Mar 21-27, 2018
Vermont’s Maple Industry Taps Into Tradition, Technology and New Products; Can BTV Ignite Make Burlington Techier?; Burnin’ Love: Sampling Curry Restaurants in Montréal
Cover Story
Vermont Maple Sugarers Tap Tradition, Technology and New Products
Never mind the recent snowstorms; spring is officially here. And one of its sure signs is steam rising from sugarhouses all over the state. Along with the popularity of small-scale backyard evaporators and the influx of “big maple” manufacturers, much has been made of Vermont’s 20-year surge in production of the sticky stuff. The tiny…
Seriously: Shifting Tides
In this episode, Bryan wades into the shifting tides surrounding gun politics in Vermont. Related CREDITS Written, filmed and edited by: Bryan Parmelee Artwork/photography courtesy of: Taylor Dobbs, Jeb Wallace-Brodeur, Niranjan Arminius, Bryan Parmelee, Dreamstime Logo/art direction by: Don Eggert Music/audio by: Bryan Parmelee, Freesound Related Stories
Born to Ride: A Young Teen Spins and Soars to Snowboard Success
Name: Hans Huber Age: 14 Town: Stowe Two-time overall national snowboarding champion Hans Huber talked his way onto his first snowboard at age 4. He was skiing with his parents at Stowe Mountain Resort. While they ate lunch, he walked to the demo shop, a few yards away, and came back with boots, a board…
The Cannabis Catch-Up: Legal Weed a Boon for Former Football Star
It’s funny how quickly things change regarding cannabis. One of those laughing now is erstwhile football player Ricky Williams, who was suspended from the National Football League multiple times for testing positive for weed. The former Heisman Trophy winner is now making money in marijuana after launching a cannabis brand called Real Wellness by Ricky…
Seriously: Propaganda Done Right
In this episode, Seriously’s senior satire correspondent investigates News Done Right, an anonymously funded conservative satire site. Related CREDITS Written, filmed and edited by: Bryan Parmelee “Propaganda” written and performed by: Bryan Parmelee Artwork/photography courtesy of: Newsdoneright.com, Youtube, Aaron Shrewbury, Jeb Wallace-Brodeur, Bryan Parmelee, Dreamstime Logo/art direction by: Don Eggert Audio by: Bryan Parmelee, Freesound
The Parmelee Post: In Show of Support for Equal Representation, Vermont Delegation Works in Drag
All three members of Vermont’s congressional delegatation arrived at the U.S. Capitol Building dressed in drag Thursday, in a show of support for equal representation in government. The moves comes just one day after Vermont was reported to be the only U.S. state to have never sent a female representative to Congress. “Let us be…
![Outdoor Painting in Jeffersonville [SIV525]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sevendaysvt.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/episode525.webp?resize=1200%2C900&ssl=1)
Outdoor Painting in Jeffersonville [SIV525]
3/16/18: For more than a century, plein air artists have been gathering in Jeffersonville to paint the natural landscape. Artists like Aldro Hibbard, Alden Bryan and Emile Gruppe braved the outdoor elements to capture the unique rural vistas during every season but summer. This winter’s informal two week gathering of artists is hosted by Visions…
Free Will Astrology (3/21/18)
ARIES (March 21-April 19): The “School of Hard Knocks” is an old-fashioned idiom referring to the unofficial and accidental course of study available via life’s tough experiences. The wisdom one gains through this alternate approach to education may be equal or even superior to the knowledge that comes from a formal university or training program.…
Movie Review: The ‘Tomb Raider’ Reboot Doesn’t Manage to Unearth Much Fun
One of the pleasures of mediocre tentpole movies is watching our favorite TV actors stroll through them, earning paychecks. Tomb Raider offers a double dose of slumming small-screen thespians: Dominic West (“The Affair,” “The Wire”) and Walton Goggins (“Justified”). But neither they nor anything else can make this rote action-adventure exciting. The unmemorable Lara Croft:…
Letters to the Editor (3/21/18)
F-35 Not Part of Plan [Re Off Message: “Burlington Voters Approve Anti-F-35 Ballot Initiative,” March 6]: As one who has shuddered and recoiled from the sound of a squadron of F-16s flying overhead in Burlington, I urge Mayor Miro Weinberger and the city council to take immediate steps to refuse the basing of F-35s at…
TRIP Dance Company Builds Skills for Stage and Beyond
When young people are inspired, they can accomplish great things. For the past 18 years, Vermont’s TRIP Dance Company has won numerous awards at regional competitions, and its graduates have become Broadway performers, ballet company members and high-level instructors. This weekend, local audiences get to see what TRIP’s current members — 35 dancers ages 9…
Conversation With a Pac-Man Competitor
Vermont is home to a plethora of hard-core athletes. Take survival-race enthusiasts, who push their minds and bodies to the extremes of human endurance to be able to say, “I survived.” Neither Nick Grandchamp nor Evan Kurant is that kind of competitor. They’re just two guys from Rutland who enjoy video arcades and decided to…
Squirrel Nut Zippers’ Jimbo Mathus on His Latest Swing Revival
Of all the trends in contemporary music that have come and gone over the years, the swing boom of the mid-to-late 1990s remains one of the most memorable. Seemingly out of nowhere, the hot-jazz sounds of the 1930s were a prominent part of the cultural landscape. Some think a 30-second Gap commercial in 1998 featuring…
Album Review: The Atlantic Effect, ‘The Atlantic Effect’
(Self-released, CD, digital download) “Edge” is largely an ineffable concept, particularly when used to describe a band — “They’ve got this edge, man. Dig?” Sometimes an artist achieves it through stylistic means, such as futuristic production or unconventional instrumentation. Other times, a group might Frankenstein opposing influences into something that leaves an indelible mark on…
Eat This Week, March 21 to 27, 2018: In the Beer
For the first time, the Vermont Brewers Association takes its show to the snow with a winter brewfest. Visitors are invited to ski — ticket packages can include Killington lift passes for the vertically inclined — and sip pours from more than 30 local breweries. Sample a hop-forward pale from Frost Beer Works or perhaps a…
Hackie: Keep Your Shirt On
“I knew they’d rescind the ban eventually,” Franny said. “Jeezum, it’s not like I shot somebody.” My customer was sitting next to me as I drove her back downtown from a friend’s house in Williston, me perched in my “captain’s seat.” I’ve had taxicabs with a front bench seat, but I much prefer the clear…
Album Review: Transitory Symphony, ‘Wearin’ the Blues’
(Self-released, CD, digital download) I think Jim Heltz is taking the piss, as the English would say. The local songwriter, along with his frequent collaborator and producer Tom Haney, has put out another Transitory Symphony record. Wearin’ the Blues is the duo’s third effort, and, like its predecessors, it defies any simple description, vacillating between…
Unlikely Allies Open a Homeless Shelter in Lamoille County
An improbable alliance of religious leaders, law enforcement officials and volunteers quietly opened Lamoille County’s first homeless shelter. The sheriff’s department owns the Yellow House in Hyde Park, and a band of volunteers and sheriff’s deputies has been staffing it since the first frozen weeks of February. The shelter isn’t getting any government funds or…
Scarlett Letters: I Have a Foot Fetish, But I’m Only 15
Dear Scarlett, I have a foot fetish, but I’m only 15. Is there a way I could somehow experience this fetish at my age? Signed, Best Foot Forward (Male, 15) Dear Best Foot, Yes. No one knows what causes a fetish. What is known, however, is that they can form at any age. Most fetishes develop during…
‘The Laboring Self’ Critiques Digital Gigs
As the Atlantic announced earlier this year, “The Internet Is Enabling a New Kind of Poorly Paid Hell.” The bleak story detailed Americans’ increasing reliance on income earned by performing tasks on digital gig platforms. Among the offending companies is Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, where workers earned an average hourly wage of $2 in 2017, according…
NRA Dollars Target Vermont Schools
The nonprofit arm of the National Rifle Association donated more than $212,000 to Vermont programs over five years, including tens of thousands of dollars to public institutions serving young people. Among the biggest recipients was the University of Vermont, which accepted $47,986 from the NRA Foundation over a seven-year period, according to filings with the…
Stephanie Zuppo Launches DIY Print Studio
The art of making comics isn’t all funny business. Like other creative mediums, it requires space, specialized equipment and community. So, when Kristin Humbargar of Essex Hub for Women & Business asked Stephanie Zuppo, the cartoonist and creator of Ladybroad Ledger, if she was interested in a studio at a new space in Essex Junction,…
Movie Review: ‘In the Fade’ Is an Oscar-Worthy Topical Revenge Drama
A couple of injustices have nagged at me since re-watching this emotionally wrenching drama from German filmmaker Fatih Akin (Short Sharp Shock). First, it’s such a well-made, fantastically acted work that its last-minute prestige-season spin-out is dumbfounding. The movie began gaining momentum in May, when its star, Diane Kruger, walked away with the Best Actress…
Recalling ‘Madame’ Stein’s Life and Legacy in Dance
According to Gabriel Quirk, Vermont is full of fascinating people. The puppeteer and touring variety performer based in White River Junction believes that, in the Green Mountain State, “We cultivate a kind of eccentricity in each other that makes a fertile ground for all kinds of interesting people to call home.” Eleonora Stein is one…
Knock, Knock: Address Mix-Ups Vex an Old North Ender
The Committee on Temporary Shelter opened its Daystation in a newly renovated building at 95 North Avenue about a year ago. Soon afterward, people started showing up at a door just a couple of blocks away — at 95 North Street. COTS offers various types of assistance for the homeless. But the door at 95…
UVM Stages Euripides Classic With New Music
John Franklin knows how you feel about ancient Greek theater. “Usually, when people hear the label ‘Greek tragedy,’ their eyes glaze over,” he says. “They think of people pulling their hair and screaming, ‘Woe is me.'” He hopes audiences will think differently after seeing his latest project. This week, from March 22 to 25, the…
With an Extra $300K, Can BTV Ignite Make Burlington Techier?
The nonprofit BTV Ignite has had big plans since its inception five years ago: to help the Queen City capitalize on its speedy gigabit fiber network, jumpstart businesses, retain workers, and spark innovation and growth. But the fledgling organization has been operating on a slim $300,000 budget with a sole staff member: executive director Dennis…
Stonecutter Spirits Burlington Tasting Room Takes Shape
In January, in a piece on Folino’s new pizzeria at 71 South Union Street in Burlington, Seven Days reported that Stonecutter Spirits would be moving in next door. On Monday, Stonecutter co-owner Sas Stewart chatted specifics. The new tasting room will double as a cocktail lounge, showcasing Stonecutter’s Single Barrel Gin and Heritage Cask Whiskey,…
Murky Waters: Who’s Writing Vermont’s Clean Water Regulations?
Staff experts at Vermont’s Agency of Natural Resources spent months last year devising new rules to reduce polluted runoff from large rooftops and parking lots. A 2015 state law had ordered the agency to finish the regulation by January 1. But when staffers at ANR’s Department of Environmental Conservation sent their draft to Natural Resources…
Burlington Conference Highlights Beer and Tourism
The first beverage offered at the Hotel Vermont beer-pairing dinner on March 6 was not beer, but it was a vivid illustration of the state’s flourishing craft brewing industry. More than two dozen guests sipped hot barley tea optionally spiked with locally distilled gin and dry-hopped simple syrup. The tea featured malted barley from Peterson…
Soundbites: It’s Not Easy Being Green
Once in a while, a story just doesn’t pan out the way you hope it will. You think you have good idea or a fun angle, and all of the elements are in place. And then, it just fizzles out — usually for reasons beyond your control. It sucks, but it happens. In the past,…
Killed Bill: Senate Panel Deals Blow to Health Care Reform
When Democrat Peter Shumlin became governor in 2011, he carried the promise of a single-payer health care system for Vermont. Less than four years later, he abandoned his central policy goal. On Friday, a Democrat-dominated legislative committee balked at a much less comprehensive idea. For health care reform advocates, it was yet another blow. Earlier…
Hot Trend: Three Curry Restaurants in Montréal
My face was burning, and I felt like I could exhale fire. Montréal’s Pumpui Grocer and Curry Shop calls its jungle curry “très piquant,” and that is truth in advertising. The Thai restaurant’s dish indeed offers a complex spiciness that makes it hard to concentrate on anything besides the pain — and hence the food.…
Two Indian-Nepalese Restaurants to Open in Burlington Area
Two new Indian-Nepalese restaurants will open in coming weeks in Chittenden County, one in South Burlington and the other in Burlington. Everest Indian-Nepali Restaurant is expected to open at 1208 Williston Road in South Burlington, former site of Quiznos, by the end of March, according to owner Krishna Adhikari. The native of Nepal has lived…
