the uvScene

I’ve already begun seeing a few “best of 2008″ lists from various publications, and it made me start reflecting back on the year in arts & media. Personally, I found this to be a great year for music as I found a load of new artists that I’ve grown to love. How about you?

I’d make this a Friday 5×5, but that may prove to be a bit overwhelming. No minimum or maximum answers here — name as many (or as few) as you deem worthy!

For 2008:

1. Best music?
2. Best movie?
3. Best book?
4. Best trip you took?
5. Best memory of the year?

If you’re looking for a comprehensive catalog of local reviews, look no further than yelp.com. Yelp is a website that aims to connect local people with reviews by other local people — no pros here. The greatest thing is that anyone can be involved! Looking for a business and want to know about other people’s experiences? Get on yelp and search away. One of the predominant uses is for restaurants (and around here, you can always check out uvfood.com), but it’s not just for food — mechanics, stores, schools, doctors, lawyers — even state parks!

Right now, yelp does extremely well in the larger metropolitan areas so there’s not a whole lot reviewed in the uv — Hanover’s reviews are mostly from D students and there are a trickle of other reviews around the area. But since it allows anyone to review anything anywhere, we can add to its database with any info that we as a collective uvScene might have. This is a great way to get a quick review of places in the area from a wide variety of people.

Here’s a link to yelp in the Lebanon area. If you don’t see something listed — add it! If you have something to say — say it!

Get your cards in your spokes, kids, because this Friday is National Bike-to-Work Day! It’s easier than you think! This year’s event has more breakfast events and meetups/biking groups. If you live out Mascoma way, you may already use the rail-trail to get to Lebanon — it’s a safe and direct route. I hope we can start eliminating the hundreds of single-passenger cars we see on a daily basis and replace a portion of them with bikes.

For more information, visit www.bike2work-day.com/ and saddle up!

How about you? Are you biking to work on Friday? Do you regularly bike to work?

PS if you are driving on Friday morning/afternoon, be aware of bikes and share the road!

In lieu of any regular uvScene bowling, here’s a film. Tomorrow night, THE BIG LEBOWSKI will be showing at the Hop, 7pm. For all of you who have clamored for a uvScene showing of the Dude, this is your chance. For those of you who have never seen this work of art, now’s your chance. Perhaps we can meet up for some post-movie Caucasians? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

I can’t let you all leave work today without reminding you that this weekend is the White River Independent Film Festival. Take in some great films that you can’t see anywhere else! Runs through Sunday — go to wrif.org for the latest program info.

White River Indie Films

It’s back –the 7th annual Flavors of the Valley is going on this afternoon at Hartford High School in the gym. Admission is $7 and gets you tons of samples from local farms & restaurants using local ingredients. There are workshops, info booths, and more. Get on out and meet your local farmers! I always run into at least 2 other uvScenesters when I go. For more info, visit vitalcommunities.org or follow this link.