Aug 27 – Sep 2, 2014
In Cabot, One Family Makes the Case for “Unschooling;” Garret Keizer Argues for the Power of Public Schools; An Internet Firestorm in Winooski; Can a Barre Stonecarver Get His Due?; Bunbury EAT Spices Up the Faira
Cover Story
A Cabot Family Makes the Case for ‘Unschooling’
Fin and Rye Hewitt are boys on a mission. On a cool afternoon in late summer, the two boys tear across the 40 rolling, green acres in Cabot that they call home — on bicycle, by foot, at a run and occasionally on a thoughtful walk. There are pack baskets to shoulder, trapping manuals to…
Obituary: Jean Paul Laplante
Father Jean Paul Laplante, age 93 years, a priest of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington since 1950 died late Friday evening August 29, 2014, at Our Lady of the Meadows in Richford. Born on November 14, 1920, in Chicopee, Massachusetts he was the son of the late Jean Baptiste and Rosa (Lemoine) Laplante. Father…
Obituary: Blake R. Gould, 1947-2014, Elmore
Blake R. Gould, 67, of Elmore passed away at his home Wednesday, August 20, 2014. He was born August 6, 1947 in Hardwick, the son of Philip B. and Maxine Finnemore Gould. After graduating from Amherst College, Blake then pursued studies in Holistic Medicine, living for two years in Japan to learn his trade. He…
Obituary: Maurice Joseph Laroche
Maurice Joseph Laroche, age 89 years, rejoined his wife Juliette on her birthday, early Saturday morning August 30, 2014, at the Franklin County Rehab Center with loving family at his side. Born in Highgate Center, Vermont on February 5, 1925, he was the son of the late Omer J. and Yvonne (Plante) Laroche. He attended…
A Vermont Security Center Helps Keep Campuses Safe
When Kim Vansell started her new job on May 1 as director of the newly formed National Center for Campus Public Safety in Burlington, she knew that addressing sexual violence would be a big part of her job. She didn’t know that her first assignment would come directly from the White House and be due…
Letters to the Editor (8/27/14)
Better Days at Burlington College I chose Burlington College because of the smaller campus [“Pass or Fail,” August 20]. Like many students, I was in my early twenties and wanted to continue my education. A week after I started classes, my father passed away from a heart attack. I was despondent, yet I knew the…
News Quirks (8/27/14)
Curses, Foiled Again Roger Beasley Jr., 30, abandoned his car at a routine traffic stop in Biloxi, Miss., but didn’t get far because he ran into a building where police academy training was under way. Police Chief John Miller said Beasley was quickly arrested on multiple charges. (Biloxi’s Sun Herald) We’re All Homos, Not All…
A New Book Reveals a Barre Stonecarver’s Leading Role at Mount Rushmore
Lou Del Bianco was just 6 years old in 1969 when his grandfather and namesake, Luigi Del Bianco, died at the age of 76. By then, the old man’s lungs had literally turned to stone from accelerated silicosis, a consequence of years of inhaling rock dust while carving granite without a mask. Today, Lou prominently…
Why Some Co-ops Are Killing Off Their Member-Labor Programs
After wrapping up harvest work at the Intervale Community Farm last fall, an eager crew of laborers said good-bye to the farmers they’d been helping out. “Their last words were, ‘See you next spring!'” recalled ICF executive director Andy Jones. But Jones didn’t invite the group back into the fields this year. The co-operative farm…
Work: Medical Librarian Alan Lampson
Name: Alan Lampson Town: Burlington Job: Medical librarian Don’t worry: That highly realistic skeleton and the life-size model of the partially eviscerated girl are there to help you. Though these anatomical displays are more visually striking than the hundreds of pamphlets, books and videos that line the walls of the Frymoyer Community Health Resource Center,…
Comcast Calling: Shumlin Backs a Donor’s Mega-Merger
Bernie backs limited airstrikes against ISIS forces in Iraq, but he says President Obama shouldn’t send in ground troops.
Ignat Solzhenitsyn Concludes Chamber Music Fest
The Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival is about halfway through its packed, eight-day schedule of concerts, classes and discussions centered on this year’s theme, art song. Chances are that audiences who know about the festival, which takes place mainly at the Elley-Long Music Center in Colchester, have attended every event — or lamented missing them.…
How Can My Boyfriend Last Longer in Bed?
Dear Athena, My boyfriend and I are writing to ask if you have ideas about lasting longer in bed. We love each other and want to get married, but we are having trouble with our sex life because he can’t keep an erection without losing it before I’m done. We need advice about how to…
Bacon Wars: Why Did the Sneakers Bistro Incident Go Viral?
The setting: a community garden. The central character: a respected Winooski businessman who has contributed to just about every charitable cause in the city. His offense: going out of his way to make sure a local resident didn’t feel offended. To recap: Sneakers Bistro & Café owner Marc Dysinger had erected a tongue-in-cheek sign in…
Various Artists, Friends for A-Dog Volume 1
(Friends for A-Dog Foundation, CD, digital download) It still doesn’t quite seem real that Andy Williams, aka DJ A-Dog, isn’t here. Since his death following a yearlong battle with leukemia in December 2013, the extended community that surrounded A-Dog has lovingly held on to his memory. There’s the mural outside of Nectar’s. The countless Facebook…
If I Stay
If you see just one weeper based on a YA best seller about teen love blossoming beneath the dark cloud of death this year, do yourself a favor: See the other one. If I Stay makes The Fault in Our Stars look like Citizen Kane. That this adaptation of Gayle Forman’s novel is director R.J.…
WDY, Never Been the Same
(Self-released, digital download) When last we left St. Albans-based DJ and producer Matt Woodward, aka WDY, he had released a promising, if inconsistent, debut, Take You Home. Over 11 cuts, Woodward imparted an array of emotions, most often without words, that suggested a deep affinity for his hometown and a uniquely curious musical mind. Though…
![WYSIWYG [SIV366]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sevendaysvt.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/episode366-4-e1755140078144.webp?resize=1200%2C900&ssl=1)
WYSIWYG [SIV366]
8/23/14: The first two day WYSIWYG (pronounced wizzy-wig) music festival was held last weekend on the grounds behind Burlington College. WYSIWYG is an acronym for “What You See Is What you Get” and in additional to non-stop music, the fest provided food from local farmers prepared by Vermont chefs and four sit down outdoor meals.…
Previewing A-Dog Day
It’s hard to know where to begin this week’s column. It’s rare I find myself at a loss for words. But in contemplating the magnitude of what will go down in Burlington this Saturday, August 30 — the first-ever DJ A-Dog Day in honor of the late Andy Williams — I confess the words are…
Book Review: Getting Schooled by Garret Keizer
At first glance, Northeast Kingdom writer Garret Keizer might appear to be a likelier advocate of “unschooling” than schooling. Eighteen years ago, he left a public school teaching career to homeschool his own young daughter. What followed was “one of the happiest years of my life,” he writes in his new memoir, Getting Schooled: The…
Aaron Stein Takes His Auto-Art to the Demolition Derby
Burlington artist Aaron Stein is ready to crush it. “It” being his 1995 Buick Century named Eunice Bloom, which he has been driving for the past six months. What could motivate someone to ruin, on purpose, a possession so large and valuable? For Stein, it’s just another day’s work. In his studio in the South…
Frank Miller’s Sin City: A Dame to Kill For
When Sin City hit theaters in 2005, audiences hadn’t seen anything like it. Movies based on comic books are common as weeds, but here was a movie that transplanted the entire aesthetic of Frank Miller’s neo-noir series to the screen, stranding the live actors in a digital world created in post-production. With a black-and-white palette…
Year-Round Indoor Farmers Market Opens in St. Albans
This past weekend, a new indoor market and tasting room called Local Fare opened its doors adjacent to Twiggs in downtown St. Albans. The opening did not go as planned. “It was probably one of the worst weekends of my life,” says owner Tom Murphy, “but it ended incredibly.” Now open each Saturday starting at…
A Conversation with Battle Trance Founder Travis Laplante
Palace of Wind, the debut LP from New York City’s Battle Trance, is unlike any record you’ll hear this year. For one thing, it’s almost certain to be the only album made by a band consisting solely of tenor saxophone players. Vermont native Travis Laplante, a member of the band Little Women and an accomplished…
Quick Lit: Taproot: Coming Home to Prairie Hill by Martha Leb Molnar
Whenever I read a press release for a new memoir by somebody from the Big City who decided to move to Vermont, I groan. It takes no more than a decade of residence to make one jaded and weary of the newcomers’ excited refrains: The landscape is an inspiration. The old-timers are lovable once you…
WTF: What’s the Story With the Mannequin Heads at the Triple L?
Hinesburg’s Triple L Mobile Home Park is an unassuming place. Most of its 60-some residences squat behind fences near the intersection of Richmond and Texas Hill roads; a cluster of trees further obscures the park from passing motorists. But if you look closely, an odd roadside attraction rears its head. Make that heads — several…
CCTA Uses Eminent Domain to Acquire Properties
Twice in recent months, the Chittenden County Transportation Authority has been thwarted in its attempts to buy property in Burlington that it claims is crucial to its long-term growth. An electrical contracting business that abuts CCTA’s headquarters in the South End has refused to sell. And while the downtown Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception was…
Local Dancers Take the Stage in Inaugural DanceFest Vermont!
Next weekend, modern-dance fans across central and northern Vermont are in for a treat. That’s when the first annual DanceFest Vermont!, a showcase and celebration of contemporary dance in the state, will present two evenings of original work by 10 Vermont choreographers. On the fest’s first evening, Friday, September 5, works by five of those…
Art Review: ‘Solé,’ Vermont Metro Gallery
Commonalities aren’t immediately obvious among the three artists included in “Solé,” the sprightly late-summer show installed in the BCA Center’s fourth-floor Vermont Metro Gallery. Susan Osgood paints brushy expanses and ribbony swirls in oil or gouache on both small- and larger-scale paper surfaces. Photographer Douglas Biklen walks his website’s talk of crafting images that are…
Champlain Valley Fair Revives Farm Feast
The Champlain Valley Fair in Essex is going back to its agricultural roots this Saturday, August 30. At 5:30 p.m., guests will descend on the Vermont State Building for the Vermont Farm Feast. According to marketing and communications director Chris Ashby, the family-style dinner revives a tradition that went the way of the dodo about…
Free Will Astrology (8/27/14)
ARIES (March 21-April 19): In the coming weeks it will be important for you to bestow blessings and disseminate gifts and dole out helpful feedback. Maybe you already do a pretty good job at all that, but I urge you to go even further. Through acts of will and surges of compassion, you can and…
Seasoned Traveler: Bunbury Eat
Without ChristianMingle.com, Vermonters might never have been introduced to Guyanese cook-up rice or pepperpot stew. Robert Whitcomb met his now-wife, Marcelle, née Bunbury, through the dating website two years ago. A little more than a year ago, they were married. In April, the couple began parking their food truck, Bunbury EAT, or BEAT VT for…
Vermont’s Growing Food Industry Seeks Trained Professionals
According to the state tax department, diners spent more than $910 million eating out in Vermont in 2013. The state has become a destination known for its locavore food, beer and spirits and a surprisingly sophisticated array of specialty products. A 2011 study commissioned by the Vermont Agency of Commerce & Community Development reported that…
