Live Culture

Dispatch 120913 From 'Overheard on Church Street'

Posted on December 9, 2013 at 8:00AM

Yeah, it’s like this in every place. Fucking crazy.

Video: "Africa (I'm Coming Back to You)" by A2VT

by Dan Bolles Posted on December 6, 2013 at 3:30PM

A2VT are at it again. Almost exactly one year after showing their adopted Onion City home some love with the video "Winooski, My Town," the trio of African refugees turned "urban global" rappers cast a longing gaze toward their native soil with a lively new vid, "Africa (I'm Coming back to You)."Directed and produced by Casey Clark, the new video was shot at various locations along the Burlington waterfront and features some nifty dance moves courtesy of the Roxy Dance Studio, a solo dancer by the name of Mimosa — she's the young lady on the rocks — and, as always, A2VT themselves.

Movies You Missed & More: Stories We Tell

by Margot Harrison Posted on December 6, 2013 at 3:02PM

This week in movies you missed: A movie star airs her family's dirty laundry on film.Thing is, the star in question is Canadian — not to mention the talented director of Away From Her and Take This Waltz. So Sarah Polley's documentary is considerably more tasteful and thoughtful than my initial description makes it sound.What You MissedA young woman ushers an older man into a recording studio and asks him to read a lengthy narrative he's prepared.

Leahy Honors Photographer Peter Miller in U.S. Senate

by Pamela Polston Posted on December 6, 2013 at 11:50AM

Waterbury photographer Peter Miller has had many well-deserved accolades in his long career. His latest is another honor that few artists can claim: Vermont's senior senator, Patrick Leahy — no slouch behind the lens himself — read a tribute to Miller on November 20 on the Senate floor. Leahy's speech, printed here in full, says it all:Mr. President, for generations, Vermonters have contributed to our national culture, through art, music, film and prose.

New (Xmas!) Tunes: "Christmas Sled," the Mountain Says No

by Dan Bolles Posted on December 5, 2013 at 4:53PM

"Christmas Sled" by the Mountain Says NoIt's a Christmas miracle! The Mountain Says No, the new band from Farm's Ben Maddox and Jedd Kettler — and featuring Andrew Frappier and Justus Gaston — have just released a terrific new holiday single, "Christmas Sled." The indie-rockin' jingle is now part of the quietly growing canon of original local holiday music — which includes the trio of cult classics by the Physics Club, Rue Mevlana's EP Dancing to Keep Warm, the single "Harvest" by Myra Flynn and Gregory Douglass, and of course, the Handel's "Messiah" of local Christmas songs: "Christmas Every Day" by Victor Rudolph Gittens. The low-key, mostly acoustic cut calls to mind John Lennon's "Happy Xmas (War is Over)."

Burlington Émigré Ben Aleshire Takes His Poetry to the French Quarter

by Ethan de Seife Posted on December 3, 2013 at 12:14PM

Ben Aleshire, the former Burlington "poet for hire" who could often be spotted at the downtown Farmers Market, moved to New Orleans last year. He's set up shop at a busy intersection in the French Quarter, selling poems to passersby, and has attracted the attention of that city's press.The Gambit, New Orleans' alt-weekly, focuses on Aleshire and several other local poets for hire in a recent cover article.

Dispatch 120213 From 'Overheard on Church Street'

Posted on December 2, 2013 at 8:00AM

Just another chocolate-chip-size taste of Burlington, from the Overheard on Church Street tumblr:Oh hey, Bill. I didn’t even recognize you in that suit and all.

Movies You Missed & More: Computer Chess

by Margot Harrison Posted on November 29, 2013 at 3:33PM

This week in movies you missed: It's 1980 all over again in this period piece from mumblecore mainstay Andrew Bujalski, who shot it on vintage black-and-white analog video for a painfully authentic look.What You MissedProgrammers from the nation's top tech schools have converged on an unassuming hotel for their annual computer-chess tournament, in which the computers play each other.The winner gets to square off with a self-satisfied human chess master (played by film critic Gerald Peary) who has made a bet that no computer will best him for a decade. (In fact, it took until 1997 for IBM's Big Blue to score a fairly decisive victory over a human chess master.)Meanwhile, a '70s-style encounter group composed of middle-aged couples roams the halls, trying to enlist some of the nerds for birthing rituals and swingin' sex.

Vermont Photographer Publishes Book 'For the Birds'

by Pamela Polston Posted on November 29, 2013 at 10:51AM

Charlotte photographer P. Brian Machanic has produced an 82-page volume titled This Book Is for the Birds, but of course the book is really for bird lovers.Machanic notes in a preface that there are some "50-60 million" birders in the United States, that is, obsessed individuals "whose affliction for monitoring things avian is all consumptive, leading to forays afield at ungodly hours, while being viciously attacked by the biting insects which birds are supposed to eat." The author admits he is not one of these people:I'm more of a bird-watcher sort, which means that I enjoy sleeping in once a month, and stop looking for nighthawks when the thunder and lightning starts.

Movies You Missed & More: Only God Forgives

by Margot Harrison Posted on November 22, 2013 at 9:00AM

This week in movies you missed: Ryan Gosling and Drive director Nicolas Winding Refn, together again. To little purpose.What You MissedBrothers Julian and Billy (Gosling and Tom Burke) are drug smugglers who run a fight club in Bangkok.

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