Jul 15-21, 2015
Summer of Sanders: Bern-Storming the Midwest With Vermont’s Favorite Son; Proposed Project Roils Randolph; Poopy Water: Why Don’t We Know Sooner?; Standup Guy Trevor Noah in Vermont
Cover Story
‘Summer of Sanders’: Bern-Storming the Midwest
Two weeks ago, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) became impossible to ignore. As 10,000 people cheered and chanted his name, the 73-year-old senator summited a stage in a Madison, Wis., arena and took his place behind a wooden podium. He raised his right arm to wave at a sea of supporters and embraced his wife, Jane,…
Obituary: Jay Burr, 1949-2015
Singer, songwriter and musician, Jay Burr, widely known for his performances with the Pure Pressure Band passed peacefully on Tuesday morning, July 14, 2015. His death was attributed to a cardiac infection following a long illness with polycystic kidney disease. He was born in Patrick, SC in 1949. An avid Redskins fan, Jay grew up…
Wild Heirs: Former Sanderistas Reveal What They Learned From Bernie
As mayor of Burlington, congressman and U.S. senator, Bernie Sanders has attracted idealistic, ambitious employees for decades. Some, such as Dave Sirota and Danielle LeClair, went on to work for politicians in other places; former intern Alyssa Mastromonaco was President Barack Obama’s deputy chief of staff before she became chief operating officer at Vice Media.…
News Quirks (7/15/15)
Curses, Foiled Again British police recovered a stolen car in Middleton when the two suspects tried driving it into the police station parking garage. Surveillance footage shows the 25-year-old and 26-year-old men thwarted by the security gate but unable to back up because two police vans were waiting behind them. Thinking the vans were pursuing…
Questionable Company, Questionable Company
(Self-released, CD, digital download) While some local acts gravitate toward the psychedelic end of funk, newcomers Questionable Company offer a more soulful, folk-influenced version. The Burlington trio is composed of bassist Max Guyton, drummer Andy Feltus and vocalist Emma Cook, who also plays keys and guitar. Cook’s vocals largely define Questionable Company’s lifting, expressive sound,…
Little Randolph Is Divided Over a Massive Development Proposal
Charlie Sjobeck lives at the end of a two-mile dirt road in Randolph, a town that still doesn’t have a traffic light. Though Interstate 89 runs alongside his property, the place feels cut off from the outside world. Sjobeck likes it that way, but he knows things might soon change. His land is at the…
Aleck Woogmaster and Ivy Estelle, Sticks in the Mud
(Self-released, CD, digital download) Back when Aleck Woogmaster was terrorizing open mics here in Vermont, he was capable of completely silencing a crowd. That is not necessarily a compliment. In the predominantly progressive Green Mountains, his gut-level rants and brutal imagery would often leave the audience looking like someone had just announced a bomb threat.…
Seize Them! Testing a New Weapon in Rutland’s Drug War
Brittany Piper stood on the front porch of her apartment on Park Avenue in Rutland, watching her two young sons play in the front yard. She pointed to a garden, where she recently found a syringe, and then to a house next door and two more across the street. Every once in a while, she…
The Gallows
OK, it’s official: Worst Movie of the Year. Sure, there are lots of months left on the 2015 calendar, but it’s simply inconceivable that a studio will release a more derivative, witless, ineptly crafted or cynically conceived piece of cinematic manure than The Gallows between now and the night the big ball drops. How to…
Letters to the Editor (7/15/15)
Good Run Thank you so much for Ken Picard and Paul Laud’s cartoon about Flo Meiler, Barb Jordan and Bill Nedde [“Silver and Gold: Flo Meiler and Barbara Jordan,” July 8]. Bill was the assistant track coach under the legendary Archie Post my first two years at UVM. When my wife and I returned to Vermont…
Minions
For those who don’t watch TV or frequent chain stores or Facebook, here’s the real backstory of the Minions. Five years ago, these pencil-eraser-esque, googly-eyed, gibberish-spouting creatures were entertaining side characters in an above-average family flick called Despicable Me. Small children took so much pleasure in the Minions’ antics as they served (and often chaotically…
![Cocktail Walk in Winooski [SIV405]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sevendaysvt.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/episode405.webp?resize=1200%2C900&ssl=1)
Cocktail Walk in Winooski [SIV405]
6/11/15: Twice a month, cocktail lovers take a walk in either Burlington or Winooski. Stopping at 3 restaurants to sample Vermont made bitters and spirits which are artfully combined into different creations by the bartenders at each spot. During the two hour walk, there is time to meet the makers of the featured alcohol, sample…
Win Tickets to Lewis Black
Live Nation in conjunction with Festival of Fools presents: Lewis Black, The Rant is Due: Part Deux Friday, July 31 at 8 p.m. Flynn MainStage The deadline to enter is Wednesday, July 29 at noon. Click here for more information Enter to Win Fill out my online form. var mjbydpt1v5io83;(function(d, t) { var s =…
Book Review: Some Slow Bees by Carol Potter
Despite its evocative title, Some Slow Bees is not a book about colony collapse. Instead, Corinth resident Carol Potter’s fifth collection of poems explores jokes, katydids, lizards and, yep, bees — slow bees, Do Bees and Don’t Bees. And, as pollinators do in both literature and life, those busy creatures ultimately reveal clues about where…
Win Tickets to Lewis Black
Lewis Black The Rant is Due: Part Deux Friday, July 31 at 8 p.m. Flynn MainStage Enter Below Fill out my online form. var mjbydpt1v5io83;(function(d, t) { var s = d.createElement(t), options = { ‘userName’:’dacapopub’, ‘formHash’:’mjbydpt1v5io83′, ‘autoResize’:true, ‘height’:’914′, ‘async’:true, ‘host’:’wufoo.com’, ‘header’:’show’, ‘ssl’:true}; s.src = (‘https:’ == d.location.protocol ? ‘https://’ : ‘http://’) + ‘www.wufoo.com/scripts/embed/form.js’; s.onload =…
Soundbites: Duke Aeroplane Returns; Precipice Fest, Too
Young at Heart It’s a particularly big week on the local music scene, highlighted by Neil Young and Promise of the Real at the Champlain Valley Exposition this Sunday, July 19. Of course, given the now-infamous furor over ticketing for that show, unless you stood in line for 14 hours at the Flynn Box Office…
Fanboys Hit the Shows: Taylor Swift, Def Leppard, ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic
When it comes to music, beauty is in the ear of the beholder. We all have different tastes and preferences, which is one reason why being a fan is so much fun. But most of us follow certain artists with shades drawn, as it were — perhaps because they’re not “cool,” or because they’re over…
Dunne Deal: A Not-Quite-Candidate Raises Big Campaign Cash
Former senator Matt Dunne hasn’t declared his candidacy for governor yet, but he’s already raised more than $134,000 to support an almost-certain campaign. The Hartland Democrat says he started hitting up his Rolodex a week ago Monday and has already collected contributions from more than 100 donors. “Over the last 10 days, we’ve been reaching…
Vermont Muslims Strengthen Ties During Ramadan
Less than an hour before sunset on July 4, Malyun Kassim arrived at the Colchester mosque with trays loaded with 500 homemade beef samosas. The food wasn’t for an Independence Day potluck but for iftar, the evening meal during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims break their day-long fast. “This is sadaqa” —…
Burlington City Councilors Stand By Their Man: Del Pozo Is New Police Chief
Brandon del Pozo’s remarkable résumé is what convinced a selection committee to choose him as Burlington’s next police chief. Outcry over the same CV is also what brought about 130 people to Monday’s Burlington City Council meeting to argue whether the panel should affirm the Dartmouth College-educated, New York City Police Department alum as the Queen City’s…
Opinion: Now It’s Women’s Turn
Let’s not forget. This happened, too: While defense-of-marriage acts were failing or falling in state after state — and fell, nationally and finally, on June 26 in the U.S. Supreme Court case Obergefell v. Hodges — legislators were hammering together what the Guttmacher Institute called “a lattice work of abortion law, codifying, regulating and limiting…
Comedian Jamie Kilstein on Music, Liberal Racism and Bernie
Jamie Kilstein is like a punk-rock standup comedian, and not solely because he recently opened for punk icons Bad Religion. He’s a comedic renegade whose brash, unflinching political rants have gotten him invited to perform on — and sometimes uninvited from, canceled and booed off — some of the grandest stages on the planet. Those…
Bridge Street Butchery Reopens in Waitsfield
Meat eaters in the Mad River Valley will be pleased to know that, after a three-month hiatus, Waitsfield’s Bridge Street Butchery reopened on July 15 in a new location, 100 Mad River Green, and with a pared-down name: the Butchery. Chef-owner Jeff Lynn, a graduate of the New England Culinary Institute, will continue to offer…
A New Book Documents Restored Theater Curtains
In 1900, the O.L. Story Scenic Company, a Somerville, Mass., outfit that painted scenes on stage curtains, promised in an advertising pamphlet that its products would last “with good care from 12 to 15 years.” This seems about right for 10-by-18-foot spans of cotton muslin primed with handmade glue and painted with water-soluble paints. Depicting…
Art Review: Jean Luc Dushime, BCA Center
Rwanda has made a remarkable recovery from the 1994 genocide that ended an estimated 800,000 lives. The central African country, almost exactly the size of Vermont with almost 20 times the population, has been resurrected as a stable — and repressive — state with a dynamic economy. But, of course, survivors do not forget a…
An International Dance Musical Gets a Little Dirty
Last week in the tiny town of Acworth, N.H., a cross-cultural group of dancers was fine-tuning its moves for an upcoming performance titled Good Dirt: An International Folk Musical. A collaboration of University of Vermont associate professor of dance Paul Besaw and his wife, Kim Chong Ho, the piece features dancers from the U.S. and…
My Husband’s Oral Technique Is Too Rough
Dear Athena, My husband is always interested in pleasing me. He enjoys giving oral and especially loves to play with me with his hands. I enjoy that — to an extent. I do have some problems with his enjoyment (or over-enjoyment) of these activities… When he uses his hands, he’s too rough and fast, and…
At the Drive-In With Jurassic World Director Colin Trevorrow
The blockbuster film Colin Trevorrow directed is among the most successful of all time, but he still has a sufficiently low profile that his presence at a recent screening didn’t cause much of a stir. With his untucked Oxford shirt and easygoing manner, Trevorrow isn’t the first guy in the room you’d peg to have…
WTF: Why Does the Public Hear About Sewage Spills Days After They Occur?
File this under Eww! Gross! Each year, Vermont’s municipal wastewater treatment plants dump hundreds, sometimes thousands, of gallons of raw or partially treated sewage into public waterways. Some of those spills result from equipment failures, such as malfunctioning pumps or clogged sewer lines. Others routinely occur after heavy precipitation, when storm run-off overwhelms the system’s…
Talking with ‘Daily Show’ Host-to-Be Trevor Noah
Earlier this year, Jon Stewart, the longtime host of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” announced his plans to leave. And fans around the world freaked out. Since taking over the show from original host Craig Kilborn in 1999, Stewart has carved out a role in pop culture and politics that few have occupied before him.…
Free Will Astrology (7/15/15)
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Stop Making Sense was originally the name of the film and music soundtrack produced by the Talking Heads in the 1980s, and now it is the central theme of your horoscope. I think your brain would benefit from a thorough washing. That’s why I invite you to scour it clean of…
Taste Test: Taverna Khione
When Café Shelburne opened in 1969, high cuisine was synonymous with the fine French cookery heralded by Georges Auguste Escoffier — butter-soaked escargots in white wine, potatoes gratin, coq au vin — accompanied by wines from the grand chateaux that dot the French countryside. Here in Vermont, Café Shelburne paid faithful homage to that tradition until…
Hatchet Tap and Table Opens in Richmond
Last December, Seven Days spoke with Gabriel Firman as he set out to build a casual dining experience in Richmond. Firman, armed with a dozen years of restaurant experience in Chicago, and Portland, Ore., hoped to open Hatchet Tap and Table back in March. But he soon realized the former Bridge Street Café space at…
