Friday, October 3, 2014
The final round of the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts' three-year "patron enhancement" renovation project has brought about some major refurbishments at the landmark Burlington venue. Most prominent are a shiny new box office and an updating of the sunburst pattern on the sidewalk beneath the Main Street marquee. The place looks spiffy.
But a much smaller and less prominent part of that face-lift will likely attract the most eyeballs. The Flynn has sold "naming rights" to the four urinals in the recently renovated men's bathroom on its basement level. Small brass plaques, some engraved with pissy — er, pithy — sayings, will catch the eyes of many an arts-loving male urinator. Each sponsor paid $1000 for the privilege of prime pissoir plaque placement.
Tags: flynn center , urinals , urinal , fundraising , naming rights , Image , Web Only
The museum is hosting a "lecture/performance" on "Fuckology," a putative discipline that borrows its unusual name from oft-impenetrable philosopher Gilles Deleuze. Speaking at the event is the scholar/philosopher Robert Craig Baum, who draws on the works of none other than Lady Gaga in his talk about "corporate personhood"; and the pseudonymous Nikolai Adjunctski on the crisis in American higher education.
The lecture also has something to do with volcanoes, we think.
Tags: main street museum , lecture , first friday , volcano , lady gaga , gilles deleuze , robert craig baum , nikolai adjunctski , Image , Web Only
Danforth Pewter's iconic oil lamps are produced in batches of one or two dozen during a daylong metalworking process. But that, says owner Fred Danforth, who revived his family's centuries-old pewter business in 1975, is somewhat misleading.
"My flippant answer, when someone asks how long it takes to make one, is 30 years!" jokes Danforth. "Because that's how long it took me to really get down all of the techniques."
Visitors to the Danforth Pewter Workshop & Store on Seymour Street in Middlebury have long been able to see those lamps and other products in various stages of production. Two windows in the company's headquarters offer a peek into the workroom, where craftspeople work during business hours.
Today, October 3, television audiences also have the opportunity to see Danforth's craft in action: A segment of "How It's Made," a popular show on Discovery's Science Channel, is dedicated to the making of a Danforth oil lamp. The episode initially airs at 10:30 p.m. Eastern time, then again at 1:30 a.m. on October 4.
Tags: danforth pewter , discovery science channel , pewter oil lamps , middlebury , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, October 1, 2014
The movie, which stars legendary Hong Kong actors Chow Yun-Fat and Michelle Yeoh, grossed more than $200 million worldwide, and inspired all manner of ancillary materials: comic books, video games, even a TV series in Taiwan — but no sequel, a surprising thing for a film that raked in critical acclaim as well as box-office returns.
Next summer, the film's many fans will finally have the chance to see its story continue, thanks in part to Morrisville screenwriter John Fusco. Fusco wrote the screenplay for the sequel Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon II: The Green Destiny, which is currently in production under the direction of legendary martial arts choreographer and director Yuen Woo-Ping. Michelle Yeoh reprises her role in the sequel, and is joined by the martial-arts film star Donnie Yen.
Tags: film , movies , crouching tiger hidden dragon , john fusco , martial arts , netflix , imax , Image , Web Only
Sunday, September 14, 2014
So in case you didn't already know, it is now relatively cheap and simple to publish your own book. Here at Seven Days, we receive the fruits of that tech shift: self-published books from fellow Vermonters. Lots and lots and lots. Indeed, each year we receive more.
Do we review them in our pages? Rarely; it takes a very special book to sway us. But we'd like to recognize more writers' efforts, and we think local readers might be curious about what their neighbors are self-publishing. This blog feature may also showcase books from small or academic publishers that we can't cover in the paper.
Before submitting your own book, please see the lengthy disclaimer below!
The Book: Encounter With Japan: An Adventure in Love by Adelaide E. Katz, PhD, and Susan Katz Saitoh. Paperback, 164 pages with full-color illustrations. $20.
What's It About?
How many people have sat at a dying loved one's bedside and wished they could tell the world that person's story? Susan Katz Saitoh does that with this book. Actually, she leaves most of the actual telling to her late mother, Adelaide Katz, a fine writer who left behind journals, poems and more.