Photos : Jeb wallace-brodeur, Michelle ollie, matthew thorsen
Nice rackS!
Readers pick up Seven Days at more than 1000 locations around Vermont, as well as Plattsburgh, N.Y. We’re grateful for every single venue, but we photographed 15 for our 15th! How many of these sites can you identify?
See more 7D birthday fun starting on page 26!
8 FEATURE
SEVEN DAYS
09.08.10-09.15.10
SEVENDAYSvt.com
From top, left to right: Buch Spieler, Handy’s Lunch, Dick Mazza’s General Store, Main Street (Burlington), Gardener’s Supply, Bayside Court, City Market, Center for Cartoon Studies, Langdon Street Café, Muddy Waters, North Winooski Ave. Laundromat, Fresh Market, Red Square, Julio’s Cantina, Beverage Warehouse
contents
LOOKING FORWARD
SEPTEMBER 08-15, 2010 VOL.16 NO.2
. e Day.. h t n i k Bac
Hoppy Birthday!
It’s a big week at Seven Days, and we’ve packed a lot in. Our 15TH ANNIVERSARY inspired the five-page spread about, well, us, including staff photos from this year and our first one. And wherever you see the ‘95 logo scattered around the paper, you’ll learn — or reminisce? — about some happenings here in 1995. And then there’s the SOUTH END ART HOP, which would be our favorite event even if it wasn’t on our birthday — and in our ’hood! We preview the Hop with features on RICK DAVIS’ newly renovated Maltex Building; metal sculptor JAMES IRVING WESTERMANN; BRADLEY JORDAN, consultant to the “Strut V” fashion show; plus a rundown on the musical accompaniment to the Hop. You’ll find more BACK TO SCHOOL content, too — about Sustainability Academy principal ABI SESSIONS, and YOUDILIGENCE, a company that can eliminate students’ “embarrassing” pasts. Or at least their posts on social-networking sites. Whew.
NEWS 16
White River Junction Neighbors Exchange Hate-Crime Accusations
BY KEN PICARD
16
Vermont’s Secessionist Movement Debuts Something New: Candidates
BY ANDY BROMAGE
17
Independent U.S. Senate Candidate Johenry Nunes Wants to Be Your “Hero”
FEATURES
Birthday: Back in the Day ... ’95
20 A Three-Part International Sculpture Exhibit Champions Biodiversity
32 Maltex Makeover
Architecture: A Pine Street landmark’s “renaissance” kicks off the Art Hop BY AMY LILLY
36 Teaching Sessions
Back 2 School: The principal of Burlington’s Sustainability Academy assesses year one
Open season on Vermont politics BY SHAY TOT TEN
25 Hackie
A cabbie’s rear view BY JERNIGAN PONTIAC
45 Side Dishes
Leftover food news BY ALICE LEVIT T
64 Soundbites
Music news and views BY DAN BOLLES
72 Eyewitness
40 Deleting Indiscretions
Taking note of visual Vermont
Back 2 School: A Vermont company keeps a vigilant eye on students’ online behavior
BY KEVIN J. KELLEY
BY MEGAN JAMES
87 Mistress Maeve
Your guide to love & lust BY MISTRESS MAEVE
BY KEN PICARD
Local Designer Wrangles the Runway at the Art Hop
BY CAROLYN FOX
22
12 Fair Game
BY PAULA ROUTLY & PAMELA POLSTON
BY LAUREN OBER
ARTS NEWS
42 All’s Fair in Love and Hormones Music: Justin Bieber heats up the Champlain Valley Fair
Holy Snit
BY MARGOT HARRISON
BY ALICE LEVIT T
66 Music
Food: Seven Days writers rate the Burlington-area burrito scene
Villanelles, Villanelles; Tiffany Pfeiffer and the Discarnate Band, Amor Frio
70 Art
11 50 59 62 70 76
The Magnificent 7 Calendar Classes Music Art Movies
BY DAN BOLLES, ALICE LEVIT T & SUZANNE PODHAIZER
62 Birthday Party
76 Movies
The American; Restrepo
Music: The charmed musical life of Kyle Thomas
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Curtis Hale, Northeast Kingdom Artisans Guild Backroom Gallery
STUFF TO DO
SEVENDAYSVT.COM
44 It’s a Wrap
REVIEWS
‘Cause you can’t predict the weather...
COLUMNS
26 Seven Days Is 15!
BY ANDY BROMAGE
21
H U NTE R
BY MAT T BUSHLOW
VIDEO 24 59 79 80 81 82 82 82 83 83 83 85
CLASSIFIEDS homeworks vehicles housing 7D crossword fsbo services buy this stuff music puzzle answers legals, art support groups jobs
COVER IMAGE: MIKE BIEGEL COVER DESIGN: DIANE SULLIVAN
C-2 C-2 C-2 C-3 C-4 C-4 C-5 C-5 C-5 C-6 C-8 C-11
“On the Marketplace” 38 Church St. 862-5126 Monday-Thursday 10-8 Friday & Saturday 10-9 Sunday 11-6
sevendaysvt.com/multimedia
4v-shoeshop060210.indd 1
CONTENTS 9
straight dope/bliss red meat movie quiz free will astrology news quirks troubletown, lulu ted rall, idiot box the k chronicles no exit/ogg’s world sudoku/calcoku american elf personals
SEVEN DAYS
FUN STUFF
Stuck in Vermont: Yak Attack. The three families that formed the Vermont Yak Company in 2008 have been learning the ancient Tibetan art of yak farming.
5/31/10 12:38:37 PM
SEVEN DAYS IS 15!
I
nevitably, that’ll sound like a lot of years to some, while 1995 seems like “just yesterday” to others. Either way, we take it as a compliment that so many Vermonters seem unable to remember a time without Seven Days. We’d like to think we’ve become an integral part of life in this state, for the role we play in reflecting our shared community. We hope you learn something new about this place every time you read the paper, check the website or open one of our e-newsletters. Today’s technology has allowed Seven Days to grow into a multimedia company. But, in defiance of national trends, the weekly print product is still very much in demand here. We have to restock distribution hot spots such as Burlington’s City Market four times a week and still get calls from businesses around the state that want stacks of papers delivered to them. There’s nothing more gratifying to us than seeing adults of all ages pore over the pages of a fresh edition on Wednesday afternoons. Businesses advertise with Seven Days because they want to reach you, our readers. We use
rst Our fi e! issu
those resources to investigate, and report on, the community we live in. We also support it by publicizing events, issues and worthy causes. Seven Days has sponsored so many nonprofit events and fundraisers over the past 15 years, there isn’t space to list them all. It’s an honor to live in a place with so many active, engaged people who want to improve things. Seven Days employees are among them. Local media facilitate civic engagement, and Vermont is blessed with numerous weeklies that truly enhance their towns. Publishers who live in the communities they cover know and care about them with an intimacy that eludes national media chains. You can support local media by patronizing their advertisers, who are most likely mom-and-pops themselves. Your hometown newspaper is the media equivalent of a fresh Vermont veggie: sustainable, job creating, healthy and homemade. So, dig in. We promise to keep providing local color, essential nutrients and a satisfying crunch. — PAU L A R O U T LY & PA M EL A P O L S T O N
SEVENDAYSVT.COM 09.08.10-09.15.10 SEVEN DAYS 26 FEATURE
FILE: MATTHEW THORSEN
. . . y a D e th n i k c a B
Our fir s staff t photo! Top: Barbara Peabody, Kathy Erickson, Lars-Erik Fisk Center: Maggie Starvish, Pamela Polston, Paula Routly, Rick Woods Bottom: Samantha Hunt, Clove Tsindle
MATTHEW THORSEN
Clockwise from left: Shay Totten, Ken Picard, Paula Routly, Pamela Polston, Robyn Birgisson, Cheryl Brownell, Andrew Sawtell
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Furchgott Sourdiffe Gallery Good Citizen Heritage Copy Centers Hopkins Center for the Arts Janice Perry Jan Passion Jazza Tings Julio’s Bar & Restaurant Lake Champlain Center for Holistic Medicine Lake Champlain Transportation Leonardo’s Pizza Linda Scott Little Shop of Recovery & Discovery Manhattan Pizza & Pub Martin’s Coins & Jewelry Mary’s at Baldwin Creek Middlebury College Center for the Arts Mirabelles mise en place Molly Fleming Nectar’s North Country Books NYNEX Onion River Arts Council and Barre Opera House Osaanyin Herb Apothecary Peace & Justice Store PhotoGarden Purple Shutter Herbs Romancing the Vine Samsara Café/Bistro
South Burlington Eyecare Center South End Art Hop (Pine Street Arts & Business Association) Spirit Dancer Taz The Acupuncture Clinic The Burlington Yoga Studio The Chicago Bicycle Company The Feldenkreis Method The Miller Group The Optical Center The Organic Cow of Vermont The Savoy Theater The Shoe Horn The Studio Store The Windjammer Theresa Bacon Toms’ Riverside Grill UVM Evening University UVM Lane Series UVM Theatre Vermont Housing Finance Agency Vermont Stage Company Vermont Symphony Orchestra Walter Zeichner Way Out Wax WIZN WNCS Women’s Ongoing Psychotherapy Group Woodbury College YMCA
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FEATURE 27
SEVEN DAYS IS 15
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135 Pearl About Thyme Café A Freedom Production: Tongues & Answers Advance Music Centre Amalgamated Culture Works Animal Crackers Battery Street Jeans Bear Pond Books Ben & Jerry’s Body Garage Buch Spieler Burlington College Burlington Futon Company Café Espresso Capital Chrysler Catamount Arts Celtic Cottage Chai Gang Channel Opening City Lights Lighting Company Club Metronome Club Toast Common Threads Community College of Vermont Compatibles Ecco Clothes for Women Evergreen Educational Programs Flynn Theatre Frederick Johnson Pianos Inc. Frog Hollow Vermont State Craft Center
09.08.10-09.15.10
hen we launched Seven Days on September 6, 1995, we persuaded the following businesses and individuals to advertise in a paper they’d never laid eyes on. They took a leap of faith for which we are eternally grateful. We enticed these advertisers with a three-for-two deal, which guaranteed we’d be able to put out at least three substantial issues. When deadlines for the fourth issue rolled around, we realized with horror that we were going to have to do this every week. And so we have, 762 times. Today’s paper is the 763rd! Not all of our inaugural advertisers are still around. But many have endured the test of time, taste and economic vicissitudes. Congratulations to them, with a special shoutout to others who launched in 1995. Huge thanks to you and the hundreds of others who have chosen to market your wares, events, services and classes in Seven Days. Here’s to another 15!
THANK YOU TO OUR VERY FIRST ADVERTISERS! SEVENDAYSVT.COM
EARLY ADOPTERS
Staff Photo
Staff Photo
SO FAR, SO GOOD Readers share their personal stories about Seven Days
O
09.08.10-09.15.10 SEVEN DAYS 28 FEATURE
I so look forward to every issue of Seven Days. I also receive the weekly email [NOW] and, quite frankly, my week is not complete without Seven Days. My favorite part is the Free Will Astrology — it is the thing I turn to first and it is my guide for the week! I also laugh at the personal ads and study the advice of Mistress Maeve. I peruse the rest of the paper and note events, advertisements, and movie and restaurant reviews. There isn’t a single paper over the last 13 years that I haven’t thoroughly enjoyed. There is one funny thing though that I do: I use my leftover papers in the spring to mulch my garden, and often my husband will find me sitting down in the garden looking at the paper again, perhaps at something I missed. So, sitting in a garden row, a pile of dirt and straw, reading Seven Days! It’s wonderful. Thank you for all that you do for the Vermont community.
Jay Strauss, Plainfield and Burlington
I did meet my wife and love of my life several years ago via Seven Days after hundreds of other dates. My ad mentioned skiing and my wife responded to it. We spoke on the phone many times before meeting.
Tamsen M. Benjamin, East Montpelier
Love your daily newsletter (the Daily 7) and just picked up the paper today. Especially like the info on upcoming events regarding music and theater.
Leslie Merwin, Cheshire, Conn.
While I was in Burlington working for Starr Farm Nursing Center, I found a wonderful second job playing organ at the United Church of Colchester through an ad in Seven Days. The congregation and choir there were very, very special. I’m no longer living in the area, but will always treasure that experience.
MATTHEW THORSEN
SEVENDAYSVT.COM
ver the last couple of weeks we asked readers, “How was it for you?” referring to Seven Days’ first 15 years and their own relationship to the paper. But even we were surprised at how many of them said they met their current spousal unit through our personal ads. Awww. Others told us what they turn to first in the paper, or gushed about a fun experience with videographer Eva Sollberger on “Stuck in Vermont,” or recalled a specific story or column that made an impression. All of it is a swell 15th birthday present, so, thanks! Here, we share the feedback. But wait! We promised that a random respondent would win a package of gift certificates to local restaurants. And that lucky Seven Days reader is … Susan Becker of Montpelier! So, let’s hear her story first:
We first met in Burlington on a bench next to the [ECHO] waterfront science museum. She was dog sitting and, as we walked along the boardwalk I thought, This is all wrong. All she talks about is this darn dog. I thought the trip was a big waste of time. We both had sunglasses on and could not see each other’s eyes. We met again soon after, with no dogs involved. We started dating on a regular basis and I fell in love with her and I asked her to marry me, many times over. She finally said yes, and we wedded at the top of Mount Mansfield under a canopy, in front of family and friends. Every day with her is like fireworks and big bands playing. I love her with all my heart. I write her sweet poems, emails, cards, and give her flowers, etc. We swim, hike, camp, cook, canoe, bicycle and enjoy life to the fullest together. I’m still not a great downhill skier, but try to keep up with her on the slopes. I guess I owe Seven Days a big thanks.
From top, L to R: Lauren Ober, Michelle Brown, Michael Bradshaw, Alice Levitt, Margot Harrison, Judy Beaulac, Eva Sollberger
John Wilson, Hinesburg
For many years I eagerly picked up Seven Days each week for two primary reasons: Peter Freyne’s column [“Inside Track”] and the crossword puzzle. If I had time, I’d read further, but those were the incentives to never miss the paper. Today, I read further into other articles and enjoy the paper each week. Thanks for a great local publication!
Shannon Trainor, Montpelier
Seven Days is the only local paper I pick up regularly (the price is right). But the paper most impacted my life because that’s how I met my fiancé. We first met through the “Two 2 Tango” [personals] site back in March 2007. By date number three we were a couple. By date number four we were
April Howard, Burlington
Jerry Hinckley, Williamstown
Since 2002, when I’ve lived outside of Vermont for parts of years in New York, Bolivia, Paraguay and Argentina, I’ve read Seven Days from afar as a way to continue to feel connected to Burlington, and my former hometown of Richmond. More than any other online publication covering the state, Seven Days encapsulates and records so many of the wonderful things about living in Vermont and in Burlington. Thanks for all the work you do!
Staff Photo
Ken Haggett, Lake Elmore
Fred L. Hiltz, Shelburne
7 D E X C L U S I V E : F R E Y N E T R A C K S D O W N P E T E R J E N N I N G S I N B - T O W N P 7 A FREE
the music issue
SEVEN DAYS
FOOD FIGHT:
GMO M.O. P.18A
KEEP LOOKING: BAWDY BRUEGHEL P.20B, ART REVIEW & GALLERIES P.25B FREE
reviving songs
20a
engineering sounds
24a
26a
having a swale time
28a fretting over guitars
SPRING AHEAD the fashion issue
band p.r. how-not-to brookes’ book on guitar oldies rockers reunite ripton rhythms: a hot coffeehouse son of sun ra? chorney’s latest the musical side of positive pi
FEATURE 29
22a 24a 26a 30a 36a 40a
18a
going way bach
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SEVEN DAYS
SO FAR, SO GOOD
09.08.10-09.15.10
Seven Days began to change my life 10 years ago. I placed a personal ad and enjoyed many a conversation over coffee with various women I met. Eventually, I met my current partner and wife as a result of that ad. It’s not always easy to meet others in this rural state of ours, and the Seven Days personals make it possible to meet a wide range of people with similar interests. It sure worked for us! The next experience I had with Seven Days was in hiring employees for my fledgling dogsledtour business about five years ago. After placing ads in several local papers and not receiving much in the way of quality applicants, I decided to use Seven Days for the next round. What a difference! I had six or seven applicants, any one of whom I could have hired. The two I did end up hiring are still working with me now, four years later. My latest experience with Seven Days involved a visit from Eva [Sollberger] to film a version of “Stuck in Vermont” featuring our dogsled tours. I’m fairly camera-shy, but Eva made the whole outing very relaxed and I had a great time. I was amazed at how she took around two hours of footage and edited it down to about five minutes of video that really seemed to capture the essence of my business. I just remembered one more positive interaction I have had with Seven Days, if you can believe it … It seems like the more I think about it, the more I realize what a great resource Seven Days has been over the past 15 years. Ken Picard and his dog Nicky came to do a dogscooter outing with me in the fall of 2006. He wrote a very nice article on the visit, titled “Mush Motives” [November 15, 2006]. So, has Seven Days affected my life in the past 15 years? You might say it has. I wonder what the next 15 will bring.
David and Sally Conrad made the connection with Eva Sollberger for her video about maple sugaring at Wake Robin, the only life-care community we know with its own sugarbush… We who appeared in the show were, of course, enthusiastic. The word soon spread to families and friends, through our community and out to people interested in Wake Robin. Our website still features the link on its front page. Our marketing manager says that she often hears about it from people contacting the department: “My, you seem to have fun there!” While that is certainly true, it was Eva’s contagious, happy personality that brought it out in us “actors.” We hope she will return for a video about beekeeping some day. The honey harvest in early September is the most visually interesting part of the story…
SEVENDAYSVT.COM
Clockwise, from top left: Diane Sullivan, Matthew Thorsen, Tyler Machado, Colby Roberts, Krystal Woodward, Don Eggert
I have been reading your paper since its beginning... Your recent story about Lt. Governor Brian Dubie was an eye-opener, causing me to reconsider my options as an independent voter in this coming election. I have another letter ready to send to your paper concerning discipline and diversity in your August 25, 2010 issue. Keep going! Your articles cause us to think, wonder and hope for a better world.
the music issue
MATTHEW THORSEN
saying “I love you.” And within a month of meeting, we were joking about getting married. So, to be overdramatic, I could say my current happiness and the next 50 years of happiness are due to Seven Days. Although I could also say the huge cost of my impending wedding and a prolonged visit from my mother could also be attributed to Seven Days. But I prefer to look on the bright side of things. Thanks, Seven Days!
PHOTOS: MATTHEW THORSEN
SO FAR, SO GOOD «
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SEVENDAYSVT.COM
Laura Lewandowski, Bristol
“Stuck in Vermont” helped me change my life. Since our first visit to Vermont in 2006, my husband and I spoke often of uprooting ourselves from our South Dakota home and moving east to Vermont. We liked almost every single thing we experienced during our vacation — the views, the museums, the farmers markets and especially the people. But to uproot and move halfway across the country on the basis of one week in paradise was a daunting prospect. My husband and I (now retired) made a good living applying research to everyday problems. We decided to research Vermont to see if this was what we really wanted to do. Scouring the Internet for any and all information related to Vermont, in early 2009 we found Seven Days and “Stuck in Vermont.” The very first SIV video I watched was episode 124, called “Sheep Shearing School” [April 15, 2009]. I not only learned about Shelburne Farms and sheep shearing, but also about the quirky, informative way Eva Sollberger presents the state in which she lives. I was hooked. I watched each SIV for over a year and learned so much — why would anyone not want to live in Vermont? The decision to relocate here became a no-brainer! The videos not only helped us decide to move, they helped us determine a method of moving. Thanks to SIV, we saw so many areas of Vermont we wished to investigate as potential homes. To be certain we landed in the right place for us, we rented a furnished home for a few months in our target area so we could explore. We ended up in a village we would not have considered otherwise and are very happy here. This was the best move we could have made.
Staff Photo
Top, from left: Allison Davis, Carolyn Fox, Andy Bromage, Cathy Resmer, Ashley Brunelle Bottom, from left: Dan Bolles, Marcy Kass, Megan James, Suzanne Podhaizer, Elizabeth Rossano, Celia Hazard
XX XXV
CROWN POINT’S JEWEL?
a new b&j flavor offends the irish p.11a vt beats up a band for stealing the seal p.44a
a real rodin on the n.y. side p.24a
A VT cemetery tour p.24a
Chatting up the Left’s funniest front man by Ken Picard p.32a
30 FEATURE
SIDESHOW AND TELL: Toni-Lee Sangastiano’s freaky art p.23a
GRAVE ON: