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38th Annual Chesterwood Antique and Classic Auto Show
On Sunday, May 27, Chesterwood, the 129-acre Glendale, MA home of Daniel Chester French, sculptor of, among other iconic monuments, the seated figure of Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., will be the setting for the 2012 Chesterwood Antique & Classic Automobile Show.
Son of the Yankee tinkerer who invented the French drain, Daniel Chester French grew up in a milieu rife with household names. His father’s pal Ralph Waldo Emerson lived next door. May Alcott, sister of the author Louisa May Alcott and one of the “little women” on which that sibling’s most famous novel was based, encouraged young French to follow his artistic bent. John Quincy Adams Ward was his first sculpture instructor.
The brand names that will dominate Saturday’s proceedings are no less key to American and local history. The oldest among them recall a day when Fiats destined for the American market were manufactured in Poughkeepsie and “the Knox” came out of Springfield, MA. “At a certain point, every manufacturer of horse-drawn carriages also started making cars,” says event chair Rich Bradway. “Or, as they called them back then, ‘chemical-fueled carriages’.” Michael Krieger of Spencertown (Columbia County, NY), will be there (weather permitting) with his open 1931 Pierce-Arrow (top photo), manufactured in Buffalo, NY. According to Krieger, that company started out making birdcages before moving onto bicycles in the late 19th-century. They introduced their first production automobile in 1901.
Bradway, who first visited Chesterwood as a child to attend the antique car show with his dad, explains that the well-to-do French family would have been among the early adoptors of the automobile. At the start of the 20th century, cars were the playthings of the rich, exquisitely crafted toys, or, as Bradway describes them, “moving forms of sculpture…works of art.” The French family cars were suitably housed in a handsome garage designed by Henry Bacon, the architect of the Lincoln Memorial and of the house and studio at Chesterwood, which will be open for touring during the auto show. “They owned a powder-blue Buick [the oldest, still-active American make] Roundabout, used primarily by Mrs. French, and they also had a 1907 Locomobile,” a model manufactured in Brideport, CT that, despite its steamy-sounding name, was by ‘07 powered by gasoline. By 1917 French was looking to unload it, so he sold it to a small consortium from the Glendale Fire Department for $50. The buyers promptly transformed it into a fire truck. Impressed, French gave them their money back, and good karma ensued. According to Bradway, five years later “that very vehicle came to the French’s house to put out a chimney fire.”
Perhaps because his own childhood—indeed, the course of his entire life—was influenced by early visits to Chesterwood, Bradway is trying this year to make the auto show as family-friendly as possible. There will be food for sale, including Lakota BBQ, Berkshire Mountain Bakery pizzas, and Barrington Bites mini cupcakes. There will also be games specifically aimed at kids—i.e., a scavenger hunt, culminating in a free SoCo ice cream cone for each participant. In keeping with the spirit of the occasion, the cones will be dispensed from SoCo’s own vintage truck.
Today Bradway is associate director of e-commerce and new media for the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He also sits on the Chesterwood Advisory Council. Since he became co-chair of the auto event in 2011 (this year, he’s chairing alone), there’s been a 50% increase in attendance and a 35% increase in the number of vehicles shown. “My dad was an electrician,” he says. “He was not a museum goer.” The elder Bradway brought his son to Chesterwood for an auto show, and the boy left as smitten with art and history as with the cars on display. Unlike other such shows that are held in soulless public arenas, the setting for this one brings the past alive, permitting susceptible imaginations to soar. —Marilyn Bethany
Chesterwood
Williamsville Road, Glendale (near Stockbridge)
10 a.m. - 4 p.m. rain or shine
Admission: $15/adult; $10/Chesterwood members; free/under 18 and holders of American Icon passes
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 05/22/12 at 04:03 PM • Permalink
Empire State of Mind: New York Heritage Weekend Is Here
Frederick Church’s quirky, Persian-inspired homestead, Olana, grandly set atop a hill for the kind of Hudson River Valley view that inspired so many of the painters’ contemporaries (i.e., the Hudson River School), is the ideal starting point for New York Heritage Weekend, May 19 and 20. Established in 2009 to commemorate the Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial, Heritage Weekend celebrates the architecture, art, agriculture, landscapes, and military history of the entire state, from New York City to the Canadian border.
Church clearly had visions of an American empire — or perhaps just a New York State one – based as much on individual artistic expression and respect for natural beauty as it was on business smarts and enterprise; the eclectic design of his own home is a bold testament to those ideals. Thus it’s no surprise that Olana is the epicenter of the Empire State’s Heritage Weekend in the Rural Intelligence region. Here are a few highlights, all perched along the Hudson River, of what the weekend has in store.
This Saturday and Sunday, Olana will host nearly 20 special events – all of them free – including lectures, special guided tours, and on-site talks ranging from preservation of the Viewshed to the preservation of textiles and the conservation of paintings. On Saturday, visitors can take advantage of a rare opportunity to see Olana’ Studio Tower, which is rarely open to the public (tours every half hour, 1 - 4 p.m, advanced registration required) and partake in a perambulatory horticultural talk and tour (1 p.m.).
In addition, Olana opens two major exhibitions on Saturday: Life after LIFE: Preserving Olana, about past and future projects to restore the landscape, farm, house, and collections of Church’s estate, in the Sharp Family Gallery; and Olana’s Dynamic Landscape, featuring work by renowned architectural photographer Peter Aaron, in the Coachman’s House Gallery. Visitors are welcome to join Aaron’s opening reception at 4:30 p.m. which will be followed by his artist’s talk at 5 p.m.
Olana State Historic Site
5720 Route 9G
Hudson, NY
Open 8 a.m. to sunset daily, year round
Free during Heritage Weekend
In Germantown, Clermont, home to seven generations of the Livingston family (including Robert R. Livingston, Jr., who administered the oath of office to President George Washington, among other notable achievements), celebrates it past as a working model farm with Gardenfest. For $5 per car, visitors can tour the estate’s resplendent gardens and purchase Clermont’s heirloom plants while enjoying a Farmers’ Market with locally produced foods plus live music by the Acoustic Medicine Show.
Clermont State Historic Site
1 Clermont Ave
Germantown, NY
Gardenfest: Saturday, May 19, 9 a.m. - 2 p.m.
$5 per car
Mansion tours: $5 adults, $4 seniors/students, free for children 12 and under
Open Wednesday – Sunday, 11 am to 4 pm, April 11 – October 31; Saturday and Sunday, 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. November 1 – December 20
The Vanderbilt Mansion in Hyde Park, the glorious gilded-age country palace built by Frederick Vanderbilt in 1895, has chosen Heritage Weekend to debut a new program, At Your Service: Behind the Scenes at Vanderbilt Mansion (Saturday & Sunday, 2 p.m.; reservations recommended). During this chance to experience — quite literally — the upstairs/downstairs life of Downton Abbey, visitors will be assigned the role of a family servant while learning the ins-and-outs of the palatial digs. The innovative tour, which includes spaces rarely seen by the public, requires participants to climb 74 stairs, so it is clearly not handicapped-accessible. Nor should it be seen as child’s play; the program is recommended for ages 10 and up.
On Sunday at 1 p.m. there will be a free, guided Vanderbilt Landscape and Garden Tour, but only if the weather cooperates. This program is fully family-friendly. Call 845-229-7770 or 845-229-6432 for status if the weather is questionable.
Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site
Albany Post Road
Hyde Park, NY
At Your Service: Behind the Scenes at Vanderbilt Mansion
Program begins Heritage Weekend, Sat., & Sun 2 p.m. Continues Friday -Sunday through October
Tickets are $8, not appropriate for children younger than 10
Mansion: Open 7 days; guided tour only, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. $8.
Grounds: Open 7 days year-round, sunrise to sunset. Free
Historical precedent originally interpreted for the present finds one of its dreamiest manifestations on Bannerman Island (formally Pollopel Island) in the Hudson River, where the Scottish-born David Bannerman constructed an ersatz Scottish castle as the focal point for – of all things – a storage site for his expanding munitions business. Accessible only by boat, and seemingly left to ruin for ages, the island is now open for guided tours. (The ruined castle itself cannot be toured, as it is being stabilized.)
Your journey begins at 1:30 p.m. at Beacon Ferry Dock, Beacon, where you’ll embark for a short boat ride to the island. From there, be prepared to get your day’s worth of exercise; the trek includes 68 steps and a good deal of walking, some of it along steep, rugged trails. Visitors are advised to skip the high heels; sensible shoes are a must. In addition, there’s neither electricity nor running water on this primitive island, so it’s wise to tend to your needs before you embark on the 1.5-hour island tour. Bottled water is available for sale on the boat. This expedition is family-friendly; neither the boat nor island is handicapped accessible. The tour is limited to 46 people, so advance ticket purchase is highly recommended.
Bannerman Island Cruise and Walking Tour
Departs Beacon Ferry Dock, Beacon 1:30 p.m.
Saturday & Sunday, rain or shine
$30 adults; $25 children 11 and under
Advance ticket purchase suggested; go to Pride of the Hudson or call Zerve 800-979-3370
—Carrie Saldo
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Posted by Bess Hochstein on 05/16/12 at 09:14 AM • Permalink
Whose Omi Is it Anyway?
William Tucker, Eve 2000, bronze
Omi International Arts Center in Ghent has serious ivory-tower cred. Among the most selective artists’ retreats in this country, Omi stands out for its reach beyond U.S. borders for applicants. Perhaps that’s because its founder, Francis Greenburger, son of Sanford J. Greenburger, the legendary literary agent who, starting in the 30s, brought the likes of Kafka, Camus, and Sartre to this country, inherited his father’s global perspective on the arts. No question, Omi has earned the right to be a high-minded cocoon. Instead, as Marilyn Bethany reports, it doesn’t so much “reach out” to the community as leap over split-rail fences to embrace it with its free 80-acre sculpture park, recently enhanced with a high tech architectural component. There’s also a sophisticated cafe, miles from the nearest town, shimmering like a mirage in the wilderness, and events such as this Saturday’s nature/art walk-and-talk plus lunch. And then there was that time when one of the residents, a dancer from Baltimore, turned the local town meeting into a scene right out of—think: Mayberry RFD meets Glee.
No, Omi is not some obscure form of sushi, though it is, as its administrative director Ruth Adams ruefully admits, “an octopus.” Which part of the Omi International Arts Center in Ghent contains the cephalopod’s heart and which are its tangential tentacles depends entirely on who’s looking.
To thousands of annual visitors, the “300 acres and growing” property is perceived as a free sculpture park, called The Fields, where they may hike or cross-country ski on groomed trails through 80 acres of rolling hills dotted with an ever-refreshed assortment of monumental cutting-edge artworks. To local parents, Omi is a community center where their kids can go to summer day camp and to year ‘round Saturday morning workshops in such worthy pursuits as making sunprint photographs. To the lucky professional dancers, musicians, writers, translators and artists from around the world who make the cut, Omi is a prestigious residential retreat, where they can work all day, then fraternize at night, not just with their fellow artists but also with top gallerists, curators, critics, agents, and editors brought in from New York, the sort of dream network that could make all the difference to a career. (“Lives have been completely changed,” Adams says.) And finally, to those of us who spend our weekends 
ricocheting around Columbia County doing errands, the Café at Omi is a secret oasis of calm and sustenance. Housed in a stunning piece of architecture, with equally stunning “framed” views from its light-washed interior, the cafe may be as popular for its design, done by Omi’s Architectural director Peter Franck and his wife Kathleen Triem, as for its delicious food crafted by a rotating team of enlightened chefs, using ingredients from the surrounding farms.
Explaining the multi-limbed beast that is Omi is a constant challenge Adams says, recalling some unexpected help with this she once got. She had mentioned to Vincent Thomas, a visiting dancer from Baltimore, that she was heading into the village of Ghent for a town meeting. He begged to go along. Mystified, Adams nonetheless agreed. As the meeting wound down, Thomas stood and introduced himself. He then repeated some phrases he’d heard the various speakers say, accompanied by the body language they’d used to help express themselves. He asked all assembled to do the gestures with him. Amused, everyone went along. Once he had them moving in unison, he said, “That’s dance,” and sat down. Says Adams, “Our audience doubled after that.”
This Saturday, Omi extends yet another tentacle to the community by hosting a nature/art walk-and-talk on its grounds with Fields Sculpture Park director Bill Maynes, naturalist Sheldon Evans, and expert birder Joe Novick. The walk will be followed by a box-lunch reception in the visitors’ center/cafe to celebrate publication of Columbia County Outdoors: A Guide to Recreational Areas, written by Evans under the auspices of the Columbia Land Conservancy. This comprehensive and beautifully organized book makes clear where it’s okay for bikers, birders, boaters, hikers, even the wheelchair bound, to trespass within the county’s lightly populated 635 square miles of rolling woodlands, wetlands, meadows, lakes, rivers and creeks.
Saturday’s is but one of the upcoming programs at Omi that the public is invited to attend. On Saturday May 12, the current class at Writers Omi will host a free reading of their original fiction, poetry and translation, followed by a barbecue. On June 2, the sculptor Alice Aycock (recently in the news for bringing suit against JFK airport’s management over their plan to remove a work by her that has hung from the ceiling of Terminal 1 since the building opened fourteen years ago) will be at Omi to celebrate the reconstruction of her 1975 piece, “A Simple Network of Underground Wells and Tunnels” sited in Omi’s latest wrinkle, its Architecture Park. That park also contains some “virtual” structures that appear only when cellphone screens are pointed toward specific “building sites,” once the required app has been downloaded. Wild and crazy? No, just ahead of the pack; perfectly normal for the kind of octopus Omi is. —Marilyn Bethany
Omi International Arts Center
1405 County Road 22, Ghent
Free guided nature and art walk
Saturday, May 5, noon
Post walk box lunch: $10/reserved; $12/day-of
Columbia County Outdoors: A Guide to Recreational Areas, $21.95
518.392.4747
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 04/29/12 at 01:16 PM • Permalink
The Hyde Park Trail: History in Motion
Photograph courtesy FDR Library
by Kathryn Matthews
“If beauty is good for the soul, then I wish I could have taken the whole world to walk with me early Saturday morning in the woods at Hyde Park,” Eleanor Roosevelt once wrote of her restorative walks at Val-Kill, her Dutchess County retreat. Dogwood trees in bloom, “little orange lizards” (salamanders) skittering about, a sea of wildflowers in bloom—the details of Val-Kill’s ever-changing landscape so captivated the First Lady that she shared them with readers of her nationally syndicated “My Day” column.
Celebrating its 20th anniversary this summer, the Hyde Park Trail, a nine-mile “through trail” linking all the National Park Service sites—the Vanderbilt Mansion; Springwood, the home of Franklin D. Roosevelt; Val-Kill, Eleanor Roosevelt’s private getaway; FDR’s Top Cottage; and the Roosevelt Farm Lane—rests within the town of Hyde Park’s 16-mile trail system.
The impetus for developing the Hyde Park Trail began in the mid-1980s when the Polio Plus (a Rotary Club charity) and March of Dimes walk-a-thon participants, attempting to follow the trail between Springwood and the Vanderbilt Mansion, got lost. “They were turning up in other people’s backyards—that’s when we realized we needed a better trail system,” says Karl Beard of the National Parks Service.
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The original 3.5 mile stretch, linking the FDR Home to the Vanderbilt Mansion, opened in 1991. In the ensuing two decades, its length has nearly tripled. The latest addition is the Roosevelt Farm Lane trail. On a recent 3.6 mile hike, my husband and I discovered that, on this parcel situated between Route 9 and the entrance to Val-Kill on Route 9G, FDR experimented with forestry, planting over a half-million trees over three decades. In the process, he’d acquired an understanding and appreciation of forestry that he later applied to the national tree-planting efforts of the Civilian Conservation Corps. The Roosevelt Farm Lane is the only part of the Hyde Park trail open to bicyclists.
On another hike within the system, we discovered that Riverfront Park, between the Vanderbilt Mansion and Springwood, parallels River Road, a public thoroughfare, before diverging onto the historic carriage roads and woodland paths that lead to each of those sites. The toughest trail is from Val-Kill, Eleanor’s retreat, to Top Cottage, where FDR entertained high-profile visitors, such as Winston Churchill and the king and queen of England. The trail is a steep and narrow, one hiker-wide, mile-long footpath.
We hoofed it all the way up and back; though, for the weary, there is a free shuttle bus service from May through October that stops at all the historic sites. which hikers can use to hitch a ride back to their parked cars. The only potential drawback; there could be a substantial wait.
Using new cell phone tours (845.475.3819) as their “guide,” hikers now get to listen, at designated spots along all six Hyde Park trails, to fact-filled highlights (example: the Atlantic sturgeon that were once commercially fished in the Hudson River at Hyde Park were so abundant that they became known as “Albany beef”). Alternatively, hikers can download audio podcasts to a computer, MP3 player, or iPod, for listening at home or later, while on the trail.
Hyde Park Trail Map
Roosevelt-Vanderbilt National Historic Sites
Daily, dawn to dusk; hikers/free
Parking lots:
Springwood
Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt
4097 Albany Post Road (Route 9)
Hyde Park
Vanderbilt Mansion
119 Vanderbilt Park Road
(2 miles north of the FDR Home on Route 9)
Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site (Val-Kill)
Route 9G, 2 miles east of the FDR Home on Route 9
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 08/17/11 at 09:17 AM • Permalink
The Wassaic Project: A Pop-Up Museum and Pizza, Too
Angelo Womack has brought his pizza oven to the Wassaic Project.
“Everybody is asking if this is an art installation or a real pizza oven,” said Angelo Womack, who was splitting wood on Wednesday outside Maxon Mills (below), which is the headquarters for the third iteration of the Wassaic Project Summer Festival. “This is a real wood-fired oven. It will become part of the Lantern Inn on the other side of the railroad tracks after the festival. I have travelled all over Italy and I make real Italian pizza. I’ve been making pizza in Brooklyn for years.”
This weekend, August 5 - 7, you will feel like you’re in a rural version of Brooklyn if you head a half mile south of the Wassaic MetroNorth train station. There will be hundreds of young artists and musicians decked out in artisanal T-shirts who’ll be camping on the field outside the old Luther Barn. You can eat hand-crafted pizzas alongside them while listening to 23 live music shows and viewing on-site art installations, film screenings, and dance performances.
When RI met Wassaic co-founders Eve Biddle and Bowie Zunino two years ago, we were immediately smitten by their spunk and aesthetics, and soon they were discovered by The New York Times. The festival weekend is a true multi-generational, multi-disciplinary happening that is free (donations encouraged) so you don’t have to make a major commitment to be on the cutting edge. As the Wassaic Project has grown, the founders have taken on a third partner (Jeff Barnett-Winsby) and brought in other curators: Ryan Frank and Risa Shoup have put together an exhibition called Ode Hotel; Eric Gleason and Ethan Greenbaum have organized The Finishers. Here’s a preview of the 2011 edition of The Wassaic Project. (Our advice: Wear comfortable shoes if you plan on seeing all seven floors of art in the Maxon Mills granary.)
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Installations on the sixth floor of Maxon Mills.
A mixed media piece by Amy Podmore, a professor at Williams College.
Moria Kelly’s Will and Jimmy at the Old Hotel.
C-prints by Eliza Swann.
The Wassaic Project - August 5 - 7
37 Furnace Bank Road Wassaic, NY
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 08/03/11 at 03:29 PM • Permalink
Art Studio Tour to Benefit Library
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Nothing compares with seeing art and crafts in the environment in which they were produced. Unlike galleries, which are intentionally sterile so as not to compete for attention with the work, artists’ studios are rife with clues. Among the dozen-plus studios that will be open to the public this weekend in Ancram, Copake, and Hillsdale, NY to benefit the Roeliff Jansen Community Library is that of cabinet- and furniture-maker Joel Mark Kupperstein.
The first thing you notice about the studio, which is on a road so obscure it could aptly be named Unbeaten Path, are a pair of beautiful wood entry doors. Inside an eye-grabbing network of dust-collection ducts nearly upstages his furniture, which is simple, sculptural and clean-lined. In his work, the wood, rather than any ornamentation or detailing, is the star. He treats it with great reverence, often harvesting it himself, then designing around its idiosyncrasies.
Educated as an engineer, Mark (the surname he uses professionally) fell into woodworking after a post-grad stint in the Peace Corps. “I started out repairing antiques,” he says, “then somebody gave me a book about Wendell Castle.” Then, as now, Castle makes the kind of furniture that ends up in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. Thus inspired, Mark turned himself into a topnotch craftsmen. Soon architects and contractors were hiring him to execute their cabinetwork. Eventually, he headed a workshop in Brooklyn that, during peak periods, would employ as many as fifteen carpenters. He was a success, but his business was based on realizing the designs of others.
Now that Mark and his wife Lynda Brenner, a psychotherapist, have “semi-retired” to their weekend place in Hillsdale, he is finally free to turn his attention back to handcrafted furniture. “If a furniture client asks me, as one recently did, I will still build the occasional kitchen. But now,” he adds with evident satisfaction, “it’s my own design.”
Art Studio Tour
Saturday & Sunday, July 16 & 17; 11 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Tickets/$30 (includes Meet the Artists Reception at the library, Friday, July 15, 5 - 7 p.m.)
buy tickets on-line or at
Roeliff-Jansen Community Library
Route 22, Hillsdale; 518.325.4101
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 07/13/11 at 08:13 AM • Permalink
Zip-lining: Adventure in the Treetops
by Betsy Miller
In 2009, there were 62 ziplines in the United States. Two years later, there are about 200, three of them in our area. Investors, get out your checkbooks. Treetop zipping is coming to a neighborhood near you.
The use of cables and harnesses to transport people between two fixed points has been in use for hundreds of years. Whether crossing chasms, waterways or other more inaccessible terrain, it has always been a speedy and easy way to get from here to there. Today, it is also a sport—no, make that, an amusement. Since there is no skill involved, just thrills, it ranks with roller coaster rides.
Participants are fitted with state-of-the-art harnesses and helmets, then are hooked onto cables strung from treetop to treetop, or tower to tower, the higher, the better. Then, all one has to do is take a flying leap off the starting platform and presto!, a rider is out in the open air, flying like Superman. Speeds can range from 20 to 35 miles per hour. Heights obviously vary, based on the size of the trees, but can start as reasonably as 30 feet and go up to over 80 feet above ground.
Once addicted to zipline riding, participants can log on to www.ziplinerider.com to locate the extremes: world’s highest (5,000 ft. in British Columbia), longest (1.2 miles in South Africa), fastest (100 mph in South Africa), and the one with the most spans (27 in Colorado).
Ziplining for amusement is believed to have begun in Costa Rica, where traveling through the treetops of the rain forest gave visitors a bird’s eye view of eco-systems they might not otherwise have been able to see. Today, zipline parks must meet ecological and safety standards before they can open. First an arborist must affirm that the trees are healthy enough to be used as platforms and that the hardware will not damage their future growth. Then one of two professional organizations must sign off on all cables, pulleys, lines, harnesses and guide training. Finally, the Department of Labor needs to give its O.K. for the site to open as a commercial amusement park. All so participants can fly without a hitch.
When traveling from tree to tree, span to span, smoothness is a factor. A zipliner lands on one side of a treetop platform, unhooks from one cable, then hooks up and takes off again from the other side. Vistas can be woodland, open land, a waterfall, hayfields or long views of surrounding terrain.
At Big Bear Ziplines in Hyde Park, the views include forests, valleys and open fields—with a bit of wild life thrown in for good measure. That park, open since February, has 8 spans and took over a year to plan and build. General Manager Carolyn Beisiegel says her favorite part is how the rides change with the seasons. “The personalities of the lines are different,” “Colder lines run faster,” she says. “Humidity slows things down. And you can see so much more when the leaves are off the trees.” Other ziplines in the region are at ski facilities.
At Catamount in South Egremont, MA, the course includes not only ziplines but rope ladders and rope bridges to get you from one place to another. Not exclusively a zipline park, Catamount challenges visitors through levels of agility. Kids as young as 7 or adults with little or no confidence can start on the most basic course, then literally work their way up to higher ziplines and less stable-seeming, more challenging bridges and ladders. The site has 11 separate courses. Two courses feature 2,000 foot ziplines.
Jiminy Peak in Hancock, MA includes ziplines as part of courses that also have rope bridges, ladders and cargo nets. Participants must complete the less challenging courses before moving on to those that require more agility. a similar rope course with ziplines included. There are five courses varying in elevation and strenuousness. All courses are self-guided and require participants to be hooked into a guideline at all times.
David Scott, a 32 year-old electrician who lives across the street from Big Bear Ziplines, is already addicted. “I took my first ride right after they opened,” he says. “It was cold and I was a little scared to leave the platform. But the guides explained everything and showed me how it all works. They always make sure I am tied off so there was no danger of falling. It was a really good experience.”
So far, Scott’s been back four times, bringing a total of 15 people with him to experience the feeling of flying. Now he jumps off the flight deck. “I thought the sensation would wear off,” he says, “but it’s been different each time.” It’s only a matter of time before his Mom comes back, too.
Big Bear Ziplines
Hyde Park,NY
Riders must be 12 or older and weigh between 80 and 250 pounds.
8 courses: $79/Monday – Thursday; $99/Friday – Sunday
Prepaid reservations required.
Catamount Adventure Park
South Egremont, MA
Riders must be 7 or older and at least 48” tall.
11 courses: $49/age 12 and over; $39/age 10 and 11; $29/age 7 - 9
Daily through September 5
No reservations required.
Jiminy Peak Aerial Adventure Park
Hancock, MA
Riders must be 6 or older and at least 48” tall
5 courses; $45
Daily through September 5
Prepaid reservations recommended.
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 07/10/11 at 09:47 AM • Permalink
To the Lighthouse: An Interview with Emily Brunner
by Betsy Miller
On Saturday, July 9th, a Hudson Cruise Boat departs from the Henry Hudson Riverfront Park in Hudson on the hour every hour between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. for the season’s first regularly scheduled tours of the Hudson Athens Lighthouse. The tour takes about one hour and features a talk by Emily Brunner, an 86-year-old retired nurse now living in Athens, who spent seven years living at the lighthouse with her family, starting at age 5, when they moved there in 1930 from another lighthouse in Huntington Long Island.
“The Long Island light was situated between the estates of the Vanderbilts and the Whitneys,” said Emily Brunner, third from left in the photo, in a telephone interview this week. “I think that’s why it had indoor plumbing. But there wasn’t much else. It was designed for a single man—one bedroom, a small living area and a kitchen.” When her family moved up to Hudson, they were in the lap of luxury—sort of. At least, the space was designed for a family—four bedrooms, a good sized kitchen and a family room. “But we had an outhouse that hung out over the river,” she recalls. “We’d never seen anything like it.”
Nor did they know how to use it properly. When her younger brother made his first quick pre-bedtime visit during a stiff northerly breeze, he ran back indoors teary-eyed in urine-soaked p.j.s. “My Dad told him he needed to learn never to pee into the wind,” she laughs. Brunner says her Father would hang “items for learning” on the inside of the outhouse door each month. “That’s how I learned Morse code and semaphore signaling.”
The family lived without electricity and running water. They had a cistern for drinking water and Brunner’s mother hauled up 14 gallons of river water each day to use for laundry and bathing. “She’d strain the water, then boil it on the coal-fired stove before we could use it.” Her mother also baked all the family bread, pies and cakes, prepared meals, did laundry on a scrub board, and shared the watch with her husband. “We had a wind up mechanism that worked on weights so that the fog bell would ring every 15 seconds,” says Brunner. “And we could set the flash the same way.” Each lighthouse on the river had a different series of flashes so that boats on the river would know where they were. The kerosene burning lamp was magnified with a Fresnel lens and, according to Brunner, was visible 20 miles north and 20 miles south.
As the eldest of four children, it fell to Brunner to row her siblings to and from school in Athens each day. She says she could drop her hand over the side of the boat and know which way the tide was running. During the winter, they’d walk across the ice, and she could listen to the creaks and know what the water was doing underneath the frozen surface. ‘In those days, the ice would get to be 30” thick on that side of the river,” she explains. “On the Hudson side, they’d keep the channel open because it was deeper—30 to 40 feet as opposed to the shallow 18 feet on the Athens side.”
Life at the lighthouse was filled with adventures. “People have the misconception that it was boring,” she says. “We always had plenty to keep us busy. We’d listen to Amos ‘n’ Andy on our Atwater Kent radio, play all sorts of board games, polish the brass or paint the railings. And most of us kids spent a lot of time drawing, too.”
But their number one favorite game was watching for dead bodies floating down the river. “We’d take our binoculars out and spend hours watching things float by,” Brunner says. During the seven years she lived there, she sighted three bodies. “My Dad would take the boat out, put a line around the body, then haul it back to Hudson, where the police would take over.” All in a day’s work at the lighthouse.
Hudson Athens Lighthouse Tours
Starting Saturday, July 9th,
hourly 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.
The tour takes about one hour and features a talk by Emily Brunner.
There is a picnic table for those who wish to linger.
Adults/$20 Children/$10
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 07/04/11 at 06:36 PM • Permalink
O Say, Can You See Some Fireworks
Funny how fireworks, invented by the Chinese in the 12th century, still inspire more awe and delight than anything Disney (studio and parks divisions combined) has conjured up so far. This weekend there will be many displays, the big challenge, apart from nabbing a parking spot with a view (despite extra-high parking charges, sanctioned lots fill up fast), is figuring out which display is what night.
Berkshire County
Great Barrington On Saturday, July 2, at 9:30 p.m., there will be free fireworks at the Wyantenuck Country Club. (Rain date: Sunday, July 3rd)
Lenox At noon on Monday, July 4, Shakespeare and Co. presents Revolutionary Moments, vignettes about the influence of the Bard on a range of historic figures. (adults/$15, 18 and younger/$5). This will be followed by S&Co.‘s eighth annual reading of the Declaration of Independence July 4 at 3 p.m., followed by an S& Co.-hosted barbecue, where food will be sold. That evening, at Tanglewood, also in Lenox, marks the last night of James Taylor’s big weekend, and, not surprisingly, it is long since sold out. But the fireworks display that follows is visible from many locales in the immediate vicinity. Olivia’s Overlook on the Richmond Road, an obvious choice, is best approached on foot as that small, free lot fills early.
North Adams There will be a fireworks display immediately following the SteepleCats game at Joe Wolfe Field, 87 Marshall Street.
Pittsfield As 2011 is Pittsfield’s 250th anniversary, their 4th of July Parade, which USA Today, has declared one of the country’s top 10, will be an even bigger deal than usual. It starts at 10 a.m. Monday. That evening, after the Colonials 6:30 p.m. game at Wahconah Park, there will be fireworks at the ballpark. Since they don’t begin until the game is over, it’s impossible to give an exact time, but if the game doesn’t go into extra innings, think 9:30ish.
WilliamstownThe annual Independence Day Parade in steps off from Southworth Street at 11 a.m. on Monday, July 4th and culminates at about 1:30 p.m. with a barbecue, followed by a reading of the Declaration of Independence in front of the Williams College Museum of Art.
Columbia County
Chatham The town parade, complete with bands and floats, starts at 9:30 a.m. on July 3rd. Later in Chatham, the Family Fun Fest—free rides, kids’ activities, entertainment— at the Columbia Country Fairgrounds starts at 3 p.m., followed by fireworks at dusk. Food and beverages available may be purchaused. Admission/$5; under 12/free
Germantown From 2 - 10 p.m. on July 4th, Clermont State Historic Site, home of a signer of the Declaration, offers an Old-Fashioned Independence Day, where anyone so inclined might actually learn some history. Even the music ranges from 18th-century to pop. There is food for purchase (although picnickers are welcome), and fireworks over the Hudson, courtesy of the town of Saugerties on the other side. Per vehicle/$8 before 8 p.m., $10 after 8 p.m.
Kinderhook At 11 a.m. on July 4th, the annual People’s Parade, complete with old cars and kids of crepe-paper decorated bikes begins. Prepare to be charmed.
Lebanon On Saturday, July 2, after the races at the Lebanon Valley Speedway, there will be “the most unbelievable fireworks display imaginable.” Adults/$11 & $20, children/$2;
Old Chatham The organizers of this unflashy parade boast that there are “no celebrities,” which sums up the sweet spirit of the thing. Anyone who wishes to can be in the parade. Gather at the Old Firehouse at 9:00 a.m., the parade begins at 9:30 a.m. Albany Turnpike Road going through Old Chatham will be closed for about an hour.
Dutchess County
Poughkeepsie will hold its fireworks celebration on the 4th at about 9 p.m. People can view it for free at Waryas Park, but the best perch is probably the splendid new Walkway Over the Hudson. Those wishing to view it from on high must buy a special $10 wristband, available at various area stores, in order to gain admittance. Since, for safety, the number of people allowed on the Walkway must be limited, so are the number of wristbands, which are expected to sell out fast.
Rhinebeck The Dutchess County Fairgrounds hosts the Hudson Valley Philharmonic & Fireworks on Monday. Offerings range from Aaron Copeland to selections from the Broadway shows Rent and Hairspray, sung by vocalists from the Tri-Arts Sharon Playhouse. Gates open at 6, the concert starts at 8, and the fireworks are at dusk. Admission/$12, advance/$8, under 12/free; OR carload/$45, advance/$35.
Litchfield County
Lime Rock Every year Lime Rock Park in conjunction with the Rotary Club of Salisbury hosts the local fireworks show. This year the fireworks will be on Saturday, July 2 (rain date: Sunday, July 3. Carload/$10. Gates open at 6 p.m. for picnicking; fireworks begin around 9 p.m. Please leave the dog at home.
Litchfield On July 4th, The Litchfield Historical Society is sponsoring a Turn of the Century Fest and Pet Parade, welcoming owners of creatures (caged, if feathered, or leashed, if furry) great and small to march them through the streets in celebration of America’s independence. At the end of the parade route, there will be a turn-of-the-century-themed party, complete with sack races, tugs-of-war, seed-spitting competitions, and an ice cream social.
New Milford‘s annual Independence weekend carnival, featuring rides, game booths, and food, will take place at Young’s Field beginning on Thursday June 30th and continuing through Saturday, July 2nd, culminating with a free fireworks display on the 2nd, at approximately 9:30 p.m. on Fort Hill Still Meadow (behind Starbucks). Rain date: Sunday, July 3rd.
Washington The grounds of the Shepaug Valley Middle/High School will open at 3 p.m. on July 4 for BYO family picnickers. (There will also be some food concessions.) Fireworks begin at dusk.
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 06/28/11 at 05:39 PM • Permalink
Dan’s Diary: The Berkshire/Cape Cod Connection
The contemporary Flume Fountain at Heritage Gardens & Museums on Cape Cod.
If you ever wondered why Ellen Spear left her plum job as president and CEO of Hancock Shaker Village in Pittsfield, you’ll understand after visiting her at the magnificent Heritage Gardens and Museums in Sandwich, MA, which is a couple of miles from the Sagamore and Bourne Bridges. One of the best kept secrets on Cape Cod, the 100 acre campus is a lush, multidisciplinary fantasia that Spear is planning to rebrand as the “Museum of Summer.” The former country estate of Mr. and Mrs. J. K. Lilly III, it includes several gardens (densely planted with Dexter rhododendrons, day lilies, hostas and hydrangeas) an antique automobile museum (coincidentally housed in a replica of the Shaker Village’s iconic round stone barn) two other museums (with one of the best collections of folk art in the United States), and an indoor working carousel from the early 20th century with a companion exhibit Flying Horses about the history of carousels in America and the Italian immigrants from Brooklyn who carved many of the iconic horses.
As Spear, who became the executive director of Heritage in March, strolls the meticulous grounds, she confesses that she feels liberated from the contraints of the Shaker’s utilitarian aesthetics. At Heritage, form and function are often frivolous—like a rococco Cadillac convertible and the plethora of day lilies—and unapologetically fun. If the Shakers had children, they might have approved of Hidden Hollow, the new certified Nature Explore Classrooms situated in a two acre dry kettle hole with everything made from natural materials “You can let your kids run and play free here which is something fewer and fewer children get to do anywhere anymore,” says Spear. “It’s a beautiful spot for non-electric learning.”
And Spear is already tapping her Berkshires connections and consciousness to enliven Heritage. She is especially excited about working with the Norman Rockwell Museum’s Laurie Norton Moffat (with whom she co-chaired the Berkshire Creative Economy Project in 2007) to bring two Norman Rockwell exhibits–Picturing Health: Norman Rockwell and the Art of Illustration and Norman Rockwell: Behind the Camera—to Heritage for the summer of 2012. “Believe it or not, there has never been a Rockwell exhibit in the Boston area,” she says. As we walk past the tented Magnolia Cafe restaurant, she mentions that “I am encouraging them to adopt a farm-to-table menu.”
So if you are headed to Cape Cod this summer, plan to stop for an hour or two at Heritage Museums & Gardens on the way, or keep it mind as the perfect rainy day activity. Ellen Spear will be very pleased to see you.
The round stone barn car museum photographed by Kevin Sprague
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