Electric Fence at Whetstone Restaurant

Electric Fence plays Whetstone Restaurant and Brewery Wednesday night, Feb. 27 at 8:30 p.m.

Steve Carmichael, Howard Weiss-Tisman, Jonny Sheehan and Jeremy Holch play original songs and unique covers from the likes of Louis Jordan, Lucinda Williams, Tom Waits and Talking Heads.

Music is free. Beer is fresh.


4th Annual Brattleboro Rotary Club International Film & Food Festival – Benefit

The Brattleboro Rotary Club is raising money to help upgrade the radio station KILI, a non-profit radio station broadcasting to the Lakota people on the Pine Ridge, Cheyenne River, and Rosebud Indian Reservations, part of the Great Sioux Nation in South Dakota.

On Sunday, March 3, 2013, from 4-8PM at the New England Youth Theatre, the Brattleboro Rotary Club will be sponsoring the fourth annual “International Film & Food Festival,” with proceeds benefiting KILI which serves 30,000 people on the three reservations and seeks to preserve Native American culture and instill pride in the peoples’ unique heritage.


Weekend Concert Series – Girl Talk

is the stage name of Gregg Gillis. He’s not quite a DJ, but he throws a mean party with the help of his laptop.

Gillis is an expert assembler, taking tiny samples of familiar songs and mashing them together into something unique and danceable. He likes to loop familiar snippets of songs from multiple genres and eras.  It’s a music lovers’ trivia game to identify all the samples. Was that Heart? Tone Loc? Led Zeppelin? The Jacksons? All of them. How about Nirvana mixed with Kansas over a dance beat?

It’s not for everyone, but I love this stuff. And as I have been requested to fill in for your February host this week, I offer up a Girl Talk show.


Pierre Bensusan at Hooker-Dunham Theater & Gallery on Thursday, February 28

Twilight Music presents French-Algerian acoustic guitarist, singer and composer Pierre Bensusan at Hooker-Dunham Theater & Gallery on Thursday, February 28 at 7:30 pm. If World Music is music that pays tribute to the spirit of a collection of human beings through distinct rhythms, traditional instruments and harmonic colors, Pierre Bensusan can be recognized as one of the most eloquent and diverse world musicians of our time.


“Bulgaria: An Intimate Look, at Putney Library, March 6

On Wednesday, March 6th, Carol and Arthur Westing will give a slide-talk titled “Bulgaria: an Intimate Look.”

The presentation will take place 7:00 – 8:30 p.m. at Putney Public Library. This illustrated presentation offers a glimpse at the land and people of Bulgaria, a fascinating, but little known country of southeastern Europe — a country about five times the size of Vermont, although with about ten times its population. It is based largely on two weeks of hiking and sightseeing during July 2008 in three rural areas of western Bulgaria, but augmented by insights from three previous one-week professional visits (in 1984, 1986, and 1988) while Bulgaria was still ruled by a Communist government.


Windham Regional Career Center Offers Spring Community Education and Training Programs

The Windham Regional Career Center at Brattleboro Union High School is pleased to announce their Community Education and Training Programs for this spring. Betsy Gentile, Workforce Development Manager and Adult Education Coordinator is presenting 17 community education and training programs to meet the needs of area employers and their employees as well as providing personal and professional enrichment opportunities for all community members.

“We’re extremely excited about two new technical training opportunities, Certified Fiber Optic Technician training and Intermittent Electrical & Drivability Diagnostic Strategies training.”


Author David Blistein Book Launch Event

Putney, VT – Next Stage Arts Project is pleased to present Author David Blistein, Friday, March 22, 2013, at 7:30pm at Next Stage in Putney. The author will read from and discuss his book, David’s Inferno (published by Hatherleigh Press, distributed by Random House), followed by refreshments and a book signing. Part of Next Stage’s Community Artists Performance Series, there is a suggested donation of $10, with proceeds to benefit Next Stage.


The BUHS Annual Meeting DID Happen!

Did anyone notice, or, rather not notice, the local media coverage of the Feb. 12 BUHS District #6 Annual Meeting?  By the way this is a meeting of all the voters in the 5 towns making up the district, something like 16,000 voters or so, typically attended by 1% of them or fewer.

WTSA mentioned it next day, but they have an inside track: The Moderator of the meeting is Tim Johnson of WTSA, using the personna of his real name as a Vernon resident.  I don’t know if The Commons covered it?  Their deadline wouldn’t have worked for the issue that came out on Weds. 13th, & I haven’t yet seen this week’s issue.  Even iBrattleboro missed it.


5:45 Live: 2/19/13

5:45 Live recaps the Harris Hill and Bratt Figure Skating Club Ice Show highlights, on an edition that includes all the latest Selectboard drama, the Northern Roots performance at McNeill’s, and a webcast interview with Rep. Dick Marek about the House’s new drug laws.

Video Links:


World Book Night 2013

The excitement is building! If you applied to be a book giver for World Book Night  and were chosen you should be recieving your confirmation email in the next 2 or 3 days. Congratulations to everyone that was accepted – it’s a wonderful event. You’ll receive a second email next week telling you which book you’ll be giving out and asking you to choose a location to pick up your books. Please choose Brooks Memorial Library as your pick up site.


Special Screening of “The Last Waltz” – Thursday Night @ Next Stage!!

On Thursday night at 7PM, Next Stage Arts presents the third film in its “Reeling in American Music” series with a special screening of Martin Scorsese’s seminal concert film “The Last Waltz” featuring The Band in their final performance on Thanksgiving night, 1976. Filmed at San Francisco’s Winterland Theater, the movie captures the sound and spirit that propelled this group of musicians in their 16 years on the road, most notably as Bob Dylan’s backup band.

“The Last Waltz” was filmed by director Martin Scorsese in 35MM format, and is considered by many to be the definitive rock performance film due to the richness of the cinematography, the quality of the sound, and the nature of the performances captured in the film.


Meatheads – The Paradox of Human Evolution

What all mammalian animals have in common is that they share the workings of a spinal column topped by a brainstem. Fundamentally, these are essentially the same in all of us animals. The brainstem contains the pathways to where all brain activity passes through to the rest of the body and is structurally connected to and a continuation of the spinal column.


Tritium Well Debuts in Brattleboro Saturday Night

Tritium Well makes its debut in Brattleboro this Saturday night, 2-23-13. Rocking and irradiating the Northeast Kingdom since 2010, the five piece band joins Gangly Heart and The Diamondstones for a Power Shift dance party thrown by the SAGE Alliance, at the Stone Church from 7-11pm.


iBrattleboro Weekend Concert Series: Modest Mouse

To make up for last week, and only a day late at that, I opted for a more straight-ahead rock show from now veteran Modest Mouse, performed in 2010.  YouTube commenters seem to have decided that the venue was in Sioux Falls, SD.  I’ve been a fan of Modest Mouse for most of the last decade, having originally fallen for Moon Over Antarctica.  One of the best songs on that record, Third Planet, is included on the playlist along with a host of other tunes from throughout their career.

Warning: There are a few swears.