Nov 26 – Dec 2, 2014
The Pentagon Is Stocking Vermont With Tools of War; Will Mobile-Home Residents Buy Park? New MUD Talks Tell All; Arts Consultant Talks PlanBTV
Cover Story
The Pentagon Is Stocking Vermont With Tools of War
Orange County has fewer than 30,000 residents, more miles of snowmobile trails than paved roads and only one stoplight. In Chelsea, the county seat, a courthouse bell chimes every time a jury reaches a verdict. Cellphone reception is notoriously unreliable. It is among the most tranquil places in a state that ranks 50th nationally in…
Obituary: Pauline Cecile (Jette) Boudreau
Mrs. Pauline Boudreau, 86, a resident of this area for most of her lifetime, passed away Sunday afternoon, November 30, 2014, at Franklin County Rehab surrounded by her beloved family, following a lingering illness. Born in St. Albans, October 23, 1928 the daughter of the late Henry and Mabel (Columb) Jette, she was raised and…
Obituary: Philip L. Couture, Sr., 1923-2014, Winooski
Philip L. Couture, Sr, 91 , a longtime Winooski resident passed away peacefully at the Vermont Respite House surrounded by his loving family. He was born September 14, 1923 to Elphege and Delia (Thibodeau) Couture. He was married to Dorothy Moody on February 1, 1947. Together they raised five children. He proudly served his country…
Sterling Herbert Goldsmith
On October 29, 2014, at The University of Vermont Health Care Center, Paige Camille Ely & Corey Goldsmith welcomed a son, Sterling Herbert Goldsmith.
Obituary: Carlton Edward Domey
Carlton Edward Domey died November 30, 2014 at Central Vermont Medical Center from complications with multiple myeloma. Carlton was born in Cabot, VT, November 26, 1928, son of Edward and Ruth (Woods) Domey. He served two years in the United States Marine Corps at Camp Lejeune, NC, in automotive mechanics. In 1958, he married Marvarene…
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1
For some reason, there’s a large swath of online culture — call it geekdom — that takes comic-book adaptations ultraseriously while scoffing at adaptations of young-adult novels. I’m not sure why. Both genres have conventions, yes. But neither has to limit itself to providing a preexisting fanbase with GIF-ready images of the characters they want…
Bubble Soccer Puts a Bounce in the Game
Squint just a little, and it’s easy to imagine that the colorful, bulbous creatures bouncing around the large room are tiny organisms on a microscope slide, little amoebae and volvox colonies careening every which way. That vision is quickly shattered by shrieks of joy and a repeated squishy noise akin to the wheezy grunt of…
Carraway, Carraway
(Self-released, CD, digital download) Are you feeling nostalgic for middle school mixtape days or high school car rides soundtracked by early-to-mid-2000s pop punk — à la Cartel, the Starting Line or Dashboard Confessional? If so, the self-titled debut EP from Burlington’s Carraway is the flashback you need. The EP is a primer on teenage angst that…
Coquette, Separatio
(Green Mountain Records, CD, digital download) Before we officially begin this review, I’d like to chat privately with central Vermont’s Coquette for a second. Lads, nobody likes a tease. And your sophomore EP, Separatio, is exactly that. I know, I know. Teasing is implied by your band name and, hell, even the title of your…
Pho Nguyen Opens; Shelburne Vineyard Publishes a Cookbook; Agricola Farm Selling Porchetta
Bamboo Hut is dead, long live Pho Nguyen. Last week, the new restaurant opened at 1130 North Avenue. Owner Phuong Lam helmed Bamboo Hut and Phuong’s Kitchen in the same space before that. Why the change? “We have a new chef and a new manager, so our food is a little bit different,” Lam explains.…
The Theory of Everything
To properly appreciate this touching and illuminating account of the 30-year marriage between Stephen and Jane Hawking, it’s helpful to bear in mind that this is her story, not his. Literally. Director James Marsh (Man on Wire) and writer Anthony McCarten based the film on Jane’s 2007 memoir Travelling to Infinity: My Life With Stephen.…
Striking FairPoint Workers Aren’t Giving Up
At a rally in Montpelier last week, gravel-voiced union leaders and labor bigwigs urged the striking workers of FairPoint Communications to hold strong, settle in and fight the good fight. “You’re the middle class,” shouted Edwin Hill, the president of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, to the crowd of assembled strikers and other union…
Interactive: Explore the Military Equipment in Your Community
Since the 1990s, Vermont police agencies have quietly obtained armored vehicles, assault rifles and other surplus military gear from the Pentagon. Read our story on the 1033 Program and explore the database of surplus military equipment in Vermont. Click on your county to see what your local departments have obtained for their arsenals. @media only…
A UVM Study Considers the Sex Life of Ants
Uncapping a plastic box containing a colony of Pogonomyrmex ants, Mike Herrmann says, “There are a lot of parallels between ants and humans.” Like human beings, he points out, some ants practice agriculture, growing and cultivating the fungus on which they subsist; other ant species build complex structures that could justly be called architectural. “They’re…
Consultant Susan Silberberg Helps Artists Re-envision Burlington’s South End
By now, a certain pattern of urban development has become all too familiar in American cities. Struggling artists, musicians, designers and other creative types move into an old industrial district, which offers cheap rents and large warehouse spaces where they can set up shop. Then, once they’ve transformed the neighborhood into a hip, vibrant and…
Secret Eats From Norwich’s Osteria Chiara al Forno
On the night of November 15 in Norwich, the sky was an endless expanse of black silk marred only by distant stars. And it was finger-numbingly, chill-you-to-the-bone freezing. But at 1011 Route 5 North, 30 people chose to eat outside. Some jockeyed for a spot by the bonfire behind Karin Rothwell’s pottery studio. Others looked…
South Burlington’s Bookworms’ Exchange to Close
Underneath the counter at Bookworms’ Exchange, proprietor Bev Brown keeps two old-fashioned card files: one crammed with the names of active customers who have earned store credit by selling their used books, and another with the names of those who no longer seem likely to cash in their credit. The overstuffed condition of the files…
Four More Local Albums You Probably Haven’t Heard
So many records, so little time. Seven Days gets more album submissions than we know what to do with. And, given the ease of record making these days, it’s difficult to keep up. Still, we try to get to every local release that comes across the music desk, no matter how obscure or far out.…
A New Anthology Presents Alternative Voices of Vermont
Ski slopes, microbreweries and farmers markets make no appearances in writer and anthologist Robin MacArthur’s literary rendering of Vermont, and Burlington is merely a place with a bus stop. As an Ivy League undergraduate, MacArthur grew frustrated when her classmates envisioned her home state as “a complete pastoral, Ben & Jerry’s peaceful haven, or a…
Soundbites: Giving Thanks
This column, Thanksgiving week, used to scare the bejesus out of me. The upcoming weekend is notoriously among the slowest of the year, music-wise. For example, Higher Ground has but one show on the books between now and December 3, which is one more show than it traditionally has. Add to that the fact that…
Middlebury’s New MUD Talks Bring Sharks to Town
Sharks, according to Andy Mitchell, are “kind of sexy.” He would know better than most people: The Middlebury resident and longtime National Geographic wildlife cinematographer regularly dove headfirst into shark-infested waters for his job. One time, “I had to jump out of a helicopter into a shark feeding frenzy,” he reveals. “But I’m going to…
Green Mountain Opera Festival Cancels Season
Next summer’s opera offerings in Vermont will shrink by half. The sad news arrived last week when Green Mountain Opera Festival, one of the state’s two main opera-producing entities, announced it was cancelling its 2015 season. That season would have been its 10th. “There was no one thing, just a lot of different factors,” explains…
![Bubble Soccer at MMU [SIV378]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sevendaysvt.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/episode378-4-e1755131651340.webp?resize=1200%2C900&ssl=1)
Bubble Soccer at MMU [SIV378]
11/14/14: Bubble soccer (“boblefotball”) originated in Norway in 2011 and has finally made its way to Vermont. Quite simply, it involves players strapping themselves into 5 foot wide inflated spheres and attempting to score soccer goals without rolling over too many times. Eva attended a match organized by David Alofsin and Vermont Bubble Soccer at…
Free Will Astrology (11/26/14)
ARIES (March 21-April 19): What exactly do you believe in, Aries? What’s your philosophy of life? Do you think that most people are basically good and that you can make a meaningful life for yourself if you just work hard and act kind? Do you believe that evil, shape-shifting, kitten-eating extraterrestrials have taken on human…
Weinberger’s Restart: Mayor Faces Challenges From the Left
Nearly three years after promising Burlington “a fresh start,” Mayor Miro Weinberger is preparing to send a fresh message in his race for reelection. No longer can the 44-year-old Democrat campaign against the fiscal failures of his Progressive predecessor, Bob Kiss. Instead, as he looks to next March’s Town Meeting Day elections, Weinberger plans to…
Letters to the Editor (11/26/14)
Fix It, Don’t Close It I’m one of the artists who previously had a show in this wonderful gallery space [“Closing Time: A Security Breach Leads to Gallery Shutdown,” November 19]. What a shame to see it closed down! It seems like yet another case of those concerned with security driving the decisions. I suspect…
How Can I Persuade My Wife to Try Anal?
Dear Athena, I want to get my wife to do anal with me, but she’s not into it. How can I get her to try it? Sincerely, Anal on the Brain Dear Anal, Short and to the point. I like it. However, your pithy question requires a longer answer. Anal isn’t for everyone. No matter…
Art Review: Peter Huntoon and Mareva Millarc, Chaffee Downtown
Two-person exhibits invite comparison. When the two artists are husband and wife, the comparison is inevitable and, often, reveals contrasting and complementary elements. “Oil and Water,” with more than 30 works by Middletown Springs painters Peter Huntoon and Mareva Millarc, is that show. Its title alludes both to their differences and to two of the…
Vermont Salumi Introduces a Dry-Cured Sausage
Since founding Vermont Salumi in 2011, Peter Colman has wanted to make a cured salami. But until recently, the Italian-born, Vermont-raised meat man has stuck to fresh sausages — salty, savory pork tinged with pepper or wine and packed into natural hog casings. They’re fantastic, but cured they are not. Though Colman had worked under…
Wendy’s Roots
I was about 10 minutes early as I searched for my customer’s address on Barre Street in Montpelier. I could have engaged the GPS on my smartphone, but that would have felt like cheating. (I’m like the obstinate logger who spurns the chainsaw for his trusty ax.) This 8:30 morning pickup was on the early…
Burlington’s Most Affordable Neighborhood Is … For Sale
Bob Dougherty, a 69-year-old retired IBM worker and Vietnam vet, has owned his home in Burlington’s New North End for nearly three decades. He bought it from his mother, who lived there before him. Last week a neighbor came by with a letter bearing news he’s dreaded for months: The land he lives on is…
News Quirks (11/26/14)
Curses, Foiled Again After John Franklin Forbis, 72, was convicted of possessing 850 pounds of marijuana in Columbia County, N.Y., in 1992, he jumped bail and eluded police for 22 years. Authorities finally caught up with him in Lane County, Ore., because he applied for Social Security benefits in his real name. (New York Daily…
LocalStore: Buch Spieler, Montpelier
Fred Wilber knows all about musical revolutions. He’s been selling new and used records, and other music-related products, at Buch Spieler Music for more than four decades. The Montpelier store has survived one musical format change after another, from vinyl to cassettes to CDs to downloadable MP3 files. “But I never did eight-track tapes,” Wilber…
Taste Test: The Gryphon
One of the Queen City’s timeless pleasures is sipping a glass of, say, Bandol or Côtes du Rhône — or perhaps a warming whiskey cocktail — while nibbling a plate of fine local cheese. Better still if you’re ensconced on a plush leather couch while gazing out a window at frosty City Hall Park. This…
Sweet Simone’s Bakery Expands to Richmond
Fans of Lisa Curtis’ Sweet Simone’s coconut cupcakes, bagels and canelés will soon be able to skip a trip to the Mad River Valley. Her baked goods will remain on sale at the Sweet Spot bakery her family owns at 40 Bridge Street in Waitsfield. But in January, Curtis will strike out on her own…
