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Asheville’s Arts Slowly Coming Back

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on October 21, 2025| 2 Comments »

Photo: Erin Brethauer.
Marquee hosted more than 300 artists and small business owners in Asheville, North Carolina, before Hurricane Helene, a devastating storm in 2024.

When Hurricane Helene washed through Asheville, North Carolina, last year, my childhood friend Ursula was one of the many who lost out. Her basement washed out, not only forcing her to stay at a neighbor’s but damaging many of her father’s artworks and the materials for her own weaving. At the same time, Asheville lost its whole arts district.

Now Ursula is rebuilding, and so is Asheville.

Jonathan Abrams writes at the new York Times, “Jeffrey Burroughs strolled among crooked trees and clumsily leaning chain-link fences on a recent Thursday afternoon in Asheville’s lower River Arts District. Nearby, heaps of flood-damaged antiques dotted the ground outside gaptoothed buildings that had previously housed hundreds of working artists.

“ ‘It’s nice that at least it’s green,’ Burroughs, president of the River Arts District Artists, said of the bent trees. ‘It was really depressing through the winter and the fall.’

“Burroughs, who uses they/them pronouns, is not joking when they say they have taken just two days off in the more than 10 months since Hurricane Helene, the deadliest hurricane to strike the mainland United States since Katrina in 2005, ravaged wide swaths of the Southeast, leaving at least 250 people dead.

“The storm overwhelmed Asheville’s French Broad River, submerging much of the once robust River Arts District in as much of 24 feet of water, caking it in layers of mud and destroying the life’s work and financial pipeline of hundreds of artists. …

“ ‘People were prepared because this area has flooded’ in the past, Burroughs said. ‘They moved everything up. Nobody anticipated second floors would flood. That’s not something you even conceive.

‘All of a sudden, it was like a lake opened in the middle of our town.’ …

“Over the past few decades, the River Arts District blossomed into that sprawling artistic epicenter as antiquated buildings transformed into bustling studios, classrooms, galleries and showrooms. The district’s recovery is seen as a crucial step in regaining a steadiness of income and the sense of normalcy for the many who lost so much in the storm.

“ ‘The business owners in the River Arts District have been working their tails off to rebuild since Hurricane Helene struck and I am making sure the state works with that same urgency to support their recovery,’ said Gov. Josh [Stein] who recently toured the district on a bike.

“The River Arts District housed nearly 750 artists before the hurricane. ‘You’re just immersed in art,’ said Davis Perrott, a woodworker who recalled waking up from the storm to a sound like someone forcefully slamming themselves against his window. ‘I’m sure there are other areas like it, but I haven’t seen it.’

“The upper portion of the district, which houses Burroughs’s jewelry store, returned fully in January. A few spaces have reopened in the lower portion of the district, which is closer to the river and suffered the most flooding.

“About 350 of the displaced artists are working again in the district. Some are actively involved in the continuing recovery process, waiting to return to the home that welcomed them.

“Others have decided not to return. For them, the risk of another storm outweighed anything else.

“Riverview Station was a major hub in the district, once hosting hundreds of artists, including the 14,000-square-foot ceramics space, the Village Potters Clay Center. That was before ’26 feet of water went through and wiped us out,’ said Sarah Wells Rolland, its founder. …

“The center was home to studios, showrooms, a gallery and classrooms where workshops were held. Wells Rolland said that $500,000 worth of equipment was lost in the flooding.

“ ‘I never even entertained going back,’ she said. … ‘I believe it’ll all wash away again.’

“Instead, Wells Rolland opened a new center near the arts district. While her business has returned, she is still searching for her creative spark.

“ ‘I’ve lost a lot of people. … Just numb is what I felt. I didn’t have any ideas. Still, almost a year out, I’m a highly creative person, but I still don’t feel like I have that creative energy yet.’

“As the district returns in fits and bursts, it could provide a blueprint for how other communities ravaged by increasingly destructive natural disasters can recuperate their livelihoods. Those affected have been depending much more on smaller networks of supporters and volunteers than on any government channels. …

“Marquee, an art gallery that hosted more than 300 artists, [anticipated] a September reopening, with other businesses in the lower district.

“ ‘We’re able to tweak the things that we wished we’d have done the first time before we opened and now we’re getting to get it all right,’ said Robert Nicholas, the building’s owner.

“Despite the devastation it caused, the storm reinforced what had drawn many to the district in the first place, heightening their sense of community.” More at the Times, here.

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Using Legos for Advocacy

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on October 20, 2025| 6 Comments »

Photo: Colleen Cronin/ecoRI News.
Lego artist Andrew Grover stands with his creation and the schoolhouse its modeled after in Burrillville, Rhode Island.

Today’s story about preserving an old schoolhouse reminds me of a teacher I used to work with. She received her training in what was called a normal school. It was a long time ago. Like the schoolhouse in the article, her first school was heated by a wood stove. She had to arrive very early to start the fire and get the little school heated up enough for students.

In Burrillville, Rhode Island, there’s a little schoolhouse like that on a lovely piece of land, and local preservation advocates are using a conservation easement to protect it in perpetuity. To promote the idea of conservation easements in general, they have enlisted the help of a locally renowned Lego builder.

“Bright red doors, low-pitched roofs, masterful craftsmanship all describe two local houses,” Cronin reports. “Neither have bathrooms or full-time occupants, but they share a simple elegance and a story.

“One is the work of Pascoag masons nearly 200 years ago, and the other is the creation of Rhode Island Lego artist Andrew Grover this spring.

“Grover built a model of the former, what was once known as the Eagle Peak Schoolhouse, for the Burrillville Land Trust. The artwork is a part of an effort to bring awareness to a land conservation mechanism known as a conservation easement — a deed restriction that was placed on the old schoolhouse property by its owners to keep the building and the 25 or so acres surrounding it preserved in perpetuity.

“The conservation easement ‘is something that will ride with the land forever,’ Burrillville Land Trust president Paul Roselli told ecoRI News.

“Unlike selling or donating the land to a trust, municipality or the state, the owners still own the property when they place it in a conservation easement. They can sell it, pass it on to relatives or donate it, but based on the condition of the easement, they and any future owners must maintain the historic structure on the property and cannot further develop the land.

“The role of the Lego model, which was funded by the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, is to get a conversation going about the property and how it is being saved for future generations. …

“Grover, known for his Lego models of some of Rhode Island’s most grandiose architecture, said the schoolhouse is the smallest structure he has recreated. The small size actually made his job a little harder than usual, because he had to make sure it’s simple beauty translated in the Lego medium and avoided making the model look like a box.

“He added texture to the mock stone façade to create depth and built a partial stone wall around the building. Grover said the construction was done over the course of several weeks, and consists of more than 1,000 pieces. …

“Grover got involved with the project and the land trust through his love of hiking. To the lifelong Rhode Islander, Burrillville is one of those rare parts of the state that still has rural charm, and hiking through it frequently, he started to realize how much of the town isn’t protected against development.

“ ‘There’s so much development pressure in the state that when you find an area like that it has to be treated like a gem,’ Grover said. …

“Carol Murphy and Roberta Lacey, the married couple who bought and rehabbed the schoolhouse, agree that the natural world needs protection, which was why they purchased the property in the first place. …

“Although they have made a few updates, including replacing the knob and tube electrical work that is a fire hazard and insurance nuisance, the couple has tried their best to return the building that once hosted the children of 19th-century quarry workers and farmers to its old glory.

“A wood stove sits at the center of the room, in front of one of the desks from the 1800s that belonged to the space when it was a classroom. The original blackboard sits in the little kitchen, which doesn’t have any appliances besides a sink.

“It was built in 1824 and its original use isn’t clear, according to Lacey, who is a member of the land trust. In the 1850s, it was donated for use as a school and operated as one until the Bridgeton School opened in the 1890s. …

“ ‘It’s a land that’s so precious to us,’ said Murphy, noting that every time she visits the old schoolhouse it takes her breath away.

“There are only a few outlets in the house and an outhouse in the back, so Lacey and Murphy don’t live there but enjoy it for recreational purposes. The Conservation Commission and Burrillville Land Trust have also held a few meetings there.

“Lacey said, ‘It’s like the honor of my life actually to be able to do this and try to preserve this property.’ ”

In New Shoreham, Rhode Island, an old house called Smilin’ Through (in remembrance of a song written there) has similar protection, but people can live in it. In my opinion, it’s a little dark inside for comfortable living, but the land around it is breathtaking.

More at ecoRI News, here.

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Tribal Radio Needed CPB

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on October 19, 2025| 4 Comments »

Any one change has a cascading effect, and for tribes’ radio stations, the recent change to Corporation for Public Broadcasting has posed an existential threat. More than music is involved here. It’s about keeping a culture alive.

Neel Dhanesha reports at Neiman Lab, “In the most remote parts of Alaska, staying in touch can involve a bit more effort than sending a text. Cell service is spotty, highways are nonexistent, and the postal service remains a vital lifeline, delivering supplies and mail by plane. But for anyone who wants to broadcast a different kind of message — a reminder to pick up milk, for example, or birthday wishes — there’s always the Muktuk Telegram.

“Named for a traditional food of whale skin and blubber, the Muktuk Telegram (also called the Mukluk Telegraph, after a phrase referring to how gossip spreads in Alaska) is sort of like an amplified shout: Someone calls into a radio station with a message, and it gets broadcast on their airwaves so that anyone in range with a radio tuned to the right frequency will hear it. Usually, the radio station broadcasting the Telegram is one of the fifteen tribal radio stations in Alaska. But now, after Congress took away $9.4 billion in previously allocated public media funding and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) subsequently announced it will shut down, the future of those stations, the Telegram, and tribal public media across the country is up in the air.

“ ‘Stations are trying to figure it out,’ said Jaclyn Sallee, president and CEO of KNBA, a tribal radio station in Anchorage, and Koahnic Broadcast Corporation, which produces shows that are distributed to tribal radio stations across the country. …

“Indigenous radio and television stations are unique in the landscape of American media. While many are part of the NPR and PBS networks, they are mostly staffed by Indigenous reporters and producers and primarily serve audiences in tribal nations around the U.S., many of which lack broadband or cell service. According to Native Public Media, an NPR-like network for tribal stations, there are 57 tribal radio and 3 tribal television stations in 20 states in its network across the country, and most if not all of them received CPB funding before the rescissions package passed.

“ ‘When a Tribal station goes dark, the silence is more than technical,’ said Loris Taylor, president and CEO of Native Public Media, in an emailed statement to Nieman Lab. ‘These stations are not just media outlets, they are cultural infrastructure. … Without these stations, many Tribal citizens, especially elders, low-income families, and those without broadband, would lose essential access to news and public discourse.’

Among the essential services at risk are emergency alerts, which are particularly crucial in areas with gaps in cellular coverage.

“At particular risk is the Missing Endangered Persons Alert, a new type of alert similar to an AMBER alert that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted in August 2024 and that is set for national launch in September. According to the FCC’s website, ‘The MEP code could be particularly beneficial to Tribal communities, where American Indians and Alaska Natives are at a disproportionate risk of violence, murder, or vanishing.’ …

“Kathryn Squyres reported in Current, a spokesperson from Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) office explained that the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) will distribute $9.4 million of previously appropriated funding to 35 tribal radio stations in 11 states, which matches the amount those stations received from the CPB in fiscal year 2025. But it’s unclear what will happen after this year’s grants are dispersed, or to the 22 radio stations and nine states left out of that deal. …

“In an emailed statement, a spokesperson from the Department of the Interior wrote that ‘a transfer of previously appropriated federal funds allows Interior to support tribal communications infrastructure through targeted grants. Indian Affairs will administer these funds under established authorities. At this time, Indian Affairs anticipates awarding the first set of contracts by the end of Fiscal Year 2025 or early Fiscal Year 2026.’ It’s not clear where that funding is coming from, or whether other programs at the Bureau of Indian Affairs will be affected by the funding being reappropriated.

“It wouldn’t be the first time stations have been funded through the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Before the CPB was created in 1967, says Mark Trahant, who spearheaded the revival of ICT (formerly Indian Country Today), tribal stations received funding through the BIA for almost 40 years. Trahant, a member of the Shoshone-Bannock tribe of Idaho, said the funding Rounds claims to have secured is probably ‘a handshake. And I don’t think it’ll be anywhere near what’s being funded [through CPB] now.’ …

“If the DOI funding gets delayed for any reason [stations] may have to shut down. For now, said Sue Matters, station manager at KWSO, a tribal station on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation in Oregon, ‘everyone’s scrambling.’

“If stations disappear, Trahant said, he’s worried about what might fill the gap. …

“Trahant said. ‘To me, this is a question of who owns the airwaves. The great thing about CPB was that it set as a national standard that the public owns the airwaves, and they have an investment in that. I think that’s what’s really been missing from this debate.’ ”

More at Nieman Lab, here.

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From City Alley to Bee Haven

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on October 18, 2025| 2 Comments »

Photo: Adrian Sherratt/The Guardian.
The UK pollinator pathways project in Knowle, Bristol.

I do like stories about how humans sometimes learn what they’ve been doing wrong and then go all out to rectify the damage. I’m speaking of what humanity has done in ignorance to bees and other pollinators that uphold life on Earth.

Emma Snaith has a turnaround example at the Guardian. “Take a closer look at the colorful plants dotted along an initially unassuming Bristol alleyway and you’ll see them teeming with insects. Bumblebees, hoverflies and ladybirds throng around a mixture of catmint, yarrow, geraniums and anemones. ‘It’s buzzing with pollinators now,’ Flora Beverley says.

“Just over a year ago, the alley we are walking down was a dreary, litter-strewn dumping ground. Now, thanks to the pollinator pathways project, it is filled with nectar-rich plants and bee hotels. Colorful murals line the walls. A neighbor and her son passing by stop to tell Beverley they watered the plants yesterday. The local people who helped to transform the pathways continue to maintain them too.

“A trail runner and fitness influencer, Beverley started the project after a chronic illness left her unable to spend as much time running in the countryside. She wanted to bring more nature into her local community and, at the same time, help to connect important nearby habitats in Bristol including parks and the Northern Slopes nature reserve with insect-friendly corridors.

“The project took off unexpectedly well and in the space of a year local groups have revamped seven alleyways around the south of the city. Most transformations take place over a weekend. Volunteers and mural artists pile in, and it is funded by small grants that Beverley – who does not get paid – applies for in her own time, street collections and donations from local businesses.

“ ‘The things that are good for nature tend to be very good for people too,’ she says. ‘We’re lucky to have so many green spaces in Bristol, but there is a lack of connection between them.’ Habitat fragmentation is a big issue.’ …

“Scientists are reporting catastrophic declines in insect numbers around the world. International reviews estimate annual losses globally of between 1% and 2.5% of total insect biomass every year. The drivers of the plummeting numbers vary, but include habitat loss, exposure to pesticides and the climate crisis.

In the UK, ​a citizen science survey run by the conservation charity Buglife monitors bug splats on cars. It found a 63% decline in flying insects between 2021 and 2024.

“There are many ways to help protect insects, some simple, others harder to achieve. Prof Dave Goulson from the University of Sussex says that creating more pollinator-friendly habitat in our cities is ‘a fairly easy win.’

“ ‘We already know that urban areas can be surprisingly good for pollinators compared to modern, intensive farmland,’ he says. …

“A huge network of community pollinator pathways has [sprung] up across 300 towns in 24 states in the US and in Ontario, Canada. It began in 2017 when the conservationist Donna Merrill offered people near her home town of Wilton free native trees to form a passage of pollinator habitat that spanned the Connecticut-New York state line. Merrill was particularly inspired by Oslo’s ‘bee highway‘ created a few years before – a network of green rooftops, beehives and patches of insect-friendly plants that stretches across the city.

“In the UK, Buglife is tackling the loss of pollinator habitat on a national scale through its B-Lines network, which is mapping a series of 3km-wide [~2 miles] insect superhighways that crisscross the country, connecting the best remaining wildflower-rich areas. The charity has been working with farmers, landowners, wildlife organizations, businesses, local authorities and the public for more than 10 years to help fill at least 10% of each line with insect-friendly plants. …

“The charity’s B-Lines officer, Rachel Richards, says the lines running north-south are particularly important for migrating species and those moving northwards as a result of the climate crisis.

“ ‘Reconnecting fragmented landscapes builds resilience,’ she says. ‘As we see more fires and floods, it’s quite easy for an amazing site to be destroyed or partly destroyed. But if we have the stepping stones of wildflower-rich habitat, it can be colonized by insects from neighboring sites.’ ” More at the Guardian, here.

In the Greater Boston area, my friend Jean and Biodiversity Builders have been leading the way for years. I wrote about them several times — for example, here. Do you have pollinator pathways near you?

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Fireflies Are in Trouble

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on October 17, 2025| 6 Comments »

Photo: Robert Ritchie, Unsplash via Living on Earth.
The streaks of light in this 30-minute timelapse image show fireflies in a Wisconsin field.

Where are the fireflies of our childhood? Although the population perked up around here this past summer, possibly because of all the rain, firefly lovers have reason to be worried about the long term. Today’s story explains what’s going on — and how we can all help.

Eric Berger writes at the Guardian, “Max Vogel, a 29-year-old public defense attorney, was picnicking with friends in early August at Prospect Park in Brooklyn, New York, when he noticed flashes of light appear in the air around him.

“They were fireflies, bioluminescent insects that the Washington DC native had not seen while living in Oregon, where there are few, if any. For many Americans who live where fireflies do, their flashing lights at dusk are a tangible rite of summer – though one that may now be under threat. …

“Vogel said, ‘It’s like a shooting star that just is surprising and gives you the childlike wonder of how you felt when you first saw fireflies in your yard.’

“Even in areas of the US where there are typically fireflies, people are especially excited to see them this year because there appear to be more this summer after a steady decline in recent years, according to scientists.

“Despite that welcome news, researchers caution that it does not necessarily signal a reversal of the downward trend. They remain concerned about the long-term viability of the firefly family, which includes more than 2,000 species, some of which are at risk of extinction due to factors such as light pollution and climate change.

“ ‘It’s been really uplifting to hear all of the reports of huge increases in fireflies,’ said Candace Fallon, senior endangered species conservation biologist for the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. ‘But they are also insects, and insects are notorious for having populations that bounce up and down each year, and so it’s hard to say that their populations are increasing from a single year of data.’

“Fireflies, also known as lightning bugs, are beetles that come out at night during summer and produce a bioluminescent gleam, primarily to attract a mate.

“Cultures around the world treasure the bugs, including in Japan, where they are symbols of love and fallen soldiers. …

“ ‘Catching fireflies is a relatively harmless thing that you can do that really connects you to your natural world,’ said Matt Schlesinger, chief zoologist with the New York Natural Heritage Program, which is participating in a project to identify which firefly species occur in state parks.

“Scientists in the US and Canada do not have baseline data on firefly species, which makes it difficult to quantify how much the population has decreased, and they must instead rely on anecdotal reports and documented habitat loss, which point to a downward trajectory, Fallon said.

“She and other researchers conducted a study published in the journal PLOS One which found that 18 species in North America are threatened with extinction. But the scientists also did not have enough data on more than half of the assessed species to determine their extinction risks. …

“The primary factor behind fireflies’ decline is habitat loss and degradation, according to the Xerces Society. That includes land being disrupted by development, light pollution and pesticide use. Artificial lighting at night makes it hard for the bugs to communicate and mate, Fallon said.

“Climate change, including an increase in droughts and rising sea levels, also affect firefly populations, she said.

“Still, there are some firefly species that appear to be doing ‘just fine,’ Schlesinger said [adding that] the kinds that specialize in particular habitats are the ones struggling. …

“ ‘If they can still have a big year, at least those species are probably doing fine and have the potential to recover,’ Schlesinger said. That said, ‘any single year doesn’t tell you about the long-term trajectory of firefly populations. …

“Kids should continue the tradition of venturing out with jars in the summer but should then release the bugs rather than collecting them, Schlesinger said.

“Other ways to help fireflies survive include: not using pesticides, reducing artificial lighting at night, and allowing the grass to grow long and the leaves to pile up in your yard.

“ ‘A lot of fireflies pupate in leaves, and so when we rake those and put them in bags, we’re destroying their habitat at a very small scale,’ Schlesinger said.

“Despite the concerns about extinction, Fallon is encouraged by master gardeners in Arkansas who created a firefly sanctuary, and by lawmakers in Maryland who approved legislation earlier this year which introduces new regulations on what type of lighting can be bought with state funds. …

“ ‘I think we have enough time to make a difference.”

More at the Guardian, here. See also the radio show Living on Earth, here.

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Jazz for a Delayed Flight

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on October 16, 2025| 3 Comments »

Photo: Dave Koz.
Dave Koz and the Summer Horns perform on their summer 2025 tour. A video of their impromptu, in-flight performance went viral.

When I was in high school, Cousin Bob dated Ellen, a girl I knew who was good friends with Liza Minnelli. This was back when Minnelli was best known as the daughter of Judy Garland and not in her own right.

Well, Liza was already a good singer, and Ellen sang exactly like Ethel Merman. She was a little tiny thing, and it was amazing to hear that booming voice come out of her.

One day, the two of these girls were traveling together, and their plane was badly delayed. So Liza and Ellen started singing to entertain the other passengers, and it got in the paper that Judy Garland’s daughter had done this.

I think that’s the only story I know that’s similar to the one in this post, but probably you know of others.

Kelly McCarthy reported at ABC in August, “No one likes being stuck on an airplane longer than absolutely necessary, so when a famous jazz group aboard an Alaska Airlines flight was asked to help lift the spirits of their fellow severely delayed passengers with a live musical interlude, they happily busted out horns and played the unlikely venue.

“In a now-viral video, Dave Koz and the Summer Horns performed their rendition of Stevie Wonder’s ‘You Haven’t Done Nothing’ in an impromptu concert amidst a slew of delays, diversions and timed-out staff en route from St. Louis to their next tour stop in Seattle.

“The moment took place in the wee hours early [in the] morning on the tarmac after their flight was diverted to Boise, Idaho, the namesake saxophonist told Good Morning America. That’s when Koz said most people were ‘at their breaking point’ and ‘this wonderful flight attendant’ stepped in to see if their group would want to provide some in-flight entertainment.

” ‘Charlene was like, “Can you guys play?” ‘ fellow saxophonist Marcus Anderson added. ‘We end up getting our instruments out and everyone’s excited and all these phones are coming out — we’re just thinking about giving people a great concert on an airplane.’

“They selected a song from their show set list and played it with as many of the 16 band members who had carried on equipment. …

” ‘People were clapping. It was great vibes. It was great energy,’ Anderson said, adding that little kids recorded the video and were already watching it back in their seats after they concluded.

” ‘We got the video content from people, and I said, “Hey, Dave, I’m going to post it and share it.” By the time we get off the plane — it was trailing close to maybe 200,000 views,’ Anderson explained of the initial explosion in social media interest. …

” ‘We were just taking a moment trying to make lemonade with lemons, and it tasted very good,’ Anderson, whom Koz called ‘the future of the saxophone,’ said. ‘We brought the concert to all those incredible passengers, not just on stage, but on the plane as well.’

“Koz said he’s ‘never played on a plane’ before that, whereas Anderson once performed a solo version of ‘America the Beautiful’ on Fourth of July. …

” ‘This really taps into everybody’s sort of frustration right now of traveling in the United States, where you feel so out of control, and this feeling of like you just don’t know what to do,’ Koz explained. ‘We were able to sort of channel that energy and turn the vibe completely.’

“In 40 years of the music industry, this moment reminded Koz that he’s still ‘humbled by the power of music to change a mood.’ “

More at ABC, here.

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A Show of Rejected Art

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on October 15, 2025| 4 Comments »

Photo: Burl Community Art Gallery.
Artist Julie Peters Krohn painted the rejected Minnesota State Fair entry “The Corn King” as an homage to Ron Kelsey, former superintendent of farm crops at the state fair.  It is on view for the “State Fair Rejects” exhibition at the Douglas Flanders & Associates gallery in Minneapolis.

Do you remember the Museum of Bad Art in Massachusetts? I wrote about it a few times (for example here). The art in today’s story about entries that were rejected by the Minnesota State Fair are not necessarily bad art; they just didn’t fit the taste of this year’s judges. It’s a nice challenge for the rest of us anyway. Would we reject these for an exhibition that doesn’t claim to offer high art in the first place?

A gallery in Minneapolis decided that some of these pieces really deserved to be judged by ordinary folk.

As Alex V. Cipolle reported at Minnesota Public Radio (MPR), “The Fine Arts Competition at the State Fair is one of the most competitive juried exhibitions in Minnesota. This year, artists submitted a total of 2,835 pieces; only 336 were accepted.

“Minneapolis artist Mike Welton says: Don’t take it personally. Welton submitted his painting, “QUEER,” part of a series of LGBTQ-themed signage that Welton has photographed around the country. It didn’t make the cut. In his career, Welton estimates he’s shown in about a dozen Fine Art Competitions, and been rejected from about seven or eight. …

“Welton has unique insight, too. Each year Jim Clark, the fine arts superintendent, chooses artists to curate the show. In 2017, Welton was one of those artists.

“ ‘The year I curated, I couldn’t even pick pieces I wanted to because not all of them could go in,’ Welton says.

“Welton — and many other artists — are taking their rejected entries elsewhere. “Queer” will be on view for ‘State Fair Rejects,’ an exhibition … at the Douglas Flanders & Associates gallery in Minneapolis. …

“ ‘There was a lot of professional artists complaining about being rejected all the time, and I thought, well, maybe we should do a reject show,’ Douglas Flanders says. Last year was the gallery’s first reject show with 50 artist submissions. This year, Flanders says there are almost 80 artworks, from sculpture and paintings to textiles and photography. …

“ ‘People loved coming and supporting it and having another opportunity, obviously, to show their work, too, at a gallery that maybe they would otherwise never have the chance to,’ [Gallery manager Syril McNally] says. “So this year, that’s even more popular, just [by] word of mouth.”

“Beth Stoneberg of the Burl gallery [in St. Paul] says it’s the fifth time they’ve hosted ‘Rejected!’

“ ‘It’s probably one of our most anticipated exhibits of the year. It draws a remarkable crowd. It sparks a lot of conversation,’ Stoneberg says. ‘People are really rooting for the underdog.’ …

“One of her favorite submissions this year is ‘The Corn King’ by artist Julie Peters Krohn. The painting depicts Ron Kelsey, Minnesota ‘corn historian’ and the former superintendent of farm crops at the fair’s Agriculture Horticulture building. Krohn has painted Kelsey with seed sacks (Kelsey may have the largest collection of seed sacks in the world at 1,400).

“ ‘I was inspired while attending the Minnesota State fair last year after I met Ron Kelsey and his scarecrow in the agriculture building,’ Peters Krohn said in her artist statement. 

“I learned about the fair honoring him with a lifetime membership for his many years of involvement, which has included, but is not limited to, corn producer, corn judge, seed art competition creator, scarecrow competition creator and the display of his collection of vintage seed bags. I saw humor in creating a painting of a sculpture of a man so involved but so little known.’ ” More at MPR, here.

You can find a piece that actually won a 2025 State Fair prize by clicking here. It’s called “There Might Be Dragons.”

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At the Ventriloquist Convention

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on October 14, 2025| 2 Comments »

Photo: Phillip Jones/Vent Haven Museum..
In Fort Mitchell, Kentucky, there’s a haven for ventriloquist dummies.

Whenever I saw ventriloquist dummies in childhood, I was fascinated that they could seem to talk. You don’t see them nowadays that much, and it seems that fewer people are learning the skills that let them appear to “throw their voices” into those dummies.

Mina Tavakoli , a neophyte ventriloquist, writes at N+1 that there’s a place in Kentucky where the art is alive and well.

“A half-nude, three-foot figure called me to a table just beside the vending machines. … ‘I’m Dicky!’ he squeaked.

“I wagged my pen in front of his tight little face. ‘Dicky,’ I repeated. [It was then] right as Dicky’s jaw flung open, that his ventriloquist  —  his father, his frère, his semblable; the standard abbreviation going forward is vent  —  sneezed. At that second, Dicky did too. The vent trumpeted into his tissue and held it in front of his wooden child, who did the same, loudly and juicily. …

“We were all in Kentucky. Side by side by side, we stood near the entrance of the Vent Haven Ventriloquist ConVENTion. … Dummies were rising from zippered suitcases, lifted from velvet-lined trunks, coffined on banquettes with protective canvas bags on their heads, like prisoners expecting execution. Dummies congested every visible cranny of the Erlanger Holiday Inn in a huge interspecies fiesta of dwarves, worms, baboons, children, et cetera.

“The human delegation was only slightly less mixed. Many attendees were entertainers  —  clowns, cruise-ship performers, Santa impersonators, balloon artists (known in the trade as ‘twisters’), theme-park proprietors, theme-park employees, and (hugely overindexed) magicians  —  clapping one another on the back and nodding like Marines celebrating dockage on home soil. …his was the ConVENTion’s welcome reception, where the cream of ventdom was swarming the warm and ferny lobby to relive the lives and re-die the deaths of the vaudeville. …

“The man with the chef’s hat and meatball puppet … calmed hospital patients and veterans through a nest of spaghetti. Just past the gurgle of the lobby fountain was Barbie Q. Chicken, a 4-year-old bird who was both Broadway prima donna and antibullying activist. Beside the wall of potted plants was Danny, an underweight and barefoot hillbilly from the mountains of West Virginia, and further beyond him was Herman the Worm (pronounced ‘Hoiman Da Woim’), a cross-eyed caterpillar made out of a dryer vent hose. Beep, a monkey, was kitty-corner, behind me were Doodle the toad and the handsomely breasted showgirl Miss Trixie, and now approaching with tensed biceps was Rocco, the muscular pit bull from Staten Island. … Some had that sort of vaporizing charisma; some, one could tell, had the limper, more sheepish personalities of those whose lives are defined by long stretches of extreme silence. As the lobby mushroomed with figures of felt, wood, and PVC tubing, they formed a great chorus of flopsy [creatures] that would not shut up.

“First-timers formed lines against the marble  —  our official title was ‘red dotters,’ after the distinguishing round stickers on our name tags. … Men, eager to know what brought me to ventriloquism, showed me photos of daughters, wives, dogs, farms. Men, who were not full-timing entertainers, were retired dental hygienists, hairdressers, firefighters, ranchers. Retired anythings. …

“Northern Kentucky was never exactly a likely mecca for the ventriloquial arts. In the 1920s, barrooms across the nation boomed with the surrealist showbiz acts of American vaudeville. From Midwestern saloons and small-town beer halls to New York’s glitzy Palace Theater, most cities welcomed troupes where magicians charmed, plate spinners spun, contortionists contorted, and ventriloquists  … threw their voices across club circuits that sold the business of analog enchantment. When the theaters darkened in the Depressive ’30s, televised variety shows shuttled ventriloquism safely to the entertainment capitals of Los Angeles and New York, though the rise of more sophisticated special effects began to render dummies anachronistic as early as the mid-’60s. By the early ’70s, when vent-prominent programs like The Ed Sullivan Show had sunsetted to make way for sitcoms, the ventriloquist-and-dummy act was already approaching something like near-obsolescence.

“A tile salesman, one William Shakespeare Berger, homed his collection of dummies in his garage in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky. Before his passing, in 1972, he donated his entire estate to establish Vent Haven, the world’s only museum devoted to ventriloquiana. The Vent Haven ConVENTion, now in its forty-ninth year, is presently six miles away from the original site of Berger’s family home, and functions as ventriloquism’s true earthly haven:. …

“The general act of learning ventriloquism is tedious, because the puppet is an instrument, and only one half of the theater routine. It is an ancient art, a maze of gestures and shadow gestures. … Nimble fingers tweak at little pinches and squeeze-boxes stuck inside the cavities of the ventriloquial dolls … while the tongue operates flawlessly under confinement. …

“There is no real ‘throwing’ of the voice, alas; the ear’s deficits are made up for by the eye, which focuses on the puppet’s moving jaw, forming the suggestion that whatever’s being said by you is said by your companion. The most problematic letters of the alphabet  —  there are five of them  —  inspire too much frottage between lips, which explains why puppets often have jeery, whiny, heavily accented, broken, or otherwise goofy voices: these are coping mechanisms, rerouted into hallmarks of the form.

“Take the letter p, an annoying plosive. Under the standard ventriloquial straitjacketry of (1) a relaxed jaw, (2) slightly open but stiffened lips, and (3) a closed set of teeth, a phrase like ‘I like to hike’ is shockingly easy to pronounce, whereas ‘I prefer puppetry’ is humbling. To dodge the automatic, upper-to-lower-lip kiss involved in expressing the letter p, ventriloquists hump the back of the tongue against the soft palate and vault air right through the back. In practice, this sounds much like the letter t. The ventriloquist thinks p, says their muffled t, and does this ad nauseam until the letter is strong and clear. (‘I trefer tuttetry.‘)”

Lots more at n+1, here. Did you ever try to do this?

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Bubble Art Rising Higher

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on October 13, 2025| 4 Comments »

Photo: Robert Ormerod for the New York Times.
Graham Maxwell performing “The Flying Bubble Show” during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Nowadays, hearing or reading about something cool is generally good enough for me. As interested as I might be in a foreign country or a new play or a natural wonder, I don’t often think, “I wish I had been there.”

But today’s story on bubble art is different. I would have loved to see these performances and be in the midst of audience reactions. They took place at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August.

Alex Marshall wrote at the New York Times, “In McEwan Hall last week, the atmosphere was riotous. For about an hour, some 400 adults and children were gasping, screaming and laughing as Louis Pearl, the Amazing Bubble Man, encased girls and boys in huge soapy globules, made bubbles levitate and wobble, filled many of the fragile spheres with smoke, and karate-chopped others in half.

“For the show’s finale, Pearl, 68, grabbed a long plastic stick with a ring on one end, dipped it into a vat of soapy formula and waved it above his head so that thousands of bubbles drifted over the audience. Children throughout the theater leaped out of their seats to pop them. …

“This year, four bubbleologists, as they like to be called, have shows on the Fringe. … Ray Bubbles has a show for disabled children and an ‘Ultimate Bubble Show‘; an act called the Highland Joker has the simply titled ‘Bubble Show‘; and Maxwell the Bubbleologist has a ‘Flying Bubble Show,’ largely performed midair.

“After his gig last Monday, Pearl posed for photos with fans and sold bubble-making kits outside the venue. ‘Bubbles are like dreams,’ he said later in an interview: ‘When you blow one, you go out of normal reality and this magical thing captures your attention until — boom! — it pops.’ …

“Born in San Francisco, Pearl said his bubble fixation began in the 1970s at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire when a roommate showed him a bubble pipe and they tried out some tricks like filling the bubbles with marijuana smoke.

“While working odd jobs after college, Pearl sold toy bubble pipes on the streets of San Francisco, and sometimes sold pot, too. His life changed in 1983 when he saw Tom Noddy, a bubble artist who once appeared on The Tonight Show, perform at the Exploratorium, a San Francisco science museum. Noddy’s tricks included creating a cube-shaped bubble, making smoke spin tornado-like inside a bubble, and blowing piled-up bubbles to form the shape of a goblet.

“Pearl said he spent ‘hours and hours’ replicating Noddy’s tricks and developing his own. During that time, Pearl recalled, he also had to work out the ideal mixture for bubble blowing. (His current recipe, he said onstage, calls for dish soap, water — and lube to make the bubbles stretchy.)

“At this year’s Fringe, Pearl is performing versions of some of Noddy’s best stunts. ‘In the bubble community, if you present tricks in a new way, it’s cool, Pearl said. ‘If you steal, it’s not. …

“When Pearl first took his ‘Amazing Bubble Man’ act to the Fringe, in 2007, he played a 100-seat venue. Now, he’s in an over-1,000-capacity hall, although he said a full house could be disastrous, in part because the heat generated by larger crowds creates air currents that make it harder to control the bubbles. …

“Yet Pearl is up against an even bigger challenge this year. For the first time, the most hyped bubble act at the festival isn’t his, but ‘The Flying Bubble Show,’ in which Maxwell the Bubbleologist blows hundreds of the iridescent orbs while flying on a harness around a circus tent.

“The spectacle’s performer, Graham Maxwell, 32, said in an interview that he had been putting on traditional bubble shows around the world for about a decade when, in 2024, he had ‘a vision’: He pictured himself suspended midair while using tai chi movements to make bubbles levitate, bulge and spin. That inspired him to train in a circus tent in Goa, India, where he learned how to use a wired harness. …

” ‘There’s a whole, deep world to bubbles, he said: Seeing one pop could prompt adults to recall their youth or dwell on their mortality, he said. How bubbles form and move can be used to understand fundamental scientific properties, he added, and for him, the act of blowing bubbles can induce a meditative state. …

“Last week, Maxwell performed his flying show to an audience of about 500. … As graceful classical music played, Maxwell — wearing a top hat and billowing velvet shirt — swooped overhead as the audience sat around a circular stage. Trailing behind him were elongated bubbles that he created by blowing through his soapy fingers or using ropes he had dipped in bubble-making fluid. During the hourlong show, he juggled bubbles midair, tried to create ‘the biggest bubble ever’ and performed his bubble-levitating trick.

“ ‘Bubbles, it’s such a lovely word,’ he said at one point. ‘You can’t ever say it without smiling.’ “

More at the Times, here. Amazing pictures!

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Creative Way to Give Dancers More Pay

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on October 12, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Photo: Julianna Slager/Ballet 5:8.

An ancient Greek philosopher once noted that you can’t step into the same river twice. What he meant, of course, was that the river is constantly changing. The drops of water that touch your foot when you step in are not the same drops you felt a few moments ago when you tested the temperature.

Here’s a story about the changing ballet world and how one company is adapting to the river.

Melody McTier Thomason at Dance Informa writes, “Since our last conversation with Julianna Slager, Artistic Director of Ballet 5:8, the company has experienced tremendous growth with an expanded repertoire, increased guest choreographers, and last year Slager was named a fellow at the School of American Ballet (SAB). Most notably, Ballet 5:8 recently announced a groundbreaking milestone for the 14-year-old company: full-time contracts for its dancers. …

“A dreamer at heart, Slager always had hopes of achieving full-time contracts, but it was in 2019 when vision casting began. ‘We moved into our new building in 2018. 2019 was the first time I was brave enough to share what was in my mind, and the board really took to that. Then COVID arrived. That threw me for a loop a little bit. It was a big test of faith to hang on to unseen things and allow myself to hope.’

“As Slager began to dig further into making her dream a reality, she uncovered a unique model to bring Ballet 5:8 to its next chapter. After reviewing the company’s finances, Slager realized the organization could shift resources from paying part-time contract employees who were doing administrative tasks, to paying dancers to do those same jobs. This shift would allow them to offer the dancers full-time contracts with benefits.

” ‘When we made the discovery that a big structural shift could be the answer to getting us where we wanted to go, we took pen to paper and looked at all the people we have in the organization,’ Slager explains. ‘If dancers are in rehearsal 25 hours a week, and additionally have 10 hours of either teaching or helping with administrative duties, social media, whatever, that still gives them five flexible hours for meetings or time they can spend to cross-train. We sat down and daydreamed a little bit about what it could look like, and then we slowly started talking to the dancers about it. …

” ‘We had a cohort of dancers along with a cohort of board members who created a caucus and talked through how this would work practically,’ Slager says. ‘Then, we rolled it out to the dancers and walked everybody through the process. Now, we are able to do a guaranteed salary increase every year, with a three-year contract which is super exciting so they have better job security. Because we have this stability, the board now can budget further out.’ …

“Combining artistic development alongside administrative tasks, extends beyond full-time company dancers to Ballet 5:8’s Trainee and Second Company dancers. ‘Because we want to make sure our Trainee and Second Company dancers are able to advance into the company and have a skill set, the Trainee directors have done a really good job of giving them a chance to job shadow in areas they’re interested in,’ explains Slager. …

“ ‘I really love working with everybody inside and outside the studio. I think it strengthens our bond as a team because we’re very focused on the goals and the mission. It also helps the dancers. They can see behind the scenes and better understand why organizational decisions are made. On the dancer side, we’re able to have more rehearsal time because everybody is full-time, so the roles they do outside of dance are a little smaller. … The “many hands make the load lighter” frame of mind is how it feels.’ “

More at Dance Informa, here.

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Gifts that Fans Send

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on October 11, 2025| 2 Comments »

Photo: Amir Hamja for The New York Times.
Bracelets sent to Gabrielle Nevaeh, the former star of Nickelodeon’s That Girl Lay Lay, who is in Stranger Things: The First Shadow on Broadway. “It’s a reminder that my work is reaching people,” she says.

Did you ever ask for an autograph? Mail a fan letter? Throw “jelly babies” at the Beatles?

I have sometimes written a letter to an actor or author, but mostly to argue about some interpretation. I am not sure anyone would consider me a true fan, but there are people out there who go to enormous lengths to connect to the object of their admiration.

At the New York Times, Sarah Bahr shares what she has learned about them.

“The fan mail landscape in New York theater is alive and well. Across the theater district, stage managers and theater employees collect fan art, stuffed animals and other gifts of appreciation that are sent to stars, ferrying the items to mailboxes and dressing rooms.

“ ‘It’s so cool that people still send me things after all these years,’ said Joey Fatone, the former ’N Sync singer who recently ended his run in the Broadway musical & Juliet.

“He estimated that each week he received about a dozen handwritten letters and several packages, including one containing a track suit emblazoned with “& Joeyet,” a play on his name and the jukebox musical’s. ‘I read as much as I can, but there’s so much,’ said Fatone, 48. …

Somewhat unexpectedly, these decidedly analog gestures have endured in the age of social media.

“Fans are combing stars’ Instagram feeds and TikTok reels for clues to their favorite snacks, their astrological signs and even the names of their pets.

“ ‘It’s surprising how well they know your interests,’ said Elizabeth Gillies, 32, the Victorious star who recently finished a five-month run as Audrey in the Off Broadway revival of Little Shop of Horrors.

“During the run, a fan sent her a large pillow with a photo of her French bulldog, Otis, and another got her a set of miniature cans of Canada Dry Ginger Ale, a favorite drink. She also received a custom hat with the plumbob mood icon that floats above characters heads in The Sims, which is her favorite video game. One even drew a picture of Otis dressed as Audrey, and her co-star Milo Manheim’s spaniel, Louie, dressed as Seymour.

“ ‘The creativity and the attention to detail are extraordinarily impressive,’ said Gillies, who framed the portrait. ‘It’s incredibly heartwarming to know that people are not only paying attention to your artistry, but they’re also paying attention to you.’

“Gabrielle Nevaeh, the former star of Nickelodeon’s That Girl Lay Lay who is in Stranger Things: The First Shadow on Broadway, likes to read letters in her dressing room during intermission.

“ ‘It’s a reminder that my work is reaching people,’ said Nevaeh, 20, who plays the strong-willed high school student Patty Newby in the show.

“So what do people write to stars? Often, Fatone said, people express gratitude — for his music, for the joy his performance brought them, for his decades-long career.

“ ‘I get letters that say, “Thank you so much for being in my life all these years,” ‘ he said.

“Michelle Williams, the former Destiny’s Child singer who is playing the mysterious Viola Van Horn in the stage adaptation of Death Becomes Her on Broadway, said it makes her day when she reads a letter from a writer who is struggling and has found inspiration in her work.

“ ‘Someone sent me a letter last week saying, “I deal with depression and anxiety, and I see how you’ve overcome and you’re back on Broadway,” ‘ said Williams, 46, who took a break from the Broadway musical Once on This Island in 2018 to seek treatment for depression. …

“Some of the letters are typed; some are handwritten. Fatone said he also receives invitations to weddings and bar mitzvahs — or sometimes requests for him to sign the invitations themselves. …

“As much as the stars said they have appreciated the mail, it just isn’t possible keep all of it.

“ ‘I can’t throw away anything handmade or handwritten,’ Gillies said on a recent afternoon, shortly before clearing out her dressing room — including two large storage bins of fan mail — at the Westside Theater following her Little Shop run. ‘So I’m sort of an organized hoarder for all of the fan letters and fan gifts that I’ve received.’ ” More at the Times, here.

I once wrote René Auberjonois to see if my family could visit backstage at Big River. He wrote back a welcoming postcard, and we got to chat a bit after the show.

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Chamber Music in the 7-Eleven

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on October 10, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Photo: Lou Foglia for WBEZ.
Seth Boustead of the nonprofit Access Contemporary Music in Chicago describes the location they chose for their concerts: “The door dings when you walk in, like a 7-Eleven — we left that.”

I love stories about the successful repurposing of eyesore buildings. In today’s article, WBEZ’s Graham Meyer gives an inspiring example from Chicago.

“Not everyone looks at the long-vacant husk of a former convenience store and gets visions of string quartets and piano recitals. But that’s exactly how it happened for Seth Boustead, the head of Access Contemporary Music.

“In February 2023, in a cab traveling on North Clark Street, Boustead saw the familiar sight of the empty store at 4116, once a 7-Eleven, before that a White Hen Pantry. This time, the window had a ‘for rent’ sign. After the cab ride, Boustead zipped back on his bicycle and peered in the dark windows.

“ ‘This would be an amazing chamber music venue,’ he remembers thinking. …

“ ‘It’s pretty unrecognizable [now],’ Boustead said. ‘The door dings when you walk in, like a 7-Eleven — we left that. Behind the bar, there’s still, where the grease trap used to be, a door that goes down into the floor where they used to dump grease. I found a training poster for their employees, and we’re planning to frame it and put it in the bathroom.’

“ACM, now 21 years old, has always done many different things simultaneously. It gives music lessons, has a composer collective and presents concerts, such as the annual Sound of Silent Film Festival, where it commissions and live-performs scores for modern silent films. And once a year, it throws a classical music street festival called Thirsty Ears.

“The CheckOut [aims] to put on two or three chamber concerts a week, mostly self-produced. There are incipient plans for a jazz night on Thursday and for cabaret shows to fill the void left when Davenport’s abruptly canceled all its cabarets in April. …

“Unsurprisingly, a project of this magnitude had obstacles, money chief among them. Boustead said the rent for the CheckOut is close to the three music schools’ combined. And it quickly became clear that in addition to the renovations necessary to convert the space to a music venue, they would have to make up for upkeep that 7-Eleven had inconveniently deferred. …

“Then there were the administrative hurdles. The property was zoned for single-family houses, and the area had a liquor license moratorium. Both the odd zoning and the moratorium had the effect of funneling ACM through 46th Ward Ald. Angela Clay’s office, so that she and the community could weigh in before the project began. Boustead made a presentation to the Graceland West Area Community Association about lessons, rehearsals and concerts for 60 to 100 audience members filling the empty shell.

“ ‘Folks were excited about having this kind of small cultural institution in the neighborhood, but there’s a lot of red tape the city puts up,’ said Jesse Orr, director of infrastructure and development in Clay’s office.

“Boustead started checking boxes. With some hand-holding from Clay’s office, they hacked through the permits, inspections, zoning and other city tasks. And he worked on money. ACM landed a Community Development Grant through the city’s Department of Planning and Development for $250,000. They started a capital campaign, offering naming rights for the stage and chairs. …

“[In August] Boustead assembled a preview crowd and noted the irony that 7-Elevens play classical music to prevent people from loitering. This time, the 7-Eleven left, and the classical music stayed around.

“The Palomar Trio, part of ACM’s long-standing house ensemble, played piano-violin-cello music ranging chronologically from modern Dmitri Shostakovich to the of-the-minute 42-year-old Reena Esmail. With acoustical work still to be done, the room echoed more than would be ideal, and how to manage the sound of the air conditioning against the temperature of the room hasn’t been settled. But the music filled the space nicely, the louds excitingly loud and soft effects detectable. You’d never guess it had once been slinging slushies.” More at WBEZ, here.

If you are interested, Dylan Weinert at New City Music has a review of the opening, here.

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Melting Glacier Threatens Village

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on October 9, 2025| 3 Comments »

Photo: Kim Willsher/The Guardian.
Pralognan-la-Vanoise in the French Alps is in danger from global warming. An engineering operation to prevent catastrophic flooding will cost about €400,000 ($465,000). 

As discouraging as it is to read another story about global warming, one has to feel a little hopeful that human ingenuity keeps tackling its effects.

Kim Willsher reports at the Guardian about how engineering is fighting back in France. I leave it to you to decide whether putting humans first or the glacier first would be best.

“The villagers of Pralognan-la-Vanoise in the French Alps know well the perils posed by the mountains that encircle them. Avalanches, rockfalls, mudslides, sudden crevices and torrents of water are within the living memory of most villagers, and every day the climate emergency throws up new dangers.

“Less than a year ago, an enormous lake formed by a melting glacier was discovered high above Pralognan that experts feared could inundate the village with more than 60,000 cubic metres [15,850,000+ gallons] of icy water. …

“As used to natural hazards as local people are high up in the Alps, they are not, however, an idle threat. The Swiss village of Blatten was wiped out by a rock and ice avalanche in May and last year a mountain lake swollen by heavy rainfall caused torrential flooding in La Bérarde in the Isère, forcing inhabitants to flee the hamlet. They have not returned.

“Today, an engineering operation is under way to prevent such a catastrophic scenario in Pralognan. Three workers have been helicoptered to the Grand Marchet glacier at an altitude of 2,900 metres [1.8 miles] to gouge a [narrow] ‘overflow channel’ in the ice. …

“ ‘The aim is to help the water find its way down the mountain gradually and avoid a rapid emptying of the lake,’ said David Binet, the director of the mountain land restoration service (RTM) for the northern Alps, part of the national forestry commission tasked with identifying and preventing natural hazards.

“ ‘What causes the problems and damage with torrents in the mountains is not the water but the stones, gravel, sand and even large rocks it brings down with it.’

“The glacier blocks the lake from spilling down the mountain but it is shrinking at a rate of 2 to 3 metres [6.6 to 9.8 feet] a year. There is also the risk that that the warmer waters of the lake could form a channel gush from underneath.

“Binet said his agency was examining 300 of the estimated 600 lakes in the Alps and Pyrenees one by one for such hazards. The Pralognan operation will cost about €400,000 [$465,000)]. …

“The idea of taking mechanical shovels to glaciers already shrinking at an alarming rate was deemed the least environmentally damaging option. Olivier Gagliardini, a glacier expert at Grenoble University, described it as ‘unfortunate, but necessary.’

“Martine Blanc, the mayor of Pralognan, said … ‘We asked ourselves could it wait but on the principle that prevention is better than cure we decided to go ahead,’ she said. ‘We decided to anticipate events rather than suffer them. Nature is nature and there’s no such thing as zero risk.’ …

“Local shopkeepers say the number of tourists and hikers this summer is down, possibly because the campsite is closed, but Silvere Bonnet, the director of the tourist office, said he had had very few calls from potential visitors concerned about the lake. …

“On a sunny day, the giant rock faces etched with shimmering cascades that rise almost vertically have a benevolent beauty. An hour later in a rapid change of atmosphere, the peaks are cloaked in dark clouds and loom intimidatingly.

“ ‘They can appear rather menacing at first to visitors because they are so sheer,’ [Bernard Vion, a 66-year-old Alpine guide who has watched the expanse of water grow and the mountain change over his lifetime] said. The 66-year-old knows these mountains ‘like his pocket,’ as the French say. He made his first high-altitude climb aged eight with his father, also a guide. Both his grandfathers were Alpinists.

“Vion first spotted what he describes as ‘a puddle’ of water on the Grand Marchet glacier in 2019. Every year since he has watched it grow; it now measures almost 2.5 acres. …

“ ‘We are on the frontline of climate change here. We know it is happening,’ he said.

“Blanc agreed. … ‘People here are used to natural hazards. We’re used to avalanches, falling rocks, torrential floods and mudslides because we’ve seen them and lived with them since we were young. Local people understand there are things we can control and then those we cannot.’ ”

More at the Guardian, here.

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Inventing a Self-Disinfecting Door Handle

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on October 8, 2025| 3 Comments »

Photo: Rayvon Stewart.
Rayvon Stewart invented a workable model for a door handle that could disinfect itself after every touch. 

Ever since seventh grade, when my health teacher showed an educational animation about how disease could spread by touching things with germs on them, I’ve been wary of doorknobs. I even answered the question on an intelligence or psychological assessment truthfully, knowing it would trigger alarm bells. Test: “Are you afraid of doorknobs?” My brain: “Well, yes. Everyone should be afraid of doorknobs!”

Natricia Duncan writes at the Guardian about someone else who thought doorknobs were a problem.

“When the Jamaican university student Rayvon Stewart invented a workable model for a door handle that could disinfect itself after every touch, it was hailed as a potential gamechanger for hospitals, hotels and other businesses, with promising implications for controlling the spread of disease, particularly during pandemics like Covid-19.

“Speaking at a recent product launch, Alison Drayton, assistant secretary-general of the Caribbean Community (Caricom), a 15-member bloc of Caribbean countries, described the invention as a ‘meaningful solution’ for the region and a ‘life-saving design that fits our reality.’

“Stewart, now 30, was just 23 and a student at Jamaica’s University of Technology when he conceptualized the pioneering ultraviolet self-sanitizing door-handle model he calls Xermosol, which he says can kill 99.9% of pathogens but is safe for people and animals. Since then he has been working to bring the product, which benefits from a provisional patent protection under the patent cooperation treaty, to market, winning Jamaica’s Prime Minister’s National Youth Award and the Commonwealth Health Innovations Awards in the process. …

“Stewart grew up in a poor household with his grandmother, in the rural farming community of Mount Prospect. ‘Even though times were tough, we never really thought about that. We knew that we had something to do as a family,’ he said. The software engineer and his cousin were the first in their family to go to university.

“There, he discovered his love of inventing and entered a competition with his first idea: 3D modeling software that would allow people to virtually fit clothes before purchasing online. When he started volunteering in a hospital, his passion for innovation became about solving a problem.

” ‘I saw how patients were suffering, the assistance that they needed, and how difficult it was for the nurses,’ he said. This, he added was the inspiration for Xermosol.

“Dr Camille-Ann Thoms-Rodriguez, a University of the West Indies consultant microbiologist, said that, while the invention did not replace the need for World Health Organisation cleaning guidelines in hospitals, Stewart’s smart self-sanitizing door handle was an innovative tool that can be used alongside others, for infection control. …

“She said, ‘A lot of the innovation that we see in healthcare is often from a first-world country where there are more resources … but it doesn’t mean that we don’t have good ideas here.’ …

“Kirk-Anthony Hamilton, co-founder of Tech-Beach Retreat, a Caribbean-based tech platform that connects innovators, entrepreneurs and investors through summits, programs and investment, said there was a growing desire in the region to tackle ambitious tech projects.

“ ‘Young people in the Caribbean are seeing what opportunities they’re missing out on, and they want to be a part of it. They’re reading stories about a guy in a garage coming up with a concept, and two years in, the company is making $50m a year,’ he said. …

“In the broader field of digital technology, businesses such as the software development company BairesDev, which has a global workforce of more than 4,000, said it saw a 400% increase in applications from developers in the Caribbean between 2020 and 2024.

“One possible explanation for this, the company’s director of talent acquisition, Felipe Turra, said, was the increased demand for software engineers during the Covid pandemic as lockdowns drove innovation. ‘Companies started saying, hey … I need to develop new applications, because people can’t leave home,’ he said, adding that the Caribbean being largely aligned to the US, both in terms of language and culture, made it a good fit for its US-based clients.

“For Stewart, the shift in innovations and increasing digital talent is ‘challenging the myth that there isn’t awesome, life-changing technology in the Caribbean.’ “

More at the Guardian, here. (The Guardian relies on donations to continue delivering factual news.)

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Dog Identifies What’s Killing Bees

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on October 7, 2025| 10 Comments »

Photo: Mike Householder/AP.
Sue Stejskal lets Maple, an English springer spaniel, sniff a bee-themed dog toy at Michigan State University’s Pollinator Performance Center. Maple is part of an effort to screen and diagnose diseases that sicken honeybees.

It seems that over the past few years, I’m hearing more and more about bees — their importance to the food chain, their worrisome diseases. On Instagram I’ve been following the intrepid Erika Thompson @texasbeeworks, and after Sandra told me about an inspiring bee tour, I added @bodhis.bees in Rhode Island. Then, there’s my friend AJ, who shares honey from his hives when the black bear leaves them alone.

Keeping bees and other pollinators healthy is an important job that’s getting increasingly difficult as unaware humans damage their environment. In today’s story, a specially trained dog is helping protect bees.

Ramon Antonio Vargas reports at the Associated Press via the Guardian, “Maple, a springer spaniel aged nine, is earning news headlines by helping Michigan State University (MSU) researchers identify bacteria that is harmful for bee colonies. …

“Maple landed the role after spending seven years detecting human remains for a sheriff’s office. She had to retire from the sheriff’s office after suffering an injury on the job – leaving her handler, Sue Stejskal, in search of something to keep Maple busy.

“ ‘She’s a very over-the-top, enthusiastic, sometimes hard-to-live with dog because of her energy level,’ Stejskal, who has been training dogs for law enforcement and other uses for more than 25 years, said to the AP.

“Fortunately for Stejskal, MSU professor Meghan Milbrath was seeking out tools to screen and diagnose diseases that sicken honeybees, which her lab studies. A veterinarian who had taken part in a training about honeybees later put Stejksal and Milbrath in touch.

“And soon, the pair hatched a plan by which Stejskal taught Maple to apply her police canine detection methods in beehives to uncover American foulbrood – a bacterial disease that poses a deadly threat to honeybee larvae.

“The work Maple has since done for MSU’s Pollinator Performance Center has been crucial, with bees and other pollinators in a years-long decline stemming from diseases, insecticides, a lack of a diverse food supply and climate change driven by human emissions of greenhouse gases.

“ ‘American foulbrood [harms] young developing bees, and when a hive gets infected, it actually basically leads to death,’ Milbrath, an assistant professor in MSU’s entomology department. …

” ‘Beekeepers have had to burn tens of thousands of dollars of equipment due to this disease,’ Milbrath said to WILX.

“Maple carries out her duties in a distinctive, yellow protective suit. Her gear includes a veil for her head and four bootees worn on her paws to shield Maple in case she steps on a bee. …

“About 465 bee species are native to Michigan alone. Among the goals of training Maple to spot American foulbrood for the Pollinator Performance Center was to create a guidebook with which other dogs could be similarly taught, WILX noted.

“Stejskal told the AP, ‘I was over-the-moon excited because my dog would have joy in her life and would still be able to work,’ Stejskal said.” More at the Guardian, here.

You probably know there are things we can all do to help bees.

Many homeowners, for example, are giving up pesticides and herbicides. They are leaving the leaves on their lawns in fall to provide pollinator habitat in spring, and they’re committing to No Mow May. After all, as Bee City tells us, “The start of the growing season is a critical time for hungry, newly emerged native bees. Flowers may be hard to find. By allowing it to grow longer, and letting flowers bloom, your lawn can provide nectar and pollen to help your bee neighbors thrive.”

Please add bee tips if you know of some not covered here.

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