Little Bang Theory

A Minor Disturbance In The Shelburne Falls Zeitgeist… June 17, 2012

For the past two weeks or so, one of our little bits of Country Heaven, Shelburne Falls, has been transformed into a New Hampshire town of an earlier era, for the filming of the major motion picture Labor Day  starring Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin.

The town is abuzz with activity, some of it welcomed, as a lot of the people working on this project are bringing their considerable resources to bear on this little hamlet, and these things get sold as a boon to the local economy.

I guess if you rent lifts and generators, that’s probably true.  But if you’re a local small business which depends on people’s ability to get at you…  perhaps not so much.  The town’s parking has been usurped by roped-off rows of semi trailers filled with movie stuff:

…and the streets are filled with police redirecting traffic, gawking locals hoping to get a peek at Miss Kate (the Boston Globe reports that she’s loathe to even acknowledge the existence of us here in the un-California hills of Western Massachusetts,) and rolling obstacles like this screen/shade/reflector being moved down Bridge Street:

I had occasion to brave the melee to check on some photos I have for sale on the wall of Mormor Gallery, whose sign coincidentally appears in that last photograph.

I turned down Deerfield street, which was  nearly impassably clogged with carts and wagons filled with back-lot electronica:

…when suddenly, unexpectedly, there She was… OMG, schwiiing!!!

What timeless beauty!  I showed her bodyguard my very fine camera and asked if he wanted to trade, but I don’t think he spoke English.

Anyway, our little town is in flux.  Businesses like Mormor are dead in the water because people can’t get to them, and the folks clogging our commercial pores aren’t shopping, they’re working, making a movie.

And it won’t even have our name in it.

So much for the Mystic Pizza effect.