GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Partly to mostly sunny, windy. There's a strong low over the Maritimes, and winds from the west on high are going to make it to the surface: Depending on where you are, we'll see gusts in the 30-50 mph range (scattered power outages possible, along with downed limbs), so even though temps will be getting into the mid 30s under partly sunny skies, especially around midday, it may not feel very inviting once you're out in it. While that's happening, colder air will be overspreading the region: lows around 20 tonight.As expected, river ice began to move with yesterday's warmth. This is the White River from VA Cutoff Bridge around 5 pm yesterday, from Steve Hender.Coyote trio in a snowstorm. "My Nana had a cast-iron steam radiator," Ted Levin writes about Erin Donahue's trail cam video. "Steam entered the coils, heated the room, condensed, and flowed back to the boiler. This same circulation circumvents the cost of keeping an animal's legs and feet at the same temperature as its core. Warm arterial blood enters the legs and flows past a network of returning cold veinous blood, giving up heat. Venous blood enters the body warmed, arterial blood in the legs cooled. This preserves core temperature so coyotes can wade through snow. And I can sit on radiators.Did you check out "Dear Daybreak" yesterday? You should definitely see Danny Dover's verse on Home Depot and "a world that's always needed fixing"; Lori Harriman's splash of color and moment of warmth in a roadside encounter; and Devan Tracy's song (and lyrics) sparked by discovering that you can be old and young at the same time. And hey, Dear Daybreak needs more stories about life in these parts. If you've got one, send it in!Hearing on Woodstock police chief set; municipal manager wants to demote him to patrol officer. It looks like the ongoing saga may come to a head March 19, reports Mike Donoghue in the VT Standard. That's when a public hearing—with sworn witnesses and the village board of trustees serving as jury—will take place on Municipal Manager Eric Duffy's bid to push Chief Joe Swanson out of his post, based on an independent investigation sparked by secret complaints from police officers and dispatchers. Swanson has been on paid leave since last October.Barnard voters okay leasing fire building to BarnArts. The agreement has been in the works for three years, reports UVM Community News Service writer Virginia Holt in The Herald. But the move to let the community arts organization use the old fire department building for $1 a year did not face smooth sailing at town meeting on Tuesday. The original proposal was for a 15-year lease, and voters rejected a bid from the floor to extend it to 30 years. When time came to vote on the lease itself, it passed 66-41. Holt traces the discussion pro and con.
SPONSORED: Help bring the Haven’s Shelter & Resource Center to life. Too many people in the Upper Valley are sleeping outside, in cars, or in unsafe conditions. The Upper Valley Haven’s new Shelter and Resource Center will provide year-round emergency shelter for 100+ individuals, offering over 5,000 bed nights annually and critical services to help people rebuild their lives. Every contribution, big or small, brings us closer to making this a reality. Join us in reaching the finish line! Donate here or at the burgundy link. Sponsored by the Upper Valley Haven.A rock opera with local roots premieres at the Briggs. How To Stay Sane While Losing Your Mind is the sophomore project by pop performer Sir Babygirl—the stage name of Kelsie Hogue, who grew up in Hanover and returned home from Brooklyn during the pandemic. Rigel Harris, Hogue's friend and the production's director, is a Leb High grad. Talking to Sara Lieberth in the VT Standard, Harris describes it as mixing "queer rock opera lineage of ‘Hedwig and the Angry Inch’ into a cage match with the ancient Greek mythology of Persephone, the story of a girl who is pulled down to Hell for winter every year."And that's not the only premiere with local roots this weekend. On Sunday, the Lebanon Opera House screens If I Could Ride 2, the followup to the 2022 film sparked by Windsor writer Don Miller's stories. Like the original, this one was filmed in these parts (more in the Heads Up section below). Meanwhile, there's now a making-of video that features Miller, the production team, the actors, and a whole lot of local scenery. At the link.And two milestone arts birthdays. For starters, writes Susan Apel in Artful, there's Upper Valley Music Center's 30th, being celebrated in fine fashion next Sunday at LOH. Though what really caught Susan's attention was this line in the invitation: "Everyone is invited to continue the fun at the afterparty at AVA Gallery—and there will even be a brass band to lead the way!” Yep, you get to march over to AVA behind a brass band. Meanwhile, the Hood is celebrating its 40th, and they're looking for memories—"a video, picture, voice memo, written quote, or all of the above!"—from anyone who's visited. Submit here.Hiking (or Skiing) Not Quite Close to Home: Lowell Lake Trail, Londonderry, VT. This week, the Upper Valley Trails Alliance recommends this relatively flat and accessible winter hike/ski/snowshoe experience. The beautiful and family-friendly trek around the lake is about 3 miles and passes a Revolutionary War-era cemetery (if it is not buried by snow). While the entire trail is at low elevation, you still get the benefit of open views provided by the lake and surrounding hills. Parking at the end of Ice House Road.Been paying attention to Daybreak? Because Daybreak's Upper Valley News Quiz has some questions. Like, what state championship did that team from Hanover High win last week in Concord? And in Nick Clark's town meeting satire, how did voters in Thetford vote to rename the Lyme-East Thetford Bridge? 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 how Vermont school budgets fared overall on Town Meeting Day.
And NHPR's got a whole set of questions about doings around the Granite State—like, what does NH's Commission on Government Efficiency say it's all about?
The GOP-backed measure would get rid of the
New Hampshire Vaccine Association, the nonprofit established by the legislature in 2002 to buy vaccines in bulk and distribute them to health care providers. It passed yesterday 189-181, reports NH Bulletin's William Skipworth. The bill has a long way to go—it now goes to the Ways and Means Committee, and still must be taken up by the Senate. Skipworth details the arguments made yesterday by both sides.
"Snow is my art medium.” Before he was a snow groomer at Pat's Peak in Henniker, Chad Avery was a snowboarder and instructor there. Then he helped the resort set up its terrain park. And eventually, they let him run a snowcat, the complicated (and expensive) machine that comes out after the skiers have all gone away for the night. NHPR's Julia Furukawa talks to Avery about what's entailed—a joy stick, a bunch of buttons, and literally years of practice turning chewed-up trails into fresh corduroy—and about his main job: sculpting terrain park jumps and features born from knowledge, creativity, and a big machine.Six federal office leases in NH on DOGE list to shutter. In the Globe's Morning Report newsletter, Steven Porter writes that there's much uncertainty, however: "officials have remained tight-lipped about whether the purported cancellations have actually been approved." Porter cites a Pembroke USGS Water Science Center and a Small Business Administration office in Lebanon, possibly the SCORE office. Meanwhile, VTDigger's Habib Sabet looks into four federal properties, none around here, that might—or might not—be up for sale.After skis found near the top of a Colorado mountain, a lesson in backcountry etiquette. Their discovery at the edge of a cornice, reports the Denver Gazette's Spencer McKee, "prompted immediate concerns that someone may have been preparing to head down the slope" but then walked off and fell off the cornice. Authorities requested a search and rescue team—but also called around to local ski shops to see if the owner could be identified. A last-ditch call finally hit pay dirt—the owner had taken his skis off, couldn't find them again in the drifting snow, and hiked down. One suggestion, McKee writes: If you lose gear in the backcountry, let authorities know. (Thanks, JF!)A five-year-old asks how clouds are made. And SUNY Albany's Ross Lazear, a meteorologist, has the answer. On The Conversation, he runs down the common types. Cumulous—“cotton ball” clouds—are made from sun-warmed, rising air. Cirrus—ice clouds—on the other hand, are created when the atmosphere grows cold enough for ice to form. Fog? That, says Lazear, is basically ground-level saturated air. Mountain slopes contribute to lenticular clouds that look like flying saucers. And high up in the jet stream, wind can whiz cirrus clouds along at 200 mph. Plus: how they can help you forecast.The Friday Wordbreak. With a word from yesterday's Daybreak. And hey, one thing to know: You can keep doing Wordbreak over the weekend, featuring words from a VT or NH news source. Just hit the burgundy link here (or bookmark it) tomorrow and Sunday.
Daybreak doesn't get to exist without your support. Help it stick around by hitting the maroon button:
Daybreak tote bags! Thanks to a helpful reader's suggestion. Plus, of course, the usual: sweatshirts, head-warming beanies, 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!
The NCAA championships are at the Skiway and Oak Hill, and powered by its xc team,
—including a first-place finish in the 7.5K classic by John Steel Hagenbuch and third for Jasmine Drolet. Women's and men's giant slalom today, starting at 9 am; men's and women's 20K mass start tomorrow at Oak Hill. Details at the first link above.
Rua, who among other things plays recorder, is on the faculty of Upper Valley Music Center, and will be joined by colleagues Jane Hershey, Ernie Drown, and Steven Lundahl for a
concert of Baroque music for recorder, harpsichord, and viola da gamba. Noon at UVMC.And music in the library: the Hanover High Jazz Combo at the Howe. The combo's headed to Philadelphia soon for "a major competition," so they're definitely tuning their chops. 3:30 pm today in the New Books area.
As you saw above, Sir Babygirl is the stage name of Kelsie Hogue, who grew up in Hanover. It's an updating of the Persephone story (six months in Hell, six months up here), with Larz Brogan of Palehound, guitarist Rose O'Malley, and synth-pop artist Hannah Hoffman of Dutch Experts as musicians and Greek chorus. And it's attracting attention elsewhere:
. Tonight at 7, tomorrow at 4 pm at the Briggs Opera House in WRJ.
Taylor, currently rabbi at Woodstock's
Chavurat Ki-tov, will talk about his work translating two novels by Joseph Perl dating to the early 19th century, considered the first Hebrew novels. "Is it even possible to translate a 200-year-old satire written in an ancient language that has been intentionally corrupted by its author for its comedic effect?" he wonders. 4 pm.
Dylan, Baez, Seeger, Guthrie—or, actually, Chalamet, Barbaro, Norton, McNairy—in James Mangold's portrait of creativity, songwriting brilliance, and the early '60s and its folk scene. 7 pm in the Loew Auditorium.
With a cast of six and two dancers, the production presents a series of readings of short plays written by Ukrainian playwrights in the teeth of war. Tonight and tomorrow night at 7 pm.
Author of a
New York Times
bestselling memoir (
Sure, I'll Join Your Cult
), creator of the Netflix series
Lady Dynamite
, star of four comedy specials, and a prolific voice actor, Bamford zigzags with self-deprecating humor between jabs at her dysfunctional family, anxiety, depression, and mental illness. There are just a handful of tix left. 7:30 pm tonight.
Saturday
During the day, it's astronomical arts and crafts, hands-on space demonstrations with Dartmouth grad students, a chance to see meteorites up close, and more. That all runs from 10 am to 5 pm tomorrow. Then at 5:30 pm, Dartmouth students studying various aspects of the universe will "introduce their field of study and their current research to the public in short, fast-paced presentations that are easy to follow for anyone new to astronomy"—before the buzzer sounds.
. Led by nature-based youth educator and Hartford Conservation Commission member Skylar Claud, this month's "family forest frolic" will take off from the town forest trailhead (directions at the link) to look at different maple trees and their similarities and differences, as well as sap production (on a small scale) and how sap varies throughout the season. Starts at 1 pm tomorrow.
. If you've ever read Miller's unforgettable debut novel,
The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven
, this is your chance to thank him. The central VT writer and farmer returns to the frozen north this time out, focusing on an Icelandic cattle farm and a young man trying to find his way there and in his non-farm life. "Because who in their right mind—I’m looking at you, Vikings—would take their first steps onto our steaming black rock and think
farmland
?” With novelist Miciah Bay Gault, 2 pm tomorrow.
Liz Nelson calls, and
piano and accordion player Mary Cay Brass joins forces with the fiddle duo of Rose Jackson and Rebecca Weiss to provide the music. Waltzing from 6:30-7:15 pm tomorrow, contra refresher from 7:15 to 7:30, and the contra dance begins at 7:30.
The Burlington-based acoustic progressive folk-grass quintet is led by Colby Crehan, who was the vocalist and a songwriter for the Bluegrass Gospel Project and PossumHaw. She's backed by Ryan Crehan on banjo and harmonica and vocals, Charley Eiseman on vocals, Stephen Waud on mandolin, and Mitch Barron on upright bass. 7 pm tomorrow.
The Grammy-nominated founder/bass player for rockabilly revivalists the Stray Cats and member of the Bass Player Hall of Fame is on tour with his own show and road stories from
years
of work with the likes of George Harrison, Willie Nelson, Leon Russell, John Fogerty, and Carl Perkins—and a 12-performance run in
Million Dollar Quartet
when it was on Broadway. 7:30 pm tomorrow.
Sunday
Don't forget the time change!
. Things have gotten complicated in
If I Could Ride
world. Set one year after the original, we've got Bridgett returning home to the Van Heusen Estate after being expelled from college, while Jodie's mom is dating a race car driver named Ricky. Presented by Windsor's Don Miller, whose stories form the basis for the film, which was shot at Frazier’s Place, the Windsor Diner, Bashon Brook Farm, Claremont Motorsports Park, Helping Hands Farm, and other Upper Valley sites. 2 pm.
The NYC-based kora player—who also teaches
ethnomusicology at McGill University
in Montreal and is the daughter of double-reed virtuoso and Front Porch Music Series organizer Bill Cole—will be giving a solo kora concert at Artistree starting at 3 pm Sunday.
The guitarist and folk musician has played with everyone from Suzanne Vega to John McCutcheon to John Gorka. "He mesmerized the crowd at Roots & Wings last year," they write, "and we’re fortunate to get him back for another round." 4 pm Sunday.
Well yeah, of course.
A definitely younger Lee Rocker (LOH tomorrow) in
And just for the heck of it,
Have a fine weekend! 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.
Want to catch up on Daybreak music?
Want to catch up on Daybreak itself (or find that item you trashed by mistake the other day)? You can find everything on the Daybreak Facebook page
, or if you're a committed non-FB user,
.
Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Poetry editor: Michael Lipson Associate Editor: Jonea Gurwitt About Rob About Michael
And if you think one or more of your friends would like Daybreak, too, please forward this newsletter and tell them to hit the blue "Subscribe" button below. And thanks! And hey, if you're that friend? So nice to see you! Subscribe at no cost at:
Thank you!