Aug 6-12, 2014
Indie Cab Companies Fill the Void in Post-Benways Burlington; Vermont Expert Warns of Hidden Baby Abuse; An Architecture Tour of Vermont; Selfie Consciousness, On Toast; Offspring’s Noodles Talks Punk;
Cover Story
Cab Companies Jockey for Position in Post-Benways Burlington
When Burlington’s biggest taxi company, Benways, closed last month, city officials worried over the sudden loss of cabs and expressed hope that smaller companies would pick up the slack. They may get more than they bargained for. Several weeks ago, a car with a pink mustache adorning its grill, the signature of the Lyft ride-sharing…
Obituary: Constance L. (Connie) Brow
Constance L. (Connie) Brow, 70, a lifelong resident of this community, passed away at her home Thursday morning, August 7, 2014 surrounded by her family. Born on Liberty Street in Swanton on April 19, 1944 Connie was the daughter of Leon and Florabelle (St. Francis) Brow. She attended St. Anne’s Academy and was a member…
Obituary: Marion Carson Milne, 1935-2014, Washington
Marion Carson Milne, 79, died peacefully at her home in Washington, Vt., on August 11, 2014. The daughter of William and Augusta Carson, Marion was born the eleventh of 12 children in Brooklyn, N.Y., on January 2, 1935. Only seven of the twelve children lived beyond childhood. She married Donald Milne on March 15, 1957.…
Obituary: Elizabeth Masson Bianca
Elizabeth Masson Bianca died peacefully Saturday, Aug. 9, 2014. Born October 14, 1937 in St. Albans Vt, the daughter of the late Cynthia Hemenway Masson, and Andre A. Masson. Elizabeth was raised in Sheldon Vt. She was valedictorian of her class at St. Mary’s high school in St. Albans. She attended Trinity College in Burlington…
Obituary: Ruth “Jean” Dashnow, 1936-2014, Colchester/Winooski
Ruth “Jean” Dashnow, 77, a longtime resident of Colchester and formerly of Winooski died peacefully at the home of her son in Milton on August 8, 2014 following a short illness. Jean was born in Morristown, VT on August 14, 1936, the daughter of Paul L. and Elizabeth, “Liz” (Fisk) Stewart. She was married in…
Obituary: Mark S. Wiley
Mark S. Wiley, 61, a resident of this area for most of his lifetime passed away unexpectedly Tuesday afternoon, August 5, 2014 at the Northwestern Medical Center in St. Albans with his wife, Donna at his side. He was born in Rochester, NY, May 21, 1953 the son of Thomas R. Wiley II and Grace…
Driving Change in Burlington’s Taxi Scene: Profiles of Seven Cabbies
Hang around the taxi stand at Burlington International Airport and you’ll observe a slow-moving parade of modest sedans and minivans, each adorned with a simple appliqué logo. As their cars inch forward to collect just-arrived travelers, the cabbies chat, smoke and josh with each other, pausing only to dash off for a sandwich from the…
Guardians of the Galaxy
I tried to write this review of Guardians of the Galaxy in my Adult Voice, but my inner 13-year-old kept butting in. My Adult Voice hoped to convince you, the adult reader, that this summer comic-book extravaganza is better than other summer comic-book extravaganzas because its hero cares less about the fate of a potentially…
Book Review: This Is the Water by Yannick Murphy
This is you picking up the new novel from Reading, Vt., author Yannick Murphy. This is you noting that Publishers Weekly called This Is the Water “obscenely suspenseful.” This is you realizing that eight of the book’s first 10 paragraphs open with the words “this is.” This is you also realizing that the book is…
Galway Kinnell to Be Honored at the Statehouse
In 1989, when longtime Sheffield resident Galway Kinnell was appointed poet laureate of Vermont — or “state poet,” as he preferred — by then-governor Madeleine Kunin, he was the first to hold that title since Robert Frost. The position, which he had until 1993, is just one of the scads of awards, fellowships and appointments…
Letters to the Editor (8/06/14)
Other Options Regarding Judith Levine’s opinions regarding the “Hobby Lobby” decision by the Supreme Court [Poli Psy, July 16]: She states, “Some women don’t get the birth control to which they are entitled, and those women end up with a growing life they do not want inside their bodies,” concluding that this is the only…
In Its Fifth Year, Shredder Film Festival Focuses on the Future
Five years ago, in the attic of the White River Junction public library, around 25 cinephiles attended the first Shredder Film Festival. It was about as DIY as film events get: five films displayed on a bedsheet with a half-broken projector. The festival director’s mother served homemade cookies and a fruit plate. This week, in…
A Longtime Dairyman Thinks Big — and Goes Small
Go big or get out: That’s the conventional wisdom that has been driving the dairy industry in recent decades. Plenty of Vermont farmers have chosen the second option. As commodity milk prices have yo-yoed between record highs and crushing lows, mid-size dairies in particular have felt the squeeze. In the last decade alone, the total…
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Saturday at the Sunset Drive-In [SIV364]
8/2/14: For 66 years, Colchester’s Sunset Drive-In has been welcoming movie lovers young and old. In the 1950s, there were about 4,000 drive-ins across the country. Today, there are around 350 and three of those are in Vermont. The Fairlee Drive-In and the Randall Drive-In have both gone digital as the industry transitions to all…
Vermont Body Painter Sean Avram Competes on Reality TV
“Every moment of every day, there are TVs playing in my head,” says Hinesburg bodypaint artist Sean Avram. “I gotta look around to see which one I want to watch.” The genial Avram, 39, who co-owns HyperFocus Art with his wife, Jana, is referring to the ADHD diagnosis he received a few years ago. Even…
Get Down Tonight
“What was up with that freaking guy? I mean, why does he have to talk like that?” I had four Jersey girls in my cab, visiting Burlington for the annual Vermont Brewers Festival. The one sitting directly behind me was ranting about a guy she’d run into at a downtown bar. “He’s not black!” she…
Vermont Juice Company to Open in Burlington
Vermonter Hannah George used to be a dolphin scientist, but after several years working her “dream job” in Minnesota, she says, she felt she “was constantly being pulled toward something else.” That something was juicing, which has “been a huge part of my life for a while now,” George says. Having realized that she wanted…
Art Review: ‘Exposed,’ Helen Day Art Center
Every summer for the past 23 years, the “Exposed” outdoor sculpture exhibit has transformed the village of Stowe from a tourist town to … an artier tourist town. Whether visitors come specifically to see the artwork is impossible to determine, but Helen Day Art Center’s Rachel Moore — for the past four years the show’s…
A Pair of St. Johnsbury Artists Foster Creative Scene
It’s after hours on a recent afternoon at 190 Eastern Avenue in St. Johnsbury, and Kim Darling is corroding a plate of copper in ferric chloride. “You can feel this has been eaten away,” she tells a visitor, “and when we print, that area will be raised.” The printmaker and longtime teacher at St. Johnsbury…
Near North, On the Rafters
(Self-released, vinyl, digital download) Franklin County’s Near North formed from the discarded pieces of the now — defunct alt-country band Hell or High Water in, as the band puts it in their website bio, “a delicious haze of whiskey- breath and snowflakes.” Now a power trio, the band is set to release its second EP,…
Is Selling Raw Milk Viable in Rural Vermont?
On a sunny Saturday in mid-July, a would-be customer approaches a farmstand at the Barre Farmers Market. He pauses and peruses the table spread with jars of honey and pamphlets about another product: raw milk. “Is this a co-op or something?” he asks, looking up, milk pamphlet in hand. “I think I wanna get into…
Jody Albright, An Intimate Evening
(Self-released, CD, digital download) Jazz singer Jody Albright has been cooing and crooning on local nightclub stages since the 1980s, often as a member of local hepcats collective Pine Street Jazz and with her own backing group, the aptly named Fabulous Band. Surprisingly, her recently released CD, An Intimate Evening, is actually her first. Composed…
The Offspring’s Noodles Talks 20 Years of Smash
In 1994 the Offspring released their third album, Smash. That title turned out to be more accurate than anyone had anticipated. The album sold more than 16 million copies worldwide — a record for independent releases at the time. Chart-topping singles such as “Self Esteem” and “Come Out and Play” thrust the Southern California punk…
My Friend Keeps Trying to Pair Me Up and I’m Getting Frustrated
Dear Athena, My best friend keeps trying to pair me up with different guys, and I am kinda getting frustrated. I love her like a sister, but I do not think she understands that I don’t want a boyfriend. How can I tell her to stop without hurting her feelings? Sincerely Space wanted Dear Space…
Soundbites: Thoughts on the Precipice
In this space last week, I made the case that the Precipice was the single best showcase for local music Burlington has and urged you, dear readers, to attend. Much to my delight — and likely that of Radio Bean’s Lee Anderson and Joe Adler — it was, and many of you did. As also…
A Vermont Inventor Brings Us Selfie Toast
The piece of toast Galen Dively hands me is not his best work. The conventional white-bread toast is supposed to have my smiling face emblazoned on it. I stare at it for a minute, not entirely sure what I’m looking at. I rotate it a couple of times. I hold it closer to my eyes,…
Free Will Astrology (8/6/14)
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Don’t just be smart and articulate, Aries. Dare to be wildly wise and prone to unruly observations. Don’t merely be kind and well-behaved. Explore the mysteries of healing through benevolent mischief. Don’t buy into the all-too-serious trances. Break up the monotony with your unpredictable play and funny curiosity. Don’t simply go…
Docomomo New England Tours Vermont’s Modernist Architecture
This past weekend, a group of avid modern architecture fans gathered in Vermont for an unprecedented event: a tour of the state’s signature modern buildings. Enthusiasts of an era that lasted, at least in Vermont, from the 1940s through the ’70s, these are folks who refer casually to iconic architects “Lou Kahn” and “Ed Barnes”…
News Quirks (8/6/14)
Curses, Foiled Again An armed woman entered a store in Oklahoma City and started beating clerk Lein Nguyen, 70, with her gun, demanding money. Police Sgt. Jennifer Wardlow said Nguyen responded by throwing cases of beer at the suspect, who fled empty-handed. (Oklahoma City’s KOCO-TV) Security officers pursuing three shoplifters at a mall in Hanover,…
When Journalists Run for Office
Barton Chronicle publisher Chris Braithwaite knows a thing or two about becoming the story he’s supposed to be covering. In December 2011, the veteran Northeast Kingdom journalist was arrested for trespass atop Lowell Mountain as he documented a protest against Green Mountain Power’s Kingdom Community Wind project. (The charges were eventually dropped, and the power…
Theater Review: Violet, Skinner Barn
Musical theater is all about keeping emotion aloft. In Violet, plot and character are incidental to a show that pares the story down to the bond formed between a young woman struggling with shame and two good-hearted traveling soldiers. The theme is accepting yourself as you are, and the title character shares pure feelings as…
Boyhood
It’s not every day you see something you don’t see every day. The day you experience writer-director Richard Linklater’s remarkable new work, I guarantee, will be one you won’t soon forget. It’s perhaps the most artful and audacious experiment in the history of film. How many real people actually have secret projects? Linklater did for…
Cheryl Hanna’s Suicide Confirms Mental Health Problems in Vermont
In public, Cheryl Hanna was bright, poised and confident. On WCAX and other broadcast media, the Vermont Law School professor adeptly translated dense legal decisions. On campus, she was a beloved figure many regarded as an inspiring role model. But none of that immunized her from slipping into a severe depression in May. It was,…
Shaken-Baby Expert Warns of More Child Abuse
After 35 years as a Burlington pediatrician and a University of Vermont medical school professor, Dr. Joseph Hagan fields a lot of daily phone calls — from current and former students, fellow doctors, and other health care providers who seek his advice on difficult and complex cases. But when the call is from a state’s attorney…
Mtn Seasons Invents a Vermont-Style Bagel, With a CSA
It’s 7 a.m., and the kitchen at Brewster River Pub & Brewery in Jeffersonville is buzzing. It’s been active since 3 a.m. — and not because someone had an early-morning craving for the restaurant’s teriyaki duck wings or house-brewed, smoked-cherry porter. A quick look around the kitchen clarifies matters: More than 400 bagels line practically…
Food Start-Ups Bring Fresh Flavors to Barre
Barre as dining destination? That seemed unlikely until 2012, when Cornerstone Pub & Kitchen began changing the city’s reputation as a culinary desert. Now, in recent months, a new wave of tasty businesses have followed Cornerstone’s lead and set up shop in the Granite City. On Main Street, Derby native Dustin Smith opened Morse Block…
Mimmo’s Pizzeria Owner Opens St. Albans Bakery
On May 31, the McCarthy family signed over their nearly 6-year-old Cosmic Bakery & Café to fellow St. Albans businessman Domenico “Mimmo” Spano. The owner of Mimmo’s Pizzeria & Restaurant, with branches in St. Albans and Essex, and his wife, Kathy, will open Round Table Bakery & Café; in the Cosmic space later this month.…
