Valley Futures

Submitted by Stan Ward and Joshua Schwartz

MRV/UVM Partnership
Speaker: Joshua Schwartz
4th annual partnership with UVM’s Local Community Initiatives (LCI) service-learning course, coordinated by the Mad River Valley Planning District
9/19 kick-off event at the Waitsfield Church
The course allows undergraduate and graduate students to take an active role in local projects addressing a variety of essential community issues in the MRV
The four projects selected for this edition of the LCI course: MRV Economic Development Study, MRV Electric Vehicle Car Share Analysis, MRV Arts Study & MRV Forests for the Future Project

MRV EV
Speaker: Wendy Cox
exploring the concept of a MRV electric car-car share program in conjunction with Norwich University and Middlebury College
slogan: Charging the Valley’s Future
working with UVM’s Local Community Initiatives course to Research similar electric car share systems in existence in the US or abroad;
Research and analyze financing, operation and charging infrastructure options;
Review viability of a MRV all-electric car share system; and
Recommend options to the MRV EV group for best practices and path forward.
had a display at the Bridge Street Party
Wendy has been attending the State’s electric vehicle brown bag events
working with Bruce Bentley at GMP to install one of the Plug’n Go Stations in the MRV

Pain Mound
Speaker: Eric Brattstrom
Eric and Kyle installed a woody biomass composting mound system at their home this summer with the help of Yestermorrow
Located below their chicken coop
Developed in conjunction with Gaelan Brown of Compostpower.org

CITTASLOW
Speaker: Susan Klein, MRV Chamber of Commerce
offshoot of “Slow Food”
means “Slow City” in Italian
only three towns designated in the USA, all in California
could be first on the East Coast
promote travel to the valley because of local focus and programs, marketing of what we do
formed a citizens committee, Susan Klein, Gene Fialkoff, Helen Whybrow, Adam Greshin, Karen W
50 page application, need to meet 50% of criteria, we meet 80% of criteria already
organization is pushing us hard as MRV perfect fit
job creation in Austria with this, 60 new jobs in one town
150 Cittaslow towns in Europe
Cittaslow designation is for communities which have *already* met the criteria, not ones working towards it.
exchange between Cittaslow communities – possible Rotary connection
work on tourism initiatives together to go to other Cittaslow communities around the world
group meeting being
next meeting: Sept 25 @ 1:30pm @ Wait House

FRONT PORCH FORUM
Speaker: Stan Ward, Joshua Schwartz
Front Porch Forum recently launched in Fayston, Waitsfield, Warren. Approaching 100 people in Warren and Waitsfield, around 50 so far in Fayston.
Front Porch Forum (FPF) now available through the the Mad River Valley Watershed and neighboring communities: Warren, Fayston, Waitsfield, Duxbury, Moretown, Middlesex, Waterbury, and more.
FPF in approximately 80 towns in Vermont.
Usual price of one time set-up charge of $2500 for a new community. After that revenue for FPF comes from advertising. Discounted price for the three MRV towns at $5000. Funding to meet obligation: $2500 granted from New England Grass Roots Environmental Fund by MRVPD/VFN, Town of Warren committed $500, Town of Waitsfield committed $500. Town of Fayston meeting scheduled. Rotary meeting scheduled.
Question: Can a non-profit post an event as a regular posting. Answer: Yes. Specific example of posting the Mad Dash coming up this weekend.
Discussion of third party moderation of Forums by Front Porch Forum moderators.
Discussion of connecting across town lines, that is, Mad River Valley wide information. FPF philosophy is to target smallest geographical size that has a clear identity to foster meaningful neighbor-to-neighbor connections, typically not more than 600-800 households.
ways to post across town lines: volunteers who live in different town can cross post, pay to be able to join forums at a cost of $10/month per forum.
Question: What about emergency situations? Answer: In Moretown they were getting new FPF e-newsletters 3-4 times per day during the Irene response. Right now they receive 3-4 per week.
Comment: I live in Waitsfield, but the FPF staff noticed that I live in an area where I am surrounded by Moretown, so I was invited to join the Moretown FPF, too.

MAD RIVER PATH
Speaker: Will Flender, Eexcutive Director of Mad River Path
17th annual Mad Dash this coming weekend: 5K, 10K, kids run
Mad River Path is raffling tickets for SIPtemberFest. This event is sold out.

MRV TRAILS COLLABORATIVE
Speaker: Joshua Schwartz
Projects
Inventory of trails
New Mad River Valley Trail Map. Great new map, last updated in 2004. Purchase at Chamber $5 for paper foldable, $12 for laminated for wall hanging. Benefit: All map data held by MRV Trail sCollaborative. Mad River Glen and Ole’s able to get GPS data from this project and are both now able to create detailed maps. MRG creating hiking trail map, Ole’s detailed ski trail map.
Working with Chamber to update recreation trails on www.madrivervalley.com
Maintenance and improvement of trails. Applied for VYCC to do work: 16 weeks of work done in summer 2012 including projects at Chase Brook Forest, Blueberry Lake, Scrag Town Forest, Catamount Trail, etc. Four weeks of trail work queued up for next summer

EVENTS/INVITATIONS
Susan and Karl Klein have invited people to an Open House at their home to view their Suncommon installation. Refreshments will be served. 10/6, 2-3:30, at 1439 Kew Vasseur Rd, Fayston.
Livingstone Homestead Rebuild – Number Nine Road, MRVAS funding

Tags: Announcements, Arts and Media, Energy, Transportation, Uncategorized by Joshua Schwartz
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As a big fan of director Ridley Scott, I have been looking forward to his summer 2010 release of “Robin Hood” with much anticipation.

What’s not to like? I thought.

All Hollywood summer action movie ingredients look to be cued up.

An epic cast: Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, William Hurt, and Max Von Sudow among them.

A classic mythic character: Hollywood has done more than thirty versions of the famous English archer/outlaw, most recently a bare-bottomed Kevin Costner re-make, and, of course, Carey Elwes’ “Robin Hood: Men In Tights”.

Epic sets as backdrops.

Battle scenes galore.

And the kicker?

One of acoustic music’s favorite live musicians, Alan Doyle of Newfoundland party boy band “Great Big Sea,” playing one of Robin’s “merry men” in a key supporting role as Robin’s mando-sporting arrow-shooting bard. (Two thumbs up for Doyle, who performs admirably.)

Needless to say, I went into the theater sharpening my arrows.

Yes yes, most imperial film critics already have panned the Scott’s movie. Too long! Too convoluted! Too complicated! Too historically inaccurate! Too much a “prequel”! (Which it very much is – the film’s last scene features a text screen that reads “And so the legend begins.”)

Clearly, the critics didn’t receive the memo. Dudes, remember? Summer movie season. We want escapist entertainment. And Scott delivers, albeit unevenly.

Most critics, moreover, dismiss Scott’s film as a sort of “Gladiator in Jerkins” remake (Scott directing Crowe a few years back for Maximus Oscar glory).

I couldn’t disagree more.

In “Robin Hood,” Scott replaces the expansive desert setting of imperial Rome with the dirtier and more intimate landscape of the 12th century English medieval feudal countryside. True, we get a few gorgeous aerial shots of the forest, the coast (complete with epic French sea-borne invasion footage), and one incredible scene of Richard the Lionhearted’s naval convoy sailing up the Thames, but Scott wisely keeps us mostly in the woods, where Robin Hood belongs.

Instead of “Gladiator” or “Braveheart,” Scott’s film is more reminiscent of Shekar Kapur’s remarkable film “Elizabeth,” featuring Oscar winner Cate Blanchett as the woman who transforms herself from naïve girl to powerful queen. One of the best actresses in the business, Blanchett’s is back in “Robin Hood,” and she is mesmerizing as (Maid) Marian Loxley, the earthy yet regal wife of absentee landlord Robert Loxley, who is off fighting the Crusades with King Richard.

Like much of 12th century England, the shire of Nottingham is beset by roving bands of teen hoods and the unjust taxation policies of the newly installed King John (think Joaquin Phoenix’s Commodus on extra estrogen.)

The way-too-serious Russell Crowe’s Robin Longstride, meanwhile, returns from the Crusades and delivers the dead Loxley’s sword to Marian disguised as Loxley himself. At her manor, he finds his equal in Marian, as well as uncovering information about his own past. (In a series of super-contrived flashbacks, we learn that Longstride’s father was a political radical whose dissent and subsequent execution set the stage for 1215 and the Magna Carta. No kidding.)

The smoldering sexual tension between Marian and Robin is refreshingly slow to develop, along with some good laughs with the merry men along the way. Alas, Crowe plays Robin too straight, leaving Blanchett to really carry the film, helped along by her aging father (played with aplomb by Max Von Sydow, who steals every scene he is in).

Back in London, meanwhile, political intrigue abounds. As with “Elizabeth,” a double agent wangles his way into the chancellor’s seat, even as he plots with the French to divide England and invade, helped along by callow King John’s hubristic alienation of the country’s noblemen. How Scott weaves all these elements together, I leave for you to discover.

Suffice to say, the cinematography, horseplay, and excitement made me want to smash my smart phone, take up my bow and quiver, and retire to the woods to eat, drink, dance, and make merry.

Now THAT’s pure summer entertainment.

Tags: Arts and Media by Rob Williams
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Every May, I turn off my thinking brain and go to the movies.

Why?

May marks the beginning of Hollywood’s summer season – action blockbuster time.

And I had high hopes for “Iron Man 2,” based on advance reviews.

With a musical score spotlighting AC DC and the Clash, and an all-star cast featuring Robert Downey Jr., Mickey Rourke, Don Cheadle, Gwyneth Paltrow, Samuel L. Jackson, and – be still my heart – Scarlett Johansson. ‘Nuf said.

I know what you’re thinking. Anyone can see from the film’s trailer that “Iron Man 2” deploys every Hollywood industry stereotype and clichéd trope in the book: machismo on ‘roids, fast cars, stunts out the yinger, CGI overkill, curvaceous coffee-table babes, gratuitous cartoon violence, U.S. imperial dogma (read: the world is drop-dead dangerous and the best defense is a good offense) disguised as escapism.

The whole silly enchilada.

But who cares?

It’s summer time at the movies.

That said, I want U.S. imperial summer action fare – as mindless as it is – to be GOOD, damn it.

And, early on in the film, there were signs of promise.

Scarlett Johansson, for instance. Did I mention her already?

Garry Shandling, while not as eye-candy appealing as the actress I just mentioned above, does a passable job as the villain, too.

And, to be clear, Robert Downey Jr. carries the film as best as he can. Downey is an actor who does tongue-in-cheek camera hamming better than anyone in Hollywood. He plays bezillionaire playboy Tony “Iron Man” Stark, America’s #1 nuclear deterrent, with witty irony and a feeling, in this film, that his self-absorbed snarky narcissism is always on the verge of being swallowed by his own mortality. “I’ve successfully privatized world peace,” he humorously boasts in front of a Senate Armed Forces subcommittee, and then, a few moments later, confronts death-by-body suit full in the face. Favorite visual moment? Iron Man as the “Change Obama” icon on a poster that Stark hangs in his sumptuous bar. Sometimes Hollywood gets it right.

But alas, “Iron Man 2” is beset with casting and narrative problems, and they all materialize after the first fifteen minutes (which features an action scene at Monaco Grand Prix that is absolutely riveting).

Problem #1: Mickey Rourke. Magnetic in the film “Wrestler,” Rourke plays Ivan Vanko (a.k.a “Whiplash”), a Russian with metallic teeth and a grudge against Stark for causing the death of Vanko’s father. “If you can make God bleed,” Vanko says, “you can get people to cease to believe in him.” So far, so good. After a gripping initial confrontation between Whiplash and Iron Man at Monaco, though, the film relegates Vanko to little more than a computer programmer for – sigh – CGI-powered droid ‘bots, which are about as interesting as Stark love interest Pepper Potts’ (Gwyneth Paltrow) on-the-phone biz-yak convos in this film (though her verbal jousting with Stark is passably fun.) Why, in God’s good name, would you cast Mickey Rourke as potentially the coolest bad guy since Heath Ledger’s Joker, and then stick him in a white room in front of a laptop for the bulk of the movie? Nyet nyet nyet.

Problem #2: Don Cheadle is cast as Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes in the sequel. Big mistake. They should’ve stuck with Terrence Howard (See the original “Iron Man”), who is much less earnest and much more fun than Cheadle, and looks reasonably convincing in the Iron Man suit. Cheadle just looks plain silly, unlike Downey, who has figured out how to ham it up a bit. (Note to the casting department – replace Don Cheadle with Samuel L. Jackson – who plays Nick Fury in what is almost a cameo appearance) for the three-quel).

Problem #3: Scarlett Johansson. OK, so she’s a babe who speaks four languages in the film and wears a black jump suit as “Black Widow.” But she’s all business, to the point where she doesn’t even crack a hint of a smile the entire film. A shame. And, by the time she does bust out the black latex as Black Widow, it is only to flatten an entire room full of – brace yourself – middle-aged and balding security guards. Say what? Now, if Black Widow had gone up against Whiplash, with help from Iron Man…well, you get the idea. Another wasted set of narrative opportunities.

I really hope they give “Iron Man 2” director Justin Theroux the opportunity to direct a third “Iron Man” installment, so the man can redeem himself.

Sure, this film will drag in gajillions of dollars at the box office.

But for me, it will always remain “Iron Man, Part Duh.”

Tags: Arts and Media by Rob Williams
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He has been called “the crown prince of the New Folk Movement” by Rolling Stone magazine.

He has toured all over the world for more than two decades.

His songs have been recorded by a wide range of musical artists in a diverse variety of genres.

And, after years of dangling carrots in front of him, our own Mad River Valley folk music impresario Bruce Jones, visionary founder of the Valley Acoustic Showcase, has finally convinced John Gorka to come and play at the Valley Player’s theater on Sunday night, May 16.

How good a songwriter and performer is John Gorka?

“Listening to John Gorka sing, one can get goosebumps all over,” observes The New York Times. “There are many reasons – fresh lyrics, a stunning emotional baritone voice, his twisted humor – but to focus on one limits the experience.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself. Check him out at www.johngorka.com.

I’ve listened to John Gorka for years, and seen him perform at festivals and venues all over the country. I never grow tired of the experience.

I think of Gorka as the Stephen Wright of folk music. He is wickedly funny in the most understated of ways, and almost deadpan on stage, but when he opens his mouth to sing, his voice – by turns haunting, melancholic, and wryly witty – captures the whole universe of human emotions in keenly observed turns of phrase. His mojo is hard to describe, really – Gorka must be heard to be believed.

And his writing is truly unique. Perhaps his most famous ballad is an old tune called “I’m from New Jersey,” in which he sings of the promise and peril of being a denizen of the Garden State.

A sampling:

I’m from New Jersey / It’s like Ohio
Only more so / imagine that.
Girls from New Jersey have this great big hair/
They’re found in shopping malls / I will take you there.

What makes Gorka a gifted songwriter is his ability completely empathize with his subject. He sings on a wide range of topics: war, love, peace, lust, and the often-wrenching changes the world brings to the unsuspecting, as is the case with one of his most powerful tunes, called “Houses in the Fields” (which I’ve heard him play on both the guitar and the piano):

They’re growing houses in the fields between the towns/
And the Starlight Drive-In Movie is closing down/
The road has gone to the way it was before/
And spaces won’t be spaces anymore.

His newest CD, entitled “So Dark You See,” delivers more of his trademark wit and wisdom voiced with his remarkable delivery. Only Gorka would dare to put an old Robert Burns poem to music, deliver an old Utah Phillips classic cover called “I Think Of You,” and then turn around and throw down a moving meditation on growing up in “Ignorance and Privilege,” in which he sings of the sacrifices Depression Era parents made for their sometimes-unappreciative progeny.

And if this review doesn’t convince you to see Gorka live, Bruce Jones has invited local up-and-comer Nikki Matheson to open the evening. Matheson has just finished recording a beautiful new CD entitled “Invisible Angel,” a project she started eight years ago while living in Paris, and has just finished with Vermont uber-producer Colin McCaffrey. You can listen to her at www.nikkimatheson.com.)

Two fabulous performers in our Valley on one spring evening.

Don’t miss it.

Tags: Announcements, Arts and Media by Rob Williams
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Tell me if this sounds familiar.

U.S. officials want to go to war by invading another country.

Only problem? They don’t have a compelling reason.

So – they make one up by manufacturing “intelligence” and passing it off to U.S. “news” outlets, who dutifully report it as fact.

Nah.

Only in the movies, right?

You’re in luck.

High octane director Paul Greenglass (United 93 and the Bourne trilogy) teams up with Hollywood hot shot Matt Damon in a new “ripped from yesterday’s headlines” thriller that takes aim at the still-unanswered questions surrounding the Iraqi government’s alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction back in 2002.

Greenglass bases “Green Zone” very loosely on author Rajiv Chandrasekaran’s provocative and under-appreciated book The Green Zone: Imperial Life In The Emerald City, which painted an eye-opening picture of the plush pleasures that marked life for the U.S. imperial “worker bees” working to “build a new and more democratic” Iraq. But, in the interest of providing “getting butts in seats” entertainment, Greenglass takes tremendous liberties, shifting away from a focus on how U.S. Imperial elites transformed a once-sovereign nation into a giant military playground to protect U.S. geostrategic energy interests, complete with a dozen “enduring” (read “permanent”) bases and the gargantuan Bagdhad-based U.S. embassy, the biggest the world has ever seen – and towards the eye-opening journey of one honest U.S. officer (Matt Damon) who discovers that (brace yourself) the U.S. government lied its way into Iraq. “I came to find weapons and save lives,” he exclaims at one point. “I didn’t find shit!”

That’s about the size of it.

Greenglass’ timing of “Green Zone’s” spring 2010 release might be near-perfect, given that this month marks the 8-year-anniversary of the U.S. government’s invasion and occupation of modern Mesopotamia, with its enormous supply of fossil fuel energy reserves and convenient enemy-de-jour, Saddam Hussein (once a U.S. ally fighting Iranian Islamic fundamentalists back in the 1980s.)

Except for one thing.

Iraq, in the words of unembedded Middle Eastern independent journalist Dar Jamail, has become America’s “forgotten war,” all but gone from the coverage of what passes for “news” in U.S. mainstream media outlets. And yet, here is a major director and Hollywood actor (known for his progressive politics) re-visiting Iraq and the occupation’s opening moments. This, for me, was perhaps the most interesting twist in screening Green Zone, almost as if Hollywood has relegated the Iraq war (still very much in play) to the silver screen, history, and cultural memory, even as Greenglass, in interviews, states his hope that his film will revive an interest in Iraq that has flagged in recent months.

And Greenglass’ fictionalized story, told in his trademark compellingly disorienting “shaky-cam” style of quick-cut edits, tight camera work, and whip pans (heck, remove Damon’s G.I. garb, and we might as well be watching Bourne) is old news to any movie watcher who was awake and paying attention, as a citizen of our once-republic, to the fierce debates that raged throughout the years of the Bush/Cheney regime.

Remember?

When the U.S. government justified its post-911 mission of “Operation Iraq Liberation (OIL)”(I mean, “Freedom”) on the allegation that Saddam Hussein’s government possessed “weapons of mass destruction,” despite U.N. weapons inspectors’ (Hans Blix, Scott Ritter etc.) repeated assertions that the WMD threat had been neutralized? WMD, incidentally, was the most-oft-repeated phrase in U.S. “news” media coverage in the year leading up to the Iraq invasion, and has so completely disappeared from U.S. public discourse since, that hearing Greenglass’ characters utter “weapons of mass destruction” with such scripted seriousness is a painful reminder of the past 8 years of lies and illusion.

Slightly more encouraging, perhaps, in Greenglass’ film – at least in the “should art mirror life” department – is the fictionalized presence of a Wall Street Journal reporter named Lawrie Dayne, who Miller confronts while trying to get to the very murky bottom of the mysterious circumstances surrounding the elusive WMD. “How do you come to write stuff that isn’t true?” Miller asks Dayne, who admits she printed high level intel handed to her without any independently verified research. While a minor subplot in Green Zone, Dayne’s presence in Greenglass’ film reinforces the fact that major U.S. newspapers and high level “news reporters” – notably the New York Times’ Judith Miller – beat the drums for a U.S. invasion of the REAL Iraq, resulting in a Times-sponsored mea culpa after the damage had been done. At least the New York Times came clean.

Fast forward to now. Despite much talk of western-style “democracy” and “freedom” taking root in Iraq, the country is a mess today. A staggeringly high estimated one million Iraqis have died since the U.S. invasion, with at least 2 million wounded and displaced. Beyond the human toll, daily life for most Iraqis is abysmal, compared with life under the Hussein regime.

Perhaps Greenglass’ Green Zone will push thoughtful Americans into a reconsideration of U.S. foreign policy, or help stimulate some cautionary thinking as the Obama administration widens the war in Afghanistan and saber-rattles in Iraq. Then again, Americans are so conditioned to use movies as an escape that whatever lessons Greenglass and Damon hope to impart are lost in a staccato symphony of bullets – Firefight 101, Greenglass can do it in his sleep – at film’s end.

Tags: Arts and Media by Rob Williams
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Tags: Arts and Media, Transitions Potluck Dinner by Rob Williams
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Daisy Mayhem! Getting “Ranky Tanky” in the Mad River Valley

Concert Details:
Sunday, March 28 at 10:30 am.
The Big Picture Cafe and Theater
$20 families / $5 individuals

Arts writer Rob Williams talked with Rani Arbo about their new “Ranky Tanky” CD, being a musician and a Mom, and their upcoming Spring Hill School fund-raising concert at the Big Picture.

Q: So Daisy Mayhem has produced three wonderful CDs – why a kids project?

Kid projects are de rigeur here now – the band collectively has four, ages 12, 9, 6, and 3 1/2. And four months, if you count Ranky Tanky, which gestated about as long as the rest of them did. As parents, we’re all tuned in to family life. We’re musicians, artists, carpenters, writers, recording engineers – but everyone’s main channel is still parenting. We love playing together as a band, we love hanging out with our kids – so why not make a soundtrack for all that fun? This band’s danceable, uplifting music has always appealed to kids, so we knew we could do a decent job of it. We have just changed the themes a little. Less love and death and more animals.

Q. What does “Ranky Tanky” mean? Is it some sort of “kids only” code phrase?

It’s the catchphrase in the album’s title track, a song from the Georgia Sea Islands called “Ranky Tanky,” also known as “The Old Woman from Brewster.” It’s a traditional children’s game – which we teach the audience – that involves moving your elbows, knees, hips (whatever we call out) and singing, “ranky tanky!”

Q. How did you go about selecting which songs to bring to the recording?

The answer is as varied as the songs. Some we’d already been performing at grown up shows – including “Ranky Tanky” and Tom Petty’s “Wildflowers.” Others were remembered from our own childhoods, like “The Green Grass Grows All Around,” or “Kind Kangaroo” (a lullaby Scott’s grandmother used to sing for him). Others were covers of songs we love – not necessarily children’s tunes, but perfectly suited to them anyway – such as “Purple People Eater,” Cat Stevens’ “If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out,” Nat King Cole’s “Kee-mo, Ky-mo,” or the Meters’ “They All Ask’d for You.” Still others were songs we sang to our own children. “Morningtown Ride” was Anand’s son Jack’s favorite lullaby for a while; I sang Quinn to bed with “Bushel and a Peck.”

Q. As you were making this CD, were you inspired by any other kids’ musicians?

Glad you asked, because I left two important covers off the list above. We are everlastingly inspired by Billy Jonas, a North Carolina-based percussionist who uses recycled materials – like Scott’s Drumship Enterprise, but on a much larger scale. Billy is also a guitarist and a brilliant songwriter for kids. He writes to their quirkiness, curiosity, and deep intelligence, with songs that are catchy, funny, and smart. We covered his “Bear to the Left” on Ranky Tanky. We also found (via YouTube!) a song from an LA-based duo, Renee and Jeremy, called “It’s a Big World, Baby.” We recreated it as a lush, gorgeous lullaby. It’s the last song on the CD, and it’s a heartstring-puller, reminding us that our wee ones are only “little for a little while.” My 6-year-old son calls it “the baby song,” and doesn’t like it one bit.

Q. What’s your favorite song on the project, and why?

I have two. One is the first track, Cat Stevens’ “If you want to Sing Out, Sing Out,” which is getting lots of play on Sirius XM Kids’ Radio right now. The song was used in the movie “Harold and Maude” (and thereby has gained us an odd collection of 30-40 year old male fans). We decided to record it, learned it, arranged it, and recorded it all in one day, and it still feels like one of the freshest songs on the CD. Plus, the message is just loud and clear: Be who you are. Sing Out. Be free.

My other favorite is “Where did you get that Hat,” which dates to a broadside published in 1901. I first heard it on a compilation of field recordings by Anne and Frank Warner, sung by Edith Perrin in 1941. She puts great character into her delivery, and Andrew did the song tremendous justice – all 30 seconds of it – with just a ukulele and his big personality.

Q. Some kids music is awfully saccharine – can we adults expect to like what we hear on your new project?

No artificial sweeteners. I will admit, though, that there are some arguably cute sing-alongs on Ranky Tanky. And that we do mention at least 25 different animals and one purple alien in the course of 17 songs. And, yes, we are earnest about having a great time. In the studio, we collapsed with laughter at the end of many of the takes, and some of that laughter (and all of that energy) stayed on the CD. But despite our earnestness, our life-is-good sensibility and our positive, sing-out-be-free attitude, Ranky Tanky isn’t syrupy. Or maybe it’s maple syrupy, but not Karo. The humor, the grooves, the camaraderie and the spontaneity of this CD feel too much like a party for that.

Q. Did the band bring any different musical mojo or sensibility to this project, as a kids project, or did you follow the same sort of recording process as you have with your other 3 CDs?

We planned less and we judged less. We had fewer preconceived notions and more fun. Perhaps that’s because this is a kids’ CD; more likely, it’s because it is our most recent CD. It has taken us years to learn, forget, and re-learn this lesson: the less you expect of it, the more a situation (or a recording) can just be what it is, what it’s meant to be. Not a bad metaphor for life, especially with kids…

Q. Can we expect you to play any other songs from any other of your albums (like, maybe, “Joy Comes Back” or “Finland”- wink wink, nudge nudge) during your Mad River performance?

I will give you your own personal concert of Finland, I promise! But it barely makes sense to even me, and it’s a real brooder….I think the kids would be totally nonplussed. We may do Joy Comes Back. If you request it, we will.

Tags: Announcements, Arts and Media by Rob Williams
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1% for the Planet may be one of Mad River Valley, Vermont’s best-kept secrets. Housed on the top floor of downtown Waitsfield’s old high school building on Main Street, the organization (which recently relocated to Vermont from southern New England) “exists to build and support an alliance of businesses financially committed to creating a healthy planet,” according to CEO Terry Kellogg. 1% serves as a global broker of good will on the planet’s behalf, linking profitable and socially responsible businesses that donate 1% of their annual sales to environmentally-focused organizations with a growing network of conservation-minded nonprofits (more than 1500 are now on the 1% roster) always on the lookout for new financial resources to expand their good work. To date, 1% for the Planet has 1100 companies in 38 countries contributing $50 million through the 1% network – not too shabby.

And, on the artistic front, 1% for the Planet has gotten into the music promotion business, recently releasing what may be the most remarkable musical compilation of the new year: a collection of 41 songs donated by musicians from around the world who support the organization’s work.

How did this ground-breaking musical project come about?

“We realize the power artists have to inspire,” explains Kellogg. “Pop star Jack Johnson was our fiftieth member; when he traveled on his ‘In Between Dreams’ tour we watched the phone ring off the hook, town-by-town, as he traveled around the world playing and sharing his sustainability message. Music rallies artists, fans, companies and nonprofits together; fans listen to an artist’s music and are inspired to get involved themselves,” Kellogg concludes. “The music compilation is an easy way to make a difference for anyone who loves good music.”

Or as one featured 1% artist, Spring Standards, humorously put it: “We were pretty sure that a compilation of songs by really smart scientists would suck, so we musicians are doing what we can to help out, and hope everyone else does the same.”

So when you buy the 1% for the Planet music collection – all the financial proceeds go to support 1%’s work.

And here’s the kicker: the 1% collection – all 41 songs – costs a mere $10.00.
It is easily the biggest bargain, musically speaking, I’ve seen (and heard) in a long time.
And, in keeping with 1%’s commitment to sustainability, the music is available online, through iTunes, Amazon, and other digital streaming sites. Even cooler? 1% has made an online “widget” available to any organization interested in promoting the 1% project, so other organizations interested in supporting the 1% message can help get the word out easily and effectively.

And the best part of all is the music itself.

True confessions.

It took me and my kids two weeks of “in car” listening before we finally pushed ourselves past the first five tunes to get to the next thirty six.
The opening songs were that good.

Here’s a quick audio run down.

The 1% Project opens with the incomparably gifted songwriter Josh Ritter of New York City singing “Great Big Heart,” a beautiful stripped down acoustic six-string ballad that must be heard to be believed. On track 2, Madi Diaz (one of the dozens of artists on this collection whom I had never heard of before) follows up with a bouncy toe tapping pop number called “Nothing at All,” (my kids’ current fave), while “Prodigal Son,” the collection’s third track, features Aidan Hawken performing one of the most hooky and haunting sonically interesting songs I’ve heard in years. Folkie Mason Jennings gruffly sings “How Deep Is That River” on track 4, with an unexpected musical up-tempo change up midway through the tune, while Mad River’s very own Grace Potter performs a beautiful ballad entitled “Til The Morning Comes Around” – just Grace and her acoustic guitar – on track 5. I was completely hooked by the time I heard the immediately recognizable voice of the 1% project’s biggest musical name, Jackson Browne, performing a live version of “About My Imagination” on track 6.

And the project goes on like that for another 35 songs. Truly incredible. Just a few other highlights: Birdmonster’s roadhouse-worthy rocker “Yuma” (track 18), Chris Velan’s brilliantly written “Sandpaper Shoes” (track 25), and Lori McKenna’s achingly soulful “Mercy Now” (track 28) were all standouts for me. But I have to confess to liking just about every single song on this project, and the mixing and mastering of so many different tunes into a single ear-appealing sonic collection was equally impressive, from a production standpoint.

In short, if you are an acoustic music lover of blues, folk, traditional, or Americana music, you can’t go wrong dropping a mere $10 to buy an entire library of new artists for your collection, while supporting Vermont’s newest socially-conscious nonprofit in the process.

Find out everything more you need to know at http://music.onepercentfortheplanet.org/.

And enjoy the experience of listening to these gifted musicians sing to help keep the Earth in business.

Tags: Arts and Media by Rob Williams
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Tags: Arts and Media, Transitions Potluck Dinner by Rob Williams
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More than 160 Vermonters threw down $50 per ticket Monday night to join hometown heroine Grace Potter at the Big Picture Theater in a musical benefit for the people of earthquake-ravaged Haiti. The Eames Brothers warmed up the lively audience with an hour of upbeat roots-y blues, accompanied by Nocturnals drummer Matt (a.k.a. Cado) Burr, before Grace took the stage at 9:30 in a rare solo (and I use the term loosely) performance for the standing-room-only crowd.

Big Picture owner Claudia Becker introduced Grace by thanking everyone for raising more than $10,000 for Haiti to be channeled through a local nonprofit called Amurtel. The fundraising included young Mad River Valley’ites who contributed their art to the Waitsfield Elementary School art auction currently on display in the Big Picture lobby. (Don’t miss it!)

Amurtel’s Joni Zweig, who was on the ground in Haiti assisting earthquake victims just two days after the January 12 disaster, spoke movingly about the tragedy, the resilience of the Haitian people, the importance of music and dance, and her hope that Vermonters would remember to support Haiti and the Haitian people in the weeks ahead.

With “Creature From The Black Lagoon” playing on the giant movie screen behind her, Grace kicked off the evening with a soulful acoustic guitar version of “Take Me Down To The Water,” followed by an acoustic version of “Ah Mary,” a thinly-veiled critique of the U.S. Empire and the first track of GPN’s most recent release “This Is Somewhere.”

Like so:

She’s the beat of my heart/
She’s the shot of a gun/
She’ll be the end of me and maybe everyone/
Ah Mary Ca…”

Grace then moved to the keyboard where she introduced “Colors,” a gorgeous song to be featured on her soon-to-be-released new album exploring Americans’ varied reactions to the Obama 2008 presidential election, written, she explained, when she was in St. Louis.

Here is a bit of the chorus:

This is the greatest time of day/
When all the clocks are spinning backward/
and all the ropes that bind begin to fray
And all the black and white turns in to colors.

Grace then led into another new Nocturnals collaboration, with Benny (GPN’s newest guitarist) and Matt Burr jumping up on stage to help sing about a woman who’s “got the medicine that everybody wants,” with a rousing instrumental finale that infused the Monday night crowd with renewed energy. They followed this up with an electric guitar screamer featuring both Grace and Benny on the six strings (times two), and an “Oo La La call and response” format that got the crowd going.

Explaining that a Nocturnals trio (Grace, Benny and Matt) was soon heading to London for a series of gigs during their official time off, the band then moved into “Ain’t No Time” from “This Is Somewhere,” playing it as a straight-ahead rocker with some tasty Hammond B organ licks for solo fodder. (Grace confided that the band hadn’t played that one in a year.)

The moment of transcendence, for me anyway, came late in the evening, when Grace performed both “Apologies” and “Big White Gate” solo with just the organ, lit by Big Picture lighting technician James Kinne’s deep green pinpoint laser light arrangement, before closing with a few classics, including a shimmying version of an old Otis Redding favorite – “Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay.”

All in all, a beautiful evening of music for a good cause. Mad River has much for which to be thankful, as our community reached out to the people of Haiti on a clear winter night.

Tags: Arts and Media, Uncategorized by Rob Williams
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