Chronogram August 2020 by Chronogram

The Original and Still the Best Create your own outdoor space at Williams.

WILLIAMS

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Rhinebeck • Hudson • Hopewell Junction • Tannersville • Red Hook • Pleasant Valley • High Falls

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Japanese Antiques Two Warehouses, 15,000 square feet. Packed with Japanese Treasures. NOW OPEN (Please wear a mask and we will provide latex gloves. Limit of 6 customers at a time in our Galleries)

Nesting Cormorants Screen Taisho 1912-26

18th C. Shigaraki Tsubo

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ASIA GALLERIES Kyoto · Great Barrington

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Meij Period (1868-1912) Clothing Chest

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8/20 CHRONOGRAM 1

Willow by Charlie Palmer at Mirbeau

Now serving Sunday Brunch!

V I S IT M I R B E AU.C O M O R C A LL 877. M I R B E AU 4 6 W E S T M A R K E T S T. R H I N E B E C K N Y 1 2 5 7 2

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august

Content Facts On the Cover 6 Portrait of Milton Glaser by Franco Vogt

Esteemed Reader 8 Jason Stern rereads The Whole Earth Catalog

Editor’s Note 9 Found at the Supermarket by Brian K. Mahoney

Food & Drink 10 A Poughkeepsie Ale Heads to China by Raphael Beretta

Home & Garden 14 Ashokan High Point by Mary Angeles Armstrong

Health & Wellness 22 Practicing Kindfulness by Wendy Kagan

Community Pages 26

What a Long, Strange Lockdown It’s Been by Anne Pyburn Craig

Outdoors 36 Death by Misadventure by Roger Hannigan Gilson

Reopenings 38 The Art of the Pandemic by Nikki Donohue

Education 43 Teaching with an Artist’s Mindset by Sarah MacWright

Excerpt 46 Reservoir Year by Nina Shengold

Reviews 48 Reviews of regional albums and books

Poetry 50 Edited by Phillip X. Levine

The Guide 52 What’s happening this month, despite COVID-19

Horoscopes 60 Lorelai Kude looks to the stars with her feet on the ground

Parting Shot 64 Pool Party by Anneke Chan

This month’s Table of Contents is a nod to Milton Glaser’s Contents Facts design from the essay,“The Truth,” (AIGA Journal, 2000).

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CMH IS OPEN

AND WE ARE HERE FOR YOU! CMH wants our community to know that WE ARE OPEN and WE ARE HERE FOR YOU! All of our services are open and it is safe to schedule your next visit! • Please be assured that all of our facilities are following the CDC standard for cleaning • We are screening all patients and staff • We require masks to be worn by everyone entering our facilities

www.ColumbiaMemorialHealth.org

4 CHRONOGRAM 8/20

518-828-7601

EDITORIAL EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Brian K. Mahoney bmahoney@chronogram.com CREATIVE DIRECTOR David C. Perry dperry@chronogram.com DIGITAL EDITOR Marie Doyon mdoyon@chronogram.com ARTS EDITOR Peter Aaron music@chronogram.com HEALTH & WELLNESS EDITOR Wendy Kagan health@chronogram.com

COME UP FOR AIR Escape to nature this summer.

HOME EDITOR Mary Angeles Armstrong home@chronogram.com POETRY EDITOR Phillip X Levine poetry@chronogram.com CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Anne Pyburn Craig apcraig@chronogram.com CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Phillip Pantuso ppantuso@chronogram.com

contributors Winona Barton-Ballentine, Raphael Beretta, Jane Kinney Denning, Michael Eck, Morgan Yvan Evans, Roger Hanigan Gilson, James Keepnews, Lorelai Kude, Sarah MacWright, Nina Shengold, Kaitlin Van Pelt

PUBLISHING FOUNDERS Jason Stern & Amara Projansky CEO Amara Projansky aprojansky@chronogram.com BOARD CHAIR David Dell

media specialists Kelin Long-Gaye k.long-gaye@chronogram.com Kris Schneider kschneider@chronogram.com Jen Powlison jen.powlison@chronogram.com SENIOR SALES MANAGER Lisa Montanaro lmontanaro@chronogram.com

marketing DIRECTOR OF CREATIVE PARTNERSHIPS Samantha Liotta sliotta@chronogram.com

interns EDITORIAL Cerissa DiValentino, Nikki Donohue, Abby Foster MARKETING & SALES Theresa Marzullo, Igor Ramirez SOCIAL MEDIA Sierra Flach

administration FINANCE MANAGER Nicole Clanahan accounting@chronogram.com; (845) 334-8600

A TIMELESS SUMMER ESCAPE AT THE HUDSON VALLEY’S MOST ICONIC RESORT An unforgettable escape to nature is our specialty— for more than 150 years. And this year, we are taking every precaution to keep our employees and guests safe, while still providing a true Mohonk vacation complete with delicious food, spa services, adventures such as horseback riding, carriage rides, and rock climbing, and of course— relaxation on the mountaintop.

BUSINESS MANAGER Molly Sterrs office@chronogram.com; (845) 334-8600x107

production PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Kerry Tinger ktinger@chronogram.com; (845) 334-8600x108

Come for the day with a round of golf, award-winning brunch, or day spa visit. Or book a room for the ultimate staycation.

PRODUCTION DESIGNERS Kate Brodowska kbrodowska@chronogram.com Amy Dooley adooley@chronogram.com

office 45 Pine Grove Ave., Suite 303, Kingston, NY 12401 • (845) 334-8600

mission

844.859.6716 | mohonk.com | New Paltz, NY

Chronogram is a regional magazine dedicated to stimulating and supporting the creative and cultural life of the Hudson Valley. All contents © Chronogram Media 2020. 8/20 CHRONOGRAM 5

on the cover

“Design moves things from an existing condition to a preferred one. Anything purposeful can be called an act of design.” —Milton Glaser, (1929-2020)

Portrait of Milton Glaser by Franco Vogt The photo of Milton Glaser on the cover was taken by Franco Vogt, a frequent Chronogram contributor, in 2012 for a short-lived magazine called Generations. Franco says of the shoot: I met Milton at his studio in New York City for what was to be one of my briefest shoots. He was congenial enough but suffered no fools. After maybe 12 frames, he issued that we were ready to move on to the next set up. I spent maybe 10 minutes with him total and was fairly intimidated the entire time.”

met Milton Glaser in June 1998,” says Kate McLoughlin, artist and printmaking instructor at the Woodstock School of Art. “Milton and Shirley had signed up for my monotype workshop. Finding out that Milton Glaser was in my class was a little intimidating. But he put me at ease so quickly it was unbelievable. He said, ‘I don’t know anything. Teach me everything you have.” McLoughlin became good friends with the Glasers and helped Milton set up a press in his studio at their Woodstock home. Two years later, Glaser would publish a series of painted monotypes set alongside the text of Dante Alligheri’s Purgatorio for an Italian publisher. “Learning monotype really added a dimension to his work,” McLoughlin says. The illustrations are surreal, colorful, and instantly identifiable as the work of Milton Glaser, jack of all design trades, master of all. The preeminent graphic designer of the past 75 years died recently on June 26, his 91st birthday. “He felt like this really wise old uncle,” says McLoughlin. “He laughed easily, took his work very seriously, but himself not so much—he put everyone else at ease when he was in the shop. You kind of forgot he was a big shot—he was just another guy you were trying to help find his way through a print.” 6 CHRONOGRAM 8/20

Creator of the I ♥ NY logo, cofounder of New York magazine, there was little that Glaser didn’t design—book and album covers (over a thousand), magazines (he redesigned nearly every major national and international title), tableware, restaurants, cutting boards, posters, lighting fixtures, and the list goes on. Glaser changed the visual vocabulary of graphic design, rescuing it from the modernist severity prevalent mid-20th century and reinvigorating it with wit, organic forms, classical references, as well as the technical ability and creative mindset of the artist. (And one who could work on a tight deadline: During New York magazine’s first year, if there wasn’t a cover 24 hours before going to press, Glaser would draw one. He also co-wrote a food column for The Underground Gourmet, which was the first time cheap restaurants were reviewed in a mainstream magazine.) In Woodstock, however, the Glasers were locals. Milton and Shirley started coming up to the area to retreat from Manhattan. As Glaser told Barney Hoskyns, author of the Woodstockin-the-’60s chronicle Small Town Talk (2016): “It was just like any other poor town in the Catskills. We started going there in the mid to late 50s because it was a cheap place to go, but it hadn’t coalesced into anything discernible.” When it did coalesce into something, Glaser

was involved. In addition to designing the iconic psychedelic Dylan poster for his fellow Woodstock resident, Glaser created the Bearsville Records logo for Dylan’s manager, Albert Grossman, as well as designing the menu and helping pick out the furniture for The Bear restaurant. “Milton loved Woodstock,” says Sylvia Leonard Wolf, a longtime friend of the Glasers and vice president of the board of the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild, which Glaser served on for almost a decade. (Glaser designed the distinctive ribbon awning on the front of the Kleinert/James Center for the Arts.) “He was enormously generous with his design, his ideas, and his heart. This man had such a huge heart—he embraced life and he embraced what he did,” says Wolf. “Did he have to be involved with [the Woodstock Byrdcliffe] Guild? No. But he wanted to be part of continuing Woodstock’s living artistic legacy.” McLoughlin echoes that sentiment: “The Glasers loved it here and were interested in supporting different institutions in town. They were here and a part of Woodstock’s heyday and Milton just being here was a foothold in the arts for Woodstock.” —Brian K. Mahoney

Clockwise from top left: A Gentileâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Guide to Jewish Food, July 22, 1968 issue of New York magazine; Dylan, 1966, cover of Graphic Design by Milton Glaser; I Love New York Catskills, 1985, one of the many iterations of cat and Catskills produced for the New York Board of Tourism; Hunger by Knut Hamsun, book cover, 1970, Noonday Press. 8/20 CHRONOGRAM 7

esteemed reader by Jason Stern

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8 CHRONOGRAM 8/20

Let us be such people that help the life of the future. —Zoroaster Esteemed Reader of Our Magazine: Remember the Whole Earth Catalog from the late 60s? I do because it was on my parents’ bookshelf, along with Be Here Now, Bhagavad Gita, and Steal This Book. The catalog was oversized (like Chronogram) and its cover had only an image of the Earth taken from space. The author and compiler, Stewart Brand, wrote in his introduction: “So far, remotely done power and glory—as via government, big business, formal education, church—has succeeded to the point where gross defects obscure actual gains.” In response, Brand promoted the “power and glory” of each person and human-scale communities to seek knowledge, make discoveries, create new models, and share the results with others. The catalog was meant to provide tools for the psychodynamic autodidact in every sphere of human life. I recall from an interview that Brand knew in 1965 that NASA had images of the Earth from space. He took to heart the words of his mentor, architect and creator of the geodesic dome, Buckminster Fuller, who said “people perceive the Earth as flat and infinite, and that is the root of all their misbehavior.” Brand began a campaign titled “Why haven’t we seen a photograph of the whole Earth yet?” and NASA released the photo soon after. Brand used the image on the catalog, believing that the image would awaken a conscious perception of the fragility and unity of the planet and result in an evolution of values. More recently, Brand founded The Long Now Foundation, bringing together thinkers to look at human activity in the temporal context of 10,000 years. One project of the organization has been to build a 10,000-year clock inside a mountain in Texas. The inventor of the clock, Danny Hills, explains it this way: “I cannot imagine the future, but I care about it. I know I am a part of a story that starts long before I can remember and continues long beyond when anyone will remember me. I sense that I am alive at a time of important change, and I feel a responsibility to make sure that the change comes out well. I plant my acorns knowing that I will never live to harvest the oaks.” Many examples of true long-term thinking come from the ancient past. For instance, the cosmology of the ancient Egyptians, Maya, Vedic, and other civilizations showed a similar long view of life on the planet. These societies used sophisticated and accurate calendars based on the 26,000-year precessional cycle. This “long day” of life on this planet informed the worldview of the society. As well, many are familiar with the seven generations principle of the ancient Iroquois, which posits that the decisions we make today should result in a regenerative world seven generations into the future. Meanwhile, we live in a time that is characterized by breakneck acceleration. The world we live in would be unrecognizable science fiction or even magical viewed by a person arriving from a thousand or even a hundred years ago. Some speak of Moore’s Law, which theorizes (correctly) that computer processing power doubles every two years at half the cost; or the approach of the AI singularity, in which machines become more intelligent than human beings with unforeseeable consequences. In any case, it is undeniable that communication, technology, commerce, and so many other areas of life have accelerated almost beyond a pace that is intrinsically human. The acceleration suggests that we are in a pivotal time, a time in which our deeds, behaviors, and modes of living have great significance for the future. Many share the precognition that a choice of directions is imminent, yet we suffer from an inflammation of the soul caused by fear and anger, disillusionment, and fatigue that prevents us from looking into the near-distant and distant future of our species and life on the planet, of seeing the choice that is before us. So, how to become available to perceive the choice of regeneration or destruction, and then to take the only sensible decision? First of all, I think the long view begins very close to home, within the apparent confines of the skin, in the inner life. Can I leave off what is unnecessary—unnecessary anxiety, fear, outrage, acquisitiveness, envy, greed, and anger? Can I leave off reacting to the vitriol of public figures and neighbors? Can I stop believing what I think and open a channel to direct perception? If I can begin to have some impartiality to my own experience, and simply be with what is arising, then, perhaps, I can help assuage the inflammation that is rampant in the larger world. I may see that, in fact, my inner life is not separate from the inner life of the world, and that all participate in the same inner life. Then, again perhaps, I can serve as an inner activist, with deeds and acts from a place of stillness, and exerting a corresponding effect. —Jason Stern

editor’s note

by Brian K. Mahoney

Found in the Supermarket

oing to the supermarket with my mother was one of my favorite things to do as a child. This was the late 1970s, mind you, and children didn’t yet have nice things. We were forced to play with rudimentary objects—Lincoln Logs and Bristle Blocks and Legos—that, almost 50 years later, seem like pedagogic punishment instruments compared to the whiz-bang geegaws kids have today. (Sevenyear-old Brian would have bitten your arm off for a fidget spinner.) In terms of televised entertainment, kids fared little better, faced with a Sophie’s choice of watching either “Donahue” or “General Hospital” while waiting to gorge ourselves on reruns of 30-year-old Looney Tunes. (How else were we going to get a grounding in opera if not from Bugs Bunny in “Rabbit of Seville”? Figa-ro! Fi-ga-ro!) This was prior to 1984, when the Federal Communications Commission lifted the limitations on how many minutes of ads could be shown each hour to children, ushering in the new era of cartoons as product placement. Toy manufacturers became heavily involved in children’s programming, developing shows based on their products and enticing broadcasters to schedule them in exchange for a cut on toy sales. These cartoons were as colorfully hypnotizing as they were formulaic and vapid, including such doll-centric classics as “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe,” “The Care Bears,” “GI Joe: A Real American Hero,” and “My Little Pony.” (Big love to all my bronies out there!) Opportunities for distraction around the house were limited after I was warned off sticking things in sockets and messing with the cat. I always perked up when Mom announced she was headed off to the supermarket. At the very least, I could probably get a gumball out of it, and possibly a ride on the mechanical horse if Mom was in a good mood or sufficiently angry with Dad to want to dilly-dally before engaging in further parental combat. A trip to the supermarket was also a chance for some quality Mom-time without

Dad interference. He had an infuriating tendency to hog Mom’s attention at crucial times when I thought she and I should be cementing our mother-son bond. But he never accompanied us to the supermarket. (And I don’t think he ever went by himself either. Frankly, the first time my father may have shopped in a supermarket since he was single was after my parent’s divorce.) There weren’t very many men in the store who didn’t work there. It was the realm of women and their young children, like the playground or the waiting room of the pediatrician. A grown man at the supermarket would have stuck out like a duck at a rodeo. Mom’s preparation was swift but meticulous. After brief interviews with all householders about their wants and desires—six-pack of Genesee Cream Ale for Dad, Doan’s pills for Grandma, fruit leather for me—and assigning her secondin-command to scour the pantry and cabinets for duplicate items, Mom made her list. On a ruled yellow legal pad, she wrote out her list in a tight, looping cursive. (My mother’s handwriting was the epitome of control—a name and number dashed off on the pad next to the phone took on the implacability of holy writ.) And then we were off, driving the three blocks to the Bay Terrace Shopping Center. Today, The Bay Terrace is a proper multilevel outdoor shopping mall, complete with multiplex cinema, Outback Steakhouse, and shops like Old Navy and Foot Locker. In 1979, however, the place was a collection of mom-and-pop establishments—a pizzeria, a hardware store, a liquor store, a bowling alley—that ran the gamut from feigning respectability to giving-in-to-the-grime. New York City, after all, wasn’t in great shape financially; the city had almost gone bankrupt back in `75. Two high-rise towers, half-built then halted when the financing dried up, loomed over Bay Terrace and the surrounding suburban scrubland. (The towers would eventually open in 1981 as the Bay Club. Two-bedroom condos at the Bay Club now sell for just under $1 million.)

The shining beacon of Bay Terrace was the Grand Union supermarket. There were many reasons for me to find grocery shopping such a fulfilling pursuit—riding in the cart, picking out breakfast cereal, going through Mom’s purse, the grand initiation into consumer capitalism—but there was an X factor about Grand Union that I never could put my finger on until quite recently. Entering Grand Union from the dirty parking lot was like Dorothy stepping from black-and-white into Technicolor in The Wizard of Oz. Grand Union was bright, clean, and fun. The typefaces on the packages were chunky and populist. All the cans all had pictures of the food inside of them. There was a box of lasagna that looked like a slab of lasagna. Aisles and aisles of color that was not cacophonous but aesthetically pleasing. The supermarket felt unified and intentional in a way that very few environments I encountered as a child did. The place felt qualitatively better than other places. What I didn’t know at the time: I was having a user experience designed by Milton Glaser. Glaser had been hired a few years earlier by Grand Union’s owner, Sir James Goldsmith, to redesign his 500 supermarkets. As Glaser recounts in Art is Work: “I put a wonderful team of architects, graphic and industrial designers together and we started to work on a prototype in Wyckoff, New Jersey. Three months later we presented our ideas on how a supermarket might be rethought. Goldsmith responded enthusiastically. Three months after that, construction began.” The team Glaser put together revolutionized supermarket design, reinventing the modern market. Grand Union no longer exists—the 21 remaining stores bought by Tops in 2012 were rebranded as Tops Markets. And Mom is gone. And now Milton Glaser is gone too. I still love the supermarket though—any supermarket will do, really. It gets me reminiscing about my mother, Milton Glaser, and fruit leather. 8/20 CHRONOGRAM 9

food & drink

A POUGHKEEPSIE ALE HEADS TO CHINA Plan Bee’s Resilient Barn Beers By Raphael Beretta

n the ground floor of a quaint 1830s barn amidst 25 acres of farmland in Poughkeepsie, the taproom of Plan Bee Farm Brewery sat dark from mid-March until early June, when the Mid-Hudson Valley entered Phase 2 of the four-part reopening process, heralding a return to outdoor dining and drinking. “We’re lucky that our business model was always to be small, to never grow past producing 500 barrels a year,” says Emily Watson, who coowns Plan Bee with her husband Evan, formerly of Captain Lawrence Brewing Co. According to a survey conducted by the New York State Brewers Association (NYSBA) in April, the Plan Bee’s 10-barrel operation size represents the majority of this region’s breweries. “Out of the 75 to 90 breweries located in the Hudson Valley, about 15 are big, 20 are midsize, and the rest are small taprooms and farm breweries,” says Hutch Kugeman, Hudson Valley representative for the NYSBA. For comparison, a large operation like Sloop Brewing Co. in Fishkill houses a dozen 120-barrel tanks. 10 FOOD & DRINK CHRONOGRAM 8/20

Bottle Shop Culture In many ways, Plan Bee’s business model was exceptionally well-suited to enduring the pandemic. The brewery, which specializes in wild ales, sours, and farmhouse ales, has been bottling since its launch in 2013. The distinctive qualities of these styles are flavor-boosted with fresh produce and herbs grown on Plan Bee’s own farm. At the start of the pandemic, the Watsons began bottling everything they had available. Due to diminished taproom activity and declining carry-out sales amidst social-distancing measures, they decided to cease brewing in late March and focus entirely on getting the beer they had already produced to their fans far and wide. Their typical brewing cycle is at least eight weeks long, so the last batch wasn’t bottled until April 24. After a two-month hiatus, they started brewing again in early June. It took time to relaunch because, like a sourdough starter, the yeast culture used in Plan Bee beer requires a continuous cycle of fermentation to stay active. “We had to restart from scratch,” Watson says. “If we don’t have

beer continuously fermenting so that we can take yeast that’s alive and active to use again in the next beer, the yeast culture dies.” The ‘’wild’’ part of wild ales refers to the native, naturally occurring mixed culture that the Watsons cultivate from their own raw honey. The fermentation process actually continues after bottling: residual sugars combined with yeast allow for carbonation to occur right in the bottle, a process known as bottle conditioning. Thanks to good planning, when Plan Bee reopened for onsite tastings the second week of June, the Watsons were able to pour a slew of aged farmhouse and wild ales, some of which have been aging for three years. One such vintage, Beekeeper, was aged in oak. Comb 2019, the most recent addition to Plan Bee’s barrel blend series, spent time in both red and white wine barrels. The bright-orange Fuggle draws inspiration from Belgian saisons and British barleywines. Pepper features the fiery zing of ghost peppers, thai chilis, habaneros, and over a dozen other hot peppers grown on the farm. Much of the produce for the beers is grown

onsite, from strawberries, apples, herbs, and edible flowers to the raw honey from the hives that give Plan Bee its name. “The year we did a ‘Bloody Mary’ beer, we grew all the tomatoes, the celery, the horseradish. What we grow is on a rotation,” says Watson, who brought years of farming experience in Ohio to the fertile Hudson Valley. Certified farm breweries like Plan Bee not only create a rich local product, but they also bolster an entire New York State supply chain. The flagship Barn Beer is a shining example of Plan Bee’s dedication to New York sourcing. Stone House Grain in Hudson contributes the red wheat and six-row barley grown using regenerative practices. Poughquag’s Crooked Creek provides Perle hops andChimney Bluffs Hoppery from Walcott adds Chinook hops. The barley is malted at Hudson Valley Malt in nearby Germantown. And the whole concoction is fermented in oak with a house-mixed culture made from raw honey and honeycomb harvested right on the farm. Barn Beer Wild Ale is a New York product, start to finish. Sipping these complex and funky ales in the company of goats and chickens is a recent luxury. At the height of the pandemic, online orders for pickup were instituted. They even had a “drive-through” event for beer takeout with a lobster-roll food truck in mid-March. Cars lined up alongside numbered barrels all over the property, awaiting their meals. The Cousin Maine Lobster food truck returned to Plan Bee on June 28, and similar events featuring Embers and Valia’s wood fire pizzas are sprinkled throughout the summer. Check their website for the schedule. Wild Resilience: Reaching International Markets Along with opportunities for expanded local sales, new doors for distribution opened during the pandemic. “We actually started exporting our beer internationally to China, Japan, and Korea,” Watson says. “As things are opening up again in China, people are going back to restaurants and bars, and there is a serious lack of beer available.” With a population of over 1.4 billion, it should come as no surprise that China’s beer market has become the largest in the world. According to research from the EU SME Centre, Chinese beer consumption is twice that of the US and five times more than Germany, the largest market in the EU. For the past few decades, most of this consumption has consisted of predominantly light beers, like lagers. Popular name brands like Tsingtao dominated, being cheaper than bottled water in most cities. However, tastes are changing. Craft beer has surged in recent years: since 2016, craft imports have increased by two-thirds, according to Mersol and Lou, a Chinese business advisory. Craft brewpubs and microbreweries have emerged around even lower-tier cities in China over the last five years. As part of COVID-19 precautions, these operations were shut down for months, causing a craft beer shortage—and a new market for American brewers. But not all brewers could seize this opportunity. Air freight is prohibitively expensive, and many beer styles cannot survive the long journey to China and other east Asian countries by cargo ship. Hoppy beers have to be flown and refrigerated to keep fresh. But thanks to its active, ongoing fermentation, Plan Bee’s particular style of wild ale can survive at room temperature for far, far longer than the three or four weeks it takes for a boat to get to China. “We’ve had beers that have been left in the bottle for six years, and they still taste delicious. I would say you could drink [our beers] anywhere up to 20 years,” Watson says. The extreme resiliency characteristic of Barn Beer and other Plan Bee staples comes from their high acidity. Bad bacteria cannot grow in low pH conditions. Hops—due to their alpha acids—do act as a preservative; however, the movement in the industry toward lighter, citrusy ales (like the New England style of IPA) mean hoppier beers quickly lose their desired tasting notes and can instead develop a bitter, butterscotch quality due to oxidation. “To make it worthwhile to ship beer internationally, [the exporter] needs to send around 22 pallets. He works with many different [brewers] to make it work, and I happen to be one of them,” Watson says. Another farm brewery from Connecticut sent a few of their offerings right next to Plan Bee’s on the eastern voyage. International distribution for Plan Bee started in Canada, through an importer that bought in bulk and sold beer to individual clients. For countries like Denmark and Australia, Plan Bee is selling to standard distribution companies. And thus, one pallet at a time, a 10-barrel farm brewery in Poughkeepsie is reaching several continents.

PUTTING THE FARM IN FARM BREWERY While the term “farm brewery” conjures bucolic images of picnic tables amidst chicken yards, hop yards, and barns, with a backdrop of rolling hills, the actual New York State term denotes a license type that requires brewers to use a certain percentage of New York State-grown ingredients. But back to that pastoral vision, we’ve rounded up seven farm breweries in the Hudson Valley that are located on working farms, and use produce grown onsite, from hot peppers to plums to rye, in their beers.

Arrowood Farm Brewery 236 Lower Whitfield Road, Accord Arrowoodfarms.com Located on 48 pastoral acres in Accord, Arrowood collaborates with neighboring farms to source fruit, grain, and botanicals from within 100 miles. At the farm, laze in a hammock while you sip a beer or play a round of cornhole. If you’re lucky you’ll catch a glimpse of the sheep wandering through the hopyard.

Gardiner Brewing Company 699 NY-208, Gardiner Gardinerbrewingcompany.com Located on Wright’s Family Farm, Gardiner Brewing Company opened its doors in fall 2018. Set on 453 acres, the fifth-generation family farm produces apples, stone fruit, and berries, many of which make their way into the brewery’s seasonal beers. Sit on the flagstone patio and take in the sunset over the Shawangunk Ridge, and stay late for live music.

West Kill Brewing 2173 Spruceton Road, West Kill Westkillbrewing.com Located on a historic dairy farm in the Catskills, West Kill Brewing uses hyper-locally grown and foraged ingredients and crystal-clear mountain spring water to make beers that capture the terroir. Sit outside by the fire pit and enjoy views of the Catskills with your beer before you head to the nearby Spruceton Road trailhead for a hike.

From the Ground Brewery 245 Guski Road, Red Hook Fromthegroundbrewery.com Two-year-old From the Ground Brewery, on Migliorelli Farm outside the Village of Red Hook, grows much of the barley for its beer onsite and sources all its hops from New York State. Stroll the scenic property with its pond and rolling hills, before buying a selection of their three year-round beers or limited-edition bottles with their pastoral watercolor logos.

Obercreek Brewing Company 59 Marlorville Road, Wappingers Falls Obercreekbrewing.com With 14 acres, you’ll have plenty of space to spread out at this organiccertified produce and herb farm. Three-year-old Obercreek Brewing uses ingredients from its own farm and other New York State producers to create a wide range of IPAs, farmhouse ales, and other styles. They currently have four beers on tap.

Plan Bee Farm Brewery 115 Underhill Road, Poughkeepsie Planbeefarmbrewery.com This bucolic brewery, sited on a 25-acre working farm outside Poughkeepsie, specializes in barrel-aged and wild-fermented brews made with yeast cultivated from the beehives. The seasonal selections feature farm-fresh ingredients like the Nasturtium, a zingy ale with the distinctive peppery flavor of the namesake flower petals. Wander the property, order from the rotating food trucks, and spread out a blanket on the lawn.

Old Klaverack Brewery 150 Thielman Road, Hudson Oldklaverackbrewery.com Leave the beaten path and head to Old Klaverack in Hudson, which features a quarter-acre hop yard of climbing green, corn hole, live music, and picnic tables. This two-barrel nano brewery produces a range of small-batch beers, including a cream ale, a stout, IPAs, seasonal specialties, and limited releases.

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Better Than the Bodega: Going Digital Despite reaching an increased international market, domestic sales are still vital to the survival of small breweries, and online sales were a lifeline throughout lockdown. “I think that’s been incredibly important during all this to have strong social media that you can engage with your customers and keep them interested. Those who didn’t have good social media, struggled a little more,” says Kugeman, who also runs the Art and Science of Brewing course at the CIA in Hyde Park. One of the ways the Watsons have fostered loyalty is around their Hive membership program, which dates back to 2013. Similar to a CSA, members pay a set amount fee, like buying a share of the farm, and receive a portion of the “harvest” as a repayment for their investment—only in this case, the crop is beer. “You can’t legally buy shares of a brewery, so our members invest in us and in turn we ship them a box of whatever has come out of the taproom and been bottled,” Watson says. Plan Bee has extended their reach digitally. To manage their Hive memberships and ship direct-to-customer within New York State, the Watsons enlisted the services of TapRm, a bodega-turned-pioneering online beer distributor. “If you go to your favorite chocolate company’s website, the first thing you’ll see is ‘buy now for delivery,’” says Jason Sherman, founder and CEO of TapRm. “It’s funny, no brands or beer websites were really doing that.” And more importantly very few consumers were looking for it. According to a survey TapRm conducted in January 2020, 80 percent of consumers in New York thought it was illegal to purchase beer online, a “mind-blowing” statistic for Sherman. But restrictions during the pandemic and fear of grocery stores forced consumers to take a new look at how they buy alcohol. Pre-lockdown, only .2 percent of all beer sales were made online. Online sales of wine and spirits were five times that amount, and groceries sales 20 times. Amidst the pandemic, the State Liquor Authority loosened the rules around shipping alcohol, which Sherman says was the “best thing possible for beer in the online space.” TapRm lowered its free-shipping minimum to $25, eliminating a barrier to entry. “With COVID-19 happening, our model came to light: We are the largest e-commerce player in the US that’s doing direct shipping right now, and we’re the number one account in New York City,” Sherman says. “We’re buying more beer from other distributors and breweries than Madison Square Garden or Yankee Stadium [during peak season.]” Since early April, TapRm has received requests for e-commerce assistance from about 30 new brands a day. Luckily for Plan Bee, they beat the rush, partnering with TapRm for their Hive memberships a year ago. “I just drove a bunch of beer down to Brooklyn for them to ship all over the state,” Watson says. The Poughkeepsie farm brewery also has worked with Washington-based distributor Tavour for three years, which ships direct to consumers in about 20 states from the West Coast to the Midwest. Barn Beer and a few other releases sold out quickly on TapRm when first introduced. With business booming, every $50 of beer sold on TapRm puts $10 into a fund for those out of work in the brewing industry. Upon entering the game, other local producers have had great success shipping online. Taking advantage of relaxed liquor laws and finding new ways to serve customers under the conditions of an outdoor-only reopening has kept many local producers alive. “I’d be surprised if you walk through downtown Poughkeepsie or Beacon and don’t see that some businesses remain closed, and that may include some breweries,” Kugeman says. “However, I can tell you for sure breweries that were not shipping a month ago are now. People are adjusting as they go and learning what works. I haven’t heard from any [brewer] that they’re about to close. I’m actually not aware of a single place on the verge.” And with taprooms and restaurants reopening for service, business is sure to only grow.

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the house

Ashokan High Point A HISTORIC STONE HOUSE NEAR WOODSTOCK By Mary Angeles Armstrong Photos by Winona Barton-Ballentine

he day Diane Raimondo first happened on her hilltop West Hurley home, she was immediately taken by the vista. It was 2013, and she’d found the listing for the nine-acre property just south of the Ashokan Reservoir the day before. At the suggestion of the agent, she drove up from her Brooklyn brownstone and found her way to the property’s dirt road. Winding her way through thick woods up alongside the hill, she finally came to a clearing, where, it seemed, the entirety of the 12-mile-long reservoir—all the way from the Ashokan High Point in the west to the Olivebridge dam in the east— was laid at her feet. At the apex of the hill, a 3,500-squarefoot neoclassical manor stood overlooking it all. Right away, Raimondo realized there was something special about the place. “I came up the dirt road and turned the corner,” she remembers. “As I parked, an eagle swooped down right over head.” Angular and symmetrically designed, the home’s exterior is comprised of large beige bricks molded into distinctive, alternating patterns along the walls. A low-pitched roof with simple carved eaves tops the three-story house. At the home’s

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entrance, five stone steps lead to a flat-roofed front portico running the width of the first floor. Twelve carved Ionic columns border the deep front porch providing enough sheltered space for ample outdoor seating. Throughout the grounds and bordering the home, previous residents planted a garden of flowering trees, shrubs, and plants, and a stone patio lays along the home’s view-facing edge. Although the house was completely shuttered and empty that day Raimondo first encountered it, the property caretaker, who lived in the stone guest cottage nearby, offered to show her inside. As the two walked through the house they drew open the wood-slatted blinds that covered the double hung windows one by one, as well as a set of French doors leading to the stone patio, revealing the bird’s-eye view of the Ashokan Reservoir and the Catskill Mountains beyond. “I was just blown away,” Raimondo remembers. “By the views, by the winds, by the house, by the whole feeling of it.” Later that day, the caretaker sent her a picture of the sunset from the property. She immediately made an offer and shortly thereafter the home was hers.

Diane Raimondo and her dog Layla in front of her hundred-year old stone house. Overlooking the Ashokan Reservoir, the historic home was built by the Ashokanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s chief engineer, J. Waldo Smith.

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The first-floor living room features the original red brick fireplace and is decorated with Raimondo’s collection of eclectic antiques and vintage fabrics. “I always wanted a stone house,” she says. “My grandfather built a stone house in White Plains; but most stone houses have low ceilings. I love how the ceilings here are so high.”

A Little Piece of History The home’s sweeping panorama is no happy accident. Completed in 1918, the residence was carefully sited, designed, and built by J. Waldo Smith, the chief engineer of the Ashokan Reservoir project, as he supervised the dam and reservoir’s completion in 1915—at the time, the largest in the world. Smith built the house out of the same local Rosendale cement blocks that were utilized in the construction of the Olivebridge Dam. (Before it was supplanted by Portland cement, Rosendale cement was known as the strongest in the world.) The cement was pressed into three different molds, and then laid into the variegated patterned walls of the home’s exterior. At the top of the house, Smith even designed an airy third-floor square cupola with windows in all directions where he kept a telescope fixed on the massive public works project below. Eventually, Smith and his family sold the house. Neighborhood legend has it that it was later used as a hospice, then the site of a commune, before it became the childhood home of the actor Chevy Chase. It served as a second home to multiple other families before Raimondo purchased it.

The first-floor dining room features an original cast iron radiator and updated light fixtures. Raimondo bought the medieval style iron and glass table from Pier 1 and the French Provincial style sideboard from an antiques store in Chelsea.

8/20 CHRONOGRAM HOME & GARDEN 17

The covered stone front porch runs the width of the house. “This is the perfect place to sit,” Raimondo says of the porch. “It’s especially beautiful when it rains.”

Westchester to Woodstock A Westchester native, Raimondo had frequented Woodstock many times before she moved to the area full-time. In college, she studied writing in Boston and then worked for a magazine there, often visiting Woodstock to see live music or visit friends. After a stint in San Francisco where she worked for the magazine Mother Jones, the 25th anniversary of the Woodstock festival brought her back to the area briefly in 1999, where she met a photographer and eventually moved with him to Amsterdam, becoming his assistant. By the time Raimondo returned stateside, she’d made a full transition into the visual arts and landed a job licensing photography for Magnum Photos, a photojournalism studio in New York City. It proved to be a good fit. “Magnum photos is all about authenticity. Their photographers don’t set things up: It’s all about that decisive moment,” she explains. “It’s documentary photography, which is perfect because I like things in their natural state. It just goes with my sense of sensibility.” In 2013, Magnum consented to let Raimondo work remotely and so she began looking for a full-time place upstate. “I tried to remember the places had I been that I didn’t want to leave,” she explains. “You know when you visit a place and you wish you could stay? That’s how I’d always felt about Woodstock.”

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When she first moved in, Raimondo hired Simeon Lytle of West Hurley and Kenny Herdman from Big Indian to install the fiberglass salt-water pool. She sourced antique wrought iron fencing and gates online to complement the home’s stone exterior and often lets the wildflowers grow up between the stone pavers to add to the property’s natural ambiance.

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Vintage Vernacular When Raimondo moved into the five-bedroom, three-bathroom house, it was in good shape, but still required some updating. Within a month of taking up residence, she installed a salt water pool at the side of the house and surrounded it with a bluestone patio to match the adjacent, existing patio. She enclosed the area with a decorative wrought iron fence, complementing the stone exterior of the home and the property’s antique ambiance. Previous owners had added a modern kitchen to the back of the house, using it so infrequently that the appliances, cream-colored counters, and cabinetry were practically brand new. The three bathrooms had also been thoroughly updated with a mixture of modern amenities and period trim. The downstairs bathroom features a modern enclosed shower, whitewainscoted walls and an antique pedestal sink. The upstairs’ master bath also has wainscoted walls, a modern shower stall, and a freestanding fully restored antique claw footed tub with views of the Ashokan. In every room, the original cast iron steam radiators had been well preserved, adding to the vintage feel of the home. Throughout the house, the original design included richly hued red oak floorboards and trim complementing the stone exterior. Between the entrance parlor and the living room, pared down red oak columns stretch from floor to ceiling, mimicking the home’s entrance and separating the two spaces. The living room, which features the original oversized red brick fireplace, is separated from the dining room by ornately carved red oak pocket doors. Red oak built-in cabinetry in the dining room and a hallway leading to the kitchen, now house Raimondo’s family heirlooms. Each of the five upstairs’ bedrooms also retained the original carved red oak doors. To complement the antique doors both upstairs and down, as well as more dramatically showcase the home’s views, Raimondo stripped white paint from all the window frames, as well as the baseboards and the door casings to reveal the red oak underneath. Since moving in, Raimondo has added her own vintage twist to the home’s original design. Throughout the house she replaced the light fixtures with restored vintage lights from Fed-On Lights Antiques in Saugerties. To separate the kitchen from the dining room, she added stained glass French doors to the passageway between. She also added stained glass panels above the front door entrance. To keep with the period details, Raimondo has decorated the home with her large collection of antiques. The bedrooms feature wrought iron carved bed frames and Art Deco chests of drawers. The master bedroom has an Art Deco queen bed as well. Restored wing back chairs, benches, and an Art Deco style couch provide plenty of seating throughout the home. Raimondo converted the third-floor cupola to a breakfast room where every morning she and her guests can fully appreciate the home’s historic view. While the house has changed very little since the days of J. Waldo Smith and his telescope, it has changed her since she’s moved there. “It changes people,” she explains of the home and its vista. “It’s exactly how I felt changed when I first came up to Woodstock to see concerts years ago. It relaxes you. It just feels so peaceful.”

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health & wellness Nurses Rebecca Blackwell-Hafner, Daniel Frisina, and Julie Forgit at Vassar Brothers Medical Center, wearing masks made by Karina Cousineau and volunteer sewers.

PRACTICING KINDFULNESS NOW IS THE TIME TO BE A KINDNESS SUPER-SPREADER. By Wendy Kagan

22 HEALTH & WELLNESS CHRONOGRAM 8/20

hen Karina Cousineau worked in the corporate fashion industry many years ago, she found it to be an unkind place. “It didn’t really embrace women. Instead it pressured them to be a certain size,” she recalls. “I found myself sad a lot.” She left and thought she’d quit fashion for good. But then she started sewing dresses for herself—dresses that were comfortable, easy, figure flattering, and joyful— and her friends began to ask for a “Karina dress” too. Fast-forward 12 years later and she found herself with a manufacturing operation and storefront in Kingston, a love-tribe following, and a vision to create frocks that embody positivity. Then COVID-19 struck and, in March, the country hit the pause button. That’s when Cousineau pivoted away from dresses and threw her energy into something critically needed: face masks for essential workers. By late June, with the help of about 40 volunteer sewers and a GoFundMe campaign, she had made and distributed 10,000 masks to hospitals, senior living and hospice facilities, local grocery stores, women’s shelters, and even the Navajo Nation in Arizona, where the virus hit hard. “It’s my nature to want to do something,” Cousineau says. She’s volunteered a lot in her life, from preparing meals at the local soup kitchen Angel Food East, to working at Mother Theresa’s organization in Kolkata, India. When she heard about the shortage of personal protective equipment during COVID, everything fell into place. “I had fabric, I had cutters. I found out that you can extend the life of an N95 mask with a cotton Fu-style mask, which fits over the N95 and ties to the back of the head.” She also made flat pleated masks for workers who didn’t wear N95s. It was a full-time operation, but Cousineau didn’t do it alone. “The Hudson Valley is full of generous artists, crafters, and sewers who were at home and wanted to help,” she says. To engage them remotely, she made mask kits filled with cut fabric that people could pick up in front of her store, sew at home, and drop off when complete. “When they came back, they were anxious to sew again. And they always said to me, ‘Thank you for helping me help others.’” A Good Prescription for Life It’s an undeniable silver lining that, alongside every pandemic instance of hardship and loss, something else is also asserting itself: a fierce brand of kindness. Helpers are coming out of the woodwork and people are showing up for each other through COVID and the racial justice movement in ways big and small—checking on elders, delivering food, supporting Black-owned businesses, thanking frontline workers. But it’s not just a kumbaya moment and it’s not about collecting brownie points. It’s about something bigger. These kind folks are onto something. You see, kindness is good for us. We have dozens of studies to prove it. One, published in the journal Neuron in 2002, showed that the act of giving lights up the pleasure centers of the brain. Researchers refer to a helper’s high, which may come from a release of endorphins similar to a runner’s high. In a 2018 study in the Journal of Social Psychology,

people who performed small acts of kindness each day for seven days reported greater wellbeing. And when you combine kindness with mindfulness—the practice of being fully present in the moment—even more good stuff happens. A 2018 overview in the Harvard Review of Psychiatry suggests that practicing compassion and loving-kindness meditation may be effective in treating a range of clinical conditions, from depression and anxiety to PTSD and chronic pain. Loving-kindness meditation, called metta in Buddhist circles, is a form of meditation that involves mentally sending kindness and warmth to yourself and others: May you be safe, may you be healthy, may you be joyful, may you be free.

Cultivating kindsight, we can come to terms with something that might not have been in our perspective or viewpoint, and hold it in a space of kindness and compassion. We need to do that in order to nourish and fortify ourselves to go out in the world and make change.” —Tara Cousineau “The scientific research in neuropsychology shows us that when people practice these things in a sustained way—being mindful, having compassion towards others, practicing selfcompassion—you are changing your nervous system,” says Tara Cousineau, a Boston-area psychologist who happens to be the sister-in-law of Karina Cousineau, as well as the author of The Kindness Cure: How the Science of Compassion Can Heal Your Heart and Your World (2018). “You’re actually changing your brain for the good. This neuroplasticity makes you healthier, and it helps you live longer.” Tara Cousineau delved deep into a study of kindness about four years ago, when she was raising two teenage girls amid a succession of public tragedies: the Boston Marathon bombing, the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, the movie theater mass shooting in Aurora, Colorado. “It was a dark time and I thought, ‘What happened to kindness?’ I put on my research cap and found that science was proving out all this ancient wisdom. With my book, I wanted to get the word out that kindness is a really good prescription for life.” In convincing people to be kindness super-spreaders, her mission is to make it feel achievable, not unattainable. “The word compassion is difficult for some people,” she explains. “It’s the Dalai Lama, it’s Mother

Theresa, it’s these altruistic heroes who jump in front of trains to save someone’s life. And that’s not really the norm.” In bringing kindness down to earth, Tara Cousineau has developed a language around it. Kindness itself she calls “love in action.” “Kindness is not just about being nice or agreeable, soft or weak. It’s actually a strength that we can cultivate, and it spreads. It can be forceful and lead us to compassionate action.” Activating kindness regularly is like flexing a muscle to keep it strong. That’s where kindfulness comes in, which is “being aware of the present moment, with heart.” Yet, she warns, “You can be mindful and not necessarily compassionate. Even a soldier or a sniper is focused and aware in the present moment. Kindfulness is an orientation and a way of life. It’s being aware as the moment unfolds, not caught in the past or worried about the future, with kindness as the overarching way.” Then there’s kindsight, which Tara Cousineau describes as “viewing your life experiences with tenderness and understanding.” She’d heard the word used by a yoga teacher years ago, and it resonated with her. “I’m a therapist, and I work with lots of people who’ve had difficulties and traumas in their life that are still very sticky.” Kindsight is a key piece of the puzzle because we need to be kind and accepting toward ourselves if we want to be effective in our kindness to others. “I feel this is so relevant right now, cultivating kindsight, with the dual pandemics we have raging, which are COVID-19 and racism,” she says. “Learning how to be an anti-racist, I recognize that no matter how much I read Alice Walker or Toni Morrison, as a white woman I am part of a system of oppression. I may have struggles and traumas, but I actually have a free pass in a lot of areas in my life, and I can feel guilty about that or I can feel a sense of shame. Cultivating kindsight, we can come to terms with something that might not have been in our perspective or viewpoint, and hold it in a space of kindness and compassion. We need to do that in order to nourish and fortify ourselves to go out in the world and make change.” Building Up a Positivity Bias Even without the two pandemics, kindfulness and kindsight are not effortless. They need our active participation in changing our neurobiology. “As human beings, our evolutionary instinct is to be in survival mode,” explains Tara Cousineau. “Our brains are scanning for danger all the time. If we’re constantly exposed to stress, whether that’s paying the bills or listening to the 24-hour news cycle, our mind latches onto these as threats. In psychology, it’s called the negativity bias. That’s where our attention goes, and we get caught in a spell. I call it Self-Protective Empathy Lethargy (SPEL), which is when we’re burnt out and overwhelmed by all the stressors in our lives. Several months into COVID, I think a lot of people feel burned out. But what we’re doing when we practice selfcompassion skills, or compassion for others, is we’re beginning to cultivate a positivity bias, which can offset that very natural negativity bias. We need the negativity bias for survival, but we can’t let it take over.” 8/20 CHRONOGRAM HEALTH & WELLNESS 23

While being in a spell can wear us down and leave us overwhelmed and fearful, being mindful, or being kindful, can bring us back to the present moment, with heart. “What am I experiencing, how am I feeling in my body? We can cultivate self-awareness and notice what’s happening,” says Tara Cousineau, “and when we do it with a sense of caring and kindness and tenderness, we can break out of that spell.” In The Kindness Cure, she devotes 28 chapters to 28 skills or practices designed to cultivate kindfulness. The idea is to flex this muscle enough that it becomes second nature. Step one is learning to be calmer—practicing belly breathing, feeling your feet on the floor, and being mindful for a certain amount of time each day, like when you’re in the car or washing dishes. Next is learning to recognize and label your emotions. She gives COVID as an example: “When someone walks by without a mask, you might feel anger, but if you look closer, underneath is a feeling of fear.” Then, it’s about putting yourself in someone else’s shoes so you don’t get caught in reactivity. “What’s the most generous thing I can say? Can we find common ground? It’s not to let them off hook, but to let them see we are connected.” She also counsels that we titrate how much news we take in (watch the doomscrolling) and actively build up our positivity bias by taking in the good—whether it’s sharing a positive news story or noticing moments of appreciation, beauty, and connection. Another essential step is cultivating our helping behaviors. Volunteering—say, delivering food to people in need, or writing letters to the elderly in nursing homes—has amazing preventative outcomes. “Seniors who volunteer one or two hours a week live longer than seniors who don’t volunteer. And teenagers who volunteer are more resilient and less likely to engage in risky behaviors.”

An essential step of kindfulness is cultivating helping behaviors. Volunteering—say, delivering food to people in need, or writing letters to the elderly in nursing homes—has amazing preventative outcomes.

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The Kindness Boomerang Effect For Tara Cousineau, the story of her sister-in-law Karina’s volunteer maskmaking project exemplifies love in action. “She has this beautiful business making dresses, but with COVID, so many small businesses shut down. No one was shopping and that was really hard. But she just pivoted and said, I have the knowledge and machinery to make 10,000 masks. And others joined her. It was like the sewing circles that happened in wartime, sewing bandages. It was an amazing response.” Karina Cousineau kept her business afloat with a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan and also leaned on sales through her website. Her store is open again, but business is down 50 to 60 percent. “I’m optimistic we’re going to make it,” she says nonetheless. “We have a lot of loyal customers.” And she doesn’t regret pouring her energy into mask-making for two and a half months at the beginning of the crisis. Seeing workers at her local food co-op wearing masks in her signature polka-dot fabric gives her pleasure. So does the steady stream of thank you messages she has received, including a TikTok video from nurses in the Bronx that still makes her cry. “I think Tara and I both understand that kindness isn’t just for others—it’s also for ourselves, it’s win-win. That’s how giving is. You think, Oh, I’m giving, and the person receiving is benefiting. But what I’ve always found is that I get just as much back. It’s a wonderful thing.” RESOURCES Tara Cousineau, PhD Taracousineau.com Karina Cousineau Karinadresses.com

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community pages

26 COMMUNITY PAGES CHRONOGRAM 8/20

What a Long, Strange Lockdown It’s Been Woodstock

By Anne Pyburn Craig

Opposite:The Woodstock Farm Festival is held on Wednesday afternoons in the municipal lot off Rock City Road. Above: Inside the renovated Bearsville Theater, which will hopefully open for concerts later this month.

izzie Vann, current owner of the Bearsville Theater complex, had hoped that by August she’d be welcoming audiences back after 10 months of renovations. Vann fell in love with rock `n’ roll at 14, growing up in the UK’s industrial Midlands, when a borrowed copy of Janis Joplin’s Pearl “kinda blew my head off.” She went on to study biology and nutrition, founding the Organix line of baby food in 1992, which she later sold in 2008, and has fallen deeply in love with Woodstock’s legacy. “When we walked in last September, there was water coming through the ceiling and down the walls,” says Vann. “We had to tear everything completely apart and deep clean.” The rebuilt ceiling is “tight as a drum,” she says, for superior acoustics. “I wanted a total focus on the sound

and on the experience for musicians. And I love vintage British theaters, so we have black velvet drapes and a peacock teal drape with gold fringe. There are four chandeliers that can change color and uplights that can be programmed to change color with the music. Our theater manager, Robert Frazza, installed a Danley sound system. I think we’re going to have the best sounding room north of Manhattan.” For now, she’s working on video streaming platforms. “I’m working with Mike Amari from BSP Studios to get some indie rock going, because we have amazing musicians who want to reach the world. I hope to have the Bear Cafe open by November. Eventually I want this to be the place where visitors can get an up-close, in-depth sense of the history here: the Sound

8/20 CHRONOGRAM COMMUNITY PAGES 27

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Outs in the `60s, the story of The Band and the Basement Tapes, Happy and Artie Traum, Todd Rundgren’s mirror, Maria and Geoff Muldaur. There’s just so much.” Other plans include education and performance space for the new generation in Rundgren’s onetime soundstage, songwriting workshops, and weekend festivals. “It feels like a huge obligation to get the dancing going,” says Vann. “Health and safety first, but I’m eager to offer this as a hub and a hearth.” Maverick Concerts has been drawing crowds to its historic concert hall, built by Byrdcliffe Colony cofounder Hervey White, since 1916. While Maverick canceled its summer season this year, the chamber music festival is drawing on its extensive catalog to stream a series of Maverick Hours, broadcast WHMT-FM 89.1 or 88.7 and streamed on the radio station’s website each Sunday at 5pm. “It’s the closest we can get to having a concert right now, and we’ve been getting rave reviews,” says Music Director Alexander Platt. “Sit back with a glass of wine and look forward to gathering in person. We’re scraping our pennies together and missing each other.” Also at Maverick in cyberspace: a rendition of “Sleeping Beauty” featuring award-winning storyteller David Gonzalez. In development and coming soon are Indian ragas with Woodstock legend Steve Gorn and live streamed Bach, Hayden, and jazz. The rich culture that makes this town tick may be somewhat subdued this pandemic summer, but it’s far from absent. Bird-on-aCliff Theater Company is presenting “William Shakespeare’s Long Lost First Play” at the Comeau property every weekend from August 7 through September 6. “We picked a play with three people in it, doing the best we can with the circumstances, and there’s plenty of room for the audience to spread out,” says Elli Michaels, who with husband David Aston-Reese has been organizing a Shakespeare festival for a quarter century now. (The two met in a 13th Street production of “Taming of the Shrew” and have been married 39 years. “He was Petruchio and I was Kate, and he’s been trying to tame me ever since,” says Michaels.) “People don’t want ‘Hamlet’ or ‘King Lear’ in the summer,” says Aston-Reese, “so we were thinking ‘Comedy of Errors,’ but it turned out we shouldn’t get 11, 12 actors together. But this is a hilarious piece, a total, loving goof on Shakespeare.” Literati from around the region have enjoyed the careful reopening of the Golden Notebook, where proprietor James Conrad has been doing local delivery, curbside service, and a little in-store shopping (two families at a time.) “I noticed back in March that Woodstock seemed to be ahead of the curve with masks and social distancing,” he says. “I’d like to think that caring is the Woodstock way. I do the Chamber newsletter, and obviously we’ve all had to scale back our planned events, but in some ways it feels like we’re stronger than ever.” Online author events at the Notebook this month include an August 3 conversation with former Chronogram books editor Nina Shengold, who recently published Reservoir Year: A Walker’s Book of Days (which is excerpted on page 46).

Maverick Concerts Executive Director Kitt Potter inside the historic conert hall Photo by Roy Gumpel

Marie-Helene Bertino signs copies of her novel Parakeet at The Golden Notebook. Photo by James Conrad

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30 COMMUNITY PAGES CHRONOGRAM 8/20

Pulling Together “It’s the no-end-in-sight part that’s hard,” says Craig Leonard, one of the partners behind Silvia, a Mill Hill Road eatery known for its woodfired, grill-centric cuisine that has reopened for outdoor dining by reservation. “We’ve just gone to seven days a week, and we’re booked full almost every night. People are so happy to be out somewhere safe and comfy. It feels like we’re back to running a restaurant again—all the staff are back—and we’re just hoping the numbers stay good and people stay smart.” That hope is fervently shared by Town of Woodstock Supervisor Bill McKenna. “We’re starting to see more weekend visitors, and people are still concerned, but our businesses need to survive in this unique, challenging moment,” he says. “So yes, please come, but do wear a mask and social distance. Take care of us and we’ll take care of you. We’ve been working hard and doing a good job at every level; you’re very welcome here, just be aware of your fellow humans.” McKenna and his board did some emergency suspending of zoning regulations to expand outdoor dining space at Mill Hill Road, now in use not just by Silvia but by Oriole 9, A&P Bar, Cucina, and Dixon Roadside. “Houst and Son Hardware let us use some of their parking,” says McKenna. “Collaborations have been emerging every which way.” The Woodstock Farm Festival farmers’ market is up and running at its new Maple Lane location, and is partnering with the Colony Woodstock on socially distanced food and music offerings. Woodstock celebrated Independence Day with a “Wake Up! What’s Next!” Black Lives Matter rally at Andy Lee Field. “We had some really good dialog with the [police] chief and the officers, and one of the organizers said he felt lucky to have grown up here,” says McKenna. “I grew up with most of our police. Now we have new residents and new young officers and everyone needs to get easy and comfortable together. We had one wonderful dialog, we want more. We want to double down and work harder; we’ll be having more outdoor meetings. I wish we could export the way we do it here, just share it everywhere.” Playing It Safe “Most of the state’s opening up, but we’re going to stay very strict to keep both our staff and the community safe,” says Kam DelMonte of Sunflower Natural Foods. The recently expanded and remodeled market offers curbside pickup and delivery; those who enter are required to wear masks, as are all staff, who also take regular temp checks, wear gloves, and face shields, and practice a rigorous daily cleaning routine. “At the same time, we’re trying to keep some of the feeling—we still do gift baskets and raffles, we try to give customers some fun to look forward to. Ultimately, we are just so thankful to continue to provide for our community when we need each other the most.” Top: Outdoor dining on the porch at Silvia. Bottom: Carrot thinnings from Great Song Farm to be served with Silvia’s wood-smoked and brined chicken. 8/20 CHRONOGRAM COMMUNITY PAGES 31

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Evan Fraser Jr.

outdoors

Danger on the Trails and Waterways By Roger Hannigan Gilson

s New York City’s balmy spring weather morphs into the static heat and humidity of summer, its residents look to escape. The Hudson Valley and the Catskills have always been an escape valve for New York City, but the advent of social media has revealed more obscure locations to visitors. Some of these Instagram-famous spots are beautiful but dangerous, and out-of-towners can find themselves imperiled. Nearly three dozen people have died on the Delaware River since 2014, many of whom were visiting the area to go tubing, including a New York City man on July 19 of this year. On the popular Breakneck Ridge outside Beacon, Jason M. Kindopp, a Brooklyn man, fell to his death in July 2018. Last month at Skydive the Ranch in Gardiner, William A. McCartin of New York City died after jumping out of an airplane and failing to deploy his parachute. (A week later, a Gardiner resident, David H. Richardson, died at the skydiving facility while trying to execute a “swoop landing.”) We’ve chosen two Hudson Valley spots city residents have flocked to in recent years to examine how these deaths happen—and how local authorities are struggling to make them safe.

36 OUTDOORS CHRONOGRAM 8/20

High Falls High Falls is a series of waterfalls, deep pools and rough shallows on a stretch of the Rondout Creek about 10 miles southwest of Kingston in the hamlet of High Falls. Ulster County Sheriff ’s Detective Lieutenant Abram D. Markiewicz, a former member of the sheriff ’s dive team, says people need to be rescued from the Rondout in this area nearly every summer. “It was just understood that somebody was going to [need rescuing]—one or two people every summer,” he says. “Maybe we went one year with nobody.” The Rondout here is owned by Central Hudson Gas & Electric, which operates a small hydroelectric plant at the head of the falls. The plant’s federal license requires the creek to be accessible to boaters and hikers. However, entering the creek itself is trespassing. This did not stop scores of people from wading into the creek every weekend and jumping off the ruins of the Roebling Aqueduct Abutment, a former aqueduct of the D&H Canal that crossed the Rondout, designed and built by John A. Roebling, who is also responsible for the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge. On June 23, 18-year-old Chris Bamba, a Kingston native, died after jumping from the

Photo courtesy of Rich Parete

DEATH BY MISADVENTURE

Above: A Marbletown municipal employee guards the entrance to a path running along High Falls on July 5. Marbletown began posting a guard here after 18-yearold Chris Bamba drowned at High Falls on June 23. Below: Refuse at High Falls. Residents complain that visitors disrespect the falls, and three different organisations volunteer to rid the area of trash.

Roger Hannigan Gilson

abutment, according to an Ulster County Sheriff ’s Office spokesman. Bamba did not know how to swim. Seven people have drowned at High Falls since 2001, according to Marbletown Supervisor Rich Parete. Though local residents have been going down to High Falls for generations—whether to legally walk along the creek or to trespass into the creek itself—Parete says things have changed in recent years. “People are taking pictures and putting them on social media, so we we’ve gotten a lot more interest from people coming from out of town,” he says. In the four weeks before Chris Bamba drowned, there were more than 200 Instagram posts geotagged with “High Falls, N.Y.,” which can refer to either the hazardous stretch of the Rondout or the hamlet surrounding it. Fortyfour of the posts were of High Falls itself, featuring twenty-somethings in bathing suits posing on boulders, swimming, drinking, and jumping off the abutment. Carole and Richard Eppley, who run the nonprofit High Falls Conservancy, say local youth have always swum at High Falls. “The kids who live here see it as a kind of legacy right to swim there,” he says. The couple makes a distinction between local residents and people from elsewhere swimming at High Falls. “Because of [local youths’] life-long relationship with that part of the creek, they know where the danger spots are,” Mr. Eppley says. There’s a whirlpool at one spot in High Falls, he says. In another area, the creek floor abruptly drops off. Lt. Det. Markiewicz says sheriff ’s deputies either educate the swimmers about the dangers of High Falls and shoo them away, or ticket everyone in the water for trespassing. “We’ve done it both ways over the years, and it just seems for a myriad of reasons—neither one seems to be any more or less effective than the other,” he says. “It’s certainly an issue that’s larger than just going down and writing trespass tickets.” Residents of Marbletown also complain about the effect the crowds have on their community. Supervisor Parete said visitors from elsewhere “just take over the town” in the summer and speaks of visitors disrespecting the area. Out-of-towners would pack for the day, bringing coolers, floatation devices, speakers, grills, Sternos, and other supplies, Parete says, using the area as their bathroom, “crapping on paper plates and throwing them in the woods.” Several local groups go to High Falls to clean up the mess. High Falls Conservancy volunteers recently hauled away about 20 trash bags of garbage from the area, according to Richard and Carole Eppley. Chris Bamba’s drowning seems to have made High Falls turn a corner. Shortly after his death, Central Hudson posted private security guards on the property tasked with making sure no one brought day-in-the-sun accoutrements down with them. A municipal employee is posted on town’s land in the area. Both patrol High Falls for swimmers. Visits during the first two weeks of July saw High Falls deserted. Central Hudson spokesman John Maserjian points to fencing erected in areas of High Falls prior to Bamba’s death as evidence of

A queue of cars on July 12 waiting for parking spaces to open up at the Laurel House lot, the closest parking area to Kaaterskill Falls.

the company managing visitation, as well as agreements with local law enforcement allowing them to automatically charge trespassers. Supervisor Parete says Central Hudson had done an about-face in recent weeks, meeting with town officials and committing to hashing out a more permanent solution for next summer. “We’re not interested in people coming in from out of the area [who] just go down there and spend the day and litter, take up our town resources with their parking -- and they don’t go into local stores or restaurants,” he says. “They need to go find another spot…they’re just really becoming a burden.” Carri Heberger, the manager of the High Falls Food Co-op, says High Falls was vastly different when she moved to the area 26 years ago. “All the swimming holes had much less people,” she says. “I hardly go anywhere anymore, as far as our little secret spots, because nothing’s secret anymore, and they’re all covered in trash and thousands of people. So they’re kind of gone in a way.” Kaaterskill Falls Kaaterskill Falls, located between the Greene County hamlets of Palenville and Haines Falls, can be treacherous. There were six deaths in the area and 34 rescues from 2000-2016, according to the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). Many of the deaths were from slipping and falling off either tier of the 231-foot falls. Kaaterskill Falls is different than High Falls since it is on state parkland and can be legally accessed. The DEC estimate that 100,000 people visited the Kaaterskill Falls area in 2019, more than twice the entire population of the surrounding county. Town of Hunter Supervisor Daryl Legg says the area is only getting more congested. “It grows every year exponentially because of social media,” he says. “It’s all over the internet.” Hunter residents are “very dismayed with the whole situation,” Legg says. When asked if there was a division between local residents and people from elsewhere at Kaaterskill Falls itself, Legg replies

there is not; he only knows of one local resident who goes there anymore. A big issue is garbage. At the end of the day, trash is everywhere, Legg says. He blames the mess squarely on visitors from downstate.“Unfortunately, they don’t take all the stuff they brought with them back. It is state land, and the land is for everyone to use, but it’s not for everyone to abuse,” he adds. Legg says he feels the visitors did not have a positive impact on the local economy, since they generally only came up for the day and pack their own food. Greene County Director of Tourism Heather Bagshaw did not respond to repeated requests for information about the impact of Kaaterskill Falls on the local economy. Kaaterskill Falls has been given numerous safety improvements over the past few years. A 200-foot cable was installed as a handrail; a 200-foot stone staircase was constructed to connect two trails; an observation platform was erected to allow a safe way to view the upper falls from above; a new trail was blazed to allow easy access between the fall’s different levels; and several trails were rehabilitated or improved, according to a July 10 statement from the DEC. “During this time when more New Yorkers are seeking an escape to nature, DEC is continuing to responsibly oversee the health and safety of visitors to Kaaterskill Falls and remain committed to working with local law enforcement, community stakeholders, and other partners to help address challenges created by increased use in the Kaaterskill Clove/Fawn’s Leap area and other areas in the Catskills,” according to a statement from the DEC. The improvements have “absolutely” made the area safer, Supervisor Legg says, pointing in particular to the stone staircase. I ask Legg if Kaaterskill Falls was safe. “As safe as can be,” he responds. “Anything you do has an inherent risk to it. You’re hiking on loose shale, you’re up near the third-highest waterfall in New York State.” “Anything can happen at any given time,” he continues. “So yeah, I’d say they made it as safe as they possibly could without restricting people from going there.” 8/20 CHRONOGRAM OUTDOORS 37

reopenings Favela, among others. Although the exhibit originally opened in March, its explorations of uncertain intimacy, are more pertinent than ever now, in the era of socially distancing. “The questions the exhibition explores about translation, meaning, language, and communication are even more urgent,” says Joseph. “Now as we face a global crisis and as anxieties over racial relations escalate in this country and are being witnessed worldwide.” Powerhouse museums like Mass MoCA the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown have been eagerly awaiting this directive from Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker and began to welcome the public the second weekend of July. Similarly, in the Hudson Valley, Cold Spring art museum Magazzino reopened to the public on July 10, and the Thomas Cole House, a national historic landmark, has had its grounds open since July 3. Dia:Beacon will reopen to the public on August 7. Admission will be by advance reservation only; timed tickets will be available beginning August 3 on its website. Like other regional museums, Dia will observe strict health and safety measures—including required face coverings for staff and visitors—and enhanced cleaning protocols.

Magazzino is using EGOpro Active tags to encourage social distancing.

THE ART OF THE PANDEMIC

MUSEUMS REOPEN IN THE HUDSON VALLEY & THE BERKSHIRES By Nikki Donohue On March 20, with coronavirus cases spiking across the state, Governor Cuomo issued an executive order closing down non-essential businesses in New York. After almost two months of lockdown, New York began reopening on a regional basis starting May 15. As of this writing in late July, almost all businesses in our region have been cleared to reopen—movie theaters, concert halls, and gyms being notable exceptions. Museums, categorized as “low-risk arts,” were cleared to open with other Phase 4 businesses in July. (Massachusetts followed a similar trajectory of sudden closings and gradual reopening.) With this issue, we’re launching a multi-part series covering how businesses are standing back up after being closed during the height of the first wave of the pandemic. With outbreaks intensifying around the country, however, the situation remains fluid, and it remains to be seen whether New York will continue to toward fully opening back up this summer. This month, we spoke with museum administrators across the region about how they’re coping with new regulations and restrictions while trying to offer visitors a full museum experience. —Ed. 38 REOPENINGS CHRONOGRAM 8/20

he future is masked, says Jodi Joseph, communications director at Mass MoCA. “But we’re determined that there will be smiles underneath those masks, and we hope that the art, the architecture, and the natural beauty of this great place continues to inspire our visitors.” After months of uncertainty, museums in the Northeast finally got clarity regarding their reopening dates and plans. On July 6, Massachusetts entered Phase 3, permitting museums to reopen, and the following day, July 7, the Mid-Hudson region entered Phase 4. The initial response from people returning to the museums has been very positive. Being back at Mass MoCA “felt like the first step in a return to normalcy,” a visitor told Jodi Joseph on the first day the museum reopened its doors to visitors. Just three days after their opening on July 11, Mass MoCA in North Adams had seen 1,500 visitors. These visitors now have access to new and old art exhibits that have been dormant for four months like “Kissing Through a Curtain,” which includes work by Kim Faler and Justin

A Gathering Economy Summer is typically the busiest time of year for museums. But with lockdown eating into that peak season, revenue is down across the board for everything from event tickets to gift shop sales. The Thomas Cole House, which hosts an average of 10,000 guests annually between spring and fall, has lost $300,000 out of their budget through a loss in ticket sales, projected donor gifts, and fundraisers because of the pandemic. Earned revenue from ticket sales for onsite performances and museum admission account for 70 percent of the annual budget at Mass MoCA, which sees about 300,000 visitors a year. Additionally, Mass MoCA’s initial closure in April led to the layoff of 120 staff members out of 165. Museums are not only important cultural resources for their local communities, they are also a key tourism engine, drawing people from all over to stay at local hotels and eat in restaurants. With months of stay-at-home orders, economic regions reliant on tourism have struggled. Specifically, the Berkshire region is “disproportionately reliant on tourism and hospitality,” says Joseph. The economy “is built on the most hopeful of things, a social economy, or a gathering economy.” Now with museums reopening, they can now once again gain revenue for the rest of the summer, contribute to their local economies, and continue to inspire their visitors through art. “Art is important in people’s lives and I think these last several months have reinforced that significance in a lot of people who took the fact that museums were always available,” says Vicki Saltzman director of communications at the Clark. “When museums weren’t available, they realized it left a hole in their lives.”

The museums had to adjust for reopening by implementing a host of social distancing and sanitary measures to ensure the safety of guests like requiring masks and capping attendance. Overall, after their successful first weekends of being open, the museums feel confident in their safety protocols. In Catskill, the Thomas Cole House’s interior remains closed to the public, but guests can explore the estate grounds by reserving an “Outdoor Explore Kit,” which includes souvenirs, walking directions to the Catskill Creek, and a guidebook. A limited number of timed slots are sold per hour to allow for social distancing on the site and visitors can retrieve their kits through no-contact pickups. Magazzino reduced capacity to 10 percent, capping attendance to 100 people a day, 30 at a time. So far, the museum has seen about 70 visitors a day on weekends. In a futuristic twist, Magazzino has also been providing guests with EGOpro Active tags to help them maintain social distancing. When visitors interact with someone not in their group at a distance of less than six feet, the device—worn on a lanyard around the neck— will start buzzing and lighting up While acknowledging the “big responsibility” that comes with reopening and ensuring their visitors’ safety, Magazzino director Vittorio Calabrese noted that many people have been visiting the Hudson Valley to go hiking because they have not had much else to do. “It helps that we’ve actually become an outlet for this stream of visitors that is actually coming to the Hudson Valley,” says Calabrese. A Few Small Repairs While closed, these museums have made use of this rare time off for projects spanning the gamut from maintenance to curatorial undertakings. For example, The Clark has been adding their outdoor exhibition called “Ground/Work,” which includes installations from six contemporary artists. Mass MoCA has been using this time to install a new exhibit by Wendy Red Star called “Children of the Large-Beaked Bird” in their kid-centric gallery. “We’ve been hard at work, making new art, bringing new art experiences to the public who we look forward to welcoming back to see, again, within 250,000 square feet of art, which includes over 40,000 square feet of brand new, never-before-seen art,” says Joseph. The Thomas Cole House has used the pandemic to do some restoration work on their walls that were hand-painted by Cole. The historic site in also installing a wheelchair lift to make the Main House accessible for those of varying mobility that is expected to be finished by fall. The pandemic also prompted museums to get creative and begin using digital programming to their advantage. The Clark produced a series called “Clark Connects” which consisted of short videos with curators and other members of the staff discussing certain artworks or exhibits. The museum’s education team also designed a plethora of stayat-home activities for kids like coloring sheets, puzzles, and quizzes. Magazzino went digital with all their programming in March. The institution produced 10 weeks of digital content, including Instagram lives from artists they work with, for their website and social media accounts. “I think going digital for that time really made us realize that there’s an audience that goes beyond our immediate neighbors in the Hudson Valley or New York City,” says Calabrese. Magazzino also plans on hosting drive-in movie screenings in their parking lot in August. The Italian post-war art museum also took an in-person lecture series they had planned for the spring online. The digital programs are now available to view on Magazzino’s website and include short videos highlighting the artworks and exhibits the museum has to offer. Thomas Cole House has modified many of their activities and lectures to be offered on their website, as well as a 360-degree virtual tour and remote learning activities. Heather Paroubek, the site’s manager of visitor engagement, agrees with Calabrese that the digital revolution catalyzed by the pandemic is here to stay. “Something great to come out of this has been the need to reimagine some of the ways that we can enable others to discover this special place, and Thomas Cole’s story,” Paroubek says. “I’m reminded each day of what a privilege it is to work with this amazing team of out-of-the-box thinkers.”

Race Brook Lodge We are excited to be back in action and breathing new life into the property as we adjust to our new normal. During the shutdown, we focused a lot of energy on our farm-to-table operation, creating outdoor dining options throughout the property, and refining our offerings to The Berkshire community and beyond. As we plan for the future, we look forward to hosting our rescheduled retreats and weddings, as well as the ones yet to come. Book your next milestone event or retreat at Race Brook Lodge surrounded by beautiful nature and shared with friends and family. 864 UNDERMOUNTAIN ROAD, SHEFFIELD, MA • (413) 229-2916 RBLODGE.COM/WEDDINGS • RBLODGE.COM/RETREATS

Roe Jan Brewing Company We offer a rotating lineup of craft beer brewed right on-site, including traditional ales and lagers as well as trending styles like IPAs and sours. Our creative pub menu features seasonal wood-fired food that is made completely in-house, right down to the ketchup and hamburger buns. Located in a restored mercantile building that dates to 1851, our spacious dining room features an octagonal bar surrounding a vintage grain hopper, with additional seating in cozy club chairs and at café tables, all appropriately socially distanced. Don’t want to sit inside? Bring your canine pal and enjoy seasonal outdoor dining in our beer garden or on our wraparound deck. We do takeout too! Call or visit our website to book or order. 32 ANTHONY STREET, HILLSDALE, NY • (518) 303-8080 ROEJANBREWING.COM 8/20 CHRONOGRAM REOPENINGS 39

Canal Towne Emporium & Crystal Connection Nestled in the valley between the Shawangunk and Catskill Mountains is the historic village of Wurtsboro. Center point for the Delaware and Hudson Canal, and named after the canal’s founders, Wurtsboro has been a central spot for travelers for over a hundred years. At the center of the village is Canal Towne Emporium, which has been owned and operated by the Holmes family since 1869. In 1976, the store was transformed into Canal Towne, the brainchild of Doris Holmes who restored the building back to its original look and décor. From the moment you step on our original floorboards, you’ll know you’ve left the modern world behind. Peruse the aisles for fine, locally handcrafted gifts, decorative accessories, country furniture, foods, and candies. Across the street is Crystal Connection which joined the village in 2008, growing into the premier crystal metaphysical destination for New York and the northeast. It’s a very unique space and experience housed within an 1890s antique church lined with molded tin up the walls and ceiling. As soon as you drive up you’ll view all the giant stones out front in its medicinal crystal garden and rose quartz rock garden. Once inside you’ll be in awe of the inventory and variety from all over the world. Weekends offer Aura Photography, Tarot and Intuitive Readings as well. You’ll certainly leave refreshed, in harmony with yourself and with a new perspective for the beauty of nature. CANAL TOWNE EMPORIUM • 107 SULLIVAN ST, WURTSBORO, NY (845) 888-2100 • CANALTOWNE.COM CRYSTAL CONNECTION • 116 SULLIVAN ST, WURTSBORO, NY (845) 888-2547 • CRYSTALCONNECTIONNEWYORK.COM

The Bookloft

Laura’s Family Restaurant

While the store was closed under State guidelines for businesses during the pandemic, The Bookloft completed the remodeling of our new building and moved to 63 State Road in Great Barrington. Staff and customers alike are very happy with the new location and look forward to a long tenure here. We continue to offer a wide range of new books on many subjects and genres for adults, children and teen readers, and are happy to place special orders for anything we do not have on hand.

Laura’s Family Restaurant, in the Hudson Plaza on Route 9 in Poughkeepsie, NY, is open for socially-distanced indoor dining, covered sidewalk dining, curbside pick-up & delivery. Laura’s is located where the Southside Café stood for over 25 years. When renovating the restaurant to turn Southside into Laura’s, the existing 6’ barriers between all the tables were removed to create an open concept floor plan. The owner, Nikki Kaelber, jokes that she had a template as to how to best comply with post-COVID regulations for safe distancing between tables. The barriers have returned, and although updated, they are still incredibly reminiscent of the roots that Laura’s has grown from. Laura’s is ecstatic to welcome guests back inside for safe, comfortable, delicious dining.

We are simply delighted to be in our new space and again providing great books to our customers, old and new. Call us 413-645-3256 or order online at www.thebookloft.com. Open Monday–Friday 10-6pm; Saturday 10-5pm. 63 STATE ROAD, GREAT BARRINGTON • (413) 645-3256 THEBOOKLOFT.COM 40 REOPENINGS CHRONOGRAM 8/20

2585 SOUTH ROAD, POUGHKEEPSIE, NY (845) 240-1919 • LAURASPK.COM

Bailey Pottery Equipment Bailey manufactures their famous pottery equipment in Kingston and distributes their world-renowned kilns, wheels, studio hardware and ceramic supplies from a little side street in the Midtown Arts District. They plan to be open to the public in late summer and currently offer curbside pick up for local customers. KINGSTON, NY • (800) 431-6067 • BAILEYPOTTERY.COM

The Birch School

Farmer’s Collective NY

The Birch School, a small independent school in Rock Tavern, has been meeting students’ individual needs since 2012. By placing the student at the center and supporting them with knowledgeable and caring teachers, Birch has enabled students to find their passions and enthusiastically participate in their learning path.

A new storefront in Rhinebeck at 6384 Mill Street, created by Willem Jan Rote, owner of Coach Farm, in partnership with Jaimie Cloud, owner of Miracle Springs. Offering a place for local/regional farmers to provide consumers in the area access to healthy food. All sales go directly to the farms. Store hours: Monday-Saturday from 1-7 p.m. 6384 MILL STREET, RHINEBECK, NY • (845) 516-7400

With COVID disrupting traditional schooling, more families are searching for the right match for their students. Meeting students where they are, learning outdoors, and managing technology are crucial components of student success during COVID. The Birch School, is positioned to effectively meet the changing needs of students today. They have the experience to support your family during this stressful and uncertain time. Contact them to discuss how your child can become a happy and successful learner. 9 VANCE ROAD, ROCK TAVERN • (845) 645-7772 THEBIRCHSCHOOL.ORG

The O Zone A Resource Center for Sustainable Lifestyle Options! Grab your containers and come refill your household & personal care products! We have a growing selection of well-researched bulk items & plastic-free goods, including reusable wares, books, gifts, and children’s items. Earn ‘carbon credits’ while participating in our recycling & composting initiatives. Check out our learning center’s online calendar for upcoming happenings. 148 PITCHER LANE, RED HOOK • THEOZONEHV.COM

Sassafras Mercantile Sassafras is a metaphysical mercantile for personal liberation. Celebrating one-year anniversary and reopening! Specializing in farm to cup herbal teas and bulk herbs. Wellness wares, potions, zines, jewelry, and candles to liberate mind and body. Care packages subscription shipped monthly that explore herbs and wellness. Offering curbside pickup, delivery, free shipping for orders over $75. 37 BROADWAY, KINGSTON, NY • (845) 481-5387 SASSAFRASMERCANTILE.COM 8/20 CHRONOGRAM REOPENINGS 41

LEARNING BY DOING Life Skills – Self-Motivation – Exploration – Achievement

A Unique Montessori School on an 85 Acre Campus • Preschool to 8th Grade • Expansive Academic Program • Farm Animals • Gardens • Environmental Stewardship

Photo: Randy Harris

The Homestead School • Glen Spey, NY • 845-856-6359 • info@homesteadschool.com #homesteadschool HomesteadSchool homesteadschool.com

Discover Livingston Street Socially Responsible Care and Education for the Young Child

www.LivingstonStreet.org | 845-340-9900 20 Livingston Street, Kingston, NY 12401

Offering full-year programming for children ages 2 years/9 months At Livingston Early ChildhoodWith Community, well-being through 5Street years old in Kingston. a focus onemotional emotional/social and social competence are nourished in young children through the development, communication skills, and community, Livingston Street creates an enchanted and engaging learning environment that is creation of meaningful relationships with a diverse group of people, appropriately challenging fun forand children. Activities atskills, Livingston the development of earlyand literacy communication and Street include outdoor play, the arts, early literacy games, dramatic school wide participation in the process of community service. play, reading, sensory play, making friends, and much more!

42 EDUCATION CHRONOGRAM 8/20

Believe in the child. DR. MARIA MONTESSORI

education Art by students at Millbrook School: (top): Ella Green; (bottom): Eliza Lindsay.

Teaching During the Pandemic with an Artist’s Mindset By Sarah MacWright

estroying, abandoning, and repurposing are essential parts of making art. In 1970, the conceptual artist John Baldessari burned 12 years of his paintings and baked the ashes into cookies. He called the new work Cremation Project with Corpus Wafers, which is now part of the Hirschhorn Museum’s collection. Not all artists destroy their work with such flair, but they all use the foundation of discarded art to build work that is stronger: more curious, more focused, or more complicated. Artists who teach understand the importance of letting go and starting again. They champion drafts and abandoned starts, and they show students that the essence of discarded work is never lost. A student once asked my ceramicist colleague how long it takes him to throw a large vessel. He counted up the time since he learned how to throw on the wheel and responded: “13 years.” When my colleagues and I pivoted to online teaching this spring, we spent little time grieving our old lessons or trying to mimic them through Zoom. We abandoned many of our plans for the spring, knowing that we would stand on their foundation to create a new set of projects and lessons. Make no mistake, adapting art classes for a socially distanced world was at least as hard for art teachers as it was for teachers in other disciplines, and perhaps it was uniquely difficult, given the importance of tactility and presence in the arts. Still, the practice of destroying work and starting again as artists gave art teachers special insight into the task. As we created new lessons, my colleagues and I asked ourselves four fundamental questions. What are we really teaching? When a ceramics teacher has to teach without clay, she must ask herself what she is really teaching. In other words, what she has been teaching all this time through clay? For example, her core lessons may be (1) materials awareness, (2) community, and (3) critical thinking. In rebuilding curriculum for distance learning, my art colleagues pursued these goals rather than trying to mimic pre-pandemic lessons. It is better for ceramics students to experiment with a material unlike clay if it engages their connections to community or their critical thinking. For instance, my colleague eschewed

teaching salt dough, a mixture of salt and flour that can be fired like clay, in favor of teaching edible doughs, which better facilitate community-building conversations about family, nourishment, and food.

materials of any kind that were not provided by the school. Art teachers built empathy in a hurry by being the first “students” to complete the work. This is a good practice for teachers in all disciplines, and even more so now.

Why do students show up? Understanding students’ motivations is an essential component in creating effective curricula at a distance. Art teachers know why students show up, and it’s not about grades. Students may come to class to express their perspectives and experiences, or they may show up for the opportunity to imagine other worlds. Art teachers have always responded to these needs by making sure that students’ work is seen and shared, and by giving students assignments that provide respite from real-life struggles. If coursework in other disciplines is responsive to the class’s needs and motivations, students will be likely to show up—and get what they need.

Ask an art teacher As school administrators wrap up this period of emergency remote learning, they now have to immediately apply themselves to the task of planning for the unknowns of the fall, once again building new paradigms for teaching and learning in a socially distanced and/or remote and/or hybrid school. Art teachers can be valuable participants and leaders in this process, ready to create new paths forward.

What is the medium now? Singing on Zoom is not the same as singing. As teaching shifted from one new format to another, it seemed like some students were regressing. A confident singer didn’t feel as confident on Zoom. His singing ability hadn’t changed, but the medium had. Art teachers helped by turning off (or down) the anxieties of a new medium. The music teachers I know gave students focused advice on camera position, eye contact, and white balance to help students feel like the unfamiliar parts of a new situation were taken care of. Similarly, English, history or math teachers probably found that students needed help to develop confidence in new formats for discussion, workshops, or partnered and group work.

Sarah MacWright is a photography teacher and arts department chair at Millbrook School, a coed boarding high school. MacWright participated in the virtual Chronogram Conversation “Arts Education During COVID-19” in late June.

How can teachers test and deploy at the same time? Art teachers are masters of iteration, constantly reflecting and wondering how to improve next year. This past spring, many art teachers taught more new lessons in eight weeks than they do in a typical school year. Time for reflection was hard to come by, and time to adjust or refine didn’t exist yet. Art teachers coped by focusing on teacher samples, taking note of how long projects took to complete, and how easy or difficult they were to do, especially when they required 8/20 CHRONOGRAM EDUCATION 43

chronogram conversations On June 30, Chronogram hosted a virtual conversation on arts education during the coronavirus pandemic with a panel of distinguished arts educators and administrators, sponsored by Cornell Creative Arts Center. Panelists included Bryant “Drew” Andrews, executive director of Center for Creative Education; Nicole Fenichel-Hewitt, executive director of The Art Effect; Emily Dykeman, technical director at Hudson Valley Performing Arts Lab; Rachel Jacob, art director at Cornell Creative Arts Center; and Sarah MacWright, a photography teacher and arts department chair at Millbrook School. (MacWright has written an essay for Chronogram on teaching during the pandemic with an artist’s mindset, which appears on page 43.)

Arts Education During COVID-19: The Transition to a Digital Environment

Once COVID-19 hit in mid-March, schools and arts organizations across the region shifted from in-person classes to digital instruction. As the Hudson Valley continues the reopening process throughout the summer, art education remains a predominately virtual experience. While schools and educators continue to grapple with how to possibly bring students back into classrooms in the fall, we wanted to understand how the pivot to digital instruction has affected the learning experience in arts instruction. 44 EDUCATION CHRONOGRAM 8/20

What emerged from the conversation about the digital teaching experience was a sense of something lost (as Bard President Leon Botstein told Chronogram recently: “We’re going to have to face the fact that there’s no technological solution to the complexity of education in the classroom.”), and something found. One teacher noted that digital learning allowed her to have more one-on-one time with her students and also allowed the shy kids more of a chance to speak up in the nonsocial setting. Another stated: “I think online learning simply doesn’t work for some kids. My students (dance) were super enthused initially, then just started dropping off. We did scavenger hunts, dress up, pet parades, everything I could think of, but some of these kids (and adults) just really seemed to struggle with online learning. I think all the video/online stuff is great, but we need other solutions as well.” Fenichel-Hewitt said that moving The Art Effect’s annual teen film festival online allowed for greater participation from a wider geographic reach. MacWright of Millbrook School suggested that arts educators were especially well equipped, as artists themselves, to help their organizations to think flexibly, expansively, and optimistically as they create new models for teaching during an ongoing crisis. Andrews of the Center for Creative Education noted that his organization was prepared for remote learning as it had been teaching via video to students across the country and overseas for the last five years.

Another topic on the minds of many was access to the internet. One schoolteacher said that she did not realize how poor her own home bandwidth was until she started doing Zoom calls with her students. This access problem extends to students as well, many of whom lack connectivity. Tens of millions of Americans cannot access or cannot afford home broadband connections. This digital divide, exacerbated by the pandemic, saw some students just “drop out” as they did not have the tools required to keep up. Instructors shared war stories as well as tips and best practices for online learning. Innovative ideas were floated: Art teachers in Beacon have created art kits with guided, site-specific experiences around the city. These are accompanied by videos talking about the project of the week with questions and prompts to inspire students and parents. Because the experiences are site-specific, the hope is that mini installations will appear around town, giving a sense of connectivity. While instructors lamented not being able to be physically in front of their students, all found silver linings in various forms. Educators are nimble and adaptable by training and practice, it’s no surprise that a pandemic did not throw these folks off track. A full video of the entire conversation can be found online at Chronogram.com/ArtEdCovid. Sponsored by Cornell Creative Arts Center.

Engaging artistically with complex issues strengthens thinking by deepening perspective.

Small Classes = Big Opportunities Early Education - Grade 12 Co-Ed Interfaith Fine Arts & Applied Sciences

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330 COUNTY ROUTE 21C, GHENT, NY 12075 33HAWTHORNEVALLEYSCHOOL.ORG 0 C O U N T Y R O U T E 2 1 C , G H E N T, N|Y 518.672.7092 12 07 5 X 111 H AW T H O R N E VA L L E Y S C H O O L .O R G | 5 18.67 2 .7 092 X 111 FOR ASSISTANCE C ACALL L L TO L E AARTOUR N M O| RASK E | AUS S KABOUT A B O U TTUITION TUITION A S S I S TA N C E

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excerpt

Reservoir Year A Walker’s Book of Days

By Nina Shengold Illustration by Carol Zaloom The following is an excerpt from Reservoir Year: A Walker’s Book of Days by Nina Shengold, which is being published this month by Syracuse University Press. Shengold was books editor at Chronogram for over a decade. This is her third book. Numerous author events are planned for August and September; visit ninashengold.com for details.

live in the foothills of the Catskills, four miles from the glorious Ashokan Reservoir. For a year, I walked by its side every day, in all kinds of weather, from predawn to starlight. My usual path is a former roadbed on top of the reservoir’s main dam. There’s a small parking lot near the village of Olivebridge rimmed by wildflowers, hardwoods, and pines. You pass through a row of traffic barrier columns and take a few strides to the edge of the trees, and the world opens up: a panoramic vista of water, mountains, and sky. People stop in their tracks and gasp. I once heard an awestruck child cry out, “Is that the ocean? Mom! What is this place??” It’s a good question. I spent a year trying to answer it, day after day after day. I was poised to turn sixty, a birthday that can’t help but rattle the ribcage. My daughter Maya was at college in Vermont and I missed her bright energy daily; my parents were dwindling into their nineties. And my dog had died. Chris was my first dog, a not-so-golden retriever mix we adopted when Maya was a first grader with puppy lust. Having a dog ensures that you spend time outdoors every day, however you’re feeling, whatever the weather gets up to. And that lifts your spirits, whether you like it or not. It’s not just the endorphins from exercise, but the subtle pleasures of noticing seasonal changes. What new flower has opened today? Look at the frost on that leaf. Are the robins back yet? It’s a daily unfolding of wonder, a pause in a day that is otherwise crowded with too much to do. For 13 years, we took the same walk every day, at first circling the block in a three-mile loop, later a mile to the end of the road and back, and finally a stop-and-go shuffle on a flat stretch of road in front of my house. I couldn’t bear to walk my block dogless, so I stopped walking. Of course I gained weight, and felt trapped and depressed, but months passed before I got a clue. It took two of my brother David’s friends, visiting from Saint Petersburg, Russia, to open my eyes. When I asked what they’d enjoyed most on their trip to America, Sergei didn’t hesitate. The Ashokan Reservoir, where David had taken them that afternoon. Such magnificence! I was flooded with shame. The Ashokan is practically in my backyard, and I hadn’t walked there for months. Twelve miles long and a

46 BOOKS CHRONOGRAM 8/20

mile across, divided into unequal halves by a multiarched weir bridge across its wasp waist, the reservoir is an ideal reflecting pool for the Catskill High Peaks. The vast expanse of water allows a long-distance view of a densely forested range that could otherwise be seen only from above. The Ashokan is a different kind of gorgeous in every season, in every kind of weather and light. But its beauty is built on a paradox. Beneath its great bowl lie the ruins of 12 communities uprooted by the city of New York in an arrogant turn-of-the-century land grab that impounded the Esopus Creek to bring mountain water to an urban island that had outgrown its water supply.

This is how an obsession takes hold. It’s not a decision to strap on the harness, but a slow-dawning realization that you’ve got a bit between your teeth and an unshakable weight on your back spurring you on. Between 1907 and 1916, more than two thousand people were evicted from land their families had farmed for generations. Trees were chopped down, stumps grubbed, buildings burned, cemeteries exhumed. African American and immigrant laborers died in labor camp brawls and industrial accidents. When the thousand-foot dam was complete and the water began to rise, it flooded a valley once filled with farm fields and country stores, gristmills and blacksmith shops, bluestone quarries and railroad tracks, churches and graveyards. Though this grim history is detailed in such books as Bob Steuding’s The Last of the Handmade Dams and Diane Galusha’s Liquid Assets: A History of New York City’s Water System, most of the people who visit the scenic location have little idea of what came before. Along New York State Routes 28 and 28A, the two roads that encircle the reservoir, a series of brown highway department signs commemorates the Former Sites of Ashokan, Ashton, Boiceville,

Brodhead, Brown’s Station, Glenford, Olive, Olive Bridge, Shokan, Stony Hollow, West Hurley, West Shokan. The names toll like church bells, bemoaning a past so completely erased that even official signs disagree on exactly how many hamlets and towns were destroyed or uprooted to higher ground. The name “Ashokan” comes from an Algonkian word variously translated as “place of many fish” and “to cross the creek” (another erasure of history; the Esopus Indians were displaced by European colonists long before their descendants were displaced by the dam). Jay Ungar’s haunting fiddle tune “Ashokan Farewell” was featured in Ken Burns’s Civil War documentary series and widely recorded. Its plaintive blend of uplift and lament is an ideal soundtrack for this place of great natural beauty and manmade sorrow. It’s a landscape that gets in your bones. After Sergei pronounced the Ashokan “magnificent,” I took a walk there one September evening, went home, and wrote about it. Then I did it again. I’ve always been moved by art that revisits the same subject again and again over time: Monet’s water lilies and studies of Rouen Cathedral, Nicholas Nixon’s photo series of four sisters aging. Could I do that with words? More to the point, could I do it at all? What about weather, and travel, and getting sick? What about willpower? I am not a person of discipline. New Year’s resolutions head south before Groundhog Day; diets disintegrate; writing regimens of so many words per day dead-end the first time I don’t make my quota. As soon as I made the decision to walk every day for a year, I felt a familiar shiver of doom. But the thought of it wouldn’t let go. Reluctant or eager, I had to keep going. I got obsessed. My intent was to write about what I observed—to be camera, not subject—but my daily walks conjured all the back roads that had brought me to this one. As a kid growing up in an orderly New Jersey suburb, my favorite book was Jean Craighead George’s My Side of the Mountain, about a teenage boy who lives off the land in the Catskills, sleeping inside a hollow tree and training a peregrine falcon to hunt. I wanted to be Sam Gribley, girl version. I hungered for life in the wild. At 22, I took a radical swerve from my urban career goals and spent a year living out of a backpack with no fixed plan, wandering through the Pacific Northwest and north to Alaska. In my thirties, I bought an old farmhouse in the Catskills and became a single mother, forging a warming fire of creative connections with my new community.

Who would I be at age 60? I was going to find out, come hell or high water. When I told people what I was doing, their first response was nearly always “Are you taking pictures?” It was often asked anxiously, as if the experience wouldn’t exist if it weren’t recorded in pixels. “Nope,” I would tell them. “I’m doing it old school.” I didn’t even take paper and pen on my walks; I wanted to train myself to experience things with my senses and carry them back in my mind, to hunt and gather unarmed. There’s a kind of surrender in this, trusting the sieve of memory to strain wheat from chaff. In a world where we stare at computer screens for hours every day and carry our cell phones and digital cameras wherever we go, it’s good to remember that we are recording devices: our eyes, ears, and noses, our tongues and our skin take things in, and it’s good to be fully awake when it happens. When a bald eagle flies over your head, you don’t want to miss it because you’re hunched over your notebook. My daily walks ranged from a quick half mile out and back to five miles or more. Sometimes I

went off road, exploring the many access points for fishing and hunting along the reservoir’s forty-four miles of shoreline. (Since I wasn’t fishing or hunting, this wasn’t exactly approved “Recreational Use,” but I improvised.) I walked sometimes with family and friends, more often alone. As a freelance writer-editorteacher, I could start or end my workday at the Ashokan, or take a lunch break between marathon sits at my desk. I could—and did—go out walking after midnight. From September 2015 to September 2016, I structured my comings and goings around reservoir walks, rerouting both day-to-day errands and overnight trips. If I had to travel, I stopped at the Ashokan on my way to or from the train station or airport. I commuted daily from a residential writing workshop across the Hudson and irritated my relatives by driving home and back—a round trip of more than five hundred miles—midway through a family reunion. This is how an obsession takes hold. It’s not a decision to strap on the harness, but a slowdawning realization that you’ve got a bit between your teeth and an unshakable weight on your

back spurring you on. I had no way to predict what would happen during my reservoir year. I only knew where I had to be to find out. It wasn’t a wilderness retreat on some remote mountaintop, or even Thoreau’s Walden Pond (down the railroad track from his parents’ house, where the apostle of solitude often ate lunch). The Ashokan walkway—what locals call “walking the dam”—is a paved former road frequented by hikers, exercise walkers, runners, bicyclists, rollerbladers, skateboarders, tourists with iPhones, and wildlife photographers staking out calendar shots of the resident eagles. I’m far from the only regular, and the human ecology interested me as much as the minks and mergansers. If you live nearby and frequent “the res,” you may find yourself (or some version thereof; certain names and identifying details have been changed) in this book. My apologies for any misguided assumptions. What I set out to do was go back to the same place again and again and find something new every time, to check in with the daily rhythms and cycles of nature, and sometimes to glimpse the sublime. 8/20 CHRONOGRAM BOOKS 47

music David Greenberger and Prime Lens Good Perspective (Pel Pel Recordings) Davidgreenberger.com I can see, but I’m worried. I’ve developed diabetic macular edema, something of a family curse, which I’ve helped along with years of bad behavior. I now receive injections, in my eyeballs, every couple of weeks. Fun. Don’t even start with me on the old “better than a sharp stick in the eye” saw. I can tell you firsthand, having been routinely trussed up like Alex Droog, that just about anything is better than a sharp stick in the eye. When my mother, who passed away a year older than I am now, was going through a similar situation 25 years ago, I read her Rilke’s “Going Blind.” She loved romance novels; Rilke’s dense, hoping words winged past her, but I think of them now in a new, selfish light, dreaming of radiance, joy, and flight. Which is to say, David Greenberger’s latest disc, Good Perspective, is a clear sky. Greenberger, particularly through his Duplex Planet magazine, has made an admirable career of translating interviews with senior citizens into art, work rich in “fractured narratives” and “accidental poetics.” Speaking with residents at a Chattanooga, Tennessee, facility for the disabled and visually impaired, Greenberger—joined by composer Tyson Rogers’s team—moves through many rooms, noting obstacles in the way. The aural results, smart, caring, inquisitive monologues developed from those conversations and paired with supportive sound collages, are, as Rilke might note, “beyond all walking.” —Michael Eck

Rambutan Inverted Summer

Baby Sage Glorious

(Fabrica Records) Rambutan.bandcamp.com

(Poe Records)

Spiral Wave Nomads Spiral Wave Nomads

It is always fun to discover a record from the ’90s that I somehow missed. Baby Sage’s Glorious, originally released as a seven-inch in 1995, is an earnest, winsome, and subversive example of great alternative rock with 1980s-college-radio influences; comparisons to Belly, Pixies, and Throwing Muses would not be far afield. The lineup features Gardiner’s Michael and Kristina Rose (Astro-Zombies, Melted Americans, Wild Irish Roses, Templars of Doom), and you can tell that, like some Soul Asylum records, their live energy was even better than the dynamic recordings. “The Man with Two Fingers” allows for some Sonic Youth-esque guitar soloing to cut loose; “Sunday” is a fairly perfect indie song with hooks and a desire to “eat the holy flesh”; and “I Am the Leper” is like if the Dead Milkmen and the Breeders tried to make an outro that felt like an Iron Butterfly jam but was still under four minutes. —Morgan Yvan Evans

(Twin Lakes Records/Feeding Tube Records) Twinlakesrecords.com Eric Hardiman has been a principal participant on the Albany experimental scene for the last two decades, releasing piles of recordings with Burnt Hills, Century Plants, and other projects. Inverted Summer marks the full-length vinyl debut of his solo guise Rambutan, and its gentle, oscillating synths and dark dronescapes make it the perfect platter to put on before you slide open your retractable skull lid and melt into your comfortable couch. Also premiering here on wax is Spiral Wave Nomads, the duo of Hardiman, on guitar, sitar, and bass, and Michael Kiefer (More Klementines), on drums. The trippy twosome trades in soaring, searching, psychedelic sonics that evoke spiritual jazz and Middle Eastern modes (“Floating on a Distant Haze” is a tell-tale track title). To really keep the brain juice flowing, try spinning both these mind-melters back to back. Tie your tether tightly, though. —Peter Aaron 48 MUSIC CHRONOGRAM 8/20

Wolfgang Muthspiel/Scott Colley/Brian Blade Angular Blues (ECM Records) Ecmrecords.com Love of melody and collaborative creation pervades this alluring new recording by guitarist/composer Wolfgang Muthspiel, ably abetted by bassist/Hudson Valley resident Scott Colley and drummer Brian Blade. The trio reveals their manifold gifts right out of the gate on the album opener “Wondering,” as the warm luster of Muthspiel’s nylon-string acoustic guitar weaves tapestries of chordal lines around the rugged, tough-love tone of Colley’s bass taking the piece’s lead melody and Blade’s coaxing such sweet, quiescent thunder from his kit. The title track certainly lives up to its name in its start-stop dynamics, while developing a singularly orotund swing. And if there’s a lovelier tune released in 2020 than Muthspiel’s discreetly rapturous, countrified “Hüttengriffe,” it won’t be for lack of sublime competition here. It all seems over too soon, but the nearly 54 minutes that comprise Angular Blues are rich with subtle, absorbing invention. —James Keepnews

books Catskills Farm to Table Cookbook Courtney Wade HATHERLEIGH PRESS, 2020, $20

The recipes collected by Wade, a Catskills native, capture some of the best farms and restaurants the region has to offer, from the Phoenicia Diner and Bull & Garland to Buck Hill Farm and Scrumpy Ewe. The vivid accompanying images will guide you as you embark on a culinary journey through upstate New York. Emphasizing the importance of knowing what’s in the food you consume, this cookbook turns the fresh vegetables, fruit, meat, dairy, wild game, and foraged produce native to this region into unpretentious recipes.

50 Plus Years of Pride: The Impact of Bars, Taverns, and Clubs Michael Boyajian JERA STUDIOS PUBLISHING, 2020, $9.95

Local author and former human rights judge Michael Boyajian explains how the LGBTQ community created their own safe havens and how watering holes were central nodes in gay activism as well as social life. In a timely discussion about civil rights, Boyajian informs readers of how the LGBTQ community has been secretly and not so secretly discriminated against by society.

I of the Storm Verna Gillis THE I OF THE STORM PUBLISHING, 2020, $10

Sit-down comedian and producer Verna Gillis’s dry sense of humor shines in this collection of short form poetry, aphorisms, and amalgamated odd thoughts about age and aging. You’ll find sage advice, jokes, witty one liners, thoughts on sex, and warnings about what happens when you get older, like so: “I have discovered the cure for hypochondria: Live long enough and it all becomes real.”

Trump off the Wall Cary Bayer BAYER COMMUNICATIONS, 2020, $19.95

Life coach and long-time Woodstock resident Cary Bayer honors the long and storied tradition of political satire in America by poking fun at a man so outrageously over the top that he often seems a satirical version of himself: President Donald Trump. Broken up into three “terms,” (“Lampoons of the Tweeterin-Chief, “Trumped-up News,” and “You’re Fired!”) Bayer roasts Donald Trump over 34 chapters, which feature scathing titles like “Dolt 45,” “The Predator of the United States,” and “From Russia with Love & Collusion.”

A More Graceful Shaboom Jacinta Bunnell & Crystal Vielula PM PRESS, 2020, $16.95

Hudson Valley resident Jacinta Bunnell makes the complicated and necessary conversation around gender identity and sexual orientation easy for parents and their kids in this new children’s book with illustrations by Crystal Vielula. Featuring a nonbinary protagonist and LGBTQAI+ characters, this book delicately weaves together teaching moments into this story of magic, imagination, joy, and purpose. —Abby Foster

Eliza Starts a Rumor Jane L. Rosen BERKLEY, $23.49

The bucolic town of “Hudson Valley” is the backdrop for this entertaining, timely, and often humorous story of sisterhood, secrets, betrayal, triumph, and complex relationships. Eliza Hunt, a local girl who returned to her childhood home with her loving husband, Luke, to raise their twins, finds herself missing the sisterhood of her single career life. So, she creates the Hudson Valley Ladies Bulletin Board, an online source for exchange and support, bringing her small town into the 21st century and joining women from around the world in embracing online forums with candor and humor. To her happy surprise, “moderating the bulletin board felt like a gift...just what had been missing in her life.” Fifteen years later, while battling a recurrence of crippling agoraphobia and forcing herself to go to the local Stop and Shop, Eliza overhears two “sleek millennial Mommas” discussing a new site called Valley Girls, that they feel is more relevant for their generation—“more dirty laundry, less how best to wash it.” Determined not to be seen as obsolete and fearful of losing what has become her lifeline to the outside world, Eliza crafts an anonymous, scandalous fictional post after looking out her bedroom window and seeing a man go from “patiently ringing to obsessively banging” on her neighbor’s front door, to revitalize her site. It works. But little does she know that it would be seen by Olivia, a young woman who becomes convinced that she could be the wronged wife described in the post. When Olivia enlists the help of her new attorney friend Alison, who, like herself, has recently moved to the valley with a new baby (but no husband), her life begins to unravel under the weight of her husband’s (Spencer) infidelities. They join forces to get the evidence needed to expose his deceit and lies. Their relationship is defined by young motherhood and the men they chose to have children with; in Olivia’s case, the next in line to become the CEO of his parent’s cosmetic empire and in Alison’s, an up-andcoming New York City politician (Marc) who wants nothing to do with their child until it is politically useful. Into the mix comes Jackie, a single Dad who rather innocently joins the bulletin board (posing as a woman) after being egged on by his commuting buddies, so that he can get the help he needs to raise his 15-year-old daughter, Jana. He and Alison engage in friendly online banter but their relationship becomes complicated when they meet in real life and sparks fly. In the meantime, Eliza’s best friend, Amanda, has left her life in LA and her abusive husband (Castor) whose grotesque behavior has been exposed in the #Me Too era, and returns to her childhood home with her two children. She immediately see’s that Eliza too is in crisis and needs help to overcome and move forward from her tragic past and like always, their friendship is what gives them strength. The intersecting lives of Eliza, Amanda, Olivia, Alison, and Jackie makes for a satisfying page turner while balancing a tough array of timely topics and skillfully using humor to showcase the redemptive power of the truth. —Jane Kinney Denning 8/20 CHRONOGRAM BOOKS 49

poetry

EDITED BY Phillip X Levine

There Is Beauty in All

we are all alone together —p

The old tree stands strong Where her seed was once small Reviewing the memories That have helped her grow tall It’s fall once again And her leaves will soon die They’ll be back soon But it’s still a hard goodbye She marvels at the colors And how the leaves fall without fear Because what’s the point in fearing Something that happens each year? Soon her leaves are gone And she misses them so But she understands Why they needed to go The tree stands alone But still, she stands tall Because even she knows There is beauty in all —Abilene Brown Adelman (13 years)

A Place for You

Some Things You Should Know about EMTs and Some Things You Shouldn’t Know about EMTs and Some Other Things 1) We are not invulnerable. Mostly because we’re not a hundred percent sure what “invulnerable” means. 2) Minimum wage.

3) The holiest thing in the world is sleep. And life.

4) It’s impossible to treat a patient while wearing a seatbelt. 5) We never drive by the ocean.

6) No health insurance. Who can afford it? 7) To survive = overtime.

8) My old partner fell asleep while driving the ambulance. 9) Overtime = no sleep. 10) Nurses are beautiful.

11) You can’t see the moon from the inside of an ambulance.

12) Only twelve percent of EMTs actually do inventory. The rest just glance for three seconds and guess.

13) Most ambulance drivers are about 19 years old. Except my partner is 50. 14) Free stethoscopes. That don’t work.

Second grade poets gather Michael starts to read “My Uncle’s Death” Lower lip quivers, tears follow, and the words catch in his throat We hold our breath Vanessa drapes an arm ‘round his shoulders and someone presses Kleenex into his hand There’ve been no tears since that tragedy, months ago but now Six simple lines and the heart opens You loved your Uncle Bill so much

15) No one eats unhealthier than an EMT.

Malik doesn’t remember him Dead of an overdose, when he was just two But now there’s a hole in his life Where a dad would be Stunned, we sit speechless I carry your words for days like a sacred trust You fell in love with poetry that year Called me your hero While you were mine

20) Lots of vets. Because the worst jobs always go to vets. How many tenure-track creative writing professors are vets? Just one. In the entire country. How many EMTs are vets? 78.9 percent.

“She won’t be any trouble” the father says Handing over his newly claimed daughter But Mya hides under tables, screams in my face, and cries She’s hardly been to school, barely reads or writes Bullies and smacks her classmates And I catch glimpses of the life she’s left behind Running wild through the streets of Newburgh, late at night Mom, a crack addict, and yetHere you are, tying everyone’s shoes We learn the art of patience And you, of trust, it is enough When you are ready, there is a place for you here

16) No lunch breaks. Because no breaks.

17) If an EMT has a patient in back and the EMT is asleep, that EMT will burn in hell. If they sit in what’s called “the Captain’s chair,” they’ll just go to purgatory for 600 years. Real EMTs can always see a patient’s airway. 18) If you see an ambulance go through a red light while speeding without slowing down or looking in both directions, they’re breaking the law.

19) If you have a boss who likes to walk with his chest puffed out, you have my old boss.

21) 4 am sucks. Midnight’s OK.

22) There’s no such thing as ghosts.

23) If you’re lucky, you marry a nurse. If you’re unlucky, you marry another EMT. And if you’re really lucky, you become a nurse. 24) New EMTs curse a lot, because they haven’t seen anything. It’s called pretending. Lifers are silent. Because they’ve seen everything. 25) Closed windows are for rookies.

26) Everybody is ugly once they have blood on them.

27) If you ever see an EMT with an untucked shirt, run in the opposite direction. 28) Ambulance companies are billion-dollar companies. So...minimum wage? Huh? (Do the math.) 29) Oxygen is a drug.

30) Let us cut in line if we’re in uniform. Please. Jesus, please.

Next to me

31) I’d give my life to save lives.

—Julie Cash

—Ron Riekki

50 POETRY CHRONOGRAM 8/20

Stalled I’m afraid my engine’s dead, stalled for an eternity in an era of muck. Shit-tank holding period, the vertebrae in my lower spine fusing into the lumbar, up past the shoulders into the back of my head. I checked the oil and vital fluids, and all obvious suspects. Maybe it’s the battery, or the starter. My mechanic doesn’t wear a mask and wants me there at 7:30 in the morning. I don’t know what to do. Maybe he can bring a tow truck while I stay in the house and yell out the windows, tell them to give it a good swift kick. It often works for me. —John Dorroh

Why are you mad? We only want justice. Why are you mad? We only want you to hear us. Why are you mad? We want you to stop taking from us. Why are you mad? We want you to stop killing us!! Enough is enough. No more being used and abused. Yes it’s that’s serious, we are dying. Am I being too loud for you!? You’re gonna hear us today and everyday. We’re forcing change even if you’re not ready. This is long overdue so you might as well get in the back while we lead the way! —Tiera Lynne Full submission guidelines: Chronogram.com/submissions

111 Days: A Love Letter to Governor Cuomo and the People of NYC Metta-Loving Kindness Meditation: May I, you, and all beings be safe, be happy, be healthy, live with ease Governor Andrew Cuomo “Love wins. Always.” True love lives in the tender green field we passed clawing our way to the top of the mountain. 42 days up its craggy cliff while death hung like a thick singing fog over people’s heads, listening to pots and pans clanging together, one hundred thousand metal spoons hitting cast iron resolve. Love wins. Always. True love lives in the tender green field we passed taking most measured steps down the other side. 69 days of holding the collective breath grounded in rooms alone together listening to sirens roaring, people offering what is most essential driving home the lovelight that takes away the gray shadows of sickness as we all leave our outer shells outside on the porch. Love wins. Always. Inside so green and vulnerable a new organism is making one out of many listening when words won’t come unexpected education commences. Holding our possible quiet better angels up this time, so much stronger than jabbering demons. Out of these lessons we find the medicine is ourselves. Love wins. Always. —Lori Corry Preparing for the Coronavirus Shutdown I borrowed a very long book from the library and bought yeast to bake bread. I pulled a crochet kit from the closet and built the frame of a jigsaw puzzle. I asked friends for recommendations for shows to binge. It all remains undone, as I am at every daily count of loss, lives, like mine, who thought they’d find more time. —Vicki L. Wilson

On My Birthday Today I’m turning 28 years old and 21 days sober. I’m happy when I’m running really hard on these roads erasing you and remembering me. My sneakers are the butt of a pencil smearing your straight lines with each step My feet are blistered and scabbed, my calves and hamstrings torn and sore. I am happy a lot these days. —Paula Dutcher All the Strip Clubs Down the Street from Monsanto None of them have yet to close for public health purposes. In fact, it’s Pajama Party Wednesday feat. six-dollar Crown and none of your favorite sports on the big screen. No touching allowed unless overcome with a grand sense of fatalism. —Joseph Goosey Other Things The sun’s sparklings off The moving creek, like diamond Chips on molten glass. —James Lichtenberg This Is Just to Say The kitchen closes at five By now the stations Have been swept, scrubbed, and sanitized And we want to go home. The register has been closed, And the daily deposit made, The coffee pots have been cleaned, And set out to dry. The ovens have been turned off, The flames extinguished, And the scraps fed to the chickens. There is nothing more we can do For so little. —Maggie Hayes 8/20 CHRONOGRAM POETRY 51

art Father, Tschabalala Self, acrylic, gouache, flashe and fabric on canvas, 2019

52 THE GUIDE CHRONOGRAM 8/20

the guide

Watch Out for Falling Pianos THE HUDSON EYE FESTIVAL August 28-September 7 Thehudsoneye.com

Some things things you should know about Bibbe Hansen: The daughter of Fluxus artist Al Hansen and poet and dancer Audrey Ostlin Hansen, grew up in the bohemian New York City scene of the late 1950s and early `60s. When Hansen was not performing in her father’s avant-garde theater pieces, she was a mostly feral youth, skipping school and shoplifting. After landing herself in several institutions for child criminals, Hansen got out and met Andy Warhol, who cast her, at age 13, in his film Prison (1965), based on her experiences. Hansen went on to make three more films with Warhol and danced briefly with the Velvet Underground. As a teenager, she recorded a pop record with Jack Kerouac’s daughter Janet for their short-lived band the Whippets. The rock musician Beck is her son. And Hansen, who lives in Hudson, will be performing at the second annual Hudson Eye festival this month. On August 29 at 7:30pm at the Second Ward Foundation, Hansen will present “An Evening of Al Hansen Performance,” a collection of her father’s Fluxus works. (Al Hansen’s best-known piece is Yoko Ono Piano Drop, in which the artist pushed a piano off a rooftop.) Following the performance, Hansen will give a talk about her outsized life titled “Growing Up Fluxus.” An exhibition of Fluxus ephemera from the Al Hansen Archive, “Outside the Lines: Al Hansen & Friends,” will be on display all month at Second Ward Foundation. The famously reclusive African-American artist David Hammons will also be participating in Hudson Eye. Hammons centers his work in the black urban experience, and tends to use sarcasm to confront

Calliope Venus...Lick Me Momma, Al Hansen, Hershey wrappers and sliver paint on plywood,1968

cultural stereotypes and racial issues. Outside of Promenade Hill Park, David Hammons’ Untitled (African American Flag) (1990), will be displayed flying atop the flagpole at the highest point in town throughout the festival, beginning at 2pm on August 28 with the kickoff of the 10-day event. Hammons reconfigures the American flag, replacing the red, white, and blue with the black, red, and green of Marcus Garvey’s pan-African flag first adopted by the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League in 1920. Originally intended to represent purity, valor, and justice, the reconfigured pan-African flag colors hold additional meaning, representing the blood, skin tone, and the richness of African land. Hammond’s looped video, Phat Free (1995/99), will also be streaming at Hudson Hall during the run of the program. At once jarring and poetic, the video conveys the harsh reality of life on the streets and the contemporary Black urban experience. Famous for his elusive street inventions, Hammons said in an interview with Brown University: “I do my street art mainly to keep rooted in that ‘who I am.’ Because the only thing that’s really going on is in the street; that’s where something is really happening. It isn’t happening in these galleries. Doing things in the street is more powerful than art I think. I don’t know what the fuck art is about now. Like Malcolm X said, it’s like Novocain. It used to wake you up but now it puts you to sleep. I think art now is putting people to sleep.” In addition to the performances and exhibitions that will take place across the city, Hudson Eye has created

an interactive “treasure hunt” format that attracted a grant from Hudson’s Tourism Board: a self-guided tour of public art on the streets of Hudson. “Our desire is to have people in Hudson make their way throughout their day, but happen upon sculptures and performances, and really understand that beyond just going to a museum, beyond just going to an art gallery, that there are instances, in everyday life where art happens, where art is installed, so we are really asking visitors, viewers, and community members to just take a minute and look around and understand that the hustle and grind of everyday doesn’t have to keep you from understanding and witnessing your surroundings,” says Aaron Levi Garvey, curator of Hudson Eye. In a delightfully subversive callback to an earlier era of cable-access TV, Hudson Eye will be streaming artist films through Mid-Hudson Cable for select hours of the day via a link that will be provided to the public. According to Garvey, the atmosphere of the event has been carefully curated to foster a safe and equitable space, working to ensure that all voices are being represented in a variety of art forms, highlighting the work of big names like Hammons and Hansen, but also artists who are not typically represented in the mainstream. Hudson Eye features nightly performances, exhibitions, and Hot Topics panel discussions from August 28 to September 7. Participating artists include VitaDuo, Shanekia McIntosh, William Stone, Filiz Soyak, Shikeith, Hala Shah, Tschabalala Self, and many more. —Cerissa DiValentino

For comprehensive calendar listings visit Chronogram.com/events. 8/20 CHRONOGRAM THE GUIDE 53

sa on

e S th

R A D I O

Bird-On-A-Cliff Theatre Company’s

Woodstock

Shakespeare Festival Presents

W O O D S T O C K

P R E S E N T S

THE GREATEST FESTIVAL OF ALL TIME O N E O F A K I N D V I R T U A L C O N C E R T E X P E R I E N C E

AUG 14-16, 2020 (abridged)

by Reed Martin & Austin Tichenor

J I M I

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TUNE IN 100.1 RADIOWOODSTOCK.COM

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music

Inside the tiny back room, the stage is set so low that the people packed right up front might just topple over onto it. They’re bouncing off each other like errant molecules, doing their best to match the energy of the music. On the bandstand, the gangly lead guitarist is squeezing out squeals from his Stratocaster while the rhythm section, two swirling masses of dirty blonde locks, bashes out the frenetic sonic foundation. The androgynous vocalist/rhythm guitarist, a jittery jumble of nerves with downcast eyes, is pulled along by the performance, emitting lyrics that are half-shrieked and half-grunted. It’s a nervous breakdown set to song—and fun as hell. The band is the Bobby Lees, and the scene described took place at Tubby’s in Kingston early this year, in the pre-pandemic times. Unfortunately, it looks like it could be a while before it happens locally again. “We were supposed to play South by Southwest in March and start a longer tour in May—and then everything got cancelled [because of the virus],” says singer Sam Quartin, whose Woodstock-based group, at the time of this writing, was about to test the waters with dates at recently reopened Buffalo, Indianapolis, and Columbus, Ohio, venues. “We debated doing shows again this early, but we talked to the club owners and they say things are going well so far. They’re being very strict—only allowing 25-percent capacity and people have to wear masks. It’s kind of an experiment. If it feels weird, we won’t do [the upcoming tour]. It’s mainly about promoting the new record.” That record, the band’s second album, is the visceral Skin Suit, which was produced at Woodstock’s Dreamland Studio by blues punk legend (and recent Hudson Valley transplant) Jon Spencer. “They are so young and yet they rock so hard,” raves

Spencer. “Sam’s stories are gripping—this is heavy writing coming from a very private place. They came to the session extremely well prepared and worked like hell, always up for any suggestion or challenge.” Quartin, an actor whose CV includes indie films like 2016’s Let Me Make You a Martyr, 2019’s By the Rivers of Babylon and Run with the Hunted, and the forthcoming Body Brokers, began the group in 2016, which also includes former Rock Academy students Nick Casa (lead guitar), Kendall Wind (bass), and Macky Bowman (drums). The quartet debuted with 2018’s Beauty Pageant, a collection of songs Quartin had written prior to their formation; since then, the Bobby Lees have hardened into a proper unit via touring and opening slots for Black Lips, Boss Hog, the Chats, and Murphy’s Law. Quartin maintains that the creation of their raw, bluesy garage rock has become more communal. This month marks the 50th anniversary of the release of the Stooges’ landmark sophomore album Fun House, and it’s been nearly 45 years since the Ramones and Patti Smith launched their debuts. Taking stock of that history, what’s it feel like for Quartin and her cohorts to be keeping the punk form alive in 2020? “It’s incredible to be part of this amazing counterculture,” says the singer, whose musical flame was sparked by a film her dad showed her of punk forefather Little Richard. “When it all goes right, you’re able to connect with the audience and make the homogenized world go away. Right now, it feels powerful enough if you just can get someone to stop looking at their phone for a while.”—Peter Aaron

Wild Youth THE BOBBY LEES The Bobby Lees will perform a live-stream record release concert from the Bearsville Theater on August 7 at 9pm. $5 virtual tickets avaialble at Bearsvilletheater.com.

Skin Suit is out now on Alive NaturalSound Recordings. Thebobbylees.com. 8/20 CHRONOGRAM THE GUIDE 55

live music

The Hudson Valley has entered Phase 4 of New York State’s reopening plan, and live music is returning to some regional venues—albeit with the still very necessary COVID-compliant guidelines. Please check the websites below for the updated status of each event, as well as health protocols.

Yasser Tejeda and Palotré August 22. With its large exterior courtyard areas, Mass MoCA lends itself well to safely spaced events, allowing the renowned contemporary art center to present live performances while Massachusetts is (at the time of this writing) in Phase 3 of its reopenings. Based in New York, singer and guitarist Yasser Tejeda and his band Palotré fuse traditional Dominican folk music with funk, R&B, rock, and jazz to make a happy, spicy, highly danceable stew. All staff will be wearing masks; all audience members must wear a mask (except while eating or drinking; food and drink service will be available) and should bring their own chairs. Socially distanced viewing spaces (four people per space) will be blocked out. Tickets must be purchased online. (Drag artist Migguel Anggelo appears August 8; Car Seat Headrest drives by September 4.) 8:30pm. $25, $35. North Adams, Massachusetts. Massmoca.org

Yasser Tejeda and Palotré: Kyle Miles, bass; Yasser Tejeda, guitar and vocals; Víctor Otoniel Vargas, drums and vocals; Jonathan Troncoso, percussion and vocals.

56 THE GUIDE CHRONOGRAM 8/20

music

Alarm Will Sound August 6 and 7. The 20-piece, Rochester-born chamber orchestra Alarm Will Sound has worked with some of the leading names in contemporary classical music, premiering pieces by, among others, Steve Reich, David Lang, and John Luther Adams. For PS21’s summer season, the ensemble will perform the latter, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer’s new “Ten Thousand Birds” on August 7 at 4pm and 7pm at the facility’s open-air Pavilion Theater. On August 6 at 11am and 6pm, Alarm Will Sound musicians will lead visitors in “Follow Me into the Field,” a socially distanced walking tour of PS21’s Crelin Park that intermingles music with nature sounds. (The Modern Music Festival features Connor Hannick on August 12, Timo Andres and Rzewski on August 21, and Miranda Cuxson Davidovsky on August 28.) See website for ticket prices. Chatham. Ps21chatham.org

Audrey Saint-Gil will be conducting Phoenicia International Festival of the Voice’s “Tosca."

Andy Stack August 7. Americana artist Andy Stack worked as a sideman for several years in New York before heading north to our neck of the woods and notching out a niche with his group Buffalo Stack. His richly rooted original music draws on Delta and Chicago blues, New Orleans jazz, Irish traditional styles, and other folk forms; the list of musicians he’s collaborated with includes Suzanne Vega, Duncan Sheik, Amy Helm, Lucius, Teddy Thompson, the Mammals, the New York Ska Jazz Ensemble, Jonah Smith, Les Nubians, and many others. Here, Stack makes an evening-long solo appearance for diners at Grand Cru Beer and Cheese Market’s outdoor beer garden. (The Joe T. Mondello Band returns August 8; the Downbeats Duo jam Jerry Garcia August 9.) 6pm. Free with meal. Rhinebeck. Grandcrurhinebeck.com

Marshall Crenshaw & the Bottle Rockets August 27. A consummate pop rock singer-songwriter (and regional resident), Marshall Crenshaw follows up his August 7 live-stream solo concert at Daryl’s House with this general-admission show at the venue. For the latter date, he’ll be accompanied by Missouri roots rockers the Bottle Rockets, an outfit led by Brian Henneman, a sometime collaborator of Jeff Tweedy and Jay Farrar. Crenshaw, the maker of 1980s hits “Someday, Someway,” “Cynical Girl,” and “Whenever You’re on My Mind,” has recently kept busy by performing as a guest vocalist with the Smithereens following the death of that band’s singer, Pat DiNizio. (Quinn Sullivan gets bluesy August 14; Atlantic Starr’s Porter Carroll, Jr. shines September 4.) 8pm. $30. Pawling. Darylshouseclub.com

Kenny Werner Trio August 2. Jazz pianist and educator Kenny Werner recorded with Charles Mingus before touring with Archie Shepp and manning the ivories for the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra. A longtime sideman of Toots Thielemans and Joe Lovano, Werner has also been awarded two National Endowment for the Arts grants and a Guggenheim Fellowship and authored the influential music education book Effortless Mastery. On the Falcon’s new outdoor stage, he’ll be joined by bassist Robert Kopec and drummer Peter O’Brien. As per current state protocol regulations for small venues, audience members must order a meal while seated at the site’s socially distanced tables. (Hollis Brown holds forth August 1; Jane Lee Hooker howls August 22.) Donation requested. Marlboro. Liveatthefalcon.com

Martin Sexton August 29. Here, City Winery Hudson Valley’s Concerts in the Vineyard series stars soulful singer-songwriter Martin Sexton, the recipient of the National Academy of Songwriters Artist of the Year Award in 1994. Born in Syracuse, Sexton moved in 1988 to Boston, where he honed his craft by busking and playing open-mics. After a few years with major indie Koch Records and a pair of albums on Atlantic, the singer started up his own Kitchen Table imprint. His most recent offering is 2015’s Mixtape of the Open Road, which he describes thusly: “The concept of this record is that it’s a mixtape, just like when your friends knew you were taking that California trip and wanted to inspire you along the way.” (Chris Thile comes by August 15; Amy Helm sings September 5.) 2pm. $152 for middle lawn pod (space for up to four). Montgomery. Citywinery.com/hudsonvalley

Arias al Fresco PHOENICIA INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF THE VOICE August 29 Phoeniciavoicefest.org

The adage goes that necessity is the mother of invention. And now, by dint of the pandemic, the Phoenicia International Festival of the Voice—which normally produces a multi-day festival with dozens of performances and workshops each summer— has indeed invented something new: the world’s first drive-in opera. (Great minds think alike: the English National Opera has announced that drivein performances of “La Bohème” will be staged at London’s Alexandra Palace in September.) The innovative event, devised by the organizers as a way of maintaining the popular festival’s presence during the coronavirus closures, is an outdoor, autos-only production of Puccini’s immortal “Tosca” that will be presented at industrial park Tech City in Kingston on August 29 with admission beginning at 6pm. To enhance the experience, the festival’s producers have brought in four massive jumbotron screens and a custom-engineered sound system (simultaneously broadcasting on FM radio). Premiered in 1900 and based on Victorien

Sardou’s play “La Tosca,” the melodramatic, threeact opera is set in Rome during Napoleon’s invasion of Italy 100 years earlier and follows diva Floria Tosca; her lover, the painter and republican Mario Cavaradossi; and the corrupt police chief Baron Scarpia. The performance promises a cast of world-class vocal soloists and a full orchestra (the latter in a socially distant, specially constructed orchestra pit behind the stage). Limited to guests in 600 cars, the site’s parking plan is designed for safety (cars will be staggered four feet apart; all attendees must wear masks when not in their cars; hand-sanitizing stations will be located around the venue; all staff members have been tested and will wear masks; all on-site restrooms will be cleaned using special COVID-19 sterilization supplies). Tickets (per car) are $50, $150, and $350. Online ticket purchases are strongly recommended. Phoeniciavoicefest.org. —Peter Aaron 8/20 CHRONOGRAM THE GUIDE 57

Artist Playlists

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Artist Web Projects

Twenty-five years of commissioning projects for the web

Dia Blog

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Watch & Listen

A comprehensive digital archive of twenty years of public programming at Dia

Explore Dia’s online projects and resources at diaart.org

Jan Jan Sawka: Sawka: The Place of Memory The Place of Memory (the (the Memory Memory of of Place) Place)

Jill Shoffiett

Bridges, Battlegrounds, and Swimming Pools Ink and Watercolor Paintings

Pam Marchin

Monkey Bars Sculpture, Monotypes, and Transfer Drawings

Jan Sawka, The Memory (or The Mirror), 1987, courtesy the Estate of Jan Sawka Jan Sawka, The Memory (or The Mirror), 1987, courtesy the Estate of Jan Sawka

Our doors are closed.

February – 12, But 8 still open online! February 8we’re – July July 12, 2020 2020 SAMUEL DORSK Y MUSEUM OF ART SAMUEL DORSK MUSEUM OF PALTZ ART STATE UNIVERSITY OF YNEW YORK AT NEW

STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK AT NEW PALTZ

www.newpaltz.edu/museum www.newpaltz.edu/museum

58 THE GUIDE CHRONOGRAM 8/20

Jill Shofiett The Lost Land. (Now Featuring Swings!)

August 8 – September 13, 2020

To protect the health of our visitors and staff, there will be no opening reception. We are following Covid-19 protocols during hours of operation. Visit our website for updates regarding this exhibition.

garrisonartcenter.org 845-424-3960

exhibits

Howardena Pindell, stills from Free, White and 21

Cary Okoro, Disturbing II

Jenny Morse, Employee of the Month

HOWARDENA PINDELL AT ART OMI

“PAINT: MEDIUM AS POWER IN A TIME OF CRISIS” AT BARRETT ART CENTER

“NOW, MORE THAN EVER: 2020 SUMMER EXHIBITION” AT WASSAIC PROJECT/ONLINE

Inspired by the pandemic, “Paint” brings together the work of 43 artists from across the country in a juried exhibition that takes the catharsis of creation as its central theme. Curator Juana Williams of the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts chose works that represent a spectrum of lived experience, artistic process, and coping mechanisms for crisis. Through August 15. Barrettartcenter.org

The Wassaic Project’s annual summer exhibition goes online this year, showcasing 161 works by 67 artists in a virtual layout that mimics the seven floors of the historic mill building and grounds. The art ranges from life-sized freestanding wood cutouts to trapunto quilted pillows. The show is also documented in a limited edition hardcover coffee table book. Some of our favorites: You with Matches, Me with the Kindling, by Melissa Murray; Will the Sun Shine Over Me, by Bony Ramirez; and Employee of the Month, by Jenny Morse. Wassaicproject.org

Ashley Garrett, A Day for Fred

Carlo D'Anselmi, Feeding the Fish

Jan Harrison, The Flood

ASHLEY GARRETT AT SEPTEMBER GALLERY

CARLO D’ANSELMI AT PAMELA SALISBURY

JAN HARRISON AT 11 JANE STREET

Queens-based painter Carlo D’Anselmi usually creates large, predominantly monochromatic oil works on linen. His figures—rarely alone—sit, lie, swim, search, and drown in water, whose transparency offers a glimpse into the fragility of human relationships. “Alone Together” features works created in lockdown using humbler materials like colored pencil and ballpoint pen. And though the watery milieu is the same, the figures here are alone. August 1-30. Pamelasalisburygallery.com

Since the ’80s, Harrison has used animals in her art as a foil to explore both the wild and tame sides of the human psyche. Whether sculpture or painting, her work is steeped in an idiosyncratic mythology that views animals as our teachers and guides back to the natural world. “Animula: Big Little Soul” at 11 Jane Street brings together paintings, performance, and a sculptural installation. August 29-October 4. Opening reception: August 29, 5-8pm. 11janestreet.com

While the grounds of Art Omi were one of the few cultural resources to never close during the pandemic, this exhibition by mixed media artist Howardena Pindell marks the reopening of the indoor Newmark Gallery. The show features works of photo collage and video art that take up timely themes of politics, racism, physical trauma, memory, and the human experience. Through November 1. Artomi.org

Ranging from postcard size to over seven feet, the works in “Aegis” are a study of depth and dimensionality, done in Garrett’s characteristic painterly style. The range of scale requires both proximity and distance, mimicking the continual adjustments of perception we undergo when immersed in nature. Through August 16. Septembergallery.com

8/20 CHRONOGRAM THE GUIDE 59

Horoscopes By Lorelai Kude

NOW IS THE SUMMER OF OUR DISCONTENT Sun in proud, passionate Leo, Mars in assertive, insistent Aries, a nation under pandemic siege divided between compliant believers and defiant deniers, and a once-friendly world turning its back on a recalcitrant government hell-bent on enforcing a skewed, partisan reality while desperately grasping rapidly diminishing power—what could go wrong? The personal inner planets— Mercury, Venus, and Mars—insist we take insults to our collective intelligence and offenses against our communities very, very personally during the long, hot, dogdays of summer. August begins with a bang at Mercury’s opposition to Pluto on the 1st. Explosive public revelations rock the already crumbling foundations of stability. Pride goeth before a fall when Leo Sun square Uranus in Taurus August 2; the Full Aquarius Moon August 3 with Mercury opposite Saturn and Mars square Jupiter August 4 demands justice be delivered in the court of public opinion. Closed door deliberations and back-room deal makers find their doors kicked in and back room overturned. Compromise of ideals brings scathing criticism by August 13’s inflammatory square of Mars to Pluto: nobody is going to be in the mood to cut the status quo any slack. Revolutionary Uranus stations retrograde August 15, ensuring collective cultural consequences until the harsh lessons of our communal history we should have absorbed by now are internalized. Sun and Mercury trine Mars August 16, introducing a powerful new security communications initiative. Sun enters rational, analytic Virgo by August 22, begging for cooler heads to prevail, but Mars square to Saturn August 24 resists compromise. Ideological purity tests don’t pass muster August 30 at Mercury’s opposition to Neptune. Discovering individual moments of pleasure, personal creativity, meaning, and significance while letting go of things we can’t control helps takes the edge off what surely promises to be the summer of our communal discontent.

ARIES (March 20–April 19) Mars in Aries for the rest of 2020 empowers you, but what will you do with all that raw power? Mars squares Jupiter August 4, Pluto August 13, and Saturn August 24: a monumental test of self-control, reflecting external tensions which must be resolved by your own conscious effort. Jupiter, Pluto and Saturn in Capricorn scream for security, stability and status quo; Mars in Aries wants to burn the whole thing down and start over, or in some cases, take up arms to defend the old regime to the very end. Which side of the barricades are you on?

TAURUS (April 19–May 20) Venus enters family-oriented, emotional Cancer August 7, recalling remembrance of things past. Last Quarter Moon in Taurus August 11 inspires a sentimental journey; Venus sextile Uranus at the New Moon in Leo August 18 opens the door for a new and unusual relationship, perhaps with someone extremely “different” than your usual cup of romantic tea. The opposition of Venus to Jupiter August 25 prompts emotional extremism; Venus opposite Pluto August 30 is a power struggle for emotional resources. The trine of Venus to imaginative Neptune August 27 empowers big, creative dreams. Don’t let anyone take them away from you. A practicing, professional astrologer for over 30 years, Lorelai Kude can be reached for questions and personal consultations via email (lorelaikude@yahoo.com) and her Kabbalah-flavored website is Astrolojew.com. 60 HOROSCOPES CHRONOGRAM 8/20

Horoscopes

GEMINI (May 20–June 21) Mercury in Leo August 5–19 roars like a lion when your goals are threatened by potential usurpers. Sun conjunct Mercury August 17 empowers you to claim your rights. Confrontations over power and control at Mercury’s opposition to Pluto August 1 and Saturn August 3 come to a head August 10 with a hard square to Uranus. Mercury’s trine to Mars August 16 empowers your fighting spirit; Mercury’s entrance into Virgo August 19 brings rationality and logic to the table, trine to Jupiter August 29 and opposition to Neptune August 30 amplifies creativity. Take unambiguous ownership of your own ideas!

Art Sales & Research, Inc. art sales, consulting and gallery viewing by appointment

CANCER (June 21–July 22) Though the past is your favorite fantasy destination, the Full Moon in forward-thinking Aquarius August 3 reveals future potential. Moon in Cancer August 15/16 seeds new growth, Venus in Cancer from August 7 nourishes old love. New Moon in Leo August 18 spotlights your resources; time to take stock, stock up, or buy/sell stock! If you’ve laid up your proverbial treasures “where moth and rust do not corrupt”, you’ll be doing ok while others take a dive. Though normally you are risk-adverse, confident only in classical, proven investments, First Quarter Sagittarius Moon August 25 prods you to aim higher.

LEO (July 22–August 23) Sun in Leo through August 22 is normally your annual party time; this year it’s a house party with a tiny, exclusive guest list. Surprising realizations when Sun squares Uranus August 2; Full Aquarius Moon August 3 reveals the reliability of your most significant friendships. Who shows up for you when the going gets tough? Powerful ego-based defense mechanisms kick in August 16 at the Sun’s trine to Mars. Sun conjunct Mercury August 17 empowers the hard truth. New Moon in Leo August 18 renews resolve, strengthens hearts, reveals priorities; Sun entering Virgo August 22 is an emotional anti-inflammatory.

Marilyn Gold, “John Deere Green”, 15” x 12”, oil on canvas, 2019

347-768-3954 lindseywork50@gmail.com artsy.net/art-sales-and-research-inc Hudson Valley, NYC, Palm Beach

VIRGO (August 23–September 23) Power struggles when Mercury opposes Pluto August 1, control issues August 3 at Mercury’s conjunction to Saturn set the stage for tons of unconscious projection and unexamined subconscious fears through August 18. Secrets you’ve been keeping forever threaten to jump right out of your mouth August 10; the temptation to use information as power over others is high August 16 when Mercury trines Mars. Knowledge is power when Mercury enters Virgo August 19, followed by the Sun August 22. Will you use this power for good? Mercury’s trine to Uranus August 25 and Jupiter August 29 inspire greater magnanimity.

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LIBRA (September 23–October 23)

Hudson Valley, NYC/Brooklyn, Westchester

Venus in home-and-family-centric Cancer August 7 reprioritizes investments, both emotional and financial. “And now for something completely different” August 18 at the New Moon in Leo with Venus trine Uranus – someone previously relegated to the Friend Zone makes a surprise relocation to the Heart Zone. Venus opposite Jupiter August 25 at Last Quarter Moon in Sagittarius has the potential to supersize the greatest of loves; Venus trine Neptune August 27 inspires the highest ideals. The opposition to Pluto August 30 indicates power struggles; don’t throw the baby out with the bath water over ultimately trivial matters. Pick your battles!

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estatecleanoutandstaging@gmail.com 8/20 CHRONOGRAM HOROSCOPES 61

Horoscopes

SCORPIO (October 23–November 21) Mars in Aries through January 2020 drives your quest to achieve ambitious goals, despite the pervasive negativity of our current zeitgeist. Social instability is your advantage if you’re positioned as a pragmatic, persistent and prescient leader when Mars squares Jupiter August 4 and Saturn August 24. Those without the stomach for power wrestling leave money on the table but you’re scooping it up; others see social destruction but you sense an explosive opportunity around August 13 at the Mars-Pluto square, a chance to dynamite an opening through the wall of status quo previously blocking you from achieving your desires.

SAGITTARIUS (November 22–December 22) Retrograde Jupiter in Capricorn rewinds to December 2019 when opportunities available at that time reappear in a slightly altered, more flexible version. Sun in Leo through August 21 builds confidence; Mars square Jupiter August 4 empowers you to demand the full measure of your worth. Receive the highest offer by standing your ground through First Quarter Moon in Sagittarius and Venus’ opposition to Jupiter August 25. The sound you hear August 29 at Mercury’s trine to Jupiter is the ka-ching of the cash register, especially if the ground upon which you’re standing is tied to your prodigious communicative powers.

CAPRICORN (December 22–January 20)

Rosendale, NY 1 2472 | 845.658.8989 | rosendaletheatre.org

The Rosendale Theatre has temporarily suspended operations. We are actively monitoring the situation and keeping up on all developments.

Mercury opposite Saturn at the Full Aquarian Moon August 3 inspires frank, bottom-line oriented conversation around proper boundaries, personal sovereignty, and individual independence. The square of Mars to Saturn August 24 is potentially inflammatory; challenges to your well-developed sense of order and control threaten to derail hard-one equanimity. Your perception of chaos may not be 100 percent accurate; beneath what you believe is random destructiveness lies important lessons which, if integrated, enhance your wisdom and enable you to give council, succor and support to those suffering terrible losses. Venus opposite Pluto in Capricorn August 30 may bring a surprising windfall.

AQUARIUS (January 20–February 19) STAY STRONG AND

HELP EACH OTHER

YEARS

Live with Intention.

August starts off with a bang when the Sun squares Uranus August 2 before Full Moon in Aquarius and Mercury’s opposition to Saturn August 3. Folks accustomed to your detached, cerebral style may be shocked by the explosive passion you bring to promoting causes nearest and dearest to your heart. Mercury’s square to Uranus August 10 and Uranus’ retrograde August 15 prompts abrupt and unexpected public truth-telling; social consequences of fidelity to your ideals don’t concern you, though the sextile of Venus to Uranus at the New Moon in Leo August 18 may bring unexpected loss of traditional allies.

PISCES (February 20-March 19)

THIRD EYE ASSOCIATES Life • Planning • Solutions ®

62 HOROSCOPES CHRONOGRAM 8/20

Full Moon in Aquarius August 3 brings family secrets out of the closet and into the consciousness. Mercy may be extended, and forgiveness offered when Moon conjuncts Neptune August 6, but consequences of subterfuge and past betrayals may force you to engage in assertive and healthy boundary-setting. Venus trine Neptune August 27 spins the hay of ethereal fantasy into the gold of embodied value and worth. Mercury opposite Neptune August 30 is a recipe for communicating big dreams based on high ideals. The trick is to communicate those dreams to the right people who can help them come true.

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8/20 CHRONOGRAM AD INDEX 63

parting shot

Every year, members of Congress choose art by young people in their district for the Congressional Art Competition, which culminates in a year-long exhibition in the Capitol building in Washington, DC. Since 1982, more than 650,000 students have participated in this prestigious competition. This year, Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney chose Anneke Chan’s painting Pool Party to represent New York‘s 18th district. Chan is a recent graduate of Haldane High School in Cold Spring, where she was salutatorian of her class; she plans to pursue a dual degree in studio art and anthropology at Tufts University in the fall. Chan credits The Art Effect’s Senior Project Course for helping to sharpen her skills as an artist. Chan is also the winner of the first Magazzino Education Scholarship, and she will be interning at the modern art museum in Cold Spring this summer.

Pool Party, Anneke Chan, acrylic on canvas board, 2019

64 PARTING SHOT CHRONOGRAM 8/20

FIND YOUR CENTER AT MARIANDALE Join Our Growing Online Community The Center at Mariandale is mindful of the close connection and comfort that the center provides. We want to reinforce that bond in these challenging times. The Center at Mariandale has launched a popular online community through the Zoom technology platform, providing spiritual comfort and companionship, contemplative prayer, writing support, and other exciting new ventures. Many of our former on-site programs, plus new ones, are now offered online, for free or at low cost. Please join us!

CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER ONLINE, WITH GAYNELL CRONIN Thursdays at 11:30am Gaynell Cronin, spiritual director, retreat leader, and author, will lead online Contemplative Prayer sessions at 11:30am on Thursdays.

READING THE SUNDAY SCRIPTURES WITH A CONTEMPLATIVE SPIRIT, WITH GAYNELL CRONIN AND FR. JACK RATHSCHMIDT, OFM, CAP. Fridays at 11:30am Utilizing the cultures out of which the bible emerges, we will take a long loving contemplative look at the Sunday scriptures in order both to understand them, and discern how we are called to live them.

HILDEGARD OF BINGEN: MASTER OF HEALING AND VISIONARY ARTS A DAY RETREAT WITH A TIMELESS WISDOM TEACHER Animated by Kathleen Noone Deignan, CND Saint Hildegard von Bingen is an acclaimed “Doctor of the Church” — a spiritual master & mentor of sacred wisdom — an honor shared with only three other women: Saint Teresa of Avila, Saint Catherine of Siena, & Saint Thérèse of Lisieux. Join us to explore the legacy of this “Teutonic Prophetess,” who speaks with great relevance in her courageous ability to discern the signs of the times, her love for creation, her feminine reading of sacred mysteries, her medicine and healing arts, her poetry, her unique modes of chant and liturgical theater, her visionary prophecy, her innovative and original reading of sacred scripture & teaching, her defense of the dignity of outliers & unbelievers, her reformation spirit, her leadership in founding a new community of creative women, & her coining a new, secret language — “lingua incognita” — to speak of Unspeakable Mystery in a uniquely feminine way.

Find Your Center at Mariandale Ossining, New York | mariandale.org | (914) 941-4455 Please visit our website at www.mariandale.org for new programming and updates.

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Chronogram August 2020

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