DANCE - FINE ARTS - MUSIC - THEATER - WRITING

ARTBITS by Richard B. Harper


VOLUME 14 * * All Arts News On the Web * * February 24, 2011

STUFF YOU SHOULDN'T MISS

      ArtBits always features a calendar of the goings on of Franklin County artists. Check out these events around Franklin County. Each issue includes the entire text of our weekly newspaper column.


      Stop in for live music and more at the Fairfax Music Sessions at the Foothills Bakery in Fairfax most Saturday afternoons at 1 p.m., at various restaurants around Franklin County throughout the week, at the Bayside in St Albans Town most Sunday afternoons, and the Cambridge CoffeeHouses at 7 p.m. on the first and third Wednesday of every month.
     These gatherings bring new opportunities, gossip, "show-and-tell" and occasional workshops. The booked performances and acoustic Open Mike Nights feature music, readings, and more from the best new artists in Vermont.

      Find links to these events and more in our Spotlight!

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VERMONT READS

      The Vermont Humanities Council program, Vermont Reads, presents Dorothy Canfield Fisher: A Vermonter for the World in the Swanton Public Library on Monday at 7 p.m. She was a regional writer who used our region in fiction and non-fiction to blast discrimination, intolerance, brutality, and fraud. This living history presentation by Helene Lang showcases her life's vibrant and compelling works.
      A Kansan by birth, Ms. Fisher spent her adult life in Vermont and set many of her books here. Eleanor Roosevelt named her one of the ten most influential women in the United States.
      Vermont Reads has events around the state.
      The program is open to the public and admission is free. Call Pauline Pare (802.868.3841) for more info.


ART ON THE WALLS

STOWE--The Northern Vermont Artists Association non-juried member show, Anything but Landscapes, draws to a close at the Art Gallery in Stowe. Call 802.253.6007 for more info.


ON FILM

MORRISVILLE--The River Arts Bissell Film Series presents The Summer of Walter Hacks this evening at 7 p.m. The film tells the 1952-story of an eleven-year-old small town farm boy and his sidekick, Margaret. He has a typical farm life with his dad, his brother, no television, and no cell phones. Days are full of chores before and after school of milking cows and, in the summer, haying the fields. His life will take a sudden and tragic turn just before school lets out for his summer of chores and haying.
      Director and co-writer George Woodard is often called the "dairy farmer from Vermont" with thirty years of farming and theatrical experience. He made Ethan Frome with Liam Neeson and Patricia Arquette. He spent several years acting on stage and film in Los Angeles until he returned home to look after his family's farm. Producer and co-writer Gerianne Smart is a graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts who runs a marketing, promotion and advertising company in Ferrisburgh. She has performed off-off (off!) Broadway and in bit parts in industrials and print. She served as president of the historic Vergennes Opera House restoration project.
      River Arts will hold a film maker talk with Mr. Woodard and Ms. Smart after the show.
      Admission is by suggested donation of $5.

     The Dibden Center for the Arts will reprise the film on March 9 at 8 p.m. at Johnson State College.


ST. ALBANS--The St. Albans Free Library presents the DVD new release of Alpha and Omega as this Friday's movie matinee tomorrow at 1 p.m. The ultimate (and comedic) road-trip adventure stars Justin Long, Dennis Hopper, Danny Glover, Christina Ricci, and more in the story of two young wolves in a foreign land.
      Call Mary Pat (802.524.1507) for more info.


ON STAGE LIVE

ST. ALBANS--The Blue Acorn presents O’hAnleigh this evening at 8 p.m. O'hAnleigh (Gaelic for Hanley) is father-daughter duo Tom and Becca Hanley and fiddler Cindy Hill, a Middlebury-based Celtic trio with rousing pub songs, storytelling ballads, jealous lovers, and Tin Pan Alley tunes.
      Call 802.527.0669 for more info.


CANCELLED--Flynn Center for the Performing Arts was to have presented Kailash Kher on Saturday and Higher Ground was to present Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys with Yankee Chank on Sunday in benefits for the Tom Sustic Fund. Both the national tour from India and the Cajun show have been cancelled.
      Call 86.FLYNN, Click here, or here for more info.


MARK YOUR CALENDARS--The 5th Annual Mardi Gras Party and Silent Auction to benefit the Franklin County Court Diversion and Community Justice Programs will be held on Saturday, March 5 at Chow! Bella. The Fabulous Spiders will play after dinner, so people buy just a reduced priced ticket to dance.
      Call 802.527.5560 or 802.527.1112 for tickets or more info.


CLICK HERE: ART SITE OF THE WEEK

     Project Gutenberg (often called PG) is a volunteer project to digitize and archive written works, and to make electronic books freely available online. It now has over 34,000 items in its collection. Most are released in English. The project Gutenberg is hosted at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
      From the first project -- the digitization of the U.S. Declaration of Independence -- at least one version of each book is a plain text file that can be read on most computers and many styles of e-readers and smart phones. The library formats works in HTML, PDF, EPUB, MOBI, Plucker, and others whenever possible.
      Writer Michael S. Hart founded PG in 1971 by typing most of the early works in himself. He named the project for fifteenth century German printer Johannes Gutenberg whose printing press brought books to every home. It is the oldest all-digital library in the world.

     Seven of Dorothy Canfield Fisher's works are available now at PG.


FRANKLIN COUNTY BOOKSHELF

      ArtBits features a quick weekly peek at the bookshelf or night stand of the folks you know in and around Franklin County. That popular feature has a page of its own at the Franklin County Bookshelf here on the AAC site.


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      This article was originally published in the St Albans Messenger and other traditional print media. It is Copyright © 2011 by Richard B. Harper. All rights reserved. Archival material is provided as-is. Links are not necessarily maintained (if a link in this article fails, try Google.com or your favorite search engine).
      Thanks to recent misuse of copyright material on the Internet by individuals and archival firms alike, we emphasize that your rights to this article are limited to viewing it and printing it for personal use only. You must receive explicit permission from the All Arts Council and the author before reprinting or redistributing this article in any medium.