street property straddling the Waltham city line, though there are no plans to alter the one-way status of the street.

In June, Hospice of the North Shore and Greater Boston (HNSGB) purchased the 12-acre parcel, which includes nine acres in Lincoln and three in Waltham. The Lincoln portion sold for $1.4 million. The only current structure is a single-family house on one of three Lincoln lots that were combined in the sale.

“This site is ideal for our purpose,” Diane Stringer, HNSGB president, said in a press release. “It is centrally located, close to Route 128 and easily accessible from the major cities and towns in our service area. It is also very serene and tranquil, as it is wooded, natural and offers views to the Cambridge Reservoir. Most importantly, it is more than large enough to accommodate the facility and have a large natural buffer from the road and neighbors.”

Winter Street in Lincoln is one-way heading north, but the hospice facility’s vehicular entrance and exit will be from the Waltham portion of the property. HNSGB representatives recently met informally at a pre-application “scoping session” with town officials to help plan the process of applying to the required town boards and commissions, “and they repeatedly said they have zero interest in making any change to that” one-way status, First Selectmen Peter Braun said at the September 9 Board of Selectmen meeting.

Inpatient hospice facilities offer a home-like setting where physicians, nurses and support staff provide 24-hour care, including pain and symptom management, and where visiting family members can spend quality time with their loved ones during the final weeks and days of life. Hospice care, which is covered by insurance and Medicare if the patient has a doctor’s prognosis of less than six months to live, can be an alternative to an expensive and disruptive hospital stay for many terminally ill patients.

“While the majority of hospice patients spend their final weeks in their own homes, a growing number have care needs that are simply too complex to be managed in the home setting,” Stringer said. “We’re also caring for more pediatric hospice patients, and there is no facility outside of a hospital that can provide the needed level of care for dying children and their families.”

The Lincoln/Waltham facility will be modeled on Kaplan Family Hospice House, HNSGB’s inpatient facility in Danvers. Staffing will include round-the clock nurses and nursing assistants, as well as a physician, social worker and chaplain on weekdays, according to a letter to the Lincoln Planning Board from Stringer.

HNSGB is the preferred hospice provider of the Partners Healthcare System, which includes Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital and Newton-Wellesley Hospital, as well as Emerson Hospital and three other hospitals. Since the company acquired Partners Healthcare’s hospice program in 2011, Kaplan House usually has a waiting list and is not easily accessible from many towns south and west of Boston that are now in HNSGB’s service area.

Because HNSGB is a nonprofit charitable organization, it would probably be exempt from paying property taxes on any Lincoln facility. However, selectmen expect there will be discussions with the company about payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT), such as Harvard University pays to the cities of Boston and Cambridge. “Large charitable institutions such an universities and hospitals know that’s something they have to discuss with local towns,” Braun said.

At one time, the Lincoln parcel (known as the “Kennedy property” in an 2005 analysis of six “at-risk” properties in town) was being considered for 40B affordable housing. According to that report, developing 135 affordable apartments on the site would have resulted in a net cost to the town of about $100,000 a year.

Iranian films on tap tonight

movie reelThe Lincoln Library Film Society will resume screenings tonight (September 10) at 7 p.m. with another installment of “cinemavericks”—innovative filmmakers who did their own thing and guided the art form beyond its inherited strictures. The LLFS will screen the film work of Forough Farrokhzad (1935-1967), one of Iran’s greatest 20th-century poets. Although she only made one film in her short life, it is considered today to be one of the finest moments in Iranian cinema. The House is Black merges visuals with poetry like no other film has done, configuring searing images of reality to match the lines of Farrokhzad’s beautifully sparse and devastating words.