Jul 27 – Aug 2, 2016
The Adirondack Issue: A Peak Experience at the Ausable Club; the Upstate Craft Brew Explosion; Young Farmers Put Down Roots in Essex County, N.Y.
Obituary: Johannes Geuze, 1958-2016
Johannes (John) Geuze, age 58, passed away at the Vermont Respite House on Tuesday, July 19, 2016, after a courageous battle with brain cancer. John grew up in Waldwick, NJ. He Graduated from Waldwick H.S. and the Metropolitan Institute of Technology. In 2006, John moved to Mesa, Ariz., and worked as a business manager for…
Can a New Aerospace Company Relaunch Plattsburgh?
Plattsburgh officials have been using a lot of glowing terms lately. “Game changer,” “transformational,” “absolutely amazing” — that’s how Plattsburgh Town Supervisor Michael Cashman characterizes the July 11 announcement that a Norwegian company that uses 3D printing to manufacture aircraft parts is coming to town with 400 new jobs. Officials were similarly ebullient the week…
Sinners, by Mirror Theater, Addresses Sharia Law
Under the auspices of the Greensboro Arts Alliance & Residency, the New York-based Mirror Repertory Company has been bringing new and classic productions to the Northeast Kingdom town every summer since 2005. This year, as the Mirror Theater, the company is staging old favorites such as To Kill a Mockingbird and Annie Get Your Gun.…
Dannemora Breakout Turns the Prison Spotlight on Guards
B elow the hulking gray walls of Clinton Correctional Facility, the village of Dannemora, N.Y., bears few reminders of last summer’s chaos. Only a handful of Clinton Strong banners and fading yellow ribbons on utility poles commemorate the frantic three-week manhunt for murderers David Sweat and Richard Matt, who tunneled out of the prison known…
Bombs Away: What Happened to 12 Former Missile Silos in the North Country
Originally published June 27, 2006. In the 1960s, the Army Corps of Engineers constructed 12 intercontinental ballistic missile sites in a ring around the Air Force base in Plattsburgh — two in Vermont, 10 in New York. The military was scrambling to counter the nuclear threat from the Soviet Union, and they spared no expense.…
The Ausable Club Is a High Peaks Haven
Just off a quiet stretch of Route 73 in the Adirondack High Peaks region, a carved wooden gate opens onto a majestic mountain road. Lined with lush forest, streams and beaver dams, the well-worn dirt track leads hikers to the heart of some of the tallest mountains in New York State. At the head of…
The Adirondack Issue, 2016
We Vermonters sure do love our view across Lake Champlain — thanks, Anorthosite rock! But once a year we actually go over to New York State to see what we can find, and write about. This year we found junktastic sculpture at Edward Cornell’s Art Farm in Westport and visited young farmers who are transforming…
Hunt for the Wilderpeople
Hunt for this crazy gem from New Zealand writer-director Taika Waititi (What We Do in the Shadows). Certain to be eclipsed by big-budget sequels like the latest Ice Age and Star Trek installments, it will require driving the extra mile but reward your effort many times over. Hunt for the Wilderpeople is very likely the…
![Raftapalooza [SIV452]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sevendaysvt.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/episode452-scaled.webp?resize=1200%2C900&ssl=1)
Raftapalooza [SIV452]
7/23/16: The Fourth Annual Raftapalooza was held at Thayer Beach in Colchester Saturday. Hundreds of boaters, floaters and water enthusiasts turned out to enjoy a sunny afternoon on Lake Champlain. There was a threat of thunderstorms but it didn’t dampen the party. Raftapalooza started out as a fun gathering between friends and has grown in…
Theater Review: Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, Saint Michael’s Playhouse
The 1967 movie Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner was built on the conventions of the drawing-room comedy, so the story makes the transition to the stage easily in Todd Kreidler’s recent adaptation, now playing at Saint Michael’s Playhouse. Kreidler keeps the key lines that stars Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn and Sidney Poitier made memorable, and…
Kingdom Crust Co. Puts a New Spin on Takeout
Earlier this month, the St. Johnsbury storefront that housed Ramunto’s Brick Oven Pizza became Kingdom Crust Co. And the new pizzeria’s owners have built their menu on ingredients that are as fresh and local as possible. “We kind of figured that, if we’re going to be serving junk food, it might as well be the…
Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie
Before there was “Sex and the City,” there was “Absolutely Fabulous.” The BBC sitcom started as a 1990 sketch by comedy duo Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French and evolved into a chronicle of two hedonistic refugees from the Swinging ’60s trying desperately to keep the party going. Saunders plays Edina Monsoon, a publicist who lives…
A Westport Art Farm Cultivates Conversation
Hanging near the back door of Edward “Ted” Cornell’s blindingly white house in Westport, N.Y., is what looks like a flat, heavy flower made of rusting iron. In its former life, it was a freight-train wheel brake. Cornell worked briefly as a freight brakeman for the railroad in the 1970s. It was among the occupations…
1990s BTV Rockers Envy Reunite
The first 30 seconds of Distorted Greetings, the 1995 album by Burlington rock band Envy, could serve as a microcosm of the entire record. An arpeggiated guitar run cuts through the speakers like fine shards of glass. With crystal tones played at the edge of tempo, the opening strains of “Bloodboy” impart a pensive mood.…
Simple Roots Brewing Opens a Tasting Room
Dan Ukolowicz and Kara Pawlusiak have been brewing and bottling beer in the couple’s New North End garage since 2014. As Simple Roots Brewing, they sold their beers at farmers markets in Burlington and Winooski and stores in Chittenden County. Earlier this year, Simple Roots added three additional tanks to its three-barrel system to meet…
Craft on 9 Tap Room Opens in Fort Edward
This week, Seven Days surveys the Adirondacks’ burgeoning craft beer scene. Now it has a new addition: Craft on 9 Tap Room in Fort Edward, N.Y., a bar where coveted local craft beers wash down gastropub-inspired bites. Opened on July 1, the bar is already a watering hole for both neighborhood regulars and nature-seeking passersby.…
Theater Review: Round and Round the Garden, Weston Playhouse
An exceptional collaboration of three Vermont theaters this year is now in its final phase as Weston Playhouse offers its segment of Alan Ayckbourn’s comic trilogy The Norman Conquests. Ayckbourn constructed the plays to stand alone, and enjoying the abundant humor in Weston’s production of Round and Round the Garden doesn’t depend on having seen…
Thai BlueJeans Salesman, Isla Hormiga
(Self-released, digital download) Themes in music can be tricky. Sometimes the more insistent an artist is about stating a desired theme to their work, the more forced it comes across. For every brilliant concept album, there are countless failed narratives that musicians have tried to force upon their music. The safer bet for the composer…
Young Farmers Take Root in Essex County, N.Y.
Mace Chasm Farm sits in tiny Keeseville, N.Y., near the rugged shore of Lake Champlain and the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains. Surrounded by orchards, woods and pasture, the 125-acre livestock farm is a beautiful spot. That’s a good thing, since the young couple that owns the farm doesn’t vacation and works six and a…
Jynx Inc, Machete Medley
(Machete Ish Records, digital download) Jynx Inc have been creating hip-hop in southern Vermont for more than a decade now. Inspired by the dark, uncompromising styles of acts such as Army of the Pharaohs, Swollen Members and Jedi Mind Tricks, they’ve carved out a distinct niche in the local scene. Now core members Eyedos and…
Eleven’s a Crowd: Vacant Seats Lure Chittenden Sentate District Hopefuls
Two openings in the Chittenden district’s state Senate delegation have touched off a vigorous Democratic primary, with 11 candidates vying for six spots on the November ballot. Seven of the candidates would be new to the Senate. They are diverse in their personal experiences — if not in their political leanings. The group consists of…
The Fly
Among the least-remarked-on attractions of Shelburne Farms are the venerable dirt roads. The estate’s gracious, rustic atmosphere would be severely diminished if pavement happened. I would go so far as to employ the word “desecration.” Fortunately, I’m sure the Webb family — along with the nonprofit organization that stewards the property — would never approve…
Playing the Fool at Burlington Festival
The Roman poet Horace once wrote, “It is delightful to play the fool.” OK, actually he said, “Dulce est desipere in loco.” He had a lot of other things to say about fools, too. But Horace lived in the first century BC, so maybe his musings have no relevance to us 21st-century peeps. Or do…
Pedaling the Rail Trail in Saranac Lake
Just past noon on an overcast July weekday, a line of clacking rail cars pulled into Saranac Lake’s historic Union Depot. Through much of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th, this small brick terminal was a hub for 18 to 20 passenger trains that arrived daily on the Chateaugay Railroad from…
Soundbites: On LCMF, Manifestivus, After-Parties and Pinegrove
Remember last week when we had a brief reprieve from an epically busy summer of music? Yeah, that’s over now. I hope you enjoyed the breather, because this might be the busiest week on the local scene all year. So much so that I will once again make my annual (semi-facetious) plea to the area’s…
Jill Over Hill’? Stein Makes a Play for Bernie-or-Bust Protesters
Percolating protests in the streets of red-hot Philadelphia this week showed that a faction of die-hard Bernie Sanders supporters emphatically rejects his pragmatic version of progressive politics. The signs and chants of demonstrators in Center City, as well as the speeches they cheered in a park three miles away, conveyed contempt for both Hillary Clinton…
Art Review: Pat Steir, Helen Day Art Center
Pat Steir’s abstract paintings appear to involve as much physical dexterity as artistic sensibility. At age 76, this acclaimed descendant of the mid-20th-century avant-garde remains endowed with both attributes, as demonstrated in a video accompanying Steir’s current show at the Helen Day Art Center. The Manhattan-based artist, who also works at a studio in Stowe,…
Writers Seek Agents at Burlington Conference
“Cover your eyes,” said literary agent Katharine Sands, addressing a crowd of 60 or so in a crystal-chandeliered ballroom of the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Burlington last Saturday. When you try to sell a story you’ve written, she explained to the audience, you are facing “a void, a black hole. And you’re going to fill…
Free Will Astrology (7/27/16)
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Be alert for white feathers gliding on the wind. Before eating potato chips, examine each one to see if it bears a likeness of Rihanna or the Virgin Mary. Keep an eye out, too, for portents like robots wearing dreadlocked wigs or antique gold buttons lying in the gutter or senior…
Boo Who? It’s Bernie or Bust at the Democratic Convention
Ashley Andreas was spoiling for a fight. As she nursed an iced coffee Monday afternoon at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, the 23-year-old Wilder resident expressed hope that Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz would speak that night to kick off the party’s convention. “We’d love to have her,” Andreas said, an almost menacing tone…
I’m Afraid to Face My Ex
Dear Athena, I recently ran into an old girlfriend with whom I haven’t spoken in about nine years. When we broke up, it caught me by surprise, and I suffered for quite some time. I’m pretty sure part of me actually died. I couldn’t handle the separation aspect of it, and we stayed friends for…
Talking Addiction and Healing in New Play by Maura Campbell
Addiction is a hot topic in Vermont. In 2014, Gov. Peter Shumlin famously dedicated his entire State of the State address to the opioid epidemic; recent busts of dealers — and waiting lists at treatment facilities — indicate that the problem is still very much with us. Vermont playwright Maura Campbell wants to talk about…
In Memoriam: Benjamin Donald Wood-Lewis, 1999-2015
Benjamin Donald Wood-Lewis Sept. 17, 1999 – Aug. 5, 2015 Beloved son, brother, family, friend, student, teacher. We love and miss you every day.
Bueno y Sano Adds Location in South Burlington
For years, Will Lowry, owner of Burlington’s Bueno y Sano, has been searching for a site for a new branch of the burrito biz. He found it in South Burlington’s Blue Mall on Dorset Street. “It’s a great location,” Lowry says, citing its proximity to Healthy Living Market & Café, Trader Joe’s and South Burlington…
Tapping Into the Adirondacks’ Growing Craft Beer Market
When it comes to food and drink, Vermont’s locavore scene can feel ripe for “Portlandia”-style ridicule. Chickens here come with a pedigree, and it’s not uncommon for beer fans to journey from Boston to Greensboro and back in one day for a few bottles from Hill Farmstead Brewery. By contrast, not many restaurants across Lake…
