Feb 17-23, 2016
Should Vermont Sideline Its ‘Side’ Judges?; Exploring a Link Between Algae and ALS; A Conflict in the Eat More Kale Story
Cover Story
Preside Show: An Ugly Estate Case Spotlights a ‘Side’ Judge
Paul Kane filed a motion to try to avoid testifying in Windsor County Probate Court, but a judge ordered him to talk. As soon as he took the witness stand last November, it was obvious why he’d been reluctant. For 90 minutes, an attorney grilled Kane about whether he’d bilked an elderly woman with Alzheimer’s…
A Runner’s Yoga Marathon: Day 1
Seven years ago, my college roommates dragged me to my first yoga class — a Bikram session in the suburbs of Los Angeles. Although the sweltering room held dozens of people, the tiny, severe instructor spent most of the class looming over my mat, readjusting me as I clumsily labored through the routine. I didn’t…
Obituary: Terry I. Elwood, 1933-2016, Swanton
Terry I. Elwood, 82, passed away Thursday, February 4, 2016 at Birchwood Nursing Home in Burlington, Vermont after a short illness. She was born on March 1, 1933 in St. Albans, Vermont to the late Mabel (Hoague-Ashline) Trombley of St. Albans, Vermont and the late Arthur Ashline also of St. Albans, Vermont. She was married…
Obituary: Elizabeth Roman, 1941-2016, Williamstown
Elizabeth Roman, one of Vermont’s foremost potters whose work was highly regarded for the grace and delicacy of its shapes and the striking effects she achieved with unglazed firings, died peacefully February 14 at her home in Williamstown, Vt. The cause of death was complications from the treatment of lung cancer. She was 74 years…
Talking Seeds With High Mowing’s Tom Stearns
Check the calendar: It’s late February. Which is almost March, which is just a quick month away from April showers, then May flowers. So if last week’s deep freeze made you feel like winter would never end, stay strong — spring is coming. Soon. For farmers and home gardeners, winter’s end begins with the arrival…
What Do Glaciers Sound Like?
Museums are generally known for collecting and exhibiting objects we can see, if not always touch. Shelburne Museum is no exception. So it may surprise visitors to “32 Degrees: The Art of Winter” that one of the most evocative works in the show can’t be seen at all — just heard. As soon as you…
UVM and Middlebury Collaborate on ‘Solo’ Performances
Christal Brown’s bare feet are more articulate than most people’s faces. She flies across the stage, filling the space with geometric pathways. Her floating extensions match the soaring sounds from an enormous, ceiling-high Fisk organ, commandeered by David Neiweem, which in turn duels with the Klop portable organ played by student Adam Sullivan. At the…
Chittenden County’s Food Shelf Goes Mobile
Getting to the food bank to pick up food during business hours can be hard. Enter the Good Food Trailer, a new program of the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf that aims to provide fresh food to low-income families. The trailer will make stops at community agencies that help such families, such as the Champlain Housing…
Container Murals Promote New Recycling Law
If you’ve ever used one of Chittenden County’s seven recycling drop-off centers, you’ve seen one of the Chittenden Solid Waste District’s massive recycling containers. And you quite likely forgot about it as soon as the hulking metal mass slipped from your sight. That’s about to change. The Art of Recycling Mural Project, funded by Dealer.com,…
Art Review: ‘In a Field With No Bounds,’ New City Galerie
“In a Field With No Bounds,” the current exhibit at New City Galerie in Burlington, defies some boundaries of its own. It starts in the stairwell leading up to the second-floor gallery with a photograph titled “Above & Beyond.” The nighttime shot, taken in 1982, captures Meg Walker’s neon light and steel sculpture “Queen City…
Free Will Astrology (2/17/16)
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): For a limited time only, 153 is your lucky number. Mauve and olive are your colors of destiny, the platypus is your power animal, and torn burlap mended with silk thread is your magic texture. I realize that all of this may sound odd, but it’s the straight-up truth. The nature…
Vermont Preservation Society Gets Pickled
Fans of the fermented and the funky-fresh should know that there’s a new food meet-up in town. Last Wednesday, February 10, the Vermont Preservation Society hosted its inaugural potluck and food swap at Incubator, the pop-up culinary event space located in Misery Loves Co.’s former Bakeshop in downtown Winooski. About a dozen local food enthusiasts…
An Artful Take on Winter at Shelburne Museum
Curating an exhibition around something as broad as a season is not an easy task. It’s one thing to categorize, but it’s much harder to weave together many threads with a common theme into a harmonious whole, and to succeed in making the familiar exciting without becoming didactic. Shelburne Museum curator Carolyn Bauer approaches such…
My Lover Called Me By His Ex’s Name During Sex
Dear Athena, The other night my lover called me by a different name while we were having sex. I ignored it once because I thought maybe I had misheard, but then I realized when he said it again that it was not my imagination. It was his ex-boyfriend’s name. When we talked about it, he…
Vermont’s Clinton Fans Tread Carefully in Sanders Country
Billi Gosh, a longtime Democratic National Committee member who lives in Brookfield, traveled to New Hampshire this month to knock on doors for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. But with two weeks remaining before Vermont’s March 1 primary, Gosh doesn’t expect to do the same in her own state. “I can’t get people to put…
![A Vietnamese Family Polishes the American Dream, Nail by Nail [SIV432]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sevendaysvt.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/episode432.webp?resize=1200%2C900&ssl=1)
A Vietnamese Family Polishes the American Dream, Nail by Nail [SIV432]
#Content #storyBody { font-family: arial,sans-serif !important; } 2/7/16: Jen Trần has owned Allure Salon in South Burlington for a decade. She works with her daughter Ly and her sister Hannah and they have built a following of regulars who visit often to get their nails done. In 2000, Jen immigrated to Vermont from Vietnam with…
Vermont-Bhutanese Musicians Help Preserve Nepali Culture
Puru Niroula considers himself a professional when it comes to playing the tabla — a pair of hand drums of different sizes and timbres. His history with the instrument began after he watched his brother play, then started practicing the motions on tables and walls. When he was living in the Goldhap refugee camp in…
Letters to the Editor (2/17/16)
Flout Versus Flaunt It was kind of distressing that Terri Hallenbeck didn’t know the difference between “flout” and “flaunt” in her description of Sen. David Zuckerman’s fundraising efforts for his campaign for lieutenant governor [Fair Game, February 3]. He apparently flouted Vermont’s laws pertaining to public financing. Making it worse was that your copy editor,…
WTF: Why Has the Construction Project on Shelburne Road Stalled?
Roughly one year ago, work began on a worse-for-the-wear boarding house on the corner of Shelburne Road and Lyman Avenue. Then, for no apparent reason, construction stopped. To this day, the place remains a patchwork of plywood and white and cranberry-red insulation. Neighbors and commuters along the busy route have grown curious: What’s the hold…
All Aboard: Three More Eye Vermont’s Gubernatorial Race
The stage was a little more crowded than expected at a recent union gathering in Barre. Joining Vermont’s four declared gubernatorial candidates at the AFL-CIO’s annual political conference was a familiar character billed on the program as a “possible candidate for governor.” His name: Former ambassador and state senator Peter Galbraith. “I’m exploring a bid…
New Hampshire Neurologist Studies Possible Algae-ALS Link
When Lake Champlain is freezing over, its stinking pea-green algae blooms seem like a distant memory. But the potential health threat of cyanobacteria, which produce many toxins, is an all-season concern for scientists. In particular, a Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center neurologist noticed that a cluster of his ALS patients lived near Mascoma Lake in New Hampshire,…
The Lady in the Van
I’ve tried to imagine who the makers of this odd little movie thought their American target audience would be. I doubt it was screenwriter Alan Bennett’s fan base. The British playwright is celebrated as hell in his native land but is not exactly a household name here. He wrote the memoir that became the play…
Bernie & Howard
Originally published January 14, 1998. It never made any of the top-10 lists for 1997, but Ol’ Bernardo’s emergence on Capitol Hill as an effective and outspoken coalition builder was the biggest unheralded political story of ’97. On Sunday, Bernie Sanders sat at the right hand of Jesse Jackson on CNN’s “Both Sides.” Monday evening…
Zoolander 2
Zoolander 2 is an absurdist pageant of fatuity, 102 minutes of self-aware GIFs waiting to happen. And it’s pretty damn funny. The original Zoolander — also directed by and starring Ben Stiller — was released a mere fortnight after September 11, 2001: unfortunate timing for a satire about a rivalry between two preening male models.…
S.I.N.siZZle, Living in Sin
(Green Mountain Music Group, CD, digital download) Over the past decade, one of Vermont’s most consistent rap talents has been Ghana-born, Bronx-raised S.I.N.siZZle, also known around Burlington as Edwin Owusu. For years, he’s been a standout collaborator and an engaging stage presence. But 2015 saw him step up as a prolific show promoter through his…
Four More Local Albums 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.…
Sarah Munro and Mark LeGrand, Tigers Above and Tigers Below
(Self-released, CD, digital download) In a 2011 interview with Seven Days, Montpelier-based songwriter Mark LeGrand summed up his decision to quit drinking. “It’s a part of your brain that takes over,” he said, explaining addiction. “Eventually you have to figure out who is really running the show.” LeGrand is inarguably among central Vermont’s foremost authorities…
Episcopal Diocese Makes Plans to Preserve Burlington’s Rock Point
Religious organizations own roughly 6,000 acres of land in Vermont, which ranks among the most secular states in the nation. But those churches are losing ground. Six years ago, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington sold 33 acres of lakefront real estate to Burlington College to settle multiple priest-abuse lawsuits. The school, also cash-strapped, then…
Soundbites: Spice on Snow Fest Preview; New EP From Tiffany Pfeiffer
This just in: It’s really cold outside. Or at least it’s supposed to be. Last weekend saw near-record cold in our little part of the world. But by the time this paper hits the streets, temps are expected to be well above normal yet again. I’m no Tom Messner, but that’s some seriously bipolar weather,…
A New Debate Over an ‘Eat More Kale’ Documentary
Bo Muller-Moore’s story is the kind that crusading documentary filmmakers love. The Montpelier T-shirt maker has been in the national spotlight since 2011, when he began speaking publicly about his trademark conflict with fast-food chain Chick-fil-A. Muller-Moore’s handmade T-shirts say “Eat More Kale”; the chain’s slogan is “Eat mor chikin.” Can a company own the…
Architects Go Arctic: Ice Shanties at Shelburne Museum
Setting aside last weekend’s subzero temperatures, there’s some irony in exhibiting ice-fishing shanties during one of Vermont’s warmest winters. Still, the outdoor show “Arctictecture” at the Shelburne Museum promises fun. Assistant curator Carolyn Bauer, a Wisconsin native whose father ice fishes, asked five local architecture firms to design and build their own versions of the…
Obituary: Salvatore Parisi III, 1982-2015, Morrisville
This week, on his birthday, we celebrate our friend Sam. The tall, dark, and handsome Salvatore Parisi III passed away on November 12, 2015, leaving behind a loving family, a devoted wife, and an army of friends and animals who miss him daily. Sam inspired us with his intellect, wit, honesty, and dependability. He was…
Eyes on the Pies at Pizzeria Verità
At many restaurants, I enjoy simply being served. At others, I want to walk into the kitchen and learn what the cooks are doing so I can do it myself. Pizzeria Verità falls into the latter category. On my first visit to the popular downtown Burlington restaurant, I sat at the back counter and watched…
Downtown Bluebird Coffee Stop to Close in Spring
The Bluebird Coffee Stop at the corner of College and Church streets will not renew its contract with the Church Street Marketplace. “We have decided not to renew as we continue to focus our energy at Bluebird Barbecue on Riverside Avenue in Burlington,” said owner Sue Bette in an email to Seven Days. This represents…
