Sep 20-26, 2017
Saint Michael’s College Prepares for Declining Enrollments; At Wild Roots Farm, Jon Turner Helps Fellow Vets Get Grounded; Northern Spirulina Is Growing Blue-Green Algae — the Good Kind
Cover Story
A Student Shortage at Saint Michael’s College Leads to Existential Questions
Liz Hogan and Emma Valeri shared a café table in the state-of-the-art student center at Saint Michael’s College on a recent rainy Wednesday morning. Typing on their MacBooks, the Pembroke, Mass., natives were just two weeks into their first year at the Catholic liberal arts school in Colchester. Valeri chose the small college after visiting…
Seriously: The Southern Grub-Rising; The Fool Vernazi
In this episode, Bryan rapidly offers his take on the grocery stores competing for shoppers in Burlington’s South End and helps clear up some confusion surrounding Vermont’s latest Nazi firing. CREDITS Written, filmed and edited by: Bryan Parmelee Artwork/photography courtesy of: Sean Metcalf, Pamela Polston, Bobby Hackney Jr., Bryan Parmelee, Dreamstime.com Logo/art direction by: Don…
The Parmelee Post: Shrinedom Makeup Concert to Feature Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon, David Bowie and More
The organizers behind the failed Shrinedom 2017 music festival say they’re trying to do right by frustrated concertgoers. Hundreds flocked to the Irasburg fest Saturday to hear some ’80s metal, but instead saw the event cancelled before a single headliner could take the stage. Crossova Concepts and Kingdom Cares have announced “Shrin-i-er-dom 2017,” a makeup music…
Ask Athena: My Ex Is Too Attached to Me
Dear Athena, I was dating this guy for about two years, and we broke up a few months ago. Before we started dating, we were friends for a while. Now I’m starting a relationship with a new guy, but I’m still friends with my ex. I kind of want to stop being friends. He annoys…
Movie Review: Darren Aronofsky Gives Us the ‘Mother!’ of All Divisive Movies
Dear reader: Before taking my star rating as a recommendation, you should know that this passion project from offbeat writer-director Darren Aronofsky (Pi, Black Swan) received a rare F grade from the audience metric CinemaScore. That means the average viewer exited the theater deeply disgruntled about a film that was marketed as an upmarket thriller…
Doughnut Dilemma to Close
The Doughnut Dilemma at 55 Main Street in Burlington is closing its bakeshop, according to the bakery’s website and Facebook page. The doughnuts will be available at the Burlington Farmers Market through the end of September, when the business will shut completely. “It’s time to move south and enjoy new adventures,” the online post says.…
EB-Fail: Jay Peak Is Part of a Troubling Pattern
Vermont’s EB-5 scandal is generally seen as the biggest fraud scheme in state history and in the 25 years of the federal EB-5 program. Unless there’s a stunning courtroom reversal, the fraudulent investment vehicles created under the Jay Peak Resort umbrella will add up to tens of millions in pilfered funds and an estimated $200…
Brio Coffeeworks Bottles Cold Brew
A post shared by Brio Coffeeworks (@briocoffeeworks) on Sep 18, 2017 at 4:30pm PDT Brio Coffeeworks in the South End of Burlington is now bottling cold coffee, according to a recent announcement. The company has been working on the process for about a year, the release says. The coffee is brewed hot and then “rapidly…
Food Fight: Burlington-Area Grocers Spar for Customers
The parking lot is paved, the exterior is nearly complete and construction workers are hard at work finishing the City Market/Onion River Co-op store expected to open in November on Flynn Avenue in Burlington’s South End. “We’ll have a lot of elbow room,” said John Tashiro, the market’s general manager. The 33,000-square-foot building will be…
Chefs Learn to Influence Food-Systems Policy
The 14 American chefs who gathered last week at Shelburne Farms have collectively earned an impressive list of awards, starred restaurant reviews, media features and TV cooking show appearances. But the main goal of their two days in Vermont did not involve knives or whisks, split-second timing or juggling a deluge of orders. Instead, it…
Saint Michael’s Students Embrace Grown-Up Fire and Rescue Roles
Saint Michael’s College junior Jamie Schwab drives flashy red wheels around campus that attract plenty of attention. Especially when he turns on the siren. The 21-year-old business major from Cleveland, Ohio, is a volunteer first lieutenant with St. Michael’s Fire and Rescue. When he isn’t studying accounting, he sprays water at burning buildings, administers Narcan…
Jon Turner Helps Fellow Vets at Wild Roots Farm
Jon Turner sits on a sunlit deck at his hilltop home in Bristol and watches his 4-year-old son chase a duck around a large solar tracker. The boy lunges repeatedly for the waddling waterfowl but can’t quite grasp it with his tiny, outstretched hands. “That’s Bob,” Turner says, referring to the duck. “He plays with…
Merci! French Soccer Team Ships Misspelled Jerseys to Montpelier
Montpellier Hérault Sport Club, a professional soccer team in the south of France, will send a batch of jerseys with a misspelled logo to the Green Mountain State’s Montpelier. If you haven’t already guessed the error, read the previous sentence more closely. The missing L was enough to prompt the club to ditch its threads…
UVM College of Medicine Addresses Diversity
When Christopher Veal visited Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Ga., for his admissions interview in 2015, he felt a sense of belonging. “I saw faculty of all races,” Veal said of the historically black school. “I saw a community that was strong, that really typified diversity.” He decided that Morehouse was “hands down” his…
Four New Albums From Formerly Local Musicians
Vermont is lucky to have such an expansive, prolific music scene. While we might wish every local singer-songwriter would stay here forever, that’s hardly the reality. Musicians often have a touch of wanderlust, and frequently succumb to the siren song of faraway lands. But even after musicians leave us, we suspect they keep a special…
Theater Review: ‘Godspell,’ ArtisTree Music Theatre Festival
Musical comedy operates somewhere between pretending the microphone isn’t there and brazenly showing it off. Godspell picks a side and emphasizes performance itself. Though the story encompasses the life of Christ, it centers on a group of followers discovering the joy of bonding together — and singing at the top of their lungs about it.…
Album Review: Subversive Intentions, ‘The Ambiguous Notion of Responsibility’
(Cavern Brew Records, digital download) In 1913, the composer Luigi Russolo wrote a futurist manifesto titled The Art of Noises in a letter to fellow composer Francesco Balilla Pratella. The manifesto presented the concept that industrialization would alter the sonic palette of musical instrumentation and composition. Russolo proposed that electronics and evolving technology would allow…
Hackie: An American Story
“Joseph?” I called through the open passenger window to the young black man standing in front of the hospital. He was a good-looking kid, on the thin side but nicely proportioned, with close-cropped hair and friendly, intelligent eyes. It was affinity at first sight for me, a welcome feeling since I would be spending the…
Soundbites: Shrine-doomed, Give Me Fever
Shrinedom 2017, the hard-rock, pop-metal and country music benefit concert that was supposed to happen on Saturday, September 16, in Irasburg was abruptly canceled after it had already begun. The two-stage hubbub was supposed to include headliners Vince Neil of Mötley Crüe, Slaughter, Lita Ford, Warrant and Firehouse, with support from local and regional bands…
Album Review: Justin LaPoint, ‘Bear Country’
(Self-released, digital download) We all know that feeling: You’re someplace where you don’t want to be anymore. You don’t know how you got there, not really. Life just carried on, and suddenly a word is on your brain every day, every hour: escape. The road becomes a beacon, a shining strip of asphalt that leads…
Film Series Explores Architecture and Design
The midcentury-modern Finnish American architect Eero Saarinen lived only to the age of 51, but he left behind breathtaking works. Standing inside his cylindrical brick chapel at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology — to take the example nearest to Vermont — a visitor might view the column of natural light illuminating the altar and consider…
Movie Review: Action Dud ‘American Assassin’ Kills Michael Keaton’s Winning Streak
As everyone immediately perceived, the parallels between former Batman star Michael Keaton and his character in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) were plentiful and purposeful. It was devilishly clever casting. And it was great to see Keaton back on top. Few film performers have risen from the ashes only to…
Northern Stage Artistic Director Receives $250K Grant
Arts funding in Vermont tends to come in modest amounts, so a $250,000 grant takes everyone by surprise. In this case, among the surprised was recipient Carol Dunne, producing artistic director of Northern Stage in White River Junction since 2013 and a senior lecturer in the theater department at Dartmouth College. Dunne was recently awarded…
Passing the Leadership Torch at VSA Vermont
For the past 12 years, Judith Chalmer led VSA Vermont, the nonprofit state branch of a national organization that aids people with disabilities via the arts. This fall, she’s stepping down to make way for a new leader. Until recently, 34-year-old Susan Evans McClure served as director of food history programs and audience development at…
Art Review: Patrick Shoemaker at Northern Daughters
Northern Daughters gallery in Vergennes strives to merge “the aesthetic of blue-chip galleries with the familiarity and authenticity of a Vermont general store,” according to its website. In Patrick Shoemaker, whose solo exhibition “The Strong and the Weak” is on view through October 15, the gallery presents an artist whose work elegantly crystallizes this impulse…
At Sheldon Museum, a Picture Book Exhibit for All Ages
I recently rediscovered a picture book I loved as a child: The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear by Don Wood. My mother had saved it for my daughter, who is now 3. I hadn’t seen the images in at least 30 years. But when I cracked open the book,…
Conquering Climate Change One Business at a Time
When Paul Costello and his team of organizers started putting together a conference on climate change a few months ago, they decided this one wouldn’t be about politics or public policy. Instead, they opted to celebrate entrepreneurs who are trying to combat climate change while also generating jobs. They dubbed the event Catalysts of the…
Free Will Astrology (9/20/17)
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Filmmakers often have test audiences evaluate their products before releasing them to the masses. If a lot of viewers express a particular critique, the filmmaker may make changes, even cutting out certain scenes or altering the ending. You might want to try a similar tack in the coming weeks, Virgo. Solicit…
Eat This Week, September 20 to 26, 2017: Honey Do
The team from Burlington’s Honey Road offers creative cocktails and dinner at an event that benefits the Intervale Center and its programs. Expect creative takes on Eastern Mediterranean mezze, plus cider pairings from Shacksbury. Vermont Creamery is presenting, so we’re going to venture that cheeses will be on offer, too. Dinner in the Trees: Saturday,…
Letters to the Editor (9/20/17)
‘Racism in These Hills’ [Re “Reward Offered After NEK Farm Tagged With Racist, Nazi Graffiti,” September 11; Last 7: “Hate Hits Here,” September 13]: I was appalled by the racist graffiti created in Glover last week but not surprised. A friend of mine who is a person of color receives a Black Lives Matters sign…
Memoriam: John J. Malcovsky, 1948-2017
Join us to celebrate the life of John J. Malcovsky on Saturday, September 30, at the Burlington Elks Club from 1 to 5 p.m. Bring a photo, story or reflection for family and friends. No eulogies, speeches or tears. Raise a glass and share memories of a life well played.
Mangalitsa to Open in Woodstock
In 1998, Matt Lombard was looking for a job. He found one at Osteria Pane e Salute, a café and bakery in Woodstock that morphed into a restaurant and recently closed its doors. Twenty years later, after having studied environmental science, worked as a farmer and put in a five-year stint at Twin Farms —…
Cultivating Spirulina on a Vermont Farm
In a greenhouse near the end of a long dirt road in Johnson, three farmers are growing, harvesting and selling a one-of-a-kind crop in Vermont: spirulina. Hidden in the woods on an old goat pasture, Northern Spirulina raises the organism in four pools of water in a greenhouse. The shallow, wood-framed ponds are teeming with…
Tracey Medeiros Releases Non-GMO Cookbook
Tracey Medeiros, the local author of Dishing Up Vermont and similar works, has a new cookbook coming in early October: The Vermont Non-GMO Cookbook: 125 Organic and Farm-to-Fork Recipes From the Green Mountain State. The book, from Skyhorse Publishing, contains profiles of farmers and chefs throughout the state, accompanied by their recipes, which are interspersed…
