Creative

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

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.”

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.

From the fire, I learned what cops are made of. I learned what panic can do. And I learned that cats really do have nine lives. 

The building was renovated: a 6 floor walk-up, a bit too fancy to be called a NYC tenement. Our apartment was on the fifth. On each floor, were two railroad flats running from front to back on either side of the staircase. When I smelled the smoke, I went out into the hall to investigate. 

In about one minute on a Friday, Armand destroyed a fragile family which was trying to make a go of it. 

Most of the crews Armand sent out could fix a few common problems. As advanced training, Armand had told them: “If you don’t know what to do, tell them that it is too serious to fix on site, and bring the unit back to the shop”.   

Ronald worked in the back, fixing air conditioners. I was Armand’s office manager, meaning that I got paid a dollar above minimum wage, and kept track of invoices. Armand loved oppressively hot, stifling July days when New York became unbearable. It brought in business.

In this maze of small town life, with our limited number of streets and alleys, and the weight of time’s accumulation, we can’t help but run into each other. With frequency. Or under some law of chance beyond our grasp. And as we carry our histories around, when we see each other when we do we’d sometimes rather not.

There’s no controlling bumping into anyotherbody, so cunning methods of evasion are needed ‘to keep the peace’. Otherwise our aversions and misgivings, affronts and harbored hurts, the less pleasant stuff which comprise no small part of our histories, would be breaking out all over. Can’t have that in ‘civil society’.

Everyone there had a nickname. His was “Radio.”

“Why is he called “Radio” I asked another prisoner.

“Because he keeps talking, non-stop, all crazy stuff.” 

Radio did seem to be dispensing a steady stream of gibberish. But something about him conveyed intelligence to me. I sat down opposite Radio at one of the tables (which are immovably attached to the floor, as are the benches). The individual cells were on one side. There was a wall of bars on the other and I guess behind those bars was the “free” side. Occasionally a guard would walk by.  

I just had to pass this on.

CALLING ALL SUPER HEROES!

Have you ever wanted to be a super hero – even for a day? Now is your chance!

During the Month of May the Children’s Room at Brooks Memorial Library will be holding a very special event:

“LIBRARY SUPER HEROES“. This fun event, sponsored by Friends of the Library will feature a mural of a friendly town ( much like Brattleboro!) inhabited by many colorful super heroes; flying, sitting and just standing around being..well…super. Emblazoned on their costumes will be the name of a specific craft supply that the children’s room uses for their wonderful, family friendly projects.

On Sunday, April 12 at 2:00 pm, Brattleboro Area Hospice will host a staged reading of the end of life drama “Vesta” at the River Garden in downtown Brattleboro. Tea, cake and discussion will follow. The event is offered free and open to the public.

Vesta is a 90-minute, seven-character play about the final five years of the title character’s life. Vesta offers a warm and often humorous exploration of a family’s struggle with a variety of end-of-life issues as they come to terms with the illness and death of Vesta Pierson, their matriarch.

The reimagining and reinterpreting of an ancient oracle takes termerity, time, and energy. Yet it is a task that two local women have undertaken. A new and completely original Tarot deck called The Wayfarer Tarot is the project they have teamed up to create.

Stacy Salpietro-Babb, a Tarot reader and teacher, and Margaret Shipman, an artist and illustrator have a combined vision for a Tarot deck that is relevant to a modern audience. “The traditional deck that is often used, and which most modern interpretations draw from, is geared toward people in the early 1900’s.” says Salpietro-Babb, a Tarot professional with over 20 years of experience, “It used common religious symbolism that was easily understood by people one hundred years ago, but today … not so much. I have to spend a lot of my time during readings explaining what the imagery means and how the meanings relate to the person who I am reading for.”

In memory of Larkin Mead, the University of Brattleboro Faculty got together on Sunday and created a giant Snow Monster at the NEYT parking lot.

As many may remember from their citizenship test when they moved to Brattleboro, Larkin Mead helped make Brattleboro and himself famous, by carving a life sized snow angel and setting it out for passersby. Larkin was later taken into sculptures studios where he learned much more about this art, and went on to become a famous artist. 

Our goal was to create nothing as artistic as Larkin’s snow angel,but instaed something much goofier.

23 January 2015  On the death of the Saudi King. Greetings from Algeria

King Penguin Died Today

“King Penguin died!” said I

“Long live the fishes!” 

“Al Hamdulilah.” Said the dissident locked in the tower!

 

For these words alone we could have gotten

lashes!

Write Action hosts an open reading every month on the third Friday. This month, Jan 16 is the third Friday.

Readers will have about 7 minutes to read their poems, short stories, excerpts or a favorite piece by another author.

WHERE AND WHEN The Blue Dot Studio in the Hooker Dunham Building.We start the readings at 7:30. 

When Jeremy Bentham, in the 18th century, devised his ingenious architectural structure to revolutionize detention, little did he know that his idea would infiltrate every aspect of society. The simple premise of a central eye which sees everything, yet itself remains unseen, may have had a precedent in religious order, but aside from the Illuminati symbol which later appears atop the American dollar bill, no such mechanism was actually in place in any edifice near or far.

The Panopticon was designed to change schools, hospitals, asylum, and all manner of buildings committed to reform. However, execution was impractical, and its realization hardly employed.

I was noticing how different various classic Christmas tales would be if the ending was chopped off. The carefully crafted endings to the favorite tales are crucial to us enjoying the story and coming back to it year after year.

The ending is typically where the lesson is learned, growth occurs, good overcomes evil, and so on. Not if you lob off the ending, though.

Here are some examples:

Close to 200 trick-or-treaters combed the Forest Square section of Brattleboro on Halloween. As is tradition, here’s your official 2014 list of costumes. Apologies to those we missed or got wrong, and thanks to all for all the original and entertaining ideas that kids had this year.

One notable trend: Star Wars is back. Other trends include parents getting more involved, nerds, and Robin Hoods.

Frozen princess Elsa
Ghoul
A red skin suit
Tiny Batman (Returns, one year later)

Friday Oct 17 is the third Friday of the month. Do you know what that means? Its time to get together and read poems and stories, out loud. Or, maybe even recite them aloud, with no text to save you. 

On the third Friday of every month, Write Action invites writers to gather and read aloud poetry and fiction. It’s a chance to share your work, or a piece by another writer whose work you admire. Every writer gets about 7 minutes. These readings are usually really eclectic in sty;e content and mood, and every event has some excellence. 

The Brattleboro Film Festival’s call for submissions to our first annual Young Filmmakers’ Showcase will close October 15. Filmmakers under the age of 25 should submit their original work to be celebrated alongside the front runners of our 2014 program which will run 10 days from October 31 to November 9, all at the Latchis Theatre. The Youth Showcase will be presented and awards announced at Headroom Stages at 17 Elliot Street from 7 to 9 pm November 7, 2014 (Gallery Walk)where refreshments will be served all for free!

Recently, The University of Brattleboro made two failed attempts at foisting hoaxes on the public.

The first was a spectacular failure. We attempted the largest UFAUX launch in the history of the University. Sadly, the result, while large in scale, fell far short of our hopes. The result was news stories such as the following. . .