Nov 9-15, 2016
The Votes Are In: Vermont Election Wrap-Up; The Indomitable Evolution of Kat Wright; Madaila on New Album Traces
Cover Story
The Indomitable Rise of Kat Wright
If you’re heartbroken, Kat Wright’s By My Side might be a perilous listen. Like any good soul album, it’s heavy with moody, plunging grooves, wailing horns and the sort of bittersweet ache that can nudge romantic melancholy into a sea of tears. Then again, the Burlington singer’s latest is lush with grooving beats, exultant horns…
Obituary: Marilyn Mason DeWees, 1930-2016
Marilyn Mason DeWees, 86, died peacefully in her home in Stowe on Saturday, November 12, 2016. Marilyn was born May 8, 1930, in Philadelphia, the daughter of Philip Mason and Wilma Eschelman Resh Mason. She is survived by her daughter, Holly DeWees of Albuquerque, New Mexico; her son, Rusty DeWees of Elmore; her niece, Linda…
The Parmelee Post: UVM Lab Directs Resources Into Cloning Bernie Sanders
Professors from the University of Vermont Department of Biology have announced that they’ll be suspending all ongoing research studies for the rest of the year and committing available resources to producing clones of Sen. Bernie Sanders. “The way I see it, we have less than two months left of guaranteed federal funding for scientific research.…
Opinion: Upset About Trump? Don’t Psychologize — Organize
This opinion piece was written by Seven Days’ former Poli Psy columnist. University of Vermont president Tom Sullivan offered solace to students and faculty who might be feeling “isolated and concerned for personal welfare.” His email to students and staff followed the election of a racist, xenophobic, sexist psychopath, his evil VP and a one-party…
Letters to Editor (11/9/16)
Best Protection In her letter [Feedback: “Wild Things,” October 19], Dr. Peggy Larson stated that she has removed limbs from pet cats that have been caught in leghold traps. I am neither a hunter nor a trapper, so I have no skin in that game, but I have a cat. Question about those free-roaming cats:…
Soundbites: NYC Comedian Mike Finoia to Record Album at Vermont Comedy Club
Mike Finoia loves Burlington. And not in that insufferably precious way that out-of-towners tend to adore the Queen City. (I mean, yeah, we are totally cute and quaint. But still.) The New York City-based comedian has a crush on the city, and Vermont in general, that dates back to childhood. This weekend he will requite…
About Time? New Overtime Rule Worries Vermont Employers
On December 1, approximately 10,000 Vermonters will become eligible for overtime pay. That has employers nervously crunching numbers and consulting labor lawyers. Both groups have President Barack Obama to thank — or blame. In May, the U.S. Department of Labor announced a rule change addressing the “white-collar exemptions” in the Fair Labor Standards Act. Previously,…
Great Scott: Liberal Vermont Elects a Republican Governor
Vermonters upended the Democratic political establishment Tuesday, electing Republican Phil Scott as the 82nd governor of the Green Mountain State. The 58-year-old lieutenant governor and construction executive is set to take office in the nation’s most liberal state, where retiring Gov. Peter Shumlin and fellow Democrats have controlled the state capital for six years. “I…
BTV’s ‘Little Pharma’ Shops Face Another Big Competitor — CVS
Lynne Vezina owns Vermont Family Pharmacy on North Avenue — one of just two remaining independent pharmacies in the city of Burlington. Last week found her pitching 20 seniors at the nearby Heineberg Senior Center. She assured them that her store caters to their individual needs, while chains like Rite Aid and CVS do not. CVS,…
Sten Bowen, Four Living Creatures
(Self-released, digital download) Tucked away in Reading is a somewhat enigmatic musician named Sten Bowen. It’s not that he’s a recluse or intentionally mysterious. He’s been a working composer and musician since starting out with the now-defunct Boston rock band Alotia in the early 2000s. A Google search yields a handful of recent results, from…
Herbalists Explore Plants and Wellness
The tincture shot leaves a cool burn in the back of the throat, like the lingering chill of a cough drop. It’s bitter but delicate. The emerald-green drops glint as they fall from the stopper. This is Free Verse Farm’s digestive tincture, a concentrated solution of chamomile, peppermint, ginger, fennel, burdock root and dandelion steeped…
General Steele & Es-K, Building Bridges
(Bucktown USA, CD, digital download, vinyl) One constant in the ever-changing hip-hop game is the importance of the co-sign. Nothing confers legitimacy on an up-and-coming young artist quite like doing work with established veterans. It’s an artistic honor and just plain good business. That’s why Vermont producer Es-K’s latest project, Building Bridges, is such a…
A Campus Sexual Harassment Claim Puts Administrators to the Test
A tenured Castleton University professor who was suspended last year for sexually harassing a student is fighting the school’s finding against him. Christopher Schwaner’s case offers a rare glimpse into a personnel misconduct investigation of the sort conducted behind closed doors, after which the accused professor typically disappears with no explanation. Sarah Schindler complained last…
![Kat Wright, Heart & Soul [SIV466]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sevendaysvt.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/episode466.webp?resize=1200%2C900&ssl=1)
Kat Wright, Heart & Soul [SIV466]
11/5/16: Kat Wright and the Indomitable Soul Band have been fixtures in the local music scene for the past six years. The Burlington octet have simplified their name to Kat Wright and are releasing their debut album on November 18 with a show at the Higher Ground Ballroom. Eva spent an afternoon chatting with lead…
Gimme Danger
There’s something you should understand before seeing Jim Jarmusch’s splendid new documentary. Reviews I’ve read indicate some confusion as to what exactly the subject of Gimme Danger is. This is a movie about the rise and fall and, sort of, rise again of the Stooges, the proto-punk Ann Arbor band of which Iggy Pop was…
M-Saigon Restaurant Adds Cajun to Menu
Having completed significant renovations at its Shelburne Road storefront earlier this fall, Burlington’s M-Saigon Restaurant (formerly M-Saigon Vietnamese Noodle House) has added Cajun seafood to its bill of fare. On high-top tables fitted with butcher-paper rolls and buckets, guests can now crack into bayou-style shellfish boils built on crawfish, shrimp, crabs and clams; and lobsters…
Now That I’m Recovered, I Want to Leave My Partner
Dear Athena, I developed cancer two years ago, and now I am cancer free. I am very proud of my recovery. I am excited to live life to the fullest. I have had the same partner through the whole thing, and he helped me recover. He was there for me when I lost my hair…
Learning the Connection Between Language and Justice
Shawna Shapiro was horrified when she heard her own accent for the first time. At age 13, the Oklahoma native recalled, she left a message on an answering machine belonging to the family for whom she babysat. When she arrived at their house, she heard that message being played back. “Oh, my God. I sound…
Certain Women
In the films of Kelly Reichardt, the landscape tends to be the most compelling character. That’s not intended as a dig at the acclaimed art-house director of Meek’s Cutoff and Wendy and Lucy, just a recognition that interpersonal drama is not her focus or forte. Silences are long in Reichardt’s movies, dialogue muted, conflicts low-key…
Essay: Last Word
In the barely relevant world of newspaper reporters, I win the prize for Most Naïve. I was stunned, shocked, dumbfounded, blown away (and crushed) when the Burlington Free Press — a Gannett-owned newspaper — laid me off after 25 years at the paper. In that time, I never read the business pages. I didn’t check…
Theater Review: Dracula, UVM Theater Department
Movies and TV have claimed a lot of vampire/zombie territory, but horror works in any medium. While it may not provoke screams, the University of Vermont Theatre Department production of Dracula has enough hidden crypts, lightning bolts, creepy fog and ghostly moonlight rippling through curtains to bathe viewers in moody menace. Never underestimate the power…
Art Review: ‘Toward Form,’ BigTown Gallery
The title of the three-artist show “Toward Form” at Rochester’s BigTown Gallery makes a critical statement: that art making is an ongoing process. The object of the artist’s labor may be elusive, highly personal and only decipherable in hindsight, if ever. With these thoughts in mind, curator and gallery owner Anni Mackay has carefully presented…
Book Review: Among the Lost, by Seth Steinzor
For South Burlington author Seth Steinzor, Dante is “that poet for whom love was the / power that moved the sun.” Or so proclaims Seth, the protagonist of Steinzor’s new book-length poem Among the Lost. The work both revisits Dante’s Purgatorio and meditates on its relevance for today’s secular world. The latter is itself a…
Page 32: Short Takes on Five Books
Seven Days’ writers can’t possibly read, much less review, the number of books that arrive in a steady stream by post, email and, in one memorable case, a flock of angry grackles. So this monthly feature, “Page 32,” is our way of introducing you to five books by Vermont authors. To do that, we’ll contextualize…
Who’s That Roadside Elvis in Addison County?
Frequent drivers on Main Street in Bristol, or Route 7 in Charlotte, may have spotted a man parked on the side of the road who sports a black pompadour, bushy sideburns, rose-colored sunglasses, a white dress shirt and black dress pants. Usually he leans against a white ’87 Cadillac with Vermont plates that read “2…
Maiden Vermont Makes Sweet Harmony
Think about barbershop music. You’re probably envisioning four guys wearing striped blazers, straw boaters and bow ties. But the genre looks quite different at the Salisbury Community School gym every Thursday night. The weekly rehearsals for Maiden Vermont, an Addison County-based barbershop chorus, draw more than 40 women of all ages. At a recent rehearsal,…
Free Will Astrology (11/9/16)
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): “Don’t be someone that searches, finds and then runs away,” advises novelist Paulo Coelho. I’m tempted to add this caveat: “Don’t be someone that searches, finds and then runs away — unless you really do need to run away for a while to get better prepared for the reward you have…
Exploring ‘the Other Middle Ages’ in New Play
Last weekend, Emer Pond Feeney stepped onstage at Off Center for the Dramatic Arts in Burlington for the opening night of her play The Other Middle Ages. When the stage lights came up, she was Patty Kelly, a middle-aged scholar confronting her past. Clad in a black turtleneck, Patty speaks with an air of dejection…
On ‘Traces,’ Madaila Ponder Nature vs. Nurture
Madaila front man Mark Daly doesn’t come from a musical family. Aside from his grandfather, who played big-band clarinet and saxophone, Daly is a lone troubadour in a large immediate family that leans more toward athletics. Keyboardist Eric B. Maier does not come from an especially musical family, either. Daly and Maier, who grew up…
In the Old North End, Drifters’ Laid-Back Bar
In June 2015, Phinneus Sonin announced that he was closing the Psychedelicatessen, the funky Old North End café that had served dumplings and strange performances on a pay-as-you-please basis since early 2014. As word circulated that new owners would transform the space into a tiny taproom — the kind that serves Vermont brews and locavore comfort…
Blossom Brings Homemade Take-out to Winooski
Last Christmas, Winooski’s Misery Loves Co. converted the former MLC Bakeshop into the Incubator, a place for Vermont cooks and artisans to share their passions through pop-ups, workshops and other creative events. When the Misery crew relinquished the space this October, the search was on for someone to take over, equipped with culinary prowess and…
