The Home & Garden Issue
Pros and Cons of Leasing Property; A First-Time Gardener Goes Container; Female Chefs Turn Up the Heat in VT; Is Banning Offenders From Church Street Unconstitutional?
Cover Stories
Assessing the Risks and Rewards of Buying a Home on Leased Land
“What is the value of the left-hand member of a pair of $4 gloves?” That’s how Chittenden Superior Court Judge Geoffrey Crawford characterized a 2011…
A Writer Builds a Container Garden on a Budget
It was a problem of overcrowding: Too many beanstalks were jostling for the small amount of moisture and nutrients in their shared seedling cup. My…
Business Aims to Be a Hinge Between Homeowners and Architects
Homeowners almost never hire an architect when renovating a bathroom or building a deck. Why not? Take your pick: Hiring a builder is cheaper. The…
Obituary: Catherine “Cathy” Comstock, 1936-2014, Winooski
Catherine “Cathy” Comstock, 77, passed away May 12, 2014, in St. Albans, Vt. She was born July 3, 1936, in Fairhaven, Vt., to Harold and…
Obituary: Donald E. Proper
Donald E. Proper, age 85 years, died Saturday afternoon, May 10, 2014 at the Northwestern Medical Center in St. Albans City. Born in East Highgate…
Obituary: Roland Frank Mease, 1932-2014, Denver, Co.
Roland Frank Mease – husband, father, grandfather and friend – passed away on Thursday, May 8 after 81 years of a life filled with family,…
Obituary: Jamie M. Barney
Jamie M. Barney, 30, a lifelong resident of this area, died unexpectedly, Monday, May 5, 2014 at Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington. Born in…
Eyewitness: Bookmaker Claire Van Vliet
Artist Claire Van Vliet’s Northeast Kingdom skies started small. When she moved to a high plateau in Newark, Vt., on an unpaved mountain road, her…
Free Will Astrology (5/7/14)
TAURUS (April 20-May 20) Free jazz is a type of music that emerged in the 1950s as a rebellion against jazz conventions. Its meter is…
Letters to the Editor (5/7/14)
Fed Up With Foodies Egad! Just when I had sworn that if I saw another photo of a burger I would stop reading Seven Days…
The Selfish Giant
I want to tell you about an extraordinary filmmaker and her latest extraordinary film, because it didn’t get within 100 miles of Vermont, and, now…
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
I could use this space to tell you what happens in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (lots), and how little of it makes sense. I could…
![Seth Rogen Does Burlington [SIV351]](https://sevendaysvt-test.newspackstaging.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/episode351-4-1200x900.webp)
Seth Rogen Does Burlington [SIV351]
5/1/14: University of Vermont’s Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity got a treat Thursday at Merrill’s Roxy Cinemas in Burlington. They attended a special screening of Universal’s…
Young Love: Lost Nation Stages The Last 5 Years
When Lost Nation Theater got the rights to stage The Last 5 Years, cofounder Kathleen Keenan was delighted but surprised. “The movie [version of the…
Readers Respond to “In Defense of Six Beers We’re Not Supposed to Drink”
Vermonters sure do love to talk about beer. And those who brew it, we’ve observed, can be a wee bit thin-skinned. But, hey, who isn’t…
How Do Two Busy People Find Time to Form a Relationship?
Dear Athena, A while ago, I met a wonderful woman who is everything I could possibly want. We haven’t been able to see each other…
Mounted Cat ‘Biker Bar’ to Open at the Hilton Burlington
Cat lovers and cyclists don’t always overlap. But for those mad about both, the Hilton Burlington will soon be quite an attraction. On June 1,…
Key Performers: Sizing Up Local Venues’ Grand Pianos
Middlebury College’s Mahaney Center for the Arts acquired a new Steinway concert grand piano last December, and just last month Saint Michael’s College had its…
So-Called ‘Loser’ Tackles His Life in a New Film
In making a film that draws heavily on his own struggles in the media industry, Colin Thompson figured that the finished product might, if he…
Short Takes on Film: Global Roots, ‘Maidentrip,’ ‘The Shooting Party’
“In Bosnia, when you buy land and start to dig the foundation for a house, you can never be sure you won’t find a mass…
Burlington’s Left Banks Shows That Home Is Where the Art Is
An unexpected visual arts gallery resides on the south side of Bank Street in downtown Burlington: Left Bank Home & Garden, a storefront owned by…
Poet Dan Chiasson Revives ’70s Burlington in New Collection
Burlington native Dan Chiasson, a frequent contributor to the New Yorker and a professor at Wellesley College, has just published his fourth collection of poetry,…
Signs of Spring: The Vermont Legislature Creeps Toward Adjournment
Signs of spring in the Vermont Statehouse are as reassuring as they are predictable. As the legislature’s self-imposed adjournment deadline looms — for the moment,…
Burlington’s No-Trespass Ordinance Is Working, But Its Days May Be Numbered
One year after Burlington implemented a no-trespass ordinance that allows police officers to banish repeat troublemakers from the Church Street Marketplace, two things are clear:…
Invisible Homes, Song for My Double
(Self-released, CD, digital download) Something spectacular is happening in Burlington on Thursday, May 8. Namely, Sean Witters and his band Invisible Homes will celebrate the…
Posthumous Lessons From College of Medicine’s ‘Greatest Teachers’
Outside the University of Vermont’s Medical Education Pavilion, next to a weeping cherry tree, a plaque reads, “In gratitude to our greatest teachers.” The tribute…
Gang of Thieves, Thunderfunk
(Self-released, CD, digital download) I first saw Gang of Thieves play at a local high school battle of the bands about five years ago, which…
Failing Math: Getting to the Bottom Line of Burlington’s School Budget Crisis
Superintendent Jeanne Collins has a tidy explanation for the messy situation facing the Burlington School District. It’s been “kind of like fixing an airplane while…
Q&A With Woods’ Jarvis Taveniere
Since forming in 2005, Brooklyn’s Woods have evolved from a recording duo noted for lo-fi, experimental folk into a commanding live act whose multifaceted suites…
Work: George Africa, Gardener at Vermont Flower Farm in Marshfield
The land surrounding Vermont Flower Farm in Marshfield is still brown and muddy as it begins to emerge from a seemingly endless winter. But in…
Soundbites: Imperfect Trainwreck, Full Moon Masquerade Returns
Last week, I wrote a review of Bow Thayer and Perfect Trainwreck’s latest album, a live record called Eden: Live at the Chandler. In that…
WTF: What’s Going on in Burlington’s Urban Reserve?
Up until a few days ago, a weather-stained lighthouse sat offshore from Burlington’s Oakledge Park. It never had any luminary ability; it was, in other…
News Quirks (5/7/14)
Curses, Foiled Again British police arrested a 30-year-old man they said broke into a hotel in Gloucester but fell off the roof while making his…
Can Vermont’s Women Chefs Break the Glass Ceiling?
We’ve all been waiting for this year’s long-overdue spring, but chef Cortney Quinn has waited more eagerly than most. She’s been anticipating the arrival of…
Esteemed Denver Restaurant Opens Brattleboro Branch
Even in Vermont, foodies may have heard of a Colorado restaurant called Duo. Executive pastry chef Yasmin Lozada-Hissom is a perennial James Beard Foundation award…
Pacific Rim Closes; Another Thai Restaurant Takes Its Place
It opened in 1999, closed in 2011 and reopened last year. Now, Burlington’s Pacific Rim Asian Café is closed again. Owner Rich Brandt could not…
