Summer Preview 2014
The Summer Preview Issue: Regulators Eye Airbnb; Overnighters at the Sunset Drive-In; Tig Notaro at the Comedy Fest; A Summer Food Truck Survey
Obituary: Bernard D. Lefebvre, 1929-2014, So. Burlington
Bernard D. Lefebvre, 85, a longtime resident of South Burlington, died Friday, May 23, 2014, in Birchwood Terrace Healthcare in Burlington. Bernard was born in Winooski on Jan. 3, 1929, one of 10 children born to Pacific and Angelina (Rathe) Lefebvre. He was educated in Winooski, served his country with the Vermont National Guard, and…
Mi Casa Opens in Stowe; Fiddlehead Festival in Southern Vermont
Since Mi Casa Kitchen & Bar opened last Thursday at 128 Main Street in Stowe, the $11.95 chorizo burger has been the runaway hit, say owners Paul and Laura Biron. The house sausage is topped with Chihuahua cheese, chile de árbol mayonnaise, avocado and a fried egg, and served with cassava fries. The couple’s 184-year-old…
Newport Loses a Colorful Artist, Adrien Patenaude
Pablo Picasso said, “There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who, with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun.” Last Tuesday, Newport lost a beloved artist. His name was Adrien Patenaude, but most knew him as Adrien “Yellow.” Often…
Will Billings Comes From Paralysis to Run the Marathon
You never get sick — ever since you began running regularly three years ago, dropping 75 pounds and cutting out chips and desserts, you’ve been healthy as a horse — but suddenly, as the calendar flips to 2014, you have this monstrous cold. You get night sweats, fever; you can’t shake it. Eventually, you get…
Superintendent Shuffle: Why Vermont’s Top Jobs in Education Turn Over So Quickly
It took a lot of red ink and behind-the-scenes negotiations to get Burlington School Superintendent Jeanne Collins to agree to resign last week — effective at the end of the school year — after nine years on the job. But an alarming number of her counterparts around the state are leaving of their own accord. At the…
Vermont’s 2014 Outdoor Summer Music Festivals
Summer in Vermont is kind of like a rubber band. Over the winter, the tension and anticipation of warmer times to come build as the cold stretches on. Then, just like that, there’s a release, and the state’s shortest season seems to fly by in the blink of an eye. Because the season is so…
A Veterans Affair: As Troubles Mount, Sanders Defends VA Chief
As chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, Sanders plays an unusual role: staunch defender of an Obama-appointed official.
A 2014 Survey of Summertime Food Trucks
Remember when “summer food” meant a picnic and maybe a trip to the local creemee stand? Such was the case when the Seven Days “Snack Attack” series debuted in 2007, surveying the state’s seasonal snack bars. But, while those outdoor eateries will always appeal, there’s a new trend on the rise: the food truck. This…
Sharing the PKN Love: PechaKucha Moves Around
It’s been four years since the Fleming Museum at the University of Vermont began hosting PechaKucha Night — and since few can properly pronounce the Japanese word (it means “chit-chat”), it’s OK to just call it PKN. Launched in 2003 by young creative types in Tokyo, the rapid-fire presentation format quickly became an international phenomenon.…
For Biking Aficionados: New Tours, Trails and Two-Wheelers
Vermont cyclists have a host of innovations to enjoy and anticipate in the peak pedaling season, which runs from roughly Memorial Day to Columbus Day. They’ll also have to contend with many of the same dangers and limitations that have always hindered biking in the state. With a mayor and a public works director committed…
Free Will Astrology (5/21/14)
ARIES (March 21-April 19): I believe your persuasive powers will be stronger than usual in the weeks ahead. The words coming out of your mouth will sound especially interesting. I also suspect that your intelligence will get at least a temporary upgrade. The clarity of your thoughts will intensify. You will see truths you have…
The Sunset Drive-In Opens Movie-Themed Inn
Peter Handy sits in the cab of his red Dodge Ram pickup with a remote control in hand and a big smile on his face. About two months ago, workers installed a new LED marquee just west of his Sunset Drive-In in Colchester. Handy, who unwrapped the marquee last week and turned it on for…
News Quirks (5/21/14)
Curses, Foiled Again British police arrested five members of a Liverpool gang for breaking into a clothing store after hours after they attracted the attention of customers at a bar next door with loud banging while using a sledge hammer to smash the door. The suspects were apprehended after a high-speed chase. Attorneys for the…
WTF: Why can’t moviegoers buy beer or wine in Burlington-area theaters?
Vincent Vega: You know what the funniest thing about Europe is? Jules Winnfield: What? Vincent: It’s the little differences. I mean, they got the same shit over there that we got here, but … it’s just, there it’s a little different. Jules: Example? Vincent: All right. Well, you can walk into a movie theater in…
Breaking Down the 2014 Green Mountain Comedy Festival
The sixth annual Green Mountain Comedy Festival gets under way this week. And with it comes an abundance of opportunities to have your funny bone tickled by nationally renowned standup comedians such as Myq Kaplan and Tig Notaro — see the interview with Notaro here — big-city improv-comedy troupes from ImprovBoston and New York City’s…
Comedian Tig Notaro Talks Fame, Cancer
There are bad stretches in life. And then there’s what comedian Tig Notaro went through over a four-month span in early 2012. First, she got pneumonia. Shortly after, she contracted a potentially deadly illness called Clostridium difficile, an infection in which bacteria essentially eat away at the intestines. She spent a week in the hospital…
Soundbites: A Benefit for Mark Ransom, Disco Phantom & Friends and Rockonomics
Held for Ransom Earlier this year, locals were saddened to learn that bassist Mark Ransom had been diagnosed with stage III throat cancer. Ransom, who moved to Hawaii a year and a half ago with his girlfriend, songwriter and fellow Vermont expat Mia Adams, had been a fixture in the Burlington music scene for longer…
Opinion: Collateral Consequences
If you are convicted of a criminal offense in the state of Vermont, you may never be issued a license to deal cars or livestock, work as a radiologist’s assistant or set up a business at the airport. Your landlord can legally evict you; a potential employer can reject you out of hand. If you…
Elephants of Scotland, Execute and Breathe
(Self-released, CD, digital download) Progressive rock has never been all that popular. Long a bastion for awkward, zit-plagued boys, prog rock typically has about as much mass cultural appeal as tabletop fantasy games or live-action role-playing. Basically, if you’re looking to form a prog-rock act, then don’t deceive yourself into thinking about riches, fame or…
Art Review: “In the Studio With Mary Bryan,” Bryan Memorial Gallery
An exhibit of Mary Bryan’s paintings at her namesake Bryan Memorial Gallery in Jeffersonville is up for several months, and that’s a good thing: It deserves to be seen by as many people as possible. With more than 100 works in the show, local gallerygoers may even want to visit it more than once. That’s…
Phil Cohen, Before I Go
(Green Mountain Records, CD, digital download) Vermont native and current Brooklyn resident Phil Cohen’s latest proper release, Before I Go, opens with an old-timey, frenetic plea for a stable relationship called “Love Me True.” Complete with upright bass (Emmett Knox), drums (Matthew Vitti), mandolin and fiddle (both courtesy of Ramsey Khudairi), the song travels at…
Summer Preview 2014
Had a creemee yet? That’s a sure sign of summer, even if Vermont nights are still cool. But the Green Mountain Comedy Festival is sure to heat things up … with hilarity. Dan Bolles interviews headliner Tig Notaro in this issue and also previews Vermont’s best outdoor music concerts. Sarah Tuff talks with a marathoner…
Godzilla
Everybody’s favorite metaphor for Atomic Age anxiety turned 60 this year, and Hollywood’s idea of a great birthday gift was — you guessed it — a big-budget, star-studded reboot. The studio should have gone with a necktie. Even a bad one would’ve been better than this. Sitting through Gareth Edwards’ (Monsters) lumbering, muddled Godzilla is…
Letters to the Editor (5/21/14)
Faulty Ordinance The examples given of people causing trouble within stores are a red herring [Burlington’s No-Trespass Ordinance Is Working, But Its Days May Be Numbered,” May 7]. A store owner, or the owner of any private property has the right to issue a no-trespass order to anyone the owner deems to be undesirable, so…
Fading Gigolo
Have you ever seen a movie that had another, better movie struggling to emerge from inside it like the Alien busting out of John Hurt? Fading Gigolo is that film. For most of its running time, the fifth directorial effort from John Turturro feels like a self-conscious, mildly amusing effort to draw comedy from an…
Second Toddler Death Casts a Pall Over the DCF
For the second time in three months, the death of a Vermont child has been ruled a homicide. Although the details about what happened last month in Winooski have mostly been kept from the public, what scant information has emerged from behind confidentiality laws has raised questions about how the state Department for Children and…
Infographic: Where do Burlington Runners Like to Run?
[Image-1] With the Vermont City Marathon coming up this weekend, lots of runners have been pounding the pavement around Burlington lately. Not all of them plan to compete, of course — for some it’s just a free, warm-weather fitness plan. But plenty of runners are keeping track of, and sharing, their times and other data…
My Ex’s Stuff Is Still at My House; Can I Bring Over Someone New?
Dear Athena, I just broke up with my girlfriend of two and half years. It seemed like a long time coming, but then she abruptly took off on a trip to Europe with her cousins. She’ll be away for a few months. We lived together, so basically all her stuff is still at our apartment.…
David Schein Performs Three One-Man Shows
You’ve likely heard the request “Please turn off your cellphones” many times by now. Allowing your phone to ring during a performance, never mind actually talking on it, is a huge and universally agreed-upon no-no. Except for David Schein. At his one-man show this week he’ll actually encourage audience members to talk on the phone,…
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Vermont Young Playwrights Festival [SIV353]
5/14/14: Last week the 20th Annual Vermont Young Playwrights Festival took over the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts in Burlington for two days. Students from 17 local middle schools and high schools became playwrights, many of them for the first time. After spending each day in workshops, play reading sessions or rehearsals scattered throughout…
Young Curators Host an Art Show
This Saturday, an exhibition titled “Systematic Paradox” opens in the Gallery of the Vermont College of Fine Arts in Montpelier. More than 30 pieces by Vermont artists including Jennifer Koch, Gowri Savoor, Alisa Dworsky and Brian Ziegler are displayed beside contributions from noteworthy international artists, such as Japanese contemporary artist Taiyo Kimura and Serkan Altinoz,…
Anticipating the Tilt Classic Arcade & Ale House
The moment is coming. The week of June 16, Space Invaders will arrive in South Burlington. So will Zangief, Sub-Zero and a gentleman by the name of Pac-Man. That’s when Tilt Classic Arcade and Ale House will officially open its doors at 7 Fayette Road. According to Thom Dodge, who co-owns the arcade with Joshua…
Vermont Regulators Zone In On Airbnb’s DIY ‘Innkeepers’
When 31-year-old Chaz Requina moved back to his native Vermont in 2012, it was after years of traveling. In various trips throughout Europe, the hip freelance designer found lodging on Airbnb.com, the website that lets users rent out their homes or spare bedrooms by the night. Back in Vermont, the adventurer turned host: Requina, who’d…
Wooden Spoon Bistro Takes Over Former Sofia’s Space
Since chef-owner Adam Raftery opened the Wooden Spoon Bistro in South Burlington in September 2011, he says, he’s daydreamed of owning a place near Burlington’s city hall, of running a kitchen steps from the Burlington Farmers Market and its just-picked summer produce. Raftery and his sister, co-owner Liza O’Brien, grew up just blocks away. Now…
