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A Request for Proposal is now open for a much ballyhooed Our Town Grant. The RFP states the grant is…”one of inaugural creative placemaking, that magnifies the role the Arts play in Brattleboro, and should inspire the community towards the imagination and creation of public art.” To these ends, I hereby submit two entries to the readers of this site, for consideration, potential collaboration and probable comment.
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Tale of the Tape
Everyone knows Groucho Marx, right? He and his Marx brothers made vaudeville and movie history, he hosted a popular game show as television got started, and here, appeared on the Dick Cavett show in September of 1969.
Groucho has spawned imitators. Alan Alda paid tribute to him on an almost weekly basis during the years M.A.S.H. was on the air. Locally, we’ve had stage performances of Marx Bros. movies.
A visiting American guy and Murphy go into an Irish pastry shop. The American whisks three cookies into his pocket with lightning speed. The baker doesn’t even notice. The American says to Murphy, “You see how clever we are? You Paddies can never beat that!”
Murphy says to the American, “Watch dis, any Paddy is smarter din you, and I’ll prove it to ya.” He says to the baker, “Gimme a cookie, I’ll show ya a magic trick!”
The baker gives him the cookie, which he promptly eats. Then he says to the baker, “Gimme anudder cookie for me magic trick.”
The Supreme Court of the United States has declared that LGBTQ couples are now free to marry in all 50 states. This is huge!
A long, bitter and frustrating fight for equal rights has culminated in a victory. This is a wonderful day worthy of much celebration! Thank you SCOTUS for making the right decision.
BCTV has put their video of the special PAYT Informational meeting taped May 28th on line. It’s long!!! BUT it is packed with specific information. .
CALL FOR ARTISTS
In furtherance of an NEA Our Town grant the Town of Brattleboro seeks proposals for an inaugural creative placemaking project – a permanent or temporal public artistic expression or (an) arts-based performance(s) – intended as a response to Brattleboro’s past, present, and future, its relationship with natural and built landscapes, its cultural heritage, and its vision for itself as a community that embraces the arts. There is a budget of $50,000 allocated to this project. Application Deadline 9PM July 26, 2015. Details at www.brattleboro.org
BCTV Ch.8 schedule for the week of 6/22/15
Monday, June 22, 2015
12:00 am Road to Recovery: Overcoming Trauma and Violence
1:00 am VT Economic Resiliency Initiative 4/23/15
2:25 am Norwich Bookstore Presents: Robert Santulli and Kesstan Blandin
3:30 am Organic Politics: Applying for R Credits 5/7/15
4:00 am The 20th Century Mass: Blanche Moyse Chorale
Gallery For and By Individuals with Disabilities Joins Downtown Brattleboro’s Community
Brattleboro, VT – June 2015 – Gallery Walkers have a unique new stop to enjoy at 61 Main St. in Brattleboro’s vibrant, artistic, downtown community. Angel Boy Art’s Resource Center is a special gallery and community center run for artists with disabilities by volunteers with disabilities.
“We named it our ‘Resource Center’ because this space is much more than just an art gallery for people with disabilities,” says Kim Gove, Vice President, “this is a place to learn, confront and erase stigmas, and challenge yourself.”
Why do we have to love Texas? Because they teach us so much about our species. Here’s a brief synopsis of an article from Governing Magazine.
The Texas Department of Agriculture just approved a new policy re-allowing soda and fried foods in public schools. “Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller on Thursday restored the option for public schools to serve certain fried foods and soda by lifting a decade-old statewide ban on deep fryers and soda machines.”
“We are working to put an end to a one-size-fits-all approach mandated from Austin,” Miller said in a press release. “We want families, teachers and school districts to know the Texas Department of Agriculture supports their decisions and efforts to teach Texas students about making healthy choices.”
I know little about this Brian Regan fellow. This was recommended to me by someone just yesterday as stand-up comedy in the “good, clean” genre, without reliance on swearing to make people laugh. Count me in!
Regan does this by talking about food labels, flying first class, and refrigerators, among other things.
On Thursday, July 2 Emily Mason’s exhibit Chromatic Celebrations will be opening with a reception at Mitchell • Giddings Fine Arts from 5 – 7pm at 183 Main Street, Brattleboro.
Chromatic Celebrations, the featured exhibit from July 2 to August 16, 2015, showcases Emily Mason’s printmaking production and illustrates a richness and spontaneity equal to her paintings in oil.
Emily Mason, recognized for her abstract paintings, has pioneered with several master printmakers since the mid 1980s to establish a singularly rich and distinctive body of prints. Several different printmaking techniques are represented. Common to all is an involvement with a variety of processes leading to a mixture of sharp focus and ambiguity. She embraces unique states, giving each work its own space.
On July 7, the Town of Brattleboro’s Selectboard will consider the appointment of an ad hoc committee to conduct initial screening of artists who apply for funding through the Town’s NEA “Our Town” grant.
The Screening Committee will review all application materials submitted by all artists and will recommend to the Selectboard a group of finalists. The Screening Committee’s work will occur during the week of July 27-31. The Selectboard will consider the Screening Committee’s recommendations on August 4. The only minimum requirements for service on the Steering Committee are residence in Brattleboro and/or prior experience in judging artistic ability and experience.
Local actor, playwright, and director Jerry Levy has announced he will give a special benefit performance of his original one-person play “The Third Coming: Marx Returns” on Sunday, June 28, 2015, at 7:30 PM, at The Space at118 Elliot, 118 Elliot Street, Brattleboro, Vermont.
“The play,” explained Levy, “is about Marx’s thoughts and observations should he theoretically return to life in our time.” Levy has played the character of Karl Marx in Howard Zinn’s play, “Marx in Soho,” touring intensively for many years, both domestically and internationally. This experience informed him deeply about the Marx character, and inspired him to write the new play he will be performing in Brattleboro.
Next Stage Arts Project and Twilight Music present Nashville-based, Telluride Bluegrass Festival award-winning, bluegrass and Americana quartet The Barefoot Movement at Hooker-Dunham Theater & Gallery on Saturday, June 20 at 7:30 pm.
Heartfelt, energetic and down home, The Barefoot Movement is “one of the most promising bands on the bluegrass scene” (CMT Edge). Their down to earth music ranges from poignant ballads to rip-roaring barn-burners, and takes audiences back to a simpler place and time, inviting listeners to sit back, relax, take their shoes off and stay a while.
BCTV Ch.8 schedule for the week of 6/15/15
Monday, June 15, 2015
12:00 am VT Ecconomic Resiliency Initiative 4/23/15
1:30 am Spring Birds in Your Yard
2:48 am UVM OSHER Lectures: Jess Robinson – Archeology of Northern VT and the Eastern Townships
4:00 am The Vermont Roots Migration Project
Brattleboro Area Tech, a technology networking organization, will spend some time getting to know the Pioneer Valley at its next meeting on Thursday, June 18 at 5:30 pm. The meeting will be held in the Atrium of the Brooks House on Main Street, Brattleboro.
The featured guest will be Northampton’s Kelly Albrecht, founder of a number of IT businesses there, including the Left-click IT consulting firm and Last Call Media, a web development agency. He is also director of the NERD Summit, held each September in the Pioneer Valley.
Mr Albrecht will share his experience organizing technology groups in Massachusetts. His short presentation will be followed by much time for networking.
Here is Sandra Bernhard performing at the Lhasa Club, in Studio City/Hollywood, CA, in 1984. I did not know that this existed until today.
In 1984, Bernhard was mixing performance art with stand-up, and was attracting attention. The film appears to be one of her one-woman shows, post- King of Comedy but prior to working on her stage production and film “Without You, I’m Nothing.” This has bits from “Without You…” in early forms.
Twilight Music continues its 13th annual Twilight On The Tavern Lawn series of folk, world beat, rock, jazz, zydeco, Celtic, swing, blues and bluegrass summer concerts on Sunday, June 14 with contemporary bluegrass and folk music trio The Stockwell Brothers. The seven concert series continues every other Sunday through August 23. All concerts begin at 6:00 pm in downtown Putney on the Putney Tavern lawn (bring a lawn chair or blanket) or at The Putney Community Center at 10 Christian Square in case of rain. The series is sponsored by the Town of Putney, Soundview Paper Company, The Putney Food Co-op, The Stockwell Brothers and many other Putney businesses and organizations. The concerts are free to the public (donations are accepted) and food will be available.
June 11th at 3 pm, join cinefile, journalist, Tom Bedell, for a Thursday afternoon at the movies, to watch a film starring Kirk Douglas, Ralph Meeker and Adolphe Menjou.
The second Thursday of the month, continuing through Thursday, October 8. Movies begin at 3 PM. For film titles and information, contact Brooks Library by phone at 802-254-5290 ext 0, by email at info@brookslibraryvt.org, or on the web at brookslibraryvt.orgBrooks Memorial Library, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT 05301.
The event is free and open to the public. Location Library Meeting Room 2nd floor.
Wednesday, June 10, at 7 PM, join writer, teacher, and journalist, Nan Levinson, for a reading and discussion of her latest book War Is Not a Game: The New Antiwar Soldiers and the Movement They Built. Written with sensitivity and humor, War Is Not a Game gives readers an uncensored, grunt’s-eye view of the occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan, while conveying the equally dramatic struggles that soldiers face upon returning home.
On July 23, 2004, five marines, two soldiers, and one airman became the most unlikely of antiwar activists. Young and gung-ho when they first signed up to defend their country, they were sent to fight a war that left them confused, enraged, and haunted. Once they returned home, they became determined to put their disillusionment to use. So that sultry summer evening, they mounted the stage of Boston’s historic Faneuil Hall and announced the launch of Iraq Veterans Against the War.
