Mar 14-21, 2018
Songwriter and Record Producer Kristina Stykos Finds Her Voice; Cooperage Makes a Comeback in Richmond; Reviewing Alison Bechdel’s ‘Self-Confessed!’ Retrospective
Cover Story
Songwriter and Record Producer Kristina Stykos Finds Her Voice
Ariel Zevon is demoing a new love song. It’s a pretty little thing, with light, lovelorn lyrics set to a melancholy melody that sticks to the ears. That is, until she gets to the hook. As the song reaches both an emotional and musical crescendo, something is off. The melody, which previously charmed with music-box…
Solo Act: At Champlain College, a Long-Running Program Helps Single Parents Defy the Odds
In 2016, Emma Longe was working long hours cutting hair to support her daughter, Kayleigh, then 4. With another baby on the way, she hoped to find a more lucrative career with a better schedule, so she could spend more time with her children, but that would mean going back to college. After graduating from…
The Cannabis Catch-Up: Cannabis-Themed Things Are All the Rage
As cannabis legalization sweeps the nation, entrepreneurs are finding new ways to weave weed into … whatever. Take these recent examples. Maine’s first radio show about cannabis has been airing on WFMX-107.9 The Mix, reports the Portland Press Herald. “We want to entertain them, but in between all the songs, we are gonna educate them, and…
![Northeast Super Regional Yoga Asana Championships [SIV524]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sevendaysvt.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/episode524.webp?resize=1200%2C900&ssl=1)
Northeast Super Regional Yoga Asana Championships [SIV524]
3/10/18: The Northeast Super Regional Yoga Asana Championships were held at South Burlington High School on Saturday. This was the first time the event was held in Vermont and it was hosted by Queen City Bikram Yoga. Over 60 participants from 10 different states competed in different age groups – including 8 Vermonters. Eva spent…
Perky Planet Café Will Employ People With Disabilities
Burlington has no shortage of coffee shops. But when Perky Planet opens on the first floor of a new Champlain College residential building at 170 St. Paul Street in Burlington this fall, it’ll be different from the rest, founder Richard “Dick” Vaughn told Seven Days earlier this week. Like many others, the café will offer…
A Glassblower Branches Out to Conscious Clothing
Twelve years ago, Tove Ohlander started buying apparel from by Dem, a clothing business in her native Sweden. She liked the company’s focus on socially and environmentally sustainable manufacturing and the fact that it was woman-run. Now, Ohlander has brought the brand to the U.S. with T by Dem, her new, independent affiliate of by…
Movie Review: ‘The Strangers: Prey at Night’ Is Neither Strange Nor Scary
Four years ago, film scholar and reviewer Matt Zoller Seitz published something between a manifesto and a call to arms on RogerEbert.com, where he’s the editor in chief. Decrying the state of film journalism, “Please, Critics, Write About the Filmmaking” entreated colleagues to contribute to “visual literacy” by offering analysis of the art form’s technical…
Art Review: ‘Self-Confessed! The Inappropriately Intimate Comics of Alison Bechdel,’ Fleming Museum
In 2018, the curated confessional is a cultural staple. We tap, click and swipe every day, allowing vague audiences to glimpse our bodies, thoughts, communities and politics. We simultaneously archive and broadcast our fragmented selves with ease. To say the least, “making visible” ain’t what it used to be. But, long before social media, Bolton-based…
Album Review: Doll Gods, ‘Summerhead’
(Self-released, digital download) Doll Gods are a Vermont band that never really happened — that is to say, they never performed live and broke up shortly after recording their debut LP, Summerhead. Three of the lo-fi, alt-punk quartet’s members — drummer Aaron Wright, rhythm guitarist/vocalist Allison Carey and bassist Callan Clarke — now reside in Boston. Only…
Album Review: ILLu & Rico James, ‘Tired of Waiting for Rappers: An Instrumental Series Vol. 1’
(Equal Eyes Records, digital download) Tired of Waiting for Rappers: An Instrumental Series Vol. 1 is the first in a run of collaborations from local producers ILLu and Rico James. It also marks the first release on Equal Eyes Records, a new local hip-hop imprint the duo has founded. The Queen City rap scene has…
Camaraderie, Games and Beers at South Burlington’s Old Post
Tuesday is Trivia Night at the Old Post in South Burlington, a bar that opened under new ownership last fall on Queen City Park Road. Competitors at a recent showdown were in luck if they could connect sports teams and the occult (think Orlando Magic) and if they had a knack for quirky wordplay (use…
Book Review: ‘The Flight Attendant’ by Chris Bohjalian
When we’re hurtling through the air at 35,000 feet, we tend to think of flight attendants as our devoted caretakers. For these consummate customer-service professionals, soothing sick, frightened or irritable passengers is part of the job. Because we expect them to be calm and selfless when we aren’t, there’s a special frisson in stories about…
No Magic Formula: Education Finance Reform Falters
The 2018 legislative session began with a sense of optimism that Vermont might finally overhaul its famously complex education funding system. But by the time lawmakers dispersed for their weeklong Town Meeting recess, the search for a simpler formula was looking increasingly quixotic. House lawmakers are still hoping to create an income tax surcharge to…
At Generator’s First Global Service Jam, Design Happened
Over the weekend, nine people gathered at Burlington maker space Generator for the first Vermont edition of the Global Service Jam. The activity prompts participants to engage in “design thinking” practices to solve a challenge. Leading the local group was Cybele Ozorio, an “innovation process consultant.” She moved to Vermont last year from her native…
Screaming Females’ Melissa Paternoster Talks Tattoos, Basement Culture and Contentment
Power trio Screaming Females emerged in the early to mid-aughts from the DIY basement scene in New Brunswick, N.J. Since 2006, they’ve released seven albums, including 2018’s All at Once — a fitting title for an era when endless knowledge and entertainment are just a few clicks away. Front woman and guitarist Marissa Paternoster, 31, finds…
The Green Mountain Film Festival Comes of Age
The Green Mountain Film Festival turns 21 this year, and executive director Karen Dillon is determined to throw a big party. The “coming-of-age” theme informs much of the film and special events programming in Dillon’s rookie year at the helm. As usual, the 10-day event will dominate the Savoy Theater and touch down at other…
Deer-ly Departed: Carcass Prompts Bureaucratic Runaround
Brooks Elder was taking his yellow lab, Scout, for a walk along a Burlington beach on March 6 when they came across something large and very, very smelly. The longtime New North End resident has seen dead fish and birds on the shores of Lake Champlain before. But Elder was stunned to find what he…
In Richmond, Three Army Vets Bring Back Barrel-Making
Tony Fletcher aimed a large propane torch at a small pile of scrap lumber stacked inside a coffee-can-size metal container and instantly set the wood ablaze. The torch, which resembled a flamethrower, seemed like overkill for igniting such a small blaze. But soon the fire was crackling, allowing one of Fletcher’s business partners, Josh Waterhouse,…
Theater Review: ‘Sex With Strangers,’ Vermont Stage
Igniting a romance is easy. Two people alone in an isolated B&B closed for a snowstorm? Well, clothes are going to come off. But maintaining the tension of flirtation is even more fascinating and, in playwright Laura Eason’s snappy Sex With Strangers, extremely funny. The current Vermont Stage production of the 2011 play is buoyant…
A Real Democrat? Hallquist’s Authenticity Issue
In late 2016, a member of governor-elect Phil Scott’s transition team placed an exploratory call to a prominent Vermonter: Would she be open to joining the new administration? “I said no, I wasn’t interested,” recalled Christine Hallquist, who was then CEO of Vermont Electric Coop. No specific job was offered, she said. “It was just…
Letters to the Editor (3/13/18)
One More Thing Thanks to Pamela Polston for her review of my book, The Most Hated Man in America: Jerry Sandusky and the Rush to Judgment [“Page 32,” March 7]. The only small issue I take with it is this sentence: “The author fiercely discounts the validity of accusations based on repressed memories and therapists…
Unfunny Money? Anonymous Satirical Outfit Skewers Vermont Pols
At the beginning of a video posted online last month, “James,” a plaid-wearing thirty-something with a five o’clock shadow, turns to his companion and asks, “What you got there, E?” Next to him on a couch, “Elizabeth” stares intently at a paper map. “I am designing an escape plan for Thunder Gov Phil and Mayor…
Soundbites: Tips for the Band(s)
Recently, I received an email from a regional artist looking for coverage opportunities in Seven Days. The person used a particularly unusual phrase: They were looking to set something up that felt “mutual in terms of promo.” I had no idea what this person meant by that, so I asked. Their response confused me all…
Business Is Brisk for Vermont Company Trying to Stop School Shooters
A Burlington-based company that monitors social media networks for threats to schools has seen a surge of new clients in the weeks since a teen gunned down 17 students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. It’s a morbid enterprise, but Social Sentinel founder and CEO Gary Margolis admits that business…
WTF: What Can Vermonters Do About Nuisance Drones?
Recently, a Seven Days staffer complained that someone in her Winooski neighborhood had repeatedly hovered, and occasionally landed, a drone in her backyard. Aside from objecting to the noise the quadcopter produced, she was understandably creeped out by a stranger’s drone invading her space — and potentially her privacy, especially if it was shooting video.…
Eat This Week, March 14 to 20, 2018: Film to Table
As part of the Green Mountain Film Festival, foodies follow the life and times of soup sensei Osamu Tomita as told in Koki Shigeno’s Ramen Heads. Afterward, New England Culinary Institute student-cooks test their noodle chops and poll visitors for a winner. Meat and vegetarian ramen available. Green Mountain Film Festival: Ramen Festival and Cook-Off…
Movie Review: ‘Thoroughbreds’ Is a Thoroughly Assured Dark Debut Thriller
How much do you want to see a movie in which the sociopath is the most likable character? The answer may determine viewers’ responses to Thoroughbreds, the feature debut of writer-director Cory Finley, which made a splash at the Sundance Film Festival last year. In the tradition of classic noir, this tense, claustrophobic little film…
Scarlett Letters: I’m Attracted to This Guy, but I’m Still a Virgin
Dear Scarlett, I like this guy, but we live in different countries. I see him twice a year, but there’s another problem: He’s my friend’s brother. I’ve known the family since I was 4, and he is almost three and a half years older. I saw him last in the summer, but we’ve texted since.…
Free Will Astrology (3/14/18)
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Although her work is among the best Russian literature of the 20th century, poet Marina Tsvetayeva lived in poverty. When fellow poet Rainer Maria Rilke asked her to describe the kingdom of heaven, she said, “Never again to sweep floors.” I can relate. To earn a living in my early adulthood,…
City Market Seeks Investments From Members
City Market, Onion River Co-op is seeking loans from its Vermont members to help pay for the cost of its expansion to the South End. The Burlington co-op, which has about 13,000 members, opened its second location, at 207 Flynn Avenue, last November. The cost of the project — from traffic studies and site remediation…
Sustainably Raised Caviar Comes to Vermont
Sitting at a table at Hotel Vermont in Burlington, clad in a black blazer over a white T-shirt, Iveta Sarova Parker scoops up a few pearls of glistening gray caviar with a mother-of-pearl spoon. The roe, she says, are from a freshwater variety of sturgeon called the sterlet. Although less known than beluga, osetra and…
