Lucy...

“A truly gifted performer, full of enchanting songs,” gushes The New Yorker.

“The troubadour of modern city folk,” exclaims The Boston Globe.

“As warm and tasty as cinnamon tea, as hopeful as daybreak,” proclaims Rolling Stone.

Frigg

What do you name a seven-piece power string band with enough acoustic groove to set the fjords on fire?

How ‘bout, well…

“Frigg?”

Stay with me here.

Yes, this band’s name is Frigg.

I know.

A bit strange, perhaps, until you consider their home turf: Scandinavia.

Frigg, as any self-respecting Scandinavian will gently remind you, is the Norse goddess of love and fertility.

Pete writes:

Friends - WELL.... I wasn't gonna do it myself, but I was cruising YouTube today and incredibly, it appears that someone in a Reagan mask broke into MY house, grabbed a CHEAP guitar - thank the goddess he didn't touch my 00018 - and sang MY song almost verbatim.

From Pete Sutherland: Ok, friends - it's "open season".... hope to hear from you (and note that it's been proven time and time again that you don't need to possess an excess of MUSICAL talent to be good at parody-making)  - Pete

NOWHERE MA'AM

She's a real nowhere ma'am
Gov'nor of her nowhere land
Never dreamed that Uncle Sam would want her

Got a righteous point of view
Knows where Big Oil's flowin' to
Ain't she just like "W" and Cheney?

   Nowhere ma'am - please listen

Most folks who’ve ever listened to the blues casually assume that this time-worn and much-appropriated musical genre is more or less focused on all things depressing – cheatin’, lyin’, stealin’, boozin’, lustin’, heartbreak, and life’s many other sorrows and woes.

While this is certainly true, there is an often-overlooked playful aspect to blues music, as well, and few blues musicians capture the clever side of blues better than Massachussetts blues veteran Chris Smither.

One of Scotland's finest singer/songwriters...and hearing him in the Chandler would be a phenomenal acoustic experience.

Bess O’Brien is a filmmaker who lives in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. Her newest film, Shout it Out, is in many ways a collaboration with its cast, a group of teenagers whose thoughts about being young in Vermont helped form the script. The movie will be touring the state this summer. Vermont Commons editor Rob Williams conducted this interview.

VC: Describe the genesis of the Shout it Out, “The Voices Project” movie. Where did the idea come from?

BIG TOP REVIEW - Smirkusology: The Science of “Circus Smirkus”

I’ve always liked the circus, and, like many, have considered running away to join it from time to time, as the old adage goes.

For those who haven’t seen Vermont’s very own “Circus Smirkus,” it is a unique one-ring show, featuring teenagers trained at the Greensboro-based circus camp in all kinds of Big Top-related activities – juggling, clowning, tumbling, and hanging by various parts of one’s body from all manner of contraptions suspended from the top of the tent.

by Jane Dwinell and Dana Dwinell-Yardley

Worried about high gas prices affecting everything from food to fun? Wondering what to do about your summer vacation? Try having one close to home. There are so many things to do in Vermont — so many reasons people from everywhere else to want to visit here. It’s your turn to discover Vermont.

Rob Hopkins' The Transition Handbook is a new, tremendously useful, and inspiring book on how to move, as the subtitle says, "From oil dependency to local resilience."

Richard Heinberg has spent a lot of time visiting Transition Towns in the UK, and he describes the movement as looking "more like a party than a protest march."

And it is a party, not a protest. The Transition Town philosophy is about making change where you are, with the people around you, not pressuring someone else to make the change for you.

Here's one small way this book has helped me:
I give a lot of peak oil slide shows, and I was intrigued by his suggestion for a "do-it-yourself" peak oil slideshow. You create the slideshow by printing up each slide on a piece of 8.5x11 paper, with circles and arrows (or, in any case, a paragraph) explaining the slide on the back of each one, and then hand the cards out to the audience. Each person's job is to meet every other person in the room and explain the slide he or she has. By the time everyone has met everyone else, they have had quite an introduction to peak oil. It really gets people invested in the ideas and helps them get to know each other!

I haven't tried the full DIY slideshow yet, but the idea has inspired me to cut off the final part of my standard slideshow and replace it with a visioning exercise about the future of Vermont. I then ask the audience to break up into small groups and share their visions. The room comes to life when they do it!

Though the book came out in March or so in the UK, it's not scheduled to be distributed in the US until September.* Normally, I try to buy books at local bookstores. This one is too good to wait that long for. You can order it online, with quick and surprisingly inexpensive shipping from the UK.