A JOURNAL OF COMFORTABLE LIVING IN THE CATSKILLS AND HUDSON VALLEY
SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE’S
Denny Dillon
OUTSIDE THE LINES
Chagall SECRET LIFE OF
VOLUME 2 No. 1 SPRING 2012 $4.99
IN HIGH
FALLS
rip van winkle HUDSON VALLEY SLACKER
after fukushima
THE JAPAN SYNDROME $4.99
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DISPLAY UNTIL JUNE 4, 2012
PLUS: LOCAVORE, NEIGHBORS, WOODSHED, TWINTERVIEW & MORE
SPRING IN THIS ISSUE
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GREETINGS FOLK Denny Dillon Blurring the lines with this former SNL Alum and artist/owner of The Drawing Room.
11 PHOTOGRAPHY The Japan Syndrome 15 HOME The Kingston Duo 22 YELLOW + BLUE Upcycled Style 23 ART Chagall’s Secret Life Artist Marc Chagall’s vivid life in High Falls, NY.
26 SOCIAL PRINT Twinterview: The Book Booth 27 NEIGHBORS 27 Local Calendar 31 Delaware County 34 DESIGN 34 Evil Twin Books Twins take on some book design and publishing.
40 Recipe: Homemade Ricotta 42 WOODSHED 42 Doing Our Work 43 TRAVEL 43 The Bookshelf 44 ENDPAPER 44 Napster Rip Van Winkle: America’s original Hudson Valley slacker.
46 On Crocal Time 48 Exuberance is Beauty
COVER PHOTO: KELLY MERCHANT INSIDE PHOTO: COPYRIGHT: ERIC GEVAERT
38 LOCAVORE 38 Home Again and Again: Samba Cafe & Inn
EDITOR Akira Ohiso PUBLISHER Ellie Ohiso MARKETING DIRECTOR Aaron Fertig ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Carole Joy ADVERTISING SALES Simona Fish Leifer Sharon Reich COPY EDITOR Donata C. Marcus CIRCULATION DIRECTOR John A. Morthanos CONTRIBUTORS James Beaudreau Michael Bloom Jay Blotcher Jim Hanas Kelly Merchant Joel Sanchez Sybil Sanchez Catie Baumer Schwalb Go Takayama CONTACT US Green Door Magazine P.O. Box 143 Liberty, NY 12754 info@greendoormag.com www.greendoormag.com 917.723.4622 facebook.com/greendoormag twitter.com/greendoormag greendoormag.tumblr.com Printed on recycled paper Green Door Magazine (ISSN # 2161-7465) is published quarterly - Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter - by Green Door Magazine Inc. All rights reserved. Subscription rate is $14.95 annually. U.S. subscriptions can be purchased online at greendoormag.com or by mail. Every effort is made to avoid errors, misspellings, and omissions. If, however, an error comes to your attention, please accept our sincere apologies and notify us. Address all letters to editor@greendoormag.com. Postmaster: Address all inquiries to Circulation Department, Green Door Magazine, P.O. Box 143, Liberty, NY 12754. No part of may be used without written permission of the publisher Š2012. The views expressed in Green Door and in advertising in the issue are those of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion, policy, or endorsement of the publication.
GREETINGS AKIRA OHISO
American Spring In first grade, Mrs. Hickson taught my class the folklore saying, “March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb.” The saying taught 6-year olds that the cold harsh winter was the ferocious lion and the thaw and budding of spring was the gentle lamb. As an adult, I cannot help but notice the volatility and extremes of March. Of all the seasons, the transition from winter to spring has the potential to be the most extreme. But unlike summer to fall and fall to winter, the seasonal direction is about rebirth. After an ideally introspective and solitary winter, people venture forth, animals wake from their hibernated slumbers, and flowers begin to bloom. In December of 2010, protests and demonstrations across the Arab world erupted in response to long-term governmental oppression, human rights violations, inequality, and unemployment. Regimes have been overthrown and dictators have resigned. This widespread movement has been called “The Arab Spring.” In first grade, I learned the rhyme, “April showers bring May flowers.” The rhyme was originally a short poem written in 1557 by Thomas Tusser. Like the March saying, it teaches us that change is born from unpleasant circumstances, but it requires patience. Watching a flower bloom is like watching a pot boil.
restless, anxious, impulsive, irritable, frustrated, angry, violent, and intolerant ourselves. American society has become so impatient that even waiting a few extra minutes at an ATM or walking behind a slow tourist in Times Square brings dirty looks and audible exasperation. We’ve been lulled into apathy about real issues and civilly disobedient about the etiquette of checkout lines. After the Bush administration ordered “Shock and Awe” in Iraq, a wise octogenarian I knew said, “this is the beginning of the decline of America.” I disagreed with him at the time. I was gung-ho about removing an evil dictator (not that we shouldn’t), but my reflex to disagree ran much deeper. It meant accepting that America would have to change. I mistook the forest for the trees. This is why the Occupy Wall Street Movement is so refreshing and encouraging - Americans are finally waking up. Honestly, I didn’t think we had it in us anymore. Perhaps, America has taken a cue from the passionate Arab revolution. The Occupy movement is taking on deep systemic oppression. It is the kind of oppression that can only be changed by the people experiencing the oppression as the corpulent one percent bellow from their glass towers. Wall Street’s canyon walls have a lot of echo.
Here is the Merriam-Webster Dictionary definition of “patient”: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Bearing pains or trials calmly or without complaint Manifesting forbearance under provocation or strain Not hasty or impetuous Steadfast despite opposition, difficulty, or adversity Able or willing to bear
How do we act when we are impatient? We may become
How does this relate to spring? Reminds me of a poem by Alexander Pope: Hope springs eternal in the human breast; Man never Is, but always To be blest: The soul, uneasy and confin'd from home, Rests and expatiates in a life to come. With patience and hope, Spring is about the life to come.
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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
To the Editor, Kudos on your TMBG story (They Might Be Giants, Winter 2011). Always loved their music. Always will. Alan Young Binghamton, NY To the Editor, Thanks for the article on our water... “our” means everyone’s water. Beautiful magazine. Beautiful issue. Charles Hadley Blanchard Narrowsburg, NY To the Editor, Thank you for taking a position on fracking (Angry Water, Winter 2011), but you are misguided if you think anyone from Manhattan cares about what happens upstate. I can tell you firsthand that New York City residents think their water comes from the faucet, not the Catskills. Ken Faber New York, NY To the Editor, Like a lot of my friends and neighbors I’m used to hibernating through the winter. Your last issue gave me a whole new perspective on the season, particularly the snow Endpaper (The Sound of Snow, Winter 2011), and I am enjoying it now more than ever. Great reading. Barry Harwell High Falls, NY
To the Editor, I found your magazine at the Harvest Festival in Sharon Springs (The Fabulous Beekman Boys, Fall 2011) and loved it. I should have asked Brent or Josh to sign a copy. Stacy Lewin New York, NY To the Editor, Loved the Fall issue. Great coverage of my area in the Catskills. Found your magazine in the Lazy Beagle Grill and Bar in Livingston Manor. Look forward to the next issue. Lois Head Livingston Manor, NY To the Editor, Not sure I agree with your view comparing what happened at UC Davis with Kent State (Four Dead in Ohio, Winter 2011), but your magazine is a welcome addition to the Hudson Valley. Keep it up. Amanda Wilson Ellenville, NY To the Editor, Your magazine may be pretty but with a name like Green Door I had hoped to see more coverage of environmentally important issues. I suggest you look at everything that’s going on in the Hudson Valley and find the stories you should really be reporting on. Jill Hyman Accord, NY
Have a letter to Green Door’s Editor? Email it to letters@greendoormag.com or mail to PO Box 143, Liberty, New York 12754.
FOLK ACTRESS & ARTIST
DENNY DILLON Drawing Outside The Lines
PHOTOS: KELLY MERCHANT
BY AKIRA OHISO
Many remember Denny Dillon for her memorable cameo in the iconic 1977 film, Saturday Night Fever starring John Travolta. She played Doreen, a disco groupie, who fawns over Tony Manero (Travolta) and asks to wipe the sweat from his forehead. She was best known as a Broadway actress. In 1974, she made her Broadway debut in the revival of Gypsy starring Angela Lansbury. In 1975, she CONT’D ON PAGE 8
FOLK
DENNY DILLON
FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: MOVIE STILL FROM ‘SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER;’ THE ENTRYWAY TO THE DRAWING ROOM ART GALLERY; TV STILL FROM ‘DREAM ON;’ AN ART EXHIBIT IN THE GALLERY; DENNY’S DRAWINGS ‘BELLE,’ ‘SHADOW MAN’
was in the revival of Skin of Our Teeth starring Elizabeth Ashley, and, in 1980, Harold & Maude. In 1980, she joined the cast of Saturday Night Live for the sixth season.
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public would become accustomed to and expect from the stars of later casts. But, in 1980, the show was at a crossroads, for the first time. It could easily have ended, fittingly to many, but went on.
Denny Dillon actually auditioned for the first season of SNL in 1975 with a comedy routine she wrote and performed with Mark Hampton called “Talent Night At The Convent.” She was not in the regular cast, but must have impressed producer Lorne Michaels who featured the comedy routine on the third episode of the first season. Dillon reminisces: “Rob Reiner hosted and Penny Marshall was on the show pre-Laverne & Shirley.” Andy Kaufman also made a cameo and, with no musical guest, John Belushi sang “With A Little Help From Our Friends” as Joe Cocker. Dillon adds, “Belushi was a genius.”
With the departure of Lorne Michaels and his team, Dillon says “the writing wasn’t as sophisticated as the original. The first cast was brilliant. We had some big artistic shoes to fill. We weren’t as good.” The original cast had worked for years together at Second City and Groundlings where they improvised, cultivated chemistry, and honed their comedic craft. “Our cast didn’t have the luxury of knowing each other,” says Dillon. “I didn’t come from the comedy clubs, I came from Broadway.” The new cast was plucked from different places – Joe Piscopo and Gilbert Gottfried from the clubs and Charles Rocket, Ann Risley and Gail Matthius mostly from acting circles.
The 1980-81 season was infamous for the off-season departure of producer Lorne Michaels and the hiring of Jean Doumanian. The original cast also left prior to the 1980-81 season, but, Denny clarifies, “The public didn’t understand that the original cast wanted to move on, do films, and expand their careers” – something the American
Since SNL, Dillon says she runs into Joe Piscopo. While working in California, Dillon and Gail Matthius co-wrote and performed the play, Beside Ourselves. She has lost touch with Ann Risley, Gilbert Gottfried and Charles Rocket who was found dead in 2005 near his home, which was later ruled a suicide. Recently, Eddie Murphy mentioned Dillon
on The Letterman Show while discussing his first season on SNL. Dillon remembers Murphy: “The first time I saw Eddie Murphy I thought, ‘This kid is fearless.’ He was nineteen and already a star. I’m not at all surprised he became a big star.” For Dillon, one highlight of Doumanian’s short tenure was her willingness to give more opportunities to woman. “Saturday Night Live was for men!” exclaims Dillon. Dillon was given considerable airtime to feature some of her original characters such as Pinky Waxman, Mary Louise, and Woodswoman. Despite the controversy, Denny Dillon, then 29-years old, used SNL to showcase her talent in the national spotlight on a weekly basis, which would propel her career. “It is every comic or funny person’s dream to be on Saturday Night Live…to have an idea manifest with costumes, lights, production. It was an artistic high.” For some of the cast, the experience was traumatic, but, for Dillon, it is something of which she is very proud. In 1984, she was nominated for a Tony Award for her work in the Broadway show My One And Only starring Tommy
Tune and Twiggy. From 1990 to 1996, she played Toby Pedalbee on the hit HBO series Dream On for which she won a CableACE Award as ‘Best Actress in a Comedy Series.’ On the heels of Dream On’s success, HBO produced its second original series, Gary Shandling’s The Larry Sanders Show. In 2006, she was cast in United 93, the story of the American Airlines flight that crashed in a Pennsylvania field on 9/11. The role was cathartic for her because she was in the city during the 9/11 attacks and remembers escaping to the Hudson Valley with a friend. “Something shifted for me, it changed my priorities.” United 93 director Paul Greengrass wanted to capture the experience of being on Flight 93 so he had the actors improvise long portions as the camera rolled. “I learned that when one experiences that level of fear - because all 33 of us actors went on this emotional ride together - the response is actually more primitive and animal...fight, flight, hide, cry or silence.” With years of stage and improvisation experience, Dillon fit right in. The film received critical acclaim. Paul Greengrass was CONT’D ON NEXT PAGE
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FOLK
DENNY DILLON
CONT’D FROM PAGE 9
nominated for Best Director at the 79th Academy Awards and took home Best Director at the 2006 British Academy of Film and Arts Awards. The cast was honored by the Boston Film Society of Critics for Best Ensemble Cast in a film. After 9/11, Dillon began to spend more time in the Hudson Valley. She started exploring other aspects of her creativity. She eventually bought an 1840’s restored farmhouse in the historic hamlet of Stone Ridge, NY and turned her front room into an art gallery, aptly titled The Drawing Room. Dillon continues working as a character actor, but says her acting is secondary to her life in Stone Ridge where she shows her work and the work of other local artists. She also has a repertoire group, Improv Nation, which performs in various theaters in the Hudson Valley. She lives in the Hudson Valley full-time and commutes to New York City regularly for work, but usually returns the same day and sleeps in her own bed. “I like the city, but, after 25 years of living in Manhattan, I like the country more.” Dillon is a self-taught artist, which, she says, “fosters child-like discovery.” “I have no rules, no boundaries, no one can say ‘You’re wrong.’” Her quirky pen-and-ink drawings are child-like yet sophisticated. She told the story of someone who asked how she makes her drawings “float” and she said, “This is just how I draw.” She loves the artistic energy in the Hudson Valley and remembers when Greenwich Village used to be such a place. Today, she is shocked to see “banks and Duane Reades on every corner.” As well as her drawings, she creates “art inside the box”, little miniature worlds, partially assembled from found objects, antique postcards, old photographs, and microscopic people that Dillon finds at antique stores. Dillon, with the help of freelance designer Diva Haase, displays found-object tableaux around the gallery. Dillon has an artistic eye that seems inspired by her decades on Broadway and on television and movie sets. Her work is selling at a steady clip.
INTERIOR PHOTOS: KELLY MERCHANT
As she gets older, the roles are harder to come by. She is inspired by the work of Kathy Bates and Margo Martindale, two actors she came up with in the industry, who have been able to break down gender and age barriers and continue to work. Yet, Dillon is currently in a production of Boeing Boeing, the recent Broadway hit, at the Hartford Stage and has been offered an off-Broadway show in the spring.
PHOTOGRAPHY
ONE YEAR LATER
PHOTOS: GO TAKAYAMA WWW.GOTAKAYAMAPHOTO.COM
The Japan Syndrome
Notwithstanding the title reference to the 1979 Jane Fonda movie about a United States nuclear meltdown, in which the reactor core melts through the earth to its antipode, China, we must ask ourselves what have we learned about the safety of nuclear power. Have we been Chernobylized into accepting that accidents happen, and the toll in human suffering and dollars are acceptable costs for such ‘cheap and clean’ power? It will take many decades and billions of dollars to undo the damage from the Fukushima reactors. Radioactive contamination has shown up in milk, meat and produce miles from the disaster site. Countless lives have been lost or upended and as seen from these telling photographs by Go Takayama, the area is a wasteland.
PHOTOS BY GO TAKAYAMA
A stone marker in Hiroshima says, ‘Let all the souls who lie here rest in peace, for we shall not repeat the evil.’ Fukushima shows us that nuclear power is neither cheap nor clean, and worse, that we do not learn from the past. 11
PHOTOGRAPHY
PHOTOS, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: A PANORAMA OF DEVASTATION CHECKING A CHILD FOR RADIATION IN FUKUSHIMA FOOD RATIONING IN FUKUSHIMA RADIATION GEAR IN FUKUSHIMA
ONE YEAR LATER
HOME
KINGSTON
The Kingston Duo BY JAY BLOTCHER
In the movie Annie Hall, uberkvetch Alvy Singer explains the origin of his neuroses: he was raised under the Coney Island rollercoaster. Here in Kingston, New York, Janet Hicks and Eddie Mullins live in a three-story brick house beneath an elevated freight train track that passes eight times a day. As Hicks explains, a locomotive appears on cue, horn blowing, bell clanging and wheels screeching. The din smothers conversation and shakes the house for a long minute. But unlike
PHOTOS: KELLY MERCHANT
CONT’D ON PAGE 16
HOME
KINGSTON
CONT’D FROM PAGE 15
Alvy Singer, Hicks is not perturbed. She smiles. “The train trestle was a huge selling point,” said Hicks, 38. “I find it incredibly romantic.” As transplanted Brooklynites, Hicks and Mullins are energized by this cacophony. She says that train sounds creep into her dreams. Their artistic perspective is not limited to trains. Hicks and Mullins are the owners of One Mile Gallery, which operates beneath their home, overlooking the Rondout Creek. In short time, they’ve made their fledgling art space a popular salon for fellow aesthetes. It is a Sunday morning. The pair, who are business partners as well as lovers of five years, are sipping prosecco to calm interview jitters. Mullins shambles about in a shirt and jeans with a classic bedhead; Hicks has donned a party dress, glitter mascara over each eye. As they recount their transition from New Yorkers to Kingstonians, they are engaging and offhandedly erudite.
Janet thinks that a magpie put together their house/gallery. There’s rock, brick, wood, other crap – all whatever. 16
Janet Hicks and Eddie Mullins find inspiration for their One Mile Gallery everywhere they look.
DĂŠcor is a mix of their conservative and flamboyant tastes with occasional indulgences that lean toward the garish.
HOME
KINGSTON
Linen Blend Hand-Dyed Shoulder Bag Dyberry Weaver Narrowsburg, NY 845-252-7289 www.dyberryweaver.com Call For Pricing & Availability
‘Sea Spirals’ Low-Fired Stoneware Duke Pottery, $75-$95 Roscoe, NY 607-498-5207 www.dukepottery.com
“Madeline's Influence” Woven Painting Andrea Brown, $1400 Roscoe, NY 607-498-4547 www.theoutsidersstudio.com 18
The gallery doesn’t end in the gallery. During opening receptions, parties spill over upstairs, filled with their artwork.
CONT’D FROM PAGE 16
Mullins was a Park Slope-based film reviewer for Blackbook magazine who had just lost his seven-year gig. Hicks lived in Williamsburg and worked for the SoHo-based Artists Rights Society, representing 20th-century artist estates. Mullins first became smitten with the area as a weekend fly-fisher. Finally, the two relocated here in 2009. They explored homes in Phoenicia and Athens, finally deciding rural environs were too far from Manhattan. (Hicks has kept her weekday job.) Ulster County was closer.
Ir reverance meets country chic.
“I knew that Kingston was a very vibrant arts scene,” Hicks said. “So when that happens, you know that there are very interesting people living in the city as well.” They found this three-story brick home, built in 1790, and decided it was perfect. “This house had a lot of the qualities I was looking for,” Hicks said. “A historic home that was not too precious.” She cites a delightful chaos to its structure. “It’s like a magpie put together this house; there’s rock, rock, brick, wood, other crap – all whatever,” Hicks said. A year later, they opened an art gallery in the stone basement, naming it One Mile Gallery after its distance
Establishing One Mile Gallery has been such an amazing experience for them, because “you’re inviting people into your home.” 19
HOME
KINGSTON
CONT’D FROM PAGE 19
from the center of town. Hicks reached out to art world contacts, offering shows. The eclectic mix of artists drew crowds immediately. “It surprised me how many people dropped by just because they saw our lights were on and the sign was out front,” Hicks said. A July 2009 New York Times article on country weekenders profiled the duo, raising their cachet. A simple philosophy drives the gallery owners. “We’ve really focused on art that we like,” Hicks said. “Things that are edgy, have different perspective, things that speak to you.” Beginning artists are given first consideration. “We’ve kept our definition of it loose precisely so that we can have the latitude to work within the confines of art that we like,” Hicks added. “We seem to have a proud history of flying in the face of economic realism and common sense,” Mullins said. Shows have featured photos of rural Chinese women, drawings on 15-foot-long paper, wood-turnings and a live exhibition of paw-scratches by Tillamook Cheddar, a Brooklyn-based Jack Russell terrier. Last May, Seattle pop
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artist Derek Erdman attended his solo show, accompanied by performance artists The Bumbys. “I was pinching myself that they were here for that exhibition,” Hicks said. Hicks and Mullins believe art and politics can mix. Last summer, they mounted a 52-piece show to benefit Catskill Animal Sanctuary. A portion of sales from the Genesis Chapman show went to RSK Farms in Prattsville, devastated by tropical storm Irene. Visitors would be hard-pressed to distinguish where One Mile Gallery ends and the Hicks-Mullins residence begins. With good reason: art is mounted throughout the house. “The gallery doesn’t end in the gallery,” Hicks said. “We definitely use the whole home as an art showplace, to get people interested in buying.” The bold canvases on the walls offer a counterpoint to interior, a juxtaposition of 20th-century yard sale chic and 18th-century architecture. Happily, the pair’s aesthetic sensibilities overlap. However, after a few more sips of prosecco, Mullins insists that Hicks “has the slightly more
flamboyant tastes” while his are “more conservative.” “I tend to take a back seat until the eleventh hour and then come in and say, too much.” Hicks counters, “He may not think about it as much as I do, but he’s certainly opinionated about it.” Eccentric touches abound. In the kitchen stands a 1978 Playboy pinball machine, in the living room, a Chord-o-dot 1960s electric organ. A lamp combining nautical and foxhunt motifs hails from Mullins’s navy brat childhood in Richmond, Virginia. In one bathroom, Hicks has hung a poster of Fassbinder’s Veronika Voss as homage to her hometown movie house in Chico, California. In another privy, the outsider photographs of Kingston-based artist Mark Hogencamp unsettle the eye. On top of the commode, a vintage Lionel miniature train emits a whistle as loud as the one overhead. In the master bedroom, recently repainted pearl gray, Mullins has installed a 1980s Pachinko machine. The house itself is a revolving art installation. “I love the surprising, the stand-out aspect,” Mullins said.
Relocating upstate has stoked Mullins’s creativity; he is recording original music with neighbors, one a former member of Simply Red. “Kingston has – in a way that I still find is counterintuitive – yielded opportunities that I would have thought lived more abundant in the city,” Mullins said. He is considering an original screenplay this spring, a fin-de-siècle fable about two vagabonds. “I have this overwhelming sense of excitement and panic mixed together.” While weekenders flock to Kingston, Mullins hastens to draw a distinction. “I’m not here because I think Kingston is going to be something else. I’ve liked this town for a decade; that’s when I first discovered it.” One Mile Gallery 475 Abeel Street Kingston, NY 12401 (845) 338-2035 www.onemilegallery.com Hours: Saturdays 12-5, Sundays 12-4 and by appointment.
A Freelance Journalist since the Crimean War, Jay Blotcher resides blissfully in Ulster County, scribbling for regional publications and toiling on his new musical about 1960s Harlem, titled Holding On.
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YELLOW + BLUE
UPCYCLING
UPCYCLING Converting waste or used products into new materials or items of better quality or greater environmental value.
Green Vintage Button Necklace by The Little Button $39 www.thelittlebutton.com.au
Billboard Vinyl Waste Bag by Green Hands Factory $35 www.kosherkatalog.com
Scrap Metal Miniatures by Zac Shavrick $75-$150 Ferndale, NY www.zacmax.com
Holy Shiitake Lunch Bag by Black Sheep Heap $15 Hudson, NY / Brooklyn, NY www.blacksheepheap.com
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PHOTOS: COURTESY OF THE ARTISTS
ArmEffects Lunchbox Tote $20-$35 ArmEffects Classic Cosmetic Bag $12-$14 by The Plunk Shop Livingston Manor, NY www.facebook.com/theplunkshop
BLUE VIOLINIST BY MARC CHAGALL © 2011 ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS), NEW YORK / ADAGP, PARIS
ART
MARC CHAGALL
Chagall in High Falls Last fall, I happened upon the delaware & Hudson Canal Museum while exploring the small Ulster County hamlet of High Falls, NY. I saw a sign that read “Chagall In High Falls.” As a former art student and lover of art, I knew of the artist Marc Chagall, a giant of the 20th Century art world. At first, I thought it was just a show of Chagall paintings on loan, but soon learned that it was a show of the over 90 works Chagall produced while living in High Falls. I never learned about this in my art history classes. CONT’D ON PAGE 24
ART
MARC CHAGALL
CONT’D FROM PAGE 23
Rick Ryden, a High Falls resident since the late sixties, started to hear rumors about a famous painter once living in a house on Mohonk Road. He turned his neighbor, Gary Ferdman, on to the rumors and they became obsessed with uncovering a story largely ignored by the art world. Before 1978, there was no mention in Chagall biographies of his living in High Falls. From 1946-1948, Marc Chagall lived in an unassuming house on Mohonk Road with his companion Virginia Haggard. His beloved wife Bella died suddenly in 1944 from a viral infection and Chagall was devastated. Bella, whom Chagall met in Russia, was his only connection to his early life in Vietebsk. Chagall was lost. During this time he met Virginia Haggard, a women who was hired to help Chagall around his New York City apartment. They fell in love and moved to High Falls.
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PHOTOS: CHAGALL HOME COURTESY OF RIK RYDANT, 2010. ALL OTHERS COURTESY OF VIRGINIA HAGGARD, MY LIFE WITH CHAGALL, 1986
Chagall did not know English, but was able to talk to the locals in Yiddish, a language that reminded him of his childhood in Vietebsk. In Jackie Wullschlager’s 2008 biography of Chagall, she writes: “Yiddish was Chagall’s principal language until adolescence, the language of the family home, and its use enshrined a feeling of security and belonging, of participating in
an autonomous system of values, religious traditions, and laws, that a Jew in the nineteenth century could find nowhere else.” Gary Ferdman became interested in the historical forces – the Holocaust and McCarthyism- that were “bookends” to Chagall’s time in High Falls. Chagall had escaped the Holocaust in the early 1940s then retreated to High Falls to bereave Bella’s sudden death. He left for Europe in 1948 after being investigated by the FBI - like many in the entertainment industry - for his communist ties. The “Chagall In High Falls” show was on display this past fall at The Delaware and Hudson Canal Museum where it garnered modest attention. Winter Night In Vietebsk, Blue Violinist, and lithographs from Four Tales from a Thousand and One Arabian Nights, are just a few of the works from Chagall’s High Falls period. Reproductions of these works were on display. Ryden hopes that a larger museum will find interest in their exhibition, but says so far no museums are. He also thinks about taking the exhibition on the road to pique interest and facilitate more research into Chagall’s brief, but prolific time in High Falls. For more information visit www.chagallinhighfalls.com
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SOCIAL PRINT TWINTERVIEW
TWINTERVIEW
Twitter interview with The Book Booth: America’s Littlest Library @thebookbooth How did the idea for a book booth and book exchange come to fruition?
How did you choose the initial books for the booth?
I read an article 2 yrs ago abt a small village in UK who turned their unused phone box into a lending library & thght cool!
Terry Sennett, library dir. pulled them frm donation boxes, a nice cross section & Oblong gave us a starter box to hand out on opening day.
There is something so exciting about an ever-changing library – is the community using the booth?
YES! Itís excitin g when I check on it, to see the shelves looking messy. It means visitors; it means it’s breathing on its own; it has life
Any rules or hours for the booth?
take a book/leave a book is pretty much the only rule w/solar light u can have access 24/7.
Any surprising books show up in the booth?
no, not surprising, but we’re trying to limit the # of Carl Hiaasen books. Quite selfishly, I’m hoping for more cookbooks.
Is the book dying?
the printed book, not digital.
in printed form? Or a general fading away to bloggy kinda reading?
the sense of touch is powerful: the feel of a crisp paper btwn your fingers & closing the book at day’s end is v satisfying
in fact, reading a book rly hits on all 5 senses that I just don’t think reading from a “Fire” can replace
we own a small printing co. so it pains me to think that books in print are dying a slow death. thanks for a great interview – in my opinion, niche books, limited-edition printings will be the future of print 26
For more information visit: twitter.com/TheBookBooth
NEIGHBORS Events & happenings around the Catskill Mountains and Hudson Valley MARCH 1 ‘Give a Hoot’ Owl Hike While sitting around a warm fire, enjoy an introduction to owls and learn how to mimic their distinct calls. Then hike in the moonlight along the shore of beautiful Louisa Pond in search of these majestic birds. Thursday, 7-8:30 p.m. (845) 473-4440 x273. Shaupeneak Ridge Upper, Poppletown Road, Ulster Park. Ulster County. 2 Ice Skating at Bear Mountain Have fun at Bear Mountain State Park. The ice skating rink is outdoors and uncovered; please dress appropriately. Lockers and refreshments available. Weather permitting. Parking fee on weekends. (845) 786-2701. Sessions: Mon & Tues: 10-11:30am, 121:30pm, Fri: 8-9:30pm, Sat : 10-11:30am, 12-1:30pm, 2-3:30pm, 4-5:30pm, 67:30pm, 8-9:30pm., Sun: 10-11:30am, 121:30pm, 2-3:30pm, 4-5:30pm, 6-7:30p. Bear Mountain State Park, Route 9W, Bear Mountain. Orange County. 3 Verdi Live Angela Meade takes center stage in Verdi’s thrilling early gem. Marcello Giordani is her mismatched lover, and all-star Verdians Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Ferruccio Furlanetto round out the cast. The Met: Live In HD - Ernani (Verdi). Saturday and also Sunday, March 4. $25. Starts at 1pm. Time and Space Limited, 434 Columbia Street, Hudson. Columbia County. 4 BBQ Drive-Through Dinner Olive Firehouse Brooks BBQ Dinner includes: half chicken, potato, coleslaw, dessert and a drink. 3-6pm. $12 per dinner/$11 for Seniors. (845) 464-4240 or oliveusarestoration.org. Olive Co. #2 Firehouse, Rte. 28, Shokan. Ulster County. 7 Vanderbilt Garden Day Have lunch or dinner at Coppola's Italian Bistro on Rte 9 in Hyde Park and 10% of your bill will be donated to the FW Vanderbilt Garden Association for maintenance of the Formal Gardens at the Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site. Call 845-229-6432 for details. Rte. 9, Hyde Park. Dutchess County. 10 SullivanArc Paintings by disabled adults in the Loft Gallery at Alliance Gallery. Tuesday-
Saturday, 10am to 4pm through March 31. (845) 252-7576 or visit ArtsAllianceSite.org Delaware Arts Center, 37 Main Street, Narrowsburg, Sullivan County.
have the opportunity to ski or spend the day engaged in our full range of outdoor winter activities. Windham Mountain, Clarence D. Lane Road, Windham. Greene County.
10 March Madness & Hartman Cup Windham Mountain is offering value priced tickets for skiers and riders wearing college team jerseys. Guests can take their best foul shot and participate in a variety of Ski-Meets-Basketball Activities on the patio. Johnny Moon and Starz will be playing their last Mountain gig of the winter season in Legends from 3-6pm. Windham Mountain, Clarence D. Lane Road, Windham. Greene County.
17 Free Day at Dia:Beacon For Dia’s series of Community Free Days, residents of neighboring counties Columbia, Dutchess, Greene, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, Ulster, and Westchester are invited to visit Dia:Beacon free of charge on select Saturdays. Dia:Beacon, 3 Beekman Street, Beacon. Dutchess County.
11 Dia:Beacon Jean-Luc Moulène: Perspectives from the Curator. Sunday 2pm. Dia:Beacon, 3 Beekman Street, Beacon. Dutchess County. 11 Winter Walk at Storm King Storm King Art Center’s members enjoy behind-the-scene access to Storm King during the winter season. Join us for our popular winter walks through the fields and woodlands of Storm King Art Center. Saturday, 2-4pm. (845) 534-3115. Storm King Art Center, 1 Museum Road, New Windsor. Orange County. 13 Troy Night Out Troy Night Out is a monthly arts and cultural event that draws over 1,000 people onto the streets of Troy, and attendees are able to enjoy over 30 art events, 15 music venues, and over 20 fine restaurants as well as unique boutiques of all varieties. Tuesday, 2pm to 3pm. Troy Downtown Collaborative, Troy. Rensselaer County. 13 Joyce Ellen Weinstein Block prints at the Alliance Gallery. Tuesday- Saturday, 10am to 4pm. (845) 2527576 or visit ArtsAllianceSite.org . Delaware Arts Center, 37 Main Street, Narrowsburg, Sullivan County. 14 Winter Wonderland A Day of Yes! Chai Lifeline, the international children's health support network, has joined with Windham Mountain to bring the excitement of winter sports to children with cancer and other life-threatening or chronic illnesses. Windham Mountain will host a group of children and siblings for a day of fun atop the mountain. Children will
17 Irish I Was Skiing/Riding Festival As Windham Mountain Legend has it that if you catch a (skiing) leprechaun you get the gold. If kids can catch the leprechaun who has the gold, they get gold coin chocolates. There will also be Irish Step Dancers and a DJ on the weekend, Guinness drink specials all weekend, and the Irish band the Ruffians in Legends. Windham Mountain, Clarence D. Lane Road, Windham. Greene County. 17 Shorts & Sweets for St. Patrick's Day Sing-a-long and short sketches by Carol Montana and Big Sky Productions. Baked Goods will be available. Suggested Donation $10. 7:30pm. (845) 434-8044. Sullivan County Museum & Sullivan County Historical Society, 255 Main St., Hurleyville. Sullivan County. 18 Pedja Muzijevic Howland Chamber Music Circle: The Wind Soloists of New York brings together leading wind players from New York City. For this concert they will be joined by pianist Pedja Muzijevic, who has played previously in our Piano Festival, to perform a Beethoven quintet, a Saint-Saens Caprice, a Jean Françaix quartet and a Poulenc sextet. Sunday, 4pm. $30. Howland Cultural Center, 477 Main St., Beacon. Dutchess County. 23 Infinity Plus One Friday, at 7:00 pm at the Chapel of the Holy Innocents, Bard College Annandale-onHudson. Dutchess County. 845-758-6822. Also on Saturday, March 24, at 8:00 pm, at the Hudson Opera House, West Room. 327 Warren St., Hudson. Dutchess County. 23 Blues Brothers Official Blues Brothers Revue. Sanctioned by Dan Aykroyd and The Belushi Estate 27
NEIGHBORS
LOCAL EVENTS & HAPPENINGS
Friday Door: 8pm / Show: 9pm. $40 reserved balcony (seated). $30 general admission (standing). (845) 679-4406. Bearsville Theater, 291 Tinker St., Woodstock. Ulster County. 24 Erica Battle on Bruce Nauman Erica Battle is Project Curatorial Assistant in the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. There, she has curated Everyday Disturbances, an ongoing installation of contemporary sculpture from the 1980s to today and Forms of Contingency: New York and Turin, 1960s1970s. Saturday, 2pm. Free with museum admission. Dia:Beacon, 3 Beekman Street, Beacon. Dutchess County. 24 Clearwater Day Clearwater Family Open Boat Days 2012. The community is invited to get involved and enjoy good food, music and company. Friends and families can come tour the sloop Clearwater in her winter port, meet the crew, learn about woodworking projects and repairs to the sloop, and cozy up in the shop for refreshments, stories and live music. Attendees are invited to bring an instrument and join the jam session, or a favorite dish to share at the potluck. Free and open to the public; a $10 donation is suggested. 5-9pm. (845) 265-8080, ext.7105. Lynch's Marina, 2 Ferry St., Saugerties. Ulster County. 24 Parrothead Spring Fling Festival Come celebrate the arrival of spring with beach balls, leis, and palm trees. In partnership with the local Parrothead chapter the event will raise money for local charity. The beach festival will present Jimmy and the Parrots, a Jimmy Buffet cover band. Entertainment will include volley ball, frisbees, jello shots, blender sports specials, and waitress race. Windham Mountain, Clarence D. Lane Road, Windham. Greene County. 24 Peter Greene Through April 14, Peter Greene Paintings on display at the Alliance Gallery, at the Delaware Arts Center. Tuesday-Saturday, 10am to 4pm. (845) 252-7576 or visit www.ArtsAllianceSite.org. Delaware Arts Center, 37 Main Street, Narrowsburg. Sullivan County. 31 Johnny Winter Radio Woodstock Presents: Johnny Winter, a guitar hero without equal. Signing to Columbia records in 1969 called largest solo artist deal of it’s time, Johnny immediately laid out the blueprint for his fresh take on classic blues a prime combination for the 28
legions of fans just discovering the blues via the likes of Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton. Golden Circle $50: First 5 rows of the floor and first 2 rows of the balcony. Reserved Seating $35: the remaining rows on the floor and the balcony. General Admission $25: Standing Room Only. Doors: 8pm. Show: 9pm. (845) 679-4406. Bearsville Theater, 291 Tinker St., Woodstock. Ulster County. APRIL 1 Daedalus String Quartet owland Chamber Music Circle: Daedalus String Quartet with Edward Arron, cello. Recipient of many glowing reviews, the Daedalus has established itself as a leader among young string quartets. They will play the Schubert Quartettsatz and the Berg Quartet, Op. 3. (845) 831-4988. Sunday, 4pm. $30. Howland Cultural Center, 477 Main St., Beacon. Dutchess County.
Germont, and Principal Guest Conductor Fabio Luisi is on the podium. Starts at 1pm. Time and Space Limited, 434 Columbia Street, Hudson. Columbia County. 14 Leo Kottke An Evening With Leo Kottke. Legendary acoustic guitar virtuoso and multi-Grammy winner, Leo Kottke, is a blues and folk guitarist known for his distinctive fingering technique. 8:00pm Show Time. 7pm Doors. $48.00 advance; $53.00 day of show Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, Hurd Rd., Bethel. Sullivan County. 20 Charles Maraia Charles Maraia Photography exhibit at the Alliance Gallery, at the Delaware Arts Center. Tuesday-Saturday, 10am to 4pm. (845) 252-7576 or visit ArtsAllianceSite.org. Delaware Arts Center, 37 Main Street, Narrowsburg. Sullivan County.
1 Trout Season Opener Join celebrity fly fishermen, local Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther, and the first family of fly fishers, the Phelans, in the cold waters of the Willowemoc just upstream from the CFFCM bridge for the official first cast of the season. 7am. (845) 439-4810. Catskill Fly Fishing Center & Museum, 1031 Old Rt. 17, Livingston Manor. Sullivan County.
21 Woodstock Film Festival Annual independent film festival has drawn top talent, including Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu, Woody Harrelson, Rosie Perez, Matt Dillon, Tim Robbins, Ethan Hawke, Peter Gabriel and Steve Buscemi. Featuring films, concerts, panels and more. Woodstock, NY. Visit www.woodstockfilmfestival.com for venues. Ulster County.
5 Hansel & Gretel Manhattan School of Music is pleased to present its Amato Opera-in-Brief performance of Engelbert Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel to students in grades 2-6. Prior to the performance, the cast will introduce and explain key vocabulary and elements of the opera. 11am Show Time; 10am Doors. Free admission, ticket required. Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, Hurd Rd., Bethel. Sullivan County.
21 The Met Live In HD - Manon (Massenet). Anna Netrebko’s dazzling portrayal of the tragic heroine in Laurent Pelly’s new production travels to the Met from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Piotr Beczala and Paulo Szot also star, with the Met’s Principal Guest Conductor Fabio Luisi on the podium. Starts at 1pm. Time and Space Limited, 434 Columbia Street, Hudson. Columbia County.
7 Manon (Massenet) The Met: Live In HD - Manon (Massenet). Anna Netrebko’s dazzling portrayal of the tragic heroine in Laurent Pelly’s new production travels to the Met from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Piotr Beczala and Paulo Szot also star, with the Met’s Principal Guest Conductor Fabio Luisi on the podium. Starts at 1pm. Time and Space Limited, 434 Columbia Street, Hudson. Columbia County.
22 Ray Spiegel & Aashish Khan World Stage Series Indian Music: Ray Spiegel & Aashish Khan. 2pm Show Time; Rangoli Art Activity at 12:30pm. Free admission, ticket required. This performance of traditional Indian music is perfect for youth, families, and adults. Ray Spiegel and Aashish Khan are both individually distiniguished artists in traditional Indian music. Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, Hurd Rd., Bethel. Sullivan County.
14 La Traviata (Verdi) The Met: Live In HD - La Traviata (Verdi). Natalie Dessay will put on the red dress in Willy Decker’s stunning production, in her first Violetta at the Met. Matthew Polenzani sings Alfredo, Dmitri Hvorostovsky is
23 Poetry Reading Eminent poet W. S. Merwin (American Poet Laureate 2010–11) will read from his work at Storm King Art Center in a special program presented on the occasion of the sculpture park’s fiftieth anniversary. In
addition to reading a selection of his poems, Mr. Merwin will engage in a Q&A with the audience. Saturday, 2pm-4pm. Storm King Art Center, 1 Museum Road, New Windsor. Orange County. 28 TAP New York Over 35 New York Craft Brewers pouring over 120 different microbrews. Bands all day long. Complimentary morsels with this year's theme being Comfort Foods of the World. Hunter Mountain, Route 23a, Hunter. Greene County. MAY 1 Robert Bresson Robert Bresson and His Legacy, A Complete Retrospective of his Films. Through May 8. Sponsored by Film and Electronic Arts Program; French Studies Program; Hannah Arendt Center. (845) 758-6482. Jim Ottaway Jr. Film Center, Bard College Annandale-on-Hudson. Dutchess County. 5 A Lotta Ricotta Make whole milk ricotta cheese. Learn ways to serve it. Sample local artisan cheese. Reservations required. To benefit the Sullivan County Farm Network. 10:30am12:30pm; $40. (845) 482-4764. Apple Pond Farm, 80 Hahn Rd., Callicoon. Sullivan County. 5 Country Joe McDonald Tribute to Woody Guthrie. 8pm Show Time. 7pm Doors. $55.00 advance; $60.00 day of show. McDonald’s tribute is a 90minute performance art piece that combines Guthrie music with dramatic insight and narrative as he weaves together Guthrie’s best-loved song and some of his writing. Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, Hurd Rd., Bethel. Sullivan County. 13 Chamber Music Howland Chamber Music Circle: Piano Trio. This trio brings together three outstanding musicians, all with extensive experience in chamber ensembles. Frank Huang is currently concertmaster of the Houston Symphony. Cellist Edward Arron is heard frequently at the Metropolitan Museum and Caramoor, and Gilles Vonsattel is a Naumburg winner who has appeared in our Piano Festival. Concert will include Beethoven Op. 44 Variations, Shostakovich Trio No. 2 and the Dvorak Trio in F minor. (845) 831-4988. Sunday, 4pm. $30. Howland Cultural Center, 477 Main St., Beacon. Dutchess County. 13 Suzanne Vega
At the Bethel Event Gallery. Vega lived up to her rep as one of our most important singer/songwriters with intelligent, crafty lyrics hitched to music that's not only memorable but also hummable. 7:30pm Show Time. 6:30pm Doors. $49.75 advance; $54.75 day of show. Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, Hurd Rd., Bethel. Sullivan County. 18 Doug Craft Paintings at the Alliance Gallery, at the Delaware Arts Center. Tuesday-Saturday, 10am to 4pm. (845) 252-7576 or visit ArtsAllianceSite.org. Delaware Arts Center, 37 Main Street, Narrowsburg. Sullivan County. 18 Big Drum/Small World Presented by JazzReach Community /Education. Free admission, ticket required. 11am Show Time; 10am Doors. This immersive, globally themed multi-media program features performances by prominent, internationally recognized jazz composers hailing from countries as diverse as, West Africa, Israel, Cuba, Puerto Rico, India, and the United States. Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, Hurd Rd., Bethel. Sullivan County. 19 Hurleyville Centennial Hurleyville School 100th Anniversary Centennial Celebration. 1 - 4pm. Photos, School Artifacts, Letters and personal reminiscences of former students with Strawberry Festival. (845) 434-8044. Sullivan County Museum & Sullivan County Historical Society, 255 Main St., Hurleyville, NY. Sullivan County. 20 Luks Oljenk Presented by the Bard College Conservatory of Music at 8pm. Olin Hall, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson. Dutchess County. 21 Spring Hike on the North Trail Educator Ron Romary leads this leisurely hike through the varied landscape of Storm King’s north trail. The hike features views of Storm King and Schunnemunk Mountains. It includes commentary on sculptural placement and views sculptures from different perspectives and elevations. 2pm to 3:30pm. Storm King Art Center, 1 Museum Road, New Windsor. Orange County. 26 Plant Sale Memorial Day Weekend Plant Sale from Saturday May 26 to Monday May 28, 10am to 5pm, rain or shine. Annual sale of perennials, annuals, ferns, & vegetables to benefit all-volunteer, not-for-profit FW Vanderbilt Garden Association. 845-229-
6432. Lawn next to parking lot at Vanderbilt National Historic Site, Rte. 9, Hyde Park. Dutchess County. 26 Annual East Durham Irish Festival Annually every Memorial Day Weekend. Presenting new and fresh entertainment direct from Ireland. Windham Civic & Performing Arts Center, 5379 State Route 23 (Main Street), Windham. Greene County. 26 Rhinebeck Antiques Fair 2012 Spring Show: May 26 & 27, Memorial Day Weekend Saturday 10-5, Sunday 11-4. Held Entirely Indoors, Rain or Shine. Free Parking. Admission: $10 for adults. Children under 12 are free. (845) 876-1989. Dutchess County Fairgrounds Route 9, Rhinebeck. Dutchess County. 28 Tour of Calder Hillside Experience and learn about sculpture on Storm King’s Calder Hillside and in the Maple Rooms. This tour features works by Alexander Calder, Zhang Huan, Darrell Petit, Andy Goldsworthy and other artists, including sculptures from the 5 + 5: New Perspectives exhibition. Approximately one hour in length - meet in front of the Visitor Center, 4pm, all ages welcome. Storm King Art Center, 1 Museum Road, New Windsor. Orange County. 30 Hike the Moodna Creek Trail Educator Ron Romary leads this leisurely hike through the woodlands of the Moodna Creek Trail. The hike features views of Storm King and Schunnemunk Mountains and includes commentary on sculptural placement and site-specific sculptures culminating with a visit to Andy Goldsworthy’s Storm King Wall. 2pm to 3:30pm. Storm King Art Center, 1 Museum Road, New Windsor. Orange County. 31 WDST Mountain Jam Fest VII Don't miss this 4-day festival packed with well known performers. On-site camping and lodging are available and accommodations are offered at nearby Catskills hotels condos and house rentals. Past performers include Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, Allman Brothers, Gov't Mule, Levon Helm, Michael Franti and many others. Hunter Mountain Ski Bowl, Route 23a, Hunter. Greene County. To be included in the next Neighbors, submit your entries by May 1, 2012 to neighbors@greendoormag.com. Use subject line: Neighbors Submission, or mail to Green Door Magazine, Ideas for Neighbors, PO Box 143, Liberty, NY 12754. 29
NEIGHBORS
LOCAL EVENTS & HAPPENINGS
HUDSON VALLEY WINERIES More Than a Drop to Drink Adair Vineyards 52 Allhusen Road, New Paltz (845) 255-1377 adairwine.com
Brimstone Hill Vineyard 61 Brimstone Hill Road, Pine Bush (845) 744-2231 brimstonehillwine.com
Demarest Hill Winery 81 Pine Island Tpke, Warwick (845) 986-4723 demaresthillwinery.com
Alison Wines & Vineyards 231 Pitcher Lane, Red Hook (845) 758-6335
Brookview Station Winery 1297 Brookview Stn Rd, Castleton (888) 686-2675 brookviewstationwinery.com
El Paso Winery 742 Bdway, Rte 9W, Ulster Park (845) 331-8642 elpasowinery.com
Altamont Vineyard & Winery 3001 Furbeck Rd., Altamont (518) 355-8100
Brotherhood Winery 100 Brotherhood Plaza Dr., Washingtonville (845) 496-3661 brotherhoodwinery.net
Eminence Road Farm Winery 3734 Eminence Rd., Long Eddy (845) 887-6280 eminenceroad.com Glorie Farm Winery 40 Mountain Road, Marlboro (845) 236-3265 gloriewine.com
Applewood Winery 82 Four Corners Rd, Warwick (845) 988-9292 applewoodorchardsandwinery.com
Cascade Mountain Winery 835 Cascade Mt. Rd., Amenia (845) 373-9021 cascademt.com
Baldwin Vineyards 176 Hardenburgh Rd, Pine Bush (845) 744-2226 baldwinvineyards.com
Cereghino Smith Winery 2583 Route 32, Bloomington (845) 334-8282 cereghinosmith.com
Hudson-Chatham Winery 1900 Route 66, Ghent (518) 392-2598 hudson-chathamwinery.com
BashaKill Vineyards 1131 South Road, Wurtsboro (845) 888-5858 bashakillvineyards.com
Clinton Vineyards, Inc. 450 Schultzville Rd., Clinton Crnr (845) 266-5372 clintonvineyards.com
Magnanini Farm Winery 172 Strawridge Road, Wallkill (845) 895-2767 magwine.com
Benmarl Winery/Slate Hill 156 Highland Ave., Marlboro (845) 236-4265 benmarl.com
Crown Regal Wine Cellars 1519 Rte 9W Bldg 2, Marlboro (718) 604-1430
Millbrook Vineyards & Winery 26 Wing Road, Millbrook (800) 662-9463 millbrookwine.com
Oak Summit Vineyard 372 Oak Summit Rd., Millbrook (845) 677-9522 oaksummitvineyard.com Robibero Family Vineyards 714 Albany Post Rd., New Paltz (845) 255-WINE robiberofamilyvineyards.com Royal Kedem Winery 1519 Route 9W, Marlboro (845) 236-4370 royalwines.com Tousey Winery 1774 Rte 9 #1, Germantown (518) 537-9463 Whitecliff Vineyard & Winery 331 McKinstry Road, Gardiner (845) 255-4613 whitecliffwine.com Windham Vineyard & Winery County Route 10, Windham (518) 734-5214 windhamvineyard.com
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NEIGHBORS
DELAWARE COUNTY
Delaware County Beauty and History Live Here
After the Revolutionary War, settlers The Great Western Catskills swarmed to the Western region of the Catskills, down the West Branch of the Delaware River from lower New York State and New England, primarily ScotchIrish and Germans. Beginning as individual log cabins, communities grew along the rivers of present-day Delaware County, from schoolhouses and churches, to general stores and mills, fulfilling the needs of the growing settlements. By 1790, the population of the region had increased to the extent that the New York State Legislature was petitioned to establish a new county, and in 1797, the region officially became known as Delaware County, breaking away from Ulster in the south and Otsego County in the north. Delaware County's geography and mountainous terrain made commerce difficult, and settlers relied on a subsistence economy in which most important commodities were produced locally. After 1800, with the construction of the Jericho Turnpike, connecting Rhinecliff in the Hudson Valley with Bainbridge on the Susquehanna, and the Catskill Turnpike to Unadilla in the west, the county gained easier access to the outside world. Settlers utilized the region's waterways to transport their products southward along both branches of the Delaware to Trenton and Philadelphia. Rail transportation, and eventually, the automobile, created the boom in the tourism industry in Delaware County, where today it attracts thousands of vacationers seeking the beauty and fresh air of the mountains.
Locals like to say that the Western Catskills offer the ‘Same Mountains. Different Vibe.’ The Western Catskills gives you so much to do: Camp, fish, do a farm tour. Hit the auction. Pick up some local fare. Kayak on a reservoir or bike down a dirt road. Ski, ride, x-c or snowshoe. Unlike most parks in the United States, the Catskill Park is not one single, contiguous block of protected land. The Catskill Park encompasses an overall land area containing both public and private land of approximately 287,000 acres. The Catskill Forest Preserve refers specifically to the public, state-owned lands that are “Forever Wild.” What visitors find entrancing and unexpected is not just the beauty of pristine spruce-fir summits, rugged rock outcrops, vast forest tracts, hidden lakes, boulder-studded trout streams, and graceful waterfalls, but how they are mixed with open hay meadows and dairy pastures, magnificent reservoirs, secluded homes, undulating railroads, old barns and stone walls. All these things together give the Western Catskills its charm and identity. Making Great Bread Fellows Once, every town, big and small, had a bakery - before large businesses took on the task of making and selling bread. Bread Fellows grew out of a love of bread, a desire to learn the craft of bread making, and the need for community bread made with organic flours and grains, much of it grown right here in New York State. All of their breads are made with pre-ferments, which add flavor to bread. 31
NEIGHBORS
DELAWARE COUNTY
A pre-ferment is sometimes made from a previous batch of dough. Save a piece of dough, feed it with flour and water, propagate the yeast, and then add it to a new dough. Make a small batch of dough about 12-16 hours ahead of time and let it age and develop flavor before mixing it into a new batch. Many traditional and artisanal bread bakers continue to employ these methods. You can purchase Bread Fellows bread at Good Cheap Food, at 53 Main Street in Delhi, and at Russell's Store, at 2099 County Highway 6 in Bovina Center. Clementine Vintage Clothing Hand selected specifically for the Catskills lifestyle, this unique store is located on Main Street in the Catskills village of Andes, a bucolic town that is an escape from cell phones and internet, politics and pretense. You will find great classics that become old favorites and special pieces reminiscent of a more glamorous era... of grand hotels and summer nights spent dancing under the stars. They believe in sourcing great vintage pieces that don't make you feel
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locked in the past, but rather can be reinterpreted in a modern way and made relevant for today. Owned by a husband and wife team combining Misha's knowledge and talent with fashion and clean modern aesthetics with Dan's talents as a photographer, carpenter and designer they bring you a wonderful shopping experience. Hanah Country Club Located just 145 miles North of New York City, the Hanah Mountain Resort & Country Club is a world away. The setting offers a panoramic view of the tranquil valley and streams that lead your eyes to the majestic Catskill mountains. During your stay at Hanah, you will find your guest room both comfortable and luxurious. Each room consists of two queen-sized beds, cable television, air conditioning, keyless entry and a private balcony. The moment you set foot in the Hanah clubhouse you will realize you are in a special place. A soaring ceiling, large stone fireplace, and luxurious antiques welcome you. The beautiful 200 seat restaurant offers fine dining, and overlooks the 19th hole of the golf course and the scenery of the great mountains. Golf Digest gave the Hanah golf course a three and a half star rating and nicknamed it
“The Terminator” due to the many water hazards. From the back tees at Hanah the par 72 course measures 7195 yards and is ranked among the top 17 of over 700 golf courses in the Northeast. Lucky Dog Farm Lucky Dog Farm is located in Hamden, and is owned and operated by Richard Giles and Holly White, whose products are available at three farmers markets in central NY state and wholesale both locally and in New York City. They provide high-quality, nutritious, organic produce for the local community and beyond. During the growing season, Lucky Dog Farm Store has a wide selection of fresh organic vegetables grown on their own farm. But you'll find much more than vegetables there, you'll also discover an eclectic mixture of products, including: locally produced artisan cheeses, bulk and organic foods, fresh baked goods, fresh baked bread, locally raised meats, even vintage clothing and collectibles. Open year round, their cafe is open for lunch from 11 to 3. Magical Tay Home
has allowed the basement level to join the two other floors in offering book lovers titles at all price ranges. Mysteries & More is housed in a restored Greek revival building and specializes in mysteries, thrillers, suspense, cozies and science fiction. Browse a wide selection of new and used books by authors from all around the world at the Hobart International Bookport. Experience a multilingual environment where Italian, French, German, Spanish and Dutch are spoken. Blenheim Hills Books presents thousand of titles in many categories including expanded stock in Children’s Books, Woman’s Studies, African American Studies, Poetry, History and Fiction. Liberty Rock Books continues to offer collectors seldom-seen used books spanning a 300 year period while renovations take place at their 5,041 sq. ft. stone building two doors down from their current location on Main Street. An autumn grand opening is excitingly expected. The Sheep’s Nest offers home décor and Second Wind is a well stocked antiques store, also on Main Street.
PHOTO: TESS MAYER
Tay, the oldest word for tea in Chinese, is a company that specializes in creating an exclusive line of artisanal teas founded by tea blender Nini Ordoubadi. Founded in 2003, Tay Tea is an Andes, New York-based business specializing in exclusive hand-blended artisanal teas. All ingredients are 100% natural and wild-crafted. Their signature teas enhance any lifestyle and invite one to embark on the timeless ritual of drinking tea. Nini believes that, “tea, like love, has no boundaries. It is available everywhere and within the reach of everyone. It is simple and pure. All you need is hot water and the patience to linger a few moments while the tea leaves dance. And much like love, tea is layered and complex. It is sophisticated and mysterious.” Tay Home is at 131 Main Street in Andes, and offers a full range of home décor, accessories and the magical world of tea. Hobart, the Reading Capital of New York Hobart, The Book Village of the Catskills, is located along the West Branch of the Delaware River. Much like the Welsh town of Hay-on-Wye, Hobart is home to 5 independent bookstores. The village’s oldest shop, Wm. H. Adams’ Antiquarian Book Shop has everything from leather-bound, 17th century volumes to signed contemporary first editions. Additionally, recent expansion 33
DESIGN
PUBLISHING
Evil Twin Books BY AKIRA OHISO
Stacy Wakefield Forte and her twin sister Amber Gayle began Evil Twin Publications in 1994 when both were living in Europe. Amber was driving tour buses for punk bands and Stacy was studying book design at the Gerret Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. It was the early nineties, before the internet, blogs, 24-hour news, and real time streaming technologies made information easily accessible. Young people gathered information from magazines, newspapers, television and radio – filtered information delivery systems – but underground movements communicated through Fanzines (“zines”). Zines were DIY handmade publications like-minded people shared with each other to create community. Factsheet Five, a well-known zine directory of the time, showcased thousands of personal zines on a variety of subjects. If you walked into Tower Records, a used bookstore or small East Village record shop pre-internet, you would have seen dozens of zines laid out in doorways and vestibules. Most were free – labors of love for people looking to express themselves – but some wellknown zines (like blogs) were able to eke out a living. I remember Tower Books on Lafayette Street featuring zines on consignment. Stacy says, “It was how you communicated ideas and communicated with different people all over the world. Zine culture was so much like blog culture is now.” And like the blogs of today, zines were very personal, DIY productions in a culture where people exchanged zines, reviewed zines, and referenced zines, which propagated a culture of ideas and values. The early Evil Twin publications were very much zine creations done on the cheap with DIY materials, photocopying techniques, black and white photos, and an inherent cut and paste aesthetic. Amber was writing about her adventures around Europe and Stacy was learning how to design books so they decided to combine their talents. The first Evil Twin publication, Greetings from the Endless Highway, was the first in the “My Evil Twin Sister” series and featured Amber’s six-week diary while touring with an American punk band in Europe. Three other publications in the series followed each becoming more ambitious. In 1995, they published Transient Songs, a collection of Amber’s writings and Stacy’s color photography that was a clear departure from the zine aesthetic. It was the first Evil Twin “book,” hand-bound and published with a limited run of 500 copies. It sold out and they knew they were onto something. Their second book, Not For Rent (1995) also sold out. It was a collection of interviews with squatters in England and Scotland who used the act of squatting as civil disobedience. Stacy clarifies the
purpose, “these were squatters who were using spaces to create community, not just people squatting for their own personal housing.” She likened it to the activists who camped out in redwood trees to avoid the trees being cut down. Stacy says “there wasn’t much like this at the time, you couldn’t do the computer layout you can do now, you didn’t have the internet, this is how people found out about issues.” Today, publishing is something anybody can do via self-publishing sites and social media. “The whole zine culture has moved into blogs,” says Stacy. Computer scientist, Jaron Lanier, believes the internet has become a mob free-for-all where ideas are mashed up and dumbed down to suit an increasingly shallow web culture. Stacy disagrees. “You still have to use your brain to sift through it, but we’ve always had to do that.” She remembers a lot of crappy zines: “‘This is complete garbage. Would you like?’ And there would be hundreds who would…and they’ve got that.” Stacy moved back to New York settling in Williamsburg, a then burgeoning creative community. She had her graduate degree and wanted to learn the ins and outs of the publishing industry. Her first job was with the established anti-establishment Village Voice. She also worked at Hearst Magazine, and designed Index Magazine with artist Peter Halley. Stacy shows me an issue. I love the verbatim interview format of the magazine and the typewriter font – perhaps a vestige of her DIY days when a typewriter was all one had. Amber became increasingly interested in twin research and Evil Twin published her undergraduate thesis The Twin Survey in 2006. Today, Amber is not as involved with Evil Twin, but contributes occasionally. She is working on her doctorate in psychology and lives in Oregon.
BOOK COVER DESIGN: EVIL TWIN BOOKS
Stacy says she produces about one Evil Twin publication a year, while she continues to do freelance design work for various projects and publications. She is married to musician Nick Forte, guitarist for the former hardcore punk band, Rorschach. They live in Livingston Manor, N.Y. In the country, Stacy has noticed that the seasons affect her more. “In the city you can go around the corner to a brightly lit bar, see a bunch of friends, watch a band, and get all dressed up.” She humbly understands the long cold winters of the Catskills. “The winter is very extreme and very harsh and there is something about how you are affected by the elements that is dark and bleak, there is this creative side to that.” She sometimes gets sick of another snowstorm in late March, but generally likes getting snowed in which is conducive to creativity. “Here, you have to entertain yourself.” Last winter she
DESIGN
PUBLISHING
started a novel. The more recent Evil Twin publications are accomplished artist book projects. She has collaborated on several books with Yeah Yeah Yeah’s guitarist Nick Zinner and Fresh Kills’ frontman Zachary Lipez, both whom she became friends with in the Williamsburg scene of the late ‘90s. Slept In Beds (2003) features Nick Zinner photographs of all the beds he slept in while on tour. Some of the pages are made of felt to evoke linens. Zachary Lipez contributes writing and Stacy designs the books. The creative trio also published No Seats On The Party Car (2001), I Hope You Are All Happy Now (2005) published by St. Martin Press, and Please Take Me Off The Guest List (2011) published by Akashic Books. This past summer Akashic funded a musical tour to promote Please Take Me Off The Guest List. A limited-edition 7” single – old school alert – accompanied the book. Other notable books are Catholic No. 1, Show Dogs, and Sundown Salon. Evil Twin does not accept submissions. The Evil Twin catalog is eclectic and does not adhere to an overarching
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philosophy other than Stacy controlling the process. She simply picks projects that excite her. When asked, Stacy couldn’t define the Evil Twin demographic. With no one to answer to and no expectations about monetary gain, Stacy is free to create. She remembers one project where she was working with a big publishing house. She laments, “I fear getting into that process and how long and slow it is.” Stacy felt the project lost momentum. Stacy loves books and does not think print is dead, but says, “If you actually publish something on paper there has to be other reasons for it.” Whereas print media of the past was about providing information, fast and cheap, print today must have a purpose. Stacy adds, “People still buy a lot of cookbooks, people still buy a lot of kid books.” Even with certain magazines, Stacy says, “People still like having that information compiled on their coffee table.” In Williamsburg, Stacy became connected with Booklyn, an artist alliance that provides artist books to educational institutions. Stacy learned museums and libraries purchase artist books as a way to archive, educate and document “ongoing artist projects.” The Museum of Modern Art
owns Mud In our Veins (1999), a collection of Amber’s poetry and Stacy’s photography. The Whitney Museum and The University of Washington Library owns most of the Evil Twin catalog. Stacy believes that all her books tell a larger story about her life. It is interesting that Facebook recently introduced a timeline to archive our lives. The Library of Congress has been archiving tweets since 2009. Jack Kerouac believed that everyone’s personal life would one day become a novel and in a way our lives have. Stacy has no regrets or does not try to edit her oeuvre to suit a public audience like a well-calculated online profile. She talks about the typos, design, and content of her early works as part of her, warts and all. She has no regrets because she was “sincere in the moment.” Evil Twin Publications is more a journey than a finished product. There is still something both permanent and ephemeral when you commit a work to paper. Looking, reading, and holding an Evil Twin book is like being let in on a secret or finding a little world or discovering a micro frontier.
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LOCAVORE
SYBIL & JOEL SANCHEZ
Home Again and Again SAMBA CAFÉ & INN 4893 MAIN STREET JEFFERSONVILLE, NY 12748 845.482.5140 WWW.SAMBACAFEANDINN.COM
It’s late when we arrive from New York City, but our dog Benny knows exactly where we are, and once off leash, exactly where to go. He rounds the corner quickly, running excitedly past the creek to be the first to reach the Deck House. The key is in the door, where Tim and Andrea said it would be. We enter our cozy and warm room on this chilly evening. A note greets us on the kitchen counter: ‘Welcome Back,’ together with some sparkling mineral water, two cans of Coke (just for Joel) and lovely home-baked cinnamon scones. We’ve arrived at our home away from home: Samba Café and Inn in Jeffersonville, and we can breathe again. Started seven years ago, Samba Café and Inn is a great place to rest, have a good time and eat great food. Nestled in the quaint town of Jeffersonville, New York, we were intrigued when we first discovered it on Main Street during a winter stroll. The cozy vintage retro décor and the menu, with its fresh fruit smoothies and homemade empanadas, pulled us in. We are New Yorkers looking for a country refuge. What better way to find it than by staying at an inn run by a couple who are half-Sullivanites/half-Manhattanites! With 38
a home in both Manhattan and in Jeffersonville (just above the café and inn), Tim and Andrea really understand why we need to get away from the city. In fact, many of the reasons we stay at Samba are the same ones that brought them to the Catskills. When they met in 1996, Tim was the successful co-founder of the 29th Street Repertory Theater in Manhattan. Andrea, in the States initially to study business English, was working in finance. For many years, Tim ran his theater company and Andrea worked for JP Morgan Chase. They were already spending time at Tim’s country home in Lake Huntington when Tim gifted Andrea with a class in French cuisine. When their daughter Lauren was born, the desire for simplified country living at an easier pace propelled Andrea to leave her executive career and become a chef. Tim, the consummate host and entertainer, is the perfect complement to Andrea, chatting with customers while they wait to be surprised by the amazing flavors in her food. Blending French techniques with Brazilian home cooking, Andrea’s food is heavily influenced by that of her home state in Brazil, Minas Gerias, which is known for its fusion of different culinary influences. This is similar to the Cajun
area in Louisiana where Tim was born and raised, which also fuses the flavors of distinct cultures in its cuisine.
PHOTOS: COURTESY OF THE CAFE & INN
While samba refers to a style of Brazilian music and dance, for Tim and Andrea, the word represents the rhythms and different elements in their lives: Brazil, Sullivan County and Manhattan, food, entertaining and rural living. All that and a nice Montepulciano on the side, makes Samba Café our wonderful home away from home. A Taste of Samba Samba's food blends home cooking with a Brazilian, locavore flare. If you have specific food concerns, let us allay your fears. We are picky eaters (between the two of us - no meat, non-dairy, gluten and sugar free), but Tim and Andrea helped us find excellent choices on the menu: yummy, savory yucca with salsa; chewy, hearty jalapeno corn bread; chunky, yet creamy Brazilian cheese bread (not gluten free); a plentiful vegan dish of succulent rice and beans with smoky collard greens and more yummy yucca, plus an amazing, rich black bean soup. There's also a meaty codfish dish and Andrea's special puffed pastry empanadas, as well as frittatas, quiche and a whole lot more! Meat dishes include chicken potpie, Spanish meatballs over polenta, and
other beef and pork dishes. Tim and Andrea are also very good at accommodating any special requests. Daily specials change, so be sure to consult Tim and Andrea or check their sidewalk chalkboard or Facebook for more information. Which House? If you are seeking a beautiful location where you can hear a running stream but are also steps away from Main Street, Samba is your spot. It has two cozy cottages that provide the unique feel of a funky, country vintage bed and breakfast while still maintaining privacy. Whichever ‘House’ you choose, you won’t lose! We prefer different things about each. Deck House
Creek House
Cozy bedroom with television across from bed
Big bedroom with separate eating, kitchenette and television spaces
Kitchenette separate from bedroom
Cottage separate from restaurant
Bathroom has great shelf space
Separate foyer with gym equipment
Cute deck facing yard
Next to creek
Joel Sanchez is a clinical social worker in a Bronx middle school. Sybil Sanchez runs the Manhattan based Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL). Together they continue to spend time in the Catskills with their dog Benny. 39
Luscious. Decadent. Herbaceous. Floral. Indulgent.
LOCAVORE
CATIE BAUMER SCHWALB
FROM PITCHFORKDIARIES.COM
Homemade Ricotta YIELDS APPROXIMATELY 2 CUPS
Not typically words that spring to mind when describing ricotta cheese. Generally it is something more along the lines of clumpy, nondescript, bland, and perhaps even gritty. Ricotta cheese, when homemade with outstanding local dairy, is a revelation and so much more than just the glue between lasagna layers. It stops you mid-bite, and demands your attention. It sings all the notes of what is uniquely special about the land, air and water of this area, as well as our treasured dairy farms and farmers. Because this is one of the most simple cheesemaking processes, all the characteristics in the local milk shine through. The cheese will taste different season to season, based on what the cows, sheep or goats are eating and drinking at the time. Traditionally ricotta cheese is made from the leftover whey from making other cheeses that use rennet, like buffalo mozzarella or sheep’s milk pecorino. The word ricotta means to cook again or second cheese. Those other milks have a higher fat content than cow’s milk, so there are enough milk solids left behind in the whey to yield another product altogether. To cheese purists, this recipe here not technically ricotta, but more a farmer’s cheese, panir, or queso fresco. But it looks, tastes and acts like ricotta, and is exactly what you want in all recipes that call for it. This area offers an overwhelming access to an abundance of milk from a tireless community of local diary farmers. I feel like I am living in a storybook each time I have the option to just pop up the road to Dirie’s Dairy Farm in Youngsville, to procure glorious milk right from the hands of these farmers and neighbors, right in view of the cows who made it. Try the following recipe with this exceptional local milk. Experiment with mixtures of cow, goat, and sheep’s milk. The techniques and ethics of generations of laboring dairy farmers have assured these quality products for today’s consumers.
6 CUPS WHOLE MILK 2 CUPS HEAVY CREAM 1/4 CUP DISTILLED VINEGAR OR 1/2 TEASPOON POWDERED CITRIC ACID 1/2 TEASPOON SALT EQUIPMENT: LARGE HEAVY-BOTTOMED POT THERMOMETER FINE CHEESE CLOTH / MUSLIN / LAYERS OF CHEESE CLOTH COLANDER Note: If purchasing milk from the grocery store, do not use milk labeled as “Ultra Pasteurized” for this recipe. Instead use milk that is just marked “Pasteurized”, or use raw milk available locally. Citric acid is generally easy to find in local grocery stores, and most often sold near canning and preserving supplies. Both acidifying agents work equally well in this recipe.
1. Combine all the ingredients in a heavy bottomed pot over medium-high heat. Stir the mixture gently from time to time to help distribute the heat evenly. 2. Bring the mixture to 190°F, or just under a boil. You will see the very white milk solids start to separate from the yellowish whey. Once at temperature, turn off the heat, and allow the pot to sit undisturbed for twenty minutes. 3. Rinse the cheesecloth to remove lint. Place a colander over a large bowl and line with the cheesecloth. 4. Carefully skim the ricotta curds from the top of the pot into the cheesecloth-lined colander. If there appears to still be a lot of solids in the whey in the pot, gently ladle the remaining whey into the colander as well. 5. For a softer, more spreadable cheese, allow the ricotta to drain for about a half hour. For a firmer, more crumbly cheese, allow it to drain for several hours up to overnight, in the refrigerator. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
PHOTO: CATIE BAUMER SCHWALB PITCHFORKDIARIES.COM
WOODSHED
JAMES BEAUDREAU
Doing Our Work Prolific British author Paul Johnson’s Creators is is a fine book for a fifty-minute subway ride. Made up of fifteen short essays on famous creative personalities, from Chaucer to Walt Disney, there’s something for all the different cognitive levels of a normal workday. Sometimes enjoyable and sometimes taxing, Mr. Johnson makes an extreme sport of literary criticism with lines like “Shakespeare is the most creative personality in human history.” (You have to admire his scope.) Altogether, his proclamations are refreshing. And he certainly knows a lot about stuff.
happened with Bach.
The essay on J.S. Bach, “The Genetics of the Organ Loft,” is a juicy one. The gauntlet is thrown early on when Johnson tells us that Bach “is the best example in our civilization of the importance of heredity or genes in the development of creativity.” Johnson is not afraid to go big.
The answer that seems most likely is simply that musical taste is largely a matter of fashion, and Bach died on the eve of a major shift in style. The generally accepted starting date of the Classical period is 1750, the year of Bach’s death. His son, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, was an early star of the new style. Old man Bach’s stuff was just square.
“The Genetics of the Organ Loft” gives us a Bach of unfailing industry and prodigious creative powers; a man who spent his life working in relatively humble appointments while perfecting his art to better serve God. Here is a guy who got his hands dirty. (Bach was something of an 18th Century hacker who could design and rebuild church organs.) Another intriguing detail Johnson gives us is that Bach thoroughly researched his family’s genealogy. It seems he had good reason to be interested in it: the Bach line was full of musicians. Three hundred years of them starting in the 16th Century (at least that was as far back as Bach could tell) and continuing through his own musically-gifted children.
Imagine the Beatles released their final album in 1970 to modest acclaim, and then were completely forgotten until 2050. That's crazy talk. But that’s what 42
Still, it’s amazing that fashion could be so powerful that it could hide music as great as Bach’s. As it happened, it took Mendelssohn’s revival of the St. Matthew Passion in 1829, seventy-nine years after Bach's death, to bring his music back to public consciousness. Finally the listening public started to hear. Out of the puzzle there’s a good lesson for those of us who work at making things. If Bach could be forgotten for eight decades after his death, then popular approval, as a measure of the worth of art and effort, clearly means nothing. So if our work is unpopular - if nobody at all cares what we’re doing - it doesn’t mean anything. This isn’t to say that we’re all neglected geniuses. Our work might suck. Or it might be brilliant, but in either case it’s clear that popular approval isn’t going to tell us either way. So who cares if nobody’s paying attention? It wouldn’t necessarily mean anything if they did anyway. Much better to concentrate on the important bits: family, getting our hands dirty and doing our work.
James Beaudreau is a musician, recordist, composer and all-around music nerd living in the "upstate Manhattan" neighborhood of Fort George. He's currently at work on his fourth album of original music and blogging about the process at www.jamesbeaudreau.com
PHOTO: OLEG GOLOVNEV / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
The most compelling fact in the essay, though, is not an obscure one. Anyone that was awake for some college-level music history might have heard it. But it’s something that the creatively-inclined among us might want to take a moment to reconsider. It’s this: that Bach, who is now considered one of the greatest composers in the history of Western music, was entirely forgotten for eighty years after his death.
Why? Bach had sons, musicians and composers themselves, who appreciated his genius. We could cut them some slack and grant that they had their own reputations to build after their father was gone. Or maybe Bach’s scores didn’t fall into the right hands after his death. Or is it us? We’ve got our canon and we’re obsessed with keeping it stocked with masters and masterpieces. But was that always the case or is it a modern tic? Was society stable enough prior to the classical period to build a canon?
TRAVEL THE BOOKSHELF
PHOTO: SERGEJ KHAKIMULLIN
Spring Reading JONATHAN LIVINGSTON SEAGULL Richard Bach
YEAR ROUND THINGS TO DO Shirley Hughes
I was assigned to read Jonathan Livingston Seagull by my 8th grade English teacher. I remember because it was a short book with lots of pictures of seagulls. One of the smart students in my class read it in twenty minutes. I tended to hang out with the Cliff Notes crowd so a short easy book suited me just fine. Turns out I read the book and it was not as easy as I thought. I didn’t get it - a book about an uppity seagull? Author Richard Bach writes, “Most gulls don't bother to learn more than the simplest facts of flight-how to get from shore to food and back again.” Jonathan works to perfect flight and is eventually banished from his flock. Jonathan is an outlier, a rebel gull, a bird looking to rise above his flock. Maybe I didn’t get it because I was an adolescent Asian American kid just trying to fit in. Jonathan eventually finds other seagulls like him and becomes a teacher to other banished seagulls. As an adult, the message is about questioning the status quo, following your heart, and spiritual growth. Jonathan says, “The only true law is that which leads to freedom.”
Year Round Things To Do is one of those anachronistic books that comes back because of its timelessness. First published in 1966 by Penguin Books, the Folio Society has reissued the book in an age when video games, computers and smart phones are the ‘things to do.’ Filled with activities, recipes and arts & crafts projects for each month of the year, Year Round Things to Do is all about unplugging back when “unplugging” was merely child’s play. In 1966, it was probably a useful guide for parents looking to entertain their bored children, but today it is a useful guide to slow our children down from overstimulation. Each month features a poem and descriptions of birds and bugs to tickle our children’s curiosity and sense of adventure. I noticed a game called Shadows where children go behind a white sheet, disguise their countenance and see if their shadow can fool their friends. It reminds me of playing shadow puppets on the walls, acting out a charade, and lying in the cool grass conjuring up shapes in the clouds. Ah, the wonder years.
FOR MORE SPRING READING, VISIT GREENDOORMAG.COM 43
ENDPAPER
JIM HANAS
Napster Rip Van Winkle: America’s original Hudson Valley slacker. “Whoever has a made a voyage up the Hudson must remember the Kaatskill mountains.” So begins “Rip Van Winkle,” perhaps the most famous of Washington Irving's so-called Hudson Valley tales. (“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” being the only other real contender.) At the time, Irving had never himself made such a voyage or laid eyes on the Catskills, which did not prevent him from continuing his vivid description: “They are a dismembered branch of the great Appalachian family and are seen away to the west of the river, swelling up to a noble height and lording it over the surrounding country. Every change of season, every change of weather, indeed, every hour of the day produces some change in the magical hues and shapes of these mountains.” And in them, as we find out later in the story, mysterious things happen. If The Lord of the Rings was Tolkien’s effort to create a mythological pre-history of the British Isles, Irving’s Hudson Valley tales attempt something similar for the new American nation. Cut free from the reigns of England, as historian Elizabeth L. Bradley observes, Irving looked for America’s origins in the peculiar tales and habits of its early Dutch inhabitants. “Rip Van Winkle,” in fact, is presented (like all of Irving’s New York stories) as the work of Diedrich Knickerbocker, the comically long-winded and defensive “author” of Irving’s A History of New York, which – despite impressions left by your high school English teacher – is hilarious. Irving is breathtakingly experimental at times. His History of New York humbly begins with the origin of the universe and in the case of “Rip Van Winkle,” Knickerbocker takes great and comical pains to convince readers that the events described actually took place when, well, they obviously didn’t.
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Irving may well be describing himself. In response to an attractive job offer, Irving informed Sir Walter Scott that, “My whole course of life had been desultory, and I am unfitted for any periodically recurring task, or any stipulated labor of body or mind.” And, like Irving, Van Winkle would have perhaps been content with this state of affairs – “I have no command of my talents, such as they are, and have to watch the varyings of my mind as I would those of a weathercock,” Irving tells Scott, were it not for his hectoring wife, Dame Van Winkle, from whom he is constantly seeking escape. During one such respite, he climbs higher in the Catskills than ever before and encounters a man wearing antiquated Dutch garb and lugging a barrel of spirits. Van Winkle helps this stranger heft the barrel to a party of similarlydressed gentlemen who are busy playing nine-pins. They enjoy flagons from the barrel they have carried, and Van Winkle, “naturally a thirsty soul,” sneaks his share. Then he wakes up, shocked to find he has slept until morning. Upon returning to the village, however, it slowly emerges that he has slept for twenty years, outliving his shrewish wife and entirely missing the American Revolution. This latter fact does not disturb him – “the changes of states and empires made but little impression on him” – even though he returns to the village to find an election in progress. He seems equally ambivalent to British rule and independence. As for the former, he is gently relieved. But whether you read “Rip Van Winkle” as a statement on politics, marital relations, or as a tale that binds history to nature – Van Winkle’s bowling partners are determined to be Hendrick Hudson’s crew, and summer thunder in the Catskills is taken to be the sound of their pins crashing – the fact remains: Rip Van Winkle does nothing and gets away with it. Compare this to Melville’s unproductive
CARTOON: ADVENT
These events – familiar to anyone who grew up watching Bugs Bunny or The Flintstones, so successful was Irving’s myth-making – are as follows:
Rip Van Winkle is a man who has “an insuperable aversion to all kinds of profitable labor,” although he is not lazy, exactly. He is willing to expend effort being helpful, attending “to anybody’s business but his own." From a modern American perspective, he is worse than lazy. He is unambitious.
Wall Street clerk, Bartleby, some three decades later who answers every request with “I would prefer not to” and ends up starving to death in The Tombs. No such fate awaits Rip Van Winkle. He is taken in by his daughter’s family and becomes a venerated patriarch. He returns to his old habits, with no more nagging or apologies, having been magically transported to “that happy age when a man can be idle with impunity.” Rip Van Winkle wins.
“I can give you no other information concerning the localities of the story of ‘Rip Van Winkle,’ than is to be gathered from the manuscript of Mr. Knickerbocker,” Irving responded. “Perhaps he left them purposely in doubt. I would advise you to defer to the opinion of the ‘very old gentleman’ with whom you say you had an argument on the subject. I think it probable he is as accurately informed as anyone on the matter.” Or, put another way, “I’d prefer not to.”
When Irving himself had reached that happy age, after a life as an increasingly celebrated and much-loved writer, he received a fan letter wondering whether he had the village of Kingston or Catskill in mind when writing “Rip Van Winkle.” The letter writer had been having an argument with “a very old gentleman” about it. He wanted Irving to settle the question, once and for all.
Jim Hanas is the author of the short story collection Why They Cried (Joyland eBooks/ECW Press 2010). He lives in Brooklyn.
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ENDPAPER
ELLIE OHISO
On Crocal Time
In the liner notes for his work, ‘Indecision,’ the accomplished jazz pianist Al Dailey wrote, “Indecision is Decision with the passage of time.” As a rule, people are prisoners of time; they react to schedules and tempos beyond their control, rather than ever defining a moment. That is not as nature would have it. Imagine, if you will, what it would be like to interact with time in a more powerful way: from a position of determination. Enter the Crocus. Refusing to be a hostage to time, the lowly crocus is a master of self-determination. Making its appearance at what might seem to be the worst possible moment, that grand entrance, often through layers of ice and snow, tell us to set our biological clocks for the arrival of spring long before the weather says to do so.
Perhaps there is more to this simple flower than meets the eye. The name is derived from the Latin crocatus, meaning yellow, for the spice saffron is obtained from the stamens of the crocus. Referred to as free-flowering, we see in the crocus the very definition of determination. As the Japanese proverb says, ‘Fall seven times, stand up eight;’ we see these blooms appear through the snow, get crushed by another storm, yet bloom again and again.
The crocus, not the temperature, signals the end of winter,
To never give up can be defined as one’s ability to not stop
PHOTO: KOTENKO OLEKSANDR
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and with its delicate, cup-shaped blooms in shades of yellow, white, purple and lavender, says welcome to spring. The mere sight of this bloom releases our bodies, minds and spirits to soar in anticipation. We leave our homes and our ruts and open up our channels of inspiration and communication. A flower can do that.
going, even in times of extreme difficulty. The crocus looks failure in the eye and tells it that it is ready for a rematch and will not settle until it wins. To never give up is a hard thing to do, for one must be willing to risk losing everything. How empowered would we be if we could follow the life model of the crocus? The Sumerians used wild-growing saffron in their remedies and magical potions, and modern medicine has now discovered saffron as having anticarcinogenic, antimutagenic, immuno-modulating, and antioxidant-like properties. In recent research, crocetin, an important carotenoid constituent of saffron, has shown significant potential as an anti-tumor agent in animal models and cell culture systems. Not surprising when you consider the determination of this flower to beat the odds.
A number of well-designed clinical trials have been conducted evaluating the efficacy of saffron (30 mg daily over six to eight weeks) in treating depression. The studies found saffron to be more effective than placebo and at least equivalent to therapeutic doses of often-prescribed imipramine and fluoxetine. Perhaps this is indicative of the therapeutic value of merely seeing the crocus spring through the frozen ground and delighting us with its presence. Strength begets strength. Bernard M. Baruch once said, “The art of living lies less in eliminating our troubles than in growing with them.� There is so much we can glean from the crocus about time, life and determination. We just need to take the time to watch and learn.
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ENDPAPER
EQUINOX
Exuberance is Beauty
CHUSSIE BY MICHAEL BLOOM
As penned by William Blake in ‘The Marriage of Heaven and Hell,’ we learn that, ‘the busy bee has no time for sorrow.’ Oh! What we could learn from the animals; the sheer enthusiasm of their existence, the relentless grasp of every moment of life.
Blake would also have us believe that, ‘no bird soars too high, if he soars with his own wings.’ Will we ever try? Let us all just go outside. 48
PHOTO: MICHAEL BLOOM
With spring’s return we yearn to run outside and glory in the warmth of the sun. But, we are stalled. We need to unravel the doldrums of winter’s chill before we can feel the enrobing touch of the April sun.