RI Selects: A Guthrie Family Concert for the People of Haiti
On Valentine’s Day in Pittsfield, the ever-loving Guthrie family gathers with folksy friends for “A Concert for Loved Ones” in Haiti featuring performances by Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion (left), The Mammals, Bobby Sweet, Vetiver, Tift Merritt, Meg Hutchinson, Kris Delmhorst. The concert at the Colonial Theatre benefits the United Nations Foundation’s Help us Help in Time: Central Emergency Response Fund.
Community: 20 Questions for Devotion Author Dani Shapiro
Dani Shapiro, who gave up city life after 9/11 and moved full-time to Litchfield County, has just published a new memoir, Devotion, which chronicles her mid-life quest for a satisfying spiritual life. Her fellow memoirist Elizabeth Gilbert of Eat, Pray, Love fame has raved about Devotion: “I was immensely moved by this elegant book,” says Gilbert, “which reminded me all over again that all of us—at some point or another—must buck up our courage and face down the big spiritual questions of life, death, love, loss and surrender.” When Shapiro isn’t tackling existential questions, she finds pleasure in our neck of the woods at the Mayflower Inn, Nudel, Rubiner’s, Tanglewood, as well as Kripalu and the Hickory Stick Bookshop, where she’s reading and signing books on February 6 and February 13 respectively.
AgriCulture: Which Chicken? The Fatty or the Funster?When, in an e-mail to their customers, our AgriCulture bloggers suggested that they might switch from their current, meaty Cornish Cross-breed chickens to a more responsible heritage bird, they had a run on their stockpile of Cornish Crosses. Which raises the question: with lively unadulterated breeds on one side of the scales of justice and their lethargic genetically-sullied cousins on the other, what weight should consumer preference have? |
Movies: A Free Silent Movie with Live MusicFor five years area resident Donald Sosin was the silent-film accompaniest at MoMA. Currently he plays for the Film Society of Lincoln Center, at BAM, and the Whitney when they are screening silent films. On Thursday, February 12, in Canaan, CT, Sosin and his wife, the vocalist Joanna Seaton, will provide live accompaniment for the 1922 Harold Lloyd silent classic, Grandma’s Boy. Admission is free and the public is welcome. |
Parties: The Radioactive Bodega Fashion ShowThe best winter party is arguably the annual masquerade benefit for IS 183 Art School of the Berkshires (on March 6), which attracts over 400 revelers of all ages who don elaborate costumes. Unlike previous years when the theme was easy to interpret (“Rock the Opera” or “Sushi-a-Go-Go”), this year’s conceit, “Radioactive Bodega,” is more high concept. To share costume ideas, IS 183 held a fashion show at the Lenox Athenaeum. |
From Our Archive: Peace, Love & ChocolateAt Peace, Love & Chocolate, her one-year-old shop in the mews next door to the Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge, Ali Aronoff sells fair-trade chocolates from around the globe as well as the incomparable local creations of Joshua Needleman, the master chocolatier who has his own shop, Chocolate Springs, up the road in Lenox. Besides candy bars, gelato and gift boxes, Aronoff also makes the most decadent cup of hot cocoa we’ve ever tasted. |
RI Selects: Galleries & MuseumsThor Wickstrom’s Snowblind (above) is part of the Snow Show, a group exhibition opening at Studio21South in North Adams on February 13. In Housatonic, Lauren Clark Fine Art holds an opening for its Small Works Winter Salon on February 12. In Rhinebeck, the Gazen Gallery in Montgomery Row opens Express Your Love, which features Hudson Valley artists, with a reception on February 13. |
Recipes: Mushroom Stew with PolentaLeave it to Amy Cotler to not only find fresh, local shiitake mushrooms (at Blue Moon Shrooms in Housatonic, MA) but also local cornmeal from Pioneer Valley Heritage Grains. But Cotler, the Berkshires-based author of The Locavore Way: Discover and Enjoy the Pleasures of Locally Grown Food, will understand if you buy everything at the supermarket to make this hearty, simple stew that is perfect for a winter’s day. |
