Creative

In a dream last night
I found myself 
Cleaning out 
a hateful enemy’s garage

I came by,
Hoping to admire you
from a distance.

One of my sisters just crossed the 50 year mark. To celebrate, I made her a short animation.

WRITE ACTION is pleased to announce its 15th Annual Poetry and Prose Writing Contest for adults and teens. Entries will be judged anonymously. Each category will be judged by an esteemed writer from the tri-state area. Judge for both prose and poetry in the youth category is retired head of the BUHS English Department, Nancy Olson. Judge for poetry is James Kates; prose judge is Joe Mazur.

[Not quite a true story. I combined separate events and embellished fact — a sprinkling of fiction to improve the tale.]

WRITE ACTION 15th ANNUAL LITERARY CONTEST

Presentation with Richard Wizansky and Jeanne Walsh at the Brattleboro Area Development Directors meeting. Wednesday, May 10th, 11:30 a.m.-1:00 pm. Library Meeting Room. Brooks Memorial recently joined the Foundation Information Network, a program of the Foundation Center, whose databases provide information about more than 100,000 grant makers. Learn tips and network with other nonprofit leaders, development professionals, and individuals interested in grant funding. Free and open to all.

There is an open reading this Friday, (and every third Friday) at 7:30, at the River Gallery School, in Brattleboro.

Funding Information Network Provides Resources for Local Grant Seekers. Nonprofit organizations and other grant seekers in the Brattleboro area now have access to a valuable collection of resources at the Brooks Memorial Library, which has become a Funding Information Network partner with Foundation Center.

In her meticulous manner, Carla had wrapped Jerry’s big kitchen knife in stiff layers of cardboard, generously wound with black tape. Whatever torn wrappers, putrid chicken bones, dented old cans, sticky wet tissues and other debris may have filled the bag; they were merely the packing material to conceal the evidence. 

Here is a link to some of the Protest signs that one person thinks were memorable.

Would be nice to see photos, or read about the signs we made, carried or saw.   

With President Trump scheduled to take office in January, the country will need more comedians. Here’s an online intoductory course to get you started in stand-up.

There’s good advice for being likeable, some basic rules to follow, how to write and perform comedy, and more.

The Brattleboro Time Trade is having their monthly potluck dinner social at the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center on Monday, November 7 from 5:30-7:30. These monthly socials are open to the entire community to learn about what Time Trade is about. Check out the new artwork in the museum and meet fellow time traders! All are welcome!

For more information:

It is time to take stock of Halloween night. We disposed of nearly 400 pieces of candy and saw well over 200 costumed kids.

Here’s the semi-complete list of ghouls, goblins, robots, animals, superheroes and others wandering about Halloween night on Cedar Street in Brattleboro:

The sounds you hear in movies, cartoons, and even reality TV shows are highly coordinated and processed to eliminate distractions and focus your attention. Volumes of voices are adjusted, frequencies tinkered with, reverb added, background music is added, and so on.

One of the most important roles in the soundtrack creation process is that of Foley artist. These are people who make sound effects. You know them. The ones using coconuts to make horse galloping sounds.

Brattleboro kids do a great job with Halloween. Impressive amounts of creative work go into choosing and making costumes. Maybe adults in town can up the ante with a bit more Halloween prop making.

YouTube is filled with videos on makeup, costumes, haunted mansions and so forth. I’ve chosen this one as it gives a good overview of some easy tombstones, which seem essential for any Halloween haunted graveyard.

DigitalRevTV offers many funny and useful videos for photographers.

In this episode, Kai will help you learn to take photographs of people in varying states of levitation.

Submit your levitation photos anytime.

Storyboarding was developed to a high art form by Walt Disney and his team of artists. He found that by arranging little drawings that correspond to all key points in an animated script, he and his animators could pre-visualize a cartoon before making it.

This was important for two reasons. One – animation was time consuming and expensive, and the better it was planned in advance, costs could be kept under control. Having a frame by frame guide to what should be done helped keep everyone on track and within budget (more or less.)

Beautiful Aleppo with your

generous people who welcomed

me into your homes, fed me dates

and tea as we laughed together.

My ancient Aleppo that I would wander

through in the early morning, safe and

secure, drinking coffee and eating sweets.