The Adirondack Issue 2017
Will North Country Voters ‘Repeal and Replace’ GOP Pol?; How William Miner Brought Power to the ADKs; Human Poop Is a Problem in the High Peaks
![The Cairns at UVM’s Wheelock Farm [SIV498]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sevendaysvt.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/episode498.webp?resize=1200%2C900&ssl=1)
The Cairns at UVM’s Wheelock Farm [SIV498]
7/9/17: For the past six years, Jacques-Paul Marton – also known as JP – has been building rock sculptures in the fields behind UVM’s Wheelock Farm in South Burlington. Accompanied by his dog Cooper, JP has also built a wishing well for world peace, a bird sanctuary and an arch made of grape vines. Eva…
Tennis’ Alaina Moore Talks Recording at Sea, Gender Equality and Arts Versus Commerce
Retro-pop duo Tennis, composed of husband and wife Patrick Riley and Alaina Moore, burst onto the blogosphere in the early 2010s with their charming, ultra-lo-fi album Cape Dory. The accompanying narrative — that, prior to recording, they had sold all of their possessions, left their lives in Denver behind and literally set sail on the Atlantic…
Letters to the Editor (7/26/17)
Rest in Peace [Re Life Lines: “David J. ‘Sully’ Sullivan,” July 19]: In a beautiful passage early on in her new book, The Art of Death: Writing the Final Story, Haitian American author Edwidge Danticat explains, “We write about the dead to make sense of our losses, to become less haunted, to turn ghosts into…
A Single Pebble to Mobilize Its Menu With Food Truck
For years, Chiuho Duval, owner of A Single Pebble on Bank Street in Burlington, dreamed of buying a food truck. Because of the limitations of the restaurant’s tiny kitchen, she said, she frequently turned down requests from people who wanted the restaurant’s traditional Chinese dishes, such as red chile shrimp and pork potstickers, at their…
What a Waste: Human Poop Plagues the Adirondack High Peaks
Hikers to the summit of the tallest peak in the Green Mountain State know how it feels to hold their own on Mount Mansfield’s “nose.” Across Lake Champlain, though, trail users are holding their own noses. That’s because they’re encountering a lot of crap. Literally. It seems that quite a few people who hike in…
Movie Review: Don’t Expect Any Miracles From ‘Dunkirk’
I hate to break it to all you Christopher Nolan devotees out there, but the hubbub surrounding the writer-director’s latest is the critical equivalent of fake news. Take Dunkirk’s ratings on Metacritic, for example. I haven’t seen so many 100s since Josh Brolin opened that briefcase in No Country for Old Men. I’m flummoxed by…
Author, Author! Bookstock Presents Jabari Asim and More
Bookstock Literary Festival, the state’s largest event devoted to reading matters, returns this weekend for the ninth consecutive year. Friday through Sunday, more than 50 presenters will gather in Woodstock to celebrate literature through readings, plays, a book sale and live music. Special events include a virtual-reality demonstration by students of Champlain College’s Emergent Media…
Movie Review: Weirdness Isn’t Enough to Justify ‘Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets’
Weirdness will only get you so far. For me, that’s the main takeaway from this lavish sci-fi passion project from writer-director Luc Besson, who brought the world La Femme Nikita, The Fifth Element and, more recently, the bracingly out-there Lucy. Based on the long-running, well-regarded French comic series Valérian and Laureline, this Valerian may remind…
Sonoma Station and Sugarsnap Café Close
Two restaurants in Chittenden County closed recently: Sugarsnap Café at Technology Park in South Burlington and Sonoma Station in Richmond. Sugarsnap owner Abbey Duke wrote on the company website that she plans to focus her business on catering. “We need more space for storage, offices, kitchen equipment and client meetings,” Duke wrote. “We also need…
Eat This Week, July 26 to August 1, 2017: Brews You Can Use
Sample brews from more than a dozen breweries from Vermont and beyond, including Ten Bends Beer, Zero Gravity Craft Brewery, Goodwater Brewery and Frost Beer Works, along with sips from local meaderies, cidermakers and distilleries. Live jams by Rumblecat, Seth Yacovone Blues Trio and Pace Car Joe keep the mood light as visitors fill up…
Album Review: Twiddle, ‘PLUMP (Chapters 1 & 2)’
(Sono Recording Group, CD, digital download, vinyl) Here’s a dirty little secret: Twiddle are presently Vermont’s biggest band (non-Phish/Grace Potter division). While certain other homegrown acts might garner more critical fawning, none draws crowds, at home or abroad, like the Castleton quartet. But success can also breed enmity, as the Phab Four and Potter could…
Soundbites: Twiddle Me This; Ramble Strip
Brace yourselves, music lovers of Vermont. This week’s concert schedule is a veritable Category 5 squall — and it’s all hands on deck. So hoist the mains, batten down the hatches and hold on for dear life. A few of the big to-dos are happening down at Burlington’s Waterfront Park, courtesy of Higher Ground Presents and…
Seven Dayser Auditions for Breakout Role in Dannemora Series
I never expected to read the journalist part in “Escape at Dannemora” when I arrived at the Strand Center for the Arts in downtown Plattsburgh last Saturday, reporting for my first-ever Hollywood casting call. A line of more than 200 acting hopefuls stretched down the sidewalk a full half hour before the audition’s scheduled 10…
Free Will Astrology (7/26/17)
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Do you really have to be the flashy king or charismatic queen of all you survey? Must all your subjects put on kneepads and prostrate themselves as they bask in your glory? Isn’t it enough for you simply to be the master of your own emotions, and the boss of your…
Burlington Rising Explores Breads of the World
In Burlington, Fletcher Free Library will launch a series next week called Burlington Rising. The program will explore bread and cultural identity in various regions of the world, complete with bread-baking demonstrations. The month of August will focus on European traditions of bread, with a kickoff event August 3 at 5 p.m. called “Dining With…
Ask Athena: I Want to Watch My Wife With Another Man
Dear Athena, My wife refuses to explore my fantasy of letting me watch another man loving her. What do I do? She always refuses my requests. Signed, Party of Three, Please Dear Party, Cue the laugh track. Are you kidding me? You’re telling me you can’t think of one reason why your wife might not…
Bid to Host Visitors in Remote Adirondacks Forest Draws Fire
The biggest building in North Hudson, N.Y., is a shabby A-frame with plywood nailed over the windows and waist-high weeds growing outside — one of the last vestiges of a long-closed Western theme park, Frontier Town. The gas station across the road is the closest thing to a grocery store in the tiny Adirondack hamlet.…
Album Review: The Mountain Carol, ‘The Mountain Carol’
(Self-released, CD, digital download) If you heard that there was a new band called the Mountain Carol hailing from the Adirondacks, certain sounds and images might flood your senses: a reclusive, grizzled logger; string-based ballads; three-part harmonies; and an overall aesthetic rooted in 19th-century tradition. (The band offers a hand-tied sprig of spruce needles with…
Hackie: Rainy Rendezvous
I glanced over at the strapping young man, Chris Johansen-Jones, sitting beside me and said, “Man, you are one large unit. You gotta be — what? — six-five?” Smiling, Chris replied, “Not quite. I’m actually six-three. But, if you think I’m big, you should see the guys I play football with.” We were traveling south…
Round Barn Farm Chef Departs for Snack Shack
Charlie Menard, longtime executive chef at the Inn at the Round Barn Farm in Waitsfield, has left his position there to focus full time on his snack shack, Canteen Creemee Company, also in Waitsfield. After 17 years as chef at the Round Barn, “It was time to move on,” Menard said. He was replaced in…
Echo Farm CSA Grows, Cooks and Serves the Food
Taylor LaFleur really likes dirt. And he loves to cook. So it was a natural and intriguing combination for him last week to roast a dozen kohlrabi for three hours in an earthen crust of soil, egg white, salt and water. When the fist-size vegetables were tender, LaFleur broke the crust, peeled off the dirt…
License to Ill: Is the Vermont DMV up to the Job?
These are not the best of times for Robert Ide, commissioner of the Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles. His agency has found itself dead center in one controversy after another. It’s quite the change for this usually sleepy corner of state government. The most recent blow came on July 18, when Attorney General T.J. Donovan…
Philanthropist William Miner Powered the North Country
The Altona Dam at Flat Rock rises from moss-covered sandstone and jack pine barrens like the hulking ruins of an ancient Roman aqueduct. Crumbling and pockmarked, the massive concrete edifice stands 30 feet tall at its highest point and spans 2,300 feet across a shallow valley in Altona, N.Y. A creek flows unobstructed through a…
Vermont Mozart Fest Promotes New Model, Young Players
Last Tuesday evening, two flute players and two oboists stood on the outdoor terrace of Hotel Vermont in Burlington. Ignoring the drone of HVAC systems, they played Cuban-themed pieces for a half hour. An audience of 17 sipped drinks, checked phones or chatted, but still applauded appreciatively after each brief piece. It was, after all,…
A Multicultural Quartet Encamps at Fletcher Free Library
When Alber Baseel, a Palestinian percussionist, met Travis Harden in October 2014, he felt an instant connection with the Lakota Ho-Chunk artist. “We share a similar spirit and are both drummers,” Baseel explains. Harden was in Baseel’s hometown of Bethelem along with members of the Tree of Life Educational Fund nonprofit. “We immediately exchanged our…
A New Place to Buy Vintage Pops Up in Burlington
Since American Apparel closed its doors on Cherry Street in downtown Burlington last January, the capacious white-walled space has remained barren. On August 1, that’s going to change. Groton-based Ruth Meteer just signed a six-month lease to open the Vault Collective, which will present multiple vintage clothing retailers under one roof. It’s the second such…
Monika Rivard and Dave Kennedy Question the Ways of Photography
A fortuitous art intersection has appeared in Burlington. Last Friday, Burlington City Arts celebrated the opening of new curator Heather Ferrell’s first two shows; one of these is “Dave Kennedy: A Stranger Stands Here.” The Seattle-based artist is showing large-scale, wall-mounted collage and small-scale sculptural installations. Just a block away, in the basement of the…
Vermont’s Agricultural Hall of Fame Honors Famous Farmers
The Green Mountain State doesn’t have any major-league sports teams — sorry, Vermont Lake Monsters — but it is home to a hall of fame. The photographs of more than 70 members of Vermont’s Agricultural Hall of Fame hang inside the entranceway to the Robert E. Miller building at the Champlain Valley Exposition in Essex…
Theater Review: ‘Oklahoma!’ at the Skinner Barn
The long, drawn-out “ohhhh” that starts the song “Oklahoma” is like the sun rising on the prairie and tantalizes audiences waiting for that burst of joy as the state’s name is proudly sung. At the Skinner Barn, a largely youthful cast of 18 serves up Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II’s Oklahoma! with enthusiasm. In…
Will North Country Voters Repeal and Replace Congresswoman Elise Stefanik?
On an overcast day in early May, some 250 protesters congregated around a mock coffin on a patch of grass outside Mountain Lake PBS’ Plattsburgh, N.Y., studios. The faux casket was painted brown and covered with rose petals and a bouquet of flowers. Scrawled in white on its lid were the words, “Here lie the…
Adirondack Stewards Maintain Peak Order
Five days a week, Ryan Nerp tromps up some of New York’s tallest mountains. He’ll spend hours on top, oftentimes talking with dozens of hikers, before heading back down. It’s all in a day’s work for Nerp, who is employed as an Adirondack Mountains summit steward. Just as with U.S. Postal Service workers, “neither snow…
Craigardan Offers an Arts and Ag Retreat in Keene
The most intriguing workshop title of the summer has got to be “Cooking Food / Creating Sex.” And the location? A contemporary timber-frame building at a mountainside farm with a stunning view of the Adirondack High Peaks. Who could resist? The six-week series begins in late July at Craigardan, a nonprofit arts, agriculture and academic…
The Adirondack Issue, 2017
From the west coast of Vermont, we really enjoy our sunsets — thanks, ‘Dacks! Once a year, we venture across the lake to see what we can see. This time, we explored Craigardan, a new artist retreat with an agricultural twist, in Keene. In Essex, we met two farmers whose CSA caters events from the…
