GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
More of the same. The cold front that brought us yesterday's clouds and showers is heading east—but at a saunter. So today looks a whole lot like yesterday: full-on clouds, patchy dense fog, temps in the mid or upper 40s, a good chance of showers all day. Winds today are from the north, temps down to either side of the freezing mark tonight.A look back at "winter." One of the striking things about photographer Jim Block's latest blog post, filled with striking pics of the last few months, is how little snow you'll see. What you will see are a pile of places around the Upper Valley, thanks to Jim and his camera: Leb at night, Occom Pond (okay, ice and snow), sunsets in Enfield and Etna, the Grand Canyon of Norwich and the Zebedee Wetland of Thetford and Bog Mountain in Wilmot, mountain views from all over, painterly scenes of buildings that will stop you in your tracks... And, of course, birds, including a red-tail and a northern harrier in flight.And while we're on birds and winter... During last Saturday's storm, writes Lauran Corson, dozens of "ravenous" birds hung out by her place in Woodstock. They seemed unfazed, she reports, like this jay.And while we're on our way out of winter... The Upper Valley's got a new sugarhouse, reports WCAX's Adam Sullivan: behind Mascoma Valley Regional High School. It was built by Thomas Clifford, a senior there, and two of his friends. Most of the wood was donated, and the school district's IT guy, who's also a timber framer, helped the students cut and raise the structure. “This type of learning, where you are touching it, making memories, those are the things that are going to stick with you," says environmental studies teacher Jenn Fitzgerald. The sugarhouse will now become part of the science curriculum."One thing we can say is we can all look up at the moon and we can look up at the sky and hopefully we’re all moved by it.” That's Upper Valley publicist Lynn Luczkowski, the moving force behind the eclipse-themed merch site Moon Over Vermont, talking to VTDigger's Babette Stolk. Hers is just one of the businesses seeing "an extra seasonal pop," as the Vermont Clothing Company's Matt Walker puts it. Breweries, retailers, hoteliers, restaurants—no one knows how many people will actually show up, but they plan to be ready. As for Luczkowski, she reports that "sales have been pretty brisk."SPONSORED: Before you tee up for golf season... Get the power, strength, and mobility you need with a Titleist Performance Institute Golf Evaluation. This in-depth screening is designed to identify hidden weaknesses affecting your game and includes swing video analysis and a personalized performance improvement program. Limited weekend dates and pre-season rates available for a limited time only. Learn more at the burgundy link or call (603) 643-7788 to reserve your spot with our TPI Certified Golf Specialist. Sponsored by Cioffredi & Associates Physical Therapy.Dartmouth graduate workers stage walkout. About 150 grad students who are employed by the college gathered on the green yesterday, reports Frances Mize in the Valley News, "in protest of what they characterize as slow-going bargaining" between the college and their union, the Graduate Organized Laborers at Dartmouth. They're agitating for higher pay and more robust benefits, Mize writes. Says college spokesperson Jana Barnello, “We have successfully reached tentative agreements on several non-economic items and are presently in discussions regarding the union’s economic demands."Understanding opioid misuse through art. Alastair Huntley was a student at Norwich U over a decade ago when opioid addiction and a suicide attempt landed him in a program where he met a young woman, a heroin addict, whose story and struggles stayed with him for years. And so, writes Nicola Smith in the VN, over the last few years Huntley—now studying writing—teamed up with a Miami artist to create a series of large panels, "with sound effects and actor voice-overs, which draw on and embellish that young woman’s life." It'll get a public presentation today from 5-7 at Leb's TLC Family Resource Center.JAG announces new series—at venues around the Upper Valley. Shut out of its one-time location on the hill behind King Arthur and without the Briggs as a steady option, the company founded by Jarvis Green has announced JAG Underground, a three-part run of "bold, Black art by Black creatives". First up: The Lesson, written and performed by Tyrone Davis Jr., at AVA in April. Then at Sawtooth in May, it's Why Have I Never Heard of You?, an evening of music, stories, and "immaculate vibes" by Broadway star Alex Joseph Grayson. And at the Briggs in June: Sondheimia, a cabaret by NYC actor Larry Owens.SPONSORED: Smelly feet welcome! Join us this evening for foot washing, tomorrow for the veneration of the cross, Saturday for a raging Vigil fire, and Easter Sunday for a joyful and chocolate-filled egg hunt. This is Holy Week at St Thomas Episcopal Church in Hanover. See the full schedule here or at the burgundy link. Sponsored by St. Thomas Episcopal Church.NH's Annie Kuster won't run for re-election to US House. If you were anywhere within shouting distance of the news yesterday, you probably saw this. Kuster, who went to Dartmouth and has represented the 2nd District—which covers NH's western half—since 2013, broke the news to WMUR political director Adam Sexton. "I spent a lot of time with my family this winter, and we did a lot of skiing and traveling, and I've realized I have a life, and my husband Brad has been very patient," she said. Link goes to Sexton's story, with a retrospective on her career.New England's last coal plant to close in 2028. That announcement about the Merrimack Station plant in Bow, NH came yesterday from Granite Shore Power, reports NHPR's Mara Hoplamazian. It was part of a settlement agreement the company signed to resolve a suit brought by the Conservation Law Foundation and the Sierra Club. Granite Shore will also shut down coal-fired generators at Portsmouth's Schiller Station by the end of next year, though they haven't used coal since 2020. Schiller will now host battery storage, while Merrimack will get both a 100-megawatt solar array and battery storage."Even though you have all these things in common, you don't have that thing inside that goes, 'These are my people.'" On her new Rumble Strip episode, Erica Heilman goes in-depth with Kasey, who grew up as a boy in the Virginia Bible Belt—where "trans" wasn't even a concept. It's a deeply personal episode: childhood friendships; struggling to build a connection with Kasey's father, a man Kasey loved and admired; what it was like to have girls shower affection on "the cardboard cutout of the man I'd assumed I was"... As Heilman says, Kasey—now in VT—is still figuring it out, and talks openly what that's like.A symbol of "the trust and scrappiness that make rural life worthwhile": self-serve farmstands. For a growing number of small farms, they're kind of a necessity, writes Rachel Hellman in Seven Days: too remote to pay an employee to staff, but a vital way for a farm to keep revenues coming in. Especially, one farmer tells Hellman, since "people just want really easy access to food and to avoid going into really crowded stores" since Covid. The problem: Thefts are up, too (as the UV found out last summer). Hellman ends with a remarkable story about the aftermath of one incident in Craftsbury.“Only in Vermont can you walk up to a window and order a hot fudge sundae and 3 tons of wood pellets." How could you not run a press release (here via the Montpelier Bridge) containing that line? The spot in question is Montpelier's Dairy Creme, a go-to creemee stand in an old A&W in town. For nearly three decades it's been run by Cliff and Laurie Dodge and their kids (and grandkids). A few years back, Cliff, who worked for UPS, began selling wood pellets out of the store, too. Now Cliff and Laurie are ready to move on to other things, and the Dairy Creme is up for sale. The pellet gig is part of the package.Umm... Millers Run covered bridge. Box truck. Again. 'Nuff said.Really still life. You and I may never have heard of the Global Cement and Concrete Association’s "Concrete in Life" photo competition, but this year it drew some 21,000 entries. Striking black and white images, moody or dazzling colored ones, all capturing architecture, infrastructure, and daily life around the world. It might take some planning to visit Indonesia, Switzerland, or Mexico, home to the subjects of some of the category winners, but you can hop in your car to see the winning “urban concrete” photo: Owen Davies’ image of the old Armstrong Rubber building in New Haven. All credit to the photographers who captured so much flow and motion in such a rigid material.The Thursday Vordle. With a word from yesterday's Daybreak.
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Today at 5 pm, the Hood Museum presents Trinity University (San Antonio) film studies prof Patrick Keating and his lecture, “The Narrativization of Glamour in Film Noir”. Here's how they describe it: "In the 1940s, film noir borrowed from 1930s glamour photography to juxtapose photographs with text and define glamour in narrative terms as the culmination of a process of transformation."
At 5:30 pm today, Cover to COVER Books in WRJ presents Dartmouth paleoanthropologist Jeremy DeSilva, reading from and talking about his 2021 book, First Steps: How Upright Walking Made Us Human. In it, DeSilva argues that our way of moving on our feet doesn't just set us apart from other species—it's what, over the eons, made us human, opening up possibilities like freeing our arms and hands to make and creatively manipulate tools.
This evening at 6 (doors and food at 5:30), the Rumney Sessions at Fable Farm feature Strafford accordionist and pianist Jeremiah McLane and fiddler, singer, and foot percussionist Eric Boodman. Both are traditional music veterans and members of an array of high-end bands with devoted followings. They'll offer up an evening of traditional songs and tunes from North America and the British isles, as well as original compositions.
Also at 6, the Bradford (VT) Public Library screens Downstream: The Effects of Parental Incarceration, Corinth filmmaker Brad Salon's hourlong 2019 documentary about the issues that kids and their caregivers face after a parent goes to prison. The screening's in conjunction with a current library exhibit on making art within the prison system, and will be followed by discussion.
At 6:30 pm, the Howe Library and the Hanover Historical Society present Cyndi Bittinger, talking about the "Women of Webster Cottage". Bittinger, who teaches Vermont and women's history at Community College of Vermont, will talk about the women who lived in and preserved Hanover's Webster Cottage, built in 1780 and still open for tours. They don't have a spot on the plaque outside, which notes that both Daniel Webster and Henry Fowle Durant lived there; Bittinger will delve into who the women were and what they did.
Also at 6:30, the North Branch Nature Center is offering an online training session as part of its Amphibian Road Crossing program. It will cover both the natural science of frogs and amphibians and training in how to survey migration sites where amphibians cross roads, how to help them do so safely, and how to gather data to inform local conservation and transportation planning efforts. Via Zoom, register at the link for the link.
At 7 this evening, the Norwich Bookstore hosts Montpelier lawyer Bernie Lambek and his second novel, An Intent to Commit. The 2021 legal thriller centers around the controversy provoked by Montpelier High School's decision to fly a Black Lives Matter flag—and the kidnapping of an activist pursuing that cause. "Armchair legal eagles will have plenty to chew on here—detailed case histories, precedents, and courtroom maneuvers," Kirkus wrote. "But there is also enough personal drama to keep less civically obsessed readers engaged."
Also at 7, Hop Film is doing a free advance screening of Girls State, the new documentary by Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine. It premiered at Sundance and follows their 2020 film, Boys State, about teenagers in Texas charged with building a government; the high school girls in this case, some 600 of them, are from the length and breadth of Missouri, and the film follows seven of them as they grapple with both the politics—the events took place around the time of the leak about the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision on abortion—and the personal challenges of the moment. At the Loew, no tix needed.
Also at 7, Dartmouth profs Susannah Heschel and Tarek El-Ariss will give an online talk about their long collaboration—Heschel chairs the college's Jewish Studies Department and El-Ariss its Middle Eastern Studies Department—and how that work laid the basis for helping Dartmouth and the larger community "learn about and consider the future of Israel-Palestine following the recent conflict in the Middle East." You'll need to register for the Zoom link.
Also at 7, Artistree in S. Pomfret is offering an unusual opportunity: Comedian Vicki Ferentinos has been teaching a beginners' standup class there this winter, and tonight 10 of them are putting on a showcase. As Artistree writes, "The participants will need a supportive audience" as they give a sense of what they've learned—and just what goes into doing standup when you haven't done it before.
And anytime, check out what JAM's got for highlights this week: David Briggs giving a Hartford Historical Society-sponsored talk about the past, present, and possible futures of the Hotel Coolidge and its part of downtown White River Junction; film buffs Tristan Goding and Nick Arvizu turn their attention to Dune: Part Two; and Upper Valley Music Center's Faculty Showcase concert at the First Congregational Church of Lebanon earlier this month.
And for today...
Jazz near and far. We'll start with "near": Sunday Table—the quartet formed by four DHMC musicians: vocalist Grace Wallace, keyboardist Jason Pettus, bassist Eric Bronstein, and guitarist Tom Davis—upstairs at Dan & Whit's a couple of years ago but just posted by Chad Finer the other day, with
. And then to add some spring to your step, the "far" part brings together Spanish trombonist and singer Rita Payés with saxophonist Enrique Oliver and guitarist
Jaume Llombart on "Love Me or Leave Me".
See you tomorrow.
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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