Mar 16-22, 2016
Caribbean Cruising With Vermont’s Mellow Yellow; Paul Heintz on the Primary Trail; Female Snowboarders Assess Burton
Cover Stories
Rocking the Boat: A Caribbean Cruise with Vermont’s Mellow Yellow
Earlier this month, my girlfriend, Sarah, and I joined the Burlington band Mellow Yellow on the Norwegian Pearl for the Lebrewski Cruise, a four-day music and beer cruise from Miami to the Bahamas (see related story). What follows is a running diary of that trip, based on the best of my rum-addled recollection. Monday, February…
Sail Away: Overlooked at Home, Vermont’s Mellow Yellow are Big at Sea
“One more song! One more song!” The five members of Mellow Yellow wait patiently just offstage at the conclusion of their set as the familiar encore call builds from the crowd. When they finally reemerge, the place erupts. There’s keyboardist Brad DaddyO. A leopard-print shirt ripples on his wiry frame; a dark, tilted fedora sets…
Obituary: Patrick Cavanagh, 1942-2016, Granville, NY
Patrick Cavanagh, 73, of Granville, NY, passed away Saturday, March 12, 2016 at Glens Falls Hospital. Born in Montreal, Quebec on September 29, 1942 he was the son of the late David and Agnes (Farrell) Cavanagh. Over many years of service to his community, Pat worked as a high school teacher in Montreal, an Assistant…
Chef Michael Clauss Launches Private Practice
After overseeing its culinary operations for the last year and a half, executive chef Michael Clauss has departed the Bluebird Restaurant Group. But he’s not leaving to open a new restaurant — Vermont has plenty of those right now, he tells Seven Days. Instead, he’ll go into private practice. As the head of Michael Clauss Events,…
SXSW Day 2: Randomonium
Originally published March 14, 2012. If you ever go to South By Southwest, prepare to wait in line. A lot. For everything. Last night, I waited about 45 minutes (which is short by SXSW standards) to see a band whose name I can’t even remember and will probably never think of again once this paragraph…
Soundbites: Scarface in … Barre?
St. Patrick’s Day is this Thursday, March 17. As usual, there’s probably a bunch of bands playing at a bunch of bars in celebration of getting grotesquely drunk and in cartoonish appropriation of cultural traditions. What fun! Look, I’m not going to write about that shit. If you’re going out for Paddy’s Day, you’ll find…
Green Mountain Film Fest Is on a Roll
The box office for Montpelier’s Green Mountain Film Festival opened for business on March 7. By midafternoon on March 8, when executive director Rachelle Murphy and programming coordinator Eric Reynolds spoke by phone with Seven Days, their screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1938 classic The Lady Vanishes was nearly sold out — more than a week…
Not Caleb, Welcome to Vermont
(BLiNDog Records, CD, digital download) In many ways, Burlington singer-songwriter Not Caleb — who is, actually, Caleb Bauscher — has chosen to pick up where he left off with his last album, Good Childhood. Released in 2015, it was a sentimental exploration of the innocence and confusion of adolescence. Several cuts from that record appear…
Sleuthing Around With Sherlock Holmes
Long before Dick Tracy or Marvel’s Jessica Jones, there was Sherlock Holmes. The 19th-century fictional figure has enjoyed a renaissance in recent history, portrayed in film and television by the likes of Robert Downey Jr., Jonny Lee Miller, Benedict Cumberbatch and Sir Ian McKellen. This Friday, March 18, St. Johnsbury will rally around its own…
Alpenglow, Callisto
(Chizu Records, CD, digital download) Middlebury-born Alpenglow relocated to Brooklyn more than a year ago. Since then, they’ve recruited a new producer, jumped onto a record label (conceptual artist Yoshi Ashi’s Chizu Records) and released their first full-length album, Callisto. How does all this change translate to the music? It’s much the same, but also…
Mysterious Sculptures Found in Waitsfield Woods
Vermonters know that the woods have a lot to give. Aside from lumber and maple sap, they offer a place to play, a respite for quiet meditation and an arena for winter sports. Those who grew up tramping around the backcountry may remember the thrill — or maybe horror — of stumbling on the remains…
Influential Art Teacher Geebo Church Says Goodbye
Swirling golden hay bales and textural blue skies pop against a cadmium-red wall at Champlain College. That color, in the small, second-floor art gallery, was chosen especially for Geebo Church’s exhibition of impasto landscapes. In the middle of the room, a table holds sketchbooks filled with his meticulous notes. Thematically, the paintings are repetitious experiments…
My Ex Just Won’t Move On
Dear Athena, My ex and I broke up six months ago, and she won’t move on. What makes the situation worse is that I still live with her. Moving out is easier said than done. She manipulated me into moving back in after I left. She said she was moving on with someone else and…
A Documentary That Defines ‘the Good Life’
Pamela Tanner Boll knows that the central question of her latest documentary, A Small Good Thing, is not a new one. What it means to “live a good life” has been contested, she says, at least since Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, written around 350 BC. But that doesn’t mean we’ve found the answer. A Small Good…
Free Will Astrology (3/16/16)
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): “The greatest illusion is not religion,” says aphorist Michael Lipsey. “It’s waking up in the morning imagining how much you’re going to get done today.” But even if that’s often true, Pisces, I suspect that you have the power to refute it in the coming weeks. Your ability to accomplish small…
A Divided House Judiciary Committee Ponders the Pot Bill
On March 8, as Vermont lawmakers returned from their weeklong town meeting break, the House Judiciary Committee gathered to sort through pending bills. “Rumor is, the Senate sent us a bill,” joked Rep. Tom Burditt (R-West Rutland). “It’s here,” responded committee chair Maxine Grad (D-Moretown). It, of course, is the marijuana legalization bill, the hot-button…
Do You Canoe? Notes From a Paddlers Gathering
What do New Yorker staff writer Ben McGrath, public radio personality Willem Lange, a Dartmouth College ethnobotanist and a musician/canoe builder have in common? All were among the presenters at the 24th annual Wilderness Paddlers Gathering earlier this month at the century-old Hulbert Outdoor Center in Fairlee. The weekend rendezvous of wilderness canoeing aficionados is…
WTF: What’s the Story With Those ‘Bring It Back’ Signs?
Never mind gnomes and pink flamingos. This winter’s dearth of snow has revealed something else on many lawns in the Burlington area: green and yellow signs that read “Bring It Back.” What, inquiring minds have asked us, is “it”? Motorists zooming past these signs may not be able to discern that the “I” in “It”…
Kyle Kinane on Comedy, Bernie and Mountain Biking
Even if you’ve never seen Kyle Kinane’s standup act, you might find the gruff timbre of his voice oddly familiar. Kinane is the “voice of Comedy Central” and can be heard in most of the cable network’s ads. He — or at least his voice — is also a regular on the animated show “Bob’s…
Letters to the Editor (3/16/16)
No Mercy [Re “The Prosecution Never Rests,” March 9]: Finally, a prosecutor — or judge — who is not a social worker in drag. Break the law. Go to jail. Tim Vincent Ferrisburgh Custody Is Complex “Child’s Best Interest?” [March 2] was very alarming on many levels: the nightmare that the mother is apparently living;…
What’s in the Water? In Some Places, Traces of Lead and Chemicals
Last September, Jon Thornton, chief operator of the Bradford Village Water System, gathered tap water from 10 customers for testing. For the first time in two decades, the samples turned up slightly elevated quantities of lead. The lab that did the analysis sent its results to Thornton and to the Department of Environmental Conservation, which…
Theater Review: Brundibar, Theatre Kavanah and In Tandem Arts
An extraordinary production of the 1938 Czech-Jewish children’s opera Brundibár is taking place this month at Burlington City Hall Auditorium. While the opera tells a story of victory over oppression, its performance history is a far darker tale. By way of an introduction and opening act, Randolph-based No Strings Marionette Company gives a puppet presentation…
![Howard Center Curling Challenge [SIV435]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sevendaysvt.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/episode435-4-e1755140454523.webp?resize=640%2C360&ssl=1)
Howard Center Curling Challenge [SIV435]
3/12/16: 30 teams competed in the 7th Annual Howard Center Curling Challenge Saturday at Cairns Arena in South Burlington. Members of the Green Mountain Curling Club provided instruction as teams raised about $50,000 to support the Howard Center. Music: Barbacoa, “Spy-Fi” and “Hang Em High School” This episode of Stuck in Vermont was made possible…
Theater Review: Dancing Lessons, Vermont Stage
Mark St. Germain’s comedy Dancing Lessons takes a simple romantic arc and makes it memorable with great humor and fascinating characters. The two-person show now playing at Vermont Stage serves up the most feel-good message of all: Change is possible, even when chances look bleakest. It’s the best kind of bittersweet. Senga is a Broadway…
Montpelier Cops to Seek Help, Not Criminal Charges, for Addicts
Addicts will soon be able to surrender their drugs to Montpelier police without fear of being arrested, charged or interrogated. Instead, officers will give them free rides to treatment. Project Safe Catch, the brainchild of Montpelier Police Chief Tony Facos, is arguably Vermont law enforcement’s most radical experiment in the war on drug abuse. “Basically,…
Female Snowboarders Assess the Burton Image
Ask female snowboarders in Vermont what they think of Burton Snowboards these days, and you won’t always feel the love. And, no, women’s beefs with Burton aren’t necessarily about its Love board. That 2008 creation, which featured vintage Playboy centerfolds from the 1960s and ’70s, sparked widespread community outrage. Recent boards with similar designs have…
Youth
The list of things beyond my comprehension is not a short one. At the top aren’t mysteries of the ages such as “Why are we here?” or “Will humanity ever achieve world peace?” but rather — for the past few months, anyway — “How the hell did Paolo Sorrentino’s latest not dominate awards season?” Spotlight…
10 Cloverfield Lane
Producer J.J. Abrams refers to 10 Cloverfield Lane as a “spiritual successor” to his 2008 hit Cloverfield. What this means in plain English, scrubbed of Producerese, is that the film is not a sequel, its title not a franchise label but a stroke of marketing brilliance. Those who go to 10 Cloverfield eager for more…
‘Here in Youngstown’: Divisions on Display in Ohio’s Steel Country
On the site of a demolished steel mill by the banks of the Mahoning River, Joe Ciavarella gestured toward the hulking skyline of Youngstown, Ohio, and bemoaned the state of his hometown. “Economically, this region is in shambles,” the 29-year-old said Monday morning. “We’re losing jobs after jobs. Our steel factories are going away. You…
Pingala Café Chef Trevor Sullivan on Going Vegan
Chef Trevor Sullivan Age: 28 Restaurant: Pingala Café & Eatery Location: Burlington Restaurant Age: 2 years Cuisine type: vegan Training: none in the culinary field Select experience: Line cook, kitchen manager and “I’ll cover your shift” guy, the Skinny Pancake, Burlington (2008-2010); breakfast chef and front desk, Willard Street Inn, Burlington (2010-2011); line cook, Church…
Middlebury Chocolates’ Bean-to-Bar Biz
Behind the counter at Middlebury Chocolates, dark nibs from a batch of Tanzanian cocoa beans churn slowly in a refiner. The small contraption, which looks like a cross between an ice cream maker and a deep-basined mortar and pestle, keeps the cocoa solids and sugar crystals warm and gently spinning. Over three days, they’ll gradually…
Brews News: Stowe Brewers Fest, Switchback Introduces Year-Round IPA
Early-bird tickets go on sale this Thursday, March 17, for the second annual Stowe Brewers Festival. The 21-and-older event is set to take place July 29 and 30 at the Mayo Farm Events Fields in Stowe and feature beer samples from 45 New England brewers. Tickets buy the bearer 15 beer sample tickets good for…
