Jan 21-27, 2015
UVM Medical Center Has Grown Into a Billion-Dollar Monolith; Should the State Tax Sugared Drinks?; Drinking and Drawing in Vermont; Taste Test: ArtsRiot Kitchen
Cover Story
UVM Medical Center Has Grown Into a Billion-Dollar Monolith
It started as a three-story brick manor on 35 open acres overlooking downtown Burlington. With a $400,000 inheritance from her parents, Queen City resident Mary Martha Fletcher financed construction of the original hospital on the hill in 1879. The medical center has since mushroomed into a dense building complex. It has gobbled up other area…
Obituary: Julia Ann Magoon Monta, 1941-2015, Colchester
Julia Ann Magoon Monta, Colchester. Julia died Monday, January 26, 2015 at the University of Vermont Medical Center of complications from fractured hip surgery. Julia was born to George Henry Magoon and Donna Oakes Magoon on February 13, 1941 in Morrisville, Vermont. She was known as Julie Jo by her mother. Julia attended Colchester schools…
Obituary: Margaret Ann Puttick
Margaret Ann Puttick, age 63 years, a resident of the Swanton community for 30 years died early Monday morning January 26, 2015, at the Birchwood Terrace Health Care Center in Burlington. Born in Lachine, Quebec Canada on April 3, 1951, she was the daughter of the late Herbert and Ellen (Farrell) Minto. She attended schools…
Obituary: Patricia Ann Corwell
Patricia Ann Corwell passed away on January 25th, 2015 at home with her loving family by her side. She fought a long courageous battle with Lewy Body Dementia. Patricia was born on September 25th, 1950 in Swanton, the daughter of Hubert & Hilda (Minkler) St. Francis. Patricia enjoyed taking long rides in the country and…
Obituary: Bonnie Christensen, 1951-2015, Burlington
Bonnie Christensen, a Burlington author and illustrator whose award-winning children’s books illuminated the lives of such cultural icons as Elvis Presley, Andy Warhol, and Woody Guthrie for young readers, died on January 12 at the Vermont Respite House in Williston. She was 63. Of her more than 20 titles, the most acclaimed was Woodie Guthrie:…
Obituary: Maureen Pelkey, 1945-2015, Winooski/St. Albans
The world lost a beautiful soul today when the lord came looking for and angel. Maureen Tew Pelkey born in Brooklyn New York on August 30 1945 passed away peacefully the morning of January 21, 2015 surrounded by the love of her family. Maureen is predeceased by her loving husband of 34 years Frank E…
Obituary: James L. Fitzgerald, 1927-2015, Colchester
James L. Fitzgerald, 87, beloved husband, father and grandfather passed away on January 15, 2015 after a period of declining health. He born on November 1, 1927 on the family farm at Pine Island Colchester to Charles and Madlyn (Tatro) Fitzgerald. Jim served in the Army in the Philippines during WWII and upon return attended…
A Distant War Haunts Accused Vermont Refugee
After a two-year investigation, an unusual trial began in federal court last week based on allegations that a local refugee concealed crimes he committed during the Bosnian War. But for all the hours of testimony and hundreds of pages of evidence, one question has barely been addressed: Who is Edin Sakoc? Prosecutors say that Sakoc…
Young-Adult Novel ‘M or F?’ Staged for Vermont Pride Theater
Sales of the young-adult novel M or F? have been “slow and steady” since its 2005 publication, according to Hinesburg-based coauthor Chris Tebbetts. But it just might get a bump from its new theatrical incarnation. M or F? — with a script written by Vermonter Gene Heinrich — will be presented as a “reading with…
That’s Budget: Seven Takeaways From Shumlin’s New Agenda
If your eyes glaze over at the very mention of the words “budget” and “address,” we feel your pain. So we won’t hold it against you if you failed to spend last Thursday afternoon live-streaming Gov. Peter Shumlin’s hour-and-12-minute budget speech and parsing every last one of its 7,258 words. But it’s worth taking a…
Love and Hate
On a busy Saturday night, an attractive couple hailed me from the front of “Nectar’s Lounge and Restaurant,” as the bar’s rotating sign announces in glorious orange neon. Decked out in tony leather jackets, they struck me as likely Montréalers. Vermonters, as a rule, tend to dress down. The man looked about 40 and had…
Legal Pot in Vermont? Not Yet, Say Some Top Policy Makers
Mason Tvert had never been to Vermont before last week, but he’s known for a while that the Green Mountain State would be next on his itinerary. The man credited with making Colorado the first state to legalize marijuana hopes to make Vermont the first to do so legislatively — not by public referendum. Standing…
Two New Photo Exhibits Go Back in Time, and Technology
Images have a power that modern vehicles so far do not: to instantly transport us to other places and even times. Two photography exhibits opening this week, in Burlington and Shelburne, will do just that, taking viewers back decades and to locations around the U.S. and across the pond. Each collection also provides a visual…
Burlington Residents to Decide on Noncitizen Voting
In 2007, an Italian ecologist led a group of local immigrants in trying to convince Burlington residents to allow people who weren’t U.S. citizens to vote on Town Meeting Day. The proposal elicited reactions so vitriolic that the group disbanded. Four years later, Progressive Councilor Vince Brennan asked the city council to put that question…
The Besnard Lakes’ Jace Lasek on His Band’s New Record, Stoner Metal and Prince
Swirling, whirling and hypnotically lush, the music of the Besnard Lakes beckons listeners to be swept away into an ocean of sound and promises to sonically smash them against the most knifelike of rocks. Trancelike yet jagged, the band’s sound echoes those of “shoegaze” bands like My Bloody Valentine and Ride, but distinguishes itself with…
![Rachel Lives Here Now [SIV384]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sevendaysvt.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/episode384.webp?resize=1200%2C900&ssl=1)
Rachel Lives Here Now [SIV384]
1/15/15: In August of 2013, Rachel Lindsay made a big move and left New York City and her work in the advertising industry to relocate to Burlington Vermont and start a comic blog called Rachel Lives Here Now. She became a cashier at City Market and “hit the cartoon jackpot,” meeting many colorful characters who…
Soundbites: the Dead Reunite One Last Time; MusicCares in VT
There was big, big news for jam fans, local and beyond, last week. If you missed it, congrats on waking up from the coma you must have been in until just now. Anyhoo, the four surviving members of the Grateful Dead — aka the Core Four — announced that they will reunite for what will…
Art Review: “Fibrations,” the Great Hall
“Fibrations!: New England Fiber Art and Mixed-Media Invitational Exhibition” brings works from 15 artists to the Great Hall in Springfield. For this show — the fifth since its inception in 2012 — the venue extends its reach to artists from around New England. The diverse show puts talented Vermont artists head-to-head (and bobbin-to-thimble) with some…
Keiti Botula, Wider Net
(Self-released, CD, digital download) Vermont native Keiti Botula has moved to New York City to pursue more fertile music grounds, but her work still evokes the whimsical and sprightly soundscape of the Green Mountain State. Her debut six-track EP, Wider Net, introduces a capable artist intent on doing things her way. Botula wrote, recorded, produced…
The Canines of Legally Blonde Learn Their Lines
Joey’s just a regular guy at home. Surrounded by five more boisterous and mostly bigger siblings, who compete with him for attention and treats and often win, he stays back in the pack and hesitates to speak up. Joey was the last to be adopted into his Essex Junction home, and sometimes he has to…
Draw-and-Drink Events Proliferate in Vermont
Creative types have long hit the bottle for inspiration. So perhaps it’s no surprise that arts organizations and businesses would lure newbies to art class with the promise of liquid courage. Night-out events that combine art making and drinks have popped up around the country and are catching on big-time in Vermont. Indeed, the state…
Red Hen Baking Using Mostly Local Wheat
As of mid-January, Red Hen Baking is sourcing the vast majority of its wheat within 150 miles of its Middlesex bakery. The bakery turns out about 6,000 loaves of bread, pastries and other baked goods weekly, burning through about 7,000 pounds of flour. According to owner Randy George, Red Hen has been buying 20 percent…
Restaurant Closings; Vermont Serendipity; Collaborative Cheese
For the first time since 1969, there is no Café Shelburne. Weston Nicoll, co-owner since 2013 along with Bill Iliff, confirmed that New Year’s Eve was the restaurant’s last supper. The darkened building now has a “for sale” sign out front. Nicoll chose not to comment further. January 17 was the final night of service…
Josh Brooks, Tall Tales
(Self-released, CD, digital download) It takes a lot of practice to make something simple seem amazing. Veteran Vergennes singer, songwriter and journeyman collaborator Josh Brooks has delivered precisely that with his sixth solo effort, Tall Tales. The record is composed entirely of single takes into a single microphone, crafted at an undisclosed location that Brooks…
Vermont Chefs Share Tips for Making Pasta at Home
In the late ’90s, when I was an ironic teen with a thing for infomercials, my favorite featured the slimy Ron Popeil shilling his Popeil Electric Pasta & Sausage Maker. But I didn’t enjoy it just for the laughs. I secretly coveted Popeil’s all-purpose marvel, which could whip up Indian curry pasta, summer fruit pasta…
Elliott Katz Gives Burlington an Artful Mushroom Grove
Burlington has experienced a growth spurt in recent years, with new construction and renovation projects popping up like mushrooms after a heavy rain. But the downtown core still has a few nooks in which wildlife thrives. In one little niche on St. Paul Street, an unusual species of mushroom did, in fact, bloom last week.…
Letters to the Editor (01/21/15)
Idling Threat “Getting to Zero” [January 7] is a comprehensive piece on, as the subhead says, “… ways Vermonters can reduce their carbon footprint — at home.” There’s an additional low-hanging fruit, no-cost way to do this at home: Limit warm-up vehicle idling time in your driveway. According to the UVM Transportation Research Center, Vermonters’…
How This Movie Ends: Montpelier’s Downstairs Video Will Close Next Month
It’s one of the few, the proud … the last surviving Vermont video stores. And this Valentine’s Day, Montpelier’s Downstairs Video will close its doors for good. In a message sent Tuesday to members and friends of the Savoy Theater, Terrence Youk — who owns both establishments — explains the reasons for the closing: It…
Seventeen Spoonfuls of Sugar: Will Vermont Tax Sweetened Drinks?
Eight years ago, David Blittersdorf — pushing 50 years old and “obesely overweight” at the time, as he recalls it — resolved to get his weight in check. So the now-CEO of AllEarth Renewables started crunching numbers and came to a sobering realization: He was downing more than 1,000 calories a day in soda alone.…
Foxcatcher
“I hate Bennett Miller.” “Everything I’ve ever said positive about the movie I take back. I hate it. i hate it. i hate it. i hate it. i hate it. i hate it. i hate it.” No, those aren’t the sentiments of a reviewer underwhelmed by Miller’s bafflingly pointless new film. They’re sentiments tweeted last…
Free Will Astrology (01/21/15)
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Is there a patron saint of advertising or a goddess of marketing or a power animal that rules publicity and promotion? If so, I’m going to find out, then pray to them on your behalf. It’s high time for your underappreciated talents and unsung accomplishments to receive more attention. And I…
Blackhat
The biggest problem with cinematic cyber-thrillers is that computer screens are what we go to movies to escape. In short, they look like crap. Michael Mann, creator of “Miami Vice” and director of Heat, The Insider and Collateral, knows how to make even crap look noirishly glamorous (add some slow-mo, some neon…). So if anyone…
News Quirks (01/21/15)
Curses, Foiled Again Police charged Kahlif Aleem Buggs, 32, with fraudulent use of debit cards after Tamara Thomas noticed a family “shopping like it was Christmas” at a Family Dollar store in DeKalb, Ga. Thomas got behind them at the register and saw Buggs pay with her missing card, which she recognized because it had…
I’m Not Comfortable With Oral Sex
Dear Athena, My boyfriend says he loves oral sex and wants to go down on me, but I’m not comfortable. Something about it freaks me out. I have no problem performing oral on him, but I won’t really let him do it to me. I’m self-conscious about it. I feel weird and worry that it…
For Its 80th Birthday, the VSO Commissions 80-Second Fanfares
The Vermont Symphony Orchestra performed its first concert in January 1934. Eight decades on, the orchestra is still doing what it was created for: traveling around a rural state bringing music to the people. It’s been able to accomplish this while remaining in relatively good financial stead. With no bricks-and-mortar home, marketing director Amy Caldwell…
Upscale Restaurant at Edson Hill Opens
When Seven Days last spoke to Chad Hanley, in 2010, the French-trained chef had recently returned to his native Jeffersonville after years cooking in the kitchens of Roy Yamaguchi and Masaharu Morimoto. Back then, a cooking gig at the Brewski wasn’t making much use of Hanley’s skills for haute cuisine. He’ll need those refined touches…
