Jan 31 – Feb 6, 2018
Is Incumbent Miro Weinberger Vulnerable in Burlington’s Mayoral Race?; Meet John Dunlop, the Busiest Cellist in Vermont; Bodily Joys and Betrayals in John Killacky’s Video Retrospective
Seriously: Left and Lefter-Er
In this episode, Bryan takes a look at Burlington’s mayoral race and tries his best to show Sen. Bernie Sanders what actually constitutes gossip. CREDITS: Written, filmed and edited by: Bryan Parmelee Artwork/photography courtesy of: Marc Nadel, Matthew Thorsen, Luke Awtry, James Buck, Bryan Parmelee, Dreamstime Logo/art direction: Don Eggert Backdrop mural by: Anthill Collective…
Obituary: Janet Jacobs, 1947-2017
Janet — intrepid adventuress, tugboat captain, small plane pilot, gourmet caterer, fashion plate, flower gardener, interior decorator, antique collector, art appreciator, horseback rider, Chessie dog trainer, practiced teller of funny, true stories and ever so much more — has cast off the mooring lines after a blessedly brief tangle with cancer, with her son Zachary…
Obituary: Dorothy May Seale-Brown, 1928-2018
Dorothy May Seale-Brown died January 20, 2018, at her beloved Converse Home in Burlington, Vt. She was predeceased by her son, Mark Victor Brown, and leaves behind her daughters Martha Brown and her husband, Rob Donaldson, and Faith Isabelle Brown and her partner, Lynn Mansfield. She also leaves her cherished granddaughter Tabatha Soliz and her…
The Cannabis Catch-Up: Does Saliva Testing Spit on Your Rights?
One of the biggest showdowns surrounding cannabis this legislative session in Vermont could be about your spit. Vermont Public Safety Commissioner Thomas Anderson told legislators that H.237, a bill that would allow police to test the saliva of suspected stoned drivers, could be the most important piece of legislation passed this session. Meanwhile, the American…
Obituary: Michael King, 1973-2018
Michael King, 44, of Essex Junction, Vt., died peacefully on Thursday, February 1, surrounded by his loving family after a courageous battle with cancer. He was born in Montpelier, Vt., on August 9, 1973, when his father, Donald, was teaching at Union Elementary School. When Michael was 1, his family returned to New Jersey, where…
![A Tuba Solo at the VYO Winter Concert [SIV520]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sevendaysvt.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/episode520.webp?resize=1200%2C900&ssl=1)
A Tuba Solo at the VYO Winter Concert [SIV520]
1/28/18: A young tuba player took center stage Sunday at the Vermont Youth Orchestra’s Winter Concert at the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts in Burlington. Malachi Witt shows off the uncommon range and versatility of the giant brass instrument, playing Edward Gregson’s Tuba Concerto along with the top young musicians in the state. We…
Album Review: Robin Gottfried, ‘Other Side of the Rain’
(Self-released, CD, digital download) Robin Gottfried is a man out of time. The veteran musician moved to Burlington in 1978 and has since released a string of albums that each feel rooted in the era of late ’70s/early ’80s pop rock. Specifically, the New York City native bears an overt affection for well-coiffed soft rockers…
A Car Crash Paralyzed a Teen. Her Likely Insurance Payout: Just $25,000
Roderick Larocque was steering his Subaru on slushy Interstate 89 in St. Albans on December 23 when he lost control of the car and flipped it. One passenger, his 13-year-old daughter, Ilyana Farr, suffered a devastating spinal injury that left her paralyzed from the waist down. The eighth grader, who enjoyed playing basketball and the…
Eat This Week, January 31 to February 6, 2018: Wines With Hart
Vermont vintners Deirdre Heekin and Caleb Barber have set the benchmark for producing excellent wines using new hybrid varietals made by crossing North American wild grapes with European wine grapes. On Sunday, oenophiles can head to their home’s farm and vineyard on the shoulder of Mount Hunger for sips of bright, food-friendly sparkling wines and…
‘Camp Hell’: Vermont Inmates Report Threats by Guards in Pennsylvania
Vermont inmates housed at Pennsylvania’s Camp Hill state prison say guards are mistreating them and threatening retaliation when they report abuse. Vermont officials, limited by distance and the legal agreement between the two states, have little power to intervene. Kirk Wool, a Vermont inmate serving time at Camp Hill for kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault,…
Theater Review: ‘Doublewide,’ Vermont Stage
Stephen Spotswood’s new play Doublewide takes audiences inside a well-kept but humble trailer to meet three generations of an American family nestled near the bottom of the 99 percent. These are folks easily overlooked, both economically and artistically, and it’s cheering to see them treated with warmth and dignity in a well-realized production by Vermont…
Quick Lit: Review of ‘Friends and Other Liars’ by Kaela Coble
How many secrets can five bosom friends keep from one another when gossip “is an intangible presence that cloaks the town in intrigue and fear”? Quite a few, we discover in Friends and Other Liars, the debut novel from Kaela Coble of Burlington. In Big Little Lies fashion, Coble’s narrative opens with an untimely death…
Movie Review: Another Dystopian Series Finishes Its Run With ‘Maze Runner: The Death Cure’
Are you weary of postapocalyptic wastelands wandered by bands of zombies? Scientists conducting evil experiments in walled cities? Fresh-faced, ordinary-seeming kids who turn out to be very special? If not, I have a 142-minute movie for you. Let’s get real, though: The final film in the Maze Runner trilogy wasn’t made for snooty critics. It…
Art Review: John Killacky Video Retrospective, Champlain College
John Killacky is primarily known to Vermonters as the executive director of Burlington’s Flynn Center for the Performing Arts, a position he assumed in 2010. In person, he’s a gentle, poetic soul, quick to express appreciation for those with whom he works. Some may have read about Killacky’s beloved Shetland pony, Pacific Raindrop. Others may…
Revisiting Steak Frites, a Leunig’s Classic
When Bob Conlon started working at Leunig’s Bistro & Café 36 years ago, he was a fill-in bartender who worked the breakfast shift. The restaurant on the corner of Church and College streets in Burlington was open from 7 a.m. to 2 a.m. and occupied only the street-front room. Leunig’s served croissants in the mornings,…
A Black Lives Matter Flag Will Fly at Montpelier High School. Not Everyone Is Thrilled
Montpelier High School’s plan to fly a Black Lives Matter flag throughout the month of February has garnered plenty of attention — not all positive. The school received “some not-so-nice phone calls and some not-so-nice emails” from non-Vermonters after recent news about the decision went national, said principal Mike McRaith. Closer to home, state Rep.…
A Transformational Candidate: Hallquist Plans to Run for Vermont Governor
Last November, Danica Roem of Virginia became the first openly transgender person in the nation to win a state legislative seat. This November, Vermonters may get the chance to elect the first openly transgender governor in American history. Christine Hallquist, CEO of the Vermont Electric Coop, will only say she is “seriously considering” a run…
Maple Syrup and Tax Breaks: Can Scott Attract New Vermonters?
One of the more ambitious ideas in the modest agenda Gov. Phil Scott proposed in his January 23 budget address was a $3.2 million campaign to convince people to move to Vermont. Scott and his administration say they would use digital technology to identify and recruit individuals who already have some connection to the state,…
Movie Review: In ‘Icarus,’ a Cyclist Gets Caught Up in the Russian Doping Scandal
Talk about taking one for the team. When we think about performance-enhancing drugs, we normally think in terms of an individual athlete whose accomplishments have been tainted by their use. Barry Bonds, Marion Jones, Lance Armstrong. Less likely to pop into one’s head is the doping of young people on an institutional level. A secret…
Free Will Astrology 91/31/18)
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): When I was in my early twenties, I smoked marijuana now and then. I liked it. It made me feel good and inspired my creativity and roused spiritual visions. But I reconsidered my use after encountering pagan magician Isaac Bonewits. He didn’t have a moral objection to cannabis use but believed…
Album Review: WDY, ‘Revelations’
(Self-released, digital download) St. Albans’ Matt Woodward has self-released electronic music as WDY since 2013 — some seven singles, EPs and full-lengths overall. The 24-year-old producer’s latest full-length is Revelations, released in October 2017. For those who have strayed from God — myself included — and need a crash course in Christianity, the Book of…
Finding Community at the Queen City Memory Café
Ten years ago, when her partner was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, Lynn Vera felt relieved. “It explained things,” she said. “Our relationship was struggling with anger because she kept forgetting things.” Since then, Vera has watched her partner, Pamela Gale, now almost 69, lose her independence and her pleasure in her favorite activities. “She was…
Two Against One: Is Weinberger Vulnerable in Burlington’s Mayoral Race?
Yes, Bailey Osborne did have feedback for Miro Weinberger, she said, when the Burlington mayor came knocking on a January afternoon in the city’s South End Lakeside neighborhood. She suggested the mayor come inside and take a seat. Osborne, a single mother and a paraeducator in Burlington schools, said she felt as though officials in…
Ask Athena: How Do I Get My Wife to Have a Threesome?
Dear Athena, How do I get my wife to have a threesome with me and her twin sister? Signed, Twin Love Dear Twin Love, No. Just no. It’s called incest, bud, and it’s never going to happen. Set aside the fantasy for when you’re jerking off, ’cause that’s as close as you’re going to get.…
Vermont Seamstress Katie Zuanich Says ‘I Do’ to Bridal Gowns
Name: Katie Zuanich Town: Essex Junction Job: Seamstress The job of a seamstress isn’t unusual, but it’s one that people may not give much thought to these days. After all, most clothes are worn until they pill, fray or crumple in the wash and are then discarded. But as long as formal wear, suits and…
Letters to the Editor (1/31/18)
O.N.E. for All [Re “Ready or Not? Is Gentrification Inevitable in Burlington’s Old North End?” January 17]: It doesn’t feel great to be paraphrased into an ignorant ditz. I imagine it feels worse, though, to watch as businesses and apartment complexes move into your neighborhood without your input or approval, all the while making it…
WTF: How Is Midget Wrestling Still a Thing?
Anyone remotely familiar with the world of professional wrestling knows it’s fake. Cartoonish characters clad in garish spandex outfits slam and smack their way through scripted, melodramatic story lines and carefully choreographed matches. The “sport” lands closer to full-tilt performance art. Call it athletic competition if you want, but it’s nothing more than a spectacle.…
Getting Existential and Philosophical with José González
“What will be our legacy?” singer-songwriter José González asks the listener in the opening line of “What Will.” The centerpiece of his 2015 album, Vestiges & Claws, continues: “Lazy acceptance of the norm? / Silent acceptance of the form?” It’s a question that’s surely been on many people’s minds lately. The Swedish musician with Argentinian…
A Cave-Inspired Art Installation Dazzles at Spruce Peak
In 2012, on Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula, a group of tourists and a guide stumbled on an extraordinary feat of nature: a network of glacial caves sculpted by the movements of a warm-running underground stream. Since that discovery, the caves have provoked awe and captured imaginations around the world — not least for the way sunlight…
John Dunlop Is Vermont’s Busiest Cellist
John Dunlop, principal cellist in the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, cuts a striking figure during a concert on the Flynn MainStage. A trim man in black tie and tails, his remarkable posture suggests a military man or a dancer. Attentive to the conductor, the music, his stand partner and the entire orchestra at once, the 53-year-old…
Soundbites: Tied Up, Time to Make the Donuts
Last year, offbeat singer-songwriter James Kochalka Superstar played his last show ever — probably. I’d wager not even the beloved goofball himself can say with absolute certainty whether the concert he touted as final was truly his last. But at least that’s how the Burlington-based artist described it when we checked in with him last…
Obituary: Elaine B. Little, 1921-2018
Elaine Burns Little, born Barbara Elaine Burns in Troy, N.Y., on June 29, 1921, to Stanley Livingston Burns Sr. and Christine Regina Bayer Burns, died peacefully January 28, 2018, at her residence in Shelburne, Vt. She attended public schools in Rutland, Vt., and graduated from Rutland High School in 1939, where she was active in…
Obituary: Alverta L. Perkins, 1924-2018
Alverta L. Perkins was born June 12, 1924, in South Bend, Ind., to Lynn and Irene Hagenbush Leighty. She died in Burlington, Vt., January 19, 2018, after a short illness. In 1945 Alverta graduated from Epworth Hospital Nursing School in South Bend as a registered nurse. She married Bradford Marr Perkins in 1946 and moved…
New Chef at Hatchet Tap and Table Is a Cut Above
Once Seven Days has reviewed a restaurant, it’s not common for us to revisit it. But sometimes a new chef transforms an eatery from a neighborhood standby into a standout, and that’s what happened recently at Hatchet Tap and Table in Richmond. When Hatchet opened in summer 2015, owner Gabriel Firman touted its 24 taps…
Folino’s Brings Its Pizza to Burlington
Folino’s opened its Burlington restaurant last week at 71 South Union Street, bringing its wood-fired pizzas and salads to a second location in Chittenden County. The original Folino’s opened in Shelburne, next to Fiddlehead Brewing, in March 2012. The new Folino’s, which opens daily at 11:30 a.m., occupies a former funeral parlor. The space was…
Tulsi Take Home Meals Offers Veggie Fare To-Go
In August 2016, owner Solenne Thompson closed Tulsi Tea Room in Montpelier to attend nursing school. While Grian Herbs now fills that space, Thompson has a new business, Tulsi Take Home Meals. Around the holidays, she started selling her vegetarian soup, curry and dal as take-home meals packaged in mason jars. “I’m almost done with…
Food News: Theme Dinners at Misery Loves Co., Perfect Circle Farm Web Store, Archives Mystery Solved
From now until April, and maybe beyond, Misery Loves Co. in Winooski will feature special offerings midweek. On Tuesday, there’s a sweet deal on fried chicken; Wednesday is dumpling day (until the goods run out); and Thursday brings slow-cooked brisket, served family-style. Misery will also serve a fixed-price themed dinner one Sunday a month, all…
