The Love & Marriage Issue 2017
Musicians Pick First-Dance Tunes; Wedding Wear for the Eco-Conscious; Local Love Brigade: Postal Hugs for Victims of Hate
Eat This Week, February 15 to 21, 2017: Think Globally, Act Locally
This year, Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont’s annual winter conference looks outward to frame Vermont’s local food strengths and challenges in a global context. Mix and mingle with hundreds of farmers, food-justice advocates, permaculturists and policy wonks from Vermont and beyond. Tackle topics such as four-season farming (winter greens!), gourmet mushroom cultivation, eating for…
Obituary: Paul LaBrusciano, 1966-2017
Paul Martin LaBrusciano (Paulie Roots) passed away on February 05, 2017, in Burlington, Vermont. Paul was born on April 21, 1966, in Manhattan, New York. He attended Harwood Union High School and the Community School, in Montpelier, Vermont, from which he graduated as salutatorian in 1984. Paul loved music, and was seen by many as…
The Parmelee Post: Dealers’ Jobs Not Threatened by Pot Bill, Says Kingpin
Marijuana dealers across the state breathed a sigh of relief this week when they learned their jobs would not be affected if Vermont’s legalization bill were signed into law. During a mandatory staff meeting Thursday, cannabis kingpin Troy “the Jahfather” Azurla told his 173 employees that Vermont’s latest attempt at marijuana legalization seems to be…
In Memoriam: Gary Feingold
February 18, 2017 marks the 69th birthday of a truly extraordinary human being named Gary Feingold. Gary lives on in the hearts and minds of every person lucky enough to know him. A classic renaissance man, Gary possesses many talents and a brilliant intellect. He is a photographer, a film aficionado, a patron of the…
![Mt Abe’s Classroom Pets [SIV477]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sevendaysvt.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/episode477-2.webp?resize=1200%2C900&ssl=1)
Mt Abe’s Classroom Pets [SIV477]
2/3/17: Mount Abraham Union High School in Bristol has some unusual classroom pets. Ruby the snake is the oldest resident and has been teaching students about biology in the science room for 7-8 years. Elva the bunny, Dr. Sweets the bearded dragon lizard and Butterball the hamster also help to educate students about responsibility, empathy…
Thin Ice Breaks, and a Game Warden Launches a Dangerous Rescue
Vermont Fish and Wildlife game warden Mike Scott said goodbye to his wife and 6-month-old daughter on the morning of January 26 and walked out of his home in Barton. He planned to start the winter day as he often does, checking the licenses and catches of the handful of ice fisherman huddled on frozen…
Movie Review: ‘Rings’ Makes It Seem Kinder Not to Rewind
You’re an evil spirit who propagates herself via a creepy short film on a VHS tape. Whoever watches it dies seven days later. Nineteen years after you first burst on the cinematic world in the 1998 Japanese horror film Ringu, your native format is a thing of the past. The only people likely to fall…
DIY Wedding? Caitlin Frauton Has Some Advice
From Martin Short’s Franck Eggelhoffer in Father of the Bride to Nathan Lane’s Pepper Saltzman on “Modern Family,” the wedding-coordinator shtick is about as old as love itself. A highfalutin so-and-so swoops in on the bride and groom to take charge of everything from rose petals to rosé, to comic effect. But when Caitlin Frauton…
Love & Marriage Issue — 2017
The world is increasingly cray-cray, but people still fall for each other and get hitched. Hope springs eternal — and that’s a good thing. In this year’s issue we look for love in myriad places. In Brattleboro, the Local Love Brigade sends postal hugs to victims of hate crimes. In Sutton, designer Tara Lynn Scheidet…
Notes From a Sex-Ed Workshop for Grownups
I vaguely remember my middle school gym teacher unrolling a condom onto a banana. I recall that the school nurse separated the girls and boys before leading a stilted discussion about periods. I know they sent us each home with a stick of deodorant. The rest of the sex-ed curriculum at my New Jersey public…
Vermont Musicians Share the Stories Behind Their Wedding Songs
Getting married involves the biggest decision of your life. No, we don’t mean choosing a spouse. We’re talking about choosing the song that will introduce you and your partner as a single entity to the world: the wedding song. Unlike roughly half of all marriages, your first song is forever. So, the pressure is on…
Tall Mall Looms Over Central District Council Race
Burlington City Council candidate Genese Grill seemed more hostess than politician at her campaign kickoff last month in Burlington’s Old North End. She eschewed electoral convention, jumping up to serve tea to six or seven supporters, and espoused a populist vision for the city. “This is about bringing power back to the people,” she told…
Singer-songwriter Jamell Rogers Gets Real on His Album, Substance Abuse
Burlington-based R&B singer-songwriter/producer Jamell “NYT” Rogers lives his life according to a simple mantra: “Know your truth.” He defines this maxim as having a deep understanding of oneself and to let that truth be the guiding force in one’s life. His moniker, NYT, has a double meaning. For one, it’s an acronym for his mantra…
Tara Lynn Bridal Designs Eco-Friendly Dresses
When eco-couture designer Tara Lynn Scheidet boasts, “Each dress has a story,” she means it has a fairy tale. Like the one in which bride-to-be Kellee Wagner and her mother lit out across the Adirondacks, ferried over the lake and rambled through the forests of Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom to reach Scheidet’s bridal studio in Sutton.…
New Pot Plan: Legalization Lite
On the day of Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration, members of a marijuana advocacy group stood on Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C., handing out free joints. Hundreds lined up. The gifts were perfectly legal. In D.C., marijuana has been legal since 2015 — sort of. Adults can possess, consume and share up to two ounces and…
Mad Luvs 2017
On Seven Days’ Love and Marriage Issue cover this week, we asked readers to write a letter — Mad Libs-style — to their Valentine. This kind of creative writing requires a pair: One asking for parts of speech, the other dreaming up the answers. If you fill out the cover on your own, it’s tempting…
Femme Cartoonists Debut The Ladybroad Ledger
A new “funny” has come to town, and it even has a funny name: The Ladybroad Ledger. The inaugural newsprint compilation features 10 artists and a broad range of subject matter, from a Finnish pie recipe to a comical rendition of the Second Amendment to funeral planning. Organizer Stephanie Zuppo, a 26-year-old web freelancer and…
Local Favorite Sandwiches Stack Up
A sandwich might be the most versatile of meals. It can be breakfast, lunch or dinner; it can range from a delicate tea snack with thinly sliced cucumbers and crustless white bread to a ginormous Dagwood stuffed with all manner of meats, cheeses and condiments. For many Americans, a love affair with sandwiches starts early,…
Sparkles, Lace and Love at a Valentine Workshop
Megan Humphrey loves cards. The walls of her Old North End studio are lined with shelves holding boxes of product from her company, Sweet Basil Cards. Their themes range from gay and lesbian to Easter greetings to bicycles. Humphrey sells her cards at craft shows and select local shops, as well as through her website…
Ag Agency Launches Vermont ‘Listening Tour’
All through February, representatives of the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets will travel around the state on a “listening tour.” It will land in Lyndonville, Brattleboro, Middlebury and St. Albans. The gist: Newly appointed Secretary of Agriculture Anson Tebbetts — former news director of WCAX — and current Deputy Secretary and Rep. Alyson…
Local Love Brigade Sends Cards to Victims of Hate
Ann Bedichek Braden, a Brattleboro-based grassroots organizer, was heartbroken by the result of November’s presidential election. But she hasn’t taken it lying down. In early December, Braden was among a group of 70 people who convened at the Bethany United Church of Christ in Montpelier to discuss the future of “Pantsuit Nation.” The Vermont spinoff…
Free Will Astrology (2/8/17)
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): The time is now, Brave Aquarius. Be audacious about improving the big little things in your life. (That’s not a typo. I did indeed use the term “big little things.”) For example: Seek out or demand more engaging responsibilities. Bring your penetrating questions to sphinxlike authorities. Go in search of more…
Calligrapher Laura Di Piazza Makes Letters With Love
Norwich artist Laura Di Piazza was 12 years old when she received her introduction to calligraphy as part of an “inner-city middle school program” in Brooklyn. “They cut it right away,” she said, “but it was long enough for me to get the bug.” Many associate fanciful lettering primarily with wedding invitations, but Di Piazza…
The Last Word on ‘Peeing’ During Sex
Dear readers, In the last few weeks I have received an abundance of letters from gals concerned and confused about the difference between peeing and female ejaculation/squirting during sex. Some of you describe warm, urine-like sensations upon orgasm. Some of you express embarrassment over instances where you thought you may have peed when you should…
The Fleming Museum Installs New Asian Gallery
For the University of Vermont’s Fleming Museum of Art, the permanent Gallery of Asian Art has been years in the making. This month, it finally opens to the public. Previously host to rotating exhibitions, the museum’s Wilbur Room has been renovated and re-installed to feature selections from the institution’s collection of more than 2,000 Asian…
Letters to the Editor (2/8/17)
More on Mosher [Re “In Memoriam: On the Death of Howard Frank Mosher,” February 1; Live Culture: “Howard Frank Mosher’s Imagination of Vermont: A Tribute,” January 31; Live Culture: “A Reporter’s Fond Remembrance of Howard Frank Mosher, 1942-2017,” January 29]: Howard F. Mosher had the ability to capture the last folkways and traditions of country…
Soundbites: Decked Out; Do the Time Warp, Again
Here’s some good news: A new Rough Francis album is on the way. It’s been almost four years since the Burlington rock stars dropped their debut full-length, Maximum Soul Power. Needless to say, we’re ready for another helping. Please pass the rock, won’t you? While no release date has been set yet, you won’t have…
Coming and Going: Vermont Struggles to Grow Its Workforce
Ethan Bechtel sank into a caramel-colored leather chair in his Burlington office. He wore a flannel shirt, jeans and fashionable stubble as he explained why he chose Vermont as the home base for his mobile app startup, OhMD. Bechtel, 34, is the sort of entrepreneur economists and politicians want to attract to Vermont. Many of…
Art Review: ‘From Far Away,’ Solo Exhibit by Stephan Schaub, Governor’s Gallery
The 20 works by Stephen Schaub currently on display at the Governor’s Gallery in Montpelier technically constitute a photography exhibit. But only a few of the pieces are printed on photographic paper. And the intriguingly unfocused images look more like paintings — or dreams — than photographs. Most of the works in “From Far Away”…
Coquette, Three
(Green Mountain Records, digital download) In November 2014, the Seven Days reviewer of Coquette’s sophomore EP, Separatio, begged for more. Now, the quirky central Vermont rock trio has obliged, but with a catch. The new seven-track EP, Three, is the band’s last. Its members, singer/guitarist Cobalt Tolbert, bassist Angus Davis and drummer Titien Tolbert are…
The Trump Effect: Vermont Lawmakers Fear Federal Funding Cuts
A cloud hangs over the Statehouse. It’s a big, orange, angry-looking thing with some oddly sculpted schmutz on top, and it looms in the background of every discussion about taxes, spending and policy. It’s the Trump Effect: the potential for wide-ranging budgetary mayhem if President Donald Trump takes a meat-ax to federal spending. “We’re all…
Stone Bullet, Sons of the Gun
(Self-released, digital download) Barre band Stone Bullet have been honing a specific sound over the past seven years, as if Nirvana and U2 had never happened. This is brash, loud, awesome rock music. The conceit could easily veer into corny gimmicks and tribute-band territory, but, as it happens, Stone Bullet kick some serious ass. Rock…
Rocky Leaves Town
“This is the Shopping Bag. I got a guy here who needs a ride.” The Shopping Bag is a general store in Burlington’s Old North End, renowned for its deli, particularly the burgers. I think the place actually won a national burger award a few years back. “Yup, I can be there in 10,” I…
Movie Review: ‘Paterson’ Captures the Everyday Joys of Creation
For three decades I’ve been asking why someone can’t make a movie about a writer that portrays the creative process in a remotely credible manner. At long last, I can stop. Someone finally has — the last person I would have expected to try. And not because writer-director Jim Jarmusch isn’t a great artist or…
Eat this Week, February 8 to 14, 2017: Beef and Babes
When was the last time you bellied up to a proper steakhouse meal? For one night, Butch + Babe’s chef Narin Phanthakhot and owner Kortnee Bush are transforming their Old North End bistro into a bastion of beef. Place your napkin in your lap for a classic meal that opens with Parker House rolls and…
Meat Brings People Together at Beau Butchery + Bar
“Beau” is a borrowed French word. It’s the term for a partner in new, shiny love or in long-term companionship. Or, as a contributor to the crowdsourced Urban Dictionary wrote, it’s “[a] person you want to spend the rest of your life with and [who] is more than likely the greatest thing that has ever…
Restaurants and Bars on the Move in Winooski
It’s no secret that in recent years Winooski has been a city on the move. On the food and beverage front, locals have enjoyed the additions of Blossom Whole Food Kitchen and Catering (in the former Misery Loves Co. bakeshop space) and Commodities Natural Market. Some have lamented the loss of Donny’s New York Pizza…
Bohemian Bakery Opens Storefront in Montpelier
This week, Annie Bakst and Robert Hunt opened a “European-style” bakery and café in a storefront at 78 Barre Street in Montpelier. It’s the second incarnation of Bohemian Bakery. In 2010, the couple behind Bohemian Bread began inviting the community to their East Calais home-cum-bakery for Sunday coffee and pastries. Cars arrived in droves, bearing…
