Feb 6-12, 2019
The Love & Marriage Issue: South Hero Sweethearts Craft Chocolate and Community; Tim Kavanagh and Candy Weston Face Cancer With Lots of Laughs; A Mycologist Talks Love and Mushroom Sex; Artist Hope Sharp Paints Weddings
Seriously: Mushroom Sex
In this episode, Bryan learns about the bizarre and erotic world of mushroom sex. CREDITS Written, filmed and edited by: Bryan Parmelee Artwork/photography by: Luke Eastman, Bryan Parmelee, Dreamstime Logo/art direction by: Don Eggert Audio by: Bryan Parmelee Related Stories
Birth Announcement: Taelynn Marie Madison
On February 5, 2019, at Porter Medical Center, Paige Quesnel and William Madison welcomed a girl, Taelynn Marie Madison.
Obituary: Jill Mattuck Tarule, 1943-2019
Jill Mattuck Tarule of Essex, Vt., died February 3 at the University of Vermont Medical Center following a long and courageous battle with multiple myeloma, her third lifetime cancer. Jill was born in Barre, Vt., on April 4, 1943, and grew up in Plainfield Village, one of 14 students in the last class to graduate…
The Cannabis Catch-Up: The War on CBD
Even as cannabis legalization becomes more widespread, its nonpsychoactive cousin is taking a hit. Officials in New York and Maine have ordered cannabidiol-laced food off the shelves following a U.S. Food and Drug Administration declaration in December that CBD is not an approved food additive and can’t be sold as a dietary supplement. That’s disconcerting…
Scarlett Letters: My Boyfriend Is Quadriplegic and We’re Trying to Have Sex
Dear Scarlett, My boyfriend is quadriplegic, and we have no idea how to get him to have an erection long enough to have sex. If we do, he says that it is painful for him. He cannot take any sort of enhancement pills due to the pills he is on for his spinal cord injury.…
Free Will Astrology (2/6/19)
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Can you sit on your own head? Not many people can. It requires great flexibility. Before comedian Robin Williams was famous, he spontaneously did just that when he auditioned for the role of the extraterrestrial immigrant Mork, the hero of the TV sitcom “Mork and Mindy.” The casting director was impressed…
Movie Review: Two Lovers Fight Their Own ‘Cold War’ in the Disappointing Latest from Pawel Pawlikowski
Filmmaker Pawel Pawlikowski (Ida) was born in Warsaw. He studied at the University of Oxford and teaches film at several universities. It’s exceedingly unlikely that an artist with his background would have much in the way of appreciation or patience for “Polish jokes.” Which raises the question: Why did he turn his latest creation into…
Local Musician Couples Discuss the Intersection of Art and Relationships
Couples who work together can find themselves navigating awkward terrain. Keeping professional and personal lives separate is tricky to negotiate. Compartmentalization can be effective, but it’s hardly foolproof. So, what’s it like for couples who make music together? Does playing alongside your life partner complicate things at home? After all, rock-and-roll history is riddled with…
Movie Review: Gina Rodriguez Runs Afoul of a Drug Cartel in the Mediocre Remake ‘Miss Bala’
In 2011, the Mexican film Miss Bala, directed by Gerardo Naranjo, enthralled viewers at the Cannes Film Festival. The heroine is a beauty pageant contestant who, by dint of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, gets caught up with rival drug cartels; the title (“Miss Bullet”) is a play on the Miss…
Vermont Dance Alliance Throws a Winter Gala
Dance has been called the underdog of the arts. Music, visual art, theater and literature regularly grace media pages, and most people practice or feel able to enjoy at least one of those art forms. But dance? Ask someone what they thought of a dance performance, or whether they dance themselves, and you might get…
Burlington’s 13 Percent: New Americans Seek Political Representation
Mohamed Jafar worked the crowd at Burlington’s King Street Center, easily switching from English to Somali as he chatted up 40 New Americans — many of them neighbors and friends. The 22-year-old started organizing last Thursday’s event back in September with Burlington City Councilor Joan Shannon (D-South District) to connect immigrants with local leaders. Then he…
Officials Want Sugar Houses Registered in Vermont’s E911 System
Here’s one way to improve your odds in the event of a sticky situation. The administrators of Vermont’s Enhanced 911 system are imploring maple producers to register their sugar shacks with the state so that first responders can find them more easily in the event of an emergency. With blazing wood fires and boiling sap…
Mycologist Cardy Raper Talks Love, Fungi Sex and Cardi B
One might call her the Esther Perel of the fungi kingdom: Cardy Raper, an expert in mushroom sex, could tell you stories about water mold reproduction that rival the most imaginative sci-fi erotica. The aquatic fungus Achyla, for instance, is capable of changing its sex on the spot, depending on the signals of the nearest…
Album Review: Cole Davidson, ‘Fable’
(Self-released, digital) In 2016, folk-rock trio Navytrain emerged from the University of Vermont’s creative ether. The hardworking group gigged constantly, hitting practically every venue in the Burlington area, often two or more in the same week. Seven Days first honed in on the group, which singer-songwriter Cole Davidson fronted, after the band released the eerily…
The Love & Marriage Issue — 2019
In any healthy relationship, collaboration is key. So for our annual fête to affection, Seven Days staffers collectively explored a variety of romantic partnerships and how they work. For some, including married restaurateurs in Middlebury, a chocolatier couple in South Hero and a trio of musical duos, their endeavors really are passion projects. For Tim…
Vermont Wedding Studio Offers Coworking Space for Marriage Biz
During the decade that Tracy Stolese operated Arabesque, a gift and stationery shop in Shelburne, she heard a lot of wedding-related stories and recognized a common phenomenon: Colleagues in Vermont’s wedding industry often convened with prenuptial couples at coffee shops; they had nowhere else to talk about vows, flower preferences or buffet options. “There’s a…
Dating Horror Stories From Vermont Comedians
With dating apps catering to every possible demographic, taste and fetish, there has never been a better time to be single and dating. Also, with dating apps catering to every possible demographic, taste and fetish, there has never been a worse time to be single and dating. For all the problems technology solves for those…
Theater Review: ‘Venus Rising,’ Northern Stage
Northern Stage has made a point of developing emerging playwrights, supporting their work through readings and workshops, and cultivating a local audience willing to see new work. Writing a play is rarely complete until the playwright sees and hears actors portray the action, and now Marisa Smith gets the benefit of the world premiere of…
Eat This Week, February 6 to 12, 2019: Winemakers Working
Grape grower Ethan Joseph offers an inside look at Shelburne Vineyard’s winter work. Visitors will tour the cellar and learn about the vineyard’s growing methods and fermentation techniques, then get a taste of the 2018 growing season with straight-from-the-barrel sips of wines-in-progress and gourmet snacks. Cellar Tasting: Friday, February, 8, 6:30-9 p.m., Shelburne Vineyard. $30.…
New Local Documentary Asks What Happened to the GOP
As a child, Denis Mueller looked up to president Dwight D. Eisenhower as a grandfather figure. He admired “Ike” for sending the army to Arkansas in 1957 to protect a group of black students at then-integrating Little Rock Central High School. Now, the 68-year-old documentarian said, he wonders, “What happened to the Republican Party?” That’s…
Hackie: My Frozen Junk
A grilled tofu sub sandwich with honey mustard, tomatoes and green peppers; a bag of Cape Cod potato chips; a San Pellegrino orange soda; about six Hershey’s kisses. And that was it. I was driving through Whitehall, N.Y., about 20 miles from Interstate 87 and four hours from our destination — the Bronx. It was…
Third Annual JAGfest Showcases Black Female Playwrights
Presenting his new-play festival for a third season, Jarvis Green, the founder and artistic director of JAG Productions, continues the mission of cultivating African American theater in the Upper Valley. JAGfest 3.0 refines the core purpose of the festival — supporting black playwrights — while strengthening community partnerships and expanding programming. Running Friday through Sunday,…
Gains and Losses: Would a Land Tax Repeal Spark Growth or Sprawl?
Melinda Gervais-Lamoureux is not a land speculator. She isn’t buying up large parcels, subdividing them into smaller lots and selling people a little slice of heaven in the Northeast Kingdom. Nevertheless, the Essex County businesswoman is finding herself subject to a 1970s-era Vermont state tax designed to discourage precisely such property profiteering. In 2016, Gervais-Lamoureux…
Soundbites: Thoughts on Magic Hat’s New Mardi Gras
In case you missed it, Seven Days broke some interesting news last week: This year, there shall be no parade at Magic Hat Brewing’s annual Mardi Gras celebration. The weekend festival, which runs from Friday, March 29, through Sunday, March 31, usually includes a processional of floats from local businesses and organizations cascading down Burlington’s…
Tim Kavanagh and Candy Weston Use Potty Humor to Flush Rectal Cancer
In January 2017, Tim Kavanagh readied himself for what he believed would be his final radiation therapy. Since being diagnosed in May 2016 with Stage II rectal cancer during a routine colonoscopy, Kavanagh had already undergone 29 radiation treatments, as well as chemotherapy and surgery to remove tumors. During his radiation procedures, he could wear…
Valerie ‘Pink Hulk’ David Beats Cancer, Finds Her Superpower
The art of the solo show returns to the Grange Hall Cultural Center in Waterbury Center with the One & Only Series, courtesy of Moxie Productions. This year the company has invited Valerie David to perform “The Pink Hulk: One Woman’s Journey to Find the Superhero Within,” an autobiographical piece about David’s triumph over not…
Roe-ing Upstream: Vermont’s Lopsided Battle Over Abortion Rights
The elevation of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court last fall has touched off a new round in the decades-long battle over abortion rights. In many states, anti-abortion lawmakers have introduced bills to restrict access. In other states, including Vermont, pro-choice lawmakers are seeking to protect reproductive rights in case the high court overturns…
Letter to the Editor (2/6/19)
An Even More Serious ‘Historic Blunder’ While Seven Days has just provided important reporting on the Ira Allen Chapel [“Historic Blunder? State Halts Repairs to UVM’s Ira Allen Chapel,” January 30], an even more serious historic preservation blunder goes virtually unnoticed. While state historic preservation officer Laura Trieschmann is now up in arms about the…
Candy Lab Crafts Chocolate and Community
From the day they started dating in 2002, Albert Reyes-McCarver and Michael McCarver-Reyes have been essentially inseparable. “It wasn’t so much dating; he moved in the next week,” Michael said with a smile, sitting across from his husband early last week at Champlain Islands Candy Lab, their new South Hero shop and production kitchen. “We…
Album Review: Bow Thayer, ‘A Better Version of the Truth’
(Self-released, CD, digital) Bow Thayer has been kicking up a beautiful racket in Vermont for many years now. The singer-songwriter has delivered some stellar LPs during that time. But his latest, A Better Version of the Truth, seems destined to stand at the forefront of that discography for two reasons: First, it’s one of the…
Montpelier Artist Hope Sharp Captures Weddings in Oil Paint
Two willowy women in long pink dresses occupy a narrow vertical canvas in Hope Sharp’s Montpelier studio. The painting is unfinished, but it already conveys a private moment between the women, whose heads bend toward each other as if in whispered conversation. Their identical gowns suggest the pair might be bridesmaids. But they’re not specific…
Software Left Vermont Towns’ Data Vulnerable for Years
Ernie Saunders was visiting Salem, Mass., in January 2018 when he learned that the software he’s long supplied to nearly every Vermont town government was bewitched. An email from a Vermont technology consultant delivered the bad news: Flaws in Saunders’ accounting software had left taxpayers’ bank information and municipal employees’ Social Security numbers improperly exposed…
Middlebury Couple Opens Double-Duty Restaurant
A light snow fell at dusk on a recent Saturday evening in Middlebury, floating past the window by our table at the Arcadian and falling to the river below. We were on the lower level of the three-deck restaurant at the edge of Otter Creek; I was lucky to be on the river-view side of…
Pitchfork Farm and Pickle Offers Value-Added Products
Pitchfork Farm, an organic vegetable farm in Burlington’s Intervale, has launched an offshoot retail business in the Soda Plant building at 266 Pine Street. Pitchfork Farm and Pickle, which opened in late January, is the latest food and beverage enterprise to set up shop at the former site of ReSOURCE. It sells fermented and pickled…
