Feb 27 – Mar 5, 2019
A Cop-Turned-Educator’s Assault Case: a Study in Racial Conflict; Comedian Conor Lastowka’s Zany Sci-Fi Novel Goes Audible; Vermont Farmers Learn to Adapt to Climate Change
Cover Story
Strife Lesson: Has a Cop-Turned-Educator’s Assault Case Taught Him Anything?
Rather than teach from a textbook, Dave Scibek looked for real-life examples to share with his criminal justice class at the Burlington Technical Center. On November 29, 2017, he found one. He started the lesson by describing a training he’d recently attended on active shooter situations. He used it to introduce the concept of the…
Obituary: Evelyn Parker, 1925-2019
Evelyn Parker, 93, of Pillsbury Manor South in South Burlington and formerly of Burlington and Berlin, Vt., died with her family at her side at her home on Sunday, February 24, 2019. Evelyn was born on May 7, 1925, in Worcester, Mass., the daughter of Jacob and Lydia (Alho) Luoma. When she was 5, the…
Memoriam: Eric H. Charbonneau
1/6/63-3/10/15 On the Anniversary of the Day You Went Away Today’s the anniversary Of the day that I lost you, And for a time it felt as though My life had ended too. But loss has taught me many things And now I face each day, With hope and happy memories To help me with…
Seriously: Bern Returns
In this episode, Bryan interviews America’s most popular Senator. Starring Tim Bridge as Sen. Bernie Sanders. CREDITS Written by: Bryan Parmelee, Tim Bridge and Conor Lastowka Filmed and edited by: Bryan Parmelee Artwork/photography by: AP/Craig Ruttle, Luke Eastman, Jeb Wallace-Brodeur, Luke Awtry, Bryan Parmelee, Dreamstime Logo/art direction by: Don Eggert Audio by: Bryan Parmelee Related…
Slideshow: The Vermont Flower Show 2019
Hundreds of spring bulbs — along with flowering trees and shrubs — sprouted at the Champlain Valley Exposition during the 19th Vermont Flower Show. From Friday, March 1, through Sunday, March 3, more than 10,000 visitors experienced the tantalizing colors and smells of early spring. The Vermont Nursery and Landscape Association/GreenWorks produces the show every…
Obituary: Judy Kelly
Judy Belle Jewell Saurman Kelly passed away on February 11, 2019, with her husband, Bill Kelly; son David Saurman; and daughter Ann Simon at her side. She was telling stories and entertaining those around her like she loved to do. Her early days in Detroit, Mich., shaped her love of radio, news and broadcast television.…
Work: Entrepreneur Pete Kelley Launches NoSwear Headwear
Name: Pete Kelley Town: Berlin Job: Serial entrepreneur and small-business owner When Pete Kelley retires from the Berlin Selectboard next month after a seven-year run, he’ll leave behind an organization that he didn’t own or start from scratch. That hasn’t been his usual MO. Kelley is a serial entrepreneur and small-business owner. Like many Vermonters,…
A Guided Tour Through Guster’s New Album, ‘Look Alive’
“If you still want to record a song two years after you wrote it, it’s probably gonna hold up on a record,” says Ryan Miller, front person and primary songwriter of the rock band Guster. He’s referring to the lengthy, piecemeal process of putting together Look Alive, his band’s eighth and latest studio album. Originally…
Read It and Eat: Erin K. McCormick’s ‘Classic Diners of Vermont’
An open-faced hot turkey sandwich with mashed potatoes and a vegetable; steak and eggs with home fries and toast; a maple creemee; a chili burger; blueberry pancakes; a BLT with chips and a pickle. What do all these meals have in common? You can eat them at a Vermont diner, according to the 2018 book…
Woke Bernie: Sanders’ Reinvention is a Mixed Bag
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) took his newly launched presidential campaign to prime time cable news on Monday night in a Washington, D.C., town hall hosted by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. The event more closely resembled a campaign rally than a serious interview. The audience skewed young and diverse, and most were clearly Sanders fans. Their questions…
A Program at Spectrum Helps Multicultural Youth Thrive
Rabin Dahal knows what it’s like to have to grow up fast. When he and his family moved from a refugee camp in Nepal to Rochester, N.Y., in 2008, his older brother became the head of the household at age 16. Dahal was just 9. He watched his brother learn how to file taxes, translate…
Movie Review: ‘Arctic’ Finds Compelling One-Man Drama in a Struggle to Survive
If you were following the career of Brazilian YouTube star Joe Penna (aka #MysteryGuitarMan) up to a year ago, you probably didn’t guess that for his next trick he’d unveil a feature debut as impressive as Arctic. The video artist specialized in zany shorts featuring innovative concepts. Nothing he’d done, though — not even the…
WTF: Why Can’t Vermonters Be Composted When They Die?
Vermont is still weeks away from the official start of spring and even further from the growing season. But there’s one “crop” that Vermonters plant every spring without fail, as soon as the ground thaws: human remains. In 2016, 5,908 people died in the Green Mountain State, according to statistics from the Vermont Department of…
Letters to the Editor (2/27/19)
‘Hooked’ Matters Kate O’Neill’s “Hooked” [February 20] is superb writing on a horrific, widespread problem — but also a personal one with the tragic death of the author’s sister. Living in Vermont, I knew we had an opioid problem, but reading someone’s experience and sharing through words the struggles from prison to treatments and rehabs…
Eat This Week, February 27 to March 5, 2019: Fat Sunday
For the latest installment of his intermittent weekend residency at Four Quarters Brewing, Brian Stefan of Southern Smoke BBQ brings the Big Easy to the Onion City — just in time for Mardi Gras. On Sunday, March 3, brewery visitors can warm their cold Yankee hearts with chicken gumbo, pork grillades with crawfish gravy, and…
Movie Review: A Scrappy Sparring Clan Wins Over the Audience in ‘Fighting With My Family’
Early in this entertaining biopic about an English wrestling clan, Saraya Knight (Florence Pugh) encounters a couple of girls her age who turn up their noses at her passion. Pro wrestling? they wonder aloud. What sort of halfway intelligent person enjoys that? The very existence of this movie — financed by World Wrestling Entertainment —…
Album Review: Blackmer, ‘Rinse.Repeat’
(Self-released, digital download) Sam DuPont, a talented and respected Vermont musician, explores new musical ground on his recent release, Rinse.Repeat. DuPont makes it clear that the seven-song EP is not business as usual, musically speaking — which in this case means anything too similar to his popular work with brother Zack as the DuPont Brothers.…
Town Meeting Medley: Climate Change, Schools and Poundkeepers
As always, Vermonters will use Town Meeting Day to debate new fire trucks, school budgets and selectboard races. But for Peacham road foreman Jeremy Withers, March 5 may yield free cups of coffee. Tom Galinat, Peacham’s clerk and treasurer, wanted to add “a little zest” to the oft-dry town report, so he used it to…
Free Will Astrology (2/27/19)
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Until the 16th century in much of Europe and the 18th century in Britain, the New Year was celebrated in March. That made sense, given the fact that the weather was growing noticeably warmer and it was time to plant the crops again. In my astrological opinion, the month of March…
‘The Most Interesting Man in the World’ to Regale Vermonters With Hollywood Tales
Over several decades, Jonathan Goldsmith went from California garbage man to the Most Interesting Man in the World. Now the 80-year-old actor and Manchester resident will regale Vermonters with his Hollywood tales on the evening of Sunday, March 3, at the College of St. Joseph’s Tuttle Hall Theater in Rutland. Goldsmith spent six months driving…
Art Review: ‘Rutland: Real and Imagined,’ Alley Gallery in Rutland
Place is a regularly occurring theme in 21st-century art. Perhaps it’s because we’ve become a nation of transients, a peripatetic population. The world has become more nomadic as new forms of communication and transportation eclipse distances and our jobs crisscross continents and oceans. Place is linked to home and to origins, which may be what…
Pole Vaults and Aliens: Conor Lastowka’s Sci-Fi Novel Goes Audio
Conor Lastowka knows what you think about self-published books. “The Spiritualized guy did this whole album in his bedroom, and people are like, ‘It sounds amazing!'” says the South Burlington-based comedian and writer. He’s referring to Spiritualized auteur Jason Pierce’s 2018 album And Nothing Hurt, which was widely lauded for being self-recorded. “Whereas a self-published…
In St. Albans, Artist in Residence Gallery Aims to Buy Its Home
A classic thermometer, hand-drawn on a tall rectangle of white cardboard, is placed prominently near the front door of the Artist in Residence Gallery in St. Albans. Nearby sits a bucket filled with small artworks, handmade greeting cards and a tiny bottle of maple syrup: a raffle prize. On the wall behind the counter, columns…
Soundbites: Andy Kershaw’s Deli Edits and Reliving 2000s Indie Music
Cold Cuts Things are getting a little bit cooler over at Burlington’s already chic-AF Deli 126. Though the relatively new speakeasy and sandwich shop is primarily known as a jazz haven, the club is dipping its toe into the late-night dance-party scene. Beginning on Saturday, March 2, a new monthly night called Deli Edits takes…
Marin Horikawa Launches Safe and Sound Gallery in Burlington
The website of Burlington-based design firm Moderate Breeze touts hip graphics for Burton Snowboards and a print piece for “The Art of a Political Revolution,” a 2016 touring exhibition of artists and musicians supporting then (and now) presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Moderate Breeze principal Marin Horikawa once worked as a creative director at…
Burlington’s Taco Gordo Hosts Pop-Up Sunday Dinners
Shrimp toast at the taco shop? No, Burlington’s Taco Gordo hasn’t swapped its tortillas and margs for Thai-style chicken or sausage skewers. But on Sunday, the Old North End taqueria lent its kitchen to Carte Blanche VT mobile chefs Chris Donnelly and Mojo Hancy-Davis for a one-night pop-up supper. The event was the first in…
Quick Lit: ‘Bi-Gender: A Candid Nonbinary Memoir’ by James-Beth Merritt
Dating as a woman in Vermont is tough. Now imagine you’re dating as a woman who was assigned male at birth and identifies as “bi-gender” — meaning that “my gender switches back and forth between male and female,” in the words of Burlington-area author James-Beth Merritt. For readers who are frankly confused about what it…
Album Review: Paul Asbell, ‘Burmese Panther’
(Self-released, CD, digital download) Burlington’s Paul Asbell is a state treasure. He is a guitarist of the highest caliber, accomplished across many genres but mainly focused on jazz and blues. A Chicago transplant, his musical journey has included performing with numerous legends. After a recent trilogy of what he termed “steel string Americana” albums, Asbell…
Scarlett Letters: I’m a Quadriplegic and Want to Be a Sugar Daddy
Dear Scarlett, I’m a 50-year-old quadriplegic. I’m fat, bald and feeble. I was trying to have an affair when I broke my neck in 2004. My wife and I are not intimate. We’re friends, parents and housemates. We stay together as I need help every day, and she gets a house, car, vacations and country…
Lawmakers Want Reforms, Not New Prisons, to Bring Out-of-State Inmates Home
Lawmakers have spent years debating how to house all of Vermont’s prisoners within its borders. But two decades after the state began outsourcing incarceration, more than 200 Vermont inmates remain locked up in a private prison in Mississippi. “It is not acceptable for people to just talk about bringing people back from out of state…
Bible Study on Aisle Three: Church’s ‘Pushy’ Tactics Spook Vermont Shoppers
Elizabeth Kleinfeldt was picking up snacks for her kids at the Hannaford supermarket in Williston last December when two strangers approached. The young women asked Kleinfeldt her age, an opening question she found odd. Their next was even more personal: Do you believe in God? Kleinfeldt admitted she’s not a religious person, so the women…
Vermont Farmers Learn to Adapt to a Changing Climate
During Tropical Storm Irene in August 2011, the main road to Green Mountain Girls Farm in Northfield was completely washed out. Although crop loss was minimal, “It was sobering to watch that much water move across the landscape,” said farm co-owner Mari Omland. While Irene was dramatic and destructive for many of the state’s farmers,…
Kizy Puts Café Spin on Kismet’s Locavore Cuisine
Sporting a visible oven burn on her forearm, Crystal Maderia told me, “I feel like my job is to collect the highest-quality food available and feed it to my community.” Now she has a new venue for that mission. Owner and chef of Montpelier’s Kismet for the past 13 years, Maderia opened Kizy in December…
Ken’s Pizza and Pub Creates New Takeout Space
After nearly half a century of serving pizza and subs at 71 Church Street in Burlington, Ken’s Pizza and Pub is expanding to include a new space at 170 Bank Street. The pizza place is taking over the former site of Burlington Records, said Deb Miller, who owns Ken’s with her husband, Tom. Ken’s is…
