Bill Murphy grew up on a dairy farm in Wisconsin and served in the Peace Corps in Chile, where he met the love of his life and soul mate, Lita. After living in Brazil and Oregon, they moved to Colchester, Vt., in 1979, with their daughters Michelle and Nicole. Bill taught a wide variety of…
On a Friday night in May, a line of pinball machines blink and glow along the wall of a narrow suite in a nondescript building on Williston Road in South Burlington. At 8 p.m., the space — known as the Pinball Co-op — is buzzing with a few dozen mostly male patrons working the flippers…
There’s a photograph that Jes Stumpf keeps in an album in her bedroom and thinks of fondly. Taken almost four years ago, it shows Stumpf the day she gave birth for the third and last time, while serving as a surrogate for a couple who could not have children. Stumpf lies in a hospital bed…
South Burlington and Burlington split from each other way back in the Civil War era. But like ex-spouses who haven’t buried the hatchet, they still squabble — and sometimes have major rows. Case in point: the recent fracas over a Burlington City Council decision that paves the way for concert venue Higher Ground to relocate…
Visitors who think they’re going to see the dogs at “William Wegman: Outside In” at the Shelburne Museum are in for a surprise. A pleasant one, most likely. To be sure, plenty of the artist’s famous Weimaraners appear in the exhibition in various guises, captured in 20-by-24-inch Polaroid color prints. According to Wegman, the canines…
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) is defending his role in crafting a bill that sparked deep divisions among congressional Democrats. In fact, it prompted Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) to take the rare step of voting against a Leahy-backed measure. The bill, which provides funding to ease the humanitarian crisis at the southern border, passed the Senate…
Summer’s arrival heralded the official start of outdoor drinking season, when many Vermonters grab a cold six-pack of their favorite craft beer, mead or hard cider. But buyers of boozy beverages may discover that the deposits they pay at the register for those recyclable cans or bottles don’t equal what they get back from the…
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As Chris Osborne kicks off his 199th radio show on 92.5 WWPV-FM, the temperature outside is 80 degrees. So it’s fitting that the first piece of music he plays is what his assistant, Anthony St. Pierre, calls “sunny day music.” This particular piece is the prelude to Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Te Deum, a 17th-century composition, transcribed…
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The Stowe Jewish Film Festival, now in its fourth year, is “literally and figuratively moving up the mountain.” That’s according to festival founder and cochair Edee Simon-Israel. In a literal sense, the festival is switching venues this year from the Jewish Community of Greater Stowe to Spruce Peak Performing Arts Center at the base of…
It’s official: A handful of Seven Days staffers are newly eligible to apply for the Vermont State Police force. That’s because the department has eased its policy on arm tattoos. Previously, anyone with ink visible below a short-sleeve uniform shirt was deemed ineligible for a position as a trooper. Now, those with such tats must…
Christmas in July Christmas has come early for all you hard-core Burlington music scene lovers out there. Recently, a trove of classic Queen City albums unassumingly arrived on Bandcamp. With no fanfare or pomp, the majority of dormant label Dangerfive Records’ catalog is now available for your streaming pleasure. Helmed by David Zacharis of twee-pop…
Dear Reverend, My upstairs neighbor’s bedroom is directly above mine, and I hear him having sex all the time. I’m no prude, but he’s really, really loud and it kinda grosses me out. What do I do? Can’t Unhear (male, 32) Dear Can’t Unhear, The first apartment I lived in was a teensy little studio,…
Club DJs can endlessly debate the subject of song requests. Some view them as a disruption, a monkey wrench in the well-oiled machine of a groovy playlist. Others think honoring audience feedback and appeals for specific tunes makes them a better, more hospitable host. There’s no right or wrong answer — but there is a…
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(Self-released, digital) In a handwritten note accompanying his new album, Amuser, singer-songwriter Ben Roque explains its jovial title. Turns out it’s not exactly a fun, playful reference. The word “amuser” refers to a specific kind of 19th-century British pickpocket. A pair of nefarious knaves would set up a two-person con: One would blow pepper or…
(Self-released, digital download, vinyl, CD) I am being attacked by folk music! It’s basically as though I were walking down Pearl Street in Burlington, just minding my business, maybe thinking about some hot little electro-pop record that’s been on my dirty mind, when BAM! Another folk record accosts me, sticks a mandolin into my ribs…
I’m trying to think of another film hinging on a phenomenon of towering cultural significance that fritters its running time on as many dumb gimmicks and dopey tropes as this one. I’m drawing a blank. Yesterday is a genre of one. No worries about a franchise. One is one more than discerning moviegoers are likely…
CANCER (June 21-July 22) Cancerian voice actor Tom Kenny has played the roles of more than 1,500 cartoon characters, including SpongeBob SquarePants, Spyro the Dragon, Jake Spidermonkey, Commander Peepers and Doctor Octopus. I propose that we make him your role model in the coming weeks. It will be a favorable time for you to show…
Joe Talbot’s powerful directorial debut highlights the people that urban gentrification left behind: the oddballs, the obsessives, a street preacher, a nudist and a Greek chorus of gang members. But the film’s most resonant line goes to a homeless man who looks at a demolition site where people used to own homes and announces, “You…
On most summer nights, you can find Ross Yannecy slinging burgers and tacos on Burlington’s College Street. His big black-and-white food truck, Fast Food Good Food, is hard to miss. It’s festooned with multicolored neon lights inside and out, and music plays through big speakers affixed to one side. Yannecy operates his greasy spoon on…
A food truck is now open in Worcester, and it’s filling a restaurant void with its burgers and fries. Owned and operated by Noel Simonik and Kyle Devitt, the Grub Wagon serves a changing menu of quintessential comfort food and unique creations to the small central Vermont community. Simonik and Devitt noticed a lack of…
Rochester is a quiet village of 1,171 residents perched on the eastern edge of the Green Mountain National Forest. Despite its relative isolation, it has hosted a high-quality summer weekend concert series for a quarter-century: the Rochester Chamber Music Society. While RCMC isn’t in the same category as the Marlboro Music Festival, its musicians have…
Bent Hill Brewery in Braintree is throwing itself a fifth birthday party on Saturday, July 6, featuring beer, pizza, live music and the release of an imperial ale called Three Stoned Birds. The birthday beer, with a celebratory 9.5 percent ABV, is triple-aged on red and black currants, vanilla, and cinnamon. The pizza comes from…
The Pinnacle at Spear neighborhood in South Burlington is named for its enviable spot atop a knoll overlooking Lake Champlain. The 86 single-family homes in the 1990s-era subdivision off Spear Street lie in the headwaters of Bartlett Brook, which flows north, and Munroe Brook, which flows south. The property’s developer installed a series of ponds…
Ray’s Way [Re “Changing Stations,” May 29]: In 2000, my husband, Michael, and I had not been married very long when we decided to take on a new venture, the Town and Country Motel on Shelburne Road in Burlington. Later, we redeveloped the land into Clock Tower Square. This entire time, we have been business…
Natural beauty abounds in Vermont, but the state has its fair share of human-made artistic contributions, too. Public art can be found in every nook and cranny, whether in the form of murals and sculptures or musical and theatrical performances. Over the next few months, the Vermont Arts Council is asking for help documenting this…
When Seven Days ran its first Cartoon Issue in 2013, our staff endeavored to produce almost the entire newspaper in comic form — columns, album reviews, hard-news stories, features, you name it. It was, in a word, difficult. You see, writers wanna write. And we love words. If given our druthers, reporters would happily churn…
At the newly opened Caledonia Spirits distillery in Montpelier, a quote is painted high on a sunflower-yellow wall above the glowing stainless and copper distilling equipment. “If not with ‘milk & honey,'” it reads, “certainly this land o’erflows with gin & whisky.” The line, from an 1811 Peacham newspaper, resonated deeply with Ryan Christiansen, Caledonia’s…
As Suzanne Podhaizer leans over her campfire, piled high with logs, newspapers and skinny twigs and blazing in the humid lakeside heat, I can’t help but think: Her hair must always smell like smoke. After only one afternoon at Podhaizer’s Grand Isle State Park campsite, the perfume of that fire permeates all my clothing, barraging…
The Burlington Department of Public Works is piloting a program that puts restaurant seating in an unusual place: converted parking spots. Street Seats transforms parking spaces in front of select BTV restaurants into outdoor seating, furnished with tables and chairs and separated from street traffic by boxlike enclosures. During business hours, restaurants use the areas,…
