Have you been to an opera? The music is lush, and often complicated. The plots? Not so much. So that makes opera plots ripe for panning and snarkiness in a 140 character Twitter post, and this year, thousands of entries were tweeted as part of the #operaplot 2011 contest on Twitter.

The entries were edgy, somewhat clever, and often hilarious. Take a look at these imaginative examples:

“Damn woman wants some power . Get her daughter to destroy her. With a a FLUTE! Talk about Freudian.” (The Magic Flute)

“Girl 1: Unfaithful. Girl 2: Sickly. Girl 3: Flighty. Girl 4: Robotic (The Tales of Hoffman)

“Don Jose to Carmen: “Never gonna give you up, never gonna make you cry,  never gonna run around and desert you.” (Carmen)

“One of these days Carmen . . . bang!  zoom! To the  . . immediate vicinity of the bull ring.” (Carmen)

“Anti-smoking message: stay away from girls in cigarette factory. One way or another it’ll kill you. And her” (Carmen)

(more…)

With the cold hard winter fast becoming an after thought, I decided to take Bennie on a new trail last weekend. We loaded up and headed two exits down the interstate, to historic Newburyport, MA, home of the recently finished Clipper City Rail Trail and Harborwalk.

The recreational path is an easily walkable 1.1 miles, stretching from the Newburyport MBTA station to the Merrimack River. Walkers can continue another half mile once they arrive at the river’s edge, with the Harborwalk extension ending at Cashman Field. In that relatively short space, trail walkers will ramble through industrial areas, developed neighborhoods, and and have access to popular areas of the historic downtown area. Along the way, walkers enjoy public and interactive art, historical markers and signage showing past incarnations. Detours into neighborhoods and restaurants, and shopping areas are also available.

Completed in 2010 after nearly a decade of planning and construction, the Clipper City Rail Trail is part of the Coastal Trails Network, a regional system of trails connecting Newburyport, Salisbury, Amesbury, and Newbury. Planners are now trying to find a way to connect the trail across the Merrimack River to Salisbury’s Old Eastern Marsh Trail. Other trails in the Coalition include the Amesbury Riverwalk, and the Salisbury Ghost Trail.

Organizer John Hermann greets guests at the New Hampshire Media Makers meet-up. Photo by Roger Goun.

Somewhere in America today, a group of creative types gathered at a bookstore/coffee shop to discuss their projects, ask for help and advice on new endeavors, and share recent successes.

Among the group was a fiction horror writer recently published in a genre anthology, another fiction writer nominated for a Hugo Award, an actress and playwright recently moved from New York City, several other playwrights and screenwriters with projects in various stages of production, a teenage metal musician excited to share (and sell) his newly minted EP disc, a published parenting and education expert who will soon be interviewed as part of documentary produced by LucasFilms, a photographer wanting to source the crowd for some before and after pictures for his latest instructional book, and a video producer who shared his latest You Tube sensation. Also in attendance were two illustrators, a few Internet start-ups, and local managers of community art and technology spaces.

So where did this awesome gathering of talent take place? Not New York, nor Los Angeles, not even Nashville.

This gathering took place in Newmarket, New Hampshire, home of the monthly meeting of the New Hampshire Media Makers.

While most participants use computers to produce their work, many also use social media to collaborate, create, and share, mainly through Facebook, and Twitter. Media Maker meet-ups similar to this take place throughout the country, usually on a recurring weekend day. Networking is a regular meme, and it is not uncommon for collaborations to seed during one of these meetings.

This particular gathering marked the third anniversary of the group’s founding, and ranks among its largest gatherings to date.

For more information about New Hampshire Media Makers, visit http://nhmediamakers.wordpress.com/