May 24-30, 2017
How Freaked Out Should We Be About Washington?; A UVM Student Talks About Growing Up Undocumented; The Onion’s Editor-in-Chief Considers Satire in the Age of Trump
Cover Story
Trumpatized? Prominent Vermonters Reveal Their White House Worries
Never in the history of American politics has a new presidency produced such drama, discord and dysfunction. Since President Donald Trump fired Federal Bureau of Investigation director James Comey two weeks ago, hardly a day has passed without another development upending the last. Like clockwork, our smartphones and Twitter feeds have blown up with each…
The Parmelee Post: Concerned Child Wishes His Father Would Smoke ‘Special’ Cigarettes More Often
9-year-old Jesse Matreese found himself unable to fall asleep once again Friday night. The sound of his father yelling at his mother because the Mastercard bill happened to be $47 higher this month made catching some Zs all but impossible for the young lad. As the clock struck 11:11 p.m., he found himself repeating the…
Vermont Restaurant Week Donates $21,380 to the Vermont Foodbank
A total of $21,380 was donated to the Vermont Foodbank as a result of Seven Days’ 8th annual Vermont Restaurant Week. This popular event was presented by Vermont Federal Credit Union and organized by Seven Days. “Vermont Restaurant Week is an incredible celebration of food for our community. It raises awareness about the issue of…
![The T with Emoji & Nikki [SIV491]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sevendaysvt.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/episode491.webp?resize=1200%2C900&ssl=1)
The T with Emoji & Nikki [SIV491]
5/21/17: The T with Emoji & Nikki is a new cable access show that airs weekly on Vermont Community Access Media (VCAM) in Burlington. Drag queens Emoji Nightmare and Nikki Champagne welcome eclectic guests to discuss arts and activism. Eva went behind the scenes to talk the T with the ladies as they prepared for…
Letters to the Editor (5/24/17)
‘Courageous Journalism’ If you crave courageous journalism, reread Terri Hallenbeck’s column [Fair Game: “Rookie Mistakes,” May 17]. In fact, I had to reread it several times before I was convinced that publisher and coeditor Paula Routly allowed to appear in her newspaper an article so critical of her “domestic partner.” The piece calls to task…
Free Will Astrology (5/24/17)
GEMINI (May 21- June 30): “Generation Kill” is an HBO miniseries based on the experiences of a reporter embedded with American Marines fighting in Iraq. Early on, before the troops have been exposed to any serious combat, they’re overflowing with trash talk. A commanding officer scolds them: “Gentlemen, from now on, we’re going to have…
Two Opera Companies Bring the Arias This Summer
Live opera in the Green Mountains is both scarce and eminently savorable — perhaps because small budgets seem to propel refreshing creativity here. Witness the summer offerings of Vermont’s two opera companies: the year-old Vermont Opera Project and Opera Company of Middlebury, now in its 14th season. In August, VOP will cool off operagoers with…
In South Pomfret, an Old Grange Becomes a New Theater
To paraphrase Shakespeare, all the state’s a stage. Or so it seems during summer in Vermont. And some brand-new venues are helping to push an already-busy theater season into high gear. On the heels of the recently built Highland Center for the Arts in Greensboro comes another still-under-construction facility, the Grange Theatre in South Pomfret,…
Meet Burlington’s Newest Online Music Publication and Production Company
Any Burlington resident who’s tried to throw a rager or turn their home into a makeshift nightclub likely shudders at the words “noise ordinance.” The city’s strict edict on excess sound can burden offenders with heavy fines, and leniency is rare. Local nightlife devotee Betsy Rose Besser is attempting to give the term a new…
In Wells River, Jolley Doughnuts Isn’t Just Clowning Around
“Try this,” said Daniel Jolley, dipping a doughnut into a tub of amber maple glaze. With a disarming smile, the 25-year-old entrepreneur handed the pastry through the service window of a tiny white camper parked alongside Route 302 in Wells River. I lifted it to my lips. It gave way with a gentle crackle, at…
Movie Review: New Documentary ‘Risk’ Doesn’t Do Justice to WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange
The title of the Laura Poitras documentary just released is sadly ironic. Something seriously weird is going on here. The Oscar-winning director (Citizenfour) began the project in 2010 with unlimited access to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. A glimpse into the daily life of the world’s most controversial fugitive: What could go wrong? As it turns…
The Mezzes and Wines Are Just Right at Montréal’s KazaMaza
It was the foolish time of spring. The chilly morning had made me pull on layers of wool, but the afternoon sun found me discarding them so quickly that I was tricked into believing I wouldn’t need a proper coat for the rest of the year. In other words, eating-on-the-patio season had officially begun. On…
Movie Review: ‘Alien: Covenant’ Tries to Be All Things to All Monster Fans
The second Alien prequel appears to have been formulated to give everybody some of what they want. Love watching toothy xenomorphs chow down on unsuspecting space grunts, as in the original Alien (1979)? Hate the philosophical pretensions of Prometheus (2012)? Here you’ll find more of the chomping and less of the speechifying. On the flip…
La Puerta Negra Is Reborn as deMena’s in Montpelier
When Sara deMena Travis began working at La Puerta Negra, the Rovetto Brothers International restaurant group’s Latin restaurant at 44 Main Street in Montpelier, she was smitten with the location and the staff. “I came here as the general manager,” said Travis, “and it was love at first sight.” A longtime resident of central Vermont,…
A Near Miss in Montpelier Suggests a Union’s Clout Is Waning
Peggy Maxfield, a Brattleboro middle school math instructor, traveled nearly two hours last Wednesday to join other teachers in a last-ditch effort to persuade lawmakers to keep their hands off union contract negotiations. “This is a big concern,” she said as she stood on the Statehouse steps in Montpelier. “We’re just trying to send a…
Ask Athena: My Friend Got Engaged and I Think She’s Making a Mistake
Dear Athena, I have a really good friend who just got engaged, and I really think she is making a mistake. She hasn’t been the same since they got together. She doesn’t do anything she used to do, and he’s really boring — she seems so bored and sad all the time. She always does…
Race On: A New American Aims to Diversify the Burlington City Council
The black man from Mauritania had a message for the white folk at Burlington’s C.P. Smith Elementary School. “The way I think is different because I have experienced different things: discrimination, poverty — many, many things,” Ali Dieng told a group of 10 Burlington Progressives holding a caucus in the teacher’s lounge of the New…
Book Review: ‘The Baker’s Secret’ by Stephen P. Kiernan
Readers of The Baker’s Secret, the new novel from Vermont author Stephen P. Kiernan, learn the identity of the baker and the nature of her secret by page 5. She is Emmanuelle, a 22-year-old Frenchwoman who goes by Emma, and she is stretching her wheat ration from the occupying German army to make two extra…
Southern Vermont Group Raises Political Cash — With a Soup CSA
A lefty activist group in the Brattleboro-Putney area has a unique plan to combat creeping Republican electoral control — scorching hot liquid. No, members don’t want to tar and feather right-wing politicians. The collective wants to give you a steaming bowl of soup. Southern Vermont’s chapter of the Sister District Project aims to “move our…
An Onion Editor Talks Satire in the Age of Trump
He may not bring jobs back, but President Donald Trump has created a wealth of material for America’s comedians, humorists and satirists. With the next gaffe or scandal just a tweet away, the challenge is not how to poke fun at the 45th commander in chief and his sidekicks, but how to keep up. “The…
Album Review: Clare Byrne, ‘Seed’
(Self-released, CD, digital download) Relentlessly creative, Clare Byrne is a modern renaissance woman. As a senior lecturer in dance at the University of Vermont and an accomplished dancer and choreographer, her primary passion is movement. But Byrne’s artistic impulses have led her to other mediums, including art, writing and music. Her debut EP, Seed, is…
A UVM Student Talks About Growing Up Undocumented
When Eloisa A. Romero moved to Vermont from California last summer, she had two suitcases filled with books, pictures, clothes, her favorite plush toys and a small statue of the Virgin Mary. And she had a dream. “I’m here for two years, and I need to make the best of it,” she remembered thinking. Romero…
Album Review: Swillbillie, ‘What?!?!?’
(Stab It & Steer Records, CD) There is nothing like some good old-fashioned rockabilly to get you in the mood for booze and murder. Burlington’s Swillbillie make just the kind of music that evokes a stranger lurking in the shadows of a bar, leaning forward into the light just long enough for you to see…
A Wind Turbine Engineer Climbs High
Name: Sally Wright Town: Greenfield, Mass. Job: wind turbine engineer Most people know what wind turbines look like on the outside: huge, white, spinning giants. But how do they look on the inside, and what’s it like to climb one and stand on top? Sally Wright knows because she’s been there, done that, and says…
Soundbites: Superstar Goes Supernova; Panda’s Party
This weekend marks a momentous occasion for James Kochalka Superstar. The Burlington-based musician, comic-book artist and Vermont’s inaugural cartoonist laureate has delighted audiences with his goofy, childlike music for more than 30 years. He’s about to turn 50, and, to celebrate, he’s performing his last show ever. At least that’s how he’s describing it. Never…
What’s With Burlington’s Solar-Powered Trash Cans?
In recent years, Vermonters have grown accustomed to seeing solar panels almost everywhere. Acres of formerly agricultural land have been repurposed into shimmering solar farms, while photovoltaic panels have proliferated on the roofs of houses, businesses, schools, hospitals and airports. It’s now common to see solar-powered traffic message boards along Vermont’s highways; the Agency of…
Overtime: Vermont Legislature Sets Stage for Veto Battle
It was a tense and exhausting finish last week to a low-key session of the Vermont legislature. Gov. Phil Scott’s belated introduction of a plan to change how public school teachers negotiate health insurance benefits put the session into overdrive. Republican governor and Democratic legislature traded proposals, offers, accusations and recriminations until the very end,…
Ross Sheehan Lets Loose at New Vergennes Studio
In 2012, Ross Sheehan and his wife, photographer Cat Cutillo, bought a fixer-upper just south of Main Street in Vergennes. They renovated the home’s former carriage house and opened Outerlands Gallery in 2013. Now, the space has undergone another — albeit less dramatic — metamorphosis: It’s become a working studio and exhibition space for Sheehan…
About Face: DMV Lets Cops Search Database of Driver’s License Photos
The Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles is violating a state law by maintaining a facial-recognition database of all driver’s license photographs — one that it has made widely available to police, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont. The ACLU is calling on the DMV to suspend the practice, which the civil rights…
Obituary: Franklin Garfield Marshall, Jr., 1933-2017
Franklin Garfield Marshall, Jr., a true storyteller, like the raconteurs of old, left this life on May 20, 2017, as he preferred to live it: in his house on Lake Champlain, surrounded by those he loved, and with a glass of red wine by his side. Frank was born and presumed still-born on August 1,…
Eat This Week, May 24 to 30, 2017: Crawfish Social
This weekend marks the official start of summer in all its grilling, lawn-partying, al-fresco-dining glory. To celebrate the reopening of Picnic Social’s expansive open-air deck, executive chef Justin Perdue is throwing down with an old-fashioned crawfish boil. Crack into fresh, buttery, mud-dwelling mollusks — and all the fixings — while sipping special-release summery suds by Lost Nation…
In a Former Coach Stop, Wild Roots Takes Hold
After a soft opening for friends and family, Wild Roots hung out its official welcome flag at 5615 Route 14 in Royalton last Thursday, May 18. In the kitchen was chef Peter Varkonyi, formerly of Fagiani’s in Napa, Calif., and Denver hot spot Beast + Bottle. He dished out modern American fare such as halibut…
Smokey’s Low N Slow BBQ Comes to South Burlington
A local restaurateur will add a fifth link to his chain of area businesses when he opens a barbecue place off Shelburne Road behind McDonald’s in South Burlington in late June or July. Smokey’s Low N Slow is the latest eatery from Jonathan Wish, 47, who runs a Williston-based company called Wow, That’s Good Food!…
