David Koepp’s 2012 action film Premium Rush was not much of a box-office success. Worldwide, the $35 million film stopped a little short of breaking even (though I’m sure that video and other second-run markets eventually made it profitable). And, from what I can tell — because I always have my ear to the ground on such matters — nor does the film have anything like a cult following.

I’m having a hard time understanding why this film is not better beloved. It’s exciting, funny, clever and visually appealing. I saw it recently for the second time, and my fondness for it had not diminished.

Vermonters dismayed by the Hood Museum's long-term closure will be happy to know there's an upside to the situation — and not just a bigger, shinier Hood when it reopens in 2019.  Three contemporary American paintings from the Dartmouth College institution's permanent collection have been relocated and are now on view at the University of Vermont's Fleming Museum of Art in Burlington. 

The Hood has shut its doors through 2018 in order to add, according to its website, "three object-study rooms, a sweeping public reception space, and a number of stunning new galleries." The  museum is also renovating its current gallery spaces. Much of the collection has been relocated to nearby storage, but 50-odd artworks have been temporarily adopted by other institutions for the mutual benefit of the Hood and museum-goers around New England. 

The works on loan at the Fleming are Ivan Albright's "The Vermonter (If Life Were Life There Would Be No Death)," Alex Katz's "Supper" and  Georgia O'Keeffe's "Taos Mountain, New Mexico." 

"These were so perfect for us, on a number of levels," said Fleming Museum executive director Janie Cohen in a telephone conversation. "They fit so beautifully into the collection the way they’re currently hung." 

"The Ivan Albright was selected because of the subject," Cohen explained. Albright (1897-1983) spent the majority of his life in Chicago, but moved to Woodstock, Vt., in 1965. He painted his oil "The Vermonter"  between 1966 and 1977. The portrait depicts his neighbor, Kenneth Harper Atwood, who, as it turns out, was a UVM alumnus.

This was the first work Albright began in his new home.  Because of its subject, it currently hangs in the Fleming's New England Gallery. Cohen noted that "Albright's style was influenced by European painting and his work as a medical draftsman in WWI." So, his style is "so not New England," she said. 

In 1997, the Art Institute of Chicago hosted a retrospective of the painter's magical-realist works. Albright was also the father-in-law of former U.S. secretary of state Madeleine Albright. 

"Supper" by Katz (1927-) is a 1974 acrylic point-of-view painting that uses crisp lines and simple light to show an ordinary scene of friends and family congregated at the dinner table. The figure on the right is Katz's wife, Ada. At approximately five by eight feet, the work is the largest work in the Fleming's European and American Gallery, noted Cohen. 

The oil landscape by O'Keeffe (1887-1986), also placed in the European and American Gallery, was painted in 1930, during the early years of the artist's love affair with the American Southwest. "Taos Mountain, New Mexico" is an example of the simplified forms and juicy palette for which O'Keeffe would become famous. 
 The Fleming is not the only museum to benefit from the Hood's need-induced lending. A fragment of an Egyptian sarcophagus is at the Middlebury College Museum of Art. Regionally, other institutions that have received works include the Currier Museum of Art, the Williams College Museum of Art and the Yale University Art Gallery. 

A Castleton University professor has made a startling invention. It looks like a normal small airplane, but it's actually … a time machine!

After taking a jaunt to 2041 — full of cellphones, bikes and tall buildings! — the prof signs a contract with a Sinister Corporation to exploit his invention. But he soon starts to suspect that time travel might not be as fun, harmless and profitable as it appears. When he and his reporter girlfriend make a second journey to the 2040s, they discover a dystopian wasteland. Even worse, moans the prof, in this tainted version of the future, "Castleton T-shirts might not be cool!"

That line isn't actually in the screenplay of Time Chasers, the 1994 debut of Rutland writer-director-producer David Giancola. It was an ad-lib from the wags at RiffTrax, who provided mocking running commentary for the film at a screening broadcast live last night by Fathom Events.

Gray skies didn't dampen the spirit at Camp Ta-Kum-Ta in South Hero on Wednesday, as 10 artists put their brushes to somewhat unusual "canvases."  

Their goal? To transform the cabin doors into whimsical portals to, perhaps, a happier world. That's because Camp TKT serves a select population: kids battling cancer. But that doesn't prevent it from offering arts and crafts, swimming, a ropes course and other typical summer-camp activities. 

Aptly named "The Portal Painting Project," the door-painting venture was conceived by Jill Badolato, who heads up Dealer.com's corporate responsibility program. (The project is funded by Dealer.) The petite power-house, who has organized employee volunteer days at Ta-Kum-Ta for the past three years, says she sees potential canvases everywhere. The drab doors of the camp cabins were just too good to pass up.

For this year's contest click here.

For the fourth year in a row, Seven Days is running a contest to let our readers decide which Vermont musical act gets to open the Grand Point North festival in September. These can be bands, solo acts, DJs, the didgeridi-dude from Church Street, Bernie Sanders, whoever — as long as they are local.

BTW, for the nominated group to qualify as local, at least one member must currently reside in Vermont. Past winners were the DuPont Brothers in 2013, Dwight & Nicole in 2014 — and, last year, in a rather shocking — and awesome — turn of events, the Harwood Union High School Assembly Band. BTW, HUHS is the alma mater of fest founder Grace Potter.

Anyway, here's how the contest works:

The nomination period is now open and will be until Sunday, May 8. During this period, fans or artists themselves can nominate local acts they'd like to see on the GPN stage. Then, on Monday, May 9, voting will open to the public, and the real fun begins. The act with the most votes at the end of the day on Sunday, May 15, is the victor. The winner  will be announced the following week. 

Here's the link to the nomination page. And good luck!

At Champlain College last Thursday, Morehshin Allahyari talked to a room full of mostly white Vermonters about "digital colonialism." It wasn't the center of the conversation, but the uncomfortable topic surfaced multiple times — not surprisingly, given the nature of Allahyari's work. 

The Iranian-born artist and activist was the fifth speaker to participate in Generator's BIG Maker series. She was there to discuss her ongoing project "Material Speculation: ISIS,"  which, according to her website, "inspects petropolitical and poetic relationships between 3D printing, plastic, oil, technocapitalism and jihad."