Cover Story
How the Former Brandon Training School Became a Thriving Village
This place is haunted. That’s the word from a handful of ghost hunters and at least one plumber, who refuses to work alone in a few of the buildings at Park Village. These days, the mixed-use commercial and residential park a mile north of Brandon is dotted with daycares and doctors’ offices, subsidized housing and…
SketchUp, Solidoodles and Replicators: Inside Burlington’s 3-D Printing Meet-Up
Curious about 3-D printers? Want to learn how to use one? Then drop by one of Burlington’s 3-D Printing and Modeling meet-ups. The informal gatherings have been happening monthly since March; the most recent one took place last Wednesday at Logic Supply in South Burlington. Software developer and maker Jon Bondy organized the group; about…
A Boutique Hotel Brings Back the Quirk to Montgomery Cuisine
A blackboard out front advertises sautéed free-range chicken livers. In many small Vermont towns, this might be more discouraging than enticing. But this is Montgomery Center, the town that was once home to Zack’s on the Rocks. And in some ways, a new establishment simply known as the Inn is the inheritor of Zack’s purple…
Two Seventysomething Private Eyes Keep Their Minds and Sleuthing Skills Sharp
Private investigators Peter Barton and his longtime business partner, Anita Bobee, are nothing like the hardboiled gumshoes of the 1940s film noir era. Anyone who notices them in a restaurant, bar or hotel lobby is likely to assume they’re just a retired couple on vacation, or in town visiting their grandchildren. And that’s the perfect…
Taste Test: Park Squeeze
If Addison Country has anything close to a restaurant don, it could be Michel Mahe. In the 11 years since he opened his first Vergennes restaurant, the Black Sheep Bistro, the indefatigable chef has exported his approachable yet sexy brand of food and drink to five more places. Though they’re not all still owned by…
Film News: Woodstock’s Town Hall Theater Goes Digital; Cartoon College Out on iTunes; Global Lens Film Series in Burlington
The citizens of Woodstock really love their Town Hall Theatre. In 1928, they ponied up to repair it after a fire; in the 1980s, they undertook an extensive restoration. And this past year, when it became clear that THT’s cinema would have to go digital or go dark, like others around the nation, a new…
News Quirks
Curses, Foiled Again Authorities charged Scott Simon, 24, with first-degree murder after he “pocket dialed” 911 and was overheard telling someone he was going to follow a 33-year-old man home from a Waffle House in Broward County, Fla., and kill him. Minutes later, the victim was shot and killed while driving on Interstate 95. “He…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Maybe you’ve seen that meme circulating on the internet: “My desire to be well-informed is at odds with my desire to remain sane.” If you feel that way now — and I suspect you might soon if you don’t already — you have cosmic permission, at least for a while, to…
Brandon’s Compass Center Aims to Be True North for the Arts
“We could have a really great Halloween event here,” Edna Sutton says, leading a visitor through the Compass Music and Arts Center in Brandon. It’s hard to tell if she’s jesting, but her smile is impish when she says in her softly lilting British accent, “The old dentist office is still down there. So is…
WTF: Why Are We Getting So Much Rain This Year, and Will It Ruin Our Summer?
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot: We just had to ask…
Interview with Os Mutantes Founder Sérgio Dias
Os Mutantes emerged from Brazil in the late 1960s, fusing breezy Tropicália grooves with the heady, kaleidoscopic aesthetic of psychedelic rock. Following their breakup in the late 1970s, the band assumed a near-mythical status and have been cited as an influence on artists ranging from Devendra Banhart and Beck to David Byrne and Kurt Cobain.…
![The Return of the Bike Ferry [314]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sevendaysvt.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/episode314.webp?resize=400%2C300&ssl=1)
The Return of the Bike Ferry [314]
6/15/13: This Saturday at the “cut” in the Colchester-South Hero causeway section of the Island Line Trail, Local Motion supporters gathered to celebrate the reopening of the bike ferry. Record flooding in 2011 severely eroded the trail and put the bike ferry out of commission for 2 years. After the repairs, the causeway connecting Colchester…
Art Review: Harriet Wood, Vermont Supreme Court Lobby
Harriet Wood’s “Inner Doors” show of abstract-expressionist paintings bursts forth as a late flowering. With 20 canvases and scrolls hanging in the lobby of the Vermont Supreme Court in Montpelier, the 75-year-old Marshfield artist reinvigorates a movement that’s nearly as old as she is. These sure-handed and sharp-eyed ab-ex paintings demonstrate Wood’s mastery of what…
Coworking Spaces Give Creatives a Room of Their Own
Video game developer Chris Hancock used to rent an office for his company, Tertl Studos, in downtown Montpelier. But eventually, he says, the cost of rent and utilities — more than $300 a month — became “an expense I didn’t want to keep carrying.” So the gaming industry veteran downsized his business in June 2012…
Former Pro Snowboarder Kevin Pearce Has a New Documentary
Two professional snowboarders swoop through the credits of a new documentary, playing an effortless game of follow the leader in a half-pipe. The clip was filmed in 2007. One of the riders — Shaun White — became one of the best snowboarders in the world, winning nearly every major competition and taking gold at the…
Letters to the Editor
Wife On Board [Re “Unhappy Endings,” June 5]: Ken Picard, your wife is a saint! Gia Biden Williamstown What Gives? Why have local officials and Vermont tax authorities allowed forced prostitution at these locations [“Vermont Police Take Hands-Off Approach to Investigating Massage-Parlor Prostitution,” June 12; “Unhappy Endings,” June 5]? With bars on the windows and…
