Jul 7-13, 2021
In the F-35’s Flight Path, Vermonters’ Lives Have Changed; At Thunder Road, Normalcy Reigns; Camila Carrillo Took an Offbeat Path to a Burgeoning Winemaking Career
Cover Story
Sound Effects: In the F-35’s Flight Path, Vermonters’ Lives Have Changed
A sudden roar announced that the military jets were taking to the sky again. Julia Parise’s son had developed a routine for whenever this happened: He would look to his mother and assess whether it was “one of them” — the F-35 fighter jets that had become such a constant presence in his young life — before…
Obituary: Adele Eells Pierce, 1921-2021
The founder of Middlebury’s Fire & Ice restaurant was also honored by the governor for her community service
Obituary: Elizabeth “Libby” Kunz, 1946-2021
Colchester woman cultivated precious memories with her family and leaves behind a legacy of laughter
In Memoriam: Richard L. “Dick” Lefebvre, 1948-2020
A Mass in celebration of the life of Dick Lefebvre, who died August 6, 2020, will be held at St. Joseph’s Cathedral in Burlington on Saturday, July 31, 2021 at 11 a.m. Family members and friends are invited to attend.
Ivamae’s Long Road to Making Her Record
As she twirls chopsticks over a plate at Pho Hong, Brittany Mae comes to a conclusion: “It’s all about nourishment,” the 32-year-old Burlington musician and onetime farmer suggests. An unforgiving sun beats down on a brutally hot day, but Mae’s eyes widen behind her sunglasses as she reflects on her two loves — food and…
Remi Russin, ‘Math for Poets’
(self-released, digital) My grandfather, Henry, was not an overly musical person, at least not in my company. So I only really have one memory of talking with him about music. I was a grown man, and he was in his twilight years, and I was driving him to my parents’ house. Disintegration by the Cure…
Philip David Stern, ‘Stone Crossed (Studio Concept Album)’
(Broadway Records, digital) Writing a musical is no easy feat. It’s simple enough to come up with a concept, and some composers may even venture as far as to write a song or two. But to write an entire work takes an immense level of commitment and talent. To then get that musical into workshops…
Why Doesn’t Burlington Have More Rooftop Restaurants?
When the Oktay family moved their restaurant, Istanbul Kebab House, to Burlington in 2014, they landed in the former Das Bierhaus at 175 Church Street. They considered the building’s rooftop dining area “a bonus,” co-owner Jackie Oktay said. The small third-floor terrace with views of the stately Chittenden County courthouse and lower Church Street allows…
Who Buys More Sex Toys, Men or Women?
Dear Reverend, Who buys more sex toys, men or women? Do men buy more because they don’t have a woman or they’re not getting enough to satisfy themselves? Or do women buy more because they don’t have a man? Or do men and women buy them evenly? Fore Playa (male, 65) Dear Fore Playa, In…
Art Review: Katrine Hildebrandt-Hussey, Soapbox Arts
Boston-based artist Katrine Hildebrandt-Hussey introduces “Vessel,” her solo show currently at Soapbox Arts in Burlington, with a confessional artist statement. She produced the work in the show over the past year, she writes, as a way to overcome the depression she has felt over a lifetime and particularly during the pandemic. In her words, “The…
East Calais Joins Towns Determined to Rejuvenate Their Community’s Gathering Place
East Calais residents watched with concern for years as their 170-year-old general store struggled to survive before it closed altogether in 2019. “It was basically running on empty,” said Melissa Brough Marshall, who lives nearby. She said the woman who was managing it had trouble keeping supplies on the shelves. “She had basically run out…
A Ferry Company’s Planned Facility Sails Into a Storm in the Champlain Islands
Lake Champlain Transportation is facing stiff headwinds on two development projects as it seeks to shift some of its maintenance operations from the Burlington waterfront to its ferry crossing in rural Grand Isle. In Burlington, the company has proposed razing several maintenance buildings at its King Street ferry dock and replacing them with a sleek…
A Twitter Thread Inspired Irreverent Dark Comedy ‘Zola’
Our streaming entertainment options are overwhelming — and this week, instead of exploring them, I visited Burlington’s reopened Merrill’s Roxy Cinemas. In the same screening room where I saw my last pre-pandemic movie (Emma), I watched Zola, a hit at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and perhaps the first-ever film based on a Twitter thread.…
Ode to Combustion: At Thunder Road, Normalcy Reigns
Every Thursday night between June and August, like moths flocking around football stadium lights, a few thousand people swarm the slopes overlooking the Thunder Road International Speedbowl to singe themselves on the spectacle of barely avoided calamity. The cars — and their drivers, with folk-ballad names such as Neal “Tetanus” Foster and Kaiden “Tropical Storm”…
Spectrum Director Mark Redmond’s New Memoir Traces His Path to Serving Troubled Youth
In 1981, Mark Redmond walked away from a high-paying management training program at Metropolitan Life Insurance in New York City and accepted a live-in position at Covenant House, a shelter for runaway and homeless teens in Times Square. His stipend for working full time in the roach-infested shelter during the city’s raging crack cocaine epidemic:…
Sinking a Slur: A Charlotte Yacht Club Rebrands
A Charlotte-based boat association has thrown its old name overboard. Known for 40 years as the Royal Savage Yacht Club, the nonprofit org is now the Diamond Island Yacht Club. The former name was in honor of a 50-foot schooner that sailed in the Revolutionary War. Originally built by the British, the Royal Savage was…
From the Publisher: Brain Drain
I’ve had some bad migraine headaches in the last 40 years, but none like the one that sent me to the emergency room on April 13. The first sign of it — a fuzzy line through my field of vision — came just before dinner, but I soldiered on through the meal because it was my birthday.…
Free Will Astrology (7/7/21)
CANCER (June 21-July 22): Cancerian author Vladimir Mayakovsky wrote a poem about how one morning he went half-mad and conversed with the sun. At first he called the supreme radiance a “lazy clown,” complaining that it just floated through the sky for hours while he, Mayakovsky, toiled diligently at his day job painting posters. Then…
Life Stories: Marty Morrissey ‘Was Just So Easy to Be Around’
The traditional Irish folk tune “Work o’ the Weavers” honors overlooked textile workers whose efforts clothe people of all stripes. It echoes the tradespeople’s quiet dignity, highlights their versatility and underscores their value. The chorus proclaims, “If it wasn’a for the weavers / What would you do / You wouldn’a hae the cloth made oot…
Book Review: ‘Seen From All Sides: Lyric and Everyday Life’ by Sydney Lea
Parents: If your child keeps a decapitated copperhead snake suspended in a jar of alcohol on their bedside table, they just might grow up to be a poet. In Newbury writer Sydney Lea’s case, he grew up to be a Vermont poet laureate and the author of more than 20 volumes of verse and prose.…
Dancer Kevin McKenzie Looks Back on a Remarkable Career, Onstage and Off
Kevin McKenzie’s dance career got off to a shaky start. The Burlington native was 6 years old when his father suggested he tag along with a friend who was taking tap lessons. “Who knows, you could be the next Fred Astaire,” McKenzie remembers him saying. Not so much. A few weeks later, young Kevin demonstrated…
Outgoing Vermont Council on Rural Development Leader Has Helped Invigorate Small-Town Life
Paul Costello won’t like this column. He’ll think it’s too focused on him and not enough on the thousands of people whom his organization, the Vermont Council on Rural Development, has worked with during his 21 years as executive director. He’ll say the spotlight should be on the local leaders and volunteers who put in…
Letters to the Editor (7/7/21)
Humor, Anyone? I just read “Offensive Lines?,” your introductory note to the June 30 issue, and was appalled to learn that cartoonist Tim Newcomb had been so severely taken to task for daring to depict — in totally innocuous fashion — three women, one a person of color, in one of his political drawings. As…
Obituary: Sean P. Mahoney, 1948-2021
Social worker provided care and kindness to people with disabilities
Grilling the Chef: Sean Richards Puts His Spin on a Reopened ArtsRiot
Chef Sean Richards Position: Chef and kitchen manager at ArtsRiot Location: Burlington Age: 38 Cuisine type: International street food with a farm-to-table twist Education: New England Culinary Institute Experience: Blackberry Farm and Knox Mason in Tennessee; cooking on tour buses for musicians; chef at Philo Ridge Farm; executive chef at the Inn at Round Barn…
Japanese Pop-Up Kitsune Heads to Burlington
A Stowe pop-up that serves Japanese food will make its debut at the Burlington Farmers Market on July 24. The mobile eatery, Kitsune, is run by chef Matt Hiebsch and his wife, Alina Alter. It serves a rotating menu of Japanese-inspired casual cuisine, including yakitori (skewered meats grilled over charcoal), donburi (rice bowls) and hiyashi…
Front Seat Coffee Parks on Johnson Green
Front Seat Coffee has opened a coffee truck in Johnson, bringing proper cappuccinos, homemade baked goods and Local Donut sweets to a town that has been without a coffee shop for more than two years. Owner and “head croissant roller” Tobin Porter said that community interest — and one doughnut deliverer in particular — made…
Camila Carrillo’s Offbeat Path to a Burgeoning Winemaking Career
When winemaker Camila Carrillo closed on her own property in New Haven this spring, one of the first things she did was bring her dog, Blue, and her mother, Sandra, out for a Mother’s Day picnic. They went to the middle of the field, set up lawn chairs and a lovely spread, sat back, and…
The Magnificent 7: Must See, Must Do, July 7 to 13
Hooked on Fishing Saturday 10 Newbies wade into the art of fly-fishing during Trout Day at Sugarbush Resort in Warren. Curious about casting? It’s covered. Figuring out fly-tying? Take notes during demos. Looking to understand the basics of the sport? Chat with a local guide. A raffle, vendors, and food and drink from Umbrella Bar…
