Seven Days, November 27, 2019 by Seven Days

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VE RMO NT ’S IN DEPE NDEN T VO ICE NOVEMBER 27-DECEMBER 4, 2019 VOL.25 NO.10 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

THE 2019 SEVEN DAYS HOLIDAY SHOPPING HANDBOOK

TRADING SPACES

New plan for Winooski Ave. PAGE 13

ALL ABOARD

Games café opens in BTV PAGE 52

When elder homes stumble, frail Vermonters get hurt B Y D E R E K B R O U W E R & E M I LY C O R W I N , W I T H D ATA R E P O R T I N G B Y A N D R E A S U O Z Z O , PA G E 3 4

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THE LAST WEEK IN REVIEW

$500,000

NOVEMBER 20-27, 2019

That’s how much the U.S. Department of Transportation will give Vermont for emergency road repairs after the Halloween storm, which caused an estimated $5 million in damage across the state.

COMPILED BY SASHA GOLDSTEIN, MATTHEW ROY & ANDREA SUOZZO FILE: JAMES BUCK

EJECT BUTTON

Col. David Smith, commander of the Vermont Air National Guard, is retiring. Just a few months after the F-35s arrived…

STATE AIDE

Gov. Phil Scott named Heather Pelham his new commissioner of tourism and marketing. Can’t be that hard to sell Vermont, right?

The site of Burlington's former downtown mall

CALL ME, MAYBE

2023: A MALL ODYSSEY

onstruction of the latest version of the much-delayed CityPlace Burlington project is proposed to start in August 2020 and would take three years to complete. That’s according to new documents filed with the city late last week by the project’s majority owner, Brookfield Asset Management. The memos, as first reported by Seven Days, provide a glimpse of the new design, which includes 318 apartments, a 174-room hotel and more than 530 parking spaces. Tenstory buildings have replaced the controversial 14-story towers in the original plan. Schematics for the hotel’s southern tower show seven retail spaces on the ground level, a rooftop restaurant and an observation deck. A residential tower on the north side of the site would feature 121 studios and 142 one-bedroom and 55 two-bedroom units. The designs don’t include plans for the former Macy’s building, which was not part of the original project but is now envisioned as the future home of University of Vermont Medical Center offices.

The new gift cards

1. “Jake Burton Carpenter, Father of Snowboarding, Dies at 65” by Sasha Goldstein. The founder of the snowboard and apparel company that bears his name died of recurring cancer at UVM Medical Center last week. 2. “What’s Up With the Boulders Surrounding a Defunct Barre Business?” by Ken Picard. A bevy of boulders showed up around a longvacant restaurant building on North Main Street last month. 3. “Big Ag Sale: Is There a Market for a $23 Million Vermont Dairy Farm?” by Molly Walsh. The Addison County farm — with 3,100 acres and roughly 2,700 cows — has been on the market for nearly a year. 4. “India House Closes; Equipment and Building Available” by Sally Pollak. The Burlington restaurant shuttered last month. 5. “CityPlace Burlington 2.0: Questions Remain About Scaled-Down Proposal” by Courtney Lamdin. Can Brookfield Asset Management’s new proposal make it over the finish line?

tweet of the week

FOOD SHELVED

Hannaford has called off its long-contested plan for a store in Hinesburg. It’s a win for the local grocery, Lantman’s Market.

@metallidan My coworker bought the foreskin house and all is right in the world.

WHAT’S WEIRD IN VERMONT COURTESY OF PAUL KERIN

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The documents reveal that construction costs have been greatly reduced now that the project has morphed from 1 million square feet to just over 730,000. Using lighterweight steel, the scaled-down design is projected to cost $120 million — down from $190 million. It should be complete by February 2023, barring any regulatory delays or legal challenges, according to Jeff Glassberg, a consultant working as a liaison between the city and the developers. But the do-over complicates the timeline. Unlike its first attempt, this time Brookfield anticipates having to secure state permits under Act 250 because the project now includes a hotel. Further, officials have questions that could throw a wrench in the tax increment financing. But after many delays, said Glassberg, “The stuff they delivered to us ... is the kind of stuff we’ve been looking for forever. I thought it was great news.” Read Courtney Lamdin’s full story at sevendaysvt.com.

After cutting its hours over money woes, the Vermont 2-1-1 call center is aiming to open 24-7 by December 6. Apparently the original budget was a wrong number.

TOPFIVE

MOST POPULAR ITEMS ON SEVENDAYSVT.COM

AGE APPROPRIATE? A

new product arrived last week at Paul Kerin’s booze outlet, Vergennes Wine. This holiday season, anyone can put money on an 802 Spirits gift card for that special someone. It’s the anyone part that disturbs Kerin. Since he bought the store about a decade ago, Kerin has instructed his employees to card patrons and to refuse the sale of alcohol to anyone under 21. But the fine print on the gift card says those in the booze business can sell them to people under 21 — though minors can’t redeem them.

Kerin worries about the message that sends to children. “There may be a legal right to do this, but there’s also a moral right, and it doesn’t morally make it the right thing to do,” he said. “I want to make a buck. But the reality is, not if there’s a chance that this could be a problem with our youth. That bothers me.” Patrick Delaney, commissioner of the Vermont Department of Liquor & Lottery, which regulates the sale of liquor, said there’s nothing unethical going on. “Our message has consistently been

that we do not approve or support underage drinking in any sense,” Delaney said. “Selling a gift card to an individual who’s under 21 is not contrary to that message.” Because it’s a state program, Delaney said, liquor store operators must offer the cards and cannot pick and choose to whom they sell them. “I believe it would be prejudicial, potentially, to not allow certain classes, certain ages or certain types of individuals to purchase these,” he said. Despite his reservations, Kerin said he would abide by the rules. “The optics of it and everything else just doesn’t make sense in this day and age,” he lamented. SASHA GOLDSTEIN

SEVEN DAYS NOVEMBER 27-DECEMBER 4, 2019

Donate a car…Change a life! THANKS A LOT.

Donate your unneeded vehicle to Good News Garage and help a Vermont family in need. Over 5,000 cars awarded to local families since 1996.

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founders/Coeditors Pamela Polston, Paula Routly owners Don Eggert, Pamela Polston, Cathy Resmer,

Colby Roberts, Paula Routly publisher Paula Routly deputy publisher Cathy Resmer AssoCiAte publishers

Don Eggert, Pamela Polston, Colby Roberts NEWS & POLITICS editor Matthew Roy deputy editor Sasha Goldstein Consulting editor Candace Page stAff writers Derek Brouwer, Colin Flanders,

Paul Heintz, Courtney Lamdin, Kevin McCallum, Molly Walsh speCiAl projeCt stAff writer Kate O’Neill speCiAl projeCt interns

Lena Camilletti, Violet Bell ARTS & LIFE editor Pamela Polston AssoCiAte editor Margot Harrison AssistAnt editors Dan Bolles, Elizabeth M. Seyler MusiC editor Jordan Adams CAlendAr writer Kristen Ravin speCiAlty publiCAtions MAnAger Carolyn Fox stAff writers Jordan Barry, Chelsea Edgar,

Margaret Grayson, Ken Picard, Sally Pollak

proofreAders Carolyn Fox, Elizabeth M. Seyler

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D I G I TA L & V I D E O dAtA editor Andrea Suozzo digitAl produCtion speCiAlist Bryan Parmelee senior MultiMediA produCer Eva Sollberger MultiMediA journAlist James Buck AudienCe engAgeMent speCiAlist Gillian English DESIGN CreAtive direCtor Don Eggert Art direCtor Rev. Diane Sullivan produCtion MAnAger John James

FEEDback READER REACTION TO RECENT ARTICLES

CH-CH-CHANGES

Thanks to Chelsea Edgar for her excellent piece on Huntington Open Women’s Land [“HOWLing at the Moon,” November 20]. With her trademark insight, humor and deep research, she gave a substantive and respectful overview of how things are evolving for HOWL in particular, and women’s spaces in general, as ideas about gender and identity change. I feel like the heart of the story was a quote from current caretaker Meg Mass, who says, “It’s not about undoing [the founding generation’s] work but building upon it.” Maybe Edgar should do a whole book about this generational phenomenon. She could title it, Who Moved My Chaga Mushroom? Alison Bechdel

BOLTON

designers Jeff Baron, Brooke Bousquet, Kirsten Cheney SALES & MARKETING direCtor of sAles Colby Roberts senior ACCount exeCutive Michael Bradshaw ACCount exeCutives Robyn Birgisson,

Michelle Brown, Kristen Hutter, Logan Pintka MArketing & events direCtor Corey Grenier sAles & MArketing CoordinAtor Katie Hodges A D M I N I S T R AT I O N business MAnAger Cheryl Brownell direCtor of CirCulAtion Matt Weiner CirCulAtion deputy Jeff Baron CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Luke Baynes, Justin Boland, Alex Brown, Rick Kisonak, Jacqueline Lawler, Amy Lilly, Bryan Parmelee, Melissa Pasanen, Jernigan Pontiac, Julia Shipley, Molly Zapp CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS Luke Awtry, Harry Bliss, Luke Eastman, Caleb Kenna, Marc Nadel, Tim Newcomb, Susan Norton, Oliver Parini, Sarah Priestap, Jeb Wallace-Brodeur C I R C U L AT I O N : 3 6 , 0 0 0 Seven Days is published by Da Capo Publishing Inc. every Wednesday. It is distributed free of charge in greater Burlington, Middlebury, Montpelier, Northeast Kingdom, Stowe, the Mad River Valley, Rutland, St. Albans, St. Johnsbury, White River Junction and Plattsburgh, N.Y.

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DISCLOSURE: Seven Days publisher and coeditor Paula Routly is the domestic partner of Vermont Senate President Pro Tempore Tim Ashe. Routly abstains from involvement in the newspaper’s Statehouse and state political coverage. Find our conflict of interest policy here: sevendaysvt.com/disclosure.

P.O. BOX 1164, BURLINGTON, VT 05402-1164 802-864-5684 SEVENDAYSVT.COM @SEVENDAYSVT

‘BIO’ HAZARD

[Re “HOWLing at the Moon,” November 20]: I really feel for the “Sisters of Sappho” here in Vermont and nationwide who, after all the hard work and gains that started in the 1960s to finally carve out a place that writer Chelsea Edgar calls “penis-free,” see it all evaporate in a cloud of political correctness by “women” with penises who decided they were not men. I feel especially bad for the young women whose mothers and grandmothers fought to get Title IX recognition, funding and equity for biowomen in school programs and sports. To see all that dissipate on account of bio-men who just waltz in and take record after record, canceling out all the hard work and pain just because they can. I’m with the older lesbians. Screw the PC culture. Why allow this insanity for 0.001 percent of the population and ignore the 55 percent? I think this is a line most Americans will not allow to be crossed, no matter the “howls” from the trans community. Steve Merrill NORTH TROY

IN DEFENSE OF DE CHAMPLAIN

[Re “Big Colonizer on Campus,” November 6]: I would strongly urge the reading of David Hackett Fischer’s book Champlain’s Dream, an incredibly wellresearched historical account of the man and settling of New France. Coming out of the religious wars in France and appalled at what he observed

WEEK IN REVIEW

TIM NEWCOMB

30 years (as the author tell us at the end). And these poems are nothing like what one might scribble while stoned at 3 a.m. They are as carefully constructed as a fine, handcrafted cabinet and as free as a cardinal leaping from a branch. Like the I Ching itself, these poems push us, as they must have pushed the poet, to confront inner realities built out of experience and observation of the world. Kudos to the poet and to Burlington’s Fomite Press for bringing out this fine book. Dave Cavanagh

BURLINGTON

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DOWNTOWN IN TROUBLE

of how the Spanish treated natives in the territories they conquered, Samuel de Champlain had a radically different vision. It included respect for native culture and cultural exchange — having young Frenchmen go and live in native villages, and natives, in return, living in France. Much there to be admired, given the times and circumstance. John Freitag

SOUTH STRAFFORD

alone in a car while buses travel the same routes, and bikes are just more fun. Put them together, and now you can really get somewhere. If you can ski, skate, snowmobile or walk in the winter, you can probably get somewhere on a bike, too. Bundle up, put on some lights and give it a try. While you might disappear in a Winooski roundabout pothole, you’re more than likely to find a great way to get outside, reduce road construction and put some action into your global concerns. Ryan Crehan

RAIL TALE

I enjoyed Courtney Lamdin’s fine article about Amtrak and the need to service the train overnight [“Runaway Train?” November 13]. This idea of an additional rail siding along the bike path between College and King streets is sure to boil over. Why not install that extra rail siding at the McNeil Generating Station? Steve Rivard

WILLISTON

BIKING IS BETTER

[Re “Montréal by Vélo,” October 30]: Though nights are getting longer and colder, commuting by bike is still a great option if you are prepared. Burlington, Essex Junction, Williston and the Vermont Agency of Transportation, among others, have made tremendous progress in adding and maintaining bicycle infrastructure in the region during the last few years. Let’s show our appreciation by leaving the car at home and making use of their hard work. The vast majority of commuters in the region are traveling

BURLINGTON

‘NOTHING RANDOM’

Thanks to Chelsea Edgar for her Quick Lit review of Hexagrams, by Anna Blackmer [“Heads or Tails,” October 30]. She does a service to readers in highlighting a beautiful book that uses the I Ching as a takeoff point for charting the poet’s personal journey in poems that feel both strange and familiar. They manage to be both crystalline and shadowy, and they invite readers to connect with their own journeys, as good art always does. Unfortunately, Edgar’s review sometimes misses the book’s power, as when it speaks of Blackmer’s language having a “sibylline randomness,” or in this sentence: “Like the head-exploding insights into the human condition you might scribble on a napkin while stoned at 3 a.m., Blackmer’s verse makes the most sense from just outside your skull.” I don’t know what “from just outside your skull” means, but I do know that there is nothing random about the language in these poems that were composed over

I would take issue with some of the comments in [Off Message: “Burlington Shop Owner Named Church Street Marketplace Head,” November 12]. The downtown is not doing well, and between the construction and the lack of parking due to the destruction of the downtown mall, my business, Randolin Music, had its worst summer — and is headed for its worst year — since opening in 2011. I talk with other storeowners, and everyone is saying the same thing. It’s difficult to understand how you can say business is booming when it’s not. The lack of parking alone has brought our business to the point of considering a move. It’s incredible the number of times customers complain about it or call asking how long we’re open because they’re looking for and can’t find parking. What we need from Mayor Miro Weinberger and the Burlington City Council are some real answers about what they plan on doing with the hole that was the Burlington mall and the almost 600 parking spaces they took out with it. Not to mention removing an indoor space that provided tourist and downtown customers with public restrooms and a place to get out of the weather in winter. If this is meant to be pro-business and business-friendly, it’s surely a joke. Nowa Crosby

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contents

LOOKING FORWARD

NOVEMBER 27-DECEMBER 4, 2019 VOL.25 NO.10

Charging Forward

Battery power projects are surging in Vermont

Jake Burton Carpenter, Father of Snowboarding, Dies at 65

BY KEVIN MCCALLUM

BY SASHA GOLDSTEIN

NEWS & POLITICS 12

Migrant Justice Wins $150,000 Grant to Expand Milk With Dignity BY COLIN FLANDERS

Burlington reacts to a Winooski Avenue redo that could eliminate 121 parking spots

UVM’s four-year graduation rate is up, but the school’s new president wants it even higher

Officials Want to Close Woodside, Vermont’s Only Juvenile Lockup

VIDEO SERIES

Page 32: Short Takes on Five Vermont Books

BY JORDAN BARRY, MARGARET GRAYSON, MARGOT HARRISON & PAMELA POLSTON

Online Thursday

No More Waiting: Breadloaf Writer’s Conference Ends a Tradition

Health: When homes stumble, frail Vermonters get hurt

Deep Dive

History: Getting to the bottom of the 1860 schooner Sarah Ellen in Lake Champlain BY KEN PICARD

No Cuisine Is an Island

Food: Café Mamajuana brings Dominican flavors to Burlington

Tumbling Dice

Food + Drink: Games and grilled cheese at the Boardroom Café in Burlington

The Magnificent 7 Life Lines Food + Drink Calendar Classes Music + Nightlife Art Movies Fun Stuff Personals Classifieds + Puzzles

No Accounting for Taste

Music: Vermont musicians take on their most hated pop songs at “Worst. Song. Ever.”

Worse for Care

BY DEREK BROUWER & EMILY CORWIN, WITH DATA REPORTING BY ANDREA SUOZZO

11 21 48 54 65 68 78 84 88 92 C1

BY SALLY POLLAK

FEATURES

SECTIONS

BY JORDAN BARRY

In Concert and in Class, Emily Taubl Plays Well With Others BY AMY LILLY

Post Modern

Culture: Seven extremely specific college Instagram accounts BY MARGARET GRAYSON

BY MARGARET GRAYSON

BY KEVIN MCCALLUM

BY COURTNEY LAMDIN

ARTS NEWS

BY MOLLY WALSH

Park or Ride

Party’s Over

INSIDE! THE 2019 SEVEN DAYS HOLIDAY SHOPPING HANDBOOK

BY JORDAN ADAMS

COLUMNS + REVIEWS 29 31 49 69 73 78 84 93

Drawn & Paneled ART Hackie CULTURE Side Dishes FOOD Soundbites MUSIC Album Reviews Art Review Movie Reviews Ask the Reverend ADVICE

V E R M O N T ’ S I N D E P E N D E N T V O I C E NOVEMBER 27-DECEMBER 4, 2019 VOL.25 NO.10 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

TRADING SPACES

New plan for Winooski Ave. PAGE 13

ALL ABOARD

Games café opens in BTV PAGE 52

When elder homes stumble, frail Vermonters get hurt B Y D E R E K B R O U W E R & E M I LY C O R W I N , W I T H D ATA R E P O R T I N G B Y A N D R E A S U O Z Z O , PA G E 3 4

Underwritten by:

Stuck in Vermont: The mills in Winooski no longer weave wool, but the Heritage Winooski Mill Museum hosted local fiber artists recently for the first Fiber Fair Friday, at which visitors purchased colorful yarns, macramé and felted hats.

COVER IMAGE JAMES BUCK COVER DESIGN REV. DIANE SULLIVAN

Give the gift of good food & good cheer this season! Jewelry & Gifts shelburnebay plaza 2989 shelburne rd • 985.9909 alittlesomethingvt.com

next to the Shelburne Meat Market

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SEVEN DAYS NOVEMBER 27-DECEMBER 4, 2019

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Join us Join us Friday, Friday, November 29th 23rd November through Sunday, Sunday, December25th 1st November

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LOOKING FORWARD

the

MAGNIFICENT FICENT MUST SEE, MUST DO THIS WEEK COMPI L E D BY KRISTEN RAVIN

ONGOING

Inside Scoop Who better to talk through a Shelburne Museum exhibition than one of the museum’s curators? Chief curator Kory Rogers shares his intimate knowledge of “Joel Barber & the Modern Decoy” in a conversation with Susan Larson. The unique exhibit highlights the life and work of author, illustrator and decoy collector Barber through more than 100 decoys, drawings, photos and watercolors from the museum’s collection. SEE REVIEW ON PAGE 78

FRIDAY 29

SATURDAY 30 & SUNDAY 1

Hey, Dude White Russian, anyone? Fans of the 1998 cultclassic comedy starring Jeff Bridges as a schlubby stoner caught up in a ransom gone wrong head to the Highland Center for the Arts in Greensboro for The Big Lebowski Fest. Light eats and drink specials spice up this special screening. Finally, an occasion to wear your bathrobe in public.

FURRY FRIENDS

What do rugs, toys and sweaters have in common? They can all contain alpaca fiber, loved by many for its warmth, strength and soft texture. Animal lovers and fiber-arts fans alike come face-to-face with the furry fauna during the Maple View Farm Alpacas Holiday Open House in Brandon. Visitors at the 100-acre farm meet the long-haired mammals, check out the mill and browse the farm store.

SEE CALENDAR LISTING ON PAGE 57

WEDNESDAY 4

Community Service How can citizens and law enforcement work together to create safe and healthy communities? Burlington Police Chief Brandon del Pozo addresses this and other questions in his talk “Policing and Community in Vermont.” Del Pozo speaks at Montpelier’s Kellogg-Hubbard Library as part of the Vermont Humanities’ First Wednesdays lecture series.

SEE CALENDAR LISTING ON PAGE 58

SEE CALENDAR LISTING ON PAGE 62

STARTS WEDNESDAY 27

Do-Re-Mi Northern Stage strikes a chord with its holidayseason production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music. “Spiritually, The Sound of Music is about hope and resolve in the face of darkness and complicity,” director Maggie Burrows told Broadway World. See the beloved musical at the Barrette Center for the Arts in White River Junction. SEE CALENDAR LISTING ON PAGE 56

THURSDAY 28

Holiday Spirit

L NI

A RE

TI M

E. C O

The Washington County Youth Service Bureau/ Boys & Girls Club sets the table for folk of all ages and backgrounds to bond over a hearty holiday spread with all the fixings. The 47th annual sitdown Community Thanksgiving Dinner is served at Bethany United Church of Christ in Montpelier. Delivery service is available for home-bound Washington County residents. A

SEE CALENDAR LISTING ON PAGE 56

FRIDAY 29-SUNDAY 1

Need for Speed Don’t blink or you might miss some of the world’s fastest women alpine ski racers speeding down Killington Resort slopes. Enjoying free general admission, sports fans cheer as athletes compete in slalom and giant slalom races. Fireworks, parades, movies and live music by the likes of Grace Potter and Twiddle keep HomeLight Killington Cup revelry going all weekend. SEE CALENDAR LISTING ON PAGE 57

SEVEN DAYS NOVEMBER 27-DECEMBER 4, 2019

news

MORE INSIDE

SNOWBOARDING LOSES A GIANT PAGE 14

IMMIGRATION

UVM PREZ PUSHES FOUR-YEAR PLAN

JUST JUVIE: WOODSIDE COULD CLOSE

PAGE 18

PAGE 19

KEVIN MCCALLUM

ENERGY

Nick Stanhope checking the status of one of Green Mountain Power’s grid-level batteries

Charging Forward Battery power projects are surging in Vermont B Y K E VI N MCCA LLUM

ny doubts that Jennifer Hannux had about the two pricey Tesla Powerwall batteries in her rural Hartland home drained away over the Halloween weekend. Strong winds and flooding knocked out power to more than 100,000 Green Mountain Power customers, including those in her neighborhood. But the Hannux family’s lights stayed on. So did their refrigerator. And their hot water heater. “For a power outage, it was definitely a pretty pleasant one,” Hannux said. The lights also continued to burn for another 1,100 Green Mountain Power customers who otherwise would have been in the dark, because lithium-ion Powerwalls in their homes provided instant backup power. The utility tells customers that a pair of Powerwalls can supply electricity to a typical home for up to 24 hours. During the most recent outage, some customers needed the systems only for a few hours until service was restored. The Hannux family, who cut back on usage and also tapped a portable generator to power 12

some devices, drew on forefront of Vermont’s theirs for 55 hours. One vibrant renewable energy GMP customer in South economy. Royalton used a Powerwall While utilities are for 82 hours, according to pushing the in-home the utility. battery packs, developers GMP began installing have begun to incorporate and renting the batteries shipping-container-size to customers for just $15 batteries into solar proja month in a $15.5 million ects, storing energy for pilot program that began use when the sun goes down. in 2017. The batteries had And investors are performed during blackouts many times since, but building stand-alone never on such a scale. battery projects to rent to “They’ve been amazutilities in the risky game ing,” said Josh Castonguay, of “peak shaving” — drawC H AD FAR R E L L GMP’s chief innovation ing power from batteries officer. “This Halloween instead of the regional storm solidified how well they perform.” grid when demand and costs are highest. “I would love to get them in every “Things are happening very quickly home,” Castonguay added. right now,” said Matt Kakley, spokesperThat’s not going to happen anytime son for ISO New England, the Massachusoon, in part because the utility has agreed setts-based organization that manages to limit new Powerwall installations to 500 the regional power grid. “People are very customers per year for now. But battery storage is nevertheless charging to the CHARGING FORWARD » P.16

SEVEN DAYS NOVEMBER 27-DECEMBER 4, 2019

VERMONT’S RENEWABLE ENERGY GOALS ARE IN JEOPARDY IF WE CAN’T FIGURE OUT HOW TO BEST DEPLOY ENERGY STORAGE.

Migrant Justice Wins $150,000 Grant to Expand Milk With Dignity B Y C OLIN F L A N DER S

Migrant Justice has won a $150,000 grant in recognition of its efforts to expand its Milk with Dignity program, which seeks to provide migrant farmworkers with better working conditions. The Workers Lab, which invests in experimental ways to empower working people, selected Migrant Justice and four other winners out of more than 200 applicants. Will Lambek, a Migrant Justice organizer, said the grant award is a “testament to the work that immigrant dairy workers in Vermont have done to create, fight for and implement this program that’s now transforming the industry.” He and Enrique Balcazar, a Migrant Justice spokesperson, traveled to New York last month to meet with the Workers Lab board of directors and give a program presentation. The organization received applications from 39 U.S. states and 14 countries. Migrant Justice has an operating budget of less than $500,000, Lambek said, so the grant will make a “huge impact.” The Milk with Dignity program enlists dairy companies to sign enforceable agreements that set requirements on wages, work schedule, health and safety, and housing. It also establishes an independent council to monitor and enforce the standards. Migrant Justice plans to use some of the grant on a public campaign urging Hannaford to join the Milk with Dignity program, an expansion that would help cover “hundreds more [workers],” Lambek said. In 2017, after two years of negotiations, Migrant Justice reached an agreement with Ben & Jerry’s to enroll the ice cream company’s northeast dairy supply chain — more than 70 Vermont and New York farms — in the program. The deal aids more than 300 workers, according to Migrant Justice, which said at the time that it was only the beginning of its efforts. In October, more than 150 advocates marched to Hannaford’s Burlington location and delivered a letter to its manager. Migrant Justice coordinated similar demonstrations around New England earlier this month, Lambek said. The Workers Lab also considered Migrant Justice’s overall efforts on behalf of working people, including its advocacy for the basic human rights of its members. Contact: colin@sevendaysvt.com

Park or Ride

Burlington reacts to a Winooski Avenue redo that could eliminate 121 parking spots

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iam Griffin was pedaling his bike on South Winooski Avenue in front of Burlington’s Pure Pop Records when a bus stopped in front of him to pick up a passenger. Griffin started to pass the bus on the left, but when the motorized vehicle pulled back into traffic, it clipped Griffin’s front bike tire, sending him sprawling. The fall cracked his helmet and tore up his jacket, but he avoided serious injury. The close call nine years ago was one of a handful Griffin has had on the downtown street, which has no bike lanes. “That is not a fun section of road for anyone,” Griffin said. “People should be able to make reasonable choices about how they want to get around town and not think, Oh, am I going to die if I do this?” City planners have finally heeded his call. Recently L I A M G RI FFIN released designs are intended to improve safety along North and South Winooski avenues, one of only a few roads that runs continuously through downtown, between Riverside Avenue and Howard Street. But the proposals are meeting resistance, especially from those with businesses along

North Winooski Avenue in Burlington’s Old North End. Like other recent city street makeovers, this one improves conditions for pedestrians and cyclists at the expense of parking spots, generating pushback from those who drive. The Winooski Avenue proposals are preliminary but could go to the Burlington City Council by early next year. Concepts call for adding bike lanes to both sides of the 1.7-mile road, which would remove 121 parking spaces — more than one-third of the spots along the entire stretch. The changes are worrisome enough that nearly two dozen representatives from local businesses called an emergency meeting earlier this month to air their grievances to city officials. “The idea of taking 10 places away is kind of horrific at this point,” April Werner, a proprietor of North End Studios, said during the November 6 event at nearby Butch + Babe’s restaurant. “We can’t even talk about some of these other improvements when we have this basic problem,” Werner continued. She noted that it is the businesses themselves that are making the area “more of a destination.” Young professionals have moved into the once blue-collar neighborhood, bringing with them eateries and amenities. Across the street from Butch + Babe’s

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news SPORTS

One of the North Winooski Avenue concepts

Jake Burton Carpenter, Father of Snowboarding, Dies at 65 BY S A S H A GO L D S TE I N

Contact: sasha@sevendaysvt.com

COURTESY OF RSG

Jake Burton Carpenter, the man who pioneered the sport of snowboarding and whose name graces its leading board and apparel company, died at the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington on November 20. He was 65. The cause was complications from recurring cancer, said Taren Dolbashian, a spokesperson at the company Carpenter founded, Burton Snowboards. He’d initially been diagnosed with testicular cancer in 2011. Carpenter sent an email to employees earlier this month announcing that the cancer “has come back.” “He was the most incredible human,” Dolbashian said, speaking through tears. “This is absolutely devastating. He inspired all of us.” Burton Snowboards co-CEO John Lacy announced the news last Thursday in an email to staff. “He was our founder, the soul of snowboarding, the one who gave us the sport we all love so much,” wrote Lacy, who shares the CEO role with Carpenter’s wife, Donna Carpenter. “Ride on Jake.” Jake Burton Carpenter founded the company in Vermont in 1977. He eventually opened its world headquarters in Burlington, where it remains today. Once a sport that struggled to gain mainstream acceptance, snowboarding became an Olympic event at the 1998 games in Nagano, Japan. At last year’s Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, the American snowboarding team wore duds created by Burton, for the fourth time. Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Gov. Phil Scott, and Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger were among the elected officials who released statements mourning Carpenter’s death and highlighting his impact on snowboarding and the state of Vermont. The company has yet to announce plans for a memorial service. At the time of his death, Carpenter was surrounded by family members, according to Dolbashian. He’s survived by Donna and three sons. “As a start of our celebration of Jake’s life, I’d encourage everyone to do what Jake would be doing tomorrow, and that’s riding,” Lacy wrote in his message to staff. “It’s opening day at Stowe, so consider taking some turns together, in celebration of Jake.” m

Park or Ride « P.13 is a 4-year-old apartment complex that’s home to a first-floor yoga studio. Around the corner on Riverside is Pizzeria Ida, where a cheese-and-tomato calzone will cost you $25 and a plain cheese pizza goes for $33. Knead Bakery, which serves vegan fare, opened last year. While the hip new spots attract their fair share of bike-riding, climateconscious clientele, the business owners worry that the parking reduction would impact their bottom line. “The option that’s being presented doesn’t feel collaborative or like a winwin,” Butch + Babe’s owner Kortnee Bush said, adding that 80 percent of her customers come by car. The city began an official corridor study back in February 2018, but Burlington Public Works Director Chapin Spencer said upgrades have been discussed for decades. Safety is a major concern: The stretch has six high-crash locations, areas with a collision rate higher than the state average for comparable roadways. Ten percent of all vehicle crashes citywide between 2013 and 2017 happened along the avenue, which has been identified as problematic in several city plans and studies dating back to 2000. RSG, a consulting firm hired by the city and the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission, came up with 13 proposals for segments of the corridor. All include bike lanes. Some propose traffic-calming measures, such as mini roundabouts at dangerous intersections, to make travel safer for pedestrians. One

SEVEN DAYS NOVEMBER 27-DECEMBER 4, 2019

plan maintained all 340 parking spots Griffin, the bike commuter, has lived in but would have eliminated the street’s the New North End for six of his 20 years greenbelt — the grassy strip between in the Burlington area. He owns a vehicle the sidewalk and the road. That would but primarily uses his cargo bike in town, have required relocating utility poles and even to shuttle his two kids to their school rebuilding curbs, a costly proposition that in the Old North End. He participated in was ultimately nixed. the North Avenue study but thinks the In the business owners’ worst-case Winooski Avenue corridor will be more scenario, the Old North End would lose contentious because of parking: The city 109 parking spaces between Riverside removed 157 spaces from North Avenue, and Pearl Street, just short of but they were only used half the parking stock on the 3 percent of the time. On heavily traveled stretch. The Winooski Avenue, the park87 spots between King and ing utilization rate averages Howard streets would stay, 68 percent, according to but 12 spaces between Main Burlington’s senior transporand King streets would go. tation planner, Nicole Losch. If enacted, the plan would And while far more Old be the most ambitious makeNorth Enders walk to work over for a city stretch since than their northern counter2016, when officials started parts, they’re also more than a pilot program that reduced three times as likely to live in 0.8 miles of North Avenue a multiunit dwelling than a from four lanes to three and single-family home, according to data from four U.S. installed bike lanes. Project opponents petitioned to stop Census tracts in the neighborit and convinced the city counhoods. Griffin estimated that cil to put an advisory question there are more cars per housR O B M EEH A N on the ballot that March. The ing unit in the Old North End measure was defeated by than elsewhere in the city, and a wide margin and, in 2017, the bike lanes not every rental includes off-street parking. became permanent. A traffic study found That’s the case for 22-year-old David commute times increased by three minutes, Dalton, who lives on a one-way section but there were fewer crashes overall. of North Winooski. The triplex where he More recently, the city has begun its lives can house up to eight people, but Great Streets initiative on downtown there’s only off-street parking for six roadways. The plans eliminate dozens of vehicles. It’s difficult to find on-street parking spots and create narrower streets, parking, Dalton said, though he supports but they widen sidewalks and include bike the city’s efforts to create sustainable lanes. transportation options.

FOLKS WHO ARE STRUGGLING JUST TO GET BY ARE GOING TO HAVE

A HARDER TIME WITHOUT PLACES TO PARK.

“They’re doing the right thing,” he said. “Whether that right thing is convenient for me is a different issue altogether.” Just up the street from Dalton’s place is the Mawuhi African Market, which has its own parking woes. On a recent snowy afternoon, shop manager Charles Narh and a customer, Jackie Abeneto, complained that clientele for North Winooski’s new restos have crowded out parking. “It’s good you have all the varieties around, but if you come and have nowhere to park, it becomes a problem,” Narh said. Abeneto, who lives in South Burlington, said the market draws shoppers from as far as St. Albans and Montpelier. They need a parking spot nearby when they’re hauling bags of groceries, she said. The same is true down North Winooski at Feeding Chittenden, according to Rob Meehan, the food shelf ’s director. Many clients have physical disabilities, Meehan said, and the 10 spaces in its lot are usually full. “Folks who are struggling just to get by are going to have a harder time without places to park,” Meehan said. He’s called city officials multiple times to register his concerns. Other locals brought theirs — about alternative transportation and reducing carbon emissions — to a November 13 meeting at the Old North End Community Center. “It should have been done years ago,” Jason Van Driesche, the former deputy director of cycling advocacy group Local Motion, told the packed room. “This is the right plan, and it’s the time, and it needs to happen.” Another attendee agreed: “I’m scared biking on Winooski Ave. I cannot safely bike there,” he said. “And I’m scared of climate change. This is a serious issue.” Public Works’ Spencer said officials are taking the feedback seriously. The city council’s transportation committee will review the concepts before the full council considers them in early 2020, after the draft report is issued. Already, the city has committed to doing an in-depth parking study before any paint touches the pavement. That’s not good enough for some. Christopher Adams, an employee at Dolan’s Auto, told his fellow business representatives at the November 6 Butch + Babe’s meeting that the issue should be put to a citywide vote instead of being left to the whims of officials. If councilors get to decide, he said, “We’re all gonna be screwed.” m

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11/20/2019 11/22/19 12:27:08 1:13 PMPM

news Charging Forward « P.12

GMP program, called Bring Your Own Device. Most people with Powerwalls in their homes do not own or control them. That lack of control made state Rep. Robin Chesnut-Tangerman (P- Middletown Springs) uncomfortable, but he signed up for the Powerwall rental program anyway. “One of my concerns was, in this initial pilot project, they can draw the battery down to nothing,” ChesnutTangerman said. He asked GMP officials if they could leave 20 percent in the batteries for emergencies, but he said he was told there weren’t enough participants in the program yet to permit such a buffer. Suppose, he asked, a car crash knocks out power, and people’s batteries had been drained? COURTESY OF GREEN MOUNTAIN POWER

excited about participating in the [energy] storage market, and we see storage playing an increasingly big role in the region going forward.” The number of groups looking to build large-scale battery projects for the New England grid more than doubled in just nine months of 2019, Kakley said. In Vermont, in-home and large-scale battery storage are generating buzz as homeowners and investors begin to recognize their potential. “The storage market today is where solar was seven or eight years ago,” said Chad Farrell, founder and CEO of Burlington-based Encore Renewable Energy. “Pricing is coming down, and products are getting more reliable and affordable.” Farrell’s firm specializes in designing solar projects for installation on properties unsuitable for other uses. The company is working on two arrays in Jericho, at a former landfill and a gravel pit, with Johnson-based Vermont Electric Co-op. Both projects are being designed with battery storage. The state needs more such projects if it is to remain a leader in clean energy, he said. “Vermont’s renewable energy goals are in jeopardy if we can’t figure out how to best deploy energy storage,” Farrell said.

VEC drew down the Hinesburg battery between 5 and 6 p.m. on July 30 to lower its power draw from the New England grid by one megawatt. That turned out, company officials later learned, to be the year’s peak electric usage in the region. That was lucky for VEC, because a utility’s share of the region’s power use during that crucial hour determines its grid costs for the following year. According to the co-op, its members will save $94,000 as a result. “Our estimates are that, in a good year, we’ll basically be able to give back about $100,000 to customers,” Towne said. GMP’s Castonguay explained that the company uses the Powerwalls in people’s homes in a similar fashion. The utility and Tesla control the batteries in the program, filling them with energy during

PEAK TWEAKERS

Storing power is also crucial to helping utilities save money, said Rebecca Towne, CEO of VEC. That’s why the utility partnered with the developer of a fourmegawatt battery in Hinesburg this year. VEC purchased the right to use the $2 million battery — which charges from the grid during off-peak hours, when electricity is in lower demand and less expensive — for up to 400 hours per year. When the utility thinks it is about to hit a peak demand period, it can avoid paying higher-demand prices for power from the regional grid by drawing down the battery, Towne explained. The arrangement is an affordable option for the small cooperative, which has 32,000 members. So-called “peak shaving” can be a tricky investment, however. There are annual and monthly peaks, and predicting when they will hit is a complicated calculation involving the time of day, weather and when other utilities turn on their batteries. Misjudge the ever-shifting peaks by even a few minutes, and a utility will be basically drawing on expensive battery power — VEC says the rental rate is proprietary — for no benefit. But time the peak right, and the payoff can be more than worth the effort. 16

A Powerwall in Colchester

off-peak hours and draining them at times of heavy power usage, typically between 5 and 8 p.m. Initially, GMP managers decided when to flip the switch to use the batteries, Castonguay said. Now, a Tesla algorithm monitors for anticipated peaks and trips the switch automatically. Normally, that energy is fed to the local grid. But in the case of a power outage, the homeowner can draw from the battery, as the Hannuxes did at Halloween, to keep the lights on.

POWERLESS

There is a catch to renting a couple of pricey Powerwalls from GMP for $30 a month. Customers who own their own batteries get to say how much power they want to share with the utility, but because of the high up-front costs, relatively few people participate in that

SEVEN DAYS NOVEMBER 27-DECEMBER 4, 2019

“They said that, technically, that was possible, but statistically the chances were infinitesimal,” Chesnut-Tangerman said. “It happened a month later.” He and his wife, Melissa, were home one evening when the power went out without warning. “Both of us sort of did a double take and said, ‘Wait a minute, we have a Powerwall!’” he recalled. They realized that the utility had drained their battery earlier that evening, so the outage left them in the dark. Though power was restored the following morning, the incident underscored Chesnut-Tangerman’s concern. “We have no control over it whatsoever,” he said. Castonguay stressed that the utility doesn’t drain the batteries as storms approach, to ensure they’re charged up if needed. He also noted that the Tesla algorithm is very good at targeting

upcoming peaks. Batteries are rarely drained completely; the discharging ends as soon as the software senses the peak has passed. Program participants know the utility will use their batteries to keep overall system costs down — one of the reasons the Powerwalls’ cost is low. The $15-per-month fee over the 10-year life of the program amounts to $1,800 — much less than the $8,000 retail price of the batteries. The coordinated discharge of those batteries makes the low cost to homeowners possible. If it can time the peaks well, GMP estimates it can save all ratepayers — not just the ones with the batteries — at least $2 million over the next decade. While that amounts to a mere $2 annually per customer, more batteries from future phases will add to those savings, he said. Even so, GMP is asking to increase the monthly price it will charge new customers for two Powerwalls, from $30 to $55. The bump is needed to cover higher battery and installation costs and to make sure the benefits of the program are spread between Powerwall users and everyone else. Regulators with the state Public Utility Commission plan to take a close look at whether the storage program is living up to its promised returns to ratepayers. Riley Allen, deputy commissioner of the state Department of Public Service, expressed cautious optimism about electric utilities’ ability to help the state meet its energy goals, which call for Vermont to get 90 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2050. With battery prices, types and markets in such a state of flux, “you don’t want to invest too much too soon,” Allen said. The economics of the industry are likely to shift if the peaks are no longer as dramatic as they have been, he noted. As battery use surges, energy costs could level out, making peak-shaving harder, he said. Back in Hartland, Jennifer Hannux’s husband, Shawn, sees nothing but upside to their Powerwall rental. The $30 they pay monthly hasn’t even increased their GMP bill, he said. That’s probably because the Tesla app on his phone telling them how much energy is flowing into and out of the batteries has made family members more conscious of their energy use. The low cost and peace of mind he gets from knowing his family is safe if the power goes out made the rental decision an easy one. “For $360 a year, that’s a no-brainer for me,” he said. m Contact: kevin@sevendaysvt.com

JAKE, WITH BOTTOMLESS RESPECT AND LOVE, THANK YOU FOR FINDING YOUR OWN LINE IN LIFE AND INSPIRING A BOLD AND BEAUTIFUL SIDEWAYS CULTURE. WE SALUTE YOU. Our deepest sympathies to Donna and your family at home and around the world.

Fill it in, share it out: #JAKETHANKYOUFOR Instagram: @JAKETHANKYOUFOR Submitted with love anonymously to Seven Days

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11/15/19 11:07 AM

news

Party’s Over

UVM’s four-year graduation rate is up, but the school’s new president wants it even higher S T ORY & PH OT OS BY M OLLY WA LS H

Lowell Deschenes

leased by evidence that shows fewer undergraduates are meandering through the University of Vermont on the “five-year plan,” the school’s new president has begun taking steps to help even more students finish in four years. Graduating on time “directly and truly affects affordability,” Suresh Garimella told school trustees on October 25. “I think if students are here for an extra year they are paying a lot more money.” The four-year graduation rate at UVM hit 69.5 percent this year, the highest number in decades and almost double the anemic 36.9 percent national average for public universities. Just months into his tenure, Garimella followed his plug for on-time graduation with a rare proposal in mid-November — a tuition freeze next year. UVM last froze tuition in 1978, and the school’s annual sticker price for room, board, tuition and other expenses is now among the highest for state universities: $35,220 for Vermont students and $60,468 for those from out of state. Soaring student debt and growing competition to attract students from the shrinking demographic pool of high school seniors in the Northeast have intensified the admissions game. That makes affordability, Garimella said at last month’s trustees meeting, “perhaps our highest priority.”

As the new president carries out his cost-control mandate, many students say they’ve already received the memo and have no intention of dawdling on the way to their degrees. “It’s so much cheaper to do it in four years,” said Luke Beeson, a 21-year-old junior, as he stood in line with friends to buy a grilled cheese at a food truck next to the university green last Thursday. He’s hoping to graduate a semester early to save money and get into the world and the workplace. The wildlife biology major from Kennett Square, Pa., said he knows few students at the school who fit the stereotype of slacking college kids. “All the people I know are really motivated,” Beeson said. “I don’t think they want to stay here and party. They want to go and do more important things.” His friend Lowell Deschenes, a 21-year-old junior from Amesbury, Mass., expects to graduate within four years “because I don’t want to pay more money if I don’t have to.” UVM’s four-year graduation rate was a lackluster 46.3 percent back in 1999. It crept up over the next 15 years — with a few dips along the way — and measured 61.7 percent by 2014. The current rate of about 70 percent mirrors the University of New Hampshire, but trails the

EDUCATION

LAW ENFORCEMENT

Officials Want to Close Woodside, Vermont’s Only Juvenile Lockup BY K E VI N MC C A L L UM

Vermont officials are proposing to close the state’s only locked detention center for delinquent children next year, citing a drop in youth crime and a shift away from housing youth in such facilities. The number of kids that were housed each day at Woodside Juvenile Rehabilitation Center in Essex had been cut in half over the past four years, from as many as 25 to fewer than 12 last year, said Ken Schatz, commissioner of the state Department for Children and Families. The department oversees the facility, which houses children between the ages of 10 and 17. But the declining numbers led to discussion last year about whether to close the spartan center, build a smaller one or construct a larger, $23 million campus with several buildings. “The legislature made it pretty clear they weren’t interested in that proposal,” Schatz said of the third option. After expanding the number of beds at existing community-based youth programs, the department saw the number of youths housed at Woodside drop sharply over the summer, to fewer than five per day. Last Thursday, there were no wards at the center for the first time since it was built in 1986. The closure plan, which must be approved by the legislature, immediately drew condemnation from union officials,

University of Connecticut’s main campus at Storrs and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, which had a 2019 rate of 77 percent. On-time graduation has always mattered but is considered even more important now, said Bernard Mair, senior vice president for academic affairs at the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities in Washington, D.C. “Many parents and legislators and businesses are concerned about the return on investment,” he said. Colleges also face competition from a marketplace full of quick-finish computer-coding boot camps and similar trainings in other fields. Some very selective schools, many of which are private, have on-time graduation rates close to or above 90 percent. Middlebury College is among them. But such schools have the advantage of students who are highly prepared for college work and often come from higherincome families. Public universities draw from a broader pool, Mair noted, and in

who said Vermont should invest in a new facility instead of closing the only one of its kind in the state. They warned that the closure would lead to troubled kids being placed in out-ofstate programs of unknown quality. “It’s easier to send your problems out of state, and I think our members reject that,” said Steve Howard, executive director of the Vermont State Employees’ Association. “They think we should invest in a facility that meets the needs of our youth.” About 50 unionized state employees, including guards and social workers, look after kids detained at the center, many of whom have been violent. Schatz acknowledged that some Vermont youth are sent to out-of-state programs. Most are located in border states such as New Hampshire and Massachusetts, which in some cases are closer to the children’s homes than Essex, he said. In some special situations, youths can be sent to programs farther away, but that is not the department’s goal, Schatz continued: “We are working pretty hard to keep kids in family-like environments and keep kids close to home.” There are 59 delinquent youth currently in the department’s care, but the vast majority of them do not need the kind of locked detention environment that Woodside provides, the commissioner said. The facility remains open and is accepting youths when necessary. The department doesn’t plan any immediate changes, Schatz said. He noting that Gov. Phil Scott has been briefed on the closure plan. “My understanding is that the governor has no objections to it,” Schatz said. m

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some cases accept students who struggle academically and may need to work many hours at jobs while also handling their course load. Still, dragging out studies not only makes degrees more expensive, but costs students the income they could have made had they graduated, Mair said. Moreover, UVM and other public land-grant institutions have a mission to open higher education to more people, he added: “The longer a student occupies a space, the longer you deny access to an incoming student.” Delays may also increase the chance that a struggling student could lose momentum and never graduate, a potential worst-case scenario because the student would have no credential to help land a good job — but still have loads of debt. Garimella’s predecessor Tom Sullivan, who stepped down in June after

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a six-year run, pushed for gains in the graduation rate. Winter knits, jewelry, Under Sullivan, UVM beefed up candles, socks, belts, student support: Now undergraduates handbags + wallets, have academic advisers in their major, as kitchen accessories, well as access to peer and staff advisers perfumes + body care, on a drop-in basis. He pushed to reduce unisex robes, the length of time when students are in loungewear undeclared major status and rolled out and more! a new online program two years ago that allows students to better track completed and uncompleted courses as they work toward earning their degrees. “I think we have socialized students in ! $ " @HydrangeaToo a different way,” provost Patricia Prelock 199 College Street, Burlington said. Sullivan helped send a message that www.HydrangeaToo.com • (802) 862-0707 “we’re not on the five-year plan. We’re not on the six-year plan. We’re on the fouryear plan.” Participants Needed for a 12V-Hydrangea112719.indd 1 11/22/19 12:58 PM Garimella wants to expand on that by Research Study on the Brain encouraging students to make more use of summer sessions and online courses, especially to catch up on required credits they lack because they studied abroad, did an internship or switched majors. He also supports lifting certain requirements, such as the mandate that business majors also declare a minor. And the president has backed the introduction of Navigate — advising softHealthy, non-smoking participants ware equipped with a mobile app that’s (18-30 years old) needed for a 4 visit designed to improve communication UVM study on a chemical system in the and help students stay on track. Some healthy brain. Participants will receive students have complained that the system $400 for completion of the study. provides too much of their information Contact us at 847-8248 or to staff and faculty who are not their brainage@uvm.edu. personal advisers. In response to privacy concerns, UVM has agreed to restrict CLINICAL NEUROSCIENCE RESEARCH UNIT access to certain information, such as a student’s financial aid status. Tom Chittenden, a senior lecturer and president of the UVM Faculty Senate, is generally on board with the four-year 12v-uvmdeptpsych-Brainstudy062718.indd 1 6/28/18 11:38 AM plan but said some majors might require more time, including engineering and health sciences. He likes Garimella’s tuition freeze but said many faculty want to know how UVM will make up the resulting estimated $8 million gap in revenue. “The general impression I’ve had is ‘OK, we would love to know how we’re going to do that.’ We’re still waiting for more details,” Chittenden said. Sarah Alexander, an associate professor of English, was less skeptical. “I think it’s long overdue,” she said. “Tuition’s gotten really out of control.” Trims can be found without hurting academics, she believes. “I think it doesn’t have to come at the expense of the number of faculty we have or the quality of the education that we deliver,” she said. “There are a lot of other places to cut costs. I think it’s great.” *SO ME E XCLUSIONS APPLY

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UVM Four-Year Graduation Rate 100%

69.5%

75%

46.3%

SOURCE: UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT

SHOP

Catharine Harwin (left) and Hailey Muniz at Howe Library

50%

25%

1999

2004

2009

2014

2019

YEAR OF GRADUATION

During her decade at UVM, Alexander said, administrators have pressed to improve student advising. She is spending more time on that task than in the past, meeting face-to-face with her 23 advisees about course registration and academic issues. The face time with students builds a sense of connection. It’s also easier to track their degree progress in person than via email, she said. The race for an on-time finish has its downside. There’s not much wiggle room to change majors, according to Catharine Harwin, a 23-year-old senior from Hershey, Pa. She will graduate after the current semester, a four-year finish because she enrolled in January 2016. But as she searches for a job, she wishes her minor, statistics, were her major rather than environmental science.

The job market “isn’t there” for the environmental science major, she said, but her scholarships last only four years and there was no way to switch majors without delaying graduation. She hopes eventually to seek a master’s degree in data science and statistics but also feels intense pressure from her current loan debt. She spoke to Seven Days at UVM’s Howe Library last Thursday, shortly after she’d opened her laptop and calculated her final debt at graduation. The total: $77,400. “I cried,” she said. “This is a rough day.” Still, she hopes to land a job and put a dent in that balance before pursuing grad school. “Graduating on time is, like, a very big deal to me,” she said. Contact: molly@sevendaysvt.com

lifelines lines OBITUARY Joshua Cory Thermansen 1975-2019

Joshua Cory Thermansen, 44, of 29 Temple Street in Hartford, Conn., died on Thursday, November 14, 2019. He was born on August 8, 1975, in Bloomington, Ill., the son of Mark and Kandi Kelly Thermansen. A graduate of the University of Vermont, class of 1997, Josh enjoyed a career in the financial industry, employed most recently by Merrill Lynch in Hartford. He was married to Kate Aldinger in Newport, R.I., in 2008. Josh is survived by his former wife, Kate, and their children, Finnegan, 7, and Angus, 2, of Simsbury, Conn.; his parents, Mark and Kandi of South Burlington, Vt.; and his sister, Jennifer Thermansen O’Brien, her husband, Kevin, and their son, Graham, of Portland, Ore. A celebration of Josh’s life will be held on Saturday, December 28, from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. at the BCA Center located at 135 Church Street in Burlington, Vt., where we will share stories and experiences honoring his life. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the Champlain Housing Trust, 88 King St., Burlington, VT 05401. Your donation will be used toward our acute affordable housing shortage, as well as CHT’s strong programs addressing addiction throughout the Champlain Valley. Arrangements have been entrusted to the care of the Ready Funeral Home South Chapel, 261 Shelburne Rd., Burlington. Please visit readyfuneral.com to place online condolences.

Want to memorialize a loved one? We’re here to help. Our obituary and in memoriam services are affordable, accessible and handled with personal care. Share your loved one’s story with the local community in Lifelines.

Want to memorialize a loved one in Seven Days? Post your remembrance online and in print at sevendaysvt.com/lifelines. Or contact us at lifelines@sevendaysvt. com or 865-1020, ext. 10.

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Post your obituary or in memoriam online and in print at sevendaysvt.com/lifelines. Or contact us at lifelines@sevendaysvt.com or 865-1020 ext. 10.

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Things She’s Seen Pat Esden, Kensington Publishing, 222 pages. $4.99 ebook, $15.95 paperback.

She’d joined the coven mainly so she could live in the sanctuary of their complex while she got her act together.

Short Takes on Five Vermont Books

B Y JO R D A N B A R RY, MARGARET G R AYSO N , MA R GOT HARRISON & PA MEL A P O LST ON

even Days writers can’t possibly read, much less review, all the books that arrive in a steady stream by post, email and, in one memorable case, a skulk of arctic foxes. So this monthly feature is our way of introducing you to a handful of books by Vermont authors. To do that, we contextualize each book just a little and quote a single representative sentence from, yes, page 32. Inclusion here implies neither approval nor derision on our part, but simply: Here are a bunch of books, arranged alphabetically by authors’ names, that Seven Days readers might like to know about.

Ending the War on Artisan Cheese: The Inside Story of Government Overreach and the Struggle to Save Traditional Raw Milk Cheesemakers Catherine W. Donnelly, PhD, Chelsea Green Publishing, 224 pages. $24.95.

This would suggest an excellent track record of safety and suggests that current regulations appear to be working as intended to protect public health. When it comes to raw milk cheesemaking, the government is quick to ignore things like “excellent track records” and, you know, scientific facts, instead allowing international trade and special interest groups to drive policy making. That’s the argument of CATHERINE W. DONNELLY’s new book on the issues facing raw milk cheese production — or, as she put it at a recent event at the University of Vermont, “How I spent my sabbatical.” A professor of nutrition and food science at UVM, Donnelly has focused her career on Listeria. She publicly entered the raw milk cheese debate in December 2000, when the Cheese of Choice Coalition asked her to help determine the safety of such cheeses. Her expertise in the microbiological safety of dairy products might lead readers to expect a book all about pasteurization. Instead, Ending the War outlines the dichotomies of the cheese world and its regulation: industry versus artisans; standardization versus tradition; large-scale interest groups versus opportunities for struggling farmers. It’s an academic yet necessary read for anyone who loves cheese or loathes arbitrary government oversight, opening our eyes to the degree to which regulations dictate our food choices. J. B .

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Burlington’s South End has many delights, but they don’t include a witches’ coven in a boho warehouse complex — to our knowledge, anyway. PAT ESDEN remedies that deficiency. In book two of her Northern Circle Coven series, the author shifts her focus to recent initiate Emily Adams, who endured a horrific childhood touring the country as “the world’s youngest medium.” Em’s elders treated her like a lucrative circus act, but her ability to communicate with the dead is the real deal. When Em senses a stubborn ghost haunting the mystery man who’s been sent to investigate the coven, she resolves to root out the dark forces that could be menacing her refuge. Like the previous book, this one pairs romance and peril with spells, séances and divination. The characters also tackle less glamorous problems: Both the recently sober Em and her love interest attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. Em’s struggle to rebuild her life, one day at a time, adds a poignant note of realism to Esden’s paranormally enhanced version of the Queen City. M.H.

Sleepwater Beat Kathrin Hutson, Exquisite Darkness Press, 408 pages. $3.99 ebook, $14.99 paperback.

“You will mark it right,” she amended, clasping that strange power like a flitting bug in her hands. Kids are often told to “use your words.” But when Leo does just that, she accesses a fearsome ability to make people believe whatever she chooses to tell them. This science fiction novel by Colchester’s KATHRIN HUTSON opens with Leo homeless and on the run, using her power to shoplift cigarettes. When she meets a member of Sleepwater Beat, a group of people with similar powers, she hopes she’s found a safe haven. But Sleepwater Beat is underground for a reason, and Leo finds herself caught in the clash between the group and an unholy confluence of Big Pharma, Big Tech and the government. Hutson, a coeditor of Burlingtonbased Mud Season Review, brings a delicate noir sensibility to this origin story (the first in a series), alternating between present action and flashbacks to Leo’s troubled childhood. Her world has a gritty, cyberpunk feel, and some of the ideas she brings to life on the page, such as a popular, dangerously addictive drug that helps the brain learn faster, are all too plausible. M.H.

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Small Town Rep.: My Personal and Political Journey To and Through Vermont’s State House Dave Larsen, self-published/Shires Press, 686 pages. $26.95.

It quickly became clear to me that if I failed to keep up with the physical demands of basic training I would be recycled. Former Vermont legislator and Wilmington teacher DAVE LARSEN might have been a “small town rep,” but the measures of his book are far from modest. First, it is almost 700 pages long. Larsen has much to say about his life, beginning with the comment that as a toddler he “looked very much like Dwight David Eisenhower.” That doesn’t indicate a bent toward Republicanism; Larsen, who was born in 1948 and came of age in the turbulent ’60s, fell politically in “the middle of the bell curve,” he writes. In the Vermont House of Representatives (198797), he was a moderate Democrat. Other superlatives apply: Small Town Rep. is highly readable, if occasionally TMI, and reflects impressive record keeping. Larsen’s account cites sources ranging from a personal journal to publicly recorded speeches to letters from constituents. All of this informs a personal memoir and chronicle of Larsen’s decade in the Statehouse, but it’s also a primer on the messy, boring, thrilling business of democracy. P. P.

How to Prepare Bear Laura Budofsky Wisniewski, Red Bird Chapbooks, 27 pages. $12.

No one — I have slain the witness. The last line of LAURA BUDOFSKY WISNIEWSKI’s chapbook How to Prepare Bear strikes just as definitively as the first, in which the narrator declares herself “I of the multiple orgasms.” The 20 poems in between are equally declarative. Though Wisniewski has written poetry on and off her entire life, she said in an interview, she wasn’t able to dedicate herself to it until she turned 60. Now, at 67, the Hinesburg poet has established a confident voice that she applies to topics including grief, sex, longing and survival. Predator and prey take turns in each role; bodies are forged of wood and wildness; a woman observes the world around her and tries to decide how to occupy it. The title poem describes the preparation of bear meat and the mystery of the animal that remains. The volume is slim — not quite 32 pages, so we picked a line from page 27 instead — but Wisniewski will publish a full-length collection of poems next year. M.G.

Contact: jbarry@sevendaysvt.com, margaret@sevendaysvt.com, margot@sevendaysvt.com, pamela@sevendaysvt.com

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No More Waiting: Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference Ends a Tradition B Y M AR GA R ET GR AY SON

CREATIVE WRITING

A Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference lecture in 1951

COURTESY OF MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE SPECIAL COLLECTIONS

lenty of writers have worked in food service. For more than 50 years, though, being a “waiter” on the mountain campus of Middlebury College’s Bread Loaf School of English meant something more. It was the distinction handed to promising writers at one of the literary community’s bestknown conferences. In November, JENNIFER GROTZ, director of the BREAD LOAF WRITERS’ CONFERENCE, announced in a public letter that she will discontinue the waiter program, which was Bread Loaf ’s primary scholarship opportunity. Instead the conference will now offer funding to writers at various career stages without tying it to work in the dining hall. Working as a waiter during the 10-day Bread Loaf conference each August was a rite of passage for many writers. Those selected for the position were rewarded with free attendance and the opportunity to give a reading during the conference. “The waiter-work scholars were about 20 writers, out of about 300 who attend the conference,” Grotz said in a phone interview. “It was a small population, but it was a well known and symbolic one.” A suggestion from Robert Frost was the impetus for founding the conference in 1926. Since then, many writers have spoken of Bread Loaf as their first foray into the broader literary community, an intense experience from which great camaraderie could spring. Others have criticized the conference for its association with drinking and debauchery — particularly in its earlier decades — or for perpetuating elitist notions of who could be a great writer. Writers have traditionally applied to Bread Loaf at one of three levels: Contributor, Scholar and Fellow. Before Grotz’s recent changes, Bread Loaf attendees at the Contributor level usually paid full tuition — which was $3,631 at the 2019 conference. Contributors include earlystage writers and those who haven’t yet published in literary journals. Scholars, the writers who worked as waiters, typically have some publishing experience but haven’t published a book; Fellows have one book under their belts. While Scholars and Fellows have always received funding, Contributors will now also be eligible for it. The waiter program made the divisions among writers highly visible, leading to what Grotz said many have described as a “hierarchy” at the conference. “There was a lot of anxiety about

that,” Grotz said. Along with eliminating the waiter positions, she established new scholarship offerings at all levels of attendance, including awards designated specifically for Contributors. Her aim, she said, was to maintain the “ecosystem” of Bread Loaf while minimizing inequities.

THERE WERE WAITERS WHO DID FEEL THAT IT WAS AN

OUTDATED AND UNFAIR PROGRAM. J E NNIF E R GR O TZ

“When I became the director, I asked myself, If I were starting this conference today, would I put in this work-study component?” Grotz said. “And the answer is, absolutely not.” Grotz, who became the first female director of the conference in 2017, first attended Bread Loaf as a waiter in 1995. In her letter announcing the changes, she described it as a formative experience that helped her develop key relationships with other writers. While the tradition of Bread Loaf waiterships may be storied, it doesn’t date from the conference’s beginnings. According to Bread Loaf historian DAVID HAWARD BAIN, for the first few decades, local young people with no connection to the conference

SEVEN DAYS NOVEMBER 27-DECEMBER 4, 2019

staffed the dining hall. Over the years, those positions became increasingly populated with students; in 1968, then-director John Ciardi formalized the scholarship program. Discussions about the conference’s direction are far from new. When Robert Pack departed as director in 1994, he told the Rutland Herald that he was pushed out by the Middlebury administration and “the pressures of political correctness.” Pack was replaced by Michael Collier, who, according to newspaper accounts, rerouted the conference, steering away from its hard-partying reputation and refocusing on teaching. Bain said in an email that Collier reduced the workload for waiters and stopped charging them for room and board. After the 2016 conference, waiter Jean Chen Ho penned an essay for VIDA: Women in Literary Arts, a feminist nonprofit, in which she alleged that she had witnessed multiple incidents of racism and sexual harassment at Bread Loaf. “I felt invisible — in the manner that people who serve us our food and clean up after us exist in the periphery of our visions, just outside of our table conversations and our attentions — and simultaneously I felt hypervisible, as if under constant surveillance, my every move observed and judged,” Ho wrote. She described female and black waiters experiencing inappropriate touching, staring and comments. Ho did not respond to an email

requesting comment, but former Burlingtonian Benjamin Aleshire, a poet who also attended Bread Loaf as a waiter the same year, corroborated Ho’s experience in a New York Times article earlier this month. “2016 was an unhappy moment. There were waiters who did feel that it was an outdated and unfair program … We listened to that,” Grotz said. After hearing about the complaints, she and Collier met with the waiters during the 2016 conference. “There are lots of narratives. There are many former waiters, including many former waiters of color, who I know were very loyal about the waiter program,” Grotz added. “We’re writers. So we, above everyone else, should also acknowledge there were many narratives.” JULIA ALVAREZ, a poet, novelist and writerin-residence at Middlebury, wrote in an email that when she first attended Bread Loaf in 1969, “the faculty ate on a dais in the center of the dining hall! It was all about celebrity & star & a white, mostly male privilege system that left out so many. It’s not the craft and community of writing I wanted to join.” Alvarez added that she’s been grateful for Grotz and Collier’s efforts to make the community more inclusive and egalitarian. “Of all people, we writers know that most of writing is revision — and our institutions require continual revisions in order to reflect more accurately the kinds of communities we want to participate in as writers and people,” she wrote. Poet MAJOR JACKSON, who was a waiter at Bread Loaf in 1996 and is now a professor at the University of Vermont, said the waiterscholar dynamic was always complicated. “The work-scholars were a significant aspect of the operation, but also identified as some of the most exciting and emergent voices,” he said in a phone interview. “It allowed for a certain amount of access. Yet it also rendered that group of people as some of the most vulnerable.” Jackson described his experience at Bread Loaf as “hugely formative.” In his view, the changes in scholarship offerings simply remove an outdated tradition. “It’s a remarkable evolution,” Jackson said. “It’s remarkable that it did not happen sooner.” m Contact: margaret@sevendaysvt.com

INFO Find out more about the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference at middlebury.edu.

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In Concert and in Class, Cellist Emily Taubl Plays Well With Others B Y AMY LI LLY

ellist EMILY TAUBL moved to Vermont in 2014 just after completing her graduate diploma in cello performance at the New England Conservatory in Boston. One of the first invitations she received was to perform in the Resident Ensemble Program in that summer’s LAKE CHAMPLAIN CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL, whose co-artistic directors are renowned musicians Soovin Kim, a violinist and the festival’s founder, and his wife, Gloria Chien, a pianist. The next invitation? To join the festival’s board. She was 29 years old. In the short time since, Taubl, who lives in Burlington, has established herself as one of the state’s most admired cellists. She teaches at the University of Vermont and in her home studio, subs in the VERMONT SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA and commutes to Massachusetts to play in the Springfield Symphony Orchestra, where

she landed the principal cello position in April. Now Taubl is reuniting with her original Vermont connections for her UVM faculty recital on Saturday, December 7: She’ll play in a trio with Kim and Chien. The recital, titled “Beethoven’s Birthday Bash,” features an all-Beethoven program in honor of the 250th birthday of the German composer (1770-1827). The concert will open with the 14 variations in E-flat major for piano trio. Duets with Taubl and Kim (Duet No.1 in C major, originally for bassoon and clarinet but transcribed for violin and cello) and Taubl and Chien (12 variations on a theme from George Frideric Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus) will follow. The concert will culminate with the Archduke Trio (aka Piano Trio No. 7 in B-flat major), a piece Taubl calls “the crown jewel.”

PHOTOS COURTESY OF LISA-MARIE MAZZUCCO (CHIEN & KIM), AND KATE LEMMON (TAUBL)

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CELLIST EMILY TAUBL

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grade and stayed for three years. Then, over the next three years, she earned the equivalent of a master’s degree in To their many performing and admin- cello performance at the Yale School of istrative commitments, Kim and Chien Music’s certificate program. After a break are adding co-artistic directorship of from training, Taubl enrolled in the New Chamber Music Northwest in Port- England Conservatory and earned both land, Ore. — one of the country’s oldest her bachelor’s and a graduate diploma chamber music festivals — beginning in (“a kind of post-master’s degree,” she September 2020. The two also play in a explains) in four years. trio with Emerson String Quartet cellist Taubl says she doesn’t regret her Paul Watkins, which is scheduled to “convoluted” education route but perform the complete Beethoven trios concedes, “The pressure of playing at a next year. master’s-degree level as a 16- or 17-yearKim and Chien, who live outside of old is difficult.” Boston with their two children, are happy After all of those auditions for highto take a break from their busy schedules level conservatories, Taubl had a certain to perform with Taubl. skill set. While teaching one of her private “We’re big fans of Emily’s ever since students — she currently has 21 — she realized the young we first met her,” says cellist could benefit Kim in a phone call. “She’s just such an from some coaching and spent three hours impressive person — sharing her knowledge. likable, responsible, sensible, always looking “I was struck by how for musical projects to little my student knew create that will engage about the application SOOVIN KIM people around her.” process,” Taubl recalls. Kim calls Taubl a “I casually said to my “consistent cellist”: “Her music making husband, ‘Someone should really design is so dependable. You know she’s going to a workshop to help kids do this.’ He said be there with you in the ensemble, which — he was laughing — ‘Why don’t you?’” is what you want in a chamber player.” So Taubl founded the Conservatory And, he adds, “She has a very striking Audition Workshop, which runs for two sound — warm, full, rich; all the qualities one-week sessions in the summer on that make us love the cello.” the Champlain College campus. Taubl is The cellist and violinist collaborated program director; she coordinates visits once before, on a Burlington Chamber from faculty of top conservatories around Orchestra concert guest-conducted by the country. This summer will be the Kim in which Taubl played Beethoven. workshop’s fifth year. “She played her solos beautifully,” Kim The cellist also gives faculty concerts recalls. (The BCO dissolved last spring both for her own enjoyment and with her after 12 years due to financial difficulties.) students in mind. “I love to perform. It’s a Taubl, who has given previous faculty fun process to choose what you’re playing recitals with pianists PAUL ORGEL and David and who you play with,” she says. “And Kaplan, began organizing the upcoming for my students, I like to set an example concert long ago. “Thankfully, I pitched it of high-quality playing for them, because to [Kim and Chien] a long time in advance, I demand it of them. knowing this would be difficult,” she says. “It’s hard to get college students to Her own schedule is just as busy. go to concerts,” Taubl continues. “They Taubl rattles off upcoming engagements don’t have cars; they’re busy. So bringing from memory: concerts with both the a concert to them is a priority. Springfield Symphony and its chamber “But,” she adds, “I’m doing it as more music series; the VSO’s January and May than just a faculty concert. It’s morphed concerts; UVM’s Festival of New Music into something I want to present to the in late March; and CAPITAL CITY CONCERTS community.” m in April. “I make long charts of when I have Contact: lilly@sevendaysvt.com to start practicing each piece,” she says, explaining how she manages her INFO schedule. Emily Taubl performs “Beethoven’s Birthday It seems that knack for preparedness Bash” with Soovin Kim and Gloria Chien underlies Taubl’s career thus far. A preco- on Saturday, December 7, 7:30 p.m., at cious musician, she entered the Juilliard the University of Vermont Recital Hall in School’s pre-college division in eighth Burlington. $5-30. emilytaubl.com, uvm.edu

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HACKIE

A VERMONT CABBIE’S REAR VIEW BY JERNIGAN PONTIAC

Hey, Carrie Anne

t was a frosty predawn morning when I pulled into Carrie Anne’s driveway in Charlotte. On fares to the airport like this one, I aim to arrive some 10 minutes early; from years of experience, I’ve gleaned that that’s about the time a typical customer starts anxiously glancing out the window. Traveling is inherently stressful and, in my capacity as transporter to the airport, I do my best to alleviate that particular stressor. Yeah, I know — I’m a bodacious cabbie. Carrie Anne came bounding out, raring to go. Hopping out to relieve her of her baggage, I greeted her with, “I’m Jernigan. Good to meetcha. Feel free to grab the shotgun seat if you’d like.” Getting under way, it was clear that my customer was fully awake despite the hour, the moon still visible in the incipient sunrise. I’d bet dollars to doughnuts that her natural perkiness has been caffeinatedly enhanced, I thought. Which was fine with me, ’cause I was feeling chatty. “So, are you a Vermont girl?” I asked. Carrie Anne chuckled, replying, “Well, that’s a long story.” “I beg to differ, but I don’t think it is,” I pushed back, adopting a tone of mock pretentiousness. “Was your body born in Vermont?” “OK, I see what you’re getting at, like, your great-grandparents need to be born here to claim Vermonter status. How

about this, then? I went to UVM from ’73 to ’77; we’ve lived in Charlotte since ’84. Plus, I had a friggin’ kid here.” “All righty, then,” I caved, chuckling. “The friggin’ kid is what sold me. So, tell me — what made you choose UVM?”

classically Stephen King-ish. You’re lucky the rapscallions didn’t take you hostage.” “I guess I’m tougher than I look, because I never ran into any problems like that. The boys just needed someone

I GUESS I’M TOUGHER THAN I LOOK,

BECAUSE I NEVER RAN INTO ANY PROBLEMS LIKE THAT. “That’s easy,” she replied. “I liked the picture on the cover of the brochure they sent me. Brilliant, right?” “Hey, I was 18 once, too. So, what was UVM like in the mid-’70s? I didn’t settle here permanently until ’79.” “Well, I guess I was what you’d call a ‘wild chick.’ The drinking age was still 18, so let’s just say I took full advantage of it. Plus, I’m Irish, so there might have been a genetic thing going on, as well.” “Sounds like fun times,” I said, laughing. “Where did you go for the next — what, seven years, I guess? — until you returned in ’84?” “I did a stint in the Peace Corps, stationed in Nepal. When I returned stateside, I worked at a home for troubled teenage boys in Massachusetts. It was located on its own actual island, if you could imagine.” “Pardon my French, Carrie Anne, but you gotta have pawnshop balls to take a job like that! I mean, the setting sounds

to listen to them, is basically what it came down to.” Motoring north on Route 7 through the town of Shelburne, I continued the chronological interrogation. “So, what drew you back to Vermont?” “Well, I always wanted to return and, as luck would have it, my husband got a job offer in Burlington and we jumped at the opportunity. We put in an offer on the Charlotte house and moved in a month later. And then, our first weekend up here, I got pregnant!” “It must have been the house,” I suggested with a chuckle. “Undoubtedly,” she deadpanned. “Hey, talking about Nepal, have you tried Everest, that Indian-Nepali restaurant on Williston Road right next to the Dunkin’ Donuts? Their food is delicious.” “I haven’t yet, but you’ve sold me. I do love Indian food.” “On a related note, I was wondering about something and you’re just the

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person to ask, if I may. Do Nepalese folks say ‘namaste,’ or is that just an Indian thing? Last week, when I complimented the restaurant owners on a delicious meal, I was going to say goodbye with ‘namaste’ but wasn’t sure if it was in their cultural tradition.” “Oh, that’s sweet, Jernigan. And, yes, it sure is. To be really cool, when someone says ‘namaste,’ you can return it with ‘namaskar.’ That’s the honorific response.” We reached the airport terminal and, as she paid the fare, Carrie Anne said, “I’m so glad I found you and now have a real cabdriver. My son tells me he exclusively calls Uber and has tried to get me on that.” “Oh, heavens! Good moms don’t let their offspring use Uber. You got to set that boy straight.” “Will do,” Carrie Anne said, shooting me a smile before stepping out of the cab. “Namaste,” she added from the sidewalk. “Namaskar,” I reciprocated, and I spent the whole ride back to town visualizing a complete Indian dinner for later that day, from pakora to gulab jamun. m

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When elder homes stumble, frail Vermonters get hurt

SEVEN DAYS NOVEMBER 27-DECEMBER 4, 2019

JAMES BUCK

June (left) and Mary Kelly with a photo of their mother, Marilyn Kelly

arilyn Kelly’s health declined quickly during her eight months at an eldercare home. The 78-year-old entered Our House Too in Rutland a spirited woman who could cast a fishing rod. She soon began taking falls, and her visiting daughters often found their mother slumped in a stupor. They blamed her dementia at first. Then they learned that Our House Too was giving Marilyn daily doses of Haldol, a powerful and sedating antipsychotic drug. Her daughters arrived one day to discover Marilyn trying to feed herself, but she couldn’t find her mouth with her fork. She was still in pajamas; her arm was smeared with excrement. The final blow: The facility’s owner revealed that an overnight staffer had been caught on camera shoving Marilyn to the floor. She walked away as Marilyn cried out in pain. Our House Too’s “egregious” care cut Marilyn’s life short, a former head of the state agency that licensed the home later contended in support of a lawsuit filed by Marilyn’s family. State inspectors who visited just after Marilyn died logged numerous regulatory violations — but did not issue so much as a fine. The shortcomings they cited at Our House Too are not uncommon, a joint investigation by Seven Days and Vermont Public Radio has found. The news organizations analyzed more than five years of complaints, inspection reports and other documents to provide a window into assisted living and residential care homes operating in Vermont. The more than 12,000 pages of records reveal troubling patterns of inadequate staffing and care that have led to indignities, injuries and deaths. Scores of facilities have failed to meet some of the most basic state requirements, putting seniors at risk. At least five residents have died in accidents related to deficient care at statelicensed homes since 2014, according to the state’s own records: Two residents died after they wandered outside unnoticed and subsequently fell or suffered frostbite. One person got stuck in an improperly configured bed railing and suffocated. Another died of heatstroke while wearing multiple layers of clothing in a facility that lacked air conditioning. Another was dropped by caregivers who didn’t know the proper way to use a patient lift. That tally doesn’t include other fatal

COURTESY OF JUNE KELLY

B Y D E RE K B RO UW E R & E MILY CO RWIN, WI TH DATA R EPOR TI NG BY ANDR EA SUOZZO

Marilyn Kelly at Our House Too

RESIDENTIAL CARE HOMES AND ASSISTED LIVING FACILITIES CAN

SLIDE UNDER THE RADAR. SEA N L ONDERGAN

falls and accidents that state regulators said homes merely didn’t do enough to prevent. Documents detail residents being subjected to serious care errors during their final moments. In one case, for example, nurses didn’t perform CPR on someone found pulseless in a dining room; in another instance, caregivers administered too much morphine to a terminally ill resident. Untrained caregivers have mistakenly harmed residents, and overworked ones have cut corners. One immobile resident turned blue while submerged in a running bathtub; another was left alone overnight in soiled briefs. A few cruel staffers have insulted, threatened, assaulted and stolen from their vulnerable charges. Despite the clear risks, homes frequently fail to complete criminal background checks on potential employees or to report allegations of abuse and neglect. Twenty-four facilities have been caught with too few staffers on duty. One home’s owner told state regulators that it was easier to accept a citation than to make

sure employees received their dozen hours of required annual training. Not all of the 133 state-regulated homes have alarming records. Nearly 60 have had only lower-level citations since 2014, Seven Days and VPR’s analysis found. Eight homes had no violations. Problems are not confined to any one corner of the eldercare industry, which includes nonprofits, small businesses owned by Vermonters and, increasingly, larger facilities built or snapped up by out-of-state investors. Some have just a few beds; others have more than 100. Families seeking a safe home have little to guide them, owing to a system of state oversight that combines light regulation, limited enforcement and poor transparency. As part of this joint project, Seven Days and VPR have published an online database that details the deficiencies found by state inspectors since 2014 at each of the assisted living and residential care homes across the state, including four that have closed. The data tell a sobering story of an industry entrusted with the lives of more than 3,000 Vermonters — a number that is sure to grow. By 2030, one in four residents will be at least 65 years old, according to the state’s projection, which could make the Green Mountain State the oldest in the country. In Vermont, as in most states, so-called residential care has become an appealing option for seniors who aren’t safe at home but don’t need, or want, the sterile quarters of a nursing home. The more homelike facilities promise a place where a loved one can grow old comfortably, with his or her dignity intact — and they charge as much as $9,800 a month for the peace of mind. Some families, like the Kellys, have paid a far higher price. “We say a lot of things as a society that we’re going to care for individuals who are vulnerable or need help,” said Vermont long-term care ombudsman Sean Londergan, who advocates for residents. But, at times, the bottom line trumps feel-good promises, he added: “When push comes to shove, these entities are businesses, and they’re going to act like businesses.”

WORSE FOR CARE

About This Series Families who make the difficult decision to place an elderly relative in a residential care or assisted living home must then ask: Which home? Vermonters entrust residents to 133 state-regulated facilities that can accommodate more than 3,000 residents. These places do not provide the level of care available in nursing homes and aren’t regulated as vigorously. Some are mom-and-pop operations; others have out-of-state corporate owners.

Looking for info about a specific home? Find the Vermont Eldercare Navigator at eldercare. sevendaysvt.com.

Got a story to share? Tell us what’s happening at your eldercare home at eldercare@sevendaysvt.com.

Have a complaint about an eldercare home?

Alert state regulators at ahs.dailscintake@vermont.gov.

Want to report elder abuse?

In an emergency, call 911. You can also reach Adult Protective Services at aps@vermont.gov or by calling 1-800-564-1612 or by visiting dail.vermont.gov.

Audio stories are available at vpr.org. They market themselves as offering personalized care and a comfortable lifestyle. And some do. But “Worse for Care,” a joint investigation by Seven Days and Vermont Public Radio, reveals that some seniors in these facilities live in challenging circumstances. To report our stories, we obtained five and a half years’ worth of complaints and state inspections, detailed in thousands of pages of documents. The data show that seniors have wandered from homes, sometimes in the dead of Vermont winter. They’ve been given the wrong dosage of medicine and fed cheap, high-sodium foods. Seniors have been assaulted, exploited and treated in undignified ways by employees at some facilities. We built a database to help us better understand how often homes are cited and what happens — and doesn’t — when they’re caught violating state regulations. We used it to inform our interviews with state regulators, families, advocates and care-home operators. To assist consumers, we’re also launching our Vermont Our Team Eldercare Navigator on sevendaysvt.com. This database, S E V E N D AY S searchable by facility name or location, lists the number  of complaints against each home and contains complete Matthew Roy inspection reports for both residential care homes and Candace Page assisted living facilities.   Andrea Suozzo Seven Days and VPR teamed up to share the workload  and to make sure the stories reach the widest possible Derek Brouwer audience.  Look for stories over the next three weeks. James Buck VPR 

Mark Davis 

Emily Corwin

» P.36 SEVEN DAYS NOVEMBER 27-DECEMBER 4, 2019

‘Under the Radar’

SEVEN DAYS NOVEMBER 27-DECEMBER 4, 2019

Our House Too in Rutland

Eldercare in the Green Mountain State Residential Care Homes 118 facilities • 2,576 beds These facilities offer personal care, general supervision, and medication management for seniors who can’t live on their own. Some also provide “nursing overview.” Assisted Living Facilities 15 facilities • 1,051 beds These homes provide various services that support residents’ continued independence. Seniors get a private bedroom, a bath and a lockable door.

*Vermont also has 40 federally regulated nursing homes for residents who can’t live on their own and require daily assistance. This project examines the state-regulated system only.

‘Deplorable’

State-licensed homes face severe business challenges, Cota said. Facilities that rely on Medicaid are limited by how little the state reimburses homes for care. And all providers struggle to find workers in a state where caregiving needs are outpacing the labor supply. “They need support. They need framework. They need clear regulations to help them,” she said. “I want to be a support for them, but I don’t have the time to do it.”

SOURCES: VERMONT DEPT. OF DISABILITIES, AGING AND INDEPENDENT LIVING ; CENTERS FOR MEDICARE & MEDICAID SERVICES

Strict federal standards govern nursing homes. But it falls to states to regulate less-intensive residential care settings. The Vermont Department of Disabilities, Aging and Independent Living, or DAIL, licenses two types of eldercare facility. Residential care homes provide room, board, personal care and medication assistance, usually overseen by a supervising nurse. They’re designed for people who can’t live independently but don’t require full-time nursing care. Assisted living homes provide a broader range of services and place more emphasis on their charges’ continued independence. Seniors can lock their apartment doors, for instance. Residents in both types of facility receive less protection than those in nursing homes, starting with the management. Nursing home administrators must log 1,000 hours of supervised training before they can sit for licensing exams. By contrast, residential care home managers need not be licensed professionals. They only have to complete a 24-hour, self-guided online course that is administered by an industry trade organization, the Vermont Health Care Association. The same state inspectors visit both federally regulated nursing homes and state-regulated residential care and assisted living facilities. But they inspect nursing homes twice as often. And the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issues far more fines to nursing homes than DAIL does to the facilities it oversees. The state has seized control of residential care homes that appeared on the verge of collapse. In 2016, it briefly took over Cota’s Hospitality Home in Barre after the owner was alleged to have verbally abused residents. (See accompanying story, page 38.) Last year, the state successfully obtained a court-appointed outside manager, also known as a receiver, to oversee four homes in South Burlington and St. Albans that had come unglued under new, dysfunctional ownership of a Texas-based private equity firm. Londergan has criticized the state oversight of eldercare homes as “weak” and “alarming.” He called for accountability in his most recent annual report, the first time the ombudsman’s office has done so. In an interview, Londergan said he based his critique on anecdotal observations in Vermont, though he considers the

CALEB KENNA

« P.35

problem a national one. Vermont isn’t an outlier in its approach; the state’s regulations, though 20 years old, go further than do many others. But Londergan said they don’t go far enough. He pointed to a 2018 inspection of the Residence at Shelburne Bay, during which the state discovered that the assisted living wing was operating a locked dementia floor it never got approval to create. The home was advertising the unit. DAIL couldn’t say how long residents had lived there. “It highlights to me how residential care homes and assisted living facilities can slide under the radar,” Londergan said. “I think it reflects a need for greater oversight.” These concerns plague a system that admits many of the state’s frailest seniors. For years, the state has promoted the homes as an option for those Vermonters. “Level of care variances” allow them to make private arrangements to care for individuals with greater nursing needs than the facilities are licensed to provide. Another 500 nursing home-eligible seniors live in the less-intensive settings with help from a state Medicaid program called Choices for Care. More than half of the 13 residents at Our House Too were receiving such aid when Marilyn Kelly lived there, court disclosures show. DAIL Commissioner Monica Hutt said the programs are intended to help seniors age where they choose. While the homes sometimes depict active, wine-sipping seniors on their websites, in reality many also care for residents who need the assistance of multiple caregivers simply to get out of bed. Regulators used to flag homes where more than half of the residents had nursing home-level needs. The office no longer has resources to track the numbers, DAIL licensing chief Pamela Cota said. (She is not connected to Cota’s Hospitality Home.) But the trend still concerns her. She said: “One has to question any system that’s built on variances.” Cota does not consider the services at residential care homes to be a “vast failure,” but the licensing chief said the industry, even more than nursing homes, “is what keeps me up at night.”

The state is currently revising the 20-year-old rules for residential care homes — a process Cota said provides a chance to “get these residents safer care that’s a little closer to what they would expect to see in a nursing home.” In an interview at DAIL’s Waterbury headquarters, Commissioner Hutt called the existing rules “solid” and said the state’s current enforcement tools are generally effective, if not perfect. Presented with some of Seven Days and VPR’s key findings, Hutt acknowledged

Types citations issued to Vermont elder care facilitiesFacilities Typesofof Citations Issued to Vermont Eldercare Medication Management Level of Care and Nursing Services Staff Services Records/Reports Assessment

Since 2014, the state has conducted 794 inspections of residential care homes and assisted living facilities, resulting in 2,021 citations.

Residents' Rights Food Safety and Sanitation General Care Environment

SEVERITY CODE

Food Storage and Equipment

No actual harm with potential for minor negative impact: 334

Disaster and Emergency Preparedness Reporting of Abuse, Neglect or Exploitation

No actual harm with potential for more than minimal harm or actual minimal harm (discomfort): 1,602

Admissions Paperwork Other Food Services

Actual harm that is not immediate jeopardy: 64

Policies and Procedures Discharge and Transfer Requirements

SOURCE: THE VERMONT DEPARTMENT OF DISABILITIES, AGING AND INDEPENDENT LIVING

room for improvement. She also said the oversight system is built with the state’s reliance on long-term-care beds in mind. “We need to ensure that there is capacity across the state of Vermont to care for Vermonters. We need to ensure it’s of the highest quality. There is an enormous amount of balancing that happens to make that true,” Hutt said. The existing regulations cover areas such as admissions, residents’ rights, medication management, nutrition and environment. They tell homes how hot the bathroom faucets can run, what kind of staff training to offer and when to update residents’ individualized plans of care. State inspectors visit each home unannounced every two years or so. Cota said some homes used to go even longer without inspections before she took over in 2010. Inspectors’ visits to homes provide only a keyhole view into how they’re run. They review the records of a small sample of residents and gauge whether their needs are being met. If the sample does not include a resident with a history of wandering, for instance, the state doesn’t look at whether the home’s monitoring systems are adequate. Cota’s staffers also inspect homes in response to complaints. Seven Days and VPR reviewed nearly 500 complaints received by the Division of Licensing and Protection since 2014. The state withheld the contents of allegations that inspectors did not substantiate, plus the identities of complainants and residents, as the law allows. During that time, almost half of all violations were discovered as the state was following up on a complaint. Sometimes an eldercare home’s employees are the first to report concerns. In 2017, an employee of Holton Home in Brattleboro told the state the facility’s executive director at the time was overriding her nurses’ clinical decisions and taking on residents the facility couldn’t handle. The following year, an employee lodged a similar complaint at a sister facility called Bradley House. A highneeds resident, the complainant wrote, wandered off and fell into a snowbank and was rushed to the emergency room for hypothermia. An inspector faulted the Bradley House for the accident, concluding that poor care and short staffing rose to the level of neglect. All told, the state has found more than 2,000 violations across the industry since 2014, Seven Days and VPR determined. Homes are cited most frequently for mismanaging residents’ medication. The year before Marilyn Kelly moved into Our House Too, the facility gave a resident numerous doses of the anti-anxiety drug

Immediate jeopardy to resident health or safety: 19

Resident Funds and Property Plumbing

SCOPE OF THE ISSUES

Physician Services

Isolated: 1,041

Resident Rooms

Pattern: 632

Eligibility

Widespread: 346

Toilet, Bathing and Lavatory Facilities Refunds 0

Valium. The prescription was “as needed,” but nobody had figured out what, exactly, that meant. Neither did staff explore alternatives to drugging, nor watch for side effects, inspectors said. DAIL conducted 38 inspections in recent years in which it determined that poor care resulted in significant harm

ONE HOME’S OWNER TOLD STATE REGULATORS THAT IT WAS EASIER TO ACCEPT A CITATION

THAN TO MAKE SURE EMPLOYEES RECEIVED THEIR DOZEN HOURS OF REQUIRED ANNUAL TRAINING. to seniors. One resident of Ethan Allen Residence in Burlington was hospitalized for sepsis following a skin infection. Hospital staff were shocked by the “deplorable skin care” the patient had been receiving at the home, according to the state’s report. Homes also sometimes struggle to prevent residents from harming each

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other. The reports detail residents who have wielded canes, thrown chairs, scratched each other and made unwanted sexual contact. And when things go wrong, homes often fail to document, investigate or disclose what happened. Forty-one homes have not made required timely reports of possible abuse or neglect to the state, the data show. Regulators sometimes list relatively minor deficiencies, such as dirty kitchen equipment or not keeping cleaning supplies in locked cabinets. Most shortcomings, in fact, are not classified as causing “actual harm.” But they still caused residents distress or put them at serious risk. There’s the case at Lincoln House in Barre of a former kitchen staffer who responded to requests for alternative meals by smothering sandwiches with inedible amounts of mustard. Or a rule at Harvey House, in Castleton, that residents couldn’t wear more than one layer of clothing because that created too much laundry. One of the greatest risks comes from having too few staff on duty. Earlier this year, South Burlington’s upscale Residence at Quarry Hill was cited for having only three nighttime caregivers for 94 residents, 25 of whom lived in a dementia unit.

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More than one in four homes have been called out for failing to complete employee background checks, Seven Days and VPR found. At Lincoln House, inspectors have cited missing background checks during three consecutive inspections since 2014. White River Junction’s Valley Terrace was found to be lacking background checks for two employees in 2018 — just a year after a 22-year-old caregiver there raped an 83-year-old resident in its dementia unit. In the vast majority of cases, the homes were simply required to write a plan to correct the problem. The state follows up on serious cases and generally considers penalties only if the home still hasn’t followed through, Cota said. The state has only issued six fines since 2014. Yet Seven Days and VPR found 150 instances in which a home received the same citation on back-toback visits. Regulators can take immediate action when they find situations that are “reasonably expected” to cause serious harm or death. But they rarely step in. A string of problems at one home offers a prime example of what can happen when they don’t.

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The former Cota’s Hospitality Home

« P.37 Fatal Mistakes?

SEVEN DAYS NOVEMBER 27-DECEMBER 4, 2019

JEB WALLACE-BRODEUR

Two elderly residents of St. Joseph’s Residential Care Home died just three months apart in 2015 after wandering outside in the middle of the night. Only a month prior to the first death, Cota had congratulated the home on a clean inspection. Operated by Vermont Catholic Charities, the home is in an old brick building on Burlington’s North Prospect Street, about a half mile north of the University of Vermont campus. St. Joseph’s 41 bedrooms are spread across three floors, with seven doors leading in and out. Walter Bartlau, age 87, walked out one of them during a subzero February night. The door closed and locked behind him. Wearing a nightshirt, he pounded on it and pleaded for someone to let him back in. He was bloody and severely frostbitten by the time he was found 90 minutes later. He died a month afterward. The medical examiner classified his death as accidental, due in part to frostbite. Following Bartlau’s ordeal, regulators cited the home for failing to provide necessary services or a safe environment for him — two of the most serious citations issued in recent years. They deemed the home had put residents in “immediate jeopardy.” None of the doors had been equipped with alarms on the night Bartlau got locked outside; only the front entrance had a doorbell. The facility agreed to install noise alarms on all doors and a doorbell on the side door he had used. The state approved a plan of correction and confirmed during a June 1 revisit that it had been implemented. That same day, an 89-year-old veteran and retired engineer moved in. Within a week he’d wandered away twice undetected, despite the new alarm. The second time, on June 8, police found him half a mile away on the steps of UVM’s Lambda Iota fraternity; he had tripped and broken his spine. His subsequent death was ruled an accident. The facility upgraded its alarm system in July and agreed to activate it from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. The state approved that plan, too. Regulators issued no fines — because the second injury was not considered the result of an uncorrected violation, Cota said. Nor did they bar St. Joseph’s from admitting new residents until the state could verify the plan was in place. Cota said that’s because her office only uses admissions bans when a home’s “general population” is at risk.

Safe Keeping? Cota’s Vexed Regulators for Years Cota’s Hospitality Home looked just as you might picture a mom-and-pop eldercare residence in rural Vermont. Residents of the modest farmhouse outside Barre could sit on the porch under a rusty metal awning to watch cars pass by. The owners lived and worked there. But inside the residential care home, regulators found chronic problems. Beginning in 2006, Cota’s operated in what the Vermont Attorney General’s Office would later describe as “substantial or habitual violation” of state rules. Inspectors cited Cota’s 30 times and fined the business more than $10,000. They documented medication errors, broken toilets, warm refrigerators, inadequate care and missing employee background checks. Regulators at one point barred the home from accepting new residents, but Cota’s did anyway — prompting another fine. The problems clearly concerned regulators, who visited again and again. But when state officials mounted a sustained enforcement effort, they prompted an unanticipated crisis. Cota’s was in some ways an atypical eldercare home. Michael Cota, who ran the place, had previously worked as a caregiver at a state psychiatric hospital. From 2001 to 2014, his then-wife, Tammy, co-owned and managed the business. Cota’s accepted people other homes wouldn’t, in exchange for their Social Security and Medicaid dollars. While some residents were elderly, others were young adults. Its 17 or so tenants had mental illnesses on top of physical disabilities, Michael Cota recently told Seven Days. Some were on parole. “We really went out of our way to make the place homey, to make the place comfortable,” he said. But a series of inspections in January and March 2016, when regulators were redoubling efforts to address problems, told a different story. The inspectors noted filth and clutter: clothes heaped in a pile, a ripped mattress, torn wallpaper, overflowing wastebaskets, a “soiled and

unsanitary” bathtub, grimy and “odorous” floors. Meanwhile, an investigator from Adult Protective Services probed three residents’ complaints about how Cota treated them, including an allegation that he threatened to “bury them in the backyard” over late rent. Cota denied saying such a thing. Nevertheless, investigator Jason Bachus found that what he called Cota’s “bullying tactics” amounted to verbal and emotional abuse.

On a Friday afternoon, state officials had to scramble to find new homes for residents. That elevated the situation to a new level. It appeared Cota would soon be added to Vermont’s Adult Abuse Registry, which would bar him from working with vulnerable adults. Citing “imminent danger,” the state asked a Washington County Superior Court judge in March 2016 to appoint an outside operator, or “receiver,” to take over management of the home. The rare move was necessary, the state contended, because Cota had ignored a promise not to be alone with residents during the investigation and continued his campaign of verbal abuse. Cota strenuously denied the accusations. But he did not contest t he appointment of a temporary receiver to run the home while its future was sorted out. Within two weeks, Cota’s remaining staff stopped showing up for work. Kathy Robinson, then the home’s assistant manager and a close friend of Cota’s, told Seven Days that officials had upset the employees by “barking orders.”

“We know what our jobs are, and we’re doing them really well. It’s like, treat us better than this. Don’t come in here talking to us like that,” she said. The upshot: On a Friday afternoon, state officials had to scramble to find new homes for residents. Two were taken to hospitals. Most of the 14 others headed to interim arrangements. Cota’s was effectively closed. Today, Cota contends that the state shut down the home based on false accusations made up by three difficult, newer residents. He provided Seven Days with a ruling from a closed-door “fair hearing” that showed Human Services Board hearing officer Paul Brierre overturned the abuse findings against him a year after his home shuttered. In March 2017, Brierre wrote that testimony of the sole alleged victim who appeared was “contradicted, implausible, and refuted or undermined.” DAIL Commissioner Monica Hutt told Seven Days this month that the department had been right to seek receivership, even though the abuse findings were later overturned. The state’s allegations were “based on credible and reliable information available to the Department at the time,” Hutt wrote in an email, and included problems beyond the alleged resident abuse. As part of the receivership resolution, Cota agreed to never seek another residential care home license. But this story has a postscript. Last year Cota got a permit from the Town of Barre to reopen — this time as a boarding house. He’s partnering with Good Samaritan Haven, a local homeless shelter, to rent rooms to its clients for $600 a month. Good Samaritan Haven’s recently hired executive director, Rob Farrell, told Seven Days he was not aware of the previous allegations against Cota. The new residents, he said, haven’t reported any problems. DE RE K BRO U W E R

MISSINGMONEY.VERMONT.GOV Bartlau’s children, who did not Haldol is an old-school antipsychotic respond to messages for this story, called that is not approved by the U.S. Food & out the “elopement,” or wandering, Drug Administration to treat agitation in problem in a subsequent wrongful death dementia patients. Its “black box” warnlawsuit that was settled out of court. ing lists increased risk for “a greater rate “St. Joseph’s operates with unquali- of cognitive decline and mortality in fied and inadequate staff, who are called persons with dementia.” upon to care for too many high-needs In nursing homes across the country, residents, in a sprawling building with the use of medications such as Haldol too many unlocked exit doors, and no for patients like Marilyn is prohibited. alarms or other security devices, or even Vermont residential care facilities, on the the most basic elopement policies,” their other hand, have no such prohibition in complaint alleged. “It has the decades-old governing taken the deaths of two rules. The state has noneresidents — from injuries theless cited two homes related to elopements — for — the Residence at Otter Defendants finally to start Creek in Middlebury and addressing this serious Our Lady of Providence in safety problem.” Winooski — for inapproEve n t h e s e c o n d priate use of the drug. st a t e - a p p rove d p l a n “There really is no role wasn’t enough. Later that for Haldol” in any longsummer, Burlington police term-care facility, former twice found residents DAIL commissioner Dr. missing from St. Joseph’s. Susan Wehry said. In one instance, its staff Wehry, a geriatric had marked a resident as psychiatrist, is serving present when in fact their as an expert witness for charge had been gone Marilyn’s children in a for nearly three hours, lawsuit against Our House the state found. In the Too. Wehry headed DAIL other, officers found the from 2011 to 2015. She said confused resident near in an interview that she the Church Street Marketagreed to testify because place, according to a police Marilyn’s treatment was report. “so egregious” that Wehry The facility adjusted was embarrassed that the alarm system again to the facility’s most recent DR. SU SAN WE HRY activate at 8 p.m. instead license bore her name. of 9 p.m. and attached a June Kelly, Marilyn’s GPS tracker to another resident prone legal guardian, said she didn’t learn about to wander. The state levied a daily fine the Haldol until months after Our House until the latest corrective plan was imple- Too began medicating her mother. When mented. The total penalty: $1,554. June objected, she alleges, the physician’s Vermont Catholic Charities execu- assistant who wrote the prescription tive director Mary Beth Pinard said in a weaned Marilyn off the drug but later statement that the organization “works allowed the facility to use it daily at a extremely hard to keep our residents safe lower dose — again without consulting in all our homes” and holds staff meetings June. and safety analyses regularly. “On those rare “There was no discussion about occasions where there are incidents, we putting Mom on Haldol. There was no investigate the causes and evaluate whether discussion about the implications of what systems can be improved,” she said. Haldol would do to our loved one,” June Wandering and related “exit-seeking” said. behavior is common among seniors with Marilyn wasn’t the only resident at dementia. Marilyn Kelly had tried to leave Our House Too who was allegedly being Our House Too on her first day there by given Haldol without her guardian’s climbing over a fence in the backyard in informed consent. June soon became full view of staff. friendly with Jean Kuhn, whose mother, The home’s staff took a controversial Kay Kesek, was also a resident. Jean and approach to managing the behavior, her her husband, Bryant, said in an interview children allege. That evening, they say, that they were also disturbed to find Kay Our House Too’s management contacted sedated with Haldol. Once, the Kuhns Marilyn’s new physician’s assistant and claimed, Our House Too gave Kay so received a prescription for Haldol, which they began giving her three times a day, usually by crushing it into her drinks. WORSE FOR CARE » P.40

FINDING THAT SOMETHING EGREGIOUS HAS OCCURRED, AND THERE BEING NO CONSEQUENCE OTHER THAN, “PLEASE SUBMIT A PLAN OF CORRECTION,” IS AN INADEQUATE MODEL.

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SEVEN DAYS NOVEMBER 27-DECEMBER 4, 2019

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June Kelly holding family photos

« P.39

June Kelly relied on word of mouth and a home visit when deciding to move Marilyn to Our House Too. “We liked it because it was a smaller environment,” said the public safety instructor and retired Vermont Air National Guard master 40

sergeant. Its owners promised homecooked meals and cited their own mother’s Alzheimer’s disease as the inspiration for the business. June didn’t know about Our House Too’s previous citations. Like most Vermonters in her position, she didn’t know where to look. The state does post inspection reports online, though no law or regulation requires it. But the reports are difficult to find, hard to understand and not always up to date. More than 150 of the 794 inspections completed since 2014, nearly 20 percent, were missing from the DAIL’s website, Seven Days and VPR discovered. That’s more inspections than the state conducts in any one year. The missing reports contain numerous serious violations. DAIL blamed the missing reports, some of which were years old, on website problems. “I think we can do better at that,” Commissioner Hutt said. The state provided the reports to the news organizations upon request and began posting them online in the weeks since. The information isn’t useful for wouldbe consumers alone. While reporting this story, Seven Days and VPR spoke with the adult children of two deceased residents who were unaware that the state had found grave errors in their loved ones’ care.

SEVEN DAYS NOVEMBER 27-DECEMBER 4, 2019

Connie Kurth, 92, died in March 2018 after two caregivers at Our Lady of Providence in Winooski tried to raise her out of bed with Hoyer lift equipment they didn’t know how to use. She fell to the floor and broke her hip, suffering great pain. “You could see her wince,” her son Rob recalled. The facility told Connie’s five children that their mother had fallen while being assisted out of bed, Rob recalled. He said they weren’t shocked by the idea that she’d fallen, given her poor health and obstinacy. “We thought, She’s a difficult patient to work with. It’s sad that she broke her hip,” he said. He didn’t know that the state subsequently cited Our Lady of Providence for numerous violations related to Connie’s accident. According to the state’s report, Connie had asked to be placed back down, but the caregivers continued the lift procedure, failing to respect her right to refuse care. The home didn’t have appropriate policies to guide its use of the equipment. The caregivers who dropped Connie were unable to demonstrate proper use of the Hoyer lift to a state inspector. Family members, Rob said, only discovered the state inspection report online after Seven Days contacted them.

Connie Kurth

They’d never been notified of the findings. It’s not a state requirement. Reading the report prompted Rob to reconsider his mother’s passing. “The emotion that comes up is anger,” he said. Marilyn Kelly’s children have no doubt that poor care caused their mother’s premature death. Two of her seven children were visiting from out of state when they found her struggling to breathe. She was sitting on a couch in the hallway where she’d been pushed down two weeks earlier by a caregiver.

COURTESY OF THE KURTH FAMILY

‘The Emotion … Is Anger’

JAMES BUCK

much Haldol that she had to be revived at an emergency room. Our House Too co-owner Paula Patorti declined to comment on Kay, citing policy and federal privacy law. In court filings related to Marilyn, the home has denied that its staff used Haldol inappropriately. Our House Too and its three sister homes advertised “highly qualified and trained staff” on their website. But caregiving staff at Our House Too included teenagers with no previous experience. They also prepared meals, did laundry and helped clean the facility. Across the industry, low-paid workers such as these provide most direct services to residents. Marissa Flagg joined Our House Too in September 2015. Within a few months, the 20-year-old was struggling to manage personal turmoil and her new job as a caregiver, according to law enforcement interview transcripts obtained by Seven Days and VPR. A colleague later claimed she reported Flagg to management for threatening to punch residents in the face. Administrators told authorities Flagg had been becoming lazy, frustrated and insubordinate, the transcripts show. Flagg reported one night in December for an overnight shift at Our House Too alongside a college student who was working as a caregiver over her winter break. Around 2 a.m., Marilyn began arguing with the temporary caregiver in the living room. The young woman walked away, and Marilyn slowly followed. Flagg walked by and, as captured on surveillance video, shoved Marilyn from behind. The elderly woman fell to the floor. Flagg stepped past her — and then walked off the job. Marilyn lay on the floor for more than an hour, clearly upset and refusing aid. A 16-year-old caregiver called in to help at 3 a.m. coaxed her to her feet. Our House Too took Marilyn to an emergency room the following morning. Doctors found significant bruising on her side and buttocks. Two weeks later, Marilyn’s children found her slumped over on a couch at Our House Too, struggling to breathe. Their mother was dying.

COURTESY OF JUNE KELLY

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They took her to a hospital, where she was diagnosed with bronchopneumonia. She still had bruises from the assault, and a subsequent X-ray showed a compression fracture in her vertebrae. All her doctors could say was that it had occurred in the previous few months. Marilyn died two weeks later. Flagg pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of assaulting a vulnerable adult and was sentenced to 30 days on a work crew, plus suspended jail time. A licensing inspector arrived at Our House Too in February 2016. The state found 19 regulatory violations, from the “isolated” incident of keeping Marilyn free from physical abuse to a “pattern” of failing to treat residents with respect and dignity and a “widespread” failure to properly train staff to administer medication. The state did not substantiate a complaint related to Our House Too’s use of Haldol. Our House Too co-owner Patorti declined to answer specific questions about Marilyn but said she remains passionate about her work. In court filings, the company has disputed the Kelly family’s claims, which include negligent care, negligent supervision and retention of Flagg, consumer fraud, and wrongful death. Though it was Flagg who assaulted their mother, June said it is Our House Too that should be accountable for her painful final months.

Former commissioner Wehry put it bluntly: “Their overall treatment of her was really psychologically abusive, and I think it hastened her death.” The state did not sanction Our House Too for its rash of violations. Inspectors who followed up three months later found that the problems had been addressed but issued a new citation for keeping inaccurate medical records. Wehry said Marilyn’s case indicates that the state should do more to hold homes accountable. “Doing a retrospective look, finding that something egregious has occurred and there being no consequence other than, ‘Please submit a plan of correction,’ is an inadequate model,” she said. Marilyn was enormously proud of her large family, which had grown to include 20 grandchildren. She was about to gain a great-granddaughter when she died, her daughter Mary said. “She had a conversation with my daughter — she was, at that point, off the Haldol — and she had a decent conversation,” Mary recalled. “And she goes, ‘I can’t wait to meet your daughter when she’s born.’ And she didn’t have that opportunity.” “So I want to — I want this facility to be held responsible for what they did.” m

THE REPORTS DETAIL RESIDENTS WHO HAVE WIELDED CANES, THROWN CHAIRS, SCRATCHED EACH OTHER AND MADE UNWANTED SEXUAL CONTACT.

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COURTESY OF MICHAEL MACDONALD

HISTORY

Deep Dive

Michael MacDonald (left) and Tom Howarth

Getting to the bottom of the 1860 schooner Sarah Ellen in Lake Champlain B Y K E N PI CA RD

y all historical accounts, it was a miserable day for sailing, let alone for crossing Lake Champlain in an old wooden vessel laden with stone. “The day was cold, the wind high, the spray dashing over the schooner and covering her with ice, the ropes all stiffened and unmanageable,” read a December 28, 1860, article in the Burlington Free Press. The Sarah Ellen, a 73-foot, two-masted commercial sailing vessel, departed from Willsboro, N.Y., on Wednesday morning, December 19, 1860, bound for Burlington. Filling its cargo hold were tons of quarried stone to be used in a new dock for the Vermont Central Railroad. The vessel never reached port. Three people were aboard the schooner: Captain Henry Clay Hayward; his wife of only several months, Lucy Whitney Hayward; and a Frenchman, Joseph LaPlante. Sailing with the Sarah Ellen was a companion ship, the Daniel Webster, which was also carrying stone. It’s only because of the second vessel that historians know anything about the first one’s fate — unlike the scores of anonymous shipwrecks that sit on the bottom of Lake Champlain. Precisely why the Sarah Ellen went down may never be known. But eyewitnesses aboard the Daniel Webster reported that both ships ran into a sudden, violent gale about a half mile southeast of Four

See video of the October dive to the Sarah Ellen shipwreck on sevendaysvt.com

The wreck of the Sarah Ellen

Brothers Islands. It’s possible that the Sarah Ellen took water over its bow or sprung a plank due to its heavy cargo. Either way, the ship quickly foundered and sank in less than 10 minutes. The crew boarded a lifeboat, but eyewitnesses reported that it was covered with ice and immediately capsized, sending all three passengers into the frigid water, where they clung desperately to the sides. As the Daniel Webster came about and plucked LaPlante to safety, the ship bumped into the overturned lifeboat, knocking the captain and his wife into the water. The Daniel Webster came about a second time and tried to rescue them, too.

“They were seen floating on the water for nearly five minutes, Mr. Hayward supporting his wife when she sank,” the Free Press reported. “[A]bout a minute after, her husband followed her to a watery grave.” The couple’s bodies were never recovered. But on October 25, 2019, human hands touched the vessel that claimed their lives for the first time in nearly 160 years. On a warm and calm autumn day, scuba divers Michael MacDonald, of Salem, Mass., and Tom Howarth, of Portsmouth, R.I., made the 300-foot descent to the bottom of Lake Champlain to get a firsthand look. Though not unprecedented in its depth, the two-hour dive demonstrated that, with

ever-improving technology, more of Lake Champlain’s shipwrecks are becoming accessible to researchers and recreational divers. And though this dive team abided by industry best practices by not disturbing the wreck or attaching themselves to it, maritime historians caution that such deep dives are a double-edged sword, exposing irreplaceable cultural resources to potential plunder and destruction. The Sarah Ellen had been seen previously on video shot in 1989 by an underwater remotely operated vehicle, or ROV. Still, as one of the divers put it, nothing quite compares to seeing it in person. “It was awesome!” MacDonald told Seven Days about his first glimpse of the Sarah Ellen. An information technology specialist at Tufts University in Boston, MacDonald, 35, also captains a dive boat based in Gloucester, Mass. “The first thing we saw going down was this mast coming out of the darkness, still standing upright and proud like it had sunk two days ago.” MacDonald spent months planning the dive with Gary Lefebvre of Colchester. Lefebvre, 61, captains the private research vessel R/V Amazon, out of Malletts Bay, from which the divers descended. He’s been diving since the mid-1970s and built the 27-foot utility vessel himself, equipping it with multiple sonar units for scanning the lake’s bottom. Occasionally, Lefebvre also assists local law enforcement in locating drowning victims. Mostly, though, he and his wife, Ellen, dive to objects that have yet to be identified or explored. “It could be a tree stump. It could be a car. It could be a brand-new wreck,” Lefebvre said. “But it’s something that nobody else has found.” Lefebvre and MacDonald didn’t discover the Sarah Ellen themselves. That honor belongs to a team led by Robert Ballard, then with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Falmouth, Mass. Ballard is a retired U.S. Navy officer best known for his 1985 discovery of the RMS Titanic. In Vermont, partnering with researchers from the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum in 1989, he was actually searching for Benedict Arnold’s missing gunboat, the Spitfire, which sank in 1776. “We didn’t find the gunboat during that survey, but we did discover the Sarah Ellen,” said Arthur Cohn, now director emeritus of the maritime museum and principal investigator on the management project for the Spitfire, which was finally located in 1997. Within days of finding the Sarah Ellen, Cohn said, researchers brought in a highly sophisticated ROV and recorded several hours of video. Despite the video’s grainy quality, Cohn called it “one of the most

DEEP DIVE

SEVEN DAYS NOVEMBER 27-DECEMBER 4, 2019

» P.44 43

Deep Dive « P.43 COURTESY OF BRIAN HUGHES

PEOPLE LOVE SHIPWRECKS.

COURTESY OF KEVIN CRISMAN

Drawing of the Sarah Ellen at the bottom of Lake Champlain

THEY ENGAGE YOUR IMAGINATION AND CONNECT YOU WITH THE PAST. AR TH UR C O H N

Harold Maynard’s homemade submarine

extraordinary sites I’ve seen on the bottom of Lake Champlain. “It’s one of the great examples of the intact legacy that was waiting there for our generation to find,” he continued. At the same time, “Finding these boats has really become the easiest part of the job. Managing the boats for their public value is more complicated.” Indeed, in 1992 the Sarah Ellen was literally minutes away from being ripped to pieces by a well-intentioned but misguided treasure hunter, who mistook the 19th-century schooner for a 20th-century aircraft. His story adds a curious wrinkle to an already colorful tale. Harold “Webb” Maynard was a longtime firefighter with the Elmira City Fire Department, in the Southern Tier of New York. According to his 2013 obituary, Maynard, who also loved to scuba dive, “fulfilled a lifelong dream of completing a functional, two-man submarine in 1982.” In August 1992, Maynard brought his homemade submersible to Lake Champlain to search for a private jet that went missing in a snowstorm shortly after takeoff from Burlington International Airport. The January 1971 crash claimed the lives of all five people aboard. But the lake iced over within days of its disappearance and the 10-passenger, twin-engine aircraft was never found, though pieces of it washed ashore in Shelburne the following spring. Because a wealthy Atlanta-based real estate firm owned the jet, treasure hunters assumed there were riches aboard. So when Maynard gazed through the tiny porthole of his submersible and spotted something on the lake’s bottom that didn’t look natural, 44

Cohn said, he automatically assumed that its iron nails were aircraft rivets. As he put it, “It was a real case of wishful thinking.” Coincidentally, Fred Fayette, owner of Juniper Research in Burlington who’s worked for years with the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum surveying the lake, happened to be on the water the same day as Maynard. Fayette, who captains the 40-foot research vessel R/V Neptune, was headed to Basin Harbor when he spotted a strange-looking utility craft anchored suspiciously close to the Sarah Ellen site. Fayette approached and asked what they were up to. “They were very open about what they were doing,” he recalled. The crew on board explained that Maynard was underwater in his submersible and had attached a series of homemade grappling hooks and ropes to what he assumed was the missing jet. Their plan was to hoist it to the surface using inflatable lift bags. Fayette convinced the treasure hunters to halt their salvage operation until they were sure it wouldn’t damage the nearby historic wreck. Fayette then alerted the maritime museum, which notified the U.S. Coast Guard and the Vermont State Police. On August 11, 1992, Cohn and Fayette brought in a highly sophisticated ROV from out of state to survey the wreck. To their horror, they saw several grappling hooks embedded in the ship, along with more than 1,000 feet of rope draped over it. Evidently, Maynard had cut his lines before aborting his salvage mission. Because Maynard’s “stealth oddball activity,” as Cohn put it, was considered an honest mistake and not archaeological

SEVEN DAYS NOVEMBER 27-DECEMBER 4, 2019

looting, he wasn’t criminally charged for damaging the Sarah Ellen; instead, the State of Vermont billed him for the expense of the ROV survey. But, as Cohn pointed out, the incident highlighted the growing challenges of protecting the 300 or so known sunken vessels in Lake Champlain, which has one of the best-preserved shipwreck collections in the world. Lefebvre and MacDonald took that responsibility seriously. Their dive was highly technical, dangerous, costly and time-consuming, requiring specialized equipment, two boats at the surface, an emergency safety diver and months of planning. Because they couldn’t anchor to the wreck itself, Lefebvre explained, he had to use anchorless, GPS technology to keep his vessel in a fixed position. Had the divers missed it by a mere 10 feet in limited visibility, they could have exhausted precious time and air looking for it, and might have missed it entirely. Indeed, they had to abort their previous dive attempt in September because the visibility was “like chocolate milk,” MacDonald said. “Any dive below 100 feet in Lake Champlain is like a night dive,” he noted. “You basically have no ambient light in water that deep.” It took the two divers five minutes to reach the Sarah Ellen. This time, visibility was clear enough to record high-definition color video of the entire vessel, which sits with its bow buried in the mud. Clearly visible on video are the ropes that Maynard attached to the ship, which now lay tangled on its deck. MacDonald admitted that he’d hoped

to see more 19th-century artifacts aboard in addition to the block pulleys that were used in the ship’s rigging. That said, the words “Isle LaMotte,” which were painted across the transom, were still legible after all that time underwater. The ship also had no zebra mussels attached, which can fully encrust wrecks in shallower waters but rarely go deeper than 100 feet. MacDonald and Howarth spent just 15 minutes on the bottom. MacDonald would have liked to stay longer but, as he explained, every two minutes at that depth adds another 20 minutes to their decompression time. As it was, their ascent to the surface took 100 minutes because the divers had to stop periodically to avoid decompression sickness, aka the bends. In all, the dive was considered an unqualified success, and the video they took adds significantly to the Sarah Ellen’s historical record, Cohn said. At the same time, he noted, deep dives like this one present a new challenge: preserving this and other underwater relics for future generations. “People love shipwrecks. They engage your imagination and connect you with the past,” Cohn added. “We now have the ability to extend our human diving depths from the old standard, which was around 100 to 130 feet, to several hundred feet … With the deepest water [wrecks], which were always protected by their depths, how do we best manage them moving forward?” m Contact: ken@sevendaysvt.com

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Post Modern T oday’s standard first-year college student was born in 2001. When the first smartphone came out, this person was 6 years old. Generation Z, as today’s teens and young adults are called, were the first to grow simultaneously with technology and, as a result, they often use the internet in ways that are foreign even to millennials, one generation older. Snapchat streaks and “finstas” (google it) are concepts that can confound older Americans, even dedicated smartphone users. TikTok, a video-sharing app, is a booming online space dominated by teenagers. News outlets often mistakenly credit viral online trends such as “OK, Boomer” to millennials when, in fact, they originated with members of Generation Z. Then there are the memes — the viral jokes that get shared and manipulated across social platforms. Often absurdist, and the more specific the better, memes have become an online diary, a platform for political commentary and a source of community connection, including among students on college campuses. This fall, Seven Days covered Facebook groups at the University of Vermont and Middlebury College dedicated to sharing memes about the student experience. Yet another campus meme presence exists on Instagram. More than a dozen accounts with “UVM” in their name offer tiny, unique windows into college life, as students document extremely specific sights around campus, including bananas, socks and squirrels. The university itself manages none of these accounts; but if you search “UVM” on Instagram, they might just beat out the school’s official presence. Allow me to introduce myself: I was born in 1996, which puts me right on the cusp of two generations. (Yes, we’re adults now, and they let us write for newspapers.) I am either one of the youngest millennials or one of the oldest Zoomers; regardless, it puts me in a position to observe both groups. Follow me, then, into the weird world of Instagram and college students. I will be your lantern in the dark. m

CULTURE

Contact: margaret@sevendaysvt.com 46

SEVEN DAYS NOVEMBER 27-DECEMBER 4, 2019

Seven extremely specific college Instagram accounts BY MAR GAR E T GR AYS O N

@uvmtrashcup This account is dedicated to random scraps of dining-hall food mixed together in cups to form the kind of gross concoctions that build up in your drain stopper after you haven’t done the dishes for a week. Why is it that when foods that are normally dry get wet, it’s suddenly the most disgusting thing in the world? This account repulses every cell in my body, but as an objective reviewer I have to admit that it holds a certain terrifying power, like a train wreck or a magazine story about botched plastic surgery. I can’t look away.

@uvmsocks I was initially suspicious that this was just a cover for someone’s foot fetish, but the captions appear to reveal that this is just a sad, soft soul who loves funky socks. Carry on.

@squirrelsofuvm Squirrels and college campuses: It’s a thing. From Rice University to Pennsylvania State, students and staff have dedicated Tumblrs and Twitters to the fluffy rodents who share their environment — often some of the only wildlife city dwellers encounter on a daily basis. They scurry, they steal food, they chatter, and they’re one of the leading causes of power outages. This account is home to all of the squirrel content you could ever desire. The owner of the account put it this way: “I actually don’t like squirrels that much. I started it ironically because they’re just so strange. I began posting these pictures as a joke, but now it’s a part of me … Now people submit pictures of them to me everyday.”

@stmikesfoodontheground Did you think UVM was having all the fun? This account based at Saint Michael’s College documents the bread crumbs of consumerism, the wasted remnants of human excess: food on the ground. UVM has its own version, too: @uvmfoodontheground. I still don’t know who kept dropping jars of salsa out of the dorm windows during my sophomore year of college, but the memory haunts me to this day.

@uvmcampusbananas Say you’re in the mood for more than 300 photos of bananas in situations where bananas normally would not be. You’ve come to the right corner of the internet. Students submit photos of bananas from around campus: bananas on the ground, bananas on desks, bananas in showers, students dressed as bananas. The owners of this account said in a message that they’ve started seeing bananas in strange places and that they truly have no idea why — but that’s the fun of it. “I love the ones that make me wonder what on earth happened,” they wrote. In November, due to the large influx of submissions, the owners of the account had to stop accepting photos of banana peels. Now only whole bananas make the cut.

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Many moons ago, the hat du jour among hip youths was very large. Called the “slouchy beanie,” it sagged off the back of your skull like a strange growth. But today, the pendulum has swung in the opposite direction: Hats are small. Very small. In fact, the beanie of 2019 probably doesn’t even cover the wearer’s ears. This is fashion, not frostbite protection. This account is dedicated to tiny, ridiculous hats. I’m a little worried that at some point @tinyhatsofuvm will mistakenly post a photo of someone wearing a yarmulke, and we, as a society, will be forced to collectively cancel the account. But until then, let’s enjoy the ride.

Once when I was in college, the campus dining hall closed for spring break, and I was so broke I spent the week living off peanut butter and frozen vegetables in my dorm room. Then my grandma sent me a Subway gift card, and I nearly cried with gratitude. This account is a beautiful ode to all of the sad stuff that college students call a meal: animal crackers and a bowl of queso, plain chunks of artificial crab, Apple Jacks and plain Greek yogurt. The captions often include reminders about mental health services. Go ahead and eat your feelings, unless your feelings tell you to eat garbage, in which case talking about your feelings with a professional is probably the better approach.

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food+drink

No Cuisine Is an Island Café Mamajuana brings Dominican flavors to Burlington BY J O R D AN BAR RY

A piña (pineapple) upside-down cake

aria Lara-Bregatta should give lessons on how to run a pop-up. Somehow, while slinging empanadas out of a makeshift kitchen, she manages to greet customers — with hugs for her regulars — take orders, make change, and have in-depth conversations about colonialism and authenticity. No big deal. Lara-Bregatta, 26, is the chef-owner (and prep cook, marketing person and accountant) of Café Mamajuana. She’s bringing Dominican cuisine to Burlington through pop-ups, catering, wholesale and, if all goes well, a permanent restaurant next spring. The goal of having a restaurant snuck up on Lara-Bregatta. She grew up in a restaurant family in New Jersey and learned how to cook from her dad, Luis Lara, who is from the Dominican Republic. “I was 5 years old when we got our first restaurant, so I know all the craziness,” Lara-Bregatta said. “I never thought I would do it, but when I moved to Vermont,

Maria Lara-Bregatta

I thought, I have to do this. There’s no food here that I eat.” At first, Lara-Bregatta mostly prepared traditional Dominican dishes for herself and her “partner in love,” who is also

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Dominican. “I started out cooking for him and cooking for friends, and now I’m cooking for everybody,” she said. Those traditional dishes include crowd-pleasing empanadas; plantains in

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various forms (and of varying ripeness); combinations of rice, beans and protein; and sancocho, a three-meat stew with yucca that is considered the national dish of the DR. Describing Dominican cuisine can be a challenge, Lara-Bregatta said, because the food, like the Dominican people, isn’t just one thing. “Because of the way that colonialism happened in that country, Dominican people are from all over. Dominican food stretches from Spain to Africa and beyond; it’s all a product of the Atlantic slave trade,” she explained. To cater to the Burlington market, Lara-Bregatta uses as much local and organic produce as possible. Vermont has no plantain farmers — yet, she joked, noting the trajectory of climate change — but the locally owned Asian markets are a reliable source. “People like comfort food here. It’s cold,” Lara-Bregatta said. “Dominican NO CUISINE IS AN ISLAND

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SIDEdishes SERVING UP FOOD NEWS

Spirited Away MONTPELIER WINTER MARKET MOVES TO CALEDONIA SPIRITS

The CAPITAL CITY FARMERS

MARKET will have a new home

this winter at CALEDONIA

SPIRITS’ Montpelier distillery

Jordan Barry

Paris on Wheels PETITE FOREST FOOD TRUCK RIDING INTO WATERBURY

As a cook at PROHIBITION PIG in Waterbury, WILL DURST can remark on a phenomenon about which most of us can only surmise. “There’s so many hungry people in Waterbury!” he said. Durst and his wife,

ASHLEY WOLF, plan to help feed that crowd next spring when they launch their Waterbury-based food truck, PETITE FOREST. Wolf, former bar manager at JUNIPER in Burlington, is general manager of HEN OF THE WOOD’s Waterbury location. “Our plan is to set up at as many farmers markets and events in this area as possible,” Durst said. “And hopefully build up … a following to open our own restaurant.” The couple’s forest-green truck, formerly the LAZY FARMER, will be a Parisian bistro on wheels, Durst said. On the menu are frites fried in clarified butter and served with herbed-Dijon mayo; and a sandwich with local beef roasted to medium rare, caramelized onions, Tarentaise cheese, crispy shallots and onion soup jus. A riff on a Caesar salad will feature radicchio, aged

The hallway at Caledonia Spirits that will host the Capital City Farmers Market's winter market

cheese, bread crumbs and roasted-shallot vinaigrette. CORNER OF Petite Forest will also offer a LAKE & MAIN quick and accessible classic: ST. ALBANS baguette and butter. 802-524-3769 “My wife and I love eating M-SA 9 A.M. - 6 P.M. and drinking wine,” Durst, 28, SU 10 A.M. - 3 P.M. said. “And the French do that very well. We were inspired by our trips to Montréal and 16t-railcity112719.indd 1 11/25/19 3:16 PM restaurants like Joe Beef. They’re all about eating and drinking and being merry. And we wanted to do that for other people.” Cookies • Cakes Durst has cooked at BLUE Stuffing Mix and More! PADDLE BISTRO in South Hero and Juniper, where he was a “very talented and dedicated” line cook, according to executive chef DOUG PAINE. In summer 2014, Durst served as chef and driver for FORK IN THE ROAD, the BURLINGTON SCHOOL 4 Carmichael St., Essex Jct., 878-1646 FOOD PROJECT’s food truck. “It westmeadowfarmbakery.com was a great experience,” he said of operating the truck with Burlington High School 16t-westmeadowfarm112719.indd 1 11/18/19 12:57 PM students. Durst used to be sous chef at Prohibition Pig; as a cook, he said, he has more time to focus on launching Petite Forest. He’ll be the truck’s chef while Wolf manages its behinds-the-scene operation. “We’re not here to make a million bucks,” Durst said. “We’re here to be a part of the community and serve the community and make delicious food.”

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at 116 Gin Lane. Known for its Barr Hill Gin, Caledonia will host the popular winter market beginning on Saturday, December 7. “The market has struggled for a long time to find an adequate space with a more permanent agreement,” interim manager KERI RYAN said. “Caledonia Spirits has bent over backwards for us, and we’re so excited to be there this winter.” Previous sites for the market have been the City Center and the Vermont College of Fine Arts. In the search for a new location, the distillery — which opened in June — was a “no-brainer,” Ryan said. “It’s a beautiful, well-lit space and is a great fit visually … [Caledonia Spirits] is a big supporter of Vermont’s working landscape, and this makes sense with their history in agriculture.” At least 27 vendors will set up in the distillery’s long hallway, selling local produce, meat, cheese, honey, maple syrup, prepared foods, crafts and more. The distillery will open its bar area at 10 a.m. and have its usual Saturday food vendor, JDK BBQ, on-site. Market organizers are aware that the distillery location may be difficult for people in recovery, Ryan said, noting that the market will be separate from the bar area. Green Mountain Transit will offer deviation service to the distillery to shoppers who call to request it 24 hours in advance. “It is a bit of a longer walk from downtown, and we still wanted it to be accessible,” Ryan said. The market will run

from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the first three Saturdays of December, then every other Saturday from January 4 through April 25. Come May, when the market goes outdoors, it will again have a new location: the lot at 2 Taylor Street. Next to the market’s previous summer home, the lot offers more space and a longer lease, Ryan said.

Sally Pollak

Crumbs Will Durst of Petite Forest

NEW OWNER AT TIGHT SQUEEZE; FARMHOUSE COMING TO WILLISTON; BLISS BEE OPENS IN SOBU

A new owner took over TIGHT SQUEEZE COFFEE SHOP at 125 College Street in Burlington last month. PALDEN SANGMO, who purchased the business from MIKE LUCEY, told Seven Days she wanted to own her own small business. She said she plans to make no changes at Tight Squeeze, which serves SIDE DISHES

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412 PINE ST, BURLINGTON 658-6016

SEVEN DAYS NOVEMBER 27-DECEMBER 4, 2019 GG8V-Speeders112316.indd 1

49 11/21/16 11:32 AM

No Cuisine Is an Island « P.48

recalled, giving meaning and history to an ingredient that Lara-Bregatta uses and grows herself in Vermont. At Foam, the empanadas came with five different fillings: pollo (the most popular, Lara-Bregatta said); ropa vieja, stewed steak that falls apart like the old clothes it’s named for; salami and queso, with a soft Dominican salami, cheese and mashed

DOMINICAN FOOD STRETCHES FROM SPAIN TO AFRICA AND BEYOND;

IT’S ALL A PRODUCT OF THE ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE. MAR IA L AR A- BR E GAT TA

GLENN RUSSELL

food, even though it’s tropical, has warmth.” One of the biggest surprises for LaraBregatta has been the support she’s received from the local Latinx community. “When I went to [the University of Vermont], and when I was starting the business, I thought there were no other Latinas in the area,” she said. Now, she regularly caters for UVM’s Alianza Latinx, a student-run organization that raises awareness about Latinx and Hispanic culture. “I think my food really resonates with people of color, even beyond the DR, who haven’t been able to have that food around here,” she said. Selling people on Dominican cuisine and establishing a customer base has happened quickly for Lara-Bregatta, who held her first Café Mamajuana pop-up during the 2018 South End Art Hop. Then a server at ArtsRiot, she saw an opportunity to jump into business on one of the South End’s busiest days of the year. “ArtsRiot only had their truck parked outside, and there are 10,000 people that come through,” she said. “I mentioned that if [ArtsRiot] wanted a second vendor, I knew a girl who might want to do something.” Her ArtsRiot coworkers didn’t even know that Lara-Bregatta could cook — or that she was scheming up a business — but co-owner PJ McHenry gave her a chance. The first pop-up was a success, and Café Mamajuana has been all over town ever since — from Deli126 to Foam Brewers to Stonecutter Spirits Highball Social to Summervale and more. Lara-Bregatta left her job at ArtsRiot four months ago and now focuses on her business full time, popping up two or three times a week in addition to catering and developing a line of wholesale salsas that will soon be available at City Market, Onion River Co-op. Finding places to pop up happens organically for Café Mamajuana, LaraBregatta said: Business owners tend to message her, rather than the other way around. She often pops up at bars where her food brings a new dimension to the business, encouraging patrons to have another drink and stay a while. “Bars that do heavy volume that don’t have a food program are where it’s at,” Lara-Bregatta said during a recent pop-up at Foam. Her setup there, on a side counter behind the bar, consisted of containers of prepared empanadas and a fryer. It was a Thursday evening — Jazz Night — and a big crowd was drinking the brewery’s IPAs and sour beers and listening to Bella and the Notables. A steady stream of regulars made their way through the crowd to order. Among

them was Miranda Syp, owner of Syp Brand Pierogi, who hosts twice-monthly Pierogi Mondays at Barrio Bakery. The two business owners, who have worked side by side at past events, chatted about the logistics of pop-up kitchens and ideas for future collaborations. “Maria’s is the only pop-up I’ve ever really followed,” Syp said. “I never know

Maria Lara-Bregatta with a pollo empanada

what to expect, but I never really care. It’s always good.” “We’ve got to support each other,” Lara-Bregatta said. The night’s menu, written in Spanish and English, was all empanadas: easy to eat, crispy, savory and perfect with a beer. Mamajuana empanadas have a signature orange hue that comes from the addition of achiote, or annatto, to the dough. Achiote is typically considered a Mexican ingredient, but on a recent trip to the DR, Lara-Bregatta encountered it while horseback riding. “The guide pulled something off the tree to show me, and it was achiote,” she said. “He opened it and put a stripe on my arm and told me it was what the native Taíno people used as war paint.” The moment was an emotional one, she

SEVEN DAYS NOVEMBER 27-DECEMBER 4, 2019

green plantains; vegan butternut squash with beans; and, to keep things interesting, a Thanksgiving filling of turkey, gravy, cranberries and stuffing. “I like to play around seasonally, because I want to keep my audience captivated,” Lara-Bregatta said. Putting out new flavors and playing with traditional dishes excites her, too, as she explores her identity and the things food can represent. Café Mamajuana offers a full Thanksgiving catering menu, including the empanada, which Lara-Bregatta said is “like the gum Violet Beauregarde chews in Willy Wonka; it’s a three-course meal in one.” When questioned about creating a Dominican menu for a colonialist holiday, Lara-Bregatta said the irony fits right into her approach to food. “Making this Thanksgiving menu is a ‘fuck you’ to

Christopher Columbus, and I love that,” she said. “I see what colonialism has done to the Dominican Republic, but food might be the one good thing that’s come out of that oppression. It’s mixing cultures, and where would we be without that layering of flavors?” “If I could use one word to describe what I want to do, it would be authentic. It has its problems,” Lara-Bregatta said, acknowledging that diners bring their own expectations and standards of authenticity. “I’m not straight out of the island, but I say my food speaks for itself.” Her travel experiences have made her think about that concept of authenticity. On a recent trip to the DR, Lara-Bregatta was surprised that she had trouble finding the dishes she’d learned from her father — what she considers traditional Dominican food. “I went to the DR to eat and to think about the menu, but a lot of the food I found was Americanized or Italian,” she said. The country thrives on tourism, and restaurants in its cities have succumbed to the global palate. “I’ve gotten flak in the U.S. for cooking Dominican with Italian influences — my mother is Italian — but that’s a lot of what they have there now, unless you’re in a small town or buying from a street vendor. They have pizza and pasta, but I wanted rice and beans and sancocho,” Lara-Bregatta said. “It’s hard to decipher what’s authentic when you go to the place and they’re not trying to be authentic themselves.” Looking ahead, Lara-Bregatta is working on financing a permanent home for Café Mamajuana through various channels, including an iFundWomen campaign. She has struggled with contracts that fell through and potential investors who are wary of her age and experience level. “I’ve been turned down by a lot of white old men,” she said. But she’s thankful for the support she’s gotten from the community, including Vermont Womenpreneurs, the team at ArtsRiot, and all the businesses and customers that have sustained her pop-ups. When she settles in her own space, Lara-Bregatta doesn’t plan to let anyone’s concept of authenticity keep her from cooking her own way. “I market myself as Dominican fusion, but ultimately, I’m Italian and Dominican and Congolese. I’m from all these places, and I want to showcase all my DNA,” she said. “After all, what’s more authentic than being yourself?” m Contact: jbarry@sevendaysvt.com

INFO Café Mamajuana, 777-5192, cafemamajuana.com

Side Dishes « P.49 coffee, tea, espresso drinks and baked goods from BARRIO BAKERY. Sangmo, 37, said she has been a server at SHERPA KITCHEN, also on College Street, since it opened. She now works two nights a week at Sherpa Kitchen and during the days at Tight Squeeze, which opens at 7:30 a.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. on Saturday. Lucey, Tight Squeeze’s previous owner, said he’ll focus on his remaining downtown business, Burlington Hostel.

J.B.

BLISS BEE opened on Monday in the newly built complex at 1185 Shelburne Road in South Burlington, near Palace 9 Cinemas. The fast-casual restaurant

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Farmhouse Tap & Grill burger

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11/15/19 11:31 AM

FILE: DARIA BISHOP

Williston will soon have its very own location of the FARMHOUSE TAP & GRILL, Farmhouse Group owner JED DAVIS told Seven Days. Projected to open in fall or winter of 2020, the restaurant will share a space with HEALTHY LIVING MARKET & CAFÉ in the Finney Crossing development. It will be slightly smaller than the Burlington location but will have “everything people love about the Farmhouse,” Davis said. “There’s been a lot of smart growth on the residential side in Williston, and there are a lot of people there who want to eat,” Davis said. “That market is well poised to receive a really high-quality farm-totable establishment.” Davis said he has been working with Finney Crossing owners Chris Snyder and Scott Reilly for nearly two years on the project. “They have been great, and that’s a huge reason this project is moving forward,” he said.

COURTESY OF SANGAY DHONDUP

food+drink

Dishes at Bliss Bee

is the second Bliss Bee in Chittenden County; the first one launched in April at Maple Tree Place in Williston. Like its Williston counterpart, the South Burlington Bliss Bee is open daily starting at 11 a.m. with a menu of grain bowls, salads, burgers, hot dogs and chicken sandwiches, plus sides such as French fries,

coleslaw and chicken nuggets. Beverages include cocktails and smoothies. Bliss Bee is a new venture for its owner, JED DAVIS, whose Farmhouse Group currently owns and operates five area restaurants. Davis opened his first restaurant, FARMHOUSE TAP & GRILL, on Burlington’s Bank Street in May 2010. S.P.

CONNECT Follow us for the latest food gossip! On Twitter: Sally Pollak: @vtpollak. On Instagram: Seven Days: @7deatsvt; Jordan Barry: @jordankbarry.

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Sunday Brunch Coming Soon restaurantpoco.com | 802-497-2587 HOURS: WED-FRI 11am-10pm | SAT 3-10pm SEVEN DAYS NOVEMBER 27-DECEMBER 4, 2019

Tumbling Dice Games and grilled cheese at the Boardroom Café in Burlington B Y S A LLY POL L AK

A giant pretzel

Playing Patchwork at the Boardroom Café

SEVEN DAYS NOVEMBER 27-DECEMBER 4, 2019

PHOTOS: GLENN RUSSELL

ur table at the Boardroom Café the other night held an unusual setting. It consisted of a bottle of hand sanitizer and two board games: Masterpiece, a favorite of mine from childhood for its combination of artwork and intrigue, and Mastermind, a one-on-one “code-breaking” contest. I drank a Fiddlehead beer and considered which one to play as I waited for my friend Phinneus Sonin to show up. This evening, he would also be my competitor at Burlington’s new two-floor mecca of games and retro snacks — grilled cheese, PB&J, Bugles and cookie dough — in a restored building near the bridge to Winooski. Phinn possesses keen intuition, among other game-playing skills. Still, I marveled when he walked into the Boardroom looking like he stepped out of the Masterpiece box: a painter’s subject come to life with his bright eyes and multicolored suede jacket. (I wore a gray beer sweatshirt.) Taking a look at our table, Phinn picked up the hand sanitizer and announced: “This is the downfall of humanity.” He set it on a nearby table and ordered an orange freeze. Surrounding us were more than 500 board games, many of which concern the demise of humanity — and a dice-rolling effort to save it. The café itself feels like something of a boost for humanity. It offers row upon row of alphabetized order, from boxes of A Fake Artist Goes to New York to Zombicide Season 2: Prison Outbreak. The Boardroom provides a night of cheap kicks ($6 table charge) and invites low-pressure socializing. If you don’t feel like talking, you can keep the chitchat to a minimum: “Whose turn is it? Wanna play again? Should we get a peanut butter and Nutella sandwich or fried bologna?” But interaction is necessary: The café has no public Wi-Fi, so you can’t play on or against your smartphone. A real person is required. My person for the evening was a junkman and juggler who lives in the Old North End. Phinn’s Burlington shop, Junktiques Collective, carries a selection of board games, from classics such as Scrabble to the contemporary dice game Cosmic Wimpout. He showed up branded with a new — and apropos — tattoo on his wrist: a single die. He was ready to play, and eat. We ordered a giant pretzel that came

food+drink

A partial selection of the games available for play at the Boardroom Café

dangling from a stainless-steel hook above saucers of mustard. We ditched the games I had put forth in favor of a 2014 board game that was new to us both: Patchwork. The game, which the café rates “easy” by its color-coded system, pits art against commerce. The strategy centers on a crucial conundrum: collect money (in the form of buttons) or craft a quilt. It took me about three-quarters of the contest to grasp this essential notion. Phinn caught on within moments of the explanation from Preston Endres — a Boardroom staffer and self-described “second-generation geek.” During Endres’ instruction, I knew I was screwed when Phinn asked him: “Are there other ways to generate currency?” (I was unaware that any methods at all had been discussed.) When it was time to play, Phinn went first. He earned this advantage because, by Patchwork’s rules, Player No. 1 is the person who most recently used a needle in real life. As it happened, Phinn had not long ago performed the old needle-through-the-arm trick in his magic routine. By this measure, he beat me to the first move. Once the game got going, Phinn generously helped me make my moves — even as he noted that my time was running out. “You’re dead,” he said finally. “And your grandchild is wondering, ‘Where’s my quilt?’”

He slaughtered me. Phinn’s generosity was less evident with that orange freeze, which he slurped down before I could have a taste. We also ate sandwiches: grilled cheese, salami and pickle for Phinn; peanut butter and jelly for me, made with Skippy crunchy and Welch’s strawberry. Eating and playing presented a challenge: Our hands were sticky and greasy, our sanitizer was banned, and our patchwork pieces were competing for space on the table with our plates. As my competitive zeal picked up, I realized I wanted to sink my teeth into coarse and crusty bread, not the soft stuff of our sandwiches. Gaming calls for an artisan loaf with which to chew things over. “I’m a bread snob,” I told Phinn as I gave in to a night of whole wheat slices. After the game, we hung out with Boardroom owner Kerry Winger, drinking hot chocolate, eating doughnuts with bacon bits and Marshmallow Fluff, and sampling her special dessert, the Hailstorm. It consists of bread and butter covered with chocolate sprinkles — but not the waxy ones, Winger emphasized. She imports her sprinkles from the Netherlands. The Boardroom menu, she said, is “all the junk food I want to eat.” Winger, 48, left her job as a division administrator at the Vermont Department of Health to open the Boardroom. A Kickstarter campaign raised $8,210 from 112 backers, she said. “I thought that it would be a good addition to the area,” Winger told me. “There’s stuff to do, but there isn’t tons of stuff if you don’t go outside.” Winger showed us a game called Capital Vices that was designed by two local game makers, and told us about a board game of galactic conquest, Twilight Imperium, that takes 10 hours to play. “That’s 10 hours of your life that you may never get back,” Winger said. She pulled out Secret Hitler, a liberalversus-fascist showdown in which one player is secretly Hitler. I was afraid I’d never get any of my life back if we played that one. m

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N O V E M B E R

WED.27 cannabis

EDIBLE WELLNESS: A Q&A demystifies the benefits of consuming cannabidiol. Attendees treat themselves to sweet CBD delights. RabbleRouser Chocolate & Craft Co., Middlesex, 5-6 p.m. Free. Info, 229-2090.

crafts

FIBER RIOT!: Creative types get hooked on knitting, crocheting, spinning and more at an informal weekly gathering. Mad River Fiber Arts & Mill, Waitsfield, 5-7:30 p.m. Free. Info, 496-7746. KNITTER’S GROUP: Crafters share their latest projects and get help with challenging patterns. All skill levels are welcome. South Burlington Community Library, University Mall, 6:30-8 p.m. Free. Info, 846-4140.

dance

SQUARE DANCING: Swing your partner! Dancers forge friendships while exercising their minds and bodies. Barre Area Senior Center, 1-3 p.m. Donations; preregister. Info, 479-9512.

etc.

DEATH CAFÉ: Folks meet for a thought-provoking and respectful conversation about death, aimed at accessing a fuller life. Pyramid Holistic Wellness Center, Rutland, 7-9 p.m. Free; donations accepted. Info, 353-6991. NURSING BEYOND A YEAR MEET-UP: Breastfeeding parents connect over toddler topics such as weaning and healthy eating habits.

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Aikido of Champlain Valley, Burlington, 9:30 a.m. Free. Info, 985-8228.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the movies section. ‘EARTH FLIGHT 3D’: Revolutionary aerial techniques and state-of-the-art 3D cameras take viewers on a journey across the world on the wings of birds. Northfield Savings Bank 3D Theater: A National Geographic Experience, ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, Burlington, 11 a.m., 1 & 3 p.m. $3-5 plus regular admission, $11.50-14.50; admission free for members and kids 2 and under. Info, 864-1848. ‘INCREDIBLE PREDATORS 3D’: Advanced filming techniques expose the planet’s top hunters on land, under the sea and in the air. Northfield Savings Bank 3D Theater: A National Geographic Experience, ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, Burlington, noon, 2 & 4 p.m. $3-5 plus regular admission, $11.50-14.50; admission free for members and kids 2 and under. Info, 864-1848. ‘SPACE JUNK 3D’: A growing ring of orbiting debris is at the center of an out-of-thisworld film showing natural and man-made collisions. Northfield Savings Bank 3D Theater: A National Geographic Experience, ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, Burlington, 10:30 a.m., 12:30, 2:30 & 4:30 p.m. $3-5 plus regular admission, $11.50-14.50; admission free for members and kids 2 and under. Info, 864-1848.

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‘TINY GIANTS 3D’: An immersive film reveals the astonishing lives of the smallest of animals — think chipmunks and grasshopper mice. Northfield Savings Bank 3D Theater: A National Geographic Experience, ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, Burlington, 11:30 a.m., 1:30 & 3:30 p.m. $3-5 plus regular admission, $11.50-14.50; admission free for members and kids 2 and under. Info, 864-1848.

food & drink

BIG WEDNESDAY: ‘MEAN GIRLS’ MENU SEND-OFF PARTY: Imbibers enjoy the final night of a cocktail menu inspired by the 2004 comedy starring Lindsay Lohan and Tina Fey. Stonecutter Spirits Highball Social, Burlington, 4-10 p.m. Free. Info, 540-3000.

games

BRIDGE CLUB: Players have fun with the popular card game. Burlington Bridge Club, Williston, 9:15 a.m. & 1:30 p.m. $6. Info, 872-5722. MAH JONGG IN BARRE: Fun, friendship and conversation flow as players manipulate tiles. Barre Area Senior Center, 10 a.m. Free. Info, 479-9512.

health & fitness

ALL-LEVELS ACROYOGA CLASS: The mindfulness and breath of yoga meet the playful aspects of acrobatics in a partner practice. No partners or experience required. Sangha Studio — Pine, Burlington, 7-8 p.m. Donations. Info, 798-2651. CHAIR YOGA: Whether experiencing balance issues or WED.27

LIST YOUR UPCOMING EVENT HERE FOR FREE!

NOV.30 & DEC.1 | CRAFTS

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FIND MORE LOCAL EVENTS IN THIS ISSUE AND ONLINE:

art ALL SUBMISSIONS MUST BE RECEIVED BY THURSDAY AT NOON FOR CONSIDERATION IN THE Find visual art exhibits and events in the art section FOLLOWING WEDNESDAY’S NEWSPAPER. FIND OUR and at sevendaysvt.com/art. CONVENIENT SUBMISSION FORM AND GUIDELINES AT SEVENDAYSVT.COM/POSTEVENT. SPECIAL HOLIDAY DEADLINE: LISTINGS FOR EVENTS TAKING PLACE BETWEEN WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4, AND WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 11, ARE DUE BY NOON ON WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 27.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the movies section and at sevendayst.com/movies.

music + nightlife

LISTINGS AND SPOTLIGHTS ARE WRITTEN BY Find club dates at local venues in the music + nightlife KRISTEN RAVIN AND DAN BOLLES. SEVEN DAYS section and at sevendaysvt.com/music. EDITS FOR SPACE AND STYLE. DEPENDING ON COST AND OTHER FACTORS, CLASSES AND WORKSHOPS All family-oriented events are now MAY BE LISTED IN EITHER THE CALENDAR OR THE published in Kids VT, our free parenting CLASSES SECTION. WHEN APPROPRIATE, CLASS monthly. Look for it on newsstands and ORGANIZERS MAY BE ASKED TO PURCHASE A check out the online calendar at kidsvt.com. CLASS LISTING.

SEVEN DAYS NOVEMBER 27-DECEMBER 4, 2019

Shopping Small

Light a Candle

November 30 is Small Business Saturday, a nationwide shopping holiday encouraging folks to buy from brickand-mortar businesses. Vermonters can get into the spirit of supporting local sellers by browsing the Women’s Festival of Crafts. More than 55 artisans take over all three floors of Burlington City Hall for this 30th annual marketplace, selling everything from handmade jewelry to pottery to greeting cards to herbal products. Browsers eye wares from Green Village Soap, Pin Up Pickles, Jennifer Kahn Jewelry and many others, scooping up gifts for everyone on their list — and maybe even snagging a little something for themselves.

World AIDS Day was founded in 1988 as an occasion for people around the world to join the fight against HIV, show support for those living with the virus and commemorate those who have lost their lives to AIDS-related illnesses. Central Vermonters mark the day with a vigil at Montpelier City Hall, where attendees join the Vermont People With AIDS Coalition to light candles and remember lost loved ones before making their way to the Vermont Statehouse. From there, participants head to downtown bar Sweet Melissa’s for a celebration of life. Songs, stories and instruments are welcome.

DEC.1 | ACTIVISM

WORLD AIDS DAY VIGIL Sunday, December 1, vigil and march, 3-4 p.m.; celebration, 4-6 p.m., at Montpelier City Hall. Free. Info, vtpwac@sover.net.

CO M ST IM E. RE A |D M NI TS KY DO

Saturday, November 30, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., and Sunday, December 1, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., at Burlington City Hall. Free. Info, 264-9820, womensfestivalofcrafts.com.

WOMEN’S FESTIVAL OF CRAFTS

NOW YOU SEE HIM COURTESY OF THE DOWNTOWN RUTLAND PARTNERSHIP

NOV.29 | THEATER

Do you believe in magic? World-renowned illusionist Vitaly Beckman may have audience members questioning their perceptions of reality following his physics-defying act An Evening of Wonders. Seen on TV’s “Penn & Teller: Fool Us” and in his own Off-Broadway production, the performer, who goes by simply Vitaly, is known for his unique style of blending art with illusion. “My vision was to create the most original show in the world — a show where art comes to life,” he says in a promotional video. This interactive theatrical experience uses awe-inspiring tricks to tell the story of Vitaly’s “transformation from a boy with a dream to a man with a vision.”

Christmas Town Whoville on Christmas Eve has nothing on downtown Rutland the Saturday after Thanksgiving. The central Vermont city decks the halls and trims the trees for the Holiday Stroll, a full day of retail specials and family-friendly festivities. Grown-ups on a gift-buying mission browse downtown stores that offer snacks, discounts and gift wrapping. Parents and kids watch the 2018 animated movie Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch at the Paramount Theatre at 10 a.m., and then meet Santa Claus at the Rutland Free Library between 2:30 and 5 p.m. Finally, St. Nick and Mayor David Allaire team up for the annual tree lighting in Depot Park. Visit downtownrutland.com for the full schedule and a list of participating businesses.

HOLIDAY STROLL Saturday, November 30, 7 a.m.-10 p.m., in downtown Rutland. Free. Info, 773-9380, downtownrutland.com.

NOV.30 | HOLIDAYS

VITALY: ‘AN EVENING OF WONDERS’ Friday, November 29, 3 & 7 p.m., at Spruce Peak Performing Arts Center, Stowe Mountain Resort. $22-55. Info, 760-4634, sprucepeakarts.org.

SEVEN DAYS NOVEMBER 27-DECEMBER 4, 2019

Cambridge Small Business Saturday Festival November 30th | 10am-4pm Join us to celebrate the small businesses that make Cambridge so amazing! Visit the various businesses throughout Cambridge and our Holiday Artisan Market at the Visions of Vermont Fine Art Galleries! Shop local this holiday season!

Various Cambridge & Jeffersonville locations

Burlington’s only pet boutique opens Black Friday at 10am! 8h-cambridgesmallbusinesssaturday112719.indd 1

11/18/19 11:36 AM

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recovering from illness or injury, health-conscious community members drop in for a weekly low-stress class. Waterbury Public Library, 10:15-11:15 a.m. Free. Info, 244-7036.

TECH SUPPORT: Need an email account? Want to enjoy ebooks? Bring your phone, tablet or laptop to a weekly help session. St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, 3-5 p.m. Free. Info, 748-8291.

RESILIENCE FLOW: Individuals affected by traumatic brain injuries engage in a gentle yoga practice. Sangha Studio — Pine, Burlington, 3:30-4:30 p.m. Donations. Info, 448-4262.

theater

SEATED TAI CHI: Movements are modified for those with arthritis and other chronic conditions. Nonresidents are welcome. Grandway Commons, Cathedral Square Corporation, South Burlington, 4-5 p.m. Free. Info, 735-5467. YOGA4CANCER: Meant for anyone affected by the illness, this class aims to help participants manage treatment side effects and recovery. Sangha Studio — North, Burlington, noon-1 p.m. Donations. Info, 448-4262.

language

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BEGINNER & INTERMEDIATE/ ADVANCED ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASSES: Learners take communication to the next level. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 6:30-8 p.m. Free. Info, 865-7211. FOURTH WEDNESDAY CONVERSATION GROUP: Frenchlanguage conversation flows at a monthly gathering. Alburgh Public Library, 5:15-6 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, ajp4561@gmail.com. LUNCH IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE: SPANISH: ¡Hola! Language lovers perfect their fluency. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier, noon-1 p.m. Free. Info, 223-3338.

lgbtq

LUNCH WITH BOI CHAPLAIN: Those questioning, seeking or needing spiritual friendship drop in for a chat with minister in training Danielle. Pride Center of Vermont, Burlington, noon-1 p.m. Free. Info, 860-7812.

music

Find club dates in the music section. MENTALLY INTUNE: Singers find harmony in a community chorus for people living with depression. No experience or talent required. Rumney Memorial School, Middlesex, 6:30-8 p.m. Donations. Info, 272-7209. OLD NORTH END NEIGHBORHOOD BAND TEEN MUSIC JAM: Be they accomplished or beginner musicians, young players find harmony in the traditional music of Burlington’s past and present immigrant groups. Boys & Girls Club, Burlington, 6-7:30 p.m. Free. Info, 881-8500.

tech

TECH HELP WITH CLIF: Electronics novices develop skill sets applicable to smartphones, tablets and other gadgets. Brownell Library, Essex Junction,

SEVEN DAYS NOVEMBER 27-DECEMBER 4, 2019

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noon & 1 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 878-6955.

‘THE SOUND OF MUSIC’: The hills are alive in Northern Stage’s production of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s classic tale of a nun who became a singing nanny in pre-World War II Austria. Byrne Theater, Barrette Center for the Arts, White River Junction, 2 & 7:30 p.m. $34-69. Info, 296-7000.

words

WRITING CIRCLE: Words pour out when participants explore creative expression in a lowpressure environment. The Pathways Vermont Community Center, Burlington, 4-5 p.m. Free. Info, 888-492-8218, ext. 303.

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community

BURLINGTON WALK/BIKE COUNCIL MONTHLY MEETING: Two-wheeled travelers get in gear to discuss ways to improve conditions for cyclists and pedestrians. Room 12, Burlington City Hall, 5:30-7 p.m. Free. Info, 430-4652.

etc.

MEMORY CAFÉ: People experiencing memory loss and their caregivers connect in a relaxed atmosphere. American Legion Post 20, Plattsburgh, N.Y., 1-3:30 p.m. Free. Info, 518-564-3369.

FOMO? Find even more local events in this newspaper and online:

art Find visual art exhibits and events in the art section and at sevendaysvt.com/art.

film See what’s playing at local theaters in the movies section and at sevendayst.com/movies.

music + comedy Find club dates at local venues in the music + nightlife section and at sevendaysvt.com/music. All family-oriented events are now published in Kids VT, our free parenting monthly. Look for it on newsstands and check out the online calendar at kidsvt.com. Learn more about highlighted listings in the Magnificent 7 on page 11.

food & drink

COMMUNITY LUNCH: Gardengrown fare makes for a delicious and nutritious midday meal. The Pathways Vermont Community Center, Burlington, 1-2 p.m. Free. Info, 888-492-8218, ext. 309.

health & fitness

CHAIR YOGA WITH SANGHA STUDIO: Supported poses promote health and wellbeing. Champlain Senior Center, Burlington, 10:30-11:30 a.m. Free. Info, 448-4262. SEED CLINIC: Small magnetic beads taped to acupressure points offer support for those experiencing difficult or stressful times. Vermont Center for Integrative Herbalism, Montpelier, 6:30-8 p.m. Donations. Info, clinicseed@ gmail.com. YOGA: A Sangha Studio instructor guides students who are in recovery toward achieving inner tranquility. Turning Point Center, Burlington, 5-6 p.m. Free. Info, 448-4262.

holidays

COMMUNITY THANKSGIVING DINNER: A festive feast fosters a sense of togetherness. Delivery is available for home-bound Washington County residents. Bethany United Church of Christ, Montpelier, 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m. Free; preregister for delivery. Info, 229-9151. SWEETWATERS THANKSGIVING: The Church Street restaurant serves up a hot, homemade meal. A coat giveaway beginning at 8:30 a.m. provides winter attire to those in need. Sweetwaters, Burlington, 10 a.m. Free. Info, 864-9800. THANKSGIVING BRUNCH: In the name of gratitude, gourmands come together for a chefprepared feast. The Stowe Inn & Tavern, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. $15-29. Info, 253-4030. THANKSGIVING DINNER: Diners count their blessings over traditional holiday dishes served in an elegant atmosphere. Edson Hill Dining Room & Tavern, Stowe, noon-5 p.m. $30-65; preregister. Info, 253-7371.

sports

NESHOBE PIE GOBBLER FUN RUN & WALK: Participants truly earn that Thanksgiving pie at this three-mile fun run to benefit the Brandon Recreation Department. Neshobe Golf Club, Brandon, 8 a.m. $20-30. Info, 989-6980.

FRI.29 bazaars

ROCKET EROTIC POP-UP EVENT: A sensual celebration features a range of kinky products for purchase. Ondine Salon, Montpelier, 1-8 p.m. Free. Info, 206-799-2025.

community

SMALL BUSINESS SATURDAY IN STOWE: With more than 50

LIST YOUR EVENT FOR FREE AT SEVENDAYSVT.COM/POSTEVENT

seminars

GENEALOGY: Using their memories, the internet and a library card, folks work with Carl Williams to record their own family history. Barre Area Senior Center, noon-1:30 p.m. Donations; preregister. Info, 479-9512.

sports

SAT.30 | WORDS | Katherine Paterson

boutiques, galleries, specialty markets and sporting goods stores to choose from, Stowearea shoppers support local enterprises. Various Stowe locations. Free. Info, 253-7321.

dance

BALLROOM & LATIN DANCING: Singles, couples and beginners are welcome to join in a dance social featuring waltz, tango and more. Williston Jazzercise Fitness Center, 8-9:30 p.m. $10. Info, 862-2269. ECSTATIC DANCE VERMONT: Inspired by the 5Rhythms dance practice, attendees move, groove, release and open their hearts to life in a safe and sacred space. Christ Episcopal Church, Montpelier, 7-9 p.m. $10. Info, fearnessence@gmail.com.

etc.

CIRCUS ARTS TRAINING JAM: Daring individuals perfect skills ranging from juggling to tight-rope walking with CAMP Burlington members. Aikido of Champlain Valley, Burlington, 6:30-9 p.m. Donations. Info, burlingtoncamp@gmail.com.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the movies section.

‘EARTH FLIGHT 3D’: See WED.27. ‘INCREDIBLE PREDATORS 3D’: See WED.27. ‘SPACE JUNK 3D’: See WED.27. ‘TINY GIANTS 3D’: See WED.27.

food & drink

PUBLIC CUPPING: Coffee connoisseurs and beginners alike explore the flavor notes and aromas of the roaster’s current offerings and new releases. Brio Coffeeworks, Burlington, noon-1 p.m. Free. Info, 777-6641.

games

BRIDGE CLUB: See WED.27, 9:15 a.m.

health & fitness

theater

CHAIR YOGA: Students with limited mobility limber up with modified poses. Sangha Studio — North, Burlington, 3:30-4:30 p.m. Donations. Info, 448-4262.

VITALY: AN EVENING OF WONDERS: The laws of physics do not apply in the latest jawdropping show from the worldrenowned master illusionist. See calendar spotlight. Spruce Peak Performing Arts Center, Stowe Mountain Resort, 3 & 7 p.m. $2255. Info, 760-4634.

CHAIR TAI CHI: Those who have difficulty standing increase their flexibility and upper body strength. Twin Valley Senior Center, East Montpelier, 2:30-3 p.m. Free. Info, 223-3322.

GONG MEDITATION: Sonic vibrations lead to healing and deep relaxation. Yoga Roots, Williston, 7:30-8:30 p.m. $18. Info, 318-6050. YANG 24 TAI CHI: Students get an introduction to a slow, continuous movement exercise that builds balance and strength. Twin Valley Senior Center, East Montpelier, 2-2:30 p.m. Free. Info, 223-3322.

holidays

FLANNEL FRIDAY: Clad in cozy clothing, shoppers head downtown to score unique holiday gifts. Downtown Montpelier. Free. Info, 223-9604. HOLIDAY FESTIVAL: Weekend festivities commence with fireside s’mores, hot chocolate and a visit from Santa, and continue Saturday and Sunday with cookie decorating, horsedrawn wagon rides and more. Seebestwesternwaterburystowe. com for details. Best Western Waterbury-Stowe, 5 p.m. Prices vary; most events are free. Info, 244-7822. SANTA PARADE & TREE LIGHTING: Saint Nick kicks off a noontime procession down Church Street. Twinkling lights brighten a 50-foot tree — and the entire Marketplace — at 6 p.m. Church Street Marketplace, Burlington, noon. Free. Info, 863-1648.

music

Find club dates in the music section. RED BRICK COFFEE HOUSE: Hot beverages are provided at an open mic and jam session, where community members connect over music, cards and board games. Red Brick Meeting House, Westford, 7-10 p.m. Donations. Info, mpk802vt@gmail.com.

HOTEL VERMONT Visit hotelvt.com to purchase gift cards this holiday season

‘THE SOUND OF MUSIC’: See WED.27.

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words

WRITER’S BLOCK: Scribes bring essays, short stories, one-act plays and poems to be critiqued by a supportive audience. Barre Area Senior Center, 10-11:30 a.m. Free; preregister. Info, 479-9512.

SAT.30 bazaars

ROCKET EROTIC POP-UP EVENT: See FRI.29.

business

LLC FORMATIONS WORKSHOP: Touching on topics such as finding dependable employees and managing finances, a class prepares budding business people to start their own enterprises. 69 Joy Drive, South Burlington, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Free. Info, lisa doryusa@gmail.com.

crafts

CRAFT FAIR: Ascension Church’s annual marketplace inspires customers to open their wallets. Georgia Elementary & Middle School, St. Albans, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Free. Info, 578-8043. WOMEN’S FESTIVAL OF CRAFTS: Handmade wares by more than 50 local female artisans reflect a wide array of creative skills. See calendar spotlight. Burlington City Hall, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Free. Info, 264-9820.

dance

BURLINGTON WESTIE FIRST SATURDAY DANCE: New dancers are encouraged to take part in an introductory lesson before hitting the floor for a themed evening of West Coast swing and fusion. Note special date. North End Studio A, Burlington, free introductory lesson, 7:30 p.m.; SAT.30

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‘THE BIG LEBOWSKI’ FEST: Bathrobes are optional at a screening of the trippy 1998 comedy The Big Lebowski. Yes, White Russians are available. Highland Center for the Arts, Greensboro, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Free. Info, 533-2000.

HOMELIGHT KILLINGTON CUP: Superstars of snow sports hit the slopes for the women’s giant slalom and slalom races. See killington.com for details. Killington Resort. Free; additional cost for enhanced viewing options. Info, 422-6115.

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calendar SAT.30

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dance, 8-11 p.m. $8-12; free for first-timers. Info, burlington westie@gmail.com. FRIENDSGIVING POTLUCK & DANCE CHAMPIONSHIPS WATCH PARTY: Bearing shared dishes, dance fans share food, friendship and laughs while watching performances by some of the best partner dancers in the world projected onto a big screen. A social dance and lesson follow. North End Studio A, Burlington, 3-6:15 p.m. Free. Info, burlington westie@gmail.com. MONTPELIER CONTRA DANCE: George Marshall calls the steps at a traditional social dance with high-energy music by Wild Asparagus. Capital City Grange, Berlin, introductory session, 7:45 p.m.; dance, 8-11 p.m. $5-15. Info, 225-8921.

etc.

LEGAL CLINIC: Attorneys offer complimentary consultations on a first-come, first-served basis. 274 N. Winooski Ave., Burlington, 10 a.m.-noon. Free. Info, 383-2118. SATURDAYCARE: SunCommon staff members entertain kiddos with holiday activities while parents visit local retailers and restaurants in peace. Center of Recreation & Education, O.N.E. Community Center, Burlington, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Free. Info, 398-7118. STUNT KITE FLIERS & ARCHERY HOBBYISTS MEETING: Open to beginning and experienced hobbyists alike, a weekly gathering allows folks to share information and suggestions for equipment, sporting locations and more. Presto Music Store, South Burlington, 10 a.m.-noon. Free. Info, 658-0030.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the movies section.

with a

‘EARTH FLIGHT 3D’: See WED.27.

FAMILY MEMBERSHIP Family and individual packages now available

‘INCREDIBLE PREDATORS 3D’: See WED.27. ‘SPACE JUNK 3D’: See WED.27. ‘TINY GIANTS 3D’: See WED.27. WILD & SCENIC FILM FESTIVAL: Environmental and adventure films feature stunning scenery and diverse examples of stewardship. Jay Peak Resort, 5:30-9 p.m. $13-15. Info, 393-0076.

food & drink

CHOCOLATE TASTING: Candy fanatics get an education on a variety of sweets made on-site. Rabble-Rouser Chocolate & Craft Co., Middlesex, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Free. Info, 229-2090.

EDGE gift cards now available, stop by any EDGE location

HOT CHOCOLATE TASTING: Chocoholics sip from flights of cacao-based beverages. Lake Champlain Chocolates Factory Store & Café, Burlington, 11 a.m.4 p.m. Free. Info, 864-1807.

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health & fitness

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SEVEN DAYS NOVEMBER 27-DECEMBER 4, 2019

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NEWBIE NOON HOT YOGA: First-timers feel the heat as they get their stretch on in a (very) warm environment. Hot Yoga

Burlington, noon. Free; preregister. Info, 999-9963.

Burlington, 5-6 p.m. Donations. Info, 448-4262.

holidays

montréal

ALBANY BERKSHIRE BALLET’S ‘THE NUTCRACKER’: Local dance students join members of the Albany Berkshire Ballet in Tchaikovsky’s holiday classic. Flynn MainStage, Burlington, 3 & 7 p.m. $19-43. Info, 863-5966. HOLIDAY FESTIVAL: See FRI.29, noon-8:30 p.m. HOLIDAY STROLL: Retail specials, snacks and family-friendly activities pave the way for the annual tree lighting in Depot Park. See calendar spotlight and downtownrutland.com for details. Downtown Rutland, 7 a.m.-10 p.m. Free. Info, 773-9380. JINGLE BELL EXPRESS: Festive families climb aboard for a round-trip ride to Charlotte. Keep your eyes peeled for holiday characters such as Santa Claus and Frosty the Snowman! Union Station, Burlington, 10 a.m., noon & 2 p.m. $25; free for kids 2 and under in laps. Info, 863-5966. MAPLE VIEW FARM ALPACAS HOLIDAY OPEN HOUSE: Visitors learn about the animals and their luxurious coats, visit the mill and see fiber demonstrations. Maple View Farm Alpacas, Brandon, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Free. Info, 247-5412.

HOLIDAY POP-UP BOOK FAIR: Bookworms go berserk over a two-day celebration of Englishlanguage volumes ranging from fiction to poetry to kids’ titles. Authors and publishers are on hand. McConnell Building, Concordia University, Montréal, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Free. Info, 514-932-5633.

music

Find club dates in the music section. GRACE POTTER: The Vermont native rocks out following the HomeLight Killington Cup Giant Slalom Run 2, which begins at 1 p.m. Festival Village, K-1 Base Area, Killington Resort. Free. Info, 422-6115. JULIAN LOIDA: Audience members are in for a unique sound experience, thanks to the Bostonbased percussionist who serves up original music on vibraphone. Brandon Music, 7:30 p.m. $20; $45 includes dinner; preregister; BYOB. Info, 247-4295. SATURDAY KARAOKE: Amateur singers belt out their favorite tunes. Burlington VFW Post, 7:30-10:30 p.m. Free. Info, 864-6532.

ST. ALBANS FESTIVAL OF TREES: Movies, live entertainment, breakfast with Santa, a treelighting ceremony and more set the holiday season in motion. See vtfestivaloftrees.com for details. Various St. Albans locations. Prices vary. Info, vtfestivaloftrees@gmail.com.

outdoors

lgbtq

sports

PRIDE YOGA: LGBTQ individuals and allies hit the mat for a stretching session suited to all levels. Sangha Studio — Pine,

FOMO? Find even more local events in this newspaper and online:

art Find visual art exhibits and events in the art section and at sevendaysvt.com/art.

film See what’s playing at local theaters in the movies section and at sevendayst.com/movies.

BIRD MONITORING WALK: Adults and older children don binoculars and keep an eye out for winged wonders. Birds of Vermont Museum, Huntington, 8-9 a.m. Donations; preregister. Info, 434-2167.

HOMELIGHT KILLINGTON CUP: See FRI.29.

theater

‘THE SOUND OF MUSIC’: See WED.27.

words

ERIC SORENSON: Folks meet and snag autographs from the author of Wetland, Woodland, Wildland: A Guide to the Natural Communities of Vermont. Galaxy Bookshop, Hardwick, 11:30 a.m.12:30 p.m. Free. Info, 472-5533. KATHERINE PATERSON: The acclaimed children’s author signs copies of the nativity story The Night of His Birth. Bear Pond Books, Montpelier, 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Free. Info, 229-0774.

SUN.1 activism

WORLD AIDS DAY VIGIL: A candlelit march to the Statehouse lawn and a celebration of life at Sweet Melissa’s memorialize those who have lost their lives to AIDS-related illnesses. See calendar spotlight. Montpelier City Hall, vigil and march, 3-4 p.m.; celebration, 4-6 p.m. Free. Info, vtpwac@sover.net.

LIST YOUR EVENT FOR FREE AT SEVENDAYSVT.COM/POSTEVENT

community

COMMUNITY MINDFULNESS PRACTICE: Sessions in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh include sitting and walking meditation, a short reading, and open sharing. Evolution Physical Therapy & Yoga, Burlington, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Free. Info, newleafsangha@ gmail.com.

crafts

WOMEN’S FESTIVAL OF CRAFTS: See SAT.30, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

dance

SALSALINA SUNDAY PRACTICE: Salsa dancers step in for a casual social. Salsalina Dance Studio, Burlington, 5-8 p.m. $5. Info, eingelmanuel@hotmail.com.

film

food & drink

CHOCOLATE TASTING: See SAT.30.

health & fitness

SEED CLINIC: See THU.28, 5:30-7 p.m. TECH-ASSISTED MEDITATION MEET-UP: Mobile devices and headphones in tow, participants explore digital tools and techniques for achieving deep focus. Satori Float & Mind Spa, Shelburne, 2-3 p.m. Free. Info, 498-5555.

holidays

ALBANY BERKSHIRE BALLET’S ‘THE NUTCRACKER’: See SAT.30, 1 p.m. FULL CIRCLE: The five-woman ensemble entertains shoppers with a mix of medieval, Renaissance, Celtic, folk and holiday music. Phoenix Books, Burlington, 1-3 p.m. Free. Info, 448-3350. HOLIDAY FESTIVAL: See FRI.29, 8-11 a.m. JINGLE BELL EXPRESS: See SAT.30. MAPLE VIEW FARM ALPACAS HOLIDAY OPEN HOUSE: See SAT.30. NATALIE MACMASTER & DONNELL LEAHY: The First Family of Celtic Music bring tidings of comfort and joy — and blazing fiddles — with their festive holiday show “A Celtic Family Christmas.” Paramount Theatre, Rutland, 7 p.m. $35-55. Info, 775-0903. RÍ RÁ SANTA 5K: Athletes don red suits and hats for a 5K run/ walk benefitting Camp Ta-KumTa. Breakfast and an after-party follow. Rí Rá Irish Pub & Whiskey Room, Burlington, 10 a.m.-noon. $50-270. Info, kelly@vrpro.ca. ST. ALBANS FESTIVAL OF TREES: See SAT.30.

ST. ALBANS CITIZENS BAND & COMMUNITY SINGERS: Church Street Sounds of the Season presents St. Albans’ biennial holiday musical spectacular with choir, concert band and carol sing-along. First Congregational Church, St. Albans, 3 p.m. Free. Info, 524-4555.

language

‘DIMANCHES’ FRENCH CONVERSATION: Parlez-vous français? Speakers practice the tongue at a casual drop-in chat. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 4-5:30 p.m. Free. Info, steve norman@fastmail.fm.

montréal

HOLIDAY POP-UP BOOK FAIR: See SAT.30, 11 a.m.-4 p.m.

music

Find club dates in the music section. COMMUNITY SONG CIRCLE: Singers of all ages and abilities lift their voices in selections from the Rise Up Singing and Rise Again songbooks. Center for Arts and Learning, Montpelier, 6-8 p.m. Free. Info, 595-5252. KATHY WESTRA & GEORGE STEPHENS: Partners in music and in life, the two treat listeners to songs inspired by an appreciation for the wild places that provide refuge from modern-day existence. Deborah Rawson Memorial Library, Jericho, 2 p.m. Free. Info, 899-4962. TWIDDLE: HomeLight Killington Cup spectators move and groove along with the Vermont-based jam band following Slalom Run 1, which begins at 9:45 a.m. Festival Village, K-1 Base Area, Killington Resort. Free. Info, 422-6115.

outdoors

STOWE PINNACLE HIKE: Views of Stowe and Mount Mansfield reward participants on this moderate 2.8-mile outing. Contact trip leader for details. Free; preregister. Info, kfarone@ yahoo.com.

sports

HOMELIGHT KILLINGTON CUP: See FRI.29.

words

BURLINGTON WOMEN’S POETRY GROUP: Female writers seek feedback from fellow rhyme-andmeter mavens. Email for details. Private residence, Burlington, 3 p.m. Free. Info, jcpoetvt@gmail. com. EXTEMPO: Local raconteurs tell first-person true stories before a live audience. Rabble-Rouser Chocolate & Craft Co., Montpelier, 4-6 p.m. $5. Info, 225-6227.

MON.2 crafts

HANDWORK CIRCLE: Friends and neighbors make progress on works of knitting, crocheting, cross-stitch and other creative

Interior Painting Exterior Painting Commercial and Residential

endeavors. Jaquith Public Library, Marshfield, 6:30 p.m. Free. Info, 426-3581.

film

CLASSIC

See what’s playing at local theaters in the movies section.

SHADES

‘EARTH FLIGHT 3D’: See WED.27. ‘INCREDIBLE PREDATORS 3D’: See WED.27.

PAINTING

‘SPACE JUNK 3D’: See WED.27.

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‘TINY GIANTS 3D’: See WED.27.

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food & drink

CIDER MONDAY: Small businesses offer an alternative to Cyber Monday by tempting shoppers with hot apple-based beverages. Various Montpelier locations. 16t-classicshadespainting102619.indd 1 Info, 223-9604. Phoenix Books, Essex, 9 a.m.-8 p.m. Info, 8727111. The Vermont Book Shop, Flynn Center | Burlington, VT Middlebury, 9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Info, 388-2061. Phoenix Books, Burlington, 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Info, Saturday, November 30th 448-3350. Phoenix Books, 3:00pm & 7:00pm Rutland, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Free. Info, 855-8078.

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Sunday, December 1st 1:00pm

FIRST MONDAY MEAL COMMUNITY DINNER: Friends, neighbors and staff members strengthen relationships over a complimentary supper. The Pathways Vermont Community Center, Burlington, 5:30-7 p.m. Free. Info, clara@pathways vermont.org.

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AT BURLINGTON December

BRIDGE CLUB: See WED.27, 6:30 p.m. CORN HOLE: Competitors vie for Untitled-88 1 points in this popular lawn game during 10 weeks of league play. Barre Elks Lodge, registration, 6 p.m.; games, 6:45 p.m. $10; cash BLACK bar. Info, 479-9522. MAGIC: THE GATHERING — MONDAY NIGHT MODERN: Tarmogoyf-slinging madness ensues when competitors battle for prizes in a weekly game. Brap’s Magic, Burlington, 7-11 p.m. $8. Info, 540-0498. PITCH: Players compete in a trick-taking card game. Barre Area Senior Center, 1 p.m. Free. Info, 479-9512.

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health & fitness

COMMUNITY HERBAL CLINIC: Supervised clinical interns offer guidance and support to those looking to care for themselves using natural remedies. By appointment only. Vermont Center for Integrative Herbalism, Montpelier, and Railyard Apothecary, Burlington, 4-8 p.m. $10-30; additional cost for herbs; preregister. Info, 224-7100. GUIDED GROUP MEDITATION: In keeping with the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh, folks practice mindfulness through sitting, walking, reading and discussion. Zenbarn Studio, Waterbury, 7:158 p.m. Free. Info, 505-1688.

SUN 1 FULL CIRCLE 1-3PM Music for winter holidays. Free.

MON 2 CIDER MONDAY

Join us in person to enjoy doughnuts and a free cup of hot cider.

SAT 7 MOLLY 2:00- STEVENS: 3:30PM ALL ABOUT DINNER

Signing and meetand-greet with samples. Free.

SUN 8 MEGAN PRICE: 1-4PM VERMONT WILD

CHAIR YOGA WITH SANGHA STUDIO: Supported poses promote health and wellbeing. Heineberg Senior Center, Burlington, 10:45-11:45 a.m. Free. Info, 448-4262.

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Join us in person to enjoy doughnuts and a free cup of hot cider.

SAT 14 PAUL LAUD: 2-4PM THE HOUSE THAT SANTA (ALMOST) MISSED

Book signing and meet-and-greet. Free.

Phoenix Books Essex events are free and open to all. 191 Bank Street, Downtown Burlington • 802.448.3350 2 Carmichael Street, Essex • 802.872.7111 www.phoenixbooks.biz

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holidays

ST. ALBANS FESTIVAL OF TREES: See SAT.30.

language

PLATTSBURGH CONVERSATION GROUP: French speakers maintain their conversational skills in a weekly meet-up. Plattsburgh Public Library, N.Y., 3:30-4:30 p.m. Free. Info, ajobin-picard@ cefls.org.

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music

Find club dates in the music section. SAMBATUCADA OPEN REHEARSAL: Burlington’s own samba street percussion band welcomes new members. No experience or instruments required. 8 Space Studio Collective, Burlington, 6-8:30 p.m. Free. Info, 862-5017. SONGWRITING WORKSHOP SERIES: Local musicians Pat and Alison McHugh share tips and tools for structuring original tunes. Waterbury Public Library, 6-8 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 244-7036.

talks

MARGRET GRIMSDOTTIR: This session of the Laura Mann Integrative Healthcare Lecture Series focuses on integrative rehabilitation. Davis Auditorium, Medical Education Center Pavilion, University of Vermont Medical Center, Burlington, 8-9 a.m. Free. Info, 656-9266. STATE OF THE WORLD COMMUNITY DISCUSSIONS: Activist Sandy Baird leads an open forum reflecting on and analyzing current events in a nonjudgmental setting. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 10 a.m. Free. Info, 865-7211.

theater

THE NEIGHBORS: A PLAY READING GROUP: Drama, comedy, tragedy and refreshments are on the menu at a time-honored gathering for theater artists to share works aloud. Burlington Friends Meeting House, 7:30-9 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, kelljonline@gmail.com.

TUE.3 business

BUSINESS PLANNING COURSE: In a 10-week class presented by the Center for Women & Enterprise, aspiring entrepreneurs gain the confidence and knowledge to launch a small business. Center for Agricultural Economy, Hardwick, 5:30-8:30 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 391-4870.

community 472 Marshall Ave, Williston • (802) 658-2433 128 Intervale Rd Burlington • (802) 660-3505 220 Mechanic St., Lebanon, NH • (603) 448-6110 Sun 10-5 • Mon–Sat 9am–6pm 60

SEVEN DAYS NOVEMBER 27-DECEMBER 4, 2019

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SAT.30 | MUSIC | Julian Loida

COMMUNITY DROP-IN CENTER HOURS: Wi-Fi, games and art materials are on hand at an open meeting space where folks forge social connections. GRACE,

Hardwick, 9 a.m.-noon. Free. Info, 472-6857.

crafts

COMMUNITY CRAFT NIGHT: Makers stitch, spin, knit and crochet their way through projects while enjoying each other’s company. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 6-8 p.m. Free. Info, 865-7211.

dance

SWING DANCING: Quick-footed participants experiment with different forms, including the Lindy Hop, Charleston and balboa. Beginners are welcome. Champlain Club, Burlington, 7:30-9:30 p.m. $5. Info, 448-2930.

education

FRENCH IMMERSION COMMUNITY MEETING: Community members learn the ins and outs of dual-language French and English immersion programming and discuss its potential in the Burlington School District. Lyman C. Hunt Middle School, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free. Info, 865-5332.

FOMO? Find even more local events in this newspaper and online:

art Find visual art exhibits and events in the art section and at sevendaysvt.com/art.

film See what’s playing at local theaters in the movies section and at sevendayst.com/movies.

environment

BURLINGTON CLIMATE SOLUTIONS CAUCUS FORUM: Environmentally conscious Vermonters join legislative leaders for a conversation on climate policy priorities for the 2020 legislative session. Burlington Electric Department, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Free. Info, 233-1358.

etc.

CULTS & CULTURE: A brief presentation of the day’s topic paves the way for an open discussion of the harmful effects of misused power. Morristown Centennial Library, 5:30-7 p.m. Free. Info, gerette@dreamhavenvt.com.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the movies section. ‘EARTH FLIGHT 3D’: See WED.27. ‘INCREDIBLE PREDATORS 3D’: See WED.27. ‘SPACE JUNK 3D’: See WED.27. ‘TINY GIANTS 3D’: See WED.27. ‘VAXXED II: THE PEOPLE’S TRUTH’: A 2019 documentary seeks to answer the question “Are vaccines really as safe and effective as we’ve been told?” A discussion follows. Merrill’s Roxy Cinemas, Burlington, 7-9 p.m. $15. Info, 917-3230.

food & drink

OATLY IN VERMONT: FIKA FUN & LATTE ART THROWDOWN: In the Swedish tradition of consuming hot drinks accompanied by sweets, the café serves finger foods and oat-milk beverages featuring Brio Coffeeworks coffee. Brio Coffeeworks, Burlington, 5:30-9 p.m. Free. Info, 777-6641. TUESDAY LUNCH: An in-house chef whips up a well-balanced hot meal with dessert. See barreseniors.org for menu. Barre Area Senior Center, noon. $6; preregister. Info, 479-9512.

games

BRIDGE CLUB: See WED.27, 7 p.m.

health & fitness

ARTHRITIS FOUNDATION EXERCISE PROGRAM: Seniors rise and shine with an exercise program meant to increase bone density and muscle strength. Barre Area Senior Center, 8:309:45 a.m. Free. Info, 479-9512. COMMUNITY HERBAL CLINIC: See MON.2, Vermont Center

LIST YOUR EVENT FOR FREE AT SEVENDAYSVT.COM/POSTEVENT

for Integrative Herbalism, Montpelier, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. FALL PREVENTION WITH SUNSTYLE TAI CHI: Beginners boost their strength and balance through a gentle guided practice. Twin Valley Senior Center, East Montpelier, 10-11 a.m. Free. Info, 223-3322. REIKI CLINIC: Thirty-minute treatments foster physical, emotional and spiritual wellness. JourneyWorks, Burlington, 3-5:30 p.m. $10-30; preregister. Info, 860-6203. TUESDAY GUIDED MEDITATION: Participants learn to relax and let go. Stillpoint Center, Burlington, 5:30-6:30 p.m. Free. Info, 318-8605.

holidays

NATALIE MACMASTER & DONNELL LEAHY: See SUN.1, Flynn MainStage, Burlington, 7 p.m. $25-58. Info, 863-5966. ST. ALBANS FESTIVAL OF TREES: See SAT.30.

language

ITALIAN CONVERSATION GROUP: Parla Italiano? Language learners practice pronunciation and more in an informal gathering. Hartland Public Library, 12:30-2:30 p.m. Free. Info, 436-2473. ‘LA CAUSERIE’ FRENCH CONVERSATION: Native speakers and learners say it all in French at a social conversational practice. Red Onion Café, Burlington, 4:30-6 p.m. Free. Info, 540-0195. LUNCH IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE: ITALIAN: Speakers hone their skills in the Romance language over a bag lunch. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier, noon-1 p.m. Free. Info, 223-3338. PAUSE-CAFÉ FRENCH CONVERSATION: Frenchlanguage fanatics meet pour parler la belle langue. ¡Duino! (Duende), Burlington, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Free. Info, 430-4652.

lgbtq

SHAPE NOTES FILM SCREENING: ‘TANGERINE’: A 2015 comedic drama shot with three smartphones follows a transgender working girl as she chases down the man who broke her heart. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 6-8 p.m. Free. Info, 863-3403.

music

Find club dates in the music section. CATHEDRAL ARTS: CATAMOUNT SINGERS: Under the direction of David Neiweem, the University of Vermont’s select choir strikes a chord with seasonal works. The Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Burlington, 12:15 p.m. Donations. Info, 864-0471. GREEN MOUNTAIN CHORUS TRYOUTS & REHEARSAL: Men of all ages and abilities may lift their voices in Yuletide favorites sung with Vermont’s premier barbershop ensemble. St. Francis Xavier School, Winooski, 7 p.m. Free. Info, 505-9595.

NONET & POST-BOP ENSEMBLE: Jazz fans get their fix from an evening of genre classics, directed by Patricia Julien and Ray Vega. University of Vermont Recital Hall, Burlington, 7:30 p.m. Free. Info, 656-3040. VERMONT PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA & CHORUS REHEARSALS: Experienced singers and players prepare for annual recitals of Handel’s Messiah. Barre Opera House, 7:15 p.m. Free. Info, vpchorus@ vermontphilharmonic.org.

outdoors

SLOW & EASY HIKING: Walkers enjoy the sights, sounds and smells of the forest while moving at a gentle pace. Ilene Elliott leads this public Barre Area Senior Center outing. Barre Town Forest, Websterville, 10:10 a.m. Free; preregister. Info, 479-9512.

seminars

HOMESHARING INFO SESSION: Locals learn to make the most of spare space in their homes by hosting compatible housemates. HomeShare Vermont, South Burlington, noon-12:30 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 863-5625.

theater

‘CLIMATEACT’: AN OPEN PLAY READING: Aligned with the United Nations Climate Change Conference, a theater forum allows actors and non-actors alike to choose from 15 different plays to perform. Readers should arrive at 6 p.m. to prepare. Black Box Theater, Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center, Burlington, 7-9 p.m. $5-10. Info, 324-9433.

words

BURLINGTON FREE WRITE: Aspiring writers respond to prompts in a welcoming atmosphere. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 6-8 p.m. Free. Info, 999-1664. STORYTELLING VT: Locals tell true tales before a live audience. Light Club Lamp Shop, Burlington, 7:30-9 p.m. Free. Info, deenastories@gmail.com.

WED.4

community

SMART ARTIST SERIES: A professional development workshop presented by TheaterEngine, Big Heavy World and the Vermont Dance Alliance sheds light on getting press. Burlington City Arts, 6-8 p.m. Free. Info, info@ vermontdance.org.

CENSUS 2020 RECRUITING & INFORMATION CENTER: Job seekers learn about temporary federal part- and full-time positions as clerks, recruiters, IT specialists and managers in Chittenden County. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 5:30-7 p.m. Free. Info,jeanne.l.zimmerman@ 2020census.gov.

sports

crafts

FREE AIKIDO CLASS: A one-time complimentary introduction to the Japanese martial art focuses on centering and finding freedom while under attack. Open to prospective students. Aikido of Champlain Valley, Burlington, 6:15-7:15 p.m. Free. Info, 951-8900.

talks

ELIZABETH SHACKELFORD: The former diplomat with the U.S. State Department engages in a conversation on how local government can be a model for better practices in the U.S. government and foreign policy. Hotel Vermont, Burlington, 6 p.m. Donations; preregister. Info, vcwa@vermont.org. POLLINATOR CRISIS DISCUSSION PANEL: University of Vermont assistant research professor Samantha Alger, state apiary inspector Brooke Decker and others talk about the plight of the honeybee as part of the Garage Cultural Center’s “Let It Bee” exhibit and events series. The Garage Cultural Center, Montpelier, 7-8:30 p.m. Free. Info, 738-3667.

tech

INTRODUCTION TO EXCEL: Columns, rows, cells, formulas and data entry become second nature at a tutorial on electronic spreadsheets. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 5:30-7 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 865-7217.

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FIBER RIOT!: See WED.27. KNITTER’S GROUP: See WED.27.

dance

SQUARE DANCING: See WED.27. ‘TAKING FLIGHT’: In a lightly produced showing, dancers interpret experimental works by emerging Middlebury College choreographers. Dance Theatre, Mahaney Arts Center, Middlebury College, 5 p.m. Free. Info, 443-3168.

etc.

CHITTENDEN COUNTY STAMP CLUB MEETING: First-class collectibles provide a glimpse into the postal past at this monthly gathering. Williston Fire Station, 6:30 p.m. Free. Info, 660-4817.

SATURDAY DECEMBER 7 10AM

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the movies section. ‘EARTH FLIGHT 3D’: See WED.27.

VISIT UMALLVT.COM FOR DETAILS

‘INCREDIBLE PREDATORS 3D’: See WED.27. MOVIE: Snacks are provided at a showing of a popular film. Call for title. Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, Williston, 5:30 p.m. Free. Info, 878-4918.

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HIGHER GROUND BALLROOM

Kids 6 & under free, $7 in advance, $10 at the door.

Come see kids ages 5-13 wow the crowd with two-minute acts showcasing their talents. Visit kidsvt.com/talentshow for ticket information. 64

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CLASS PHOTOS + MORE INFO ONLINE SEVENDAYSVT.COM/CLASSES

classes THE FOLLOWING CLASS LISTINGS ARE PAID ADVERTISEMENTS. ANNOUNCE YOUR CLASS FOR AS LITTLE AS $16.75/WEEK (INCLUDES SIX PHOTOS AND UNLIMITED DESCRIPTION ONLINE). SUBMIT YOUR CLASS AD AT SEVENDAYSVT.COM/POSTCLASS.

dance 5RHYTHMS DANCE & MOVEMENT: Created by Gabrielle Roth and danced around the globe, 5Rhythms is a dynamic guided dance experience as a catalyst for body-based energetic shifts to occur. This is also a really fun way to release tension, exercise, let go and get your dance on! No experience necessary. Sun., Nov. 24 & Dec. 8, 10:30 a.m.-noon. Cost: $15/1.5-hour class; drop in or preregister. Location: Grange Cultural Arts Center, Waterbury Center. Info: Shoshana Diamond, 266-0620, movingmysterydance. com. DANCE STUDIO SALSALINA: Salsa classes: nightclub-style, group and private, four levels. Beginner walk-in classes, Wed., 6 p.m. $15/person for one-hour class. No dance experience, partner or preregistration required,

just the desire to have fun! Drop in anytime and prepare for an enjoyable workout. Location: 266 Pine St, Burlington. Info: Victoria, 598-1077, info@salsalina.com.

language LEARN SPANISH & OPEN NEW DOORS: We provide high-quality, affordable instruction in the Spanish language for adults, students and children. Travelers’ lesson package. Our 13th year.

certified black belt sixth-degree instructor under Carlson Gracie Sr.: teaching in Vermont, born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A five-time Brazilian National Champion; International World Masters Champion and IBJJF World Masters Champion. Accept no Iimitations! Location: Vermont Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, 55 Leroy Rd., Williston. Info: 598-2839, julio@ bjjusa.com, vermontbjj.com.

Small classes, private lessons and online instruction with a native speaker. Also live, engaging, face-to-face online English classes. See our website for complete information or contact us for details. Location: Spanish in Waterbury Center, Waterbury Center. Info: 585-1025, spanishparavos@gmail.com, spanishwaterburycenter.com.

martial arts

drumming

VERMONT BRAZILIAN JIUJITSU: Brazilian jiujitsu is a martial arts combat style based entirely on leverage and technique. Brazilian jiujitsu self-defense curriculum is taught to Navy SEALs, CIA, FBI, military police and special forces. No training experience required. Easy-to-learn techniques that could save your life! Classes for men, women and children. Students will learn realistic bully-proofing and self-defense life skills to avoid becoming victims and help them feel safe and secure. Our

TAIKO & DJEMBE CLASSES IN BURLINGTON!: New sessions start in November! Classes for adults, kids and parents. Parade and conga classes, too. Intermediate Taiko, Mon., 6-8:20 p.m. Taiko for Adults, Tue., 5:306:20 p.m. & Wed., 6:30-7:50 p.m. Djembe for Adults, Wed., 5:30-6:20 p.m. Kids and Parents World Drumming, Wed., 4:30-5:20 p.m. Kids and Parents Taiko, Tue., 4:30-5:20 p.m. Drums provided. Schedule/register online. Location: Taiko Space, 208 Flynn Ave., Suite 3G, Burlington. Info: 999-4255, burlingtontaiko.org.

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MEDIA FACTORY

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Ave., Burlington. Info: Long River Tai Chi Circle, Patrick Cavanaugh, 490-6405, patrick@longriver taichi.org, longrivertaichi.org.

music, text and graphics. We will supply iMac computers for your use during this workshop. Tue., Dec. 3, 6- 8 p.m. Cost: $25/suggested donation. Location: Media Factory, 208 Flynn Ave., Suite 2G + 2K, Burlington. Info: Gin Ferrara, 651-9692, ginf@retn.org, bit.ly/ btvmediafactory. MAKING MAGIC WITH COMPOSITION AND LIGHTING: Move beyond basics with this workshop that makes your videos “pop!” You will learn how to frame your shot, light your subject and incorporate camera movements to tell your story. Completion of a camera workshop or previous experience using video cameras is required for this workshop. Wed., Dec. 4, 6-8 p.m. Cost: $25/ suggested donation. Location: Media Factory, 208 Flynn Ave., Suite 2G + 2K, Burlington. Info: Gin Ferrara, 651-9692, ginf@retn. org, bit.ly/btvmediafactory. MEDIA FACTORY ORIENTATION: The gateway to checking out gear and using our facilities. We’ll take a tour of the Media Factory, go over our policies and the cool stuff you can do here, and fill out paperwork. Required: Photo ID and live, work or study in our service area. Register: bit.ly/btvmediafactory or 651-9692. Sat., Dec. 7, 11-noon. Location: Media Factory, 208 Flynn Ave., Suite 2G + 2K, Burlington. Info: Gin Ferrara, 651-9692, ginf@retn.org, bit.ly/ btvmediafactory. VIDEO PRODUCTION WITH CANON XA-10: The perfect place to begin learning video making skills! Explore the basics of videography and learn the functions of our Canon XA-10 HD cameras. Learn to properly adjust focus, audio, color balance and exposure. Register at bit.ly/btvmedia factory or call 651-9692. Sat., Dec. 7, 1-3 p.m. Location: Media Factory, 208 Flynn Ave., Suite 2G + 2K, Burlington. Info: Gin Ferrara, 651-9692, ginf@retn.org, bit.ly/ btvmediafactory.

SNAKE-STYLE TAI CHI CHUAN: The Yang Snake Style is a dynamic tai chi method that mobilizes the spine while stretching and strengthening the core body muscles. Practicing this ancient martial art increases strength, flexibility, vitality, peace of mind and martial skill. Beginner classes Sat. mornings & Wed. evenings. Call to view a class. Location: Bao Tak Fai Tai Chi Institute, 100 Church St., Burlington. Info: 363-6890, snake-style.com.

meditation LEARN TO MEDITATE: Taught by qualified meditation instructors at the Burlington Shambhala Meditation Center: Wed., 6-7 p.m.; Sun., 9 a.m.-noon. Free and open to anyone. Free public meditation: weeknights, 6-7 p.m.; Tue. and Thu., noon-1 p.m.; Sun., 9 a.m.-noon. Classes and retreats also offered. See our website at burlington.shambhala.org. Location: Burlington Shambhala Center, 187 S. Winooski Ave., Burlington. Info: 658-6795.

tai chi NEW BEGINNER TAI CHI CLASS IN BURLINGTON: We practice Cheng Man-ch’ing’s “simplified” 37-posture Yang-style form. The course will be taught by Patrick Cavanaugh, longtime student and assistant to Wolfe Lowenthal, student of Cheng Man-ching and founder of Long River Tai Chi Circle. Patrick is a senior instructor at LRTTC in Vermont and New Hampshire. Starts Nov. 6, 8-9 a.m.; open registration Nov. 27. Cost: $65/mo. Location: North End Studios, 294 N. Winooski

practice. Daily drop-in classes including $10 community classes, Yoga Wall and Yoga Therapeutics classes led by physical therapists. Dive deeper into your practice! $10-$15/class; $140/10-class card; $10/community class. New students $100/10-class card. New! Student Monthly Unlimited just $55/ mo. Location: Evolution Yoga, 20 Kilburn St., Burlington. Info: 8649642, evolutionvt.com.

well-being 200-HOUR AYURVEDA INTEGRATION PROGRAM: Join us in learning and immerse yourself in the oldest surviving preventative health care system. This program is ideal for yoga teachers, counselors, therapists, bodyworkers, nurses, doctors, wellness coaches, herbalists, etc. VSAC approved and payment plans available. Can transfer hours to Kripalu’s Ayurveda Health Counselor program. More information at ayurvedavermont. com/classes. 2020 schedule: Feb. 8-9, Mar. 7-8, Apr. 4-5, May 2-3, Jun. 6-7, Jul. 11-12, Aug. 15-16, Sep. 12-13, Oct. 17-18, Nov. 14-15. Cost: $2,795/person. Location: The Ayurvedic Center of Vermont, 34 Oak Hill Rd., Williston. Info: Allison Morse, 872-8898, ayurvedavt@ comcast.net.

yoga

LAUGHING RIVER YOGA: Located in a beautiful setting overlooking the Winooski River. We offer highquality classes, workshops and trainings taught by experienced teachers who honor the beauty and wisdom of the yogic tradition. Learn more about our Teacher Enhancement Program and ongoing workshops, including Yin Yoga, December 6-8. All bodies and abilities welcome. Daily classes, workshops, 200and 300-hour yoga teacher training. Cost: $49/first month of unlimited classes; workshop & training prices vary. Location: Laughing River Yoga, Chace Mill, Suite 126, Burlington. Info: 343-8119, laughing riveryoga.com.

SANGHA STUDIO |: NONPROFIT, DONATION-BASED YOGA: Sangha Studio builds an empowered community through the shared practice of yoga. Free yoga service initiatives and outreach programs are offered at 17 local organizations working with all ages. Join Sangha in both downtown Burlington and the Old North End for one of their roughly 60 weekly classes and workshops. Become a Sustaining Member for $60/ month and practice as often as you like! Daily classes. Location: Sangha Studio, 120 Pine St. & 237 North Winooski Ave., Burlington. Info: 448-4262, info@sanghastudio.org, sanghastudio.org.

EVOLUTION YOGA: Practice yoga in a down-to-earth atmosphere with some of the most experienced teachers and therapeutic professionals in Burlington. All are welcome. Try our Beginners Series, Tuesdays, November 5 to December 17. We are all beginners. This is your invitation to enjoy learning the basics and start exploring the benefits of a yoga

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music+nightlife

No Accounting for Taste Vermont musicians take on their most hated pop songs at “Worst. Song. Ever.” B Y J O RD A N AD A M S

JEB WALLACE-BRODEUR

veryone has a song that makes their blood boil. Maybe it’s an inescapable, ubiquitous hit single that inspires a white-hot rage deep within. Maybe it’s a tune with vapid lyrics or a juvenile melody that just won’t leave your head. Most of us go out of our way to avoid such bedeviling ditties. So why would a group of Vermont musicians gather yearly to celebrate them? At the annual “Worst. Song. Ever.” competition, local musicians face off, battleof-the-bands-style, presenting what they believe to be the worst songs ever recorded. This year’s event, which took place at the Old Labor Hall in Barre on Saturday, was a fundraiser for the historic venue itself. It featured solo artists, duets and full bands, all ripping and riffing on the music they hate the most. And it was fun as hell. The showcase is the brainchild of Lovejoy Dole, who also runs a live-jazz karaoke event, Jazzyaoke, as well as homegrown storytelling event Extempo, at venues in central Vermont and Burlington. She conceived “Worst. Song. Ever.” years ago, when she ran a central Vermont trivia night. The concept stemmed from a particular trivia round — also called “Worst. Song. Ever.” — in which contestants had to identify brief audio clips of terrible tunes. She used tracks such as Clint Holmes’ cloying “Playground in My Mind,” Elvis Presley’s culturally insensitive “In the Ghetto” and Richard Harris’ maximalist stinker “MacArthur Park.” “What I noticed was, it would engender a lot of conversation after the game was over,” Dole recalled during a recent chat with Seven Days. “People would have these friendly arguments about which song was worse.” She turned the concept into a largescale event in 2013 and has repeated it roughly once a year since. “There really are no sacred cows,” Dole explained, noting that past entrants have played songs by wildly popular artists such as the Beatles and Billy Joel. She said that people tend to choose songs that are vastly overplayed, as well as tunes with outdated cultural values.

Nikki Matheson (right) and Jeff Tolbert performing “Havana” at the “Worst. Song. Ever.” competition at the Old Labor Hall in Barre

“Ultimately, it’s subjective,” Dole said. About 150 people, from teenagers to senior citizens, gathered for this year’s show. The sizable stage was equipped with multiple amps, chairs, music stands, microphones, a drum kit and a lone conga. It would accommodate a large and varied group of performers throughout the evening. Introducing the show, Dole took the mic to briefly lay down the rules. Namely, booing would not be tolerated, even if you disagreed that an artist’s song was the worst ever. She said that the event was not for anyone with an “irony deficiency” or anyone who’d undergone a “humor-ectomy.” Audience members were encouraged to express their opinion about which song

SEVEN DAYS NOVEMBER 27-DECEMBER 4, 2019

was worst by adding cash to maple syrup buckets staged in the back of the house, each representing one of the acts. “It’s not rude to get up in the middle of the show,” Dole explained. “What’s rude is the show itself.” With no proper introduction, two older gentlemen then took the stage. They performed a staid, acoustic rendition of Joanie Sommers’ “Johnny Get Angry.” “It’s so sexist,” said Charlie Barasch, one half of the duo with Dave Boyer. The song, which was written by two men (Hal David and Sherman Edwards), is sung from the perspective of a pouty, flouncing girlfriend who’s fed up with her beau’s meek behavior. After their performance, Dole returned to the stage to formally introduce the

pair and make a brief oral presentation about the song. (She did this after every performance.) She noted its chart history and colorful comments from the internet, and she cracked that the song was a prime example of “topping from the bottom.” Next up, Miranda Miller and Shawn Chevalier performed Loretta Lynn’s probirth-control number “The Pill.” The pair used some appropriate props, including a stroller, baby doll and bottle. “It’s probably too raw for some people,” Miller said following the performance. Along with a brief history lesson, Dole also quoted some of her favorite YouTube comments, such as one that read, “Loretta Lynn said that many physicians told her NO ACCOUNTING FOR TASTE

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GOT MUSIC NEWS? JORDAN@SEVENDAYSVT.COM

S UNDbites

News and views on the local music + nightlife scene B Y J O RD A N A D A MS

A Cause for a Clause

It’s a little bit nuts to think that planning is well under way for next year’s Waking Windows music and arts festival, which spans Friday, May 1, through Sunday, May 3. Most civilians probably don’t start thinking about Winooski’s threeday indie-rock marathon until the initial lineup announcement, which usually comes midwinter. But musicians hoping to hop on the bill have likely already jumped at the chance to apply for consideration. The fest accepts band submissions until Wednesday, January 1. You can find the form at wakingwindows.com. Those who’ve already submitted may have noticed a new section of the application: a radius clause. What is a radius clause, you ask? It’s a pretty standard stipulation that bars performers from performing within a certain radius of a given festival, often coupled with other provisos. The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival received quite a bit of attention for its clause in 2018, which some thought was actually illegal. (It wasn’t. A federal judge ruled in 2019 that the festival’s clause was perfectly legal, according to multiple sources, including Spin and Billboard.)

Waking Windows’ clause reads, “All artists confirmed for Waking Windows Winooski 2020 will be asked to not play any other Vermont area (100 mile radius) shows in April 2020 and to not announce any other Vermont area shows in May 2020 and beyond until after their set at the festival. We are open to exceptions to this request, but ask that they are discussed with us before confirming your appearance.” A mild social media kerfuffle ensued after the new clause was brought to light. As written, it does seem a bit harsh. Does the Waking Windows team really expect all potential festival performers to abstain from performing locally for the entire month of April? As it turns out, the answer is no — and yes. “We’re just trying to encourage communication,” said Waking Windows cofounder PADDY REAGAN in a recent phone call. “It’s something that has not happened in the past.” Basically, the clause doesn’t necessarily apply to everyone. Working musicians who make a substantial percentage of their income from playing live music, like ERIN CASSELS-BROWN, for instance, would be exempt from the clause. The indie-folk singer-songwriter performs at the Monkey House, aka the epicenter of Waking Windows,

practically every Monday. Reagan and co. aren’t going to take that away from him. (This is not to say Cassels-Brown is or is not hoping to perform at Waking Windows next year. Like I said, he’s just an example.) The clause is meant to prevent bands of a certain level, either regional or local, who are truly independent and submitting on their own without management support, from booking area shows too close to the first weekend in May. Think about it. If a buzzworthy band were slated for a prime Waking Windows slot — like a Saturday evening set on the Rotary Stage, let’s say — playing a show only a few weeks prior in April could affect attendance at their Waking Windows set. “Bands relying on a local draw don’t want to oversaturate,” Reagan continued. He noted that the team has, in the past, asked ROUGH FRANCIS to not play in April, given that the garagepunks usually nab a primo festival spot on either the Main Stage or the Rotary Stage. But let’s say you’ve been accepted to Waking Windows and there’s an April show that comes up that you just have to play. Does that mean you can’t? Again, no — and yes. Reagan said that playing the show wouldn’t necessarily get you removed from the festival, but it could affect when and where you were slated. I don’t see this new clause affecting the local scene all that much. Sure, a few bands might miss out on a couple of shows. But Vermont clubs aren’t all SOUNDBITES

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WED Twin Peaks 12.4 Lala Lala, Ohmme 106.7 WIZN welcomes

SAT 11.30

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MON 12.2

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THU 12.5

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FRI 12.6

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FRI 12.6

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1214 Williston Road, South Burlington 802-652-0777 The Waking Windows team, from left: Paddy Reagan, Brian Nagle, Matt Rogers, Ali Nagle and Nick Mavadones

@higherground @highergroundmusic

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GALLERYGOER?

Design the perfect weekend with re:View — a weekly e-newsletter curated by Seven Days. Stay informed about: » Upcoming art receptions and events » Must-see exhibits » News, profiles and reviews

SUBSCRIBE AT SEVENDAYSVT.COM/ENEWS Untitled-8 1

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GOT MUSIC NEWS? JORDAN@SEVENDAYSVT.COM

.org

From left: Sean Preece, Josh Weinstein, Bob Wagner and Leon Campos

12/1 SU

ALBANY BERKSHIRE BALLET

THE NUTCRACKER

Flynn Main Stage (11/30-12/1)

2019 JINGLE BELL EXPRESS Departs from 1 Main Street (11/30-12/1)

12/3 TU NATALIE

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CO NT I NU E D F RO M PA G E 6 9

of a sudden going to be a ghost town for the month of April. Reagan pointed out that, of 300 local submissions, only 75 to 80 bands were actually chosen to perform at Waking Windows 2019. Plus, a high percentage of non-local artists perform locally on a weekly basis. (I should really sit down and do the math sometime.) To summarize, it’s all about communication. Reagan said he and the Waking Windows team are happy to discuss all matters related to the radius clause. So get in touch with them if you have comments, questions or concerns. These are some of the nicest, friendliest folks around. They’re not a bunch of scary suits! “I don’t even own a suit,” Reagan said.

Moving On

You may have noticed that MOSAIC, the BOB WAGNER-led group, have mysteriously vanished from Radio Bean’s show calendar. For the past year or so, the improv-heavy outfit held down Wednesday nights at the Burlington café. Fear not! The residency is simply changing locations. Starting on Wednesday, December 4, expect to see Wagner and co. doing their funky thing at Nectar’s, which will continue indefinitely throughout the winter. “We all have eternal, deep love and gratitude for [Radio Bean] and everyone there, but after 11 fun, exploratory and formative months, it just wasn’t feeling like the right fit,” Wagner wrote in an email. The KAT WRIGHT guitarist also mentions that ROB COMPA of jam band DOPAPOD is likely going to be in the mix more often than not, along with JOSH WEINSTEIN, SEAN PREECE and LEON CAMPOS. Though Radio Bean has the coziness thing going for it, Nectar’s is probably a better location for Mosaic. People will

have room to cut loose and noodle all over the damn place. Wagner also pointed out that the new residency includes a charitable angle. One dollar from every Lost Nation beer purchased will go to Planned Parenthood’s Burlington Health Center. Starting on December 4, NICO SUAVE’s Improv Surprise takes over the slot. While normally Nico (NICOLE D’ELISA) and co. are known for their LED ZEPPELIN tributes, this monthlong residency is a “free-for-all of silliness.” “Think WEEN plus FRANK ZAPPA plus ‘Whose Line Is it Anyway,’” D’Elisa explained via email. “We perform 100 percent improvised material using audience suggestions. And, interestingly enough, the personal ads and I-Spys from Seven Days.” Just think: Your earnest proclamations of love and hopeful outlook on chance encounters could become fodder for this burgeoning musical improv group.

COURTESY OF LUKE AWTRY PHOTOGRAPHY

MACMASTER & DONNELL LEAHY A CELTIC FAMILY CHRISTMAS

Flynn Main Stage

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Flynn Main Stage Flynn Space

THE BOSTON CAMERATA UVM Recital Hall

BÉLA FLECK AND THE FLECKTONES

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Flynn Main Stage

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Main lobby of the Flynn Main Stage

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Flynn Main Stage

DBR

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Flynn Main Stage (12/21-22) 12/23 MO

White Meeting House, Waterbury

VSO HOLIDAY POPS Flynn Main Stage

SOLARIS VOCAL ENSEMBLE Charlotte Congregational Church

12/15 SU VERMONT YOUTH ORCHESTRA

ORCHESTRAPALOOZA

Flynn Main Stage

SOLARIS VOCAL ENSEMBLE College Street Congregational Church

BURLINGTONES Flynn Space

FLYNN SHOW CHOIR

Flynn Space (12/21-22)

WARREN MILLER’S TIMELESS

12/14 SA

BRYAN BLANCHETTE

Flynn Space

McCarthy Arts Center, Colchester (12/7-8) 12/21 SA

SOLARIS VOCAL ENSEMBLE If I were a superhero, my superpower would be the ability to get songs stuck in other people’s heads. Here are five songs that have been stuck in my head this week. May they also get stuck in yours. Follow sevendaysvt on Spotify for weekly playlists with tunes by artists featured in the music section. ULTRAÍSTA, “Party Line” ROBYN, “Missing U” CAROLINE POLACHEK, “Caroline Shut Up” POLYDRIVE, “Curly” HALEY HEYNDERICKX, “The Bug Collector”

NEW YEAR’S CELEBRATION 2020

STAND UP, SIT DOWN, & LAUGH

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Listening In

Burlington does

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BURLINGTON DOES BROADWAY Flynn Main Stage

JUST ANNOUNCED Peppa Pig Live! | Shen Yun Bob Weir and Wolf Bros Bert Kreischer (2nd show)

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music+nightlife

CLUB DATES

live music

COMEDY ›› P.76 | DJS ›› P.74 TRIVIA, KARAOKE, ETC. ›› P.76

WED.27

Ali T (singer-songwriter) at Jerry’s Sports Tavern, Barre, 5:30 p.m. Free.

open mics & jams

FRI.29 // THE MALLETT BROTHERS BAND [AMERICANA]

Cozy O’Donnell (rock) at 14th Star Brewing Co., St. Albans, 6 p.m. Free. The Handsome Devils (country) at Red Square, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free.

WED.27

Familiar Faces (jam) at Foam Brewers, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free.

Insider, Prohibition, Fat Boys and Little Men (rock) at Nectar’s, Burlington, 8 p.m. Free/$5. 18+.

Irish Sessions (traditional) at Light Club Lamp Shop, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

Jamie Lee Thurston, Fran Briand (country) at the Old Post, South Burlington, 6:30 p.m. Free.

Open Mic Night at Stone Corral Brewery, Richmond, 8 p.m. Free.

Jason Baker (singer-songwriter) at the Double E Lounge at Essex Experience, Essex Junction, 6:30 p.m. Free.

Open Mic with Andy Lugo at Manhattan Pizza & Pub, Burlington, 9:30 p.m. Free.

Matt Bolton (singer-songwriter) at Tap 25, Stowe, 7:30 p.m. Free. O’hAnleigh (Irish) at Rí Rá Irish Pub & Whiskey Room, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

Open Mic with Austtin at Monopole, Plattsburgh, N.Y., 10 p.m. Free.

The Ray Vega Quartet (jazz) at Juniper, Burlington, 8:30 p.m. Free.

Open Stage Night with Matt Blair and Friends at Orlando’s Bar & Lounge, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

Strange Purple Jelly (jam) at Orlando’s Bar & Lounge, Burlington, 9 p.m. Free. Sweet William and Sugar Cone Rose (Americana) at Red Square, Burlington, 3 p.m. Free. Wednesday Night Dead (Grateful Dead tribute) at Zenbarn, Waterbury, 7 p.m. Free.

THU.28

Sammy B (rock) at Pickle Barrel Nightclub, Killington, 8 p.m. Free.

MALLETT BROTHERS BAND

push their sound beyond what’s expected of the

typical New England Americana outfit. Led by brothers Will and Luke, the Maine-based group displays a knack for genre blending, with nods to hard rock, Southern blues, traditional bluegrass and Québécois folk. But the band does so cohesively, subtly mixing together snarling guitars and smiling fiddles. Fun fact: Phish drummer Jon Fishman has been known to join the crew as a touring member. Catch the Mallett Brothers Band on Friday, November 29, at Zenbarn in Waterbury. Locals

EASTERN MOUNTAIN TIME open.

FRI.29

Andrew Moroz (jazz) at Bleu Northeast Seafood, Burlington, 8:30 p.m. Free. Blue Fox (blues) at Gusto’s, Barre, 5 p.m. Free. BON/FIRE (AC/DC tribute) at Gusto’s, Barre, 9 p.m. $5. The Buck Hollers (bluegrass) at the Tap Room at Switchback Brewing Co., Burlington, 6 p.m. Free. Christine Malcolm and Cookie (folk) at Highland Lodge Restaurant, Greensboro, 6:30 p.m. Free. Connor Hamilton (singer-songwriter) at Stone Corral Brewery, Richmond, 8 p.m. Free. Friday Morning Sing-Along with Linda Bassick & Friends (kids’ music) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 11 a.m. Free. George Murtie (country, rock) at the Old Foundry at One Federal Restaurant & Lounge, St. Albans, 6:30 p.m. Free. George Petit’s Jazz Quartet at Tap 25, Stowe, 7:30 p.m. Free. Hamjob (rock) at Monopole, Plattsburgh, N.Y., 10 p.m. Free. Honky Tonk Happy Hour with Mark LeGrand at Sweet Melissa’s, Montpelier, 5:30 p.m. Free. Hullahballoo (rock) at One Main Tap & Grill, Randolph, 9 p.m. Free.

Getting Hammered The

THU.28

Open Mic Night at Moogs Place, Morrisville, 8:30 p.m. Free.

FRI.29

Dave Mitchell’s Blues Revue (open jam) at Red Square, Burlington, 3 p.m. Free.

SAT.30 Insider, Prohibition (rock) at Monkey House, Winooski, 8:30 p.m. $3/8. 16+.

Seth Yacovone (solo acoustic blues) at Nectar’s, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

Ciarra Fragale, Melanie Glenn (indie pop) at Light Club Lamp Shop, Burlington, 7:30 p.m. Free.

Matt Hagen’s Murder Ballads and Tall Tales (singer-songwriter) at Nectar’s, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

Jaguar Stereo, Rajnii Eddins (jazz, experimental) at Charlie-O’s World Famous, Montpelier, 9 p.m. Free.

Seth Yacovone Band (blues-rock) at the Old Post, South Burlington, 9:30 p.m. Free.

Close to Nowhere (rock) at On Tap Bar & Grill, Essex Junction, 5 p.m. Free.

Never in Vegas (rock covers) at Pickle Barrel Nightclub, Killington, 8 p.m. $10-20.

Jester Jigs (rock, blues) at Red Square, Burlington, 7 p.m. $5.

Shellhouse (rock) at Jericho Café & Tavern, 6 p.m. Free.

King Me (acoustic) at On Tap Bar & Grill, Essex Junction, 5 p.m. Free.

Space Force: A Tribute to Pink Floyd at Nectar’s, Burlington, 9 p.m. $5.

Cooper & LaVoie (Americana) at Twiggs — An American Gastropub, St. Albans, 6 p.m. Free.

Quadra, Phil Abair Band, Mr. French (rock) at Higher Ground Ballroom, South Burlington, 8 p.m. $12/15.

Kip de Moll (folk) at Twiggs — An American Gastropub, St. Albans, 6 p.m. Free. The Larkspurs (Americana) at Moogs Place, Morrisville, 9 p.m. Free.

That Duo +1 (acoustic) at Olive Ridley’s, Plattsburgh, N.Y., 6:30 p.m. Free. Toast (rock) at City Limits Night Club, Vergennes, 9:30 p.m. Free.

Mal Maiz, Kotoko Brass (cumbia) at ArtsRiot, Burlington, 8:30 p.m. $12.

Zach Nugent band (Grateful Dead tribute) at the Engine Room, White River Junction, 7 p.m. $20.

The Mallett Brothers Band, Eastern Mountain Time (Americana) at Zenbarn, Waterbury, 9 p.m. $8/10.

Zach Russack (indie rock) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 10 p.m. $5.

Miku Daza, Happy Spangler (punk) at Foam Brewers, Burlington, 8 p.m. Free. Never in Vegas (rock covers) at Pickle Barrel Nightclub, Killington, 8 p.m. $10-20. Rob Compa, Jack Schroeder (jam) at Orlando’s Bar & Lounge, Burlington, 8:30 p.m. Free.

SEVEN DAYS NOVEMBER 27-DECEMBER 4, 2019

SAT.30

Arty Lavigne, Jeff Barrows and Mark Christensen (jam) at Smitty’s Pub, Burlington, 8 p.m. Free. Barika, Sabouyouma (psych-rock, global) at Nectar’s, Burlington, 9 p.m. $8. The Brevity Thing (rock, folk) at Moogs Place, Morrisville, 9 p.m. Free.

The Dirty Looks Band (rock) at the Old Post, South Burlington, 8 p.m. Free. Duncan MacLeod Trio (blues) at Jericho Café & Tavern, 6 p.m. Free. Good Trees River Band (psychedelic rock) at Red Square, Burlington, 6 p.m. $5. Hollow Turtle (bluegrass) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 8:30 p.m. Free. Ira Friedman (jazz) at Bleu Northeast Seafood, Burlington, 8:30 p.m. Free. John Lackard and Friends (blues) at Whammy Bar, Calais, 7:30 p.m. Free. Lara Herscovitch (singersongwriter) at Highland Lodge Restaurant, Greensboro, 6:30 p.m. Free. Left Eye Jump (blues) at Red Square, Burlington, 2 p.m. Free.

REDadmiral (rock, Americana) at Stone Corral Brewery, Richmond, 8 p.m. Free. Roan Yellowthorn (indie pop) at Monopole, Plattsburgh, N.Y., 10 p.m. Free. Ryan Hanson (rock) at the Old Foundry at One Federal Restaurant & Lounge, St. Albans, 6:30 p.m. Free. Ryan Sweezey (singersongwriter) at Light Club Lamp Shop, Burlington, 9:30 p.m. $5. Shane Murley Band (folk-rock) at On Tap Bar & Grill, Essex Junction, 9 p.m. Free. Third Shift (country, rock) at the Den at Harry’s Hardware, Cabot, 7 p.m. Free. Tim Brick (country) at Gusto’s, Barre, 6 p.m. Free.

Maple Run (Americana) at Tap 25, Stowe, 7:30 p.m. Free. SAT.30

» P.74

Irish Session at Bagitos Bagel and Burrito Café, Montpelier, 2 p.m. donation.

MON.2

Family Night (open jam) at SideBar, Burlington, 9 p.m. Free. Open Mic at SideBar, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free. Open Mic Night with Kyle Stevens at the Double E Lounge at Essex Experience, Essex Junction, 6 p.m. Free. Open Mic with Chris Parker 6 p.m. Free.

WED.4

Bluegrass Session at Jericho Café & Tavern, 7 p.m. Free. Irish Sessions (traditional) at Light Club Lamp Shop, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free. Open Mic with Andy Lugo at Manhattan Pizza & Pub, Burlington, 9:30 p.m. Free. Open Mic with Austtin at Monopole, Plattsburgh, N.Y., 10 p.m. Free.

GOT MUSIC NEWS? JORDAN@SEVENDAYSVT.COM

REVIEW this Nodrums, W81/W82 (SELF-RELEASED, DIGITAL)

Seven Days rarely receives an album submission quite like Nodrums’ W81 and W82. The two collections of music, 16 and 18 tracks long, respectively, are essentially creator Brayden Baird’s home-recording scrapbook. The tracks are a mix of demos, sketches, outtakes and even a few pieces that sound truly complete. The twin albums comprise everything he’s been tinkering with since the mid-2018 release of Future Folks, the debut album from his band, the Thursday Torys. To formally present such a crude assemblage of material for review is a risky endeavor. Though Baird’s songs

Bull’s Head, Bull’s Head (SELF-RELEASED, DIGITAL)

One of the most tired clichés in music is the whole “making an album is like having a baby” thing. For starters, unless you’re a Scandinavian black metal band, the process of making a record shouldn’t involve literal blood. That said, there is an interesting subgenre of music that blurs the line between the cliché and making properly introspective work. For lack of a better term, let’s call it “music by new parents.” (I’m not using “dad rock,” goddamn it.) Take the debut record from South

average a run time of just two minutes, 34 total is a shitload to sift through. And because these songs are demos, they’re often glaringly raw and incomplete. You can even hear Baird discussing the tracks with a few collaborators as they were being recorded. Still, W81 and W82 are a mostly enjoyable diversion. Throughout, Baird creates a softly lit, millennialpink nether zone from which his sedate creations bubble and gurgle. He dabbles with many styles: gentle-tempered folk, hazy soundscapes, ’70s soft rock, twee-pop. He’s also into smoky chill-wave and the ’80s pop touchstones that inspired the early 2010s microgenre. It’s all very safe and inviting. The albums whisper, “Come in, get cozy, hit the bong, have a PB&J and a mug of hot

chocolate, and I’ll tell you about what’s going on in my head.” With so much material, it’s difficult to know where to begin. But that hardly matters, since the songs don’t need to be listened to in any particular order. “Cortelliu,” a W81 cowrite with Dane Bundschuh, is a twinkling slice of chillAF pop. Baird’s vaporous vocals flow over a candy-floss concoction of guitar and synths, with clockwork percussion and a four-on-the-floor rhythm. “It Had to Be Loveless,” another Bunschuh cowrite from W81, is a vibrating mass of sound held together by the constant thrum of guitar. Buckets of reverb crank up the drama on this beat-less song. “Pull Through,” one of side A’s strongest cuts, recalls a bit of late 1960s psych-pop. It shifts from campus drum circle vibes to an abstract voyage of sound. W82, while lacking a bit in terms of breakaway singles, shows a bit more

experimentation. Opener “Konoyo Noharu” introduces bigger sounds than those heard on the more restrained W81. The track booms with bass vigor and includes some outrageous pitch correction on Baird’s vocals. The artist reaches a near-Toto level of pristine pop on “Nahnahnah,” while “Kiln 140bpm” delves deep into the electronic underground. W82 has more excess content, as well. “Carribean Lofi” is essentially an exercise in panning, and “My Girl,” a slinky, abstract rock piece, ends far too abruptly. However, side B concludes with a delicious cover of the Archies’ “Sugar Sugar” with Libby Camp on lead vocals. Baird’s soft-sung murmurings make his seemingly never-ending trove of songs a lovely distraction. Let’s hope for a more streamlined vision on future efforts. W81 and W82 are available at xxnodrumsxx.bandcamp.com.

Burlington-based songwriter Andy Samara. Performing under the moniker Bull’s Head, Samara has put together a record that vacillates between tender folk and lush indie rock. In an email to Seven Days, Samara writes that one of the reasons he felt the urge to record Bull’s Head was to share with his young children something they can have of their father in the future. The record, performed and produced in its entirety by Samara, opens with two missives to his kids: “Bean Sprout” and “Franny (Bean Sprout Reprise).” Samara plays a jaunty electric guitar figure before he sings out, voice drenched in reverb, “Grow up boy, grow up girl, bean sprout / Know my love like you know the sun / Or like the moon, always full.” It’s a simple yet evocative

declaration of unconditional love that sets the tone for a record that feels like a tenderly written letter. “Stone Road” finds Samara functioning as a one-man band. He layers take-me-to-church organ over a swinging country beat to great effect. There’s a hint of an edge to the singer’s otherwise clear voice, just a twinge of grit that adds some wonderful complexity to his melodies and lyrics. Perhaps most impressive about a record that possesses such thematic fidelity are the subtle yet-chameleonic shifts from song to song. “Morning Moon” comes across like a spiritual hymn, with cavernous-sounding vocals over gentle acoustic guitar. Yet beneath the arrangement one can hear layers of static, like radio waves surging out to space. Samara entertains the bigger, cosmic questions while making a very rooted sort of album. “Far Past the Houses

Rivers and Trees” is a beautiful ode to his lover and the lives they’ve created together. “As night falls and rains fall and fog fills the sky / Into rose-colored rooms where new breath came to be / And you made new life like it was a dream,” Samara sings, conveying a loving sort of awe. For all the grandeur of the folkie moments on Bull’s Head, Samara’s talent really shines on the more synth-driven indie-rock songs, such as “Race Against Joy.” Here Samara creates a distinct musical identity, a sonic calling card the songwriter might just be able to build upon. In Vermont’s crowded folk field, those less-traditional leanings could add the color to push him above the pack. As a missive to his kids, Bull’s Head is a loving, sun-drenched tribute. As Samara’s debut record, it’s a promisefilled marker. Hear for yourself at bullshead.bandcamp.com.

GET YOUR MUSIC REVIEWED:

JORDAN ADAMS

CHRIS FARNSWORTH

ARE YOU A VT ARTIST OR BAND? SEND US YOUR MUSIC! DIGITAL: MUSIC@SEVENDAYSVT.COM; SNAIL MAIL: MUSIC C/O SEVEN DAYS, 255 S. CHAMPLAIN ST., SUITE 5, BURLINGTON, VT 05401

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SEVEN DAYS NOVEMBER 27-DECEMBER 4, 2019

music+nightlife

CLUB DATES

djs

live music

DJ 2 Rivers (open format) at Rí Rá Irish Pub & Whiskey Room, Burlington, 10 p.m. Free.

WED.27

DJ A-RA$ (open format) at Red Square Blue Room, Burlington, 10 p.m. Free.

DJ A-RA$ (open format) at Red Square, Burlington, 10 p.m. $5.

Tim Brick Band (country) at the Double E: T10 Listening Room, Essex Junction, 7:30 p.m. $10/13.

DJ Cre8 (open format) at Red Square, Burlington, 10 p.m. Free.

DJ Alex Medina (open format) at Orlando’s Bar & Lounge, Burlington, 9 p.m. Free.

UN!TY (R&B, rock) at Foam Brewers, Burlington, 8 p.m. Free.

DJ Ianu (open format) at Half Lounge, Burlington, 10 p.m. Free.

DJ ATAK (house) at Red Square Blue Room, Burlington, 11 p.m. $5.

DJ Melo Grant (hip-hop) at Monkey House, Winooski, 8 p.m. Free.

DJ C-Low (hip-hop) at Monkey House, Winooski, 9 p.m. Free.

SAT.30 CONTINUED FROM P.72

Western Terrestrials (album release) (honky-tonk) at the Engine Room, White River Junction, 8 p.m. $10.

THU.28

SUN.1

DJ Abby and Friends (vinyl DJs) at Dedalus Wine Shop, Market & Wine Bar, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free.

Clark (singer-songwriter) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 7:30 p.m. Free. Fiddle Witch (Americana) at the Skinny Pancake, Burlington, noon. Free. Pete Sutherland and Tim Stickle’s Old Time Session at Radio Bean, Burlington, 1 p.m. Free. Roar (non-male standup) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 7 p.m. $5. Trio Gusto (jazz) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 5 p.m. Free.

DJ Bay 6 (hits) at Gusto’s, Barre, 8 p.m. Free. DJ Craig Mitchell (open format) at Ruben James, Burlington, 10 p.m. Free.

MON.2 // HALEY HEYNDERICKX [SINGER-SONGWRITER]

Bugging Out

FRI.29 HALEY HEYNDERICKX’s stage presence is charming, disarming and

slightly alarming. When playing solo, the Portland, Ore., folk artist banters with a band that only she can see. She introduces her songs without pretense or pretentiousness. For

MON.2

Brian Carroll & Pete O’Connor (acoustic) at Lawson’s Finest Liquids, Waitsfield, 5 p.m. Free.

instance, when she says, “This is a song about bugs,” referring to her popular tune “The

Erin Cassels-Brown (indie folk) at Monkey House, Winooski, 5 p.m. Free.

which buzzes and whirs with honest impulses and sweet remembrances. Heynderickx

Euge (indie folk) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

Bug Collector,” she means it. Her conversational style eases listeners into her inner world, performs on Monday, December 2, at the Higher Ground Showcase Lounge in South Burlington. TRE BURT adds support.

Haley Heynderickx, Tre Burt (singer-songwriter) at Higher Ground Showcase Lounge, South Burlington, 8 p.m. $15/17.

Dayve Huckett (jazz) at Leunig’s Bistro & Café, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

Mannequin Pussy, Kississippi, Clever Girls (punk) at ArtsRiot, Burlington, 8:30 p.m. $15.

Open Mic (singer-songwriter) at Light Club Lamp Shop, Burlington, 9 p.m. Free.

Dead Set (Grateful Dead tribute) at Nectar’s, Burlington, 9 p.m. $5/8. 18+.

Ukulele Kids with Joe Beaird at the Skinny Pancake, Burlington, 9:30 a.m. Free.

Seth Yacovone at Moogs Place, Morrisville, 7 p.m. Free.

Honky-Tonk Tuesdays with Pony Hustle at Radio Bean, Burlington, 10 p.m. $5.

Vermont Stage Youth Co. (eclectic) at the Skinny Pancake, Burlington, 6 p.m. donation.

Lowell Thompson and Friends (roots-rock) at Hatch 31, Bristol, 7 p.m. Free.

WED.4

TUE.3

Cory Shenk (country, folk) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 8:30 p.m. Free.

Ensemble V (jazz) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

DJ Craig Mitchell (open format) at Red Square, Burlington, 11 p.m. $5. DJ Rekkon (house) at Red Square Blue Room, Burlington, 10 p.m. $5. DJ Taka (eclectic vinyl) at Light Club Lamp Shop, Burlington, 11 p.m. $5. DJ Xavwax (eclectic vinyl) at Three Penny Taproom, Montpelier, 9:30 p.m. Free.

John Fealy (folk) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 5:30 p.m. Free. Nico Suave’s Improv Surprise (jam) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 10 p.m. Free. Peter Bingham, Kathy Blume (singer-songwriter) at the Double E Lounge at Essex Experience, Essex Junction, 6:30 p.m. Free.

WED.4

DJ A-RA$ (open format) at Rí Rá Irish Pub & Whiskey Room, Burlington, 10 p.m. Free.

DJ Craig Mitchell (hits) at Waterworks Food + Drink, Winooski, 9 p.m. Free. DJ Earl (hits) at City Limits Night Club, Vergennes, 9 p.m. Free. DJ LaFountaine (EDM) at Gusto’s, Barre, 9:30 p.m. $3. DJ Raul (Latin) at Red Square Blue Room, Burlington, 5 p.m. Free. DJ Taka (eclectic vinyl) at Light Club Lamp Shop, Burlington, 11 p.m. $5. Maple Street Six (jazz) at Deli 126, Burlington, 9 p.m. Free.

SUN.1

Disco Brunch with DJ Craig Mitchell at Misery Loves Co., Winooski, 11 a.m. Free. Open Decks at Half Lounge, Burlington, 10 p.m. Free.

MON.2

Jack Bandit and Friends (EDM) at Half Lounge, Burlington, 10 p.m. Free.

Illmatic: An Ode to the Golden Age of Hip-Hop at Club Metronome, Burlington, 10 p.m. Free.

TUE.3

SAT.30

WED.4

Britney B*tch: An Ode to the Queens of Pop at Club Metronome, Burlington, 10 p.m. Free.

CRWD CTRL (house, techno) at Red Square, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free. Chromatic (hip-hop) at Half Lounge, Burlington, 10 p.m. Free.

» P.76

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DECEMBER 4 & 19 4-9PM

Come together to celebrate the holiday season! Businesses will be open late and offer big discounts, treats, tastings, and door prizes!

A brewery and taproom with a variety of ales.

Gifts for the home, body, and spirit.

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COMEDY 5 NIGHTS

A WEEK

No Accounting for Taste « P.68 that this song did more to promote the availability of birth control in rural areas than all the literature they’d distributed.” Next came the first full band, Glee Club of the Damned. They surprised the audience with a faithful rendition of Bonnie Tyler’s smash hit and ultimate karaoke banger “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” “Have you ever seen the video?” asked vocalist Meredith Bell, referring to the clip’s dancing ninjas, billowing curtains and slow-motion doves. “That’s what makes it the worst song ever.” Another large group, known as Third Day of School, took on the Divinyls’ masturbation anthem “I Touch Myself.” Though the eggplant has in recent years become the produce item of choice to represent the male anatomy, front person Thomas Begley went old school by sensually peeling and consuming a banana during the middle of the song. “[‘I Touch Myself ’] is the answer to a question nobody asked,” Begley said following the song. The first set concluded with Camila & Camilo (real names Nikki Matheson and Jeff Tolbert) performing a Spanish guitar version of Camila Cabello’s “Havana.” Matheson took the stage in an over-the-top, Carmen Miranda-esque getup, complete with a towering flower headdress. “It took 10 people to write it,” Matheson said of why “Havana” was the worst

Third Day of School performing the Divinyls’ “I Touch Myself”

song ever. She also pointed out that the bulk of the song’s rhyme scheme inanely pairs Havana with “ooh na na.” During a brief intermission, attendees began to fill the buckets with dollar bills. Some indulged in an aptly titled concession item: the Wurst Brat Ever, courtesy of Morse Block Deli & Taps. The second set began with another full rock band, its members dressed in the trademark trappings of hair metal. Sure enough, they launched into a low-key rendition of Quiet Riot’s “Cum on Feel the Noize.” The band’s name: Try It Quiet.

THERE REALLY ARE

NO SACRED COWS. L O VE J OY D O L E

“The lyrics don’t mean anything, and when you play it slow, it’s obvious,” said band member Julia Chafets. Next, a duo called Mothertruckers dug into C.W. McCall’s “Convoy.” During the chorus, a woman with LED lights affixed to her chest started a full-on dancing convoy of about a dozen people. Another duo, JoeForce, offered a stripped-down acoustic version of Terry Jacks’ “Seasons in the Sun.” As Dole later pointed out, the Englishversion lyrics did not improve upon Jacques Brel’s original French version,

both of which are moribund and nearly incomprehensible. “It’s just the schmaltziest,” said singer Joe Weinmunson. The night concluded with a solo artist, George Desch. After setting up a guitar loop, he dug into “Driver’s Seat” by Sniff ’n the Tears. He explained that when he first heard the song, he didn’t know which was the title and which was the artist’s name. “[A] driver’s seat has nothing to do with anything,” Desch said. “It’s just three unrelated verses.” Finally, it came time to crown the winner. Three decorated toilet seats served as trophies, to be placed around the necks of each of the top three acts. With more than $200 collected in their bucket, Third Day of School and their horny-AF take on “I Touch Myself” were crowned the winner. Glee Club of the Damned came in second and Camila & Camilo nabbed third. For an evening dedicated to pure, unadulterated hatred, “Worst. Song. Ever.” was a feel-good laugh riot. It was also a good reminder that taste is purely subjective: One person’s treasure is another’s trash. m

THANKSGIVING WEEKEND: FRI 28 | SAT 29

MS.

PAT NEXT WEEKEND: THU 5 | FRI 6 | SAT 7

EMO

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MON-FRI: 6:30AM-10PM SAT+SUN: 7AM-10PM LOUNGE DAILY: 11 AM-CLOSING

802.660.7523 1117 WILLISTON RD. SOUTH BURLINGTON

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Drink Good Tea Heal Your Soul

Loose Leaf Teas

music+nightlife

CLUB DATES

Heal The Planet

Vegan & Gluten Free Meals

TUE.3 // MANNEQUIN PUSSY [PUNK]

Artisan Teaware

Figure of Speech Brash and disquieting as anything to come out in

80 Church Street, Burlington

2019, MANNEQUIN PUSSY’s third LP, Patience, is a work of sonic fury. The Philadelphia punk

6H-dobratea110619.indd 1

11/4/19 12:26 PM

quartet, known for uproarious live shows and an unhindered sense of self, delivers an onslaught of screaming savagery in a relatively short run time of 25 minutes. Known for their brevity and scathing commentary, the confrontational tunes flit by with burning urgency. Check out Mannequin Pussy on Tuesday, December 3, at ArtsRiot in Burlington. KISSISSIPPI and CLEVER GIRLS add support.

live music

PRESENTS

WED.4 CONTINUED FROM P.74 The Ray Vega Latin Jazz Sextet at Juniper, Burlington, 8:30 p.m. Free. Steve Rodgers, Natalie Tuttle (singer-songwriter) at Light Club Lamp Shop, Burlington, 9:30 p.m. Free.

K I L L I N GTO N

Twin Peaks, Lala Lala, Ohmme (rock) at Higher Ground Ballroom, South Burlington, 8:30 p.m. $17/20.

M I D D L E B U RY

Wednesday Night Dead (Grateful Dead tribute) at Zenbarn, Waterbury, 7 p.m. Free.

N OV. 3 0

D EC . 1 1 & 1 2

trivia, karaoke, etc.

B U R L I N GTO N D EC . 1 3

P L AT TS B U R G H

WED.27

D EC . 1 4

Godfather Karaoke at SideBar, Burlington, 10 p.m. Free. Karaoke at JP’s Pub, Burlington, 10 p.m. Free.

O F F E R S TO T H E S E R E S O R TS + M O R E

Karaoke with DJ Amanda Rock at City Limits Night Club, Vergennes, 9 p.m. Free. Trivia Night at Parker Pie Co., West Glover, 7 p.m. Free. Trivia Night at City Sports Grille, Colchester, 7 p.m. Free.

G E T T I C K E TS ! I T ’ S T RA D I T I O N !

WA R R E N M I L L E R .CO M

Trivia with Tim Rouselle at Mill River Brewing BBQ & Smokehouse, St. Albans, 7 p.m. Free.

THU.28

Karaoke at JP’s Pub, Burlington, 10 p.m. Free. Karaoke with DJ Jon Berry & DJ Coco at Olive Ridley’s, Plattsburgh, N.Y., 8 p.m. Free.

SEVEN DAYS NOVEMBER 27-DECEMBER 4, 2019

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11/22/19 1:04 PM

comedy WED.27

SUN.1

Frozen in Vermont (variety, dance) at Higher Ground Ballroom, South Burlington, 12 & 2:30 p.m. $12/18.

Open Mic at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 8:30 p.m. Free.

Karaoke with Samantha Dickey at Ruben James, Burlington, 10 p.m. Free.

Thirst Trap with Anya Volz (standup) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 7 p.m. $10.

MON.2

FRI.29

Lamp Shop Lit Club (open reading) at Light Club Lamp Shop, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

Black Friday Brewhaha (standup) at Paramount Theatre, Rutland, 7 p.m. $30/35.

WED.4

Roast of Tracy Dolan (comedy) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 7 p.m. $10.

FRI.29

Happy Hour Tunes & Trivia with Gary Peacock at Monopole Downstairs, Plattsburgh, N.Y., 5 p.m. Free. Karaoke at JP’s Pub, Burlington, 10 p.m. Free. Karaoke with Dave Bourgea at Burlington St. John’s Club, 8:30 p.m. Free.

SAT.30

Christopher McBride (sleight of hand magic) at ArtsRiot, Burlington, 7 p.m. $16. Drag Bingo with Nikki and Emoji at Stonecutter Spirits Highball Social, Burlington, 9:30 p.m. Free. Karaoke at JP’s Pub, Burlington, 10 p.m. Free. Karaoke with Mike Lambert at Park Place Tavern, Essex Junction, 9:30 p.m. Free.

Karaoke with Rob Jones at Manhattan Pizza & Pub, Burlington, 9:30 p.m. Free.

Trivia Night at ArtsRiot, Burlington, 7:30 p.m. Free.

TUE.3

Karaoke with DJ Molotov at Charlie-O’s World Famous, Montpelier, 9:30 p.m. Free. StorytellingVT at Light Club Lamp Shop, Burlington, 7:30 p.m. Free. Trivia Night at the Skinny Pancake, Hanover, N.H., 7 p.m. Free. Trivia with Top Hat Entertainment at On Tap Bar & Grill, Essex Junction, 7 p.m. Free.

WED.4

Godfather Karaoke at SideBar, Burlington, 10 p.m. Free. Karaoke at JP’s Pub, Burlington, 10 p.m. Free. Karaoke with DJ Amanda Rock at City Limits Night Club, Vergennes, 9 p.m. Free. Trivia Night at Parker Pie Co., West Glover, 7 p.m. Free. Trivia Night at City Sports Grille, Colchester, 7 p.m. Free. Trivia with Tim Rouselle at Mill River Brewing BBQ & Smokehouse, St. Albans, 7 p.m. Free. m

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SEVEN DAYS NOVEMBER 27-DECEMBER 4, 2019

11/25/19 5:01 PM

The Art of the Duck

art

“Joel Barber & the Modern Decoy,” Shelburne Museum B Y S U S A N L A R SO N

BEAR CIERI

REVIEW

ome Shelburne Museum staff admitted they were worried about mounting a major exhibition of duck decoys. “They thought it wouldn’t be captivating,” chief curator Kory Rogers said. “But once they stepped into the gallery, they were completely enchanted by this fascinating character who took the decoy from a utilitarian object to a contemporary work of art.” He was referring to the Colgate Gallery of the museum’s Pizzagalli Center for Art and Education, and to its current exhibition, “Joel Barber & the Modern Decoy.” It’s the first retrospective of the man nicknamed “the father of decoy collecting,” featuring more than 100 decoys, watercolors and ephemera from his collection. Rogers’ vision germinated during the renovation of the Dorset House five 78

Kory Rogers standing in front of the “Joel Barber & the Modern Decoy” exhibit

years ago. That building on the museum’s campus is home to a world-renowned collection of more than 1,200 decoys. The nucleus of that bounty once belonged to Joel Barber. After his death in 1952, Barber’s two sons sold his collection to the three sons of Shelburne Museum founder Electra Havemeyer Webb, who in turn gifted it to her. Watercolors, drawings and historical photographs arrived in 23 barrels and some 40 boxes along with the decoys. In the Dorset House, Rogers began going through every piece. “No one had really looked at the collection in any great detail, and there were a lot of mysteries,” he said. “In my research, I began to find all these stories — which, when added together, became an exhibition, and I had to do it. “It’s been one of the longest exhibitions I’ve ever worked on,” Rogers added, “and also one of the most satisfying.”

SEVEN DAYS NOVEMBER 27-DECEMBER 4, 2019

One of the first licensed architects in New York City, Barber designed interior spaces for some of its landmark art deco buildings, including Rockefeller Plaza. On Long Island’s South Shore in the summer of 1918, he found a pile of decoys in an old shed. Barber took one, a red-breasted merganser hen, and used it as a doorstop; eventually he elevated the decoy to a place of honor on the family mantel. “It’s not the most beautiful decoy, or the rarest, but it’s the most historically significant because it is the very first recorded to be collected as a work of art,” Rogers said. Today that duck greets visitors to the exhibit. At the time Barber adopted his first decoy, they were utilitarian objects used primarily by market hunters who hunted waterfowl in great numbers to supply restaurants and butcher shops. However, the passage of the Migratory Bird Treaty

Act of 1918 made it unlawful to hunt shorebirds, which reduced the demand for decoys. “I think interest in preserving the history of decoys is what set Barber on his trajectory of collecting them and promoting them,” Rogers said. “No one has ever bothered about [decoys] as I have,” Barber wrote in his seminal 1934 work Wild Fowl Decoys. “But it is my wish that decoy ducks of American duck shooting have a pedigree of their own. For this reason I became collector and historian.” Barber’s was the first book on the history of American waterfowl decoys. He illustrated it with 69 diagrams and watercolor portraits. “One of my favorite things about Barber is that no two of his illustrations are exactly alike,” Rogers said. He took pains to depict each decoy’s plumage in detail, as well as

ART SHOWS

Red-breasted Merganser hen

ambient water conditions and even clouds. “This is one of my favor- Barber Canvasbacks ites,” Rogers said, pointing to the watercolor-and-ink-onpaper piece, “Chesapeake Bay Canvas-Back, Susquehanna Flats,” that Barber used as the frontispiece of his book. The orthographic depiction, showing top, front and profile views, illustrates the decoy’s threedimensionality. The checkerboard edges of the illustration are one-inch scale markings. “The painting encapsulates the entire decoy,” Rogers said, noting that Barber even recorded the bird’s sex. “This exhibition is like ‘I Spy,’” Rogers said. “The decoys in the paintings are also in the exhibition, and visitors can match them up.” To promote decoys as “floating sculpture,” Barber lent his collection to galleries, exhibitions and museums. In 1923, he participated in the very first decoy show, organized in the Long Island decoy carver whose work Barber collected village of Bellport by the Howell’s Point en masse. Some nine years later, Barber held an Anti-Duskers Society. The group wanted to raise awareness of hunters who would exhibition in the Abercrombie & Fitch kill — illegally — flocks of shorebirds as store’s penthouse in New York City. It included 116 of his own decoys and 54 pairs they landed at dusk. At this show, Barber met Charles of birds made by Wheeler. An enlarged “Shang” Wheeler, who was known for the photo of the exhibition is included in the realism he achieved in his decoys. Wheeler Shelburne Museum show, along with the would become the only contemporary decoys pictured in it.

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IT’S BEEN ONE OF THE LONGEST EXHIBITIONS I’VE EVER WORKED ON, AND ALSO ONE OF THE MOST SATISFYING. KORY ROGE RS

Collecting decoys inspired Barber to make them himself. He picked and chose what he considered the best elements from decoys in his collection to create what he called “modern decoys.” “I refer to them as ‘frankenducks,’ as the amalgamations are clunky and not very attractive,” Rogers said with a laugh. “They also had a tendency to list or capsize, which may be indicative of the fact that Barber was not a hunter.” Some of his frankenducks are on display. After retiring in 1947, Barber moved next door to his son David’s home in Wilton, Conn. There the two converted a backyard chicken coop into the world’s first decoy museum. A large photo of the Shanty Museum of Old Decoys also hangs in the Shelburne exhibit. Barber’s willingness to share his collection with various institutions came at a price. When New York City’s National Folk Art Center went belly up, the gallery sent back Barber’s decoys in three crates. But

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the crate containing 34 of his most prized decoys never arrived. “Some people say it was just a mistake, but others believe it was something more nefarious,” Rogers said. “It’s the greatest mystery of decoy collecting, and they could still be out there somewhere. I just want them to come home.” In place of those lost decoys, the Shelburne show offers Barber’s images of them, including Albert Orne’s Southport loon, Captain Jesse Birdsall’s Canada goose and Captain Charlie DoVille’s Lake Ontario redhead with hinged wings that flap. The exhibit does include what Rogers called one of his most extraordinary finds: a recording Barber made with collector Dr. George Ross Star Jr. describing the chapters planned for his second book. Barber, who knew his health was failing, was intent on completing The Decoys of North America. On January 1, 1952, Barber was working on a watercolor of a redhead drake decoy for the book when he suffered a fatal heart attack. That unfinished work hangs in the final section of the exhibit, along with the illustrations Barber had already completed for the manuscript. Said Rogers, “It’s really nice to end the story of Joel Barber with this section based on his last project, the one that consumed him until the day, the moment, he died.”

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SEVEN DAYS NOVEMBER 27-DECEMBER 4, 2019

11/21/19 1:16 PM

art chittenden county

NEW THIS WEEK

AMÉLIE BRINDAMOUR: “In Oscillation,” mixed-media installation based on the mycorrhizal network that examines whether we could find inspiration from intelligent natural systems in order to alleviate power dynamics in contemporary communication systems. Through December 6. Info, 654-2851. McCarthy Art Gallery, Saint Michael’s College, in Colchester.

chittenden county

f MICHAEL STRAUSS: Acrylic paintings by the Vermont artist. Reception: Sunday, December 1, 2-4 p.m. with artist talk, “Constructing the Visual World: The Illusion of Light and Depth in the Visual World” November 29-December 29. Info, 899-3211. Emile A. Gruppe Gallery in Jericho.

CEILI SEIPKE: “Who Are You?” limited-edition photographs on fine-art paper with pencil detail. Through December 8. Info, 578-3829. Davis Studio in South Burlington.

stowe/smuggs

f BFA STUDENT EXHIBIT: Media arts major Jessica Skala and studio arts majors Auburn Little and Harrison Holmes show their work. Reception: Thursday, December 5, 3-5 p.m. December 2-13. Info, 635-1469. Julian Scott Memorial Gallery, Northern Vermont University, in Johnson.

‘JOEL BARBER & THE MODERN DECOY’: The first major exhibition to explore the life, collections and artwork of Barber (1876-1952), with objects including decoys, drawings, photographs and watercolor paintings from the museum’s collection. Through January 12. Info, 985-3346. Pizzagalli Center for Art and Education, Shelburne Museum.

mad river valley/waterbury

‘CELEBRATING THE SMALL: A GROUP SHOW’: Artworks in a variety of mediums that measure 10 by 10 inches or less, priced at no more than $100. November 30-December 24. Info, 244-7801. Axel’s Gallery & Frame Shop in Waterbury.

northeast kingdom

ANNUAL HOLIDAY FAIR: Member-artists offer cards, pottery, jewelry, ornaments and more for show and sale. November 29-January 4. Info, 748-0158. Northeast Kingdom Artisans Guild Backroom Gallery in St. Johnsbury.

ART EVENTS ARTHOUND GALLERY GRAND OPENING: The new art gallery featuring fine art and crafts by Vermont artists and artisans hosts an opening meet-theartists party and tree-lighting ceremony. ArtHound Gallery, Essex, Saturday, November 30, 4-7 p.m. Info, 622-4808. CAMBRIDGE SMALL BUSINESS SATURDAY FESTIVAL: Businesses throughout town open their doors with special offers and activities; artisan market at Visions of Vermont Art Galleries. Various Cambridge and Jeffersonville locations, Saturday, November 30, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Info, fdelia1348@gmail.com. HOLIDAY CERAMICS SALE BENEFIT: The 25th annual fundraiser for Vermont Foodbank and Operation Smile offers hand-built and wheel-thrown items made at a public Throw-a-Thon this fall and glazed and fired by students. Northern Vermont UniversityJohnson, Wednesday, December 4, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Info, 626-6459.

JUDITH LERNER: Vividly colored landscape paintings by the Vermont artist. Through December 20. Info, 660-8808. Dorset Street Dermatology in South Burlington.

‘Winter Is Here’ The title might be stating the obvious, but more than snow meets the eyes in this exhibition of photographs at Stowe’s Plate restaurant. Images

by Dorothy Koval, Orah Moore and Ross Connelly focus on patterns of light and shadow, the quietude and depth of the season. All three artists are members of the River Arts Photo Co-op in Morrisville. Plate patrons can contemplate their works over warming meals through April 23. Pictured: “Good Morning World” by Koval.

ONGOING SHOWS

Through December 24. Info, mel@burlingtontelecom. net. Flynndog Gallery in Burlington.

burlington

DAVID HOLUB: Digital illustrations that combine words, images, whimsy, heartbreak and humor. Through November 30. Info, 862-9647. The Daily Planet in Burlington.

ALEXEI DMITRIEV: Multimedia installation marrying footage from classic films with the new music of Zelany Rashoho. Through December 31. MARTIN SEEHUUS: “Far Away and Moving Very Fast,” paintings that focus on playful honesty. Through November 30. Info, 391-4083. The Gallery at Main Street Landing in Burlington. ART HOP JURIED SHOW: A group exhibition of works selected by a guest juror, with first, second and third prize winners. Open during Flynn performances or by appointment. Through November 30. Info, 652-4500. Amy E. Tarrant Gallery in Burlington.

MICHAEL ZEBROWSKI’S SATELLITE: An open house to view a prototype of the artist’s modular “nomadic/ relocatable architecture product.” Green Mountain Trailers, Morristown, Saturday, November 30, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Info, zebrowski@upendthis.com.

‘THE ART SHOW’: Artists bring one piece each to this non-juried monthly exhibition of work in a variety of mediums. Winner of people’s choice award takes home collected entry fees. Through November 30. Info, 540-3081. The Gallery at RL Photo in Burlington.

OPEN STUDIO FIGURE DRAWING: Sessions featuring a variety of approaches to working from the figure are suited to all levels of drawing, painting and sculpture backgrounds and expertise. Easels and tables available. River Arts, Morrisville, Tuesday, December 3, 3-5:30 p.m. $10. Info, 888-1261.

‘BE STRONG AND DO NOT BETRAY YOUR SOUL’: Photographs by 47 artists from the collection of Light Work, a nonprofit based in Syracuse, N.Y., that explore topics of politics, social justice, identity and visibility. ‘RESIST! INSIST! PERSIST!’: Curated by UVM students in a fall 2018 art history class, the exhibit draws works primarily from the museum’s collection to explore how historical and contemporary artists “have countered adversity and hardship with empowerment and expression.” Through December 13. Info, 656-0750. Fleming Museum of Art, University of Vermont, in Burlington.

PETER MILLER: Photographs of Vermont taken over 60 years, as well as autographed books of portraits and text about rural Vermonters by the award-winning photographer and author. Also open weekends and by appointment. Peter Miller Photography, Waterbury, Friday, November 29, 12:45-5:30 p.m. Info, 272-8851. TALK: ALISON BECHDEL: In “Graphic Novels to Watch Out For,” the renowned Vermont-based cartoonist and author illustrates the power of comics to confront today’s issues. Part of the Vermont Humanities Council’s First Wednesdays lecture series. Wilson Hall, McCullough Student Center, Middlebury College, Wednesday, December 4, 7 p.m. Free. Info, 262-1354.

‘CONTRAST’: A new exhibition by the Art Tribe — Melanie Brotz, Annie Caswell, LaVerne Ferguson, Kara Greenblott, Billie Miles, Lynne Reed, Kelley Taft and Beth Young — who are dedicated to supporting and encouraging each other in making art. Through December 27. Info, 598-7420. MELANIE BROTZ: “Visions of the Camino de Santiago,” a series of paintings inspired by the artist’s recent walk across Spain.

WOMEN’S FESTIVAL OF CRAFTS: The 30th annual exhibition and sale features work by more than 55 artisans in textiles, sculpture, jewelry, clothing, cards and much more. Burlington City Hall, Saturday, November 30, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., and Sunday, December 1, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Info, 264-9820.

SEVEN DAYS NOVEMBER 27-DECEMBER 4, 2019

VISUAL ART IN SEVEN DAYS:

JON OLSON & WOODY JACKSON: The November featured artists celebrate images of rural Vermont in black-and-white photographs, and colorful prints and paintings, respectively. Through November 30. Info, 863-6458. Frog Hollow Vermont Craft Gallery in Burlington. ‘MAKING, UNMAKING: THE MOON IS THE MOON’: Artists-in-residence Barbara and Norton Garber and core professors Veruska Cantelli and Flavio Rizzo explore the ancient art of haiku in words as well as visual imagery and sound. Through November 29. Info, 865-8980. Champlain College Art Gallery in Burlington. ‘TRANSCENDENT: SPIRITUALITY IN CONTEMPORARY ART’: A group exhibition of nationally recognized artists who explore or evoke themes of spirituality through their work, reflecting on questions of human nature, cultural identity and sanctity in everyday life. Artists include Anila Quayyam Agha, Leonardo Benzant, Maïmouna Guerresi, Shahzia Sikander, Zarina, and Vermontbased artists Sandy Sokoloff and Shelley Warren. ‘TRAVIS SHILLING: TYRANNOSAURUS CLAN’: The Canadian Ojibwe painter debuts a new series of work that explores the environmental impact of industry and the threat of extinction to the animal realm and indigenous culture. Through February 8. Info, 865-7166. BCA Center in Burlington. ‘WORD OF MOUTH’: In a solo exhibition, gallery director Christy Mitchell uses 1950s symbolism and imagery to comment on her own modern experience, including observations on how we communicate and what is shared through networks in small towns. Through November 30. Info, 578-2512. The S.P.A.C.E. Gallery in Burlington.

ART LISTINGS AND SPOTLIGHTS ARE WRITTEN BY PAMELA POLSTON. LISTINGS ARE RESTRICTED TO ART SHOWS IN TRULY PUBLIC PLACES.

NEIL DAVIS: Abstract-expressionist paintings by the Montpelier artist. Through November 30. Info, 4613629. Dorothy Alling Memorial Library in Williston.

barre/montpelier

‘200 YEARS—200 OBJECTS’: In the final celebratory year of the university’s bicentennial, the museum exhibits a curated selection of artifacts, documents and images from the school’s collections. Through December 21. Info, 485-2886. Sullivan Museum & History Center, Norwich University, in Northfield. ADELAIDE MURPHY TYROL: “Anatomy of a Pond,” acrylic paintings and drawings, including larger fine-art paintings and small natural history armature illustrations. Through December 31. Info, 229-6206. North Branch Nature Center in Montpelier. ‘CELEBRATE’: Three floors of fine art and crafts created by more than 80 SPA member artists, including decorative and functional items for the household, ornaments, jewelry, cards and more. Through December 27. MARK HEITZMAN: “Graphite,” an exhibit of 12 drawings on display in the Quick Change Gallery, a tiny white-box gallery in a repurposed telephone booth. Through December 6. Info, 479-7069. Studio Place Arts in Barre. CHRIS JEFFREY: Kinetic wall pieces that encourage the viewer to become involved in bringing the art to life, plus light boxes that seem to project colorful UV-lit structures into infinity. Through November 30. Info, 585-0867. Center for Arts and Learning in Montpelier. COREY HENDRICKSON: “Being There,” photographs exploring the lives of hospice caregivers, in conjunction with National Hospice & Palliative Care Month. Through November 30. Info, 224-2215. National Life Building in Montpelier. ELIZABETH NELSON: “Northward,” paintings by the Vermont artist. Curated by Studio Place Arts. Through December 14. Info, info@studioplacearts.com. Morse Block Deli & Taps in Barre. ELLIOT BURG AND ATHENA PETRA TASIOPOULOS: Photographs from the streets of Havana, Cuba, and mixed-media collages, respectively. Through January 3. Info, 262-6035. T.W. Wood Gallery in Montpelier. ‘I AM…: EXPLORING WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A VERMONT ARTIST’: More than 20 artists present 2D work, music and sound, spoken word, poetry, dance, and movement within a digital compilation. The exhibition is the culmination of a yearlong “I Am a Vermont Artist” e-newsletter series documenting how artists’ creative expressions reflect their experiences of ethnicity, gender identity, religion, disability or age. Through December 20. Info, 828-3291. Spotlight Gallery in Montpelier.

GET YOUR ART SHOW LISTED HERE!

IF YOU’RE PROMOTING AN ART EXHIBIT, LET US KNOW BY POSTING INFO AND IMAGES BY THURSDAYS AT NOON ON OUR FORM AT SEVENDAYSVT.COM/POSTEVENT OR GALLERIES@SEVENDAYSVT.COM.

ART SHOWS

JANIE COHEN: “Rogue Cloth Work,” hand-stitched pieces of old cloth combined and transformed into new textile assemblages with new contexts. Through December 27. Info, 828-0749. Vermont Supreme Court Gallery in Montpelier. ‘NORMAN ROCKWELL’S ARLINGTON: AMERICA’S HOME TOWN’: An exhibit chronicling Rockwell and other artists who lived in Arlington, as well as many local residents who posed for the scenes of everyday life they portrayed. A collaborative effort of the Canfield Gallery and the Russell Collection of Vermontiana. Through January 31. Info, 479-8500. Vermont History Museum in Montpelier. SHOW 35: Recent works by members of Montpelier’s sole collective art gallery. Through November 30. Info, info@thefrontvt.com. The Front in Montpelier. TIKI AMBER MEAKER WARD: Abstract and representational paintings by the local artist, created over the past year while battling a rare and aggressive cancer. Through December 1. Info, 505-0039. City Center in Montpelier.

stowe/smuggs

BRIAN FEKETE: “Quixotica,” an exhibition of five large-scale oil paintings on canvas that explore abstraction, gesture and color. Through December 20. Info, 881-0418. 571 Projects in Stowe. HEARTBEET LIFESHARING FIBER ARTS: Collaborative works of fiber artists and the therapeutic woodworking studio at the lifesharing communities in Hardwick and Craftsbury that include adults with developmental disabilities. JENNIFER HUBBARD: “The View From Here,” landscape paintings featuring scenes from Lamoille and Orleans counties. Through December 27. Info, 888-1261. River Arts in Morrisville.

f MEMBERS’ ART SHOW & SALE AND FESTIVAL OF TREES & LIGHT: Elena Rosen and Alexa Sherrill

Untitled-12 1

curated an exhibit of works by gallery member artists. Also on view are evergreen trees decorated with ornaments handmade by master artisans and a Hanukkah display of menorahs, games and dreidels. Reception: Friday, December 6, 5-7 p.m., with music from Stowe Elementary School Chorus, refreshments, hands-on activities and a hors d’oeuvres from local restaurants. Through December 28. Info, 253-8358. Helen Day Art Center in Stowe. ‘WINTER IS HERE’: Photographs of the season by Orah Moore, Dorothy Koval and Ross Connelly, members of the River Arts Photo Co-op in Morrisville. Through April 23. Info, 253-2691. Plate in Stowe.

mad river valley/waterbury

2019 ANNUAL PHOTOGRAPHY SHOOT-OUT: A group photo exhibition on the theme of trees of Vermont. This year’s winners are Orah Moore, first place; Mitch Moraski, second; and Jonathan Hart, people’s choice. Through November 27. Info, 244-7801. Axel’s Gallery & Frame Shop in Waterbury. ‘BOLD AND BEAUTIFUL’: Juried paintings by members of the Vermont Watercolor Society illustrate diverse styles and techniques. Through December 21. Info, 496-6682. Vermont Festival of the Arts Gallery in Waitsfield. JANE BRIGGS & LEE YOUNGMAN: Hand-knit shawls by the co-owners of Waterbury’s Yarn, for display and sale. Through December 20. MIMI CLARK: “The Summer of 2018,” watercolor paintings that depict life around the Winooski River. Through December 31. Info, 244-7036. Waterbury Public Library.

middlebury area

12TH ANNUAL HOLIDAY SHOW: Original, handmade and hand-printed art and fine crafts from 25 regional artists, including pastel drawings by Judy Albright, woodblock prints by Ray Hudson, bee quilts by

Hope Johnson and more. Through December 31. 802-382-9222. Jackson Gallery, Town Hall Theater, in Middlebury. ‘CEMETERIES OF ADDISON COUNTY’: Photography by Kathryn Wyatt that portrays the quiet beauty of local cemeteries through an artistic lens. Through November 30. Info, 349-0991. Lincoln Library. ‘CONJURING THE DEAD: SPIRIT ART IN THE AGE OF RADICAL REFORM’: Photographs and original drawings acquired by Solomon Wright Jewett (1808-94), a Vermont farmer, legislator and spiritualist who claimed supernatural powers, including bringing back the deceased. DANA SIMSON: “The animals are innocent,” mixed-media/ceramic sculptures and paintings featuring animals that address loss of habitat and food sources, among other perils. Through January 11. Info, 388-2117. Henry Sheldon Museum of Vermont History in Middlebury. CORRINE YONCE: “Somewhere Between Place and Home,” a multimedia exploration of three projects by the community organizer, artist and documentarian that considers what it means when one’s primary residence is something other than fully home. Through February 29. Info, 388-4964. Vermont Folklife Center in Middlebury. HOLIDAY MARKET AT THE FALLS: Original and affordable works of art in photography, ceramics, painting, glassware and jewelry. Through November 30. Info, 458-0098. Edgewater Gallery at Middlebury Falls. ‘MORE LIGHT 2019’: The gallery’s fourth annual small works show, featuring new art by Bonnie Baird, Brenda Myrick, Anne Cady, Hannah Sessions, Pamela Smith and Reid Boehner in a range of media, including English porcelain, watercolor and oil painting. Through December 29. Info, 877-2173. Northern Daughters in Vergennes.

MUSEUMLAB: A diverse array of pieces from the museum’s collection selected by professors from a variety of disciplines; visitors are invited to observe the reactions sparked when this “teaching laboratory” displays art supporting various college courses. Through December 8. Info, 443-5258. Middlebury College Museum of Art. SMALL WORKS: A curated exhibition of new and favorite small-scale works by the gallery’s established and emerging artists. Through December 31. Info, 458-0098. Edgewater Gallery on the Green in Middlebury. ‘VOTES … FOR WOMEN?’: An exhibition of vintage photographs, banners and memorabilia that coincides with the 100th anniversary of the campaign to ratify the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920. Through December 8. Info, 443-6433. Johnson Memorial Building, Middlebury College. ‘WOMEN AT WORK’: Photographic images that celebrate women’s labor, broadly defined. Juried by Amy Toensing. Through November 30. Info, 388-4500. PhotoPlace Gallery in Middlebury.

rutland/killington

‘CELEBRATE WITH ART’: All-member, all-media holiday gift show. Also, the debut of three new artist-members: Catherine Palmer (colored pencil), Winslow Colwell (photography on kite forms) and Michael DiMeola (photography). Through January 28. Info, 247-4956. Brandon Artists Guild. DONA ANN MCADAMS: Acclaimed Vermont photographer and activist Dona Ann McAdams’ expansive oeuvre features historic black-and-white portraits of avant-garde performers, pioneers of

RUTLAND/KILLINGTON SHOWS

SEVEN DAYS NOVEMBER 27-DECEMBER 4, 2019

» P.82

11/25/19 10:43 AM

art RUTLAND/KILLINGTON SHOWS

« P.81

‘More Light’ Small Is Beautiful: A Study of Economics As If People Mattered,

queer liberation, portraits of people living with schizophrenia, Appalachian farmers, cloistered nuns, race track workers and luminous images of horses, oxen and goats. Through January 4. Info, 579-9501. Castleton University Bank Gallery in Rutland.

a book by British economist E.F. Schumacher, was published in 1973. But the title

SANDY MAYO: “On the Surface,” a solo exhibition of mixed-media paintings by the local artist. Through January 20. Info, the77gallery@gmail.com. B&G Gallery in Rutland.

Daughters supports

‘SEASON OF GIVING’: A holiday show featuring gift-able works by gallery members in a variety of mediums. Through January 3. Info, 775-0356. Chaffee Art Center in Rutland.

upper valley

COLEEN O’CONNELL: “Feathers, Ferns and Fish,” prints using a variety of techniques by the ecologically minded local artist. JENNA RICE: “Guitar Tattoos,” pyrographic artwork on musical instruments by the Weathersfield artist and musician. Through December 31. Info, 295-4567. Long River Gallery & Gifts in White River Junction. ‘ELEMENTS OF GLASS: FROM THE WORKSHOP OF SIMON PEARCE’: A collaborative exhibition with the renowned Vermont glassmaker explores the transformation from sand to glass, from design to finished product. Through March 31. Info, 649-2200. Montshire Museum of Science in Norwich. MYRA MUSGROVE: “Say Nice Things to Me,” acrylic paintings by the Brooklyn artist that “dissect an affair.” Through December 5. Info, 295-0808. Scavenger Gallery in White River Junction. SONJA OLSON: Paintings and drawings of Rajput Indian imagery. Through December 31. Info, 4572295. Norman Williams Public Library in Woodstock. WENDY KLEMPERER, MIRANDA THOMAS & JACKIE PADICH: Paintings and sculpture that incorporate natural imagery. Through January 5. Info, 359-5000. Vermont Institute of Natural Science Nature Center in Quechee.

northeast kingdom

THE 99 FACES PROJECT: Photographic portraits, without labels, featuring people on the bipolar or schizophrenia spectrum and those who love them. Through March 2. Info, 748-7313. Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital in St. Johnsbury.

catchphrase continues to resonate more than 40 years later, even if the book’s thesis has not. Northern the scaled-down idea with art, the Vergennes gallery’s fourth annual small works show. Opened last week for the holiday season, it features paintings — some could fit in stockings! — by Anne Cady, Hannah Sessions, Bonnie Baird, Brenda Myrick, Pamela Smith and Reid Brechner. “More Light” is on view through December 29. Pictured: a portrait by Smith.

‘COME TOGETHER’: Paintings, digital work, photography, prints and more by Northern Vermont University art faculty. Through January 18. Info, 626-6459. Quimby Gallery, Northern Vermont University-Lyndon, in Lyndonville.

21ST ANNUAL GINGERBREAD HOUSE COMPETITION AND EXHIBITION: This year’s theme is “Christmas at Hogwarts Castle.” Registration forms due November 27; creation drop-off December 3 or 4, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Vermont Folklife Center, Middlebury. Info, 388-4964, vermontfolklifecenter.org. ‘THE ART SHOW’: All sizes and mediums of artwork accepted, one piece per artist, to this monthly non-juried exhibition. $10 cash entry fee. Drop-off time for artwork is every First Friday of the month from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Opening reception is 6-9 p.m., with people’s choice awarded a mini-grant. The Gallery at RL Photo, Burlington. Info, 540-3081, publicartschool@gmail.com. BOAT SAIL DESIGN: The Lake Champlain Basin Program is seeking an artist to design a boat sail with artwork related to aquatic invasive species to help draw the public’s attention to preventing their spread. It will be incorporated into the fleet at the Community Sailing Center in Burlington in 2020. Up to $2,500 available. Deadline: January 7. Lake Champlain Basin Program Office, Grand Isle. Info, 372-3213, lcbp.org/grants. CALL FOR MURAL ARTISTS: Axel’s Gallery & Frame Shop requests proposals from experienced muralists for a high-impact public art opportunity that will be developed in two phases: sketch and execution. Design must incorporate a phoenix. Mural location: alley

SEVEN DAYS NOVEMBER 27-DECEMBER 4, 2019

ROBERT MALLORY KLEIN: “The Character of the Kingdom,” paintings of the villages and hamlets of the Northeast Kingdom by the retired diplomat turned artist. Through December 22. Info, 533-9075. Highland Center for the Arts in Greensboro. ‘WINDOWS FROM THE OLD BARN’: Framed paintings of farm and wild animals on barn windows. Through December 3. Info, 525-3366. Parker Pie Co. in West Glover.

as evidenced by

CALL TO ARTISTS

‘THE PIVOT AND THE BLADE: AN INTIMATE GLANCE AT SCISSORS’: A collection of objects that conveys the long human relationship to scissors and explores their design and myriad professional, creative, superstitious, violent and domestic uses. Through December 31. Info, 626-4409. The Museum of Everyday Life in Glover.

at 5 Stowe Street in Waterbury. Prize for winning preliminary sketch: $750. Email proposal to info@axelsgallery.com. Subject line: 2019 Mural Submission (your first and last name). Deadline: December 15. Axel’s Gallery & Frame Shop, Waterbury. Info, 244-7801. CALL TO ARTISTS: ‘QUIET TIME’: Established and emerging artists are invited to submit one or two pieces of artwork on the theme “Quiet Time” in any medium; must be ready to hang. Exhibition will be January through April. Deadline: December 20. Jericho Town Hall. Info, catherine.mcmains@gmail.com, jerichovt.org. CALL TO ARTISTS: THE PARADE IS COMING!: This show (July 7-August 22) includes work in a variety of mediums and installations that depict the excitement, content and colors associated with parades, as well as more solemn processions and marches. In addition to works on the walls, we’ll assemble a parade involving a group of artists’ sculptural works. Deadline: April 24. Studio Place Arts, Barre. $10; free for SPA members. Info, 479-7069, studioplacearts.com. ECOSYSTEM SERVICES THROUGH AN ARTIST’S EYE: The Orleans County Natural Resources Conservation District and the Memphremagog Arts Collective are looking for artists of all types to submit work around the theme of ecosystem services and agriculture. The juried exhibition will open on April 3 at the MAC Center for the Arts in downtown Newport. Deadline: December 31. Memphremagog Arts Collaborative, Newport. Free. Info, 624-7022, vacd.org/ conservation-districts/orleans-county, emily.irwin@vt.nacdnet.net.

brattleboro/okemo valley

‘ALCHEMY: METAL, MYSTERY AND MAGIC’: A group show featuring sculptures and painting by Jeanne Carbonetti, Sabrina Fadial, Alexandra Heller, Peter Heller, Pat Musick, Dan O’Donnell, Gerald Stoner and Johny Swing. Through February 29. Info, 258-3992. The Great Hall in Springfield. DOUG TRUMP: “By Rail,” 12 oil and mixed-media works on repurposed wood. Through February 9. FAFNIR ADAMITES: “Interfere (with),” a sculptural installation created with felted wool and burlap that focuses on intergenerational trauma and generational emotional turmoil. Through March 7. GORDON MEINHARD: “The Lives of Tables,” modernist still life paintings of tables that appear to become more animated as the series progresses, by the cofounder of the museum. Through March 7. MARÍA ELENA GONZÀLEZ: “Tree Talk,” an installation that uses rubbings and tracings of birch bark as templates for laser-cutting paper piano rolls. Through February 9. THELMA APPEL: “Observed/Abstract,” a survey of the career of a cofounder of the Bennington College Summer Painting Workshop, whose work now centers on the tarot. Through February 9. Info, 257-0124. Brattleboro Museum & Art Center. ‘MADE IN VERMONT’: A group exhibition of new and recently completed work by Vermont artists, including paintings, works on paper and sculpture by Arista Alanis, Steve Budington, Clark Derbes, Jason Galligan-Baldwin and Sarah Letteney. MALCOLM MORLEY: Approximately 40 paintings, sculptures and works on paper created between 1964 and 2016 by the British-born American artist and founder of super-realism. RICHARD ARTSCHWAGER: Some 40 paintings, sculptures and works on paper that reference everyday objects, symbols, people and places, often made from unconventional and industrial materials. The American painter, sculptor and draftsman died in 2011. Through December 1. Info, 952-1056. Hall Art Foundation in Reading.

PROFESSIONAL MURALIST WANTED: The Morrisville Alliance for Culture & Commerce is seeking to engage the services of a professional artist to create a mural that is artsy, welcoming and represents downtown Morrisville. The three 4-by-8-foot panels will be installed on the Portland Street side of the Green Dragon building; plywood and installation provided. Stipend: $2,500. Email proposals to heidi@ riverartsvt.org by December 15. Morrisville. Info, 888-1261. SEEKING VOLUNTEER MURALISTS: Nonprofit Arts So Wonderful is looking for artists to help paint murals at its gallery in the lower level of CityPlace Burlington, across from L.L.Bean. Paint provided. Participating artists can show and sell their own work in the gallery for free. Deadline: December 15. ASW Art Gallery, Burlington. Info, artssowonderful2@gmail.com. VILLAGE HEALTH GRAND OPENING ART CONTEST: Professionals, amateurs, adults and children, including groups, are invited to submit work in all mediums for display. Send digital submission by November 30 to info@villagehealthvt.com. Cash prizes. Rules and entry forms at villagehealthvt.com. Village Health, Middlebury. Free. Info, 382-9491. VOICING ART EKPHRASTIC POETRY READING SERIES: Calling for submissions of original poetry written by all ages and experience levels in response to current exhibit “Contrast!” by the Art Tribe, or other art of the writer’s choice, for December 14 Voicing Art Poetry Reading. Deadline: December 13. Flynndog Gallery, Burlington. Free. Info, poartryproject@gmail.com, poarty.org/voicing-art.

ART SHOWS

Advance Your Career

manchester/bennington

‘VISIBLE IN VERMONT: OUR STORIES, OUR VOICES’: A multigenerational photo and story exhibition highlighting the experiences of people of color living in or attending school in Vermont. ASA CHEFFETZ: VERMONT WOOD ENGRAVINGS: Works by the late printmaker (1896-1965). Through December 30. Info, 447-1571. Bennington Museum. ‘WHERE THE SUN CASTS NO SHADOW’: “Postcards From the Creative Crossroads of Quito, Ecuador,” featuring in-camera collage works by Stephen and Eve Schaub, murals by Mo Vàsquez, documentary photographs by PLAYhouse in Quito, poetry by María Clara Sharupi Jua, and art from Quito’s El Club de Collage, curated by Ric Kasini Kadour. Through November 30. Info, 362-1405. Elizabeth de C. Wilson Museum, Southern Vermont Arts Center, in Manchester.

with Saint Michael’s College Graduate Programs

randolph/royalton

18TH ANNUAL ARTISANS HOLIDAY MARKET: Fine art, crafts and products created by area artisans and local food producers. Through December 28. Info, 728-9878. Chandler Gallery in Randolph. JORDAN LAURA MCLACHLAN & MORTON BARTLETT: “Family Matters,” a special exhibition of outsider art, in association with Marion Harris Gallery in New York City. Through February 29. Info, 767-9670. BigTown Gallery in Rochester. KATE EMLEN: “Breathe the Wind,” paintings large and small, inspired from immersion in nature. Through December 20. Info, 498-8438. White River Gallery in South Royalton. KATE REEVES: “My Winter World,” a solo show of acrylic and watercolor paintings by the Barnard artist. Through February 18. Info, 889-9404. Tunbridge Public Library.

outside vermont

ALAIN PAIEMENT: “Bleu de Bleu,” 32 videographic, photographic and sculptural elements that document the artist’s public-art installation between Trudeau International Airport and downtown Montréal. FRANCIS ALYS: “Children’s Games,” a collection of 20 short videos of children at play around the world. GISELE AMANTEA: Ink-jet prints that combine photographic documentation of the MAC Rotunda with drawings inspired by Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s 18th-century etchings. JANET WERNER: A survey of the last decade of “fictional portraits” by the renowned Montréal painter. f LUIS JACOB & SERGE TOUSIGNANT: “Je vois ce que tu regardes,” images and sculptures by the Canadian artists that, respectively, encourage viewers to contemplate and reconstruct relationships or act directly on viewers’ experience of the exhibition space. Gallery tour with curator Mark Lanctôt and Serge Tousignant: Wednesday, December 4, 6 p.m. (in French). WILLIAM KENTRIDGE: Two short animated films, “Secondhand Reading” and “Learning the Flute,” by the South African artist, who is known for philosophical reflections on time, violence and resilience in the context of colonialism and revolutionary politics. Through January 5. Info, 514-847-6226. Montréal Museum of Contemporary Art. AQUARELLE ARTISTS: Watercolor batiks by members of the local artist group. MARILYN KRETSER: Watercolors by the featured local artist in the Community Gallery. Through November 30. Info, 518-563-1604. Strand Center for the Arts in Plattsburgh, N.Y. ‘EGYPTIAN MUMMIES: EXPLORING ANCIENT LIVES’: An international exhibition created by the British Museum combines arts and science to tell the stories of six people who lived along the Nile in ancient times. Through February 2. Info, 514-285-2000. Montréal Museum of Fine Arts. MARGARET DWYER: The AVA watercolor instructor and studio tenant showcases her multimedia artwork in the Carter-Kelsey building lobby. MEMBERS’ GALLERY EXHIBITION: An inaugural display of artwork by AVA members. Through December 28. Info, 603-448-3117. AVA Gallery and Art Center in Lebanon, N.H. m

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SEVEN DAYS NOVEMBER 27-DECEMBER 4, 2019

11/4/19 11:20 AM

movies A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood ★★★★

here are only a handful of actors whom it’s impossible to imagine playing a movie superhero. Surely, Tom Hanks is foremost among these. He may have played Walt Disney in 2013’s Saving Mr. Banks, but the idea of him as a Marvel character is unthinkable. The funny thing is that the new film from Can You Ever Forgive Me? director Marielle Heller comes astonishingly close to giving Hanks a role in much the same spirit. Instead of tights and a cape, though, his uniform consists of a cardigan and sneakers. Merriam-Webster defines a superhero as “a fictional hero having extraordinary or superhuman powers; also: an exceptionally skillful or successful person.” Mister Rogers was a hero to viewers of his long-running PBS children’s program, but he wasn’t precisely fictional. The character who hosted the show appears to have been a concentrated version of the person Fred Rogers was in real life — and, clearly, that person was exceptionally skillful and successful. This is the second movie about Rogers in as many years, following Morgan Neville’s documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor? As channeled by the two-time Oscar winner in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Rogers also possesses extraordinary, essentially superhuman powers. He has, for example, a sort of

REVIEWS

X-ray vision that enables him to see through the cynical front affected by Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys), a journalist sent to profile him. Faster than a speeding bullet, Rogers spots the traumatized child inside the writer and sets in motion a process calculated to heal his spirit, salvage his marriage and generally save his life. That fantastical undertaking is the real subject of Heller’s film. Which, by the way, is the furthest thing imaginable from a biopic. If anyone has an origin story here, it’s Lloyd. As the movie begins, Rogers is already world famous and getting on in years. Writers Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster alchemize a 1998 Esquire piece by Tom Junod into a fusion of melodrama and magic realism. What they try to do, I think, is suggest how it must have felt to be drawn into Rogers’ aura and reborn. One minute, the interviewer is asking his subject questions only to find them deflected back on himself. The next, he’s driving down the miniature streets of the Neighborhood of Make-Believe and strolling through the castle of King Friday XIII. Along the way, the former minister gently extracts the childhood memories at the root of the writer’s pain. The story shouldn’t work. It’s the definition of sap. Lloyd’s old man (Chris Cooper) was a philandering lush who walked out on Lloyd’s dying mother. Now he’s back and looking for forgiveness. Lloyd rebuffs the guy when he knocks at his door. Of course, it turns out Dad is knocking

JOLLY ROGERS Hanks does an almost otherworldly job of channeling the gentle, genial icon.

on death’s door, as well. Take a wild guess on whether father and son bury the hatchet with a little help from their new friend. It shouldn’t work. But it does. That’s only because Rogers was such an extraordinary human being — preternaturally serene, compassionate and wise — and Hanks does such an extraordinary job of capturing his essence. It’s impossible to imagine another per-

former pulling this off. The actor singlehandedly supplies the film’s emotional voltage. Take him out of the picture, and all you’d have left is a weird Lifetime movie. No, Hanks probably won’t ever play a Marvel character, but the magic he summons to resurrect Fred Rogers is the closest thing you’re likely to see to a real-life superpower.

toning for colonialism. Promoting environmental stewardship. Being hip and self-aware. Inserting a whole new backstory. Making toes tap and hearts swell with catchy musical numbers. Not pissing off the multitudes who feel deeply invested in all things Frozen. Selling millions of dollars’ worth of Disney merchandise. These are some of the goals that Frozen II sets out to accomplish in 103 minutes. Of course it doesn’t succeed. In particular, viewers can be forgiven for barely registering the parable of colonial exploitation that flashes by in the last half hour, given that it consists of awkward exposition by screenwriter Jennifer Lee (who codirected with Chris Buck) and her writing team. Yet it’s hard to ignore that the sequel to the VISION QUEST While it has more to say than it succeeds in showing, Disney’s animated sequel is still a lot of fun. 2013 animated mega-hit is a weirdly ambitious film, struggling to cater to very young Disney fans, their parents and the Tumblr ters set off on a quest to the Enchanted For- smart-mouthed preteen. (It’s worth staying demographic. And when it lands — particu- est, inhabited by the mysterious Northuldra to the end of the credits to hear his synopsis of what we just watched.) larly in a few high-octane musical numbers tribe, to address the magical unrest. The visual textures of the Frozen world This quest hinges on a new backstory — it really lands. Queen Elsa of Arendelle (voice of Idina for Anna and Elsa’s deceased parents (Evan remain sumptuous, from the jewel-toned Menzel), Frozen’s icon for introverts and Rachel Wood and Alfred Molina), which forest to the foamy ocean waves that Elsa misfits of all kinds, has found a pleasant mutates as the sisters progress into the lush, confronts in a breathtaking sequence. None equilibrium living with her more gregarious scarlet-leaved autumn forest. Meanwhile, of the songs, again by Kristen Andersonsister, Anna (Kristen Bell). But an unearthly Kristoff (Jonathan Groff ) is on his own quest Lopez and Robert Lopez, is likely to achieve voice keeps calling Elsa “Into the Unknown” for the perfect marriage proposal for Anna, the ubiquity of Frozen’s “Let It Go.” But in the film’s striking signature ballad. After and enchanted snowman Olaf (Josh Gad) they run an entertaining gamut, from Olaf ’s elemental spirits invade Arendelle, the sis- has grown from a slapstick-prone kid into a swingy vaudeville numbers to Kristoff ’s 84 SEVEN DAYS NOVEMBER 27-DECEMBER 4, 2019

’80s-style power ballad (complete with parodic visuals) to Anna’s “The Next Right Thing,” a song about doing what needs doing in the moment, even when the big picture looks hopeless. That last song packs an emotional wallop — maybe it’s the times we’re in. But how does Anna know what needs doing at this moment in the story? Rather than plant the seeds of knowledge early on, so that Anna can reach a full-blown revelation at the same instant the audience does, Lee transplants a handy history lesson by means of magic. As a result, the movie’s efforts to be “woke” — to show how the sins of the past shape the present — feel like a well-intentioned footnote rather than the organic resolution the story needs. In a genre where fan service is often the top priority and repetition is safer than innovation, one has to admire the filmmakers’ fumbling efforts to dramatize inconvenient truths. Overall, Frozen II is a bit of a mess. Its world building needs another few drafts, and it keeps introducing promising new human characters and magical critters only to shove them aside. As Elsa and all creators know, a towering ice palace cannot stand on a shaky foundation. But the beating heart inside this one is intact.

Frozen II ★★★★

RI C K KI S O N AK

MARGO T HARRI S O N

MOVIE CLIPS

NEW IN THEATERS 21 BRIDGES: While a manhunt locks down the entire island of Manhattan, an NYPD detective (Chadwick Boseman) discovers a conspiracy among his colleagues in this crime drama. With J.K. Simmons and Sienna Miller. Brian Kirk (Middletown) directed. (99 min, R. Paramount) KNIVES OUT: Daniel Craig plays a detective investigating the death of a crime novelist in writer-director Rian Johnson’s dark comic riff on Agatha Christie-style mysteries. The all-star cast includes Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson and Toni Collette. (130 min, PG-13. Bijou, Capitol, Essex, Majestic, Palace, Roxy, Stowe, Welden) QUEEN & SLIM: A couple’s first date turns into a desperate run from the law after a routine traffic stop goes wrong in this drama from director Melina Matsoukas (“Insecure”). Daniel Kaluuya, Jodie Turner-Smith and Chloë Sevigny star. (132 min, R. Roxy)

NOW PLAYING ABOMINABLEHHH1/2 Lost in Shanghai, a young yeti needs help to return to his Everest home in this DreamWorks animated adventure. Jill Culton (Open Season) directed. With the voices of Chloe Bennet, Albert Tsai and Eddie Izzard. (97 min, PG; reviewed by M.H. 10/2) A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD: A cynical journalist (Matthew Rhys) learns lessons from children’s TV pioneer Fred Rogers (Tom Hanks) in this fact-based drama. Marielle Heller (Can You Ever Forgive Me?) directed. (108 min, PG; reviewed by R.K. 11/27)

ratings

H = refund, please HH = could’ve been worse, but not a lot HHH = has its moments; so-so HHHH = smarter than the average bear HHHHH = as good as it gets RATINGS ASSIGNED TO MOVIES NOT REVIEWED BY RICK KISONAK OR MARGOT HARRISON ARE COURTESY OF METACRITIC.COM, WHICH AVERAGES SCORES GIVEN BY THE COUNTRY’S MOST WIDELY READ MOVIE REVIEWERS.

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Queen & Slim

CHARLIE’S ANGELSHH1/2 The babes-beating-badguys action franchise returns in an apparent feminist reboot directed and cowritten by Elizabeth Banks, who also plays Bosley. Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott and Ella Balinska are the Angels. (118 min, PG-13) DOCTOR SLEEPHHH In this adaptation of Stephen King’s sequel to The Shining, grown-up Danny Torrance (Ewan McGregor) tries to protect a girl with powers similar to his own from a cult. With Rebecca Ferguson. Mike Flanagan (Gerald’s Game) directed. (151 min, R) FORD V FERRARIHHHH Matt Damon and Christian Bale play the team behind the Ford race car that challenged the Ferrari at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1966. James Mangold (Logan) directed the fact-based drama, also starring Catriona Balfe and Jon Bernthal. (152 min, PG-13) FROZEN IIHHH1/2 Royal sisters Anna and Elsa must find the source of Elsa’s icy powers to save their kingdom in the sequel to Disney’s animated mega-hit. With the voices of Kristen Bell, Jonathan Groff and Idina Menzel. Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee again directed. (103 min, PG; reviewed by M.H. 11/27) THE GOOD LIARHHH A con man (Ian McKellen) finds himself falling for his rich mark (Helen Mirren) in this thriller-ish drama directed by Bill Conden (Mr. Holmes). With Russell Tovey. (109 min, R; reviewed by M.H. 11/20)

HARRIETHHH1/2 Cynthia Erivo portrays Harriet Tubman, who escaped from slavery to become an activist and organizer of the Underground Railroad, in this biopic directed by Kasi Lemmons (Eve’s Bayou). With Leslie Odom Jr. and Joe Alwyn. (125 min, PG-13)

THE LIGHTHOUSEHHHH Robert Eggers (The Witch) directed this critically acclaimed, reputedly trippy tale in which Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson play the keepers of a remote lighthouse in the 1890s. (109 min, R; reviewed by M.H. 11/6)

THE IRISHMANHHHH1/2 Retired labor union official Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro) remembers his past as a hitman — and his role in the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino) — in this crime drama from Martin Scorsese, also starring Anna Paquin, Jesse Plemons and Joe Pesci. (209 min, R) JOJO RABBITHHHH Everybody has an opinion on this anti-Nazi satire from Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok), in which a young follower of Hitler (Roman Griffin Davis) makes discoveries that change his world. With Thomasin McKenzie, Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell and Rebel Wilson. (108 min, PG-13; reviewed by R.K. 11/13) LAST CHRISTMASHH1/2 In this holiday rom com, a young woman (Emilia Clarke) with darkness in her past meets her new beau while playing a department-store Santa’s elf. With Henry Golding and Emma Thompson. Paul Feig (A Simple Favor) directed. (102 min, PG-13)

MIDWAYHH1/2 Director Roland Emmerich (Independence Day: Resurgence) transports audiences to a key World War II battle for control of the Pacific in this drama starring Woody Harrelson, Ed Skrein, Patrick Wilson and Dennis Quaid. (138 min, PG-13) PAIN & GLORYHHH1/2 In Pedro Almodóvar’s semi-autobiographical drama, a film director recalls his origins while struggling with his failing health. With Antonio Banderas, Asier Etxeandia, Julieta Serrano and Penélope Cruz. (113 min, R; reviewed by M.H. 11/13) PARASITEHHH An unemployed family finds plenty to do — and money to be made — in an affluent home in this satirical drama from Bong Joon Ho (Snowpiercer), which won the Palme d’or at the Cannes Film Festival. With Kang-ho Song and Yeo-jeong Jo. (132 min, R; reviewed by R.K. 11/6) PLAYING WITH FIREH Rescuing three boisterous kids is a tough job even for fearless firefighters in this family comedy. Judy Greer, Keegan-Michael Key and John Cena star. Andy Fickman (Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2) directed. (96 min, PG)

SEVEN DAYS NOVEMBER 27-DECEMBER 4, 2019

11/14/19 10:58 AM

movies

LOCALtheaters (*) = NEW THIS WEEK IN VERMONT.

BETHEL DRIVE-IN

MAJESTIC 10

36 Bethel Drive, Bethel, betheldrivein.com

190 Boxwood St. (Maple Tree Place, Taft Corners), Williston, 878-2010, majestic10.com

Closed for the season.

wednesday 27 — wednesday 4 Abominable (Wed 27 through Sun only) A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood Charlie’s Angels Doctor Sleep Ford v Ferrari Frozen II The Good Liar *Knives Out Last Christmas Midway Playing With Fire

BIG PICTURE THEATER

48 Carroll Rd. (off Route 100), Waitsfield, 496-8994, bigpicturetheater.info

wednesday 27 & friday 29 — sunday 1 Charlie’s Angels Frozen II Closed Thursday 28. Rest of schedule not available at press time.

BIJOU CINEPLEX 4

MARQUIS THEATRE

Route 100, Morrisville, 888-3293, bijou4.com

65 Main St., Middlebury, 388-4841, middleburymarquis.com

wednesday 27 — tuesday 3 Ford v Ferrari Frozen II *Knives Out Last Christmas (except Mon & Tue)

CAPITOL SHOWPLACE

93 State St., Montpelier, 229-0343, fgbtheaters.com

wednesday 27 & friday 29 — thursday 5

PARAMOUNT TWIN CINEMA

Ford v Ferrari Frozen II

wednesday 27 — wednesday 4

Open-caption screenings on Wednesdays (first evening show) and Sundays (first matinee).

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood Ford v Ferrari Frozen II (2D; 3D Sat only) The Good Liar (except Mon & Wed 4) *Knives Out Last Christmas (except Tue)

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood Harriet The Irishman Jojo Rabbit *Knives Out *Queen & Slim

Open-caption screenings on Wednesdays (first evening show) and Sundays (first matinee).

No first matinee on Thursday 28.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood Charlie’s Angels Ford v Ferrari Frozen II (2D & 3D) The Good Liar The Irishman *Knives Out Last Christmas Midway **When Harry Met Sally… 30th Anniversary (Sun & Tue only)

wednesday 27 — sunday 1

SUNSET DRIVE-IN

THE SAVOY THEATER

155 Porters Point Rd., Colchester, 862-1800, sunsetdrivein.com

Jojo Rabbit Parasite Closed Thursday 28.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood Charlie’s Angels Ford v Ferrari Frozen II The Good Liar The Irishman *Knives Out Last Christmas **Le Cirque Alis (Sun only) Midway

Closed for the season.

26 Main St., Montpelier, 229-0598, savoytheater.com

wednesday 27

wednesday 27 — sunday 1

friday 29 — thursday 5

WELDEN THEATRE 104 N. Main St., St. Albans, 527-7888, weldentheatre.com

wednesday 27 — thursday 5 Ford v Ferrari Frozen II *Knives Out (except Wed 4)

Jojo Rabbit Pain & Glory Open-caption screenings on main screen on Mondays.

LOOK UP SHOWTIMES ON YOUR PHONE!

No first matinee on Thursday 28. Rest of schedule not available at press time.

SEVEN DAYS NOVEMBER 27-DECEMBER 4, 2019

4H-Stuck112719.indd 1

Rest of schedule not available at press time.

Closed on Monday and Tuesday.

10 Fayette Dr., South Burlington, 864-5610, palace9.com

Watch at sevendaysvt.com

Closed Thursday 28.

PLAYHOUSE MOVIE THEATRE Frozen II

PALACE 9 CINEMAS

...AND LOVIN’ IT!

Ford v Ferrari Frozen II (2D & 3D) *Knives Out

11 S. Main St., Randolph, 728-4012, playhouseflicks.com

Rest of schedule not available at press time.

Eva Sollberger’s

wednesday 27 & friday 29 — sunday 1

MERRILL’S ROXY CINEMAS wednesday 27 — sunday 1

wednesday 27 — wednesday 4

454 Mountain Rd., Stowe, 253-4678, stowecinema.com

*21 Bridges Frozen II

222 College St., Burlington, 864-3456, merrilltheatres.net

ESSEX CINEMAS & T-REX THEATER

STOWE CINEMA 3 PLEX

241 N. Main St., Barre, 479-9621, fgbtheaters.com

Closed Thursday 28.

wednesday 27 — wednesday 4

21 Essex Way, Suite 300, Essex, 879-6543, essexcinemas.com

Knives Out

N E W VI D E O !

GO TO SEVENDAYSVT.COM ON ANY SMARTPHONE FOR FREE, UP-TO-THE-MINUTE MOVIE SHOWTIMES, PLUS NEARBY RESTAURANTS, CLUB DATES, EVENTS AND MORE.