Nov 12-18, 2014
Solar Power Is Hot in Chilly Vermont, but What’s the Forecast?; Jericho Preschool Loses Home; Dispensing Cryptocurrency; New Fitness Trend Hangs 10; It’s Taco Time at Local Restaurants
Cover Story
Here Comes the Sun: Solar is Hot in Chilly Vermont
Could the photovoltaic cell replace the Holstein cow as an iconic symbol of Vermont? Solar farms are sprouting along many of the state’s roads, while additional large-scale installations are arising more discreetly behind visual barriers. Thousands of homes and businesses now have arrays of solar panels affixed to their roofs or tucked into back lots.…
Obituary: Patricia Ann Rivers
Patricia Ann Rivers, 69, died peacefully at Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis, Maryland on November 12, 2014 from complications of pneumonia. Patty was born on March 17, 1945 in Ferrisburg, Vermont to Wren and Timothy Rivers. She graduated from Vergennes High School and decided early on to leave the snow behind and lived most…
Obituary: Diane Marie Bushey
Diane Marie Bushey of Swanton, passed away on November 16, 2014, at home with her loving family at her side following a courageous battle with cancer. Diane was born Oct. 6, 1948, in St. Albans, the daughter of Conrad and Blanche (Barrett) Gauthier. Diane grew up in Swanton and graduated from St. Anne’s Academy in…
Interstellar
I have a soft spot for Christopher Nolan. He may not be a director’s director, but he is a writer’s director: the kind who believes with utter sincerity that he can use blockbuster action flicks as epic vehicles for ideas. Granted, the ideas aren’t always new, the epic plots don’t always cohere, and the product…
Popular Jericho Preschool Faces Expulsion
Bleak skies and sleet didn’t seem to bother preschoolers swinging on the Saxon Hill School playground as they chattered last week about sledding and holiday wish lists. Their parents and teachers, however, have something weightier on their minds: finding a new location for the school. For the last 29 years, Saxon Hill has inhabited a…
Close Call: Seven Reasons Shumlin Nearly Lost
Throughout the fall, Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Milne repeatedly claimed he’d be the first challenger to topple an incumbent Vermont governor since Phil Hoff pulled it off in 1962. On Election Day, he came remarkably close. According to uncertified results from the Secretary of State’s Office, Milne came within 2,434 votes of besting two-term Democratic…
Free Will Astrology (11/12/14)
ARIES (March 21-April 19): We all have addictive and obsessive tendencies. They are fundamental to being human. So the challenge is not to eliminate them — that’s not possible — but rather to harness them. If you hope to keep them from dragging you down, you must work hard to channel them into activities that…
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
The meta element in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s latest film is perhaps its most provocative. It’s impossible, for example, to watch this film about a sixtysomething movie star who made his fortune playing a superhero named Birdman a quarter century earlier and not assume the role was written for star Michael Keaton — who’s 63 and made…
Vermont Quilters Reinvigorate Traditional Craft
If the word “quilt” makes you think of Grandma’s patchwork or Civil War-era patterns in red, white and blue, think again. Quilting is back in a big way, in Vermont and elsewhere — and these days, it’s blurring the line between “craft” and “art.” One look at the explosion of fabric-arts exhibits around the state…
The Caves of Intervale
As I sat idling on a Friday night at the taxi stand on the corner of St. Paul and Main, I vaguely took notice in my rearview mirror of the person attempting to park her car behind me. Parallel parking is not an art every motorist has mastered, and this driver was having a difficult…
Tally Lapse: Why the Long Wait for Election Results?
Ryan Mason ran for high bailiff in Addison County, so he was eager to see the results from Election Day voting. In its Thursday edition, the twice-weekly Addison County Independent printed a final tally showing Mason falling just short of the win. But the Democrat held out hope, anxiously awaiting the official government count. The…
A Not-Quite-Interview With Jonathan Richman
Jonathan Richman doesn’t do interviews for print media. Actually, sometimes he does — he just makes it awfully hard. For one thing, we’re told he doesn’t use email or carry a cellphone when touring, which makes it tough to reach him. When he does grant interviews for print, Richman requires the reporter to either physically…
Burlington Adds Cryptocurrency With Bitcoin ATM
The usual point of an ATM is to transform a virtual representation of money — the digits of your bank account balance — into crisp, green bills you can stuff in your wallet. So when a currency is virtual by its very nature, like the controversial “cryptocurrency” Bitcoin, what does its ATM look like? Simple:…
Theater Review: Our Town, UVM Department of Theatre
Though it’s been staged countless times since its 1938 Broadway debut, Thornton Wilder’s Our Town still retains its power to produce tears and a shiver of recognition. The University of Vermont Department of Theatre’s current production approaches it with bracing clarity. The play’s harrowing simplicity has the elemental power of dawn breaking. It’s set in…
![The Eat More Kale Dude [SIV376]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sevendaysvt.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/episode376.webp?resize=1200%2C900&ssl=1)
The Eat More Kale Dude [SIV376]
11/6/14: Since 2001, Bo Muller-Moore has been printing “Eat More Kale” shirts in his studio (“dudio”) above his garage in Montpelier. Three years ago Bo applied for a federal trademark which prompted the fast-food chain Chick-fil-A to send him a cease and desist letter citing the similarity between their trademarked slogan “Eat mor chikin” and…
Gorgon, Secret
(Stickshift Recordings, CD, digital download) The punk-metal scene is not for those with sensitive ears. If you’re not there to rant, rage and rock, then you might as well get the hell out. Yet the genre’s hard edge has often meant that, unless you’re a straight dude, you might not have a welcoming experience. Burlington…
Bess O’Brien’s Next Film to Tackle Eating Disorders
Documentary filmmaker Bess O’Brien will probably never win any awards for leaving her audiences feeling warm and fuzzy. But her films — and the speaking engagements that always accompany their releases — spark public conversations about some of society’s most awkward and difficult topics. Her documentaries have delved into such issues as domestic violence, sexual…
Various Artists, Twists & Bends: An Indie Compilation Project Featuring 17 Vermont Artists
(Malletts Bay Records, CD, digital download) For the past few years, Colchester’s Glory Reinstein has served as a champion for an established yet underappreciated class of local musicians. Under the banner of her label and promotions company, Malletts Bay Records — formerly Bluebird Promotions — she’s served as a public liaison for acts such as…
Quick Lit: Polly and the One and Only World by Don Bredes
In a broken future America, a teenage witch travels from Florida to Vermont to save her kind from a purge orchestrated by a repressive Christian regime. Oh, and she can fly. That’s the irresistible premise of Don Bredes’ new novel, Polly and the One and Only World, which draws on influences such as Cormac McCarthy’s…
Making Waves With New SurfSet Fitness
I’m paddling out toward the rolling white froth of surf, somewhere off the coast of Bali, furiously scooping my arms until my instructor tells me to jump up and lunge forward. When I fail to catch a wave — repeatedly — I’m not frustrated. I am, however, breaking a sweat. That’s because I’m actually inside…
Eyewitness: Burlington Artist Valerie Hird
The nomads roaming parts of western Asia and northern Africa share key characteristics with Vermonters, says Burlington artist Valerie Hird, despite the vast geographic and cultural distances separating them. “They help out one another,” the painter and traveler explains in an interview at her home studio on North Avenue. “They’re hospitable to strangers. They’re living…
Milne’s Miracle: Vermont’s Almost-Governor Fights On
You can forgive Scott Milne for believing in the impossible. Last Tuesday, the inexperienced, underfunded Republican gubernatorial candidate did what nobody expected: He nearly took down Gov. Peter Shumlin, the seemingly all-powerful Democratic leader of a heavily Democratic state. Now, Milne’s in the market for another miracle. This time, he may try to persuade the…
Letters to the Editor (11/12/14)
Winner Takes All Our legislature should not consider the appeals of any politician asking to overturn the results of an election [Off Message: “Calling Shumlin Victory ‘Premature,’ Milne Considers Contesting Result,” November 6]. In a democracy, the candidate who receives the most votes should win. That’s how it’s worked in Vermont’s history, and how it…
Logan’s of Vermont Seeks New Home
Take-out spot Logan’s of Vermont will close its doors at 30 Main Street in Burlington for the last time on November 14 at 6 p.m. But don’t mourn the flavorful soups and Julia Child-style chocolate mousse just yet. Brothers and co-owners David and Nick Logan are on the hunt for a larger space. “We’re trying…
David Budbill and Erik Nielsen to Reprise A Fleeting Animal Opera
After Brookfield composer Erik Nielsen finished writing his first opera, A Fleeting Animal, in 2000, he says, “I couldn’t write a note of music for six months. It drained me. It was a tremendous undertaking.” The work was commissioned by Vermont Opera Theater in Montpelier and written with librettist David Budbill of Wolcott, who drew…
Soundbites: Boomslang Drop A New Record
Every couple of months or so, I like to drop by Buch Spieler Records in Montpelier. For one thing, it’s a nifty little record shop and, as we know, nifty little record shops are in increasingly short supply these days. Two, a number of the folks from the capital city label State & Main Records…
How Can I Suggest New Things to Do in Bed With My Husband?
Dear Athena, How should I go about suggesting new things to do in bed with my husband? I am curious about some things, but I have no clue how to go about it. I’ve thought about sending him links to some stories that have turned me on, but I don’t want him to think I’m…
Girls’ Pint Out Brings Together Craft Beer Mavens
Amanda Wishin founded Girls Pint Out in Indiana in 2010 with a mission to “build a community of women who love craft beer and who are an active, contributing part of the greater craft beer community.” Before long, she was fielding calls from women around the country who hoped to bring the idea to their…
Vermont Humanities Conference Examines Civil War Legacy
The American Civil War has spawned countless book-length studies, literary and cinematic recreations, and historical reenactments. When Yale history scholar David W. Blight was writing his dissertation on abolitionist Frederick Douglass, however, he happened on a less-explored thread of inquiry. He found himself studying how the war has been remembered since it ended, on May…
News Quirks (11/12/14)
Curses, Foiled Again When Dustin Kite, 25, fled from an outdoor-gear store in Chattanooga, Tenn., with stolen merchandise, he found himself pursued by store employees and customers, all long-distance runners. They chased him down the street, through parking lots, over a neighboring business’ fence and into nearby woods. By then, assistant manager Eric Loffland said,…
Parkside Restaurant Opens in Richmond
How would you like to start this Thursday with apple fritters, biscuits and morning buns made by a James Beard Foundation Award-nominated chef? That day marks the opening of the Kitchen Table Bistro spin-off Parkside Kitchen, located at 39 Esplanade in Richmond, former site of On the Rise Bakery. KTB pastry chef Lara Atkins —…
Plattsburgh’s Himalaya Restaurant Expands to Burlington
When Seven Days visited Himalaya Restaurant in Plattsburgh three years ago, owner Tenzin Dorjee told us, “My wife and I are pretty passionate about doing a restaurant in Burlington.” That energy has finally found a home at 3 Main Street, the space previously known as Madera’s Restaurante Mexicano & Cantina and Mona’s Restaurant. A debilitating…
Vermont Restaurants Turn to Taco Nights
Vermont is about as far as from the Mexican border as anywhere in the U.S. — in both geography and culture. Here in the Green Mountains, we’re more likely to hear Québécois French than Spanish, and authentic Mexican food is tough to come by. But that doesn’t stop us from loving a good fiesta. Lately,…
