GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Probably some fog to start, then mostly sun... There's a weak cold front breezing through, but it's unlikely to amount to much. We'll start the day with fog, then at some point this morning move on to partly cloudy skies with more sun than not, temps rising to 80 or above, winds the west shifting to the northwest tonight, drying things out and dropping temps into the mid or low 50s.Speaking of drying out... In its updated report yesterday, the federal Drought Monitor says that while this part of New Hampshire remains in the "abnormally dry" category, much of the state to our east has moved into moderate drought territory. Most of Vermont, meanwhile, remains abnormally dry. Remember that you can also hit the "By Location" tab and then "Local" to drill down, where you'll find that some area towns have moved into the moderate drought category as measured by precipitation over the last 60 days.A bobcat at noon. That's what showed up on nature enthusiast Erin Donahue's trail cam in E. Thetford recently—and it's not something you see often, naturalist Ted Levin writes: "Bobcat patrols shadows, a crepuscular predator. A mid-day bobcat is rare, like finding a field of four-leaf clovers. Three million years ago, Eurasian lynx crossed the Bering Land Bridge, eventually blinking out . . . their descendants: the bobcat and Canada lynx."Yeah, I'd stop, too. Greg Stott was on his way to the Smarts Mountain trailhead in Lyme when a moose appeared, walking down the road in front of him. He sent the video in to WMUR's u local New Hampshire.What happens when Lydia kisses a frog... or maybe it's the frog that kisses Lydia. Either way, Auk and Eddie are spooked. As he does every week here, Lebanon writer and illustrator DB Johnson chronicles the doings in Lost Woods—and on his blog this week, he writes about another ongoing project: a graphic novel about how Henry Thoreau came to spend two years by Walden Pond. Though it actually starts a year earlier, when Thoreau accidentally set fire to the last untouched woodland in Concord, Mass.Heads up out there: It's the Prouty. The 41st annual fundraiser for the Dartmouth Cancer Center runs today (for bicyclists doing the 200-mile Ultimate) and tomorrow. Tomorrow in particular, a lot of people are going to be out biking, walking, rowing, and golfing, and the organizers urge everyone to watch out for participants on the roads and sidewalks of the Upper Valley, as well as on the Connecticut and the golf course at Eastman. "It takes a village, and in this case, an entire river valley to present such a massive event," they write in a thank-you note to the entire region (at the link).SPONSORED: Electricity rates are skyrocketing. But in VT and NH, incentives to go solar will drop soon. Some utilities are raising the average monthly electric bill from $150 to as much as $220 this summer, and some are cutting back on payments to residential customers who feed solar power into the grid. Click on the maroon link for a review of the current “state of rates” in Vermont and New Hampshire, and why moving to solar now is plain common sense for your pocketbook. Sponsored by Solaflect Energy.Tuck lands $52.1 million donation, biggest in its history, to create global summit. The gift to the business school comes from an anonymous donor and will endow an annual Summit on Health, Wealth and Sustainability, which aims to bring in global civic and business leaders and scholars to "come up with practical solutions to big issues that can be applied at local levels," writes Liz Sauchelli in the Valley News. History prof Matthew Garcia tells Sauchelli that it's aimed at problems like climate change that require "dialogue and connecting with people who might...come at the problem from a different perspective."Bethel promotes energy efficiency, low carbon emissions, recyclability in town purchasing. The move by the selectboard came at its last meeting in June, reports Tim Calabro in the Randolph Herald. "We think the updated policy will give department heads pause to think more about the recyclability and efficiency of a product when they are looking to buy, instead of just looking at the price and immediate need,” town manager Therese Kirby explains. Bethel joins Strafford and Bradford in enacting an efficiency-fostering policy; Thetford has a "green fleet" policy, and seven area towns share an energy coordinator.96 nests, 47 chicks... and for the first time, two pairs of loons on Lake Morey. As you may know, the VT Center for Ecostudies monitors the state's lakes for loon activity each year. Halfway through the season, it reports that nesting activity is actually a bit lower than last year (when there were 109 nesting pairs). One possible reason: "competition with other loons, and some birds are simply spending too much time defending their territories. This is a good thing for the overall health of the population," writes Alexandra Johnson. Mountain Biking Close to Home: the Ellis Lot Town Forest in Randolph. This trail network offers a mix of machine-built flow trails and natural hand-built singletrack, the Upper Valley Trails Alliance says. Most of its 6 miles of trail climb up the ridge and flow down through the hills behind the village, and they range in difficulty from novice to highly technical. This non-motorized multi-use network is built and maintained by Ridgeline Outdoor Collective volunteers. The network also connects to other trail networks around Randolph, such as the Sayward Town Forest and Stagecoach Road/Asher Alley.Been paying attention this week? The News Quiz has some questions for you. Like, what kind of moth is munching its way through NH's trees? And how does Dartmouth intend to gather input on its Lyme Road plans? And what would Leb like ideas from the public on? You'll find those and others at the maroon link.Reward in murder of Concord couple rises to $50,000. With the shooting deaths of Stephen and Djeswende Reid still unsolved and investigators apparently no closer to identifying a "person of interest" they first revealed in mid-May, NH Attorney General John Formella and Concord Police Chief Bradley Osgood yesterday announced that the total reward for information leading to the arrest and indictment of a suspect or suspects has been boosted to $50K. The money comes from an array of anonymous donors and from the Concord Regional Crimeline.Advice to NH electric customers: Shop around. Even with rates rising sharply, state consumer advocate Don Kreis tells NH Bulletin's Amanda Gokee, most utility customers still buy their power directly from the utility rather than look around for cheaper rates from third-party suppliers—as you can do in New Hampshire. Gokee offers advice on how to go about it: use the PUC's list of competitive energy providers; pay attention to the terms of the contracts they offer; check out the PUC's list of questions you'll want to ask; make a decision.There were once 60 people in the Burlington Free Press newsroom. Now? Ten reporters and three editors. So if you care about local news, spare a thought for Aki Soga, a longtime Freep reporter and editor who's just become the paper's top editor. In Seven Days, Anne Wallace Allen pulls no punches on its paucity of local news and the "jarring step down from the news and analysis that once made the state's flagship newspaper a must-read," tracing the paper's path through the local news industry's woes and, in particular, the influence of corporate owner Gannett as it tries to keep costs low."Pants Off at Lunch?" That brief to-do item is in the category “Brief Directives or Notes of Urgency" at the Museum of Everyday Life in Glover, VT, writes Susan Apel in Artful. You may remember that, some time ago, the museum asked people to submit old letters, notes, grocery lists, to-do lists, reminders, and other elbow jabs to themselves or others. Now, its exhibition "Life in Lists and Notes" is up—and also includes serious lists, like surgeon and writer Atul Gawande's famous surgical checklist, which cut the rate of complications and deaths in hospitals. In the next room: how and why we bathe.Ever wonder how long it's actually been since sliced bread? A Missouri town can tell you. On July 7, 1928 (sorry, missed it by a day), inventor Otto Rohwedder and Chillicothe, MO baker Frank Bench introduced the world to pre-sliced bread—a huge gamble at the time. Within two weeks, Bench's bread sales had grown 2,000 percent, reports Kansas Public Radio's Suzanne Hogan, and the rest is history. Or, actually, history that Chillicothe plain forgot until around 2000, when a local editor stumbled on it. These days, July 7 is Sliced Bread Day in Chillicothe. Hogan plunges deep into how it all came to be.Sure, nebulae and wild-looking galaxies. But some of the best space photography includes Earth in the lens. We're going to be treated to a pile of amazing photos next week, when NASA starts making the first deep-space images from the James Webb telescope available. In the meantime, though, London's Royal Observatory has just released the finalists for Astronomy Photographer of the Year, and while there are some stunning images of, say, the Soul Nebula and the surface of the sun, some of the most compelling photos put the night sky in earthly context.The Friday Vordle. And remember, you can just go to the same link tomorrow and Sunday for a fresh whack at a word from today's Daybreak.
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Today at 3 pm, musicians taking part in the new Oak Hill Music Festival will hold an open rehearsal at the Howe Library. The various members of the quartet that will be rehearsing—Niv Ashkenazi, Keiko Tokunaga, Daniel Orsen, and Daniel Lelchuck—have variously performed at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and with the Boston Symphony. Here's your chance to hear what they'll be performing next week, ask questions, and sit in while pros fine-tune their work.
At 6 pm, Pentangle Arts brings in Mozambican singer, guitarist, and composer Albino Mbie for its Music By the River series at East End Park (Woodstock Town Hall Theater in case of rain). Mbie, who grew up in Maputo and built his first guitar from an oil can and scrap wood with electrical cords for strings, eventually got a scholarship to Berklee, in Boston, where he fell in love with jazz, then set about melding his African and American influences. No charge.
At 6:30 this evening, The Contenders play the Little Theater in Woodstock. Ordinarily, the band is a duo—Hartland guitarist and troubador Jay Nash and Nashville's Josh Day (he's been a drummer for Sara Bareilles, Jennifer Nettles, John Oates, and others). Tonight they'll be joined by Brooklyn-based upright bassist Ben Kogan.
This evening at 7, Opera North kicks off its 2022 summer season at Blow Me Down Farm in Cornish with Carnevale, its nod to carnival in Venice with a full classical orchestra, an ensemble of opera singers, an array of circus artists, and no doubt plenty of masks. Tonight's show is sold out, but tomorrow's 2 pm and 7 pm shows and Sunday's 2 pm show still have a relative handful of tickets available.
Also at 7, it's Neil Jordan's The Crying Game at the longtime-coming-but-now-brand-new Thetford Arthouse Cinema in the Martha Rich Theater at Thetford Academy. Arthur Kahn's effort to bring unusual and classic films to the region opened on Tuesday (sorry about missing it!), and from now until the end of September it will offer arthouse films on Tuesdays at 6:30, repertory films on Fridays at 7:00, and children's films (if, that is, you consider tomorrow's Singin' In the Rain to be a children's film) at 10 am on Saturdays. Sign up at the link to get a full listing of what's coming up.
This evening at 7:30, North Country Community Theatre, with its legion of actors young and old, sterling orchestra musicians, and ace production crew, starts up two weekends of performances of Annie at the Lebanon Opera House. Greed, hope, family, orphans, Miss Hannigan, Oliver Warbucks, fine choreography... and a bunch of tunes you're probably already humming.
Tomorrow from 3 to 9 pm, the South Royalton Market co-op will be celebrating its 20th anniversary on the town green (it's actually 21, but had to put off the hoopla because of, well, you know). There'll be music starting at 4 with Adam Smith, Rudi Rudell, Eric Graham, and the legendary Jim Rooney; then Bull & Prairie at 5:30, and Bow Thayer starting at 7. Plus the Art Bus, and food from Kiss the Cow ice cream, Carlita’s Cocina, Moon and Stars arepas, Upper Pass Brewery, and more.
And tomorrow evening at 8:30, Hop Film brings the Oscar-winning documentary Summer of Soul to a big outdoor screen, with a free showing on the Dartmouth Green. You probably know the story: Over six weeks during the summer of 1969, the Harlem Cultural Festival brought in Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Sly & the Family Stone, Gladys Knight & the Pips, and a host of other world-beating performers to Mount Morris Park (now Marcus Garvey Park). The footage from those weeks was never seen and mostly forgotten—and in the popular consciousness, the event itself was overshadowed by Woodstock. With Summer of Soul, Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson changed all that.
Finally, Sunday at 1 pm, SculptureFest 2022 opens in Woodstock. In case you're new to it: For the last three decades, Charlet and Peter Davenport have opened their land in Woodstock to visitors for an exhibition of large, intriguing works by artists from around the region. It's a chance to picnic and stroll and contemplate, and though some installations remain from previous years, others are entirely new. The land is always open, dawn to dusk, but Sunday's official start gives you a chance to meet the artists (from 3:30 to 6) and hear music at 4 from Sonny Saul and Grace Marie.
Okay, it's almost the weekend, right? So you've got a little time? This is probably not something you've ever found yourself wondering, but just what
would
happen when a jazz musician decides to try playing metal? And vice versa? Jazz bassist Adam Neely and metal guitarist Rob Scallon, both of them YouTube stars, decided to find out. The result, while a little long, is remarkably engaging—little lessons in history, technique, and music theory.
, and
. My question: Does it say anything that nearly 300,000 more people have watched the jazz musician try to play heavy metal than have watched the metal musician go for jazz?
Don't worry, there won't be a test on Monday. Have a lovely weekend, and see you then 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 and writers who want you to 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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