Oct 10-16, 2018
In Gov. Phil Scott’s Administration, Jason Gibbs Takes the Wheel; Traffic at Burlington International Airport Is Taking Off; Pro Cyclist Ian Boswell Makes a Home, and a Fall Fondo, in Peacham
Seriously: Who’s Driving This Thing?
In this episode, Bryan talks about Vermont’s upcoming gubernatorial election and how unbelievably cool it is to go out and vote. Register to vote here. CREDITS Written, filmed and edited by: Bryan Parmelee Artwork/photography courtesy of: Kym Balthazar, James Buck, Jeb Wallace-Brodeur, Josh Kuckens, Brian Bessery, Bryan Parmelee, Dreastime Logo/art direction by: Don Eggert Audio…
Obituary: Janet Makaris, 1952-2018
Huntington Janet Elizabeth Makaris, née Nicholas, of Huntington passed away on September 5 after a brief illness. She was 66. Janet was predeceased by her parents, Walter and Euphemia, and her younger brother Steven. The Nicholas brood, complete with youngest brother Bobby, grew up in the rough, eccentric Brooklyn of the ’50s and ’60s. It…
Obituary: Madelyn Linsenmeir, 1988-2018
Our beloved Madelyn Ellen Linsenmeir died on Sunday, October 7. While her death was unexpected, Madelyn suffered from drug addiction, and for years we feared her addiction would claim her life. We are grateful that when she died, she was safe and she was with her family. Maddie was born on March 31, 1988, in…
The Cannabis Catch-Up: Would Small Vermont Growers Get a Chance in a Regulated Market?
We’re about two months from getting the final report from the Governor’s Marijuana Advisory Commission and the panel is still hashing out an important detail: the number of cultivator licenses that would be available to Vermont growers in a taxed-and-regulated market. At a Thursday meeting of the commission’s subcommittee on taxation and regulation, cannabis advocates…
Obituary: Gérard Rubaud, 1941-2018
Westford Gérard Rubaud died in his home in Westford, Vt., on October 7, 2018. An acclaimed baker and ski world legend, Rubaud was 77. Born in Aix Les Bains, Savoie, France, on July 16, 1941, to a father who owned a ski shop and a mother who was an incomparable cook, Rubaud was his parents’…
Theater Review: ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time,’ Vermont Stage
A playgoer decides whether to stand outside a story or plunge inside it. In Vermont Stage’s production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, viewers will be rewarded for immersing themselves, and this production uses multiple media to make the experience especially full. The compelling story becomes an exploration of how viewers…
Movie Review: Tom Hardy’s Talent Is Wasted as a Superhero in ‘Venom’
Tom Hardy is brilliant, the Marlon Brando of his generation. Watching the Brit for the first time in 2008’s Bronson was, for me, like seeing the Beatles on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” So I’ve found his professional trajectory a tad dismaying. The thing about performers who can do anything is that they often can’t resist…
Theater Review: ‘Sitting Pretty,’ Girls Nite Out Productions
A play about self-discovery is uplifting, and never more so than when the audience encourages the performers. With little murmurs of appreciation and warm laughter, the full house at last Thursday’s opening of Sitting Pretty demonstrated that community theater is often a collaboration of actors and audience. The supportive mood began before the lights dimmed.…
Movie Review: Lady Gaga Makes Her Bid to Conquer Hollywood in the Immersive ‘A Star Is Born’
A Star Is Born is the Hollywood story that will not die. Filmed in 1932 (as What Price Hollywood), 1937, 1954 and 1976, the material has often served not to launch a new star but to showcase an already-huge one (Judy Garland, Barbra Streisand). The new version follows that pattern. Lady Gaga plays the fresh…
Free Will Astrology (10/10/18)
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): My astrological analysis suggests that life is conspiring to render you extra excited and unusually animated and highly motivated. I bet that if you cooperate with the natural rhythms, you will feel stirred, playful and delighted. So how can you best use this gift? How might you take maximum advantage of the lucky…
Fake Facebook Event Page Touts Wrong Date for Montpelier Women’s March
In January, Women’s March Vermont will hold its third annual rally in Montpelier. But on Facebook, two different pages were promoting the event on two different dates. One is very much real, and the other, since removed by Facebook, was a fake. Similar imposters have been popping up on social media across the country. The…
Vermont Republicans Tiptoe Around Trump on the Campaign Trail
The two women vying to represent Stowe in the Vermont House faced a question right out of the national headlines during an October 3 debate: “With what you know today, would you support Brett Kavanaugh’s appointment to the Supreme Court?” Incumbent Heidi Scheuermann (R-Stowe) shook her head in exasperation at the query, which a reader…
Where’s the Money? Gubernatorial Candidates Are Feeling the Pinch
Vermont’s gubernatorial campaign is in its final weeks. Candidates are traveling the state for meet and greets, forums, and debates. But in terms of fundraising, the two major party contenders seem to be stuck in low gear. Republican Gov. Phil Scott and Democratic challenger Christine Hallquist are performing dismally in the money game. As of…
Maple Soul Brings Farm-Fresh Comfort Food to Rochester
Chef Jim Huntington, who recently opened the Rochester restaurant Maple Soul with his wife, Jennifer, knows something about the farming aspect of farm-to-table. When Tropical Storm Irene rained down on Rochester seven years ago, the Huntingtons were stranded in their house on Route 100, cut off from town (and beyond) in what became known locally…
Burlington Moves Forward on Reenvisioning Memorial Auditorium
On September 25, Seven Days joined a hard-hat tour of Burlington’s Memorial Auditorium. One of the largest public meeting spaces in the state at 56,000 square feet, it was built in 1927 as a balconied auditorium seating 2,500. After years of deferred maintenance that led to the building’s closure in December 2016, the city is…
BTV Takes Off: Larger Planes Usher in Competition, More Travelers
Boardings at Burlington International Airport are up significantly over last year as bigger planes touch down, reversing a seven-year slump and ushering in the possibility of lower fares. This summer’s passenger traffic was so brisk that the Transportation Security Administration brought in staff reinforcements from nearby airports in Rutland and Manchester, N.H., to help move…
Barishi’s Graham Brooks on Brattleboro, Musical Downsizing and Making a New Album
At first glance, Vermont’s metal scene might appear an insular sort of world. In a state with a reputation for laid-back audiences, metal has never been the top-dog genre, so the head-bangers have tended to stick together with a clan-like mentality. Small sample sizes obscure the diversity and wizardry within the scene, as the state…
Work: Singer Ashley O’Brien’s Audiences Span Cradle to Grave
Name: Ashley O’Brien Town: Winooski Job: Funeral singer As a professional musician, Ashley O’Brien may have the most diverse audiences in Vermont. They literally span from cradle to grave. A classically trained pianist, O’Brien works as a composer and music director at Very Merry Theatre, a Burlington-based musical-theater company for children. She gives theater and…
Pro Cyclist Ian Boswell Creates Home, and Fall Fondo, in Peacham
Ian Boswell is a tough person to keep up with on a bicycle. That should come as no surprise — he’s a professional cyclist, paid to pedal faster than the next guy. The 27-year-old Oregon native looks the part, too: He’s tall (six foot three) and stick-figure lean (about 150 pounds) and moves smoothly aboard…
At His Plainfield Nursery, Nicko Rubin Cultivates Permanent Roots
Like many kids growing up in Vermont, Nicko Rubin dreamed of all the places he would go later in life. When he was a student at tiny Twinfield Union High School in Marshfield, Rubin imagined he might head out West. “It seemed so exciting,” he said. Rubin, now 36, did venture away to college in…
It’s All About the Authors at Burlington Book Festival
The Burlington Book Festival isn’t generally a hotbed of controversy. But the literary gathering, which returns for its 14th year on Friday, October 12, drew headlines earlier this month when founder Rick Kisonak scheduled Garrison Keillor for a fundraising event. (Disclosure: Kisonak is a freelance film critic for Seven Days.) Multiple women have accused the…
Letters to the Editor (10/10/18)
Democracy 101 [Re “Page 32,” October 3]: Rachel Elizabeth Jones opens her review of Madeleine Kunin’s new book, Coming of Age, with the statement, “Vermont’s first — and still only — female governor, Madeleine Kunin, was appointed in 1984.” Not so… Kunin was elected in 1984, not “appointed,” winning just over 50 percent of the vote.…
Soundbites: Comedy in a Conference Room; Tape Swap at the Monkey House
Location, Location, Location When you’re a burgeoning standup comedian, all you want in the world is a captive audience. Cultivating a fan base and developing a following are huge challenges for comics, as they are for anyone pursuing a creative endeavor. To set yourself apart from the hordes trying to do the exact same thing,…
Scarlett Letters: He’s Pushing Back About Getting Married
This week, Scarlett addresses two letters on getting married. Dear Scarlett, I’m engaged (been together for six and a half years), and we have a decent life. My fiancé has been pushing back our wedding and making excuses for why he doesn’t want to plan anything. He says we need more money and I need…
Vermont’s Lucrative Cannabis Sector Banks On a Local Credit Union
When Scott Sparks opened Vermont Hempicurean in downtown Brattleboro, he faced a challenge familiar to every entrepreneur in Vermont’s budding cannabis industry: finding a bank. Sparks asked around in search of a financial institution that would service his CBD and hemp products store. One name — the Vermont State Employees Credit Union — came up repeatedly.…
Album Review: The Fobs, ‘The Fobs’
(Self-released, cassette, digital) Back in 2015, the Fobs released a charming little record called Creepin on You. Though it probably went overlooked by wider local audiences, the album was a lo-fi gem. The Fobs are back to add to that treasure chest of bedraggled garage-pop jewels with a new, self-titled effort. Like its predecessors —…
Art Review: ‘The Impossible Ideal: Victorian Fashion and Femininity,’ Fleming Museum
It was a performance of contrasts. Head held high, hand on the railing, Stowe artist and educator Polly Motley surveyed the marble staircase, reached for a tread with her foot and hovered elegantly before taking a sure-footed step. Seconds later, she faltered, missed the next tread and crumpled in a heap against the balusters. She…
Album Review: My Mother’s Moustache, ‘Calacirya’
(Self-released, CD, digital) My Mother’s Moustache are an ever-shifting collective that orbits around the songwriting work of guitarist Joe Sabourin. While that group’s story began in the Boston area, Sabourin has been plucking in Vermont for some time now. The band’s 2017 album Down From the Door had an intimate feel and some rough edges.…
What’s With the Giant Table and Chairs in Tinmouth?
Who among us doesn’t love a good country drive, especially during Vermont’s foliage season? As you weave your way among the state’s mountains, farmlands and small towns, you’re likely to lay eyes on some compelling roadside attractions amid swaths of seasonal colors. You’ll see country stores, produce stands, cairns, waterfalls and, if you drive through…
From Adult-Only to Kid-Friendly, Fringe Fest Pushes the Envelope
If your entertainment sweet spot lies somewhere between surrealist wood-nymph erotica and travelogues with burrito-driven plots, look no further than the Burlington Fringe Festival, which returns to the Off Center for the Dramatic Arts for its sixth season from Thursday, October 11, through Sunday, October 14. This year’s festival features 22 performances, with titles that…
Backseat Driver? In Gov. Phil Scott’s Administration, Chief of Staff Jason Gibbs Takes the Wheel
Moments after taking office as Vermont’s 82nd governor, Republican Phil Scott pledged to a Statehouse chamber filled with Democratic and Progressive legislators that he would “rise above the politics of division and partisanship.” Scott acknowledged that he and the assembled lawmakers wouldn’t always agree. “But,” he continued in the January 2017 inaugural address, “we must…
Fletcher Free Library Launches Series With Arabic Literature
When Barbara Shatara, a librarian at the Fletcher Free Library, asked her family and friends to name Canadian writers, she learned that few of them could come up with names besides The Handmaid’s Tale author Margaret Atwood. They’re missing out on learning about other parts of the world, she suggested, because they primarily read the…
Eat This Week, October 10 to 16, 2018: School Lunch
Doug Paine and Jordan Ware work closely every day: As the chefs of Juniper and Hen of the Wood, their respective restaurants share a roof on Burlington’s Cherry Street. On Saturday, they’ll don collaborative aprons for a comely courtyard supper to benefit the Burlington School Food Project. The evening will begin with snacks from the…
At Shelburne Orchards, the Apple Brandy Recipe Includes Words and Music
On a rainy October morning, under the metal roof of the farm stand at Shelburne Orchards, the falling water sounds like a percussionist playing overhead: a steady beat, the ping, the patter, the rolling crescendo of a downpour. Elsewhere on the property on the same morning, rain thrums on a different roof, the thick dirt…
Dale Boca Argentinean Grill Finds New Home in Winooski
In Chittenden County, many locals head to Winooski for globe-trotting food diversity. Later this fall, the Onion City will add South American food to its international bill of fare when Leandro Bustos and Lorena Neironi open Dale Boca Argentinean Grill at 215 Main Street. The little beige building became vacant earlier this year when Pho…
