Mar 30 – Apr 5, 2016
Former Fighter Tom Murphy Faces New Foe: School Bullies; New UVM Dean Promotes Liberal Arts; Cavendish Game Birds Takes on Pigs
Cover Story
Former Ultimate Fighter Tom Murphy Has New Foe: Bullying
For any kid who’s ever been picked on, Tom Murphy might seem like a real-life superhero. Their first introduction to him, in his standard middle-school presentation, begins with a video montage of the former mixed martial arts expert and star of Spike TV’s “The Ultimate Fighter 2” kicking, tackling and pummeling various opponents into a bloody…
Obituary: Priscilla B. Throop, 1946-2016
Priscilla B. Throop, beloved mother, sister and friend and esteemed scholar, died peacefully on March 8. She is survived by her dearly loved son, Alexander Throop-Quesnel, who tirelessly cared for his mother, bringing her great comfort. His steadfast attention enabled her to reside at home, which she deeply appreciated. Priscilla was born on February 14,1946,…
Obituary: Ryan A Morin, 1980-2016
Ryan, 35, passed away unexpectedly on April 3, 2016. Born in Burlington, Vermont on December 3, 1980, he was the son of Diane Many and Rick Lincoln. Ryan was a beloved son, brother, grandson, nephew, cousin, uncle and friend. He graduated from Middlebury Union High School in 1998, North Mount Herman (post graduate school) in…
Obituary: Sean ‘Binkie’ Tyler Stem, 1989-2016
Sean “Binkie” Tyler Stem, age 26, Burlington, VT, passed away on March 29, 2016 after fighting a long, terrible battle of addiction. He was born in Burlington, VT on April 17, 1989, the son of Kim Palasits and Jeffrey Stem. Sean was a soft, gentle, kind young man whose presence was felt by all who…
New UVM Dean Says Liberal Arts Need More Love
The first in his family to attend college, William Falls is accustomed to a challenge. Both his parents worked at a General Electric plant in Lynn, Mass., his mother building aircraft engine parts and his father making turbines for nuclear submarines. Falls himself might have wound up at the plant after high school, but his…
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
During one of the many fiery climaxes of Batman v Superman, Bruce Wayne, aka Batman (Ben Affleck), turns to his loyal Alfred (Jeremy Irons) and asks what’s happening. “How to describe it?” replies the manservant, his dry diction impeccable as he watches yet another piece of Metropolis explode. That pretty much sums up this critic’s…
A Rare Josef Albers Exhibit in Burlington
The lifelong credo of Bauhaus artist and teacher Josef Albers was “Minimal means for maximal effect.” That motto captures the impact of a selection of original silkscreen prints by Albers that will be on display next week at the BCA Center in Burlington. Rigorously minimalist studies in geometric form and color, these 62 prints created…
WTF: What Do Cyclists’ Hand Signals Mean?
It can be hard for motorists and cyclists to share the road. And when someone commandeering a couple of tons of steel doesn’t understand what a cyclist’s gesture means, the results can be deadly. A reader wrote in to ask us: WTF are those hand signals, exactly? A rarefied form of sign language? Cryptic ways…
A Talk About Art Questions … Art
Making fun of modern art can be, well, fun. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something — probably modern art. Pretentious artist statements and unconscionable price tags only make matters worse. Joking aside, though, a lot can be learned from contemporary works and the personal and public responses they provoke. The conversations that arise…
Stowe’s PK Coffee Finds Permanent Home
After an on-and-off residency at Commodities Natural Market in 2015 and guest appearances around town, Stowe’s PK Coffee moved into a permanent space earlier this month. Located at 1880 Mountain Road, the new café serves espresso drinks and drip and iced coffee from Durham, N.C.-based Counter Culture Coffee, known for its efforts in responsible sourcing…
Dogged Pursuit: Can Sen. Chris Bray Solve Vermont’s Siting Problem?
At home in New Haven, Sen. Chris Bray can redirect a wayward hound with a clap of his hands or a few select words, he said. “Pack in,” he’ll call, sending the dog back to his partner, Kate Selby, as they train the animal for fox hunting. Bray exhibits an altogether different leadership style at…
Free Will Astrology (3/30/16)
ARIES (March 21-April 19): According to my astrological analysis, you would benefit profoundly from taking a ride in a jet fighter plane 70,000 feet above the Earth. In fact, I think you really need to experience weightlessness as you soar faster than the speed of sound. Luckily, there’s an organization, MiGFlug (migflug.com), that can provide…
A More Modest Moran: Redstone to Help Redevelop Industrial Relic
An experienced developer has come to the aid of the trio trying to transform Burlington’s Moran Plant from a hulking industrial relic into a state-of-the art waterfront landmark. Redstone Commercial Group’s first recommendation for the “New Moran” team: scale back the $34 million project — to a $20 million one. The new partnership is designed to…
Tube-Fed: All About Eva
Originally published March 9, 2005. Producing, writing, editing and hosting a local cable television program can be a thankless, all-consuming enterprise. I know because I’ve done it: My half-hour movie-review show “The Good, the Bad & the Boffo!” was on the air for nearly 10 years. So I marvel perhaps more than most viewers when…
![Holi Festival of Colors [SIV437]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sevendaysvt.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/episode437.webp?resize=1200%2C900&ssl=1)
Holi Festival of Colors [SIV437]
3/26/16: The Seventh Annual Holi Festival of Colors was held in downtown Burlington outside St. Joseph’s School on Saturday afternoon. Participants threw colored powder on each other to celebrate spring, love and peace. The colorful crew marched down Church Street for the first time this year, inviting bystanders to participate and yelling “Happy Holi!” The…
Police Killing of a Mentally Ill Man Raises Questions — Again
Vermont mental health experts reacted with a sense of weary frustration to the news last week that a Burlington police officer shot and killed a 76-year-old paranoid schizophrenic. It was like reading a familiar script, they said: The protagonist, Ralph “Phil” Grenon, suffered from what was widely understood to be a psychological breakdown; the health…
Vermont Company’s Pet Toys Parody Presidential Candidates
If you’ve ever longed to tear into Donald Trump — or Sen. Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton, for that matter — you now have a chance. Or at least your cat or dog does, and you get to watch. Brand-new Waterbury-based company Fuzzu for Pets & You has come out with presidential parody pet toys…
Off Trail: Seeking Salamanders at the Podunk Preserve
Steve Faccio gingerly moved saplings aside as he trudged through the brush, taking care not to snap off any spindly branches. The young trees were tipped with expectant buds and daubed with late-season snow. According to the calendar, spring had arrived, but that doesn’t mean much in Strafford’s Podunk Wildlife Management Area. Four days after…
The Di Is Cast: Snelling’s Resignation Is Bad News for Republicans
Soon after she moved to Hinesburg in 1983, Diane Snelling caught wind of a proposal to build 30 new houses in slapdash fashion on the property next door. She chose to fight it under the state’s restrictive Act 250 land-use law and took her case to the local district environmental commission. “The directness of speaking…
The Lynguistic Civilians, Gratified Existence
(Self-released, CD, digital download) The Lynguistic Civilians are a Burlington rap crew who … wait, that’s not quite accurate. They are the Burlington rap crew. The LCs have been voted Vermont’s best hip-hop group in the Seven Daysies awards for five years in a row, a run not expected to end in 2016. This is…
Four More Local Recordings You (Probably) Haven’t Heard
So many records, so little time. Seven Days gets more album submissions than we know what to do with. And, given the ease of record making these days, it’s difficult to keep up. Still, we try to get to every local release that comes across the music desk, no matter how obscure or far out.…
Bren, Hot Lunch
(Rat Pâté Records, cassette, digital download) Something of a rock-and-roll renaissance is happening in Plattsburgh. Though it may be too soon to call what’s bubbling up in the Lake City a full-blown revival just yet, we’re hearing sounds — encouraging and loud sounds — from across the lake. And we like what we hear. The…
Soundbites: Ahead of Higher Ground Gig, Kat Wright Dishes on New Album
If it seems like it’s been a hot minute since we’ve heard from Kat Wright and the Indomitable Soul Band, well, it has. The band hasn’t played in Burlington since its New Year’s Eve gig at the Flynn MainStage. It might seem a little strange for one of Vermont’s most popular bands to take a…
Letters to the Editor (3/30/16)
Flood Flub [Re “Leaders of the Backpack,” March 23]: Interesting article, but I noticed a minor factual error: The flood of 1927 occurred in November, so if the Three Musketeers hiked the Long Trail in July and August 1927, they would not have encountered a landscape that had “recently been ravaged by the famous 1927…
Competitive Kids at Jr Iron Chef VT
Vermont has many talented young cooks. I know this because on a recent Saturday in March, I sampled outstanding dishes prepared by chefs in the under-18 set. Though most were too young to drive, the 240 knife-wielding teens and preteens brought skills to the Jr Iron Chef VT competition. While the title references the hyped-up…
Profile: White River Gallery at BALE, South Royalton
South Royalton chalks up another win on its community scorecard with the launch of the White River Gallery at BALE. Not that anyone is keeping score, but “SoRo” has witnessed a rising tide of businesses and restaurants since Tropical Storm Irene hit hard five years ago. The community forged ahead on projects and programs following…
Page 32: Seven Short Book Reviews
Seven Days’ writers can’t possibly read, much less review, the number of books that arrive in a steady stream by post, email and, in one memorable case, a flock of trained parrots. So this monthly feature, Page 32, is our way of introducing you to seven books by Vermont authors. To do that, we’ll contextualize…
Waiting to Inhale: Lawmakers Consider Raising Smoking Age to 21
Rep. George Till (D-Jericho) is on a mission to deter tobacco use in Vermont. For the past three weeks, the 63-year-old four-term lawmaker has been doggedly lobbying his House colleagues with a proposal to raise the age at which Vermonters can legally buy and use tobacco products, from 18 to 21. That he’s a physician…
Cavendish Game Birds of Vermont Adds Pigs
Driving into Springfield on Route 11, you can’t ignore the forlorn vestiges of industry. In addition to the boarded-up factories and slummed-out properties, with their chipping paint and rotting porches, an electronic road sign brings the town’s depression into sharp focus. Its yellow pixelated letters offer a message — not about icy roads or drunk…
Eye in the Sky
Human beings are sometimes better at making super-sophisticated devices than at making simple decisions. This is the moral of the story told in Eye in the Sky, one of the most riveting political thrillers in years. Directed by Gavin Hood (Tsotsi) and written by Guy Hibbert, the picture is the polar opposite of last year’s…
Bhutanese-Vermont Artist Paints Life as Refugee
The next time you drive past Spinner Place in Winooski, watch for the “welcome” signs, both in English and Nepali, at the pedestrian entrance of the public parking garage. They’re part of an in-progress mural by Bhutanese artist Hom Pradhan, proposed by the artist and funded by the city. When Pradhan resumes work in the…
I Need More Sex and Affection From My Wife
Dear Athena, My wife and I have been married eight years. We had lots of sex before we got married. It died down some after, but it was enough to keep me satisfied. Over the past three years or so, we have had very little sex. This has become a big problem for me. We…
Trout River Brewing Hops to It in Springfield
Founded in 1996, Trout River Brewing was part of Vermont’s first wave of craft breweries. For years, the Lyndonville brewery was the Northeast Kingdom’s sole outlet for fresh, local suds. Over the years, owner Dan Gates grew the operation and added a pizzeria; locals would crowd into the pub several nights a week for pies…
Finalists for Bluebird Kiosk, Burlington Loses Noonie’s, Gains an Arcade Bar
When word came that the Bluebird Coffee Stop in Burlington would be vacating its kiosk, the Church Street Marketplace put together a special committee to evaluate incoming proposals from prospective tenants. The group accepted proposals through March 7. Now, after reviewing all 13 submissions, it has selected two finalists: Leunig’s Bistro & Café and Hong’s…
