Rural Intelligence (Page 673)

Community

Dress Rehearsal for IS 183's Annual Costume Party

The annual IS 183 Art School of the Berkshires costume ball and dance party has evolved to become one of those mythic—and epic—galas that define a certain bobo Berkshire lifestyle. The yearly challenge is to create a party that surpasses the previous one in both creativity and fundraising

By Editor

Parties

Saturday Night Fever at Hunter Bee in Millerton

When Jonathan Bee (left with librarian Rita Delgado) and Kent Hunter opened their Hunter Bee antiques shop two-and-a-half years ago, they brought a much-appreciated party-boy spirit to Main Street in Millerton. They helped bring together merchants to create the Enjoy Millerton campaign. On Saturday night,

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Food

Chatham's Back Alley Nano-Brewery

by Christopher Matthews We all know that size matters, and that bigger isn't always better. This is especially true with breweries and beer. A local case in point is Chatham Brewing, located in a back alley off Main Street in the Village of Chatham, NY. Don't

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Style

Dabney McAvoy: A Homey Home Shop in Great Barrington

It seems Dabney McAvoy could not have opened her new home furnishings store anywhere but this crooked little house on Route 7 near the old Barrington Fairgrounds. After all, her concept was to offer a range of objects and furniture—clean smelling Nest candles ($32), striped wool throws from England

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Community

A Birthday Celebration for W.E.B. Du Bois

By Kathryn Matthews "One ever feels his twoness—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings, two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder…."—W.E.B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk, 1903 This

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Food

AgriCulture: Farm Animals Are Not Pets

AgriCulture bloggers Peter Davies and Mark Scherzer are the owners of Turkana Farms in Germantown, NY. This week, Peter writes: We tend to give all the praise and attention to our ewes as they give birth to and mother their lambs, taking for granted the not inconsiderable efforts of our

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Arts

Bart Gulley: The Making of a Painter

"Artists can't help but be influenced by where they work," says the abstract painter Bart Gulley. "Particularly if they feel wedded to the place." Gulley is wedded to both Chatham, NY, where he has lived full-time with his wife, the writer Sally Helgesen,

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Food

Mazzeo's

The enormous restaurant embraces you with a hearty Italian-American gemütlichkeit

By Lisa Green

Community

The Norman Rockwell Museum's Social Conscience

As anyone who has visited the Norman Rockwell Museum well knows, the artist had a well-defined social conscience that is evidenced in such iconic paintings as The Problem Everybody Lives With, The Golden Rule, Moving Day and the Four Freedoms paintings that he made during World War II to

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Style

Margaret Roach: Droppin’ Out is Hard To Do

In her memoir And I Shall Have Some Peace There: Trading in the Fast Lane for My Own Dirt Road, Margaret Roach often quotes pithy pop song lyrics to bring home a point in her account of how, at the height of her powers, she walked away from money and

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Arts

Cynthia Wick: Inspired by the Berkshires

When Cynthia Wick moved from Los Angeles to Lenox, MA, she was not so much trying to reinvent her life but rejuvenate it. A one-time movie marketing executive who'd been painting full-time for a decade while raising two sons, she and her writer-husband, Chan Gibson,

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Parties

Pittsfield's South Street Heats Up

Cultural correspondent Bess J.M. Hochstein reports: While sports enthusiasts took their places on the couch to enjoy chips, dips, drinks and other pre-game Super Bowl shenanigans, artists and other community members stopped at 31 South Street to take a gander and shop at the new space shared by

By Editor