Aug 12-17, 2015
Artist Milton Rosa-Ortiz Explores Past and Future in a Shimmering Exhibit; Explaining Vermont’s Public Nudity Laws; African Soccer Teams Kick It Up a Notch; Eating Himalayan in Burlington
Cover Story
Artist Milton Rosa-Ortiz Explores Time in a Shimmering Exhibit
Time is a concept as big as the universe and smaller than a New York minute. Time gone by is compressed into chapters of human knowledge called history; the future unfolds, relentlessly, each instant. Time is beyond our control, despite our efforts. We’ve splintered its meaning into clichés, frozen bits of it in images and…
Free Will Astrology (8/12/15)
ARIES (March 21-April 19): To ensure the full accuracy of this horoscope, I have been compelled to resurrect an old-fashioned English word that isn’t used much any more: “gambol.” It means to cavort and frolic in a playful manner, or to romp and skip around with mad glee, as if you are unable to stop…
Burlington Sculptor Kate Pond Opens Time Capsules
Kate Pond’s World Sculpture Project gives a twist to a slogan familiar to many Vermonters: The state’s most internationally involved artist thinks cosmically and acts globally. Pond is in the midst of opening time capsules buried during the past 20 years alongside sculptures she assembled in five far-flung places: Québec, Hawaii, Norway, New Zealand and…
Burlington College Preps for a Big Test
“It’s not too late to apply,” reads the banner outside Burlington College. A visitor heeding that call last Friday might have seen a man on stilts rolling paint onto the bare walls of an entryway under construction. The North Avenue building’s off-putting appearance is actually a sign of progress, according to administration officials, who say…
Hay Bale Art Inspires Smiles, Donations
Ever wonder who’s behind the huge roadside puppies, teddy bears and maple syrup jugs made of strategically stacked hay bales? Anyone who regularly drives through southern Chittenden or Addison counties has undoubtedly spotted the painted-grass creations. They’re the work of Wyatt Vincent, owner of VT Bale Creations. For the last four years, the 46-year-old Addison…
Where Does Sanders Stand on Foreign Policy?
It’s a truism of presidential politics that foreign policy matters little to U.S. voters as long as the country isn’t embroiled in a major war. But independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders could find it to be a major challenge in his bid for the Democratic nomination. In the age of global terrorism, Americans may prefer…
Moran Plant Gets a New Mural
Last Saturday, just around the corner from the bustle of the Lake Champlain Maritime Festival, a 16-by-90-foot mural took shape on the lakefront side of Burlington’s Moran Plant. Under the direction of artist Clark Derbes, 10 kids from the King Street Center, their mentors, and 40-odd community members covered the faded brick with large blocks…
Up on the Roof, Down in the Basement
(Self-released, CD, digital download) Five-piece Johnson jam-funk band Up on the Roof released their first EP in January, cheekily titled Greatest Hits Vol. 3. This spring, they followed up with a debut full-length album, Down in the Basement. This collection begins with the promise of heady funk. Unfortunately, it later stumbles with meandering tracks that…
Talking Art With Tom Leytham
Tom Leytham’s love of drawing initially inspired him to become an architect, so it’s no surprise that buildings would be his favorite subjects. In 2007, Leytham began sketching remnants of 19th- and 20th-century structures that had once been factories, granaries, mills and mines. “The Other Working Landscape,” his solo exhibition of 20 giclée prints at…
Hornbeam, Hornbeam
(Self-released, CD, digital download) Northeast Kingdom-based Hornbeam take their name from a unique species of tree found only in northern temperate regions of the world. Also known as ironwood, the timber from hornbeam trees is some of the hardest on the planet. The tree is also reputed to have mystical healing powers. On their recently…
The Gift
It’s a pleasure to be reminded every once in a while that people can surprise you. Just three years ago, the Australian actor Joel Edgerton starred in The Odd Life of Timothy Green, a Disney picture about a childless couple who magically grow a son in their backyard garden. It was the most terrible film…
Two Shots Rang Out in Barre, and a DCF Worker Fell
Shortly before 5 p.m. on Friday, a few workers began to trickle out of their offices at Barre City Place to head home for the weekend. Inside a gym on the building’s first floor, people were sweating through end-of-the-day workouts. Traffic started to pick up on Main Street. Pedestrians milled around downtown sidewalks. And then,…
Off Trail: Roy Mountain Wildlife Management Area
Mosquitoville Road, which I had to take to reach the Roy Mountain Wildlife Management Area in Vermont’s Caledonia County, seems like a bit of cartographical humor. In fact, the road brings travelers within bug-biting distance of the remarkable cedar swamp that was my destination. So maybe the road namers in the area do have a…
Ricki and the Flash
Back before his movies won multiple Oscars, Jonathan Demme made small, rough-edged films like Melvin and Howard (1980) and Something Wild (1986). While their heroes were often deadbeats and losers, the director’s treatment of them was warm, even loving. After she won an Oscar for charming the public with Juno, Diablo Cody wrote Young Adult,…
Burlington’s African Amateur Teams Are Serious About Soccer
Thirty minutes before kickoff, Juba Star Football Club captain Noor Bulle led the team’s warm-up session at Tree Farm Field in Essex Junction. A few latecomers straggled onto the field and joined the 10 players stretching their hamstrings in the sweltering heat of an August Sunday afternoon. Bulle, a 25-year-old Burlington resident, was confident his…
Four More Local Recordings You (Probably) Haven’t Heard
So many records, so little time. Seven Days gets more album submissions than we know what to do with. And, given the ease of record making these days, it’s difficult to keep up. Still, we try to get to every local release that comes across the music desk, no matter how obscure or far out.…
WhistlePig Prepares to Distill Onsite
After almost five years of hemming and hawing over Act 250 permits, Shoreham’s WhistlePig finally has a still. Since its founding in 2010, the company has been contract-distilling whiskey sourced mostly from Canada, which it ages and bottles in Vermont. That practice has sparked questions about WhistlePig’s authenticity as a “Vermont product.” But on-site distilling…
Opinion: Listen Up, Bernie
It’s exasperating to watch: Sen. Bernie Sanders onstage at the Netroots Nation convention in Phoenix, Ariz., doggedly sticking to his script while the chants rise from the audience. “Black lives matter!” “Say her name!” “Should I … Do I have…” he fumfers, conferring sotto voce with the moderator, journalist and documentarian Jose Antonio Vargas. Finally…
Middlebrook Restaurant to Offer Farm-Fresh Groceries
Middlebrook Restaurant in West Fairlee, which opened for its second season in May, will incorporate a new gourmet market starting on August 15. Middlebrook Market will sit across from the restaurant, inside the sunroom of an 1860s farmhouse, and will carry local ingredients, prepared dishes, and beer and wine. Middlebrook’s sprawling 140-acre property in a…
Soundbites: A New (Old) Venue in Montpelier; House Music on the Waterfront
Back in Black Not too long ago, live music in the capital city was in a bad place. In the span of about a year, Montpelier lost several key venues. The most notable and vital of these was the Langdon Street Café in 2011, but Radio Bean South was hardly the only one. LSC was…
Theater Review: Guys and Dolls, Weston Playhouse
While life comes down to a crapshoot for some of the characters in Guys and Dolls, ticket buyers take no risk with Weston Playhouse’s thoroughly entertaining production. From the opening tableau of bustling New Yorkers to the finale, the show burns as bright as the lights on 1930s Broadway, where this hilarious collection of lowlifes…
Children and Families: Tragedy Strikes Central Vermont
Scott Williams exited the Washington County Courthouse Monday afternoon carrying the gray sport coat he’d worn earlier that day to a press conference on the courthouse steps. As he stood on a West Street sidewalk across from Barre’s downtown Dunkin’ Donuts, a man approached the newly elected state’s attorney and offered him a hug. The…
![Knight’s Spider Web Farm [SIV409]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sevendaysvt.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/episode409.webp?resize=1200%2C900&ssl=1)
Knight’s Spider Web Farm [SIV409]
8/2/15: For almost 40 years, Will and Terry Knight have welcomed visitors from around the globe to their Spider Web Farm in Williamstown. Eva stopped by on a Sunday to hear some stories and to watch a web being harvested and turned into decorative wall art. Web making footage courtesy of: Mike Bukay Full video…
How Do You Make Sexual Chemistry Happen?
Dear Athena, I feel like the guy I’m dating and I don’t have any sexual chemistry. But in every other way I have ever wanted, he’s perfect. We haven’t been together long, and at first I thought we just had to get to know each other better, but now I feel lost. In the beginning…
Burlington ‘Mama Bear’ Tells Drug Dealers to Go ‘Elsewhere’
For months, Burlington mother Erin Scott worried about suspicious activity in front of her rented duplex on Spruce Street: Drivers would park, seemingly exchange money for drugs with people in another vehicle and then dump used needles on the grassy strip next to the curb. When the snow melted last spring, Scott found the syringes…
Letters to the Editor (8/12/15)
Funny to the End Where is “Curses, Foiled Again,” the listing of possible Darwin Award applicants? [News Quirks] is usually right after the comics. Did I just miss it? Polly Ellerbe Hanover, N.H. Editor’s note: If only it were a simple production error. Sadly, longtime author Roland Sweet died two weeks ago. His nationally syndicated News…
WTF: Why Is Public Nudity Legal in Vermont But Public Disrobing Isn’t?
Vermont’s flip-floppy attitude on public nudity can confound newcomers who learn that, though it’s legal to be naked in public, it’s illegal to get naked there. Vermonters can let it all hang out outdoors — provided “it” was already hanging out when they left their home, car or place of employment. The actual shedding of…
A Dance to Remember: ‘Lonesome Bend’
Under the dammed waters of the Wrightsville Reservoir in Middlesex, just north of Montpelier, lies a story of flood and displacement. Heather Bryce, artistic director and founder of Bryce Dance Company, will offer viewers a closer look with “Lonesome Bend,” a one-night performance on the beach of the Wrightsville Beach Recreation Area. The site-specific, multimedia…
Alice & the Magician Finds New Home; Vermont Sports Grill Closes
Vermont’s first culinary fragrance company has a space to call its own. Alice & the Magician debuted its new laboratory and “aroma bar” with an event on Saturday, August 8. “We just needed a much larger space,” said owner and perfumer Aaron Wisniewski. His new location, at Burlington’s Pine Street Soda Plant building, is certainly…
Tasting Burlington’s Wealth of Himalayan Eats
Men in colorful hats known as Dhaka topi and women in saris no longer seem like mysterious foreigners on Burlington’s North Street. Passersby are just as likely to see New Americans dressed in the style of their Himalayan homelands as they are to see lifelong Burlingtonians in jeans and T-shirts. Most of Vermont’s residents from…
