Sep 12-18, 2018
Tickets, Please: The 2018-19 Performing Arts Preview; Discovery of Native Artifacts Could Halt Composting Operation; State Denies Permit for Stonecutter Spirits’ Burlington Bar
Cover Story
Show Time: The 2018-19 Vermont Performing Arts Preview
For at least one Vermont arts organization, the 2018-19 performing arts season has gotten off to a shaky start. If you hadn’t heard, late last month a water main burst on Main Street in Burlington, just under the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts marquee. The busted pipe flooded the FlynnSpace, causing extensive damage to…
Obituary: Brian Costello, 1983-2018
Shelburne Brian died on the evening of September 13. He was beloved by friends and family, and all are heartbroken by our loss. He is survived by his parents, PM and Paula Costello; his sisters, Leah Costello and Elizabeth Costello Wolchesky; their husbands, Michael Tallman and Dylan Wolchesky; and their children, Theo and Iris Tallman…
Obituary: Donald L. Denette Jr., 1946-2018
Donald L. Denette Jr., 71, of Essex Junction, Vt., passed away Friday, September 14, 2018, at MCHV in Burlington, Vt. He was born in Plattsburgh, N.Y., on November 20, 1946, the son of the late Donald L. Denette Sr. and Marjorie (Burkett) Denette. Don grew up in Au Sable Forks, N.Y., and graduated from Au…
Seriously: The Dramatic Arts
In this episode, “Art in America” host Richard Richardson highlights some recent dramatic performances in Vermont. CREDITS Written, filmed and edited by: Bryan Parmelee Artwork/photography courtesy of: Pennsylvania Dept. of Corrections, Dylan Evans, Taylor Dobbs, Alicia Freese, Terri Hallenbeck, Oliver Parini, Molly Walsh, Bryan Parmelee, Dreamstime Logo/art direction: Don Eggert Audio by: Bryan Parmelee Related…
The Cannabis Catch-Up: Weeding Out the Details
The Governor’s Marijuana Advisory Commission is scheduled to publish a final report in three months, and if a meeting earlier this week is any indication, there’s plenty of work still to do. Tasked with imagining what a taxed-and-regulated cannabis market should look like if the legislature chooses that route, the commission seemed to still be…
Letters to the Editor (9/12/18)
Howe Now? [Re “Bye-Bye Bailey? UVM May Drop Library Namesake for Supporting Eugenics,” September 5]: I have spent several years studying the eugenics movement in Vermont, most recently as chair of the State of Vermont Board of Libraries when it recommended changing the name of the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Book Award. Eugenics is a dark…
Man Who ‘Hates Vermont and Vermonters’ Is Looking for Work — in Vermont
Here’s one way to get attention in a crowded job market: Andrew Martin posted a plea for employment on Craigslist last week with the header, “Looking for a job but hate Vermont and Vermonters.” The 34-year-old Florida native wrote that he’d moved to Essex Junction a year ago to be with his girlfriend. “My resume…
Japanese Atomic Bomb Survivors Bring Their Stories to Vermont
Shigeko Sasamori was 13 years old on the Monday morning of August 6, 1945. She can still remember looking up at the “beautiful blue sky” and seeing a large B-29 bomber flying overhead in her home city of Hiroshima, on Honshu Island in Japan. Seconds later, as she recalled in Steven Okazaki’s award-winning 2007 documentary,…
Independents Turn Up the Heat in Addison County Senate Race
The race to represent Addison County in the Vermont Senate has become unusually competitive, with two pro-business independents challenging an influential Democratic incumbent whom they accuse of losing touch with this agricultural district. The independents, Vermont Coffee Company CEO Paul Ralston and Blue Spruce Farm co-owner Marie Audet, entered the race in late July, and…
After the Flood: Update on Burlington’s FlynnSpace
Repairs in FlynnSpace are moving forward as fast as possible following the devastation caused by the August 27 bursting of a water main in front of Burlington’s Flynn Center for the Performing Arts. PC Construction is installing a new sprung (dancer-friendly) floor; replacements for damaged technical equipment are arriving from different manufacturers; and the bar…
Ancient Artifacts Discovered on Chittenden Solid Waste Property
Updated September 17, 2018 Rock shards from the Paleoindian Period have been discovered at a sand pit next to Chittenden County’s regional composting facility, less than a decade after concerns about Native American artifacts contributed to the closure of a similar operation in Burlington’s Intervale. The district acquired the sand pit through eminent domain in…
What’s the Story Behind an Ad Seeking a Stolen Sculpture?
Sometimes this very newspaper presents a head-scratcher, leading us to wonder, WTF is the story behind this? Such was the case two weeks ago when someone paid for a small, one-time display advertisement asking, “Have you seen this sculpture?” Appearing on page 64 of the August 29 issue, it included several rough sketches of the…
Movie Review: ‘The Nun’ Won’t Scare the Holy %$@! Out of Anyone
The Conjuring (2013) was the little haunted-house movie that could. Besides a successful sequel, Warner Bros.’ debatably fact-based fright flick has already spawned two films devoted to the demonic doll from its teaser (Annabelle and Annabelle: Creation). When a demonic nun had a seemingly extraneous subplot in The Conjuring 2, like a superhero popping up…
Hooker Mountain Farm Distillery Opens Tasting Room
In late 2016, Cabot’s Hooker Mountain Farm Distillery became Vermont’s first grain-based distillery to produce spirits using entirely farm-grown materials. This past spring, farmers Carrie and Kempton Randolph introduced a spirited CSA, which offers members a monthly share of the distillery’s output at a preordained price. Now, they’re bringing their business to the Marshfield Village…
Movie Review: ‘Peppermint’ Turns Out to Be a Stale Flavor in Jennifer Garner’s Vigilante Vehicle
Can you feel it? It’s spreading like wildfire. I’m talking about the buzz for Jennifer Garner’s latest. Unfortunately for the actress, it’s Razzie Awards buzz. That’s right, the race for Worst Picture of the Year looks like a lock. Not every Hollywood production has what it takes to parlay a big-name director, big stars and…
Pizza 44 Now Serving Pies on Pine Street
Pizza arrives in the South End of Burlington on Wednesday, September 12, with the opening of Pizza 44 at 703 Pine Street, where it shares a building with Queen City Brewery. The pizzeria, which had a soft opening the weekend of the South End Art Hop, serves New York-style pizza baked in a wood-fired oven.…
Identity Politics: Hallquist Balances History With Policy
Politicians at parades are like ants at a picnic: inevitably drawn to the goodies on offer and grudgingly tolerated by the participants. But at Saturday’s Pride Parade in Burlington, Christine Hallquist was more like the guest of honor. The Democratic candidate for governor marched up Church Street to continual cheers and hoots. People thanked her…
Istanbul Kebab Team Open Import Shop in White River Junction
As a boy growing up in Istanbul, Vural Oktay liked to visit the bazaars in the old section of the city, where he delighted in the sights and smells of the marketplace: textiles and housewares, ceramics and spices, food, flowers, and rugs. The colors and aromas of the spice bazaar — rosehip, cumin, paprika, mint…
Free Will Astrology (9/12/18)
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Your keynote is the Japanese word shizuka. According to photographer Masao Yamamoto, it means “cleansed, pure, clear and untainted.” One of his artistic practices is to wander around forests looking in the soil for “treasures” that emanate shizuka. So in his definition, the term isn’t about being scrubbed or sanitized. Rather,…
Eat This Week, September 12 to 18, 2018: Return to Eden
Eden Specialty Ciders celebrates the opening of its new taproom and cheese counter in downtown Winooski. Through guided tastings, visitors can explore the nuances of tannin, acid, body and texture as expressed in local apple ciders fermented in the Northeast Kingdom from 2013 to 2017. At the cheese counter, Eden’s resident fromager — Murray’s Cheese…
Scarlett Letters: I Found My Husband’s Male-on-Male Porn
Dear Scarlett, After 13 years of marriage (and the last four not being very sexually active), I made a discovery that might explain why our sexual chemistry has gone out the window. Searching for lost paperwork, I uncovered a box that had some male-on-male porn, a webcam and a prostate massager. So I am thinking…
Soundbites: WinterWonderGrass, Grand Point North and Above the Radar
Point Sisters Another gorgeous Green Mountain summer comes to a close with this weekend’s Grand Point North music festival. Though your wall calendar might tell you that you have another week or so before it’s officially autumn — or as it’s known in my circles, cider doughnut season — music lovers know that Grace Potter’s…
Ani DiFranco on Politics, Her Upcoming Memoir and Latest Album
Few musicians have had careers like Ani DiFranco’s. Currently living in New Orleans, the formerly Buffalo, N.Y.-based singer-songwriter has been in complete creative control of her enterprise throughout her near 30-year musical journey. She founded Righteous Babe Records to release her self-titled debut album in 1990. Now the label is home to exceptional artists such…
Janet Van Fleet Is Fearless About Making Art
“I love bones,” said Cabot artist Janet Van Fleet as she surveyed her latest solo exhibition. “I think I’m almost over bones,” she added. Though Van Fleet’s demeanor is far from morbid, her work reveals a straightforward preoccupation with questions of violence and decay, salvage and reclamation. Her show “Long Haul,” which opened last week…
Album Review: HANKNATIVE, ‘Problem Child’
(Self-released, digital download) A video teaser for Problem Child, the debut album by Burlington rapper, singer and producer Hank Collins, aka HANKNATIVE, features moody guitar music and shots of the artist looking pensive. At times, he’s surrounded by friends who seem to be having way more fun than he is. The sounds and images give…
Album Review: Devon McGarry, ‘The Time’
(Self-released, CD, digital download) In the spring of 2017, Burlington singer-songwriter Devon McGarry released his debut studio EP, Echo Chamber. Straightforward and undemanding of listeners, the agreeable five tunes recalled mainstream ’90s alt-rock — and didn’t do much to distinguish themselves beyond that. The EP offered simple, uncontroversial, rather unimaginative rock, the kind that satisfies…
Despite New Law, Vermont Inmates Denied Addiction Treatment
The Vermont prison system continues to deny inmates medication for their opioid addictions, despite a new law intended to remove restrictions on the therapy as of July 1. Inmates are being told they will not receive treatment until they have only 30 days left to serve. In practice, this means some prisoners will never be…
Author-Illustrator Leonard Wells Kenyon Shares Publishing Nightmare
Most authors dream of selling a book to a major publisher and cashing an advance on royalties. But that’s never the end of the story, as Arlington author-illustrator Leonard Wells Kenyon has learned too well. In December 2015, Publishers Weekly announced the sale of Kenyon’s Halloween-themed debut picture book, This Book Is Not for Chickens!,…
Burlington Group Designated as U.S. Arts & Culture Outpost
On August 31, Burlington nonprofit music resource and archive Big Heavy World, directed by James Lockridge, announced the official designation of Burlington as a U.S. Department of Arts and Culture Outpost under the auspices of the Burlington Arts ALLiance. USDAC is a nongovernmental organization formed in 2013 as “a grassroots action network inciting creativity and…
Updated: Stonecutter Spirits Hits a Legal Snag Opening New Bar
Update, September 13, 2018: On Wednesday, September 12, administrators at the Vermont Department of Liquor Control issued Highball Social the permits it needed in order to open. Two federal agents walk into a bar. The bar’s owners say they want to bottle homemade hooch on-site. The agents inspect the hip, modern lounge and discern that…
After 28 Years, Brigante’s Snack Bar Closes
Brigante’s Snack Bar closed on Sunday after 28 years in business on Severance Road in Colchester. The seasonal mobile eatery was owned and operated by Frank and Dottie Brigante, who ran it for more than half of their 53-year marriage. Known for its Michigan dogs — hot dogs rolled on the grill and covered in…
