Eric Maier vandalized “Everyone Loves a Parade!” on Halloween night 2018. Under cover of darkness and wearing a makeshift costume, the local musician literally defaced a section of the 124-by-16-foot mural on Leahy Way, between Church Street and a parking garage in downtown Burlington. The controversial mural features Canadian artist Pierre Hardy’s renditions of historical…
On October 27, 2019, at Porter Medical Center, Chelsea (Purinton) Hescock and Judson Hescock welcomed a boy, Walden Arthur Hescock.
‘Lifetime member’ of Lyric Theatre managed ticket sales for 40 years
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has a sense of humor, it seems. His presidential campaign rolled out the candidate’s latest policy proposal at exactly 4:20 p.m. Thursday under the headline, “Sanders to Legalize Marijuana, Expunge Records, and Invest in Disproportionately Impacted Communities.” Bernin’ one down, indeed. In the proposal, Sanders promises to legalize marijuana within 100…
Reid Hathaway was in kindergarten the first time he visited the now-defunct Talent Skatepark in South Burlington. “I remember dropping him off the first time for a lesson and thinking, Wow! This is an awesome place and an awesome community!” recalled his mother, Melissa Hathaway. “He immediately took to it.” When Reid was 8, Hathaway…
A person’s identity today usually includes a life created online, set out for others to see and judge. In Brenda Withers’ sharp comedy Jordan, now in its world premiere at Northern Stage, a young woman claims she didn’t write or send the sexy texts that friends start receiving from her accounts. A stranger has synthesized…
The artist-activist Lopi LaRoe, aka lmnopi, is no stranger to taking political stances. This past month, she did that in Rutland with a timely public mural — and then did it all over again. In September, just before the youth-led global climate strike, LaRoe painted an evocative portrait of Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg on…
Mark Breznick didn’t expect to get much sleep when he headed to bed one night last week. A fierce nor’easter was forecast to lash the region with heavy rain, and Breznick, director of the Rutland wastewater treatment plant laboratory, suspected he might be in for a long night. “I could hear it coming down pretty…
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): “Sometimes the easiest way to get something done is to be a little naïve about it,” writes computer engineer Bill Joy. I invite you to consider the value of that perspective, Scorpio — even though you’re the least likely sign in all the zodiac to do so. Being naïve just doesn’t…
Karen Lumino was preparing for maternity leave from her job at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency when she got a call: A developer wanted to build a Stop & Shop grocery store on an undeveloped strip along Pine Street in Burlington. It was April 1999, and the store wanted a September grand opening. That timeline…
A bloody, desiccated hand reaches for you from an open door. A wiry-haired, toothless face stares at you from behind a parked car. Staggering, drooling and groaning, zombies appear from everywhere and surround you on a dark, deserted street. You begin to shake and sweat, your mouth dries, and then — the zombies begin to,…
Steven Soderbergh has made some of the most seminal, innovative and masterful films of the past 30 years. This isn’t one of them. Rarely in that time has the artist who gave us Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989), Erin Brockovich (2000) and Contagion (2011) given us as lightweight and pandering a creation. The Laundromat is…
Once an Evangelist… [Re “Good News?” September 25]: I am from Marble, N.C. I was raised in an evangelical household. And I am alarmed by the present influx from the South. That’s South with a capital S. As in, “The South will rise again,” a sentiment I heard preached as fervently as the gospel in…
Once upon a time, being undead meant something. Horror pioneer George Romero used zombies as metaphors for brainless consumers or oppressed minorities, depending on his mood. In the long-running TV show “The Walking Dead,” the shambling menaces are a pretext for exploring man’s inhumanity to man. Two recent literary novels, Colson Whitehead’s Zone One and…
The first 15 minutes of a scary movie are often dedicated to establishing unease. Though viewers probably know what’s coming, death and dismemberment are no good without ample time to dread them. The idyllic family in their new house, the teenagers looking for some fun — a good horror movie has a way of twisting…
As horrifying as Donald Trump’s utterances and tweets seem to many, each tends to fade from public memory as soon as a new one follows. Now a Vermont composer has created a musical reminder. Some of the most offensive vocalizations from the president and members of his administration over the past two years form the…
Dear Reverend, I was carving a pumpkin the other day and found myself unusually aroused. Before extracting the guts, I made a hole on the side and went to pumpkin pound town. Needless to say, I did not roast the seeds. I’ve never done anything like that before. Am I a weirdo? Happy Halloweenie (male,…
Soundfrights: The Frightening Sound Ah, the many joys and pitfalls of adult Halloween. I believe I’ve discussed this before, but it never hurts to rehash a perennial problem. When Halloween falls on a Friday, Saturday, Sunday or Monday, it’s pretty much guaranteed that all haunted happenings will fall on one of those three days, confining…
Nick Offerman had no idea that his role as Ron Swanson on NBC’s “Parks and Recreation” would make him a pop-cultural icon. Perhaps it was the character’s regal “high and tight” haircut — one of only three acceptable male hairstyles, according to Swanson — signature push-broom mustache, perpetual scowl or radical libertarian politics that cemented…
(Sleepyhead Music Group, digital) I confess to having only seen boys cruise once, at a Battle of the Bands contest earlier this year. That night, the young rock group duked it out with a few other local groups to nab a slot at this year’s Waking Windows festival. I was one of the judges who…
The title of the Fleming Museum of Art’s major exhibition this semester, “Be Strong and Do Not Betray Your Soul: Selections From the Light Work Collection,” seems to promise a stable, uplifting and unified message. Yet what lingers after viewing these 47 photographers’ works is how fraught with ambiguity they are, and how they complicate…
(Self-released, digital) From the decidedly un-tropical locale of Jamaica, Vt., come Luminous Crush, proud “purveyors of dream pop since 2015,” as they note on their Facebook page. On their second LP, however, they step away from the dream a little and break out the acoustic guitars for a pseudo-live album. The songs on Live From…
A steady stream of trucks and cars rolled through the intersection of Routes 2 and 314 in South Hero last week, many of which were coming from the year-round ferry that connects Vermont and New York. Vermont gasoline mogul Skip Vallee wants to capitalize on the traffic by building his 51st Maplefields gas station and…
Richard Lumbra passed away on October 19, 2019, at his home in Hyde Park, Vt., after living with Parkinson’s disease. Richard was born at home in Richford, Vt., on November 11, 1935, to Roger and Hildred (Whitehead) Lumbra. In 1953, he graduated from Richford High School, where he was an excellent basketball and baseball player.…
On October 19, 2019, at Porter Medical Center, Elaina Goodin and Carl DeRoberts welcomed a boy, Carl Joseph DeRoberts.
The first time Krista Scruggs worked with apples was in the fall of 2017. It was the inaugural vintage for her ZAFA Wines — the realization of years of work in the wine industry. Scruggs had honed her skills and philosophy by farming and fermenting grapes in California, Europe and Texas, as well as in…
Clips and sips in combination are coming to Rutland, where longtime hair stylist Lori LaPenna is expanding her business, Downtown Gentlemen’s Salon, to include a Mexican restaurant, bar and cigar patio. LaPenna’s business will keep its name after its move to 24 Merchants Row, two doors north of its current location. But much else about…
Teddy Weber was riding in a Dodge Sprinter van in Great Britain nine years ago when he and his Wiyos bandmate started talking about apples. The conversation centered on the wild apples that Weber, the group’s guitarist, had picked and stored in his kitchen back home in New York’s Hudson Valley. “Why don’t you make…
The Bryant House Restaurant at the original Vermont Country Store in Weston is now Mildred’s Grill. The restaurant’s new incarnation — which is softly open and will be fully operational starting next week — is named after Mildred Orton, the wife of Vermont Country Store founder Vrest Orton. Mildred was the matriarch of the Orton…
