Rural Intelligence
Style

A Cinderella House Makes Its Debut for Charity

Matthew Patrick Smyth, an A-list New York decorator with a weekend house in Sharon, is used to working for demanding clients who expect things done yesterday. So he was not surprised when Scott and Roxanne Bok approached him in June about decorating a restored 19th century farmhouse in Salisbury,
By Editor
Style

Gardening: Hollister House Festival & Seminar

Hollister House, in Washington, CT, is the featured site of a Garden Conservancy-sponsored Study Weekend that kicks off with a cocktail reception and tour of the extraordinary gardens that were begun there in 1979 by George Schoellkopf and Ron Johnson.  Since then, under Schoellkopf’s guidance (and, since 1993,
By Editor
Community

The Preppiest Racetrack in America: Lime Rock Park

Lime Rock Park in northwestern Connecticut is to car racing what Tanglewood is to classical music and Jacob's Pillow is to modern dance--a well-bred, well-manicured rusticated setting where aficionados gather together every summer to indulge their passion and picnic on the lawns.  There are no
By Editor
Community

Volunteers in Medicine Needs You

Thank goodness the Third World has Doctors Without Borders.  And thank goodness our prosperous corner of the richest nation on earth has Volunteers in Medicine Berkshires.  Founded in 2004 by Leonard Simon, a former business professor turned banker, now retired, and his wife Marion (below), of Monterey, VIM Berkshires, a
By Editor
Food

Last Chance Barbecue

With a chill in the air and a few fallen leaves already skittering on the road, I feel the urge to fire up our barbecue as often as possible before the frost comes.  I know more intrepid grillers and smokers get out in the cold with mittens and mufflers to
By Editor
Parties

Friends of Clermont Shindig

Saturday night the Friends of Clermont discovered how the west was won—with great chow (hot dogs, chili, corn bread) and wildly flattering duds.  The party, held on the grounds of Clermont, the lovely historic Hudson River home of Robert Livingston, was chaired by none other than Rural Intelligence'
By Editor
Arts

Bravo! Berkshire Opera's "Figaro" at The Colonial

My highly-cultured friend, the Mozart Maven, is a regular at the Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center so I hesitated asking her to drive an hour to Pittsfield to see the Berkshire Opera's production of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro (which has two more performances on
By Editor
Arts

"In Formations" Kicks up Dust in Ancram

Last week, they played for free before a crowd of passersby and random on-lookers at a little-known venue in lower Manhattan and, for their trouble, got a rave revue in the New York Times; tomorrow, they open at the Veterans Memorial Ball Field in Ancram, then later do
By Editor
Food

King Corn: How It's Done at Howden Farm

At this time of year, everybody serves corn on the cob and everybody claims that their local farm stand has the hands-down best corn in the region. The people who go to Howden Farm in Sheffield are among the most vociferous, and so are the folks who buy their
By Editor
Arts

Two Documentaries for Grown-ups

Is it our imagination or do the programs at our cultural institutions get more sophisticated come September, once the vacationing families have cleared out, and the kids have gone back to school?  This Saturday night, for example, two markedly grown-up documentaries, A Visit with Colette and Always Yes, Caresse
By Editor
Food

Recipe: Coleslaw…Yes, Coleslaw

It pains me to say it, but coleslaw is the ugly stepsister of summer fare.  Potato salads, cold or warm, always robust, carefully seasoned, seem to appear in all manner of fancy guises, but coleslaw is often ignored.  Fair enough—cabbage gets a bad rap, and coleslaw's commercial
By Editor
Arts

Review: "See Rock City" at Barrington Stage is Worth A Detour

If you're the type of person who worries about the future of American musical theater in the age of Disney on Broadway. hie yourself to Pittsfield where Barrington Stage Company's Musical Theater Lab is staging a thoroughly modern and all-American musical called See Rock City
By Editor

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