SO MUCH GOOD STUFF, UPPER VALLEY!
Here’s what’s ahead this weekend…
FRIDAY
Things start out with a little lunch music from Andrew and Noah VanNorstrand. The siblings blend traditional folk, old-time, bluegrass, country, and indie-roots-Americana with a wide range of pop, rock, jazz and dance grooves. No charge, at Upper Valley Music Center in downtown Lebanon at noon.
And, of course, it’s First Friday in WRJ, with a lot going on. At that link, you’ll find details about the haunted house at COVER, an Album Release & Engagement Party for Taylor Swift fans at Putnam’s vine/yard, the opening of Betsy Derrick’s “A Look Back” show at Kishka Gallery, and more. But there are some other First Friday-related events you should also know about:
The Filling Station is hosting a series of events leading up to a dance party benefit for everyone who was displaced by last week’s apartment fire in White River Junction. Starting at 4 pm, Jakob Breitbach and Route 5 Jive will be playing and hosting a Friday Jazz Invitational; at 5:30, the Hartford Selectboard will be doing a meet & greet; and then from 7-10 pm, the benefit dance party with three different DJs spinning the tunes.
The Center for Cartoon Studies is celebrating its 20th anniversary (“Cartoon College Turns 20, Alumni Still Explaining To Relatives What Graphic Novels Are,” runs the headline on its press release) with “Founding Documents and Drawings: Marking 20 Years of CCS, 2005-2025”, an exhibition of original art and prints. From its first brochures to a one-of-a-kind diploma, the show features work by cartoonists Seth, Ivan Brunetti, Alison Bechdel, Alec Longstreth, and Laura Park. Co-founders James Sturm and Michelle Ollie will host the exhibition opening from 4–8pm at the CCS Gallery in the Colodny Building, 94 South Main Street.
And over at JAM, it’s TWIST, the TWIn STate Comics & Zine Fair, with hundreds of handmade and small press zines, comics, chapbooks, prints, stickers, and more by local artists and Center For Cartoon Studies students and alums. Starts at 4 pm.
At the Lebanon Opera House, Magic Rocks! with illusionist Leon Etienne. A family-friendly spectacular “featuring the world’s best illusions, award-winning sleight of hand, and hilarious comedy” with a performer who’s been on America’s Got Talent, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Masters of Illusion, Penn & Teller: Fool Us and at LOH last fall. 6:30 pm tonight.
At the Chandler in Randolph, it’s the Estonian duo Puuluup. Ramo Teder and Marko Veisson play the talharpa, a traditional northern European bowed lyre with vocals, looping, and other modern effects. They label themselves “romantic neo-zombie post-folk,” but really, that seems too simple. 7 pm.
Seven Stars Arts in Sharon hosts the Star Radio Hour and its show “Good Trouble”. Emceed by Jim Rooney, it’ll be an hour of music, skits, and stories, with the house band Play It Forward—Chris Rua, Thal Aylward, Jeremiah McLane, Ted Mortimer and Glendon Ingalls; guest singers Becky Bailey, Bethany Nafziger & Anne Mapplebeck; and storyteller Simon Brooks. 7 pm.
Hartford puts on a family country dance. It’s part of the town’s 250th anniversary celebration of the US, with David Millstone calling and Jordan Tirrell-Wysocki and Sue Hunt playing traditional squares, contras, reels, and more. Costumes, if you’re in the mood, from Colonial to flower child (1770-1970). 7-9 pm, Wilder Club and Library.
Hop Film screens Confusion NaWa. Kenneth Gyang’s 2013 film is considered a classic of the so-called "New Nollywood" cinema that’s put Nigerian filmmaking on the map. As the Hop describes it, “Things don't happen for a reason. They just happen. A group of strangers in a Nigerian city find their fates intertwined over 24 hours in this dark comedy.” Followed by a pre-recorded conversation with director Kenneth Gyang and star Tunde Aladese, moderated by Montgomery Fellow and film scholar Vinzenz Hediger. 7 pm in the Loew Auditorium.
And at Sawtooth Kitchen in Hanover, the Eugene Tyler Band. The indie bluegrass trio, Sawtooth writes, “has carved out a unique voice in the bluegrass scene, with cutting, often humorous songs, and a fast & loose approach that calls back to influences like the Clash and Drive-By Truckers.” 8 pm.
SATURDAY
Vermont Open Studio Weekend starts up. There’ll be over 100 open studios all around the state Saturday and Sunday from 10 am to 5 pm, and a small knot of them are in the Upper Valley: Five Norwich artists (Shannon Wallis, Rosamond Orford, Rosemary Orgren, Kate Emlen, and Lisa Johnson) as well as artists in Woodstock (the Art of Craft collective), Bethel (Day Breaks Glass Studio), and elsewhere. Norwich map at the link, where you’ll also find a link to the full statewide map.
Orienteering at Boston Lot’s Landmark Trails. Picture a trail race (or walk) where you also have to read a map and figure out the best route and you don't need to stay on the trails. That’s what this joint event by Up North Orienteers and the Dartmouth Outing Club will be like. Courses for all levels, from beginners to competitive racers. Registration is $10 ($5 under 20) and the start is open anytime between 10-12:30. Parking is in the DHMC lot closest to the Landmark trailhead (directions at the link).
At the Norwich Bookstore, King Arthur staff editor Jessica Battilana with Sweet & Salty. It’s King Arthur Baking’s new children’s book—though heck, do Giant Chocolate Chip Cookies or Pizza Party Buns really have an age limit? 2 pm.
Contradance in Weathersfield. Caller Sarah VanNorstrand with an open band led by Naomi Morse (fiddle), Guillaume Sparrow-Pepin (piano), and Emmet McGowan (drums). No special clothing, footwear, or experience required. You're welcome to dance, listen, sit or chat and enjoy that cold beverage you brought along. All dances taught. At Weathersfield Center Church and Meeting House, 2579 Weathersfield Center Road, Perkinsville, VT. 6-10 pm
In Hanover, Upper Valley Walk to End Alzheimer's Team Andy hosts dessert night. It’s a lead-in to the Oct. 26 Alzheimer’s Walk, with cakes, cupcakes, chocolates, galettes… oh, heck, just go to the link and scroll down through the photos and you’ll get the idea. 7-9 pm at 12 River Road.
Novelist and outdoor writer Peter Heller gets the Sarah Josepha Hale award. Hosted by Newport NH’s Richards Free Library and first given to Robert Frost in 1956, it goes each year to authors with ties to New England. Heller’s latest novel, Burn, tells the story of two men who emerge from a week-long hunting trip in Maine’s Allagash wilderness, only to discover that the state has seceded from the US. No charge for attending the ceremony, which begins at 7 pm with a talk by Heller, who’ll also be signing books.
Hop Film screens Highest 2 Lowest. Spike Lee and Denzel Washington team up again for this re-interpretation of Akira Kurosawa's 1963 classic High and Low, “a tense police procedural about a wealthy man whose driver's son was accidentally kidnapped instead of his own.” 7 pm, Loew Auditorium.
Mystic Bowie’s Talking Dreads at the Woodstock Town Hall Theatre. Pentangle Arts hosts the Jamaican-born artist and his band, who fuse the rhythms of reggae, ska, and lover’s rock with the music of the Talking Heads: “Psycho Killer,” “Burning Down the House,” and “This Must Be the Place” “in a fresh, danceable Caribbean style.” Music at 7:30 pm, lobby opens for drinks and eats at 6:30.
SUNDAY
The Montshire hosts a mushroom walk. Get an expert-led primer with mycologist Jessica Whitaker on a walk through the woods, then have a good look at your finds with microscopes. Feel free to bring in your own specimens you’re curious about. 10 am.
Organ recital at Woodstock’s UU Church. The North Chapel will host an organ recital by Abraham David Ross to celebrate the 150th anniversary of its historic Thayer organ. This program emphasizes compositions by W. Eugene Thayer (1838-1889) and his contemporaries: pieces that would have been played on this organ. 4 pm Sunday.
Free advance Hop Film screening of After the Hunt. Luca Guadagnino new film “gives Julia Roberts one of the most complex and gratifying starring roles of her career as a philosophy professor whose life is thrown into chaos after her protégée (Ayo Edebiri) accuses her longtime colleague and friend (Andrew Garfield) of sexual assault.” 7 pm, Loew Auditorium.
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