Jun 5-11, 2019
Isolated: Three Stories of Opioid Addiction From Rural Vermont; An F-35 Preview Rattles Winooski; In Summer Concert Season, Beware the Secondary Ticket Market
Cover Story
Between a ‘Hub’ and a Hard Place: Three Stories of Opioid Addiction in Rural Vermont
In his 2015 book Chasing the Scream, journalist Johann Hari writes, “The opposite of addiction isn’t sobriety. It’s connection,” a quote I thought of often as I spoke to people for this story. From Enosburgh to Wilmington, addiction is both flourishing in isolation and creating it: in rural towns where it’s easier to get drugs…
In Memoriam: Roslyn Cristiano Payne
Roslyn Cristiano Payne died on May 21, 2019, at the age of 78. A celebration of life will be held at 1 p.m. on Saturday, June 22, at Main Street Landing in Burlington, Vt. Related Stories
Seriously: F-35PR
In this episode, F-35 public relations specialist Chad Wickrichardson details his efforts to get Burlington-area residents to embrace the next generation of fighter jet. Find out if your home is in the updated noise zone. The Seven Days news team is not involved in the creation of these videos. CREDITS Written, filmed and edited by:…
Birth: Cosmo Ravin Walter Tortes
On June 1, 2019, at Porter Medical Center, Marcy Langlais and Walter Tortes III welcomed a boy, Cosmo Ravin Walter Tortes.
Theater Review: ‘Harvey,’ the Valley Players
An invisible rabbit helps everyone in Harvey see the value of human kindness, and a community theater gives audiences and actors a way to celebrate it. Goodness isn’t hidden in Mary Chase’s Pulitzer Prize-winning comedy, but most everyone in the cast of characters has better things to do than stop to care about others, as…
Vermont Playwrights Circle Seeks ‘Fantasy’ 10-Minute Plays for Festival
It doesn’t take a mathematician to see that our culture likes to think in tens. There’s the “perfect 10” score. Thrilling 10-second countdowns for New Year’s Eve and rocket launches. Top-10 lists of just about everything. Not to be left out, live theater has developed its own affinity for 10: Festivals of 10-minute plays have…
Movie Review: Octavia Spencer Is the Best Thing in Otherwise Ho-Hum Horror Comedy ‘Ma’
It’s about time Octavia Spencer received top billing in a major motion picture. It’s been nearly a decade since the veteran character actress broke through with an Oscar-winning turn in 2011’s The Help, as a free-spirited maid who overcomes the degradations of the Jim Crow South. Two additional Oscar nods and many supporting roles later,…
Album Review: Beg, Steal or Borrow, ‘Old Mountain Time’
(Self-released, CD, digital) Imitation, as the old saw goes, is the sincerest form of flattery. That time-tested concept was the driving force behind the formation of Vermont’s Beg, Steal or Borrow — they even cop to as much in the liner notes of their debut full-length album, Old Mountain Time. The quintet formed in 2013…
Dissension in the Ranks: Legislative Failures Spark Reaction on the Left
Waves of dissatisfaction are roiling the Vermont Democratic Party, causing concern about possible impacts on the 2020 election. “Everybody I’ve talked to, they’re very unhappy,” said Bill Kuch, chair of the Windsor County Democratic Committee. “The question is, how are we going to message this?” “This” is the legislature’s failure to pass two top priorities:…
Warren’s Pitcher Inn Welcomes New Executive Chef Jacob Ennis
Jacob Ennis is the new executive chef at the Pitcher Inn in Warren, where he succeeds Adam Longworth. Ennis’ culinary experience includes working at other Relais & Châteaux properties: the White Barn Inn in Kennebunkport, Maine, and the Horned Dorset Primavera in Rincon, Puerto Rico, according to the Pitcher Inn newsletter. Most recently, Ennis and…
Movie Review: ‘Rocketman’ Celebrates Elton John’s Music Without Elton John Singing
One of the most creative things Billy Joel has ever done is Movin’ Out, the jukebox musical celebrating the creative genius of Billy Joel. Remember its 2002-05 Broadway run? Way to get paid all over again without writing a single new tune, dude. It was such an attractive business model that Bruce Springsteen decided to…
An F-35 Preview Shakes Up Winooski
Long-awaited sound maps released last Tuesday contained bad news for Winooski: Half the city now lies within the expanded area that will experience high noise levels from the F-35 jets to be based at Burlington International Airport starting in September. The following day, four Utah-based F-35s coincidentally made an unscheduled stop at BTV, and city…
Soundbites: Swale Talk Addiction on NPR
Lost and Found This week, Seven Days continues writer Kate O’Neill’s ongoing series “Hooked,” which explores multiple aspects of Vermont’s opioid crisis. In 2018, O’Neill’s sister, Madelyn Linsenmeir, died of addiction-related health complications while in police custody. Her obituary, which O’Neill penned, subsequently went viral, likely because of its utter frankness and compassion. The reaction…
Gamelan Sulukala Performs Live Soundtrack for 1926 Animated Film
Americans tend to believe that Walt Disney’s Snow White, from 1937, was the first animated film. But that honor actually goes to The Adventures of Prince Achmed, the earliest surviving animated feature, created in Germany by Lotte Reiniger in 1926. The silent film tells its story using figures in silhouette that move against colored backgrounds,…
Since Pot’s Legalization, Vermonters Have Been Fined for Public Use
Nadav Mille faced a difficult choice when he got a break from being questioned as a prospective juror a Newport courthouse last February. He and others in the jury pool were being asked hypothetical questions about child molestation. Mille, who has post-traumatic stress disorder, felt a growing sense of dread and said he needed a…
Eat This Week, June 5 to 11, 2019: The Three Fs
A weekly outdoor event bringing together wood-fired eats, local drinks and music kicks off for the season on June 6 at Hotel Vermont in Burlington. The opening week offering will be pizza, with tapas dishes to come. The fire will be ablaze in an outdoor oven, and Foam Brewers will provide the beer. Also on…
Free Will Astrology (6/5/19)
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Some birds can fly for days without coming down to earth. Alpine swifts are the current record holders, staying aloft for 200 consecutive days as they chase and feed on insects over West Africa. I propose we make the swift your soul ally for the next three weeks. May it help…
Who’s Behind the Tiny Inspirational Signs in Burlington and Beyond?
Burlington is awash in public art, so it’s never surprising to see a mural or sculpture decorating an otherwise drab alley, brick wall or bare patch of ground. But in the last few years, keen-eyed pedestrians have noticed small, hand-painted signs sprouting like mushrooms along greenbelts, on the waterfront, in the crevices of buildings and…
Seven (Soon-to-Be) Laws That Could Affect Your Life
The story of Vermont’s 2019 legislative session is what didn’t get done. Despite holding veto-proof majorities in the House and Senate, Democratic and Progressive leaders failed to pass several of their top priorities: a higher minimum wage, paid family leave, and a taxed and regulated marijuana marketplace. But that’s not to say they didn’t get…
A Lone Lime Scooter Makes a Mysterious Appearance in Burlington
Burlington officials have yet to green-light an electric scooter-share program for the city, but a lucky local took one for a test drive. A lone Lime scooter mysteriously appeared outside of Zabby & Elf’s Stone Soup on College Street last Thursday, and Liam Griffin, who caught wind of the scooter sighting on Facebook, went to…
As Summer Concert Season Approaches, Beware the Secondary Market
Anyone who frequently buys concert or sporting event tickets has likely grudgingly purchased from the secondary market. On websites such as Craigslist, or even more regulated ones like StubHub, consumers often pay through the nose to snag seats to top music, theater and athletic events. It’s a harsh reality, but the sting of credit card…
Letters to the Editor (6/5/19)
Population Is a Problem [Re Emoji That, May 22]: You make a declining birth rate in Vermont sound like a bad thing; it is not! It means Vermonters see the degradation that is happening all around us and we care about the environment, not just what the humans can exploit. We are No. 1 on…
I’m a Het Woman Infatuated With a Gay Coworker
Dear Reverend, I’m a heterosexual female who’s had several longish-term relationships, including a marriage. Now I find myself in a situation that I can’t even talk to my friends about: I’m totally infatuated with a coworker. We’ve become social friends, and I think he likes me, too. The thing is, he’s gay. I know he…
Album Review: Hill Wizard, ‘Hill Wizard’
(Self-released, digital) The Hill Wizard stands upon a precipice overlooking the troubled kingdom. His eyes smolder like a dying campfire, and his hands are as rough and jagged as arrowheads. The rogue — known to his confidants as Ben Maddox — dwells in the outskirts of the Green Lands in a far-off realm called Enosburg…
Theater Review: ‘The Complete History of Comedy (Abridged),’ Lost Nation Theater
Like just about every joke in the show, the title tries to have it both ways. The Complete History of Comedy (Abridged) lets itself off the completeness hook by mocking the very idea of a definitive summary of comedy, yet dangling the promise that it will come close. The humor is usually a similar one-two…
Art Review: ‘Rokeby Through the Lens,’ Rokeby Museum
Handwritten on a contemporary, 30-foot-long, black-and-white photograph on display at the Rokeby Museum is the following sentence: “Not a particle of the productions of slave labor, whether it be rice, sugar, coffee, cotton, molasses, tobacco, or flour, is used in her family, and thus her practice corresponds admirably with her doctrine.” The quote comes from…
Sven Olson to Reopen Scale House in Hardwick
Over the four years that followed the 2014 demise of much-celebrated, community-born Claire’s in Hardwick, three restaurants came and went in quick succession at 41 Main Street. Each venture had its own issues, but, overall, it was a sad series of events in the wake of unprecedented national media coverage for “the town that food…
The Intervale’s Half Pint Farm Transitions to New Owners
Farmers and plants alike reveled in the sunshine at Half Pint Farm last Thursday afternoon. This spring has delivered a cool, soggy start to Emily and Sean Mitchell’s first year as owners of the small vegetable operation in Burlington’s Intervale, but the weather hasn’t dampened their excitement. It helps that before the couple bought the…
Gaming Is on the Menu at the Boardroom, Coming Soon to Burlington
Parcheesi, anyone? Perhaps with a side of Risk and a helping of Claustrophobia? These games — and more than 500 others — will be available to play at the Boardroom, a game room/café expected to open this summer at 3 Mill Street in Burlington (near the Winooski Bridge). The Boardroom will offer snacks that presumably…
Siam Valley Thai Restaurant Curries Favor in Morrisville
After 15 years of working in Stowe restaurants, including at the former location of Japanese steak house Hana, chef Pantita Pasukdee decided she needed to do something for herself and for her family. Her recipe for family fun? Open her own Thai restaurant, where her 11-year-old daughter can hang out while the chef cooks for…
Pho Son Brings Vietnamese Street Food to Downtown Burlington
A 40-seat restaurant specializing in Vietnamese street food will open June 6 at 213 College Street in Burlington. Pho Son will bring pho, the traditional soup of rich broth and rice noodles, to downtown Burlington. The restaurant will also serve wok stir-fries, banh mi and bubble tea. Pho Son, owned and operated by husband-and-wife team…
