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The paintings in Chepe Cuadra’s “Back Portraits/In Search of an Identity” do not rely on facial expressions, but rather on what goes unseen. Inspired by street photographs from a trip to his childhood home in Nicaragua, Cuadra portrays people walking away from the viewer, changing the ways in which we connect with the canvas. SEE ART REVIEW ON PAGE 86

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ov. PETER SHUMLIN mingled with donors, lobbyists and fellow politicos last Saturday on a sundappled patio at Manchester’s Equinox Resort and Spa. exp. 9/30/13 Nine months into his tenure as chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, he was hosting the first “chair’s retreat” in his home state for the organization’s top benefactors. Joining 139 Bank Street, Burlington him for the weekend schmooze-fest 98 Church Street Burlington were three fellow Democratic governors: 864.5475 • boutiliersart.com 802.864.5475 MAGGIE HASSAN of New Hampshire, DANNEL M-Sat 10-6, Sun 12-5 www.boutiliers.com MALLOY of Connecticut and JAY INSLEE of Washington. The night before, the group had dined 12v-Boutiliers091113.indd 1 9/10/13 11:59 AM at Hildene, the Lincoln family’s summer home. Saturday morning, over coffee and breakfast on the Equinox’s neo-classical Rockwell Patio, they would hear from STEPHANIE CUTTER, the Democratic strategist and cohost of CNN’s recently revived 150 Dorset Street, South Burlington, VT “Crossfire.” 802-865-3021 Later, the assembled governors would join Jay Peak’s BILL STENGER, AllEarth Renewables’ DAVID BLITTERSDORF and Green Mountain Coffee Roasters’ T.J. WHALEN in a panel discussion. But the main attraction — at least for the corporate and union donors who traveled to Vermont for the weekend — was the chance to arrange one-on-one meetings with the governors and their staff members between organized events Saturday. with bindings “I’m only here for a couple meetings, so 130cm - 170cm I haven’t really looked at the agenda,” said MICHAEL CHRIST, a lobbyist for UnitedHealth OR Group, as he walked through the hotel. Christ’s goal, he said, was to sit down with Hassan to discuss “the state of health with bindings care in general and maybe some specifics 140cm - 170cm about what’s going on in New Hampshire.” “It’s an opportunity to continue to bring forward our issues to the governors and Reg. $149 have the opportunity to talk to them about OFFER ENDS 09/30/13 it,” said KARUNDI WILLIAMS, a Washington, D.C., lobbyist for the Service Employees We carry a full line of new International Union, which donated ski & snowboard equipment $150,000 to the DGA during the first six and offer tuning services. months of the year. “We find our conversations helpful.” Such conversations weren’t featured on the retreat’s official agenda, which mentioned just the Hildene dinner, Saturday morning’s speakers and a closing reception at the Equinox Saturday night. Asked what else Shumlin would be up to that day, DGA spokesman DANNY KANNER said, “Gov. Shumlin has no scheduled meetings or events between breakfast and dinner Saturday.” Seven Days asked several times last week to be admitted to the retreat, even though DGA events are uniformly closed •

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to the press. To the organization’s credit, it offered to let the paper attend Saturday morning’s program — under certain conditions. “Out of respect for our guests, however, this is provided that you not engage in interviews or conversations with participants,” Kanner said in an email last Thursday. “If that’s an arrangement that’s acceptable to you, you’re welcome to attend the panel. If that doesn’t work, I’m happy to arrange interviews with the participating governors.” Seven Days declined the arrangement, given that it would preclude the paper from covering the most newsworthy aspects of the retreat: who was attending and what they were getting out of it.

TWENTY-FIVE MINUTES AFTER THE COPS FIRST APPROACHED ME,

TROOPER RONAN RETURNED TO THE LOUNGE TO GIVE ME THE FINAL BOOT.

After turning Kanner down, Seven Days approached Shumlin at a Burlington press conference last Thursday and asked to attend without conditions. “I don’t care what you do,” Shumlin said, hastily adding that his DGA staff would have the final say. “But seriously, we’ll make it possible to give you a view of what the hell goes on.” When I arrived at the Equinox Saturday morning — without the DGA’s permission — Shumlin was deep in conversation with a group that included chief of staff LIZ MILLER, former chief of staff and senior DGA adviser BILL LOFY, and Montpelier lobbyist HEIDI TRINGE. Eight tables and a podium were set up around them, in front of the Rockwell building’s four-columned portico. To the west was an unobstructed view of Mount Equinox. Lofy, for one, was not happy to see me. “I don’t know what else there is to say,” he said, after heading me off and repeatedly questioning why I was there. “If you want to come, you can under the proposal [the DGA] made to you. If that’s not acceptable to you, then, you know, I’m sorry that you can’t be here.” “OK, well I can’t agree to not cover something I’m seeing in front of me and not talk with people,” I responded. “That’s just not—”

“Well, exactly,” Lofy interrupted. “So therefore you shouldn’t cover it. If your conscience is piquing you such that you can’t cover something that’s in front of you, then you shouldn’t be in front of it.” Suitably rebuffed, I strolled around the grounds until I found a comfy Adirondack chair next to the pool house, from which I could see and hear Cutter’s speech. At its conclusion, I approached Rittenhouse Consulting Group lobbyist CHARLIE BRESLIN, who was sneaking a smoke behind another building. Breslin, whose firm has donated $5000 to the DGA this year, said he regularly attends DGA and Republican Governors Association conferences on behalf of his clients in the health care industry. “I’m in the business of saving governors money on their budgets, so I come in with good causes. I’m not, like, a manufacturer trying to sell them computers for classrooms or something,” Breslin explained. “I advise them on different programs to save money. And, of course, I don’t do it because I’m a nice guy. I do it because it’s profitable.” According to Breslin, the price of admission to the chairman’s retreat was “over $100,000,” though he said his clients typically pay his way. The DGA refuses to say how much its corporate and union donors contribute in annual membership fees, but the New York Times reported in 2010 that the top three tiers of giving range from $50,000 to $250,000. The group’s most generous donors during the first half of 2013 included the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America ($300,000), Walmart ($260,000) and AstraZeneca ($250,000). “Both the Republican and the Democratic groups essentially sell access to governors and their staffs as part of corporate ‘membership’ packages,” the Times’ DAVID KIRKPATRICK reported in the 2010 story. After I spoke with Breslin, Equinox event planner RUTH WHITELAW approached me near the pool house and asked me to leave the hotel. “I have a meeting going on, so I would like to take you over to your car. Come with me,” Whitelaw said as she walked me to the front door, explaining, “The event that is going on at the moment does not have guests.” When I asked whether I could remain in the hotel’s public areas like any other Vermonter, Whitelaw relented and said I could — so long as I steered clear of the patio area. “Maybe have some breakfast with us,” she coolly offered. Five minutes later, as I was drinking a cup of coffee, the cops showed up.

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initiative updates that the Governor often attends,” she said in an email. Miller said she and Deputy Commissioner of Labor eriKa Wolffing were the only Vermont state employees — other than the governor — to attend the retreat, and both did so on their own time, on the DGA’s dime. Wolffing served as Shumlin’s chief fundraiser during his 2012 reelection campaign. As for who Shumlin met with Saturday and what they asked for, Vermonters will probably never know. How much they paid for the privilege may also remain a mystery. What does seem clear is that Kanner’s initial assurance that Shumlin had no meetings planned between official events Saturday is almost definitely false. Of course, Kanner declined to answer nearly every follow-up question posed to him Monday, responding by email only to deny that the DGA had called the cops and to accuse this reporter of “disrupt[ing] and interfer[ing] with the event.” Was Saturday’s retreat the last time Shumlin will rub shoulders with the wealthy and powerful of the DGA? Hardly. He’s scheduled to fly to New York City this Thursday for what the Times is calling a “$5000-per-person dinner” with former president Bill clinton. See you there, Shummy?

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Two months after hiring her and one month after laying her off, the Burlington Free Press has rehired reporter liz Murray. She’s at least the second Freepster sacked during the great Gannett purge of 2013 — when the national newspaper chain let 13 Burlington employees go — to be hoisted back aboard. Murray told Seven Days three weeks ago she was sailing for smoother waters at the Addison County Independent to take a reporting gig vacated by Xian cHiang-Waren, who recently left the paper for a teaching job. But sources say Murray was offered her old job back after Freeps cops-and-courts reporter Matt ryan announced he was leaving the paper. He’s been there six years. Former Thread Magazine reporter and WCAX-TV assistant director zacH DesPart will take the Addy Indy job instead. Nobody, of course, would speak to Seven Days on the record about such zany doings. m

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Manchester Police Department patrol officer Paul Mcgann and Vermont State Police senior trooper lauren ronan approached me in the lounge and asked me to step into the empty Falcon Bar, where McCann informed me, “The hotel people are getting nervous because the talks are closed.” “They don’t have a problem with you staying here, but they do have a problem if you’re trying to get into the talks or talk to the governors,” he continued. Ronan added that they were especially worried I would try to intercept the governors as they walked between conference rooms to conduct meetings throughout the day. I assured the officers that I intended to comply with their and the Equinox’s instructions and would confine myself to the hotel’s public spaces. We parted on an amicable note, whereupon I resumed my interviews of DGA guests as they passed through the lounge. One of them, Dutko Grayling lobbyist Mary Kay Hogan, praised the “smaller, more intimate” feel of the exclusive chairman’s retreat and called the event a great place to make contacts with governors and their staff members. Twenty-five minutes after the cops first approached me, Whitelaw and Trooper Ronan returned to the lounge to give me the final boot. “The hotel is asking you to leave at this time,” Ronan said as she walked me to the door. “You’re not causing any problems, but they’re a little uncomfortable with you asking guests questions and stuff like that.” With that, my time at the chairman’s retreat was over. So why should you care that an obnoxious reporter didn’t get his wish to fully cover a closed-press meet and greet on private property? “I think the reason you should care is that these people are sitting around the table making decisions that will affect you, and you have no right to know who they are and what they’re after,” says Bill allison, editorial director of the Sunlight Foundation, a D.C.-based nonprofit dedicated to government transparency. “The average member of the public is not going to jump through these hoops, but it’s often their interests that are put aside when big donors can meet with politicians like this one-on-one.” Indeed, it is impossible to know which lobbyists Shumlin, Hassan, Malloy and Inslee met with Saturday. None of their four gubernatorial offices would disclose any information about the meetings, despite repeated requests Monday. Only Miller, Shumlin’s chief of staff, agreed to provide details of her day. She said she attended “short briefings” conducted by the National Association of Home Builders, Oxygen Financial and UnitedHealth Group. “These are the sorts of briefings and

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The South Burlington City Council Chair May Have Violated Campaign-Finance Law; Could She Get Busted for It? B y KEv i n J. K ELLE y

09.11.13-09.18.13 SEVEN DAYS 16 LOCAL MATTERS

filing had amounted to $450. Questioned as to how that sum could cover about $2000 in Pam PAC ads, Mackenzie amended her initial statement, saying the second filing actually showed the same contributions and expenditures as the first one did — another $1090 each from herself and her company, all spent on advertising. That would amount to $4360 in total Pam PAC receipts and outlays for South Burlington City Council races in which fewer than 3500 votes were cast. Judy Kearns, publisher of the Other Paper, says the advertising spending for that election was greater than for any other during the four years she’s helmed the South Burlington weekly. But even if the figures cited by Mackenzie are accurate and the secretary of state’s office somehow misplaced her filing, Pam PAC may still be in violation of Vermont campaign-finance law.

anything about that, nor does it check the accuracy of filings it does receive, Senning says. He cites “inadequate staffing time” as the factor in his division that allows the law to be routinely ignored. “We rely on the press and public to reveal” violations of election law, Senning adds. Located a short walk away on State Street in Montpelier, the attorney general’s office also does not review campaign finance disclosure records on file — or not on file — with the secretary of state.

the Republican Governors Association, alleging that Dubie shared confidential poll results with the RGA, which then used that information to tailor advertisements in support of Dubie. The Vermont Superior Court decided that amounted to “coordination,” and so the value of the RGA’s radio and TV ad blitz — about $240,000 — should be considered a donation to the Dubie campaign. That sum far exceeded a $6000 contribution cap, Attorney General William Sorrell’s office argued, and was © GREEn_wEEniE | DREAMSTiME.COM

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aul Engels hasn’t forgotten the city council election held in South Burlington six months ago. And it’s not just because the former councilor was one of two landslide losers in that race, in which unusually large amounts of money were spent in a successful effort to flip the majority of the political body that sets policies for Vermont’s fifth-largest city. No, Engels has a specific complaint: the apparent failure of South Burlington City Council Chair Pam Mackenzie to comply with Vermont election law. Engels, who describes himself as a progressive, recently alerted the attorney general’s office that Mackenzie’s political action committee, Pam PAC, had not filed a required post-election report on contributions and expenditures. Pam PAC paid for three full-page ads in South Burlington’s Other Paper, as well as a full-page ad in the Burlington Free Press. Each of the ads touted council candidates Chris Shaw and Patricia Nowak. Both those challengers, who ran as a team, clobbered their respective opponents in Town Meeting Day voting last March. Nowak ousted Engels from a two-year council seat by a 2-1 margin, while Shaw racked up the same ratio in his victory over Sandy Dooley, who had held a three-year seat. Mackenzie’s PAC did file a preelection report that’s posted on the Vermont secretary of state’s campaign finance website. It lists a $1090 contribution from Mackenzie herself and an identical amount from DeckerZinn, her business consulting firm. But Vermont elections director Will Senning says the secretary of state’s office has no record of receiving a second disclosure for Pam PAC, which was due in mid-March. Asked in a telephone interview last week about this seeming violation, Mackenzie insisted she had filed a postelection report for Pam PAC. “I have no idea why it’s not posted,” she said. Adding that she did not have a copy of the report she claimed to have filed, Mackenzie stumbled in trying to specify how much Pam PAC had collected and spent altogether. She said at first that donations and expenditures since the first

The elecTion was influenced by The amounT of money spenT, buT

i wouldn’t say it was bought. SAnDy DOOLEy

It mandates that a PAC must not accept contributions totaling more than $2000 from a single source in any two-year general election cycle. Mackenzie suggests that she contributed $2180 to Pam PAC — and so did her business. A state investigation based on Engels’ complaint is at “a very initial stage,” says Bill Reynolds, director of the administrative law division in the AG’s office. “We’ll be sending a letter to Ms. Mackenzie seeking information.” Is there a fine in her future? Not likely. Vermont’s campaign finance disclosure law is almost never enforced. Many individual candidates for public office fail to file contributions and spending reports, Senning notes. The secretary of state’s office doesn’t do

Politics Theoretically, a candidate or a PAC that doesn’t comply with disclosure requirements can be fined up to $10,000 — and that has only happened twice in recent memory. Both were high-profile cases. In 2011, Vermont Superior Court ordered an advocacy group funded by the Democratic Governors Association to pay a $10,000 penalty for failing to register with the Vermont Secretary of State before spending more than $500,000 on ads attacking Republican gubernatorial candidate Brian Dubie. The superior court’s judgment is being appealed to the Vermont Supreme Court. Similarly, in December 2011, the state sued Dubie’s 2010 political campaign and

hence an illegal donation. The RGA had to pay a $30,000 civil penalty, while Dubie had to cough up $10,000 for the state and donate $10,000 to the Vermont Foodbank. Gubernatorial candidates aside, though, it seems Vermont candidates and PACs can blow off state election law with impunity. Reynolds’ response? “I have no information to rebut that.” State Senator Tim Ashe said last year he would seek to strengthen enforcement of the law, but his and other proposed reforms did not win the legislature’s approval. “The campaign finance laws are a mess,” Ashe wrote in an email Monday.

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ramifications of this representation may mean for the future.” Mackenzie says South Burlington Good Government has no connection to her. But Dooley, a self-professed progressive who’s married to Vermont Supreme Court Justice John Dooley, has not joined in Engels’ complaint Jennifer & Brandon! regarding Pam PAC. “I’m certainly concerned about the lack of reporting,” Love from Dooley says. Asked in a phone interview last week if she believes the council election was bought, Dooley responded, “The election was influenced 32½ Church St 40 church st by the amount of 861-3035 burlington money spent, but 862 5051 TrinketI wouldn’t say it SWEETLADYJANE.BIZ Vermont.com was bought.” A majority of voters might8v-sweetladyjane091113.indd 1 9/5/13 8v-ricksusave091113.indd 12:22 PM 1 9/6/13 1:57 PM KINGDOM COUNTY PRODUCTIONS and BURLINGTON LABS present: well have decided to eject Dooley and Engels even if their opponents had spent only a fraction of the combined sum of roughly $18,000 laid out by Shaw, Nowak, Pam PAC and South Paul Engels Burlington Good Government. Dooley and Engels were members of a council that played a role in unpopular decisions involving the handling of a proposed addition to the Cairns Recreation Arena. The council was also said to have botched the city’s relations with the National Gardening Association, which subseA new documentary film on prescription drug addiction and recovery. quently decamped to Williston. Dooley DIRECTED BY BESS 0’BRIEN and Engels had also opposed local basing of the F-35 warplane. Nowak and Shaw recently joined Mackenzie in reversing the city council’s earlier statement of opposition to the bed down. Tickets: $30 and $15 www.flynntix.org 802-863-5966 In addition, the period leading to last In honor of Recovery Day in Burlington March’s election was marked by turmoil For more info www.kingdomcounty.org over the ouster of city manager Sanford Miller. Taken together, all these issues MEDIA SPONSORS: left many voters with the impression of a city council that, in Nowak’s words, UNDERWRITERS: Brattleboro Retreat, Vermont Agency of Human Services, NMC, Fletcher Allen Health Care, Burton “can’t get much of anything right.”

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In filing complaints related to an election he lost half a year ago, Engels insists he isn’t motivated by “sour grapes” or a desire for revenge. For her part, Mackenzie says of Engels, “He has every right to file whatever complaint he wants to.” But, she adds, “He also could have given me a phone call.” “Why would I do that?” Engels says in response. And he describes Mackenzie’s claim of a misplaced PAC filing as “just amazing, really incredible.” Pam PAC’s intervention in the council races “wasn’t fair, not even remotely,” Engels says. The $4360 or more that may have been spent by Pam PAC to defeat Engels and Dooley was piled on top of $7494 spent by Shaw in his race against Dooley and the $5043 Nowak spent to unseat Engels. Neither Engels nor Dooley spent as much cash as their opponents: Engels reported $1394 in expenditures; Dooley reported $3909. But Engels has no issue with the amount of money spent by the NowakShaw team. “I don’t think Chris and Pat did anything wrong,” he says. “They raised a lot and they spent a lot and they accounted for it.” In addition to Pam PAC, a group calling itself South Burlington Good Government bought a pair of ads in the Other Paper to attack Dooley and Engels, and it hasn’t filed a finance report with the secretary of state’s office, either. Mackenzie says South Burlington activists James Knapp, Betty Goldberg and Mike Simoneau organized this group. It describes itself as “a fast-growing number of South Burlington residents and community members who have become very frustrated with how our city is being represented and what the

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School’s Out for … Six Weeks? Champlain Valley Parents Ponder Calendar 2.0 B Y CHA R LES Ei CHACKER

SEVEN DAYS 18 LOCAL MATTERS

Education

Kyle’s not-so-lazy days of summer

might bE numbErEd.

they have learned during the previous academic year; the loss is even greater for students from poor socioeconomic backgrounds. Making exposure to school more regular is meant to deliver a more equitable educational experience. Members of the superintendents association set the 175-day school calendar and, for the past several years, have been discussing ways to improve it, according to Elaine Pinckney, cochair of the regional association and superintendent for the Chittenden South Supervisory

KYM BALTHAZAR

09.11.13-09.18.13

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yle Taft just entered the second grade at Brewster Pierce Memorial School in Huntington after a summer vacation jam-packed with camping, friends and LEGOs. His mom, Margaret, says that she and her husband made sure Kyle was always learning something during the twoand-a-half-month break from school, whether it was how to read stories aloud or to feed the family’s cows. Now she’s worried Kyle’s not-so-lazy days of summer might be numbered. Last spring, a group of superintendents from school districts across the Champlain Valley proposed a new school calendar that would shorten summer vacation by two weeks and redistribute those days among three one- to two-week recesses, called intersessions, during the school year. Known as Calendar 2.0, the new schedule could go into effect at public schools in Chittenden, Franklin and Grand Isle counties as soon as the 2014-2015 academic year. Next month, the Champlain Valley Superintendents Association will be holding a series of public forums in Hinesburg, Burlington, Essex Junction and St. Albans to get feedback about the proposal. If reader reactions on their moderated blog are any indication, the superintendents are going to get an earful. Since the end of April, impassioned posters have weighed in on air-conditioning, childcare, AP testing and the importance of quality relaxation time. Comments range from “As a parent of two, I’m very much in support of this new schedule” to “All in all, I think it just sounds like a nightmare.” Science types are asking the really tough questions: “What is the available empirical, large-dataset, high-impactfactor journal research showing that this results in better outcomes? What is the … causal relationship between this calendar and a ‘better school climate?’” Calendar 2.0 aims to solve the problem of “regression.” Research has shown that during the summer months, students forget about 6 percent of what

Union. Vermont’s most enthusiastic proponent of Calendar 2.0 in Vermont, the former Williston Central School principal has convinced her colleagues to give it a shot. The idea originated in Vail, Ariz., a town of 10,000 residents southeast of Tucson. Joseph Sassone was the assistant superintendent of schools there in 2004, when Pinckney became Vermont’s deputy commissioner of education. Pinckney heard Sassone give a talk explaining what his district did to improve math and literacy test scores; between 2002 and 2006, Vail’s outcomes shot up above the statewide average.

Sassone attributed it to curriculum. But when Pinckney took a trip out to Vail to see for herself, she noted the academic year was broken up by periodic intersessions. Summer vacations were only six weeks long, she says, yet every student and educator she met praised the change in the school calendar. “Imagine a day when a teacher, at any grade level, could look at a group of kids at the first day of a seven-week learning cycle and say, ‘At the end of these seven weeks, you’re going to know all these things, and here’s how you’re going to demonstrate how to do it, and if you can’t do it, we’re going to provide opportunities for you to,’” says Pinckney, explaining how such an approach makes it hard for students to fall behind. “Doing the calendar in a way that separates the learning into equal chunks of time allows the brain to assimilate new things,” she says. Even if students don’t need the extra help, Pinckney says those breaks in the learning would allow “kids to step back from the hundred-mile-per-hour routine” of school to pursue short-term internships and enrichment activities. Teachers, meanwhile, could use the time to pursue professional development. “I don’t want to say that we have a system that is totally broken, but this would improve on the current one,” Pinckney says, noting that she’s advocating for a variation of the Arizona approach that includes intersessions. She concedes the research behind the proposal is imprecise and testing any new school calendar is tough because you can’t just plug kids into a study. At least 900 Vermonters have clearly stated they’re not up for the experiment. A group called Vermont Save Our Summer Coalition has attracted that many supporters and more to its Facebook page and its stated mission of preserving the Champlain Valley’s current public school calendar. Taft agrees with the group. She challenges the quantification of regression. “I’m not going to say it doesn’t happen, because it does. But shortening your summer vacation by two weeks isn’t going to stop the regression. SCHOOL’S OuT

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the discussion of the calendar, like many things, is best left to local school boards That’s like saying Johnny is fine for up and educators,” says NEA communicato eight weeks, but he wakes up on the tions director Darren Allen. “We’ll have to wait and see,” says ninth week and, bam, he isn’t fine.” Although Taft concedes that such Bob Abbey, president of the Burlington a calendar might serve a purpose in Education Association. “I don’t know overcrowded schools in warmer parts how much energy teachers have put of the country, she has been reading ex- into looking at this, because we’re tensively about the proposal and spouts much more concerned about getting a litany of reasons for opposing its ap- the year started. We’ll have to see what [Superintendent] Jeanne Collins and plication in Vermont. Chiefly, she says that the superin- our school board come up with.” Alan Matson, chair of the Burlington tendents haven’t provided any research School Board, says that he and his fellow — besides the Arizona anecdote — to board members haven’t come to any show that it will improve test scores. On the logistical side, she questions how conclusions but are hoping the superintendents can provide parents will find more data to support childcare during the the addition of a new intersessions and calendar system. wonders whether “The chief quesorganizations will tion is still the educaactually go out of tion of the kids, but their way to create there are a lot of short-term programs ancillary questions, for the students so we’re just trying seeking internships. to think through the The superinissues, making sure tendents have said something won’t come they’ll make sure up, like, kids can’t get all funding for proE L A i nE P i nC k nE y summer jobs,” Matson grams during the says. He also notes intersessions comes that sports teams in other parts of the from the existing after-school and state wouldn’t stop playing while the summer programs they will be supplantChamplain Valley schools are recessed. ing, but Taft and others doubt they’ll end Pinckney recognizes that the public up being cost neutral. Although the school board chair has not embraced her idea with open at Brewster Pierce Memorial says his arms. The superintendents were not just board hasn’t made any decision about expecting to hear a range of opinions, Calendar 2.0, he does expect the inter- she says; they made the decision to hold sessions will present programming op- the forums in the fall so that parents portunities to which “the marketplace would be more likely to participate. “The only decision we’ve made is will respond,” such as weeklong camps. “To say that we can’t do that is, I think, that, from what we understand and misreading innovation,” says Breck know, this could make a positive difference in learning,” the superintendent Knauft. A teacher at JFK Elementary School says. “We’re holding a high-level conin Winooski and the mother of two boys, versation with the communities about Regan Charron questions whether all not just the outcomes but also the structhose breaks would stress some of the tural components. We believe it would students who have to transition in and be unconscionable not to bring this out of school. When an intersession conversation to the public.” m falls in the middle of winter, she adds, it will be hard for some children — for example, those with parents who don’t INFo drive or engage in cold-weather sports The Champlain Valley Superintendents Association will host four community forums — to actually enjoy themselves. to discuss the calendar proposed for the Although Charron doesn’t rule out 2014-2015 school year: that some other schools may find the Wednesday, October 2, 6:30 p.m. at Essex proposed calendar useful, she doesn’t High School believe it would be a good fit for Thursday, October 3, 6:30 p.m. at Bellows Winooski. Free Academy, St. Albans How do the teacher unions feel about Wednesday, October 9, 6:30 p.m. at Burlingall of this? The Vermont chapter of the ton High School National Education Association union Thursday, October 10, 6:30 p.m. at Chamisn’t taking a position “because we think plain Valley Union High School, Hinesburg.

I don’t want to say we have a system that Is totally broken, but this would improve on the current one.

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BurlINGtoN clImAtE-chANGE StuDY FAIlS to ADDrESS No. 1 culPrIt: cArS By KEvin J. KELLEy Six months ago, a global team of experts from iBM came to study Burlington’s carbon footprint and to make recommendations for how the city could improve it. Working in conjunction with city hall, the six iBMers produced a 60-page report last week that makes a half dozen policy recommendations. none of them, however, squarely addresses what the report itself identifies as the leading source of greenhouse gas emissions: transportation — which is to say, private automobiles. Asked why the report didn’t at least mention alternate forms of transport, such as walking and cycling, Marian Lawlor, a spokeswoman for the iBM team, said, “i can’t answer that question for you.” She added that the three-week-long assessment “should have” paid more attention to transportation issues generally. “They just didn’t bubble up” during the interviews the iBMers conducted with numerous city officials and other local leaders, Lawlor explained. Chapin Spencer, who was director of the Local Motion alternative transportation advocacy group at the time, echoed Lawlor’s comments in an interview on Monday. “i wish it would have dealt more with transportation,” said Spencer, who was recently appointed head of the city’s department of public works. The analysis notes that transportation accounted for 51 percent of Burlington’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2010. That’s 22 percent more than in 2007…

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When Sen. Phil Baruth (D-Chittenden) walks around the University of vermont, where he is also an English professor, it’s not unusual for people to approach him with their complaints. he’s the majority leader in the vermont State Senate, after all. But the number of complaints spiked to around “10 times the normal rate” last week, the senator says, and the constituents approaching him weren’t students; they were employees of Sodexo Food Service, the French multinational company to which UvM and other vermont colleges contract their dining services. The workers, Baruth says, were complaining that Sodexo had informed them it would be cutting back many of their hours at the end of the calendar year, resulting in the loss of their health, dental and other benefits. They also alleged that the company had warned it would terminate any employees who went public with their complaints. “They were told, pretty straight up, that they were going to lose health benefits and retirement,” Baruth says, suggesting that the Sodexo workers approached him in person out of fear the company might be monitoring their emails. in response, Baruth wrote a letter to vermont Commissioner of Labor Annie noonan requesting an investigation into the complaints. “if true, these allegations would represent a very serious infringement on the rights of Sodexo workers not just on the UvM campus — where the company holds an exclusive contract for food services — but on various campuses of the state colleges as well,” Baruth said in the letter. in an email to Seven Days, Sodexo spokesperson Greg yost wrote that the company won’t be reducing any of its employees’ hours and that full-time employees will continue to receive health benefits. however, yost says the number of workers who qualify as “full-time” could change. “To match the Affordable Care Act definition of a full-time employee, Sodexo is changing how we define hourly non-exempt employees as full-time as someone who works an average of 30 hours or more per week over a 52-week period,” the statement said. The statement did not say how the company currently defines full-time status…

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lifelines

OBITUARIES, VOWS CELEBRATIONS

OBITUARIES Theresa Ann (LaChance) Ralston

1958-2013, COLCHESTER/ SOUTH BURLINGTON

Timothy R. Wellinger WINOOSKI

Timothy R. Wellinger, 30, of Winooski, unexpectedly left his family and friends on Sunday, September 1, 2013, due to a tragic accident. Although his journey with us

mentor and was fascinated by the gifted musician Colby has become. Matthew will forever carry in his heart all the times he spent with his big brother – his best friend, but most of all his kindred spirit. There was an unspoken connection between them, one that only brothers can understand, a bond that will never be broken. Tim’s life would not have been complete without the times he spent at his grandparent’s homes, where some of his fondest memories were created. The love he had for his family and his little buddy, Karsyn, was immeasurable. He had a very special relationship with his “Aunt Shell.” They were more than aunt and nephew. They shared a deep and powerful connection. They were both so grateful for the bond they shared. Tim said it best when he said “I love you so much and I really mean this, if you were not in my life, I really don’t think I could make it on my own.” Aunt Shelly is wondering how she’ll make it without him. He is survived by his mother, Sandra Wellinger; his father, Timothy Wellinger and his wife, Kim; his brothers, Matthew Wellinger and Colby Hemingway; his grandmothers, Elaine Barton and Lorraine Baker and her husband, Jim; his

great-grandmother, Cecile Cushing; his aunt, Shelly Barton and her partner, Sue Hale; his uncles, Danny Barton, Tony Wellinger and his wife, Jeanette, and Stanley Wellinger and his wife, Cindy; his cousins, Eli, Nicole, Caleb, Ian, Abigale, Hannah, Miriam, Scott, David and Tim; and several greataunts, great-uncles and their children. He was predeceased by his grandfathers, Eli Barton and Ronald Wellinger; and his great-grandfather, Robert Cushing. He also leaves behind special friends Ken Labor and Anita Lanphear. Tim was grateful to his doctor, Rachel Inker, who was always compassionate in his time of need. Visiting hours were on Saturday, September 7, 2013, from 4 to 6 p.m., with prayer services and remembrances beginning at 6 p.m. at the LaVigne Funeral Home, 132 Main St., Winooski, VT.

MEMORIAM Richard “Dick” Yeaw 1931-2013, BURLINGTON

A memorial service in celebration of the life of Dick Yeaw will be held Saturday, September 14, 2 p.m. at the First Unitarian Universalist Society of Burlington, Vt. Dick died July 21, surrounded by family after a five-year battle with cancer. Donations may be made to your favorite environmental organization.

Want to memorialize a loved one in Seven Days? Post your remembrance online and print at lifelines.sevendaysvt.com. Or, contact us at lifelines@sevendaysvt.com, 865-1020 x37

LIFE LINES 23

OBITUARIES • IN MEMORIAM • ENGAGEMENTS • WEDDINGS • BIRTHS • BIRTHDAYS • GRADUATIONS

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Theresa Ann (LaChance) Ralston, 55, passed away on Monday, August 26, 2013, at home with loved ones and friends at her side after a long-fought battle with COPD. Terri was born in Milwaukee, Wis., on January 14, 1958, to Kenneth and Patricia (Rasmasson) LaChance. She married Fred Ralston on February 13, 1982, and together raised four beautiful children. She is survived by her children, Patti Colleen Ralston, Laura Mae Whitten, Frederick Ralston III and Timothy Patrick Ralston; two wonderful sons-in-law, Evin and Josh; and five grandchildren, Dylan Ralston, Lauralye Richards, Samuel Whitten, Yasmina Smailagic and Avery-Theresa Whitten. She is also survived by three sisters and their husbands, Kathy and “Uncle Walt” Olver, Cyndy and Mike Bakos, and Lori and Dave Cottrill; her brother, Ken LaChance and his wife, Cindy; her fatherin-law, Ken Ralston Sr.; her

brother-in-law, Ken Ralston Jr.; several nieces and nephews; and her best friend, Donna Carlson. Theresa loved her husband, children and grandchildren more than life itself. She will surely be missed. Terri was as compassionate and loving as anyone that we will ever know. Terri was an avid gardener who loved her marigolds and enjoyed sewing. A memorial service to celebrate Terri’s life was held on Friday, August 30, 2013, at LaVigne Funeral Home and Cremation Service, 132 Main St. in Winooski. In lieu of flowers, Terri’s wishes were to make a donation in her name to the Vermont Respite House, 99 Allen Brook Lane, Williston, VT 05495, or to the Visiting Nurse Association, 1110 Prim Road, Colchester, VT 05446.

ended so soon, Tim was doing what he loved the most during his last moments. He was employed by Aris as a personal care provider for children with special needs, a career that he had been passionate about for many years. The relationships he developed with his clients were very dear to him, and he had grown especially fond of “Kippy,” who warmed his heart with just a smile. Basketball, automobiles and spending time on the internet were interests of Tim’s from an early age. He was an avid movie buff and enjoyed the times when friends would stop by to watch one of the many hundreds he had to offer. His newly found passion for motorcycles inspired him to reconnect with his childhood friend, Eric Knowles. Together with their friend Jerry, they spent countless hours enjoying the beautiful scenery that Vermont has to offer. Tim’s free-spirit, uplifting nature and phenomenal sense of humor are what drew people to him. He was a positive role model to his “brother,” Brian (Bing) Rock, whom he took under his wing at an early age. When Colby entered Tim’s life, he was proud to call him his little brother. He took great pride in becoming his

STATEof THEarts

Composer Sam Guarnaccia Premieres New Work About … Everything B Y E THA N D E SEI FE

SEVENDAYSVT.COM 09.11.13-09.18.13 SEVEN DAYS

THAT’S THE THEME OF THIS WHOLE THING,

THAT WE ARE INTIMATELY, IRREVOCABLY, IRREVERSIBLY INTERCONNECTED WITH EACH OTHER. S AM GUAR NAC C IA

WEIRD ART NORTH Music isn’t the only thing on offer during this weekend’s GRAND POINT NORTH — the festival presented by GRACE POTTER & THE NOCTURNALS and HIGHER GROUND at the Burlington Waterfront. Expect visual and performance art, too, in the “Tent of Weird” courtesy of CHARLOTTE POTTER and some of her artist friends. As you might have guessed, Charlotte is Grace’s sister, born into a highly creative family in Waitsfield — her father makes wooden signs, her mother makes hand-painted wooden bowls and her sister is, well, a rock star. Charlotte Potter’s path is not music, but visual art: “I thought I’d like to be a potter, but I pretty quickly fell in love with glassblowing,” she says in a phone interview. She is currently the glass-studio manager and program director of the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Va. Potter also started a satellite that “educates the public

MUSIC

Sam Guarnaccia and Cameron Davis

interconnected with each other, interdependent with each other and with all life systems through the whole 13.8 billion years of this tremendous story, which is the greatest story there is.” The music itself, which will be performed by 11 instrumentalists and nearly 40 singers, is swooping, majestic and unexpectedly playful for a piece that is, by design, spiritual and inspirational. One of Guarnaccia’s previous works, COURTESY OF CHARLOTTE POTTER

24 STATE OF THE ARTS

oratorio’s scope: the cavernous Breeding Barn at Shelburne Farms. Emergent Universe begins at the very, very beginning of everything — the Big Bang. Or, as Swimme and Guarnaccia prefer to call it, “the Great Flaring Forth.” Guarnaccia relishes the metaphorical connections between a venue designed for reproduction and birth and a musical work about the life-energy that connects all things, inanimate and sentient alike. “That’s the theme of this whole thing,” Guarnaccia says. “That we are intimately, irrevocably, irreversibly

about glassmaking,” she says. The 32-year-old artist graduated from Alfred University and earned her MFA at Rhode Island School of Design. Next year, as it happens, Potter will show her work — which she describes as “mixed-media installation, video and performance” — in an exhibit titled “Super Cool Glass” at the new PIZZAGALLI CENTER FOR ART AND EDUCATION

at the SHELBURNE MUSEUM. A survey of

COURTESY OF PAULA GUARNACCIA

n his poem “Auguries of Innocence,” William Blake writes of holding “infinity in the palm of your hand / And eternity in an hour” — a meditation on humankind’s ability to comprehend the limitlessness that surrounds us. Blake is but one of the influences on the Emergent Universe Oratorio, an ambitious, cosmos-spanning musical work by Vermont classical guitarist and composer SAM GUARNACCIA. In fact, Blake – along with environmentalist/writer Wendell Berry, poets Rainer Maria Rilke and Gerard Manley Hopkins, and scholar/philosophers Brian Swimme and Mary Evelyn Tucker – is so strongly present in the oratorio that Guarnaccia credits them as “contributors.” The composition explores ideas similar to those in Blake’s poem: eternity, infinity and the interconnectedness of all the universe’s life and energy. Composing it was no small task. The oratorio is a type of musical and choral work related to opera in that it features recitatives and music, but different from opera in that it contains no performance or dramatization. Guarnaccia’s work premieres at a free performance this Sunday, September 15, in a monumental space that suits the

American glassmaking over the last two centuries incorporating objects from the permanent collection along with contemporary glass artists, that show opens February 8. Meanwhile, festivalgoers can get a taste of Potter’s interactive style this weekend. She explains that in a “beautiful 32-foot-round tent,” she’ll be showing video pieces by 17 artists — including herself — that she has curated “from all over the world.” Each video is under five minutes, Potter says, and has a strong sound component. “The themes are psychedelic, weird, strange, odd,” she explains. In addition, there will be an installation by Potter’s friend from RISD, sculptor Brett Day Windham. “She’s bringing a small circus tent and

the widely performed A Celtic Mass for Peace, explores similar ideas. The oratorio’s soaring music interacts organically with the words of its recitatives, which quote from Rilke, Hopkins and an unlikelier but central source: the 2011 Emmy-winning documentary Journey of the Universe, which also explores such ideas as interconnectedness and universal energy. The documentary approaches these is playing her own stop-animation videos,” Potter describes. “It’s with her sculpture, these harlequin-themed, figurative forms. They interact and have this kind of mystical game.” Another fellow glass artist, Robin Rogers, works with Potter at the Chrysler Museum. She is bringing “a large disco ball, four feet in diameter,” Potter says, that has “an orifice in it that you can look through — like a massive helmet.” It’s not clear what this experience is meant to offer. Other participating artists contributing sculpture and installation are Kristi Totoritis and Kathy Little of Virginia and Ben Wright of Brooklyn. Potter’s contribution, however, might absolve your guilt, sorrow, pain, etc., if that’s what is needed. Along with Orwell glass artist JOHN CHILES, who she says is “bringing a [mobile] furnace filled with molten glass,” Potter intends to execute something she calls “bottled emotion.” “I invite the public to come and

Don’t let summer go by without taking a Segway tour of the waterfront

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gigantic topics with such wonderment and reverence that it would not be unfair to call it “wide-eyed” or “fuzzy” — at times, it’s frustratingly imprecise. Guarnaccia’s oratorio is a bit fuzzy, as well, but actually uses that imprecision as a strength: This is a work of art, not an academic paper, and it’s intended to inspire reflection and contemplation on subjects so vast that they defy comprehension. The oratorio, though directly inspired by the philosophies and stories of many and varied religious faiths, is anything but preachy. Instead, it relies on ecological metaphors and soaring harmonies, themselves suggestive of interconnectedness. At the same time, a satisfyingly scientific superstructure supports the piece’s spirituality. Guarnaccia’s writings about the Emergent Universe Oratorio suggest that the work’s godfather is Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955), a philosopher and priest who linked Jesuit philosophy, cosmology and evolutionary theory. Teilhard’s careworn books rest on tables and armchairs in the composer’s home, and Guarnaccia is quite clear on the significance of science to his own work. “The science is what links everyone on the planet,” he says.

3:52 PM

SEVEN DAYS STATE OF THE ARTS 25

GrAND PoINt WEIrD Charlotte Potter and friends bring installation and interactive art to Grand Point North, this Friday and Saturday, September 14 and 15, at the Burlington Waterfront. grandpointweird.com, grandpointnorth.com

09.11.13-09.18.13

PA m EL A Po LStoN

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bottle their emotions in molten glass,” she says. “They can whisper or scream into a bubble, and it expands [the glass].” Then participants will break the glass containing their emotions. “It’s very cathartic,” Potter assures. Whatever the experience, this is not your traditional glassblowing situation. “My mission is to make contemporary work understandable to the public — accessible and interesting,” says Potter. “And it will bring a whole new element to this great fest Grace is putting on.”

“I’m not talking about something magical.” The composer is just as likely to invoke chaos theory as he is the notion of ecological consciousness. Cellist EugEnE FriEsEn, of the “earthmusic”-focused Paul Winter Consort, will also participate in Sunday’s event, with a solo performance preceding the % oratorio. But the event is not solely a on Trip Advisor musical experience. The performance for Burlington off any Segway at the Breeding Barn also incorporates Activities. tour with this ad a visual component: a painting series called “Endless Spring” by CamEron Davis, a University of Vermont art professor and painter whose works explicitly address ecological consciousness in ways similar to Guarnaccia’s. Davis, Guarnaccia and Guarnaccia’s M-F 10-7, Sat 10-6, Sun 12-5 wife, Paula, constitute the “creative 658-4050 • 115 college st, burlington team” for the project, on which they have been collaborating for three years. like us on “[It was] almost like we were a small 277 Pine Street • 802.489.5113 study group,” Davis says, “exploring readings … pertaining to the idea that there is a collective need for humanity to8v-BurlingtonSegways082113.indd 1 1 9/6/13 8/19/138v-marilyns091113.indd 4:14 PM wake up if we are to create a flourishing future for Earth, humans and the morethan-human world.” Ultimately, if there is a “message” in the work (a term Guarnaccia is reluctant to use), it relates to the personal and ecological obligations imposed on humankind by the universal interconnectedness that is central to the oratorio. Guarnaccia humbly professes mystification about the workings of the universe, something he hopes will come through in the piece’s words and music. “What the universe, or life — and, if you’re from one of the great traditions, you might say ‘God’ — is asking from us is participation, really being involved,” Guarnaccia says. He explicitly and animatedly draws parallels between the complexity of such artworks as Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and that of the universe — specifically, the idea that both the symphony and the universe are so vastly complex that, no matter how much you think you know about either, you’ll never really know it all. m

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Emergent Universe Oratorio by Sam Guarnaccia, with artwork by Cameron Davis, Sunday, September 15, 3 to 5 p.m. at the Shelburne Farms Breeding Barn. Info, 734-0279. samguarnaccia.com 4t-jessboutique091113.indd 1

9/10/13 9:53 AM

stateof thearts

Eggs-perienced Seekers Find Artful Sculptures Around Vermont B y Juli A SHi p lE y

09.11.13-09.18.13 SEVEN DAYS

A finished egg carved by Mailhotte

art

Keith Mailhotte with an ostrich egg

Mailhotte discovered that egg hunters will go out in just about any weather condition — even at 10 below zero — and will drive upward of 100 Miles to find a prize egg.

COuRTESy OF ART HOuSE

26 STATE OF THE ARTS

pHOTOS COuRTESy OF JuliA SHiplEy

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ermont Finders Keepers — a venture that is part art, part scavenger hunt — is the brainchild of Morrisville resident Keith mailhotte, 47. In his home workshop, which is more boot room than atelier, he turns ordinary eggs into intricate art objects. But that’s not all; Mailhotte hides the sculpted eggs around Vermont and posts clues to their whereabouts on his Facebook page. Anyone who finds an egg is allowed to keep it. Mailhotte, who works at Butternut Mountain Farm in Morrisville, launched Vermont Finders Keepers last September. He says the hunt idea came to him at Easter time, when all those kids were out sleuthing for treasures. His expertise in creating lacy designs on eggshells, however, has been developing since he first bought a ParaGrave tool about 15 years ago. Invented by a dentist, the cutting and engraving device enables Mailhotte to “draw” on and into hollowed-out chicken, goose, emu and ostrich eggs that he buys online. Because of the fine particulate dust the ParaGrave generates, Mailhotte has built a transparent box around the tool and equipped it with a magnifying glass. During a recent visit to his studio, he demonstrates by slipping his arms into the two arm sockets and operating the instrument inside the box, holding it like a pen as he traces pre-penciled designs on a goose egg. Powered by an air compressor, the ParaGrave emits a high-pitched whine, unnervingly reminiscent of a dentist’s drill, as the bit spins at 300,000 rpm. Even with the containment system, the room begins to smell burnt and peppery. After he achieves the design he wants,

Mailhotte brushes the dust from the egg; sometimes he covers it with colorful spray paint. From start to finish, creating each illustrated egg takes one to two hours. Mailhotte began hiding his eggshell creations and posting clues for finders in September 2012. Since then, he’s been stashing as many as five eggs a week in every county in Vermont except Bennington and Windham. Some of his eggs have been found near the Fisher Covered Railroad Bridge in Wolcott, on top of Mt. Elmore and along the Stowe Recreation Path. He’s discovered that egg hunters will go out in just about any weather condition — even at 10 below zero — and drive upward of 100 miles to find a prize egg. At his day job, Mailhotte makes maple sugar for Butternut, one of Vermont’s biggest syrup and sugar distributors. Despite his obvious egg-sculpting skills, he insists he doesn’t know anything

about art. “For instance, I see a Jackson Pollock and think, Are you kidding me?” he says. But he hopes his finders are proud to own his creations. “I don’t know if they’re going to be worth anything in the future,” he adds. In case they are, Mailhotte offers a certificate of authenticity — at a price ranging from $80 to $120, depending on the egg — which includes his signature, the date and even a thumbprint so that “people can prove it is what it is.” Now that this modern-day Fabergé has reached his one-year mark of egg laying, his Facebook page is filled with smiling people holding artful eggs. Mailhotte estimates his followers have found and kept about 250 eggs in total. To celebrate, he’s devised a homecoming for the keepers of the prodigal ova. On September 13, the art house in Craftsbury Common will host an evening exhibition and reception for the victorious finders, at which the

losers-weepers and the curious are also welcome. Many of the finders’ eggs will remain on display at the Art House over the weekend. What pleases Mailhotte most, he says, is that he can give his followers an experience and not just an ordinary commercial transaction. Instead of buying the eggs at a store, finders acquire a story, a memory of the hunt. “You have to participate,” he explains. Attendees of Saturday’s gathering should expect an eggs-travaganza of beautiful keepers and the stories behind the searches. m

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Vermont Finders Keepers gathering and reception. Friday, September 13, 7 p.m., at the Art House in Craftsbury Common. Some of the eggs will remain on view on Saturday and Sunday, September 14 and 15, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. vermontarthouse.com, facebook.com/ VermontFindersKeepers

Got AN ArtS tIP? artnews@sevendaysvt.com

In Burlington, Aspiring Strings Players Get a Head Start … After School B y Amy Li LLy

grade. The district’s two middle schools and high school offer orchestras and inschool lessons. Strings instruction in public school used to be as standard as band and choir, and it still is in some states. According to Taylor, the Burlington school district had a full orchestra program until budget cuts led to its being dropped around 1990. Burlington Friends oF Music — the precursor to the VerMont Youth orchestra association — launched the after-school program in 1992 to fill the void, and Taylor began teaching in it the following year.

school’s

former

kathleen kono.

orchestra

teacher,

Private schools generally fare better, of course. All third graders at the Waldorf School in Shelburne are started on a string instrument. But annual tuition there is $11,000. Keyser, who is also a private violin teacher with a studio in her Winooski home, just started her third year with Edmunds’ after-school strings program. “The whole thing with the Burlington School District is that they really want to offer the program to everybody,” she enthuses. “I think it’s amazing they offer it.”

goldBerg, now 28, first tried her violin chops as a C.P. Smith fourth grader in the program. She recalls, “They came into our school with instruments and it sounded super-cool, and I went home and said, ‘Mom, I want to play violin.’” Now Goldberg is a violin teacher with a private studio in Brooklyn. “What’s cool is that the instruments were free,” continues Goldberg, whose mother was the singer-songwriter Rachel Bissex. “My parents were artists, and they didn’t have any money.” After college, Goldberg returned to teach in the program at Edmunds, OLivER PARini

It’s so great to see the expressIon on a kId’s face when they get a note right. rAchE l K E YS E r

perforMIng arts

Wheeler and Barnes. After only two years of living in New York City, she launched a similar strings program for pre-kindergarten-through-secondgraders at the local P.S. 316 in Brooklyn. “A lot of these kids would, like, never get a chance to play a string instrument,” Goldberg comments. The observation would sound familiar to Taylor and her crew of strings teachers who have kept the BSD afterschool program going strong. m

The after-school strings program is open to children in the Burlington School District starting in fourth grade. There is no designated website; for more info, contact your child’s school.

STATE OF THE ARTS 27

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Plus, Keyser adds, teaching young string players has its own rewards: “It’s so great to see the expression on a kid’s face when they get a note right,” she says. Michael hakiM, who teaches all six schools’ cellists at Edmunds, agrees that teaching beginners is rewarding. “I love making sure they can understand and do the smallest things,” he says. “These are really difficult instruments to begin with, and there’s no sense in hurrying them along.” Hakim is also the orchestra teacher at both middle schools and says “the majority” of his after-school students — there were 10 cellists last year — join the orchestra in sixth grade. Many go on to play for years. eMMa

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Aside from running the program, Taylor is the after-school teacher at Champlain Elementary. The others are patricia Fitzgerald at C.P. Smith and Flynn, leeeza roBBins at IAA, hollY thistle at the Sustainability Academy at Lawrence Barnes, and rachel keYser at Edmunds. Among Chittenden County school districts, only Essex has maintained a strings program for its elementarythrough-high-school students over the past couple of decades. None of the four K-8 feeder schools for Central Valley Union High School — Shelburne, Charlotte, Hinesburg and Williston — has a strings program. Faced with budget cuts, CVU ended its orchestra program last year, according to the

Rachel Keyser with students Parker Ballard, Elizabeth Crawford and Milo Barron

SEVENDAYSVt.com

very year about this time, violin teacher Fran taYlor starts recruiting new violin, viola and cello players from the ranks of Burlington School District’s fourth and fifth graders. She sends parents a letter informing them that every child can take a weekly, hour long group lesson on one of those instruments after school, regardless of the family’s ability to pay. When needed, the letter explains, instruments are provided free. Taylor runs the BSD’s after-school strings program, which has provided strings instruction at each of the district’s six elementary schools for the past 21 years. The shoestring operation receives little recognition — Taylor doesn’t even have a BSD email address. But year after year it has provided families with access to an area of the arts that usually requires significant financial outlay. “With sports, it’s relatively easy to try something out, but with music, it’s typically private lessons” — plus the cost of renting or buying an instrument — notes alice stokes, mother of afterschool-strings graduate ada case. Case started playing violin in the program as a Champlain Elementary School fourth grader and continues to play as a seventh grader at Edmunds Middle School. The after-school program, Stokes says, was “a really accessible way” for her daughter to try out something she wasn’t yet sure of liking. Case qualified to be loaned a violin while in the program because she receives free or reduced lunch. Taylor estimates that about half of the program’s 90-odd yearly participants receive loaned instruments from a collection owned by the district. (Parents of the rest rent from ellis Music in Bethel or the Burlington Violin shop.) Children who are given loaners sign an agreement to take care of the instrument, but otherwise it’s theirs to take home and practice on for the year. The BSD after-school strings program fills a significant gap. Aside from the newly launched one (Old North End) strings in-school program for all fourth and fifth graders at the Integrated Arts Academy at H.O. Wheeler, it is the only way for elementary students to gain access to strings playing. Otherwise, students would have to wait until sixth

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the straight dope bY cecil adams Dear cecil, If there had never been a dinosaur extinction due to a meteor strike, would human life have evolved into what it is today? clearly the meteor that struck Earth had an enormous impact and changed the course of evolution, but is there anything to indicate human lineage development before or after the little big bang? JJ

ell, I’ll tell you one thing. They’d have to take the “The Flintstones” out of the cartoon section and refile it as

slug signorino

Is there something you need to get straight? cecil adams can deliver the straight dope on any topic. Write cecil adams at the chicago reader, 11 e. illinois, chicago, il 60611, or cecil@chireader.com.

Win one of 20 Apple iPods while picking apples in a Vermont orchard. Beginning Sunday, September 8, special wooden apples are ripe for the picking at participating Vermont pick-your-own orchards. If you ﬁnd one of these unique “iPod apples,” keep it and call 1-800-VERMONT because you’re a winner of an Apple iPod. SCAN THIS PAGE WITHand LAYAR (SEE PAGE 9) FOR visit: YOUR YOUR For contest details orchard locations DETAILS AND A MAP OF ORCHARD TEXT TEXT LOCATIONS, OR VISIT WWW.APPLESTOIPODS.COM HERE HERE

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straight dope 29

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09.11.13-09.18.13

McIntosh, Red Delicious, Cortland, iPod, Empire…

with a long orbital period broke into pieces, several of which crashed into Earth during a relatively short span of geologic time. The point is, the idea that a single cosmic collision threw up huge clouds of debris that froze everything on the planet is way too simple. Drastic climate changes were happening for as much as a million years prior to the K-Pg event, including huge drops in sea level, abrupt warmings and six major global freezes. One ice age reduced average global temperature by more than 14 degrees Fahrenheit less than 100,000 years before K-Pg. Still, there’s no disputing the pterosaurs, large marine reptiles, and dinosaurs (except proto-birds) were wiped out during K-Pg. Up to 15 percent of all marine families were killed off, although 80 to 90 percent of sharks and other fish survived. Turtles, crocodiles, lizards and snakes survived, and amphibians were

to 5.3 million years ago, was markedly cooler than previous eras, with more distinct seasons. This was followed by the even colder period that began 2.7 million years ago: After North and South America joined, intensifying the Gulf Stream and global precipitation, the Earth’s axial tilt then shifted, resulting in more than 20 ice ages. These changes probably doomed dinosaurs regardless. Mammals, being warm-blooded, were far better equipped to survive the cold, and their more efficient jaws made it easier to chew and extract energy from limited resources. Placental mammals had further advantages — extra nurturing in the womb allowed more advanced physical features to develop. So chances are the world wouldn’t look much different today had the K-Pg event never happened. That’s disappointing, I know — childhood dreams of a pet stegosaurus die hard. We can of course arbitrarily declare that dinosaurs would have persisted somehow and conjure up scenarios where bipedal apes in warm climes compete with fast, small, carnivorous dinosaurs. My heart isn’t in it, though. As it is, human hunters wiped out numerous species bigger, stronger and faster than themselves; chances are we’d have done the same to dinosaurs if any had lasted long enough to become our prey. Still, let’s not get smug. It’s one thing to adapt to climate change when it’s spread over thousands of millennia. We’ll see how well we manage when it happens in 50 years.

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reality TV. Beyond that we get into some pretty woolly speculation. We’re trying to guess hypothetical planetary-level changes over millions of years, when we aren’t really sure what actually did happen. Never fear, this is the Straight Dope. Woolly speculation is what we do. What we’re talking about is a massive extinction of terrestrial life about 66 million years ago called the CretaceousPaleogene extinction, or the K-Pg event. More than 70 percent of all animal species were wiped out, making K-Pg the fifth-worst extinction in history. Bear in mind we’re talking loss of species here, not necessarily numbers of individual critters. During an extinction, the species that perish are those that can’t adapt, leaving the planet to those that can. No question, something went horribly wrong on Earth around the time of K-Pg. The scientific consensus is that a major asteroid or comet strike occurred, but evidence abounds of multiple catastrophes, perhaps additional strikes or massive volcanic eruptions. One possibility is that our planet passed through a field of space debris; another is that a much larger object

largely untouched. In North America up to 57 percent of plant species disappeared, and some parts of the globe saw a 90-percent loss. Mammals had coexisted with dinosaurs for quite a while prior to K-Pg, but after it many species, notably placental mammals, exploded in significance. Previously mammals had been relatively small, due undoubtedly to competition from dinosaurs. Over the next 35 million years, with their competition out of the game, mammals increased dramatically in size. And why not? In some ways it was a golden age. The Eocene epoch, beginning roughly 56 million years ago, saw a rise in global temperatures and the spread of vegetation, covering the earth in forest. Atmospheric oxygen levels increased significantly, peaking at about 35 million years ago. Land area increased, providing more habitat. And mammal size increased too, culminating circa 30 million years ago with the indricotherium, the largest land mammal known: 18 feet tall at the shoulder and weighing 30 tons, it looked like a rhino crossed with an okapi, but bigger than a one-car garage. But here’s the thing. Having attained dino scale, mammals then dialed back somewhat, becoming smaller on average. Why? Probably because the environment became harsher and more variable. The Miocene epoch, ranging from 23.5 million

9/10/13 3:06 PM

PhOTO cOurTeSy OF Jacque e. Day

WHISKEY

tANGo

FoXtRot We just had to ask...

What’s the story behind the “sacred” bricks of Norwich University? By Jacque e . Day

30 WTF

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SEVENDAYSVt.com

orwich University is designed for marching, set snugly in a valley in the village of Northfield with an elaborate network of walkways and cascading steps. And with roughly 2300 undergraduates — the majority in the Corps of Cadets — the pavement takes a healthy pounding. But there is one spot on campus where no regulation footwear is ever supposed to tread. At the Kreitzberg Library entrance, the pavement is inlaid with a diamond-shaped arrangement of red-clay bricks. In its center, a concrete square reads “NU.” While civilians — and even some faculty — often pass directly over the bricks, uniform-clad students step around them. Why? I wondered. What’s so special about these bricks? I went to see Gary Lord, a Charles A. Dana professor of history and resident campus historian. He told a tale that began nearly 200 years ago, in 1819, when Capt. Alden Partridge founded the school that would become Norwich University in Norwich, Vt. Those bricks, Lord said, were part of the Old South Barracks. When a fire destroyed the building in 1866, the school moved to Northfield. The bricks didn’t follow — yet. My next stop was the Kreitzberg Library. There, I met with Clarke Haywood, a 2012 NU graduate who majored in history and secondary education and now consults for the Norwich Virtual History Project. “When I was a [prospective student], we were told not to step on the bricks because they were from the Old

The “sacred bricks” at Norwich University

South Barracks,” he said. Freshmen in the Corps of Cadets — rooks — are also taught to avoid the bricks during orientation, or Rook Week. “Norwich has a tendency to selfperpetuate rumors,” Haywood said. “A senior will tell his rooks, ‘Do not step on the bricks, or the clock will fall on your head, or you’ll turn to dust.’” At least the reduced traffic on the bricks helps preserve them, Haywood observed. I spent the next few hours reading up on NU history, then met Cadet Maj. Arielle Eaton at the library entrance. Eaton is a 20-year-old senior who serves as the Corps of Cadets public affairs officer and is the head editor of the Norwich Guidon. Passing rooks greeted and saluted her: “Ma’am! Good afternoon, ma’am!” They moved in single file, roughly 30 inches apart. And, sure enough, about six feet shy of the door, each rook stopped, turned diagonally to the right, went a few paces, turned diagonally to the left, went a few more paces, faced the door and entered the library. Another rook hurried by, did the greet-and-salute and stepped over — but not on — the bricks. Eaton called out, “Don’t step over the bricks!” He froze. Rooks are supposed to “square” around the bricks, said Eaton, smiling a little. I recalled something she’d told me

earlier: “You don’t really learn about [the bricks] until you almost step on them.” Eaton added that Partridge also figures in the oral tradition. A statue of the school founder faces the library entrance, “watching to see if you’ll step on his bricks,” she said. Lord, who doesn’t buy into the legends, focuses on the practical. The bricks are delicate. He said he has heard students say they don’t step on the bricks out of respect for those who died in the 1866 fire. The problem with that story: “No one died in the 1866 fire,” Lord said. The story of how the bricks came to the present-day Norwich campus is nearly as dramatic as the legends they spawned. Lord connected me with alumnus David Briggs, innkeeper at the Hotel Coolidge in White River Junction. In the late 1980s, Briggs was driving past the site of the old NU campus when he noticed work under way and stopped for a look. Construction was soon to start on the Marion Cross Elementary School. Briggs said he was “stunned” to see that the work had unearthed the remains of Old South Barracks. “Bricks were everywhere.” The story continues with retired Lt. Col. Nicholas Collins, NU class of 1955, who led the excavation. I called Collins at his Hanover, N.H., home. He told me that he’d hurried to the site that day

and grasped the urgency: In a few days, crews were going to pour concrete over history. He got authorization from the school board to enter the site, and the foreman offered to loosen some bricks with a bulldozer. Collins, his wife, Elaine, class of ’34 alumnus Dan Fleetham, and his wife, Betty, worked into the night. “We dug, cleaned up, stored, put in my trailer and in the back of my jeep 2224 bricks,” Collins told me. Days later, a load of bricks was placed in storage on the NU campus near today’s Shaw Outdoor Center. When the Kreitzberg Library was completed in 1993, the now-venerated brick formation was placed there; a time capsule rests beneath. Other bricks can be found in the university’s Sullivan Museum and History Center. Some are still in storage on the campus grounds. Two days after I spoke with Collins, he traveled up from Hanover to meet me in person. We talked for a while inside the library, then walked out to the entrance, where he watched today’s cadets square around the bricks of the Old South Barracks. m

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poli psy

Welcome to Our State! Now Go Home

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riving west on Maine’s State Route 17, I was in a sweet mood. Paul and I had spent the week on the coast kayaking, cycling and swimming. Now, bikes on the rack, sun on my face and Maine public radio in my ears, I was in no hurry. I still felt the roll of the sea in my body. Then a car pulled around and passed me — a sedan pitted by salt and age. Maine plates. An arm emerged from the window, a fist and an extended third finger. Yup, I thought, everybody hates the tourists. City people hate the tourists, whom they consider rubes. Country people hate the tourists, because they treat the natives like rubes. In the country, the tourists drive the back roads at 20 miles an hour, photographing cows. In the city, they waylay bus drivers with questions and bump into pedestrians as they gape at the tall buildings. People on vacation can also be infantile, gauche and demanding. But tourists are indispensable to many economies. A study for the Agency of Commerce and Community Development found that tourists in Vermont in 2011 spent $1.7 billion on B&Bs, balloon rides and Holstein oven mitts, plus $274.5 million in taxes. Landed summer people pay property taxes, which help finance schools and local services. Tourism is Maine’s biggest industry, accounting for at least one in eight jobs according to the Maine State Planning Office.

NOW GO HOME! In other words, for the same reasons you hate them, you’d better love them. In the country, that means acting friendly. The geography or the weather may be forbidding, but the people must be warm. Nobody expects a New Yorker or a Parisian to be warm. In fact, enduring abuse from a surly waiter or shopkeeper is the urban equivalent of facing a hard climb or a blizzard — part of the heroic masochism of travel. But, as University of Vermont historian Dona Brown noted on Vermont

32 poli psy

Public Radio’s “Vermont Edition” recently, kindness has long been part of the state’s brand. In the 1880s, when the U.S. was rapidly industrializing, Vermont started selling itself as pastoral balm to frazzled city dwellers. At the same time, marketers were persuading farmers to welcome the city folk — a profitable “crop.” The tough and taciturn Vermonter wasn’t going to bring in the bucks. Of course, smiling and coddling are part of every service job, from nursing

GU C C I Classic Style.

to retail clerking; the sociologist Arlie Hochschild calls it “emotion work.” But “hospitality” requires more. It’s one of the last jobs (I can also think of butlership and shoe shining) that entail servility. Servility goes beyond generosity to self-effacement, beyond patience to gratitude for the gifts the customer is bestowing — for the customer’s very existence. It’s the same mentality that rewards “job creators” with tax breaks. In a tourism-dependent economy, moreover, hospitality isn’t required only of hospitality workers. Every resident is expected to put up a welcome sign. In the past, the adjustment wasn’t all in one direction. “When in Rome…” was the rule of travel. In Montana you didn’t ask for the New York Times. The French didn’t speak English. But, I’ve noticed lately, that expectations is flipping. No matter how “exotic” the locale, visitors want it to be just like home. Our Maine landlady’s daughter manages vacation properties. Renters, she said, must have internet access; they “complain about the countertops.” Wanting other places to be just like home has the effect of making them just like each other. In the cottage we rented (no internet) were stacks of Maine and Maine Home + Design magazines, gorgeous glossies covering spectacular restored farmhouses and modernist gardens, fine arts and food. Every page features an artisanal this or a locavore that — pieces of a gentrified, stylized Real

& present...

! E I V O A M D N DINNER A

SEVEN DAYS

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on the public uses and abuses of emotion by Judith levine

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POLI PSY 33

Poli Psy is a twice monthly column by Judith Levine. Got a comment on this story? Contact levine@sevendaysvt.com.

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Another Moment

AND ACCOMMODATION TAKES A TOLL.

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09.11.13-09.18.13

Paul Searls pointed out on “Vermont Edition,” the transplants may subscribe to the traditional values — or those marketed as traditional — more passionately than do the natives. To maintain the state’s “pristine” naturalness, for instance, ’70s back-to-thelanders instituted environmental regulation. This is a good thing, but not every local appreciates it. Tourist economies are dependency economies. Dependency requires accommodation, and accommodation takes a toll. That’s why it’s brilliant that Vermont is nurturing sectors, such as valueadded agriculture, that decrease the state’s dependency on tourism while incidentally enhancing its appeal to tourists. In the meantime, marketers may be doing some accommodation themselves. This year Maine unveiled a new brand: “originality,” described Maine’s Office of Tourism 2013 marketing plan as the “quintessential qualities of the Maine attitude — the quirky, unusual, one-of-a-kind, offbeat, original things found only in Maine.” Might the branders be appropriating that ol’ Maine grouchiness, now exacerbated by what tourism is doing to their state? That “up yours” from the driver on 17 was a bit of a buzzkill, true. But I don’t blame the guy. Come to think of it, I kind of admire him. His was a gesture of resistance to commerce, a refusal to be branded.

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Maine whose “authenticity” is strikingly similar to the marketed “authenticity” of Santa Fe, Helsinki or Hardwick, Vt. It’s an upscale version of the honky-tonk tourist district, the same everywhere but for the slogans on the T-shirts and the species of stuffed animal. When I mentioned to our landlady that the magazines made me miss the old Maine, she was philosophical. She isn’t fond of those pushy renters or the house prices that gentrification hikes ever higher, she said. It’s a shame lobstermen feel compelled to sell their homes and move farther inland. But lobsters aren’t fetching much these days, she said, and people have to get by. Her daughter depends on these same forces for her living. I realized I was nostalgic for another “real” Maine that wasn’t so hot for the real Mainers. In the 1960s my parents bought a house and 10 oceanfront acres for $4000. The whole state, not just its inland portions, was poor in those days. That poverty benefited my family. When VPR’s Jane Lindholm asked trend watcher Kirk Faulkner if it’s problematic when the brand doesn’t quite match the reality, he laughed. “That’s pretty much what marketing is,” he said. Sometimes the discrepancy can jar, as when visitors move permanently to the places where they vacation and expect the brand, only to encounter the reality: stinky manure, bottle-shooting neighbors or contentious politics. But visitors can change the reality to resemble the brand, too, and not just with fancy restaurants and shops. As Lyndon State College historian

Show Time! The Performing Arts Preview 2013-2014

PAMEL A POLSTON

34 FEATURE

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SEVENDAYSVT.COM

eptember is a bittersweet month of endings and beginnings. If we’re bummed to say good-bye to gardens, beaches and the indolent days of summer, there’s still a frisson of anticipation for what lies ahead. For some of us, that means going back to school. For sporty types, it means looking forward to gliding down the slopes. For theatergoers, it’s time to buy tickets, for the performing-arts season is upon us. Every August, the arts staff at Seven Days scours the schedules that pour in from the area’s arts-presenting organizations, eager to find out who’s coming where. We choose a baker’s dozen to spotlight, each representing a particular genre, all gathered from venues around the state — plus, of course, our neighbor in New Hampshire, the Hopkins Center for the Arts at Dartmouth College. (Prices noted are for adult tickets and do not reflect student, senior citizen or subscriber discounts.) While it’s not possible to tell you about every show in this issue, we’ve provided an “if you like this, try these” addendum to each spotlight. If you’re determined to experience every Broadway musical, string quartet, standup comic or whatever, these lists will help you plan your entertainment schedule — and budget. You’re welcome. This year, we’re adding a piece of fun new technology to the Performing Arts Preview: augmented reality. See page 5 for instructions on how to download the Layar app — for free — and use it to make the artists in these photos perform before your very eyes. It’s awesome, we promise. In September we also like to check in with some of the region’s artistic directors to talk about what’s trending, what’s challenging in the business of booking entertainment and what they’re most excited about this season. Those interviews can be found in the web version of this feature. For now, on to the shows.

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KYLE ABRAHAM/ ABRAHAM.IN.MOTION

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The hip-hop culture of the 1970s has influenced Kyle Abraham’s choreography just as much as his classical training in cello, piano and theSCAN visual arts has. THESE Abraham and his company, Abraham.In.Motion, draw from various disciplines and PAGES FOR cultures to create fresh, fierce dance with a definitive swagger. VIDEO Abraham, who received the 2012 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award and aPREVIEWS 2010 Bessie Award, explores his personal and cultural history in “Pavement.” In it, Abraham reimagines the 1991 film Boyz N the Hood as a dance piece set not in the movie’s South Los Angeles but in two rival historically black neighborhoods in Pittsburgh, where the choreographer grew up. In the 1950s, those neighborhoods thrived with family-owned businesses and a vibrant jazz scene — Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington performed at local theaters. Now those parts of the city are plagued with dilapidated buildings, gang violence and crack cocaine. “I am focused on investigating the state of Black America,” Abraham writes on his website. The set for “Pavement” is simple — a basketball hoop, a blackboard and a chain-link fence. The score is diverse, from Bach to experimental sound to recorded gunshots. And the choreography, exploring themes of violence, love, male bonding, arrests, and physical and emotional pain, is organic. “Abraham’s dance was born in the streets and still retains that improvisational look,” wrote the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette earlier this year. November 23, 8 p.m. at Flynn MainStage. $22-36.

M EG A N JA M ES

IF YOU LIKE THIS, TRY THESE: Mark Morris Dance Group, September 17 to 19, 7 p.m. at Moore Theater, Hopkins Center. $35-60; and February 19, 7:30 p.m. at Flynn MainStage. $30-50. Catherine Cabeen—Hyphen, October 11 and 12, 8 p.m. at Mahaney Center for the Arts Dance Theater, Middlebury College. $20. Step Afrika!, November 1, 8 p.m. at Flynn MainStage. $22-36. Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, January 7 and 8, 7 p.m. at Moore Theater, Hopkins Center. $25-50. Rudolf Nureyev State Ballet Theatre of Russia: Sleeping Beauty, February 1, 7 p.m. at Spruce Peak. $65/75. Stomp, February 18, 7:30 p.m. at Paramount Theatre. $39.50-49.50. Lucky Plush: “Cinderbox 2.0,” March 22, 8 p.m. at Flynn MainStage. $22-36. Israel Galván, March 26 and 27, 7 p.m. at Moore Theater, Hopkins Center. $25-40. Pilobolus, May 2, 8 p.m. at Flynn MainStage. $30-50.

VIDEO PREVIEWS COURTESY OF NOAH KALINA

WATCH THE PERFORMERS COME TO LIFE!

REGGIE WATTS

DA N BO L L E S

“When people get Alzheimer’s, they slip off into this place where people think they have nothing left to give.” Those are the words of Anne Basting, creator of a storytelling project called TimeSlips. Her ideas inspired Putney’s 31-year-old Sandglass Theater to craft this multimedia show devoted to proving the opposite — that Alzheimer’s patients still have tremendous creativity to give the world. Currently on its national tour, D-Generation draws poetry from unlikely combinations. Detailed, realistic puppets represent residents of a nursing home. The puppeteers — Sandglass co-artistic directors Eric Bass and Ines Zeller Bass, and troupe member Kirk Murphy — play their caregivers. The residents’ stories come alive in a smaller, two-dimensional puppet theater and in video segments from Michel Moyse, while a live quartet provides musical accompaniment. The show’s nonlinear narratives derive from real people with late-stage dementia whom Sandglass players met during 20 visits to two Brattleboro care facilities. At the suggestion of a Sandglass board member, the company used the TimeSlips method to elicit stories, giving the patients a photo as a prompt and recording their responses without trying to force them into logical patterns. Onstage, Sandglass contrasts mundane depictions of life with dementia patients — a puppet berates her caregiver for serving cold gazpacho — with sequences of whimsical, otherworldly beauty. A puppet lady shops for gorgeous garments in Paris; a dove perches on a woman’s naked torso. Financed by a grant from the National Theater Project, the show’s tour is making waves: D-Generation won the Best Direction award at August’s Puppeteers of America festival. It’s had a powerful effect on its performers, too. Puppeteer Murphy is now a certified TimeSlips facilitator, while Eric Bass told the Boston Globe that the show has forced him and Ines, both in their sixties, to think about “what might be in store for us.” Audiences of all ages will doubtless do the same. November 21 to 23, 8 p.m. at FlynnSpace. $25.

MARGOT HARRISON

IF YOU LIKE THIS, TRY THESE: Saints & Poets Production Company: The Puppet Shoppe, September 12 to 14, 7:30 p.m.; September 14 and 15, 2 p.m. at Off Center for the Dramatic Arts. $15. Los Angeles Poverty Department/Wunderbaum: Hospital, January 17 and 18, 8 p.m. at Moore Theater, Hopkins Center. $25. Indian Ink Theatre Company, Guru of Chai, April 8 to 10, 7:30 p.m. at FlynnSpace, Burlington. $25. Shadowlight Productions, Poro Oyna: The Myth of the Aynu, January 10 and 11, 8 p.m. at Moore Theater, Hopkins Center. $20/30. SHOW TIME!

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Paula Poundstone, September 13, 8 p.m. at Paramount Theatre. $29.50-39.50. Bob Marley, October 18, 8 p.m. at Barre Opera House, $24.50. Ralphie May, October 25, 8 p.m. at Paramount Theatre. $32.50. Upright Citzens Brigade, November 8, 7 & 9:30 p.m. at FlynnSpace. $30. Drew Carey, November 9, 8 p.m. at Paramount Theatre. $39.75. David Sedaris, November 22, 8 p.m. at Paramount Theatre. $59.75-69.75. Katie Goodman’s Broad Comedy, November 23, 8 p.m. at Spruce Peak. $36/45. Garrison Keillor, January 16, 7:30 p.m. at Paramount Theatre. $49.50-100. The Capitol Steps, January 31, 7:30 p.m. at Barre Opera House. $22-38. Chicago City Limits, February 22, 8 p.m. at Spruce Peak. $38/46. Josie Leavitt, March 15, 7:30 p.m. at Spruce Peak. $20/25. Brian Regan, April 10, 8 p.m. at Paramount Theatre. $45.75.

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IF YOU LIKE THIS, TRY THESE:

09.11.13-09.18.13

October 4, 8 p.m. at Flynn MainStage. $15-36. October 5, 8 p.m. at Spaulding Auditorium, Hopkins Center. $25.

SANDGLASS THEATER: D-GENERATION: AN EXALTATION OF LARKS

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Reggie Watts wears a lot of hats. Or at least he might if he could find some that fit over his epic shock of hair. Seriously, have you seen that thing? It’s like a small animal exploded on top of his head. Man, that’s some crazy hair… Where were we? Oh, right. Reggie Watts. Lots of hats. Watts is a musician, a standup and improv comedian, an actor, a writer, a viral video sensation (just google “What About Blowjobs”), and, more recently, the cohost of the TV show “Comedy Bang Bang” on IFC. And that’s just as of this writing. It’s likely he’s added a bunch of other stuff to his résumé in the time it took to type that last sentence. The man is nothing if not busy. But, for all his varied and numerous interests, Watts is at his best, and most unpredictable, onstage. In his live performances, Watts specializes in musical compositions based on improvised loops and a cappella beats fused with a unique and bizarre style of stream-of-consciousness standup comedy. His hilariously absurd act can’t be called a routine because, well, there is nothing routine about it. Every song at every show is a new composition that has never been heard before and, in most cases, never will be again. You never know what he’ll say, sing or rap at any given time, because he doesn’t, either. Or, as Rolling Stone rather perfectly put it, “Reggie Watts is a comedian like platypuses are mammals: weirdly and awesomely.”

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Show Time! « P.35 kroNoS QuArtEt

If You lIkE thIS, trY thESE:

Quick, name a classical music group that has performed with Allen Ginsberg, Noam Chomsky and Tom Waits. Stumped? Yes, it’s the Kronos Quartet, a San Francisco-based group that has rightly been dubbed “musically omnivorous.” Over the 40 years of its existence (only one original member, founder-violinist David Harrington, remains), Kronos has made a niche for itself as a hip purveyor of avant-garde compositions. The group has commissioned some 750 new works for string quartet; collaborated with numerous rock stars (Rolling Stone called Kronos “classical music’s own Fab Four” back in 1987); played the scores of Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream and Michael Mann’s Heat, among other films; and recorded the work of international composers from Africa to Afghanistan. The group can also, apparently, render practically any kind of music worth listening to. “Ecstatic pop can sound surprisingly avant-garde when played on violins,” quipped a Guardian reviewer after hearing the group’s first performance at the Proms in London last year. Program selections that night, he wrote, ranged from “lo-fi Syrian party music” to an “electroacoustic mix of warm synths and icy strings.” When Kronos plays the Flynn, the foursome will deliver a new staging of George Crumb’s “Black Angels,” among other works.

Johannes String Quartet With fred child, September 22, 7 p.m., and February 27, 7:30 p.m. at FlynnSpace. $35. tetzlaff Quartet, October 18, 8 p.m., at Spaulding Auditorium, Hopkins Center. $25-40. Imani Winds, October 25, 7:30 p.m. Lane Series at UVM Recital Hall. $30; also, with pianist Jason Moran, April 3, 7 p.m. at Spaulding Auditorium, Hopkins Center. $20-30. EthEl, November 15, 7:30 p.m. Lane Series at UVM Recital Hall. $25. Jupiter String Quartet, November 23, 8 p.m. at Mahaney Center for the Arts Concert Hall, Middlebury College. Free. hugo Wolf Quartett, March 9, 3 p.m. Lane Series at UVM Recital Hall. $25. Elias String Quartet, March 13, 7:30 p.m. at Mahaney Center for the Arts Concert Hall, Middlebury College. Free. The Jasper String Quartet, March 14, 7:30 p.m. at Chandler. $32/35. Borromeo Quartet, March 15, 8 p.m. at Paramount Theatre. $20. Arditti Quartet, March 26, 7 p.m. at Spaulding Auditorium, Hopkins Center. $25-40. heath String Quartet, April 9, 7:30 p.m. at Mahaney Center for the Arts Concert Hall, Middlebury College. $20.

february 15, 8 p.m. at flynn mainStage. $30-50.

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SEVENDAYSVt.com 09.11.13-09.18.13 SEVEN DAYS

December 5, 7 p.m., and December 6, 8 p.m. at Moore Theater, Hopkins Center. $25-40. Super Scientific circus, November 5, 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. at Paramount Theatre. $6.50. ruckus: A cirque Spectacular, November 15, 7 p.m. at Barre Opera House. $25; also December 28, 7 p.m. at Spruce Peak. $38/46.

GolDEN DrAGoN AcroBAtS: “cIrQuE ZIVA” Imagine a man balancing atop a ladder that another man, standing on the ground beneath him, is wildly shaking. The balancing man’s lower half rocks vigorously back and forth, but his top half remains utterly still — even as a third man climbs the moving ladder and flips up into a handstand on the balancing man’s hands. Such a feat of strength, balance and agility is par for the course for the Golden Dragon Acrobats. The touring Chinese troupe has perfected an acrobatic tradition that is believed to have begun 2500 years ago. Performers don colorful costumes and juggle, balance spinning plates, dance and make magic with their bodies accompanied by traditional and contemporary music. Golden Dragon Acrobats began as a family affair. In 1949, Chinese acrobat Lien Chi Chang traveled with his brother to Taiwan to perform but was unable to return home because of the Chinese Civil War. So the pair stayed put and launched a company. In 1984, Chang’s son, Danny, who had performed professionally with the troupe since he was 7, became the director. Since then the Golden Dragon Acrobats have taken their act to more than 65 countries around the world. A 2008 New York Times review described a pas de deux-inspired act in which a female performer “plant[ed] her toe shoes in the fleshy points” of her partner’s collarbone, then balanced in arabesque on one of his shoulders “while he grandly traversed the stage. The spectacle wasn’t created by magic, but through the strength and articulation of the body. And that’s what made it magical.”

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march 5, 7 p.m. at flynn mainStage. $22-38.

m EG A N JA m ES

COURTESY OF FLYNN CENTER

If You lIkE thIS, trY thESE:

SCAN THESE cirque Éloize, November 4 and 5, 7:30 p.m. at Flynn MainStage. $34-54. PAGES FOR cirque Alfonse: “timber!” December 3, 7 p.m. at Flynn MainStage. $22-36; also VIDEO PREVIEWS

Am Y l Il lY

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“The guitar world has a new star,” announced Gramophone magazine in 2008, referring to the Chinese classical guitarist Xuefei Yang. western music and instruments were banned in China just before Yang was born in 1977. so when she picked up — and quickly mastered — classical guitar as a young child, she earned a reputation as a musical pioneer. Yang was the first Chinese student to enter a conservatory for her instrument. her classmates and teachers “knew nothing about the guitar and really looked down on it,” she told Gramophone. “which made me feel very frustrated, but at the same time made me feel stronger that i wanted to show them it was a beautiful instrument.” mission accomplished. Yang started blowing audiences away at age 10 and hasn’t let up since. After earning a full scholarship to the Royal Academy of music in London (another first for a Chinese student), she launched an international career. Yang has now performed in 40 countries and released four recordings with Emi Classics. At middlebury College, she’ll perform transcriptions of works by scarlatti, schubert and Britten; the Ginastera guitar sonata; and a work composed especially for Yang by contemporary Chinese composer Chen Yi. Can’t wait to get the conversation about classical guitar and Chinese musicians started? Join fellow concertgoers at a pre-performance dinner in the lower lobby of the mahaney Center.

march 3, 7:30 p.m. at Flynn mainStage. $33-55. march 4, 7 p.m. at Hopkins center. $25-40.

m EG A N JA m ES PA mE l A P o l S to N

IF YoU lIkE tHIS, trY tHESE:

IF YoU lIkE tHIS, trY tHESE: Eric Despard, september 21, 8 p.m. at mahaney Center for the Arts Concert hall, middlebury College. Free. Anoushka Shankar, November 21, 7:30 p.m. at Flynn mainstage. $25-40. los Angeles Guitar Quartet, April 12, 7:30 p.m. at Chandler. $35/40.

show TimE!

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Ian Ethan’s open land trio, september 21, 7:30 p.m. at River Arts. $15. viperHouse, september 28, 8 p.m. at spruce peak. $24/30. Diane krall, october 9, 7:30 p.m. at Flynn mainstage. $55-99. Hot club of Detroit, November 8, 7:30 p.m. Lane series at UVm Recital hall. $25. chick corea, April 12, 8 p.m. at paramount Theatre. $39.75-49.75. Arturo o’Farrill and the Afro latin Jazz orchestra, April 19, 8 p.m. at Flynn mainstage. $25-40.

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December 6, 8 p.m. at mahaney center for the Arts concert Hall, middlebury college. $25.

09.11.13-09.18.13

we’ve heard of masters and mentors, but it’s not every day you see a single band that spans three generations. Jack DeJohnette, 71, named an NEA Jazz master in 2012, is simply one of the most influential drummers in the world (as well as a pianist and composer) and still in demand after five decades in the music biz. in this new quartet, he teams up with multiple-Grammywinning saxophonist Joe Lovano, 60, whom the New York Times has dubbed “one of the greatest musicians in jazz history,” and two younger players: bassist/vocalist/composer Esperanza spalding, 28, who wowed local audiences a few years back at the Burlington Discover Jazz Festival; and her frequent globe-trotting collaborator, Argentinian pianist Leo Genovese, 34. it’s telling that, despite their senior status and experience, the older players give the younger ones equal billing in the group’s name. That’s no mere act of generosity, because spalding and Genovese do more than keep up: They give astonishing performances every time they step on stage. without exaggeration, spalding can be called the most talked-about jazz musician of her generation, and the buzz only got louder when she won the Best New Artist Grammy in 2011 — the first jazz musician in history to do so. with Genovese’s remarkable, innovative work on the keys, the pair continues to stay on jazz’s cutting edge. For jazz fans, this greatness-times-four collaboration will be another one for the history books. Expect music that, as DeJohnette has put it, is “open, prepared for the unexpected, and willing to follow that where it takes us.”

XUEFEI YANG SEVENDAYSVt.com

DEJoHNEttE/loVANo/SPAlDING/ GENoVESE QUArtEt

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NAtIoNAL BRoADWAY toUR, THE ADDAMS FAMILY

09.11.13-09.18.13 SEVEN DAYS

october 28, 7:30 p.m. at Flynn mainstage. $25-70. February 3, 7 p.m. at Paramount Theatre. $49.50-59.50.

mAR Go tSCAN H AR R IS oN THESE

Lyric Theatre company: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. November 14 and 15, 7:30 p.m.; November 16, 2 and 7:30 p.m.; November 17, 2 and 6:30 p.m. at Flynn MainStage. $21-35. Memphis, Broadway National tour. January 24, 8 p.m. at Flynn MainStage. $50-70. Green Day’s American Idiot, Broadway National tour. February 11 and 12, 7:30 p.m. at Flynn MainStage. $50-73. Patti LuPone, March 7, 8 p.m. at Flynn MainStage. $45-65. University of Vermont Department of Theatre: Urinetown. March 13 to 15 and 20 to 22, 7:30 p.m.; March 15 and 23, 2 p.m. at Royall Tyler Theatre. $21. Man of La Mancha, Broadway National tour, March 20, 7:30 p.m. at Flynn MainStage. $50-70.

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tHE LIVING WoRD PRoJEct: WORD BECOMES FLESH Nine months can be a long time for an expectant father to wonder if he’s ready, to struggle with a lifelong commitment. In Marc Bamuthi Joseph’s hip-hop “choreopoem” Word Becomes Flesh, a young man pleads with his unborn child to understand his ambivalence: “please realize that a brother be feeling stressed, too. / And blessed, too.” Joseph is widely acclaimed as a spoken-word poet and playwright; Smithsonian Magazine named him one of America’s Top Young Innovators in the Arts and Sciences in 2007. The Oakland, Calif., poet wrote the first version of Word Becomes Flesh a decade ago as a “birth story” for his young son. It evolved from a monologue into an explosive piece in which five young men sling rapid-fire rhymes and release their physical energy through dance with the help of live DJ Dion Decibels. Among the charged topics the performers transform into poetry — sometimes angry, sometimes gentle, sometimes funny — are the legacy of absent dads, the poisonous “thug” mentality and the difficulties of being young, black and male in America. “Son, this is to sever the cycle,” one of Joseph’s stand-ins promises his offspring. But how can he stay present in his son’s life when he’s not in love with the mother? There are no easy answers in this physically demanding piece where anguish and joy alternate. “I believe in art that sweats,” Joseph told the New York Times in 2012. His company will give locals a chance to sweat, too, during a residency at Middlebury College that includes master classes for students, two performances of the play — with discussion to follow — and an open-mic night open to the public. September 20 and 21, 8 p.m. at Wright memorial Theatre at middlebury college. $6-20. Verbal onslaught open-mic night, September 19, 9 to 11 p.m., 51 main at the Bridge in middlebury. Free.

mAR Go t H AR R IS o N

IF YoU LIkE tHIS, tRY tHESE: 38 FEATURE

IF YoU LIkE tHIS, tRY tHESE:

Ethan Lipton + His orchestra: No Place to Go. September 26 and 27, 8 p.m. at FlynnSpace. $25. Edgar oliver: Helen & Edgar. October 22 and 23, 7 p.m. at Warner Bentley Theater, Hopkins Center. $25. A tribe called Red, November 1, 7:30 and 10 p.m. at Collis Common Ground, Hopkins Center. $20. kobo town, March 21, 7:30 p.m. Lane Series at UVM Recital Hall. $22. Lagartijas tiradas al Sol: El Rumor del Incendio. April 2 and 3, 7:30 p.m. at FlynnSpace. $25.

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Ba-da-da-bum. Snap snap! Only one show can give you the thrill of finger-snapping along to the theme song for America’s very first goth sitcom — and doing it three days before Halloween. That’s the nationally touring production of the Broadway musical that made Charles Addams’ classic cartoons do kick-lines, with music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa and book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice. Suave Gomez and sexy Morticia — originally interpreted on Broadway by Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth — take the stage in all their gory glory, surrounded by their eerie extended family. But their daughter Wednesday has a problem: She’s fallen for a boy from a nice, normal household. His parents are coming for dinner, and the creepy clan has to be on its best behavior — no mayhem allowed. The Addams Family didn’t draw raves from critics when it

premiered on the Great White Way in 2010, but audiences flocked to the musical, making it the rare “critic-proof smash,” wrote the New York Times. The production’s appeal? Well-loved characters, strong song and dance — the Addamses have their own special moves, like “rigor mortis” and “the death-rattle” — and nonstop goofy black humor. In short, it’s the perfect evening for young and old fans who want to watch Morticia work her dress “cut down to Venezuela,” Wednesday torture her brother pugsley and Uncle Fester serenade the moon. The Naples Daily News summed up the touring production: “Funny, silly, goofy, a little kooky and kinda fun.” Make that funereal!

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october 11, 7:30 p.m. (pre-performance talk at 6:30) Lane Series at UVm Recital Hall. $25. may 1, 7 p.m. at Spaulding Auditorium, Hopkins center. $15-25.

PA m EL A P o L S t o N

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If YoU LIkE tHIS, tRY tHESE: cassandra Wilson, september 22, 7 p.m. at Fuller hall, st. Johnsbury Academy (Kingdom County productions). $36-74. Alejandro Escovedo and Shelby Lynne, september 28, 8 p.m. at Flynn mainstage. $22-36. meshell Ndegeocello: “A Dedication to Nina Simone,” February 1, 8 p.m. at Flynn mainstage. $25-42. show TimE!

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VPR classical’s Joe Goetz performs with Burlington Ensemble, september 13, 7:30 p.m. at spruce peak. $30/35. Imogen cooper, october 10, 7 p.m. at middlebury College. $25. Vassily Primakov, october 12, 7:30 p.m. at Chandler. $30/35. Benjamin Grosvenor, october 29, 7:30 p.m. at middlebury College. $20. Sally Pinkas, November 13 (with Apple hill string Quartet); march 3 (solo); both 7 p.m. at hopkins Center. $21-27. Jung-Ja kim, January 12, 3 p.m. at middlebury College. $20. Simone Dinnerstein, January 18, 7:30 p.m. at Chandler. $35/40. Alexander melnikov, February 23, 3 p.m. at middlebury College. $25. Paul Neubauer and Anne-marie mcDermott, February 28, 7:30 p.m. Lane series at UVm Recital hall. $25. Paul Lewis, April 4, 8 p.m. at middlebury College. $25. Gabriela montero, April 16, 7 p.m. at hopkins Center. $25-40.

Lane series director Natalie Neuert took one listen to martha Redbone’s set at the 2013 Global Fest in New York City and “booked her on the spot.” what she saw and heard: “a mesmerizingly beautiful woman with a rich, soulful voice, backed by a five-piece acoustic blues band.” And what Redbone sang was surprising: “piedmont and Appalachian country blues set to the words of william Blake.” This distinctive musical approach, combined with Redbone’s African American and Choctaw heritage, makes her one of the most singular artists performing today. her sound is anchored in the deepest roots of American music — indian, African and English. The now-defunct Performing Songwriter magazine colorfully called it “part Neville Brothers, part Aretha Franklin, part tribal powwow.” more recently, msn.com’s Robert Christgau called Redbone simply “a major find” and even compared her to Bob Dylan as a lyricist. The singer’s most recent release, The Garden of Love — the Songs of William Blake, was produced by Nitty Gritty Dirt Band founder John mcEuen and recorded in Nashville. while not Redbone’s first album, it is widely considered a “reflowering” of her complex cultural influences and has garnered gushing praise. Alongside her musical career, Redbone is an activist for indigenous issues and a mentor and teacher for American indian children, leading workshops on native music and giving motivational talks. she’s a woman who takes her culture and her music seriously — one who, onstage, sounds like America.

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Sean chen, october 2, $30; Beatrice Rana, february 7, $30; Vadym kholodenko, April 25, $38, all Lane Series at UVm Recital Hall, 7:30 p.m.

mARtHA REDBoNE

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The pianist Van Cliburn, famous for winning the inaugural 1958 international Tchaikovsky Competition in moscow at the age of 23, died earlier this year. For the first time in decades, he wasn’t around to present awards to the winners of the Van Cliburn international piano Competition, an event started by arts patrons and admirers in Cliburn’s hometown of Fort worth, Texas, in 1962. Chances are that’s the only loss Vadym Kholodenko, Beatrice Rana and sean Chen — this year’s winners of the gold, silver and crystal awards, respectively — will associate with the experience. The Cliburn, which comes around every four years, is the most lucrative piano competition out there; gold wins $50,000. And winners get the immeasurably greater benefit of three years of management and concert appearances — one of which is at the University of Vermont’s music Recital hall, as part of its Lane series. This year’s winners are young, as is typical, but one is particularly so: Rana, from italy, is only 20. she is also one of few female winners; 14 competitions over half a century have yielded a roster of mostly men. Rana’s life until now appears to have revolved around competitions, of which she has won an impressive number: the italian government’s most prestigious scholarship at the age of 12, the montréal international music Competition at age 18, and the list goes on. A less important but telling honor she received was the Audience Award at Cliburn. The Ukrainian Kholodenko and the American Chen may be just about as talented, but Rana apparently has the charm.

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APRIL VERCH BAND

A.J. CROCE

To call April Verch a “triple threat” makes her sound terrifying. In fact, this fiddler, step-dancer and singer from the Ottawa Valley of Ontario is the life of the party. Don’t let the hipster glasses fool you: Verch is known as a brilliant interpreter of tradition. For her, that means the Franco-Celtic music and dance traditions brought centuries ago from the Old World to the new. She picked up the fiddle at age 6, and by the time she graduated from high school, Verch had won the Canadian Open Old Time Fiddle Championship and released two albums. After a year at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Verch returned home to take first place in the Canadian Grand Masters Fiddling Competition in 1998 — making her the first female to win both of Canada’s top fiddle contests. And we all know the fiddle is taken seriously up there, eh? Verch rounds out her sound with clawhammer banjo and bass played by Cody Walters, and guitar by Hayes Griffin — as well as harmony vocals from the two fellas. The trio recently returned from touring in the UK, where their live shows won rave reviews, as did new recording Bright Like Gold. Back in the U.S., Nashville Scene describes the album’s 20 tracks as “arguably still not enough to show off the range of the trio’s musical interests, which wind from mossy old fiddle tunes through classic country and bluegrass, a bit of swing and some strong original material.” Of course, what you can’t experience on the album is Verch’s spirited step-dancing, which the Lane Series calls “percussively part of the music, visually thrilling and physically virtuosic.” Or is that Verchuosic?

In the debate over nature versus nurture, proponents of the former may wish to claim songwriter A.J. Croce as Exhibit A. Croce is the son of folk legend Jim Croce. He hardly knew his famous dad, who died in a plane crash in 1973 when A.J. was just 2 years old — and mere months after A.J. himself was struck blind by a brain tumor. Yet Croce taught himself to play piano as a child, signed his first record deal as a teenager and has become a greatly respected songwriter. From his early works as a bluesand jazz-influenced artist to his more recent forays into pop and rock, he has built a career that would do his late father proud. Or, as Willie Nelson put it, “He represents his generation with a profound sense of honesty in his lyrics and quality in his delivery. The future of entertainment is safe in his hands!” Well said, Willie. Croce’s latest project is an ambitious serial album called Twelve Tales, composed of 12 songs released monthly as singles throughout 2013. Each song is recorded in a different American city with a different producer, including “Cowboy” Jack Clement in Nashville and Allen Toussaint in New Orleans. Croce describes the record as the “most unique and challenging album I’ve made to date.” Even he doesn’t really know how it will turn out. “This project is like a musical jigsaw puzzle without a box,” Croce writes on his website. “I won’t see the full picture until the last song is completed.” October 7, 7:30 p.m. at the Brick Box at Paramount Theatre. $15.

September 27, 7:30 p.m. Lane Series at UVM Recital Hall. $22. January 17, 7:30 p.m. at Chandler. $27/30.

D A N B O L L ES PAME L A P O L S TO N

IF YOU LIKE THIS, TRY THESE: [The season includes far too many traditional acoustic acts to list here; these are ones with a Canadian or Celtic focus.] Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas, September 22, 7:30 p.m. at Chandler. $25/30. Wendy MacIsaac & Mary Jane Lamond, November 22, 7:30 p.m. Lane Series at UVM Recital Hall. $25. Natalie MacMaster, December 4, 7 p.m. at Barre Opera House (Kingdom County Productions). $39-58. Le Vent du Nord, February 1, 7:30 p.m. at Barre Opera House. $16-30. Cantrip with the Annalivia Duo, March 22, 7:30 p.m. at Chandler. $20/25. The TradNation Project, May 9, 7:30 p.m. at Chandler. $20.

IF YOU LIKE THIS, TRY THESE: Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, October 4, 8 p.m. at Barre Opera House. $22-37. David Bromberg Quintet, October 5, 8 p.m. at Spruce Peak. $48/55. Lyle Lovett & John Hiatt, October 22, 8 p.m. at Paramount Theatre. $59.50-79.50. Dr. John, October 25, 8 p.m. at Flynn MainStage. $25-65. Robert Cray Band, October 25, 8 p.m. at Barre Opera House. $24-49.50. Gregg Allman, November 1, 8 p.m. at Paramount Theatre. $49.75-79.75. James “Blood” Ulmer, November 9, 8 p.m. at FlynnSpace. $25. Mavis Staples, November 9, 8 p.m. at Barre Opera House. $22-42. Dr. Lonnie Smith’s “In the Beginning” Octet, January 24, 8 p.m. at Spaulding Auditorium, Hopkins Center. $25-40. Eric Bibb & Ruthie Foster, February 7, 7:30 p.m. at Chandler. $32/35.

PRESENtER INFo & tIcKEtS • Barre Opera House, barreoperahouse.org, 476-8188 • Burlington Chamber Orchestra, bcovt.org, bco@ bcovt.org • Burlington Civic Symphony, bcsovt.org • Burlington Ensemble, burlingtonensemble.com, 598-9520 • Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Burlington, stpaulscathedralvt.org, 864-0471 • Champlain Philharmonic, Montpelier, champlainphilharmonic.org, 595-0087 • Chandler Center for the Arts, Chandler Music Hall, Randolph, chandler-arts.org, 728-6464 • Flynn Center/FlynnSpace, Burlington, flynncenter.org, 863-5966 • Girls Nite Out Productions, Burlington, girlsniteoutvt.com, 448-0086 • Higher Ground Presents, South Burlington, highergroundmusic.com • Hopkins Center, various venues, Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H., hop.dartmouth.edu, 603-646-2422 • Johnson State College, Dibden Center for the Arts, jsc.edu, 635-1476 • Kingdom County Productions, Barnet & Burlington, kingdomcounty.com, 357-4616 • Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival, Winooski, lccmf.org, 846-2175 • Lane Series, various venues, Burlington, uvm.edu/laneseries, 656-4455 • Lebanon Opera House, N.H., lebanonoperahouse.org, 603-448-0400 • Lost Nation Theater, Montpelier, lostnationtheater.org, 229-0492

802.656.2094 • uvmtheatre.org

Great prices! Discounts & group rates available 4t-uvmtheatre091113.indd 1

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• Lyric Theatre Company, Burlington, lyrictheatrevt.org, 658-1484 • Middlebury College, various venues, middlebury.edu, 443-6433 • Middlebury Town Hall Theater, townhalltheater.org, 382-9222

• Northern Stage, Briggs Opera House, White River Junction, northernstage.org, 296-7000

YOUR

TEXT Brewing 101 with Joe Lemnah

YOUR TEXT HERE

HERE Saturday, September 14 • 10am–12pm An in-depth look into brewing with homegrown fruits, vegetables, spices, and herbs. We will cover basic home-brewing techniques and tips for growing hops in Vermont.

• Off Center for the Dramatic Arts, Burlington, offcentervt.com

Garden CoCktails with Chris Maloney

• Paramount Theatre, Rutland, paramountvt.org, 775-0903 • Pentangle Arts, Woodstock, .pentanglearts.org, 457-3981

Learn the basics of distilling alcohol, the practice of building a tasty cocktail, and how to put fresh seasonal flavors into your glass. We’ll talk about classic and locally made products, ingredients you can pull from your garden, and approachable ways to enjoy great drinks at home.

• UVM Theatre, Burlington, uvmtheatre.org, 656-2094

FeastinG FroM tHe Garden Year roUnd – with Author Barbara Damrosch

• Vermont Philharmonic, Barre, vermontphilharmonic.org • Vermont Stage Company, FlynnSpace, Burlington, vtstage.org, 862-1497

Saturday, October 12 • 10-11:30am Join horticulturist and market gardener, Barbara Damrosch for a special presentation on growing and cooking your own vegetables and fruits. Hear her simple and efficient ideas to help today’s busy gardeners and cooks. Q&A and book-signing to follow.

SEVEN DAYS

• Vermont Contemporary Music Ensemble, various locations, vcme.org, 849-6900

Saturday, September 21 • 10–11:30am

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• Vergennes Opera House, vergennesoperahouse.org, 877-6737

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• Montpelier Chamber Orchestra, montpelierchamberorchestra.org, mcos@montpelierchamberorchestra.org

Saturdays at Gardener’s Supply in Burlington

To register, call 660-3505, or sign up in store. Pre-registration and pre-payment required. Classes are $15.00 per person. See www.GardenersSupplyStore.com for program details.

• Vermont Symphony Orchestra, various locations, vso.org, 800-876-9293, x10

• Weston Playhouse, westonplayhouse.org, 824-5288

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• Vermont Youth Orchestra, various locations, vyo.org, 655-5030

128 Intervale Road, off Riverside Ave., Burlington (802)660-3505 • Mon–Sat 8am–6pm; Sun 10am–5pm g2g_7d_2.indd 2 4t-gardenerssupply091113.indd 1

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Beautiful Ruin

shadows on the plant’s gaping interior. “It was astonishing,” she said. Montstream approached Owens about arranging a full tour of the building. He was eager to start a dialogue about the plant’s possibilities and agreed to take her and a few friends inside. They went in at night, Montstream armed with a ski pole to fend off raccoons. But the artist fell in love instantly. “It was this intensity of scale and shape that affected me on this visceral level,” she said. “I went in there to brainstorm, but I came out and just thought, I have to have a show about this.” After 25 years of painting serene Vermont landscapes and reproducing them as prints and cards through her business, Montstream Studio, the artist had been itching for a change. “I can take a risk now,” she says. “I feel comfortable doing something that probably won’t be popular with tourists.” Maybe not, but locals familiar with the plant are likely to be drawn to these paintings. Moran may be all chipped paint and concrete floors, but Montstream’s images pulsate with color and life.

Artists find inspiration in Burlington’s derelict Moran Plant B Y m EgAN JAm ES

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ART

“Hey! How’d You Get In Here!?” by Katharine Montstream

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rom the outside, Burlington’s Moran Plant is a hulking eyesore, a fenced-off, industrial brick behemoth plunked on the Lake Champlain waterfront like an oversize step stool. Inside — as I learned on a recent tour with Community and Economic Development Office director Peter Owens and Burlington painter Katharine Montstream — it’s a grand cathedral of decay. I had to sign a waiver to go in. The concrete floors are pockmarked with holes; it would be easy to break a leg. I had been warned about the raccoons. Humans left the derelict power plant when it was decommissioned in 1986, but the critters have made a home there. As Owens wrangled the padlock on the plant’s basement door at the start of our tour, Montstream quipped, “The raccoons changed the locks.” We stepped onto a catwalk-type mezzanine in the dark, disorienting basement. Below us, several feet of water covered the floor, making it difficult to tell where metal staircases began and ended. There were holes in the walls, archways leading to more archways and eerie, half-submerged pillars. “When you frame it with a camera, it’s an abstractionist’s dream everywhere you look,” remarked Owens. It’s no wonder the Moran Plant has become a source of inspiration to Burlington artists. In a state practically drowning in bucolic landscapes, Moran’s urban decay is electrifying. Over the past several months, at least two local artists have used it as a muse: Montstream and Sarah O Donnell. Montstream, whose paintings of the Moran interior are currently on view at Montstream Studio in downtown Burlington, first got inside the plant last February at a city-organized “Popup Moran” event designed to spark interest in the future of that neglected slice of waterfront. Moran has been languishing for years. At one time, Owens said, there were plans to turn the space into a children’s museum. Just last year, the mayor shot down a proposal to build ice-climbing walls inside. Arts organizations such as the Fleming Museum and Burlington City Arts have long considered using the plant. Nothing has ever panned out. At the February event, Montstream recalled during our tour, a garage door on the back of Moran was rolled up to allow a peek inside the cavernous space, which was illuminated by a temporary light display. The beams cast mesmerizing

“A Visible Night” by Sarah O Donnell

eter Owens said he’s interested in “changing the script of failure and abandonment” about Moran. After all, before it was decommissioned, the plant was viewed as cutting-edge technology. “The design itself as an industrial structure was seen as quite forward-looking,” Owens said. “It became an experimental prototype for wood-chip burning.” After the tour, I tracked down Tom Carr, who was the plant’s superintendent from 1968 to its decommissioning. “I’m the last survivor,” said the 80-year-old. When the plant was in operation, he recalled, “It was well kept up and relatively clean for a coal-burning facility.” In 1977 Carr was involved in shifting the plant to burning wood chips. “We realized that the life of the Moran station was coming to an end for a variety of reasons, most of which were financial,” he said. Burlington Electric Department couldn’t afford to upgrade the plant to comply with more rigorous environmental standards, so its leaders planned a new facility, the McNeil Generating Station. But before ditching Moran, they’d use it as the prototype for a new generation method. Nuclear energy was out of the question. Natural gas was viable, but only in the summer. And coal had become too expensive — plus, the residents downwind wanted relief. BE even considered burning garbage, to no avail. “So we sat around and scratched our heads,” Carr recalled. “And in a blinding flash, we decided that there’s enough trees in the state; maybe we could burn wood.”

SCAN THIS PAGE TO SEE A SLIDESHOW OF MONTSTREAM PAINTINGS AND PHOTOS IN THE MORAN PLANT.

BED discovered it could take advantage of Vermont’s forests and landowners, who were paying $25 an acre at the time to thin their forests to improve tree quality. Carr traveled the country picking up tips at wood-chip-burning power plants and paper mills. Then he and his Moran colleagues jerry-rigged a system for unloading wood chips and hacked together a technique for blowing chips into the boilers. “It was a great place to work. It really was,” Carr said. He hasn’t been inside Moran for at least 15 years and was shocked the last time he walked through. “It was a total vandalized wreck,” he said. As for the future, Carr said he’d love to see Moran transformed into something “useful for the community,” but he’s skeptical about the cost, especially when it comes to reinforcing the aging infrastructure. “Over time, I think the building may have deteriorated substantially,” he said, and noted that the water in the basement has been freezing and thawing since 1986, a cycle that “cannot be doing good things to the foundation.”

Support a woman making the transition from prison back into the community

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Are you a good listener? Do you have an open mind? Do you want to be a friend and make a difference in a woman’s life? The influence of a mentor can profoundly affect a woman’s ability to be successful as she works to rebuild her life. We invite you to contact us to find out more about serving as a volunteer mentor.

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Mentor Orientation begins October 2, 2013 at 5:30pm In Partnership With:

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f you ignore the creepy raccoon paw prints and the water that glows a nuclear-waste-style green when the sun catches it, it’s easy to imagine future uses for Moran. During our tour, Montstream and Owens rattled off their favorite ideas: an indoor farmers market, a skating rink, a maker space, a hall for wedding receptions. “My first idea was that this would be a bathhouse, like in Budapest,” Montstream said. Owens envisions the Great Hall space as a performing-arts venue with an enormous picture window overlooking the lake and Adirondacks. He’s already picked out his first two fantasy shows: a solo cellist performing the Brandenburg Concertos under a single spotlight; and a dramatic reading of Dylan Thomas’ “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” by Sen. Bernie Sanders. More community ideas have been percolating since the city put out a request for proposals earlier this year. One of those plans, from a dynamic team made up of two University of Vermont students, Tad Cooke and Erik Crockenberg, and home designer and real estate investor Charlie Tipper, aims to transform Moran into a “publicly accessible, financially sustainable, city-owned and nonprofit-managed” community center. The team hopes to keep what’s good about Moran — its vast interior spaces and great views — and upgrade the rest to showcase local arts and food and create more opportunities for waterfront recreation. Sounds great. But after 30-plus years of stagnation, why should we believe the Moran Plant might be revived this time? “I think a lot of things have aligned,” Tipper told me later. “And to take [the building] down is arguably more expensive.”

Mayor Miro Weinberger has been excited about the surge of interest in the Moran. He said he’s “cautiously hopeful” that this time the plant might actually get a second life. “When you step inside, see those soaring spaces, see that view of Burlington that’s unlike any other view – I’ve always been excited about repurposing that.” But the mayor has his doubts, too. “I think this is a very difficult development challenge, and I don’t know if we will succeed,” he went on. “I really think this is the last, best hope for the building. If we don’t succeed, we have to seriously consider tearing it down.” We climbed several more staircases to the very top floor, which required walking across a narrow catwalk beside a conveyor belt. We stood above the mouths of the hoppers that once swallowed coal and wood chips. This room has a different vibe now, thanks to Burlington artist Sarah O Donnell and her installation “A Visible Night.” At night, a swiveling light rigged above the hoppers illuminates a rainbow of silk panels hung in the glassless windows. During the day, sunlight streams in through the silk, making the place feel like a nightclub. O Donnell said she was struck by how visible the building is in the Burlington landscape, yet how removed it feels inside. “Whenever I was inside it felt like I was incredibly separate from the city,” she wrote. “I could hear so much of what was going on outside — children playing, skaters using the skatepark behind it, the sailing center’s summer camps were going on around us, but even though I was in a building that sits right in the middle of so much activity, I felt incredibly isolated and removed.” Our tour wasn’t over yet. Owens, Montstream and I climbed a steep ladder and popped through a hatch onto the roof. Clumps of goldenrod swayed in the breeze. It was like standing on a sky-high pier jutting over the lake. No question, it’s the best view in Burlington. We took a seat and talked about feasibility. “The finances are difficult,” Owens admitted. “There’s certainly opportunity for revenue, but we haven’t come up with a cash stream yet.” For now, Owens, Montstream and other Moran enthusiasts are taking a new tack: Instead of clinging to grand visions, they’re focusing on identifying the minimum improvements necessary to transform the plant into a “functional ruin.” That’s one way to get people in the door and start their imaginations cranking. It’s a smart tactic, considering that everyone who sets foot in the plant seems to fall under its spell. “I think I’ve fallen in love with this space in its worst state,” Montstream said later, surrounded by the paintings and sketches of Moran she has created over the past seven months. “And now I’m in love with the dream of what it could be.” m

YOUR TEXT HERE

Secrets and Lies Book review: Little Island by Katharine Britton B Y KIM MACQUEEN

or the first half of Little Island, Norwich author Katharine Britton’s unsettling second novel, 64-year-old innkeeper Grace Little is stymied and confused — and we readers are confused right along with her. It all starts with a scene in which Grace, tending to her dying mother, Joan, finds a faded 1937 photograph by her bedside. It shows Joan as a young girl, surrounded by two girls who look like Joan’s sisters. Joan wants these people to be invited to her memorial service after she’s gone — the only problem is that Grace has no idea who they are. She’s spent her life thinking her mother was an only child. As the novel gets under way, readers quickly learn that Joan is still the single most important person in her daughter’s life, even after she’s been dead for three months. Yet Grace spends most of the novel realizing that her mother’s early life was kept secret from her. Little Island is built on this kind of mystery. Grace’s grown children, Joy, Roger and Tamar, make their way to their parents’ inn on the coast of Maine for their grandmother’s memorial, each carrying secrets, having secrets kept from them or, often, both. Britton uses first-person narration for Joy and close third for the rest of the characters, switching back and forth among them at least once in most chapters. Being with these characters is like sitting through a family dinner with people you don’t know well, all of them talking at once but none of them willing to tell you what’s really going on. Their dialogue gives us lots of details of their seemingly idyllic existence on the island named for their family — the way

the sunlight glints off the rocks, the names of all the flowers, the places they picnicked on the nearby islands and the shipwreck stories they heard growing up. But they won’t talk about anything that actually matters. From time to time, the Littles mention a cataclysmic event from the past, but they refuse to reveal any details about it. It’s because they can’t. They have each, in various measures, been lying to themselves about that event, and most of the other important aspects of their lives, for the last 20 years. It’s a difficult job for a writer to populate an entire novel with people like this — confusing characters who are hard to get to know precisely because they don’t know themselves all that well — but Britton succeeds at it. The novel begins from the point of view of Joy, Grace’s daughter, as she mourns her son leaving the nest for college. Britton builds tension from the first pages, when Joy takes refuge from her stress and emotional pain by surreptitiously cutting herself. But then we meet Joy’s sister, Tamar, who ratchets that tension up several notches. Tamar is the sort of person we used to call “type A” — so workaholic, selfabsorbed and freaked out that she makes Joy look like the picture of emotional health. She shows her true colors when her adorable twin 8-year-olds enter the room — Tamar’s husband provides most of their care, and she barely seems to know who they are. She’s almost afraid to touch them. Finally, there’s Roger, Tamar’s twin, a longtime substance abuser and general layabout who serves as the novel’s

44 FEATURE

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BOOKS

WE SPEND ABOUT HALF THE NOVEL MOVING THROUGH MULTIPLE SHIFTS IN TIME AND POINT OF VIEW,

PEERING THROUGH THESE CHARACTERS’ SMOKE-SCREENS TO SEE WHO THEY REALLY ARE.

touchstone, its most lied-to and lied-about character. Roger seems to have no trouble believing his own bullshit. But he’s the nicest of the Littles, the most loving and trusting. While his siblings dread the trip to the inn, he loves the place so much he dreams about taking it over one day. When Roger mentions the idea to his father, Gar, during a quiet moment, Gar shoots it down quickly and silently. Roger has always been the sibling who let everybody down, but he’s also the one they look to when things start to go wrong. They just hope he’ll stay sober long enough to do some good. We spend about half the novel moving through multiple shifts in time and point of view to get to know Grace, Gar and the grown Little children, peering through these characters’ smoke screens to see who they really are. Britton’s tight focus on the minute details of interpersonal relationships makes the novel honest and realistic, though the Littles may sometimes seem as annoying to readers as they do to their own unknowable relatives. Britton’s narration constantly plays up the tension, and the dialogue is realistic primarily for what the characters don’t say. During the novel’s first half there are pointed references to a car crash two decades earlier, but the details enter the story piecemeal and don’t make much sense at first. It’s only when we start to see these characters come apart from the stress of all their secrets that the story tightens up and becomes clear. Little Island’s emotional climax, in which the reader gets a glimpse of the secrets everyone’s been keeping, takes place as it does in so many families — around the dinner table, when everyone is supposed to be discussing something else. That leads to an action-packed ending where all is resolved and revealed. It takes a while getting there, but Britton makes it worth the wait.

INFO

Little Island by Katharine Britton, Berkley, 320 pages. $15. Katharine Britton reads from and signs Little Island on Thursday, September 12, 7 p.m. at Phoenix Books Burlington. Info, 448-3350. phoenixbooks.biz

FROM LITTLE ISLAND Joan had asked so little of Grace in life, given herself so little. Grace wished her mother were here to guide and comfort her, to sit beside her in the Adirondack chairs on the inn’s now-emerald lawn, watch boats motor in and out of East Haven, and tell her everything looked lovely. But that was precisely the problem. Her mother could not be here to help plan her own memorial service. The day her mother died, Grace found a manila folder in the drawer beside the bed. It contained what looked like a page torn from a diary and a photograph of her mother, quite young, standing on a beach with two other little girls. On the back of the photo, in faded pencil, someone, not her mother, had written: Joanie, Callie, Cornie, July 1937. Grace could make out little of their surroundings. On the scrap of paper, in her mother’s familiar looping hand (although rounder than Grace was accustomed to) was written: Grace Flowers By the water Have fun! Grace deduced that these were Joan’s wishes for her service and had set about granting them. While she believed she’d fulfilled Joan’s first two — however imperfectly, given the gaudy garden and the sodden lawn — she’d fretted over her mother’s final directive for the three months since her death. Just this week, she’d added it to her to-do list, hoping it might summon forth a few fun ideas. As yet, the two words now anchoring the list remained a distant and daunting finish line that Grace felt certain she would never reach. (A friend had asked her recently what she did for fun. Grace stared mutely back and finally blurted out, “Watch movies,” although Grace hadn’t seen one in years.) She loved her family; they were everything to her. But fun was not a word she associated with their gatherings. Grace reviewed her mother’s note one last time, before carefully folding and returning it to her pocket. There she felt the envelope, delivered just a week before, its slender profile belying its weighty contents. Grace sighed, wishing her mother had provided just a little more detail with her final written instruction.

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food

Meatless Nights I

09.11.13-09.18.13 SEVEN DAYS 46 FOOD

t’s a brave new world for vegetables. Though my own meat-free days were short-lived, I once subsisted on the pabulum of veggie stir-fries and avocado sandwiches. Now, tattooed vegans Instagram photos of chard pancakes, and hotshot chef-authors such as Yotam Ottolenghi have shown home cooks how to sprinkle broiled eggplant with pomegranate seeds and not miss flesh one bit. It’s puzzling that Burlington, home to droves of hipsters and conscious eaters, has been without a purely vegetarian restaurant for years — at least since the closure of Origanum Natural Foods more than a decade ago and the brief reign in 2008 of New Ethic Café on North Street. Creative vegetarian and vegan fare can still be found at omnivore establishments such as Stone Soup and Penny Cluse Café. But with Revolution Café, which opened downtown this summer, veggie veterans Peter and Debra Maisel aim to bring meatless cuisine back to the scene. For 17 years, the Maisels ran a cozy, colorful vegetarian restaurant (he cooked savory, she cooked sweet) called Luna 61 in the Hudson Valley. When their daughter, a University of Vermont grad, chose to settle in Burlington, the Maisels decided to head north, armed with a well-honed repertoire of vegetarian and vegan dishes. They leased a building on Center Street that has variously housed an Army-Navy store, a bubble-tea shop and a comedy club, and gamely capitalized on its rustic physical assets. The Maisels accessorized the brickwalled, wood-floored venue with modern farm tables, sleek black chairs, industrial pendant lights, pots of feathery bamboo and a frosted, garage-door style front wall. The effect is graceful, sexy and serene; walking in for the first time felt like entering a food spa.

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Taste Test: Revolution Kitchen

Goat-cheesestuffed ravioli

THE SMELLS OF SEARING VEGETABLES WAFTED FROM THE OPEN KITCHEN.

THESE WERE COMFORTING SCENTS FOR A HUNGRY, NERVOUS CARNIVORE. Especially when the roguish host came out from behind the inviting L-shaped bar, draped himself over a stool and confided that there would be a short wait — so, would we like a drink? The greeting was slightly theatrical, but beverages aren’t an afterthought here; beer and wines are well represented. Lost Nation Brewing’s floral Petit Ardennes, a Belgian-style ale, was LISTEN IN ON LOCAL FOODIES...

on tap, and the kitchen had whipped up a batch of coral-colored watermelonmango sangria. A few wines from the bottle list, including a dry rosé, were offered by the glass. Teetotalers could choose tart, unsweetened pomegranate iced tea or a lime spritzer. A question that has gnawed at me since my meatless days drifted into my mind as we waited: Do vegetarians need

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to settle for less? Less technique, less finesse, less texture? Vegetables and grains can become stunning dishes in the hands of an experienced chef, yet they can also turn into limp, sad mashes. At Revolution, the smells of searing vegetables and grains wafted from the open kitchen. These were comforting scents for a hungry, nervous carnivore — after all, seared foods can satisfy any kind of eater, cruelty free or not. Soon the results of all of this frying began arriving at our table in the form of small plates. Wafery, pan-fried wontons ($9), filled with silky tofu and dusted with black sesame seeds, were crisp and delicious, if a bit oily; they were blank MEATLESS NIGHTS

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FOOD 47

Last week, we announced that the very busy PATRICK BROWN would close his 23-year-old CARIBBEAN BUFFET by the end of the month. He has now announced that his final day will be this Saturday, September 14. “I will be there through the end of September but need time to dispose of everything,” Brown explains.

SEVEN DAYS

We had the idea, we saw the process and we’re seeing the process kind of finished.” The items the students curated cover an incredible range of food-related history. Among them are an offering slab on which the Egyptians placed treats for the dead 3000 years ago and a restaurant pager from UVM’s University Dining Services that lets students know when their meals are ready. Student COLE BURTON says featuring such everyday objects is precisely the

1/7/13 2:08 PM

09.11.13-09.18.13

We share important meals with our families and friends, obsess over menus, and even photograph our food. But what is the social value of our fare and how we prepare and serve it? Last spring, UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT instructors MARGARET TAMULONIS and JENNIFER DICKINSON posed that question to their “Introduction to Museum Studies” class. The result is “Eat: The Social Life of Food,” a show that brings delicious life to the Wilbur Room at Burlington’s Fleming Museum from September 17 to May 18. But, like Cookie Monster, visitors should be warned that the

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After 25 years, the owners of one of Chittenden County’s most beloved fine-dining institutions are pulling up stakes. PATRICK and CHRISTINE GRANGIEN announced last week on CAFÉ SHELBURNE’s Facebook page that they are ready to call it quits. That same day, Patrick Grangien told Seven Days, “We just want to take a little bit of time — a much-needed break.” He hopes to remain open until October 12, for one final Saturday service. But Grangien said he realizes that, with his employees seeking other jobs, he may lack sufficient staff to feed his fans that long. His advice: If you want to taste his food one last time, come as soon as possible. Grangien said the couple will remain in Vermont, and his Facebook note indicates they won’t be idle: “We are turning over a new leaf, and we are moving on to exciting projects.” Grangien’s answer when asked whether those unnamed projects would be food related was a curt “I don’t think so.” The chef was also cautious about disclosing the identity of the two new owners who will reopen the restaurant on October 24, still as Café Shelburne. For now, he was willing to say

only that one of the pair was once his sous-chef at the restaurant. The Shelburne town offices had received no word of the sale at press time. Though he’s not overly nostalgic about his quarter century of feeding Shelburne volaille aux champignons and œufs à la neige, Grangien said he’s grateful for his time running the restaurant. “It was a good experience. We are a little bit sad,” he said. “We made quite some friends those years. It’s tough for us to call it quits.”

mission of the show. “We didn’t learn so much about food itself as [about] the practices and social customs surrounding food and how that affects people’s lives,” he says. “Basically, food is everywhere.” Homegrown Vermont pieces include a morsel of hardtack signed by 12th Vermont Infantryman Charles Wainwright, who sent it to his parents as a letter during the Civil War; Burlington Stoneware butter churns from the 1850s; and a cake mold and recipe book of similar vintage. Modern Vermonters are invited to get in on the act, too. Museum visitors 12v-Ramen081413.indd will be able to share their own food photographs — and submit them for possible inclusion in the show — by emailing fleming@uvm.edu or contacting @flemingfood on Twitter or Instagram.

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show features no edibles — “Picture exciting, but not for biting!” Dickinson, an associate professor of anthropology, and Tamulonis, the Fleming’s manager of collections and exhibitions, chose the subject of the show and some of its art ahead of time. The Honors College sophomores in their class culled the rest of the objects from the Fleming’s collection and wrote the labels and other show information. “Food seemed to be really rich. We definitely wanted to do a show that was very much about people pondering their own food practices,” Tamulonis explains. This fall, those same students, now juniors, have been working to bring the show they imagined to fruition. “It’s been really great,” says Christina Yu. “Usually in a class, you just take the class and you’re done with it.

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challenges of perfecting vegetarian food. As my friend tucked into jerk seitan ($17) — sauce-slathered cutlets served with mounds of velvety black beans, rice, salsa and greens — she held forth on the difficulties of marinating seitan and the rigors of a good jerk sauce. This one gripped the outside of the cutlets but didn’t seem to have penetrated far inside. The sauce was delicate, slightly sweet and redolent of allspice, but could have packed more heat and chutzpah. I wimped out during my first visit, eschewing vegan house ravioli for a matthew thOrsen

TAVERN TuESDAY

canvases that needed the ginger dipping sauce to kick up their flavor. The three other appetizers we ordered turned out to be identical-looking rolls. Each was sliced into four parts and served lengthwise, like a miniature landscape. One of the Maisels’ longstanding dishes is the Galaxy roll ($9), a warm tortilla tightly wound around sautéed portobello mushrooms, greens and mock Canadian bacon. It was smoky, succulent and sweet, but the ratio of tortilla to filling was slightly skewed in the wrong direction. The scallion pancake ($8) was out of balance, too: Rather than being served flat on a plate, it was a tortilla cinched around a vein of sautéed greens and scallions. If not for the warming chili dipping sauce that came with it, the pancake would have been somewhat flavorless. Both of these were trumped by the otherworldly basil-andmango-filled salad roll ($8), whose colorful, crisp contents peeked seductively from behind ghostly rice paper, and came with a peanut sauce so scrumptious I wanted to spoon it into my mouth. Following this was another triumph, the raw kale salad ($11). The chef had softened the ruffled kale deftly, sprinkling it with toasted pumpkin seeds for texture, dried cranberries for tartness and shavings of Pecorino cheese for saltiness; its complex, autumnal flavors held their delicate balance against the citrusy dressing. It was finger-lickin’ good. Another salad we tried fell short of this harmony. Arcana Gardens greens topped with peaches, nasturtiums and crumbled chèvre ($12), though lovingly presented, seemed like a dish you might whip up at home. The vinegary dressing was too sharp, the peaches were too firm and the salad seemed like a collection of discordant parts. And so it went. Each course had its hits and misses, and each offered fodder for conversation about the rigors and

Banana cream pie

version stuffed with goat cheese and red peppers and bathed in a sage-butter sauce ($17). The pasta was meltingly tender and came with a crunchy, herbaceous shower of slivered sage and pulverized cashews. The plate itself was dry, and I soon realized why: All the sauce had soaked into the pasta, and each bite was like a butter-soaked pillow. It was my favorite dish by far, and probably the most fattening. I doubt I would be a thin vegetarian. During my next visit to Revolution, I braved the vegetarian Reuben ($12). Though the grilled slabs of warm ciabatta were kissed with char, they were too thick and dwarfed the elements meatless nights

» p.51

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