May 4-10, 2016
Vermont’s Deaf Bhutanese Look for Signs; Vermont House Just Says No to Pot Legalization; Fun Facts About Waking Windows 6 Music Fest
Cover Story
Missing the Signs: Vermont’s Deaf Bhutanese are Isolated and Underserved
A group of six women toiled silently in the kitchen at Howard Center’s Resource Center in South Burlington. One lowered the lid of a rice cooker and pressed a switch to turn it on. Another gripped a knife, pursed her lips and began to cut chicken thighs into quarters. On the other side of the…
Milton Flyer
I was dawdling in front of Nectar’s between fares. It was a warm evening, one of the season’s first, and the club’s roll-up window was open to the night air. I could make out the bearded, flannel-wearing jam band on the stage inside, and, with my own window open, I could hear the bouncy music…
Soundbites: Hey, You! Go to Waking Windows 6
Six years in, I think it’s safe to say that Waking Windows has reached a certain level of notoriety. No, it’s not quite on par with, say, the Burlington Discover Jazz Festival or Grand Point North … yet. But I do think the profile of the “coolest music festival in Vermont” — patent, this guy…
I Really Don’t Like Giving Blow Jobs
Dear Athena, I have not had sex in almost seven years. Now that I’m officially single again, I’m interested in getting back in the game. However, there seems to be a renewed interest in men getting blow jobs. I hate giving blow jobs. I have probably given three in my entire life, and they were…
The High Breaks, Droppin’ Off With … the High Breaks
(Self-released, CD, digital download) Burlington surf band the High Breaks emerged some years ago as a side project of local indie-pop darlings Lendway. At their late 2000s height, Lendway were among the promising bands on the BTV scene, owing to their knack for candied guitar hooks, sugary melodies and even more saccharine vocal harmonies. As…
Opinion: Can a Democrat Be a Revolutionary?
I didn’t get involved in the campaign to nominate Eugene McCarthy as the 1968 Democratic presidential candidate, because I refused to “Get Clean for Gene.” McCarthy was the antiwar candidate, running to unseat Lyndon Johnson. Richard Nixon, the Republican, was talking about nuking Vietnam. But Johnson was hardly better. He’d been escalating the war with…
The Static Circus, Through Radio
(Self-released, digital download) Despite the scale implied by the name, the Static Circus is actually the one-man operation of Kevin Bloom. Bloom is well-known to local musicians, even if they don’t realize it. He’s been the longtime sound engineer at two of Burlington’s busiest venues, Radio Bean and the adjacent Light Club Lamp Shop. His…
Senate Appropriations Wants to Give Vermont Life a Deadline
At the bottom of the budget bill that the Senate passed last week is an ultimatum concerning the future of Vermont Life magazine. The provision on page 116 — of 118 — requires the administration of Gov. Peter Shumlin to figure out how to remedy the magazine’s cumulative deficit, which now totals $2.8 million. Senators want…
Free Will Astrology (5/4/16)
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Your ability to accomplish magic is at a peak and will continue to soar for at least two more weeks. And when I use that word “magic,” I’m not referring to the hocus-pocus performed by illusionists like Criss Angel or Harry Houdini. I’m talking about real feats of transformation that will…
A Hologram for the King
Tom Hanks began his film career as a leading man in 1984, the same year I began reviewing films. One movie he made that year (Splash) became a minor classic. The other (Bachelor Party) did not. But the latter was the first film I ever reviewed on television, so it’ll always have a special place…
What’s Wrong With Burlington’s Senior Centers?
For decades, Burlington’s two senior centers have supplied $3 lunches, social activities and other services for older residents who might not otherwise venture from their homes. Yet as the city’s senior population grows, fewer people are taking advantage of those offerings. Financial pressures are making it harder for the centers to serve those who do…
Pot Shot: Shap Smith’s Marijuana ‘Compromise’ Misses the Mark
As he picked at a salad last Friday afternoon in his Statehouse office, House Speaker Shap Smith (D-Morristown) reflected on his inability to answer a question earlier that day on Vermont Public Radio’s live call-in show, “Vermont Edition.” Between bites, Smith told a handful of reporters that it’d been “embarrassing” to admit to VPR host…
Keanu
While dogs have a storied history on film, cats long had a reputation as camera-shy — think of the scene in François Truffaut’s Day for Night, where a kitten confounds a director with its refusal to lap milk on cue. But then the amateur cat video conquered the world, demonstrating once and for all that…
Fruit Bats’ Eric D. Johnson on Music, Food and the Cubs
Eric D. Johnson had been making music under the self-described “dumb, fake punk-rock name” Fruit Bats since the 1990s. But a few years ago, beset by a personal tragedy, he abandoned his alter ego and instead focused on scoring films and producing for the likes of Breathe Owl Breathe. He also quietly released a solo…
A Malaysian Cartoonist in Vermont Draws on His Culture
One Saturday afternoon in late April, students at the Center for Cartoon Studies hunkered down in the laboratory of the Colodny Building. The room was silent except for periodic outbursts of chatter and the slice of the paper cutter. The students’ theses were due in a matter of days, and some looked agitated and bleary-eyed.…
Gallery Profile: The Front, Montpelier
Montpelier has a healthy arts scene, with venues including the T.W. Wood Gallery and the Spotlight Gallery at the Vermont Arts Council. But it currently has just one commercial fine-arts gallery: the Front. That venue emerged a year ago in a small, L-shaped space just a few steps from Main Street. When the city holds…
Vermont Bhutanese Graduate From Being Renters to Homeowners — and Landlords
Five years ago, Megnath Neupane was living in an overcrowded refugee camp in eastern Nepal. He and his family were holed up in a tiny shack with a leaky plastic roof and no electricity or indoor plumbing. Today, you could say 35-year-old Neupane is living the American dream. He owns a duplex in Winooski with…
Mason Brothers Salvage Puts the Past to New Use
Near the busy Five Corners intersection in Essex Junction, an unassuming warehouse complex holds one of Vermont’s biggest recycling operations. While the central warehouse is the site of a former cannery, this is not a recycling plant that processes cans, bottles or copies of last week’s Seven Days. Mason Brothers Architectural Salvage recycles old buildings…
Letters to the Editor (5/4/16)
Moving Article I am passing through Vermont as the field adviser of a gap-year program. For nine months, I have traveled the world with 16 post-high school young adults and tried to mentor them to be the kindest and most responsible people possible. With a rare day off, I sat in a Montpelier coffee shop…
The Skinny Pancake Adds Crêperie in Hanover
This Friday, May 6, the Skinny Pancake will celebrate the grand opening of a new location in Hanover, N.H. The outpost is the locavore crêperie’s sixth. The company’s first foray beyond state lines, it joins two Burlington venues (on Lake Street and at the University of Vermont) and spots in Montpelier, at the Burlington International…
Fun Facts About Waking Windows 6
Here are some stats about the sixth annual Waking Windows indie music and arts festival, which runs from Friday, May 6, through Sunday, May 8, in various locations around Winooski. It features 152 bands, 43 DJs and nine comedians performing at 13 venues over three days and nights in the Onion City. It has one…
![Spielpalast Exposed! [SIV441]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sevendaysvt.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/episode441.webp?resize=1200%2C900&ssl=1)
Spielpalast Exposed! [SIV441]
5/1/16: Spielpalast Cabaret celebrates its 15th year this week at the Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center in Burlington. Every May the notoriously secretive, scantily clad troupe brings the 1920s Weimar Republic to life with dance, song and bawdy humor. With the recent departure of its long time MC Maxi, fans wonder what will become…
Foam Brewers Opens on Burlington Waterfront
Last Thursday, April 28, Foam Brewers quietly opened on Lake Street in Burlington. The event was broadcast solely by word of mouth, but dozens of local brewheads found their way to the former San Sai Japanese Restaurant space, where partners Todd Haire, Sam Keane, Bobby Grim, Jon Farmer and Dani Casey were pouring pints of…
Lobbying 101: Jim Harrison Brings the Groceries
Jim Harrison was running late for an event in Burlington last Thursday. But as president and chief lobbyist for the Vermont Retail & Grocers Association, he knew an opportunity when he saw one, so he sat back down in Montpelier’s Statehouse cafeteria to buttonhole Rep. Kate Webb (D-Shelburne). When a new law takes effect July…
Junior’s Brings Italian Fare to Stowe
Renovations are in progress at the former home of Gracie’s, which will become Junior’s at Stowe. “I’ve loved that location for a long time,” says new tenant Franke Salese Jr., who will rent the space with the option to buy. Chittenden County residents will recognize Salese’s name. Currently he owns Junior’s Italian in Colchester and…
A Mother Aims to Put Healing Art in Every Vermont Hospital
In 2009, as Susan Sebastian lay dying at Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington, she told her mother that if she survived her illness, she would sell her house and use the money to buy artwork for every patient room in the hospital. The view from Sebastian’s bed, recalls her mother, Elise Braun of Waterbury,…
Carol’s Hungry Mind Adds Café on Route 7
Drivers on Route 7 near New Haven may wonder if they’ve accidentally strayed off the main route when they see Carol’s Hungry Mind Café. They haven’t. A downtown Middlebury institution for nearly 11 years, Carol’s has opened a new location at 7404 Ethan Allen Highway, the former site of Hill Top RV Center of Vergennes.…
Pianist David Kaplan’s Homage to Schumann
Once, during a phone conversation with Seven Days, pianist David Kaplan delivered an impassioned argument on behalf of live performance. Recordings of classical music, he said, have become so polished that they strip performances of genuine feeling and spontaneity. It’s welcome news, then, that New York City-based Kaplan will give a live concert at the…
Gilfeather Turnip Named Vermont State Vegetable
Last week, the legislature voted to designate the Gilfeather turnip the Vermont state vegetable after two years of advocacy by students at Wardsboro Elementary School. They were supported by a devoted group of parents, teachers and locals. Fourth, fifth and sixth graders promoted the turnip as part of their school civics curriculum, making four field…
A Saint Mike’s Student Hosts Trashy Exhibit
It’s not news that consumerism and throwaway culture produce a lot of trash. Just how much is hard to fathom. Disturbing yet vague information about humans’ unconscionable waste surrounds us. A case has been made for “Plastiglomerate” — the masses of pollution formed in part from plastic garbage — to be considered a geological element.…
Juicebox Relocates, Eden Brings on New Cider Maker
Burlington juice and smoothie bar Juicebox has moved east to 194 College Street, right next to Computers for Change and across from new arcade bar the Archives. Owners Ian and Kara Bouchett, who opened Juicebox in December 2013, say the new location doubles their space. They’ve also expanded the menu. The Newport business formerly known…
Cartoonist James Sturm’s Birdsong Invites Musical Storytelling
The Japanese storytelling art form known as e-toki — literally, “picture-explaining” — goes back more than a 1000 years. Its performers, many of them itinerant Buddhist priests, used illustrated scrolls as the bases for spoken narratives that conveyed moral lessons. By the 20th century, e-toki had evolved into a form called kamishibai (“paper theater”), which…
Theater Review: Living Together, Northern Stage
The firmly British characters take disappointment hard in Living Together, one third of Alan Ayckbourn’s clever room-by-room trilogy, The Norman Conquests. All three plays are set over a single weekend in July, each occurring in a different location around the same country house. The characters move, but the audience doesn’t — we’re left to imagine…
Former Trooper Had a History of Illegal Searches, Documents Suggest
Vermont state police don’t often get fired — and when it happens, no one puts out a press release; in fact, the Vermont Department of Public Safety rarely acknowledges it. But after former state trooper Lewis Hatch was sacked in January, he appealed the decision to the Vermont Labor Relations Board. That made his personnel file…
Obituary: Steven Butler, 1948-2016
Steven Robert Butler, 68, of Northfield, Vermont passed away on Sunday, May 1, as a result of complications from CNS-Lymphoma. Steven, born in Hartford, CT, divided most of his adult life between the two places he considered his true homes – Montana and Vermont. For his first two adult decades, Steve lived the outdoors life…
Mr. Mikes Pizza Opens Side Bar
For years, Mr. Mikes Pizza has been the go-to spot for late-night sustenance in downtown Burlington. The kitchen stays open daily until 1 a.m. or later. And, until then, familiar faces serve crispy thin-crust slices topped with everything from pepperoni to Buffalo chicken. Earlier this spring, Mr. Mikes co-owners Boudee Luangrath and Aaron Chiaravelotti knocked…
Lawson’s Finest Liquids Plans Expansion in Waitsfield
For many Vermonters, visiting out-of-state loved ones comes with a request: Can you bring beer? That usually means brews from the Alchemist, Hill Farmstead Brewery and Lawson’s Finest Liquids. Lawson’s highly sought-after suds have modest beginnings. Sean and Karen Lawson founded the brewery from their Warren home in 2008. For years, Sean Lawson brewed beer…
Meet the Diblings: How Two Moms and Their Kids Discovered an Extensive Extended Family
The most unusual thing about our family is not that our sons have two mommies. Here in Vermont, that rarely raises eyebrows nowadays. No, here’s the part people have trouble bending their minds around: Our sons are part of a connected tribe of 40 half-siblings, scattered all across the country, all conceived with sperm from…
