The 10th annual Waking Windows music and arts festival was gonna be lit. It boasted big-time indie headliners in Japanese Breakfast, the Nude Party and Vundabar. Better yet, at the very top of the marquee were Future Islands, the Baltimore synth-pop act that headlined the first Waking Windows in 2011 and is something like the…
In March, Colchester resident Beth Raymond noticed it was becoming difficult to find the cans of Similac Sensitive infant formula she relied upon to feed her 6-month-old daughter. A few weeks ago, the situation worsened. Raymond couldn’t find any Similac Sensitive, forcing her to switch to the standard formulation of Similac, which her daughter’s stomach…
Cookie-product company Ann Clark makes 12,000 tubes of food coloring each day for its cake and cookie icing kits. But there’s nothing sweet about its take on the competition in China. On May 11, the Rutland manufacturer filed 37 complaints to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, saying some of the Chinese companies that sell…
Cool air streamed through my open car windows as I barreled down a wide, rural highway. I was three years sober, and I was on my way to interview the owner of a small, independent business for a work assignment. As I drew closer to a cluster of grand and imposing mountains, I began to…
Friends of Taylor’s are cordially invited to an outdoor memorial celebration in Burlington from 4 to 9 p.m. on Saturday, June 18. For details and to RSVP, please visit gatheringus.com/memorial/ann-taylor/8676. Related Stories
Lifelong Burlingtonian spent 20 years with the Burlington Free Press and loved ’80s rock music
Burlingtonian was a master at managing finances, an avid sailor, and a gifted musician and playwright
Burlington man worked for the U.S. Senate for 20-plus years
Please join us for a memorial and to celebrate the life of Lawrence Meier. We will be gathering at 2 p.m. on May 21 at 291 Bostwick Farm Rd., Shelburne, to remember Larry, a wonderful father and friend who is greatly missed. Related Stories
Dear Reverend, I have a friend whom I’ve known for about 25 years. She has a lot of issues that have always been in the background, but she’s turning into a big tornado of trouble. I’m coming to the realization that I just can’t deal with the drama anymore. I feel like I should end…
new in theaters FIRESTARTER: On the run from the feds, a young girl (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) tries to control her psychic power to set things aflame in this new adaptation of Stephen King’s horror novel, also starring Zac Efron as her dad. Keith Thomas directed. (94 min, R. Essex, Majestic, Star, Sunset) HAPPENING: In this…
Passersby at B&G Gallery on Merchants Row in Rutland might think they’re seeing an homage to Jackson Pollock through the dusty storefront window. More than a dozen paintings, large and small, feature the splatter execution that the midcentury artist made famous; a photo of Pollock is embedded in each. Those passersby won’t know the half…
Vermont Secretary of Agriculture Anson Tebbetts posted his personal crop report on Instagram on April 30. His video pans across little potted plants, stick straight, each supporting two or three giant, grass-green leaves. “Summer goal,” Tebbetts wrote. “Grow a giant pumpkin. They are up.” Tebbetts went to the Vermont Giant Pumpkin Growers Association’s weigh-off at…
I’ve been a fan of French director Céline Sciamma since her 2011 film Tomboy, but her 18th-century lesbian romance Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) made her movies must-sees for me. Her follow-up, the festival favorite Petite Maman (2021), lacks the sweep, period setting and fire of Portrait. Clocking in at just 72 minutes,…
As Vermont’s legislators lurch toward the finish line this week, the fate of several high-priority housing bills may hinge on whether Democratic lawmakers can sidestep or override vetoes from Gov. Phil Scott. Three key housing bills — two with millions of dollars for new programs and one that would revamp environmental regulations affecting development — each have…
Ben Kinnaman thinks he can transform the shipping industry and the world’s navies by making vessels faster, more fuel-efficient and cheaper to operate. In the process, he hopes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and protect delicate marine ecosystems from invasive species. How? By using small, autonomous robots to clean a ship’s hull faster than was…
In May of 2020, Rachel Hellman graduated with honors from Washington University in St. Louis and started looking for a job in journalism. Her timing was terrible. The number of U.S. reporters has been declining for years, and the early days of the pandemic exacerbated that trend. “There was a lot more firing than hiring…
Unless you decided to skip the rest of the paper on your way to opening the music section, you are well aware that Waking Windows happens this weekend. For this week’s cover package (“Pump Up the Volume”), culture coeditor Dan Bolles and I laid out all sorts of previews and road maps to help you…
TAURUS (Apr. 20-May 20): “Every successful person I know starts before they feel ready,” declared life coach Marie Forleo. Author Ivan Turgenev wrote, “If we wait for the moment when everything, absolutely everything, is ready, we shall never begin.” Here’s what educator Supriya Mehra says: “There’s never a perfect moment to start, and the more…
There was a time when people saw solitude as an all-or-nothing proposition. Either you were a “normal” person happy in the close company of your fellow human beings or you were a rugged hermit who renounced society out of misanthropy, religious fanaticism or both. These days, in the wake of the isolation forced on many…
Their marriage ended in a thunderclap 20 years ago, but the reverberations are still echoing for the two characters in Sharr White’s 2011 play Annapurna, now at Vermont Stage. The repartee is funny from start to finish, but the play builds from a witty comedy to a taut drama, propelled by the crisp intelligence of…
Bob Bolyard’s basement is full of glittery tops, sequined jackets, silky dresses and heaps of sparkling costume jewelry. Psychedelic patterns, nautical looks and custom-made garments constructed from upholstery fabric line the crowded racks. Procured from thrift shops and tag sales over three decades, the collection outfits his drag persona, Amber LeMay, in glamorous yet sensible…
(Secretly Canadian, CD, digital, vinyl) Taking in an Alex Cameron record is akin to starting a new book by a favorite author. You know you’re about to meet a new set of characters, but chances are their voices will feel familiar from previous novels. So long as the writer has a style that combats repetition…
(Color Study / Ultra Records, digital) The trick to reading poetry, I’ve found, is to read the same poem many times. On the first read, my mind often skims across the surface. Extracting feeling and meaning requires deliberate attention and engagement. I found the same to be true listening to The Years, a new album…
Save Our Ship I was pleased that “Berth to Death” [April 27] included comments from the talented shipwrights who gave life to the Lois McClure, but I was disappointed to read that the beloved replica schooner would not continue to serve her mission “to preserve and share the history and archaeology of the region.” A…
Susan Merchant stood in an empty lot near downtown Montpelier and let out a heavy sigh. Twenty minutes earlier, a municipal crew had hauled away the red wooden gazebo that had occupied that spot, between a Shaw’s supermarket and the Savoy Theater, marking the bitter conclusion of a two-year debate about how to address the…
As the sounds and vibes of Waking Windows fill Winooski this weekend, the Monkey House will keep things bumping until the wee hours of the morning. The bar and music venue is the music festival’s unofficial center, and this year, it has pizza. Really good pizza. Early in the pandemic, the Monkey started offering hot…
This spring, Bluebird Barbecue culinary director Dan Miele was juggling myriad tasks to get the Burlington restaurant ready for its first dine-in customers in two years. Along with hiring challenges, spiking ingredient costs, supply chain gaps and continued COVID-19 concerns, Miele — and many other Chittenden County resto managers — have faced another issue: Should…
The sunshine and ceremony of opening day drew a pre-pandemic-size crowd to the Burlington Farmers Market on Saturday, May 7. The market’s Pine Street home was full of returning vendors — not to mention Maple Wind Farm’s grilled hot dogs, offered again after a three-year hiatus. My market companion and I managed to snag the…
Misery Loves Co., the Winooski restaurant and market, will close on Monday, May 16, after the Waking Windows festival, for a monthlong renovation that includes the return of indoor seating, co-owner Laura Wade said. “We’re turning 10 this year,” Wade said. “We opened on a shoestring, and we’re overdue for a kitchen expansion and some…
Longtime Burlington Farmers Market favorite Half Pint Farm has ended its 19-year run as a go-to source for delicate squash blossoms and abundant varieties of cherry tomatoes and chile peppers. The farm’s co-owners, Emily and Sean Mitchell, confirmed the closure of the small Intervale farm that they bought in 2019 from its founders, Mara and…
The Turtle of Life Friday 13 Middlebury College professor Estela González debuts her new novel, Arribada, at Middlebury’s Little Seed Coffee Roasters. The story follows a pianist who, upon becoming involved in sea turtle conservation in her Mexican hometown, finds herself in danger due to both the web of secrets she uncovers and the deepening…
When a draft opinion leaked this week showing that the U.S. Supreme Court is ready to overturn Roe v. Wade, most people didn’t need to read past the headlines. Middlebury College professor Caitlin Knowles Myers waded through the 98-page draft ruling — not for any special interest in the justices’ legal reasoning, but because she…
