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Feature: Essential Prayers

Published in Berkshires Week on September 24, 2014
Original article: http://www.berkshireeagle.com/berkshiresweek/ci_26596672/riffing-prayer

Starting this Friday evening, a group of young musicians will be returning to Bennington College, their alma mater, for a weekend of harmony, prayer, and just a little bit of rock.

The weekend centers around a collaboration between Bennington College composition professor Kitty Brazelton and Trevor Wilson, a former student of Brazelton’s who now fronts the New York-based vocal group Anawan, who have joined forces to present renditions of various prayers sung a cappella. The project, titled “Essential Prayers,” is designed as a digital experience — the recordings will be uploaded to the internet for free streaming when the project launches in spring 2015.

In advance of the launch, Brazelton, Wilson, and the other members of the eight-piece chorus recruited to sing the prayers will be performing the project live on Saturday, Sept. 27, at 4:15 p.m. in Bennington College’s Carriage Barn.

Brazelton said she planned the concert as a way to make the project a tangible and exciting event, rather than just recordings on YouTube, and her collaborators agree that the live performance will allow the audience to experience it in an important, powerful way.

“I think it’s one of those things that works best when it’s live, and you can become really immersed in it,” said Trevor Wilson. “It’s very moving, and when you stand back and hear it from start to finish it’s really quite epic. It’s like Noah’s ark or Lord of the Rings; it takes you on a journey, and I think people will take a lot from it.”

The performers for “Essential Prayers” include Wilson and his Anawan bandmates Michael Chinworth, Maia Friedman, Alice Tolan-Mee, and Ethan Woods, as well as Brazelton and soprano Judith Shimer. Brazelton explained that she was excited to be able to use the bandmates of Anawan as part of her chorus for their natural sound and chemistry, which she explains as more of a singer-songwriter feel than a choir.

“They had this rapport that is just so gorgeous,” she said. “I’ve had the good luck to have my work performed by some magnificent choirs, but they’re so smoothed out. They’re gorgeous and unified, but I wanted that different sound where there is still that rapport, but you can hear the people singing to you.”

Brazelton explains that even though she isn’t religious in the traditional sense, she has become interested in the power and function of prayer.

“The first one I picked was the Serenity Prayer. I definitely use that to calm down, and it works,” explained Brazelton. “And then you get to the 23rd Psalm, and I think that prayer is about being afraid, and that it’s going to be ok, no matter what. It says ‘Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil,’ but it’s so clear to me that of course you’re afraid. But to say “I fear no evil,” it’s so comforting. It’s an affirmation.”

Other prayers included in the project are the Irish Farewell, the Loving-Kindness mantra from Buddhism, and several other prayers from Christian, Jewish and even Atheist traditions. Brazelton explained that she was also attracted to this project by the idea that the texts of the prayers are well known, so audiences could know the words ahead of time.

“Even though there are a lot of Christian and Jewish influences, it is quite secular at the same time,” said Wilson. “I think it allows for a lot of that spiritual introspection that is sometimes only reserved for when you’re in church or temple or wherever. But for someone more secular, you can connect to the spirituality of it and not feel alienated.”

Before the Prayers concert on Saturday, the visiting musicians will be performing their own music in their usual incarnations at Bennington’s student center at 8 p.m. on Friday night. Both concerts are free and open to the public.

The concert will open with Sneaky Mister, Judith Shimer’s solo project, before Anawan members Alice Tolan-Mee and Ethan Woods take the stage with their own projects, respectively called True Lucy and Rokenri.

The group will reform as Anawan to close the event, showing off their 5-part harmonies over sparse acoustic guitar, synthesizer and bass accompaniment.

“It’s pretty folky and experimental. I’m hoping it will be interpreted as almost a modern day Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young,” described Wilson. “We make music that I think has a lot to do with spirituality and community, and we just try to keep it real and stay grounded and be good humans, and the music is a byproduct of all that.”

Feature: BCCS’ Cailin Manson

Published in Berkshires Week on September 25, 2014
Original article: http://www.berkshireeagle.com/berkshiresweek/ci_26596555/new-leader-enlivens-choral-society

BENNINGTON — After 38 years under the direction of Edwin Lawrence, who recently retired, the Bennington County Choral Society has begun a new season of song and community with some fresh faces in its ranks, most notably its new director, Cailin Marcel Manson.

An accomplished singer in his own right, Manson started his music career at Temple University in Philadelphia, his home town, where he went on to found the Germantown Institute for the Vocal Arts and the Germantown Concert Chorus. He also earned a master’s degree in opera and orchestral conducting at Universitat Mozarteum Salzburg, one of Europe’s most prestigious music universities, in Salzburg, Austria — the hometown of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Manson has also toured the world as an operatic soloist, performing across Asia and Europe in hallowed venues like Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.

He stepped out of the spotlight as a performer around 2008, he said, and since then he has shifted his focus to conducting. While he studied orchestral conducting, his background as a vocalist has drawn him into the world of choral conducting, especially with community choruses.

In 2013, Manson moved to Vermont to begin his tenure as the director of the music department at The Putney School, an independent boarding and day school in Putney. Now entering his second school year in the position, Manson says he has enjoyed overseeing the school’s broad range of musical offerings, which includes instruction in afro-cuban drumming and traditional celtic music along with jazz, choir and orchestra.

He also serves as the director of the school’s community orchestra, which includes Putney students, faculty, staff,and members of the local Windham County community.

“It’s wonderful to take the borders off of the school’s endeavor,” Manson said, “and it’s a good symphony orchestra size now — we have about 40 players. We’re doing pretty major symphonic repertoire there, and the choir is doing major choir repertoire.”

After Lawrence’s departure at the end of last season, the Bennington County Choral Society began searching for his replacement over the summer and eventually chose Manson from a field of 12 candidates.

As the current president and a 38-year member of the choral society, Linda Putney said the change has been exciting so far.

“All of [Manson’s] references said that he has an incredible energy, and it’s true. You wonder where he gets it all,” she said. “He has an incredible way of explaining how he wants us to sound and how to get that sound. He know what he wants to get from us — of course Ed did too — and that’s the sign of a good director.”

Linda Putney also said that Manson’s energy and humor have made rehearsals enjoyable for the chorus, and the time seems to pass quickly.

“The rehearsals have been very energetic and thrilling,” Manson said. “Some of that is me, but a lot of that is the excitement that the singers are bringing in. They’re really, really eager, which is great. And for me, having about an hour commute from Putney to come do it, it’s a good shot in the arm to have so much enthusiasm in the rehearsals.”

Manson made his Bennington debut in August when the chorus sang the national anthem at the Bennington Battle Day Parade, and he’s now working with the chorus to prepare for their first major concert in December.

“The theme is the majesty of music, and it’s a collection of pieces in either English or Latin (although we do have one piece that is in Church Slavonic) that discuss glory or majesty or any of those terms, in various contexts,” Manson explained.

The program will include two of Handel’s coronation anthems, which were composed for the 1727 crowning of England’s King George II and Queen Caroline, and other works by American composer Dominick Argento and British composers Ralph Vaughan Williams and John Rutter.

Putney and Manson both said they’re excited that the first few rehearsals have attracted about 70 singers, including at least 10 who are new to the group. With Manson at the helm, the chorus has been brainstorming some new ideas, like expanding to new venues and collaborating with other choruses in the area and beyond.

They also plan to hold the second performance of “The Majesty of Music” at St. James Episcopal Church in Arlington, Putney explained.

“We are a Bennington County Choral Society, so we want to sing not only in Bennington but also in other parts of the county,” Putney said. “We hope by singing there we will also draw other singers from the county.”

Interview: Sam Amidon

Published in Berkshires Week on September 3, 2014
Original article: http://www.berkshireeagle.com/berkshiresweek/ci_26459985/whose-woods-these-are-i-think-i-know

NORTH ADAMS — After performing at Wilco’s most recent Solid Sound festival in 2013, Brattleboro native Sam Amidon returns to Mass MoCA this Sunday to perform at FreshGrass, the museum’s yearly bluegrass and roots music festival. A confident fiddler, banjo player, guitarist and singer, Amidon will release his sixth solo album, “Lily-O,” on Sept. 30. Like his earlier albums, the songs on “Lily-O” are largely original re-imaginings of traditional American folk songs.

JPM: How do you think your music fits in the surroundings of Mass MoCA?
Sam Amidon: It’s right in the middle of beautiful New England, and many of the songs I sing — especially the shape note songs — come from that. It has all the weird, beautiful old brick, and the crazy modern art.

JPM: Alison Brown, another FreshGrass artist, said that modern art is built on the traditions and history of all the art that came before it, and today’s folk music is the same in that way.
SA: That’s true, definitely. In some ways, it’s more accidental that I sing folk songs, because I’m not singing them to be part of a genre or to try to preserve them or anything like that. It’s more because I love them and think they’re great songs and great stories. I come up with these guitar parts and mess around with the melodies, and its like a collage process. For me, it’s more a connection to a collage idea of not worrying so much about creating the whole thing, but just creating an installation place for stuff to happen. I think the tradition of folk music is very important, but it’s not really important while you’re making the music. It’s just something to worry about if it starts to die out, which, as this festival shows, there’s very little risk of happening.

JPM: You have a new album coming out soon, and like some of your other albums you’re using lyrics and themes from old folk songs. Where do you find that source material for your songs?
SA: Well, I find a lot of the material from the powerful field recordings that Alan Lomax made, the Southern Journey series of field recordings. There are some amazing musicians that he recorded on that trip, especially Bessie Jones, Almeda Riddle and the shape note Sacred Harp singers. But a lot of them I actually heard in New England, growing up in Vermont, because my parents are great folk singers and there are tons of really great traditional musicians around New England. I grew up going to contra dances and playing for contra dances in Greenfield on the fiddle, so a lot of the songs I first learned just from friends, just singing them, and it wasn’t until I was a teenager that I started checking out field recordings and hearing earlier versions. On this album there are definitely a few songs that I would have heard my parents singing. The earlier albums have more stuff from field recordings, and this album — in terms of source material — comes more from friends growing up, people who are my heroes but not ancient folk people living around New England. But once I bring the music into the studio I kind of forget about the source. By then you have to pretend you wrote it because that’s how you get inside it.

JPM: What do you mostly listen to?
SA: I’m an obsessive jazz nerd — I mostly listen to jazz from between 1945 and 1970. All the obvious names that people love, because they’re such great musicians — Thelonius Monk, Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Miles Davis — but I also like some other, weirder stuff. I love a lot of free jazz and experimental music, like Don Cherry and Ornette Coleman.
I listen to other things as well, but for some reason I’ve been totally lost in that universe for the past two years. I love listening to whatever I can find — I love listening to music, it’s one of my favorite activites in life. I like taking walks, listening to music and playing basketball.

JPM: It’s interesting that jazz is so far from the music you spend your time performing.
SA: I know, it’s funny. I think there is a connection though. An extremely important element of jazz is improvisation, but also when you’re listening to jazz, what you’re hearing is musicians in a room responding to each other. There’s a very exciting social element to that, for me. It’s social music.
There’s an amazing album called “Sonny Meets Hawk,” which is Sonny Rollins and Coleman Hawkins, who is the older statesman and Sonny Rollins is like the young punk. On the record there’s this completely amazing thing where Coleman Hawkins plays his classic jazz riffs, then Sonny Rollins comes in with this completely twisted parody of Coleman Hawkins. It’s totally bizarre, and you’re listening to the music and wondering “man, what are these guys feeling right now? This is so bizarre.” And then Coleman Hawkins comes back in and fights back. It’s not something that has been prepared in advance — you’re hearing all this interesting, powerful social interaction with people responding to things that happen and dealing with them in the moment, and that is true when you listen to folk music too.
If you listen to a great album of traditional Irish fiddle tunes or a field recording, that’s just a couple of people in a room hanging out. Maybe a baby walks in and starts crying or a knocks over something, or the guitar player plays a weird chord that nobody was expecting, and they all respond. For me, that’s the exciting thing about music. This album was recorded totally live, and I wanted it to have that element as well. That’s the connection for me. I love music where you’re hearing social interaction in real time.

JPM: Do you feel like you accomplished that goal, listening back to the album?
SA: Listening, I don’t know, but while playing I definitely felt it. We really were playing in the moment, and that was a very, very exciting feeling.

JPM: What do you have planned for your FreshGrass performance?
SA: On Sunday I’m pretty sure — and we’ll see if I can wake him up early enough — but I think I’m going to have Thomas Bartlett playing with me. We became friends during a very important screening of “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” in 1987, the original film, in Brattleboro. Then we ran into each other at a concert by the David Moss Dense Band, which was this weird experimental performance that our fathers both brought us coincidentally to, also around the age of 7. We formed a band around that time to play music, and he now does all kinds of shit. He’s the piano player on the last few records by the band The National, and Antony and the Johnsons, and he produces albums by Glen Hansard and all these different kinds of people. Now he has an incredible band called The Gloaming, who plays expansive Irish music. Thomas is going to come with me, which will be really fun, because we’ve been friends since we were little kids. I think he’s going to bring his drum machines and keyboards.

Feature: Robert Frost in Bennington

Published in Berkshires Week on September 3, 2014
Original article: http://www.berkshireeagle.com/berkshiresweek/ci_26459985/whose-woods-these-are-i-think-i-know

SHAFTSBURY — Bennington County is well known for its Revolutionary War history, but it holds a significant place in literary history as well. This area is the former home of Robert Frost, as well as his permanent resting place.

In 1920, having already published his famous collection, “North of Boston” and immortal poems like “Mending Wall” and “The Road Not Taken,” Robert Frost moved with his family to a small cape house in Shaftsbury, now known as the Robert Frost Stone House Museum. Although he would eventually move to his summer home in Ripton, much of his family remained here, and after his death in 1963 Frost returned to be interred in his family plot behind the Old First Church in Old Bennington, which he bought during his time in Shaftsbury.

“He didn’t go to church there, but he knew the minister,” said Carole Thompson, director of the Stone House Museum. “The land that goes over the Frost grave used to be Route 9 — the road to Albany used to go straight down the hill, to the right of the church. Sometime they re-cut the road to where it is now, and they opened up where the roadbed was as cemetery plots.”

Frost bought two plots for his family in the summer of 1940, and those plots have become the most visited in the cemetery. Wooden signs lead visitors from the entrance to Frost’s gravesite, where visitors often leave stones or coins, which are Jewish and military traditions respectively (although Frost himself was neither).

With the Appalachian Trail passing just east of Bennington through Woodford, Frost’s grave is a favorite stopping point for literary-minded hikers. For those seeking a shorter trek, the Robert Frost Trail connects Lake Paran in North Bennington to the edge of Frost’s former property in Shaftsbury, leading to the Stone House Museum — although run independently by the Fund for North Bennington.

The first section of the trail breaks off from the Lake Paran shore trail to climb some small hills, offering views of the surrounding mountains and the Bennington Battle Monument before reaching Paran Creek, where a bridge (decked out with some benches for relaxing) continues the trail into Shaftsbury.

The final section of the trail crosses through a thick wetland, which makes that section especially buggy with mosquitos and black legged ticks, which can carry lyme disease. Accordingly, closed shoes, long pants, bug spray and careful tick checks after the hike are all highly recommended.

At the museum, the marquee exhibit fills the smaller of the two main rooms, which happens to be the dining room where Frost wrote “Stopping By the Woods on a Snowy Evening” in the early morning after an all-night writing session in June 1922: “Whose woods these are I think I know. / His house is in the village though. / He will not see me stopping here / to watch his woods fill up with snow. …”

Although the dining room table is gone (replaced with a small table built from a Red Pine tree Frost planted), the entire room is dedicated to the legendary poem, which even Frost called his “best bid for remembrance.” The walls are covered with dissections, explanations and contextual notes about the poem, highlighting its meter, rhyme scheme, meaning and more.

The larger main room of the house contains several pieces of the Frosts’ furniture, as well as exhibits on the history of the house, biographical information on Frost and his family, as well as a changing exhibit, which currently explores the role and functions of trees in Frost’s poetry.

The house itself came to Frost’s son, Carol, as a wedding present in 1923, although Robert continued living there until 1928, when he purchased another house in Shaftsbury called “The Gully” (which is now privately owned and has been significantly altered). In 2002, the Friends of Robert Frost bought the Stone House to serve as a museum. Within the past year, the house has been remodeled to return it to its Frost-era appearance, which involved renovating the roof and repainting the outdoor trim.

“In those days, the stone house had a cedar roof, and the wood trim was painted barn red. That’s what we have returned it to,” said Lea Newman of the Friends of Robert Frost. “The red brings out the iron oxide in the stone, and we think it looks like a proper New England farmhouse.”

Preview: Garlic Fest

Published in Berkshires Week on August 27, 2014
Original article: http://www.berkshireeagle.com/berkshiresweek/ci_26416966/garlic-garlic-everywhere

BENNINGTON — Garlic ice cream? Garlic cupcakes? Garlic peanuts? Unexpected flavors will tempt the crowds this weekend when the annual Southern Vermont Garlic and Herb Festival returns to Camelot Village on Route 9 west just outside of downtown.

Along with music, kids entertainment, drinks and food, more than 100 vendors will sell their garlic, garlic-related products, herbs and crafts at the festival. Many of these foods and items will be made especially for the festival and hard to find elsewhere, so garlic lovers and local food enthusiasts alike can stock up now for the winter.

Here’s a quick preview of some of the rare and unusual garlic goodies to look for at this year’s Garlic Fest.

Garlic peanuts, spices, sauces and pottery from Bald Mountain Garlic Farm

In nearby Salem, N.Y., owner Bob Nopper at Bald Mountain Garlic Farm grows between 5,000 and 9,000 heads of garlic every year, selling some of it fresh and also using his harvest to make specialty garlic food products based on his own recipes. His recipe for garlic peanuts, one of his most popular foods, was inspired by another garlic lover he met at a similar festival, he said.

“Years ago at a festival in Greenwich, N.Y., there was a young girl who had smashed garlic cloves mixed in with peanuts and sautéed all together, and I thought that was interesting,” he said.

When he started making his own roasted garlic peanuts, Nopper said, he decided to use chips of garlic as well as pure garlic powder, both from his own farm.

Nopper also makes a chipotle flavor of his roasted garlic peanuts, a range of hot sauces that contain garlic, rosemary and chipotle garlic salts and — one of his favorites — a garlic ginger dipping sauce.

Nopper also creates handmade pottery in his studio in Hebron, N.Y., with a garlic twist, of course. He specializes in handmade, fired stoneware garlic presses, garlic keepers (for countertop storage) and garlic roasters — all of which he decorates with a sculpted garlic head.

The Southern Vermont Garlic & Herb Festival is one of his biggest events of the year, he said, and he has come for at least six years straight. He does not run a retail store or work with any local resellers, so the festival gives a rare chance to purchase Nopper’s unique garlic foods and pottery.

Garlic-chocolate cupcakes from Fancy Pants Cakes

With her garlic-chocolate cupcakes, Jenica McEvoy of Fancy Pants Cakes in Bennington is another Garlic Fest mainstay. McEvoy will bake more than 500 cupcakes for this year’s festival, each with garlic puree mixed into both the cupcake itself and its frosting — a recipe she invented specifically for Garlic Fest.

McEvoy also makes a mild version of her cupcakes for the garlic-timid, which she describes as merely having a garlic aftertaste, while the full-flavored recipe is stronger.

“Sometimes people want as much garlic as they can get,” she said. “If it’s your first garlic item of the day, you might think it’s pretty strong. You definitely taste it.”

Garlic-maple barbecue sauce from Vermont Tiny Kitchen

Attending her first Garlic Fest this year, Susan Grimshaw of Vermont Tiny Kitchen is excited to introduce the crowd to her Screaming Maple Barbecue sauce — which naturally contains garlic.

“It requires no molasses, brown sugar, white sugar or corn syrup,” she said, “just a very small amount of local Vermont maple syrup.”

While the syrup adds both flavor and sweetness, garlic is one of the keys to her sauce’s complex flavor.

Grimshaw is also known at the local farmers market for her bread and butter pickles (another garlic specialty) as well as her low-sugar jams, which she will also have for sale at the festival.

Garlic ice cream from Bart’s

One of the most unusual (and most talked-about) garlic foods of the festival is the garlic ice cream by Bart’s Homemade of Greenfield. A specialty flavor concocted specifically for, and only available at the festival, it has a sweet cream base without any other flavoring and chopped garlic chunks blended in.

While foods like Nopper’s peanuts or Grimshaw’s barbecue sauce might have broad appeal, its makers say this one may have a select fan base.

“It’s very popular at the festival, but it wouldn’t be something that we sell any other time of the year,” said Barbara Fingold, co-owner of Bart’s. “It’s the kind of thing that most people wouldn’t want to eat a 4-ounce regular serving of.”

Some people love it so much they come looking for more.

“We sometimes have garlic festival people come down and buy whole tubs that are left over at the end of the weekend, if they’re big fans of garlic,” she said.

Feature: Sculptor Lauren Ewing

Published in Berkshires Week on September 17, 2014
Original article: http://www.berkshireeagle.com/berkshiresweek/ci_26551871/installation-artist-returns-mountains

BENNINGTON — The cooler temperatures and changing leaves mark the return to classes for local students, teachers and professors, as well as the return of Bennington College’s visual arts lecture series, which brings esteemed artists from around the country to Bennington for free, open-to-the-public talks on their work and career.

Sculptor and artist Lauren Ewing will give this year’s first talk. Best known for her public sculpture installations, Ewing is also a respected teacher and former member of the Williams College faculty, said Bennington professor Jon Isherwood, making this visit a homecoming of sorts.

Besides her connection to Williams, Ewing’s relationship with this area has lasted decades. In 1980, she was one of several artists invited to spend the summer creating a site-specific sculpture installation on the Bennington campus.

“I built a piece, which has become one of my favorite pieces, called ‘A Powerhouse for Adam Smith,'” she said. “After I built the piece in Bennington, I built a simultaneously existing double at the New Museum in New York, so there was a piece in nature and a piece in culture. That had a lot to do with the dialogue that I was trying to establish by making the pieces to begin with.”

Ewing explained that the piece, a black building large enough to enter with text on the outside and a faux silk spinning machine on the inside, was based on the early history of the silk spinning history in Vermont.

It follows her interest in creating polyvocal works, she said — works which speak in several voices at once.

“With ‘Powerhouse for Adam Smith,’ you’re driving along a road and you look off the road and see a building. It’s a building that you recognize, but it’s an archetype of a building — you know it’s not a real factory,” she said. “You know it’s making reference to a factory. So it has image, it has text, it makes reference. The polyvocality is using image, scale, historical reference, text, and then having something operational inside of it, which this piece had.”

In creating her installations, Ewing said, she tries to make artwork that viewers can actively experience and immerse themselves in, intellectually and physically.

She often approaches her artwork with the goal of provoking thought from her viewers, she said, although the thought itself depends on the viewer’s own experiences rather than a premeditated message that Ewing is trying to purposely communicate.

“In all of my work, you’re looking at things you can see in the world and they’re being re-presented to you in a new context to get you, as the viewer, to think about them again,” she said.

This theory is especially apparent in works like “Subject/ Object Memory,” an arrangement of cabinets placed in a retail center parking lot in Pennsylvania, each covered with text listing modern items that the drawers might contain (hammer, chop sticks, wallet, electrical tape, eye shadow, etc.) on the front and descriptions of pre-modern life on the back. Another example is “The Library: A Device For Storing The Winds Of The World,” a small-scale neo-classical building (also painted black) installed on the Skidmore University campus in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

“When I was building ‘The Library,’ a little girl came up to me and she was probably about 4 years old, and she put her hands on her hips and said ‘Is this the government?’,” said Ewing. “It was because that form — that architectural type — has been used in so many official buildings in the United States and actually around the Western world. For me, it was a fabulous question, because I knew that it brought something up in her mind and memory.”

At Bennington, Ewing will also be speaking to Jon Isherwood’s class on Art in the Public Realm, a subject she is quite familiar with after creating many pieces outdoors, on campuses, in cities, and even inside Chase Manhattan Bank in New York.

“Part of the engagement of public art is to have your work in public places so people don’t have to leave the ordinary sphere of their daily activities and go into a museum,” she said. “Public art wants to go out into the public and be part of the ambient environment.”

“I invited her specifically for how she navigates this dynamic between imagery that is recognizable and an overlay of political or social implications” Isherwood said. “The range of work that she does is very appropriate to students at Bennington, and the social and politically engaged dynamic really fits with some of the students focus up here.”

Interview: William Jakubowski, Bennington Car Show

Published in Berkshires Week on September 10, 2014
Original article: http://www.berkshireeagle.com/berkshiresweek/ci_26505417/classic-wheels-roll

BENNINGTON — This weekend at Willow Park the Chamber of Commerce and local Rotary and Lions Clubs will host the 48th annual Bennington Car Show, drawing hundred of vendors, classic car owners and enthusiasts.

As the proud owner of a 1952 Ford F1 pickup truck and a member of the Norshaft Lions, William Jakubowski is one of the key figures behind the show, and it’s his job to get all the cars lined up and organized into their correct classes. We talked to Jakubowski about his truck and his expectations for this weekend’s show.

BWSV: How much work have you done on your truck?

WJ: I’ve had it for 17 years. It was painted when I first got it, and I had to put in a new pickup bed, the wood and the rails. And I did a lot of mechanical to it — I worked on the water pump, the carburetor, the generator. All the ‘rators.

BWSV: How did you first get interested in classic cars?

WJ: I’ve always been a car person. When I was 12 I would ride in the back with mom and dad and tell them the make and model of every car that we passed on the road. That’s much more difficult to do today, because everything is the same shape.

When I got married I had a 1965 Barracuda, which was an early muscle car, like the early Mustangs. Then I had a 1956 Chevy and worked on that, then I bought and restored a 1937 Oldsmobile. It was my friend’s winter beater car, and I restored it — I changed the tail lights back to original and changed the motor, because it was a street rod.

It had a small Chevy engine, and I put in a bigger Chevy engine with automatic transmission.

BWSV: Is the truck a big change from your previous cars?

WJ: The main change is my truck is all original. It has the original flat-head V8, three-speed standard-shift transmission on the steering wheel, and the idea is to keep it as original as possible. When I add things to it, I make sure they were available in 1952, either as standard or legitimate options. Also my ‘37 Olds had 300 horsepower, and my ‘52 Ford pickup has 95!

BWSV: How often do you drive your truck?

WJ: It’s registered as an antique, which means you’re not supposed to drive it on a daily basis, but you can use it to go to shows and cruise nights or exhibits, or for charitable purposes. I’ve been probably 160 or 170 miles away from town with it, but it is old and you don’t want to get too far away from home base.

BWSV: How important are shows like the Bennington Car Show for the classic car world?

WJ: Bennington is important for a couple of reasons. First is the vendors — a lot of our vendors sell old parts, some of which are what they call new old stock, which means it came from a car dealer and was never put on a car, but it’s new and original. Some of it is OEM — original equipment manufactured — which means it’s manufactured to the specifications of the cars. Twenty five years ago you absolutely had to go to a flea market, but today you can look at catalogs online. I have three different locations where I can find Ford truck parts, and for the most part they’re newly manufactured.

Another thing that is happening is that a lot of people are buying completed cars, whereas years ago you built it yourself, or you had a close friend who you relied on to help. Now, some of the vendors will sell you all the pieces you need to build a car — a rolling chassis with tires and wheels of your choice, or even a manufactured steel body for a ‘32 Ford. They say there are more ‘32-’34 Fords on the road today than Henry ever built.

BWSV: What are you looking forward to at the show?

WJ: I’ll be spending most of my time directing traffic and getting cars into the places they belong, and on Sunday I do the trophy awards, but when I go to a regular car show I look forward to meeting and greeting friends who share my hobby. It is a very social group of people.

We’re also trying to encourage tuner cars, which are usually foreign cars — Asian or German cars. Those are really the hot rods of today, because they’ll either re-work the motors or transmissions or put in a different motor just like we used to do in the ‘50s and ‘60s.

Feature: Northern Borders

Published in Berkshires Week on September 10, 2014
Original article: http://www.berkshireeagle.com/berkshiresweek/ci_26505412/northern-borders-returns-bennington

BENNINGTON — The cast of Jay Craven’s film “Northern Borders” brings in veteran actors — but Craven staffed his crew with a team of 34 students from 15 liberal arts colleges.

Set in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom and based on Howard Mosher’s 1994 novel, “Northern Borders” brings together Academy Award-nominated actors Bruce Dern and Geneviève Bujold, who play the grandparents of the film’s young protagonist, Austen Kittredge, played by Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick.

The film will return to the Bennington Museum for an encore screening at 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 12.

Craven chose his crew as part of a project, “Movies from Marlboro,” which offers undergraduates the opportunity to spend a semester gaining hands-on film production experience.

“It’s based on the John Dewey concept of intensive learning that enlarges meaning through the shared experience of joint action,” Craven said. “It’s the idea of taking on something and fully getting inside of it, and seeing how that can be a transformative educational process.”

Craven and his students began their semester with a week at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, where they started bonding and learning to cooperate while experiencing the industry and taking turns camping out overnight for screening tickets.

On their return, Craven said, they started six weeks of literature and cinema study, examining the work of New England authors like Mosher and the traditions of various northern cinema communities, like the films of Siberia, Sweden and Montana.

They also had the opportunity to meet with visiting artists, including “Northern Borders” author Mosher.

The students started gaining the skills and experience they would need to shoot the film with workshops in camera, lighting, sound, production design, screenwriting, directing and more. They also spent three hours each week refining the script, and they prepared for the actual shoot by visiting locations and costume warehouses in New York and Connecticut.

“Our hope was to push students as far into the structure of the film production as possible,” Craven said.

Students worked in important roles on the crew, like location manager, script supervisor, costume designer, assistant directors and camera operators. Students also directed 18 scenes from the film on their own, Craven said.

“The idea is they’re not just coming to be interns,” he said, “they’re coming to collaborate fully. If you look at the grip and electric departments, normally we would have five professional grips and five professional electrics. Here, where we usually had 10 professionals, we had three professionals. The rest were students, and they were expected to step up and function as peers with the professionals.”

The finished product lives up to his intention to make a real film suitable for international release, not just a student project, he said.

“People start a little wobbly, but by the fourth or fifth day they find a rhythm and a working collaboration that really starts to buzz,” he said. “I found it to be my most satisfying film production experience, and also my most satisfying educational experience at the same time.”

Since the film’s release in the spring of 2013, Craven has held screenings in more than 100 towns around Vermont and New England. Having set out on release tours like this before, Craven said they tie into the populist feel of his films.

“On some level, these are considered art films, but when you’re taking them to every nook and cranny, and 50 percent of your audience hasn’t been to the movies in 10 years or more, they’re not totally art films,” he said.

In touring his films, Craven said, his partnerships with local arts organizations are critical, including his partnership with the Bennington Museum for this screening and the initial sold-out showing in July.

Deana Mallory, the museum’s director of public programs, said she’s enthusiastic about the film’s return.

“For us, Jay and his films are really a perfect match,” she said. “We are focused on Vermont art and history and celebrating Vermont creativity in its various forms, and ‘Northern Borders’ is a great Vermont film, made by a great Vermont filmmaker.”

Mosher’s sense of humor makes the stories accessible to audiences, Craven said, but his characters are complex and can be difficult to unlock.

“When the films go into release they’re called westerns,” he added, “which is a little bizarre also, but that’s the closest the industry could come to figuring out what they are.”

His films deal with ideas westerns typically dealt with, he said.

“They deal with family,” he said, “and themes of an end of an era and a vanishing way of life.”

Feature Obituary: Rick Burgess

Published in Berkshires Week on September 5, 2014
Original article: http://www.benningtonbanner.com/ci_26470764/rick-burgess-remembered-devoted-musician-loyal-friend

BENNINGTON — In all parts of his life, as a family man, caretaker, musician and friend, Rick Burgess was known for giving everything he had.

After a short illness, Burgess passed away peacefully on Tuesday, surrounded by family. Shocked by the loss, members of the local community have responded with an outpouring of love and affection, remembering Burgess’ selflessness, kindness and heart.

“He was there for anybody, at any time, for anything,” said Ken Pallman, Burgess’ close friend and bandmate in the local band Blues Sanctuary. “Regardless of what was going on in his personal life or in his business life, he was there for the people that he loved. And frankly, he was there for just about anybody. He gave so many things to this town.”

Born in Bennington in 1950, Eric “Rick” Burgess attended Saint Francis de Sales Academy, Bennington Catholic High School, and Mount Anthony Union High School, graduating in 1968. A lifelong lover of music, Burgess became a member of the local band Pure Lard in 1969, quickly building a reputation and even performing in concert with legendary groups like The Byrds and The Guess Who.

In an interview on August 7, 2014, Burgess explained that his lifelong love of the blues started when a Pure Lard bandmate introduced him to the music of B.B. King.

“Right off the bat, the emotion and feeling that he played with really touched me,” said Burgess.

He would continue to play guitar, harmonica and sing the blues for the rest of his life, earning a place in the Blues Hall of Fame along with his band, Blues Sanctuary. With his deep, gritty voice, Burgess had a unique talent for tapping into the rich history of American blues music, as well as for connecting with audiences.

“My parents had foster kids all throughout my early adolescence. Fred Chandler was the very first foster kid we ever had, and Rick was one of Fred’s best friends,” said Jim Carroll of Bennington, who said he first met Burgess as a 12-year-old. “All the two of them ever wanted to do was play music, and they were so good.”

“He was far more than a bandmate for me,” said Pallman, who plays drums in Blues Sanctuary. “Rick was my confidant, he was my mentor, my advisor, my golf buddy, my musical partner, the godfather of my daughter, my spiritual advisor, and truly my best friend.”

Burgess was also blessed with a great passion and talent for helping others, working with the residents and veterans at Bennington Health and Rehab and the Vermont Veterans’ Home.

“He wasn’t just there working and doing his job — he was there caring for those residents,” Pallman said. “There wasn’t anybody that he didn’t take the time to get to know and care about.”

His passions for music and helping people often intersected, as he frequently signed up the band to play benefit concerts.

“We would go play concerts for the Veterans’ Home, without anybody even knowing we were doing them. Rick would book these shows, and we wouldn’t get paid for them, but those gigs were great,” said Pallman. “The veterans were probably one of the best audiences we ever had, it was such a pleasure to play for them. Whatever it took to help his fellow man, Rick was there.”

Friends also remember Burgess as a great parent and grandparent, offering his time to coach Little League, youth basketball and football.

“He had a heart of gold,” said Doug Crossman of Shaftsbury, one of Burgess’ longtime friends. ‘A great father, great grandfather, and just great to everybody. He was always smiling, never saw him mad at anybody and I never heard him say a bad word about anybody. He was just always there for whoever needed him. He was an amazing man.”

“Whenever the phrase ‘larger than life’ is spoken, I will always remember Rick as one of those people,” added Jim Carroll. “There was no pretense about him. He was just a really good, good guy.”

After word spread of his passing, members of the Bennington community flocked to the Blues Sanctuary Facebook page, bonding together over photos, stories, and kind words thanking Burgess for his years of friendship, music and kindness.

“When you played the blues, you took away ours. Thanks for that incredible gift” said one commenter, under the online pseudonym Ethan Allen.

Burgess is survived by Michele, his wife of 38 years, their three children and six grandchildren.

His friends also describe him as a devout Christian, describing his relationship with God as “second to none.”

Burgess’ bandmates in Blues Sanctuary will be performing in his honor this evening at 6 p.m. on the front porch of the town offices on South Street in Bennington. Pallman says the band will be happy to collect any donations to the family at the performance.

When asked to explain put their feelings about Burgess for this article, many of his friends explained how hard it was for them to capture his immense personality and spirit in words. Although he too expressed some hesitation, Doug Crossman put it most simply.

“Heart of gold,” he said. “That’s all there is to Ricky Burgess. Heart of Gold.”

Jack McManus is the Banner’s arts editor. Contact him at jmcmanus@benningtonbanner.com. Follow him on Twitter @Banner_Arts

Feature: Essential Prayers

Published in Berkshires Week on September 24, 2014 Original article: http://www.berkshireeagle.com/berkshiresweek/ci_26596672/riffing-prayer

Starting this Friday evening, a group of young musicians will be returning to Bennington College, their...

Feature: BCCS’ Cailin Manson

Published in Berkshires Week on September 25, 2014 Original article: http://www.berkshireeagle.com/berkshiresweek/ci_26596555/new-leader-enlivens-choral-society

BENNINGTON — After 38 years under the direction of Edwin Lawrence, who recently retired, the Bennington...