GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Gusty, slight chance of snow showers the very first thing, then partly sunny. Those winds, coming at us from the west, could get into the mid-30s mph range—and stronger in downslope areas of the Greens and the Whites (isolated power outages possible there). Otherwise, though, we're looking at a relatively nice day with temps in the upper 20s, maybe even 30. Mid teens tonight, partly sunny tomorrow, snow tomorrow night and Sunday.Love is in the air! And on the snow. Erin Donahue has a scent-marking mixtape from her trail cams. Writes Ted Levin, "Photoperiodism is the response to changing light levels. February anchors winter, but nights grow noticeably shorter. The darkness of November stimulated melatonin secretion in the brains of foxes, coyotes, and bobcats. In the increasing daylight of February, melatonin levels decrease, triggering coyotes, bobcats, and foxes to scent more. It's time to tighten territories, to find mates—a lovely, unfettered response to increasing daylight, all together on the eve of Valentine's Day. "So, did you check out "Dear Daybreak" yesterday? If not, you missed Sue Lin finding a hint of summer in midwinter's bleakness; Morgan Haynes taking us inside Royalton Community Radio's studio in SoRo—to show us both what you see and the spirit behind what you hear; and Phil Bush reflecting (poetically) on a warm winter's day. And hey, Dear Daybreak needs some good stories about life in these parts. If you've got one, send it in!After two harassment settlements in the Woodstock schools, a look at what's going on. The settlements actually date back: One came last May after the VT Human Rights Commission ruled that the district had discriminated against a 13-year-old student by failing to intervene adequately on his behalf when he faced repeated racial taunting; the other was a settlement of a civil lawsuit involving four years of gender-identity-based bullying. In the Standard, Tom Ayres recaps both cases, then talks to school leaders and advocates about how they're approaching the issues and what they mean.How's this for a job? "They gave me a Nikon and said, ‘Go. Meet people. Take pictures.’" That was back in the '60s, when the VT Historical Society gave those marching orders to Ethan Hubbard. For the next five decades, writes Tim Calabro in The Herald, Hubbard did just that, capturing "thousands of images of everyday Vermonters—men and women whose families had worked the land for generations. He documented loggers with weathered hands, farmers in crumpled flannel, and shopkeepers who knew every customer by name." Now 82, he's working on a new book of reflections. Meanwhile, The Herald's looking for reader book recommendations this month.SPONSORED: In love with film? Spend Valentine's Day at WRIF! The 20th White River Indie Film festival (WRIF) returns with a diverse curation of the best new global and local independent cinema. Feb. 13-16, catch Oscar-nominated films, breakout features getting buzz on the indie festival circuit, and top-tier works by local filmmakers. Plus Filmmaker Friday hands-on master classes with experienced local filmmakers. Join us Valentine’s Day weekend for panels, parties, video art installations, comedy, and more! Info, tickets and all-access passes at the burgundy link or here. Sponsored by Junction Arts & Media.A look at Town Meeting agendas in W. Windsor, Norwich.
The big question on March 4 in W. Windsor, writes Liz Sauchelli in the Valley News, will be whether to repeal a short-term rental ordinance enacted by the selectboard last fall. The town had about 40 short-term rentals last summer—"a pretty drastic increase," says selectboard chair Mark Higgins. The ordinance would impose a per-bedroom fee, which rises if the owner doesn't live on site.
The Norwich Selectboard, meanwhile, voted 3-2 last month to put a $6.7 million general fund budget before voters—and not to use an anticipated $591,000 surplus for tax relief. Instead, writes Emma Roth-Wells in the VN, voters will weigh in on whether to spend any surplus on repairs to Tracy Hall, a highway department “bridge fund,” and funding a response to the emerald ash borer. The result, Roth-Wells writes, is that the town will need to raise 24.5 percent more revenue from the town portion of property taxes; its unclear what impact that will have on individual homes.
A new paint job, a new bar, sconces from Simon Pearce... Woodstock's Town Hall Theater gets a makeover. There's some time pressure: singer and performer Myra Flynn kicks off Pentangle Arts' new "After Hours" series next Friday night. In the runup, Pentangle's director, Deborah Greene, gives Robert Shumskis a tour for the Standard, talking paint colors, lighting fixtures, that bar, and some changes to the stage. "There is a lot to do and you want to get it right," she says, "because it's the center of the town in many ways." Greene also outlines some of the programming ahead.Hiking (and Skiing) Not Quite Close to Home: Tecumseh Peaks, NH. The Upper Valley Trails Alliance recommends this 4,000-foot winter trek, which can easily be combined with a ski day at Waterville Valley. Grab your winter gear, and look for the trailhead to the far right side (facing the resort) of parking lot 1. It's about a 2.5-trek with 2,200 feet of elevation gain to the peak, with the reward of wonderful views. Be sure of your route and make the correct turns on Tecumseh and Sosman trails to loop the peak and get back to your car. After bagging this relatively manageable 4,000 footer, you can hit the slopes!Been paying attention to Daybreak? Because Daybreak's Upper Valley News Quiz has some questions. Like, where in the Upper Valley is a community group now in a position to buy the general store? And which very big name's home did the painting at the center of the Parish Players' new production hang in? Those and more at the link.But wait! How closely were you following VT and NH?
Because Seven Days wants to know if you know what a state-commissioned report recommends to address Vermont's housing shortage?
And NHPR's got a whole set of questions about doings around the Granite State—like, what is the purpose of the UNH-built IMAP-Lo instrument soon to be launched into space?
NH House officially kills 15-week abortion ban bill. The measure would have banned abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy (instead of the current 24 week) with no exception for rape or incest—but last month, its GOP sponsor moved to withdraw it citing "a flaw in the bill," though she's remained mum on what it entailed. Regardless, the House went along yesterday, voting 340-15 to pull the measure. As NH Bulletin's William Skipworth notes, Gov. Kelly Ayotte had promised to veto any bills further restricting abortion access.“I was terrified that my friend may pass away in front of me": That Mt. Washington rescue from the inside. The AP's Kathy McCormack and Michael Casey talked to the two MA women who were rescued from chest-deep snow at 5,000 feet early Monday morning. They're experienced hikers and were prepared—but conditions were brutal: 2 below, sustained 50-60 mph winds. Their snowshoes kept getting caught in spruce traps—"so we got to a point where we were literally crawling on our bellies," says one. They hunkered down and called for help. Includes photos from NH Fish & Game rescuers.NH therapists say problems with insurance companies are "getting to a breaking point." They include late payments, erroneous denials, wrangling over unpaid claims, and other hassles that have led some to stop taking insurance and others to complain that the administrative load has become so great they're unable to spend the time they need with patients. The issues, reports NHPR's Paul Cuno-Booth, "are getting in the way of helping people who need mental health care" at a time when it's already hard to find it. The state insurance department is looking into insurance industry practices.Proposed VT schools overhaul would extend school choice. Right now, only students living in a district without, say, a public high school can use tax dollars for a private school or a public high school in a different district. Yesterday, reports VTDigger's Ethan Weinstein, Ed Secy Zoie Saunders unveiled a plan to expand school choice by requiring every district to designate at least one "school choice school"—which could be private and for which students would be chosen by lottery. “Does this open the door to folks coming in and creating an independent school in competition with the public school system?” asked one legislator. Saunders didn't say.At the heart of the VT legislature: a bunch of lawyers. Not in elected office, mind you, but in the Office of Legislative Counsel. In the first of a yearlong series going behind the scenes at the State House, Seven Days' Hannah Bassett looks at the office and its "constant, arduous process of translating ideas into and out of legalese"—crucial, she notes, not just to shaping potential laws, but readying them to withstand legal challenge if they do become law, like last year's measure compelling oil companies to compensate VT for climate change. Another challenge: There's more work than the staff can handle.Once a frontier outpost and home to the largest organ manufacturer in the country, Brattleboro "brims with creative juices." So writes Chris Farnsworth in Seven Days for his 3-to-6-hour guide to visiting the town. The Stone Church, Epsilon Spires (both arts centers), the VT Jazz Center, the New England Center for Circus Arts... "It's got some magical aspect to it that I can't explain," a local rocker told Fodor's once. Farnsworth surveys the bakeries and cafés, trails and parks, lunch (Yalla) and shopping, the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center, dinner spots and nighttime venues.
And hey, if you're down there soon, don't miss BMAC's "Artful Ice Shanties".Artful's Susan Apel has long had a thing for the museum and art center, and winter's no exception: she points to this month's exhibition of "ice fishing shanties bedecked and bejeweled, and/or cleverly designed and repurposed." Like, say, the dome-shaped “Cosmic Energy Portal”, and the oversized tomato-soup can titled "Soup Shack".
And while we're speaking of ice... Barnet farmer Evan Perkins (he and his wife own Small Axe Farm) also happens to be a wild skating enthusiast who brings his Nordic skates along on food deliveries so he can go glide for a while (which is one reason his farm's Instagram page has 20,000 followers). For "Stuck in Vermont", videographer Eva Sollberger went along with him on Lake Champlain recently, getting a lesson, safety tips, and footage that'll make you want to get out there.Proof that airbags save lives. Though maybe not the kind of airbag you're thinking of. This one was in the backpack of a skier swept 1,000 feet downhill by an avalanche near Mont Blanc in Chamonix, by the French/Swiss border. Two locals had been watching him and videoed the avalanche, the skier conscious and alive at the end—and the helicopter rescue that carried him out. ExplorersWeb has the story and embedded video. Language warning if you understand French. Also, this'll work better in Chrome or Safari than in Firefox, unless you've got an Instagram account.
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Fleece vests, sweatshirts, head-warming beanies... Strong Rabbit has updated the Daybreak page to keep up with the changing weather. Plus, of course, the usual: t-shirts, long-sleeved tees, the Daybreak jigsaw, those perfect hand-fitting coffee/tea mugs, and as always, "We Make Our Own Fun" t-shirts and tote bags for proud Upper Valleyites. Check it all out at the link!
Dartmouth Winter Carnival officially got underway yesterday (fittingly),
, starting with starting at 9 am with the men's giant slalom at the Dartmouth Skiway, the women's 7.5 km women's classic race at Oak Hill at 10 am, the Polar Bear Plunge this afternoon (for Dartmouth students only), ice sculpture carving,
Jurassic Park
at the Loew tonight, and plenty more.
It's First Friday in WRJ, and the town will be hopping. Stores, galleries, and restaurants, of course. But also:
at Speakeasy Studios in the Tip Top Building (Ste. 221), with Jakob Breitbach, Christopher Billiau and Kit Creeger offering up French Gypsy jazz, blues, jump, and more starting at 5 pm;
, jazz guitarist Tom Horton Davis and bassist/vocalist Madonna Gordon, and jazz keyboardist Jason Pettus, starting at 6:30 pm—as
with Captain Paige Bakes is well under way; and across the parking lot at River Roost Brewery, Dan Weintraub and Corey Unger (who go by "Dead Men Strumming") starting 5:30-ish.
with ace mandolinists Jamie Masefield, Will Patton, and Matt Flinner and bassist Pat Melvin for an evening of bluegrass, jazz and roots. 7 pm.
A leading interpreter of German Romantic organ music, Bush will perform works by J. S. Bach, Georgi Mushel, Scarlatti, José Lidón, Saint-Saëns, and others. 7 pm.
Led by jazz guitarist Asbell, each of the each of the musicians "boasts a long history—both regionally, and on the national stage—performing with Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Howlin’ Wolf, Paul Butterfield, Sonny Stitt," and others. 7 pm.
The LOH regular shares the stage with Paul D’Angelo, Emily Ruskowski, Mark Riley, and a special guest tonight, starting at 7:30.
. No introduction needed. Be ready to dance hard. Starts at 9 pm, and you'll want to score tickets ahead of time.
Saturday
. The race, which starts at the Dothan Brook School, is hosted by Hartford Rec, and it's "a family friendly, stroller friendly, dog-on-a-leash friendly, fun run and walk"—though you can also be really serious about it.
(next one's Leb's Shamrock Shuffle in March).
With an 11 am tea party at the Latham Library on Thetford Hill, a craft afternoon in West Leb, and more. The stalwart calendar-creators at the Valley News have pulled everything together, tomorrow through next Friday.
There should be plenty of snow for tomorrow's family-focused exploration of tracks and patterns left in the snow, hosted by the Hartford Conservation Commission and led by nature-based youth educator Skylar Claud. Meet at the town forest trailhead (directions at the link) at 1 pm.
. Fresh off her much more serious talk at Dartmouth on Thursday, family doc Zha will read from and talk about her first kids' book: "Join Mèng, a Chinese American girl, as she prepares for the Lunar New Year festivities with her family and discovers the significance of ancestral stories and the history behind the Mandarin language and traditional foods eaten during the holiday." 2 pm Saturday.
Hop Film screens the 2024 "essay film" by Johan Grimonprez, which centers around Patrice Lumumba and Congo in 1960-61, using eyewitness accounts, official memos, testimony by CIA operatives and mercenaries, speeches from Lumumba himself, and a dizzying array of music legends of the time—Nina Simone, Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington, Abbey Lincoln, Max Roach, Louis Armstrong—to tell the story. 2 pm.
. The NH “junk rockers” are on their winter tour with comedy, music, "tons of dance energy"... and, oh yeah, drumming. Plus plenty more. This show features Justin Spencer and Ryan Vezina, stars of the Emmy Award-winning TV show
Chaos & Kindness
. Shows at both 2 pm and 7 pm.
The Speckers, of course, are known around here: John's a decades-long traditional American fiddle player, his daughter a fiddler and vocalist. Blount has become a serious force in pushing the boundaries of roots and traditional music—he started with string band music (and is a two-time winner of the Appalachian String Band Music Festival), and in 2022 pushed off in an Afrofuturist direction with his massively acclaimed
The New Faith
album. Blount will be giving an artist's talk on his research into spirituals, Black string band music and more at 5 pm tomorrow; music at 7.
Maybe it's best to let the Canadian musician's website take it from here: "Blend Indian folk melodies with slide guitar blues, add a sprinkle of gospel and some compelling grooves and you'll get Manx's unique 'mysticssippi' flavour." Co-sponsored by MountainFolk, it's at 7 pm tomorrow at the United Church of Bethel. All proceeds go to
Royalton Community Radio, 96.5 FM WFVR.
Nope, the Dartmouth Film Society isn't cramming the whole thing into a confined space. It's the 1939 rom-com written by two Dartmouth grads (Maurice Rapf and Budd Schulberg) and produced by another (Walter Wanger), shot partially on location at the college, about an heiress who shows up at Carnival and encounters her old flame—a current "tweedy professor." 7 pm.
As is Norwich Community Dances' tradition, music this month comes from Blind Squirrel—Upper Valley musicians Erin Smith and Steve Hoffman (fiddles); Suzanne Long (fiddle and cello); and Eric Faro (guitar)—with "calling celebrity and pillar of local traditional music and dance" David Millstone at the mic. No partner necessary. Basic introductions with dance instruction at 7:15 pm tomorrow. Dance starts at 7:30.
Sunday
. The weekly podcast and public radio show launched 40 years ago at Symphony Space in NYC, with a simple premise:
screen and stage actors read classic and new short fiction before a live audience. On stage at the Loew Auditorium,
three Tony Award-winning actors—Santino Fontana
.
Nikki M. James, and Katrina Lenk
,
though casting is subject to change. Plus, Dartmouth senior Jonas Rosenthal will have his story "The Sagebrush Segmented Skink" read by James. 4 pm Sunday.
And to take us into the weekend...
Jake Blount (at the Chandler tomorrow night) two ways:
, and on fiddle with his band on two traditional string band tunes,
Go play in the snow! See you Monday for CoffeeBreak.
The Hiking Close to Home Archives. A list of hikes around the Upper Valley, some easy, some more difficult, compiled by the Upper Valley Trails Alliance. It grows every week.
The Enthusiasms Archives. A list of book recommendations by Daybreak's rotating crew of local booksellers, writers, and librarians who think you should read. this. book. now!
Daybreak Where You Are: The Album. Photos of daybreak around the Upper Valley, Vermont, New Hampshire, and the US, sent in by readers.
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