Apr 27 – May 3, 2016
A Vermont Sheriff Risks His Career to Hire a Sex Offender; Impending Changes Threaten a Historic Burlington Hood; A Sexy Trend in Fitness: Pole Dancing
Cover Story
Vermont Sheriff Risks His Career by Hiring a Sex Offender
WARNING: This story describes the sexual abuse of a child. Skill saws screamed, drowning out Top 40 country music tunes while two men labored to transform a run-down garage in the village of Hyde Park. The lead carpenter on the job, Timothy Szad, showed off his work in what will become an evidence room for…
Dan Johnson, Magic Guitar
(Self-released, CD, digital download) Dan Johnson spent much of his musical life in his native upstate New York. A few years ago, he meandered across the lake to Vermont and continued to establish himself as a rising star in the regional Americana singer-songwriter scene. In addition to recording with his band, the Expert Sidemen, Johnson…
Page 32: Seven Books to Watch Out For
Seven Days’ writers can’t possibly read, much less review, all the books that arrive in a steady stream by post, email and, in one memorable case, a colony of trained ants. So this monthly feature, “Page 32,” is our way of introducing you to seven books by Vermont authors. To do that, we’ll contextualize each…
Theater Review: I and You, Vermont Stage
The title of I and You, now playing at Vermont Stage, refers to Walt Whitman’s fluid use of pronouns to suggest humanity’s universal interconnection. This two-character play is all about connection, but that can only come after one forms a self. And that’s the main preoccupation of the two teenagers at the heart of this…
Botanical Bad Guys in the Backyard
Invasive plants can vanquish a vegetable garden, overtake our ornamentals and give hives to a horticulturist. As problematic as these plants may be on the practical level, they present a more fundamental problem, even for experienced gardeners: How do we tell them apart from plants that are harmless? Many Vermont plants widely believed to be…
Study Reveals Parity Between Farmers Markets and Grocers
Most farmers and food-system workers cite price concerns as a major factor in keeping some locals away from farmers markets. “People have this perception of [farmers markets] as being elitist or more expensive,” says Abbey Willard, food-systems section chief at the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets. Last summer, Willard’s department set out to…
Everyone’s a Critic
Originally published May 5, 2010. In today’s food-obsessed culture, even your grandmother probably knows her prosciutto from her pancetta. A glut of culinary magazines, TV shows and, of course, blogs has made non-food professionals conversant with topics ranging from molecular gastronomy to proper plating techniques. And, in the electronic age, we’ve all got opinions, and…
Worthy Kitchen, Bar Antidote Expand
This spring, Vergennes “speakeasy” Bar Antidote will add another room, taking over the space above it that is currently occupied by the Clock Shop. That will give Antidote 1,600 extra square feet to play with, or about 40 to 50 new seats, says chef-owner Ian Huizenga. Huizenga can’t say yet what kind of concept the…
Theater Review: Hairspray, Lost Nation Theater
If musicals are all about feeling good, Hairspray is a double-dip cone with sprinkles on top. It combines dance-in-your-seat music, a message of racial equality and a story about accepting yourself. The Lost Nation Theater production is an irresistible flood of good cheer. The company has assembled the largest cast in its 28-year production history,…
Bohemienne Fitness Builds Sexy Strength Around the Pole
Outside, it’s sunny and 50 degrees. Inside North End Studio B in Burlington, it’s a sultry 70 degrees — the perfect temperature to start stripping down and doing some pole dancing. The stereo plays a slowed-down version of U2’s “With or Without You,” and the clock reads 11:45. That’s 11:45 a.m. Yep, it’s the middle…
Hillside Rounders, Lightning in a Bottle
(Self-released, CD, digital download) For the past several years, Hillside Rounders have rambled and roamed, bringing barroom twang to the juke joints of the Green Mountains. As evidenced by their self-titled 2012 debut, the Rounders are polished purveyors of classic country and roots music. And the band’s slick skill matches its affinity for old-school Americana.…
Miles Ahead
As I picked my jaw up off the floor and pressed my eyeballs back into their sockets after watching Don Cheadle’s shockingly horrible new movie, I comforted myself with the thought that Miles Ahead was an anomaly. I told myself nothing else like it existed in the actor’s body of work. Then a painful memory…
WTF: What Happened to the Planet Aid Boxes?
For years, Vermonters could empty their closets, drawers and basements of “gently used” clothes and shoes and donate them to Planet Aid, using any of the international charity’s dozens of yellow drop boxes around the state. Recently, however, most of those collection bins, once ubiquitous at gas stations, convenience stores and recycling centers, have disappeared.…
Soundbites: Bon Voyage, Francesca Blanchard; A Benefit for Shrimp
If you’re a fan of local songwriter Francesca Blanchard, you’ve got precisely three chances left to see her in Vermont before she very likely blows the eff up. And if you’re not a fan of Francesca Blanchard … what gives? I’ve been singing her praises for years now. This thing only works if y’all at…
The Huntsman: Winter’s War
Perhaps this fantasy film would have scored a bigger gross last weekend if someone had thought to title it Two Acclaimed Thespians Compete to See Who Makes the Best Evil Queen. Perhaps not. The fact remains, that line sums up almost everything that’s not negligible about this unnecessary prequel-cum-sequel to Snow White and the Huntsman…
Talking Art With Toni-Lee Sangastiano
Visitors to Toni-Lee Sangastiano’s Burlington studio might be surprised to learn that all of the artwork there is hers. The range of mediums and visual languages on display is unusually wide: experiments in moiré marbling on paper, photographs of consumer items placed in empty religious niches in Italy, paintings depicting circus acts and boardwalk games,…
The Rev. Peyton on His Big Damn Band, Touring and Hog Balls
Contrary to their name, the Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band are actually fairly damn small. They’re a trio, in fact, consisting of guitarist and vocalist Josh Peyton — he’s the Rev — his wife, washboard player Breezy Peyton, and drummer Ben Bussell. The group’s diminutive size only makes its explosive live show all the more…
Free Will Astrology (4/27/16)
TAURUS (April 20-May 20) You’re in a phase of your cycle when you’ll be rewarded for your freshness and originality. The more you cultivate a “beginner’s mind,” the smarter you will be. What you want will become more possible to the degree that you shed everything you think you know about what you want. As…
‘A Vermont Romance’ Makes Film History
Nobody makes movies like “A Vermont Romance” anymore. Three-quarters of the way through the 1916 melodrama, the narrative skids to a halt. Will young lovers Dorothy and Jerry ever get together? Curious viewers learn the answer only after watching a highly detailed scene about … the operations of a commercial bakery. The Vermont-made silent film…
Will South End Revival Alter Burlington’s Lakeside Neighborhood?
On a cloudless Sunday afternoon in early April, a group of about 50 gathered at the St. John’s Club, a squat brick building on the shore of Lake Champlain just south of the Burlington breakwater. Piling baked beans and eggplant lasagna onto plates, they chatted about knee surgery and summer vacation plans. Young mothers drank…
Leland Kinsey, Still ‘Galvanized’ by Poetry
A little more than a year ago, 65-year-old Barton poet Leland Kinsey was in the hospital with what seemed like a death sentence. “It was lymphoma, but a strange presentation. You don’t want to hear that from your doctor,” Kinsey tells Seven Days by phone. The seventh-generation Vermonter was rushed to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center last…
Power Players Face Dam Deadline
The pressure is on Vermont’s Hydropower Working Group, the seven-member panel convened to vet the state’s possible purchase of a chain of local hydroelectric dams. On March 17, TransCanada announced it would sell its northeastern power-generating business, including 13 dams on the Connecticut and Deerfield rivers in Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Acquiring those renewable…
Stephen Cramer’s Poems Sound Like Music
If there were a CliffsNotes version, or a summative tweet, for Stephen Cramer’s new poetry book Bone Music, it might be the last line of the last poem in the volume: “the more broken we become, the more music we can spin out of our bones.” Many of the works of this writer and University…
From Pesky Plant to Beautiful Bowls
Sumac is ubiquitous in Vermont — specifically, staghorn sumac, or Rhus typhina for the botanically inclined. The staghorn has a semitropical appearance, and its frond-like leaves turn a fiery red in the fall. Its younger shoots have a soft, velvety bark, and its clusters of furry berries reportedly can be used to make tea. Despite…
My Husband Can Only Orgasm Doggie-Style
Dear Athena, My husband and I have been together for seven years and married for five. We’re still very much in love and crazy about each other, and I’m super-grateful for that. And we both like to have fun in bed and playfully experiment together. But there is one big obstacle to our sex life.…
Ethics Schmethics: The Slow Death of Reform in the Vermont Senate
Talk about déjà vu! This time last year, Vermont legislators were questioning whether the state really needed new ethics rules. Then scandal broke. Attorney General Bill Sorrell faced accusations that he filed suit at the behest of a campaign donor and later hired the donor to represent the state. A few weeks later, the cops…
Letters to the Editor (4/27/16)
Give It a Resto? It’s ironic that farm-to-table restaurants are struggling at a time when so many Americans are eating out [“Plates in the Air,” April 20]. But perhaps that’s the problem. When people eat out a lot, they want their restaurant meals to be cheap. But if they ate out less frequently, they might…
Obituary: Gregory Eurich, 1950-2016
Gregory P. Eurich, born November 5, 1950, originally from Waitsfield, passed away April 20th surrounded by his family in Waterbury Center. Greg had an adventurous life retiring from the University of Vermont to live on his sailboat with his wife Michele, who courageously supported him to the end. Greg’s sister Beecher, along with her children…
Obituary: Stephen L. Brown
Stephen L. Brown, founder of the Vermont Vanguard Press, longtime publisher of the Providence Phoenix and a leader for nearly four decades in New England’s alternative newspaper industry, died Monday at Rhode Island Hospital after suffering a heart attack. He was 62. Brown endured health challenges in recent years with his usual mix of grit…
Restaurant Week Diaries: Seven Writers Sample the Scene
Part of the fun of Vermont Restaurant Week is the opportunity to try new places — perhaps even in towns you rarely visit. With more than 100 restaurants offering multicourse dinners for $20, $30 or $40 (and much less for lunch and brunch), diners can expect a rounded experience at a predictable price. Last weekend,…
Stowe’s Picnic Social Opens in June
Picnics necessarily revolve around packable, easy-to-eat foods that can be shared, perhaps with a glass of wine or lemonade. Such meals often take place on a blanket in the grass on a sunny, idle afternoon. When it opens early this summer, Stowe’s Picnic Social restaurant will aim to provide that experience in elevated form. The…
