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The sounds of whispered conversations and shuffling feet blended into a bewildering commotion as I watched groups of talkative and well-dressed attendees file into neatly ordered rows of plastic chairs. I was three years sober, and I was moments away from beginning the second of my two separate speaking engagements at the Aspen Institute. My…
Musician, nurse and educator is remembered for her themed costume parties and zest for life
Lifelong New Paltz, N.Y., resident was a renowned storyteller who treated everyone with kindness and respect
As I approached the glass doors of Balnea, a spa and bathhouse tucked into a mountainside on the shores of Lac Gale in Bromont, Québec, my first thought was: This should be a lot more expensive. For less than $30 each, my partner and I had purchased three hours in which our only task —…
Burlington entrepreneur Russ Scully wants to change the zoning rules across a swath of the city’s South End to allow housing to be built, years after a similar proposal failed because of concerns about gentrification. If the nascent proposal advances, the changes, along and just off Pine Street, would allow residential development in an area…
Watching a new documentary about the Storm Lake Times, an award-winning newspaper in northwest Iowa, I felt an immediate fondness for the editor. Art Cullen is tousled and typing furiously when the film begins, then stressing over a deadline and the hourly cost of blowing it. Smoking and swearing, the mustachioed wordsmith looks like a…
You’re probably wondering how to get through the cold months now that you no longer live in Dallas, San Diego or North Dakota. And to be honest, the internet is crawling with articles offering precious, Norman Rockwell-type advice for Vermont winter first-timers, like “Enjoy a cup of hot mulled cider if you get chilly!” Ignore…
Jake Burton Carpenter originally wanted to be a surfer. Growing up near the ocean in Long Island, N.Y., he hoped his parents would one day surprise him with a surfboard. Unfortunately for young Jake, that day never came. Fortunately for the rest of the world, that parental snub would prove to be one of the…
Julie Davis is “driven to paint,” she said, insisting that subject matter is less important to her than the act of applying brush to canvas. Still, the majority of her paintings are plein air landscapes. “I love to be outdoors,” she said simply. But also, Davis reasoned during an interview at her Cambridge home, “it’s…
It’s Oscar season, and everyone has an opinion about Kristen Stewart’s turn as Diana, Princess of Wales, in Spencer. Director Pablo Larraín, who brought us Natalie Portman as Jackie Kennedy in Jackie, gives us another take on a 20th-century female icon with this psychodrama, currently playing at Merrill’s Roxy Cinemas in Burlington and the Savoy…
Soon after he started working for a Rutland cookie-cutter manufacturer in January, Steve Montanez noticed a longtime supplier was having trouble providing the food coloring used in its products. “It was a 12-week lead time and then, when 12 weeks came around, it was, ‘Oh jeez, Steve, I’m so sorry. It’s going to be 16…
Way back in May, in the intro to our Summer Preview issue, I theorized that summer 2021 might vie for the title of Best Summer Ever. It was an admittedly sunny projection, but the logic was sound: Given the myriad historic challenges of the previous year, we were due for a win. With vaccinations on…
Fifty years ago, when the three Koch siblings were kids, they piled into a big American station wagon on Friday afternoons. With their parents up front, they rode 270 miles from Franklin Lakes, N.J., to Fayston. The five-hour road trip to ski at Mad River Glen and spend a couple of days in the house…
A photo slipped from this book of poems I opened on my lap — my father looking out at me from beneath his airman’s hat, standing by a jeep in India when the war was at their backs. My mother landed with a Red Cross crew and this Pocket Book of Verse — you can…
For years, Jared Williams dreamed of leaving Boston to create an artist residency in rural New England. The visual artist, dancer and curator had been on a roller-coaster real estate quest for more than six months when he contacted Nuria Bowart, his go-to friend when things got tough. “I was explaining that things kept falling…
When navigating the twists of German Flats Road in the Mad River Valley, drivers can see Mount Ellen’s slopes from quite a distance. The steep Sugarbush Resort peak, cherished by locals, boasts the highest chairlift in Vermont. On a cloudy day, the longest runs appear to descend from the sky. The towering heights might inspire…
Dear Reverend, All my friends ski and snowboard, but I don’t. I rarely see them all winter unless there’s a special occasion or crappy skiing conditions. I tried learning to ski when I was a kid, but I’m a total klutz and there’s no hope. What can I do to get more hang time with…
On a Sunday morning in October, I was frying eggs in the kitchen when I received a phone call that made me drop the spatula. “I was attacked by an owl,” my husband, Jeff, told me. He was calling from Shelburne Farms, where he and his friend Eric have been taking weekly predawn walks since…
Bove Family Responds As a building owner, I recognize the issues raised by [“Roaches and Broken Locks,” November 3]. Are we perfect? No. But we are a family with deep roots and an overwhelming commitment to this community. Affordable housing comes with major struggles for everyone, and we must have uncomfortable conversations about them. We have…
In the last four decades, extreme skier John Egan earned international acclaim for descending some of the world’s gnarliest peaks, many of which had never been skied before. Egan didn’t make it look easy, but he definitely made it look fun, which helps explain why he starred in 17 movies by the late ski and…
One of the coolest parts of my gig is hopping around Burlington to catch live music. There are nights when I see punk music in a basement, catch a DJ set at a club and finish the evening with a hip-hop show at an art gallery. All the music this city creates just pours into…
(Eneekay Records, digital) Lyndon’s Mad Mesa have taken being a college rock band to another level. The three-piece outfit not only formed at Northern Vermont University, it also released its debut EP Crev on the NVU student-run label, Eneekay Records. Students enrolled in Record Label Practicum courses in the university’s Music Business and Industry program…
(self-released, digital) Funny but true: When you express the fact that you’re different, everyone can relate. It’s one constant in the otherwise ever-changing music business. Such universal alienation is the unifying theme behind Sheep in Wolf’s Clothes, the latest album from Burlington vocalist and producer thayerperiod. The project is a hot mess in the best…
new in theaters CLIFFORD THE BIG RED DOG: The children’s books about a beloved giant pet come to the screen in a semi-live-action adventure starring Darby Camp, Jack Whitehall and John Cleese. Walt Becker (Old Dogs) directed. (97 min, PG. Bijou, Capitol, Essex, Majestic, Star, Sunset, Welden) SOULMATE(S): A new romance and a maple conglomerate…
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Scorpio theologian Eugene Peterson cleared up a mystery about the nature of mystery. He wrote, “Mystery is not the absence of meaning, but the presence of more meaning than we can comprehend.” Yes! At least sometimes, mystery can be a cause for celebration, a delightful opening into a beautiful unknown that’s…
Think NASCAR — but just the crashes. Or mixed-martial arts, with swords. That’s how Jeff Folb describes the Armored Combat Sports league, which he’s bringing to the Champlain Valley Exposition this weekend for its Northeastern championships. He promises “no holds barred” beatdowns involving combatants in full suits of armor wielding weapons in five-on-five matches. Each…
With all of its scenic beauty and historic architecture, Vermont should be a filmmaker’s paradise. But, because the state lacks tax incentives for film production, few flicks are actually shot here. Plenty of films still take place in Vermont, especially the made-for-TV holiday schlock churned out by the Hallmark Channel. A 2018 Seven Days story…
Diverted by COVID-19 restrictions from skiing at his usual haunts in Vermont last winter, Tim Dalton of Ridgefield, Conn., tried slopes in New Hampshire and Maine for the first time. Dalton doesn’t plan to vacation in those states again anytime soon. Now that Vermont has lifted its quarantine rules for out-of-staters, he’s booked a trip…
Army veteran and educator published more than a hundred scholarly books, papers and journals
From careers in education to politics, Montpelier man strove for societal transformation
Bob Lesnikoski can’t say just why he started growing cranberries 25 years ago. It wasn’t exactly easy. Cranberries grow in sandy bogs, which Lesnikoski had to dig into the hillside on his Fletcher farm. He invested in a picker to pick berries and a walk-in freezer to store them. He bought cardboard berry boxes by…
In fall 2016, when Conor McManus started experimenting with hard cider, his trial batches took over the 1850s Fairfax farmhouse he and his wife, Leah, had bought earlier that year. McManus, now 42, worked in construction management at the time. He was ready for a career change and had planned to farm hops to feed…
Nearly a decade ago, a Burlington filmmaker and a Montpelier T-shirt artist teamed up to make a documentary. The T-shirt artist was Bo Moore (then Muller-Moore), creator of the locally ubiquitous Eat More Kale design. The subject was his battle with fast-food giant Chick-fil-A, which opposed Moore’s trademark application on the basis of the resemblance…
All American Monday 15 Vermont Studio Center welcomes Paige Buffington to the virtual stage as part of its Writers on the Rise series. The Navajo poet and teacher has published in The Diné Reader, Narrative magazine and elsewhere, and her poem “All-American Biography” was named “Best Western Poem” by the Western Writers of America in…
