Aug 9-15, 2017
Vermont Women Aviators Share Ups and Downs; The Mental Health Crisis Is Reshaping Vermont’s ERs; Artist Sabra Field Celebrated at Middlebury Retrospective
Cover Story
Vermont Women Pilots Are Soaring
Women make better pilots than men, or so contends Doug Smith. He ought to know. Smith, 68, is cofounder of the Vermont Flight Academy and program director of Vermont Technical College’s professional pilot technology program in Williston. He’s been flying since he was 7 years old and spent decades as an international airline pilot, flight…
Obituary: Russell Walters, III 1928-2017
Dr. Russell S. Walters, III, of St. Albans, VT died peacefully of heart disease on August 10, 2017, at the St. Albans Health and Rehabilitation Center. He was 88. He was a scientist, woodworker, husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and loving partner. Russell was born December 19, 1928, in Clinton, IA, to Russell and Irma (Scribner)…
Seriously: Ladies of the Flight; Doctor Hoot
In this episode host Bryan Parmelee enlists Seven Days’ sales and marketing coordinator Madie Ahrens to determine if woman really make better pilots and tries to help track down a missing parakeet. CREDITS Written, filmed and edited by: Bryan Parmelee Photography/artwork courtesy of: Matthew Thorsen, Oliver Parini, Shirley Chevalier, Robin Guillian, Terri Sherry, Spike Robison,…
The Parmelee Post: Rabid Raccoon Denounces Violence on Many Sides
Officials from the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department announced Saturday that the most recent raccoon to test positive for the rabies virus in the state was discovered while delivering a rather unusual message. “I condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of violence, on many sides,” said the clearly disoriented and drooling raccoon.…
Art Review: Patrick Dunfey Paintings, White River Gallery at BALE
Patrick Dunfey’s exhibit of new paintings conveys us from the interior of a primitive cabin across a swamp, then to the exterior of a rural camp and over to an isolated dock. His richly saturated palette invites viewers into a world that seems familiar and comforting, while also being eerie and somewhat foreboding. That old…
Letters to the Editor (8/9/17)
Go Before You Go The Adirondack Issue of Seven Days ran an article titled “Trail Mess” [July 26], but it only told part of the story. According to an August 2017 National Geographic article, “A Place to Go,” there are numerous health issues related to the increased use of hiking trails to defecate. Flies will…
Papers, Please: The Feds Reach Deeper Into Vermont
Picture this: You’re on a Greyhound bus that leaves Boston just before midnight. After a stop in Manchester, N.H., it arrives in White River Junction at 2 a.m. Next thing you know, two federal agents board the bus and demand to see everyone’s identification. That’s not a hypothetical. It happened on Tuesday, August 1. So…
Zambian Performer Joins Circus Smirkus
When Zambian circus artist Patrick Chikoloma does a back flip or strikes a pose on a Chinese pole in front of an enraptured audience, he isn’t just defying gravity. He’s also proving skeptics wrong. Chikoloma, 18, grew up in Chibolya Township, a slum in the Zambian capital, Lusaka. “If you come from Chibolya, no one…
Soundbites: Twin Peaks
Attention, music fans who dwell in the lower elevations of Vermont: You might want to consider taking a hike into the mountains this weekend for a pair of extra-special shows. Get ready to party like it’s 1996, because first up on our alpine double feature is jam-band royalty Strangefolk and their Garden of Eden Festival.…
A Funding Dispute Challenges the Winooski Valley Park District
Earlier this year, Williston town manager Rick McGuire gave the Winooski Valley Park District an ultimatum: Lower our annual fee or we’re out. Williston pays more than $30,000 a year to the regional organization that was founded three decades ago to create public parks in Vermont’s fastest-growing county. By its own calculation, Williston is getting…
Album Review: Jibba the Gent, ‘The Broccoli Tree’
(Self-released, CD, digital download) Springfield, Vt., rapper Jibba the Gent has been quietly paying dues for more than a decade. He’s worked with a lot of crews and groups — most notably Cause and Effect, his collaboration with MC/producer Vazy. He’s been a show promoter, a studio co-owner and a tireless champion for the Vermont…
Theater Review: ‘The Music Man,’ Weston Playhouse
Winner of the Tony Award for best musical when it opened on Broadway in 1957, The Music Man is a crowd pleaser that plumbs a range of musical idioms, from syncopation to patter to marching bands to barbershop quartets. Meredith Willson wrote music, lyrics and book, and developed the story with Franklin Lacey. It was…
Hackie: Murph
En route to the Sheraton, I said to the four folks in my taxi, “Let me take a wild guess — you guys are Brewfesters?” It was the weekend of the Vermont Brewers Festival, the annual whale of an event at Burlington’s Waterfront Park in which seemingly the whole town — including tourists — wanders…
Artist Sabra Field, a Life and Works in Retrospective
Tacked to the wall of Sabra Field’s South Royalton printmaking studio is a small note that reads, “An artist is her own fault.” The quote from John O’Hara (modified from “his” to “her”) was given to Field by Vermont sculptor Kate Pond. The curious excerpt is a small, if sideways, gesture to the self-possession and…
Rutland Grows Maker Movement With the Mint
Vermont’s newest maker space, The Mint in Rutland, has been active since January, but it’s hosting a grand-opening celebration this Saturday, August 12. The event coincides with the third annual Rutland Mini Maker Faire, also in the Mint’s quarters on Quality Lane. A maker space is a communal workshop in which people who, well, make…
Theater Review: ‘You Can’t Take It With You,’ Saint Michael’s Playhouse
It’s spring 1936 in New York City, and another optimistic day unfolds for patriarch Martin Vanderhof, his daughter Penelope, her husband, Paul Sycamore, and their grown children, Alice and Essie. Their extended family and friends fill a bustling household where Martin keeps pet snakes and Essie’s husband, Ed, plays the xylophone on a staircase landing.…
Sam and Somba Make an Astounding Debut on The South Cove
In late July, Burlington-based hip-hop duo Sam and Somba unceremoniously dropped a six-song EP called The South Cove. Since then, its individual tracks have racked up more than 10,000 plays on SoundCloud. That’s an impressive feat, given that they did little to promote the project other than share it with friends. They didn’t even submit…
Eat This Week, August 9 to 15, 2017: Plates With Benefits
Tour the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps farm fields with youthful corps members, then return to the historic West Monitor Barn for cocktails and snacks. During the dinner hour, sup on five courses from chef Mike Kennedy, beginning with seared sea scallops and fresh green salads crowned with poached Asian pears and local chèvre, roasted tomato…
Ask Athena: All Wet at First Intercourse
Dear Athena, After five months of hanging out and fooling around, we finally went the distance. Our first actual intercourse ended in me completely wet. I am very experienced, but this never happened before, and I am now confused. He said to me, “I think you just pissed on me.” But I’m not sure what…
Album Review: Ben Cosgrove, ‘Salt’
(Self-released, CD, digital download) Composer and multi-instrumentalist Ben Cosgrove is a bona fide nomad. While he technically doesn’t have a permanent address, he generally considers New England his home base. He grew up on the New Hampshire/Massachusetts border and spent various periods living and working in the Green Mountains. Also, he pays income tax to…
Policy Wonk Nicole Mace Lands in a Swirling Political Storm
When Nicole Mace was 3 years old, according to family lore, her mother found her at a neighbor’s house discussing the Iran hostage crisis with a friend’s parents. In eighth grade, she submitted a science fair project on how depletion of the ozone layer affected plant life. Her father questioned her assumptions about the issue’s…
Free Will Astrology (8/9/17)
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Each of us comes to know the truth in our own way, says astrologer Antero Alli. “For some it is wild and unfettered,” he writes. “For others it is like a cozy domesticated cat, while others find truth through their senses alone.” Whatever your usual style of knowing the truth might…
Emergency Response: Mental Health Crisis Reshapes the Hospital ER
The space is painted a soothing sage green. There’s a chalkboard on the wall and a video camera on the ceiling. The door is designed so that no one can barricade it from inside. Every detail, down to the placement of the paper towels, is purposeful. It’s one of five new rooms in the Rutland…
A Shelburne Parakeet Finds Adventure in the Queen City
A precocious parakeet escaped from its Shelburne enclosure last week and appears to have headed for the big city of Burlington. Dr. Who flew off August 2, according to owner Karin “Spike” Robinson. Two Oakledge Park patrons spotted the budgie scavenging for food last Friday and Saturday. Parakeets are observant, curious and gregarious, said Robinson.…
Movie Review: ‘Detroit’ Offers a Pointless Take on a Big Topic
Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal have become perhaps the most maddeningly frustrating and confounding filmmaking team working today. The director and screenwriter share a keen instinct for finding exactly the right story at exactly the right time. And then, just as dependably, they find a way to shoot themselves in the foot while telling it.…
New Salvation Farms Manager Devoted to Food Security
Bob Hatton has joined Salvation Farms, a nonprofit based in Morrisville that collects and distributes surplus farm crops, as the organization’s Vermont commodity operations manager. Hatton, 37, started last week at the facility in Winooski, where crops are washed, processed and packed for distribution to food banks and other sites in Vermont and beyond. In…
Movie Review: The Victorian Age Breeds Resistance in ‘Lady Macbeth’
A recent New York Times headline declared, “Lady Macbeth Kills the Bonnet Drama.” That’s hyperbole: If a single gritty costume drama could “kill” the genre of staid, comfy period pieces set in elegant English country houses, we might have stopped seeing them in theaters around the time of Persuasion (1995), the grimiest Jane Austen adaptation.…
History-Based Rise Up Bakery Receives Grants
After two years of renovation and construction, Barre’s forthcoming Rise Up Bakery has received more than $30,000 in grants from the USDA Rural Business Development fund and the Vermont Community Foundation Small and Inspiring Grant Program. Originally built by granite workers in 1913, the bakery once turned out thousands of loaves of bread each week.…
Burlington’s South End Gets New Art Park
Last fall, the tangle of trees in front of the building that houses Great Harvest Bread and Speaking Volumes on Burlington’s Pine Street was unceremoniously cleared from the grounds. A mess of torn roots, plastic liners and a few limp plants remained. But over the past few months, a brand-new mini park has sprung up…
New President Charts Path to Save NECI
When a real estate listing appeared for the building that occupies 118 Main and 7 School Streets in Montpelier, Vermont’s culinary community took note. The listing described a “landmark” investment where cash was flowing. With an asking price of $950,000, the property represented a “rare opportunity” to own a key piece of Vermont’s capital city.…
Mad River Taste Place Offers Vermont-Made Products
When it has its grand opening on Thursday, August 10, the Mad River Taste Place, at 89 Mad River Green in Waitsfield, will offer beer, butter, cheese, cider, bread, chocolate and other goods from more than 100 Vermont producers, many of them located in the Mad River Valley. The 3,600-square-foot Taste Place is the brainchild…
