Aug 1-6, 2018
The 2018 Readers’ Poll Results Are In! See the Daysies Magazine for All the Best; Seven Days Staffers Pick Even More Booty; Festival of Fools Takes to the Streets; What to Do About Aging Burlington High School?
Cover Story
Seven Days Staffers Pick Even More Vermont ‘Bests’
Fair and impartial reporting is the rule here at Seven Days. But, just this once, we’ve decided it’s OK to play favorites. As we prepared to release the results of our annual Seven Daysies readers’ choice competition , we were inspired to reflect on a few of our own picks for the “bests” of life in…
The Parmelee Post: Burlington Enforces ‘E. Coli-Only’ Swim Times at Beaches
The Queen City is taking measures to allow more families the chance to spend some quality time in Lake Champlain this summer. As of August 1, Burlington has established designated times during which only families of E. coli are allowed to swim in the lake. “This policy is all about fairness,” explained Burlington Parks, Recreation…
The Cannabis Catch-Up: Weed and Taxes
Big news out of Nevada this week: The state’s tax revenue from legal cannabis sales far exceeded expectations to the tune of 25 percent. Once June numbers are tabulated, regulators said, Silver State sales are expected to exceed $500 million in the first year of legalization there. Those sales generated about $70 million in tax…
Soundbites: Gestalt, We Hardly Knew Thee; Fools Rush In
Burlington indie-rock band Gestalt are packing up and moving to Seattle. The band is also gearing up for the release of its debut LP, which, according to a recent Facebook post announcing the move, is two years in the making. As a farewell to the Queen City, the trio will perform a final show on…
Three State’s Attorneys Face Scrutiny Ahead of Tough Primaries
The Green Mountain State’s 14 county prosecutors are the most powerful politicians voters have never heard of, according to James Lyall, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont. “These are elected officials who have flown under the radar for far too long,” he said. Many of them will go unchallenged this election…
Art Review: Sarah Tortora’s Tantalizing Sculpture, Red Mill Gallery
At the risk of sounding goofy, we could say that one of art’s greatest capacities is to reference so much with so little — sometimes to the point of vertigo, or of a feeling like a mild-to-catastrophic electrical surge. Sculptor Sarah Tortora’s current solo exhibition, “Ode,” in the Vermont Studio Center’s Red Mill Gallery, ranges…
Album Review: Cold Clod, ‘Breaks Up’
(Dead Definition, cassette, digital download) Breaks Up, the latest release from Brattleboro’s Cold Clod, is a hazy dreamscape of progressive, ambient folk. Ben Currotto, the experimental project’s creative mastermind, assembled a core group of like-minded musicians for the album. Rhode Island-based avant-garde artist Alex Maddelena (aka Host) contributes throughout and also mixed the record. Also…
Jewish Food Expert Joan Nathan Talks Recipes and Memories
Thirty minutes before the July 24 lunch in honor of celebrated Jewish food expert Joan Nathan, more than a dozen dishes from her latest cookbook were on display in the Ohavi Zedek Synagogue kitchen in Burlington. Bowls held Sicilian caponata with golden raisins and olives; North African tomatoes and peppers cooked with cumin, coriander and…
Album Review: John LaRouche, ‘Cerulean’
(Laughing Eagle Music, CD, digital download) John LaRouche is a Montpelier-area musician with a rare set of skills: He plays chromatic harmonica. To be specific, he plays chromatic harmonica extremely well. Cerulean is LaRouche’s debut album, offering a mix of jazz standards along with four of his own compositions. It is a mature, refined triumph.…
Eat This Week, August 1 to 7, 2018: In Good Taste
In honor of all things fun and edible, the forces behind Mad River Food Hub and Mad River Taste Place have organized an eight-day foodie foray exploring the makers and shakers that give flavor to central Vermont’s Mad River Valley. To open the festivities on Saturday, August 4, Erika Lynch of Babette’s Table teams up…
Honorable Mentions: Unofficial Awards for Vermont’s Music Scene
This week, Seven Days unveils the winners of the Daysies, our annual readers’ poll on everything from ice cream to pet grooming to mortgage brokers. It’s all cataloged in a magazine, called All the Best, inserted in this week’s issue. Have a look to see if you agree with the consensus. As per usual, certain…
Free Will Astrology (8/1/18)
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): “Sometimes, I feel the past and the future pressing so hard on either side that there’s no room for the present at all.” A character named Julia says that in Evelyn Waugh’s novel Brideshead Revisited. I bring it to your attention as an inspiring irritant, as a prod to get you…
Festival of Fools Highlights Women, Music, Veteran and Newbie Street Performers
After hanging upside down in a full split, Nicole Dagesse shimmies up the aerial fabric to “stand” 12 feet off the ground. With the cloth strategically wrapped around hips and thighs, she leans sideways in a whole-body arc and then tumbles forward in a dramatic somersault to stop, still wrapped, inches above the floor. Dagesse…
Jasper Hill Farm Scores Double Cheese Win
Mateo Kehler, cofounder of Jasper Hill Farm in Greensboro, was flying to Portland, Ore., last Friday night when one of his cheeses — Harbison — won best of show at the American Cheese Society Judging & Competition in Pittsburgh. Another Jasper Hill cheese, Calderwood, took second place at the annual showdown that this year included…
Scarlett Letters: I’m Bugged When Sexual Pleasure Isn’t Mutual
Dear Scarlett, I know it’s normal to have a hard time orgasming during penetration, but it bugs me because it makes me feel like sex isn’t very mutual. I get overly caught up in thinking about that instead of just enjoying the pleasure, and it’s bothering me. Signed, Hot and Bothered (female, 22) Dear Hot…
Book Review: ‘The Underneath’ by Melanie Finn
The opening scene of The Underneath, by Northeast King-dom writer Melanie Finn, establishes the sense of menace that tinges this whole unputdownable novel. A journalist named Kay, who narrates this flashback, and a photographer drive into Ugandan war territory in an attempt to reach a ruthless warlord. Waiting for contact in a deserted village, Kay…
More Murals Adorn Queen City Walls
Last week, Seven Days reported on the continuing controversy surrounding the “Everyone Loves a Parade!” mural just off of Burlington’s Church Street Marketplace. The task force charged with delivering recommendations to the city council is still working on it, but meanwhile there are other mural updates in the Queen City. The new City Market, Onion…
Meet the 14-Year-Old Running for Vermont Governor
Ethan Sonneborn has never run for elected office before — assuming you don’t count his stint on Bristol Elementary School’s student council. He’s never been employed, other than mowing lawns and walking neighbors’ dogs. And he’s never even voted — though, in fairness, Sonneborn isn’t eligible to do so for another four years. But none…
A Shelburne Teen Tackles Straws, Artificial Intelligence and College Applications
Seventeen-year-old Milo Cress of Shelburne has spent his summer fielding interview requests from National Public Radio and the New York Times for his role in inspiring a worldwide movement against plastic straws when he was just 9 years old. As a boy, Cress had noticed that many restaurants automatically gave diners straws with their drinks.…
Theater Review: ‘The Taming of the Shrew,’ Vermont Shakespeare Festival
A contemporary audience comes to The Taming of the Shrew virtually daring the play not to offend. The title alone infuriates, with its pejorative category for women and suggestion that there’s a triumph to be found in taming them. The only reason for staging it, the thinking goes, is to keep William Shakespeare on his…
Movie Review: The Performances Shine in Uneven Biopic ‘Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot’
Gus Van Sant started making movies around the time I started reviewing them, so I’ve followed his entire career. Three decades in, I know exactly one thing about him: You never know what you’re going to get with Gus Van Sant. Whose filmography is half as scattershot? How is it possible the person who made…
St. Johnsbury Athenaeum Celebrates the Return of Its Bierstadt
In recent years, visitors who came to the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum to see “The Domes of the Yosemite” by Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902) might have noticed that the painting seemed to sag. In fact, according to athenaeum director Bob Joly, the immense artwork was in trouble. “For several years, the painting has looked a little saggy…
Charlotte Car Enthusiast Adds Road-Legal Tank to His Collection
That tank you might have seen cruising through Charlotte over the weekend was not a mirage. Rather, the 1974 British CVRT Sabre was Derek Chace’s vehicle of choice for a creemee run with his kids. And it’s Chace who feels like he’s living a dream. “What boy doesn’t want a tank?” he exclaimed. Chace and…
Kestrel Coffee Roasters Opens in South Burlington
South Burlington will have a new coffee roaster this week when Kestrel Coffee Roasters, at 30 Community Drive in Technology Park, roasts its first batch of single-source beans from Colombia, said Charlotte Steverson, who owns the company with her husband, Johnny. The Steversons moved to Vermont from New York last year to start their company.…
Green Christine? Hallquist’s Record on Renewable Energy
Christine Hallquist has made fighting climate change a focal point of her campaign for governor. The former utility executive turned Democratic politician touts her commitment to renewable energy. She points with pride to the almost entirely carbon-free portfolio she built at the Vermont Electric Coop as proof of her dedication and know-how. During her 13…
Letters to the Editor (8/1/18)
Still Supporting Women A recent article by Paul Heintz about the future of Vermont philanthropy [“Giving It Up,” July 18] stated that the Lintilhac Foundation has shifted away from its support for women’s health. Though our mission has changed over the years, the foundation continues to be devoted to women’s health. Through our legacy-giving program,…
Movie Review: The Satirical ‘Sorry to Bother You’ Takes Flight When It Goes Off the Rails
The word “freewheeling” could have been invented to describe Sorry to Bother You, the first film written and directed by the Coup front man Boots Riley. If the head-trip films of the 1960s had a fling with Mike Judge’s Idiocracy and spawned a progeny as anarchically scattershot as it is brilliantly sincere, the result might…
Burlington Considers Upgrading Its High School — for $70 Million
When it opened in 1964, Burlington High School was hailed as a state-of-the-art edifice. Fifty-four years later, the prevailing view has changed, and not just because of the school’s foggy Plexiglas windows. Its mazelike design of six buildings connected by enclosed ramps — no doubt considered cool half a century ago — makes it difficult to…
What to Do About Vermont’s Poison Parsnip Problem?
Drive the roads of Vermont from early spring through late summer, and you’ll probably notice an abundance of yellow-flowered weeds growing as tall as five feet. Commonly known as wild parsnip or poison parsnip, Pastinaca sativa is an invasive, free-range version of the root veggie that’s sold at farmers markets and in grocery stores. A…
In Race for Governor, Sen. John Rodgers Stands His Ground
With less than two weeks remaining before the August 14 primary, Democratic gubernatorial candidate John Rodgers is not scrambling for votes. He’s moving stones and planting hemp. The Northeast Kingdom state senator might have been a credible opponent against Republican Gov. Phil Scott in November’s general election. As the only challenger who’s served in public…
Mexican Mezcal Is Making Inroads in Vermont
Megan Maher takes a sip of clear liquor from a plastic condiment cup. “I don’t know if it’s in my head, but it tastes a little like chicken,” she declares. We’re tasting mezcal, and Maher’s comment isn’t as strange as it sounds. Del Maguey Pechuga, the spirit we’ve just imbibed, is distilled from agave, wild…
Sail Up to the Pickled Perch, Now Open in Colchester
Hungry boaters and others seeking sustenance on Malletts Bay in Colchester can now sit down for a meal at the Pickled Perch. The restaurant opened in the former Bayview Bar and Grill location at 97 Blakely Road on Saturday. The restaurant’s owners include general manager and pastry chef Elizabeth Keller, chef Kevin Sokal — most recently…
