Finally, Nicholas Languerand was in the thick of it. He had gone to Washington, D.C., to watch president Donald Trump stand on a podium near the White House and insist that the election was a fraud. He had followed as thousands marched to the U.S. Capitol and through security barriers. He’d looked on, for hours,…
Energizing music blasted out of my computer speakers as I ran hot water over a dingy scrub brush. I was three years sober, and I was cleaning my apartment from top to bottom. After spending several hours sweeping dust out of narrow nooks and crannies, I had moved on to the herculean task of scouring…
Generations of students from Vermont, Missouri and Florida have lost a teacher, coach, mentor, advocate and friend
Higher Ground announced on Friday that the Courtney Barnett shows scheduled for February 10 and 11 at the Higher Ground Ballroom have been postponed after the Australian indie rocker contracted COVID-19. “I am so upset to tell you that an hour ago I tested positive to COVID-19,” Barnett said in a press release. “I’m doing…
95-year-old made the world a kinder place through faith and service to others
The Flynn announced on Thursday that artist, musician and activist Michael Mwenso will guest curate this year’s Burlington Discover Jazz Festival. Mwenso previously played the 2016 and 2017 editions of the festival with his jazz, blues and African roots music ensemble, Mwenso & the Shakes. Along with co-founder Jono Gasparro, Mwenso also leads Electric Root,…
Devoted husband and father was an original beatnik, a jazz aficionado and an early software designer
Scientist, professor, and environmental and community activist was an inspiration to many young people
Calais food author Rowan Jacobsen recently published an acclaimed book on truffle hunting. In a December 21 interview with Seven Days, he spoke of popular “myths” about the pursuit — such as “the truffle-seeking pig, which has not existed for about a century,” Melissa Pasanen wrote. Seems dogs are the truffle hunters of choice these…
new in theaters FLEE: Animation depicts the harrowing story of a Danish immigrant from Afghanistan as he unveils his history to his fiancé in this documentary from Jonas Poher Rasmussen, the recipient of a slew of critics’ awards. (89 min, PG-13. Savoy) JACKASS FOREVER: Johnny Knoxville, cast members from his erstwhile MTV show and a…
AQUARIUS(Jan. 20-Feb. 18) “All things are inventions of holiness,” wrote poet Mary Oliver. “Some more rascally than others.” I agree. And I’ll add that in the coming weeks, holiness is likely to be especially rascally as it crafts its inventions in your vicinity. Here are the shades of my meaning for the word “rascally”: unruly,…
Letter writing may be a lost art, but apparently no one informed the U.S. prison population. Seven Days gets snail mail from incarcerated people all over the country. Most are multipage, handwritten cries for help, alleging injustice, mistreatment and conspiracies. Some offer original short stories and poems. Either way, reading the contents of an envelope…
Twenty-five years ago, Sally Abruzzi was living in a Philadelphia suburb when a city reappraisal valued her home at more than she thought it was worth. The calculations seemed off: Comparable homes had lower assessments, despite having more amenities. “I just pointed out things they hadn’t taken into account,” Abruzzi said. The city reduced her…
Celebrate the Human Form We all have our own beliefs, and those beliefs are shaped by each of our individual experiences over our lifetime. In a recent letter to the editor [Feedback: “Wrong Spot for a Lingerie Ad,” January 26], it was one reader’s belief that the visual image of a woman in lingerie accompanying…
Nine-year-old Maurice loves swimming, horseback riding and playing Connect 4. He’s fiercely independent but affectionate and snuggly, too. He “lights up like the sun” when he figures out a new skill, according to his mother, Lauren. Maurice also has multiple disabilities — including cerebral palsy, epilepsy and blindness — that necessitate frequent doctor’s appointments, occupational…
Dear Reverend, My ex has been texting me every other day for several months, pleading, cajoling and shaming me for ending the relationship “cold turkey.” She claims that I am cruel not to talk to her, that my silence is triggering her abandonment issues and that only my attention can free her from her misery.…
Burlington voters will decide this Town Meeting Day whether the city should retain its ability to regulate what some call “the world’s oldest profession” — prostitution. An affirmative vote on March 1 would repeal a long-forgotten section of the city charter that allows Burlington “to restrain and suppress houses of ill fame” and “to punish…
Listening to music on commercial FM radio can feel like Groundhog Day all year round. And it’s not just Sonny and Cher’s “I Got You Babe” that calls to mind Bill Murray living the same day over and over. On Vermont’s classic rock stations, songs such as the Rolling Stones’ “Start Me Up,” Heart’s “Crazy…
It’s been a long and winding decade for Anaïs Mitchell. The singer-songwriter and Vermont native went from playing folk music in coffeehouses to winning Grammys and Tony Awards for her acclaimed Broadway production, Hadestown. In that time, she and her husband, Noah Hahn (Atom & the Orbits), relocated to New York City and started a…
(Self-released, digital) “I held you longer than I should,” Eva Rose King sings on “Imagined Dove,” the opening track of her new record, On the Other Side. Devastated acceptance plays out in her voice as she comes to realize that she has expected too much of a lover. “Nudging you upwards as a foil to…
(Self-released, digital) Burlington’s Staygold and the Ponyboys describe their sound as “genre-fluid.” Considering how many bands like to lean on the “eclectic” tag, it’s OK to be skeptical. When pressed, however, the duo calls its strange blend of lo-fi, brooding music “space country” — a pretty apt moniker for its five-song, self-titled EP. Staygold and…
Mokuhanga isn’t a common word, at least not outside of Japan. But for the increasing number of artists who practice it, mokuhanga is practically a cult — in a good way. An extraordinary exhibition at the Southern Vermont Art Center in Manchester, “The World Between the Block and the Paper,” shows why. And as that…
On Saturday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) convened a group of people who are familiar with the existential issues facing rural fire departments: fire chiefs and first responders. He also hosted U.S. Fire Administrator Lori Moore-Merrell. And Miss Vermont. Uh, come again? That’s right: Danielle Morse, 23, is a volunteer firefighter in Whiting and, for a…
A common refrain from first-time customers of Middlebury’s Monroe Street Books is “I should have stopped by years ago,” according to employee Timm Williams. The used book emporium is the definition of a hidden gem, albeit one hidden in plain sight. The unassuming, barn-red warehouse sits on Route 7 about two miles north of Middlebury.…
The seed that grew into the award-winning documentary Storm Lake was planted in April 2017, the day New York cinematographer Jerry Risius saw headlines announcing that a small northern Iowa newspaper had won a Pulitzer Prize. A northern Iowan himself, Risius said the news triggered what he called “my Linda Blair moment, which is my…
Mekiah Smith and two college friends hung out on the Cabot Common in Smith’s hometown on a recent single-digit Saturday. If it seemed too cold to be chitchatting outside, it probably was. But Smith and her friends had an advantage. The students at Craftsbury’s Sterling College were moving while they talked, skating in arcs and circles…
Humans have been going downhill on their rear ends since, well, forever. On snow, the classic conveyance is the sled, triggering for many an image of the iconic Flexible Flyer. Yet the precursors of this seat-of-the-pants pastime have developed over many years, from rudimentary to radical. “The History of Sledding” is the latest exhibition at…
Award-winning engineer and builder was behind several Burlington landmarks
There was never a dull moment for this mother of eight, who hosted many large gatherings in her beautiful, busy home
Last week, I ordered a lobster roll for delivery from a restaurant that hasn’t been open since October 2. Unsurprisingly, it never arrived. I wasn’t expecting it to. (And at $59.21 with the delivery fee, service fee, sales tax and tip, the no-show was probably for the best.) But nothing on Grubhub, the national food…
The week before Christmas, the Lodge at Spruce Peak, located at Stowe Mountain Resort, reopened its two main restaurants with new names, menus and décor after a $6 million renovation. The grand Alpine Hall boasts soaring ceilings, a sweeping bar and menu offerings from a $24 Vermont cheese plate to a $175 32-ounce, dry-aged rib…
A new restaurant will spring up this spring at the former Butch + Babe’s space at 258 North Winooski Avenue in Burlington. May Day will “celebrate all of our farmers, purveyors, orchards, winemakers and the lush bounty Vermont offers,” co-owner and chef Mojo Hancy-Davis said. Co-owner and general manager Matthew Peterson has a tradition of…
Adventure Time Thursday 3 In 2015, Perry Cohen founded the Venture Out Project, a nonprofit that creates community among queer and trans youths and adults through hiking, camping and other wilderness adventures. As part of the Green Mountain Club’s James P. Taylor Outdoor Adventure Speaker Series, Cohen shares his story with online listeners. It’s All…
Six Vermont arts organizations received a total of $500,000 in federal funds through the American Rescue Plan Act. The awards were announced Thursday by the National Endowment for the Arts, which granted the money. In total, the NEA awarded $57 million to 567 arts organizations in every state, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and…
Those hoping to bust out their sequins, feather boas and six-inch stilettos for Winter Is a Drag Ball will have to wait a few months. Originally scheduled for Saturday, February 12, the annual event at South Burlington nightclub Higher Ground has been postponed until Saturday, May 14. “Everything’s just too much up in the air…
Jason Chin was asked by his publisher to make a Zoom presentation last weekend at the American Library Association conference. A children’s book artist and author who lives in South Burlington, Chin was to present his next book to conference attendees. But members of the library association actually had something else in mind for Chin.…
