(Self-released, CD, digital download)... Read more

If you skipped last weekend’s Waking Windows III festival in Winooski, you missed what might have been the coolest live-music event of the year in Vermont. Sure, Discover Jazz is exponentially bigger, boasts more star power and caters to a wider audience. And the Precipice, with a full year to plan — as opposed to, like, three weeks for its inaugural run last year — will similarly showcase great local acts and foster warm and fuzzy community spirit. Grace Potter’s Grand Point North is quickly becoming a blowout end-of-summer tradition, too. ... Read more

Behind every great guitar, fiddle, mando or upright bass player stands a string doctor, a skilled luthier who answers the call when an instrument needs work. Often unheralded, they see it all: a mandolin neck that’s taken a sudden twist, a fiddle top cracked by low humidity, a priceless Martin knocked over by an exuberant toddler, a distraught picker who’s backed the car over his vintage Telecaster. (Yes, it really does happen.) We surveyed some Vermont musicians to see whom they turn to when they need a string doctor with serious skills.... Read more

Trolling for fares on Main Street, I noticed a boisterous clutch of friends walking past the Flynn Center. One of them, a husky guy closest to the curb, brushed against a bicycle hitched to a tree, carelessly knocking it to the ground. He broke stride for a moment to glance down at the bike, now vulnerably splayed on the pavement. Shrugging his shoulders at no one in particular, he continued on and caught up with the group.... Read more

Curses, Foiled Again
Authorities charged Carolyn James, 55, with assaulting her 96-year-old mother in Dickson City, Pa., after a neighbor recorded James slapping the invalid woman on the back and neck, screaming obscenities and threatening to break her arm. Mark Gruss told investigators he was testing webcams when he picked up a live feed from a webcam in James’s living room. James had installed the webcam herself so she could keep an eye on her mother. (Scranton’s the Times-Tribune)

When Guns Are Outlawed ... Read more

ARIES (March 21-April 19): In the alternate universe created by Marvel comic books, there is a mutant superhero called Squirrel Girl. She has the magic power to summon hordes of cute, furry squirrels. Under her guidance, they swarm all over the bad guy she’s battling and disable him with their thousands of tiny chomps and thrashing tails. She and her rodent allies have defeated such arch-villains as Dr. Doom, Deadpool, Baron Mordo and Ego the Living Planet. Let’s make her your role model for the coming weeks, Aries.... Read more

Good thing Vermont’s GMO bill has a long shelf life. It’s been three years — and one and a half sessions — since legislation was introduced to require genetically modified organisms be labeled as such. The GMO bill passed the House last Friday by a vote of 99 to 42 — just days before the session ended. A third of Vermont’s legislators were cosponsors, signaling the bill’s broad public support.... Read more

White River Junction artist Benjamin Peberdy doesn’t sign his name to the collages he creates, he brands them with a logo. Peberdy makes art under the appellation Deluxe Unlimited^TM, which he chose because he “thought it sounded nicely sort of self-important, and sort of vague.”

His pseudonym may be intentionally ambiguous, but what Peberdy is making is clear: cleverly composed, witty and often biting collages composed of vintage print advertisements, comic-book text bubbles and other illustrations. ... Read more

Hooray for Restaurant Week
Just wanted to thank Seven Days for sponsoring Vermont Restaurant Week [April 26-May 5, 2013]. We attended the “Real Cost of Local Food” panel, which was very informative, as well as having great food! It certainly raised awareness of our responsibility to support local foods in our restaurant choices and to encourage more use of Vermont-raised food. Hope to see similar events on your schedule next year.

Glenna Copeland
Burlington... Read more

It seems like every week in Vermont is “Craft Beer Week” — but this week actually is.

Billy Mossinghoff, co-owner and chef of Jeffersonville’s Brewster River Pub & Grill, has been busy turning out batches of beer from a brand-new half-barrel system since he got his brewing permit in April.... Read more