Tools of War

by tomaidh | Op/Ed

The United States is effectively supplying Islamic State with tools of war. Iraqi security forces lost 2,300 Humvee armored vehicles when Islamic State overran the northern city of Mosul. Further losses by default to Islamic State include at least :

40 M1A1 main battle tanks,
74,000 machine guns,
52 M198 howitzer mobile gun systems.
1,000 additional Humvees, along with their armor upgrades, machine guns and grenade launchers.
250 Mine Resistant Armored Personnel carriers (MRAPs) Like in Keene!

plus unaccountable amounts of materiel left behind when American forces departed Iraq in 2011.

Native American Teens Travel To Brattleboro For ‘Gathering In Gratitude’ Workshop and Performances

by LRW137 | Town News

A delegation of teen leaders and counselors from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota are traveling to Brattleboro to join a mixed-age group of locals for a multi-cultural ‘Gathering in Gratitude’ workshop led by drama therapist and musician Luz Elena Morey, director of the Brattleboro-based Mahalo Art Center.

The eight Oglala Lakota teens and two counselors will participate in the week-long intensive, a nature-based creative exploration of the concept of gratitude that culminates in a unique brand of performance art where each cast member’s contribution is woven into a modern, mythical pageant described by past audience members as “a feast for the soul.”

BCTV Channel 8 & 10 Schedules for the Week of 6/15/15

by BCTVProg | Media

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

Downtown Brattleboro Farmers’ Market Opens Tuesday, June 16

by Not Signed In | Business

The downtown Brattleboro Farmers’ Market opens this Tuesday, June 16 from 10 to 2 and will run each Tuesday through the end of October. Walk down to the Whetstone Pathway across from the Brattleboro Co-op and enjoy fresh veggies, dairy and cut flowers straight from your local farms. You’ll also find lunch foods, including Anon’s Thai Cuisine. EBT and debit cards are welcome. Find us on Facebook for updates and vendor news.

Qigong for Healing and Living Fully – Momentum

by Not Signed In | Health

You are your best healer! Come learn how each and everyone of us is born with the innate gift to heal ourselves. In this half-day intensive, you will experience simple and profound ways to awaken your body’s innate healing ability while deepening your capacity to relax and enjoy your life more completely. Participants will leave with a renewed and empowered sense of health and well-being. All are welcome; no experience required.

Kelly Albrecht To Speak at Brattleboro Area Tech on June 18

by Not Signed In | Sci-Tech

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.

Ask-a-Baha’i

by Not Signed In | Spiritual

After the first Ask-a-Baha’i post, a reader asked what the Baha’i Faith is and what are some of its teachings.

The Baha’i Faith is the youngest of the major world faiths. Like other faiths, it has a Prophet-Founder who claims to have a revelation from God. Our Prophet-Founder, Baha’u’llah, received His call to prophethood in 1853, in a Tehran dungeon called “The Black Pit”. He announced it in 1863, in Baghdad, where He had been exiled, right before He was exiled again.

His Forerunner, whom we call the Bab, which means “gate”, had been martyred in 1850, shot by a firing squad of 750 rifles. The Bab taught that He was the Herald of “He Whom God shall make manifest”, the Promised One of all religions. We believe that the One He foretold was Baha’u’llah.

Weekend Comedy Series: Sandra Bernhard

by cgrotke | Entertainment

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.

Brattleboro Selectboard Agenda and Notes – June 16, 2015

by cgrotke | Town News

A call for artists and RFP for Phase III of the Our Town Grant will be at the top of the Tuesday agenda for the Brattleboro Selectboard. The Town Arts Committee may also be re-sized.

The Main Street Sidewalk project is getting underway, new police equipemnt will be purchased, and discussions of ponds, cable, dogs, finances, farmlands, FY16 union employee raises, DPW purchases, and more.

You can bring up other items during public participation if they aren’t otherwise on the agenda.

Twilight on the Tavern Lawn presents The Stockwell Brothers Sunday, June 14

by Not Signed In | Music

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.

Free Afternoon Films at Brooks Library

by Brooks Memorial Library | Entertainment

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.

Pay As You Throw Bags Available, Kinda, Sorta

by cgrotke | Other

I checked the trash bag section at Hannaford today, to see if there was an exciting new display of PAYT bags and helpful information for getting started. No such luck.

But, at the checkout, the cashier did ask if I was from Brattleboro.

“Yes?”

“We have the new Pay As You Throw bags,” she said. They are for sale from the cashiers, not in the aisles.

Nan Levinson: War Is Not a Game: Reading and Discussion at Brooks Library

by Brooks Memorial Library | Books

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.

“For the Love of Art”: A Benefit Auction on June 14

by fomag | Arts

West Brattleboro, Vt. – On Sunday, June 14, from 4 to 6:30 pm, All Souls Church Unitarian Universalist invites area art lovers to “For the Love of Art,” a gala reception and fundraising auction for 53 works of art donated to the church by Beverly Alberts. This is an “everything must go to a new home” event, so minimum bids are set a very modest levels, most under a hundred dollars, many under fifty.

Nearly all of the collection is by artists from the local area, including Maisie Crowther, Carolyn DiNicola Fawley, Gennaro Prozzo, Petria Mitchell, Susan McDormand, Karen Becker, Simi Berman, Dorothy Kehaya, Bob George, Trudy Crites, Gib Taylor, Brian Cohen, and Linda Wright, among others. The exhibit includes photographs, prints, and paintings in a variety of mediums, and a few artful posters. Six larger pieces—by artists Jeanne Carbonetti, Arrin Fancher, Bill Hunt, Eric Slayton, and Sally Warren, as well as a 4-panel Chinese screen—will be sold by live auction at 6 pm as the Silent Auction comes to a close.

A Cappella à la Carte: A Meeting, Potluck & Concert

by fomag | Music

Guilford, Vt. – Friends of Music at Guilford’s traditional season finale on Saturday, June 13, is a three-part event dubbed “A Cappella à la Carte.” Set at Guilford Community Church, just off Rt. 5 near I-91, the evening includes a short meeting, a potluck dinner, and a 7:30 concert of vocal music. Each optional segment is open to the general public; admission to the concert is by donation.

    The FOMAG Annual Membership Meeting at 6 p.m. is typically short and entertaining, about 30 minutes, and offers a summary of the year, a look ahead to next season—in this case, it will be the organization’s 50th Anniversary Season featuring some special elements—and election of the board of trustees.

June 16 Forum to Promote New No- or Low-Interest Financing for Energy Improvement Projects

by Not Signed In | Home & Garden

Two great low or no-interest financing options are now available to help Vermonters make energy improvements in their homes: PACE financing and the Heat Saver Loan.

A public informational forum on these energy financing options will be held on Tuesday, June 16 at 5:30 pm at the Marlboro College Graduate School, 28 Vernon Street in downtown Brattleboro. Pizza and beverages will be provided. Space is limited – to register, contact Paul Cameron at 251-8135 or pcameron@brattleboro.org.

The Very Long Sentence

by cgrotke | Creative

Today, while reading an 1855 account of the local fireman’s festival, I came across the following whopper of a sentence. It kicked off the story, and I thought writers and fans of writing would enjoy it.

The Fireman’s Festival. — Sacred to the memory of departed militia heroes; of officers in short-waisted, shallow-tail coats, who, at the head of their several commands of citizen soldiery, exhibited more of the “pride of circumstance and the pomp of war,” than any Crimean commander has reason to feel; and that of the rank and file themselves, who, in uniforms and without uniforms, of all sizes and nearly all ages, went through their several duties of marching and counter marching with more zeal than discipline, fired blank cartridges at an imaginary enemy without flinching, and only surrendered as the shades of evening came on, after a prolonged and most unequal contest with “Old jamaica or pure New England”; sacred the the memories of this and of those in the hearts of all Vermonters, is the first Tuesday in June.