© Zachary P. Stephens / Brattleboro Reformer

Dancers from the Brattleboro School of Dance rehearse for their spring show “Momentum” at the New England Youth Theatre in Brattleboro, which will showcase more than 100 dancers performing ballet, jazz, tap, modern and even belly dance.

Performances of “Momentum” are Fridays and Saturdays, May 18, 19, 25 and 26 at 7:30 p.m., and Sundays May 20 and 27, at 4 p.m.

Tickets are $12.50, $10 for seniors and are available in advance at Everyone’s Books. Tickets will also be for sale at the door.

For more information, call the Brattleboro School of Dance at 802-254-6884 or visit www.brattleboroschoolofdance.com.

Purchase photos here.

The Hulk from Madame Tussauds New York peers out of a manhole at the Con Ed Learning Center in Queens, New York on Thursday, April 19, 2012. The interactive Marvel Super Heroes Experience opens at Madame Tussauds New York on Thursday, April 26.  (Jim Sulley/newscast) This is a really cool photo and it gives me the opportunity to remind you all that The Avengers movie opens this weekend! (I’m excited) It will be playing at The Latchis starting with a midnight showing on Thursday.
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The Hulk from Madame Tussauds New York peers out of a manhole at the Con Ed Learning Center in Queens, New York on Thursday, April 19, 2012. The interactive Marvel Super Heroes Experience opens at Madame Tussauds New York on Thursday, April 26.  (Jim Sulley/newscast)


This is a really cool photo and it gives me the opportunity to remind you all that The Avengers movie opens this weekend! (I’m excited)

It will be playing at The Latchis starting with a midnight showing on Thursday.

© Peter Simon / www.petersimon.com via The Brooks Memorial Library Peter Simon will present a slide show of his photographs, taken for his 2001 book, I and Eye: Pictures of My Generation, in the library’s Meeting Room on Friday, May 4, at 7 PM.I and Eye is an astonishing record of the far-ranging experiences of Simon’s generation, in which he has captured many of the major figures and events—in both the mainstream and the counterculture—of the past 40 years. Among his many eclectic subjects are the “New Age” quest for spirituality, reggae culture, the Grateful Dead, the New York Mets, and life on Martha’s Vineyard. Peter Simon is a nationally acclaimed photographer, photojournalist, author, music historian, and instructor who has turned his enthusiasms into a highly entertaining and insightful career of articles, books, CDs, fine art prints, and calendars. His work has been published in many newspapers and magazines, including Time, Newsweek, People, Village Voice, Atlantic Monthly, Cape Cod Life, Boston Magazine, New York Magazine, The New York Times, and Rolling Stone.
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© Peter Simon / www.petersimon.com

via The Brooks Memorial Library

Peter Simon will present a slide show of his photographs, taken for his 2001 book, I and Eye: Pictures of My Generation, in the library’s Meeting Room on Friday, May 4, at 7 PM.

I and Eye is an astonishing record of the far-ranging experiences of Simon’s generation, in which he has captured many of the major figures and events—in both the mainstream and the counterculture—of the past 40 years. Among his many eclectic subjects are the “New Age” quest for spirituality, reggae culture, the Grateful Dead, the New York Mets, and life on Martha’s Vineyard.

Peter Simon is a nationally acclaimed photographer, photojournalist, author, music historian, and instructor who has turned his enthusiasms into a highly entertaining and insightful career of articles, books, CDs, fine art prints, and calendars. His work has been published in many newspapers and magazines, including Time, Newsweek, People, Village Voice, Atlantic Monthly, Cape Cod Life, Boston Magazine, New York Magazine, The New York Times, and Rolling Stone.

Then and Now

Jim Powers/Brattleboro Reformer

Fire and smoke billow from the Paramount Theatre in downtown Brattleboro on Tuesday, April 30, 1991. Officials were still investigating the cause of the fire that destroyed the building. Nobody was injured.

Zachary P. Stephens/Reformer

Formally the Paramount Theatre, this building is now home to the Brattleboro Bicycle Shop and soon to be Penelope Wurr Glass.

This is Les Nicholas, a pioneer in the development of electronic organs and former employee of the Estey Organ Company. In this photo he is playing an AS1 Electronic Organ that he built with Harald Bode in 1958, which is on display at the Estey Organ Museum in Brattleboro, Vt. The portrait is to illustrate a story that we are doing about the Estey Organ Museum receiving a donation of another electronic organ that Les built when employed at Estey in the 1950s. Read the story here. The portrait is shot with two strobes. One as the key light attached to a pipe with a ball bungee at camera left. The second strobe is sitting on a bench at camera right and is acting as a fill. Rather than sitting Les down and posing him for this portrait, I asked him to just play a bit for me. My intention is to get a more natural and candid look. Les sat down and started to play commenting that the organ is terribly out of tune. “Don’t worry, you can’t hear the photo,” I say. Purchase photos here.
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This is Les Nicholas, a pioneer in the development of electronic organs and former employee of the Estey Organ Company.

In this photo he is playing an AS1 Electronic Organ that he built with Harald Bode in 1958, which is on display at the Estey Organ Museum in Brattleboro, Vt.

The portrait is to illustrate a story that we are doing about the Estey Organ Museum receiving a donation of another electronic organ that Les built when employed at Estey in the 1950s. Read the story here.

The portrait is shot with two strobes. One as the key light attached to a pipe with a ball bungee at camera left. The second strobe is sitting on a bench at camera right and is acting as a fill.

Rather than sitting Les down and posing him for this portrait, I asked him to just play a bit for me. My intention is to get a more natural and candid look.

Les sat down and started to play commenting that the organ is terribly out of tune.

“Don’t worry, you can’t hear the photo,” I say.

Purchase photos here.

© Zachary P. Stephens / Brattleboro Reformer

Earth Day is this Sunday, April 22, 2012.

We have come a long way since I was a kid when it comes to recycling. I remember learning the three R’s in elementary school, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle and the talk about the hole in the ozone layer.

Since then, large efforts have been made worldwide to be conscious of our consumption and waste. Yet there is still a long way to go. People are still just throwing their trash out the window and illegally dumping in remote areas of our scenery.

It is remarkable that this is still happening.

Littering penalties in Vermont include fines up to $500 and in New Hampshire fines up to $2000.

Do your part and accept responsibility for your waste. We only have one planet and we are killing it.

Visit www.earthday.org and www.greenupvermont.org for information on what you can do to help.

Purchase photos here.

(via Barack Obama sits inside Rosa Parks bus) This is a really fantastic image from White House photographer Pete Souza of President Barack Obama sitting on the Montgomery, Ala., city bus made famous by Rosa Parks, at the Henry Ford Museum. It’s powerful, iconic and emotional. There is even something about the lighting that really works in this shot. I assume that it’s an on-camera flash bounced off of the ceiling, perhaps with a little dome diffuser on top. Nothing fancy but it works.
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(via Barack Obama sits inside Rosa Parks bus)

This is a really fantastic image from White House photographer Pete Souza of President Barack Obama sitting on the Montgomery, Ala., city bus made famous by Rosa Parks, at the Henry Ford Museum.

It’s powerful, iconic and emotional. There is even something about the lighting that really works in this shot. I assume that it’s an on-camera flash bounced off of the ceiling, perhaps with a little dome diffuser on top. Nothing fancy but it works.

Source: MSN

Then and Now

Courtesy of the Brattleboro Historical Society

The Masonic Temple in Brattleboro several decades ago.

© Zachary P. Stephens / Brattleboro Reformer

The Masonic Center on Main Street in Brattleboro, present day.

Not a whole lot has changed but at least that irritating telephone pole is out of there!!

(via Washington Post) This guy was a really amazing photographer and filmmaker. I highly recommend watching his film Restrepo which he filmed in the Korengal Valley of  Afghanistan. This type of work, photographing war, is so dangerous, depressing and beyond explanation. It takes very dedicated and selfless people to do the job. Hetherington will go down in history as one of the great photographers of our time. -ZPS “This self-portrait by Tim Hetherington was taken 11 days before his death on April 20, 2011. Hetherington and fellow photographer Chris Hondros were killed by Libyan forces in a mortar attack while covering the conflict in the besieged city of Misurata.” The late filmmaker Tim Hetherington’s solo exhibition will be available for viewing at the Yossi Milo Gallery in New York through May 19. Featured work includes Hetherington’s “sleeping soldier” series, other work from the deadly Korengal Valley of Afghanistan and coverage of Liberia.
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(via Washington Post)

This guy was a really amazing photographer and filmmaker. I highly recommend watching his film Restrepo which he filmed in the Korengal Valley of  Afghanistan.

This type of work, photographing war, is so dangerous, depressing and beyond explanation. It takes very dedicated and selfless people to do the job.
Hetherington will go down in history as one of the great photographers of our time. -ZPS

“This self-portrait by Tim Hetherington was taken 11 days before his death on April 20, 2011. Hetherington and fellow photographer Chris Hondros were killed by Libyan forces in a mortar attack while covering the conflict in the besieged city of Misurata.”

The late filmmaker Tim Hetherington’s solo exhibition will be available for viewing at the Yossi Milo Gallery in New York through May 19. Featured work includes Hetherington’s “sleeping soldier” series, other work from the deadly Korengal Valley of Afghanistan and coverage of Liberia.

Source: Washington Post

Vehicle rollover

© Zachary P. Stephens / Brattleboro Reformer

Scanner:…..rollover on Putney Road…..

-What was that? A rollover?

-I think so.

-On Putney Road?

-I’ll go check it out.

Traffic starts to back up as I approach the Shell station. I wait for a minute or two in the line to see if it’s going to start moving. Nothing.

I swerve into the breakdown lane and park at the Shell station. I hope I don’t get towed.

I start hoofing it down to towards the emergency lights. If traffic is stopped it means that the photos will probably be better.

Wow. There really is a car on it’s roof on Putney Road. Interesting.

Despite the look of the scene the atmosphere is quite calm.

Turns out there were no injuries. That’s good. It’s hard to get excited about getting some dramatic photos and hoping that no one is hurt at the same time. Sometimes this life is emotionally conflicting. Luckily it was OK this time.

How did it happen?

Someone was stopped in the northbound lane to turn. The approaching car from the rear did not see the stopped car until the last minute. They swerved into the rock ledge and flipped the car. Minor injuries. They were lucky.

Oops.