In the days leading up to Iowa’s presidential caucuses, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) promised that Monday would mark “the beginning of the end for Donald Trump.” As it turned out, Tuesday might have been a better bet. A breakdown in the Iowa Democratic Party’s caucus reporting system prompted a 20-hour delay in announcing even preliminary…
Community philanthropist and family man believed in giving back
Longtime nurse, world traveler and proud grandmother checked a lot off her bucket list
Woman with Down syndrome said ‘I can do it!’ — and she did
Burlington auto salesman remembered for gift of gab and love of music
Dear Reverend, My 38-year-old son has been married for nine years. He and his wife have a great relationship, other than sexually. By that I mean, they never have sex. About eight months ago, his wife suggested they try an open marriage, and he agreed. She now has a fairly steady “friend,” but my son…
A while back, the movie industry ran into an unexpected problem: the Great Liam Neeson Shortage. A profitable Hollywood subgenre had been created by casting aging male stars as variations on Neeson’s character in Taken (2008). By this point, everyone from Mel Gibson (Edge of Darkness) to Kevin Costner (3 Days to Kill) had pretended…
Even prescription drugs couldn’t ease Annette Monachelli’s headaches. Pain had plagued the 47-year-old inn operator for months when, on January 30, 2013, she came home from her second job as a server at Stowe Mountain Resort feeling worse still. Her doctor had diagnosed the headaches as migraines, but this time her husband, Randy Stern, took…
How do you smuggle a weirdo auteur movie into theaters these days? Release it over Super Bowl weekend and call it horror. Anyone who caught the previous two films from director Osgood Perkins (son of Psycho’s Anthony Perkins) knows that, while his pedigree is appropriate, his brand of horror is not typical. I Am the…
Open Shutter I can’t think of a better way to begin this week’s column than to herald the initial lineup announcement for Waking Windows 2020. The three-day music and arts festival celebrates its 10-year anniversary as it takes over Winooski from Friday, May 1, through Sunday, May 3. Perhaps the most significant announcement so far…
A teen in Wisconsin accidentally ordered a pizza last week from the Little Caesars in Essex Junction, Vt., instead of his hometown of New London, Wis. — a store located some 1,000 miles away. Luckily, he didn’t ask for delivery. Zach Stiebs, 19, was at a buddy’s house for a study session when he used the…
Longtime Seven Days reader and habitual Whiskey Tango Foxtrot idea contributor Steve Crafts wrote in this month to ask whether someone at Vermont Public Radio is deliberately messing with his mind. In recent years, Crafts has noticed that, while listening to VPR on 107.9 FM in his car, he periodically hears a “strange echo or…
(Self-released, CD, digital) Dave Keller is an accomplished bluesman, a proud practitioner of both the genre and its traditions. The Montpelier singer, songwriter and guitarist is a constantly gigging journeyman who has stacked up an impressive discography. The capstone of his career had been Every Soul’s a Star, recorded with a world-class session band, the…
When Krish Mohan toured through Vermont in 2017, he presented a show all about mental illness. “Comedy can help address the absurdity of what we consider normal [regarding mental illness and treatment] and how it’s negatively affected us,” he told Seven Days just before his Burlington performance. Heavy social concepts are the Pittsburgh-based comedian’s bread…
(Index Drift, digital) Under certain conditions, I can hear a strange hum emanating as if from nowhere. And it’s loud. Everything needs to be perfectly still for me to be able to hear it. The slightest movement or motion instantly causes it to cease. The best description is that it’s like sitting on the bridge…
In a solo show titled “Of Cities and Deserts,” currently at the Vermont Supreme Court Gallery, Osvaldo Nitya Brighenti presents paintings of landscapes, cityscapes and portraits. Some works depict distant locales — Benares, India; Band-I-Amir, Afghanistan — with a hint of hazy exoticism; others, the familiar rooftops of Montpelier or an overgrown chasm in the…
Making time to create new work is hard for many artists, particularly if they have multiple jobs or otherwise busy lives. One organization supports choreographers, dancers and movement artists in the creative process. NACHMO, an acronym for National Choreography Month, is a Brooklyn-based nonprofit that offers an annual challenge — and a carrot — to…
On a windy stretch of Bristol Road in Monkton, Lee Kauppila was ready to tell a story. Clad in a red checkered jacket, toque and work gloves, he was all booming voice and broad gestures. Kauppila is a cofounder and organizer of the Monkton Wood Bank, one of several in the area. A wood bank…
Climate Correction It was great to see your recent article on our inaugural Climate Action Film Festival [“Action Movies,” January 29]. Thank you for helping us spread the word about solutions to the climate crisis. The article was spot-on, and very well written, with one exception. I am the curator of the festival, not my…
Just inside the Fairbanks Museum & Planetarium in St. Johnsbury, visitors encounter two tall and somewhat intimidating greeters. A Kodiak bear and a polar bear, both stuffed, stand on their hind legs, mouths open in matching snarls. This is just an introduction to the bevy of beasts in the Fairbanks’ collection, including some 3,000 birds,…
Did you know that, about a century ago, a huge ravine ran right through the middle of Burlington? Until the early 1900s, if you started where the Main Street bar Esox is now and headed south, you would tumble a good 25 feet, almost straight down, by the time you reached the present site of…
JAGfest, an annual theater festival that showcases the work of African American artists, returns to the Upper Valley this weekend for its fourth incarnation. Over three days, five playwrights present staged readings of new works, each followed by a postshow discussion. The Friday and Saturday performances are at the Briggs Opera House in White River…
When Rodney Graham sells his small herd of Holsteins and Jerseys in the coming weeks, it will mark more than the end of his family’s century of milking cows in Williamstown. For the first time in modern Vermont history, not a single active dairy farmer will be serving in the state legislature. Unable to absorb…
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): According to my analysis, the year 2020 will be a time when you can have dramatic success as you reevaluate and revision and revamp your understandings of your life purpose. Why were you born? What’s the nature of your unique genius? What are the best gifts you have to offer the…
An internal investigation into Burlington Police Deputy Chief Jan Wright’s social media use did not disclose dozens of comments she’d made anonymously, prompting some city officials to question the thoroughness of the probe. Among those calling for a fuller accounting are several Progressive city councilors, members of the Burlington Police Commission and a state representative…
Cooking can be a lot of work. For the roughly 12,000 seniors in Burlington, adding health and budget restrictions on top of shopping and chopping can make kitchen prep seem all but impossible. But with a creative roster of food-focused services and programming, a local nonprofit is lending its HANDS to keep seniors independent. Helping…
The eight-stool bar was filling up the other night at Burlington restaurant Poco when I arrived carrying a yellow legal pad, two pens and a laptop. I spotted a seat in the corner, hoping to claim enough space for a cocktail and a computer. From behind the bar came a directive: “Sally, relax.” It was…
Philo Ridge Farm, the 400-acre diversified farm at 2766 Mount Philo Road in Charlotte, has hired a culinary director to oversee all aspects of the food operation. Galen Sampson, who comes to Philo Ridge with a broad background in farm-to-table cuisine, assumed the position on January 28. His experience ranges from owning and operating the…
