Kurt Thoma had been on the job for all of three months when calamity struck. In April, he was installed as executive director of the Barre Opera House, taking over from longtime director Dan Casey. Casey had helmed the theater for almost two decades, including keeping it afloat through a pandemic that crippled the performing…
This place is a dream Only a sleeper considers it real. Then death comes like dawn, And you wake up laughing at what you thought was your grief. —Rumi
About four years after Laura and Michael Kloeti put Michael’s on the Hill on the market for $1.4 million, the 82-seat Waterbury Center restaurant and its property, including about four acres of land, has sold for $1.2 million. As of September 19, the new owners are married couple Don Jones and Andrew Kohn, who also…
A Burlington cannabis entrepreneur is suing the Canadian company he merged his company with as part of a $25 million deal in 2021. Shayne Lynn of High Fidelity claims that executives at Toronto-based SLANG Worldwide “used unlawful sharp practices to hoodwink” him about the state of SLANG’s financial condition before taking over his company. Filed in Vermont…
Dear Kristy, We so wish you were here to celebrate your day. It has been 28 years since your passing, but we keep your memory alive in our thoughts and prayers. We will always cherish and miss you so much. Our love forever, Mom, Dad, Kate and Randy
Sophie Zdatny, chancellor of the Vermont State Colleges System, announced on Monday that she will step down at the end of the year, the latest high-profile departure from a system going through immense upheaval. The college system’s board is already in the midst of hiring a new interim president for Vermont State University, the recently…
The Afterglow music festival returns for its fourth year this Saturday, September 23, at the Hard’ack Recreation Area in St. Albans. The one-day fest features food trucks, beer and full bar service, as well as a climbing wall and assorted field games. Music headliners include New York City ’80s tribute act Rubix Kube, Vermont rockers…
Remember back in 2002, when Hollywood tried to introduce us to mainstream female raunch with The Sweetest Thing, starring Cameron Diaz? The movie flopped, leading some to declare that the time for such unseemly endeavors had not arrived and never would. Well, now it has — and if Bottoms is any indication, the future of…
This summer, BigTown Gallery in Rochester reopened after a long, pandemic-induced hiatus. During that time, gallerist Anni Mackay and her husband, Doon Hinderyckx, were not exactly idle: The couple bought a nearby 19th-century building and transformed it into the Stable Inn. Beautifully furnished and sustainably powered, the inn has already offered respite to travelers, including…
It’s been a minute since cartoonists had basically two career outlets: comic books and newspaper funny pages. At the Mad River Valley Arts gallery in Waitsfield, a current show demonstrates how the art form has blossomed. “The Mad Contemporary” features work by 15 artists that ranges from highly accomplished to aspirational, from book excerpts to…
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sep. 22): The Virgo writer Caskie Stinnett lived on Hamloaf, a small island off the coast of Maine. He exulted in the fact that it looked “the same as it did a thousand years ago.” Many of the stories he published in newspapers featured this cherished home ground. But he also wandered all…
new in theaters A HAUNTING IN VENICE: Kenneth Branagh returns as detective Hercule Poirot in this Agatha Christie adaptation, set after World War II. With Michelle Yeoh, Jamie Dornan and Tina Fey; Branagh directed. (103 min, PG-13. Essex, Majestic, Palace, Paramount, Star, Sunset) THE INVENTOR: Stephen Fry voices Leonardo da Vinci in this animation about…
Portia Elby, the protagonist of Genevieve Plunkett’s debut novel, In the Lobby of the Dream Hotel, has an uncertainty problem. She can’t recall if the person who once helped her break into her locked car was her lover, Theo, or her husband, Nathan. Portia isn’t senile; she’s only in her early thirties. She just lives…
On a sunny Sunday afternoon in August, parents chatted outside Northfield’s Gray Building as their children played in a sandpit and slid down a slide built into the sloping lawn. An informal potluck gave families who’d enrolled their children in the new Rainbow Gardens early learning program the chance to see the space and meet…
‘Gift to the People’ Making the trip to City Market from my downtown office every Wednesday to pick up the newest Seven Days is the most important part of the day. This paper is a blessing and a good reason to never leave Vermont, despite the unyielding weather. Thank you so much for this incredible…
Dear Reverend, I think I’m addicted to thrift shopping. I go to at least one or two thrift stores a week, and I rarely leave empty-handed. I definitely wouldn’t call myself a hoarder, but I do feel a certain attachment to my things. I know I need to get rid of some stuff, but I…
Six rainbow candles were lit at Ohavi Zedek Synagogue in Burlington on September 6 — the night of the second annual Pride Seder. About 30 people attended the celebration of LGBTQ freedom modeled on the Passover seder. The event followed the structure of a Passover seder with modern twists: The lack of ritual handwashing symbolized…
Alexis Dexter opened Forget-Me-Not Flowers and Gifts in 2016 on a busy corner in downtown Barre. In 2020, she started Kitty Korner Café, Vermont’s first — and only — kitty café, next door. Guests can visit the café, play with the resident felines and even adopt them. Cats are transported from the southern U.S., and…
Well before floodwaters swamped Montpelier in July, the Bridge — the city’s hyperlocal, free newspaper — was weighing drastic measures to cut costs. The nonprofit newspaper’s board of directors considered a monthslong break from printing the 24-page publication, which is mailed once every two weeks to addresses in the Montpelier zip code and placed in…
Amid ambitious efforts to make broadband accessible statewide, Vermont is facing a related challenge: making it affordable for every potential customer. Regional groups known as communications union districts are backed by nearly $250 million in federal funding to build out the state’s high-speed internet network. But some are finding it difficult to create a viable…
Vermont’s small opera world currently encompasses two professional companies — Barn Opera in Brandon and the Opera Company of Middlebury — and the Youth Opera Company of Vermont, a training program for teenagers based in Chittenden County. All three entities recently made significant announcements. On September 1, the Opera Company of Middlebury officially adopted the…
For 27 years I’ve been humming “Fantasy on a Theme by Samuel Barber.” It takes me back to the university wind ensemble I joined in college. I auditioned for the group my junior year, looking for an easy one-credit A. It didn’t work out precisely as planned. I presented myself to the conductor toting my…
“It’s over. The old days are gone.” So proclaimed no less of a music luminary than Neil Young in a March 19 post on his website titled “Concert Touring Is Broken.” The famously cantankerous singer-songwriter was responding to recurring controversy surrounding Ticketmaster. The massive ticket company enjoys a near-monopoly in the field and has outraged…
I was 12 years old when I first saw Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. It being a seminal film about high school rebelliousness, it was all a little over my head at the time, particularly the concept that you could just skip class. (I would perfect the art myself by my junior year of high school,…
From small community productions to star-studded summer stock, Vermont’s theater scene is as rich and vibrant as a technicolor dreamcoat. And few know it as intimately as Alex Brown. Since 2012, Brown has served as Seven Days’ ace theater critic. She’s logged thousands of miles trekking to far-flung theaters and playhouses across the state to…
Singer and composer Moira Smiley has a new album on the way called The Rhizome Project. The Vermont-based folk artist will give fans an early listen of the record when she performs it live on Saturday, September 16, at Town Hall Theater in Middlebury. “The Rhizome Project is a concert of folk songs that form…
(Self-released, CD) Sometimes it seems like Vermont musicians are just standing by the tracks, a bindle perched on their shoulder as they wait for the first train out of town toward bigger markets. That’s not a criticism, mind you — building an audience in the second-least-populous state in the country can be a thankless task.…
(Self-released, digital) Born in the University of Vermont basement-show scene, All Night Boogie Band honed their craft playing around Burlington for a few years before releasing their first LP last summer. An impressive debut, Taste These Blues showed glints of jazz, R&B and soul. But it’s a blues album through and through, from the cover…
If the smoky skies and biblical rains weren’t enough, the Burlington Garden Club has another entry for any year-end “Reasons Summer 2023 Stunk” listicles. The group had hoped to resume its popular plant sale fundraiser after a pandemic-induced hiatus but was forced this summer to downgrade the September 16 event to a regular ol’ yard…
When it came to buying their own farm, Dan and Elyse Wulfkuhle weren’t set on moving to Vermont. Both Massachusetts natives, they spent the past decade on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, where Dan, 35, managed large vegetable farms and Elyse, 37, worked in river conservation. But Dan’s agriculture career has roots in the Green Mountains. “The…
In the early 2000s, Andrew LeStourgeon was studying forensic psychology in New York City when he decided he was much more interested in the restaurant work he’d always done to make money. “I realized that’s what I wanted to do for a living,” LeStourgeon, now 40, recalled. “You can take eggs, cream and sugar and,…
On a Friday evening in late August, my husband and I stumbled upon a sandwich board on Hardwick’s Main Street that promised “Chocolate Upstairs.” We did what any chocolate lovers would do: We opened the door and climbed the stairs. What once was a loft café inside Buffalo Mountain Food Co-op (relocated around the corner)…
Headwaters Restaurant & Pub opened at 3075 Main Street in Cabot on September 9. Owner Russell Statman said he completely renovated the space, which used to house Cabot Café. Customers can eat inside beside a fountain and a mural, in the pub room, or on the outdoor deck overlooking the Winooski River. The menu offers…
Chef-owner Alexx Shuman has renamed her 4.5-year-old South Burlington-based marshmallow business: Nomadic Kitchen has become the Vermont Marshmallow Company. When Shuman started making and selling marshmallows in December 2018, the trained chef gave her venture the open-ended name Nomadic Kitchen to “give myself an out,” she said. “What if nobody cares about marshmallows like I…
Essex Junction man enjoyed the outdoors and spending time with his family
The Synth and the Fury Saturday 16 And now for something completely different. Shannon Curtis, touring in support of her 2022 album Good to Me, makes her Vermont debut alongside her husband and collaborator, Jamie Hill, at the Flynn in Burlington. Combining elements of concerts, TED Talks and visual art, the show places the album’s…
First woman of color to serve in the Vermont State Legislature led the fight for race and gender equity, inclusion, and opportunity
Founding member of Vermont Green Party worked tirelessly to support social justice and sustainability
With a love of the arts, Shelburne woman was active in many local nonprofit organizations
Teacher and photographer had lifelong commitment to education and the environment
Talented musician’s greatest enjoyment as an adult was playing his violin
Area chef will be remembered for his many culinary concoctions, but his children were his most treasured creation
