The Adirondack Issue 2018
Former Wall Streeter Sandy Lewis Is an ADK Agitator; A Project That’s Turning Lake George ‘Smart’; Trumpeter Taylor Haskins Melds Jazz and Electronica in Westport; Exploring the Eats in Essex, N.Y.
Memoriam: Manfred Hummel, 1936-2018
A gathering to celebrate the life of Manfred Hummel, who died on June 3, 2018, will be held at Rice Memorial High School in South Burlington on Saturday, August 18, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Manfred taught at Rice for 36 years. His wife, Margaret, and his children will be happy to greet those…
The Cannabis Catch-Up: Majority of Vermonters Want Retail Weed, Poll Shows
We’ve heard for months from Vermonters who think that the state should legalize a taxed-and-regulated market for recreational cannabis. A law in effect since July 1 allows for possession of up to an ounce of dried cannabis and the growing of two mature and four immature plants. Those who want a more structured system say…
Obituary: D. John Heyman, 1922-2018
North Middlesex D. John Heyman, born in New York City on September 4, 1922, to David Melville and Ruth (Stein) Heyman, died at home in North Middlesex, Vt., on July 1. Mr. Heyman was a lifelong human rights activist, philanthropist and social worker. As president and vice chair of the New York Foundation, he directed…
Album Review: Pappy, ‘Back to the Basics’
(Self-released, CD, digital download) There are a few basic tenets for good bluegrass. Well, depending on your level of adeptness in the field, there are probably a lot of tenets. I don’t have that many: I want songs that make me feel like I’m right smack-dab in the fucking Blue Ridge Mountains; I want songs…
At Viall’s Crossing in Westport, N.Y., a Hiking Trail and Young Farmers Share Space
At first glance, Viall’s Crossing is a pastoral wonder. The 132.5-acre farm sits on the outskirts of the tiny town center of Westport, N.Y. It’s equal parts rolling, farmable fields and verdant forest. But what looks like a familiar landscape — white house, hayfields, dirt driveway — is actually a property that hosts literal and…
Soundbites: Match Made in Heaven
Holy crap. That’s what I kept thinking during (and after) Guster’s mind-blowing collaboration with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra on Saturday. In front of a massive audience at the Shelburne Museum, the 29-piece classical ensemble supported the seasoned rockers in one of the most outstanding Vermont performances of 2018. Under the steady hand of conductor Benjamin…
Movie Review: Elvis Becomes a Metaphor for America in the Masterful Doc ‘The King’
What’s more fascinating than watching a true artist do what they do, following the development of their style and the evolution of their vision? If your medulla is oblongata, I don’t see how it gets better. In five years, the Beatles somehow got from “She Loves You” to “I Want You (She’s So Heavy).” Since…
Free Will Astrology (7/25/18)
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): As you wobble and stumble into the New World, you shouldn’t pretend you understand more than you actually do. In fact, I advise you to play up your innocence and freshness. Gleefully acknowledge that you’ve got a lot to learn. Enjoy the liberating sensation of having nothing to prove. That’s not…
Future Fix: Drug Detox Beds Needed in the North Country
On August 8, 2016, Sable LaBounty showed up at Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital in Plattsburgh, N.Y., ready to get clean. Six years before, she’d been prescribed painkillers for back surgery. What started as four pills a day skyrocketed to 30. When doctors would no longer fill her prescription, the 25-year-old said she took to the…
Another Vermont Pol Promises Broadband. Could It Work This Time?
Gubernatorial candidate Christine Hallquist has a bold promise that sets her apart from her Democratic rivals: to deliver fiber-optic internet connections to every home and business in Vermont. If elected, she said, workers in bucket trucks would take to the roads to hang cable by the end of her first term. “Vermont is not going…
Quick Lit Book Reviews: ‘Aesop Lake’ by Sarah Ward, ‘What Remains of Her’ by Eric Rickstad
Certain kinds of crime rip through a small town’s communal fabric, and the bonds of trust may take years to rebuild. July 24 will see the release of two novels by Vermont authors that focus on the aftermath of bad things happening in tight-knit communities — one for teens, the other for adults. “We won’t…
Hackie: Big Softies
“I’m a mason,” my customer told me. “I started when I was a teenager working with my uncle. I’ve worked jobs all over the North Country, sometimes in Vermont, too.” I was driving Roland Couture back to his home in Au Sable, a small New York town across the lake at approximately the same latitude…
Beyond the Border: Blue Vermonters Look to Spread Their Influence
For Democrats and progressives across the country, the priority this year is winning a majority in the U.S. House or Senate to break the Republican hold on legislative power. Vermont already has an all-blue congressional delegation, so some activists in the state have turned their attention to close races elsewhere — especially in neighboring states.…
Album Review: Question the MC & ILLu, ‘Textbook’
(Equal Eyes Records, digital download) Burlington producers ILLu and Rico James launched their hip-hop label, Equal Eyes Records, in March and have been hustling hard ever since. Textbook, by the new tandem of Question the MC & ILLu, is the label’s fourth release in as many months. The album suggests a promising future for both…
Movie Review: ‘Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again’ Finds Joy in Its Own Absurdity
Sometimes a film’s saving grace is that it doesn’t even contemplate taking itself seriously. Almost everything about the sequel to the 2008 jukebox musical hit Mamma Mia! is ridiculous, and only the ABBA-fueled numbers and costumes show evidence of much artistry or forethought. But longish stretches of the movie are still infectiously fun. This is…
Slather Up: Free Sunscreen Offered at Vermont Parks
Don’t stress if you forget to slather up with sunscreen before a trip to a Vermont beach or state park this summer. The state Department of Health has your back. Officials have put up lotion dispensers, some bearing the slogan “SPF is your BFF,” at sites throughout the state in an effort to reduce skin…
Scarlett Letters: I’m in My Early Seventies — Is My Sex Life Over?
Dear Scarlett, My husband of nearly five decades passed away after years of serious illness. We had wonderful sex, but intimacy was pretty much impossible after he first got sick. I am in my early seventies and can’t imagine being with anyone else. But I also can’t imagine not ever having sex again. Has that…
Artist Weighs In on Burlington Mural Controversy
If any humor can be found in the current controversy over Burlington’s “Everyone Loves a Parade!” mural, it’s in the title. Some locals don’t love the mural at all and have accused it of whitewashing history. In response to the outcry, the city council created a public task force in May to come up with…
The Cool Fusion of Trumpeter Taylor Haskins
As the laboratories of mad scientists go, Taylor Haskins’ is awfully damn scenic. From a lofty perch, its floor-to-ceiling windows open on a long, sweeping view. Beyond leafy tree branches, you can see the sleepy hamlet of Westport, N.Y., nestled along the shore of twinkling Lake Champlain. In the distance, the rolling western slopes of…
New York’s Pokéworks to Open Franchise in Burlington
Some nine months after the opening of the Scale Poké Bar in Williston, Chittenden County’s first poke restaurant, a new poke eatery is expected to occupy the space at 40 Church Street on the Marketplace in Burlington. Pokéworks, a chain that started in Manhattan in 2015, plans to open its Burlington location in December, a…
Letters to the Editor (7/25/18)
Some Series I just want to thank you for the terrific and important series [“Give and Take: Examining Vermont’s Nonprofit Economy,” June 20-July 18]. This is a real piece of researched journalism — the likes of which we very seldom get to read in our clubby little state. Please give us more. Mason Singer Calais…
Plattsburgh’s Mayor Talks Big Plans — Even as He Slashes Spending
Plattsburgh, N.Y., Mayor Colin Read left city hall and walked toward Lake Champlain on a sweltering July morning. He passed railroad tracks, the Saranac River and the city sewage treatment plant before arriving at Plattsburgh City Marina, which has a spectacular view of the water and Vermont’s Green Mountains. Read would like to make that…
Town Hall Theater Gets a New Executive Director
This August, Doug Anderson, founder of Middlebury’s Town Hall Theater, will step down from his role as executive director after 10 years. Mark Bradley will take over the position. But Anderson isn’t going far — just up the stairs from his current office to a newly created position as artistic director. As he put it,…
Cartoonist James Kochalka Designs Beer Can for Magic Hat
In 2011, James Kochalka made history by becoming Vermont’s first cartoonist laureate. Now, the Burlington comic-book author and performer will again be immortalized … on a beer can of his own design. On Friday, July 27, Kochalka will be at Magic Hat Brewing for the release of a floral, peppery farmhouse ale called Local Rocker…
The Jefferson Project Turns Lake George Into the World’s Smartest Lake
Boaters on Lake George may be forgiven for motoring past the 10-foot-long floating sensor platform, moored in the lake’s southern basin, without giving it a moment’s thought. At first glance, the unmanned, yellow-and-white buoy bobbing gently in the waves looks like a swim dock or small pontoon boat, albeit a high-tech one that’s outfitted with…
Talking Art With Abstract Painter Alison Weld
We live in a brave new world. Among the many, many strange cultural twists we’ve seen of late is a slogan shirt in Dior’s 2018 line that references a question posed by feminist art historian Linda Nochlin in 1971: “Why have there been no great women artists?” Eight years after Nochlin’s brilliant provocation, 26-year-old Alison…
Meals Are Chill at Trail Break Taps & Tacos in White River Junction
In White River Junction, the stoke is real. Or it is, at least, for Trail Break Taps + Tacos owner Topher Lyons. For those unfamiliar with “the stoke,” it’s the feeling one catches when riding a big wave on a surfboard, or shredding a sweet arc on skis, or hitting the line just right on…
Vermont Foodbank Receives $80K Grant From Walmart
On Monday, the Vermont Foodbank announced receipt of an $80,000 grant from the Walmart Foundation — yes, that Walmart — to beef up outreach programming to help Vermonters enroll in the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, or “food stamps”). SNAP is administered locally as 3SquaresVT through the Vermont Department for Children and Families. Since 2013,…
West End Blend’s Erica Bryan Talks Fronting the Band and Representation
Born during a Halloween basement party in 2012, funk ensemble West End Blend of Hartford, Conn., have been more or less in flux since their inception. Formerly a massive ensemble of nearly 20 people, including a rapper and a larger horn section, the group has scaled down to a more manageable eight-piece. And its music…
Former Wall Street Maverick Sandy Lewis Is an Adirondack Agitator
Not long after he moved from New Paltz to Essex, N.Y., Mark Kimball had an unexpected visitor. A man in a big pickup truck pulled on to his land, now Essex Farm, and fixed his steely blue eyes on Kimball, like a raptor that had just found dinner. He uttered four words: “You’re going to fail.”…
Eat This Week, July 25 to 31, 2018: Lambs in the Field
Peter Forbes and Helen Whybrow welcome visitors to their picturesque Waitsfield hill farm for a Moroccan-inspired garden supper. On the menu: wood-fired Knoll Farm lamb kebabs, pillowy handmade lavash and roasted garden vegetables served al fresco on picnic blankets in the garden (or in the barn if it’s raining). Live music and homemade berry pies…
The Adirondack Issue — 2018
The Adirondack Mountains are more than just a pretty Whiteface. The northern New York region’s 6 million acres are full of countless mountains, lakes, rivers, towns and cities — and stories. So each year, Seven Days ventures west to find them. After fueling up with lakeside eats in Essex, we visited Viall’s Crossing in Westport,…
In Plainfield, Mexican Citizens Line Up for Their Papers
In a drab, concrete building on the Goddard College campus in rural Plainfield, the Consulate General of Mexico set up shop Saturday to help its citizens obtain government-issued documents. Finding the Eliot Pratt Center was no easy task. Several drivers had to double back after they failed to notice lawn signs sporting the Mexican flag…
Theater Review: ‘Skeleton Crew,’ Dorset Theatre Festival
In Detroit at the height of the 2008 recession, there might be no one more powerless than the automobile assembly-line worker. In Dominique Morisseau’s Skeleton Crew, four African American workers have heard rumors their plant is closing. Their future is unknown, but economic uncertainty is always a given. This isn’t a story of larger-than-life conflict…
New Owners Take Over Great Harvest Bread Co.
Great Harvest Bread, a bakery and café at 382 Pine Street in Burlington, will be sold on July 31, said co-owner Sara Brown, who announced the sale last week on Facebook. The business is a franchise of the Montana-based company of the same name. Brown started it with her husband, Ethan Brown, 15 years ago,…
Exploring the Eats in Essex, New York
Riding a boat to dinner turns what might have been an ordinary occasion into a special event. For Vermonters who want to dine in the Adirondacks without driving on the far side of Lake Champlain, the first stop is the ferry landing in Charlotte. Leave your car there and walk aboard the boat for a…
