Rural Intelligence (Page 611)

Parties

10×10 RAP (Real Art Party) at Berkshire Museum

Fiona Breslin reports from Pittsfield.The 10×10 RAP (Real Art Party) opening reception, held on February 20, at the Berkshire Museum, was the embodiment of why our region can prove to be so stimulating. On an otherwise quiet night on North Street, the opening was a commingling of more

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Parties

Spencertown Revels

Dale Stewart reports from Spencertown, New York.On Saturday, February 16, love was in the air at this year’s Spencertown Revels Movable Feast. The event, which boasted a Be Our Valentine theme, was a benefit for The Spencertown Academy Arts Center, and also served as a much needed mid-

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Arts

Selected Shorts: Review of BSC's 10x10 New Play Festival

If you have to have a citywide arts festival in the dead of winter, you absolutely must have good theater somewhere, if not everywhere. And preferably of the kind that doesn’t strain the audience’s understandably frigid attention span. This is a hallmark of 2013’s 10x10 Upstreet Festival

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Food

Four Hot Tamales: Women Who Belong in the Kitchen

Daire Rooney, executive chef of Allium Restaurant + Bar, is a New Englander plain and simple. She doesn’t identify with a specific state, born in Vermont and raised all around the region. “This is where I belong. I’ve built strong relationships with farmers, chefs, and the community here.” Chef

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Arts

Deee-Lucius: A Cult Fave Comes to the Berkshires

When Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig sing together in their Brooklyn-based band Lucius, they create a third being, an ethereal presence greater than the sum of its parts, a voice haunting, playful, yearning, and sexy. Depending on the song, that voice can conjure kohl-eyed, bee-hived 1960s girl

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Community

Homegoing: Du Bois Legacy Honored In the Flesh

Du Bois at his 90th birthday with great-grandson Arthur. In 1975, Harvard developed a research institute in his name. This posthumous honor was preceeded by the construction of an entire department at UMASS Amherst in 1970, also boasting the name of the formidable scholar and activist. But it wasn&

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Food

AgriCulture: Tea and Sympathy

AgriCulture bloggers Peter Davies and Mark Scherzer are the owners of Turkana Farms in Germantown, NY. This week Mark writes. In the last couple of weeks a few late lambs have arrived, and the most recent, the 27th of the season, born February 5, was initially struggling. His mother did

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Parties

Lit: The Clark Lights Up For Electric Paris

Rachel Louchen reports from Williamstown. At the opening - night gala "Exposition Universelle," held on Saturday, February 16, for Electric Paris, the new exhibit at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, guests were greeted by a giant projection of an illuminated Arc de Triomphe. A fitting entranceway for

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Food

A Chip Off the Ol' Squash

Berkshire native Alana Chernila, local politician, mother of two, and author of the new cookbook, The Homemade Pantry: 101 Foods You Can Stop Buying & Start Making (Clarkson Potter), dispenses change and cooking ideas to readers and friends. She shares her peak-of-the-season recipes with Rural Intelligence to

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Parties

Inspiration by the Decades at 10x10 On 10

Lisa Green reports from Pittsfield. What inspires you most at this decade of your life? That’s the question curator Diane Firtell (left) asked of each girl/woman who created a piece of artwork for the Alchemy Initiative’s art exhibit that opened on Saturday at Y Bar on North

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Community

Lounge Acts: Allium, griffinGB, and Vintage Make Sitting Around an Art

The lounge at Allium. Photo courtesy of Allium. Lounging can be much more than just chilling on a comfy couch. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.) In some cases, it can even be an art form (just ask Proust), one that requires the collaborative efforts of hospitable professionals

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Parties

Goin' to Town: Townscape Valentine's Party at Gilmor Glass

Fiona Breslin reports from Millerton. Millerton's Townscape Valentine’s Day Party had a special, grateful air; a grouping of the town's lovers eager to finally get out on a Saturday night (February 9) post Nemo. The evening was, pardon the pun, chill, with everyone relaxing with

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