The Best of Media Matters 2012
Yankee Magazine
Visit to Stockbridge
A well-illustrated tour of the Red Lion Inn and Norman Rockwell Museum.
BBC
Quirky Culture North of NYC
The British are coming . . . to Hudson!
Albany Times-Union
Tiny NPR Affiliate Expands
Now Robin Hood Radio based in Sharon, CT, is also broadcasting to the Hudson Valley from Bard College.
The Guardian
Six Cool U.S. Cities
Great Barrington is included with Detroit, Tuscon, and Portland.
The New York Times
Karen Allen Returns in Summer Day at Cherry Lane Theater
Our Berkshire neighbor is back Off Broadway.
New York Magazine
The All-Artisanal Weekenders
Favorite new spots such as Hillrock Estate Distillery and Crimson Sparrow are featured as part of a Hudson Valley getaway.
The New York Times
Shopping for Doorknobs
Millbrook architect and author Gil Schafer gives the Times a tutorial.
The Wall Street Journal
Chefs Put Down Roots
David Bouley's farm in Kent and Zakary Pelaccio's in Old Chatham are part of a farm-to-table national trend.
New York Times Book Review
Blighted
Berkshire resident John Kelly's "moving account of the famine."
Boston Globe
At High Lawn Farm in Lee, Cows Have Produced Rich Milk for 77 years.
In praise of one of the last dairy farms in the Berkshires.
O Magazine
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Thanksgiving at the Dream-Away Lodge
Guess who discovered the charms of Daniel Osman's magical hideaway? The one-and-only Oprah.
T Magazine
Show & Tell
A preview of Carey Maloney's Stuff: The M (Group) Interactive Guide to Collecting, Decorating With, and Learning About, Wonderful and Unusual Things.
Boston Globe
The Berkshires on a Budget
Affordable, accessible, and beautiful.
T Magazine
Chartered Waters
A Columbia County double play: John Dolan's photograph accompanies Verlyn Klinkenborg's article on Ireland.
US News & World Report
National Liberal Arts College Rankings
Williams is #1, Vassar is #10, and Bard is #36.
Variety
Hollywood in the Berkshires
How our region became a visual effects capital.
The New York Times
Border Crossing Identity Crisis
Oh, Canada exhibition at Mass MoCA.
The New York Times
Appreciating Edith Wharton's Other Career
A Q&A with Richard Guy Wilson, an architectural historian and author of Edith Wharton at Home: Life at the Mount.
National Public Radio
A Manufacturing Town for Art
How MASS MoCA is (and isn't) transforming North Adams.
Jewish Daily Forward
Tangled up in Jews
Of Bach, Bernstein, Brahmins, and Brachas in the Berkshires.
Vogue
The Custom of the Country
An Annie Leibovitz fashion shoot at Chesterwood and The Mount for the September issue.
The New York Times
A Summer Blockbuster, Far From the Multiplex
John Williams' Birthday Concert at Tanglewood.
Saveur
City Dozen: Berkshire Mountains
A gourmand guide to eating well locally.
The New York Times
A Family, and Mom's in Charge
Ben Brantley reviews The Tempest at Shakespeare & Company.
The Wall Street Journal
The Magic of Tanglewood
75 years of glorious music under the stars.
Food & Wine
Great Country Escapes: The Berkshires
Shout outs to Rubiner's and the Hillsdale General Store.
Hampshire Gazette
First Lady Schedules Pittsfield Fundraiser
At the Colonial Theatre on August 3 with James Taylor.
Bloomberg Businessweek
James Taylor, Brad Cooper Lead Summer Berkshires Exodus
Welcome to our cultural vortex.
The New York Times
Audiences Can Now Analyze Dr. Ruth
About the new play by Mark St. Germain at Barrington Stage Company.
The New York Times
In Defense of the Decorator
Our Falls Village neighbor Bunny Williams is dubbed "the decorating world's grande dame."
Boston Globe
Brewer, Distiller Concoct A Joint Venture
Berkshire Mountain Distillers will make whiskey with Sam Adams Beer.
The New Yorker
There's No Place Like Jacob's Pillow
We agree.
The New York Times Magazine
The Devil in Marina Abramovic
The woman who plans to open a museum of performance art in Hudson is annoyed with MoMA.
New York Daily News
Tea House Soothes with Decor
The lofty look of Millerton-based Harney & Sons Tea's SoHo branch is by Poesis Design of Lakeville.
Wall Street Journal
Beauty Emerging
Alice Aycock's bunker, "A Simple Network of Underground Wells and Tunnels," at the Fields Sculpture Park at Omi.
The New York Times
Running from the City
Young artists are heading to Hudson, NY and other places far afield from Manhattan and Brooklyn.
The New York Times
A Weekend Visit to History
NYC fashion designers Proenza Schouler have a teepee at their Berkshires home.
The New Yorker
Edith Wharton's Houses
Of course, the best one is The Mount in Lenox.
NPR Planet Money
Where Dollars Are Born
At Crane & Co. in the Berkshires, of course.
The New York Times
Imagine That: Peter Dinklage to Star in All-Male 'Imaginary Invalid'
We're pleased that we scooped the Times on this story. Remember reading about this two weeks ago in Hot Tickets?
Hartford Courant
Tyne Daly Leads Acting Roster At Williamstown
WTF is bringing in the stars this summer.
Poughkeepsie Journal
Trailer Shows Actor as FDR
Bill Murray (who owns the Hudson Valley Renegades minor league baseball team) stars as local legend FDR opposite Salisbury resident Laura Linney in a new biopic by Rhinebeck's Richard Nelson.
Playbill
Rhinebeck Writers Retreat to Develop Musicals
The RI region is a theater incubator.
Saveur
American Bread: 45 Loaves We Love
Hooray for our locals: Berkshire Mountain Bakery, Bread Alone, and Wild Hive Farm Bakery.
The New York Post
9 Ways Not to be a City Slicker When Spending Time in the Hudson Valley
First, be patient.
Smithsonian
The 20 Best Small Towns in America
Great Barrington is at the top of the list.
Boston Globe
Homemade vs. Store-Bought
Recipes from the new book by Alana Chernila of Great Barrington get the thumb's up.
The New York Times
Canadian D.J. to Kick Off a Summer of Canadian Art at Mass MoCA
A dance party on Memorial Day weekend coincides with the opening of the "Oh, Canada" exhibition.
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Posted by Scott Baldinger on 03/04/13 at 09:06 AM • Permalink
In Memoriam: Robert Willis, Owner of Lakeville’s Cafe Giulia
Restaurants occupy a very special place in the life of our rural towns because they bring us together, providing a convivial alternative to quiet nights at home. Restaurateur Robert Willis created just such a place (twice) in Lakeville, CT called Cafe Giulia, which happened to serve very delicious and unfussy Italian food. As the chef/owner, Willis made a restaurant in his own image: cosmopolitan yet casual, serious but unpretentious. The bargain $9 carafe of wine he offered was the sign of a guy whose primary motivation was to please people and make them feel they belonged. He had proven himself as a restaurateur in hyper-competetive Brooklyn in the late 1990s with his Vaux Bistro. Ten days ago, he was behind the stove in Cafe Giulia’s open kitchen and doing the rounds in the dining room, schmoozing and making sure everybody was enjoying themselves. You could not tell that he was sick, so it came as a shock last Thursday when we learned that cancer had beat him before he even had a fighting chance. Rural Intelligence asked some of his friends, colleagues and customers for their remembrances.—Dan Shaw
“Robert Willis was a lover of coffee, cars, good food, art, architecture, photography and a supremely social being. He has had many professional lives— architect, chef, race car driver—and he loved his current incarnation as a restaurateur and we loved him for making Cafe Giulia the cozy and delicious restaurant it was.
He loved to be at the center of the table at the coffee shop—he could talk about everything, and he rarely spoke ill of anyone. He had a wide circle of friends, which I found my self included in, He was always interested in his friends. He adored his children McCullough and Jack, and he loved his life. He was a man who tumbled, rolled and came up fighting in tough times. Robert called my house last Saturday evening to tell me the news about his diagnosis, I was not home so he told my husband all of the plans he had to fight the cancer. I was traveling that week, I sent him a note on Sunday saying that I would do whatever I could and would see him the end of the week. Shockingly that did not happen, he is simply gone, spirited away into the heat of the unknown. It is unfathomable. Goodbye Robert we will all miss you.”
—Anne Day, photographer, Lakeville, CT
“I knew Robert intimately on both professional and personal levels, and in either case, I knew I had a friend. We would often meet for coffee in early morning hours to talk about our joys and frustrations of having a restaurant in the Tri-State area. I know he was proud of Cafe Giulia’s reincarnation, as he should have been because of the focused effort he put in giving it a new life at its current location. It’s hard to believe I will no longer see him at Back in the Kitchen, dipping his scone in his cappuccino with his big blue eyes intently focused on the conversation at hand. He was a wonderful, caring man, and I shall miss him.”
—Serge Madikians, chef/owner Serevan, Amenia, NY
“GK Chesterton said, The aim of life is appreciation. Robert showed his enthusiasm for living by becoming accomplished in a series of passions: architecture, design, photography, food, tennis, billiards, boats, race cars. He didn’t need to be the best in the world at these things but he did want to be exceedingly competent. He was an aesthete whose love of design made him appreciate the antique car in which he drove noisily all the way to Cornwall to share with me the first iphone, hailing it “the coolest gadget ever made.” Robert was a connoisseur of low culture, knew the art of a latte, the French fry, and which James Bond movies were the coolest. Of his many passions two were lifelong devotions: his children, McCullough and Jack.
His love of the art of conversation made him the honorary mayor of the coffee shop. His appreciation of people made him compassionate and discrete as a listener. He loved to laugh. He digested and accepted extreme personal upheaval faster than anyone I’ve known, and spoke about being vulnerable with the right ingredients of humor, grace and optimism. Few extroverts have the capacity for such gentle thoughtfulness and intimacy.
Out of love and necessity he made a great little restaurant in Lakeville. Café Giulia had the unmistakable imprint of Robert’s personality, his design, the simple creative menu, his favorite car parked subtly on the lawn. He created a convivial place where people came to enjoy good food and company. It was significant to him to show his children that they could thrive by working hard at something they loved. He was a good man and will be sorely missed.”
—Brendan O’Connell, artist, Cornwall, CT
“Cafe Giulia had a soul because it was Robert’s home, his creative work space, and stylish setting where we had the honor to share in his delicious talent with food. There was a seamlessness between the kitchen and dining room that he maintained by being with you in both places with a warm and yet cool sophistication that will long be remembered. Robert did not have very long to enjoy his dream creation. But create it he did. And for that we are joyful.
We remember asking for grappa after a meal in the new bistro, the waiter said no, their permit did not allow it to be sold. A minute later Robert appeared with a small glass of it saying he could not sell it, but hoped we would enjoy it as a friendly offering. It was good, and will be long remembered.”
—Robin and Allen Cockerline, Whippoorwill Farm, Salisbury, CT
“Robert and I were morning coffee, catch-up-and-discuss-everything-on-earth-friends, and had a lot of great belly laughs together. He was such a fixture in the village, and there are only a handful of such people, when you think to yourself: “Hey there’s Robert . . . right on schedule,everything is well in the world”. He had fine-tuned Cafe Giulia to a fare-thee-well and it was at the top of the list of “go to” restaurants for our guests here. Robert coming out of the kitchen and checking on his patrons well being…chatting, and then moving on is something that I will always remember . . . and miss.”
—Pete Hathaway, Ragamont, Salisbury, CT
“Robert and I shared a capacity for hard work and a love of good food. We bonded over the growing and prepping of Puntarelle, a bizarre green served in Rome that I tried growing last season - not very successfully. When we last saw each other, just days before he passed, he spoke not a word of his illness; instead he discussed the herb garden he had just put into his restaurant and how it felt to finally have a very successful restaurant. I think of this as I hoe around this year’s crop of Punterelle; the hard irony of life, and the heart of a man whose passion was feeding people and nurturing plants for as long as he could. Rest in peace, Robert.”
—Maria Nation, screenwriter, Sheffield, MA
“I met Rob a few years ago when he popped into my newly opened book shop to admire my new hanging lamp—he had just hung several like it in his newly decorated Cafe Giulia (Mark I) and thought we must have something in common! From our first meeting he was curious about my business—and how it was doing—while sharing his own thoughts about his new ‘baby.’ While chatting away he discovered that I had a new found interest in motor racing and immediately pulled out his cell phone to show me a photo of a beloved Lola (since sold) as though it were a newborn—I totally understood and he didn’t miss a beat in describing it.
My wife Lucinda and I were keen to try the new restaurant and when we did were very impressed—we sent friends whenever we could and made a habit of going there for a late quiet meal after holding an event in my shop. Over the last couple of years I would see him at Lime Rock, in Cafe Giulia, waving from the stop sign in front of my shop, or just around. When Cafe Giulia (Mark II) opened, we were right back in. The first time, we brought friends from Sharon who hadn’t been before and again had a lovely time—no surprise! He had the very good habit of walking through the dining room during your meal, checking in with friends and introducing himself to newcomers—it was good business but seemed effortless—he truly cared. He always gave the impression that he loved his restaurant, loved pleasing people and was just a happy guy—you always remember people like that.
Many years ago, at a memorial service for a friend, cards were given out with John Donne’s famous poem ‘No Man Is An Island’—something I had read countless times—and was struck by the lines: ‘Each man’s death diminishes me/For I am involved in mankind.’ Rob was a big part of our little corner of Heaven and now he’s gone—we’ve lost a friend and a neighbor who was unique in this world.”
—Darren Winston, bookseller, Sharon, CT
Both Jill Goodman and I are saddened by the passing of Robert Willis More than a great Chef, Robert was a great person! He very quickly became a close friend to us. Compassionate, kind, and involved in life, from racing to cars to food. He lit up the lives of those around him,and like a streaking shooting star that lights up the night, he is gone to quick. But like that star, he will remain with us the rest of our lives.
—Marshall Miles, Robin Hood Radio WHDD
“Our hearts are full of sadness at the loss of our beloved Robert. We are so glad it was a peaceful, painless and loving departure. Robert’s fervent wish was to be home with those he loved—and that was more than granted. While he spoke often of getting back to Maine, home as they say, is where the heart is, and that was Lakeville where he was front and center.
Robert lived to proudly witness his son Jack graduate, to revel in the success of Café Giulia, to savor his daughter McCullough’s companionship at the restaurant, to enjoy the Sweet William “salon” on weekend mornings with a patchwork quilt of friends and regulars, and to drive full throttle in his yellow race car. He accepted the gritty truth of impending death with equanimity and courage, such an enormous burden lightened by so many friends’ constant support. He lived to know that he was loved by a boatload of people. Like Seinfeld, Robert left us at the top—at the height of professional success, personal fulfillment and pride in his wonderful children. He was a man in full. We will miss him terribly.
—Licia Hahn, Lakeville
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 07/01/12 at 12:30 PM • Permalink
Rural Intelligence Returns! Publication Resumes on May 3
Rural Intelligence, the four-year-old online culture-and-lifestyle magazine for Berkshire, Columbia, Dutchess and Litchfield counties that has been on hiatus for the past six months, will resume publication at the beginning of May.
Mark Williams, who lives in the Tyringham Valley of Massachusetts, has purchased Rural Intelligence from its founders, Marilyn Bethany and Dan Shaw. Bethany and Shaw will remain as consultants and contributors. Williams has named longtime Rural Intelligence contributor Bess Hochstein as the editor.
“Since its inception, Rural Intelligence has become important to the social and cultural life of our region,” says Williams, who serves on the board of Jacob’s Pillow. “Everyone I know used to look forward to the weekly Rural Intelligence email, informing them of exciting news and great things to do over the coming week. Everywhere I went, people would talk about how much they missed Rural Intelligence. I felt its absence as a tremendous loss, and I saw that bringing it back would be a service to the regional community.”
Williams says he plans to maintain the site’s exacting journalistic standards and distinct editorial point of view while expanding its audience and advertising base. “Everybody who knows Rural Intelligence loves it and lives by it,” he says. “But there are still many people in our region who are unaware of it. Our goal is to expand the readership of Rural Intelligence by continuing to provide the insider’s insight to all the best this region has to offer.”
Rural Intelligence founders Bethany and Shaw, both of whom have decades of experience in journalism for such widely respected publications as The New York Times, Martha Stewart Living, New York magazine, Elle Décor, Architectural Digest, and Los Angeles Magazine, are gratified that the online magazine they created from scratch will be revived and resurrected.
“This fall and winter I’ve seen so many stories that I know our Rural Intelligence audience would have loved to read,” says Shaw. “Now I’m happy that we’ll once again be able to share these stories.” Says Bethany, “The postcard-pretty villages and scenic farmland in this region are so lulling it’s easy to miss what’s exciting – topnotch restaurants, entertainment, art, shopping. Rural Intelligence offers a map to the hidden treasure, but, more important, through insightful and entertaining writing, it energizes readers so they can’t wait to join the fun.”
Rural Intelligence’s new editor, Bess Hochstein, says, “Dan and Marilyn have set extremely high standards for Rural Intelligence, and my goal is to maintain the site’s quality and to continue to introduce our readers to new and wonderful things to do, places to go, and experiences to try. There’s no lack of exciting news to share in this region; we’re lucky to have limitless material to inspire and motivate our readers to get out and enjoy the Rural Intelligence region.”
Rural Intelligence has been in stasis since August 2011. Over the next few weeks fresh content will be uploaded onto the site, and on Thursday, May 3, email subscribers will receive the familiar note with links to exciting new stories in the free, online magazine.
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Posted by Bess Hochstein on 04/11/12 at 09:53 AM • Permalink
Passages: A Farewell from Marilyn & Dan
From the start, Rural Intelligence was an experiment. Our goal to create an online culture-and-lifestyle magazine that would unite four counties in three states was and remains, as far as we know, unique. We are proud of the work we’ve done and that we’ve succeeded in fostering a sense of community across state and county lines among full- and part-time residents, as well as visitors. We’ve immensely enjoyed chronicling the extraordinary people and places that make our neck of the woods so special.
Now, at the end of our fourth summer, despite a record number of advertisers and a still-growing readership, we remain a tenuous business. So, the time has come for us to step back and get some perspective on the world beyond the Hudson Valley, the Berkshires, and the Litchfield Hills and on Rural Intelligence—what it is and, just possibly, what it could be again someday. We honestly do not know if RI has a future. What we do know, and apologize for, is that we leave behind disappointed contributors, readers, and advertisers (who, if they’ve paid in advance, will receive refunds). For Labor Day weekend, we will refresh the home page one last time with golden oldies. Thereafter, Rural Intelligence will remain online as is, so that anyone can continue to access the hundreds of stories and thousands of photographs in our archive.
It has been our great honor and pleasure to be part of your lives. We’ve given this our all for the past three-and-a-half years. Thank you for making us feel that it’s been worthwhile.
We’ll miss you.
—Marilyn Bethany and Dan Shaw for Rural Intelligence
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 08/21/11 at 01:59 AM • Permalink
20 Questions for ‘Money and Power’ Author William D. Cohan
When RI last chatted with William D. Cohan, he had just published House of Cards, his New York Times best seller about the fall of Bear Stearns. Now he’s written another insider account of Wall Street greed called Money and Power: How Goldman Sachs Came to Rule the World (Doubleday; $30.50). Excerpted in the May issue of Vanity Fair, the book has been called “the frankest, most detailed, most human assessment of the bank to date” by BusinessWeek, which says “Money and Power suggests the bank does possess a few special powers, starting with its remarkable ability to convince some of the world’s smartest young people that touting stocks, sniffing out arbitrage opportunities, and shaking down corporate clients amount to a noble calling.”
As a journalist-turned-investment-banker-turned-journalist again, Cohan enjoys engaging with his readers, and he will be reading from his book, answering questions and signing copies as a benefit for the Berkhsire Taconic Community Foundation at 6 p.m. on Saturday, May 21, at the Stissing House in Pine Plains. The event is being sponsored by Hammertown Barn, which is selling copies of the book in advance and at the door if they don’t sell out. Here, Cohan shares with RI how he works and relaxes on weekends at his home in Ancramdale.
1. Why did you choose to buy a house in the Hudson Valley?
It’s a beautiful area 100 miles from New York City.
2. What’s the first thing you do when you arrive from the city?
Walk around the property, see what has changed from the week before and inhale the smell of manure on the fields.
3. What’s your favorite way to spend a Friday night?
Dnner at Mercato in Red Hook or No. 9 in Millerton (or any restaurant associated with Mario Batali.)
4. What’s your favorite way to spend a Sunday morning?
Having a cup of tea, hanging out with my family.
5. Where’s you favorite spot for bargain hunting?
I don’t think it’s there anymore but Spag’s, in Shrewsbury, Massachsuetts, outside of Worcester.
6. Where do you go for a self indulgent splurge?
Paris . . .
7. What’s your favorite one-hour drive from your house?
Great Barrington, Rhinebeck, Hudson, Bash Bish Falls.
8. What do you like most about country life?
Sitting around the fire with friends, having a beer or a glass of wine, and catching up.
9. What’s your favorite bookstore or bookstores?
Oblong in Millerton and Rhinebeck; Northshire Bookstore in Manchester, VT
10. What’s your favorite hardware store and/or garden center?
Duel’s in Pine Plains—it has a great smell; the Millerton Agway.
11. Who do you trust to recommend wines?
I am a craft beer drinker—I like Ommegang Brewery, Cooperstown; Sacketts Harbor Brewery; Dogfish Ale.
12. Who are your local heroes?
Art Bassin, who’s the head of the board of supervisors in Ancram, NY.
13. What newspapers or blogs do you read every day?
The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Mediaite.com, The Financial Times.
14. Where and when do you write?
In my New York City apartment, in the kitchen of our home in Accramdale . . . anywhere there is a WiFi connection. I approach writing like a job: Get up, have some tea and write . . .
15. Where’s your favorite place for live performance?
Radio City Music Hall, Town Hall, Beacon Theatre, SPAC, the Mahaiwe.
16. What’s are your favorite not-for-profit organizations?
American Farmland Trust, Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, Columbia Land Conservancy, New Yorkers for Parks.
17. Do you think Hudson Valley real estate is a safe investment?
I do but more important it is a beautiful place to live, learn and share with your children and family.
18. What are you most looking forward to doing this summer?
Relaxing at the farm.
19. What three things do you always do with house guests?
Go to Hammertown Barn, go out to dinner, go to a maple syrup farm.
20. Is there a difference between investment bankers who have weekend houses in the Hudson Valley and those with houses in the Hamptons?
Yes there are differences. There is no “scene” upstate where bankers or other professionals feel the need to preen and show off like they do during the week. I’m not sure the same can be said for bankers in the Hamptons.
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 05/17/11 at 05:24 PM • Permalink
RIP Jack Stern: The Retired Rabbi Who Wasn’t Retiring
You did not need to know that Jack Stern had been a great rabbi to know that he was a holy man. When he moved to Great Barrington full time in 1991 (after retiring as the senior rabbi at Westchester Reform Temple in Scarsdale, NY), he became involved with Construct Inc., the organization that provides comprehensive housing, support and educational services to anyone in the Southern Berkshire reigon who has lost his or her home or who lacks financial resources to maintain safe, decent and affordable housing. Every year, Construct prevents 600 households from becoming homeless, serves about 11,000 meals and shelters an average of 45 people. Rabbi Stern had been eagerly looking forward to this year’s annual Mayfest fundrasier for Construct because the board had decided that it wanted to build an addition to one of its shelters and name it Priscilla’s Room after his late wife, Priscilla Rudin Stern. Alas, Jack Stern died suddenly on April 14 at the age of 84, and now the Mayfest will also be a memorial to him, and so will every dollar donated for Priscilla’s Room.
“I never thought of him as a rabbi—I thought of him as just Jack,” says Construct board member Barbara Schulman, who is one of the organizers of the massive benefit at Eisner Camp that features food from 30 local restaurants and music by The Leisure Class. “He didn’t play up the rabbi thing.” But, in fact, he was a macher, who served as president from 1986 to 1988 of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, which is considered to be the organized rabbinate of Reform Judaism in the United States.
His passionate involvement with a secular organization like Construct was typical of reform rabbis of his generation, according to Rabbi Deborah Zecher, who worked with him as a junior rabbi in Scarsdale and then became his rabbi at Hevreh in Great Barrington, where he could be found in the pews on Friday nights when he was not traveling. “The reform movement was founded on this passionate call for social justice and repairing the world, and he was all about that,” she says, noting that he went down to Mississippi in 1963 to march for civil rights and was one of the early champions of women joining the rabbinate.
He was also a social butterfly who enjoyed his martinis and who seemed to remember the names of everyone he’d ever met. “And once you met Jack, you did not forget him. His looks were distinct,” says Zecher. (When he bar-mitzvahed me in 1973, he was already completely white-haired and he seemed like a mystical figure conjured up by Marc Chagall.) “And he was all over the place,” says Zecher. “He was always around.” At his funeral in Scarsdale, his friend and neighbor Albert Vorspan described how they could not go to a Berkshire restaurant without Stern’s being mobbed by well-wishers. Said Vorspan: “He was a rock star.”
“I called him the Pearl Mesta of the Berkshires” says Marcia Soltes, who lives in Stockbridge and was the wife of two rabbis. “Wherever I went, he was the center of attention. He was very ecumenical. He was curious about everyone. He was fully engaged. And perhaps his own struggles [a childhood illness confined him to a wheelchair for a year when he was five and left him with one leg shorter than the other and permanent limp] made him more sensitive to the challenges other faced. He had a natural empathy.”
And though Construct is a non-sectarian organization, its connection to the reform Jews of the Berkshires is very strong. “Did you know that Construct has its office and its transitional home in the building that was once Hevreh’s home?” says Rabbi Zecher (with Stern, left) who’s as gregarious as her mentor and moonlights as a cabaret singer who’ll be performing her show “Confessions of A Mondern Mom” in Pittsfield on May 7 & 8.) “It was a three family house that we gutted and made our sanctuary, classroom and offices. Construct bought the building from us in 1999 when we moved. It was a sacred place for us, and it is still a sacred place.”
Construct Mayfest Honoring Jack Stern
Monday, May 9 @ 5:30 p.m.
Eisner Camp
53 Brookside Road, Great Barrington, MA
Tickets $75
Related Posts:
“Charity Begins at Home for Construct Inc” (May 11, 2010)
“Charity Calls on Cooks’ Night Off: Restaurants Rally for Construct Inc” (May 12, 2009)
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 04/28/11 at 03:37 AM • Permalink
Broadway is Bittersweet for Litchfield’s Larry Kramer
Larry Kramer on the terrace of his New York apartment on April 8, 2011.
If you think Larry Kramer’s seminal 1985 AIDS play, The Normal Heart (which will open on Broadway on April 27), is strictly a period piece, think again. Yes, it is set 30 years ago, when a mysterious disease is killing gay men, and the panic tearing through the homosexual community is of little concern to politicians, the medical establishment or the mainstream media. Yes, a style reporter at The New York Times is adamantly and paradoxically in the closet even though he has fallen in love with a loud-mouth gay activist (Kramer’s theatrical alter-ego). Yes, the banker who is elected to lead an organization devoted to taking care of people with the disease is unabashedly homophobic (“My boss doesn’t know and he hates gays. He keeps telling me fag jokes and I keep laughing at them,” the banker says.) Yes, there was so little information about the disease that it was feared it could be transmitted by a simple kiss. (It can’t.)
Yes, the times have changed. But the HIV/AIDS epidemic remains tragically with us. While 12,000 had died of AIDS by the summer of 1985, the total number of deaths in the United States from AIDS is more than 576,000 (as of 2007), according to the Centers for Disease Control. Today in this country, more than 18,000 people still die of AIDS annually, and more than 56,000 people get newly infected every year.
“The play is not really a world ago,” says Kramer, a part-time Litchfield County resident, whose impassioned drama is timeless because it’s essentially about love and friendship during a time of crisis. “There are so many things still wrong. You don’t read about it anymore, but it is still a plague. I plan to hand out a fact sheet at every performance.” Kramer laments that homosexuals are second class citizens in the United States. “We still don’t have real marriages,” he says bitterly, referring to the federal Defense of Marriage Act.
Kramer, who is 75, has longed believed in monogamy. He was castigated for his 1978 novel, Faggots, a satire that warned of the emotional hazards of promiscuity in the carefree, pre-AIDS era. “I was a pariah and then I was a seer,” he says. When you witness Kramer and his longtime partner, David Webster, graciously welcoming a diverse crowd of some 200 to their annual Fourth of July cookout overlooking Lake Waramaug in Litchfield County, it’s hard to imagine that he was once the most controversial figure in the gay community. Educated at Yale and so unapologetically bourgeois that his “high tech” Greenwich Village apartment was featured in The New York Times Magazine in 1974 (the Litchfield house has been in Architectural Digest), Kramer was arguably the angriest man in America in the 1980s. He was a founder of the Gay Men’s Health Crisis and ACT-UP, the organization that staged noisy protests, sit-ins and die-ins, demanding that the government make preventing and finding a cure for HIV/AIDS a priority. “We showed how a small group of activists could make a huge difference,” he says. “All of the drugs now available were possible because of the efforts of ACT- UP.”
Now he is a lion in winter, working away on a massive book about the history of homosexuality in America. “So many of our presidents have been gay,” he says, relishing his role as provocateur. “Not only Lincoln, but Washington and Hamilton, too.” The living room of his apartment has become his office with two enormous Apple computers surrounded by stacks and walls of books. “I wish I could go up to our house in Connecticut to work on it, but I don’t like to be alone and David travels too much,” he says. “But we are hoping to spend the whole summer there.” He bought the Litchfield house in 1995, after spending summers in both the Hamptons and Fire Island. “Connecticut is much prettier, and we don’t have the social competitiveness,” he says. “It took a lot of courage to go to Fire Island. People don’t remember that. You had to go on show and be prepared to be looked at by a lot of people. And that took a sort of courage. That’s why everyone took so many drugs. It made it easier.”
In New York, he lives in the same rent-stabilzied apartment featured in the Times with a terrace overlooking Washington Square Park. He is kept busy getting ready for opening night of The Normal Heart, which begins previews on April 19. “All my doctors are coming and I want them to have good seats!” he says. (The original production ran Off Broadway for 294 performances at the Public Theatre.) The show had a one-night-only Broadway debut last fall at a star-studded benefit reading. “The producer Darryl Roth decided that it deserved a real run, but we had trouble finding an available theater,” he says. The two most crucial parts in the play—Kramer’s alter ego, Ned Weeks, and his lover, Felix Turner—are being played by the same actors from the fall reading: Joe Mantello and John Benjamin Hickey (who happens to have a weekend house near Kramer’s in Salisbury, CT.) Kramer is extremely pleased that Ellen Barkin will be playing the heroic wheelchair-bound Dr. Emma Brookner. “She’s one of the great under-appreciated actresses,” he says.
Still, the Broadway run (and the anxiety of a possible Tony nomination) is bittersweet, and he hopes that it will be an opportunity to introduce a younger generation to their patrimony. “They don’t seem to want to know that there is a gay history or about the generation that died,” he says sadly. “The thing about the play is that it brings back so many memories. As wrong as it sounds, it was great fun. It wrapped us in a wonderful blanket of togetherness. I made many good friends because of GMHC and ACT-UP. Of course, many of them are dead.” Amazingly, he worries about being reviewed. “Facing the critics all over again is hard on the insides,” he says. “It’s funny to have to go through all of this again at this age.”
The Normal Heart
The Golden Theatre
252 West 45th Street, New York, NY
April 19 - July 3
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 04/14/11 at 02:39 AM • Permalink
20 Questions for Author Frank Delaney of Kent, CT
In literary circles, Frank Delaney is best known as a best-selling novelist and radio and television interviewer. In the Rural Intelligence region, he’s known as a bon vivant and husband of the exuberant novelist Diane Meier. Delaney’s latest novel, The Matchmaker of Kenmare, is a love story set during World War II in his native Ireland. “Delaney’s brand of Irish fabulism is still a delight to read,” said Kirkus Reviews of his new book. “The novel burnishes this veteran writer’s reputation as a consummate storyteller. One of the best fictional wartime couples animates veteran Delaney’s darkly wistful novel. On Saturday, March 12, at 2 p.m., Delaney will be reading and signing copies of his book at the Hickory Stick Bookshop in Washington, CT.
1. How did you end up moving to Kent?
Cherchez la femme, the French would say - “seek the woman”! Diane and I had been friends for a decade and more; we had always liked each other enormously and had met several times before romance pranced in. When it did—she had an old house in Kent, Ct., I had an old house in Somerset, England; but she had a dog, a German short-haired pointer name of Coco, too old for the risk of quarantine—so I moved to the U.S. of A.
2. What’s your favorite way to spend a Friday night?
It used to be playing cards, with friends or strangers; now it’s watching old movies, preferably 1939 - which is what Diane likes to do.
3. What’s your favorite way to spend a Sunday morning?
If I’m not working (and I often am) it’s choring at home, attacking the pleasingly mundane tasks that have to be done, and by which I preserve my sanity.
4. Where’s you favorite spot for bargain hunting?
Woodbury’s good, though maybe not for bargains; I like Johnsons in Millerton and have picked up some terrific stuff there. And with my mild addiction to lamps of all kinds, I also like Shandells in Millerton, inventive and eclectic; and Michael Trapp’s cave of majestic exotica in Cornwall. And, of course, Joan Osofsky‘s inimitable Hammertown Barn.
5. Where do you go for a self indulgent splurge?Hah! Easy-peasy to answer this one: Jonathan Derwin’s R. Derwin Clothiers in Litchfield. Jonathan is in himself a total delight; he has splendid taste, is endlessly supportive and interested, and the shop is engagingly laid out. And J. Seitz in New Preston, where Ron Leal now adds his outstanding renown to a shop in which it’s virtually impossible NOT to buy something.
6. What’s your favorite one-hour drive from your house?One-hour drive? There are so many. Lake Waramaug is too near to qualify: I think the Rhinebeck corridor along the Hudson must be the most alluring - beautiful in most weathers.
7. What’s your favorite historical site?
In the world? Delphi in Greece. In the United States? The Independence area of Philadelphia. In Connecticut? Kent has a deep and interesting history, and it’s now getting carefully preserved and brought to life again.
8. What three things do you alway do with house guests?
Feed them. Talk, talk, talk with them. Let them fall asleep by the pool.
9. What’s your favorite bookstore or bookstores?
Again, easy: Fran Kielty’s The Hickory Stick in Washington CT. She reads so accurately that you can always trust her recommendations, and the (beautifully run) shop has a compelling atmosphere. And her husband, Michael Keilty, is one of Connecticut’s - and America’s - most remarkable men, a man so rounded in his knowledge, practices and his perceptions that he would certainly have been a Founding Father had he been around back in the day.
10. What’s your favorite hardware store and/or garden center?
During all the construction work we’ve undertaken we’ve been relying on Northwest Lumber in Cornwall, but for the everyday essentials we would be lost and adrift without Kent TrueValue Hardware.
11. Where do you shop for clothes?
See my answer to Question. 5 above - R. Derwin & Son Man’s Shop in Litchfield - marvelous range, comforting and exciting all at once.
12. Who do you trust to recommend wines?
Bill Fore at County Wines in New Preston; Jo Kimball in Sharon - their selections are among the best I’ve seen in years especially, and in both cases, their claret petits chateaux and the lesser-known but outstanding Spanish labels. And Ira, encyclopdaedically knowledgeable, at Kent Wine & Spirits.”
13. Who are your local heroes?
Without hesitation, the Kent Volunteer Firefighters. And all such volunteer firefighters in Litchfield County.
14. What newspapers or blogs do you read every day?
New York Times, Wall Street Journal, BBC News, Irish Times, Scotsman, Le Monde -—all online and sometimes, for sport and politics, Corriere Della Sera.
15. Where and when do you write?
Two locations: my study in our Kent barn; and the New York office.
16. Where’s your favorite place for live performance?
The Olivier, the largest of the three auditoria in the Royal National Theater, London; the auditorium in Epiadurus on which it is based (though I think that Epidaurus has the better acoustic print); the two Roman amphitheaters in Arles and Nimes, France.
17. Who are your favorite local authors?
Diane Meier; Edmund Morris.
18.What’s your favorite small-town tradition in Kent?
The parades - Firemen’s and Memorial Day; I love the way American small towns run themselves; and their decency and modesty are on show in such parades.
19. What’s your secret for coping with winter?
Wrap up warm. Shut up about it. And work.
20. What are you most looking forward to doing this summer?
Getting my garage to rights, thus having a workbench up and running. And seeing Diane enjoying the pool!
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 02/28/11 at 11:39 AM • Permalink
A Birthday Celebration for W.E.B. Du Bois
W.E.B. Du Bois, Atlanta University, 1909*
By Kathryn Matthews
“One ever feels his twoness—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings, two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder….”—W.E.B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk, 1903
This month, the Upper Housatonic Valley African American Heritage Trail (AAHT) pays tribute to one of the most prominent African American leaders of the 20th century: William Edward Burghardt “W.E.B.” Du Bois (1868-1963).
Born February 23, and raised in Great Barrington, Du Bois was a ground-breaking sociologist, prolific author, and outspoken civil rights activist, who helped create the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and, as editor, guided its magazine, The Crisis. He was a significant figure in the Harlem Renaissance and is considered the father of Pan-Africanism. He was also a vocal environmental activist, whose causes included the Housatonic River.
Until recent years, however, few people—even those who live in Great Barrington—knew that Du Bois came from—and had a lifelong affinity and love for—the Berkshires.
Du Bois Walking Tour
● The W.E.B. Du Bois Birth Site (Walk 100 yards up Church Street; to the right): The house no longer exists, but a bronzed plaque marks the location.
● Clinton A.M.E. Zion Church (9 Elm Court): First founded as a society in 1870, of which Du Bois was once a member, the building, which opened in 1887, is the oldest Black church in the Berkshires. As a teenage reporter for the Springfield Republican and New York Globe, Du Bois frequently wrote about the Clinton community. Now listed on the National Registry of Historic Places, Clinton has been instrumental in promoting Black history and the legacy of W.E.B. Du Bois.
● Great Barrington Town Hall (334 Main Street): As a young, local correspondent for the New York Globe, Du Bois covered meetings here .
● First Congregational Church (251 Main Street): One of four churches that assisted with Du Bois’ college tuition.
● Mahaiwe Cemetery (South Main Street, Route 7 at the corner of Silver Street): An historic market denotes the burial site of Du Bois’ wife, Nina, and his children, Burghardt and Yolande.
● The W.E.B. Du Bois Mural (Off Railroad Street; Taconic parking lot): First painted by young artists from The Railroad Street Youth Project in 2003, this mural, which depicts Du Bois’ life, was revised and repainted in 2010.
● The Boyhood Homesite (At the junction of Route 23 and Route 71; Open May - Oct, 413.528.3391): Du Bois’ maternal ancestral home and where he lived from the ages of 2 to 6.
In large part, this was because of the politics of the 1950s and 1960s, says Rachel Fletcher, founder and co-director of the AAHT and a founder of Friends of the Du Bois Homesite. Despite Du Bois’ many accomplishments, he was viewed in his later years as a Black radical for his justifiably scathing criticism of U.S. race relations and for his association with various left-wing causes, which drew the attention of the FBI. In 1961, at the age of 93, Du Bois took a final political stand by joining the Communist party, and, a year later, moved to Ghana, where he died in 1963.
Du Bois’ leftist politics overshadowed his scholarly achievements, turning him into a controversial figure, whom, mainstream America—including his hometown—eschewed. But the 21st century residents of Great Barrington—an eclectic mix of locals, weekenders, retirees and younger people—are receptive to learning about Du Bois, says Bernard Drew, a local historian who has authored several books on African American history, including Dr. Du Bois Rebuilds his Dream House (Attic Revivals Press, 2006).
This change in attitude may also be attributable to the efforts of the AAHT, whose mission is to celebrate trailblazing black Americans—the ordinary and the famous—of the Upper Housatonic Valley and to preserve important African American sites in the Berkshires and northwest Connecticut.
The town has also rediscovered its native son through an annual Du Bois birthday celebration, hosted since 2001 by Clinton A.M.E. Zion Church, where Du Bois attended meetings as a boy. “The black population in Great Barrington is small, just 3%, but Clinton’s tribute is a well-attended event, drawing a diverse audience (approximately 80% of whom are not black) of locals and visitors from New York and Boston,” says Fletcher. This Saturday, February 19th, at 2pm, Clinton A.M.E. Church hosts a Du Bois gospel birthday tribute. Free, and open to the public, the program features the Women of Faith Ensemble, a music ministry of St. John’s Congregational Church in Springfield, followed by refreshments.
The month-long AAHT 143rd Du Bois birthday celebration honors him as an educator. “He is regarded as one of the most important intellectuals that America has ever produced,” says Fletcher.
From an early age, Du Bois believed that education was key to achieving social justice. At a time when most students, irrespective of their race, left school after the eighth grade, Du Bois attended Great Barrington High School—the only Black student in his class—graduating at the age of 15. The community supported his educational endeavors: when Du Bois wanted to go to Fisk College, a black liberal arts college in Nashville, four churches helped pay for his tuition. After time spent teaching in the rural South, he decided to pursue advanced studies and, in 1895, he became the first African American to receive a Ph.D from Harvard.
He became a professor at Atlanta University, where he taught history and economics between 1897 and 1910, later returning in 1934 to head its sociology department for 10 years.
Though he died on another continent, Great Barrington remained in his thoughts throughout his life, says Fletcher, adding: “He loved the New England landscape and culture. His first wife and two children are buried here, and he had a deep emotional connection with his maternal ancestral homesite, where he lived as a young boy.”
Though the house no longer exists, the Boyhood Homesite represents sacred ground to Du Bois’ admirers. Fletcher recalls one visitor from Farleigh Dickenson, who came to Great Barrington and, literally, kissed the ground where Du Bois lived.
In that pilgrim’s eyes, says Fletcher, “Du Bois was only a hero.”
W.E.B. Du Bois 10th Annual Birthday Celebration
Clinton African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church
9 Elm Street, Great Barrington,
Saturday, February 19th: 2 - 4 p.m.
Free; RSVP required 413.229.2668
Friends of the Du Bois Homesite: 413.528.3391
*Special Collections and Archives, W.E.B. DuBois Library, University of Massachusetts Amherst
For a complete schedule of Du Bois birthday celebration events in the Berkshire region, click here.
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 02/16/11 at 05:54 AM • Permalink
20 Questions for ‘Playdate’ Author Thelma Adams
Thelma Adams‘s just published novel, Playdate (Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press) is more than a comedy of manners about living the good life in Southern California. It’s an affectionate and empathetic portrait of a house husband, whose dirty little secret is how much he loves staying home and caring for his daughter. If you’ve ever wondered how a stay-at-home dad can be so content, Playdate offers a view into his secret world. Adams, the film critic for US Weekly, lives in Hyde Park, NY, with her husband, Ranald Adams, a solution architect for HP, and their two children, Trevor, 15, and Elizabeth, 11. She will be reading at Oblong Books & Music in Rhinebeck, on Saturday, January 29 at 7:30 p.m. Although her book is set in her native California, it’s clear from her answers to our 20 Questions that she’s lost her heart to the Hudson Valley.
1. How did you choose to move from Brooklyn to Hyde Park?
We fell in love with a house and the surrounding land. We have nearly 15 acres on the Fall Kill with a bridge over the water leading to what was once a hunting lodge. I watched my husband walk the land and I knew he was home, and that I was there with him. It’s convenience to the Poughkeepsie Metro North station for my twice-weekly round-trips to see movies in Manhattan for Us Weekly didn’t hurt.
2. Where and when do you write?
I’m a morning writer. I write at my desk on the sunny southern side of our bedroom on my cherry red HP Mini.
3. What’s your favorite way to spend a Sunday morning?
Writing! I sit at my desk looking south over the landscape—wild turkeys do their flamboyant mating dance, a red fox pads into the circle of the driveway, deer flash by. I see my peonies in bloom, or icicles hanging off the edge of the roof sparkling in wintry light. Meanwhile, the rest of the house sleeps; our Maine Coon cat, Sherlock, slips into the warm spot I’ve left on the bed beside my husband. Then my husband wakes up, too, and begins making grits and eggs, his Sunday ritual.
4. What’s your favorite way to spend a Friday night?
Watching BBC mysteries on the big screen TV sitting beside my husband, draped in cats with the kids playing peacefully in their rooms.
5. Where’s you favorite spot for bargain hunting?
I love the Hyde Park Antiques Center. The most beautiful piece in my dining room is a hand-carved chest that I looked at for months there, falling in love every time I saw it, until finally I made them an offer they could refuse but didn’t. Now it’s ours. I still mourn the ebony Chinoiserie dining room set I didn’t buy—but I would have needed a second dining room to house it.
6. Where do you go for a self indulgent splurge? The best massage I’ve ever had in the Hudson Valley was from Michelle Christopherson, It was physical and spiritual, completely therapeutic—and the biggest treat for me.
7. What’s your favorite one-hour drive from your house?
I love driving north to Hudson and dreaming of buying a big spread in Columbia County with livestock. I love the farms, the view of the Catskills to the west, and then arriving to shop antiques and boutiques, browse books at The Spotty Dog Books and Ale on Warren Street (I found an August Sander photography book there for my husband’s Christmas present), meet friends and savor the architecture.
8. What’s your favorite historical site?
I’m torn: Vanderbilt or Olana? Olana or Vanderbilt? OK: Vanderbilt because I walk the grounds all the time. I love the view of the Hudson— and it has a fantastic gift shop I browse as a reward for climbing the big hill from Bard Rock. Although, I do find the Olana interiors inspirational, and the vistas incomparable. Thank you, Mr. Church.
9. What three things do you alway do with house guests?
We’re very bad in this regard: we stay close to home. My husband cooks big meals. We watch DVD’s from our enormous collection. And we sit on our screened porch with cocktails and watch the light change over the Fall Kill, hoping the Great Blue Heron will make an appearance, and the muskrats will be frisky.
10. What’s your favorite bookstore?
I love Oblong Books. It’s my local independent and I’m sticking by it.
11. What’s your favorite hardware store and/or garden center?
I love The Phantom Gardener in Rhinebeck and strolling through the shrubs. I’m a sucker for hydrangeas. They have great practical workshops, too. Prune on!
12. Where do you shop for clothes?
I love Present Perfect, the Rhinebeck consignment shop. I got a terrific Paul Smith tweed men’s blazer there in the fall for myself—then gave it to my son. (OK: it looks better on him.)
13. Who do you trust to recommend wines? The folks at Clinton Vineyards in Clinton Corners. I’m all about the Peach Gala. When we first moved to the Hudson Valley from NY and felt flush, we bought a case.
14. Who are your local heroes?
Lynne Ryan, the wife of CIA president Tim Ryan. To me, she’s like the Sandra Bullock character in The Blind Side, always giving of herself. And, at Christmas, she throws down the best competitive gingerbread-house making party. I also adore the actress Melissa Leo, who lives on the other side of the river, along with the great women of the Rosendale Theater Collective, Nicole Quinn and Sophia Raab-Downs. Couple Meira Blaustein & Laurent Rejto make up the spine of The Woodstock Film Festival.
15. What newspapers or blogs do you read every day?
I’m a devoted Poughkeepsie Journal reader and, of course, Rural Intelligence. I’m also a Hammertown junkie.
16. Where’s your favorite place for live performance?
The Fisher Center at Bard. It’s a jewel box of a theater wrapped in a Frank Gehry crushed beer can.
17. Where’s your favorite place for breakfast?
Coffee at Bread Alone in Rhinebeck to eavesdrop on the regulars discussing real estate and local politics.
18. What’s your favorite movie theater?
I love Upstate Films for art house fare, but for a night at the movies with the kids I’m crazy about the Roosevelt Cinemas on Route 9 in Hyde Park. It’s locally owned and operated and a fantastic bargain. It’s where I catch up on movies that I missed for my job as US Weekly film critic. The last movie I saw there was Burlesque, a total guilty pleasure!
19. What’s the best celebrity sighting you’ve had in the Hudson Valley?
I saw the wonderful Up in the Air actress Vera Farmiga buying textile supplies at the Sheep and Wool Festival at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds.
20. What are you most looking forward to doing this spring?
Welcoming the big thaw—and the first crocus!
