Posted By Dan Bolles on Thu, Apr 26, 2018 at 12:29 PM

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Courtesy of Mike Luoma

Mike Luoma

Mike Luoma has been let go as the music director of local radio station 104.7 WNCS-FM the Point. The longtime local DJ announced the news last week on his Glow in the Dark Radio blog and via social media. Luoma, who has been a prominent figure in Vermont radio since 1983 — including nearly two decades at 106.7 WIZN-FM — had been with the Point for almost eight years.

Tags: WNCS , the Point , Mike Luoma , Zeb Norris , John Mullet , Ed Flanagan , Tim Lewis , radio , Image , Web Only

Posted By Kymelya Sari on Mon, Apr 23, 2018 at 1:10 PM

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Kymelya Sari

Sakela dance rehearsal at the Old North End Community Center

For the past three years since he resettled in Vermont in 2014, Harka Rai was unable to perform ceremonial rituals to celebrate Ubhauli Sakela. On that day, members of the Kirat Rai community ask Mother Nature for healthy crops and protection from natural calamities.

Last week, the octogenarian was at the Old North End Community Center in Burlington to watch a dozen people practice a dance that they'll perform on Saturday, April 28, to mark Ubhauli Sakela. "It's good. This is the way," Rai said of the dance rehearsal.

And Rai will lead the day's rituals, as the local chapter of the Bhutanese Kirat Rai Organization of America hosts the festival in Vermont for the first time.

Tags: Ubhauli Sakela , Bhutanese Kirat Rai Organization of America , Vermont Nepali Heritage Dance , Vermont Folklife Center , Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program , Battery Park , Old North End Community Center , Harka Rai , Bidur Rai , Mon Rai , Birman Rai , Image , Web Only , Video

Posted By Dan Bolles on Fri, Apr 20, 2018 at 1:38 PM

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Courtesy of Clayton Trutor

Clayton Trutor

Vermont baseball nerds, rejoice! This weekend, the Vermont chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) takes the field after a long rain delay, metaphorically speaking. The Gardner-Waterman (Vermont) SABR chapter holds its spring meeting at the Robert Miller Community and Recreation Center in Burlington this Sunday, April 22.

The local SABR chapter was founded in the 1990s by noted local baseball historian Tom Simon and others. But according to current chair Clayton Trutor, the collective of baseball researchers, historians and statisticians had fallen dormant in recent years. Trutor is attempting to jumpstart the chapter and hopes to hold meetings at least twice per year.

"It's an opportunity for members to present their research on the history of baseball and the statistics of the game," Trutor tells Seven Days. He adds: "There will also be a trivia contest."

Tags: Baseball , Major Leagues , minor leagues , Society for American Baseball Research , Red Sox , Vermont , Image , Web Only

Posted By Dan Bolles on Thu, Apr 19, 2018 at 5:37 PM

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Courtesy of Gilbert Gottfried

Gilbert Gottfried

Gilbert Gottfried is disgusting — and proudly so. In reviews of the 2005 documentary film The Aristocrats, which chronicles the supposed dirtiest joke in the world, the squinty-eyed comic with the famously grating voice is often cited as stealing the film with his rendition of the obscenely taboo joke during a Friars Club roast of Hugh Hefner in New York City shortly after 9/11.

"One of the reviews said, 'Of the hundred or so comedians in the film, no one is more disgusting than Gilbert Gottfried,'" the comic recalls. "And I thought, You know, that's really an honor."

But as another, more recent, documentary reveals, Gottfried — who performs at Burlington's Vermont Comedy Club this Friday and Saturday, April 20 and 21 — is something else, too. He's thoughtful, sweet, devoted to his family and more than a little cheap, especially when it comes to hoarding hotel freebies.

Tags: standup , Gilbert Gottfried , Image , Web Only , Video

Posted By Sadie Williams on Thu, Apr 19, 2018 at 10:13 AM

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Complications Company

Actor Cael Barkman last year in Complications Company's production of Making Babies.

Have you ever wanted to tell a story about your mom, without ensuring she'll write you out of her will? Or simply share a warm moment about her, without having to expose yourself? Well, a Burlington theater company has just the thing.

Laura Roald and Mary Beth McNulty of Complications Company are seeking submissions from playwrights for "Other Mothers," a production cum competition that prompts scribes to quickly draft dramas about each other's mothers. Participants will have 24 hours to create a short show, after being assigned a mom at a launch event at Butch & Babes on Friday, May 4. The lot will be staged on Sunday, May 6, at Off Center for the Dramatic Arts in Burlington's Old North End.

So far, Roald says, the company has received four submissions through its website. She hopes to end up with 10 in total. The deadline for submissions is Wednesday, May 2.

The questions on the submission form are a mix of multiple choice and essay that allow for tender, or not so tender, reflections on one's mother. For example, "If your mom were an animal, she would be a …" Or, "Advice from your mother you never followed." McNulty notes that they're not looking for solely sugar sweet reflections, citing the complexities of motherhood and parenting.

While Roald can't confirm which actors will be reading the finished scripts for the Sunday show, she says they're all relatively well known, locally. She and McNulty will serve as directors.

Roald and McNulty will meet with the actors on Sunday morning to run the scripts, and the plays will be staged that afternoon at 4 p.m. Complications Company is partnering with BurlingtonVT Moms Blog for the event. Judges from that latter organization will crown one of the subjects "Mother of the Year" at the end of the show. May the best mom win!

Tags: Off Center for the Dramatic Arts , Laura Roald , Mary Beth McNulty , Complications Company , Old North End , Burlington , theater , Image , Web Only

Posted By Kymelya Sari on Mon, Apr 16, 2018 at 10:51 AM

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Kymelya Sari

From left: Deacon Stan Baker, Rev. Sherry Osborn, Bishop Thomas Ely, Chol Dhoor

This summer might bring a new experience for fourth graders Nyankoor Anyang and Rosa Kuku. Along with their teammates from Chittenden County's Nile Bright Stars Academy soccer team, the students hope to spend a week at Rock Point Camp in Burlington. The entire local Sudanese community is rallying behind them.

Last Saturday, the Sudanese Foundation of Vermont and the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Burlington  organized a fundraiser dinner so that kids from the Sudanese community can attend Rock Point Camp, which is run by the Episcopal Diocese.

Tags: Camp Rock Point , Nile Bright Stars Academy , Sudanese Foundation of Vermont , Cathedral Church of St. Paul , Bishop Thomas Ely , St. James Episcopal Church , Image , Web Only

Posted By Kymelya Sari on Fri, Apr 13, 2018 at 12:32 PM

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Kymelya Sari

Megha Nath Adhikari

Megha Nath Adhikari admits that his fingers aren't quite as deft on the duki tabala, a pair of hand drums, these days because he has dedicated himself to the harmonium, a portable pump organ.

"When we came [to Vermont], there was no one to play this one," says the Essex Junction resident, gesturing to the harmonium. "So, my focus goes to the harmonium."

Tags: Megha Adhikari , duki tabala , harmonium , Kathleen Haughey , Vermont Folklife Center , Universal Manav Bhajan Vermont , Image , Web Only , Video

Posted By Rachel Elizabeth Jones on Thu, Apr 12, 2018 at 7:00 AM

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File: Matthew Thorsen

Christal Brown

Fueled by a $350,000 creative placemaking grant received last December, Charlotte's Clemmons Family Farm continues toward its goal of becoming a major African American and African diasporic cultural center in Vermont. In one of several grant-funded positions now officialized, Middlebury dancer and choreographer Christal Brown has been appointed as director of visual and performing arts at the farm.

Tags: Christal Brown , Clemmons Family Farm , Lydia Clemmons , Image , Web Only

Posted By Sadie Williams on Sun, Apr 1, 2018 at 12:32 PM

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Sadie Williams

Meghan Jean Mello and Diane Jean

The amount of quality vintage clothing in Burlington just went up a notch — or a storefront. Billie Jean Vintage, a boutique and Etsy store run by cousins Diane Jean and Meghan Jean Mello, recently moved from Stowe to Battery Street in Burlington.

Mello grew up in Charlotte. Jean is a Jersey girl. But for the past three years, they've been hawking new and vintage reproduction goods for their discerning customers. Jean also plays in the band Clever Girls.

In Burlington, BJV joins other vintage newbies, such as the Vault Collective on Cherry Street, and staples of the scene such as Old Gold on Main Street. It seems that the Queen City has an appetite for retro, recycled habiliments.

Tags: Billie Jean Vintage , Meghan Jean Mello , Diane Jean , fashion , vintage , Image , Web Only