Mar 23-29, 2016
Burlington Arts Collective Steak Frites Makes a Scene; Vermont Cops Lack Statewide Crime Data; Kevin McDonald Talks Kids in the Hall
Cover Story
Arts Collective Steak Frites Makes a Scene
You turn into the alleyway and find the entrance to the club. You show security your ID and get an orange wristband or, if you’re under 18, a fat black X in Sharpie. You clomp down the stairs to the lower level, where you’re handed a “menu” and offered bite-size candy by a friendly, fresh-faced…
Hello, My Name Is Doris
Many of you will be too young to get the following reference, but, I’m sorry, I can’t resist: Doris, we don’t like you. We really don’t like you. That’s a paraphrase of the famously embarrassing acceptance speech that Sally Field gave in 1985 after winning a Best Actress Oscar — her second — for Places…
How Do I Tell My Best Friend I Want Her Ex?
Dear Athena, One of my best friends (girl A) has been on and off for the past two years with someone (girl B) who is a really close friend of mine, as well. We’re all in the same friend group, and the three of us often hang out together without the rest of our friends.…
Comrade Nixon, Wine and Circuses
(Rat PÂté Records, cassette, digital download) Don’t look now, but a vibrant little music scene appears to be sprouting up across the lake in Plattsburgh. In recent years, the beleaguered city has been mostly known, musically speaking, for the band Lucid and … well, not much else. And even Lucid will soon be taking an…
Free Will Astrology (3/23/16)
ARIES (March 21-April 19): When Orville and Wilbur Wright were kids, their father gave them a toy helicopter powered by a rubber band. The year was 1878. Twenty-five years later, the brothers became the first humans to sail above the Earth in a flying machine. They testified that the toy helicopter had been a key…
Filmmaker Bill Simmon Premieres Doc on Beloved Burlington Band the Pants
Burlington filmmaker Bill Simmon reckons that local musical legends the Pants were a “going concern” for just a bit more than two and a half years: the four original members played together only from May 1994 to January 1997. Their brief run came at a moment when it seemed a Queen City rock band could…
Legislators Seek to Secure the Future of Vermont’s Valuable Forests
Robbo Holleran shifted his truck into four-wheel drive to chug up a bumpy and slush-covered single-track dirt road. When he reached a gate that blocked access to an even rougher trail, the white-bearded forester got out of his pickup and continued on foot. A wet and wispy fog wafted through the trees, muffling noise from…
Geoff Brumbaugh Makes Old Stuff Work Like New
Name: Geoff Brumbaugh Town: Montpelier Job: owner, Common Ground Audio Near his preamplifier, tuner and equalizer, not far from his speakers and plasma television, Geoff Brumbaugh keeps one of his Betamax players. It still works. “I keep a couple running for a number of reasons,” the audio repairman deadpanned in the living room of his…
A Paean to the Pants
Sometimes, how and when certain music finds you is as important as whether or not that music is actually any good. For the last several weeks, I’ve been thinking a lot about my relationship to the music of the Pants. The ruminations have been inspired in part by the upcoming premiere of local filmmaker Bill…
Letters to the Editor (3/23/16)
Pictures Perfect I am writing to express my appreciation for Matthew Thorsen’s photography. I can usually recognize a “Thorsen” while flipping through the pages, whether it’s an interview subject, a plate of food, or an artsy or scenic shot, and it generally gets me to stop and read the article. [In the March 9 issue],…
St. Johnsbury Loses 17-Year-Old Co-op
Earlier this month, the St. J. Food Co-op closed its doors for the last time. The 17-year-old co-op had been struggling for a while, according to Chris Wenger, treasurer of the board of directors. Wenger, who joined the board almost two years ago, says at that point “it was already a bad situation. We tried…
The Bronze
Watching elite athletic competitions in which the winners tend to peak during their teen years, some of us may have wondered: How long can a person ride on a single accomplishment? What happens when the telegenic champions grow up, and their curly bangs and winsome smiles aren’t so cute anymore? That’s the serviceable premise of…
Art Review: Samuel Bak, Fleming Museum of Art
If you pay a visit to the University of Vermont’s Fleming Museum of Art this spring, you might be tempted to linger in the East Gallery. The largest of the museum’s rooms, it’s where the current, simply titled “Pop Art Prints” exhibit is hung. The 37 works on view, courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art…
Lucid, Dirt
(Self-released, CD, digital download) For the past decade-plus, Lucid have reigned as the kings of Plattsburgh’s music scene. Their royalty is a slightly dubious distinction, in that they hold court over a rather small kingdom. Nonetheless, they’ve been the Lake City’s most actively touring and popular band for a long time (at some points perhaps…
Still Strange: Kids in the Hall’s Kevin McDonald
Kevin McDonald is a founding member of the Canadian sketch-comedy troupe the Kids in the Hall. Formed in 1984, the group is best known for its TV series of the same name, which ran from 1988 to 1994 and turned the five members of KITH into alt-comedy cult heroes. That series, produced by “Saturday Night…
Sobremesa’s Wild Fermentation
When Caitlin and Jason Elberson first considered starting a business based on fermented foods, they imagined growing all the veggies themselves: They would be barraged with beets, crowded by cabbages, drowning in daikon. Just a year into their venture, they’ve already shifted gears. Although they grow small quantities of “everything” for their own uses and…
No Room at the Motel for Those on the ‘Do Not House’ List
In winter, Vermont goes to great effort — and expense — to keep its homeless population out of the cold. But on any given night in Chittenden County, as many as 100 individuals are on a “do not house” list. The state maintains a running tally of people barred from its emergency housing program. The blacklist…
Scott Milne Ponders a Long-Shot Run for Patrick Leahy’s Senate Seat
Scott Milne was on the stage behind John Kasich when the Republican presidential candidate stumped in Vermont last month. After the speech, as Milne mingled with the crowd in the lobby at Colchester High School, a woman recognized the tall, casually dressed man as the Republican candidate who nearly defeated incumbent Democrat Peter Shumlin in…
Pop-Up Pearl and the Return of Hedwig
Robert Toms describes the lead in Hedwig and the Angry Inch as his “all-time favorite acting role.” That’s not just because the ’70s-style glam-rock musical — the tale of a transgender rock diva from East Germany who falls victim to a botched gender-reassignment surgery — helped launch Toms’ production company, Shoebox Theatre. “The first time…
Dance Tramp Does the Fool Around
How do you make sense from nonsense, or vice versa? That’s the question Dance Tramp, a Burlington-based dance collective, attempts to answer with its newest production, “nonsensibility: every body plays the fool.” The 5-year-old collective calls itself a “dance think tank.” But founding member Clare Byrne, who lectures in dance at the University of Vermont,…
How to Solve the Pollinator Problem?
Members of the insect species Bombus affinis, commonly known as the rusty-patched bumblebee, used to spend a great deal of time in Vermont. An important pollinator of such crops as apples, cranberries and wildflowers, the bee was, as Vermont Center for Ecostudies conservation biologist Kent McFarland put it, “dirt common” in the Green Mountain State…
A Musical Imagining of Edgar Allan Poe’s Final Days
The details surrounding the last days of Edgar Allan Poe remain as enigmatic and mystery-shrouded as many of his stories. In October 1849, the 40-year-old author of such works as “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “The Raven” disappeared for five days while traveling by train to New York City.…
Vermont Cops Stymied by Lack of Statewide Crime Data
More than two years before Gov. Peter Shumlin’s 2014 State of the State address acknowledged Vermont’s opiate crisis, the police chief in Burlington warned a legislative committee about a spike in crime. He had helped build a records-management system that allowed Queen City cops to monitor and map all criminal incidents as soon as they…
Full Disclosure? Slow Going for Ethics Reform in the Vermont Senate
Floyd Nease has been a presence at the Vermont Statehouse since Gov. Peter Shumlin tapped him two years ago to sell his single-payer health care plan to legislators. The silver-haired 63-year-old roams the halls, haunts committee rooms and camps out in the cafeteria. But these days, Nease is wearing a different hat. Nearly four months…
Light House
I hate to say it, because it’s great for business, but Burlington’s Mardi Gras is not what it used to be. This year it still drew thousands of people to town, but methinks — to quote B.B. King — the thrill is gone. I date the onset of the decline to the year the parade…
![Me2/Orchestra Plays Bach at the Airport [SIV436]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sevendaysvt.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/episode436.webp?resize=1200%2C900&ssl=1)
Me2/Orchestra Plays Bach at the Airport [SIV436]
3/20/16: In celebration of Johann Sebastian Bach’s 331st birthday, members of the Me2/Orchestra performed some of his pieces at the Burlington International Airport in South Burlington on Sunday afternoon. Around the world, thousands of musicians played Bach’s music in public spaces for the 6th Annual Bach in the Subways. The Me2/Orchestra often perform outside concert…
Vermont’s First Women of the Long Trail
You’re a woman in 1927, just seven years after the 19th Amendment has given you the right to vote. You live in the age of short flapper skirts, bathtub gin and silent movies. Why would you gather two of your female friends, lace up your 14-inch-high boots with moccasin toes, button up your flannel shirt…
Rhythm & News: They Wanna Take You ‘Higher’
Originally published March 25, 1998. The rumors have been flying about a new club in the Burlington area, and I’m happy to rein them in with a truth noose this week. First of all, the rumor’s right: The place is called Higher Ground, and it’s in Winooski in the spot Denny’s — and years ago,…
The Burger’s the Thing at Northfield’s Cornerstone
Most American pubs serve food, but results vary. At best, their menus offer thoughtful renditions of culinary classics such as meatloaf and fried chicken. At worst, they’re good for an everyman meal that’s filling and friendly to one’s wallet. Often a pub can get by on its burger’s merits alone, even if the rest of…
Franny O’s Becomes Sugar House Bar & Grill
Residents living near Queen City Park Road and the Burlington town line will be pleased to know that the bar formerly known as Franny O’s reopened last Saturday, March 19, after five weeks of serious renovations. New owner Nick Bermudez purchased the South Burlington business — now called Sugar House Bar and Grill — from…
Blue Cat Owner Ozzy Giral Dies at 36
Last week, Burlington lost one of its more charismatic restaurant owners. On March 15, 36-year-old Vehbi Ozgur “Ozzy” Giral, who co-owned the Blue Cat Steak and Wine Bar with his wife, Mariasha Giral, died unexpectedly at the University of Vermont Medical Center. Ruled accidental by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, the death was…
