Video Project

   Logging has been a very big part of the history of Bethel, Maine. The mountain village was originally settled in 1769 as the small Canadian hamlet of Sudbury.  In the late 1700's Doctor Timothy Andrew and his wife moved from Boston to Maine and built what is now the Andrew's Farm, which still stands today. They were one of ten original families to survive the last Native American attacks in the 1780’s, and sense then have survived everything from scarlet fever that wiped out an entire generation of children, to snow storms that killed all their animals. In the last hundred years the family has expanded their business to include logging, both in the surrounding towns and their own vast holdings.

    Timothy Andrew spent the majority of his life on the Andrew’s farm. He studied agriculture at  the University of Maine Oreno and joined that army soon after graduation. He was stationed in Chicago in the years leading up to the Vietnam war were he met and married his wife Jo Ellen, a Texas native and true southern bell. After they married they moved back to Maine to start their family in the 1960s. Tim would go on to run the family farm just as his father before him, and his son after that. Tim’s father Richard Andrew would spend winters in the New England forest cutting wood to support his family, as Tim does now.

“Our family’s logging history goes back four generations. My great great great grandfather was a doctor, but his son was a farmer and a logger. He worked for the brown company in the woods and my father was a scalar for the brown company out of Berlin.”

 Richard worked cutting and hauling trees for what about two dollars a day, including room and board. During the fall season, they would go into the woods and wouldn't come back out until Christmas time. It was important to the families that the men made it out in time to buy Christmas presents for the children, sense this was the 1950’s and the women had little to no way of supporting themselves.

    “[One winter] there was a huge snow storm, and the men couldn't get out of the woods. And all the women were upset because there was no money to buy toys to put under the trees.”

So starts the family story that has been passed down for generations. A story of how a group of Andrew women took Christmas into their own hands.

            “They went to be and had a dream,” tells Andrew “of making animals, by carving blocks of wood, covering them with cotton, and pieces of cloth.”

    Though the family no longer makes handmade toys the story lives on. It is told every Christmas to younger generations, as a lesson to always appreciate what you have and above all to take pride in their rich family history.

      Logging has been a very big part of the history of Bethel, Maine. The mountain village was originally settled in 1769 as the small Canadian hamlet of Sudbury.  In the late 1700's Doctor Timothy Andrew and his wife moved from Boston to Maine and built what is now the Andrew's Farm, which still stands today. They were one of ten original families to survive the last Native American attacks in the 1780’s, and sense then have survived everything from scarlet fever that wiped out an entire generation of children, to snow storms that killed all their animals. In the last hundred years the family has expanded their business to include logging, both in the surrounding towns and their own vast holdings.

    Timothy Andrew spent the majority of his life on the Andrew’s farm. He studied agriculture at  the University of Maine Oreno and joined that army soon after graduation. He was stationed in Chicago in the years leading up to the Vietnam war were he met and married his wife Jo Ellen, a Texas native and true southern bell. After they married they moved back to Maine to start their family in the 1960s. Tim would go on to run the family farm just as his father before him, and his son after that. Tim’s father Richard Andrew would spend winters in the New England forest cutting wood to support his family, as Tim does now.

“Our family’s logging history goes back four generations. My great great great grandfather was a doctor, but his son was a farmer and a logger. He worked for the brown company in the woods and my father was a scalar for the brown company out of Berlin.”

 Richard worked cutting and hauling trees for what about two dollars a day, including room and board. During the fall season, they would go into the woods and wouldn't come back out until Christmas time. It was important to the families that the men made it out in time to buy Christmas presents for the children, sense this was the 1950’s and the women had little to no way of supporting themselves.

    “[One winter] there was a huge snow storm, and the men couldn't get out of the woods. And all the women were upset because there was no money to buy toys to put under the trees.”

So starts the family story that has been passed down for generations. A story of how a group of Andrew women took Christmas into their own hands.

            “They went to be and had a dream,” tells Andrew “of making animals, by carving blocks of wood, covering them with cotton, and pieces of cloth.”

    Though the family no longer makes handmade toys the story lives on. It is told every Christmas to younger generations, as a lesson to always appreciate what you have and above all to take pride in their rich family history.

Outline

Katilyn and I are going to do our project on Black Friday shopping. I'm going to take the video, Katilyn will write the story about Black Friday shopping in America, and then both of us will edit.

Sound Slide Story

Dorian McGowan has a love for art. 

The artist worked here at Lyndon State College at a professor for many years. And some say that he was the one that started the art program here. 

Dorian is not just a drawer; he is also a painter, sculptor, garbagepicker and bargain finder. When he creates art he uses the things he finds to create the art around. 

But, Dorian’s love is drawing people’s faces. He says even the ugliest person has something beautiful about them and that is what he makes known in his art. 

Dorian loves looking at people’s eyes and ears, and says that has a lot to do with beauty. 

Mr. McGowan has been an artist all of his life. He remembers being a little kid and climbing up in his grandmother’s oversized chair to draw with her. 

We asked him if his grandmother was an artist as well, he said, “No, No she was not,” with a chuckle. 

He said that once he got really good his grandmother said she was not going to draw with him anymore because he was too good. So he stopped being good at drawing because he wanted his grandmother to draw with him. 

Dorian does not like photographs, even though some would argue that it was true art. He thinks that too many pictures are taken these days and they don’t capture the special things. 

That’s why Dorian’s family photos are drawings he has done. They hang on his wall at his home. 

The drawings include his late wife, children and grandchildren. 

His grandchildren are some of the most important things in Dorian’s life. And like his grandmother did he also create art with his grandchildren. 

In Dorian’s latest showing at the library in town he has the King and Queen Sliver Chins. These were named this way because in one of his bargain runs he would these silver pieces he thought would look great as chins. 

Him and his grandson worked on these pieces together and even wrote a story to accompany them. 

Dorian enjoys when his grandchild want to help him with his art because he believes they are all artists as well. 

 

 

Dorian's Story, slideshow project

iReport

iRepirt looked really cool, but I will never know. iReport wouldn't let me create an account. I tried on my laptop at home first, and no matter what I did it wouldn't let me join. Then I tried here at school. iReport still wouldn't let me join. Does iReport hate me? It's possible. Either way I wish it had worked for me. 

Slide Show Project

We plan on interviewing Dorian for our sound-slide-project. Dorian is a professor who draws student’s portraits and displays them in the theater lobby. He and his sketches are a well-known fixture at Lyndon State. Many students and have been the subject of his art. It is our understanding is that he has been at the college for many years and therefor would have plenty to say.

  For images we would photograph the portraits, parts of his process (easels, pencils, clipboards etc.) and if possible, Dorian sketching. We would like to record some nat sound of shuffling papers, pencil on paper, and other art preparations. Of course our main sound will be the interview.

            We our most interested in his process. How does he choose his subjects? What his favorite part of sketching? What about his other work? Does he work with other mediums? How did he begin sketching portraits and why does he continue? We also hope to get sounds bytes about interesting stories over the years. Who are some of his favorite subjects? The most rewarding experiences he has had with his art?

            Of course for all this to happen we first need to find him but once we do it should be all down hill from there. 

Data Visualization: Word Cloud

This data visualization is a world cloud. To create it we used press releases that were sent to news seven from various towns across the state, and then put them into wordle. The most frequently used words are the largest and the smallest ones are the least used words.
As you can see DUI is a very frequently used word. The majority of press releases the station receives are about DUIs. One can also assume that theft is a common crime considering it's fairly large size.  Twenty three and twenty two are also pretty prevalent words, though I am am not sure what context they were used in. It could be that people between the ages of 22-23 commit the most crimes in this area. St. Johnsbury, Bristol, Brattleborro and Lyndonville are all towns with large representation in the word cloud. This could mean that the towns report a lot of crimes, that they just send out more press releases, or that people often are brought their after the crime. For example St. Johnsbury and Brattleborro both have barracks that are often used to hold drunk drivers until they sober up. The last large word is unknown. Unknown is a very common word in press release. A motive can be unknown, a person can be unknown, and a million other little details can be unknown.
   The word cloud is a actually a fairly useful data visualization tool. You can gain a lot of understanding from them. What you can't get from them is facts. There are statistics, so it wouldn't be useful if you were trying to determine exactly how many crimes happen in Brattleboro or how many people between the ages of 20 and 24 receive DUIs. It is very aesthetically pleasing though, which is an added bonus if your are using it on a blog or in a story, it catches the readers eye and therefor draws interest to what you are saying.