Valley Futures

Late May.

Must be summer time, or close to it, here in Vermont.

Unchain the season of the mindless action movie blockbuster!

And what better way to usher it in than with “X Men”?

Here’s what some of our local REEL REVIEW consultants had to say about the latest X-Men film:

“The film is not going to prime the pump for date night,” notes Jed Kalkstein, “but X Men can’t be beat for a night with the lads.”

“X Men’s predictable cycle of heart-pumping action scenes made it feel like an interval workout from a seated position,” explains Terry Kellogg.

Translation? Two thumbs up.

And yes, Aussie uber man Hugh Jackman is back as James Logan/Wolverine, in the latest installment of the lavish and hugely profitable cartoon franchise.

How did James Logan become the tortured spike-sporting keen smelling anti-hero we know and love? The film purports to answer this question,

Gone are all of Wolverine’s mutant sidekicks from the first films. Instead, the focus of the story is Logan almost exclusively - we see Wolverine grow up in a culture of endless war, recruited by a mysterious character named Stryker to join an elite government killing team staffed by bad-ass dudes with special powers. We also meet Wolverine’s brother Victor/Saber Tooth, played by a menacing but surprisingly engaging Liev Schreiber, who gets all o the film’s few toss-away one liners. “You never call, you never write,” he says to his long lost brother just before they mix it up.

Back up a minute: After six years of retirement as a Rocky Mountain lumberjack (by day) bedding a bodacious schoolteacher (by night), Logan is dragged back into the fray by Stryker, complete with dog tags stamped “Wolverine,” as “weapon X,” tricked out with a bonded ademantium-reinforced skeleton. The excruciatingly painful process goes awry, but Logan is saved by the kindness of an old farming couple. (Once again, farmers save the day.)

From here, things get much more exciting, if confusing, and I’ll save the twists and turns for you, dear viewer, to discover. Suffice to say, this is a big, sprawling messy film - rough around the edges. The action scenes are sloppily shot, the narrative arc shoddily constructed, the special effects poorly assembled, the acting compellingly mediocre. Very few funny one liners, either - a staple of summer action blockbusters. And I really missed Patrick Stewart (wait until the very end) and Ian McKellan - their absence left a void that no one really filled here.

Worse, maybe, is the complete absence of any of the interesting ethical questions - how does any society handle individuals who differ from the rest of us? - that made the other X Men films marginally relevant to real life. Passing trash talk about “preemption” and “our country needs you” rhetoric doesn’t even ring, let alone ring true. And watching Logan and his bad boy broher tear down the neighborhood is fun, but grows old after a while.

The X Men franchise has had a good run - but it will take learning from this film’s shortcomings to revitalize the genre if and when they make the next one.

Most likely when.

Tags: Arts and Media by Rob Williams
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From the Twitterverse - some 140 character summaries of the Round Barn “Tweet Up” held last night. Thanks to Candace Page at the Burlington Free Press for her coverage, as well.

Signgal@roundbarnfarm Fantastic tweetup! I expected hors d oeuvres, you fed us dinner! With table linens and $1 ginger ales. Thank U!!!22 minutes ago from web

SigngalMet the @bobbin Mama’s at @roundbarnfarm last night, too.They sew, they craft, they make shopping bags out of t-shirts. Terrific!12 minutes ago from web

likebeer@roundbarnfarm If you think you can help with our wedding you can DM or email me what you have in mind, maybe you can cut me a deal?11 minutes ago from Tweetie in reply to roundbarnfarm

SigngalJesse, aka @chelseagreen, gave us the lowdown on how to us Twitter at the @roundbarnfarm Tweetup.He’s a good person to follow. #VT #BTV4 minutes ago from web

http://twitpic.com/63850 - crowd watching demo by @thebobbin (fabric recyling)about 10 hours ago from TwitPic

http://twitpic.com/637r5 - #VT Tweetup agenda… (food, IMO, better draw than ’social media’)about 10 hours ago from TwitPic

http://twitpic.com/637jy - Back from the #VT tweetup at Round Barn. The food line (I got there late)about 10 hours ago from TwitPic

Just got home from Round Barn Tweetup. My belly is full of great local food and my mind is inspired-one of my favorite combinations. Janiipeterson

tweeting up at the Round Barn in Waitsfield with other localvore tweeters. great local food, great music, wonderful peeps priruda

tweeting up at the Round Barn in Waitsfield with other localvore tweeters. great local food, great music, wonderful peeps feedmenow

http://twitpic.com/62sqp - nice turnout for the vt localvore tweetup - music, food, prizes & lots of tweeting the 2 story round barn … innkeepers

Here we are at the great Vermont locavore tweetup. The round barn farm is gorgeous! chelseagreen

Great Tweetup last night hosted by @roundbarnfarm!! Food was awesome! Thanks! Met some terrific folks and thought the format was inspired!
vtpcwizard Thu 28 May 06:26 via web

@roundbarnfarm So who ARE the hunky guys in your avatar? They ain’t you owners. ‘Fess up, please. We all want to know.

follownathan@roundbarnfarm - the tweetup was a smash! worked out perfectly for me and my journey! I look forward to staying in touch! I love #VTabout 7 hours ago from TweetDeck

edwardshepardrt: @hellosmalldog Thank you to @roundbarnfarm for an awesome gathering! Classiest tweetup ever. (I was there, it truly was fun!)about 8 hours ago from web

hellosmalldogThank you to @roundbarnfarm for an awesome gathering! Classiest tweetup ever. Also great to meet other #VT people & businesses!about 8 hours ago from web

north100RT @VermontCanoe: @roundbarnfarm We’re here. Serious food on the table from local farms & restaurants. Good live trio. Life is good. & yummyabout 8 hours ago from TweetDeck

JambutterThree cheers for Charlie (@roundbarnfarm), @hellosmalldog, @chelseagreen and @americanfbread for a great night at #VT tweetup. Great time!about 8 hours ago from Power Twitter

sryusenThanks 2 @roundbarnfarm for the amazing evening, @hellosmalldog for the fab goodies and 2 all for making me feel lucky to love where I live.about 9 hours ago from TweetDe

VTFlame@roundbarnfarm thanks so much for hosting - great to see old and new friends tooabout 9 hours ago from web in reply to roundbarnfarm

GrunbergHausVTMany thanks to @roundbarnfarm for an outstanding tweetup tonight. Very generous of you to share your beautiful facility.about 9 hours ago from web

north100Big thanks to @roundbarnfarm & all the folks who put together a great Vermont Localvore Tweetup event & to @cocodowley for the ride!about 9 hours ago from TweetDeck

SustainableComm@roundbarnfarm Thank you!!about 9 hours ago from web in reply to roundbarnfarm

DeepDishCreates@feedmenow Great chatting with you @roundbarnfarm Tweetup! Keep an eye out for: http://www.bakonvodka.com/about 9 hours ago from TweetDeck

likebeer@roundbarnfarm Had an amazing time at the Locavore Tweetup thanks for hosting it, met some very interesting Tweeps.about 9 hours ago from Tweetie in reply to roundbarnfarm

LifelineReaderthanks to the staff @hellosmalldog for providing computers for the tweetup @roundbarnfarm AND for answering my questions about my new I-Mac!about 9 hours ago from web

LifelineReaderJust met some real nice people at @roundbarnfarm localvore tweetup. @VermontCanoe @cocodowley @north100 and many other great tweeple.about 9 hours ago from web

Fiestavus@vtherbandsalad good to catch up with you guys at the @roundbarnfarm tweet-up, let’s do dinner SOONabout 10 hours ago from TwitterGadget

FiestavusThanks 2 @roundbarnfarm for the gr8 tweet-up, good to see the local tweeps #vt http://trunc.it/ac2babout 10 hours ago from TwitterGadget

north100The Vermont Localvore Tweetup @roundbarnfarm was just wonderful! Gorgeous setting, incredible food, & awesome ppl that make VT so special!about 10 hours ago from web

DeepDishCreates@vtexchange Great chatting with you on the way out the door @roundbarnfarm Tweetup! Next one: http://twtvite.com/d4ixbrabout 10 hours ago from TweetDeck

happyhollowvt@roundbarnfarm Thanks for a fun evening! Just joining the twitter world and learned lots. I missed the yak sausage, though, bummer!about 10 hours ago from web in reply to roundbarnfarm

callmelou@roundbarnfarm Had a wonderful time at tonight’s locavore tweetup! Thanks so much for hosting.about 10 hours ago from twhirl in reply to roundbarnfarm

amykirschnerhttp://twitpic.com/638lk - Lilacs still in bloom @roundbarnfarm in Waitsfield. GREAT localvore tweetup tonight!about 10 hours ago from TwitPic

VTExchangehttp://twitpic.com/638h2 - A foggy night @roundbarnfarm for localvore tweetupabout 10 hours ago from TwitPic

DeepDishCreates@roundbarnfarm GREAT Locavore Tweetup tonight - you’ve raised the bar for tweetups - thanks!about 10 hours ago from TweetDeck

VTExchangehttp://twitpic.com/638au - Great localvore tweetup @roundbarnfarm tonight. The agenda…about 10 hours ago from TwitPic

innkeepershttp://twitpic.com/634ev - just got to see the grounds @roundbarnfarm from the secret top of their silo… very cool #paiiabout 11 hours ago from TwitPic

MadmotionIs sorry to miss the @roundbarnfarm Tweet Up.about 11 hours ago from web

follownathanAt the @roundbarnfarm tweetup in #vt wearing dark flannel and black @TOMS shoes - 1st one to find me gets a free drink on me!about 12 hours ago from web

thisisjaceWishing I was able to make the Tweetup @roundbarnfarm, tonight. I’m at the next one, def!about 12 hours ago from web

mstonervt@roundbarnfarm Just landed SFO, thinking of Tweetup. Have a great time!about 12 hours ago from txt

AndreaLearned@roundbarnfarm, great tweetup! w/@monkeyhousemama @sryusen@kilgoreleslie. Who knew #vt has so many tweeters?about 12 hours ago from web

jkvt@roundbarnfarm any photos from the TweetUp for those of us still stuck at work?about 12 hours ago from web in reply to roundbarnfarm

augustfirstat Localvore Tweetup @roundbarnfarm. Great meal of fiddleheads, misty knoll chicken… Nice to see faces behind tweets! #btvabout 13 hours ago from web

laurzRT @theshorehaminn: Feeling quite sad about missing the big tweetup @roundbarnfarm. Can almost hear the fun from here. (Me too)about 13 hours ago from UberTwitter

JaneLindholmAt the TweetUp @roundbarnfarm in Warren. What a place! And as a Twitter neophyte (still), quite an event!about 13 hours ago from web

theshorehaminnFeeling quite sad about missing the big tweetup @roundbarnfarm. Can almost hear the fun from here.about 13 hours ago from TweetDeck

thebobbin@roundbarnfarm for the Tweet up. It’s so cool to meet the peeps behind the tweets!about 13 hours ago from Tweetie

BirdDivaKickin’ it at localvore tweetup @roundbarnfarm WOW!

hellosmalldog@roundbarnfarm tweetup! http://yfrog.com/0xt7ujabout 14 hours ago from Tweetie

VermontCanoe@roundbarnfarm We’re here. Serious food on the table from local farms and restaurants. Good live trio. Life is good..and yummy.about 14 hours ago from web in reply to roundbarnfarm

e_to_the_m@roundbarnfarm Good luck with the tweet-up tonight. Wish I could be there.about 14 hours ago from Tweetie in reply to roundbarnfarm

jacksonlatka@roundbarnfarm Wish I could be there. Sounds great!about 14 hours ago from web in reply to roundbarnfarm

innkeepershttp://twitpic.com/62pcf - just checked into Joslin room @roundbarnfarm - beautiful! check out the bath! about to check out their great …about 14 hours ago from TwitPic

swichi293Headed to the waitsfield #tweetup @roundbarnfarm #btvabout 15 hours ago from Tweetie

DeepDishCreatesHeading out to the Locavore Tweetup @roundbarnfarm. http://bit.ly/7p6hNabout 15 hours ago from TweetDeck

VoicesVTWhat does a healthy watershed mean 4 good food? Tell me 2nite @roundbarnfarm Tweetup! http://bit.ly/7p6hN #vtabout 17 hours ago from TwitterBerry

augustfirstHappily heading to the Valley tonight to meet up with locatweeetavores! @roundbarnfarm pingg.com http://bit.ly/169z03about 17 hours ago from bit.ly

Signgal@roundbarnfarm Fantastic tweetup! I expected hors d oeuvres, you fed us dinner! With table linens and $1 ginger ales. Thank U!!!22 minutes ago from web

SigngalMet the @bobbin Mama’s at @roundbarnfarm last night, too.They sew, they craft, they make shopping bags out of t-shirts. Terrific!12 minutes ago from web

likebeer@roundbarnfarm If you think you can help with our wedding you can DM or email me what you have in mind, maybe you can cut me a deal?11 minutes ago from Tweetie in reply to roundbarnfarm

SigngalJesse, aka @chelseagreen, gave us the lowdown on how to us Twitter at the @roundbarnfarm Tweetup.He’s a good person to follow. #VT #BTV4 minutes ago from web

Tags: Agriculture, Arts and Media, Business by Rob Williams
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Thanks to Bruce Jones for eleven years of wonderful acoustic music at the Valley Players Theater. Here’s a short video/audio snapshot of the Saturday, May 16, 2009 performance - Rani Arbo and Daisy Mayhem.

Another wonderful musical event in Mad River!

Tags: Arts and Media by Rob Williams
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Got Twitter? - Round Barn Chef Charlie Menard Hosts the Very First “Tweet Up” in Mad River Valley’s History

Ashton’s doing it.

Oprah’s doing it.

Britney’s doing it.

And more and more Vermonters are doing it.

The “it” in question is “Twitter,” of course, a new, popular and free Web 2.0 micro-blogging application that allows its users to build networks of “followers” who email each other 140 character messages about a whole range of topics of their choosing, ranging from the now-cliched “I had pancakes for breakfast – yum!” variety to breaking news about swine flu (“Hamthrax,” in one Twitter-led joke) and the latest local and national events (Seven Days journalist Shay Totten “tweeted” the entire legislative gay marriage hearing a few months ago, allowing his followers easy access to up-to-the-minute debates as they unfolded).

Critics are quick to call Twitter an epistemological train wreck, the latest example of a culture that has lost its mind to simplistic and silly trivialities. But Twitter users will tell you that the application is simply another fun and creative way to communicate, something the human animal never tires of doing.

One devoted Twitter user is Round Barn chef Charlie Menard (http://twitter.com/roundbarnfarm), who has organized the Mad River Valley’s very first “Tweet Up,” a fun foodie-driven event organized entirely through Twitter, to be held at the Round Barn on Wednesday, May 27 from 5-8 p.m.

“My interest in Twitter at first was pure curiosity,” explains Menard. “Once I started to find people with similar interests and to follow their tweets, I began to realize the power of community building that Twitter and social networking in general has.”

A “tweet” is simply a 140 character message send through Twitter. Popular “tweets” are “re-tweeted” by other Twitter users in their networks, amplifying the power of the message - in some cases, exponentially.

But of what value is Twitter to a Vermont chef?

“The Food community on Twitter is fantastic in general, and the Vermont “foody” presence is really amazing,” Menard explains. “You can get all sorts of news by following foodies—restaurant reviews, what a chef has just prepared for tonight’s special, what produce is coming out of gardens across the state, and of course the latest minute-by-minute news from events like the James Beard Awards.”

So what exactly is the purpose of a “Tweet Up”?

“The Tweet up is a mixer of sorts, an opportunity for our community to build and strengthen ties to our online neighbors, and a chance to meet the Tweeps behind the Tweets,” says Menard. “I know that there are some people that believe the future of Vermont is in its food. If we’re going to achieve that potential, we need to be a competitive presence in people’s lives and we also need to find a way to keep our young people in Vermont. I am truly inspired by the online community and I think that embracing the possibilities it offers will help us move forward.”

Find out more about Twitter at www.twitter.com.

Tags: Agriculture, Arts and Media, Business by Rob Williams
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“We suffer from a fiscal cancer,” explains U.S. Comptroller General David Walker. “It is growing within us. And if we do not treat it, it will have catastrophic consequences for our country.”

So begins I.O.U.S.A. – one of the most disturbing documentaries of the past year.

 

The film spotlights our nation’s mounting fiscal crisis – providing both a contemporary lens and historical context for understanding how today’s “debt-driven society” emerged, and what we might do to resolve one of the most intractable difficulties of our time.

“The facts aren’t liberal or conservative,” as one of the film’s observers, explains, “The facts aren’t Democrat or Republican.”

This is an issue that affects us all.

Begin with a question: how high is the federal debt?

Millions?

Billions?

Try 8.7 trillion dollars.

Just how much money is that?

One way to wrap your mind around the enormity of this number is to compare it with the United States’ GDP.

The federal debt, as a percentage of GDP (Gross Domestic Product), is 64%.

Put another way, the U.S. government is now borrowing 22 cents of every dollar it spends.

The film’s heroes are Americans working tirelessly to educate the country’s citizens about the nature of the crisis: the Concord Coalition, a think tank focusing on the fiscal crisis, concerned young people, politicians like Paul Tsongas, Ross Perot and Ron Paul (no mention of Ralph Nader, oddly). The villains? Gutless government officials seem to bear the brunt of the film’s quiet outrage.

I.O.U.S.A. suggests that the 21st century United States faces four serious deficits at this particular moment.

1. A Budget Deficit

In 1789, the national debt was $70 million dollars – 40% of the federal budget. The Founders worked quickly, the film suggests, to pay this down. A series of wars – Civil, Great, World War II – brought cycles of financial hardship to the federal government. During the last thirty years, the U.S. government has seen more than 30 annual budget deficits, and only five surpluses. But it was the Reagan years, oddly enough, given the “Morning in America- Government is Bad” rhetoric, that saw the federal budget deficit skyrocket, with a moment of sanity during the Clinton/Bob Rubin “go go” 1990s.

2. A Savings Deficit

This section opens with the brilliant “Saturday Night Live” skit mocking “saved money” (Steve Martin at his best – “Shouldn’t I buy stuff before I have the money”?) and focuses on Americans’ propensity to spend cash they don’t have. Citizens’ savings rate is the lowest it has been in decades, a result of our “live for today, easy credit, consumption-oriented” attitude. Is this a result of personal choice? The film suggests that a variety of forces are at play here: the collapse of a “sound money” supply and the Federal Reserve’s tendency to encourage enthusiastic paper money printing and debt-driven spending in the name of fighting inflation. The film channels Texas republican and maverick Ron Paul here, the champion of a strict/hard money policy, taking on Alan “irrational exuberance” Greenspan, the Federal Reserve chairman, in Congressional hearings.

3. A Balance of Payment/Trade Deficit

The U.S. is dead last among all nations if the world in terms of a “trade deficit.” Which is to say – the United States is buying more than we are selling, with foreign creditors carrying much of our borrowed debt. China, the country (along with Saudi Arabia and Israel) with whom the U.S. has a special relationship, is the second largest holder of U.S. T-Bills, and makes all of our stuff in their factories, saving us the trouble of doing little more than buying their manufactured goods. Need I say more?

4. A Leadership Deficit

So – we owe roughly $70,000 per American family in debt, according to Seymour Hersh’s “National Debt Clock.” And, while the deficit doubled on Mr. Bush’s watch (such as it was), it is too easy to blame one party or another for a systemic and long-term problem that has a variety of roots: see the very heart of our national banking system, for example, and our own personal predilections.

As this crisis’ “toxic mix” deepens – entering 2009, we’re staring a $10 trillion federal debt in the face - what can we do?

As individuals, we can pay down our own personal debts, stop spending money we don’t have, SAVE money (huh?), do more with less, explore local currencies, support local and employee-owned businesses, and explore other financial alternatives to the current status quo, including living within our means. Easier said than done, of course.

At the national level? Full disclosure: I’m a secessionist who believes that the U.S. Empire is too deeply broken to fix. The Roman Empire fell, the film suggests, for three reasons: moral decay, imperial overstretch, and domestic financial collapse. No easy answers here, especially because elite lending classes (read: the rich and powerful) have figured out how to game the system to their best advantage, leaving the rest of us poor slobs holding the “debt bag” and wondering: what the heck is going on?

I.O.U.S.A. helps to answer this very important question.

Tags: Arts and Media, Land Bank, Local Currency by Rob Williams
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In director Stephen Daldry’s film “The Reader,” a fifteen-year-old boy named Michael Berg (David Kross) growing up in post-WW II Germany finds himself in lust with an attractive if mysterious thirty-six-year old woman, Hanna Schmitz (Kate Winslett, in an Oscar winning performance).

By day, Berg is a high school student and Schmitz a tram conductress. By evening, the two are lovers who strike up an unusual relationship, one in which Michael finds himself reading the classics – D. H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Anton Chekov’s The Lady With The Little Dog, Homer’s The Odyssey - to Hanna, who loves to be read to. “Let’s change the order, kid,” she says early on. “First you read to me, and then we make love.” Literature and lust define their secretive relationship, with the occasional bicycle ride into the summer countryside, paid for by Berg’s sale of his stamp collection.

But there is much more to this story.

The film is told as a series of flashbacks, of sorts.

We see an older Michael Berg, six years down the road, in law school at Heidelberg, in which he attends the trial of six former Auschwitz guards who allowed Jewish women in the camp to burn to death. One of the guards turns out to be Hanna, and Berg discovers that she is illiterate, and had the prisoners read to her. She is scapegoated for the crimes of the guards, and, accepting her fate, is sentenced to life in prison, while Berg refuses to visit her, ashamed of their past together.

As an adult, Berg (played by Ralph Fiennes) marries, has a daughter, but remains emotionally distant. He discovers the books he read to Hannah in his youth, and dictates their contents into a tape recorder, sending the tapes to Hanna in prison, who uses them to teach herself how to read. Intense, yes. And the film’s climax, which I won’t reveal here, is even more so.

Neither of the two main characters is all that likeable in this film, and the second half of the story unfolds too quickly for the viewer to feel any sense of sympathy for the situations our two protagonist find themselves in. But Winslett is solid in this story of truth, reconciliation, and justice, and Fiennes more than holds his own. And, while not a film for the faint of heart, “The Reader,” like “Lives of Others” and other historically contextualized films that explore the boundaries of human relationships under extreme conditions, is worth the time.

Tags: Arts and Media by Rob Williams
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For several months, our 16-year-old neighbor Dan O’Shaughnessy has been crafting a magnificent 500 tap sugaring operation in the woods on and adjacent to our little 3 acree homestead property - historically, a rich area full of maples ripe for tapping. Two weeks ago, the sugaring began in earnest, and Dan has already collected more than 2,000 gallons of sap, boiling off the excess for more than fifty gallons of the sweet stuff.

It is a wonderful success story - Dan is a focused and hard-working young dude with a vision, he’s had plenty of support from a whole extended family and community here in Mad River, and even the Harwood Union High School up the road a few miles is giving him some academic credit for his work after school out in the land.
In a praiseworthy article, the New York Post just celebrated our local sugarmakers, in a recent article about "Sugaring," profiling both Dave and Paul Hartshorn and Dan’s operations. It’s sugaring time! Here’s a quick 6 minute look at Dan’s whole operation…

Tags: Agriculture, Arts and Media, Business by Rob Williams
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What can a Vermonter possibly do, when confronted with the AIG bonus scandal, global economic meltdown, and the uniquely dirty pleasure that is mud season?

Escape to the movies, of course.

And, in the “art mirrors life” department, there is no finer new movie than director Tony Gilroy’s “Duplicity.” This fun if flawed film marks a revival of the old “couples caper” genre (think Hepburn and Grant) and features two of Hollywood’s most bankable stars – Julia Roberts and Clive Owen – surrounded by a scene-stealing supporting cast.

In a nutshell – Ray Koval (Owen) and Claire Stenwick (Roberts) are two retired intelligence agents who’ve transferred their skills to the world of corporate espionage. The game – competing (or are they cooperating?) to steal secret data for a new and stunningly profitable product (a substance that cures male pattern baldness – no joke) while playing off two rival corporations against one another. Veteran actors Paul Giamatti (of “John Adams” fame) and Tom Wilkinson (“Michael Collins”) fill out the film as the antagonistic CEOs of the two rival corporations, and the movie’s opening, featuring a “slow mo” airport tarmac scene in which the two execs try to beat the snot out of each other – is (almost) worth the price of admission.

Back to the game. The film is told in a series of flashbacks shot in exotic locations – Dubai, London, Rome, New York, and, um, Cleveland – moments in which corporate spies Ray and Claire rendezvous for logistical strategizing and sexual refueling. The fun comes when we quickly learn that neither one of them entirely trusts the other to hold to their agreed-upon evolving plan. Each rendezvous scene is a variation on the same theme, in which the two characters repeat lines of similar banter, verbally joust with one another, and then hop in the sack…or don’t. Are they working together? Will one double-cross the other? How will the story end?

There are two problems with the film, one small, the other not so much. The first comes in the film’s climax – after close to two hours of “cat and mouse” fun, the script throws the audience a giant curve ball – which sucks the wind out of the story faster than you can say “AIG bailout scam.” I won’t ruin it for you here, other than to say, in art as well as life, one corporation emerges as the ultimate victor uber alles.

The second and much bigger problem is the almost complete lack of frisson between Roberts and Owen, odd for such two physically attractive and gifted actors. Roberts, who looks a bit tired on camera, goes through the motions of playing the part of the sexy double agent, but never really lights up the screen, even when engaged in amorous acts with Mr. Owen. There is a moment at film’s midpoint when, in one very brief scene, she slips into “Mystic Pizza/Pretty Woman” mode – bright eyed, with her dazzling smile, and I was reminded of just how winsome a character she can play. And anyone who has seen “Erin Brokovich” knows how good a dramatic actress she can be. The problem here seems to be direction – she never really “inhabits” her character, and fifteen minutes into the film, I gave up on her.

Owen, meanwhile, looks good in a suit and designer sunglasses, but delivers most of his lines with the assuredness of someone who has just walked onto the set from a somewhat frustrating chess match not sure if he won or not. Maybe this is the point in a caper film, but the results, when combined with Ms. Roberts’ lack of engagement, are, well, disengaging.

As a story that illuminates the high-stakes cutthroat world of corporate espionage, “Duplicity” has tremendous potential, and there are moments of celluloid magic, scenes involving supporting actors Giamatti and Wilkinson. But as a “couples caper” film, it feels flat.

Maybe, in part, this is because in art, as well in real life, duplicitous corporations are having their way with us at the moment, and it doesn’t feel all that good.

Tags: Arts and Media by Rob Williams
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“Trainspotting” director Danny Boyle’s new film, “Slumdog Millionaire,” just won the 2008 Oscar for best picture, and with good reason. Set in the slums of modern India, “Slumdog Millionaire” is a frenetic tour de force –rhythmic, fast-paced, visually arresting, and ultimately hopeful. “I knew the answers,” says the film’s protagonist, Indian Muslim Jamal Malik, whom we see being tortured in the film’s opening moments. Turns out, he’s just won a big pile of rupees on “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.” one of India’s hottest TV game shows. All good, right?

Nope. Those in authority (including the game show host) think he cheated his way to the answers, and punish him to determine how he knows what he knows.

In the film, Jamal’s life story is told in a series of flashbacks touching on seminal moments from his impoverished life in the Indian slums. We see a young Jamal plunge himself into a pile of outhouse waste, watch as his mother is killed in the Hindu-on-Muslim violence of a local riot, view the forced maiming and blinding of young poor Indian kids to attract much-needed rupees by opportunistic adults, and witness human conflagration and abject poverty of the most gut-wrenching sort. We also see a chance encounter between Jamal and a young girl, Lakita, blossom into a friendship, and then romance – in true Hollywood/ Bollywood fashion.

How “Slumdog” plays out is worth the watching, and I won’t give anything away here. As a director, Boyle’s genius is not to preach, but rather to rub together the most disturbing dialectical sets of images (rich versus poor, Western versus Indian, Hindu versus Muslim, kid versus adult) with the most uplifting glimpses of what could be, given a bit of chance, no small measure of luck, and the star-crossed circumstances of fate. In doing so, Boyle personalizes one individual’s chance “rags to raja” story, mixes it with a whole heap of wrinkles, twists and turns thrown in for good measure, and paints a captivating and visually arresting film.

And there are a deeper cross-cultural fissures here, too, captured in the fierce and ongoing global online debates about the movie and its significance. When “Slumdog Millionaire” won the Oscar last month for Best Picture, “residents of Mumbai’s slums celebrated,” explains one online pundit. “In contrast, Indian activists and intellectuals who have decried the movie for its portrayal of poverty and violence and its alleged exploitation of child actors and slum dwellers lamented the victory, claiming that the movie is a flawed Western interpretation of Mumbai.” “This claim, however,” the writer concludes, “overlooks both the film’s basic faithfulness to the novel by Indian diplomat Vikas Swarup on which it is based, and Bollywood’s own tradition of uplifting stories.”

Fair enough. And for American audiences, the film is sure to continue the debate about the roots and nature of global poverty and the excesses of this thing called “globalization” in its current incarnation. Ultimately, “Slumdog Millionaire” is a story that strikes multiple chords with American audiences at a time of economic meltdown and tremendous uncertainty about our future.

Tags: Arts and Media by Rob Williams
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Nothing Hardly Ever Happens In Colbyville, Vermont
Essays by Peter Miller

Most Vermonters who know of Colbyville-based Peter Miller and his work recognize him as the photographer who has captured black and white slices of a vanishing cross-section of our Green Mountain communities. His visually arresting photos, including a famous one of Fred Tuttle holding a photo of his father (and so on), have been captured in a number of books: Vermont People, Vermont Farm Women, and most recently, Vermont Gathering Places. Miller’s iconic photography has so worked its way into Vermont’s collective imagination that he was named Vermonter of the Year in 2006 by the Vermont State Legislature.

What many may not know about Peter Miller, however, is that the fellow is a fine writer, first honing his craft with LIFE magazine during the 1950s and 1960s, and then combining wordsmithing and shutterbugging ever since. And one couldn’t do better for an introduction to Miller’s writing than his new collection of essays entitled Nothing Hardly Ever Happens In Colbyville, Vermont.

First things first. Where is Colbyville?

Stand in the south corner of Waterbury Center’s Ben and Jerry’s parking lot, and toss a stone down the hill.

Bingo. You’ve struck the place, and perhaps, Miller’s house, in the process. Who new? Isn’t that Waterbury?

And this is a big theme in Miller’s writing – the ways in which “traditional” Vermont (poor, homespun, rural, hardscrabble – call it what you will) has been upstaged and gentrified by the imposition of “newer” Vermont, and the creative tensions that have resulted from this process. Consider Chunky Monkey. Ben and Jerry’s ice cream put Vermont on the map globally as an ice cream destination, made Messrs. B and J a mint, and forever cemented the Holstein in the popular public imagination as Vermont’s bovine of choice, particularly for milking, thanks to artist Woody Jackson’s iconic (I can’t get enough of that word) artistry on the side of ever one of those little pints. But Ben and Jerry’s arrival, of course, forever changed the destiny of little Colbyville, and, Miller subtly suggests, this story is perhaps a smaller metaphor for a much larger Vermont experience these past five decades or so, as tiny, rural, backwoods Green Mountain communities, comprised of hunters, fishers, trappers, farmers, loggers, and the like - has moved (or been dragged) into the modern (and post-modern age).

“Colbyville exists for two reasons,” writes Miller. “Its is beside the only road that heads north to Stowe, and there were two falls on Thatcher Brook, which is across the road from my house.” In Miller’s geographic musings, he underscores how quickly Vermont, in the latter half of the twentieth century, has moved from rural subsistence to global retail (at least, in some pockets of the state), as the tourism, skiing, recreational and related industries brought visitors, money and new businesses into play.

And yes, Miller is not entirely happy about all of this – and his photographs and essays reflect an almost-elegiac and sometimes very humorous “take” on this state of affairs. In one essay, he writes about discovering a suicide site while woodcock hunting. In another, he muses about the passing of Fred Tuttle, the famous “Man With A Plan” Vermonter’s funeral becoming a lens through which Miller considers the unique regionalism of Vermont’s rural heritage. In one of his best essays, one rejected by Vermont Life (too provocative, no doubt), entitled “I Poach: Confessions of a Duck Hunting Addict Gone Astray,” Miller writes of illegally hunting on a neighbor’s land with a friend, and their attempts to elude a gamekeeper, and I felt for several pages like I was Danny, the “champion of the world,” out with my father furtively tracking elusive wild game. My favorite essay, “Dear Folks At Orvis Repair,” recounts how Miller broke his fishing rod in an encounter with a…well, you gotta read the essay to find out what happens.

And that’s a big part of the fun in reading Miller – his essays are full of colorful characters, dry wit, and some not-so-subtle digs at what Vermont has become, even as he celebrates the Vermont that once was, still is, and will no doubt be again.

Tags: Arts and Media by Rob Williams
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