Jan 24-30, 2018
Alleged Student Sexual Offenders Listed on Facebook Roils Middlebury College; Radio Host of ‘Floydian Slip’ Recounts 25 Years in the Pink; Vermont Entrepreneurs Make Vodka From Kombucha
Cover Story
#HerToo: Middlebury Student in Trouble Over List of Accused Sexual Transgressors
The #MeToo movement had already named and shamed Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, comedian Louis C.K., U.S. senator Al Franken and celebrity chef Mario Batali when Elizabeth Dunn decided she had something to say about her classmates at Middlebury College. On December 12, the senior went on Facebook to post a short list of “men to…
Seriously: Green’s Grey Zone; Prison Buddies
In this episode, Bryan explores the legal grey areas surrounding Vermont’s new marijuana legalization law and examines a few bizarre coincidences within Gov. Phil Scott’s recent proposals. CREDITS Written, filmed and edited by: Bryan Parmelee Artwork/photography courtesy of: Molly Walsh, Jeb Wallace-Brodeur, Alicia Freese, Bryan Parmelee, Dreamstime Logo/art direction by: Don Eggert Backdrop mural by:…
The Cannabis Catch-Up: Come July, Weed Is Legal in Vermont
What a week. After Vermont Gov. Phil Scott on Monday signed — “with mixed emotions” — a bill legalizing adult marijuana use, possession and growing in the state, we can finally start parsing the new law. In this week’s issue of Seven Days, online and on newsstands now, our Alicia Freese took a look at…
![A Walk in the Woods with Shelburne’s Poet Laureate [SIV519]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sevendaysvt.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/episode519.webp?resize=1200%2C900&ssl=1)
A Walk in the Woods with Shelburne’s Poet Laureate [SIV519]
1/19/18: Rick Bessette was named Shelburne’s first Poet Laureate in 2015 and he takes the title seriously. Rick shares his love of poetry with local businesses, retirement communities and a class of 5th graders at Shelburne Community School. We tagged along on a field trip with Rick and the students to Shelburne Farms. Before taking…
Letters to the Editor (1/24/18)
Don’t Lock Them Up [Re Off Message: “Scott Administration Calls for a 925-Bed Prison Campus,” January 15]: In regard to the governor’s plan to build a new private prison in Vermont: Wouldn’t it make more sense to revise the laws that lead to the incarceration of so many nonviolent offenders and necessitate out-of-state beds or…
In the NEK, an Addiction Recovery Coach Heals Others — and Herself
The Vermont nonprofit Building Bright Futures announced a grim statistic two weeks ago at the Statehouse: The number of children in state custody has doubled in recent years, largely because their opiate-addicted parents can’t adequately care for them. Last week, the Vermont Supreme Court created a commission to study a family court system overwhelmed by…
Unique Photo Project Documents a Household Frozen in Time
Some mysteries are the stuff of tabloids: flashy, sensational, shot through with sinister insinuation. Others are quieter, slower, devoid of any of the disruption we associate with modern-day scandal. A newly opened exhibition at Middlebury’s Vermont Folklife Center qualifies, in some ways, as the latter. “Up Home: Hand-Colored Photographs by Susanne and Neil Rappaport” offers…
Wishbone Collective Brings More Artists to Winooski
Winooski is known for many things, among them its raging river, its name — from the Abenaki word for “onion” — its cluster of popular restaurants and bars, a music festival called Waking Windows, and, of course, its traffic circle. But a proliferation of galleries and studios, like in neighboring Burlington? Not so much. That’s…
Album Review: Zeus Springsteen, ‘Zeus Springsteen’
(Self-released, digital download) Judging by their name, Zeus Springsteen are obviously a rock band — though not the kind you might expect. The Burlington-based power trio occupies a distinctive space between ’80s and ’90s college radio and prog rock. But the band’s recently released self-titled debut is no pastiche. Despite the name — and the…
Pit Stop: Gov. Scott Helps Induct Ken Squier Into NASCAR Hall of Fame
Phil Scott burnished his street cred last weekend. The longtime stock-car racer — and current Vermont governor — traveled to Charlotte, N.C., last Friday to help induct Ken Squier into the NASCAR Hall of Fame. “It was an incredible honor to be a small part in recognizing his contributions to the sport,” said Scott. “Putting…
Album Review: Peter Mayhew Band, ‘Come to Your Senses’
(Self-released, CD, digital download) Peter Mayhew Band’s debut record, Come to Your Senses, won a noteworthy award in 2017. The Barre-Montpelier Times Argus named it Best Rock ‘n’ Roll Album in its annual Tammie Awards, which single out the most outstanding local recordings of the year. The win was impressive considering the bandleader’s relatively unknown…
Ask Athena: My Ex Is Dating Again and I Am Jealous
Dear Athena, My ex is dating again, and I am jealous. She is someone I used to work with, like, three years ago, but it was while he and I were still together, and now I feel like maybe this whole thing with her started then. I stalk her on Instagram for clues, and we’ve…
Movie Review: Revisionist Western ‘Hostiles’ Doesn’t Deliver on Its Promise
Scott Cooper is maybe my favorite actor-filmmaker. In front of the camera, he played a Klan kid in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me and the town troublemaker in the Bill Murray vehicle Get Low. Behind the camera, he’s written and directed an impressive body of work over eight years: Crazy Heart (2009), the…
Movie Review: ‘Phantom Thread’ Offers a Well-Turned-Out Meditation on Love and Perfectionism
Phantom Thread is about sovereign artistic control and perfectionism, which means that, on some level, it’s about the process of its own making. Does that make it irrelevant to our world right now? Perhaps, and it’s easy to understand why writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson’s lengthy film about love and dressmaking has been rarely in the…
Art Review: Dusty Boynton, BCA Center
Some gallerygoers are exasperated, even incensed, by “childlike” contemporary art. This viewer is not one of them. Art has always seemed like a loophole, a serious game of making and asserting value within a larger economic picture that tends to disregard creative expression. And who is better at serious games than children? “Dusty Boynton: From…
Tweaks and Tinkering: Scott Budget Calls for Boldness, Delivers None
Gov. Phil Scott’s second budget address was entirely in character with his administration so far: long on warnings of critical challenges and short on meaningful proposals to meet them. There was little new or notable in his speech or his new budget. As always, Scott’s ability to pursue new programs is strictly constrained by his…
Soundbites: Dead Silent, Rocking and Talking
It may be the dead of winter, but at least we aren’t stuck on a frozen ice continent with a ravenous, parasitic alien entity consuming and absorbing every living thing in its path like in John Carpenter’s The Thing, am I right? That’s my awkward segue into announcing an upcoming screening of the legendary horror…
Red Hen Baking Co. Grinds Its Own Rye Flour
Red Hen Baking has gotten into the grinding business. Last week, the Middlesex company purchased a small stone mill, made by a father-and-son team in North Carolina, with which it now grinds some of the rye flour for loaves such as Mad River Grain, Pumpernickel and Crossett Hill. The purchase was inspired by an oversupply…
These Rutland Pastors Run a Mobile Mission for the Homeless
Inside the Bakery in Rutland on a wintry Thursday morning, ministers Hannah Rogers and John Longworth grabbed a quick bite and soaked in the warmth. Then, bolstered by carbs and caffeine, they headed outdoors for their weekly ritual: a walk around town to check in with the local homeless population. Rogers, the 37-year-old pastor of…
In a New Play, Transgender Women Tell Their Stories
This Saturday, Vermont Pride Theater will perform a staged reading of a play that took more than four years to create and went on to tour internationally. The groundbreaking work that debuted at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland and landed at Harvard’s American Repertory Theater at now makes its way to Chandler Center for…
Barn Opera Company Launches in Brandon
Meeting someone for the first time in a café typically involves guesswork: Is it the person alone at that table or the one just standing up? There is no question, however, when this reporter meets with tenor Joshua Collier at Gourmet Provence in Brandon. The opera singer is clearly the one ordering coffee in a…
Eat This Week: Noodling Around
Cabin fever got you wishing you could hop on a flight to Asia? For an affordable Taiwanese feast (minus the plane ticket!), head to Cork Wine Bar & Market in Waterbury on Wednesday evenings, now through Valentine’s Day. Inside Cork’s chic but cozy bar, you’ll find steamed buns stuffed with spicy mala tofu or pork…
Free Will Astrology (1/24/18)
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): The pawpaw is a tasty fruit that blends the flavors of mango, banana and melon. But you rarely find it in grocery stores. One reason is that the fruit ripens very quickly after being picked. Another is that the pollination process is complicated. In response to these issues, a plant scientist…
Zeroing In? A New Senate Proposal Aims for Common Ground on Gun Safety
In late December 2012, Steven Davis, a Bennington math and science teacher, was seen putting a Bushmaster AR-15 semiautomatic rifle into his car. Concerned neighbors called the police, and officers went to Davis’ home. Finding no evidence of a crime, they left without taking the rifle. By the next day, according to the Bennington Banner,…
Hackie: Semicentennial
The Mill Market & Deli is located on Dorset Street in South Burlington, just north of the Shelburne town line. The “Mill” part of the store name reflects that, historically, this was the site of the Chittenden Farm and Cider Mill. The current owners carry on that tradition, producing and marketing Chittenden’s Sweet Apple Cider.…
Talking Pink With ‘Floydian Slip’ Producer Craig Bailey
Cast aside whatever preconceived notions you might have about Craig Bailey, the Vermont-based creator, producer and on-air host of the syndicated Pink Floyd radio show “Floydian Slip.” He doesn’t have guitarist/vocalist David Gilmour’s cellphone on his speed dial. He hasn’t hung out backstage with founding bassist/lyricist Roger Waters to discuss the parallels between The Wall,…
Inside the Nightshade Kitchen’s Intimate, Epicurean House Concerts
Maurice Sendak’s 1970 picture book In the Night Kitchen depicts a young boy’s bizarre, hallucinatory excursion to the mythical place named in its title. The Kafkaesque jaunt is, in typical Sendak fashion, not terribly lucid. It’s more of a sensory experience than a good story, notable mostly for the author and illustrator’s trademark visual style…
What’s It All Mean, Man? Hashing Out Vermont’s New Marijuana Law
It’s a done deal. Gov. Phil Scott on Monday signed a bill that legalizes marijuana — with plenty of caveats. As of July 1, individuals 21 and older can possess two mature cannabis plants and four immature ones, along with up to one ounce of pot. The new law is far from cut-and-dried, however. Seven…
A Revived Medieval Culinary Society Comes to Vermont
The art of roasting a goose is not simple. Because the waterfowl develop a thick layer of fat to protect them during migration, they must be tended with care so the fat renders out during the cooking process, allowing the skin to crisp and crackle. Some folks may be casual about fowl cookery, but the…
Middlebury Entrepreneurs Make Vodka From Kombucha
As the old saying goes, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” For a more contemporary example, just look to an industrial park in Middlebury. There, a partnership of beverage entrepreneurs is taking excess alcohol that’s generated during the fermentation of kombucha and making it into artisanal vodka. In Appalachian Gap Distillery’s tasting room, co-owners…
Lincolns, a Secretive Speakeasy, Opens in Burlington
The owners of the speakeasy that opened last month in downtown Burlington will divulge its name — Lincolns — but not its location. The new bar with covered windows is somewhere off Church Street, and having to find it is part of the appeal, co-owner Chris Beaulieu said. “Once someone finds it, they tell people;…
Rory Stamp of Dedalus Wins National Cheesemonger Competition
Last weekend, 31 cheesemongers from all over the country got together for a grueling competition at the Cheesemonger Invitational in San Francisco. On Sunday, Rory Stamp of Dedalus Wine Shop, Market & Wine Bar in Burlington was crowned the nation’s best monger. “I didn’t have any inkling that I was going to win,” said Stamp,…
