Flick Chick
I’ve been interested in director Susan Seidelman’s career ever since she burst onto the scene in 1985 with Desperately Seeking Susan. The black comedy, starring Madonna in the title role, was a smash hit, even though New Yorker critic Pauline Kael dismissed it as a flat example of “New Wave postmodernism.” Seidelman’s spotlight began to…
Schooner or Later: Rebuilding a bygone boat on Lake Champlain
I’m in trouble from the start. I’ve come to the Burlington Shipyard to learn how to build a 19th-century canal schooner, and maybe lend a hand. The Lake Champlain Maritime Museum is spending the next year assembling a replica of the type of boat that once made Burlington a hub of mercantile traffic. They want…
Home, Home on the Road: The Shelburne Museum gets a lot of mileage from a new show about America’s drive time
An exhibit opening at the Shelburne Museum this weekend proves you can take it with you. Some of it, anyway. “American Wanderlust: Taking to the Road in the 20th Century” is a paean to the country’s restless spirit. That is, the version that evolved with the automobile and the paved routes which allowed us to…
Circular Reasoning: Taking “stock” of Vermont’s dirtiest race track
What comes around goes around. And around. And around. Stock cars prove it at West Haven’s Devil’s Bowl every Sunday all summer. “There’s such an energy at the racetrack,” says Sharon Richards, 37, who co-owns the business with her father and brothers. “They can see these cars… just dicing it out, wheel-to-wheel. There’s no other…
Talent Scouts: A new business gives aspiring skateboarders a safe haven
Nate is balancing his board on the slim, rubber-coated edge of a wooden skate ramp. If he leans too far back, he’ll fall on the seat of his pants; too far forward and he’ll drop clumsily off the platform. But Nate’s too good for that. He lingers there for a second, surveying the empty skate…
Classy Chassis: An antique-auto collector in Morrisville breaks for car shows
In seventh grade, Adrian West and a pal made a wooden vehicle powered by a one-cylinder washing-machine motor, then tooled slowly around town until the state police pulled them over. The determination to get behind the wheel of a jalopy didn’t stop there. Vermont-based West got his driver’s license at 14, in Florida — the…
Wildflower Power: Photographer Kate Carter focuses on flora
Ankle-deep in wet leaves, Kate Carter positions her tripod on a slippery slope to snap a picture of some Clintonia growing along a wooded trail in Waterbury. Crouched at an improbable angle, she uses a macro lens to shoot just inches away from the small plant with bell-shaped, pale-yellow blossoms. “Usually I’m down on the…
Bumpergate?
Vermont’s 2002 election looks to be a wide-open shooting match, and teamwork may well be the key to victory in the post-Howard Dean Age. That’s why a recent internal flap over Democrat bumper stickers raises concern over team unity. At issue is the donkey party’s recent purchase of “Racine-Shumlin” stickers. As everyone knows, the current…
True Love Calls
The cellular rang just before midnight on a recent Wednesday. “How much for a ride from Middlebury to Burlington?” a young male voice inquired. I paused before responding, but not because I couldn’t use a good fare on this otherwise slow night. My hesitation arose from the nature of the request — why would a…
Backtalk
LEFTOVERS:Mona’S did a brisk business over graduation weekend. Two days later the kitchen closed — for good. Employees arrived at the Burlington restaurant Tuesday morning to find the landlord had changed the locks and seized the property. “Was I late on the rent? You bet. How long? Twenty days,” says Burlington restaurateur Manon O’Connor, who…
