For the very first post in our new arts blog, perhaps it's fitting that we direct you to ... the paper! Or, of course, the website.

Whether you're a fan of print or pixels or both, each week we'll post a summary here of what we have to say about music, theater, art, dance, film, books and other cultural entertainments.

So here you go:

In our State of the Arts column, I preview Tesla in New York, showing Friday and Saturday at the Hopkins Center at Dartmouth College. A collaboration of composer Phil Kline (pictured right) and indie filmmaker Jim Jarmusch — and a co-commission of the Hop — the work-in-progress performances this weekend offer a peek at roughly half of the opera expected to premiere in late 2014. It's about the life of everyone's favorite mad inventor, Nikola Tesla.

Freelancer Julia Shipley, a poet herself, writes about the Harbor Mountain Press, a small publisher of mostly poetry and based in White River Junction. Owner Peter Money, writes Shipley, "persists with the stability of a mountain, unaffected by the shifting sands of the publishing industry." Harbor Mountain's latest, and 21st, title is A Cage Within, by Cuban poet Wendy Guerra, translated by Dartmouth prof Elizabeth Polli.

Megan James talks with Middlebury College assistant professor of theater Andrew Smith about a new-play festival called "Undressing Cinderella." The provocatively titled fest, performed this week through Saturday, features short theatrical works based upon the classic tale — but the works are focused on any character except Cinderella.

The Independent Television & Film Festival is relocating from Los Angeles to tiny Dover, Vt. this year. Seriously? Yup. Read Margot Harrison's explanation here. That event isn't until September. But this month, you could check out the new Monadnock International Film Festival in Keene, N.H., to fulfill your star-spotting needs.

With sorrow we report on the passing of Bradford "Bear" Ingalls, who died last week at the age of 61. Bear was a beloved stage and TV technician with a long behind-the-scenes career at, among other places, the Flynn Center. His colleagues at VCAM share a memoriam.

In happier news, Cathy Resmer interviews Vermont's new director of the Office of Creative Economy, Lars Hasselblad Torres (right), who is also the founder of Montpelier's coworking space, Local 64. 

In books this week, freelancer Kim MacQueen reviews Nancy Stearns Bercaw's Brain in a Jar: A Daughter's Journey Through Her Father's Memory. The Burlington author's debut is a story about Alzheimer's, family and love. She reads from and signs the book this Saturday, April 6, at Phoenix Books Burlington.

In his interview with David Lamb of Brown Bird, music editor Dan Bolles describes the Rhode Island-based band like this: "Amid hypnotic arrangements of swirling violins, sinister guitars and foot-stomping percussion, the duo of David Lamb and MorganEve Swain deliver a contemplative philosophical treatise of their own." Check out the philosophy on Thursday, April 4, at Higher Ground Showcase Lounge.

Bolles also reviews the CDs of Counterpoint (An American Hallel) and Tyler Daniel Bean (Longing).

And finally, Megan James visits the art-and-wine pairing tasting room at Shelburne Vineyards. Current artists are Robert Huntoon and Judith Tuttle, through May 30.

See also oh-so-many events in our calendar, club and gallery listings. Whew.