The Wellness Issue 2018
Experts Weigh In on Safe Cannabis Consumption; How Ayurvedic Shirodhara Soothes Body and Mind; A UVM Cardiologist’s Rx for Heart Health: Exercise
Sign Up for the Daily 7, Win a Season Pass to Killington!
Thanks for your interest! This contest is now closed, but you can sign up for all our newsletters right here. Congrats to Matthew Culbertson, who won the season pass. Say what?! Yes, it’s true — we’re giving away a season pass to Killington for the rest of the 2018 season. How do you win? Simply…
Obituary: Alexander Johannesen, 1987-2018
Alexander Johannesen, 30, formerly of Fly Creek, N.Y., died unexpectedly in Dutch Harbor, Alaska, on Thursday, January 18. A memorial service will be held at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, February 3, at the Louis C. Jones Center at the Farmers’ Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y. Alex was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on September 30, 1987, the…
Seriously: Well, Well, Well
In this episode, Bryan discusses several ways to improve your mental and physical wellbeing alongside guests Ricky McGinny and Divinity Shakrah. CREDITS Written, filmed and edited by: Bryan Parmelee Artwork/photography by: Ken Picard, Luke Eastman, Susan Norton, Jeb Wallace-Brodeur, Dreamstime.com Logo/art direction by: Don Eggert Backdrop mural by: Anthill Collective Music/audio by: Bryan Parmelee Related…
Obituary: Nancy Cathcart, 1950-2018
On January 13, 2018, Nancy Griffith Cathcart moved on to her next adventure, leaving her legacy of love and passion with all of us. Nancy was born in Pittsburgh, Pa., and always had a warm place in her heart for that city and the rich family memories from her youth in and around Pittsburgh and…
The Cannabis Catch-Up: Legal Weed Nearly Signed, Sealed, Delivered
If you’re reading this, it’s possible Gov. Phil Scott has already signed into law a bill that legalizes marijuana. He has until this Monday, and said on Thursday that he’ll meet the deadline — but in private. No showy display, he told reporters, including our John Walters. “There are many people on both sides of…
![Kids Read to Archie the Dog [SIV518]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sevendaysvt.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/episode518.webp?resize=1200%2C900&ssl=1)
Kids Read to Archie the Dog [SIV518]
1/11/18: Every Thursday after school, children visit Archie the therapy dog and his handler Christine Packard at the Brownell Library in Essex Junction for some quiet reading time. Archie was certified by Therapy Dogs of Vermont and his calm presence has earned him quite a following. The kids read books out loud to Archie and…
UVM Students Save Escaped Hen From Freezing to Death in Burlington
Two University of Vermont students helped save a black-and-white-speckled hen from freezing to death in Burlington over the weekend. Alex Bennett and his girlfriend, Meaghan Lawrence, found the chilled chicken sitting in a snowbank on South Willard Street around 9 a.m. Sunday after a subzero night. The quick-thinking couple brought the sturdy clucker to Lawrence’s…
PIVOT or Spin? Scott Tries to Reinvent Government
It’s a notion that every governor finds irresistible: Reinvent state government, find efficiencies, trim the fat, tear down the silos — and watch the savings roll in. Somehow, the results never live up to the promise. Consider, for example, former governor Jim Douglas’ Challenges for Change initiative. It would save millions upon millions, he promised,…
Vermont Stage to Present World Premiere of New Play, ‘Doublewide’
Producing the world premiere of a play is a coveted opportunity for theater makers: It’s a natural marketing sell and can leave a lasting impression on the play itself. For example, if a publisher picks up a play, the world-premiere theater and cast will be listed in the resulting book. Too often, though, a play’s…
Soundbites: Teenage Dream; Resident Adviser
When Burlington’s Memorial Auditorium was condemned in 2016, its tenants were forced to vacate — including the all-ages rock club, 242 Main. Local promoters and other arts organizations have stepped in to fill the void left by the legendary venue’s closure with like-minded programming. Queen City nonprofit Big Heavy World is one such proponent. The…
Free Will Astrology (1/17/18)
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Bubble gum is more elastic and less sticky than regular chewing gum. That’s why you can blow bubbles with it. A Capricorn accountant named Walter Diemer invented it in 1928 while working for the Fleer Chewing Gum Company. When he had finally perfected the recipe, the only food dye on hand…
Burlington Ward 3 Candidates Talk Transparency, the Mall and Momos
The three contenders for the Burlington City Council’s Ward 3 seat have more in common than their eagerness to represent the city’s western flank. Each moved to the Queen City from somewhere else to attend the University of Vermont — and decided to stick around after finishing college. There are plenty of differences between them,…
Third Eye Drip: Shirodhara to Calm Body and Mind
On the whole, oil spills are horrible: a waste and expense, not to mention an environmental travesty. But in a treatment room at the Stoweflake Mountain Resort & Spa in Stowe, Surinda Cavanagh administers a kind of oil spill called shirodhara that functions as luxurious medicine. Shirodhara is a thousands-of-years-old Ayurvedic treatment that aims to…
Four More Albums From Formerly Local Artists
Seven Days receives more album submissions than we know what to do with, which speaks to the boundless creativity and tenacity of our local music scene. In addition to many submissions from Vermont-based artists, we get a fair number of albums from formerly local music makers, as well. Even though they’ve moved on to new…
Talking Art With Pop Painter Jeffrey Robbins
Jeffrey Robbins is not a starving artist. With his mind on how to support himself, he dropped out of New York’s Pratt Institute in 2000 and opted instead to pursue a career in web development and e-commerce during the internet boom. After spending his earlier adult life in New York City, Robbins, 38, relocated to…
Dr. Yes: Vermont’s Addiction Expert, John Brooklyn, Is in Demand
Dr. John Brooklyn hadn’t yet arrived at the South Burlington opiate addiction treatment center when I showed up for a tour one afternoon in December. Walking briskly into the Chittenden Clinic’s drab waiting room 10 minutes late, he apologized, explaining that he’d had to make a quick run to the post office to mail a…
Champlain College Students Produce Healthy Lifestyle Magazine
Last fall, Champlain College offered a course in magazine publishing through its professional writing program. The 11 students in the class performed all the duties that writers and editors undertake: determining a tone for the publication, developing story ideas for short pieces and longer features, writing and editing articles, designing pages, and proofreading copy. But…
Ask Athena: Looking for Sex, Looking for Love
It’s another doubleheader Ask Athena! Two people are on a search, but for very different kinds of treasure. Dear Athena, I want to meet as many hot chicks as possible and have as much sex as possible. Not to be weird, but I only lost my virginity when I was in my mid-twenties, and I…
The Everything Space Champions ‘Embodiment Revolution’
The revolution may or may not be televised — or YouTubed or Facebook Lived or whatever. But if Amanda Franz and Abbi Jaffe have their way, said revolution will most definitely be slow. And probably kind of awkward and touchy-feely. It will also be deeply self-aware and in touch with its own proprioceptive senses. There…
The Seven Days Wellness Issue, 2018
Admit it: the resolutions we made three weeks ago look a lot like those we made a year ago … if not five years ago. But, as this issue highlights every mid-January, wellness is about more than eating better and exercising. (Keep that up though, especially when in the care of cardiac rehab specialist Dr.…
Album Review: Clothcutter, ‘Landfall EP’
(Onset Audio, digital download) Clothcutter is a talented EDM producer who is old enough to insist on calling it “bass music.” This is fitting, since he draws from a much deeper well than those on the summer festival circuit. The man behind the bottom-heavy breaks is Forest Bond, a Burlington-based programmer, business owner and longtime…
Album Review: Dan Zura, ‘Leo’s Lament’
(State and Main Records, digital download, vinyl) Dan Zura hasn’t released a full-length album since his 2006 breakout debut, What Moves You Kid. The Montpelier-based singer-songwriter arrived as an almost fully formed product, setting forth with what can be best described as lonesome alt-country — a rich vein to tap, if one has the skill…
Movie Review: ‘Call Me by Your Name’ Offers a Sumptuous Coming-of-Age Romance
How fitting that this gorgeous, sensual and perceptive film, in which a young man and a somewhat older young man share a summer of discovery and love, is a collaboration of two auteurs — neither exactly young, but one somewhat older. If you ever wondered how a movie would look and sound as directed by…
Movie Review: ‘I, Tonya’ Finds the Tragedy Inside the Tabloid Fodder
In one of the mock interviews that open I, Tonya, Tonya Harding’s former coach (Julianne Nicholson) tells the audience that people love or hate the disgraced figure skater the way they love or hate America: “Tonya was totally American.” This is the movie’s thesis, too. It’s not a compliment but a challenge. It was a…
New Year, New Theater Works: A Roundup of Shows to Come
‘Tis the season for everyone to put away their Christmas lights and turn on the stage lights. Or something like that. With apologies to the Scrooges and Grinches, most thespians take a break during the holidays, if only to gear up for the new season that starts in January. We’ve rounded up a few full…
Letters to the Editor (1/17/18)
Missing the Point Can Seven Days amend [Off Message: “Walters: Ex-Freeps Editor Finds a Friend on Fox News,” January 11] to include an explanation of a journalist’s code of ethics? That is at the core of the Burlington Free Press editor’s dismissal. Journalists are required to remain neutral and report without bias. Regardless of the…
Can CBD-Supported Meditation Help You Go Deeper?
Rarely a day goes by without a news story about the latest superfood, miracle drug or herbal remedy that promises to stave off or cure all that ails you, from cancer to diabetes to chronic ennui. Be it turmeric, biotin, glucosamine or chia seeds, the list of superfoods, spices and dietary aids keeps growing at…
Eat This Week, January 17 to 23, 2018: Dark Night of the Stew
The Green Mountain Beer Institute and the Woods Lodge — both based in Northfield — have teamed up to present an evening of food and drink centered on dark brews and rich, long-simmered winter fare. The night begins with a 30-minute beer education segment and continues with a glass of Long Trail Brewing or Guinness…
What’s the Safest Way to Consume Legal Cannabis? Experts Weigh In
The legal has landed. Adult Vermonters will soon be allowed to smoke pot at home with as much impunity as they can crack a beer or sip a Chardonnay. This week, Gov. Phil Scott is expected to sign into law a bill allowing people 21 and older to possess up to an ounce of marijuana…
A UVM Cardiologist Advocates Heart-Healthy Exercise
When Linda Wellings first visited the University of Vermont Medical Center cardiac rehabilitation clinic in mid-2015, she was scared. Wellings, then 67, had just had a heart attack. “It’s a slap in the face of your mortality,” she recalled. But after 12 weeks of cardiac rehabilitation, during which she had a supervised exercise regime, Wellings…
Ready or Not: Is Gentrification Inevitable in Burlington’s Old North End?
Google Street View 248 North Winooski Avenue, 2012 and 2017 jQuery(document).ready(function() { jQuery(“#container1”).twentytwenty(); jQuery(“#container2”).twentytwenty(); }); When Jessica Bunce purchased Panadero Bakery in 2010, she became one of a few restaurateurs making a go of it in the largely residential Old North End. “Are you sure you want to do it there?” she remembered her friends…
Making Miso, the Miraculous Broth
At most Japanese restaurants, any entrée or selection of sushi comes with a complimentary cup of miso soup. It’s usually delicate in taste and garnished with bits of scallion, cubes of silken tofu and floaty bits of seaweed. The dish is made with a broth called dashi. The classic version is flavored with bonito flakes…
Terroir of the Sahara at Montréal’s La Khaïma
When asked to describe the food of his native Mauritania, Atigh Ould, owner and chef of La Khaïma restaurant in Montréal, excused himself briefly, then returned to the table with a 15-pound block of salt. It was light tan and opaque. Ould explained that he had recently dug the salt from desert sand in northern…
Middle Eastern Restaurant, Mr. Shawarma, Opens in Essex Junction
When Aymen Aref was a boy growing up in Baghdad, Iraq, his family owned a restaurant that served shawarmas, roasted-meat sandwiches similar to gyros. Eight years ago, his family moved to Essex Junction, where Aref recently debuted his own restaurant, Mr. Shawarma. “It’s always been my dream to open a restaurant,” said Aref, now 22,…
Caleb Lara Is New Executive Chef at Essex Resort & Spa
Last fall, the Essex Culinary Resort & Spa announced the name of its new executive chef: Caleb Lara. Lara, who moved to Vermont for the job, grew up in San Diego, attended the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., and has worked at fine restaurants along New England’s Atlantic coast. In his new…
