The Performing Arts Preview Issue 2016
Burlington’s Foam Brewers Flows On; Ryan Miller and Grace Potter Talk Grand Point North
Cover Story
Welcome Back, Performing Arts Season
It may be human to err, but it’s also human to get things very right. That is, to pour devotion and diligence into a chosen endeavor until it is as close to perfect as possible. Just weeks ago in Rio de Janeiro, the world watched, mesmerized, as a multitude of athletes performed stunning physical feats.…
Obituary: Docie Woodard, 1948-2016
After a long illness, Docie Eileen Falcone Woodard died on August 18, 2016, surrounded by her family. She was born in Shaoyang, China in 1948. Her twin, Ah-li, preceded her in birth by 20 minutes. Whenever Ah-li claimed to be older, Docie would point out that she, Docie, was bigger since she was 3 inches…
Lessons in Kindness: A Vermont Nonprofit Helps Kids Learn Empathy
Sam Drazin grew up in in Norwich in a neighborhood filled with families. His childhood included typical kid pursuits: biking, flashlight tag, trick-or-treating, sledding. But in middle school, life got more complicated. He wasn’t the target of bullying or teasing, he says, rather he became invisible. Childhood friends ignored him. And when he reached out…
The Art Of… Bringing Kids to Museums
I had a revelation recently: At ages 5 and a half and 7, my kids might be ready to visit a museum that isn’t specifically geared to children. Just as I thought it, my mind painted a vivid picture of all that could go wrong. We’re working on emotional control in our house (translation: loud…
Obituary: Bruce Butterfield, 1949-2016
BUTTERFIELD, Bruce, 67, a long time resident of the “Northeast Kingdom” of Vermont died on September 5, 2016. Bruce was born on June 18, 1949, in Illinois and grew up in New Jersey. He moved to Burlington in the late 1960s, graduated from UVM in 1973 and made Vermont his home. Bruce was deeply committed…
![Bark & Brew [SIV459]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sevendaysvt.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/bark8.webp?resize=1200%2C900&ssl=1)
Bark & Brew [SIV459]
9/8/16: Joyful yaps, cheers and a blur of pooches. Rain didn’t deter a crowd of humans and their four-legged friends from gathering Thursday night at Bark & Brew, held at the Humane Society of Chittenden County’s fenced play yard in South Burlington. The seven-week long event is held every Thursday evening and presented by Oh…
Shotgun Marriage? Johnson and Lyndon State Colleges Rush to the Altar
Two dozen Lyndon State College students streamed into a community room last Thursday for a lunchtime meeting with top brass. The topic? A proposal so big it could forever change their academic experience. Vermont State Colleges chancellor Jeb Spaulding is pushing a plan to merge Lyndon and Johnson State College under one president, with a…
UVM Prof: Bias Response Team Threatens Free Speech on Campus
A University of Vermont professor has waded into the national debate about academic free speech and political correctness with a broadside against the UVM team charged with investigating bias, discrimination and harassment on campus. The Bias Response Team defines its mission in a broad, vague manner that could have a chilling impact on free speech…
Unfinished Business: How Phil Scott Lost a Nightclub
Throughout his campaign for the state’s top job, Lt. Gov. Phil Scott and his allies have made much of his experience as a small-business owner. In one recent television ad funded by the Republican Governors Association, Scott highlighted the importance of a “handshake” deal. “That means something here in Vermont,” the Republican nominee said in…
Letters to Editor (9/14/16)
Moore on Burlington College Let’s get it straight, because Seven Days reporter Alicia Freese did not [Off Message: “Former Burlington College President Unloads on Board, Jane Sanders,” September 6]: I never alluded to the influence of Sen. Bernie Sanders on Burlington College. Never mentioned his name in speaking to Freese. She took many liberties in…
Burlington’s New Foam Brewers Go With the Flow
After water and tea, beer is the most widely consumed beverage in the world. One could argue that it even helped shape the world: In the words of English wine writer Andrew Jefford, “Wine was the drink of elegance and aristocracy, whereas beer built the pyramids.” And all beer, from a can of Budweiser to…
Vermont’s EpiPen Problem Is About Price and Politics
Across the street from a Chinese buffet restaurant in downtown St. Albans, several men in pale blue shirts stood sentry outside a gated brick complex. They were guarding a factory owned by what is likely the most maligned pharmaceutical company in the country at this moment: Mylan. The Pennsylvania-based multinational jacked the prices of its…
Niche at Rogue Artisans to Open in Morrisville
In 2015, chef Chad Hanley and Sumptuous Syrups of Vermont mix master Don Horrigan worked together as the opening chef and bartender, respectively, at Edson Hill. There the duo nurtured a rare synergy between kitchen and bar, but, last fall, they parted ways. Horrigan landed at Kingdom Taproom, while Hanley signed on to open Gaku…
Sully
I was surprised to learn that Clint Eastwood’s latest film was being released on September 9. Did award season get moved up? I wondered. Then I saw Sully and realized what a crafty, gut-wrenching stunt Eastwood had pulled off. On the weekend of the anniversary of the Twin Towers attacks, audiences would be watching a…
Windfall Orchard Starts Dinner Series
Windfall Orchard is known for its farmers market stands in Burlington and Middlebury, where its tables hold bottles of ice cider, cider blends, and crates brimming with just-picked apples like Paula Red, Chenango Strawberry and Cox’s Orange Pippin. The small, 60-year-old apple orchard in Cornwall has been owned since 2002 by two stalwarts of the…
When the Bough Breaks
In the 1990s, moviegoers flocked to a string of glossy thrillers that one critic of the era memorably dubbed the “from hell” genre. All their plots could be reduced to a single pungent phrase: “the roommate from hell” (Single White Female), “the tenant from hell” (Pacific Heights), “the nanny from hell” (The Hand That Rocks…
Why Are the Burlington City Hall Fountains Always Dry?
Cold weather will soon turn Burlington’s four decorative fountains into empty troughs for seven months. Meanwhile, one reader recently asked: Why haven’t the wildlife-themed dual fountains in front of Burlington City Hall functioned for years? Unlike those in City Hall Park and on Battery Street, which for half the year double as kiddie pools, communal…
Grace Potter and Guster’s Ryan Miller Talk Vermont
Grace Potter and Ryan Miller have had almost inverse Vermont experiences. As any local knows, Potter is the Waitsfield-born singer who has achieved international fame, first with the Nocturnals and lately as a solo artist. She recently relocated to Los Angeles. On the flip side, Miller is the front man for Guster, a Boston-born alt-pop…
A Dream World at the Kent Museum
The Kent Museum, a row of connected 1830s structures built by Abdiel Kent in Calais, is open to the public only about one month a year. The occasion is Art at the Kent, an annual show of Vermont artists’ work curated by Allyson Evans, Nel Emlen and state curator David Schutz. The current show, which…
A Vermont Ballerina Heads to the Bolshoi
Each year across the United States, aspiring ballet dancers don their best tights to audition for a spot at the Bolshoi Ballet’s yearlong trainee program in Moscow, Russia. Of the hundreds of dancers auditioning, perhaps eight are accepted. This year, one of those dancers is from Jericho: 16-year-old Julia Spensley. She was invited to Moscow…
Charlotte Potter’s Grand Point Weird
As always, this weekend’s Burlington waterfront music festival Grand Point North will be headlined by founder Grace Potter. The 2016 lineup includes Old Crow Medicine Show, Guster, Kaleo and many other musicians — but there’s stuff to see as well as hear. One of the fest’s annual offerings is an installation called “Grand Point Weird,” curated…
Capital City Concerts Expands to Middlebury
Now that the rich offerings of summer chamber music have ended, classical fans can pencil in a new round of chamber concerts from Capital City Concerts. Founded in Montpelier in 2000 by flutist Karen Kevra, CCC has presented repeat concerts in Burlington and Rutland venues in recent years. Now a Cornwall resident, Kevra is bringing…
Soundbites: What’s the Point?
Can ya feel that, Vermont? I don’t even have to explain what “that” is, do I? You felt it the other day when you donned a sweatshirt or two for your morning coffee. You sighed softly to yourself upon glimpsing the first hints of rust in the trees on your street. Perhaps you’ve suddenly started…
Aleck & Ivy, The Freak Beneath
(Self-released, cassette, digital download) A little more than a year ago, Vermont ex-pat Aleck Woogmaster and Portland, Ore., singer-songwriter Ivy Estelle released their debut EP, Sticks in the Mud. The seven-song teaser was uneven but interesting, promising better things to come. With the arrival of the duo’s first full-length album, The Freak Beneath, it’s clear…
Banana Schlitz, Sports & Milk
(Self-released, cassette, digital download) Nostalgia is a powerful thing. And in 2016, it seems like we can’t get enough of it. Axl Rose and Slash reunited Guns N’ Roses at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, and other bygone bands including Lush and Temple of the Dog announced tours. Netflix series and 1980s Spielberg…
Free Will Astrology (9/14/16)
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Caution: You may soon be exposed to outbreaks of peace, intelligence and mutual admiration. Sweet satisfactions might erupt unexpectedly. Rousing connections could become almost routine, and useful revelations may proliferate. Are you prepared to fully accept this surge of grace? Or will you be suspicious of the chance to feel soulfully…
I Can’t Deal With My Boyfriend’s Creepy Son
Dear Athena, I moved out of my boyfriend’s house because of his 19-year-old son’s behavior problems. I could not get my boyfriend to stand up for me. He claimed he had talks with his son, but it never changed anything. In fact, his son’s behavior got creepier. He threatened to kill us in our sleep…
Down Home Kitchen Offers Family-Style Dinners
Last September, Down Home Kitchen opened for breakfast and lunch at the corner of Montpelier’s Langdon and Main streets. The modest menu offered southern comfort foods such as chicken and biscuits, fried catfish, and eggs. Over the past year, the menu has grown to include burgers; country-fried steak; hummingbird and Coca-Cola cakes; classic cocktails; milkshakes…
Taste Test: Pork & Pickles Barbecue
At 1:27 p.m., when my friend Matt still hadn’t shown up for our one o’clock lunch plans, I figured he was lost. I imagined him steering his motorcycle around and around Essex Junction’s busy Five Corners intersection in search of Pork & Pickles Barbeque, the newish restaurant where we’d planned to meet. He doesn’t carry…
Obituary: Timothy Appleton Grannis, 1949-2016
Timothy was born November 24, 1949, in Hartford Conn., to the late Caroline Kinloch Bull Grannis of Georgetown, S.C. and the late Peter Edwards Grannis of Greenwich, Conn. He died on September 6, 2016, in Burlington, surrounded by his friends and family, after declining rapidly over this past year with early onset Alzheimer’s. Timothy is…
