Next Stage Arts Project presents “The Everly Set: Sean Altman and Jack Skuller Approximate The Everly Brothers,” at Next Stage on Friday, Sept. 23, at 7:30 pm.
In this performance, acclaimed New York City-based singer-songwriters Altman and Skuller pay tribute to two of their rock heroes, according to a news release, with “Bye Bye Love,” “Cathy's Clown,” “Wake Up Little Susie,” and other Everly (and Everly-influenced) classics. Next Stage features a dance floor and air conditioning.
Altman and Skuller will be joined by two Next Stage favorites: percussionist Michael Hunter and upright bassist Adam Bernstein.
Altman, widely regarded as “the Father of Modern A Capella,” co-founded and led Rockapella on the Emmy-winning PBS series “Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego?”, for which he co-wrote the theme song. He currently sings a cappella with The GrooveBarbers and Doowopera, original pop songs on guitar as a solo artist and original comedy songs as Jewmongous. (Note: Jewmongous will come to Next Stage on Dec. 23.)...
Marlboro College announced the launch of the Beautiful Minds Challenge for the 2016-17 academic year. High school students are invited to respond to the prompt, “Be the change. Document the effect.” to compete for scholarships and cash prizes. “Everyone has the potential to be an agent of positive change,”
The Windham Hill Inn has started the Get Back to the Garden music series: four Thursdays of live music, food, and drink from 6 to 8 p.m. at the inn, 311 Lawrence Drive, off Windham Hill Road in West Townshend. The first concert, Sept. 22, features the Sunny Lowdown...
College news • Miles Schelling of Putney graduated from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, majoring in mathematics. He is a 2012 graduate of Northfield Mount Hermon School. • Adrian Kelly of Brattleboro and Andrew Soszynski of Guilford are members of the Class of 2020 at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. • The following local students are members of the Class of 2020 at Champlain College in Burlington: Owen Beattie of West Townshend is majoring in computer and digital forensics,
For the fifth year, Windham County photographers will take part in Scott Kelby's Worldwide Photo Walk Day. This year's walk is on Saturday, Oct. 1, starting at 9 a.m. on Flat Street in the Preston Lot next to the Dunklee machine shop. Tom Singleton will lead the walk through downtown Brattleboro. All that is needed is a camera and the desire to take photos in Brattleboro, according to a news release. Participants may shoot panoramas, high-dynamic-range images, black-and-white photos, or...
“We're trying to dispel some misconceptions about people who use the Foodshelf,” and inform the public about “the extent of hunger in Putney,” said Putney Foodshelf volunteer Janice Baldwin about the organization's two-day series of events for Hunger Action Month, an annual September national initiative. The first, “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about the Putney Foodshelf but Never Asked: A Kick-Off to Top the Truck,” is at the Putney Library on Tuesday, Sept. 27, from 6:30 to 8 p.m.
The Guilford Chamber Singers are seeking new members for the 44th Christmas at Christ Church program on Dec. 16 and 17. This annual event includes vocal music, instrumental interludes by the Guilford Chamber Players, a holiday story read by Don McLean, and a few carols with everyone. The a cappella Guilford Chamber Singers have been growing under the directorship of Tom Baehr, now in his fifth year with the group. “This is a well-balanced, mixed choir of enthusiastic singers,” Baehr...
The River Singers, led by Mary Cay Brass, will celebrate their 25th year of singing together beginning Tuesday, Sept. 27, from 6:30 to 8 p.m., at Westminster West Church. The River Singers is a lively mixed age group of 90-some singers devoted to singing music from a diverse blend of traditional music from around the world. Over the years, the River Singers have hosted choirs from Kenya, Russia, the Republic of Georgia, the United Kingdom, and guest teachers from South...
Early in August, a group of five families from Vermont traveled to the Pennsylvania Shalefields to bear witness to the impacts of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. These families are a part of Mother Up!: Parents Exchange for Change, a campaign of 350Vermont that engages parents to take action in their own communities and in those most affected by the fossil fuel industry. Abby Mnookin, a Mother Up! organizer who lives in Brattleboro and traveled with her four-year-old daughter, will be...
The Windham World Affairs Council kicks of its 2016-17 season with its “Understanding Cuba Through Film” series, which premieres Friday, Sept. 23. A Cuban dinner will be served at 6:30 p.m. (donations appreciated), with films at 7 and discussion afterward, according to a news release. The event is at 118 Elliot St. in downtown Brattleboro. The “Understanding Cuba Through Film” series pairs film and food with speakers and cultural events one Friday a month. This fall's focus on Communist Cuba...
Vermont Performance Lab presents the innovative percussion quartet So Percussion this September with choreographer Emily Johnson and Director Ain Gordon, who have embarked on the last phase of their multipart residency to support the development and presentation of “A Gun Show,” a multidimensional meditation on guns in the U.S. So Percussion's research for “A Gun Show” included Performance Lab residencies dedicated to hunting and interviews with local hunters, sportsmen, and law enforcement officers, according to a news release. The Performance...
Selectboard member and Guilford Central School head custodian Troy Revis can add one more title to his résumé this year: official kid crosser. Because of construction delays to the Green River Covered Bridge, the structure remains closed to vehicular and pedestrian traffic until Sept. 30. The original contract called for the bridge to open before school started, but when workers discovered extensive damage that jeopardized the structure's safety, the end date got pushed back a month. So did the detour.
Starting Sept. 26 at 5 p.m., Open Music Collective will offer fall classes in Jazz Vocal Repertoire and Jazz Ensemble. In Vocal Jazz Repertoire (Sept. 26, at 5 p.m.), students will work on learning songs, writing charts, interacting with rhythm sections, counting off tunes, and improvising, according to a news release. There is limited room for participants, but all are encouraged to enroll. Jazz Ensembles will resume Sept. 28 at 5 p.m., with a special Youth Ensemble on Saturdays at...
I was hesitant to move to Vermont for only one reason (well, maybe two reasons, if you count the long winter). I grew up in Mount Pleasant, an urban neighborhood in Washington, D.C., in the 1970s and 1980s. During my youth, this area of the city was equal parts white, black, and Latino. The row houses on the surrounding blocks were peppered with neighbors of different backgrounds and classes, packed closely. When I attended private school with kids from primarily...
On Saturday, Sept. 24, and Sunday, Sept. 25, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., The Nature Museum will present its eighth annual Fairy House Festival. The experiential event is held around the museum grounds and in the forests of Grafton. Over 40 tiny houses built by amateur “architects” for fairies to reside, visit, or just stop for a rest will greet festival-goers as they follow the trail of custom-built dwellings made of natural materials. According to a news release, “this...
A subcontractor was injured the afternoon of Sept. 15 when the roof he was dismantling caved in. Bratteboro Public Works Director Steve Barrett said the worker was using a torch to cut apart the million-gallon steel water tank when “something went wrong and the top dome collapsed.” Barrett said he couldn't comment on the man's name or medical status. The tank is made of welded steel panels approximately 8 feet by 16 feet and up to half-inch thick. Barrett said...
A long-planned Act 46 merger vote has been delayed once again in Windham Southeast Supervisory Union. Just a few weeks after setting a Nov. 8 vote on the merger of Brattleboro, Dummerston, Guilford, and Putney school districts, the union's Act 46 Study Committee decided to push that ballot question all the way to Town Meeting Day 2017. Officials also decided to reschedule a Nov. 8 vote on allowing Vernon to leave the regional high school union. That matter will be...
Jane Diefenbach passed the trash heap on the footpath running between Organ Street and Birge Street for two summers. She joked that for a long time she “wished it away” with a “well, that's too bad” and kept walking. In late August, however, the trash pile was no more. Diefenbach and four Cherry Street residents - Mary Lea, Judy Zemel, and Janice and Jerry Stockman - rolled up their sleeves. They carted the trash to where the trail opens onto...
As residents try to imagine Vernon's energy future, some say the former nuclear town should think small. Officials and experts gathered Sept. 12 to discuss how Vernon might continue to produce electricity - whether on or off Vermont Yankee property - and possibly profit from it via jobs and tax revenue. The session included talk of gas plants, solar arrays, a hydroelectric partnership, and an energy research facility. There also were warnings that the town shouldn't try to find another...
Given a chance to reconsider their decision to leave the Leland & Gray regional school union, Jamaica voters reversed course. On Sept. 13, the town voted by a 126-102 margin in favor of staying in the five-town union. That has immediate implications for Jamaica's school board, which now will focus on a different Act 46 merger scenario. “The board will no longer be pursuing a potential merger with Dover, Marlboro, and Wardsboro,” school board Chairwoman Stephanie Amyot said. “We will...
I have personally attended a few Selectboard meetings and have brought up the issue of speeding in Guilford center, as have a few other concerned neighbors. Long story short, I was directed to and contacted by Trooper Christopher Buckley of the Vermont State Police. I informed him of my concerns. I even elaborated on the specific time of day when the most prolific speeding (cars and commercial trucks going 10 to 15 mph - sometimes 20 mph or more -
Right on, Yada Claassen. The official story of the Sept. 11 attacks, which is itself a “conspiracy theory,” is the least believable of all the stories we have heard. Some form of controlled demolition is the only explanation that matches what we see in the videos. If we ever find out the truth, the world will change for the better.
This opinion contains innumerable inaccuracies and accusations which are simply untrue. CDS Consulting Co-op has absolutely no ties with United Natural Foods. The consultants who co-own our co-op love food co-ops, treasure the cooperative structure, and are committed to the widespread practice of cooperative values in business. The purpose of our work with food co-ops is to help them continue to be successful, independent, community-owned businesses by identifying and using best practices, sharing what works with other co-ops, and working...
The Manitou Project is planning a fall equinox celebration on Saturday, Sept. 24, from 3 p.m. to dusk. The celebration will honor this seasonal transition into autumn, with movement, music, and fellowship. Participants will gather at the parking lot at 3 p.m. with a brief stroll to a welcoming place in the woods for a shared circle dance - movements from the ancient tradition of paneurythmy. Traditionally, the fall equinox is the conclusion of paneurythmy's seasonal honoring of the sun...
Sandy Golden: Are you saying we should use our vote to help a blatantly bigoted, hate- and fearmongering, lying, narcissistic misogynist claim the White House and advance his insane and, crucially, dangerous “policies”? Are you actually suggesting we should allow Donald Trump and all of the neofascist people he represents to drag us backward into the darkness of a nationalistic, xenophobic, hateful place that will take years, if not decades, to break free from? (You might also want to consider...
Few Vermonters will defend wind turbines, so the national organization comes to the rescue. Go look at the American Wind Energy Association's members: mostly large multinational corporations heavily invested in fossil fuel and nuclear. The industry's global attitude of blaming the victims is offensive in the extreme. Abuse people once by making them sick and unable to sleep; abuse them again by telling everyone it's all in their heads. Same story everywhere. At a Sept. 19 ribbon cutting in Searsburg,
Walking down Elliot Street last week, enjoying the sun and the breeze as I headed back to my office mid-afternoon, I noticed a man sitting on shop steps about a block ahead of me. As I got closer, he slowly started to tip over, leaning toward the step on which he sat. As I approached him, I recognized this courteous man who fills his days doing minor errands in downtown Brattleboro, greeting those he recognizes throughout his day. When I...
Good day to all in the windy hamlets of southeastern Vermont! After a good drink of rain over the past couple days, we have entered back into a fair weather regime. Drought conditions continue, but at least we received a substantial rainfall to help the cause. We do have at least a temporary pattern shift upcoming this weekend and into the middle of next week, but it won't be accompanied by much in the way of wet weather. For Wednesday,
The Brattleboro Colonels girls' soccer team is starting to come together, but coach Edwin de Bruijn never imagined his players scoring eight goals in a game. But they did, in an 8-0 demolition of the Springfield Cosmos last Friday night at Tenney Field. Both teams entered the game having previously won their first games of the season. Brattleboro picked up a 5-2 victory over Springfield on Sept. 12 in the consolation game of the Lady Patriot Tournament in Bennington, while...
A survey of Cai Xi's work, which includes her portraits and landscapes of the 1980s, her “Edge” series of the 1990s, the “WuJi (Infinity Within)” series of the past decade, and recent monumental portraits will be on display at the Michael S. Currier Center at The Putney School through Nov. 6. There will be an artist reception on Saturday, Sept. 24, from 4:30 to 6 p.m., at the Currier Center Gallery, according to a news release. Cai was in the...
Fourteen area youth rock bands and solo artists will take the stage at 118 Elliot in downtown Brattleboro, Vermont, on Saturday, Oct. 1, for BrattRock 2016, the first Brattleboro Youth Rock Festival. Performances will be on two stages, one indoor and one outdoor, between 5 and 10 p.m. Gates open at 4:30 p.m. The festival will feature food vendors, as well as an arts and crafts activity tent hosted by the River Gallery School, according to a news release. The...
Friends often find time to meet up for a variety of leisure activities: dinner parties, poker games, mahjong. Few of these groups exist to preserve history. But every Wednesday for the past 24 years, a group of friends have been meeting at Bob and Janet LeBlond's Wardsboro home to do just that. The group, which has no official name, views vintage photographs taken in and around Windham County - many of them from the early decades of mass-market photography -
Stone Church Arts launches its 12th season with two concerts at the stone church on the hill, 20 Church St, featuring world flute master Gary Stroutsos. On Friday, Sept. 23, Stroutsos performs “Enduring Honor: The Legacy of the Native American Flute.” Then, on Saturday, Sept. 24, he is joined by guitarist and vocalist Tony Garone for a concert that re-imagines the acoustic music of Ian Anderson and Jethro Tull. According to a news release, Stroutsos performs world flute music drawn...
Does anyone still remember, as I do, a time when people were courteous and respectful toward one another? When they bothered to respond to phone messages and personal or professional letters or to render thanks for gifts and good deeds? When sexual innuendo was off limits and when behavioral boundaries prevailed, no matter what someone really thought? Where has that kind of civility gone, I wonder? Nothing reveals how seriously eroded civility has become more than Donald Trump's atrocious tweets,
There's a new transportation option in Brattleboro. On Sept. 7, Megabus.com, an intercity express bus company, added a Brattleboro stop to its daily Burlington to New York City route. Southbound buses now depart from the Transportation Center on Flat Street at 11:45 a.m., with stops at the Hampshire Mall in Hadley, Massachusetts, Columbus Boulevard in Hartford, Connecticut, and Union Station in New Haven, Connecticut, before arriving at the Port Authority terminal at Seventh Avenue and 27th Street in New York...
Brattleboro Music Center's groundbreaking on Guilford Street started with a fanfare and ended with a group photograph. Between musical interludes, Johann Sebastian Bach acted as master of ceremonies. The music center turns 40 this year, and its trustees and staff have labored on and off for about 20 years to find a new classroom and performance facility. Earlier this year, the organization announced its purchase of the former Winston Prouty Center building off Guilford Street. The Prouty Center moved its...
“I said to Betty, 'What can we do to get Nicole some credit?'” said NewBrook Elementary School Principal Scotty Tabachnick. He and Betty Young, mathematics coach for the Windham Central Supervisory Union, were so impressed with third-grade teacher Nicole Plympton's, they wanted to find a way to get her the recognition she deserved. The credit came this month, when the Vermont Council of Teachers of Mathematics honored Plympton with its Rookie of the Year award. The prize includes a plaque,
In a sunny meeting room on a historic Brattleboro farm, a few dozen people spent part of the morning on Sept. 16 talking about good news in the region's dairy industry. They highlighted local success stories like the Holstein Association USA and the rapidly growing Commonwealth Dairy. And they touted a resurgent interest in agriculture, with an accompanying need for manpower and training. But there was no avoiding the dark clouds over Vermont's dairy business: Farmers are struggling with low...
On the weekend that the U.S. marked the 15th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on New York and Washington, retired Vice Admiral Barry Costello said the U.S. military was dropping bombs on targets in Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Iraq, and Afghanistan. “The United States is at war every day,” said Costello, who retired from the Navy in 2007, ending his 36-year naval career as commander of the Third Fleet and the 35,000 sailors who patrol the Persian...