Aug 4-10, 2021
Vermont’s Exploding Housing Crisis Hits Moderate Wage Earners; Shots Fired: A Reporter Visits Vermont’s First Indoor Gun Range; Bess O’Brien’s ‘The Listen Up Musical’ Sets the Stage for Destigmatizing Tough Conversations
Cover Story
Nowhere to Go: Vermont’s Exploding Housing Crisis Hits Moderate Wage Earners
Kyle Tatsak and Miquelle Thurber love living in Stowe, where there are miles of trails for walking their two dogs. They go snowboarding and rock climbing together when they’re not working. But this summer, the two are reluctantly preparing for a move to Michigan, where Tatsak’s family lives. After six months of searching unsuccessfully for…
Obituary: Heidi H. Hoffecker, 1968-2021
Social worker and teacher exemplified the ideal of “unconditional love”
In Memoriam: Susan F. Smith, 1944-2021
Please join us for a celebration of life for Susan F. Smith, MD. The celebration will be held Saturday, August 28, 2021, at 2 p.m. at All Souls Interfaith Gathering, 291 Bostwick Farm Rd., Shelburne, Vt. Please come to sing, share stories, laugh and cry. Update: This will be a masked event. If you are…
Obituary: Asa Shlansky, 2002-2021
High school valedictorian was passionate about nature and animals
Obituary: Courtney E. Buffum, 1967-2021
Longtime Shelburne resident enjoyed relationships with family and caregivers
Obituary: Theresa Jeannette McCaffrey, 1927-2021
South Burlington woman was a Red Hat Society member and vibrant entertainer
Obituary: Phyllis Marion Wright Hogel, 1925-2021
Former accountant, avid reader, outdoor enthusiast, Audubon Society member and traveler
Obituary: Judith E. Ververs, 1948-2021
Accomplished English and German teacher loved the arts, travel and the intricacies of the world
Obituary: Dimitri Boytchev, 1970-2021
Loving father who lived life to its fullest will be remembered for his storytelling, as well as his charming smile and laugh
Book Review: ‘A Chorus Rises,’ Bethany C. Morrow
What happens when the spotlight dims? When you go from social media superstar to pariah? Such is the tale of teenage influencer Naema Bradshaw, the heroine of Bethany C. Morrow’s latest novel, A Chorus Rises, the sequel to A Song Below Water. One could say that Naema would have realized singer-songwriter Nina Simone’s wildest dreams…
Canoes for a Cause: Nonprofit Auctions Off Rare Boats
On the hunt for a 14-foot birchbark canoe? From August 5 to 15, you can bid on two watercraft of historical significance to benefit the Northern Forest Canoe Trail, a Waitsfield-based nonprofit that manages 740 miles of waterways from Old Forge, N.Y., to Fort Kent, Maine. The canoes were donated separately, five years apart. In…
‘The Green Knight’ Is a Hypnotic Gothic Tale Set in the Days of Chivalry
This week, I went on quite a trip … to a suburban multiplex, to watch a crowd of unmasked people watch a medieval epic that I suspect was trippier than many of them were expecting. From distributor A24, which specializes in arty horror and unsettling prestige films, The Green Knight is a take on the…
Theater Review: ‘Popcorn Falls,’ Vermont Stage
To welcome audiences back to live theater, Vermont Stage has picked a comedy that scrambles a bunch of hyperbolic characters together with no chance of overcoming an immense obstacle. Better yet, only two actors play all these denizens of a small town, changing roles at lightning speed. Staged outdoors at the Isham Family Farm in…
Now Playing in Theaters: August 4‑11
new in theaters ANNETTE: Looking for something tunefully offbeat? Leos Carax (the surreal Holy Motors) directed this rock musical starring Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard as a show biz couple. (139 min, R. Savoy) NINE DAYS: In this Independent Spirit Awards nominee, souls must audition for a chance to be born. Winston Duke, Zazie Beetz…
Shots Fired: A Reporter Visits an Indoor Gun Range
I’m not a gun guy. I haven’t handled a firearm since I squeezed off a few rounds from an old .22 rifle at summer camp more than 35 years ago. Nor have I felt the impulse to own a gun for personal protection, whether due to privilege or delusion or both. I’ve also figured, rightly…
Free Will Astrology (8/4/21)
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): The next two months will be a propitious time for you and your intimate allies to grow closer by harnessing the power of your imaginations. I urge you to be inventive in dreaming up ways to educate and entertain each other. Seek frisky adventures together that will delight you. Here’s a…
From the Publisher: Kilometers to Go
Like thousands of Vermonters, I was glued to a screen on Sunday night watching Elle Purrier St. Pierre of Montgomery run for it in Tokyo. The fleet-footed Olympic competitor placed third in a qualifying heat for the “middle-distance” track event: the women’s 1,500-meter race. Purrier St. Pierre covered the .93 miles in 4:05.34 — fast…
Bess O’Brien’s ‘The Listen Up Musical’ Sets the Stage for Destigmatizing Tough Conversations Among Teens
Sixteen teenagers stood onstage in a school gymnasium at the Lyndon Institute in Lyndonville and sang an emotional rendition of “Lockdown.” Written and inspired by Vermont teens, the song describes an experience that’s familiar to virtually every member of Generation Z: active-shooter drills in school and what it feels like to practice hiding for their…
Saints & Liars, ‘These Times’
(Self-released, digital) Sometimes you have to make a shitty situation work for you. Southern Vermont’s Saints & Liars have traveled their brand of roadhouse roots music to venues across New England since forming in 2012. As it did for so many other hard-touring acts, 2020 served as one big kick in the privates for the…
I Like to Pleasure Myself but Struggle to Reach Orgasm
Dear Reverend, I really like to pleasure myself, but I’m struggling to reach orgasm. Any tips on how to do this? Buffy Muffin, Female, 18 Dear Buffy, If I held the secret to women having an orgasm every time, I would be a bazillionaire living on a private tropical island somewhere. Alas, that is not…
Jeremy Harple, ‘Fluffanutta’
(Self-released, digital) Step right up to the Magical Mystery Tour! At least that’s what comes to mind when the organ and tabla kick off Jeremy Harple’s latest album, Fluffanutta. The West Glover-based musician leans into his self-described “psychedelic-jam-pop” sound throughout, with traces of those who forged the way before him. The six-song album is short…
A Waterbury Senior Center Reopens but Proceeds With Caution
Shirley Landry didn’t mince words when asked to describe what it was like to live under COVID-19 restrictions for more than a year. “Terrible,” Landry said as she finished lunch last week at the Waterbury Area Senior Center. During the pandemic, Landry left her apartment above the senior center only when one of her children…
WTF: Who’s Been Flying Aerial Stunts Over Southern Chittenden County?
On a recent morning when I stepped outside my house in Charlotte to walk the dog, I heard the hum of a propeller plane overhead. The sound of single-engine aircraft isn’t unusual in the area at this time of year. Planes routinely fly to and from Burlington International Airport 18 miles away, and seaplanes fly…
Art Review: Meleko Mokgosi, the Current, Stowe
Walking inside “Scripto-visual,” Meleko Mokgosi’s spectacular exhibit of paintings and prints at the Current gallery in Stowe, the viewer encounters an 8-foot-tall enlargement of a fist-shaking political poem by Gladys Thomas. “You that remade us / your mould will break / and tomorrow you are going to fall!” Mokgosi borrows the title of his work…
At Burly Axe Throwing, Patrons Bury the Hatchet for Fun
Many years ago, on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson,” the host asked singer and actor Ed Ames to demonstrate his skill at throwing a hatchet. He swung the axe in an overhead delivery at a male silhouette painted on a board — and buried the blade in the figure’s no-fly zone. The studio audience…
Letters to the Editor (8/4/21)
Concerned About Discrimination The Seven Days article [“Bias Badges?” June 23], regarding the findings of the Vermont Human Rights Commission about the Clemmons Farm, is a black eye on the state’s good reputation. On behalf of a group of 14 concerned citizens in Shelburne, I am appalled at the racially biased harassment of the Clemmons…
Burlington Police Are Increasingly Demoralized — and Planning to Leave Their Jobs
“Sobering.” That’s how two Burlington police commissioners described results of a survey by the police union that tallied a long list of complaints — and a desire by more than half of the cops who responded to find work somewhere else. The survey should ring alarm bells for both sides of the police debate: Supporters of…
Soundbites: Remembering Monique Ford
I met the late Monique Ford in the back of a club as I was loading in an amplifier. Ween’s “Beacon Light” was playing over the PA, and I was absolutely freezing my southern-transplant ass off. It was almost 18 years ago, but I recall the memory with vivid clarity. We were just kids, though…
Photo Essay: Juniper Creative Arts Integrates and Reflects Community in Public Art
On Saturday in the Old North End Community Center parking lot, close to 100 people worked on pieces of a new mural, titled “Moringa the Medicine Woman,” destined for an exterior wall of the center. The community paint day was integrated into the Ramble, a free annual event in the Burlington neighborhood. As participants dipped…
The Hot Dog Is Top Dog at Lucky Dogs and Out Front Foods
I accidentally celebrated National Hot Dog Day in a very appropriate way this year: with a mustard-topped frank at the Vermont Lake Monsters baseball game on July 21. I usually ignore the “National Whatever Day” food and drink holidays. There are too many to keep up with, and the 21st could have been Mango Day…
At Owl’s Head Orchard in Waterbury, CSA Members Pick Unsprayed Fruit
“The orchard is a mistake,” Jody Bouchard proclaimed, sitting among his 300 semidwarf apple trees on a Waterbury hillside with a stunning view of Camel’s Hump. The mistake, he explained, dates back 28 years to an unexpected tax refund. Bouchard’s then brother-in-law had mentioned wanting an orchard to keep his five sons busy. With some…
The Magnificent 7: Must See, Must Do, August 4 to 10
Float On Sunday 8 Smartphones, psychedelics, teaching your kids how to tie their shoes — all these topics and more were on Modest Mouse frontman Isaac Brock’s mind as the band crafted its long-awaited seventh studio album, The Golden Casket. Fans of the audacious indie outfit get to rock along to these new songs as…
