Oct 5-11, 2016
Who Speaks for the Trees in Burlington?; Vermont Schools’ Trans Initiatives; Remembering Poet David Budbill
Cover Stories
Arborist Warren Spinner, an Urban Forest Hero
Warren Spinner has more than 12,000 trees in his database, and it’s safe to say he’s familiar with every single one of them. Over 35 years as Burlington’s arborist, he has personally planned, planted and pruned much of the city’s urban forest — that is, the trees in Burlington’s parks, greenbelts and other public places.…
Burlington Geographic Puts People in Their Place
The biggest tree in Burlington is at the corner of Hayward and Howard streets. The most prolific tree in town is the crabapple. The emerald ash borer is not in Vermont yet, but we’re surrounded — New Hampshire, New York, Canada. These are just a few of the facts that Elise Schadler dispenses during a…
Branch Out Burlington’s Re-Leaf Effort
On a sunny autumn afternoon at the University of Vermont’s Horticulture Research and Education Center, Margaret Skinner strides across several neat rows of saplings to reach a tall, columnar tree. Unlike most of the saplings growing in this secluded corner of the “hort farm,” the slender sycamore is of “Vermont provenance,” she says. That is,…
Obituary: Daniel J. O’Connell III, 1949-2016
Daniel J. O’Connell, 67, passed away on Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2016 in Burlington. He was born on July 21, 1949 in Burlington the son of Daniel J. Jr. and Carol (Clark) O’Connell. He graduated from Burlington High School and worked several years in food service. He cared about others as well as the homeless, where…
Obituary: Ivan McBeth, 1953-2016
Ivan McBeth (Iain M. Smith), age 63 passed away peacefully just before dawn on the Equinox 9/23/16 in his home in Worcester, VT. Born 6/9/53 in Devon, England, he moved to the USA in 2005. Ivan McBeth was a Druid in the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, and founded of the Green Mountain Druid…
The Parmelee Post: Burlington Developer Proposes Adjustable ‘Rod of Outrage’
Just days after Burlington City Council decided to put a proposed zoning change on the election-day ballot that would allow for taller buildings in a section of downtown, one area developer has proposed a new project that is sure to provoke the ire of development critics. In fact, that’s essentially the whole point behind the…
Obituary: The Most Reverend Kenneth A. Angell, 1930-2016
Winooski, Vermont – The Most Reverend Kenneth A. Angell, the eighth Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington, age 86, died on October 4, 2016. Bishop Angell was born on August 3, 1930 in Providence, Rhode Island, the son of the late Henry and Mae (Cooney) Angell. Bishop Angell attended public and private elementary…
Philamena’s Adds Weekend Dinners
Since January 2015, Philamena’s, located on Elm Street in Montpelier, has been serving up classic American breakfasts, panini and housemade pasta and sauces to go. Last week, the restaurant added regular dinner service on Friday and Saturday evenings, from 5 to 9 p.m. “We started doing dinner because we’ve created partnerships with organic farms around…
Theater Review: Stupid F*#king Bird, UVM Department of Theatre
The audience walks through a labyrinth of black curtains to a rough-planked stage that makes the University of Vermont’s Royall Tyler Theatre resemble a barely solvent experimental performance space. Painted on the brick back wall is a huge likeness of Anton Chekhov, old-fashioned pince-nez in place, his head tilted gently into his hand. The playwright’s…
Retreat
I watched the hospital’s oversize revolving door from the driver’s seat of my idling taxi, awaiting the discharge of my customer, Kerry McDougal. Right on time, a pretty, round-faced woman of about 40 emerged, caught my eye and signaled the connection with a hand wave. As she drew closer, I could see that she looked…
Pairing Wine With a String Quartet; Doughnut Dilemma Delivers
Some multicourse meals are paired with wine, but have you ever heard of one paired with a cellist? On Saturday, October 15, at ArtsRiot, a Vermont Symphony Orchestra string quartet will team up with three Burlington chefs to put on a nine-course dinner that pairs each course with a different musical composition. The minds behind…
Tributes to Poet David Budbill
Vermont poet and playwright David Budbill left this world on September 25, succumbing to a rare form of Parkinson’s disease called progressive supranuclear palsy. He was 76. Budbill made many friends and earned a legion of fans. We asked just a few of them to share their thoughts, memories or poems this week. Neil Shepard…
DMV Driving Tester Robert Brewster Jr.
Name: Robert Brewster Jr. Town: Newport Job: DMV licensing examiner Just over a hundred years ago, in 1913, the State of Vermont registered 4,538 vehicles. That was an average of one vehicle for every 78 people. Just three years later, the number quadrupled to 16,000 registrations and 19,000 licensed drivers. Back then, law enforcement officers…
Free Will Astrology (10/5/16)
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): “It isn’t normal to know what we want,” said psychologist Abraham Maslow. “It is a rare and difficult psychological achievement.” He wasn’t referring to the question of what you want for dinner or the new shoes you plan to buy. He was talking about big, long-term yearnings: what you hope to…
Viennese Egon Schiele and New Yorker Keith Haring at Middlebury Museum
Works by two of the baddest boys of 20th-century art, both of whom lived fast and died young, are on display at the Middlebury College Museum of Art. One of them — Keith Haring, a graffiti-inspired American artist who died in 1990 at age 31 — receives full-scale homage in the museum’s second-floor galleries. More…
My Girlfriend Is Keeping Our Love a Secret
Dear Athena, I am in a relationship with a woman I love. I am white, and she is Indian, from Asia. I know she is in love with me, but there are issues. When we spend time together, everything is amazing. But because she is Asian, she doesn’t want her family to know about us,…
Two Vermont Children’s Books Hit the Big Screen
Two local authors are getting the red carpet treatment this weekend with Vermont premieres of film adaptations of their acclaimed children’s books. The Great Gilly Hopkins is based on the 1978 book by Katherine Paterson, which daringly tackled the subject of foster care. It was adapted for the screen by her son David and coproduced…
Bethel Residents Give Their Town a Makeover
Take a stroll down Main Street in Bethel, and it’s easy to see that the town has fallen on hard times. Empty storefronts gaze out at blighted lots and rundown buildings. Pedestrians are scarce. But it wasn’t always this way. For decades, Bethel was a prosperous mill town with factories, hotels and restaurants. In the…
![Bethel Better Block [SIV461]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sevendaysvt.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/episode461.webp?resize=1200%2C900&ssl=1)
Bethel Better Block [SIV461]
10/1/16: The small town of Bethel came alive this weekend with a revitalization project that will hopefully have long lasting effects. Empty storefronts along Bethel’s Main Street were transformed into pop-up shops selling local art, a temporary bike lane sprouted up along the main drag, a taco stand served up hot grub and an empty…
Terrific Trees
We asked Seven Days readers to send us their favorite photos of trees, and whoa, did they deliver! Turns out the state is full of leaf peepers all year long. Thanks, everybody, for giving a twig! Correction, October 12, 2016: An earlier version of this slideshow did not contain a credit for the first picture…
Soundbites: Concrete Revels
It’s a good week to be a fan of local surf music. For starters, everyone’s favorite killer surf-punk robots, the Tsunamibots, are releasing their latest record, The Crushing, with a pair of shows this weekend — see the story here. Meanwhile, in Montpelier, our old friends the Concrete Rivals are reuniting for a show at…
Top Whoppers: Half Truths and Hypocrisy in Vermont’s Gubernatorial Race
During his failed run for governor this summer, Bruce Lisman tried to smear his Republican rival, Lt. Gov. Phil Scott, for contemplating a new tax on miles traveled by car. “Sadly, Phil Scott is out of touch. More taxes are not the answer,” Lisman said in one ubiquitous radio advertisement. “A new mileage tax will…
Page 32: Short Takes on Five Vermont 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 scurry of flying squirrels. So this monthly feature, Page 32, is our way of introducing you to five books by Vermont authors. To do that, we’ll contextualize…
Rutland Bound: Volunteers Ready for Syrian Refugees
Most days, Carol Tashie can be found working in the dirt on her organic farm just outside Rutland. But last Thursday afternoon, Tashie and some 40 men, women and children stood along the busy corner of Main and West streets in the Marble City, waving signs declaring “Rutland Welcomes.” Dozens of passing motorists honked their…
Deepwater Horizon
“I’m structuring this film almost like this tragic sort of poem,” said director J.C. Chandor (Margin Call) in 2015, referring to his new project, Deepwater Horizon. He’s a gifted filmmaker with a penchant for stories in which corporate greed leads to disasters that affect large numbers of people. Chandor realized the tale of the 2010…
Seeing Red? Once-Dem Franklin County Is a Political Battleground
Jim Fitzgerald was a conservative “blue dog” Democrat when he served two terms — divided by decades — in the state legislature representing St. Albans. Today, six campaign signs are planted on the lawn of his Rail City home: five for Republican candidates, one for a Democrat. “I’m still a Democrat in theory,” said the 77-year-old former…
Talking Art With BCA Curator Heather Ferrell
The BCA Center has a brand-new curator and exhibitions director. After a summerlong search, Burlington City Arts hired Heather Ferrell to fill the shoes of DJ Hellerman, who took a job in April at the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, N.Y. Ferrell, 46, hails from Boise, Idaho. She’s lived in Vermont for four years…
The Rise of the Tsunamibots
The time of humans is over. The culprit in our downfall is not climate change or a viral plague or even Donald Trump. The fall of humanity is begat by the rise of the robots. Robots with surfboards. And guitars. And gigantic, head-crushing Chuck Taylors. Leading the uprising is a trio of angry musical robots…
5-Oh! Pizzeria Moves to Bradford
Fourteen months after it began serving hand-tossed pies and saucy subs on Main Street in Fairlee, 5 Oh! Pizzeria has moved one town north to Bradford. “We wanted a village setting,” says co-owner Jim Lanctot of the move, standing with business partner Bridget Tweedie in the shop’s new location at 134 South Main Street. The…
Bad Accent, White Hands of Daniella
(Self-released, CD, digital download) Putting together an entire album of ballads is a tall order. Storytelling is a craft of its own, and the ability to turn a story into a compelling song takes a special kind of magic. The worldly troubadours of Bad Accent describe their music as “working-class, sardonic folk rock.” While this…
Queen of Katwe
In most cases, it would be an insult to say that one of the best things about a movie is its closing credits. Queen of Katwe is an exception. The Disney sports drama ends with a sequence in which each major and supporting player poses for the camera with the person on whom his or…
Giovanina Bucci, A Bit of Alright
(Self-released, CD, digital download) Recent Plattsburgh transplant Giovanina Bucci plays a particular kind of pop music that was all the rage at one point but has mostly disappeared from the mainstream. Think Colbie Callait and Natasha Bedingfield: laid-back, bluesy ladies singing about life and love with a hint of smugness, devoid of flavor and character.…
Letters to Editor (10/5/16)
Dump Trump [Re Fair Game: “GOP Flop,” August 31]: Adolf Hitler consciously utilized theatrical tricks and stagecraft to mesmerize the masses. Sound familiar? The corporate media grades Donald Trump on a curve — just for reading off a teleprompter. He has had six bankruptcies; therefore, no bank will give him loans. Desperate for money, he…
Vermont Schools Implement ‘Best Practices’ for Transgender Equity
Missy Semprebon of Waterbury sees herself as a mom in the know. So her ears pricked up when she overheard her 16-year-old son chatting about a new and unfamiliar school policy designed to promote fairness and a sense of belonging for transgender students. The boy, who is not transgender, was explaining to his younger sister…
