Goodbye Vermont

I will never lose my affinity or affection for the Green Mountains. I know of no other natural environment so dynamic, so transitory, so ever-changing and full of rock, wind, water, and soil. I was drawn to Vermont in 1997, upon my high school graduation, and have resided there since. Later this month I am relocating permanently to the high desert of Colorado, at which time I will launch a new blog. This new blog, as well as all other original online resources, both past and future, will be listed at smithforecast.com. My home is for sale (cash only)-- click here for more information. 

I have thoroughly enjoyed Vermont, and have many memories to cherish-- not the least of which are listed below. This is far from complete, and may be amended as time and recall allows:

-- sunrises across the hills of Randolph Center

-- sunsets along Ridge Rd. in Brookfield

-- the mist in the valley along the South Royalton/Tunbridge line

-- coming into Rutland via Route 4

-- coming into Vermont where 9 becomes 7 in Hoosick Falls

-- late nights in the Haybarn and Music Building at Goddard College

-- evening shifts when I read all the newspapers at the River Bend Farm Market in Townsend

-- early mornings making coffee at Stewart's in Poultney

-- making breakfast at Camp Waubanong, West Brattleboro

-- lazy afternoons beside the West River, Riford Brook, Thayer Brook

-- sledding with my son in Williamstown

-- sledding down a driveway in Williamstown in a 1993 S10 Blazer

-- stargazing during duty nights at Vermont Technical College

-- commuting up and down I89, teaching at VTC's Williston campus while living in Randolph

-- seeing more than half of Vermont's 251 towns from a Ford Mustang

-- driving through the hills of East Montpelier with my dog eating maple creemes

-- spinning records at WFVR-LP, 96.5FM South Royalton

-- coordinating monthly grocery runs to West Lebanon, NH

-- eating leftovers at the front desk of Mountain Green Resort, Killington 

-- watching the sun ascend over the mountains in front of Second Springs, Williamstown

-- the smell of maple in spring

-- the smell of cow manure on the shoes of students in Randolph Center

-- the smell of Nag Champa incense, drifting from summer windows

-- the rainbow above Abruzzi Stables, Bennington, and the company of Jacob Snyder

-- the sunlight through the stained glass windows of Bethany Church, Randolph

-- the soft moss of the fen in Brookfield

-- the view from the stage of the Chandler Music Hall, Randolph

-- the green dot bins at Exile On Main St., Barre

-- the closing of Circuit City, Williston

-- Tropical Storm Irene, Riford Brook Rd., Braintree

-- Earth Day 1999, Green Mountain College

-- eating a "Vermonster" at the old Ben and Jerry's location in Rutland

-- sausage gravy and biscuits at the Birdseye Diner, Castleton

-- eggs and bacon at Tot's, Poultney

-- having Ramunto's garlic knot pizza delivered to Ritz Camera at the Diamond Run Mall, Rutland

-- popcorn at the Bethel Drive In, Randolph

-- the Wayside Restaurant of Barre, the greatest restaurant of all time

-- driving the Bennington Bypass at top speed listening to Phish

-- learning to drive on Route 133 between Middletown Springs and West Rutland

-- driving 100 miles to band practice in St. Johnsbury

-- the mud at Coventry, 2004

-- the Listen Center in White River Junction

-- the pizza shop in Randolph (the good one)

-- Mocha Joe's coffee of Brattleboro, the best coffee in the world

-- the Gifford Hospital Thrift Store, one of the undiscovered gems of Vermont

-- the Tupelo Music Hall (defunct) in White River Junction

-- stacking firewood aside the cabin known as Hopeful in Braintree

-- watching two dogs lead each other around splashing in the creek on a July afternoon

-- shuttling low-residency faculty and students from Burlington to Plainfield in a Dodge minivan

-- Ween at Higher Ground (old location)

-- Richie Havens at Barre Opera House

-- Avett Brothers at Chandler Music Hall

-- swimming at "Flat Rock" in Poultney

-- swimming at the Dorset Quarry

-- watching the snow fall 

 

Long Road Music (2019)

This collection of instrumental music represents many disparate sessions. All tracks are original compositions, and were composed, performed, and produced by Christopher Smith, with additional electric bass by Randy Welch. This work is dedicated to Jacob Snyder, whose musicianship, friendship, and humor has and will forever be an inspiration to me. 

I have a continued interest in the use of electronic musical instruments, to create soundscapes and compositions built of non-representational sounds. I am especially interested in the use of early 1980s MIDI equipment, by which one may trigger multiple drum machines. How can clashes of tone and rhythm create a music that represents our social discourse? While this work began as purely electronic, it came to include acoustic guitar, drum kit, and many conga and cajon tracks-- a mix of divergent voices, at times working and sounding together. This project is the result of a specific creative process, one of careful, solitary overdubs. In relocating from New England, I anticipate utilizing different creative processes in the future. A short history of this work: 

Fall 2011-Spring 2012: sessions in a backyard shed in central Vermont. These involved a Yamaha RM1x drum machine and PSR keyboard, as well as other MIDI-driven tones.

Spring 2017: sessions in an apartment on Commercial St. in Trinidad, Colorado, using a Casio keyboard and Akai drum machine. 

Fall 2017-Spring 2018: sessions and overdub sessions at Riford Brook in Braintree, Vermont. Some piano, organ, and synthesizer tracks were recorded during this time. Fall '11 session work was discovered, and merged into this project. 

Spring 2019: extensive sessions at Animas St. in Trinidad, Colorado. Drum kit, hand drums, Hammond organ (M103 and T300), electric and keyboard bass, as well as bass work by Randy Welch. Mastered digitally.  

Press Release: Fox-West Theater of Trinidad, CO to Acquire Pipe Organ from Private Donor

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The City of Trinidad, Colorado and Urban Neighborhoods, Inc. are proud to announce the donation of a pipe organ to the Fox-West Theater of Trinidad. Steve Porter, formerly of Birmingham, Alabama, purchased the Porter House Organ in 2012 and installed it in his home in Birmingham. Mr. Porter relocated to Trinidad in March 2018, and has since been seeking a home for this instrument. This donation is supported by the City of Trinidad and Urban Neighborhoods, Inc., and is made possible in part through the Corazon de Trinidad Creative District.

The Porter House Organ consists of two wind boxes and nearly 800 pipes, the largest being 16’ long. The organ was originally custom built by the Cortese Organ Company of Orlando, Florida in 1974. The organ has thirteen ranks, or different voices, that may be played alone or in combination. The console has two manuals (or keyboards) and pedals. The console has 31 stops plus a star cymbal and tremolo. There are 26 programmable pistons, including 8 general pistons, with 6 for each manual. The organ is roughly the same size as the one at Paroisse Sant-Eustache in Paris, France.

With support from the City of Trinidad and Corazon de Trinidad Creative District, the organ will be uninstalled and shipped from Alabama in late February. The instrument will be stored at the Fox-West until renovations are complete and the organ may be properly installed. 

In this picture, one can see the lattice covering the area behind the upper boxes in the main auditorium. These small rooms are designated chambers for organ pipes. In the chamber to stage left, a Wurlitzer pipe organ sat from 1925 until the 1940s. Installation of the Porter House Organ at the Fox-West will encompass both chambers, on the left and right side of the stage. The Porter House Organ console will have the ability to be located throughout the auditorium. For more information, please contact Urban Neighborhoods, Inc. project manager Christopher Smith at csmith@vtc.edu

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On the Closing of Green Mountain College

Originally posted on the Facebook group Rogue Alumni of GMC. For more information about the college's closure, visit greenmtn.edu. To view the January 26, 2019 meeting with Green Mountain College President Bob Allen, click here. 

I’m writing to share my thoughts on the closing of our alma mater (’01) after today’s [1/26/19] meeting with Bob Allen. I stayed in Vermont after graduation, and have been working at Vermont Tech since 2004. Through Mitch LesCarbeau, I often heard about the college’s financial mismanagement; that despite offering an important curriculum, the Board of Trustees and administration made choices that kept the college from staying viable.  

I know many want to see GMC stay open, and I understand that—we shared something awesome there that may never be repeated and can hardly be described. However, I cannot support fundraising campaigns towards its remaining open as-is: the decision-makers that got our institution into this mess cannot be trusted.

Green Mountain College is not literally, but financially, dead. The burden of the USDA-and-other-lender loan ($21.5million) has to go away somehow, and I’m guessing through the bankruptcy of the institution (I’m not an accountant or lawyer). The college property is for sale on the international market, according to Bob Allen.

I see it as far more feasible to track down the “international broker” with which Green Mountain College is listed, and purchase it outright, as part of the liquidation of our sadly-mismanaged college, than to take responsibility for the bad decisions of the Board of Trustees and administration.

What to do with the campus is a whole different question. The accreditation will go away with the bankruptcy—but so will all governance. Whoever buys it will have their butt kissed by the same Governor that offered no help to Bob Allen, in hopes that the new buyer will have a need for new employees.

One can operate a college without accreditation (Trump University). One can operate a think tank, go full-on Silicon Valley and have employees live on-site. If I had the chance to approach VT Gov Phil Scott, I would have asked for special dispensation to allow the campus to become opened as New England’s first institution dedicated to cannabis cultivation and production, and offer non-accredited degrees to an on-campus population. An idea that wild could ‘save’ the college.

My larger point is: while I understand where hearts are at towards raising funds to keep GMC open, I cannot support the continued administration.