The Summer Preview Issue 2017
Diving for History at the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum; Climbing and Floating at Vermont’s Newest State Park; Three Theme Picnics and Where to Eat Them
The Parmelee Post: Plotting Return to Sea, Technology Park Whales Invest Heavily in Fossil Fuels
The stars of one of Vermont’s most popular roadside attractions have taken the unusual step of reinvesting their entire net worth into fossil fuel companies. That’s according to financial documents obtained by the Parmelee Post. The two celebrity whales have tragically been stuck in the ground in South Burlington’s Technology Park since 1999. They appear…
![Champlain Voices Record Project [SIV490]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sevendaysvt.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/episode490.webp?resize=1200%2C900&ssl=1)
Champlain Voices Record Project [SIV490]
5/12/17: The fourth and fifth graders at Champlain Elementary School in Burlington have been busy the past five months making a limited-edition record. This project all began with a field trip down the street to the Burlington Record Plant where students watched albums being pressed by Justin Crowther. The fourth and fifth grade team polled…
Movie Review: ‘Snatched’ Is Funnier When It’s About Nothing
I guess we should be thankful to Hollywood for figuring out that women can enjoy R-rated comedies, too. Without its bracing moments of rudeness, lewdness and randomness, Snatched would be an unredeemable bore. And, yes, that is damning it with faint praise. It’s easy to imagine the less racy version of this Mother’s Day weekend…
Rookie Mistakes: Vermont’s Three New Leaders Collide
Heading into the 2017 legislative session, Vermonters knew to expect a triumvirate of fresh-faced leaders at the Statehouse: a new governor, Senate president pro tempore and House speaker. They weren’t exactly strangers. During his 16 years as a state senator and lieutenant governor, Republican Gov. Phil Scott had shown himself to be an easygoing, handshake-and-a-smile…
Summer Preview — 2017
After a chilly, just-kidding spring, we’re ready for sunny days. And we’ve got ideas on how to spend them. It’s a short season, after all, so let’s get a move on. If you like to move quickly, the research is in: Do it in packs. Social running is not only trendy but also enhances performance. Prefer…
Letters to the Editor (5/17/17)
Pain Policy We are all very aware of the opioid epidemic in Vermont and across the country. But as you noted in [“Do No Harm: New Rules Discourage Overprescribing Opiates,” April 26], the great majority of physicians in Vermont have already modified their prescribing practices. What concern me are two issues: 1. This new law…
Architect-Sailor Marcel Designs a Dreamboat Sailing Center
If the Queen City has a crown, it might be the public-minded waterfront. And one of its brightly shining gems is the Community Sailing Center. The facility’s mission is to make sailing — an activity historically associated with wealthy white men — accessible to everyone. Because of the CSC, every year some 6,000 people, including…
Soulfully Good Serving Breakfast and Lunch in Woodstock
Five weeks ago, Vicki Ferentinos and Shannon Parker-Ferentinos moved from New York City to Vermont. Last weekend, the couple began serving breakfast and lunch at brand-new Soulfully Good Café at 67 Central Street in Woodstock. In New York, Vicki Ferentinos served hundreds of people weekly through her catering outfit at events ranging from weddings to…
It’s (Almost) Summer in Vermont, and That Means Music Festivals Galore
We’re on the cusp of a colossal outbreak — a pandemic surge of infectious revelry I like to call “festival fever.” And Vermont is patient zero. Fortunately, this contagion is one you’ll want to catch. The only cure? Get yourself to as many summer fiestas as you can. No matter what part of the state you…
Hackie: Driving to Bombay
“Apparently, an early landowner named the town in tribute to his wife, who grew up in Bombay, India. That’s the story, anyway.” I was conversing with Renee Capaldi as we drove west across the northern tier of New York State, en route to a town with the unlikely name of Bombay. She was returning home…
Going, Going, Gone: A Crowd Turns Out to Buy Vermont’s Used Stuff
A large crowd gathered in a Berlin parking lot last Saturday to watch two men compete for a coin-fed washing machine. It was a surprise hot-ticket item among the hundreds for sale at the state’s annual surplus auction — essentially, a government garage sale, complete with dump trucks and snowplows. The two men’s bids rose…
Free Will Astrology (5/17/17)
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): My pregnant friend Myrna is determined to avoid giving birth via Caesarean section. She believes that the best way for her son to enter the world is by him doing the hard work of squeezing through the narrow birth canal. That struggle will fortify his willpower and mobilize him to summon…
Burlington’s Lost Shul Mural Inspires a New Play
Two years ago, members of Burlington’s Jewish community finally unveiled the newly restored Lost Shul Mural, a distinctive work of folk art that was painted in 1910 by a Jewish immigrant from Lithuania. The mural, which for decades adorned the altar of an Orthodox Jewish shul, or synagogue, in the Old North End, was nearly…
Ask Athena: I’ve Fallen in Love With My Best Friend
Dear Athena, I recently fell in love with my best friend. The only problem is that he’s in a partnership with another woman (also my friend), and they have a young child together. I know he’s in love with me, too, and we don’t know what to do. If we get together, so many other…
Sweet Alchemy Bakery and Café Comes to Essex Junction
For three years, Bhavatarini Carr has been selling baked goods made in her Burlington kitchen under the name Four Sisters Bakery. This month she’ll soft-open her Sweet Alchemy Bakery and Café, located in the Barns at Lang Farm (43 Upper Main Street) in Essex Junction. Carr will offer pastries, tea and coffee on weekends for…
Bridal Brawls: The Old Lantern Fights Its Neighbors Over Noise
Vermont is a popular place to get married, but not all of the people who live next to its rural wedding venues are celebrating. The special day isn’t so special when it’s almost every Friday, Saturday and Sunday from spring to late fall. Conflicts with neighbors have spilled into municipal meetings — and courts. Just ask…
Seven Laws-to-Be That Could Affect Your Life
When Vermont’s 2017 legislative session ends — assuming it ever does — readers are sure to know the legal status of a certain mind-altering substance, and they’ll probably understand more than they care to know about teachers’ health insurance. Of course, the Vermont legislature did more than vote to legalize marijuana and spar with Gov.…
Album Review: The Mangroves, ‘The Grand Scheme EP’
(Self-released, digital download) The Mangroves are an instrumental quartet from Lyndonville. They came together as students of Lyndon State College’s innovative Music Business and Industry program. In the band’s short career, its members have evolved, with remarkable speed, from dorm-funk jams into a seriously polished group of young musicians. Their latest project, The Grand Scheme…
Exploring Vermont’s New State Park: Taconic Mountains Ramble
Word to the wise: If you check out Taconic Mountains Ramble State Park, don’t wear Chuck Taylors. This is a lesson I learned the hard way on a recent late-morning, um, ramble through Vermont’s new state park. While the 420-acre spread in Hubbardton is serene and spectacular, certain sections — including those that offer access…
Three Theme Picnics and Where to Eat Them
You’re driving a wooded byway abutting a state forest, keeping one eye on the road while the other looks out for wildflowers, waterfalls trickling down craggy rocks or cardinals darting from tree to tree. The scenic route takes you farther and farther from civilization, and then you feel them … the first pangs of “hanger.”…
Diving Into History at the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum
As summer approaches, Vermonters invariably turn their eyes toward the sparkling waters of Lake Champlain. While most people engage in aquatic recreation on or near the water’s surface, the waves hide a long and rich history, much of which still resides on the lake’s bottom. At 120 miles long, up to 12 miles across and…
Locked In: Contract Guarantees Inmates Get Sent Out of Vermont
Vermont’s long-standing goal to reduce its reliance on out-of-state prisons has never seemed more attainable. From 2014 to present, the number of inmates the state Department of Corrections houses outside Vermont has dropped from more than 500 to 270. But a contract the DOC signed with its Pennsylvania counterpart last month has made that goal…
Album Review: Joey Agresta, ‘Let’s Not Talk About Music’
(Wharf Cat Records, CD, digital download, vinyl) Joey Agresta doesn’t want to talk about music; he wants to talk about love. Real, beaming, smiling, universal love of the kind that Ram Dass passed on during the Summer of Love. The kind of love on which the Beatles crowd-surfed across continents. As a musician, Agresta has…
Art Review: Susan Calza, Axel’s Gallery & Frame Shop
“As humans, we’re so damn awkward,” says Susan Calza, “[but] we’ve got this incredible radiance, too.” In a recent phone interview, the Montpelier artist shared insights into her current show, “LET’S NOT PRETEND, it’s ordinary gold,” at Axel’s Gallery & Frame Shop in Waterbury. Using gold as a central metaphor, the interdisciplinary artist has crafted…
IAA Portrait Project Features Diverse Families
Last week, visitors to North End Studios in Burlington found themselves gazing at an unusually engaging art exhibition. From Howard Center employees in a training session to people attending classes, concerts and meetings, everyone took a moment to examine the portraits of students from the Integrated Arts Academy at H.O. Wheeler with their families, said…
Vermont Stage to Produce ‘Fun Home’ Musical
Tucked into a recent program for The Call at Vermont Stage was an announcement for the 2017/18 season, and reading it gave some theatergoers a pleasant surprise. Leading the charge in October will be Fun Home, a bold and ambitious choice for the modest quarters of the company’s home, FlynnSpace. The critically acclaimed musical was…
Social Running Groups Pick Up the Pace
Waiting for the light to turn green at the corner of Flynn Avenue and Pine Street, I had my first sighting: about 10 of the creatures swooping around a telephone pole. A few days later, I spotted another flock on the Burlington Bike Path, and then more circling the track at the University of Vermont.…
Movie Review: ‘Colossal’ Has a Monster Dose of Originality
A reviewer can go years without encountering a genuinely original, one-of-a-kind film. I figured The Red Turtle would have to hold me for the foreseeable future when it came to magically imaginative cinematic experiences. The experience included a personal message of thanks from Oscar-winning Dutch director Michael Dudok de Wit; a reviewer can go a…
Soundbites: And the Winner Is…
Last week, numerous Vermont-based bands, artists and DJs aggressively campaigned via social media to get on the bill at this year’s Grand Point North music festival. More than 70 acts, each nominated either by themselves or their fans, were included on the ballot. Yet only one would claim the coveted opening slot this September. Out…
Eat This Week, May 17 to 23, 2017: All About the Beer
Celebrate American Craft Beer Week with tours and pours hosted by the 40-odd brewer-members of the Vermont Brewers Association. Put some cheese in your steez with pairing plates — some available all week, others happening for one night only — at Otter Creek Brewing, Zero Gravity Craft Brewery and Simple Roots Brewing, among others. Or sample Tulach…
The Great Northern Opens in Burlington
The new sign at 716 Pine Street in Burlington’s South End looks like the marker for a National Forest: dark brown wood, pine tree and a name evocative of wide-open spaces: the Great Northern. But the small print — reading “food” and “drink” — reveals that this is not a natural wonder but a new…
Vermont Growers Reinterpret the Farm Store
It’s a classic Vermont scene: You’re cruising along a back road through some rural hamlet when you happen upon a farmhouse, an old red barn or a little roadside shack with the words “Farm Stand” painted on the side. You’ve got a few dollars in your wallet, so you pull over. After all, these are…
