Category Archives: Burlington

Free Speech TV is coming to Burlington!

Posted on Thursday, January 26, 2012 by Comments are off for this post

#BTV #VT – Front Porch Forum is pleased to sponsor this action.  Click here to donate to their Kickstarter campaign!

Thanks to the work of many in our community, Free Speech TV is bringing its 24/7 independent news, analysis and documentaries to Burlington Telecom. Starting March 1st, we’ll be able to tune in to FSTV on BT’s newest channel (122) on its “basic tier.”

But first, we need to rally to finish the task of making Burlington the first city in the country to offer a fulltime FSTV channel on cable. FSTV has until the end of February to raise a one-time $10,000 to cover its start-up costs.

Here’s some more good news: We raised half the money before we even launched this page.

A group of us founded the Friends of Free Speech TV in Burlington, and we’ve already pledged $5,000 as a Founding Friends Challenge Fund. That means that for every dollar you pledge here, we’ll kick in another dollar to match you. If we can raise just $5,000 by the end of February, FSTV will receive the full $10,000 it needs to launch its new channel in our community.

Screeching like a trapped seagull in #BTV #VT

Posted on Wednesday, September 21, 2011 by Comments are off for this post

I think this is a FIRST for Front Porch Forum.  Posted by an FPF member in Burlington’s Old North End today…

This morning, at about 1.30 a.m., my husband and I were ripped from coma-like sleep by a loud distress sound.  It sounded like it came from about 250 feet away, somehwere on the eastern part of Walnut, up from Dot’s Market. The sound didn’t vary much in pitch. For about 15 minutes, we lay in bed speculating about its its source.

“I think its a possum or something. Perhaps an animal in a have-a-heart trap?,” speculated my husband.

“No, I think it is a seagull.  I bet its trapped in a dumpster or garbage,” I offered.

In his boxers, my husband left the house to help the poor animal.  He was back shortly after, with the sound was still carrying through the whole neighborhood.

“Not a seagull, Val. A mammal.  A **very happy** neighbor.” To maintain the G-rated spirit of Front Porch Forum, I will proceed by referring to the sound sources as the”trapped seagull” and the “seagull rescuer,” who was clearly already on the scene before my husband and I thought to help.

Trapped seagull:  I am happy for your late hour pleasure. I know this won’t be an issue in 4 weeks when we have to sleep with our windows closed, but it would be neighborly if you didn’t broadcast your coital bliss over such a wide distance.

Seagull Rescuer:  Trapped seagull is not being honest with you.  If a seagull were trapped for that long and were forced to give out a distress call at the volume for such a long time, she would, in real life, perish of exhaustion. Only in the movies do seagulls maintain that level of pleasure at that volume for 45 minutes.

Then again, maybe the rest of us are doing it wrong and seagull and rescuer are on to something.  Perhaps we can knock on their door and ask them next time we are treated to their pleasure sounds?