Salem Massachusetts insiders information guide to restaurants, bars, nightlife, shopping and living for tourists and residents.

Salem’s got Balls

Written by Glen Hughes on October 21st, 2008 No Comments

The closer we get to Halloween the more the events ramp up.  This year one long standing event is moving to another new location while a new event looks to be a more financially desirable alternative.

The Vampires Masquerade Ball

Having long been the premiere event of the Halloween season this ball has moved from venue to venue and this year is descending upon Finz Seafood restaurant on Salems wharf.

It should come as no surprise to anyone that since October is Salem’s busy month, bars and restaurants jack their prices up through the roof for anyone wanting to book space to hold an event.  Many of the restaurants that have function rooms are delusional and think that people will bang down their door wanting to have a wedding there in the mist of all the spookiness.  From what I have been told, it is due to this and some changes in the organization structure of the Vampire Ball that so much talk about the specifics and price of this event has occurred. I an assure you that as of today tickets  for the October 25th Vampire Masquerade Ball are still available on their website for $95.

This is a “dress to impress” event with a $500 cash prize going to the person with the most provocative costume.  DJ Addambombb will be spinning the tunes, Black Cat Burlesque will be shaking their stuff and Finz will be supplying some hors d’oeuvres.  Local clothier Fools Mansion usually does a fashion show at this event, however as of yesterday when we spoke with them it was unclear if that was going to happen.  We will let you know when we hear any news.

The DARQ Gala

For those of you who want to save $75 but still put your leather, rubber or pvc on, the unlikely standout of Salem’s club scene, DARQ held at the Bangkok Paradise has upped their game (and price) for a great event and fine alternative to the Vampire Ball.   The DARQ Gala also held on October 25th, will feature NYC Industrial Artists Terrorfakt and DJ/Project Tonikom. If you are not familiar with their music go check out their myspace pages at the links provided - we’ll wait.  Your host Vudu DJ will also be spinning tunes through out the night.

A strict dress code will be inforced.  Wear your goth/industrial/fetish best because this week even basic black and your $20 cover (usually $5 but this is how it goes for special events in October) might not be enough to get you into this industrial Gala.

Audio walking tours of Salem Massachusetts

Written by Glen Hughes on October 20th, 2008 No Comments

Recently a new website has been promoting itself here in Salem.  Iseesalem.com claims to offer “free walking tour podcasts”  which allow you to “enjoy learning about Salem’s history at your pace”.

The Salem start-up isn’t the only walking tour available, Untravel Media a Boston based company offers a variety of tours one of them being Seeking Sanctuary in Salem.  This walking tour was written and mapped out by Salem filmmaker Mike Boudo.

Already in the tours business for the past 92 years is the National Parks Service.  They offer “audio tours” of various Salem sites owned or run by the NPS.

We decided to check out these downloadable tours and give you the low down.

Format

All of these tour providers offer MP3 download formats.  Seeing as though Apple has sold over 100 million ipods (1 in 3 Americans own an ipod or mp3 player) formats other than mp3 are not needed. However Untravel Media goes the extra mile and offers not only audio downloads but M4V video as well and has a windows mobile OS download option for people with Crackberrys and the like.

Cost

Tourists are already spending money getting to their destination and especially these days every penny counts.  Iseesalem.com and the NPS have free downloads of their tours while at Untravel Media you will fork out $6.99 for any of their three versions of the tour.

Narration & production quality

If I’m going to listen to someone talk to me about Salem I want it to be a pleasant experience. If you’ve ever been to a National Park and used one of their “press this button” features to hear or see some multimedia about whatever you’re looking at you know this is nothing short of professional, one might say the industry standard. The Salem audio tours are cut from the same cloth, professional voice actors with clear elocution, good use of ambient sounds, clean consistent sound and volume featuring male narration.

Iseesalem.com does a good job with a clean recording although it does feel as if it were recorded in a small room.  The female narrator does a fine job reading an informative script. These tours offer no actor portrayals and ambient sounds limited only to royalty free music when directions are given to the next location on the tour,  keeping the emphasis on the narration.

Untravel Media sits on the other end of the spectrum offering ambient sounds, background music, actor portrayals, interviews, and narration.  The male narrator is not as polished as the NPS narrator but offers much more enthusiasm and character.  Recording quality of the different segments changes widely in some places the audio noise and background sound shows the user that many of the interviews must have been done on location, it’s not distracting but it is noticeable.  They do go above board with a nice selection of photographs from interiors, exteriors and of the people talking during the audio tour.  They do a great job instructing you where to walk but the photographic cues are a true bonus for users of video ipods.

Do they deliver what they promise?

The National Park Services says of their Audio Tour of Salem Maritime:

The tour takes about an hour to complete, and consists of ten stops within the nine acre site. The stops are marked on the map, which is available here in pdf format

Each of the 10 downloadable files are between 2:45 and 7:04 minutes long and quite informative.  Using the accompanying map you move from place to place and once there listen to a new file.  This is truly an audio tour as opposed to a walking tour as there are no walking directions or comments on what you see as you walk from one location to the next.

When we did the tour with four adults and two children it took us just over an hour.  This tour delivers exactly what they claim.

Iseesalem.com says of their tours:

Download these free walking tour podcasts and enjoy learning about Salem’s history at your pace.  You will discover tales of Salem’s famous residents, long nautical history, haunted sites, witch history, and more!

Currently they offer 3 downloadable files with two “coming soon” (we need to add a special section for “coming soon” to our web site post) ranging in length from 6:28 to 6:52 minutes and walking from location to location took us about 45 minutes for the Revolutionary War tour and slightly less for the other tours.

While not as leisurely as the NPS tour these tours did offer directions to the next location.  Unlike the NPS tours their “click here (*ahem*) to download a map” doesn’t actually download a map, it opens up google maps with points plotted.

These tours are free to download, they offer directions and you can take it at your own pace so once again their claims true.

Untravel Media says of their tour:

The first part of the tour highlights buildings that are on the grounds of the Peabody Essex Museum. Through their foresight, some of Salem’s oldest and grandest architecture is being preserved.

The last part of the tour takes you to the Salem Maritime Historical Site which has preserved a number of waterfront buildings including the Narbonne House and oversaw the building of the 1797 replica “Friendship” merchant vessel.

While Untravel Media offers a bunch of tours only one is devoted to Salem.  They go above and beyond by being concerned with your safety and pointing out facts that only insiders know.  You get much more from this tour than you would from reading books or any of the available tourist literature.  I would like to see better photography (only applies to video ipod downloads) and some info is a tad dated (no more horse drawn carriages, sorry).

The format holds true to the description as the tour takes you from downtown by the PEM and Visitors Center through some of the PEM grounds, across the common and down to the Wharf.

Is it worth it?

The NPS tours give you some good info in a professional manor but having been at some of the houses I have to say that your best bet is a tour given by one of the Park Rangers.  If the Rangers are not available these tours are a fine substitute.  And since they are free you have nothing to loose.

As for iseesalem.com’s tours you might want to listen to them before you head out.  They do offer some good facts to know but as for a walking tour they don’t hold up to our other two options.  Once again they are free so judge for yourself.

Untravel Media is exceptional and exactly what I want out of an audio walking tour. As I said earlier, they are the only tour offered by these three companys that you have to purchase but, I think its worth it.  If you don’t want to be bothered with other tourists, set your own walking pace and still see some sites and learn some tid-bits, spending $7 for a tour you can enjoy over and over again is a bargan as compaired to some of the guided tours of Salem costing $10 or more.

Video Sunday: Bad Cop

Written by Glen Hughes on October 19th, 2008 8 Comments

With the astronomical increase of people to Salem each weekend in October the cops are cracking down.  You might remember that in a recent article about the night life here we mentioned how Salem was booming on weekend nights.  The downside to our bars and restaurants being packed with revelers is that some tend to over imbibe and a random few show up only to cause trouble.  Whatever the circumstances its best to mind your P’s and Q’s because a random few coppers aren’t going to take any flack what so ever.

We would love to see the entire event in order to see what transpired to provoke this police officer to take the actions he did. And as such we are not pointing fingers only spreading a word of warning.

Octoberfest and pub crawling

Written by Glen Hughes on October 16th, 2008 9 Comments

Yesterday we talked about the Harvestfest, which is going on this weekend. But there are a few other great events for those who want to sample some of Salem’s adult beverages.

Drunken Happenings

Using some whimsical adaptations from the official Haunted happenings an avid group of Pub Crawlers brings you Salem’s 4th Annual Drunken Happenings, this Saturday October 18th starting at 3pm.  The crawl involves visiting 7 different bars and drinking the recommended specialty drinks.  Six hours later everyone meets up at O’Neills to swap stories and hi-five your new BFF.

Having organized a few Salem Pub Crawls myself I commend the Drunken Happenings crew for getting the word out about being safe.  They suggest you crawl with a group, set aside time for dinner and remind you NOT TO DRIVE.  They even went the extra mile and included info on the cab company and pedicabs for those who might be in need.

While there was some talk of this event being canceled due to an increased police presence this year, it is still on.  I look forward to sharing a drink with many of you who will be crawling and remember - Be Safe Out There!

Octoberfest

Do you like oom-pah Bands?  What about cute chicks wearing a drindl?  Are you looking for an excuse to dust off the lederhosen in your closet?  Then look no further, Octoberfest is coming to Salem.

I can’t tell you that all the girls that show up will be this pretty nor can I tell you the mugs will be this large but I can tell you they both should.

Here is the low down.  This great idea was brought to life by Dianne from Pamplemousse (remember Harvestfest) and it looks to be a lot of fun.  A large tent will be set up in the Front Street parking lot on Friday October 24th serving as your Octoberfest headquarters till Sunday the 26th.  Local brewery Ipswich Ale will be providing the suds for your consumption.

Now for the bad news.

You have to buy a $20 ticket to enter the tent, similar to the real Oktoberfest (or Wies’n as it’s called in the motherland) where you need to buy a voucher to get a seat in order to be served, however that $20 ticket only gives you a commemorative Ipswich Ale mug and one beer.  If the festbier (German for beers sold during Oktoberfest) are 1 liter and the server girls are seriously cute then maybe just maybe $20 is worth it.  Keep in mind though if you want  any food (New England type food not Germany type food) or an additional beer you are paying for it out of your own pocket.

Proceeds from the event will go to Destination Salem a city department that markets Salem as a tourist destination.  Organizers are hoping to walk away with $30,000 profit.  While I hope this event is a huge success and they hit their mark something tells me that paying for additional beers of unknown size and price on top of a $20 cover charge might discourage most potential revelers. We will do a follow up to this and let you know how it went.

Wine Wars

Written by Glen Hughes on October 15th, 2008 2 Comments

Not too long ago we wrote a post called the Ice Cream Roundup in light of recent events we should do a follow up called Ice Cream Wars.  Which got me thinking - dessert purveyors are not the only feuding factions in town.

The Days of Wine and Roses

With all the subtly of a heavy weight MMA fighter, Salem Wine Imports opened up shop almost a year ago.  Even before the first bottle of wine was sold the usual cadre of Salem gum flappers were making quite the hullabaloo.  It would appear that the owner of Salem Wine Imports Eric, (whom I personally like) used to be the salesman who sold to Dianne (whom I also personally like) owner of Pamplemousse another shop in town that sells wine.

You can read all about what transpired and come to your own conclusions but now we have two great shops in Salem that have a good selection of wines. We the consumers win.

As with most businesses that have nearby competitors, each shop tries to promote itself and entice new customers with a variety of techniques.  Pamplemousse (who should learn a thing or three from our Your Website and You posts - their site has been “under construction” for way too long now) hosts wine tastings most Saturdays from 2-4pm while Salem Wine Imports (who needs to realize that if you have a blog you need to update it once in a while) does tastings on Thursday nights from 6-8.  I feel this is a healthy competition which again benefits us the consumers.

The dark side of the cork

We here at TheSalemInsider.com try to keep up on all the events going on around town so you the reader will know whats going on.  As such we often get notices and invitations to events happening around town.  I’ve noticed a disturbing trend lately which makes me think there’s more than meets the eye in the land of corks and casks.

Take for instance the night of September 25th.  The Lyceum hosted Salem’s first Wine Expo.  This event  presented by Salem Wine Imports, The Salem Athenaeum and Historic New England was announced way back in July.

A few weeks back in my in-box I received notice of another wine event, Women & Wine Tasting.  The event  held at Laura Lanes Skin Care on September 25th,  featured wines specially selected from Pamplemousse.  Coincidence?  I think not.

This is not the first time a clash of the tannins has occurred.  Thankfully neither of these proprietors has sunk to the level of public nuisance or disturbance like our ice cream combatants.

Enough sour grapes, uncork the future and tell me what’s in store.

There are some great beverage related on goings in Salem in the next couple of weeks.  What better place to talk about the Salem Harvest Fest than this wine related article.

If you like wine, mead or artisnal beers then this is an event for you.  For $20 in advance or $25 at the door you will be able to sample over 60 different libations from all around the world over a 2 1/2 hour period.   This Saturday October 18th, from either 2:00-4:30 or 5:30-8:00 Pamplemousse along with Magic Hat Brewing Company, The Upper Crust and Rockafellas offer up some great selections at a great location - The Gathering, at 217 Essex Street Salem.

If you DONT like wine, mead or artisnal beers then check in with us tomorrow as we tell you about two other festive events that you’ll need a designated driver for.