Apr 16-22, 2014
Deconstructing the Queen City’s Development Boom; BPD’s Clinician Responder; Randolph’s Co-Op Movie House; Waterbury’s Café Provence
Cover Story
Deconstructing the Queen City’s Development Boom
Projects Under Way Stratos Project Hilton Garden Inn Abe’s Corner Champlain College Res Tri Project Champlain College Center for Communications and Creative Media Silversmith Commons King Street Center Won Final Approval But No Ground Broken Yet Maiden Lane Under Review, Preliminary Approval 140 Grove Street 110 Riverside Avenue Rejected, But Could Be Resurrected Eagles Landing…
Obituary: Barbara Jane Rollo
Mrs. Barbara Jane Rollo, age 90 years, a longtime resident of Highgate Center and more recently of Enosburgh Falls, died early Sunday morning April 20, 2014, at the St. Albans Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center. Born in St. Albans on June 5, 1923, she was the daughter of the late Henry and Gwyneth (Sales) Greene. She…
Obituary: Berta E. Craig
Berta E. Craig, age 68 years, died unexpectedly late Tuesday evening April 14, 2014, at her winter residence in Tyler Texas. Born in Heddesheim, West Germany she was the daughter of the late Karl and Katharina (Trapp) Waltz. She attended schools in Germany and on August 24, 1962, was married to Romie William Craig who…
Obituary: Gerard Joseph Beliveau
Gerard Joseph Beliveau, age 85 years, a longtime resident of Winooski and more recently of Swanton, died early Tuesday afternoon April 15, 2014, in the St. Albans Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center with family at his side. Born in Quebec, Canada on June 13, 1928, he was the son of the late Eli and Angelina (LeClerce)…
SnakeFoot, Gold Collection
(Self-released, digital download) Gold Collection by Burlington’s SnakeFoot — aka Ross Travis — contains challenging music. It is not bad music; it simply demands more of the listener than your standard-issue pop music. Melody is rarely at the forefront of the producer’s compositions, and its liberally syncopated beats hint at arrhythmia. There are no vocals,…
Quick Lit: Vermont Writer Sells Show to Syfy; Fantastic Readings
Here’s cool news that came to us via the blog Geek Mountain State: South Burlington-based screenwriter Hawk Ostby (Iron Man, Children of Men) is set to cowrite a TV series for Syfy based on James S.A. Corey’s space-opera novel series The Expanse. Reportedly pitched as “‘Game of Thrones’ in space,” the show received a coveted…
Obituary: George R Nattress, Jr., 1926-2014, Winooski
George R Nattress, Jr., 88, a long time resident of Winooski, VT passed away April 12, 2014, at the Legacy House Hospice of Marion County, Ocala, Florida. Bringing sunshine into all of our lives, George was born January 19,1926 in Winooski, VT to George and Mary (Lefebvre, a.k.a. LaFave) Nattress. He attended Shelburne Schools, and…
Soundbites: Record Store Day; Album News From Kat Wright
For the Records This weekend we will visit the holiest day on the Christian calendar. A day when a divine entity thought previously to have perished from the Earth is reborn, rising from the darkness to save us from our mortal sins. No, not Easter. Though we’re totally down with zombie Jesus. I mean Record…
To Prevent Further Tragedy, Burlington Tries Dispatching a Clinician Instead of a Cop
Justin Verette is a first responder at the Burlington Police Department, but you won’t see him in a uniform, behind the wheel of a cruiser or packing a gun, Taser or nightstick. His supervisors were initially uncomfortable with the idea of him even carrying a police radio, but it’s a requirement of his new job…
The Outrageous, Disgusting Musical Comedy of Touchpants
If you are a reasonably well-adjusted human being, there is no earthly reason why you should find yourself at Club Metronome on Sunday, April 20. That evening falls on both the holiest day of the Christian calendar, Easter Sunday, and — in a twist of sacri-licious coincidence — the noted stoner holiday 4/20. And that…
I’m Embarrassed by My Large Labia
Dear Athena, I have large inner labia and I’m embarrassed to show this area when having sex with my husband. I feel abnormal. And I hear rude jokes about women with large labia. My doctor even told me it’s rare. So is it really? Am I abnormal? Sincerely, Labia Low Dear LL, You are absolutely…
Free Will Astrology (4/16/14)
ARIES (March 21-April 19): It’s Compensation Week. If you have in the past suffered from injustice, it’s an excellent time to go in quest of restitution. If you have been deprived of the beauty you need to thrive, now is the time to get filled up. Wherever your life has been out of balance, you…
Bernie’s Big Dilemma: A Dem or an Indie Run?
A photo gallery of U.S. presidents lines the walls of the auditorium in Manchester, N.H., where Sen. Bernie Sanders spoke last Saturday. Each of those politicians, dating back to Dwight Eisenhower, began his journey to the White House by campaigning in New Hampshire’s presidential primary. While it’s unlikely that an image of Sanders will one…
Liquid Gold
“Oh, Christ — the cellphone service is horrendous in Vermont!” In the back seat of my taxi, my customer, Fern Burns, was trying to reach her teenage daughter back in South Carolina. Her phone was not cooperating. I was driving Fern to the Burlington airport after her completion of a weeklong yoga seminar held at…
The Raid 2
On April 15, Scott Mendelson of Forbes published an incisive little piece on the current economics of film. His premise: With 3-D spectacles filling theaters, fewer and fewer “smaller” movies achieve wide releases — even when they have big stars and appealing hooks. Vermont movie fans know that all too well. We read gushing praise…
News Quirks (4/16/14)
Curses, Foiled Again When the police officer who stopped Douglas Glidden, 25, in Livermore Falls, Maine, found marijuana in his vehicle, Glidden insisted the pot couldn’t be his because he had stolen the car. Indeed, the car had been reported stolen, according to Lt. Joseph Sage, who said Glidden was charged with felony car theft,…
Oculus
When I picked up the Washington Post and read Michael O’Sullivan’s review hailing Oculus as “the most unnerving poltergeist picture since The Conjuring,” my hopes for film fun were not high. That’s like calling a new comedy the funniest picture since White Chicks. We’re not exactly talking benchmarks of excellence. So I was pleasantly stunned…
A Young Burlington Couple Enters the Antiques Trade
Jenny Jacobson met Brian Bittner in 2009, when she moved into the Hayward Street apartment inhabited by Brian and mutual friends in Burlington’s South End. She was an art teacher in the Colchester school district; he was two years into developing a full-time antiques business. “As long as she’s known me, she’s been surrounded by…
Label to Table: An ‘Organic’ Movement Leads Vermont Senate to Require GMO Labeling
Since he was first elected to the Vermont House nearly 18 years ago, Hinesburg farmer David Zuckerman has fought a mostly losing battle against the spread of genetically engineered food. Now a member of the Vermont Senate, Zuckerman has finally found the secret ingredient: widespread political support. “It’s all, for lack of a better word,…
Theater Review: Our Town
In his preface to Our Town, Thornton Wilder recounted his dissatisfaction with the theater of his time. “It aimed to be soothing,” he lamented, and proceeded to attack that problem with innovative staging and a deceptively simple story that successfully explores what it means to be mortal. Our Town is an indisputable classic of American…
Randolph’s Co-op Theater Brings Movies to the People
On a recent Monday evening in Randolph, the Playhouse Theatre’s showing of the film Noah failed to attract much of a crowd, despite the thematically appropriate rain that slicked the streets. Projectionist Dave Tomaszewski had predicted low attendance for the day’s sole screening, and he turned out to be right. Only seven seats were occupied,…
Burlington Beer Fans Aim for a Co-op Brewery
Imagine this: You and your pals are thirsty for a beer. You head down to your local brewery and settle in for suds and dinner. The brew you order is your own creation, which won the brewery’s monthly contest to be featured as a special. And that’s not your only stake in the spot: You’re…
Middlebury’s Edgewater Gallery Expands Offerings
It’s been four and a half years since Edgewater Gallery opened on Mill Street in downtown Middlebury, filling the space that had been home to the Frog Hollow Vermont State Craft Center since 1971. In that short period, Edgewater has grown steadily, acquiring dozens of artists from Vermont and beyond. The work on display in…
Open Arms Food & Juice Shop Reopens in Shelburne
In 2008, Acoy and Samantha Cofino opened a cute little spot on Shelburne’s Harbor Road called the Open Arms Café. But in 2010, bad luck intervened. Samantha was diagnosed with breast cancer, forcing the couple to close their restaurant and focus on her treatment. In the ensuing years, Acoy Cofino ran the seasonal café at…
Eyewitness: Artist Rebecca Kinkead
On a crystalline afternoon in April, the looping, unpaved road leading to Rebecca Kinkead’s Ferrisburgh home and studio is slippery from the previous night’s rain. Just inside the door of the airy, post-and-beam house built by her husband, Jamey Holstein, three dogs nearly fall over themselves to greet a visitor, bodies wiggling and tails thumping…
An Essex Junction Apartment Makeover Sends Tenants Scrambling for Affordable Housing
In late March, roughly 100 residents of Green Meadows Apartments in Essex Junction returned home to find that eviction notices had been tacked to their doors. The writing was on the wall — literally: They had 60 days to pack up their belongings and get out. Where will they all go? That’s a tough question…
Taste Test: Café Provence at Blush Hill
The last time I climbed the steep hill to Waterbury’s Best Western Plus hotel, it was out of both hunger and curiosity. I had never been inside the hotel’s Wandering Moose Café — nor did I know anyone who had. Once there, I ended up drinking a very good vodka martini and leaving without eating…
Letters to the Editor (4/16/14)
Missing Story? I always enjoy reading your weekly newspaper. But did you really just publish a Money Issue [April 9] and not do a stand-alone story on the emerging, grassroots, statewide campaign calling for a public bank for Vermont? That 15 Vermont towns passed town-meeting resolutions calling on the state legislature to create such an…
![Waylon Speed [SIV349]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sevendaysvt.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/episode349-4-e1755139661792.webp?resize=1200%2C900&ssl=1)
Waylon Speed [SIV349]
4/9/14: Waylon Speed are arguably Burlington’s most renowned country-rock band. Since 2009 the quartet have been playing music and gathering both momentum and fans throughout Vermont and across the country. Eva catches a mini-concert at their Williston rehearsal space and takes a trip out to Jericho for some rural entertainment, shooting guns and four wheeling.…
Bread and Puppet and Sterling College Offer Arts and Activism Class
Northeast Kingdom neighbors Sterling College and Bread and Puppet Theater will collaborate on a four-week art-making course this summer, giving expression to their philosophical as well as geographical proximity. It’s something of a new direction for the small school in Craftsbury Common that focuses on outdoor education. Many Sterling students attend Bread and Puppet performances…
Burlington Bakery August First Goes Screen Free
As national news outlets have reported recently, many Vermonters are struggling with addiction to a powerful, mind-altering substance that has an increasingly visible public presence. No, not heroin — we’re talking about the internet. And the latest war against its use is happening in a popular restaurant in Burlington. Last month, August First Bakery &…
A New Book Remembers Vermont Architect George Guernsey
In 1897, residents of the recently established city of Montpelier elected George H. Guernsey as their third mayor. No wonder. According to the book Vermont’s Elusive Architect: George H. Guernsey, between 1875 and 1892 the Montpelier resident designed and built much of the city. His work included six downtown business blocks containing dozens of storefronts…
The Catching, Our Intimate
(409 Records, digital download) Kevin Sheltra is not your everyday guy. Besides his musical ventures and running his own record label, 409 Records, Sheltra is an author and poet with a few books to his name. In a 2010 interview with BurlingtonMusic’s Josh Burlette, the St. Albans native downplays his numerous interests by stating simply,…
Activist Author Mike Bond Talks Elephants and Energy
An Earth Day talk in Burlington by author and environmental activist Mike Bond, sponsored by the Vermont Council on World Affairs, is likely to elicit a mixed response. His audience will surely support Bond’s plea to save Africa’s wild elephant population, which is being decimated by poachers often linked to terrorist groups. But at least…
Mi Casa Replaces Frida’s in Stowe
Last September, 4-year-old Frida’s Taqueria and Grill in Stowe closed with little fanfare. Owners Jack Pickett and Joshua Bard will soon open Phoenix Table & Bar on the Mountain Road. But what of the former Frida’s? The space in Main Street’s historic Butler House will reopen as Mi Casa Kitchen & Bar on May 15.…
