Live Culture

The SCAR Project Comes to Vermont's Breast Cancer Conference

by Megan James Posted on September 20, 2013 at 3:37PM

It takes guts to pose naked for a photograph. But it takes even more to face down stage-III breast cancer.

Movies You Missed & More: This Must Be the Place

by Margot Harrison Posted on September 20, 2013 at 1:26PM

This week in movies you missed: That one where Sean Penn looks exactly like Robert Smith of the Cure.What You MissedCheyenne (Penn) is a middle-aged rock star living in Dublin with his firefighter wife (Frances McDormand). He's still famous enough that MTV begs him to appear at the Video Music Awards, but he hasn't played since a couple of teens were inspired by his music to commit suicide.When he hears his estranged father is on his deathbed, Cheyenne returns home to New York.

This Verse Business: Lost Nation Theater Brings Robert Frost to the Stage

Posted on September 20, 2013 at 11:34AM

Freelance theatercritic Alex Brown contributed this review of Lost Nation Theater's production of This Verse Business.Television and stage actor Gordon Clapp is now appearing atMontpelier City Hall Auditorium as Robert Frost in a one-man show by A. M.Dolan.In a brisk, funny hour and a quarter, Clapp performs thevery neat trick of making you forget there’s a script and making you believeyou’re spending an evening with the sharp, fiercely independent poet.The play isan intimate construction, allowing us to feel we’re truly getting to know Frostand what makes him tick. While the deeper and darker sides of his personal lifearen’t on view, we get to see his humor, self-deprecation and keen ability toobserve.Thanks to afine performance by Clapp, a strong script, and smart direction by GusKaikkonen, this production solves the primary problem of one-man shows.

Califone's "Stitches" Is the Coolest Not-Really-a-Music-Video Ever

by Dan Bolles Posted on September 19, 2013 at 8:44PM

Califone (Credit: John Adams)It's somewhat necessarily flown under the radar, but Chicago-based experimental rockers Califone are playing a small "living room" show this Saturday, September 21, at Angioplasty Studios in Burlington. (We've been asked not to divulge the precise location of the studio, since seating is limited.

Burlington Artist Kate Donnelly Dreams Up a Mystery as BCA Artist-in-Residence

by Pamela Polston Posted on September 17, 2013 at 10:08PM

It's not easy to understand what Kate Donnelly is up to on the fourth floor of the BCA Center, but it sure does look intriguing. When I met her there for a chat the other day, the Burlington artist — and 2013 winner of the Barbara Smail Award, which includes a residency in the space — was wearing a white corset and floor-length white skirt with a crinoline.

'Captain Phillips' to Screen Early at Majestic 10

by Margot Harrison Posted on September 17, 2013 at 3:46PM

Vermonters have reason to be excited about Captain Phillips, the upcoming film in which Tom Hanks re-enacts Underhill resident Richard Phillips’ 2009 ordeal at the hands of Somali pirates. (Catherine Keener plays his wife, Andrea.)Now locals have a chance to see director Paul Greengrass’ drama early, between its September 27 New York Film Festival premiere and its October 11 wide release.On Tuesday, October 1, at 7:30 p.m., the Majestic 10 in Williston will host the Vermont premiere of Captain Phillips as a benefit, with all proceeds going to the Sarah Ramsey Strong Scholarship Fund at Champlain College.

Prince of Plein Air: Mark Boedges Wins Again!

by Pamela Polston Posted on September 16, 2013 at 4:19PM

Vermont landscape painter Mark Boedges seems to be the winningest painter around. His latest coup is taking both the Grand Prize and Artists' Choice Award at the Plein Air Vermont 2013 competition this past weekend in Bennington.At a reception on Sunday, September 15, Boedges — who lives in Shelburne and has a gallery on Battery Street in Burlington — was presented the awards for his painting "On the Farm," the 14-by-20-inch oil on canvas pictured here.Just last July, we noted Boedges' wins, for Best of Show and Artists' Choice, at the national-level Door County Plein Air Festival in Wisconsin.

Movies You Missed & More: High Tech, Low Life

by Margot Harrison Posted on September 13, 2013 at 3:00PM

This week in movies you missed: a visit to China, where two citizen journalists sneak over the "Great Firewall" to offer alternatives to government-sanctioned news.What You MissedWhen 27-year-old blogger "Zola" (real name: Zhou Shuguang) hears about a government cover-up, he's on the case. To mock the official story about a young girl's death — rumor is, she was murdered — he makes a viral video of himself on the bridge from which she supposedly leapt.

Read About Vermont's 'Queen Dad' in the HuffPo — and Watch His Sitcom Pilot

by Margot Harrison Posted on September 13, 2013 at 2:30PM

A homophobic young man meets his father for the first time ... and Dad is in drag. That's the premise of "Queen Dad," a web-series pilot shot in the Burlington area with a local cast and crew.

New Tunes: "Return to Me," Bandleader

by Dan Bolles Posted on September 13, 2013 at 1:57PM

Bandleader: Coal, Pressure, Time For the past several months, Burlington-based rockers Bandleader have been hard at work on their debut LP, a crowd-funded effort recorded — as all indie records are now legally required to be in a post-Bon Iver world — at a cabin in the woods. That album, dubbed Coal, Pressure, Time, won't reach our ears until October 1, reportedly with a Monkey House gig on or around that date.

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