Oct 29 – Nov 4, 2014
A Racecar-Driving Populist and a “Genius” Inventor Jockey for Vermont’s No. 2 Spot; Hartland Goes to the Rescue; Williamstown’s Web Art; Day of the Dead Spreads
Cover Story
Oil & Water: A Racecar Driver and a “Genius” Inventor Vie for Lieutenant Governor
Phil Scott leaned against his gleaming green racecar, somehow looking natural in a charcoal-colored jumpsuit. Barely audible over the sounds of motors revving, Vermont’s soft-spoken lieutenant governor was making his third comparison between racing cars and running the Senate. He chuckled, conscious that his remark might come off as kind of cheesy, but was unable…
Election Night 2014 Maps
Keep up with the latest vote tallies in the race for governor and lieutenant governor. These maps will be updated as votes come in. Governor’s Race Lieutenant Governor’s Race Data sources: Vermont Secretary of State, vtelectionresults.com; Vermont Center for Geographic Information Related Stories
Obituary: Conrad “Gil” Gilbert
Conrad “Gil” Gilbert, 81, died peacefully at home in Burlington on Friday, Oct. 31, 2014, with his wife and family by his side. Gil was born in Berlin, N.H., on May 5, 1933, to Yvonne and Joseph Gilbert. He married Cecile “Sue” Routhier, in Berlin, in July 1955. At the time of his death, they…
Obituary: Gemma C. Hubbard
Gemma C. Hubbard, age 50 years, died at her Highgate Road home on Sunday November 2014, with loving family at her side, following a long and courageous battle with cancer. Born in Buenavista, Philippines on September 12, 1964, she was the daughter of Marcelino and Euferina (Aviso) Casinillo. She attended Xavier University located in Cagayan…
Obituary: Charlotte Phillips Brigham
Charlotte Phillips Brigham, age 84 years, a lifelong resident of Franklin and Grand Isle Counties died Thursday October 30, 2014, in the Fletcher Allen Health Care Facility in Burlington. Born in Enosburgh Falls, Vermont on January 6, 1930, she was the daughter of the late William A. and Ellen Charlotte (Croft) Phillips. She attended Bellows…
Obituary: Marion Agnes Bates
Marion Agnes Bates, age 81 years, a lifelong Georgia resident and more recently of Hawks Nest in Saint Albans, died late Wednesday evening October 29, 2014, at home with loving family at her side. Born at home in Georgia, Vermont on April 15, 1933, she was the daughter of the late William and Adeline (Parah)…
News Quirks (10/29/14)
Curses, Foiled Again Police in Panama, Okla., charged Brandon Lee Aaron, 27, with statutory rape after his 15-year-old victim identified him by a tattoo of his ex-girlfriend’s name on his penis. (Tulsa World) Ebolamania Two Rwandan exchange students coming to Howard Yocum Elementary School, in Maple Shade, N.J., were voluntarily quarantined for 21 days after…
Voters to Decide Who Oversees Eastern Chittenden County Schools
Voters in eastern Chittenden County will send a signal on Election Day about Vermonters’ willingness to consolidate education systems with the aim of lowering property taxes and perhaps improving learning outcomes. That idea appears to have broad support among residents of the majority of the five towns — Bolton, Huntington, Jericho, Richmond and Underhill —…
Blunder, Reservations
(Self-released, streaming) A transplant to Vermont from New York State, Blunder first made his mark locally with his Dorm Sessions project in 2013. Featuring him rapping over 15 instrumentals from recent and classic hip-hop albums, it was like one DJ host away from being a genuine mixtape. The Saint Michael’s College student demonstrated clear talent…
Majority Rules: Single-Payer in a Shifting Senate
The race to represent Franklin County in the Vermont Senate appears so close, says Republican candidate Dustin Degree, “I wouldn’t be surprised if we had to count the votes more than once.” It wouldn’t be the first time. Two years ago, Degree trailed second-place finisher Don Collins — then a Democratic former senator seeking to…
The Burlington Bread Boys, Pushing Rope
(Self-released, CD, digital download) On their self-titled debut album released earlier this year, the Burlington Bread Boys introduced Queen City audiences to “kazoo-core.” That’s a raffish offshoot of old-time and jug-band music characterized by a ragged but energetic approach to playing and songwriting. Also, kazoos. That record was pleasantly — and appropriately — rough around…
Public-Housing Agencies Crack Down on Lighting Up
John Finn is not happy. “I moved into this place with the understanding that I could smoke here until I moved out in a pine box,” said Finn, 68, who lives in a Winooski Housing Authority apartment on East Spring Street. “I don’t want to quit.” But he’ll be in a position to on Sunday,…
Mark Spencer Talks Blood Oranges, Waylon Speed and Anders Parker
Mark Spencer is going to be busy this Halloween. At the Higher Ground Showcase Lounge in South Burlington on Friday, October 31, the acclaimed Son Volt guitarist will perform with each of the three groups on the bill. That includes Burlington-based bands Waylon Speed and Anders Parker & Cloud Badge, as well as Blood Oranges.…
Should I Have a “Just Sex” Relationship?
Dear Athena, I am a thirtysomething who went through a bad breakup about two years ago and ended up gaining about 20 pounds as a result. I have tried and keep trying, but it has been so hard to take the weight off. Because of it, I have been really self-conscious about dating. I don’t…
Soundbites: Rocking Out on Halloween
Greetings, guys and ghouls! This weekend visits upon us a rare and frightful cosmic convergence: Halloween … on a Friday night. That means the greatest holiday of the year is blown out like guts in a Hellraiser flick to a full-fledged freakend of tricks, treats, chills and thrills. And, of course, rocking. And slutty costumes.…
Campaign Cash, by the Numbers
Of the 424 candidates competing in Vermont’s general election next week, most are relying on handshakes and conversations with their neighbors — not huge sums of campaign cash. Even some running for statewide office are spending comparatively little. Democratic Secretary of State Jim Condos, for instance, has raised just $9,665 in the past two years.…
A Vermont Couple “Farms” Spiders for Fun and Profit
The official motto of Knight’s Spider Web Farm in Williamstown was a no-brainer: “Home of the original web site.” But an alternative motto could be “Come for the spiders. Stay for the jokes.” Most of Terry and Will Knight’s visitors come because they’ve heard or read about the artwork the Knights create using real spiderwebs.…
Salman Rushdie to Speak in Burlington
The Vermont Humanities Council in Montpelier keeps a list of books, ever expanding, from which the organization chooses one title a year for Vermont Reads, its statewide community reading program. The 2015 pick, Salman Rushdie’s 1990 novel Haroun and the Sea of Stories, had spent quite some time on the list, according to VHC director…
![Vermont Comic Con [SIV374]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sevendaysvt.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/episode374.webp?resize=1200%2C900&ssl=1)
Vermont Comic Con [SIV374]
10/25/14: The first Vermont Comic Con was held at the Sheraton Burlington Hotel & Conference Center in South Burlington over the weekend. Comic book superheroes, villains and fantasy characters in all shapes and sizes descended on the Queen City alongside comic book artists, vendors and onlookers. Eva transformed into Zombie Lois Lane and went in…
‘Moth’ Storytelling Stars to Hit the Flynn
The days of Homer may be long gone, but in recent years, oral storytelling has achieved astonishing cultural prominence. Led by National Public Radio’s “The Moth Radio Hour,” Americans seem to have rediscovered their voices — in more ways than one. This weekend, a homegrown storytelling event will gather yarn-spinners of national renown, Burlington’s Flynn…
Deirdre Heekin of la garagista Talks Natural Winemaking
Winemaker Deirdre Heekin’s small home vineyard is set into a moody hillside abutting a stoic hardwood tree line at the edge of storied Chateauguay in Barnard. Those who have visited Heekin’s farm and winery may recall lush vegetable landscapes, gardens blushing with roses and elegantly set tables summoning guests to a midsummer night’s meal. Those…
St. Vincent
You know a movie’s got problems when the story of how it got made is more entertaining than the movie itself. For weeks, the unlikely saga of first-time writer-director Theodore Melfi has been all over the web. We learned how he tracked down and then signed Bill Murray — who famously has no agent, just…
Get the Scoop on Locally Designed Board Game Penny Press
I never talk about my game nights, never mind publicize them. There’s not much to say about a few guys hunkered down at a kitchen table, rolling dice, dealing cards, and pouring out cold beer and puerile jokes in equal measure. Just to be clear, my gaming group shuns traditional guy games. Instead of poker,…
Of Horses and Men
To be frank, I’ve never quite understood horses or horse people. I still have plenty of questions — perhaps more questions — after watching Of Horses and Men, a gorgeously strange film from Iceland that chronicles the relationships among horses and humans in one small town through a series of vignettes. But the movie does…
Hartland Rallies to Save an Iconic Barn
Whether you drive into North Hartland or whiz past on Interstate 91, there’s no missing the Lemax Farm with its big bright-yellow barns towering over a bustling farmyard. “It’s an iconic structure in the town,” Matt Dunne, a former state senator from Hartland, said of the grouping of barns that was built over the course…
Mtn Seasons to Open Jeffersonville Bagel Shop
In August, when Seven Days last spoke with Jeff Silver and Diane Abruzzini, the chef and farmer behind Mtn Seasons were selling bagels they produced in the wee hours at Jeffersonville’s Brewster River Pub & Brewery. This past Monday, the duo received their certificate of occupancy at their own bakery at 4008 Route 108 in…
Book Review: Flight of the Sparrow by Amy Belding Brown
About a third of the way through Thetford author Amy Belding Brown’s Flight of the Sparrow, the novel appears to settle in to a standard chick-lit narrative. The Puritan heroine, Mary Rowlandson, is abducted by Native Americans from her Massachusetts Bay Colony home in a violent raid. During her three-month-long nomadic captivity, a tall, English-speaking…
Vermont Juice Company to Soft-Open on Saturday
After months of preparation at its new shop at 77 Main Street in Burlington, the Vermont Juice Company will soft-open this Saturday, November 1. A hard opening will follow on November 8. During the soft opening, owner Hannah George will offer an abbreviated list of her 12 cold-pressed, bottled juices, which include four green juices,…
R. Buckminster Fuller Show Brings Yo La Tengo to Burlington
Holder of dozens of patents, inventor of everything from maximally accurate maps to a three-wheeled motor vehicle, author of epic poetry and coiner of countless neologisms, the late architect, futurist and all-around genius R. Buckminster Fuller is one of the most remarkable figures of the 20th century. Fuller’s fascinating story comes to life this week…
Letters to the Editor (10/29/14)
Eco Irony Recently advertised in Seven Days [page 10, October 15] and elsewhere was the Wild & Scenic Film Festival hosted by Patagonia to benefit the Vermont Natural Resources Council. The graphic art in the ad depicts several wind turbines sitting atop a mountain ridge. Really? Does anyone, including the sponsor and beneficiary, not see…
Film Foundation Launches Project to Save Vermont Celluloid
The Vermont International Film Festival, which kicked off its 29th year on October 24 in downtown Burlington, highlights new and challenging films from all over the world — and from its own backyard. Vermont films of all stripes reach local eyeballs via the annual Vermont Filmmakers’ Showcase. This year, the Vermont International Film Foundation (the…
Eyewitness: Sculptor Nancy Winship Milliken
On a gusty October morning just before peak foliage, Nancy Winship Milliken greets me in her tan RAV4 at the entrance of Shelburne Farms’ stately grounds. She’s dressed for the weather in mud boots and work pants; a few fist-size tufts of sheep fiber drift on the floor of her car. After a short drive…
Theater Review: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Middlebury Actors Workshop
Against a blood-red backdrop, rows of gas lamps set on slender poles suggest a stylized, and unsettling, 19th-century London. A freestanding door of convincing detail stands center stage, and the action begins with a hand breaking it down to enter a room. Throughout the play, that door, spun on casters to reveal its interior or…
Three Birthday Gifts
As her mom strapped her into the backseat, the little girl asked a question that carried the charming seriousness specific to a person with about four years of living under her belt. And this girl was a charmer, with cocoa-colored skin and adorably chubby cheeks. “Mom, why are we taking a taxi?” She sounded incredulous,…
Behind the Masks of a Generator Artist-in-Residence
Plenty of fright fans have dressed up for Halloween as Leatherface, the gruesome villain of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. But how many have worn an actual leather mask? It’s no picnic to craft one, as native Vermonter Eric Roy could tell you. More than a decade ago, when he was working as the art…
Free Will Astrology (10/29/14)
ARIES (March 21-April 19): If you live in Gaza, you don’t have easy access to Kentucky Fried Chicken. The closest KFC restaurant is 35 miles away in the Egyptian city of El-Arish. But there was a time when you could pay smugglers to bring it to you via one of the underground tunnels that linked…
Funerary Feasts From Around the World
When David Porter drowned in Hartford, Conn., in 1678, five out of seven of the expenses listed on the funeral bill were booze. Each barrel of wine, liquor and cider purchased for his grand send-off cost more than the coffin itself, according to Bertram Puckle’s 1926 treatise on the subject of Funeral Customs. Such was…
Trapp Lager Brewery Hits an Expansion Milestone
Over the past few weeks, trucks bearing shiny German brewing equipment have been streaming up Luce Hill Road and into one of the new buildings the von Trapps are building on their Stowe property. Though the new and improved Trapp Lager Brewery won’t start rolling out new product until later this winter, this week marked…
