GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
More rain, more cool. Might as well get used to it. There seems to be this ditch of low pressure over the Great Lakes that's bringing "unsettled" conditions to this region: After a break from the rain this morning, we're likely to see more showers through the afternoon and evening. Today's the coldest day of the week, with highs in the mid-40s, lows tonight around 40.Lyme, Thetford prep for bridge closure Thursday. Yep, it's here. And as Justin Campfield writes in the Valley News, the 18-month break in direct travel between the two towns—with 15- or 24-mile detours, depending on which way you go—will be disruptive. In E. Thetford, Wing's has cut its inventory orders (they figure about 40 percent of customers come from Lyme), while Cedar Circle foresees a 15 percent drop in revenues this summer (though they'll be making thrice-weekly deliveries to Lyme). Meanwhile, an informal Thetford group is organizing a weekly food pickup from Stella's on the Lyme side.Dartmouth plans cleansing ceremonies for three buildings this week. Wilson, Carpenter, and Silsby halls were all found to have housed Native American remains—which has agitated Native American students and staff whose traditions require individuals "to avoid spaces where a death has occurred or where remains are located," writes Hannah Silverstein for Dartmouth News. The ceremonies Friday and Saturday, led by Herbert Wilson, a citizen of the Diné, or Navajo Nation, are used "to bring you back into balance after an illness, accident, natural disaster, or other disturbing event," says Mabelle Hueston, assistant director of the Native American Program.Community power customers could see enrollment delays—coalition blames Eversource. Many of the 42,000 people who are supposed to be enrolled in the Community Power Coalition's program today could see delays, Leb assistant mayor and coalition chair Clifton Below tells the Boston Globe's Amanda Gokee (paywall). That includes residents of Hanover and Enfield. The problem centers around issues with Eversource's billing system—which the utility blames on a supplier but Below, in an open letter, pins on the company for creating "unnecessary billing system configurations."Caught up in a possible eviction? At least know your rights (or, if you're the landlord, responsibilities). In Sidenote, Nick Clark highlights the case of a Thetford family whose building's new owner suddenly hiked rents 26 percent. "For this unit to be considered affordable, the household income would now need to be $10,000/year higher," Clark writes—money the family did not have; it got an eviction notice. Clark links to a VT tenant/landlord handbook created by the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity. Its advice may not prevent eventual eviction, but there are helpful steps along the way.A cedar that's no longer of Lebanon. You may remember that a few weeks back, Susan Apel wrote in Artful about a 2018 visit by Lebanese photographer Fadi BouKaram, who was touring US towns bearing the same name and, where he could, planting cedars of Lebanon. After that story, Susan writes in an update, Leb's Pat McGovern did some digging and found that BouKaram had indeed brought a cedar along, and that it was planted on the West Leb side of the bridge to WRJ—where it died. "It makes sense that a Middle Eastern tree might have a hard time in our northern winters," McGovern writes."This makes its own sound, and you can let it sing." That's Canaan cellist Kayla Monty, talking to the VN's Frances Mize about the bow she was trying out at Upper Valley Music Center earlier this month. It was made of pernambuco, a Brazilian wood that's prized by string musicians for its responsiveness and tonal color—and that is also endangered and often harvested illegally. As Brazil seeks to crack down on new trade in pernambuco, Mize writes about how Upper Valley musicians are coming to terms with the issue.At Whaleback, the struggle to keep snow on the slopes. In a ski season like the one we just had, hills both large and small had to spend January and February contending with "windows of opportunity" when it was cold enough to make snow. In NH Bulletin, Beatrice Burack writes about ski areas' challenges in a warm winter (March aside), and talks to Whaleback operations director Alex Lahood about the season—and the time early on when the team “pretty much made snow around the clock for seven days" only to have to watch as temps rose into the 50s and 60s and rain washed it all away.For today's photographs, we turn to space. Or, actually, not space itself, but the effort to get there. NASA has just announced the winners of its fifth annual Photographer of the Year awards: spacecraft, robotics testing, prepping for the VIPER mission to find water at the moon's south pole, astronaut portraits...And the Monday Vordle. With a word from Friday's Daybreak.
Now, to set us off on the right foot for the week...GoGo Penguin has never fit comfortably into a category. "You see double bass, piano, drums, you go ‘jazz,’" pianist and trio founder Chris Illingsworth said recently. "But one of the best ways for us of thinking about it is, we’re just using the instruments that we play.” Which is one reason lots of people who say they don't like jazz like the band. Another reason: "They’re extremely skilled musicians who go out of their way to downplay their virtuosity, which is sort of the exact opposite of most jazz musicians their age," wrote Stereogum reviewer Phil Freeman last week. He was talking about GoGo Penguin's new album, Everything Is Going To Be Okay. And it will be. Here's the title track.See you tomorrow.
Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Writer/editor: Tom Haushalter Poetry editor: Michael Lipson About Rob About Tom About Michael
If you like Daybreak and would like to help it keep going and evolve, please hit the "Support" button below and I'll tell you more:
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!