The Adirondack Issue 2015
The Adirondack Issue: Hiking, Biking and Paddling, Oh My; Seeking a Cure in Saranac Lake; Wining and Dining on the ADK Coast; Prison Break Incites Media Frenzy
Obituary: Katherine ‘Kathy’ Lenore Rich, Winooski, Vt
Katherine “Kathy” Lenore Rich passed away on June 22, 2015 in her home unexpectedly. Katherine was a loving mother, and a great friend to many. Everyone who knew Katherine just seemed to love her , and her company. She had the most contagious laugh and gorgeous smile. Katherine is survived by her mother Jo Ann,…
Obituary: Doris J Dame, 1930-2015 Burlington
Doris J Dame passed away peacefully at home on Thursday June 25, 2015. She was born on March 26, 1930 to James and Rose (Vezina) Moody in Burlington, VT the 2nd child of 9. She married Bernard Dame at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church on November 27, 1953 and lived the rest of her life in…
Uber Über Alles?
“So, Jernigan,” a regular customer asked me as I drove her home on a recent Thursday night, “what do you think of Uber?” “Don’t get me started,” I replied. If I chuckled, it was forced, because Uber is not one of my favorite things. For those out of the loop, the first thing to know…
Colby Stiltz, Down to Earth
(Self-released, digital download) When Colby Stiltz moved out of Vermont in 2012, he left a tall, extremely energetic hole in the local hip-hop scene. During his Green Mountain tenure, he was everywhere, always smiling, always hilarious and always supportive of new talent. So it may come as a shock to many that Stiltz was grappling…
Quick Lit: Blackfly Poetics From Neil Shepard
If the words “poetry of place” make you feel like dozing off, the depictions of Vermont in Neil Shepard’s new collection Hominid Up should rouse you. There are no placidly life-affirming pastoral landscapes here. Instead, let’s sample the mood of “From Hayden’s Shack, I Can See to the End of Vermont.” The poem starts quietly…
Kilgore Café Opens in Montgomery Center
When chef Derek Barker returned to Vermont from Costa Rica two months ago, he headed to Trout River Traders in Montgomery Center for a cup of coffee. He found the old trading post closed. Barker, who was looking for a job, decided to make one instead. In July, he’ll open a market-driven café and market…
Chuck Tobin’s 30 Years at Saint Michael’s Playhouse
It’s the best seat in the house, and it’s not even in the house. Chuck Tobin’s second-floor office at the McCarthy Arts Center at Saint Michael’s College has a veritable picture window overlooking the auditorium. That’s where the Saint Michael’s Playhouse occupies the proscenium stage with four productions every summer. Right now, it’s a stellar…
BBQ in Waterbury; Eat by Northeast Returns
This weekend, Waterbury’s annual Not Quite Independence Day summer festival will receive a meaty makeover. On Saturday and Sunday, June 27 and 28, Farr’s Field will play host to the Green Mountain BBQ Championship, which, in addition to grilling and smoking competitions, will feature ‘cue from eight regional smokers and several other vendors. Also on…
Lambert & Stamp
If you’re in the mood to listen to classic Who tunes, you hardly need to buy a ticket to this documentary. You could just turn on your TV. Few symbols of ’60s rebellion have proved as eager to sell out as Pete Townshend. He is evidently not even slightly conflicted about further enriching himself by…
Theater Review: Company, Stowe Theatre Guild
First comes the rhythm. In Stowe Theatre Guild’s engaging production of Company, Stephen Sondheim’s irresistible beats draw the audience in from the opening number’s snap, crackle and pop. Then the musical’s haunting harmonies, nicely executed by a cast with abundant singing talent, command attention. Finally, the comedy surges in, mocking marriage while pointing out that…
The Hyde Collection Samples Six Centuries of Art History
The heap of logs and the spewing smokestack at the base of the ridge on which an art museum sits in Glens Falls can be seen not as intrusive eyesores but as a fitting testament to how a superb collection of paintings came to the Adirondack foothills. The Finch Paper mill on the Hudson River…
O’Keeffe’s Footsteps in Lake George Are Nearly Erased
As beautiful as Lake George is, Georgia O’Keeffe made it even more striking in her many paintings of the mountain-rimmed, blue-green waters. She painted that New York landscape in starlight, in orange and yellow autumnal hues, in velvety layers of blue on blue. In all, O’Keeffe completed some 225 paintings of the resort area from…
Art Review: ‘American Moderns,’ Shelburne Museum
In the summer of 1960, Shelburne Museum founder Electra Havemeyer Webb, then 72, intended to expand her collection of American folk art to include modern painting. Galleries had loaned her about 10 works by Andrew Wyeth, Charles Sheeler, Georgia O’Keeffe, Yasuo Kuniyoshi and William Zorach for consideration. Notes and a list Webb prepared indicate her…
Inside Out
By now you’ve probably heard that the latest animation from Pixar is a clever visualization of the human psyche. You know that it makes small children giggle and adults weep, and that writer-director Pete Docter (Up) and codirector Ronaldo Del Carmen have found madcap, nonpreachy ways to encourage viewers of all ages to talk more…
Letters to the Editor (6/24/15)
Liquor Logic In “Cashing Out?” [June 10], I was fascinated to see comments from Department of Liquor Control commissioner Michael Hogan and other privatization opponents that privatizing liquor sales in Vermont would lead to increased alcohol abuse, public health and safety concerns, higher rates of alcoholism, drunk driving, and emergency-room visits. In my opinion, this…
The Adirondack Issue 2015
Our annual Adirondack Issue encourages Seven Days readers to go west. But this year, the region’s rich history and high peaks have been overshadowed by one of the biggest national news stories of the summer: the cinematic prison break at Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora. As of press time, almost three weeks after two murderers…
Soundbites: The Best VT Albums of 2015 … So Far (Part 1)
If you click here, you’ll find a review of JV, the new album from the Mountain Says No, half of whose membership includes Farm’s Ben Maddox and Jedd Kettler. Given my longstanding affinity for Farm, it probably comes as no surprise to regular readers that I dig the TMSN album. That’s not because it sounds…
News Quirks (6/24/15)
Curses, Foiled Again A shoplifter made off with $150 worth of produce from a supermarket in Belfast, Northern Ireland, but surveillance video showed the thief wearing a Manchester United shirt with “Benson 22” printed on the back. That evidence led police to Paul Robert Benson, 24, who pleaded guilty after District Judge Mervyn Bates told…
Saranac Lake Researchers Continue Fight Against Disease
Dr. Andrea Cooper has a hypothesis: For the human body’s immune system to combat a disease, cells must “talk” to one another. Cooper theorizes that if she can decipher the complex language of cell communication, then perhaps she can discover a password that unlocks the infected cells’ defensive walls. That would allow the body’s own…
Why Wouldn’t Welch? One Pol’s Not-So-Tough Call
The last time Vermont’s top political job opened up, with the retirement of Republican governor Jim Douglas, then-Seven Days columnist Shay Totten emailed me to check out a lead. “Rumor is PW is interested…” Totten wrote, referring to my boss at the time, Congressman Peter Welch (D-Vt.). It was August 2009 — nearly three years…
Growing the ADK Forest Preserve
Retired postal worker Steve Swensen of Baldwinsville, N.Y., has hiked the Appalachian Trail and climbed the 46 Adirondack High Peaks. But on a warm, clear mid-June day, he decided to try something new: a trip to OK Slip Falls, one of the Adirondack Forest Preserve’s most recent additions. Tumbling 250 feet, it’s one of the…
Breakout: Tiny Adirondack Town Is the Backdrop for a Big, Big Story
Local ABC 22/Fox 44 reporter Alex Rose works nights and weekends, like many newly minted journalists. On Saturday, June 6, he was scheduled to cover the grand opening of the city marina in Plattsburgh, N.Y., when news broke of the Dannemora prison escape. Just a few reporters from local networks and the Plattsburgh Press-Republican attended…
Hiking, Biking and Paddling Trails in the ADK
A relentless rain accompanied a recent ferry ride and drive over to the Adirondacks, doing nothing to improve the piss-poor public-relations image that upstate New York had endured since the escape of convicts Richard Matt and David Sweat. But as I pulled into the town of Lake Placid, the sun began to sparkle in a…
Hail to the Chief: Burlington’s Top Cop Signs Off
Burlington Police Chief Mike Schirling leaned back in a comfy chair in the office he’ll soon vacate and let slip a secret: He almost left Burlington once. Coming from anyone else, this would be unremarkable news. But Schirling grew up in a house in Burlington’s North End, graduated from the University of Vermont and spent…
My Girlfriend Won’t Give Blow Jobs
Dear Athena, I love oral sex — giving and receiving. To me, it’s a lusty, primal, liberating way of sharing pleasure. Intercourse is good, but it doesn’t provide the same pure, concentrated bliss that good oral can bring. Trouble is, my girlfriend isn’t quite as into it as I am. She doesn’t mind me going…
Murky Waters: Case of Paddling Through Private Land Still Not Settled
Six years ago, the editor of Adirondack Explorer loaded his gear into a green SpitFire canoe and set off on a two-day traverse through four ponds and five streams. When he got back, Phil Brown wrote a story for the magazine about his trip from Little Tupper Lake to Lake Lila. The narrative described the…
Free Will Astrology (6/24/15)
ARIES (March 21-April 19): During my regular hikes along my favorite trails, I’ve gotten to know the local boulders quite intimately. It might sound daft, but I’ve come to love them. I’ve even given some of them names. They symbolize stability and constancy to me. When I gaze at them or sit on them, I…
Malone, N.Y., Hospital Embraces UVM Health Network
Across Lake Champlain, between the northern boundary of the Adirondacks and the Canadian border, the village of Malone, N.Y. is a long haul from Burlington, Vt. But a sign displayed by the front entrance to the local hospital announces, “Affiliated with Fletcher Allen Health Care.” Generations of Malone residents have traveled east through farm- and…
![Fadhili & Faraja Achinda Graduate From CVUHS [SIV404]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sevendaysvt.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/episode404.webp?resize=1200%2C900&ssl=1)
Fadhili & Faraja Achinda Graduate From CVUHS [SIV404]
6/12/15: We met the Achindas back in January of 2013 when the family was reunited after being apart for 8 years. Robert Achinda is a political asylee originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Four of his oldest children enrolled in Champlain Valley Union High School upon arrival in Vermont. Twins Faraja and Fadhili…
Cibo Matto’s Yuka Honda on Food, Ornette Coleman and Life’s Small Fragments
Somehow, it’s been nearly 20 years since the one-of-a-kind band Cibo Matto dropped its debut album, Viva! La Woman, on a listening public largely unprepared for its toothsome gumbo of pop, trip-hop and culinary obsession. That 1996 album spawned cult-favorite singles “Know Your Chicken” and “Birthday Cake.” Its standout song, “Sugar Water,” inspired director Michel…
The Mountain Says No, JV
(Self-released, CD, digital download) It’s a safe bet that few basements in Vermont — or at the very least in Enosburg Falls — have produced more excellent music than that of the Cave of Legends. The dank subterranean room beneath coffee shop/secondhand music and DVD emporium the Flying Disc on E-Burg’s main drag was for…
Obituary: Dorothy Valyou Hayes, 1928-2015, Essex
Dorothy “Dot” Valyou Hayes, 87, passed away June 22, 2015, at Green Mountain Nursing Home surrounded by her loving family. She was born on May 29, 1928, in Essex Jct, Vt to Harry and Anna (Paro) Valyou. She owned The Happy Hooker Yarn Shop for many years. Dorothy was an expert knitter, enjoyed genealogy and…
Obituary: Robert Eklof, 1978-2015, South Londonderry, VT.
Rob Eklof departed our world on June 12, 2015 leaving his family and friends with 36 years of wonderful memories. He was born November 7, 1978 to Elizabeth (Betsy) Eklof and Eric Eklof. Kind hearted, genuine and so friendly to all, Rob lived a full and exciting life with his early years in the close…
Finding a Barbecue Fix in the North Country
An irony in the Adirondack Park’s developed areas is that countless trees have been razed to clear the way for tourists. Somewhat perversely, numerous restaurants and hotels are made of rough-hewn logs; even the signage for many local businesses has been constructed of rugged timber. But hungry visitors will be pleased to learn that some…
Following the Adirondack Coast Wine Trail
A new crop is struggling to take root in New York’s northern Champlain Valley: young grapevines planted off highways and back roads. Winemakers and local organizations, hoping the new industry will draw visitors, are touting this corner of the Empire State as North America’s newest wine region. Last year, the New York State Assembly approved…
Hel’s Kitchen Dinners Go Public
In late 2011, Helen Labun Jordan began hosting Thursday-night potlucks in her Montpelier home. By fall 2012, the weekly soirées had grown to dinner-party status, and Jordan started cooking multi-dish meals to theme and calling her events Hel’s Kitchen. Now the pop-up is going pro. On August 3, Jordan will move into the kitchen at…
