Tuesday, July 29, 2014
"Migration to Chicago" comes to Goddard by way of Alexy Lanza, a currently enrolled MFA student who immigrated to Chicago from his native Honduras. He's a member of the Mestizarte Workshop, the Chicago-based artist collective that created the massive print in the 1990s (at the time, the collective was called the Mexican Printmaking Workshop).
“In my opinion, the great historic and aesthetic worth of this monumental print doesn’t rest necessarily in its size but rather in the summation of the different factors in the process of its artistic creation,” says Lanza in a statement.
The print — which was made from 25 sheets of 4-by-8-foot plywood and 50 pounds of ink with a 3-ton asphalt roller — has been languishing in storage for decades. The Art Crawl at Goddard will be the first time it's been displayed since a poorly attended exhibition in the '90s, Lanza says.
The Goddard Art Crawl is July 30, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Tags: art , goddard , goddard art crawl , Image , Web Only
Jesse Kreitzer's great-grandfather, Thomas Clarence Chapman (known to many as "TC"), was a coal miner in a place that's not exactly known for having much coal: Iowa. Though its land no longer yields much of the stuff, Iowa had, until the middle of the 20th century, a fairly robust coal-mining industry. That filial connection to a bygone industry was Kreitzer's inspiration for his current film project, Black Canaries, an unusual version of which will play on two Vermont screens this week.
Black Canaries is a fiction film inspired by Kreitzer's interests in his own family history and in, as he puts it, "rural storytelling." "I choose these stories because I have my own longing to reconnect," he says by phone from the Woods Hole Film Festival on Martha's Vineyard, where his 2013 short Lomax was the opening-night film. "I've been living in cities for 10 years, and have every interest in getting back to Vermont ... I have a longing to get back to nature."
Kreitzer was raised in Marlboro, and says he's been making short movies since he was in third grade. He credits both his elementary school and Brattleboro's Center for Digital Art, which he attended for two years, with inspiring him to tell stories visually. "It's rare that a high-schooler will get exposure to the works of [Russian master filmmaker Andrei] Tarkovsky, for example. There were some really advanced teachings that I was exposed to in my high-school years," he says.
Tags: film , movies , coal , coal miners , black canaries , 35mm , super 35mm , animatic , latchis , savoy , marlboro , brattleboro , montpelier , Image , Video , Web Only
Saturday, July 26, 2014
Though I grew up on Woody Allen's films, I gave up on them about 10 years ago, around the time of Match Point (2005). Though that film garnered a lot of critical praise, I found it stupefyingly dull and barely competent. Match Point apparently represented a kind of late-career renaissance for Allen, as he has used it as a generalized stylistic and narrative template for the nine films he's directed since — none of which I've cared to see.
They just don't interest me anymore, and neither did any of the eight or so Allen films that preceded Match Point. (The Curse of the Jade Scorpion was maybe the nadir.) Sometimes you just have to cut your losses. Je ne regrette rien.
I hate to be one of those guys who says of Allen, "I only really like his earlier, funny stuff" ... but that pretty well sums it up for me. His run of 1970s comedies — including What's Up, Tiger Lily?; Take the Money and Run; Bananas (which I "quoted" in my own undergraduate thesis film); Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex; Sleeper; the uproarious Love and Death — are still my favorites.
I also admire his 1980s and '90s "serious comedies" including Stardust Memories, Hannah and Her Sisters and, best of all, two films that are stylistically and thematically linked: Husbands and Wives and Crimes and Misdemeanors. These last two are incredibly incisive, brilliantly made films, and they rank among Allen's best.
But for me his very best film is 1983's Zelig, the mock-documentary about Leonard Zelig, a chameleon-like man who had no identity of his own. Zelig is not only incredibly funny, but a milestone in the mock-doc form. Not because it's believable enough to make viewers think it's an authentic documentary (the movie makes no attempt to hide that it's Allen himself playing Leonard Zelig in its "stock footage"), but because of its absolutely seamless integration of archival footage and newly shot film.
Tags: film , movie , what i'm watching , woody allen , men of crisis , zelig , mock documentary , PBS , youtube , Image , Video , Web Only
Friday, July 25, 2014
The new Maniac bears the distinction of having been banned in New Zealand, sort-of hobbit homeland, for its depiction of brutal killings from the killer's point of view.
What You Missed
Frank (Wood) is an Angeleno who earns his living restoring vintage mannequins. It sounds like the sort of occupation that would earn him a lot of hipster points in LA, combined with his generally emo demeanor and soulful blue eyes, but here's the thing: Frank isn't good at dating. He's better at stalking women on the street, ambushing them, murdering them, scalping them and decorating his beloved mannequins with the trophies.
The back room of his mannequin shop is a house of horrors where he sits amid his hideous creations (who appear as real women through his eyes), exhorting them not to be jealous, since he loves them all the same. Oh, and he talks to himself and his absent mommy a fair bit.
Anna (Nora Arnezeder), a young French photographer, stumbles on Frank's retro shop and thinks it's the coolest thing ever. She wants to feature his mannequins in her gallery show and make some sort of statement about objectification. Frank really likes her, but can he keep his madness at bay? I think you already know the answer.
Tags: maniac , elijah wood , franck khalfoun , Movies you missed , Image , Video , Web Only
Diversity Rocks, a multicultural youth group based in Burlington, recently picked up two awards for its video "I Am the World." The awards — a first-place prize in the "Media Outreach" category and a third-place prize for the "Audience" category — were granted on July 17 by the Maryland-based Excellence in Community Communications and Outreach (ECCO) program, a project of the federal government's Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
The three-minute video, viewable below, features young Vermonters from a variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds celebrating the attributes that both unite and differentiate them. The video is sincere and moving; it also unexpectedly and delightfully recalls Bob Dylan's legendary proto-music video for his song "Subterranean Homesick Blues" — you know, the one where he displays all those placards to the camera.
Tags: diversity rocks , video , diversity , burlington , jeetan khadka , jean luc dushime , Image , Video , Web Only
Bicyclists in downtown Barre now can take advantage of a curious new addition to the Main Street curbside: a pair of granite gargoyles, faces twisted and tongues extended, flanking either side of a serpentine bike rack.
The sculpture, by Calais sculptor Chris Miller, is the first of three commissioned bike-rack sculptures to be sited around Barre in coming months. The other two are by area sculptors Giuliano Cecchinelli Jr. and Heather Ritchie. Cecchinelli's is a jack-in-the-box adorning a spring-style bike rack; Ritchie's is a sculpture of a big-wheeled tricycle that appears to jump from one side of the bike rack to the other. All three are carved from Barre granite.
The bike racks are funded by the Stone Sculpture Legacy Program, which is overseen by Sue Higby, executive director of Studio Place Arts. Last year, Miller, Cecchinelli and Ritchie were commissioned to create the sculptures with money from the Charles Semprebon Fund, as well as other public artworks.
Sempron, a businessman and Barre native, left $2 million to the city when he died in 2009 at age 66. About half of that money was earmarked to complete a bike path between Barre City and Barre Town (Semprebon's enthusiasm for cycling combined with Barre's granite-working history inspired the bike rack sculptures.) And Higby received a "very substantial" chunk of money, she says, to promote public art in Barre, paying homage to its legacy as a stone capital.
"Barre was definitely the original art city in Vermont, and I would say the region," Higby says. "People would come from Europe — Italy, Spain and Scotland — to use some of the best granite in the world ... And people try to live next to the best material they can get their hands on, because it's so expensive to ship."
The bike racks are just a few of the Stone Sculpture Legacy Program initiatives underway, Higby says, all designed to spotlight local talent and local materials.
Another public work commissioned by the Stone Sculpture Legacy Program was installed at City Hall this week: a statue of Sir Isaac Barré — the British champion of American independence for whom the city was named in 1793 — by Barre sculptor Giuliano Cecchinelli Sr.
Tags: sculpture , sue higby , barre , charles semprebon , art , public art , studio place arts , stone sculpture legacy program , Image , Web Only
Thursday, July 24, 2014
Bill Kathan is, no doubt, an exceptionally fit man. But is the 62-year-old from Brattleboro really the "World Exercise Champion," as his graffiti-covered vehicle proclaims?
I spied his 1999 Dodge van around Burlington, upon which he has written, among other things, in bright white paint: “push-ups on two raw eggs with 40 pounds on my back and balancing one raw egg on spoon in my mouth — broken record” and “True natvie [sic] and settler of southern Vermont” — and his cellphone number. I called him.
Turns out, that van is also Kathan's mobile home right now. He agreed to drive up Route 7 to meet me at the Edge on South Burlington’s Eastwood Drive.
Before we embarked on our egg-push-up attempts, Kathan revealed that his obsession with exercise began when he saw a world-record set of jumping jacks — 5,103 in an hour — on "Good Morning America" in 1999. By the following year, Kathan had trained enough to pump out 5,671 jumping jacks ... in front of astonished vegetarian diners at the Country Life Restaurant in Keene, N.H.
“I’m not fake, all my stories are true,” said Kathan, who grew up hunting with his dad and farming with his uncle before discovering, in his “later ages,” his athletic prowess. “I didn’t learn like other kids; I was in eighth grade doing fourth-grade work," Kathan revealed. "I was a pretty fast runner, but I wasn’t too interested in track and field. But I can run backwards faster now than I’ve ever run.”
Tags: exercise champion , Bill Kathan , push-ups , jumping jacks , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
California-based real estate company Movoto has just released a fun (and maybe even somewhat accurate) list titled "25 Things People From Vermont Love." It's a pretty wide-ranging list, taking in everything from residents' ubiquitous Subarus to covered bridges to the use of cow poop for fuel. Perhaps these guys are on to something. What self-respecting Vermonter wouldn't want to repurpose cow crap?
Movoto's chief business is the selling of real estate, but the company has earned a fair bit of attention for its lighthearted city- and state-specific lists, such as this dubious tally of reasons to move to New Jersey.
"The lists have a couple of purposes, the first of which is to get people talking about the place they love," writes Movoto content manager Randy Nelson in an email. "The second is to give people a sense of what it's like to live in a place that they're thinking of moving to. In that latter case ... there's a direct connection to our core business."
Movoto staffers compile the city-centric lists by speaking to friends in those cities and participating in online forums specific to the areas, writes Nelson. "They also read business/restaurant reviews, and generally read up on everything they can about a city or state's highlights before putting words on the screen."
Vermont has shown up a couple of times previously on Movoto's site, once in a list of 15 of the state's best restaurants, and again in a list of Things You Need to Know before moving here (#6: "Ben and Jerry will be your homies").
Plenty of other objects of Vermonty affection aren't represented on the page, so readers are hereby encouraged to use the "comments" section to give the list a little authentic local character.
Tags: vermont , list , movoto , real esate , top 25 , Image , Web Only
Monday, July 21, 2014
“All he wanted from me near the end of his life was this picture of my dog," she recalls. "He called my dog his 'grand-dog.'”
Thompson kept putting it off, expecting she'd eventually find the perfect frame for the photo and wrap it up for him as a beautiful gift. She never got the chance. Thompson's father died suddenly of a massive heart attack at the age of 62.
“The first thing that went through my head was, Why didn’t I send that picture?” she recalls.
While Thompson can't do anything about that forever-lost opportunity, she can help others come to grips with the inevitable — and perhaps say and do those things that they, too, may have put off for another day that might never come.
Thompson is executive director of the Wake Up to Dying Project, a national awareness and action campaign that encourages people to think and talk about dying through storytelling, art and other hands-on activities. Since September 2013, when the group incorporated, she has been working with story producer Erica Heilman (producer of the radio show/podcast Rumble Strip Vermont) to interview Vermonters and collect their stories about death and dying — more than several hundred to date.
Now, about a dozen of those stories have been compiled into a 35-minute audio experience that's part of a larger traveling exhibit. It opens this week in downtown Montpelier.
Tags: death and dying , hospice , Image , Video , Web Only
Sunday, July 20, 2014
Almost 1,100 years after the birth of the poet for whom it is named, Baghdad's historic Al Mutanabbi Street was reduced to rubble by a car bomb that killed more than 30 people. Other casualties of that 2007 bombing included several businesses and their wares, a loss that surely would have immensely grieved the poet, whose full name is Abu at-Tayyib Ahmad ibn al-Husayn al-Mutanabbi al-Kindi.
For centuries, Al Mutanabbi Street has been the center of Baghdad's intellectual community, renowned for its many bookshops, itinerant book vendors and convivial cafés and tea shops. The car bombing seven years ago not only claimed lives but shredded the very stuff that made Baghdad one of the world's most cosmopolitan cultural capitals.
Starting on July 22, Plainfield's Goddard College will host a traveling art exhibit that uses books and printmaking to commemorate the loss of one of the world's great literary communities. The exhibit, "Al Mutanabbi Street Starts Here," has been traveling the world since 2012, and will remain at Goddard's Eliot D. Pratt Library Art Gallery until October 10. Its creator, San Francisco poet and bookseller Beau Beausoleil [PDF link], will discuss his work at an opening-night event.
Tags: books , printmaking , goddard , goddard college , al mutanabbi street , baghdad , Image , Web Only