"It's different up there."

I heard that refrain often when my wife and I announced our intention to move to Vermont from Brooklyn. We've found it to be pretty much true, but I'm not certain, even nearly a year later, that we're able to articulate the qualities that make Vermont different. A new book, copublished by the Vermont Historical Society and the Woodstock Foundation, aims to shed light on that particular subject.

The Vermont Difference: Perspectives From the Green Mountain State collects the writings of 19 essayists who have all manner of connections to Vermont. Contributors include current Gov. Peter Shumlin; former governors James H. Douglas and Madeleine May Kunin; and Tom Slayton, former editor of Vermont Life magazine.

The Woodstock Foundation, a nonprofit organization associated with the Billings Farm and Museum in Woodstock, is devoted to the promotion of conservation, sustainable land use and the preservation of local heritage traditions.

Right there in its title, the book states its intentions: to figure out just what does make this place different from other places. Contributors to the book take varied approaches in their essays, addressing such topics as farming, politics, education and recreation. 

The Vermont Difference was co-edited by J. Kevin Graffagnino, H. Nicholas Muller III, David A. Donath and Kristin Peterson-Ishaq, all of whom will be in attendance at the upcoming event celebrating the book's publication. Montpelier's Vermont History Museum will host the free event at noon on Thursday, May 8. 

This week in movies you missed: Rachel McAdams and Noomi Rapace get uncomfortably close in the latest from director Brian De Palma, returning to his Hitchcockian thriller origins.

What You Missed

High-powered ad agency exec Christine (McAdams) loves to be surrounded by reflections of herself. She makes her lovers (of whom there are many) wear a mask that looks like a stylized version of her face. She has a creepy backstory involving her identical twin. And she's doing her best to make over her ambitious underling, Isabelle (Rapace), in her own image.

Christine takes credit for Isabelle's viral-video smartphone campaign, then patronizingly tries to turn her low blow into a teachable moment. Isabelle learns the lesson well and strikes back, seizing something her rival wants. But Isabelle is also sleeping with Christine's slimy boyfriend (Paul Anderson), which makes her vulnerable.

By the film's end, the women's twisted relationship will have encompassed murder, making out, police interrogations, double-crosses, trances, hallucinations and the wearing of umpteen sumptuous designer ensembles.

It seems like it's been a minute or three since we last heard from local indie-pop twee-ty birds the Smittens or any of their offshoots. But in a recent email, guitarist Colin Clary was kind enough to fill us in on all things Smittens.

Clary reports that the band is hard at work on its fifth full-length album, with an advance 10-inch EP likely due out this summer to coincide with a European tour. He adds that his bedroom-pop duo with fellow Smitten Dana Kaplan, Let's Whisper is set to release a 10-inch vinyl of its own, titled As Close as We Are.

That album won't hit our ears until June 13. But the guess here is that fans might catch some tunes from the release when LW play the outdoor stage at Waking Windows 4 in Winooski this Saturday, May 3.

Last but not least, Clary's latest solo effort, Twee Blues Vol. 1, is slated for a May 13 release and will be one of indie-pop imprint WeePOP! Records' final three releases. The album will be available on vinyl in a limited 300-copy run, as well as digitally.

In advance of that release, Clary unveiled a new video today for a song from the album, "I Didn't Know You Were a Wizard," which is just about as awesomely twee as it sounds. Check it out below.

"Oh, shit!" "That's brutal!"

Those were exclamations by members of the University of Vermont's Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity (or their guests) overheard as they left Merrill's Roxy Cinemas in Burlington at four this afternoon to discover that a warm, sunny day had suddenly become a soaker.

But the students didn't really seem that upset. After all, they'd just attended a special screening of Universal's upcoming comedy Neighbors followed by a Q&A with star Seth Rogen and his wife, Lauren Miller.

Pi Kappa Alpha won its meet-and-greet with the movie star by raising $27,000 for Alzheimer's research in a campus contest run by Rogen and Miller's organization Hilarity for Charity. (More info here.)

The brothers were clearly big fans, and they had a lot of questions for Rogen, all of which he answered with grace, frankness and humor. Also frequently heard: his trademark barking laugh and references to his recreational drug of choice.

Ironically enough, the plot of Neighbors pits family man Rogen and his wife (Rose Byrne) against the hard-partying fraternity that moves next door to their idyllic home, led by preening bro-meister Zac Efron. The poster's tagline is "Family vs. Frat."