Rural Intelligence
Parties

Berkshire Botanical Garden's Fête des Fleurs

Gardeners are among the most creative people around, which was evident at the Fête des Fleurs fundraiser at the Berkshire Botanical Garden in Stockbridge on Saturday, July 23. The lavishly decorated tent vied for attention with the hats many women wore to compete in a chapeau contest in which prizes
By Editor
Style

LOCAL's Economy Buoyed By Chocolate Trickle Down

"We are doing very well," says Michele O'Hana, via a crackling Skype connection from her childhood home in West Cork, Ireland, where, as usual, she is spending the summer with her family. "Repeat that please?," I shout, certain I must have heard wrong.  In
By Editor
Arts

Review: "Sylvia" at Berkshire Theatre Fest

When A.R. Gurney's play Sylvia debuted in 1995  at Manhattan Theatre Club with Chalres Kimbrough, Blythe Danner and Sarah Jessica Parker, the New York Times critic wrote:  "Not since Abie's Irish Rose has there been a play as critic-proof as Sylvia, at least
By Editor
Arts

Jazz on Three Summer Days, a Chat with Vita Muir

Summer 2011 marks the 16th anniversary of the Litchfield Jazz Festival, of which jazz DJ Dave Hershorin of New Orleans WWOZ radio says, “It’s what other jazz festivals wish they could be.”   Litchfield Magazine recently named LJF founder Vita Muir one of the 50 most influential people in the
By Editor
Food

AgriCulture: The Pleasure Principle

AgriCulture bloggers Peter Davies and Mark Scherzer are the owners of Turkana Farms in Germantown, NY. This week,  Mark writes: On this extremely hot afternoon smack in the middle of a short (we hope) heat wave, I am very thankful not to be living in the Midwest, where the extremely
By Editor
Arts

Lar Lubovitch Lets Loose at Jacob’s Pillow

Dance review by Bess J.M. Hochstein Photo: Todd Rosenberg Lar Lubovitch is a master of shape in space. In his work, form and flow take precedence over narrative or message, and his dances are a joy to watch. In the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company's appearance at Jacob’
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Arts

Zoe | Juniper Jumps to the Doris Duke Theatre

Dance review by Bess J.M. Hochstein Photos: Christopher Duggan Seattle-based zoe | juniper is a young multi-disciplinary visual and performing arts company headed by the husband and wife team of dancer/choreographer Zoe Scofield and photographer/video installation/sculptural performance artist Juniper Shuey. The company made its Jacob’
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Arts

Leon and Richard, Together Again

by Scott Baldinger Bard president and American Symphony orchestra conductor Leon Botstein (above left, in 1975 at the age of 29)  is also the numero uno champion of the 1940 opera Die Liebe der Danae, the gloriously coloristic but neglected work composed in Germany by Richard Strauss (above right, at
By Editor
Parties

Topiary Artist Pearl Fryar Raises Some Green at The Mount

Cultural correspondent Bess J.M. Hochstein reports from Lenox. Among the many events included in the inaugural Lift Ev’ry Voice celebration of African-American arts and heritage, the appearance by topiary artist Pearl Fryar at The Mount must surely have been the most unexpected and highly anticipated. Fryar, a
By Editor
Parties

Berkshire Playwright’s Lab Benefit Features World Premiere One-Acts

Cultural correspondent Bess J.M. Hochstein reports from Great Barrington. For the fourth-consecutive summer, the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center is playing host to the Berkshire Playwright’s Lab (BPL), which presents free staged readings of new plays, performed by casts that usually include some high-wattage stars of stage
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Style

The Hooper Garden: A Passion That's Bigger than Both of Them

Sophisticated gardeners tend to agree that turning the land surrounding a house into a series of garden "rooms" is a great way to bring nature to heel.  This handy design device transforms negative space (ill-defined areas you may gaze across or wander through on occasion) into positive
By Editor
Arts

Cutting Edge Exhibit Down by the Riverside

by Betsy Miller Picture Shirley Bassey singing her hit song This is My Life in one of her dramatic costumes.   Now imagine her singing the same song at different points in her career, all captured on video that has been fragmented by an artist, who further fractures the images with
By Editor

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