Parties The "Radioactive Bodega" Pre-Party The IS 183 Art School of the Berkshires annual costume ball has become a cult even that attracts more than 400 partygoers of all ages. The theme of the party is always playful—Sushi-a-Go-Go in 2007, Rock the Opera in 2008, the Hair Ball in 2009—and By Editor
Community Twenty Questions for "Devotion" Author Dani Shapiro In the dozen years since Dani Shapiro published her best-selling memoir, Slow Motion (Random House), she has become a full-time country resident and written several well-received novels like 2007's Black & White. Now, with her just-published memoir, Devotion (Harper, $24.99), which chronicles her By Editor
Food AgriCulture: Which Chicken? The Fatty or the Funster? Peter Davies and Mark Scherzer are the owners of Turkana Farms in Germantown, NY. This week Mark writes: I promised a couple of weeks ago to come back to the issue of chicken. I love the taste and texture of the plump Cornish cross chickens we raise, and attribute these By Editor
Community The Salisbury Ski Jumps - Our Winter Olympics For 84 years, the Salisbury Winter Sports Association (SWSA) has promised Olympic level competition at the Annual U.S. Eastern Ski Jumping Championships, and the SWSA is good to its word. Last year, we got to see Pete Frenette compete on historic Satré Hill. This year, he's not By Editor
Food Sweet Simplicity: Black & White Truffles These are extraordinary in their ease and simplicity — fresh local cream mingles with the best chocolate you can find. I used Belgium Callebaut chocolate with cream from Highlawn Farm, where the vista is classic New England and Jersey cows bat their long lashes. I couldn’t find local butter (but By Editor
Food The Market: A Grocery Store Takes Pittsfield Back to the Future Jim Benson, the owner of The Market, finds it depressing when people have to do their grocery shopping at Rite Aid. Until last week, if you lived or worked in downtown Pittsfield and wanted to buy a half-gallon of milk, paper towels, and a box of cereal, Rite Aid By Editor
Parties Jason Houston's Solo Exhibit Opens at the Ferrin Gallery Cultural correspondent Bess J.M. Hochstein reports from Pittsfield: Thursday, January 21 was something of a double-header for Jason Houston (near left with gallery owners Donald Clark and Leslie Ferrin.) The evening began with the reception for his solo photography show, Family of Mine, at Ferrin Gallery, and continued By Editor
Food AgriCulture: The Road to Turkana, Part IV Peter Davies and Mark Scherzer are the owners of Turkana Farms in Germantown, NY. Given the tragedy that has recently befallen a local farmer (see Media Matters on the Home Page), Peter, who wrote this week's blog, was quick to point out that the following litany of complaints By Editor
Arts Reading List: Recent Books by Local Authors Peter Biskind, author of such film classics as Easy Riders, Raging Bulls and Down and Dirty Pictures writes an intimate, revealing and balanced biography of a Hollywood legend in Star: How Warren Beatty Seduced America (Simon & Schuster, 2009). In it, Biskind makes the case that, for all his excesses, By Editor
Community Coming Together for Haiti at the Mahaiwe With mixed emotions, the lucky ticketholders filed into the Mahawie theater in Great Barrington on Friday, January 22, for the first of James Taylor’s two benefit concerts for Partners in Health which does important relief work around the world. These die-hard JT fans—who made the concert a By Editor
Community Excursions: Historic Fashion, The Inside Story The inventor of the loincloth may have been the first homo sapien to get TMI. Undergarments have been shaping the truth ever since. Bodies never change, but since fashion silhouettes do with great frequency, it falls to underwear to make things right—to cinch the bits that bulge and puff By Editor
Community Laps of Luxury: Where To Swim During the Winter For some reason, most of the pools in our region seem to be locally-guarded secrets—but no more. You can buy day passes at all of them, and, except for the pool at the preppy Hotchkiss School, you gain access to other fitness equipment like treadmills and weight machines. By Editor
