Sep 6-12, 2017
Thom Lauzon Is Barre’s Mayor and Biggest Developer; 25 Years of the South End Art Hop; ’90s Rap-Rockers Dysfunkshun Reunite for a Night
Cover Story
Thom Lauzon Is Barre’s Mayor — and Its Biggest Developer. Is That a Problem?
Barre Mayor Thom Lauzon steered his BMW behind a vacant store on North Main Street, then hopped out and grumbled: “I hate empty buildings. I’d rather let people use them for free than have them empty.” He parked at the loading dock — an unusual place to start a tour with a reporter on an…
The Parmelee Post: Notable Entries Into the Burlington Flag Redesign Contest
Less than a week after it announced a competition to redesign the city’s 30-year-old emblem, a spokesperson from Burlington City Arts said the organization has already been inundated with flag submissions. Aspiring vexillologists across the Queen City have have wasted no time sending in colorful ideas in hopes of someday seeing them flying high above City…
Obituary: Carl Peter Hannus, 1946-2017
Carl Peter Hannus, fondly known as “Pete,” passed away peacefully on September 2, 2017, with his two daughters at his side. Peter was born and raised in western Massachusetts, graduating from Mt. Greylock High School in 1964. He was an avid musician, playing the clarinet in his high school band and performing for musicals and…
Obituary: Kenneth Irwin Gross, 1938-2017
Kenneth Irwin Gross, professor emeritus at the University of Vermont and founder of the nationally recognized Vermont Mathematics Initiative, died on Sunday, September 10. Ken was a highly respected research mathematician and an inspirational and innovative teacher who later became equally well recognized as a champion for mathematics education. During his career, he held faculty…
Seriously: The Merry Mayor of Barre’s Berries
In this episode Bryan looks at some choice quotes from one of Vermont’s seemingly most self-satisfied mayors. CREDITS Mayoral quotes read by: Diane Sullivan Written, filmed and edited by: Bryan Parmelee Artwork/photography courtesy of: Marc Nadel, Jeb Wallace-Brodeur, Rachel Elizabeth Jones, Bryan Parmelee, dreamstime.com Logo/art direction by: Don Eggert Backdrop mural by: Anthill Collective Music/audio…
Obituary: Jasen Morin, 1974-2017
Jasen J. Morin, 42, passed away suddenly and unexpectedly at home on Monday, September 4, 2017. A celebration of Jasen’s life and friends will be held on October 7 at Tangletown Farm in Glover, Vt. “Memories” Written by his dear friend Jeremy Patrissi Jasen Morin remains the most authentic person I’ve ever met. Even when…
![Reuben Jackson Talks Jazz, Poetry & Race [SIV503]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sevendaysvt.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/episode503.2.png?resize=800%2C600&ssl=1)
Reuben Jackson Talks Jazz, Poetry & Race [SIV503]
8/28/17: Reuben Jackson is passionate about many art forms. Last week marked his fifth year hosting Vermont Public Radio’s “Friday Night Jazz.” Reuben is a poet whose Facebook posts chronicling the lives of Amir and Khadijah have gained a large following and were recently written up in Seven Days. For 20 years, he was the…
25 Years of the South End Art Hop
In 1993, Burlington’s South End could have been better described as gritty than up-and-coming. Pine Street was lined with postindustrial warehouses and a smattering of businesses. But after a trio of artists teamed up to put on a tiny art festival in the hood, things began to change. Artists Melanie Putz Brotz, Jon Roberts and…
Paw Patrol: Vermont Volunteers Fetch Displaced Animals in Houston
About a dozen Vermont do-gooders are down in Houston helping displaced dogs. The crew from All Breed Rescue in Williston and Oh my DOG kennel in South Burlington teamed up to take more than 20,000 pounds of food and supplies to the storm-ravaged Texas city. The group, spearheaded by Oh my DOG owner Whitney Troy-Vowell,…
Handcuffed: Vermont Pols Consider Who Pays for Policing
Waterbury Sports co-owner Chuck Hughson likes knowing the names of the police officers who patrol the streets where he lives and works. He finds comfort in the cop cars stationed next to his South Main Street store at night. “We literally have two cruisers parked in our parking lot,” an advantage of sharing a building…
With Teacher Contracts in Play, ‘Comparables’ Are Under Scrutiny
Burlington teachers strummed guitars, banged on bongos and sang “We Shall Overcome” as they waited last Thursday night to see if their protracted contract talks with the school board would yield an agreement. The protest song didn’t help. The school board ended negotiations and imposed a one-year contract shortly after midnight, angering the union. The…
At the Hop, Greek Theater Addresses Ferguson
The Hopkins Center for the Arts at Dartmouth College opens its new performing arts season with an ancient Greek tragedy. Theater of War Productions presents Antigone in Ferguson, a staged reading of Sophocles’ Antigone that was first performed in Ferguson, Mo. It’s a traditional rendering of the play with one notable exception: The performers collaborated…
WBTV-LP Goes Live for the Art Hop
Revelers along the Pine Street corridor in Burlington this weekend might want to bring along transistor radios. No, not to sneakily catch a few innings of the Red Sox game while bouncing around the South End Art Hop pretending to be cultured. Rather, because Burlington’s newest low-power community radio station, WBTV-LP, is going terrestrial —…
Free Will Astrology (9/6/17)
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Will a routine trip to carry out an errand take you on a detour to the suburbs of the promised land? Will you worry you’re turning into a monster, only to find the freakishness is just a phase that you had to pass through on your way to unveiling some of…
Letters to the Editor (9/6/17)
‘Other’ Wise [Re “Newcomers by the Numbers,” August 23]: Understanding the complexities of resettlement, both structurally and personally, is an important part of the overall narrative. Regretfully, the national narrative is often built on fear and little appreciation of what resettlement means in communities — both challenges and opportunities. The work of professor Pablo Bose…
Ask Athena: My Boyfriend Is a Misogynist
Dear Athena, My boyfriend and I have been together for a year. Sometimes he goes away for a month here or there, usually to visit his sister. Since he’s been away, I started liking the thought of having my space and routine back. I do a lot of things that I don’t do when he’s…
UVM Doctoral Student Wins James Beard Grant
In August, University of Vermont graduate student Alisha Utter, 26, will receive a $20,000 grant from the James Beard Foundation National Scholars Program. She’s the Northeast regional winner of the award, which will go toward her doctoral studies at UVM. An incoming UVM master’s student, Olivia Peña, won the JBF’s Mid-Atlantic grant. Utter, who lives…
Hackie: Awoken and Woke
Awoken, I glanced over at my alarm clocks. I use two because one would put me in a fitful sleep, fretful over the possibility of mechanical failure. The odds of both clocks failing simultaneously are sufficiently infinitesimal to ease my anxious mind. Beautiful, I thought, stretching out my arms. Ten minutes before the alarm. Like…
Middlebury’s Haymaker Bun Puts Out the Pastries
When people run into Caroline Corrente, they often ask her about her buns. Some want to know how big they are. Others want to know if they can take a bite. Corrente doesn’t mind a bit. The pastry chef, who trained at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, is the owner of Middlebury’s new Haymaker Bun,…
Composer Matt LaRocca’s Crossover Appeal
At first glance, composer, violist and guitar player Matt LaRocca could be mistaken for a brewmaster. Maybe it’s the scruffy beard, loose plaid shirt and flip-flops, the pant cuffs turned up once for comfort. But brewers aren’t typically heard saying things like “A couple years ago, I slapped a pickup on the viola I got…
Tricks of the Tray: How School Food Programs Nourish Students, Buy Local and Try to Break Even
Vermont is a national leader in the movement to serve kids fresh, nutritious and locally sourced food in K-12 schools. To see how it’s earned that reputation, visit the cafeteria at Milton Middle School at lunchtime. On a hot day last June, food service staff set out options for a colorful fruit and veggie bar,…
Toscano Café and Bistro Is for Sale
Toscano Café and Bistro, at 27 Bridge Street in Richmond, is for sale, co-owner Jon Fath said last week. He and his wife, Lucie Bolduc-Fath, have owned and operated the Mediterranean restaurant for 14 years in the gray building that formerly housed Daily Bread. “We’ve had a real good run here, and we’re ready to…
Soundbites: A Jazzier Jazz Fest
San Francisco’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival stacks its lineups with more than just banjo pickers. The Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island is populated with plenty of pop and rock acts between wistful balladeers. Even the Burlington Discover Jazz Festival brings us plenty of R&B, reggae and, sometimes, the odd experimental electronic musician. It makes…
Movie Review: ‘The Trip to Spain’ Offers a Third Round of Great Grub and Gab
Whenever I read that Michael Winterbottom has a new installment in his Trip series on the way, I immediately do two things: 1. contact my connection at IFC Films and arrange for a screener to be overnighted the moment one’s available, and 2. fondly recall the late, great Gene Siskel. Roger Ebert got all the…
Vermont’s ‘Most Beautiful’ Prison Has an Uncertain Future
A garden sprouted rows of cabbage and carrots on a sunny day last month. Two silos stood tall next to a softball field. Red barns nearby shared the grounds with dormitory-style housing. In the distance, expansive woods were home to deer and turkey. Only the shiny silver razor-wire fence identified the Southeast State Correctional Facility…
Movie Review: Viewers Won’t Catch ‘Tulip Fever’ Watching This Silly Historical Piece
According to some economists, the housing bubble of the aughts has nothing on the “tulip mania” of the 17th century. In seedy taverns outside the official Exchange, Dutch speculators frantically outbid one another for the bulbs of the still-exotic flowers, only to watch the market collapse with a bang in 1637. It sounds like material…
Artist Profile: Painter Frank DeAngelis
Burlington artist Frank DeAngelis has been many things: plumber, punk music zine-ster, anarchist, rock climber, environmental activist, business owner. Only last April did he add painter to his résumé, and to say he has embraced the new role wholeheartedly is an understatement. In about a year and half, DeAngelis has prodigiously cranked out an estimated…
Not College Bound? Try Welding School
John Birkett clipped a jumper-cable-like clamp to a steel stand at his knees, cranked open a tank of argon gas, lowered his face mask and fired up a welding torch. Then, wielding a tiny but intense, lime-green arc of electricity glowing at about 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit, Birkett methodically fused two metal rods together at a…
Eat This Week: September 6 to 12, 2017: Say Cheese (and Wine!)
Wish you knew how to describe the difference between Bourgogne and Beaujolais, Morgon and Anjou Blanc? Let the palate-savvy oenophiles at Dedalus give you the lowdown on these food-friendly French gems, which are made for everyday drinking. Meanwhile, the staff from Jasper Hill Farm can also familiarize your taste buds with an array of their…
WWJD? A Jane Austen Weekend in Vermont
The Governor’s House in Hyde Park was built in 1893 by Vermont’s 43rd governor, Carroll S. Page, to resemble a house erected more than a century earlier — the Georgian home of poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in Cambridge, Mass. The mansion’s current owner, Suzanne Boden, also uses the premises to invoke a bygone era and…
Bern Return: Sanders’ New Hampshire Homecoming
During a televised interview last Thursday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) lambasted CNN’s Chris Cuomo for asking about the 2020 presidential race. “People are sick and tired of it!” Sanders exclaimed. “We don’t need to have never-ending elections!” His words are consistent. Sanders has yet to announce his plans for 2018, when he will be up…
Album Review: Emma Cook & Questionable Company, ‘Take It Home’
(CD, digital download) In 2016, Burlington’s bluesy, pop-rock band Questionable Company added singer-songwriter Emma Cook’s name to their official title — and rightly so. Not only is she the group’s sole scribe, she also plays keys and guitar, the melodic instrumental leads for all of their songs. Bassist Max Guyton and drummer Andy Feltus lay…
Burlington’s Politically Charged Band Dysfunkshun Reunite for Their 25th Anniversary
A year ago, Richard Bailey wasn’t thinking about reuniting Dysfunkshun. The ’90s-era rap-rock hybrid known for staunchly antifascist, antidiscrimination messaging had been dormant for years. The 48-year-old guitarist and saxophonist was more focused on his wife and daughter, his role as the event compliance coordinator for the City of Burlington, collecting antiques, and writing and…
Album Review: Benn Rymon, ‘A Long Time’
(Self-released, CD, digital download) Plattsburgh, N.Y.-based producer and MC Benn Rymon has been working with beats and raps for more than a decade. Yet his new release, A Long Time, is also his debut album, reflecting some 15 years of songwriting and studio experiments. First and foremost, then, it’s impressive how early in the record…
Art Hop Eats: A Diner’s Guide
Christopher Chaisson stood in a hole on Burlington’s Pine Street last week working on the steel-reinforced concrete base of a sculpture. He talked to Seven Days about the food he eats when he attends the annual South End Art Hop, which takes place this week, September 8 to 10. “You can go from art opening…
Allium to Open in Former Arvad’s Grill Spot
Just two months after they purchased Arvad’s Grill in Waterbury with plans to upgrade its look and fare, owners Jason Palmer and David Hubbard have decided to take the restaurant in a new direction. Now closed, the former Arvad’s will reopen on September 15 as Allium. Said Palmer, “In fairness to ourselves, we really needed…
