chrdaev brenden aleeciah
Leoma Cianchetti
In the process, I became a connoisseur of every type of laughter: the silent shoulder shake, the bafflingly nonstop guffaw, the inadvertent snort. I had my finger on the pulse of Vermont's thriving comedy culture, and I'm here to dish on the good and the groan-worthy.
During my two weeks of nonstop comedy, the funniest performers were the ones who couldn't have simply plopped their sets onto a New York City stage. Jokes about gender and sexuality, mental health struggles, the housing crisis, rising crime, progressive politics, and Vermont's overwhelming whiteness emerged as common themes with local flair. At Vermont Comedy Club in Burlington, Eric Dreiblatt told the audience that he's "California sober," which means he's sober except for marijuana. He has a friend who's "Rutland sober," meaning "nothing but meth."
The Moogs Joint show, a Valentine's Day special, had a cozy, community-oriented feel. About 100 people, mostly middle-aged couples, had crammed into the restaurant and bar that serves as the primary source of nightlife in Johnson, population 1,402. Performer Ian Paul immediately acknowledged that audience members might recognize him as their kids' high school guidance counselor. He reassured everyone in the room that if he said anything off-color, he "learned it from your kid."
Next was Alex St. Louis, who spoke openly about her struggles with mental health. She told the crowd she was diagnosed with ADHD at age 27. It went undetected when she was a kid, she said, deadpan, because "it was the early 2000s, so ADHD was boys-only then."
With a $10 cover, Moogs Joint was the most expensive comedy show I attended. But the quality was worth the price of admission: Each comic performed about 20 minutes of material and drew consistent giggles.
Jokes that were more offensive than funny drew silence rather than boos, such as the following dud: "I'm 40 years old, single and still live with my parents. To answer your next question, I am not a closeted homosexual."
I was also unwittingly involved in some crowd work. After the host told a performer to tell "the Seven Days reporter" in the audience how to spell her name, there was a target on my back. I blushed as several comedians pointed me out in the crowd and made jokes at the paper's expense.
"Remember when Vermont freaked about Rod Stewart last month? Seven Days wrote an article about it, and then the next day they were like, 'Sorry, that was just an English guy with messy hair,'" Borg continued.
"Seven Days, catch this," Kayla Erb said, looking toward my seat in the front row. "So, I am from the Bronx, N.Y., which is kind of interesting with me being in Vermont. But what has really made me feel at home is the rise of crime."
A few lesser-known comics also made an impression. Maddie Cross told the crowd she's looking for apartments with her boyfriend, and she has a rule that she's not going to live in an apartment in which she's had casual sex. With Burlington's housing crisis, she said, that's "genuinely a limiting factor."
At Off Center for the Dramatic Arts in Burlington, sketch comedy and improv took center stage in "Spork: A Variety Show." The performers played a game called "Sex With Me," in which audience members volunteered a geographic location, profession or object. The comedians then had to play off that suggestion to form a sexual innuendo. For example, "Sex with me is like ketchup. It works way better if you just keep tapping on the sides!"
Smaller crowds of around 30 people showed up for weekly comedy nights at Burlington's the 126 and Radio Bean, where the scene consisted mainly of comics performing for other comics and testing out new material.
Mike Thomas, the 2023 winner of Vermont Comedy Club's Funniest Comedian contest, told a story at Radio Bean about how he had planned a date right after Election Day in 2016, but the woman was so upset by Donald Trump's victory that she canceled. "I got cockblocked by Trump, and I don't even know the motherfucker!" Thomas said. "So that's why he's not getting my vote. All the other stuff, I could get past." He paused. "You know I'm kidding, right?! I'm a Black male."
He also shared an idea for a charity: He'd go to people's houses and hold their white babies. "We might not solve racism, but we'll go one step closer to it. Or maybe 'one, two step' closer," he said, seemingly referencing a 2000s hip-hop song by Ciara and Missy Elliott. He was met with groans.
This panel, which is part of a larger ensemble, was commissioned for the private chapel in the castle of Ebreichsdorf, south of Vienna. Originally, there were eighteen scenes, some extending across two lights of the windows. Except for one panel in Vienna, The Cloisters panels are all that survive. The royal atelier responsible for the glass was established in Vienna, where its early work can be seen in the Church of Maria am Gestade, of about 1365, and in the ducal chapel at the Cathedral of Saint Stephen, of about 1395. The elegant figures, richly damascened background, as well as the wealth of detail and the brilliant palette that enrich the settings, are all characteristic of this court workshop.
I like to think out loud and my poor proofreaders & flatmates are often the springboards for my ideas. I also like having physical artefacts to tinker with. Because of this, even though I love Excel, my scene layout is all in hard copy. I have used a few methods to present them and each have had their merits. Here they are as ways you could use before and especially during NaNoWriMo.
L-Seven were a short-lived but foundational post-punk band from Detroit, MI. Active between 1980-83, L-Seven only ever officially released one 7" on Touch And Go's Special Forces, a division of Touch And Go Records designated for releases that were not just straight-ahead punk and hardcore. The L-Seven 7" was the only Special Forces release. L-Seven was formed by members of The Blind, Retro, Algebra Mothers, and fiery singer Larissa Stolarchuk, not to be confused with the similarly named LA grunge group, L7, who would form a decade afterward. Following the demise of L-Seven, Larissa (now going by Larissa Strickland), while still donning her bleached blonde hair and tattered floral sundress with combat boots, would put down the mic and pick up a guitar and form the seminal Laughing Hyenas with her partner in (life of) crime, John Brannon.
During their time together, L-Seven was loved and respected by all of the Detroit punk and hardcore bands. Larissa was the surrogate den mother to the hardcore scene and although L-Seven's sound was far from hardcore, their DIY attitude and willingness to bring art into their music was hugely inspiring and influential to the "Freezer Theater" crew. They shared stages with Negative Approach, Necros, Meatmen, and all of the midwest superstars as well as many legendary touring artists. L-Seven opened for Iggy, The Birthday Party, Bush Tetras, did a small tour with Gun Club, and even played U2's first ever Detroit show (proof of this is included on this LP).
Third Man Records is beyond proud to be releasing an LP of unreleased studio and live recordings. It has been our honor to work closely with longtime fan and almost-member, Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth, all surviving L-Seven members, as well as a few other folks from the L-Seven scene. Sadly, Larissa passed away in 2006, but her presence is missed and this record is dedicated to her.
On the building front, two residence halls with a combined 301,250 square feet are opening at the corner of East Fifteenth Avenue and Agate Street, across from Hayward Field in the space formerly occupied by Walton Hall.
The yet-to-be-named complexes, which cost an estimated $121.3 million, are known as buildings B and C for now. The Board of Trustees is expected to approve names for the halls in the coming school year.
Building B, which can house seven hundred to nine hundred students, offers a mix of double and triple rooms, all with attached bathrooms and showers. Resident floors pinwheel around a community lounge which offers study space, areas to hang with friends, and views across the Eugene campus. The ground floor has a community kitchen, a service center, a package delivery hub, and dedicated spaces for Academic Residential Communities, a program in which students with similar interests live and learn together. In addition, the ground floor hosts apartments for the community director and faculty-in-residence.
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