Cultures Clash At Belmont World Film’s ‘What Will People Say’ Monday, April 23 [Trailer]

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Photo: “What Will People Say”

Belmont World Film will present the New England premiere of “What Will People Say” on Monday, April 23, at 7:30 p.m. at Belmont’s Studio Cinema, 376 Trapelo Rd. Buy tickets here.

Directed by Iram Haq, the Norwegian, German and Swedish production is based extensively on the director’s experience as a teenage daughter of Pakistani immigrants in Norway. The film represents a doomed quest to reconcile two worldviews and cultures that stand in fundamental opposition to each other. Pakistani immigrants living in Norway send their 16 year-old daughter away to live with relatives in Pakistan after she is caught kissing her secret Norwegian boyfriend, only to return to Norway after innocently bringing shame to the family yet again.

The film is in Norwegian and Urdu with subtitles.

Talk, Reception On Making Art With Paper At The Belmont Art Gallery, Sunday At Noon

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Photo: Suzette Durso, “Sparrow Fairy”
The Belmont Gallery of Art is sponsoring a talk and reception “The Art of Paper,” on Sunday, April 22, from noon to 2 p.m. at the gallery which is located on the third floor of the Homer Building in the Town Hall complex.
The Art of Paper Gallery talk will feature four artists from the “Fairytales and Folktales” exhibit who created their art using paper in unique and unusual ways. Come learn more about how they make their work.
 
Panelists at this special talk include Laurie Bogdan, Helen Canetta, Suzette Durso, Barbara Fletcher and Carol Wintle. Light brunch refreshments will be served.

Belmont Police’s Prescription Drug Drop Off at DPW Yard Sat. April 28

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Photos: Prescription drugs.

The Belmont Police Department in conjunction with the Belmont Auxiliary Police and the DEA will be hosting a Prescription Drug Take-Back Initiative to prevent the abuse and theft of old, unused and expired prescription drugs at the DPW Yard, 37 C St., on Saturday April 28 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Old or unused prescription drugs (no liquids) may be dropped off for free with no questions asked. You won’t even have to get out of your car.

Prescription drugs are highly susceptible to misuse by family and friends. In addition they can be improperly disposed of and end up in our environment, posing a potential health hazard. Please take some time to check your medicine cabinet and visit the DPW next weekend.

For more information on the Rx Drug Take Back Initiative or a list of additional collection sites visit www.dea.gov . Residents can also contact Belmont Police Lt. Kristin Daley at kdaley@belmontpd.org. The police also has a permanent Rx drug collection kiosk located in the lobby of the police station that is accessible 24/7.

Side By Side For 26 Miles: Habelows Push 3 Dozen Belmontians Over Marathon Finish Line

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Photo: Melissa (left) and Eileen (right) Habelow at the finish of the Boston Marathon. 

Monday’s BAA Marathon was no walk in the park for the Habelows from Belmont. The pair – mom Eileen and eldest daughter Melissa – ended up battling daylong drenching downpours, a steady headwind and temperatures in the 40s for nearly seven hours before crossing the finish line in Boston’s Copley Square just before 6 p.m. 

And during the entire six hours and 22 minutes in the rain and cold, mother and daughter did it together, side by side, hitting every checkpoint at the same time. 

“It was brutal and amazing in the same day,” said Eileen. “We have trained for almost 20-weeks (physical exertion is nothing new as both Habelows were stellar field hockey players in college) so to have that kind of weather on Marathon Monday was a bit disappointing, but we still got to run the Boston Marathon!”

Three dozen Belmont residents completed the 122nd edition of the marathon run during epic weather conditions. The town’s resident marathoner, Becca Pizzi, broke the finish line in 3 hours and 35 minutes while Belmont High’s Girls’ Basketball Head Coach Melissa Hart strode in four hours and 39 minutes.

The day’s payoff for the Habelows was just that, raising almost $18,000 for Boston’s Beth Israel Cancer Center where Eileen was treated for breast cancer beginning in the fall of 2016. They will continue to raise funds until April 30 (read their story here) as they strive to reach their goal of $20,000. 

“The fundraising and our donors was a big motivation to keep running yesterday,” said Eileen.

And while they pulled up the rear of the pack – remember, they’re field hockey players – they did find something at the end of the race.

“We finished in time to get medals, which made us very happy!” said Eileen.

Times of Belmont :

  1. Alfonso Marquez  3:07:47
  2. Tony Luongo  3:23:18
  3. Emily Cody  3:31:28
  4. Sarah Poplawski  3:32:50
  5. Laurie Nahigian  3:35:13
  6. Becca Pizzi. 3:35:55
  7. Lisa Engler  3:37:01
  8. Seth Waterman  3:37:58
  9. Konstantin Tyurin  3:40.36
  10. Sam Gross  3:49:44
  11. Peter Tagge  3:49:48
  12. William Marinell  3:50:29
  13. Mike Ascione 3:50:31
  14. Carrie Mallozzi  3:57:18
  15. Meredith Plault  4:00:18
  16. Katie Brace  4:00:22
  17. Jana Montoya  4:10:13
  18. Chris Poli  4:11:30
  19. Edward Amer  4:12:50
  20. Christine Bowe  4:18:24
  21. Richard Newton. 4:18:51
  22. Melissa Hart  4:39.16
  23. Satomi Kato  5:00:26
  24. Andy Schreiner. 5:00:55
  25. Sarkis Chekijian  5:05:13
  26. Peter Thomson 5:15:39
  27. Rabie Angadi 5:26:00
  28. Peter Walker 5:26:47
  29. Meaghan Rocha  5:27:27
  30. Carol Berberian 5:31:25
  31. Maria Martins 5:44:17
  32. Kai Saukkonen  6:01:42
  33. Stephen Najarian  6:03:40
  34. Richard Horgan. 6:14:53
  35. Deb Rooney  6:19:18
  36. Eileen Habelow  6:22:13

‘Dockless’ Bike Share Comes To Belmont This Summer

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Photo: Dockless bike share in Washington DC (Credit: Washington Post)

By early summer, Belmontians will be able to grab a bike for a buck and ride off to travel around Belmont and 14 nearby towns. When they’re done, the riders need only to park it at a centralized location and that’s it.

Welcome to bike sharing, Belmont-style, as the Board of Selectmen voted on Monday, April 9  to sign an agreement to join a regional bicycle-sharing program that is unlike the Hubway Bike Share program used in Boston (since 2011), Cambridge, Brookline and Somerville which require docking stations which municipalities need to invest thousands of dollars at several locations. Under the new “dockless” program, there is no cost to Belmont. 

“This will help take cars off the street,” said Spencer Gober, Office of Community Development staff planner, who has been working with the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) which brought together a group of 15 communities to join in a joint request for station-free proposals. In addition to Belmont, Watertown, Arlington, Lexington, Waltham, Bedford, and Concord and other cities and towns in Metro Boston are interested in joining the system.

About a year ago, several bike-sharing companies were seeking to establish relationships with individual municipalities when the MAPC took the lead to find the two vendors which were recently chosen to supply up to 2,000 bikes over the member towns and cities. The new dockless bike share system is taking off with Seattle and Washington launching programs using thousands of bicycles.

The service brings bikes with locks on their wheels that are opened by using the company’s app on their smartphone. Users can use the app to find locations of bikes which have GPS locators. The bikes will be located at designated public locations around town, including business centers and transportation hubs. Between 35 to 50 bikes – which may also include e-bikes, electric pedal-assist bicycles – will be located in Belmont with the cost per ride at $1, said Gober. Riders can cross town lines without leaving the network. 

Belmont World Film Proves ‘Streaking’ Is Alive And Well In Switzerland

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Photo: Streaker

A high school teacher bets his school’s athletic field money on a fixed soccer match to raise money to build a museum celebrating his favorite Swiss poet Gottfried Keller, only to see his scheme crash when the winning goal was stopped by a streaker on the field.

In his attempt to get back the school’s money and still build his museum, the teacher decides to take bets on how long a streaker can stay on the field. The more bets he takes, the more streakers he needs to recruit and train. Soon, the entire Swiss soccer league is turned upside down awash in streakers!

“Streaker” (“Flitzer”) will have its East Coast premiere tonight, Monday, April 16 at 7:30 p.m. at the Belmont World Film 17th annual International Film Series at Belmont’s Studio Cinema, 376 Trapelo Rd. The 2017 feature is in Swiss German and German with English subtitles.

 

Upper Concord Avenue Closed Vacation Week, April 16 – 20

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Photo: Can’t go here!

A major portion of one of the main roads to and from Lexington will be closed for most of the day this coming week.

Upper Concord Avenue from Pleasant to Mill streets will be shut down from Monday, April 16 to Friday, April 20 due to infrastructure construction related to the Belmont Day School. There will be a police detail at either end of the road to enforce the closure. 

The work schedule is:

  • Monday, April 16: 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
  • Tuesday to Friday, April 17-20: 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Through traffic from Lexington to Belmont will be detoured down Mill Street, onto Trapelo Road and onto South Pleasant Street where it will connect with Concord Avenue at the Belmont Police Station.

Those excluded from the ban will include Concord Avenue residents and members of the Belmont Hill Club. 

Sophomore Shows The Way To Become A Belmont Idol [VIDEO]

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Photo: Mia Hallet, winner of Belmont Idol 2018.

For Mia Hallet, being up on stage performing is “where I’m supposed to be.” 

The Belmont High School sophomore proved that statement was on point as she wowed the audience and judges at Belmont Idol 2018 to walk away with the title on Friday, April 6. 

The dance ensemble Dance the Music made up of Yolei Chen, Dinara Mardanova, Kamila Mardanova and Nitya Sharma placed second with three-time contestant Krasma (Stefan Ingesias, Eamon O’Connor, Andrea Russi) coming in third. 

Performing solo accompanied by her gorgeous orange-stained Gretsch Electromatic Hollowbody guitar, the long-time singer let loose a rendition of BØRNS’ “Electric Love” to the receptive audience in the High School’s auditorium and three judges made up of local professional musicians.

With a father was in a band in his younger days and she has been singing since elementary school, Hallet first picked up the guitar two years ago with the idea of playing first before her classmates and then a wider audience. 

“My goal is to perform on stage, to make a living as an artist,” she said. “And this is a step towards that.”

New Belmont School Committee Meets … And Needs One More Member

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Photo: The new School Committee: (from left) Lisa Fiore, Andrea Prestwich, Susan Burgess-Cox, Tara Donner and Catherine Bowen. 

The first meeting of the newly-constituted Belmont School Committee after the town’s election on April 3, was quick – just a little bit more than a half-hour long – as the committee’s big vote was to select its new leader.

For the next year, Susan Burgess-Cox, who won re-election for another three-year term in last week’s election, was unanimously selected committee chair by the five members. She succeeds Lisa Fiore who takes on a one-year term on the board. The committee also welcomed newcomer Tara Donner, who was elected to the other three-year seat. They join Andrea Prestwich and Catherine Bowen on the committee.

Yet there is unfinished business on the committee; namely, it’s missing one member. With Tom Caputo’s election to the Board of Selectmen, the committee has an unfilled slot for the remainder of Caputo’s term, ending April 2019. To rectify the empty seat, the committee will fill the position by an appointee chosen jointly by the School Committee and the Board of Selectmen.

Anyone interested in filling this vacancy can submit a letter of interest to Cathy Grant in the Superintendent’s office by Thursday, May 3 at 4 p.m. via email to cgrant@belmont.k12.ma.us or U.S. mail to Cathy Grant c/o Belmont Public Schools, 644 Pleasant St.

The two boards will meet jointly on Friday, May 11 at 8:30 a.m. in the Board of Selectmen’s meeting room in Town Hall to interview applicants and to vote to appoint the new member of the School Committee.

The Yellow Room Set To Bring Color To Second Friday Coffeehouse On Friday

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Photo: “The Yellow Room” (Facebook)

Second Friday favorites “The Yellow Room” aka Heather Quay and Jon Svetkey headline this month’s Second Friday Coffeehouse on Friday, April 13, from 7:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the First Church Belmont situated at the intersection of Common Street and Concord Avenue (404 Concord)  just outside Belmont Center.

Quay and Svetkey have been singing and strumming together for nearly 20 years. Their original songs combine elements of classic pop, folk and country music while showcasing their love of two-part harmony and fun. As one half of Quay & O’Conor, Heather performed at colleges and clubs throughout the Northeast, including Columbia University, CBGBs and Club Passim, and released an album of original music. Jon, and his band, The Loomers, have performed at venues such as The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, The Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, The Hatch Shell in Boston, Club Passim, Caffe Lena, and Fenway Park. He co-headlined writers-in-the-round nights with folks like Kristian Bush of Sugarland, Dar Williams, and Ellis Paul. Jon has released 10 albums of his music and his songs have appeared on CBS, Cinemax, The CW, MTV, NBC, and PBS.

As a special added bonus, Jeff Isen will join them for a few songs.

  • General Admission: $12
  • Students and Seniors: $8