Jul 10-16, 2019
Bread and Puppet’s Memorial Village Honors Departed Friends; Can Burlington and South Burlington Consolidate Trash Pickup?; Sampling New Vietnamese Street Food at Pho Son
Cover Story
At Bread and Puppet, a ‘Memorial Village’ Honors Departed Friends and Family
In a hilltop grove at Bread and Puppet Theater in Glover, a painting of an evergreen on a piece of tin is nailed to a pine tree. Nearby hangs an image of a barn, rusted by time. On yet another trunk is a painting of a horse against a blue background. Each of these, made…
Obituary: Eric Zencey, 1953-2019
Eric Zencey, professor, writer and social critic, died on July 1 at his home in Montpelier. His wife, Kathryn Davis; daughter, Daphne Zencey; and sister-in-law Anne Davis were at his side. He was 65. Eric arrived in Vermont in 1980 to teach at Goddard College, quickly developing a deep love for his adopted state. It…
Obituary: Henry P. Albarelli, Jr.
H.P. “Hank” Albarelli Jr., author and Burlington native, died on June 18 from complications of a stroke. The eldest son of Nancy O’Neill Albarelli and the late Henry P. Albarelli Sr., he was 72. In recent decades, Hank and his wife, Kathleen McDonald, made their home in the Tampa Bay region of Florida, where he…
About Time, ‘I Don’t Think I Belong Here’
(Self-released, CD, digital) About Time know a thing or two about the art of the slow burn. The busy Chittenden County jazz-funk-pop band spent more than five years working together, playing countless gigs and writing the material contained in its debut, I Don’t Think I Belong Here. Within it, splendid songs burst with life and…
Free Will Astrology (7/10/19)
CANCER (June 21-July 22): Vantablack is a material made of carbon nanotubes. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, it is the darkest stuff on the planet. No black is blacker than Vantablack. It reflects a mere 0.036 percent of the light that shines upon it. Because of its unusual quality, it’s ideal for…
Ari Aster’s Latest Is a ‘Midsommar’ Night’s Fever Dream
Darkness is the primal stuff of horror movies, the place where bad things hide. Almost every scene in Midsommar, the hypnotic second film from writer-director Ari Aster (Hereditary), takes place in broad, blinding daylight. Its setting is Sweden, a place that Americans (unless they’re really into Scandinavian thrillers) tend to associate with cute furniture and…
Bernie Sanders’ Long Trail to 2020
Last week, the Doom Patrol came calling for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Suddenly, the Beltway press was bursting with predictions of trouble for Sanders’ presidential campaign after a perceived lackluster showing at the June 27 Democratic debate. CNN, July 2: “Bernie 2020 Is in Big Trouble” The Hill, July 3: “Sanders Slips in Polls, Raising…
The Wet Ones!, ‘Tombstoning’
(Self-released, digital download) The Wet Ones! are a surf-rock trio from Burlington, and this is not an uncommon thing. Despite the fact that it’s a small college town on a lake in New England, Burlington has produced a remarkable run of surf outfits over the past decade, something I will not attempt to rationalize here.…
Burlington, South Burlington Consider Consolidated Approach to Trash Pickup
The groaning garbage truck navigated a tight turn onto Luck Street in Burlington, switched on its warning beepers and reversed into a driveway, where two bright red Myers dumpsters waited to be emptied. Cars carefully nosed around the protruding front of the truck on the narrow residential street. The engine roared, and the truck’s hydraulic…
Walmart Arrests Show Why Undocumented Farmworkers Are Leery of Food Shopping
Zully Palacios stood out at the July 2 rally on Burlington’s Church Street that drew hundreds to protest the Trump administration’s child internment centers in the Southwest. Her sign showed the faces of local victims of the crackdown on illegal immigration: three Vermont dairy workers who had been arrested last month after shopping at Walmart.…
Eat This Week, July 10 to 16, 2019: If You Got ‘Em, Fry ‘Em
Maple Wind Farm is hosting a fried chicken dinner at its Richmond farm on Friday, July 12. The main course, chicken pasture-raised on the premises, will be served with salads, corn bread, lemonade and ice cream cones for dessert. Vegetarian options are available.
Hackie: Sammy Living Large
Sammy Smith was on a mission in which I was to play a bit part: driving him and his sister from the Grand Isle ferry dock to catch a plane at Burlington Airport. It is a rare trip that qualifies as a “mission,” but I’d say the journey he had described when he booked my…
Theater Review: ‘I and You,’ Weston Playhouse
Weston Playhouse’s flexible second stage at Walker Farm is an ideal venue for an intimate two-character play, and Lauren Gunderson’s 2013 I And You offers two chewy teenage roles and a fascinating situation. At Friday’s preview performance, the delightful storm of witty banter was sometimes flying a little too fast to register, until the story…
Art Review: ‘The Geometric Exercises of Helen Matteson,’ BigTown Gallery
At BigTown Gallery in Rochester, a small exhibit offers a tantalizing glimpse into the work of an artist who pursued her discipline to great depth in relative isolation. “The Geometric Exercises of Helen Matteson” comprises 16 works by the artist. A relative unknown, she was born in Chicago in 1925 and died in Thetford in…
Theater Review: ‘The 39 Steps,’ Saint Michael’s Playhouse
In popular culture, plenty of stories hop art forms; for example, books are adapted into movies or plays or Hulu series. But The 39 Steps might just take the prize, if there were one, for Story With the Most Adaptations Into Something Else. Scottish writer John Buchan’s original tale was serialized in a British magazine…
Letters to the Editor (7/10/19)
Cop Out [Re Off Message: “‘Did You Just Swear at Me?’ Bodycam Captured Violent Encounter With Burlington Cop,” July 3]: Frankly, I am appalled that a “trained” police officer behaved in the same manner a punk or hoodlum behaves when challenged — in this case, by an old, out-of-shape, fat man who, even if his…
Prosecutor, Politician … Priest? Bram Kranichfeld Pursues a Higher Calling
Bram Kranichfeld was having a rough go of it in May 2017 when his pastor approached him with an unexpected proposition. “I said, ‘I think you’re called to be a priest,'” recalled Jeanne Finan, then the dean and rector of the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, the Episcopal congregation in Burlington. “I just felt that…
Exploring the Wonders of the Montréal International Jazz Festival
Fantasy author Vera Nazarian once mused, “If music is a place, then jazz is the city.” She might have been talking about Montréal. Just 90 miles north of Burlington lies Québec’s vibrant, island metropolis, nearly Manhattan-like in its diverse urban rhythms. Montréal is the world’s fourth-largest francophone city, according to the Rand McNally World Atlas,…
Quick Lit: ‘Me, Myself and Him’ by Chris Tebbetts
There was a time when most of the pop-culture stories told about LGBTQ teens were coming-out stories, or had tragic endings, or both. Happily, that’s no longer the case. On the heels of the upbeat rom-com Love, Simon (based on a popular young-adult book) comes Chris Tebbetts’ highly entertaining YA novel Me Myself and Him,…
In East Middlebury, Brown Novelty Company Winds Down
Behind Otter Creek Engineering in East Middlebury, a six-acre chunk of property stretches down to the bank of the Middlebury River. Blink and you might miss it from the road, but this was once a place where water from the juncture of river and millpond breathed life into a raucous assemblage of heavy metal machinery.…
New Play Highlights Growing Up LGBTQ in Rural Vermont
The spring of 2020 will mark two decades since same-sex partners in Vermont gained the right to a civil union. Twenty years is, perhaps, enough time to forget that the fight for these rights was politically acrimonious and downright scary for LGBTQ people, particularly in rural parts of the state. The slogan “Take back Vermont,”…
Soundbites: Grand Point North Local Band Contest; Highlight Seeks Proposals
Hey, Mister DJ Did you catch last week’s music scene survey? Once in a while, we like to poll prominent members of the local music community on various topics. Last week’s piece focused on DJs and whether or not they take requests. Answers were varied and detailed. If you didn’t see it, try to scrounge…
Lit Club Open Mic Brings Poetry to Monday Nights
Soft yellow light bathes Meg Reynolds as she steps onto the stage at the Light Club Lamp Shop in Burlington. Her hair is half pulled back, and bangs fall across her eyebrows. She adjusts her glasses, and then leans into the microphone. “It’s time for poetry,” she says. “Let’s hear it for poetry.” The audience…
I’m Bisexual; Why Are My Standards Higher for Women Than Men?
Dear Reverend, So I’m gonna go ahead and throw it out there that I already know I’m bisexual. However, I’m kinda confused as to why I’m more likely to wind up in a relationship with a guy when I’m way more attracted to women. On the other hand, I’m also way more picky when it…
The Tenor Remains Elusive in Ron Howard’s Doc ‘Pavarotti’
Few things are as sublime as the voice of legendary tenor Luciano Pavarotti. Fewer still are as dryly dull to non-buffs as opera. That, in a nutshell, is the problem that Ron Howard struggles with but ultimately fails to overcome in his latest documentary. The singer made history (and a fortune) liberating music from the…
Obituary: Marie Lorenzini, 1964-2019
It is with great sadness that the family of Marie (Gaudreault) Lorenzini of Essex Junction, Vt., announces her passing, at age 54, on July 4, 2019, at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Mass. Marie was born on September 1, 1964, in Montréal, Canada. Her family moved to the United States in 1969, settling in Barre,…
18 Elm in Waterbury Creates Community at the Table
If Eric Warnstedt tells you he’s winging it, take it with a grain of salt. But don’t sprinkle any on his food. Just grab the fare and eat. These are the words that Warnstedt, a top Vermont chef, spoke — “We’re just wingin’ it” — as he dumped a pot of shrimp and corn on…
Sampling Burlington’s New Vietnamese Street Food at Pho Son
My grandmother always said, “Have a hot cup of tea, dear; it will cool you down.” The same thinking applies to a steaming bowl of pho on a hot summer day, right? That’s what I was hoping as I sat down at air-conditioned Pho Son on a humid 85-degree day last week. Burlington’s newest Vietnamese…
Barre’s Historic Rise Up Bakery Hires Baker Jim Haas
History is getting closer to repeating itself as Barre’s historic Rise Up Bakery moves into the final stages of its restoration project. Nearly four years of fundraising and construction have gone into bringing the bakery, built in 1913 by granite workers and closed since 1943, back to its original use. “The building was a brick…
Stowe’s PK Coffee Expanding to Waterbury This Fall
A second location of the Stowe-based café and bakery PK Coffee will open in early fall at 40 Foundry Street in Waterbury. “We’re very excited,” said co-owner Katrina Veerman, who opened her Stowe coffee shop with co-owner Matt Carrell in 2016. “I started looking for a space in Waterbury four years ago, before we opened…
