Sign up for the Notes on the Weekend newsletter by April 8 and you’ll be entered to win a swanky night at HONEYROSE Hotel and a spa day at Bota Bota from Seven Days.
Already signed up for the NOW newsletter? Learn more how to enter the contest.
I was warned,” Patrick “Pappy” Biondo said. Wearing a black T-shirt and round, gold-rimmed sunglasses, the slim, tattooed 35-year-old leaned against a shaded park bench outside the Kellogg-Hubbard Library in Montpelier in early June. Coolly dragging on a cigarette, he continued, “Some of the guys he used to play with, they told me, ‘Be careful…
Operating room nurse was ‘honestly one of the funniest people in the world’
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): At times in our lives, it’s impractical to be innocent and curious and blank and receptive. So many tasks require us to be knowledgeable and self-assured and forceful and in control. But according to my astrological analysis, the coming weeks will be a time when you will benefit from the former…
Dear Reverend, I’m in a loving polyamorous triad with my husband and his girlfriend. (Let’s call her Dani.) We do lots of stuff together: cook meals, go on day trips, garden, watch movies. It’s a really nice little family dynamic. They’re sexual with each other, but I’m not with either. I prefer to date outside…
This Friday, August 7, the City of Winooski will raise a Black Lives Matter flag in the traffic circle, and local businesses will sell “Winooski Strong” T-shirts to benefit organizations that fight for racial justice. Local DJ and community organizer Craig Mitchell, Sarah Johnson of Waterworks Food + Drink, Ali Nagle of the Monkey House…
Mask wearing and social distancing may not seem compatible with a festival. Just about every event that attracts loads of humans has been canceled this year, courtesy of the coronavirus. And yet, people, the 28th South End Art Hop is on! It might look a little different — OK, a lot different — but, according…
An upcoming socially distant community art exhibit in Burlington’s Old North End will encourage people to imagine a path forward that doesn’t revolve around economic growth. The movement is called “degrowth,” and DegrowthFest, as organizers call the art installation, invites Vermonters to participate by creating art inspired by a series of prompts. DegrowBTV, the organizing…
The Craigslist posting was unusual, to say the least: “Entire 1900s Doctor’s Office Contents,” read the title. The description detailed antique medicine bottles, a variety of bizarre metal tools and devices, logbooks, journals, and a 19th-century reclining chair for patients. “The doctor’s office closed in 1958, and it has literally been a time capsule since…
Zines have exploded in popularity over the past few months, and not just because “zine” rhymes deliciously with “quarantine.” The hashtag #quaranzine has been used nearly 6,500 times on Instagram, a hint of the outpouring of creativity during the homebound days of the pandemic. But the genesis of the May Day Mountain Chapbook Series predates…
Christopher Hawthorn writes movie scores for films that don’t exist. That’s one way of looking at the Burlington-based producer’s work, one with which he’d largely agree. Another is that he’s an experimental musician who creates breathtaking, evocative instrumental compositions, and any filmmaker would be lucky to have his work accompany their moving pictures. His latest…
In Universe of Two, Vermont novelist Stephen P. Kiernan fictionalizes real-life Charles Fisk, a young American mathematician ordered to work on the Manhattan Project — the research during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. Charlie Fish, as he’s called in the novel, is a sensitive lad set to graduate from Harvard University…
Market Research The article on the “outbreak” in Manchester was well written and balanced in many aspects [“False Insecurity,” July 22]. I had been concerned with many of those same issues through my limited research, and I’m glad it brought them up. I think the story was objective and, while not flattering, it was truthful,…
When COVID-19 began spreading through the U.S. in March, parents faced a responsibility many never imagined: educating their kids at home. Now, almost five months later — with the coronavirus still raging and a new school year on the horizon — some families are considering homeschooling in September. In July, the Vermont Agency of Education…
(GlennSource Records, digital) Recently, several music-related Seven Days stories and album reviews have had similar leads: Local band/musician finally finishes up long-procrastinated, drawn-out recording project amid pandemic. That recurring theme makes perfect sense, as people have been stuck inside and forced to take stock of their lives. Finishing up outstanding projects was inevitable. Clint Bierman…
The Midtown Motel in Burlington was once a welcoming landmark for weary travelers, but today it just looks lifeless. The entrance to the long, rectangular building at 230 Main Street is closed off by a collapsing metal fence. Weeds have sprouted around the building’s perimeter, growing tall enough to reach the first-floor windows. Vandals have…
(Self-released, digital) Shelburne’s Modern Nature started off, as many bands do, playing covers in local bars. In fact, their debut 2013 LP, Meet Modern Nature, was composed mostly of covers with a handful of original tunes mixed in. A love of angular pop rock was evident on those originals, and the band began forming its…
Our objective for this week’s Vermonting excursion was the Museum of Everyday Life in Glover. As usual, though, the journey — along Route 15 to Johnson and northward — involved multiple stops along the way. My traveling companion and I couldn’t leave Burlington until noon, so we planned on takeout from Friend’s Nepali Restaurant in…
Perhaps you’ve seen this tableau: a family of four meandering down Church Street. The couple is straight and middle-aged; their teenage son and daughter trail a few feet behind, dissociating into their iPhones. The mother and daughter wear masks over their noses and mouths; the menfolk are barefaced. Scenes like this one abound in the…
Cambridge Town Clerk and Treasurer Mark Schilling set up a public video stream last Friday of two election workers helping him count absentee ballots for the Vermont primary. “And we’re live!” Schilling declared just after 9 a.m., though the video had actually been live for a few minutes and had captured a worker munching on…
Few people knew exactly what had prompted the July 16 special meeting of the Vergennes City Council. Even some aldermen were only aware that their city manager, Daniel Hofman, had received a vague complaint about the local police department. Hofman prepared two documents for that night’s gathering. First, an agenda listing the lone discussion item:…
Kailey Stevens was living in a small mountain town in Morocco when she came down with what felt like a nasty bug in early March. The 24-year-old Barre native was just a few months into a 27-month Peace Corps placement in the North African country. But the global COVID-19 pandemic cut short her overseas adventure,…
When Ferene Paris Meyer hosted her first Feed Your Soul pop-up at August First Bakery on August 1, everything came full circle. The pop-up celebrated the launch of her new business, All Heart Inspirations, which combines storytelling and food to honor community and culture. Almost a year earlier, Paris Meyer, 38, had the conversation that…
Burritos were always in the plan for Burlington’s Taco Gordo, according to owner Charlie Sizemore. The sign above the eatery on North Winooski Avenue, which currently reads, “tacos cocktails beer,” originally included “burritos.” But when Sizemore and staff set up their kitchen, they couldn’t figure out how to fit burrito prep into their daily operations.…
Want to eat well while doing good? A “social justice bakery” called Starter delivers or ships out baked goods to those who donate to a selected organization. Right now, $25 to the Peace & Justice Center of Vermont will get you one sourdough loaf. A $100 donation earns three loaves, with options such as orange…
During a debate last month with his rivals for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, Gov. Phil Scott did something a little unusual. Given the chance to pose a question to any one of his primary election opponents, he instead chose to highlight the record of a potential general election foe. “We’re in the middle of a…
