Jun 29 – Jul 5, 2016
Rowing Pains: Scullers and Motorboats Clash on Craftsbury Pond; Young Bernie Supporters Run for Office; The Rainbow Family Gathers in Vermont
Cover Story
Water Rights: Scullers vs. Motor Boats in Craftsbury
Thirty rowing boats embarked from three docks at the southern end of Great Hosmer Pond, then fanned out like dandelion seeds caught in a breeze. The rowers of these sculling shells, as they’re called, were students at a weeklong camp hosted by the Craftsbury Outdoor Center. Several others, including this reporter, were there for community…
Vermont Tortilla Co. Delivers First Batch
While tortillas are essential to Latin American cooking, the spicy meats, savory sauces and colorful garnishes often upstage them. “People think a tortilla is all about the stuff you put into it,” says Vermont Tortilla co-owner April Moulaert. “But I would strongly disagree.” Based in Shelburne’s Vermont Artisan Village, Moulaert and her husband, Costa Rica…
Run, Baby, Run: Young Bernie Backers Become Candidates
A handful of young Bernie Sanders supporters convened on a riverbank in White River Junction last Wednesday evening. As the burgeoning politicos grilled hot dogs and hamburgers from the local co-op, they chatted about something that doesn’t usually come up during a summer barbecue: the best techniques to identify likely voters. These Sanders followers are…
Tulsi Tea Room Closes; Grian Herbs Expands
For several years, Solenne Thompson, owner of Tulsi Tea Room in Montpelier, has been planning to return to school for nursing. This fall, her plans will come to fruition, and that means closing Tulsi as of August 1. Iris Gage, owner of Grian Herbs, which has been sharing space with the tearoom, will expand her…
Quick Lit: The General’s Barber and the Seamstress: A Polish Love Story
We’ve reviewed many titles from Wind Ridge Books over the years, so we learned with regret earlier this month that the Shelburne publisher has closed up shop after seven years in business. Not long ago, we received a book called The General’s Barber and the Seamstress: A Polish Love Story, a family history from Tereska…
Soundbites: The Best VT Albums of 2016 …So Far (Part 1)
We’re smack in the middle of 2016. And in case you haven’t noticed, a remarkable number of killer local albums were released in the year’s first half. How many, you ask? Enough that you could probably make a year-end Top 10 list just from records that have teased and pleased our ears since January. And…
Moon Worship, Book the Pops
(Raining Records, cassette, digital download) Identifying themselves by low-budget horror-movie monikers — Black Jack Cassidy, Finch, Cottonmouth and Chainsaw — the members of the experimental industrial-rock quartet Moon Worship hail from Troy, N.Y. Informed by the defiant sounds of doom metal, no-wave and psychobilly, their debut EP Book the Pops is a five-track primer in…
Painter Emilie Lee on Classical Realism
The international upswing in traditional realist painting — what’s now being called “classical realism” — has a new face in Vermont: that of Emilie Lee. The 35-year-old returned home to Vermont last November after more than a decade of studying and making art, traveling, and rock climbing. When we met, Lee was visibly delighted to…
Mister Burns, Raised Right
(Self-released, digital download) For the first half of this decade, the Lynguistic Civilians dominated Vermont hip-hop. In terms of both popularity and visibility, they’ve been Burlington’s foremost rap ambassadors and a guaranteed draw anywhere in the state. In 2016, however, the group’s future is in doubt, and founding member Mister Burns — aka Scott Lavalla…
In Burlington, Sunday Parking Could Cost You
The City of Burlington increased rates and extended paid-parking hours in the heart of downtown nearly two years ago. Encouraged by the results, city leaders are contemplating a more radical change: charging for parking on Sundays. The goal of these changes is to make it easier to find and pay for a parking space —…
Letters to the Editor (6/29/16)
‘Deadly Facts’ Bravo, Paul Heintz, for your Fair Game column [“The Gun,” June 15]! You present Exhibit A for why we need to check the background of any gun buyer and seriously reconsider a ban on assault rifles. Moreover, your article should be required reading for every Vermont lawmaker, both federal and state. That Heintz…
Truant Story: His Presidential Run Is Done, But Sanders Is Still Playing Hooky
Like a warrior returning from battle, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) reappeared in the Capitol last Monday to cast his first roll-call votes in more than five months. They were symbolically significant ones: on a series of proposals to change the nation’s gun laws in response to the recent mass shooting in Orlando, Fla. Two days later,…
LOL in MTL at the Just For Laughs Festival
Milton Berle once said, “Laughter is an instant vacation.” Here’s a way to prove him epically correct: Head to Montréal’s Just for Laughs festival, July 13 through August 1. (Anglophone comedians take over in the final week.) Now in its 34th year, this comedy extravaganza pulls in talent from around the world, including Dave Chappelle,…
Free Will Astrology (6/29/16)
CANCER (June 21-July 22): Once upon a time, weren’t you the master builder who never finished building your castle? Weren’t you the exile who wandered aimlessly while fantasizing about the perfect sanctuary of the past or the sweet safety zone of the future? Didn’t you perversely nurture the ache that arose from your sense of…
Swimming Like a Mermaid
Is it cannibalism to consider eating sardines for lunch on the day one becomes a fish? That’s the question I pondered as I fueled up for my first-ever mermaid swimming lesson. Yes, mermaid swimming. Thirty minutes after pushing the sardines aside, I found myself flipping and flopping along the side of the 82-degree indoor pool…
My Boyfriend Doesn’t Help Me Orgasm
Dear Athena, My boyfriend and I are a good couple, but I need some advice on our sex life. Most of the time he comes before me. That’s OK, but then the sex is over. He just doesn’t do anything to help me have my orgasm, and I don’t know what to do. Also, I…
Economics 101: Burlington Schools Need $65 Million in Fixes
The windows are foggy. The flooring is worn. The heating and electrical systems are jury-rigged. It’s impossible for students with disabilities to descend the stairs from the Burlington High School lobby into the school auditorium because there is no ramp, forcing some of them to take a roundabout route outside to get to assemblies and…
Undercover Story: An Intrepid Reporter Bares All at a Vermont Nudist Camp
Originally published August 7, 2002. I took a seat in the living room and quickly noted that all the chairs were draped with towels. It’s an etiquette thing. At Maple Glen Campground, virtually every surface on which you could potentially put your butt is protected by clean terrycloth. Willy and Sue went over the other…
Vermont PBS Broadcasts Two John Killacky Films
Vermont PBS audiences are in for a double feature of sorts this summer. In broadcasting the documentaries “Holding On” and “Janis Ian Live From Grand Center,” the station is presenting two exceptional samples of its renewed commitment to local programming. The films also reveal two sides of John Killacky, executive director of the Flynn Center…
A Reporter Gathers With the Rainbow Family
Last week we huddled on the side of a road high in the Green Mountain National Forest, near the entrance to the Rainbow Family of Living Light’s temporary encampment. My new friends — three twentysomethings and an aging hippie from the family — were unsure if we needed to hide our opened cans of Budweiser…
Jewish Film Fest Debuts in Stowe
Jewish film festivals are a staple in major American cities — from New York, Los Angeles and Chicago to Boston, Miami and Washington, D.C. The oldest, the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, was founded in 1980. The largest, the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival, sold more than 36,000 tickets in 2016. Starting in July, you can…
The Shallows
It takes a very special talent to talk to oneself onscreen and not look stilted or self-conscious. Skilled Shakespeareans pull it off in their soliloquies. Tom Hanks got an Oscar nomination for sharing most of his scenes in Cast Away with a volleyball. Blake Lively is a perfectly decent actor, but she’s not quite in…
Playing Tai Chi
Gosh, she looks even younger than the other girls, I thought as I watched Bik Liang walk toward me and my handheld name sign at the arrival gate. Over the past week, I had been driving Chinese university students, all female, to their summer housekeeping jobs in Stowe. For most of these young women, this…
![Steady Betty Play the Eat More Kale Fest [SIV449]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sevendaysvt.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/episode449.webp?resize=1200%2C900&ssl=1)
Steady Betty Play the Eat More Kale Fest [SIV449]
6/25/16: Mix kale, maple syrup and rocksteady – what do you get? A delicious smoothie, and this video. The first Eat More Kale Festival was held at the Morse Farm Maple Sugarworks in East Montpelier last Saturday. Spectacular views, kale pizzas and two stages kept the musical offerings plentiful and diverse. Eva met up with…
Roost Events Aims to Market Vermont Farmers
Modern farming doesn’t consist only of rising before the sun to milk cows, crouching awkwardly to drop tiny seeds into the soil or getting itchy making hay while the sun shines. These days, growers are also expected to create fetching tablescapes at farmers markets, have breezy conversations with chefs about varietals and terroir, and post…
And the Kids’ Hannah Mohan on ‘Friends Share Lovers’
Breakup songs are so prevalent in pop music that it’s hard to find fresh angles on heartache. (Yeah, yeah. Your baby done gone. We get it.) But on their new album, Northampton, Mass.-based glitter popsters And the Kids hone in on a unique, and uniquely painful, kind of romantic trauma. It’s one that will likely…
Weiner
Run, as they say, don’t walk to the nearest theater showing Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg’s spectacular new documentary. (Fortunately for Vermonters, there are two such theaters at press time, so no excuses.) Weiner is simply the most significant campaign film of our time, released at precisely the perfect moment. Never before has the intersection…
A Lyrical Not-Quite-Interview With Michael McDonald
This just in: Michael McDonald is coming to Burlington. The foggy-voiced captain of yacht rock plays the Flynn MainStage on Friday, July 1, along with his son’s band, Dylan McDonald and the Avians, and BTV expat Tommy Alexander. That news is sure to delight local fans of blue-eyed soul. Or maybe make them sweetly melancholy.…
Grilling the Chef: Middlebrook’s Adam Dosz
Chef Adam Dosz Restaurant: Middlebrook Market & Restaurant Location: Fairlee Restaurant Age: 3 years Cuisine Type: farm-to-table Selected Experience: sous chef, the Continental Mid-town, Philadelphia; sous chef, Talula’s Garden, Philadelphia; cook, Red Sage, Washington, D.C. What’s on the Menu? Changes weekly. May include Maryland crab cakes; pan-roasted duck breast with Turkish apricot and rainbow carrots;…
Drifters Café and Bar Opens in Burlington’s Old North End
Next door to Mawuhi African Market in Burlington’s Old North End, Drifters café and bar soft-opened at 156 North Winooski Avenue this Monday, June 27. From the outside, little remains of the Psychedelicatessen, which previously occupied the space. But the new café has retained its predecessor’s laid-back, welcoming vibe. Overhead, lights dangle from a birch tree,…
West African Takeout Comes to Burlington
Been craving African food in Burlington? Good news: On July 1, Patience Bannerman and her son, Prince Awhaitey, will begin offering juices, smoothies and West African takeout at their Mawuhi African Market at 160 North Winooski Avenue. Awhaitey, a Burlington High School grad and a vegan, holds a bachelor’s degree in nutrition. He returned to…
Scoop Ice Cream Shop Opens in Shelburne
It was 85 degrees last Wednesday afternoon, and Shelburne’s newest ice cream shop, the Scoop, had a steady line of customers. Located next to Archie’s Grill at 4066 Shelburne Road, the shop opened on June 10, just in time for the summer heat. Tim Williams, who has owned Archie’s Grill since early 2016 with his…
