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A Whale of a Celebration for Melville and Moby-Dick
In organizing Call Me Melville, a summer-long festival celebrating Herman Melville and the work he’s best known for, Moby-Dick, Megan Whilden has discovered that “a novel about obsession breeds obsession.”
For example, there’s the Brooklyn-based band Call Me Ishmael, which has composed 135 songs about Moby-Dick, one for each chapter of the book. There’s collector Bill Pettit of Albany, New York, who has accumulated more than 200 copies of Moby-Dick. And there’s the artist Matt Kish, who made 552 drawings inspired by the novel—one for each page of his Signet Classics paperback edition. (Kish’s book, Moby-Dick in Pictures: One Drawing for Every Page, was published by Tin House Books last year.) All three will be featured at the festival, which Whilden has launched in her role as Director of Cultural Development for the City of Pittsfield.
“There’s a lot of people coming out of the woodwork with these fantastic ideas,” says Betsy Sherman, director of the Berkshire County Historical Society, which is based at Arrowhead, the 1783 farmhouse on Holmes Road in Pittsfield where Melville and his family lived from 1850 to 1863. “They’ve taken [Melville and Moby-Dick] to heart and found their own inspirations.”
Call Me Melville is the fifth in a series of Pittsfield-based festivals inspired by classic books, including Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods in 2008; Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird in 2009; Tim O’Brien’s The Things We Carried in 2010; and Ray Bradbury’s Farenheit 451 last year. “We have a history of engaging people through books, but using a wide variety of art forms to do so,” including music, dance, theater, film, and visual art, says Whilden.
Subtitled “The Power of Genius: Landscape and Inspiration,” the festival encompasses an impressive and delightful array of Melville-related activities and art. They include (to name just a few) a burlesque dance performance inspired by the great white whale; a Polynesian-style luau reflecting Melville’s travels and writings in the Marquesas Islands; and a life-size hay sculpture of Moby’s tail, by Plainfield artist Michael Melle, to be displayed on the grounds of Arrowhead.
The visual arts component stretches from Pittfield’s Ferrin Gallery, where Paul Graubard’s folk art paintings (like Moby Dick, left) are on display, to Time &Space Limited in Hudson, where co-founder Linda Mussman’s installation, M… M… M… ...Oil, inspired by Moby-Dick explores the obsession with oil, past and present. (Below, left, is a selection from her show). Also on the schedule: a one-man theatrical production of Moby-Dick by the Gare St. Lazare Players of Ireland; staged readings and original theater works; shows of scrimshaw and photography; and other events, ranging from the expected to the downright quirky.
The centerpiece of the festival is a communitywide online reading of Moby-Dick, created in partnership with PowerMobyDick.com. The book’s 135 chapters will be posted one by one each day, beginning on Memorial Day weekend. (An audio version will also be available.) Readers can comment on the annotated chapters via Facebook, Twitter, and the Berkshire Eagle’s website. While appealing to younger tech-savvy readers, this approach also offers a convenient alternative to traditional face-to-face discussion groups, which Whilden says had the lowest attendance of all the events during past book-focused festivals.
“From high school kids to Melville experts, we can all hold hands and read it together, and people can participate from next door or from around the world,” she says.
This year’s choice doesn’t celebrate any particular Melville-related anniversary, but it does catch a wave of renewed interest in the author. Nathaniel Philbrick’s book Why Read Moby-Dick?, published earlier this year by Viking, brought the classic into the spotlight again. Bartleby the Scrivener, the title character of Melville’s 1853 short story—a clerk who passively resists the orders of his Wall Street employer—has become an unofficial mascot for the Occupy Wall Street movement.
The festival aims not only to “bring Moby-Dick alive for a new generation of readers,” says Whilden, but also to conjure up the author “outside the dusty old historic box”—as a flesh-and-blood citizen of Pittsfield who did research in the local library, visited with the Shakers at Hancock, and hiked the land with his friend and neighbor Nathaniel Hawthorne, finding inspiration in town and country. The stern and craggy visage of Captain Ahab was evidently inspired by Melville’s sighting of a tree struck by lightning in the middle of downtown Pittsfield, and he named his farmstead after the arrowheads he found in the nearby fields.
Though Melville spent only 13 years in Pittsfield, “this is the place where his story gained prominence,” says Sherman. “This was where he was most productive in terms of writing—even though Moby-Dick was a failure.”
Yes, you read that right. Moby-Dick sold so poorly that, when the New York City warehouse where the books were stored burned to the ground, the publishing company refused to reprint it. It wasn’t until Melville scholars, notably Raymond Weaver, brought Melville’s Billy Budd—published in 1924, 33 years after Melville’s death—to the public’s attention that Moby-Dick was resurrected, along with interest in the place where he had written the manuscript.
From the window of his second-floor library at Arrowhead, Melville could look directly out on Mount Greylock, its mottled hillside rising up into the sky—not unlike a giant whale breaching. In Moby-Dick , he compared the great white whale to “a snow hill in the air,” Sherman says.
“I have a sort of sea-feeling here in the country, now that the ground is all covered with snow,” Melville wrote in December 1850. “I look out of my window in the morning when I rise as I would out of a port-hole of a ship in the Atlantic.”
“Melville wrote the most famous seafaring novel in a landlocked city in the Berkshires,” says Whilden. “He saw the whale right here.”
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Posted by Bess Hochstein on 05/20/12 at 05:12 PM • Permalink
New Documentary Focuses on Photographer Gregory Crewdson
When Gregory Crewdson was 16, he had his first fifteen minutes of fame in the form of a three-minute pop song. Crewdson played guitar in a new wave band called The Speedies, and in 1979 they had a minor hit with the song Let Me Take Your Photo, which Crewdson co-wrote with the band’s pretty-boy front man, Eric Hoffert.
At that time, Crewdson could never have imagined how weirdly prescient the song was, nor that he would grow up to be a rock star – not in the music scene, but in the art world.
Today, Crewdson is indisputably one of the brightest stars in the universe of art photography. His reputation soared on the strength of a body of work called Beneath the Roses, which was produced in the Berkshires from 2002 – 2008. During most of that time, cameraman Ben Shapiro was on hand to record Crewdson’s progress and process, first hired by producers of two short documentaries, and later shooting on his own, gathering footage for what was to become his debut film, Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters, which is the closing selection of the Berkshire International Film Festival (May 31 – June 1).
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Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters is one of many films in the BIFF with strong local connections; both Crewdson and Shapiro spent a good deal of their youths in the Berkshires, and both still remain rooted here. Shapiro’s father was a psychologist at Austen Riggs; both his sister and his parents have homes in Monterey, where Shapiro is a frequent weekend guest. Crewdson’s father was one of the founders of a 500-acre land trust, Becket Hills, where his family built a log cabin getaway. The land trust was sold a few years ago, but Crewdson now has his own Berkshire haven – a deconsecrated church outside of Great Barrington.
Sitting at a long wooden table in his sparsely furnished church, the man known for creating the most cinematic, enigmatic photos was direct and open about his work, his life, how it felt to be on the other side of the lens as the subject of a documentary, and his connection to this region.
Crewdson says he finds inspiration in the Berkshires for reasons that remain mysterious even to him, but that he’s following in the footsteps of artists he admires. “Certain artists are drawn to a certain place for one reason or another that connects to your imagination – I think of John Cheever, or Edward Hopper, or William Faulkner,” he says. “The first pictures I made here were when I was in college. I went to SUNY Purchase undergraduate, and I started making pictures of a nondescript red car in front of a suburban house. I think I’ve been making some version of that picture over and over ever since.”
“I started really seriously photographing in the area when I was at Yale as a graduate student between 1986 and ’88. That was when I really started working with storytelling and psychological undercurrent, and using light and color to tell a story. I was less interested in using this place in a documentary way; I was always interested in using it as a backdrop to explore my own fears and anxieties. I’ve always been trying to create a photographic language that hovers between reality and fiction. That’s really important.”
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Even the most unschooled observer can sense the narrative tension in a Crewdson photograph; if you haven’t seen one in person, it’s well worth a visit to the Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield, where ‘Untitled (from the series Beneath the Roses)’ (2004) currently hangs in the Feigenbaum Hall of Innovation. This massive, color-saturated print depicts a car stopped in the middle of an intersection at twilight. There’s woman in the passenger seat, but the driver’s seat is empty, and the door is open. Steam rises up from North Street, where the image was shot, just down the road from the Museum. There’s definitely something out of the ordinary going on, but what that is remains a mystery. It could be a scene from David Lynch’s Blue Velvet, a film that Crewdson cites as inspirational.
Crewdson has fond memories of going to Pittsfield to see movies as a kid, when cinemas dotted North Street. He often takes his own children – Lily, who is 4, and Walker, 7 – to Berkshire Museum, but he says they are unfazed by the fact that their dad’s work hangs on the wall. “It’s very moving to have it there, but my kids haven’t really seemed to notice. They’re much more interested in the aquarium downstairs and the poop exhibition. They love that; that’s mesmerizing to them.”
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Whereas Crewdson remains mesmerized by Pittsfield, the setting for most of his Beneath the Roses location shots, in which he used rain, fog, and snow machines; rented cranes for elaborate lighting; and enlisted the aid of the police department to shut down streets, or the fire department so that he could shoot burning buildings, as well as hiring special effects experts and other filmmaking professionals. His shoots nearly always took place at twilight, to capture a perfect moment against a moody sky.
His interior shots for the series were produced at MASS MoCA, where he turned the Hunter Center into a soundstage for weeks at a time, and hired an entire crew to build intricate sets and create scenes that are both mundane and unnerving. Says Joe Thompson, MASS MoCA’s director, “For Ophelia – the shot of the woman floating in the flooded living room – we helped Gregory build a living room, and then flooded it with water. Gregory is a thoughtful artist/director: I remember that he warmed the water so the model wouldn’t freeze.” Crewdson is now a member of the MASS MoCA board of directors.
Nearly all the cultural institutions of the Berkshires have had their Crewdson moments. In 2006 the Williams College Museum of Art mounted a show contextualizing his work with Edward Hopper, one of his clearest influences. He has given talks at the Norman Rockwell Museum, and he’s pleased that Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters, will receive one if its first public screenings at the Mahaiwe. Says Crewdson, “We were very close family friends with Pauline Kael (the New Yorker film critic who had a house in Great Barrington), and she used to invite us to screenings after hours at the Mahaiwe when I was a child…. It’s great to have this connection to not only making pictures here but also being in the dialog, and doing what I can do to help, to do everything that I can do to be supportive of these institutions.”
The most cinematic of photographers admits that having the camera lens trained on him took some getting used to, but because Shapiro was on his production sets for so long he practically became a member of the crew. “It’s not as if I didn’t notice him,” says Crewdson. “He sort of became part of the fabric of the thing. I never thought an actual movie would come out. The weird thing was, as it happened, all this stuff in my life started happening, my marriage fell apart… The film doesn’t deal directly with this stuff, it’s just weird how the timing of it coincided with all these changes in my life.”
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As Shapiro came close to finishing the documentary, Crewdson recounts, “I saw a working version of it in his apartment. The first time I saw it it was really hard to see – it was hard to see myself in a very unhappy period of my life… I was really stunned. I was kind of speechless at the end of it… Every time I saw it I allowed it to sink in a little bit more… And then I finally saw the final film projected on a large screen at the Beacon Cinema, a private screening, and that was really mind-blowing to see it on a big screen on North Street in the middle of the day essentially in an empty theater, and I was very moved by it.”
BIFF founder Kelley Vickery, who was at that screening, has scored a coup. Not only will the June 1 screening at the Mahaiwe be one of the first times this film is shown in public (it premiered in March at SXSW); both Crewdson and Shapiro will be present at the screening (as will many members of the crew), and Crewdson says it will be the only event at which he has agreed to speak.
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Now that he’s been the subject of a film, would this most cinematic of photographers consider making his own movie? “There’s always discussion of making movies. I never rule it out completely.” Hollywood has come calling, he says, and, “I never say no to the conversation, but I never say yes, either. The main reason I haven’t done it is I haven’t found the story that I want to tell as a movie. When I find that, then I’ll consider it. I really like being in the in-between place of photographs and movies. I think enough people make movies, and they do it great. I don’t have to add to that.”
Having embraced the Berkshires historically and creatively, Crewdson is taking a professional stake in the region. He’s shutting down his New York studio and setting up shop in the second building on his property, a former firehouse. And now that the spring semester is over, he has time off from his job as director of Yale’s photography department and is getting back to work. “My next body of work is definitely going to be here, particularly with my studio up and going. I really hope to make inroads on it this summer,” he says. As for what his next series will be, he says, “It’s all the same story, basically. You can’t get away from yourself.”
Back in the church, there’s not a trace of photography gear in sight. “I don’t really make pictures in my everyday life. I actually have to remind myself to take pictures of my children. I don’t feel comfortable with the camera in my hand.” Nor is there much of anything else, just some book shelves, a smattering of furniture, a guitar and a teeny tiny drum set, which, Crewdson unnecessarily points out, belongs to his son, Walker. “We’re in a band,” he says, smiling. Rock on. —Bess J.M. Hochstein
All images from Beneath the Roses are used with permission of the artist. © Gregory Crewdson. Courtesy Gagosian Gallery.
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Posted by Bess Hochstein on 05/17/12 at 08:29 AM • Permalink
The 30 Hottest Tickets of the Summer Season
We know how you hate to commit. But, trust us, the hottest happenings on the horizon have such sizzle, tickets for them are not going to last. Bess Hochstein has scoured the region and come up with the 30 tickets of the season that are likeliest to sell out—and fast. We urge you to buy yours now or risk being left out in the cold.
Marina Abramović and Gregory Crewdson at the Berkshire International Film Festival
Both internationally acclaimed artists have been profiled in new feature-length documentaries, and both these giants of the art world will be make a rare personal appearance at BIFF’s seventh season to participate in post-screening Q&As and special events. Marina Abramović: The Artist is Present screens on June 1, after a cocktail party and dinner for passholders. Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters screens on June 3 and will be followed by a closing night party for passholders. All-access film passes are already sold out, but higher-level passes that include the festival’s special events are still available.
Berkshire International Film Festival, Great Barrington & Pittsfield, MA May 31 - June 3
Levon Helm Tribute at Club Helsinki Hudson
For some music fans, the highlight of last summer’s Solid Sound Festival at MASS MoCA came when Levon Helm took the stage, especially as members of Wilco joined him to perform “I Shall Be Released.” The Band’s drummer and singer was a beloved figure, and his death last month, after a prolonged battle with throat cancer, was mourned around the world. The memorials continue, and tickets to this tribute to Helm—featuring Ambrosia Parsley, Diamond Doves, Elvis Perkins in Dearland, the Felice Brothers, and special guests yet to be announced—will be scarce.
Club Helsinki Hudson, Hudson, NY June 7 @ 8 p.m.
Fiddler on the Roof at Barrington Stage Company
Barrington Stage’s tradition of opening the season with a gangbuster musical continues when curtains rise on the oft-told tale of Tevye and his daughters in Czarist Russia, adapted from a story by Sholem Aleichem. Ticket sales for this classic are already through the roof.
BSC Mainstage, Pittsfield, MA June 13 – July 14
Here Lies Love at MASS MoCA
When David Byrne and Fatboy Slim collaborated on an album based on the rise and fall of Imelda Marcos, it was news enough. In interviews, Byrne let drop that he had a larger vision for Here Lies Love, and now he’s bringing it to life during a residency at MASS MoCA, which will culminate in this multimedia rock opera work-in-progess production, presented by Williamstown Theatre Festival in conjunction with The Public Theater, where the finished piece is slated to debut. Byrne fans, and they are legion, are clamoring to see this show.
Hunter Center, North Adams, MA June 21 — 24
Chesterwood Presents an Evening with Annie Leibovitz
at the Mahaiwe
In her new book, Pilgrimage, the photographer known for her celebrity portraits re-trains her lens to focus on her vision of America, including fresh images from classic places and the homes of iconic figures from U.S. history. Several images taken at sculptor Daniel Chester French’s studio appear in the book. Premium tickets for $75 include reserved orchestra seating and a post-lecture reception; only 70 of these tickets will be sold. General reserved seating is $27 for adults, $17 for students.
Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, Great Barrington, MA
Monday, June 25 @ 7 p.m.
The Blue Deep at Williamstown Theatre Festival
This world premiere by Lucy Boyle has searing star power. Director Bob Balaban and actor Blythe Danner, who has spent many summers in Williamstown, are both returning for this full production after having participated in last summer’s sold-out reading of the play.
Nikos Stage, Willilamstown, MA June 27 – July 8
The Fortress of Solitude at Powerhouse Theater
Jonathan Lethem’s 2003 best-seller—a semi-autobigrahical exploration of friendship, race, music, changing times, and superpowers—is being adapted into a musical with book by Itamar Moses and music and lyrics by Michael Friedman (Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson). Expect a moving story and a lively score that riffs on 1970s soul in this concert reading, conceived and directed by Daniel Aukin.
Vogelstein Center for Drama and Film, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY June 29 – July 1
Talking Sex with Dr. Ruth at Barrington Stage Company
Given Mark St. Germain’s sensational success in the Berkshires and Broadway (Freud’s Last Session), the premiere of his one-woman show, Dr. Ruth, All the Way, starring Debra Jo Rupp, is already burning up the box office. But things will really heat up when St. Germain moderates this one-night-only discussion and Q&A with Dr. Ruth Westheimer in the flesh, followed by a champagne reception with the diminutive doctor for VIP ticketholders.
BSC Mainstage, Pittsfield, MA
Monday, July 2, 7 p.m.;
play runs on BSC’s Stage 2 June 19 – July 15
The Capitol Steps at Cranwell
Election-year politics are unavoidable. We say, if you can’t beat ‘em, laugh at ‘em. And you’ve got two months to do so when the Capitol Steps return for their sixth summer residency at Cranwell. Given the current state of our Union, the Steps are assured of having fresh fodder to parody in song for their entire stay. But don’t put off reserving your seat; ticket sales build throughout the summer and shows often sell out. Fortunately, this year Cranwell has added a Sunday matinee.
Cranwell Resort, Lenox, MA July 2 – September 2
A Chorus Line at The Colonial Theatre
Audiences are kicking up their heels at the chance to see Michael Bennett’s Pultizer Prize- and Tony Award-winning singular sensation, staged by the same artistic team that produced last year’s hit musical, Tommy.
The Colonial Theatre, Pittsfield, MA July 7 – 21
The Imaginary Invalid (Le Malade Imaginaire)
at Bard SummerScape
Following their critically acclaimed, contemporary-day staging of Uncle Vanya in 2008, husband-and-wife team Peter Dinklage and Erica Schmidt reunite for an all-male production of Molière’s last play. Schmidt directs as Dinklage plays Toinette, saucy maid-servant and confidant to Argan, the wealthy housebound hypochondriac determined to marry his daughter to a doctor. Dinklage’s star has risen even further since his last SummerScape appearance, thanks to his role in the hit HBO series Game of Thrones. If you want to see him play this gender-bent character, pick up the phone now.
Fisher Center, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY July 13 – 15, 18 – 22
75th Anniversary Gala Concert at Tanglewood
A stellar, celebratory evening featuring the Boston Symphony, Boston Pops, and Tangelwood Music Center orchestras with performances by Emanuel Ax, Yo-Yo Ma, James Taylor, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Peter Serkin, and other special guests, led by conductors John Williams, Keith Lockart, and Andris Nelsons. Don’t fret too much if you can’t make it; PBS will be airing this historic evening on its Great Performances series. But there’s nothing quite like seeing a spectacle of this caliber live, especially when it ends with a firework display—which, given the occasion, promises to be exceptional.
The Shed, Lenox, MA July 14 @ 8:30 p.m.
Hong Kong Ballet at Jacob’s Pillow
Tickets are already scarce for this troupe’s rare North American performance and Pillow debut. The program includes work by top international choreographers Nils Christie, Peter Quanz, and Canadian-born, European-trained Kinsun Chan, with the U.S. premiere of his Black on Black. Photo: Gordon Wong
Ted Shawn Theatre, Becket, MA July 18 – 22
The Power of Duff at Powerhouse Theater
New York Stage and Film artistic director Johanna Pfaelzer forecasts that this new play by Powerhouse alum Stephen Belber (in photo), about an anchorman who has a spiritual awakening during a live television broadcast, will be a huge hit this season. Neither she nor the folks at Vassar are naming names, but expect some exciting news when the cast is announced.
Mainstage, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY July 18 – 29
The Tempest at Shakespeare & Company
Starring Olympia Dukakis as Prospero. Need we say more?
Founders’ Theatre, Lenox, MA July 19 – August 19
Far From Heaven at Williamstown Theatre Festival
The musical adaptation of Todd Haynes’ 2002 film – itself an homage to the films of Douglas Sirk, including the 1955 drama All That Heaven Allows – is sure to attract a curious crowd anxious to scope out this preview production with book by Tony-Award-winner Richard Greenberg (Take Me Out) and an original score by Scott Frankel (composer) and Michael Korie (lyricist), the team behind Grey Gardens.
WTF Main Stage, Williamstown, MA July 19 – 29
Susan Orlean at The Mount
Rin Tin Tin, the German Shepherd who became a movie star (along with his many progeny) remains popular enough to more than fill The Mount’s limited seating, even decades after his death. The local author who penned a biography of this canine celebrity is no slouch either when it comes to attracting a crowd.
The Mount, Lenox, MA Monday, July 23 @ 4 p.m.
The Elephant Man at Williamstown Theatre Festival
Don’t miss this opportunity to see Bernard Pomerance’s play, which made its Broadway debut in 1979 and garnered the Tony Award for best play and the Drama Desk Award for outstanding new play, in WTF’s intimate Nikos theater. Starring Patricia Clarkson and Bradley Cooper, the high-wattage cast could easily fill WTF’s Main Stage, and then some. It’s something of a tradition to cast extremely good-looking men (David Bowie! Billy Crudup!) to play the deformed lead character, John Merrick, and with Cooper in the role, this production is no exception. It’s familiar territory for Cooper, who twisted himself into the very same role for his NYU Actors Drama School thesis performance.
Nikos Stage, Williamstown, MA July 25 - August 5
Paul Taylor Dance Company at the Mahaiwe
Two New England premieres plus popular pieces from the repertoire (including Esplanade and Aureole, marking the 50th anniversary of this seminal dance) make the company’s fifth-consecutive summer appearance at the Mahaiwe a must-see.
Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, Great Barrington, MA
July 26 – 28
The King in Spite of Himself (Le Roi Malgré Lui)
at Bard SummerScape
Bard’s Mainstage summer operas are sure to sell out, thanks in part to a string of rave reviews from the New York Times. Would-be audiences are strongly encouraged to buy tickets in advance for this production of Emmanuel Chabrier’s comic opera about a reluctant ruler, the first staged revival of the composer’s 1887 production. It’s directed by Thaddeus Strassberger, who helmed Bard’s ballyhooed operas of the past two summers: Les Huguenots (2009) and The Distant Sound (2010).
Fisher Center, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY July 27 & 29; August 1, 3 & 5
Jonah Bokaer x David Hallberg at Jacob’s Pillow
Bokaer, the “It Boy” of American contemporary dance (and a School at Jacob’s Pillow alum ) joins forces with Hallberg, the captivating classical dancer from South Dakota who shot to fame at American Ballet Theatre, then did a much-ballyhooed “reverse defection” to the Bolshoi Ballet. Hallberg fills venues with thousands of seats; dance fans are clamoring at the chance to see this duo in the Pillow’s much more intimate black box theater. Sets by visual artist Daniel Arsham only up the ante. Photo: Erin Baiano
Doris Duke Theatre, Becket, MA August 1 – 5
Barbara Cook & John Pizzarelli at the Mahaiwe
If jazz singer/guitarist John Pizzarelli doesn’t already own a house in this region he should probably consider buying one, given his increasingly frequent—and always popular—appearances at the Mahaiwe and Tanglewood. For one night only he teams up with celebrated soprano Barbara Cook—who has been named a Living New York Landmark, inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame, and feted at the recent Kennedy Center Honors—for an unforgettable evening of song. Word to the wise: tickets for this exclusive event are already scarce.
The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, Great Barrington, MA August 4 @ 8 p.m.
Bill Engvall at The Colonial Theatre
Best known for his work on the Blue Collar Comedy Tour, which led to his own TBS sitcom and a gig hosting Country Fried Home Videos on CMT, Bill Engvall is packing them in for two shows on one night.
The Colonial Theatre, Pittsfield, MA August 4 @ 7:30 p.m. & 9:30 p.m.
Trey McIntyre Project at Jacob’s Pillow
Since making its debut at the Pillow in 2005 as a pick-up company, TMP has developed a fervid fan base; tickets are flying for this engagement. The mixed program’s inclusion of a new work based on Marlo Thomas’ Free to Be… You and Me amps up the baby-boomer appeal. Photo: Lois Greenfield
Ted Shawn Theatre, Becket, MA August 8 – 12
John Williams’ 80th Birthday Celebration at Tanglewood
Join in a birthday party of epic proportions for this prolific composer of film scores and classical music, featuring a concert by the Boston Pops with special performances by Yo-Yo-Ma, Gabriela Montero, Jessye Norman, Leonard Slatkin, and other surprise guests.
The Shed, Lenox, MA Saturday, August 18 @ 8:30 p.m.
Saint-Saëns’s Henry VIII at Bard SummerScape
The Bard Music Festival’s two-weekend-long exploration of the life and times and work of Camille Saint-Saëns culminates in a rare concert performance of this grand opera, with full orchestra and chorus, conducted by Leon Botstein. The pre-concert talk, Out of the Shadow of Samson and Delilah: Saint-Saëns’ Other Grand Opera, will put this 1881-82 work in context.
Fisher Center, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY Sunday, August 19 @ 3:30 p.m.
Betty Buckley at the Mahaiwe
The Tony-Award-winning triple threat takes a gender-bending star turn in her new show, Ah, Men! The Boys of Broadway. In this one-night-only appearance, Buckley performs her favorite men’s songs from Broadway classics such as Sweeney Todd, West Side Story, Guys and Dolls, Pippin, and La Cage aux Folles. The show debuted earlier this year in New York and the music is soon to be released as a CD; the intriguing concept of the show combined with Buckley’s ardent fan following make this a ticket to pounce on. Tickets at the $150 level include a reception with the artist.
The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, Great Barrington, NY Sunday, August 19 @ 7 p.m.
The Joffrey Ballet at Jacob’s Pillow
Since leaving New York for Chicago in 1995, the Joffrey rarely travels east of the Hudson; balletomanes are abuzz that this legendary company – founded by a protégé of Ted Shawn – will close the 80th anniversary season with its first Pillow appearance since the 1960s. Photo: Herbert Migdoll
Ted Shawn Theatre, Becket, MA August 22 – 26
Satchmo at The Waldorf at Shakespeare & Company
This one-man play written by Wall Street Journal drama critic Terry Teachout stars John Douglas Thompson – who never fails to set the stage afire with his searing performances – as Louis Armstrong.
Founder’s Theatre, Lenox, MA August 22 – September 16
Parsons Dance at PS21
Though David Parsons has headed his own company since 1987, he can’t escape his renown as a leading dancer for Paul Taylor, and why would he want to? Parsons burst on the scene with his signature solo, Caught, in which, through some fancy footwork and split-second strobe lighting effects, he appeared to fly around the stage. His regular appearances at this intimate summer stage in an old apple orchard are every bit as magical as that clever choreography, and since seating is extremely limited, don’t wait until the waning days of summer to reserve your tickets for this season-ending show.
Parsons Dance, Chatham, NY August 31 & September 1
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Posted by Bess Hochstein on 04/13/12 at 12:40 PM • Permalink
Pie Contest in A Box: Competitive Baking with a Soul
Two years ago, Gina Hyams was helping organize the pie contest for Hancock Shaker Village’s annual Country Fair, and she was knocked out by the passion of the participants. “People were so excited to be judges,” she recalls, noting that the panel included The New Yorker’s Susan Orlean and RI‘s Marilyn Bethany. “And, of course, the bakers were very excited about being contestants, too.” She did not think this enthusiasm was particular to the Berkshires and Hudson Valley, which led to an epiphany: One night, she woke up at 4 a.m. and told her groggy husband that her next book project would be Pie Contest In A Box. “It came to me all at once,” says Hyams, who was proud to be ahead of the curve. “It was a year and a half before The New York Times suggested that pies are the new cupcakes.”
Now, bookstores, gourmet shops and housewares emporiums across the United States are selling her Pie Contest in A Box ($14.99), which includes a history of pie (she interviewed 24 passionate bakers), recipes (she used Facebook to recruit testers), scorecards, flags to identify the pies, and ribbons for the winners. Having written several books and one similar kit—Day of the Dead Box—Hyams knew she would have to produce a book proposal that would make her concept seem not only irresistibly clever but also lucrative. “Pie Contest in a Box appeals to people who are looking for fun, inexpensive ways to build community,” she wrote. “The notion of pie contests has the retro appeal of vintage cocktals, but is just emerging as a trend, with pie contests popping up at farmers markets and at hipster events like the Fall Jazz Age Lawn Party on Governor’s Island.”
To celebrate the publication of Pie Contest in a Box, Hyams is hosting a public pie contest at Route 7 Grill in Great Barrington on Sunday, July 10, at 4 pm. (Contestants should bring their pies by 3 p.m., if possible, though there may be a traffic snarl because of the 250th birthday parade in Great Barrington earlier in the day.) The contest will be a benefit for the community radio station WBCR-LP (where both her daughter, Annalena, and her husband, Dave Barrett, have programs) with a sliding scale admission of $5 - 10. “In the spirit of community radio, everyone gets to sample pies and everyone gets to vote,” she says. “The point is how pie contests bring people together.”
Pie contests, she notes, can be held for wedding showers, family reunions or fire-department fundraisers, and she suggests themes for the contests such as “Hard-Core Locavore,” “Single Ingredient,” or “Totally-Not-Made-From-Scratch Speed-Baking.” Hyams, who moved to the Berkshires after living in Mexico and California, has done public relations for organizations such as Berkshire Theatre Festival, the Mahaiwe and Hancock Shaker Village. Now she’s a player in the pie world. “There really is a pie world,” she says, noting that she was a judge herself at the American Pie Council Crisco National Pie Championship. “I judged the Sweet Potato pies.” Her publisher, Andrews McMeel, is so impressed with the response to the project that they have commissioned Hyams to create Chili Cookoff in a Box and Christmas Cookie Contest in a Box, too. “Competetive cooking can be a tool for community building,” she says.
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 07/06/11 at 08:23 AM • Permalink
20 Questions for “Moonchildren” Director Karen Allen
Moonchildren, a play by Michael Weller set over the course of the 1965-66 school year in an unnamed college town, has been called “a masterwork by one of our great writers.” Actress (Raiders of the Lost Ark, White Irish Drinkers) and director Karen Allen, who mounted a well-received student production of Weller’s play at Bard College at Simon’s Rock two years ago, is doing it again with professionals at the Berkshire Theatre Festival (details below). Dan Shaw recently posed the RI 20 to Allen, who also owns an eponymous Great Barrington clothing boutique that specializes in handknit cashmeres of her own design.
1. How did you end up moving to the Berkshires?
I was living in New York City and came to Stockbridge for the first time in 1981 to work at the Berkshire Theatre Festival, then I worked at Williamstown for several summers in the mid-80’s and fell in love with the countryside here. I wanted a place to escape from New York, especially after a long run of a play or when coming back to the east coast after finishing a film on location. I needed more space around me: the quiet and the fresh air and the trees.
2. What’s your favorite way to spend a Friday night?
For me Friday nights are for friends. I love to have people over to my house and make a meal together, play music, talk, drink wine, play pool, make a bond fire down by my pond and such.
3. What’s your favorite way to spend a Sunday morning?
Sunday mornings are sacred sleep-in mornings for me. Reading in bed without having to look at the clock is heaven; whatever book I’m in the middle of, The Sunday Times, good magazine articles, a proper breakfast, which I seem to never have time for the rest of the week.
4. Where’s you favorite spot for bargain hunting?
Sadly, most of the true bargain hunting spots I used to know in the Berkshires don’t exist anymore. It’s even hard to find a bargain at Brimfield these days. I used to love the auctions at Bradford’s.
5. Where do you go for a self-indulgent splurge?
I love all the beautiful things Renee and Paul bring back from Thailand at Home on Rt 23 in Egremont. I also love Lili and Loo in Hudson.
6. What’s your favorite one-hour drive from your house?
I have two. I love to spend the day in Hudson just roaming around, looking in the antique shops and having lunch at one of the wonderful restaurants that keep popping up, Swoon, or Baba Louie’s or Mexican Radio and staying into the evening to see who’s playing at Helsinki, above, (which i miss so much since they left Great Barrington). And a day in Williamstown is always fun…. going to the Clark or MASS MoCA.
7. What’s your favorite historic site?
The Mount is pretty irresistible. I used to perform there with Shakespeare & Co. on the outdoor stage. The house and the gardens are beautiful and mysterious. I am transported to the world that Edith Wharton lived in when I’m there.
8. What three things do you always do with house guests?
In summer I take them to Tanglewood for a picnic, right, and a concert. On a beautiful morning, we might go for long walks off the beaten path in Monterey or New Marlboro and end the day with dinner at the Old Inn on the Green or the Southfield Store. In the Winter I take friends to ski at Butternut, afterwards climb into a hot tub in the snow behind my barn and build big roaring fire later with glass of wine or cocoa in hand.
9. What’s your favorite bookstore or bookstores?
I love Matt Tannenbaum’s Bookstore in Lenox and the Bookloft in Great Barrington. They are always great about getting books for you quickly if they don’t have them.
10. What’s your favorite hardware store and/or garden center?
I can spend hours and hours looking at trees, seeds, bulbs, flowers, berries, vegetables, gardening tools, bird feeders, etc., and do every Spring, Summer and Fall at both Windy Hill in Stockbridge and at Ward’s in Great Barrington. I have an on-going romance with gardens. My favorite hardware store is [Harland B.]Foster’s in Great Barrington. It has that great old-timey hardware store feel.
11. Where do you shop for clothes? Do you have a favorite salesperson?
Well, I hate to toot my own horn, but I love my clothing store in Great Barrington, Karen Allen Fiber Arts and I love the women who work for me..Susan, Susan, Barbara and Rachel. They are wonderful. I have a blast shopping for the clothing we carry in my store at the designer’s shows in NYC and looking for unique and beautiful things. I also carry my own line of cashmere knitwear and quite a few of our local jewelry, handbag and knitwear designers as well.
12. Who do you trust to recommend wines?
I have some friends who are always turning me on to good wines. Other than that, I just dive in and experiment when I’m wine shopping on my own. I’ve always found Lock, Stock and Barrell in Great Barrington to be really helpful with wine choices, but it’s off my beaten path, and I don’t get there often enough.
13. Who are your local heroes?
There are so many. A lot of teachers who I’ve met at the Rudolf Steiner School where my son went and Simon’s Rock College as well. Some wonderful therapists and social workers I know who really are making a difference in people’s lives. Lola Jaffe for bringing the Mahaiwe back to life and Kelley Vickery for starting the Berkshire International Film Festival and keeping it going with such intelligence and enthusiasm, Kate Maguire, left, for holding the Berkshire Theatre Festival, in Stockbridge, to a high standard and taking on the Colonial in Pittsfield as well. Everyone who is championing and maintaining our arts organizations here in the Berkshires. The Railroad Street Youth Project, and the mentoring projects they set up. And I could go on and on. We are rich with sung and unsung heroes here.
14. What newspapers or blogs do you read every day?
Almost none. I’m not much of a blog reader unless someone sends me a link about something specific. I just don’t enjoy spending any more time on the computer than i absolutely have to. I don’t really read a daily newspaper these days either.The Sunday New York Times. New York Magazine, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, and Departures is the extent of my news in paper form. I tend to listen to WAMC or the BBC news in my car or will turn on a bit of television news at night if I have time. My days get so busy I often rely on my more well-informed friends to catch me up.
15. What does it mean to own a local business in Great Barrington?
I’ve had three different businesses here and each one has brought me into the community in a different way. My first was Berkshire Mountain Yoga from 1995 to 2000, then Monterey fiber Arts, my knitwear studio, and finally I opened my shop, Karen Allen Fiber Arts in 2005. I have an ongoing opportunity to meet and work with so many wonderful people who I might not have met otherwise and to be of service in whatever way I can.
16. Where’s your favorite place for live performance?
I like small clubs, so it used to be Helsinki before it moved. I still love Helsinki in Hudson, but it’s a bit of a drive. I love Tanglewood in the summer and I love the concerts at the Mahaiwe year round.
17. Where’s your favorite place for breakfast?
I’m not a big breakfast eater and rarely eat breakfast out. My house is my favorite breakfast spot. My porch when the weather is nice. I do love Rubi’s in Great Barrington though for a great cafe au lait or coffee and a killer egg sandwich. The Southfield Store is where I take friends when they are visiting. The atmosphere and breakfast there is delicious and relaxing.
18. What’s your favorite Berkshires tradition?
Packing up a wonderful picnic and going early for dinner on the lawn at Tanglewood. Lying on the grass under the stars and listening to a great cellist, or pianist or orchestra or James Taylor on the 4th of July.. Sublime!!
19. What’s the best thing about not living in NY or LA?
Waking up in the morning and hearing the wind in the trees and so many different birds calling out across the woods and ponds. Seeing a flock of turkeys bob their way across the lawn, the occasional bear lumber by, the painted turtles laying their eggs, the porcupines trying to eat the willow buds, the peepers and bullfrogs breaking into an almost deafening symphony every night in the Spring, the smell of fresh cut grass and on and on and on. Playing music loud in my house and not having anyone complain about the noise.
20. What are you looking forward to?
I’m recently back from taking my son to Copenhagen to help him find an apartment and get settled as an intern in the kitchen at the restaurant NOMA and now I’m rehearsing Moonchildren, so I’m looking forward to the opening.
The Berkshire Theatre Festival
Unicorn Theatre
Previews, June 28 - July 1
Opens July 2 - July 16
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 06/22/11 at 05:33 PM • Permalink
The Second Annual Hudson Pride Festival June 17 - 19
Hudson Pride 2010 Grand Marshals Charlie Ferrusi and Timmy Howard.
One year ago, Hudson became the undisputed LGBT capital of the Rural Intelligence region with the inaugural Hudson Pride Parade and Festival. Galvanized by the surprising and groundbreaking election of Hudson High School seniors Charlie Ferrusi and Timmy Howard as prom queen and king (who were recruited at the last minute to become the parade’s grand marshals), locals, transplants and weekenders came together in unprecedented fashion: They jubilantly celebrated their hyper-stylish but rough-around-the-edges city as a community of diversity, inclusivity and acceptance. This year’s three-day Hudson Pride Festival expands upon last year’s promise with events for everyone, including an under 21 dance at the Cannonball Factory on June 18 and a Family Festival on June 19 with facepainting, balloon animals and a bouncy castle. “Last year, we looked around and saw so many children that we realized we wanted to make sure straight and gay families could fully participate,” says Hudson Pride Foundation executive director Martha Harvey.
Until the formation of Hudson Pride last year, there was no organization in Columbia County devoted to the concerns of the county’s LGBT residents. “Though we are based in Hudson, we want to serve residents of Chatham, Ghent, Hillsdale and Germantown—everybody who lives in the county,” says Harvey, who notes the foundation offers to provide rides for teens without transportation who want to participate in the first Sunday of the month discussion groups at the Hudson Opera House. “We’d like to offer a group for parents, too,” says Harvey, explaining that eliminating homophobia 
is one of the foundation’s major goals. “There’s still a lot of hate and ignorance out there. But if you can educate a mind, you can open a mind.” she says. “If you open a mind, you can open a heart.” What’s especially remarkable about Hudson Pride’s rapid growth is its grassroots nature and that nearly everyone inovlved is an amateur community organizer. “The only one with organizing experience was Rich Volo, who’s better known as Trixie Starr, who mostly had experience organizing drag queen events. But so many people have been motivated by the momentum that we created last year that this year’s festival is going to be phenomenal. It’s so much bigger than we ever expected.”
Friday June 17
Sunset Cruise 6 - 9 pm (Sold Out)
Moonlight Cruise 9 p.m. - midngiht ($30)
Saturday June 18
Parade on Warren Street noon
Rally at Promenade Hill Park 1 - 4 p.m.
Free Cabaret at Club Helsinki 5 - 10 p.m.
Adult Dance Party with DJ Todd Patterson at Club Helsinki 10 p.m. - 2 a.m. ($10 in advance; $15 at the door)
Over the Rainbow Dance Party for ages 12 - 20
Free admission, drinks and pizza at the Cannonball Factory
Sunday, June 19
Family Pride Day BeLo 3rd Street noon - 4 p.m.
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 06/15/11 at 01:29 PM • Permalink
Lift Ev’ry Voice Arts and Heritage Festival
by Tresca Weinstein
Berkshire County’s Lift Ev’ry Voice arts and heritage festival doesn’t officially begin until Sunday, but it’s already bringing the community together. “This has been one of those projects that is very unifying—there’s a place that has been made for everyone,” says festival co-chair Shirley Edgerton, left with co-chair Don Quinn Kelley. The combined efforts of community members, grass-roots organizations, and high-profile arts venues have resulted in five weeks (June 19 – July 23) packed with some three dozen events celebrating African-American history and culture in the county.
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The festival, which boasts Governor Deval Patrick and First Lady Diane Patrick as honorary co-chairs, has events running the gamut from free dance performances at Jacob’s Pillow and an ongoing film series at the Clark to bigger-ticket items, such as Earth, Wind & Fire’s Tanglewood show on June 25 and hip-hop artist Talib Kweli’s appearance at the Colonial Theatre on July 22. The festival kicks off on June 19 with a free family-friendly Juneteenth celebration in Pittsfield (the day was declared a state holiday by Governor Patrick in 2007, commemorating the end of slavery in Texas on June 19, 1865). A performance by Evelyn Harris, a founding member of the Grammy Award-winning a cappella ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock, is the centerpiece of the afternoon, which also includes drumming, world music and gospel as well as food and local vendors. Opening night features a performance at the Colonial of composer Craig S. Harris’ “God’s Trombones,” (above) based on James Weldon Johnson’s book God’s Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse. Johnson, who owned a summer home in the Berkshires from 1926 until his death in 1938, also wrote the African-American anthem “Lift Ev’ry Voice And Sing,” for which the festival is named.
The countywide celebration—evidently the first of its kind here—was sparked by Eugenie Sills, of The Women’s Times. Sills was inspired by a production of “…And Ain’t I A Woman: Unsung African American Heroines,” part of a 2009 Berkshire Festival of Women in the Arts sponsored by her paper, which ceased publication last spring. “…And Ain’t I A Woman” will be reprised on July 16 at Monument Mountain High School in Great Barrington. Plays, concerts and gallery openings—as well as a topiary-cutting demonstration, of all things—ensure the festival “is in keeping with the focus in Berkshire County on showcasing creativity and our cultural life here,” says Edgerton, who co-produced the original “...And Ain’t I a Woman” and is director of Pittsfield’s Youth Alive Step Dance and Drumline (above right), who will perform, and founder of the Women of Color Giving Circle of the Berkshires.
According to Megan Whilden, a member of the festival’s steering committee and Director of Cultural Development for the City of Pittsfield, Lift Ev’ry Voice builds on the work of the Upper Housatonic Valley African American Heritage Trail. The Trail marks significant historic sites, such as W.E.B. Du Bois’ childhood home, the Colonel Ashley House in Sheffield, where abolitionist hero Elizabeth Freeman was enslaved, and Jacob’s Pillow, thought to have been a station on the Underground Railroad. “African-American history and culture is a part of our larger Berkshire history and culture, and should be known, and celebrated, by all of us,” Sills says. In service of education as well as entertainment, the festival includes lectures, documentaries, panel discussions and a salute to baseball great Ulysses “Frank” Grant (left), a Negro Leagues player and native of Pittsfield.
In homage to our living legends, a Tribute to the Elders is set for July 9, honoring the county’s African Americans aged 70 and up. On the other end of the age spectrum, MASS MoCA has gotten into the act with a Youth Day on July 2 featuring a workshop and dance party with the social-activist hip-hop group Readnex. “One of the goals closest to our heart is to empower and inspire African-American young people by exposing them to the arts and to history,” Whilden says. “It’s about the past and the present, but it’s also about the future.”
Lift Ev’ry Voice: African-American Culture and Heritage
June 19 - July 23, 2011
Juneteenth Celebration
Sunday, June 19, noon - 5 p.m.
Polish Community Center grounds
55 Linden St, Pittsfield
Admission/free
God’s Trombones
Sunday, June 19, 7 p.m.
The Colonial Theatre
Admission: Individuals/$10-$25; families (up to 5 people)/$65
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 06/14/11 at 03:41 PM • Permalink
Dan’s Diary: Musical Chairs in Millerton
It’s a good thing that the merchants of Millerton never decided to make a Monopoly board of the village, because there have been several changes in the retail landscape. Most notably, Jane Eckert Fine Art, which features the work of Eric Forstmann and Robert Rauschenberg, has arrived from Kent, CT, and Little Gates & Co. Wine Merchants (left) has moved to Main Street, taking over the space once occupied by Gilded Moon Framing, whose move to the old M&T Bank Building RI chronicled this winter. (Gilded Moon has an adjacent sculpture garden where Eckert is now showing the work of Boaz Vaadia.)
“We moved because we wanted to own rather than rent,” explains wine shop co-owner Andrew Gates, who now lives in the penthouse upstairs. “And we asked Jane if she’d like to be our neighbor because we thought a fine art gallery was important for the Millerton mix. Art and wine certainly go together.”
Meanwhile, Leslie Hoss Flood Interiors has taken over the old David Gavin Salon space in Railroad Plaza, which was being used by the 14th Colony Artists collective for exhibitions, which, at least for the next month or so, will be held in Flood’s old space on Main Street. Twisted plans to 
vacate its storefront on Dutchess Avenue and take over Little Gates’ old space on South Center Street. And for denizens of the Harlem Valley Rail Trail, there are two new shops catering to their needs: Mark Aloia’s Cycle & Fitness, on South Center Street, which sells, repairs and rents bicycles, and Torey Soracco’s Rail Trail Supply Co. (right) which is actually on the Rail Trail and sells gear “for active people and active pets.” This Saturday, June 4, is a good chance to check out what’s new: 14th Colony is having an opening reception from 4 - 9 p.m., and Little Gates and Eckert Fine Arts are hosting a town party on the lawn next to Gilded Moon from 4 - 7 p.m.
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 06/02/11 at 08:52 AM • Permalink
Pittsfield’s 250th Anniversary
History is often taken for granted in our neck of the woods with so many of our town dating back to before the revolution and the Declaration of Independence. Pittsfield, which is turning 250, will be having a year-long celebration, which kicks off this weekend. It will be a history lesson that not only honors the past (the city is named after William Pitt, the first Earl of Chatham) but also embraces the city’s evolution into a diverse, multicultural community. “The idea is for everyone to be involved,” says Megan Whilden, the city’s commissioner for cultural development. “And that is why our four major cultural institutions are offering free events this weekend.” 
The Berkshire Museum will have free admission all day Saturday, April 30, with a scavenger hunt, face painting, and two afternoon performances by David Grover. On Saturday night, Barrington Stage Company will host a screening of Glory, the 1989 Civil War film starring Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, and Morgan Freeman, which chronicles the Massachusetts 54th African American Regiment whose chaplain was Pittsfield’s Samuel Harrison, On Sunday, May 1, from 10 a.m. to noon, Hancock Shaker Village will offer free admission to Berkshire County residents for its annual Baby Animals exhibition. And at 2 p.m., the Boston Symphony Orchestra presents Tanglewood Music Center Fellows in a special chamber music concert at the Colonial Theatre. Click here for other weekend events.
One of the free offerings “sold out” within 24 hours earlier this month when 1,200 tickets were made available for a special roundtrip train ride between Pittsfield and Lenox, which is being offered as a collaborative effort of the Housatonic Railroad and the Berkshire Scenic Railway Museum. “It’s a great testament to the power of trains,” says Whilden, noting that it’s been 40 years since a southbound train has departed from Pittsfield. Whilden is especially excited about the Walk-Ons project: large 3 x 4 foot printed historic images will be installed on sidewalks throughout the city and remain in place through the Thanksgiving “Homecoming” weekend.
As cultural commissioner, Whilden takes great pride that the birthday begins with a Community Celebration Concert at the First Methodist Church on Friday at 5 p.m., which features the Eagles Band, Price Memorial Church Choir, Pittsfield Children’s Chorus, Town Players, Miss Behavin’, Terpsichore Dancers, Senior Singers, Gaia Roots Drummers, and Gospel Gang. “The only people who are left out are the baseball fans,” she says, “but the Colonials season at Wahconah Park does not begin until the end of May.”
Pittsfield 250
Kickoff Weekend April 29 - May 1
Welcome Back Weekend July 1 - 4
Homecoming Reunion Weekend November 25 - 27
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 04/27/11 at 01:53 PM • Permalink
Community News: Save 900 Columbia Avenue, Hudson
The Mental Health Association of Columbia-Greene Counties is planning to demolish this important very early 19th-century house in Hudson, unless they can be persuaded to rethink their plans. 900 Columbia Street near Columbia Memorial Hospital, sits at an important historic crossroads at Prospect Street, Columbia Street and Union Turnpike, leading from Hudson (once called Claverack Landing) to the hamlet of Claverack. An on-line petition has been organized.
While sympathetic to the Association’s need for a new facility, community activists, including Carole Osterink, whose blog, The Gossips of Rivertown is a Hudson must-read, and Ellen Thurston, who writes a popular .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) about goings-on, mostly in Hudson, are urging the Mental Health Association to reconsider and come up with another plan for another site. One need look no further than the dreary methadone clinic that irreparably scars the 100 block of Warren Street to see the long-term consequences of the current plan.
Anyone who cares about historic architecture and recognizes its critical role in Hudson’s revitalization and economic future, will want to read and sign the online petition. The deadline for signing the petition is Thursday, March 10.
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 03/07/11 at 02:39 PM • Permalink
