It’s not news that Burlington has a parking problem — though, according to city officials, the bad reputation is somewhat undeserved. So why write about it now? Because, based on a consultant’s report and several studies under way, the Weinberger administration and a coalition of private stakeholders are actually trying to make some changes. Expect…
Margaret (Peggy) Cecilia Winger, 84, of Burlington Vermont passed away on Sunday, June 8, 2014 in her residence at Starr Farm Nursing Center. She was born on May 9, 1930 in Oil City Pennsylvania to Francis and Theresa Messina. Peggy was pre-deceased by her husband, Howard Glenn Winger (1984). She was a very dedicated and…
Phyllis McGovern Soule, 95 a resident of Fairfax, VT. passed away on Monday, June 2, 2014. Phyllis was born in Richmond, VT July 10, 1918, the daughter of Thomas James McGovern and Florence Berry McGovern, proud, second generation Irish immigrants whom she dearly loved. Phyllis was fortunate to know and appreciate her paternal and maternal…
(WeePop! Records, vinyl) For about the last 20 years or so, songwriter Colin Clary has been one of Burlington’s defining musical voices. He’ll likely never be as synonymous with the Queen City or Vermont music as, say, Phish or Grace Potter. But you’d be hard-pressed to find a local writer whose output has been as…
A casual observer wouldn’t know that Donna Robinson was breaking the law as she drove her purple PT Cruiser in Royalton on a May morning. But John Helfant is not a casual observer. He is a sergeant with the Vermont State Police, and he knew that Robinson’s driver’s license was suspended. Helfant stopped Robinson, took…
(Self-released, CD, digital download) There’s something to be said for simplicity. The debut album from Martha Seyler and Robert Resnik is titled about as simply as it could be: Martha Sings & Robert Plays. And over the course of 42 minutes and 13 standards from the American Songbook, that’s almost precisely what happens. Seyler sings,…
Shame on Turks Hmmm. Wonder if so many dignitaries would be celebrating a German cultural center if Germany denied the Jewish Holocaust [Off Message: “All-Star Cast Celebrates Turkish Group’s New Headquarters,” May 21]. We must never forget that the Ottoman Empire, the predeccessor state to the Turkish government, systematically exterminated more than one million Armenians…
Music has been described as the language that unifies us all. And indeed, many can relate to its beneficial qualities. But it’s not every day that we look to an instrument to heal. On its website, the American Music Therapy Association lists different ways that clinical music therapy can help people with medical issues, from…
I should probably watch “Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey” to learn more about black holes. I’d like to write that Seth MacFarlane is a human black hole sucking all the talent from the universe, but I’m not sure that’s how black holes work. Here are a few things I do know about the disproportionately gifted actor,…
Following a thrilling opening weekend, the 2014 Burlington Discover Jazz Festival is in high gear as fans bop, bebop and post-bop around town to the jazzy sounds emanating from practically every pore of the Queen City. Burlington is alive with music this week, so much so that you can barely leave the house without tripping…
Hollywood execs used to say a female protagonist couldn’t carry a big movie. Then came The Hunger Games and the Twilight series and Alice in Wonderland and Frozen. Maleficent, essentially a film about a middle-aged woman’s regrets and her cheekbones, grossed nearly $170 million worldwide last weekend. It’s nice to see the tide turn, but…
“What about genocide? Is that not a haunted book we carry?” asks poet Estefania Puerta at the beginning of her first collection, Naturalization, published by Honeybee Press. Honeybee, the Queen City’s purveyor of local artisanal literature, has published books by several Vermont-based poets, including Robert McKay, Edie Rhoads, Nicholas Spengler and the press’s founder, Benjamin…
Kayaks, fishing poles and swimsuits are the stuff of Vermont’s much-celebrated summers. But now they’re a point of contention in a bid to close Berlin Pond to recreational use over concerns for Montpelier’s water supply. Berlin Pond is nestled next to Vermont’s capital city. The 256-acre pond attracts walkers, bikers and bird-watchers to its scenic…
On his way to shoot John Lennon in December 1980, Mark David Chapman stops to sit under a tree. Lennon himself once “courted the sentiments of this ancient tree” by meditating beneath it. But the beech, a survivor of the harsh urbanscape, couldn’t care less about the icon or his soon-to-be assassin. As Chapman strides…
Chapin Spencer, Burlington’s director of the Department of Public Works, holds a coil of plastic tubing and gushes about upgrades to the city’s water lines — some of which, he says, date back to the Civil War. Earlier, standing in the DPW garage on Pine Street, he proudly recounted how DPW mechanics discovered a faulty…
So are we having fun yet? The 2014 Burlington Discover Jazz Festival is well under way. And from what I’m told about last weekend’s opening festivities, the fest hit the ground with both feet running. I was away at a wedding and missed the first chunk, but I’ve heard wonderful things about numerous shows from…
Nate Wildfire often tells people, “Parking is emotional.” As assistant director of Burlington’s Community and Economic Development Office (CEDO), he should know. In recent months, Wildfire has been asking downtown business owners, arts organizations, neighborhood groups and members of the faith community how they feel about parking in Burlington. The question rarely evokes warm and…
Curses, Foiled Again Police charged Luke David Payne, 36, with holding up the same Louisville, Ky., doughnut shop twice in one week. The first time Payne wore a mask, police said, but the second time he skipped the mask, and all the employees recognized him as a coworker. (Louisville’s WAVE-TV) Unclear on the Concept Intent…
Few forms in the design world are as iconic as the Airstream, that curved, aluminum-clad camping trailer from 1930s America. So when the board of the Vermont chapter of the American Institute of Architects was pondering ways to make the profession of architecture more visible to the public during its last annual retreat, it’s no…
Dear Athena, I find myself in a strange position. There’s a girl whom I worked alongside in a restaurant for a number of years. I never paid her any special mind until she gave me an overview of her life, which has some very tragic elements to it, and I realized what an amazing person…
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5/31/14: The 26th Annual New England ISA (International Society of Arboriculture) Tree Climbing Championship was held in Oakledge Park in Burlington on a sunny Saturday. The unique event was hosted by the Burlington Parks and Recreation Department and Branch Out Burlington. About 36 professional arborists from around New England competed in a variety of climbing…
ARIES (March 21-April 19): “We are born with whirlwinds, forest fires and comets inside us,” writes novelist Robert R. McCammon. “We are born able to sing to birds and read the clouds and see our destiny in grains of sand. But then we get the magic educated right out of our souls. We get it…
Three busloads of donors arrived at the Bruce Museum of Arts and Sciences in Greenwich, Conn., last Wednesday night to mingle with four governors over cocktails. They were there, the Connecticut Post reported, to kick off a two-day fundraising retreat for the Democratic Governors Association. Along with Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy, Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley…
North Avenue, one of Burlington’s busiest north-south thoroughfares, presents a challenge for the law-abiding bicyclist. A cyclist pedaling north from downtown to, say, Burlington College has a well-marked bike lane that provides safety and guidance. However, a cyclist headed south through the same neighborhood will find a bike path that, around the intersection with Washington…
Breaking every rule in camping, my husband and I cooked once inside our tent. Outside, a summer storm rattled our walls and rained down in gusty sheets as lightning flashed overhead and thunder cracked all around us. After boiling Annie’s macaroni in a saucepan with mini cheese bratwursts, we enjoyed steaming bowls of pasta studded…
Christopher Durang is having a moment. Again. Or maybe it’s more accurate to say that regional theaters across the country — including Vermont’s Lost Nation Theater, Vermont Stage Company and the Weston Playhouse Theatre Company — are having a Christopher Durang moment. Those three Vermont companies chose to stage shows by the Pennsylvania-based playwright this…
“We had a guy really weirded out by his Reuben sandwich,” says Ben Eichenberger, chef-partner at Blue Collar Bistro. “It wasn’t that pink color, because it didn’t have any sodium nitrate in it. It’s going to take a little bit to get people used to the house-cured stuff.” The restaurant opened at 82 Margaret Street…
If you’ve driven your car into downtown Burlington any time in the last decade, there’s a good chance you’ve met Chris Farnsworth. His even-tempered friendliness enlivens the otherwise unexciting Marketplace parking garage, where he’s been an attendant since 2004. Like some 20 other parking attendants employed by the City of Burlington, Farnsworth, 37, works shifts…
Big Fatty’s BBQ put some south in the mouths of Burlingtonians for the last time on May 31, after seven years on Main Street. According to general manager and co-owner Brandon Fox, the combined pressures of running the restaurant’s White River Junction location and Maple Street Catering were too much for him to handle while…
A sizable selection of works from the Shelburne Museum’s American art collection returned to public display last week after an absence of many years. A portion of the 540 paintings acquired by museum founder Electra Havemeyer Webb had long been housed in a gallery on the museum’s grounds that opened in 1960, the year of…
Maybe Vermont doesn’t need another beer festival in a summer already saturated with suds. Then again, maybe Hop Jam, slated for Saturday, August 30, at Bolton Valley Resort, will be the beery festival Vermont didn’t know it needed. The fest has a strong musical contingent, but also a serious beer focus. “It’s definitely going to…
Good or bad first impressions are based on quick judgment, with no room for nuance or doubt. So perhaps it’s appropriate that an exhibit titled “Impressions” would be all black and white, the tones with the most extreme contrast. But curator Kerri Macon at Vermont Metro Gallery no doubt chose the works on view for…
Diana Jean Carruthers, devoted wife of Paul Carruthers and devoted mother to Paige Elizabeth and Emily Renee, passed away May 29th in Fletcher-Allen Hospital. Diana was born January 17, 1969 and was 45. Diana is survived by her husband Paul, daughters Paige and Emily and her adored English Bulldog Easton. She leaves her brothers Dwight…
Few foods are as emotionally satisfying as a perfect waffle. Jack Pickett and Joshua Bard know that much. At their new Stowe restaurant, Phoenix Table and Bar, the pair formerly behind Frida’s Taqueria and Grill treat diners to not one but two excellent waffle dishes. The pair’s waffle is at once savory and just a…
By Sunday, just three bottles remained. Last weekend, Burlington’s Simple Roots Brewing made a smashing debut at Burlington and Winooski farmers markets, blowing through about 250 bottles of beer in tastings and sales between the two locations. This weekend, the brewers will be back with their American Dream cream ale, a bright, refreshing brew made…
