Trade Secrets: Martha Stewart Makes the Scene
As usual, Martha Stewart was among the eager, early buyers at Trade Secrets, the massive rare plant and antique sale at Lion Rock Farm in Sharon, which benefits Women’s Support Services. As she stopped at every booth (including potter Guy Wolff‘s left), Martha took photographs and notes, proving that she remains a hands-on editor. While there were other celebrity sightings—the actress Natasha Richardson and the New York Post columnist Cindy Adams—few people paid any attention to them, for most visitors were more concerned with shopping and catching up with old friends.
Trade Secrets co-founder Bunny Williams with Howard Christian of Treillage; volunteers Glen Nielsen and Cici Nielsen.
Margaret Roach, the founder of the indispensable A WayTo Garden.com with Bob Hyland of Loomis Creek Nursery.
Shoppers Vincent Inconiglios and Donna Rafferty; volunteer Lynda Ott Jaeger
Volunteers Peter Felske and Susan Galluzzo of The White Gallery in Lakeville.
Calhoun Sumrall and Suzanne Cassano of Vol.1 Antiques & Privet House; Trade Secrets co-founder Naomi Blumenthal and her son, Jesse.
Lion Rock Farm buildings manager Joffre Andrade with Trade Secrets co-chair Nora Rivkin; perennial Trade Secrets volunteer Dorothy Felske.
Posted by Dan Shaw on 05/17/08 at 07:22 PM (0) Comments • Permalink
Opening Night of the Berkshire International Film Festival
As some 500 people streamed into the Mahaiwe Theater on May 15 to see Man on Wire, the award-winning documentary about tightrope walker Philippe Petit, which opened the Third Annual Berkshire International Film Festival (BIFF), Chatham artist Roger Mason (left) was standing across the street, painting the marquee of the restored theater. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it? said Mason, who was painting alla prima."There are only about 100 marquees like this left in this country.” Around the corner at Pearl’s on Railroad Street, BIFF supporters were sipping cocktails made with gin, vodka and rum from the fledgling Berkshire Mountain Distillers and gorging on sushi, mini salmon BLTs, and raw oysters. “We need more nights like this!” said Karen Lee of Lenox.
Publicist Sylvia Cancela with actress and pilates instructor Karen Lee; the Red Lion Inn’s Nancy Fitzpatrick, Berkshire Creative Economy Council’s Liz Thompson and interior designer William Caligari
Berkshire Living editor-in-chief Seth Rogovoy and BIFF board member Gary Hill; charity consultant and blogger Philip Deely with his wife, actress Hilary Deely.
Philippe Petit, the tightrope walker and subject of the opening night film, Man on Wire , with BIFF founder Kelley Vickery.
Margery Steinberg with Chris Weld of Berkshire Mountain Distillers; Roberto Flores and screenwriter Maria Nation.
Volunteers Sarah Patrick and Carolyn Wells; BIFF executive assistant Lauren Ferin with volunteer coordinator Erica Heinlein of Guido’s
Posted by Dan Shaw on 05/15/08 at 10:04 PM (0) Comments • Permalink
Saturday Night in Salisbury: Upstairs, Downstairs
On the ground floor of a 19th century colonial with a picket fence in front on Academy Street in Salisbury, Merideth McGregor runs Joie de Livres, a shop selling rare books, fine art and objets d’art, which she’s set up to feel like a literary salon. Her upstairs neighbor is Harney Associates, a real estate agency run by native son John Harney Jr., who is exhibiting paintings by Karen Stone of Lakeville on his office walls for the next few month. On Saturday May 10, the neighbors each gave a cocktail party and their two sets of guests mingled outside as a jazz trio played under Harney Associates’ front porch.
Saloniste Merideth McGregor and photographer Robin Langsdorf; a jazz trio made the openings feel like a block party.
Photographer Benjamin Swett, whose work was being shown at Joie de Livres, and his wife, Katherine; Life coach Brooke Loening and WZKE radio host Sally Spillane.
Artist Karen Stone, who is donating part of the proceeds of her exhibit to the Housatonic Day Care Center, and John Harney Jr. stand in front of one of her paintings.
Chris Nelson with Alexis and Zoe Fedorjaczenko; Pat Best and Chris Morley.
Posted by Dan Shaw on 05/11/08 at 08:25 PM (0) Comments • Permalink
Foodies Unite To Help Their Neighbors
Some two dozen restaurants, caterers, bakers and wine shops donated a buffet feast for Monday night’s Mayfest benefit for Construct Inc, which provides homeless prevention and supportive housing services for people with low to moderate incomes in the Southern Berkshires. The event was sponsored by the South Council of the Berkshire Board of Realtors. Guests chatted with their favorite local chefs who had set up tasting tables outdoors under a big tent and inside the elegantly rustic Crissey Farm catering hall at Jennifer House Commons.
Klara Sotonova and Jefferson D. Diller served macaroons, hazelnut kolaches and mini hazelnut tortes from Klara’s Gourmet Cookies.
MayFest co-chairman Elaine Silberstein with historic preservation advocate Barbara Timken; Berkshire Property Agents co-founder Tim Lovett with landscape architect Shaun Grover.
Actress Annette Miller, who opens this month in The Ladies Man at Shakespeare & Company, with playwright Jodi Rothe, who wrote Martha Mitchell Calling, a play that Miller has starred in several times; Construct board member Linda Hebert with Anita Schilling.
Maggie Merelle, co-owner of the bistro Rouge in West Stockbridge, with Jen Harvey-Montano, co-founder of Berkshire Property Agents.
Graphic designer Jennifer Clark with Max Dannis , the owner of Local 111 in Philmont, NY. Maniraj Singh & Ravejeet Singh Chahal, whose father, “Puma,” owns the Aroma Bar & Grill n Great Barington.
Posted by Dan Shaw on 05/05/08 at 09:23 PM (1) Comments • Permalink
Shakespeare & Company Celebrates the Bard’s Birthday
Shakespeare & Company celebrated the Bard’s 444th birthday in Lenox on Wednesday night with a party and performance that featured excerpts from the company’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which has traveled 20,000 miles this winter to play before more than 40,000 students. There were also scenes from two plays that will premiere this summer: Bad Dates by Theresa Rebeck and The Goatwoman of Corvis County by Christine Whitley. There was music by a young indie band from Albany, Citizen Genet, that did a rock and roll version of “Willow,” the traditional English song from Othello. And in inimitable and irreverent Shakespeare & Company fashion, managing director Nicholas Puma Jr. led the audience in an old-fashioned-sing along of Cole Porter’s wickedly witty “Brush Up Your Shakespeare” from Kiss Me, Kate.
Journalist Bess Hochstein with Nicholas Puma Jr, Shakespeare & Company’s managing director; Sophia Garder, the theater company’s manager, wore a costume to sell raffle tickets during the reception.
Pam Johnson with Christopher Sink, the former managing director of Shakespeare & Company, and John MacClaren, the director of administration and finance for Bard College at Simon’s Rock; Writer Judy Linscott with Sarah O’Connell of Salisbury Bank and Ann Usher of Crane & Co.
Cooking teacher Pooja Karina with accordionist and clown Heather Fisch; Jean Wolfersteig and Lois Walsh who teaches art at Marist College.
The BIFFMA Bunch: Gary Hill, the Church Street Gallery’s Denise Ulick, photographer Kevin Sprague and Berkshire International Film Festival founder Kelley Vickery
Posted by Dan Shaw on 04/25/08 at 07:15 AM (0) Comments • Permalink
