PostedByDan Bolles
on Sat, Jan 16, 2021 at 3:56 PM
File: Luke Awtry Photography
Rough Francis at Waking Windows in 2018
Rough Francis have fired bassist Dan Davine for allegedly attending what the band called "the terrorist insurrection" in Washington, D.C., on January 6, at which supporters of President Donald Trump rioted and stormed the U.S. Capitol building. The Burlington punk band announced the decision in a post on Instagram.
"Rough Francis is first and foremost a Black punk band," the post begins, "so when we heard that our bass player, Dan Davine, held views rooted in white supremacy and had attended the terrorist insurrection at the Capital [sic], we took swift and decisive action to immediately remove him from the band."
PostedByDan Bolles
on Tue, Dec 22, 2020 at 2:33 PM
Bob Wagner
'This Is Christmas' screenshot
Christmas is this Friday. And, right on schedule, a jolly red elf has delivered a Christmas miracle.
No, we don't mean Santa — he's presumably tuning up the old sled while waiting for the second round of his coronavirus vaccine from Dr. Fauci.
Rather, the man in the red suit is none other than Burlington guitarist Bob Wagner, best known locally as a core member of Kat Wright's band. On Tuesday, Wagner delivered an early stocking stuffer called "This Is Christmas." It's the COVID carol we didn't know we needed.
On Monday, the Flynn announced the hiring of Jay Wahl as its new executive director. Wahl was previously the producing artistic director at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia. He will replace interim executive director Charlie Smith, who has led the Flynn since January 31, 2020. Wahl will officially take over as the head of the nonprofit Burlington performing arts center on January 1.
The first Eric Zencey Prize in Ecological Economics, named for a late fellow at the University of Vermont’s Gund Institute for Environment, was awarded this week to a book on the environmental history of the region surrounding the Bering Strait. The winner will receive $4,000 from a fund raised by Zencey before his death in 2019 at age 65.
Zencey was a scholar dedicated to advancing the idea of ecological economics, according to Taylor Ricketts, director of the Gund Institute. That means an approach to economics that “acknowledges the self-evident fact that the economy is operating inside the biosphere,” Ricketts explained. In other words, the economy is one system within a larger planetary system, and economic growth is limited by the physical limits of the environment.
Looking for an out-of-the-ordinary holiday exhibition, or gift? The Bennington Museum’s current show, “Vermont Utopias: Imagining the Future,” features visual artworks by 25 artists that are available for purchase through an online auction.
The auction is closed-bid, meaning bids are submitted without knowledge of other bids, so you won’t know if you’ve won the piece until bidding closes on December 21. The fundraiser will split proceeds evenly between the artists and the museum.
The museum is open for in-person viewing Fridays through Mondays, 10 a.m. to 4. p.m. But for those who can't get there, or prefer to avoid human contact altogether, simply browsing the exhibition online is a pleasure.
George Washington/Kevin Sorbo tells Bernie a thing or two.
I knew what I was getting into when I watched the new Bernie Sanders "satire" Free Lunch Express. Producer and Mendon resident Bradford Broyles, who contacted me about the film, is the president of Vermont-based Right and Funny Productions. The film's executive producer, Lenore Broughton, is one of Vermont's biggest Republican donors. "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys" star Kevin Sorbo, who makes a cameo in the film, has gained quite a bit of notice lately for his right-of-center views.
In a recent Daily Beast interview, which is an excellent read, Marlow Stern quizzes Sorbo about his role in the Bernie film and the film's many inaccuracies when it comes to Sanders' bio, including its depiction of the young Bernie as entering into a blood pact with Josef Stalin.
So, yeah. This film has a point of view. But why should left-wingers and counterculture types have a monopoly on political satire? To explore how comedy looks from the other side, I watched Free Lunch Express and wrote a little real-time viewing diary.
"Mutant Otters Destroy Town Hall Theater" by Daniel Houghton
Shoppers, strollers and post office-goers in downtown Middlebury may notice a new artwork in the window of the National Bank of Middlebury: a miniature replica of the Town Hall Theater being attacked by giant, mutant otters.
The sculpture, dubbed "Mutant Otters Destroy Town Hall Theater," is by Daniel Houghton, the director of the Middlebury College Animation Studio. Houghton dreamed up the project in September, designed it using a computer program and produced it on a 3D printer, documenting his progress weekly in a series of videos posted to YouTube.
PostedBySally Pollak
on Fri, Dec 4, 2020 at 6:19 PM
File/Courtesy of Beowulf Sheehan
Stephen P. Kiernan
A local, seasonal tradition kicked off this week in Charlotte, but people can (and do) participate from around the country.
The online event is a kind of literary "Dear Abby." It takes place on author Stephen Kiernan’s Facebook page, where he offers recommendations to holiday shoppers seeking his advice about books for people on their gift lists.
Outdoor classroom at Union Elementary School, Montpelier
In 2018, the undergraduate architecture students in Tolya Stonorov’s design-build class at Norwich University designed and built an outdoor classroom at Union Elementary School in Montpelier. Then the pandemic hit. Let’s just say the project was prescient.
Now Norwich has launched an outdoor-classroom design competition for high school students — a cohort likely to know first-hand the urgency of the need. The competition invites high school students anywhere in the world, singly or in teams of up to four, to choose a site on the grounds of a school in their town and design an open-air classroom for it.
The Flynn is bringing some magic back to Burlington with a new live performance series called the Window on Main. The performing arts center is currently accepting applications from local artists for the new venture. The series coincides with the prime holiday shopping weekends of December 11 through 13, and December 18 through 20, and will feature multiple 40-minute sets each day.
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